Thursday 10 December: A grave danger of misreading the effects of coronavirus vaccinations

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),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/10/lettersa-grave-danger-misreading-effects-coronavirus-vaccinations/

778 thoughts on “Thursday 10 December: A grave danger of misreading the effects of coronavirus vaccinations”

  2. ‘Morning All

    Interesting piece from spiked on the lunacy of the “Green Revolution”

    “Point two of the plan is ‘to generate 5GW of low-carbon

    hydrogen-production capacity by 2030 for industry, transport, power and

    homes, and aiming to develop the first town heated entirely by hydrogen

    by the end of the decade’. Unlike natural gas, hydrogen is not an energy

    source – it has to be produced. There are two ways to produce hydrogen:

    electrolysis and steam reforming of natural gas.

    Electrolysis at grid scale is simply uneconomic – a highly

    conservative estimate of the requirements and costs of replacing natural

    gas with hydrogen produced by electrolysis and powered by wind energy

    would say that Britain would need 20 times as many wind farms, and the

    wholesale cost of electricity would increase tenfold.”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/12/09/the-lie-of-the-green-industrial-revolution/
    What the writer hasn’t realised is a tenfold raise in electricity prices isn’t a bug,it’s a feature a dream for the control freaks of the NWO and the WEF
    Now about that smart meter you want me to install………………..

          1. Topped up on rice and pasta last week. I’ve got a full freezer, a goodly stock of tinned tomatoes, and I don’t expect a shortage of local winter veg.

    2. One can imagine the buffoon Johnson declaring, “This hydrogen thingy sounds good, we’ll add that in.” When someone who understands a bit of the science (so important to follow the science when it suits, no matter how bent the data) tries to inform him of the implications his retort will be along the lines, “I don’t do detail, just get on and do it, Rishi will find the money.”

      The announcement of these unachievable plans clearly demonstrates that those ‘in charge’ have no idea of what is involved and are either poorly served by their scientific advisors or so obsessed with everything ‘green’ that they ignore the advice.

      2. The scientific advisors chosen are all signed up to the green agenda. Any who aren’t won’t get a look in (look at David Bellamy).

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps. Today’s crop of Covid letters. As we all knew, the recent media triumphalism is not necessarily justified (and certainly not Handycock’s blubbing):

    SIR – May I please get my prediction in quickly? One of the elderly who have received a Covid-19 vaccination will die of natural causes, probably old age, within a very short space of time, resulting in widespread hysteria about the side -effects of the vaccine.

    Emma-Louise Bowers
    London SW11

    SIR – Both Chris North and William Fleming (Letters, December 8) say that people will be prevented from attending the theatre or travelling without a vaccination certificate. They overlook two important points.

    First, no vaccine has 100 per cent efficacy and a certificate will not guarantee that the holder is free of infection.

    Secondly, tens of thousands of people are unable to have a vaccination on medical grounds, such as the risk of anaphylaxis.

    Are they to be treated as social pariahs and second-class citizens?

    David Miller
    Chigwell, Essex

    SIR – Chris North says in his letter that he does not want to stand next to anyone in an enclosed space who has not got a vaccination passport.

    I am afraid that argument does not add up. Either he will be vaccinated, so will not have to worry, or he will not be, so shouldn’t be there.

    Bill Hayes
    Westerham, Kent

    SIR – As scientists still don’t know how long the Covid vaccination lasts, what is the point of having a vaccination certificate?

    Kate Graeme-Cook
    Brixham, Devon

    SIR – Being in their 90s, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh should be in line for early vaccination in consideration of their age alone.

    Throughout this year, the Queen has led by example. If she were to get the vaccine, then this would surely combat the anti-vaccine lobby.

    When chloroform was introduced as an anaesthetic, there was widespread opposition to it. Once Queen Victoria had successfully used it during childbirth and praised it, the opposition was crushed. The public were persuaded by the monarch and not forced by a government.

    Hannah Hunt
    Wendover, Buckingamshire

    SIR – I find it curious how much fuss the NHS has made over the difficulties of distributing the vaccine while maintaining it at minus 70 C.

    More than 50 years ago, I was a dairy farmer in Malawi. To improve the quality of my herd, I imported bull’s semen which had to be stored in liquid nitrogen at minus 196 C. I had to import the liquid nitrogen from what was then Rhodesia, by air, every three weeks.

    This meant driving 40 miles to collect it from the airline and filling in customs declarations. It wasn’t too onerous for a simple farmer in Africa so I don’t see why a GP’s surgery would find it difficult in this country.

    Richard Duncan
    Guildford, Surrey

    Another letter about the storage of bull semen, or is this a repeat of the previous one?

    1. Hannah Hunt seems completely oblivious of the fact that normal vaccines take a long time to test by rigorous trials. This batch has been knocked up in a hurry and the producers have been indemnified against claims should it all go wrong. I doubt the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic was without due testing, so the analogy is hardly the same.

  5. SIR – The publication of the Scottish Government’s Guide to Etiquette and Pandemic Politeness coincided with the moral-boosting visit to Scotland by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

    The rudeness displayed to them by Nicola Sturgeon suggests that she might take a leaf out of her own book.

    Jayne James Duff
    Montrose, Angus

    SIR – Those who acted with rude surliness, instead of appreciation of the unselfish delivery of encouragement by the Duke and Duchess, brought shame on Welsh and Scottish politics.

    Christopher Barder
    Wanborough, Wiltshire

    “Moral-boosting”? You sure about that, Jayne (&?) James Duff??

    1. It is permitted to breach the corona restrictions on social activities in order to go about one’s work.

      An important part of the job description of a constitutional monarch is to boost national morale for the welfare of the subjects especially during periods of crisis. The Queen is 94 years old; the Duke of Rothesay is 72. The heavy lifting must then pass to the most able of this family regency, which is the Earl and Countess of Strathearn, both 38.

      They are going to work every bit as Ms Sturgeon is when she attends Holyrood. She should welcome their contribution to Scotland, rather than dismissing it.

      [Edited to give their proper Scottish titles]

          3. We did a Rhine cruise back in May ’79 when we were expecting our firstborn. Amsterdam to Strasbourg & back.

    2. Maybe if some of our royals lived in Scotland and/or Wales, instead of their all living in England, they might be looked upon more kindly.

      1. You have a point, in that British respect for the sixth and seventh in line dropped significantly now that they have decamped to Los Angeles, with Los Angeles values.

      2. Balmoral Castle where the Queen spends about two months a year.. Charles has Llwynywermod, which is his estate in Wales.

          1. He now owns both the Castle of Mey (on the east coast of Caithness) and her former home on the Balmoral estate. Birkhall is close to the Dee and she used to stay there for the fishing. In her later years she would potter about her garden and always waved to those who were fishing on the opposite bank.

      4. The royals are looked upon very kindly in the west of Aberdeenshire by the people who are actually connected to the Balmoral estate or who make part of their living by supplying it. I was working in a hotel in Aboyne in 1981 and a bus-load of staff and others (the local GP who was the doctor for the castle was one of them) were whisked down to St Pauls for that ill-fated wedding. It used to be (and my well still be) considered normal in Ballater to meet members of the family in the street; the convention is to wish them good morning or good afternoon but not to stop walking. The Queen Mother, who only owned one bank of the river at Birkhall, used to exchange greetings with those fishing the opposite bank like any other fisherman. I’m not sure that the Prince of Wales is quite as easy going, but Camilla has a reputation for being friendly.

        1. Ballater (and Mey) are both tiny villages; the residents have the honour of seeing the Fam up close, but only at certain holiday times.

          1. Ballater isn’t so tiny and you have to take the whole stretch really, from Aboyne up to Braemar. But yes, they do get to see them up close – I met a land rover one day and was slightly startled when I realised that the driver who was smiling and waving (the road was narrow and I had pulled over) was HM apparently only accompanied by a black lab…

            I don’t think that she is ever entirely on holiday and they go to certain events to meet and greet while they are there but it is fair to say that, as with Sandringham, they are on a more relaxed level when they are there. But then I think it is the realisation of them as real people which makes for the local kindness.

          2. ‘Morning, Storm.

            Enjoying a quiet breakfast after the fun & games last night.
            How’s Life treating you?

    2. Good morning Peddy and all NoTTLers but me. (Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness – and answering yourself is the second, isn’t it Elsie? It certainly is, Elsie.)

      1. ‘Morning, Johnny.
        I thought it was mild during the night; this morning I realised I’d left the central heating on.

  7. Morning all.
    Went to my regular optitian yesterday as MOH thinks I can’t see properly even with my glasses. He said my eyesight is good enough to pass the parked vehicle number plate test.

    I asked him about the business of requiring people to go to Specsavers for a Government eyesight check. He said that Specsavers won a Government contract to test a feature of binocular vision with instruments that they coundn’t use because they couldn’t be disinfected to COVID requirements.

  8. Morning all.
    Went to my regular optitian yesterday as MOH thinks I can’t see properly even with my glasses. He said my eyesight is good enough to pass the parked vehicle number plate test.

    I asked him about the business of requiring people to go to Specsavers for a Government eyesight check. He said that Specsavers won a Government contract to test a feature of binocular vision with instruments that they coundn’t use because they couldn’t be disinfected to COVID requirements.

  9. Vladimir Putin’s tide of terror: Russian naval incursions into British waters soar by 26% fuelling fears Moscow is exploiting the pandemic to test UK.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/659a8fb0caa1e894cff8e031acd6ca3fd3dddcfab6df8326b1926cea044d5c9e.jpg

    Russia has dramatically increased naval and air operations near Britain, raising fears Moscow is exploiting the pandemic to test UK responses.

    The Royal Navy has been forced to deploy 17 times this year to escort Russian vessels passing through British waters, figures reveal. This is up 26 per cent on last year.

    Moscow has also increased its activities in the skies, with RAF Typhoons scrambling 11 times to intercept Russian warplanes flying on the fringes of our airspace.

    Tide of terror! Eh! They must have pinched this from the Express and left out the “WW3 Horror” headline. It’s all bull of course witness the Vice-Admiral Kulyakov in the Irish Sea! No Russian ships have passed through “British”waters or their planes penetrated “British” airspace.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9036545/Russian-naval-incursions-British-waters-soar-26.html

    1. 327360+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      There will be hell to pay if they interfere with the governance “Operation Sealion” Mk2.

    2. Were there any Russian ships protecting French and Dutch fishermen as they plundered our waters?

      1. There are no ships plundering our waters. They are fishing there legally using the quota which Mrs T insisting on attaching to the boats for which she then refused to pay scrappage (Britain was the only country with a fishing fleet which did not partake of the EU decommissioning scheme) – forcing any British fisherman who wished to retire to sell his boat and his quota on the open market.

        For this deliberate sacrifice of someone else’s livelihood (together with the surrender of a vastly disproportionate amount of the UK milk quota – also someone else’s livelihood) she received something which she chose to call a rebate.

    3. Yo Minty

      More risible is what would happen next.
      If you total the number of military aircraft in the “Service’s” Museums, ie FAA at RNAS Yeovilton, the number
      would exceed, the total number of operational fixed wing fighter avaiable for first line defence of UK

      I suppose we could always use Blair One as a decoy

      1. We still have some airworthy Spitfires, a couple of Hurricanes and one Lanc to add to the numbers 🙂

        1. RAF Coningsby
          We were held up by the threshold traffic lights, when the Spitfires that had flown over Westminster Abbey, for VE day returned

          1. I was visiting Metheringham and one of the BBMF Spits flew over – an extra treat. I have visited the BBMF at Coningsby as well. In 2018 I was camped nearby and they practised their RAF 100 formation over the campsite.

          2. When we lived on the coast in Lincolnshire the BBMF were alway overflying us, as they practiced their moves, just off the coast.
            When I was an apprentice, I worked on the Walrus, that is now in the FAA museum at Yeovilton.

        1. 327360+ up ticks,
          Morning Anne,
          And interfere with the governance party’s
          Operation Sealion Mk2 I should coco, that would be a very warlike gesture.

      2. What we should/must do hire the Russian Fleet to sail up and down the English Channel (forever), just running over
        the endless stream of rubber boats, bring life-trippers to our shores

        They would not divert a 40,000 ton ship, to avoid these boats.

        I am old enough to remember when we had a Royal Navy, who could have protected us.

      3. What we should/must do hire the Russian Fleet to sail up and down the English Channel (forever), just running over
        the endless stream of rubber boats, bring life-trippers to our shores

        They would not divert a 40,000 ton ship, to avoid these boats.

        I am old enough to remember when we had a Royal Navy, who could have protected us.

    5. So QRA was scrambled 11 times during 2020? When I was on Lightnings in the late 60s QRA was scrambled that many times a month

  10. Morning all, Boris is back from Brussels, remind me how long does he have to quarantine for on arrival back here?

      1. Johnson’s hair in the cartoon is considerably neater than it is in real life. Did he cut it himself or did Carrie do it?

        I must admit that I am not a snappy dresser myself but when I was a child my mother made sure I looked presentable when I needed to look smart and respectable and now Caroline smartens me up a bit before I go anywhere where I am not expected to look like a tramp.

        Johnson has the most appalling posture which is why he will always look shabbily dressed but frankly his appearance at the current EU dinner has brought disgrace down upon the country as well as on himself and his mistress who should at least look after more than just his carnal urges.

        1. I am afraid I work on the principle that when I am in London I dress as I please because no one knows me. When I am at home I dress as I please because everybody knows me 🙂

  12. Worth a read…

    Our time in the EU was a calamity for Britain and a disaster for Europe

    As de Gaulle recognised, it would have been better for everyone if we had never joined the European Union

    ALLISTER HEATH – 9 December 2020 • 9:30pm

    Charles de Gaulle was right: Britain should never have joined the EU. Thanks to his turbulent years at Four Carlton Gardens, he understood us better than our own establishment ever did.

    We stood apart, a free-trading, Atlanticist and global island with a very different conception of Europe’s future. We were never going to fit into the Jean Monnet model of EU state-building or even his own more nation-centric version, De Gaulle argued when he gloriously vetoed our application twice during the Sixties. And so it turned out. Our approach was exactly what Brussels was seeking to stamp out.

    Why didn’t we listen? Why did we waste 47 frustrating years as ambivalent members? To future generations, the opportunity cost will look staggering. If anything, Le Général underestimated how hard it would be for the UK to become European: he thought we would have to undergo a fundamental transformation of our economics and politics. He assumed we would never try; but in fact our political classes, declinists desperate for a post-imperial outlet, did their best, trashing our political system and the democratic compact between people and government. In the end, even that wasn’t enough.

    The reality is that the EU has never been about genuinely free trade: it has always been about the construction of a new state, supposedly to avoid war. That meant bringing down internal borders and harmonising, while erecting a Zollverein. The British couldn’t understand this: whereas we saw a liberalising and pro-competition programme, it was actually an attempt at using internal commerce as a vehicle for a political project.

    To use Hayek’s terminology, the vision was constructivist. One assumption was that trade was a top-down exercise, permitted and promoted by bureaucrats, rather than a spontaneous, truly international process. Another was that whoever controlled money was the true sovereign, and therefore that the EU should have its own currency.

    We will never fully recover from our long, debilitating membership of the EU. Historians have a term for this: it’s called “path dependence” or “branching histories”. The past matters and changes us irrevocably.

    It’s not just that our destiny would have been radically different had we never joined or had we left in the Eighties: all important periods in our history leave an indelible mark. We still drive on Roman roads, and Londinium remains our capital; post-Brexit, we will continue to use kg and cm. Just as critically, every important period of history has only ever ended at great cost. Did Eurosceptics fully grasp the costs of disengagement from the EU? No. Do we still believe that Brexit is the way forward regardless? Absolutely.

    On economics, Neil Kinnock had the last laugh. We have absorbed swathes of the European social-democratic model, not least high minimum wages: the Vote Leave agenda was very different to the Bruges one outlined by Margaret Thatcher in 1988.

    In one of the most powerful speeches of the 20th century, she argued that “we have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level, with a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels”. Yet we are now leaving, and the size of the state is unlikely to shrink, even if competitive pressures will, in time, incentivise a pro‑growth supply-side agenda. The EU’s protectionism towards any economy it doesn’t control – rationalised as “defending the integrity of the single market” by inane “trade experts” – is forcing us to hire customs agents.

    The precious common law heritage that helped ensure the rise of freedom and the blossoming of the Industrial Revolution has been permanently impaired. Yes, the Government will roll back the European Court of Human Rights (a non-EU institution) and other excesses, but decades of membership of the EU’s legal order have changed the legal profession. Britain as a whole has become blander, less unique and less eccentric, our approach more Cartesian and rationalistic.

    EU membership has also accelerated the decline of Scottish and Northern Irish unionism. Yet while the end of the UK would be a high price to pay for regaining our self-government, Brexit would really just be a casus belli, rather than the primary driver of any rupture.

    Some of the permanent changes from our time in the EU were hugely positive, of course: we will benefit enormously from the millions of hard-working Europeans who have made Britain their home. The City was turbocharged after the euro launched in 1999, and its dominant position will now be very hard to undermine.

    But it’s not just that we should never have joined: the EU should have kept us out for its own good. Yes, in the short term it benefited from having us. We handed over billions in transfers. Its mercantilists saw us as a captive market. Its ideologues believed our membership proved Europe was the EU, the legitimate continent-wide hegemon, the successor to a great civilisation. This fooled them into thinking they could expand without dilution, absorbing Eastern Europe.

    That fatal conceit means that the EU project is now in crisis. The acquis is no longer guaranteed, at least when it comes to territory. More countries would have to leave before full centralisation (one way of making the euro viable) is possible, but that is anathema to Brussels.

    UK membership also served as a crutch for the EU. We were a bridge to America, a decentralising influence, a reformist force, especially in trade in services and agriculture. Some countries used to hide behind us, knowing we would defend markets and national interests. All of that is gone, and yet the EU has refused to adjust. It will become more socialist and anti-innovation, accelerating its decline. There will no longer be any counterweight to the Franco‑German axis. Brussels remains infantilised geopolitically, dependent on US subsidies to Nato, sucking up to Russia, China and Iran.

    Brexit will be a positive shock for Britain, jolting the country out of its stupor; but it has left the EU reeling with disbelief, its central convictions overturned, its certainties blown to smithereens. Like all bureaucratic dinosaurs, it cannot adapt, even to an extinction-level event. Why didn’t it listen to de Gaulle?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/09/time-eu-calamity-britain-disaster-europe/

    1. “Why didn’t it [the EU] listen to de Gaulle?” Because it liked the idea of controlling us whilst we footed the second largest amount of the EU’s bills.

      1. The EU is like the whore who takes her client’s money but has contempt in her heart for him and will happily see him ruined.

        All that Britain seems to got out of the deal is the pox.

        1. Exactly, Plum!

          Why should the frogs dictate what we can and cannot join kind of thing. I still voted to leave in 1975 , though.

        2. No, Heath fell for it. He was desperate to play with the big boys (as he saw it) on the continent. So much so he was prepared to surrender everything to be allowed to scoop up the crumbs under the table.

    2. How many of us here were deceived by Edward Heath’s lies and voted to stay in* the economic club called the Common Market but would never have voted to join the EU in the first place if we had known the truth. I confess that I was duped by Heath’s lies.

      We are all human – at least most of us are – and we can forgive people making mistakes but we find it much harder to forgive those who have deceived us with deliberate lies.

      Will politicians never understand that this is what has caused the total contempt in which they are held?

      * Edited

      2. Morning Rastus – we did not vote to join with Europe in 1973, Heath made that decision for us. We voted in 1975 to remain . We should have had referenda for the Maastrich Treaty and the Lisbon treaty but they were signed off by the politicians. The 2016 referendum was long overdue.

        1. Yes – the referendum was two years after we joined but Heath was a leading campaigner for staying in it. He lied, I believed him so may he rot in whatever afterlife world he dwells in even if, like the EU itself, that after-life world is full of mendacious illusions

      3. I’m proud to say that I was one of those who voted to leave the EEC in the referendum of ’75. We lost. Again, I voted to leave in 2016 and we won!

        Of course, in keeping with EU practices, the Europhiles amongst our ruling elite would’ve dearly liked to make it “best of three”.

      5. I wasn’t duped. I was 18 at the time, and simply on a historical basis did not trust Germany or France as far as I could blow them. They have never given up anything for the UK. On the contrary, they have taken much and attempted to take even more.

        I think the statement “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” in whatever form and by whoever it is ascribed to, is a truism ignored by politicians and people again and again, to our cost.

      6. They are wilfully blind to it. They truly do operate in a bubble all of their own.

        Good morning every btw. I also voted to stay in – the real journey was carefully concealed from us.

        1. I was like you, vw. I believed that lying toad Heath when he assured us there would be “no loss of sovereignty” and I was all for “free trade”. I had travelled in Germany and lived in France, so I wasn’t averse to them per se and with no loss of sovereignty I didn’t expect to be ruled by them. Had I known the truth, I would have voted out (as I did in 2016). The Treaty of Rome was not widely available at the time, there was no Internet, no social/alternative media and we had not yet lost trust in politicians.

    3. The EU at heart still believes it can bring us to heel. The Quislings in Westminster foster that delusion. We haven’t left yet. There is still time for a U turn and a further “extension”.

    1. I think I[ve deciphered it, Annie. (Good morning, btw.) I think it says “Popped into the Pub to try a Dandelion & Burdock Shandy”. But, on the other hand, it could be an April Fool’s joke.

      :-))

      1. Dandelion and Burdock shandy, Auntie Elsie? Is that Dandelion and Burdock with Lemonade? Even that’s a bit strong for softy southerners, don’t you think? 🤣

          6. Dickman’s of Newbiggin or Waters & Robson from Morpeth.
            Later it was Middlemass of Kelso when I moved up to Wooler.

    2. Pub. April 1. 1789 ??? Burch? Strand.

      “Gillray created prints—satiric and otherwise— for a surprisingly wide variety of publishers. Sometimes a print would appear with a small publisher and then, perhaps because it was popular, be taken over by a larger publisher.”

      The date on the one above is earlier than the one in the Library of Congress: Pub. April 30, 1789 by S. W. Fores, N. 3 Piccadilly, 1789.

      Gillray used several publishers in the Strand but the cartoon/publisher is not listed here.

      http://james-gillray.org/printsellers.html

      1. Hello, Bill
        He gave me a full strip down examination, took an armful of blood (had to use both arms as not very good at this). Prescribed another (antacid) drug and booked me in for a chest X-ray at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital (should get an appointment within 2 weeks).

        He was very diligent and did everything he could. I had a peaceful night and after my morning shower it all started up again. Very frustrating!

          1. I don’t think so, Bill. I was sitting quietly this morning when it started up again. Breathing was normal and I thought I was winning. The hiccups are a bluddy nuisance but the airway spasms are rather frightening.

          2. I feel for you, Del – hope the X-ray is arranged quickly and that it shows something that can be sorted.

  17. 327360+ up ticks,
    May one ask, how can this governance group fine / incarcerate the indigenous innocents all the while the Dover door is wide open and the welcome mat in place ?

  18. Yesterday a delivery man carefully delivered a case of wine to the front doorstep. I had ordered it a fortnight ago from a shop in Rome. (I’ve ordered from them before.) Carefully packed and in perfect condition. The Duty Paid price including delivery was just under £8.90 a bottle. The same wine if bought from a wine merchant in London would have cost me £15 a bottle, delivered. The point is not that I am a clever and selective buyer, although that is obvious.
    The point is that a month from now I will not be able to easily buy directly from the shop in Rome. It may be possible, but there will be forms to fill and deliveries will be held up by Customs until I pay the tariff and Duty, etc etc. I will still be able to easily buy from the shop in London but of course it will be more expensive.
    That is the price of Brexit. I knew this and expected it when I voted to Leave back in 2016. Most people knew this. Yet the enemies of Brexit, such as the BBC, continue to deliver stories of doom and gloom and higher prices as if this is shock news rather than something we accepted long ago as the price of leaving. A ‘no deal” Brexit is what most people voted for. We are not stupid. We knew that there would be a price.
    This works two ways. The shop in Rome may lose me as a customer, just as countless thousands of businesses across the EU will lose sales and customers in the UK. Yet the EU bosses in their desperation to cripple the UK seem ready to accept what may turn out to be terminal damage to their own side. I do not see the bosses of the vehicle producers being prepared to watch their profits vanish because of the vicious intransigence of their politicians.

    1. Unfortunately, the Covid crisis has shown the politicians that they can do pretty much as they please; destroying economies, lives and social cohesion willy-nilly.
      Short of civil uprising they won’t be touched, nor will their life-styles be affected.

      1. 327360+ up ticks,
        Then if they must be voted in again as they will be
        At least cut down their term in office to months not years.

        Has it been noticed before that there are more of us than them ? people power works.

    2. We will adapt, which is what free markets do. I’m not a wine buff but I do know that there is a world of wines out there.

      1. Yes. That was personal “for instance”. I am now looking to our Commonwealth chums and our friends in South America. For everyday wines, and some very good stuff as well, they can match all but the most expensive EU wines.
        We can reshape our businesses. Russia is the largest producer of sunflower oil. Tunisia and Morocco produce olive oil. Alternatives are available almost everywhere, and if not, we could encourage them…

        1. Chinese vineyards are coming along nicely, I’m sure. A lovely bottle of Pinot Gligiot, £0.99.

    3. On a personal note, they have lost me as a customer some time ago. The behaviour of our “friends and colleagues” in the EU in which their post referendum vindictive attitude has been made plain for all to see, causes me to try to buy from anywhere but the EU if I possibly can.

      2. The Irish politicians, especially the Hindoo and Coveney, have been outstandingly obstructive and vindictive. I do hope that a future UK government will nullify the privileges that have long been extended to Irish citizens. I now buy nothing that is Irish in origin, and like you, we are weaning ourselves away from any EU item.

    5. What you describe is what we in Norway experience. Customs delays and tolls.
      But if you expect it, then you can allow for it.

    6. Try the Canadian experience. I can order any wine that I want through the provincially owned liquor control board (the name is a clue to their puritan ethic).

      They source the wine, they charge eye watering duties and taxes and they deliver it to the local outlet. If you get the case within three months, a miracle occurred.

    7. The same thought has occurred to me. Living and running my own business in France Brexit could well be a disaster for me which will cause me endless trouble from petty rules and regulations and vindictive functionaries. However Brexit must be a better solution for Britain than remaining tethered to an autocratic, authoritarian and corrupt EU.

      How very few politicians seem capable of putting the well-being of the country and the wishes of their electors ahead of their own personal greed and ambition?

      1. Yes, and yet, why?
        As I’ve probably mentioned before, I travelled to France the day after I left school. I caught the boat train in London. The formalities, including queueing, passport and customs checks, took about three minutes. Now, with open borders, hyper “security” and so on, it takes very much longer.

        1. My grandfather, before the first world war, travelled all around Europe for several months – this must have been after he left school, like you. The one country he did not visit was Russia… because he needed a passport to get in, and he didn’t have one – or any other form of official ID. He never needed to exchange money; gold was the standard.

          So what progress have we made in less than a hundred years? After two world wars, we now need passports or official identity cards required to travel to any European country. I’m not an economist and don’t pretend to understand these things very well, but for all sorts of historical and current reasons, the monetary “union” that is the Euro is a complete shambles.

          1. Of course, my love, we live in amongst farmland and copses in Brittany. You could say we live in Breton woods!

          3. The euro is a shambles because it was always a political, not an economic concept. It was designed to produce “beneficial crises” to which the only answer was “ever closer union”.

          4. That is the only thing McBust got right in his otherwise disastrous tenure in No 11 and then No 10!

          5. And that was only because Blair was all for it. If Blair had been against, we’d have been shackled to the useless currency!

  20. Did anyone see on television the production of J.B. Priestley’s play, An Inspector Calls yesterday evening?

    It is, of course a dated piece but its theme is still very relevant. It is about the members of an affluent family being confronted with the consequences of their actions. In the story each family member finally appears to be accepting what he or she has each done individually to ruin the life of a young woman. But when The ‘Inspector’, who has led them to this soul searching, turns out to be a surreal character and nothing to do with the police they think they have been let off the hook. But the devastating end of the play shows that they have not and that they cannot escape retribution.

    .

    1. Saw the 1954 version with Alastair Sim as the inspector on tv a few weeks ago. Would have been the Talking Pictures channel I guess.

        1. It is. excellent. I caught a small bit of “Royal Flash”. The wonderful scene where “Our ‘Enry” takes Oliver Reed down a peg or two.

      2. Was it preceded by a warning to the effect that ‘This programme contains outdated societal mores that may offend snowflakes”?

        2. Indeed. I like the films that were made on location in Europe in the years from 1950 to1970, especially in colour. I’d like to go and live there. When I was at school, I thought that that was what would happen.
          But now…

      4. I would like to have seen that. Maybe it will be shown again.

        I am a great fan of Alastair Sim. I particularly enjoyed his portrayal of Judge Jusice Shallow in the televised version of some of A.P. Herbert’s Misleading Cases in which Roy Dotrice played Albert Haddock who mischievously took absurd cases to court ‘just for fun.’

    3. No avoiding righteous retribution, Rastus!

      “Qui fodit foveam incidet in eam et qui volvit lapidem revertetur ad eum”
      — Prov. 26:27
      :¬(

      1. Have you thought of setting up a NOTTL Latin language course?
        I’m now so darn rusty that I have problems with the fourth declension.

        1. With my wrong glasses, I read that as fourth dimension

          Must concentrate – difficult with G and P running riot!

      2. Good morning, Duncan

        For the old record you are now in your 78th year – I hope it has started well!

        My current incipient senility seems to be regurgitating silly jokes I learnt as a child.

        This Proverb you cite reminds me of the story about the African chief who stole all the thrones of the rival chiefs he had defeated and stored them in a great thatched building.

        Of course this caught fire in a lightning storm and the moral is People in grass houses shouldn’t stow thrones. (Perhaps you would translate that into Latin for us!)

    2. “Revolutions devour their children.”
      Haaaaaagh Haaaaagh Haaaaagh …. (pause for breath) ….. Haaaaaagghhhhhh ………

    1. The woman supposedly given the first Covid-19 jab makes the same hand sign as seated in a wheelchair she is clapped by silly nurses. You are correct it is a Freemasonic signal.

      2. It isn’t any Freemasonic signal that I recognise (and I’m a member of the Higher Degrees as well as Craft).

        1. It was suggested I join a while back. I didn’t really know what to say except it felt a bit ‘wouldn’t want to be a member of any club that’d have me as a member’.

          1. It isn’t for everybody and it’s often difficult to know whether it would suit when you can’t find out a lot of information. Things are becoming more open these days, though. My local lodge opens its doors to the public on certain days and there are people around to explain things. We do a lot of good work through Masonic Charities (fund-raising is a big part of non-ceremonial activities).

    3. Chances are they all get told how to hold their hands. Gripping them seems defensive, hand in hand resistive, gesticulating comes over as unsure.. all that tosh.

  23. Through comic books, I’ve stumbled into the lost world of Victorian boyhood. 9 December 2020

    No longer are these comics what they were intended to be: cheap, ephemeral amusements (“Price 6d”). Instead, they’re now an extraordinary record of a culture, a country, that has gone for good. Every article they contain is a verbal time capsule, preserving for eternity its age’s views and values. About some of these views and values we probably know quite enough already, so I won’t dwell on the deeply racist adventure stories: for example, the yarn headed A Tale of the Dark Continent, in which a white explorer encounters “a tall, powerful, and nearly naked negro” named, perhaps inevitably, “Sambo”, who addresses our hero as “Massa” and speaks in “broken but pathetic English” (“Dey use me so bery bad, sah…”).

    Which is why, for these strange but entrancing documents, comic feels a wholly inadequate word. These aren’t comics; they’re training manuals. They taught Victorian boys how to become Victorian men: the men at the head of life’s table. When I was growing up, there was nothing like The Boy’s Own Paper. If there had been, we’d have laughed at it. No boring old charts of British moths for us. No woodwork diagrams or pottery tips. All we wanted were cartoon strips. Which probably says a lot about our own culture, too.

    It’s true that Victorian and even later boy’s comics provided a grounding in masculine behaviour that would serve them and their country well over the century that they were produced. This as Deacon points out has now vanished and we have a country whose leaders are feminised nonces. To see their ludicrous and dishonest contortions over the Virus is to thank God they never had to face Wilhelmine Germany, Hitler or the Soviet Union.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/stumbled-lost-world-victorian-boyhood/

    1. How young is this writer? He says,”When I was growing up, there was nothing like The Boy’s Own Paper”. Well, the BOP was published into the 60s. I subscribed until I was around 15 when my attention was diverted to more specialist magazines.* Additionally, school libraries were crammed with the works of Percy F. Westerman, G.A. Henty and many others providing moral and upright adventures for British boys. I still have copies of my favourite books as well as a binder of of BOPs. I’d have more BOPs but I lent some to someone…

      * Cycling Weekly and Railway Modeller. What were you thinking?

    2. While youtube is a private company and can arguably show what it wants if it is going to be intentionally biased it should be made obvious that it is so – demand it run a notice saying ‘this content is subject to youtube editorial bias and does not reflect legal facts’.

  25. Hunter agonistes? Not. SST 9 December 2020.

    “The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware is investigating Hunter Biden’s “tax affairs,” President-elect Joe Biden’s son confirmed Wednesday, saying he is taking the matter “very seriously” and is “confident” he handled his affairs “legally and appropriately.”

    “I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs,” Hunter Biden said in a statement. “I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”

    A well-placed government source told Fox News that Hunter Biden is a subject/target of the grand jury investigation. According to the source, a “target” means that there is a “high probability that person committed a crime,” while a “subject” is someone you “don’t know for sure” has committed a crime. “ foxnews

    IMO this will be dismissed as soon as Joe is inaugurated and in office. IMO Hunter will be exonerated and the press will say that all charges have been resolved. Pat Lang.

    The view from the United States. Well with all due deference to Colonel Lang the MSM completely refused to publish anything about Hunter Biden’s misdemeanours prior to the election so I cannot see anything emerging with a Biden administration in place . It’s important to realise for the future that the Bidens are a worse actuality of what Trump was only purported to be. The old man is a senile hair smelling paederast and his son is a drug addled moron who should be in gaol!

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2020/12/httpswwwfoxnewscompoliticshunter-biden-tax-affairs-under-federal-investigation.html

        1. It’s those wide staring eyes.

          When i used to go clubbing in London you could always tell who was ‘off their face’ by the dilation of the pupils. Or that their pupils looked like pin pricks.

          Often those were the people in A & E later.

          2. Gor blimey. You want an honest answer.

            In those days people who took MDMA or LSD were part of a group where others would look out for each other. If they were lucky. 🙁 There would always be at least one person looking out for our friends. Their services were often called upon on weekends when someone hadn’t necessarily taken too much but had a panic attack. Hence clogging up A&E.

            As you can tell i had a misspent youth. Erm…..

          5. You would have thought that of me this afternoon; I visited the optician and on the way home it was like walking through fog! One reason why I never drive to the opticians.

    2. Why would you judge what isn’t when a scientist is a person, whus who, surely?

      As for judgements – by outcome, not by individual.

  27. SIR – A housing estate called “The Water Meadows” began construction in Tewkesbury in 2006 (Letters, December 8).

    After the bad floods in 2007, it was quickly renamed The Meadows.

    Christian Jenkins
    Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

    SIR – I have sometimes wondered how Bythesea Road in Trowbridge came to be named, being so far from the coast.

    Charles Esmond-Cole
    Barnstaple, Devon

    SIR – There is a road in east London called Haroldstone Road. I could move there and have an amusing address.

    Harold Stone
    Edgware, Middlesex

    SIR – Mike Smith (Letters, December 8) lives near a wood called Keystone Copse. In Withington, Manchester, the police station was closed and the apartment block built on the site is called Constable Court.

    Lorna Finlay
    Manchester

    SIR – I am amused by a development close to us. Not only is Rugby nowhere near any moors, but isn’t Moorland Glade a contradiction in terms?

    Sue Milne
    Crick, Northamptonshire

    SIR – People who live in areas that are inappropriately named should perhaps consider themselves fortunate.

    In Belfast, there’s a Chlorine Gardens.

    Patrick Miller
    Hartlepool, Co Durham

    All of these pale into insignificance with a road near here called Dumb Woman’s Lane…I know this to be so because I took a picture of Mrs HJ alongside it. Good job her sense of humour is still intact after 43 years married to me. Miracles still happen, it seems.

    1. I once looked at buying a house in a road called Waterer Rise, I didn’t because there looked like there had been lots of settlement

    2. We go in for really imaginative road names: we have a Radiator Road, Sudbury and an Accommodation Road, Boxted.
      I’m assuming the latter refers to housing, not easy going ladydees.

      1. The biggest surprise there is that the local authorities have spelt Accommodation correctly.

        ‘Morning, Anne.

      3. Part of the land for a new (about 20 years ago) housing estate not far from my family home was purchased from a Mr Wildgoose (not a common name). It was suggested that one of the streets be named Wild Goose Chase… but the more prosaic Wild Goose Drive was the eventual choice.

    3. I once drove past a sign for Cutthroat Lane. I stopped, leaped out and asked a bemused stranger to take a photo of me beside it, grinning. At the time I was recovering from an operation on my C7 vertebra; they’d had to open it up from the front. I was still all bandaged up.

      That photo still amuses me.

    4. Just outside Chesterfield there is a Deepsick Lane.

      Nothing to do with copious amounts of vomit; “sick” is a local dialectic term for a brook or small stream. Tinker Sick and Hipper Sick , for example, are two Chesterfield streams that run into the River Rother.

    6. Well Mr Edmond-Cole, the answer to your question regarding Bythesea Road is simples, the land was donated by a landowner, a Mr Samuel Bythesea.

      Morning all.

        1. During my working career I had many occasions to visit Bythesea Road and had heard the explanation from an old resident of the town.
          Your link shows the answer is always out there on the web, thanks for posting.

      1. There used to be Blackboys Hill at the top end of Whiteladies Road in Bristol. As a student I lived in a bedsit for 18 months in Worrall Road, off Blackboys Hill.

        2. Possibly named for Charles II, who was nicknamed the Black Boy on account of his swarthy complexion.

    1. Good to see some more sickos being prosecuted and good to see cases like this reported once again, in the so-called MSM. It’s almost as if no-one is trying to hide the problem.

      1. They’re not trying to hide it as much as they did, but it’s only because they “can’t get the toothpaste back into the tube”, largely thanks to social media and folk like the much vilified Tommy Robinson.

        The public are now more aware of these monsters who molest our children and the MSM know we know. They can’t afford to alienate the people who buy or subscribe to their “news” services so, however reluctantly, they have to recognise reality.

      2. I’d like to see those who facilitated the abuse being ignored and thus allowed it to continue for over a decade in the dock.

        2. There should be a public inquiry so lessons can be learned. Hang on, there was, but we don’t want to embarrass any of those involved so hide it until everyone has forgotten.

          1. Yo kaypea

            Good job Tommy Robinson was not about.
            He would have been charged with a Race Hate crime for….. any or no reason

      3. In the past, the MSM seemed to be strangely reluctant to publish the names of the accused (probably to do with ethnicity/religion), thus covering up the fact that there is a problem with the attitude of Muslim Pakistani/Bangladeshi men. Admitting to the fact that there is such a problem is a step along the road to solving it.

        1. they probably think that the Islamic influence is now to strong to reverse, so just accept it for what it is.

          1. 3276360+ up ticks,
            Afternoon R,
            I wonder what gives them that idea, could it be the instruction manual resting between the two dispatch boxes in parliament & halal nosh on the
            parliamentary canteen menu.

          2. The main reason for the temporary suppression of names was that some of the same men were involved in several trials over a period of about 12 months. This meant that for them to receive a fair hearing from the jury in the later trials their names had to be kept quiet in the earlier trials.

        2. “In the past, the MSM seemed to be strangely reluctant to publish the names of the accused…”

          They weren’t, then they were, then they weren’t.

          The first time it really came to my notice was about 10 years ago when BBC East Midlands reported a court case in Derby involving Pakistanis. Similar reports then began to pop up all over the country, almost always featuring mugshots and names. Then, after a while, it all went rather low key; there were still some reports, but often pushed down the schedule and with the names omitted. It was almost as if local BBC studios were told by someone at HQ to tone it down.

          More recently, the reports have been more open again as the media realise the public is now very well aware of what is (and has been) going on.

        3. 327360+ up ticks,
          A,
          The Sikhs kicked up, they don’t like their kids tampered with, where as rotherham was covered up for 16 + years.

      4. Still wondering why so many “parents” of these young girls have been so quiet
        for so long.
        Maybe they don’t want the media attention focusing on their feral sink estates lifestyles.

        1. Many of the girls were ‘in care’.
          Any staff who tried to stop them going off to be raped lost their jobs because they were interfering with the girls’ human rights.

          1. Indeed. How many functional families had their young daughters on the local social services “At risk” list.
            Social Services were too late to save such as Charlene Downes.

          2. More than a few of the girls had a stable family background and when the parents tried to get them under control when they “kicked off”, the Social Services would often hinder those efforts.

          3. Any examples Bob. Given there were thousands of victims.
            The father who tried to follow up I’m aware of.

          4. The one who tried to rescue his daughter and was arrested by the police whilst the rapists were let go?

          5. That’s the one. It’s the thousands of others I’m asking about.
            “A lifestyle choice.” How did they get away with that for so long?

          6. Many of the girls probably came from sickeningly sex obsessed households like the Philpotts and the Wests, where the parents and their group rutted like animals.

            “In April 2013, following an eight-week trial, he and his wife Mairead, together with their friend Paul Mosley, were found guilty of the manslaughter of the six children. Philpott was given a life sentence with a minimum term of fifteen years’ imprisonment.”

          10. Because those trying to challenge it were castigated as “racists” and “Islamophobes” and were thus ignored.
            More than a few lower grade Social Workers were threatened with the sack when they tried raising the matter.

          11. Maggie Oliver had the same problem Bob.
            Still doesn’t explain why those thousands of parents were so quiet for so long.

    3. 327360+ up ticks,
      Afternoon A,
      Caught a bit of it on the 12 o’clock news, historical ? how long has it been covered up by governance employees so as not to besmirch the good name of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition ?

      32 a token gesture, with the gateway beckoning the paedophile worldwide fraternity forever open at Dover,

  29. To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction (so Mr Newton said)

    I live in a semi-detached house in a Shropshire village. The house was built just post WWII.

    I have electricity

    For the usual things and a double oven

    Bottled gas for the hob (no mains supply)

    A 1000 litre tank of oil, for the combi-boiler, for central heating and and hot water

    A Log Burner for heating and ambience

    Electric suppy is via an overhead cable from a row of ‘telegraph’ pole at the bottom of the
    garden. All houses in the village are supplied in a similar manner.

    The cable to my house is splits when it reaches the buiding and and also supplies my attached neighbour.

    Looking at the cable, (which is the same as the one running between all thepoles) it does not seem much
    bigger diameter than that of a cooker cable

    At the cost of having a Smart Meter, I have had the supply from the company fusebox, to the newly fitted house isolation
    switch ugraded from 65 to 100 amps

    My electrician brought new cable to be fitted from isolation switch to our new consumer unit (fuse box).I could have used it to tow a
    supertanker, it was that large a diameter. He would have to have demolished half the house to install it. We decided against it, as the
    house suppply was ‘still legal’

    The point of this pre-amble/ramble

    . If my house and a million similar ones can ONLY useelectricity as a form of power who is
    going to do and pay for

    Replacing overhead supply with new system

    Updating power supplies to house

    Updatiing fuse box to take the increased load

    Updating supply to property consumer unit

    Updating ring main to take power to the electric central heating/water system

    Power for Four+ electric cars

    Only one entity springs to mind for paying for all this: The Consumer

    1. The consumer pays for everything whether they use it or not. The utility companies and government don’t have any money which isn’t first taken from the public

    2. I’m surprised that new-build houses have not yet been forced to be EV compliant when it comes to electricity.

      3. We’re investigating a solar battery. It seems more sensible that we generate electricity, store it and use it locally as the grid is only going to become ever more unreliable.

    4. They could put a green tax on gas, diesel, coal and Bob’s wood pile to persuade people to switch to the new clean renewable electricity supply.
      This will of course bankrupt the country but it is for a good cause (Boris love interst) and the proceeds of the tax will pay for upgrading the infrastructure.

      Trudeau has tried this green tax over here but hasn’t got the gumption to set it at a level that would force people to think of change so at the moment it is just an annoyance

      1. My smart meter hasn’t sent the info over the modem for nearly 8 months.

        Apparently it’s up to the receiving company to fix.

        Now, I’m not a screaming crash hot developer, but considering that this device takes a reading from a sensor, pushes it across the ether and that simple message is received and processed I think I could manage to fix it myself.

        It wouldn’t take 9 months. It wouldn’t take 9 sodding weeks.

  30. ‘Morning again.

    As ever, maximum respect for anyone who could attack a U-boat in a flimsy aircraft conceived in the early ’30s with an open cockpit in sub-zero conditions and with a top speed of just 139 mph…

    Lieutenant Commander John Beresford, Fleet Air Arm pilot who helped to sink several U-boats – obituary

    He was awarded the DSC for his role in protecting the Arctic convoys, but recalled that the most lethal enemy was ‘the mountainous storms’

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    9 December 2020 • 1:35pm

    Lieutenant Commander John Beresford, who has died aged 97, was a few days short of his 21st birthday when he participated in a notable victory by the Fleet Air Arm over Hitler’s U-boats.

    On March 4 1944, after two days of stormy Arctic weather, ice had to be chipped and steamed off the deck of the US-built jeep carrier HMS Chaser before Beresford could take off on an anti-submarine patrol in Swordfish “B” for Baker of 816 Naval Air Squadron.

    Chaser was escorting Convoy RA-57, consisting of 31 merchant ships homeward bound from the Kola inlet in the Barents Sea, which was being stalked by a dozen U-boats of the Boreas wolfpack.

    Despite his youth, Beresford was an experienced pilot, but he had never seen a U-boat; at first light his observer, Sub-Lieutenant Bill Laing, detected a radar contact, and a few moments later, through a gap in the cloud cover, his Torpedo Air Gunner, John Beech, spotted a grey, sinister shape several miles away.

    Beresford turned towards it, flying “in cloud as close to the U-boat as we could, then dived on him”, and fired a salvo of rockets. “We pulled out of the dive, the Germans belted away at us with flak, tracers were flashing all round.” He recalled “the terror of being shot at, at close range, by four 20 millimetre machine cannon, and the explosive, wild relief, flying away without being hit”.

    Looking over his shoulder, Beresford saw his enemy leaking oil and turning in circles – “I presumed his steering gear was out of action.” Beech summoned one of the convoy escorts, the destroyer HMS Onslaught, which arrived spitting 4.7 in shells and promptly sank the U-boat, picking up the survivors of U-472 from the icy sea.

    After a five-hour sortie, Beresford returned to Chaser with only a few minutes of fuel remaining, so cold that he had to be lifted out of the cockpit.

    Over the next two days, in rough weather, 816 NAS sank two more U-boats, U-366 and U-973, while U-737 was damaged. One empty merchant ship was lost but all her crew saved.

    Beresford and Laing were awarded the DSC and Beech the DSM.

    Peter John Beresford was born on March 31 1923 in Coventry, where his father was deputy manager of the employment exchange, and educated at Manchester Grammar School before joining the textile company Tootal, Broadhurst and Lee.

    He volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm as soon as he could, learning to fly in Tiger Moths in England before travelling to Kingston, Ontario, where he earned his wings flying the Harvard II. He first flew the Swordfish in the spring of 1943, joining 816 NAS embarked in the escort carrier Tracker on trans-Atlantic convoy duties.

    On July 20 1943 he joined the Goldfish Club (of aircrew rescued from the sea after crashing): while trialling a new searchlight from RNAS Machrihanish in Scotland, Beresford entered a bank of fog and hit the sea. Later he remembered “the anxiety of being in an open dinghy at night, miles from any shipping, praying someone would rescue us, and vowing that if I ever set foot again on dear dry land, I would never complain about anything as long as I lived”.

    He would reflect that the ever-present enemy was not the Germans but “the sea, and the mountainous North Atlantic and Arctic storms. Far more of our people were lost to bad weather, and to human error, bad navigation, deck-landing accidents, than were lost through enemy action.”

    On the other hand, there was intense comradeship, excitement, and the mysterious bond created by shared dangers. There was also love, the one redeeming lifeline to normality, “sometimes, in the best naval tradition, with two girls at the same time. Usually Wrens. Wonderful girls.”

    Beresford requalified as a fighter pilot and flew 130 hours in the Seafire, but the war against Japan ended before he could be deployed to the East.

    In two world wars Tootal boasted that anyone who volunteered for the services would be re-employed, and in 1946 Beresford was taken back as a trainee manager.

    He married Cynthia Boyce, a Scots lass whom he first heard and then saw on the top deck of a Manchester bus in 1946. He knew at once that they would marry. When she went to the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in Paris as a 16-year-old budding actress, and Beresford to South Africa, their love blossomed through letters. Three years later they married.

    Subsequently he was export director for the company in Kenya, before settling in Carlisle, working for Courtaulds.

    Cynthia survives him with their son and daughter.

    Lt-Cdr John Beresford, born March 31 1923, died September 9 2020

      1. Where is that “Berlin blueprint 1942” taken from. And where is it possible to obtain a full copy?

        1. You may be interested to learn that the Europhile SNP, too, was founded by Nazi sympathisers, Grizz.

          Have a look at this article from the Daily Express, from just over four years ago. It gives the broad picture and you can research it further by “Googling” any of the names on the list of shame in the article. While my father’s generation were fighting a bloody war against the Nazis, the SNP were planning collaboration with the enemy, Quisling style. Check out especially Arthur Donaldson. This traitor’s house was raided in 1941 and among his souvenirs, police found firearms, ammunition, and a letter to a German agent.

          The SNP’s love affair with “big state-ism” lives on today, as can be seen from the repressive, micro-governance of our lives and our routine affairs emanating from Holyrood.

          1. Thanks for that, Duncan, I shall do so.

            The biggest problem this planet currently has is humanity’s incapability of selecting men (or women) of substance to lead them. When you examine: Joe Biden, Boris Johnson, Nicola Sturgeon, Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, Stefan Löfven, etc, etc, it makes you wonder if the entire population of the planet has lost its collective marbles and is hell-bent on imploding.

        3. 327360+ up ticks,
          G,
          World catalogue number OCLC 31002821
          The European economic community Berlin 1942.

    1. Afternoon SB – I wonder what the average age death rate will be in 3 years time. I suspect the elderly will be thrown to the wolves.

      1. There will be no-one over the age of 65 left alive, Boris and co hope

        No more pensions to pay,
        Nursing & care homes turned into refugee Centres
        UK becomes world leader in production of inflatable boats
        One generation removed from list of patients for the NHS to ignore
        Lots of empty properties, again ready for immigrants
        “When I’m 64” takes on a whole new meaning

    2. Where are your ambulance chasing lawyers when you need them

      On the Brightside, for the NHS, the problem will just fade away and die

      (oops that will be the non patients)

  33. GCHQ backs study into how best to change people’s behaviour via social media ‘propaganda’ campaigns

    The cyber spy agency is funding five research programmes across British universities to identify the biggest national security threats to the UK.

    The Telegraph understands it is not within the scope of the project to craft an offensive use of such knowledge. However, work in the army’s 77 Brigade to develop online influence tools will likely benefit from the research.

    You have to ask yourself what sort of state would wish to change its people’s behaviour or set up an organisation to do so! Certainly not a democratic one since its authority would stem from the peoples beliefs and support! The only examples that come to mind are totalitarian ones like Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s China or the old Soviet Union where the Elites held political beliefs that the masses did not share!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/10/gchq-backs-study-best-change-peoples-behaviour-via-social-media/

    2. They’ve already changed people’s behaviour this year. Who, a year ago, would have thought that we would be wearing masks, not going anywhere, regarding other people as vectors of disease?

      This year has shown that it is all too easy.

      1. I have to say that, as far as possible, I have gone places, don’t see others as disease vectors and have become exempt from wearing a face covering. I am doing my bit!

    3. 327360+ up ticks,
      AS,
      There really should be a notice in large print in every polling booth expressly for advising loonies.

      Kissing X lab/lib/con candidates is a proven lifestyle killer
      currently your kiss has done / is doing more damage than ANY covid jobee.

    2. Reminds me of the containers coming ashore on the south coast of Cornwall and Devon a few years ago.

    3. Reminds me of the containers coming ashore on the south coast of Cornwall and Devon a few years ago.

    4. And I’d bet that’s why my book corners are bent. Blooomin’ halfwits. You’re costing Amazon a fortune with those handbrake turns.

      1. Haven’t you seen the advert where they throw parcels around? THAT will be why your book corners are damaged 🙂

  36. BBC defends ‘much-loved’ Vicar of Dibley as viewers brand first Christmas special episode an ‘abomination’ – before controversial Black Lives Matter-inspired episode airs next week. 10 December 2020.

    The BBC has defended the Vicar of Dibley after viewers branded the first of three Christmas special episodes an ‘abomination’.

    The criticism of the first episode, which aired on Monday, comes ahead of the controversial Black Lives Matter episode set to be released next week.

    The show will see Dawn French, 63, take the knee – a popular gesture taken by BLM supporters – and deliver a sermon about the movement as she plays Reverend Geraldine Granger in the hit TV show.

    An “abomination” Lol! I can’t comment myself since I stopped watching BBC sitcoms years ago though I still have Blackadder and Dave Allan DVD’s. It seems to be a sine qua non of totalitarian states to be humourless. Who ever heard of a funny Nazi or Communist? So it is here now!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9038845/BBC-defends-Vicar-Dibley-viewers-brand-Christmas-special-episode-abomination.html

        1. This is too true to be good.

          Who is behind the absurd threats the EU is issuing in order to bully and blackmail Britain? Could it be Ursula von der Leyen and Angela Merkel with a bit of collaboration from Vichy Macron and Minon Barnier.

          Remember Gerry Adams’s warning us that “The IRA haven’t gone way, you know”. Could it be that the Nazis haven’t gone away either?

        1. I always enjoyed HIGNFY because it was a bit irreverent. Now i don’t bother to see if it’s on.

          The BBC no longer care about ratings as long as they get their political point across.

          1. I’m afraid you are right, Phizz. Still, I look on the bright side…slowly but surely the BBC is digging its own grave.

    3. As bad as it looks like the Vicar of Dibley will be, be thankful that they didn’t show Doctor WHO (aka Doctor Whoke or Doctor Karen) instead.

    4. Wonder if the good vicar has given any thought to the murder of the white child Cannon Hinnant and, if so, might like to acknowledge that in some way?

    5. When Ms French ‘takes the knee’ the BBC must print clearly on the screen a notice saying

      The BLM is a Communist Political Organisation which wants to promote anarchy by abolishing the Police
      The BBC admits that Ms French’s actions are a piece if political propaganda which has nothing to do with promoting racial harmony and tolerance.

    6. I do wonder if it’s a salve to ensure the programme never goes on again. Perhaps by destroying it completely they want to bury it forever.

    7. How typical (and sickening) that the Black Broadcasting Corporation should be supporting, in a so-called comedy programme, the active promotion of an organisation that aims to smash democracy and defund the police. Methinks the time is fast approaching when I cancel my licence.

      Blackadder and Dave Allan…quality comedy!

    9. The Vicar Of Dibley was in trouble in 2005 for giving a similar plug to the Live Eight concert. Clearly the BBC has learned nothing.

      1. It always does. Just seeing it blows out the chest, straightens the back and quickens the step…

          6. Ooops sorry Uncle Bill! Fat finger down voted twice while trying to reply!
            What I was going to post – Stone the crows!

        2. The fact remains they really, really wanted a red flag. They were properly pushing for full blown communist representation.

    4. This picture in side profile suggests that Boris Johnson’s haircut was done by Carrie using a pudding basin.

      I have come to the conclusion that Mr Johnson deliberately had the scruffiest and most ridiculous haircut possible in order to make us comment on his absurd appearance rather than on his absurd and buffoonish behaviour and actions.

      1. I think Boris could dress in the smartest tailored suit and on wearing for five seconds look dishevelled.

        I have this same magic skill. The war queen has tried many times to dress me properly. It simply can’t be done. At the fanciest of her work bashes I am by far the scruffiest. Thankfully she’s given up trying.

      2. Ursula’s always looks like the kind of hair, that if someone tried to stroke it they would cut their hand…

  39. Just watching an old B&W film on TV, which was preceded by the warning: “This film contains language and attitudes of the era which may upset modern viewers”. I note they don’t do likewise for modern programmes that may offend older viewers. Hypocrites.

    1. Oh I don’t know…….. they often say “This programme contains strong language and some scenes of a sexual nature which some viewers may find upsetting”. We’re hooked on the Scandi dramas and they have this warning.

    1. A bit of editing and you have Nigel and his third party in five years.
      Even ogga got wise to him. Eventually.

  41. anneallen: I have added a link and some info to your Gillray cartoon. It is very elusive. A rare early copy perhaps.

    1. Thank you. I’ve buzzed all the surprising amount of information I’ve received over to my brother.
      In 24 hours, I’ve learnt more about C18 cartoons than I’d learnt in a lifetime.

    2. It’s why I suggested yesterday that they take it to an expert and have the frame and mount removed and the whole thing examined.
      It might even be the original coloured sketch from which the engravings were taken.

      1. As far as I know, he didn’t normally make sketches beforehand. He just had some cards with pictures of his ‘targets’ to remind him of their likeness and engraved directly onto the copper-plate.

  42. Despite what is happening regarding the State of Texas going to court against four states for voter irregularities and another 17 states joining this suit, You Tube has announced that:

    “… on Wednesday it would start removing content that falsely alleges that widespread voter fraud changed the result of the US election.

    The update applies to all new content, including videos from President Donald Trump.

    There you go- censorship of information by Big Tech determined to stamp out information it does not approve.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55255121

      1. I visit a few YT channels where the host talks in code- one where George Soros is described as “Georgie”, and when he plays a video of some senior Chinese functionary gloating about events in the West, he removes the vocal from the clip as he says the YT algorithm will pick it up and he will be given strikes- bogus strikes and after a few, your channel is taken down. Even if you are quoting information verbatim from favoured news sources of Big Tech, they will do this. In fact a lot of the supposed “fact checking” is no such things- it is censorship. We live in strange times.

    2. Four million missing votes would need a lot of fraud.
      Wagon driver’s words – up to 288,000 ballot papers he delivered to the processing centre.
      By the time it reached Twitter those 288,000 had become 4 million “missing” votes..

    3. But presumably content that truly alleges that widespread voter fraud changed the result of the US election would be OK – how can they tell when the process isn’t complete?

    4. I believe this changes You Tube’s status to ‘publisher’ which will make it subject to certain laws.

      1. This guy- and I was not referring to him below explains a bit of this at the start of this video. Once the MSM discusses something, you can go there- with care even though it may be something that has been known about for ages. Of course, the MSM has not reported so much. Right now, the Biden/China corruption story is beginning to break in the MSM- he refers to Hunter Biden as “Caligula”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGUw5l22ZKM

      2. This guy- and I was not referring to him below explains a bit of this at the start of this video. Once the MSM discusses something, you can go there- with care even though it may be something that has been known about for ages. Of course, the MSM has not reported so much. Right now, the Biden/China corruption story is beginning to break in the MSM- he refers to Hunter Biden as “Caligula”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGUw5l22ZKM

  43. From The Grimes this evening:

    The EU is also warning that it could ban British airlines from serving European destinations unless Mr Johnson allows European fishing vessels access to UK waters.

    Fine – we reciprocate. No EU airlines to land in – OR OVERFLY – the UK.

    That’d larn ’em.

    1. ban British airlines from serving European destinations

      So, the EUSSR is taking control of the airspace of non EU countries

      That should focus the minds of the countries who still have Russian friends

    3. I thought the EU had already twigged that the vast majority of EU flights to N America overly UK airspace?

      Oh, and has anyone pointed out they would breach Article 8 of their precious Lisbon Treaty if they did that?

    4. I’m sure the EU is making these threats with the full backing of all those ClubMed and Eastern European countries that need Brit holidaymakers a great deal more than they need access to UK waters.

      1. It is beyond me how even a rational remainer could possibly support an organisation like the EU which does not want a trade deal which is fair and beneficial to both sides but just wants to bully and blackmail.

        Come on you miserable sods like Clarke and Grieve:

        Stand up in public and admit that you approve of bullying and blackmail!. These perverted idiots would probably even be in favour of rape and paedophilia if the EU started practising it.

        1. Remainers are not rational.

          For some, it’s simple ‘change is bad’. For others it is a genuine belief that the EU is a good thing from the media. That’s simple ignorance.

          The real proponents for it are just troughers.

      1. 327360+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,

        Potential Vaxhaddock.
        Very rarely caught, eyes everywhere, along the lines of them bloody three legged chickens.

  45. The members of the Petitions Committee eased themselves out of their armchairs and wrote a letter.

    “Hold a public vote on HS2 project as it is being paid for by the public”
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/326850

    The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system) have considered the Government’s response to this petition. They felt that the response did not directly address the request of petition and have therefore written back to the Government to ask them to provide a revised response.

    2. I don’t know why people bother. These surveys and petitions are irrelevant. If the state wants it, it will get it. What the public want is irrelevant.

      There’s a host of organisations in receipt of public money that no one wants. Government has no interest in changing that either.

  46. Evening all.

    A snippet on the front of the DT: Schools in London to get mass testing amid fears teenagers are fuelling covid outbreaks. These “new” infections, are they through test, track and trace, have they been hospitalised, is there a rise in deaths? They just refuse to let up with the warnings and scaremongering – seems they never will.

    3. Read a comment, on Lockdown Sceptics IIRC, that there was a number of testing vehicles setting up in Enfield the other day. If they’re determined to force London into Tier 3 then running a mass test programme with the inaccurate PCR giving a high positive result i.e. ‘cases’, is the way to go.

      I did post earlier that the government’s interpretation of the data being used to force the lockdowns appears to be coming under closer scrutiny. Forcing the issue, especially on London, could be a mistake.

      1. These vehicles. Did anyone notice whether there was a pipe from the exhaust into the back of the wagon?

        1. The manner in which some police officers and other ‘security’ personnel are behaving makes me think that the term Kapo is fitting.

      2. We all know that censorship has been playing a big part in what is in the MSM contradicting the “narrative”. Or rather what Isn’t in the MSM. With the government “following the science” when it has been completely discredited convinced me more and more that there is bribery and corruption behind it all.

      2. I totally agree and have been of that opinion from the first.

        Added: It is not known if the vaccine causes infertility. Something close to Bill Gates’ heart by all accounts.

      3. I totally agree and have been of that opinion from the first.

        Added: It is not known if the vaccine causes infertility. Something close to Bill Gates’ heart by all accounts.

      1. Gosh, and no one in this country knew? Not the police, not Border Force, not our immigration services, not our banks who must surely be transferring the funds*, and not our Home Office and not Ms Patel? Just some bloke in Greece.

        * I have to get my bank transfers checked and cleared to buy a toy from eBay in Germany.

  48. Breaking News – Top scientist says that we can all enjoy and celebrate Christmas provided we don’t –
    Go to church,
    Sing carols,
    See the family,
    Have a party,
    Play board games,
    Play charades.
    Go to the pub,
    Go to a show,
    Go to a concert.
    Hug granny
    Spend more then 15 minutes in a shop.

    Other than that we can all have a wonderful time as we wont be seeing another one under the new normal
    And afterwards we can all spend six weeks in lockdown while awaiting vaccination.

      1. That we may ignore them is irrelevant. The state enforces their proclamations. That’s what needs to be stopped.

    3. All thanks to Matty Hancock, close friend of multi billionaire Bill Gates, director of the UK’s C-19 response, who wants to ”vaccinate the entire global population”……….

      https://twitter.com/matthancock/status/1088390904858202112?lang=en

      Here’s Matty pitching to George Soros…………….

      https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1075319635464081409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1075319635464081409%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fby%2Fdisqus_Vs7PX8srwh%2F

      and chatting up Klaus Schwab, chairman of Davos and very close friend of George Soros…………

      https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/956851034797891584

      2. Bill Gates always looks as if he’s ‘On something’; Matt Hancock invariably looks ‘glaikit’ …

        2. Hancock always looks like the child who is sitting on Jimmy Saville’s knee, not realising what is going on in the mind of his new found friend.

          Soros, Gates, Schwab, Vallance, Whitty et al

      3. Liberal democracy torch in these troubled times? Cluck off you twonk.

        You’re a greedy, ignorant snivelling worm with no direction, no focus, no courage full of spin and fear. There’s nothing liberal about these fools.

  49. Thought for the day…

    Jack S Lacey • 4 hours ago
    The only way things could be any worse is if Harris/Bidet were British.
    3 EditReplyShare

  50. That’s me for the night. Delighted to report that the MR finished the short cryptic crossword in The Grimes this evening virtually unaided. So a good reason to have a second glass before attacking the smoked haddock.

    I hope to join you tomorrow unless the EUSSR bans NoTTL.

    A demain.

    1. If it’s even remotely close to Grand Frais smoked haddock you’re in for a treat.

      Even Harry K would agree with me.

  51. Oh dear, Burley suspended for 6 months. Her calculated ‘mistake’ didn’t turn out as planned.

        1. Probably more than enough that one year’s worth would be sufficient for any normal person to retire on.

      1. prolly trying to remember if the vet had done his thing with the loppers and wondering if it’s worth waiting for the tide to come in far enough to tickle the sweetbreads to find out

          1. No visible udder as far as I can tell, spent some of my formative years in the Hereford country side and on balance looking at the shoulders and general physique I judged it to be a bull, affable creatures however whatever the state of their dangly bits 8^)

          2. I’d like to bet you that they do, Dr Paul. How much are you willing to bet? :•)

            Sweetbreads are thymus glands, NOT bollocks!

          4. Pancreas and thymus Mr Bear and usually of lambs or veal calves rather than mature cattle.

            They went off the market for a while under the “specified bovine offal” rules but I believe that those from animals under 24 months are now available… if you know the right butcher.

          5. It looks, superficially as though it is female; but, as Grizzly has already told you, you are wrong on the anatomy.

            Cows seem to like to stand in water. One of my clients has a four acre pool in the middle of her farm and the cows often stand around up to their knees in the water on fine days. The calves play in the shallows rather like kids at the beach.

      1. Bough an HD monitor ( would have preferred a uhd but budget restraints applied ) leftover Apple keyboard and Magic Mouse from iMac, so far the M1 has been very impressive.

        1. I’ve had my third iMac for nearly five years now. My first (in 1999) was a lime green one. My second (in 2008) was a 21″. The current one is a 27″. I use a large (extended keyboard) and a trackpad since I can’t get on with rats.

      1. Which reminds me what’s brown and yellow and comes out of cowes steaming?

        The Isle of White ferry.

  53. Jack says:

    In other news, post-war unemployment reached a record high of 11.9% in 1984.

    Will he:

    A. Advocate for massive tax cuts and significant cuts to public spending to create jobs and cut back the waste in the public sector

    or

    B. Rant and whine about why this is all Boris’ fault and demand that ‘rich people’ pay more tax to make himself feel better while making unemployent even worse?

    1. Tax cuts create jobs usually yes, but cuts to public spending destroy jobs. So option A is dumb if we really want more people employed. Remember we’ve spent ten years cutting the public sector and the only real result of that is a lost decade of growth. We only broke 2% growth in an election year and the run up to it, largely it’s been averaging 1.5% per year. That’s a massive loss of compound growth in a decade.

      Option B Is an ex-Guardian journalist sending a portfolio of his work to prospective employers?

  54. Brussels is ratcheting up the pressure. The European Commission wants continued access to UK fishing waters for 12 months under a no-deal Brexit – and is threatening to stop British planes and lorries travelling to the bloc unless it caves to its “level playing field” demands. Its contingency plans – which make clear it will push for the UK to remain tied to its rules – prompted fury among senior Brexiteers, who accused the EU of “piratical behaviour” and attempting to “blackmail” the UK into conceding parts of its sovereignty.

    Harry Yorke and James Crisp in Brussels have analysed the documents published today. It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Commission president Ursula von der Leyen agreed to resume negotiations over a trade deal. Go behind the scenes of their dinner date last night. These are the remaining sticking points and this is what no-deal would mean for daily life.

    “Stop British planes and lorries travelling to the bloc?” That’s nothing but hot air and bollocks. They are desperate to carry on trading with the UK and stopping planes and lorries would be commercial and economic suicide.

    1. It would be interesting to know what the owners of Audi, BMW, Mercedes and VW have to say about Ursula von der Lederhosen’s mad threats. We do not take kindly to German bullies.

      1. Exactly. As I’ve mentioned before, these manufacturers as well as Peugeot, Citroen and Seat make their profits in the UK. Lose the UK business and they plunge into the red and have to cut back. Redundancies in Wolfsburg, Stuttgart and elsewhere might result in recession. A change of government would be on the cards.

    2. Buy a “spirograph” and get prettier pictures.
      They will still be capable of being interpreted by H&W&V as we’re all gonna die.

    2. We are all stationary travellers as we sit in front of our screens, stationary relative to the Earth, but travelling along with our solar system through the cosmos.
      I’ll get me dope.

  58. I see that Kay Burley has got a 6 month suspension, and the others involved a slap on the wrist. NOT ENOUGH. They should all have been sacked, and she and Red Lips should’ve been fined £10k by the Old Bill – for EVERY offence committed. IMHO they knew what they were doing, thinking no-one would find out. They’re only now sorry because they got ccaught and they want to keep their ‘priviledged’ positions.

    Oh the hypocrisy. I hope Sky News’ viewing figures tank.

      2. Maybe I should refer to them as ‘Sly Propaganda’ instead? They haven’t been impartial or any good for some years now. The last decent journo working for them that didn’t toe the line (worse since the channel was sold) was Jeff Randall.

        Also looking over at the Mail, staff at Sky, ahem, Sly are now wondering if Karen #1 will continue to be paid for her ‘sabbatical’. I wonder if anyone in the media will doorstep her as they did Cummings? I suspect not, as unlike him, she’ll cry the victim and they’d be arrested for ‘harrassment’.

        One rule for them, one for everyone else. And they wonder why they are despised?

  60. 327360+up ticks,
    Once again Jsp down marks an anti paedophile / party umbrella comment
    why does she / it not come fully out of the closet ?

    1. The silly bitch is becoming almost indiscriminate now. Her hatred expressed by downvoting, as opposed to rational argument, is usually directed at me.

        1. I made a rational argument and received an immediate downvote.

          Others can decide for themselves as to who to believe. We all have opinions and are free to express them. It is also possible to develop a dislike of certain people posting on here believe it or not.

          2. Do not concern yourself about me.

            My skin is thicker than a rhinoceros.

            The only reason I do not seek to wound is because I feel sorry for the delinquents who cannot be bothered to debate and who make cheap side shots. I also reckon some have mental issues and I do not wish to push them over the edge so to speak.

    3. Where do all these young girls come from?
      You’re another who ignores the source and instead focus on getting rid of the competition for them.

      ETA: Added a downvote of my own. With South Thanet’s UKIP “predatory paedophile” in mind.

      1. 327360+ up tick,
        js,
        You are being silly again, you are a self confessed
        pretendee tory the group that has raped & abused a whole nation as seen these last three decades.

        the entwhistle & the other twisted twat was outed
        we have been through this before.
        You are supporting a segment of the odious coalition that have been covering up these atrocities for years, Jay report.

        1. Even Google Translate could make no sense of that.
          Could you try again in something approaching English?

          1. 327360+ up ticks,
            You are right there especially in the case of
            Batten / Braine , we are no longer members of UKIP since their success awoke the sleeper ersatz tory element in the Nec.
            As for leaders of your chosen party, as in major,
            cameron, clegg, may, johnson, regarding treachery.
            Are you of English stock ?

      2. 327360+ up ticks,
        js,
        In point of fact supporting a mass uncontrolled immigration party knowing their past record as the JAY report pointed out is surely acting in collusion.

        This importation is taking place on a daily basis as Dover is clearly showing, why would we need foreign child rapist when as you are saying we have our own.
        Maybe you & the jenny thing have the answer.

        1. So what are you doing to stop it ogga.?
          Apart from posting your nonsense all day every day here on your safe space?

          1. 327360+ up ticks,
            So now you resort to fantasy as proven with no backing jack, hollow post makes for hollow creature & you echo jack.

  61. The evening news – Reporting Scotland/STV Lookaround – was packed with dire warnings of the horrors of Brexit. The MD of a local fish export business described it as “going over a cliff edge”. His export business could face tariffs of 3% maybe 10%. Apparently this genius has not figured out that if there is no deal then the UK will be the only country with access to our fish. If the French and Spanish don’t buy from us then they won’t get any fish at all.
    Also all airlines will cease to fly to the EU, because the Covid-19 rules will prevent UK citizens going to the UK.
    Etc and so forth. All gloom and doom. Not an ounce of rationality.
    Food rationing after WW2 did not end until 1954 in the UK.
    However, we are entrepreneurs (I don’t know what that is in French.). Here is a little story from Wikipedia: “NCP was founded in 1931 by Colonel Frederick Lucas. In October 1948 Sir Ronald Hobson, together with his business partner Sir Donald Gosling, founded Central Car Parks when the pair invested £200 in a bombsite in Holborn, central London to create a car park. In 1959 Central Car Parks took over NCP from Anne Lucas, the widow of Colonel Lucas.”
    My highlighting. Yes, three years after the war ended there were still so many bombed out places in London that a couple of blokes made an immense fortune by turning them into car parks.
    Today the BBC is giving air time to snowflakes whining that they may have to postpone a visit to Europe…

          1. Obviously a lucky man.

            Buy a lottery ticket NOW.

            If you win, my fee for that advice is a niggardly 0.15%.

      3. I remember seeing bomb sites in London in the 70s! Some of them are still there in Plymouth, but they’ve been so well tidied up that you wouldn’t guess there had been a house there unless you knew.

          1. I think it looks shabby, because it is on that blasted roundabout. There is no atmosphere left.

            Actually, I was thinking of some mysteriously shorter terraces of houses, with open squares of grass. They were just never rebuilt, I guess property was not expensive enough. At some point, the Council must have taken over the plots.

            I know someone who has just repaired the WW2 bomb damage to their house! Weakened beams were finally giving up the ghost.

    3. I understand the word ‘entrepreneur’ does not actually exist in France amongst the French because the French are not entrepreneurs.

    4. Dateline 2050:

      Horatio Pendleton, grandson or the late Horace Pendleton, sells his Brexit Lorry Parks to Archie Sussex for £7 gazillion

      Archie says “I owe my wealth to Meagain divorcing that wimp”

    1. If Great Britian leaves the EU then it will be like its own Hong Kong
      Owned by the British, surprisingly prosperous for its size, and desperately longing to be white.

          1. I’ve caught a few ling this year, not my favourite fish, but they fight well, dourly and doggedly I should say.

          2. Passed many an afternoon fishing off Sunderland Point. Caught nothing but still a good way to pass the day.

          3. A day spent fishing does not count against your allotted time upon this Earth. Someone said that.

          5. “The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.”

            Herbert Hoover apparently said it. I had heard it somewhere before – probably on account of living with someone who, in his own words, “couldn’t walk past a bucket without looking to see if it had a tadpole in it” and had to satisfy myself as to the source.

            There are a few others on here that you may have encountered:

            http://www.settleanglers.co.uk/fishing-quotes/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CEven%20a%20bad%20day%20of,a%20good%20day%20of%20work.%E2%80%9D&text=%E2%80%9CThe%20gods%20do%20not%20deduct,produce%20a%20serenity%20of%20mind.%E2%80%9D

          7. I never did much fishing, but I used to sit on the bank and wield the landing net, and tied a few flies too.

          12. Still floundering, show a ray of hope, this is my bread and buttur bot you’re still not playing along. I was breaming with excitement too. As Jackson Pollack once said “My painting doesn’t just come from my easeel”.

    3. Sirs,
      In the past 41 odd years I have very frequently regretted leaving Australia in late November 1979 to come home for Christmas. The decision to stay here was made in January 1980 and after 41 years of being here it hurts even more. It’s been a creeping factor similar to a type of creeping palsy and now I seriously believe this country is now completely stuffed…aka Finished, totally useless.
      As an ordinary hard working tax paying law abiding person and his family, I can not think of anything myself I might have done to cause this problem, but once more i have say to you all……… “EVERYTHING SINGLE THING, SCHEME, PROJECT, OR NOW SEEMINGLY FAKE OBJECTIVE, OUR POLITICAL CLASSES TAKE INTO THEIR HANDS, AND HAVE ACTUALLY COME INTO CONTACT WITH, THEY HAVE AND RELENTELESSLY CONTINUE TO DO SO, THEY WITH OUT FAIL F*CK UP…………..AND EXRA LARGE BIG TIME”
      In under a year they have ruined more peoples lives than the plague did or did Hitler during the Blitz. And so it will go on while they sit on their arses and still receive their salary’s, their in line gold plated pensions and bulging expense accounts.
      In the past two days i have received notice from banks that the interest rates are falling further and usage of banking will increase. Soon we will be paying them to keep our savings in the care of these greedy institutions.
      Payment for their inherent uselessness will be due forth with. Watch this space in your bank accounts. And for extras extra digits in your on going bills.

      Mr Sick of it all.

      1. Interesting resume.

        I was thinking that Brexit is taking longer than it took the Allies to defeat Hitler, Mussolini and Japan. I am glad that my late father, who spent two years in Burma, is not around to see the mess this country has become.

        1. It seems all along the general idea was for the Germans to rule Britannia and all that surrounds it. With France in dedicated alliance. Their hierarchy didn’t seem to grateful for our and our allies efforts to rescue them in WW2.

  65. Goodnight, all. Pouring with rain, here – just thought you’d like to know. The builder chopped the outside sensor off my in-out Thermoclock this afternoon. I’m not best pleased because I can’t replace it like for like; the nearest I can get is one without a clock and I don’t need the hassle. Anyway, I’m off before the baiting gets into full flow.

    1. My neighbour cut through a power cable which was running power to my shed. I didn’t beat him up too badly. 🙂

  66. Completely OT here, but is anybody else having trouble with Notifications on Discus? I’ve tried several times to open them on the red blob but it won’t open!

    2. I had a problem on Tuesday, someone else was writing about it yesterday. There appear to be a few ongoing glitches but they seem to right themselves after a few hours.

    3. I don’t receive notifications unless I refresh the page. Been like that as long as I remember.
      Other than that, Disqus seems to be OK.

  67. Dean Jukes
    10 Dec 2020 9:49PM
    The EU gang just started a fight and walked out the pub … forgetting they’d left their mate Ireland in the toilets.
    Just found this BTL in the DT! It made me laugh!

    1. For Protestants in the North, December’s General Election was no laughing matter.

      ETA: DUP’s losses meant for the first time Protestants were not a majority in Stormont.
      United Ireland here we come 🙁

  69. Is the CV-19/PCR scam beginning to unravel? Peston came out yesterday by highlighting differences across a pair of spreadsheets and today there is more evidence that the government has been ‘interpreting’ the data to suit their agenda. In addition, it’s been admitted that throwing the pubs etc under a bus was a policy – what policy, isn’t explained – decision and NOT based on the government’s variation of ‘science’.

    The 0% finding of infection in 9,000 Cambridge students seems to have woken a few people up. Being on the wrong side of history for so-called leading journalists is not a good look. Will the breach widen or will the government double-down to try and preserve their position? Could get very messy if there is an attempt to place London in Tier 3 post Christmas.

    https://twitter.com/Stat_O_Guy/status/1336927295030898688
    https://twitter.com/Stat_O_Guy/status/1336958161618677761
    https://twitter.com/alanvibe/status/1336969544762609664

  70. Hello, all!

    I came across this in the local e-rag:

    Police shut down birthday party in Watford holiday home as guests hit with £200 fines
    They were all mixing from different households

    19 party-goers have been fined £200 each after residents reported a birthday bash at a holiday home in Watford last weekend.

    Police were called by members of the Letchmore Heath community at 10.55pm on Saturday, December 5, reporting loud music, fireworks and breaching the rule of six.

    On arrival, officers dispersed a large number of people inside the property and in the garden who were all issued fixed penalty notices.

    They were from nearby Essex and North London.

    Superintendent Mike Todd from Hertfordshire Constabulary said: “Officers found a large group of people celebrating a 30th birthday with the attitude of most of the party-goers being that they didn’t think they were doing anything wrong.

    “They didn’t think they were doing anything wrong”. Who does that remind one of….?

    Edit: Essex is not “nearby”, most of us don’t let off fireworks except around Guy Fawkes night, and “police dispuersed a large number” yet only “19 party-goers have been fined”. Guess who – just a little guess…

    1. Hi Hertslass! That’s got to be fake news! I mean “holiday home” “Watford”…..

          1. “Boom, boom, da da da da, di da…”

            I haven’t seen an episode since 1993. Although I occasionally see stills showing 90% bleck faces

  71. Out gathering kindling this afternoon, I realised that this is the longest period that I have spent the night under the same roof since we lived at RAF Abu Sueir in 1950…

    I am going stir crazy. Better be vaccinated against it… Oh, hang on….

      1. One of the few sensible things I did in 1984, when I bought this house, was to plant seventy beech saplings, knowing that in my old age I would need logs for the woodburner. Those saplings are now very tall trees and produce huge quantities of kindling…. As a result of my foresight, I have cut and stacked logs for three years – and a whole lot more to store in February when the tree bloke comes round. I still think of him as “Young Colin” – though he turned 60 this year!

      1. Ulster Aviation Museum has a RN Sea Hawk which flew off both carriers at Suez in the ’50s.
        Might be before your time.

        1. Suez was, Sea Hawks not

          I have worked on
          Sea Venom

          A Walrus
          A Radial Engined Whirlwind
          A Sea VixemMk I
          Sea Vixen Mk II

    5. Have the medicos told us about the connection between stress heightened by forced isolation, a weakened immune system, the Covid-19 vaccination and Bell’s palsy.

      Thought not.

        2. Wondering how he was elected MP.
          His description of Rees-Mogg in the Commons was his best line…
          “The Honourable Member for the 19th Century…”

        6. I suppose you could argue that standards have fallen so far that Bryant, whom I have heard described as a disgusting and perverted little tic, is ideally qualified for the job.

    3. The very idea of swearing to a colleague is disgusting. If you cannot manage civil discourse and politeness then you’re only good for roses.

      1. …and when you are chairman of the Standards Board it must surely be time for removal – after he serves a meaningful period of suspension.

  73. The irony of when the consequences of Brexit could hurt the our car industry and when people that hate cars and want them off the roads altogether start complaining about the damage to the economy knows no bounds.

  74. Depressing how everyone on the Bbc News thinks that an FTA is the same as ‘access to the Single Market’. Even Ursula von der Leyen and Keith Starmer don’t appreciate the difference. Perhaps they should ask the Canadians, Aussies or Japanese.

    2. What point trade agreements with unwilling partners, do you think that the EU will abide by any fta fit doesn’t suit their needs.

      We have the new NAFTA, the ink is hardly dry on the treaty but the US is already trying to overturn parts of the agreement.

    3. It drives me mad as well. I point out to the naysayers that my last few phones are Samsungs from the far East, my car came from the Far East, so how come these countries had “access to the single market” to enable me to buy them?

    4. “Depressing how everyone on the Bbc News thinks…”

      Depressing? BBC News? Stop watching/listening/reading it?

      1. Let’s be clear – the BBC deliberately spins news to suit it’s own agenda. It lies by omission. It has a huge hold on the news output and simply cannot be trusted. Worse, it’s ouput cannot be ignored.

        1. On a good day, BBC’s flagship 6 o’clock news draws 4.5 million viewers.
          Likewise Question Time draws around 2.3 million.
          Average age, 60 men, 61 women.
          UKIP’s Billy Mitchell still holds the record as the political plant featured in most episodes of QT.

  75. 327360+ up ticks,
    May one say if there was a General Election tomorrow the nasal gripping, least of the worst brigade, even the party before all else regardless of
    consequence mob, would have one hell of a job with selecting a suitable
    batch of overseers for the UK penal colony.

  76. Evening, all. From my local rag:

    the reality – https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/12/10/uk-economic-growth-slows-sharply-in-october-as-restrictions-bite/

    and – https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/12/10/pubs-facing-darkest-moments-amid-virus-restrictions-says-good-pub-guide

    and the remainer wishful thinking:

    https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/12/10/no-deal-brexit-economic-fallout-predicted-to-exceed-that-caused-by-coronavirus/

    Note the use of “could”.

      1. Definitely a Shropshire Lad – I love these blue remembered hills 🙂 Old Salopians were born in Shrewsbury; I was born in Worcestershire.

        1. INTO MY HEART AN AIR THAT KILLS
          From yon far country blows:
          What are those blue remembered hills,
          What spires, what farms are those?

          That is the land of lost content,
          I see it shining plain,
          The happy highways where I went
          And cannot come again.

          A.E Housman

    2. Any chance of you posting the clip of Penny Morduant winning losing her bet in the Commons?

      “Conservative minister delivers spoof speech packed full of innuendos after losing a bet with Royal Navy officer friends .”

  79. Thoughts for sweet dreams:

    Pfizer’s vaccine is actually saline solution.

    Covid is an invention and it’s really glorified ‘flu.
    Politicians are going to be very rich.
    How would anyone really know?

    1. Boris, Hancock & Co move on to lucrative non-jobs with Pfizer?
      What odds are the bookies offering on that happening?

  81. It’s unusual for me to be here this time of the evening but there is absolutely stuff all on the TV which is the current norm and i’m reading another Reacher, The Sentinel, i’m sort of addicted to them, it’s been a quite a few years since i read the first one. And he hasn’t been to the ‘BATHROOM’ once……….not even behind the shrubbery. And so it’s good night all you decent people.
    Copyazlayders.

    1. I can’t read the newer ones. They read as though they were written by a recent English Literature graduate, determined on packing in as much woke propaganda as possible. I suspect Lee Child ran out of inspiration and handed over the franchise to his publishers with his blessing.
      It seems to be a common theme with writers. Start off as an ordinary person, write entertaining stuff, make gazillions, develop a spoilt rich person’s conscience, lecture the readers about minority rights in your next book.

      Well known victims include Jilly Cooper, Marian Keyes and now Lee Child.

      1. I’m struggling with this one, it’ll probably be my last. His son has been co author, but i don’t see any sign of his input in the story line.

        1. I’m not a fan – but my guess in that case is that father sketched out the story and son wrote the words, including all the woke stuff.

  84. I see that the DT is at it again with the ‘whitewash’ of those committing crimes of sexual exploitation against young women:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/10/32-men-charged-following-investigation-historic-child-sexual/

    I can’t get to the report (tablet not on – I can only read reports that way – just headlines plus first paragraph on my desktop PC) but it appears they are once again going the ‘men of Asian descent’ route rather than using the M word to secribe the purportators. Can anyone confirm this?

    1. NO mention of their Mossie Heritage in the DT

      32 men charged following investigation into historic child sexual exploitation in West Yorkshire
      The alleged offences, including rape and false imprisonment, took place against eight girls aged between 13 and 16 between 1999 and 2012

      By
      Martin Evans,
      CRIME CORRESPONDENT
      10 December 2020 • 1:59pm
      Thirty two men from West Yorkshire have been charged with a range of offences in connection with historic child sex abuse.

      The men are accused of a variety of offences including rape, sexual assault, false imprisonment and supplying drugs.

      The offences allegedly took place between 1999 and 2012 against eight girls aged between 13 and 16.

      West Yorkshire Police said the alleged offences took place across the region in Kirklees, Bradford and Wakefield.

      The suspects, who are aged between 31 and 50 are due to appear before Kirklees Magistrates Court on the 11th and 14th of December.

      The charges are part of a long running investigation called Operation Tourway which was launched to tackle child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

      1. 327360+ up ticks,
        Evening TB,
        Token gesture, top up coming in daily via Dover.

        Be out by eid if put in.

      2. The charges in full https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13435816/men-charged-grooming-gang-west-yorkshire/?utm_campaign=sunmaintwitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1607596106

        Asif Ali (50) of Batley charged with rape offences (x12), inciting sexual activity with a child (x2), supply class B drugs (X1), trafficking (X1), aiding and abetting rape (x1) assisting in the commission of an indictable offence (x1) making an indecent photo of a child (x2), possession of extreme pornographic images (x1). He has been bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 2pm on 11/12/20.Amer Ali Hussain (42) of Batley charged with rape (x2) and bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 2pm on 11/12/20.Sarfraz Miraf – (45) of Dewsbury charged with rape offences (x1). He has been bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 3pm on 11/12/20Nazam Hussain – (43) of Dewsbury, charged with rape offences (x4) and bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 3pm on 11/12/20 and 3pm on 14/12/20.Mohammed Nazam Nasser (35) of Batley, charged with rape offences (x3). Bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 3pm on 11/12/20.Moshin Nadat (35) from Batley, served with a postal requisition for rape offences (x2) to appear at Kirklees magistrates Court at 2pm on 11/12/20.Michael Birkenshaw (34) from Wakefield served with a postal requisition for rape (x1) and he is due to appear at court at 12pm on 11/12/20.Zafar Qayum (41) from Dewsbury charged with rape offences ( x17), gross indecency ( x4), indecent assault ( x9) assault ( X1) sexual activity with a child (x1) sexual assault (x1) theft (x1) and aiding and abetting rape (x2). He was bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court at 2pm on 14/12/20Jabbar Qayum (39) from Dewsbury, charged with rape offences (x6) and aiding and abetting rape (x2). Bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court at 2pm on 14/12/20Ansar Mahmood Qayum (43) from Dewsbury. Charged with rape offences (x13), attempted indecent assault (x2), aiding and abetting rape (x2). Bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court at 2pm on 14/12/20.Mohammed Tauseef Hanif (36) from Dewsbury. Charged with rape offences ( x4) Bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court at 3pm on 14/12/20Ali Hussain Shah (35) from Dewsbury. Served with a postal requisition for rape offences (x2) to appear at Kirklees Magistrates on 11/12/20 at 2pm.Saleem Mohammed Nasir (44) from Dewsbury. Charged with rape offences (x3) and conspiracy to rape (x1). Bailed to Kirklees magistrates Court appearing at 10am on 11/12/20Amran Mehrban (37) from Batley. Charged with rape offences (x2), false imprisonment (x1) and sexual assault (x1) and bailed to Kirklees magistrates Court 10am on 11/12/20Ebrahim Pandor (41) from Dewsbury. Charged with rape offences (x1) and trafficking (x2) and bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court 12pm on 11/12/20Shakil Daji (41) from Batley. Charged with rape offences (x2) and trafficking (x1) and bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court 12pm on 11/12/20.Mohammed Imran Zada (41) from Batley. Served with a postal requisition for rape offences (x6), indecent assault ( x2) and sexual activity with a child (x1) to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 10am on 11/12/20.Sarkaut Yasen (35) from Dewsbury. Charged with trafficking (x1) and aiding and abetting rape (x2). Bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court 11am on 11/12/20Amjad Hussain (41) from Dewsbury. Charged with rape offences ( x2). Bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court 10am on 11/12/20Asuk Hussain (50) from Dewsbury. Charged with rape (x2) and bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 10am on 14/12/20Zafar Iqbal (35) from Batley. Charged with rape offences (x7) trafficking (x2) and supplying a Class B drug (x1) and bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 12pm on 14/12/20Nasar Iqbal (35) from Batley. Charged with rape offences (x7) and trafficking (x2) and bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 12pm on 14/12/20Bilal Mahmood Patel (38) from Leicester. Charged with rape offences (x2) and bailed to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 12pm on 14/12/20.Khurum Raziq (38) from Heckmondwike. Served with a postal requisition for rape offences (x8) and due to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 10am on 14/12/20Irfan Khan (34) from Batley. Served with a postal requisition for rape offences (x4) threats to kill (x1) false imprisonment (x1) and harassment (x1) to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 11am on 11/12/20Omar Farooq Hussain (36) from Dewsbury. Charged with rape offences (x8) supplying class A drugs (x1) and bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court at 11am on 14/12/20Sarfraz Hussain Riaz (37) from Liversedge. Charged with rape offences (x2) and attempted rape ( x1) and bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court at 11am on 14/12/20.Rameez Cheema (33) from Batley. Charged with rape offences (x1) and bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court at 11am on 14/12/20Nasar Hussain (42) from Dewsbury. Charged with rape offences (x6) and bailed to Kirklees Magistrates Court at 10am on 14/12/20.Mohammed Chothia (41) from Batley. Served with a postal requisition for rape offences (x8) to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 12pm on 14/12/20Sajad Hussain (37) from Batley. Served with a postal requisition for rape offences (x1), false imprisonment (x1) trafficking (x1), aiding and abetting rape (x1) and supplying Class C drugs (x1) to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at 11am on 11/12/20Yasser Ali (31) from Dewsbury. Served with a postal requisition for rape offences (x2) to appear at Kirklees Magistrates Court at Kirklees Magistrates Court on 14/12/20 at 11am.

        1. These individuals are not being held in custody? They will scarper off to Pakistan, surely?

          1. I wonder if Labour and those luvvies will support these oiks if any are foreign nationals?

        3. Indeed, and thanks for checking – the Mail also gave all the names (I just confirmed it) – only one, a Michael Birkenshaw, appeared not to be Muslim by virtue of their names. But likely we’ll see nothing of this on TV or the ‘quality broadsheets’ or the BBC, who think that 97% of them being of that religion is ‘just a coincidence’ and saying otherwise is ‘racist’ and islamaphobic, no doubt backed up by Labour and apologist pressure groups.

        1. He’s raped and sexually assaulted four women.

          How can he possibly not be a danger to the public?

          I would suggest that that judge is also a danger to the public.

    1. The Russian blockade lasted from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949, but the airlift continued for several more months
      The airlift cost the United States $350 million; the UK £17 million and Western Germany 150 million Deutschmarks
      Berliners received an average of 2,300 calories a day which was higher than the UK food rationing system provided at the time.

      1. 327360 + up ticks,
        PT,
        If a blockade which side will the political overseers
        be on ?

        Will PQ 17 get through, will the Ohio be back in service.

    1. I don’t think this is going to end well for them, this looks like just more than rigging an election, this to 70 odd million Americans looks like betrayal of their country.
      This time I think the Democrats overreached themselves, and invited a determination by their opponents to right a perceived wrong.

      1. I agree entirely. The fraudulent voting has been both brazen and blatant. The Trump supporters are heavily armed in accordance with their rights to bear arms.

        The Democrat hordes, apart from the Eastern and Western Seaboard elites, (think Hollywood and the Sussex’s) are inner city thugs whose aim is to rape and pillage, destroy property after looting it and defund the Police. They comprise down and outs and radical Marxists such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter, themselves fighting amongst each other for supremacy.

        I would not wish to live in the States under a Biden administration otherwise known as Obama Mark 2. Obama is the egotist masterminding this farrago and the sooner he and ‘Mike’ are sent to Guantanamo and incarcerated the better for the World.

  87. I was greatly encouraged by Boris Johnson’s press conference earlier today giving a measured appraisal of where we are with the withdrawal from the EU.

    It made perfect sense to me. We cannot lose our freedoms to trade with other nations and cannot submit anymore to restrictions on our ability to do so. We cannot accept strictures from the EU as to how we act or legislate for our own affairs.

    Maybe the Corona virus has played its course and Boris is now restored to robust good health. I hope so for the sake of the future of our country.

    1. My cause for concern, he used the phrase “at the moment” during his briefing.
      I can never foresee a time when such a deal would be right for the UK.
      Is he creating wriggle room for a sell out?

      1. No. Things have gone too far and whilst Theresa May submitted I reckon Boris (in Covid recovery mode) has worked out which side of the fence he must reside.

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