Thursday 21 October: Don’t blame the public for the sluggish rollout of booster vaccines

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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661 thoughts on “Thursday 21 October: Don’t blame the public for the sluggish rollout of booster vaccines”

        1. We need more of these things, not none. Our non-nuclear forces are not up to a real shooting match. We do not have strength in depth, or depth charges.

    2. The researchers, Swansea University and Queen’s University Belfast. Probably used YouGov to collect the info too. It must be true it was on the BBC.

  3. BBC Radio4 has just been reporting a leak of documents indicating that the UN is under pressure to water down its recommendations for action against climate change.

    Here’s a BBC link:

    A huge leak of documents seen by BBC News shows how countries are trying to change a crucial scientific report on how to tackle climate change.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58982445

    1. ‘Morning Angie. Perhaps the wheels are coming off Johnson’s bandwagon even before Con26 has started?

      1. I can’t help feeling that the royal family has backed the wrong horse here. I detect the lack of Philip’s iron strategy control. The rest are not as clever as they think they are.

        2. We can’t imagine that there is a place for a Royal Family in the New World Order.

          We always understood the New World order to be very socialist.

          ….but with great benefits for the Elite.

          1. I think we are seeing them making sure that there is a place for them at the top table. They may be shareholders in Vanguard, who knows?

    2. And no doubt the BBC thinks that the countries trying to water down the fraud are the villains!

    3. ‘morning Angie O’E, it looks from the excerpts shown by the BBC to be countries pushing back on rapid change – when it affects their economies. I am sure they will all nod along to the greentards dire warnings and then do what suits them best.

      Typical BBC had to try and spin the leaks as not anti climate change:

      “The comments from governments the BBC has read are overwhelmingly designed to be constructive and to improve the quality of the final report.”

      Utter bullsh1t!

      1. Morning hopon,

        BBC also reported that IndIa said they would be using coal for decades to come!

  4. 340396+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    As I see it the covid issue is fast losing traction the sides are in place flu
    season has started so any spike in numbers heavens forbid will be due to covid.

    The new scam has been triggered.

    We need a referendum on net zero to save Britain from the green blob
    As with membership of the EU, the political elite is imposing a revolution on the public without consent

    The COP that gathering,

    Taking place from 31 October to 12 November, Cop26 will be held at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC), which is located on the banks of the River Clyde. The summit has been billed as the “largest political gathering ever held in the UK”,

    The meeting of the dons.

    1. I heard it said earlier on the Farage replay that we now need to mask up to prevent us from getting the flu

      1. 340396+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        In my book farage is a rounderbout jumper a proven treachery merchant / manipulator.

        As I posted yesterday it would not surprise me if
        head coverings with large beaks were not hitting the market.

          1. 340396+ up ticks,
            B3,
            I do understand, personally I now treat him
            as any bbC announcer / rhetorical purveyors of treachery.

          2. Morning Bob3 -His interview with the Heat Pump manufacturer last night was a bit shallow. NF was pleased with the heat pump he has to heat his swimming pool. The Heat Pump manufacturer gave a practical view on HPs saying they needed to be designed for each house and installers needed to be trained additionally to carry out the internal work properly as well. He also said that not all houses were suitable for heat pumps.

    2. The workers who clean up the rubbish and run the public transport in Glasgow are going on strike, hotel room prices are going up and they are leaving the city for the rats. Just needs a terror attack to make it a memorable event.

      1. 340396+ up ticks,
        Morning N,
        Total agreement from me, meanwhile we
        have the abbot at the other end of the country seeking a policeman at the door of her surgery.

          1. 340394+ up ticks,
            N,
            She surprised me this morning whilst in the garage, had to break into a trot, as a bowel
            releaser she is tops.

        2. Yo ogga

          a policeman at the door of her surgery.

          From the Black Police Association, of course

          1. Good morning OLT

            Whaddya think of this ?

            Black police officers are to be fast-tracked into top jobs to overcome “stubbornly slow” recruitment, Priti Patel has announced.

            The Home Secretary said there was “so much more to do” to increase the number of senior black officers, with fewer than one in 20 ethnic minority chief officers, and none among the chief constables heading any of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

            Although Neil Basu, who is of Indian heritage, holds the equivalent rank of chief constable as the UK’s head of counter-terrorism policing, there has not been a black chief heading a force since Michael Fuller became the first, when he took charge of Kent Police in 2004.

            https://uk.news.yahoo.com/black-police-officers-fast-tracked-141410309.html

          3. Why not make Diane Abbopottomus head of the Metropolitan Police? ‘Cos it already has an idiot in charge.

          4. Hi T_B, from the 2011 census:

            “total population of England and Wales was 56.1 million

            86.0% of the population was White

            Asian ethnic groups made up the second largest percentage of the population (at 7.5%)

            Black ethnic groups (at 3.3%), Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups (at 2.2%) and Other ethnic groups (at 1.0%)

            people from the White British ethnic group made up the largest percentage of the population (at 80.5%), followed by Other White (4.4%) and Indian (2.5%)

            from 2001 to 2011, the percentage of the population of England and Wales that was White British decreased from 87.4% to 80.5%

            the Other White group saw the largest increase in their share of the population, from 2.6% to 4.4%

            percentage of the population from a Black African background doubled from 0.9% in 2001 to 1.8% in 2011”

            Priti should be told to pick the bl00dy right people for the job, not by ticking boxes.

          5. Give me an “M”, give me an “E”, give me an “R”, give me an “I”, give me a…Clonk.

    3. Yes. The streets of Glasgow will be closed week before the start of the conference. Closures are being put in place at this moment.

  7. Good morning, all. Rain and gales. Project Fear gathers pace, I see. Millions dead by Christmas.

    1. Tch tch Mr Thomas, millions will not die, due to the loving care lavished on an ungrateful electorate by this Conservative government, whom we don’t deserve. They will keep us safely in our homes, protected by the white knights of the big pharmacy companies, which came thundering over the rise to our rescue in 2021.

      Good morning – I suppose by the clock it is morning, though the amount of light is barely worth opening the shutters for.

    2. Chlorine itself is not a salt, it is a green/yellow gas with extreme electronegativity. Green – yellow – extremely negative? It should be administered to every woke MP and civil servant as a reminder of their intrinsic nature. Did I mention it is extremely unpleasant to work with too?

  9. Living under the great reset is starting to feel like how the native people must have felt after the Norman Invasion.
    The bio vaccine app will be the modern equivalent of the Domesday Book.

    1. Talking of which, Bob, we’ve had no census this year – I think the government are afraid of what it might reveal – even without all the illegals hiding in sheds and HMOs.

      1. The online census has now closed. Census Day was on Sunday 21 March 2021.

        If you still have a paper census questionnaire, fill it in as soon as you can and return it to FREEPOST, Census 2021.
        We (The government) will publish the initial Census 2021 findings one year after the census and the main releases two years after the census.

        That gives them two years to fiddle the results.

    2. I wonder, how long it will be, before your mobile phone provider/seller gives these tracking apps that are on your phone to Boris & Co

    3. Interesting parallel. That didn’t go too well for the common people either, especially in Yorkshire.

      1. The “Freedoms” that MPs allowed Boris to suspend for another 6 months without even bothering with a vote – absolute disgrace!

        1. From the ‘mood’ of the opposition one can draw the conclusion that they would like to inherit such powers. Deluded of course and Johnson will try to be as harsh as his fellow extreme leftists in the Labour party.

      2. NB. the ‘booster’ is now the key to the door behind which your freedoms have been hidden, not the key to keeping you healthy: not that it ever was designed for the latter but designed for the former. They lied and bullied at the start and they continue to do so. When will more people wake up to this false pandemic.
        NB. Javid has come out tough on “vaccinations” just a day or so since Gates met with Johnson. As I’ve stated before, I no longer believe in coincidences where this shower of renegades in government are involved.

  11. Shameful:

    SIR – That an 80-year-old man with significant health issues was made to travel nearly 600 miles during a pandemic to take part in something that could have been done via video beggars belief. That he then contracted Covid-19 and died as a result is tragic.

    It says much that Regimental Corporal Major Dennis Hutchings left his home in Cornwall and made the journey to Belfast, where he was on trial for an alleged offence committed 47 years ago (report, October 20). However, it says little for the system that put him in this position.

    Jonathan Mann
    Gunnislake, Cornwall

    SIR – It is a moral tragedy that any society should hound a veteran to death for something that occurred while he was serving his government so long ago, particularly after several inquiries, and with no new evidence.

    In focusing on a few security force cases, Northern Irish prosecutors are failing to provide justice to the families of the more than 2,100 victims of Provisional IRA violence (more than 70 per cent of Troubles casualties). The secret deals and “letters of comfort” behind the Good Friday Agreement effectively robbed them of this.

    Brigadier Roy Wilde (retd)
    Barford St Martin, Wiltshire

    1. “……… Northern Irish prosecutors”

      Wouldn’t persecutors be a more appropriate term?

    2. Make the country safe for us all. That is your job. It has always been your job. If you do that, then you will also be safe.

    3. No, don’t give them a gun. Have them forced to live with the immigrants.

      We have to, and we die as a consequence. Why should MPs be protected while they’re the ones causing the problem?

      1. How did they get away with it – and was there nothing Trump could do to make sure that the story was properly reported?

        Apparently the Harvest Moon in September is followed by the Hunter’s Moon in October. Maybe now is the time when Hunter Biden should be properly exposed?

    3. Good article, thank you. Certainly not the least astonishing aspect of last year’s mafia victory in the US elections.

  14. ‘Morning Peeps.

    This BTL comment caught my eye and, I suspect, will find favour among many Nottlrs:

    Olivia Wilde
    21 Oct 2021 7:10AM
    Michael Gove just the other day was surrounded by anti-vax protestors, being prodded and cajoled In the process whilst going about his business.

    Well, this Is just a reflection of how Inept and Ineffective our government and other affiliated agencies all are In enacting the law, with the Police Force now having been morphed Into the Police Service; a far too lenient judiciary, perpetually Interpreting and skewing the law In favour of the perpetrator, barely disguising their Left wing leanings In the process, with hardly a thought ever given to the victim and their families.

    The polices’ ridiculous antics, dancing around In high heels, knee bending, nail painting, rainbow cars etc., etc.

    Sorry Mr Gove, but what you experienced, although It was very unsavoury, was merely the consequences of your government’s perpetual caving Into pressure groups, anarchists and agitators.

    Lawlessness abounds these days because of Parliaments’ leniency towards criminal activity and your obsession with political correctness.

    The constant cowing to the bleeding heart, hand wringing Left wing element, scared rigid of offending any group, race or culture, thereby allowing havoc and mayhem to prevail, always to the continual detriment of the law abiding citizens who are perpetually Ignored, angered and frustrated to witness the now sorry state of our country on yours and your Ilk’s watch.

    You are now reaping what you have sown and you only have yourselves to blame.

    1. I think she is way off the mark. Protesters who support the WEF agenda seem to get a free ticket.
      But protesters against it (for example, the Dover protest against the invasion, where the protesters were swiftly arrested and charged with blocking a public highway) are usually dealt with harshly.
      I don’t know the details of the protest against Gove, but certainly anti-vaxxers are routinely made out to be cranks and bullies in all press coverage by the Mail, who are known to have been told not to portray them in a positive light.

    2. You’re right, but these people should know better. While the Left are nasty, bitter creatures who resort to their base instincts others should simply leave him alone. The way to control the political class is categorically NOT through violence or thuggery – as Chris Whitty was subjected to, not hostile interviews, but simply referism, recall and direct democracy.

  16. An unknown piece of history………sets the record straight

    Did you know????

    The Goldberg Brothers – The Inventors of the Automobile Air Conditioner.

    Here’s a little factoid for automotive buffs or just to dazzle your friends.

    The four Goldberg brothers, Lowell, Norman, Hiram, and Max, invented and developed the first automobile air-conditioner.

    On July 17, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97 degrees.

    The four brothers walked into old man Henry Ford’s office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that four gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the electric starter.

    Henry was curious and invited them into his office. They refused and instead asked that he come out to the parking lot to their car.

    They persuaded him to get into the car, which was about 130 degrees, turned on the air conditioner, and cooled the car off immediately.

    The old man got very excited and invited them back to the office, where he offered them $3 million for the patent.

    The brothers refused, saying they would settle for $2 million, but they wanted the recognition by having a label, ‘The Goldberg Air-Conditioner,’ on the dashboard of each car in which it was installed.

    Now old man Ford was more than just a little anti- Semitic, and there was no way he was going to put the Goldberg’s name on two million Fords.

    They haggled back and forth for about two hours and finally agreed on $4 million and that just their first names would be shown.

    And so, to this day, all Ford air conditioners show:

    Lo, Norm, Hi, and Max on the controls.

    I can hear your groans from here. Control yourself!!! A pal sent me this, and I was sucked in, too!

  17. The marvels of heat pumps = two comments from BTL on The Grimes:

    “A little fact about heat pumps is they are programmed to carry out a “sterilisation” cycle on your domestic hot water cylinder , heating it to over 60 c every night to kill bacteria. They are normally programmed to do this at 1 AM when there is virtually no demand for central heating as they can’t do both at the same time

    When the air temperature drops below 5 c heat pumps efficiency starts to decrease dramatically. When the air gets down to minus 2 c your 18KW heat pump (the most powerful available domestically) drops to 11KW of output. For all those home not in the city where the air remains warmer, millions of heat pumps will fire up at the same time, in winter all struggling and having to use more electric than you imaging.

    We have had a heat pump for 4 years on a detached 4 bed house, double glazed, insulated to the hilt in an East Anglian village and our conspiring to barely stay warm is 24,000KW a year. That adds up to a monumental electricity bill.”

    AND

    “We have one too. Our four bedroom house costs about £7k a year in electrical bills (before the current price rise) and we never get the inside temperature above 19 degrees despite double glazing and substantial insulation. We wear all our jumpers at once and budget like mad to pay the bill. Elderly relations refuse to come to stay….”

    2. “Elderly relations refuse to come to stay….”
      I thought that sounds good, but then realised that was us.

      2. Our elderly relative – the MIL who isn’t exactly elderly, being 62 – turns the thermostat up to 25’c every morning.

        While it turns, it doesn’t change the temperature. For the sake of sanity, if it’d encourage her to move out I’d set it even lower.

    3. ‘Morning Bill. Like most things advocated by our blathering PM, heat pumps should be avoided!

      2. They have turned the children’s game from Blind Man’s Buff to Blind Men’s Bluff and Johnson and his cronies have no idea where they are going so they just concentrate on deceit.

  19. Good morning all. Lovely moonset this morning in mid Wales.

    Trump to launch social network

    Shall we send him an invitation to nttl.blog ?

    2. No, no, a million times no Having known the Donald and his father face to face since he was a Democrat in his early New York days and exploiting the foibles of the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy code. He does not belong on any derivation of Nttl. He still might win in 2024 with our support.

    3. No, no, a million times no Having known the Donald and his father face to face since he was a Democrat in his early New York days and exploiting the foibles of the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy code. He does not belong on any derivation of Nttl. He still might win in 2024 with our support.

    4. Wait a moment. Hang on! We had a wonderful moonset up here in the Borders. How come you can see it from Wales, which is miles away?

  20. Get vaccine booster jab now to avoid return of Christmas restrictions, warns Sajid Javid
    Health Secretary raises prospect of winter restrictions unless pace of third dose rollout increases

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/20/get-booster-jab-now-avoid-return-christmas-restrictions-warns/

    BTL

    A good friend of ours who has had a stroke and is on medication for high blood pressure, is 75 years old and overweight has been strongly advised by his doctor NOT to have the jabs as they would probably kill him.

    I am sure he would like a medically unqualified politician to give him advice and threaten his liberty if he does not do as he is told.

    1. But, but – the spamhead slammer WANTS lotsa people to die – to take the pressure offf the wonderful NHS.

      1. There exists a large number of not bought and paid for experts who believe he will get his wish, ‘booster’ or not.

      2. They are supposed to kill themselves in an orderly fashion once the euthanasia law gets passed.

    2. The arrogance of the Health Minister is breathtaking. He, and the rest of the cabal, were not elected to become the arbiters of whether or not we continue to enjoy our innate freedoms.

    3. My advice to our beloved Queen is to avoid Cop26 and give her “Welcome” by Zoom. She shouldn’t be required to put herself at unnecessary risk to a large group of people with possible Covid spreaders amongst them.

  21. ‘Morning again.

    Excellent article by Alistair Heath:

    COMMENT
    We need a referendum on net zero to save Britain from the green blob

    As with membership of the EU, the political elite is imposing a revolution on the public without consent

    ALLISTER HEATH
    20 October 2021 • 9:30pm

    Does the blob never learn? Voters don’t like being treated like naughty children, let alone apathetic imbeciles, by technocrats convinced that they know best. Much of the electorate is now in a permanently defiant, irritable mood. It has grown allergic to stitch-ups by the ruling class across Westminster, the City, the arts and academia, and is repelled by attempts to impose a single political vision as a fait accompli, with no debate and no consultation. This applies as much to radical environmentalism and net zero, the groupthink du jour, as it does to Brexit, the NHS, overseas wars, crime or immigration.

    The universal franchise was hard-won. The electorate is deeply attached to its democratic rights, not just when it comes to form – elections being held, and results respected – but also in terms of ethos. It expects the great questions of the day to be carefully discussed, and for voters to have the ultimate choice between meaningfully different options. Decisions cannot be delegated to a self-anointed, conformist oligarchy.

    Voters hate it when, as with the EU, they were told by Labour, Tories and Lib Dems alike that ever-closer union was the best of all possible worlds, that the only acceptable debate was about the speed of integration, and that only a racist would disagree. Ordinary folks’ revenge, when it came, was devastating.

    It beggars belief, therefore, that a government of Brexiteers, in power only because they led a populist rebellion against another cross-party consensus, have forgotten this crucial lesson when it comes to net zero, and are seeking to enshrine a revolution without consulting the public. Yes, the vast majority, at least in wealthy nations, wants to improve the environment, reduce pollution, bolster biodiversity, treat animals better and prevent man-made catastrophes.

    But that is where the near-universal consensus ends: the details of how to proceed are explosively contentious, and require democratic assent to be legitimate. The parallel with Brexit is clear: the fact that voters all agreed that another European war must be avoided didn’t mean they all wanted to fuse their countries into a superstate.

    The Government has learnt the wrong lessons from Covid – in a genuine health or military emergency, the electorate temporarily gives its support to any government it believes is doing its best. Even in such cases, a minority will favour alternative solutions, such as a Swedish approach.

    Decarbonisation is entirely different to the pandemic, whether or not you judge that we face a climate emergency. The public won’t automatically rally around whatever the government proposes. Many, perhaps most, will hate much of it. Net zero involves long-term, hugely significant measures that could drastically modify lifestyles and give the state immense, permanent powers to socially engineer as it sees fit.

    Do you agree that all new petrol and diesel cars should be banned in just nine years’ time? Or that gas boilers should be replaced, at great cost, with heat pumps, a technology that doesn’t quite work yet? Are you willing to eat less meat and pay higher taxes? Do you disagree entirely, or accept some of these ideas but not others? Or would you prefer to take it more slowly given China’s reluctance to act?

    The shocking reality is that how you answer is irrelevant. The public isn’t being given a choice. The fact of, and speed, scale and method of decarbonisation have been decided: Tories, Labour and Lib Dems all agree on all the essentials. It doesn’t matter who wins the next election: a new orthodoxy rules supreme. There is no functioning democracy, no mechanism by which outcomes might change. This is a disgrace and extremely dangerous.

    One doesn’t have to disagree with everything the Government is planning to be concerned. I really like electric cars, though I can’t see how banning combustion engines so quickly in the absence of better, long-range batteries can work. Why not let capitalism continue to organically shift consumers over? It is great that Boris rejects the hair-shirt, neo-communist approach to greening Britain, and that he backs nuclear and hydrogen. But do I really trust a government that has waged war on the car, invented so-called low-traffic neighbourhoods and campaigned against Heathrow expansion not to revert to banning everything vaguely carbon-positive if it falls behind on its targets?

    Why is its nudge unit advocating a tax on meat and producers and retailers of “high-carbon” food? The inflammatory document, disowned by the Government but commissioned by the Department for Business, demonises business travel and seeks to reduce international tourism and restrict airport expansion – goodbye, capitalist freedom. Can the Government guarantee that it would never impose extreme restrictions, rationing on homes and business or even mini eco-lockdowns? Or use a punitive form of road pricing to drastically reduce mobility (as opposed to ensuring motorists pay appropriately for road usage)? Will the courts start striking down high-carbon housebuilding or farming?

    Net zero isn’t a technical issue: it is an inherently political question, one of the greatest choices we have ever been asked to make. In the sickening absence of disagreement between the parties, a massive, uncontrollable backlash is guaranteed, at least when the bills start to drop. The only question is who the new green-sceptic Nigel Farage will be, and the next Boris figure? What will Vote Leave II look like?

    Johnson should preempt this war, which could destroy the Tories, and call a referendum on net zero today. His obligation, in doing so, would be to explain in exhaustive, costed detail how he proposes to achieve the changes he so fervently believes in. The No side would present its case, holding Johnson to account, proposing alternatives, with the public taken through the pros and cons and trade-offs. The results should be legally binding, with MPs compelled to implement the verdict, and the question tightly defined. The Government will have its work cut out: the Swiss have just rejected plans to slash their own emissions and to slap higher taxes on fossil fuels.

    The green challenge is too important, its implications too dramatic, to be left to an establishment that has embraced net zero as if it were a new religion. The public must have the final say, and the only way this will happen is through another referendum.

    * * *

    Spot on, matey!

    1. There is no hope of a referendum. Government and political parties have learnt their lesson from the 2016 Brexit referendum. They will not want to chance another nasty shock.

      1. Why must there be a referendum for government to obey the public will? That’s not how democracy works.

        In a democracy we would have called the EU referendum. Not the state.
        Cameron wouldn’t have been able to force through the gay marriage bill.
        Boris wouldn’t have been allowed to pass his tax hikes.
        Brown wouldn’t have been able to pass Lisbon or the endless banking code fiddles.
        Mandelson (corrupt scum) wouldn’t have forced through the bought and paid for DCMA – now so easily ignored it’s laughable.

    2. Ah, it wants to ban air travel and road travel – but for us, not for them.

      There’s no interest in their being restricted, only us. The proles.

      It’s odd that Mr Heath thinks we’re a democracy. The irony that we have left one dictatorial incompetence only to be foisted into another – by our own blasted government elected specifically o enact our will – is so desperate to remove our choices for it’s own agenda.

      It stinks of malice. Deliberate, intentional, spite to punish us for denying big state it’s own way.

    3. “…a massive, uncontrollable backlash is guaranteed, at least when the bills start to drop rise.”
      Sorted.

  22. 340396+ up ticks,

    May one ask,
    When exactly did the Mafia obtain a political department ?

    Dt,
    Get vaccine booster jab now to avoid return of Christmas restrictions, warns Sajid Javid
    Health Secretary raises prospect of winter restrictions unless pace of third dose rollout increases

  23. It was Christmas in the lockdown
    No turkey or beer on tap
    Please put on your mobile
    And get the vaccine app.

  24. My newspaper says that there are 100,000 “new cases”.

    Where do these figures come from? No government would just pluck figures out of the air, would they? (sarc)

    1. What is this ‘My Newspaper’ that you are so very distressed and puffed up about, you pompous arse Rothermere?

      Tons of love, Beaverbroke

    2. They are plucked from the air to scare.

      I trust the figures as much as I trust the government.
      Fewer than 140,000 deaths from 8.3 million cases, since January 2020, ie under 2%.

      And I strongly suspect that the 140K figure includes a significant majority who died of old age and other co-morbidity.

      If the vaccines work, even though they don’t stop one getting the bug, the number of deaths should be very significantly lower than 2%.

      1. “Cases” is a meaningless term which doesn’t even mean these people were ill at all. The CFR is less than 1%.

        1. It’s a con-trick, pure and simple.
          We had a test yesterday, because we hope to get back to the UK soon and are visiting very elderly relatives; it was negative. The pharmacist who did it has so many very obvious problems that if she caught it she would almost certainly die.
          She conducts numerous tests daily and she commented that positive results were rising quite quickly where we live. Either she has a death wish or she believes the vaccine works or she thinks the risks are grossly exaggerated.

      2. Morning Sos,

        The veterans group that I am in contact with and coordinate , we meet up every 2 months for lunch , chatter and a raffle .. This months meeting was the first for 20 months .

        Sad to say I have lost 7 members in that length of time .. none of them went down with Covid . The were in their late eighties / early nineties .. and losing them has been a terrible loss, I have known them for nearly 20 years.

        Deteriorating health is really the unpalatable fact of life which will get us all eventually.

        1. We knew an old lady with lots of problems, in and out of hospital regularly.

          Double jabbed, very early in the roll out. On two of her later visits to hospital she still caught Covid and recovered. She eventually died of old age. Fortunately well after 28 days from her last infection, although I suspect that Covid was mentioned.

          I wonder how many of the 8.3mn cases are duplicates or even possibly more.

    3. There is a quiz programme late afternoon on BBC1 called Pointless, the contestants have to choose the correct answers probably chosen by a selection of 100 people.

      Moh and I believe figures are always plucked out of thin air .. because where on earth do they find these 100 people ever time .

      1. Possibly from the audience where it’s being filmed?
        When attending TV recordings there are numerous long breaks and it would be a good way of keeping the audience entertained during those breaks.

      2. They are the only 100 people in UK the world who will watch anything with assole armstrong in

        1. I completely disagree.

          He might not be everyone’s cup of tea on Pointless, but I’ve seen numerous programs he has presented and the thing I particularly like is that, unlike far too many presenters he concentrates on what he is presenting and it’s not all about him.

          1. He voices an excellent children’s animation about a large dog who childminds a group of diverse young animals, called the Squirrels! The programme is called Duggee, and you can now see what my life has been reduced to!!😱

          3. Too much banter on the show for my taste.
            If the retorts are not scripted (a big if) he’s quite witty at times.

          4. Yes they do go on a bit too much – and so do the contestants pontificating about which is going to be the lowest score. Armstrong has a good sense of humour – I like him on HIGNFY

    5. I was half-listening to BBC Breakfast this morning, and I thought I heard one of their ‘experts’ say that because figures for new cases are running at nearly 50,000 per day, that the true figure was probably double that – 100,000 – the rest being asymptomatic and untested cases. So the case for further restrictions now seems to be being argued on guesswork.

  25. Yesterday the Sultana and myself both received a letter of invitation to go for a ‘flu jag. It was sent by Mr Chris Faldon, Nurse Consultant (Health Protection) of Public Health Scotland, based in Edinburgh. The injection is to take place on a Saturday 2 weeks from now. We both have the same appointment time, precisely 10:12 am. We may be offered a Covid vaccination booster jag at the same time.
    There is a website address to which you can go to rearrange the appointment time. Or we could call the Vaccination Helpline on the number provided.
    As we are not going to get the ‘flu jag and have not had the Covid vaccination either, we attempted to cancel.
    The letter which is available in 16 other languages than English and Gaelic has a QR code that allows you to access these. (We do not have a QR reader.). The letter gave me a “unique user name” and I entered the “www.nhsinform.scot/flu” website. I discovered that I needed a password. To get the password I would have to register by providing all my personal details as well as using my nice new “unique user name”. I decided not to register.
    (There is a certain barminess to the whole thing, even at this point. The letter quoted my CHI number which is a unique code referring to me in the NHS system. Unique identification systems are being needlessly duplicated. Although, in practice, the NHS uses your date of birth and address and not your CHI number. Hey-Ho)
    I phoned the special Vaccination Helpline. These phone numbers are never answered by a human. A machine voice offers a choice of buttons to press. I stopped there. I don’t have a press button landline phone. I have a very glamorous vintage German telephone from the early 50s. It has a rotary dial. OK. So now I use my mobile phone. Although the call to 0800 is free there is an access charge, as far as I can make out.
    Once again I reach the machine voice offering “if you wish x, if you wish y, press button 1/2/3 etc”. I press the appropriate button. This takes me to the next level, where the machine voice offers me a choice of three buttons and “if you are calling for another reason, please hold”. I held. The same message was repeated, on and on, round and round. That was that. Life’s too short. I thought of writing a letter, Then I thought that we should not have to go to great effort and incur some expense because the NHS cannot get it right.
    The address where the injections will be administered is a Community Centre and I have been there a couple of times. It is a dump. Not a nice clean medical place at all. Moreover it is six miles away. No suggestion as to how we might get there. We are quite close to a bus route which runs every 3 or 4 hours, so if we had no car we could get there and back in day.
    Who will be administering the injections? Not our GP practice obviously. Soldiers? NHS Borders now has troops from 51st Infantry Brigade helping out.
    So, Mr Chris Faldon, Nurse Consultant (Health Protection), if you are reading this please note that we will not be turning up for the 10:12 am appointment on 6th November.

    1. Is the word ‘jag’ some kind of Scottish dialect unknown to me as they seem to say it on BBC Scotland – I thought my hearing was at fault

      1. The word “jag” is the Scottish version of “jab”. Or at any rate the East Coast version. Hence “jaggy thistles”.

        1. Thanks Horace, I can stop booting the TV now. I believe BBC Scotland comes from Aberdeen so I guess that’s why

      3. They definitely use it here in the Central belt, Alec! Good morning, and how are you feeling?

          1. Very, thank you! Have just found the twins in the dogs crate! It makes a change from the shower! 😳

          2. 12 years ago our 26 year old son crawled into the dog’s crate (to make us laugh); Poppie was pretty disgusted by this and stood their barking at him, looking around at us to mobilise the troops.

            We never bolted the entry to the crate, at precisely 10.20 pm she would nose the gate open and settle down for the night. Then she discovered our bed and the crate was history. Good morning, Sue (a late start for us).

          3. As a puppy we set Mongo’s bed downstairs. He would bring it up to our room, rinse repeat. One day, he got clever and decided if we would move his bed downstairs, then he’d bring us to him.

            How managed nearly a foot before I stopped him. Since then, his bed’s been where he wants it to be. Usually he sleeps in Junior’s room. If Mong’s a good barometer of the house generally. If things are ok, he farts and wags his tail, even huffs occasionally.

            If things are bad, he’ll whine and look morose, then fart.

            He did bark at the warqueen recently though. She was shouting at MiL and all of a sudden this wall rattling ‘woooof’ came out. The argument stopped.

    2. They are hoping you die of exhaustion Horace…..

      I asked the doctor’s receptionist for an app.
      She gave me a telephone app. the doctor would phone me at 10.30am.

      That was 6 months ago …………….I am still waiting!

        3. The more i see on TV and the more i read about the NHS the more firmly i have come to the conclusion that it is being deliberately wound down so as to become partly private health service. I have heard of many people who have taken the step to have operations by paying directly to private medicine. But how does that work there are no more surgeons and nurses out there they must have been recruited from the NHS and that is probably the real reason why people with out the financial means or health insurance are unable to have treatment.

    4. My advice would be to keep oneself and one’s details off their system (any system) wherever possible in the light of our current situation and political scene. They are not there to help us, that has become perfectly obvious. Anonymity is the way to go at the moment for the next few years, heads below the parapet except where strictly possible, low profiles. As my Mum would say ‘discretion is the better part of valour’.

  26. When about 90% of the British population have been jabbed, double jabbed or treble jabbed with a substance that does not stop them getting Covid 19, does not stop them passing it on if they do get it, and may even kill them if they are unlucky, old and in poor health to begin with then we must wonder at the success of the government at completely hoodwinking us – especially when they now say that death rates from Covid 19 are higher than ever.

    Who knows with this success at conning people they may even convince us to bankrupt ourselves, destroy our economy and freeze to death in trying to beat a hypothetical Armageddon of Man-Made Climate Change and Global Warming?

    1. Judging by the comments in the DM the government have been pretty successful, and the relentless negative portrayal of “anti-vaxxers” in the media as loutish bullies whose information comes from baseless facebook rumours is bearing fruit.

      1. The same type of comments seem to arrive in clusters in the DM, bb2. Those under the tab with the most clicked upon were fairly scathing of all that is happening, they have seen the truth and the scales have fallen from their eyes. So I think the flying monkeys had been sent out to counter this. And it simply isn’t true that when it says they are ‘not moderated’ that they are not – they are! Mine are not published when I know I am right over the target on a sensitive issue. (I think we’ve had this last conversation before, you and I…!)

        1. Oh definitely! I find it doesn’t do to include the words “fraud” or “scam” when posting about the religion of the CO2 Footprint.

        2. Moderation, Mum? #MeToo, I comment (rarely according to DM Non-moderators) under the pseudonym ‘Lord Rayne’ and I know, “They don’t like it up ’em.”

    2. I suspect the reason for the alleged increase in infection in the UK could well be in the communities where refusal for taking the needle was blatantly obvious and clearly rife.
      But if that is so it wont be reported by the MSM. Similar to most of the knife attacks and many other assaults in the UK, they tend only to describe the height of and clothing the attackers wore, but not who they might have been or what they actually look like.

      As far as Climate change is concerned it was made clear that Japan Saudi Arabia and Australia have major concerns about the banning of fossil fuels.
      Possibly (certainly) because the production of oil is what the whole of the middle east is founded and built on. Australia produces millions of tons of coal and other minerals it sells to China. And produces millions of cubic metres of off shore Gas which it sends to Japan in Huge sea born tankers.
      Since China and Australia have fallen out over beef production the Chinese have persuaded the governments of southern (the Amazon region) America to fell millions more trees in order to mass produce cattle, which is now being produced for the consumption of the Chinese. None of those countries mentioned ‘do Boris’ green’. Especially China. Before he forces people to freeze in their homes share family bathing, perhaps he needs to ban imports from China.

  27. Good morning, everyone. The Springer is on three legs after pulling a ligament. Walking is banned so we can sleep for a little longer.

    2. Morning DB

      Oh dear , cruciate ligament problems happen . We have had dogs who have had pulled / snapped ligaments , and have needed repairs , the op is quite straight forward.

    4. Poppie slept in until 10.00 am this. So did we. She raised her head, looked at me and then flopped it down again. She has always been a sleepyhead in the morning. I don’t know what we’d do if we had a dog that was rarin’ to go at 7.00 am. Even though I am an owl, I long to have the characteristics of the lark as I think, no, I know that the best part of the day is the early morning.

      1. Oscar got me up at 03.00 – and then, for good measure, he got me up again at 03.30! I told him I can go off dogs.

    5. Sorry to hear that, Delboy. Hope your non-Springer makes a swift recovery and is soon bouncing.

    1. It’s not Patel’s fault. She could pass an SI to tell the coast guard they are not to land gimmigrants here. She could have the Navy patrolling, using drones to destroy boats. She could deport the vermin who are here back to France. She could take France tocourt for failing it’s international obligation.

      Why doesn’t she?

      Because they want them here.

  29. How I pine for a TORY government: STEVEN GLOVER asks how a Conservative administration can preside over an uncosted, madcap eco-revolution, soaring taxes and an OAP soldier prosecuted to death.

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a real Tory government rather than the neo-Blairite confection that has been served up by Boris Johnson?

    A Tory government that sought to lower taxes rather than increasing them to their highest level for 70 years since Clement Attlee — a fine man but a committed socialist —was prime minister.

    A Tory government that wouldn’t allow an 80-year-old, chronically ill former soldier (I speak of Dennis Hutchings), who had loyally served Queen and country, to face charges in Northern Ireland of which he had been twice cleared. And there, far from his home in Cornwall, the poor man died of Covid.

    The old, sceptical Boris would have greeted such an assertion with protestations of incredulity, and doubtless an undertaking that, if such wildly unrealistic plans were ever fulfilled, he would eat his entire hat garnished with bacon.

    Already people who know about these things are speculating that buyers of old, poorly insulated houses may struggle to get a mortgage. The cost of a heat pump —which seems roughly to be at the same stage of development as was the internal combustion engine circa 1910 — will be devastating.

    As for the Government, it will be squeezing the already hard-pressed taxpayer to bankroll its elaborate schemes (which have nonetheless been dismissed already as inadequate by the voracious green lobby, as well as Labour spokesman Ed Miliband).

    If you don’t believe me, listen to the Treasury which, unlike Boris, knows enough about money to have serious reservations. It foresees a £37 billion black hole in its finances because of a loss of revenue from fuel duty.

    It also estimates that from 2026 the additional public and private sector capital investment required to decarbonise will amount to more than £50 billion a year. In the Treasury’s view, it is ‘uncertain’ how much of this increased investment will result in long-term GDP growth.

    With his broad-brush approach to finance, Mr Johnson is not interested in such boring details. At a press conference on Tuesday, billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he had agreed to match the Government’s investment of £400 million in a new green fund.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10113947/STEPHEN-GLOVER-eco-revolution-soaring-taxes-pine-Tory-government.html

    2. I have just opend my New Green Fund.

      Contact Mr Rashid or Prince Obingo Olottery O’Dearyme for my bank details, for you to transfer the money to me

    3. As usual the labour party leap blindly on to the convenience of any bandwagon with out any consideration or trying to understand the future implications.
      I’m rather hoping for a cold winter. But I strongly suspect our political classes do claim heating on their expenses.

    4. The ‘old, sceptical Boris’ is a character from fiction, no more real than Heathcliff, Squirrel Nutkin or Jemima Puddleduck.

      The last two of whom would be making a better job of running the country FYI.

  30. Not Good Moaning.
    Right …. Own Up. Who sent the torrential rain to Essex?
    We could lose our reputation as England’s driest county.

    3. The centre of Huntingdon was flooded on Tuesday night by the torrential downpours.
      Moi, I live high on a hill.

      1. How about a Festival of Diversity….?

        A celebration of individuals representing more than one national origin, color, religion, socioeconomic stratum, sexual orientation…

        1. A cutting-edge scientific analysis shows that a Briton from 10,000 years ago had dark brown skin and blue eyes.

          Researchers from London’s Natural History Museum extracted DNA from Cheddar Man, Britain’s oldest complete skeleton, which was discovered in 1903.

          A University College London team analysed the genome, and the results were used for a facial reconstruction.

          It underlines the fact that the lighter skin characteristic of modern Europeans is a relatively recent phenomenon.

          No prehistoric Briton of this age had previously had their genome analysed.

          As such, the analysis provides valuable new insights into the first people to resettle Britain after the last Ice Age.

          The analysis of Cheddar Man’s genome – the “blueprint” for a human, contained in the nuclei of our cells – will be published in a journal, and will also feature in the upcoming Channel 4 documentary The First Brit, Secrets Of The 10,000-year-old Man.

          ‘Cheddar George’ tweet on early Briton

          Cheddar Man’s remains had been unearthed 115 years ago in Gough’s Cave, located in Somerset’s Cheddar Gorge. Subsequent examination has shown that the man was short by today’s standards – about 5ft 5in – and probably died in his early 20s.

          Prof Chris Stringer, the museum’s research leader in human origins, said: “I’ve been studying the skeleton of Cheddar Man for about 40 years

          “So to come face-to-face with what this guy could have looked like – and that striking combination of the hair, the face, the eye colour and that dark skin: something a few years ago we couldn’t have imagined and yet that’s what the scientific data show.”

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42939192

          6. But, but…we evolved with paler skin to better cope with the lack of sunshine and produce enough vitamin D. It was progress.

          7. DNA denatures over time – except, apparently, for that part which encodes skin colour.

          8. I remember watching the programme ‘the experts’ were creaming their jeans over the possibility the cheddar man was from Africa.
            Unless he came over in a rubber boat or hitched a ride in a truck it would have taken a life time to get to southern England there would have very little food no vegetation, let alone walking across the ice fields that is now the channel.

    2. I wonder if Sir David was in favour of the celebration, I expect so.
      Through out our history we have been and seemingly still are Lion Led by effing donkeys.
      With the greatest respect to real donkeys who I think are honest and charming creatures except the one who crapped next to were I was standing in Mijas Pueblo taking photos of himself and his associates. Perhaps it had been done once too often 🤔 📸 Or he was a political figure on holiday.

    3. I was hoping for a few more suggestions from my esteemed NoTTlers..

      The fish are not taking the bait this morning…..

    4. How about people of a certain ethnicity, celebratory and collective facts and figures, hands up all those who have actually been to Africa, or would like to go on holiday to sub Saharan Africa.

  32. Morning all.
    I have always been reluctant to call the jabs ‘vaccines’, possibly because it seems they don’t actually work as vaccines normally do. Along with many people we know and saw my wife and I had the Flu jab’s (no reaction whatsoever) last Saturday morning as organised by our local NHS and low and behold my GP actually administered this. Wearing only a face mask and rolled up shirt sleeves and of course some hand sanitiser. Just shows you that they can do their job with out the palaver and in safety after all. But unless some one is willing to confirm that I will not have the same frightening reaction I have had to both the previous AZ jabs as in the return of long controlled atrial fibrillation and a lot of worry and a lot of discomfort. And because of the GP surgery being closed to patients, visits to A&E in order to try and stem the concern. I will not be taking the needle again and why should I ? I’ve already been ‘vaccinated’ twice.

  33. Gosh – it was cold at Fakenham market. Only 7ºC. Yesterday was 17ºC. Only two women in the supermarket who finished their loading and then – to their horror – discovered they had to pay.. Rummaged for wallet, purse then for card – not the first one, of course – then forget the pin ….. I managed not to say a word..

  34. Well, with the sun lighting the trees over the road a couple of hours ago, I decided it was time to do some work, so that’s another 10 bags of soil cleared from the verge and carried up the “garden” with 8 tipped and two put with the 5 left over from yesterday’s efforts.

    Relaxing with a mug of tea and then back up the garden to do a mix of mortar and set a few more stones in place on the latest wall.

      1. We had a brickie named Adrian on a job he got a bit fed up with when are you Gonna get that wall finished………….

    1. You need to be careful on line Bob so many people have been ripped off.
      A group of people sold their cars to an online company and the company went into ‘liquidation’ and gained over 700,000 pounds and the car owners received nothing.
      Cromford was on ‘Flog It’ the other day, with all the info regarding the Textile Mills and the owners.

    2. Winning battles is so embarrassing in an age when their main duty is escorting dinghies across the Channel.

      1. HMS Victory is being refiited, as I type, to be our only sea-going Flag ship

        No pollution producing engines, no Radars to emit bad vibes, no pollution from electric powerd devics

        No fridges, live cows will be taken,

        Cooking done over Log Fires

        etc

      2. At least Lé Froglé hierarchy are getting its own back for the battles they have lost, Agincourt and Crécy done and dusted, now for the more famous losses.

    3. A pile of imported french logs, a few litres of petrol and box of extra long matches at the foot of the Trafalgar square column. And a guest book.

    4. Earlier I spoke to a teacher friend of mine.
      I asked if the school was celebrating Trafalgar Day…..

      Silence …came the reply.

  37. OT ( tiny brag). I posted BTL in The Grimes yesterday – asking where all the extra electricity for heat pumps and electric cars is coming from.

    Many, many posters on that organ are rabid Remainiacs and climate change fanatics.* Most.

    I expected the usual ad hominem shyte. None. Just 175 upticks. So far. Just shows that there are lots of other sensible people around.

    * And Full Covidians.

    Edited

    1. Sensible people indeed Bill, but all being trodden on by our 8rse wipe POS collectively lying government.

  38. 340396+up ticks,

    Nigel Farage questioned why illegal migration has disappeared from mainstream media headlines, as over 800 illegal boat migrants were brought ashore.

    It is going to make it difficult for “nige” the next time he aides the tory (ino)
    party as in, marching up to the top of the hill will have to be given in 27 languages.

  40. COP26 (in partnership with Italy) starts in couple of days, one week before the official start. The full force of the police state will be swinging into action and all the chosen streets will be closed off. this is the biggest event of its kind ever to take place in the UK
    Here is a map of Glasgow. You will note that only the suburbs are left untouched. Everything, every place, that we think of as Glasgow is inside the circle of steel marked in red.
    https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/homenews/19656941.cop26-glasgows-clydeside-expressway-m8-junction-shut-week/
    https://www.heraldscotland.com/resources/images/13116717.png?display=1&htype=0&type=responsive-gallery

    1. I note that some ghastly little lickspittle in the Herald waffles on about COP being a fantastic accolade for the city. “I, for one, welcome our new globalist billionaire overlords.”

      1. The airport is going to be busy, is there enough room to park al the hundreds of executive jets ?
        And enough fuel to refill them after there long journeys.
        And who is going to be paying the bill ?

        1. Prestwick is owned by the Scottish government and is, as a result of their commercial acumen, entirely unused.

          1. Operation Gomorrah reprised. Only this time the damage created by these 1,000 planes cargo will be worse, by many times of magnitude, than what the RAF visited on Hamburg.

          3. Not too green Bill, I hope Boros steps in and bans them………well wishful thinking eh.

      2. Ignorance is, as the adage goes, bliss. When the ignorant wake up what a shock awaits them.

      1. Do you mean to imply “Buckie”, the fine tonic wine carefully hand-crafted by the monks of Buckfast Abbey? A tonic much enjoyed by health conscious Glaswegians.

        2. Sauchie…Sauchiehall Street.
          Buchie…Buchanan Street.
          Along with Argyll street,the 3 big shopping streets in Glasgow City centre.

    1. I tripped over that bluddy Brass Plate as well, Nelson, with just one arrm could not stop himself falling

      Victory was way ahead of its’ time with a fire main and electricity

    1. More than ten years ago a US retailer called Target was using algorithms to successfully detect which of its shoppers were pregnant, based on their purchasing patterns. The analyst was Andrew Pole.

    2. They need an area 500 times that size to hide all the bodies that various governments have created.

    3. A Blanket, a Bowl, and a Stick
      ( by A. Wyatt Mann)

      In the matter of racial comparisons
      The media shouts to the moon
      About all the historic achievements
      of the Redskin, Spic and the Coon

      Yet strangely when strolling museums
      The white mans creations stand thick
      but all we can find of those others
      is a blanket, a bowl and a stick

      No telephones, timeclocks or engines,
      No lights that go on with a flick.
      No airplanes or rockets or radios
      Just a blanket, a bowl and a stick

      Not one sioux indian submarine,
      No african ice cream to lick,
      not a single mexican x ray machine,
      it’s a blanket, a bowl and a stick

      So remember when historys the subject,
      and revisionists are up to their tricks,
      the evidence tells quite another tale
      of a blanket, a bowl and a stick

    1. Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, Grubb.

      That was a long time ago, funny how some things lodge in the brain 😊

        1. The last three letters of a previous car reg I had was ‘GLK’ – for some strange reason when I first saw it I thought “God Loves Kittens”. I never forgot it but got some funny looks when I muttered the phrase to myself when filling in visitor books or hotel registrations!

          2. I had one that was RVT – “rivet”. A company car I’d inherited it from a previous manager. It was bright red and black and had a spoiler.
            A magnet for any police patrol. Most of my previous cars were of modest appearance and I could bowl along at 85 without attracting any attention.

  48. 340394+ up ticks,

    Them there french can’t treat our trawermen as they are doing they should keep in mind what happened at five past six yesteryear.

    2. Her boyfriend said in a statement:

      “She’s not much to look at but she’s great fun to dance with!”

        1. Reminds me of a comment made to me by a stonemason draughtsman whilst ogling a tall Polish girl standing up at a drawing board in our office: “I am a bum man!”

  51. Queen is dragged in to French firearms row as far-right Macron rival Eric Zemmour posts picture of her holding a rifle after he sparked outrage by waving a gun at journalists and telling them to ‘back off’ at arms show D Fail Headlice

    He has committed the most evil crime you can possibly do in France – pointing a gun at a group of people who didn’t have a single white flag between them. They will live with the horror of that day for the rest of their lives.

  53. So it looks like the same old same old confidence trick is being rehashed from last year, Boris being dragged into doing something by fake science and the mainstream media campaigns against his will because he doesn’t believe in taking away freedoms and lockdowns, officially that is.
    But eventually he gives in from mounting pressure from hyped up Fergusonised doctored statistics.
    Job done

    3. My local rag is full of articles attempting to soften us up to accept lockdown for Christmas.

  55. Emma Raducanu urged to go back to Andrew Richardson as coach
    Tracy Austin says that, with so much else changing in Raducanu’s world, she needs familiarity or experience in her corner

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2021/10/21/emma-raducanu-urged-go-back-andrew-richardson-coach/

    BTL

    Remember Anna Kournikova?

    She was beautiful and attractive but the attention she got for her good looks distracted her from her tennis and she never fulfilled the promise she had as a teenager.

    There is a great danger that the same thing will happen to Emma Raducanu if she is distracted and does not focus on her extraordinary talent for tennis.

    John Inverdale had a point when he said that the French Wimbledon winner, Marion Bartoli, may not have looked like a fashion model but she had grit and clarity of vision and was not distracted from her game by the flattering attention of the media.

    Will Emma, the girl with such a lovely smile, succeed more as a media star or more as a tennis player? Success as a tennis player does not depend on being a media star – but being a media star will certainly depend on her continuing to be a successful tennis player.

    1. Yo mr t

      Mrs Murrel suffers the same problem with Scottish Pollyticks
      as does
      Mrs Mackerel In Germany

    1. A pictorial look at the scale of lies that Johnson and Co tell about

      Covid
      Net Zero
      Climate Changes
      Brexit
      etc

    2. All they have to do is wear a hijab and they will gain even more brownie points with their voters.

    4. Is wearing a gag for a debate a form cancel culture? Are they telling us that debate is bad?

      1. Social distancing (like Labour from the working class) is good apparently but a mass debate is bad for one’s health apparently….

    6. I thought the hairdressers had re-opened. So many of those blondes need their roots doing. I bet their collars and cuffs don’t match. :@)

      1. Way too much unconfined hair flopping around. It looks fine in an informal setting but not when there’s a whole group of shaggy heads together in the work place.

    7. Is not a White Woman, who wears a Black Mask commiting Racial Appropriation and of course the same in reverse

  60. This must be good news

    Brexit fishing row: France ready to block UK membership of €100bn EU research programme

    1. I seem to recall that bods at just one college at Cambridge University have won more Nobel Prizes than the whole of France. Agincourt!

      1. Indeed. Trinity College, the bulk of its wealth having been nicked from the Caaatholics (including Haggerstons – my middle name – look them up in Wiki) by the Great Fornicator, Henry VIII whose umpteen great-grandson was a contemporary of mine and none too swift.

          1. Picky-picky. Will you ever make a value-added contribution to this blog? Piss-orff you tiresome, tiresome irrelevant creature. Without wishing to portray myself as any sort of Mother Teresa, I came to visit you and wasted an hour on the day you were released from the loony-bin and you have been nothing other than utterly foul to Garlands and others ever since. As I left your house that day, I remarked to Garlands that I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised that neither of your sons had been in touch with you given how poisonous you were. She may not have heard me because I was spluttering with fury.

          4. I sure will.

            November 17th. Nice place in Olney. They like little doggies too so they put us in the stable block. :@(

          7. Hmm – pricey. Also far too many items on the menu – so they must have a freezer full of stuff or bought in boil in bag….

          8. Some yes, but i did research them before booking. Depending on what you order it is seasonal and locally grown.
            At one time i had to design menus so i know what i’m looking at.

          9. The best French resto that we (used to) go to – Le Beauvoir, in Bourges – ONLY has fresh stuff prepared that day. Never anything from the freezer etc.

            Sadly, I fear we’ll never go there again. It was a perfect place to stay on the first night of the journey back to Blighty from Laure.

          11. Ha! You didn’t hear about her treatment of me. But I’m not going to open all that up again.

  61. OT – ref my post about my BTL comment on The Grimes re heat pumps and electricity.

    Now 200 thumbs….

    2. The soft-lefty lib-demmy Tories who read the Times must be REALLY scared about the future of their cars and heating!

    3. I gave up on the Grimes yonks ago so I r4ally don’t know, or wont to know, what pleasure you get from having 200+ thumbs up your bum

      1. I am sorry you missed the point (as usual!)

        Most people who make comments below the line on The Grimes are far-left, swivel-eyed, foam-flecked remainers, climate-change fanatics and full Covidians. One might therefore conclude that they represent the actual readership.

        The fact that my (very sensible) comment attracted 200 like-minded people to give me an uptick (or a “thumbs up” – hence “thumb”) demonstrates that those who post are the nutters and not the other way round.

  62. Public Service Announcement:

    From previous comments I know one or two wouldn’t be seen dead in Sainsbury’s even without a face mask. However, those who have the fortitude to step over the threshold may be interested to learn that they have a buy six bottles of wine and get 25% off bringing the price for example of Wolf Blass to £4.50.
    ‘Every little helps!’

    1. Waitrose run a similar offer.

      I just used a £75 voucher for Naked wines. Mixed box of 12. The neighbour is getting them for Christmas. Only cost me £50 quid then when they were delivered i cancelled the subscription.

    2. When I had a look it didn’t cover fortified wines or champagne and the minimum price per bottle had to be £5. I can get perfectly drinkable Bordeaux for about £4.49 at Lidl and I’m fond of my port, sherry and champers.

        1. I got an internal e-mail headed, “Our path to Net Zero” and it prompted me to look at the infamous document.

    2. “24. We are committed to ending poverty in all its forms and dimensions”

      Agenda: Minus 5 AD?: ” The poor will always be with us”

      1. “This will be achieved by making everyone in the West poor, and then re-defining poverty.”

  66. “England cricketers soak their balls” – headline in this evening’s Grimes online.

    Hope they don’t tamper with them as well.

        2. I came out of a bar with a mate and we saw a dog licking its bawls, mate said I wish I could do that, I said you had better pet him first or he might bite you. With thanks to a USAF crew member at Ex Cold Flag debrief circa 1983.

  67. HAPPY HOUR – YUMMY……I LOVE IT!

    I can thoroughly recommend this product.
    I don’t usually go overboard about prepared meals especially from the Co-op but this
    desert is to die for.
    Although it can be heated in the microwave I chose the oven, 20minutes.

    Excellent served with ‘ Milky Bar’ white chocolate dessert.
    …or just add a sliced banana for extra energy.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c4b51af9ceb3068c95e499bb79bf2295760161086b1d4df1086740dcf030edbe.png

    2. Just watch out. Some of those ready meals are formulated for microwave ovens only.

      Co-op products aren’t that bad. I quite like their dessert range.

      I can’t be bothered to make puddings any more unless i have guests. And Waitrose sells Madagascar vanilla custard so no more making sauce Anglais for me.

      1. I can’t be arsed to make puddings …20 mins. in oven perfect.
        Good enough to serve to guests ( pretend you made it)…

        1. I inform all my guests that Rule 13 operates in Trier Villas

          If you like it, I made it

          If you don’t, it is shop bought

      1. Light a log fire in a pit

        Hammer an upright, with Y cleft at the top, into the ground at each end of pit

        take One Vegan, drive iron bar up through its’ backside and out through the mouth

        Place on Y clefts

        Rotate over fire until cooked

          1. Normally, there is not much meat on them.

            If they are so anti-meat, they should just slice it off their bodies

            How long before Onmivores are tarred with the same bruch as Slave traders, by the Woke Vegans

      2. Light a log fire in a pit

        Hammer an upright, with Y cleft at the top, into the ground at each end of pit

        take One Vegan, drive iron bar up through its’ backside and out through the mouth

        Place on Y clefts

        Rotate over fire until cooked

      1. Don’t think I have any. I have yet to see a vegan recipe that wasn’t improved by the addition of goose fat, parmesan or full fat dairy ice cream.

    3. Lubberly Jubberly, no more Organic food

      All vegetables will be grown only using Personmade Fertilsers, Honest No Cow/Porcine or Chicken Shit will be available
      Lots from the HoC though

      Where will we get La Cabbages from, to come to UK to pick the cabbages etc

      There will be no meadows left in Rural Ingerland

      Veggies need to be watered, which needs pumped water and powered systems Cows etc just go to the Trough, if they can move the MPs

      You get the plot?

      1. Good point. It’ll be a Big Agriculture nightmare. There was an article on TCW that was pretty scathing about Gates’ AGRA programme, pointing out that famine has increased since it became active in Africa.

  69. That’s me gone. An outing tomorrow – Cambridge. Fitzwilliam. Only downside – the MR has mentioned “shopping”, too….{:¬((

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – briefly.

      2. Tomorrow we are going back to the shop where Mrs Bleau bought a coat today so the numpty behind the till can remove the security tag that she deactivated but didn’t take off!

        1. That is so annoying! Has happened to me too. Both times, while living abroad, and I only discovered it after having left the UK.

        3. You can actually take it off with a pair of pliers. Happened to me a couple of months ago.

    1. It is a very real risk that this leaky vaccine will allow more dangerous variants of the virus to spread, and will end up being dangerous to those who haven’t had the latest jab.
      Mass jabbing with a leaky vaccine is about the stupidest thing they could do.

    2. Well, you know what they say about cheap lager (other brands are available, as well as Foster’s) – it’s like making love in a canoe.

      1. Another limerick remembered from my schooldays must hide behind a spoiler wall:

        When I saw what the young lass was doing
        I said: “Why squirm so when you’re screwing?”
        She replied, with a giggle
        “A bonk without wiggle
        Is only for screwing canoeing.”

      2. Another limerick remembered from my schooldays must hide behind a spoiler wall:

        When I saw what the young lass was doing
        I said: “Why squirm so when you’re screwing?”
        She replied, with a giggle
        “A bonk without wiggle
        Is only for screwing canoeing.”

    3. “10 year long laxative addiction”
      It’s a wonder she didn’t disappear up her own fundament. I might give that a miss, Plum.

  72. 340396+ up ticks,

    May one ask,
    One of the tory (ino) party members, would they trust the tory (ino)
    political overseers if one took an oath on the numbers of the daily death count of peoples dying of covid ?

    Bearing in mind the oath being on the koran

  73. Well,that’s Scotland into the final stages of the Twenty20 World cup.
    Can Ireland follow them at the weekend.?

    1. Two pleasant, thirty-something, District Nurses descended on on me in by flat at lunchtime on Tuesday.

      I got the booster jab (Pfizer – although my earlier jabs were AZ) and the ‘flu jab.

      No ill-effects other than mild muscular discomfort in my left shoulder yesterday …

      1. I haven’t been on the forum today because I spent last night and today at the hospital. For love or money the District Nurses here will not come out. They have been remonstrated with by both the oncology department and urology department of the Royal surrey to get their fingers out and see me. When I needed them urgently last night they said that it would be at least two hours and that even then I might have to call for an ambulance, so I might as well call an ambulance. So for the first time in my life, with great reluctance, I had to call 999. One of the men on the ambulance referred to our district nurses as “dangerous”. They don’t seem to be much interested in doing their job. My next door neighbour called them recently, her father-in-law had fallen and was unable to get up. Couldn’t be helped by his wife, to old. They turned up the next day, nine hours later. Would really like to know just who you report these imbeciles to and put in a formal complaint.

        1. Many years ago the ‘powers’ that be decided that District Nurses should be managed by Community Trusts with managerial input from GPs. As a consequence it was no longer acceptable for combined Acute and Community NHS Trusts to exist. As a result the once seamless nursing service between acute services and community nursing services (with a single Nurse management structure) was dislocated leading to a dogs breakfast when it comes to both admissions and discharges. The same thing happened to Physiotherapy and other paramedical services. That possibly explains why you suffered. How you go about complaining I regret I can’t advise.

          2. Our Cottage Hospital is now a housing development. I still look in there and expect to see the cottage hospital. Just as I expect to see fields elsewhere, instead of rabbit hutches.

        2. Many years ago the ‘powers’ that be decided that District Nurses should be managed by Community Trusts with managerial input from GPs. As a consequence it was no longer acceptable for combined Acute and Community NHS Trusts to exist. As a result the once seamless nursing service between acute services and community nursing services (with a single Nurse management structure) was dislocated leading to a dogs breakfast when it comes to both admissions and discharges. The same thing happened to Physiotherapy and other paramedical services. That possibly explains why you suffered. How you go about complaining I regret I can’t advise.

        3. I must say, I thought they were extinct. Last seen some time in the 1980s.

          Hope you are OK now. There was an article in the Mail, I think, about people being advised to call an ambulance when they should be seeing a nurse or a doctor because they can’t get appointments – but in your case, it does sound as though the urgency was justified!

          3. It was. I have a catheter, temporarily I hope! It was blocked for at least 5 hours before I realized what was going on. But those who have has radiology for prostate cancer will tell you that after the treatment your whole system down there is so confused that you often can’t tell what is going on, what is causing symptoms. Which is exactly what was happening to me before realizing that I was unable to pee!

          5. Actually I was given the news while I was at the hospital that I’m at “Gleason 1”, Gleason is a scaling system for prostate cancer. 8 is the worst so 1 means that I’m basically cancer free. Trouble is that the side effects of Radio therapy last a long time and I still have to take drugs for at least another 5 years.. But thank you for you commiserations, it’s kind of you.

            But I would say to any of the men on here. If you are having difficulty urinating go and ask for a prostate cancer test, I left it for a long while and just put up with difficulties and ended up at Gleason 8. At Gleason 8 the cancer is in danger of spreading to the rest of your system. So don’t mess around folks because symptoms are such that you may well not realize in how much danger you are. I was very, very fortunate to get away with it.

        4. So sorry to hear this, JR. But not surprised. My (and others of my acquaintance) experience of the RSCH leaves much to be desired. Much prefer Frimley Park, but I’ve moved closer to Guildford.

          That said, I had an interesting conversation with a RSCH surgeon on Tuesday re. the numbness in my right hand. My theory that I may have had an adverse reaction hot the 2nd AZ jab may well be correct,

        5. “… get their fingers out and see me” – err…With the risk of not being tasteful… Hope it went well, JR, in the end. Service (!) seems very variable – see my post about Llandough and Barry hospitals, as regards Mother.

          1. I read your comments. It seems that there are beacons of light, as it were in the NHS. Your story of the Welsh nurse illustrates that. Same with the Radiotherapy department at the Royal Surrey, excellent people that I have no negative comments to make at all. Even going to A & E was perfect. Because I’m in the highly vulnerable category, I was ushered in to a room of my own immediately, then shunted off to another for overnight observation. Everyone was unfailingly decent and kind. One nurse, Diana, was so kind that I would have married her on the spot if I had been able, she bowled me over! Not sure what her status was but she actually had her own office. At the very least she’s getting a Christmas card!

          2. It’s usually a system failing rather than defective people.
            As the saying goes, “There are no bad soldiers, only bad officers” also applies to the NHS – and any other organisation, too.

        6. Sorry to hear that. Hope you’re feeling better now. In the event of a fall, call 999. Mind you, they can take ages to arrive, but usually hours, rather than days.

          1. When I had my fall 3 weeks ago, I was told 40 minutes for the ambulance – & they were punctual.

  75. VERY LAST POST – SOME GOOD NEWS

    Morocco has banned flights to the UK because of the new plague…

  76. Today I’ve spent four hours, FOUR HOURS, jumping through all the hoops, tests, certificates etc etc et bloody cet, to ensure we can get to the UK this weekend.
    That’s probably the last time we’ll try to return unless the covheimstatspolizei have retired.

    3. Can’t be arsed, mate. Can’t be arsed. Too much trouble, not worth the effort – and uncertainty about getting home. The most dangerous aspect is governments, not viruses.

    4. Better hurry up with your visit, they’re already softening us up for more restrictions. “Doctors” are allegedly urging government to reintroduce the restrictions.

  78. Yesterday I was painting in the forest, and I discovered that dried leaves are as annoying as clouds to paint. Nothing about their shape makes any kind of sense! There is no easy shorthand to portray them.
    In the end, I did detailed studies of several leaves, sticks, small plants etc, and filled in the background with random brush strokes in different colours. It works better than it sounds.

          1. I can’t stand acrylics, though I sometimes use them for thin under layers, and I use gold acrylic paint. The golden rule is acrylics first, then oils. I had to use acrylics to touch up a print on paper, and they nearly drove me insane – no sooner have you mixed a colour, than it’s dried and gone solid! I know there is stuff you can buy to slow down the drying, but I don’t WANT to invest that much in these horrible things.

          2. You don’t have to invest a fortune; you can use clingfilm to delay drying. I use acrylics if I want to do impasto – it’s cheaper than oils.

    2. My post school days foray into the art world:…

      Having seen a programme on television earlier in the month about the Royal Academy and the rituals of inducting artists chosen by fellow academicians I had decided that I really ought to join their ranks. The question remained how and where to start my artistic endeavours. Picasso had already cornered the market in cubism, which as far as I knew, was merely balls to Picasso. I didn’t see the point of revisiting pointillism. The pointillists had already made their point. Every household in the country had at one time or another emulated Emin’s un-made bed. Banksey had cornered up-market graffiti on virtually every street corner in the land.
      Undeterred, a couple of weeks earlier I had visited my local art shop. They had just what I was looking for a 36-piece sketching kit complete with pencil sharpener and two erasers! I hadn’t seen such an abundance of pencils since primary school and even then I hadn’t been trusted with anything sharper than a HB pencil. But here in the box was a phalanx of pencils including a deadly 6H – I knew that with these imposing rods of graphite it I would be up for nomination in no time. But the best bit of all was the price – a real bargain at a penny under thirteen quid. It seemed a very reasonable price to pay for my prospective elevation to the Royal Academy.
      I knew that lying under a table back home was a proper sketchpad. Pad and pencils had made their way to the boat. Inspired by the quality of my kit and the stupendous view of the railway bridge spanning the Thames flanked by trees, and through its centre arch, the magnificent stone road bridge in the distance. The view was perfect. I was inspired. I knew I couldn’t go wrong.
      How wrong can one be? I think I once read that Michelangelo could draw a perfectly straight line freehand, or was it a perfect circle? I found out that it is very difficult drawing a straight line even with a ruler. Drawing the graceful curves of the bridge’s arches freehand was even more of a nightmare. The erasers are already wearing a bit thin. This was going to be more difficult than I first thought. You should try drawing a million bricks. Even using a very fine pencil the process becomes tiresome after a couple of minutes. I resorted to the bar of graphite. If Grayson Perry can be outrageous then damn it so can I.
      I persevered for an hour more when out of the blue a Dutch barge arrived and moored directly in front of me completely blocking my view. That put the kybosh on my first foray into becoming an acclaimed artist. Still most of my pencils were still intact and I hadn’t yet worn out my erasers completely. I made up my mind to find another suitable subject only next time it wouldn’t involve drawing bricks. In any case a pile of bricks had already been exhibited at the Tate.

      1. The only thing worse than painting is not painting…
        Actually, I would say a bridge is pretty challenging. We had one exercise on my non-pretentious foundation course where we stood on tables, and had to pick a floor tile and make four crosses on the paper that corresponded to the four corners of the floor tile. Sounds simple? Not if you are a perfectionist!

    2. Nah. I used to at the height of the Brexit battle, but I find I can’t be bothered anymore.

    3. No, gave it up years ago. It was frequently stuffed with lefties, despite frequent complaints about the absence of balance. Just one more example of the BBC’s motto:
      “We are never wrong”.

        1. Sister programme to the Antiques Roadshow where the old political has-beens and proto- has-beens are wheeled out and found to be valueless….

    4. No, sweetie x

      The format is flawed; the chosen are politically biased – and Fiona Bruce is useless as chairman.

    2. You are referring to this evening? He has been on before. Most likely it will be on You Tube later on tonight.

  82. I was looking for a film or some sport to watch on SKY via Nowtv when I scrolled down and passed one section that was labelled ‘KIDS’.
    A programme caught my eye as it seemed to be out of place;
    ‘COP26: In Your Hands’
    Had a look and it’s just one way traffic about how the world is doomed unless we Stop CO₂ emissions now! Kids from around the world explaining how their countries are screwed up.

    2. This stuff is mandated in the EU, to be included in the syllabus of every subject. In Germany, you can look up the syllabus, and it has references to the requirements, and one of the requirements is this EU diktat about the CO2 fraud.
      Of course, you just know that the Blob and the BBC will not be falling over themselves to remove this EU carp from British schools.

      1. The Mail gets more and more depressing. They have an article on today about how some horrible, criminal anti-vaxxers served a “notice” on saintly doctors and nurses in Our NHS that they were breaking the Nürnberg Code by giving the experimental vaccine without explaining to people that it’s experimental, or what the side effects can be.
        Most of the commenters did not seem to understand that the medics have actually broken the NC, and those that do, posted stuff like “they have technically broken it” and got downvoted even for saying that.

        There is nothing “technical” about it, they have broken the Code.
        People don’t seem to understand that the NC was put in place to protect us, and there is no honest or legitimate reason why any health service should break it.
        If the government’s not in jackboots giving nasty salutes, they seem to think the NC is not required!

        The brainwashing is depressing to see. What is the point of having protocols like the Nürnberg Code if they are thrown out the first time the government runs a scare campaign?
        The correct protocol should always be followed, so that people can make up their own minds about treatments, as the authors of the Code intended.

  84. Mother is settling in to the new horsepickle at Barry – a rehab unit. Called them today… the ward phone was answered at the first ring (!) by a nice Welsh nurse (!) who knew everything that was going on… total contrast to the previous chaos at Llandough.
    It was a real pleasure to talk to folk who are organised.’Which is the “real” NHS?? Control or chaos?

      1. :-))
        That’s a really kind thought, OLT, but according to the visitor rules I posted a day or so ago, it would be forbidden. Only the nearest carer can visit unless special permission is obtained – such as, end-of-life. Immediate relatives were not on the list – and you had to call & get permission in advance.

    1. I noticed, as I have no doubt you did too, that several M.Ps got on their high horse about the gallows erected outside their illustrious gossiping chamber. Instead of reflecting on what would make ordinary members of the public do that, they waffled on about outrages to democracy. As if they honestly thought they were guardians of that now murdered concept. The corner stone of Britain’s liberty, culture and uniqueness.

        1. I think in todays climate, the rise of such a person is impossible. He would be silenced before he got 6 inches off the ground.

  89. Quick visit peeps.

    Daughter and granddaughter went back to Dubai yesterday. On the way to LHR a week ago there were many empty seats she told us. Yesterday she said the plane was “rammed full of sun-starved Brits”!

  91. Evening, all. Been a much better day here, weather wise – sunny, if cold, and dry. Thank goodness!

    1. Sunny here and breezy too – washing dried and I did about three hours’ work in the garden too.

      1. I’m afraid I spent most of the day walking Oscar and riding the Connemara. The garden will have to wait (it’s mostly been put to bed anyway).

        2. We had some of the shrubbery hacked about a bit the other day – I did a bit more tidying up and filled three sacks with the bits.

          Glad you’re able to get out and about more now – do you take Oscar to the stables or leave him at home?

          1. I leave him at home. He seems to be okay (i e dry) for up to five hours. More than that and I come home to a real flood 🙂

  92. Apparently Keir Starmer wants 500,000 booster jabs a day. I think he’s right but it might make his arms a bit sore.

    Night night!

    2. Queer Starmer is just another ignorant political fool. He and his party are as dead in the water as Boris’s faux conservatives which are merely Labour-lite.

      These politicians are no more medical experts than the duff Ferguson mathematical (more like simple algebra) modeller and the behavioural scientists at SAGE who are faux scientists.

      Every accomplished epidemiologist and expert in immunology have been deliberately sidelined or ‘cancelled’ from committees and MSM.

    3. I am probably wrong, but I have thsi horrible feeling that the immunisation injections that we are being given/forced to take.
      may contain something that is either addictive, or fatal if you stop

      The second bit is easily covered up, you died of Covid.

      I have no doubt a further lockdown is coming, however, it will not cover any religious festivals, apart from those of Christianity

      1. The science behind your gut feeling, I think, is the possibility that worse variants will start circulating and won’t kill people because they’ve been vaccinated with a leaky vaccine. So the virus will become increasingly dangerous to the unvaccinated, or those who haven’t had the latest booster.
        The leaky vaccines / worse variants theory has been proved in chickens.
        There is also the ADE theory that at a certain point, taking more vaccines will be more dangerous than stopping.

        I think everyone just has to keep abreast of what’s really happening (as opposed to what’s reported in the Telegraph/Mail/Times/BBC), and make a decision based on their particular age/health circumstances as events develop.

      1. Years ago, I worked with a guy who had been a wheel-man. Wide, he was. Big lad. “Big John”, we called him

    2. Thanks for posting. Batten’s usual down to earth take on billionaires and the rest is very good.

    1. Goodnight.
      Got woken up by the DT and have ended up coming back downstairs for an hour or so.

Comments are closed.