Thursday 4 March: It’s no sin to keep open a country church that has served for 1,000 years

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/03/04/lettersits-no-sin-keep-open-country-church-has-served-1000-years/

877 thoughts on “Thursday 4 March: It’s no sin to keep open a country church that has served for 1,000 years”

  1. Morning everyone. I thought that I would start off today with an explanation (no groaning at the back) as to how I came to my present views on Russia and Vladimir Putin. There have been some complaints and since today is theThird Anniversary of the Skripal Business in Salisbury where they were born, it would not seem to be inappropriate. I can remember the actual moment. It wasn’t the Sunday when the attack supposedly occurred but the following day Monday. I was reading an article (we knew nothing of the Skripals then) and it said that the Crime Scene in Salisbury had been hosed down to protect the public, and I thought: What!? I hastily reread it. I had never heard of such a thing. Anywhere. Let alone in the UK. What could possibly be the meaning of such an action? After that I paid much more attention and the anomalies steadily multiplied; the whole thing was of course utterly impossible; though I still didn’t write any posts expressing my opinion about it until a week later. Since then my initial scepticism has blossomed into frank disbelief. I believe none of it. Not only that, I am as certain as one can be by observing at a distance that everything that has followed it is fake as well! The perpetually Non- fatal Novichok. The Door Handle. The Sealed Perfume Bottle. Navalny’s underpants. It is all unnutterable guff. Even if we ignored all of the holes in these ridiculous stories we would still have to ask ourselves why Russia would contravene an important long standing arrangement that returned spies are left in peace over an irrelevant nonentity like Skripal; let alone why they are leaving large signposts as to being the perpetrators and in the process making themselves international pariahs.

    Putin Himself? Well he’s a tough cookie no doubt. If he weren’t he wouldn’t be President of Russia and alive at the same time. There’s also the not unimportant corollary that he’s as smart as paint. Far smarter than any present western leader. Why would such a man be going around shooting himself in the foot over people that scarcely exist in his personal let alone political orbit? There is also the point that I don’t trust the political UK Elites anyway. So far as I am concerned they are the implacable enemies of myself, my friends and family, all Nottlers and any indigenous Brit. They are liars and traitors. Putin in my view is protecting Russia and the Russian people from the same forces that are at present shredding the UK in particular and the West in General. Long may he reign!

    1. As a former Army NBC Defence instructor, the events flew in the face of what would be the recognised procedures for dealing with Lethal Agents. We were aware of nerve agents such as Soman, Tabun and Sarin and knew that they are highly lethal in the right quantities and concentrations.

      Then was are told that Novichok is far more lethal yet some of the news footage of the scene did not seem to reflect the perceived dangers, mainly in terms of the protective clothing being used. Of the six (?) people who were said to have been affected, only one appears to have died, despite the alleged lethality of this agent.

      Of course, I have no evidence to challenge the official line, but I remain deeply doubtful as the the veracity of the whole story.

      1. Well one cannot prove a negative John but the holes in this ridiculous farrago would disqualify it as a serious story to anyone of moderate intelligence.

      2. Coppers wandering about dressed in daily workwear… that’s how you deal with a nerve agent attack, and survive!

      3. Well, don’t forget they had expert advice on hand, someone who could assess the situation almost immediately and call up all the necessary protective gear and antidotes and supervise the “troops on the ground”.

        Isn’t Porton Down nearby and didn’t one of PD’s top scientists just happen to be almost on-site at the time of the Skripals keeling over?

    2. I admire leaders who look after the interests of their own country first and foremost.

      1. Like Victor Orban. Constant smears about him too.

        Not a dickie bird about Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the jihaddis friend.

      2. Like him or loathe him Trump wanted the best for Americans.

        Of course he was loathed for saying he wanted that.

        1. ..and just about half of the electorate wanted. Given the poison that appeared in the media, I suspect the proportion was much higher but many did not want to be seen as right wing extremists.

  2. Tree Fellers

    Two Paddys were working for the council works department. One would dig a hole and the other would follow behind him and fill the hole in.
    They worked up one side of the street, then down the other, then moved on to the next street, working furiously all day without rest, one man digging a hole, the other filling it in again.

    An onlooker was amazed at their hard work, but couldn’t understand what they were doing. So he asked the hole-digger, ‘I’m impressed by the effort you two are putting in to your work, but I don’t get it! Why do you dig a hole, only to have your partner follow behind and fill it up again?’

    The hole-digger wiped his brow and sighed, ‘Well, I suppose it probably looks odd because we’re normally a three-person team. But today the lad who plants the trees called in sick.’

  5. ‘Morning All

    #CovidClownWorld

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bfa7e6d392a539518c63cae9298a4f9e9385d67d542448dc2290d11390432bc1.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff647aff6856b78b9ebe42922940ff369214e40be33b8a5711af0b975b5a0984.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48da1fdcbfdf8bb539f973f1fdeaf6e489cbdc189612e7f232a5e58e007b6a7e.jpg

    https://twitter.com/mattletiss7/status/1367125177058885633

    https://twitter.com/SimonJaysek/status/1367021058688053249?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1498f91938b573db337980234107eebee72a65863b3ff29d02816aaf6e63695.png

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    1. The sheer rage generated from someone calling her Miss is evidence of severe personality disorder and poor mental health.

      Goggle eyed and clenched teeth. She needs sedating, quietly
      stitched in to a straight jacket and thrown in a dark cell for a month
      or two. For her own safety.

        1. Even if she identified as a female Miss her reaction would have been the same for the assuming of gender.

          I think she is a shit

          1. I don’t give a monkey’s cuss what people choose to ‘identify’ as. I’m the one doing the identifying and if they don’t like that, then tough effluent!

          2. And, even if you wanted to be nice and use their pronoun of choice, how are you supposed to know what that pronoun is? Unless they wear a placard, of course. In the same way, how would you know her/his name is Priscilla?

      2. Read that as “Goggle eyed and clenched teeth. She needs sedating, quietly stitched in to a straight jacket and thrown in a dark cell canal .
        Better get more coffee and new specs…

        :-((

        1. Protesting about something or other when the Policeman says to her.

          ‘Would you please calm down Miss’.

          That picture shows her response. Fury.

  10. AfD placed under surveillance by German intelligence as a suspected far-Right threat. 4 February 2021.

    The far-Right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) was designated as a suspected extremist threat by German intelligence and placed under surveillance on Wednesday.

    The democratically elected representatives of the people are being watched by the Secret Police? Nothing suspicious about that! Move on!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/03/afd-placed-surveillance-german-intelligence-suspected-far-right/

    2. Are Mosques and Madrassas under equal scrutiny? It is after all where most of the atrocities across Europe were/are planned.

      Other than the odd occasion i can’t think of many attacks from the supposed far right.

    3. I wonder if job application forms ask about any membership of a political party?

    1. Morning, Bob.
      Sunny & clear here. Frosted, of course, but hey, it’s early yet.

  12. Morning all. Church Times….

    SIR – The Rev David Keighley says: “It is sinful not to sell empty churches” (report, March 2). By his definition, my local parish church is “a museum gathering dust”. I beg to differ.

    Our congregations rarely exceed 30, other than for major festivals and (in non-Covid circumstances) weddings and funerals, but possibly they have not done so for centuries past.

    Yet the church has been at the heart of the village since before the Norman Conquest and, God willing, will remain so for at least another millennium.

    It is, as our former archdeacon once said, perhaps to his subsequent embarrassment, “the place where people go in times of disaster”.

    Despite efforts by the Government and the church hierarchy to lock the doors and switch off the lights over the past 12 months, we have kept them resolutely burning, with a service every Sunday when permissible.

    ADVERTISING

    These have been supplemented by online services, and, while the uptake has been encouraging, we do not accept they are more than a substitute for the “real thing” – certainly not the key to a golden future, as some think.

    Whether sinful or not, our church is not for sale.

    Bill Gunn

    Woolhope, Herefordshire

    SIR – Our church is now open on Sunday afternoons for private prayer, and I have been playing hymns quietly as an aid to contemplation. More and more are coming to enjoy this.

    However, when I am alone in this ancient building, I am still very conscious of being “surrounded by a crowd of witnesses”.

    While I agree in the main with the Rev Duncan Beet (Letters, March 3), will I get the same buzz if worshippers meet in our new village hall?

    Christine Whild

    Marcham, Oxfordshire

    SIR – The Rev David Keighley doesn’t seem to understand how many small churches work. A small nucleus keeps them going, cleans, repairs and pays the huge “parish share” to the diocese, so that for high days, weddings, funerals, baptisms, school nativity plays, carol services and concerts the church can be packed.

    Advertisement

    ADVERTISING

    Zoom, although doing great service, will not pay for one member of the clergy – certainly not for burgeoning bureaucracy and a plethora of bishops.

    Alix Booth

    Burbage, Wiltshire

    SIR – Why not reorganise churches so they can be used as the community halls that they once were, rather than sell them off for housing? Many rural churches now have secondary uses, for markets, meetings, entertainment.

    They boast toilets and kitchens, and often have great acoustics for concerts. Many, as listed buildings, are part of our heritage, for villagers and tourists.

    Perhaps more state help would be welcome for upkeep, but they stand as testimony to faith and centuries of worship, and should be preserved.

    Jennifer Maynard

    Wittersham, Kent

    SIR – As a churchwarden, I am responsible for two ancient churches (listed Grade I and Grade II*).

    Our churches are wholly unsuitable for conversion to housing, they are too fragile to be put on a simple “care and maintenance” basis. The parish already has a vibrant village hall.

    Advertisement

    Is the state prepared to step in to conserve them as ancient monuments, as happens in France?

    Jolyon Grey

    Upper Swell, Gloucestershire

    1. Christine Whild is right. Old buildings have a soul, and if you listen hard, will talk to you. That’s quite evident at Firstborn’s farm, where the old storehouse (Stabbur) dates from 1632, the house from 1750, the woodshed (the original house) from 1650, and the summerhouse (a youngster…) from 1850. You can feel that these buildings are pleased that they are finally receiving maintenance, improvement and not least, love and attention.
      The same must go for Churches, since especially people go there with emotion – it must seep into the stonework.

      2. My school was built in 1957 (of concrete and glass). I attended between 1962 and 1967.

        It was demolished in 1995.

        2. I remember a school built in the early ’60s in Ashington being demolished in the early ’70s because is tw@ specified high alumina cement.

      3. In our house hunting years, we went to houses that had ‘bad vibes’. You sensed it as soon as you walked in the door.
        On one occasion, MB went to a house by himself (in the days when you picked up a key from the estate agent); after a few minutes of wandering round, he found the atmosphere so scary that he had to leave. It was an unremarkable suburban semi, but something was just not right.

    2. “Perhaps more state help would be welcome for upkeep”
      Jennifer Maynard needs to look to recent history.
      In Germany, the church s funded by the State. That resulted in that the Church did not complain and resist the horrors of Nazism, as that would be biting the hand that fed them. Be careful what you wish for.
      Maybe the Church would have more money and be able to support itself and the many lovely little churches if they actually evangelised a bit, preached some religion, rather than just giving up and kissing the government’s ring? (ref the lack of resistance to nazism). They actively make themselves irrelevant, and the rot has spread from the head.

    3. A quick thank you for doing these daily letter posts.

      As a non-subscriber I find it helps get the daily Nottle discussions off to a good start.

      1. Just as the page loads, poke rapidly at the esc key. Most times, it allows the page to load without the paywall, and if it doesn’t work, then refresh and try again.

        1. I try that, but with a tiny success rate.
          I am grateful for Epidermoid’s daily efforts.

    4. When can we expect some mosques to be converted for housing?

      The very fact that it is even mentioned that churches could be used “for markets, meetings, entertainment” is an indictment of the appalling C of E leadership since the 1960s – and rapidly getting worse with Welby in charge.

      My father was one of the last breed of no-nonsense sporting country parsons, a rector of one parish and vicar of another. When Michael Ramsey, the first of the hand-wringing liberals, became archbishop, my father was so disgusted that he vowed never to allow him into his parishes. He must be doing somersaults in his grave!

      1. Given that houses are being converted to be used as mosques, without planning permission, and the authorities ignore it?

        No time soon.

      2. I am seriously beginning to think that Welby is a Muslim plant and part of the great Islamic war effort to eliminate Christianity.

  13. Morning again

    Women’s prison safety

    SIR – We are concerned that the right to single-sex spaces for women in prison is not being upheld.

    This week a judicial review was brought by a female prisoner who reported being sexually assaulted by a male-bodied prisoner convicted of sexual offences who was imprisoned with her.

    We believe this case confirms the unacceptability of prison policy, which allows male-born prisoners who have a Gender Recognition Certificate stating they are legally women to be housed in women’s prisons.

    The Equality Act permits all males (notwithstanding protected-characteristic gender reassignment) to be excluded from single-sex spaces for women, where this is a proportionate means to a legitimate aim. We consider women’s prisons to be definitive examples of facilities used by women that should be single-sex.

    The vulnerability of female prisoners is well established and evidence demonstrates that female offenders require female-only settings.

    Advertisement

    We note the statement by Liz Truss, Minister for Women and Equalities, reaffirming the Government’s commitment to the provision of single‑sex spaces for women. All vulnerable prisoners have the right to be safe, but the needs of one group cannot come at a cost to the safety and wellbeing of women in prison.

    We call upon the Ministry of Justice, HM Prisons and Probation Service, and the Scottish Prisons Service to bring policy in line with the Equality Act.

    Allison Bailey

    Barrister

    Lucy Masoud

    Barrister

    Kama Melly QC

    Susan Bennett

    Former Principal Psychologist, HM Prison Service

    Kate Donegan

    Prison Governor (retd)

    Rhona Hotchkiss

    Prison Governor (retd)

    Professor Elaine Player

    King’s College London

    Professor Kathleen Stock

    University of Sussex

    Professor Selina Todd

    University of Oxford

    Merry Van Woodenberg

    Barrister

    Ian Acheson

    Former Prison Governor

    Anne Ruzylo

    Prison Officer (retd)

    Sally Wainwright

    Parole Review Manager (retd)

    Maggie Mellon

    Trustee, Howard League Scotland

    Lucy Hunter Blackburn

    Former Deputy Director, Scottish Government (Reducing Reoffending Division)

    Lisa Mackenzie

    Former Policy Adviser to Howard League Scotland

    Dr Michael Biggs

    University of Oxford

    Dr Kath Murray

    Research Fellow in Criminology, University of Edinburgh

    Dr Hannah Quirk

    Reader in Criminal Law, King’s College London

    Robert Wintemute

    Professor of Human Rights Law, King’s College London

    Julie Bindel

    Author & Journalist

    Ann Sinnott

    Director, AEA

          1. I knew that, Paul. It’s just that I find TLAs (Two [or Three] Letter Acronyms) sometimes totally baffling and I wished to register a protest.

    4. For once I strongly agree with a multisig letter!
      The madness of placing a man in a women’s prison should be apparent to anyone!

    5. There is a very simple solution to this problem. Remove the bow-locks from anyone professing to be a female. For added security, sow several pounds of pig meat to their chest and remove half their brains. If they want equality they shall have it.
      .
      .
      .

      …What? What? What did I say that might be offensive? 😃😃😃

    6. There should be prisons for trans people coming from both directions. Also all trans people who wish to engage in sport should do so with other trans people.

  14. The Dystopian Nightmare that catapulted me from my bed at 3am was a real doozy,the details are too terrifying for a forum like this,suffice it to say the Chinese are the only people capable of taking a looooong view
    Middle Kingdom Syndrome
    Lebensraum
    As the Chinese Commissioner for European Affairs ordered us all to kneel at the edge of the trench the only satisfaction was watching the useful idiots(you know who I mean)who thought they were going to rule the slaves, after they had been dug out of their bunkers, swing gently rotting on the scaffold……………

    1. Well that was a jolly night, Rik! Good morning to you, and I bet you’re glad you woke up!

      1. Too Right Sue
        A strong mug of tea with a large shot of Wood’s in it was essential!!

  15. The state we are in now is not caused by corvid but caused by the governments total over reaction to Corvid Flu. The death rate was never high enough to justify what they did and are still doing. A self inflicted wound.

      1. Yet another over reaction to a joke policy. We need far much less government.

    2. More than that Johnny,a “Crime Against Humanity” ordered by their Globalist masters,all of them should swing for this

    3. I totally agree, Johnny, on reflection the initial reaction was a mistake. But to admit this invites the MSM, the Opposition parties and the general public to land on the Government like a ton of bricks. Hence the total over-reaction continues. If only the mistake could have been admitted a month after the first lockdown started (April 2020) we would now have been in a much better place.

  17. I started thinking about the so-called PCC – Police Crime Commissioner.

    By their very name/title do they commission Police crime?

    1. You’ve just reminded me. I looked up the 2021/2022 borough council tax figures and the PCC precept will be increased by 5.5%. I wonder what he actually does.

      1. In our case, send out glossy brochures and tell people that burglaries are not a priority – “hate crime” is.

  18. China using Big Tech firms to attack BBC in state propaganda campaign, says report. 4 february 2021.

    .China is using social media platforms such as Twitter to attack the BBC in a state-backed disinformation campaign to undermine critical reporting by Western media on human rights abuses, finds a new report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).

    The “coordinated effort by the [Chinese Communist Party’s] propaganda apparatus” is meant to “discredit the BBC, distract international attention and recapture control of the narrative,” according to the report.

    Kettle calling Frying Pan Blackass then?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/04/china-using-big-tech-firms-attack-bbc-state-propaganda-campaign/

  19. Good morning all.

    Who would want Rishi Sunak’s job right now? The State is now £400bn more in debt than it was this time last year, and his boss is still preventing people going back to work and paying some of the taxes which might go some way to paying it back. I am no economics expert, but it seems to me that he has played a bad hand reasonably well. As a former banker from a wealthy Indian family, he should know enough about money to make a decent fist of things. There are worse people to have as Chancellor.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/03/rishi-sunak-braces-public-five-years-tax-pain-bid-restore-public/

    As to whether it is right that his government shut down our economy for a year and ran up debts which our children and grandchildren will be paying back, well, that is a question for the ages…

    1. As to whether it is right that his government shut down our economy for a year and ran up debts which our children and grandchildren will be paying back, well, that is a question for the ages…

      Morning Kuffar. It was a monumental, one might almost say catastrophic blunder but we shall fortunately not be here to see it or suffer the consequences!

    2. As to whether it is right that his government shut down our economy for a year and ran up debts which our children and grandchildren will be paying back, well, that is a question for the ages…

      Morning Kuffar. It was a monumental, one might almost say catastrophic blunder but we shall fortunately not be here to see it or suffer the consequences!

    3. Rishi Sunak has just been on the BBC Radio 4 Today 8.10am slot with Martha Carnie asking the questions.
      Whatever we think of his policies, he is a man who is on top of his job and answers the questions politely, succinctly and to the point.
      He certainly puts Johnson in the shade.
      His questioner, MC, ignored the quite large interval between he question and the Chancellor’s reply. From the background noise, the Chancellor appeared to be talking in a lorry park . Nevertheless MC did her usual impoliteness by interrupting RS as he started his replies so that we couldn’t hear his reply. She needs to be sent back for retraining.

      1. MC seemed to be unaware that there was a substantial delay on the line. Or perhaps she just didn’t care.

    4. I’m not as sure as you, JK, about Sunak. I understood that Chancellors from the 20th Century onward had learnt that, “To increase taxes is to reduce income.”

  20. Good morning, all. Rain. Bonfire = 50% chance.

    I see Fishy Sushi says that he wants to be “honest”. Well, he could start by saying that the eye-watering debt was caused by him and him alone, couldn’t he?
    I am fed to the back teeth with politicians saying that the clusterf*ck was “caused by the virus”. NO IT WASN’T. It was your ludicrous reaction to it that has impoverished the country for generations.

    I’ll go and have my porridge.

    1. Cue Rushi Poppins : “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine porridge go down….”

    3. Thanks for that, Rik. I think I’ll now go back to bed for a little extra snooze. See you all later, NoTTLers.

  22. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f954b50a75b72783085a3c6550ad53bc75db10946fd3a56221cf0a2946d58a58.png Don’t be naïve, Michael. None of: rules, regulations, laws, customs, good manners, common sense, etiquette, grace, decency or morals are taught any more. Time was when youngsters were routinely tutored in all manner of social graces by their parents, grandparents and schoolteachers.

    Unfortunately an unstoppable rise in the tide of human stupidity has put paid to that and nowadays all those elements of good citizenship have been supplanted by greed and selfishness. Not to mention even more and much deeper stupidity.

    1. The rule of walking to face oncoming traffic was, quite rightfully in my opinion, dropped from the Highway Code years ago and replaced with advice that you walk facing the traffic where it is safe to do so, but where visibility is restricted be prepared to cross over and walk on the other side of the road.
      That was something I learned at 12 walking to & from school in Wooler when, following the then rule of facing the traffic, I nearly got wiped out on a blind corner.

      2. This is where common sense comes to the walker’s aid, Bob. Walking whilst facing the oncoming traffic gives you an advantage that you don’t have when the traffic is coming at you from behind. On the occasion of blind bends, common sense will (should) make the walker cross the road well before reaching that blind bend.

        1. But there are those who stick rigidly to the “Walk Facing Oncoming Traffic” rule on some of the fairly busy roads round here and I’ve come bloody close to hitting some of them!!

          2. The one that sticks in my mind is heading towards Bakewell between Winster and Birchover where there is a tight left hander with a thick hedge on the inside of the bend, an HGV coming towards me and a couple hugging into the hedge right on the bend as I came round it.
            Had it not been for me slowing down for the HGV, I’d have probably hit them.
            This is the bend and bear in mind this Google image was taking from a car heading away from the corner:-
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ec54623b549af826c43cd34ff910a370b545f08c43f9c1f8103bb1e09e516c9.png

          4. Not a bad road, but like the neighbouring A5012, Via Gellia, a road that demands respect.

    2. Don’t know how it is in Sweden, Grizz, but I’m frequently surprised as to how well mannered the children are here – thoroughly pleasant and intelligent young people, in fact.

      1. Most youngsters here are generally well behaved and pleasant, Paul. There are times, though, when their lack of discipline shines through. The have learnt well from their parents how not to queue!

        Swedes (of all ages) pushing past you in queues is something you have to learn to deal with by using strong-arm tactics and glares.

          1. True, but I experience most problems whilst waiting to board a ferry or aircraft; or at a bus stop or railway station. Swedes (especially youngsters) tend to rush and push to get past those at the front of the queue. This is where a stout walking stick comes in handy to bar their progress (accompanied by a suitable snarl).

          2. Was stood standing (!) in teh checkin queue. Bent down to get my reservation out of my briefvcase, and the Swede behind me pushed past. There was nearly a fight, the eejit couldn’t understand that I was a tad peeved and hadn’t actually vanished, just bent down. Grr!

        2. Admittedly we are very lucky in the sort of people who come to us on our residential courses. Over the years we have had over 1,500 young people with us and only a very, very small percentage of these have been uncouth or unpleasant.

    3. Many customs, good manners and social graces were kept in place by peer pressure. A stern glance, a few words or maybe a clip around the ear by parents. Now we have a society is not allowed to be judgemental and people do as they please without sanction. The lift is on its way down, along with general common sense.

    4. The rule about walking facing on-coming traffic was based on the fact that a car driver would be more likely to see a white face coming towards him than a dark coloured back going away.

      Of course in our more diverse times that rule does not apply so much!

    5. Not too long ago i was driving home through a local council estate and being careful as experienced older motorist (any one can drive) like my self does. When after swerving around a parked van on a bend, a spotty youth came at me head on so i stopped. He wound down his window and told me that I was supposed to give way to oncoming traffic. I pointed out that the obstruction he had swerved around was on his side of the road, and should have waited for me to pass I think that might have been confusing and far too much for him to understand. And they wonder why their insurance premiums are so expensive.

      1. We were taught that rule, Eddy. It makes you wonder how, and why, it all went wrong with a lot of this idiotic new generation.

  23. Good morning from a dull & drizzly Derbyshire. A chilly ½°C in the yard when I got the milk in just now!

    1. Good morning, Bob. You’ve just described, exactly, my weather and temperature here in Skåne.

      1. Naughty!
        :-))
        Someone ordered a school size condom pack for a school in North Norway. That’s 2 500 condoms… and the school has 2 pupils!
        That’s a lot of shagging!

        2. A long time ago when i lived in a shared house in Whetstone, three of the fun loving male residents would play tricks on each other. For instance you could drive off to work in the morning and find you were towing an old kettle and saucepan behind your rear bumper. Or open your wardrobe and a spring loaded umbrella would fly out. There could be jam on the door handle, and apple pie bed. Or as i once did, come home late at night the day after one of our many parties and push over about ten stacked up, but empty party pipkin cans that were in the dark behind the entrance lobby door. But my own master piece was to fill a condom up with water (they are surprisingly strong) tie the top and hang it door width in to the front lobby roof rafters. With a sharpened 2inch oval nail through the top front edge of the front door. It worked a treat poor old Philip was soaked.

          1. Dropped a water-filled condom from the 8th floor, to land next to a fellow student. Was wonderful!

  26. Kremlin agents targeting Russians in UK, MI5 warns. 4 March 2021.

    The MI5 officers also admitted that the British agency was at first stunned by the brazenness of the attack on the Skripals. “We probably hadn’t calculated just how determined and ruthless our adversary might be,” Tom said.

    Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the novichok nerve agent smuggled into the UK in a modified perfume bottle by agents from Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. It was the agency where Sergei had once worked, although both survived the attack.

    Just more guff. It is statements such as this that convince me that I am correct that this is simply a False Flag operation. The Perfume Bottle was sealed and could not have been used to poison the Skripals. Everyone knows this but it has to be maintained to prevent the whole mess sinking and taking everyone involved with it down as well.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/03/kremlin-agents-targeting-russians-in-uk-mi5-warns

      1. Supposedly Phil. A story that appears on the anniversary of the day. I’m sure its just a coincidence! Lol!

    2. Morning all.

      I just wonder why they keep dredging the “story” up. It is so ridiculous they’d be better off letting sleeping dogs lie.

    3. German agents targetting Germans in Germany. AfD is apparently extreme Right, so all memebers need to be under suspicion…

  27. A day or two ago I read on these threads that one of our number had completed their Census form and was complaining about the effnicity descriptors. My invitation arrived a couple of days ago, and lay in the unopened envelop. As I had some time spare yesterday evening I went on line to the official website and completed the form in the 10 minutes or so allowed and pressed send.

    This morning I read the invitation: “You should complete the Census on Sunday 21st March….” Whoops.! Me a culpa …. I’m wondering why it was possible to log in before 21st March?

    1. A cynic might suggest that they are collecting now but will disqualify early posters.

      That cynic might conclude they are also confident that the site will crash on the day and the census will thus show a reverse Biden effect and have far fewer respondents than the actual population.

  28. 329870+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    “Thursday 4 March: It’s no sin to keep open a country church that has served for 1,000 years”

    The sin must be equally shared betwixt the politico’s and
    those continuing to give those said politico’s over the decades carte blanche to continue the downward spiral.

    ALL under the banner of keep one of the party’s of the lab/lib/con close shop in power, no matter of the consequence.

    The well tasty sugar coated carrot is being dangled and will be accepted by many, 80% for nout is a vote winner.

    Signs of today’s society was witnessed in the trolley loaded with bog rolls, and empty shelves of certain commodities, those types take no notice of legacy’s left
    to their children’s, children’s, children, out of sight out of mind.

    All the while the treacherous highly dangerous voting pattern continues others are in / moving into positions of power, their castles are established, and reinforcements are arriving on a daily basis.

    ALL it needs for completion is the people’s consent given by kissing X a lab/lib/con candidate in the polling booth.

    1. 329872+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Many of us knew that a doom ladened
      future was on the cards post 24/6/2016
      and hearing “leave it to the tory’s” confirmed it.

      The Tories have trashed Thatcherism and embraced Europe’s politics of decline
      Sunak’s Budget showed that Conservatives now think growth materialises like Manna from Heaven.

      Pass the pound to the next overseer, ongoing.

  29. Lots of obesity articles today….

    They tell of westerners being grossly overweight making them vulnerable to catching covid among other things.

    The best comment I saw was…” During lockdown all the fast food drive by chains are open while all the gyms are closed”.

    That just about sums up this whole lockdown debacle.

    1. Morning all.
      Not only Gyms but tennis golf amateur football and other out door sports. People have even been apprehended for going for a walk.
      Right from the start i have been saying there is something very sinister about what has been happening for the past 18months. But i can’t quite put my finger on it.

      1. My finger has been on it for more than a decade….

        The “virus” is the excise for the lockdown. The lockdown is part of Agenda21/30 which is to reduce the carbon footprint to net zero in 9 years from now. Unless you are wealthy you won’t be flying anywhere for your overseas holidays. People and small businesses are going bust thus reducing private wealth. Lithium to make billions of car batteries will cause an eco disaster as it has to be harvested from the sea bed so only a few will have cars.

        And so on.

        1. That’s dreadful Bob but it’s not the first time something similar to this has been brought the the attention of the Public.
          There are incidents all over the country. As you know the two women arrested in Derbyshire for nothing but walking, we have seen people arrested and treaded like animals for complaining about rising and totally unnecessary police brutality
          The police must have been instructed to act in this manner. I haven’t seen my old friend ex chief inspector Met, for around 12 months now, he has often commented on such growing dreadful police behaviour, but he’s old school Hendon.

      3. The Shape of Things to Come H.G. Wells

        A long economic slump causes a major war that leaves Europe devastated and threatened by plague. The nations with the strongest air-forces set up a benevolent dictatorship that paves the way for world peace by abolishing national divisions, enforcing the English language, promoting scientific learning and outlawing religion. The enlightened world-citizens are able to depose the dictators peacefully, and go on to breed a new race of super-talents, able to maintain a permanent utopia.

        3. That wouldn’t be much use if that devastated world had the same clowns in charge of its countries as we have today.

          I dare anyone to name me a current national leader who is not a complete and utterly useless twat.

          2. Grizzly,
            Please don’t think your question is
            being ignored, I am having a serious
            thunk!! … so far I am considering
            Mr, Putin and the King of Morocco!

      4. The Shape of Things to Come H.G. Wells

        A long economic slump causes a major war that leaves Europe devastated and threatened by plague. The nations with the strongest air-forces set up a benevolent dictatorship that paves the way for world peace by abolishing national divisions, enforcing the English language, promoting scientific learning and outlawing religion. The enlightened world-citizens are able to depose the dictators peacefully, and go on to breed a new race of super-talents, able to maintain a permanent utopia.

    2. Maybe actor David Harewood should pay more attention to that information than promoting the false narrative that afro-carribean people have suffered more from COVID in the UK due to racism…

      https://youtu.be/Xi70fH6S7OY

  30. Big jump in Scottish Covid deaths today. 207 for Scotland and 264 for England. Any reason other than administrative delays?

  31. My local Tesco metro has removed the option of paying by cash at its self check out tills. The man at the till tells me that the Company says that we will be cash free soon and is removing the option at its big stores as well. Back to the manned tills then with my collection of coppers.

      1. Fill the trolley, get refused with cash, leave it there at the till and walk away. Meat, defrosting ice cream, and all.
        They’ll get the hint pretty quickly.

        1. That was an interesting article, Sos. Many thanks! Now (as promised in an earlier post) I am off to bed for an extra snooze.

      3. When they have banned cash as they have in the Tesco HQ at Shire park WGC.
        Fill a trolley up with piles of goodies and leave it at the checkout when they refuse to accept cash.
        In a local Aldi with only two check outs open and i a hurry. I was once held up for at least 15 minutes at a check out when the person three in front was having a problem paying with a card for his lunch time sandwich and drink.

        1. It’s the same with little old ladies (of either sex) who wait until the last item is processed by the cashier before they start to rummage in their purse or wallet for their cash or credit card.

          2. Where as for a small number of items such as the afore mentioned, cash would be the easier option.

          4. Be thankful you don’t live in France, they still use chequebooks here. Neanderthals.

          5. Morning Harry – I got a minor rebuke from TV Licencing when I paid for my Licence by cheque. It took them a while to process it. It is still a legal way to pay and I have lots of cheques to use for payments.

          6. Paying by cheque for the nuisance factor for TV Licensing (and other disliked recipients) is one thing, paying by cheque as an everyday normality is quite another. In the UK the supermarkets kicked them into touch years ago, in France the supermarkets daren’t.

          7. Pay by cheque but post date it. That they take double the amount up front for 6 months is simply theft.

          8. Pay by cheque but post date it. That they take double the amount up front for 6 months is simply theft.

      1. Thanks, Kaypea. I missed the “SELF check out tills” at the beginning of your post.

        1. OT, Olaf’s Relict.
          Bill was watching a wildlife programme last night.
          How do you pronounce the name of the long, thin country running down the west coast of South America?
          I’ve alway rhymed it with ‘chilly’.
          The voice over woman pronounced it ‘cheelay’. It took me a while to realise that she was referring to the whole country.

          2. Spanish speakers pronounce it as “chee-leh” (although my computer spell-checker insists it is pronounced as “cheetah”). But Brits pronounce “leh” as “lay”, hence the voice-over woman was perhaps a little closer to the final syllable than you. But then again your pronunciation of the first syllable was a little closer than hers.

            South American independence hero Simon Bolivar is pronounced Seemon Bohleevahr, where the bold parts represent the emphasis, i.e. on the second syllable of each word. Brits (including Classic fm presenters referring to the South American orchestra musicians who have used Bolivar’s name) invariably call the hero Simon [as in “Simple Simon” Bolly vaargh”.

          3. I’ve already posted you a reply, Annie, but seem to have lost it. I meant to add “And don’t get me started on a Brit attempting to pronounce Buenos Aires”.

    3. My local M&S food hall has just three self check out tills still accepting cash and mostly there’s a queue for those while a dozen or so card only machines stand unused.

      1. £100 limit on contactless card transactions now. What could possibly go wrong…

    5. I hate those self-service tills – they always go wreong, especially with them weighing your bags to check you have put just the item you’ve dinged up in the bag. ‘unexpected item in bag’ Then wait several minutes whilst someone comes to unblock the till. Urgh!

      1. I don’t use the self service ones unless I’ve only got one or two items and always prefer the manned tills, but I’m happy to use my card. I can’t remember when I last used cash at the supermarket for more than the odd single item.

        1. I don’t remember the last time I took out any cash. Likely Christmas 2019, in the UK. Here, card always, it’s easy and convenient.
          And, self-service supermarket tills are a pain if you are buying alcohol…

          1. They are a pain whatever you’re buying.

            I remember at least 30 years ago I was using cheques at the till rather than cash. Now it’s the card and has been for many years.

            I last drew out cash from the machine a year ago and it’s still in my purse that I’ve stopped carrying.

        1. My favourite checkout operator is a man! But the ladies are good too – all the staff are polite and helpful and have been there for years.

  32. Meghan Markle accuses the Palace of a smear campaign re the bullying accusations.

    Favourite comment BTL at 16,500 upvotes was…

    So Meghan’s family is bad and now Harry’s family is bad. I wonder if Oprah

    dared to ask Meghan if she ever considered herself to be the problem..

    And my personal favourite…Tune in for the next episode of Keeping up with the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas.

    2. The Interview has been designed as a massive attack on the Monarchy. Snippets are being released to ramp up the drama and the whole thing is a last ditch effort to justify the actions of the vile pair. I suspect that the Palace will take a hard line in response as once the interview has gone out, there will be little left in Megain’s armoury.

        1. I suppose many of us had grave doubts about her from the outset – indeed I did because I did not like ‘the cut of her jib’ . (A chap who is keen on sailing knows at a glance whether or not he likes the look of a boat).

          However, against our instincts most of us tried to supress our instinctive feelings and our reasoning to put on a ‘positive’ attitude. Indeed we wished them happiness and the very best of luck.

          Few of us could have imagined the sheer depth of the treacherous cesspit we now can see.

          1. I thought when she first appeared that she’d modelled herself on Wallis Simpson.
            Though when the Windsors were exiled, at least they remained discreet.

          2. If the RF had dealt with the bullying allegations at the time, the race card would have been played.

          3. That has been the problem all the way through which is why the RF have turned the other way. Even at this point she is still trying to play the race card. The only way to end this is by stripping Harry of all his titles to make him unattractive to her. Hopefully it will be her final throw of the die. There is something bigger behind all this. I heard that Harry was introduced to MM by Michelle Obama. The monarchy stands in the way of global communism.

        2. Yes sos.

          Great benefits as there will be incessant paid interviews.

          Lots and lots of publicity.

          Lots and lots of money.

          1. She could become a billionaire off the back of it all.

            I hope that William and his family are always kept safe and encouraged to travel separately. The thought that those two, through an unfortunate accident, could be King and Queen of England horrifies me.

            If it is possible I would like to see them struck from the line of succession.

      2. There is a certain universality about the foul woman: she is not just a headache for the Royal family – she makes all of us feel ill which is why I call her Migraine.

      4. That’s interesting. In general the Americans hmm to love royalty, especially ours. It is somewhat counterintuitive as they are a republic born out of revolution against the royalty they now adore.

        1. It seems to be a thing with those living in a Republic. My French friends love the Royal Family. In fact, I had the Meagain/Ginge wedding inflicted on me while I was there. I said it would end in tears.

    3. ‘One’ might be excused for wondering how her parents marriage and her own previous marriage broke up.

      1. One of my nephews married a woman who was a couple of years older than he and a divorcee when he was a naive young 2nd lieutenant in the RN. The marriage was not a success and ended acrimoniously. By contrast one of my best friends is a divorcee who married a divorcee and they have been very happily married for over 40 years.

        My point is that it is probably better for somebody who is marrying for the first time to marry somebody who is also marrying for the first time.

        1. Yes i can see that Richard but…………..it’s not unusual for royal marriages to end in acrimony. Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s part of her plan.

          1. Allegedly Harry refused to ensure there was a financial pre-nuptial agreement. He will be screwed right royally.

          3. There was a very good reason why Royal marriages were a business arrangement.
            An unremarkable princess from an obscure princedom gained status by becoming a brood mare and ignoring the procession of mistresses.
            The Rampant Royal gained someone who understood the game and knew on which side her bread was buttered,

    4. She’s clearly a narcissist – in the psychological sense, not the ‘I want attention; that the Media use incorrectly.

      Such people have no sense of guilt or shame and have to externalise everything to ensure they remain blameless. They cannot cope with reponsibility or shame.

      I do wonder what Megan will do when the shine falls off Harry. Usually such characters discard their playthings.

      1. She’s got herself pregnant for a second time. Bish, bosh – comprehensive insurance cover settled.
        The Dook of Hazard is now surplus to requirements.

      2. After she has destroyed his relationship with his family (which is another trait of a narcissistic gaslighter) she will divorce him citing unreconcilable differences. Which would be true.

        If only he had listened to the sage advice from his elders and betters.

        Go out with a showgirl by all means but never marry one.

      3. I have known and experienced the effects of a narcissist;
        it was not a pleasant experience!

        Good afternoon, Wibbles.

    5. Can’t make up my mind whether or not to watch Ginge and Cringe Having a Whinge or not.

      Perhaps she should look in the mirror to see where the problem lies.

      1. 2Hours of me me me. No thanks. I will wait for Piers Morgan and Richard Littlejohn to tear her to shreds.

    6. There’s a quoran who wrote a post about her friends experience with Meghan at the admiralty house in Australia. She said she was rude and entitled and acted like a diva. So Meghan threw tea at someone because the tea wasn’t good. That happened according to one of the staff at the Australia house.

      In a new book out by Lady Campbell it is alleged that Markle threw a cup of hot tea at someone – after a payment of £250,000 it was hushed up – apparently – if it is true I for one would want to know who paid the money and why she was not charged for assault – if it is not true then Markle can sue lady Campbell for libel.

      Meghan Markle and Trevor Engelson’s romance may have started out like a fairy tale, but her old pal, Ninaki Priddy, claims things changed soon after the couple walked down the aisle. If Markle’s maid of honor is to be believed, the actress acted differently, “like a light switched off,” following the nuptials.

      In her interview with The Sun, Priddy said there were two sides to her former friend: “Meghan Before Fame and Meghan After Fame.” Priddy felt Markle also suffered from a sense of “entitlement.” To add insult to injury, Engelson was reportedly making multiple trips to Toronto, where Markle was working, to be by his wife’s side, but Priddy didn’t think the actress “gave him enough of an opportunity” to make their marriage work.

      Of course, it’s fair to question whether Priddy is a reliable source. That remains to be seen, but what is clear? “As far as Meghan is concerned, Ninaki has betrayed her trust and is a persona non grata,” royal expert and Mail on Sunday contributor Katie Nicholl claimed to Best magazine (via Express).

      Read More: https://www.nickiswift.com/99276/real-reason-meghan-markle-got-divorced/?utm_campaign=clip

          1. People already on shakey ground are advised to ignore it if they have decent legal advisors. Lady Colin knows this.

        2. Never trust na Caimbeulaich – they have bad blood.

          I could tell you tales of Campbell treachery that would make your hair stand on end!
          :¬(

          1. For him to marry that thing he must have been drunk. Besides her genitalia issues she has the jaw and profile of a man.

      2. I was reading only yesterday that with people with narcissistic personality disorder can be just like that, when the victim has capitulated and is in the bag, off goes the attraction for them, off goes the light and off they go in search of further ‘supply’ from their next victim. The victim in the hand has become ‘old hat’ and no longer of any use.

  33. Prince Phillip has had a successful procedure for a pre-existing condition and will remain in hospital

    1. They are not saying what the procedure was are they ?? It could be he’s had Atrial fibrillation, it’s quite common.

        1. Ah right but only procedure mentioned on TV news. But how long has that taken to be put in place ? It;s usually something that’s carried out within hours of arrival in the cardiology department.

          1. He was under observation for 10 days at the King Edward hospital before being moved to the cardiac unit. And they probably didn’t make an announcement until they could see which way he was going.

  34. (Ignore this old news) The 90-year-old Duke of Edinburgh was found to have a blocked coronary artery when doctors carried out tests at Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire. D Mirror

    Buckingham Palace said this morning: “The Duke of Edinburgh has had a good night.” The Queen this morning visited him in hospital . She was joined by Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, while Prince Charles and Camilla arrived later.

    Prince Philip’s 62-mile journey to the UK’s largest specialist cardiothoracic hospital and the country’s main heart and lung transplant centre came just before 6pm.

    He then underwent an “invasive procedure of coronary stenting” – which inserts a small plastic-coated tube into the blocked part of the blood vessel to prop it open.

      1. You are right – nine years ago. I just searched for news about Pip and it came up with that. I should have know with all those visitors. Doh!

  35. England cricket – 205 All out. Root 5 runs. India start not much better – so far 7 for 1 wicket.

    1. I think the groundsman (same as the last match, presumably a different strip) has a lot of questions to answer. Looks like a 3 day match at most again.

    2. Personally i think that very elderly game needs a bit of a shake up, I can’t remember how many times I yawned whilst watching some of it this morning.

  36. Tried to contact my GP today…..

    I rarely contact a GP and have been reading horror stories from those who have so I’ll add mine to prompt debate.

    Phoned at 8am so I didn’t have to wait too long for a reply although I had to endure a long recorded message before a human being answered. I was asked if I’d been to a pharmacy with my problem rather than phoning the GP. My problem is quite minor although the NHS website says it could develop into something more serious and that I should see my GP. I was then told that a GP would phone me. Instead of a call I got a text message from a GP asking me to send photos and fill in an online form with a link attached. Clicked on the link and it came up with “Unsafe link…do not proceed”.

    My problem is a sign of more serious underlying issues which I also wanted to discuss with a GP but as I stand at the moment it seems I’m pretty much stuffed.

    1. Turn up at the surgery and collapse in a heap on the floor….a doctor or nurse
      will appear in no time….

      1. Just a few years ago I had a knee problem but the GP wouldn’t send me for an appropriate scan. It had caused my leg to balloon.

        In the end I spent 12 hours in A&E and finally got the scan which resulted in an operation to put my leg right.

        In the past I have always been polite towards doctors as they are the ones with the skills to treat me but I’m now more likely to rip into them for being a waste of time.

        1. Similar experience with my badly torn Achilles tendon during lockdown. I had to put up with considerable pain until I found a physio ….
          However the doctor did offer me a walking stick!

          It’s become the Covid Health Service nothing more…

          1. COVID is exciting, dramatic, makes everyone feel important – like a TV drama! Otherwise, it’s just ill and broken people – where’s the drama in that?

          3. The NHS, far from being the envy of the world, has been a bad joke for a very long time now. Example – if you come to hospital in Norway, even outpatients & A&E, you are met by notices asking if you have been in a hospital in the UK in the last whatever months. If you are British, the staff ask, too. If the answer is yes, you have to be quarantined, and tested by staff wearing the full HAZMAT getup, for MRSA. That doesn’t apply to visitors from Cameroon, for example, where clearly they have learned how to clean the place. My last visit in a UK hospital (Mother’s cataract op) confirmed that.

          4. I think they’ve had to clean up their act since covid. The staff at A&E at New Year were very hygiene conscious.

      2. Not an option my way – the front door is locked and you have to press a door bell to get them to come to the door. Even then, they go into ‘if ye name’s not down, ye not comin’ in’ mode (by appointment only). That and ‘no mask, no entry’.

        1. Be fair though – before covid they had to deal with the kind of patients who would be there time and again for nothing more than a cold. At least keeping the door shut has got rid of those timewasters.

          1. Perhaps, although my local surgery had already done that well before the pandemic by stopping the daily ‘walk-in emergency surgery’, limiting people to phoning in and arranging an appointment (hard to get) for later that morning/day. Unfortunately, as well as putting off those time-wasters with hang nails, they also put off many who had actual ailments in need to assistance. They went from one extreme to the other.

      3. Or enter the lobby maskless; if that doesn’t draw attention, call for Guy Gibson’s dog.

    2. OH has been having some “old man” problems and the surgery has been excellent – call backs within an hour or two from the GP, and ongoing referral. He doesn’t do texts.

      Ring again and ask for an urgent callback.

      1. I did ring again…

        A recorded message told me I was so far down the queue that it probably wouldn’t be answered within opening hours.

  37. I see that the ‘multi-signatory’ letter regarding ‘trans women’ in women’s prisons that the issue is degenerating into a Terf war. Perhaps they shouldn’t have open the door to the nuthouse be thinking that intersectional feminism was a good thing.

    PS. An excellent letter from Serena Stallard on the mistaken belief that everyone working from home is a great thing and should continue.

    1. The occasional day working at home is great.
      Enforced working from home is anything but. It’s difficult to do any creative work with colleagues – TEAMS doesn’t cut it. It’s dull, there’s poor communication of minor stuff, you can’t explain things easily to the juniors who need guidance and education, and you never go out… I used to enjoy the exercise of walking to/from the station, and just social contact with people generally.

      1. Exactly. My experience working in engineering was similar – the more inexperienced staff will suffer more in terms of learning, and they’ll also be far less productive, given they’ve got many distractions at home and no supervision/help. Even for experienced staff, there’s only so much you can do via a telephone or video conference call, assuming your home ISP connection (never mind computer) is up to the job.

        Many proprietary software packages aslo have limits on the number of licences that can be installed, plus many require quite (new) high-powered computers to run them and that have all the security software needed by the firm. No good on a 9yo+ PC that can’t run Windows 10.

        The monotony of being at home all the time must be an absolute pain in the rear for many people – whether being under the other half’s feet (or worse still, with young’uns screaming the place down all day because they can’t go to school) or on your own, day after day with no-one to shoot the breeze with on the train or at lunchtime.

        1. I’m lucky enough that we have no schoolchildren, and a 3 storey house, so I work in Firstborn’s bedroom (he moved out a couple of years ago) and SWMBO works in the basement office – she makes so much mess, it’s her room now – I can’t get in, except to lean round the door and switch off about 4MW of lighting every evening at the lock-up round.
          Why can’t women switch a light off? Pretty well all the women I know just walk away from it, and it’s often on until tomorrow. Not very bank account or environemtally-friendly.

          2. I was going to install a motion detector, but she became furious… so it’s easier to let her pay the ‘leccy, and stop worrying.

  39. Could it be that two of the most unpleasant, selfish, sanctimonious hypocrites on the world stage today are about to get their comeuppance?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/04/nicola-sturgeon-made-untrue-statements-must-resign-says-salmond/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/03/04/palace-aide-welcomes-inquiry-alleged-bullying-meghan-duchess/

    I don’t normally indulge in schadenfreude, but in the cases of Sturgeon and Markle I will make an exception!

    1. Lots of ‘Lady Macbeths’ in the news of late. Add to that list the head of film and TV production company (Star Wars) Kathleen Kennedy. All of them currently clinging onto their positions by hook or crook, and don’t care about the disaster zone they are creating when things inevitably come to a head and they have to leave or are booted out.

        1. Indeed. Amazing how quickly they try to defelect the blame for their many shortcomings.

    2. Lots of ‘Lady Macbeths’ in the news of late. Add to that list the head of film and TV production company (Star Wars) Kathleen Kennedy. All of them currently clinging onto their positions by hook or crook, and don’t care about the disaster zone they are creating when things inevitably come to a head and they have to leave or are booted out.

  40. Good Moaning – just about.
    Reading about the current royal saga, MB and I are reminded of our experiences in private nursing. If we were to be treated like shiite, it was always the Nuvvy Rich wot dunnit.
    Jumped up trailer trash has no idea of how to treat fellow human beings, particularly those who are in no position to answer back.

    1. Morning – you’ve been a very busy bee on the Letters Page BTL area today! TBH, I think that Nutmeg has overreached and has set herself up for an almighty fall. I won’t be shedding any tears. The only person in all this I feel really sorry for is their child and one in the oven.

      As regards Liz, not sure whether she was just having an off day back when Nutmeg was introduced to her, but I could see something like this coming a mile away.

      1. She probably could as well, but gave the Nutmeg the benefit of the doubt and made her very welcome. After all, she was Harry’s choice, not hers.

        1. If I were in Liz’s position, I’d have had a quiet word with Harry right from the off. It’s not as though she’s unaware of previous happenings of this type in her family… 🙂

          3. I guess that Diane was not averse to welcoming many different colours to her orgasmic tunnel.

            I dread to think what those impressionable young sons witnessed re all the bedroom antics .

            Harry was so young , but I expect he remembered that a darkie made his mother happy , and what do young impressionable children take away with them .. I reckon that is why he was drawn to that particular image who he associated with pleasure and “happiness”

          4. I would think they were mostly away at school while she was busy with her lovers.

        2. O judgement thou art fled to brutish beasts
          And men have lost their reason          .

          [Julius Caesar – Mark Antony]

          How applicable this is to Harry and how wise the Duke of Edinburgh was in telling him that actresses were for a tumble or two but NOT for marriage

          (I have not taught English at “A” level since 1989 and yet Shakespeare’s words are so etched in my memory that they still erupt unprovoked in my mind now that I have passed Jaques’s fifth age(full of wise saws and modern instances) and have entered the sixth: the slippered pantaloon (without the leanness!). I hope I shall be able to postpone the seventh: sans everything for a year or two yet.)

          1. As a child, Richard, I and my brother and sister, were forced by my Father to learn not only chunks of Shakespeare, including Jaque’s Speech but also Gray’s Elegy, lots of Masefield but not (who I loved later) Hilaire Belloc.

            In incidentally, what do you make of the modern mispronunciations of Jaques (Jakeways) privacy (Pry vasy) controversy (contra versay) and the latest, highlighted earlier, Chile (Cheel ay). It seems that ignorance abounds, or is it a deliberate undermining of the English language?

        3. I find the reaction of Prince William’s wife to Meghan interesting because most of us have had a similar reaction to the friends or lovers those close to us present: one’s instinct tells one immediately that the person is a disaster but one hopes against hope that one is wrong.

          I am sure that Catherine correctly and instinctively formed her opinion of Migraine at first sight – after all, from all accounts she knew Harry well and was very fond of him. However, she was probably afraid to warn him and say what she thought as Harry was so besotted. So she decided to do her best to like her new sister-in-law but this liking – to borrow a phrase from Milton, was semblance of worth not substance.

          My mother saw that my bride-to-be was not only lovely but very fond of her fiancé and she feared that if I married her she would lose me. Her ploy, which did not work at all, was not to criticise my choice and criticise Caroline but instead to criticise me and tell Caroline how worthless and useless I was. Luckily for me my wife refused to be warned off.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HRydImUGTM

          1. I think Catherine is a sensible woman and could see through Meghan from the outset, but didn’t want to spoil Harry’s choice by saying anything out of turn. She probably had a say in the distancing of their two households.
            Her face at the final appearance of the Sussexes at the Commonwealth day service said it all.

      2. Brenda had no choice. Just think of the screams of ‘Racism’ if there’d been any reservations expressed.
        Sadly, Haz’s brain cells appear to be located below his waistband.

  41. Do you eat fish?….

    I’m a keen sea angler who likes to eat some of what I catch which includes mackerel…bass…whiting etc. Of course the weather is not suitable some of the time and the fish don’t always oblige by taking my lure so I have to buy from the supermarkets.

    The other week I spotted basa fillets on sale at a reasonable price in Aldi so I tried a packet. I found it quite bland without some lemon and herbs and then looked up the species on the Internet. The fillets come from a catfish farmed in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam and had I reseached before buying it…I wouldn’t have bought it. A fat lazy fasst growing fish farmed in dirty water is not my idea of a healthy meal. Then I saw packets marked “white fish fillets” which were quite cheap and tried them. I already know that white fish means anything other than cod or haddock but gave it a try. To check what it actually was I noted that it was pollock farmed in the North Pacific which means I won’t be buying it again. I already don’t buy supermarket bass…salmon or trout because they are all farmed which means they are fed antibiotics and growth enhancing stuff which I don’t want transferred into my body.

    Then I read that because the EU are stopping the import of British caught wild fish…none of it is available for sale in supermarkets although one bright spot is that one supermarket chain has bought its own British trawler which is commendable.

    The bottom line is that we are eating unhealthy food that is advertised as a must have as part of a healthy diet.

    1. Good day,Honda.
      You might like to check up
      the rearing and production methods
      of ‘giant prawns’ … if you won’t buy basa
      again you certainly will never again buy or eat
      giant prawns, imported from South-East Asian
      Countries!

      1. Been there and got the T-shirt….

        I bought some tinned pilchards back along and noted that they came from the Far East. They made me a little ill. Then I read an article about the conditions these fish are handled in and no longer buy them at any price.

        1. What about Tuna Fish, Horace? I buy it in tins but worry about how they are treated by the fishermen.

          2. Ndovu – I use it in Tuna and Pasta bake which is one meal I can cook in bulk and freeze to eat over a few weeks.

          3. It’s a good, meaty fish if you like it. But I’ve seen some disturbing images of what happens when they are caught and also the ‘by catch’.

          5. They are catching tuna close to the Cornish coast…

            In fact…anglers are hooking them from the rocks but they are too big for their gear.

            But…you can’t keep them if you do land one!

          6. Well, tuna is often caught by net. Dolphins are often caught in the nets. This is not supposed to happen as legal nets are required to be dolphin friendly. As I recall tuna nets may extend for miles.
            Bluefin tuna are endangered, yet the UK government has just approved a sport fishing quota. Tens of thousands of dolphins die every year as a result of tuna fishing with nets.

            https://thefishingdaily.com/eu-fishing-industry-news/eu-tuna-fleets-urge-iotc-to-close-drift-net-fishing-loopholes/

        2. You may have seen a link
          [posted by Phizzee] about
          a new company called
          ‘Pesky Fish’, after a shaky
          start, due to bad weather
          conditions, I ordered, on Sunday
          evening, some plaice and Dover
          sole fillets which were due to be
          landed on Monday morning; they
          were delivered on Tuesday morning
          very well packed and insulated …
          Absolutely delish and worth every penny!
          One is given the name of the boat and
          other details…

          1. Here the fishermen are going door to door as the EU is up to their dirty tricks by preventing British caught fish getting to the Continent.

          2. We must scrap the WA and the “deal” immediately and only make future deals with individual countries rather than the EU. The EU is inefficient, vindictive, untrustworth and corrupt and we must have abbsolutely nothing more to do with it.

            Boris Johnson and Michael Gove undermined a good deal – or even better “no deal” – at the last moment. They should both be placed in the stocks in Parliament Square and pelted with rotten vegetables.

    2. I’m quite lucky in living not far from the Swedish south (Baltic) coast. I have access to a number of ports where fresh fish is landed and sold fresh or smoked. Certain Atlantic fish (such as haddock) is hard to come by but I generally enjoy good quality freshly-caught wild fish.

      1. I had a good winter on the coast here in the UK….

        For some reason the fish’s habits are changing and they are appearing in the winter. I caught a bag full of mackerel…high in omega 3…on Xmas day and for several weeks following. The whiting were as big as those generally caught offshore.

          1. My favourite white fish is cod…haddock…hake…but not pollock so much and not coalfish at all…

            I also prefer bream over the too expensive bass although I eat it when I catch some.

            If I was where you live I’d be dropping heavy gear in the deeps for a nice halibut.

          2. I’m not a fishist myself but I love eating it. But only white sea fish: I’ve never had a freshwater fish that I’ve enjoyed, and that includes the trouts. Pike was singularly the most disgusting experience ever!

            I can tolerate salmon but it’s not my favourite. The only sea fish I’ll pass on (after attempting it just once) is dab, which tasted like the sea bottom!

          3. Grizzly, I like salmon but love wild salmon;
            have you tried sea trout?[sometimes it is
            called salmon trout.]

          4. I’m aware of the salmon-trout, Garlands, but I’m still yet to try it. I’ve never tried grayling (which is another game fish) either.

          5. Dabs live on the seabed lol…

            Freshwater fish tend to taste like clay. Sea trout are a sea going trout and they are hard to tell apart from a salmon and taste pretty much the same. They should be entering our rivers in spring. I have caught them from the shore (in the sea) but have to release any caught within 6 miles of the coast unless the angler holds a license.

          7. No. I’ve never tried perch (I know the French love ’em) nor have I tried zander, tench, gudgeon, stickleback, minnow, barbel, roach, carp, lake bream, goldfish, rudd, dace, chub, orfe, bleak, loach or pout. I don’t really have a desire to.

            There are, however, very few sea fish that I’ve not sampled and enjoyed. When I was a regular visitor to the Isles of Scilly in the 1990s, I habitually visited a number of restaurants on St Mary’s that specialised in seafood and I ‘ticked’ off quite a list of delicious fish species.

          8. I’m not keen on eating freshwater fish generally, but remember lightly floured fried perch fillets (with chips) in Swiss cafes as being delicious. It helped maybe that Lac Leman had beautifully clear, and hopefully clean, water.

        2. ‘For some reason……..’ it’s global warming, y’know…… or Brexit…..

    3. I tried basa fillets once or twice and thought them bland but ok……..until my son told me where they came from and how they are farmed. Never bought them since then. They are cheap for a reaason.

    4. A while ago one of my dogs had an upset tummy , so we did the usual , visit to the vet , antibiotics and kaolin etc..

      Light diet for a few days consisted of chicken and rice , scrambled egg etc. I bought a pack of cooked chicken chunks from either Tesco or Sainsbury , so that I could wrap his antibiotic tab in a piece knowing he would eat it ..

      Would you believe the pack of chicken bits came from Thailand ?

      2. Yes, Belle.

        Sometime ago I read that all Tesco ready cooked or prepared
        chicken products are from Thailand, I don’t know if this is still
        the case.

    5. I received my delivery this morning from https://www.hamiltonsfish.co.uk/

      I was very impressed with their wild lemon sole. A good size too. Enough to fill a standard dinner plate with the head and tail hanging over the edge for about £9 each.

      I treated myself to a dozen scallops and fresh hand picked white Devon crab. Luxury.

      If you spend over £60 delivery is free.

        1. Are you referring to “For some reason the fish’s habits are changing and they are appearing in the winter.”?

          1. Over the past two or three winters the mackerel have been coming inshore in large numbers. I have caught mackerel in winter over the years but not very often. They usually form large shoals further from the coast where the pair trawlers hoover them up. When gutting the winter ones I noticed they were full of roe…which I also eat…and then noticed young mackerel shoals of 3″ long fish.
            Twice in the last 6 summers they came inshore in such numbers that they were driving themselves and the whitebait onto the beaches. Other summers they turn up very late and in smaller numbers. Mild winters have kept the water temperatures at around 9 degrees and above. Dolphins have chased them inshore and no doubt the super EU trawlers have made shoaling up offshore a bit risky. Not sure if any or all of the above have contributed to them coming inshore during winter. Some of the winter ones…still joeys amongst them…are quite big between 1lb 4oz and over 2lbs. When the large summer shoals appear I don’t really enjoy catching them so put larger lures/hooks on hoping for a bass that might be chasing them.

            PS. This is the earlier comment I was referring to re. the tuna.

            Share ›
            −
            Avatar
            HONDA 1234 clydesider • 5 hours ago
            They are catching tuna close to the Cornish coast…

            In fact…anglers are hooking them from the rocks but they are too big for their gear.

            But…you can’t keep them if you do land one!

          2. Yup, I’ve seen them stranding themselves on the beaches after a yard wide strip of whitebait , hundreds of yards long. You wish you’d brought something to keep the whitebait in cool and fresh. You see all that action and are convinced the bass will be there as well, unhappily not always the case.
            Last year, I won’t say season as the bass at least seem to occur on and off right through the winter, I had a poor shore season but an excellent one afloat. That’s mainly for bass, the pollack weren’t bad but the cod fishing was dire. What sort of area do you fish? We take a charter out of Plymouth or Whitsand and further west if fishing from the rocks or beach. 100% lure fishing unless on the boat where some live baiting can be good.

          3. I fish Plymouth…

            Cawsand was one of the places the mackerel were beaching themselves. I have a 10′ dinghy which I row. I follow the seagulls and then row like a madman through the bass with a lure out the back or just cast a dexter type wedge amongst them Last summer started good and then I struggled even with the mackerel. I caught more mackerel in December/January than in all the summer. One fine day I went into Bovisand Bay and was surrounded with garfish. I take a few of them as they make better winter bait than the softer mackerel. A lot of bass are taken in shallow water at low tide. Best lure…don’t tell anyone…small black rubber eels.

            Years ago we had good summer shoals of red bream…until the Belgian trawler fleet found their spawning grounds off the Isle of Wight and wiped them out. New species include gilt heads and couches. We had a good run of trigger fish but haven’t seen them recently. Your avatar drift past the Cornish coast in summer. The Spanish put out miles of long lines and take most of the blue sharks in the western approaches. They also long line for our hake.

            Bass were good on the Eddystone reef years ago until a fisherman called the Spaniard broke all the rules and netted inside the horseshoe on the reef. There was a fleet of 25 charter boats in the 70’s and 80’s before they dropped gill nets all over the wrecks.

            I’ve just started LRF after seeing the videos but not for the tiddlers…I still prefer the stuff I can eat.

          4. I’ve invested in a bunch of slow jigs and will be trying them out on my favourite charter boat as soon as the skipper’s up for it. It’s out of the water for a few weeks. I always carry Redgills when fishing, and the Evo weighted ones have done great work. My best pollack, first ever cod, many years ago, and biggest boat caught bass were all caught on black Redgills.
            It’s beautiful in the Sound, and once at the’Drop Off’ it all changes again. Out to the ‘Stone, very busy most days with commercial rod and liners waiting for the bass to come on the feed. I’m gagging to get out ASAP.

          5. I’ve been twice this week with a 7′ 5-15oz Abu spinning rod and tiny reel. I loaded the reel with 12lb bs 8 strand braid…the first time I’ve ever tried it. Casts a 10 gram lure OK but I ain’t caught anything yet to see how it stands up. I strap it to my push bike with a bag on my shoulder with spare kit and room for a fish or three.

            I cycled to all the regular marks and there were plenty of anglers but none of them had caught anything. I tried some lures off Ebay that are dead ringers for the small mackerel I saw and mentioned earlier. If the shoals of mackerel and winter species have gone then it will no doubt be a quiet time until July or beyond based on last year. Some fish will be about but it means being very selective with the marks. Even blanks are better than stuck at home watching the BBC…lots of fresh covid free air and exercise.

          6. Good stuff, sea temps should start rising soon, but as you say, shore fishing picks up later than further offshore. Did you see the masses of sardines in the Sound last year? Hopefully they, and the mackerel will be back in early bringing the larger predators with them.

          7. I didn’t but saw a couple of boats with drift nets working in the Sound. The sardines or sprats or pilchards whatever they want to call them are caught in nets in places like Mounts Bay. We sometimes get shoals of herring which are taken on small hook feathers. Years ago I used to catch them on bare silver hooks. The year before last we had a run of scad mackerel. They are active at dusk and take lures…mackerel or gar strips…feathers. I cooked the bigger ones and found they taste better than regular mackerel. Then I leaned they are a staple diet in North Africa. The skeleton on the outside of the skin just peel off when cooked. Well worth a try if you haven’t yet. Bream are better to eat than bass but I only caught one or two last year. (black). Another underated eater is the gurnard. I’ve taken them by bouncing a dexter along sandy snag free bottoms. Herring are too boney for me.

          8. We were after the sardines/pilchards for bass live bait, and despite the huge shoals weren’t easy to hook even on the ‘herring hokkais’. We use joey scad as good bass live bait but had some whoppers last year. I didn’t know they make good eating. Will tell the crew. Gurnard, along with haddock, is my favourite fish. Need a decent sized one for fillets but wonderful eating. Caught my first John Dory last summer and let it go so still don’t know if they are as good as they say. I know there are bream on the ‘Stone after watching some diving video, but I’ve never seen one caught out of Plymouth. Maybe because we use too heavy gear, whether lures or live baits.
            I’ll eat a kipper but can’t be doing with unsmoked herring.

          9. Keep up the good work, you catch nothing if you don’t keep trying. I’m up Gunnislake way, so it’s a bit of a trek.

          11. Lots of mullet and I’ve seen bass up to the weir, above which they’d have to come up the salmon ladder. Fishing legally ain’t easy or cheap though.

    1. Who is davea16 and why is he advocating and promoting the rape of women?

      As usual, the cowards hide without presenting a response.

      1. I think that he is being sarcastic. Sweden has dropped down the list of high rape countries. The “top ten” or so are all uncivilised hell-holes. Sweden is now only No.6. One wonders why. Unless it is because of the number of savages from such places who now live in Sweden, as he hints with his opening story.

        1. All he need do is watch the video. It’s very clear on the sarcasm and the reasons for it.

          I really don’t understand why Sweden took in so many savages. It was clearly and obviously going to be a problem.

          1. The Swedes don’t understand it either. It was a unilateral decision by the then statsminister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who met no opposition from the other parties (all Leftist). Swedes, by nature, are not demonstrative in the manner that Latins are, they just shrug and carry on sucking their herrings!

  43. The BBC and the Scottish papers are backing Sturgeon. A worshipful interview with the Justice Minster was broadcast this morning, in which Humza Yousaf praised how Ms Sturgeon answered all the questions.
    I am guessing that he watched a different interview.
    Sturgeon avoided answering questions, went on at some length about her personal feelings, interrupted herself so frequently and repeatedly that her long rambling responses were incoherent. She repeatedly denigrated Salmond. She misrepresented the crucial meetings of 29th March and 2nd April saying that Salmond’s request for her intervention was in order to shut down any investigation. There is no indication that is true. If fact, in context of Salmond’s statements around this, he was surely asking for mediation or arbitration to be offered to the complainants*. That might have been sensible. However, mediation/arbitration was never viewed as an option, was never offered to the complainants and is now being discussed as if this approach would have ruled out further action. It does not. If mediation/arbitration fails, full on formal disciplinary procedures can be followed. If the complaints are considered serious they may be, indeed should be, referred to the police immediately. The Scottish government by any measure, bungled this completely.
    If the expression “control freak” had not existed Sturgeon would have brought it into being. She repeatedly answered questions by disclaiming any knowledge. It is beyond belief that a police investigation could be instigated by anyone at Holyrood whether politician or member of the Civil Service without her being aware of it, even if not in full control. From her evidence yesterday one would be forgiven for thinking that the Scottish government was something separate from herself, rather than an entity of which she was not merely a part but the head.
    That is an area that should be looked at by the Inquiry.
    Despite this dismal performance, lacking in facts, corroboration, or plausibility, the sycophantic MSM have opted to attack Mr Salmond.

    *At no stage in this sorry mess were the complainants consulted in respect of the actions of the Scottish government. This presumably means that they were not made aware of the repeated police advice that the government officials did not have the training or capability of dealing with this and that the matter should be handed over to professional counselling people. This advice was ignored.

    1. Just a question: Why did the Scots Tories post their motion of no confidence so early? I have my own view, but I would be interested to hear yours.

      1. I do not know. They were keen that some documents be released to the Inquiry, and this threat was intended as a “hurry up”. Some documents were delivered to the Inquiry at 6PM on the eve of Sturgeon’s appearance. There is very little chance that such a vote would succeed, unless the SNP were to split. They have, with the Greens, an overall majority so seldom lose any Parliamentary votes.
        The government tightly controlled by Sturgeon has repeatedly refused to hand over documents, has delayed endlessly – for months -and continues to do so, uses unseen legal barriers to withhold information, and has “redacted” most documents. There is no way of knowing what documents have been lost or shredded. This is a government that held back documents demanded by a legal Search Warrant.

        1. The stuff that was handed over on Tuesday at 6pm wasn’t even all that had been asked for! 2 years on and the committee STILL hasn’t got all the information it requested! Unbelievable and we’re expected to take the twisted bitch at her word…

          1. I noticed on the lunchtime news that Surgeon is doing a Meeagain and trying to deflect blame from herself by accusing the other side of peddling fake news.

          2. Ah yes! She’s very good at that. She was also hilariously vitriolic to Ruth Davidson in the big toon hall!

        2. Thank you. My own view is that they knew the motion would never succeed, and in posting it early they knew the Nats would circle the wagons, thereby ensuring that Splurgeon would see no need to resign.

          I think it’s a classic fork. Having come out so strongly in support of Splurgeon it is now very hard for the Nats to go back. If the situation worsens they are stuck with her, stuck with their support of her, which could and would be used against them, she won’t go no matter how bad it gets and they would have to publicly volte face and remove her. Blood on the carpets.

          If it doesn’t get worse, she stays and the Tories may have decided she is over the line into toxic, and that will only get worse now. The poison is out there, it will not go away, her reaction is petrol on the flames, she will continue to make it worse. Even the Scots have their limits to loyalty. I don’t know who her successor would be (and I can’t find any speculation) but the Tories will have their own view and may have concluded the replacement would be more effective and therefore undesirable.

          1. She’s obviously bent as an Allen key. If their politics is so corrupt at that level then it really cannot be allowed to continue.

          2. It is up to the people of Scotland to stop her. Will they? Clydesider points out that R4 reports women joining the SNP in large numbers today.

    2. IMHO she was absolutely appalling. She acted her way through the whole thing – sometimes whining, then wheedling, then aggressive, then arrogant and finally she turned on the waterworks. Ghastly beyond belief and a lie from start to finish. She couldn’t even stay on the subject and as Horace pointed out, she rambled for hours and said very little. So keen to tell us what an awful 2 years she’s suffered but nobody asked her if she had been subject to a very public 10 day trial and thrown under a bus, as was Mr Salmond!

      1. I only saw the ‘lowlights’ on the Beeb news – that was more than enough. She was terrible.

      2. The Nats think she did a wonderful job and efficiently dismissed all accusations. The BBC and the Press agree. Job done.

        They have forgotten that scandals like this do not go away when spun off. they just fester. Unless they have a plane to deal with it, and they don’t seem to, it will be politically very damaging.

        1. The BBC Radio 4 this morning reporting that many women were joining the SNP after yesterday’s events.

        2. Sturgeon is one of these people who will get a free ride. If there are any questions her supporters – a frothing rabid mob utterly reliant on her patronage – will leap to her defence.

      3. Hi Sue, as I glanced at your comment I somehow imagined that you were describing a preview of the Royal Duchess interviewing Miss Winfrey (for a position).

    3. Scottish Broadcasting Corporation…

      Sturgeon was on the news channel for hours yesterday.

      1. Yes, she was on TV for a long time. She didn’t contribute anything of value in that time though.

        Just prevaricating, cowardly nonsense.

        Exactly what you’d expect from someone guilty as sin and desperate to hide it.

  44. Gosh – a bloody good bonfire. As it had rained overnight, the material was wet – but I got it going. The trimmings of two large trees; the remains of two sheds and six months garden prunings etc. All gone in 2½ hours. Very satisfying. And the drizzle started just as I was finishing off. Cats fascinated by it – but they do not like rain!

    I shall treat myself to a beer.

  45. UK in trouble with the EU due to failure to reduce Nitrogen Dioxide levels in the atmosphere. The EU could levy penalties on the UK as Boris has signed up to actions required by the EU before Brexit.

    2. Stonking trousers. We left that hateful thing precisely because it’s polluting, destructive, ecologically damaging policies were ruining our environment.

      Why are we still bothering with it?

        1. I’m sure she is, whch raises the next question: why is she allowed a say in government policy?

    3. I do wonder if the Europrats were told that oxygen were bad for you and that it should be reduced, and have them offer to demonstrate this to the world as an example.

      Would they suffocate, or would they – as always – demand other people suffer? After all, they keep taking private jets and chauffer driven cars. In fact, the entire EU building should be run on green power alone. That’s keep them without power over 70% of the time, showing how little value they have.

  46. I see that Rome is getting very upset about Slovenia muscling in on the Balsamic vinegar trade and want to protect the name. No problem, the Slovenians should rename their’s Light Irish vinegar.

    I’ll get my coat.

    1. Up there with Marks & Sparks selling “Irish-style potatoes.”
      Still haven’t figured that one out.

        1. The blacks think they have problems 🙂
          That explains their “Irish style sausages.”

          3. Good afternoon, Jack.

            How nice to see you; please tell me…
            are you on parole …. or summat?
            You post here mostly on a Thursday;
            be complemented……. it takes some of
            us most of the week to recover!!

  47. I think this is worth looking at:

    More than seven million people in the UK living in areas with negligible Covid cases
    Cases have fallen so low in many areas that PHE has deliberately ‘suppressed’ data to protect the tiny number of infected from being shamed

    By
    Bill Gardner
    and
    Alex Clark
    1 March 2021 • 9:00pm

    More than seven million people in the UK are living in areas where cases of Covid-19 have almost disappeared, analysis by The Telegraph has revealed.

    Hundreds of neighbourhoods across the country recorded close to zero cases last week, despite being under national lockdown restrictions.

    Cases have fallen so low in many areas that Public Health England has deliberately “suppressed” data to protect the tiny number of infected people from being shamed on social media.

    On Monday night, MPs suggested that slides shown at Downing Street press conferences were failing to communicate that the virus has nearly disappeared across large swathes of the country.

    Latest figures show that 971 of 6,791 local areas across England recorded fewer than three Covid-19 cases in the seven days up to Feb 23. Around 7.3 million people live in these neighbourhoods, or 13 per cent of the total population.

    Areas reporting between zero and two cases are marked by NHS England as “suppressed”, meaning the true number of positive tests is withheld. Official guidance states this is to prevent the small number of infected people from being publicly shamed due to their “rarity or uniqueness”.

    Across the country, around a third of rural MSOAs (or Middle Layer Super Output Areas, a geographic hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small area statistics) are now marked as “suppressed”, including large parts of Cornwall, Devon and Wiltshire.

    …….. (big article)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/01/seven-million-people-uk-living-areas-negligible-covid-cases/

    Top comments:

    French Whisky
    1 Mar 2021 9:35PM
    Of course PHE is suppressing the truth. Not news.

    Even more vexing: if cases in any of these 971 areas with almost no infections increase by just two or three, the local R number will spike and Hancock will be on TV talking of exponential growth again.

    20m+ vaccinated, and still trussed up like a Christmas turkey.

    Flag244Like
    Reply
    Alan Osborne
    1 Mar 2021 10:10PM
    Under the tier rules , virtually the whole country would be in Tier 2

    We have since then vaccinated 20m+ people and I still cannot play golf even for another 4 weeks .

    This is bloody madness !!!

    Flag215Unlike
    Reply
    Alan Osborne
    1 Mar 2021 9:59PM
    These Sage people are misleading (lying ) tow rags. Millions locked down for no good reason. Open up now Boris!

    Flag175Like
    Reply
    NIGEL gordon
    1 Mar 2021 9:52PM
    I think I live in one of those areas. Cases in last seven days is listed as 0-2, ie like a football score. Was it 0 or was it 2 ? Methinks it was zero.

    Hmm…Still got 111 days to go before we are free though -despite the fact we have no cases.

    Flag142Like
    Reply
    Simon Ridley
    1 Mar 2021 11:13PM
    Wetherby East & Thorp Arch has a bad outbreak in the prison there. It’s the same in Strangeways Manchester. There is nothing that the general public can do to alter those outbreaks and yet the statistics are presented as if there is significant community spread.

    I don’t see these things being disclosed by anyone in press conferences etc. we are left to find it out for ourselves, or rather to NOT find out, they hope.

    I’m no rabid anti-lockdown disciple, but do expect fair and accurate dissemination of the data by the authorities even if it doesn’t suit their current agenda.

    Flag106Like
    Reply
    Stephen Jackson
    1 Mar 2021 11:24PM
    Yes, and how many infections are among patients in hospitals or people in the care system too?

    After all these deduction, how many people who are supposedly infected are actually in the community?

    How many of those are really infectious yet asymptomatic (posing the greatly feared risk of unwitting spreaders)?

    I bet when you do the analysis only 1 in about 10,000 people are actually wondering around unwittingly spreading it. B

    1. Why would those who have covid be ashamed of it? It’s a virus, not a lifestyle choice! Let people live as they want to!

      If the statistics cannot be trusted, then they cannot be used to make decisions – by us or big state.

      1. That’s why truthful and accurate statistics are essential to good decision-making.

  49. The Independent is reporting that the EU parliament has shelved plans to approve what they call Johnson’s Brexit deal after Brussels accused the UK 0f violating the agreement .
    They were intending to agree a date for the final vote at a meeting on Thursday. At the moment they have until end of April 2021.

    1. This could be good news. Provided we accept their non-acceptance and thereby revert to WTO Rules which have an internationally recognised requirement for previous trading terms to remain in place for up to two years

      1. Lord Frost seems to be making his mark. Boris could have left on 1 January but caved in.

    2. Why do these bloody deadlines keep appearing? First it was September, then Christmas, then January. We voted to wretched well *LEAVE* the hated thing.

      1. 329872+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        Many of us not only voted for but worked bloody hard getting a referendum and to see it, the result,
        handled by party first fools & politico’s is soul destroying.

    2. What would have been the problem with a well-aimed half brick? (Cat: value 360. Time of passengers, crew etc: £50,000)

  51. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56274711

    Quelle sur-feckin’-prise!

    What else is he going to say? “No, the destructive tax hikes are ones we’ve made to allow us to keep borrowing and wasting public money. They pay our pensions, for 8 course lunches, our endless expenses, Charabalti’s quango appointments, fat cat trougher salaries. It’s very fair on us. On you? Not at all, but we don’t care about making you poorer. What did you think? That we considered the real economy in our wasting plans?”

    1. How can they care about us, how can they even relate to the likes of you or me. I do not know anybody past or present who would pay £160 for a shirt.
      I do not begrudge him or people such as him, just as long as they never ever come out with such bollux as “I feel your pain” or anything similar, they are living in a different universe to the likes of us.
      https://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/femail/article-9325047/Well-dressed-Rishi-Stylist-reveals-chancellors-love-xxxx-skin-tight-shirts.html

      1. It’s a load of guff written for ‘wimmin’ – he’s wealthy, he can wear what he likes and his wife runs a fashion label so she probably has a say in what he wears. He’s a good-looking man who always looks well turned out.

        1. It may be a load of guff written for ‘wimmin’ but that doesn’t alter the fact that in my mind he cannot possibly relate to the likes of you and I, at least in financial matters.

  52. I’m starting to wonder if either BBC staff write the comments themselves and are obviously biased, or if there’s a collective of truly, monumentally thick, partisan and spiteful Lefties out there who like proving their ignorance.

    The visceral hatred the Left have of ‘da wich’ who they label as anyone earning just over 8p an hour is – well, would be – hilarious if these people were not allowed to vote. Thing is, they are. Their uninformed, arrogant, fundamentally wrong attitudes are the biggest problem we have. Government might be incompetent but it’s people like this who encourage them.

    1. “I’m starting to wonder if either BBC…”

      You lost around 90% of we Brits right there w. But keep trying 🙂
      And keep taking notice of the Beeb. Without you they would have no audience at all.

          1. Hearse not to reason why, hearse but to flew and die.

            (apologies to Lord Tennyson, who had a house near the cliffs)

  54. No, maths lessons are not a tool of white supremacy. Spiked. 4 February 2021.

    The programme, which received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, includes a section featuring ‘Exercises for educators to reflect on their own biases to transform their instructional practice’. While it stops short of calling maths itself racist, it highlights numerous ways in which ‘white supremacy culture infiltrates maths classrooms’.

    Among them is the fact that ‘the focus is on getting the right answer’. ‘Upholding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate[s] objectivity as well as fear of open conflict – which is, apparently, a problem for non-white students. One proposed way around this is for teachers to come up with more than one ‘right’ answer to each maths problem.

    Those evil Whiteys demanding only one answer! Lol!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/04/no-maths-lessons-are-not-a-tool-of-white-supremacy/

    1. Correct me if I’m wrong but I was taught that the Arabs invented algebra (the clue being al) and I seem to recall the Indians developed a fair amount of maths thinking. The only Maths thinking I ever did was: “This is bloody difficult….”

      1. Evening Stephen. The indians invented the zero without which mathematics would have stalled in the Middle Ages!

        1. How on earth would the Middle Ages known it was the Middle Ages without the Zero e.g: 1*66

      2. I used to be quite good at Maths until it got too difficult!

        I home-schooled Christo to A* grade in Maths in IGCSE higher but I knew that I would not be able to cope so well with “A” level .

    1. The spud wasn’t plastic; only its stick-on features were.

      Have you taken your eye off the ball, Philip, lad?

        1. You’ve got to be kidding me!

          Having said that, anything is possible this day and age.

      2. I wouldn’t know. I never had any toys as a child. I remember my brother had a small teddy bear which he stole from a jumble sale.

          1. It makes me laugh now that i have finally shed all my conditioning.

            Eight of us in a three bed house. Though both my parents worked full time there never seemed to be enough money. They still smoked and went to the Pub though. And Bingo.

            The year before i left home as Christmas came round my parents said they weren’t going to be buying any presents or cooking a turkey.

            My elder brothers and sisters all had boyfriends/girlfriends where they were spending Christmas so that just left the three of us.

            I left home three months after my 16th.

            Don’t feel sorry for me. It could have been worse.

  58. 329872+ up ticks,
    Surely then that is showing the mass uncontrolled immigration lab/lib/con coalition catering for the people’s needs.

    If the ovis were dissatisfied it would have shown via the polling booth and opposition to the pro eu coalition group but not a flicker of unrest.
    breitbart,

    ZERO Illegal Boat Migrants Deported Since Brexit Despite Record Arrivals: Report

    Yet another win for the three monkeys.

    1. “ogga1 Plum • 7 days ago
      329715+ up ticks,
      Evening P,
      That is precisely what the lab/lib/con politico’s want, no one loses a chair when the music stops.
      4
      >>>
      Jack S ogga1 • 7 days ago
      Feck it. You’re too easy a target.
      1”

  59. Just caught a news item on the wireless – that idiot Johnson bumbling on as usual. He doesn’t seem able to string more than two or three words together in a sentence without punctuating it with “er”, “um”, and an occasional “ah”.

    Thought he was a classicist who fancied himself as an orator. He might improve his style of delivery by studying Cicero, who never seemed to feel the need to use “ers” and “ums”, nor even “ahs” to embellish his oratory.

    1. Afternoon, Duncan.

      “… that idiot [born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-his-mouth, Eton and Oxford-educated, landslide-winning] Johnson bumbling on as usual.”

      Oh, how we plebs were taken in.

          1. No – I voted for the idiot to ensure that Corbynliner was defeated. But I wasn’t taken in by BPAPM – I just didn’t think he’s be as bad as he is.

          2. I can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. There’s not a single politician, of any party, at any level, that gives me even a smidgeon of hope for the future.

            And that goes for the rest of the world as well as the UK.

          3. Thing is, the good ones don’t rise to office. Integrity, decency, duty are all bad things as far as govt is concerned.

      2. For we realists, it was either him or Corbyn.
        Americans had the same problem at their recent election.

    2. He speaks so incoherently because his “thoughts” are incoherent; and because he has not the faintest idea about any subject upon which he is invited to, er, pontificate.

      He is a walking disaster, leading the country into ruin.

      He yearned to be prime minister simply because he liked the idea. He never had, does not have, and will never have any concept of what holding that position means. Nor how a leader of a country ought to behave.

    3. The only thing Boris is good at is delegating.

      He learned by rote a few Latin expressions at University to impress the impressionable.

      1. He can’t even delegate competently. Look at Williamson, Halfcck, Priti Awful, Shapps (ugh) …to name but a few.

        1. The only reason those godawful people are in the positions they occupy is political.

          He did manage to appoint the lady that arranged the vaccines bypassing the horrendous Civil Service.

        1. Give me a few minutes to scan my posting history for one of your replies w 🙂

          Found it w. NTTL 4 Feb 2021. Captain Tom thread…

          “Only lefties label people….”

          Almost fell out my chair laughing at that one 🙂
          You probably don’t even realise you’re doing it.

  62. An amusing piece in The Grimes (by a woman I usually ignore, because she is rarely funny) taking the michael out of the fiesty (= controlling harridan) Carrion and her plans to spends tens of thousands ruining Downing Street.

    “In response to the news that Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds are seeking to establish a “charitable fund” to redecorate their Downing Street apartment — thereby ending her “John Lewis furniture nightmare” – I would like to offer the pair my interior tips.

    I am not a professional, unlike the designer Lulu Lytle, who is apparently in the frame for the works, and neither am I any good — ask anyone — but my interiors company, Bertha Byg, hastily created just now because I was reluctant to let this fiasco pass without getting a column out of it, is unique. It not only tells it as it is, but also caters very much to the individual. (Our motto: “We know how special you think you are.”)

    For example, if you were to pick up our monthly magazine, Bertha Byg’s Non-Ideal Home, you would find a feature on “the top ten cushions to scream into”. We don’t ask why you may wish to scream into a cushion. That is none of our business. We could speculate, of course. For example, if you are in constant torment, because being prime minister does not pay like being a Daily Telegraph columnist does, then you may well wish to scream into a cushion. But we do not dwell on any of that. We have simply tested the cushions for durability, “face feel” and ability to muffle sounds. They cover every price point, and it may surprise you to learn that the most expensive are not necessarily the most muffling.

    It’s not the sort of information you will find anywhere else. I have, personally, searched Livingetc and Elle Decoration and Lulu Lytle’s website, Soane, and . . . nothing. This is why you might wish to grab a copy of Non-Ideal Home today. In fact, why not subscribe? Next month we’ll be focusing on “the feature wall you’re going to absolutely hate one day”, so it’s not as if there isn’t something for everyone. (Our think piece“What’s the point when it’ll all end up scuffed?” is also, we believe, a Non-Ideal Home exclusive, but more than that it is interiors laced with existential dread, which may be an innovation. “Why a kitchen update when you are just going to die?” is, we think, another innovation).

    But back to the present issue, which contains plenty more that might be of specific interest to the couple. For instance, we investigate the scented candle that most says you are wholly out of step with the mood of the nation — the British public have long sensed it, now let them smell it — as well as the top “investment” sofa you would like others to dig deep for.

    There will also be tips on how to make any home child-proof and advice on only hanging on to things that “spark joy”. Using the Marie Kondo method, it behoves all of us, actually, to divide our household belongings into those items that spark joy, those items that don’t spark joy, and those items that did spark joy until Dilyn puked all over them. Those items you should probably throw out. The spark of joy has left those items and you heard it here first: it’s never coming back.

    What else? Advice on “trends”, of course, which we make up four times a year to sell you more stuff, and also paint colour. We’ll talk you through all the 987 shades of white that are available and impossible to tell apart, plus the two that we at Bertha Byg invented just now. These are Elijah White and Abraham White, inspired, our marketing material will say, by the whites of the Old Testament. They also look exactly like all the other whites, but we will say that, given the light in Downing Street, Abraham White will probably work best since that’s how this game works.

    Come on, you can’t blame us for wanting to get into this racket. Or any racket. We are also very willing to receive “charitable donations”. See Non-Ideal Home for details and if you too want to scream into a cushion, one from Homebase is just as good as one from the Conran Shop. Luckily we’ve done the legwork for you.”

    2. Point of information; you cannot have shades of white. It’s tints. Shades all have black in them.

  63. Just to say about Discurse – notifications are taking seven hours to reach my e-mail!

        1. I’m not surprised -it must have taken some time to find a translator who could interpret Mangleees.

          3. As I have to refresh NoTTL every time to see the new material – an e-mail (when the system is working properly) is a useful hint.

          4. Clearing cache and cookies can help but make sure you know what you are doing. You don’t want to lose unsaved info.

          7. As I have to refresh NoTTL every time to see the new material – an e-mail (when the system is working properly) is a useful hint.

    5. To be honest, things on the Interweb (for me at least) have been rather slow today – pages taking ages to load, the Ghostery cookie blocker ad-on software not working correctly, etc, etc. Maybe time for me to clear all the browser history and cookies.

    6. To be honest, things on the Interweb (for me at least) have been rather slow today – pages taking ages to load, the Ghostery cookie blocker ad-on software not working correctly, etc, etc. Maybe time for me to clear all the browser history and cookies.

    7. Good morning, Bill. I hope you had a good night’s sleep – and tomorrow is the weekend. (That should do it, NoTTLers, Bill will now receive this first thing on Friday morning.)

  64. Another idiot “Royal” going woke….. The Pork daughters should keep their ugly mugs shut.

    “Princess Eugenie says she wants son August to grow up in a world where he knows he can ‘have hope and make a big difference’ as she discusses her work for The Anti-Slavery Collective”

    1. To stick my halfpennyworth in again, I respect HRH Princess Anne, who avoided titles for her two children. Let’s face it, simply being born British is to have won the lottery of life.
      (abridged from WSC)

    2. ‘Have hope’? I expect a few million dollars in the bank will take care of that.

    3. I may have scanned the DM story wrong, but it seems Eugenie is the only friend Markle has this side of the pond.
      ‘Nuff said.

      1. Even though Meagain spollt Eugenie’s wedding by using it to announce her pregnancy?

      2. I think that is Meagain’s PR. PR will tell the papers anything (and the papers never verify the truth of the matter) – it is an attempt to cancel Meagain’s rudeness and bad manners towards Eugenie as though it were oh, nothing at all. We were making a fuss about nothing……

  65. Another idiot “Royal” going woke….. The Pork daughters should keep their ugly mugs shut.

    “Princess Eugenie says she wants son August to grow up in a world where he knows he can ‘have hope and make a big difference’ as she discusses her work for The Anti-Slavery Collective”

    1. Better or worse than Gordon Brown?
      At least Sunak can’t give away our gold reserves.

  67. Tried using this Government link to see what I needed to do to get my driving licence renewed even though it’s not due until next year:

    https://www.gov.uk/renew-driving-licence-at-70

    Prearmed myself with all the data that was needed to be entered as specified to complete all entries as fast as possible (there’s a timeout on each page so you’ll get chucked off if you have to spend time rooting out the information),

    Snag1. it said the address and postcode didn’t match.
    (I should have read the small print and turn off my computers. autocomplete.

    Snag 2.(second attempt): it wanted my drivers ID written on my driving licence which was not originally requested and which needs a magnifying glass if you know where to find on the card.

    Snag 3. Read the notice that there were loads of web sites that looked exactly like the Government one so was beginning to wonder if this was the right link.

    It looks genuine to me but if you have got a new licence via the web from the DVLA did you use this link because the data asked for here is a dream for anyone hoping to commit identity fraud.

    1. Don’t they just send you some notification or form a few months beforehand? I can’t remember what I did but it seemed to work ok. Will have to do it again next year I think.

      1. Edit: it will be this year……… I seem to have had a wasted year somehow………..

          1. We certainly have. And for those of a certain age, it’s a big chunk of whatever time we have left.

  68. I just wish the mainstream media would give the Royals the same amount of coverage as they gave the Biden election fraud or the trafficked dinghy refugees or the terrorist attacks in Europe, why do the Royals get less respect that all these other issues they want to cover up?

    1. All those things they don’t report or actively suppress suits the Left wing agenda. As does reporting the Monarchy which they want to get rid of.

      1. Does anyone ever read that stuff, they say it sells more papers, i very much doubt it.
        But a nice investigation into the Biden election fraud would though.

  69. A sad story …Man Killed on Golf course.
    A foursome of men waited at the men’s tee while a foursome of women was hitting in front of them–taking their time. When the final lady was ready to hit her ball, she hacked it 10 feet. Then she went over and missed it completely. Then she hacked it another ten feet and finally hacked it another five feet.
    She looked up at the patiently waiting men and said apologetically, “I guess all those ‘king lessons I took over the winter didn’t help.”
    One of the men immediately responded, “Well, there you have it. You should have taken golf lessons instead!”
    He never even had a chance to duck. He was only 43.

      1. A guy arrived for his golf lesson at the range and the assistant told him the pro was held up and would be arriving in 20 minutes. So take a free bucket of balls and warm up. After a few shots with short irons he took out his driver and wacked a huge high fade, it went over the perimeter fence and must have landed on the road to the right hand side. He heard tyre screeching and a crunch. The pro arrived even later, he said sorry i’m even later there was a bit of a crunch out side, no body hurt, a golf ball landed on the road and disrupted the traffic.
        Oh dear the guy said, I think that must have been me,……..what do you think I should do ??
        The pro replied,……… well,………. you could start by bringing right hand over the top of the grip a bit more.

        1. Nothing like the old ones, Eddy. I first heard that in 1954! At Newmarket Golf Course.

          1. Sadly Jokes are few and far between these day Bill………I expect they’ll be banging on the front door at 5am.
            Off to prep the chicken and chorizo risotto.

        2. Sounds rather like the type of shot I play with a wood. Not surprising, given I normally only play when I go on holiday.

          1. What ever you do don;t go and play at Tenby Links. I was a 12 handicap golfer, I played Tenby with two of my sons last year. It’s the hardest meanest unforgiving golf course I have ever been on and that;s saying something.

          2. Not really a problem – I essentially only play ‘golf’ at the place I normally go on holiday to – it’s more of a pitch ‘n’ putt plus (9-hole par 3s and 4s) and none of bunkers have sand in them! I have more chance in losing gold balls in the rough or into a farmer’s field.

            A good holiday for me is coming home with as many golf balls as I left with! A really good holiday is getting some pars as well! Other than that, I’ve only played two proper courses, and had a morning’s tuition (with two other colleagues) on a work ‘away day’.

    1. I wonder if he has ever heard of hair gel…JR Mogg is always impeccably turned out.

      Still, Boris with a nice hair-do would still look like a sack of shit in a badly fitting suit.

      1. He has one of those frames that nothing will look right on. As for his hair – it’s hair. A part of what defines him.

        I judge him on what he has done, not what he looks like. Frankly i wish they’d all rock up in jeans and a t shirt to stop people bleating about dress code.

        1. There is no point in me attacking his decisions. They have mostly been shit with added glitter on top that were not in the manifesto.

          That just leaves him. He’s a scruff bag and not Prime Ministerial material.

          1. I won’t judge him on his appearance, it’s irrelevant. I’m scruffy 80% of the time. The other 20% I’m a complete slob. Judging someone by their appearance just doesn’t make sense to me.

  71. Here’s some more, I’ve been going through 350 or so old emails looking for certain items, but these were far more interesting. circa 2014.

    BRITISH BROADCASTING BLUNDERS

    12 of the finest (unintentional) double-entendres ever aired on British TV and radio:

    1. Ted Walsh – Horse Racing Commentator – ‘This is really a lovely horse. I once rode her mother.’

    2. New Zealand Rugby Commentator – ‘ Andrew Mehrtens loves it when Daryl Gibson comes inside of him.’

    3. Pat Glenn, weightlifting commentator – ‘And this is Gregoriava from Bulgaria . I saw her snatch this morning and it was amazing!’

    4. Harry Carpenter at the Oxford-Cambridge boat race 1977 – ‘Ah, isn’t that nice. The wife of the Cambridge President is kissing the Cox of the Oxford crew.’

    5. BBC Commentator – ‘One of the reasons Arnie ( Arnold Palmer) is playing so well is that, before each tee shot, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them .. Oh my god !! What have I just said??’

    6. Carenza Lewis about finding food in the Middle Ages on ‘Time Team Live’
    said: ‘You’d eat beaver if you could get it.’

    7. A female news anchor who, the day after it was supposed to have snowed and didn’t, turned to the weatherman and asked, ‘So Bob, where’s that eight inches you promised me last night?’ Not only did HE have to leave the set, but half the crew did too, because they were laughing so hard!

    8. Steve Ryder covering the US Masters: ‘Ballesteros felt much better today after a 69 yesterday.’

    9. Clair Frisby talking about a jumbo hot dog on ‘Look North’ said:
    ‘There’s nothing like a big hot sausage inside you on a cold night like this. ‘

    10 Mike Hallett discussing missed snooker shots on ‘Sky Sports’:
    ‘Stephen Hendry jumps on Steve Davis’s misses every chance he gets.’

    11. Michael Buerk on watching Philippa Forrester cuddle up to a male astronomer for warmth during BBC1’s UK eclipse coverage remarked: ‘They seem cold out there. They’re rubbing each other and he’s only come in his shorts.’

    12. Ken Brown commentating on golfer Nick Faldo and his caddie Fanny Sunneson lining-up shots at the Scottish Open: ‘Some weeks Nick likes to use Fanny; other weeks he prefers to do it by himself.’

      1. The best ever was i think Johnners………. The Bowlers Holding the batsman’s Willy.

      2. Not a double entendre, but I still love the classic snooker one – ‘and for those of you who are watching in black and white, the pink is next to the green’. From the legend that is Ted Lowe.

        1. Or the racing commentator who said, “for those of you watching in colour, that’s the horse in black and white”. [the jockey’s colours]

      3. Murray Walker: “There’s nothing wrong with the car except it’s on fire”.

    2. I wonder with No. 3 if the commentator believed that the athlete was on the juice and had’ changed’ down there?

      1. As I said first thing, he could have owned up to being the sole author of the economic nightmare…

        1. I disagree there. That’s down to Public Health England.

          The list of things that should have been done are myriad and easy to see now: the data provided should have been far, far more scrutinized. The scaremongering prevented.

          However, a group paid – but ignoring – the information given to them had a panic when their models – which were out of date – showed figures to officials, officials used those to set out a course of action and now we’re paying for it.

          Throughout, the state machine has lied about the pandemic. Why I don’t know. Actual medical folks I speak to say yes, it’s serious, others say all hype. I think somewhere in the middle but those who must pay attention to common sense won’t.

          1. But he could have refused – saying hat the economy couldn’t stand the debt.

          2. Sunak’s only honourable course of action, after having trashed the economy, is to commit Hara Kiri, or whatever the Hindu equivalent may be.

            Hare Krishna, perhaps?

          5. I don’t want him dead. I want him to accept and implement that the only option is to radically reduce state spending and then taxes.

      1. Sell it, not scrap it. There’s value there that the Treasury could use!

        1. If it came to it, how many would pay to subscribe to the BBC?
          A handful of old-timers maybe. Only so they could continue to rant about it’s output on the fora.

          1. Now i know you are out of your head. The BBC lost most of the elder audience by putting on the crap they do. They wanted to appeal to the younger audience who not only do not pay but are far more interested in other platforms.

  73. Off topic and still scanning my posting history for wibbling’s reply, I came across the last post I had deleted on the fora.

    Seems like the parrot, ogga has his fans here on NTTL 🙂

    “Jack S ogga1 a month ago Removed
    Wot’s that in something approaching English Ogga? For we normal voters.
    1 “

      2. He’s still posting. Mostly on East Anglia sites. He had a great sense of humour.

    3. For we? No, no! “We” is first person plural subject pronoun but the preposition “for” must be followed by the first person object pronoun “us”. For this egregious abuse of the English language alone, you deserve to have had your comment removed!

      (It’s a dirty job but somebody has to do it and Peddy the Viking’s not here… )

      1. What’s that in English, Duncan? Does it mean that I’m right is saying “Us house” after all?

      1. Thanks for that post, Bill. At last I have understood Maggie’s post. (And then Oi laughed.)

    4. North of the border, that’s one of our favourite jokes:-)
      Along with the light aircraft crashing into the Dublin cemetery.
      “200 bodies recovered and still digging.”

    4. Thinks: “I’d rather eat a dozen bacon sandwiches.”
      Aloud: “I just can’t wait, my Carbon Free Dumpling.”

    5. “By Jove, Carrie! That eco-friendly Green tobacco that I got from Greta is jolly good stuff, doncha know… “

      1. He looks terrible, and so flabby jowled despite all the exercise we see him photographed doing. Perhaps he does just a few steps for the cameras. Carrie has the eyes of a zealot, they remind me of those of MM.

        1. PM

          Carrie has a fine set of gnashers .. but she also looks as frightening as MM, power crazy … They have both found it so easy to seduce quite unattractive men!

          3. Me too. He had that distinctive pugnacious jaw.

            The actor who played Bazza in the Barry Humphries film ‘Bazza holds his own’ and as portrayed in cartoon strips had the same lantern jaw.

        2. Another example of confusing acronyms, vw. At first I thought you were referring to Marilyn Monroe. It took a short while to realise you meant Prince Henry’s wife.

          1. Mitterrand described Margaret Thatcher as having the ‘eyes of Caligula and the lips of Marilyn Monroe’. The same might be said of Carrion.

          8. I don’t really know, Conners, but Mickey Mouse is 93 this year (born in 1928).

      1. These days it’s an end-of-pier tourist attraction in NY harbour.
        The Americans always were bad losers.

        1. I sadly remember seeing it being transferred (just the fuselage) onto a barge at Isleworth on it’s way out of London.

          2. The Americans were far too sensible to waste millions on a small supersonic passenger aircraft and instead cornered the international market with their Jumbo jets and other wide bodied jets.

            Concorde was popular with wealthy transatlantic people such as David Frost and an assortment of pop stars. They loved the VIP lounges and the fact that they did not have to wait for an interminable length of time rubbing along with the lower classes but were instead rushed through controls at both ends.

            This gave them advantages in travel time which reinforced the belief that they were at supersonic speeds throughout whereas noise controls meant that they had to be out of earshot of land before the sonic boom.

            Concorde was a commercial flop but value was placed on its illusion of national prestige.

          3. Was it a commercial flop?
            I was under the impression that it made money (yes I know, ignoring the development costs) and had it been allowed to go into major construction would have led to better versions. The Yanks stopped it because it would have cornered the business market.

          4. I seem to recall they said it was too noisy, not the boom, just its regular take off sound. It was a majestic noise. Sunday morning pike fishing on the Thames and Concorde taking off was a welcome interruption.

          6. I was at the Avis Heathrow depot one morning when the staff all rushed off and grabbed handfuls of car keys. Concorde was about to take off and that was apparently enough to set off the car alarms, they tried to be prepared..

          9. Used to fly over my brother’s house. Rattled the windows every time. Beautiful sight, though (and I don’t mean the rattling windows, either)

          10. The excessive noise was because the diamond wing profile for supersonic flight requires enormous thrust at take off so the RR engines were necessarily very powerful. There were noise issues both at Heathrow and New York.

          11. If every other aircraft coming into or out of Heathrow had been as loud or distinct then it would have been ghastly. It was the few flights that made it more than acceptable.

          12. International airlines, including the many American carriers, did not buy it presumably because they could operate successfully with wide bodied aircraft carrying many more passengers.

            I agree with others that Concorde was a marvel of technical engineering and a beautiful object to view. Its RR engines had been developed for an abandoned jet fighter project so part of the development costs were already substantially paid for by the taxpayer.

            There is a great display of both aircraft at Duxford with full explanations of the technical obstacles and achievements.

          13. I would have loved to have had a flight.
            A good friend’s mother died when we were on an audit in NY.
            He tried to get back to the UK, changing his ticket. When BA found out why he was so determined they gave him a seat on a Concorde.
            I continue to think that had an American equivalent been available there would still be such planes today (covid notwithstanding)

            Worth a quick look:
            https://simpleflying.com/did-british-airways-make-a-profit-flying-concorde/

          14. I’ve seen the body of one at (I think) Duxford.
            It is surprisingly pokey and the decor is pure 1950’s suburbia.

          16. Development was in the age of hand calculation by sliderule, not massive computer simulations.
            Development stratred as a concept just about when the B 707 was launched.
            How’s that for confidence? And the result – fine wines and gin ‘n tonic on the edge of space, at mach 2, with 1950s technology. Superb achievement.

          17. Agreed. I saw the drawings produced by Marshall’s Aerospace for the hinged nose section of Concorde. Drawn by hand in their offices on Newmarket Road in Cambridge.

          18. TSR2. There was ongoing development of UK jets until the UK government pulled the plug and allowed the USA to take the lead.
            One of the joys of old films is that one sometimes one can catch a glimpse of what might’ve been, if our government had not been riddled with cowards and traitors.
            The film “”Some People” is one such with the Bristol 188.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_People_(film)

          21. I used to hear the sonic boom when fishing offshore, beautiful, just like the aircraft itself.

          22. So you’re saying, molamola, (© Cathy Newman) that you use TNT to blast the fish out of the water?

            :-))

          23. Charter skippers used to let it be a surprise to anglers who hadn’t experienced it before.

          24. Initially developed by Britain and France, models were originally called Concord and Concorde in their respective countries. When did Britain decide to add the extra “e”? Does anyone on here know?

          25. A Yorkshireman was consulted and the French thought “eeh by gum” meant they could add the e

          26. The noise controls were introduced by the Americans to block Concorde. Their attempt to build a supersonic transport plane ended in failure.

      2. I miss seeing it on an almost daily basis in the 1990s when I lived in Ayr, Scotland, close to Prestwick Airport where Concorde pilots practised.

      1. So did I.
        Even rocked up at Biggin Hill for a week of selection.
        410’d home. No flying career for me. :-((

        1. The nearest I got was at the controls of a Chipmunk (out of Manston) and a K31 glider (Abroath)….

  77. Scanning through my posting history I noticed this one.

    Engineer_Andy completely missing the context of my comment…

    “Jack S Pretty Polly • 7 days ago
    Gave up reading after “Pretty Polly.” Putting it down to experience.
    The Americans seem to love your nonsense.
    The same Americans who say “Farrage should run for PM.”
    1 −

    Engineer_Andy Jack S • 7 days ago
    When trying to be sarcastic, try and get your spelling right (Farrage). 😉    ”

    The Further-/Far-Right. Wot would we do without them 🙂

    1. I think you will find that lots on here have blocked ogga and Pretty Polly because of their continued and non stop repetitiveness.

      If you wish to keep on posting their idiotic diatribes you may find yourself having no one to talk to except them.

      Yawns.

      1. People who block, (OK BT I know you ain’t a pollyamorous) tend to be those who can’t face criticism and dodge the questions they are asked. We seem to have attracted a fair few of those recently.

        1. You deaf or sumfin’?

          Polly and ogga have posted the same thing everyday for the last few years ! We get the message !

          2. But it’s March 4th, this might be Pollys big day when Trump is reinstated as President.

          5. 329872+ up ticks,
            But I am afraid take no heed as in being of the party first brigade.

            Many of us have had 4 decades of the same voting pattern repeated again & again then some.

          7. 329884+ up ticks,
            Morning NtN,
            How did we get the referendum, I can assure you it was not via
            lab/lib/con, far from it.

            UKIP was fighting the coalition,members , voters from the outset that was the reason for it’s being, them being pro eu.

            Tis my belief you do NOT continue to support / vote for the very same politico’s / party’s that, it’s a proven fact have tried their best to destroy this Country.

            You show YOUR dissatisfaction with the governance party’s by
            helping / building a party more attuned to your political feelings.

            Gerard Batten did it with UKIP over the course of a year making the party financially sound and gaining members daily, his success triggered the treachery that took UKIP down.

            In short supporting / voting lab/lib/con is finally going to erase us as a Nation, you BUILD an opposition or, sad to say, you
            enter NOTA country.

      1. Have a go at me by all means Andy, but don’t be surprised if we centre-right come back at you 🙂

        1. Hi Guys – on Zoom they have ‘Break out Rooms”
          Do you think you might create your own ‘Break up’ room.
          Spats tend to get a bit tedious after a while.

          Regards, S

          4. You rock up, pick a fight, insult people and then they leave, being the better person.

            Qiute obviously you’re a Lefty. Stop it. Be civil or go away.

          5. Alternatively (Alternately if you’re a Yank) they could just ‘get a room’.

          8. Elton John divorced his wife back in 1988.
            Michael Barrymore did the same years later. Around your time.

          9. How utterly stimulating to learn that.

            I haven’t got the foggiest idea what you are on about and I haven’t got a clue who that second bloke you mention is.

          11. I obviously live on a different planet to you.

            Time to go and watch some telly. Natty natty!

        2. Rather tough, given I’m also a conservative. I was playfully mocking/joshing you for the spelling nistake, nothing more. Don’t take it too seriously… I wasn’t. 🙂

          1. There are Conservatives and there are conservatives. Beyond those there are the Maggie fans.
            Which of those three are you?

          2. I would’ve supported Mrs. T has I been old enough to vote when she was PM. I’ve voted Tory consistently since turning 18, but increasingly only because the alternative was too dire to bear. There was one exception – I voted Brexit Party for the 2019 Euro Elections.

            Given what the Tory party has become (especially during the pandemic), epsecially as my MP is a remoaner (I had only the choice of him or a Lib Dem or Labour party candidate last time out), I am hoping that something good will come out of The Brexit/Reform Party, perhaps with some of the ERG moving across, then perhaps I can move my vote as well.

            Given the Daily Telegraph has moved leftwards as well as being of the Elites in control of our world (taking $3.4M from the Gates Foundation was a terrible move, as was their Orange Man Bad line since 2016) as well as them censoring readers all the time made me cancel my subscription on 20 years in 2020.

            I now get my news from more independent sources, including The Daily Wire for US news, UK news being more difficult to get to the truth. I’ll see what Brillo and his new GB News operation brings. It would be nice if it mirrors Sky News Australia (definitely NOT the British version).

          3. “I would’ve supported Mrs. T…”

            Back in 1990 you would have been a minority.
            October 1990 conservatives of Eastbourne went to the polls declaring they would vote “Anyone but Thatcher.”
            Turned out they weren’t bluffing. Weeks later the Tories replaced Maggie as leader.

          4. And what a terrible mistake they made by changing her for the grey John Major. They might have though that he won them the 1992 election, but in relaity enough people knew Kinnock was a busted flush, but his ‘Oh Yeah’ rally just before polling day didn’t help much!

            I recently viewed a video of Maggie (I think someone here posted the link originally) about how the EU (then EEC) was going to go.

            https://youtu.be/_dEp4V1zCvA

            Very prophetic if I do say so myself. What I’m amazed at is that Boris is now following a statist agenda and there’s nary a peep from most conservative voters.

            It’s also why I’m ticked off at TBP and Farage (not Farrage 🙂 ) at seemingly staying silent throughout the pandemic except Nige (as usual) banging on about illegal immigrants – important, yes, but certainly NOT the only issue to talk about.

            Gotta go – my stomach is empty and needs filling up! TTFN.

        3. You are not centre right. You’re not even centre. You’re a Lefty! You give it away in your own sentence!

      2. Hi Guys – on Zoom they have ‘Break out Rooms”
        Do you think you might create your own ‘Break up’ room.
        Spats tend to get a bit tedious after a while.

        Regards, S 2nd Post

        1. I must have missed something. Seems this short thread was much longer it looked 🙂

    3. The Left we can do without either. Your obsession with labelling people gives you away. Stop trying to provoke people.

      Come up with your own ruddy content rather than bleating about others.

      1. You don’t know when you’re beat wibbling .

        “Only Lefties label people…”

        wibbling NTTL 4 February 🙂

  79. That’s me for this very successful day – fantastic bonfire. Cats out all day (apart from whingeing when it drizzled). And to cap it all – the painter, whom we booked two years ago and imagined he had forgotten all about us) has just phoned to say that he’ll start at 8.30 on Monday morning.

    So – I’ll risk a glass to celebrate.

    Have a jolly evening thinking how the ghastly snivel serpent who was shouted at by Priti Awful will spend his £340,000 – – compo for hurty feelings.

    A demain.

          1. Am suppping a ‘tot’ (one eighth of a pint) of neat Woods
            The song lasts longer than a bottle

      1. Yo Our Sue

        Old bolier replaced on Monday: NOT SWMBO
        Today, garage rewired as shed #1
        Shed #2 will go into garden
        Shower lasting as a shower, no longer an ornamental pool full of yukkie water
        Three offers have been put in by the local crooks to ‘remove’ the seller%

      1. I haven’t seen – or played with – a Yo-yo for seventy years, Griz !

        Today, they cost a fortune …

        2. I bought two last week at £10 each for the two granddaughters (They do light up just like the faces of the little ones!)

      1. I am certain we won’t be watching such a toxic duo either, unless one has garlic and a cross and Holy water to splash over them .. to me they are the devil incarnate , and I feel so sorry for the good people in the Royal Family .. Our dear Queen has had more than her fair share of nonsense to deal with .

        I am so surprised that the DT are allowing comments , which are coming in fast and furious .

        Have you settled in to your new home properly , are you both happy?

  84. Interesting letter. Sorry if it’s a repeat. Good on the lad!
    Princes and paupers
    SIR – On Monday’s news, I watched a nine-year-old boy in Yemen teaching other children in the ruins of their school. He had been born blind, but he took the class when the teacher could not get there. Asked what the school needed, his reply was not books or toys but doors, windows and chairs.

    This child’s attitude contrasted with the televised self-pitying whining of Prince Harry of La-La-Land.

    Sue Milne
    Crick, Northamptonshire

    1. Moh and I watched that little boy , he was amazing and the children were younger than him , but he had authority and wisdom far beyond his years , and he was blind .. and had to navigate wartorn bombed out buildings and terrible ground to get from here there and everywhere

      The human spirit is so strong and determined , bless all the children in these terrible times .

      1. If Yemen were left untouched by external powers for the next 25 years, does anybody seriously think that it would reduce the large number of children being affected by “terrible times”?

      2. If Yemen were left untouched by external powers for the next 25 years, does anybody seriously think that it would reduce the large number of children being affected by “terrible times”?

      1. Sell arms to anybody who turns up with a case of dollar bills.
        That’s the arms business.

        1. Falklands war Shorts of Belfast supplied weapons to both sides.
          As you say, money rules.

          2. Heading south, half our RN ships were relying on Seacat for their air defence.
            As was the Belgrano. On East Falklands the Argie army were trying to bring down our Harriers with the same obsolete missile. With as little success as our RN ships had thankfully.

          3. They were selling arms to Argentina before the war, there was no reason not to, it was govt. policy to do so. As far as I know the only countries that shipped arms there during the war war were Israel and Peru. Peru with the caveat that they must not be used in action, and Israel with the caveat that they must.

            Seacat did have one confirmed kill of a Skyhawk. Argentina lost 19 Skyhawks and 11 Israeli Mirages. Argentinian Seacats didn’t shot anything down, but then Harriers were not forced to fly very low by SeaDart so it would have been harder.

      2. Of course we do, Jack, why are you surprised?
        This Country, along with USA and no doubt many
        others have a strong affiliation towards self-
        preservation………but an even greater affiliation
        towards the brown envelopes on open display!!

        1. After the Falklands, nothing surprised most of us.
          Maggie fans on the other hand were doing their own thing back then.

          1. What has/ve ‘Maggie fans’ to do, in the very
            slightest, with the FAM. we are in today?

          2. Maggie fans regard her today as they did back in 1982 when she sent the Task Force south reliant on an obsolete air-defence system.
            We lost HMS Sheffield, HMS Coventry, HMS Ardent, HMS Antelope Sir Galahad and the Atlantic Conveyor.
            Her fans still worship her.

            ETA: Two of those to Exocet, the other four to the Argie’s old Skyhawks dropping conventional bombs.

          3. Jack, I enjoy parrying with you
            but to suggest that Mrs .T. was
            personally responsible for the
            Falklands debacle is little short
            of reality……..

          4. Maybe I’ve been reading the wrong sources G.
            Who was it sent the Task Force south?
            Turn of ’82, seems Maggie needed a war as much as the junta.
            She was re-elected on the back of the Falklands.

          5. You have my first ever down vote
            We have ‘armed forces’ to defend our country and our protectorates.
            Perhaps the Government should include you in any decision making.
            They invaded, carefully ensured none of our troops were harmed
            Took over the the Falklands, thinking that it is now ours
            UK thought differently

          8. The junta needed a distraction to turn its people’s attention away from its gross mismanagement of Argentina, so it embarked on what it thought would be a safe adventure to annex the Falklands.

            Mistakes had been made by the Foreign Office prior to the war – they completely misjudged the intentions of the junta and the seriousness of the situation – and so the the Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, took responsibility and resigned, something our present sorry bunch of politicians would never have contemplated under similar circumstances. Mrs. T didn’t start the war but she certainly ended it and she had the British public behind her every step of the way, which is why she was reelected.

            Speaking as one who served in the Falklands, I can say we were more than happy to do the job for which we were trained, that is, to defend our country and its Overseas Territories. Despite the misgivings of a few political nay-sayers – and several attempts by the BBC to sabotage the operation – I seem to remember we succeeded in our task rather well.

          12. Always enjoy reading the accounts of those who were there Dunc.
            Better than any book/reporter.

            ETA: With that in mind. Had those Harriers been on-board the Atlantic Conveyor when she was sunk, would that have been the end of the campaign? Losing the Chinooks was bad enough.

          13. As you say, losing the Chinooks was bad but survivable.

            I think that once we’d established a bridgehead, we were unstoppable but as to whether or not that bridgehead could have been established successfully without the air cover provided by the Harriers of the RAF and the RN …. well, it’s a moot point and who can say for sure?

          15. She was substantially responsible. She sanctioned the withdrawal of HMS Endurance from the area, despite warnings from the FO of how the Argies would see that, did not react in the month before the invasion when the signals from Argentina were clear and strong.

            The joke is that if Argentina had only handled it politically, not militarily, the Falklands would have signed up to join Argentina.

          16. Right enough, the withdrawal of Endurance seems to have sparked the invasion.
            Rare thing when a politician admits they got things wrong..

            “He resigned from the position on 5 April, taking full responsibility for the complacency of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in its failure to foresee this development and for the misleading signals sent by the Foreign Office on British intentions for retaining control over the Falklands.”

          17. Except that wasn’t true. The FO did give clear warnings as became clear later. He fell on his sword, partly in self sacrifice because a scapegoat was needed, but also to distance himself from HMG so he could become head of NATO. The Minister most to blame was John Nott.

          19. Agreed. Your insights are always valuable, plus I always learn from our discussions, because I have to check what I ‘know’ (don’t like being shown I’m a twit) and quite often find it isn’t actually true.

            Pick the right conversation and Breitbart is good. Scan down the comments for a topic, any insults already extant then don’t bother.

          20. BTW, I’m glad you liked my explanation for “Irish style” potatoes. It made me laugh when I thought of it. “Scottish style” potatoes? I’ll not go there.

          22. She was substantially responsible. She sanctioned the withdrawal of HMS Endurance from the area, despite warnings from the FO of how the Argies would see that, did not react in the month before the invasion when the signals from Argentina were clear and strong.

            The joke is that if Argentina had only handled it politically, not militarily, the Falklands would have signed up to join Argentina.

          23. We lost the Coventry because no one thought the Argies had functioning Exocets, so the air-defence system clocked it as friendly and didn’t react. The Sir Galahad was because the Argies had been bombing on the flat, not lob, so bomb fuses didn’t wind down hence a lot of un-exploded bombs. They worked it out the night before Sir Galahad, the Task Force commander had taken a calculated gamble and it didn’t come off. Ardent and Antelope both had high magnesium content and were built to burn. Atlantic conveyor was civilian and defenceless.

            What made the difference was the Sidewinder. Caspar Weinberger as Defence Secretary stripped US forces worldwide to supply Britain. USAAF flyiing border patrols in West Germany were “flying no panties” for months, i.e. fake Sidewinders.

          24. And some PRAT on a talking head programme on the telly decided to tell the Argies why they had dropped so many undetonated bombs

            When an arial bomb is released it needs a certain amount of ‘air time’ before it is is armed, so that it is clear of the lainch aircraft or not a hazard if not dropped
            The arming process is by a small propellor on the front of the bomb rotating to align a path for the detonator to be enabled
            That is what the Tw*t said on the telly. The Argies were releasing the bombs with insufficient Flight time to arm

            Things then got worse

          25. The skyhawks came in low over West Falkland to avoid our guns right enough.
            Too low for their bombs to arm themselves. Ardent, Antelope etc were lost all the same.
            Why they didn’t target Canberra in San Carlos is another story.

            Was the Tw*t Max Hastings? That was unbelievable.

          26. Canberra was the focus of air defence. If you are flying in at high speed, trying hard not to get a Sidewinder up your ass, you go for what you can get without getting killed. The Argentine pilots have said they all tried hard to get near Canberra but couldn’t without committing suicide.

          27. The Argentine version I read says the Canberra’s white paint led the Argie’s to believe she was a hospital ship. Why they didn’t target her.
            Makes sense given they were sinking RN ships around her.

          28. I saw a Discovery program back in the early 2000s and they interviewed three Argentine pilots. Basically, if they went near a Harrier carrying Sidewinders it was a death sentence, and the ground to air on the hills had been positioned to attack anything that lined up on Canberra, so they found they just couldn’t attack it. They had stories of comrades getting shot down trying.

          30. I’m sorry, I think that’s spin. They knew which ships were in the Taskforce, it was well publicised and the operational role of Canberra was discussed on TV before they went into San Carlos. There programs about how troops were enjoying life on Canberra. The pilots may not have been good at ship recognition but someone would have told them what the big white ship was. Canberra was hit, but not badly damaged.

            “We lost because we were too principled”, it’s usually an excuse of Generals.

          31. Give over Roger. She was a sitting duck if they had targeted her.

            Unlike the QE2 which was kept well out of range of enemy fire.

          34. Canberra was the focus of air defence. If you are flying in at high speed, trying hard not to get a Sidewinder up your ass, you go for what you can get without getting killed. The Argentine pilots have said they all tried hard to get near Canberra but couldn’t without committing suicide.

          36. The main shortcoming in this regard was the lack of a suitable airborne early warning system, such as the Fairey Gannets of the old Ark Royal era. HMS Sheffield was a “Radar picket” at some distance from the task force to extend the range of ship borne radar.

  85. and an interesting BTL to the letters:
    ann arnold
    4 Mar 2021 8:40PM
    Dominic Greene has a comment on the main page “Oprah interview will confirm America’s suspicion that Britain is a land of vile snobs” Then I keep reading in the comments that Americans will believe the ghastly whining duo.
    I have to disagree.
    * They do not get main page coverage by the major newspapers in the US (NYT, Washington Post. LA Times, Chicago Tribune etc) and never in the state-wide or local newspapers. The ONLY front page mention of them in the past few days was in the “World” section of the Washington Post — “Palace to investigate after Meghan accused of bullying staff” Only other time they show up is in the ENTERTAINMENT sections – buried deep in a paper’s pages
    * Wander through my area (upscale middle class highly educated) and say “Meghan and Harry” and what you get in response is “gawd I’m so sick of hearing about those two -wish they would shut up and go away – they are useless” In short NO ONE wants to hear the ‘voice’ of some very minor actress whom less than 4 percent of the country every saw in anything.
    * It NEVER plays well in the US to do the ‘oh poor me I’m soooo unhappy because I had such a hard time being rich and living in luxury” Sitting there in a dress that costs twice the average mortgage or the monthly health insurance premium and sobbing ‘poor me – the nasty palace wouldn’t let me run my mouth’ makes most people want to burn down the 2 nitwits’ 14 bath mansion and stick them on a raft and push them into the Atlantic
    * The influence of Oprah generally is way over-estimated. Her audience was lower middle class/working class women. She was a joke among those with a university degree or a job that paid more than the median income. To be an Oprah fan was to be too tacky for words
    * No one under the age of 45 or so really has any much of a memory of Diana – too distant in the past
    BTW the ONLY newspapers that give them front page are the Times, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail. the Express and the Sun………..never in the US

      1. J Kyle was the ringmaster of a christians vs lions type programme. Oprah will be a-trilling to the masses and promoting her celeb friend, the leading lady from a tragic opera. We have already seen the carefully cut clips.

        1. J. Kyle is the biggest of all hypocrites, Kaypea.
          I have, sort of, visual proof……… unfortunately!

        2. Would the Grand Ol Oprie have asked for this interview if Harry’s squeeze hadn’t been a bit suntanned?

      2. J Kyle was the ringmaster of a christians vs lions type programme. Oprah will be a-trilling to the masses and promoting her celeb friend, the leading lady from a tragic opera. We have already seen the carefully cut clips.

    2. Give me strength, Obs!

      I can cope with four line posts,
      but an essay? ……
      at this time of night?

      :-)))

    3. In the US, if you’re a hustler, especially if you are woman basically selling sex in some form, you have to be careful to avoid the trailer trash tag. For many, she hasn’t been careful enough. We now have the curious result that a significant percentage of Americans see a Royal Prince as trailer trash by association.

    1. He is, apparently, enjoying the early spring bulbs
      in his eerie……. I rather think he is storing up
      further, spot on comments,… apart from cricket
      observations!!

    1. Reminds me of Jaguar’s big budget TV advert aired during the American’s Superbowl.
      Ben Kingsley: “Why is it in Hollywood movies the villains are always Brits.”

  88. I will leave you with this interesting BTL Comment re:

    “Amazon opens supermarket with no checkouts in UK first”

    steve brown
    4 Mar 2021 1:56PM
    So what’s new about this ?. We live in Tower Hamlets and no one has been paying on the way out for years

    28Like

    1. And more locally:
      https://earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html
      2021/03/03 01:54:18.9 54.816 -3.667 8 0.3 SOLWAY FIRTH 15KM NW MARYPORT
      2021/03/02 19:35:03.8 54.576 -2.694 2 1.1 THRIMBY,CUMBRIA
      2021/02/26 03:57:55.8 56.389 -5.544 6 0.6 KERRERA,ARGYLL & BUTE
      2021/02/23 02:42:26.6 53.540 -0.436 16 1.2 BRIGG,NORTH LINCS 4KM ESE BRIGG
      2021/02/21 22:13:42.5 56.964 -4.769 7 1.2 BOHUNTINE,HIGHLAND
      2021/02/15 06:13:37.1 53.277 -2.475 11 0.7 WINCHAM,CHESHIRE
      2021/02/15 05:46:42.5 52.430 -0.243 7 1.2 SAWTRY,CAMBRIDGESHIRE
      2021/02/14 12:01:34.0 49.140 -2.407 14 1.0 JERSEY,CHANNEL ISLANDS 12KM WSW JERSEY
      2021/02/14 09:04:13.9 57.027 1.840 9 3.1 CENTRAL NORTH SEA 240KM EAST ABERDEEN
      2021/02/14 02:10:29.2 56.681 -5.691 7 0.6 STRONTIAN,HIGHLAND 7KM WSW STRONTIAN
      2021/02/12 04:27:13.5 55.432 -3.432 8 0.6 GLENBRECK,BORDERS
      2021/02/12 03:48:51.8 55.916 -4.348 5 0.6 BEARSDEN,E DUNB’SHIRE
      2021/02/08 05:42:37.5 57.617 -5.568 2 2.1 3 DIABAIG,HIGHLAND FELT DIABAIG…
      2021/02/06 20:28:28.0 54.571 -2.938 7 0.7 DOCKRAY,CUMBRIA
      2021/02/03 07:27:24.0 52.334 -3.609 10 0.5 RHAYADER,POWYS 7KM WNW RHAYADER
      2021/02/01 18:05:16.1 51.961 -3.043 13 1.9 LLANVEYNOE,HEREF
      2021/01/31 08:59:12.3 52.368 0.426 4 1.3 ISLEHAM,CAMBRIDGESHIRE
      2021/01/30 21:42:32.9 54.196 -2.481 5 0.4 MASONGILL,N YORKSHIRE
      2021/01/30 10:03:04.4 56.405 -5.668 2 0.7 MULL,ARGYLL & BUTE
      2021/01/29 10:37:54.7 52.833 -1.301 14 0.6 KEGWORTH,LEICESTERSHIRE
      2021/01/26 06:11:32.0 55.464 -5.950 7 0.6 KINTYRE,ARGYLL & BUTE OFFSHORE LOCATION

      1. It’s the 8.1 Magnitude which is more impressive especially if it generates a Tsunami….Good night!

        1. Didn’t see that, hope NZ ok. I was nearby the Christchurch one a few years ago.
          8.1 that’s nasty, depending on depth and local geomorphology of course.

      1. Too late. They have opened an enormous mosque in Cambridge.

        London is infested with them since the Grand Central Mosque in Regent’s Park was opened in the mid seventies. The one in Whitechapel is large and hideous. Birmingham is as bad.

        1. 329872+ up ticks,
          Evening C,
          And still the nation destroying battle continues
          vote tory keep out lab, whilst the three lab/lib/con
          are, and have been for decades a coalition.
          The mosque building program is courtesy of the
          coalition party & a multitude of supporting fools without whom the building program would never have got of the ground.

  91. 5th March, 2021

    Sue MacFarlane

    A Magnificent Birthday

    and

    Many Gloriously Happy Returns

    With very best wishes from

    Caroline and Rastus

    My very dear niece, Susie, is one day older than you are. I sent her an e-mail attaching The Beatles song: When I’m 64.

    But for you, here is Django:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPulEz0gVj8

    2. Thank you so much Mr and Mrs Tastey! And for keeping everyone informed and under control! Much appreciated! I’m not losing my hair yet…

      2. As well as can be expected, thank you, Sue. Officialdom is being tiresome, to say the least and I’m still no nearer getting the respite I’m entitled to. Hope your day is going well.

  95. I see it’s a ‘Happy Birthday’ time for Sue MacFarlane, have wonderful day! (and many more)

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