Thursday 28 October: The Test and Trace fiasco is an example of big government at its worst

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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677 thoughts on “Thursday 28 October: The Test and Trace fiasco is an example of big government at its worst”

  4. Good morning.

    A cheerful bit of news. I’ve only seen the Trans inspired John Lewis Insurance Ad once. I thought the subtle message was ‘Go Woke. Go Broke’. However, the Mail reports “that John Lewis has been forced to pull what it describes as a “woke” insurance advert, starring a boy in a dress rampaging around his house – after the watchdog found it misleading and confusing. The Financial Conduct Authority, it says, ruled the ad did not make clear the home contents product covered only accidental – and not deliberate – damage”.

    1. I thought that the gist of the advert was that if you used a condom, you wouldn’t have such a little horror rampaging in your house. I suppose that’s a kind of insurance.

        1. I thought it was well made. FFS, it’s hard to believe that’s a genuine advert, totally depraved.

    2. Feminist groups were complaining that it depicts a boy being a typical boy and having fun destroying the house while a girl is sitting quietly doing nothing, so sexist. Looks like John Lewis has blown this year’s Christmas advert for multiple reasons.

  6. The Test and Trace fiasco is an example of big government at its worst

    We have yet to see where this money actually ended up, I expect we won’t, just like with our foreign aid money.

      2. She is built on the same tiny scale as Cressida Dick, Sadiq Khan and Rishi Sunak, not that you would recognise it from that photo. What is it, revenge of the tiny people nowadays?

    4. The square root of bu88er-all will be done.
      After 15 years and another £200 million flushed down the drain, the report will be 500 pages of blacked out lines.

  7. I wonder why all the people that made such a big fuss about apartheid in South Africa now support vaccine apartheid for us?

  8. For those without subscription…

    The Tories’ nightmare conversion to Brownism will end in catastrophe

    Staggering tax rises and reckless spending weren’t forced on Sunak by Covid: they were an active choice

    ALLISTER HEATH
    27 October 2021 • 9:30pm

    I’m from the government, and I’m here to help: that was Rishi Sunak’s message, repeated over and over again, as he unveiled a historic, epoch-defining rise in public spending financed by ruinous tax increases. It was a Labour Budget with a Tory twist and the kind of Spending Review that Gordon Brown would have relished, albeit with an important difference: there was no class warfare, no politics of envy, no wealth taxes and plenty of upbeat aspirational language.

    The recipients of this reckless largesse were Middle England, Tory voters and the working poor, but the cash was sprinkled in every possible direction. Sunak is Chancellor, but he was executing Boris Johnson’s cakeist vision: a meddling, hyperactive, managerialist, paternalistic and almost municipal state which refuses to accept any limits to its ambition or ability to spend.

    In many respects, Sunak actually out-Browned the master himself. The scale of the tax increases is staggering. Sunak raised another net £16.7 billion a year, following the £31.5 billion grabbed in March. This will propel the tax burden from 33.5 per cent of GDP before the pandemic to 36.2 per cent by 2026-27, its highest since the early 1950s, the OBR calculates; total government revenues will hit 40 per cent of GDP. Taxpayers are being hammered more savagely than in any single year since Norman Lamont and Ken Clarke’s disastrous 1993 Budgets. That was a shameful, destructive period in Tory history which directly led to the wipe-out of 1997, not a blueprint to emulate.

    The picture on spending is equally grim: we are on course for a new normal of around 41.6 per cent of GDP by 2026-27, the largest sustained share of GDP since the late 1970s. That, once again, is hardly a period that the Conservatives should be seeking to go back to, and yet the parallels are ominous. Mrs Thatcher exposed the bankrupt post-war consensus as not fit for purpose; one day, though not quite yet, today’s economic model, built on ultra-cheap money, public spending and a bureaucratic state will implode just as catastrophically.

    The Budget and Spending Review are thus a huge victory for Left-wing ideas, even if the shift is being implemented by Right-wing Brexiteers who have forgotten that the economic case for Brexit wasn’t predicated on Britain becoming more like France or Spain. Sunak has a picture of Lord Lawson in his office, but Brown has become the most influential Chancellor of recent times. We’ve gone from a world in which Thatcherite Tories could credibly aim for a distinctive, small state economic and social model in which the government spent and taxed 30 per cent of GDP to one where the last survivors of a great movement are hanging their heads in despair.

    Regardless of all the cash injected into R&D and infrastructure, the UK’s long-term growth will continue to converge with that of the Eurozone, in a historic error that is squandering the opportunity of Brexit and will condemn Britain to years of stagnant wages.

    The tragic irony is that Sunak appears to understand much of this: the end of his speech included a strange section, entirely out of kilter with the rest, when he lamented the fact that taxes have had to go up so much, and explained that his personal philosophy remained aligned with small government ideas. Seemingly as a nod towards the real Rishi, the sort of agenda he might be following if he were in charge, he rightly slashed the Universal Credit taper rate.

    But he was wrong to blame Covid for higher taxes: some of it was caused by the pandemic, but most of it was out of choice. Johnson, who hated austerity, wants to spend more on everything. Covid has merely given Sunak cover.

    The fine print of the Budget documents demonstrate that his crippling, manifesto-trashing, 2.5 percentage points increase in the taxation of wages via higher national insurance contributions, the so-called health and social care levy, could have been avoided. The Tories didn’t need it to increase NHS spending: there were already enough other tax increases baked in.

    The levy will bring in a net £13 billion a year by 2026-7. By contrast, the increase in foreign aid spending from 0.5 per cent of GDP to 0.7 per cent will cost £5.6 billion. If the Government had chosen to make the aid reduction permanent (let alone cut it further, as much of the public would like), it would have had to find just another £7.4 billion in expenditure reductions to pay for the extra NHS cash. This would have been easy.

    Sunak has upped departmental budgets by an average of some £30 billion in each year of the Spending Review, an absurdly generous use of other people’s money. The NHS and social care account for just half of this; the other 50 per cent serves to reverse cuts to other areas previously pencilled in by the Chancellor. Sunak could, therefore, have raised health spending while maintaining most of his other cuts: he chose instead to put up taxes. It’s a tragic error.

    The entire Budget was infused with neo-Brownite thinking. There was the conceit that capital expenditure is always a good thing (in fact, it’s often wasteful) and the rebranding of everything as “investment”. Ever-shifting fiscal rules have spectacularly failed to constrain the runaway state: the national debt has surged since 1997, and they now merely help justify relentlessly higher taxes. Fiscal conservatism has morphed from a Right-wing philosophy into a Left-wing one.

    This new fiscal settlement is a nightmare in all sorts of other ways. Ever more households are being dragged into the hated inheritance tax, a levy that Tories used to once want to abolish. Stamp duty was a trivial irritation before 1997: the Brownite-Osbornite legacy is a crippling, market-clogging monster that is now too useful to scrap or slash.

    The same is true of business rates: it’s a broken system, yet we only get tweaks and will soon be landed with a digital sales tax that will further increase the cost of living. As to the top rate of income tax, it seems that 45 per cent is the lowest it will ever get.

    Labour shouldn’t be feeling too despondent: the party may not be in office, but when it comes to the economy and public spending, they are very much in power.

    ****************************************************

    Richard Lewis
    27 Oct 2021 9:51PM
    An excellent piece! This is no Conservative administration and certainly not what the electorate voted for in 2019. Johnson now leads a liberal, PC, do-gooding and woke band of economic illiterates…Sunak is way out of his depth and there is zero opposition. I really do fear for the state of this country over the next decade and beyond…this is rampant socialism and is no good to any citizen.

    baba boom
    27 Oct 2021 9:44PM
    Reform are the only hope to save this country from green socialism, mass immigration and cultural marxism.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/27/tories-nightmare-conversion-brownism-will-end-catastro

  9. “Germany calling, Germany culling…..

    Despite being located outdoors, officials have approved strict entry requirements for the festive events which will see those who haven’t received the jab turned away.

    “Under a strict ‘2G’ model, those over the age of 12 must be double vaccinated or recovered from the virus and would be denied entry even if they have a negative Covid-19 test,” reports the Daily Mail.

    Visitors to the Christmas markets must also wear face masks and observe social distancing despite the event being held in the open air.

    Both the WeihnachtsZauber market at Gendarmenmarkt and the Weinachtsmarkt at Roten Rathaus have announced they will enforce the strictest policy, despite being given an option to be more lenient and allow attendees to provide a negative COVID test result.”

    The fact that the option to provide a negative test is being removed is utterly stupid given that vaccinated people can still transmit the virus.
    It also illustrates how the real agenda has little to do with public health and everything to do with coercing mass compliance.

    2. Thank god I had my fill of Christmas markets when I lived in Germany.

      They have to be the least conducive events to social distancing I can think of. Packed like happy sardines. Without that, and with masks and incipient fascism? Nein danke.

    3. The three (indoor) Christmas markets we normally attend with the Hedgehog stall have all been cancelled.

        1. A bit too far. Annoyingly I ordered some stock only last week. We’ve had no events now for over two years. Good job we’ve had some generous donations.

      2. Hedgehog stall, for a charity, if so which one? Hedgehogs are the only charity I donate to.

          1. I did Ndovu and will make donations. Have you figured out how to be listed as one of the charities on Paypal? Each time I make a purchase from ebay a thing pops up asking me to make a donation to the Yorkshire hedgehog fund, which I am happy to do each time I buy something.

            I didn’t see hedgehog houses for hibernation… You should try and get some of your more handy members to make them. I’m sure you would have no difficulty selling them.

          3. I don’t know how these big platforms choose their charities. We are a registered charity but Facebook fundraisers don’t recognise us , nor Amazon Smile. We do get small amounts from PayPal giving fund when people shop via that. I think it’s up to the customer to nominate their charity.
            We do sell hedgehog hibernation houses but not via the website. We’ve sold lots at events but there haven’t been any of those for two years now. We sell our calendars and cards via the website but don’t run a full online shop.

    1. As my job is closely connected to the internet, I take the last one very seriously.
      Exactly what form is this “cyber pandemic” supposed to take?
      And what is the likely fate of Bitcoin et al, given that Blackrock has been investing in them?
      Or is there no logic to it except a power grab, and thereafter, a lack of opposition because fora like this one are closed down?

  11. Five men arrested after four men found with stab wounds in Norwich. 28 October 2021

    The victims were all taken to the Norfolk and Norwich university hospital for treatment. Two of the men are in a critical condition while the other two men have serious but non life-threatening injuries.

    Is they?
    Will they?
    Wain’t they join the dance?
    Is they Black or is they White?
    Can the coppers tell alright?
    Will they join the dance,
    And tell us well?
    Will they bloody hell!

    After Stephenroi.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/27/five-men-arrested-after-four-men-found-with-stab-wounds-in-norwich

      1. Morning Stephen. As I’m sure you can tell I am at something of a loose end this morning. Lol!

      2. Morning Stephen. As I’m sure you can tell I am at something of a loose end this morning. Lol!

      3. It is clearly to do with fishing:

        “A police spokesman said: “A number of seals have been put in place in connection with the incident and although enquiries are in their early stages, officers are treating this as an isolated incident and do not believe there is a wider threat to the public.”

  12. Good morning, all. A grey start to the day. It may get brighter later.

    I say – have you noticed this terrible global phenomenon? Daylight Robbery, I call it. Every day there is less light and more darkness. What is the Swedish Muppet going to do about it? Attenborough? William of Woke. They are just IGNORING it…..

  15. France detains British trawler in row over fishing rights. 28 October 2021

    France has detained a British fishing boat and given a verbal warning to another fishing in waters off its coast, the French government has said.

    Well that’s it then! What’s sauce for the Goose is bouillabaisse for the Gander! Let’s Nuke Paris and then do something really horrible to them!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/28/france-detains-british-fishing-boat-row-brexit-rights/

      1. There’s nothing to get my teeth into Stephen. I suspect the hacks are all rewriting their coverage of the forthcoming Glasgow Ceilidh so as to make it appear some sort of success instead of the utter shambles that it is!

        1. I can’t wait for the grandstanding buffoon, who poses as the PM, to embarrass himself at this virtue signalling event. I feel confident that he will oblige.

  16. Good morning to all.
    A dry but grey 9°C start to the morning up here. Still fairly dark, but the lightening sky looks dull & overcast.

  17. Photography competition – National Parks

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/335cead58efc13644331b93843224383a78360ed/0_0_3940_2404/master/3940.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=9993befa26abc7a5e6aaea74b6b7db27
    Threatened species: Curlew at West Witton in Yorkshire Dales

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ed317fa41295f67fda5c87d7678a0ad4dae3a91/0_0_3321_2325/master/3321.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=fd9b14406dd8ab9e9196428c52b5d779
    Species decline: Stonechat in New Forest national park by Fletcher Foot, aged 14

    1. There was a curlew hanging around the golf course last week. It wasn’t an endangered species; it stayed on the fairways. 😉

    6. So why has she not been able to do anything about it?
      What is the point of Brexit if France allows illegals to cross the channel and then plunders our fish?

  19. Morning all

    SIR – The NHS Test and Trace debacle (report, October 27) encapsulates everything that is wrong with big government. Taxpayers’ money has been squandered, with no one taking responsibility for the consequences, while the Government has taken the public for fools by continuing to parrot its “world-beating” nonsense.

    Boris Johnson was quick to take credit for the appointment of Kate Bingham and the successful initial vaccine rollout. The blame must now fall squarely on his shoulders for the appointment of Baroness Harding and the predictable catastrophe that ensued. With the country mired in debt, it is unbelievable that this failed programme continues.

    Tim Coles

    Carlton, Bedfordshire

    SIR – It is not enough for the public simply to be told that billions of pounds were wasted on Test and Trace.

    That much was obvious. There needs to be a full audit of where every penny went, coupled with an impartial assessment of the service provided by the contractors. The public also needs an explanation for why they were paid such high fees.

    Fr Ed Tomlinson

    SIR – Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, of the Oxford Vaccine Group (behind the AstraZeneca vaccine), has told the House of Commons science and technology committee that Britain’s very high number of cases was “partly related to a very high testing rate”, so it is “important not to bash the UK” with international comparisons (report, October 27).

    Quite. Our Government has become obsessed with the mass testing of asymptomatic (and mostly uninfected) people. This started under Matt Hancock and has long outlived any usefulness it may once have had.

    Covid is now an endemic infection, the impact of which on most of those who contract it is limited to a mild inconvenience. It is high time we ended the unnecessary, expensive and disruptive mass testing of the healthy population, starting in schools.

    Brian Gedalla

    London N3

    SIR – You report (October 27) that only 14 per cent of results from lateral flow tests have been registered online.

    As a hospital visitor I am required to take one of these tests before each visit and to report the result. The first time I did this I found it laborious. The second time I registered in order to avoid having to enter all my details each time. This involves giving a mobile phone number, then receiving a passcode, which expires in five minutes. Mine arrived two hours later, as I was driving to the hospital.

    Kevin O’Farrell

    Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire

    SIR – I requested one lateral flow test kit and was sent seven. One was used, six probably won’t be. That just happens to be 14 per cent.

    Duncan Munro

    Twickenham, MiddleseX

  20. uss on China

    SIR – Liz Truss is right to set a firm tone at the start of her tenure on Britain’s engagement with China (report, October 25), following its crackdown on democracy and human rights in Hong Kong.

    That the Foreign Secretary’s criticism of the disqualification of 55 district councillors by the quisling regime in Hong Kong for “insincere” oaths of loyalty drew such sharp condemnation from the Chinese embassy demonstrates the fragility of the thin-skinned communists.

    As custodian of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the Government must continue to stand with Hong Kong, hold Beijing accountable for its flagrant and repeated violations of the treaty to which it freely acceded and ratified, and demand the complete restoration of democracy and political freedoms in the territory.

    Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench)

    Vice Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong

    London SW1

    Flawed sewage system

    SIR – There has been much controversy over raw waste being dumped into waterways (“Tory MPs may rebel over sewage in rivers”, report, October 26). Waste water treatment companies are not entirely to blame, however.

    Legally, for example, they cannot refuse connection to a development with planning permission, but the council is deterred from refusing planning permission on the grounds of lack of sewerage capacity.

    Licensed sewage capacity is based entirely on dry weather conditions, although capacity problems occur due to wet weather. Water company contracts permit almost unlimited storm discharges during wet weather.

    For a decade, water companies have been self-regulating, with virtually no oversight by the Environment Agency.

    The whole system is clearly unfit for purpose.

    Lt Cdr Roy Seabrook RN (retd)

    Nutbourne, West Sussex

    Plastic pumpkins

    SIR – For a perfect illustration of the disdain in which we hold this planet, observe the displays of tawdry Halloween tat in many shops.

    We must control all single-use plastic, not just bags. Parents should walk past this trash and stores should not stock it.

    Dr David Shoesmith

    York

    Spend, spend, spend

    SIR – I watched the Chancellor present his Budget yesterday. The magic money tree has become an orchard.

    John Bushell

    Oxshott, Surrey

    SIR – This Budget was exactly what I, as a One Nation Conservative, wanted to see. Not perfect, of course, but the Government is showing that it means to do its best for all Britons.

    Lester May

    London NW1

    SIR – In advance of Cop26, Rishi Sunak managed to get a cheer for increasing airline tax on long-distance travel.

    Unfortunately, the result of this will be very simple. Passengers will fly to Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle or the Republic of Ireland before taking their long-distance flight, which would otherwise have been aiding the recovery of our premier international airport, Heathrow.

    Ease of travel is crucial to business and the future global competitiveness of the country. A cheer on Budget day can so often be a tear many years later.

    Lord Blunkett (Lab)

    London SW1

    Oversight of MPs

    SIR – Charles Moore’s article (Comment, October 27) about the Parliamentary Committee on Standards’ treatment of my friend and former colleague (to declare my interest) Owen Paterson raises important issues.

    Of course the public needs to have confidence that MPs are not abusing public office for financial gain, but MPs must have confidence that they will be treated justly, since the consequences of an adverse judgment can be ruinous.

    It appears from Lord Moore’s account that Mr Paterson has not been treated fairly, with the suggestion that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards had already made up her mind about his guilt before studying the evidence, even refusing to take evidence from those with whom Mr Paterson had raised his concerns.

    There are two further issues arising from this. First, is it now the case that an MP, fearing a risk to public health, is to be debarred from raising it because he has a financial interest? If so, that is absurd. Secondly, while the committee in a former guise used to be chaired by the Prime Minister, its current membership is made up of seven lay people, none of whom I’ve heard of, and seven MPs, three of whom entered the House of Commons less than two years ago and therefore, with respect, lack the experience to stand in judgment of their peers.

    If this failure of the Commissioner and her committee played any part in the tragic death of Rose Paterson, she and they should have the grace to acknowledge their failure and resign. A new committee, composed only of senior MPs, should then be formed.

    Sir Gerald Howarth

    MP for Aldershot, 1997-2017

    Chelsworth Suffolk

    Connecting flight

    SIR – John McCafferty (Letters, October 26) has fond memories of a Cathay Pacific flight from Heathrow to Hong Kong. I am delighted to inform him that Captain Miller (also fondly known as “Mappy”) was my late husband. Mr McCafferty’s recollection of being invited into the cockpit for the precarious landing at Kai Tak Airport brought back wonderful memories of him and his acts of kindness.

    He was a keen aviator, car enthusiast, adventurer – and, most importantly, a devoted husband, father and friend to all.

    Sarah Perronet Miller

    Stragglethorpe, Lincolnshire

    Well-managed graveyards can be full of life

    The menagerist George Wombwell’s tomb, topped by his lion Nero, in Highgate Cemetery

    The menagerist George Wombwell’s tomb, topped by his lion Nero, in Highgate Cemetery CREDIT: ALAMY

    SIR – Rosemary Westwell (Letters, October 13) describes how her inherited graveyard was managed for greater wildlife value.

    When I worked as a building and landscape conservation professional in Britain in the 1990s, a very successful scheme called Living Churchyards was in place. This achieved a high degree of local support for managing the upkeep of all the graves and it was also of great benefit as a wonderful wildlife garden for the whole parish to enjoy.

    On a much grander scale, there are the classic London graveyards in Highgate and the Margravine Cemetery in Hammersmith. Greater public funding for these spaces, which are now widely accepted as being beneficial for both mental and social health, would go a long way towards helping to stabilise our currently fragile society.

    Cynthia Roberts

    Alderney, Guernsey

    Britain’s short-sighted embassy sale in Tokyo

    SIR – Having served a total of 15 years with the Foreign Office in Japan, and worked for six years in London in Japanese trade and investment promotion roles, I share Charles Moore’s concern (Letters, October 27) that the decision to sell a large part of the British Embassy compound in Tokyo to Mitsubishi will do serious damage to British prestige – and therefore to British interests – in the country.

    It will leave just one residence within the compound: that of the ambassador. This is a distinguished building – the Queen hosted a state banquet there for Emperor Hirohito in 1975 – but the land to be sold contains all five of the remaining significant staff houses in which official entertainment has always been carried out. (There were nine, but four more were surrendered to the Japanese government several years ago to make room for a public park.) Thousands of senior Japanese and UK businessmen and other key decision-makers have been brought together in these residences over the years.

    There is a wider underlying factor at play here. In its drive to cut costs, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been downgrading staff housing all over the world and pushing official entertainment out into restaurants. Elsewhere, the savings from cheaper rented accommodation will have been far greater than the increased cost of entertaining in restaurants, but as these houses were owned not rented, that gain could not be achieved.

    To achieve a gain over the long term, an alternative to their sale would have been to build, in their place, accommodation for all our UK-based staff, of which there are about 30, most of whom already live in rented accommodation. This would have been less damaging to our prestige, but the saving would have taken more time to achieve.

    David Cockerham

    Bearsted,

    2. Who is going to pay for all the spending, Lester May? Tax and Spend is not a Conservative policy. Our Parish Council regularly objects to housing developments on the grounds that the foul water system (sewage) is already insufficient and it’s lunacy to add more houses on to it. The reaction of the planning department? The fact that there is already sewage coming up into people’s kitchens periodically is not a valid objection to granting planning permission! The lunatics are in charge of the county.

  21. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – For a perfect illustration of the disdain in which we hold this planet, observe the displays of tawdry Halloween tat in many shops.

    We must control all single-use plastic, not just bags. Parents should walk past this trash and stores should not stock it.

    Dr David Shoesmith
    York

    1. It is so obvious. We have glass, wood and paper. Paper technology is now very advanced.

      1. When I was in junior school, I made papier maché puppet heads. They could make p m masks, surely.

  22. 340567+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    In ALL honesty not only a majority of the herd supporting / voting in a vote in to keep out each other, regardless of ongoing consequences, but a great many actually vote for the BEST OF THE WORST, then bitch about the outcome.

    Via the polling booth the electorate are receiving, the after affects of
    Stockholm syndrome due to, once again,party first & kissing X a lab/lib/con candidate, a member of a coalition.

    Thursday 28 October: The Test and Trace fiasco is an example of big government at its worst

  23. ‘Morning again.

    Just one of several BTL comments on the Green Jamboree in Glasgow:

    Olivia Wilde
    28 Oct 2021 8:08AM
    Should there be a referendum on Net Zero?

    This Green tyranny being Inflicted on every household In the UK., all without consultation, Is a complete and utter aberration.

    Once it becomes blatantly apparent to people who, up until now, have fully supported the Green directive, how much this Is all going to severely financially burden and Impact us and all at a time when the cost of living Is going through the roof, with the economy, the people and small businesses all still trying to get back on their feet again, the backlash and fervent opposition against this undebated, unproven ideology will be astronomical and rightly so!

    Net Zero Is a laughable concept and the likes of China, India, Brazil etc., are all laughing at us and our ever diminishing manufacturing outputs, which they know, has been deliberately Instigated In order to eradicate our carbon emissions at home, only to transfer It onto those very countries, making them the pariahs of this world In order for Boris to appear holier than thou on the world stage, with all the grandstanding and virtue signalling that Inevitably comes with that, It’s no wonder that they will not be attending the COP26!

    All these nations will do is capitalise on our dependency on their resources and cheap Imported goods by becoming the richer nations, overtaking the West, with them emerging Into the new powerhouses and thriving economies, thereby leaving our countries completely dependent on them, bankrupting us all In the process, all based on a completely conspired and contrived lie.

    We do not have the financial means to fulfill this ridiculous, crazy, deeply flawed and warped agenda and moreover, all the costs Incurred would have to be met with yet even more borrowing.

    So, yes, as we, the people are being expected to foot the bill for this whole debacle on something, which after all, we were never consulted on In the first place, then It Is only right and proper that there should be a referendum on this and that we, the general public, seriously need to vociferously campaign for a referendum In no uncertain terms.

    Well said, Olivia. (Is she a Nottlr?)

    PS Did anyone else see Talking Pints on GBN yesterday? Great to hear a Conservative politician swimming against the tidal wave of greenie virtue-signalling.

    1. Morning, HJ.

      A Conservative politician who speaks against the nonsense. Where are the rest of the useless shower? Voting fodder and looking for advancement while Johnson razes this Country to the ground, no doubt.

      1. Quite so, Korky. Davis has said on more than one occasion that he isn’t interested in promotion. That’s a shame, as his common sense, down to earth views are those of a true Conservative…must be a bit lonely in the tea room though.

        Edit: ‘Morning Korky.

        1. To a Prime Minister, or any politician shinning up the greasy pole, the disinterested MPs who put country and their constituents before party are a real danger.
          Hence the trashing of Owen Patterson.

          1. Helping your pals to outrageous fortunes by giving their company, created overnight, contracts to supply stuff to the NHS at stupid prices is perfectly fine. No investigation needed.

    2. 340567+ up ticks,

      Morning HJ,

      In the main a good post but imo one must be wary of a rhetorical tory, as in , NOT backed by action.

    1. Good morning Rik

      I think you may have got the drift of my posts in the last couple of days! She was better when she was sexy and we didn’t worry about whether or not she was a sanctimonious, hypocritical bore.

      1. Even MB, who, as a male of a certain age, thought she was the biz – has now grown tired of her breathy luvvy delivery and her general sanctimoniousness.

  26. Yo All

    The DT Headline:
    Scottish MP visited bar and leisure centre while suffering from Covid, court hears

    The Nottler Headline:

    Scottish Nationalist Party MP visited bar and leisure centre while suffering from Covid, court hears

    1. Was she vaccinated or unvaccinated? Would it have made any difference? And if not why not?
      The clear message that we must take from this is that we must all get vaccinated regardless of whether there is any point to it or not.

  28. Letter from a Squaddie!

    To: Dear Mum & Dad,

    I am very well; I hope you are too. Tell big brothers Sean, Tommy and Mick that the Army is better than working on the farm; tell them to get into the Army quick before the jobs are all gone.

    I was a bit slow settling down at first because you don’t get out of bed until 6am, but I got used to it and I like sleeping in now. All you do before breakfast is make your bed, shine your boots, a quick shit and clean your uniform. No cows to milk, no calves to feed, no feed to stack, nothing.

    Men must shave, but it’s not too bad because there’s hot water and a light to see what you’re doing. For breakfast there’s cereal, fruit and eggs but there’s no fillet steaks or sausages. You don’t get fed again until noon, and by that time all the city boys are buggered because we’ve been on a ‘route march’, which is just like walking to the well in the meadow.

    This will kill Sean and Tommy with laughter but I keep getting medals for shooting!! I don’t know why because the bull’s-eye is as big as a bloody bull’s head and it doesn’t move and it’s not firing back at you like the Murphys did when our bull got their cow in calf before the prize show.

    All you have to do is make yourself comfortable and hit the target – piece of piss. You don’t even load your own cartridges – they come in boxes and you don’t have to steady yourself against the roll bar of the tractor when you reload. Sometimes we wrestle with the city boys and I have to be very careful because they break easy – it’s not like fighting with Sean, Tommy, Mick and all the other local fellas all at once like we do.

    Turns out I’m not a bad boxer either; it looks like I’m the best the platoon’s got. I’ve only been beaten once by this guy from Scotland – he’s 6 foot 8 and 120 kilos so he’s a good bit bigger than me but I fought to the end.

    I can’t complain about the Army – tell the boys to get in quick before word gets out how good it is.

    Your loving daughter,
    Susan…

  29. 340567+ up ticks,

    Sold down the river on ALL fronts, ALL the while the United Kingdom has the lab/lib/con coalition having the close shop political shout with NO opposition this will be the way.

    Dt,
    France will continue to ‘defend’ its fishermen after British trawler captured in row over fishing rights
    The British boat has been handed over to authorities after it was given a verbal warning, France said

      1. Good morning, Johnny

        They will say that it is all Trump’s fault. Had he not supported it the evil power of the MSM, Big Pharma and the internet intermectin would have been used and millions of lives would have been saved.

        Trump should have known that all he had to do was to say something was good and everyone would turn against his thinking because it came from him.

    2. Fauci has probably had a fit.

      Time for this poisonous government to do the same. Many extremely well qualified doctors have been proposing early intervention with Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine allied to zinc, vitamin D3 and other supplements. Saves lives and hospitalisation, what’s stopping Javid, except the globalist cabal of course, from doing the right thing for once?

      1. Squalid Jawdrip should be in prison along with many of his colleagues. He and they should then be injected every day with a cocktail of all the injectates that are currently used for Covid 19 to see how long they continue to live!

    4. Di you see the Joe Rogan video I posted? It turns out that 200 Congressmen/women have used Ivermectin while depriving the general population of it. Disgusting hypocrites.

  31. Retired people now pay the price of a left wng Conservative government. Who will speak for us now. We are hated by Labour and the libs as well.

    1. SIR — It has been clear for decades, to those of us who are not purblind, that the Left’s mustered forces were on a determined march.

      The once-sensible Right sat in gormless, complacent oblivion whilst the Left stealthily took over the country. It inveigled itself inside: education; television and radio; the news media; the judiciary; the police; the health service; and every other bastion of the country where it could spread its malignant influence. The only place that we thought was still safe from its invidious mitochondria was the Conservative Party.

      Yesterday’s events in the Palace of Westminster clearly showed that the well-organised and highly-successful taking over of the country by the Left is now complete.

      [Not to be published in the near future!]

      2. 340567+ up ticks,

        G,
        The tory (ino) party have been in being these past near four decades fully supported all the way, in the vote in to keep out no thought of consequences as in a country destroying mode.

        1. Do you mean 30 years? Margaret Thatcher was not betrayed and kicked out until 1990 when Major set about his campaign of destruction paving the way for the cataclysm that was Blair.

          1. 340567+ up ticks,
            Morning R,
            I do say 30 plus years ago, meaning when
            M Thatcher received the order of the knife, via tory (ino) members.

            On reflection that triggered reset, they have with continuing electoral input, the tory’s (ino) have never looked back.

      3. Good morning, Grizzy

        Good to see you back – we hope you did some painting during your brief break.

        If a ‘right of centre’ (?) party like the Reform Party ever got its act together and looked even remotely capable of forming a credible opposition it would face the same MSM and multi-national corporation antagonism and vicious prejudice that Trump had to endure.

    3. Because all food preparers now wear plastic/rubber gloves.
      How did we survive before the hysteria struck?

    4. More anti-obesity propaganda.

      I expect the levels of phthalates are below E.U acceptable levels.

    5. Once or twice a year I really like having a Mc with fries. It is like some sort of secret perversity.

  33. “More than 13.9 million trees felled in Scotland for wind development, 2000–2019

    Author: Scottish Forestry

    [A Scottish citizen made a freedom-of-information request, to which Scottish Forestry replied as follows.]

    Thank you for your request dated 26 November and received on the 5
    December and the clarification dated 19 December 2019 under the
    Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs).

    You asked for:

    a) the number of trees felled for all onshore wind farm development in Scotland to date.

    b) the area of felled trees, in hectares, for all onshore wind farm development in Scotland to date.

    I enclose some of the information you requested.

    Specifically data covering renewable developments on Scotland’s
    national forests and lands, which is managed on behalf of Scottish
    Ministers by Forestry and Land Scotland. The area of felled trees in
    hectares, from 2000 (the date when the first scheme was developed, is
    6,994 hectares [70 km², 17,283 acres]. Based on the average number of
    trees per hectare, of 2000, this gives an estimated total of 13.9M.

    While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this
    instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information
    you have requested. Namely data on renewable developments on privately
    owned woodlands.”
    How very,ergh,very green………………….Christ on a bike how much madderer can these greeniacs get??

    1. I seem to remember about 30 years ago, a lot of wealthy people invested lots of money growing conifers in the Flow Country. These were probably ready for harvesting to make their owners more money.

      1. Yes, It was a tax thing. They got to keep the subsequent profits. I was working in the offices of a private bank and they were pushing sales. I don’t know if investors, such as Terry Wogan, actually made any money.

        2. The Flow Country Tree scheme was a complete failure. Too much water & not enough soil+nutrients.

          1. Similar to the African groundnuts scheme. Stupid natives did not grow anything on tracts of land. Smart Europeans planted groundnuts.
            Plants died. smart europeans thus planted egg on face.

    2. Some major forests in the world are creating more C02 than they absorb. Fires and human activity are partly to blame. Yosemite National Park is one of these forests. BBC radio 4 News this morning.

      1. Have been to Yosemite many times, it is beautiful but it doesn’t pump out enough Co2. There was a valley that surpassed Yosemite in beauty but it has been turned into the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, supplying water to San Francisco, a sad end to what was, according to John Muir, who actually saw it, the most beautiful valley in the Sierras. I say that Yosemite does not pump out enough Co2 because it is true, we have a serious dearth of that gas, an essential of all life on this planet. So don’t believe the Green Movement concerning Co2 their protestations are a scientific lie conjured out of thin air for the basest political motives. If you doubt me then go listen to Patrick Moore, the only scientist that was on the board of Greenpeace who actually has a degree in Ecology, and who resigned because of what became the anti-scientific politically motivated agenda of that organization.
        Last photo is what is left of Hetch Hetchy.

        https://ze-robot.com/images/source/1083.jpg
        https://i.ytimg.com/vi/m3CN78zt4UA/maxresdefault.jpg
        https://www.josephfiler.com/images/xl/California-Yosemite-Dogwood-0719.jpg
        http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_u8RzBC9dWv0/S_XN0kX_NAI/AAAAAAAAC18/C1Xpj5X7vkM/s1600/DSC06944+Hetch+Hetchy+panorama.jpg

    4. And of course when trees are used for fuel the trees will regrow and become a renewable crop. When the land is cleared for concrete and wind turbines the land is not used again to grow anything.

      We have two wood-burning stoves. We have not had to buy any firewood for over 20 years as we coppice the laurel hedges which we planted when we first settled here and which encircle our garden.

  34. I see Toy Boy’s chaps have seized a British trawler. BPAPM threatens “retaliation”.

    A very simple way to get up French noses would be for HMG to tell them that – overnight – their ID cards (used for foreign travel in the EU and here) will NOT be recognised and that they will need a proper passport.

      2. I doubt whether his current wife, the temporary guardian of the prime ministerial scrotum, will allow him to let his testicles out of the bag along with the Downing Street cat and the mongrel.

    2. Embargo their wine and cheese. And have gun boats sail up and down the channel broadcasting, very loudly, rude things about Micron.

      1. I am already boycotting EU wines and cheeses (and have been for a while). I’m doing my bit.

    3. I read that there has been tons of assorted crustaceans washed up on some of our beaches mostly dead and apparently all dumped by the EU ‘super Trawlers’ that cruise unchallenged around our waters using electrical currents to stun the fish. They scour the sea bed with their huge trawl nets and throw back anything they do not want to use. Boris sort it out you hopeless twerp.

  36. 340567+ up ticks,

    Them there old lordies are on a piss taking winner when receiving 300 sobs a day for signing your name.

    Rules for Thee, Not MPs: Parliament Mandates Masks for All – Except Politicians

  37. I check the Grid Watch site regularly. Can anyone on here explain to me what significance does the UK Grid Frequency [Hz] tell us? At the moment it is just under 50Hz

        1. It is bit like nocturnal micturition, the higher the frequency (of having to get up in the night) the less energy there is during the day…..

      3. Hmmm. For a while I have been under the impression that our voltage dropped at around 5PM and it took longer to cook things on the cooker.

          1. Thank you. Is there perhaps a page that says,”All OK”, or “Voltage Dropped”, or, “Please try later as you are currently experiencing a power cut”?

        2. Voltage depends on design of the generators. Frequency depends on how fast they whirl round; when demand is very high, they whirl slower (like my bike going uphill…), so the frequency drops.

      5. How can it be exactly 50 Hz on average?

        Whoever wrote that doesn’t understand oxymorons

      6. How can it be exactly 50 Hz on average?

        Whoever wrote that doesn’t understand oxymorons

  38. Good Moaning.
    Beautiful day.
    Off to continue the game of Direct Debit Wack-a-Mole. Yet another item had suddenly popped up on Elderly Chum’s bank statement.
    Thought we’d sorted it, so don’t know if it’s crooked company refusing to let go, or the bank not paying attention.
    (Insurance for a gas boiler that she never had – in part because her house never had gas. Ho hum.)

  39. Good morning all, after a major skirmish with the cat and his flea medication, I am ready for the fray. As per usual, grim grey gloom is the weather and the sun does not look like it is going to do a damn thing today.

    To start. Here is the former Bishop Nazir-Ali talking to Nigel Farage.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lUZa6qz_DU&list=TLPQMjcxMDIwMjGNaNuCRM4y9g&index=15

    And remember that at 7 this evening Farage will be substituted by Mark Stein. Someone I’m looking forward to watching. Hope he becomes a frequent visitor/host on GBN.

    1. Hope you followed this to the letter:

      Pick cat up and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby.

      Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat’s mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand.

      As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth.

      Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

      Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa.

      Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process.

      Retrieve cat from bedroom, and throw soggy pill away.

      Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm holding paws tightly with left hand.

      Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger.

      Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

      Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe.

      Call spouse from garden.

      Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws.

      Ignore low growls emitted by cat.

      Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth.

      Drop pill down ruler and rub cat’s throat vigorously.

      Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap.

      Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains.

      Carefully sweep shattered Royal Doulton figures from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.

      Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit.

      Put pill in end of drinking straw, force mouth open with pencil and blow down drinking straw.

      Check label to make sure pill not harmful to humans, drink glass of water to take taste away.

      Apply band-aid to spouse’s forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

      Retrieve cat from neighbour’s shed.

      Get another pill.

      Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck to leave head showing.

      Force mouth open with dessert spoon.

      Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

      Fetch screwdriver from garage and put door back on hinges.

      Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot.

      Throw Tee-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

      Call fire department to retrieve cat from tree across the road.

      Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat.

      Take last pill from foil-wrap.

      Tie cat’s front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table.

      Find heavy duty pruning gloves from shed.

      Force cat’s mouth open with small wrench.

      Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak.

      Hold head vertically and pour 1/2 pint water down throat to wash pill down.

      Get spouse to drive you to accident and emergency of the local hospital, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye.

      Stop at furniture shop on way home to order new table.

      Arrange for R.S.P.C.A. to collect cat and call local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.

        1. I would actually prefer a dog Plum but the cat chose me. Turned up at my front door during a storm soaking wet and clearly miserable, so I let him in. He has not left but decided that my house is his domain.

        2. Not all dogs are easy to give medicines to! Charlie and my setter used to be horrendous. No matter what I buried it in, they ate the “disguise” and spat out the pill! It always ended up in a wrestling match.

      2. LOL it used to be about as bad as that but now he has become used to it. But it is still a struggle. I use one of these. They work really well. So far the regular flea control, the drops you put between the shoulder blades don’t work on him but I’m going to try a new one that used to be prescription only “Advantage”. But I’m waiting for the 1st of the month so that I will have an easy way to remember when to give it to him. Hope it works. At the moment using “Capstar” but I use them sparsely because I really have a thing about chemicals in cats or, for that matter, in human beings.
        https://iheartpetshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/3225-9e6a26.jpg

        I mentioned a little while ago that I had cut out most of my medications and whittled it down to two, excluding the thing in my stomach that is shoved in their on a three monthly basis as part of cancer treatment. But I feel a lot better for cutting down. I would recommend, by the way, for people to check their medications. Doctors seem to dole out these pills with little regard for side effects or interaction with other things you are taking. One I was taking, can’t remember the name specifically, cautioned not to take it if one had prostate cancer. So there I am blithely taking this drug that could potentially make the cancer worse! Lesson, do not trust your doctor/s but double check on line for how interaction between drugs can effect you and then question the doctors. I am in the process of doing that now, because I have been told to take Tamsulosin, a drug I detest and which especially annoys me because I know there is a better alternative. I know because I have used it, Proscar, which actually is recommended as an alternative to Radiotherapy, it is so effective at controlling cancer.

        1. I battled to ‘pill’ my cat until I found that if I buried it in her food, she ate it without complaint! As for Tamulosin, I’ve found it to be completely ineffectual and I’ll be mentioning Proscar to my urologist next time I speak to her.

          1. My cat knows if you put it in his food! How, I don’t know but in the end I had no alternative but to force it down his throat.

            You should know, Sean, that Proscar is, so I discovered, better known in the UK as ‘Finasteride’. It is the most common drug by far, in the USA, for problems of retention. Why it is not better known here I have no idea but I think it far superior. It does take longer to work but, I found no side effects from it at all. I can’t say the same thing for Tamsulosin which I find to be “harsh”. But research it on the web, I think you will find it Finasteride an attractive alternative to Tamsulosin.

          2. Funnily enough, I was prescribed Finasteride recently to run alongside Tamulosin and it works much better. Thanks

        2. We always check out medication.
          Spartie has to take Apoquel because he has a general allergy problem; I try to avoid using the flea stuff for that very reason; I’m not too sure that extra chemicals in his blood stream would do him much good.

      3. This one always makes me laugh, it’s so near what happens.
        The other good one is how to clean the toilet with the cat

        1. Or in my case, pretend to eat the pill then decide to give it to Oscar; it never touches the sides! He is a gannet who always wants whatever I’m eating.

    2. Very Good factual interview.
      I quite like Nigel but all he does is rabbit.
      Let’s be perfectly honest, multiculturalism doesn’t actually work does it.

      1. No it doesn’t but we have a government/governments that will not take steps to integrate minorities into the majority. The inevitable consequence is civil war. Which, I would argue, is already going on at a low level. At a very minimum it should be that after a given number of years, newcomers should speak English. But even that seems to be to much to ask.

        1. With the large amounts of Islamic people in the UK the government are absolutely scared out of their wits to try and control what will be inevitable. There will be mass riots one day, education will never work we have to opposite ends of the human spectrum in one small over populated country. Some else that over several decades our useless government’s between them have effed up.

          1. That, I think, Eddy will be the beginning of the new ‘Holocaust’

            The indigenous natives will wake up to what is happening to their country, they won’t like it and will, at last, be spurred to action.

            Enoch’s Rivers of Blood will surely follow.

          2. I’ve mentioned this many times NTN see if you can watch the 3 part series from BBC4 Blood and gold. It’s very enlightening and really puts islam on the spot but as they have done may times previously they have wriggled out of it and come back for more …scuz the pun.

        2. A former work colleague who was Ugandan Asian once moaned to me that she found it totally unreasonable that the staff at her mother’s bank had expected her to speak English and not use her daughter as interpreter. “She’s an old lady” was the excuse. I had to bite my tongue and not point out that her mother had been in this country for forty years and was not “an old lady” when she arrived.

  40. ZH BTL Comment:

    “Remember the good old days?

    Thirty years ago.
    The West was triumphant, and western liberalism had won the day, it was the end of history.
    The Berlin Wall had fallen and a uni-polar world was born.
    The US reigned supreme.
    China was insignificant and Russia was moving towards the West with Gorbachev.
    The West was its zenith, and we have been engineering our own decline ever since.

    Why stop now?
    Why did our own business leaders, financiers and investors prefer China to the West?
    Maximising profit is all about reducing costs.
    China had coal fired power stations to provide cheap energy.
    China had lax regulations reducing environmental and health and safety costs.
    China had low taxes and a minimal welfare state.
    China had a low cost of living so employers could pay low wages.
    China had all the advantages in an open globalised world.
    Western companies couldn’t wait to off-shore to low cost China, where they could make higher profits.
    Western businesses tried cutting costs here, but could never get down to Chinese levels and they needed to off-shore to maximise profit.
    They gave away decades of Western design and development knowledge in technology transfer agreements.
    China was a new, fast growing economy compared to the mature, slow growing economies of the West.
    Investors would be able to achieve better returns in the new, fast growing Chinese economy and this is where the money headed.

    US investors love China and know it’s the best place to make real money.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaELQS5kTso&t=727s
    George Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos …..

    The cards were stacked in China’s favour.
    Cheap energy from coal was just one of China’s many advantages.

    Perhaps we can make things even worse by going green?
    Environmentally friendly measures cost money and reduce profit.
    We will become even less internationally competitive than we were before.
    Western leaders have never really understood international competition, which is why the balance of power has been shifting away from the West for decades.

    How do you expect them to see any problems now?”

    The Youtube link is an eye opener!

    1. I have argued for some time that a large proportion of those selected to represent the Conservative Party should have had several years of experience working in the private sector. The Conservative Party no longer has any idea about how businesses can be successfully run.

      1. Did you see the Insulate Railways protester dart on to the track? Sad end to that protest!

        1. I’ve got a feeling.
          Some of their songs were absolute crap.
          Everybody’s got something to hide except me and my Monkey……………

  42. India ARRESTS Muslims for cheering on Pakistani cricket team during dramatic World Cup victory
    Indian police arrested three Muslim students and a teacher for celebrating Pakistan cricket team’s win over India at the T20 World Cup
    The students were taken into custody for ‘promoting enmity’ in city of Agra
    Teacher Nafeesa Attari arrested in Udaipur for posting ‘we won’ on Whatsapp

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10139919/India-ARRESTS-Muslims-cheering-Pakistani-cricket-team-dramatic-World-Cup-victory.html?ito=push-notification&ci=_Xe4DX2PzO&cri=dmtycWS43u&si=26738248&ai=10139919

    1. That, given it is India, a very stupid thing for the students to do. It would be the same if it were done in Pakistan with Hindus cheering on India. That sort of thing can end in riots and a lot of people being killed.

      Kashmir belongs to India and the Pakistani’s have zero right to the place. Just because it is a majority Muslim state means nothing. There are 189,000,000 Muslims in India, so being a majority Muslim state is no excuse. At independence, each princely state was given the choice of which country to join, this was agreed to prior to independence by both India and the putative Pakistan. Kashmir chose India and that should have been the end of the matter but, as we have all learnt, agreements mean nothing to Muslims unless they suit them.

      1. An obvious reason for the Indian Partition in 1948.

        I can only suggest that if things like this continue, then stop playing games with those you regard as enemies.

      2. Amazing how India has become so much more prosperous and worldly than Pakistan since the separation.
        I remember reading about the problems where the The Indus River Delta floods kill so many people and they moan pointedly about what happens. But apparently during the horrible colonial days the Brits use to make sure the river mouths were dredged cleared of the sediment that caused the problems

          1. I quite like Indian people they seem to be far more resourceful than their immediate neighbours.

  43. Ah there you all are…..
    Morning all, had a vey bust day yesterday not time for C.A. gossip.
    Just had my hair cut, first time in 8 weeks. And I had to cancel the arranged 9 holes with our youngest, as I seem to have Afib again, 4th time this year. It seems to be related to jabs, 2 – 3 weeks after a jab I have had it. I had the flu jab two weeks ago as well. But just once in late July it was because we caught a terrible vomiting bug from our little sweetie of a Grand daughter.
    But never mind, all is not lost, my GP is going to ring me on the 4th of November……that should sort things out eh !

      1. I put him on the spot when he was jabbing me for Flu, but i don’t think he was listening. Too busy counting up the oldies and the jabs.

    2. He’s the sort of supercilious git you would love to hit with a tank track and then reverse. Absolutely can’t stand him.

      1. Oh THAT Brian Cox is a good actor! I saw him way back in 1978 as De Flores in Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling at the Riverside Studios.

      2. https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tZP1zc0MkwxtDC1MGD04kwqykzMU0jOrwAASrgGow&q=brian+cox&oq=Brian+Cox&aqs=chrome.1.0i131i355i433i512j46i131i433i512j46i131i433j0i131i433i512j46i512j0i131i433i512l2j0i131i433j0i131i433i512l2.14089j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

        and then there’s:
        https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tZP1zc0MkwxtDC1MGD04kwqykzMU0jOrwAASrgGow&q=brian+cox&oq=Brian+Cox&aqs=chrome.1.0i131i355i433i512j46i131i433i512j46i131i433j0i131i433i512j46i512j0i131i433i512l2j0i131i433j0i131i433i512l2.14089j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    6. I found that it had zero content – I learnt absolutely nothing new about stellar evolution. It was just an excuse to film Cox in Iceland while he droned on and on like a stoned hippy. Oh, and since when was the constituent matter of Population 3 stars (the first blue giants) known to be dark matter? For that matter, Pop3 stars are still hypothetical as they’ve yet to be observed though the new James Webb telescope (due to be launched soon) may clarify this.

  45. We seem to be getting more Spam [not the Monty Python type!] this morning – I’ve flagged 3 so far, all from different names.

        1. I’m just curious if they have some sort of meaning? If not I can’t see the point.

          1. They are supposedly giving a private address. They know that links get filtered out so they are trying a new tactic. All using the same purported email address.

            My theory is that it’s bored disqus employees playing.

    3. Your dutiful moderators have zapped 16 of the swine so far,outbreak all over Going Postal as well

        1. They’ve changed tactics from posting links so those escaped the filters. they’ve all been dealt with now.

    4. Don’t worry – we’re onto it. I’ve just set a restricted word filter which should send them to spam.

          5. I noticed the other day a report that a poacher had been trampled to death by some cross elephants. Good news, I thought.

        1. We get them every couple of weeks – this lot started last week and they all use the same email provider – which may not be a genuine one of course. These ones are fake accounts – the previous lot were genuine, unused accounts that had been hacked. I reckon they are done by bored Disqus people.

  47. OT – opposite the house – on the other side of the road that Pickles was sitting in this morning at 8 o’clock – is a six acre field.

    Monday night at 7 – I heard a noise like tank exercises. Went to investigate – and there was a tractor, trailer and harvester cutting and chopping up the crop of maize for cattle feed. Finished just before 10. Extraordinary and remarkable!

    1. There will be an explosion in the mice population in that field with all the bits left behind. Make sure G&P have their gastric bands fitted.

      1. It was already one of Pickles’s hunting grounds. He was a bit surprised when the 8 ft tall maize disappeared overnight!

  48. Quinton de Kock will take the knee – and explains his U-turn. 28 October 2021.

    “I would like to start by saying sorry to my teammates, and the fans back home,” he said in a statement. “I understand the importance of standing against racism, and I also understand the responsibility of us as players to set an example.

    “If me taking a knee helps to educate others, and makes the lives of others better, I am more than happy to do so.

    He’s buckled under. I don’t blame him, they’ve clearly told him that if he doesn’t bow the knee he’ll be dropped from the National Team. His mates didn’t help much either, being spineless lackeys themselves they must have thought he was showing them up.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/10/28/quinton-de-kock-will-take-knee-explains-u-turn/

    2. They also know that even though most people don’t approve of racism, that particular gesture riles the supporters. Why don’t they just wear a badge or something?

    3. Echoes of the English football team being instructed to give the Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938.

    8. Money makes ze Verld go arround………….

      No body knelt for the 20 thousand plus people how Mugabe murdered, how disgusting was that. But for a drug dealer who swallowed his own drug items and killed him self, the world has gone mad.

    9. With his family still in SA it was probably an offer which he could not refuse, life there is not a party for many of the remaining white South Africans not helped by the non reporting of black atrocities.

    1. She obviously wants to hurt the very well off group who are valued by their company shares.

      Of course, because she’s a Lefty, she’s a moron who doesn’t realise the real investors are pension funds and savings accounts.

    2. Presumably it works the other way too? Buy $5,000 of stocks, which plummet to $1,000, then rise back to $5,000 and you can claim the $4,000 loss against tax. No? Thought not.

  51. 340567+ up ticks,

    The sh!te must be about to hit the fan somewhere as the tory’s (ino) politico’s play both for & against any odious issue in-party, in-house.

    breitbart,

    Conservative MPs have called for a “Rotherham-style inquiry” into the mostly Pakistani heritage “grooming gangs” sexually preying on children in West Yorkshire, with accusations of inaction and of the scandal still being “swept under the carpet”.

    On Tuesday, three Tory MPs, Robbie Moore, Philip Davies, and Lee Anderson, took to the floor of the House of Commons to call on the government to commission an investigation into rape gangs in their constituencies if the local Bradford Council continues to fail to act.

      1. Why is Robert Stapleford denying the preponderance of pakistani muslim paedophile rapists?

        That religion, that culture has a problem. If they don’t admit it, and the state doesn’t accept it then we cannot have a rational discussion about it and stamp it out.

        1. To get to the bottom of it i suggest the teenaged sons and daughters of all MP’s go on a fact finding mission in Bradford and Rotherham.

        2. 340567+ up ticks,
          Afternoon W,
          It does it all the time probably it’s on the PIE mailing list, no worries.

        1. 340567+ jp ticks,
          Evening anne,
          Tis not only the waterways that are suffering pollution on the lab/lib/con coalition watch but the whole Country via
          DOVER and the intake of a felonious mix under cover of welfare seekers.

    2. But Angela Rayner will label them ‘Tory Scum’ for interfering in the cultural lives of our Pakistani (Muslim) guests.

  52. Just repelled another front-door gutter-needs-attention scammer at full volume. Beware, they’re in season.

    2. Forgive me for repeating myself.

      Why is there a blackout on this news on the BBC?

      Many other news stations run regular reports about this, so there must be a number of reporters at the scene.

      1. It doesn’t fit the green agenda. They know as well as we do that the volcano is spewing out more toxic gases each week than the UK does in years.

      2. It doesn’t fit the green agenda. They know as well as we do that the volcano is spewing out more toxic gases each week than the UK does in years.

      3. Extremely good point. It is actually relevant and of more interest to most people than most of their news agenda!

  54. For those paying for the TV Extortion you’ll be pleased to know you helped pay for this

    Orrell Sex:

    From WUWT:

    BBC Explains How to Have Carbon Guilt Free Sex

    Guest essay by Eric Worrall

    Worried that your sex toy might be made of petroleum products? Have you checked the ingredients in your lube? The BBC wants to help people who might be worried about the carbon impact of their sex life.

    Eco-friendly sex: What is it and how does it impact on climate change?

    By Harriet Orrell
    BBC World Service

    What is eco-friendly sex?
    “For some, being eco-friendly sexually means selecting lubes, toys, bed sheets and condoms that have less impact on the planet,” explains Dr Adenike Akinsemolu, an environmental sustainability scientist from Nigeria.
    “For others, it entails reducing the damage in the creation of porn to workers and the environment. Both examples are valid and of importance.”
    The UN Population Fund estimates around 10 billion male latex condoms are manufactured each year and most are disposed of in landfills.
    That’s because most condoms are made from synthetic latex and use additives and chemicals, meaning they cannot be recycled.
    Lambskin condoms, which have been used since Roman times, are the only fully biodegradable option. However, they are made from the intestine of a sheep and do not prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
    Many lubes are also petroleum-based, and therefore contain fossil fuels. This has led to a rise in water-based or organic products. And homemade options are becoming more popular.
    You won’t find condoms in Lauren’s jar and, as they are the only contraception effective against STIs, she asks all her sexual partners to get tested before sleeping with them.Lauren lives almost entirely waste-free and, since 2012, has collected anything she hasn’t been able to recycle in a jar.

    In view of Lauren’s ‘missionary’ zeal let’s set up a government programme to test would be sexual partners. We could call it Testes and Tracy…..

    1. The lambskin condoms made from the intestines were indeed invented by the Romans but it was the Welsh farmers who left them in the animal. :o)

      2. Went to an exhibition on the history of contraception many years ago – at a college or some such, in Regents Park (not the zoo). My memory of the venue is vague but I recall the exhibits quite clearly. One was a bottle. Literally to be inserted into the vagina.

          1. A very good friend, who is a retired SRN, told me of a case when she was doing her stint on maternity of a very young, pregnant patient, who though an empty Smith’s crisp packet was the ideal contraceptive.
            Oooh, mind the salt!

    2. Fine BTL Observation:

      “The BBC is so busy lecturing people on saving the planet they ignore their huge carbon footprint and electricity usage – the size of a small African country”

    9. They might debate it, but they’ll never permit one, so why bother?

      The way to stop these people is now violence. Nothing else will make them obey.

  56. CRAP26 in Glasgow

    Katy Balls
    The Tory blame game over COP26 has already started
    From magazine issue: 30 October 2021

    Just a few months ago, the view inside Downing Street was that the COP26 summit would be a national morale booster. The Coldplay singer Chris Martin was mentioned as a potential headline act and there were excited discussions about giving the event a cute mascot. Now, the headlines are about rail strikes, bin men running away from rats on rubbish-strewn streets in Glasgow and the Prime Minister declaring that recycling doesn’t work.

    Even the mascot, Bonnie the seal, has been called ‘rat-like’ by government sources. ‘It’s hideous,’ says a member of a foreign delegation. Just as the technical climate negotiations have hit stumbling blocks, so too have No. 10’s other ambitions for COP. ‘People are already associating it with failure,’ complains one figure involved in the preparations. ‘There has been serious expectation mismanagement.’

    The energy crisis hasn’t helped. The rise in prices and the bankruptcy of several power companies mean it has become harder for the government to claim that going green will be painless. The Queen has decided against attending COP26, following a recent health scare, which has made plans for a last-minute international charm offensive all the more difficult. Documents released in advance of the summit, which outlined the cost of switching gas boilers to heat pumps as well as potential new taxes, haven’t exactly got the Tory party in the mood. As MPs worry about the cost of it all, the event has developed the nickname ‘CRAP26’.

    Inside government, spirits are low. Recriminations have already begun. The reports of a rift between Boris Johnson and COP26 president Alok Sharma refuse to go away. ‘Usually the blame game happens after the event, but everyone is getting it in early,’ says a government aide. Officials complain that the Prime Minister’s last-minute holiday to Marbella meant that he missed opportunities to rally world leaders. Allies of Sharma say that his job has been made harder by No. 10 being overly optimistic and setting expectations too high.

    ‘The Prime Minister has wanted to bang the drum for Britain. Fair enough. But there has not been the same level of engagement with the negotiations,’ says a sympathetic government insider. Supporters of the PM complain that Sharma lacked the political nous to get things moving.

    Of course, given that the summit only spans a fortnight — while the chairmanship of COP26 lasts a year — there is a chance things will be all right in the end. Sharma and Johnson both believe that it will be much easier for politicians to reach an agreement if they attend the event in person.

    The early indications, though, aren’t encouraging. A shortage of accommodation means that many MPs are giving the summit a miss. Invitations to the UK presidency pavilion — which will host panels such as ‘Delivering Jet Zero’ and ‘Net Zero: Solutions for a Gender-Sensitive Transition’ — have not been enough to tempt the waverers.

    Who can blame them when even ministers are struggling to make it to COP? One is considering commuting from England — ‘it’s the closest accommodation I can find’. Ministers had best leave enough time for the train, since they have been advised against taking the plane to Glasgow in order to set an eco-friendly example.

    Given that Sharma himself has racked up tens of thousands of air miles travelling around the world in the name of COP, and Johnson is known to have a penchant for private jets, the advice is viewed in Whitehall as ‘pure virtue signalling’.

    It’s still not too late for the Prime Minister to make the summit a success, but his chances are decreasing by the day.

    ****************************************************************

    Rob Dixon • 7 hours ago
    ‘Net Zero: Solutions for a Gender-Sensitive Transition’
    Jesus wept, this fiasco is far worse than we feared.

    Robin_Guenier • 5 hours ago
    ‘It’s still not too late for the Prime Minister to make the summit a success’

    No Katy it’s far too late. At the Rio ‘Earth Summit’ in 1992 the developing countries (including potentially major economies such as China and India) were exempted from any obligation (legal, moral or political) to reduce their emissions. It’s an exemption that continues to the present day: at Kyoto (COP3) the exemption was confirmed, at Copenhagen (COP15) an attempt to abolish it was defeated and at Paris (COP21) it was reinforced. There isn’t the slightest indication that COP26 will change that. Yet developing countries (comprising 82% of the global population) are now the source of 65% of global emissions.

    1. I’m sure the COPulators would have loved to use the ‘doomed’ Polar Bear as their mascot. unfortunately, the number of bears looks to be increasing….

    3. I share Rob Dixon’s dismissal of this ‘green festival’ because…
      However, is there anyone capable of putting into English the statement that roused Rob’s disdain. I’m at a loss!

    4. 29% for China, 14% US and 7% India.
      Uk at 1.3%
      Norway at 0.12%
      Who has the biggest restrictions?

    5. The fact that they ever thought it would be a feel-good event demonstrates the extent of their delusions. Still that’s quite good news. Deluded is better than plain evil, which is what the people whispering in their ears are.

    6. I sincerely hope it’s a complete disaster and no one attends.

      It won’t stop the leechers and feeders troughing away on tax payer monies to promote this tosh, but if enough ignore it, all the better.

  57. Quote of the day

    Matt Ridley on Insulate Britain:

    “My Lords, does my noble friend agree that what appears to have been a cunning plan by the secret society of net-zero sceptics to get Insulate Britain to undermine the appeal of the Green movement was brilliantly executed? Was it not a particular triumph to choose upper middle-class twits to confront ordinary people trying to get to work or school? Was it not a stroke of genius to make sure that some of them had not insulated their own homes? Does she agree that it is surprising that the environment movement has not yet seen through this stunt?”

  58. I have had a thought. So I looked up some numbers. Counter Terrorism Units in UK 8000 people. GCHQ 6000 people MI5 4000 people. SIS(MI6)* 2500 people.
    That makes 18,000 people in the UK working on counter terrorism. Remove one-third as being clerks, typists, computer geeks and admin type people, we then have a figure of 12,000 “active” anti-terror people, with guns etc. They will work around 40 hours per week. We have about 42,000 terrorists on “watch lists”. They will be working on terrorism 7 days a week or 168 hours per week. We know, thanks to reading John Le Carre novels, watching films and TV dramas, that it takes a team six people to carry out surveillance on one person, and two teams of six if surveillance is continued over a weekend (as the first team gets the weekend off.)
    This is beginning to look like the way social workers work. They have a check list and tick the boxes as best they can, even without seeing their client, as in Rotherham, for example. I don’t think that 12,000 security people can keep a meaningful overview of 42,000 terrorists, especially as perhaps 8,000 of the watchers do not do any watching but are a reaction force** who will turn up with guns after the event. That is, there is one “watcher” for every ten terrorists.
    Nor are their efforts aimed at prosecuting and convicting terrorists, unless they are easy targets such as right wing schoolboys. No, the new buzzword is “disruption”. I do not know what that word means in operational terms, but it clearly is not about dawn raids, arrests, manhandling, prosecutions and long prison terms.

    * MI6 works on foreign problems only.
    **Counter Terrorism

    Unitshttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/716907/140618_CCS207_CCS0218929798-1_CONTEST_3.0_WEB.pdf

    1. You forgot to count the Diversity Officers. They will be at least in three figures, I would have thought.

  59. It would be nice if Thayaric could give us his view on the Budget. My view is that next March will see some unwelcome changes to tax. Nor will any tax impinge on the parasitical activities of Amazon.

    1. He’d likely argue that high taxes are necessary due to government spending being increased.

      Handles/bucket/lift out of.

  60. GOSH

    “The Almeida Theatre has issued trigger warnings for its latest production of Macbeth and shared the Samaritans helpline in case people need support.

    The theatre in north London alerted guests to scenes of suicide, fake blood and extreme violence. It also warns of “flashing lights, vaping and the smoking of real cigarettes” in the production, which is a modern take on the tragedy first performed in 1606. The theatre recommends the performance for ages 14 and over.”

    I played the part of Macbeth when I was 12. Presumably I should call the Samaritans…

    1. ” Is this a dagger that I see before me?” No – it’s the Sword of Damocles waiting to set off trigger warnings!

    4. So Macbeth (1006 – 1067) et al were smokers, despite tobacco not being introduced into Britain until the 16th Century.

      The ‘Wokes’ have got it wrong again, Dad.

  63. Another COP-up: MSPs can’t get beds in Edinburgh. 28 October 2021.

    Oh dear. Ahead of the UN climate change summit in Glasgow on Sunday, Steerpike can bring fresh news of another COP-related blunder. Plagued by strikes and rejected by Greta Thunberg, the eco-jamboree is now afflicted by a lack of affordable accommodation, with ministers in the Westminster government unable to find rooms to stay. Savvy Glaswegians have not been slow to cash in, demanding £600-a-night to rent two-bedroom houses from desperate delegates.

    What a farce! And they haven’t said anything yet!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/another-cop-up-msps-can-t-get-beds-in-edinburgh

      1. Afternoon Ndovu. I think she’s chickened out as well! The way things are going only Boris and Carrie will be there!

      2. Afternoon Ndovu. I think she’s chickened out as well! The way things are going only Boris and Carrie will be there!

      1. Urgh! That’s no a bonny quine!
        My darling mother in law would probably have said “she’s fair puttin’ on the beef!”

      5. I discovered a very useful app called Google Reverse Image Search. Upload a picture to it and it will show you the original picture and similar ones.
        In this particular case, the picture’s caption says:-

        ‘Ms Sturgeon today hosted a bilateral meeting with Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at Bute House’

          2. Hmm, “She’s a big lass She’s a bonny lass And she likes her beer”. Two out of three isn’t bad 🙂

  64. One for Rik to Colour – surprised!

    The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is holding a virtual meeting Tuesday October 26 to discuss authorizing a Pfizer-BioNTech Coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of 5 to 11 years old.

    This committee has a lot of sway with the FDA and their findings will be relevant, considering the Biden administration is getting ready to ship vaccines to elementary schools and California has already mandated the vaccine for schoolchildren pending federal authorization.

    But the meeting roster shows that numerous members of the committee and temporary voting members have worked for Pfizer or have major connections to Pfizer.

    Members include a former vice president of Pfizer Vaccines, a recent Pfizer consultant, a recent Pfizer research grant recipient, a man who mentored a current top Pfizer vaccine executive, a man who runs a center that gives out Pfizer vaccines, the chair of a Pfizer data group, a guy who was proudly photographed taking a Pfizer vaccine, and numerous people who are already on the record supporting Coronavirus vaccines for children. Meanwhile, recent FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is on Pfizer’s board of directors.

    HERE’S THE MEETING ROSTER: Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee October 26, 2021 Meeting Draft Roster:

    https://www.fda.gov/media/153411/download

    Acting Chair Arnold S. Monto was a paid Pfizer consultant as recently as 2018.

    Steven Pergam got the Pfizer vaccine: Building trust in safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines (fredhutch.org)

  65. I no longer recognise the World we currently live in…

    An anonymous investor began a series of 44 purchases of SHIBA INU ($SHIB) – which was created in August 2020 by a pseudonymous founder who goes by the name of Ryoshi.
    What began as an outlay of $3,400 through a series of nine purchases using Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) – and 45 more purchases since then for a total investment of roughly $8,000, has turned into $5.8 billion – a gain of more than 95 million percent over the past 400 days, given SHIB’s recent moonshot.

      1. Good question. But I assume money is being made by those providing the trading platforms….

          2. Way ahead of you. :@)

            I have withdrawn all my initial investments. Whatever happens now i won’t lose any money/capital.

            Dogecoin went up 27% today.

        2. Platforms (I’m with Kraken) have set fees of around 1% to 2% per transaction.

          A mining operation can cost between $10,000 and $20,000. If you are a tech head you could build your own. They are noisy and generate a lot of heat. Probably more efficient than heat pumps plus you get a return on your investment.

          They take a lot of energy. Global warming anyone? :@)

          1. I am relieved (and delighted) to say that I have not the slightest idea what you are on about!

          2. A bit like the stock exchange.

            People say Crypto doesn’t actually exist in reality.

            I say, nor does a company with buildings and personnel where hedge funds and asset strippers are rife.

          4. They cost quite a lot unless the chips come off the back of a lorry and you have a wire to your local telegraph pole.
            Which is probably happening somewhere in the world.

          4. BMW and Toyota have just had their long-term prospects enhanced

            UK Foreign Aid Budget going back up to 0.7% GGP

      1. Likewise but in reasonable sized chunks. (The article goes on:
        “And while the anonymous ‘billionaire’ may be able to impress dates with their massive holdings, we wish him, or her, or X, the best of luck trying to liquidate without causing SHIB to crash).

  67. Oh dear. I’ve been pended. I may have used a word on the forbidden list. Moreover, all my comments from the last two years have now disappeared. Must have been something I said about GCHQ.

  68. From The Critic magazine – a long read – but, by the end, you’ll be really glad that you paid your licence fee…..{:¬))

    “The cover of the BBC’s latest 40-page “diversity and inclusion plan” features a photograph of staff merrily posing for a selfie. If the image of cosy inclusivity is meant to represent a snapshot of how the corporation would like to see itself, then it sends out a confusing message, highlighting the strange inconsistencies embedded within the plan’s so called “50/20/12 workforce drive”.

    Over the next three to five years, the corporation aims to change the face of public broadcasting, quite literally, by making sure that half of those faces are women; at least 20 per cent are black, Asian or minority ethnic; and at least 12 per cent belong to people with a disability. Of the seven staff featured in the selfie, three are men of colour (one in full African garb), three are women, and lurking at the back is a sole white male. All are aged around 35. (The image above is an uncropped version).

    Tim Davie, the BBC’s director general, says he wants to “create an organisation that reflects more accurately the society we serve” a pledge seconded by Anne Foster, the Head of Workforce Diversity & Inclusion, who joined the BBC in October 2019. If they were serious about wanting to reflect UK demographics then surely they’d be using official ONS statistics as a guide, thus making sure that 86 per cent of staff are white, 7.5 per cent from Asian ethnic groups, 3.3 per cent black ethnic and 18 per cent disabled people of working age. And what about our vast aging population, an under-represented sector apparently missing from the BBC’s diversity drive?

    For a man who claims he wants to “dismantle bureaucracy in every area of the BBC”, it is hard to imagine a more laborious and costly box-ticking exercise; one that could easily end up doing more harm than good.

    BBC chiefs have already been criticised after it was revealed that the Diversity Tsar, June Sarpong, is being paid £267,000-a-year for a three-day week on the BBC’s executive board, where she is in charge of a £100 million budget to boost “diverse and inclusive content”. This equates to more than Tim Davie’s annual income of £445,000 if she were to become a full time employee. The former presenter has also been criticised for stating “there is unfairness baked into our system” and that “there are benefits even if you come from a low income and you’re white.”

    The corporation’s latest diversity and inclusion plan includes an inevitable reference to last year’s BLM protests. Jackie Christie, the BBC’s “Workforce Diversity & Inclusion Lead, Race” describes “the turmoil and agony of racial tensions and global calls for social justice” as inspiration for her current remit to make sure “that our identities and lived experiences are not ignored or marginalised when we look at how to transform the organisation for the better”.

    Christie goes on to imply that cuddly old Auntie has been guilty of “preventing Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff from achieving their potential”. This is a serious allegation that needs backing up with evidence, but the rhetoric is apparently enough to warrant a radical transformation of one of the most respected institutions in the world.

    It seems unlikely that the impeccably liberal BBC is responsible for holding minorities back but we may never know because to question an assumption of guilt is now taken as evidence of one’s “white fragility”, a doctrine invented by Robin DiAngelo in her book of the same name.

    DiAngelo’s doctrine assumes that bigotry towards minorities is “systemic” amongst predominantly white populations and thus is hard to spot, often hiding in plain sight. As penance, the BBC is demanding that 95 per cent of its staff complete mandatory training in Unconscious Bias and Disability Confidence by January 2022.

    Consultations within the corporation have apparently highlighted what the report describes as a “range of behaviours that risk undermining our aim to grow an inclusive and kind culture”. It would be fascinating to know what sort of non-inclusive, unkind “behaviours” they are referring to but again no evidence is forthcoming. If the corporation has been harbouring bigots, then why hasn’t there been an investigation? Licence fee payers have a right to know if they’ve been funding an organisation that breaks the law by discriminating against minorities.

    The BBC promises to “educate and equip” all staff “to be inclusive every day in everything we do.” As such, employees will have “to tackle their own biases”. But what will “a new suite of learning and development resources and coaching support to tackle non-inclusive behaviours” actually achieve other than terrifying staff into unquestioning “allyship” with minorities via a regime of enforced “kindness”?

    To keep the privileged in check, “direct leaders” will “convene action learning groups to spread discussions about, and understanding of, inclusion throughout the BBC”. For those not fully on board with the corporation’s prescriptive embrace of difference, an “inclusion toolkit” will provide “guidance and resources on how to embed inclusivity into our day-to-day work and management practices, including a framework for anti-racism and tools for improved listening and decision-making”. Certainly, it would be good to know what a “tool for improved listening” looks like.

    As usual with these top-down mandatory diktats there is no room for debate or dissent or even a suggestion that this might be politically motivated. But building on “the success of their LGBTQ+ Allies training”, the BBC says it is rolling out a similar scheme aimed at “other areas of allyship including disability, and anti-racism training”. Staff will be encouraged to “communicate in a more inclusive and authentic way, through simple and effective channels”. Meanwhile over at BBC Studios they have introduced an “Embed, Educate and Elevate” programme that offers staff “the right tools, knowledge and skills to change how they think and act” moving “from unconscious bias to conscious inclusion”.

    Isn’t this little more than a plea for justice and fairness for all? In Cynical Theories, the maverick academics, James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose, portray “social justice activism” as a postmodern power-grab aimed at hollowing out traditional institutions leaving them cowed and vulnerable to bad ideas. The BBC is a case in point. It is acquiescing to demands that it dismantles many of its business models — such as hiring the best people for the job — that have made it such a trusted voice of excellence.

    According to Lindsay and Pluckrose “diversity”, in the critical social justice sense of the word, is “almost entirely based on physical and cultural differences, which it evaluates according to conceptions of privilege and marginalisation”. It cares not a jot for diversity of ideas or opinions but instead aims to “privilege the marginalised and marginalise the privileged in order to redress the imbalances it sees in society”. Hence the absence of older people and white males in the BBC’s action plan.

    According to Lindsay and Pluckrose, critical social justice theory posits “that a person’s ‘way of knowing’ about anything is tied to their identity and its position in relation to systemic power in society”. The doctrine therefore demands “uniformity of viewpoint” when it comes to ideological matters — all must be onboard for the doctrine to spread effectively.

    By demanding that so-called privileged employees (read: white males) admit culpability and seek penance for undisclosed crimes based loosely on the death of George Floyd, the BBC is effectively accusing the majority of its workforce of guilt by association. The entire, divisive exercise feels like a repudiation of the corporation’s democratic principles, prioritising social justice ideology over a duty to inform, educate and entertain. It’s a shameless act of bad faith levelled at the very people the BBC has chosen to employ.

    It would be reassuring to think that the BBC’s intentions were benign, but the evidence suggests it is fully onboard with the critical social justice doctrine and impervious to any argument that questions it.

    Yet, there is a glimmer of hope. Buried within the 40-page document is a short but revealing pledge that, if implemented correctly, might achieve some lasting good. By offering more entry-level opportunities to those from socio-economically deprived backgrounds, the BBC might finally break the stranglehold of wealthy, middle class Oxbridge types who continue to dominate almost every level of the corporation.

    If the BBC is courageous enough to follow through with this pledge it can confidently ditch all the obfuscation around gender and race. This simple act would benefit every marginalised group from the LGBTQ+ community to ethnic minorities, women and the disabled. It might even open up opportunities for all those impoverished white males and vulnerable older citizens that the BBC has thus far chosen to ignore in its rush to appear more inclusive. “

    I really DO recommend – again -this monthly.

    1. Yet, there is a glimmer of hope. Buried within the 40-page document is a short but revealing pledge that, if implemented correctly, might achieve some lasting good. By offering more entry-level opportunities to those from socio-economically deprived backgrounds, the BBC might finally break the stranglehold of wealthy, middle class Oxbridge types who continue to dominate almost every level of the corporation.

      It is a sop to the foolish! They have no intention of doing anything of the kind!

        1. High unlikely that I’d get my own job if I had to interview for it now but back in 1991, I was 35 and taken on by the then secretarial services department (which has long since ceased to exist) in their push to employ older females. I’m now the only person left doing what I do (licensing archive footage) and someone’s gotta do it. I made it from clerk typist to business exec and at 66, have no further ambitions even if there was any point – which there isn’t.

    2. Is there an element of sarcasm in describing the BBC as ‘… such a trusted voice of excellence’.?

    3. I’ve left my eyeballs to do the hard graft; they are scanning all this while the rest of me gets on with its life.

    4. Yet I don’t want the BBC to invest in kids from lower class backgrounds.

      I want them to get the best person for the job, regardless. Anything else is *discrimination*.

  69. Prices across Europe fall as Russian leader tells Gazprom to start pumping more supplies to EU – raising hopes worst of hikes to household bills could be avoided. 28 October 2021.

    Gas prices across Europe fell today after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered state-run energy company Gazprom to start pumping more supplies to EU stores.

    The move has raised hopes the worst of hikes to household bills could be avoided after weeks of gas price rises amid strong demand in Asia driven by the economic recovery from the pandemic and due to depleted EU stocks.

    Here’s Vlad saving the worthless carcasses of European leaders!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10140813/Putin-turns-gas-Prices-Europe-fall-Russian-leader-tells-Gazprom-start-pumping-EU.html#comments

      1. Afternoon Phizz. He’s the only friend the People of Europe have. Apart from Urban and Co that is!

          3. You almost made him Urbane.

            He can go out and about in his cities unlike Khan and the people love him. They know he has their best interests at heart.

            Unlike our bought and paid for politicians.

        3. I was actually watching this afternoon a video about Australians who are leaving Australia and moving to Russia. The reason? That they found Russia freer than Australia. One of them referred to Australia as the nicest open prison in the world. He said, believe it or not, that when they applied to leave the government of Australia required a valid reason! As the guy said: “In a free country you are supposed to be free to come and go as you please. Not have to ask the governments permission”.

    2. But, but, but – Isn’t GAS a great big no-no? To be banned, cast into outer darkness etc etc…

      1. Afternoon Bill. Yes they keep blaming Vlad for producing it and then blame him when there’s a shortage!

  70. There doesn’t appear to be much woke nonsense over in China.

    I posted this video earlier (towards the end it becomes an advertorial for investing in China) but don’t let that put you off. Just marvel at what the Chinese have achieved in under 40 years going from a 3rd world country to becoming the dominant nation of the C21st. By way of comparison it seems we are being led by pygmies.

    A fascinating tour of China today…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaELQS5kTso&t=727s

      1. Not a dicky bird (out of mind out of sight…)

        The video is still worth viewing it is a real eye opener on the scale of development and the fact that all major western companies have a significant presence there..

        1. “…and the fact that all major western companies have a significant presence there.”

          I’d say that they would be foolish to stay but then…

        2. “…and the fact that all major western companies have a significant presence there.”

          I’d say that they would be foolish to stay but then…

    2. When I was a young girl at boarding school , 2 Chinese girls were also pupils .. they were incredibly clever , really clever mathmatically , musically and strangely enough , very adept at tumbling (gymnastics ) we wondered whether they were from a different planet because they both had 6 toes on each foot , none of us had any knowledge about China !

      The down side was they had really nasty tempers , and flew into the most dangerous rages over absolutely nothing , they screamed and kicked off and threw things around , and none of us wanted to be sitting near them nor did any of us want to sleep in the same dormitory as them after we had experienced such horrible behaviour .

    3. Don’t kid yourself Stephen. Look up serpentza on you tube

      https://www.youtube.com/c/serpentza

      and his friend laowhy86

      https://www.youtube.com/c/laowhy86

      Both lived in China for years, speak the language fluently and are married to Chinese women. They had to flee with their family’s when they realized they were about to be arrested to be use as political hostages. Much of what you see of China is deceptive propaganda and a façade designed to pull the wool over the Wests eyes.

    5. After years of an-ti China briefings in the western media, the vast majority of Brits will dismiss this video as just another lie.

    2. My Cat will not play with anything. Tried all sort of toys and it is a complete waste of time. Not even catnip or laser pointers entertain him. Fluttery thing are to be ignored. Bouncy things are abhorrent, glittery things are gross and things with bells are beneath him. Brought him a cat bed, no thank you! Brought him an igloo because I thought he would like to hide in it in winter, didn’t even look at it. Boxes, paper bags, nope! Entertainment is beneath him and the carpet or a chair are quite sufficient for a nap. He does like the window, that’s where he is now, no doubt plotting his takeover of the neighbourhood, perhaps, could be, maybe, if he could be arsed! Her likes to be stroked but he does not like to cuddle. He is a truly self contained cat.

          1. They are of course the tops , and I am sure they amuse each other and cuddle into you both x

            The more photos of them both , the merrier , so please keep the photos coming Bill.

        2. Sorry Belle I don’t take photos of anything, never have done and have none. I do have a camera but I never use it. And I do have a smart phone but I haven’t a clue about how to use that for photos either, let alone upload photos to the internet. I even have difficulty answering the thing! I really should learn so you can see the plants I grow and the beauty of this part of West Sussex.

          2. He is a black and white. White bib and white around the nose and white socks. The rest of him is black.

          3. Sounds very like my Missy. She has a white belly too. In fact, she looks just like the Felix cat. She was born in Sweden.

          4. He is now sitting to the side of the computer monitor, having descended from the window, looking at me with partially closed eyes his head tilted to the side in an unmistakable pose of enquiry. He is saying: ” Get on with it for gods sake! Where’s the Crispies?

          9. Yes, we are supposed to be a suburb of Haslemere which doesn’t make much sense because there is countryside between them and us and we are a completely separate village, and Haslemere is in Surrey, we are in West Sussex. To be a suburb of Midhurst would make sense. It gets quite confusing sometimes because if you are not on the ball, you can get sent to the wrong hospital! And my street address is the same as another in Haslemere proper. Not terribly helpful!

          13. I do it all the time because I’m rather ham fisted on a keyboard and I can’t touch type. So, often as not, I don’t see the error as it is being made and thus miss it. I don’t think it matters much if we make minor mistakes. After all, we are not writing for posterity.

          15. Please do learn to drive the phone as I, for one, would like to see the plants (and the cat).

          19. It was my comment, but directed at johnathan – he’s the one who can’t drive the phone and needs to be told to point and shoot (ooh, ducky!)

          20. I really should Conrad. I was sent a wrong item yesterday, I emailed them and they asked me to take a photo of what I got and send them an email with a picture. My solution is rather unproductive, keep the item and order another from someone else!

        3. He is as long as you give him his ‘Crispies’ he is addicted to them. His name, by the way is Katicus Khan.

    4. It won’t. Electric vehicles are horribly polluting, cows do not release Co2 and are as unrelated to green as wheat. Replacing your boiler will make no difference except make you cold.

      1. Cows release CO2 through their respiration & methane through their digestion. I’m having a nice thick steak for supper on Saturday.

      1. I see they are thinking of resurrecting Blair’s pay as you drive tax because EVs are not subject to VED or fuel tax (plus VAT, of course) as they don’t use petrol or diesel. Hence there is yet another black hole in tax revenue. Who could possibly have seen that coming?

        1. Are there diesel hybrid EVs or are there just petrol hybrids? I ask in all innocence as I haven’t a clue but figure the evilness of diesel particulate pollution would render them off limits.

  76. That’s me gone for what turned into a delightful day. Lots of sunshine – not much breeze. A couple of bike rides – some greenhouse work.

    Have a jolly evening taking your mind off “events”. But wearing your masks, natch…

    A demain.

  77. You can forget the Delta variant…There’s a new improved super-duper A.30 variant!

        1. Of course the variant is not effected by the vaccines, there would be no scare factor if it was.

        2. A.30 has so far not been listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a variant of interest or concern, due to its low prevalence.

          Don’t panic yet – just avoid Swedes and Tanzanians!

        3. The vaccines were over-hyped. “Cavalry coming over the hill to rescue us” was always utter nonsense. And now we risk worse variants growing in bodies vaccinated with a leaky vaccine. Well done big pharma and malthusian eco fascists in government!

        4. If this is true then it confirms what Dr G Vanden Bossche predicted back in the Spring and we could be in a virus v “vaccine” race. Any connection to Japan’s move from “vaccines” to Ivermectin?

          This is not a time to gloat as this, if true, could bring an even greater calamity on the World: a virus that Big Pharma have lost control of by their greed and hubris.

    4. The A30 was a great cars in its day but a touch underpowered, my lawnmower has more horsepower than an A30.

      Now the A35, that was a real powerhouse /sarc

      1. For a lady to drive the A35, she had to undergo a test

        She was only allowed to drive it, if she hunched her shoulders and peered thro’ the steering wheel, to see the road

    5. I see it is from Angola. The Ebola Variant can’t be far behind. Prepare for lockdown!

  78. Don’t forget folks. Mark Stein at 7.00 pm on GBN instead of Farage. Should be entertaining.

      1. The one that took on that lying fraud Michael E. Mann and his hockey stick graph and won against him in court. For someone with “little brain” he saw off the entire climate change industry.

    2. Mark Steyn’s voice is better suited to a military parade ground!

      I await the return of Nigel’s dulcet tones on Monday 🙂

    3. I’m afraid he’s not coming across terribly well. He was just told that leading scientists, like Greta Thunberg and the BBC’s Chris Packham, were all for veganism because meat animals were destroying the environment by a leading vegan. FFS, he didn’t even challenge GT’s and CP’s being “leading scientists“.

      2. His remark about GT & CP were obviously tongue in cheek. So you missed the point entirely on that one.

        1. It was the vegan who mentioned them and he went on to talk about Fauci. What was his remark about GT & CP? I may have turned off if it was after he started talking about Fauci.
          Edited to put in ‘he’ before ‘started talking about Fauci’.

          1. I think you are confused. I do not recall at all the Vegan mentioning them at all. I do remember him mentioning them as scientists, clearly tongue in cheek, before he spoke to the woman worried about flatulence and cows.

          2. I’m trying to find a video of it but currently cannot. I’m not confused that it was the vegan interviewee that spoke of them.

          3. I’m not trying to say I disagree with his views, I don’t, but I thought his interaction with the Frog and the Vegan lacked any conviction.

          4. The Frog and the Vegan…a new fairy tale perchance?
            i used to go to a pub on the Old Kent Road called the Frog and Nightgown;-)

          6. We may go to ours Saturday as there’s a Hallowe’en do. Need to hunt for our witches hats though- still in a box somewhere since the move.

  79. Evening, all. I’m back from my short racing break – I would have contributed while I was away (I had Internet access), but I was using my laptop and for some reason, although I got the password correct, Disqus refused to let me in. Such is life. As for the headline; everything the government tries to set up turns into an expensive failure. They simply have no idea how to conduct matters in the real world.

      1. Yes, thanks, Paul. I ticked off the last remaining racecourse in England and Wales that I hadn’t visited (Taunton). Apart from having a grandstand (which Bangor doesn’t) it is very similar to my local course. Fortunately, the weather was dry (it even tried to be sunny) and mild, or it would have been as cheerless as Newton Abbot and Devon and Exeter. Oscar travelled well, but then had a barking fit at 03.00 on Tuesday night, which wasn’t helpful, particularly as it lasted several hours. Fortunately, he slept all through last night. It was only his second “away day” so I hope he’ll become accustomed to it – especially as there isn’t much room in the camper and he tried to bite my feet for invading his space 🙁

        1. Oscar sounds like SWMBO (apart from the biting) – she snores… like a road drill… :-((

          1. He does snore, but not too stentoriously. It’s the frenzied barking for no reason that’s hard to deal with.

          3. …and that’s also a problem with Dotty but at least it’s only in daytime and not 03:00 – yet.

          4. I bought him a thunder shirt today – it’s sort of like a swaddling cloth that’s supposed to make him feel comforted and stop him barking. It will be his night attire and we’ll see if it works. If not, then it’s back to the drawing board (and cursing loudly).

          6. So does Best Beloved. Keeps me awake for hours and wonders why I don’t hurry to bed these days (nights).

  80. Lovely dry, sunny day in East Anglia. Solar and wind power dried all my washing.
    Unlike Glasgow.
    Maybe God supports Brexit/Maggie/normal British weather and dislikes troughing political pygmies questioning his plans.
    Super helpful lass at the bank; sorted out the whack-a-mole direct debits and checked the two that are still running so that decorators etc… have water and light while the house is freshened up and made saleable.

    1. Speaking of God, I will never forget a small poster that was on the wall in the Middlesex Hospital Medical School in the late 70s, It simply said:

      “When God created Man first She was just practising”

  81. How can Labour be against austerity when they support net zero carbon and all the dystopian measures like meat free diets, heat pumps and restricting car travel and flying?

    1. Come now! You don’t expect Labour to think about the implications of the things they champion, do you? Think back to Blair’s rafts of legislation and the unintended consequences.

      1. I have the feeling that Blair intended far more of the consequences than some people think.

  82. Mark Steyn was a brilliant stand in for Nigel Farage tonight. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. He finished up interviewing the von Trapp family at their Brewery. He has a good sense of humour and interviewed the French on the captured UK trawler. their threats to Jersey, a vegan who wants to keep cows but not to eat them, Boris’s tendency to ignore problems and hope the problems disappear. He discussed the Cop26 which he thinks is heading for Flop26. Well worth a watch and a breath of fresh air.

    1. I’ve read a few bits by him and quite liked him, but I wasn’t very impressed by him on the the first two topics. Might just be me.

  83. You’ve probably had your own experiences of it either face-to-face or in the media but here’s a particularly bad example of it: eco-neurosis (this is from this evening’s BBC East Midlands Today so you have only until tomorrow evening to watch it and pass it on).

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001112z/east-midlands-today-evening-news-28102021

    The feature starts at 10 mins. The XR campaigner who is ‘terrified’ and ‘in despair’ is, most appropriately, called Tom. He’s old enough to know better but what is unforgiveable is that he and his kind have brainwashed the schoolchildren who follow. That should make good people very angry.

    Watch it and despair.

    1. I, as many here, grew up in a time when MAD was policy in the US and Russia. That was real and visible. Wonder what our snowflakes would have thought living under the very credible threat of nuclear war in Europe.

      1. Ah, but the threat of being nuked and incinerated in a mushroom cloud wasn’t anything like as serious as the “climate change emergency crisis”, obviously 🙂

        1. I can’t remember the last time I saw the sun for longer than 3 minutes. It’s been gloomy and dull for days. And more rain forecast for overnight 🙁

          1. You know it’s bad when you have to switch on the lights when you get up in the morning to check if you have opened your eyes… 🙁

          2. We’ve had the living room lights on all day for days! Except now it’s down to one light. MH had a bottle of Cava opened but stopped with a temporary cork. During the night, the cork shot out, causing us upstairs to ask WTF was that? It hit the small wall light and killed the bulb. No sign of the errant cork. Now we are trying to recall where we bought the light bulb. It’s all go, I tell you;-)
            Yes, I know…why didn’t he put the bottle back in the fridge?

          4. Not a problem chez nous.
            Bottles are digital – full or empty. No in-between state.
            Hic!

          5. I’m not all that keen on the fizzy stuff. A glass at midnight on NYE is OK but too much goes to my head. I prefer bubble free plonk.

  85. Good evening, NoTTlers!

    We have entered another Dark Age.

    Fire the Canon
    Taki

    October 28, 2021

    Back in the days when skin tone was not a criterion for worthy art, I used to attend the opera quite regularly, especially when Mozart, Verdi, or Puccini works were on offer. I mention skin tone because a black American so-called academic, Philip Ewell, claims that Western classical music is rooted in racism. Phil also thinks that Ludwig van Beethoven is kinda useless, and that our reverence for classical music is just an expression of white supremacy. So what else is new?

    I’ll tell you in a jiffy: According to the obviously oxygen-deprived brain of Philip Ewell, old Ludwig has had his reputation propped up by “whiteness and maleness” for 200 years. What the moronic Phil doesn’t realize, however, is that poor old Beethoven has had many black academics rooting for him for many a year, namely because they believe Ludwig had black blood in his veins. Mind you, Beethoven had no more black blood flowing in him than I do, but was often painted in dark colors, probably in order to reflect his moods, which were at times black because of his lack of hearing. Beethoven’s ancestry was Flemish, and there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that one of his ancestors had an affair with a Moorish servant, as the black academics seem to hint. Worse, these same academics insist that his music reflects African rhythms. This really takes the cake. “The Moonlight Sonata” has an African beat? (The good news is, as long as “they” think Ludwig was black, his statues are safe, like George Floyd’s in New York’s Union Square, where the career criminal’s has just been unveiled.)

    Well, it’s a free country, at least if one’s black, Asian, or Hispanic. Whites have to be very careful what we say and do, but our English cousins are way ahead of us. Over in Blighty, the increasingly common view in musicology is that in the 19th century musical works were the product of an imperial society and that the classical-music canon must be decolonized. A first step of decolonization is to stop teaching music by Beethoven and Wagner.

    Well, what can I say, except that in the theater of the absurd that we’re living in at the moment, once Wagner and Beethoven are out, current living conditions for the socially, sexually, and racially underprivileged will improve. This is what is taught nowadays in certain British schools, so God help us. Not only are the lunatics running the asylum, they are also making the rules for the rest of us. George Orwell must be turning over in his grave in frustration. “Why didn’t I think of this?” he must be saying to himself. And it gets worse. Orchestras in Britain are letting musicians go because of their skin color. The English Touring Opera has dropped fourteen white musicians in order to “increase the diversity of the company.” Aged between 40 and 60, they’ve been told their contracts will not be renewed because of “diversity guidance” from Arts Council England. The Arts Council runs culture in Britain and finances plays, orchestras, and other artistic endeavors. It hands out millions to all sorts of talentless projects and is staffed, you guessed it, by all sorts of lefty bearded men and women and even some normal-looking people. And yes, Boris and the Conservatives are in power with a great majority, but the Arts Council and the BBC are British institutions no one dares lay a hand on to bring about change.

    Has wokeness doomed the arts forever? I would say definitely yes, and soon I am afraid we will reach the point where only black people will appear on stage and screen. Whites will only play very bad people, for example Charles Manson, and I also think the Nazis are safe and will be portrayed by white actors. Not to be undone, publishers are also falling in line. Back in 2018 Penguin Random House sent stern notices to all and sundry that they would need to fall in line with diversity targets, diversity being defined by sex, color, and whether one was able-bodied or not. I wonder what Penguin would decide if a young and healthy Hemingway were to submit A Farewell to Arms today? Or Scott Fitzgerald dropped a manuscript of Tender Is the Night and The Great Gatsby in their offices? There are no transsexuals in any of those books, and blacks and homosexuals are also absent. And both Papa and Scott were known to drink too much and like women. With art being judged nowadays by the biography of the artist, both writers would get a rejection slip and a letter encouraging them to seek help.

    But back to music and opera and what a genius like Philip Ewell could do with, say, Don Giovanni or better yet La Bohème. The Don’s role could easily be that of a black because, like Wilt Chamberlin who claimed to have seduced 20,000 women, the Don’s servant Leporello assures us he seduced 1,003 in Spain, 640 in France, and only 91 in Turkey. Rodolfo and Mimi in Bohème are starving black artists in a Harlem garret. Mimi dies of an infected needle against Covid administered by a careless white doctor. Go get ’em, Phil.

    1. Mozart is revered because he was brilliant. No other reason. However, the Left hate the truth because it means that they’re contribution was worthless.

      1. I’d love to hear Mozart’s opinion of all this bollocks. In his letter writing he was quite blunt and his language could be coarse.

    2. I thought that the prerequisite for appearing on screen (at least in TV adverts) already was that you were black.

  86. Removing Insulation

    Early this morning I saw the ‘cartoon’ of the father with tarmac on his face. Can’t seem to find it now. But here goes:

    I thought it would be interesting to try a different approach to removing hands, faces etc that have been super glued to the road surface, rather than the oh-so-gentle solvents used by the oh-so-kind Police..

    Petrol-driven jack-hammers are available from Amazon UK for only £309. Fitted with a wide flat sharp chisel bit they can slice the top half inch or so of tarmac from the underlying concrete in seconds, leaving the demonstrator free to be moved but with a lump of tarmac attached firmly to their hand or face, to be removed by them in their own time and allowing the Police to get on with arresting them.

    The small potholes left behind would merely join the others in our neglected roads. Perhaps the thought of a large gent approaching with a noisy jackhammer might make the glue fanatics think twice as well.

      1. Coming up to Bonfire Night, just pour Petrolover them all, then say, that they have 5 minutes to leave or…….
        as you get your lighter out

    2. A lit taper applied to half a litre of fuel oil splashed liberally around the area of adhesion, although even meths might work. The heat would gradually soften the surface of the asphalt, allowing Mr Glueface to release himself without any further assistance.

    2. Johnson’s statement that the election of the rotting corpse Biden to POTUS was a “breath of fresh air” hangs in the air and proves that Fataturk is on the side of the globalist cabal and as such would destroy us.

      1. Fataturk Johnson was never one of us. The photograph showing him and Cameron along with other arrogant posh boy Bullingdon Club members posing on the steps of some building in Oxford says it all. The fat git is a sneering elitist and has no morals and no soul.

        I am still having some difficulty in fathoming how a Test & Trace App could cost more than a few thousand pounds to develop. The eye watering figures for what was always a completely inappropriate Test & Trace system (our population is too diverse and of a density which means that it is nigh impossible to track the billions of daily interactions we all contribute to) are fantastical.

        For the amounts quoted of £39 billion we might have made a massive dent in poverty in our country.

        Who is accountable and who is going to bring these crooks and grifters to account. This is a massive fraud and must be investigated forensically.

        1. Your last paragraph, corimmobile, I’m afraid is whistling in the wind. This massive fraud, one of many being perpetrated in the public, will never be investigated – far too many vested interests.

        2. Surely they’ve spent billions more on HS2 than it costs to build a railway. Yet no railway. All part of the transfer of wealth project.

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