Thursday 19 November: Politicians have left small businesses languishing in lockdown limbo

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/11/19/letterspoliticians-have-left-small-businesses-languishing-lockdown/

1,265 thoughts on “Thursday 19 November: Politicians have left small businesses languishing in lockdown limbo”

    1. mng, congrats, anything startling yr end? Kenya Met Office [run by Google] states “heavy rain, scattered thunderstoms”, which they’ve claimed every day this week. Reality, as usual, complete opposite, decent weather and warm here all week. No real local news here [as they’ve not much to talk about]. Only snippet is Uganda Presidential candidate Bobi Wine arrested again, and some other unknown floozy went to put her papers forward as Presidential candidate. Musaveni [we know as M7] bless him, had her arrested in her house, taken to court in Black Maria no less, got beaten up and robbed en route, then allowed to table her papers, in bare feet and all jewellery / phone, purse taken. Walked back home after registration, got back to find Uganda Police had also nicked her TV, BUT, returned her shoes.

    1. Windy like hell here, inside & out. Driving rain, too.
      A gutload of mushy peas (yum!) last night are making their presence felt…

  3. The Nobel Peace Prize has become an ignoble joke. Douglas Murray 19 November 2020.

    In 2009, the committee famously gave the prize to Barack Obama, when he was not yet one year into office, and when he had still not achieved anything of note. But the Nobel committee seemed to want to congratulate Obama on just being Obama. In the same way that a few years ago almost every award in the world was given to Caitlyn (formerly Bruce) Jenner, simply for being stunning and brave. If you are a Left-wing politician like Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize has become just another of those gongs you collect on your endless victory laps of the world.

    By contrast, after four years in office there is absolutely zero likelihood that the politically predictable Nobel committee would – for instance – give their prize to Donald Trump. Unlike his predecessors, Trump started no wars in the Middle East or anywhere else. He avoided a few and de-escalated a number of others which he inherited. Then in this last year of office, his administration has overseen an utterly historic set of normalisation agreements between Israel and many of her Arab neighbours. All without a shot being fired.

    All international organisations have been penetrated, if not by the various Security Services then by left wing Social Engineering groups which gives them a platform to extoll their usually unrelated views. This applies even on the domestic front. The promotion of two Wokies to the running of the National Trust are typical. What are in effect glorified housekeeping positions suddenly allow them to become experts on history and its consequences.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/19/nobel-peace-prize-has-become-ignoble-joke/

    1. The Left look after their own. No doubt Blair is decorated with a chest full of medals yt he’s obviously a corrupt charlatan.

      They get everywhere, backhanding and brown enveloping themselves endlessly. The whole edifice is corrupt.

        1. 326557+ up ticks,
          Morning BB2,
          I must disagree in the nicest possible way, I would say in it’s present odious form it is the perfect place.

      2. I was musing the other day that Blair (and any other former political leader) should have his protection squad means tested. I can see that former Government Ministers may need protection from their ‘adoring’ public but surely when they’re scooping millions from all sources, on the back of their nefarious deeds in office, a little self-reliance should be called for?

  4. One good thing that sprung to mind last night, is that when the great reset and green revolution pre-ordained by our globalists elites gets into full swing and the inevitable cull of unviable people that will follow then the academics will surely be at the top of the list.
    I mean if one was creating a sustainable re-wilded planet run by world government with puppet agents in every corner of the world then why would you want millions of unproductive mind shifters on the payroll?
    Their purpose will have been served persuading the youthful masses to voluntarily self destruct their democracies and economies, once done they will only be a wasteful nuisance.

    1. There’s a lesson to be learned from all revolutions. As soon as the fighting is over the first people to go are those who enabled it!

    2. Any truth to the rumour (which I’ve just started) that Elon Musk is busy constructing Ark Ship B?

    1. Malloch is a meddler in the affairs of many countries and institutions, a former Labour Minister, revered in the Guardian and a darling of the Left. He and his cohorts, especially Soros, have much to answer for in the drift towards socialism, especially in South America, the United Nations and now, even in the United States.

      Why is it that the Left always seem to get away with these antidemocratic machinations with little opposition from the centre or the right?

      How did he manage to get his KCMG? Answer in two words: Tony Blair!

      1. absolutely Sguest. I met him in Juba in Jan 2005, very briefly thankfully. He wandered into our compound and caught me with a raging hangover. He asked what I did, replied “aside running aid on the front line with Norewegians here, logistics for the SPLA rebels and advice to Troika”. And “what do you” I furthered – he said “Diplomat for Peace”, Just laughed at him and went back under the shade. I’d never heard of him and he’d only rocked up to attempt to have his moment in the sun. Old saying “Sunny place for shady people”. Have kept tabs on him ever since, mostly so as to avoid him.

    2. I came across this comment on TCW by ratcatcher11 yesterday:

      “An even bigger car crash about to suck in Johnson is the voting machine scam run by a baron Malloch Brown, who is currently seated in the House of Lords and has been supplying voting machines designed to deliberately rig elections, Made by Dominion and using Smartmatic software. Malloch Brown is charman of Smartmatic. This software is designed to allow the operator to ‘adjust’ vote tallies personally and remotely. Chavez of Venezuela used them to gain and keep power. In addition Smartmatic claims that George Soros has nothing to do with Smartmatic what they failed to mention was that Malloch Brown was Vice Chairman of Soros’s Open Society organisation which is dedicated to overthrowing democratic governments and replacing them with fascist globalist dictatorships and they use these machines to do just that. US Army Intelligence Officers raided the Headquarters of Scytl in Frankfurt and seized servers with the original votes for Trump according to US Congressman Louie Gohmert who sits on the Judiciary Commitee and is a former judge. The servers showed Trump actually won by a landslide with over 80 million votes but these were altered/cancelled/transferred by the voting machines. No wonder Bozo is hiding away with Eva Braun, he is trying to avoid some difficult questions and not only about the fake virus and the Great Reset. This cowardly politician is everything the British people despise about the political class and the lies they tell. British democracy is being destroyed by the Tories who have the nerve to wrap themselves in the Union Jack. Liars and charlatans all.”

      1. I had a DM exchange on skype wth him over Malloch Brown, Soros and Smartmatic shenaningans. He’s right viz his post, but thanks for sharing, if others may not be aware of some of the “insider dealings”. It’s no surprise Johnson’s doing his Lord Lucan routine

  9. Boris Johnson to end ‘era of retreat’ with £24bn Armed Forces spending pledge. 19 November 2020.

    Boris Johnson has promised “an end to the era of retreat” for Britain’s Armed Forces with a £24 billion spending increase that marks the biggest financial boost since the Cold War.

    The Prime Minister pledged to restore the Royal Navy to its position as Europe’s most powerful maritime force and will invest heavily in drones, cyber warfare and space programmes.

    Mr Johnson said he had made the decision “in the teeth of the pandemic because the defence of the realm must come first”.

    UK defence does need to be upgraded; rebuilt might be a better description, but this is just blather. Firstly it’s almost certainly been made to catch the eye of the new US President and in reality there is no way that it will survive the oncoming economic onslaught from the after effects of the Coronavirus Campaign. It is like so much of Boris’s announcements meaningless persiflage.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/11/18/boris-johnson-end-era-retreatwith-24bn-armed-forces-spending/

    2. Equipment is cheap, relatively. Yes, we need more drones and patrol ships but really what we need is an end to the MoD.

      It thinks in terms of the Cold War, with big supra national powers battling one another. What we need now is mobile, well equipped battle forces able to take on any threat. No more army, navy, air force but to train all our servicemen up to special forces levels in teams of 10, with three small vehicles and 2 large vehicles each as communications, medical and fire support. The actual troops need heavier armour, equipment and support weapons. Yes, this means a woman serving needs to be able to carry an javelin rocket launcher, her pack and spare missiles and her own personal weapons. If she can’t, get out.

      We need faster helicopters, gunships for close support and lots and lots of them. Yes, thes are high materiel costs but they give us a mobile, responsive, flexible military. Instead, no doubt as usual, politicians will use the military budget to buy votes – as Brown blatantly did with his aircraft carriers.

      However more than anything we need the political will to use this equipment to protect our borders and secure the nation. That means instead of hauling the criminal gimmigrants here, we sink their boats and send them back.

      1. The same mistaken thinking as at the start of WWII, Wibbles, inasmuch that the thinking was that this war is going to be fought a la WWI and surprise, surprise, because of advanced thinking by Germany, the armies and population of other countries were completely overrun by the speed of Germany’s Blitzkrieg.

      2. Just getting rid of the top heavy bureaucracy that is the MoD and firing/retiring the top brass would pay for all of your ideas with money left over.

    3. Endless supply of cash isn’t there? Furlough schemes, help for everyone etc, free lives for endless flood of invading replacements, Foreign Aid, etc etc.

    4. Another of his Pavlovian pipe dreams for MSM consumption as opposed to shoring up the Mil Ind Complex. He’s fast running into living in a borrowed position, a borrowed place and on borrowed time

      1. Sixty-nine suspected illegal immigrants and three crew members have been arrested after a fishing boat was intercepted off the coast of East Anglia, says the National Crime Agency.

        They’ve been “arrested” now have they? When will this meaningless wordplay come to an end?

        1. It is a great policy – arrest the criminals . . .and give them exactly what they want . . .entrance into the UK. They will have already been seen by the NHS ( remember them? ) and will already be signed up for the rest of the freebie list. Families back in Albania can be heard cheering and celebrating, knowing they will be here soon, contributing to our society ( OK – the last bit was made up ).

        2. 326557+ up ticks,
          AS,
          Running low on five* accommodation next move
          will surely be compulsory
          lodgering along with the jab.

          Party before country, best of the worst, hold the nasal
          attachment when voting, you know it makes sense.

          This is now paying of in spades.

      2. Sixty-nine suspected illegal immigrants and three crew members have been arrested after a fishing boat was intercepted off the coast of East Anglia, says the National Crime Agency.

        They’ve been “arrested” now have they? When will this meaningless wordplay come to an end?

  11. Good morning all, breezy chilly morning here, but non of that brrrr factor yet .

    Hope no one has a pop at me when I ask, how will electric cars cope with very steep hills, of which we have plenty of in Britain.

    1. 326557+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      An onboard turfer with small dynamite charge cartridge, that fires a frontal hook.

      3. Have to replace it with horse-drawn caravans, then. Good for the roses (but not very carbon-free).

    3. Morning T-B – My son’s petrol Ford pickup pulling a large caravan up steep hills in Texas gets 5miles to the USA gallon. Electricity for powering electric cars will be far greater than Boris expects. Many obvious things such as weather, number of passengers, traffic jams etc. will affect electric car performance.

      1. Boris doesn’t care about the costs or the reality. He’s just flinging things out to distract.

        Hell, we can’t even build a fibre infrastructure. Building in new 3 phase feeds into millions of homes, solar panels and all that upgraded infrastructure would cost our entire GDP four times over every year for a decade.

        It simply won’t happen. It’s an absurdity pushed by an ignoramus.

        1. The question is, how will it not happen?

          a) they forget about it and it quietly disappears
          b) petrol and diesel cars are banned, and cars become a luxury for the rich.

      2. On a cold winter won’t roads become gridlocked for hours and hours on end when thousands of them run out of electrickery when they have had to use windscreen wipers, heaters and lights. People will die from hypothermia in their cars and no rescue service will be able to reach them.

        Shouldn’t Boris think it out again?

        I am reminded of Fagin’s song:

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

      3. This exactly what my son says .

        Not one of of those government wallahs has thought their wild idea through . How are people who live on modern estates going to recharge their cars , there are many communal garages, on street parking , terrace houses, no driveways .. modern planners allow the building of tight miserable rabbit hutches with no front gardens .. parts of the new Poundbury is a classic example .

        Electricity prices are so expensive , how will ordinary hard working people cope .

        We have gas central heating , upstairs has no heating apart from oil filled electric radiators which we only use when desperately cold, we also have a coal fire . Boris is going to stop coal being sold after 2022.

        That man is just another note scribbler of stupid ideas . There are lots of things he should get his head around . He has failed!

        1. ‘Morning, Belle.

          That’s the first I’ve heard about the sale of coal being stopped in 2 years’ time. When was that announced?

    1. Tonia. Go and see a doctor. You’re having a stroke. If you cannot contain your hyperbole, be quiet.

      The state has decided this is how we will live. Bluntly, lock up has been proven not to work. The virus simply gestates. If the NHS cannot cope, the NHS needs to change. Government is terrified of that, yet it could be done on a small, local scale. But no. The state likes things like this.

      Therefore if the state will not be brought to heel then it must be smashed.

      1. 326557+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        A peoples powered re-set excluding
        the lab/lib/con coalition party & current members.

        Totally erase this proven dangerous,treacherous coalition party or submit, that is the REAL choice currently.

    1. Perhaps the 250,000 people will employed at treadmills to generate all the excessive electricity required….

    2. 326557+ up ticks,
      TB,
      Much easier to get shot of carrie, crowd fund an inflatable for the johnson chap.

    3. In the brief period when we were actually allowed to have a little fun, I took my children to a museum which had an exhibition on dinosaurs which lived during the Permian period. It informed us that during this period, the Earth’s temperature had increased by 10 degrees, and this had lead to these dinosaurs extinction, along with about 90% of life on Earth. This was about 250m years ago.

      I took two interesting points from this. Firstly, that Climate Change certainly is real, and it happened millions of years before humans even existed. Secondly, scientists estimate that it took at least 20,000 years if not much longer for this to happen. So yes, the climate changes, but the suggestion by St Greta that children born today won’t get to grow up due to climate change is scare-mongering nonsense. The climate changes, but over millennia and was doing so long before humans existed, and no doubt long after we are gone:

      https://www.britannica.com/science/Permian-extinction

      1. There you go with the #HateFacts AGAIN
        We have noted this is at least a third offence,please pack ONE small suitcase and stand by your door awaiting pickup for transport to your local re-education camp

  16. “GCHQ has set up a cell in Downing Street to provide Boris Johnson with

    real-time intelligence to combat the “emerging and changing

    threat” posed by Covid-19, The Telegraph can disclose….”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/11/18/exclusive-gchq-cell-giving-boris-johnson-real-time-intelligence/

    Intelligence and Downing Street?? some dichotomy there………….

    BTL nails the nonsense…….

    “Really. The government can’t even run a press conference on a thing as
    significant as a month-long national lockdown without presenting
    out-of-date and dodgy figures, chosen so selectively that didn’t last
    more than a few hours before they were debunked…. and now we’re
    expected to believe it’s a crack operation being run by
    finger-on-the-pulse data geniuses? Doesn’t really add up, does it?This
    reads much more like a deliberately placed story meant to soften us up
    for the idea that the next round of restrictions are super-smart ones,
    created by geniuses (rather than largely being ad hoc
    back-of-an-envelope creations of people in the wrong job), and therefore
    we should absolutely trust everything about to be said. Softening-up
    stories seem to start coming out in the days before the next round of
    restrictions is about to be announced.”

    1. 326557+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      Wire up his pillow would tell us of imminent
      dangers from the carrie type and forewarned is forearmed.

    3. 326557+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      Wire up his pillow would tell us of imminent
      dangers from the carrie type and forewarned is forearmed.

  17. The other day there was some talk about on-screen casting, particularly TV adverts.

    I saw these two adverts within a few minutes of each other:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjmL2zJtofU

    (Had to link to new version of the above advert as Amazon in their wisdom have helpfully uploaded a new version since I posted it. Which means it wont play within Disqus now)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTwfqu2S3RA

    First we see Claire, she shows every sign of living alone with pooch as child substitute and no one else shows up at any point. In fact I think we’re being invited to view her as a weirdo, buying things for herself or imaginary people.

    Then, in stark contrast, there is Lisa [or rather there would be if those w@nkers at Amazon hadn’t taken the vid off their channel, at least they put ‘Claire’ back] she’s having a high old time with four guests, the life and soul of the party. And look who they are! Two black men and two white women which implies to most people – two couples. One of the white women never even faces the camera, she’s just there to pad out the scene. But the other woman represents a classic sly dig, she’s a dwarf!

    In sourcing these two adverts YouTube helpfully teed up this one next:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQdLD6kk960

    We see what appears to be the sort of city constructed by white people but presumably this was filmed after a neutron bomb attack or lethal pandemic (ie nothing like Covid) because the original inhabitants have been completely wiped out and replaced with Africans.

    However, blink and you’ll miss it, there could be one or two white people at about 01:50. But it seems they are the lucky parents (or grandparents) of yet another Kalergi Kid so no threat there to the vibrant population of the city of Great Reset.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a6b3e475c88c66f87675caef73347828729766f03a231646df86a289af17499f.jpg

    1. Morning C. Yes there is obviously a campaign being run which implies direction and purpose. Who’s doing it? Well it’s probably the Nudge Department almost certainly greatly expanded since its beginnings. Who’s paying for it? We are! This is probably the first time in history that an entire civilisation has erased itself!

      1. Morning!

        It’s certainly prevalent throughout the media in the English speaking, white, world and in Europe as well. By contrast here’s a recent Nigerian beer advert plucked at random (no need for cherry picking in this game):

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8EOmTX86rg

        What or rather who is missing? Whitey, that’s who. No white man shoehorned in as token white friend for black men, no self-assured white men monopolising the black girls, no black dwarves or wheelchair drivers contrasted with able bodied white men.

        It’s a mystery to be sure.

        1. That’s a very good ad though – manly men, beautiful women, confident in their surroundings and their culture.
          Reminds me of ad from Britain in the past. Today’s pathetic multi-kulti offerings can never reproduce that. They are always a sham.

      2. 326557+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        Willingly via the polling booth check out change for the worst on a daily basis over the last three decades.

    2. It is bizarre how the population is represented in the media. I don’t know why they do it. Is it to say this is the new normal? The country is diverse, get over it? Is it in the brief? Do ad agencies sell this nonsense to their customers in cross demographic larks? Is it to try to say ‘if you don’t present it, you’ll be called racist’?

      As the country is 95% white. Inside London of course it isn’t, but London is a disgusting hell hole – draw whatever parallels are necessary there.

      1. I have a sneaking feeling that the 2021 census is going to show that that 95% figure is long gone.

        I think one can safely assume that at least a million illegal immigrants will not be filling it in and that the legal Bame popualtion will have exploded in the last 10 years, through additional new and chain migration as well as higher birth rates. while at the same time, due to lower birth rates and a generally older population that white numbers may even have contracted.

        1. During my lifetime, the world’s human population grew from 2.8 billion to 7.8 billion today.

          My grandmother had 17 grandchildren. My mother has 8. I do not have any – my daughter, aged 33, is gender-flexible and refuses to breed. It is demeaning to women to lie with a man. Love for her is something that only brings trouble – she was raised a feminist, and both her mother and her maternal grandmother divorced their husbands and were therefore liberated from men. They are proud that my daughter has seen her father just once since 2000 – a blow for the sisterhood and women’s rights.

          Somebody must be making all these extra people.

          1. All that’s needed is poverty and sufficient aid and welfare to reproduce. The more aid that is give the more poor people result

            The argument goes that by educating and empowering the women the population will plateau and then fall.

            Before that happens the present elite ie the peoples of the developed nations need to be over-run from the poorer nations who will then magically become educated and stop breeding.

    3. Feminism demands that any woman that is melanin-challenged (and that the correct shade can only be respectfully replicated in Essex) must shun any like male, and any attempts to mate with such a pariah be reported as engaging in abuse. They should certainly not be breeding; they should be in careers.

    4. Just a thought; how many black people were portrayed in the film of the great reset issued by the WEF?
      I just remember the sucker on the first slide, gurning away happily at the thought of owning nothing.

    5. RE: Ad 2 headed “Early Black Friday Deals” featuring a POC, am I alone in seeing an inappropriate and maybe non intentional reference to Robinson Crusoe’s companion?

      1. The second ad is clearly filmed in the USA. Those are not UK street scenes.

        Never said they were. The white population of the US is under the same attack as we are.

        1. And I didn’t say you said they were.

          The point is that Nottlers have been reporting on home-produced ads like this for a long time. Some might have assumed it was another.

          And the proportion of the USA population that is black is more than 4 times that of the UK.

          1. The voiceover for the first two is an English voice but we’ve got no idea where the adverts were actually made. None of the actors speak.

            The point is that Nottlers have been reporting on home-produced ads like this for a long time. Some might have assumed it was another.

            Thats good, Ive been at it for years! The first time I formerly wrote anything about it was 3 October 2010 (just checked). I used to send stuff to this site:

            http://antiwhitemedia.blogspot.com

            They got worse and worse about posting and fizzled out altogether, as you can see, in 2013. I made several offers to take over but received no response.

      2. The second ad is clearly filmed in the USA. Those are not UK street scenes.

        Never said they were. The white population of the US is under the same attack as we are.

    7. I rarely see terrestrial television except at a friend’s house. I never watched commercial television when I did, so advertisements have come on a lot. Last Saturday evening on Ch. 4, I saw five advertising breaks. Barely a white face to be seen. My friend,a long time viewer found my surprise puzzling; they had long grown used to this inverted racism. People who built this country, through governance and custom no less than physical structures, make up the major part of its buying public by far play no part in its visible life it seems. There are more animated cartoon characters than white faces in these advertisements. Who thinks this is a good idea? Mr Nick Griffin?

      1. During advert breaks, we play spot the white face; double points if it’s a white male. Quadruple points if he’s not the fall guy.
        Mostly, those breaks are used to let out the dog, nip to the loo or run round the house and close the curtains, so the game is only played spasmodically.

    8. ‘Morning, C. Given the heavy, and increasing, use of blik actors in TV adverts, sooner or later there will surely be complaints from them of extreme over-work, of unreasonable demands upon their time, stress…

  18. Those of us sufficiently matured in the bottle might remember when Britain had an empire coloured pink on the map, and made things and men and women married one another, sometimes for decades.

    In this golden mist of my childhood before Beeching, Comprehensive Redevelopment and the Disposable Society was a programme on the wireless entitled ‘Listen With Mother’. One of the educational songs (a form now taken by rap) was ‘Polly Put the Kettle on’. I often mused that in this household were two maidservants, one called Polly who put the kettle on, and one called Suki, employed to take it off the stove. No doubt demarcation was strict in those times, but perhaps others here older than me can confirm. I often imagined Polly to be a cheerful soul from Essex with blonde hair and a breezy air (not unlike Polly Page, a character in ‘The Bill’, no doubt dreamt up by the same thought). Suki was an exotic, dark creature full of Eastern promise like Fry’s chocolate. My neighbour at the time Sir Bill and Lady Armer, whose grand home which held garden parties was knocked down to build a block of flats in 1971, had a dachshund called Suki, which was brown and silky.

    Which brings me to a family discussion as to what to do about my 95-year-old mother, who is determined to keep out of the care pathway home, but who is complaining of forgetfulness (even though her mental faculties, despite being thirty years older, are about the same as mine). She needs a home help, or she needs her children to be on call at all times should she want anything done. A live-in servant would do, but someone who would disappear and not intrude except when called up. Her parents had a rectory with a servants’ hall and a line of bells, and each room upstairs had a little button that could summon a servant on demand, and a dedicated staircase with a rope bannister, so the servants could get to their call without using the grand stairs. I loved exploring that old rectory, but by the time I was there, the servants were long gone, and the hall was filled with junk.

    As a child of the fifties, this sort of creature belongs in myth and nursery rhyme. I have never in my life had a domestic servant, and since I was divorced, I either do all the domestic chores myself, or they don’t get done and I must live with that. That’s life, but not the life my mother understands.

    How do I care for my mother, so she can live out her days in the style to which she thinks she should be accustomed?

    1. fair post Jeremy, you have the privilege of being the caring son who understands the idiosyncracies. And who else is better placed than understanding your mother’s requirements? anyone outside the family unit wouldn’t even begin to know where to start, and nor would you trust them

    2. I understand your problem Jeremy, maybe a ‘granny flat’ is one consideration. I looked after my wife for years (she has Alzheimers) and was eventually persuaded to put her in the local care home as my health was suffering. I still feel a terrible guilt for doing so but after 5 years I realise it was the best decision as we both have a better quality of life, she is so well looked after. Your mother shouldn’t be afraid of care homes provided the right one is chosen, perhaps a couple of weeks in one as a trial (which we did) would help her overcome any misgivings.

      1. Actually everyone should be afraid, very afraid of care homes. Even those charging £1000 a week. I can understand your decision though, and in your case it was for the best.

        While my mother likes to have Alzheimers when it suits her, she is way off it in reality, and would probably notice. She does have her own flat and actually quite enjoys the independence. My sister, who lives a few miles away, is shielding her sick husband though and I live 120 miles away. I also have a brother, who would be delighted to care for her. He lives in South Australia.

        1. Not all care home are the same – we have wonderful homes up here, the standard is down to the staff, Scottish staff seem a lot more caring, however you’ll find that the privately run ones are the worst because the bottom line is profit and the smaller the home the better run they are. Luckily my wife is in an NHS home with 12 residents and it couldn’t be better. I see many care homes up here as I play the keyboards in them (well prior to this Covid fiasco)

    3. In that exact position myself, now.
      Not even being in the country makes it a problem, and mother is getting advanced down the dementia road… she is attended by a charity with carers, and the council also provide carers, at a cost of £100 per week (less, if you know how little money your mother has, but I have no access to mothers financial background yet, and she doesn’t remember…).
      Churchfields Home Care are the charity. They are basically OK, but now and again useless – for example, they aren’t allowed to do anything mechanical or electrical, including reading the level in the central heating oil tank, or changing a lightbulb, instead asking you (living 1,000 miles away) to fix it…

    4. Try the Alzheimer’s Society. They don’t just deal with the Big A.
      We found them helpful without being do-gooders.
      As it happened, events rapidly overtook elderly chum, but the people we spoke to were realistic and not pushy.

    6. You could employ a Personal Assistant, but the regulations for doing so are onerous – I looked at that option for MOH, but the obligations, HMRC returns, contracts, etc frightened me off.

  20. Good morning, my friends

    DT Article by Douglas Murray: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/19/nobel-peace-prize-has-become-ignoble-joke/

    The Nobel Peace Prize has become an ignoble joke: Why does the committee keep honouring people who go on to be accused of violence and repression?

    I agree with Douglas Murray. But it is hardly news.

    The brilliant American satirist, Tom Lehrer, gave up writing his marvellously satirical songs saying he could no longer compete with reality when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

    Things have hardly changed: any satirist portraying the current behaviour of politicians and the absurd decisions they make would have been laughed derisively out of court and dismissed as going right over the top.

    3. I read somewhere that people are being told to wear masks indoors when they are at home. Right, I can just see me doing that.

      Sorry, this was yesterday’s news, far too recent for my memory to have a clue about details of the story.

  22. Muratina time, signing out til the 5l jerrycan’s khalas. Thanks to all this am who’ve contributed and responded, back later subject to usual Kenya Power caveat

      1. RE mng. We did indeed finish 2 x 5l jerry cans. Here’s the background to Muratina https://urbwise.com/2019/09/16/how-kikuyus-in-kenya-brew-their-muratina-wine/5076/ our “throw any Govt rules down the toilet and have our weekly traditional ceremony every week” with the community elders. No crap re facemasks, gloves and social distancing measured between one’s hand and their glass / cow horn. 2 elders pre, everyone else contributes [fire wood, honey etc]. Elders allow me to drink from a pint glass [they’re rare here]. Yesterday we even had the chief from local police station join us, so no curfew for anyone.

        1. One of our neighbours lives most of the time in Ghana, he runs a business supplying generators shall i give his ping on the PC for you 😉

  23. I have decide that I want to be an “Influencer”. Can someone tell me what that is and how I go about it?

    1. Are you going to be “influencing resistance” or resisting influence”? We need to know!

    3. There are influences and doers.

      Influencers are the officers and the doers are the soldiers.

      You are an influencer and a Gentleman.

      1. I Bumped into a couple with three black labs whilst out with our doggo Tuesday. It’s nice to have a chat with people like that, dog owners are so much more friendly than most other people who pass bye on a walk.
        Speaking of which i’m off out now the sun has decided to illuminate the countryside once more……….Boots on.

  24. Save Our Statues, an organisation I feel might be close to several hearts around these parts, is urging supporter’s to e-mail the City of London’s committee carrying out an ‘exercise’ reviewing statues and street names in the light of ‘historic racism’ and the Black Lives Matter campaign or, as I called it, thuggery:

    The City of London, that is the historic Square Mile at the heart of our capital, is facing an assault on its heritage. Its historic street names and statues are under threat from a ‘review’ in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests this summer. (Save Our Statues)

    The website Save Our Statues has details. I won’t paste the link here since I might be moderated into oblivion.

    I sent in my thoughts – firm and polite – and received the comforting news (why? …) that the in box of the committee looking into this has been ‘overwhelmed’. Do consider sending them your own thoughts. At the very least it might keep them off the streets.

    1. Our little statue of Sir John Macdonald has been up for review after the lefties started demanding that historical referenced be removed.
      In a survey the locals were fairly evenly split between keeping the statue and removing it, so council passed the buck and formed a committee. This special committee voted to remove the statue and place it in storage pending destruction. On Tuesday night our local council rejected that recommendation and stated that the statue should stay in its prominent position on Main Street.

      Come Wednesday morning the democracy but only on their terms group were out, slagging off council as a bunch of old white extremists and demonstrating in front of the statue with placards along the line of “Take down the Statue”.

      Nothing starts a day better than waving a finger (or two) at a group of demonstrators.

      1. These places are actually run by very similar people throughout. We have what Gore Vidal spoke of when reviewing American politics: One party with two wings.

  25. Mail to a Con MP………………..

    ”Boros Johnson to meet Bill Gates to plan national vaccine rollout”………………….

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/13159687/boris-bill-gates-national-vaccine/

    Bill Gates is a very keen green enthusiast and wants ”Net Zero”, ”Build Back Better” and the ”Great Reset” !

    Boros Johnson is a very keen green enthusiast and wants ”Net Zero”, ”Build Back Better” and the ”Great Reset” !

    What a completely unconnected, totally innocent, random coincidence !

    British PM, just like every one of his predecessors to 1990, wants identical policies to a multi billionaire world government advocate!

    Is that not true, Mr xxxxxxxxxxx ?

    I wonder if Boros Johnson will eventually be awarded a multi million dollar non job in Seattle?

    Polly

  27. “INFLUENCE AND OUTREACH”: THE UK’S EVOLVING PSYOPS CAPABILITY. 20 AUGUST 2020.

    Soldiers in the 77th Brigade, which was formed in 2015, are based in Berkshire and spend their time producing video and audio content, using data to understand how the public receives different messages, and creating “attitude and sentiment awareness” from large sets of social media data.

    One of their most infamous members is Gordon MacMillan, a Senior Twitter executive. He joined the social media company’s UK office in 2013, and has for several years also served with the 77th Brigade, a unit formed in 2015 to develop “non-lethal” ways of waging war.

    The 77th Brigade uses social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as podcasts, data analysis and audience research to conduct what the head of the UK military, General Nick Carter, describes as “information warfare”.
    Carter says the 77th Brigade is giving the British military “the capability to compete in the war of narratives at the tactical level” and to shape perceptions of conflict. Some soldiers who have served with the unit say they have been engaged in operations intended to change the behaviour of target audiences.

    Morning everyone. This is a short guide to 77 Brigade for those interested. Of course the Brigade is just one aspect of the war against the people. Antifa, Hate not Hope, etc. Far more effort and cash goes into controlling the native population of the UK than against its chosen foreign adversaries.

    https://southfront.org/influence-and-outreach-the-uks-evolving-psyops-capability/

    2. Mng, all good?

      It’ll probably come as no surprise, majority if not all, people on here would do a better quality job at half the price, as an “anti-social media” forum

    3. ‘Morning, Minty. In the good old days the population would know that it was being attacked by its own government as bombs and shells were quite difficult to ignore. Things have become a lot more clinical now…

  28. 326557+ up ticks,
    I wonder what the % is of indigenous peoples realise that via
    the results of their input regarding the polling booth we are gradually becoming an occupied nation.
    There is a group ( brotherhood) introduced to this nation by the three governance party’s & supporting members, added to on a daily basis and gaining strength as will soon be seen,
    already in parliament and showing on the parliamentary menu.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1329379466590744577

    1. Carrots are often used as substitutes for more expensive vegetables at self-scan checkouts. Perhaps the Gummint needs to put a swingeing levy on them?

      1. That’ll teach him not get building regs approval for a loft conversion.

        WTF is happening in Europe, just who are the ‘THEY’ and what is their ultimate aim ???

    2. 326557+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Bob,
      I did say yesterday that mengalism is back in vogue, carry on with the same voting pattern and twins WILL have to take to the hills in hiding.

  31. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    More muddled/fanciful nonsense about electric vehicles…and a little humour too:

    SIR – B W Jervis (Letters, November 18) doubts that, by 2030, there will not be enough electricity to phase out petrol vehicles, but overlooks several factors.

    First, electric vehicles will become significantly more efficient (as petrol and diesel vehicles have). Secondly, predictive technology will ensure that cars have enough charge. Thirdly, over-charged vehicles may be able to feed power back to the grid. Finally, car ownership will decline with the rise of driverless and shared services.

    However, given a simultaneous reduction in the use of natural gas, and our unquenchable thirst for powered devices, I do share the concern that not enough long-term planning and investment are taking place.

    Phil Stewart
    London SW14

    SIR – When my hybrid vehicle was delivered, I was told not to drive through more than six inches of water. The battery is heavy, so is placed on the bottom of the vehicle. I understand that this is common practice.

    Is the Government planning to build bridges over all the fords in the countryside? Is drainage after rainstorms to become a priority?

    M Annabel Burton
    Winchcombe, Gloucestershire

    SIR – It is all very well saying electric cars can be charged at home, if you live in a detached or semi-detached property. But for most people, living in flats or terrace houses with no frontage, this is not an option.

    Kevin Pigden
    Colchester, Essex

    SIR – When we next embark on overseas military operations, will we not lose the all-important element of surprise if we have first to deploy the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers to install charging points?

    Mark Coe
    King’s Lynn, Norfolk

    Phil Stewart’s letter seems quite illogical to me…how will the ‘driverless and shared services’ be powered, I wonder?? There speaks someone with pretty good public transport in his neck of the woods, and sod everyone else, i.e. the majority with little or nothing to fall back on.

    1. Electric cars would have a range of at least 400 miles if only those slave kids in the Congo would just dig a little harder!

      1. So BLM thinks that black people forcing black children into slavery is quite acceptable and it is totally unacceptable that white British people fighting against slavery 200 years ago finally stamped it out?

        Perhaps it is a sign the BLM does not accept that the whites had the victory over slavery and that they applaud the blacks who are defiantly continuing with this foul practice?

    2. BTL Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      19 Nov 2020 7:42AM
      “When we next embark on overseas military operations, will we not lose the all-important element of surprise if we have first to deploy the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers to install charging points?” Asks Mark Coe.

      REME Mr. Coe??? Royal Engineers if you don’t mind, Sir!

    3. “When my hybrid vehicle was delivered, I was told not to drive through more than six inches of water.” – -Nice of them not to mention it until AFTER the car had been bought.

    4. One of my sons used to live in a small Victorian terrace house in Barnes, where residents pay a significant amount each year to be allowed to park SOMEWHERE in their street. Most of the time this means returning home and cruising up to several hundred metres to find a vacant slot NEAR your house. Occasionally you can be lucky and park outside your home.

      I visualise the scene after 2030 with hundreds of metres of cables festooned across the pavements to charge their electric vehicles way down the street (none of these terrace houses has a garage or off-street parking place). By the way, he sold his tiny terrace house 2 years ago for just under 1.4 million quid.

  32. I remember them well, Trevor Jessop, and you have reminded me to make one for the grandchildren next time I am allowed to see them:

    SIR – Your report (November 17) on “throwbots” – throwable, self-righting military video cameras – caught my eye, as the devices reminded me of the cotton-reel tanks I made as a boy.

    No batteries were needed – just an empty cotton reel (donated by Mum), a pencil, a rubber band, a Kirby hair clip (also from Mum) and a candle.

    The Kirby grip went across the hole in the reel on one side to hold one end of the band, while the pencil (a long one, preferably) went at the other end, with the candle providing lubrication between the pencil and reel. Winding up the rubber band with the pencil and releasing the cotton-reel tank on the floor provided hours of cheap fun.

    Trevor Jessop
    Woodbridge, Suffolk

    1. TJs was obviously the ‘de-luxe’ version: we never had the luxury of candle lubrication.

    2. My brother made those, but a match instead of a hair grip. He also notched the cotton reel’s rims for better traction. He was always ‘better with his hands’ than me.

      1. That was the GL version, Mo, the type my father specialised in. Mine were just the bog-standard, bottom of the range models.

  33. ‘Morning again,

    Come along, gentlemen, The Crown is a work of fiction…you know, made up stuff. It is not intended to be an historically accurate record of the Royal Family:

    SIR – I too was left astonished by inaccuracies in the second episode of the new series of The Crown (Letters, November 18).

    As Head of the Armed Forces and Colonel-in-Chief of four Scottish regiments, the Queen would not choose The Atholl Highlanders with which to pipe her guests into dinner.

    This tune is the regimental march of the Duke of Atholl’s ceremonial personal bodyguard, the only remaining private army in Europe.

    It is inconceivable that the Queen’s piper would play any incorrect notes – nor would he march to a 6:8 time signature while playing at the speed of a slow air.

    Andrew Graham
    York

    SIR – Watching The Crown, I rather wish I possessed a 12-bore shotgun such as the one used by the Duke of Edinburgh on a shoot at Balmoral. There he was, blazing away, and no sign of recoil whatsoever.

    Mike Owen
    Claverdon, Warkwickshire

    SIR – The legitimacy of the new series was put into doubt as soon as it had the Queen referring to field-sports as “blood sports”. About as unlikely as if she had referred to the lavatory as the toilet.

    Peter Britton
    Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire

    SIR – It is disappointing that some who should know better have endorsed this version of events. The Crown includes some impressive performances, but these cannot compensate for potentially undermining an institution that provides stability to our constitution at a time when stability is needed.

    Iain D Bailey
    London N5

  34. Try not to fret, Andrew Gilruth; carbon isn’t really the problem you make it out to be:

    SIR – Comparing the release of carbon from peatland to that from lorries (report, November 17) illustrates just how important it is to protect these vast natural carbon stores.

    To halt this alarming release into the atmosphere, we will need to tackle the primary causes: crops, grassland and forestry. Curiously, the RSPB chose not to address these sources, which together produce over 90 per cent of the peatland emissions in England. Instead it called for the ancient practice of burning small strips of heather, above the peat, to cease.

    Since this is one of the few tools available to mitigate the risks of devastating wildfires, which can burn down through to the peat below, sometimes releasing 200 years of stored carbon in a night, it would be madness for us to legislate against heather burning before we really understand its environmental effect.

    Andrew Gilruth
    Director of Communications
    Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
    Fordingbridge, Hampshire

  35. Johnson is turning into another eco-loon…I think we know where his idiotic ideas are coming from.

    Allistair Heath in the Tellygraff:

    To some, driving an electric car is akin to riding an over-priced go-kart; to others, it is like sitting on a giant iPhone. They are fun, with great acceleration and astonishing technology, but lack the romance of an old-fashioned combustion engine. They are the vegan option: increasingly delicious, like the best falafel with hummus in pitta, but still a shawarma short of the full meal.

    Yet I am a convert, for one simple reason: electric cars and similar innovations are our best hope of saving the consumer society, one of civilisation’s greatest achievements, from the clutches of the hard-Left environmentalists. In the end, when their limitations are resolved, they will become motorists’ best friends.

    Why? The green agenda has triumphed, in the sense that cultural, political, educational and corporate elites, in the US, UK and every European country, are all in favour of decarbonisation. Opponents have been routed, with almost no chance of a way back.

    So the only real question, in practice, is how will we go green, and how quickly? Will the authoritarian hair-shirt, command and control, Stone Age tendency triumph? Will cars be banned, people forced to cycle, airports be shut, and the vast majority of the population’s quality of life trashed in a debilitating culture war waged by an army of puritanical, elitist, neo-luddite, collectivist eco-warriors?

    Or will we preserve individual choice and autonomy by reconciling greenery and progress, with electric propulsion, carbon capture, new materials, innovative decomposition techniques and novel but ever-cheaper energy sources allowing everything to continue almost as before, albeit in a way that emits less carbon?

    This is one of the greatest questions of our time. Conservatives who believe in their own electoral self-preservation should urgently take on a new mission: they must strive to save the consumer society from the neanderthal green ultras. They need to help protect living standards and quality of life as we go green, not conspire in undemocratising what used to be luxuries that only the rich could afford. Mass car ownership, central heating, cheap holidays in the sun, air conditioning, generalised convenience, affordable goods and food from all over the world: all of these are wonderful achievements of capitalism that must be preserved and extended to as many people as possible.

    Which takes us to the Prime Minister, and his great gamble to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Which Boris are we seeing at work? Is it the post-2016 Johnson, the divisive but triumphant operator who took on the establishment, won Brexit and rebuilt the Tories into a national party with 44 per cent of the vote, focusing on the priorities of normal people? Or is this a neo-Cameroon, husky-hugging Johnson, a man trapped by his circumstances, craving the approval of the metropolitan middle classes, no longer able to connect with Northern voters and on course to take the Tories back to 35 per cent of the vote, allowing Sir Keir Starmer to become Prime Minister?

    The answer, according to Johnson allies, is neither: the Prime Minister is trying to appeal to Left-liberal metropolitans and Red Wall Britain simultaneously, like he used to be able to do when he was Mayor of London. Hence the emphasis on technology, green jobs and a new industrial revolution.

    But the truth is that this is a gamble too far for the PM, the wrong sort of relaunch and a massive distraction as the challenges of the vaccine, a shattered economy and the mechanics of Brexit loom. Johnson is right that technology is the answer, but wrong to elevate the environmental agenda in this way and to make it such a centre-piece of his vision.

    His voters backed him because they thought that he was interested in the issues they cared about – Brexit, crime, immigration, human rights reforms, living standards, left-behind towns and regions and so on. Almost nobody who voted for him did so because of his support for net zero 2050, and almost no one who voted Labour last time will switch to the Tories because of their green agenda. Johnson will never be able to out-green Starmer.

    The old Olympic Games Boris is gone: it was only by being controversial and taking on London liberals that Johnson became prime minister. The immediate impact of his green announcements will be to damage his standing with his 2019 voters: they will fear for their cars and their living standards, and assume that Johnson has stopped caring about them.

    The longer-term calculus makes even less sense. The best case scenario for Johnson is no loss of votes; the worst case is a total wipeout. It would take a miracle, but the green agenda could conceivably be neutral for the PM: if it is executed perfectly, and green motoring is introduced smoothly and at no extra cost or inconvenience to the electorate, he may not lose any net votes.

    But if it is botched, as is likely, he will be destroyed. The omens certainly aren’t promising. Will all the car manufacturers really be ready on time? Will the price of electric cars drop sufficiently? Won’t people be angry if the value of their old cars collapses? Will taxes not have to rise? Will Britain be able to fit tens of millions of car chargers all over the country, massively upgrade the national grid and improve the electric capabilities of the entire housing stock? Will we build enough power plants? Won’t the price of energy shoot up? Will more jobs really be created in green energy than lost in the carbon economy?

    Johnson is right that electric cars are the future. But it makes no sense to ban petrol cars by 2030. It would be cheaper and easier to phase in the transition over a longer time period. It would be better to encourage and cajole, and trust market forces, rather than coerce and compel.

    The green agenda contains within it the potential for myriad poll tax moments, gilet jaunes-style revolts, and routes to renewed influence and even power for the likes of Nigel Farage. If not managed carefully, the greening of our society could end up being even more toxic for the Tories – with the threat coming from the “Right”, in suburban England and in the Red Wall – than Brexit ever was to the party’s old establishment. Boris Johnson, of all people, should understand this.

    A leading BTL comment:

    Andrew Smith
    18 Nov 2020 9:44PM

    Boris will almost certainly not be around when the disaster hits and he will have enough money to take himself somewhere that is not impoverished and failing. It is clear beyond serious debate that the policies of the green lobby will bankrupt the country and lead to ever greater government control and surveillance, which are results the greenies would applaud.

    However, the idea of replacing hydrocarbons is pure fantasy. It will not happen because it cannot be done.

    When rolling blackouts start to be regular events and people more generally experience the shortcomings of electric cars, they will not allow politicians to get away with their green policies. As the years go by and there is no climate catastrophe there will be hell to pay for the political class that has imposed restriuctions, huge taxes and high costs upon us and driven employment out of the UK as a result.

    1. As the years go by and there is no climate catastrophe there will be hell to pay for the political class that has imposed restriuctions, huge taxes and high costs upon us and driven employment out of the UK as a result.

      No because they will claim as with the Virus that it is their policies that have saved us.

    3. As the years go by and there is no climate catastrophe there will be hell to pay for the political class that has imposed restriuctions, huge taxes and high costs upon us and driven employment out of the UK as a result.

      No because they will claim as with the Virus that it is their policies that have saved us.

      1. And on the radio, news that a vaccine “works well with the elderly” !!! First we get a virus that can apparently tell the time and infects more people after 10 pm, with automatic changes when the clocks move an hour. Now we have a vaccine that knows how old we are.

    4. I stopped reading at
      “electric cars and similar innovations are our best hope of saving the consumer society, one of civilisation’s greatest achievements”

      Crocodile appeasement at its finest!

  36. Our ancestors would be baffled by our hysterical response to this modern plague. 19 November 2020.

    I suppose we can all do without company for a while, and some more than others, but everyone has their limits, and most are reaching theirs. Our lives are a voyage around our families and friends, and that was something Pepys and his chums understood, even in days far more desperate than ours.

    Covid-19 is a terrible thing, but it is only one of many ghastly hazards that afflict us without cessation and with which we have learned to live. Life is an extraordinary challenge and our ancestors, if they are looking down, would be amazed at the willingness with which our leaders have been, and still are, prepared to destroy the only aspect of life that makes any of it bearable.

    If we have any lesson to learn from the past, then that is it.

    They are actually destroying everything in pursuit of a self-created mirage!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/ancestors-would-baffled-hysterical-response-modern-plague/

      1. Is “Real UKIP” doing better or worse than “ersatz UKIP” these days ogga?
        Sod it. You’re too easy a target 🙂

        1. 326557+ up ticks,
          js
          Uttering oaths followed by a post of no consequence, please tell me what is it, seemingly with great difficulty, you are trying to say ?

          2. 326557+up ticks,
            js
            The lament of a tory on finding they have been supporting a treacherous “in name only” tory party for the last three decades in the downfall of the United Kingdom.

            Your post confuses demented
            jockeys with English / GB patriots.
            By the by,
            Look who is agreeing with you, yet another disillusioned member.

          3. Cameron described you handful of eejits “Swivel-eyed loons.”

            99.9% of voters agreed with him.

            The only thing he did get right.

          4. Good afternoon, Jack.

            Will you, please, stop attacking
            Ogga, he may not be everyone’s
            ‘cup of tea’ but he never attacks
            any one personally, he is a welcome
            contributor on this Forum; if you
            don’t like his comments you know the
            options!!

          5. Good afternoon, Jack.

            Will you, please, stop attacking
            Ogga, he may not be everyone’s
            ‘cup of tea’ but he never attacks
            any one personally, he is a welcome
            contributor on this Forum; if you
            don’t like his comments you know the
            options!!

  37. The most brazen act of racism I have seen in the Labour Party for a very long time was when their current Leader knelt down in homage to “Black Lives Matter” – an openly racist supremacist and rather fascist organisation.

    Shouldn’t he be denied the Whip and not allowed to sit in the Commons as a Labour MP?

    1. am sure there’ll be a Zimbabwe like election queue formed, even in UK Jeremy, if the Whip’s replaced with a cattle prod and/or taser – the diversity of choice

    2. 326557+ up ticks,
      Morning JM,
      The rotherham concealment ( ongoing )
      should have brought about a complete meltdown of lab which would have happened in a country of decency.
      As with any party that knowingly introduces
      a poison element into society as with the Dover invasion campaign currently operating.

  38. Gas boilers to be banned in new builds by 2023, reports suggest
    https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/gas-boilers-to-be-banned-in-new-builds-by-2023-reports-suggest-68660
    Sigh………………..
    My sheltered housing complex is just ripping out old inefficient inflexible storage heaters

    and replacing them with new inefficient inflexible storage heaters……
    I can’t sleep in a hot bedroom,never could,like many grew up with frost on the inside of the bedroom windows just bunged another couple of blankets on.
    So the new storage heaters,just like the old will never be switched on I have a small studio flat and they are simply not flexible enough

    1. The first house we bought had storage heaters, including one in the bedroom – it’s not nice when it’s freezing cold in the evening and you wake up gasping with the heat at 4am.

      We ripped them alll out and replaced them with gas central heating.

      1. And we were the same, we were both out working all day. Every evening in the winter when we came home the house was very cold.
        I used the blocks in the heaters as a shed base.

        1. We, too, had storage heaters. We used the bricks to build a surround for the fireplace (it had been blocked off, but we opened it up). It turned out that the heat absorbed by the bricks after a fire had been lit meant that the room was still warmish the following morning.

          1. Like I found, I bet the bricks absorbed a lot of water.
            I built our first fire place in our first home from some worn out stone steps from a early Victorian house in Hampstead. The fronts were rounded and worn thin, so I cut them up to form longish bricks, the backs of the steps still had square edges. And the top shelf was made from an old solid exterior teak door some one was throwing away.

          2. We varnished them to make them impervious. We also used part of the front of the storage radiator to make a canopy. Once it was beaten (on a bed of sand), shaped and polished it looked as though it was the real deal. Waste not, want not, after all.

          3. I firmly believe in your ‘waste not’ philosophy.
            The parlour guitar I made back in April was all from scrap wood, the back and front were made from an old Honduras mahogany coffee table my parents had for a wedding present, from my mothers elder brother, also a joiner. Sides made from an old mahogany door frame, neck from Cheery wood left overs. Sound hole pattern details scrapped venetian window blind slats. I was hoping to get to our local scrap/rubbish depot they have a shop next door where rescued items are recycled and are for sale. I was going to find some old solid tables and turn them into ‘Cigar Box Guitars’. They’re are good fun.

    2. From the experiences of people i know with ground or air source heat pumps, they have to electrically boost the hot water storage cylinder at least once each day because the stored water is never hot enough during the day.

    3. What are the right temperatures for hot and cold water systems?
      Legionella bacteria can multiply at temperatures between 20°C and 45°C. So one of the ways to control the risks of legionella bacteria is to ensure that your cold water is cold below 20°C and the hot water is hot above 50°C.

      https://www.hydro-x.co.uk/hx-training/guides-for-legionella-temperature-checks-to-reduce-the-risk-of-legionella-bacteria/

      The move back to hot water storage tanks for energy efficiency in home heating systems means that the tanks fitted with electrical heating elements powered by solar panels or ground based heating coils will spend a considerable amount of time with water below the H&S prescribed temperature of 60 degC necessary for the prevention of Legionella.

      New electrical 3kW immersions come preset at 60 degC precisely for that reason.

      We could be heading a bacterial epidemic to replace the current viral pandemic.

      2. We have two hot water systems – one run from the oil-fired boiler and the other for our en-suite from an immersion heater. In neither do the hot water temps reach 60 degC. We’re still alive.

      3. We have two hot water systems – one run from the oil-fired boiler and the other for our en-suite from an immersion heater. In neither do the hot water temps reach 60 degC. We’re still alive.

        1. …and COVID-19 has been around now for almost a year now and most of us are still alive.
          Thank goodness for global warming. 🤔

        2. …and COVID-19 has been around now for almost a year now and most of us are still alive.
          Thank goodness for global warming. 🤔

  40. I came across a quotation from a chap called Nat Herold this morning which I rather enjoyed:

    “It is frustrating to discover that people who are less intelligent than we are have more sense”

    It is certainly true that people like Boris Johnson who like to think they are clever have very little sense or wisdom.

    1. I suppose it depends who the measurers are and of course streetwise could be interpreted as common sense. Something our political classes, civil servants and lords never seem to have. Most spend their time basking in their own self importance whilst looking down from their fabricated lofty stations at the working/middle class tax payers, who have no choice in supporting their very existence.

  41. Why are the Dutch so unbelievably rude? 19 November 2020.

    For a Briton, the Netherlands is a wonderful place to live. The cities are beautiful and the beaches glorious; the public services excellent and the beer tasty. There’s just one problem, though: people are unbelievably rude.

    I remember once excitedly telling a Dutch friend about a new book I was working on, carefully setting him up to chime in with encouragement and moral support. “It sounds very boring,” he said, before walking away. “I don’t think anyone will read it”.

    Hmmm. I don’t think that’s going to go down to well with some on here!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/netherlands/articles/why-dutch-so-direct-rude/

    1. On the other hand, their “rudeness” can be positive.

      When the MR was working in Holland, she went to a bar in the coastal village of Katwijk. The long bench seat in the window for 6 to 8 people overlooking the sea had on man sitting on it. When the MR and her Dutch chums approached to sit on the bench, the man sitting there (a cherman) said, “This seat is occupied”.

      The barman heard, crossed over and said to the cherman, “Nothing in Holland has been occupied since 1945”.

      The man left.

    2. Caroline, my Dutch wife, and one of her sisters are both extremely well-mannered. However her other sister is exceptionally rude to everyone – especially those in her own family.

      1. I know what you mean.
        It’s often very subtle, but the Dutch and the Danes can be abrupt; some don’t seem to understand the fine line between being forthright and just plain rude. It could be a language problem, but, as both nationalities tend to speak very good English, we forget how nuanced English can be. There are also English people who pride themselves on being ‘no nonsense’ when actually they are just being unnecessarily hurtful.
        There are times when you should just say nothing.

        1. That must be difficult…{:¬))

          The Danes who bought a house in Laure were perfectly agreeable – most of the time. However, when (sadly) Brexit came up, they said, “You are incredibly stupid to want to leave the EU”. Just like that. No justification or suggestion that an individual might have a choice! Very odd. I just kept on drinking!!

          4. Funnily enough we don’t get much ‘stick’ about Brexit here in Brittany. The odd bit of inoffensive and jolly teasing – but I think the Bretons don’t think much of the EU themselves.

          5. Funnily enough we don’t get much ‘stick’ about Brexit here in Brittany. The odd bit of inoffensive and jolly teasing – but I think the Bretons don’t think much of the EU themselves.

        2. I once went to a comedy club in Amsterdam which is run by Americans who all live in NL. The show was called “The Seven Deadly Dutch Sins” which listed Dutch characteristics that outsiders find odd.
          One such sin was Dutch Directness which the comedian summed up thus: You meet a Dutch friend in the street who you haven’t seen for a year or so. During that time, you have lost a lot of weight. The Dutch friend, instead of complimenting you on this very visible weight loss, merely exclaimed: “Hey, I remember you used to be so fat!”

      2. Hi Mr and Mrs T,
        I read once that Dutch people abroad are generally politer and more friendly than their compatriots within the Netherlands.

  42. Has this anagram appeared before on the Nottlers?

    Nicola Sturgeon – Contagion rules.

  43. Covid-19 was the third biggest killer in England last month — but total deaths from all causes in October was only EIGHT more than last year, ONS report shows

    ONS report today found that of 43,265 fatalities registered during last month, 3,367 involved Covid-19 (7.8%)

    It marks significant rise from the 690 deaths attributed to the disease in September and 523 posted in August

    But 43,265 total deaths is just eight more than number recorded in October 2019 and 6% higher than average

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8965435/Covid-19-biggest-killer-England-October-ONS.html

    1. If that wasn’t reason to lockdown, I don’t know what is. What are SAGE on? Shroooms? How many people have did with (not necessarily OF) COVID in my borough of around 100k people: 2 since early July. TWO! None in the next door borough and ONE in the other. 3 in around 300,000 people. An I suspect those were either very elderly and near the end or already very sick and suseptible to minor additional ailments finishing them off.

      What a joke.

      1. SAGE is awash with Gates’ money and Gates is on record saying he wants to ”vaccinate virtually the entire global population”.

        I think Gates has megalomaniac tendencies… and I also think Boros is likely taking the money.

          1. Radix malorum est cupiditas is the text upon which Chaucer’s Pardoner used to base his sermons in the Canterbury Tales.

          2. Chaucer’s Pardoner was my ‘A’ level study, and the Prioress. The Pardoner was a dead ringer for Blair. I suppose these characters turn up from time to time throughout history, and being the shallow society that we had and have become, we turned up Charles Anthony Lynton Blair.

          3. I often started my “A” level students on Chaucer at the beginning of their VIth Form careers. I explained that Chaucer was, paradoxically, one of the most modern authors on the syllabus.

          2. Er, I think that the words, “Head off” are a bit close to the bone…in the context of slammers…..{:¬)))

          12. Ah! Not sure what the gantry is on the left side of the picture, but I thought it was an OLE structure on the line to Helensburgh.

          14. Ah! Not sure what the gantry is on the left side of the picture, but I thought it was an OLE structure on the line to Helensburgh.

          26. My goodness – you must have posted within seconds of me putting it up as I edited it immediately.

            I have warned you before not to criticise people’s typos until they have had a moment or two to edit them – it makes you look over-pedantic.

            I suspect you of lying in wait to ambush me – you know my typing is erratic and I often rephrase my original comment.

            There is, they say, life after dentistry – you should get one!

          27. My goodness – you must have posted within seconds of me putting it up as I edited it immediately.

            I have warned you before not to criticise people’s typos until they have had a moment or two to edit them – it makes you look over-pedantic.

            I suspect you of lying in wait to ambush me – you know my typing is erratic and I often rephrase my original comment.

            There is, they say, life after dentistry – you should get one!

          29. I don’t think so. I edited straight away!

            But it depends on your refreshing. If you saw the post before I corrected it the howler would have stayed there on your computer until you refreshed.

          32. Brilliant picture Rastus! Thanks. We were staying at Ardfern and the first time I was there I was 19 and sailing an Enterprise in the Sound f Jura trying to avoid Corryvreckan!

          33. I had an Enterprise dinghy (No 6193) when I was 15.

            I used to race at St. Mawes and competed in Falmouth Regatta week and the following week at Fowey Week.

            At Fowey you won ashtrays and tankards for prizes made of Cornish tin.

            Here I am competing at Fowey in Raua, the boat in which I took a sabbaticayear to sail across the Atlantic and back:

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9300c85802f1e7ae650bdc75bc7f9f2d93908201892b7ce4155789a8a6e16bf5.jpg l

          34. I was absolutely knocked out when I found out that you had crossed the Atlantic! I might say that I have sailed but what you did is quite astounding! Kudos Mr. Tastey!

          35. My sole claim to fame is that when I overturned my friend’s Topper (I am not really a sailor, having been born just about as far away from the sea as it’s possible to get!) I did manage to right it again 🙂

    2. Being a slammer is just sooo difficult. Hope they don’t misspell the dating agency or there will be ‘eL’to play.

    4. It made me laugh. Thank you.

      “An end-user downloads an app — let’s say for example Muslim Pro — and
      merrily goes about his business, chopping off the heads of the infidel
      or campaigning for Labour”.

  46. ‘A merry Christmas could mean you bury your family in January. 19 November 2020.

    Ministers are thought to be mulling over whether to allow up to four different households to mix together between December 24 to 28. But health bosses have warned the nation may have to sacrifice 25 more days of lockdown as a punishment for enjoying five days of celebrations.

    Professor Gabriel Scally, a public health expert at Bristol University, today slammed the proposals, warning there was ‘no point’ in having a merry Christmas only to ‘then bury friends and relations in January and February’. The festive period is ‘too dangerous a time and opportunity for the virus to spread’, he added.

    Why is this man being allowed to say this! If you had one thousand relatives and held a party in a CV intensive care unit and all of you caught it, statistically only one of you might die and that would be the oldest!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8965139/Normal-Christmas-throw-fuel-fire-trigger-spike-Covid-19-cases-says-scientist.html

    1. Good point Minty. I must make sure that if I get invited to a festive social gathering there will be someone older than me there!

    2. Hmmm. If I forgo the Christmas concessions, do I come out of lockdown 25 days before those who don’t?

  47. Afternoon all.

    Just heard a ” shadow minister ” from labour slagging off Russia …. WOW … Corbyn must be toast.

  50. Sustaining a decent speed on a motorway , an electric car very inefficient, because it is gobbling more current , it’s range is diminished at motorway speeds. My son says we have alot of suffering to come !

    Whereas petrol and diesel cars at motorway speeds, are more efficient .

    1. The state thinks parochially. The central officers are gathered together and controlled by incompetent mandarins who live – and always have lived as if one dies the exact same personality is promoted into the role – in the city, with huge expense account and get driven everywhere. Therefore, they think in that limited, parochial manner.

    2. Crawling along in a traffic jam on a bitterly cold day that requires heating the car’s interior will be unnerving along with the opposite when air conditioning will be required.

    3. Where will you get the recharging power from, and the grid to get it to the charging points from the generators… and what generators?
      Just calculate:
      – At the end of March 2019, there were 38.4 million licensed vehicles in Great Britain, a 1.4% increase compared to March 2018. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/812253/vehicle-licensing-statistics-january-to-march-2019.pdf
      – The UK’s average new car fuel consumption in 2018 was 50.5 miles-per-gallon (mpg) https://www.racfoundation.org/motoring-faqs/environment
      – Anonymised data on every MOT test in Britain, released by the Department for Transport, shows that cars travelled an average of 7,134 miles in 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/jan/14/average-uk-car-mileage-falls-again-on-back-of-higher-petrol-prices
      – There’s 33 kWh energy in a gallon of gasoline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_gallon_equivalent

      You will need to install extra generating capacity to replace 5,424,664,346 gallons of gasoline, so 179,013,956,435 kWh. That’s 180,000 GWh. From OFGEM, Great Britain’s total generating capacity is 75.3 GW. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/76160/13537-elecgenfactsfspdf .
      So, you will need to install a shedload of extra generating capacity to replace the current gasoline/diesel energy used in transport on the roads. Doesn’t look too practical, does it?

      EDIT: Pressed enter too soon!

      1. I’ve a little further bad news for you.

        I suspect that that’s a US gallon, so you’ll have to add ~20% to your figures.

        1. Doesn’t change the conclusion. Ain’t going to fly. Especislly when you include the need to build a transmission grid for it, too.

    4. The intention is that ordinary people will not be able to afford to drive.
      Electricity will be rationed. The idea that wind power will be able to provide anything like our current electricity needs is laughable. We will be forced to walk or cycle everywhere, although I would bet there will be a few coal-powered stations for the ‘elite.’ All the low-frills airlines will have gone bust, so no cheap flights to the sun for Mr and Mrs Average.

      https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-pms-ten-point-plan-for-a-freezing-and-unaffordable-future/

      1. Power for the elite . . i.e . . the REAL reason for “Smart meters” . . the ones that can be switched off remotely?

        1. See, for example, Belarus. From yesterday’s Grimes:

          “Officials in Belarus have been accused of meting out collective punishment after thousands of homes in a pro-opposition district were left without running water and central heating as temperatures plunged below freezing.

          The Novaya Borovaya area near Minsk has become a symbol of the protests that erupted in August after President Lukashenko claimed to have secured a sixth successive term at elections that were almost certainly rigged. With a population of 10,000, the district is a stronghold of support for Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, 38, the exiled opposition leader who is widely believed to have won. Opposition flags hang from the windows of flats and residents have played an active role in the protests.

          Hot and cold water supplies dried up in Novaya Borovaya on Sunday and the central heating went off yesterday as temperatures dropped to below freezing, residents said. The local council has not commented.

          Aleh Hulak, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee human rights group, said that officials had deliberately cut off water and heating to try to force the residents of Novaya Borovaya to drop their opposition to Mr Lukashenko’s Russian-backed regime. “This is a new level of repression,” he said.”

          I know it is nothing to do with smart meters – but the principle is the same.

          1. Not for Human Rights Groups and the failed coup is blowing back on the West. Eastern “wokes”, let em freeze. Meanwhile the “exiled” opposition leader’s enjoying the caviar

    1. Both vehicles later found on a nearby travellers site apparently TB.

      ETA: Another of the Untouchables, and don’t they know it.

        2. On one police program it showed the police chasing a refusing to stop vehicle. It ended with 3 or 4 police vehicles all in a line behind the vehicle, with eventually the vehicle racing into the local travellers site – and then the driver ran off to be helped/hidden by the others. Why oh why didn’t one of the police go to the camp first and block the entrance as they had guessed that was where he was going to end up?

        2. It will be interesting to see how thay manage with electric vehicles.

          Do we steal the copper, or do we steal the “lecetricity”?

          If we steal the copper will we lose our lecetricity?

        5. It will be interesting to see how thay manage with electric vehicles.

          Do we steal the copper, or do we steal the “lecetricity”?

          If we steal the copper will we lose our lecetricity?

  54. Seems my Dishonourable Clown’s been bumping gums again with Johnson. I missed Boris’ Smart Circus yesterday, thankfully: https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2020-11-18a.314.2&s=speaker%3A24744#g322.3 [2/3 of the way down line, for ease of reference:

    Damian Collins – Conservative, Folkestone and Hythe

    It is fantastic that we will very soon have the covid vaccine, but extremely concerning that in a recent survey, one in five people say they will not take it. Does the Prime Minister agree that social media companies should be doing more to remove anti-vaccine disinformation and conspiracy theories? Will he consider
    including requirements to do that within the scope of the Government’s forthcoming online harms Bill?

    The response which exposes his unhidden agenda further:

    Boris Johnson – The Prime Minister, Leader of the Conservative Party

    Yes. I am very pleased that Facebook, Twitter and Google have committed that no company should profit from or promote vaccine disinformation and
    that companies should respond to that kind of content very quickly. We are going to publish our response shortly to the online harms White Paper consultation and will be setting out our plans for legislation.

    Their dinshonourable epitaphs will not need a white paper, their egos have O’D’d

    1. 326557+ up ticks,
      Morning AW,
      The only way johnson could be tied to being smart is as in salt being introduced to an open cut.

    2. Since when has the Buffoon Bonker been interested in either free speech or the truth. He is beneath contempt.

    3. In Summary
      “How dare you question your betters you filthy serfs!!
      Shut up and pay your taxes”

      1. If my Dishonourable clown had said that to Johnson, I would have considered “up ticking him”. I think the summary of your point was made by some flunky with an alphabet soup name, honourably of course

    1. Sensible people will just ignore any restrictions over Christmas, anyway. Where are all the police going to come from to man the road-blocks and batter down front doors to arrest more than six people in a house?

      1. Ah but…
        Think what the overtime rates are for working at Christmas.

        When your own Christmas gathering is ruined, ruin someone else’s too and get paid handsomely for so doing.

        What’s not to like if you’re a petty gauleiter.

    2. Earlier today ‘his loudness’ and former Conservative MP Gyles Brandreth was saying we should remove Christmas from the present position on calendar and move it to 25th of March. According to his information that’s actually when the virgin gave birth to the son of a carpenter. Wadda load of tosh.

    3. No, we should lift it permanently – but isn’t that stating the obvious? Greetings PT and Good Morning all!

        1. Yes – it just won’t be white English familes. They will be all the families of the thousands of males who have arrived here from Calais.

      2. Good day, Our Susan.

        The fluckers are planning “even tougher” restrictions after Christmas – just to make us all feel good…

        1. So far we have had just two bookings for next Easter’s courses. Usually we are over half fully booked within a couple of days of announcing our dates.

          As I have said before the disgust and contempt I feel for politicians who not only pocketed a £10,000 bonus but also gave themselves a pay rise while those of us running our own businesses are on the verge of bankruptcy is almost beyond measure. Has any MP refused to take the £10,000 and taken a significant pay cut? If not, why not?

          1. Why the downvote, JenniferSP?

            Surely the increasing divide between private business and civil servants (and people in elected office) is a topic which merits an exchange of views?

            We know many people who run tiny businesses who are in deep trouble at the moment.

            Our revenue this year is down by 70%. We are part of the lucky ones as we were able to have some – not many and certainly not enough – students with us over the summer. So far, we have had government support to the tune of less than €2000.

            My hairdresser was told in September that, after her National Insurance payments were deferred since the beginning of the last lockdown, all the deferred payments were now due immediately. She was worried that she might have to lay off her one and only employee in order to be able to afford this. Can anyone think that this is reasonable?

            You might disapprove of the vehemence of Rastus’s post, but he does have a valid reason for being so. Or you might, of course, disagree with the substance of what he said, in which case I’m sure a number of us here would be interested to hear why you think it is a good idea for MPs to have bonuses and pay rises during the Covid-19 crisis.

      3. All the evidence suggests that Covid is just a bad strain of flu. When we get the flu we automatically keep at home and away from others and we do not need stupid grasping politicians and pseudo scientists telling us what we can and cannot do.

        The government led by Fataturk are being guided by behavioural scientists who delight in manipulating the masses with their doom laden predictions and fake modelling.

        Time to ignore them and return to our normal lives and ditch the masks as they are useless and a hazard to health.

        1. As far as the behavioural scientists are concerned this whole thing is merely an interesting experiment and eventually a source for research grants until they retire.

    4. No, keep family well away. I enjoy lunch, go jogging in the evening and go to bed waiting for reality to return!

    1. Driving people mad is the intention.

      There is absolutely no reason to close golf courses except as a means of control and punishment..

    2. Driving people mad is the intention.

      There is absolutely no reason to close golf courses except as a means of control and punishment..

  58. Morning all.
    Does any once else find it a bit strange that after getting on for a year since the virus became live and recognised in China, that only now and seemingly all at the same time the big pharma has come up with multiple vaccines that will supposedly make us safe, or maybe cure it.
    It’s almost hard to believe.

    1. It is all lies. There are no vaccines. They never managed to develop a vaccine for SARS-2 last time around and are simply obtaining funding from our stupid government to con us again.

      Covid is a flu virus not Ebola.

        1. I thought it would be an honest action for a budding jorno to get hold of some of it and have it properly analysed.
          But then i Woke up.

          1. I doubt if it’s that – I’d be FAR more concerned about a first-gen vaccine that was developed for a familiy of viruses they have tried and failed to develope one for before in 3-4 months and trialled over 6 months (at best) instead of 5-10 years before releasing it as safe.

            I’ll let others be the guinea pigs and take my chances without it. And I’m no anti-vaxxer, having previously taken all the ones you should as a child (and not regrretting it) the flu vaccine 3-4 times (though not for the last 2 years as I don’t qualify for it on the NHS any more) and recently had a tetanus booster.

            This is a money making scheme for the big pharma and their backers (Bill Gates & Co) because it’ll be an annual vaccine and essentially manditory to enable us to travel, go to live events and event do a lot of work-related stuff). Note also that it appears that the governments are indemnifying pharma against lawsuits if things go awry via-a-vis adverse LONG term reactions and effects.

            Plus, as we’ve seen, these individuals and firms get HUGE amounts of power over us all.

          2. I doubt if it’s that – I’d be FAR more concerned about a first-gen vaccine that was developed for a familiy of viruses they have tried and failed to develope one for before in 3-4 months and trialled over 6 months (at best) instead of 5-10 years before releasing it as safe.

            I’ll let others be the guinea pigs and take my chances without it. And I’m no anti-vaxxer, having previously taken all the ones you should as a child (and not regrretting it) the flu vaccine 3-4 times (though not for the last 2 years as I don’t qualify for it on the NHS any more) and recently had a tetanus booster.

            This is a money making scheme for the big pharma and their backers (Bill Gates & Co) because it’ll be an annual vaccine and essentially manditory to enable us to travel, go to live events and event do a lot of work-related stuff). Note also that it appears that the governments are indemnifying pharma against lawsuits if things go awry via-a-vis adverse LONG term reactions and effects.

            Plus, as we’ve seen, these individuals and firms get HUGE amounts of power over us all.

      2. It’s very worrying that there are so many people who seem to be supporting this ‘myth’ and still finding ways to justify all the abhorrent action taken against the once reasonably happy hard working public.
        So many ordinary peoples live have been wrecked as a result.
        Did you see the clip yesterday when a chap had managed to get inside of the Nightingale ‘hospital’ ? It was completely empty and looked as if all the beds and equipment had been removed. There were three people he filmed mingling together without masks. They turned their backs on him when he asked what was going on. His assumption was it was to be used for mass vaccinations.

    2. Remember the swine flu pandemic that wasn’t from 2011? Big pharma blamed for trying to (with the WHO) stir up governments to get huge amounts of funding for ‘vaccines’. This is, in my view, their second go at doing so, seemingly more successful now that we have a compliant set of politicians and especially left-wing/sensationalist MSM that wouldn’t know what investigative journalism is if it bit them on the nose! Plus IMHO the social media giants now near monolopy status enforcing it all, as it did with the election fraud/cover up in the US.

    3. Remember the swine flu pandemic that wasn’t from 2011? Big pharma blamed for trying to (with the WHO) stir up governments to get huge amounts of funding for ‘vaccines’. This is, in my view, their second go at doing so, seemingly more successful now that we have a compliant set of politicians and especially left-wing/sensationalist MSM that wouldn’t know what investigative journalism is if it bit them on the nose! Plus IMHO the social media giants now near monolopy status enforcing it all, as it did with the election fraud/cover up in the US.

    4. Remember the swine flu pandemic that wasn’t from 2011? Big pharma blamed for trying to (with the WHO) stir up governments to get huge amounts of funding for ‘vaccines’. This is, in my view, their second go at doing so, seemingly more successful now that we have a compliant set of politicians and especially left-wing/sensationalist MSM that wouldn’t know what investigative journalism is if it bit them on the nose! Plus IMHO the social media giants now near monolopy status enforcing it all, as it did with the election fraud/cover up in the US.

      1. I seem to remember playing golf in Ireland circa 2002 when we have to walk through disinfectant, the Black stooff and Jameson’s seem to keep all 16 of us in good health.

        1. No – that wasn’t that – that was foot and mouth in 2001 in the UK via pigs into cattle. Not swine flu. Here’s a link to a YT video from (ironically) Channe 4 News reporting on the (non-)events of 2011:

          https://youtu.be/i5PyUrkAvwY

          1. I knew it was something like that. And that was probably planted by someone trying to destroy UK farming and agriculture.
            2003 we landed in Melbourne and they had more than a good look at my golf shoes. But i had disinfected them before we left home.

      1. Monty would have gone down a storm if he was still alive and arguing that the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was a “charter for buggery” and that “this sort of thing may be tolerated by the French, but we’re British – thank God”

  60. Not sure what Jeeny Reed is trying to explain on her comment on the Letters (DT page), given the Civic she refers to is a class above her Ibiza in terms of performance, load capacity/size (and thus weight) and CO2/particulate emissions (especially when taking the previous two factors into account as well). Even more so if the Civic was the 4dr hybrid.

    ICE cars made a great deal of progress in efficiency terms in the 10-15 years she refers to; it is only recently when cars have been bloated by the extra weight of all those new ‘safety’ and other (often rarely used) gadgets that performance, space and mpg/emissions have (pardon the pun) ‘stalled’. My own car (roughly the same era as her Civic) is bigger, far safer, heavier and quicker and does the same (when I’m driving) mpg as her Ibiza. Emissions likely to be lower, especially particulates.

    EVs, on the other hand, are not THAT much more ‘efficient’ than they were 20 years ago – with changeover to newer designs of motors, they are better, but noit by a huge amount. It’s only the batteries that have been significantly improved, and now that is stalling too, with problems likely to come with availability (and thus price) due to the scarcity of lithium and the labour/energy intensive-intensive way batteries are made and recycled.

    That also doesn’t account for the huge costs of the infrastructure needed to support a majority of cars going to EV. At present, only 0.5% of all cars in the UK are EVs. And despite there being ‘thousands’ of charging stations, people still often have serious issues going from A to B without either running out of juice or having to stop for inordinate lengths of time to recharge. You can easily fill up with petrol everywhere in 5 minutes or so and be on your way.

    1. Elsewhere I estimated that the UK would need an extra 180GW(currently about 70GW) generating capacity to cope with an all-electric fleet. That’s a lot of windmills… and doesn’t account for the increase in the grid capacity to distribute the power, too. That will be difficult.

      1. There is a great deal of offset from the lower amount of electricity needed to serve the oil refinieries if EVs came in, but the problem is that they are 24/7 operations, and as we know, the wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun doesn’t shine at night. Plus those new nuclear power stations (should they ever get built) are 20 years away and I wonder which of those advocating for solar and wind energy will want a wind or solar farm next door? Could it be all those doing so are city dwelling lefties who know they’ll never see them near them?

        The alternative is gas, which is rapidly dwindling and is needed to heat homes and commercial buildings first. Hydrogen is currently a red herring, as the first method of getting it – extracting from methane is NOT green and we may as well use the methane as natural gas, rather than waste it (and copious amounts of electricity to change it to hydrogen) converting it into hydrogen.

        The second method, extracting it from water by splitting it off from the Oxygen is VERY energy intensive, needing HUGE amounts of electricity (Toyota needed a football pitch’s worth of PV panels to produce enough to run 6 pallet lifeters for ONE DAY) and will need even more (plus other non-green resources) to keep the hydrogen stored (refigerated) and piped or transported. The water also has to be pure, which means we either extract it from scarce fresh water sources or use desalination plants (VERY energy intensive) to make it from sea water.

        The biggest problem is what to do about all the new underground cabling locally needed to feed and upgrade supplies and build several magintudes more charging stations to allow those (as a DT reader says in their letter) who live in flats or terraced housing who can’t access home chargers, never mind the large number of people who won’t be able to afford the tech in 10 years.

        The average age of a British car is 9 years, meaning it will be worth around £2k – £4k. I don’t see many EVs on the market for that, just at the time their battery packs start to give out or rapidly reduce in output, meaning you’d have to charge for hours every day. Most workplaces don’t have the space to accomodate all their staff’s cars, let alone (or pay for) EV charging stations for most of them).

        EVs (and safe self-driving cars) will come, but they are wildly optimistic as the the timeframe unless we (like COVID) bankrupt ourselves to get it ‘done’ in 10-15 years. They should be allowed to grow naturally over a period of 30-50 years, not forcabily subsidised to further enrich billionairres with OUR money.

        1. Phillips 66 Limited, Humber refinery (South Killingholme), 11.5 million tonnes per year[3]
          Total SA, Lindsey (Killingholme) refinery, 11.0 million tonnes per year[4]
          Petroineos, Grangemouth refinery, 10.0 million tonnes per year[5]
          Essar Energy plc., Stanlow refinery, 12.0 million tonnes per year[6]
          Valero Energy Corp., Pembroke refinery, 10.5 million tonnes per year[7]
          ExxonMobil, Fawley refinery, 16.0 million tonnes per year[8]

          Much refinery power comes from buring petroleum at the refinery, so the difference wouldn’t help out to any great effect.
          Hydrogen is usually made locally, but the development in Norway stopped when our local station blew up (hell of a bang!) You still need energy to split the H2 from the O, it’s just a means of storing and transferring energy.

          1. Much better to – rather than covert something into electricity to get something else out of X, just use the electricity to charge batteries directly.

          3. Directly generating electricity from solar panels is the greenest if the panels and batteries last a a long time. Problem is what to do at night and as regards the battery components (lithium) which are scarce.

            ICE cars tend to even out pollution more, despite them giving high pollution levels (particulates) in cities, because we don’t have the capacity to generate enough (let alone store it) electricity via non-polluting means for EVs, so they’d have to use fossil fuels from power stations, meaning polluting would be vastly higher nearer them and down wind. It just moves the pollution around. Nice for city folk, not so good for the rest of us.

            Also best to generate electricty closest to its usage point – i.e. at home/work, not hundreds of miles away at power stations (30% efficient including transmission losses).

          4. Directly generating electricity from solar panels is the greenest if the panels and batteries last a a long time. Problem is what to do at night and as regards the battery components (lithium) which are scarce.

            ICE cars tend to even out pollution more, despite them giving high pollution levels (particulates) in cities, because we don’t have the capacity to generate enough (let alone store it) electricity via non-polluting means for EVs, so they’d have to use fossil fuels from power stations, meaning polluting would be vastly higher nearer them and down wind. It just moves the pollution around. Nice for city folk, not so good for the rest of us.

            Also best to generate electricty closest to its usage point – i.e. at home/work, not hundreds of miles away at power stations (30% efficient including transmission losses).

      2. The irony is that if – a big ‘if’ – these measures do reduce global temperatures, then average wind speeds will drop and the power generated by Boris’ windmills will drop.

      3. only 180GW for cars but then you add in home heating being forced to electric heat and the whole of the UK will need to be covered in windmills.

          4. Thats it then forget modern agriculture, farm equipment will have no room to maneuver round the pylons and under the panels.

        2. At, say, 3MW per turbine, that’s a shedload of turbines – about 60,000 if they are 3 MW jobbies.

        3. At, say, 3MW per turbine, that’s a shedload of turbines – about 60,000 if they are 3 MW jobbies.

  61. 326557+ up ticks,
    Brexitexit talks stopped I believe because it was suspected one of the participants was about to fall foul of a bout of honesty, did not reveal which one of the eu / uk coalition was under suspicion.

  62. Well, after a bloody awful start, the weather has cleared up tremendously and it’s not a gorgeous, bright sunny autumnal day, so I’m getting a load of tidying up done in the “garden”.
    Just been playing with my circular hand saw and cut up a load of scrap timber which is now drying off before the less awful bits get split for kindling.
    Fingers have got cold, so in for a PNB and mug of tea!

    2. R4 was trying to tease out some sense from our mostly black racing driver this morning. All I remember was that he said that he had turned his dog vegan. With luck, the beast will decide one day meat is best and go for the throat.

      1. You are so right Ellie, i have problems everyday trying to communicate the growing enigma we are facing even now with friends and relatives. They are more inclined to turn a blind eye to it all.

        2. Ever thought of moving RE?
          There seem to be many parts of the UK where life is going on almost as usual.
          The MSM don’t seem to be reporting from those regions for some reason.

          2. “The Port Arthur massacre of 28–29 April 1996 was a mass shooting in which 35 people were killed and 23 wounded in Port Arthur, Tasmania.”

            Maybe give Tasmania a miss RE.

      2. Speak for yourself N. It’s the lack of a credible alternative holding we sheeple/ brainwashed masses back.
        You volunteering to lead the way? 🙂

        1. So you think all these lockdowns and broken economies are simply because of a virus? I hope you don’t run a small business.

          1. “So you think all these lockdowns and broken economies are simply because of a virus?”

            Where in my comment did I suggest that N?

            ETA: Moving the goalposts is a tactic I’m more familiar with over on Breitbart.

      3. Still scrolling through last week’s posts. This one raised a chuckle…

        “Jack S Strativarius 7 days ago
        We reluctant Conservative voters offer our commiserations to the handful of eejits who believed Nigel was a credible alternative.

        4 1EditView in discussion”

  65. “No government has produced a cost-benefit analysis on households,

    businesses or the wider economy. Instead, armies of green blob zombies

    produce endless volumes of text that report only the upsides of the

    ‘green’ economy, obediently reproduced by journalists who couldn’t even

    wire a plug, much less hold the government to account on the public’s

    behalf. Fancy-pants boutique energy retailers promise thousands of jobs

    making apps that help people bond with their smart meters, but beneath

    the gloss is the darker fact of tech being used to regulate behaviour,

    regulate unnecessary scarcity, and ration utilities, rather than meet

    people’s needs and power a dynamic economy.”

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/is-johnson-quite-mad/

    A quote from one of the comments –

    The Green Party achieved just under 2% of the vote at the last General Election…and secured an 80 seat majority.
    Ain’t that just the obscene truth!!

      1. 3 million of those voters were giving the Lib Dems a kicking. They disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.
        Green Party were the other beneficiary of those former Lib Dem voters.

      4. That (near) 4 million votes did secure the referendum though. It wouldn’t have happened without them.
        I know, it wasn’t respected as it should have been, and it’s not finished yet. A victory nonetheless.

        1. 326557+ up ticks,
          Evening M,
          May I say it was not then that slapped the UKIP kisser one way
          but early post referendum a second slap to the UKIP kisser was delivered via, “We are victorious, no need of UKIP now
          job done & dusted, leave it to the tory’s”

          Result= our present suffering on many issues and not yet OUT.

          IMO a lost opportunity via Batten taken out by well documented treachery.

      5. In that election the SNP and the Lib/Dems combined got fewer votes than UKIP and yet got over 60 seats.

        1. UKIP contested 10 times as many seats as SNP.
          Had they had the same level of support, UKIP would have polled 15 million votes. They didn’t.

        2. 326557+ up ticks,
          Evening R,
          Precisely, and under Batten they were coming back on the same
          track, building into a credible party, that triggered the treachery.

    3. “The Green Party achieved just under 2% of the vote at the last General Election…and secured an 80 seat majority.
      Ain’t that just the obscene truth!!”

      With the same <2% of the vote, Nigel did the same. His few remaining fans still worship him.

  66. “No government has produced a cost-benefit analysis on households,

    businesses or the wider economy. Instead, armies of green blob zombies

    produce endless volumes of text that report only the upsides of the

    ‘green’ economy, obediently reproduced by journalists who couldn’t even

    wire a plug, much less hold the government to account on the public’s

    behalf. Fancy-pants boutique energy retailers promise thousands of jobs

    making apps that help people bond with their smart meters, but beneath

    the gloss is the darker fact of tech being used to regulate behaviour,

    regulate unnecessary scarcity, and ration utilities, rather than meet

    people’s needs and power a dynamic economy.”

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/is-johnson-quite-mad/

    A quote from one of the comments –

    The Green Party achieved just under 2% of the vote at the last General Election…and secured an 80 seat majority.
    Ain’t that just the obscene truth!!

  67. For any star-gazers among you – and if you have (as we do) a crystal clear sky – there is the beautiful sight of Saturn and Jupiter (the brighter one) just to the right of the sliver of the moon; and Mars, high in the eastern sky.

  69. 326557+ up ticks,
    sky news,
    A nasal spray is being developed to combat covid ( whatever number) another wonga spinner.

    A wiff of Lugol’s iodine up the nasal passage when not being gripped by fools, KILLS viruses in 15/30 seconds.

    1. When you’re dealing with people who think a life threatening respiratory disease can present no symptoms, will any quack cure actually surprise you?

  71. I just went to the Telegraph corporate website to see if the months subscription figures (not that I trust them) were updated, and within a couple of minutes, someone was trying to hack into my PC (failed, luckily).

    I wonder if their website has been hacked, given I put in a Google search the Ip address or ‘web address’ the AV program found, and it comes up with interesting results. Comes up (other than the telegraph Corporate website) with some firm called AS33438 Highwinds Network Group, Inc

    Here’s the dodgy address – DO NOT visit it (at most copy the text and do a Google search): i5g5o13i2ef25hzva1kvyiu1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com
    IP 94.31.29.64

    1. A quick update – I was re-checking the Telegraph Corporate website for the figures (which were published for the last month – an extra 10k online subs [God knows who] but 1k less print subs and a good number less ‘registrants’ [former subscribers like me who told the DT to get rid of all their account details]) and the same hacking attack occurred, this time same address, different IP (108.161.188.228).

      Unless you have a good Internet Security progam with a decent firewall, avoid that website for the moment. It’s not the same site as the main DT one.

  72. Non-BorisCovid post.

    I was in Waitrose and decided to treat myself to some Jersey milk for my cereal.

    It occurred to me from what education i had had that we have 7 main food groups we need for our nutrient intake.

    6 and 7 being roughage and water.

    It also occurred to me that all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals and water required are contained in Jersey cows milk.

    I know some people will have dietary requirements that mean they can’t have too much or any of this product but for the majority…Cardboard and milk would be sufficient. Just sayin’.

    1. Buy your Jersey milk in a carton and consume both, is that what you’re sayin’
      Just askin’

      1. I avoid Tetrapak where possible because it’s lined with plastic and the profits go to a heroin drug addict.

        I prefer, like Peddy to get my milk fresh. Where we differ is that he lies on the ground under his Nanny goat in the morning and i get someone to milk a cow for me. 🙂

        1. Our neighbour, a statuesque blonde Polish lass, has a new baby and is lactating.
          Just saying… I’ll get me Gannex mac.

          2. Yup.
            Drains fixed to the extent you can put anything down them except paper :-(( cats delighted that we’re home all the time. Food bowls never empty now…

    2. I used to lecture in Physiology and Nutrition to 706 1/2 students and I told them the same thing! Apart from the lack of iron, full cream milk is the “perfect” food!

      1. We still use full cream milk – used to have gold top back in the day – but never the chalk and water that most people seem to use these days.

          3. Whoever gets there first – seems to work ok. If we start a new bottle later in the day, it gets set aside in a jug for breakfast.

          5. Usually a bit more than that – he makes the tea/coffee and then back to bed, but I get up later than him anyway.

          14. Depends on the tea. If it’s ordinary PG tips, it has a drop of milk, if it’s Darjeeling it doesn’t.

        2. I have a pint each of Gold Top and Semi-Skimmed delivered (in glass), three times a week. The former for the porridge, the latter for the tea. As for coffee, I use whichever I have most of left…

          1. The only use for milk in coffee is to make cappucino. Otherwise, it has no business being there. Similarly sugar, unless tempering a caffe coretto.
            ;-))

          2. I can take coffee black; hate tea without (s/s) milk. Haven’t had sugar in either for decades. I reckon I can detect sugar if the spoon has been used to stir a sugared drink beforehand.

          3. I can too, but it seldom arises because I don’t take sugar either, so there’s no need to stir.

          4. My Grand-dad used to absently stir his tea, slowly, for about 5 minutes before drinking it, with the spoon going tink…tink…tink…tink… – AAAARGH!

          5. Just like my boss in Ostfriesland in front of his patients, but he never offered any of them a drink.

          6. Sorry Paul, latte every time for me. I love the aroma and flavour of proper coffee, but black coffee (or strong tea) sets off the acid gremlins – and one gastroscopy is enough… I don’t want to need another.

          7. Espresso, made strong with Sicilian roast beans, is nectar of the Gods. Also “corrected” with Grappa, gives it a different bite.
            Magic! :-))

          8. But I can only inhale the aroma. If I want to drink it (and I do) it has to be half milk. No sugar, I don’t need syrup. But the lining of my tum is delicate and spending 6 months living on milk pudding (and pretty much nothing else) is tiresome once in a lifetime – I really don’t intend to repeat the exercise if I can help it.

            When I was an impoverished student in Aberdeen, many years ago, there was an old-fashioned grocer at the top end of Union Street who used to grind coffee in the shop. If I was walking past I would stop and take deep breaths, to make the most of it. Real coffee in those days was a treat reserved for Sunday mornings.

            Hot coffee with a slug of whisky is warming. But I’d rather have the coffee to warm up and sip and savour the whisky slowly a bit later.

          9. Syrup in good coffee is the work of the devil.
            I’d be devastated if I couldn’t have coffee/beer/wine/ (name beverage of choice, except cocoa/hot chocolate). That would be awful.
            Whisky is best savoured on it’s own. Grappa goes well with espresso.

          10. As with many other things – having to live on milk pudding makes you appreciate the rest when you are able to cope with it again. But once was quite enough…. and I like milk.

          11. Had an excellen bread-and-butter pudding, Queen of Puddings, Spotted Dick & custard – in camp, in South Sudan some years ago. School food, out there, was a surprise. Apparently the Malaysians (since the company was part-owned by Petronas, there were plenty of them) really liked it.

          12. Nothing like that. Very milky rice pudding with no dried fruit, no spices. Semolina the same. Most of what went down came up again anyway.

            A lot of the time it was just milk – and even that made me nauseous.

            Eventually it all settled down and I can get away with most things now, though hot curry isn’t a good idea and strong tea is an absolute no… (I’m not very keen on tea anyway, so that’s no hardship).

          13. I once made the mistake of adding honey to black coffee – never again!

            Next time you’re in Germany try Trester; it’s the German equivalent of grappa & comes in many local varieties.

          15. When I was at Uni there were coffee grinding shops & bakers on the way to the Med Dept. It was great walking down Whiteladies in the morning.

      3. “I used to lecture in Physiology and Nutrition to 706 1/2 students …”

        Beginning to think I might be out of my depth here on NoTTL 🙂

        2. Crikey! You should have seen me! I was younger than most of them! It was a Training Opportunities course!

        3. Certainly not, I used to lecture on finance and law without much success, but after a few years, the wife had enough and divorced me.

        4. All are welcome, Jack.

          We also have retired Para’s. Engineers who worked on Concord and Vulcans. Retired Police officers. Retired Nurses who were used to having Matron whip their bottoms if they didn’t perform ! (Steady Bill !)

          We have BBC people. The most famous being our dear very own Legal Beagle. Not to mention Sue. (I said don’t mention Sue !) and well… all sorts really.

          If anyone is having difficulty with anything there is normally someone who can advise. So in a sense your post about a safe space is true.

          We like it and you are welcome here. Sometimes it can get fractious after wine o’clock but mostly everyone rubs along together.

      4. I remember my youngest brother taking 706/1, 706/2 and 706/3 back in the mid 80s. He started his career as a commis chef at Cliveden House, then worked his way up in top-rated West End restaurants and various locations in the south of England before becoming Senior Sous Chef at the Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, and Hanbury Manor in Hertfordshire.

        His promotion to Head Chef came at Hartwell House near Aylesbury. He then emigrated to Australia and enjoyed four Head Chefships at top-rated restaurants in the city. He then became a private chef (dinner parties and banquets only) employed by a few millionaires including the Murdoch family.

        For the past decade he has served as food and beverage consultant, first and business class, on various airlines, including Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Emirates.

        I still make a better curry than him though! :•)

        1. That’s quite a CV, Grizz! My last catering job before we had the girls, was at Edinburgh Airport. Long and peculiar hours aren’t compatible with family life!

          1. My last catering job was outside catering for weddings and such. I also helped grow a business supplying corner shops with cheeses and processed meats in vac pouches in Hampshire and Dorset. My biggest success in that range was a Christmas dinner in a Vac pouch. The shops kept phoning me asking for extra deliveries. So many bedsits…so many students. That was Bournemouth. Sad really.

            Nowhere near Grizz brother level. Respect to him.

          2. I worked for a small outside caterer for 20 years or so – we did many weddings, dinners and all sorts of events. Still keep in touch with those colleagues – the last time we all met for a dinner was in January. Sadly now, the local pub where we had dinner that evening has now closed – for good.

          1. I’m reasonable, Conners. Don’t know if I’m good. We were all encouraged to cook from the age of eight. Bog standard simple stuff but at least we were confident at the stove.

        3. I suspect that the most difficult job to do well was the airline food.

          My son, who is also in the industry, thinks it’s one of the most difficult things he’s had to prepare, though he was tasked with catering for the masses so his budgets were a lot lower.

          1. The toughest skill, he tells me, is satisfying the needs of first class passengers. When they pay such extortionate prices for a flight they expect something better than standard airline food. The cooks have to be taught the special skills of cooking fresh, top quality, food at altitude in a pressurised cabin. There are specially adapted kitchen in hangars at certain airports where he teaches those skills. Also, new menus have to be thought up and practised on a regular basis to ensure that frequent first class flyers are not given the same food each time they fly.

          2. So much trouble and so difficult to impress people with money falling out their arses.

            Two Vodka mini’s, tonic and a bag of crisps. The crisps arriving fully inflated like a balloon always made me laugh.

            I wonder if those days will come again my friend…………………..Sorry. 🙁

        4. Good evening Grizzly

          If you ever pass this way come and stay for a weekend and you and Caroline can both have a curry cooking competition and I shall be the chief judge and we can try to organise some other Nottlers to come for the event. .

      5. I thought the 706 1/2 was the number of students, and was wondering how you have a 1/2 student… :-((

        1. Yes! Sorry I didn’t make it clear! It was a 706/1 and 2 course in basic catering. My students (I was 21) were older people looking for a new start/opportunity.

          4. I have C&G qualifications (gained in the early noughties) and an NVQ gained a bit later. I also have RSA qualifications (gained in the mid-noughties). It could be they are running in parallel still.

      1. I remember. I wonder if cereal producers also have shares invested in dentists given how much sugar they contain now.

        2. Especially if you try to eat it with your fingers. 😉

          My smallest great-nephew is inclined to think the spoon is “too slow” and dive in with both hands. His spoon wielding is getting better, but his mother is inclined to complain (because he doesn’t like having them washed) when he gets porridge in his ears.

    1. Well I’m not a fan, but if he stays put i hope he winds his neck in and gets on with the job.

    2. I think that the legal proceedings up until now were stalling tactics, in order for the Trump team to get all their investigations done and material all collated for the BIG ONE that’s soon to come. This may get ugly, but he’s well within his rights to ensure only legal votes are counted, and preferably the correct number of times!

      The (IMHO) Dem Party and MSM/social media cover-up may still previal, given the scale and nature (I’d bet many illegal votes will be difficult to spot), but eventually, the truth will emerge, and the reputation of the Dems and their media/social media chums will stain their reputation for a very LONG time indeed.

      At the moment, Trump is the only thing standing in the way of world domination and our subjugation by the leftists in civil services, the MSM, corporate giants/social media and China. Boris has IMHO seemingly capitulated on the orders of his girlfriend.

    3. I hope that Donald’s silence over the last few days indicates that something is going on. Three weeks until the declaration.

          2. Worried that being involved in the farce might damage her career.
            Giuliani was at the other end of his career. Nothing to lose.

          5. We’ll agree to differ on that Bob.
            “Travellers in the Third Reich.” Another book high on my To Read Again list.

          6. He was a good Mayor of New York. Crime fell. People could walk the street in safety. Now it resembles San Fran with human excrement on every street, looted shops and boarded up neighbourhoods. Please don’t tell me this is what you wish for your descendents ! Perhaps you consider it a price worth paying. I don’t.

          8. Not a convincing response.

            If you Americans hadn’t rebelled against your lawful King you might not be having the troubles you have.

            And if you can’t see the humour in that then you are lost.

  78. That’s me gone. Another day less in my allotted span.

    Daube for supper – I am to choose some red ink to go with it.

    Have a lovely evening planning you tunnel out of this catastrophe.

    A demain – if there is one.

    1. I am fraught with concern and worry about the demains these days in a way that i never was before.

        2. Thank you, Sue – I worry all the time, I am one of nature’s perpetually worried. These times were made for me, sigh. And the words ‘compulsory vaccination’ send me into a complete spin.

      2. …”we should live each day as if it is the last…” As the Scriptures say, PM.

        It is written…..

      4. There aren’t so many to worry about as there were before. We have to make the most of the time we have left.

        1. That is one of the things on my list that worries me, N. Every morning in the early waking hours. And how have I got to be this age? How did it happen?! I am not ready to have that vaccination yet!

          1. Most of this year has been extremely tedious – not really living, just existing. All the things that made life interesting and enjoyable are being denied us at the moment – but we will get through it.

        1. I have just had one, PT, a pre-prandial, you understand! – and I am now on the rioja. It stops me from worrying about tomorrow but it returns with a vengeance between 6.00 am and 7.00 am whereafter, if I am lucky, I can get another hour’s kip.

          2. I worry more when I’m stressed 🙁 A bad period of stress can have me heading for anxiety attacks – and then, of course, there is the lack of sleep to contend with, too.

  79. Edinburgh Castle sign hailing ‘hero’ British soldiers who fought in the 1857 Siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny will be replaced after junior doctor, 26, complained it ‘pandered to imperialism’

    Junior Doctor Vivek Majumder, 26, ‘infuriated’ during a trip to Edinburgh Castle
    He said a sign next to the India Cross was ‘too celebratory of the British’
    Bosses at Historic Environment Scotland will replace sign with a neutral view
    Dr Majumder said the sign claimed Lucknow had been ‘relieved’ in 1857

    Bosses at the tourist attraction said an historian is currently working on replacing the sign with something more ‘accurate and balanced’.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8965881/Edinburgh-Castle-sign-hailing-hero-British-soldiers-replaced-complaint.html

    2. Why on earth don’t the PTB in these instances have the courage to say:

      “FOAD you stupid bastard. If you don’t like it, don’t visit. And tell all your perpertually offended friends not to bother either, because they too can FOAD. If you want an “Indocentric” museum/attraction then set up your own, but don’t ask Whitey to fund it; fund it yourselves. Arseholes”

      1. What is it with you people that you deny the parts of our history you don’t like?
        The fella in TB’s post was right. At Lucknow, it was the native troops who saved us from becoming another Cawnpore.

        1. I’m not denying the parts that are wrong, by modern revisionist standards, but what I’m asking for is that if those who wish to complain about it/them set up their alternative versions and let people judge for themselves.

          If you want every individual who takes a different viewpoint to you to force you to change your displays so be it.

          But that’s your choice, plaese don’t expect me to, just to stroke your wokery.

          1. ” …just to stroke your wokery.”
            My accepting the part Sikhs played on our behalf in the Indian Mutiny is “wokery?”
            You should post on Breibart.

          2. You should try to think a little beyond the obvious.

            If the Indian troops who stood by the British had not done so do you really think they would have been spared slaughter?

          4. But it is.

            If the seige had succeded then all the Indian troops who had supported the British would almost certainly have been slaughtered out of hand. They fought because they had to, to save their own skins.

          5. Would’ve/Could’ve/ Might’ve.
            Maybe check out John Nicholson, and the Sikh troops who worshipped him. Literally, after his death at Delhi.

          6. That rather suggests that they take/took a different viewpoint to
            Dr Majumder, which is where we came in.

          8. He might well have done.

            But does it even start to occur to you, or him, that the reason the Indian troops stood firm with the British was because they knew which side was better for them? Let alone that had they not done so that they would have been killed without the slightest compunction on the part of the “rebels”.

          10. Inglis “inherited” his position by deaths. He requested relief which took a long time coming, of course he praised his Indian support.

          11. One death, early in the siege The first attempt to relieve Lucknow failed. Inglis carried on regardless.

          13. After a quick bit of research…

            “The first attack was repulsed on 1 July. The next day, Lawrence was fatally wounded by a shell, dying on 4 July. Colonel John Inglis of the 32nd Regiment took military command of the garrison.”

          18. Daily Mail? Say no more. This from the same people who tell we sheeple we shouldn’t believe wot we read in the MSM.

          21. I am a great admirer of Sikhs and their attitudes.
            I have Sikh in-laws and have worked with Sikhs.

            They were hard working, honest and upright people in my experience.

        2. My grandmother was born in Cawnpore, the child of a regimental tailor sent there after the second uprising. When her son, my father, born in 1910, served in the Royal artillery in India and Burma he had nothing but praise for the Indian soldiers he served with and for the Ghurkas they fought alongside.

          I reckon my father’s love of India and Indians was the result of his mother’s stories about the place.

          My own mother was an avid collector of family photos and her album once contained a photograph of my grandmother as a child sitting on an albino elephant and holding a dainty parasol.

          Kipling himself loved the night life of the Indian city alleyways. He too was enchanted by the place.

          I mention this because not all Indians hated the British and many were fond of Queen Victoria and of the love for the native people we as a nation gave. We invested in them and built their railway infrastructure for goodness sake.

          Kipling’s father designed the magnificent teak tracery in the Durbar Room at Osborn House on the IoW and it is magnificent with the most exquisite workmanship.

          Edit: The Durbar Room in the Foreign and Colonial Office in Whitehall was designed as an homage to the Indian princes, the Nawabs and so on who trusted our Queen and government to do the right thing for them. The poverty in India was far greater before our interventions than after. We also gifted the Indians the game of cricket so it was not all bad.

          3. Because I’m not a perpetually offended, whinging moron. I deal with whatever life flings at me and don’t always look for someone to blame.

          5. Your posts make no sense jack s. You accuse someone then say you do the same.

            Grow up, stop being antagonistic.

          6. His posts make no sense because he is shit stirring. Curry favour with a poster then attack them. Troll behaviour.

          9. I was going to say “In a moment he’s going to trot out the “far right” insult.”
            Then I thought, no, don’t be inflammatory.
            Then I looked right under this post…quelle surprise…he already did.

          10. It livens up an otherwise quiet afternoon?
            Plus I’m centre-right posting on a further/far right forum.

          11. There is no right, there’s only the authoritarians. This is NOT a far right forum. The very use of the term indicates you’re labelling and no one remotely right labels. Therefore you’re a Lefty and I claim my £5.

          12. “Far right” is a fake Tory, Cameron-type, Blue Labour insult. In saner days, he would have found his place in the yellow party.

          13. Just who do you think you are?

            This blog has survived, for more than
            four years without your input, there
            is every chance it will continue to
            so do!!

          14. I must declare an interest here.

            Jack S is at least as annoying to some of us as I know I am to others.

            Yes he stirs, to get a reaction. But unlike many other stirrers he will accept another viewpoint and acknowledge a point well made.

            Nottle is a great forum, but just sometimes we need people to make us re-examine what we think and to challenge. If one can rebut a challenge it suggests that the issue has been thought through.

          15. You may be right but your posts are often funny. Even if we have to activate hit squads. His are Juvenile.

          16. “Plus I’m centre-right posting on a further/far right forum.”

            We’ve heard that before on here…

          17. And there was me posting earlier about who we are and offering a hand of friendship. The hand now becomes open handed.

      3. I’ve worked with many Indians, some good, some not. They’ve appropriated our language and democratic (well, what used to be one) system, can they stop using them, please.

        1. It’s a great pity that there isn’t a God who can instantly place them in the position they would have been in, but for the damned imperialistic British (other European countries are available).

          Most of these whiney bastards probably would not have been born at all, and if they had they would have been slaves or serfs.

    3. Given what happened at Lucknow, and what would have happened but for the native troops defending the compound, he has every reason to feel aggrieved.

    4. In the later stages of the siege, native troops outnumbered the British troops. The native troops remained loyal throughout the siege.

      ETA: If they hadn’t, Havelock would have had another Cawnpore on his hands.

  81. Awkward from Canada

    “Ten. That’s the number of otherwise healthy people who have died from COVID-19 in Alberta since the beginning of the pandemic.

    This may come as a surprise to people both in Alberta and around the country

    who are following the second wave of COVID-19 as it sends daily case

    counts rising in many Canadian provinces. One gets the sense that things

    are much worse.”

    The province’s comorbidity fact sheet is updated weekly, with the last

    one released on Nov. 11. The number of COVID-19 deaths recorded at that

    time was 369 individuals.

    https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/furey-the-important-covid-data-from-alberta-that-all-canadians-need-to-know
    Hmm dive past headline scare figures and this whole PLANDEMIC is a scam

      1. He would be. Without Dominion voting machines he would never have been elected. The ‘man’ is the son of a mafiosi and as thick as two short planks bolted together.

        He should black up and leave the country.

  82. LONDON (Reuters) – Heatwaves caused a record 2,556 excess deaths in Britain this summer as the country was struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, according to a government estimate published on Thursday.

    Increasingly frequent and severe heatwaves are among the deadliest impacts of climate change, mostly hitting elderly people and other vulnerable groups the hardest, scientists say.

    “Unless the government takes urgent action to address the climate emergency, the number of excess deaths due to heatwaves is likely to increase year on year,” said Sandy Robertson of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, an advocacy group of health professionals.

    Britain suffered a series of heatwaves here in June, July and August in which many weather stations around the country broke or matched their maximum temperature records.

    The estimate of 2,556 excess deaths was the highest since the government launched a plan to manage the health effects of hot temperatures after an estimated 2,234 people died in England during a pan-European heatwave in 2003.

    Researchers said high temperatures alone could not explain all the deaths, raising questions over whether the pandemic may have served to amplify the impact of the heat.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-britain-heatwave-idUSKBN27Z2SY?taid=5fb6d13839486a0001c689e2&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

    2. It was a helluva lot hotter in 1976 and no one squealed about the equivalent of less than two days worth of deaths then.

        1. 1975 was the referendum, Bill. The heatwave would have been caused by the referendum, though, had we only had the sense to see through the lies and vote to leave 🙂

    3. I don’t remember having any hot periods in summer this year where I could not sleep at night. I think there groups who can say what they like these days and nobody dare pull them up.

    1. “Subsidised healthful food”? The land whales would only gorge on it unless it was restricted to lettuce.

  85. Evening, all. Once upon a time the Conservatives had a reputation for fiscal responsibility. Not any more: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/11/19/uk-debt-could-reach-105-due-to-covid-spending-top-treasury-mandarin-says/
    Even without Covid (£40 million for racing alone to offset the cost of their lunatic measures), they are allocating £3bn for electric cars since they have brought forward the “green” idiocy ten years. As a taxpayer, I am unhappy about having to pay for it all because the government has no money, only what it gets from those who work for a living and have been sufficiently prudent to provide for their old age and thus are penalised by having to pay tax and by being excluded from receiving any benefits. On top of this, the “negotiations” (aka surrendering) over Brexit are on hold because one of the team has tested positive (for Covid, not for brains). No problem – just WALK AWAY!

    1. Given all that, the Conservatives are still our least bad option.
      Cheers Nigel, AMW Batten et al 🙁

        1. Totally agree, molamola, but if the least bad is still not good enough to vote for, then the only option left is to abstain – which will lead to anarchy.

          1. Sometimes, Elsie, I think a bit of anarchy might not be a wholly bad thing; it might just wake people up.

        2. 326557+ up ticks,
          M,
          Best of the worst, nasal grippers, party before country, three monkey fans,
          have successfully brought these Isles to it’s knee, work on two knees in progress.
          There is no doubt now surely, we could NOT have got so deep in the sh!te without the lab/lib/con continuing input.

          4. Not much consolation that.
            David Lammy, Justice Secretary, Dawn Butler, Kick the Whites Secretary…

          8. I had no one to vote for, so I spoiled my ballot with a clear conscience. There was no way it was going to let Labour in. This time round, I don’t know what will happen. Perhaps there will be a UKIP candidate.

          10. Maybe a Ukip candidate, a brexit party candidate and a reform candidate. That will successfully split the vote and let the establishment back in.

            The only chance of winning is to break up the unconservative tory party and reform a new conservative grouping with the best of each faction. Not going to happen, too many egos to protect.

          11. Anything right of centre or remotely nationalistic/protectionist is immediately targeted as extreme.

          12. Which is why we have to tackle that description and not accept their narrative. Social media seems to be the best bet; the MSM are never going to portray us in a favourable light.

          13. not just the media, the politicians will always attack this kind of thinking. Just look how anything T Robinson says is immediately put down as racist scum talk, that is how media and globalist politicians will attack any Farage style resurgence.

            Trouble is do you have a core of right minded conservative MPs who would rise to the challenge rather than just tagging along with the middle of the road appeasement style.

          16. We still have a branch and it’s just about functioning. One of us might be persuaded. I know I was very annoyed when we didn’t put up a candidate in 2017.

          17. UKIP’s 2015 manifesto was glorious. We haven’t had a candidate here since. Do they have a manifesto?

          18. Much the same as the previous one, I believe. Full of common sense. Nigel has pretty much pinched it for his Reform (or whatever it’s called) Party, I understand.

          19. Guildford branch collapsed. Both the Chairman and Secretary succumbed to the Big C. No-one rushed to take their place. I turned up at a joint meeting of Surrey Heath and Guildford branches, and found I was the only one from Guildford.

          20. Our branch is an amalgamation of two branches – and it looks as though we might have to absorb two more branches to keep the flame alive in the south of the county and in Telford. Needs must.

          21. I felt I had 3 Limp Dums to choose from, the Limp Dum with a yellow rosette, the Limp Dum with a red rosette and the Limp Dum with a blue rosette.
            For the first time since being old enough to vote, I didn’t vote at all.

        1. 326557+up ticks.
          C,
          The bolton character was the farage conduit and had to be denied the leadership,was not to be.
          We went to Birmingham and ended his leadership on the 17 / 2 / 2018.

          Consider the “in name only
          tory’s” eu assets,lest we forget,
          major,the wretch cameron,
          clegg, may the treacherous,
          johnson.
          List of treachery & shame, fact.

        2. Back in 2016, Ogga voted for AMW ahead of Henry Bolton.
          Says it all about the state UKIP was in back then.

          1. I didn’t vote for either of those, but I thought the Bolton fix was in. I had a feeling that he would be trouble and so it proved.

          4. As I got in the car after a local UKIP meeting, I heard the R4 news that Cameron had been sent home with his tail between his legs, Diane James was returning to her adjacent BMW – and I gave her an outline of the news. I thought she was impressive, but not leadership material.

            UKIP were infiltrated by the Establishment. I suspect the same is true of the Brexit Party, although I supported it. There wasn’t a candidate here in December. Besides, I’d joined the Tories, with the express intention of voting for Boris in the Leadership Election. Mea maxima culpa…

          5. Hindsight is 20/20, Geoff. The problem with UKIP has often been the lack of people with leadership qualities, to be honest. Whereas that is also true of the main parties, they manage to bumble along because the media are on their side (and they have a long-established infrastructure).

    2. Thanks for that, Conway, my selfish concern is that with a minimum tax input, will my pension be the first cutback?

      1. If you’ve got savings, expect negative interest rates to start eating into them. Even if you’ve paid oodles into the system, I suspect you won’t be immune. Then, of course, they will need to inflate the debt away. That will hit anyone on a fixed income who can’t find means of augmenting it. I remember the seventies (when I was a student)! Sorry to sound so gloomy, but in my view (based on experience) this will not end well.

        1. 326557+ up ticks,
          C,
          It is a pretty formidable force ranged against decency currently, the lib / lab / con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella pro eu coalition should have been closed down decades ago & most certainly since the JAY report.
          We WILL get out when enough peoples wise up & listen to truthsayers and not lab/lib/con politico’s.

          1. Not sure whether you know this ogga 1 but years ago I designed extensions to a local farmhouse known as Claret Hall near Clare. My clients were Christine and Roger Lord. At that time I understood that Roger Lord was a founding member of UKIP.

            Later I noticed that Roger Lord was obliged to stand down as a parliamentary candidate in order to accommodate twisty mouthed Douglas Carswell who was duly elected and then flipped back to the conservatives. As far as I know Roger Lord, a local boy born in Clacton (from memory) left UKIP in disgust.

            Who could blame him?

          2. 326557+ up ticks,
            Evening C,
            Horses for courses, I was about around the Kilroy Silk era, cut to the quick and on reflection and current revealings farage IMO was a tory coxswain as leader his LBC anti UKIP / Batten rant confirmed it for me.
            Batten as leader for a year had the party financially sound & in the black and membership increasing daily, treachery input from the party Nec & farage paid of and brought UKIP down, what remain makes up the lab/lib/con / ukip coalition.

          3. I remember that. I always felt that Carswell was a plant – a mole, if you like, to undermine UKIP from within. It isn’t the first time that sort of thing happened, with disastrous consequences. We might well have won Stoke if the local candidate had been allowed to stand. As it was Paul Nuttall became candidate – the moment it was announced (I was there for the launch) my heart sank. I knew it wouldn’t work. For Jack – I didn’t vote for HIM, either 🙂

          4. It seems that UKIP, once seen as the bastion of freedom, has lost its way and is reduced to infighting on their NEC.

            It will take an awful lot for me to consider supporting or even voting for them again.

          5. I do think the NEC is sorting itself out – perhaps now they have a leader that they like. Last I heard there seemed to be a lot of consensus.

    1. So where is the proof? Just repeating this accusation time after time is not proof, it is not fact. How many of the legal challenges have been thrown out of court in the past two weeks? Have all of the judiciary been corrupted along with the state employees and legislature?

      Even Giuliani, Trumps tame attack lawyer is offering no proof in Pennsylvania, just repeating the old mantra.

      You want fraudulent election? Try Trumps attempts to get Michigan to ignore the actual vote and just vote for him in the electoral college.

      1. One just hopes, Richard, that Trump and his lawyers are keeping their powder dry until a massive onslaught in the Supreme Court.

        1. Why would they bother to delay until they get to Trumps court? If the evidence is so strong, surely it would have been enough to persuade the lower courts to rule in their favour.

          It looks like its mute now, Trump appears to be trying to persuade republican states to ignore the vote and select Trump voting electors to their famed electoral college.

    2. “When the first plane hit on 9/11, we thought it was an accident. When the second plane hit, we KNEW it was an attack.”

      Americans. Happy to fund IRA terrorism, not so happy when they’re on the receiving end.

    1. Good night, Mags. I wonder if you saw the article on the Yesterday Channel this evening, listing RNH Haslar as ‘Abandoned Engineering’

    2. That takes me back. Semprini was the omnipresent pianist on the radio. The other ones were Victor Sylvester and Max Jaffa.

      One of my uncles who played violin would play along to Max Jaffa and at weekends would play with the quintets or whatever in the Pump Room and Parade Gardens to the entertainment of thousands.

      His day job was as a monotype keyboard operator at the Pitman Press in Bath which I now recognise as a demonstration of the resilience of our forbears. Do a hot and dangerous job during the working day and give pleasure to others at the weekend.

      Somewhere along the way we have lost that ethic of hard work and the emollient of public service. We need to get back to our most valuable historic attributes before we are otherwise consumed by the globalist tyranny unfolding before us.

      1. So did I , that is why I selected the music last night to try to focus bods minds in order to calm things down .

        Morning pm, the weather is a bit milder today.

    1. They have drained the canal at Cairnbaan for maintenance and we met a couple who live there who are amazed every morning, to look out of their window, and find that the canal is not there!

      1. It does seem a tad OTT because at that end of the lock the water can’t be more than 10′ deep.

        1. Whatever it is and no matter how deep the water is, there will have been rules made by a desk bound, never been in the real world, H&S person, making things difficult.

  89. The Sainsbury’s Christmas advert has caused racial controversy because
    it focuses on a black family.

    I thought it was all fine, until the white camera crew started lobbing
    bananas at them because they couldn’t taste the difference.

    1. It seems family in virtually every advert is either all – or part – black/brown. Male white skin is definitely being brainwashed as not needed or normal. White female seems to be pushed as very happy producing non-white kids.

      1. There is brainwashing going on. Having said that i don’t have a problem with black people or with mixed marriages. What i do have a problem with is where people particularly muslim people who are determined not to integrate.

          1. That’s because when we were growing up we were encouraged to think for ourselves, not be told what to think.

          2. That’s because when we were growing up we were encouraged to think for ourselves, not be told what to think.

          4. 326557+ up ticks,
            Evening Ptv,
            Actions X speak louder than words, especially via the ballot booth, as the innocent are finding out at this moment in time.

          5. 326557+ up ticks,
            Evening Ptv,
            Actions X speak louder than words, especially via the ballot booth, as the innocent are finding out at this moment in time.

        1. I still ponder how a nation could have been taken in by the ridiculous figure of that mad-eyed stiff armed ranting madman. Now half of the globe are falling for the pronouncements of this tosser of the same ilk.

          I recommend Charlie Chaplin’s performance in The Great Dictator.

        2. I still ponder how a nation could have been taken in by the ridiculous figure of that mad-eyed stiff armed ranting madman. Now half of the globe are falling for the pronouncements of this tosser of the same ilk.

          I recommend Charlie Chaplin’s performance in The Great Dictator.

      3. Klaus Schwab, head of the exceedingly eccentric “World Economic Forum”. A group of economic illiterates who have been around since 1971. The real world has succeeded, without apparent effort, in ignoring them for all the intervening years. But suddenly they are terrifying and about to take over… if you believe in fairy tales.

    2. Receiving an honorary degree from the Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania?
      Or is it some weird sect, I’m sure Duncan Mac could give a better translation than
      Science
      State of mind
      Power.

    1. You don’t need to keep reminding us that the Conservatives are still our least bad option.
      We already know that.

          2. I suspect that there will be several “new” parties.

            I also suspect that none of them will get a single seat.

          3. Between them, their supporters would struggle to fill a London bus.
            One of those Ballymena built buses.

          4. I suspect that there will be several “new” parties.

            I also suspect that none of them will get a single seat.

          7. You couldn’t insert a fag paper between Labour and Conservative so it makes no difference really.

          8. That’s the problem.
            Blame Maggie, she killed off the the old Conservative party.
            Like the excesses of the ’70s moved Labour voter to the centre, so the excesses of the ’80s moved Conservative voters to the same centre.
            The parties have merged.

          10. Same as last GE N. That’s the problem.
            Nigel’s fans will have whatever he calls his next PR stunt.

  94. Just finished my Swedish homework for the next Zoom session, when we have to address the group in Swedish on a topic of our choice. It took me all of 5 minutes to write 3 paragraphs about Missy; I actually composed it last night in bed. Phew, job done.

    1. Does she get to play “show and tell” and look at the screen with you.

      A friend has a ginger cat who likes to “join in” when she Skypes with her grandchildren in Oz.

      1. She sometimes jumps on my lap during the Zoom sessions, but is out of sight of the camera.

          7. Not who i mean at all and you are just jealous. We have had lots of great lunches out with other Nottlers and had a great time. Your name never comes up for some reason. 🙂

          8. Well, that’s a relief.
            I too have had lunch with her – had to tell her to take her over-sized handbag off the table. Still, if that’s your bag, I’m happy to let you get on with it.

          9. Let me? Right there is your problem. A shame that the issues you have with people means you will be lonely. Jenny and Lottie won’t help you.

          14. Perhaps you might consider lessons in how to be nice. Your posts about all the women you have worked with paint you as a misogynist. How’s the boyfriend?

          18. Just like dear old Jenny and more recently Peddy you are now trying to insult a larger number of people who post on here.

            Personally i have no experience of actual far right people because they don’t exist.

          20. I’m sure there are a few but they don’t usually come here. I’ve seen them on Breitbart but I don’t stay long there.

          21. Oh, I don’t know.

            I’ve been called a Nazi just for asking someone (who butted into a private conversation) just how many illegal immigrants the UK should accept, 5,000 or 500,000 or 5 million or 500 million, or 5 billion, because as I told him, there are certainly 5 billion living at a level far lower than you are, my friend.

            A ton of bricks on his head would have been better received.

  95. PHE now saying supermarkets are the most common exposure setting for those catching Covid-19 in England. PHE collated the data using the test and trace app.[Sky News.]
    Lets hope the Government doesn’t close supermarkets as a result of this.

    3. Given how few in number are the locations where you’re likely to encounter others, I’m not in the least surprised to find supermarkets at the top of a rather small list.

    4. Yet more proof that wearing masks makes no difference. Flu virus is spread either by contact with infected people or material and by sneezing where it will travel as aerosol up to 30 metres.

      So you could be standing at one end of a supermarket aisle and be infected by someone coughing and sneezing at the opposite end.

        2. Since masks are here to stay for a while, I have just ordered a mask with my mouth & chin printed on it. Piss must be taken, might as well have some fun!
          :-D)

        4. I suppose it depends on the type of mask. The flimsy single layer masks I see being worn are more likely a health hazard. The problem is one of protocols.

          Masks to be remotely effective must be multilayered, never touched on the outside in between putting on and taking off and washed after single use. I doubt many folk observe these rules and from my observations they are hardly ever worn correctly and are fidgeted with so as to make them hazardous to health by giving a false sense of security.

          1. I’ve said it before & you see it on every News bulletin – the majority have no idea of how to wear a mask properly.

      2. A year ago last week, I was sitting in the busy departure lounge of Stansted airport when a bloke came and sat next to me. No sooner had he sat down when he started coughing and made no attempt to cover his mouth!

        I got up and walked away … too late! I was already in incubation mode and three days later I was feeling like shit warmed up! The symptoms lasted well into the New Year.

        ‘Flu? Covid-19? Who knows? Whatever it was I don’t want it again.

      3. A year ago last week, I was sitting in the busy departure lounge of Stansted airport when a bloke came and sat next to me. No sooner had he sat down when he started coughing and made no attempt to cover his mouth!

        I got up and walked away … too late! I was already in incubation mode and three days later I was feeling like shit warmed up! The symptoms lasted well into the New Year.

        ‘Flu? Covid-19? Who knows? Whatever it was I don’t want it again.

        2. Covid-19 does not exist. We have a particularly nasty and highly infectious flu virus. It doubtless mutates as do all flu viruses. We are particularly susceptible in Winter because flu viruses are seasonal.

          I had a nasty bout of flu about this time last year. We had gone to a pre-Christmas wine and cheese event at the village hall. We had a quiz and formed groups. Unfortunately for me the organiser had a dreadful cold and was coughing and sneezing as he planted himself next to me. Some people seem to wish to pass on their ailments to others.

          I remember sitting in an empty carriage on the service between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street. Sure enough a chap came into the carriage and instead of making himself comfortable in any of the other seats he made a beeline for me and sat next to me. I got up and left the carriage. It is the same idiocy.

        3. Covid-19 does not exist. We have a particularly nasty and highly infectious flu virus. It doubtless mutates as do all flu viruses. We are particularly susceptible in Winter because flu viruses are seasonal.

          I had a nasty bout of flu about this time last year. We had gone to a pre-Christmas wine and cheese event at the village hall. We had a quiz and formed groups. Unfortunately for me the organiser had a dreadful cold and was coughing and sneezing as he planted himself next to me. Some people seem to wish to pass on their ailments to others.

          I remember sitting in an empty carriage on the service between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street. Sure enough a chap came into the carriage and instead of making himself comfortable in any of the other seats he made a beeline for me and sat next to me. I got up and left the carriage. It is the same idiocy.

    5. Yet more proof that wearing masks makes no difference. Flu virus is spread either by contact with infected people or material and by sneezing where it will travel as aerosol up to 30 metres.

      So you could be standing at one end of a supermarket aisle and be infected by someone coughing and sneezing at the opposite end.

    6. I was in the supermarket correctly masked and passing a lady in the aisle, I had a destinct whiff of her perfume. If I can smell that then what use are masks?

      1. Ah, but since the masks prevent (apparently) you exuding virus, could you smell her halitosis? No? Then the masks must be effective!

      2. Ah, but since the masks prevent (apparently) you exuding virus, could you smell her halitosis? No? Then the masks must be effective!

    7. I was in the supermarket correctly masked and passing a lady in the aisle, I had a destinct whiff of her perfume. If I can smell that then what use are masks?

    8. So are you saying that people who go shopping catch the virus?

      It is amazing how many statistics are twisted to show one group or another being particularly susceptible to this bpvirus.

      1. The latest is some Spanish woman whose “research” showed that if you didn’t work from home, you were more at risk of catching the virus. Hmm, y e s. She also claimed that dog walking was a high risk activity because people could pick up coronavirus from dogs’ paws (if they let them jump over them when they got home). My thought was that they are getting desperate, but as one of my friends pointed out, “expect a load of abandoned dogs that had been acquired due to lockdown”.

    9. Going by our local Co-op, restrictions enforced in the queue outside the store, likewise in the queue for the checkout.
      In between? Business as usual, customers tripping over each other in the aisles.
      A complete farce.

    10. It’s the huge piles of dead supermarket workers piled in the freezers out the back that gave it away………….
      Oh wait…………….
      Jeez you couldn’t make it up,but they did

  96. For any star-gazers among you – and if you have (as we do) a crystal clear sky – there is the beautiful sight of Saturn and Jupiter (the brighter one) just to the right of the sliver of the moon; and Mars, high in the eastern sky.

    1. Yes, amazing Bill, we returned from a dog walk in the car , but our dog walk was just before dusk on a hill, and the sky looked amazing once darkness fell. We were lookingout for owls .

    2. Yes, amazing Bill, we returned from a dog walk in the car , but our dog walk was just before dusk on a hill, and the sky looked amazing once darkness fell. We were lookingout for owls .

    3. Saw them yesterday early evening, also Mars was lurking further to the east. Could hardly make any stars out, just the 3 planets and the moon. Cloudy tonight.

    4. Saw them yesterday early evening, also Mars was lurking further to the east. Could hardly make any stars out, just the 3 planets and the moon. Cloudy tonight.

    5. For those who enjoy observing the planets but who, like me, are not always sure about their identification, try the Sky Map app on your phone. It is remarkably interesting and informative.

        1. Let’s hope his op went well and he’s on the road to recovery. Maybe one of our twitterers knows more?

  97. Top comment on Lockdown Sceptics today:

    Janice21

    7 hours ago

    FACT: Hospitals have been struggling for years and years, its nothing new.

    FACT: People die sometimes, for all kinds of reasons, sometimes even new born babies die, as sad and tragic as it is.

    FACT: The virus is not deadly, most people don’t show any symptoms at
    all, and those that become ill recover, those that die are not dying
    solely from a virus, their immune systems are shattered from already
    existing health issues.

    FACT: If it was deadly, you wouldn’t need a test to see if you had it!

    FACT: we live in a sea of pathogens, germs, viruses, always have done
    always will do. Even the bubonic plague still exists, albeit laying
    dormant somewhere.

    FACT: Trying to control a virus is like trying to control the wind.

    FACT: You are been led by science fiction.

    FACT: Journalism is non existent in today’s media, anything that or
    anyone (regardless of their experience, expertise, and qualifications)
    who questions government narrative is censored and ridiculed.

    FACT: Without the relentless media FEAR peddling, life would be as normal.

    FACT: the testing is unreliable and far from accurate.

    FACT: new “cases” are not cases.

    FACT: the modelling that determines the numbers of new cases is as unreliable and inaccurate as the testing itself.

    FACT: viruses don’t comply with man made modelling and forecasts based on science fiction.

    FACT: The death figures are been greatly exaggerated read the BBC small print “deaths for ANY reason 28 days after testing +”

    FACT: The BBC, Ch4 “news”, SKY “news”, facebook, Twatter, Utube etc are despicable propaganda machines.

    FACT: This extreme censorship and control of what information you are
    allowed to see and not see is akin to fascism, it’s the exact opposite
    of freedom of speech and been unbiased, it is to journalism what Dr
    Shipman was to medicine. It’s akin to burning books.

    FACT: Masks do zilch in stopping the spread of sub microscopic viruses.

    FACT: Mask wearing is a symbol, an affirmation and acceptance of FEAR, a symbol of submission to authority.

    FACT: These lockdowns will and are doing far more damage than any virus, lockdown deaths.

    FACT: These lockdowns are an attack on the working class and an attack on what it means to be human.

    FACT: Lockdowns and undemocratic dystopian imposed restriction
    disproportionately affect the poor, the rich won’t suffer much impact.

    FACT: No government on planet earth gives a flying fuck about people dying!

    FACT: Billionaires and their big Corporations have been getting massive
    government welfare during this lockdown, TFL was recently given near on 2
    Billion to keep afloat! The peasants have been thrown a few crumbs, but
    wait while the furlough system and rent, mortgage holidays cease. We
    will see mass unemployment and mass poverty, which in itself will do far
    more damage than any virus.

    FACT: Been compliant with this sinister agenda will leave a long lasting
    and long damaging legacy to your children, you should be ashamed!

    FACT: If a BBC Shill announced that government advisors say the virus
    can’t operate below a metre and people should crawl about on their hands
    and knees, you would see people outside crawling about on their hands
    and knees.

    FACT: People would happily march into concentration camps if they
    thought it would save them from a “deadly” virus which kills a small
    percentage of the population.

    FACT: People are begging for more restrictions, begging for more
    damaging lockdowns, and calling for those who don’t comply to be
    punished more severely. Snitching on their neighbours because they had
    one more visitor than “allowed”

    Maybe people are destined to become fearful, timid, compliant,
    submissive, unthinking, cattle like sheep ready to serve their masters
    and believe any shite that they are told? Maybe people are not worth
    saving? I don’t know why I waste my time trying to make people think for
    themselves and question more?

    68

    Reply

    3. “FACT: People are begging for more restrictions,…”

      Who are these people? Where are they?
      Breitbart loons who seem to lap up such nonsense???

      1. I’m guessing that you haven’t noticed any of the stories about people snitching on their neighbours, nor observed calls for people to be forced to stay at home, nor calls for compulsory vaccinations.

        If there is anything more restrictive than telling people that they need a certificate of vaccination and/or social credits, please share it with us so we know what to object to.

        1. On our road, it’s only the old biddy across the way who turned out to clap the NHS once a week we’re worried about.
          The rest of us are getting on with life as best we we can.

          ETA: No problems so far.

          2. Nobody clapped round here. That could be because all our front doors face away from the road so virtue signalling was pointless.

      3. How do you know they are Breitbart loons, could they possibly be Guardian loons???
        Just asking…

    5. Over 250,000 in the US have died with this harmless virus cited as the cause. Nowhere near cancer or heart attack numbers but still significant.

      In fact this virus appears to present in two different ways, harmless to many but the fact remains that for a select few, the virus is deadly.

      Ut don’t let that get in the way of a good denial.

      1. It is dangerous for the very elderly, and those with compromised immune systems, but seems fairly harmless to 99% of people.

      2. Of that 250,000, how many would have died within a few months anyway, without it?

        At worst it’s a minor nudge, it might even have saved many of those who died quickly from prolonged suffering, a merciful release.

        You are helping the panic merchants with that kind of statement. It’s not a matter of denial it’s a matter of lack of understanding on the part of those blaming the virus out of all proportion to the reality.

        1. Well we all die eventually, so maybe we shouldn’t take any precautions to save (prolong) life. The fact is that the number of people who’ve died in the UK is about 15% higher than normal and that’s significant enough to conclude that something is going on. Of course, all of your stats are based on the situation after a whole raft of measures aimed at stopping the spread, something you repeatedly fail to acknowledge.

          2. Deaths had been rising by a tiny % for a few years, after a steady decline. There have been 15% more deaths this year. But hey ignore that and focus on the 1.1% rise the previous year.

          5. Numbers of deaths per 100,000 had been falling for years. It was starting to rise back to “normal” levels.

            That means there was effectively a huge stockpile of very elderly and ill people who had passed what would have been their normal life-expectancy.

            Average age of death of Covid patients exceeds normal life expectancies which suggests that the main cohort is those people.

            Add to that the idiocy of the Government and the NHS in pushing thousands of ill patients into confined spaces where if the disease was there or they were bringing it in, it would almost guarantee that most of those elderly and infirm would get it.

          6. The fall in deaths per 100k and the recent rise are due to lots of reasons (the left blame austerity) such as the large rise in the overall population due to immigration (and immigrants’ children) which brought average age down in the early 2000s.

            Covid is mainly killing older people and whilst it’s true that these people have already exceeded average life expectancy, if you make it to say 80, your remaining life expectancy is something like 85.

            I agree re discharges into care homes.

          7. Agree re the getting to 80 gives a better chance of hitting 85.

            The thing about the average age of Covid related deaths is that even that has been pulled down by the younger cohort of deaths where they had serious underlying problems that may or may not have killed them this year.

            Remove all those under, say 70 the old biblical alloted span, and I suspect that the average age of those remaining will be nearer 90 than 85. Remove all those dying below average life expectancy and the average of the rest will likely be over 90.

            Yes, Covid is dangerous, but nothing like as dangerous as we are being scared into believing.

      3. Yesterday I saw a news report of a patient in hospital suffering with Covid.
        To be honest, my thoughts were this patient sadly fitted the profile of the vast majority of sufferers, elderly and in this instance verging on obese, but that will not be taken too much into account as far as the MSM reporting is concerned.
        Trust takes forever to be built and can be lost in an instant, people see false graphs presented by Johnson and will now doubt anything he says. Him and his cronies are electoral toast, especially when the repercussions hit home.

      1. Let’s wipe out China, Grizz. That’s 1.4 billion gone. Where next? Africa has 1.2 billion.

          2. Yes, I’ve only been to India once, but I was disappointed by the lack of recognisable curry!

          3. It is funny how one associates a food with location.
            I don’t know why, but when Mrs VVOF and I spent a week in New York I always looked for Baked Beans on the menus.
            I would not have chosen them even if they were a choice available to me, but I still looked for them.
            As Sting said “An Englishman in New York”

          4. Indeed. Rotting dog flesh doesn’t taste so nice without a dash of curry powder – or so they say in Bradford.

          2. If the re-wilders get their way, together with the tree-planters, releasers of beavers, wolves etc then there will be mass genocide.

            Looking at the future plans for the UK countryside we’ll be feeding 10% of our populations, instead of the 50% we feed at present.

    7. Ndovu, plenty of facts but one is missing. That fact is that Johnson and his cabal of reprobates have gone so far down the road towards their globalist revolution that they must now see it through to the end. There can be no backtracking as they have burnt their boats in the globalists’ cause. Politically they are dead men walking and they are now forever unelectable in a free country. Who in their right mind would even consider voting for such people, let alone actually do it? What will they have to offer? Nothing.

      They will have to continue and take away our freedoms, including the right to free and fair elections because if we retain those freedoms the people pushing this agenda are done for. Expect more lockdowns, more restrictions, harsher penalties and compulsory vaccination. The populace have to be cowed until they are prepared to take whatever this shower offers them and then be forever grateful for small mercies. So glad I spoilt my ballot last year.

      1. Free and fair elections, soon to be just a memory. You can see our future being laid out today on the other side of the pond.
        It is sad to say but some have such a hatred for Trump and his supporters that it blinds them to what is really happening over there, the destruction of democracy. President Carter led a nonpartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform in 2005 which warned of the dangers now being realised.
        If Johnson and his government wanted to strengthen democracy in the UK then postal voting would only be permitted for exceptional reasons, not what we have now, wide open to potential fraud.
        In fairness, we have had a Conservative (yeh right) led government for the past 10 years, none of Johnson’s predecessors felt the need to protect us from fraud.

    9. I see a pang of conscience has sprung from the NHS, as it spend even more money on telly ads, telling the masses that they should seek treatment for lumps and bumps that might be cancerous.

  98. Never mind reaching a ‘leadership position’ in EV battery design and manufacturing…it would be good if we just had some involvement in the industry. Further evidence that successive governments are really good at something. It’s called short-termism – or perhaps in this case, no-termism.

    From the Tellygraff:

    Britain is already losing out in the race to build an electric vehicle supply chain against European rivals, experts have warned.

    The Nordics, Germany and France have all stolen a march on the UK in building factories to deliver lithium ion batteries – the primary component powering the switch to an electrified vehicle fleet.

    Simon Moores, managing director of Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, said the EU, the USA and China have all made plans for lithium-based “mega projects”.

    “The UK is yet to attract a tier one lithium ion battery producer – the likes of LG Chem, CATL, Panasonic, or a Tesla, to build new domestically or begin construction on even one battery megafactory,” Mr Moores said.

    “This is a leadership position that the UK has failed to build upon despite hosting EV battery manufacturing in Sunderland for the Nissan LEAF since 2014 – the first automaker outside of China to understand the importance of in-house production.

    Since 2015, the pipeline of so-called gigafactories has surged from three to 175 globally. In 2020 alone, China has announced 38 plants, Europe has announced two, the US three. The UK has yet to announce any.

    Over the next decade, Germany’s annual output is expected to reach 317 gigawatt hours, which is the equivalent of 5.76m vehicles. Battery output in Sweden is also expected to dramatically outpace the UK with 40 gigawatt hours of annual production expected by 2030.

    The UK by comparison is expected to amount to eight gigawatt hours of output by the end of the decade, which is the equivalent of 1.45pc of Europe’s expected capacity.

    Germany’s BMW and VW have both invested into Sweden’s NorthVolt, which has designs on taking a quarter of the European battery market within the next 10 years.

    Mr Moores said that it is not too late for the UK, but the Government must realise that the global battery arms race is no longer a secret.

    “The second act is about speed, scale and quality and building a rock solid base for a 21st century lithium ion economy in the UK, the enabling technology of any green industrial revolution,” he said.

    Benchmark has also warned that the UK does not have the volume of raw materials domestically to fuel a homegrown EV industry.

    The research group said that Britain will need to strike partnerships with the likes of Canada, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, to supply at least 75pc of the country’s demand.

    Andy Palmer, the former chief executive of Aston Martin who joined Slovakian EV firm InoBat last month, said that while he applauded the Government’s new plan, Europe had the advantage currently.

    He said: “This is in part due to the benefit of its supply chain, but mainly because Europe is already supporting and investing in pioneering battery technology.

    “If the UK can develop its own battery chemistries, then we can certainly become a leader in EV production in the near future. I believe this will offer the key to saving Britain’s car industry from decline.”

    The warnings come after the Prime Minister unveiled his ambition to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. Mr Johnson stated that £4bn of investment would be provided to speed up Britain’s move to an electric fleet.

    Electric vehicles form part of the Government’s 10-point plan to reduce Britain’s carbon footprint, which also includes a £1.3bn commitment to EV charging points.

    BTL:

    Colin Reed
    19 Nov 2020 2:09PM
    The UK has a technically incompetent government, led by the worse cabinet in living memory.

    They are advised by experts who appear to be part of an idiots circus.

    Then, the MSM, who seem to be catering to the snowflakes and green brigade, lack the ability to string together anything resembling commonsense.

    I should weep, but I have better things to do.

    Simon Davidson
    19 Nov 2020 1:51PM
    Where is all the copper required for these motors coming from. The last spike in demand caused by the Chinese caused prices to triple within a few months. There is only a finite supply and while it will be recycled and reused, there is no possibility of supplying the copper required in the short term.

    Bozidar Zabavnik
    19 Nov 2020 1:42PM
    We haven’t even gone through LPG fuelling. Sometimes I despair of our government whatever hue because they have no idea about technological development and how the process occurs. However it only occurs if you have a manufacturing base.

  100. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/19/many-could-immune-covid-despite-never-having-infected-study/

    Well, well, well. I wonder if these people are also those ‘testing positive’ when they have a coronavirus family common cold as well? 25% of 67M people is a BIG number. And that’s probably not including children who will likely have a strong immunse system that can (for almost all cases) fight of full blown COVID-19 with ease and have almost zero symptoms.

    1. The evidence is that the PCR test is imperfect unless carried out in a laboratory setting by trained clinical technicians. The test cannot distinguish between the supposed Covid and trace fragments from previous coronavirus infections such as last year’s flu.

      The test cannot detect whether you are infectious. This can only be done in a laboratory under controlled conditions.

      Given the evidence it would be sensible to cease the testing altogether. Those who develop symptoms should be encouraged to report to the NHS and seek hospital treatment. Regrettably our government in committing billions to this virus, money funded by banks, the idiot Johnson has promised to enact all of this Covid nonsense as a condition of the loans.

      We are well and truly stuffed by Bilderbergers, JP Morgan and the Rothchilds and other major bankers plus Soros and Gates but principally by Fataturk himself who has taken the money.

      The pattern of lockdowns and massive government borrowings from the IMF and World Bank is repeated in other countries being led by the globalist agenda. Without implementation of mad Covid restrictions, the concomitant destruction of SME’s and the demoralisation of the people through fears over health, the loans to fund this nonsense would not be forthcoming.

      When the country is finally broke the bankers and large corporations will snaffle anything left at bargain basement prices. That was the plan all along and now a lot of us can see it.

      1. Even the Daily Mail readers have seen through the latest statistics from the ONS. People are beginning to wake up.

  101. 326557+ up ticks,
    🎵
    Manipulation that’s the name of the game, there is none finer in the treachery game than the “in name only” tory party.

    breitbart,
    BORIS GOVT MAY LET BRITS HAVE FIVE DAYS FOR CHRISTMAS – AT COST OF ANOTHER LOCKDOWN.

    1. A merry Christmas could mean you bury your family in January’:
      Professor Gabriel Scally, an expert in public health at Bristol University, warned there was no point lifting restrictions for five days in December only to bury family and relations in January and February.
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk…

      1. 326557+ up ticks,
        Evening PT,
        Did he say whether they had to be dead or not, it does make a difference.

    2. While the rest of us are enjoying Christmas with our families as best we can, we might might spare a thought for you snowflakes self-confining. Whining to each other that you’re not allowed outside your homes 🙂

    3. I wonder if a lockdown in January is to quell any disturbances at the end of the transition period on 31/12/2020. An excuse to have the police and military on the streets to keep us all quiet and submissive.

      1. 326557+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        In my mind a great deal depends on the outcome of the peoples unwanted deal, but a must have
        regarding the politico’s.

        I believe the “deal” is the key under the mat.

        A great deal of chaff has been used I believe to divert from the fact that the “deal” has already been done ergo public displays of discontent could very well be on the cards.

        Another thing is the massive investment in cyber crime instead of regular army in regards to protecting the realm
        could be johnson is counting on brussels still, post exit.

      1. I find reading a good book helps me. Cup of tea and maybe a tart or two. Erm… I mean a Bakewell. Not the other sort. As nice as they can be……

        1. I will read a book (a biography of Charles I) when I go to bed. There’s no point in going to bed to toss and turn, to be honest. I don’t normally drink tea, but occasionally I’ll have a cup of camomile for its supposed calming qualities.

    2. I am here watchful as ever. Most of the snide comments denigrating me arrive when the bastards think I am either drunk or else asleep. I have not been drunk for at least forty years so they are no hopers in that regard.

      I did notice a few insults posted by Peddy the Prat earlier, under the radar as per usual and bothered myself to reply in kind but to be frank it is a waste of intelligence to impart any truth to people that full of themselves, as you will have discerned for yourself

    2. That is genuinely funny! But only because I wish he would!
      This Crown stuff is rather depressing – it’s unfair to treat living people like this. They have feelings, even if they’re Royals 🙂

  106. I’m off for good peeps, I have had enough of all this shonet from this self appointed pedant critic who appears to have no means of restraining himself, I don’t need this garbage in my life. I just thought i would let you all know before I leave.
    I am sorry to say Good bye. But you have all probably seen what this inexorable nonsense is capable of.

    peddytheviking Ready Eddy • a day ago
    You mean daughters-in-law, but I won’t make a fuss. 😉
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    Ready Eddy peddytheviking • a day ago
    And i believe you missed the apostrophe from daughters’
    Down vote, you’ve had it coming for a long time Mr Pullem ………. 🤗

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    peddytheviking Ready Eddy • a day ago
    & you wrote ‘i’ instead of ‘I’.

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    Ready Eddy peddytheviking • 10 hours ago
    Perhaps you need to have more of a longer lie down.
    Only capital letters are necessary at the beginning of a sentence.

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    peddytheviking Ready Eddy • 7 hours ago
    Perhaps you need to go back to school. ‘I’ is used for the English 1st person singular subject of a verb, not ‘i’.

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    Ready Eddy peddytheviking • 6 hours ago
    Perhaps you just need to back off, there are plenty of people whom on this site make what you seem to consider to be serious ‘mistakes’ and it doesn’t really matter or indeed effect anybody’s opinion or means of reply at all. But sadly never the less, at every given opportunity you can’t resist the desire for an unnecessary and very insignificant, unimportant confrontation. You seem to have set your self up be the equivalent of the effing school monitor. Get an effing life, you narrow minded trivial and over fastidious pratt. I will never apologise, so you can get stuffed.

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    peddytheviking Ready Eddy • 4 hours ago
    What a little charmer you are. No sense of fun 🙁

    Btw, it should be: …there are plenty of people whom who* on this site make…

    *Relative pronoun introducing a subordinate clause, takes the nominative case.

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    Ndovu Mod • 10 hours ago
    666 comments! That’s ominous……….

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    Geoff Graham Mod • 17 hours ago
    Good morning all – Thursday’s new page is here.

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    Ready Eddy Geoff Graham • 5 hours ago
    Dear Geoff,
    With a sad feeling I am sorry to have to inform you that after yet another confrontation with ‘the school bully’ AKA the over pedantic effing Viking.
    I am resigning from Nottlers, you can read what I have written to him as a result of his churlishness and continuous banging on about grammatical errors, he seems to think it’s his duty to pick on me, it’s happened far too often and now I’ve had enough. I don’t need this at this stage in my life. I am 74 I’ve have worked for over 54 years of my life without any problems in this respect what so ever. Thank you so much for everything you have done for everybody else who seems to enjoy this forum and it’s good bye from me. 😒
    Cheers, good luck and thank you, all the best.
    PE Aka Ready Eddy Omargourd and Eh Calmdown

    •

    1. I’ll be sorry to see you go.
      All the very best, and I hope you find somewhere that is as convivial as it normally is here.
      If you do happen to find that Utopia, let someone you trust know so that we can join you!
      };-))

      1. There’s Truth Revealed blog, but it’s more for serious debate.
        Breitbart is always good for a laugh.

    3. I for one very much appreciate your comments. I beg you to reconsider. We all get a bit worn down by smart arse comments but safer to ignore them as I can testify that some folk are like a dog with a bone if you react.

      I just take a week off and return in a better frame of mind after hurtful comments. May I suggest you do the same.

      1. I tend to catch up on the blogs/fora once a week, so I sit down fresh each time.
        It works for me.

    5. Eddy. I’m sorry – I’m in the middle of moving house, and I’m not spending much time on the site. I’m aware that things are getting somewhat out of hand lately, particularly in the evenings. I’m also aware that you have had previous issues with the pedant. It may interest you to know that, while he’s happy to dish it out, at the first hint of criticism, he appeals to a higher authority by email, since the moderators here are not to his taste. What he doesn’t realise is that his appeals go straight to my spam folder.

      Don’t go. I, for one, am much more interested in your posts, than what the pedant is having for breakfast.

      2. I’ll just add – I hardly ever comment here these days. Partly because I’m utterly pissed off with the news. But largely because there is a minority of posters (not mods), who think they can police everyone else’s comments. No names, but P** and JS* spring to mind. And it’s my bloody site!

        This is not a decision I would take lightly. I did that once, around 55 months ago. I happen to believe that for some (/many?), this site helps them retain at least a glimmer of sanity in these bizarre times.

        But it won’t (can’t) be here for ever. In the new normal*, we won’t be allowed to exist.

        *Ask Mr Schwab for details.

        2. Since the return of the (non) native, I’ve found this a much less pleasant site – especially with the back-up.

        3. If I may say so, you are an example to us all of temperance (not the anti-boozing mob from Shrewsbury) and a true gentleman.

          PS. I thought several of JSP’s comments very interesting and factual and was moved to upvote her several times. It would be nice to think that we can all rub along, disagreements or not.

        4. Please don’t take your ball away, Geoff. This site is unique. Good luck with the move…I have the same thing to face in the next few weeks and I can’t say I’m looking forward to it after 31 years here, but needs must and all that.

          1. Welcome to my world, Hugh. I’m downsizing from a 3-bed, 2-recep, detached property, to a one-bed retirement bungalow. It seems premature, since I’m only 26, but such is life.

            The move is largely done. Most of my old furniture is going to a local charity. The owner of a local high-end furniture store has offered transport and manpower, gratis, for the few large things I’m taking to the new place. Mainly the Parish photocopier, and a full-size organ console, which may dwarf the living room. It’s an unfinished project, but – since the CofE seems to believe that the future of the Church is Zoom, and I’ll no longer be living across the road from a church with an organ – it seems like a plan.

            I’m not about to pull the NoTTL plug. At times, I think I’ve created a monster, but I understand that the majority of those who post here value the site. Without wishing to take it over. So it will continue, at least until the Stasi take it down…

        5. Thank you Geoff. I have lurked here for much longer than I have contributed and, if my experience is anything to go by, I can tell you that what you provide here is much appreciated, not only by those who contribute but also by those who simply read the comments.
          I don’t block anybody but I just scroll quickly past those I don’t agree with or whose contributions I simply can’t be arsed to decode.
          Keep up the good work and best wishes with the house move. I know exactly how frustrating it can be!

          2. Happens at least once a day. Unfortunately. Still on the bright side i have a lot of pants and a washer/dryer.

      4. Best of luck with the move Geoff, it’s not easy at the best of times.
        I was chatting to him not long ago and told him a story about whale watching experience in New England. When he replied he spelt it wales. I didn’t make a fuss I simply pointed it out 12 hours later, it must have been a red rag to a bull. as you say he’s more than happy to dish it out.
        He rather reminds me of one of our old neighbours who we were told suffered from Asperger’s……especially when our apples fell over his fence and he use to pick them up throw them all over our garden. I cut the tree down in the end. And then less than a year later his female partner threw him out.

    6. I’m sorry you feel like that. There appears to have been a double act just lately of getting up people’s noses and I admit I have been tempted to go at times. Most of us just like to rub along. Perhaps if you take a break you’ll feel like coming back. Nottl does tend to be addictive.

    7. Please reconsider, Eddy. Unfortunately there is always one, and that is what the ‘block’ facility is for. Do please use it if it means you can stay.

    8. I hope you’ll be back Eddy – he picks on everyone so don’t tke it too personally – just ignore it.

      We all enjoy your posts and your company. See you soon i hope.

    10. Just think twice, take a break but do not let the prigs win, just ignore them. I have had it all my life as I am very bad at spelling.

    11. If you blog on this site
      You’ll oft say scheiße
      But getting your grammar corrected
      You’ll become that much wiser!
      🤔🃏

    13. You omitted to mention that you kicked it off the day before & it was all good-humoured, but you couldn’t keep up the levity.

      Ready Eddy
      6:13 a.m., Wednesday Nov. 18

      Ready Eddy wrote:

      You meant whales, but i wont mention it 😉 and no, I’ve only seen humpbacks leaping (breaching) out of the water off the coast of New England.
      The guy along side us on the boat was telling his young son about the Whales and suddenly one breached about 20 feet along side the boat and they guy shouted ” Holy shit” and everyone else laughed, including his young son.
      Wild, especially male goats, are extremely smelly as well.

      1. Bulls hite ! That’s your personal opinion nobody else seems to agree.
        I think I’ll just take the friendly advice i have received from many of the more down to earth amongst the Nottlers and block you. That’ll add up to 4 now. The last thing any one needs in these sad and desperate times is your continuous and rather sad, absurd, banal and aphoristic nonsense. Get a bloody life FFS !

    14. I will also miss you Eddy, but I will urge you not to go at all. We have all been told off for our grammatical errors but honestly life is too short to take much notice. It shouldn’t matter to you.

    15. You, Eddy, are one of a few decent people on this forum that keeps me coming back. There are far too many pretentious and unnecessarily annoying people on here, most of whom need to “get a life”. I’ll probably be joining you soon since all the fun is being squeezed out of the experience by a handful of jumped-up morons.

        1. If you leave, Geoff, I’ll get together a posse of decent fellow contributors to sniff you out and follow you! 😉

        2. Yeah. Maybe. She’d probably want a cracker too.

          We are not letting go of you Geoff.

          We do know who you are. We do know what you want. If you are looking
          for friendship, I can tell you we do too . Also what we do have are a
          very particular set of skills, skills we have acquired over a very long
          time. Skills that make us a dream for people like you. If you let
          us go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I
          will not pursue you. But if you don’t keep us close. We will find
          you, and we will kill you.

          Apologies to who ever wrote ‘ Taken’.

          :-I

      2. I replied to Poppiesmum have a look and thanks for all the support. All of you, i had no idea 🥰
        I don’t really want to be a ‘drama queen’ Grizz, but I get really pissed off with his exacting supercilious crap.
        I suspect also he speaks with the type of accent one can’t actually acquire accidently in the UK .
        There’s a town near were we live named Harpenden, I call it Harpingyar, a few of the members of wealthy Mid-Herts golf club were from there, it was difficult to understand what they were trying to say !! But i was a better golfer than most of them.

        1. Eddy – don’t let him grind you down or drive you away! He’s upset quite a few people lately and the rest of us want you to stay. We enjoy your tales of the golf course, the cupboards, the family and your previous life in Australia – you’ve lived and so what if you sometimes make grammattical errors? Maybe you didnn’t have the advantage of a good school. I see them but would not stoop to criticise you for that.
          It’s one thing picking up Rastus the English teacher – and he takes it in good heart. But please don’t let it drive you away again. Just use the block.

          1. I am humbled by the support i have received Thank you all so much……… “I’ll be bach” as Arnie said

        2. Hi, Eddy,

          You are not far from the mark with that suspicion. I’m half-convinced that he is suffering from an early-onset form of dementia. After all, what normal type of chap spends his every waking hour online nitpicking and fault-finding with others? [most of us have a laugh with each other but without malice].

          Anyone normal would get a hobby.

          Don’t forget: 99% of the decent contributors on here have always enjoyed your posts and look forward to reading them and joining in. I do for certain.

          1. I’m absolutely humbled by the support i have ad Grizz. I’ll be back deffo. But will stick to this picked up from the better tasting comment left overs.
            All the best to you. Did you watch the recent Scan Dram DNA ?

          2. I was actually late coming to DNA, Eddy. So far I’ve watched three episodes. I thought the initial premise was quite silly (a detective taking his baby with him on a working trip to Poland!!!) but it has grown quite intriguing since.

            Take care.

          3. I agree, but it’s interesting insight wise memories of the Film Philomena, and how it all pans out quite predictably. The new one set in Iceland is a bit grizzly 😎

          4. That’s the impression I got too. I shall record the Icelandic one on iPlayer for future watching.

    16. Oh, Eddy, please don’t go, I have always valued your comments, your political views and life experiences. You make such a valuable contribution to this blog. We will miss you and you will miss us, it is a symbiotic relationship (I think that’s what I mean) and we all need each other in these strange times even more, I don’t know what I’d do without this site – I know that I am not alone with my thoughts. Have a break and come back to us and just block someone who gives you a hard time. It is very satisfying to block them, people can chunter away and you will be sublimely indifferent to the slings and arrows. Do think about it.

      2. Hertslass collects emails from posters that want to speak to each other on a more personal level.

      3. Hi PPM, I just nipped in I was going to close my ‘account’ but I might just hover for a bit. I do like to experiences the chats that happen each day, with such polite and friendly people but……It seems many others are sick the the eyeballs of the pedant (and others of his ilk) and his absurd banal and aphoristic nonsense. As a dentist I can image him as the torture in the film Marathon Man. “Is it Szell” ? “Is it safe” ?
        My word he needs to get a life before it’s too late, but I’m not holding breath over that prospect.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzw1_2b-I7A
        Pass the link on just for a bit of fun 😉

        2. Hello Eddy – I think the person in question may well be lonely and possibly has an OCD problem which is manifested by the pedanticism. Any comment that people make in that arena says far more about them than ever it does about the person to whom they are making that comment. I have had my own problems with JSP (I left the blog for a couple of weeks) she made me feel a right old idiot. I blocked her on my return but every so often I am curious to see what she is up to! and I unblock her….. and block her again but all the time her comments shriek who she is and not the person with whom she is having the argument.

          Apart from that there is always interesting information on the blog – stuff about the vaccine today – which may be useful to you and yours. Forewarned is forearmed.

          Hover around for a while and come back when you are ready. Don’t burn bridges by deleting your account because you never know….. All the best, pm

          1. JSP She’s just simply horrible. She was so rude I blocked her a long time ago.
            I came a cross this quote it’s a Buddhist saying “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle of their own you know nothing about. Be kind to everyone.” One can only make the effort but when it’s spurned let them get on with it. In general It’s not fair to try and make a valid judgement on an unproven ‘hypothesis’. But during my life i have found that this seems to be a trait of the British character, if the supercilious think their might be something to exploit they will.
            Perhaps these people are looking for something, but have no idea of how to approach it or how to be friendly. I Guess that every event has a cause.
            talking which this is massively long winded and complicated but you can post this if you wish.
            http://philosophers-stone.info/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/The-scam-has-been-confirmed-Dsalud-November-2020.pdf

          2. Thanks Eddy, I will post this in the morning when more people will see it at the start of the day.

            It seems to be human nature to exploit the vulnerable. I think it is because they have low self-esteem, and it makes them feel good about themselves to trample on someone else. And here in the uk we have been divided and diced and sliced in so many ways – north v south, fat v thin, smokers v non-smokers, privately schooled v stated education, leavers v remainers, the ‘woke’ v the non-woke, left v right – the list is endless. We no longer seem to like each other. And not to mention ‘diversity’. And the class system which is still very much there. The old British system of divide and rule still lives. United we would stand but divided we certainly will fall.

            I am getting to the stage where our son would say ‘enough internet for today, mum!’ I am scaring myself to death with the things I read connected to our future (but I need to know…).

            All the best to you and your family, do return when you are ready, you will be missed by all. pm.

          3. I absolutely agree with everything you have said.
            It’s strange at the moment my mobile phone has stopped working, i have sent off for a new sim card to fit an iPhone our middle son has passed onto me. I feel lost with out being able to be in contact with my old friends and all of our family, we use WhatsApp and regularly live our current and ‘past lives’ on line. It’s a lot of fun and keeps us all smiling.

    17. Please come back when you feel the time is right! Don’t sweat the small stuff (people)!

          1. & how many has Garlands driven away without getting publicly slapped on the wrist? BT for one.

          2. As far as I’m aware, BT is still here. If you mean BJ, he was temporarily suspended, and chose to bugger off.

            Since I’m a moderator, I’ll leave it here. You wouldn’t have liked the next sentence.

        1. So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman), Peddy, that’s there’s only one effin’ “Schlaf”?!?!?

          :-))

          2. What I originally wrote was “Schlaffen Sie gut’ but amended it before posting by removing “en Sie” as I realised it was far too formal. Clearly, when it comes to German, “Ich bin ein Wurst sehr Plem-Plem”. (Or is it “ein sehr Plem-Plemer Wurst”?)

            :-))

          3. Then that should have been schlafen Sie gut, but as you say much too formal for us.

            Ich bin eine Wurst sehr plemplem, or, eine sehr plempleme Wurst. Wurst is feminine.

            Remember: “alles hat ein Ende, nur die Wurst hat zwei”.

          5. Drunk again? So, you want to ban my posts on cooking, ban my posts on languages. Go tell your wife she’s ignorant.

          6. You arrogant fool.

            I have no desire to ban your posts whether about what you had for breakfast, or what you had for lunch and what you had for supper. None of this interests me.

            These utterly banal facts are evidently interesting to a few others. So be it.

            Just leave me and other genuine posters alone and I would suggest you stop criticising genuine posters simply because you wish to demonstrate your supposed language skills with which you constantly seek to denigrate others.

            In short, get a life you pathetic loser.

          7. You arrogant fool.

            I have no desire to ban your posts whether about what you had for breakfast, or what you had for lunch and what you had for supper. None of this interests me.

            These utterly banal facts are evidently interesting to a few others. So be it.

            Just leave me and other genuine posters alone and I would suggest you stop criticising genuine posters simply because you wish to demonstrate your supposed language skills with which you constantly seek to denigrate others.

            In short, get a life you pathetic loser.

          12. But… but… but… don’t Americans translate Sausage as Wiener which is a masculine appendage, so how can the Germans say it’s feminine. Do they now consider themselves transgender?

            (A corny joke.)

          13. In that particular case, the -er suffix does not denote masculine gender, but is used to turn a place name into an invariable adjective.
            e.g. die Düsseldorfer Altstadt. Altstadt is feminine (die Stadt) so would take a feminine adjective – eine interessante Altstadt – an interesting old part of town. But if you want to refer to the old part of Düsseldorf, because D is a place-name, you use the ‘location’ ending – er.
            Another e.g. das Haus is neuter, ein altes Haus – an old house. If you want to say a Düsseldorf house, you say ein Düsseldorfer Haus, not ein Düsseldorfes Haus.
            So going back to your original example, die Wurst is feminine – eine dicke Wurst – a fat sausage, but a Viennese sausage is eine Wiener Wurst , because Wien is the name of a city.
            Hope that helps.
            Going off at a tangent, JFK’s famous gaff when he declared “Ich bin ein Berliner” he said “I am a doughnut”. In German you never use an article when referring to your nationality, citizenship, profession, rank etc. What he should have said was “Ich bin Berliner” – I am a citizen of Berlin. e,g, ich war Zahnarzt – I was a dentist, never “ich war ein Zahnarzt”.

          15. Here! creep,
            Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
            Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.

          17. The sonnets of darkness were among the wide variety of verse which I read in the watches of the night; over many nights. Sometimes reading about the “cliffs of fall” helps you to keep hanging on.

    3. I suppose they will have ready recruits, those who are used to sailing across the channel in flimsy boats with mobile phones ! A ready raghead army!

    3. Improperly dressed according to my military background, as are the Police Farce with their Rainbow hatbands, high-heels, lipstick and nail varnish. Bunch of poofters.

    1. Good morning Geoff,

      I expect the move to your replacement property will be a bit stressful .
      My best thoughts to you for that, shifting home isn’t an easy task.

      Just want to add that I think you are a brilliant captain of your ship, and am so relieved that you are able to control situations when they get out of hand .

      Thank you for everything , it means alot .

    2. Geoff,

      Sorry to put this onto you boss.

      A few of the late night dwellers are going beyond anything acceptable. There is no longer discussion just insults to those that do not share their extreme views. Something needs to be done and I need guidance with two of the apparently more popular contributors

      I have been at the point of slapping a temporary ban on Phil for some time but since insults are now directed at me, I am very reluctant to take a step that would see me being accused of abusing the mod position.

      Phizzee becomes very aggressive most evenings. If he sees something posted by Jennifersp, he immediately throws in insulting comments to stir up trouble and rouse the rabble to put down anything said. . I have tried being gentle, a few comments saying that he should back off on insults, that just receives insults back. This week I deleted one or two of his worst comments, I now have him posting snide put downs about my being a mod after every time that I post.

      Another culprit is corrimobile
      This was posted to me on Friday evening:
      Sorry but you have bought into a corrupt system. Your words are meaningless as a result.

      I would add : Do not try to denigrate me personally or any other posters on here who have seen through the corruption. We could eat you alive if you wish to pursue that path. This is not a threat but a promise.

      Such a comment to another poster would normally see the culprit ejected, it is unacceptable. I have deleted that comment.

      I thought that this was a conservative newsgroup, it has been taken over by voices that are so far right of normality.

      Richard

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