Thursday 10 March: Britain must heed the lessons of history and let in Ukrainian refugees

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

591 thoughts on “Thursday 10 March: Britain must heed the lessons of history and let in Ukrainian refugees”

    1. Yes… black, muslim and single male – no problems, we’ll even send a boat.
      White, Christian and families – you can bugger right off.
      What’s wrong with the people in government?

      1. ‘Tis not only the people in government, Oberst. The proclivities of the employees of Border Force, RNLI, and the BAME/muzzie majority of employees in the Home Office immigration function are all a factor.

    2. Yes… black, muslim and single male – no problems, we’ll even send a boat.
      White, Christian and families – you can bugger right off.
      What’s wrong with the people in government?

  6. Is fracking the answer to the energy crisis? 10 march 2022.

    The statistic is that the ‘carbon intensity’of imported liquefied natural gas is on average almost three times that of North Sea gas (the lower the intensity, the greener the fuel). The story concerns the Maltese-registered tanker Hellas Diana, with a capacity of 174,000 cubic metres of LNG. Having loaded at Corpus Christi, Texas, in November and passed through the Panama Canal en route to unload at Tianjin, China, the vessel U-turned in mid-Pacific as gas prices kept rising and sailed all the way here instead, traders having bought its cargo to fill a hole in UK demand in January. That’s another form of madness.

    Just one of those little anecdotes that illustrates the realities behind the propaganda! We are involved in a race here as to which system collapses first. Russia or the West; with a reasonable chance that both will eventually go down!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-fracking-the-answer-to-the-energy-crisis

      1. Agreed bb2. They like to use such terms coz it makes them look/ feel scientific rather than merely hignorant.

        1. Morning Citroen1 and all,

          If you have a hole in your liquefied natural gas supply are you liquefucked? 🤔

    2. These people are stupid and dumb. Should be banned from writing about such topics

      …hole in UK demand supply.

      The big ‘energy inefficiency’ is in the liquefaction process.

    3. …bought its cargo to fill a hole in UK demand in January.

      An outright admission, if ever there was one, that Johnson’s reckless net zero greenism is a clear and present danger to our quality of life. It’s another attack by the globalists using our own politicians who have bought in to the NWO scheme of total control. Next? Food shortages and an equitable rationing scheme via a digital card?

    4. We could bring back coal gas with gas works springing up all over the place.Just like it used to be. Bring back King Coal.

    3. Could it be reassigned to the beaches of Kent?
      It would be of far more use in stopping the ‘refugees’.

  9. An excellent set of ‘Endurance’ photographs available https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/gallery/2022/mar/09/sir-ernest-shackletons-ship-endurance-found-in-pictur

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5f13f33ba1a32fe6f4c07f614ed598e072f30f49/0_0_4708_3624/master/4708.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=67fa2c209047b245875546dfe0e99754

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a1d18a1b25abe465329a37299fa6e702a3388578/0_0_3500_1969/master/3500.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=4a824fa61ea1cecd6f426448642aa3e1

  10. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Today’s leading letter. There are dozens of signatories (nearly all professors) so I have not included them:

    SIR – We are professional historians, many of whom have spent their careers studying the wars and refugee crises of the 20th century.

    We call on the Government immediately to relax the rules of entry for Ukrainian refugees fleeing from an unlawful war of aggression. The current delays are unacceptable, and put the Government far behind the generous schemes already operating across Europe.

    We are reminded of the poor response of the British government in the 1930s to the plight of the Jews of central Europe, thousands of whom later perished in the Holocaust. Then British officials restricted entry to those who could be funded from private British sources or who would be useful for the British economy.

    If today’s Government indeed has “huge compassion”, as the Defence Secretary suggests, it is time to demonstrate it on a large scale. These are not illegal immigrants, spies or terrorists, but frightened and disorientated women, children and the elderly who hope for better from a country whose values and material advantages ought to make it an obvious refuge. We earnestly hope that the Government will learn the lessons from history, and open Britain’s doors to those desperately seeking a place of safety.

    * * *

    Apparently visa processing was outsourced in 2019 to a company based in the UAE and registered in the Caymans. This begins to explain our shambolic response for the Ukranian refugees.

    1. Why is it those who are least affected that always call for more immigration?

      1. The contribution of the Ukrainians to Western civilisation and culture, science, literature, and the arts has been what?

    3. We would have had room for these refugees if we hadn’t taken in half the world in the last 25 years.

      1. Indeed. The Ukrainians would not be refugees if they had stayed at home. Like our parents did. Nor would there be any refugees if the Ukraine had not killed thousands of Russians in the Donbass, and if the EU and NATO had not goaded and enticed and bribed the Ukraine to join them.

  12. UK plans to send anti-aircraft weapons to Ukraine, says Ben Wallace. 10 March 2022.

    Britain is planning to supply Starstreak anti-aircraft weapons and “a small consignment” of Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine as Russian forces close in on Kyiv to the east, the defence secretary has said.

    The difference between imposing a no fly zone by aircraft and Starstreak anti-aircraft weapons is one of kind not degree. It is just another part of the creeping campaign to get us involved in this fiasco. We will eventually reach a point where Russia will respond directly to this provocation. I’m pretty sure that they will not forget this or the part the UK Government have played over the years in hostile meddling in their affairs.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/09/uk-plans-to-send-anti-aircraft-weapons-to-ukraine-says-ben-wallace

    1. If the Russians know of the delivery route they are entitled to intercept and destroy the delivery en route. That would be interesting and might precipitate more direct confrontation. The whole mess could turn very nasty for any number of reasons in any number of locations. Turkey and the Black Sea seem a likely spot.

  13. SIR – I’m sure others have been watching with despair as our Home Offices botches – in view of the world – the handling of Ukrainian refugees attempting to find sanctuary in Britain.

    Hard on the heels of the Foreign Office debacle in Afghanistan, and serial failures by Public Health England, it follows a grimly predictable pattern. The lesson: our sprawling bureaucracies badly need an upgrade.

    Of course no malice is intended, but incompetence carries its own burden.

    Alisdair Low
    Richmond, Surrey

    SIR – My father, like Malcolm Bailey’s (Letters, March 9), was killed during the Second World War – in January 1942, while serving in the RAF.

    However, unlike Mr Bailey, I do not feel shame at the current situation. I am angry that our great country, which rescued a third of a million troops from Dunkirk and, with our allies, carried out the Normandy landings four years later, cannot now give speedy shelter to the Ukrainian refugees at our door.

    William Martindale
    Carnforth, Lancashire

    My previous post (leading letter) refers. Someone needs a bloody good kicking!

  14. Good point!

    SIR – It was impressive to see MPs all standing up to clap for President Zelensky. Sadly, this will have done about as much good for Ukrainians as our clapping did for the NHS.

    Paul Vlcek
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    1. It was impressive to see MPs all standing up to clap for President Zelensky.

      It was?

    2. There were a couple interesting comments recently about Zelensky’s sudden increase in personal wealth, apparently including a very expensive house in the USA. Just sayin’

  15. Good morning, all. A sunny start to the day. I misheard the clock and thought it was eight o’clock…

  16. SIR – At the last moment there are signs that the energy crisis might persuade the Prime Minister to reverse his decision to close down our nascent shale gas industry.

    The cementing-in of Cuadrilla’s wells at Preston New Road is an act of economic vandalism, and represents the greatest act of self-harm inflicted by politicians and civil servants on the security of this country since Denis Healey’s inexplicable destruction of the TSR2 fighter project.

    Britain will continue to be dependent on gas for the foreseeable future. As we move to greater electrification, we will require additional gas-fired base-load as well as standby capacity for interruptions in renewables output. The regulatory regime imposed on the gas industry could have been designed to ensure failure, and needs to be completely rethought.

    The Prime Minister must insist that development of shale gas is given absolute priority. Such a move would contribute massively to our energy security and our economy, not least in “levelling up” the North West.

    Patrick de Pelet
    Templecombe, Somerset

    Hear, hear! Time is running out…

  18. Why C.S. Lewis was right about war. Douglas Murray.10 march 2022.

    Well, at least Covid is over. No sooner had Vladimir Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine than the UK’s Covid advisory group Sage disbanded. The same effect was felt in the US, where the outbreak of war in Europe led to the immediate, unlamented disappearance of Dr Anthony Fauci. After two years on primetime, suddenly the good doctor was nowhere to be seen. Covid already seems so very last season.

    The ‘climate emergency’ likewise seems to have drifted away. For years, whenever the world was facing no more proximate emergency, every politician from the Scottish parliament upwards insisted that we were all doomed and heading to hellfire. Such thinking captured most developed governments and terrified a generation of young people with an insistence that we had, at various times, only a decade, a month or a minute to save ourselves.

    Yes! Odd that!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-cs-lewis-was-right-about-war

  19. SIR – I filled my wife’s car yesterday morning, and two hours later filled my own ready for a long journey at the weekend. In that short time the price per litre went up by two pence. The garage did not have a new fuel delivery.

    Surely that is pure profiteering.

    Brian Green
    Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

    Bearing in mind that we usually have about 3 weeks’ petrol and diesel in hand, the forecourts are, as usual, fleecing us. Given that fuel is such an essential item it is high time that their pricing was subject to some kind of control. In the meantime drivers should boycott the most expensive filling stations, thereby giving them the choice of either charging sensible prices or going out of business.

    1. Mr Green, you should get one of those apps that show you the real time price of petrol in your local area. I believe it is usually cheapest on Tuesdays at about 8pm, and the second cheapest time of the week is Monday evening at about 8pm. Never fill your car in the morning!

      1. ‘Morning, bb2. I have in the past used the PetrolPrices app, but they are slow to update their data and therefore of limited use in the present market.

        1. I think the Tuesday evening, Monday evening rule holds, apart from holidays, so I always try to fill up at those times. I saw the app on someone else’s phone.

    2. The price of crude oil goes up and the price at the pump goes up even before this oil is processed which may be months away – it’s these futures dealers who should be brought to account. Profiteering from all parties

    3. HJ do you really believe and trust this government to introduce any law that would actual work? They would get it wrong and it would cost us more than it will now.

      Please no more pleas for more laws we have enough already that penalise the public. We shouldn’t be giving those idiots any more ideas.

      1. So do I, but too many people are less fussy, and some also run their tank so low they have to use the nearest before they run out. And the other golden rule for me – never, ever refuel on a motorway unless you want to be a victim of highway robbery!

        1. I agree. I try always to top up before I go on a motorway if I’m returning from a long trip.

  20. Good morning from a bright and sunny Derbyshire. With 3°C in the yard, it’s still chilly if not quite frosty.

    Had a walk yesterday evening finishing up at the Kings head for a couple of pints and then back home for an early night.

  21. SIR – In 2021, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards upheld complaints of bullying by the former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.

    On Tuesday the Independent Expert Panel, chaired by a retired Appeal Court judge, rejected Mr Bercow’s appeal against that decision. However, the panel went further and described him as “repeatedly dishonest”. They accused him of “an abuse of power” and stated that, “had he still been a Member of Parliament, we would have determined that he should be expelled by resolution of the House”, adding: “he should never be permitted a pass to the Parliamentary estate”.

    This is an astonishing indictment of someone who repeatedly abused one of the most powerful positions in the land. Surely Mr Bercow’s portrait and all traces of him should be removed from the Palace of Westminster, and all precedents and procedural innovations introduced by him struck from the record.

    Robin Morello
    Brackley, Northamptonshire

    Good letter, but what about those MPs who readily sucked up to him and who kept him in office? It fell to Andrea Leadsom to take him on. The fact that his reign of bullying and his total lack of impartiality lasted an incredible 10 years tells us a great deal about the other 648 MPs who failed to act.

    1. I can’t get my head around why a short-arsed irritant with SMS (Small Man Syndrome) was allowed by so many big, hairy-arsed MPs to continue with his bullying. You’d have though someone might have given him a bit of the John “Two (Straight) Jabs” Prescott treatment to shut his gobby little smug physog!

      1. The sawn-off cuckold didn’t have the balls to confront those who could actually do him harm. I recently read that his MO appeared to be that when confronted by staff who didn’t put up with his nonsense, he simply walked – ran – away from the confrontation and had their access to Westminster revoked.
        The first those who had the temerity to treat the vacuous little shit with the respect he deserved knew about it was when they turned up for their next shift.
        That alongside the fact that there is a severe shortage of hairy-arsed MPs as they’ve been replaced with soy boys and placemen didn’t help.

        1. Talking of Short Arses do you remember John Gummer (aka Gumboil) who is now going about under the alias of Lord Deben?

          He came to present the prizes on Speech Day at the last year at Gresham’s of my elder son, Christo. As a schoolmaster I have had to hear many appalling speech day speeches but I can say without fear of successful contradiction that the speech Gumboil delivered was the very worst I have ever endured. In it he went on and on about global warming and climate change and why Britain must remain in the EU.

          After the speeches we were having tea on the lawn when Christo saw Gumboil and thought he would challenge him. Christo is bilingual and so, as Gumboil was a Europhile, he started by addressing him in French which Gumboil did not understand so Christo switched to English and castigated him for trying to indoctrinate and corrupt the minds of a young and captive audience of school children with political propaganda. So convincing was Christo’s argument that Gumboil had no option but to take flight. I have this marvellous image in my mind of Gumboil in disarray and retreat pursued by my son who, at 6’2½”, towered over the 5’4″ Gumboil.

  22. From yesterday’s DT. I hadn’t realised just how craven so many MPs were over the antics of the Poison Dwarf. Next to him Gorbals Mick was almost saintly…

    I watched MPs sucking up to John Bercow. It was embarrassing then… but it’s even worse now

    An independent report has branded him a ‘serial bully’ yet the former Speaker was practically swept out of his chair by a flood of adulation

    MICHAEL DEACON
    COLUMNIST & ASSISTANT EDITOR
    9 March 2022 • 7:00pm

    During his decade as Speaker of the Commons, says a report, John Bercow was a “serial bully”. Bercow denies it. But if it’s true, he isn’t the only one who needs to take a look in the mirror.

    An awful lot of MPs do, too. Specifically, Remainer ones.

    When Bercow announced his departure from the Commons in 2019, I watched MPs queue up to pay grovelling tribute to him. It was embarrassing enough at the time. But it seems even more so now. Especially when you go back and look at the kind of things they said.

    Remarkably, there wasn’t just one session of tributes to Bercow. There were three. The first came on September 9 2019, after he rose from the Speaker’s chair to reveal that he was leaving. MPs – or at least, those from Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP – treated him to a standing ovation that lasted more than 30 seconds.

    As it happens, applause isn’t actually allowed in the House of Commons. The Speaker would normally shut it down. But on this occasion, he graciously permitted it.

    There followed an hour and 25 minutes’ worth of slavering homage. “You have been magnificent,” whinnied Labour’s Barry Sheerman. “Your leadership of this House has been exemplary,” quivered Dominic Grieve, who had recently lost the Tory whip for refusing to vote with the Government on Brexit.

    That hour and 25 minutes, however, weren’t enough to satisfy demand. Countless more MPs were desperate to join in the acclaim. On October 30, the day before Bercow’s departure, PMQs featured so many tributes to him that it became the longest ever, at 71 minutes. It’s meant to last just 30.

    Yet even then, MPs cried for more. And so, on October 31, the Speaker generously granted them permission to pay tribute to him for a further two hours and 50 minutes.

    It was extraordinary. The man was practically swept out of his chair by a flood of adulation. I’m sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen in other lines of work. If, say, Tim from accounts quits his job, he gets a leaving card, some after-work drinks, and a brief thank you from his line manager. He doesn’t get the entire office stopping work for almost three hours in the middle of the afternoon so that his colleagues can take turns to extol his historic contribution to the processing of monthly timesheets.

    It wouldn’t have been so bad if MPs had kept it plain and factual: soberly thanked him for doing his best to keep order, and for encouraging the use of Urgent Questions. That would have been fair enough. But some tributes were toe-curlingly personal. They suggested that Bercow wasn’t just a competent Speaker but a wonderful man.

    “Thank you for being such a good human being,” gurgled Ann Clwyd (Lab, Cynon Valley). “You have touched the lives of hundreds of thousands,” cooed Seema Malhotra (Lab, Feltham & Heston). Richard Harrington (Con, Watford) revealed that his mother kept “a large photograph” of Bercow on her mantelpiece, and would “continually” ask her son: “Why can’t you be like John Bercow?”

    Admittedly these MPs did not have access to a time machine. They could not leap two and a half years into the future to read this week’s report by the Independent Expert Panel, which says Bercow displayed “threatening conduct” towards staff.

    All the same, they were well aware that allegations of bullying had been made against him – all the way back in spring 2018. We all believe in “innocent until proven guilty”. But it doesn’t mean you have to crawl and gush. Why, then, were MPs so lavishly effusive?

    In pondering this mystery, it’s hard not to recall what Labour’s Dame Margaret Beckett had said in October 2018, when an interviewer asked her whether the Speaker should go. Obviously “abuse is terrible”, she conceded. But leaving the EU was “the most difficult decision we have made… in all our lifetimes”. And that, she argued, “trumps bad behaviour”.

    As far as I can see, there’s only one way to interpret this. Which is that it was vital to keep Bercow, no matter how he’d treated his staff – because it might help Remainers to foil Brexit.

    Eventually, of course, he left, and a few months later, Brexit went ahead. But even after that, some MPs were still willing to make fools of themselves in his name. In 2020, when the Government declined to award Bercow the peerage he so coveted, Labour’s Dawn Butler claimed that this itself was “a form of bullying”.

    An intriguing definition of the term. As it happens, the Government has never awarded me a peerage, either. Nor has it awarded one to any of my family, or friends, or neighbours, or for that matter millions of other people. Perhaps the Government is bullying all of us, too.

    2. The government has been bullying all of us for years – especially the last two years.

    3. We shouldn’t forget that Bercow was put into that position by the labour party as a way of thumbing their noses at the Tories – I wonder how many regretted that

    3. 351287+ up ticks,

      Morning JN,
      Just how many times must the tory (ino)
      party member / voters be bitten, they have done more damage to GB than the blitz.

  25. 351287+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 10 March: Britain must heed the lessons of history and let in Ukrainian refugees

    Surely that idea has been well and truly vetoed by decades of mass uncontrolled immigration..

    The United Kingdoms voting pattern dictates there is no room at the inn
    unless there are those that want to see these refugees settled in the UK
    are willing to move OUT themselves.

    History tells me the electorate has painted itself into a corner.

  26. OT – to make you smile.

    Yesterday, the MR was in correspondence with a French work colleague. The lady has lived for years in England and is bilingual. Almost. When discussing a work debate, the French lady wrote: “The trouble is that the argument often falls on death ears…”

    Rather better than the original, I thought!!

  27. I wonder how many more people have been killed, and will continue to be killed on both sides, precisely because NATO and the EU have been supplying weapons than there would have been had they just kept their noses out of it.

    1. Sending diplomats, rather than weapons to bolster the plucky Uke image, would be a better strategy.

    3. The French are holding back on sending White Flags, just incase they need them

    1. It’s a good programme – and shame on the BBC that they aren’t producing programmes of this calibre. Nowhere in the arguments comes the loss of good farming land for food production though…
      Edit: apologies, it is mentioned later, at about 11 minutes.

      Thank you for the link ogga, this man is new to me, but he’s very good! Exactly the kind of stuff I used to enjoy before the BBC became terminally screechy and woke.

      1. If Biased BC management had previewed it, the Ukainian Version of PaddingtonBear would have been shewn

        1. They would certainly not have let a white, middle aged man talk about “my England.”
          We all know that England only belongs to the ethnic minorities, or at a pinch, the LBGTQWERTYs.

  30. A Ponder Point

    Symptoms

    We are a country that has ‘huge’ reserves of Coal, Oil and Gas, but none of these can be used for our benefit, so we import all these products.

    The only electricity that we are allowed to procure is Green ie Wind or Solar, with perhaps a bit of Hydro thrown in: we import the rest

    Denmark is next on the list, to give sell us electricity, via the Viking Link*

    Lots of our imports come from countries, that we are very close to going to war with, ie Russia

    In WWII, we thought having our prime fuel , Coal, so important that conscription for miners,The Bevin Boys **, was on a par with National Service, from Decenber 1945, ’til March 1948

    Defect

    Now, we come to the problem

    NET ZERO

    We are notionally a Constitutional Monarchy*** but over the Greening of UK, Johnson has been acting as an omipotent dictattor, a bit like Mr Putin really.

    The main task of any politician (I am now going to be stupid) is to do the best that they can for their constituents and their country.

    Johnson is trying to make the world Green, when our input into its’ demise is less that 1%. Realistacally, all the things that we needed before he started on this ‘Holy Grail, we still need and mostly get. They are imported, which means the roughlly the same amount of energy will be needed to produce them, but by some other country, with them having employmen energy usage and of course, ships use fuel, an added ecological cost to us getting the stuff

    Johnson MUST scrap/scale down NET ZERO and cut the influx of Doveristas, or he will have been responsible for the extinction of UK

    We must have a Commons debate,referendum on NET ZERO, before it is too late.

    We need to save our country, from the Alphabet Soup People COP, WEF, EU etc

    We need demonstrations:or a revolution

    London has become the private fiedomof Mad Sad Dick Kant, Scotland want to cede from UK, Wales well………

    We need to revert to a democratic system of Government wherby they listen to the people.

    Any sanctions etc Must be imposed on Cabinet Members first, not the public: Look at Covid and Care Homes

    End of Rant, sorry if it is disjointed

    * https://viking-link.com/

    ** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevin_Boys

    *** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_the_United_Kingdom

    1. It has finally hit home with the farming community that one of the biggest fertliizer producers, Russia, employs natural gas both as a component and energy source for the production of Urea, a critical component of fertilizers.
      The farming community has had a rethink on net-zero targets as they see forthcoming imminent drops in wheat output.

    2. Morning OLT and Nottlers.

      HMG is beyond stupid. Your “rant” is spot on. I’m pretty sure that any and all thinking people are utterly dismayed at the government stance on energy, the lack of. It is hard to understand any country, with its own supply of energy available, going to concrete over shale gas holes, closing down coal mines and denying permission for further drilling in the North Sea. It beggars belief. Question is what can the public do about it?

  31. Liz Truss says Putin must fail as she vows ‘we must never let down our guard again’. 10 March 2022.

    The Foreign Secretary said “since the end of the Cold War we took our eye off the ball” and “we must never let down our guard again”.

    Our eye? Our guard? I don’t remember agreeing to that!

    Liz Truss vows ‘we must never let down our guard’ after Ukraine war | Evening Standard

      1. Boris should be an example of the fact that adulterers cannot be trusted if they are prepared to betray those to whom have promised to be faithful and true.

        Adultera Truss – who, as a young woman, betrayed her husband and children with Mark Field, a more senior politician than she was at the time, in order to advance her career is not a person whom we should trust.

        1. Marital fidelity in a politician is a delicate situation – I would not rule out that an unfaithful spouse could still be a statesman.

          However, no such uncertainty attaches to an affair with the oleaginous Mr Field (I came across him at university).

          1. I don’t give a damn about the sexual shenanigans of a politician, married or not. There have been many great politicians and military leaders that have been promiscuous. What I care about is if they do their job properly and with distinction. Politics is no field for prudes.

          2. Yes and no. Boris’s record should have told everyone what he is like.
            Having an affair with Mark Field is evidence of such appallingly poor judgement that Truss should be automatically banned from any office in my opinion.
            Every case is different. Arguably it’s worse betraying small children.
            On the other hand, the uxorious Mr Cameron was completely untrustworthy, or rather could be trusted to betray the common man at every turn.

          3. “Uxorious Adam”

            In Paradise Lost Milton puts down Man’s Fall to Adam’s uxoriousness.

            Adam knew full well that he should not eat the fruit of the forbidden tree which Eve had already eaten. Eve, of course, had succumbed to the Serpent’s publicity campaign and she tried to use the same advertising techniques to get Adam to join her because even though she knew that she was going to die as a result of eating the fruit she did not want to die alone while Adam found another Eve with whom to frolic in Eden.

            Of course Milton was a known misogynist so he claimed that Eve’s motives were entirely selfish while Adam, though weak and uxorious, knew what he was doing and that eating the fruit meant death. But he loved Eve so much that he could not bear the thought of her dying without him beside her.

          4. Gosh, that is the most misogynistic interpretation possible! One of the advantages of feminism is that we don’t have to see opinions like that in mainstream culture any more – whereas of course men now have to put up with them – so there is no overall improvment!! 🙁

          5. John Milton is very provocative for the modern reader which is why it was such fun teaching Paradise Lost Book IX to a Sixth Form with boys and girls in the class!

            As I mentioned the other day, when we were studying it I took my guitar into class and sang this song which always went down well.

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

          6. When I was five and started at primary school, the first hymn we sang and I learned (how easily one soaks things up at that age!) was Let us with a gladsome mind, Praise the Lord for he is kind.
            How privileged we were to learn Milton’s words at five years old.

          7. I wonder how long it will be before the general view that an adulterous woman is worse than an adulterous man changes?

            I suppose the fact that romantically women have been portrayed as pure and faithful while men are morally inferior and so therefore one is more prepared to turn a blind eye to their scurrilous behaviour?

            When our boys were little I watched The Lion King cartoon film with them. The scurvy Lion King’s brother, Scar, had it right when he said:

            Life isn’t fair, is it?

          8. The success of a society is directly proportional to the chastity of its women.
            I forget where I read that, but there is some truth in it, I think.

            An adulterous woman places an extra economic burden on her family unit. An adulterous man exports the problem to another family unit.

            The government may have tried to destroy these rules, but they are baked into people’s DNA, so it will be a very long time before perceptions change, and if perceptions are dependent on the Child Support Agency, that will be Never.

          9. The point is that it has ever been thus and if we were to act by moral criteria our history would be a mess. The idea that there was ever an age of probity is a myth, a glossing over of reality.

            “A short history of the sex lives of Britain’s Prime Ministers”
            https://salisburyreview.com/a-short-history-of-the-sex-lives-of-britains-prime-ministers/

            One hardly has to go into the lives of the Kings of England. It is easier to compile a list of those who have not had mistresses because such a list would be very short indeed. And I actually don’t agree that life is unfair. You are, as it were dealt cards and it is up to you what to make with them.

          10. Apparently Prince Charles said to the Princess of Wales: “The Princes of Wales have always had mistresses so why shouldn’t I have one?”

            Ironically the Princess of Wales had numerous affairs – apparently she ‘strayed’ first but she was forgiven by her adoring fans while Charles’s solitary marital infidelity has still not been forgiven by some people.

          11. Quite so and the sad thing is that by many accounts Charles was forced into that marriage by his father. For Charles, it was Camilla from the start.

          12. Those who love their spouses and were able to choose them without being constrained are indeed fortunate. (I have now enjoyed 34 years of unadulterated wedded bliss!)

    2. We are the ones that turned NATO into a hostile force when it is supposed to be for peacekeeping and safe guarding people from war. So what precisely does she mean be “taking our eye off the ball”. We have behaved toward Russia as if it were the enemy and just a continuation of the USSR. All to serve our own limited interests. Don’t forget NATO has nothing to do with the rest of the world , it is an exclusive club just for America and Western Europe. All the rest stand on the side lines either having to kowtow or be bombed, so it seems.

    1. “Our” donation of 3400 anti-tank missiles announced yesterday will do so much to keep this war going. 🙁

      1. Yo bb2

        And when things escalate, MOD Procurers will be trying to re-arm us from EBay

      2. I wonder if anyone is calculating the cost to the UK taxpayer. The increases in the cost of electricity, gas, vehicle fuel, and food prices as well as the cost of the weapons that we are sending. To which must be added the bill for “humanitarian” aid and the cost of supporting thousands of “refugees” and their descendants forever?

        1. Of course they are – they want to bring about a crisis that will result in more controls. All the pro-Ukraine propaganda is only to get people’s support for sanctions that will cripple OUR countries.

          What is on the cards now?
          – Mass unemployment to be “solved” with a universal income
          – Petrol rationing
          – Meat rationing – because pigs and chickes are fed on wheat.

          The weather is not cooperating with hot summers, and covid let them down with the omicron variant that didn’t kill anyone – so they’ve got to manufacture a new crisis as cover for the fascist takeover.

    2. Entirely agree with the observation that there is a remnant of racism in all this. No one was particularly outraged when hospitals and homes were reduced to rubble in Yemen or in Syria.

          1. Indeed he was. For some of his worst “crimes” his hands were tied and he had to fulfil directives. He never got the peerage that his contributions to the war effort deserved. What people forget now is that at the time Bomber Command was the only way to hit at the enemy.

  34. The Ukraine has existed as separate country for less than half the length of time that the Eurovision Song Contest has been going. Would we go to war in support of the Eurovision Song Contest?

    2. “In that case, Miss, my cheque will be in the post. I’ll still take my goods that I’ve purchased in good faith. Good day to you.”

    1. Plenty of black female composers (of dross) to choose from. Just tune in to BBC Radio 3. Any day – any hour.

  37. Good morning, my friends

    Roman Abramovich sanctioned by Government in hit on Russian oligarchs
    The Chelsea owner will be prevented from doing any business with UK companies or individuals and faces a travel ban
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/10/roman-abramovich-sanctions-chelsea-assets-russia-oligarchs/

    The chickens are coming home to roost in the case of many of the Russian oligarchs but what is very repulsive is the way the politicians, the media and many of the public are turning on ordinary Russian people as well as turning on the rich literary, musical and artistic heritage of Russia. They have even banned Russian dogs and cats from entering shows like Crufts! It is reminiscent of the way that the Jews were picked on in 1930s Germany which of course led to the holocaust during WW2.

    While Putin is rightly vilified and condemned we must not forget that before the current conflict Ukraine had a very bad reputation for corruption and many prominent Americans were involved in this and were also responsible for the development of certain dangerous chemical and biological plants not dissimilar to the one in Wuhan which was significantly funded by the US.

    BTL

    We all know that many of the Russian oligarchs made their money out of corruption and robbing the Russian state blind after the fall of the USSR.

    Our sympathies are of course, with The Ukrainians in the brutal and cruel war inflicted upon them by Putin but we must not forget that before the Ukrainians became heroes and victims there was a vast amount of corruption in Ukraine and many prominent American politicians – notably the Clintons, the Bidens and even the saintly Obama – had their sticky fingers in the Ukraine.

    2. Its as if the conflict started on Thur. 24th February.Those who have been following the Ukraine debacle since the 2014 coup know better.

      1. Indeed. It started in 2013 and at the first act of the illegal regime that seized power was to remove Russian as a language as a valid language in Ukraine and thus alienate 30% of Ukrainians for whom it is their first language. But 80 to 90% of Ukrainians understand and speak it. They legislated that those who spoke Russian as a first language could continue to be educated in Russian and promptly broke that promise too, their promises were not worth the paper they were printed on. It is pretty obvious to those who study the origin of this conflict that the Ukrainians are the culprit motivated by an irrational hatred of Russia. It is a political Oedipus complex on the part of Ukraine against its father, Russia.

    3. You like to ignore the etiology of this crisis. If you did enquire with more rigor, I sincerely doubt that you would be half as sympathetic to the Ukrainians as you are. That we are going after Russians as if they were “Jews” might, to a thinking person, give pause for thought about the people who went after the Jews and why we are emulating them with regards to Russians, rich or poor.

      1. I would agree with you that it is unwise to simplify the matter and ignore the causes leading to Putin’s invasion of The Ukraine. I do not doubt that the US has been very provocative and has goaded Putin beyond reason and the desire expressed by many politicians in the West for some years that the Ukraine should join NATO flew in the face of what the Russians thought had been agreed at the time of the fall of the USSR.

        As in most cases both in Europe and elsewhere it is the people who suffer the consequences of the politicians’ decisions and actions. I sympathise with both the Russian and the Ukrainian people and not their leaders. Indeed, there are stories (fake news or true?) that Zelensky is not as free from corrupt money dealing as one would hope.

        1. Common ground! I entirely agree with your second paragraph. There is no doubt that Zelenskyy is corrupt. An actor who is a billionaire???

          1. I believe there is no proof that he is a billionaire – it is just speculation. However, I do believe that he is probably as corrupt as the day is long, because nobody who is in bed with the likes of Bidens, Pelosis and Kerrys could be anything else.

  39. A “review” of a biography of a “young lady” (BTL comments are better):

    Last month, which now seems like an eternity ago, gossipy snippets from Lord Ashcroft’s incendiary new book emerged. First Lady: Inside the Court of Carrie and Boris Johnson sounded like the sort of bombshell that could do for Boris Johnson and his scheming Machiavellian spouse.

    But now real bombs are raining down on Ukraine. Children and women and old men are literally being blown apart. And it’s shamingly frivolous to be leafing through a hotchpotch of “anonymous sources” slagging off useless Carrie or (less often) praising really-rather-sweet Carrie, while her husband is standing shoulder to shoulder with world leaders facing down a madman hellbent on slaughtering innocents and destroying democracy.

    Anyhow, here goes. When I first read excerpts way back when, I took it to be a misogynist hatchet job. I said so in print and an unhappy Lord Ashcroft immediately wrote to this paper complaining I was ill-informed – because he had interviewed “a great many” women in the course of research.

    Right I’ve read it cover to cover now and *spoiler alert* can vouch for the fact that not only was my view correct, but I was absolutely furious before I had even finished the introduction. Why? Because Ashcroft refers to Carrie Johnson as a “young lady”, but without the inverted commas. She was 31 at the time.

    Now, if you don’t know why that’s a problem then you are either probably part of the problem or a 76-year-old billionaire and former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

    I’m no advocate of cancel culture but these two little words pretty much sum up the writer’s antediluvian mindset. There are other clues. Do any of us really care that aged 12 or 13 “after their Christmas lunch, the two girls [one of them being Carrie] disappeared to a nearby churchyard to drink bottles of an alcopop called WKD. On the way back to Florence’s house, no doubt spurred on by a small amount of liquor, ‘they played a game that involved flashing every man over 50 who was walking down the street.’”

    Yuck. God no, Michael! Seriously, leave that anecdote out. You can (maybe) keep the one about student Carrie, whose idea of supermarket shopping for household “essentials” once involved her buying nothing more than “300 ice lollies and six bottles of £80 champagne”. But it’s nobody’s business that she had her first kiss at 16.

    Then there’s her ex, who cheerfully reveals that Carrie was a handful with quite the temper. “I remember when we went to Kenya she cried because her hair straighteners didn’t work. We were on safari and going to the beach for two weeks. And she had a big strop in Paris once because I wasn’t enjoying myself. I don’t much like the place.” Industry standard, son. I might have set fire to the bed.

    The general upshot is that Carrie is an uppity careerist who “wanted to be noticed” and was regarded as “flirtatious” rather than a strategic thinker who had the temerity to attend men’s finals at Wimbledon when she should have been at home worrying about the Tory leadership contest, the witch! She also once stood too close to a male colleague. Whore! And her husband is frightened of her. Bless!

    Oh and she’s the malign puppet mistress who’s been working Boris’s strings this entire time, in which case Lord A must be terribly impressed by her current statecraft in the Ukraine crisis.

    That’s the thing: you can’t castigate a wife for her husband’s bad decisions and then withhold credit for his good ones. That wouldn’t be at all fair on the young lady, would it?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/first-lady-michael-ashcroft-review-new-biography-carrie-johnson/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Might be a better review if the reviewer wasn’t so obviously blinded by prejudice.

    2. Top BTL comments:

      Gary Halstead
      2 DAYS AGO
      If anything, Lord A. has been quite restrained in his book whilst still putting the truth of this wretch out there.
      Carrie Antoinette and her woke, ecoloon clique are ruining the country.
      The sooner she and her familiar, the Puppet PM, Boris, are removed from Downing Street the better.

      6 REPLIES
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      4
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      AH

      Andrew Hotston
      2 DAYS AGO
      Which “good decisions” of Boris’s does Lord Ashcrift ignore, Judith?
      And how do YOU explain how we voted Conservative but ended up with a Green/Blue Labour government?

      13 REPLIES
      275
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      MH

      Mark Hansford
      1 DAY AGO
      Reply to Andrew Hotston
      the only way to enforce manifesto pledges with the public is to check the public’s response when the pledge is dealt with in isolation – relatively cheap if honestly applied. What is entirely wrong is to enforce a pledge that almost certainly piggybacked another pledge or circumstance that greatly outweighed that same pledge.
      This is the case with 2050 net zero, not exactly topping the poll at the time was it? But even then to turn the screws knowing that this was a piggybacked agenda and making it a 2030 pledge which is impractical, extreme and unaffordable is totally unforgiveable. Boris never before his latest infatuation ever even considered this absurd burden on the UK population, so it seems more than coincidence that his sudden swing to eco-loon policy coincides with his relationship with Carrie and her rise to power within No10. Dont blame Lord Ashcroft he sees the same problem. A popular political figure has proved himself very weak and easily influenced, these green policies are against his beliefs in personal freedoms. For this 180 degree turn he needs to make way for someone with better resolve and less personal political advancement in mind. Boris you are one huge disappointment

      10
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      JB

      Julie Bower
      2 DAYS AGO
      It is not misogynistic to state the obvious. A young lady of at best average intellect, no experience beyond a social diary and penchant for partying, hits on an ageing, overweight manchild en route to the top job. Said man has many skeletons in the cupboard, but thinks he remains invincible, and falls for one of the oldest tricks in the book. The rest of us will have to pick up the pieces of this wholly inappropriate relationship. EDITED

      3 REPLIES
      272

      1. As usual, the commenters nail it far better than the establishment puppets producing the legacy media.

    3. ” “300 ice lollies and six bottles of £80 champagne”. But it’s nobody’s business that she had her first kiss at 16.

      Then there’s her ex, who cheerfully reveals that Carrie was a handful with quite the temper. “I remember when we went to Kenya she cried because her hair straighteners didn’t work.”

      All of which goes to show she would have no problem with net zero because she has always had the money to be decadently self indulgent and frivolous. I doubt the wretched woman has actually paid an energy bill in her life. It has all been done for her and, yes, for a person like that, money does grow on trees or at least magically appears from someone’s pocket.

    4. As Bercow has illustrated – just because you are little it doesn’t mean you are nice.

    1. Great reply!
      I seem to remember that Magna Carta expressly forbade the persecution of individuals by the Crown…how far we have travelled from that….

      Today it’s rich Russians, tomorrow they will get round to their other enemies, you know, those wicked vaxx refuseniks and climate sceptics.

    1. Is that that prize Pr!ck at it again. These people are European let Europe look after them, they started all this.
      As if the average Brit has any spare cash.

    1. Morning Geoff and all!

      Perfect – love it! Duly shared on Twatter. Not sure the FB crowd (aside from fellow Nottlers) would understand.

  45. Back from the market. Busy. Gorgeous day. 11ºC already. At Morrisons there is an ace cashier. Fast, accurate etc etc. We always try to join her queue. She looks in her mid-60s. She told us it is her birthday today. 81…!!!

  46. Forget the war. I have a serious announcement to make.

    I know there are a few sci-fi fans on here…so…. Star Trek Picard season 2 has launched.

    Also. There is a new spin off series following on from Star Trek Discovery. A prequel to the original series launching in early May 2022.

    Live long and prosper.

      2. I saw him in a play at the Chi Festival Theatre. He was playing Shakespeare at the end of his life. I was no more than 3 feet away from the actors. The play was called Bingo for some reason.

        1. He’s a sort of thespian Lineker… Always there with a trite (and incorrect) tweet.

          1. It’s common in that profession. McCarthy was right.
            I am not interested in their personal opinions.

          2. That’s why I’ve given up the ‘pleasure’ of watching anything with Cumberbund Cabbagepatch appearing in it. His mum was a looker though.

        2. Well Phizzee I’m not referring to the actor but the character. How old would he be in the Star Trek series? I mean he was already late middle age when he appeared. How long ago would that have been? Actually in the star Trek series, does it give the life span of people in that future time period?

          1. Not sure. But the assumption is that life expectancy has increased dramatically. He does look old/his age in this series.

        3. He was my stage-father over 50 years ago, although his character was dead by the time mine came on. We called him “The Man with the Dog” because for some reason he had to have a dog in ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ and had to walk the creature every day.

        4. Bingo Little was a friend of Bertie Wooster. Always falling in love, just like Shakespeare.

    3. Star Trek has been going almost as long as I have. What’s left to say? It’s as dull as fcuk.

      2. While you’re on the subject of books.
        I have been trying to find an authauthoritative book about Tibet and Buddhism, its history, teachings etc; sorry I know this is off topic but further to our previous conversation, I gave up looking for one and thought I would ask.

          2. Back! OK Andrew for an overall look at Tibetan Buddhism I would suggest: Essential Tibetan Buddhism by Robert A.F. Thurman, Uma Thurman’s dad. He is regarded as an authoritative author by the Tibetans. There is a problem. My brother told me, and it is a generally held view by Tibetan teachers that understand English, that very few Westerners understand Buddhism, never mind Tibetan Buddhism, well enough to actually put you on the right path, as it were so it is best to avoid Western authors other than a handful. But, fortunately we now have many Tibetans who are fluent in English and thus write from the traditional point of view not the point of view of Westerners who think they know, of which there are many. So I would start with Roberts book and from there decide what it is you want to explore.
            Then it depends on what you want to explore. In the context of what we were talking about the other day I would recommend this. As a starting point. Mind and Life Institute https://www.mindandlife.org/ This is a collaboration between Buddhists and scientists that is sponsored by the Dalai Lama, amongst others. So it is 100% kosher!

            There are 4 great schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug. The Nyingma are regarded as the real technicians, if we can put it that way, of consciousness and its potential. So if you want to go that way. The greatest teacher of them all was Dilgo Khyentse who died in 1991 He is known as ‘Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche The Great’ such is the esteem in which he was held in by the Tibetans. He was a teacher of almost all the teachers of our time, including the current Dalai Lama. Khyentse Rimpoche was head of the Nyingma school but being the teacher of the current Dalai Lama who is a Gelugpa indicated that although the schools of Tibetan Buddhism are often described as “sects” in the West, they are nothing of the sort. What it is is that each school specializes in certain teachings and acts as custodians of those teachings. So a person will have teachers from one or more schools depending on their interest. So anyway, anything by Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche is worth reading.

            There is also another teacher and a particular book of his that I should mention, in fact, highly recommend. The teacher is Trungpa Rinpoche and the book is called: “Cutting through Spiritual Materialism.” Trungpa is notorious and there is a lot of controversy surrounding him. Don’t take any notice. This is, again, because Westerners did not understand what he was up to. He was a master of Vajrayana (Tantra) and they can be pretty weird people. I knew him quite well and in person, the man was, well I can’t really describe. An overwhelming presence, an amazing intellect and a master of the first order. I actually watched him once, to make a point, down a bottle of vodka, a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of sherry over an hour in front of a couple of 100 people. giggling and cracking jokes all the while and causing a great deal of bewilderment on the part of most of the audience, then give a very complex lecture on Buddhist psychology the topic being the transformation of poison into the elixir of Enlightenment! Which he was demonstrating right there and then in a way that made it clear that he knew exactly what he was talking about. He was, without a doubt, the most extraordinary man I have ever met in my life.
            So Robert Thurman
            Trungpa Rimpoche
            Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoches books
            and explore the Mind and Life Institute. I assume some of the lectures from there are on You Tube

          3. Thank you so much, I was finding it difficult sorting the wheat from the chaff when it came to looking for a less western biased view of their thoughts about Buddhism.

            I was moved by the video you gave me a link for, he was my first real introduction to Buddhist thought and philosophy.

          4. As I said, I met Thich Nhat Hanh. He was a bit to calm for me. In contrast the Tibetans are living dynamos, for want of an expression. I don’t mean that they are not calm, they are, but they have a far more energetic quality to them. Not so ethereal. I don’t know if that is a fair expression, it probably isn’t but I can’t think of another more appropriate. Still, it is a great pity he has died.

            If you want to know anything else about Buddhism please feel free to ask, I think I have a pretty good grasp because none of the people I learnt from were Westerners. I can’t count my brother as a Westerner because he went native long ago. He was born in 1950 and became a monk at 19. But there is another Westerner you might find interesting and that is Matthieu Ricard who is another that went native and is a translator for the Dalai Lama, so he is Gelugpa, my brother is Nyingma. I hope I survive another 7 years or so, to see my brother again. I am vulgarly interested to see how he turns out after such a long retreat. He is doing 3 three years, three months and 3 day retreats consecutively. He better damn well be able to levitate or I will want to know the reason why 😁You can also look up the three year retreat and see what it consists of. It’s interesting stuff.

            Matthieu Ricard
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthieu_Ricard

          5. If you don’t see him in this, maybe next time round, unless he’s finished the cycle of life.
            I will investigate all the info you’ve provided and thanks for taking the time and trouble answering me.

          8. A very moving experience and let us hope he has peace from the continued struggles of life.
            Thank you for this as I had not seen it before.

          9. I came across it last night and thought of you because you had mentioned him a couple of days ago.

    1. According to RT they have proof that these biolabs exist. That was what they claimed last night. Haven’t watched today.

      And, by the way. They also showed footage of people trying to leave Mariupol. They were being threatened as traitors by Ukrainian troops and photographed. Being told that they should stay and starve if need be and being told that, with the photographs that were being taken of them, they would be hunted down when the time came and shot as traitors. The result. Not a single bus left Mariupol. People were to afraid to get on the buses.

      1. Why should anyone want to leave Mariupol? By all accounts, it’s a lovely peaceful place, especially since they’ve cleared out the Azov Batallion military base. Everything in order now.

        Perfect to get over the winter gloom and enjoy a Black Sea holiday.

        I have a biolab in my fridge. I did find that mushroom that fell out of its tray before Christmas. It was a bit slimy, but I’m sure it kills 99% of all known pathogens. Remind me to send some to Putin.

      2. Do you have a link to that footage?
        Scott Ritter said the same thing in his analysis – basically that the Asovs are surrounded by a much bigger Russian force, so they will be fighting to the death and they aren’t letting civilians out.

        Quite cynically, it is entirely in Russia’s interests to get the civilians out, therefore I find this believable.

        1. You just have to go on Russia Today (RT News) You Tube but you need a VPN. As for your last sentence. Exactly. It is also why I think the story of the hospital being bombed by the Russians highly dubious, right out of the Palestinian Handbook for propaganda!

      3. There was quite a lot about this on GB News last night.

        There were so many technical hitches on the Mark Stein Show last night that I was convinced that there were saboteurs at work within the organisation.

    2. It’s like Covid and Brexit.

      Once they have decided which side you must support you will be vilified for any points you make which question the acceptable narrative.

      Is it indeed possible to say that you condemn Putin’s actions completely but you also think that the West bears some blame for its provocation?

  49. Good morning, These are the words Of Yuval Noah Harari, top associate ot Klaus Scwab, to the WEF. I give them unadorned.

    “They might enable human elites to do something even more radical than just build digital dictatorships by hacking organisms. Elites may gain the power to arrange a near the future of life itself because once you can hack something you can usually also engineer it only tacking organisms and reengineering life itself.

    In the past many tyrants and governments wanted to do it but nobody understood biology well enough and nobody had enough computing power and data to hack millions of people. Neither the Gestapo nor the KGB could do it, but soon at least some corporations and governments will be able to systematically hack all the people. And if indeed we succeed in hacking and engineering life this will be not just the greatest revolution in the history of humanity, this will be the greatest revolution in biology since the very beginning of life 4 billion years ago.

    For 4 billion years nothing fundamental changed. Science is replacing evolution by natural selection with evolution by intelligent design. Not the intelligent design of some God above the clouds but our intelligent design and the intelligent design of our clouds. The IBM cloud, the Microsoft cloud, these are the new driving forces of evolution. Today we have the technology to hack human beings on a massive scale.

    Also you could implement it in this time of crisis – you have to follow science. It’s often said that you should never allow a good crisis to go to waste. Surveillance people could look back in 100 years and identify the corona virus epidemic as the moment when a new regime of surveillance took over especially surveillance under the skin. My brain, my body, my life doesn’t belong to me or to some corporation orto the government but perhaps to the human collective. “

    1. I suppose from what he says that he does not believe in God. I do not believe in evolution, in much the same way.

      1. The text doesn’t show his gesture of contempt and the tone of voice in which he referred to God.

      2. As the prophet Isaiah pointed out, the clay cannot dictate to the potter. In this case the clay is vain and pompous and imagines the potter doesn’t exist but the potter will have the last laugh. Soulless automata will just die.

    2. Again there is nothing in that which implies he approves. He is simply describing the facts of the matter that modern technology allows to be done that the Communists and Nazis of old could not do. That you don’t like the facts hardly means that you should shoot the messenger. Elon Musk says much the same thing because it is true, because it is the consequence of modern technology. And again. Reading his own words does not indicate that he approves of this totalitarian, or whatever you want to call it, path at all. I would question why you avoid reading what Harari says in totality and out of his own mouth and thus, not taken out of context.

      1. If anything, if one reads his books, he is warning against it. That’s certainly how I read it in the two I’ve finished.

        1. From what little I have read of his, I would agree with you. Jonathan’s posts about the man have the whiff of conspiracy theory to me. It is always suspicious when no references are given if outrageous claims about someone are not given.

          1. I’ve seen videos of the lecture at the WEF and I can understand how the words and lecture style could be misinterpreted.
            Taken in isolation, and viewing it as part of a grand conspiracy, I could also see how the story could fly.

      2. And P.S. In reading his biography, no where does it say anything like:” …top associate of Klaus Scwab…” It says nothing at all about Scwab (sic) . But it does say he has given a lecture at the WEF. But he has also given lectures and talks to dozens of other organizations.

      3. I wonder if are you a WEF enthusiast. There is quite enough context there for the rational mind, I believe. But if the last two years have taught us all anything it is that the ability of people to make like an ostrich is almost unlimited. If you have ever watched a psychopath in breakdown it is a shocking experience – akin to seeing a really well dressed chap in a city suit walking along, and suddenly spotting faeces comming from the bottom of his trousers. I get the same sensation from seeing this man talk. You clearly don’t.

        1. Well, frankly, I don’t know what WEF is so I guess I can’t be an enthusiast. I simply think for myself, have interests in psychology, religion, science in general, the future and many, many other things about where we are heading, the world is a source of wonder and infinite curiosity. I have always admired polymaths and although I can’t claim to be one, I certainly do my best and that requires from me, open and free inquiry. There is meaning in the way that humanity is heading and you can either be afraid of it and view it negatively, or you can view it positively and not be afraid. I choose the latter because fear is a closing down of options whereas positivity is an opening up to options. Put simply, I have learnt to see all things in a positive light and try, as such, to make the best of things> live in a world of wonder if we want to see it. This, to me, is how you live a full and rich life. Not by nervously jumping at the shadows and, I also believe, that it is how, in the end, you see God.

          1. Johnathan, I am glad to be able to say that I agree with those words 100%, and that that is the view I take too. We differ I suspect only on the assessment of what is happening just now, for what we face is not a shadow. Evil is a reality and it is currently, rampantly, on the march. I do not believe it will succeed, but I do not believe we should ignore it, or mistake it for something else. I share your optimism, and believe that the result of all this has already created a great shift of awareness.

          2. Thanks Jonathan. I think we shape our future through our attitude to life. It is a matter of choice. Cultivating positive emotions is not optimism, it is to live optimally, so without blindness.

  50. For instance. You live in a street of terraced houses. You note the one-sided views of the debacle in Eastern Europe. You sympathise with the Russians striking back at the bullies after 8 years of torment and murder.
    You place a Russian flag in your front window. How long before your windows are broken?

  51. Putting Putin on trial is not a good idea. 10 March 2022.

    Calls for legal intervention in the war have been widespread. In the UK, prime minister Boris Johnson, when pressing the ICC to investigate, said Vladimir Putin ‘cannot commit these horrific acts with impunity’. Labour leader Keir Starmer has called for a Nuremberg-style tribunal to prosecute Putin for the invasion.

    Last Friday, the Metropolitan Police even announced that they would be involved in gathering evidence about alleged war crimes in Ukraine (although given their recent track record in tackling burglary and rape, this probably won’t worry Putin too much).

    You have to gawp at this staggering hypocrisy. Both Blair and Cameron have committed war crimes of such monstrous proportions that they make Putin look like John the Baptist. Without even mentioning Syria, probably the worst of all, we would still have Iraq and Libya, both utterly destroyed as functioning states with death tolls in the tens of thousands.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/03/09/putting-putin-on-trial-is-not-a-good-idea/

    1. 351287+ up ticks,

      Afternoon AS,
      Lest we forget, rotherham, rochdale, sheffield,mass rape & abuse via paedophiles, imported by the lab/lib/ con coalition still supported by the electorate and a majority
      vote.

  52. New £250m ‘jewel in the crown’ national flagship to be unveiled ahead of Platinum Jubilee

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/10/new-250m-jewel-crown-national-flagship-unveiled-ahead-platinum/

    The plans for the new yacht do not look as if she will be a patch on the beautiful Britannia which the Repulsive Blair stole from the Queen.

    And at the age of 95 the Queen will not have the time or the nimbleness of limb to enjoy her and catch up with those years of which Blair robbed her and her family.

    I remember often seeing this magnificent yacht in the Solent and in Cornwall.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/caa01dc7fdb29885b9a21c030e4f8d120641581ddfa04cde15c4ac96edcbdc40.jpg

    1. I have been so lucky to have attended 2 Fleet Reviews on board warships , the first one was when we still had a largish RN , and the second review was when the fleet became a little thinner .
      Both very memorable occasions.

        2. My best man, an RN officer, used to live at Alverstoke.

          When I was doing my PGCE at Southampton University in the early 1970s I used to go over there quite frequently.

    2. WE stood and watched HRH and him in doors arrive from the Britannia at Glenelg jetty in south Australia. She did wave back….in fact both of them did. 😁

    3. They should not rush to build it. There will be a “Police Auction” coming up soon. There will be any number of fancy yachts coming up for sale. The Russian oligarchs who commissioned them spared no expense.

    4. Cannot they just confiscate some Russian yacht and rename it Britannia? Just a couple of days needed and grabbing oligarchs stuff seems to be all the rage nowadays.

      Not that HM would be likely to approve of the gaudy excesses in these machines, but Andy might.

        1. Unfortunately you can’t demand it. If I became ill with Covid that is what I would want, not the vaccine.

  56. Well, well. We watched a new “comedy”* on the telly about witchfinders.

    I never knew that in the 17th century, English villages had 50% bames. Gosh – the things we were NOT taught at school, eh?

    * Unfunny.

    1. God, it was mostly awful. I think I laughed about three times in total.

    2. Nobody took a bath in thse days, Bill. It was grubby bodies you saw on the telly.

      2. When the Portuguese first arrived in Japan about 1543/4 the Japanese were shocked at how bad they smelt. So maybe you’re right 🙄

        1. I recall being taught how Queen Elisabeth 1 never had a bath, except in perfume. Seems unlikely, but hey, what do I know?

          1. In Elizabethan times, baths were only taken as medicinal treatment. It is said that Liz 1 took a bath once a year, “whether she need it or no”.

    3. These days comedy – so-called – is well down the pecking order. Wokery is invariably at the top of the list now, and is distinctly unfunny in most cases.

  57. WW3 here we come.
    Harris has been speaking. Polish President standing to her left as she tells of solidarity with Poland and how they will be supplied with weapons systems and how with NATO an attack on one is an attack on all.

    Talk about playing with fire.

    If you have a God I suggest you start praying.
    Hard.

  59. Some of you may remember the report of the Herefordshire farmer who ‘wrecked’ the River Lugg near the village of Kingsland. He claimed to have authority to do the work in order to reduce the risk of flooding. More than a year on he is due to appear in court to face charges over the matter

    Here are before and after pictures from 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0cf43fd3a02b9d0968727b2c59d1331e20470ec43b57df58150be124b6009f1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fca77e6e51dada6c5e91c1ca6ed2532ebb7ffc0014ecb8d0c940f4d33f631825.jpg

    Helen Stace, chief executive of the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust said: “We will be calling for the restoration of the river to its natural channel.” Well, nature takes its own course. Here are aerial views of the site before and after, the latter more recent than that above. The gravel beds are reappearing and vegetation is returning to the bank. Perhaps Ms Stace could be persuaded that sending the diggers in again is not the answer. Planting some trees along the bank seems a wiser option.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ade08239acd60be9415a70ccdb53bae0918a8c23d5ed3147417867c5e8a4be9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17d9d382301a660dcef5ba509b813d35a3d8e36ea15d378afd5f6584d1f96efe.jpg

    https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/19981610.river-lugg-know-herefordshire-farmer-due-court/
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/09/landowner-facing-legal-action-over-decimation-of-herefordshire-river

    1. I do wish he hadn’t ruined it, but equally the environment agency should have done the right thing and dredged the river to prevent the flooding in the first place.

    1. Apparently Biden is now talking to Venezuela about loosening sanctions so that the US can import some of their oil.

      I the meantime, Canadian oil companies are sitting on spare capacity and could up exports very quickly.

      I bet that a few wiser heads are wishing that Biden had not cancelled the keystone pipeline on the day that he took office.

      1. And Iran allegedly, as well as that bastion of human rights and religious tolerance Saudi Arabia.
        I wonder what might happen if Iran said no AND blocked the straights of Hormuz.

        1. A fear that concentrated a lot of minds during Gulf war I & II.
          The blocking not that Iran would necessarily do it.

  61. Labour STILL can’t say what a woman is as Yvette Cooper becomes second frontbencher to dodge the question
    Yvette Cooper second Labour frontbencher to decline to define a woman

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10596027/Labour-say-woman-is.html#newcomment

    BTL

    It seems appropriately ironic that Yvette Cooper is also Mrs Balls!

    There are two possible answers: a woman has female genitalia and breasts or a woman is a person who claims to be be a woman. Mrs Balls could not decide which would be the safest and most popular answer so she opted out – which may prove to be the least popular answer of all for those who hope their politicians won’t just sit on the fence.

      1. Don’t think the song will flow so well if ‘woman’ is replaced by ‘person with cervix’ or any of the other stupid expressions currently being used.

    2. For Cooper, the answer should have been easy

      It is anyone her husband had the Balls to Bonk

    3. And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.

      Afternoon, Rastus.

    5. Yep, bring it down to the DNA. They can’t complain then. Once you start fiddling with the building blocks of life you’re just insane.

    1. Oh dear. Putin in retaliation to the West is going to announce a series of embargos of his own within the next couple of days. Tit for tat!

      1. All he has to do is renounce that part of his pension.
        A small sacrifice to make for the people of Ukraine, I would have thought.

        1. You really think he’s that bright? He may look like a demented owl but I don’t believe he’s very smart!

      2. Drakeford and the pretendy ‘parliament’. Nowt but an expensive talking shop, methinks.

        1. “Nowt but an expensive, leftie, nationalist, Engish-hating, woke talking shop,…”

          There – sorted.

          1. Lottie

            I have been sent off, when singing the Natioal Anthem, iwhilst standing in a crowd of 75.000 peeple

            You DO NOT want to hear me sing

            As an aside, the Typhoons from RAF Coningsby are out and about, heading East across the North Sea

          2. Lots more activity than normal at our airforce base this morning, no fighters it is the main transport base.

      3. I had an Icelandic bank account back in the day. I received all my money back eventually but can’t remember now how long it took. However it wasn’t in the millions!

  64. I’ve just received a letter from my bank (Lloyds) telling me that my Credit Card interest rates have risen by 0.59% to 19.94%. A sign of the times?

    1. Today i received an email from my bank telling me of an interest rate increase. From 0.01% to 0.10% Whoopdeefeckindo.

      1. Afternoon Phizzee. It doesn’t really affect me. I only use my Credit Card for minor purchases and I clear the debt every month so effectively I pay nothing.

        1. We Too are Sparkytus

          We buy ‘big things’ with it as well, they support you against bad sellers.

          We too clear the balance Monthly

    2. I just received my council tax “demand” and my contributions have gone up £38 a month 🙁

  65. I completed my over 70s 3-year driving licence online renewal by midday on 7th March 2022.
    I received my new one (expiring in 2025) this morning from DVLA 10th March 2022.
    I didn’t wait for a reminder from the DVLA that my current one was due to expire on 1st April 2022 – the computer said it had already expired!
    Have any Nottlers waited for a renewal letter from the DVLA before renewing their driving licence?

    1. Not here, but a bloke down the way went through the same process of renewal and he drives so improbably slowly he’s almost a hazard in and of himself.

    2. Good for you, Angie. I didn’t wait for my letter because I knew that there were long delays for those who need to retain their categories beyond 70. As previously reported, it took 5 months last year, and even then it was only issued after my MP got stuck in.

      1. My daughter had to refer her FIL’s predicament to our MP because of holdups in issuing his licence. It produced a fast response from the DVLA probably because it became a flag case.

        The computer finally said yes to my application because I answered every question exactly according to the answers in the paper copy application for my previous licence.

        1. Once an MP is involved the DVLA allocates someone to contact the licence holder and pushes it through. In fact, most public bodies have a special department that deals with nothing but enquiries from MPs.

    3. No, I renewed mine (and gave up my C1, D1 entitlement) a few days ago. New driving licence arrived in a very short time.

    1. It’s impossible to tell but I would be inclined to think that if Putin ever had contact with them or was one of theirs he has long since sacked them off.

      1. Putin used to be listed as one of the WEF young global leaders but has apparently been removed from their website.

        1. So I’ve heard but as I don’t trust a word from Uncle Schwab, I have no view on whether Putin was or not, or why he would no longer be.

    1. Like it! Oscar, on the other hand, now has plenty of experience of doing absolutely nothing at all, despite being manic playing with a ball when he first arrived.

  68. “Britain must heed the lessons of history and let in Ukrainian refugees”.

    Britain doesn’t keep anybody out! We seem to be the world’s go to country, (I was going to say cesspit but perhaps we’re not quite there yet), for all and sundry.

    Britain must heed the lessons of history and keep our blasted interfering noses out of others business. Instead of stoking up the fire. Of course it will help with the CBDC, and the great reset and the “you will own nothing and be happy” Klaus Schwab. I wonder if those who are baying for cutting off banking arrangements are aware that all of us could be next?

  69. I’ve been trying to get a handle on the possible benefits of using bioethanol as a fuel.
    It’s definitely something one ought to be using to clear one’s conscience about having to use fossil fuels.
    It is also attractive to vegans because animal feed stocks are being diverted to make bioethanol for driving cars and heating homes.

    Bioethanol is less efficient than petrol and diluting the latter with it can only reduce mpg and compromise vehicle longevity for engines not specifically designed for the E10 bioethanol grade petrol.

    This guy pondered the possibility of making bioethanol for a scooter using sugar beet and a still.
    The conclusion is that you require far more energy from fossil fuels to produce what you can get out of bioethanol derivved from a staple animal feedstock.

    https://www.appropedia.org/Ethanol_from_organic_sugar_beets_versus_refined_cane_sugar

    So we can either retain our quality of life by using fossil fuels until they run out or starve ourselves in lockdown with our pets and farm animals by going down the net-zero path as quickly as possible.

      1. I have no budget for using real petrol – even though we call it gas over here.

        The price is going up about 10 cents every day but still our idiot PM is talking about increasing the Darron tax next month.

    3. They take good agricultural land out of food production, thus driving up food prices for the poor, so that a few Gretas can feel smug about driving bioethanol-guzzlers.

      1. Ethanol in gasoline also causes hydrogen cracking of the carbon steel piping in storage tank farms.

      2. Just seen Greta in a BBC trailer saying not to listen to her but to listen to the science. My comment illustrates that the science says that agriculture can’t be expected to support all animal life on earth whilst also fuelling the energy demands of modern industrial societies.

        The numbers just don’t add up!

    4. One of my friends (owner of an older car) commented that the E5 might be more expensive, but it gave more mpg.

    1. Back to 4 today. With haste I tried to raise my game but then made another false move before success.

    2. Back to 4 today. With haste I tried to raise my game but then made another false move before success.

    3. 3 for me. Two letters but one wrong position first line, then 4 letters in 2nd line. 3rd line – bingo! And no that wasn’t the word.

  77. 5 hrs ago

    SIR – We are professional historians, many of whom have spent their careers studying the wars and refugee crises of the 20th century.

    When each of the listed venerables (avoided the typo) on the list, has personally contact the Home Secretary,

    with their Full Names, Adresses, NI numbers etc

    and said how many immigrants (from anywhere) they are willing to take, then I will take consider following their lead

    1. They are Guardian readers, the only immigrants in their neighbourhood are the au pairs, gardeners and cleaners plus the wonderful new Iraqi doctor and his family, who are terribly nice, which proves that everyone who is against mass migration is an absolute Bigot.

      1. Most of my deliveries and my barber are by people from all over. I don’t mind that. They have been very polite and respectful. The key to my opinion is that they are working. And presumably paying tax.

        My Mrs Thursday and my window cleaners are all local people.

      1. The boy stood on the burning deck
        His pocket full of crackers
        A spark went down his trouser leg
        And blew away his ………………..ankle

        1. The boy stood on the burning deck
          His lips were all a-quiver,
          He gave a cough, his leg fell off
          And floated down the river.

  79. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it’s possible
    you haven’t grasped the situation…..

  80. Lovely afternoon; it was 30ºC in greenhouse. Spent two hours trying to “reset” (to use a topical word) the automatic vents.

    The bloke who designed them obviously NEVER tried to fit one… Tomorrow will tell. Or not.

    Just off for plasters…

    1. Shame he didn’t expose the Nazi Battalion threatening and intimidating ordinary citizens. It is clear to me that Putin and his forces would not target hospitals. To do so would bring worldwide condemnation. Guess who did target them? The same bastards who have been bombing the Donbas since 2014.

      1. Well I’m glad you said it Phizzee because I wasn’t even though I think it is rather obvious. Talk about crude propaganda tactics. But it seems that the majority of people have sunk to such a low level of hysterical blindness that they will believe anything about Russia.

  82. 351287+ up ticls,

    May one ask,
    Has it just come to pass and in regards to war refugees passing through free europe to reach sanctuary in spare rooms in private houses in blighty
    how come these spare rooms never seem to be available to indigenous
    veterans kipping on concrete matrasses, who have served in defence of these Isles.

  83. I was so relieved to see that Sergei Lavrov assured the world that Russia did not attack the Ukraine. I suppose all his peace-keeping tanks are having a devil of a struggle trying to stop the militant , land-grabbing Ukrainians.

    Fake “victims” apparently. I am beginning to wonder whether the “maternity hospital” was actually a military establishment – or a civilian one with AA-guns on the roof (à la Philistines)…

    1. Did you see the video of the inside, Bill?
      I don’t know how things are un a Ukrains horsepickle, but the wrecked rooms didn’t have much by the way of bedding on the beds, or the usual sort of papers you might find on a desk. In other words, it looked abandoned before being “blown up”.
      Just a suspicion I have. There’s no truth in anything to do with this war.

      1. I thought it was just me. It just didn’t look right. I would have expected to see some variation in the damage, but every room looked the same. There didn’t seem to be any personal effects around. But then I’ve never been in a shelled hospital, so I thought perhaps I was wrong.
        People were asking on Twit what was that bucket of red stuff, which could have been blood, but why have a bucket of blood sitting there when there was none around, and no attempts at clearing up had been made?

        1. It looks abandoned, not shelled. As you wrote, no personal effects. No bedding. No papers. No toys. No coats. Nothing personal at all.

          4. And no one killed after a massive bomb struck. Must have been one of those dumb bombs that dont know what they are meant to do.

          5. They did say that a few people had been killed. From the footage, it looked as though the shell had struck the adjacent building, but blown out the windows and caused seemingly random chaos in the building where the filming was taking place.

      2. Remember Matilda’s aunt who, from her earliest youth had kept a strict regard for truth and when she attempted to believe Matilda the effort very nearly killed her?

        But the MSM and the propagandists will probably get away with it unlike Matilda who, as a consequence of telling lies, was not believed when she said her house was on fire when it was because she had telephoned for the immediate aid of London’s noble fire brigade before when it wasn’t. Consequently she was burnt to death.

        So many lies have been told about global warming, Covid and Brexit that one would be extremely naive to think they were telling the truth in the Ukraine.

    2. Worth remembering that the first casualty of war is the truth and we have now been at war for nearly 7 years – Brexit, Covid and now Ukraine.

      1. All we can sure of (maybe) is that a building had a nasty accident! Corrim can probably look at the structure and estimate how old it might be.

        The rest who can tell.

    3. The Russians, before this incident, complained that the Ukrainians were doing exactly that. I made a remark about that the other day, if you recall, but using Hamas as the people they were emulating.

  84. Speccie lunchtime update

    Around 73% of Covid patients in London are being treated primarily for something other than the virus. This might help explain the 28% rise in admissions in the week to Monday.

    2. The two are totally unrelated. How many positive tests were found in admissions last week?

      If there is a dramatic increase in heart / cancer / some other problem admissions and they were admitted because their affliction is dramatically worse because of our favourite covid variant, then there might be something to be concerned about.

    1. There are so many good things that are posted on here that I would love to put on a T shirt that I would have to spend a sizable chunk of my income paying for T shirts and a printer.

  86. Evening, all. Britain must indeed heed the lessons of history – the Apprentices Riots, the pogroms in York (not that the Ukrainians are likely to be Jewish) and other periods of unrest occasioned by the number of foreign immigrants. It wouldn’t be so bad if they were operating a one in, one out policy – one Ukrainian in for every muslim gimmigrant expelled. Then when the hurly-burly’s done and the battle’s lost and won, they can go back and we can enjoy a sustainable population at last.

    1. Gradely, lad.

      But – looking at the final caption – would ANY NoTTLer want his children or grandchildren to go down t’pit?

    2. That reminds me. I used to sing with the Yeadon & District Male Voice Choir. We once had an evening with a load of Black Dyke musicians. Greatly enjoyed it.

      3. Dear oh dear, Ped “Black” and “Dyke”….in the same comment.

        For that double hate crime you will be cancelled.

    3. This reminds me of my childhood in Cornwall. In the days when I was a child in St Mawes the St Austell Silver Band played the Flora Dance on Regatta Day as we formed long conger lines and whooped our way through the village. This custom, I believe, started in Helston – perhaps Plum has some experience of it to relate?

    2. Would that be an International Day for soy munchers or for Real Men?
      I think we must distinguish between the two!

  89. It has been an interesting day , some warm sunshine late morning , really warm then thick cloud and the temp really dropped . We thought it was going to snow.

    We ordered a replacement trellis, roughly 6ftx4ft for the back wall .. we had examined many varieties of trellis in garden centres and B+Q.. they all seemed really flimsy poorly made and expensive and thought nahhhh.

    Our replacement arrived yesterday , from Shropshire , it cost about £40 .. the quality is is excellent , sturdy and very well made ..Triple Dome Standard Trellis… really pleased with the quality .

    Although it is pressure treated , Moh used some fence treatment stuff to colour it up , and it looks just the business.

    How can I get excited about a piece of trellis . well it is the little things these days that matter.

    Our TV reception was been abit erratic since the storms we had a few weeks ago .. I thought it was the weight of the wood pigeons and jackdaws , but of course not, because the whole lot is askew , so ariel chap will be having a look tomorrow , hope he has a long ladder.

    Bit of drizzle here now and very chilly .. no breeze .

  90. Heavens to Betsy, we are finally going to be allowed to go maskless in Ontario.

    Talk about kickback from the normal suspects. Teachers and doctors are all weighing in on it being too early to relax restrictions – follow the science they say, even though the heath department is saying it is time to let go.

    Worse to me is the number of people saying that they will still wear masks, they have really bought the story and are scared to move forward.

  91. As a supporter of another London club (the best as it happens) I can’t take any pleasure in what is being done to Chelsea. Even Tottenham Dog’sbreath don’t deserve such treatment.
    The only people really being harmed here are the players, the support staff and the fans.
    Once upon a time collective punishments were considered to be wrong, where the whole class gets punished for the misdemeanours of one child.
    What’s the difference here?

    1. It is all part of this ridiculous over-reaction.

      And, to make matters worse, there is no one to whom one can turn for a proper explanation (or appraisal or condemnation)

      2. We have had several Russian orthodox churches desecrated. Actually they were mainly ukranian congregations but what the hell.

        1. Just like people in UK attacking paediatricians who they thought were paedophiles?

  92. Deep breaths .

    WHO sounds alarm that Deltacron variant – a combination of Delta and Omicron – is spreading across Europe and could be next major concern as Covid cases decline across the world ahead of pandemic’s two-year anniversary
    The WHO is warning the ‘Deltacron’ variant has confirmed spread in the UK, Denmark and Holland
    At least two cases of the rare strain that has traits of both variants have already been detected in the US
    Americans, and citizens of much of the rest of the world, are preparing to move past the pandemic as cases plummet and restrictions are lifted
    Covid cases in the U.S. are down 36% over the past week and 95% since Omicron peaked in mid-January
    By MANSUR SHAHEEN U.S. DEPUTY HEALTH EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

    PUBLISHED: 15:36, 10 March 2022 | UPDATED: 17:03, 10 March 2022

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10598687/WHO-sounds-alarm-DELTACRON-variant-spreading-Europe-major-concern.html?ito=push-notification&ci=v-QlEaVBm8&cri=wv5guXhvEL&si=26738248&ai=10598687

  93. That’s me for this spring-like day. Cats slept through it!

    I hope to survive to greet you all another day. Medicine time.

    A demain.

    1. It is always so cheering hearing about your busy life and successful tasks , Bill

      Your pusscats are a joyful addition and your dear Moh gives balance and steadiness.

      Have a good evening x

  94. Boris Johnson claims Russia has learned from Islamic state, Hamas and all the other ME terrorist organisations

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10599525/Boris-Johnson-fears-Putin-use-chemical-weapons-Ukraine.html

    Boris Johnson says he fears Vladimir Putin WILL use chemical weapons in Ukraine because it would be ‘straight out of Russia’s playbook’ as he warns Moscow is already preparing a ‘fake story’ to blame the West

    Boris Johnson morphs into Tony Blair, more like.

    1. This is probably a primer for a False Flag job like they used to run in Syria!

      1. Just what I was thinking. Prepare a fake story, and spread a rumour that your opponent is going to spread a fake story that your fake story is not true.
        I can’t help it…I just don’t believe anything that Boris or Sage or the Daily mail says. If their lips are moving, they’re lying.

        1. I don’t belive anything they tell me BB. You only have to look at this hospital story. Fake as a £3 note!

    2. I get the nasty feeling that fake events are more America’s speciality! Any chemical event might, of course, come from the bio labs that apparently only exist in Russian propaganda??

    3. I get the nasty feeling that fake events are more America’s speciality! Any chemical event might, of course, come from the bio labs that apparently only exist in Russian propaganda??

    5. If the Russians are like the Islamists, given how much Bojo & Co love the Islamists, why do they hate the Russians.

  95. Latest opinion poll in Russia. 65% approve of the fight against Ukraine and Putin’s rating is 71% approval.

          3. And she still hasn’t found you out??? The probability of that happening and miniscule to the point of triviality

    2. It was certainly clever of them to have quite a few heavily pregnant women on hand for a spot of authenticity. They think of everything!

      1. It was said that they were in the basement.
        The Russians gave this statement to the UN Security Council on 7th March, so that would mean that it was a known target in advance?
        Truth seems to be the hardest thing to get at.

    3. Reported that Twitter have deleted the Russian repudiation that the hospital wasn’t in use, according to NRK. So, like Orange Man, Russian Man bad. Lies good. Pah!

    1. Not really the post box is only at the end of the road, although it is awkward to park near it.

    2. Yes. I access nttl.blog on my phone and when I try to comment the text blows up so large that I cannot see what I have typed.

    4. I haven’t had much to say! Kept busy at work. Got home to my water bill. Increased by £12, so could be worse. The biggest rise will be the service charge on my flat, which includes heating and hot water. Expecting that this month too.

      1. Start saving!

        Just to annoy you:
        My next sixth month’s of electric direct debits have fallen by 50 euros a month.

      2. I had an email today that my monthly dual fuel direct debit would have to increase from £60 to £79 pcm.
        The mercury is starting to inch up slowly so I have now disconnected the boiler so I have hot water but no heating.

        I’ve asked questions at work about how long they will expect us to keep driving around between clinics without the mileage rate’s being increased. It was set back in 2014.
        I can manage for now but we have some receptionists on low salary bands who will feel this more acutely, especially as expenses are paid up to two months after you have shelled out for your fuel.

      3. I had an email today that my monthly dual fuel direct debit would have to increase from £60 to £79 pcm.
        The mercury is starting to inch up slowly so I have now disconnected the boiler so I have hot water but no heating.

        I’ve asked questions at work about how long they will expect us to keep driving around between clinics without the mileage rate’s being increased. It was set back in 2014.
        I can manage for now but we have some receptionists on low salary bands who will feel this more acutely, especially as expenses are paid up to two months after you have shelled out for your fuel.

    5. No.
      Difficulty in keeping awake. Work was so tiring, today is the first time I look forward to retirement.

  99. Just on observation but has anyone noticed that we aren’t getting much coverage of the actual fighting in Ukraine, just a long list of anecdotal unconfirmed atrocities.

    1. I read/heard one commenator (can’t remember who, sorry) who said, that is because there isn’t any actual fighting, because the Russians have neutralised the Ukrainian army, and only the Asovs who are dug into Mariopol are still fighting. Apparently there has been a Russian supply column sitting in the same place for several days, which proves that there are no air attacks?
      This thing would already be over if the west wasn’t trying to keep it going, to provide cover for the sanctions that they are imposing on their own people!
      I suppose Russia will have to do them until September when they can resurrect covid.

    3. It would be too traumatising and triggering for the snowflakes who can’t even read about WW1 or WW2 without PTSD counselling afterwards.

    4. It would be too traumatising and triggering for the snowflakes who can’t even read about WW1 or WW2 without PTSD counselling afterwards.

    2. I can still see it. It amuses me that if I try and access the RT site on my iPhone I get a stern telling off and no access but the work laptop just says, yeah OK, can’t let you see the live transmission but no problem reading the articles.

      1. Can you post links to Nottle?
        I’ve tried a few now and they won’t post.
        It may be my link, but it’s a bit strange that articles questioning the accepted view won’t post.

        1. Thanks. I’ve since discovered that the Odysee channel livestreams RT and that works perfectly on my iPhone. Found the link on Gab Social.

  103. What comes out of the ground shouting “Hello, how are you” ? – refined oil
    What comes out of the ground shouting “Bollocks” ? – crude oil

  104. https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/
    20:49 Twitter fjernar russisk melding om Mariupol Twitter har fjerna meldingar frå den russiske ambassaden i Storbritannia om bombinga av eit barnesjukehus i Mariupol i Ukraina, melder Reuters. Grunnen er at meldingane bryt reglane om å avvise valdslege hendingar, seier Twitter.
    Tre menneske, eitt av dei eit barn, blei drepne i angrepet onsdag.

    Ambassaden skal ha lagt ut meldingar om at dette var falske nyheiter, og at sjukehuset ikkje var operativt, men blei brukt av ukrainske soldatar.

    20:49 Twitter removed the Russian tweet on Mariupol. Twitter removed the message from the Russian embassy in Britain about the bombing of a children’s hospital in Mariupol in Ukraine, advised Reuters. The basis is that the messages break the rules on denial of violent events, says Twitter.
    Three people, one a child, were killed in the attack on Wednesday.
    The Embassy posted a message that this was false news, and that the hospital was not in use, but used by Ukrainian soldiers.

    1. The Russians claim to have informed the UN Security Council – I have not seen this being denied.
      In any case, I think Twit was a bit late, as this is already all over the site.

      1. There are so many lies and deceits about this horrid war I don’t know what to believe.

        1. I do not believe one word about anything anymore. After two years of lies and manufactured information…. No, I make my own mind up and I don’t believe anything.

    2. Some of the pictures look very odd. In the second one the stretcher appears to be carried in the direction of the wrecked building. There is no smoke from the wrecked building which means that either the Ukrainian Fire Brigade is very efficient, or the building was wrecked a couple of days earlier. So why is a pregnant woman being carried around in front of it?

      Meanwhile they are “not co-operating in Melitapol”. Thing is, if the Russians are bombing and shooting civilians, what are all these people on the street?
      Would it not be prudent to stay out of the way of the bombing and shelling? On the other hand large crowds on streets would suggest that either the average IQ of a Ukrainian person is around 20, or that there is no immediate danger because the Russians are, in fact, not bombing and shooting civilians?

      https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/2B8E/production/_123605111_mediaitem123604343.jpg
      https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/13260/production/_123623487_mediaitem123623486.jpg

  105. I saw a lot of folk today wearing face masks in the open air – presumably they don’t want to be contaminated by Russian propaganda?

    3. Saw a masked woman driving a car today – window was open too.
      Went to Specsavers and they’re all masked up in there but we both refused to wear one.
      Meanwhile I’m still being bombarded with texts and emails telling me I need the booster- I thought the pandemic was supposed to be over?

  106. Tchaikovsky is the antidote to Putin’s poison

    The Cardiff Philharmonic seems to think we can’t tell the difference between the good Russians and bad

    ALLISON PEARSON

    Talk about tone deaf. The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra has cancelled its forthcoming Tchaikovsky Night because playing “music from the world’s best loved composer” would be “inappropriate” in light of “recent events”. I think we have a term in English for this kind of over-reaction: using a sledgehammer to crack a Nutcracker Suite.

    Does the management of the Cardiff Philharmonic think that Vladimir Putin, upon hearing the terrible news, will slap his eerily crease-free brow and say, “Nyet! Comrade Pyotr Ilyich has been cancelled in South Glamorgan. We must immediately desist from missile attacks on maternity hospitals in Mariupol”?

    Of course not. This silly move does nothing to help Ukraine. It is designed to suppress any possible offence to Welsh concert-goers or to the orchestra (one has a family member in Ukraine) but, most importantly, to let the world know that the Cardiff Philharmonic does not approve of the bad guys, those evil Russians who now include Tchaikovsky. Even though Tchaikovsky has been dead for almost 130 years and – this is awkward – clearly adored Ukraine when he was alive.

    Pyotr Tchaikovsky first visited Ukraine as a young man in 1864 and spent most summers there on his sister’s estate in Chyhyryn, south of Kyiv, and in Sumy, a charming place currently being razed to the ground by invader barbarians. At least thirty of Tchaikovsky’s works have Ukrainian themes, often incorporating the country’s folk songs which play the same stirring role in the national psyche as the Welsh male voice choir fulfils in my own homeland.

    As a teenager, I once found myself singing in a combined European choir, squashed between two magnificent Ukrainian altos, like a pair of Chesterfield sofas on either side. If song can be called the soul of a nation in flight then those women were piloting the most advanced jet fighters on the planet. I have never forgotten their thunderous Ukrainian passion, and neither have my ear-drums.

    How ignorant of what culture means, how deplorably wet and wimpy to cancel a Tchaikovsky concert or a Dostoevsky course, as a Milan university tried to do, “to avoid any controversy in a moment of high tension”. Seriously? A moment of “high tension” is a wounded Ukrainian woman on a stretcher trying to push a baby into the world amidst the rubble where a hospital stood a few minutes earlier. It is not fretting in your Western ivory tower that people are so stupid, or so easily offended, they can’t tell the difference between the Russians who cause death and the Russians who created things that make life worth living.

    Art should never be a casualty of war; at its best, it is the antidote to war’s poison. During the Blitz, Dame Myra Hess gave celebrated lunchtime piano recitals at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Hess made it clear to Kenneth Clark, the gallery’s director, that she would play her repertoire of German and Austrian composers – Beethoven, Bach, Schubert, Schumann – to prove that music was beyond politics. One day, the German singer Elena Gerhardt was in tears, begging Hess to cancel her lieder recital because Hitler’s forces had just occupied Holland and she feared an ugly backlash. The opposite happened. “Sensing her lack of ease, the audience gave her such an ovation that it was quite a few minutes before she could attempt to sing,” Hess recalled.

    If anyone ever asks you, “What is the point of culture?” tell them to watch the 1940 recording of Myra Hess playing her own arrangement of Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. A Kilburn-born Jewish woman never stopped insisting that Bach’s sublime, sonorous, immortal sweetness belonged not to the Germany of the Nazis, but to all mankind.

    The same applies to the war today. Tchaikovsky will be loved long after Putin’s hatred is spent. We have to believe that. Ukraine’s incredible song will be sung again. When civilization is under attack, don’t stop the music.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/10/cancelling-tchaikovsky-ignorant-wet/

    3. One can be in no doubt that by pandering to the populace, those that do must regard the populace as exceedingly dim….

      1. “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the …public”. said HL Mencken, and of course copied and traded on by Cecil B. De Mille et al.

          1. Yes, I did. Yes, I did, apparently. I’ve no idea how it happened as I don’t think I typed it twice.

      2. “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the …public”. HL Mencken, and of course copied and traded on by Cecil B. De Mille et al.

    4. One only has to listen to Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto to understand why his music is so loved- it is sublime.

      1. His songs, too; they feel as though they were composed for my voice, and always leave the audience in tears.

        1. I’ve never sung any of T’s songs but done a lot of Bach, Schubert and others. I love folk songs, spirituals and am a sucker for show tunes.

  108. Ukraine and Russia are so culturally similar so why on earth are they committing fratricidal wars .

    Countries with shared identities often go to war with each other. This is most likely when two countries are culturally similar but differ in their political institutions. Elites in repressive regimes are threatened by a culturally-similar country where citizens are becoming empowered. The example of the two Koreas illustrates such a conflict vividly. North Korean citizens are most likely to push for change when they are inspired by a culturally-similar democracy such as South Korea. As a result, North Korean dictators work to prevent their citizens from learning about South Korean democracy. They even use force against South Korea to ensure that North Korean citizens see their Southern brothers as an enemy rather than a model.

    The Russian invasion of Hungary in 1849 during the European liberal revolutions is another example. The czar’s greatest fear was that revolution would spill over from Hungary to Russian-ruled Poland, spreading “political illness’’ into his own empire. On the eve of the war, he wrote to his general in a private letter that intervention in Hungary was necessary because the Hungarian revolutionaries were “villains, scoundrels, and destroyers, whom we must destroy for the sake of our own tranquility.

    Why is this change a threat to Putin? Perhaps because a more democratic Ukrainian government may serve as an example to Russian citizens of how culturally-similar people can be alternatively governed. As history shows, a dictator with an army does not wait for this to happen. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/03/04/russia-vs-ukraine-a-clash-of-brothers-not-cultures/

  109. Bercow’s bullying
    SIR – In 2021, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards upheld complaints of bullying by the former Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow.

    On Tuesday the Independent Expert Panel, chaired by a retired Appeal Court judge, rejected Mr Bercow’s appeal against that decision. However, the panel went further and described him as “repeatedly dishonest”. They accused him of “an abuse of power” and stated that, “had he still been a Member of Parliament, we would have determined that he should be expelled by resolution of the House”, adding: “he should never be permitted a pass to the Parliamentary estate”.

    This is an astonishing indictment of someone who repeatedly abused one of the most powerful positions in the land. Surely Mr Bercow’s portrait and all traces of him should be removed from the Palace of Westminster, and all precedents and procedural innovations introduced by him struck from the record.

    Robin Morello
    Brackley, Northamptonshire

    1. His name is Berk Cow.

      His wife had views opposite to his

      As someone put SMS Small Man Syndrome

    2. His name is Berk Cow.

      His wife had views opposite to his

      As someone put SMS Small Man Syndrome

  111. If I may beg your indulgence…. I posted last week, I think, about various health concerns in Lake Lodge. A mixed bag but things are moving.
    I saw the GP on Tues and have been referred to a dermatologist, not an oncologist as I feared. The doc did caution that we don’t know what’s underneath it- this is the thing on my RH cheek under my ear. I have an appointment on Weds next week so brace yourselves for the screams- I am a real wimp. Also booked in for a blood test in early April and an ECG because it seems I have a heart murmur; I had no idea but suspect the last year of stress and anxiety may have brought it on.
    Even better, MH is going tomorrow for blood work, a covid swab (which he is not pleased about but will do it ) on Sunday and then a preliminary procedure on Weds which is the same day I have to be in a different hospital. Bit of a bugger that as we like to be there for each other but guess we will cope.
    I was pleased with the GP, it’s one I have seen once before but will stick with from now on; he didn’t rush, took his time and I reckon I was in there well over 20 mins.
    Tuesday, after the doc appointment, MH and I went to a pub and then for a meal for the first time in 2 months. We both ate and drank a little too much but it did us good.
    Here’s hoping all goes to plan.

      1. I am sure it will- just hate doctors and hospitals. And am a cowardy custard as well ;-(

        1. I quite like hospitals. I am forever in awe that they and everyone in them exist just to make people better.

    2. Lottie’

      I often shout that ” try to ensure that they seek what is wrong, not just follow the symptoms.”

      A doctor gave me pills for a bad back, when got a little ‘sarcastic’, when it persisted

      He sent me for an X-Ray,

      Two days later, boss of Med Centre asked me when I would like my hip changed

      1. But why does Ann need a booking next month for a blood test? Every surgery over here, the Dr will ask you to wait by the test room and the nurse will take the blood before you leave – nurse is often the receptionist, as well. So – all taken in one visit. No returning, no extra booking, all done & dusted.

    7. Morning Lottie, only just seen your post. You’ve seen the doctor so that’s really good, and been referred on, even better. It’s a pity the blood test is not until April and the ECG too? Good to hear about MH being seen. Very glad to hear your meal out did you both a lot of good. Fingers crossed for you both. 🤞

    8. Good news Ann.
      I have a lump under my left ear I was worried about. Turns out to be a blocked salivary gland. I have a check up booked for next year unless it changes then they’ll see me right away.
      Fingers crossed all will be OK for both of you.

  112. The staff have today been preoccupied with a discussion one of them saw on Twitter: which are there more of in the world, doors or wheels?
    FFS.

  114. Wordle 264 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
    🟨🟩🟨⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    That’s better. (Took 6 yesterday)

    1. Just managed Friday’s in 5, which was a piece of luck as there are 7 letters to choose from for the first letter.

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