Sunday 26 December: Apocalyptic Covid projections have harmed the public’s faith in science

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624 thoughts on “Sunday 26 December: Apocalyptic Covid projections have harmed the public’s faith in science

  1. In Western Christianity, 26 December is called “Saint Stephen’s Day”, the “Feast of Stephen” mentioned in the English Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas”.
    By speaking out and opposing orthodox religious thought, and not keeping his head down Stephen (Greek: Στέφανος Stéphanos, meaning “wreath, crown”) was stoned to death by a crowd. The ultimate cancel culture.

    Morning folks,

  2. I saw my grandson , my grandson’s wife, my elder son and my daughter in law all on my laptop yesterday. They were preparing for Christmas dinner in Texas.The dinner included Yorkshire pudding. The weather there was sunny. My other son in London phoned to check if I was OK and wished me a happy Christmas day.
    I couldn’t have asked for more.
    I over indulged yesterday and had high sugar level this morning. I will have to rein in today as I have a diabetes check at the end of January.
    edited to take the g out of reign

    1. You’re lucky – I saw no-one and got a couple of texts from out of a large family. No even a recovery call out to ease the boredom – couldn’t have a drink just in case I did.

      1. Sorry to hear that, Alec. I was pleased that I only got one text message instead of having to read dozens and dozens as was the case on my birthday. (I repeat that I appreciated all of those messages, but just resented having to spend hours responding to thank those who sent them.)

      2. People can be very thoughtless, Alec particularly when other stuff gets in the way. That’s why I appreciate Nottl as someone always remembers your troubles and says something kind. Bless you, and thinking of you. Hope you have a peaceful time with your glorious cat!

        1. Thank you Sue – I was in bed by 9 and watched 2 episodes of my boxed set of Bergerac. Today has been better, lovely sunny weather but cold and I had a 6 hour recovery to do

  3. Good Boxing-day morning, all Y’all. 😁
    Hope Christmas day went well, you got to eat & drink enough, and maybe even got to see relatives face-to-face!

    1. Not a Bad Man. Probably helped to ensure that the transition to Black Rule was accomplished with so little violence!

      1. Hmm, “…with so little violence!” At the time; it appears to have now degenerated into mass murder of white farmers, in an effort to emulate Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

  4. After two years of mass hysteria, are we finally coming to our senses? Peter Hitchens. 26 December 2021.

    On Thursday, a prominent BBC presenter wondered out loud whether a ‘Covid hospitalisation’ actually meant that the person involved was in hospital for Covid rather than something else.

    I hope for the sake of his career that he does not carry on using his brain in such a dangerous fashion.

    Before he knows where he is he will be asking if so-called ‘cases’ are really just positive test results, often not involving any illness at all, and, mainly reflecting the State’s costly efforts in testing everyone it can get its hands on.

    And if he ever wonders on air about what is counted as a ‘Covid death’, then he’ll end up in exile at BBC Radio Skegness, interviewing seals.

    I don’t know who let the cat out of the bag but I would like to have seen it! I don’t think there’s been any hysteria among Nottlers and I like to think my own response has been laid back albeit by throttling back my BBC watching to almost nothing. It was only when I was going to bed last night that I realised all I had watched during Christmas Day was two recorded episodes of Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10344609/PETER-HITCHENS-two-years-mass-hysteria-finally-coming-senses.html

    1. Morning. Ararminta.

      In my first comment below is mention of Dr Jennie Harries being accused of supplying ‘dodgy data’ to the government. Why has this arisen now, before Panic³ Johnson makes his latest statement this week? Maybe it’s an inkling that the politicians are getting their story together before throwing their bevy of advisors under the proverbial bus? With Omicron data figures revealing that it is not a mass killer, Panic³ needs to save face after his initial uninformed reaction: ditto his lying Health Secretary, Javid the Bald.
      They’re going to need another scary death-dealing variant, and soon, if they want to continue this charade and not waste the untold millions of jabs they’ve ordered from Pfizer. From reports elsewhere it’s not an easy job to get out of contracts with Pfizer. Knowing our incompetent shower they’ve probably signed off the Crown Jewels in the deal.

    2. The only thing I watched was ‘The Lavender Hill Mob’ produced by the Ealing Studios. Billed as a hilarious comedy, it was mildly amusing and notable for the complete absence of BAMEs in all the actual street background scenes that were filmed.

    3. Good morning, Minty, and all NoTTLers. I trust you all had an enjoyable Christmas as did I. I started my day listening to a couple of Mark Steyn Christmas broadcasts (one from Christmas 2020 and one from this year’s Christmas Eve). Then a massive Christmas late lunch at 3 pm with all the trimmings and washed down with a Californian Pinot Grigio. Later I had “seconds” before retiring to bed to sleep off some of the wine. And the rest of the day was spent watching a DVD of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT with the Fab Four. After watching the bonus “extras” and reading extra information from the IMDb site I briefly read a few posts on this site before retiring to bed.

      Today I have been invited next door for an early evening meal, and then tomorrow and Tuesday we have Christmas Day and Boxing Day all over again – in Bank Holiday terms – although I shall knuckle down and re-start my de-cluttering and computer education in alternate hour-long sessions every morning with various projects in the afternoon. I hope to spend a little less time on NoTTLing and more on writing/piano playing/sketching to see me through to Spring when I return to the outdoors to spend more time in the garden. My best wishes for the New Year to you all.

    4. My brother took a test before travelling to us on Christmas Eve. He had no symptoms whatsoever. He thought it was ‘best to be on the safe side.’ Neither my husband or I are ‘vulnerable’ in any way. Oddly, we see him every couple of weeks and he has never before deemed it necessary to test prior to a visit. He has fallen, hook, line and sinker, for the MSM hysteria.

  5. ‘Morning Peeps, and happy Boxing Day (and also Saint Stephen’s Day).

    SIR – According to the Covid Tracking Project, the highest number of daily Covid deaths in the United States this year was just over 2,000 in April.

    This was before the country’s vaccine programme had a chance to take effect. Yet the modelling shown to our Government by Professor Ferguson and his team suggested that omicron in Britain – with a population five times smaller – could lead to 5,000 Covid-related deaths a day.

    We have now seen a lot of exaggerated modelling from Professor Ferguson and his team. Why is the Government still listening to them?

    Richard Davies
    Brentwood, Essex

    More to the point, Mr Davies, why does the BBC persist in interviewing Professor Pantsdown as a so-called expert? It is as if they are keen to give his obviously poisonous predictions the widest possible coverage.

          1. Lewis Hamilton…..he of the kneeling, the clown outfits and stick legs. That award finished knighthoods for me. No more glamour can ever be attached.

        1. ‘Morning, Minty, “The chief medical officer for England will be recognised for the extraordinary, dangerous and ineffective role he has played at the forefront of tackling boosting the pandemic.

          There, fixed it for the Grimes.

  6. SIR – Geraldine Wills (Letters, December 20) is understandably concerned about being deprived of her effective oil boiler.

    But there is something that might concern her even more. While urban dwellers will have until 2035 before the replacement of their gas boilers becomes mandatory, around one million largely rural dwellers will have only five years before installing a replacement oil boiler becomes illegal, according to the Government’s net-zero policy document.

    They will then be expected to dig up their gardens and install expensive and ineffective ground-source heat pumps, along with all the new radiators and insulation that will be required, at a likely cost of at least £20,000.

    Taken alongside the attacks on livestock farming in particular, and the eco-lunatic policy of rewilding 30 per cent of agricultural land, it would appear this is all part of Downing Street’s hostility to rural Britain.

    Adrian Gobbi
    Bedale, North Yorkshire

    Wake up, people! The Lunatic in Downing Street barely seems to know what day of the week it is, so remember – 5 years will soon pass so renew those oil-fired boilers now, before production tails off and you are left high and dry…and cold.

    1. Increase the UK’s population to eighty million and take 30 per cent of agricultural land out of service…what could possibly go wrong??

  7. Royal Navy ship on ‘very high’ alert for Russian submarines returning home for Orthodox Christmas

    A Royal Navy ship is keeping watch in the North Sea for Russian submarines returning home for Orthodox Christmas Day in January.

    With such a wide choice of stupid comments in one article it’s difficult to select one that stands out. Certainly the idea that all Russian submarines go home for Christmas is a new one on me. That one UK destroyer could detect them with the whole North Atlantic to cover would be news to the Royal Navy one assumes! That a UK Battle Group is in Estonia overlooking the border with Russia when everyone is trying to pretend that NATO is innocent of any such activity is something of a Faux Pas. Nevertheless these efforts, impressive as they may be, are outdone by the half-witted moron who is the Prime Minister of the UK!

    Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said: “Right now our men and women in uniform are playing a central role in the huge national effort to Get Boosted Now and protect everyone against the omicron variant.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/25/royal-navy-ship-high-alert-russian-submarines-returning-home/

  8. SIR – I respect cyclists’ right to safety on public highways, and accept that their cycling in the centre of a lane is often in order.

    Perhaps, however, they could do more to earn my respect by stopping at red lights, not cycling on pavements or contraflow in a one-way street, not overtaking vehicles on the left at speed with an assumption that these vehicles will not be turning left, and recognising that if they cannot see the wing-mirrors of a large vehicle in front of them then the driver of the vehicle will not see them.

    Nick Jones
    Cardiff

    Well said Nick Jones, although you forgot to mention also the legal requirement to use lights at night and riding on pavements…

    1. And adjust their lights, particularly the very powerful LED front lights. I have several times been dangerously blinded whilst driving and once tripped into a ditch when blinded on a hard-surfaced bridle path by a cyclist who sped past at great speed a few inches from my shoulder.

      1. These cyclists are dangerously arrogant whether on roads or paths. Same with the ones who cycle in packs, two or three abreast, on country roads for mile after mile, not even reducing to single file on straight stretches, then wonder why following vehicles get frustrated. Such behaviour must be beyond annoying for people who actually live and work in some rural areas.

        1. It is! On the vague topic of bad behaviour on roads, I was out today walking to do some geocache maintenance – very foggy here but depressing to see a few morons driving with no lights!

          1. It’s a wonder there aren’t more accidents caused by the morons who fail to use headlights in fog. Plenty who also deem it adequate to use only feeble side lights. The “I can’t see any better with the lights on, so why bother?” eejits.

        2. But have you noticed the number of drivers who, even when they have a clear run to get past them, don’t make the attempt?
          The same with people not overtaking tractors and other slow moving vehicles.

          1. Even worse if a driver doesn’t feel it is safe for them to pass bikes or tractors (maybe a learner, inexperienced, an unfamiliar car or whatever) , but then sits right up behind the obstruction which can prevent the vehicle behind them from getting past.

          2. Yes! I do try to make allowances for L Drivers, but very often it’s the instructor at fault.

      2. LED lights can temporarily ‘blind’ anyone. IMHO it’s the long term effect on the epithelium cells of the retina that needs to be further examined and studied. There is a Spanish paper from 2012, by Eva Chamorro, Celia Sanchez Ramos et al, but it was criticised later.
        You might glance at https://lowenergylampsinfo.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/personal-risks-posed-by-leds-used-in-everyday-devices/. The original .pdf was published in a more elegant format in spanish and english, but I can’t find an active link.

    2. The worst are those barelling along the pavement who just ring their bell, as if they’ve an automatic right. I’ve held many, many such cyclists up – one especially idiotic twit decided to ram right past me. He fell in the road, poor thing.

  9. SIR – Traditional Conservative ideas are based on government doing as little as possible within a framework of sound financial management and freedom of individual choice.

    Today, however, we have a Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, who is closer in thinking to the Labour opposition than he is to his own MPs and wider party.

    He has introduced higher taxes and proposed more state intervention, with coercive measures to limit personal freedoms in the guise of Covid restrictions.

    His Government pays lip service to the value of the private sector, of businesses and small traders, yet undermines that by proposing higher corporation tax and national insurance contributions, along with crippling restraints on services like hospitality and entertainment that will ruin many jobs and firms. A bigger state and higher taxes mean socialism, and as someone who votes for Tory values and principles, I no longer identify with the party that calls itself Conservative.

    If there is no change of direction there will be no chance to recover voters’ support.

    David Saunders
    Sidmouth, Devon

    Why no mention of his failure (and that of his allegedly Conservative predecessors) to reform the NHS? Instead, he has wasted so much time on his ludicrous ‘net zero’ bolleaux which, sooner or later, is going to end badly for every one of us. Never in the recent history of British politics has such a healthy majority been so wantonly squandered!

  10. An interesting BTL post on the matter of ‘man-made global warming. I’m not expecting any coverage of this in the media!

    Edwin Pugh
    2 HRS AGO
    An answer to our Scottish climate expert on man-made global warming is to be found in a recently published paper by David Coe in the International Journal of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences. To quote from the summary – “This result strongly suggests that increasing levels of CO2 will not lead to significant changes in earth temperature and that increases in CH4 and N2O will have very little discernible impact. ” The paper can be found here – http://www.ijaos.org/article/298/10.11648.j.ijaos.20210502.12
    Further evidence can be found in a paper published in April – The Relationship between Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration and Global Temperature for the Last 425 Million Years – published in September 2017 by MDPI. This concludes that “…. changes in atmospheric CO2 concentration did not cause temperature change in the ancient climate.” Further, it goes on to say that “Atmospheric concentration of CO2 is not correlated with temperature.” and that “The absence of correlation proves conclusively the absence of causality “. In other words, CO2 levels are highly unlikely to have any effect on global temperatures. The study is complicated but can be found here –

    https://www.mdpi.com/2225-1154/5/4/76/htm

    There are those who will disagree with these findings. To cast doubt on the validity of the papers in question because of their source, where the paper was published or the qualifications of the authors is not a helpful response and merely goes to show a reluctance to enter a proper debate about the issues. What is important is the accuracy of the content. Just for once could those disagreeing say where the content is wrong and why.

    1. A pair of BTL Comments:-

      adam james
      2 HRS AGO
      Reply to Edwin Pugh – view message
      Edwin, these are nonsense posts. Get a grip on reality.
      What underpins your refusal to accept the concept of global warming?

      Robert Spowart
      1 MIN AGO
      Reply to adam james – view message
      Message Actions
      And, true to form, we have a response that fails to discuss the relevant points and merely goes straight in to personal insults, all be it in a milder form than one is used to in other forms of Soshul Meejah, in an effort to prevent any debate on the matter.
      You also wonder why people refuse to accept the Gospel of the Religion of GLOBAL WARMING? Well, perhaps people realise when a one sided narrative is being presented and, when they begin to investigate the other side, realise that, despite the efforts of people like yourself, there is substantial validity to the counter arguments.

      1. Somewhat more to the point, BoB, what underpins Adam James’ unfaltering belief in CO² ‘s effect on global warming?

        Can he not see that big yellow thing that appears (sometimes) in the sky?

    2. I think most people know that, same as if we give the government more money, we can sort climate change.

      It’s idiotic. The very height of hubris and ego to think 650 windbags can make the slightest difference to the planet.

      1. I only know Tutu as a BBC icon – did he actually say or do anything particularly inspiring?

        1. Truth & Reconciliation Commission – an attempt to prevent mass revenge slaughter – but it hasn’t stopped the murder of white farmers notably not reported on the BBC….

          1. Oh yes, I remember that. I was impressed, but later events suggested that the politicians were just biding their time.

          1. Good morning, Grizzly. I had always thought the song was My Tutu. It’s amazing what you learn on this site.

          2. Good afternoon, Auntie Elsie. Like you, I’ve always sung “Tutu” especially after any mention of Desmond.

          3. Sometimes when a certain band sings about Desmond meeting Molly in the market place, I find myself singing “Obladi, Oblada”. Lol.

  11. Apocalyptic Covid projections have harmed the public’s faith in science

    Science is no longer science just a propagandist backup for the globalist agenda

    1. Science hasn’t been science for at least a hundred years, probably longer. Those early researchers who were financially independent and motivated by a quest for knowledge have been replaced by people who are paid to get particular results. The likes of Pfizer aren’t paying people to do science, they are paying people to discover or modify stuff that will bring a return on the investment, and as recent events illustrate, if the product isn’t good enough, they will still find a way to get it to market.

      Someone said to me recently “But 97% of scientist believe in climate change (so it can’t be a fraud)”
      I said, No, 97% of people working in the climate change industry believe in climate change; it is clearer when you see it in that light.”

        1. I suppose you could reach 97% if you brand all the ones who disagree as “cranks” instead of “scientists!”

    1. Good morning Sos.
      Promising good news.
      No wonder the controllers don’t want herd immunity. If most of us caught the virus, and developed these ‘memory plasma cells’, then there would be no need for lockdowns, travel restrictions or other fear-mongering and we wouldn’t need increasingly frequent experimental jabs.

      1. Omicron may yet turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

        I only hope that “vaccinations” have not destroyed the body’s own ability to fight Covid and its heirs off, so that “vaccination” for the vaccinated becomes a regular event to avoid serious complications.

        1. That is the big unknown. Do the ‘scientists’ have any idea of the potentially monstrous consequences of rushing through experimental gene therapy jabs with no long-term safety data?

          1. That comment wouldn’t initially go through. Thought it was automatic for including some ‘unacceptable/misleading/truth-telling’ words 🙂

          2. Your point, MIB, is the the reason for my initial unwillingness to accept an experimental drug with no record of long-term effects (immediate thought – Thalidomide) but lately with the prevalence of myocarditis and my known chronic heart disease, I’m glad I have refused.

          3. Why should they care?
            They are “scientists” following the “science”
            Humans are merely convenient lab rats, available in an almost infinite supply.

    2. That’s great for youngsters, but not for the more vulnerable. The Great Barrington declaration remains as valid as ever: protect the vulnerable and let everyone get on with their lives otherwise the cost and damage of measures will be far higher than the costs and damage of the disease.

      1. Those old and vulnerable we are supposedly protecting are inadvertently causing the collapse of the economy and the normal running of our healthcare system. When you say “let everyone get on with their lives” are we to assume that you mean “as long as they are fully vaccinated”?

        If so, I greatly fear that the cure is going to turn out to be far worse than the disease. I equate the vaccination programme to the over-use of antibiotics where they are becoming overtaken by antibiotic resistant strains. The Covid vaccination numbers make the antibiotic numbers look small and these are not over a period of decades, the timescales are months.

  12. Just listened to the Queen’s Christmas broadcast. Very disappointing, but not surprising. More non-white faces than white, and a plug for the vile COP conference and net zero. She also had the cheek to talk about the decline of the UK during her reign as though it should be celebrated! I bet plenty of her listeners were thinking they’d rather be in 1952 than 2022!

      1. Good morning.
        I don’t care about that stupid BBC propaganda, but I don’t take the Queen’s Christmas broadcast seriously either when it’s just an opportunity to rub people’s noses in it again.

    1. Not sure about being back in 1952. I was four years old and we spent Christmas in London. It was the last one for my father.

    2. Every time that I’ve seen it, the Queen’s broadcast has always had more non-white faces because it is to the Commonwealth not just the UK.

      1. I’m not interested in the Commonwealth. HM should remember who is on the other end of the social contract that keeps her in Windsor Castle.

  13. ‘Morning all, let’s go back a day or two.

    It Was Christmas Eve

    One particular Christmas season a long time ago, Santa was getting ready for his annual trip, but there were problems everywhere.
    Four of his elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys as fast as the regular ones, so Santa was beginning to feel
    the pressure of being behind schedule.
    Then Mrs. Claus told Santa that her Mother was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more.
    Then he went to harness the reindeer, he found that three of them were about to give birth and two had jumped the fence
    and were out, heaven knows where. More stress!!!
    Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys.
    So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of coffee and a shot of whisky. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered
    that the elves had hidden the liquor and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped the coffee-pot and
    it broke into hundreds of little pieces all over the kitchen floor. He went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw
    it was made from. Just then the doorbell rang and Santa cursed on his way to the door.
    He opened the door and there was a little angel with a big Christmas tree. The angel said very cheerfully. “Merry Christmas Santa,
    isn’t it just a lovely day? I have a beautiful tree for you. Isn’t it a lovely tree? Where would you like me to stick it?”
    Thus began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.

  14. Good morning and a Merry 2nd Day of Christmas to one and all!

    A dull and damp start up here. 0°C again on the yard thermometer.

  15. Another headline predicted by online commentators at the start of this panic:-

    ‘Dodgy data’ used in push for tighter Covid restrictions
    Health chief accused of disseminating misleading statistics on hospitalisations that overstated the risk from omicron

    By
    Edward Malnick,
    SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR
    25 December 2021 • 8:00pm

    One of Britain’s most senior health advisers has been accused of disseminating “dodgy data” that inflated the potential risk of omicron.

    Dr Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), is understood to have been the source of a contested claim by Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, that there is typically a 17-day lag between patients becoming infected and requiring hospitalisation.

    However, independent experts pointed to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, which suggested an average delay of nine or 10 days.

    The claim by Mr Javid was seen as an attempt to strengthen the case for urgent new Covid-19 restrictions, on the basis that the country could be on the brink of a major spike in hospitalisations due to omicron.

    Dr Harries has claimed that omicron was “probably the most significant threat we’ve had since the start of the pandemic”.

    Health and scientific advisers have been pushing for lockdown measures and Boris Johnson will have to urgently decide whether or not to impose new restrictions before the New Year.

    However, government sources have suggested that is now unlikely, based on the latest data and a wall of opposition from Conservative backbenchers and ministers.

    The latest UKHSA data show that people infected with the variant were between 50 and 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital than with delta. Daily meetings of the Cabinet’s Covid Operations committee will resume on Monday.

    At the time of Mr Javid’s claim last weekend, despite soaring cases, only 85 people were in hospital with confirmed omicron, a figure that has since risen to 366.

    Simon Briscoe, a former Treasury statistician, said that the 17-day figure appeared to be either a “deliberate statistical sleight of hand designed to deceive, or incompetence”.

    If deliberate, he added, it seemed that officials were “in effect trying to buy time, as officials realise that data of rising hospitalisations is needed to justify lockdown”.

    Lack of support for future Covid curbs
    Mark Harper, the chairman of the Covid Recovery Group, said: “Covid restrictions damage people’s lives, livelihoods and mental wellbeing. So it’s really important that the debate about them is based on solid data.

    “Serious questions need to be asked if senior health advisers are furnishing ministers with misleading figures, and failing to correct them at the earliest opportunity.

    “Ministers also have a responsibility to ask detailed questions to ensure they aren’t using dodgy data. We can do better than this.”

    A new analysis by the Legatum Institute think tank suggested that the Covid-19 lockdowns pushed 900,000 people into poverty and that further measures would jeopardise the recovery from the earlier restrictions.

    Writing in The Telegraph, Baroness Stroud of Fulham, the think tank’s chief executive, also warned of a knock-on effect caused by hints of potential further measures.

    Amid a projected improvement in poverty levels, “renewed restrictions and constant hints of tougher measures after Christmas means that we are putting these poverty gains at risk”, she said.

    The Telegraph understands that Gareth Lyon, the chairman of the Aldershot and North Hampshire Conservative Association – whose MP is Leo Docherty, a defence minister – has resigned over the introduction of Plan B measures.

    “What we’re doing is the precise opposite of Conservatism,” Mr Lyon said. “There are a great many of us in the voluntary party who are finding the leadership’s instinctive big government approach to everything impossible to support.

    “If yet more restrictions come in after Christmas, I know that many others will find it difficult to reconcile their views and principles with the party’s direction.”

    Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, urged the Government not to close churches as part of any new restrictions, saying “people can make good judgments themselves”.

    Dr Harries conveyed the 17-day figure to Mr Javid in a telephone call last week, during a conversation about the likely lag between infection and hospitalisation. It is understood to have been presented as an estimate, based largely on Covid-19 studies published last year and in early 2021, before the emergence of omicron.

    In a subsequent article last week, published by The Telegraph, in which he appeared to lay the groundwork for more restrictions, Mr Javid stated: “Sadly, seven people have died with omicron and 85 people are in hospital with confirmed omicron, but there are likely to be a lot more.

    “And we know that the typical time between infection and hospitalisation is 17 days, so today’s hospital numbers reflect infections that took place more than two weeks ago when omicron was here in much smaller numbers and represented fewer than one per cent of infections.”

    The figure caused bemusement among some analysts and clinicians. It now transpires that it was a “generous” estimate provided by Dr Harries and rooted in studies that all pre-dated omicron.

    Officials at the UKHSA, which was formerly Public Health England, now believe that the gap between infections and hospitalisations is about 12 days.

    Mr Briscoe said that ONS data suggested a lag of between one and two weeks. The ONS said in June, before the emergence of omicron, that the average time between Covid-19 infection and the onset of symptoms was five to six days, while the median delay between symptom onset and hospital admission varied between one and seven days.

    Dr Harries has previously come under fire for attempting to justify the decision to halt routine testing in March 2020 by claiming that it was “not an appropriate intervention”.

    Writing on his blog last week, Mr Briscoe added: “The difference of a week in the lag between infection and hospitalisation is important because if you believe the ONS numbers, you would already expect hospitalisations to be picking up rather more sharply than they are.

    “Hospitalisations will need to be above (probably well above) the averages of recent months to justify lockdown.”

    On Christmas Eve, Dr Harries said: “I think there’s a glimmer of Christmas hope in the findings that we published, but it definitely isn’t yet at the point where we could downgrade that serious threat.”

    Scientific advisers have warned that even a small proportion of hospitalisations could overwhelm the health service if omicron infection rates are as high as feared.

    A UKHSA spokesman said: “Individual responses to infection with Covid-19 vary widely according to a range of factors including age and health, and we continue to monitor the potential impact of the omicron variant as more data becomes available. Wider data on Covid-19 clearly indicates that there can be a substantial lag between infection and hospitalisation.”

    1. It’s a sad thing when we have to rely on the RCs to tell the government not to close churches! There appears to be at least one Christian left in the Catholic church in the UK

    2. But, but the four day break in the reporting of figures will no doubt show a huge jump when they are published on Wednesday. I’m surprised the government hasn’t ordered millions of chastity belts!

  16. Not certain if this advert is as clever as the people proposing it think it is. To anyone who is awake it confirms that the “vaccine” is useless. In addition, it may induce some of the people who have previously thought the “vaccine” was a panacea but are starting to have doubts as the incidence of jabbing increases, to come to their senses and decide it is no longer the claimed force for good that the liars declare it is.
    What with the threat of ‘home visits’ and adverts such as this it’s looking as if the desperation to have everyone jabbed is growing. Is there something coming around the corner that being non-vaccinated will expose as being unnatural?

    https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1474442732152057859

      1. Google the definition of vaccine. Every definition I have seen is in terms of getting a response to boost protection. Whilst some vaccinations do effectively prevent someone getting a disease, that is not a requirement. Look at, for example, ‘Flu vaccine’, which is a term accepted without query for decades when a new one is required every year.

    1. I wonder how much rates-payers’ money was spent on the “re-branding” of the Hammersmith and Fulham’s logo?

      1. …and how much does Hammersmith & Fulham Council get paid for each jab administered in the borough?

        Just asking.

    2. It helps reduce the risk of illness and death, all of the possible detrimental side effects being more likely with Covid. Respiratory viruses mutate and all their vaccines decline in effectiveness. Having a revised Flu vaccine every year hasn’t been a problem, so why is having a revised Covid vaccine every year?

      1. Every year?
        Ha ha ha.
        It’s becoming more and more frequent. Latest guess is that the fourth might be needed 10 weeks after the third.

      2. I’ve only once bothered with a flu vaccine and that was last year. And they weren’t mandatory – you were still allowed not to have one.

  17. 343294+ up ticks,

    Morning each,

    “Sunday 26 December: Apocalyptic Covid projections have harmed the public’s faith in science”

    and totally wrecked among the common sense brigade
    any trust for the governing party’s who have their own anti English / United Kingdom agenda.

    As for the electorate, rotherham, rochdale etc,etc should have put paid to the lab/lib/con mass controlled ongoing immigration as in 1400/1600 children mentally scarred
    BUT, the “party” comes first every times.

      1. As to the latter, I seem to remember you half-inching an item of mine even while sober. You have form. 😉

    1. Good morning DB

      The rain yesterday was too much for me , a pair of spaniels like mine who are in and out of the house quite a bit, my older dog is nearly 14 yrs and needs to pee a bit more often these days. We didn’t give them a long run yesterday.

  18. 343294+ up ticks,

    To boost (slang)

    A slang meaning of the word is to sneakily steal, YOUR freedom that is.

  19. Good morning All

    Fine day here , much brighter , glimpses of the sun , and a bit more cheerful.

    I see the BBC and the Arch bish Cantab are waxing lyrical about the so called sad demise of Arch Bish Tutu.

    Forgive me if this is in bad taste but in the 1990s when I flew more frequently to SA by SA airways .. the jumbo I was due to fly on was delayed over 24hours because the incoming flight had been involved in a bird strike , damaging an engine. Arch Bish Tutu was on that flight .

    When I eventually boarded my flight from the UK , the same cabin crew were on duty , and they recounted the bird strike which was quite frightening .

    According to many eye witnesses , Tutu started yelling and blubbering hysterically and curled up like a ball in sheer fright imagining the end was near .

    No one knows how any of us would react in a situation like that , but Tutu gave the impression he wasn’t a leader of men but had a precious opinion of himself with a sense of celebrity.

    1. One slight hiccup there, Maggie – Cantab is the abbreviation for a degree from Cambridge. Our headmaster was Dr D.L. Hewitt, MA (cantab).

      1. And the reason an MA from Oxford or Cambridge was followed by Oxon or Cantab was because they were not, in fact, Masters Degrees but Bachelors Degrees.

    2. You mean the Archbishop was afraid of meeting His Maker?
      As a true believer, shouldn’t he have welcomed the opportunity with open arms?

    3. Desmond’s greatest achievement was to have his name adopted as a Lower Second university degree.

  20. Oi Laffed

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ec6b008be084b4abb20ee9d8c8bdf88ddfb15e01dfcf68a8e9d5a108d66ccfa.jpg

    But not at this

    Pinched from the Telegraph comment section.

    When you boil all this down, it is simply class war between the public and private
    sector. The public sector is there to do nothing and leech upon their
    private sector colleagues. I include “government” in the public sector.
    This government are particular cheerleaders for the public sector.

    No one measures how well the public sector does. They get paid no matter what. They are parasites.

    ………seems spot on to me!

    1. William Golding used to teach at Bishop’s Wordsworth School in Salisbury. It is a selective grammar school – it is not a ‘public school’ and the boys in the Lord of the Flies were aged 11 and at the time when the book was written prep school boys went to public school at the age of 13 as I did. Two of my best friends went there.

      After home-schooling our boys up to the age of 15 as we sailed around the Mediterranean we sent one of them to Gresham’s, a traditional public school in Norfolk, for his Sixth Form studies but his younger brother decided he would prefer to go to a state comprehensive school with 1500 pupils and a boarding house in Ashby-de-la Zouche for about 70 boys. Both our boys did equally well with their exams and both went on to get good and useful university degrees and both have embarked on successful careers. The great difference was that the extra curricular activities offered by Gresham’s were brilliant whereas the state comprehensive school made very little effort to offer anything outside the classroom.

      When he was at Gresham’s Christo was in two school plays and took a leading role in The Tallis House Revue; he sang in the School Choir which went by coach to Southern France to sing in various cathedrals and, as he is bilingual, he acted as the presenter; he was a very active member of the school’s Model United Nations and went twice to the Peace Palace at The Hague where several schools debated with each other; he was also greatly involved in the school’s debating society and the school’s French Society, Cultural Society and was a sacristan in the school chapel. He wrote poems and articles for the school magazine. In sport he was in the Swimming Team and the 3rdXV rugby team, he also did some small bore shooting (Gresham’s has one of the very best records at the Ashburton) and did some sailing with one of the masters. Domestically he had a brilliant housemaster and house matron. As you can imagine all this required considerable time and commitment outside the classroom from the school staff.

      By contrast Henry, at Ashby, had none of these things on offer and it comes as no surprise to hear that the education of those in independent schools has suffered far less because of Covid than the education of those in some state schools where pupils have been left to sink.

      1. State schools have no interest in the education of the children. Firstly, there are too many of them (pupils) to actively teach.

        The customer of state schools is ‘the state’. Their funding depends on completing targets and signing forms of grades, not of actual attainment. A child who in year 3 cannot read and write, if leaving that year being able to write their name is a huge success for the child, but the state machine hates them because they muck up the numbers.

        Thus the child is an annoyance getting in the way of the school’s success.

        1. ‘Afternoon, Wibbles, “State schools have no interest in the education of the children.” of today.

          ’twas different in my day (thank God) when there was the 11+ in order to direct children, according to their make-up, to either a practical education at a Secondary Modern School or an academic education at a Grammar School.

          Then along came Shirley Williams to ruin it all by scrapping both – as far as possible – and replacing them with ‘Comprehensive’ Schools, where the teachers, in the main, had only an incomprehensible idea of the objective and it wasn’t much to do with fitting children for an adult life and/or further real tertiary education.

    2. The frustration is the public sector is split into workers and wasters. There are a lot of workers in the pub sec, desperately trying to achieve something, to improve standards and frankly work. There’s even more wasters who like doing very little and enjoy the hour long tea breaks and lunches, the form filling and bureacracy.

  21. I’ve just had yet another organisation wish me “Happy Holidays”. I despair.

    What next, not saying “Happy New Year” because it isn’t for Muslims?

  22. Mr Johnson addressed health staff including Dr Laura Mount director of Central and West Warrington while his wife Carrie wore a Christmas jumper and held their newborn ‘rainbow’ daughter Romy, Wilf’s baby sister. They were surrounded by family decorations including Christmas cards, a homemade sign which read ‘Wilf and Romy’, and what appeared to be children’s art. The Prime Minister’s authority has come under serious challenge among backbenchers and Cabinet colleagues over a number of scandals.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10344093/Boris-hops-Zoom-video-calls-Chequers-alongside-Carrie-Romy-Dilyn-dog.html

    1. Romy?!! Of course the parents are members of the Churchy of Romy.

      Perhaps the wife also has Romany ancestry.
      Wilfrid is OK, recalling a proper British saint. (vide Rudyard Kipling, Eddi’s Service.)

    2. What does “rainbow” mean in this instance? That she’s born gay? That she claps the NHS? Or that she has some unmentionable disease? Or is she on the spectrum?

    3. It is a gift to conspiracy theories when two blonde parents can produce a child that looks so much like the bloke next door.

  23. Good morning, my friends

    It seems like an appropriate day for me to gather some winter fuel. Even though the exercise might do me good I am glad that, after the delicious food my lovely wife prepared yesterday, I don’t have to go all the way through deep snow to St Agnes’s Fountain to get it as the woodpile is just behind the garage.

    Changing the subject:

    The experts called this one wrong, and Boris was right not to give in to them
    The UK-wide experiment in how to manage omicron will make or break the PM’s premiership

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/26/experts-called-one-wrong-boris-right-not-give/

    SAGE need not worry – Boris Johnson will cave in to them again as soon as the Christmas and the New Year are over.

    A BTL comment:

    What is the average number of 2 and 98? Let’s take 98 even if the stupid, unvaccinated, unclean idiots think it is 50.

    1. Stupid and unclean. Oh the desperation. Has the poster given no thought to personal choice?

      Such people don’t seem to understand how vaccines work – or are supposed to.

    2. “What is the average number of 2 and 98? Let’s take 98 even if the stupid, unvaccinated, unclean idiots think it is 50.”

      What a mean comment.

  24. 343204+up ticks,

    Polish Deputy Prime Minister Accuses Germany of Using EU to Create ‘Fourth Reich’ ticks,

    Old mosley would have had a good following currently
    in blighty.

    1. What took the Poles so long? Well, to be more precise, their bigwigs who were doing well out of the EU scam. Has the money tap been turned off? so

      1. 343294+ up ticks,

        Morning Anne,
        Playing brussels at it’s own game as in using & abusing.

        There is no love lost betwixt poles & germans that’s for sure.

  25. Morning all, happy Boxing Day.
    They just can’t help themselves can they, cause of death has been attributed to prostrate cancer. They had to mention Covid to keep the fear factor high.

    Desmond Tutu dies in South Africa: Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who helped end apartheid in South Africa passes away in hospital aged 90 after Omicron Covid wave swept across nation

    https://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-10345071/Desmond-Tutu-died-aged-90.html

    1. Don’t believe a word of it. Unless they go for BPAPM in a big way, and depose him – nothing will change

    2. I’m afraid, Anne, that I won’t open the online edition of any Mail – Sunday or otherwise.

      I’ve found that the strain put on my processor by the interminable changes in their ridiculous adverts, sometimes causes my laptop to shut down involuntarily. Best avoided.

    3. Has Brady finally woke(n) up? It’s taken him long enough. We alerted our MP of the massive mistakes being made by the faux Conservative government all to no avail.
      I am a true conservative (either a capital or lower case c) and will not vote Conservative until it becomes Conservative again.
      I won’t hold my breath.

    1. That would be the same Joanna Lumley who travels [Trans Siberian, Northern Lights, Japan etc] but who urges us not to travel – presumably there is some “honour” for rank hypocrisy?

      1. I don’t blame Chris Whitty. He’s there as the face of medical opinion.

        It’s a bit like going to management with a bug. You can present the best case scenario and have them ignore it and move on, or you can present the worst case and hope they’ll acknowledge it.

        Of course, any sensible management asks for the best, worst and then makes a rational decision in discussion with the experts on the middle ground, preparing for the worst case but not leading with it.

        But this is government – a bunch of incompetents with ego over competence.

        1. I blame the medics. None of them seem to be able to read, let alone understand, a number or a graph. “Evidence-based medicine”, my arse.
          If they would have actually listened to the South Africans, they would have known that their covid gives you a cold, and so is not to be worried about, instead, no, hey go full hysteria, like chickens when a fox has broken into the henhouse.
          Well, fcuk them all. I hope their piles burst all at once.

    2. To put him on a pedestal, to protect him to try to place him above the law in an attempt to save their own skins.

  26. Good morning wonderful Nottlers. Hope Christmas was good for you and that Santa brought all that you desired. Our turkey dinner at 5pm was scrumptious, if I say so myself, everything timed to perfection.

    So what do you make of the “door to door covid jabs” in the Mail online? It made me so furious. How effing dare they even think of such a thing? I hope if they come to our door that Alf opens it because I just would not be able to contain myself. To say the air would be blue is an understatement. SURELY they don’t mean it?

    1. Of course they do. How dare you think otherwise. State is mother, state is father. There are five lights. It’s for your own good.

    2. Look on the bright side. If they come a’calling, it gives one the opportunity to make your feelsings heard, and call them as being no better than prison camp guards – VERY LOUDLY!

    3. Sceptical son just picked up the text offering him tthe booster – he tried to reply but it was ‘not delivered’. He’s an unjabbed.

  27. When big fat state said ‘The science of climate change is settled’ the public lost faith in ‘state science’.

    You see, ‘state science’ is a mechanism to make people do what government wants them to – usually pay more tax It is not remotely ‘science’.

    Real science is sceptical, peer reviewed, regularly challenged and utterly, fundamentally disbelieved. That’s what makes it science rather than propaganda.

    1. I had the pneumonia jab last year when I was persuaded to have the flu jab. If it works I won’t need any others.

      1. As pneumonia seems to be one of main diseases doesn’t it seem strange that no mention of this vaccine, first licensed in USA in 1977, has been mentioned in the past 2 years.

        1. OH was offered and accepted one at the surgery recently. They just aren’t making much of it in the media I suppose.

    2. Having been hospitalised with pneumonia, when |I recovered I was advised to have a vaccination, which in theory should last ten years.
      Somewhat counter-intuitive, as I would have expected that my pneumonia should have given me some immunity without the need for a vaccination on top.

    3. A friend of ours was really ill after that immunisation, she had to be rushed to A&E in an almost lifeless state. My mother, who had vascular dementia, was vaccinated against pneumonia but ultimately died from it after having a stroke. There is bacterial pneumonia and viral pneumonia; I think the vaccine protects against viral pneumonia.

    1. It’s beautiful. I got poppiesdad a book on tree photography for Christmas (Gathering Time). The author has a Youtube on photographing trees. Trees are lovely, soulful things.

      1. Trees are my favourite life form. If anyone accuses me of being a tree-hugger I’ll reply, “Yup!”

  28. I am reduced to doing back number crosswords from The Grimes….

    My birthday – 16 January 2021

    16 Across: Greek character, little bit behind Olympian, originally (7)

    Prescient or what??????????

  29. Emma Raducanu and Daniel Craig to be recognised by the Queen in New Year’s honours list
    Teenage tennis star set for MBE, while actor in line for prestigious CMG honour – just like James Bond

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/25/emma-raducanu-daniel-craig-recognised-queen-new-years-honours/

    BTL

    I like Emma Raducanu – she is charming, very pretty and very good at tennis. But I cannot help feeling that her ‘diversity’ payed a large part in the decision they made to give her an honour.
    Is it not an abuse of the honours system to use it in this way? Isn’t an honour bestowed as a mark of a person’s lifetime achievement and meant to represent something rather more than winning just one sporting competition?

    I cannot help but being reminded of John Wayne being given the “Presidential Medal of Freedom” – the highest civilian award in the USA – by President ‘Peanuts’ Carter. This was not in honour of the man himself but of the heroic All-American characters he played in his films.

          1. Upticked by another old-fashioned bastard (but my mother and father were married when I was born – I just mean that I can act bastardly when the need arises)

  30. Nicked from Takimag:
    US spellings.

    NO FAT CHECKS
    After decades of being told “don’t see color,” Americans are now being commanded to “see color” everywhere and in everything. But, at the same time, they’re also being told to “not see fat.”

    No offense to the morbidly obese, but it’s really hard not to see you. Or hear your labored breathing. Or feel the ground shaking as you approach.

    Obesity greatly increases the severity of Covid, a fact that’s acknowledged across the board, from the rational MDs who study the pandemic apolitically, to the witch doctors at the CDC who want to forcibly mask babies and make adults eat lunch in a bubble. Everyone agrees: Fatties are way more at risk of dying from Covid than twiggies.

    So naturally, fatties are dealing with this reality in the typical 21st-century American way, by accusing people who point it out of being “phobic.”

    More-Love, a “body-positivist advocacy org” (a.k.a. a collection of jabbering morons), is fighting “fatphobia” by producing cards that blubberbutts can give to their doctors demanding not to be weighed during a checkup. More-Love admin Ginny Jones told The Sunday Times that the cards should be “given to healthcare workers to help explain why you or your child are not automatically stepping on the scale.”

    The Times was unable to publish a photo of Jones, as her sizable image can only be fully captured on triptych canvas.

    According to the Times, some U.S. doctors are caving to the pressure from fat advocates (and to be fair, that pressure is intense; these are people who can sit on a lump of coal and leave behind an oil slick). In another great bounce forward for Western medicine, some docs are no longer bringing up weight issues with their patients, to avoid instilling (in the words of More-Love) “stress and shame.”

    Luckily, most members of More-Love are not at risk of spreading Covid to the rest of the population, having long outgrown the ability to leave their home without having a construction crew take out a wall.

    When asked whether she thinks her “weight gag-order for doctors” might be “problematic” during a pandemic that hits the obese hardest, Ginny Jones was unable to comment, having fallen through the earth’s crust.

        1. I am known in the family for killing jokes. Our sons find it more amusing by far than the actual joke.

          1. Do you mean, you render jokes utterly unfunny, or do you tell the funniest jokes around?
            No spika da Eengleesh…
            ;-))

          2. I render jokes utterly unfunny. Some of them, anyway! Although I have an ability for a wry observation of life’s events. The jokers think I am irreverent.

    1. articles say that Major Els purchased the hippo when it was about five months old, and his family knew it could be troublesome as it grew larger.

      1. More people are killed by hippos than any other animal in Africa, apparently. Buggers can run like an express train!

    2. We added a pretty little guitar accompaniment and a simple melody and we used to sing this to our boys when they were little.

      I had a hippopotamus Patrick Barrington

      I had a hippopotamus; I kept him in a shed
      And fed him upon vitamins and vegetable bread.
      I made him my companion on many cheery walks,
      And had his portrait done by a celebrity in chalks.

      His charming eccentricities were known on every side.
      The creature’s popularity was wonderfully wide.
      He frolicked with the Rector in a dozen friendly tussles,
      Who could not but remark on his hippopotamuscles.

      If he should be affected by depression or the dumps
      By hippopotameasles or hippopotamumps
      I never knew a particle of peace ’till it was plain
      He was hippopotamasticating properly again.

      I had a hippopotamus, I loved him as a friend
      But beautiful relationships are bound to end.
      Time takes, alas! our joys from us and robs us of our blisses.
      My hippopotamus turned out to be a hippopotamissus.

      My housekeeper regarded her with jaundice in her eye.
      She did not want a colony of hippopotami.
      She borrowed a machine gun from her soldier-nephew, Percy
      And showed my hippopotamus no hippopotamercy.

      My house now lacks the glamour that the charming creature gave.
      The garage where I kept her is as silent as a grave.
      No longer she displays among the motor-tires and spanners
      His hippopotamastery of hippopotamanners.

      No longer now she gambols in the orchard in the Spring;
      No longer do I lead her through the village on a string;
      No longer in the mornings does the neighbourhood rejoice
      To her hippopotamusically-modulated voice.

      I had a hippopotamus, but nothing upon the earth
      Is constant in its happiness or lasting in its mirth.
      No life that’s joyful can be strong enough to smother
      My sorrow for what might have been a hippopotamother.

  31. On omicron, Mark Drakeford is a nationalist ideologue

    Drakeford might not lead an avowedly separatist party, but during Covid he has displayed a decidedly ambivalent attitude towards the Union

    HENRY HILL • 23 December 2021 • 6:42pm

    For many people outside Wales, the pandemic will have been the first time they came across Mark Drakeford. Even in a country with more than its fair share of governments and bizarre coronavirus restrictions, the First Minister of Wales stands out. His most recent stipulations allow people in Wales to go to the pub but fine them for going to the office, all whilst demanding that Westminster pick up the tab for supporting the Welsh hospitality sector, as his economy minister did yesterday.

    But even these are not the most ridiculous rules we have seen from his administration. That honour must go to the time he forced supermarkets to fence off non-essential aisles, subjecting his people to needless hardship in a misguided attempt to protect small business (which he had forced to shut). Or perhaps when the Welsh Government opted out of Westminster initiatives to set up a Covid volunteer service and arrange emergency food deliveries to the vulnerable.

    Time and again, the emphasis seems to have been on doing something different for its own sake – perhaps not surprising for a party which once accused Michael Gove of “colonial attitudes” when he dared compare school outcomes in England to those in Wales whilst Education Secretary. The spirit of Drakeford’s administration might best be summed up by the snarling headline on the front page of the Western Mail in May of last year, which began: “Stay out of Wales, English warned”.

    What those who have only started hearing about devolved politics during the pandemic might not realise is that these attitudes are not a coincidence or an aberration. Drakeford might not lead an avowedly separatist party, as his Scottish counterpart Nicola Sturgeon does, but he very much presents himself as a Welsh nationalist with a decidedly ambivalent attitude towards the Union.

    Indeed, under his leadership Welsh Labour has started straightforwardly misrepresenting the UK to their voters. Their manifesto for the 2020 Senedd elections claimed that: “We believe the UK is a voluntary association of four nations with sovereignty shared among its four democratic legislatures in Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”

    If true, this would make the United Kingdom less a country than the European Union! But of course, it isn’t true; Britain is a sovereign nation state. To his defenders, all of this posturing is supposed to be a cunning attempt to hold down Plaid Cymru. But that hasn’t stopped him striking a deal with the Welsh nationalists to support his administration just last month.

    All of this whilst continuing Labour’s two-decade track record of using devolution, and their dominant electoral position in Wales, to resist important reforms to the public sector, with predictably dire consequences for essential services such as education and health. Like Sturgeon, Drakeford is often held up by progressives in England as a shining counterexample to the Conservative Government.

    They should pay closer attention.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/23/omicron-mark-drakeford-nationalist-ideologue/

    Nationalist ideologue? Or just another fifth-rate town hall politician who found a way to exercise arbitrary power over the public through a superfluous forum which does nothing to improve the lives of people?

  32. On omicron, Mark Drakeford is a nationalist ideologue

    Drakeford might not lead an avowedly separatist party, but during Covid he has displayed a decidedly ambivalent attitude towards the Union

    HENRY HILL • 23 December 2021 • 6:42pm

    For many people outside Wales, the pandemic will have been the first time they came across Mark Drakeford. Even in a country with more than its fair share of governments and bizarre coronavirus restrictions, the First Minister of Wales stands out. His most recent stipulations allow people in Wales to go to the pub but fine them for going to the office, all whilst demanding that Westminster pick up the tab for supporting the Welsh hospitality sector, as his economy minister did yesterday.

    But even these are not the most ridiculous rules we have seen from his administration. That honour must go to the time he forced supermarkets to fence off non-essential aisles, subjecting his people to needless hardship in a misguided attempt to protect small business (which he had forced to shut). Or perhaps when the Welsh Government opted out of Westminster initiatives to set up a Covid volunteer service and arrange emergency food deliveries to the vulnerable.

    Time and again, the emphasis seems to have been on doing something different for its own sake – perhaps not surprising for a party which once accused Michael Gove of “colonial attitudes” when he dared compare school outcomes in England to those in Wales whilst Education Secretary. The spirit of Drakeford’s administration might best be summed up by the snarling headline on the front page of the Western Mail in May of last year, which began: “Stay out of Wales, English warned”.

    What those who have only started hearing about devolved politics during the pandemic might not realise is that these attitudes are not a coincidence or an aberration. Drakeford might not lead an avowedly separatist party, as his Scottish counterpart Nicola Sturgeon does, but he very much presents himself as a Welsh nationalist with a decidedly ambivalent attitude towards the Union.

    Indeed, under his leadership Welsh Labour has started straightforwardly misrepresenting the UK to their voters. Their manifesto for the 2020 Senedd elections claimed that: “We believe the UK is a voluntary association of four nations with sovereignty shared among its four democratic legislatures in Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.”

    If true, this would make the United Kingdom less a country than the European Union! But of course, it isn’t true; Britain is a sovereign nation state. To his defenders, all of this posturing is supposed to be a cunning attempt to hold down Plaid Cymru. But that hasn’t stopped him striking a deal with the Welsh nationalists to support his administration just last month.

    All of this whilst continuing Labour’s two-decade track record of using devolution, and their dominant electoral position in Wales, to resist important reforms to the public sector, with predictably dire consequences for essential services such as education and health. Like Sturgeon, Drakeford is often held up by progressives in England as a shining counterexample to the Conservative Government.

    They should pay closer attention.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/23/omicron-mark-drakeford-nationalist-ideologue/

    Nationalist ideologue? Or just another fifth-rate town hall politician who found a way to exercise arbitrary power over the public through a superfluous forum which does nothing to improve the lives of people?

  33. It’s that friend of mine again:

    J G Gibson

    If Boris Johnson had been a real leader he’d have told EVERY member of Sage back in early 2020: “if I hear as much as one public squeak out of you, it’ll be instant dismissal”. And given that millions of us, with some understanding of Ecomics101, would never have sanctioned any lockdown at ANY stage, I hardly think that Johnson deserves any plaudits. Indeed, it’s a disgrace that scientists – transparently with zero understanding of the massive way that lockdown costs outweighed benefits – were ever given such an over-elevated place in public policy-making.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/26/experts-called-one-wrong-boris-right-not-give/

    1. Sorry, that should, of course, be Economics101 …. although public policy under Boris Johnson does ratherseem to follow Ecomics101.

      1. J G Gibson

        Reply to IVAN NOBLE

        And he was only so interested in inflating the Omicron pussycat into a possible lion in order to distract from Partygate … Boris Johnson’s government was a shambles going into Omicron and it’ll be a shambles when it’s trumped-up nothingburger status becomes evident next week. The country badly needs principled, and brave conservative leadership.

    2. In the Twentieth Century people gave their lives to protect our country; in this century our country is being destroyed in the mistaken belief that it will protect a cravenly terrified people.

  34. A couple of days ago I wrote of an introduction to a programme or editorial which that said something like ‘So much data, so few solutions’. Here’s a piece that is effectively on that theme.

    We are heading for a face-off between real world data and SAGE modelling

    Now that the government has refused to call a lockdown, SAGE scenarios can be measured against the real-world outcomes

    ROSS CLARK • 22 December 2021 • 12:24pm

    How the left loves trying to establish the narrative that we have a Government of charlatans pitched against the collected wisdom of scientists. Yet the real schism lies within science, between the modellers and those who prefer to read real world evidence. With hospitalisations failing to rise at anything like the rate feared a few days ago, and with the UK Health Security Agency poised to announce that yes, omicron does indeed cause milder disease than earlier variants, it feels as if we are heading for the denouement, the gunfight at the OK Corral, at which one side will win the decisive battle and the other side be humbled.

    When omicron first emerged in South Africa a month ago two things seemed immediately apparent: firstly, that this variant was a lot more transmissible than earlier variants, and secondly, that it was causing milder illness. Indeed, it was the unexpected mildness of the symptoms which first drew doctors’ attention to the possibility that this could be a new variant – something which was then rapidly confirmed by the country’s excellent facilities for sequencing the virus.

    What was anecdotal at first was soon confirmed by real data. A presentation last week by the South African Medical Research Council and Discovery Health, one of South Africa’s large healthcare providers, showed that the omicron wave was evolving very differently from earlier waves. The infection was spreading faster, but hospitalisations were not responding to anything like the same extent as they were during the alpha and delta waves.

    Yet in Britain this evidence went largely ignored. Instead, SAGE’s modellers – first the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and then Imperial College – put out terrifying projections showing hospitalisations and deaths possibly rising to even higher levels than they during April 2020 or last January’s peak. LSHTM produced a scenario which showed hospitalisations rising to a peak of 7,190 a day in January – 60 percent higher than last year.

    Meanwhile, Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College suggested there could be 5,000 omicron deaths a day this winter without more restrictions.

    SAGE spokespeople, opposition parties and some government minsters panicked and wanted to throw the country into immediate lockdown, with all the economic and social havoc that entails. Fortunately, however, a sceptical quorum of cabinet ministers wanted to know more. Among the questions I am sure they will have asked at Monday’s cabinet meeting is: why did the modellers ignore the emerging evidence from South Africa that omicron caused a milder disease? Both LSHTM and Imperial’s models assumed that the new variant was every bit as deadly as delta – and they didn’t model the possibility that it might be rather less so.

    Does this make the sceptical cabinet ministers anti-science? Hardly. It just means they had the confidence to ask the right questions and realise that different scientists were painting very different stories. Angelique Coetzee certainly wouldn’t appreciate being called ‘anti-science’. She is the South African doctor who discovered omicron and who has consistently warned that European countries are over-reacting to the threat posed by the variant and that they are wrong to distrust data from South Africa.

    She and SAGE’s models can’t both be right. We are not yet at the end of the story – far from it – but if we do have a massive peak of hospitalisations and deaths over the next month, surpassing that of previous waves, then we will have to respect SAGE’s modelling. If not, there will be nowhere for those modellers to hide – given that the government has refused to call a lockdown, their scenarios can be measured against the real-world outcome. If omicron fizzles into relatively little, as it already appears to be doing in South Africa, the government will have to start asking: is SAGE, and its fixation on modelling, fit for purpose?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/22/heading-face-real-world-data-SAGE-modelling/

    1. What is also needed is much, much more information regarding cases of people dying with Omicron vs dying of Omicron.

      A patient who enters hospital with a potentially fatal illness/injury and then gets Omicron in hospital and dies is NOT really an Omicron death.
      Given that Omicron is certainly much more transmissible, and hence more people will have/get it, it will take very little data manipulation, on the part of those with most to lose, to present such deaths as Omicron deaths. Given what they might lose I suspect that such manipulation will occur.

      If someone in a similar situation caught a cold I very much doubt it would be registered as a cold death.

      1. One way to STOP the with/of saga would be for HMG to pay £100,000 into the estate of each and everyone who dies OF COVID

        1. Wouldn’t that encourage people to try to move their relatives from “with” to “of”. Horribly open to fraud and bribery.

          Perhaps a better solution would be to deduct £100,000 from the estate of everyone who died of Covid, although that too would give opportunity for blackmail.

      2. My two elderly relatives who died last year in health facilities did not die of covid but I bet it’s down as cause of death. One day, I will ask my cousin but as her mother, my aunt, was one of the deaths, I shall wait a little longer. Her mum’s death hit her very hard and I do not want to be insensitive.

  35. Tried, without success, to copy and paste the latest Matt unseen cartoon. Maybe someone else will be more successful?

    1. The guardian doesn’t mind the football shirts, but it would prefer a more standardised uniform. One with defined haircuts, more marching, jackboots and tight collars. Brown would be their ideal colour – for everyone. A rousing song on the stands as well, with Toynbee and the Boy Jones leading with a large red banner bearing the hammer and sickle.

      No more burgers and rubbis for the proles. A ration pack – and a five course buffet for the great leaders. All communists. They never change.

  36. Janice Long died after a short illness aged 66.

    First woman presenter of Top of the Pops.

    R.I.P Janice.

    1. A ‘short illness’ yet again we see…. Was she jabbed?

      Sister to Cheggers, I understand.

    1. ‘People around the world trust the BBC and rely on it for truthful reporting of world events.’
      The Rabbi singled out the Corporation’s reporting of an attack on a busload of Jewish teenagers by a group of men who chanted anti-Israel slogans.
      The incident took place in London’s Oxford Street last month as the teens celebrated the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
      ‘The BBC falsely reported that a victim on the bus used an anti-Muslim slur. But what was heard on tape was a distressed Jewish man speaking in Hebrew appealing for help,’ Rabbi Hier said.
      The Mail on Sunday understands the BBC has investigated the reporting and maintains the alleged slur was included to ensure the fullest account of the incident.
      The BBC issued a statement earlier this month saying the story was a ‘factual report’ that ‘overwhelmingly focused on the individuals the police want to identify; those who directed abuse at the bus’.
      The Wiesenthal Center report, which will be released on Tuesday, lists Iran – whose leaders deny the Holocaust and have pledged to ‘annihilate Israel’ – at No 1 on the list and the Palestinian terror group Hamas at No 2.
      The report condemned former BBC reporter Tala Halawa who posted a series of tweets including ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘Zionists can’t get enough of our blood’ in 2014. Ms Halawa no longer works for the BBC.

      1. #1: Iran
        #2: Hamas
        #3: BBC
        They should hang their heads in shame. Were I to be named in that list of iniquity, I could no longer look myself in the eye, and would have to take drastic action. Ritual suicide might suffice.

      1. Apart from the cost to the taxpayer, it’s good to see that just occasionally life does appear to mean life.
        I still think he could be gainfully employed. I wonder if he’d care to transition…

          1. I was looking at his record and thinking he’d be excellent company for the recent baby and toddler killers.

          1. And partially boned and tied up with string……………then I marinated it overnight with lots of garlic, oil and paprika. Then cooked it for several hours………… you’re making me feel like a killer now!

          2. The pigs we slaughtered a few weeks ago have made the best-ever English-style sausages… and sausage rolls! Never knew pork could taste like that!

      2. He killed child molesters. Why have we locked him up? With the population of prisons now mostly ethnics and for paedophilia crimes we could free up plenty of cells.

      1. The doggies have had thigh meat chopped up for their meal just now .

        We will have salad tonight with the breast meat , and I will probably make a soup .

        I forgot to buy tin foil, and the others suggested that I turn the turkey onto its breast.. I had also stuffed the neck with sausage meat .. cooked the bird for nearly 3 hours at 180… I barded it with streaky bacon .

        So upsetting .

          1. Did the menfolk enjoy it and appreciate all your hard work and dedication? Especially after getting up from your sickbed!

          2. They were eager to help , each one an expert in their own field ..

            Roast potatoes by the book, parsnips by the book , home made bread sauce me, , other vegs were prepared and cooked perfectly.

          3. My parsnips were a bit well done but the rest was fine. I don’t do bread sauce but we had cranberry and orange relish, and sausages wrapped in bacon, and two dishes of stuffing…………..

          4. There wasn’t a lot left over but enough meat for us today as the boys have gone to their father’s.

          5. I know meat is supposed to be cooked on the bone but if you butterfly the lamb leg you get a more even cook. You can also rub spices and herbs all over it easier.

            I served mine on a bed of jewelled couscous.

        1. Oh Belle! Why on earth did you let them mess around with what you’ve done perfectly for probably the last 30+ years!? It’s a roast dinner with veg and trimmings! We do it on a regular basis, then someone (usually a man!) comes along and sticks their neb in! Result? Instant disaster!

          1. We had roast pork and boiled ham with most of the work being done by The Brood and self popping into the kitchen occasionally to clear the washing up.

        2. Oscar has had the thigh meat for his meals. I made sandwiches from the breast for tea. Very enjoyable with chutney, if I say so myself.

      2. Nah, pull it and have with strange wee pancakey things, oyster sauce and strips of spring onion.

    1. Next year, Belle, invite your husband/OH and son to do the cooking between them. Oh, and the preparation too, of course.

    2. Happy Boxing Day Maggiebelle

      I have definitely now moved to the melancholy Jacques’s sixth age of man (the slippered pantaloon) but Caroline roasts a good capon to line my fair round belly on Christmas day as if I were still in the fifth:

      And then the justice,
      In fair round belly with good capon lined,
      With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
      Full of wise saws and modern instances,

      I have a moustache rather than a beard of formal cut and the wisdom of my saws (or sayings) might be in doubt though my quotations from Milton, Chaucer and Shakespeare come from sources as reputable and good as Caroline’s sauces which accompany the capon!

      Incidentally you can no longer buy capons in England because some animal protection group managed to get it made illegal to castrate cockerels to make better meat.

    3. As vw says let them do it next year and book yourself in to a local hostelry for Christmas dinner.

  37. 34329+ up ticks,

    May one ask,
    When this religious war kicks of which side will the lab/lib/con coalition, members / voters be on as it is sure as hell their creation.

    Director of Biggest UK Muslim Charity Branded Jews ‘Grandchildren of Monkeys and Pigs’

  38. I wonder how many of you had cacklefarts for breakfast….
    Good article in the Groan about words that have fallen into disuse. Cacklefart is an old nickname for eggs! I love it and have sent it on to my friend in GA who loves stuff like that.

    1. Just read the Groan and enjoyed the article. I wonder where cacklefart comes from, a regional word I should think.

        1. Very good!! Your roast lamb looked delightful, I have never enjoyed American lamb. so it’s been some years since a good English lamb.

          1. When I could get lamb, rarely, it was always very expensive. It did make a good Lamb Jalfrezi though.

          2. Beef cattle and pigs and poultry can be reared intensively, not easy with sheep, hence lamb is expensive. And comparatively healthy, like pheasant and venison.

          3. The US is such a huge country I have often wondered why there isn’t more lamb. Although, at the end of the road that led to the subdivision I lived on, there was a big field full of sheep and lots of lambs in spring.
            Most Americans eat lots and lots of chicken, ground beef, tacos, burgers and the like, and of course, steaks.
            In my opinion, a nice roast of lamb is one of the best meals.

          4. I suppose that in the USA lamb would suffer from competition with more profitable beef and cheap pork, and also many years ago from predators. Sheep need short grass and can be very delicate if things go wrong. Britain and New Zealand can produce good sheep meat because of the temperate climates and the availability of marginal land, ie hill farms. Equivalent farm landscapes in USA would have been vulnerable to wolves, bears, cougars, eagles, snakes and rustlers. If Jennifer SP were still around she could correct my assumptions.
            One of the great strengths of British agriculture is grassland.

          5. Yes, in the spring when the lambs were in the field, large crows and turkey buzzards would lurk. I never saw a human keeping an eye on the flock but I also didn’t see any hurt or dead sheep.
            There were lots of hog farms in the area also.
            The US south is very rural and agricultural whereas the north is more industrial; it was one of the factors in play in the Civil War because there were no foundries or factories south of the Mason/Dixon Line. That may well have changed.

  39. I see there’s fawning over Desmond Tutu on Doris J’s Twitter account.
    Tutu turned up in the pews at All Saints Fulham when I was there one Sunday morning. His pal Walter Makhulu, former Archbishop of Central Africa retired to Fulham and Tutu was in town so turned up to see his friend. Tutu plus two big heavy black guards, which amused me. Totally OTT.

      1. How do you get to be at the top of a Church/Religion?
        By being a better politician than the others, since religion is a power organisation that works through people’s belief in some kind of superior being, and high priests that tell you what that Being is thinking and wants.
        Or, you can revert to the basic text: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matt 18:20) – he doesn’t say anything about hierarchies, administration, massive buildings, residencies… all the panoply of politics and administration.

        1. I tried to find the exact quote/rule but failed. However, in the Rule of St. Benedict which is followed by the Benedictine orders, funnily enough, it is a grave sin to scheme to be Abbot or Abbess.
          And as Dame Laurentia MacLachlan of Stanbrook Abbey( I believe) said, “Anyone who schemes to be Abbess deserves to get it.”

          1. Found mine through biblegateway.com, to get the source, but I remember it from way back… another I find 100% accurate is “To those that hath much, shall more be given, and to those that hath little shall even that little be taken away” or similar.
            The richer get richer, the poorer, poorer. Who wants to be friends with the man with few friends? and so on…

          2. Don’t know or care much about Il Papa but Welby is right up there on my list of men I’d like to harpoon; Welby, Whitty and Boris. And that’s only for starters…

          3. I quite like Whitty

            I believe because he studied stuff in Equatorial places , I believe that he believes those types are the superspreaders over here in the UK

          4. Good afternoon Belle
            You quite like Whitty!
            Don’t worry it’s not incurable and I hope you feel better soon.

    1. We were in Cape Town in 1988 for Christmas and went to St Georges Cathedral. Tutu asked my daughter to be a shepherd in his Nativity play. As he got up off the wall he was sitting on he said “Right, let’s get this Chinese torture over with”. He narrated the story and it was actually quite comical. It rather went over my 4 year old’s head though (not my head you understand).

  40. HAPPY HOUR – A Masters degree in Pantomime….?

    Oh. yes you can……!

    Students get the chance to study for a degree in PANTOMIMES … slapstick and audience participation for the master’s degree!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f4a9d6b4ada3e6a60d0c0bbe43661bb1fef12f3f05dbf8cd13889153721e2713.jpg

    Staffordshire University will from next September offer a pantomime degree

    The degree will combine research with practical study into the British tradition.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10331017/Students-chance-study-degree-PANTOMIMES.html

    1. If I am right, Staffordshire University used to be North Staffs Poly. My ex did his Bsc there; it was run by clowns then!

          1. The most amusing thing about a pantomime horse is the necessity of having to shoot it twice. — Steve Aylett

      1. Dame: I’m so tired. I can’t go any further. I’m absolutely knickered.

        Buttons: Do you mean knackered?

        Dame: No, knickered. My breath’s coming in short pants.

    2. Widow Wanky (played by Pussy in Boots) meets Jack with his enormous euphemism and they all lived happily every after …. sort of thing?

      1. Are you enjoying your big day?

        I hope that your disciple, King Wencelas, after the last time he looked out, enjoyed sharing the makeshift picnic of the cold turkey and wine when the poor man’s humble hovel had been was warmed by the pine logs the Page had brought for the purpose. Let’s hope they all fared well in the deep snow en route for St Agnes’s Fountain.

        1. Mil was most appreciative. Nibbles & a drop of red medicine to start followed by cold meats, potato salad, coleslaw, warm sausage rolls, mediterranean veg tartlets, more red medicine, and lemon souffle for dessert .

          1. Excellent.

            I was making a Pavlova for NYE party. But i decided to make a Mary Berry Roulade instead. I’ll take a pic.

      1. When my boys were quite young and we had some friends who were a bit strait-laced over for Christmas I tried to liven things up a bit after lunch by reading out some slightly off-colour jokes and riddles pretending that they were the more innocent ones inside the crackers. I then made quite a show of tut-tutting and well reallying and saying how disgraceful it was for them to put such things in Christmas crackers for children. Of course my boys, aged respectively 7 and 9 at the time, howled with delight when I read out this old favourite:

        Q. What is the greatest drawback in the jungle?
        A. An elephant’s foreskin.

  41. BTL Comment:

    Mariana Robinson on December 25, 2021 at 8:21 pm

    I always thought Mary got a raw deal…..impregnated by Archangel Gabriel on 25 March (conveniently), goes to see her cousin Elizabeth in the summer to find out what it’s all about as she’s about to give birth to cousin John the Baptist, and then Joseph doesn’t book a decent hospital stay. And then, they get stupid presents rather than something useful like packs of Pampers, before she has to leave Bethlehem, breast feed along the way on a f***king donkey! Believe me, it’s not easy doing that and changing a nappy in the back of car.

    Yep, Mary got a raw deal. Mind you, we could do with another Messiah right now. The stars are aligned though…..Venus and Jupiter are about to appear to conjoin again, so who knows.

    1. “Have you heard, it’s in the stars- next July we collide with Mars….” From A Swell Party in High Society.

    2. Live with the times and show a bit of appropriate diversity. The new Messiah is the donkey.

  42. The MR has told me that, come what may, we are going to Rome in May 2022.

    I shall besetting up a Gofundme account to go towards the myriad (completely unnecessary) tests which will be demanded in the UK and in yer Italy.

    Please give generously.

    And, on that jolly note, I am signing off for today. Have a jolly evening with your turkey sangwidges.

    A demain.

    1. Went to Rome in October some years ago. Won’t be going back. Too much dishonesty & ripoff, all over. There are too many really nice parts of Italy to bother with Rome, despite the architecture.

  43. Evening Standard catching up with Nottl:
    https://www.standard.co.uk/optimist/vaccine-world/omicron-evolve-immuno-suppressed-person-covid-variant-vaccine-b972415.html
    Did Omicron evolve in an immuno-suppressed person? If so, what can be done?
    In August last year, an immuno-suppressed woman in Italy contracted Covid-19. Unlike most patients, her body struggled to rid itself of the virus. She had cancer, which doctors were treating with chemotherapy, and for more than six months, her immune system and the coronavirus waged an internal war. By March, she was Covid-negative, but in that time the virus had accrued more than 20 mutations.

    “The virus is mutating all the time,” says Ed Rybicki, a virologist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. But it is more likely to mutate “if the virus is not cleared quickly enough”.

    The latest variant, Omicron, which has now been detected in at least 77 countries, has more than 50 mutations. One theory for this rapid leap in mutations is that the virus mutated in an immuno-suppressed person. If these scientists are right, the variant could have evolved in one of the many immunosuppressed people in the world. Experts argue that, to curb this possible source of variants, public health authorities have to redouble their efforts to vaccinate people with compromised immune systems –– and that they may need multiple vaccinations, rather than the three currently being recommended.

    As viruses spread, they naturally mutate. What has scientists concerned about Omicron is the high number of mutations it developed in such a short period of time. There are currently three major theories as to how this could have happened: that the variant evolved in an immuno-suppressed person; that it jumped to animals, which then reinfected people with a heavily-mutated virus; and that the virus was circulating and evolving in an isolated group of people, before being reintroduced to the general population as a new variant.

    Researchers first detected Omicron in South Africa and Botswana in November, fuelling speculation that the variant had evolved in one of the almost eight million people currently living with HIV in those countries. If left untreated, HIV damages the immune system, killing the cells that fight diseases such as Covid. An untreated HIV-positive person could develop a persistent infection, which could give the coronavirus time to mutate.

    To develop a Covid infection that would allow significant viral evolution in a single individual, a person would have to have a “profoundly immune-suppressed”, says Marvin Hsiao, a virologist at the University of Cape Town.

    There is an example of an HIV-positive woman, who –– like the Italian patient with cancer –– had a Covid infection for more than six months. In that time, the virus evolved a number of mutations, some of them on the spike protein.

    Scientists are particularly interested in the virus’ spike protein, which is how it latches onto human cells. In the case of Omicron, the majority of its mutations are on this protein.

    “That is a position that is a classic ‘immune escape’ mutation,” says Gonzalo Bello, a virologist who worked to identify and map the spread of the Gamma variant in Brazil. As a person’s immune system tries to eradicate the virus, the virus mutates to avoid it, often on this protein. Omicron’s mutations are not spread throughout the virus’ genome, but are concentrated in the spike protein, Bello says. Previous variants of concern, such as Delta which rapidly overtook other strains but now looks set to be overtaken by Omicron, also had mutations on that protein.

      1. You wouldn’t in the Standard.
        But this is interesting, as far as it goes.
        I would question the inference that this demonstrates the need to vaxx the immune-supressed. Doesn’t it rather show the opposite?

          1. No. I mean that the virus mutated in that person in such a way as go not kill the host. That is rather to all our advantage, I’d say.

          2. Remi, it was a joke. Immune-suppressed people are particularly vulnerable to covid 19; I heard of a fit man in his fifties, formerly in the Army as a youngster who sadly passed away recently in hospital with/of covid; he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis.

          3. Sorry.
            I wasn’t sure.
            But I’ve taken my profile off ‘private’ and I anticipate elements among my employers coming after me at some point so I need to be careful what complaints can be contrived from what I say or fail to challenge.

  44. Great news, Nottlers! Have just received my booster text!! Have just deleted it and sworn a bit!

    1. Me too. Earlier this afternoon. Invite for a booster, though I’ve not had one and two. Likewise, deleted.

      1. Having had AZ for the ‘vax’s’ there is no way I’m having a cocktail for a booster!

    2. Under section 93 of the communications act the secretary of state can order telecoms companies to comply with his/her order if it is in the national interest.

      Telecoms companies are not happy.

      1. Neither am I, Phizzee! Just read a BTL in the DT saying its a very good idea to harrass people on Boxing Day! Bah! Humbug!

    3. I have not, at any stage, been pestered by any agency (here, i sverige) to be injected with any covid vaccine.

      1. Have you seen my mobile, Alf? Very old pink Nokia – doesn’t even have voice messaging! But since it’s very rarely in the same place as I am, it doesn’t matter! I have a cast-off smart phone all ready to go when I get round to speaking to O2 about a payg set up!
        How is your precious boy getting on?

        1. He’s going home in the next couple of days. Not on any medication but may need oxygen bottle when he exercises. Lost about 13 kilos. Eating puréed food but waiting for speech and language therapist to say when he can have solid food.
          All in all a bloody great miracle.
          Well take some time to put weight on and build muscle.
          Many thanks for your support and prayers.

          1. What a wonderful time of year for a miracle, Alf! Delighted to hear that things are progressing so well and although the weight loss is a bit scary, as soon as he starts exercising and eating, it will get better! Our son in law has come on in leaps and bounds (literally!) Love to you and vw, and KBO! It will be another journey ahead.

          2. Thank you Sue.
            We’ve been so wrapped up in our son’s woes tha we missed what happened to your s i l. Was it similar?

          3. He had a severe stroke back in June, and had 9 weeks in hospital, then 3 in rehab. He was very lucky to survive the stroke but was found very quickly and had excellent initial treatment. His speech is almost normal, his movement is much better in his left hand and leg although he is still forgetful. He did make sausage rolls yesterday! He got through the (much postponed) wedding last month without a stick and the whole of the first dance!

          4. I do remember now and another miracle.
            He seems to be doing well no doubt by the love that’s been showered on him by you, your family and his family. It’s amazing the power of positivity.
            Keep up the good work. xx

          5. Being younger and fitter than most stroke victims will have been a big bonus. Wishing him continuing recovery.

          6. So pleased for you all, John.
            In a similar vein, we had a (pre-) Christmas present. My B-i-L in Germany came home on Wednesday, just a week after open-heart surgery for an aneurysm. Has a 4- week Kur (rehab) starting on 5/1.

          7. Great news for your B-i-L as well.
            Hope you had a good Christmas, did the stuffing go down well, and a Happy New Year.

    4. We got called last week and I told the woman that I’d had red marks on my arms following jab 2 so I wasn’t going to have the booster; your decision she said and she would make a note of it. MH told her he didn’t believe a word this govt said and he wasn’t having the booster either. Same response.
      So far no texts or calls but there’s always tomorrow.

    1. I’d like to say this was a real ‘eye-opener’, but no, exactly as one would expect it to be.

  45. Having tested positive for the OMIgodIvegotarunnynose variant, Mrs L and I have been harassed by NHS emails and texts to tell them who we met prior to testing. We have not opened the link to their questionnaires.
    I was working from home and all she did was shop and cook, but I feel no obligation to cooperate with this surveillance system.
    Then today i walked in while she was chatting on the phone to some hapless girl. I heard her tell my wife that she had a legal duty to give her a list of people.
    I jumped in on speakerphone and demanded which law and article placed us under such constraint. Of course she did not know. So we just declined.
    Later I got a similar call but from someone who was audibly stoned out of his box. He barely had the energy to ask the question and clearly couldn’t care less what I said to him.
    My adult kids have told me that loads of youngsters have been recruited and are working from lists in their own front rooms. This year has not stopped surprising me.

    1. You had a bad dose of the original virus – bad luck to have another……… how do you know it’s not just a cold?

      1. I did the LFT and felt quite rough, though just a bit ill. Nothing like last time. My employer demanded the PCR. Both were positive.
        I’m fine now. But still stuck indoors. Officially.
        Someone who looked like me might have been observed walking a dog not unlike mine, recently. It was probably my son.

      2. I did the LFT and felt quite rough, though just a bit ill. Nothing like last time. My employer demanded the PCR. Both were positive.
        I’m fine now. But still stuck indoors. Officially.
        Someone who looked like me might have been observed walking a dog not unlike mine, recently. It was probably my son.

        1. The tests will probably pick up anything.

          I did a LFT for the first time at the request of a friend before visiting just before Christmas …….it was negative. Won’t be doing another unless I have to.

          1. One who recently had surgery and is recovering – the first time she’d felt up to inviting a few friends round.

          2. Maggie, you’ll know when you get it, and you’ll be be fine. Unpleasant, but not the end of the world.

          3. Unless the friend was vulnerable, I would have just pretended to have taken a test. Or did the friend expect proof?

        2. I also walked the dog when we were self-isolating. Just how many people I infected must be unimaginable.

      3. It is my theory that the common cold, which is after all a corona virus, will have the miraculous effect of acting like a true vaccine and preventing people from getting any of the new Covid strains by giving proper immunity which none of the Pharma Frauds can do.

        When this is discovered how are SAGE and the politicians going to escape being being lynched?

        1. I believe that there are a couple of cold viruses that are coronaviruses, but not all of them are.

          1. The majority of Common Colds tend to be caused by a rhinovirus with corona viruses coming a close second.

        2. I’m beginning to view the Wuhan Virus as a nastier version of the Common Cold.
          After all, if the tests are wont to pick up Common Cold viruses as false positives, then they MUST be close to them on the corona virus family tree.

    2. Tell them that you’ve attended several premier league matches, the sales, used the underground, and mingled with as many people as you possibly could, in fact, by your best estimate you’ve probably passed it around the whole of London.
      Tell them that, with the benefit of hindsight, it was before you felt the slightest sniffle and you suspect you’ve probably had it for 10 days and have been doing similar every one of those 10 days.

    3. We were harassed by track and trace idiots when we tested positive on PCR after LFTs. Emails, texts and phone calls. I just told them I knew where and when we’d been and the people involved had been informed, and that no, I didn’t want any bastard app!

    4. I had a message on my phone to get boosted. I deleted it. At this rate I shall be leaving my phone at home switched off (I only take it with me for emergencies anyway).

      1. I leave mine at home – I only use it as a mini computer – the sound is turned off and I never answer or make calls on it. I use it to nottl when I’m sitting up in bed.

        1. Mine is not in any way, shape or form “smart”. It makes and receives calls and texts and that’s IT. It doesn’t even have a camera.

          1. I do use the camera on mine – it’s quite good. I certainly didn’t use it to sign into pubs and restaurants, though I did on a couple of occasions just wave it somewhere nearby.

        2. We left ours at home when people were supposed to sign in at the pub and give a number. Said the phones were broken and gave a false land line number. We are very naughty;-)

          1. Naughty but nice, M’Lady. That’s why Santa gave you so many presents! Keep up the good work.

          2. I do trust you. However, beware of behaving badly towards me; I might be tempted to swear at you by calling you a Very Silly Sausage.

            (Lol.)

          3. I have been called a great deal worse in my time. I have learned to roll with the punches;-)

          4. “A great deal worse” M’Lady? Do you mean to say that someone has called you a Very Silly Sausage and sent you to the naughty step? I also have rolls (with slices of roast chicken and cranberry sauce) but prefer mulled wine to punch. Lol.

    5. Multiple upticks for dubbing the latest scariant as ‘OMIgodIvegotarunnynose’.
      Hopefully you won’t become unwell.
      It should be a shock that the stasi caller lied about ‘legal duty’ to provide a list of contacts …. but after the last 21 months, it comes as no surprise.
      My son and partner tested positive on Christmas Eve so they too are probably being harassed. They are both feeling unwell, not looking at texts or emails and ignoring phones. As far as we aware, they haven’t been anywhere either.
      ‘re your last para, I wonder what data protection protocols are employed.

      1. Thanks mum, I felt quite I’ll the second day then very tired for three more. Since then, right as rain.
        It is trivial compared to the first bout in March 2020.

        1. That’s useful to know. Maybe the latest bout (hopefully your last) will give you longer lasting immunity than the jabs. It seems any protection from the booster noticeably wanes after a mere 10 weeks.

  46. Liz Truss, like Mrs Thatcher before her, has shown the reforming power of a Tory convert
    It cannot simply be a coincidence that neither the Iron Lady nor the Foreign Secretary were brought up as Conservatives

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/26/liz-truss-like-mrs-thatcher-has-shown-reforming-power-tory-convert/

    BTL

    Britain will not succeed with Brexit while the Northern Ireland Protocol stays in operation.

    Liz Truss voted to stay in the EU in the referendum in 2016 and so, if she is a sincere convert to Brexit, she will rise or fall according to the Northern Ireland Protocol: if she invokes Article 16 and gets the Protocol scrapped she will succeed; if she fails to do so that will be the end of her political career.

    1. “Britain will not succeed with Brexit while the Northern Ireland Protocol stays in operation.the current load of amateurs, cowards and losers managing the decline at all levels, from PM downwards I think that’s a bit more accurate.

    2. She won’t, and it won’t.

      There will be a backroom stitch up to screw the country over a little bit more and the EU will continue to control Northern Ireland as a stepping stone into the UK.

        1. That’s easy.

          When the UK politicians have set us up to be at our absolute weakest, so that we have to pay our leaving dues, then pay re-joining dues and lose the £. The Bank of England will be disbanded and the ECB will take over.
          The Financial services industries will be moved to Frankfurt, and our courts will be subservient to the Napoleonic code.
          Borders will be totally open from the EU but we will have no right to expel anyone.

    3. The Iron Lady was not brought up as a Conservative? I thought her father was a Conservative councillor on the local council. ?!?!?

  47. Sunday evening tv. So little to watch, SWMBO has a police video programme in Danish on…

          1. Just Jane. I was there when they ran her engines up. Fantastic sound (and VERY windy with the propwash!). I’ve been to East Kirkby a few times. I particularly like it that I can take my dog(s).

  48. Evening, all. It isn’t just science we’ve lost faith in. Some of it has been deliberate (Welby et al) and some of it has been through liars being caught out (name your own politicians and gurus).

    1. I haven’t lost faith in proper science, it’s just the government’s science, which is what they want it to be.

    2. Real scientists like Didier Raoult one of the most eminent men in European science showed the way out of this mess right in ther beginning(HCQ+Zinc+VitD/C+ broad spectrum antibiotic for bacterial lung infections) only to be denigrated and shouted down by a corrupt establishment and bought and paid for MSM
      This ain’t about a damned virus!!

    1. Bloody hell! I was shocked enough when my brother in law was “offered” a DNR and he’s only 69. This is abhorrent in every way. What the hell is next? Eugenics?

      1. Bill Gates’ father was a Eugenicist and Gates is a chip off the old block. Gates is no scientist and his knowledge of viruses is limited to those his staff created in order to command greater revenue from innumerable ‘fixes’ and anti-virus software for his antiquated Microsoft software.

        The Davos crowd include many of our bankers and senior politicians including more recently the likes of Johnson and Hancock, Blair and Brown before them.

        The idiots running Austria, New Zealand, Australia, Holland, Belgium and Germany (and other corrupted governments around the world) are part of an international globalist conspiracy. The aim is to achieve depopulation alongside the theft of private property and wealth.

        We are all witnessing the single largest heist in the history of the world.

        And no, I have not been drinking but now a glass of Armagnac awaits.

  49. Man, 19, who was arrested at Windsor Castle ‘armed with a crossbow’ is sectioned under the Mental Health Act – as police step up security at the Queen’s residence

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10345743/Man-19-arrested-Windsor-Castle-armed-crossbow-sectioned.html?ito=social-facebook&fbclid=IwAR03Yc4SrCjLS-ITcM8zaJZQc-6pYyI-W0xz5lW8x12YP8m4dJor7gFEvbk

    The suspect, who police have not yet named, was arrested shortly after 8.30am yesterday after he was spotted on CCTV roaming the gardens after scaling an outer wall. The man was later sectioned under the Mental Health Act.

    Footage shows the figure wearing a black tracksuit and white mask thought to have been inspired by Star Wars.

    He says: ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I’ve done and what I will do. I will attempt to assassinate Elizabeth, Queen of the Royal Family. This is revenge for those who have died in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

    ‘It is also revenge for those who have been killed, humiliated and discriminated on because of their race. I’m an Indian Sikh, a Sith. My name was Jaswant Singh Chail, my name is Darth Jones.’

    Shocking video showing a crossbow-wielding man threatening to ‘assassinate the Queen in revenge for 1919 Amritsar massacre’ has emerged +11

    1. A bit puzzled….I thought Sikhs were largely peaceful and the ones I knew in north London were lovely. I do know that some Sikhs can be warlike. The cynic in me wonders if this is a deliberate obfuscation.

      1. Mental Health Issues. The go-to explanation for everything that can’t be blamed on Far-right tendencies.

  50. Curses! Just broken a front tooth on a piece of Toblerone. Damn those Swiss! Still, it could have been worse – it normally happens just before a Bank Holiday. Oh wait…

    1. The love between cats and dogs can be remarkable. Our boxer, Rumpole, never really got over the death of our cat, Chaucer. He went into a decline, stopped eating properly and we had to take him to the vet who gave him some canine prozac which helped him get back to physical health but he died of heart failure a year later.

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