Sunday 26 January: HS2 is the kind of infrastructure project the national economy needs

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/01/26/lettershs2-kind-infrastructure-project-national-economy-needs/

839 thoughts on “Sunday 26 January: HS2 is the kind of infrastructure project the national economy needs”

  1. Happy Australia Day to all our cobbers down-under

    They’ve mostly been Politically incorrect which I salute.

    Police in London found a bomb outside a mosque…
    They’ve told the public not to panic as they’ve managed to push it back inside.

    =============================

    During last night’s high winds, an African family were killed by a falling tree. A spokesman for the Birmingham City council said “We didn’t even know they were living up there”.

    =============================

    Jamaican minorities in the UK have complained that there are not enough television shows with minorities in mind, so Crime watch is being shown 5 times a week now.

    =============================

    I was reading in the paper today about this dwarf that got pick-pocketed.
    How could anyone stoop so low?

    =============================

    I was walking down the road when I saw an Afghan bloke standing on a fifth-floor balcony shaking a carpet. I shouted up to him, “What’s up Abdul, won’t it start?”

  2. Bombs and blood feuds: the wave of explosions rocking Sweden’s cities. 26 January 2020.

    You might expect such a powerful explosion to be unusual in a middle-class district in otherwise safe, well-organised Sweden. But this bombing in November was one of three in the city in the space of 24 hours.

    According to data released this month by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, there were 257 crimes involving explosives in the country last year, a 60% rise on 2018. Gangland shootings are also shockingly high, with 320 reported last year, 41 of them fatal. As recently as Tuesday, there were twin explosions in two apartment buildings in a Stockholm suburb. The last blast in Malmö was on 10 January.

    Morning everyone. This is well worth reading just to watch the author explaining it all away as the vagaries of family based criminality. Just to save you the effort, the words, Islam, refugee or immigrant do not appear in the text. In reality these people, like the UK’s drug gangs, have discovered that they may do as they please with almost no chance of being apprehended.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/25/bombs-blood-feuds-malmo-explosions-rocking-swedens-cities

        2. It’s not his real name, but he’s been giving an accurate account of Sweden for several years. His account is not a spoof.

      1. I have had a twenty year long arguement with my sister about that very thing. Whenever I go to her house, I swap them around. She gets very annoyed – it’s quite funny.

          2. Memory is a strange yet powerful function. I can recall when I first heard the word micturate, it was in an episode of Morse almost 30 years ago. John Thaw’s grumpy character had to explain the word’s meaning to his sergeant, Lewis. Not a word I’ve used in either polite or impolite company since but it’s in my memory, somewhere.

          5. They also wear bibs on their short trousers.

            [They call them Lederhosen. We called them Hot Pants!]

        2. Did you know that the lavatory seat was invented by an Irishman?

          True!

          Then an Englishman thought it would be a good idea to put a hole in it!

    2. There’s probably a joke about stepping on a stool, but I can’t be bothered to work it out.

        1. Two little dicky birds sitting on a wall:
          One called Peddy, one called Paul.
          Fly away, Peddy; fly away, Paul.
          Come back, Peddy; Come back, Paul.

          :•)

      1. “I’m going to give you a prediction about this winter. It’s going to be cold, it’s going to be dark and it’s going to last you for the rest of your lives!”

        Groundhog Day.

  6. “SIR—Why does a bar of new soap smell so lovely when first unwrapped, then smell of nothing at all for the rest of its life? It appears to have nothing to do with cost. I live in a state of perpetual soap disappointment.”

    Geraldine Wills
    Chard, Somerset

    I have a small three-drawer pine chest that was previously installed in my bathroom where I stored new bars of soap. Since moving home, in 2011, that chest has been used in my art studio to hold art materials. I still get the wonderful waft of soap scent each time I open the top drawer.

    3. Tjena!

      If it has nothing to do with cost, Geraldine could open a new bar every day & discard it the same night.

        1. No , but back in the ’70s they used to have their own meat processing plant and I still remember with amusement the local TV announcer reporting a big fire at the “Chard Meat Company”

    4. We buy lovely scented soaps from TK Maxx, and place the bars in clothes drawers. This tends to scent the clothes. The bars also lose a little moisture, becoming harder, and lasting a bit longer when it is their turn to be used for traditional soap purposes behind the ears etc.

      1. I’m a soap-dodger these days. :•)

        [I suffer from dry, itchy skin (especially in winter when the central heating is on), so I use a liquid soap containing olive oil. It lathers up wonderfully and has a nice aroma.]

    5. “Bar of soap, please.”

      “Scented?”

      “No, I’ll take it with me.”

      “Oh, and a bottle of sauce.”

      “HP?”

      “No, I’ll pay cash.”

  7. “Government-owned firm behind HS2 accused of trying to con boris into giving it a green light”
    The signal for the financial self interest, circle line, AKA
    the gravy train.

  8. Morning each,
    “HS2 is the kind of infrastructure project the country needs”
    Building a wreck & ruin train crash for the future.
    The project is on par with saying we need more imported paedophiles.
    Yet another two decades of destruction to add to four
    decades already suffered via the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition governance party.

    1. ‘Morning, Blle.

      Aren’t you going to tell us that you’re very worried about it?

      1. Why should I worry , I let everyone else do the worrying ..

        Good morning Peddy ..

        PS I suspect the Economist is being rather racist .. I mean , no diversity of babies on that conveyor belt ?

        1. Why should I worry , I let everyone else do the worrying ..

          Is this a New Year’s Resolution? I think we should know.

        2. There are 200 more conveyors completely filled with brown babies out of shot, Belle.
          Morning, btw.

          1. These are the ones released back into the wild. The babies in the cartoon are destined for the oven.

      2. Don’t blame “the powers that be”, BoB, it was Angela Merkel who issued the invitation and then – once she realised the implications of her decision – bullied the EU into insisting that all EU nations had to accept “their fair share”.

      1. Maybe they posted it wrongly. Or my cut’n’paste facility needed its second mug of coffee!

    3. It’s a shame they are closing – I think they should keep us informed through the transition period.

  12. Veterans criticize Trump’s downplaying of US troops’ brain injuries. 25 January 2020.

    After the Pentagon announced on 16 January that troops were being treated for concussion symptoms, Trump claimed the discrepancy was because he heard about the injuries “numerous days later”. Trump also downplayed the severity, saying, “I heard that they had headaches. And a couple of other things. But I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious.”

    “I don’t consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries I have seen. I’ve seen people with no legs and no arms,” he said.
    Eight of the injured service members were considered in serious enough condition to be moved to the US.

    We can dismiss the Veterans Organisations complaints because Trump is not a brain surgeon and he had political reasons for denying their severity. What we do learn from this is that the Iranians were not fooling. They did not intend to miss. They were in fact on target and the American troops lives were saved only because they were in bunkers. Since this would almost certainly provide a casus belli we can safely assume that the Americans refused to accept the provocation. We will probably have to wait for the reason!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/25/veterans-criticize-trump-downplaying-us-troops-brain-injuries-iraq

    1. Never let your enemy know he/she’s hurt you. Veterans should know better.

      (Morning Minty).

  13. HARRY COLE: Fresh storm over the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis stopped with wads of cash.

    When David Cameron made Denzil Douglas, the former Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, a member of the Queen’s gilded Privy Council, he lavished praise on the servant of the Commonwealth.

    But last month, The Mail on Sunday revealed Dr Douglas had been stopped at Gatwick in November trying to leave the country with £70,000 in mysterious cash.

    It caused a storm in the Caribbean paradise, where the good doctor is standing for election again.

    Border Force sources say Dr Douglas attempted to use his position as a ‘senior politician’ to berate border agents, accusing them of being ‘confused’ for searching him.

    He insisted his luggage contained no cash, so a tense scene emerged when he was asked to explain the presence of several bundles of US dollars and other money in white and brown envelopes, as well as five other wrapped bundles of UK notes totalling £1,000.

    Given the National Crime Agency, the UK’s FBI, is probing where the cash is from, is such behaviour becoming of a member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council?

    ——

    Seems the Border Force have some teeth after all?

    1. When I was an aviation screening supervisor, we occasionally had passengers flying out with empty suitcases. Whenever we came across one, we notified H. M. Customs & Excise (as they still were then). They kept tabs on that passenger’s movements and then intercepted them at the airport of their return. This usually paid off since there are few excuse’s for going abroad with an empty suitcase.

      1. We had some friends who always packed their oldest clothes and replaced them all at their destination.
        They then brought in hundreds of pounds worth of new clothing which they had worn while on holiday.

        Those were the days of the very low monetary equivalent allowance. They did not take kindly to my calling them smugglers.

        1. Bit like the cannibal who came back from holiday sporting a wooden leg – he hadn’t realised it was self-catering

      3. There was a time when Dutch people would come into the UK and buy clothes at M&S, then go back home with them. When we have gone on holiday we took little in the way of clothing, and bought summer clothes very cheaply at markets.

        1. I once stopped a skinny little Chinaman for a routine search. He looked like Mr Blobby!

          He was wearing no fewer than seven pairs of trousers and six pullovers! He told me there was no room for any more in his packed luggage. He had been buying top quality clothing in the UK for relatives back in Peking.

    2. Interesting:

      July 29, 2019–Former St.Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas Appears On Us Department Of Homeland Security List Of Notable People Barred From The United States
      http://www.timescaribbeanonline.com/former-st-kitts-nevis-prime-minister-dr-denzil-douglas-appears-on-us-department-of-homeland-security-list-of-notable-people-barred-from-the-united-states/

      Even more interesting: his successor in office (PM Timothy Harris) has apparently been pitching a St Kitts and Nevis “Citizenship-by-Investment” Program to wealthy Dubai residents:

      2016/03/07 — St Kitts and Nevis Pitches Passport Program in Dubai
      https://www.caribjournal.com/2016/03/07/st-kitts-and-nevis-pitches-passport-program-in-dubai/

      (Morning, TB).

        1. Looks like the original event was almost two months ago, and former PM Dr. Denzil Douglas denied it:

          December 09, 2019–St Kitts Opposition leader denies he was arrested in London
          http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/st-kitts-opposition-leader-denies-he-was-arrested-in-london_181741

          Not a lot of encouraging news coming out of St. Kitts / Nevis. A ton of stories on a billionaire tycoon starting a Cannabis-cryptocurrency bank (“Swissx Bank”) headquartered in Gstaad with a branch in St. Kitts (scary links), some more about Denzil Douglas allegedly having some involvement in said bank, and then this story:

          May 19, 2019–Cannabis tycoon departs St Kitts leaving $300k in bail and a lot of questions
          https://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/cannabis-tycoon-departs-st-kitts-leaving-300k-in-bail-and-a-lot-of-questions/

          2. Cripes. Any chance of his swinging by Colchester?
            I’m assuming ‘battery’ has something to do with his love of fish and chips.

        1. I find them bizarre and a real turn off.

          The point of the comment was in response to P-T’s pin request.

      1. From a girlie POV, bloody uncomfortable. That would absolutely do your back in.
        She must spend a fortune on physiotherapy – and needs to spend even more on psychotherapy.

      2. I wonder if farmers who are collecting sperm for artificial insemination have photos of cows with enormous udders to show the bulls in order to encourage more productive masturbation?

      8. You’re not alone, Bob. I’ve never understood why some blokes are genetically programmed to go “Phwooaar! at the sight of big ‘uns.

        1. A decent pair of natural big’uns are worth looking at, but not there.
          These are so artificially enhanced as to be totally grotesque.

    6. One look at her and the walls of that Monastery don’t seem so high after all. But once I’ve cleared them will they let me stay in?

  15. Will someone please explain to me how this state of affairs in 2020 Britain came to pass?

    You attempt to murder someone by hacking at his head with a machete: you get a mild prison sentence.

    You burgle a house and remove all the property therein: it is deemed not a crime.

    You indulge in mild banter at work: you have the full force of the State, and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, come down on your head!

    And still they insist that the human species is not getting incrementally more stupid by the day.

      2. Good Morning Maggiebelle

        As I intimated the other day, Mr Murdstone is a sadistic and nasty man who callously married David Copperfield’s mother in order to get hold of her money and, when she died, David was left with nothing..

        I should imagine that it was not enough to portray Murdstone just as a villainous, sadistic bully they had to portray him as a RACIST as well. Ergo, David Copperfield should not be white.

        1. My father’s last and 27-year younger than him gold-digging wife wasn’t any better. Just more modern in her methods.

      3. I like Dev Patel, and think he’s a very good actor. However, he should not have been cast as David Copperfield, because it’s been done for ideological reasons.

    2. Meanwhile, over in the U.S., a man is jailed for 12 years (could have been 15 years, but the judge was lenient) for possession of a cell phone.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XB29I__UBug
      12 Years a Prisoner: Cellphone Possession Draws Harsh Sentence for Willie Nash
      “Published on 20 Jan 2020
      Jailers failed to confiscate the cellphone from Willie Nash during his booking for a misdemeanor charge in Newton County, Mississippi. He didn’t know it was illegal for him to have it. Now he’s doing 12 years as a prisoner for unintentionally breaking a law. Even the courts acknowledge he was ignorant of the law and the jailers didn’t do their job. When cellphone possession draws such a harsh sentence it’s time to ask where’s the harm? And where is justice in the Mississippi courts and legislature?”

      Read about Willie Nash at Reason.com http://bit.ly/WillieNash

    3. Good morning, Grizzly

      I think you may be on to something there. A chap for whom I have a great deal of admiration made a similar observation a few centuries ago:

      O judgement thou art fled to brutish beasts
      And men have lost their reason.

      [Shakespeare: Julius Caesar]

      1. Do they still teach Shakespeare in schools ? Julius Caesar was the set play my first year after passing the eleven plus. I am sure that I (with a good teacher) understood most of it, and it is permanently stuck in my brain.
        (I remember later discussions about the Sonnets, but I doubt if Bill was really bent, so someone else must have written them).

      2. Good afternoon, Rastus.

        Will Shakespeare will definitely be on my list for a visit when I get my time machine sorted out.

    4. The evil rule of Blair had a lot to do with it – but was by no means the start…he is a useful idiot who became a rich useful idiot (as some of them do).

    1. S,
      You do not have to import a weaponized tool to take down the UK
      not all the time you have lab/lib/con in
      governance.
      The proven proof is impossible to miss.

  19. Airlift to save 200 Britons trapped by coronavirus: Dominic Raab draws up China evacuation plan as infection accelerates
    Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab ordered government officials to find a plan to evacuate Britons from Wuhan
    Leaving expats in Wuhan could be a ‘death sentence’ after China’s President Xi spoke of a ‘grave situation’
    Demand for action from Britons trapped in Wuhan has grown louder as expats demanded ‘get us out of here’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7929663/Dominic-Raab-draws-China-evacuation-plan-infection-accelerates.html

    What has happened the INFECTION CONTROL measures .. isolation … the risk of importing a very nasty epidemic into the UK?

    1. Morning TB,
      What happened ?
      A multitude of fools decades ago joined forces with the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition,& went on a countrywide ongoing wrecking spree is what happened.

    2. Nah. Who cares? We are talking about saving Islington-dwelling, Eton educated snowflakes. It is worth risking the lives of 66m people.
      (NB the coronavirus is now known to be infectious before it can be detected. What could go wrong?)

      2. Let’s hope it confines itself to Islington-dwelling, Eton educated snowflakes and leaves the rest of us, who dwell in the real world, alone!

  20. ‘Morning, all. From The Herald

    Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine and other politicians have reportedly accused Boris Johnson of rubbing the noses of remainers in
    their defeat through plans to celebrate

    I’m sure Heseltine is deeply unhappy and I for one rejoice to witness his chagrin.

    But this is the second time during my lifetime that Britain has survived an attempted hostile takeover by a monstrous German empire – cause for celebration indeed – and it seems to me his complaining about Brexit celebrations is a wee bit like Norman Baillie-Stewart complaining that VE Day celebrations rubbed the noses of the Nazis in their defeat.

    .

    1. That knacker Heseltine has missed no opportunity in the past four years to get on the TV and Radio to insult the 17.4 Million.

      He should have his nose rubbed in it. The more the better.

    2. I think there needs to be a distinction between those who voted to remain and are mature enough to accept a first past the post outcome and the minority of traitors who don’t.

      How can we have such a monumental change of direction in the life of our country without some recognition of it?

      I was only thinking last night that we should have a concert similar to those ‘aid’ ones.

      1. Don’t let the BBC have anything to do with organising it, or there will be a sea of European Union flags planted in the audience.

      2. The whole country should be celebrating and preparing for the new world. Instead it being treated like the approach of doom.

        1. I went out for a pint last night and the young people I saw are as far removed from the chattering classes as can be – and probably as interested in Brexit as the man from Mars. They’ll cope.

          As an aside and as a thank-you for leading them to a pub they were trying to find, I got hugs and kisses from two young girls, which made my night. You don’t get that sitting in the house watching the telly screen.

    3. You can bet the farm that if the remainers had managed to overturn the referendum result via the Commons, as they were trying to do, they would have been celebating AND rubbing the proles faces in faeces.

    4. ‘Afternoon, Duncan, surely the third time, even if you discount the 1966 World Cup, you must take account of World Wars one and two.

      1. ‘Afternoon, NtN. I did say “during my lifetime” and although I admit to being ‘well-struck in years’, I cannot claim to have been alive during The Great War!

    5. The Remainers were very happy to insult and humiliate those who did not agree with them. ‘They can dish it out but they can’t take it’ is the phrase that comes to mind along with the pithy observation of Corporal Jones:

      THEY DON’T LIKE IT UP ‘EM

      (Though I suppose that awful Guardian journalist of the same name does like it up him given his particular proclivities!)

      2. I’m more than happy to give them what they dished out, and to Hull with their wailing & gnashing of teeth. They should have thought about it earlier! Now, suck it up, you barstewards!

    6. Us uneducated xenophobic bigots certainly shouldn’t be allowed to celebrate and upset the bastards, oh no.

    1. Just last week someone I know was telling me that his car tax reminder must have got lost in the post, because he hadn’t received one.

      As a result he discovered that his car had been untaxed for a month. With a tax disc there was a constant reminder every time you got into the car how long there was left before the end.

      2. Nothing to stop you putting a piece of paper in the licence holder, or even – gasp! – putting the renewal date in your mobile phone’s calendar or on a Post-it note on the fridge door.

    2. Carry a machete and claim to be a gardener acting in self defence, just in case you get stopped.

        2. The Law Society. They’re useless. Like the Bar Council or whoever they are at the moment. I’m way out of date.

    3. An excuse for littering the country with cameras that can track your every move. What’s not to like (for an authoritarian government).

    4. When I were nobbut a young copper I quickly discovered two things:

      1. Drivers with an up-to-date VEL were generally good drivers and decent, honest people.

      2. Drivers displaying a fraudulent VEL (or none at all) were generally toerags who were arrogant enough to have committed a catalogue of other road traffic offences simultaneously (no driving licence, no MOT, no insurance, plus—on many occasions—a bootful of stolen items).

      Discovering one offence frequently revealed many more.

      1. All the more reason for hammering down on the petty crime to keep the major crimes under control.

      2. When I bought my campervan, I knew the tax hadn’t been transferred, but for ages when I checked it showed that it was taxed. I didn’t use it, but waited for the start of the following month to tax it.

    6. In France they have abolished road tax but you have to display on your windscreen:

      i) A valid MoT certificate disc;
      ii) A green certificate showing that the car is properly insured.

      This enables the police to check on the spot that your car is roadworthy and legally on the road

      1. No markings or bits of paper in Norway. Numberplate recognition does it all, including charge you for your carpark time.

    2. I have never been able to take Daniel Hannan with more than a pinch of salt since that night when we voted to become a Sovereign Nation again. He was SO critical of the European Union before the Referendum, when he thought we were going to vote to stay in, and then when we voted to actually Leave… That look of disbelief on his face was even greater than Boris’s shell-shocked response to the vote.

      As Hannan saw the expense account, freebies and the money bags floating away from him, he suddenly started to express how important it was for the United Kingdom to maintain “close ties” with the European Union. But each to his own.

    1. You want a jar of peanut butter that has been opened by the Duchess ? I have a friend who works for Sussex Royal Limited who can get one for you.

  24. Call for new law to protect victims in the justice system. 26 January 2020.

    Ministers have been urged to introduce a “victims’ law” to stop people losing faith in the criminal justice system. The move comes after new data revealed that the number of crime victims who decline to press charges has more than doubled in five years.

    Yes if you can’t do anything pass a law! There is some heartening news here in that victims are declining to press charges which in itself is a fabrication because the CPS are supposed to prosecute cases but I assume that the author means they are refusing to bear witness. This is by far the most sensible move, your chances of intimidation or actual assault are much minimised and you will be spared the indignity, anxiety and eventual disappointment of going to court!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/25/crime-victims-justice-system-courts

  25. The coronavirus was being studied and experimented on in Canada, at the National Microbiology Laboratory. The scientist involved, prominent Chinese scientist DR Xiangguo Qiu, has been abruptly removed from her post. I suspect that the study of the virus involved testing and manipulation. This may have involved the use of human blood. Dr Qiu would have used her own. This virus was developed to attack the host via their DNA, specifically via the ethnicity markers. That is, the virus is targeted at one section of the people on the planet. It can be developed to attack any ethnicity. This makes it a new perfect bio-weapon as long as your enemy is a different ethnicity. It is unreachable until it takes effect, that is, it is contagious before it can be detected. There is no preventative treatment, though that is ostensibly the work of the laboratories. There is no cure although labs around the world are now working on this with some urgency.
    The story that the disease popped up in a wild food market and was caught from snake, or maybe bat, is probably false. The most likely reason for its appearance in the human population is a bio-security breach at the Chinese lab in Wuhan.
    I have not seen any identifications of the victims anywhere. I suspect that all are of Chinese ethnicity. If so, then it would tend to confirm that this virus is a specially developed bio-weapon. Of course, it was in the test stages, the Chinese would have moved on to developing the virus against the Indo-Europeans rather than major on a weapon that attacked only themselves.

    Info from Wikipedia and Zero Hedge (see post/link below)

      1. Moslems are multi-ethnic and any virus to solely target them would have to be able to see inside their brains and recognise various markers unique to them.

    2. Well it happened in China, do you expect all victims to be African? This conspiracy gives conspiracy theories a bad name.

      Canada now has its first case, a person who has just returned from Wigan. The patients ethnicity is unknown.

      2. As regards the proposed Foreign Office proposed rescue flight. This only makes sense if the virus only attacks those of Chinese ethnicity, and that the UK government knows this. Otherwise the British citizens in Cchina would be left there. (All flights in or out of China will cease next week.)
        It the rescued Brits are white then no problem. If some are Chinese, then the UK may lose a few hundred takeaway shops.

    4. Would this be the source of the panic over what appears to be a very innocuous virus? That it will mutate eventually into something infinitely nasty!

    5. Helluva lot of speculation there. Perhaps she has simply moved back to China to help devise a cure?

        1. Maybe, but I only drew some basic info, names of labs etc. from that article. The story above is my analysis, developed when washing dishes. I then looked up and inserted the names and places. My thinking was around the mutability of the virus, its means of attacking the host organism, and the fact that so far the ethnicity of victims has not been stated, or at any rate I’ve not seen it mentioned in UK, French or USA reports. If all the victims are indeed of Chinese ethnicity then I would tend to support my own analysis. (Of course, I would say that wouldn’t I?)

        2. But are those conspiracy theories wrong? After all, it’s not a conspiracy theory when they tell you what they’re doing….

          1. Well every “conspiracy theory” has to be taken on its own merits and Zerohedge has a poor record. That said this particular incident is puzzling. I watched the news and the wards and corridors of Chinese hospitals are overflowing. For what? For a minor infection that kills less than 1% of those infected? I would welcome any explanation that seemed reasonable!

      3. She was escorted out of the Canadian Cat 4 Lab facility according to Canadian National News (see you tube Video below).

  26. I am a Priti Patel fan. The Guardian is not.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/26/priti-patel-radicalised-youth-plan-so-flawed-its-mad

    “Generating “positive psychology” among young people was found to be
    significantly more effective than punitive policies when challenging
    “violent youth radicalisation”, defined as gang crime through to the
    development of extreme ideologies.”

    I thought that pansy psychiology treatment for thugs and jihadis went out of fashion at one time. I am normally a nice guy, but
    I am a great believer in beating the hell out of the bastards. I seem to be the only one out of step.

    1. Count me in Tony, the birch for all young thugs between 16 and 25, administered in public, on their bare back and buttocks to add to the humiliation. They won’t do it again and those in that age-group might take that retribution to heart.

      I also advocate the death-penalty for murder and castration for rape.

      I can’t help being so ‘fair’ minded.

      1. I recall being castigated on this very forum, or its predecessor, for suggesting that Ali’s rape gangs should be castrated. I was told that hanging is more humane.

        1. I go for both, Sue. Castration (a ball for a ball) followed … a month later … by execution.

          I know, I’m a bloody softy!

        3. Afternoon SE,
          Timothy Evans would give many calling for hanging a reason for it to be unacceptable.

          1. The moratorium on capital punishment/total life imprisonment has meant that scores of convicted killers and rapists have been released to kill and rape again.

            Many of those victims’ families would disagree.

          2. That is a governmental issue & as we know the electorate return the same type type government to power so the innocent suffer.
            Life should mean life, finance should not enter the equation.
            Currently submission, PCism,Appeasement rule the roost.
            Many think that hanging is the answer until it is them as an innocent party, being found guilty.
            One hanged innocent = a totally unacceptable policy.

          3. Is it really?
            We are all going to die, knocking a few years off one individual’s life to add years to many other people’s might be acceptable, particularly if the financial savings allow more cash to go into healthcare, for example.

          4. S,
            Piss poor reply, sort overseas aid first condoned by the governing parties.
            There will never be enough cash for healthcare due to the governing parties mass uncontrolled immigration parties policies.
            If your granny was up for murder & you knew her to be completely innocent what would your feelings be when she swung ?

          5. The feelings would be bad, but the likelihood of that happening is extremely remote. The likelihood of an innocent person being hanged is also extremely remote.

            As far as I am concerned, hanging murderers to stop them doing the same again is worth the risk.

          6. S,
            Wont wash, for instance if murder verdicts carried a hanging
            sentence and the judgement was made by the same cartel who
            selected tory PMs where would we be ?
            Did you check out Timothy Evens the simple minded chap murdered by society ?

          7. I’ll take the risk.

            You are trying to conflate completely different issues. Is that because you are happy to see murderers and rapists walking the streets?

          8. S,
            You now resort to being silly, tell me what party did you last vote for (optional) if it was either lab/lib or con then you are
            condoning their policies ie mass uncontrolled immigration &
            evil consequences stemming from that, as in ,parties that have put murderers / rapist / abusers on our streets to start with & via the ballot booth kept their ilk there.

          9. Do you know, I think that you are quite possibly the stupidest person who contributes to Nottle.

            I doubt that 1 in 100 of your illiterate posts adds anything whatsoever to any debate.

            I used to vote UKIP; but never again. The thought of ogga1 clones running the UK is worse than getting Labour.

          10. S,
            Yes, you settle once again at your true level, well down below common sense.

            It would not be as treacherous as the lab/lib/con political hierarchy proved to be though would it ?

  27. Laurence Fox and the curdling of rational minds. Andrew Doyle. 26 January 2020.

    The commentariat had a similar tantrum this week after the actor Laurence Fox had the temerity to express his opinions on Question Time. In the light of the threats and abuse that Fox has received since his appearance, it’s worth considering what he actually said. He urged everyone to be united in our condemnation of racism. He said that the word ‘racism’ should be reserved for racists. He pointed out that the fear of being falsely branded as racist can have catastrophic consequences, citing the revelations that police in Manchester failed to protect children from rape and violence due to concerns over race relations. He argued that the concept of ‘white privilege’ was unhelpful and generalising. Finally, he mocked Shami Chakrabarti’s suggestion that the Labour leadership should be decided on the basis of gender. On all of these points he happens to be right, but even if one takes a contrary stance I can’t see how any of this is especially controversial. Question Time is meant to be a debate, not a one-sided reiteration of intersectional dogma. This is one of the reasons I’m touring the UK with Douglas Murray later this year in a discussion show called Resisting Wokeness. We hope to open up some conversations that are badly needed.

    Not coming to an MSM channel near you!

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/01/laurence-fox-and-the-curdling-of-rational-minds/

    1. “He [Fox] said that the word ‘racism’ should be reserved for racists.”

      The problem with ‘racism’ is that it’s such a flexible word…

  28. – Now we are Brexiting ( fingers crossed ) isn’t it about time we did away with all these money wasting elected mayors and regional assemblies since hopefully now we have left nobody wants break the country up into small easy controllable pocket sized regions for easy control from Brussels with their henchmen and women in place.

    3. And what about all those Brussels offices of various UK regional and city bodies (and Scotland) – all their people will need to be redeployed to some non-jobs in the UK.

    4. Yet this is precisely what they did after the Norman invasion nearly 1000 years ago, when they set up counties, which now define English identity perhaps more than anything else. Actually, these are based on pocket tribal kingdoms that go way back beyond then.

      I agree that Local Government needs to be reformed and made far more accountable to local requirements than the artifices set up by the Grand Single Market Centre. I would like to see a return of rural and urban district councils, and the distinction between villages, market towns, boroughs and cities.

      3. It is interesting that many of the Norman families still enjoy the fruits of the Conquest. I’ve met a few who were descended thus, and they were never short of money, never struggled with mortgage payments…

        1. Oh, yeah, I too am descended from Bill the Bastard but money have I none. What did those 31 generations before me do with all the wonga?

          2. If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row,
            Would you be proud of them or not, or don’t you really know?
            Some strange discoveries are made when climbing family trees,
            And some of them you know do not particularly please.

            If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row,
            There might be some of them perhaps, you wouldn’t care to know.
            But here’s another question which requires a different view.
            If you could meet your ancestors, would they be proud of you?
            (from Edith Fletcher’s pedigree book)

  29. The BBC is a pillar of civilisation. No wonder populists want to destroy it. Will Hutton. Sun 26 Jan 2020

    Enlightenment values come in an interconnected bundle. First and foremost is the idea that there are objective truths and an accompanying public realm, held for all citizens, in which these truths can be tried and tested by argument, evidence and reason. It follows that there must be freedom to think and freely express oneself – otherwise no argument is possible. Science and fact will thus trump partisan ideology and superstition.

    Rightwing populism confounds these principles. Conceptually, it holds, the public realm is a fraud: there is only an aggregation of individuals whose fate is to pursue their own interest. There can be no resolution or common ground achieved by argument; my truth is the only truth. Impartiality and public service are myths. Science can only be tolerated if it delivers conclusions with which I agree. Law and judges who get in the way of the popular will should be brushed aside. Only my views should be freely expressed. Christian faith is inherently superior to any other, which can be mocked and derided.

    This of course is a complete inversion of the truth! The BBC is a Cultural Marxist organisation that is actively opposed to Enlightenment values. It is a supporter of Feminism, LGBT, and vigorously mocks Christianity and its tenets while remaining silent about Islam and its adherents attacks on white victims!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/26/the-bbc-is-a-pillar-of-civilisation-no-wonder-populists-want-to-destroy-it

      3. Will Hutton wrote for the Guardian, wrecked the Work Foundation, made a mint and now has some comfy sinecure at a faux university up north. Enough said.

        Edited.

    2. Indeed, Will Hutton is dead right, except that it is the woke political correctors on the so-called left, far more than the populist right who are the villains in the suppression of public debate.

    4. As day follows night …

      You play with matches: you get burnt.
      You read The Guardian: you get covered in shit!

        1. This above all to thine own self be true
          And it must follow as the night the day
          Thou canst not then be false to any man.

          [Polonius’s paternal advice to Laertes in Hamlet]

          1. I think you missed my point, Richard. Some weeks ago I wrote that days are now getting longer. Grizzly corrected me by saying that was not true, since all days are still 24 hours long. I replied that he was absolutely correct, and that I would now contact Cole Porter to re-write his well-known song as “Night time and daylight hours” and see if Frank Sinatra would re-record it with the new lyrics!

            :-))

        2. Morning, Elsie. Did you receive my missive (on another channel) regarding our mutual friend, Gyles Brandreth? :•)

          1. Er, no. But then I accidentally deleted one of your missives today. Off to bed now (it’s turned 1 am) but I shall check tomorrow.

      3. For a second I thought you wrote “you play with machetes, you get burnt” – surely you get deep cuts 🙂

          1. Yes, thank you, Grizz. I have managed to stay up all day, go to church and collect some money for RAFA. Result! Even better a friend has dropped off a couple of bottles of wine to “cheer me up”. I have good friends!

    6. Science and fact will thus trump partisan ideology and superstition.

      Oh for goodness sake. Have a look around and see how many billions remain wedded to ideologies and superstitions, some dating back to the Bronze Age. Groups that will not allow lives to be saved by blood transfusion; restrictions on women due to their monthly function and worse, just because they’re women; slaughtering people who are attempting to eradicate disease by inoculation; the denial and suppression of science for millennia; absolute belief in a ‘prophet’ riding a flying horse, the list goes on. Science and fact may triumph in the end but that end is nowhere in sight today.

    1. Yes they could. There was this feature on Midlands Today, I think, where a farm in Herefordshire which couldn’t get the labour to pick its apples, fed them instead to barnfuls of crickets, which they then grind into flour, which can be baked into delicious nutty-flavoured cake, full of nutrients.

      A splendid way of spending aid to Africa is to adapt Henry vacuum cleaners, so villagers can suck and grind the locusts in one go.

      1. One always worries that spraying such enormous areas of East Africa will have a detrimental effect on the birds who migrate to Europe during the spring ..

      1. I have to be careful when eating krill [sorry: “prawns”] due to their high purine content.

      1. I think it was the new cook they hired when their old one went home. He used to forage as he walked along. Crickets or something coated in honey, or something like that.

    7. They should be harvesting them as a food source, but instead they have been spraying with insecticide.

  32. Coronavirus’s ability to spread getting stronger, China suggests. 26 January 2020.

    Restrictions to halt the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China will be intensified, the country’s health commission minister has said, warning that the virus’s ability to spread appeared to be getting stronger.

    “The transmissibility shows signs of increasing and the ‘walking source of infection’ [where patients have few signs of disease] has made it difficult to control and prevent the disease,” said Ma Xiaowei.

    Horace is right! This thing has escaped out of a lab and the Chinese are watching for it mutating into something really nasty. There is no other explanation for this bizarre series of precautions against something that has less effect than the Common Cold!

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/jan/26/china-bans-long-distance-buses-from-entering-three-cities-to-contain-coronavirus-spread

  33. Well we will know in a couple of weeks if this guy is right:

    Dr Eric L. Feigl-Ding is an American public health scientist who has received awards for his work in epidemiology, nutrition, and health economics. He is a visiting scientist[2] at the Harvard School of Public Health and Chief Health Economist and Senior Vice President with Microclinic International. He is a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow,[3] and a WEF Global Shaper. He was also a 2018 Democratic candidate for Congress from Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district,[4] as an advocate for public health, drug safety, and science.[5]

    Ding was a whistle-blower in the drug safety risks of the painkillers Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra, and was recognized in The New York Times,[6] and in the book Poison Pills: The Untold Story of the Vioxx Drug Scandal.[7]

    Ding founded the Campaign for Cancer Prevention, a 6 million member online cancer education and fundraising campaign medical research, featured in The New York Times[8] He is a recognized drinking water health advocate[9] and founded ToxinAlert.org,[10] as a public alert tool[11] to warn communities about drinking water contaminations to prevent future lead poisonings[12] like the Flint Water Crisis.

    His Prognosis:

    https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1220919589623803905

        1. Most of us, Merry Mac?

          Who are the ones who have managed to avoid it? Even Methuselah kicked the bucket eventually! :•)

          4. The words were actually adjusted from an old Rowan Atkinson sketch where it is: “Life… Is one of those things… That most of us find it very difficult to avoid.” He then goes on to question whether it is better to be dead and not forgotten, or to be forgotten and not dead. It was one of his “dry” sketches. 🙂 I preferred his one where he was in charge of Hell and was greeting the new arrivals:

            “Ah hello! It’s nice to see you all here. I am the Devil, good evening, but you can call me Toby, if you like. Now, you’re all here for….. Eternity! So you’ll all get to know each other pretty well by the end. For now I’m going to have to split you up into groups.

            Fornicators – if you could step forward? My God, there are a lot of you! Male adulterers, if you could just form a line in front of that small Guillotine in the corner. Em… The French, are you here? If you would just like to come down here with the Germans. I’m sure you’ll have plenty to talk about.

            Okay, atheists? Atheists over here please. You must be feeling a right bunch of Nitwits. Never mind. And finally, Christians. Christians? Ah, yes, I’m sorry but I’m afraid the Jews were right.”

            I have cut that down quite a bit so that it was not too long. Rowan Atkinson could be funny in his “stand-up” days. 🙂

          5. Opinion is divided on what death actually is. 🙂

            There are those who know, and those who are still in the dark. Bwah ha ha.

  34. 2019-nCoV Mini-review in .pdf format

    Abstract

    The recent emergence of a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which caused an
    outbreak of unusual viral pneumonia in tens of people in Wuhan, a central
    city of China, restated the risk of coronaviruses posed to public health. In this
    mini-review, we give a brief introduction of the general features of
    coronaviruses and describe various diseases caused by different
    coronaviruses in humans and animals. This review will help understand the
    biology and potential risk of coronaviruses that exist in richness in wildlife
    such as bats.

    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jmv.25681

  35. To lighten the mood:

    There’s “Moor to Life” than “Passing Wind”
    One of the great joys of narrow boating is meeting other boats with intriguing names. One round trip of the Upper Thames and Kennet and Avon Canal yielded a rich crop of names – such as the two in the title. What I find most interesting is endeavouring to find out why folk choose the names they do. With over 500,000 boat index registrations it’s not surprising that the vast majority of names fall into broad categories such as place names; girls’ names; and the names of birds and flowers. ‘Marsh Warbler’ and ‘Tacit Tern’ spring to mind. When she was just three my eldest daughter referred to ‘Forget Me Not’ as the “remember me now flower”. However, until very recently I’d never seen an “Upsey Daisy”
    There’s plenty of scope for a boat owner to be subtly different and inject a touch of humour I particularly liked ‘MAY CONTAIN NUTS’ [and ‘This Way Up’ complete with arrows pointing to the cabin roof! I wondered whether the owner of ‘Beerstalker’ had come across ‘Party Animal’.
    Apart from ‘Undecided’, everyone who dreams of owning a boat must surely have a good idea of what to call it. The name will often reflect the character of the vessel. ‘Hunky Dory’ certainly aptly describes the massive widebeam proudly displaying the name. Sadly, the state of ‘Wet Dream’ seemed to suggest it had been over the Viagra Falls far too often!

    Flying the Royal Banner of Scotland from its stern….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22028db7297d21a2ba89623e6ee4fb27639ca0ac44651187fbb574a6afebce51.png

    …I had to assume that the owner of “Sixpence” was referencing a sudden or unexpectedly costly expense as depicted in a cartoon by the Victorian artist Charles Keene, first printed in Punch magazine in 1868, which parodied the increasingly extortionate cost of living in London and clichéd miserliness. A Scot returning from a visit to the capital, is depicted as saying to a fellow: ‘It’s just a ruinous place, that! A had na’ been there abune twa hours when—bang—went saxpence!’
    A number of boats have names with literary references such as ‘The Merchant of Little Venice’ and ‘Forty Two’ being Douglas Adams’s answer to ‘Life, the Universe and Everything”. Its owner had chosen an idyllic spot to moor in the long pound leading to Avoncliff.
    A couple of chaps seemed to me to be very brave in naming their boats. When I asked the present owner whether ‘Maelstrom’ was a harbinger of the imminent bad weather. “No” he replied, he understood the boat had been named after the wife of a previous owner who “had a bit of a temper”.
    When asked what the second lady thought of the name of his boat ‘The First Lady’ the skipper replied “Not much really…”
    When it comes to boat names size really doesn’t matter – or does it? Although by no means the shortest boat on the cut, the miniscule, 23 feet long, ‘My Newt’ made up for its lack of size by having its name emblazoned in foot high lettering!
    A quick trawl through Douglas Maes’s ‘Inland Waterways Boat Listing’ P.1997 lent to me by the present owner of ‘Erskine May’ lists a few boats with names relating to size. I particularly like ‘Along Shortly’ on a 20 footer. Although as a chap I’m not sure I would have wanted the name ‘Mfupi’ painted on my boat even if it is Swahili. (Apparently it means: ‘short one’).

    As I passed ‘A momentary loss of reason” its skipper was busy bashing in a mooring pin with the biggest lump hammer I’ve ever seen. In the circumstances I thought it a wise precaution to offer up a silent prayer that there wouldn’t be another occurrence!
    ‘Moor and Peace’ brought to mind the massed ranks of the Napoleonic French and Russian armies. Sadly, for its owner, there was no peace a short distance away as it was incredibly busy at Bradford on Avon lock this last bank holiday weekend. Engine smoke, noise and confusion reigned and conjured up echoes of the Battle of Borodino!

    I can’t be absolutely certain that the boat moored a quarter of a mile from a major boat-hire business was actually called ‘FFS Slow Down’ which was hand painted on a wooden panel propped up on its roof.

    So, if you see there is ‘Moor to Life’ than ‘Passing Wind’ then I guess you may also see the meaning of ‘Sailor Vee’.

    PS: I’ve smuggled a fictitious boat name in the above list can you spot which one?

    1. I don’t want the mood lightening! I want to wallow in horror and despair! As soon as the BBC announces there is no truth to the rumour that Zombies have been seen in Beijing I’m nailing the front door shut!

      2. Don’t forget to stock up on plenty of tinned goods. I hear Fukishima irradiated tins of Tuna from the pacific are brilliant at neutering Coronaviruses…… (and possibly the host…..)

        1. But as the host will glow in the dark, it will cut electricity bills. Nuclear power really is the future!

      3. To help you wallow, may I report on the self satisfied smugness of our Canadian health team looking after our (so far) one and only victim of this weeks disease.

        They are loudly trumpeting how well the procedures are in place, how the patient called for medical help after arriving home from China and how this person is in a low pressure containment suite receiving the best care imaginable. We are all completely safe!

        Never mind that this person flew in from China, got past the health checks at the airport and was driven home, never mind the other dozen or so suspected cases.

        Talk about tempting fate with their brave talk, after all nothing could possibly go wrong could it?

        Hmmm, our power just went out and I had to wait for the generator to kick in before posting this.

    2. I’ve not noticed any obvious fictitious boat name, but I have spotted a fictitious tool name. :•)

      The term “lump” hammer (no such thing) is a widely used colloquialism for the more proper club hammer.

      1. No it’s definitely a boating item….

        And yes there is a fictitious boat name in there…..

    2. If he doen’t want peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations am I to assume he wants war, penury and emnity with all nations.?

    2. I remember thirty years ago when some ‘Beastie Boys’ follower prised the VW badge from the radiator grill of my Jetta, I fantasised about catching the prat and branding his forehead with the VW logo.

      Edited.

          2. That knobhead in the middle reminds me of Michael Carroll.

            Carroll. a Norfolk Chav, won six million quid on the lottery some years back. Within three years the thick twat had squandered it all and ended up broke. He bought a massive house and held quad bike races to annoy the neighbours; a Ferrari Testarossa that he crashed, and a thick gold chain for his neck with a large gold boxing glove on it.

            I body-searched him once when he came through the airport (before he went bust), he had the chain around his neck. I tried to engage him in conversation but he had the charisma and intellect of a louse.

  38. I’m just loving this diet. For my Sunday dinner (at 1:00 p.m.) I had a hamburger!

    I bashed some minced beef, seasoned with salt and pepper, into a ‘pattie’ shape with me mitts. I then fried it. I served it on a bed of chopped yellow pepper and celery, with some torn baby gem lettuce leaves. I made a dressing of: chopped gherkin mixed with a dollop each of mayonnaise, tomato ketchup and Colman’s English mustard—just a big teaspoonful of the dressing atop the hamburger. I then made a guacamole to my own recipe, to serve alongside the hamburger.

    Yummy, filling, nourishing, and with very few calories. I’m hoping to emerge in Spring like an emaciated grizzly after seven months of hibernation.

      1. I eschewed Heinz salad cream for decades as “naff”. When I rediscovered it a few years’ back, I fell in love with it. I now can’t do without it and it makes the perfect accompaniment to my pork pies.

          1. I have a freezer full that I made before my diet. I now have to scoop out the meat and jelly since my diet forbids me from eating the crust!

            Nice with a home-made pickled onion, Paul! :•)

          2. I don’t know, but I will have a look next time . Heinz sandwich spread is very difficult to find … and is stocked minimally compared to other spreads .

        3. The breakthrough came some years ago when I found it for sale in a local supermarket. Along with HP Sauce, it takes me back to my youth! Still have to get my Bovril hand carried tho’.

    2. Home made burgers are the best. You decide exactly what to put in them and on them. I dice raw onion into small pieces and put them on the burger as I’m frying the second side to warm them slightly for a nice crunch when they are in the finished item.

      1. Onion, red pepper and garlic, chopped fine and fried for 2 or 3 minutes and added to lean minced beef.

        1. I always use minced beef that is 15% – 18% fat to keep them moist and for the flavour. I find lean beef to be a bit dry. I rarely have burgers so I want them to be worth the effort instead of coughing out clouds of dust while I’m chewing them. 🙂

          2. Made the mistake of using minced reindeer a few years ago. Zero fat, a real pig to cook with.

          4. I use Chuck Steak in pasties at times, but I’ve just checked and the listing I looked at said it is only 5% or less fat. That is too lean for a juicy burger in my experience. I don’t particularly care what Mr Blumenthal thinks if he says something that lean makes the best burgers. 🙂

            If you had quoted the Two Fat Ladies then I would have pricked up my ears. Those ladies knew how to cook. “Just add more lard!” “Margarine? Disgusting stuff. Use butter!”

          6. Each to their own. 🙂 I have 4 different books on the joys of making pasties and each has many recipes. Some of them are silly and unnecessary and too “specialist” with very exotic ingredients. Some have just the basics. I normally skip the steak altogether in mine as I am not a fan of it. I often use layers of beef mince instead with half an Oxo cube in place of most of the salt. But that can end up a bit too beefy for some.

            I am in Cornwall, so I have some very good teachers about how they are “meant” to be made. I can look at a TV chef and say “That is wrong… It is going to come out badly.” Those two “Hairy Bikers” tried to make one and I knew it was going to be a train-wreck just from the way they were handling the ingredients and treating the pastry.

            Some poor locals had to taste the final product and said it was nice. But you see from the looks on their faces that they were not thinking that. The way that they had to bite and PULL to get the pastry to separate before they could start to chew. And chew. And chew. Pastry should not be like that. They were cooking outside in the Cornish air, so I suspect that their oven had some catastrophic temperature failure and did not get hot enough to cook the food properly.

            (Edit – I have thought about it and my local butcher did give me Beef Skirt to try for the first batch I made. I use actual steak so rarely that it was years ago and I forgot. I must use Chuck Steak for something, but I cannot recall that either… I don’t like steak so I usually replace it in the recipe. 🙂

      3. Home made anything is the best. I make my own sausages from good quality pork, and rusk and seasonings from Weschenfelder sausage supplies by mail order. Their gold seasoning makes them taste like those from a top-notch butcher.

      1. She just about bears me! ;•)

        Hew whole family are skin and bone: wiry sons- (and daughters-) of toil on the land (a farming family). They can eat like trenchermen and never put on an ounce!

        2. My elder sister is 5’8″ and has always weighed about 8½ stone. She can eat and eat and never put on weight whereas, with same genetic make-up I weigh over twice as much as she does.

    1. Is there any reason to suppose that the turning-a-blind-eye thing is not still with us ? Neither with sexual abuse or financial crime or tax evasion or any crime you care to mention ? And not necessarily with the Muslim community, who get away with murder ?
      It took a long time to expose Prince Andrew, and there is nio indication that the other visitors to that sceptred isle have been named and pulled in.
      The world is corrupt, and we get by here in the U.K. by keeping our eyes closed and our ears and mouths shut.

      2. Unless there are other cases hovering about, the only accusation against him I’ve seen is of the 17 year old girl who may have been brought to the UK as a prostitute.
        The year of the alleged incident was before a change in UK law banned prostitution for under 18 year olds, so as the law stood at the time, his actions, despicable as they were, were not illegal under UK law.

      3. Has Prince Andrew been exposed as anything other than an idiot?

        He seems to have been condemned without a trial which is against the whole principle of habeas corpus. If the Police do have enough evidence to bring a case against him to court then of course they must do so – but until then he is innocent until proven guilty.

    2. TB,
      “Police get biggest funding boost for a decade”, regarding the eyes tight shut brigade.
      It shows to the decent 2020
      vision brigade that crime pays handsomely.

    3. All Common Purpose-trained establishment placements, just as I warned about three decades ago.

      Not one of them has done an honest day’s coppering at the sharp end. [Not one of them would have a clue how to!]

  41. BBC4 are repeating Clive James: Postcard from New York 10pm tonight.

    Last night’s offering Postcard from LA. Worth viewing for the
    toupe scene ….
    BBC4 at it’s best…happy to pay £3 per week for BBC4 alone.

      1. Thanks mola.
        i watched some on youtube when the M/H saga was in full cry…to retain my sanity.
        Postcard from Bombay….brill

    2. I’m reading Clive James’s Unreliable Memoirs at the moment. I’ve just finished Vol 2 of the 5.

      2. I have the first two Clive James books on the shelf, and the third is on the way, but I have not started them yet. I’m going through one called “Tarkin” at the moment, which details the background and raising of the man who blew up the planet Alderaan in the first Star Wars film. It is quite well written and details the life processes that led to the “Tarkin Doctrine” based on fear to bring order. Destroying a whole planet is extreme, but with rebellion spreading across thousands of worlds, it could save lives in the long run.

        He is not made out to be a hero though. He did exterminate millions of innocents. It does lay out how he came to think that way. It is the first book of this type that I have read, and it is odd to be reading about a character I saw on film 40 years ago.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d92f827ccb544cc41a0c7d37b707e0c10e2ed4cd6ac3bbcaf1c24f0a7c749ef1.jpg

          1. It is strange the mass of background information there is out there that is “canon” and has been written in the past 40 years about that fictional galaxy far away. I liked the films, but was never massively into Star Wars, preferring things such as Blakes 7 instead. Although more and more of those actors have passed away now. Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow and Jacqueline Pearce in recent years.

            I have picked up from this Star Wars book that a “Moff” was the rank of a Sector Governor and there were 20 of them answering to an Imperial Ruling Council, above which was the Emperor. Tarkin was elevated to “Grand Moff” so that he could override the other 19 in order to facilitate the building of the Death Star, and avoid bureaucratic delays with components crossing the galaxy and different boundaries.

            All make-believe I know, but I enjoyed reading the Lord of the Rings and I like the background details from that fantasy world as well. 🙂 Reading books certainly beats the vast majority of television on offer these days.

          2. Fascinating. I liked the first 3 films then i lost interest. I liked Blakes 7 too. Servelan in her skintight PVC gave me the occasional damp patch. :o)

          4. I looked forward to its coming on the basis of the pre-publicity, then went off it for good during the first episode.

          5. I don’t recall the pre-publicity nor any particular episodes, but I do recall that enjoyed it and then didn’t.

            Probably after Blake disappeared from the scene.

            My problem is that I don’t pay all that much attention to the progammes!

          6. That was unfortunate. The first episode was the only one that was like that. None of the others were. There was one later where a Federation military commander was put on trial for war crimes, but was allowed to escape because it stopped a wider uprising and some thought “it had to be done.” But even that one was far superior to the first.

            “There are rules to war.”
            “I am a FIELD OFFICER!”

            “They’ll shoot you tomorrow. Would you like a drink Sir?”
            “What did you say to me?!”
            (Snaps to attention.) “Nothing Sir!”
            (Picks up the flask.) “I should think not Sergeant.”

            It made an impression on a young boy.

          7. I always though that the abysmal acting, risible scripts, and wonky stage sets on Blakes 7 resembled Crossroads in Space or Cosmic Acorn Antiques. :•)

          8. But Grizz…Amy Turtle fluffing her lines and forgetting where she was, was as good as Shakespeare for its incisive look into the human condition. The wobbly sets only added weight to this by showing us how flimsy the human condition is. Sheesh.

          9. Ahh – but it was the concept for its time. You didn’t see that very often on prime time on the BBC. The people were meant to be given prolefeed not programs that made them ask questions and start to think, especially not the young ones. It was the story and theme of Blake’s 7 that made it golden, not the sets. I love old black & white films for what they say and don’t look at the “cheap ray guns” or people with pigs masks for faces. 🙂

            In Blake’s 7 the “good guys” were rebelling against the government forces of law or “Federation.” The powers that be were happy to murder innocent people, to drug them and brainwash them with propaganda, to remove / exterminate entire populations and replace them with those who would obey. No wonder the BBC got rid of it. A bit too close to what some governments were starting to do. I loved it as a boy. You just get mindless drivel with saccharin “superheroes” flying around and bashing things today.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3eb20b4404f382b638dc2b0d371c893dcdde05cb9c2430ff78f16a7a6ccfd368.jpg

          12. I’m not taking the mickey.

            Technical question: Is there anything that can eat silk? I would have thought it was difficult to chew through, let alone digest.

          13. Like wool, silk is made up of proteins, so yes, clothes moth caterpillars can chew their way through it.

          14. Thank you.

            We get a fair bit of clothes-moth damage on wool here but never ( I am NOT tempting Providence here) on silk.

    2. David Attenborough should be rooting for Rebecca Long-Bailey to be the leader of the Labour party then, which will ensure that they lose the next election. That will give him 10-15 years of Conservative government. Unless we are still in the EU with the same conditions that we have now in 5 years time, in which case Nigel Farage and his next party will storm to victory, if he is still breathing and has not been “removed from the board.”

      If we have not left the EU in any meaningful way in 5 years time, then only hard-core fanatics and the terminally starry-eyed will be voting for the Conservative or Labour parties in the next election. We don’t want to waste all of that time kowtowing to the EU while the rest of the world is put in standby mode.

      1. The green bandwagon is now occupied by all parties so I don’t really see it slowing down here, until and unless all the latest doomograms are proved to be as wrong as all the previous ones.

        1. “They” have spent years brainwashing the youth and general public about this non-existent “man made climate change threat” and it is a useful tool to try to bankrupt Western economies, while places such as China steam (ahem) ahead. So the Green Lobby won’t let it go now. But I am happy to ignore them until they become educated to the real world.

    3. The Left-wing Globalist-inspired (and UN-backed) Climate-Change Hoax Unmasked.

      Regarding Sir David Attenborough as an upholder of the truth and a paragon of virtue (let alone a “national treasure”) is, nowadays, fraught with danger. Yes, Attenborough has brought us some of the best quality wildlife documentaries over the past half century-and-more, but these days—in his dotage—I fear that he is being easily manipulated by those with a sinister political agenda.

      These days, Sir David is more and more reliant upon scripts provided for him by his BBC bosses. Let us not forget that Attenborough is so well-established at the BBC as to be part of its fabric. He was controller of BBC2 (and its programme output) between 1965 and 1973 and his word was law.

      Unfortunately he no longer enjoys the amount of control that he once did and it seems he is easily manipulated into reading scripts with a provably distorted message, as he was when he was tricked into warning us about the ‘plight’ of polar bears, which was then proved to be wholly incorrect. The BBC has a clear political agenda (it is wholly against Brexit, for example) and remains to be continually biased against those not following its creed.

      As one commentator said: “Sir David Attenborough has been rumbling on again with the climate change propaganda. I really liked his documentaries, and him, before his political views were known. When he said that the people of the UK should not have been allowed to have a referendum, and it should have been left to the politicians to decide our future with the EU, the respect for him that many held fell away.

      He has spent a lifetime on holiday doing what he loves, paid for by the BBC’s television tax. There were others who deserved that Knighthood far more.”

      The following YouTube videos clearly show the extent of the climate hoax and try to warn viewers against being taken in by a demonstrably erroneous message that is being forced upon us by those with malicious intent:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewJ6TI8ccAw&list=WL&index=57 The In-depth Story Behind a Climate Fraud
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGxDqUmW6z0&list=WL&index=25 The Great Lakes Climate Change Myth.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IatVKZZcPG0 Attenborough and the walruses: the making of a false climate icon
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6bcCTFnGZ0&list=WL&index=57 Polar Bear Scare Unmasked
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VwzUBc1rsc The Polar Bear Catastrophe That Never Happened
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8fZG1WnwMs&list=WL&index=64 Purged Over Rising Polar Bear Populations
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6bcCTFnGZ0&t=17s Polar Bear Scare Unmasked Again
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZF5pZD35r8 A Brief History of Arctic Angst
      https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/05/28/the-polar-ice-melt-myth/
      https://skepticalscience.com/himalayan-glaciers-growing.htm
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8JZo6PzpCU&list=WL&index=42&t=0s Are we doomed?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=4U8kgiiVj5Q&feature=emb_logo NO “Climate Emergency”
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViY2J3LPgN4 New sun-driven cooling period of Earth ‘not far off’
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDOgWeTAas0&list=WL&index=24&t=0s Unstoppable Solar Cycles – Full Video
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9r1YFtQliE&list=WL&index=56 Wolfgang Müller Debunks Climate Alarmism
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA3OA_2S4QY The experts explain the global warming myth
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J48LQSQIinA The Truth About ‘An Inconvenient Truth’
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA5sGtj7QKQ&t=1s The truth about global warming
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBbvehbomrY Jordan Peterson: climate change and policy — Cambridge Union
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0kpEUVffXo&list=WL&index=61 The Left Wing Doom Mongers Are Wrong
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkoRm9A7xr8&list=WL&index=68 What I Wasn’t Told About Climate Change
      https://omny.fm/shows/nights/scientist-david-packham-on-whats-really-causing-th bushfires
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ldNuKZgoA&list=WL&index=35 Climate—Piers Corbyn Exposes Fraud
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=318&v=Z97_qDsrqgU&feature=emb_logo President Ronald Reagan’s Best Debate Moments
      https://www.sott.net/article/413892-Scientists-caught-adjusting-sea-level-data-to-create-false-impression-of-rising-oceans

      2. I have seen most of those over the years and I prefer them to the doomgoblin’s pseudoscience.

        Do I believe the climate is changing; yes.
        Do I believe that mankind is the principal driver; no.
        Do I believe mankind is causing appalling damage to the planet and the environment; yes.
        Do I believe that the “West” and capitlism should be shattered just so that Africa, India, China, Brazil etc can breed billions more mouths, most certainly not.

        There are times when I think a coronastyle Armageddon might do the planet a lot of good.

          1. Thank you.

            But you don’t do yourself nearly enough credit.

            You’re so pithy I need a pith-helmet. };-))

        2. It has to come. Something has to happen and soon; be it famine and drought, pestilence, disease, or global thermonuclear war; something is desperately needed to reinforce the unassailable fact that 7·8 milliard of just one species trashing the environment and destroying biodiversity is nothing more than a malignant presence.

          1. Yes it does indeed Grizz and folks harping on about it can’t change a thing, we can’t go back in time. Oh wait…yes we can do something, let’s invent electric cars and pretty soon we’ll have battery mountains everywhere unless someone can invent one which will last longer than 3 years.

          2. I want to go back in time in a time machine and prevent Cecil Rhodes, Mungo Park, David Livingstone (and a few others) going to Africa to “educate and civilise” the people there. The natives were much happier (and in fewer numbers) before meddling Europeans went there to mess with the infrastructure.

            You reap what you sow.

          3. Admittedly going there was a bad idea, but It all really went pear-shaped when the Europeans left.

          4. But if the Europeans hadn’t gone there in the first place they would all be as happy as Larry, living their traditional lives as they had done for millennia.

          5. Knocking each other’s skulls in with knobkerries and stealing the next village’s women.

          6. It’s what they did. They were in balance with nature, like all the other wildlife, and everything remained in equilibrium. Forced ‘civilisation’ ruined all that.

          8. Ignorant and happy. I think that is far superior to being half-civilised, starving and breeding out of control.

            Better for them, better for us, and much better for the planet.

          10. Spot on…can’t argue with anything there. I would like to invent a vaccine to inject ‘forward thinking’ into anyone who has a say in the lives of others.

    4. I’m still awaiting a reply from Dear David regarding the plastic waste we collected from North Cornish coasts many years ago,

      Surfers against Sewage was big news in the 90’s…..

      It was created in 1990 by a group of Cornish surfers from the villages of St Agnes and Porthtowan on the north coast of Cornwall……….. I was there

          4. I was forgetting these days you can pop the message in a plastic bottle and put it in the Recycling box and it reaches Malaya in next to no time…

    2. When was the last time anyone other than a member of the Brussels kleptEUcracy atually voted for that clown?

      1. Whenever I see his name written down my brain replaces the Ver with a four letter word….

      1. A tourist was passing an Indian reservation and saw a teepee with the sign:

        “Chief Custard’s last stand, Chief knows everything. Ask any question and he will be correct.”

        Intrigued, the tourist went in and asked “what did I have for breakfast?”

        “Eggs.”

        The tourist was amazed and left.

        When he had departed, he thought about this for a while and concluded that it was an obvious answer and thus merely a guess.

        Ten years later, the tourist returned to the reservation and entered the chief’s tent and greeted him:

        “How”

        “Fried”

      1. “Come on Remainers, we can do this.”

        That sentence just broadcasts the soulless emptiness of this persons existence. I have read sombre poetry about the bleakness of the dark side of life. About the cold emptiness of the graveside of a loved one. About the silence in the night. I would read them all again with a smile before I would have a conversation with someone like him.

        God forbid that he does something useful with his life. There is so much joy and happiness in the world. Our future outside of the European Union will be a FREE one. There is so much to look forward to. Yet this empty Remainer is clinging to a dead idea because they don’t have anything else. Some people are going to need a lot of help to teach them how to smile at life again. Animals have a more exciting time than these individuals.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a72946adc063e8131695d6ebe0ab7f2f5fa030a2fbc4cfb822a570dfb37bf95d.jpg

      1. I’ve still got a collection. I have a Crown, Half-Crown, Florin, English Bob, Scottish Bob (different Standards on the reverse ‘tails’ side), Tanner, brass Threepenny bit, Threepenny ‘Joey’, Penny, Ha’penny, and Farthing.

        2. I still have most of those as well as an 1862 penny. It’s so thin though, I could shave with it.

          1. I used to spend my childhood checking the dates on all my pennies to see if I could find one with the magical 1933 date on it. I never did, though, much to my chagrin. I suppose it might have been because only 8 were minted and most of those were accounted for.

          2. I’ve seen it claimed that there were only four, and some saying only seven, it depends on whether they were “pattern” or genuine, but as far as I knew they never actually went into circulation and only 7 “genuine” were minted with four “pattern” produced.

          3. I remember doing something similar looking for a Park Drive packet with a specific number on it. Someone at school had said it was worth a bob or two.

            The streets around our school were the cleanest in town.

          1. That question raised a huge smile, Jill. I don’t have a (red) ten bob note per se, but I do have one half of a (green) pound note, which was accidentally ripped and the other half lost, decades ago. It was never legal tender, after the ripping, so have kept it and just call it my “home made ten bob note”. :•)

          2. I used to collect stamps, then when I came to the USA in 1979 and philately shops were few and far between, I never quite gave up the habit of collecting things ‘English’ so I have several green pound notes along with the good old red 10 shilling note.

          4. There was a tradition in my wife’s family where the same 10 bob note was put in a new birthday card and sent from family member to family member. This went on for years.

            A new member of the family, by marriage, got the card with the note and spent it.

            He was never forgiven!

  45. Dear Richard Madeley,

    Should I worry more about the New CoronaVirus pandemic, now that 5 million Chinese have been reported as having left Wuhan before the lockdown, or the threat of pan-galactic Global Warming as espoused by that nice Miss Thunberg or should I worry even more about the prospect of the English Cricket Team’s bowlers failing to bowl out south Africa over two days thus handing the Saffers a win?

    Yours worried

    Sarf London.

  46. Majid Nawaaz (LBC) going to town at a caller regarding China and the Left’s moral relativism and the caller’s hesitation on criticising China and its human right record, and indecision on whether the U.S. or China is a greater threat.
    I don’t nor listen to him, as I don’t particularly like him or his views, but he’s unequivocal on the threat of China and its dreadful treatment of its own citizens.

  47. Off topic

    The FA cup at its best.

    Well done Shrewsbury, let’s hope the replay is a sell out, they make lots of money from it, and they don’t get slaughtered.

    Better yet they win the replay after a penalty shoot out.

    1. Why is it that so many cup games end in a draw? It wouldn’t by any chance be so that the daft saps who follow this stuff are pressed into attending the return leg with associated gate revenues? I don’t follow wendyball but my cynical side is rather suspicious. And my cynicism is normally well founded….

    2. I liked Shrewsbury as I conducted a survey there of the Dyas Brothers’ premises and designed the shop front for a Carluccio’s there. I hope that it is still going. So many Carluccio’s restaurants have closed in recent years.

      Robert Dyas the building owner was an enormous help to me, providing old plans and architects’ drawings from conversions in the sixties. Behind the Dyas premises was a splendid Theatre Hall, probably unknown to many but which had been associated with the Temperance Movement, a movement founded in Shrewsbury.

      I stayed regularly in a nearby hotel where, in the car park, was evident a part of a Belfast Hanger truss. Quite where this came from or which airbase I still have no idea. It was a strange juxtaposition helping to form a roof over a hotel car park.

      One evening after surveying and covered in spiders’ webs from a low basement, Robert Dyas suggested we go for a few glasses of wine in a pub on the other side of Quarry Gardens. We were entranced by the Gardens and by the Avon with the various bridges crossing it. (I recall Percy Thrower was the gardener).

      When we reached the pub the girl waitresses resembled top models, all dolled up with extension eyelashes, fabulous make up, seductive clothes and high heel shoes. At one point I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

      I probably resembled a tramp after my exertions for Robert Dyas and Carluccio’s.

      Edit: River Severn not Avon.

      1. Great tale.

        I thought Robert Dyas hardware stores were always slightly expensive but on the plus side they had a really good range of stock.

        1. I am not quite sure which Robert Dyas but the store in Shrewsbury was a Jane Dyas fashion store and my necessary historical research told me that it had been a Dyas Brothers store specialising in clothing and fashions.

          Prior to Dyas Brothers acquiring the site it had been a Temperance Institute and Hall.

          I might be wrong but the Robert Dyas I dealt with might not be the same family as the current Robert Dyas hardware stores. The company I dealt with were reasonably high end clothiers and I think furnishers selling fabrics.

          You will be familiar with Eaden Lilley in Cambridge. This Dyas Brothers Company were similar.

        1. Hi Conway, you are of course correct. Apologies. I am getting old.

          Edit: Yup it was the Wightman Hall and this had been a theatre of sorts In its history. I personally found it a magnificent adjunct to what was once a Temperance Society Hall. The original frontage was demolished after Dyas Brothers acquired the site. I found the auction particulars. These details formed a part of my Heritage Statement at the time.

          1. I used to live south of Shrewsbury, so I know the town fairly well. MOH is a Salopian, having been born there.

          2. I guessed. Shrewsbury is a lovely place, harmed only by that ruddy clock tower and the wretched swimming pool/sports centre or whatever, erected by the council. These remain truly shocking examples of Council ignorance and incompetence.

          3. They demolished a lot of interesting buildings in the ’60s and ’70s (I didn’t come to Shropshire until mid-seventies) and replaced them with soul-less, anonymous rubbish (in my view). Thankfully, they kept Rowley’s House and there are still interesting houses in the back streets.

      1. We are both recovering, thanks, Ol. Mare is back home, on box rest and going out for a pick of grass in hand daily. I am surviving the trials and tribulations of drainage damage and recovering from the lurgy.

        1. What was wrong with her? I’ve got vet problems right now too and I’m bloody annoyed.

          5. She had a difficult foaling, had to have a caesarian and the foal was found to be deformed, so had to be PTS. Thankfully, she’s a fighter, so she’s back home now. It wasn’t a good start to the year on the breeding side (never mind what’s been going on in my bedroom, kitchen and garden!).

          6. Dreadful.
            I’m sorry to read that; you must have been very saddened and disappointed. I hope next year is better all round.

          7. We’ve had a bit of a disaster the last couple of years, too. We lost a mare and foal and then last year we lost two foals at about two months old, due to a respiratory virus.

          8. That’s awful. I am very sorry.

            Without wishing to be inappropriate, should you be breeding from the stock or is it just down to very bad luck?

          9. It’s just down to bad luck. Foaling is a very dangerous time for mares – rather like birth for humans. With horses, the foaling process is very explosive and if things start to go wrong there is a very small window of opportunity to intervene successfully. We lost the mare and foal last time because the roads were snowed in and the vet couldn’t get there in time.

          11. We have had two healthy foals since, a colt and a filly. We still have some to deliver safely, though. Newsells Stud (although we are not using their stallions this year) sent me a block of chocolate from Equiano (one of their sprinter stallions) for Valentine’s Day, which was much appreciated 🙂 14th February is when the breeding season begins in the northern hemisphere.

          15. No,it was real milk chocolate in a block. Newsells often send mare owners chocolates before Valentine’s Day. It’s part of their advertising ploy. This one came with a joke “speeding ticket” – Equiano is a champion sprinter.

          16. Happened to me too, once. It was awful and although I saved the mare, I never got another foal out of her.

          17. I don’t know if she will be able to breed again or not. She’s well bred, a half sister to a multiple group 1 winner.

        2. Sounds like she is improving, and yourself too. Good news! Do you have help with the chores so you don’t have to stress?

  49. Why do I have this vague feeling of being discombobulated about something? Very odd….

        1. Unless you want a string of discombobulated replies to cheer you up, of course.

          Try fish puns or cheese souflés.

  50. Here’s what I’ll be watching tonight…….

    … Palladium. 1958. Variety show hosted by Tommy Trinder. The stars include Sarah Vaughan, Dick Shawn, Marvin Rainwater, Pinky and Perky, The John Tiller Girls and the game Beat the Clock.

    Talking Pictures TV, Freeview channel 81, 9pm.

    Now, where’s me popcorn?

    5. ‘The John Tiller Girls’ – whence came Betty Boothroyd – in the days we had a Speaker of integrity and distinction …

    6. Oh dear Eddy! I’m a fan of Tommy Trinder as a stand-up comic, but I had to turn this off after about 30 minutes. There was an American ‘comic’ whose name escapes me (prossibly Dick Shawn). He was worse than awful. Even Trinder’s feeble gags went over the heads of most of the audience. Out of devilment I wanted to watch the ‘Beat the Clock’ routine but my interest had gone.

      1. One man’s meat and all that, Harry. I enjoyed the comedian and thought him a bit different from the usual stand-ups of years gone by.

        The one about the plane being so fast that two rabbits got on and when it landed, only two got off had me laughing.

        As for Pinky and Perky……….

        All good, harmless stuff, I thought.

  51. Anyone remember yesterday’s thread on “If 9 out of 10 of the world’s population were to die from a deadly virus”? Someone said that would put us back to Elizabethan population numbers and I commented that it would cause a regression back to Elizabethan technology as well. But I’ve been thinking, and believe it would actually take us back a lot further than that.
    9 out of 10 power workers, oil refinery workers, medical staff, communications workers, water supply staff, farm workers and all the other people we take for granted, dead. Everything comes to a halt. Within a very few years the population wouldn’t be down to 10% but more likely 2%, or less. Within 2 generations, if that, we really would be back to hunter gatherer status.
    On that note, I’m returning to my white Rioja and Peter F Hamilton novel.

    1. I’m looking forward to going out of my cave from time to time, holding my club, and looking for a nice prehistoric girl with long tresses.

          1. Don’t you believe there’s bound to be a Diversity Officer around. Just Like Douglas Adams’ cast of Hairdressers and Telephone Sanitation Engineers

          2. “So… You identify as a man? Then get over there and start chopping logs and dragging them over to the longhouse where we gather for meals. Oh, you say you are really a woman after all. Interesting.”

    3. And once again the small number of accomplished flint knappers would come into their own producing flint tools for the survivors. It would be unfortunate if they were amongst the 9 out of 10, as then the survivors wouldn’t even have the tools hunting; might just manage on the gathering front.

      1. I already have many of those books, including ones on how to skin and prepare small game. Also those detailing traps that were used to catch the wildlife in the first place. Not that I would ever use them at this point, as it would be illegal, but the books are legal and if we lose 90% of the population, law enforcement will be a very different kettle of fish.

        On that note I have books on fishing as well. Both inland and shore based. 🙂

          4. I have longbows, arrows, arrowheads, multiple fishing poles / rods with MANY lines and hooks. As well as water purifiers for the lazy who do not want to do it the long winded way. I would list more, but people are not supposed to talk about these things. I will not be panicking when the time comes. 🙂

        1. True, but I’m of the view it’s best you do your early learning before it becomes necessary.

          1. I’m not a bad shot with a bow. Fishing tackle would be something I would hoard, I already have a lot. If I was spared, of course.

          2. I would head for the air rifle shop.

            However, 90% of humans disappearing would suggest that there would be a food (or at least protein) bonanza for those that survive.

          4. sAnd as long as you can keep the mechanism working and prepare pellets you should be able to eat well.

          6. I guess that we will end up going vegetarian and vegging over the flower beds.

            Must stockpile some yeast to keep the vineyard going.

          7. Now that’s the way to think. Unfortunately, post holocaust, there’s no cops to safeguard your produce. I’ll keep guard though.

          13. We have an annual chasse fair in the village and the range of killing equipment makes me keen to stay on-side with the locals.

            {;-((

          14. Have visited the Loire and have gazed in open mouth amazement at the amount of weaponry and Gralloching kit available in local shops….

    5. Peter F Hamilton is an excellent author. With regards to society we would be fine. We have come along way since the 18th Century and know far more about the real world. We know the danger of bacteria, and have developed many medical procedures. We know so much more in so many fields. We would not be starting with a population that gargled untreated river water downstream from an outflow pipe every morning.

      Just look at those people who do those programs on how to survive in the wilds – (no one miss the point completely by saying how “they stay in hotels really.”) We really do not need all of the creature comforts that we take for granted now. Our society would be fine. We may need to use self defence against some groups, but there won’t be any reason not to by then.

      1. Sorry, the whole structure would crumble. Walking or cycling your only option within a week or two. Empty shop shelves within a week, no power for heating, cooking or light. No phones or internet for communication. The survivors will be made up of the same mix of geniuses and eejits that we now have.

        1. mola – 90% of the population is dead. We do not need all of that infrastructure. The country can support a population 1 tenth of what it is now. Snowflakes will be finished, unless they learn quickly. The basics of staying alive are nowhere near as complicated as you think. We do not all walk around strapped to life support machines. 🙂

          The human is hardy.

          2. Those won’t survive unless they get a grip. But if they don’t that will be down to them. They would be in the 90% that drop off the perch in the first place.

          5. “We do not need all of that infrastructure.”
            It’ll be 10 times bigger than the infrastructure we would need, but with no one to maintain it.

        2. Then the politicians will come crawling out of their nuclear bunkers and things will get worse.

          1. The politicians will be shot by their security details for allowing it to happen, so they won’t last long. 🙂

        3. Not everybody would have no heating, lighting or cooking. Some of us have solid fuel heating and cooking, open fires, candles and oil lamps 🙂 Walking or cycling isn’t a problem (even less of a problem getting from A to B if you have a horse and can ride or drive a pony and trap).

          1. Agreed, but the fuel supply, apart from wood, is relatively limited. But don’t forget, the have nots would be in search of warmth and light. Hopefully, as long as you don’t have French neighbours, the horses wouldn’t be seen as a food source too soon.

          3. My house cooker isn’t but I have several camp cookers that are, as well as a large supply of pre-chopped wood. So hot food and heating wont be a problem down here.

          4. We have two wood burning stoves and today Caroline and I have been sawing up logs for next year and the year after.

          6. My biggest nightmare would be huddling inside my cold log cabin, when all of a sudden I would hear a knock on the door. On opening it, I would come face to face with Greta Thunderpants shouting at me: “I told you this would happen!”

      2. Evening MM,
        May one ask, If that be the case why have we not been doing this for the last four decades ?

  52. Wuhan Coronavirus.

    Is it really quite serious?

    Well, it’s serious enough to have knocked the Sussex saga off the front pages.

      1. The very few that I’ve seen of the “drop down dead”ones look slightly staged.

        Almost as if some clowns think they are funny and are posting them as black humour.

        2. I like that part of the clip at the end from around 40 seconds: “You can see the absolute breakdown of society in general as the panic spreads.”

          Used over a clip of one woman flapping a plastic bag at another one. It is fortunate that the maker of this clip has never witnessed the rush of people and the fighting in a “Black Friday” sale. The poor mite would shoot himself on the spot in despair.

    3. It’s serious! I’ve just watched the news. Empty Motorways. People screaming in hospitals! Time to batten down the hatches as Stephen would say.

        1. Afternoon Sos. These are the sort of precautions I would expect to see if someone really had Novichocked Salisbury. It is beyond the bounds of credibility that this is in the cause of preventing something no worse than Influenza!

          1. Ahh bbbbut.

            We had a chemical and biological warfare expert who just happened to be on hand in Salisbury to ensure nothing untoward happened.

            On a more serious note, I observed a few days ago that the proof of a real danger would be martial law and lethal force used to enforce non-movement.

            It appears to be getting to that point in China.

            This will either be a totally damp squib or extremely serious. I fear the latter.

          4. 234–8 now. 451 runs ahead with two days to bowl the Saffers out (weather permitting, of course).

          7. Because he wanted to accrue an unassailable total. They now have two full days (six sessions) to bowl them out.

  53. SKY News and BBC News are trying to persuade us that the Greatest Sportsman ever you-never-heard-of has died in a helicopter crash in LA – David Beckham and Jack Nicholson were at his last game – so he must be famous …

    1. It’s just to take your mind off your prospective imminent death from contracting the nCoronaVirus strain…..(by your I mean our)….

    1. Also, what happened to our “Town Crier,” the font of so many, many stories both trivial and slightly interesting? Is it a holiday weekend?

      3. Maybe he left due to the the back-biting and obscene language.
        It’s a turn off and shouldn’t be tolerated.

        1. It does seemed to have toned down a great deal now. If I want mindless abuse I’ll switch over to Eastenders for 10 seconds. They do appear to spend most of the script shouting loudly at each other. If you can call that a script.

      1. Thanks. I haven’t been having unbroken sleep these last few nights, so it would be good to get a full eight hours at a stretch.

    2. Not sure if it would help but i find concentrating on slow and relaxed breathing works for me. Especially when boarding an Aircraft.

      1. Don’t have a problem with flying, only with not letting the dog wake me up in the middle of the night 🙂

  57. DT Story

    Remainers vow never to use Brexit 50p coins as they accuse Boris Johnson of ‘rubbing our noses in it’

    Small-minded petty little people who deserve nothing but our contempt.

      1. Whenever there is uncertainty in the markets they dip. When we have a strong response as in the U.S. I see my long term investments soar. God Bless America.

      1. Shouldn’t that be the only edition?
        Or are you expecting a reversal, a rejoining and another leaving?

  60. Sorry to sound insensitive , but the BBC are leading with the news of the death of some American basket ball player … we have never heard of him!

    3. Must be famous, CNN.com has as many stories about him as the famous two received.

      I was thinking that when someone important dies the wailing will be beyond belief , but I suppose that if it isn’t a media celeb then I suppose that the silence will be deafening.

  62. I am shocked. Who would have thought it? The most popular paper at the BBC is the Guardian, In fact they probably account for much of their circulation

  63. SKY News and BBC News are trying to persuade us that the Greatest Sportsman ever you-never-heard-of has died in a helicopter crash in LA – David Beckham and Jack Nicholson were at his last game – so he must be famous …

    1. The BBC news at ten had to apologise as in the report at the head of the news they’d shown footage of a basketball player who wasn’t the deceased . pffft

        1. I watched Clive James this evening as well… Brilliant .. NY …When the prog finished .. how life suddenly changed .. skyline Twin Towers etc.. The world took a very nasty turn after that . Clive had style .. watchable, listenable and his perceptive narrative on life will be greatly missed .

          1. He did delve deeper…………. “The mad idea that the Jews have no right to exist is a potent
            intensifier of the almost equally mad idea that the State of Israel can
            somehow be eliminated. I say ‘almost’ because a friend of mine in
            Australia recently presented me with a plausible case that the Middle
            East would probably be a more peaceful area if the State of Israel had
            never been founded. Like her argument that the Aborigines would have
            been a lot happier if the Europeans had never shown up, this contention
            was hard to rebut, except by rudely pointing out that we were both
            sitting in an Italian restaurant in Melbourne, history having happened”.

  64. Just seen the inscription wording for the new commemorative Brexit £ 50 note

    The Planet the final frontier. These are the voyages of the UK nation state. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new continents. To seek out trade deals with new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no EU member has gone for 50 years!

  65. News item here: Russian lass driven into the forest by her husband, who then cut off both her hands with an axe – so she couldn’t touch her children, apparently.
    Jesus, I feel sick to my stomach.
    Hands sewn back on, and some use returning, but …
    What is wrong with people?

  66. TV just had an ad for a sex shop. “Time to open the back door”, illustrated with a bewildering array of butt plugs…
    I need a drink, and mind bleach!

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