Sunday 2 May: The SNP’s attitude to Scots abroad betrays its unfitness to govern

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/01/letters-snps-attitude-scots-abroad-betrays-unfitness-govern/

537 thoughts on “Sunday 2 May: The SNP’s attitude to Scots abroad betrays its unfitness to govern”

  1. Britons were black ‘before these isles were British’, says Horrible Histories. 2 May 2021.

    While one-off sketches have dealt with aspects of this history, particularly the Civil Rights movement, Mr Bradley said the new dedicated episode will “go deeper” and explore how Britain has “always been a country with many races and ethnicities”.

    To demonstrate Britain has had a black population “from the start”, the opening sketch will outline how African troops manned Hadrian’s Wall in the 3rd century AD.

    One song will touch on Britain’s prehistoric population having dark skin “before these Isles were British”, in reference to the probable skin colour of the 10,000-year-old Cheddar Man remains.

    Morning everyone. More than a little sophistry here. The very first humans to occupy these islands (when they were not islands) were almost certainly black. These and their offspring, Neanderthals etc. were all wiped out when Homo Sapiens left Africa one hundred thousand years ago and populated the World. Since all their descendants are in various shades of white it seems unlikely that at this stage any of them were Black in the African sense.

    Cheddar Man’s DNA matches that of the general population of Europe at this time, which would imply that the entire population were black and all changed colour shortly afterwards and regardless of their place in the continent. This seems an unlikely process at best. It is also worth pointing out that though the original research stated that the DNA analysis pointed to him being black this result cannot be replicated in modern day humans. No suspect has ever been described as black from DNA traces at a Crime Scene! (One can imagine the furore even if they could do it!)

    As to the “African troops” on Hadrian’s Wall. African does not mean Black, particularly in the case of the Romans who never penetrated militarily beyond the Sahara! Brittania had five Roman legions based here over the 400 years of occupation. None of them had their roots in, or recruited, in Africa. Was there a Black African on Hadrian’s Wall? Quite possibly. A great many of the legionaries had Middle Eastern ethnicity, Syria and Iran being quite common, and the possibility of a freed slave or his children signing up would not be surprising. This said they would in the nature of things have soon vanished through intermarriage and the requirements of service. There were never any Black African units of any kind in the Roman Empire!

    This is all simply anti-white propaganda!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/01/britons-black-isles-british-says-horrible-histories/

    1. I do like the start of rough house in the morning. (With apologies to Joseph Conrad.)
      I had a below the line argument with a Guardianista who was delighted that Merlin of King Arthur’s court was portrayed as black. He seemed to believe that this was certainly the case. I suggested that this was unlikely in the extreme as the number of black faces was likely to be around zero across the British Isles. Even allowing for a few leftover legionnaires. He was reduced to saying “could have been”. This is true. It is technically possible that a vessel from North Africa could have come to these islands. This is a common argument amongst the woke and the descendants of slaves who are now more numerous than Holocaust survivors and even more numerous than those Irishmen who took part in the Easter Rising. “Could have” stretches the possibilities to the extent of “Dr Who” being a documentary.

      1. Have they reached the same percentage as French people who were members of the Resistance (143% at the last count).

        1. Thirty-nine Allied divisions were committed to the Battle of Normandy: twenty-two US, twelve British, three Canadian, one Polish, and one French, totalling over a million troops all under overall British command. About 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on D-Day,
          The French contingent was about 177 strong. 21 were killed and 93 wounded. What would we have done without them?

          To be fair, the Kieffer Commandos fought well and were a credit to their country. The millions of others who claimed to have fought with the resistance are a stain on the Flag of Liberty. One of my uncles serving with the British Commandos fought in the same area and survived. He later served in Italy and Germany where he was injured but recovered fully. I rarely ever saw him because he lived in a different town… and he never mentioned the war.

    2. I seem to recall that when Cheddar Man’s DNA was first unravelled, his descendants could be found locally. On the same basis, is it not odd that the inhabitants of the British Isles have some of the palest complexions known? The old joke about the “milk bottles” on the beach bearing this out. When that reconstruction of Cheddar Man’s face was done a few years back, many experts reckoned that the DNA available could not be used to predict his complexion. However, I assume what was done, was done to tell the British people that their ancestral homeland was not really theirs at all.

      1. Yes the whole thing was a scam. It is noteworthy that the General Scientific Community has not supported this though in these uncertain times keeping quiet to avoid being cancelled!

        1. There are so many mendacious narratives now, it is hard to keep track of them all, although we can rely on the BBC to promote them with alacrity.

      2. Well, I didn’t believe that scam for an instant at the time. Once you know what they are doing and why, it loses any impact. Bloody annoying, though, that they think they can get away with it.

    3. Dark skinned tribes would not last long in this dull climate as their lack of Vit. D would lead to bone malformations.
      The women would die in childbirth as their pelvises would be distorted.

      1. And thats why pale skin prevailed, as it can make vit D.
        You’d a thought people would know this stuff.

    4. I’d rather hoped for better from Horrible Histories.

      After all, we’re whitesimply because of the fecking climate! It’s cooler, there’s less sun, so our ancestors lost the melanin that makes skin black.

      For goodness sake, it’s not complicated.

  2. the usual “Eyes down for a full house” of wokeism: Has Rosemary Corbin inadvertantly let slip how voters being manipulated = shadow voting?

    SIR – Peter Ferguson (Letters, April 25) is right: the international romance and renown of Scotland was overwhelmingly spread under the banner of the Union, not the saltire alone. Scotland, a great nation, was made greater still when it joined hands with the Auld Enemy.

    It is as he appeals to his fellow Scots while writing from Hertfordshire, however, that Mr Ferguson highlights the true cynicism of the SNP. Based on the party’s policy at the last referendum, he would be denied any say over the future of his birth country. So, too, would many others proudly claimed by Scotland as its own – from Sir Alexander Fleming and John Logie Baird to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and James Boswell – who garnered much of their fame while living abroad.

    Set alongside the SNP’s decision to give the adult vote to 16-year-olds (likely to have socialist inclinations until they know more), this robbing of Scottish people’s birthright, presumably due to the suspicion that those who live and work abroad may be more likely to see the benefits of the Union, looks deeply suspicious – and is certainly a poor foundation upon which to build an independent nation.

    Victor Launert

    Matlock Bath, Derbyshire

    SIR – Once again, a small but highly energetic minority in this country has become the tail wagging the dog.

    The polls suggest that around 50 per cent of Scottish residents are pro-independence (report, April 29). This means that a little less than 5 per cent of the total UK population could precipitate a massive change that will affect over 60 million other people.

    Bruce Simpson
    Fleet, Hampshire

    SIR – It is argued that the whole of the UK should decide the rules in the event of another independence referendum. Had that logic been applied at the time of the EU referendum, we would still be stuck there.

    David Miller
    Chigwell, Essex

    SIR – It is not just banks that are likely to leave Scotland in the event of a vote for independence, but also a host of companies seeking to take advantage of the trade agreements negotiated by the British Government since Brexit.

    Moreover, if Nicola Sturgeon fails to reduce GDP debt to 3 per cent from the current 10 per cent, her dream of EU membership will remain just that.

    David Taylor
    Lymington, Hampshire

    SIR – The “Union dividend” of £2,500 for all Scots may be factually true, but is misleading.

    London, the South East and the East are the only regions of the UK which generate more in tax revenues than they receive in public spending.

    Scotland’s “dividend” is less than those received by the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and the North East. Heading the list are Wales and Northern Ireland at £4,412 and £5,118
    respectively.

    Isi Watt
    Pitlochry, Perthshire

    Young travellers

    SIR – It would be shameful if the young were yet again disadvantaged due to Covid, in favour of the vaccinated elderly this summer.

    If travel requires either proof of vaccination or a negative test result, every traveller should be required to pay a nominal Covid surcharge in advance, perhaps £5 or £10.

    This money could then be used to provide free Covid tests to those holidaymakers who are too young to have been offered a vaccine. Such a gesture would at least recognise the huge sacrifices made by the young to protect others, and allow people who have benefited from the rapid rollout of the vaccine to help those who continue to wait for their own
    jabs.

    Julia Sharpe
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    SIR – The Government is to announce which countries fall in the red, amber and green categories for travel. The criteria include levels of Covid infections, deaths, vaccinations and testing capacity.

    But, as with the criteria for the United Kingdom lockdown roadmap, the thresholds for success or failure, and respective ratings are not published. It is thus impossible to see how the criteria apply.

    This allows delay in release from lockdown, as well as international travel. Data are irrelevant if you cannot attach meaning to them, as with the rest of the Covid propaganda machine.

    Stuart Moore
    Bramham, West Yorkshire

    SIR – My husband and I had our second vaccinations three weeks ago.

    The police and crime commissioner election is taking place on Thursday May 6, and my husband is a poll clerk in our village hall. He has been issued with a Covid-19 rapid antigen test, which he has to do.

    What a waste of public money.

    Rosemary Corbin
    Zeals, Wiltshire

    Dying with dignity

    SIR – I don’t agree with Danny Kruger’s article on assisted dying.

    He seems to think that palliative care will completely solve the pain problem, but unfortunately this is often not the case. Sometimes relatives of terminally ill people have been so desperate to alleviate their loved ones’ pain that they have tried to buy illegal street drugs to help ease their suffering. Hospices are expert at dealing with pain, but there are not enough of them for everyone who needs them, and not every terminally ill person wants to go into one.

    Doctors intervene in all life’s stages – carrying out heart transplants and IVF, for instance – so why can’t they use their skills to bring about a peaceful death, if this is the patient’s wish? Increasing numbers of countries now allow assisted dying, including Australia and Canada, and parts of the US and Europe. I believe that many people would enjoy their lives more if they didn’t have the concern that they might one day suffer a drawn-out, painful and undignified
    death. Most of us wouldn’t want our loved ones to see us in such pain, as we want them to be left with happier memories of us.

    Ann Wills
    Ruislip, Middlesex

    Learning to disagree

    SIR – If more schools had continued to have debating societies – as many did in the 1950s and 1960s – there might be less of a need for undergraduates to be taught “how to disagree well”.

    Gillian Howson
    Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria

    ‘Green’ electricity

    SIR – Mike Keatinge (Letters, April 25) rightly points out that electricity is not necessarily “clean energy”.

    The fact that so many people think it is reflects a widespread confusion between energy sources, and energy transmission and storage mechanisms. The only significant energy sources are fossil fuels and other combustibles, nuclear, solar, wind, tidal and geothermal. Electricity – like hydrogen – is a way of moving energy from those sources to point of use. Using less energy is laudable, but the real problem is clean energy production.

    Public discourse and policy might be improved by wider recognition of this simple fact.

    Dr Nick Beard
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire

    Vaccines and liability

    SIR – Your report on blood clot victims and civil claims refers to the Vaccine Payments Act not precluding claimants from seeking compensation from the relevant vaccine manufacturer.

    However, the Human Medicine Regulations 2012 (as amended) confer partial immunity from civil liability, not only on manufacturers of temporarily authorised products but also on pharmaceutical companies placing such products on the market.

    Julian Burton
    London N13

    Ice kingdom

    SIR – I endorse Greg Bannerman’s letter (April 25) on the Rideau Canal in Ontario, and his recommended route.

    Those who travel to this part of the world in winter should also visit the Ice Festival in Ottawa. This takes place on the frozen canal, where one can skate for several miles, visiting various stalls and bars along the way, as well as seeing the magnificent ice sculptures.

    Clive T Turrell
    Burwash Common, East Sussex

    SIR – Mr Bannerman correctly notes that Ottawa was originally called Bytown, in honour of its founder, Colonel By of the Royal Engineers.

    The name was changed in 1855 because the backwoods town hoped to become the capital of Canada and sought a more dignified name. Sadly, the city fathers rejected a suggestion that combined continuity with majesty, refusing to become Byzantium. Ottawa duly became the capital.

    Professor Ged Martin
    Youghal, Co Cork, Ireland

    Another peninsula repeatedly misnamed

    SIR – Susan Morris (Letters, April 25) objects to the tendency to refer to the Gower peninsula (or Gower) as “the Gower”. So it is, too, with the inhabitants of Cheshire, who have to suffer the misnomer of “the Wirral” instead of the correct “Wirral” or “the Wirral peninsula”.

    One wonders why the same misuse has emerged in two different areas: is it just ignorance or is there some more profound explanation?

    Philippa Turner
    London W12

    SIR – As a student in Cardiff in the late 1950s, I had the pleasure of both listening to and joining hundreds of Welsh voices singing in one local hostelry after another (and in perfect harmony): “Do you know my brother Mikey / He do have a motor bikey / He can ride you round the Gower / In a quarter of an hour.”

    This and many other songs were sung through the night, the walls of the pub heaving.

    Des Baker
    Bristol

    The truth about Churchill and ‘Bomber’ Harris

    SIR – Ian Garvin (Letters, April 25) lays the blame for the bombing campaign of the Second World War at Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris’s door.

    This requires correction. Lord Cherwell, the then government’s leading scientific adviser with a seat in the Cabinet, advocated area bombing of German cities, and this was accepted by Churchill and the Cabinet. Harris was instructed by the Chief of the Air Staff Lord Portal to carry out the policy.

    Albert Speer acknowledged that, had the bombing of cities ceased, 10,000 88 mm anti-aircraft guns could have been used against Russian ground forces, which would have prolonged the war. It is also generally accepted that, after the war, Churchill and others distanced themselves from the policy and encouraged criticism to be directed at Harris – hence the brave actions of Bomber Command not being recognised until recently.

    Peter Bolus
    Lambourn, Berkshire

    SIR – It was good to read Ian Girvan quoting the challenge to the bombing policy of Sir Arthur Harris by the great Bishop of Chichester, George Bell – a challenge made more powerful by the bishop’s inside knowledge of the German situation and his conviction that the Nazis must be fought. Bell’s words inevitably earned him considerable abuse.

    It has been suggested that Harris’s statue outside St Clement Danes church might be balanced by a statue of one of his strongest critics. A memorial to Bishop Bell near to that of Harris would be a fitting tribute to a man of courageous Christian principles, and also a rebuke to the Diocese of Chichester, which recently tried to defame Bell following a now wholly discredited single allegation of child abuse – and to its shame still refuses to restore him to public honour.

    Rev Dr Barry A Orford
    London NW3

    1. Victor, dear! Did you think it through? Having left their native homeland Scots tend to become part of where they live. There are now around 50m people in the world who can claim Scottish lineage. President Trump is one. So are one hundred thousand residents of Moscow, Russians through and through.
      Those Scots who have settled in England now vote in England for English MPs and English local councillors. And so it goes.
      Boswell quotes Johnson (Samuel, not Boris), “The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!”
      From later a perspective one might to England, add every country on Earth; Thomas Cochrane, national hero of Chile, Don Roberto, national hero of Argentina, John Paul Jones, national hero of the USA, Thomas Glover, national hero of Japan. It’s a very long list. Should they all have had the vote in Scotland?

      1. Catherine the Great’s doctor was Scottish.
        He had the job of checking her next toyboy for the pox before he was allowed into the royal apartments.

      2. Morning Horace – anyone born in Scotland and living elsewhere should be given the opportunity to vote in any Scottish referendum on independence. They are mainly the Scots who maintain the good name of Scotland throughout the world. Do Scots in the military get to vote?

        1. Q – Answer – I would suppose they do if they have registered with a home address in Scotland.
          As regards the point about Scots living abroad I am ambivalent about it. If temporary – yes. If permanent – no, I don’t think so.
          On the other hand I think it is barmy to allow EU citizens to vote.

          1. Yes it is crazy to allow EU citizens, who happen to be living in Scotland, a vote. Such people have it both ways – they can always go back to their home country.

            If British people who have lived abroad for fewer than 15 years can vote on our independence from the EU, why shouldn’t people originally from Scotland be able to vote on Scotland’s independence?

          3. When we lived in Spain for 5 years, although not allowed to vote in General (Parliamentary) Elections, we could vote in Local (Council) Elections.

            That now raises the question of The Wee Pretendy Parliament; are the votes for that Local or General? If Local, EU Members (if Scotland was in the EU) could vote but if General (when/if Scotland is admitted to the EU as an Independent Sovereign State) then EU members cannot vote.

            This just highlights further reasons for dissolving that shambles and the Assembly shambles and returning power to Westminster where we may ALL vote.

    2. Regarding Peter Bolus’ comments on the politicians distancing themselves from the less savoury parts of war (which politicians drove us into in the first place; though it was Chamberlain not Churchill doing so), they certainly ducked and dived with vigour towards the end of the war.
      Fpr example, at Yalta, Churchill agreed with Stalin to the repatriation of POWs and displaced persons back to their homelands. For those being transported back to the USSR, this was a death sentence for many as they were viewed as having sided with the enemy.
      ‘Operation Keelhaul’ was conceived by the politicians of the day but, having made the decision and being aware of the fallout, they then attempted to slope responsibility by having the military carry out the transfers.

  5. Putin’s trolls are targeting national newspapers. 2 May 2021.

    Britain is to launch an international effort to combat Russian propaganda this week, after a new study found that a network of trolls is targeting national newspapers to spread pro-Moscow views.

    Research funded by the Foreign Office has found that pro-Russian trolls are posting provocative statements in the online comment sections of The Times, the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Daily Express to give the false impression that the public supports Russian aggression towards Ukraine.

    Oh look. They don’t believe what we are telling them! They must all be Russians. Lol!

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/raab-putins-trolls-are-targeting-national-newspapers-fzd8hlw65

    1. new study / research also reveals pro Russian trolls were a toxic a mixture of LGBT and disabled with links to Buy Large Mansions

      1. The BLM have always stated that one of their major aims is the collapse of capitalism in the West.

        1. I know that is the aim of the globalists. I wonder if BLM supporters realise that if they get their way there will be no new smartphones or Nike trainers for them to steal.

    2. Time to add a new name to this forum: “Not The Telegraph Letters and Russian Observatory For Human rights”, perhaps?

    1. RR, obvious response is Runts. Checks on genealogy confirm all were “people of colour” with untraceable father

      1. Not for tender eyes…
        There was a young man in Buckingham,
        Who stood on a bridge in Uppinham.
        Watching the stunts
        Of the c***s in the punts
        And the tricks of the p****s that were f*****g them.

    2. RR, obvious response is Runts. Checks on genealogy confirm all were “people of colour” with untraceable father

    1. 332221+ upticks,
      Morning Rik,
      Encapsulates the last three decades of
      United Kingdom politics nicely.
      Now is past the time to LEARN or burn.

      1. ogga mng. When the “youth” in UK / Western hemisphere eventually realise their lifestyle has been destroyed and they they will live in mud huts and can openly welcome more people from poor counties who can show them how to survive in poverty. And won’t have anyone to point the finger of blame at as there won’t be anyone left who knows how, as opposed to, what to think

        1. 332221+ up ticks,
          Morning AWK,
          The destruction of youth was portrayed in neon via the JAY
          report 1400/1600 rape & abuse victims published in 2014 in ONE area alone ie rotherham.

          A great many governance employees complicit, the evil consequences of mass uncontrolled immigration, ongoing .

          The same political purveyors of mass paedophilia are STILL
          scouring the seas for more of the same and are STILL supported in the polling booth for more of the same, with NO
          opposition.

          I’d wager the parents in many cases are still supporting / voting for the same reset/replace/mass uncontrolled immigration / mass paedophile umbrella political coalition.

      2. ogga mng. When the “youth” in UK / Western hemisphere eventually realise their lifestyle has been destroyed and they they will live in mud huts and can openly welcome more people from poor counties who can show them how to survive in poverty. And won’t have anyone to point the finger of blame at as there won’t be anyone left who knows how, as opposed to, what to think

    2. I think the last sentence is unfair, though it is widely believed in Britain. People were scared of being sent to a concentration camp. If I remember rightly, the black humour “please let me be struck dumb so that I won’t be sent to Dachau” was circulating by the early 30s.

        1. About the large scale killings in the latter part of the war? Probably. About the concentration camps? It was well known from the start that homosexuals, opponents of the government etc were being sent there.

          1. So everyone thought that the poofs and traitors would be set free?

          3. Well, the Germans having embarked on a course of action in respect of those considered lower grade people why would anyone imagine that that course of action would somehow stop? History has demonstrated that these things just get worse, unless stopped by another party?

          4. It didn’t matter whether anyone imagined that that course of action would somehow stop or not. Their opinion was not sought.

      2. The first country the Nazi’s invaded was Germany.

        And the fascist Left are doing it again – antifa, the police, nutcase ‘wokists’, the cancel culture mob, the social media companies removing dissenting messages, the Left are a hydra.

  12. Good morning all and yet another bright sunny one up here, but new month or not, it’s still bloody cold first thing! -2°C on the yard thermometer!!

    Unpleasant photo at the top of the letters page I see.

    1. mng Bob, tad warmer here. And yes, when page downloaded, not the sort of thing one wants to view before breakfast, or any time come to that

      2. Remember Spike Milligan’s little verses?

        A baby rabbit, with eyes full of pus,
        Is the work of scientific us.

  14. Putin attends Easter service at Christ the Savior Cathedral. 2 May 2021.

    The Russian president traditionally attends services during high church holidays. He usually celebrates Christmas at churches outside Moscow, while on Easter the head of state usually attends a service at the Christ the Savior Cathedral. Only twice he participated in Easter festivities outside Moscow – in 2000, at St. Petersburg’s St. Isaac’s Cathedral and in 2003, he attended a service at the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Dushanbe while on a visit to Tajikistan. Last year, for the first time during his presidency, Putin skipped the Easter service due to the coronavirus pandemic and lit a candle in a small chapel at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence.

    I’ll guess that no one interrupted the service and told them to go home! This is where we are as opposed to the fantasies in the MSM. Russia is a recognisably Christian State in the broad tradition of European Civilisation while the UK is a crypto-Marxist Police State closely akin to the former East Germany and led by an oversexed buffoon.

    https://tass.com/politics/1285865

    2. The USSR was notoriously corrupt and that corruption has continued into EVERY nook and cranny of the now independent countries that were its constituent parts,
      Perhaps Putin, in the fight against corruption in Russia, has to use an authoritarian rule to effectively take the power away from the corrupt?

      1. Morning Bob. Yes it’s obviously not like running the Isle of Man. The Oligarchs remaining in Russia are not averse to murder or lesser crimes. Only someone with the requisite qualities of ruthlessness can keep them in line!

  15. An excellent point made by Gillian Howson:-

    Learning to disagree
    SIR – If more schools had continued to have debating societies – as many did in the 1950s and 1960s – there might be less of a need for undergraduates to be taught “how to disagree well”.

    Gillian Howson
    Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria

        2. Morning Phizzee

          I wonder whether we will become museum specimens in a hundred years when BAME kick our culture and history into the wide abyss?

  16. Off and out now Uhuru’s relaxed his decrees [the bhangi sent to him must have worked]. All have an enjoyable remainder of the weekend

      1. Nurse Trixie is not a nurse, as her uniform fits. All nurses uniforms are too small. For the majority, I approve.

        I don’t know, but Mr Hitchens seems to have ignored that there is a stipend for maintenance of the flat. As it is, scraping away the wall paper, a nice bit of oak skirting board, a decent thick barley memory foam carpet, and some uncomplicated whitewash and skimmed ceiling looks simple and light. While he’s at it, get the walls insulated and a positive air pressure thing put in. We did and it moves air about to prevent mold and cold spots.

        The problem is one of the people living there wants to spend money on herself and has become confused that her role is to serve the PM who in turn serves the nation.

    2. I remember growing up in the late 60’s and 70’s my parents (Mother) chose floral carpets, floral wallpaper and floral furnishings. None of it Laura Ashley.

      I now have pastel walls, wood flooring and plain curtains.

      It saved me from mental illness.

      2. Dear life, my eyes are aching already.

        When my parents first moved they sold the big house – now a hotel – and move into a small bungalow.

        My mother put up the chandeliers she brought with them. 3 foot drop, 4 foot wide, 20 100w light bulb abominations. There are 2 of these monstrosities in a space no longer than 20 ft long and 7 foot high and all the lights are always on. Less said about the heating, which she always sets at 28’c the better.

        In contrast, when the light fades I pull the blinds down and the lights come on automatically – at 1 candela. War queen refers to me as a cave troll.

        1. Similar when i visited my dad. It was so hot and bright i would change into shorts and vest. I left the sunglasses off though. He thought i was mad.

          5. My apologies, Bill, you are quite a bit down the thread. I have just made a similar comment.

  18. BTL on DT letters

    Susan Hills
    2 May 2021 8:06AM
    Laura Kuenssberg has got more front than Brighton.

    Her article today on the BBC website titled “What is the PM’s relationship with the truth”.

    No comments allowed because we all know Laura lied about James Dyson and has still not apologised.

    1. And what about ‘healthy’ meals delivered by Daylesford?
      Personally, I couldn’t give a stuff, but there does seem to be a pattern emerging.

        1. Good morning, Maggiebelle

          You don’t usually mince your words but isn’t ‘his squeeze’ rather an euphemism for ‘his slut‘?

    2. Yes – I don’t see any bills that everyone else pays. The difference is he gets a massive grant for living there.

    3. And the Americans went to all that trouble to rig an election to get this senile idiot into the White House?

      2. No, the Left mobilised to get rid of an enemy they feared. One who would destroy their way of life.

    4. They keep saying ‘diversity strength… but, let’s look at the crime figures, shall we? The poverty levels, unemployment, cost of living, incidence of rape and murder and how many are actually productive citizens rather than living on welfare.

      We built the world. If he thinks immigration is so great, why doesn’t he leave and go there? Of course the rich white american, nice and secure with his security men and his gated community, driven to and from his job on expenses is happy and fat. He never sees the horror his ideology inflicts on others.

  21. Someone I know (not me) made a jokey post on Instagram, the point being that she did not intend to have the covid vaccine.
    Instagram automatically added to the post a non-deletable text about the postulated beneficial effects of the vaccine based on short term tests. Aka propaganda.

      1. 332221+up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        Not to worry our electorate are working like trojans in the reset / replace the overseers with a much more powerful force.
        The koran lies between the dispatch boxes for oath taking in parliament and there is halal grub on the parliamentary canteen menu for celebration.

    2. Well, the UK “is open for business”. Who said that?

      I saw something on the local ITV news about St Bees school in Cumbria. This led me to this (Chinese private schools);
      http://fullcircle.group/en/

    3. There was a long and interesting explanation by an economist on the Keiser Report why this was a really, really smart idea by China.

      For the West for allowing it to happen……not so clever!

      1. Good moaning, HM.
        In a article I read yesterday, Finland was described as being a Scandinavian country. I thought, based on its language alone, that was not the case.
        Can you enlighten me?

        1. Geographically its in Scandinavia,so….
          We’ve had independence for just over 100 years but before that we were fought over for centuries bu the Russian empire and Sweden (yes,Sweden used to be a major power)
          I find it difficult to distinguish between Finnish music(the older songs) and Russian music.

        2. Google is your friend…

          Scandinavia[b] (/ˌskændɪˈneɪviə/ SKAN-dih-NAY-vee-ə) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties.

          In English usage, Scandinavia can refer to Denmark, Norway and Sweden, sometimes more narrowly to the Scandinavian Peninsula, or more broadly to include the Åland Islands, the Faroe Islands, Finland and Iceland.[3][a]

          The broader definition is similar to what are locally called the Nordic countries, which also include the remote Norwegian islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Greenland, a constituent country within the Kingdom of Denmark.[4]

        3. It is said that the only language similar to Finnish is Hungarian.
          We spent a week in Budapest a few years ago but Marja could find nothing similar between the two.

      1. 332221+ up ticks,
        Morning TB,
        I could very well believe that they are on a buy up spree due more to their creative talents concerning the pandemic.

    6. David Cameron was bitterly disappointed that neither of his grandmothers fetched a good price when he tried to sell them.

      1. I don’t know what to make of Cameron.

        He runs for office by offering exactly the same things the public have decided they don’t want.
        He loses and leaps at a coalition with the communist totalitarian party – without bothering to consult the public over their wishes.

        For political capital inside his party, he calls a referendum on membership of the EU.

        He then potters around Europe talking to heads of state when he must surely know that the commissars are the only ones remotely relevant.

        He wastes millions promoting staying chained.

        He promises he’ll stay to see Brexit through then instantly bails when he loses.

        I don’t know what to make of these characteristics. Someone so self serving, dishonourable, changeable and egocentric is difficult to understand.

        1. All you need to know about Cameron is that he is convinced he’s right; the little people don’t count.

    7. We’re already heavily in hoc to them for government borrowing. Until that fundamental change is made buying Pizza hut is practically pocket change.

      To sustain it’s spending, the state borrows about 1 billion a day. The state spends about 2 and a bit – every single day. Instead of cutting back and living within the monies raised through taxation, it continues to tax, waste and borrow at an astonishing rate – borrowing that is merely impoverishing the future.

      1. 332221+ up ticks,
        W,
        The internal political war ie vote lab keep out tory, vote tory keep out lab is not only financially expensive but is also costing us eventually the nation.

        The electorate who are fighting an internal war & all the while a not so covert war is taking place in the background moving players into positions of power.

        In the not so far of future the country will have a new head &
        the shaft ( the electorate )will be new also ( as with grandads axe) then the question will be “whos Country is it now”

  24. Good Moaning.
    Mrs. Gove has a point: back in the mists of time, it was the chemist who spotted a blooper in a prescription for an infant me and checked with the surgery. Just imagine, without his eagle eye, NOTTLers would have been missing my aperçus for the past 5 years.

    “How lovely Mr Shah could save the NHS

    Last week, I joined the growing number of British taxpayers who no longer have meaningful access to a GP.

    My surgery sent me a text message telling me they have stopped doing online consultations, and when I called instead I was subjected to a long message asking me to use the website to ‘free up the phones for people with no online access’, before being put on hold for so long that I gave up.

    It would be easier getting an audience with the Pope. So I did the next best thing, and asked the advice of Mr Shah, my lovely pharmacist. If only people like him were allowed to dispense a range of prescription medicines for simple ailments then patients wouldn’t be stuck waiting weeks for an appointment, and people like Mr Shah – who has more than 40 years’ experience – could save everyone a lot of time and money.”

    1. Dear Mother of God, or what ever the expression is .

      Normal life has become far too difficult now ..

      Good morning Anne .

      1. Good morning Belle and all..

        You just reminded me of when we first met our son’s Irish now wife. At some point She said, “Jesus, Joseph and Mary, Mother of God”. I was shocked! I think my jaw hit the floor. Don’t think she says it often now, she’s been somewhat Anglicised since 1996!

        1. I love the Aisling Bea expression: “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and all of their carpenter friends!”

    2. So, back to the old days of the apothecary for poor people, and the doctor for the rich then. Why does she keep having to repeat the man’s name though? One could almost suspect an agenda…

    3. I was in Spain a few years ago with a chest infection. Simple visit to the chemist for antibiotics freeing up the Dr’s time and mine.

      1. Me too. Sadly, they have been stopped by the EUSSR. You can still buy them over the counter in Greece.

  26. Ventriloquist Story

    A ventriloquist is walking across the desert and it’s beginning to get dark and he wants to find a place to bed down for the night. He comes upon an Indian who has made camp in the desert. The Indian has with him a dog, a horse, and a sheep.

    “Well”, the ventriloquist thinks, “he sure looks cosy. I wonder if he would mind if I stay here with him for the night?” The ventriloquist asks the Indian, who agrees to let him camp with him that night. After dinner the ventriloquist decides to have some fun.

    He says to the Indian, “Excuse me Indian, do you mind if I have a talk with your dog?”
    The Indian replies, “Dog not speak!”
    “Sure the dog speaks!” answers the ventriloquist. “Hey dog! How you doing? You like living with the Indian? He treats you ok?” Throwing his voice, he makes the dog say, “Oh yeah! The Indian treats me real good. Gives me good food, exercises me, shares his food with me. I like the Indian.”

    The Indian looks astonished and says; “Me not know dog speak!”
    Next he says to the Indian, “Excuse me Indian, you mind if I have a talk with your horse?”
    The Indian replies, “Horse not speak!”

    “Sure the horse speaks!” answers the ventriloquist. “Hey horse! How you doing? You like living with the Indian? He treats you ok?” Then throwing his voice, he has the horse say, “Oh yeah! The Indian treats me real good. Washes me down, gives me a nice blanket and saddle, feeds me good oats. I like the Indian.”

    The Indian looks even more astonished and says; “Me not know horse speak!”

    Next he says to the Indian, “Excuse me Indian, you mind if I have a talk with your sheep?”

    The Indian yells out, “Sheep is LIAR!”

  27. I heard yesterday by word of mouth a rather disturbing story from Zimbabwe. Apparently the authorities are giving out licences for mineral rights on land there to the Chinese, who are extracting not just the normal resources but also shipping lorryloads of soil to the coast, where it is presumably put on ships to the far east. Locals who protest have been knee-capped.
    As part of the deals, the Chinese are building what my informant called “structures”, eg hospitals. Her opinion is that these do nothing for Zimbabweans.

    1. Its certainly a different approach to going in mob-handed,killing tens of thousands of the local population and then raping the country of its mineral wealth.
      It will never catch on.

      1. It is looking like catching on here! (see Ogga’s post further down)

        If the British raped the country of its mineral wealth, how come there is still so much for the Chinese to take?

          1. Seeing as gold and diamonds are still two of Zimbabwe’s top exports half a century after the British left, I think “raping” is hyperbole.
            Theft of farmland probably isn’t, but at least the British did repay with a functioning infrastructure, copious amounts of food and employment.

          2. Maybe the Chinese are after something more rare and much more valuable?
            Just a guess.

          3. Rare earths. They are going to be making a lot of electronic gizmos for battery cars, and, of course, everyone on the planet needs a new mobile phone every year.

          5. The British did not take the farms, they created them from bush & scrubland.

          6. I can just picture it, Phil. There was that horny-handed son of the soil, Old Farmer Mbongo, sitting on his stile. unwrapping his bush-meat pasty lunch from his leopard-skin kerchief and pondering the problem of the drainage in the lower field, when along came that scoundrel Cecil Rhodes, who without so much as a ‘By your leave … ‘ kicked him off his farm and annexed it to the British Empire…….

          8. When the White Settlers took possession of the land, it was probably not “farmland” and more likely bush & scrubland.
            Their efforts turned it into farmland leading to Rhodesia becoming one of southern Africa’s bread baskets.

            Sadly, since independence, Zimbabwe has destroyed that legacy.

          9. It was hunting ground, divvied up by rules between different tribes. Of course, that old system of small agriculture and large hunting grounds could not survive into the nineteenth century – it had largely died out in Europe by then.
            But it was not unknown or unused land.

          10. “…a functioning infrastructure, copious amounts of food and employment.”
            All gone now.

          11. 332221+ up ticks,
            Morning HM,
            They have a zillion flat pack chinese takeaways to place more like, everyone an embassy.

      3. To what are you referring?

        China and Mongolia? And Taiwan? Russian expansionism? EU expansionism?

        1. Hmmm.i was thinking of another country who have had 200+ excursions into other countries since WW2….but you knew that.

    2. That’s not surprising, but very depressing.
      Poor old Zim – they deserve better than that.

    2. With reports already of the new Indian strain having already got here – by claims of “travel from India” – then Boris’s delay of several days in closing travel from there surely lays the blame of it getting here directly on him?

  30. ‘Morning, all. In today’s DT Letters, the heated debate continues as yet another correspondent protests the use of the definite article when speaking of the Gower or Wirral peninsulas if the proper names are not followed by the word ‘peninsula’.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff7872052a8675525cd19d7107b7674e1ff261f4b953986ffb23113567d9d848.png

    I appreciate the great distress caused to the inhabitants of both those peninsulas by this vexed question, indeed, they probably spend many a sleepless night brooding on it, but I believe I see a solution to their problem.

    Go and live somewhere else.

    1. I expect she objects to people referring to “the London W12″….

      On the apparent point of her (very important) letter – I’d say that the failure to name the places as she would prefer is because children are no longer taught Geography properly.

      I mean, who knows where Scotland is?

      Good morning, O Monarch of the Glen – in yor bothy beside the peat fire. Is it as cold where you are as it is in Norfolk?

      1. ‘Morning,Bill. It’s a balmy 34° here – I shall take my lunch al fresco today.

    3. I’ve never heard anyone say “I live on/in Wirral”, it’s always ‘The Wirral’. Indeed the postal address is ‘Wirral’, my parents lived there.
      Morning Duncan

    4. If they have that much time to worry about it, they need a hobby.

      Perhaps cushion puffing?

    5. Did they visit the Isle of Wight, I wonder? Or the Isle of Skye? We used to live on the Isle of Dogs.
      Who cares? DILLIGAF…

  31. I have just spoken to my brother on his 88th birthday. He is deaf as a post (even with his hearing aids). So am I. The first few minutes were taken up by establishing who was calling! Our mutual coughing fits didn’t help!!

    Game old boy – ex Royal Navy. Lives alone – but one of his daughters looks in twice a week.

  32. 332221+ up ticks,
    Surely that is a declaration of evil intent, I take it the LAW enforcers apply to any active @rsoles the same as old ladies receive in getting lippy against governance rulings or God forbid NOT paying the tv blackmail fee.

    What portrays itself currently as the law should be readied now to Tommy Robinson any said @rseholes via the court to mandatory hard time.

    breitbart,
    Exclusive Video: ‘No Justice, No Peace’ — Antifa, Communists, BLM Rally in London on May Day

      1. 50 years and what a difference – -another 50 and the transformation should be complete. Job done.

      2. 332221+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        Products of the polling booth and the vote to keep in / keep out brigade, sod the consequence, party before family & Country.

        1. I don’t remember Labour asking me if I wanted the doors kicked off, and the third world invited here to ‘rub my nose in diversity’.

          Labour wanted a voting bloc. We weren’t asked what we wanted, they just did it. In a democracy, we could have stopped them.

      2. 332221+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Boc,Bob,
        Agreed, my vice personal vice was a joystick ( 6″ long ciggy)
        costing a tanner.

    5. Yeah, you were free to do all that because the grown ups were still in charge.

      1. It never occurred to us girlies that “My mother is my best friend”. Your mother was the grouchy being who took her responsibilities seriously and made sure you wore a vest.

    6. The relief – particularly to your pay packet – when stilettos went out of fashion and ‘sensible’ heels became trendy.

  34. Just been to Cromford for the paper and the bright and warm sunshine has just given way to a dark & threatening cloud moving in from the East. Met office site suggests it’s in for the day.

    Picked up a large handful of litter going down & coming back so my had is a bit cold!

  36. Has this been covered.. The DT haven’t allowed comments. Cowards .

    Britons were black ‘before these isles were British’, says Horrible Histories
    BBC children’s show is dedicating its first ever episode to black history as creators vow to ‘reevaluate what we think about the past’

    By
    Craig Simpson
    1 May 2021 • 4:00pm
    Horrible Histories, inspired by author Terry Deary’s books, was launched on CBBC in 2009
    Horrible Histories, inspired by author Terry Deary’s books, was launched on CBBC in 2009 CREDIT: BBC
    Early Britons were black “before these isles were British”, BBC children’s series Horrible Histories will tell its younger viewers in its first ever episode dedicated to black history.

    The comedy series, inspired by author Terry Deary’s books, was launched on CBBC in 2009 to introduce young people to gruesome elements of history through irreverent sketches and songs.

    Now future episodes will focus more on diverse aspects of Britain’s history, starting with an episode dedicated entirely to black history in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

    The first episode features abolitionists rapping that “our lives matter”, and an animation segment on the “shameful” Transatlantic Slave Trade.

    Richard Bradley, creative lead at Horrible Histories from creators Lion television, told The Telegraph: “With the events of last summer, Black Lives Matter, the murder of George Floyd, and the Colston statue, it felt like the whole world had a moment to reevaluate what we thought about the past.

    “We thought it was a good moment to think about how Horrible Histories might tackle the whole area of black history.”

    While one-off sketches have dealt with aspects of this history, particularly the Civil Rights movement, Mr Bradley said the new dedicated episode will “go deeper” and explore how Britain has “always been a country with many races and ethnicities”.

    To demonstrate Britain has had a black population “from the start”, the opening sketch will outline how African troops manned Hadrian’s Wall in the 3rd century AD.

    One song will touch on Britain’s prehistoric population having dark skin “before these Isles were British”, in reference to the probable skin colour of the 10,000-year-old Cheddar Man remains.

    Mr Bradley said the content on topical black history, treated comically but “carefully” by scriptwriters, was produced in response to the interests of young people and an “express demand” from their teachers.

    He said: “We take our lead from what we think our young audience will want to know, what’s on their minds, and what they’re hearing about.

    “When we started out we had no idea of the responsibility we would end up having. There is an onus on us to get it right.”

    The new series will cover moments in history including the arrival of the Windrush generation
    The new series will cover moments in history including the arrival of the Windrush generation CREDIT: BBC
    Mr Bradley said the British “dark sense of humour” could help in tackling uncomfortable aspects of the nation’s history, but the new episode comes after accusations Horrible Histories was “anti-British” for featuring a song about colonialism.

    There was widespread anger last year at the lyrics which cited tea, sugar, cotton and even Queen Victoria as examples of supposedly “British things” that are “from abroad” or “frankly stolen”.

    Mr Bradley has defended Horrible Histories as historically accurate, telling The Telegraph: “Horrible Histories is one of the most British of things.

    “It’s in the tradition of Blackadder and Monty Python. And going back to 1066 And All That. We engage with our history and we laugh at our history.”

    The comic history presented in the first episode of a new Horrible Histories series will span Dark Age churchmen, servants of Tudor royalty, the Sons Of Africa abolitionist group, Second World War troops, all the way to the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush.

    The programme will be available CBBC and iPlayer from May 7. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/01/britons-black-isles-british-says-horrible-histories/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2GS8KLgIv8CJkRWHcGMX_ta7ZAIhk9NtjG2y2tJEeERQ9MiAW1iplxDwo#Echobox=1619885922

        2. What do you think? At least we’re female, not ‘pale, male & stale’.

          2. I happen to like white men. As do the majority of women in the world according to dating websites.

          1. Former Olympic champion Caitlyn Jenner says trans girls born as boys
            should NOT compete in female sports, with the California gubernatorial
            hopeful adamant that ‘it just isn’t fair’

            At last someone who actually knows from both sides is speaking up.
            Naturally he’s getting hate mail.

      1. They said “Cheddar man” was black – probably wishful thinking as there was not a shred of his skin left.

        1. Gordon Zola, Emile’s boy, decided not to make a feeble pun about his name and so he stopped dairy farming and went into plumbing and specialised in making J’accusies.

    4. Of course Britain was black before the British Isles were British. But when the British arrived we had to demolish all their mud huts to build a world spanning civilisation.

      Just as believable as their rewrite of history.

      1. I thought the Ancient Brits were blue. Or are we to believe they were black & blue?

  38. Good morning, NoTTLers! Not new, but this never loses its relevance:

    On a recent trip to the United States , Tony Blair, Ex. Prime Minister of the UK and now U.N. Middle East Peace Envoy, addressed a major gathering of Native American Indians.

    He spoke for almost two hours on his success in bringing about a lasting peace settlement amongst the warring nations of the Middle East, likening it to the way that the U.S. Government found a suitable agreement with the North American tribes.

    At the conclusion of his speech, the crowd presented him with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name – Walking Eagle.
    A very chuffed Tony then departed in his motorcade, waving to the crowds.

    A news reporter later asked one of the Indians how they came to select the new name given to Tony Blair They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of shit that it can no longer fly.

  39. A Pakistani guy dies and floats up to heaven, as he gets to the pearly gates St peter opens them and the Pakistani guy says ‘I’m here for Jesus’, to which St peter shouts ‘Taxi for Jesus’.

        1. Yep, he had the other one tied behind his back; just to make it fairer for the Germans.

        2. And the same day invented the Continental Breakfast which consists of a stale croissant dipped into a soup bowl of French roast coffee & some runny stinky French cheese served by a indifferent waiter smelling of garlic & Gauloises Caporal .

    1. How can he stand there and lie so openly and so blatantly. He knows that he is allowing tens of thousands of people to arrive at Dover none of these international scroungers have a pot to piss in and probably never will, as is the case of many of the arrivals over the past two decades. Cameron used to bus them all around the country after flying them in to RAF bases from ‘war torn’ countries. They live entirely off the generosity of the British working tax payers and never will pay a penny back for the benefits they more then readily hold out their hands for. Plus we also build new homes for them on our green belt land. This is not helping the carbon foot print of these small islands. Since Blair we have had a never ending cabal of useless politicos telling us daily bare faced lies and getting away with it. Between them and their inherent mendacity they have wrecked this once proud nation.
      I dread to think what this country will be like in 20 years time when my grand children will be trying to make their way in life. God help them nobody else is going to.

      1. They may not have a pot to p!ss in, but they do have state-of-the-art iPhones.

  41. I got a phone call this morning..
    “I understand (from your advert) that you’re selling a Python, is it very big?”
    “Certainly is,” I replied.
    “Great!” he said with huge enthusiasm.
    “How many feet?”
    “None,” I replied.
    “It’s a Snake..”

        1. Powerful stuff.
          I’ve fired a few hand guns best was the WW2 Luger no kick at all.
          I had a Tikka 222 in Oz with a Leopold scope. Walnut stock. My shooting friends and i used to re-load our own ammo. Always pick up yer old brass.

          1. My first was a 1941 Walther P.38. Now owned by Firstborn. Great gun to shoot – soft, with a bit of muzzle flip. Ruger GP100 in 357 shooting 38 spl is fantastic – great trigger, soft-shooting, accurate… otherwise, to be a bit wary of, is my PPK – very low muzzle line can lead to slide bite if you aren’t holding it right.

          2. I spent a couple of hours at a mine dump in JHB fired about 6 different hand guns even an old Webley service revolver it nearly jumped out of my hand.
            Is the 38 special the one with the short barrel the old american cops used. I fired one of those on the day as well.
            Some of the make shift ‘targets’ were too far away for a novice with a hand gun, but i did hit a closer elderly fire extinguisher with a 9mm automatic, it tumbled over a couple of times.

          3. Firstbor has a 1926 Webley revolver in .455″. Big, elegant old bugger, bullet like an oil drum, muzzle velocity like a bicycle, but still like being hit by a cement truck!

  42. The government have told the public to be patient amid reports hugging may soon be allowed.

    They also added that this doesn’t apply to you……Noel Clarke.

  43. The phone rang. It was BBC Radio 1.

    “Congratulations,” the voice burbled. “You are live on air, and if you
    can answer this maths question, you will win our prize!”

    “Maths question?” I said excitedly. “I did 4 Unit maths for the HSC and
    also studied it at university, for part of my degree! Give me the
    question!”

    “Great! What is 100 divided by four? If you get it right, you get two
    tickets to the upcoming Justin Bieber concert, and get to meet him
    back-stage!”

    “Oh,” said I. “Is it 13?”

          1. I like melons. You know. Those small unripe melons.

            Time for a shower…

  44. Sounds like the perfect man for the job!

    Bid to stop Paul Dacre taking over at TV regulator

    …industry and government figures have been touting former culture minister and Tory peer Ed Vaizey as better placed to oversee Ofcom, amid concern about Dacre’s criticisms of the BBC.

    Greg Dyke, the former BBC director general, said Dacre would be “totally unsuitable…He was a brilliant editor of the Daily Mail but showed no evidence that he began to understand what impartiality meant. His long-term antagonism towards the BBC would make him absolutely the wrong person to chair their regulator.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/02/bid-to-stop-paul-dacre-taking-over-at-tv-regulator

    1. Hang on – a former BBC DG complaining that some one “showed no evidence that he began to understand what impartiality meant” – perhaps Dyke doesn’t do irony?

    2. Hang on – a former BBC DG complaining that some one “showed no evidence that he began to understand what impartiality meant” – perhaps Dyke doesn’t do irony?

    2. What a hypocritical old bag Mantle piece is, she’s made her money out of the British royals and her writing about them, unfortunately the modern royals are too pleasant to do what Henry VIII would have done to her and rightly so.

  46. Another Guardian comedy moment.

    Brexit’s Mr Pooter may not survive his dispute with Cummings

    WILL KEEGAN

    “…as a betting man, I would not put money on Johnson’s long-term survival – not least on account of the way the forensic skills of our underestimated leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, seem to be coming into their own.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/02/brexits-mr-pooter-wont-survive-his-dispute-with-cummings-johnson

    1. ‘Forensic skills’, as in overlooking the Rotherham scandal?

    2. A comedy of errors! Just goes to show how out of touch these lefty remainiac types are. They never seem to learn anything about their “oh so uneducated” fellow countrymen!

  47. Another Guardian comedy moment.

    Brexit’s Mr Pooter may not survive his dispute with Cummings

    WILL KEEGAN

    “…as a betting man, I would not put money on Johnson’s long-term survival – not least on account of the way the forensic skills of our underestimated leader of the opposition, Keir Starmer, seem to be coming into their own.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/02/brexits-mr-pooter-wont-survive-his-dispute-with-cummings-johnson

      1. I don’t think anything of him because I have absolutely no idea who he is and I don’t mean to do so.

    2. I have always said, that any comments made, say more about the speaker/writer
      than they do about the onject of their comments

      1. Exactly a point I’ve made to many abusive posters..
        I usually end up getting blocked though!

    3. I have always said, that any comments made, say more about the speaker/writer
      than they do about the onject of their comments

    1. He says the immune system is incomprensible.
      If that makes him brilliant then I must be a professor too!

    2. He says the immune system is incomprensible.
      If that makes him brilliant then I must be a professor too!

    3. Agreed. Absolutely brilliant.
      Almost hourly on the media we have been told lies about the ‘cases’ and not people having actually died of covid.
      This needs to all around the world, frankly this is what i had suspected all-along. I’ve always had a underlying suspicion of doubt. I very much doubt if there is one other person who could possibly find fault with his knowledgeable professional assessment. Certainly no body in the political sphere.
      Surely more people will die because of the multi millions being spent on ‘covid’ but other serious illnesses are being pushed to the side. And this problem might never be brought to book.
      My family have had the vaccine, basically because the flue vaccine has nearly always been effective. But it seems from what he says if you travel out of northern Europe the vaccine might not keep you safe. That’s a bit of a worry.
      No debating allowed, rational discussion went out of the window. Primitive emotional and unrealistic harm has been spread. AKA everything the political classes come into contact with they eff up.

    4. Just watched that myself, it is excellent.
      Watch/listen before it’s removed from YouTube, because it will definitely be censored.

    5. Stephen do you know when this was first recorded, i have a query from a mate in Perth WA.

        1. I thought so as well but S will argue the hind leg off a donkey I’ll post you his response.

          Very interesting but I am not sure how old this is, as with the Italy Brazilian, Mexican, India, Philopenas, USA, Papa Niugini outbreaks, have not many have been able to protect their people as their health systems have collapsed. Young people in some cases have been at the coal face and bore the situation some poorly paid who should never have their lives put at risk.

          As we know Britain has one of the worst ratio’s of nurses and Doctors in the world, although they do a wonderful job the NHS, nurses to patients ratio is 1 nurse to 15 patients where here we have 1 to 4 ratio, as E has been advised.

          I believe that if this virus had got away further than it did you would have been in trouble similar to Brazil which has I am told a similar sized health system to the NHS and a nutter for a President.

          With the Indian problem which with corruption especially when it comes to oxygen supplies there poor health system is a disaster and with variants I am told we may have to have regular boost jabs, as if these get into your country you may never eradicate it and even what has been given may not see you immune.

          We here have had just under the thousand deaths all imported total for Australia this started, they have now put in place for any Australian Citizens who try to get home in through a back door through New Zealand or any other way, will be given a jail sentence, at the moment this will last for the next 3 weeks when it will be assessed.

          We are very lucky and I am not sure how long it will last but things are in a boom cycle here in Western Australia. Iron ore prices are through the roof to China.

          This is helping the whole of the Australian economy and house prices and rents are increasing in a big way. It seems we have not enough tradesmen and we can not bring any

          In. Also we have trouble with fruit picking which used to be done by backpackers. They are bringing in special flights from islands in the Pacific which are free of the virus to fill the positions, all have to go into quarantine for 14 days before they can work.

          At least we can now go on holiday to New Zealand as up to now we have open borders with them and the cruises have started again over there.

          This could change any day as they shut down the State at a drop of a hat and the people love it and seem to support the Premier here for what he is doing.

          Regards S

    6. This is the man described by one of The Banished as ‘just an academic with a medical degree’.

    7. Great video but why oh why do the video makers insist on intrusive mood music, usually plinky-plonky piano music? Not only is it unnecessary but I find the notion of “mood music” very patronising, as if I can’t get the message without it.

      And cutting from a frontal shot to one at 45 degrees. STOP IT!

      1. 332221+ up ticks,
        Afternoon WS,
        I realised, had to refresh the input comment.

    2. Why is he still an MP and one of our lawmakers? He should have been drummed out of Parliament!

    3. I will cheer a Tory (In Name Only) if he, she or it knocks my door

      I will invite it to partake of Sex and Travel

  51. I’ve been dipping into this long video over the past few days and, starting at 7 minutes, this discussion is the best I’ve seen on the Fentanyl Floyd Fiasco and the Kangaroo court & Show Trial of Derek Chauvin:-

    https://youtu.be/IUxKODVksUE?t=420
    It is a long discussion, but well worth dipping into for 10 to 20 minute segments.

    1. ‘Afternoon, Philip, I’m glad to see that my ‘Funnies’ circulation gets a wider airing.

      1. Afternoon, Nanny. That was one of yours?

        Have you heard of the Japonese restaurant Sosueme? :@)

  55. S Telegraph story:

    “Matt Hancock takes first steps towards legalising assisted suicide”

    Any chance he’ll show us how?

    3. A quick change in the law before the vaccines begin to take their toll. You did give your consent, didn’t you! I’ll prepare the hearse.

    6. So he’s moving on from assisted murder then. Another string to his bow.

  56. 332221+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Exclusive: Scales of justice tilt in favour of pardon for ‘metric martyrs’
    Convictions of traders for selling wares in pounds and ounces could be disregarded, meaning shops may again be free to use the measurements

    Who are the Metric Martyrs? – British Weights & Measures …http://bwma.org.uk › who-are-the-metric-martyrs
    The Metric Martyrs are traders who stood their ground against compulsory metrication by refusing … Steven Thoburn, who became a household name in 2001 when he was convicted of a criminal offence for selling bananas in pounds and ounces. … Steven Thoburn, died on Sunday, 14 March 2004, following heart failure.

    He was judged by his peers, politico shysters in the main, who can no way be compared to peoples of Stevens calibre.

  57. I have just seen (by accident – not watched) last night’s ITV Alan Carr game show ‘Strike it Lucky’. Every one of the 6 contestants was black, African or Caribbean.

    I’m not sure what the proportion of Afro-Caribbeans is in this country but it certainly isn’t 100%.

    Is ITV being overtly racist?

    1. I remember when colour TV first came in they were doing a nature programme about zebras and a cartoonist drew a picture of the filming of it and the director was saying to the producer: “This is great television – but is it great colour television.”

      Now we need the Rolling Stones:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4irXQhgMqg

    3. TV adverts confirm that the proportion is at least 50% – ‘cos white men no longer live in the UK.

      1. It’s been a long time since being camp was seen as funny in itself.

  58. Back from a walk to Englishcombe. In the fields the lambs were gambling (five card Stud I think). One cheeky chappie had escaped the enclosure so we spent a diverting 15 minutes chasing said escapee up and down the farm lane until it finally got the message that it had to turn right at the gate and into the field. In case anyone hasn’t seen lamb for a while (excepting on a dinner plate) this is what one looks like…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c75206887441194b481cc921129c150936700f64bfe5aceb95adc9b51262cf6.png

          1. Not if one was hungry enough to eat a horse and go back for the saddle…..

          9. I’m sure you know, Bill, from your sojourn in France that there’s nothing wrong with Pot-Au-Feu De Cheval (Horse Stew). I have an excellent recipe in my cook-book but cannot find horse in any English butcher.

    3. Isn’t Englishcombe terribly racist? Must have links to the slave trade – imperialism, anyway.

      1. The only links to the slave trade as far as I know are the distant views of Bristol….

    5. I delivered newspapers to Englishcombe in the sixties. Lovely small church and graveyard which I made a drawing of much later. It will be in a folio somewhere.

      You pass Padley Woods on the approach from the top of Englishcombe Lane. A hermit was reputed to live in a hut there when I was a boy and we were scared to venture too far. Most of my family are buried at nearby Haycombe from where you have a great view of Englishcombe and beyond.

      1. Sadly the church is locked at present. The views round and about are quintessentially English Countryside. Despite the proximity of Bath it is as you know incredibly peaceful.

        1. We would walk on to Priston from Englishcombe. My memory is of another world of charm and peace.

          When I buried My eldest sister at Haycombe a few years ago my wife and I stayed in a pub in Combe Hay which is a few miles away off the Fosse Way. Stunningly beautiful village for the most part and lovely church with that musty damp smell you get in old stone buildings with no heating.

          The service was in Combe Down where she lived, a nice church designed by Goodrich who was the Architect of Beckford’s Tower at Lansdown (now run by The Landmark Trust). Beckford, a Gothic novelist, built the tower as a vantage point from which he could view his beloved Fonthill Abbey in Wiltshire.

          Regrettably Fonthill Abbey, designed by James Wyatt, was Jerry built and the builder skimped on the foundations with the result that it collapsed as a ruin. Local folklore had it that the builder confessed to his error on his deathbed and at the very moment he departed this world the tower of Fonthill collapsed.

          3. Many thanks Corim.

            Fascinating history beneath our feet. The photograph of the lane with fencing either side is where we rounded up the lamb escapee…..

        2. Our little church in Flowton remains open during daylight hours – dawn until dusk.

  59. Just in from the garden. Started out doing a fiddly chore in the sun – stayed out during the SNOW flurry – and now in for tea! And the stove being encouraged to get very hot. Another cold night ahead – made colder because the AGA man is coming for the half year service at 9 am. So a cold kitchen. I expect the cats will complain.

    This global warming malarkey is beginning to get me down.

        1. Looks like regular exercise to me, looking at the path he’s made.

  61. This sort of comment:

    Nicholas Brough 26 Apr 2021 2:35AM

    The problem is that no one can agree on how to eliminate tax avoidance using Tax havens, Trusts and make complex international tax structures, such as those used by Apple, Google , Amazon etc to avoid paying fair tax. Hence this proposal. I don’t disagree, it is isnt great, but no other solutions currently exist.

    The only other option is to tax something other than corporate profits and one way or another that means people. Since the similar tax structures protect the really wealthy that means joe public.

    From https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/25/conservatives-have-duty-defy-international-tax-stitch-up/

    Is startling in it’s stupidity. The author supposes that tax avoidance should be prevented, rather than addressing the reason taxes are avoided. It is this sort of idiotic, big state, high tax effort that needs to end. As for the burden then falls on joe pubic, taxing a company will automatically be passed on to customers. The state should spend less. That’s the fundamental problem.

    As for ‘fair’ – dear life. No tax is fair. It is state mandated theft. Nothing else.

    Are people stupid?

    Less said about the oaf saying that Google doesn’t charge people for it’s products: yes, it does – Google ads, gsuite… some people are just ignorant.

    1. It has been proven, many times, Wibbles that increasing the tax burden reduces the tax income rather than increasing it.

    3. Having been on the receiving end of a fox massacre, killing every bird available just for the joy of killing them, I’m of the view that fox hunting should be increased.

        1. If given the chance of escape or a bullet to the head (that misses and you drag a wound until you die in agony) which would you choose?

        2. No, they’re aren’t. As barbaric as it may seem, where a fox is caught it’s death is quite
          quick, unlike that of the many foxes injured but not killed by other methods. Nature is red in tooth and claw. Get used to it.

          1. It wasn’t just the killing of foxes that often solved a fox problem, but the dispersal of a concentration of them into a wider area.

        3. Shooting (incidences of wounding are high), gassing, trapping (foxes have been known to gnaw their foot off when caught in a snare) or poison?

        4. Without the hunt, we now have scavenging foxes invading suburbia and virtue-signalling tw*ts decide to adopt them and feed them, thus encouraging them to stay in the area slaughtering chickens and even cats – Watch out for yours, Plum, as voles may not be the only problem.

          1. Our South African neighbour encourages foxes and even has a “fox run” (whatever that is – doubtless something to encourage the foxes into the garden). If a fox comes in and does anything to our old pussy cat, I’ll explode.

    4. But, if they are not ‘locals’ and groom the animals before harming them, will that be OK?

      Or are our animals going to be better protected than our kidz?

      Just asking

      1. Well, animals have the ROYAL society – children merely the NATIONAL. Draw your own conclusions!

    5. Will you be prosecuting foxes for, as example, killing all of my ex-wife’s chickens for fun?

        1. The fun is in riding the horse and following the hounds.
          Killing the foxes is a product of that and, I believe, leads to the satisfaction of a job well done/

        2. It’s the hounds who kill the foxes. As they’ve been bred for the job (and are very good at it), I’m sure they get a lot of satisfaction.

    6. Metropolitan socialist wokery.!

      Foxhunting with hounds is quick and effective; other methods of disposal – shooting etc – have cruel outcomes and slow deaths.

      Tally-ho!

      1. It annoys the locals however. Speaking as someone who grew up in foxhunting country.

        1. We used to follow the Waveny Valley Harriers on our push-bikes but that was in the White-Friendly 1950s.

          1. Don’t kid yourself. Most white people in the country don’t like the hunt. This is not a new thing, when I was growing up, I remember the farmer next door to us saying he couldn’t stand them, but he daren’t tell them they weren’t welcome on his land because of powerful local interests. My parents also didn’t come out openly against them.
            They were and still are thugs and bullies. I could tell you a few stories of beatings and even extortion. Thank goodness now there are more outsiders who have moved in and bought land, who have the courage to say no to the hunt.

    7. Please will the Govt find some penalty to dissuade my PCs from bringing in voles?
      I wouldn’t mind so much if the voles were dead.

      1. Same problem here.
        They do it because they love you.
        And that’s why they dump the bloody little corpse at the bottom of the stairs, or in your slipper – so you can’t miss it with your sock-clad foot first thing on a Monday morning, before dawn… :-((

    8. I’ve not noticed any article on this, but the PCSO murder t’other day may be a dog theft gone wrong.

    9. Fox-hunting is natural; it’s no more than would happen with a pack of wolves (which some of the woke want to reintroduce). Nature is not neat and tidy.

        1. I agree “yours” is better, but the one I posted is the official one.

          It’s a tune I never tire of and the film itself was superb. The moment when he shoots the officer to save his suffering on the pyre is cinematic theatre at its best.

          1. Alas, you misunderstand. The ‘official’ refers not to the film but the artist. Read the notes on your YouTube video; it clearly states “Here is my version of . . .” and goes on to reference the original.

            The main theme of the movie is “Promontory”, an orchestration of the tune “The Gael” by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean from his 1990 album The Search.

            See https://youtu.be/9tjdswqGGVg

          2. Pass
            I’ve heard and watched so many alternatives that I cannot be sure which is the “official” one.
            It isn’t clear on IMdb.

          3. A quick Google search will give you all you need.

            FWIW IMO the film and its music are the best improvement on a book anywhere. DDL may be another tw@t, but his performance and commitment were superb. I never tire of watching it., not least because it takes me back to a time when I worked with several of the minor actors (alas, probably the highlights of their acting careers)

  64. Iran is a nasty country – to be more precise – its government is a bunch of very nasty people.
    However, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe knew that perfectly well before she returned – apparently to visit her parents.
    She is most certainly not worth £400 million of British taxpayers’ money. Danegeld – again.
    Give in to this nonsense, and every country in want of a few bob will be imprisoning ‘British’ citizens.

    1. Indeed.
      But I can’t help wondering if the UK did the dirty on the original arms deal.

      1. Who? Us? Shurely shum mistake? As our man who dealt with foreign baddies used to say.

      3. Actually we accepted payment in advance from Iran for Challenger battle tanks. Then there was some sort of American fuss in the Middle East and the UK withheld delivery but kept the payment.

    2. I have to admit, I am getting kind of tired of seeing her in the papers. There must be some reason why they are always trying to make her out to be some great martyr. Yes, it is unpleasant what happened to her, but she went there of her own accord. There is a reason why she lives in the UK and not in Iran. Perhaps I am being overly harsh, but it seems like a case of a typical lefty wanting to have her cake and eat it.

        1. I don’t know. The general rule is that if you have dual nationality, the diplomats won’t help you in your other country.

        2. Born Iranian, has Iranian citizenship, escaped to the UK, obtained a passport through marriage & motherhood etc.
          Persuaded herself that it was safe to go back; two sandals short of a picnic.

    3. Auntie now stressing that she is a “charity worker”. Perhaps she should have taken note of the previous imprisonment of people involved in her type of charity before taking a holiday in one of the nastiest countries in the world. From Wiki….. Zaghari-Ratcliffe has worked for the BBC World Service Trust (now called BBC Media Action),[19] an international charity that provided training courses to Iranian citizen journalists and bloggers in its Iran Media Development Project’s ZigZag magazine and associated radio programme.[20] In 2014, several graduates were convicted and sentenced by Iran to up to 11 years in jail for their participation in these courses.[21][22]

  65. That’s me gone. What a weird day. I managed to sit outside in the sun for 10 minutes before the wind drove me indoors. Then wrapped up and did some DIY on the anti-rabbit cages. Carried on – bravely – as the snow fell. We have just had a heavy squall – which has stopped and a nice sunset may be in the offing. Lots of rain tomorrow, they say. Well, we DO need it. It hasn’t rained to any degree for a month. Lots of daytime sun and bloody cold nights.

    Tomorrow, the excitement of the AGA man. Self-employed, he delights in working on bank holidays. That takes me back…I always did the same.

    We are risking watching “Citizen Cane” this evening – all about dogs, I understand…!!

    A demain

    4. I was driven in from tackling the ground elder when it started to rain. It was short-lived, but once I’d stopped, I’d stopped.

    5. Plumber came today. Tap change, very tricky. Bank holidays, what are they for?

  66. Well done, Kneel Hamilton for being British and winning again.

    Such a shame that you are a tw@t who used his unique platform to sow division and hate. Such a shame, too, that we British and our politicians are so lazy, unambitious and dependent that we lead the world but sell out to foreigners (Mercedes).

  67. We don’t have the medical care that countries like the UK have. When I hear my friends and family in the UK people complaining about the NHS, I tell them to try living in India and then they would appreciate what they have.

    https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/02/here-in-india-it-feels-like-covid-19-is-going-to-kill-us-all-14501381/

    In India the COVID crisis is reaching apocalyptic proportions.
    It is a sobering thought that the UK, despite the resources at its disposal, had no concept in the early phases of the pandemic of the powers the Government needed to enact to preclude the kind of Armageddon that is facing India.

    The bodies in India would be piling up on the streets if survivors were unable to construct funeral pyres.

    Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/02/here-in-india-it-feels-like-covid-19-is-going-to-kill-us-all-14501381/?ito=cbshare

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

    1. Funny Old World
      They move from Ivermectin/Zinc/Antibiotics to the Vaccine and the virus explodes…….

      1. One in a thousand have received vaccinations and you blame vaccinations for the increase??

        1. It would be the shift in strategy from medication to vaccination – if they are not succeeding in vaccinating those they would previously have medicated that could cause the explosion.
          Another cause could be what we found at the ealry roll-out in the UK and in Israel. There was a sharp spike in mortality even here are th start of the vaccine campagne.
          But we do not know without the specific research and either that is not being done, or it is supressed.

    2. I wish i had so many family ‘cross country’ members that i could go back and forth to different continents four times a year for weddings, funerals and BENEFITS.

    3. Maybe they should reprioritise their space programme budget.
      Just a thought.

      1. The UK should not have abandoned the foreign aid contributions to India!

        Or so I read in the Guardian.

  69. Bl**dy, chuffin’, effin’ DT has done it again.
    There I was, minding my own business, reading the article about the pitch invasion at Old Trafford and on the right of the screen was the headline of another article “Brilliant Lewis Hamilton wins Portuguese Grand Prix to extend championship lead”.

    I was planning to watch it when I get home from work later tonight.

    WTF can’t they just say in the headline “GP results here”?

    2. Very few crashes, just a procession by the normal suspects

      And yes they still kneeled before getting into their cars.

      1. They pray for all the millions of victims of diabetes caused by eating too much sugar, produced in the Caribbean by….

  70. Evening, all. I should have thought the SNP’s record when in government had proved they were unfit to govern.

    1. That’s why they get voters to vote emotionally.

      Why the opposition are not screaming about the spelling record is the real question.

    2. Certainly. I suggested to Mr Ross that the Tories should target the SNP record in government and not Indyref2. Half the population want independence so attacking it is not sensible. Ignoring it is better. If you cut down the tree the fruit is lost. But they do not listen.

      1. Must be run by Ogga and his mates. They don’t understand, either.

  71. From The Archives…

    Ballachulish, Scotland’s Dirtiest Village

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1264556759198433286

    I don’t remember this. I ought to. Just a year before, we’d gone on our first holiday to Scotland. We were on our way to Fort William and we drove through Ballachulish village. I remember my parents remarking how similar it was to the slate quarrying areas of North Wales that we had been to in the 60s but I don’t remember the car dump.

    We didn’t drive through the village on the way home. On the way up, my dad had got the heeby-jeebies so badly on the precipitous hillside section of the road between Ballachulish and Kinlochleven that he couldn’t face it again so we took the ferry, putting up with the long wait that we had avoided a fortnight earlier. A piper played for the queuing travellers. And played. And played. And played some more…

    I found this only because I’d been catching up on BBC Scotland’s ‘Landward’. Ballachulish is featured in this episode for about 4:30 mins starting at about 9:40 and featuring the ‘Nationwide’ video.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000n3q7/landward-2020-episode-15

    1. There was a slate quarry in Ballachulish in the 19th century. However it flooded after a storm and production stopped. We built a house in East Lothian in 1983 and the planner gave us two options given for the roof: hand made pantiles or Ballachulish slate.

    2. Blast from the past. My first year uni geology field trip was to Ballachulish. Spent two weeks getting drunk and failing to produce a coherent map of the headland.
      Happy days.

      1. Seems student life never changes.

        I did a three legged pub crawl in aid of some charity or other. It was in fancy dress too. Though we drank copious amounts of beer we never dipped into the bucket of coins. :@)

    1. This is the second Avalon Jazz Band clip you have posted, Mahatma. Thanks so much – I think I am now a great fan of the band.

  73. “Biden’s economic adviser pushes ‘global minimum tax’ to keep U.S. competitive” DMail. And to keep things even, could we ask the Chinks to pay the minimum wage. Cripes, whatever next!

    1. He will not be popular in Ireland, the land of his forbears.

      Low corporation tax is the keystone of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ inward investment strategy.

  75. How Beijing is buying up Britain: Chinese investors ‘have spent £134 BILLION on UK assets including infrastructure, private schools and FTSE 100 firms’
    Chinese investors have stakes in key infrastructure firms such as Thames Water
    Heathrow and UK Power Networks also have Chinese stakeholders, reports say
    There is also reportedly at least £57billion Chinese investment in FTSE 100 firms
    Of £134billion total, £44billion said to be from Chinese state-owned companies
    However Sunday Times reports total investment may be higher than £134billion

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9534637/Chinese-investors-spend-134-BILLION-UK-assets-including-infrastructure-FTSE-100-firms.html

    So why are we sending that huge aircraft carrier off to spy on China .. sailed from Portsmouth yesterday?

    2. Its nuts; HMS Queen Elizabeth: Britain’s flagship aircraft carrier, doesn’t yet have a naval escort group …

      1. Yep, that’s just what Moh said ..
        Crackers , and they have just managed to scrape a crew together , AND they have an American contingent of fliers and some new aircraft .. I mean , what on earth can we be thinking of .. growling at the Chinese when they already own half of us !

        1. HMS Queen Elizabeth could be blown to smithereens at little cost.

          How do we retaliate?

          Nuke Beijing?

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