Thursday 18 February: Applicants are being put off by the unbearable wokeness of Oxbridge

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/2021/02/18/lettersapplicants-put-unbearable-wokeness-oxbridge/

640 thoughts on “Thursday 18 February: Applicants are being put off by the unbearable wokeness of Oxbridge”

  1. Weatherwatch: deadly winter storm sweeps Texas. 18 February 2021.

    A winter storm in the US has brought deadly weather conditions to areas of the country not usually associated with the cold. Freezing rain in Texas caused chaos on interstates, with a huge crash involving more than 130 vehicles on the I-35 in Dallas, resulting in the deaths of six people. Nearby Austin also succumbed to the icy conditions, with more than 20 vehicles involved in a pile-up.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/641db778548fc48eedd33d76aad23838e6777cfe24397b24a4f6c8b46ff7044b.jpg

    Morning everyone.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/18/weatherwatch-deadly-winter-storm-sweeps-texas

    2. Tom McCarthy (Guardian writer) sounds like a very bitter man. He was probably suffering from a spat with his boyfriend when he wrote that article – full of bile and resentment.

  3. Lord Frost takes over from Michael Gove as the Minister to deal with the EU. He had threatened to resign if not given the post.[BBC Radio 4 Today programme]
    A good decision.

    1. You mean his resignation would be? He is the chief architect of the ruinously dreadful trading agreement, that gives the EU everything with control of even more, while we have given up part of the UK, our EEZ, and are subject to all the rules and regulations they make for their own benefit with no say in any of it.

      1. My contention above is that Frost was undermined by Gove.

        Fishing and Northern Ireland! Whoever was responsible our surrender of both these issues is very deeply shameful.

        1. Could well be. However, the outcome is the work of our government. No one gets any credit.

    3. I remember commenting here on this forum how worried I was when Gove flew to Brussels a couple of days before the deal was agreed. I felt in my bones that he was going to get us to capitulate. Dem dry bones were quite right!

      I hope that Lord Frost will have the strength to announce:

      Gove was to blame for the fiasco on fishing and Northern Ireland which has made the deal worthless.

      And he should then see to it that the Bumbling Bonker withdraws from both the WA and the deal on the grounds that the EU has acted in bad faith throughout.

  5. ‘Morning, Peeps,

    Some good letters here:

    SIR – Dr Samina Khan believes students are put off applying to Oriel College, Oxford, because of its statue of Cecil Rhodes (report, February 12).

    I undertook several mock interviews with students applying to Oxford this year. Many expressed concern that they wouldn’t be happy at Oxford – because they viewed it as too “woke”.

    This was particularly true of the student who was, in fact, applying to Oriel. Has Dr Khan considered this 
as well?

    Philip Womack
    London NW1

    SIR – Of the 32 Americans awarded Rhodes scholarships for autumn 2021, Forbes magazine reports that 22 are of colour. They don’t seem put off by the source of his money.

    Jonathan Baldwin
    Nantwich, Cheshire

    SIR – Applications to Oriel from BME students rose from 52 in 2010 to 85 
in 2019.

    James Offen
    Oxford

    SIR– Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary (Comment, February 16), said he “was shocked by the findings of a recent study by King’s College, London, that found a quarter of students believed violence was an acceptable response to some forms of speech”. On the face of it, this is a shocking finding – but it’s missing important context.

    Our study, from 2019, was the largest ever survey of student views on freedom of expression. One question showed that 26 per cent of students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “If someone is using hate speech or making racially charged comments, physical violence can be justified to prevent the person from espousing their hateful views.” But crucially, the proportion of students who felt this way was only slightly higher than the proportion of the general public who feel the same – 20 per cent.

    Overall, our research showed that cancelling or no-platforming of speakers is rare, that students are strong supporters of free speech in universities, that students think free speech is under greater threat in society than on their own campus, and that students share very similar views to the general public.

    Worryingly, and of legitimate government concern, we did find evidence of a “chilling effect”, with a majority of respondents agreeing with the statement: “Students with conversative views are reluctant to express them at my university.” But as worrying is the “warming effect” of Mr Williamson overstating the issue on violence and understating student support for free speech.

    Jonathan Grant
    Professor of Public Policy
    King’s College, London

    SIR – The state-school intake at Oxford has increased from 55.6 per cent to 68.7 per cent over five years. At Cambridge the rise is from 62.3 to 70 per cent.

    It is unlikely that academic standards at Eton have halved in this period to explain the decline in its successful applications).

    Whether one considers this good news or bad, clearly all universities should be blinded to knowledge of applicants’ schools in selection procedures. Any prejudices, conscious or unconscious, would be neutralised.

      1. Posted late last night…

        14 Mar 21 – Gestational Parenting Sunday?
        Has Hallmark printed the cards yet?

        Academics at an Australian university, recommend alternatives to “mother” and “father. Instead of “mother”, the authors suggest “gestational parent” – and instead of “father”, they suggest “non-birthing parent”.

      2. Posted late last night…

        14 Mar 21 – Gestational Parenting Sunday?
        Has Hallmark printed the cards yet?

        Academics at an Australian university, recommend alternatives to “mother” and “father. Instead of “mother”, the authors suggest “gestational parent” – and instead of “father”, they suggest “non-birthing parent”.

    1. 329540+ up ticks,
      Morning A,
      Perhaps the “Road to freedom” (2014) should have been given a heavier coat of looking at by those who “knew better”

  7. Government intervention into campus life is a sad necessity. 18 February 2021.

    The Government has decided to legislate to hold back a tide that would otherwise overwhelm free expression. Universities will be legally required to promote free speech and the Office for Students will have the power to impose fines on those that don’t. These provisions would also extend to student unions. It would even be possible for individuals to seek legal redress if they lose their jobs for expressing lawful opinions. The proposed free speech champion would be tasked with investigating complaints. It is sad that such measures are deemed necessary but ministers are right to act before matters become any worse.

    This is mere window dressing and a sop to the Great Unwashed. These “measures” will achieve nothing. An idea of their intended efficacy may be gained by noticing that when the Prime Minister was recently told that Joe Biden was Woke his answer was that there was nothing wrong with that! The truth is that the Elites are Fellow Travellers and have no interest whatsoever in preventing Woke’s onward march!

    When a whole Culture and Civilisation adopts a False Philosophy as a guide only disaster can follow!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/02/17/government-intervention-campus-life-sad-necessity/

    1. But I’m glad to see on this morning’s TV news that MPs are anxious to get gaybars open as soon as possible.

  10. Von der Leyen asks Russia why it’s selling Sputnik abroad before vaccinating citizens. 18 February 2021.

    Russia should explain why it’s offering to sell millions of doses of its coronavirus vaccine to other countries while lagging behind the vaccination of its own citizens, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

    Her comments come as more countries in Central and Eastern Europe are warming up to the Sputnik V vaccine, even though it has yet to get EU regulatory approval and questions are growing about the transparency of its clinical trial data.

    Why should Russia explain to Fondalyin? It’s not a member of the EU! From someone who made a complete and utter cockup of simply purchasing sufficient vaccine it’s something of an own goal!

    https://www.politico.eu/article/vdl-questions-why-russia-is-selling-sputnik-vaccine-abroad-before-jabbing-own-citizens/

    1. They are trying to create doubt about the Russian vaccine. As they tried with ours. To divert attention from their own ineptitude.

      Good morning, Minty.

    1. I’m impressed by how he does the three-way simultaneous translation.
      From gobbledegook to English to Chinese to gobbledegook.

        1. Very sad. By that stage he was reduced to being a performing seal on the chat show circuit.
          The exaggerated grimacing shows he was in front of a television camera rather than radio mic.

    3. God help us all.

      Kent: Is this the promised end?

      Edgar: Or image of that horror?

      (From the final scene of King Lear)

      1. I have never been a fan of Shakespeare but your selected quotes always hit the mark.
        If Shakespeare was as insightful as your quotes suggest, has the perception of the World and those who seek power and authority really changed much since the 16th & 17th centuries? I think not.

  12. European diplomat admits ‘this war is not winnable’ as President Biden decides whether to keep Trump’s promise to remove troops. 17 February 2021.

    NATO leaders are set to discuss withdrawing from Afghanistan this week as they meet for their first talks since Joe Biden took office.

    The US is currently committed to withdrawing its remaining 2,500 troops by May under a peace deal signed by President Trump, with NATO unlikely to leave its 9,600 soldiers in the country if America quits.

    But the May deadline is under review by Biden, whose advisers have told him to delay withdrawal until a wave of attacks by Taliban fighters on government forces stops and peace talks reach an ‘acceptable’ conclusion.

    I’m pretty sure Biden is going to keep this war going. Some specious excuse will be found but winning is neither an option nor an aim. The Kiwis who announced yesterday that they are pulling out obviously think so too! Afghanistan will provide a market for weaponry well into the foreseeable future with almost no chance of a blowback on the Domestic Front so who cares? This will almost certainly mean that those NATO or American troops remaining in country will again become targets but who cares about them?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9269053/NATO-allies-set-discuss-Afghanistan-withdrawal-two-day-summit.html

    1. By keeping the war going they are stopping the Russians from building their pipeline through the region.

      1. Arguably, the Afgaffs were better off when Russia occupied the country. I would imagine the women, in particular, enjoyed more freedom.

        1. The Russians were not better off. Many of the soldiers were conscripts. I employed a Russian chef once. He told me that his cohort had been trained and was about to be sent to Afghanistan when the Russians pulled out completely. He was quite relieved not to go as the cohort prior to his had been wiped out to the last man.

          1. I remember the Russian mothers ran a campaign. I’m not sure if it was successful or they were pushing at an already open door.

    2. By keeping the war going they are stopping the Russians from building their pipeline through the region.

    3. We don’t have any active troops in Afghanistan although we do have 1000 special advisers. I feel certain, as does the House of Lords committee, that the Taliban will respect their non-combat role and allow them to continue their work in peace.

      (Although the Afghans tend not to honour safe conduct agreements as the retreat from Kabul in 1842 might suggest.)

  13. 329540+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    There has to be a covert department for “wokeness” as I believe there is for the protection of paedophilia artist within the HP sauce factory.

    Why, like these current political groups the lab/lib/con coalition and oxbridge
    still given succour and paid attention too ?

    A multitude of peoples are trying to fit historical standard to current issues,
    and that is on par with trying to get abbot into a mini skirt and the consequences are just as horrific.

    To my mind what springs to mind regarding ex students, Trinity collage
    turned out a successful brand of spy seemingly the trend has little changed
    in their attitude towards much of blighty.

    The best thing to combat “wokeness” is humour in my book, accompanied by ” don’t be bloody daft” to be laugh at is seen by many more effective than a punch in the gob.

    1. Talking about wokeness did you see that Gina Miller has re-emerged onto your TV screen.

      Her new job, along with her husband, is to run the “Trueandfaircampaign” whose website claims that it is entirely self funded.

      Oh yes? Just like she claimed that her campaign against Brexit was self funded…. until the truth came out!

      3. From the Home Page of their website:-

        ‘The True and Fair Campaign was founded in 2012 and is focused on reform within the UK Investment and Pension industry to achieve better customer outcomes and restore trust in the Financial Services sector. We also campaign for the sector to acquire social capital through purposefully using its expertise, knowledge and capital to help society through being a force for economic and social good.

        The Founders, Gina and Alan Miller have collectively worked in the sector for over 60 years, and became vocal campaigners after the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. Their commitment, passion and determination has resulted in many successful outcomes to date. However, the challenging environment – post Covid and post Brexit also creates significant strategic opportunities for the UK Financial Services industry over the coming decades.

        Creating an efficient, effective regulatory framework that enhances consumer protection, promotes competitiveness through transparency, diversity and pro-active regulatory enforcement, would serve to improve trust in the sector domestically, as well as boost the UK’s attractiveness to international investment.’

        And, to be fair, their only sign of activity this year is about their objections to allowing Neil Woodford to trade again.

        1. Yes, it’s a great sales spiel.

          No one ever claimed she was stupid.

          …now let us patiently wait for the truth to come out.

  14. DfWP Interview

    Paddy McCoy, an elderly Irish farmer, received a letter from the Department for Work & Pensions stating that they suspected he was not paying his employees the statutory minimum wage and they would send an inspector to interview them.

    On the appointed day, the inspector turned up. “Tell me about your staff,” he asked Paddy.

    “Well,” said Paddy, “there’s the farm hand, I pay him £240 a week, and he has a free cottage.

    Then there’s the housekeeper. She gets £190 a week, along with free board and lodging.

    There’s also the half-wit. He works a 16-hour day, does 90% of the work, earns about £25 a week along with a bottle of whisky and, as a special treat, occasionally gets to sleep with my wife.”

    “That’s disgraceful” said the inspector, “I need to interview the half-wit.”

    “That’ll be me then,” said Paddy.

  15. SIR – My daughter and grandson are giving up meat. They will only eat fish to help British fishermen and women.
    Caroline Osborne

    To help all women?

      1. I looked at the pesky fish site last night. Its pesky expensive. £22 for one pesky trout fillet.
        I’m afraid it’s a bit steep for me but I wish the well.

        2. I don’t think i will be buying anything either. Considering the problems with exports one would think there would be a glut on the market and the price would drop. Those prices are far too high.

  16. Good morning all from a foul Derbyshire. 4½° on the yard thermometer and it bloody chucking it down.

  18. Good morning, all. A mild morning. The MR is a touch brighter – though her bruises are still painful.

    To market, to market to buy a fat, halal pig. Back later.

  19. 329540+ up ticks,
    May one ask, when real meat eating is obliterated in lieu of phony meat following the gates / johnson alledged future agenda and with our islamic ideology followers welfare firmly in mind will any mention of pigs grease
    be considered ?
    I would imagine that biting into a ersatz steak could have unhappy connotations as did the cartridge affair in the past.

    Someone will surely mention this inclusive fact.

  20. Good Moaning. A DM news item

    “Gov Abbott also blamed renewable energy and wind turbines for the disaster, telling Fox’s Sean Hannity on Tuesday night: ‘This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.

    ‘Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis… It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary,’ he said.”

    And that’s on only 10% of power generation. Failing to lag power pipes would also seem to play a part.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9273313/Hospitals-Texas-EVACUATED-patients-left-without-water-heat.html

  21. Good girl Emma Barnett, brilliant , please don’t back down or be bullied by the Wokists.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9271017/Womans-Hour-interview-Muslim-Council-Britains-female-leader-sparks-backlash-BBC.html

    Fresh anger at new Woman’s Hour host Emma Barnett as her ‘strikingly hostile’ interview with Muslim Council of Britain’s first female leader about female imams sparks backlash against BBC
    Zara Mohammed appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on February 4
    She was grilled on number of female imams in Britain, but did not give a figure
    More than 100 public figures have written to criticise the ‘hostile’ interview

    1. That’s something that simply does (by it’s own volition) not and never will sit comfortably in 21st century western culture.

    2. Good morning Lovely Verity

      If I were less restrained I would use Corporal Jones’s catch phrase about the Fuzzywuzzies.

    1. Oh dear, and it’s not only on shove Tuesday that he’s such a tosser, but how awful, another pre-planned winner of a cookery ‘show’.

      1. All TV shows, including quizzes and game shows are entertainment. As such they have no reason to adhere to the standards of a law exam.
        thepenny dropped for me when watching one of the Lottery shows on a Saturday. Pairs of contestants had to name up to ten answers, of the “Name any town or village in Kent” variety.
        Two young ladies whom one would suspect of being not very bright shop assistants, rattled off the names of Nobel winners, or some such. It was beyond belief. Unless they had been given the answers a couple of hours earlier in order that they might memorise them. It may well be the case that all of the contestants received all of the answers prior to the game. We were not told.
        There is nothing inherently wrong with that, all though it may be construed as a deception of the viewers. From that I began to wonder if all game shows and quizzes may be “fixed”. Some obviously are, such as Bake Off.

        1. As far as I can see quite a few ‘quiz’ shows are fixed and they are only entertainment when this is not obvious. But they seem to be lacking the desired and keenly sort after sort of contestants. And when they do make an appearance they are unusually successful.
          Looking back around three to four years i remember Bake Off judge Paul Hollywood whilst starring the contestant in the face, deliberately snapping off the handle form a brilliantly constructed chocolate cake in the form a working chocolate well.
          And the ‘winner’ of that series was the maker of a cake which was supposed to be a Peacock but resembled a dead Do Do, covered with shop bought blue icing and a selection of smarties plonked randomly onto to it. She went on to bake a cake for HMQ for a regal celebration which looked like it had been rolled in mud. But of course it was Nadia.
          And now she’s all over the cookery TV programmes.

    1. Perhaps he should be discouraged from having a dog it’s perfectly clear that he struggles to keep hold of the lead.

        2. Yep that one…
          Boris is a very popular name in Bulgaria.

          Because of historical reasons (including Russia becoming a Christian nation) Boris became a very popular name in Russia and many slavic countries.

          Famous real-life people named Boris
          – Boris I of Bulgaria, Bulgarian king who made Bulgaria a Christian nation
          – Boris III, king of Bulgaria
          – Boris Becker, tennis player
          – Boris Yeltsin, Former President of Russia
          – Boris Karloff, an English actor
          – (Alexander) Boris Johnson, English politician(ish) and (former) mayor of London
          – Boris Diaw, a French professional basketball player who currently plays for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association (NBA)
          – Boris Said, an American race car driver

  24. Vincent Price is taller than Katie Price and heavier than Alan Price – I found this out on a price comparison website

  25. Some eighth-wit calling itself “gunnerbear” slithered out of the primordial soup yesterday to post this piece of unintelligible ‘woke’ Leftist impropaganda on a positive comment I had made about Douglas Murray’s excellent book, The Madness Of Crowds.

    It spewed: The Madness of Crowds…a boring retread of the notion, “Individuals can be clever, crowds are stupid…”

    Since I’ve only just seen that comment I’ve replied: The concept of boredom is nothing more than a mind affliction; affecting only those who possess none of: imagination, intellect or wit.

    I wonder if it possesses the solitary neuron required to comprehend that retort?

    1. Hi Grizz. I remember that moniker from some years ago, possibly when we were able to comment on the Telegraph letters.

    2. Shakespeare wrote very perceptively about crowds and how susceptible and easily swayed they are.

      Julius Caesar is a good example. In the opening scene the crowd is harangued as follows:

      You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

      I must say it was a good opening sally when addressing the my Remove Retake set!

      1. 329540+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        I’m ashamed not knowing the lab/lib/con coalition went that far back but that description of it’s current support / voters is spot on.

  26. Morning all. Heating went off last night at 10:30 pm came on this morning as planned 8 am. Much quieter than it use to be from the 28 year old CDI boiler.
    Lovely hot water on tap again, I can’t express how pleased we are to be back in the 21st century……but no broad band from virgin media again. No emails, they recently posted a page on FB and got a well deserved hammering from many, many customers. Last night on the One Show it took a pasting from people in St Albans, one of the outstanding opinions is the same as i often say is, “we are not getting what we actually pay for”. You’d have thought a large tech company might have been aware of all of it’s short comings, but it appears not. It can’t all be covid’s fault, it surely hasn’t mutated to infect wiring or other sources of supply. But this is probably what happens when a company builds a huge thick and high concrete wall around its customer services.

    1. Customer services, that is contact with customers, is outsourced to call centres. When I was little the companies for whom I worked had switchboards that handled all incoming calls and directed them to the right place. The operators were generally ladies and were efficient, probably the most efficient department in the business. The few calls that come in from loonies would be diplomatically disposed of, and the rest whether for the Managing Director or Charlie the car washer would be promptly and courteously connected.
      Call centres are deliberately a barrier to contacting a company. Unless the answers are in their script the clerks involved will have no answers at all. They have no connection the company for whom they are working. Some queries may be compiled and passed to the company, but any answers received will be incorporated in the scripts. They will not, however, contact the original caller with an answer.
      The rise of call centres is connected to the expansion of big impersonal corporations rather than to SME family businesses.

      1. I fully understand the premise of good old fashioned ‘customer service’ but awfully sorry, I can’t get my head around what you are saying HP. Forgive me but are you agreeing that ‘customer services’ as I suspect now no longer exists ?
        If I, as most callers will be, paying substantial monthly subscription, I expect to be able to contact the company when things as they do continually, go wrong. As time has progressed over the past 5 -10 years it is now impossible to speak to any one at Virgin ( a tech company) Media or even email them regarding the many problems. After submitting all of ones details by pressing phone buttons. You have to wait on the phone line for after listening to excuses made regarding Covid19, far too long before being put through to some one in India. Who quite often it is difficult to understand what they are saying. Then go through the same rigmarole once more before addressing the problem and usually they will tell you that the matter is in hand. Not what i am paying for.
        I know for a fact that in the past there was a call centre for customer services in Swansea and the people who answered the calls were excellent and problems solved almost immediately. It seems that ongoing profit is the king, not the paying customer.

        1. I think that that is what I was attempting to convey. It is all about profit. The slide downhill, from speaking directly to a company employee, to contact with someone working for a company working for a company of which you are the customer, to pushing buttons to speak to someone who is no help at all.
          My definition of a business is “a machine for making money”. There are various routes to success. One is to strive for excellence of product and to focus on satisfying the customer.*
          The other is to reduce costs. Offer the minimum product for the maximum income and reduce “customer service” to a level that will optimise customer retention against cost.
          What we may expect is based on TV adverts by the company and not on experience.
          I have recently spent hours on phone and screen attempting to get Vodaphone to supply a solution to a problem. Only inertia prevents me from going through the rigmarole associated with changing supplier and keeping the same number.

          * see my recent recommendation of “mademoisellemacaron.co.uk”. who fulfill the highest expectations.

  27. Does anyone, seriously, take any notice, whatsoever, of the banal utterings of the woke?

    It all washes over my head and I simply ignore the vacuous cretinism and carry on speaking normally as I’ve always done and always will do.

    1. They seem to be getting an awful lot of unwanted publicity Grizz and they all peak and act with the biggest and most dreadful invented Bull Shonet i have ever heard. And the wowekmun speak with silly growly vowels. Just to grind their point across,of course.

      1. Morning, Eddy. Why are the media taken in by the fools? Why do they feel the necessity to report on the idiocy?

        Normal people simply ignore it and carry on living normal lives.

        1. They are not taken in but it sells copy / creates clickbate regardless of any moral considerations so that’s all that matters, we’re sentient enough to see through the nonsense but I fear for the upcoming generation that haven’t had the benefit of a lifetime of experience to counter this poison.

        2. The media like to upset normal people to sell more of their product. It does not work on me as I but less.

        3. The media are part of it Grizz the British media are full of severe Leftards, who think they are in change of the overall public outlook and if they see a slight opening or even a crack they are in it filling the slightest void with their propaganda at a blink of an eye.
          It’s apparent that they are working on the younger members of the population by inventing trauma and calling it Mental Health issues. It’s reached a level of a hate crime now. How many people did you or any one else know during our pre teen and teenage years who had any recognisable mental health problems ? We all just got on with it.

    2. The problem is that many people’s jobs depend on kowtowing to this madness.
      And that includes teachers who then brainwash young people looking for work.

      1. Good morning Anne

        Hope all is well at Allan Towers.

        We have a Dutch friend who is a Maths teacher. I was very shocked to discover that he does not think that free speech is a good thing. When they came to supper a couple of weeks ago I argued vehemently against his point of view and his wokish wife – an atheist who believes in astrology – had to leave the room with a headache. We have not heard from them again since!

    3. Good morning, Grizzly

      Of course you and I – and people as intelligent as we are – take no notice of wokery.

      The terrifying thing is that too many politicians and people with even trivial power do take notice of it and act to the detriment of everybody with any common sense.

      1. Good afternoon, Rastus.

        I simply ignore them. If anyone ever approaches me to tell me otherwise, they soon wish they hadn’t bothered.

    4. Do you call the Scotch The Scots, ? That was the first PC/woke change I know of. PT became PE.. RI became RE. then RK. etc

      1. I still call things by the names I was taught as a child. A zebra is always pronounced zebbra, never a ‘zeebra’. Kenya is pronounced Keenya, never ‘Kennya’. ‘Mumbai’ is still Bombay, ‘Channai’ is still Madras, ‘Kolkata’ is still Calcutta, ‘Myanmar’ is still Burma, ‘Beijing’ is still Peking. ‘Heracles’ is still Hercules, ‘Boudica’ is still Boadicea, ‘Thomas Becket’ is still Thomas à Becket, and so on. I’m utterly averse to change for change’s sake, or political whim!

  29. Word to the wise – if you are a fan of Laphroaig, as I was, I suggest you don’t order from them via their website – I ordered something [one of the more unusual bottlings] a while ago and got a confirmation – since then nothing! I sent an email asking for an update and got an auto-reply [from the USA] saying they would respond in “24 to 48 hours” – that was a week ago! I wrote on their FB page yesterday and it was deleted, but still no update! Looking at the FB comments it seems I’m not alone – one poor chap has been waiting since before Christmas for a delivery!

      1. I didn’t think I was – I thought it came from Islay [silly me], but it seems from other unhappy customers that it is despatched from Germany, heaven knows why. The company is apparently now part of “Beam Suntory” and all emails get routed to the US!

          1. It was stupid of me to go to them; senior moment perhaps – we have an excellent whisk[e]y shop in Bakewell, which isn’t far and they deliver too!

          9. Only near, but we go there fairly often – mainly because one of our favourite restaurants is there – hope it survives! No sign of Tabwell online – think they’ve closed.

          10. I did suspect that. I used to spend hours in Tabwell’s, whenever I ventured into Bakewell for my B. Pudding.

          11. Have a look online. Mentions of Hull and elsewhere – but there is also an “email your question” bit as well – and phone numbers.

          12. I’ve tried that many times, but all I get is a reference to Rutland’s Tools, also from that area.

          13. Only other thing I can think of is google Bakewell visitor centre – there is an email address – – they may be able to help.

      2. I didn’t think I was – I thought it came from Islay [silly me], but it seems from other unhappy customers that it is despatched from Germany, heaven knows why. The company is apparently now part of “Beam Suntory” and all emails get routed to the US!

    2. I confess I don’t like it much, Bleau – it’s too smokey. Perhaps your order went up in that same smoke.

    4. Threequarters of a pint of leaded petrol topped up with a quarter of diesel and you won’t know the difference – especially after the third glass.

      I know, I know what you are going to say…
      .
      .
      .
      .It’s almost impossible to get leaded petrol nowadays. 😃

      1. Quite. If the facilities you require are not available at your place of work then normal people would change job.

        But these aren’t normal people are they.

      1. Morning, Korky.
        Patient up, bathed, breakfasted and pottering around.
        We are, rather pathetically, looking forward to a boring weekend. The last one was a bit too action packed for our taste.

    2. Were i grew up they had a rather annoying habit of knocking on our front doors on Sunday mornings………….MUUUUMMM 🤩

    1. At least they look as if they’re “workers” as opposed to scroungers Belle. Hopefully there will be jobs for them to apply for!

      1. They seem to prefer living in our type of culture ( against Chinese culture ), as shown by the kerfuffle when the UK said they were handing HK back.
        The other side of immigration – scroungers – are not only that, but they want this culture and this place turned into their RoP fanatical hellhole.

    2. Morning, Belle.

      …immigration without any thought given to the possible consequences or indeed any preparation made…

      That’s how it has been for generations. Migration Watch a bit behind the curve here.

    3. How many Chinese are going to use fake documents to get here? Seem to be loads shown on the Border Control programs for Australia and NZ trying to get in there.

      1. Australia are having a nightmare with Chinese people arriving and buying up cheaper properties and letting them out to fellow Chinese, many of them are working illegally and have no right to be there. I always thought their borders were more strictly controlled but it appears they have been over run more recently. They arrive at the nations airports and try and bring in suitcases filled with prohibited goods, plant material, seeds, dead animals and food items.

        1. Agreed. Seen them on the programs many many times. It appears they are trying to destroy the Australian agriculture. When caught they then argue and argue.
          And in the other version filmed in Spain – a woman arriving from Africa ( she certainly WASN’T one of the starving ones ) with a dead porcupine in a plastic carrier bag – I nearly threw up.

  36. Good morning all.

    Just thought i would tell you about a series of programs i am enjoying at the moment.

    Amazing Hotels:Life Beyond the Lobby on iplayer.

    The sort of place that most of us could only dream of given the room prices.

    The MGM Cotai, Macau is astonishing. $3.5 billion to build. The main draw are the casino’s but there is much more besides. This hotel was one of the cheapest at $360 a night.
    What you get for that is a skyloft duplex apartment with excellent views. Or go budget at $70 a night.

    Some of the other hotels are truly inspirational.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0def38854a952b87ba466b57ec4cabaf0ffab0c6099f67915bc5ee9761639d82.jpg

    1. The MGM Cotai is gambling palace, jointly developed by MGM and a Chinese gangster. It has one of the most astonishing theatres in the world, where the seats come up from the floor and create the sloping ampitheatre found in cinemas. This was of some interest to us as our middle child worked there for a couple of years as stage manager. There was a TV programme some little time ago where the theatre was demonstrated by the designer who drifted around on a trapeze.

          1. Sitting beside me; bathed, breakfasted and stuffed full of Basildon pharmacy’s best stuff.
            This county line malarky is brilliant, even if it does involve the A12.

      1. I rather enjoy being waited on hand and foot.

        I also think the best hotels are the ones with self contained serviced cabins or bungalows on a tropical beach or in woodland. One day.

        Premier Inns have their uses too if you need overnight accommodation after watching a Show. It’s a clean warm bed for the night after all and it saves travelling late at night.

        Did you once have an awful experience to put you off?

        1. It’s just the whole hotel experience that I dislike. I’ve stayed in those at the bottom, like Premier Inns, and I once stayed in the top suite of the Royal Crescent Hotel, in Bath, when my brother was sous chef there. I hate the fact that there is invariably noise in the passageways from other guests; beds are seldom comfortable; I cannot open windows to obtain fresh air; and I’m not a fan of the whole ambience of hotel life. The food served in most (not all) of them is seldom top-notch and it veers from the average to the downright inedible.

          When I holiday I usually self-cater in some quiet, out-of-the-way cottage, where clocks and timetables are not on the agenda.

          1. When i go oh holiday i always go self catering. That amounts to buying some cereal and milk. Then i eat out everywhere.

            One time in Malta on arrival i booked three different restaurants to eat in on every other day. Lucky i did. It was the Notta Bianco festival and you couldn’t get in anywhere on the night.

            From the comfort of my table i watched dozens of people being turned away. Even the streets were packed like sardines.

            Just memories now.

          2. Got a paper cut on my bumhole at the Royal Marriott in Mumbai.
            :-((
            Some damned little logo sticker used to stick the bogroll point down to the roll. Didn’t see the need to pull it off… now I do! Stung like a bastard it did, too, like crapping broken glass.

      2. Before retiring I usually used hotels as somewhere to sleep between shifts and, other than breakfast (when start times permitted that is) rarely had meals there, preferring to find a pub that did decent ale and food.

      3. Big box hotels are, at best, dull. Small family hotels have soul & character, and are interesting. Grand Hotel Villa Politti, Siracusa, and Hotel Posta, Ortigia, are two of my favourite, also Lia Fjellhotell, Geilo.

  37. US U2 spy planes are criss crossing US airspace which is unprecedented…. and, according to the great Thomas Wictor…………

    ”Thomas Wictor @ThomasWic@social.quodverum.com
    @drawandstrike

    Today Trump used military slang.

    “He’s getting lit up on that one.”

    I can’t remember Trump ever using this phrase before. I think he’s spending lots of time in the company of the US military.”

    There’s a very good explanation for that…….

    He is !

      1. Donald is returning soon after the ”Great Reveal” and that will be the end of Deep State.. and hopefully Deep State hangers on like Johnson and Hancock.

        1. We’re vegetarians, as you know, but we just prefer it with meat.

          Best of both worlds. :-))

      3. 329550+ up ticks,
        Afternoon AtG,
        AKA the pillow whisperer, the female are more deadlier than the male, she might top up by eating him after a night of passion.

    2. Talking of U2, Polly, it won’t have escaped your notice that Paul Hewson (aka Bono) is a very active member of the rancid Davos cabal. When he wore a costume with red horns for a concert tour some years back it was meant to be irony but evil by its nature must self-declare.

      1. David Cameron was a Bono and Davos man and virtually all his major policies, including the Marriage Act 2013 and the removal of Gadaffi, were bought and paid for by Soros.

        ”In May 2017 the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) granted Cameron’s appointment as a Director of U2 Frontman Bono’s One Foundation which is also supported by Bill Gates and George Soros’s Open Society”

  39. 329540+ up ticks,
    Those in the “dying to do that job category” could very well get their wish fulfilled.

    breitbart,
    ‘No Jab, No Job’ – UK Firms Set to Make Vaccines Mandatory

    UK labour shortage in UK business fields must contact the Dover holding pens, check 5* hotel list’s for info.

  40. The deletion of womanhood: Once, it was just noisy protests from a tiny minority. But now a new age of intolerance threatens our very identity. 18 February 2021.

    George Orwell must be grinning grimly in his grave. In the terrifying, controlled world of his masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four, ‘Thoughtcrime’ is any belief that goes against accepted political ideology.

    And ‘Doublethink’ means simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct — a crime against intelligence that is now mainstream.

    A row has been sparked by draft maternity rights legislation that has failed to include a single use of the word ‘woman’ or ‘female’. Instead the draft bill, set to give ministers access to maternity leave, talks only about ‘persons’.

    It’s very difficult to avoid gloating over this. It was Feminism with its lies that enabled the advance of Cultural Marxism. Its fabrications about “Equality” and “Oppression” opening the floodgates to victimhood. The truth is that Wokeism is the most toxic doctrine since Islam. It destroys literally everything it comes into contact with.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9271139/The-deletion-womanhood-New-age-intolerance-threatens-identity-argues-BEL-MOONEY.html

    1. One per cent of the population in Britain identifies as trans or non-binary

      I would be staggered if the true figure is anywhere near that number.

      680,000? Only if all the “copulate with it if it moves brigades” are included.

    2. Ah, what does nature know of equality. The Egalitarian Myth is predicated on a lust for power.

    3. I think it’s very sad that a movement to boost women’s standing has been so totally hijacked and trashed beyond all recognition. Not just sad but disastrous.

      1. It’s nowhere near as good as disastrous, VW. It’s much, much worse. Whatever posessed folk?

        1. It’s always the fanatics who make the most noise, get the most attention, and ruin things for the moderates.

  41. Afternoon All

    Someone pinching my taglines………..

    https://twitter.com/TheFreds/status/1362116608756441088?s=20

    Rest of the covid collection

    https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1362154473565601805

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb666ac7e5e9e76e76f70475493239640aec1ee9b6b7de5f14399c54b4706596.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/db4ac89d8e4b4479e9223997f5b09b5a671375d8599c5a1732b5f735a2e06a0a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8df87f31b8142a7b997d351a9fc6e81478c724b49758736146c2a38a9b48be2.jpg

  49. ‘My son is totally cool with Mum being gay’: Jack Monroe on life as a non-binary parent
    In an interview with the Telegraph’s Juggling Act podcast, the food writer and activist describes the highs and lows of parenthood
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/parenting/son-totally-cool-mum-gay-jack-monroe-life-non-binary-parent/

    Yes, but is he happy with his mum’s body graffiti?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b5a32a280dd9c1566bbd8a2489d148e10d4b6527842685976e0e46a4e8af0a2.jpg

    1. Is he happy with his Mum?! Parents are awkward at the best of times. A tattooed lesbian must be a strain!

    3. There is a story in Nice Matin today that 70% of the fluids used in tattooing are toxic.

      One lives in hopes…………..

  50. Hmm,so the scumbag who wished Cpt Tom would burn in hell is being prosecuted for his hurty words on twitter
    A clever thin edge of a very dangerous wedge,personally I will defend to the death his right to be an obnoxious arsehole and say what he likes,while reserving the right to disagree with a swift punch up the bracket should I ever meet the Fenian swine

      1. I think the concept of ANY prosecution for hurty words is an abomination that diminishes our whole society
        See Count Dankula for details

        1. My dad served in the Royal Artillery in Burma. He died in 1978 aged 68. He went out a fit healthy man and returned a toothless mentally damaged wreck with malaria and a visceral hatred of the Japanese.

          He loved the Indian regimental soldiers and Gurkhas and his mother was born in Cawnpore so he loved India.

          4. Its the same in the police. Every rank holds the ancient office of Constable. The top rank is Chief Constable.

      2. I agree with a lot of that. Cap’n Tom did his bit and appeared to be a genuinely nice person but the hype and adulation turned into a ‘Diana fest’. On the same theme, the Daily Fail and other MSM comics daily print hundreds, if not thousands, of articles about Ginge and Minge then complain continuously that they are publicity seekers. Doh! Stop giving them publicity then. Even thick lefties should see the stupidity of repeatedly posting piccies and stories of them is counterproductive… …perhaps not.

    3. This is a bit of a warm up for the planned “Hate laws” in Scotland. It is win-win for the fascist State.
      Here is a presumably detestable person who said something nasty about a secular saint. No one can take his side surely – “I mean, what kind of person could defend somebody like that, saying something so awful?”
      “Of course they must be convicted and hanged, oh, we can’t ? OK then, six months inside.”
      None of the news agency reports have quoted the actual words so it is difficult to gauge. Scotland is keen on silencing free speech, see Count Dunkula for more.

      Edit: Oops more nonunderreadery.

    4. I agree. Provided you don’t threaten or advocate violence you should be allowed to say whatever you wish.

      Sticks and stones may break my bones But words shall never hurt me.

      “A man who fears to speak is a man in chains”. If the word man upsets you, stick it up your árse you snot dribbling woke wánquers!

  52. Sounds like the Chinooks are buzzing around. Could this be the start of the coup to regain our freedom?😒

          1. This may resonate with you, BT. Some years ago I was pruning my bullace tree and one of those twin rotor buggers took off from their landing field and passed across the gardens just a bit further over at a couple of hundred feet. The shock and noise almost made me tumble from my ladder. If they are around I remain on terra firma.

          2. I was nearly killed by a British twin rotor helicopter, a Bristol Belvedere. I was strapped to a stretcher (on a medical exercise) and it blew down the field hospital I was in. The heavy metal frame missed me by inches. It’s an interesting life in the forces.

          6. Evening Bill.
            Of topic.
            If you receive something via post or courier with your address on it, but addressed to a different person, and despite every reasonable effort, you can not find out who the supposed recipient is, how long must you retain the package before either disposing it or claiming it for yourself in lieu of storage charges?
            Asking for the mill over the road as they’ve over a dozen packages for this non-resident!!

          7. Ask a lawyer! Seriously, I have no idea what the present rules might be. All I know is that they will have changed since I last did any legal work in 1996.

        2. Army Air Corps. Having spent nearly 10 years in the RAF, I tend not to notice aircraft too much so, although they fly helicopters, I couldn’t tell you which.

          2. It so much depends on whether the noise is an intrusion from an alien source or perceived as foreign. I was in Cyprus with Vulcans which when doing engine runs shook our quarter. But we were on the same side and hardly noticed.

    4. Heard a bit of a helicopterish racket earlier on, looked out of the window and an Apache flew over!

  53. May I remind/inform anyone who is interested that the Perseverance Rover will land on Mars this evening (7.15 pm UK time)? If this is successful, it will be an extraordinary achievement. (I wonder how many wokes, BLMs and Antifas can achieve anything other than the destruction of our heritage and culture!)

    Feb. 18, 2021
    11:15 a.m. PST /
    2:15 p.m. EST LIVE Landing Broadcast: Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars

    Channels that will carry the live broadcast include:
    YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Daily Motion, Theta.TV, and NASA App

    Spanish-language show
    NASA

    Clean feed of mission control on YouTube
    NASA JPL Raw

    360-degree stream on YouTube
    NASA JPL

    via @NASA
    using #CountdownToMars

    https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/watch-online/

    1. The timings clash with Wagner on Radio 3 appropriately enough ‘Die Walküre’. I may have to watch on YT with sound on mute, whilst listening to Wagner…

  55. The link is to a very badly written article. However it does say that McGuinness is responsible for the possibility of UK’s ability to take part in EU financial markets in the future . It does not say that she is member of Fine Gael the political party headed by Varadkar and Coveney the EU catspaws who did their best to wreck our measured and reasonable departure from the EU. A plot in which they succeeded.
    So, …

    https://uk.yahoo.com/finance/news/stable-eu-relations-city-london-132032059.html

  56. Nugger!
    Went up t’road to get some logs and, about a third of the way through what I’d planned, the toe wheel on the end of the cutter bar choked up & seized, so didn’t get as much as I planned, though I still loaded a useful amount.

    Arrived home to find RV-W’s Flos Campi on R3. Lovely.

    2. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates is featured on BBC R4 ‘Book of the Week, this week, Bob.

      I am curious about the choice: was it made by our independent, License-Funded BBC?
      – or could it have been ‘facilitated’ by a brown envelope from the kindly Bill Gates?

      Perhaps you may be tempted to investigate the matter with a swift twitter to Tim Davie?

  59. Off topic: For we Brits posting on Breitbart, POTUS Bidet/Harris are proving to be a gift from heaven 🙂

      1. Moneygall’s “Obama Plaza” soon to be replaced with “AOC Plaza.”
        Those eejits south of the border fall for it every time.

    1. Listened to him earlier. Even Blairites must be wondering why they got rid of Corbyn.
      Starmer’s nickname, “Captain Hindsight” is well deserved.

    2. They say that Mahler’s music is not be as bad as it sounds – but Boris Johnson is certainly every bit as bad as he looks!

    3. I’m a Star Trek fan like a lot of people but i wouldn’t leave a decision like that in the hands of an android.

    1. You’re probably of an age when you can do that JN.
      Most of us have to deal with the new laws/restrictions best we can.

      ETA: If we want to hang on to our homes/employment.

          2. Today, after a lot of research on the internet : I will not wear a mask and I will not accept an experimental vaccine.

          3. Then you’re of an age when you can afford to refuse both.
            Most of us have to make comprises if we want to get on with life.
            We may not like it but bills need to be paid.

  67. For any that partake of Social Media (I don’t) this hashtag is beginning to trend as a two-finger salute to Facebook:

    #deleteFacebook

    I sincerely hopes it goes viral….

      1. As far as I’m aware the site owner (Geoff) doesn’t harvest my data for commercial purposes….

      2. This isn’t Social Media. This is the Nottl club for the elderly slightly frayed at the edges forum.

        1. On the plus side, they’ve provided most of my classical music folder.
          Along with much great humour/cartoons 🙂

      3. I’ve enjoyed both: green turtle soup and mock turtle soup.

        Lewis Carroll never forgave me for the latter!

    4. Did my bit about 25 years ago. While fishing from the bow of the ship I saw a large turtle caught up and struggling in a cargo net go drifting by. Ran up to the bridge and persuaded the skipper to let me launch the MOB to try and help it. I said it would make a good realistic drill. We found it about 4 miles back and close to our towed streamers. Struggled to get the big beast onboard while it tried to to bite us. Eventually we cut the net away and the 3 of us got it back in the water. It didn’t seem very grateful but we were pleased.

          1. One of our inspection crew rescued a tiny owl that was on a Saudi oil platform, dying of hunger & thirst. Taken back ashore in a kitbag, it was revived with water and food for several days, until it was well enough to fly off.

          2. I remember an owl rescued and cosseted by several Filipino crew members when we were were working a long way offshore. The tastiest morsels only and it had the life of Riley. At the end of job and a trip to dock the owl was ceremoniously released (in broad daylight). It flew around the ship twice and nose-dived into the harbour. One of the Flips dived in and rescued it, again.

          4. When I was working on the recent Shetland Gas Project, if any birds were spotted nesting in the upper reaches of the new modules, all work i n that area had to stop. I toyed with the idea of making fake battery powered birds’ nests which would chirp-chirp away thus stopping work.

  69. I see the new danger to the world is the humble asthma inhaler.

    Apparently, we who suffer cause millions of tons of whatever it is (this month) the eco-freaks don’t like to poison the atmosphere. Best we all just drop dead.

    1. If everybody who did not vote for Khan abandoned living and working in London and only those who had voted for him remained then how long would it be before London became the South Africa of the Northern Hemisphere without the mineral wealth?

      2. Afternoon Rastus, that process may well be underway already.
        Those that are working from home that previously commuted into the City will not be eager to return to Khan’s domain.
        London is in decline which will accelerate, I think therefore months to hit Soweto status.

      3. It must be really difficult for those that live in rural parts of the UK to visualise the changes that have occurred in London over the past 40 years. I suspect your analogy with South Africa isn’t far off the mark….

        1. I am frequently sickened by what I see in London on my rare visits. It is not comfortable to be the only white person on the bus in your own capital city.

      4. Wilbur Smith….Describes South Africa as a vast empty wilderness,in his Courtney family stories.With just the Bushmen
        and the Hottentots as their inhabitants.The Zulus came down from the North as invaders….True or False I dont know.. as for
        Mandela I see him as a terrorist…..But it would be a wonderful place to live.

          1. I meant if as described “a vast empty wilderness”….Western Europe is falling into a dark place where will it end?

        2. The Zulu expansion saw a period of genocidal slaughter and ethnic cleansing as the tribe expanded and invaded Southern Africa that is rarely discussed.
          Essentially it was one of the last phases of the millennium long Bantu expansion from West Africa to virtually the entirety of Sub-Saharan Africa.

      5. London survives because of the people who work in it, then leave at the end of the day. If the indigenous population were the only contributors – as most a re net takers – it would collapse.

    2. I’m saying nowt about UKIP’s Winston McKenzie.

      “Winston McKenzie…
      Winston Truman McKenzie (born 23 October 1953) is a British political activist and perennial candidate for public office. He is a founder and leader of Unity in Action. He has been a member of every major political party, and has stood as an independent or minor party candidate on numerous occasions without success.”

      ETA: Kippers wonder why none of us take them seriously.

          3. McKenzie didn’t win the seat, or get anywhere close.
            UKIP’s candidate to run against Burnham in the Manchester Mayoral election is still the jaw-dropper.

          5. Bible-burning religious nut who refused to shake hands with women.
            If elected, would have made religious slaughter of animals in the Manchester area compulsory ..
            UKIP didn’t win that one either.

  71. Had an appointmnt this afternoon with my dentist in Poole re the fitting of my new back molar crown .. The sun was shining , sky was blue .. as the song goes.
    After my treatment had been completed we drove to Poole quay which is only five minutes from my dentist.. and what a bit of luck ..

    Pip Hare had just arrived in her yacht at the quay, there was a huge crowd .. no social distsancing , but hey what the hell , and lots of police presence , but the triumph of reaching safe waters to a cheering crowd was something else . We were in the car and driving very carefully and slowly , but wow , what a lovely homecoming for her .

    https://www.facebook.com/PipHareOceanRacing

  72. Mr Raschid has branch offices everywhere………….

    Israel will officially reopen businesses from gyms and hotels to

    malls, museums and libraries on Sunday. However, only those who can

    prove they have been vaccinated or had Covid-19 will be welcome in the

    gyms, hotels, and swimming pools, and only they will be allowed to

    attend sports and cultural events.

    But having over 100,000

    Israelis buying and selling fake passes on social media, a market the

    Times of Israel reported on Thursday is already moving at a healthy

    pace, defeats the purpose of having a vaccine pass. The passes are going

    for about 750 shekels ($230), according to Haaretz, and even before the

    businesses reopen their doors can exempt the holder from quarantine.

    Bar-Zik

    went on at length in his post about how easy it would have been to make

    a secure version using the same kind of digital signature deployed all

    over the internet in HTTPS and other common protocols and expressed

    frustration that supposedly tech-forward Israel had not deployed this

    comparatively ancient technology in a piece of ID considered to be so

    important. He was far from the only cybersecurity professional to take

    the news public – the firm Check Point also came forward, sharing a

    video with Haaretz that even walked the user through the process of

    faking the Green Pass.

    https://www.rt.com/news/515961-israel-forged-vaccine-certificates-ban/
    Of course vax refuseniks here would never ever think of faking a passport(snigger)

    1. I’m sure if they asked him nicely, that nice Mr Gates would provide them with a secure foolproof IT solution………

    2. Of course one might argue that refusniks would not obtain fake passports because they are sufficiently honest unto themselves to refuse and likely to be sufficiently honest to say so!

  74. I sent this letter to our MP on 14th February.

    It is reported that Dominic Raab has suggested the government may introduce ‘vaccine passports’. That would amount to coercion and respectfully request you advise him of this.

    I am certain the government will do all it can to retain the stranglehold on our civil liberties and string out restrictions on our normal lives despite the fact that this virus is not as deadly as was initially thought.

    I am also certain that the majority of conservative MPs will continue to vote whichever way the government tells them with none standing up for those cancer, heart disease and other diseases who have been sacrificed on the Covid altar.

    I have received the following reply.

    Thank you for writing to me about coronavirus vaccines and immunity passports. I have read your email carefully and have noted the key points that you make.

    I too have read reports about the development of so-called ‘Immunity Passports’ which could be used to enable people to safely access certain venues. The Government has stated that the priority at the moment is establishing a safe and effective way to roll out the vaccine to all those who need it. While I understand that a range of options are being considered to encourage people to receive the vaccine, the Government will certainly not make the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory.

    Once you are in receipt of a vaccine, you will be issued with a card by the NHS, stating the name of the vaccine, as well as the batch number and the date of each dose. However, this should not be considered an immunity passport, and the Government has no plans for the card to be used in this way.

    I urge my colleagues across the Government to continue to act in response to the latest research but, in doing so, to remove each and every restriction on our liberty at the earliest reasonable opportunity. The hugely successful roll-out of the vaccine to date is extraordinarily welcome, but we are not yet at the end of the road, and, for the moment, people must continue to comply with the restrictions in place in their area, including when they have received their vaccination.

    I have noted your views and will certainly discuss this along with the other issues you have raised with my MP colleagues and with relevant ministers. I do not think that vaccination against the coronavirus should be mandatory and I certainly believe that the default position on all things should be that of individual liberty (where individuals are not harming others, or putting others at identifiable risk, by their actions).

    1. Good morning, Alf, in order that we don’t duplicate your query (and receive the same formulated reply) please tell us to which MP you sent your searching query.

      I shall send similar to my, Mid-Suffolk MP, Dr Dan Poulter.

      1. Done, as follows:

        Dear Dr Poulter,

        It is reported that Dominic Raab has suggested the government may introduce ‘vaccine passports’. That would amount to coercion and I respectfully request you advise him of this.

        I am certain the government will do all it can to retain the stranglehold on our civil liberties and string out restrictions on our normal lives, despite the fact that this virus is not as deadly as was initially thought. In fact it is just another, although vicious, strain of influenza. As a doctor, I’m sure you can advise me.

        I am also certain that the majority of conservative MPs will continue to vote whichever way the government tells them, with none standing up for those with cancer, heart disease (me) and other diseases who have been sacrificed on the Covid altar.

        I shall be interested to know your stance on this, as it will affect my voting pattern not only on May 6th but again in 2024. And possibly the other 130 inhabitants of Flowton.

      2. Good morning NtN
        My MP is Jonathan Lord, Woking. I included an online quote about coercion but that didn’t copy.

          2. Let’s see:

            You label people you disagree with as ‘far right’.
            You label people
            You claim to be centre right.

            You are clearly Left wing. A normal person does not label others, nor attempt to identify others as an enemy. It’s comical – if it were not so sad.

    3. Following the science will be the get-out clause. Just as Johnson and his miserable cabal will claim after they’ve been rumbled and thrown Sage under a bus. Not certain that Nuremberg 2 will be sufficient, flight will be their No 1 option.

      1. 329540+ uo ticks,KtK,
        Evening KtK,
        I believe I have mentioned the Odessa line is 24/7 primed & ready on the politico’s side, what the peoples should be doing is investing in a new deck of cards.

      2. And, as we all know, with the Wuhan Virus and with Global Warming, the term “following the science” is false. They are really following Scientific Opinion specially selected to support their policies.

        The counter opinions of any other scientists, including specialist in the particular field, are ignored.

    4. Very sensible decision.

      Most elderly people will have had much experience of the world, so are not very likely to want to vote Dem.

  76. FOAD

    It may be legal for companies to insist on new staff being vaccinated as a

    condition of their employment, the justice secretary has said.

    However, Robert Buckland said it was unlikely bosses could make existing workers have vaccines under their current contracts.

    Downing Street has said it would be “discriminatory” to order people to be vaccinated to keep their job.

    But some firms say they will not hire new staff who refuse to have the jab.

    In an interview with ITV on Wednesday, Mr Buckland said compelling new

    staff to be inoculated could, in theory, be possible if it was written

    into their contracts.

    However, employers would probably need to take legal action if existing staff refused such an order, he said.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56113366
    Nothing sinister here no siree not at all
    Edit
    “Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

    —Giovanni Gentile

    1. There’s no point in insisting on new employees being vaccinated as a condition of employment unless you have all current employees vaccinated too. And surely that would be illegal and any case to allow an employer this condition thrown out of court on grounds of coercion. Coercion is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

      I am gobsmacked that the Justice Secretary has already pronounced on this in any way.

  77. Off topic and not expecting a reply..

    “Jack S Pretty Polly • a few seconds from now
    Jeez wept. Who should we have voted for back in December’19 pp?
    •Edit•Reply•Share”

  79. That’s me for the day. Chilly wind at the market – but the rain held off until we were home.

    This afternoon, it suddenly brightened – sun came out and lit the mass of snowdrops, now at their best. We took G & P out – and – with some “help” – they went about 40 yards from the house. Pickles climbed into a tree then squeaked because he didn’t know how to get down. As if….

    Gus enjoyed foraging in the shrubbery – especially going in at one place and coming out ten yards away – to the discomfiture of his brother.

    So – progress. The MR is still in great discomfort from her two fainting falls. But has, she claims, no adverse effects from the Phizer jab. Hmmm.

    A demain.

    1. Falls?
      That is of far more concern than the fainting during the night that you reported earlier.
      I hope all is well, and you should consider calling your Nigerian doctor or the NHS helpline

          2. Hi Belle,
            It was a bit scary, I’ve never fainted before. I fely giddy halfway down the stairs and lost it. Luckily I didn’t damage my ankle but the bruising from my shoulder and down my leg was worth a photo…
            PS it wasn’ the sherry!

          3. Goodness me Plum , what a terrible fright for you . I am sure you hurt like mad , and if you are on your own , you would have really been shocked .

            Hope your little woofle gave you a cuddle !

            Did your doc did your bloods and things , blood pressure etc .

            Cross fingers all will be fixable and okay .. please take care .

          4. I had blood pressure/pulse etc taken all ok. It’s my Achilles
            tendon that bothers me ….still painful. According to my Physio it should have been stitched as the tear was quite bad.

            Maud’s nursing skill…..zilch!

          5. I fainted on parade once as a young cadet on the JNCO cadre.
            Started off standing at ease awaiting uniform inspection, and was still ‘in the position’ when I landed, so I’m told.
            I still have a scar under my chin from where it split open.

            I carried on with the weekend’s training (Nails) but looked a sight because as well as the stitching for that, I already had my arm in plaster due to breaking my wrist doing a parachute jump a few days earlier.

            Edit – actually, on reflection, if memory serves it was my thumb I broke, not my wrist

          6. Tried them (my own, obviously, not yours) and I hated tht only s small strip was in focus. Had to nod to find the focus. Horrible things.

          7. I have poor eyesight and one eye is twice as short-sighted as the other. Varifocals are a Godsend. I can see relatively short, relatively medium, and relatively long. For really close vision I have to remove the glasses altogether.

            I fear that next up will have to be two pairs, “living” varifocal and “reading” varifocal.

          8. Bifocals work for me – except when what I need to read is above my head (think supermarket) and I have to tilt my head back so far I almost topple over. Otherwise, often have to take them off to read tiny print.
            :-((
            Got some shooting specs last year – it was weird, waving a freaking great revolver around in the opticians…

    2. Please don’t panic Bill, but your darling beloved must see your witchdoctor .. Fainting is not good, she may need a medication review ..

      There is nothing wrong making a fuss .. a fuss is what is required x

    4. Your MR should contact her GP Bill and, at the same time, let the GP know what’s happened if it is unusual for her. She may doubt it is as a result of the vaccine but IMO it should be reported.

    5. “… in great discomfort from her two fainting falls” should sound serious alarm bells IMHO, Bill …

    6. ‘No adverse effects from the Pfizer jab’ – is this claim, in actual fact, an adverse effect, I wonder? Everyone seems so happy when they have had the jab. Do they add some ‘denial’ into the mix? Rose-coloured spectacles handed out as you leave?

  81. See the free-speech social media platform Parler is back online after Silicon Valley’s Big Tech Cartel closed it down by denying it access to servers controlled by Amazon, Apple and Google.

    There’s been a boardroom dust-up at Parler that saw John Matze sacked as CEO. Matze’s vision of Parler in which he seemed amenable to introducing censorship à la Twatter did not find favour with Dan Bongino and the other two co-owners of Parler. Matze was also blamed for his poor decision to use servers controlled by Big Tech, thus leaving Parler wide open to the Cartel’s control. Dan Bongino explains in this link:

    https://www.waynedupree.com/2021/02/bongino-matze-parler/

    We’ll have to see what happens, I expect many Parlerers* moved on after the platform was down for over a month. For those of you who had a Parler account, your old log-in details are still valid but sadly, all previous posts have been wiped. You start with a clean slate!

    * Is that a word? ……. it is now.

          1. Bongo was one of my nicknames at the Technical School. Someone thought I resembled a small African antelope, not sure why.

            My other nickname was Lux after the soap on account of my unblemished skin. Until my wife attended to my Covid beard yesterday I resembled Father Christmas.

          2. I envy men who can grow a “proper” beard.

            I returned from a trip with skin problems and “mild” dysentery.

            If it was mild, I never, ever, want “real” dysentery. Stupidly, I used Lysol on the skin problems and it destroyed the hair follicles. My attempts at a beard now only produce straggly parts and bald parts.

            {:-((

          3. After having clear skin and able to tan quickly I developed psoriasis age 50. Fortunately it is moreorless confined to my legs having gravitated. A month or so ago (after the flu jab) I developed a rash to my torso and neck but stopping at the hairline.

            On Phizzee’s advice I am treating it with O’Keefe’s Skin Repair lotion which has stopped the itching and quietened it down. I think it might be a fungal infection but it also resembles carpet beetle rash.

            These damn maladies are sent to try us. Now I have broken a tooth which will require a crown.

    3. And just what makes these idiots think that arriving in Scotland on the visa won’t stop them heading South?

      Or is it another cunning plan to damage England in every way that they can?

      1. The devolved Scottish Government has no power to bring in such a scheme, Sos. Ordering immigration, sponsored or otherwise, is a power reserved to Westminster/

          2. Me too.

            And on those odd times we disagree, I’m right but I forgive you the error of your ways!

      2. The plan is to make up the declining population in some rural areas with immigrants from the sub-continen.. Obviously a much better idea than attracting young people from the cities of the Central Belt.
        A previous First Minister said that Scotland need at least 600,000 immigrants. Curiously the same number as thr number of abortions in Scotland up until that date.

      3. Hadrian’s or the Antonin wall will stop ’em, ‘ cos of the very well-trained border guards, said tomasus julias nannyus no-us.

    4. Just thinking aloud!
      If we had no BAME , no one would know what racist is … how can you be a racist in your own white country ..

      I mean look at old newsreel shots of happy familes , celebration teas , garden parties , the opera , concerts , horse racing , seaside outings , were we racist in those days , of course not.

      We were class concious , so has this new term racism overtaken Class concienceness, you and none you and all the stuff those of us of a certain age were brought up with ?

    6. They won’t stay long. You need northern european genes for the climate and terrain. You need to feel it seeping through your skin and think there’s nowhere else you would rather be.

      1. Theres at least two Pakistani enclaves taht have been established in Norther Norway, for a long time now… don’t forget that some from that part of the world are mountain folk, with experience of cold.

    1. She doesn’t understand where heating energy comes from. The adult Lefties who do are milking the system so much they won’t care – especially when we’re paying for it.

      1. Looks to me as if that penis was caught in an awkward moment by a pyroclastic flow from Vesuvius and taken later to Cambridgeshire as a sex toy by some lascivious Roman settler.

    4. I’ve travelled the A14 many times and it doesn’t need archaeology to convince me of the number of dicks you’ll meet between Felixstowe and the M6.

    1. She’s immature and stupid. Like a lot of these kids – of all ages – they know no history and just repeat the hype, oblivious to reality.

    1. Just another of the things she committed us to during the Patel “family holiday” in Israel.?
      Along with increased illegals on our shores, continuing neutered police force and ethnic sweatshops.

    3. When they get here and find taxes are six times higher than they are back home, will they want to leave?

      It’s odd, we welcome these people as they’re the sort of economic immigrant we want: young, intelligent and then we tax them into oblivion with an oppressive, controlling state machine.

      1. Why should they even want to come here , I mean , this country is full of mosques and blacks stabbing , and no discipline , and our cities are dirty , our countryside is full of discarded rubbish and dog pooh bags hanging from bushes , bottles of urine thrown out of lorry windows , crap in the countryside , and miserable housing estates , and strange weather , why would any one want to come to Britain these days .

        Our own brain drain vanished years ago . We are an overcrowded grubby over taxed country , with so many uneven tiers of prosperity!

        1. Good grief, Maggie! That isn’t the image of England I live with every day. We have people volunteering to keep our streets clean and tidy.

          2. We definitely do. I was speaking to a couple from the team yesterday as they were cutting down brambles and clearing pathways.

        2. Good grief, Maggie! That isn’t the image of England I live with every day. We have people volunteering to keep our streets clean and tidy.

        3. Well said, Mags, and, for once I don’t agree with my friend Connors, though I think he is being a tad ironic.

  89. “Jack S Exceptionalists Way • 3 hours ago
    …the natives are in the mood for revolution.”

    Lead on McBluff. We natives are still waiting…
    2•Edit•Reply•Share

    Just saying 🙂

    1. Dammit, I cannot walk along the promenade, what is the French Government going to do about that?

  94. Nicola Sturgeon orders EU flag to be flown from Scottish government buildings daily
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/18/nicola-sturgeon-orders-eu-flag-flown-scottish-government-buildings/

    Nicola Sturgeon has ordered that the EU flag is flown from Scottish government buildings every day, despite Britain no longer being a member of the bloc.

    Opponents of the First Minister said the demand showed her “obsession” with constitutional issues and “makes no sense” in light of Brexit.

    The request was included in updated official guidance over which flags should be flown from buildings run by the Scottish government and its agencies.

    While the Union Jack is to be flown on only one day a year –Remembrance Day – Ms Sturgeon “instructed that the European flag is flown from Scottish government buildings on a daily basis except for specific flag flying dates”, the guidance says.

    Sticking two fingers up to the rest of the UK.

      2. I hope you’re referring to Nicola Sturgeon, not me! If so, isn’t the noun of the wrong gender?

        1. Not necessarily. In these times of flexible genders, we must take care not to offend those “women” with penises.

    1. Perhaps we all need to do the same and disappear into the sunset to escape the current world-wide lockdowns.

      Speak up Boris!

    1. Research is bound to shew that BAME was the dominant life-force on Mars and they had all the major technological dib-dabs until a white-supremacist man appeared and appropriated the lot.

  98. It’s ironic that the article in the DT about Mr Fox and Free Speech isn’t open to comments…. Why FFS?

    1. “We can’t have folk expressing their views on Free Speech. It really wouldn’t do at all.”
      — Daily Telegraph Editor

          1. Thanks but I think I can do without and take up a more traditional English Past time – Archery….

  100. Warning – PayPal scam

    I received a text message today that looked as if it was from PayPal saying “We have limited your account due to safety concerns. Please visit [link] before we are forced to suspend services”

    I thought it was a bit suss so Goohled the number it came from and it had scam written all over it.

    Watch out anyone if you use PayPal and get the same text

  102. 329540+ up ticks,
    The lock-down regulating valve is being tested regarding it’s manipulating
    properties appertaining to the ovis.

    Time to ease the pressure on the electorate as they once again enter the
    forgive and forget dream time.

    Two clear months is judged to be enough time for the usual pledge.vow & promise fodder to be heard and swallowed before entering the polling booth.

    The overseers coalition see no problems for the foreseeable future meaning business as usual , much more of the same.

    1. Modest by comparison with snot gobbler Gordon Brown. Then again it could have been the dew drop off the end of her nose which she would not give you.

      1. It was on at 9pm on Channel 5 but you could probably find it on catch up if you have the tech.

          2. Good heavens, no! I rarely watch TV at all and I wouldn’t touch Virgin with a barge pole (sorry, stephenroi!).

          6. Thanks, Alf. I managed to watch one of the episodes and I have bookmarked the second to watch tonight.

      2. It was on at 9pm on Channel 5 but you could probably find it on catch up if you have the tech.

  106. Three ads in a row with a black man, white woman couple.
    Why is it never white woman, black man?

  107. Special Public Health message on Ch 5 Ch 4 ITV, E4.
    A series of about 20+ BAME ‘celebrities’ telling people there is no pork in the vaccine.

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