Thursday 27 February: For one elderly couple there is less to fear from coronavirus than from future years in a home

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 blacklisted.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/27/lettersfor-one-elderly-couple-less-fear-coronavirus-future-years/

812 thoughts on “Thursday 27 February: For one elderly couple there is less to fear from coronavirus than from future years in a home”

    1. Good morning Peddy

      Raining here , dogs dashed into the garden for their usual, now drying one of them and the other dashed upstairs to climb under the duvet cover with Moh!

      One loud bellow from Moh , too late ;0)

      The electric bods will arrive later to remove and replace our telegraph pole , they have been working their way around the village .. I anticipate mud and more mud .. and no power for hours I expect.

        1. Tougher than Spartacus. He’s still snuggled under bed clothes and not even nagging for his breakfast!

    2. So you gave the baked beans a miss last night, Peddy, very sensible of you my old mucker! (Good morning, btw.)

    1. Yes, the BBC is in all-out Trump-bashing mode this morning, during my brief foray into what they laughingly call “news”. Quite frankly I thought his comment was sensible and realistic, in stark contrast to the British media for whom “killer virus”, “where is the PM” etc is the name of the game.

      Edit: ‘Morning, B3 (manners).

  4. I see the Left making a big fuss about Boris not standing in a flooded river in a sailor suit,
    The Left and the eco’s wanted all this re-wilding, now they have got it they want to deflect the blame onto others.

    1. Any excuse to attack him. Same as for Trump. Even if he died, they wouldn’t stop criticising and trying to get him on a legal point.
      Morning, Bob.

    2. So why doesn’t he stand in a river and bash the left by explaining about re-wilding ?

      Because Johnson is an eco loon himself !

    1. I’ll believe the figures only when the medical staff are no longer wearing Hazmat suits!

      Morning folks.

      4. The corona virus: These are the virus numbers that worry and soothe
        The health authorities are preparing for the new coronavirus to spread in
        Norway. Here’s what they know about who the virus is hit hardest, and how
        the outbreak has evolved.
        •
        The new coronavirus has spread from China to over 30 other
        countries. The fact that it has reached Norway , Italy and 12 other

        EU countries means that European health authorities are on the
        rise.
        Unrealistic horror scenario
        In Norway, the Institute of Public Health has conducted a new risk
        assessment where the risk of the virus when the country is
        considered high. The report states that in the worst case scenario,
        the virus can reach 70 percent of the population if nothing is done to
        prevent the infection.
        However, according to Frode Forland, director of the Department of
        Public Health, this is a theoretical calculation that is not
        realistic. The fact that so many are infected is a scenario where many
        people come to the country without being detected, where there are
        no infection control measures and no resilience in the population.
        – It is not a realistic scenario as we see developments today. It is
        more realistic to look at what has actually happened in China, where
        less than 1 percent is infected in Wuhan, and curves show that the
        epidemic is spreading in every province, says Forland.
        Direct: We are following the development of the new corona virus
        The spread of the new
        coronavirus
        February 25, 2020
        The circle indicates the number of cases detected. Colored land
        area shows that at least one case has been confirmed in the country.

        Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns
        Hopkins University / Aftenposten.
        Figures from the center of the outbreak, China, both worry
        and reassure.
        An analysis by the China Institute of Public Health based on 72,314
        infected shows that mortality is higher than with normal winter
        flu. Normal seasonal influenza has a mortality rate of 0.1–0.2 per
        cent. According to the analysis, it is 2.3 percent among the corona
        infected in China.
        – That’s a high number. But we know little about how many have
        been tested by all who have fallen ill. If data from known cases are
        entered, mortality is more likely to be below one percent. There is a
        lot of uncertainty, says Forland.
        But the analysis shows a clear trend: Mortality is many times higher
        for older people and those with other illnesses, such as diabetes,
        incurable cancer or heart problems. In Italy, several of the dead
        have been over 80 years.
        The graph shows that mortality among those under 40 is 0.2
        percent, and that it is rising to 0.4 for those between 40 and 50.
        Among those over 80 in the Chinese analysis, mortality is 14.8
        percent.
        – Good sign
        – There have also been younger people in China who have lost their
        lives, but the main picture is as it is with normal flu. It is the elderly

        and those with underlying diseases that are hit hardest, says
        Forland.
        The figures indicate that many more people die from this virus than
        the common flu virus. But even in Wuhan, they now see that there
        have been fewer recorded cases than with a regular seasonal flu,
        says Forland.
        What gives health authorities hope now are the curves of the
        number of new infected in China. They go down in all of China’s
        provinces, according to Forland.
        – That’s what we see, that the number of newly infected per day is
        declining in all provinces in China, including in Hubei. That’s a good
        sign. And even where they are hardest hit, no more than 1 percent
        have been infected. The fact that there are more deaths now is due
        to the fact that many of those who have been infected previously die
        now, says Forland.
        He says that around 5 percent of those infected have become
        seriously ill. For them, the course of illness is between two and four
        weeks.
        – Some need respiratory treatment. Therefore, the entire health
        service must prepare to receive the sick. Europe has a better health
        system than many other countries, but we have an older
        population. Therefore, Europe may be more vulnerable than
        China. There are many x’s and y’s in this equation.
        Can become 2500 seriously ill

        – How big can the outbreak be in Norway, based on what you know
        from China?
        – There’s a lot of uncertainty around. It may be realistic for 1 percent
        to be infected and for 5 percent of those infected to be seriously ill,
        says Forland.
        Of a population of five million, that would mean that 2,500 will be
        seriously ill.
        – There will still be a significant burden on the health service, says
        Forland.
        – We must prepare for it to become serious and demanding for the
        health care system. We are concerned that the epidemic will be
        elongated rather than abrupt. That’s why it’s important to stop those
        who come and have viruses, says Forland.

      5. The corona virus: These are the virus numbers that worry and soothe
        The health authorities are preparing for the new coronavirus to spread in
        Norway. Here’s what they know about who the virus is hit hardest, and how
        the outbreak has evolved.
        •
        The new coronavirus has spread from China to over 30 other
        countries. The fact that it has reached Norway , Italy and 12 other

        EU countries means that European health authorities are on the
        rise.
        Unrealistic horror scenario
        In Norway, the Institute of Public Health has conducted a new risk
        assessment where the risk of the virus when the country is
        considered high. The report states that in the worst case scenario,
        the virus can reach 70 percent of the population if nothing is done to
        prevent the infection.
        However, according to Frode Forland, director of the Department of
        Public Health, this is a theoretical calculation that is not
        realistic. The fact that so many are infected is a scenario where many
        people come to the country without being detected, where there are
        no infection control measures and no resilience in the population.
        – It is not a realistic scenario as we see developments today. It is
        more realistic to look at what has actually happened in China, where
        less than 1 percent is infected in Wuhan, and curves show that the
        epidemic is spreading in every province, says Forland.
        Direct: We are following the development of the new corona virus
        The spread of the new
        coronavirus
        February 25, 2020
        The circle indicates the number of cases detected. Colored land
        area shows that at least one case has been confirmed in the country.

        Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns
        Hopkins University / Aftenposten.
        Figures from the center of the outbreak, China, both worry
        and reassure.
        An analysis by the China Institute of Public Health based on 72,314
        infected shows that mortality is higher than with normal winter
        flu. Normal seasonal influenza has a mortality rate of 0.1–0.2 per
        cent. According to the analysis, it is 2.3 percent among the corona
        infected in China.
        – That’s a high number. But we know little about how many have
        been tested by all who have fallen ill. If data from known cases are
        entered, mortality is more likely to be below one percent. There is a
        lot of uncertainty, says Forland.
        But the analysis shows a clear trend: Mortality is many times higher
        for older people and those with other illnesses, such as diabetes,
        incurable cancer or heart problems. In Italy, several of the dead
        have been over 80 years.
        The graph shows that mortality among those under 40 is 0.2
        percent, and that it is rising to 0.4 for those between 40 and 50.
        Among those over 80 in the Chinese analysis, mortality is 14.8
        percent.
        – Good sign
        – There have also been younger people in China who have lost their
        lives, but the main picture is as it is with normal flu. It is the elderly

        and those with underlying diseases that are hit hardest, says
        Forland.
        The figures indicate that many more people die from this virus than
        the common flu virus. But even in Wuhan, they now see that there
        have been fewer recorded cases than with a regular seasonal flu,
        says Forland.
        What gives health authorities hope now are the curves of the
        number of new infected in China. They go down in all of China’s
        provinces, according to Forland.
        – That’s what we see, that the number of newly infected per day is
        declining in all provinces in China, including in Hubei. That’s a good
        sign. And even where they are hardest hit, no more than 1 percent
        have been infected. The fact that there are more deaths now is due
        to the fact that many of those who have been infected previously die
        now, says Forland.
        He says that around 5 percent of those infected have become
        seriously ill. For them, the course of illness is between two and four
        weeks.
        – Some need respiratory treatment. Therefore, the entire health
        service must prepare to receive the sick. Europe has a better health
        system than many other countries, but we have an older
        population. Therefore, Europe may be more vulnerable than
        China. There are many x’s and y’s in this equation.
        Can become 2500 seriously ill

        – How big can the outbreak be in Norway, based on what you know
        from China?
        – There’s a lot of uncertainty around. It may be realistic for 1 percent
        to be infected and for 5 percent of those infected to be seriously ill,
        says Forland.
        Of a population of five million, that would mean that 2,500 will be
        seriously ill.
        – There will still be a significant burden on the health service, says
        Forland.
        – We must prepare for it to become serious and demanding for the
        health care system. We are concerned that the epidemic will be
        elongated rather than abrupt. That’s why it’s important to stop those
        who come and have viruses, says Forland.

        1. Sorry. Translated by language conversion in Chrome. It’s not a bag job, a bit clunky, but I can’t include the pictures
          🙁

        2. Sorry. Translated by language conversion in Chrome. It’s not a bag job, a bit clunky, but I can’t include the pictures
          🙁

    3. About time these expensive talking shops were closed and the devolved powers taken back to Westminster.

    4. About time these expensive talking shops were closed and the devolved powers taken back to Westminster.

      1. Responsibility for the environment is devolved and comes under the NRW which in turn comes under the Welsh Assembly. Westminster plays no part in it. They could though if need be ask Westminster to sent in troop to help with the flooding but that down to the assembly to request

        1. …and looking at the horlicks the Welsh Assembly has made, not only of the environment but also the NHS, then it illustrates and reinforces my point – close ’em down.

  8. Wouldn’t you agree that this is the nastiest meanest Guardian article to date ?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/27/how-did-british-indians-become-so-prominent-in-the-conservative-party?CMP=fb_cif

    Last week, the “most Indian cabinet” in British history realised a long-standing dream of the Tory right: the introduction of a purposely cruel “points-based” immigration system. Finally, as many were quick to point out, we saw the limits of “representation politics” laid bare – the home secretary, Priti Patel, and the three other British Indians appointed to Johnson’s cabinet will only embolden Tory racism. But there is a more important story to tell here about how the modern Conservative party came to embrace British Indians – one that runs through Nairobi, Harrow East and occupied Kashmir.

    The Tories have now managed to extend their appeal beyond the “two time” migrants by finding common cause in a project of Islamophobia. Supported by the Indian government and its far-right ruling party, the BJP, the Conservatives have exploited a sharp rise in Hindu nationalism within the British Indian community to play Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Muslim communities off against one another.

          1. The Guardian like the BBC might be one of the “other actors” in Open Society’s mission statement.

            “Forming strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs and other actors”.

            This is all about “leveraging policy” as they say, which means getting Soros what he wants from government.

    3. Oh dear. How dare those uppity brown people desert their natural party of victimhood and despair. Don’t they know their place?
      Don’t tell me they were chosen because they were good at their jobs. These are people from the colonies, doncha know? Naturally inferior and in need of nannying.
      Please, lovely Grauniad people, can I have a job writing for you?

    4. Why is a points based system cruel? It’s a non-statement without justification. it is merely a non-evidenced opinion.

      What is representation politics? How are it’s limits laid bare? What are they?

      Would they classify themselves as British Indians, or is that somthing the racist writing this has applied? Also, what has their ethnicity got to do with their job roles?

      What evidence is there that the Conservative party is racist? This simply slander at worst and mendacious opinion at best.

      What relevance does the ethnicity of the appointees have? They were the right person for the job!

      What evidence is there of this ‘common cause of islamophobia’? What evidence of the Indian government being involved? Is it because they are trying to say ‘the Tories have hired Indians, the Indians are fighting Muslims, therefore the Conservatives are Islamophobes?’

      Hindu nationalism? What evidence is there for this? Why is it a problem – except that it is not Muslims?

      Again, what evidence is there for this utterly weak, pathetic series of nonsense slurs? Is there a rise of Hindu issues? Is that anything to do with the Conservatives?

      No. It’s just ‘waaaagh, waaaagh, waaagh, wanna wannna waaaggghh’

      It’s mindless drivel. Hateful, spiteful, desperate, pathetic drivel that shows up the writer as a prejudiced, racist, fact free fanatic churning out lies held together by the rage and misery of their own ego.

  9. Morning all, sleet here in Norf Zummerzet with the flakes getting bigger, my rain app shows the northern edge of the rain fast approaching.
    I guess it will be clear by 9am but I plan to hunker down inside for the day.
    My outside jobs can wait until the weather warms up and dries up.

      1. Morning T-B, and I’m afraid there is no discernible change in the weather pattern forecasted for the next 10 days.
        I have even heard rumblings of another storm at the weekend. Enough Lord, show me how good you are at giving warm sunshine for a month or two.

    2. Good morning.
      Bright & sunny in the Derbyshire Dales with no sign of snow in my bit of them, though cars have gone past with white stuff on the rooves.

      1. Morning Bob,

        I have been busy knocking up a meal for the evening. In the time it has taken me to do that, it has changed to clear blue sky’s with chilly sunshine. It will only last the day but I will take what I am given.

        1. I’ve actually managed to get a load of washing, that the DT put on before she went to work, hung on the line up the garden!!
          Also swept a load of sawdust out of the shed and did a bit of rearranging.
          Now just waiting for a mug of tea to brew!

          1. You did a bit of rearranging, BoB? Do you have some memorabilia from the Titanic (including deck chairs) stored in your shed?

            :-))

          2. Good man, never give any impression other than retirement is a nasty job but someone has to do it. 😂

    1. The world is facing two major crises which rank of far higher seriousness than global warming.
      Coronavirus is a pathogen over which we have little control and this is starting to wreak havoc on the global economy.

      After 25 years of proving that we have little hope of reversing anthropogenic climate change we do however have the means to avert further deterioration of the impending health crisis by avoiding unecessary public gatherings.

      Extinction Rebellion is an example of the way in which such protestation will accelerate its own demise.

  11. SIR – Has the world taken leave of its senses? Unless the authorities are hiding from us some hideous truth about the virus, then it seems to me that what we are dealing with is a nasty flu-type epidemic, nothing more.

    I expect bans on international travel will soon follow and a long-planned, imminent, family reunion in America will be lost as a result.

    Alan Quinton

    Eastbourne, East Sussex

  12. SIR – My father left his 1966 Morris Minor to my daughter, as she had always loved it. When living in London she happily drove it around and people waved and peeped at her.

    Then she and her husband moved to Switzerland. She considered selling, but couldn’t bear to be parted from it, so had it shipped to Zurich.

    She now drives around Küsnacht near Zurich in it, much to my grandchildren’s embarrassment, although her friends love having a lift in it.

    She has found local garages more than helpful when necessary, even though they have never had to deal with one before.

    Judy Woolley

    Borrowash, Derbyshire

  13. Trump faces his ‘Chernobyl moment’ after slashing pandemic defences to the bone
    • AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD

    27 FEBRUARY 2020 • 7:23AM

    Donald Trump refuses to accept the warnings of the US Center for Disease Control that America is on the cusp of a pandemic. He also seems to have mixed up the coronavirus with Ebola,
    Three weeks ago there was much talk of a Chernobyl moment for China’s Communist Party, discredited by totalitarian attempts to suppress news of the spreading coronavirus in Wuhan.
    But fast-moving events can play wicked tricks, especially on a White House allergic to scientific facts. COVID-19 is more likely to be the Chernobyl moment for Donald Trump.
    His systematic destruction of US pandemic defences – policy vandalism of the first order – and his surreal efforts to conjure away the virus with denialist spin suddenly brings an unthinkable prospect into play.
    The coming backlash may sweep Bernie Sanders into power on a socialist manifesto of Piketty wealth taxes, the partial closure of the US oil and gas industry, and vast increases in the size and role of the US government, all with an implicit budget deficit of $3 trillion. Try feeding that into your models for GDP growth, equity prices, or bond yields.
    The Trump administration has cut funding for the US Center for Disease Control by 9pc. This month he proposed slashing it a further 16pc. The worst hit area has been pandemic preparation. The CDC’s global health security initiative has been chopped by 80pc, reducing country coverage from 49 to 10.
    Mr Trump got rid of the US Complex Crises Fund. He shut down the pandemic and global health machinery at the White House, and fired the lot. He tried to cut the budget of the National Institutes of Health – the world’s finest concentration of science – by 20pc in 2018, and by 27pc in 2019. Congress stopped the worst but damage has been done.
    Tom Frieden, ex-head of the CDC, warned two years ago that the cuts would leave the US at the mercy of the next killer virus. “The surveillance systems will die, so we won’t know if something happens. You can’t pull up the drawbridge and expect viruses not to travel,” he said. Ouch.
    It has been a war on science. Mr Trump’s cuts have nothing to do with fiscal austerity. They happened just as he was pushing through tax cuts and driving the US cyclically-adjusted budget deficit to 6.3pc of GDP (IMF data), spraying money with Peronist abandon. The science cuts were ideological. Some readers chide me for being an unreconciled Never Trumper. This is why.
    And now the White House has a disaster on its hands. “The epidemiological conditions for a pandemic are met,” said Prof Marc Lipsitch, Harvard’s guru on infectious diseases. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly low numbers of infections in the US (57 as I write): the country has tested just 426 people. Only three of the 100 public health labs even have working test kits.
    One reason why South Korea appears to have so many cases is because it has carried out 44,981 tests. “They are looking, so they are finding,” says professor Caitlin Rivers from John Hopkins University.
    Dr Nancy Messonnier, head of the CDC, is doing her best. She told America on Tuesday that COVID-19 cannot be stopped and that public policy will have to switch from containment to mitigation (already Japan’s policy), a way of saying that the virus will ultimately circulate like flu.
    “It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country any more but a question of when this will happen. We are asking the American public to prepare. This might be bad,” she said.
    The White House will have none of this. The virus is “very much under control” and a vaccine is very close, tweeted Mr Trump.

    The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!

    Up to a point, Lord Copper. Key indexes on Wall Street and global bourses have this week fallen through the first key lines of technical support. Masanari Takada from Nomura says global macro hedge funds have changed strategies almost overnight since COVID-19’s global break-out, switching to trades that “prepare for a global recession.” It is the same message from record low yields on 30-year US Treasury bonds and soaring risk spreads on US oil and gas frackers.
    Larry Kudlow, the White House economics chief, persists bravely. The US containment of the coronavirus has been “pretty close to airtight”. Growth in the US will be unscathed, though “China is going to take awfully big hit.”
    Has nobody told him that US firms with tight supply chains are fast running down their inventories, or that the full effect of cancelled container shipping from Chinese and East Asian ports has not yet been felt? Little is returning to normal. China’s economy remains closed and there is a critical shortage of workers at ports. Ships cannot even dock.
    The Baidu index shows that 72pc of migrant workers have not returned to the big cities since the Lunar New Year. Coal use at major power plants is down 47pc. The longer this goes on, the greater the global economic shock, even if you believe the fairy tale that COVID-19 is a local Chinese virus and won’t cross the oceans.
    Undaunted, the Trump camp is putting out the message through talk radio and in cabinet testimony on the Hill that virus chatter is scaremongering by political opponents, a line also adopted by the insouciant leader of Lombardy in Italy.
    Yesterday the head of US homeland security, Chad Wolf, told a stunned Senate committee that the death rate of COVID-19 is akin to normal winter flu. He doubled-down when pressed by a senator who clearly knew that the designated chief of US emergency preparations does not understand the elementary facts of the matter.
    Actually the average flu death rate is around 0.1. Tracking data from China shows a 4.0pc mortality rate in Wuhan, 2.8pc in Hubei, and 0.8pc in other regions, but rising. The ratio rockets logarithmically for the late-middle aged and elderly.
    Furthermore, only a small fraction of people contract flu each year because the rest are vaccinated or have acquired immunity from past flu infections. There will be no COVID-19 vaccine for months. Nobody has immunity.
    The Trump administration is taking an insane political gamble by pitting itself against the CDC and against the US fraternity of virologists. It will lose this bet. I also suspect that COVID-19 will expose deep failings within the US health-care and insurance system.
    Many poor Americans without coverage or Medicaid will try to tough it out at home rather than risk ruinous medical costs. Illegal immigrants will avoid the health surveillance system for fear of being deported. The disease will spread in these distressed pockets – large chunks of society in fact – before sweeping the leafy suburbs.
    The only way to slow the internal contagion is to offer free testing and care for anybody with COVID-19, as Singapore is doing in what has become the world’s gold standard regime for this crisis.
    If the CDC is right and a US epidemic is on its way, the unfolding drama and shocking death rate will work to the advantage of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries.
    It will shatter Republican claims to competence and could conceivably propel the septuagenarian firebrand into the White House with a majority in both houses of Congress. Just wait until the global macro funds sink their teeth into that prospect.
    What are the Dow index and the S&P 500 worth in a global economy facing – potentially – the worst ‘sudden stop’ since August 1914, and a new America led by a President Sanders with a mandate for socialist upheaval? Let’s be generous and say about half of current levels.

    1. “If the CDC is right and a US epidemic is on its way, the unfolding drama and shocking death rate will work to the advantage of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries.”

      If there is an epidemic of this not-very-lethal flu, recent heart-attack victim, Bernie Saunders, may well be one of the few fatalities.

    3. I believe Trump is treating it as another bout of ‘flu. No need for masks or hospitals or lock-downs of whole regions, Keep calm and carry on. Some folk will be a bit poorly, but they can be bullied to “go the extra mile” and keep going to work, They can always be disciplined for slacking. There might be a bit of collateral damage, but these are mostly old people whose time has come, and they make room for the productive go-getters. Nobody cares about sick people anyway – they are losers. “You’re fired” goes the finger in his old show, and that’s what the boss says to those malingerers who call in sick.

      That’s the way to run a nation and win over the wimpish competition.

  14. Morning again

    SIR – Charles Moore (Comment, February 25) asks: “Why take a tenant if you cannot evict them?”, a problem with which I am only too familiar.

    In 1973, I bought a property with tenants a year into a three-year lease.

    After 43 years of “fair rent”, aggravation, bureaucracy, illness and frustration, the surviving tenant finally died aged 95. Never again will any of my family let a property.

    David G Ford

    Seaford, East Sussex

    1. I can beat that.
      My maternal grandparents died in 1951 and 1956.
      Because of the blasted tenancy rules, the last couple of houses in their estate were finally sold c. 2015. The occasional ‘rent review’ was farcical and the income usually swallowed up by ‘improvement’ costs. The offspring of the original tenants were paying peanuts and had no incentive to move.

    2. Two of my maiden aunts lived and worked in Africa. The Tracey family bought a house for them near Cullompton where they had been born and brought up so that they would have a place to come home to live when they retired.

      The tenant acquired the right to buy the property they rented and the family had to sell it to them for a third of its market value.

      Fair enough you might say but – having bought it at a knock-down price the tenants then sold it the following month for three times what they had paid for it.

  15. I have asked John Redwood to explain which government policies have been “leveraged” by Open Society.

    No reply, yet !

  16. ‘Morning All

    To put it bluntly, people burying their kids due to knife crime, fearful

    about violent extremism, plagued by a collapse of civility and

    antisocial behaviour, marooned in postcodes where the only visible

    authority is a parking ticket aren’t interested in the bruised feelings

    of some well-heeled permanent secretaries. They want things done.

    Their preference will be to back a Home

    Secretary who is on their side and impatient for results. The political

    rhymes with the personal. And that constituency dwarfs the Whitehall

    machine.

    Patel is accused of creating an

    “atmosphere of fear” in the Home office and of “frequently encouraging

    behaviour outside the rule of law”. The usual faceless ‘insider’ quotes

    are deployed to this end. Social media is littered with the usual

    obscene vilification of her. These charges are very serious – and they

    could be true, but the intensity of the denials from the Government

    suggests otherwise.

    There’s also more than a whiff of misogyny

    and – dare I say it – racism about her white-collar/chattering class

    monstering. These are people who are unable to see Conservatism as more

    than a kind of temporary pathology to contain and if possible neutralise

    until a more sentient politics emerges.

    https://capx.co/the-inept-hit-job-on-priti-patel-is-the-hallmark-of-an-officer-class-in-revolt/

    1. 316678+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      If priti patel is to be a success and not the usual farce then she must rule with a diamond encrusted tungsten rod.
      By the by another old saying of truth kicked into touch is,
      “spare the rod and ruin the child”

  17. Punography – you want puns? You get puns.

    · I tried to catch some fog. I mist.

    · When chemists die, they barium.

    · Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

    · I know a guy who’s addicted to brake fluid. He says he can stop any time.

    · How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.

    · I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Then it dawned on me.

    · This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I’d never met herbivore.

    · I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. I can’t put it down.

    · I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.

    · They told me I had type A blood, but it was a type-O.

    · A dyslexic man walks into a bra.

    · Why were the Indians in the USA first? They had reservations.

    · Class trip to the Coca-Cola factory– I hope there’s no pop quiz.

    · The Energizer bunny arrested and charged with battery.

    · The old man didn’t like his beard at first. Then it grew on him.

    · Did you hear about the cross-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn’t control her pupils?

    · When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.

    · What does a clock do when it’s hungry? It goes back four seconds.

    · I wondered why that cricket ball was getting bigger. Then it hit me!

    · Broken pencils are pointless.

    · What do you call a dinosaur with an extensive vocabulary? A thesaurus.

    · England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.

    · I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

    · All the toilets in London’s police stations have been stolen. Police have nothing to go on.

    · I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded dough.

    · Velcro – what a rip off!

    · Cartoonist found dead in home. Details are sketchy.

    · Venison for dinner? Oh deer!

    · I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.

      1. Thank you, Hugh. These are mainly funnies sent to me from old friends and colleagues in a sort of ‘Funnies Club’ I seem to have got the title of Chief Distributor but, because I prefer laughter to tears, I enjoy the position.

    3. Not for snarks.

      As we all know there is a special type of snark called a boojum and anybody who sets eyes on a boojum just vanishes away. There is a great shortage of boojums and we would be far better off if certain politicians and snivel serpents vanished away.

      “Come, listen, my men, while I tell you again
      The five unmistakable marks
      By which you may know, wheresoever you go,
      The warranted genuine Snarks.

      “Let us take them in order. The first is the taste,
      Which is meagre and hollow, but crisp:
      Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist,
      With a flavour of Will-o’-the-wisp.

      “Its habit of getting up late you’ll agree
      That it carries too far, when I say
      That it frequently breakfasts at five-o’clock tea,
      And dines on the following day.

      “The third is its slowness in taking a jest.
      Should you happen to venture on one,
      It will sigh like a thing that is deeply distressed:
      And it always looks grave at a pun.

      “The fourth is its fondness for bathing-machines,
      Which it constantly carries about,
      And believes that they add to the beauty of scenes—
      A sentiment open to doubt.

      “The fifth is ambition. It next will be right
      To describe each particular batch:
      Distinguishing those that have feathers, and bite,
      From those that have whiskers, and scratch.

      “For, although common Snarks do no manner of harm,
      Yet, I feel it my duty to say,
      Some are Boojums—” The Bellman broke off in alarm,
      For the Baker had fainted away.

    4. Not for snarks.

      As we all know there is a special type of snark called a boojum and anybody who sets eyes on a boojum just vanishes away. There is a great shortage of boojums and we would be far better off if certain politicians and snivel serpents vanished away.

      “Come, listen, my men, while I tell you again
      The five unmistakable marks
      By which you may know, wheresoever you go,
      The warranted genuine Snarks.

      “Let us take them in order. The first is the taste,
      Which is meagre and hollow, but crisp:
      Like a coat that is rather too tight in the waist,
      With a flavour of Will-o’-the-wisp.

      “Its habit of getting up late you’ll agree
      That it carries too far, when I say
      That it frequently breakfasts at five-o’clock tea,
      And dines on the following day.

      “The third is its slowness in taking a jest.
      Should you happen to venture on one,
      It will sigh like a thing that is deeply distressed:
      And it always looks grave at a pun.

      “The fourth is its fondness for bathing-machines,
      Which it constantly carries about,
      And believes that they add to the beauty of scenes—
      A sentiment open to doubt.

      “The fifth is ambition. It next will be right
      To describe each particular batch:
      Distinguishing those that have feathers, and bite,
      From those that have whiskers, and scratch.

      “For, although common Snarks do no manner of harm,
      Yet, I feel it my duty to say,
      Some are Boojums—” The Bellman broke off in alarm,
      For the Baker had fainted away.

    5. Thanks once again for counteracting the effects of Today on BBC R4.

      I heard of a lady who many years ago (1980s) was invited on a day’s boating trip to Poole Harbour. She asked if she should bring her passport, and everyone was puzzled. Then she said, “but isn’t that where the Japs invaded?”

    7. One from a friend in America about a Country and Western song…..

      I keep missing you……….. but my aim is getting better.

      1. Nice but I think it’s more a paraprosdokian, e.g., The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.

          1. Sean, you had gone to hyperspace on my blog so I’ve whitelisted you so your posts shouldn’t get filtered in future.

            PS. I think you last post on the maths was wrong!

  20. I was pleased to see on Press Review on Sky last night, both Kevin MacGuire and Andrew Pierce saying that much of the reaction to Covid-19 is way OTT and that there is a great deal of inconsistency in official advice.

  21. I wonder how the Border Ferry Service (and Home office) will react if Calais and its environs become an Covid-19 infected area ….

      1. Very good, PP. The PTB will then explain away their action by declaring that we MUST help these people by bringing them to the UK to isolate them from people. The irony lost on them that >20 miles of open sea and fresh air is as good an isolation mechanism as most.

    2. 316678+ up ticks,
      Morning LD,
      Business as usual,nothing will IMO stem the unending supply chain until we have a patriotic / pro English / GB naval channel patrol force as we had
      back through history.
      PS, except for a couple on minor slip ups, ie the Dutch & Chatham dockyard etc,etc.

    1. Reminds me of he time you could buy an M&S garment and wear it for many years without any noticeable loss of condition (the grament, that is, not the wearer).

          5. That trans woman in the local Hospice shop had enormous feet and big hands. I didn’t think the blouse “she” was wearing really suited her.

  23. I see the latest tranche of Soros money has cleared

    Who the HELL does this woman think she is and why in god’s name should we listen to

    anything she has to say??

    “She’s back. With Brexit ‘done’ and with most of the country just

    grateful to have moved on from the whole saga, we might have thought we

    had heard the last of Gina Miller. Miller, who became something of a

    figurehead in the anti-Brexit movement, could quietly return to doing

    whatever it was she used to get up to. Not so. Now she is back on the

    attack, demanding a ‘review’ of the appointment of Andrew Bailey as

    Governor of the Bank of England”

    .https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/gina-miller-should-leave-the-bank-of-englands-new-boss-alone/
    Tell you what luv,just fluck off and come back when you’ve won an election

    1. She runs “True and Fair”.

      The title sounds very Soros.

      This might be about getting the “right” person in place.

      1. Tut!…..Don’t be silly, that is the switch for
        raising and lowering the drawbridge. :-))

        Good morning, Boss.

  25. Rod Liddle on Priti,immigration and housing

    “To which we might add the horror of unrealistic expectation: with 50

    per cent of young people now attending university, rather than 10 per

    cent (which was about right), we have graduates emerging from their

    colleges with a 2:2 in Gender Studies, appalled and astonished that they

    cannot find a nice flat to buy in Islington on their wages from

    Poundland. I had this very discussion with a young chap on a train

    recently: he was furious at my generation for depriving him of the right

    to buy an apartment in London. He was 23. I’m so sorry, I said, where

    would you like your apartment to be? Belgravia? Docklands? Hoxton? I was

    30 before I got my studio flat in Peckham. Until then I camped out in

    low-grade squats and housing association properties, devoid of a sense

    of entitlement.

    So: bullying, immigration and housing. If you have been affected by

    any of the issues raised in this column please ring our help-line where a

    counsellor will tell you to man up and grow a pair.”

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/in-defence-of-priti-patel/
    Don’t forget defeat the paywall by tapping the esc key as the page loads

  26. Douglas Murray on the IRA

    So is it all in the past? Not according to Ireland’s own police

    chief, Drew Harris, who this week said what everyone in the intelligence

    and policing community knows — which is that Sinn Fein the political

    party is to this day still overseen by the army council of the IRA.

    Meaning that the next Irish government could be led by the only party

    for miles — or decades — around that comes with all the advantages that

    can be accrued in a democracy from having your own armed assassination

    gang.

    Perhaps this is what history always feels like. Politicians lie to

    gain power. Memories fade. As the ‘On This Day’ account reminds us,

    people get away with murder. But Sinn Fein’s success is a reminder also

    of one of the great mysteries of Ireland, both North and South: how a

    people famous for remembering everything can have forgotten so much.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/how-sinn-fein-got-away-with-murder/

  27. Heaving down with Snow in Flowton, Suffolk but not laying – yet.

    Cancelled my appointment for a routine Blood & Urine Test – these single track roads are never gritted and the Somersham road is closed because badgers are digging under the road – again. Cull them? Oh, Good Heavens, no!

    1. Years ago, when we lived out in the sticks, I took our dogs for a walk alongside some nearby woods.
      As I approached, there appeared to be absolute mayhem; children shrieking and swinging on branches, adults yelling and blundering about.
      A woman approached me and snapped that I should keep my dogs under control (they were happily pootling around and sniffing things) because the badgers needed protection from interference. And that’s what this yodelling, overactive horde were doing that evening – protecting the badgers.

    2. Years ago, when we lived out in the sticks, I took our dogs for a walk alongside some nearby woods.
      As I approached, there appeared to be absolute mayhem; children shrieking and swinging on branches, adults yelling and blundering about.
      A woman approached me and snapped that I should keep my dogs under control (they were happily pootling around and sniffing things) because the badgers needed protection from interference. And that’s what this yodelling, overactive horde were doing that evening – protecting the badgers.

    3. How do you no they are badgers? It could be moles

      I would love to know ho they manage to dig holes so well. If I try to dig a hole for a fence post its hour of hard work

      1. We know:
        a) because they did the same in 2018 further down the same road and
        b) because moles are slightly smaller and don’t have white stripes down their backs (there are no skunks on the Somersham Road – they are all in the Council Offices and Traffic Management orifice.)

  28. Allister Heath in the DT:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/26/arrogant-overrated-civil-service-must-now-face-political-reckoning/

    “Our arrogant, overrated Civil Service must now face a political reckoning

    Far from being too radical, Boris Johnson has been too timid

    Who governs this country? It’s no longer Eurocrats in Brussels or judges in Luxembourg, which is a great relief. But who in Britain is taking back control? Will real power lie with the elected politicians, assisted by government employees who work for them and for the manifestos upon which they were elected? Or will it be hoarded by a shameless, self-satisfied Whitehall nomenklatura that has convinced itself that it is the true, permanent government of Britain?

    Will the Treasury still be allowed to “veto” new ideas, the Cabinet Office to block non Left-wingers from public appointments, the defence establishment to buy overpriced, overspecced and irrelevant kit, and a self-perpetuating Foreign Office oligarchy to instruct Downing Street what to think about Israel or China? And are we happy that it is judges, not politicians, to whom we entrust deciding whether Heathrow expansion should be given the go-ahead?

    Read Allister Heath’s latest column on telegraph.co.uk every Wednesday night from 9.30pm

    Brexit isn’t enough: politicians need to take back control, to renew our democratic culture, reintroduce accountability and improve the quality of the state. They need to be forced to take responsibility even when they don’t want it. They must become their own masters, working on behalf of their electorate, not spokespersons for out-of-control departments. They need to relearn to be managers, moulding the system to their commands. They should hire their own people, not inherit hostile teams.

    If politicians cannot make their minds up on an issue, they ought to call referenda, not abdicate decision-making to mandarins or judges. Our system of government is no longer fit for purpose: the old Yes, Minister civil service and its jobs for life and gongs for failure has run out of time; but so has the more recent technocratic and juristocratic experiment.

    The deep state needs a reality check: it is not as competent as it believes. Civil servants are not an anointed class. They probably notch up more errors than they prevent ministers from making. They, too, must face a pitiless reckoning. The Treasury was right on the euro and austerity; it is correct to worry about excessively large national debts. But it was catastrophically misguided on monetarism (it fought it), on the ERM, on EU membership and on Brexit, on productivity, financial stability, supply-side economics (it doesn’t believe in it), the useless fiscal rules and many other great questions over the past hundred years.

    Philosophically, it is collectivist, viewing tax cuts as “handouts” that are a “cost” to the exchequer. It played an enabling role in the Brownite revolution and then the Remain counter-coup. It does not deserve a special, elevated constitutional position with the right to tell the PM what to do – in fact, its litany of failures suggest that it should be drastically downsized, downgraded and turned into a bog-standard finance ministry.

    As to the Foreign Office, it has been wrong on all the big issues, appallingly so, and the Home Office is a joke. In the private sector, a new boss tasked with turning around a bankrupt conglomerate would fire layers of management, bring in their own teams, merge or shut subsidiaries and restructure massively. Ideally, the government would commission a new Northcote–Trevelyan report and replace the civil service with a completely new organisation. At the very least, major changes are required, with the PM as the government’s CEO.

    Boris Johnson, understandably, is focused on outcomes, not processes; at its core, his project is one of national renewal. But a series of massive failures of delivery are inevitable unless he acts urgently. Far from being too extreme, as his critics are claiming, the PM has been too timid. No senior mandarin has yet been asked to leave.

    Sir Mark Sedwill, the powerful Cabinet Secretary, appears safe for now. Despite an outrageous clash with Priti Patel, Sir Philip Rutnam, the Home Office permanent secretary, is still in his job. Why? What’s the betting that his hopeless Home Office will fail to push through all of the immigration changes smoothly on 1 January? Yes, the Cabinet Office, No 10 and the Treasury are working more closely (though the former was reportedly pitted against Downing Street on the Defence Review), but there has been no genuine structural revolution.

    Reforming the structure of government to make it work better and effectively, whether one believes the state should be larger or smaller, is one of the most hotly debated ideas on the US Right, made all the more pressing by the chaos surrounding coronavirus.

    In an influential blog post, Tyler Cowen, an American economist, recently coined the concept of “state capacity libertarianism”. I don’t agree with all of it, but the core thesis is a brilliant way of looking at Johnsonism. Cowen believes in a strong, efficient state (as well as lower taxes and less regulation) that can extend capitalism and protect markets (including from hostile nations), deal with pandemics, manage immigration and reform state education. State Capacity Libertarians like Cowen believe that the US and UK governments are deeply incompetent but that this can be rectified. They have positive views of infrastructure, science subsidies, nuclear power, space programmes and the various ways South East Asian states have developed their economies.

    But what of the claim that reforming the machinery of government to bolster “state capacity” would be unconservative? This argument is bogus, as Danny Kruger, a new Tory MP, reminds us in a series of brilliant observations on Twitter. Edmund Burke “campaigned to abolish half the offices of state, especially those hoary with antiquity and irrelevance”, backed war against France and US independence. Tories often need to be radicals to preserve conservatism. This is one such moment.

    The reforms first need to centralise, and then decentralise: once the Government is working towards a set of common aims through new structures, contracts and teams, ministers should be given plenty of discretion to deliver. Dominic Cummings has read and absorbed Hayek: he is no central planner. It’s time for Boris to turn to another Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, and unleash a dose of creative destruction on our tragically over-rated civil service.”

    1. Anne I have just posted the same that William Stannier posted last night. Can’t repeat it often enough.

    2. Who governs ?

      Open Society.

      That’s why Britain is messed up.

      “Three decades” of “leveraging”.

  29. Morning all. With talk of all international travel being banned in the wake of Coronavirus, are we being given a premonition of what our ‘net-zero’ future will look like?

    1. Governments licking their lips over the amount of control a smidgeon of rogue DNA has given them.

    1. “People that grow a beard for religious or cultural reasons are exempted from the rules.”

      Why?

      3. I have a cultural reason – I’m lazy. Ergo it’s against my religion.

        Frankly, exempting those most likely to be a problem is barmy.

  32. A part-time lecturer and friend of mine was reported to his university
    last month for making ‘inappropriate comments’ in the teacher’s room.
    These comments, related to his sceptical views on man-made climate
    change. The accuser, another part-time lecturer irate at such heresy,
    clearly wanted my friend to be sacked. Had this been a British or
    American university, I would have gravely worried about my friend’s
    position. Luckily for him, it happened in Tokyo. So his job is safe.

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/why-you-wont-find-safe-spaces-on-japans-university-campuses/
    Interesting article,the contrast with our halls of “learning” are stark

    1. I wonder when the ‘Common Room’ became the teacher’s room. Probably too common – vulgar even.

  33. A part-time lecturer and friend of mine was reported to his university
    last month for making ‘inappropriate comments’ in the teacher’s room.
    These comments, related to his sceptical views on man-made climate
    change. The accuser, another part-time lecturer irate at such heresy,
    clearly wanted my friend to be sacked. Had this been a British or
    American university, I would have gravely worried about my friend’s
    position. Luckily for him, it happened in Tokyo. So his job is safe.

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/why-you-wont-find-safe-spaces-on-japans-university-campuses/
    Interesting article,the contrast with our halls of “learning” are stark

  34. IS THE CORONAVIRUS PART OF A CUNNING CHINESE PLAN TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD?

    The US Department of Justice has announced that the Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and two Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China.

    Doctor Charles Lieber, 60, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested on the 28th of January and charged by criminal complaint with one count of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement

    Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national, was arrested on December 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China.

    Yanqing Ye, 29, a Chinese national, was also charged in an indictment with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy. Ye, who is thought to have fled to China, is a lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army.

    In more recent developments, following pressure from the US, Interpol has issued a “Red Notice” seeking the location and/or arrest of the enigmatic Chinese virologist, Dr. Flu Manchu.

  35. Don’t panic (letter below Shirley’s):

    SIR – Drastic action over coronavirus worldwide by all nations is required now. Leaving it too late (say, two weeks from now) will lead to a pandemic that no amount of action will contain.

    All international travel by air, sea or land must cease, the only exception being those returning home, who would be quarantined. This travel ban must continue for at least four weeks or until no new cases arise worldwide.

    There will be losses for vested travel interests. These will be bearable compared to the horrendous losses which will pertain in a pandemic.

    I for one will not consider foreign travel until the situation stabilises.

    David Dunlop
    Barkestone-le-Vale, Leicestershire

    Ding-dong.

    1. I think there is more probability of dying in car accident than the is of dying from Covid 19.
      Vouvray will update you if I’m wrong.

    3. Good sounding address, Barke,stone-le-Vale, it could almost be a crime report.
      (Yes, constable, the dog barked so I threw a stone at the miscreant wearing a veil.)

    4. “I for one will not consider foreign travel until the situation stabilises.”

      Why single out international travel?

      Logically, any such travel ban should also extend to domestic travel, trains buses etc and to any large scale human interaction – schools, workplaces, supermarkets etc. In other words, all human contact with others should be heavily restricted. The virus does not recognise borders.

      David Dunlop needs to think things through before posting.

  36. Don’t panic (letter below Shirley’s):

    SIR – Drastic action over coronavirus worldwide by all nations is required now. Leaving it too late (say, two weeks from now) will lead to a pandemic that no amount of action will contain.

    All international travel by air, sea or land must cease, the only exception being those returning home, who would be quarantined. This travel ban must continue for at least four weeks or until no new cases arise worldwide.

    There will be losses for vested travel interests. These will be bearable compared to the horrendous losses which will pertain in a pandemic.

    I for one will not consider foreign travel until the situation stabilises.

    David Dunlop
    Barkestone-le-Vale, Leicestershire

    Ding-dong.

  37. Well.well,for all of us who wondered how the hell someone as blatantly thick as Lammy got to Harvard

    All is revealed

    Imagine

    being a talented black or Latino applicant who got into Harvard

    University. Now there’s news that 45% of the blacks and Latinos were

    found to have been admitted on race over merit, according to a new

    Justice Department brief, which credibly argues that Harvard engaged in

    illegal “race-balancing.”

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/02/harvard_virtuesignals_doj_brief_finds_that_45_of_its_black_and_latino_applicants_got_in_on_race.html

    3. Yes, we know. They carried out positive discrimination in favour of blacks and Latinos. A group representing Asians (i.e. Koreans, Japanese, etc) tried to bring a court case because they were being deliberately discriminated against, because despite being an ethnic minority and supposedly disadvantaged, their SAT scores were usually far higher than other groups, but they were turned down by Harvard in favour of other ethnic groups with much lower scores. I think they might have lost the case, I’m not sure.

    4. Surely the black fellow who earned his place is now thinking ‘is it me? Do I deserve to be here?’

      Ethnicity is irrelevant. Only the evil Left make it so.

  38. For those of you who are considering DIY work here is a list of tools and their uses. For those of you who are experienced DIYers you will no doubt recognise them…….
    TOOLS EXPLAINED

    DRILL PRESS : A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

    WIRE WHEEL : Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, ‘Oh sh*t’

    DROP SAW : A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

    PLIERS : Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

    BELT SANDER : An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

    HACKSAW : One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle… It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

    VISE-GRIPS : Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

    OXYACETYLENE TORCH : Used almost entirely for lighting on fire various flammable objects in your shop. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race..

    TABLE SAW : A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

    HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK : Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

    BAND SAW : A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

    TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST : A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

    PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER : Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

    STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER : A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.

    PRY BAR : A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

    HOSE CUTTER : A tool used to make hoses too short.

    HAMMER : Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

    UTILITY KNIFE : Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

    Son of a bitch TOOL : Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ‘Son of a b*tch’ at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

  39. For those who might still think the COVID-19 is a storm in a teacup.

    Two people have now tested positive after having been released from hospitals after being given the all-clear.

    One of them testing positive again three weeks after catching it, recovering and testing negative on discharge.

    1. It’s a virus, small and cunning. As I understand it, the wee beasties can lie dormant within an animal and re-activate when conditions are suitable.

      1. I overheard a news report, so don’t have a link.

        To a non-medic, what the supposed infection, recovery and reinfection suggests is that a vaccine is unlikely to give much if any immunity.

        All the self-isolation and quarantine is fairly pointless.

        Oh happy days…

          1. Are you aware of other instances where people catching the ‘flu got the same one again withing a month?

            My suspicion is that the “all clear” test might not be accurate.

        2. It has always puzzled me how a “vaccine” had been produced so quickly when we don’t seem to know all about the virus yet.

          2. I don’t think one has been produced, but the US is trying out a new anti-viral medicine, which apparently looks promising (according to the Tucker Carlson show)

        3. I’m still very concerned this virus has been genetically engineered in a laboratory and has inadvertently been released into the wider world. The speed at which the Chinese authorities reacted, coupled with the releasing of the virus’ complete genetic make up to the medical community within days suggests they knew what they were dealing with.

          1. Not dismissing your thought, just asking!

            If it was engineered, wouldn’t it be more effective? Apart from the fear effect, this virus has hardly brought western countries to a halt – if I wanted to invade I would go for more initial wallop.

            Further, unless the virus is a work in progress, wouldn’t they have an antidote available?

          2. Possibly.

            I suspect that most of the viruses are somewhat similar, so the scientists have a starting point. But the more one learns about the area and the facilities, and particularly the Chinese reaction to the outbreak, the more one moves to your suggestion.

  40. But, Mr. Proctor, this is C21 Blighty. Jobbery hasn’t disappeared, merely hiding in plain sight.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/26/tom-watson-ruined-life-rewarding-peerage-would-grotesque/

    “Tom Watson ruined my life. Rewarding him with a peerage would be grotesque

    Watson would be the first deputy leader in his party’s history to be ennobled without having served in a senior Cabinet position

    In October 2012, Tom Watson stood up in the House of Commons and set in motion a chain of events that went on to ruin my life, inflict untold misery on others and damage the chances of genuine victims of historic child sexual abuse achieving justice. The suggestion that eight years later he could now be elevated to the House of Lords is grotesque, a stain even on a party as morally warped as Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.

    Those of us caught up in the deranged claims of a Westminster paedophile ring have known all along that these allegations were false. They were built on the back of testimony by the then-anonymous source “Nick”, later exposed as Carl Beech, a criminal liar, fraudster and perverter of the course of justice with a history of paedophilia who was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year.

    It was Watson who worked hardest to amplify the testimony of “Nick”, meeting with him, raising his allegations in the Commons and helping to pressure the police into pursuing the claims. Along the way he behaved with shocking callousness, parroting Beech in the Commons as he described Lord Brittan as being as “close to evil as any human being could be” just days after the former home secretary’s death.

    Now, after six years and an estimated £150 million, we have the final official confirmation that, as the report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) puts it, “There is no evidence to support the most sensational of the various allegations of child sexual abuse made over recent years that there has been a powerful paedophile network operating within Westminster.”

    If there were any illicit cooperation, it was between the self-appointed anti-abuse crusader Watson and the Metropolitan Police. That senior police have not paid the penalty for their complicity in this miscarriage is bad enough. That Watson is reportedly among those on Corbyn’s dissolution honours list is even worse.”

    I have already made my feelings on this known through the official channels. Several weeks ago I wrote to Lord Bew, chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, which is tasked with vetting appointments to the Upper House, to express my horror at such a prospect. Among the things I asked him to consider was the prospect of Watson facing police action. It is my firm conviction that in light of the way in which he acted he deserves to be investigated for the offence of committing misconduct in public office.

    To be arrested, charged and prosecuted is no less than he deserves after the misery he inflicted on myself and others such as the late Field Marshal Lord Bramall, whose twilight years were blighted by the lies of Beech and the heavy-handed behaviour of the police, and Lord Brittan, who went to his grave with cooked-up allegations hanging over him. The idea of Watson sitting on the same red benches once graced by these men adds insult to injury.

    It is worth noting, in light of the row over John Bercow’s peerage, that there is no precedent for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party to bring with it automatic elevation. Watson would be the first deputy leader in his party’s history to be ennobled without having served in a senior Cabinet position. It appears to me that his main qualification is that he refrained from criticising Corbyn ahead of the election, quite possibly on the tacit understanding that taking ermine would be his reward.

    However, the most powerful case against making him Lord Watson is the damage he has done to the cause of genuine victims. Encouraging people who have suffered from historic child sexual abuse to come forward is desperately important and the thought of predatory paedophiles getting away with their crimes is appalling. Yet, by dragging the authorities into such disrepute, Watson has made it less likely that those wavering over whether to approach the police will do so. I also dread to think what good could have been done with the enormous resources that were wasted on the absurd goose chase he started.

    Tom Watson destroyed my life, my reputation and my livelihood. But if he isn’t denied a peerage on my behalf, then I hope he will be on behalf of all the victims who have been so badly let down.”

    1. Watson should be offered a state sponsored residence and a small stipend for his services to this country.

      In a cell. In prison, charges: wasting police time, slander and fraud.

  42. ” A huge security operation is being put in place in Bristol for a visit by
    that is expected to attract a crowd of around 25,000, most of them children and young people.”
    Any of you taking your kiddies or chipping in for the cost of policing this event ?

    1. One hopes that every set of parents whose darling kiddies are at the protest receive the normal unauthorised absence fine.
      Edit for grammar.

  43. 316678+up ticks,
    May one inquire is Alfred the Great / alfred the grape one & the same, suffers of a neurosis / split personality
    for which one / them, deserve pity or is Afred the Great
    a complete innocent, is so disregard my post and accept
    my apology.

      1. 316678+upticks,
        I did apologise in advance but one would be well advised to think otherwise currently, especially in regards to governance politico’s.
        As for “alf the sour grape”, he/she or it are no problem, more to be pitied.

      1. 316678+ up ticks,
        Morning GG,
        In it’s many names, shapes or forms when did I ever reply to this pro paedophile, assumed cross dressing, pitiful creation ?

  44. “The government decision to give the
    go-ahead to Heathrow Airport’s plans to build a third runway was
    unlawful, a court has ruled.

    The court case was brought by environmental groups, councils and the Mayor of London.

    The court said the government would not appeal against the judgement.

    But the judges said that in future, a third runway could go ahead, as long as it fits with the UK’s climate commitments.”

    Aeroplanes without engines, anyone ?

    4. The Mayor of London shut down the expansion of a London airport?

      Dear fricken cripes. Sack that gormless w*****er

  45. Coach company bringing 1,000 kids to Bristol to see the world’s most famous activist

    I hope they are all battery powered coaches ?

    Youngsters from around the country are planning to travel to the city to hear Greta Thunberg talk during the monumental event on College Green, on Friday.

    A spokesperson for coach firm SNAP says around 1,000 people have registered an interest in being picked up from different locations around the UK to be ferried to Bristol.

  46. Poundland announces closure of Bristol branch

    Poundland in Avonmeads Retail Park is set to close, marking the third major departure from the shopping precinct already this year.

    The branch at the retail park, located just off St Philips Causeway, has signs in the window alerting customers that it is closing down.

    Yesterday it was announced that B&M, just a few units along from Poundland, is set to close in April.

    Last month the owner of Currys PC World, Dixons Carphone, confirmed the store’s Avonmeads branch will close by March 3.

  47. Has anyone else received the latest TR News e-mail about his trip to Russia. It states that TR was given the opportunity to “speak freely and completely unhinged” [sic]. Bless! Apparently there’s an RT interview for their “Worlds Apart” series.

    1. I watched the first part of that and the RT presented appeared to have been taking lessons from the BBC etc.

  48. Critically-acclaimed Bristol vegetarian restaurant 1847 closes without warning

    It was widely considered one of the best veggie eateries in Bristol – but sadly, it’s now no more…

    The latest change in the city’s merry-go-round of restaurants is the departure of hugely respected vegetarian eatery 1847, which had won huge praise and earned itself an excellent reputation prior to its shock closure.

  49. One of Bristol’s most popular vegetarian restaurants is closing down today

    The latest place to shut is the Maitreya Social, in Easton, which has won numerous awards and accolades since opening. It won legions of fans for its innovative veggie and vegan cuisine and its delicious mix of veggie beers, wines, spirits and cocktails.

    The Maitreya, as it was fondly known by regulars, was almost always fully booked of an evening and was widely looked upon as being one of the city’s best – if not the best – vegetarian restaurants by Bristol’s legions of foodies. But it appears even its huge fan base and stellar reputation was not enough to save it from closure, and its owners have taken to social media to reveal the restaurant is being sold this month.

    1. It was a fad. A nine-day wonder. The closure is mainly because most of the original aficionados have now died from malnutrition.

      1. ‘Morning, Tony, or exploded with excess flatulence, contributing all their methane to the global gases.

    7. That probably explains the fall in life expectancy, as opposed to the Left’s cries of ‘Tory cuts!”

      1. The word ‘black’ wasn’t used then and ‘for’ was inserted after the original word.

        ‘Morning, Sos.

        1. https://voiceofeurope.com/2020/02/norway-three-norwegians-face-3-years-in-prison-for-hate-speech-language/#.XlOPmHTNgQ8.twitter

          People who’ve commented on the case are not happy. One says: “The witch trial starts, and the “anti-racist” center rub their hands. Whore and other slurs are legal. Because the new master-people cannot be sent to court.”

          He has a point since the problem with Norwegian – and other countries – hate speech laws is that they only go in one direction – against native Norwegians. Norwegian kids and youths get to hear racial slurs from migrants all the time in school and out on the street. For them, however, they cannot report it because it is not illegal.

          Years ago, in a Norwegian radio interview, some Somali youths said openly that Norwegian girls are whores and that they get raped because they dress scantily. This is of course not racist according to the Hate speech law, even though most Norwegians find it racist.

      1. 316678+ up ticks,
        BJ,
        When b liar opened the flood gates it was plain to see the counterfeit tories had become a coalition party along with lab/lib cons & remain as such.

    4. Morning all by 1 minute.
      Black cabinet members ‘selling souls and self-respect’ by serving in Boris Johnson team, Labour MP says
      But here’s another ‘black person’ maligning one of his parents, he’s quite obviously not wholly black, why do they do it ?

  52. Frinton is backdrop for BBC’s new sitcom Bumps

    THE famous beach huts and picturesque seafront of Frinton were given a starring role in the BBC’s latest sitcom.

    Bumps, which aired on Friday night, follows the life of 62-year-old divorcee Anita, who lives in the seaside town and delivers groceries to residents for a living.

    In the half-an-hour pilot episode, the main protagonist – played by veteran actress Amanda Redman – initially appears content with her happy life.

    She has two grown-up children, Aiden and Joanne, and her relationship with her ex-husband, Howard, remains an amicable one.

  53. I watched the track cycling on BBC4 last night. Very Interesting. The female cyclists as well as some males were wearing codpieces. This is part of a drive by the governing body, the UCI, towards open cycling so that the division between male/female racing will disappear. The large black codpieces on the bright red skin suits worn by the females looked rather odd. Still, that’s progress.

        1. I was.
          It’s either that or they’re drag queens.
          Cycling is a sport where better equipment (as it were) is under continuous analysis (as it were) and as Brailsford commented, they are looking for tiny % gains.
          It’s one reason why track cycling is dominated by countries with the best engineers.

          1. Memories Bill, memories. We live in hope that one day they will tweak their rules in a way that will turn F1 back into a race, not a progression.

            At least the American big oval racing has lots of crashes to relieve the boredom of driving in circles.

      1. Yes, Peddy has explained why. Males will add convex surfaces to chests. We can expect to see all cyclists padded in various places in order to resemble spaceships, or maybe sausages.

      2. Yes, Peddy has explained why. Males will add convex surfaces to chests. We can expect to see all cyclists padded in various places in order to resemble spaceships, or maybe sausages.

    6. The female codpieces are part of the streamlining. Otherwise there would be a concavity which would act like a drag-parachute.
      Coming soon to swimming.

      1. Discus wouldn’t accept my password – even if I submitted a new one. KFC Keeping Fingers Crossed.

    5. Thanks for the replies. My internet is slower than snail mail and crashes at irregular intervals. My landline telephone is not working and the mobile network so bad it can take 24+ hours for a text to arrive. I might as well become a monk. The only thing keeping me sane is the daily visit to the bar. They have lots of medicine on tap and in bottles. KBO.

    1. 316678+up ticks,
      O2O,
      You would NOT believe the size of the brown envelopes, they are gibloodynormous.

  56. Q to MSM: Is there a good aspect to the Coronavirus threat?

    A: Oh, yes, it’s a superb new opportunity to complain 24/7 about the Tories/Boris and Trump …

  57. This Robert Polatajko who comments over on the DT is a class act:

    “Brexit has exposed for all to see how sinister, corrupt and self-serving the British establishment are.

    An arrogant, out of control globalist and left wing civil service who think they govern the country.

    A political judiciary who push for and accept the rotten ideology of the left in applying the law and who now create the law.

    A smug political class who think they are entitled to ignore the will of the British people who elect them and pay their bills.

    Nasty schemers like Cable, Clegg, Adonis and Blair riding a bandwagon bankrolled by a sinister foreign billionaire .

    A
    Labour/Communist Party who think it is perfectly OK to actively
    sabotage the Governments negotiations with the EU and work against the
    best interests of Britain.

    A House of Lords stuffed with 800
    superannuated cronies – eight times more than the United States Senate –
    syphoning cash from hard working Brits – living like Princes while most
    of them pledge their allegiance to the foreign powers in Brussels.

    What a shock it has been for the great British public, the silent majority, to see this malignant horror circus in action.

    The consequences are going to be far reaching in my opinion.”
    A natural NoTTLer

    1. If they all turn up for one session it costs the tax payers 320,000 plus.
      Remembering a lot of the disgusting old troughers once wanted the lords abolished.

  58. WHO to believe?

    “Francis Boyle (University of Illinois) is an expert on biowarfare weapon research. He wrote the Biological Weapons Anti-terrorism Act of 1989, which is the US implementing legislation for the 1972 Bio-Weapons Convention. In interviews (see for example, https://www.activistpost.com/2020/02/us-biowarfare-act-author-studies-confirm-coronavirus-weaponized.html ) Boyle says he has read four scientific studies that confirm beyond doubt that the coronavirus is an engineered bioweapon. The studies show that the virus has elements added to make it easy to spread and elements that reduce the ability of the immune system to resist the virus.”
    “Scientists now say that a person with CoVid-19 can be contagious for 30 days without showing symptoms. As the virus can be spread through air and touch and has a 9-day life on surfaces, it can spread far and wide before it shows itself. As the death rate is now estimated to be 15-18 percent, it is a major threat.”

    https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/02/23/coronavirus-could-be-on-the-verge-of-worldwide-breakout/

    1. Here’s a cheery little thought,if it’s a bioweapon in development and this is an accidental release then this might not be the final form being created

      1. It would certainly explain the Hazmat suits, isolation prisons, without delay cremations and the lockdown of cities for over a month and counting.

    3. Confusing information on the internet – who is this guy ? He seems not to be the “activist” from the Uni of Illinois with a biography on Wikipedia.,and that article looks highly suspect.

  59. Central London speed limits to be cut to 20mph next week, Sadiq Khan confirms

    Roads in central London will see new 20mph speed limits imposed as of next week, the Mayor of London has confirmed.

    Taking to Twitter to break the news, Sadiq Khan revealed roads operated by Transport for London (TfL) within the congestion charge zone that currently have a 30mph limit will see that drop to 20mph as of Monday, March 2.

    In the announcement, Khan tweeted: “Happy to report that the speed limit across TfL roads in central London will reduce from 30mph to 20mph from Monday 2 March. This new measure will save countless lives and eradicate serious injuries on our roads, whilst making it safer to walk and cycle around the capital.”

    1. He should visit Croydon where if you obey the 20mph speed limit, the guy behind you will overtake at 40 mph on a very narrow urban road…..

      1. Stage 2 is reducing it to 10 mph

        Stage 3 is to reduce it to 5 mph and the cars will be formed into convoys on the edge of Central London and will then be escorted through Central London by a man with a read flag

        It will also do wonders for increasing London’s CO2 levels as the car engines work very inefficiently at low speeds

    2. It will raise levels of CO2 and pollutants because engines will run less efficiently.

    3. The last time I drove in London was years ago, even then it was difficult to even achieve 20 MPH
      Has that little git included the speed of cycling ? They are the biggest problem with the dangers of speeding.
      I think lower vehicle speeds will increase pollution, but he’s far too stoopid to understand that.

      3. When I was there in the 80s the average speed was around 12mph. Luckily my chauffeur was a former taxi driver and knew all the back doubles.

      4. It won’t affect his multibillionaire middle eastern teenagers who will still circulate flat out past Harrabs and round again in their uninsured Lamborghinis, Mclarens and Ferraris.

        1. But it hasn’t dampened their zeal in continuing to keep it.
          Now the Limp Dums run the council, I expect it to be reduced to “Man and red flag speed” any day soon.

          1. The council’s excuse was that it would cost £750,000 to reverse the policy and reinstate 30mph

          2. I would love to see the costings on how that figure was arrived at.
            Many motorists offered to paint over the 20 signs free of charge, but surprisingly the offers were declined.
            On a serious note, continuing a mistake with no intention on correcting that mistake strikes me as condescending arrogance.
            I think I have just summed up most local councils.

      6. It won’t affect his multibillionaire middle eastern teenagers who will still circulate flat out past Harrabs and round again in their uninsured Lamborghinis, Mclarens and Ferraris.

    5. 316678+ up ticks,
      BJ,
      The reason being that this kahn critter
      can run faster that 20 mph, for when he has to lay legs on the day of the reckoning.

    6. If, in a couple of years somebody gets to working out that it hasn’t actually saved ‘countless lives’ will he reverse his position?

    7. If, in a couple of years somebody gets to working out that it hasn’t actually saved ‘countless lives’ will he reverse his position?

    8. If, in a couple of years somebody gets to working out that it hasn’t actually saved ‘countless lives’ will he reverse his position?

  60. Illness forces the Pope to cancel an event at the Vatican a day after showing solidarity with coronavirus sufferers and shaking hands with congregation at weekly audience

    Pope Francis has missed a planned Mass with Rome clergy due to illness.

    The Vatican said the 83-year-old pontiff had a ‘slight indisposition’ and would proceed with the rest of his planned work on Thursday but Francis ‘preferred to stay near Santa Marta’, the Vatican hotel where he lives.

    There was no word from the Vatican about the nature of his illness, but the pope was seen coughing and blowing his nose during the Ash Wednesday Mass.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8051083/Pope-cancels-visit-Rome-priests-slight-illness.html?ito=push-notification&ci=8242&si=663226

      1. Could be a while if they use Co-op (safety*) firelighters.

        * Co-op firelighters are guaranteed non-inflammable for Health and Safety reasons.

    2. I’m not a fan of this pope* at all and I think that his close contact with the public at the Ash Wednesday Mass, shaking hands and kissing heads, while himself suffering from flu-like symptoms – and this at the time of a global pandemic – was grossly irresponsible.

      If he has the COVID-19 virus, he could have infected thousands.

      *(Benedictus XVI papa est)
      ;¬)

      2. When I went to the Ash Wednesday service yesterday I disinfected my hands after the Peace before taking communion. You never know!

        1. In view of his cavalier attitude to public health and safety, I reckon he should be summoned to explain himself before the Inquisition.

          He wouldn’t be expecting that…..

        2. In view of his cavalier attitude to public health and safety, I reckon he should be summoned to explain himself before the Inquisition.

          He wouldn’t be expecting that…..

        3. In view of his cavalier attitude to public health and safety, I reckon he should be summoned to explain himself before the Inquisition.

          He wouldn’t be expecting that…..

    1. “When you get your equipment, it will be good as new. We have such
      confidence in the quality of items we supply that everything is supplied
      with a 1 year hardware warranty.”
      That’s the same warranty that Harry got with Megan.

  63. Man accused of murdering mother and stepfather at their home

    A 25-year-old man appeared in court today charged with murdering his mother and stepfather in their home.

    Anmol Chana, 25, is accused of killing Jasbir Kaur, 52, and her husband Rupinder Singh Bassan, 51, who were found dead at their home in Oldbury, near Birmingham, early on Tuesday morning.

    The couple was pronounced dead at the scene, having suffered serious injuries, West Midlands Police said.

    Chana was arrested at his home in Hamilton Road, Smethwick shortly after they were found and charged with their murders.

    Appearing at Birmingham Magistrates Court today, Chana, wearing a grey t-shirt, spoke only to confirm his name, address and date of birth in a brief hearing.

    1. It’s always a short hearing as the Magistrates must send the case to the Crown Court. There is no other option.

  65. Next time you’re wondering why you can’t get a doctors or dentists appointment or

    a referral to the hospital. Or you’re sat in a massive traffic jam or

    can’t get a council house..

    Here’s your answer:

    Migration into Britain from outside EU hits highest level ever

    379,000 people came to UK from non-EU countries in year to September 2019

    Year-on-year rise in estimated non-EU net migration of 26,000 to 250,000

    Arrivals from the European Union have fallen since the Brexit vote in June 2016

    But number of people coming to Britain from outside EU has gradually risen

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8050963/Migration-Britain-outside-EU-hits-highest-level-ever.html

    1. Don’t forget the illegals ferried here by he Border Force Taxi Service or are they included?

    2. 316678+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Rik,
      The way I see it is there is a multitude
      of peoples within these Isles, have by their continuing voting pattern denied
      other family members and others of an indigenous being, access to homes,NHS, incarceration, education.
      And they still adhere to the party must come first regardless of.

      This voting pattern still continues even as their kids are being raped & abused.
      I would wager good money on decent people wishing that the odious rape abuse plague as already witnessed had as much media coverage as this
      corona plague is receiving.

    3. So that’s what caused the RTA which held me up on the bus for 40 minutes this morning.

  66. Why is everything so complicated?
    Thought I could sort out a repeat prescription; no, that form is a request for a repeat prescription. Schlep across from pharmacy to surgery.
    The actual prescription will be ready in 48 hours; which takes us into Saturday. The surgery is closed at the weekend so will collect repeat prescription on Monday.
    If last time is anything to go by, the pharmacy won’t have drug in stock and I will have to go back …. altogether now …. in 48 hours.
    What a good thing that I allow for NHS a@se covering.
    By contrast, I phoned up the vet this morning and Spartie’s skin pills will be ready this afternoon.

      1. Yes. Maybe I should self-identify as a chihuahua.
        p.s. did you know that it is illegal for a doctor to treat an animal, but legal for a vet to treat a human being?

          1. When I was working in racing, the yard vet used his equine machine to X ray his own leg to confirm it was broken – he’d been fobbed off by the NHS. We ragged him that we’d have to shoot him when it turned out it was 🙂

    2. By tomorrow, the doom goblin will have the latest estimate for our extinction, so you may be in luck and never have to worry about the pills again.

    3. I place my repeat prescription request by e-mail to the local surgery, which has it’s own pharmacy – still takes 3 working days though.

        1. Ours is delightfully old fashioned – apart from the required credit card reader.

          Call them to fulfill a repeat prescription, they email the doctor, get authorization back the same way, and it’s usually ready later that day or the next day.

    4. I have a goodly supply for my dog, too. Much less hassle than getting my or MOH’s medicine. I can actually ring up the vet and get a repeat prescription to pick up that day; the surgery won’t allow prescription requests over the telephone. I either order on-line (which takes even longer) or go in with the paper request.

    5. Have you meds delivered. I do.
      Repeats are automatic up to 6 months, when there is a review.

    1. If a Green wants to start talking about poverty then we should start with the taxes levied against workers by their policies.

  68. Made myself a bubble & squeak last night using hispi cabbage (my fave) topped with cheese.
    When I tried it I thought, “Hmmmmm…”

    But cold for breakfast it is absoluto scrumptious.

    1. One of life’s delicacies. B&S goes well with lots of things, my favourite being cold pork.

      1. On Tuesday I slow-roasted a slab of belly pork. There’s some left over in the fridge…

        2. Next time marinade the belly pork in cider overnight and use the drained off cider to make a bed of sage & onion stuffing for the pork to sit on whilst it roasts.

          1. Peddy, Harry K and Bob of Bonsall: Do you three mind? I’m trying to work off a few pounds, not put them on again!

            :-))

          2. Sounds like a good tip – I’ll try it next time. On Tuesday I washed the pork down with cider, my go-to drink.

        3. Next time marinade the belly pork in cider overnight and use the drained off cider to make a bed of sage & onion stuffing for the pork to sit on whilst it roasts.

    2. I made a cross between bubble and squeak and Spanish omelette for Monday evening.
      I finished it yesterday and enjoyed it more for breakfast.

      1. I didn’t get round to making rhubarb crumble after all, and had no time for pancakes on Tuesday (a very, very, busy week) so maybe I should take corrective action today (a less busy day). Good morning to all NoTTLers from a lazy lie-in NoTTLer.

  69. Morning all

    SIR – At the age of 86, I am fit and well, still driving and exhibiting my art and enjoying life with my husband, who is 90.

    We have decided not to be terrified of getting the coronavirus. We have had a good life and if it gets us, it will save a lot of money and inconvenience in the event of having to be looked after in an old people’s home, the prospect of which really is frightening.

    Shirley Page

    Caxton, Cambridgeshire

    SIR – Drastic action over coronavirus worldwide by all nations is required now. Leaving it too late (say, two weeks from now) will lead to a pandemic that no amount of action will contain.

    All international travel by air, sea or land must cease, the only exception being those returning home, who would be quarantined. This travel ban must continue for at least four weeks or until no new cases arise worldwide.

    There will be losses for vested travel interests. These will be bearable compared to the horrendous losses which will pertain in a pandemic.

    I for one will not consider foreign travel until the situation stabilises.

    David Dunlop

    Barkestone-le-Vale, Leicestershire

    1. FFS! The world economy requires travel, only caveman-economics does not. Never mind vacations, people need to move around. So D Dunlop would crash the world economy because of flu?

      2. Not from what I’ve read elsewhere, based on self-reporting.
        It’s closer to 1.7%, which makes the 12% representation a whopping 6 times the percentage of the population as a whole.
        Maybe they got that 6.4% figure from surveying the Guardian and BBC..

      4. Not from what I’ve read elsewhere, based on self-reporting.
        It’s closer to 1.7%, which makes the 12% representation a whopping 6 times the percentage of the population as a whole.
        Maybe they got that 6.4% figure from surveying the Guardian and BBC..

    3. Again, I have a totally flabbered gast at such unlikely news.

      Would it be too much , in the light of this, to ask them to now, STFU, get on with their miserable lives and leave us in peace?

      1. No. Their entire mission in life is to spread their misery as far and wide as possible.

        But with luck, it might shut Lenny Henry up for a while.

  71. Just received a letter from our electricity supplier.
    “Ofgem has recently announced a change to the (price) cap so we’re changing your prices in line with this cap from 1st April 2020.”
    The price will go up, by an estimated £1 per year.
    Make sense? Mmmmm…

    1. His syntax is shermite as well, “Over the past two decades, the house has crept closer to the cliff edge due to erosion.”

      Has nobody told him that while some houses might be creepy, they don’t actually move – until undermined by the sea, then they collapse but creeping, doesn’t come into it. Berk!

        1. The clue is in the words ‘cliff-top’ used to describe the property.

          If you don’t want to lose your house, don’t build it on top of an active erosion feature, more commonly referred to as a ‘cliff’.

          2. That’s the whole point.

            Any cliff is an erosion feature, otherwise it wouldn’t have been a cliff in the first place. They built it with either a view to letting it fall into disuse after ‘x’ years, or they didn’t bother to check the local geology and apply a bit of common sense. Cliff edges move.

          3. That’s the whole point.

            Any cliff is an erosion feature, otherwise it wouldn’t have been a cliff in the first place. They built it with either a view to letting it fall into disuse after ‘x’ years, or they didn’t bother to check the local geology and apply a bit of common sense. Cliff edges move.

          5. Do you remember going over the Links to the Sandy Bay and seeing the concrete backstop for the old 25 yard range standing 20 or 30 yards from the cliffedge?
            Last time I saw it, it was lying in the sand 20 or 30 yards on the other side of the cliff edge!

          6. I remember that. Similar thing in France. German fortifications that formed part of the Atlantic Wall, massive concrete bunkers lying on the beach 50 yards away from the cliff. The bunkers are still where they were built. The cliffs they were built on aren’t.

            When Rommel was building those bunkers he wasn’t expecting that they’d be needed for very long, so he wasn’t bothered.

          10. The house had been there are long time – it wasn’t cliff top when it was built. I imagine when they were first built, no-one ever expected the erosion to reach so far inland.
            On the 1883 OS map the cottage was about 1/4 mile from the cliff

          11. “Et descendit pluvia et venerunt flumina et flaverunt venti et inruerunt in domum illam et cecidit et fuit ruina eius magna”
            — Mat. 7:27

        2. I wasn’t joking, actually, William, I’m astounded at the modern mis-use and misunderstanding of the language by our supposedly educated people under about 40. It makes me see red sometimes, especially the tripe trotted out by the BBC

        3. I wasn’t joking, actually, William, I’m astounded at the modern mis-use and misunderstanding of the language by our supposedly educated people under about 40. It makes me see red sometimes, especially the tripe trotted out by the BBC

        4. I wasn’t joking, actually, William, I’m astounded at the modern mis-use and misunderstanding of the language by our supposedly educated people under about 40. It makes me see red sometimes, especially the tripe trotted out by the BBC

      2. 316678+ up ticks ,
        Afternoon Ntn,
        I do beg to differ some what in so far as two houses I know of
        move along the road of treachery at a fair old lick,
        …………….Hol / Hoc.

      3. 316678+ up ticks ,
        Afternoon Ntn,
        I do beg to differ some what in so far as two houses I know of
        move along the road of treachery at a fair old lick,
        …………….Hol / Hoc.

    2. You are lucky, WS. I’ve given up R4’s Farming Today because of their obsession with the same subject. Just about every episode. They just can’t help themselves with their wretched crusade.

    3. You are lucky, WS. I’ve given up R4’s Farming Today because of their obsession with the same subject. Just about every episode. They just can’t help themselves with their wretched crusade.

    1. I wonder why Johnson has surrendered completely to the green blob but is acting tough with the EU ?

      Clue..

      Acting.

      1. I think his paramour is a mole from the Green Party who s refusing to play ball with him if he does not play ball with the Ecofraudsters.

      2. I think his paramour is a mole from the Green Party who s refusing to play ball with him if he does not play ball with the Ecofraudsters.

    1. They ranked fourth amongst Motown’s 60s girl groups, behind the Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas and the Marvelettes. They still managed to rack up some decent singles. That one, as well as He Was Really Saying Something, These Things Will Keep Me Loving You, Lonely, Lonely Girl Am I and A Bird In The Hand (Is Worth Two In The Bush) were particularly good.

      https://youtu.be/dx5YrXnsIG4

  77. Is there a precedent for a judge to prevent a government going ahead with a construction project on the grounds that it contravenes climate change pledges?
    It all seems very strange.
    Could HS2 be stopped using the same criteria, could all construction work be prevented on the whim of a judge?

    2. Its a question as to whether the gov or the judges rule the country. Pledges are just that, they are not laws. We now have interest groups who seem to direct policy. As Ms Miller has shown, if you have the cash you can influence the way the state is governed through the judiciary.

    5. Its a question as to whether the gov or the judges rule the country. Pledges are just that, they are not laws. We now have interest groups who seem to direct policy. As Ms Miller has shown, if you have the cash you can influence the way the state is governed through the judiciary.

      1. Not even really pledges but just forecast. No different to budget forecast. A best guess really and not legally enforceable

        WE now have judges increasingly acting in my view politically and they are making political judgement and not legal ones

    3. My Hermes delivery man does a good job – always leaves the package behind the wheelie-bins if I am out, & puts a slip through the door to tell me.

    1. ‘Morning, Rik, if the locals are beating up the cops, how long before they turn on the immigrunts? I can see bloody, civil war erupting all over the EU and the immigrunts will have to seek asylum in their own Middle-Eastern shïtholes. What a success for EU Immigration Policy.

      1. ‘Morning Nanners
        Riot Cops this time,next time it will be troops and tanks
        After all there is previous form………………………

    2. If you want to know what the future looks like Winston, it’s a boot stamping on a human face… forever.

  82. Chancellor Sunak orders new post-budget economic forecasts

    – British finance minister Rishi Sunak ordered an additional set of economic forecasts to be produced by the country’s independent budget forecaster, asking that they be published on March 13 – two days after he delivers his first budget.

    “Given the unique circumstances this year, I would like to commission the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) to publish a second forecast on the 13 March, to provide a limited update to the 11 March forecast,” Sunak said in a letter to OBR Chairman Robert Chote.

    The request reflects the fact that the OBR is legally bound to produce two sets of forecasts per financial year and, because a planned budget in 2019 was cancelled due to a general election, has only produced one set in the current period.

  84. On the Telegraph website – top story, Keep Schools Open despite Coronavirus say Ministers; 3rd story, Derbyshire school closes because of a confirmed Coronavirus victim (a parent of one of the primary school children).. I fear that the woke generation will turn this uncomfortable virus into a full-scale economic whirlwind.

    1. Denying the tough children a chance to enjoy classes of half a dozen pupils and the teachers revealing themselves to be human beings.
      (Ponders on Autumn 1957.)

    1. You do not want to stop a ls large number of BBC staff getting a free overseas holiday surely?

    2. You do not want to stop a ls large number of BBC staff getting a free overseas holiday surely?

    3. You do not want to stop a ls large number of BBC staff getting a free overseas holiday surely?

    5. Sad to say, that sort of crap is most likely to win – unless it’s up against a rapper with anti-establishment words, especially if sprinkled with some good old sweary words.

  87. Met Police officers on mental health calls ‘could be joined by nurses’

    A sensible move for a change. That still leave the problem of what to do with them though?

    Reforms are being planned by the Met to limit the number of people ending up in police custody while going through a mental health crisis.

    The force has seen a surge in mental health-related call-outs and is in the “early stages” of devising plans to work more closely with health trusts.

    “Radical reforms” are needed, say crime advisers, and could include health workers and nurses accompanying police on certain patrols.

      2. You mean the SAPEURS POMPIERS

        I wonder if the French will be after us for Cultural appropriation ?

      3. You mean the SAPEURS POMPIERS

        I wonder if the French will be after us for Cultural appropriation ?

      4. The sapeurs pompiers are similar to a cross between firefighters and paramedics and can cope with all sorts of emergencies.

        A friend of mine who was quite senior in the Cambridge fire department always claimed that if one had a “real emergency” the fire brigade were the best ones to call because their average response time, from call to arrival on scene, was generally far and away the quickest.

        1. It already happens in many areas outside of London for acute calls. If the Fire brigade can get their first they re dispatched for time critical calls such as heart attacks and when someone has stopped breathing

          Across the UK with Car accidents the fire service are often there first and are giving first aid

          1. The ones here do all sorts of duties, from forest fires to scuba diving and river patrols for big public events, eg Bastille Day, as well as the run of the mill things car accidents, flooding, domestic fires etc.

            Their cadets very well trained but getting volunteers seems to be becoming more difficult. There was a big recruitment drive a few months ago.

            It seems to be rather like the old UK CCFs, unpaid and time-consuming at weekends.

          2. The ones here do all sorts of duties, from forest fires to scuba diving and river patrols for big public events, eg Bastille Day, as well as the run of the mill things car accidents, flooding, domestic fires etc.

            Their cadets very well trained but getting volunteers seems to be becoming more difficult. There was a big recruitment drive a few months ago.

            It seems to be rather like the old UK CCFs, unpaid and time-consuming at weekends.

        3. There would be no point calling out the police here; by the time you’d got through to the HQ in Worcester and they’d looked up where Shropshire was before calling the one and only policeman available to cover the area (he is stationed in Market Drayton), any emergency would have sorted itself out!

  88. Met Police officers on mental health calls ‘could be joined by nurses’

    A sensible move for a change. That still leave the problem of what to do with them though?

    Reforms are being planned by the Met to limit the number of people ending up in police custody while going through a mental health crisis.

    The force has seen a surge in mental health-related call-outs and is in the “early stages” of devising plans to work more closely with health trusts.

    “Radical reforms” are needed, say crime advisers, and could include health workers and nurses accompanying police on certain patrols.

  89. Met Police officers on mental health calls ‘could be joined by nurses’

    A sensible move for a change. That still leave the problem of what to do with them though?

    Reforms are being planned by the Met to limit the number of people ending up in police custody while going through a mental health crisis.

    The force has seen a surge in mental health-related call-outs and is in the “early stages” of devising plans to work more closely with health trusts.

    “Radical reforms” are needed, say crime advisers, and could include health workers and nurses accompanying police on certain patrols.

  91. Clacton pier must apply for licences for collapse repairs and clean-up

    Daft why should you need a permit to make a dangerous structure safe?>

    A section of the pier collapsed on Valentines Day, between Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis, during work to build the foundations of the newest rollercoaster, the Looping Star.

    Owner Billy Ball and a team armed with diggers have been out at low tide every day since, clearing rubble and cables from the sea.

    Bosses have said that while the collapse is a setback, almost all of the attractions will be open by Easter – including the new log flume.

    However, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), formed in 2009 to regulate activity in British waters, have contacted pier bosses to say they require a licences to both clear the debris and repair the pier.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9af94f2f34a9afc13ad470987ca62a4aaed463d642ea823c02c1d2d51313da9.jpg

    1. I wonder how much the licence costs and what the quango charges for oversight. Loadsamoney I suspect.

      1. I can understand the need for a permit to rebuild it but a permit to make it safe and remove the mess. That sounds daft

        1. I agree
          Asbestos or similar hazardous material being present is possible, if somewhat unlikely.

          1. On this logic the Fire Service will need to get pemsion before making any damaged buildings safe

  92. A chilling logic lurks beneath the EU’s farcical Brexit strategy
    SHERELLE JACOBS
    DAILY TELEGRAPH COLUMNIST

    27 FEBRUARY 2020 • 6:00AM

    Even diehard Eurosceptics are a little perplexed by the deadpan idiocy of the EU’s negotiating position

    Brussels beautifully captures the disturbed pathology of modern bureaucracy
    Brussels’ babbling inertia in the Brexit trade talks has provoked delight and denial in equal measure among the British commentariat. But it is worth taking a step back from the debate over whether the EU’s negotiating position is “steely” and “eloquent” (The Economist) or “bewildering” and “intransigent” (this newspaper) to consider an even more important question: why, exactly, is Brussels behaving as if nothing has changed? The answer is both fascinating and frightening.

    Even diehard Eurosceptics are a little perplexed by the deadpan idiocy of the EU’s negotiating position – as it has, in recent weeks, prattled on about the Elgin Marbles, lied compulsively about the Political Declaration and flexed its flaccid biceps as if it is still dealing with lightweight Theresa May.

    But far from losing its cool, Brussels is icily acting according to its own perverse, bureaucratic logic. This is driven by a compulsion for one thing only: total control. Both the individuals who make up a given bureaucracy and the entity itself will always act exclusively to shore up power through two main processes: regulating “chaos” and “solving problems”.

    This is reflected in the EU’s blunt refusal to agree a trade-only deal and its ridiculous demands on everything from fishing and the European Court of Justice to defence. Trapped in the mantra that all Brexit pipe dreams lead back to the brick wall of the single market’s integrity, the CBI, Tony Blair, and those Brussels hacks who churn out barely amended EU Commission press releases have failed to grasp the single most important fact about these talks: the EU, driven primarily by the Will to Control, has limited interest in the intricacies of a future trade deal.

    Yes, Michel Barnier seeks to inflict maximum damage on Britain with minimum side-effects for the EU. Yes, protecting the single market is a vital strategic goal. But the EU’s ultimate ambition goes further – it wishes to retain as much influence as possible over as many aspects of British sovereignty as possible, from our immigration policy to our laws.

    For Brussels, unbounded control freakery is a sickness as much as a sentiment. Its bizarre laundry list of demands, which at various points have included the re-airing of member states’ claims to everything from the Elgin Marbles to Gibraltar, betrays the squalid reality that EU countries view Brussels as little more than a vehicle for selfishly advancing their own interests. Not to mention that the EU’s entertainment of such gripes smacks of the micro-managerialist’s fatal inability to set priorities.

    Funnily enough, the latest management thinking offers a devastating insight into the severity of the EU’s troubled pathology. The Chicago-based guru, Gary Hamel, thinks that big corporations too often succumb to “controlism”, viewing “freedom” as its rival. His warning that “as long as control is exalted at the expense of freedom, organisations will remain incompetent at their core” offers plenty of food for thought in the corporate context. But this also hints at the new ideological dividing line in a world that was once split between communists and capitalists.

    With the Soviet Union demolished into dust clouds of mafia-capitalism and the rubble of the Berlin Wall now a consumer item in museum shops, a new argument is slowly taking form. Perhaps the ideological schism of the 21st century will be between those, such as the EU, who believe countries can bring order to modern complexities through regulation and the gravitational pull of centralisation, and those, like Brexit Britain, who reckon that to thrive in our fast-transforming world countries must learn to embrace bottom-up disruption and dissent from orthodoxy.

    It is no coincidence, by the way, that security is now as important as economic demands for the EU in its trade talks with Britain; defence is the defence mechanism of an institution that can’t quite put its finger on why it feels under siege; it is not threatened by a military enemy, but a rival idea. As Mr Hamel puts it, the future belongs to those who can “reap the blessings of bureaucracy – precision, consistency and predictability – while at the same time killing it”.

    That’s if it doesn’t end up killing itself. Not least because, as the world teeters on the brink of another industrial revolution, the rule-obsessed EU is efficiently regulating itself into irrelevance across industries like genetics and AI, even though these will decide the international pecking order for the next 500 years.

    Unable to compute the future, the EU clings to the past. On the desk of Jean Monnet, one of the founders of the EU project, sat a photograph of two young men who set out to cross the Pacific on a small raft, the Kon-Tiki. He enjoyed wondering what they were thinking in that moment, as they looked ahead, knowing there was no going back. But lurking behind this touching fixation with rugged heroism was the moderniser’s mania for the linear. How ironic that, now, as the world changes rapidly around it, the EU, in its obsessive-compulsive quest for orderly direction, is actually standing still.

    3. The EU is a 1940’s solution to the very different world of the 2020s.
      If the politicians of the 1940s had looked back 70 years, they would have taken the 1870s as their model.

      1. Alf and I went and saw “Beautiful” in Woking last week, a musical with songs composed by Carole King, loosely telling her life story. She was amazingly prolific writing over 400 songs which were recorded by over 1000 artists. It was excellent. (This song was one of them, obvs. )

    1. 316678+ up ticks,
      Rik,
      It must surely be recognised by now that via the polling booth the peoples want it that way, whether decent people like it or not the continuing voting pattern dictates who gets political carte blanche.
      Don’t need a graph to show the continuing downward trend decade / decade, year / years, month / month,
      week / week, day / day, hour / hour, minute / minute, hold up, incoming load of sh!te fan bound shortly, guaranteed.
      Does not matter how you re-shuffle the old political deck of 650 you will still end up with a sh!te hand.

  94. Man with 40 aliases jailed after he was caught trying to smuggle people into UK

    A people smuggler was caught after a high-speed chase by Border Force vessels.

    Charles Lynch was stopped with eight Albanian migrants on his motor cruiser Saquerlotte III as he attempted to bring them illegally into the UK across from France in November 2019.

    But the 46-year-old was caught when Border Force (BF) coastal patrol vessel Nimrod and the cutter Seeker chased him and managed to bring him to a stop four miles off Littlehampton, West Sussex.

    When officers spoke to Lynch he gave the name of Wolfram Maximilian Steidl and the eight people on board, including an eight-year-old child, were all found wearing uniforms to fit in with the pretence they were part of a navigation training programme.

    Investigators from the National Crime Agency (NCA) later found that Lynch had previously used up to 40 aliases and they believe he may have links to people smuggling gangs and might have carried out previous attempts.

    2. The people smuggler failed but the Border Force Taxi Service completed the task and brought the 8 people ashore. They have all, no doubt, disappeared into thin air. Job done.

  95. Shirleys are often sensible women. This one certainly is:

    SIR – At the age of 86, I am fit and well, still driving and exhibiting my art and enjoying life with my husband, who is 90.

    We have decided not to be terrified of getting the coronavirus. We have had a good life and if it gets us, it will save a lot of money and inconvenience in the event of having to be looked after in an old people’s home, the prospect of which really is frightening.

    Shirley Page
    Caxton, Cambridgeshire

  96. (Here is Sherelle’s latest article in case it has not already been posted)

    A chilling logic lurks beneath the EU’s farcical Brexit strategy
    SHERELLE JACOBS

    Even diehard Eurosceptics are a little perplexed by the deadpan idiocy of the EU’s negotiating position
    Brussels beautifully captures the disturbed pathology of modern bureaucracy
    Brussels’ babbling inertia in the Brexit trade talks has provoked delight and denial in equal measure among the British commentariat. But it is worth taking a step back from the debate over whether the EU’s negotiating position is “steely” and “eloquent” (The Economist) or “bewildering” and “intransigent” (this newspaper) to consider an even more important question: why, exactly, is Brussels behaving as if nothing has changed? The answer is both fascinating and frightening.

    Even diehard Eurosceptics are a little perplexed by the deadpan idiocy of the EU’s negotiating position – as it has, in recent weeks, prattled on about the Elgin Marbles, lied compulsively about the Political Declaration and flexed its flaccid biceps as if it is still dealing with lightweight Theresa May.

    But far from losing its cool, Brussels is icily acting according to its own perverse, bureaucratic logic. This is driven by a compulsion for one thing only: total control. Both the individuals who make up a given bureaucracy and the entity itself will always act exclusively to shore up power through two main processes: regulating “chaos” and “solving problems”.

    This is reflected in the EU’s blunt refusal to agree a trade-only deal and its ridiculous demands on everything from fishing and the European Court of Justice to defence. Trapped in the mantra that all Brexit pipe dreams lead back to the brick wall of the single market’s integrity, the CBI, Tony Blair, and those Brussels hacks who churn out barely amended EU Commission press releases have failed to grasp the single most important fact about these talks: the EU, driven primarily by the Will to Control, has limited interest in the intricacies of a future trade deal.

    Yes, Michel Barnier seeks to inflict maximum damage on Britain with minimum side-effects for the EU. Yes, protecting the single market is a vital strategic goal. But the EU’s ultimate ambition goes further – it wishes to retain as much influence as possible over as many aspects of British sovereignty as possible, from our immigration policy to our laws.

    For Brussels, unbounded control freakery is a sickness as much as a sentiment. Its bizarre laundry list of demands, which at various points have included the re-airing of member states’ claims to everything from the Elgin Marbles to Gibraltar, betrays the squalid reality that EU countries view Brussels as little more than a vehicle for selfishly advancing their own interests. Not to mention that the EU’s entertainment of such gripes smacks of the micro-managerialist’s fatal inability to set priorities.

    Funnily enough, the latest management thinking offers a devastating insight into the severity of the EU’s troubled pathology. The Chicago-based guru, Gary Hamel, thinks that big corporations too often succumb to “controlism”, viewing “freedom” as its rival. His warning that “as long as control is exalted at the expense of freedom, organisations will remain incompetent at their core” offers plenty of food for thought in the corporate context. But this also hints at the new ideological dividing line in a world that was once split between communists and capitalists.

    With the Soviet Union demolished into dust clouds of mafia-capitalism and the rubble of the Berlin Wall now a consumer item in museum shops, a new argument is slowly taking form. Perhaps the ideological schism of the 21st century will be between those, such as the EU, who believe countries can bring order to modern complexities through regulation and the gravitational pull of centralisation, and those, like Brexit Britain, who reckon that to thrive in our fast-transforming world countries must learn to embrace bottom-up disruption and dissent from orthodoxy.

    It is no coincidence, by the way, that security is now as important as economic demands for the EU in its trade talks with Britain; defence is the defence mechanism of an institution that can’t quite put its finger on why it feels under siege; it is not threatened by a military enemy, but a rival idea. As Mr Hamel puts it, the future belongs to those who can “reap the blessings of bureaucracy – precision, consistency and predictability – while at the same time killing it”.

    That’s if it doesn’t end up killing itself. Not least because, as the world teeters on the brink of another industrial revolution, the rule-obsessed EU is efficiently regulating itself into irrelevance across industries like genetics and AI, even though these will decide the international pecking order for the next 500 years.

    Unable to compute the future, the EU clings to the past. On the desk of Jean Monnet, one of the founders of the EU project, sat a photograph of two young men who set out to cross the Pacific on a small raft, the Kon-Tiki. He enjoyed wondering what they were thinking in that moment, as they looked ahead, knowing there was no going back. But lurking behind this touching fixation with rugged heroism was the moderniser’s mania for the linear. How ironic that, now, as the world changes rapidly around it, the EU, in its obsessive-compulsive quest for orderly direction, is actually standing still.

    2. 316678+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      May one ask, why are we entertaining these talks at all, the true answer to that question could be a chilling one
      knowing the recent past of this counterfeit tory party.
      Total severance, total silence blanket
      laid over brussels for at least a month,
      then replace the overseas phone receiver …… and wait.

      1. Some “facts”: The text of the political declaration. Have a read & see what you think it says, and whether that’s different to what’s being babbled about in the press and on tw@tter.
        https://ec.europa.eu/commission/sites/beta-political/files/revised_political_declaration.pdf

        Some highlights (with paragraph numbers):
        OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES
        16. The Parties recognise that they have a particularly important trading and investment
        relationship, reflecting more than 45 years of economic integration during the United
        Kingdom’s membership of the Union, the sizes of the two economies and their geographic
        proximity, which have led to complex and integrated supply chains.

        17. Against this backdrop, the Parties agree to develop an ambitious, wide-ranging and balanced
        economic partnership. This partnership will be comprehensive, encompassing a Free Trade
        Agreement, as well as wider sectoral cooperation where it is in the mutual interest of both
        Parties. It will be underpinned by provisions ensuring a level playing field for open and fair
        competition, as set out in Section XIV of this Part. It should facilitate trade and investment
        between the Parties to the extent possible, while respecting the integrity of the Union’s
        Single Market and the Customs Union as well as the United Kingdom’s internal market, and
        recognising the development of an independent trade policy by the United Kingdom.

        18. The Parties will retain their autonomy and the ability to regulate economic activity
        according to the levels of protection each deems appropriate in order to achieve legitimate
        public policy objectives such as public health, animal health and welfare, social services,
        public education, safety, the environment including climate change, public morals, social or
        consumer protection, privacy and data protection, and promotion and protection of cultural
        diversity. The economic partnership will recognise that sustainable development is an
        overarching objective of the Parties. The economic partnership will also provide for
        appropriate general exceptions, including in relation to security.

        1. and…
          IX. MOBILITY
          48. Noting that the United Kingdom has decided that the principle of free movement of persons
          between the Union and the United Kingdom will no longer apply, the Parties should
          establish mobility arrangements, as set out below.
          49. The mobility arrangements will be based on non-discrimination between the Union’s
          Member States and full reciprocity.
          50. In this context, the Parties aim to provide, through their domestic laws, for visa-free travel
          for short-term visits.
          51. The Parties agree to consider conditions for entry and stay for purposes such as research,
          study, training and youth exchanges.
          52. The Parties also agree to consider addressing social security coordination in the light of
          future movement of persons.
          53. In line with their applicable laws, the Parties will explore the possibility to facilitate the
          crossing of their respective borders for legitimate travel.
          54. Any provisions will be without prejudice to the Common Travel Area (CTA) arrangements
          as they apply between the United Kingdom and Ireland.
          55. To support mobility, the Parties confirm their commitment to the effective application of the
          existing international family law instruments to which they are parties. The Union notes the
          United Kingdom’s intention to accede to the 2007 Hague Maintenance Convention to which
          it is currently bound through its Union membership.
          56. The Parties will explore options for judicial cooperation in matrimonial, parental
          responsibility and other related matters.
          57. These arrangements would be in addition to commitments on temporary entry and stay of
          natural persons for business purposes in defined areas as referred to in Section III of this
          Part. Those commitments should not be nullified by the right of either Party to apply their
          respective laws, regulations and requirements regarding entry, stay and work.

          1. At first reading, I cannot see anything in the Political Declaration that is to be worried about – the provisions look reasonable to me. DISCLAIMER: I have not had time to read it all, word-for-word, and reflect on the actual meaning or hidden meanings, so be warned!

          2. We should ditch the Common Travel Area. The fact that this was not mentioned in the context of Brexit confirms that the Irish back-stop was a ruse.
            I want to see the Irish treated the same as other EU citizens. I’d also like to see Ireland punished, but that seems unlikely.

          3. “… It will be underpinned by provisions ensuring a level playing field for open and fair competition, as set out in Section XIV of this Part. …”

            In short, Thou shalt NOT control your own tax laws.

            If Boris allows the EU that degree of control under the pretence of meeting the accord then he’s sold us out.

    6. The EU – and all previous incarnations of it – is an attempt to control the nations of Europe.

      The EU seeks to use economics, but economics is only the means to an end.

    7. I hope he doesn’t mind but William Stannier posted this last night and it suggests, to me, that our snivel serpents are also caught in the headlights if progress.

      Our arrogant, overrated Civil Service must now face a political reckoning

      ALLISTER HEATH

      Far from being too radical, Boris Johnson has been too timid

      Who governs this country? It’s no longer Eurocrats in Brussels or judges in Luxembourg, which is a great relief. But who in Britain is taking back control? Will real power lie with the elected politicians, assisted by government employees who work for them and for the manifestos upon which they were elected? Or will it be hoarded by a shameless, self-satisfied Whitehall nomenklatura that has convinced itself that it is the true, permanent government of Britain?
      Will the Treasury still be allowed to “veto” new ideas, the Cabinet Office to block non-Left-wingers from public appointments, the defence establishment to buy overpriced, overspecced and irrelevant kit, and a self-perpetuating Foreign Office oligarchy to instruct Downing Street what to think about Israel or China? And are we happy that it is judges, not politicians, to whom we entrust deciding whether Heathrow expansion should be given the go-ahead?

      Brexit isn’t enough: politicians need to take back control, to renew our democratic culture, reintroduce accountability and improve the quality of the state. They need to be forced to take responsibility even when they don’t want it. They must become their own masters, working on behalf of their electorate, not spokespersons for out-of-control departments. They need to relearn to be managers, moulding the system to their commands. They should hire their own people, not inherit hostile teams.

      If politicians cannot make their minds up on an issue, they ought to call referenda, not abdicate decision-making to mandarins or judges. Our system of government is no longer fit for purpose: the old Yes, Minister civil service and its jobs for life and gongs for failure has run out of time; but so has the more recent technocratic and juristocratic experiment.

      The deep state needs a reality check: it is not as competent as it believes. Civil servants are not an anointed class. They probably notch up more errors than they prevent ministers from making. They, too, must face a pitiless reckoning. The Treasury was right on the euro and austerity; it is correct to worry about excessively large national debts. But it was catastrophically misguided on monetarism (it fought it), on the ERM, on EU membership and on Brexit, on productivity, financial stability, supply-side economics (it doesn’t believe in it), the useless fiscal rules and many other great questions over the past hundred years.

      Philosophically, it is collectivist, viewing tax cuts as “handouts” that are a “cost” to the exchequer. It played an enabling role in the Brownite revolution and then the Remain counter-coup. It does not deserve a special, elevated constitutional position with the right to tell the PM what to do – in fact, its litany of failures suggest that it should be drastically downsized, downgraded and turned into a bog-standard finance ministry.

      As to the Foreign Office, it has been wrong on all the big issues, appallingly so, and the Home Office is a joke. In the private sector, a new boss tasked with turning around a bankrupt conglomerate would fire layers of management, bring in their own teams, merge or shut subsidiaries and restructure massively. Ideally, the government would commission a new Northcote–Trevelyan report and replace the civil service with a completely new organisation. At the very least, major changes are required, with the PM as the government’s CEO.

      Boris Johnson, understandably, is focused on outcomes, not processes; at its core, his project is one of national renewal. But a series of massive failures of delivery are inevitable unless he acts urgently. Far from being too extreme, as his critics are claiming, the PM has been too timid. No senior mandarin has yet been asked to leave.

      Sir Mark Sedwill, the powerful Cabinet Secretary, appears safe for now. Despite an outrageous clash with Priti Patel, Sir Philip Rutnam, the Home Office permanent secretary, is still in his job. Why? What’s the betting that his hopeless Home Office will fail to push through all of the immigration changes smoothly on 1 January? Yes, the Cabinet Office, No 10 and the Treasury are working more closely (though the former was reportedly pitted against Downing Street on the Defence Review), but there has been no genuine structural revolution.

      Reforming the structure of government to make it work better and effectively, whether one believes the state should be larger or smaller, is one of the most hotly debated ideas on the US Right, made all the more pressing by the chaos surrounding coronavirus.

      In an influential blog post, Tyler Cowen, an American economist, recently coined the concept of “state capacity libertarianism”. I don’t agree with all of it, but the core thesis is a brilliant way of looking at Johnsonism. Cowen believes in a strong, efficient state (as well as lower taxes and less regulation) that can extend capitalism and protect markets (including from hostile nations), deal with pandemics, manage immigration and reform state education. State Capacity Libertarians like Cowen believe that the US and UK governments are deeply incompetent but that this can be rectified. They have positive views of infrastructure, science subsidies, nuclear power, space programmes and the various ways South East Asian states have developed their economies.

      But what of the claim that reforming the machinery of government to bolster “state capacity” would be unconservative? This argument is bogus, as Danny Kruger, a new Tory MP, reminds us in a series of brilliant observations on Twitter. Edmund Burke “campaigned to abolish half the offices of state, especially those hoary with antiquity and irrelevance”, backed war against France and US independence. Tories often need to be radicals to preserve conservatism. This is one such moment.

      The reforms first need to centralise, and then decentralise: once the Government is working towards a set of common aims through new structures, contracts and teams, ministers should be given plenty of discretion to deliver. Dominic Cummings has read and absorbed Hayek: he is no central planner. It’s time for Boris to turn to another Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, and unleash a dose of creative destruction on our tragically over-rated civil service.

      1. The civil service is an odd organisation.

        The reason it’s existed so long is because it does the absolute bare minimum of anything at all times.

        It is dedicated to means, not ends. That the outcomes will always be the same. It does not change, learn or adapt. It implements nor demands failure clauses. It always responds with more money – usually because it is corrupt in that comical British manner of a chum of a chum needing a hand and the chum he went to school with being the right man to help.

        You cannot replace it because if you do, it cannot function. The lower ranks do most of the real work but have no power to change things. The higher ranks don’t want anything to change and have all the power and, crucially, know how the engine works. Putting in a new broom would have the individual utterly bamboozled as to why absolutely nothing got done. By the time they had a grip on things, the new guys would be in office. Rinse, repeat.

        What has happened is the scale and size of the state is now so large that it cannot help but fail. The first approach must be to break it up and to examine what the components do – but that cannot be done by ministers who need work completed and it won’t be done by mandarins so….

  97. Pouring down here. Off to Cahors to have a decent lunch and visit a favourite vineyard to buy some Malbec.

      1. Morning all.

        As far as I know no Coronavirus has been found in France. Could this be because they are unclean?!!!!

        2. It’s the garlic and frogs’ legs.

          France was one of the earlier European countriess to report cases. I believe there has been at least one death.

        3. “A peck of dirt never did no one no harm”. Wasn’t that the old expression, grammatical or not. And haven’t allergies increased multifold since we were encouraged to be 100% ‘clean’. I’ve seen ads for surface sprays aimed at mothers protecting their poor little kiddies…

          1. I recall a similar expression, you’ll eat a peck of dirt before you die.

            A peck was the old measure of a measure of capacity for dry goods, equal to a quarter of a bushel (2 imperial gallons = 9.092 litres, or 8 US quarts = 8.81 l)
            Rather more than a bird’s peck.

          1. Whoa 😮 that must be something ist – oh – libellousist? 🙀 if Bill works ere he’d tell us.
            Edit : If Bill woz

  100. 1,350-home development on Barnet business park approved

    A plan to build more than 1,000 homes on the site of a business park will go ahead after it was approved by the housing minister.

    Comer Homes has won permission to build housing blocks up to nine storeys high on North London Business Park in Brunswick Park.

    The development will provide 1,350 homes – ten per cent of which will be classed as affordable.

    Barnet Council’s planning committee refused permission for a version of the giant scheme in June 2017 after receiving 250 objections from residents.

    Councillors objected to its density and height, which was deemed out of character with the surrounding area – a predominantly suburban neighbourhood of two-storey family homes.

    But an appeal by the developer was upheld by a planning inspector, whose decision was backed by housing secretary Robert Jenrick – meaning an amended scheme can now go ahead.

    Barnet Council will have to pay costs to the developer for “unreasonable behaviour” that led to “unnecessary or wasted expense in the appeal process”.

    The planning inspector said the council failed to provide evidence to support the reasons for refusal and made “only vague and generalised assertions, unsupported by objective analysis, about the proposal’s impact”.

    1. An affordable house, remember is one where no one can afford them.

      There are half affordable houses (which are hutches) around a housing estate near us. They are mortaged for £90,000. Great! You think. I’ll have two!

      But that’s because the other two thirds is shared ownership. And you still have to pay rent on the other 180,000 at £600 odd a month for the arrangement these guys offer.

      If you could afford that rent you wouldn’t be looking for shared ownership, but to buy outright – as it’s more than the blasted mortgage.

      1. Many of these hutches are stuffed with Grenfell foam insulation; if they ever catch fire, they will not be easy to extinguish.

    2. They will be 600k at least for a 2 bed 2 up 2 down.
      The affordable properties will be over half a million.

          2. One for Rastus.

            Send our most senior policewoman to investigate, then they could Troilus and Cressida.

    1. I survived ten years boarding at prep and public school and even enjoyed drinking Corona’s Dandelion and Burdock, Cherryade and American Cream Soda soft drink favours so I should be immune.

  105. Greater Anglia Chaos Again

    ue to a problem at a level crossing between Norwich and Great Yarmouth trains have to run at reduced speed on all lines. Train services to and from these stations may be subject to disruption on all routes. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.
    Additional Information

    Due to problems at multiple level crossings between Norwich and Reedham services are being disrupted.

    Trains are having to be cautioned over the crossings, which is taking on delays.

    Multiple faults with signals, cctv cameras and phones that operate the level crossing have failed. Trains are being cautioned past signals and over level crossings.

    1. East Anglia is over-populated and has probably some of the oldest and over-used lines in the country.
      170 years of patching up takes its toll.

      1. We are doing our best to reduce the Population, Anne. Aiming at settling in France later this year.

        1. Tacked on to older infrastructure.
          There is also a case of technology being too clever by half. The same applies to cars, washing machines and just about anything that techies can get their hands on.

          2. Except the rails, the points, the crossing-gates, the platforms, the ticket orifice et al, it’s all new!

          5. My father had Morris Minor at one time. As far as I can recall it had one dial on the dashboard and half a dozen buttons and switches.
            The old Mini was similar. Modern equivalent cars have dashboards resembling the flight deck of Concorde. (We a car with some controls I have never used in ten years.)
            Yet we also have the technology to put everything into one dial, with the display changeable by means of a control on the steering wheel.
            So why does that not happen?

          6. Some of the options on my car are amazing. I can completely turn off all of the traction control features! I wonder who came up with that bright idea. It would make this mornings drive in the snow a real test of courage.

            Then there is the “It might be icy outside” warning light – in Canada that light comes on in November and stays on until March, what a waste of space.

          7. Not only do the dashboards resemble Concorde, the on-board computers seem to think they are flying supersonic as well. I discovered I have a sensor in my exhaust which detects and regulates the oxygen flow. I only found out about it when it went wrong, of course!

  106. And about bloody time. No doubt “lessons will not be learnt”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/26/boris-johnson-commits-inquiry-scandal-subpostmasters-accused/

    “Boris Johnson to hold inquiry into scandal of subpostmasters accused of fraud

    MP claims errors have lead to ‘bankruptcy, imprisonment and even suicides’

    26 February 2020 • 11:01pm

    The Government will commit to holding an independent inquiry following a legal ruling affecting hundreds of subpostmasters, Boris Johnson has suggested.

    Mr Johnson’s comments came as Labour’s Kate Osborne raised the “Post Office Horizon IT system scandal” during Prime Minister’s questions and urged him to “commit to launching an independent inquiry”.

    Mr Johnson responded: “I am happy to commit to getting to the bottom of the matter in the way that she recommends.”

    Raising the issue in the Commons, Ms Osborne, the MP for Jarrow said: “Like many other subpostmasters my constituent Chris Head was victim to the Post Office Horizon IT system scandal.

    “These errors have resulted in bankruptcy, imprisonment and even suicides. Will the Prime Minister today assure Chris and others that he will commit to launching an independent inquiry?”

    Mr Johnson replied: “I am indeed aware of the scandal to which she alludes and the disasters that has befallen many Post Office workers and I am happy – I’ve met some of them myself – and I am happy to commit to getting to the bottom of the matter in the way that she recommends.”

    Software defects

    Advertisement

    The Post Office’s Horizon computer system was found to have contained a number of software defects which caused shortfalls in the subpostmasters’ branch accounts over a number of years.

    Hundreds of subpostmasters were accused of false accounting and theft. As a result, some were made bankrupt, while others were prosecuted and even jailed.

    At the High Court Last year, Mr Justice Fraser approved a £58 million settlement between the Post Office and more than 550 claimants over the scandal.

    The High Court judge subsequently referred the case to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in relation to evidence given by employees of Fujitsu, which developed and maintained the Horizon system, in previous court cases.”

  107. Boris Johnson to enrage EU by abandoning part of deal he signed and rejecting alignment ahead of crunch talks

    Boris Johnson is set to enrage EU leaders by abandoning part of the Brexit agreement he signed and rejecting calls for alignment in a trade deal.

    The bloc laid out its position on Tuesday, reiterating calls for a level playing field between Britain and the EU27, with the UK to outline its stance today.

    European figureheads have insisted access to the single market could hinge upon shared standards.

    But, despite the risk of derailing talks, Britain is expected to ignore their demands.

  108. Mail to Sir JR…

    Noticed that there was a very small and shy look at the elephant on Monday. That must have been a first in the history of your blog !

    So maybe it’s time to be more adventurous ?

    Which British policies have been ”leveraged” by Open Society ?

    Which British ”officials and politicians” are, and have been, in a ”strong relationship” with Open Society ?

    Look forward to hearing from you. I expect both lists will be long.

    Polly

  109. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall announces closure of River Cottage restaurant in Bristol

    A renowned celebrity chef has announced the closure of his Bristol restaurant. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is known for hosting the River Cottage series on Channel 4, in which he strives to become a self-reliant farmer in rural England

    The 55-year-old established an organic smallholding and cookery school known as River Cottage HQ in Dorset in 2004, and the operation is now based at Park Farm near Axminster.

    He went on to open restaurants in Axminster, Winchester and Bristol – but today he has announced that his Whiteladies Road restaurant will close on March 27 after seven years of trading.

    The chef, who is also a campaigner on issues related to food production including animal welfare, blamed the closure on ‘rising costs and challenging market conditions’.

      1. There is a pretty limited customer base for paying exceedingly high prices for a tiny amount of food. They can survive in London but outside of London there are few places you can have a viable Celebrity chef business as their costs are simple to high and people will not pay that price

        1. From what I’ve seen, prices in London are far more competitive and reasonable. There’s a “gastropub” near me which is ridiculously overpriced, but it has little competition. I think it survives because it’s right on the river Yare.

  110. The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from the Consulate at Bergen, Norway.
    Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard of temperatures in the Arctic zone.
    Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.
    Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the gulf stream still very warm.
    Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.
    Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while vast shoals of herring and smelts which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.
    Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will rise and make most coast cities uninhabitable.
    I must apologize. I neglected to mention that this report was from November 2 , 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post 96 years ago. This must have been caused by the Model T Ford’s emissions or possibly from horse and cattle farts.

    2. As we probably suspected – many of these protesters are a right bunch of bankers! (or was it w….)

  112. BBC’s Wynne Evans sacking call over hosting Tory fundraiser

    Just what is wrong with people ? Now of course had it been a Labour party event that would have been a very different matter.. The BBC have of course reprimanded him and informed him of the error of his ways

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51659270

    1. Coming i as a student is a favorite scam for getting into the UK

      Total population grown for the UK looks as if it is close to increasing by 1M a year

  115. Town on lockdown after holidaymaker brings coronavirus home: GP surgery shuts, primary school closes and residents are left too scared to go to the shops in Derbyshire after ‘parent who stayed at Tenerife quarantine hotel’ becomes latest confirmed case

    WE should be screening everyone that arrives in the UK including transit passengers

    Yes it would cause some delays but better to keep the UK clear

  117. UK weather forecast: Storm Jorge set to batter Britain with 70mph winds this weekend after wreaking havoc in Spain

    Another storm is set to hit the UK, battering already flood-hit parts of the country with heavy rain and winds of up to 70mph this weekend.

    The weather front, named in Spain as Storm Jorge, will barrel up from the Mediterranean country on Friday and continue the deluge.

    Up to 80 and 100mm could fall on parts of Wales and northern England where the heaviest downpours are predicte

    2. Why are weather fronts – always with personal names – described these days as “barrelling-up”?

      Was a time when they just used to arrive …. and do it anonymously too.

  118. Not funny, but what a scream!

    A pensioner used her parrot as a “weapon” to harass her neighbours during a three-year row sparked by a parking dispute, a court was told.

    Catherine Searle, 81, encouraged the bird to sing loudly by playing opera music at a high volume when Paul and Lydia Appleton were relaxing in their garden, Maidstone Magistrates Court heard.

    Describing the sound as “akin to Chinese torture”, the Appletons said they were unable to escape the parrot’s “very loud piercing noises” and had faced “hostility” from other neighbours as a result.

    The court heard that Searle waged a three-year campaign of harassment against them following a row about parking in their street in Seal, near Sevenoaks in Kent.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/27/pensioner-81-used-opera-singing-parrot-torture-neighbours/

    (I cannot access the rest of the story)

  119. QT tonight…

    Fiona Bruce hosts the political debate from Middlesbrough. The panellists are Industry Minister Nadhim Zahawi, Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth, Big Issue founder and cross-bench peer John Bird, Daily Mirror editor Alison Phillips and lawyer Ayesha Vardag.

  120. Minorities Hugely Overrepresented in UK Television

    I wonder what the BBC and C4 will do about this imbalance? I suspect nothing

    A major survey of the British television industry has found that, contrary to popular belief among “woke” commentators, gay people and ethnic minorities are massively overrepresented.

    The Creative Diversity Network (CDN) published its Diamond: The Third Cut report after surveying “over 30,000 diversity forms relating to over 600,000 TV production contributions”.

    The CDN found that “BAME [Black and Minority Ethnic] on-screen representation” is a remarkable 23 per cent — far above the BAME share of the British general population, estimated at 14 per cent.

    Gay people also get far more on-screen roles than their proportional representation in broader British society would suggest, accounting for 10.7 per cent, 10.5 per cent, 13.1 per cent, an astonishing 18.1 per cent, and 7.6 per cent of on-screen contributions at the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky, respectively, despite making up just 6.4 per cent of the general population.

    Gay people were similarly overrepresented off-screen, accounting for 14.7 per cent, 14.1 per cent, 16.1 per cent, 12.5 per cent, and 10.4 per cent of off-screen jobs at the same five broadcasters.

    1. All part of the plan to make us believe such proportions are normal and real so that when they become reality, we won’t bat an eyelid.

  121. Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases

    The Department of Justice announced today that the Chair of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department and two Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China.

    Dr. Charles Lieber, 60, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, was arrested this morning and charged by criminal complaint with one count of making a materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statement. Lieber will appear this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts.

    Yanqing Ye, 29, a Chinese national, was charged in an indictment today with one count each of visa fraud, making false statements, acting as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy. Ye is currently in China.

    Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national, was arrested on Dec. 10, 2019, at Boston’s Logan International Airport and charged by criminal complaint with attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China. On Jan. 21, 2020, Zheng was indicted on one count of smuggling goods from the United States and one count of making false, fictitious or fraudulent statements. He has been detained since Dec. 30, 2019.
    Dr. Charles Lieber

    According to court documents, since 2008, Dr. Lieber who has served as the Principal Investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard University, which specialized in the area of nanoscience, has received more than $15,000,000 in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD). These grants require the disclosure of significant foreign financial conflicts of interest, including financial support from foreign governments or foreign entities. Unbeknownst to Harvard University beginning in 2011, Lieber became a “Strategic Scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China and was a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from in or about 2012 to 2017. China’s Thousand Talents Plan is one of the most prominent Chinese Talent recruit plans that are designed to attract, recruit, and cultivate high-level scientific talent in furtherance of China’s scientific development, economic prosperity and national security. These talent programs seek to lure Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts to bring their knowledge and experience to China and reward individuals for stealing proprietary information. Under the terms of Lieber’s three-year Thousand Talents contract, WUT paid Lieber $50,000 USD per month, living expenses of up to 1,000,000 Chinese Yuan (approximately $158,000 USD at the time) and awarded him more than $1.5 million to establish a research lab at WUT. In return, Lieber was obligated to work for WUT “not less than nine months a year” by “declaring international cooperation projects, cultivating young teachers and Ph.D. students, organizing international conference[s], applying for patents and publishing articles in the name of” WUT.

    The complaint alleges that in 2018 and 2019, Lieber lied about his involvement in the Thousand Talents Plan and affiliation with WUT. On or about, April 24, 2018, during an interview with investigators, Lieber stated that he was never asked to participate in the Thousand Talents Program, but he “wasn’t sure” how China categorized him. In November 2018, NIH inquired of Harvard whether Lieber had failed to disclose his then-suspected relationship with WUT and China’s Thousand Talents Plan. Lieber caused Harvard to falsely tell NIH that Lieber “had no formal association with WUT” after 2012, that “WUT continued to falsely exaggerate” his involvement with WUT in subsequent years, and that Lieber “is not and has never been a participant in” China’s Thousand Talents Plan.

    China has been involved in industrial espionage and intellectual property thefts for a long time, aided and abetted by US nationals (among others, I’m sure). Looks like Trump’s Justice Department is going after some of them. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac1af4f6a0a9fe983c787bfa26d5e007e5b03a0f53b75c958adb64209fc2a38d.jpg

  122. Model, 25, goes blind after getting her eyeballs tattooed black

    What sane person would even think this is sensible ?

    A model who got her eyes inked black is now experiencing severe vision problems. She has lost sight in one eye – and her tattooist is awaiting a court case

    The model, from Poland, Wroclaw, had hoped the extreme inkings would make her look like rap artist Popek.

    She copied the artist by asking for the whites of her eyes to be dyed black.

    But the 25-year-old’s procedure went wrong, causing “irreparable” damage to her right eye.

    The unnamed artist who did the tattooing may now facing three years in prison for unintentionally disabling the woman, local media reports.

    1. There should be a sign at the door of every tattoo parlour to the effect that only those without a working brain will be allowed in.

      I don’t think it would impact on their business one iota.

      1. The artickle was not clear but I think it took place in Poland but the UK has pretty much no real regulation of tattooing or piecings

    3. MB and i have just been discussing that.
      Are there no limits to the depths of human stupidity?

      1. ‘Are there no limits to the depths of human stupidity?’

        I fear not, Anne and MB!

        Good evening to you both.

    1. What is it all about ? They drive along a track with all the back up vehicles, get out, get on a bike and fall off in the sand. Dry sand is one of the most difficult terrains to ride on with two wheels. Next day they leave the ‘camp’ again and walk up a sand dune with two sticks. Come down and get back into the back up vehicles……….next !
      I liked watching the programme, but does any believe that Veteran (73 ?) actor Tony Robison walked the whole of the way (192 miles)
      from coast to coast ?

    1. Look on the bright side.

      The UK Government will take in so much inheritance tax that the national debt will be paid off, pension payments will plummet, beneficiaries who survive will have so much money that VAT and other consumption taxes will sky-rocket.
      The NHS will become a ghost town with all the elderly sick, the infirm, those with any weaknesses having been killed off.
      etc etc .

    2. Look on the bright side.

      The UK Government will take in so much inheritance tax that the national debt will be paid off, pension payments will plummet, beneficiaries who survive will have so much money that VAT and other consumption taxes will sky-rocket.
      The NHS will become a ghost town with all the elderly sick, the infirm, those with any weaknesses having been killed off.
      etc etc .

    3. There are regulations today that would prevent or ameliorate a 1929-style crash:

      1. In 1929, it was perfectly possible to save prudently in a bank savings account and lose most of your money because bank deposits weren’t insured. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now insures bank deposits up to $250,000 per bank per person and often more depending on how the deposits are titled. Deposit insurance from the federal government also covers most credit unions.

      2. The Federal Reserve Bank now regulates margin loans: The current maximum amount of margin is 50 percent. In other words, at least half of the stock you buy must be with your own money.

      3. The Securities Act of 1933 cracked down on fraud in the financial services industry and required publicly traded companies to give investors information about their financial condition. And the Investment Company Act of 1940 unified rules for mutual fund companies and limited the purchase of securities on margin.

      https://www.aarp.org/money/investing/info-2019/1929-stock-market-crash-takeaways.html

    4. There are regulations today that would prevent or ameliorate a 1929-style crash:

      1. In 1929, it was perfectly possible to save prudently in a bank savings account and lose most of your money because bank deposits weren’t insured. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now insures bank deposits up to $250,000 per bank per person and often more depending on how the deposits are titled. Deposit insurance from the federal government also covers most credit unions.

      2. The Federal Reserve Bank now regulates margin loans: The current maximum amount of margin is 50 percent. In other words, at least half of the stock you buy must be with your own money.

      3. The Securities Act of 1933 cracked down on fraud in the financial services industry and required publicly traded companies to give investors information about their financial condition. And the Investment Company Act of 1940 unified rules for mutual fund companies and limited the purchase of securities on margin.

      https://www.aarp.org/money/investing/info-2019/1929-stock-market-crash-takeaways.html

  127. Develop Manston as London Hub airport. Not a perfect solution but there is no perfect solution. Manston would mean most flight coming in and landing over the sea minimizing any noise nuisance. It is further away from London than ideal but not by much and could easily be linked to HS1 and to Heathrow & the Old Oak Common rail hub. Most of the long haul traffic could be moved to Manston with Heathrow handling the short haul traffic

    1. I’ve been in Ramsgate when freight flights have landed at Manston. The noise is horrendous.

    1. 316678+ up ticks,
      BJ,
      The current NEc are in the process of destroying UKIP as was under Gerard Batten, that was a success in the making and was NOT to be tolerated in any shape or form.
      This ersatz NEc is laying out a prototype campaign for any anti submissive, PC,
      Appeasement party coming into being
      and how to suppress / destroy them.
      Once UKIP is finally taken down then
      others are in dire danger, as in a matter of time………..

    2. IF your assumption is correct [you being the know all, see all, hear all
      of every thing and nothing,] what is your solution?
      After all you have an answer for every wrong in the World……………

      What is your considered opinion?

    3. 316678+ up ticks,
      BJ,
      The current NEc are in the process of destroying UKIP as was under Gerard Batten, that was a success in the making and was NOT to be tolerated in any shape or form.
      This ersatz NEc is laying out a prototype campaign for any anti submissive, PC,
      Appeasement party coming into being
      and how to suppress / destroy them.
      Once UKIP is finally taken down then
      others are in dire danger, as in a matter of time………..

          1. From my log:

            “A moorhen chick, but a few days, old took an expected flight, when out of the blue a herring gull swooped down and plucked the chick from the water just in front of my boat. As the gull sped away, I could clearly see the chick’s tiny legs dangling from one side of the gull’s beak. Having been lifted from the cold waters of the river, I guessed the chick was heading for warmer climes – namely the gull’s gullet.

          1. I was photographing a great white egret (similar size to a grey heron) in Northumberland a few years ago as it stalked through the rough pasture alongside a river. It was having a great time hammering bank voles. They were swallowed whole before they even realised they’d been caught. I photographed it eating three in the space of about 30 seconds.

            I also watched a grey heron on a river in Southern Spain attempting to deal with a terrapin the size of a dinner plate. It held it by a leg, or any other protruberance such as its neck and swung it hard against a boulder, hoping to get a morsel or two. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7dd0ebba0502b868ede15309a05ad481b6e30df8deabea16b58766b1a4aef3e0.jpg

          2. My dog, a sweet natured beast, loves voles (damn, an anagram). If he finds one in the open, which is rare, he’s like greased lightning. Wham,crunch and gulp. Just his instincts.

  132. Well, February’s storms are set to continue this weekend. But the good news is that that will be the end of them because Sunday is 1 March.

    1. Jeb Bush is the 43rd Governor of Florida, son of President George Herbert Walker Bush (41st US President) and brother of President George Walker Bush, Jr. (43rd US President).

    2. I find it hard to understand how Mr and Mrs Gove ever managed to summon up the necessary enthusiasm to go through the deed necessary for procreation. I would have thought that a life of total celibacy would have been preferable.

  136. Caroline has just bought me a new keyboard so I am hoping that I shall make fewer typos. At the moment I am finding that some of the keys are not in the same place as they were on my former keyboard which will be taken to the attic if I can prevent Caroline from taking it to the décheterie.

  139. Phew!
    Just back from a 2h stint with the battery chainsaw clearing a bit more of an ash tree that dropped across one of the footpaths up the road a couple of years ago.
    For £150 with three batteries & charger from Aldi, it’s a lovely bit of kit and much lighter than my petrol saw.

      1. 40v batteries and a 250mm cutter. Just enough to deal with an 18″ log if you work from both sides.

  140. UK to withdraw from European arrest warrant

    The UK is to abandon a crucial tool used to speed up the transfer of criminals across borders with other European countries.

    Acting against the warnings of senior law enforcement officials, the government said it would not be seeking to participate in the European arrest warrant (EAW) as part of the future relationship with the European Union.

    In a document setting out the UK’s approach to negotiations with the EU, the government said: “The UK is not seeking to participate in the European arrest warrant as part of the future relationship.

    “The agreement should instead provide for fast-track extradition arrangements, based on the EU’s surrender agreement with Norway and Iceland which came into force in 2019, but with appropriate further safeguards for individuals beyond those in the European arrest warrant.”

    1. Good news if true. The EAW did away with habeas corpus and the pesky need to present evidence before a magistrate before a warrant was issued.

  142. Chancellor Sunak orders new post-budget economic forecasts

    – British finance minister Rishi Sunak ordered an additional set of economic forecasts to be produced by the country’s independent budget forecaster, asking that they be published on March 13 – two days after he delivers his first budget.

    “Given the unique circumstances this year, I would like to commission the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) to publish a second forecast on the 13 March, to provide a limited update to the 11 March forecast,” Sunak said in a letter to OBR Chairman Robert Chote.

    The request reflects the fact that the OBR is legally bound to produce two sets of forecasts per financial year and, because a planned budget in 2019 was cancelled due to a general election, has only produced one set in the current period.

  143. Khan orders traffic in Central London to be sped up to 20mph

    Transport for London has quietly published figures showing that average daytime speeds on main roads in central London dropped to 7.8mph between July and September, down from 8.1mph a year earlier. There were an unprecedented 8,146 roadworks on main roads in Greater London in the same period – almost 900 more than last year.

    1. They’ll be claiming next that they aren’t actually dolls, but real people and that there isn’t a drop of cat blood in any of them.

    2. They’ll be claiming next that they aren’t actually dolls, but real people and that there isn’t a drop of cat blood in any of them.

    1. Big fish in a small pond.

      These media types do love to be giving themselves awards, don’t they?

          2. I do have gout and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Well, not people I like or on here at least.

    2. Big fish in a small pond.

      These media types do love to be giving themselves awards, don’t they?

  153. Strange:-

    William Stanier HardcastleCraggs • 3 hours ago
    “…the only way Le Fey could prove her new gender would be an “undignified examination”, one that court staff were not prepared to do…”

    They didn’t have to pull its knickers down. A DNA test would have sufficed.

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    3. Sounds daft on that basis any could not declare their gender and they dont get sent to jail. Simple answer though just check the birth certificate

  155. One does feel better for a walk in dry, sunny, weather …. even in such a biting wind. Some thoughts.

    OMG how much I detest identity politics.
    Opposition benches in Parliament seem to be full of moaners complaining how miserable life is for their disabled/vulnerable/obese/disadvantaged/hard-up constituents … and
    They must find the BBC agreeable viewing because it’s misery almost 24/7 on the BBC …

  156. Sunday Mail editor leaves as seven redundancies fall at Reach Scotland

    The editor of the Sunday Mail left the title last week as seven redundancies fell across the newspaper and sister Scottish title the Daily Record.

    Brendan McGinty was appointed editor of the Mail and deputy editor of the Record in October 2016 when the editorial teams of the two Glasgow-based papers merged to create a seven-day operation.

    McGinty had worked on the Sunday Mail since joining as a reporter in 2001, spending eight years as news editor and four as deputy editor.

    Reach, publisher of the Mirror, Express and Star titles, did not confirm which six other roles had been affected by the redundancies.

  158. Nicked

    Quick
    background on today’s lunacy. The law being cited is the Climate Change
    Act 2008, brought in by Gorgon Broon. It puts a duty (now legally
    binding) on the Secretary of State to reduce our “net carbon account”
    below the 1990 level by 2050.

    The reduction was set at 80%, i.e. down to 20% of 1990 levels.

    Treasona May, in a final act of insane spite, changed that to 100% reduction, i.e. down to zero net emissions by 2050.

    But either way, as long as we’re one carbon above that target, any
    government action can now be held to be unlawful if it is likely to
    increase net emissions. The precedent is set, until and unless it’s
    appealed.

    I personally believe the verdict is correct. It is a
    binding duty. If the government wants to change that, it has to change
    the law.

    Further, I would argue – and ecomentals will argue
    – that all government actions must reduce net emissions. Further to
    the further, they could (and will) argue that government inaction (doing nothing and failing to reduce net emissions) is unlawful.

    This madness will only escalate until the law is changed or shredded. It
    can’t come soon enough, and it must be done openly, boldly, and
    apologetically, before people start dying because of it”
    Hmm HS2 is in a bit of bother then

    1. Of course, if chinovirus were to kill 150,000 British pensioners, that would reap benefits both for the Treasury and for the Ministry of Carbon Lie-oxide.

    2. Of course, if chinovirus were to kill 150,000 British pensioners, that would reap benefits both for the Treasury and for the Ministry of Carbon Lie-oxide.

    4. What happens if the target is not met? Does someone in the government go to jail? And what happened to the fact that no UK government is legally bound by actions of its predecessors?

      1. AlfredtheGreat asked your first 2 questions of our MP some months ago. The answer was that the relevant minister would announce in Parliament that the target has not been met and that would be it!

  159. 316678+ up ticks,
    They have IMO, and in conjunction with what passes as the tory party & later lib/dems built a successful pro eu coalition.
    Especially post Margaret Thatcher when the actions of the coalition in regards to rubber stamping eu orders
    made the toxic trio more devious & treacherous in supplying brussels demands, & rhetorically keeping their members deceived.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1233035034002644992

  160. The huge drop in Newspaper circulation and the drop is massive

    2000 16 daily and sunday paper – 21.2M
    2010 17 daily & sunday papers – 16.4 M
    2020 17 daily & sunday papers – 7.4M

    1. When I was a kid they used to say to me, ” Don’t read while you are eating “. Later on, they would say ” Don’t read over meals when you are out in a restaurant ”
      Now, everywhere I go, peiople are reading tablets. And I don’t mean the Ten Commandments.

    2. When my local corner shop was sold we found we had no more Paper boys and girls to deliver our newspapers. At least they escaped being raped because the new muslim owners didn’t want news disseminated.

    1. Thankyou. Love this kind of music. Especially welcome as Radio 3 has moved on to its evening PC woke agenda.

    1. I cannot see any likelihood of an agreement. I suspect that we will be walking away sooner than you think.
      The EU are due for a massive re-organisation; they are falling over a cliff, slowly.

      1. I hate to quibble, but as a rock climber (retired) with some experience of these matters, I can assure you that you cannot fall over a cliff slowly! The main problems occur with the deceleration at the end of the fall!

          1. Depends really on what is at the end of the fall – hence the attraction of climbing steep rock – less to hit on the way down (unless you actually hit the deck!!).

          2. I did once in Montpellier when we were sunbathing on rocks in the hills jump 150 feet into a mountain pool. It was quite a climb to the jump point but i had seen teenagers do it and i thought WTF.

            There were some shocked faces.

            What i found funny was opening my eyes after the jump and seeing all those big rocks surrounding me in crystal clear water.

            Not all young people are daft but some are reckless….

      2. No he will not walk yet. He is just laying down the opening position. It will not be the final position there will be some concessions to come later

  165. The pound has fallen from 1.19 € to the pound to 1.17 € to the pound since Boris Johnson said he was not going to give in to the EU’s absurd attempts at blackmail.

    Since The EU and the eurozone have far more to lose if Britain opts for ‘No deal’ surely the currency market is going the wrong way? The more likely that it is that the UK will walk away from a trade deal with the EU the stronger the pound should be against a weakening euro?

    2. Well the pound going down is not necessarily bad. It is more down to the big falls in the stock markets in any case,

      A falling pound makes our export cheaper therefore more competitive and imports more expensive. Factor in our leaving the EU it will make the UK more attractive to set up manufacturing

      Overall I would say it is a positive although in the short term it could push up prices a bit an make overseas holidays a bit more expensive but that could benefit the UK leisure industry. People would still probably tak their main holiday abroad but for short breaks would probably stay in the UK

      1. “Factor in our leaving the EU it will make the UK more attractive to set up manufacturing”

        Of course it will. Companies can’t wait to build big industrial plants here assuming they can find a council that will let them, then deal with the insane tax laws, then high employment rights, and huge wages compared to say Vietnam where you can build anywhere, have a surfeit of educated staff, very low wages, and then just ship products around the world in containers.

        You really don’t have a clue how this globalisation thing works.

  169. QT:

    1) Aaaaaaaarrrrrgh! Alison Phillips is wearing a blouse in Deliveroo green. Does anybody share my abhorrence of this increasingly pervasive colour? It’s everywhere you look.

    2) Jon Arshworth is as slippery & greasy as a Rotzbrocken.

  172. 316678+ up ticks,
    When Gerard Batten took the leadership over the finances of UKIP were in bad shape, Gerard put a call out to the membership asking for £100,000 and he received £300,000 in reply.
    He was judged by the current NEc to be “not of good standing” and not allowed to stand at the 2019 election.
    Richard Braine was an outright winner who wanted GB as his deputy, the rest is history that needs rectifying going forward.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1233070774170398724

    1. Well with the May elections coming up will they be fighting any of them. I woul suspect as well they will loose quite a lot of the council seats they hold

      Will the Brexit Party be fighting any council seats? Who knows the party seems pretty much dormant at present

      2. 316678+ up ticks,
        BJ,
        In my book both are not what it had on the tin, current UKIP NEc are ersatz UKIP.
        The brexit group was always a back up group for the tories.

  174. Evening, all. It’s been so sunny today I’ve managed to get out in the garden and start restoring the borders after the disruption of the drainage work. Lazy wind, though; it went through rather than round.

  176. I am delighted to see that the weather forecast for Bristol tomorrow predicts that it will rain cats and dogs all day.

    1. It is indeed. I’d never heard that duet before I only knew part of the music as the piece the Protopopovs used to ice skate to years ago.

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