Thursday 15 April: The GPs who have been continuing to see their patients face to face

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/14/lettersthe-gps-have-continuing-see-patients-face-face/

714 thoughts on “Thursday 15 April: The GPs who have been continuing to see their patients face to face”

  1. Deathbed Confession

    Jake was dying. His wife, Becky, was maintaining a candlelight vigil by his side. She held his fragile hand, tears running down her face. Her praying roused him from his slumber.

    He looked up and his pale lips began to move slightly. “Becky my darling,” he whispered.

    “Hush my love,” she said. “Rest, don’t talk.”

    He was insistent. “Becky,” he said in his tired voice, “I have something that I must confess.”

    “There’s nothing to confess,” replied the weeping Becky. “Everything’s all right, go to sleep.”

    “No, no. I must die in peace, Becky. I … I slept with your sister, your best friend, her best friend, and your mother!”

    “I know, sweetheart,” whispered Becky, “let the poison work.”

  2. Joe Biden’s woke Left-wing agenda is a catastrophe for the free world. 14 April 2021.

    We live in a globalised world where politics has become an international fashion statement. Ideological tribes cross borders, at least when it comes to virtue-signalling, over-educated graduates desperate to latch on to the latest feel-good trend. Ideas that begin in Washington make their way to our own Parliament, offices and streets. We too will pay the price for Biden’s mistakes; and America’s struggles will become our battles, even if they shouldn’t be. Biden’s first blunder has been to give free rein to the woke revolutionaries. Their ideology is a fusion of post-modernism, Marxism, Freudianism, critical race theory, gender studies, intersectionality and much else besides, and the brew is toxic, explosive and potentially fatal to Western democracy and capitalism. It detests rationality, the rule of law and even the presumption of innocence. It is obsessed with race and gender, assumes extreme amounts of never-ending exploitation, posits that progress is impossible and rejects the liberal, meritocratic, colour-blind approach that has done so much to improve society and combat racism since the Fifties. It claims to believe in “social justice” but rejects the very concept of a functioning polity and the possibility of objective, enlightenment-style justice. It considers free speech to be a form of violence, and assumes that anybody who disagrees is guilty of false consciousness and, as such, deserves to be cancelled as a dangerous heretic.

    Morning everyone. Long winded, the wrong tense, but essentially true! The Woke Agenda, or more accurately Cultural Marxism, has already destroyed Democracy and its associated virtues of Free Speech and Rational Discourse in the West! The UK is now a Crypto-Marxist Police State intent on the Suppression of Dissent while America led by a senile sexual pervert is set on much the same, but more volatile path. The only glimmering of light in the Gathering Darkness is Russia. If it can hold off the Forces of Evil that now control the so called Free World, and that seeks to inflict the same fate on them, then it may yet preserve a fraction of European Civilisation and the Heritage of Christianity. The rest is lost!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/14/joe-bidens-woke-left-wing-agenda-catastrophe-free-world/

  3. Yo All

    SIR – The article by Dr James Le Fanu on bad GPs finding Covid a boon
    (Health, April 12) reminded me of the wife of a friend of mine who
    sadly died in his early 90s last year.

    Much closer to 100 than him, she rang her GP asking for a visit. She
    was told by the receptionist that the doctor could not visit. It was
    difficult because of Covid.

    She exploded, and told the receptionist that at the time of the Blitz
    she had been a senior surgical sister in theatre at the Queen Elizabeth
    Hospital in Birmingham, where they had continued to operate with bombs
    falling around them. “Don’t tell me that Covid makes a visit
    difficult”     – and with that she put the phone down. Twenty minutes later
    the doctor came.

    His Honour Ian Morris

    That’s my sort of Lady

    Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey

    1. Similar spirit was shown in the field hospital in the Falklands where they continued to word during bombing raids by the Argentinians, stopping only for a brief moment to shout “Hurray!” on receiving the message that the Argies had surrendered.
      Respect!

  4. SIR – It is now clear that our Prime Minister is treating us like
    idiots. His pronouncement that the reduction in infections is due to
    lockdown and not the vaccinations confirms this.

    The Law of Natural Progression will eventually be accepted as the answer

    Slowly, those vulnerable to DEATH BY COVID, because of other ailments, will have settled down, one way or the other

    Whatever the reason, Boros will claim ownership

    He is working to be Bliars Twin, or even surpassing him

    1. 331605+ up ticks,
      Morning OLT,
      I would personally think that the party members / voters were well use to leaders of johnson / cabinets calibre, seeing as since major the selection has always been of a descending nature.

      The whole party have been very quick to castigate other parties but very slow to even try to rectify their own

      Masters of deception.

    2. Johnson has shown us what life is like in a dictatorship. He is the dictator of course. A very unpleasant person.The attitude and tone shows he has no interest in the welfare of the people only the NHS.

      1. His only interest, like all of them currently, is themselves and fat pay packet on the speaking circuit post “politics”. NHS already been outsourced to corporates

        1. I disagree.
          What motivates him, IMHO, is what makes people enter politics in the first place.
          They are fully convinced they are right, and get enormous satisfaction in telling the proles (who have to obey or be rubbed out by state-mandated violence) what to do, how often, and how. They love the power trip – and if it results in money, OK and well, but it’s the power kick and their name in history that they get off on.

          1. I get your drift correctly and agree on ego / power trip, but politics in the true sense doesn’t exist in most Western Nations. From Major, Clinton et al onwards, it’s purely a money game and “politics” merely the lily pad to wealth.

          2. The money is a representation of their importance, and continues to allow them access to the powerful and influential set, thus allowing them to continue to feel in charge.

          3. pole sana, KPLC switching transformers [usual 30 min outage]. Picking up to back where we were, it’s more a case of their perception to entitlement [educational background etc.] which thereafter follows the money gravy train. Titles, positions, labels are no more than Scouts / Girl Guides badges are to us. There are always a few decent ones, like in any strand of society, but certainly not in Johnson’s case nor the cadre of clowns around him. And most “Governmental” nodes of work are steered, as you know, by the higher echelons of the Civil Service in order that the gravy train boat and entitlements are not steered off course, or sunk

          4. I agree. Power is what they’re after. They can get money doing other things, after all. And that is why our democratic countries are rapidly becoming post-democratic, post-truth and post-freedom.

      2. He is like a child telling porkies to get his own way or to dodge trouble.
        Like a child, he has forgotten what he said earlier to another person.
        Like a child, he assumes no-one will notice.

      3. Not sure, to be honest.
        I wonder if he’s realised the lock up wasn’t necessary and is trying to save face.

      4. Not sure, to be honest.
        I wonder if he’s realised the lock up wasn’t necessary and is trying to save face.

    3. Another Bliar’s Twin is France’s President Macron… he needs watching. Arch manipulator, so smooth that he is slimy. He might even be re-elected next year for the lack of anybody else, God help us.

        1. Not allowed to vote! Will first need to get French nationality before I have that particular pleasure.

          But to be honest, I wouldn’t vote for Le Pen either: she is too power-hungry herself even though she is a great improvement on her father. The current president of the Senate might get my vote, but he’s not a Presidential candidate.

          1. Just as I would have liked Owen Paterson as leader of the Conservative Party.

            The trouble is that the best candidates to be prime minister or president often have no desire to take the job. I am reminded of that line from Yeats’s “The Second Coming” :

            The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.

  5. SIR – It is now clear that our Prime Minister is treating us like
    idiots. His pronouncement that the reduction in infections is due to
    lockdown and not the vaccinations confirms this.

    The Law of Natural Progression will eventually be accepted as the answer

    Slowly, those vulnerable to DEATH BY COVID, because of other ailments, will have settled down, one way or the other

    Whatever the reason, Boros will claim ownership

    He is working to be Bliars Twin, or even surpassing him

  6. SIR – I am disappointed to read articles and letters bemoaning GP services during the pandemic.

    I naturally cannot speak for all GP practices, but at the four surgeries I have worked in during the pandemic (and out of hours services), we have continued to see patients after telephone triage; we have performed video consultations and conducted e-consultations and home visits.

    Many colleagues, like me, were at much higher risk of death or serious complications from coronavirus, especially prior to vaccination, yet we continued to see our patients face to face where clinically necessary.

    We are now doing our best to deal with the fallout of the crisis, not least mental health problems, and dealing with non-Covid work that hospital colleagues would normally carry out.

    Dr James F Sharp
    Tenterden, Kent

    SIR – The article by Dr James Le Fanu on bad GPs finding Covid a boon (Health, April 12) reminded me of the wife of a friend of mine who sadly died in his early 90s last year.

    Much closer to 100 than him, she rang her GP asking for a visit. She was told by the receptionist that the doctor could not visit. It was difficult because of Covid.

    She exploded, and told the receptionist that at the time of the Blitz she had been a senior surgical sister in theatre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, where they had continued to operate with bombs falling around them. “Don’t tell me that Covid makes a visit difficult” – and with that she put the phone down. Twenty minutes later the doctor came.

    His Honour Ian Morris
    Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey

    SIR – Dr Le Fanu has hit the nail on the head. My GP practice informed my 23-year-old son six months ago when presented with a blocked ear canal that syringing of ears was no longer performed at the surgery as it was an aerosol- generating procedure (AGP).

    However, he was then told that if he felt the procedure was necessary he could visit his local Specsavers and for a fee they would do it for him.

    As a consultant anaesthetist with much experience of AGPs in the last year, I found this hard to understand. This procedure has never been on Public Health England’s list of AGPs.

    It rather confirmed that some of my colleagues are keen to work and others less so.

    Dr Alistair Brookes
    Rugby, Warwickshire

    SIR – Since March last year the NHS has given me a new hip, mended a cataract, operated on a hand for Dupuytren’s contracture, and this week performed a second cataract operation.

    Not bad for an organisation dominated in the year by Covid. In the background, many routine procedures have been accomplished and the many medical and non-medical professionals have been magnificent in maintaining a superb service.

    Ian Bolden
    Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire

    Frightening the horses

    SIR – Is anyone surprised that people go mad with exuberance when they are “allowed out”? I was a racehorse trainer and if a vet insisted a horse had a month’s box rest they too went mad when they got out. Sometimes we had to sedate them. Perhaps this is what Sage and Boris are planning for us.

    David Murray Smith
    London W4

    SIR – It is now clear that our Prime Minister is treating us like idiots. His pronouncement that the reduction in infections is due to lockdown and not the vaccinations confirms this.

    Is there nothing he will not do or say to keep us shackled?

    Peter Flesher
    Halifax, West Yorkshire

    Spelling for success

    SIR – The University of Hull wishes to ignore grammatical and spelling errors (report, April 12), but that may not be helpful to its charges later in life.

    When my company advertised for staff we received many applications. One of the easiest ways to compile a shortlist was to throw any CVs with such errors straight in the bin.

    If graduates want a job, they should choose a university that teaches them to write and spell English correctly.

    Robin Lane
    Devizes, Wiltshire

    SIR – The Office for Students does not back university policies that call for poor spelling and grammar to be disregarded in the assessment of students’ work (Celia Walden, Features, April 13). We have made it very clear that we do not support such policies, which are patronising for students of all backgrounds.

    Chris Millward
    Director for Fair Access and Participation, Office for Students
    Bristol

    Senseless census

    SIR – Like others I have been visited by census officials. The second time, I told the lady that people were being chased despite having completed the census online. She denied there was a problem.

    When I showed her a photo of my “Thanks for submitting the census” email she seemed genuinely surprised.

    If they are receiving our data but losing it how can we be sure that it is safe? And if we have confirmation that it was received can we be made to submit it again?

    Margie Haynes
    Colchester, Essex

    The Queen alone

    SIR – You report (April 14) that the Queen, nearly 95 years old, may have to sit alone and wear a mask at the funeral of her husband, the Duke of dinburgh, with only 29 other people “socially distanced” from her.

    Can anything better illustrate the sheer heartlessness and scientific inanity of the present government rules, when Covid-19 has virtually disappeared and her immediate family will all have been vaccinated? Many other grieving families will be living in similar circumstances.

    Michael Staples
    Seaford, East Sussex

    SIR – Many who have had a fleeting conversation with Prince Philip know of his sometimes acerbic banter.

    I met him some years ago and he knew of my plans for establishing a replacement for Britannia. I explained that our new hi-tech flagship would only need a crew of 80 drawn from navies within the Commonwealth, as opposed to the need on Britannia for a crew of 240 drawn from the Royal Navy. “My family won’t use a ship with only 80 crew,” he replied. “Hire some Sherpas; get some Sherpas.” He gave me a broad grin, half a wink and turned away.

    On a serious note, I believe that the Royal family would be quietly supportive of a new flagship with a purpose directed to Commonwealth interests. They know, of course, that any such initiative lies with others.

    Commonwealth countries are a source of trading opportunities post Brexit. A flagship could also be a practical platform to support inter-Commonwealth trade and, where needed, training and aid programmes.

    Ian Maiden
    Chairman, The New Flagship Company
    Beaulieu, Hampshire

    SIR – While taking part in beach-cleaning on the Solway coast this week, I was pondering on the Duke of Edinburgh’s excellent awards scheme.

    I wondered if anyone has thought to adapt this for older, perhaps retired, people. The categories might need some modifying, but how about:

    Volunteering (such as beach cleaning, National Trust, charity work).

    Keeping fit – aiming to improve (say) running, walking or cycling.

    Learning a new skill – such as a language, playing an instrument, carpentry, painting or basic first aid.

    Experiencing a new cultural activity at home or abroad.

    All this could gain a badge.

    Dr Andrew Knight
    Peterborough

    SIR – Letters about meeting the Duke of Edinburgh reminded me of a visit to Army friends in Germany in the 1970s. On arrival, my hostess said she hoped I didn’t mind, but I would be sleeping in the Duke of Edinburgh’s bed.

    It transpired that he was connected to our friends’ regiment and had, on an official military visit, made an informal stopover with them in their ordinary Army quarters.

    I dined out on that tale for some time afterwards, amused by the split second reaction it effected.

    Sandra Hawke
    Andover, Hampshire

    Diversity strimming

    SIR – As a garden machinery volunteer with the National Trust (strimming, hedge-cutting, mowing and a bit of chainsaw work, all of which can only be done when the garden is closed to the public), I was surprised to receive an email saying I had to take a diversity course (report, April 14) and pass a test before being allowed to carry on.

    God knows what this must cost the Trust in money and loss of volunteers.

    Ian Lewis
    Wannock, East Sussex

    Not all private gardens can be fully accessible

    SIR – I am so pleased that Julia Stafford Allen (Letters, April 7) enjoys visiting open gardens. As a regional treasurer for the National Garden Scheme, I can attest to how valuable people like her are for allowing it to pass huge donations to a raft of deserving charities.

    However, I think it important to point out that most of those opening their gardens are opening their own private space. This should reflect their own circumstances and needs, and does not often include making them wheelchair accessible. Indeed in many cases, including mine, this is physically not possible due to the topography of the garden, much as my wife and I would love to see wheelchair users enjoy it.

    Ian Mabberley
    Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

    Can a match without wickets really be cricket?

    SIR – As a newcomer to the sport, I watched my first cricket contest at Commoners yesterday between the Royal School of Needlework and the Little Puddlington Morris People, and I must say that I was surprised by how exciting and easy it was to follow (“Wickets are out as marketers put their spin on cricket”, report, April 14).

    The first hitperson was outed for being in limbo because the roundel hit her cushion when it was in front of the sticks. The next hitperson was awarded four points for a field edge by the judge. After that the roundel hit the side of the hitperson’s club and was caught by the stick guardian.

    The next thrower hit the middle stick right out of the ground but the judge said it was a no-roundel. Two hitpeople were outed for being scampered out before they reached the hitting fold.

    In the end, the contest was stopped by the judges after it began to rain when each team had made 10 scampers for four outs and so the contest was declared an evens.

    I now understand why so many people regard the sport as the epitome of an English summer and I can’t wait to see my next contest.

    Wynne Weston-Davies
    Calne, Wiltshire

    SIR – The England and Wales Cricket Board must be the only governing body to dislike its own sport so much that it has invented something else.

    Warwick Jones
    Purley, Surrey

    SIR – In my role as chairman of the 100-year-old Club Cricket Conference, I am now meeting a second generation of parents who never had the chance to play cricket at school because they didn’t have a field to play on.

    The Hundred will give these people the chance to understand and learn as never before.

    Without recreational cricket there is no future for the game; without the parents there are no volunteers; without volunteers there is no recreational cricket.

    Robbie Book
    Barnet, Hertfordshire

    1. Many colleagues, like me, were at much higher risk of death or serious complications from coronavirus, especially prior to vaccination, yet we continued to see our patients face to face where clinically necessary.

      I’m pretty sure most of my local MD’s legged it to India and Pakistan for a long holiday on full pay when it became apparent that there would be some considerable risk attached to staying here and working!

      1. Yo Minty

        And those that remained, were not in the ‘Fatal Age Bracket’ for a COVID death, for a fatally tripping over their False
        Teeth, whilst looking fot their Specs

      2. Our local GP practice closed down, with a ‘phone recording stating “if you are ill, go to your nearest A&E”

      3. Our local GP practice closed down, with a ‘phone recording stating “if you are ill, go to your nearest A&E”

    1. 331605+ up ticks,
      Morning Anne,
      We have ploughed the political fields these last three decades we are now reaping a very bitter harvest.

      1. I saw this image yesterday (14th) attached to a tweet from the photogs wife, describing how cold he had been after he had sat out from 01.00 to 04.00 to capture the shot.
        There was a link to his photographic business ‘Magical Photography’.

  9. Shot reaction. 14 April 2021.

    Unlike SWMBO I have been suffering from a prolonged reaction (three weeks) to the Moderna vaccine. I feel terrible. Will have another shot on the 20th. I am not looking forward to it. Not posting today. Pat Lang.

    The View from the States!

    https://turcopolier.com/shot-reaction/

    1. Why on earth is he going to have a second jab while he’s ill from the first one?

      Stupidity reigns supreme.

  11. I wonder how much he was paid for his one day a month when he rocked up to show he didn’t know anything?
    As a matter of interest, is the employment website mentioned in this article open to anyone?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/04/14/former-met-police-chief-drawn-greensill-scandal/

    Former Met Police chief drawn into Greensill scandal

    Lord Hogan-Howe was a paid adviser to Greensill Capital while sitting on the board of the Cabinet Office

    14 April 2021 • 8:00pm

    Lord Hogan-Howe was Britain’s most senior police officer for six years until 2017

    The former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police was a paid adviser to the collapsed lender at the centre of a lobbying scandal at the same time as working at the heart of Whitehall, The Telegraph can disclose.

    Lord Hogan-Howe, who was Britain’s most senior police officer for six years to 2017, was made a non-executive director of the Cabinet Office in May last year. In the same month he disclosed his role as a consultant to a subsidiary of Greensill Capital on the register of interests at the House of Lords.

    It meant Lord Hogan-Howe was part of the board overseeing officials as they invited bids for a four-year, £80m contract to provide the entire public sector with the type of financing in which Greensill specialised. After the firm imploded last month the Cabinet Office said it had “paused” the process.

    Lord Hogan-Howe said he was “unaware of the contracts mentioned, until The Telegraph enquired about them”.

    He said his role advising Greensill usually involved one meeting each month. “I advised on product and organisational development but not on opportunities in the Cabinet Office or Government. It therefore follows and I can confirm that I played no part at all in the procurement process for the contracts.”

    Lord Hogan-Howe said he had joined the Cabinet office board after seeing an advertisement on its website.

    The 63-year-old worked as an adviser to Earnd, a Greensill subsidiary that secured a deal with the NHS to offer 400,000 staff early payment of their wages in exchange for a commission. His relationship with the firm ceased when Greensill declared insolvency last month.

    An Earnd insider told The Telegraph that the venture was used by Greensill last year as a “trojan horse” to help the firm win more Whitehall contracts.

    The disclosure of Lord Hogan-Howe’s dual role has piled further pressure on the Government. Ministers are struggling to contain the fallout from Greensill’s failure and lobbying on its behalf by David Cameron, who was also a paid adviser to the firm, despite having announced an independent investigation by a senior lawyer.

    Under fire at Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson said he did “share the widespread concerns about some of the stuff that we’re reading at the moment” in relation to Greensill. While it was useful for senior civil servants to engage with the private sector, “it’s not clear that those boundaries have been properly understood”, he said.

    The Treasury Select Committee said it would also investigate the Treasury’s response to lobbying. Mr Cameron made personal appeals to Rishi Sunak for Greensill to be granted access to emergency coronavirus funds.

    The Chancellor said he would “push” civil servants on the issue and Greensill had 10 meetings with officials, but was ultimately excluded from the Bank for England’s scheme to assist the most important and trustworthy companies.

    Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, claimed Lord Hogan-Howe’s work for Greensill may have violated the principles set out by Lord Nolan more than 25 years ago to tackle Whitehall sleaze.

    She said: “This newest concerning case shows a deep disregard for integrity and the spirit of the seven principles of public life. The Government’s disregard for the Nolan principles runs through the immense catalogue of cronyism they have built over the last year.”

    A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Lord Hogan-Howe transparently declared his interests, which were published online, and he had absolutely no role [for the Cabinet Office] in any procurement or policy relating to these interests.”

    Concern over Greensill’s links to the Government has also been stoked by an email seen by The Telegraph in which a senior adviser to David Cameron in Downing Street encouraged an organisation for small businesses to promote the “supply chain finance guru” Lex Greensill, founder of Greensill Capital, to its members.

    Tim Luke, then a civil servant who was a senior adviser in the former prime minister’s policy unit, attempted to introduce the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) to Mr Greensill in March 2013.

    Using a Downing Street email address, Mr Luke referred to Mr Greensill as “Lex the supply chain finance guru” and said the FSB members would “benefit from connecting” with him.

    Mr Cameron is now under close scrutiny after it was revealed he personally lobbied Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, to allow Greensill to access more taxpayer support last year as the pandemic piled pressure on its business. He also set up a private drink with himself, Mr Greensill and Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary.

    The FSB distanced itself from Mr Greensill and his firm.

    Craig Beaumont, its external affairs chief, said: “FSB has never met Mr Greensill, despite a request to do so, in early 2013.

    “David Cameron gave a keynote speech at FSB’s policy conference in 2014, as did the Chancellor George Osborne.

    “On the day, the prime minister brought an entourage which included Mr Greensill, who was then name-checked in the prime minister’s answer in a question and answer session. Mr Greensill was not registered for the conference and left with the prime minister.”

    Mr Greensill, a former investment banker who set up his firm in 2011, was an adviser to the Government but Mr Cameron has claimed to have only met him twice while in Downing Street.

    Asked to comment on Mr Luke’s email, a spokesman for Mr Cameron said: “This is not a matter for us. As David Cameron made clear in his statement on Sunday, he had very little to do with Lex Greensill while in government.”

    Mr Luke, who now works at Barclays as vice-chairman of its investment banking arm, did not respond to a request for comment. “

    1. Products are developed to meet the market, either to meet a demand or create demand. Anyone who was involved in products must know this (surely?) and is therefore involved in obtaining business. What was Lord Hogan-Howe saying, oh yes, “I advised on product…development…It therefore follows and I can confirm that I played no part at all in the procurement process for the contracts.”
      Cobblers, copper!

      1. Honestly not sure why anyone would be. The entire state is a wretched midden of corruption, fraud and theft.

        It’s so bent it’s tied itself in a knot. This is why the state must be starved.

      2. Honestly not sure why anyone would be. The entire state is a wretched midden of corruption, fraud and theft.

        It’s so bent it’s tied itself in a knot. This is why the state must be starved.

  12. British and Nato troops follow Americans in leaving war-torn Afghanistan. 15 april 2021.

    Mr Raab said: “We will support an orderly departure of our forces, whilst building up Afghanistan’s capacity for self-governance, and continuing counter-terrorism support – to protect the gains made over the last 20 years.”

    “The UK stands with Nato and the people of Afghanistan to support a more stable, peaceful future for the country, and the wider region.”

    Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said: “As we drawdown, the security of our people currently serving in Afghanistan remains our priority and we have been clear that attacks on Allied troops will be met with a forceful response.”

    Listen to these disgusting hypocritical lackeys! They and their ilk sent our people to die in a cause that served no purpose other than the expansion of American Power!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/14/nato-pledges-leave-afghanistan-together-750-british-soldiers/

    1. NATO forces are involved in a military occupation. The people of the country do not want them there.

        1. Most stupid, hmmm. Americans – check. British – check..
          Or is something else going on?

    2. Raab would be better engaged writing woke letters to DT. Except profits for mil corporations, what gains have been made over the last 20 years?

    3. The Norwegian contingent really upset our then nice blonde lady Defence Minister (why are Norwegian defence ministers always women? Discuss) by actually having weapons without flowers in the muzzles, and daring to fight back when attacked. She was nearly in tears “That’s not what they weer sent there for!” she wailed – so WTF did she expect would happen when you send armed men to places like the Stan? Give me strength!
      This video didn’t help her get a peaceful night’s sleep, either – The Telemark Battalion manning up before a (very successful) raid!
      https://youtu.be/GxOSqSUgNzE

      1. Norway’s current PM is bordering on Sumo Wrestler size from memory. I heard she got fined for breaking C-19 rules. Is that true?

        1. Yup. She’s actually quite good, as a PM.
          Apparently, the rules were hard to understand (!), and so she or her assistant organised a dinner that she didn’t actually turn up at, and there were too many people there.
          At least, she held her hand up for it, rather than trying to slope the blame on to someone else.

    1. Last night’s curry was jolly chilli… I’ll get the bogroll out of the freezer… :-((
      Morning, Bill.

    1. …Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny had to resign, and Leo Varadkar, his successor, axed the working group he had instructed to devise ways of making a land border as painless as possible. At every turn, Varadkar obeyed EU negotiator Michel Barnier and backed up his intransigent position by echoing Sinn Fein warnings that any kind of land border would lead to republican violence and the collapse of the Good Friday Agreement – which is arrant nonsense.

      Varadkar. As repellent as they come.

      1. She is back to being her happy self and we are much relieved. She can tell us so many things but not that she is in pain. Some nice weather in the offing. We open the bowls green on Saturday and we also open the bar at lunchtime.

        2. Excellent. Our committee has decided to follow Bowls England guidelines and not open the club house or the bars. All sorts of contortions.
          It our Open Morning on Saturday and we’ve had numerous enquires from people wanting to come along. We’ll have all 6 rinks open with a coach and helper on each rink.

  16. Good morning all.
    Another bright, cloudless sky up here in sunny but frosty Derbyshire with -3°C on the yard thermometer.

  17. Douglas Murray
    What the demise of Quilliam teaches us about Britain and Islam
    From magazine issue: 17 April 2021

    There was much rejoicing among Britain’s Islamists last week when the thinktank and campaigning organisation Quilliam announced that it was closing. The Islamists were pleased because for the 14 years since its founding Quilliam has been the most prominent Muslim-run organisation arguing for a progressive, non-Islamist Islam.

    The exact reasons why Quilliam has shut down are not clear. The co-founder, Maajid Nawaz, has blamed the difficulties of sustaining a non-profit in the era of Covid. Perhaps it is that, or perhaps it is something else. The group never had an easy ride. But the fact that it didn’t, and that so many prominent British Muslims are celebrating its demise, points to a problem worth noting.

    I was there in 2007 when Quilliam started. Like a lot of other people, I had spent some years wondering precisely where the reforming Muslims — even the ‘moderate Muslims’ — actually were. After 9/11, 7/7, the Danish cartoons and much more, our country was still going through the early-learning stages regarding Islam. Every time a terrorist attack happened we were assured that Islam was a religion of peace. But when some prominent Muslim organisation was brought forth to reassure us, all too often they tended to be nutters themselves.

    Generally, after every attack they would condemn the attack. But they always had a ‘but’. They might condemn the killing of cartoonists but say that blasphemy was a very serious matter in Islam and that this was something the non-believers had to realise. They tended to condemn the destruction of the World Trade Center, but were by no means against terror if it was aimed against Israel. When they condemned the 7/7 bombings they would go straight on to denouncing British foreign policy and warning of ‘Islamophobic’ backlashes. The cumulative effect felt by a lot of us was that Islam had bigger problems than many people were willing to admit.

    In time our societal understanding grew more informed. For instance, it became evident that the Muslim community (like almost every other community) had a problem with its self-elected ‘representatives’. Ordinary Muslims had no more desire to presume to ‘speak for’ or ‘lead’ their fellow religionists than any healthy gay person wants to have anything to do with Stonewall. But there was another problem too: the Islamists had spent years organising and the good guys had not.

    For instance, while the radicals of Jamaat-e-Islami don’t do very well in Pakistani politics, they have done well in Pakistani diaspora politics in the UK, dominating a number of the groups that like to present themselves as representative. Very few British Muslims feel that they are represented to government by the communal groups who seek to speak in their name. And in truth those communal groups have done an enormous disservice not just to British Muslims but to Britain as a whole.

    In 2014 a scandal erupted over a number of state schools in Birmingham that had been taken over by Islamists. Former Met deputy assistant commissioner Peter Clarke’s investigation was detailed and troubling. Individuals involved in the education of these local children were found to be churning out a diet of conspiracist thinking (not least about terror attacks), hostility to the society and ‘a constant undercurrent of anti-western sentiment’.

    Yet even now you don’t read much about the Trojan Horse affair because Britain’s hardline organisations and prominent individuals from the House of Lords down spent so much energy pouring slurry over the story. For exposing the conspiracies Peter Clarke and anybody else who expressed concern about the scandal was dismissed as a conspiracy theorist, an Islamophobe and more. To my recollection, among all the UK’s major Muslim organisations, only one accepted that the problem was real and expressed concern at what was found. That organisation was Quilliam.

    It was the same with issue after issue. Quilliam was the only Muslim group that didn’t come out with condemnations only to build up to a ‘but’. Three years ago Quilliam produced a report into the ‘grooming gangs’ question — the polite term for the mass rape of thousands of children in towns across England. Because the perpetrators appeared to be disproportionately of Muslim background, Quilliam did a great service in not only addressing the issue but doing so from a Muslim direction. This suggested to Muslims and non-Muslims alike that there were Muslims in this country willing to stand up to these problems, not simply sweep them under the rug and condemn people who’d noticed them.

    Once again the response was clear. Every Islamist and Islamist-sympathising group and individual in the UK lammed into Quilliam. It was accused of being ‘far right’ or aiding the ‘far right’, just as it had spent years being accused of ‘Islamophobia’.

    It is interesting, this disproportionate vitriol targeted not just at reformers but at real prominent moderates within Islam. The hatred and venom aimed at Nawaz and his colleagues has been exceptional. They have literally had to fear for their lives. And the hatred has far outweighed any aimed at Islamist groups operating in Britain. Certainly the moderates have got far more flak than the Hamas leaders living here. Or the Jamaat types and other backward tribalists who populate the discourse and occasionally the airwaves. And why should that be?

    For two decades now, that has been perhaps the most suggestive question. Outside a school in Batley in recent weeks some Muslims have been organising to intimidate a teacher, his family, bosses and colleagues. Will there be campaigns against them? Will the ‘mainstream’ Muslim organisations do anything to de-escalate the problem? As always they will pretend to be brokers between people who can’t be negotiated with and the state.

    I don’t say this with any glee, but anybody who put their chips on Islamic reformation or moderate Islam saving everyone should think on the demise of Quilliam. Some of this country’s best citizens, who happened also to be Muslims, gave Islamic reform a good shot here. But it was they — and not their critics — who as a result became the principal target. Not a good sign. Not a good sign at all.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-the-demise-of-quilliam-teaches-us-about-britain-and-Islam

    1. Rather a soft approach by Mister Murray. There are no moderate muslims. If they are moderate they are not muslims. Nor is there anything in the history of islam anywhere in the world at any time since the time of mohammed that even hints at moderate behaviour or peaceful coexistence. Nothing has changed. The muslins of Iran don’t believe in coexistence. Neither do the muslims of Birmingham, Rotherham, Oxford and Glasgow.
      “Not a good sign. Not a good sign at all.”. Get a grip. Looking for a sign, Mister Murray? Does Manchester Arena not provide one?

  18. Woman tells London Bridge inquest she played dead after being stabbed. 15 April 2021.

    Isobel Rowbotham says she had pleaded with Usman Khan to stop during Fishmongers’ Hall attack.

    A woman injured in the Fishmongers’ Hall terrorist attack in London has told an inquest she had played dead after the convicted terrorist Usman Khan stabbed her repeatedly.

    Isobel Rowbotham was a part-time officer manager for Learning Together, the group that organised the prisoner rehabilitation conference at the hall where the attack took place on 29 November 2019, the inquest jury was told.

    Rowbotham knew Khan before the attack and unsuccessfully pleaded with him to stop, she told the jury. She said Khan left her for dead after repeatedly stabbing her.

    This woman and her dead colleagues deserve no sympathy. They were all complicit in the myths of Islamic Innocence; that murder and bombings are the result of misguided individuals led astray by their reading and teaching of the Koran. Just for once the reality was visited on the apologists and not those victims who had no say in their presence!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/14/woman-tells-london-bridge-inquest-she-played-dead-after-being-stabbed

    1. They were naive. Sadly, their naivety is causing deaths among those who don’t follow in their gullible path.

      1. Morning Anne. It’s a terrible naiveté that contains a large dash of arrogance to endanger others in the cause of your own mistaken beliefs!

      2. Does the same apply to our politicians? It would be reasonable to assume that our government has some kind of handle on facts. Facts like the number of jihadis in the country. Facts such as the number of muslim terrorists given up to the police by the muslim community is zero. Facts like the immigrants turning up on our beaches are not refugees. They may be economic migrants or they may be soldiers, as evidenced by the fact that they are all young males.
        Our politicians are not naive. Many of them are embroiled in corruption and that is no sign of naivety.

    2. A couple of questions:

      1. Has Rowbotham’s experience changed her views on dealing with these people?

      2. Has any do-gooder’s/islamic apologist’s views been changed by this example of foolhardiness?

      1. Morning Korky. I strongly suspect that the answer to both your questions is no! The ability of the irrational to hold onto their beliefs in the face of the most obvious demonstrations of their falsehood is always a surprise to the uninitiated!

        1. Morning to you, Araminta.

          I share your doubts as it appears that the majority of people of Rowbotham’s persuasion are zealots.

          1. They are naive enough to think they can re-educate Islamic fanatics.
            They seem not to realise that they themselves are also fantasists and fanatical zealots.
            The climate change mob are similar idealists.

        2. Morning all.

          Rather like Covid then! What is it they say, you can fool people but then it’s very difficult for them to admit they’ve been fooled.

          1. 331605+ up ticks,
            Morning VW,
            Somewhat like lab/lib/con coalition supporter / member/voters then.

      2. the “woke left” never let facts get in the way of their emotional views, nor anyone that disagrees with them. If Rowbotham was to answer “yes” to your Qs, she wouldn’t be appearing the Grauniad

      3. I don’t understand why we wasted the money trying to rehabilitate them. They’re criminals. Flog them, don’t invite them to a nice sit down let’s engage with our feelings nonsense with pastries and coffee.

        Bloody hell – the world’s insane. You get paid not to work and you committing a crime gets you treated like a hero.

        Chain him to a wall. Flog him. Do this every day as a reminder to the next nutcase that there won’t be virgins, that they’re not wanted and that the door’s over there.

  19. When our children were little they had a dressing up box which they could access at any time to become pirates, fairies, even grown-ups. Now we are all like children who are being compelled to dress up by a totalitarian government.

    1. 331605+ up ticks,

      Morning HP,
      One answer is, as with a change of clothes have a change of governance get a bigger box inclusive of
      other political clothing.

      The continuing voting pattern will surely see the indigenous people’s uniform being the button to the chin tunic, in grey.

  20. 331605+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Could this be said to be “fruits of his labour ? the fight betwixt political hierarchy sh!te continues unabated.

    Having witnessed three decades of governance treacherous sh!te surely a neat notation en masse as in, NOTA on a voting paper would bring things to a head, instead of the fruitless party first regardless of their past history & treacherous actions.

    In point of fact the electorate are selecting the next Don of the political mafia.

    https://twitter.com/mrbluesky99/status/1382470611327447040

      1. And yet the politicians and the wokists are still incapable of seeing that BLM is a self-serving and corrupt organisation which wants to take advantage by stirring up racial hatred.

        And wtf are our England rugby players doing kneeling to BLM before their matches?

        1. that’s how they were set up [funded] and what they’re [BLM] are paid to do. When the magic money tree is bare, the race issue will be turned off, the next woke issue will appear

  21. Vladimir Putin is ready to roll: Secret Ukrainian government report says Russia will deploy ANOTHER 30,000 troops and will amass more than 7,000 tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery guns for ‘invasion’. 15 April 2021.

    Ukraine fears more than 100,000 Russian troops will be in place on its borders, ready to invade, by the end of the month.

    A Ukrainian government report, obtained by the Daily Mail, estimates the Kremlin will deploy up to 30,000 extra soldiers, accompanied by more tanks and rocket systems, in support of 80,000 Russian troops already awaiting orders to advance.

    The figures are based on intelligence intercepts and satellite photographs as troops and equipment travel hundreds of miles across Russia to amass around its neighbour.

    If these numbers are true and that’s a big if then it looks as though this is the real deal and the Russians are going to seize large parts of the Ukraine and face up to any response. What has prompted this if true? Well ironically it’s probably Biden’s threats. Vlad has decided that there is nothing whatsoever to be gained by trying to appease the Americans any further. Better to base Russia’s Security on a strong Military Foundation and sod the consequences

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9472071/Vladimir-Putin-ready-roll-Ukraine-fears-brink-invasion-nuclear-threat.html#comments

    1. And if it is done sooner rather than later, it becomes fait accompli, while NATO debates what to do.
      I can’t see the minor NATO countries being keen to send in thousands to be killed while waiting for America to send in its troops to support NATO troops. Biden would provide planes perhaps, but tanks and artillery and men???

      Then we move into nightmare territory, God forbid.

      China will consider whether to act across the S China Sea and Taiwan, Iran and its proxies will press on Israel, Turkey on Greece, North Korea on the South and the refugee crisis will make the current invasions look like a few guests arriving for tea. Islamists will be emboldened to attempt to take over the ‘istans and the Mediterranean countries.

      Biden is a disaster, and pushing the world into unnecessary conflict.

      1. But is it Biden or the people controlling him? He is certainly a senile old idiot whose evil supporters have enabled him to usurp the office of president.

        1. the hawks behind him pulling his strings. He’d struggle to remember where the swimming pool in his garden is, let alone S China sea etc

        2. I suspect six of one and half a dozen of the other.

          He’s not quite as senile as his detractors like to paint him, and he’s a thoroughly nasty piece of work in his own right..

        1. My guess is that NATO would struggle to fight on one, let alone three or four fronts. If/when it comes down to a shooting war the EU will be more hindrance than help.

          The USA will prioritise and defend their own interests and if that means that Europe/the EU has to be left to sort out the problems on its borders that will be what the Americans will do.

    3. For more secret reports about the Ukraine see tomorrow’s Daily Mail. (Helpfully translated by the Ukrainian traitor involved. Unless of course it is a deliberate fabrication by the Ukrainian authorities. Or possibly, a fabrication by the Russian authorities to frighten the Ukrainians. Then again it might be a fabrication by the Americans, for whatever demented reason they might have concocted – see Gulf of Tonkin incident.)

    2. David Cameron is a most underrated man.

      Very few people actually realised just what a completely disgusting person he is.

      1. If we only concentrate on Cameron though it’s a bit like lifting the lid, pulling him out then bolting it down again, covering it in concrete, four hundred tons of earth and putting a sign up.

        The entire edifice of the state is bent. This stems from their having too much money, far too little accountability and a complete lack of democratic accountability.

      2. If we only concentrate on Cameron though it’s a bit like lifting the lid, pulling him out then bolting it down again, covering it in concrete, four hundred tons of earth and putting a sign up.

        The entire edifice of the state is bent. This stems from their having too much money, far too little accountability and a complete lack of democratic accountability.

    1. I take it the women is simply being mocked and the man is playing a joke?

      As heaven’s to Betsy, if both think this is normal the world is in a worse state than even I thought.

    2. Banned? You are a doctor. Try being a big boy. Stop whining. Do what you should do.

        1. Here in Kenya I’ve got my International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis. Viz the link, am sure herd immunity / community and a pure guess, those have been jabbed [C-19 not Brazilian Jiu Jitsu] are probably dead

  27. Don’t worry about Ukraine. The US/Russia confrontation has already happened.

    On February 7, 2018, the US destroyed a 600-man Mobile Detachment Combat Group (MDCG) at Deir Ezzor, Syria.

    Vlad subsequently took most of his troops home.

    Trump spoke to Putin. Not Biden.

    1. When you have a minute could you provide a link to your statement re.Deir Ezzor.Cheers.

      1. Nope, It’s not online. You’ll have to take my word for it.

        Same as what actually happened in North Korea.

          2. Its,shall we say,a little biased in its source.
            I’ve had a quick search but can’t find any verification from another source…strange.

          3. Please yourself. Be happy with your disbelief.

            It makes no difference to me at all !

      2. that’s the closest you get with semi accurate report https://www.thedefensepost.com/2018/02/10/russians-killed-coalition-strikes-deir-ezzor-syria/ and same loc more recently https://en.abna24.com/news/dozens-soldiers-wounded-in-an-attack-on-us-base-in-deiz-ezzor_1125873.html?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=6de97c133827871b4980ca1ed1d787088f5d42a5-1618476764-0-AaQtRl2Ndt2wY7vcyugQ5eNYKLSeUkloqUzNJ_YzSab7Ig3-RvRP0aytuj0aJX2RNcznWPo19B4O73L11U9x6eOCRwUsqjWPUFXBMjNC6gnXQq4IiaHc4E-O1muRqSwvDulWc9EldbDrdJWdSVp0Edx35W6CG3EMQo6ey17rb2x-M12oJ5xjRa2KcEqx7M0byWya44M6Oqt5qynX4GDGNSeJV1P6xHd6SKACe8RWTtXmr43B4EAZHttg90VxjNqFtcswiNF1BbrDQ_uf5xcObhZoc9brxFYfD9RCB6_2Y5mccJdjbriOL-IwnZ1WqUXWOWFhR9bp8r9tkyfU6884RtXgxsDu5ozKbR_u40mSWXwzzP5L86SkBJ75g_9_DIU-SYW2qpG2K48VgPQ1J9sTPX1tMq_nGHj0EBRhd9ZwWaErWOFrhQwI8Js4lW3UDfF34VPvNIEPKoBIymHv3VVXwou2Ral5B26UhMHrC62E1UiX

    2. Wouldn’t that be because Trump was president then, not Biden?

      I think Putin sees a weak, fat enemy. He sees a nation where the very state itself is smashing in doors to arrest people for pointless charges – all to retain power. It sees a silly little girl dictating shutting down our economy through energy restrictions. It sees hypocrisy, bloat and disease.

        1. both, it wouldn’t be too difficult to conclude VVP’s approach that when “rivals / enemies” internally tear themselves apart, don’t interrupt

      2. Like the slammers, they both know that the opposition does not have the guts to fight. Western principles and values are toast to anyone who pushes. Its diversity innit.

        1. They didn’t used to be. Once we believed in something and stood up for it. Usually at cannon point. If we’re no longer going to defend our vaunted values then they’re not really values, are they? Just marketing slogans.

        2. They didn’t used to be. Once we believed in something and stood up for it. Usually at cannon point. If we’re no longer going to defend our vaunted values then they’re not really values, are they? Just marketing slogans.

  28. Mongo is awake and happy, but a bit sleepy. A small cyst was removed from inside his right back leg and he has some mild worming tablets to take. He’s very groggy at the moment but his tail was wagging – a bit like someone who has just woken up waving. He’s not had tablets before, but he did really well on his first one.

    As warqueen is working and Junior is at school, I’m going to bundle him into the truck, take him to the beach and put a blanket over him and let him sleep it off in the open air. I’ll know he’s 100% when he plods into the sea.

      1. Thank you everyone! He’s met the roofing people now as well and seems his old self again.

  29. More shrill screeching from our Bag Lady in the World’s Talking Shop https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ending-the-use-of-sexual-violence-in-conflict?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=b8426703-a41e-43e2-ae86-353ca2d8aae6&utm_content=daily [sic: We are the only country with a Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, with a dedicated team and funding]. She forgot to add “and doing Foxtrot Alpha”. This is the least of south Sudan’s problems

    1. Do we have the equivalent here in the U.K.? I think we have a Women’s minister or some such. She makes one helluva fuss about rape and sexual violence in this kingdom! NOT.

    2. Sudan used to be a well-governed place. But that was before genocide, endless civil war, famine, plague, collapse of infrastructure, religious persecution and now partition.

      But of course the good old days were when the British ruled the place and my father was there.

      2. The damage set in in 1955 / 56 not giving, now south Sudan it’s Independence. Not helped that the Condominium maintained a situation of ongoing Anglo-Egyptian rivalry. While offering the SG a broader field of action than that available to colonial administrations subordinated to the Colonial Office in London. The SPS was regarded in Colonial era as the best, way ahead of India

    3. Why is that something to crow about? It’s a massive waste of money. What do they do? Travel to a warzone and shout ‘No!’ when the soldiers start assaulting women?

      It’s a noble aim for something to end, but posturing about it does nothing.

      1. mng. That’s how they’ve been this millenium. Rest assured they never get remotely near a warzone frontline. I’ve dealt with a few of them in south Sudan and they never leave the confines of their secure bubble in Juba. All of them, useless. Put a straight Q to them, if you;re lucky they’ll waffle, if not they magically all become Usain Bolt and you never see them again [which partially is the intention – they just get in the way and screw things up royally]

    4. Why is that something to crow about? It’s a massive waste of money. What do they do? Travel to a warzone and shout ‘No!’ when the soldiers start assaulting women?

      It’s a noble aim for something to end, but posturing about it does nothing.

  30. No wonder universities say they are strapped for cash – besides many dabbling in useless research and paying ridiculous salaries to Vice-Chancellors they have a Director of Fair Access and Participation according to one such job holder Chris Millward – FFS words fail me (well printable ones anyway)

  31. WTF….words fail me!

    The Japanese Art of Decluttering…
    Marie Kondo Japanese de-cluttering expert on Radio Five Live.

    https://fs.blog/2014/12/the-life-changing-magic-of-tidying-up/#:~:text=Tidying%20and%20organizing%20our%20homes,to%20our%20happiness%20and%20productivity.

    Tidying and organizing our homes can make a huge difference to our happiness and productivity. The Japanese art of decluttering focuses on the philosophical side of decluttering, while also offering practical advice.

    “When you are choosing what to keep, ask your heart; when you are choosing where to store something, ask your house.”

    2. I have always found it difficult to throw things away either because I deceive myself into thinking they might come in handy in the future or for sentimental reasons. The area round my desk is a shambles.

      I remember a cartoon showing a scruffy chap with a very untidy desk with the caption:

      Untidy desk, untidy mind.

      The following day a cartoon appeared showing a smart looking chap with no clutter on his desk at all. The caption read:

      Empty desk. Empty mind.

      Which category do fellow Nottlers fall into?

      1. Tidy desktop but everything is there for a purpose – organised mind.

        Ex-military but still thinking that way, Richard.

      3. Definitely the first – though I think my mind is less cluttered than the house. I haven’t got a desk.

        1. ….Though I do have a ‘desktop’ on my laptop and everything in there is quite well ordered and not untidy at all!

      6. Empty desk, nothing out of place. Our table is always set for the next meal. Todays lunch red wine is open and waiting.

      7. I have a mind which is untidy to the point of artistry. I don’t own a desk.

      8. Well my ‘desk’ is a tad untidy, but i know where everything is and what it represents and what it’s all for.
        Once in a while the ‘management’, ‘tidies’ and i can’t find anything.

      9. Cluttered desk when busy, swiftly made uncluttered at the weekend when I get time to sort it.

        I do have loads of small storage around me though for the various tools.

      10. I’m a squirrel. Every time I’ve got rid of something, I’ve discovered I need it some time later!

    3. The action we take is to put things we think we do not want or use, is the put them in a store shed, and if we have not needed it/them for a year we dispose of them. We have currently nothing in the store shed and a very tidy home and a place for everything. Do not extend , dispose.

  32. Meanwhile .on the contact line in Ukraine as the big boys trade insults.

    A man born 1962 was killed yesterday by AFU shelling at 15 Novorossiyska Street in the Kievsky district of Donetsk. This was reported by the DPR Representative Office to the JCCC.

      1. The OSCE are supposed to police the contact line.
        They are led by Mrs Lind,the Swedish minister of Foreign Affairs.
        She is ever so slightly Russophobic in her outlook.

        1. Experts picking their way through the rubble and analysing what is left of the recorded phone call realised that what Sir Alec Douglas-Home actually said was, “Let’s bomb RUSH HOUR”….

      1. All the Queen has to do is tell her family what uniforms to wear. I expect everyone of them would obey her command.

      3. It reveals the mindset via the MSM conduit, when it’s her funeral, what “rules”, posing as guidelines, will be in place. Break down the structure, re-invent the history – command and control

    2. Good morning, Plum

      This what I posted last night:

      DM Story

      NONE of the Royals will wear uniform at Philip’s funeral to spare Harry and Andrew’s blushes: Duke of Sussex ‘wanted to wear military outfit’ alongside his uncle – but Queen decides they’ll ALL wear mourning dress in departure from tradition

      So the only way to stop Harry wearing a uniform to which he is no longer entitled is that all the other members of the Royal family entitled to wear their uniforms and wishing to do so have be instructed by the Queen to wear civilian clothes.

      More pandering to the spoilt and nasty brat. The sooner he goes back to the States and stays there the better.

    3. Aside from the usual stirring from our ill-informed, clickbait-chasing meeja churnalists, I was under the impression that uniforms would only be worn by the Royals at a State Funeral.
      As Prince Philip’s funeral is not a State Funeral (not that he ever wanted such a circus), suits are the normal attire.

    4. 331605+ up ticks,
      Morning P,
      In many respects it is her day also.

      Once upon a time an English / GB uniform throughout Europe ( Tommy Atkins will confirm) meant what it said on the cap badge in a great many ways.

      Now with political input one may ask is the forces a tool of the governance political parties ?

      🎵,
      Fings ain’t wot they use to be.

    5. Poor old thing – she just wants to keep the peace. A funeral free from family rows. I don’t blame her.

        1. I’m not sure it was about Harry.
          Andrew was using the funeral as an opportunity to get his “promotion”, which was on hold until the Epstein/Maxwell affair is over. Typical Andrew.

          3. As I said yesterday:

            “What is the Vice Admiral’s vice?”
            “The Rear Admiral’s rear.”

  35. A proposed summit offered to Russian President Vladimir Putin by his American counterpart, Joe Biden, won’t go ahead in the “near future,” Moscow has said. It comes amid speculation that new US sanctions on Moscow are imminent.

      1. i don’t think so.the Western powers know they would lose Ukraine if push came to shove.
        All those $ Billions wasted for nothing.No,they’ll huff and puff but nothing else.
        Ukraine ,under its present leadership is a useful thorn in Russia’s side.They’ll save it for another day.
        Its worth noting that Zelensky was elected on a pro-Russia ticket but he’s been bought so he won’t see another term.
        The last i saw his popularity rating was at 21%.The majority of Ukrainians don’t want trouble with Russia…God knows they have more that enough trouble domestically.

      2. If he does invade he’ll get hold of the six Eurofighters that Britain sent to the Ukraine.

        Could be some useful technical information for his Air Force.

    2. A proposed summit offered to Russian President Vladimir Putin by his American counterpart, Joe Biden, won’t go ahead in the “near future,”…

      So it’s war then Harry?

      1. My daughter in law tells me that they are TWICE the price of human ones….

        As the old saying goes, “Why pay less?”

        1. I didn’t know humans put an absorbent mat down to pooh.

          Learn something new every day. Funny old world.

    2. 331605+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      My take on it Og is that I consider it to be a privacy / & moral issue as in covering up a dick in a dickhead.

    3. That mask is designed to stop dust particles being breathed in. It does not stop COVID particles being breathed out through the yellow outlet.

  40. U.S. cancels warships deployment to Black Sea -Turkish diplomatic sources. 15 April 2021.

    ANKARA (Reuters) – The United States has cancelled the deployment of two warships to the Black Sea, Turkish diplomatic sources said on Wednesday, amid concerns over a Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s borders.

    Washington and NATO have been alarmed by the build-up near Ukraine and in Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Last week, Turkey said Washington would send two warships to the Black Sea, in a decision Russia called an unfriendly provocation.

    Someone in Washington has twigged that the Russians are not fooling!

    https://www.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-usa-turkey-russia-int/u-s-cancels-warships-deployment-to-black-sea-turkish-diplomatic-sources-idUSKBN2C12U3

    1. The Crimea, the Russian peninsula that the Soviet Union moved to the Ukraine SSR?

      1. History does have a funny way sometimes.
        During the Cuban missile crisis it was The USSR on America’s doorstep.
        Now its America on Russia’s doorstep…..but wait.
        The President of The USSR during the Cuba crisis was……………………………………….Ukrainian!

    2. If it kicks off ,Finland could see running battles in the strawberry fields!!!

      More than 10,000 foreign seasonal workers are expected in Finland this year, mainly from Ukraine, Russia and Thailand. The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK), which has begun operating charter flights from Ukraine, says that the flights and the transport of labourers to their workplaces are Covid-safe.

      1. It could become an annual event, like tomato throwing in Mediterranean countries, drawing crowds from across the world and providing an export market for Cornish Clotted Cream.

        1. The Finns have a magic shooting competition, called “Finnish Brutality” that is a real test of marksmanship and fitness.

    3. You know of course that Vlad is telling the truth when he says that Ukraine is not a country, it’s a district. Yet, if you google it now, that information has disappeared down the memory hole. I know that it’s true because my father’s parents came from Odessa and if you’d told them they were Ukrainian they’d have been puzzled to say the least. The name Ukraine had no place in my family history or identity. They were Russian Jews.

      2. Did you know that Kiev was once the Capital of Russia…long before Moscow was even a city.

        1. In the Soviet era but not prior to that. It had been Russia since the time of Catherine the Great and Catherine took it from the Ottoman Empire.

  41. Nicola Sturgeon pledges

    to allow Scots a FOUR DAY week, free
    dentists, billions more for the NHS, an independence referendum within
    five years and NO income tax rises as she unveils SNP election manifesto
    – but doesn’t say how she will pay for it all

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9474027/Nicola-Sturgeon-vows-make-transformational-multibillion-pound-boost-spending-NHS.html

    Scrap the Barnett formula, she clearly doesn’t need England’s money.

    1. The EU will pay for it all when Scotland gains independence and is welcomed into the EU.

      1. In the unlikely event that Scotland was allowed back into the EU, I’m sure that they would be required to be net contributors and the UK could make life even more difficult for Scotland than the EU is doing in NI/Eire.

        1. Why would rUK do that? Our complaint has been that our democratic decision was not accepted by the EU and they did all that they could to prevent our leaving and, failing that, to make life as difficult as possible. Descend to the level of the EU?

          1. ” Descend to the level of the EU? “

            Treat the Scots as the EU treated and continues to treat us.

            As far as I’m concerned, if the Scots vote for independence let them have it and good luck to them, but I’m damned if I can see why the rUK should be expected to adopt the “moral high ground” as usual.

            I’m sick to the back teeth of politicians who want to feel morally superior at my expense.

            What makes you think that Sturgeon and co won’t fight tooth and nail to screw rUK to the floor if they get their vote? What makes you think that they will accept their rightful share of the UK’s debts and other liabilities? What makes you think that once out they won’t make as much trouble as possible on our borders? What makes you think the EU won’t use Scotland as a stick to beat the rUK?

            I used to be very pro the Union. No longer.

          3. See my just earlier reply to Bill Thomas, Sos. That’ll put a crimp in their operations.

            My only regret is that I shall have to drink Welsh Whiskey.

        2. I debated adding another sentence “Pigs might fly”, but decided it wouldn’t be necessary.

        3. They might get a few bonus years at the start – cf Spain and Baltic States. They get used to it and then have a very nasty shock when they are told they have to pay in…

          1. Raise Hadrian’s and the Antonine walls to 30 feet, slap on a huge border-crossing fee, plus a boarding fee at the port of export.
            Close down Faslane and move the sub-base either to Workington or Plymouth, Take the Royal Bank of Scotland out of Scotland ( I think it belongs to Natwest Group) Get Halifax to take out Bank of Scotland. No more Barnett boodle and the EU won’t want a bankrupt lump hanging onto their piles and that’s Scotland knackered again – as it was in 1707.

        4. They might get a few bonus years at the start – cf Spain and Baltic States. They get used to it and then have a very nasty shock when they are told they have to pay in…

    3. Does she not know magic money trees don’t grow at latitudes north of 54 degrees?

    4. Scottish conservatives counter with a dose of reality. SNP will in a landslide.

      Me, Me, Me!

      1. Sad that people prefer to be lied to than told the truth. I think she’s using it as blackmail instead of an independence ref.

        However, I’d give her her referendum – she just takes on a third of the debt, pays to use Sterling – at Barnett formula cash terms, we remove all public sector jobs from Scotland leaving massive unemployment.

        She’ll be stuffed properly then. The SNP need a slap and to be brought to heel.

        1. “Sad that people prefer to be lied to than told the truth.”

          True – but what has been happening throughout the UK since the plague began last year.

          1. I have referred to this extract from William Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage before. I recommend all those who have not read it to do so.

            The companionship of Hayward was the worst possible thing for Philip. He was a man who saw nothing for himself, but only through a literary atmosphere, and he was dangerous because he had deceived himself into sincerity. He honestly mistook his sensuality for romantic emotion, his vacillation for the artistic temperament, and his idleness for philosophic calm. His mind, vulgar in its effort at refinement, saw everything a little larger than life size, with the outlines blurred, in a golden mist of sentimentality. He lied and never knew that he lied, and when it was pointed out to him said that lies were beautiful. He was an idealist.

          2. My fave author.
            I saw the film: Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak in the 60’s. and I was hooked.
            Love his short stories too….ideal bedtime reading.

  42. Simon Blake, chief executive of the community interest company Mental Health First Aid England, has formally launched legal proceedings against the actor and London mayoral candidate Laurence Fox.
    Blake announced his intention to sue the actor-turned-aspiring politician in October after Fox called Blake “a paedophile” on Twitter.
    Blake, who is deputy chair of the LGBT charity Stonewall, filed the defamation lawsuit with the High Court on 1 April, in conjunction with RuPaul’s Drag Race star Crystal and Coronation Street actor Nicola Thorp, who said they were subjected to the same slur by Fox on Twitter.

    https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/charity-leader-files-defamation-claim-against-laurence-fox-paedophile-slur/governance/article/1712406?bulletin=governance-bulletin&utm_medium=EMAIL&utm_campaign=eNews%20Bulletin&utm_source=20210415&utm_content=Third%20Sector%20Governance%20Bulletin%20(35)::&email_hash=

    1. Didn’t they call him a racist and he replied with that insult, knowing it was equally as baseless?

      The problem is, Mr Fox forgot that the Left are thoroughly, utterly self obsessed evil berks.

  44. 331605 up ticks,
    listening to vine early on & the overseers minions pushing for, the way I see it, compulsory vaccine regarding care workers, if a person has had the two shot requirement then that should make them immune to everything but, sad to say, politico’s bullsh!te.

    Maybe their pushing the governance jab for a job agenda is if God forbid issues and the jab has an odious fall out later then seemingly the reluctant jobs for jabbers innocents must also suffer.

    3. Just wear RN uniform. That’s almost black. Oh, wait, we can’t have that because it’ll upset Prince Hapless of Wokeness.

      3. When I was an RN Artificer Apprentice, we were given a clothing allowance, to get out No1 Uniforms Peaked Cap, suit with shiny buttons,
        not bell bottoms

        We used to use the local Hepworthto buy our made to measure suits

        One bright sunny Wednesday afternoon, we dressed up for Divisions on the Parade Ground

        All our Dark Blue suits looked very Dark GREEN….

        It seemed to go unnoticed, by the PTB

    4. Just wear RN uniform. That’s almost black. Oh, wait, we can’t have that because it’ll upset Prince Hapless of Wokeness.

  46. Alex Salmond tells LBC he ‘does not know’ if Russia was behind Salisbury poisonings. 15 april 2021.

    Alex Salmond has said he does not know if Vladimir Putin and the Russian state were behind the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury.

    The UK says Russian GRU agents are behind the attack aimed at former spy Sergei Skripal, whose daughter Yulia was also exposed to the nerve agent.

    Dawn Sturgess, 44, died after coming into contact with a perfume bottle thought to have contained Novichok before being discarded. Her partner Charlie Rowley also fell ill.

    This has surfaced again! It’s just a sure and cheap way of injuring Salmond politically! As I noted last week his failure to admit openly that he doesn’t believe this load of twaddle ensures he suffers without being able to respond.

    https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/alex-salmond-russia-salisbury-novichok-poisonings/

      1. Once, when very angry, my Mother said, “If you do that again, I shall smack you so hard, you won’t know what day it is for a month of Sundays.”

        Like a fool – all innocent, I replied, “It’ll be Sunday….” I regretted that, the moment the words left my lips…!

      1. In my childhood, it was China. Africa was well administered by the imperialist, slave-owning, British.

    4. If you keep pulling that face the wind will change and you will stay like it.

      And she was right

        1. I was 10 years old before i realised that the woman that brought me up was my elder sister. Mother was distant.

    10. About 4 of those were missing from my childhood.
      In exchange, I had ‘Anne, stop showing off”; “stop setting your brother a bad example” and, as I moved into my teens, snarky remarks about my shape.

    11. About 4 of those were missing from my childhood.
      In exchange, I had ‘Anne, stop showing off”; “stop setting your brother a bad example” and, as I moved into my teens, snarky remarks about my shape.

  48. Where do they find these people?

    ‘Abolish the Rich’ to Combat Climate Crisis and Overpopulation, Says Far-Left MP Claudia Webbe

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2021/04/900px-Official_portrait_of_Claudia_Webbe_MP_crop_2-2-640×480.jpeg

    Suspended Labour MP Claudia Webbe said that the “rich must be abolished” in order to confront overpopulation and the so-called “climate crisis”.

    Taking to social media on Tuesday evening, Webbe wrote that the “Earth is overpopulated; there are too many rich people,” adding: “To solve the climate crisis; the rich must be abolished”.

    Her comments came in response to a report from the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Behaviour Change, which claimed that the wealthiest 5 per cent of the global population were responsible for 37 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions growth between the years 1990 and 2015, more than double that of the bottom 50 per cent of the world’s population.

    The lead author of the report, Prof Peter Newell of Sussex University told the BBC: “Rich people who fly a lot may think they can offset their emissions by tree-planting schemes or projects to capture carbon from the air. But these schemes are highly contentious and they’re not proven over time.”

    Prof Newell said that wealthy people “simply must fly less and drive less. Even if they own an electric SUV that’s still a drain on the energy system and all the emissions created making the vehicle in the first place”.

    Echoing the demand, the far-left MP wrote: “Eliminating energy and resource intensive lifestyles of the richest would by far rapidly reduce emissions.”

    The irony of Webbe’s call to abolish the rich was not lost on social media users, who pointed out that with her salary as an MP she is in the top one per cent of earners globally.

    ConservativeHome’s Mark Wallace noted that she earns £81,932 per year as an MP, which even accounting for taxes puts her in the top income bracket in the world.

    “I’m not even kidding, Claudia Webbe has just called for herself to be abolished,” Wallace quipped.

    Webbe became the MP for Leicester East in 2019, replacing disgraced Labour MP Keith Vaz. She was suspended from the Labour Party last September amid allegations that she threatened a woman, for which she is currently on trial.

    Separately in February, Webbe was found to have breached Parliamentary standards by failing to declare her second income as a London councillor — an extra £10,000 a year on top of her Member’s salary. Webbe apologised, and said she had failed to understand what was required of her as a member of the house because she was a newly elected MP and the Coronavirus crisis had distracted her, local paper the Leicster Mercury reported.

    Prior to her election, Webbe served as a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee and as councillor for Islington between 2010 and 2018. She also formerly worked as a political advisor to then-Mayor of London Ken Livingstone.

    1. I suspect that when one takes into account her own possessions, her salary and expenses and accrued pension rights as well as her use of energy she will be in the top 5%.

    3. A former councillor for the Independent Socialist Republic of Islington says it all.

    7. There’s a grain of truth. If we got rid of every member of the WEF and all the tech billionaires, the Climate Crisis would go away.

      Of course like all leftards, by “the rich” she actually means the productive working and middle classes.

      1. Her salary & expenses aren’t too bad either.
        I’d swap our combined incomes for hers.

    9. Our beloved lefty party are on the same bandwagon with their envy and hatred of success. At their latest party convention they were suggesting that any fortunes over one billion should be confiscated and annual earnings over a million would attract a one hundred percent tax. Add to that a commitment to abolush the armed forces to pay for universal dental care and pharmacare and they are onto a winner.

      1. Considering the tax rate on higher earners, and that so many deliberately avoid tax where they can, truly, is she utterly dumb to think that such a stupid idea would raise tax?

        I’m going to take everything you’ve earned!
        Fine. I’ll stop earning it here then.

        Wot! You can’t do that!

        1. It could be more a case of envy,if I cannot have it nor can you!

          With all of those hare brained ideas (there were many more as they tried to outdo the greenies), the only policy proposal that caused concern was one supporting Palestinian rights.

        2. It could be more a case of envy,if I cannot have it nor can you!

          With all of those hare brained ideas (there were many more as they tried to outdo the greenies), the only policy proposal that caused concern was one supporting Palestinian rights.

    13. Climate change is a scam designed to rob the poorer under force and give money to the rich – usually the statist onanists.

      It’s corporatism by the back door.

    14. mng, I was scrolling down slowly, coffee intake’s the priority and then this harridan came into view. Another sip of coffee [big one] then wondered what point you were making posting Lily Munster on this site. Then I read the article and still believe my initial impression’s correct.

      Is Lily Munster still being suspended from the Severn Bridge?

  49. Russia Summons U.S. Envoy for ‘Harsh Talks’ on New Sanctions. 15 April 2021.

    Russia has summoned U.S. Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan for “harsh talks” after Washington widened economic sanctions and ordered diplomatic expulsions in retaliation to what it calls Moscow’s malign behavior, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.

    Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ministry would like to speak with Sullivan less than an hour after President Joe Biden ordered restrictions on U.S. banks buying new Russian government debt, sent home 10 diplomats who include alleged spies and sanctioned 32 people with alleged ties to 2020 election interference.

    This is looking increasingly ominous you guys! I hope you’ve all laid in supplies like good little Nottlers!.

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/15/russia-summons-us-envoy-for-harsh-talks-on-new-sanctions-a73610

    1. I may drive over to the border tomorrow .See if i can find out what’s going on.

  50. Russia Summons U.S. Envoy for ‘Harsh Talks’ on New Sanctions. 15 April 2021.

    Russia has summoned U.S. Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan for “harsh talks” after Washington widened economic sanctions and ordered diplomatic expulsions in retaliation to what it calls Moscow’s malign behavior, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.

    Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ministry would like to speak with Sullivan less than an hour after President Joe Biden ordered restrictions on U.S. banks buying new Russian government debt, sent home 10 diplomats who include alleged spies and sanctioned 32 people with alleged ties to 2020 election interference.

    This is looking increasingly ominous you guys! I hope you’ve all laid in supplies like good little Nottlers!.

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/15/russia-summons-us-envoy-for-harsh-talks-on-new-sanctions-a73610

      2. “Indeed, as we report today, a poll by the Evening Standard reveals that two-thirds of Londoners would carry such a passport if it meant they could attend concerts or sporting events again, with only one-fifth saying they would refuse them.”

        Didn’t bother reading any further.

          1. Ex-pats seem to have the same opinion of London as most Brits.
            Same as most Americans view their capital city.

          2. I am/was a Londoner.
            It ain’t recognisable as the city I could wander around almost risk-free as a child.

        4. A lot depends on who is asked – I imagine if they ask young people who’re just out of school they will happily say that. After all, they’re children.

          With every government survey I remember this (I apologise in advance for posting this same clip multiple times):

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

        5. A lot depends on who is asked – I imagine if they ask young people who’re just out of school they will happily say that. After all, they’re children.

          With every government survey I remember this (I apologise in advance for posting this same clip multiple times):

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA

  52. Russia’s spies attacked British democracy, says Raab. 15 April 2021.

    Britain has accused Russia’s foreign intelligence service of conducting a series of cyberattacks on the West and attempting to influence democratic elections.

    The announcement came after President Biden issued unprecedented sanctions against Russia, including restricting its ability to issue sovereign debt, in response to the cyberattacks, election meddling and putting bounties on the heads of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

    There’s a good little lackey! Not true of course. There’s no British Democracy to attack!

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/biden-to-levy-sanctions-on-russia-for-cyberattack-66vglvt7d

      1. “Bounties”? Less than a dozen Americans have been killed in Afghanistan in the last two years!

          5. Why was Peddy banned?

            Could he be messaged and come back? I may not agree with what he says, but I’ll fight to defend his right to say it – unless he was offensive to people.

          6. Yes, I would like to see Peddy back, he did make things interesting around here!

    1. Roses are red,

      violets are blue,

      if you’re not very careful,

      I’ll have you for stew

    2. Roses are red,

      violets are blue,

      if you’re not very careful,

      I’ll have you for stew

  54. ~ Steve Martin…
    Hollywood must be the only place on earth where you can be fired by a man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a baseball cap.

  55. ~ George Roberts…
    The first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone.

    Spike Milligan…
    The best cure for Sea Sickness is to sit under a tree.

  56. ~ George Roberts…
    The first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone.

    Spike Milligan…
    The best cure for Sea Sickness is to sit under a tree.

    2. Couple of points:

      1. Those 102 models all use the same or similar representations of physical, chemical and biological processes, so it’s not surprising they produce similar results.

      2. The change in global mean temperature over the past few decades is minute compared to past changes when Man wasn’t around to ‘influence’ climate.

    3. And that’s why the alarmists rebranded “global warming” to “climate change”.

  59. 331605+ up ticks,
    That “could” word again, one thing it WILL do for certain is to introduce
    another layer of corruption, dodgy dealings, to a Country already steeped in such sh!te, mind it will deflect from the politico brown evelopers.

    Domestic Vaccine Passports Could Create ‘Two-Tier Society’, Warns Equalities Watchdog

    1. Who’s this Jeremy Vine you NTTLrs’ keep following/quoting?

      Asking on behalf of we Brits who never watch/listen to/read the BBC.

      1. He’s not exclusive to the BBC. His discussion show that clip is taken from is on Channel 5. He’s best known on BBC for his Monday-Friday late morning show on Radio 2, a mixture of music, current affairs interviews and listener phone-ins.

  70. Starter for 10.

    Which Breitbart thread was this posted on…

    “Jack S • an hour ago
    Another American export we could have done without.
    3•Edit•Reply•Share”

      1. Would you like to sin
        With Elinor Glyn
        On a tiger skin?
        Or would you prefer
        To err with her
        On some other fur?

  72. That’s me for this day of mixed weather. Dry and cold; then sunny; then – as I was in the middle of weeding, rain and cold. Now damp and cold with sun trying weakly to brighten the evening. Thank God there was no news to take my mind off it…

    Sun promised all day tomorrow and- wait for it – a max of EIGHT degrees C. Double figures (just) from Monday. They say….

    A demain.

    1. I managed to clear out the rubbish piled into the garden room which builds up over winter. Hoovered the astroturf and put the chairs out. Dolly helped by doing a pooh in the middle of the faux grass.

        1. It’s okay. She’s still on her diet biscuits so it is never runny. Easy to pick up and lob over the back fence.

          Enjoy your evening.

        2. It’s okay. She’s still on her diet biscuits so it is never runny. Easy to pick up and lob over the back fence.

          Enjoy your evening.

  73. I am becoming more grumpy than ever, but I cannot be alone in dismissing these weeping heart charity adverts, especially by Attenborough, for Yemen, water etc. While the situation is tragic, why aren’t these slammer and Davos billionaires funding care?

  74. Russia: Foreign Office summons Russian ambassador. 15 April 2021.

    The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has summoned the Russian Ambassador over the United Kingdom’s deep concern at a pattern of malign activity, including cyber intrusions, interference in democratic processes, and the build-up of military forces near the Ukrainian border and in illegally-annexed Crimea.

    The Mouse that Roared! Laptops ready you chaps! Now throw! Good shot Patel! That’s one in the eye for the blighter!

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/russia-foreign-office-summons-russian-ambassador

    1. Crimea is a non-starter.Britain was a member of the EU at the time.
      They were invited to send observers but only a few pro-Russian ones bothered.

    2. As Demi Moore said in A Few Good Men, “I object, ….. I strenuously object……”

    3. PUS Barton then realised his mistake of letting the Skirpals out of the broom cupboard for drinks and had to cover his tracks given his House of Lords membership is up for review

  76. A future war with China or Russia looms on Joe Biden’s horizon. 15 april 2021

    There is growing concern in the White House and the Pentagon that Joe Biden may one day have to fight a war.

    Not a small war. A big one. Against China or Russia.

    Well since it is of his seeking it’s inevitable!

    What I’m waiting for now is an announcement of the breaking off of Diplomatic Relations. The War should follow shortly thereafter!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/15/potential-future-war-china-russia-looms-joe-bidens-horizon2/

    1. It won’t happen.Joe is just the puppet.Those in the background will play a bit of brinksmanship…nothing more.
      Putin doesn’t want confrontation.The Russian economy is his priority.
      He still sees a lot to do before he leaves office.

      1. But he won’t tolerate being backed into a position where he loses serious face. Russian leaaders must be seen to be strong men.

        1. Putin is a pragmatist…i don’t think he cares what foreign leaders think of him.
          He’s a proud Russian..they couldn’t be in better hands(and they know it.)

          2. Noone comes close to his ratings on the domestic front.
            His record,since he came on the scene(the only wise decision Yeltsin made) speaks for itself.

          3. Noone comes close to his ratings on the domestic front.
            His record,since he came on the scene(the only wise decision Yeltsin made) speaks for itself.

      2. But he won’t tolerate being backed into a position where he loses serious face. Russian leaaders must be seen to be strong men.

      3. I think you are wrong Harry while wishing you were right. Vlad has had enough. Like Japan in 1940 he is faced with the choice of surrender or fight! He has in my view decided to fight! .

        2. He can’t allow the E.U or America to be seen pushing him around. Though i think a massive show of force will work i don’t believe it will escalate unless someone does something stupid.

          2. Good afternoon, Minty.

            The U.S did recall two warships that were going to the black sea so there is some hope.

          3. Good afternoon, Minty.

            The U.S did recall two warships that were going to the black sea so there is some hope.

    2. At least, UK will not be involved

      All our Three Servicemen. Jack, Tommy and Algy are in Lockdown

    3. At least, UK will not be involved

      All our Three Servicemen. Jack, Tommy and Algy are in Lockdown

      1. President Trump was ridiculed for having a private face to face meeting with President Putin, sitting close together.

        Mr Trump is not as stupid as he looks.

        That was true diplomacy. Showing trust.

  77. Slow cooked ox cheek today with creamy mash and buttered carrots.

    Took my inspiration from Masterchef. To the carrot, celery and onion i added Hendersons, bay leaf, peppercorns, dates, tamarind, anchovies, marmite, brown sauce, two beef stock cubes and a bottle of red.

    Boiled all that up while the ox cheeks were roasting and then sieved it and pored it over the beef. 2 hours at 130c. Delicious.

    1. Oxcheek is wonderful. I usually slow cook it with assorted ve. and little extras.
      A few months ago, a chum did a superb meal with pigs cheek.

      BRAISED PIGS CHEEKS
      12 cheeks they are quite small, but you should have enough to freeze for another time)
      1 large onion finely chopped
      2 diced carrots
      2 leeks finely chopped
      knob of butter
      4 fresh thyme sprigs – stripped
      1 bay leaf
      1 tbsp runny honey
      200 ml of quality cider
      300ml chicken stock
      2 heaped tsp grainy mustard
      100ml double cream

      OVEN – 150

      Dust pigs cheeks in seasoned flour / brown in oil for two to 3 minutes
      In a heavy based casserole gently fry onions, carrot & leeks in oil and butter for 20 mins(until soft). Add the herbs and honey and cook until veg are golden brown & sticky
      Add the cheeks, cider and stock. Season and bring to the boil – cover with lid.
      Slow cook in oven for around 2 – 2.5 hours until tender.
      Remove cheeks, bring sauce to the boil and add mustard, and cream. Mix until thickened.
      Add cheeks or serve with sauce on the side.

      3. Very nice. I bought piggy cheeks at the same time as the ox cheeks.

        However i don’t like my veg to become one flavour with everything else. I would add all that veg in the last 20 mins.

        Also i would leave out the cream as it masks flavour.

        I will do the recipe though. Thanks.

    2. I’d have a go at a tongue in cheek recipe but I would be afraid of biting off more than I could chew. 🤔

    3. I would never add Henderson’s, Marmite, brown sauce and beef stock cubes to anything …

      1. May i ask why not?

        It’s not as if one can taste them individually. They create a depth of flavour that goes well with beef.

        1. I prefer to choose my own herbs and spices; many proprietary sauces and flavourings contain far too much sugar, salt and MSG …

          I do it ‘My Way’, Phil …

          1. I understand.

            What Masterchef has taught me is balance.

            I didn’t mention the amounts or all of the ingredients.

            Sherry vinegar went in there too. Among other things.

            I don’t believe msg was involved.

  80. I got a Guaranteed Growth Bond Statement from NSI this morning. The Statement had the followin beneath the Investment details :-

    Important Change to how your Bond earns interest for income tax purposes

    For our 2, 3 and 5 year Guaranteed Growth Bonds that are purchased or renewed on or after 1 May 2019, all interest will be treated as being received in the year in which the Bond matures. This is different to how interest was treated for previous issues, where interest was treated as being received annually.
    Interest will be calculated daily and will be added to your Bond on each anniversary of investment.
    I wonder who thinks these changes up as they complicate completing a tax return and in normal times a large amount on a 5 year Bond could push a person into a higher tax bracket with all the disadvantages.

          3. Just shows how very little you know about cats.

            They are ENORMOUS – three feet long – weigh getting on for 5 kilos – hunt mice, birds, and – yes, soon – moles.

            And are adorable.

    2. That’s because you bought in the heady days of 1.5% interest… Now NSI will offer to renew the bond at the magnificent rate of 0.01%

      I am moving mine to the Yorkshire Building Society which pays 0.50%

      1. When i bought my NS & I bonds they were locked in at 1.95 %. If i allow them to continue i get the same rate.

        (smugface).

          3. Just checked. I had 3 x £10,000. over one, two and three years. The first one matured and i moved it to an income bond because the rate dropped to 0.01%.

            The other two are yet to mature so the 1.95% rate remains til then.

            (back to smugface)

  81. There is a ‘low to medium risk of Russian invasion of Ukraine in the next few weeks’, US military chief in Europe says after Kiev warned Putin ‘is threatening us with destruction’ and Biden called back warships. 15 April 2021

    There is a ‘low to medium risk’ of a Russian invasion of Ukraine in the next few weeks, a US military chief warned today as Vladimir Putin continues sending troops, artillery and tanks to the border.

    The head of US forces in Europe, General Tod Wolters, was giving evidence to the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington when he was asked about the risk of invasion in that timeframe.

    I take it that when they are shooting it will be Medium to High?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9475821/There-low-medium-risk-Russian-invasion-Ukraine-weeks-military-chief.html#comments

    2. Americans believe that Uk rain falls mainly in an area surrounding Manchester.

          4. Bitcoin is bouncing between $45,000 and $60,000.

            My Dogecoin crypto currency has surged 73%.

            A bit more than tuppence!

          5. South Sea bubble, Tulip mania, boom and bust.

            At the first sign of collapse get out while you can.

            In the mean time, every time it doubles (choose your own parameter) sell accordingly.

          6. True.

            My initial investment of £20 in each of bitcoin and Dogecoin has quadrupled. Not a lot i know but i was testing the water after having made a bundle when bitcoin first surged. About £16,000. for two coins bought at £300 each.

            Dragged that out and started again from small amounts.

            I have a target figure for the new investments and will drag that out and leave the original £20’s in each account. Doesn’t matter what happens then as i won’t have lost anything.

            I do wish i had left the bitcoin though because after i withdrew it went even more crazy upwards.

          7. I once bought shares in a small oil company, Premier Consolidated Oilfields.
            I doubled my money and sold half, several times.
            I don’t have a clue what they might be worth if I had just kept them, but the profits paid for some very happy family holidays that we might not have afforded otherwise, so I’m content

  83. During the many times my doctor asked me to visit him to assess my hypertension I hardly ever saw him face to face because he was always looking at his computer screen – made my blood boil!

    1. My doctors locum played with her phone whilst we were in a consultation. I won’t see her again.

    2. Get a new Doctor. They shouldn’t need to refer to a screen unless it is something unusual.

      Or, as i suspect you were joking?

          3. My new Doctor may have had information about the particular episode but my behaviour was exemplary.

            I have done the same after a Consultation with a Surgeon.

            I told my Doctor i had no intention of going ahead with that person and she should find me someone else who could speak unaccented English. Which she did.

            As i am sure you are aware their is a difference between being aggressive and assertive.

          4. ooh, try that demand over here for a doctor that speaks unaccented English and you will literally be shown the door.

            You have to be a touch circumspect and apologize for not understanding them, could they get someone to explain things to you.

          5. Pardon me !

            I don’t expect to have to need an interpreter in England when speaking English.

            I have no problem when a person has an accent. England is full of them.

            What i was so very annoyed about was this was a private hospital.

            The woman had quite clearly qualified in her field but chose to use her heritage accent to the point i couldn’t understand the fucking bitch. She was of the Indian persuasion.

            The icing on the cake (as it were) was i was there for an investigation for pilonidal sinus and the god awful woman chose to poke my haemmorhoid which was at least 6 inches away from the site of the problem. Fucking cow.

            Given how much the entire procedure ended up costing they were damned lucky i didn’t sue.

            I did eventually get both conditions sorted out and have had no further problems.

            I have been treated by Doctors and Nurses from all over the world (such is the NHS) but i wasn’t prepared to put up with that.

          7. I don’t have a problem with women Doctors. My current GP is a woman and is very good.
            Even for inspecting my private parts it isn’t an issue as they are professionals.

            I just didn’t believe a private Doctor regardless of her heritage would have such poor communication skills.

            Plus she went and prodded where she didn’t need to. Cow. Who the hell prods haemorrhoids?

            All sorted now thank goodness.

          10. Our dentists are all private practices, they would just smile sweetly, apologize and add a surcharge to the next bill.

          11. The dentist was struck off or you?

            If it were you then a brick through there window tends to make one feel better.

      2. There was an element of truth in my comment.
        Of the several practitioners I have found myself under, the only other one I have seen face to face was a lady doctor.
        She checked my pulse with a pulse oximeter – a device which the male doctor said was so inaccurate for measuring anything as to be useless.

      1. Well he did get out his stethocsope and said:
        “Big breaths”
        and I said:
        “Yeth doctor!”

      2. Well he did get out his stethocsope and said:
        “Big breaths”
        and I said:
        “Yeth doctor!”

    4. Last time that happened to me the doctor was typing an email to the doctor in the local A&E to prepare them for my imminent arrival.

      Sometimes their computer time is acceptable.

      1. When my pulse oximeter registered an unchanging 163 beats per minute I referred myself to A&E. In triage I was diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia and immediately wheeled into the resuscitation unit. The consultant said I would have only lasted 48 hours in that state.

      2. When my pulse oximeter registered an unchanging 163 beats per minute I referred myself to A&E. In triage I was diagnosed with Supraventricular Tachycardia and immediately wheeled into the resuscitation unit. The consultant said I would have only lasted 48 hours in that state.

    5. Last time that happened to me the doctor was typing an email to the doctor in the local A&E to prepare them for my imminent arrival.

      Sometimes their computer time is acceptable.

  84. During the many times my doctor asked me to visit him to assess my hypertension I hardly ever saw him face to face because he was always looking at his computer screen – made my blood boil!

    1. Yes, I retweeted a link to it – the nurse’s testimony is certainly shocking.

    2. what is shocking about this? A preservative that they have openly said they use could well be the cause of adverse reactions.

      What is shocking is that their limited trials excluded people with known allergies and that restriction was not carried forward into real life.

      1. Their limited trials excluded the over 55s, those whose immune systems are weak, those with chronic illnesses and the medication that goes with those illnesses. It is disgusting, abhorrent and a crime against all humanity.

        1. From what we are seeing, I am guessing that if the trials had included people with weak immune systems or chronic illnesses, we would have seen too many deaths or people being rushed to hospital.

          Someone I know has had the vaccine, and fully expected that my children would have it too, without apparently realising that it is still experimental.
          Our beloved national state religion had apparently not imparted this information, but instead given a load of leaflets to a chronically sick person with poor eyesight.

      2. Their limited trials excluded the over 55s, those whose immune systems are weak, those with chronic illnesses and the medication that goes with those illnesses. It is disgusting, abhorrent and a crime against all humanity.

        1. I am inclined to think richardI is agreeing with you but that we have known for some time that we are being led down a path to a mass death event.

          1. Ok but in the past he has been a Gates apologist; I feel that nothing has changed.

          2. I have had the odd run in with richardI but prefer to put past disagreements behind me.

            I think your evaluation of the Covid jab scam is spot on. These politicians and the big Pharma and tech billionaires funding this genocide have decided to wipe us out for their own personal gain and in order to offset their losses otherwise from a collapse of the banking system.

          3. I made the point that using the vaccine outside the subset used for testing was bad, that certainly is something we all agree on.

            But the use of a preservative in the vaccine is a different issue and that is not in itself shocking.

            The vaccine is rather a fragile beasty though, stored at minus whatever and still needs preservatives.

          4. I made the point that using the vaccine outside the subset used for testing was bad, that certainly is something we all agree on.

            But the use of a preservative in the vaccine is a different issue and that is not in itself shocking.

            The vaccine is rather a fragile beasty though, stored at minus whatever and still needs preservatives.

          5. It is not that I am bearing a grudge, it was more a case of interpreting the comment through a certain prism I have come to know. And not just the antifreeze in the vaccines, that is shocking, I thought I had indicated it was a side issue. It was the testimony that was shocking, hearing all that we have come to realise no longer in the written word but spoken out loud. (i am not getting at you, by the way, just explaining.)

          6. I also on occasion came a cropper as it were with Richard but he didn’t deserve the menacing abuse he received from one poster.

            I will not repeat what was said.

          7. I have had the odd run in with richardI but prefer to put past disagreements behind me.

            I think your evaluation of the Covid jab scam is spot on. These politicians and the big Pharma and tech billionaires funding this genocide have decided to wipe us out for their own personal gain and in order to offset their losses otherwise from a collapse of the banking system.

          8. mng, without entering issue over individuals’ views. I came across this summary which is the simple nuts n bolts truth [and my view also]:

            “Considering that the C-19 “virus” was constructed on a computer, meaning its RNA has never been isolated, and considering that the physical virus as such has never been isolated either, I find it quite amazing that they were capable of creating both a test and a vaccine, based on no data at all.

            Actually high level quack Christian Drosten had created the test without owning a sample of any new virus, he even admitted it. How can you detect or fight anything if you don’t even know what you’re looking for?

            It’s even possible that the entire virus-hypothesis is completely false, that ‘exosomes’ are being misunderstood as ‘viruses’. And then over 200’000 people are dying each year from preventable hospital infections in Europe, and politicians couldn’t care less about it.

            So where does this phony interest in our health come from, all of a sudden? These politicians only care about our health when the topic may be abused as a Trojan horse against our basic freedoms. It’s a blatant PSYOP from the textbook of the world’s most evil intelligence agencies.

            The ‘population reduction injection’ was created first, and then they had to invent a narrative as a pretext so they could inject the poison into us.”

          9. Thank you. It is as I thought from Johnson’s first announcement to the nation, I wondered why he was aiming at raising the fear factor right from the start – ‘some of you are going to die, some of you are going to lose loved ones’ – it was not our traditional way of going about things, neither were lockdowns, the hiding behind the sofa. It made me realise that something else was going on, that ‘they’ weren’t being honest with us. They needed us to believe a narrative, so I never got sucked into their message. Actually, they give themselves away all the time. Government has never cared about its people, that is the bottom line, it is always about the money. Even though they are giving the impression that the economy is acceptable collateral damage, I suspect it is still about the cash – but that which is going into their own personal pockets rather than the nation’s coffers.

            Sorry this is somewhat garbled….. I have to dash into the garden to do some weeding – thanks for your reply. It will be useful too.

          10. Morning, not garbled at all and garden comes first [your priorites / interests come first] and points made are clear.

            I had this whole issue flagged up to me privately late 2018. What grabbed my full attention within embedded links back to 2015/16 was this was all supposed to be rolled out post EU referendum [with UK remaining in] and Clinton winning 2016 election. Event 201 in US was also flagged up before it took place in late 2019, given the list of attendees [Billy boy Gates at of of list confirmed intentions, commercially, given he was given C-19 funding in Jan 2019 knowing he’d never get a shilling / cent from US].

            Immediately after 2020 Davos [the corporate trigger], the whole world is then supposedly hit with C-19 [China of course blamed]. Followed by Johnson rolling out the Rockefeller / WEF narrative “Save the NHS, Build Back Better and as you posted some of you are going to die, some of you are going to lose loved ones”]. Agree, they wanted to attempt to deceive via their Project Fear 2 narrative, wanting to believe that everyone will do as they’re told, knowing they had zero evidence anywhere globally to substantiate it

            The lockdown narrative collapsed given it gave more [sensible] people the opportunity to cross check infromation regardless of the MSM being in lockstep narrative. The Coronavirus Act / Emergency Powers neutered any unlikely attempt of the Commons holding Govt to account, unlikely in that collectively they are all aboard the same message, for their own interests. Remove the elder population [the ones with the knowledge / history], increase fear among the youth and likely to be more compliant given the watered down education system.

            Johnson forgets. while he’s leader of a political party, he’s not leader of the nation, unless the Queen and Royal family all abdicated and MSM forgot to inform anyone. the whole “Government” / MSM narrative from inception is all built on shifting sands.

            Trust you managed to conclude weeding. I’ll be having similar conversation with Mum later this am

    3. what is shocking about this? A preservative that they have openly said they use could well be the cause of adverse reactions.

      What is shocking is that their limited trials excluded people with known allergies and that restriction was not carried forward into real life.

    4. I found it similarly shocking that the Patient Information Leaflet supplied with the drug I was taking and routinely prescribed for blood pressure control did not mention the possibility of a potentially life threatening immune system response for which the carrying of an EPIpen was advised in professional warnings.

      I survived such a reaction but came to the conclusion that medical professionals deemed it inappropriate to mention the likelihood of such rare events in the expectation that the treatment would confer more benefit than harm to the patient.

      I duly reported my adverse reaction to the MHRA but my GP declined to enter into any dialogue with them.

      1. My sister in law died suddenly at 29 from a blood clot that was attributed to the ‘Pill’.

        The event is rare and mentioned at the time as a possible but the percentages were so low it was considered by the medical fraternity to be an acceptable death rate.

        Not for us.

    5. I found it similarly shocking that the Patient Information Leaflet supplied with the drug I was taking and routinely prescribed for blood pressure control did not mention the possibility of a potentially life threatening immune system response for which the carrying of an EPIpen was advised in professional warnings.

      I survived such a reaction but came to the conclusion that medical professionals deemed it inappropriate to mention the likelihood of such rare events in the expectation that the treatment would confer more benefit than harm to the patient.

      I duly reported my adverse reaction to the MHRA but my GP declined to enter into any dialogue with them.

    1. Anyone might think that you’re an architect.
      };-))

      And worse yet, an architect who thinks that there is some merit in buildings being aesthetically pleasing as well as functional.
      Get thee to a nunnery, at least the nuns would be pleased.

      1. Architects of my vintage betray their allegiances. I hate the Modern Movement. That is not to say that I wish buildings to be facsimiles of classical buildings from the past.

        There are lessons to be learnt from a deep study of classical buildings. The principles espoused by Vitruvius and later Palladio obtain to this day.

        I look back now and consider myself an English Architect in the tradition of Lutyens, Emmanuel Vincent Harris and McMorran and Whitby. I also greatly admire Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Charles Voysey, Norman Shaw, George Edmund Street and Philip Webb. All are essentially from the same stable.

        1. Great architects. What a depressing, but beautifully written article.
          In the tech world, I see evidence of what the article is talking about all the time. Previously popular websites like StackOverflow seem genuinely unaware of how extreme they have become. They know they are annoying a large number of people, but that doesn’t seem to bother them, because we are, by definition since we disagree with them, untermenschen, morally bad people who positively deserve to be frozen out of society.
          Like the US and Europe, StackOverflow is cruising on the legacy of the achievements of these morally repulsive untermenschen who don’t go along with gender theory and BLM.

      2. Architects of my vintage betray their allegiances. I hate the Modern Movement. That is not to say that I wish buildings to be facsimiles of classical buildings from the past.

        There are lessons to be learnt from a deep study of classical buildings. The principles espoused by Vitruvius and later Palladio obtain to this day.

        I look back now and consider myself an English Architect in the tradition of Lutyens, Emmanuel Vincent Harris and McMorran and Whitby. I also greatly admire Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Charles Voysey, Norman Shaw, George Edmund Street and Philip Webb. All are essentially from the same stable.

  87. Worth a decko…..

    .BBC4 Film – ‘Topkapi’ 9pm.
    Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov,

    A plan to steal an emerald-encrusted dagger from Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace.

      2. For old films, the Together channel whips the Beeb every time.

        ETA: May have got that wrong. Talking Pictures channel.

          1. Freeview channel 81 here in the UK.

            “Watch Talking Pictures TV on Virgin 445, Freesat Channel 306, Freeview Channel 81, Youview Channel 81 or on Sky Channel Number 328.”

          3. Have to ask, from your side of the channel can you use “get_iplayer” to download programmes from the Iplayer?
            Or is that blocked too?

          4. If I play around with the VPN I can get all sorts of programmes, including i-player, but I don’t usually bother.

          6. Have to ask, from your side of the channel can you use “get_iplayer” to download programmes from the Iplayer?
            Or is that blocked too?

          9. How old is the downlead? Replacing it with new, low-loss coax might improve things.

          10. Thanks for the advice.

            At the moment we’re reasonably content with what we can get. If we need more we’ll get a chap we know to do the necessary. The dish is set up quite a way from the house, so changing cabling will need some digging, unfortunately.

      3. For old films, the Together channel whips the Beeb every time.

        ETA: May have got that wrong. Talking Pictures channel.

  88. 21:00, and the sun hasn’t gone fully down – still a light on the horizon.
    I love light nights! Summer is on it’s way!

    3. What is the maximum hours of daylight where you are?
      I get up later and go to bed earlier, but I’m guessing we top out at around 17.

      1. The sun goes below the horizon, but I’ve been outside in the summer and easily able to read the paper without needing a light.
        Midsummer: Sun down 22:43, sun up 03:54.

          1. Other end of the year… sometimes it’s so dark you have to switch on a light to see if you actually opened your eyes on waking up…

          2. Other end of the year… sometimes it’s so dark you have to switch on a light to see if you actually opened your eyes on waking up…

      2. The sun goes below the horizon, but I’ve been outside in the summer and easily able to read the paper without needing a light.
        Midsummer: Sun down 22:43, sun up 03:54.

    1. Oh my God, that’s more than 1 per unit.

      Anything above R 1 is lethal, we’re all gonna die!

      Or am I the BBC and confusing my important numbers?

      1. There is only one number the BBC cares about and that is the cost of the annual TV Tax times the numbers paying it….

        1. 331605+up ticks,
          Evening S,
          There is only one number the bbc care about and that is number one.

          1. mng. Agree. The real gig for them now is when their Royal Charter comes up for review in 2027, I guarantee they will tie increased broadband to receiving signal in order to justify getting people’s money. The last thing on their minds is providing any service, except for themselves

    2. Oh my God, that’s more than 1 per unit.

      Anything above R 1 is lethal, we’re all gonna die!

      Or am I the BBC and confusing my important numbers?

    3. Well they would certainly love to have that number in Ontario. Todays count is 659, an increase of 17 over yesterday.

      That’s in a province of 38 million, so your shock horror number is relatively good.

  92. Evening, all. I’m afraid I can’t comment on GPs who have continued to see their patients face to face, because mine have been conspicuous by their absence.

    1. I have a conspiracy theory. Probably baseless but the people not wanting to work through the scamdemic are of the Left. Like the teachers. I know the BMA is now very left wing and i wondered if it was political affiliation that sent some GP’s in to hibernation mode.

      My Doctors have been fine.

      1. I was getting a little twitchy there BB2, particularly as no one else had posted. I know intellectually what it was like to live in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany but to actually live in an admittedly Tinpot Police State is still wonderfully alarming!

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