Sunday 5 September: Let’s go back to work, throw away the masks and start living again

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

684 thoughts on “Sunday 5 September: Let’s go back to work, throw away the masks and start living again”

        1. Well, there is a hint of blue above and it’s looking a bit brighter than of late. Garden beckons.

    1. I really admire clever cartoonists. Clearly it’s Johnson but with a clear porcine look. What have pigs done to be associated with this disgusting person?

    1. Good morning, Peter. Well rested after the supper you had last evening? I hope the Armagnac XO was very good. Envious KtK in a bright N Essex.😎

      1. Go’dday, Korky.

        The XO was very good, thanks – the last of the bottle. I bought a few bottles back in the Spring at 25% discount.

  6. 338548+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Sunday 5 September: Let’s go back to work, throw away the masks and start living again

    Grand idea,That could trigger the people power
    reset, reinstate, retaliation campaign, ‘don’t get mad, get even’ first off
    liquidate the three monkeys in the polling booth, face the everyday facts for what they are, and who instigated them bringing the Country into such odious disrepair, again & again then support & vote accordingly.

    You DO NOT eradicate political knot weed by chopping it at ground level
    you take the roots out.

  7. The 1970s had rules, values, Toast Toppers. But it’s Abba that comes back to haunt us

    Rod Liddle
    Sunday September 05 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

    When did it become compulsory to adore Abba? I was there first time round, and, believe me, there was not much to cheer about. Those gurning sideburned garden gnomes on their keyboards and guitar, dressed in clothes Elton John would have thought de trop. And the two women — the Valkyrie and that brunette who always looked like a peevish supply teacher, belting out songs of unfathomable inanity: flat-pack Euro-chansons affixed awkwardly to a disco beat or a plodding rock thump, the pop equivalent of Ikea.

    Even when they came up with a half-decent tune, it was let down by the asinine lyrics. As their most famous hit built up grandly to its chorus, Agnetha or the other one panted, “Dancing Queeeeeen, feel the beat — of the tambourine.” The tambourine? She’s dancing to a tambourine? Is she at some Calvinist youth club in Uppsala?

    Whatever, through some egregious feat of revisionism the caterwauling Swedes are now lauded as geniuses, which is why they’ve reformed and foisted a new album upon us. Much like the Eurovision song contest, they’ve been taken up by the camperati and we’re all supposed to go along with it.

    Some people imply that the affection for them is ironic, much as you might have an ironic affection for other excrescences from the past, such as rickets or polio. Not me. The 1970s was indeed a very good decade for popular music, but its nadir was Fernando and Super Trouper, both of which seemed to me to violate Sweden’s historic neutrality and demand swift and decisive military reprisals.

    Largely because of that revisionism, the 1970s have a bad rep. Themed 1970s evenings tend to involve chicken kiev, tank tops, brown furnishings, Abba and power cuts — but this is inverse nostalgia. If I were to bring back stuff from the 1970s, my first three choices would be Heinz Toast Toppers, David Owen and the Lord Jesus Christ.

    The first is an obvious pick and I miss it greatly. Small tins of stuff that looked like cat puke filled with lots of salt and flavourings synthesised from nuclear waste. It was delicious. Ready meals were a creation of the 1970s and, below a certain income threshold, we all ate them.

    When people blame fast food for our obesity crisis, point them in the direction of the crap we ate back then. The Toast Toppers, the Findus crispy pancakes, the sponge-based pizzas. But in those days 1 child in 30 was overweight or obese (and thus bullied), rather than 10 in 30, as is the case today. You never heard about allergies. Kids ate what they were given. How did we get from there to a nation of grizzling, wheezing, ten-year-old lardbuckets? Where did that come from?

    The middle class hadn’t discovered dyslexia as an excuse for their offspring’s stupidity, either, nor the working class the medicalised redoubt of ADHD to explain the fact that their son was a menace. Approximately 50 per cent of illnesses we know today didn’t seem to exist.

    I would include David Owen because it was pleasant to have a Labour Party that normal people could vote for and that retained a certain patriotism and social conservatism along with its redistributive agenda. I had some time for that much-derided Callaghan government, given the difficulties it faced. Owen would have made a fine prime minister, but by the end of the decade the deranged left, Jeremy Corbyn among them, had already captured the party.

    And Jesus — bring him back too? He’s terribly unfashionable, especially within the Church of England. Yet so many of our present social problems are the consequence of the hole left by the swift eviction of Christianity (or more properly Protestantism) from our lives: those simple and supposedly unbending strictures. The decline of the nuclear family and the growth of single parenting. The rise of a non-judgmental cultural relativism, the abandonment of deferred gratification. Communitarianism replaced by an almost endless identitarian clamouring.

    Then there’s the enormous rise in personal debt (whereas once owing people money was greatly frowned upon) and the tendency to see houses as a form of collateral rather than a home where one is part of a community. And the lack of a clear distinction between right and wrong — instead it’s “my truth” versus “your truth”.

    None of which is to say that the 1970s was a utopia. It clearly wasn’t. But before we became a secular state, the rules were clearer and easier to follow, and so by and large we followed them. The problem with a secular state is that nothing fills that hole.

    Still, given a choice, I’d have Toast Toppers back first. Especially the mushroom and bacon one. Oh, and maybe the Aztec bar.

    Taliban take over in Afghanistan

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Fsundaytimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Faaf03b42-0d8c-11ec-8be5-c970b7541460.jpg?crop=1500%2C1000%2C0%2C0&resize=1022

    The great white wall of Yorkshire
    A mural in Driffield to commemorate the town’s shop workers has antagonised some highly strung people because the characters depicted are all white. For example, Kerrie Woodhouse-Dove — a real person, not a name generated by The Guardian’s “build your own liberal” web page — said: “It just screams, ‘Welcome to our white town’.” Other women, many with similar names to Kerrie, agreed and piled in.

    The chief problem with these objections is that there are virtually no non-white people in the East Yorkshire town. The black and Asian population makes up 0.55 per cent. Kerrie and the others may wish that the shops were manned by whirling dervishes, Tuvan throat singers and Cree Native Americans, but sadly it is not the case.

    Season of mists and fruitiness
    Keep a very close eye on your partner this month. They are probably up to no good. September is when most illicit affairs begin, according to a website set up to facilitate adulterers.

    Off to the shops for some milk, he says? Nope, he’s nipping to a layby for a spot of dogging. Your wife captivated by a series of text messages she insists are from DHL? It may be a very different package she’s having delivered, from Bob, her personal trainer.

    Incidentally, while rummaging through these sex-related stats, I chanced upon another that might interest you. In which country in the world does the act of love last for the shortest time? You’ve got it: France. Perhaps they’re all too busy stealing our fish.

    • Covid has had many unexpected consequences, but surely the weirdest is that so many of Britain’s GPs have developed a pathological fear of people who are ill, to the extent that they have no intention of ever seeing them again. They are behaving rather like someone with a peanut allergy who has suddenly found himself working in a Snickers factory. How did I get here? Why did nobody tell me?

    It used to be that doctors worried about the time they wasted on the “worried well”. Now it’s the sick that scare the hell out of them.

    Perhaps you could ask them about this next time you are dying and engaged in a Zoom call with your local GP, who will advise you to go to hospital, or the chemist, or the post office, or Morrisons — anywhere, anywhere, but their surgery.

    1. It’s true, Abba got a free pass from the British for mangling our language. The closer you look at Abba lyrics, the creepier they get as well. They’re all about wet little women bemoaning how stupid they were to dump their men, or else talking about how they’ve surrendered to them.
      https://www.metafilter.com/128859/The-Dark-Creepy-side-of-ABBA
      One can’t help feeling that these lyrics were written by the “garden gnome” male half of the quartet.

      1. They are good bopping around tunes.
        Often people on the edges of a culture catch the spirit of it better than those wholly immersed in it.
        The best secular Christmas carol was written by a Jew.

    2. Typical English – a whole column of moans. Don’t like ABBA! Would have hated Toast Toppers (WTF??) if he had been old enough to eat the stuff, moan, moan, effing moan (he moaned…). One of the reasons we left the UK – the endless, wall-to-wall moaning – all that negative energy gets you down, so it does. And my mother is a Gold-medal candidate in moaning…

    3. Good morning Citroen

      Thank you for posting the Liddle article , excellent read

      The Abba revival , my goodness , heaven forfend , somethings one doesn’t want to remember about the 1970’s.

      High interest rates, unreliable cars , very hot/ very cold weather , food shortages , strikes .

      The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979

      It was the decade of the Space Hopper, the Ford Cortina, Raleigh Chopper bikes, the record player and cassette recorder.

      Events

      It was a decade of strikes – postal workers, miners and dustmen. It ended with the ‘winter of discontent’ in 1979 when ITV went off the air for five months. A three-day week was imposed during February 1972 to save on electricity at the start of the miners strike.

      During the summer of 1976 the weather turned so dry that water supplies reached critical low levels.

      In 1977, the whole nation celebrated the Queen’s Silver Jubilee with street parties.

      Household Goods

      64% of homes had a washing machine

      1974 – First domestic microwave cooker was sold

      1978 – VHS video recorder went on sale

      1979 – Sony began selling the Walkman personal stereo

      Television

      People could now watch television programmes in colour. Three stations had began broadcasting in colour between 1967 and 1969.

      1971 – 91% of families had a TV

      1972 – Newsround started
      Money

      In 1971 Britain went decimal. Before this there was 12d in a shilling, and 20 shillings in a pound.
      Find out more about old money

      Population

      1971 – Population of Britain = 54 million

      70s Fashion

      Platform shoes and flared trousers.

      In the early 1970s hot pants for women were popular.

      1970 Hippie chic
      1971 Platform boots
      1972 Quiffs
      1973 Glam rock
      1974 Birthday suits
      1975 Perms
      1976 Punk
      1977 Flares
      1978 Lycra
      1979 Designer jeans

      More information on the 70s fashion

      70s Toys

      Barbie, Sindy and Action Man dolls became very popular.

      1970 The Stylophone
      1971 The Space Hopper
      1972 Roller Skates
      1973 The Chopper bike
      1974 Pong
      1975 Monopoly game
      1976 Stunt Kites
      1977 Skateboards
      1978 Star Wars figures
      1979 Trivial Pursuit

      70s Music

      The first big new sound of the 1970s was “Glam Rock”, the main figures of this were David Bowie, Elton John and of course Gary Glitter. In the bleak political backdrop, these larger that life British bands and characters brought a welcome relief with their platform boots, sequins, nail varnish and colourful hair.

      punkPunk
      The punk movement of the late 1970s began in England. Great British bands of this scene were The Sex Pistols and The Clash. The Punk style was Mohicans, bondage clothes, safety pins, piercings and bovver boots.
      1970 Edison Lighthouse
      1971 T Rex
      1972 The New Seekers
      1973 Slade
      1974 Abba
      1975 David Bowie
      1976 Abba
      1977 Donna Summer
      1978 Boomtown Rats
      1979 Art Garfunkel

      Transport

      The era of global travel began in 1970 when the first Pan Am Boeing 747 jet landed at Heathrow. Air travel became cheaper and now it is easy to take a holiday in almost any part of the world.

      After years of trials, the fastest passenger aeroplane in the world called Concorde, came into service in 1976. It was built by Britain and France. It could fly at about 2,100 kilometres per hour.

      Popular cars were the Aston Martin, Triumph TR7, two door Capri and MGB GT (1978)

      Coal / Electricity

      Many coal mines closed because the need for coal in Britain was no longer as great as it had once been. Electricity was now generated by power stations burning oil or gas from the North Sea or in some cases by the use of nuclear energy.

      Date
      Invention
      Inventor
      1971 Digital watch George Theiss / Willy Crabtree
      1971 E-mail Ray Tomlinson
      1971 Pocket calculator Sharp
      1971 Personal computer MITS
      1972 email Tomlinson
      1972 The word processor
      1975 Digital camera Steven Sasson / Kodak
      1979 Post-it notes Spencer Silver / 3M
      1979 Mobile phone NTT
      1979 Walkman (personal tape music player) Akio Morita

      1. “In the early 1970s hot pants for women were popular.”
        One afternoon, MB’s ward took a phone call from a Colchester leather and fur shop. They had a couple of male patients – large chaps, partly due to hospital diet and partly due to medication – who had tried on leather hot pants and were refusing to change back into their normal clothes.
        MB and another male nurse went into town to deal with the situation; fortunately, the patients were elderly burnt out schizophrenics so meekly obeyed their carers.
        But we did wonder why the shop assistants hadn’t spotted something was wrong long before the chaps disappeared into the changing cubicle.
        This particular shop was frequently targeted by an ageing female patient who would waltz in; try on fur coats and then ask the shop to send the bill to her cousin – “She’s the Queen, you know”.

        1. Now that is so funny , really has made me laugh .

          I can just picture all of that , some strange sights in those days , and some men , including footballers wore very short shorts.

          Short men wore cuban heels , and my goodness those flares .

          Thank goodness Moh was in the RN !

          Not sure whether I enjoyed listening to Abba in those days .

        1. During the strike they played Beethoven’s 4th Piano Concerto on a loop at least once an hour!

    5. Just sayin’.

      The Official Top 20 Biggest Selling Groups Of All Time are as follows: ARTIST COMBINED SALES TOTAL BIGGEST SELLING SINGLE 1 BEATLES 22.1 MILLION SHE LOVES YOU
      2 QUEEN 12.8 MILLION BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
      3 ABBA 11.3 MILLION DANCING QUEEN
      4 ROLLING STONES 10.1 MILLION (I CAN’T GET NO) SATISFACTION
      5 OASIS 9.079 MILLION WONDERWALL
      6 TAKE THAT 9.078 MILLION BACK FOR GOOD
      7 SPICE GIRLS 8.0 MILLION WANNABE
      8 BEE GEES 7.6 MILLION HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE
      9 U2 7.5 MILLION WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
      10STATUS QUO7.2 MILLIONROCKIN’ ALL OVER THE WORLD

    6. Rod Liddle’s first piece reminds me of the wise words of G.K. Chesterton:

      “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”

    7. When did the nuclear family start getting eroded? When was Christianity pushed away? Who encouraged massive debt? Who excused poor child behaviour? Who promoted a massive state and the abrogation of personal responsibility? Who made homes necessary as capital due to shocking tax hikes?

      When did this country really start to slide backward? 1997. Under Labour.

  10. 338548+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Tories at war over ‘idiotic’ National Insurance tax increase

    AKA a grease tax to be applied to the moving in parts of the DOVER campaign, accommodation bills getting a tad heavy.

    Adding to the already overstretched cost of accommodation, education, incarceration,medication has the tory (ino) cartel fighting on two fronts
    the other front the decent peoples of the United Kingdom.

  11. 338548+ up ticks,
    The mindset of many was “make boris PM he makes us laugh” along with
    post referendum ” we won now leave it to the tory’s”

    Those two statements alone have very near killed a once very decent Nation.

    https://youtu.be/rSRUJNgANiw

      2. 338548+ up ticks,
        Morning Cs,
        Every picture tells a story, many of the herd
        carry the same sorrowful look courtesy of his & his party’s treacherous hands.

        No sympathy for him or the political cartel.

      2. Why the obsession with his weight? It is his business. No one elses.

        So he’s tubby. So am I. Makes no difference on who I am (apart from making me angry).

  12. Pressure building on Whitty?

    A number of MPs? Knowing exactly how many MPs are concerned would be appreciated so that people can compare as to how many remain sitting on their hands on this important issue. The real pressure has to come from parents refusing to allow their children to be jabbed despite what Whitty, Johnson and some teachers want.

    https://twitter.com/UsforThemUK/status/1434255785320669184

  13. 2 cases of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy [ Mad Cow disease] found in Brazil. No panic but all export of beef to China has been halted. Does this mean cheap meat for us in the UK? [BBC News]

      1. If only! Brazil nuts are the one thing worth buying with a clear conscience, but I fear suppliers are running low because they are cutting down the Brazil nut trees to grow soya and biofuel.

      2. Some years ago the BBC did a marvellous production of Charley’s Aunt with Danny La Rue in the title role.

        1. I saw that. Danny la Rue was too good at being female. The role needs a galumphing male for it to be truly funny.

    2. Cheap meat in the UK? No. MOst of the cost is related to transport and supermarkets, not much gets back to the beef farmer.
      Actually, same up here in’t West. Farmer gets bugger-all for the produce, all the money goes to distribution & supermarketing.

    3. I refuse to buy Brazilian beef on ethical grounds. It is absurd the amount we are having to sacrifice in order to achieve “Zero Carbon” or whatever to save the planet from a global mass extinction event in my lifetime, brought on by the opulent living of 8 billion humans aspiring to live like Americans, when Brazil is going all-out to undo all our efforts, and some, in co-operation with the Chinese Communist Party. The former farmlands in the South of the Amazon are turning to desert and the ranchers are organised into gangs who are setting about the forest people and the trees themselves along with countless valuable species we may never know again, except in fairy tales, with the murderous intent of Islamist genociders. And we buy their damned beef!

      I would love these ranches to go bust. They deserve it far more than the many small businesses here have in order to pay for Aspiration Nation and borrowing from the future.

      I buy my corned beef sourced from the UK and Ireland. It tastes better, is better for you, is properly farmed and doesn’t cost a great deal more.

      1. Norway pays Brazil squillions to preserve the Amazon rain forest, yet the felling rate increases every year.
        I’d not eat their beef up here either – we have good beef locally produced.

        1. Bolsonaro axed the environmental protection agency in Brazil, and transferred the money instead to the gangs of miners, loggers and ranchers clearing the forest in the name of economic development.

          Just to let you know what they are doing with Norwegian aid money.

      4. We buy local produce. It goes further (doesn’t shrivel into next to nothing) so the extra cost is covered.

      5. I buy what I want no matter where it comes from. Gave up doing what I am told years ago. You should try it. it is liberating. They tell you how to garden, how to eat, what not to eat. what to drive. The list is endless. Just got rid of my dirty stinking water buts as well.

        1. They tell me nothing. I make my own decisions and I am not going to be bullied by your attempt at virtue signalling.

          1. Not me mate. I just tell you what I do, its not a signal its a fact. I just do not like the Monty Don types preaching at me.

          2. I’ve gone right off Monty D. He was like a breath of fresh air when he took over from that ridiculous little pixie, but now he has become very irritating.
            Don’t get me started on Carole Klein!

    4. I hope the Australians refuse to make up the difference, after the way their beef farmers were treated by the Chinese.

  15. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/grenfell-tower-set-to-be-demolished-b953753.html
    Grenfell Tower set to be demolished amid safety fears
    Housing secretary Robert Jenrick has been told that the building poses a risk to the local community
    Ministers are expected to announce the demolition of the tower block this month due to safety concerns. Housing secretary, Robert Jenrick, has been told that the building poses a risk to the local community including the secondary school Aldridge Academy in west London, which is located near the building’s remains.
    According to the Sunday Times, senior Whitehall sources said structural engineering experts hired by the government had “unambiguously and unanimously” recommended that the tower should be “carefully taken down”. Bereaved families have been made aware that a decision will be made on the future of the tower block this month.
    Grenfell United, a group of survivors and bereaved families, said they were “shocked” by the development, “given the promise by the government that no decision would be made on the future of the tower without full consultation with the bereaved and the surviours”.
    “The Government has engaged with fewer than 10 of the bereaved and survivors on this matter, to date, and with such a wide range of viewpoints across all affected families, we struggle to understand why this would be pushed through so quickly.
    “Given what we went through, safety has always been paramount and we have had previous assurances that the tower can be kept safe for as long as it needs to be, and that it poses no risk to the community around it.”
    In May, relatives of the Grenfell Tower victims suggested turning the site into a “vertical forest” after the government announced it was prepared to demolish the building.
    The Observer reported that the structure would’ve been covered with 72 different species of plants to represent every person who died in the fire in June 2017.
    It came as the government published a letter revealing it was considering if and when Grenfell Tower should be taken down, promising that the “views of the community” would be considered.
    A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) spokesman said: “We know how important and sensitive this decision is and no decision has been taken.
    “Following important independent safety advice from structural engineers, we are engaging closely with the community as we consider the evidence, including the safety concerns raised, and what the future of the Grenfell Tower should be.”

    So, their phallic symbol of victimhood is to be knocked down, eh? Clear the skyline of the burned monstrosity, stop it falling on the school, what’s not to like? And, since the “victim group” didn’t actually own any part of it, why should they be consulted?

    3. The fools have not yet worked out that the seat of the fire at Grenfell was a gas leak. The incompetently specified cladding materials merely aided the spread of the fire.

      Check the videos and the colour of the flame.

      Such monstrous towers should be demolished wherever they are found. It was proven in the seventies that higher densities are achieved with intelligently designed low rise. Examples include Lillington Gardens Pimlico and Queens Road in Richmond on Thames, both designed by Darbourne and Darke, for whom I worked in the early seventies.

      Lillington Gardens is now listed by Westminster and the flats occupied by MPs and politicos.

  16. Morning all

    SIR – Zero Covid is an illusion. New Zealand is finding that out. The impact of the highly transmissible delta variant suggests that, given time, everyone will be exposed to and/or contract the disease, but double vaccination will prevent serious illness and reduce morbidity.

    We will have to just live with Covid, and the Government’s strategy for getting out of the current muddle must recognise this.

    Measures should include: throwing the masks away except in hospitals and extremely crowded places; lifting the travel bans for fully vaccinated people; aiming to bring hospital backlogs under control in two years; reinstating face-to-face GP consultations; and making civil servants go back to work in their offices.

    We need to reclaim our lives.

    Dr James Hiddleston

    Ballywalter, Co Down

    SIR – Having yet again postponed a transatlantic flight due to uncertainty and airport queues, I wonder what the devil the Government is playing at in making international travel so unattractive. Is there a green plot to make air travel so inconvenient that people stop doing it?

    Advertisemen

    With tickets and travel documents in order, a flight used to be straightforward and almost a pleasure, with time for a snack before boarding. Now, even with limited passenger numbers, it is considered normal to queue for hours. Covid can no longer be the excuse.

    John Pritchard

    Ingatestone, Essex

    Placeholder image for youtube video: ZvkF6SZrHVA

    SIR – On June 15 2020, Transport for London “temporarily” changed the hours during which the Freedom Pass could be used; it would only be accepted between 9am and 4.30pm on buses, and from 9.30am on the Tube.

    The purpose of this was to “conserve space on public transport for people who have to use it to return to work”. The general rules for how we live with Covid changed back in July, yet it appears that hardly anyone is returning to work, and near-empty buses continue to go past before 9am.

    I cannot contact TfL by phone or email, nor my MP after three weeks. It makes one wonder whether the delay in restoring the original Freedom Pass hours is in fact another stealth tax.

    Pauline Craggs

    London SW19

    SIR – When I received my second shot of vaccine I was told that I would get a booster of the same type this autumn. I also get the flu vaccine every year.

    Now it seems there is dithering over distributing the boosters while other countries are already starting their programmes. The effectiveness of the earlier vaccines is known to decline over time. Millions have been relying on getting the extra protection and will now be worried that their risk of infection will increase.

    Is there anything that this Government and its “experts” cannot mess up? Roll out the boosters.

    James Kent

    Northallerton, North Yorks

    1. Since Hiddleston wrote that vaccination reduces the severity, why does he then write “lifting the travel bans for fully vaccinated people;” – are the unvaccinated not smart enough to undestand that they might be under increased risk, and so adjust their behaviour? IN any case, since most of those catching the virus are now vaccinated, it suggests strongly that the vaccine isn’t preventing catching or transmission of the virus.
      Man’s a berk.

    2. “Is there a green plot to make air travel so inconvenient that people stop doing it?” Frankly, John, yes there is. Only the “VIPs” will be able to travel. Welcome to the SSUK. Zil lanes and travel for Party members, soon to be followed by special shops for the favoured.

  17. Morning again

    Paying for care

    SIR – I am no socialist, but nor am I enamoured of the selfish belief, held by the largely Tory-voting middle classes, that they have a God-given right to hand their mostly unearned capital assets to their children.

    Rampant house-price inflation has left my wife and me with a grotesquely over-valued home, in addition to our pensions and other assets – a situation common among our generation.

    It cannot be right that the young, hard-working generations – who will never see such asset appreciation (even if they can get on to the housing ladder) and are unlikely to receive pensions as generous as ours – should have to fork out increased National Insurance contributions, which we pensioners don’t pay, just so we can keep our homes.

    If we require long-term care, I see no logical reason why we should not be expected to use our capital assets to pay for it when our cash assets have been exhausted.

    The state should only step in when there are no such assets to be utilised. There is no reason why it (and by inference the working population) should pay for my care just so that I can leave my house to my adult children after my death – and the state can seize a substantial portion of my estate in inheritance tax.

    Brian Gedalla

    London N3

    Speedy probate

    SIR – My experience of the probate office (Letters, August 29) was quite remarkable.

    After my wife’s death last year I submitted an application for probate online. Ten days later, on a Sunday afternoon, I had an email confirming that all documents had been received. Two minutes later another email came saying that probate had been granted.

    Advertisement

    Anthony Pyne

    Bedford

    SIR – Following my father’s death in December 2020 I encountered numerous delays while attempting to obtain an amended lasting power of attorney for my mother, who lives with Alzheimer’s Disease and for whom I am attorney.

    It has taken a total of seven months – from the first of numerous telephone calls, followed by several recorded delivery letters and a complaint to the chief executive – to resolve the matter so that I may now use the power of attorney to access my mother’s bank account and reimburse myself for paying her care-home fees in this time.

    The final straw was when they agreed to reimburse me a modest £30 for my time and postage – only for me to have to chase it up after 30 days as they managed to mess up that too. I’m still waiting.

    W J Wilson

    Northampton

    SIR – As well as dealing with my mother’s probate, I have also had to deal with National Savings and Investments.

    If the probate office is in chaos, NS&I is worse. It is in chaos and denial.

    Andrew Wauchope

    London SE11

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    1. The real problem with teh government’s NI rise to pay for care, is that it’s the same old short-sighted scheme where the young pay for the current elderly. Remind me what happened with pensions again.

      1. “…e long-term care, I see no logical reason why we should not be expected
        to use our capital assets to pay for it when our cash assets have been
        exhausted….”

        I do – you’ve already paid for it. If government cannot properly manage a fixed, force backed income and forecast then it does not deserve the money in the first place. Taxes are too high and most is wasted. The list of council waste is galactic – starting with the salaries.

        https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/taxpayers_alliance_finds_bristol_council_wasted_over_5_million

        1. We’ve never paid for care though, that’s the problem. You’d have to go and find a table of how much people in different countries pay for healthcare and care insurance and compare it, but I’m pretty sure the UK is not paying enough to cover care.

          1. The trouble appears to be, BB, the administration set-up in the NHS.

            Top heavy, very expensive administrators who are incompetent little empire-builders and suck the majority of the funds out of our health-care system.

          2. I checked life expectancy in 1950; after the welfare state was founded and far enough from WWII (I hoped) for it not to skew statistics.
            A child born in that year was predicted to live 65 years; conveniently the date when he would reach pensionable age. The then limited number of women working throughout adulthood received their pension at 60 as did their married counterparts but at a lower rate.
            However, neither sex was expected to routinely live as unproductive oldies for the following 20 – 30 years.
            Add in our ‘free at point of service’ NHS and an ever increasing pool of welfare recipients which have further shattered the system.

          3. Yet that’s not the only real cost. If we are living longer, then the state has to allow us to accrue wealth sufficient for our own retirement. Instead, it taxes us heavily, robs our pensions and makes second home ownership onerous in the extreme.

            It cannot complain we aren’t saving enough when it hammers us with an effective tax rate of 70%.

          4. Also the severe disincentives to save – apart from the lack of interest. If you have savings, you get no help at all. If you’ve p1$$ed it all up the wall, you get ‘free’ stuff (paid for by others).

          5. I believe we do, the difference is the state doesn’t actually spend the money paid in tax for care, on care. Most goes on the department, the next bit life knows.

            The inefficiency, cost and waste in the public sector is barmy.

          6. I don’t think we pay enough. About the waste, I couldn’t say, as my recent experience with the NHS suggested an extreme lack of money being spent on anything – but the wasted amounts were hidden of course.
            I pay about 80 pounds a month for care insurance alone – a comprehensive policy that I took out years ago in another country, but pays out anywhere in the world.

  18. SIR – In Parliament, Boris Johnson said of heat pumps (Letters, August 29): “These things cost about £10,000 a pop.”

    In a sense he’s correct, but the overall cost is at least twice and maybe three times that, once insulation upgrades, radiator replacement, hot-water cylinder replacement, and installation labour costs are included. And make sure there is a south-facing wall for the pump to butt against.

    In our own case, a heat pump would save £700 per year in heating oil costs, but the entire system would cost £21,000 to acquire, after the deduction of Renewable Heat Incentive payments. That’s a payback period of 30 years, during which time the pump and cylinder would probably have to be replaced at least twice.

    Peter M Hills

    Andover, Hampshire

    1. I don’t begin to understand what a heat pump is or how it works.

      But, how do you have one installed if you do not have a large garden?

      1. They are just another con. They are suposed to cool, free cool and heat. But always need stand by power supply to work “properly”

        This is why we do not understand.

        “A heat pump is a mechanical device that transfers heat from one environmental compartment to another,
        typically against a temperature gradient (i.e. from cool to hot). …
        The efficiency, or coefficient of performance (COP), of a heat pump is
        defined as the thermal output divided by the primary energy
        (electricity) input.”

        1. I have no faith in them to heat during a really cold spell, and of course if the leccy goes off, you’re done for.

        2. I thought you couldn’t transfer heat from a cooler to a hotter – the first law of thermodynamics.

      2. Some cities are installing huge networks of the heat-exchange pipes under the pavements. The idea is that you pay for a connection to the city network, and get your heating piped in that way.
        I heard from someone who was looking at a house for sale in Austria recently, and apparently even the village has one of these networks, which anyone can join if they want.

  19. Taliban pledges to restore sabotaged US military equipment. 5 September 2021.

    Taliban fighters said the US had “no right” to sabotage military equipment abandoned at Kabul airport and claimed they would restore many of the vehicles and aircraft to working order.

    But Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said he was “not sure I would worry too much about the Taliban maintaining a fleet of aircraft” as it was “extremely expensive,” adding that the UK had only left a few vehicles in Afghanistan.

    Mr Wallace told The Spectator the “threat is that they flog it to somebody like Wagner Group,” the Russian private military contractor, which was a “realistic possibility”.

    I’m not certain why the Taliban would be interested in restoring the equipment of a defeated foe. It’s a little like hearing that the Vikings abandoned their longships in favour of English rowing boats or the Mongols their horses so they could walk. Either way they certainly couldn’t sell UK equipment to the Wagner Group who are fitted out to a high standard by Russia.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/09/02/taliban-pledges-restore-sabotaged-us-military-equipment/

  20. Taliban pledges to restore sabotaged US military equipment. 5 September 2021.

    Taliban fighters said the US had “no right” to sabotage military equipment abandoned at Kabul airport and claimed they would restore many of the vehicles and aircraft to working order.

    But Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said he was “not sure I would worry too much about the Taliban maintaining a fleet of aircraft” as it was “extremely expensive,” adding that the UK had only left a few vehicles in Afghanistan.

    Mr Wallace told The Spectator the “threat is that they flog it to somebody like Wagner Group,” the Russian private military contractor, which was a “realistic possibility”.

    I’m not certain why the Taliban would be interested in restoring the equipment of a defeated foe. It’s a little like hearing that the Vikings abandoned their longships in favour of English rowing boats or the Mongols their horses so they could walk. Either way they certainly couldn’t sell UK equipment to the Wagner Group who are fitted out to a high standard by Russia.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/09/02/taliban-pledges-restore-sabotaged-us-military-equipment/

    1. A long term Conservative chum and I were chatting the other day.
      We agree that we can no longer even bear to hear Johnson’s voice. (This is a comment I’ve heard from several other Conservative supporters.)
      She and I have been members and activists for 40 + years. I wonder how many times that conversation has taken place throughout Blighty?

      2. A good friend of mine and I chat away about once a week about such things .

        We both feel quite faint after our conversations , because if we feel the same about Johnson, thousands more must also be of the same opinion.

        Lickey Lip Cameron irritated me , and Maidenhead May was similar to a bad headache , but Johnson has a similar effect to chalk on a blackboard or a scraping chair or the constant tinkle when some one over stirs the sweetener in a mug of coffee, or just one long fart in the wind .

        Johnsons length of tenure is similar to the Tales from the Arabian nights .. he will reach a thousand , and then what ?

        2. Gawd, that blackboard analogy is spot on.
          A favourite torture ploy between periods by the more sadistic pupils in our class.
          You pushed the chalk slowly up the board if I remember rightly.

        3. The mere thought of Boris copulating is enough to make one want to vomit.

          We all remember Rupert Brooke for his famous poem (The Soldier: If I should die think only this of me...) but this one on a rather less noble theme – that of intense sexual jealousy – is extraordinarily powerful:

          When I see you, who were so wise and cool,
          Gazing with silly sickness on that fool
          You’ve given your love to, your adoring hands
          Touch his so intimately that each understands,
          I know, most hidden things; and when I know
          Your holiest dreams yield to the stupid bow
          Of his red lips, and that the empty grace
          Of those strong legs and arms, that rosy face,
          Has beaten your heart to such a flame of love,
          That you have given him every touch and move,
          Wrinkle and secret of you, all your life,
          —Oh! then I know I’m waiting, lover-wife,
          For the great time when love is at a close,
          And all its fruit’s to watch the thickening nose
          And sweaty neck and dulling face and eye,
          That are yours, and you, most surely, till you die!
          Day after day you’ll sit with him and note
          The greasier tie, the dingy wrinkling coat;
          As prettiness turns to pomp, and strength to fat,
          And love, love, love to habit!

          And after that,
          When all that’s fine in man is at an end,
          And you, that loved young life and clean, must tend
          A foul sick fumbling dribbling body and old,
          When his rare lips hang flabby and can’t hold
          Slobber, and you’re enduring that worst thing,
          Senility’s queasy furtive love-making,
          And searching those dear eyes for human meaning,
          Propping the bald and helpless head, and cleaning
          A scrap that life’s flung by, and love’s forgotten,—
          Then you’ll be tired; and passion dead and rotten;
          And he’ll be dirty, dirty!

          O lithe and free
          And lightfoot, that the poor heart cries to see,
          That’s how I’ll see your man and you!—

          But you
          —Oh, when that time comes, you’ll be dirty too!

          2. 6. Wagner

            CREEPS in half wanton, half asleep,
            One with a fat wide hairless face.
            He likes love-music that is cheap;
            Likes women in a crowded place;
            And wants to hear the noise they’re making. 5

            His heavy eyelids droop half-over,
            Great pouches swing beneath his eyes.
            He listens, thinks himself the lover,
            Heaves from his stomach wheezy sighs;
            He likes to feel his heart’s a-breaking. 10

            The music swells. His gross legs quiver.
            His little lips are bright with slime.
            The music swells. The women shiver.
            And all the while, in perfect time,
            His pendulous stomach hangs a-shaking

        4. The mere thought of Boris copulating is enough to make one want to vomit.

          We all remember Rupert Brooke for his famous poem (The Soldier: If I should die think only this of me...) but this one on a rather less noble theme – that of intense sexual jealousy – is extraordinarily powerful:

          When I see you, who were so wise and cool,
          Gazing with silly sickness on that fool
          You’ve given your love to, your adoring hands
          Touch his so intimately that each understands,
          I know, most hidden things; and when I know
          Your holiest dreams yield to the stupid bow
          Of his red lips, and that the empty grace
          Of those strong legs and arms, that rosy face,
          Has beaten your heart to such a flame of love,
          That you have given him every touch and move,
          Wrinkle and secret of you, all your life,
          —Oh! then I know I’m waiting, lover-wife,
          For the great time when love is at a close,
          And all its fruit’s to watch the thickening nose
          And sweaty neck and dulling face and eye,
          That are yours, and you, most surely, till you die!
          Day after day you’ll sit with him and note
          The greasier tie, the dingy wrinkling coat;
          As prettiness turns to pomp, and strength to fat,
          And love, love, love to habit!

          And after that,
          When all that’s fine in man is at an end,
          And you, that loved young life and clean, must tend
          A foul sick fumbling dribbling body and old,
          When his rare lips hang flabby and can’t hold
          Slobber, and you’re enduring that worst thing,
          Senility’s queasy furtive love-making,
          And searching those dear eyes for human meaning,
          Propping the bald and helpless head, and cleaning
          A scrap that life’s flung by, and love’s forgotten,—
          Then you’ll be tired; and passion dead and rotten;
          And he’ll be dirty, dirty!

          O lithe and free
          And lightfoot, that the poor heart cries to see,
          That’s how I’ll see your man and you!—

          But you
          —Oh, when that time comes, you’ll be dirty too!

        5. Cameron was enough for me – words cannot describe the depths of my contempt for that miserable worm. May the same.

      1. No, he clearly isn’t, and the approach is wrong. The state should pay by cutting unnecessary wasteful services and quango handouts

  22. Good morning from a bright overcast Derbyshire. 9½°C on the yard thermometer and, according to the Harley rider who just paused outside the house, the Wozwolf Rally up the road (http://www.wozwolf.co.uk/) has been a success again.

      1. Up at Grange Mill, 5ish miles up the road from here at the top of the Via Gellia.
        I’m expecting a lot of motorbikes going past today.
        T’Lad & S@H have both been there for the weekend.

  23. Are Britain and America drifting apart. 5 September 2021.

    In a speech this week, Joe Biden said America will focus more on threats from Russia and China and less on foreign interventions. The US President signalled that his country would return to using ‘over the horizon’ drone strikes against terrorist targets, and would need to prove it was ‘competitive’ in combatting emerging threats.

    They are not drifting apart. They have split! America has gone isolationist. The UK has gone to the dogs! One suspects that Biden told Putin this at the June summit, perhaps even forewarned him about the Afghan pullout! It would certainly explain Vlad standing down the forces that he had deployed to deal with Ukraine. Once this sinks in at Westminster we should see the UK Government and the EU cosying up to Russia.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/are-britain-and-america-drifting-apart-

        1. We’re on the same plate as them, unfortunately. Thankfully we have the Channel. Let’s hope the climate doesn’t cool down enough for sea level to go down so much that they could walk across.

    2. To which dogs have we gone: Rottweilers or poodles?

      I think boxers would be better. They look pretty tough but they have hearts of gold are are fiercely loyal. Our Rumpole loved everybody – but if anyone looked as if he or she was likely to menace either Caroline or the boys he would not stand for it and stepped in their way.

      A cousin of the boxer is the bulldog. But where has the British bulldog spirit gone?

      1. Talking of bulldogs, that reminds me…

        Private Lesson

        A father was discussing the “birds and the bees” with his son. He asked his son if he had any questions.

        “Dad, what do a woman’s private parts look like?”

        The father thought for a moment and said, “Son, before sex it looks like the softest petal on the most beautiful pink rose.”

        “What about after sex?”

        The father thought a little longer, “Have you ever seen a bulldog eating mayonnaise?”

      2. Poodles get a bad press, just because people cut their dogs’ hair into ridiculous styles. The poodle is not a French lapdog, it is a German gun dog and is one of the most intelligent canines ever bred.

        1. Allegedly, George, the poodle cut was in order to prevent it getting waterlogged while retrieving game from lakes and rivers, allowing it to swim freely.

          Nowadays it is a sort of fashion statement about the stupidity of its owner.

        2. In my youth, we lived near a farm where the owners had a standard poodle which was not clipped into topiary shapes.
          It was at its happiest soaking wet and covered in mud running alongside its owners when they went riding.
          That was the first time I’d seen a poodle behaving naturally.

          1. I had a miniature poodle, back in the 1980s, and he invariably had his hair clipped to the same length all over. Many people, upon meeting Dennis for the first time, refused to believe he was a poodle. They were all captivated, however, by his friendly nature.

          3. Poodles are hunting dogs. The topiary was designed to protect their joints but still let them get wet and muddy without having too much weight in their fur.

  24. Good Moaning.
    This time my question is not about pretty cats, but to ask what is that bright yellow object in the sky. No doubt well-informed NOTTLers will enlighten me.
    Meanwhile, time for Dan Hannan to stop being rational and give this useless government a good slap round the chops. Plus a kick up its well upholstered rump.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/04/likely-catch-covid-makes-continuing-restrictions-obsolete/

    “We’re all likely to catch Covid – and that makes continuing restrictions obsolete

    Why, when the worst of the pandemic is over, is the Government seeking to renew its emergency powers for a further six months?

    4 September 2021 • 5:00pm

    I was in no particular hurry to get the Covid vaccine. I had already had the disease – quite a nasty bout, since you ask. It seemed to me that my immune system would be better trained by the actual, current version of the virus than by a theoretical form of it developed a year earlier in a Pfizer lab.

    In the end, I got the jab, not because I thought it would make anyone safer, but from a combination of selfishness (I wanted to travel abroad) and civic obligation (I felt that, as a legislator, I ought to follow Government advice).

    My teenage daughters now face the same decision. They, being young and female, had a much milder dose of Covid. Had they not tested positive, they’d have called it a cold. Because they caught it later than their father, they know that, at least as far as foreign travel is concerned, the Government hasn’t kept its side of the bargain. Britain, unlike most European countries, still insists on testing incoming travellers, regardless of whether they are vaccinated (unless they pitch up in Kent on small boats).

    So instead of dangling the carrot of unrestricted travel, ministers wave the stick of exclusion from nightclubs. Why, for heaven’s sake? Vaccine passports might have made sense early in the epidemic when the priority was sharply to reduce transmission. They make no sense when, according to some estimates, 75 per cent of 15 to 24-year-olds have had Covid. This is sheer bureaucratic inertia – an example of officials refusing to drop an initiative adopted under different circumstances. Call it Eurofighter Syndrome.

    The same criticism applies to much of our Covid policy. Why, when the worst is over, is the Government seeking to renew its emergency powers for a further six months? Yes, of course something unexpected might turn up, but we don’t give ministers the right to rule without parliamentary oversight on the off chance.

    Similarly, why the push to vaccinate 12- to 15-year-olds? We keep being told that the politicians follow the scientists, but the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation concluded that it could not recommend the mass inoculation of healthy kids. According to Stanford University, the infection survival rate for people under the age of 19 is 99.9973 per cent.

    My argument here is practical rather than ethical. If there were reasons to believe that inoculating healthy people protected others, I’d be all for it. An infectious disease is what economists call an externality – a cost born by someone else. The state has a duty to restrict freedoms whose exercise would lead to a greater diminution of the freedoms of others.

    That was the initial justification for mass vaccination, but it no longer has the same force. We now know that all three approved vaccines are extremely good at keeping people from falling seriously ill, but only moderately good at preventing transmission. The externality argument has gone up in smoke. If people choose not to get vaccinated, it is they who bear the risk, not others.

    The Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, knows this as well as anyone, having himself contracted a mild form of the disease after being double-jabbed.

    As the JCVI’s Prof Sir Andrew Pollard explained to MPs last month, herd immunity is unachievable: “The Delta variant will still infect people who have been vaccinated. And that does mean that anyone who’s still unvaccinated at some point will meet the virus and we don’t have anything that will stop that transmission.”

    The implications seem still not to have sunk in. Pretty much the entire population may end up catching the coronavirus, possibly several times. The good news is that most of us will get it either when we’re young and our natural defences are strong, or when our immune system has been primed by the vaccine. But, one way or another, we’ll all end up being exposed.

    That fact renders all our continuing restrictions obsolete. And I mean all of them: the masks on public transport, the checks after arrival from overseas, the tests in schools, the lot.

    Why, at the end of 18 hellish months, am I bothered about these final dribs and drabs? After the shuttered shops, the closed schools, the divided families, are masks on the Tube really such a big deal?

    There are three answers. First, 18 hellish months shouldn’t prejudice our sense of what is proportionate. One of the most depressing aspects of this whole saga has been our readiness to anchor to existing practice, clinging to supposedly contingent measures after their rationale has passed. As the danger recedes, we should on principle reject measures which we rejected before 2020.

    Second, official restrictions are seized on by other organisations, especially in the public sector, as an excuse not to return to normal. Universities refuse to restore in-person lectures, teachers’ unions want all manner of pointless regulations in classrooms, civil servants insist on staying home.

    I have just had an email from the House of Lords telling me to wear a face mask, observe social distancing and not bring in guests. None of this is legally mandated but, as long as the state hangs back from complete normalisation, it encourages such attitudes. The private sector is not exempt. Several firms that had planned to return to the office this week are again deferring, partly for fear of lawsuits from their employees.

    Third, and most important, rules designed to slow the spread of a one-off epidemic make no sense when dealing with an endemic virus. The coronavirus is on its way to becoming like the other rhinoviruses, adenoviruses and, indeed, coronaviruses that cause winter respiratory diseases. Most people will catch it in childhood and, as they become elderly, will be offered annual jabs that anticipate the latest strains – just as with flu. It is time to move on.”

    2. The government is playing the population for fools. The virus has become part of the green agenda.

    3. BTL Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      5 Sep 2021 9:03AM
      Having tasted the power that comes with the restrictions, of course the Government is in no hurry to relinquish them.Edit ()

    4. Comment from a hysteric Germophobe and a response:-

      Mickey Mouse
      5 Sep 2021 9:04AM
      I dispare. Covid is not on it’s way to becoming another seasional “cold-like” disease. In fact, the dominate (Delta) variant is more deadly than the original. The virus can mutate both ways. There is no certainty that the virus will become less virulent over time. It didn’t happen to Smallpox over hundreds of years, it may not happen to Covid 19.
      Vaccination saves lives. They decrease your likelihood of getting the disease. If you get Covid they significantly decrease your chance of dying, Vaccinations prevent transmission (since they prevent initial infections), and therefore prevent the deaths of others.
      But none of this is news. Hence my opening remark. The left have gone woke-crazy, and the Telegraph, the only right-wing paper with decent analysis continues the kind of nutty argument that belong at a Trump rally. In fact, The world has gone mad.

      Robert Spowart
      5 Sep 2021 9:12AM
      @Mickey Mouse “In fact, the dominate (Delta) variant is more deadly than the original.”

      Is it? What evidence do you have of that as reports I’ve seen suggest that, whilst it may be more infectious, it is actually less likely to kill and those it is more likely to do harm to are those whose natural immune system may have been compromised by the vaccines they have received.

        1. Someone queried my comment:-

          David Jones
          5 Sep 2021 9:14AM
          @Robert Spowart @Mickey Mouse “to are those whose natural immune system may have been compromised by the vaccines they have received.”
          What evidence do you have of that?
          Flag2LikeReply

          Robert Spowart
          5 Sep 2021 9:26AM
          @David Jones @Robert Spowart @Mickey Mouse Unfortunately, the .pdf of the paper I originally read has been removed, but this one comes to a similar conclusion:-

          Imperfect Vaccination Can Enhance the Transmission of Highly Virulent Pathogens
          https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002198

          It is postulated that the mRNA factor of the current vaccines may prime the recipient’s immune system to factors on the original virus that are not present in the Delta and subsequent variants whilst the immune systems of unvaccinated people have a more “broad brush” defence that does recognise the new variants.

          This idea is, in fact, supported by Dr. Robert Malone.

          https://turcopolier.com/some-covid-vaccines-make-the-virus-more-dangerous/

      3. “…Vaccinations prevent transmission (since they prevent initial infections), and therefore prevent the deaths of others….”

        She’s an imbecile. A virus does nothing to prevent infection. Nothing to prevent transmission. Nothing to prevent the death of others. It only helps you.

        Dear life. With this sort of idiocy prevalent people really, really need a slap.

    5. 338548+ up ticks,
      Morning Anne,
      I see it as a stronger flu variant or a chinky carry out spread for devious business purposes, we in the United Kingdom have no way cornered the market in nasty political bastards.

      A stronger flu was taken and used for political purposes & monitory gains via the pharmaceuticals ,with the politico’s trough overflowing and a scam ongoing with lifestyle changing consequences., FOREVER.

      By ALL means kill off any plague, in this instance starting with the lab/lib/con mass, uncontrolled immigration and
      fear purveyors coalition for a far healthier life.

    6. It is not about public health it is about the governments perverted desire to squeeze our metaphorical testicles or breasts.

    7. Typical Dan Hannon – a bit of mild criticism, but essentially letting the Government off the hook. It’s alright folks – they may be a bit slow and incompetent, but they’ve got our best interests at heart!
      Bill Gates? George Soros? Klaus Schwab? Never heard of any of them!

        1. Do keep up, George, WEF (World Economic Forum) “You will own nothing. You will be happy”

          That Klaus Schwab. Now you know.

          1. “Normalicy”? WTF is that?

            In English it is “Normality” and in Yank it is “Normalcy”, but I’ve never heard of “Normalicy”.

          3. It’s actually got some interesting points in it. I only picked out the presenter’s weird word because it grated.

  25. Dough-boy Does Death
    Linda Daufenbach, 23, was visiting her in-laws, and while there went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up and with her eyes closed, with both hands behind the back of her head. One customer who had been at the store for a while became concerned and walked over to the car. He noticed that Linda’s eyes were now open, and she looked very strange.

    He asked her if she was okay, and Linda replied that she’d been shot in the back of the head, and had been holding her brains in for over an hour.

    The man called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and Linda refused to remove her hands from her head. When they finally got in, they found that Linda had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head.

    A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot, and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head. When she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains.

    She initially passed out, but quickly recovered and tried to hold her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her aid.

    And, yes, Linda is a blonde.

      1. I was about to say ‘period’ and then remembered those poor self-identifying women who don’t experience such a thing.
        “Curses” in a manner of speaking.

        1. Had you said ‘period’ instead of full stop, Anne, you’d have had George (Grizzly) moaning at you about Americanisms.

    2. Yes mate, so stop spreading it. Stop being racist! Stop supporting the racist black looting mob.

  27. Continuing my rant from yesterday about the lack of information on travel pages in the papers.

    S Grimes has a big spread on how Italy is “free” – no more quarantine. Hurry, hurry, hurry. They do not mention the tests before and after and during.

    Yesterday, while looking at the Italian “government” website I discovered, tucked away, this insidious bit of crap. That UK visitors must have had two jabs (now universal) BUT they must not be more that 270 days old. We might go in January – by which time our jabs will have “run out”. BPAPM and his gang of plotters didn’t tell us THAT, did they?

    Bastards – the whole lot of them.

        2. Destitute elephants? I know they are highly intelligent animals but can they declare bankruptcy, how is an elephant destitute?

    3. The small print has completely buggered up our prospects of running courses ever again.

      We are beginning to have Prendergastian doubts as to whether we should even bother to go on trying.

  30. Israel is no Goliath. 5 September 2021.

    Western critics inflate Israel’s power and ignore the strength of the threat it faces.

    This is a bit of “Poor Israel” propaganda. It’s not a Goliath. It is a Colossus. It is more powerful than most European States. It faces no real threat to its Middle Eastern military and financial hegemony. The real danger to its survival lies in the near future where the rise of the Eurasian Caliphate will render its position precarious at best and impossible at worst!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/09/04/israel-is-no-goliath/

    2. Morning!

      What I find odd is that they claim to’ve jabbed over 90% of their population, causing terrible illness, especially in the young. The Arab take-up is said to be 5% so they’ll likely be the survivors. Why do that?

  31. Excerpt from a reader’s letter in the Telegraph . . .
    “I understand that about 13% of the UK population are of Black, Asian or other minority ethnicity (i.e. BAME). But watching programmes and – especially – adverts on the television, one increasingly gets the impression that we live in a country where the indigenous white population has been reduced to a minority.”

    1. I suspect that the results of the census, when they eventually get published and analysed, will paint a completely different picture, especially in certain parts of the country, particularly London.

        1. Apparently there are 17 ethnic groups recognised in London, I suspect that in parts of London 40% is very high and in others it will be very low, so your guess is as good as mine.
          What is certain is that the white population is dropping and will continue to do so.

        2. I think Belle, you are getting it mixed up with the statistic that London is only 44% ethnically English. I would assume that if you chuck in the Irish, Poles etc, it is still a majority white city, although, given the demographics, it is no comfort. I wonder if any other capital city has the indigenous people as a permanent minority? I am, of course, aware of places like Dubai where that is also the case, but the foreigners there are not permanent citizens and don’t have permanent nationality with all that implies.

          1. Good afternoon J

            You are of course very spot on , yes , I was way out and rather too judgemental .

            I don’t know why I am so angry these days .

            It appears to me that all the things I knew and loved are fading away.

            When I was much younger , my parents and sister and I used to visit London though my father’s firm was based there , people used to recognise each other whether on one of the bridges whilst walking , or shopping or even in one of the parks .. I have even travelled on the train , and someone has renewed a a quick hello , how are you etc .

            Similar things like that have happened in Bath, years ago .

            Things are so different now, but I hardly wander out of Dorset these days , now I am like a tiny fish in an overcrowded pond .

          2. I think you are angry for the same reason that most of us are. We are being overwhelmed with people we did not ask for, were never consulted about and who have coarsened this country on the way to its destruction. It is the sort of frustration that comes about because we are constantly told we live in a democracy, when it is patently not so and, in which, our votes, desires and wishes to keep our country and its culture are ignored.

            Quite frankly, I think it has gotten to the point that if we do not revolt in a meaningful way, I do not rule out violence, the tyrants in Whitehall will cheerfully destroy us and erase us altogether. They do not, as far as I can see, give a damn about us or our wishes.

          3. I wish that I could give you a dozen upvotes for that succinct and perceptive description of reality Jonathan!

          5. I agree Nanny. Civil disobedience is the only way. The government simply takes advantage of the peaceful nature of the English and abuses it with their overt contempt for us. It is only when and if we start to threaten them, with action, that they will sit up and take notice

        3. London’s interesting as a lot of white folk *work* in it and earn all the money, and a lot of ethnics *live* in it and cost all the money.

          If the population were considered in the more useful sense of earners and takers then ethnic areas are heavy takers and the white areas are net contributors.

  32. Good morning, my friends

    Dan Hannan has posted an article posing the question: ‘Why does the government want to keep their extra powers when the pandemic is under control?’

    The DT censorship squad has clearly been alerted to the scurrilous nature of my BTL posts because when I posted this BTL comment it did not appear at all – not even for a second; and when I tried again this prim and patronising notice appeared: “As much as you liked your post you’re not allowed to post it twice.” .

    Anyway, now that Peddy has retired as a sort of retired Nicholas Parsons criticising repetition I shall let my fellow Nottlers enjoy once again my original and witty observation about Ms Symons’s recent appointment which the Telegraph refused to put up:

    ‘Why, when the worst of the pandemic is over, is the Government seeking to renew its emergency powers for a further six months?’

    Why? Because our politicians are megalomaniac idiots who can’t bear the idea of releasing their metaphorical grip on our testicles. And since Carrie Symonds, the latest in a long line of this prime minister’s wives and mistresses, was appointed as guardian of the prime ministerial scrotum Boris Johnson has lost all his testicular strength and is impotent when it comes to defying her wishes.

    1. I agree with Stig. My first posting on the subject vanished into the ether. I changed William I’s name from B*st*rd to Conk. Post appeared immediately.

    1. Who cares! My only request to her is that when she walks out the door to Ireland, she hesitate a split second so I can slam the door, with great vigour, on her ample arse!

    2. Cromwell and Campbell have the same meaning – Crooked mouth. Mantell probably translates as Uglibitch in Norman French.

    3. Well, let’s hope when she gets to Ireland, she praises Cromwell to the skies.
      Despite it being the wrong one, the name is enough to guarantee a chilly reception.

      1. Which ‘Cromwell’ is she wittering on about. If not Oliver, is it his successor, Richard of that ilk?

        On the road to Norwich from Bungay, there is a pub named for Richard Cromwell, it is/was named ‘Tumble-down Dick’.

  36. On topic – while we continue to ignore early treatments seasonal respiratory illnesses will return in the autumn.
    They have not yet finished wringing every last penny out of the population.
    Pfizer has developed an oral treatment to augment the immunity provided by the vaccine (- please… I know how absurd this is.) Devloping something that works like ivermectin needs a return on investment.

    So not. I hope but do not believe that we will be allowed to get on with out lives.

    1. If Johnson gets the green light for continuing the Corona Act then another, very harsh, lockdown is assured. Why else would he want an extension? Currently there is no emergency but you can bet SAGE and all those behavioural scientists are working on it.

      1. I think I can safely say that our local Conservative MPs will, once again, fail to rally to the cause of individual freedom.

        1. I thought that when I read the list of symptoms that meant you should get tested for Covid. Headaches? Well, if you’re dehydrated you’ll have a headache. Runny nose? In the hay-fever season – right. Nausea and diarrhoea? Norovirus, anyone?

        1. I had a text from the surgeon last week saying they would be offering both. We’ve decided not to bother.

    2. Belle – do some research on this – I have read that the ‘flu vaccine makes you more susceptible to other respiratory tract infections.

    3. Hallo Belle! What makes absolutely no sense in the call up for flu jabs is that, before Covid, they had us all sit cheek by jowl in a long corridor at my surgery. A procedure that practically guaranteed infection if someone was there with the flu. Since flu wold literally put me in intensive care or do me in, I have avoided the procedure for 3 years now. Easier to do your own mini lockdown for the flu season.

      1. Hi J,

        We won’t be queuing up , we have a set time at the chemist in our village .
        Moh seems to be happy that they are offered and he has also said he would like the Covid booster.

        Bearing in mind what happened to me and how I reacted when I had my second dose a few months ago, I am not so sure about me .

  38. David Jensen has completed a ‘thin sandwich’ course – is there a ‘thick sandwich’ alternative because I like door steps. Still, if he needs the dough……

        1. You read my thoughts. I was just about to comment that it was the woolly jumper that did it for me. So I did. Comment, I mean.

          1. So am I! I’ve got a climbing pumpkin this year, but I see that I am a mere amateur, as it just meanders over a few trees, when I really needed scaffolding.

        2. Day of the Triffids revisited.
          p.s. MB is currently in his pants and top wading through the pond scooping out weeds and overgrown lilies.
          Beat that one!

        3. Day of the Triffids revisited.
          p.s. MB is currently in his pants and top wading through the pond scooping out weeds and overgrown lilies.
          Beat that one!

    3. Gaaarrrggghhhhhh …… don’t mention damsons. There is nearby garden where the stupid owners are allowing them to decay and drop.
      Add in mirabelle and other plums going to waste hereabouts. I HATE waste.
      p.s. Just tested the peach chutney I made about a month ago; they may not ripen properly for eating, but, boy, do they make lovely chutney.

      1. Do you speak with those neighbours?

        Ask them if they have any plans for the fruit and offer to pick some in return for a few jars of Plum Jam.

        1. One of the houses I did know the previous owners. They used to gather the plums into containers and put them on the wall with a ‘free’ notice. I used to take some and return jam as a thank you.

      2. Just been picking todays crop of blackberries. Between the 3 of us, two 10 litre buckets in about 90 minutes. Now tweezering spikes out of fingers.

      3. Seriously, have you thought of knocking on the door and offering to take them? You could add that that would reduce the risk of them being stung by wasps and dying…..

    4. One night, like in Poltergeist, the Trombetti will lean over, come through the window, grab Bill – and we’ll never see him again. The film title ? Revenge of the Trombetti !

    5. We must have been lucky; I’ve had a bumper crop of apples and pears this year (although the wasps have ravaged them). The plums not so much.

  40. And another thing (rant). That HMG are determined to punish us for being British.

    French animal “passport” for 28 trips (so you can bring cat/dog to Blighty) = £27.

    UK animal passport for ONE trip to Europe = £300 plus.

    Utter bastards, the whole lot of them.

        1. But… but… aren’t they doing video & telephone consultations, like yer GPs, terrified of a patient?

      2. When I travelled by train from Colchester to Potsdam, my friend bought the tickets in Germany and posted them to me.
        Even booked through Deutsche Bahn British office, they cost double the price if bought in Blighty.

        1. It really is rip off Britain.

          If i buy fish here it is quite expensive. If i were to buy the same species caught in British waters and then on sale in a French market it would be half the price.

  41. Just received a text from my GP surgery. As from tomorrow face to face open access resumes. Face nappies remain a requirement.

    1. 338548+ up ticks,
      Morning SB,
      As with many he has been hiding behind the tory (ino)
      facade of Brexitexit, ever since 24/6/2016.

      2. “A homosexual of the proselytising kind, [who] could turn young men on the borderline his way.” The Times 29 September 1986,

        He was one of a few people who could go dogging on tip toes.

  43. Hallo to all. Hope you are all having a pleasant Sunday? The sun is out here for a change and it is warm, which is a welcome change.

    Now to ruin everything 🙂 Have people read the Telegraph column: “Inside the woke classroom: what are they teaching your children at school?
    The ideology may have made its way here from the US but the activism is home-grown – and targeting our impressionable teens…”

    Time to put Katharine Birbalsingh in charge of education and ban the teachers unions who are the source of this degenerate Marxist rubbish. Its only purpose is to undermine Britain and destroy it.

    3. One thing that could be introduced is that striking workers salaries are paid by the union. Not by the institution. even if the employer doesn’t pay the salaries, their staff are still being held up, wasted, made more inefficient by the strikers.

      In addition, union time is again, paid by the union, not the employer. That will put a kybosh on the strike power of the heavily unionised public sector. Then if folk do strike it’s considered and for a reason, not merely political activity.

      1. When I worked in the public sector – union activity in work time was paid by the employers but strikers had pay docked for any days on strike, which also reduced pensionable time.

  44. Although I’m not a member of the Mrs. Ex-Gove fan club, respect for this gem in an item about the ex-Health Sec.

    “But Matt can’t see that because he can’t see past the end of his own throbbing ego.”

    2. …see past the end of his own throbbing ego.”

      So, that’s Hancock’s paramour’s pet name for it, is it?

    3. It is interesting that they are going all out to trash Hancock. So they haven’t decided to close ranks around him. They have decided that he is to be the lightening conductor for the country’s wrath. I wonder if he is being paid handsomely for this service? He must, after all, ‘Know Stuff’.

  45. Just missed the morning session, we have been busy looking for a birthday treat break for next month. HPB all booked out it seems. But found a nice apartment In Cornwall near St Ives. Instead of the Dordogne (phew not my favourite drive) and a stop over at my old mates in Somerset, saves all that driving as well.
    And it’s his shout at his village pub.

  46. 338548+ up ticks,
    Dt,
    Live Coronavirus latest news: Vaccinating children only way to prevent winter surge in cases, says expert

    Vaccinating children is the best way to prevent a surge in Covid-19 cases in the winter, a leading scientist has said.

    I do believe there was a full cobra meeting & it was decided that an ALL overseers combined note was shoved up a main chimney by the main resident leading poof ( 🎵 just another prick in the hall) “Claws No show if not jabbed”.

  47. I’ve had this sent to me this just this Arvo, the language is rather disgusting, you don’t have to listen of course, but this old Bonza Fair Dinkum Aussie has had enough of his Bludger politicians as many of us have. And he’s not wrong.
    BE WARNED ABOUT THE LANGUAGE.
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/L2JJ2yKbi79z/

      1. We like to go to Oz as often as possible we had planned to go this October but………
        About 10 years ago we hired a car at the airport in Melbourne and stayed with our friends south east of Melbourne for a week, drove to Adelaide via the coast road stopping over twice. On the way back inland to Victoria, both me B in Law were ‘nicked’ for speeding. He was also fined for not having his driving licence with him, having left it where we were staying. Latterly we were told that because the SA government had managed to waste (eff up) around 40 million dollars on things that were ‘unaccountable’, they had decided to fine as many motorists as they possible could. And were seen hiding with speed guns in the shrubbery on the dual carriage ways on inland main routes. We managed to check the speedo in Victoria and it was spot on. Neither of us were speeding at all, but they bustards wouldn’t back down. I wrote to the chief of the SA police department a filthy letter and but we had to pay the fines because we wanted and did return a few years later. I imagined they would have banned us at the arrival and or fined us with a lot of interest.
        And i had prearranged to drop the car off at Sydney and when i did the hire company stole around 200 dollars from me, saying they had no knowledge of the arrangement. I had no time to stand and argue with the horrible loud mouthed big and bloody ugly old sheila because we had to board for Singapore.

        2. I worry about Oz because my daughter lives, works and hobby-farms in Tasmania – so far, untouched by either Covid or bureaucratic tyranny but I’m sure it will be federally all-encompassing ‘ere long.

      2. We like to go to Oz as often as possible we had planned to go this October but………
        About 10 years ago we hired a car at the airport in Melbourne and stayed with our friends south east of Melbourne for a week, drove to Adelaide via the coast road stopping over twice. On the way back inland to Victoria, both me B in Law were ‘nicked’ for speeding. He was also fined for not having his driving licence with him, having left it where we were staying. Latterly we were told that because the SA government had managed to waste (eff up) around 40 million dollars on things that were ‘unaccountable’, they had decided to fine as many motorists as they possible could. And were seen hiding with speed guns in the shrubbery on the dual carriage ways on inland main routes. We managed to check the speedo in Victoria and it was spot on. Neither of us were speeding at all, but they bustards wouldn’t back down. I wrote to the chief of the SA police department a filthy letter and but we had to pay the fines because we wanted and did return a few years later. I imagined they would have banned us at the arrival and or fined us with a lot of interest.
        And i had prearranged to drop the car off at Sydney and when i did the hire company stole around 200 dollars from me, saying they had no knowledge of the arrangement. I had no time to stand and argue with the horrible loud mouthed big and bloody ugly old sheila because we had to board for Singapore.

  48. Nigel Farage not present on his programme today but not really missed. We had the Tory MP, the Irish ex Leader in Northern Ireland and the Fire Brigade Trade Union representative. Plus excellent additions, a Barrister with medical knowledge who spoke on vaccinating children and a very spruce Vince Cable who jousted with John Redwood. JR had ideas about inheritance tax and paying for social care which weren’t popular.
    A wide variety of topical subjects were sensibly and politely discussed. A distinct improvement on Any Questions.

  49. ‘Everybody got it wrong’ on Taliban strategy, says UK defence chief.

    Speaking on Sunday, Carter, the chief of the defence staff, said: “It was entirely possible that the government wouldn’t hold on that much longer. Indeed, many of the assessments suggested it wouldn’t last the course of the year and, of course, that’s proven to be correct.”

    Araminta Smade Nottl. 23 June 2021.

    US may slow Afghanistan withdrawal as Taliban win series of victories.

    America could slow down its withdrawal from Afghanistan amid rapid battlefield gains by the Taliban which have raised alarm in Nato capitals, the Pentagon said.

    Ashraf Ghani’s forces have been swept out of many rural areas since the insurgents launched a nationwide offensive at the start of May.

    Joe Biden has promised all US troops will be out of Afghanistan by September, but in recent weeks officials had briefed that the pull out was ahead of schedule and could be complete as early as July.

    Looks like there is going to be a last minute race to the airport!

    Araminta Smade Nottl 4 July 2021.

    Hundreds of Afghan troops flee across border to escape Taliban offensive.

    Hundreds of Afghan troops fled into neighbouring Tajikistan as the Taliban’s march through northern Afghanistan gained momentum with the fall of 10 districts in Badakhshan province.

    The militants on Sunday night appeared poised to move on the provincial capital, as well as the centre of neighbouring Takhar province, after demoralised and poorly equipped Afghan troops either surrendered or retreated.

    It’s falling apart faster than South Vietnam. It will be over in six weeks at this rate! So much for Nation Building and Democracy! It shows you the fragility of American ambitions.

    Lol! Told you so!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/05/everybody-got-it-wrong-on-taliban-strategy-says-uk-defence-chief

    2. In his eeagerness to disparage america, the author has forgotten that the Adfghan army was incompetent, cowardly and practically useless. Good equipment does not an army make.

      The nation was built. A terrorist organisation – one the guardian supports – set about killing people and returning the country to the system of competing warlords that, well, the guardian wants to encourage.

      Also no mention of Biden’s incompetence. Historic and present. How odd. If Trump had been president no doubt they’d have started each paragraph with ‘Trump has failed…’.. But hey. The BBC is suffering the same denial of truth.

  50. ‘Everybody got it wrong’ on Taliban strategy, says UK defence chief.

    Speaking on Sunday, Carter, the chief of the defence staff, said: “It was entirely possible that the government wouldn’t hold on that much longer. Indeed, many of the assessments suggested it wouldn’t last the course of the year and, of course, that’s proven to be correct.”

    Araminta Smade Nottl. 23 June 2021.

    US may slow Afghanistan withdrawal as Taliban win series of victories.

    America could slow down its withdrawal from Afghanistan amid rapid battlefield gains by the Taliban which have raised alarm in Nato capitals, the Pentagon said.

    Ashraf Ghani’s forces have been swept out of many rural areas since the insurgents launched a nationwide offensive at the start of May.

    Joe Biden has promised all US troops will be out of Afghanistan by September, but in recent weeks officials had briefed that the pull out was ahead of schedule and could be complete as early as July.

    Looks like there is going to be a last minute race to the airport!

    Araminta Smade Nottl 4 July 2021.

    Hundreds of Afghan troops flee across border to escape Taliban offensive. Nottl..

    Hundreds of Afghan troops fled into neighbouring Tajikistan as the Taliban’s march through northern Afghanistan gained momentum with the fall of 10 districts in Badakhshan province.

    The militants on Sunday night appeared poised to move on the provincial capital, as well as the centre of neighbouring Takhar province, after demoralised and poorly equipped Afghan troops either surrendered or retreated.

    It’s falling apart faster than South Vietnam. It will be over in six weeks at this rate! So much for Nation Building and Democracy! It shows you the fragility of American ambitions.

    Lol! Told you so!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/05/everybody-got-it-wrong-on-taliban-strategy-says-uk-defence-chief

  51. For those who haven’t seen it, and for those who have, Shirley Valentine at 16.30 on Channel 5 today. One of the best comedies ever.

      1. I saw the first 3 minutes about 6 times on an Air Canada flight. Very frustrating, because of a projector failure. Instead they put on Kramer v Kramer, or was it The War of the Roses?, hardly suitable for the many young families on board. I was returning with my 2 boys from a skiing holiday in Lake Louise.

        I also saw the film in a cinema in Germany with the original soundtrack, no subtitles or dubbing. I was the only person in the auditorium who was laughing. Heads kept turning in my direction.

        1. I had that experience when watching the comedy Bad Mums a few years ago in a cinema full of Germans from perfect families. It was dubbed but they didn’t get when stuff was supposed to be funny. I was the only one in stitches, which just made me laugh all the more.

    2. Heard many times on police programs – “We can’t do our jobs without the help of the public” – – The photo shows how much we appreciate them.

        2. Good idea Bill – get the Methodists to hate us too – the RoP already do – along with our govt..

    5. No prizes for guessing it was just another electrical fault they have had plenty of practice, but i doubt if it was a fridge this time.

      1. Grenfell to be demolished – after ? years – Assume the cost of demolition will have risen very profitably over the time it has been standing there since the fire.
        Also assume another block will be built, taking ??? months to house yet more arrivals.( about ONE day’s worth.)

        1. You can bet your boots some well informed people will be coining it on that one.
          I still find it difficult to believe that an ‘electrical fault’ caused such a blaze in a tower block. From my knowledge of high rise, kitchens the outer wall would be no place for a fridge on a window wall, the area would be taken up by the sink and other under cupboards. Possibly an under work top fridge but not directly under the window.

          1. I have a small Bosch freezer adjacent to my kitchen sink and under the window, because I wanted the dishwasher to go in the utility room.
            But then, I don’t live in a flat.

    6. Let’s test the fire-proofing on a few dozen Mosques, just to see if places of worship are being visited by divine retribution, you understand.

  59. From John Redwood.

    The
    world trading system is not functioning as well as it used to. What
    began as a result of shut downs of factories and shops from anti covid
    policies pursued in many countries has morphed into a more complex set
    of problems getting in the way of smooth continuous supply.

    There
    are too many container ships sitting off California. China from time to
    time shuts down significant capacity at one or more of its major
    container ports to tackle another covid outbreak. There is a shortage of
    empty containers returning to the big exporting countries like China
    and Germany in time to be filled promptly with new orders.

    There
    is a surprising shortage of people willing to take jobs in many places,
    despite the shock to employment brought on by covid lockdowns. We have
    discussed recently the shortage of truck drivers in many countries,
    where pay and conditions of employment have not proved attractive enough
    to recruit a new generation of enough people to do the job.

    Individual
    materials and components have been forced into shortages by large
    expansions of demand. Microprocessors are the most obvious.The surge in
    demand for all things digital combined with the wish of the motor
    industry to turn a car into a kind of smartphone on wheels to induce a
    big shortage of chips . Timber was suddenly very scarce as housebuilding
    took off in several places. Oil went dearer as OPEC restrained the
    supply whilst demand picked up.

    Central Banks assure us this will
    all be temporary and inflation will soon subside. The danger is if
    Banks keep on printing too many yen dollars and euros they will keep
    price pressures on. There is also some signs that lockdowns have lost us
    some capacity amongst the self employed and small businesses that serve
    us so well. Governments need to be more attentive to the ease of
    setting up or re opening small businesses so we tackle more of the
    shortages.

    1. I notice he didn’t mention the apparently real reason for the ‘Shortage’ of truck drivers. The computer system at the EU border control has crashed and is inoperative, leaving only around 8 staff members to cope with the paperwork back log of goods. And the Spanish farmers are pulling their hair out as their goods rot before their eyes. I’m not absolutely sure is this is true but I read it a few days ago in one of the online papers.

      1. Have the Spanish and French ( and the rest ) realised yet that once England is no longer populated by the TRULY English and only by the replacements – the replacements won’t be wanting their produce?

          1. “Lessons have been learned”? – -always too late – NEVER seen before the event. – then what they claim they learned – is forgotten and ignored – so the same happens again and again.

  60. Fuquan Johnson is among three dead from ‘cocaine-laced fentanyl overdose’ at party in LA: Model and comedian Kate Quiqley is in critical condition: D Fail
    Comedian Fuquan Johnson and two others died while a comedian-model was rushed to hospital in critical condition this weekend from apparent overdoses of fentanyl-laced cocaine.
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/09/05/12/47529621-9959319-image-m-11_1630842531439.jpg

    CDC says more than 83,000 people lost their lives to drug-related overdoses in the 12-month period ending in July 2020. Oh dear, how sad!

      2. Fuquan Johnson, you know, Fuquan. His name is on all the youngsters lips. Fuquan this and Fuquan that. The name will not be forgotten, Boris is working hard to carry it forward.

        1. I love the way the Blacks dream up these exotic names Ped! Shanquille Bedfeather-P’Tang will probably emerge sooner or later. Lol!

    2. Can’t say i’m particularly bothered. Actually, i don’t care at all. Does that make me a bad person?

    5. Candidates for the Darwin Awards 2021. Your stupidity will find you out and may, just, kill you.

  61. Good afternoon from a Saxon Queen with longbow and blooded axe .

    Just finished roasted guinea fowl with homemade stuffing, bread sauce, potatoes roasted in goose fat, my gravy and vegetables. Accompanied with a rather nice red wine of which I’m drinking now. A very pleasant English sunny Sunday afternoon .

    1. Excellent.

      I have a guinea fowl on order. They taste so good. A bit like chicken used to taste like. Theo Randall has some great Guinea fowl recipes.

    2. ‘allo Ethel.

      Can I borrow your war axe please? I need to spatchcock a poussin for tonight’s supper. I promise to wipe the blood off before returning.

      1. Hello Mr Viking, I’ll send it right over to you, I’ll send the longbow too.
        Spatchcock poussin sounds nice but I feel guilty about flatterning the poor thing .

    3. Sounds lovely, Our Æthelfled. Good on you, a Sunday Lunch to remember.
      Me, had blackberries, and many thorns to extract, then drove home. Result: 30+ litres of blackberries, and these sell as £10 a litre, or so. Firstborn is happy, at least.

  62. BBC admits Syria gas attack report had serious flaws in ‘victory for truth’ after complaint by Peter Hitchens. 5 September 2021.

    The BBC has admitted that a Radio 4 documentary on an alleged chemical weapon attack in Syria contained serious inaccuracies.

    Adjudicators agreed that the programme by BBC investigative journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou failed to meet the Corporation’s editorial standards for accuracy by reporting false claims.

    The BBC also accepted it had no evidence to back up its claim that ‘Alex’, a highly qualified and apolitical scientist, believed the attack in Douma, which prompted retaliatory missile strikes by Britain, the US and France, had been staged.

    In its ruling, the Corporation withdrew the imputation that Mr Hitchens, who has reported on despotic regimes for more than 40 years, shared ‘the Russian and Syrian state views on the war’.

    Douma was of course a False Flag operation by the Jihadists along with some technical advice from Mi6 and their proxies the White Helmets. It was a particularly nasty operation involving the cold blooded and cruel murder of over a dozen innocents. It went wrong almost immediately and was in danger of being completely exposed. The BBC’s attack on “Alex” and Hitchens was almost certainly “engineered” to take the pressure off!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9958679/BBC-admits-Syria-gas-attack-report-flaws-complaint-Peter-Hitchens.html

      1. Afternoon Phizzee. Yes I know though postponing judgement is pretty effective as well. Time hides many crimes!

  63. An update from the Sunday Mail on the story posted by Our Anne earlier this morning…

    Matt Hancock is being a ‘complete a*******’ to his long Covid-hit wife who is at ‘breaking point’ over his affair – but was cheered up by Sarah Vine column about his ‘throbbing ego’, friend reveals

    1. No one can understand or judge a marriage from the outside, but IMHO Mrs Hancock was way . out. of . his . league.

      1. I fail to understand how he got not one but two beautiful and high achieving women to fall in love with him. He looks OK until he opens his mouth.

    2. Just been sitting in the garden on ‘the lower terrace’ have a cuppa and a couple of biscuits.

    4. Just come home from a quick shopping trip to Sainsbury , Wareham . Moh has been golfing this morning .

      I arrived home and he was asleep in the garden , but he had fed the dogs thankfully.

      Enjoyng a cup of tea now. So warm outside , everywhere packed with sunloving tourists .

    5. I must be getting on then! After lunch I took my second glass of red wine and a book into the garden, sat on the lounger and promptly went to sleep in the sun.

      1. Geographically – yes – culturally – no. – and the rot is spreading, with govt approval using the wrong treatment in a fake attempt to stop it. Bit like filling Fire Engine tanks with petrol and wondering why the blaze got worse.

    3. What guff! “Challenging the status quo…”. No one has ever stopped hikers hiking, regardless of colour. Yet another meaningless bandwagon to jump on for some attention and 15 minutes of fame.

  67. I had a funny thought Friday when The Railway Children was on TV, what a pleasant film that was, it was superb.
    My thoughts were about the recent arrivals being locked into hotel rooms and sitting to watch (for free of course) it. I wondered what they might have thought of it. it must have looked quite futuristic to where most of them have come from.

      1. “Daddy, my Daddy”

        Not a dry eye in the cinema after watching The Railway Children.

        Walkabout was one of the first films showing f.f.n. ! Jenny Agutter became an icon.

    2. Wikipedia: “The actress Sally Thomsett was cast as Phyllis in The Railway Children despite the character being 11 years old and Thomsett being 20. Jenny Agutter, who played her elder sister Bobbie in the film, was in fact two years younger than Thomsett. Thomsett was contractually forbidden to reveal her age during production, and was likewise not allowed to smoke, drink, drive a car, or be seen in public with her boyfriend. The film crew were unaware of her true age, and treated her as they would a child (e.g. giving her sweets), while addressing the younger Agutter as they would an adult.”

  68. A new blog from Dr Malcom Kendrick – the first for some time.

    https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2021/09/03/i-have-not-been-silenced/

    Thank you to the many people who have e-mailed me recently and asked

    if I have been silenced. I have not. I have had letters from Public

    Health England and the General Medical Council, informing me that I was

    under investigation for daring to question anything about COVID19,

    particularly vaccines.

    The good news is the investigations ended up nowhere, and were closed

    down. I have also had irate phone calls from doctors, telling me that I

    must not question vaccination and suchlike. This has been somewhat

    wearing and has caused me to remain silent for a while and think about

    things.

    1. Credit to her. I’m aiming for a kilo a month myself. After 3 years I’ll be 5kg over my lean weight of 115.

  70. Telegraph Article

    Duke and Duchess of Cambridge join push to make royal staff more diverse
    The diversity drive follows the acrimonious departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from the UK amid repeated allegations of racism

    The Telegraph know just what the general public and especially the Telegraph readership think of this which is why they allow no BTL comments!

    1. There are pockets of racism against blacks. It is in no way as bad as made out.

      A black guy or girl can get abuse on the street but then so can gingers.

      If you saw Mrs Markle walking down the street would you think she was black?

  71. You can’t run the British state from your kitchen table. Spiked. 5 September 2021.

    The Treasury opting to work from home is a sign of a deeper problem. As Frank Furedi has argued on spiked, neither Westminster nor Whitehall seems to take public office all that seriously anymore. Sure, politicians and civil servants recognise that they are doing a job. But that’s all it is – a job. It is not something that requires a greater degree of commitment than other office jobs. So, if it can be done at home, in the kitchen or the lounge, why not?

    What is missing among the current incumbents of Westminster and Whitehall is any sense of public service. Those occupying these vital national roles don’t seem to recognise their importance. They don’t see themselves as public servants. They see themselves merely as employees.

    I wish this were true but I suspect many of them see themselves as bosses entitled to interfere, or refuse to act on their own beliefs and at their own discretion! Certainly the Home Office staff feels no necessity to obey its Political Masters or implement Government Policy!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/09/05/you-cant-run-the-british-state-from-your-kitchen-table/

    3. The working from home thing is a strange one. I used to pootle in to my offices from =7;30-4 like clockwork, every day.

      We had the rare snow days and then worked from home the once. It was great. My team hopped on a conference call so we could ‘see’ each other.

      Since April last year I’ve worked from home and it’s been great. A lot depends on your team. I left a role where no one – no one – spoke to each other. Now I spend all day on conference calls, talking about work and telling people that we need tooling to remove our need to constantly talk to one another.

  72. Rather pleased. Just back from 80 minute bike ride (practising for next Saturday for the sponsored cycle) nearly nine miles and nine churches….

    Hard on the old legs, though!

    2. Well done.. Careful not to over do it though. Nice and easy does it.

      If you do happen to croak before the sponsored ride…can i have my money back?… ***devil face…

  73. Middle eastern immigrant politician believes that 12 year old girls and boys can overrule their parents with regards to vaccination. Jab, hijab, Big Prophet, Big Pharma.

    1. I think Whitty and Johnson are just as bad. They’re hiding behind eau de Javid, that’s all.
      This is so dishonest, surely anyone can see that something is wrong?

          1. Most of the troublemakers are foreign – or one generation away. Look at Fattaturk. On second thoughts, don’t look at him – he is rather gross.

    2. It is a notion not without merit in the moslem mind. If the 12 year old children defy the wishes of their parents., thr parents could put them out on the street. The moslems will look after them…

  74. 338548+ up ticks,
    There ain’t no two ways about it these political treacherous bastards are now for openly creating anarchy among the family, divide & conquer
    governance drug pushers in action.

    Teenagers can overrule their parents to take Covid vaccine, says minister

    1. “Remember, kids, just say no to drugs! Unless it’s the government telling you to take them. You can trust the government!”

  75. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/viral/migrants-brought-into-dover-harbour-on-navy-boat-after-being-rescued-in-english-channel/vi-AAO7s60?ocid=msedgntp
    A Royal Navy boat brought migrants into Dover Harbour on Sunday (4 September) that were earlier rescued from the English Channel. The rib (rigid inflatable boat) received the migrants from the larger British Navy vessel the Vigilant, which itself had received them from French naval ships.
    Can’t say its not a deliberate ferry service now.

      1. May as well.( and make Border Force redundant to save cash. ) ‘Google says largest holds 2000 – so well over 20k a time can cram on. Now we just need a VERY large hotel built every 2 hours . . .

        1. That’s a good idea. The staff who are freed up could work at Heathrow, maybe, to reduce the very long waiting times of legitimate arrivals?

  76. HAPPY HOUR – Not!

    Daniel Craig claims he won’t leave much money for his children,calls bestowing inheritance distasteful..
    https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/daniel-craig-wont-leave-much-money-for-his-children-calls-bestowing-inheritance-distasteful-7466757/

    I’m not sure about distasteful but I certainly won’t be leaving my hard earned savings (should I have anything left after being screwed by this crap gov.) to my nephews and nieces!
    Another Sunday passes and the phone line appears to be out of order again!
    Remind me to contact the local dog’s home …!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dddb9f4424f11af23efac0af3491ed9245521acd9b54aa1a6a75e3c15244672b.jpg

    1. I must have blocked everybody on my phone list – apart from those trying to sell me pensions I don’t need. At least, the calls I receive are like that.
      Send us yer phone number, Plum, and I’ll call and have an asthma attack for you late in the evening… ;-))

          2. I’m sure the right one will find you in time. It took me nearly two months to get Oscar and I was beginning to think I’d be dog-less for ever 🙁 He is mellowing gradually. He has the looks of a teddy bear and the nature of a grizzly at times, but that’s becoming less obvious as he settles down and gets used to the routine. He seems to trust me to do things to him without his feeling the need to be proactive to stave off harm now.

          4. It leaves a big hole in your life. It isn’t just the emptiness in the house, it’s the lack of social life and companionship.

          7. Keep going, girl, you know they’re rewarding – even if they don’t live long enough – Dotty is my fourth dog, even if she loves Mama (Best Beloved) more.

    5. I couldn’t even contact my sister-in-law to let her know her sibling was deceased! We haven’t had so much as a Christmas card from her for decades and she isn’t in the phone book. Needless to say, she got nothing in the will. My brother is similar, but at least we get a card.

      1. I’m sorry for that, Conners. One would hope that family stuck together, but experience says it doesn’t happen. It’s very sad. I don’t know why, either.
        I was just counting up the elderly relatives I knew of, and how many funerals happened with no representation from my parents or me. That is, all but my Grandfather. Even when my Great-Aunt Hilda died (and she was the nearest I ever had to a Grandmother) no bastard said anything until the funeral was well past. Whatever happened to Great-Aunt Lily? No word. Her husband, John? Silence. Winnie? answer came there none. I actually get quite bitter over it.
        Sorry. Rant over. 🙁

        1. They fell out over something and both were two peas in a pod when it came to holding grudges – world record holders! Me, I can’t be bothered; it’s over and done and I need to get on with my life.

          1. Don’t let it drag you down is the approach I take, but sometimes, lying awake at 03:00, one dwells on it.

          2. I don’t waste any time on it because there’s nothing I can do about it. My brother was similar – he holds a grudge because I was more successful in life than he was, but he ignores that he was offered advantages in education which I never was, yet he turned them down. Everything I got I worked for. I made my choices, just as he did. That he made bad ones isn’t my fault.

          3. Indeed, one must learn to make the right decision, and not blame others for one’s lousy choices. My brother rejected opportunities and took the safe life, hasn’t done so well the last 20 years.

          4. Indeed, one must learn to make the right decision, and not blame others for one’s lousy choices. My brother rejected opportunities and took the safe life, hasn’t done so well the last 20 years.

          5. I’ve been there too, Paul, and it ruins a good night’s sleep, something I haven’t had for years, dwelling on these invasions into our ‘White Privileged’ lives.

            Small wonder I get so bitter about it.

  80. I am getting so sick of this.

    ITV coverage of the football as it starts.

    Big flag, “Walk Tall” with pictures of the England penalty missers. The three who failed to do what they are paid for being lauded.

    Then the big kneel, of course, and then the camera immediately focuses on a group of women in hijabs.

    Call me a cynic, but the timing suggested that the crowd had been scanned to find this group and a camera had been designated. If I was a betting man I would bet that the producer said cue Muslims or something similar, such was the timing.

        2. But, but, but, Sos, if you ALL boycott it, until it returns to the ‘Normal’ version, it would hit the clubs and the International teams in the pocket where it hurts the business – it is NOT a sport anymore and don’t kid yourself it is.

    2. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it turned out that the animated tents were paid to be there for the photo op.

    2. White Priveledge? – is that what the ferried in, stay free in a hotel, fed, fresh water, hot water, bed etc supplied, UK hating, migrants say? – -” Look at that lucky b*stard and his white priveledge – – HE gets to sleep on the floor in a bus shelter when its p1ssing down with rain !!!.”

      1. As a couple examples of why the idea of “white privilege” is a woke myth I give you steel workers, miners [coal and tin], Glasgow slums etc – not much effin privilege there

      1. If they are so keen on empowering the indigenous why do they object to indigenous white British people being empowered in our own country?

      1. Calling critical race theory “nonsense” was clearly too much for the sensitive souls on Twitt.

  82. I have just looked on twitt (at the account of some fool who sometimes mentions me) and I see that some envious little person has got their talons into golf courses.
    Apparently golf courses should be re-wilded for the good of the environment. I suspect the racist sub-text is “and golf is for white men so it’s got to go”.
    Don’t want to put the link, as the sheer malevolent stupidity is depressing.

    1. Could be worse; could be designated “brownfield” and built over with houses for the invaders.

      1. I’m not a member of twitter, Belle – my blood pressure couldn’t stand it! The person whose tweets I keep an eye on is someone I know in real life, who suffers from verbal diarrhoea and can’t stop shooting their mouth off.

          1. Really, I’d rather not. I only mentioned it because it seems weird that I loathe Twit so much, and yet look at it regularly.

          2. It’s addictive but only in very small doses I find. It’s such a snake pit I rarely stay more than a few minutes. Then TB posts yet another link and I have a look and so it goes on.

  83. I am sure that all NoTTLers will share my grief that the famously deprived – and impoverished – black underdog driver failed to win the Dutch Grand Prix.

  84. That’s me gone for this very pleasant day. Watering the garden. Being entertained by G & P. Nine miles on my bike (still aching). We had lunch in the garden – it was almost like, er, summer. The fine spell is said to continue for a few days. About bloody time.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  85. Evening, all. Amen to the headline! Was very happy at the end of the church service this morning. The choir was back (they take a break during August) and there were refreshments afterwards so we all stood around (those who stayed were mask-less) and gossiped. It was quite like old times. Even better, the visiting priest (we’re in a vacancy and have to take pot luck who can make it to celebrate the Eucharist) didn’t turn up so we had a “Songs of Praise” with requests! Some rousing hymns were chosen so we could get our teeth into them (or our tonsils round them if you prefer). Jerusalem and God is My Strength and Refuge (Psalm 47, sung to the Dambusters March) among them. One of the wardens was heard to mutter afterwards, “perhaps we should lock the next priest away and tell everybody nobody has turned up!”

      1. Nah! I left that to the choir (it is their job, after all) 🙂 We had the full complement of 25 and they sat in the choir stalls instead of on chairs in the chancel. I was quite surprised what a difference these steps towards normality made.

          3. Thank you, Maggie. It’s true I am blessed. I went through a very bad place at one time, but now I am, hopefully, heading for the sunlit uplands. I am daily grateful for what I’ve got.

          6. Perhaps it helps understand the human condition a wee bit more.
            Cheers! I raise a glass to you and Oscar! :-D)

          8. May I ask you now, how long you had been coping valiantly with the illness of your wife and the long term consequences were how long in months or years , don’t want to upset you , but you may be able to talk a little bit now?

          9. Six years from the stroke and diagnosed with dementia three years ago, getting progressively worse (lockdown was the beginning of the end).

          10. How very very terrible for you . Awful , cruel and mindnumbingly exhausting .

            So sorry Conway , the crosses that we all have to take on our shoulders is a strain on all good hearts.

            You are now released having done your best .. Just whistle and be happy .

            Will look forward to hearing more about your new adventures x

          11. Thanks, Maggie. I tell myself it was all for the best; a peaceful end to an intolerable situation (for both of us).

          12. Good to know, Connors, that you’re coping. We all wish you the very, very best and an enjoyable future for you and Oscar. KBO, pal.

    2. As I walked Spartie this evening, I passed houses where people were getting together and enjoying themselves.
      It was a really soul lifting sound.
      Do politicians and scientists seriously realise what they have done over these past 18 months?

      1. Hopefully people will react to another proposed lockdown by the thought “oh no you don’t. Not this time”.

        1. I hope so. One of the people I was with (all mask-less) on Friday night said that two years out of the life of people our age mattered because we had relatively little time left. I felt the same.

      2. I believe the faux scientists and our usual bunch of corrupt politicos remain very content within the ‘bubble’ they have created for themselves and fcuk to the rest of us.

        We will have our vengeance on these criminals.

      3. 338548+m up ticks,
        Evening Anne,
        May one ask ,do the electorate seriously realise what they have done over the last
        three decades ?

      4. ‘Evening, Anne, “Do politicians and scientists seriously realise what they have done over these past 18 months?”

        Could it be, that that is pecisely what the policos and ‘scientists’ are aiming for?

      1. They are still there.
        It’s just that the ctrl F search on the page did not bring them up!

  87. Bloody Disqus,Bloody Computers
    Got locked out of Disqus this morning then my laptop froze,only just got it going and lost all today’s memes
    What a pain!!

    3. That is consistent with the end goal being digital ids and a digital currency to replace the fiat currencies.

      I will use cash until they prise it out of my cold dead hands…probably next year, at the rate things are going.

    4. A small event was advertised on the radio yesterday “its £4 CASH only – at the door to get in – — but the bar is card payment only” ??? . . .I can omly think the entrance fee was going straight in the pocket.

    1. I can understand the shop’s argument but, when the halal meat eating culture coming here for “a better life” shows OUR culture some respect they might get shown some in return. Coming here, gang raping young English girls, setting up drug gangs, enforcing THEIR culture and religion by threats of violence, racing around our roads while having NO license, NO insurance, NO MoT cert and running off after crashing into an innocent person does NOT get you seen in a good light. I’d tell them to look at themselves in a mirror -STOP CLAIMING TO BE THE ETERNAL VICTIM -and blame themselves.The British are very tolerant people, but if the people coming to enjoy what WE have paid for, show us NO respect whatsoever . . . . . .

    2. Maybe we might just shew respect to other cultures when they reciprocate, by respecting our 1500 year white Christian culture, integrate and leave their camel culture behind or – go home where they are not disrespected by having to live with white Christians.

    3. How about they show respect for us first? Their method of slaughter is barbaric. If they are savages, they should be treated as such and collared and chained. If they’re not, then they will integrate and disappear, not demand we accept their ways.

        1. And people think the NHS needs more money. This is where it is wasted. And no. I don’t need to be uncomfortable. Get out of my country you nasty racist.

        2. Is this a spoof?

          I couldn’t read it all because I don’t belong to Twitter. Nor to Instagram or TicTok either. Even Facebook and YouTube have been trashed by the managers with their damned analytical algorithms and cookie & javascript forced agreement policies.

  92. 338548+ up ticks,
    May one ask, how many must die prior to the peoples revenge,remove,replace,reset ? because this is most certainly NOT going to end without blood being spilt.

    breitbart,

    TALIBAN TELLS BRITISH PRESS: ‘WE WANT ISLAMIC LAW, AND NOT JUST IN AFGHANISTAN’

    With halal dumplings on the parliamentary canteen menu I take it the press / politico’s were in full agreement.

    2. And we wanted a free and decent Afghanistan. Sometimes you don’t get what you want.

      However, infuriatingly, our own useless state seems insistent on enforcing what the nutters want, here.

      1. Methinks the slogan should be, “No integration, no residence.” and that applies to ALL the family.

      1. Thank you, Elsie, I appreciate your responses but, in the main, I tend not to see them until the next day. Appreciated, nevertheless.

  97. A Monday challenge for fellow Nottlers:

    Please list current Cabinet Members – and mark out of five for:

    Intelligence:
    Ability:
    Conservatism:
    Integrity:

    Answers for our Enlightened Brunchtime, please …

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