Thursday 5 March: Coronavirus has failed to drive city-dwellers to cower behind masks

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/03/05/letterscoronavirus-has-failed-drive-city-dwellers-cower-behind/

747 thoughts on “Thursday 5 March: Coronavirus has failed to drive city-dwellers to cower behind masks”

  1. Well, knock me down with a mouse. The BBC wakes up to modern lifestyles causing CO2 emissions.

    The BBC, by the way, is an energy-guzzling organisation which sends its people to Antarctica to tell us the environmental consequences of sending people to Antarctica.

    1. BBC Scotland sent a team to California this week to cover the primaries. A reporter, assistants, camera crew, porters, all by air, probably business class and nice hotels. Must have cost a fortune. Our money. They could have asked a California news agency for a report.
      They are profligate beyond belief.

    2. BBC Scotland sent a team to California this week to cover the primaries. A reporter, assistants, camera crew, porters, all by air, probably business class and nice hotels. Must have cost a fortune. Our money. They could have asked a California news agency for a report.
      They are profligate beyond belief.

      1. I read this week of a scientist who’s convinced there are parallel universes. The more I see of the wastefulness of those with a hand in the public purse, the more I’m convinced the scientist is right.

        The ability of BBC newsreaders to mention certain issues which contrast with the BBC’s own behaviour and to do so with a straight face should get them an Oscar or a job as a top politician.

  5. Today is reporting, honestly enough, that the government is refusing to assist Flybe because of EU rules. But what, I wonder, would France or Germany do under these circumstances?

    1. Not France nor Germany but another big player in the EU (02/12/2019). The EU Commission are ‘investigating’ the deal.

      Alitalia has been on life support for more than two years and the government shows no sign of wanting to pull the plug. Is it ever going to be fit enough to attract a takeover?
      — Patrick Whyte

      Italy is set to approve a new 400 million-euro ($442 million) loan for failed airline Alitalia, people familiar with the situation said.

      Skift – Italy to hand Alitalia $442 million

      1. And what about those Italian banks that couldn’t be bailed out under EU rules? It’s gone awfully quiet over there. (Don’t get me started on Deutsche Bank!)

        1. (Don’t get me started on Deutsche Bank!)

          Oh, go on, don’t be shy.😎

        1. Which is why all these demands for extra runways and expanding airports should be viewed very sceptically.

    2. €380m was provided by the German gov to the German element of Thomas Cook Airlines (Condor). It still flys today.

    3. As I have said time and time again (Sorry, Peddy!) the EU works very well for countries that pay no attention to its rules. This is why the EU could never have worked for Britain

        1. Ungala, Tarzan!

          (What’s that you say, Cheetah? Missy has fallen down the well? Well, Ding Dong Dell, we’d better go and help Peddy get her out.)

          EDIT: I changed “him” to “her”. These days I get very confused!

    1. Crumbs. No respect for culture practices.
      How very dare they.
      Morning, Peddy.

  9. Good morning early birds

    Wet and miserable here in South Dorset.. just towelled the dogs dry after their early morning garden sniff around!

          1. I used to agree. But since I’ve had my reputation destroyed twice in the last year by a vicious unvoting bot I need to prop things up as best I can. Of course they will probably target me again.

            Apparently my last ID (Copyright201) has only been unvoted 105k times. Thats odd, it was more like 8 million last time I checked.

            Those are not downvotes, they are negative upvotes, a totally different thing. The result of this is one’s Disqus reputation is destroyed and posting on many sites becomes difficult or impossible.

            And I see you are one of the same elect! There is a breakdown here:

            https://www.realms.chat/t/7893938641#comment-4821249510

            So you’re unvoted 266K times.

    2. Overcast and wet here in N Essex. Not raining at the moment but expected again from about 11 am.

      1. Morning, Korky. Which is why I shall be out in the garden in a few minutes to do 30 minutes of tidying the lawn borders. So far I have kept to my target of 30 minutes daily which I hope will prevent my usual nothing for days on end until the garden turns into a jungle. So far, so good.

        1. I tackled my Oregon thornless blackberry yesterday morning, planning to finish after lunch and then clear up. Naturally, re-starting after lunch it started to rain but I stuck it out with the pruning and tying in but surrendered before I could clean up. The bush is looking very good and I’m hoping for a good crop: if you’re in to blackberry crumble/jam just ask and I’m sure I’ll have some fruit available in late summer.

          1. Most definitely, Korky. I hereby stake my claim. At present rhubarb crumble is all I can make from my garden produce.

          2. My rhubarb is just starting to show and I usually have plenty to give away as my wife no longer likes to eat it. When it’s ready I’ll drop you some off if you like. I’d rather give it away than let it go rotten.

          3. That is excellent news, Korky. Do just that and I shall return some of it to you in the form of rhubarb crumble.

          4. If you’re passing SE Kent, Korky, the pretty one loves rhubarb…

            Just joshin’, of course!

    3. Good morning m’dear.
      Dry with a light mist and scarcely a breath of wind.
      And the Grahame Peel setting of Summertime on Breeden, sung by Thomas Allen just finished on R3.

  10. DT mentions panic over the Coronavirus – that actually isn’t as bad as flu, apparently. Panic, whipped up by the MSM, so we know how reliable these roosters are.
    What’s the government response to mass panic likely to be? Troops on the street, curfew and the like. I heard on the radio news ths morning (as yet unconfirmed) that a state in the US has declared a State of Emergency.
    So, expect a coup, one result of which will be a stop to Brexit. Another will be closure of non-approved means of communication.
    Convenient, eh? Never let a good crisis go to waste.

    1. The Spectator has “upgraded” their website to prevent nasty things being passed around by the unwashed commenters. Paywalls all round to protect important people.

      1. Morning Jeremy. Yes the Telegraph went through the same process hence this Blog. I’m not certain of the mentality that makes enemies of your readers but it didn’t help them much. One cannot conceive of Murdoch making such an error!

        1. I dunno, Murdoch’s rag has been cowering behind a paywall for years longer than the DT. Thus it has much less traction online.

        2. I can understand only wanting to limit to subscribers but money isn’t infinite.

          But when their subscription pages takes over ten seconds to load…

          20

          Still loading…

    2. Talk on steam radio that Government could be shut down for five months. There’s the ‘could’ word again.

        1. Well, sort of. Grinding us down as expected. There is a chance that if it should shut down the effect would be similar to how some traffic lights breakdowns actually improve the flow.

          Good morning to you too.

      3. Well, Korky, it must be pretty serious if 007 can’t cope with it. Corona Virus more powerful than Ernst Stavro Blofeld? Oh, no, I stand corrected. It’s apparently something to do with the box office takings in China and the Far East if film fans are confined to their homes. I blame it on James Bond changing from Vodka Martinis to the lager that refreshes the parts other lagers cannot reach.

    3. I watched Gavin Newsom, Governor of California declare a State of Emergency ont’telly last night. The principal reason for doing so is that they now qualify for various handouts from Washington. Californians just lurve the idea of handouts from the Federal Government…..they voted for Bernie Sanders.

    5. I watched Gavin Newsom, Governor of California declare a State of Emergency ont’telly last night. The principal reason for doing so is that they now qualify for various handouts from Washington. Californians just lurve the idea of handouts from the Federal Government…..they voted for Bernie Sanders.

      1. Ah… Thanks. Forgot pork barrel politics.
        But I guess it also allows him to mobilise the National Guard if he wants to…

        1. It also provides employment for the Duchess of Sussex, handing out “Be Strong” bananas to the Hollywood sick.

    1. Recent tensions between Ministers and civil servants have surfaced. The stories reveal Ministerial impatience that reforms promised in the election are not being pursued with vigour and energy by officials who seem to want to slow them or overwhelm them with objections. Pro-Brexit Ministers are understandably suspicious of the intents of the civil service at large, after the strong defence of the status quo that the civil service helped David Cameron and George Osborne mount during the EU referendum.

      It seems pretty obvious that large sections of the Civil Service perhaps even entire Departments of State have formed Fifth Columns opposed to the Government!

      1. Morning, Minty. “Twas ever thus, but now it’s more blatant.
        We have twenty plus years of feeble or manipulative prime ministers to thank for this situation.

        1. 316870+ up ticks,
          Morning Anne,
          They excel at rubber stamping though.
          I get castigated for past
          UKIP leadership but as I point out, some poor choices, agreed, some
          very iffie manipulation
          within the party but NO
          treachery shown towards peoples / Country without.
          Gerard Batten showed the way to return UKIP to credibility & had to be closed down.
          The UKIP Nec have much to answer for.

        2. Yes. I wrote to our MP yesterday confirming our strong support for the Home Secretary. I also mentioned that I knew dozens of others who felt the same way (Yes, Nottlers, that’s you.). His swift reply was in agreement.

          1. I’ve just written to my new MP, Sarah Dines on the same vein.
            I also put the hint that, depending on how this is handled, I may rejoin the Party after leaving it because of McLoughlin’s stance on the EU.

  12. The bonus-fed CEO of my local hospital trust recently announced that its New! Improved! Centralized! PFI-funded A&E cannot handle a health emergency. `Ambulances should take a number and wait in the queue and lucky patients sit on trolleys in broom cupboards. Since there aren’t the nurses (the Filipinas have been denied visas and the Brits just don’t care), they must recruit from the growing rat population gathering around bird feeders. Normal sick people will be too poorly to notice after all.

    The important thing is that land at Ronkswood, at the former Worcester Royal Infirmary site in the city, and the land adjoining the new hospital earmarked for an exciting out-of-town retail opportunity is being released for housing development, and a new mini-city built around the new station. Loadsamoney!

    When I go down with it, then I suppose I’ll just hunker down at home as usual with a box of oxo cubes and a kettle.

    1. In the hospitals I’ve been in recently, outside London, they are mainly staffed with English nurses.
      Getting rid of nursing bursaries, and insisting on degree-level qualifications has done much of the damage to nursing recruitment. The Royal College of Nursing wanted to raise the status of nurses, and it’s been downhill ever since.
      Plus: New hospitals have usually had fewer beds than the older buildings they replaced. The idea was that there’d be keyhole surgery for everything and the extra beds wouldn’t be needed, because patients could go home the same day it. They could all be treated in day clinics. That’s certainly what we were told about the new UCL hospital in Central London.
      I believe we have one of the lowest bed rates per population in the developed world.

    1. This is exactly what I have been saying for years.

      Owen Paterson, the Minister of the environment at the time of the floods in the Somerset Levels, saw that the cause of the problem was the EU with the edict that dredging should be stopped.

      Of course that incompetent plonker Cameron who loathed any sign of competence in his ministers sacked Paterson and replaced him with Adultera Truss.

  14. Italian Auction – only 44 seconds
    You don’t have to understand Italian to follow the auctioneer:

    A Chinese Ming Vase is up for auction. The bidding opens at a half-million Euros.
    Bidding is brisk and each bidder is clearly identified as each raises the bid by 100,000 Euros. Within seconds, the bid stalls at one million Euros, and the gasp from the crowd identifies the excitement that prevails in the room. The successful bidder is the last one who bid one million , and the auctioneer counts down the bid, “Going once, going twice, and sold to the gentleman sitting in front of me for one million Euros.”

    Now, you are going to have to see the video for yourself. The auctioneer is exuberant. The pace is fast. This is how an auction should be run. Please note the excitement on the auctioneer’s face after the final bid.

    Aspirin Cardio: Auction – click the you tube link below YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/embed/3e0yZCLjwfU?rel=0

  15. Doctor who ‘examined woman’s breasts’ for earache still able to work 10 years on

    A locum GP who treated a woman’s earache by examining her breasts, genitalia and buttocks is still able to work as a doctor – a decade after concerns were first raised.

    He admitted examining a female patient’s breasts in an inappropriate manner, took her trousers off without consent, and rubbed her bottom in a sexually motivated way.

    Dr Rashid Motala, first referred to a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in 2010, has since appeared before 12 further hearings relating to his conduct.

    Concerns were initially raised about Dr Motala’s behaviour, which included inappropriately examining a woman’s breasts at the Riverside Clinic in Ipswich, while he was working part-time as a locum GP.

    Following an initial fitness to practice hearing, he was suspended for 12 months, before being allowed to rejoin the medical register.

    2. I’ve always had my doubts about the ones that cupped your scrotum and asked you to cough.

    4. Gynaecologist and ENT specialist in one.
      I thought only women could multi-task.

      1. Whatever next? They’ll be asking ward sisters on ophthalmics to be sluicing out bedpans soon! :•)

          1. 316870+ up ticks,
            Anne,
            Opposite the Guinness plant under construction there was a row of wooden shacks, one was wall papered on the outside.
            Nothing has really surprised me ever since seeing that.

    5. Medical associations such as BMA exist to protect doctors and keep them in jobs.

      1. The Doctors Trade Union dressed up to sound as though it’s there for the benefit of the public.

    6. Most male GPs insist on someone else being present when a female patient is being examined. Commonsense.

  17. Paris train derailment: High-speed TGV from Strasbourg crashes – at least 10 injured

    A HIGH-SPEED train travelling from Paris to Strasbourg has derailed, injuring at least 10 people, including the driver who is reported to be seriously hurt

    The TGV that linked the two major cities in France, left the northern French city at 7.19am but derailed just 30km into its journet at around 7.30am at Ingenheim, in the Bas-Rhin. SCNF – the company operating the train – told Franceinfo the front of the TGV appeared to hit something, which the firm called a “rare event”. Emergency services , including ten fire engines and ambulances, have rushed to the scene.

    A spokesperson for the SNCF said: “As far as we know, there are no serious injuries among passengers.”

    Other trains were being re-routed and there was no interruption to services, the spokesperson added.

  18. John Lewis Partnership profits plunge 23 percent – company slashes bonus to save cash

    Full-year underlying profits have dropped to £123 million, the company said today.
    As a result, John Lewis has cut its staff bonus to 2% of annual salary.

    his marks its lowest payout since 1953.

    The group said it made a pretax profit of £123 million before one off items and partnership bonuses in the year to January 25, 2020.

    This is down from £160 million made in 2018-19.

    And the group’s new chairman, Sharon White, has warned it could take up to five years for a transformation of the business to show results.

    1. You really do get a thrill out of private enterprise facing difficulties!

      Please tell me. We are seeing at the moment that the ethos within the civil service is very left-leaning. Were you compelled at HMRC to be communistic in your views and despise all initiative both amongst individuals and those working in businesses?

    2. It’s overpriced, though occasionally does do good offers. We bought our tv from there.

    2. Morning all. Great article. When I read it I thought if only the word “nauseating” or “noxious” had been included between “Arrogant” and “complacent” it would have made a brilliant apposite acronym.

      remote, arrogant, noxious complacent, intractable and devious …

    1. It leads on to a Telegraph article.
      Comments BTL:-

      Michael McDougall
      5 Mar 2020 11:36AM
      Priti Patel is the best home secretary for many many years – certainly the best since before 1997. The unemployable jobsworths don’t like a boss who actually expects them to work and to implement the government’s policies. Ruttman and his ilk must all go and be stripped of their knighthoods.

      Flag 8Unlike
      Reply

      Dave Davidson
      5 Mar 2020 11:37AM
      @Michael McDougall

      Please do qualify with evidence why she is the “best home secretary for many many years”

      Flag 2Like
      Reply

      Robert Spowart
      5 Mar 2020 12:11PM

      @Dave Davidson @Michael McDougall

      Early days yet, I will agree, but:-
      1: Consider how many previous Home Secretaries have hinted, suggested and even openly declared that the Home Office is “unfit for purpose” yet failed to actually reform it.

      2: Then consider that, within a short time of actually taking up the post, she becomes the target of what many consider to be a malicious smear campaign against her.

      3: Consider further that, despite the huge amount of public concern regarding the Rape Gangs, the Home Office has refused to release the recent report into the affair.

      4: As a further consideration, one might then ponder on the reports that the trigger for this latest spat is alleged to be the refusal of her civil servants to actually let her read the report, let alone publish it.

      I think there are strong ground to hope that as time goes on she will prove to be an excellent Home Secretary. To my mind, she’s already made an excellent start.

      1. And another BTL Response:-

        Tony Smith
        5 Mar 2020 12:28PM
        @Robert Spowart @Dave Davidson @Michael McDougall

        Consider the verdict of the employment tribunal after all the evidence has been examined

        FlagLike
        Reply

        Robert Spowart
        5 Mar 2020 12:34PM
        @Tony Smith @Robert Spowart @Dave Davidson @Michael McDougall

        The result of which has been what??
        Oh! Sorry! It hasn’t even been convened yet, let alone heard any evidence or given it’s judgement, so let us all presume that she is guilty and make haste to remove her from office before she upsets even more of the delicate little flowers of the Civil Service.
        Looking as the debacles that appear to have followed Mr. Rutnam around, had he been in private industry he’d have either been out on his neck years ago or struggled to rise beyond Time Office Clerk.

        Delete2Like
        Reply

    2. Best BTL Comment on the subject:

      John Cooper – 166 likes
      I suggest a parallel inquiry to the one against Pritti.

      If senior civil servants have known about bullying by her for years and done nothing, then they have clearly failed in their duties and in their responsibility to their staff. They are clearly unfit for their positions and so should be dismissed.

      Institute such a parallel investigation and I predict everything will quiet down so fast we will wonder what the fuss was about.

      1. Labour are being their usual spiteful pro migration vote catching selves.. They are calling Priti… Pritstick and they are being bullies and racist towards her .. I hope she stays strong and resilient .

        1. I don’t think that, among the working class traditional Labour voters, pro-migration is in any way a vote catcher.

    1. Please note the attempt in these cartoons to generate subliminal racism by showing her as far more dark-sinned than she actually is.

      1. What will hurt her far more is the cartoonists exaggeration of a widening of the hips that, she will privately know has certainly been occurring for a year or two.

      2. I hadn’t noticed that but on a second look the exaggeration of her facial features and the reference to a disease are rather reminiscent of ’30s German cartoons and speeches.

    3. ”We work.. by.. leveraging.. policies, legislation, political influence.. by.. building strong relationships with officials, politicians and other actors.. for three decades”.

      Are ”other actors” certain individuals in the media ?

      Does Open Society have influence with the Murdochs ?

  22. Greece plans to deport migrants who arrived after March 1

    I would support Greece on this. They are on the front line of mass illegal migration

    The current asylum system as well s totally unfit for purpose. The current system pretty much encourages illegal migration and NGO’s in my view assist in this

    The UN should be involved in this. They should set up safe zones and no illegal entry into countries should be allowed

    The numbers of people trying to illegally enter an already over crowded Europe are such that Europe cannot manage them. Look at the mess Sweden and Germany are now in and France is not much better

    Greece will transfer migrants who arrived on its territory illegally after March 1 to the northern city of Serres and plans to deport back to their own countries, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said late on Wednesday.

    Thousands of migrants have made for Greece since Ankara said on Feb. 28 that it would let migrants cross its borders into Europe, despite a commitment to hold them in its territory under a 2016 deal with the European Union.

    Hundreds have made it into Greece, many by sea to Lesbos and other Greek islands. Ankara and Athens are accusing each other of using excessive force at its shared borders, where migrants have clashed with security forces in recent days.

    “Our aim is to return them to their countries,” Mitarachi told the Athens News Agency.

    1. Greece plans to deport migrants who arrived after March 1

      Deport to where? Turkey will not accept them!

      1. Greece will transfer migrants who arrived on its territory illegally after March 1 to the northern city of Serres and plans to deport back to their own countries, Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi said late on Wednesday.

        1. This is a ploy to get these people to remain in Greece without actually saying so and annoying the voters! It is identical to the UK’s policy! These people will tear up their passports and refuse to say where they came from!

          1. If their countries won’t accept them there could be a business opportunity for parachute supplies.

          2. ‘Afternoon, Minty, my solution to those who’ve destroyed their papers, is to tell them that unless they name their country of origin, they will be landed, at the dead of night, on the shores of Somalia – with nothing but the underpants they stand up in.

            Shouldn’t take long to restore their papers!

      2. In Never-Never-Land a Muslim Superstate with tight border controls would be set up in the Sahara Desert and all Muslims who believe that sharia law should be applied universally and that it is acceptable to rape underage girls would be sent to live there.

    2. The UN is involved.
      It’s saying that Greece is acting illegally by not allowing all those hundreds of thousands of (mainly young men) migrants through.

      Anyone else think the UN is not fit for purpose? Like the WHO? Or the EU?

      1. The UN was never really of any practical use. Their interventions have helped no one, solved nothing and resulted in lots of deaths of “peacekeepers” being targets for all sides. A key example is the Dutch troops backing down in the Balkans resulting in a massacre of those being “protected”. We should leave. We should also quit NATO. The major threat to Europe is Turkey, not a “sick man” but a crazy one.

        1. The UN can’t even look after their own.
          Think of the 10 Belgian lads who, after being ordered to lay down their arms, were mutilated and slaughtered by Hutus in Rwanda in 1994.

  23. It is important to get the incentives right. If I were PM I would make absolutely sure – and make it known now – that any school which shuts will have its next year’s budget reduced pro-rata for each day lost. This should also be applied to those Bristol schools who gave their pupils the day off to support the recent Thunberg/ClimateApocalypse jamboree.

    1. In Bristol those schools that allowed the pupils to skip school should have there holiday reduced by 1 day. I bet the pupils would soon stop skipping school if they found they were having to take the days off as holiday

      1. Ours is even worse, with higher winds.

        I can’t recall a wetter few weeks; it hasn’t been as torrential as it can be, but it has been constant. All the paths look like streams and there is so much standing water in the garden that I fear we might get a mosquito problem.

    2. Why do they cut off at 2010?
      I am sure there was very significant rainfall during several of the years in the 2010-20 period, again breaking records.
      And whilst I ackowledge it has been bad, it’s almost as if they have been selective to make it appear worse than it is.

  25. ‘Morning All

    Grrhh,”New” you say,”improved” you say congrats to the cretins at the Spectator for making their website unusable

    The only thing they have got right (for them) is improving their paywall any rich NoTTLer fancy sticking up the Rod Liddle article

    Meanwhile have a couple of Al-Beeb memes

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c37c58518a827048cc8a44d6bf3f735cba94f51184526767c2d99688ea8dcbf0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa2362e2d1608caee919c8d4d114b1f90ca101b021bca0788c33bb7979bc227d.png

    1. I hadn’t been on there for a few days, so hadn’t realised they’ve cut off the back door access to the blogs comments section. That’s disappointing. 😟
      What spoilsports.
      Though it did get a lot of trolls and weirdos there. Myself excluded, of course.

    2. The new site is hopeless, Rik. A writer-free list of writers, cartoons which only show the caption, not the cartoon, I could go on. Here you go…

      We have now got past the absurd stage of glaring in a reproachful manner at Chinese people on the tube. Coronavirus is disrupting sporting events, so this rather mild–mannered little bug has acquired crisis cachet and we must all take it very seriously. Lots of us will die of it, apparently — in this country some 500,000, according to one estimate. Almost certainly older people with under-lying medical conditions, i.e. the very people who voted for Brexit and ensured Labour’s red wall was dismantled in December. If this worst-case scenario does actually happen, expect the Remainers to demand a rerun of that referendum.

      Health professionals will be able to enumerate for you the stages of Covid-19 as it goes to work on the human body. My interest is in the stages that the British human psyche goes through thanks to the labours of this formidably pronged little monkey.

      Stage one seemed to be a mildly jingoistic contempt — ‘Ha, that’s what you get if you eat bats, you mad bastards’, and ‘Why do all illnesses come from China?’ — plus a vague commitment not to spend Easter in Wuhan. We are in stage two right now: death, destruction, face masks, being told to wash our hands by Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is channelling his nanny, and the OECD predicting imminent global economic collapse, which, given their previous prognostications, provides reasonable grounds for optimism.

      But stage two has also seen Covid-19 being weaponised politically. Absolutely everything is, these days, of course. No sooner has some event taken place, somewhere in the world, than it is co-opted into the political armouries of the left and the right, requiring each side to cherrypick facts and ignore everything that does not fit into their respective fatuous agendas.

      If you look on social media, you will find there is a broad right-left split. The left thinks we are all going to die and that this is the consequence of human selfishness and eating meat and capitalism and Trump and Boris and people flying everywhere. They believe that the 500,000 figure is an underestimate: they yearn for disaster, to believe that it is happening, that we are all doomed and it serves us right.

      The right, broadly, remains as dismissive of the virus as it was during stage one, pointing out that even in countries that don’t have proper drains or representative democracy, the death rate from Covid-19 is still stubbornly low — yes, even in Iran. They challenge the headlines and the experts, suggesting that people are dying more rapidly of other ailments and that the stats for Covid-19 so far don’t add up to a hill of beans, in the grand scheme of things.

      Further, we won’t get it — because, unlike the ghastly Italians, we are not given to outpourings of moist emotion when we meet someone: a brief shake of the hand, rather than a full-on snog, is the British way of doing things. These people are not wearing face masks and are not self-isolating when they get the sniffles, nor are they stockpiling lavatory paper.

      There is another tranche, somewhat further to the right, who are worried, mind. These are the people who believe that the virus was cooked up in a Chinese bio-weapons research station — there’s one near Wuhan! — and released either as the consequence of Communist malfeasance or Communist incompetence. There is no answer to the question: why would the evil Dr Fang and his PLA associates design a virus which was so ineffectual in its lethality? Do they think they might achieve world supremacy by giving decadent imperialist westerners a bit of a cough? Wouldn’t Ebola or a variant of MRSA be more effective?

      Starmer and Long-Bailey fail to impress on Andrew NeilStarmer and Long-Bailey fail to impress on Andrew Neil
      There is a tranche on the far left, too, who reckon it’s all something to do with Mossad, as is everything wicked in this world — a conviction heightened by reports that Israel is days away from having developed a vaccine. The truth being that Israel is light years ahead of the rest in medical innovation. Yes, even better at that sort of stuff than Palestine, would you believe.

      In our attempts to discern the truth we are not helped by a media comprised entirely of arts grads and apparently fixated upon the word ‘pandemic’ as if it meant something, which of course, strictly speaking, it does not. Pandemic just means quite a few people have got it all over the place. Interviewers question World Health Organisation and domestic experts with a kind of wide-eyed awe, never grasping the nature of risk, or able to put it into some kind of context.

      But then the experts do not always help matters: the Sars virus, which emanated from China (people stewing civet cats or bats again) in 2002, led to predictions of an ultimate death toll in the UK very similar to that predicted now for Covid-19. In the end the total number of deaths was nil and the number of cases recorded only four.

      All that being said, I do have a corona-cupboard in my house. It’s in the utility room, near where we keep the dog food. I have always been a big fan of prepping and I am actively looking forward to the time when I will not be allowed out of my house but must subsist, and force my family to subsist, on the things which, as a far-sighted hunter gatherer, I have amassed for them.

      Oddly these comestibles are comprised of stuff which in normal times my wife and daughter would disdain to eat but which I actually like. Crosse and Blackwell tinned steak and kidney pudding, cans of spam and corned beef and, in the emergency freezer section, the full range of Birds Eye (formerly Findus) crispy pancakes, including my two favourites, beef and onion and mozzarella and ham. Plus four bottles of Jack Daniels. We’ll struggle through.

      Spectator.co.uk/RodLiddle*

      *Oh, and the link at the end doesn’t work…

      1. I do hope Rodder’s tinned stocks have BB Dates at least a decade out of date.
        As a Rich NOTTLer (boo hiss), I am quite happy to post Spekkie articles.

        2. I’ve just finished a tub of Seven Seas multivitamins that has a BB date of Nov 2016. I was gambling on the benefits outweighing the ‘dangers’. Still fine, so far. 😉

  26. Question Time tonight from Tunbridge Wells, as mentioned by TB.
    And I happen to know (slightly, but for many years) one of the audience members who may be asking a question.

  27. This from my local rag: “National planing inspectors have ended a 17 year dispute after travellers were given permanent residence on a Leatherhead site.”

    But surely…

      1. Orthopaedic surgeons in Belfast gained great international recognition for their skills at rebuilding shattered knee & elbow joints.

    3. “We’ll never forget you, Billy Sands.” Graffiti on Shankhill Road 1981.

        1. I also recall another piece of graffiti in West Belfast at the time which was supposed to read: “Margaret Thatcher is a murderer” but as the graffitist(?) went across the wall, the letters got progressively smaller due to lack of space, so it actually read: “Margaret Thatcher is a murd.”
          I often wondered if the wall round the corner bore the letters “..erer.”

        3. I also recall another piece of graffiti in West Belfast at the time which was supposed to read: “Margaret Thatcher is a murderer” but as the graffitist(?) went across the wall, the letters got progressively smaller due to lack of space, so it actually read: “Margaret Thatcher is a murd.”
          I often wondered if the wall round the corner bore the letters “..erer.”

  30. 316870+ up ticks,
    Building up nicely all the signals turning green at a given time, straight through from any mass border crossing point to a point opposite the Kent coast.

      1. 316870+ up ticks,
        Morning A,
        Almost on par with the castigation of Batten / Braine via the
        UKIP ersatz Nec destruction of UKIP campaign.
        Suppression is the name of the enemas of state within.

      2. I’ll believe they’re serious about immigration when illegals are removed, whether under existing or new and tougher legislation.

        1. With any appeals having to be raised after deportation. I’d say that there is a prima facie case that no illegal immigrant has no right to be heard in court, and certainly no right to legal or financial aid. There is surely a principal that an illegal act should not prosper?

      1. 316870+ up ticks,
        Morning M,
        The Batten leadership success frightened the sh!te out of “nige”
        and the establishment hence the “nige” rant, there was no way
        the Batten leadership could continue too many lifestyles counted on the political status quo continuing as was.
        As for the real UKIP, In my book there are a great many Swartznagnor’s out there,
        “We’ll be back”

    3. Let’s see what happens to the next few groups who decide to Channel hop. If they’re brought to the UK and are allowed to disappear then the Immigration Bill will be seen as nothing more than window dressing. The people need to see a huge rise in deportations before they will believe what the PTB are telling them on this subject. Cameron’s and May’s claim to reduce migration to the tens of thousands soured the electorate’s confidence in anything said about migration.

      1. 316870+ up ticks,
        Afternoon KtK,
        The wretch cameron pledged to reduce numbers then promptly raised them, may was in league with the wretch if that was not enough 6 years of forewarning I don’t know.
        This waiting and seeing is lethal it allows the opposition to build up, next thing you know we will allow a koran in parliament and then there will be alien persons in positions of power for example, mayors of towns / cities then where would we be ?

        1. They already allow a Koran in Parliament. Javid swore his parliamentary oath on a Koran.

          1. 316870+ up ticks,
            Afternoon D,
            Whatdid I say ? next they will be building on flood plains and the green belt will not be safe, and the governance parties surely cannot allow unlimited unchecked foreign bodies into the country, the electorate would NOT support / vote for them, surely.

  33. More disturbing Coronavirus news:

    The WHO has admitted medical professionals are ill-equipped to deal with the potential looming pandemic.

    Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that each month, the organisation estimates that about 89 million medical masks, 76 million pairs of examination gloves and 1.6 million goggles will be required globally for healthcare workers to respond to the outbreak.

    Ghebreyesus wept.
    :¬(

  36. Save the Children chief resists calls to quit after damning watchdog inquiry. 5 March 2020.

    A Charity Commission investigation into Save the Children’s handling of claims against Justin Forsyth and Brendan Cox respectively the charity’s former chief executive and policy director, will be published on Thursday.

    Morning everyone. Mmmm! I look forward to reading it! Now if he’d managed to get himself installed as a Labour MP all this would have been postponed for the next twenty years! Lol!

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/04/save-the-children-chief-resists-calls-to-quit-after-damning-watchdog-inquiry-kevin-watkins

    1. Hmmm, the stories that Jo Cox was days away from kicking her husband out of the family home suddenly become more believable.

  37. The budget airline Flybe collapsed into administration today after its fragile finances were dealt a terminal blow by a slump in bookings as a result of coronavirus. Earlier attempts to blame their financial toubles on Brexit unfortunately failed.

    1. I would say this is part of what Schumpeter labelled capitalism’s natural process of creative destruction were it not for the £13.50 tax which each domestic flight suffered …

    2. And the loan we thought they had been promised by the government was stopped because it contravened EU rules which still apply until 2021 regardless of the fact that these rules are more or less ignored in France.

      Well played the EU – even though the British think to have escaped the poisonous tentacles of the EU which can still bugger up the British transport network closing airlines and the airports which may now also have to close following the demise of Flybe.

  38. Sherelle

    “Just when we thought the war was

    over, it is starting to dawn on some London hacks that it has only just

    begun. Beyond the Red Wall are rumblings of a new revolt, utterly

    unanticipated by No 10 and overlooked by a liberal media still

    shell-shocked by the election. With its drive to “green” the economy at

    any cost, the Tory party has seemingly decided to celebrate its populist

    landslide by bogging down the country in zero-carbon paternalism.

    And so we career towards another People vs Establishment conflict that

    could be more explosive even than that sparked by the referendum.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/03/05/political-storm-green-targets-will-even-bigger-brexit/
    If it wasn’t for the grandkids I’d say bring it on,I’m weary of the fight and will be dead before the worst effects of the Green lunacy hit anyway,it would be a pleasure to look down (or up) from the afterlife and see the end results which I suspect may involve filthy savages sat round an open fire roasting and cracking the marrow from human bones……………………….
    Civilisation in three meals and two tanks of petrol thick,these cretins have no concept of how fragile the systems they are playing with are

    1. Again Conway sought to reply, but could not, till at length a vivid lightning flash paled the shadows and stirred him to exclaim: ‘The storm … this storm you talk of …’ ‘It will be such a one, my son, as the world has not seen before. There will be no safety by arms, no help from authority, no answer in science. It will rage till every flower of culture is trampled, and all human things are levelled in a vast chaos.

      Lost Horizon. James Hilton.

      1. James Hilton also wrote Goodbye Mr Chips about an ageing bachelor schoolmaster in a boarding public school with whom many people liked to compare me. He too met a lovely young woman – much to the astonishment of his pupils and the fellow masters on the staff – and married her. Tragically she died giving birth and Mr Chips retreated back into his schoolmastering and remained in or within the sound of the school bells for the rest of his life.

        Fortunately my story developed very differently. After meeting and marrying my young wife I managed to escape and start a completely new life in Brittany where we ran our own business and had two healthy and intelligent sons.

        1. You are a bounder and a Silly Sausage, Mr Tastey, Sir. You could at least have written SPOILER. Despite my interest in films I have yet to see a film version or read the original novel of Goodbye Mr Chips.

          1. Not as bad as a certain yesterday’s hero divulging the identity of the murderer in the “Mousetrap” on here.

          3. You mean that some idiot revealed that it was the man who put the cheese in the trap?

          5. Now look here, Mr DinKy, Sir! We want none of your perverted smut on this site before the 9pm watershed. Are you trying to corrupt our younger readers? Have you ever tried explaining to an 8-year-old what the good Colonel Mustard was doing in the Library with the Candlestick?

            :-))

          6. Must have missed that, but, then again, I’ve never seen the play either.

          7. The Peter O’Toole/Petula Clark musical vesrion was terrible. The best filmed version I have seen was a TV production with Martin Clunes playing Mr Chips.

            James Hilton started and finished writing the book over a weekend

        3. R.F, Delderfield’s “To Serve Them All My Days” has an identical theme.

          1. R.F. Delderfield was a boy at West Buckland, a small public school near South Molton, where he was very happy. When I was a boy at Blundell’s and a schoolmaster at Allhallows I used to visit the place with school rugby teams.

            I have read most of Delderfield’s novels but rated him below Howard Spring who also set some of his novels in the South West of England.

    2. “The lamps are going out all over Europe the world, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time”

    3. Yesterday, the country’s wind turbines produced a massive 2% of the total electricity output, where demand was surprisingly higher than normal during daylight hours.Two percent. Just how much of the economy, transport, etc do they think the country could run on just that.

  39. Russia blasts UK for Sergei Skripal ‘blame’ and vows to uncover Novichok ‘truth’. 09:28, 5 MAR 2020

    But yesterday, Russia issued a fresh denial in scathing statement that accused Britain of failing to co-operate.

    “Where and when did Charlie Rowley from Amesbury find the sealed bottle with poison and how is that bottle related to the Salisbury incident? Where are the Skripals now, what is their health condition, and how free are they in their contacts and actions?”

    Well you are onto a loser there tovarisch. The answer is that they are both as dead as last week’s borscht!

    https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/russia-blasts-uk-sergei-skripal-21635808

  43. Am I alone in believing that the new, vogue, idiotic, tautological expression “self-isolation” is as risible and annoying as the equally empty “for free”?

    Note to the cretins using this tag: if you are isolated then, by definition, you are on your bloody tod!

    1. ” I thought ” self-isolation ” meant me taking a picture of me” said the yob, taking a selfie. with a dry cough and a temperature.

    3. It’s another way of saying “isolate yourself before we do it for you, a la Chinese Communist Party.”

      2. It probably does, John. It certainly doesn’t mean locking yourself away in case you catch a nasty bug!

  44. Nine out of 10 people found to be biased against women. 5 March 2020.

    Almost 90% of people are biased against women, according to a new index that highlights the “shocking” extent of the global backlash towards gender equality.

    Despite progress in closing the equality gap, 91% of men and 86% of women hold at least one bias against women in relation to politics, economics, education, violence or reproductive rights.

    Don’t you like what I say about Putin? You are biased! Do you think I’m wrong about immigration? You are biased! Do you think I’m too dogmatic? You are biased!

    Bias here means, “You don’t agree with me, ergo you are a bigoted misogynist.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/05/nine-out-of-10-people-found-to-be-biased-against-women

    4. I’m against everything, it seems. There is plenty of stuff going badly. To comment against Israel makes me anti-semitic, to comment against rape gangs and explosions makes me islamophobic, to comment on the failures of the Church makes me an atheist, to criticise Darwinism makes me a religious nut, to distrust authority makes me an anarchist, to want a strong military makes me a fascist, to want our fish back makes me an anti-European, and so on.

      1. Morning Horace. Yes it’s a way of deflecting criticism before it’s voiced!

  45. 316870+ up ticks,
    The political fraternity are talking of closing parliament until September, if things prove to run a great deal smoother without the 650 they could all be awarded a
    DCM for services rendered, or not rendered what ever the case may be.

    DCM = don’t come Monday.

    1. “It’s not an accident that the coronavirus has become endemic in Iran before anywhere else because you don’t have the necessary means of social intercourse and social feedback — it is limited and wounded in some way. We can’t survive without the possibility of that kind of feedback. We have to accelerate liberal democratic institutions if we’re going to solve those problems”

      Unherd don’t allow comments on their site, which is sort of ironic.

      2. Greetings lms2, the opposing viewpoint is just as important:

        “My fear is that our safety net is the willingness of other people to respect authority whether it suits them or not; to place the common good over their own busy agenda. In the age of entitlement, the age of the individual, the age of anti-establishment populism, this seems a very flimsy safety net indeed.“ — Clare Foges, The Times

  48. Morning all

    SIR – I have just made a trip across London in the rush hour that included trains, the Underground and buses. I didn’t see one mask being worn.

    Gillian S S Lambert

    Tadworth, Surrey

    SIR – A lack of hospital beds is partly down to many being occupied by those who should not be there. Since we have a social care system that is not fit for purpose, people cannot be sent home or to a suitable care home.

    Should coronavirus reach a nursing home, how are the authorities expected to react?

    James Nicholson

    Southampton

    1. SIR – I am 66. I am therefore not sure whether this means that I am elderly and at risk – or that I am still young and spritely and able to withstand this infection.

      Rick Newby

      Wokingham, Berkshire

      SIR – The touch pads in some public lavatories, which invite you to touch a smiley face if you are satisfied with your “experience”, always struck me as stupid and unhygienic. In the current circumstances, they are insane. Can they now all be binned – permanently?

      Anthony Whitehead

      Bristol

      SIR – Having used the supermarket loo, washed and dried my hands, I am faced with the quandary of the handle on the exit door. Did the last person to use the facilities wash their hands before opening it?

      Maureen Hargrave

      Settle, North Yorkshire

      1. There are now public lavatories with automatic taps. You push button for soap and push a button for water. Then you dry your hand by placing them under the automatic (germ) blower. Very modern it is.

      2. Maureen should assume ‘probably not’.
        The way to deal with the problem is, after washing & drying your hands in the approved manner, to take another paper hand towel & use that as a ‘glove’ to open & close the door. That done screw up the towel, contact surface inwards, & bin it on reaching home.

        When using public loos, I always check to see if the bowl of the hand-wash basin is still wet from the previous user.

        When the boys were kids, I always checked whether their toothbrushes were wet before going in to read them a bedtime story.

      3. If Maureen Hargrave is that paranoid that germs are out to get her, could I suggest she dons a full bio-hazard suit whenever she leaves home?

    3. Sending some people home can be difficult as there are human rights lawyers instantly on the case.

    4. The UK doesn’t have enough hospital beds, as I’ve just pointed out to Jeremy.
      It’s supposed to be all keyhole surgery and day care units. Beds aren’t needed.

    5. Anything to honour the pledge made by every Government since 1992 not to put up Income Tax during a crisis. The Department of Health is desperate to offload bedblocking geriatrics onto the local authorities, and the extra money was handed to the NHS are for that purpose. The local authorities, whose central grant has been cut to nothing by the Treasury are corner-cutting the homes to bankruptcy and demented inmates then end up back in hospitals, covered by PFI borrowing which is legally the Treasury’s problem.

      Until a government can be elected that will put Income Tax up to a sensible level, there is no way out of this nonsense, other than ever-growing Council Tax bills paying for social care and very little else.

    6. I can certainly attest to the truth of the second letter. When I was admitted to hospital one of the patients in the medical ward was just elderly, but couldn’t go home because there was no care package available; hence one bed blocker who didn’t need to be there. I also bed blocked for a day because I’d been admitted on a surgical ward then transferred to a medical ward. The medical ward doctor couldn’t discharge me, I had to wait for the surgical ward doctor to do it – and he didn’t work on a Sunday, so I spent an extra night in hospital although I was fit to be discharged. Hey ho.

  49. SIR – For World Book Day (Allison Pearson, Features, March 4), my granddaughter’s teacher suggested that she might like to dress up as someone from the Bible.

    After much thought, practising with face-paints and prosthetics, and having acquired a hand bell, she and four others decided to appear as lepers.

    I’m not sure if this was quite what the teacher was anticipating.

    Marianna Simpson

    Cape Town, South Africa

  50. SIR – My late father, a proud Yorkshireman, would greet his friends with a slight nod of the head, followed by the words: “How do.” Perhaps it would be prudent to adopt this during the current coronavirus outbreak.

    Jane Davidson

    Balderton, Nottinghamshire

  51. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04b90466640a3a3c3fe82d6c0342360f1d385054ba2b152d646b24bfc4cb6df4.png Here is a snippet from an obit on today’s DT obituaries page. Congratulations to this person for attaining the ripe old age of 101. However, I would really like to know what sex this individual really was.

    The obit described him/her as “… a yoga master, author, actress and wine expert …”

    I think that someone born in 1918 might be a bit too old to be part of the “fluid gender” brigade. With that in mind either he was: “… a yoga master, author, actor and wine expert …” or she was: “… a yoga mistress, authoress, actress and wine expert.”

    As far as I’m concerned if you can’t mix your metaphors then you can’t mix your sexual identity.

    2. Oh for the days when “chairman”, “actor”, “author” etc. encompassed all eventualities! Now we have a “chair” taking meetings not even chairman or chairwoman.

      1. When I was president of Bournemouth IVC years ago, I styled myself Menyekiti – chair-holder.

          1. First I must say I typo-ed it: it should be mwenyekiti.

            M-wenyay-keetee, pronounced as all one word without stressing any syllables.

          1. No, but if any addressed me as Mfalme, they would have gained my attention. 😉

  52. SIR – I am horrified by the plans to bring back wind farms to dry land.

    A number of years ago, I defected from the Tories to Ukip, but have recently returned. Now, when I read of this appalling atrocity that might be committed against our island and its wonderful landscapes, I’m wondering whether I did the right thing.

    Chris Arthur

    Durham

    1. I wring my hands when I think of how UKIP has been destroyed from within by its in-fighting and administrative incompetence.

      1. I tend to think that there was more to it than that Richard! It looked to me as if it were deliberate!

        1. If, as ogga is sure, the trouble lies in UKIP’s NEC the cannot the party purge itself of its NEC?

      2. I tend to think that there was more to it than that Richard! It looked to me as if it were deliberate!

      3. 316870+ up ticks,
        R,
        We are currently suffering from a ersatz UKIP nEc out to destroy the party.
        It is an orchestrated campaign,
        I have explained this in posts to you before.
        Many do NOT know the actions the nEc have taken
        concerning Gerard Batten / Richard Braine many just condemn out of hand.
        They condemn UKIP in many respects to make up for the shortcomings of the party they support / vote for, and that can be any of the lab/lib/con coalition.
        .

    2. 316870+ up ticks,
      Morning E,
      Chris A,
      This ersatz tory party are a party before Country party no doubt of that.
      to return to them is your prerogative as for regarding the current UKIP Nec best stay away until such times as they are got rid of.

      1. Good morning, ogga

        You know that many of us agree with many of your points and wish that UKIP was the answer. But surely you must be able to see that until it can sort itself out it isn’t?

        1. 316870+ up ticks,
          R,
          I can see quite clearly that the UKIP neC is running a destructive
          campaign, blind Pue would have difficulties NOT seeing what is happening, as I have posted before if the ersatz Nec UKIP get away with this prototype blatant murder of a political party then no other 100% patriotic Country first party, will be safe.
          Have YOU read up on the Nec & their actions building up for this
          take-down ?

      2. I really do wish that whatever is troubling the proper and efficient working of UKIP could be sorted out. If it is the UKIP NEC that is deliberately stirring up the discord then is there nobody within UKIP who can sort out the problem and have a proper purge?

        1. 316870+ up ticks,
          R,
          You really MUST read up on what has been happening since Gerard Batten put his name up for entering the last leadership election.
          Also baring in mind the year he spent as interim leader resulted in 13000 new members going up on a daily basis, asking the membership for £100,000 & receiving in reply £300,000 taking the party financially into the black.
          A man for ALL reasons.

        3. the security services destroy patriot groups from the inside out

          The UK is a master at this and have been doing it for hundreds of years.
          The problem is identifying who they are, and replacing them. Most ordinary members won’t be aware or get involved, and getting committed volunteers to replace them is always an issue. That’s why it’s so easy for activists to take over any organisation, because ordinary people have other things to do, lives to lead. Activists are mainly only interested in that one thing, whatever it may be.

    4. Yesterday afternoon, the total wind power generated for the UK, according to Gridwatch, was 2%.

  53. Blind Tory peer accused of grabbing masseuse’s bottom claimed he wanted to know ‘how she looked’. 5 March 2020.

    A blind Tory peer accused of grabbing a masseuse’s bottom claimed he only wanted to see how she looked, a court has heard.

    Lord Holmes of Richmond, 48, who has had the Tory whip suspended, is accused of sexually touching the woman before pointing to his groin and asking her if she did “extras”.

    Now you see if he’d grabbed Tommy Robinson’s daughter’s ass he would have been home free!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/04/blind-tory-peer-accused-grabbing-masseuses-bottom-claimed-wanted/

    1. The treatment of TR should be a source of constant shame for the PTB: the politicians, the courts, the police and the MSM.

      The repeated assumption of guilt as far as he is concerned makes hypocrites of all those who claim to believe in habeas corpus.

      1. Morning Richard. It is of course impossible to prove but I’m pretty sure he was fitted up for this!

      2. 316870+up ticks.
        Morning R,
        I do agree,the same shame should fall on those concerning the rotherham revealing also.
        By the by I sat up until the early hours awaiting your reply yesterday regarding up ticks or
        lack of them, & your suspicions.

        1. Good morning ogga

          I am sorry. I did not realise you were awaiting a reply over the upticks question.

          As far as I can see upticks of those with ‘unacceptable’ views, such as myself, deserve to have their upticks removed but I do not know who is doing it.

          1. Here’s the state of your account:

            https://www.realms.chat/t/7893938641#comment-4821279659

            You have several thousand unvotes. They don’t remove them, they somehow muck about with the code so that your vote count becomes increasingly negative to the point where you are now – no votes showing on the account at all. It doesn’t stop there, it will seemingly go on forever. There are people out there with counts in the minus millions now.

            It started in May last year. It’s clearly targeting people deemed vaguely to be on the ‘right’ although a few lefties have been bleating that they’ve been hit too. Presumably they are seen by the perpetrators as collateral damage.

            We don’t know if it’s been done by someone inside or outside Disqus but since Disqus have utterly failed to respond in any way at all, despite it completely undermining the way the platform is supposed to work, we have to see them as complicit to some degree.

          2. Yes they are participants if only by doing nothing. This of course leads to the ineluctable conclusion that it is the security services.

  54. Italian Auction – only 44 seconds
    You don’t have to understand Italian to follow the auctioneer:

    A Chinese Ming Vase is up for auction. The bidding opens at a half-million Euros.
    Bidding is brisk and each bidder is clearly identified as each raises the bid by 100,000 Euros. Within seconds, the bid stalls at one million Euros, and the gasp from the crowd identifies the excitement that prevails in the room. The successful bidder is the last one who bid one million , and the auctioneer counts down the bid, “Going once, going twice, and sold to the gentleman sitting in front of me for one million Euros.”

    Now, you are going to have to see the video for yourself. The auctioneer is exuberant. The pace is fast. This is how an auction should be run. Please note the excitement on the auctioneer’s face after the final bid.

    Aspirin Cardio: Auction – click the you tube link below YouTube

    https://www.youtube.com/embed/3e0yZCLjwfU?rel=0

        1. Good morning.
          After loading NTTL I try to avoid having to refresh as I lose track of whatever unread comments there are that I have to catch up with, at the moment there are 66.
          If I miss posting a link, I usually add the link as a response to my original comment.

    2. What kind of an advert is that? No queers, no trannies in frocks, no assortment of different coloured faces?

    3. Best laugh of the morning. Now I’m off to do a little gardening. May pop in this evening.

    1. I see there’s a special category Cheap One Way Flights – ideal for deportees.

      1. I thought that was the proposal from the Lib Dems, i.e. we’ll all be allowed one flight every five years.
        That’s a very long holiday…

    1. You’re rubbing your hands in glee at the difficulties faced by private enterprises! Tax them more and more and then there will be no businesses left at all.

      1. Actually airlines are pay very little tax compared to other forms of transport

        1. So, to your way of thinking, we should pile more taxes on them and see how many more airlines and airports we can destroy?

  57. 316870+ up ticks,
    May one ask, if they close parliament will the politico’s be on £79 a week as the self employed seemingly are going to be?

    1. Good question. Are we still ‘all in this together’?

      Or was that a far and distant time?

    1. Looks well fed to me! I’m fed up with being inundated with “refugees” from anywhere and everywhere. The left liberals need to understand that we cannot take in every single foreigner who wants to come here .

      The government needs to understand that too!

      1. Very well fed indeed! And snugly warm in its cuddly new thick blanket. She cannot have walked very far with that fat lump of over-fedness in her arms, I cannot see her doing miles and miles bravely tramping across the country, she would be dropping it. It looks like a set-up to me.

    2. Strong blue and cyan colour cast to accentuate the bleakness and reduced brightness for added drabness. Isn’t photo-editing marvellous?

    3. ….. and how biblical they look. I am right out of sympathy, I have compassion fatigue. No doubt in 18 years’ time the babe in her arms will be planning the murder of our grandchildren.

      1. All she needs is a donkey under her arse and a carpenter alongside and the intended image is complete.

      2. All she needs is a donkey under her arse and a carpenter alongside and the intended image is complete.

      1. Strewth Tony, that baby hasn’t done you any harm. He/she is probably a normal little human being, not a filthy g****y.
        In other words, criticise the leaders and politicians in Iran, China, Russia and the West, not just poor people with dark skin.
        I chatted briefly to a Syrian professional last December, and I felt ashamed.

        1. Are you not capable of understanding that the persons whom I was criticising were the producers of propaganda (following from the previous postings which were doing the same ) ? You must have seen enough of these professionally produced propaganda photos over the years, including those produced by Reuters a while back, to have the necessary degree of cynicism.

  59. Coronavirus: Australia running out of toilet paper. Indy. 21 Hours ago.

    The threat of coronavirus has inspired a wave of panic buying in Australia, resulting in items including loo paper disappearing from shelves across the country.

    Australians have begun to prepare for disaster at levels previously unseen, even at the height of the country’s recent extreme bushfires and other natural disasters.

    The huge demand for loo paper has seen supermarket supplies dry up in minutes, and in Sydney one chain has implemented a four pack buying limit.

    I was in the local Iceland yesterday (not Australia) and pair of Senior Citizens had bought, among other things, three of those giant packs of Bog rolls. God knows how many were in there but enough to see 2025 in!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/coronavirus-panic-buying-toilet-paper-australia-a9374096.html

    2. I hadn’t realised that the virus results in a loss of bowel control…

      ‘Morning, Minty.

      1. It doesn’t, but that doesn’t stop people. They’d presumably heard about the shortage of loo paper in China, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have thought about it.

        Having said that, we recently ordered over 100 rolls of loo paper, and are now very well stocked up. This is nothing to do with corona virus. We’ve just found a brand that we can bulk buy cheaply (Freedom, 3-ply and scented. Doesn’t tear at inappropriate moments).
        Come the apocalypse, we’re ready.

      2. Maybe it’s because most people seem to use toilet paper to blow their nose instead of tissues or handkerchief.

  60. Ayup!

    Call for “gender-neutral” birth certificates.

    “Gender neutral” birth certificates which list “parent one” and “parent two” as alternatives for mother and father should be introduced in the UK, the Court of Appeal has heard.

    The court yesterday heard the case of Freddy McConnell, who was born a woman but later legally transitioned to a man, who wants to be registered on his child’s birth certificate as the “father” despite giving birth to the baby.

    A senior High Court judge threw his claim out in September, but he is now seeking to overturn the decision.

    His lawyers argued that the Registrar General should modify the current birth certificate form by offering the gender neutral options “parent one” and “parent two”.

    The case continues.

    This is one of today’s examples of evidence of the rapidly accelerating stupidity of the human species. More and more instances are revealed daily. Soon the newspapers will be full of them from front to back.

    1. Good morning Grizzly (and all other NoTTLers). Perhaps an exception could be made for this man woman person. He could be named as “Idiot One” and/or “Idiot Two”.

      1. Good morning, Madam.

        It won’t be too long before the country [nay: world] is full of such idiots. Stupidity is a far more dangerous (and infectious) disease than Covid-19.

      2. Woman. As only women can give birth, this woman was, well, a woman.

        Comical and obvious idiocy.

        1. Hence my suggestion that he could be described as “Idiot 1” and “Idiot 2”.

    3. Dearie me! I suggested this joke yesterday and AA posted the perfect cartoon illustration. Today it is reality (but not as we know it.)

    4. Our judges are daft enough to go along with that nonsense. It is a simple medical fact that only females can give birth. Now this transman might like to go along with his wishes of pretending a man gave birth to this baby but that is simply denying the facts.

      As far as I would go with this , is that on the birth certificate it gives Mc Connel as the mother but it can also say she now identifies as a man. That would reflect the true situation

      1. It seems to be a problem that has developed across many decades.
        Our judiciary and seemingly the civil service have now become a lost cause. They don’t appear to represent reality or indeed common sense.
        Dust filled archives come to mind. A deep clean is needed.

      2. In a world where the dictionary definition of woman can be taken down because men in dresses get upset by the truth anything is possible.

        Theres an insanity where the mentally ill are pandered to.

        1. If Davros *were* behind all this manipulation that’d be fine. He was simply a supremacist. He’d have thought the woman wants to be called a father cause for extermination on the basis of deviance.

    6. The McConusall creature is a contributor to the Grauniad who was upbraided by a judge for being economical with the truth. Does it still have a uterus and will its child be allowed to have a normal-ish childhood?

    7. Did he father the child? No. He/she/it gave birth to it. Ergo he/she/it is the Mother.

      1. Did HE father the child?
        Given the fact that the person concerned is a woman that should be SHE.

          1. Anybody taking large doses of testosterone will grow a beard. My mother, when she had breast cancer, was given high doses of drugs which blocked oestrogen and she started to sprout quite a lot of facial hair!

          2. My auntie managed a creditable ‘tache without any chemical enhancement. We weren’t allowed to mention it on pain of a good wallop.

    8. Drop the term “mother” & “father” and use the chromosome designation of each parent instead. The one who actually carried the baby to term being the first named on the certificate. As it is a scientific fact who could possibly object?

      1. “As it is a scientific fact who could possibly object?”

        Only all the brain-dead idiots who are confused as to what they are, and the Lefty twats who are encouraging them. That’s who.

    10. The McConusall creature is a contributor to the Grauniad who was upbraided by a judge for being economical with the truth. Does it still have a uterus and will its child be allowed to have a normal-ish childhood?

    11. Freddy McConnell is the present-day name of a woman who gave birth to a child. Therefore Freddy McConnell is the child’s mother.

      End of story.

  61. -Just last week we were all being encouraged to take fewer flights.
    Today an airline goes bust with the loss of thousands of jobs,
    Cue floods of tears and woe in the media.
    Not sure what they thing will happen under the green energy scam
    But today is just a small taster for what is in store.

    1. They don’t actually want any of this nonsense to happen – if they do, they think it won’t apply to them. It is all about signalling their virtue.

      1. Take away their mobile phones for three days, and see just how ready they are to embrace the brave, new world.

  62. Our daughter reports that the Ministry of Education in Dubai is closing all schools at the end of today for the 2 week spring break. They will then be closed for a further 2 weeks and ‘distance learning’ will be provided for the following 2 weeks especially for those taking iGCSE, our youngest granddaughter and IB2 our eldest granddaughter. All being well school will resume on Sunday 5th April. Residents and citizens advised not to travel abroad.
    Daughter also notes that cinemas, shopping malls and supermarkets remain open, where you’re more likely to become infected but her tennis league has also been told to stop by the government.

  63. “Boris Johnson has
    secretly moved to strip the Department for International Development of
    its power to determine how the overseas aid budget is spent, The Times has learnt.

    In a move that critics claim will politicise Britain’s humanitarian
    assistance programme, senior managers at Dfid have been told that their
    staff working overseas will report directly to the Foreign Office. ”

    I look in vain for a note of approval for Boris for doing what he promised to do.

    1. I would like the overseas aid budget at 0.7% to be scrapped and used when a particular natural disaster happens. Or, failing that, at least directed to where it really is appreciated or in the U.K. interest. Shouldn’t be sending money to Indianfor instance.

      1. When there is a disaster the UK Government has to be pressurised to assist. Floods in Mozambique, eruptions in Grenada. As well as being a good thing to do disaster relief gives our military good practice in fast response and logistics.

      2. India has it’s own massive Space programme, including a Mars orbiter and other tricky stuff. So we are giving 100 million in aid to the poor people (ugh) and small businesses of India (DFID blurb) to keep on the right side of the third biggest economy in the world.
        We are mad, I tell you. Mad. Mad, Mad.

        2. We should just give all Indian congressmen a Rolls-Royce, like we did with rajahs. It would be lot cheaper and good for jobs in the UK.

      3. Try not to think of it as an ‘Overseas Aid Budget’. Try to think of it as a petty cash slush fund. It’s not really intended for overseas aid, it’s intended to oil the wheels of diplomacy.

        If some poor, benighted third world citizens find their standard of living is minutely improved then, well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?

        1. I’m not sure any Third world citizen finds their standard of living improved, minutely or otherwise; it’s more likely been used, as you say, as a petty cash slush fund – in other words for bribes.

      4. The foreign aid budget mostly goes to the EU to spend as it wants to.

        Cancelling it would be a hugely positive example of cutting government waste. As it is we borrow that money.

    2. Some consistency, please:

      So it isn’t a “hate crime” if a same-sex member of society tries to solicit sex from you within the close confines of a public lavatory, but if an opposite-sex member of society ‘wolf-whistles’ at you from 2 blocks away, that’s a “hate crime”?!?

        1. Has anyone tried to solicit sex from you within the close confines of a public lavatory?

          2. It’s been my assertion for quite some time now that so-called “hate crime” legislation is (to paraphrase) ‘a crime too far’. It requires courts to adjudge whether a defendant’s “hostility” is motivated by hate of specific (protected) groups, groups identifiable in terms of race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, transgender identity, or disability. [Notice the specific-absence of “age” as a protected group].

            In terms of the actual crime committed, it may be simple (non-physical) harassment and/or intimidation. Not to trivialize these crimes, it seems an extra-ordinary amount of effort is going towards aggressively prosecuting non-physical offenses, and “uplifting” the penalty due to perceived hatred on the part of the perpetrator. Shouldn’t CPS be concentrating on violent crimes, first and foremost?

            To wit: which is more debilitating to society–an incident that leads to a violent sexual assault, or an incident (e.g. a “wolf-whistle”) that leads to a non-violent “hate crime” of harassment/intimidation?

            https://www.cps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/inline-images/003_c_0_0.png

            It might be better for the UK to adopt a US-style of “hate crime” enforcement. In the US, there very clearly is no such thing as a “hate crime” per se; what the US allows is a “hate crime enhancement” penalty for known transgressions of the law. The numbers are startling: nationwide the US FBI only recorded 7,120 bias-motivated incidents which were ascribed to 6,266 defendants (2018 data, 2017 data is similar).

            https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2018/topic-pages/offenders
            https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017/topic-pages/offenders

            In contrast, the number of hate crime cases sent to the CPS by UK police was 12,901 in 2017-18 (14,151 defendants), and 10,749 in 2018-19 (12,828 defendants). That’s almost twice as many “hate crime” cases in the UK versus the US in 2017, not even accounting for the fact that the UK is less than one-fifth the size of the United States by population. Something is clearly not right.

            https://www.cps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publications/CPS-Hate-Crime-Annual-Report-2018-2019.PDF
            https://www.cps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publications/cps-hate-crime-report-2018.pdf

          3. A success rate of 83% of hate crime cases leading to conviction is better than the success rate of convictions for rape, burglary, car theft.
            Hmmmm.

          4. Not only that Horace, but according to the 2018-19 CPS report, these crimes are punished more harshly (“sentence uplift”):

            “In hate crime cases we can ask the court for an increased sentence to reflect the additional level of seriousness. This is known as a sentence uplift. In 2018-19, the number of convictions where the court announced a sentence uplift reached the highest level yet at 73.6%.”

            See statement by Max Hill QC, page 3 (para 3), and graphic on page 7 (top).
            https://www.cps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publications/CPS-Hate-Crime-Annual-Report-2018-2019.PDF

        1. Actually, I’m of two minds about the whole ‘wolf-whistle’ controversy. In some societies it’s a compliment, in other societies it’s clearly a nuisance and/or a threat. Problems arise when persons from the second sort of society emigrate to the first sort of society.

          To answer your question more directly–certainly you’re aware that there are elements of society seeking to decriminalize sexual solicitation, in public lavatories, etc. I felt it was relevant to the entire issue, so that’s why I brought it up (no need to go into specific details). Any crime requires opportunity, and certainly there’s more “opportunity” for sexual assault in a public lavatory that on a public street (do ‘wolf whistles” lead to sexual assault?).

          All I’m saying is, if we’re going to insist on “safe (public) spaces”, let’s be sure we apply the standard evenly, shall we?

    3. Isn’t she the dope who said a couple of weeks ago that babies were born sexless?

      2. Peddy,
        Glad you enjoyed your meal .. was the menu choice delicious ?

        Yep could be, to tell you the truth , I dont know who is whom.. They just look and sound alike … unremarkable vote catching people of colour!

      1. He has a really hard bite.. I feed him and talk to him , but he tries to grab me .. and he really hurts.. doesn’t bother with the dogs or Moh or sons ..

        1. Even 18 months later, MB and I still have moments when we expect some sort of ‘Oscarism’ – whether a beady eye peering round at us in the kitchen, mimicking the microwave or a cheery “Night Night”.

    5. West African Grey! How lovely! What’s the name, Belle? The Hausa always called them Ackoo…

      1. He is 36 years old .. called Happy , and a Timneh grey.

        We bought him in Britain. He is quite shy and reserved .. but talks when he wants

        We had a large grey when we lived out there .. it was as friendly as a dog and had an excellent repertoire . We tried to bring him back with us .. but life out there was so difficult that we gave him to some Shell bods who were long term out contracted , in PH.

    6. When I was younger I’m sure women enjoyed being wolf whistled as they passed building sites. I never heard my two sisters complain.

        1. I’ll take your word for it Belle. I’ve never been wolf whistled by a woman. 😢

      2. If any women are really offended, I’m sure that can give as good as they get in these woke days.

    1. I wonder if that reporter will ever look at that and think “Why did I ask such a stupid question “ but I doubt it.

      2. I imagine there was an efforttothink about how staida might adapt to outbreaks… but he’s right. What could he know?

  68. I was wondering. Does Mr Soros get a big discount on the bills for the 6,000,000 mobile phones that he pays for?

  69. Just back from a good lunch at Cote. Greek waitress, so I trotted out my rusty Greek (last visit was to Kos in ’84) & she said I did quite well.

  70. Officer filmed sex act in patrol car outside Newport police station

    A police officer has been sacked for filming a sex act in his patrol car while on duty.

    PC Alexander Clark, 26, was in full uniform outside a police station when he filmed the sex act and took a picture of his penis on his phone.

    PC Clark admitted taking the picture and the video but insisted his penis was sore and he “needed to look at it closer”.

    Presenting officer Kay Gladwin said: “When PC Clark was interviewed, he said it was a stupid thing to do while on duty.

    “He admitted taking the photo but stated that it was sore and he needed to look at it closer.

    “The recording clearly shows him masturbating in a police car 37 minutes after taking the photo.

    “His claims that it was sore are not accepted because he clearly carried out a sex act just 37 minutes later.”

    PC Clark was suspended on June 18 last year, just five days after taking the picture and video in the car park outside Newport Central police station.

    1. Dead funny. I wouldn’t like to see him lose his career over it. It’s not as if he had bullied someone.

    2. Right collection of “Mr Big’s” there (snigger)
      The usual low hanging fruit of street dealers/users, they’ll be replaced in about ten minutes
      The usual hype of “80 years” when the actual average is just over 3 years, out in 18 months
      That’ll show ’em!!

      2. 3 years less any time on remand and then divided by 2 so more like 1 year and a fair chance that if they appeal some daft judge will reduce the sentence

  73. Badger cull to be replaced by vaccines in bovine TB fight

    Badger culling to tackle the spread of TB in livestock is to be phased out to be replaced with a cattle vaccine, the government has announced.

    Defra, the environment department, said trials of a vaccine will take place over the next five years, and there are plans to vaccinate more badgers.

    Opponents of the badger cull have said it is inhumane and ineffective, but the government backed the policy.

    The first cull zones were created in 2013 in Somerset and Gloucestershire.

    In September, badger culling was extended to 40 areas including Bristol, Cheshire, Devon, Cornwall, Staffordshire, Dorset, Herefordshire and Wiltshire.

    Farmers said it was necessary to control the disease that devastates the beef and dairy industries, while the government claimed it had led to reductions in the incidence of TB.

    Now Defra plans to gradually phase out “intensive culling” following a breakthrough by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (Apha).

    Previously it was not possible to vaccinate cattle as tests for the disease could not differentiate between vaccinated animals and those infected by bovine TB, but Apha has developed an “effective” test which can be trialled alongside the BCG vaccine.

    1. Will the vaccine work for coronavirus, or will we just have to cull the pensioners ?

          1. No! Still, it is good that they do change the menu. We have been to restaurants in France and returned two years later…. to find the same two items on the starter menu, the same four mains and the same desserts (the latter is probably not surprising).

    2. I have been suggesting that for years and years and even wrote a small article about the usefulness of providing mineral licks near their setts , plus antibiotics and vaccinations .

  74. Flybe collapse

    Its business model was a failure it had been near to collapse several times and had been re branded several times and got through 4 chief executives and has never been profitable. At one time it had grand planes to expand into Europe and bought 26 new planes. The expansion failed and it ended up with a surplus of planes so it ended up expanding the UK flights but the demand was not there. Probably only about a third of their routes are commercially viable

    Many of the regional airports FlyBe serves are dependent on them and FlyBe constituted up to 90% of the traffic. Unless these airports can quickly find a replacement carrier these airports themselves are at risk

    Table below shows how much these airports were dependent on FlyBe

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1d3b871c6ae26ec61bf4177960df8fef8a7d6c7bc0704c2d700fda684164dd9.png

    1. Having too many chief executives and a surplus of aircraft is just plane daft.

      1. They only had 1 CE at a time but got through rather a lot of them. The business was a basket case without subsidies most of the routes are loss making

      1. A beautiful aircraft.
        Quietly burbles along when flying with a lovely sound.

        1. Indeed, it’s always a pleasure when one flies overhead. Probably a year or two since I’ve seen one though.

          1. The last one I saw was a couple of years ago in Cambridge.
            I was crossing the Hills Road railway bridge when I heard a multi-engined piston prop aircraft take off from Cambridge Airport and glanced over to see the distinctive bi-plane view of a Rapide as it turned away from me and burbled off into the distance.
            I wonder if G-AGTM is based there?

          2. I have a feeling there’s one based at Duxford, putting it in that area. I shall look into it.

            Update: Looking at Wiki I see that there in fact three operational Rapides at Duxford.

            G-AGJG, a DH89A, in the colours of Scottish Airways, is airworthy and in the hands of private owners at Duxford Airfield, Cambridge, England. G-AKIF and G-AIYR, a pair of DH89A Dragon Rapides, are airworthy and based at Duxford, for tourist flights.

            You mentioned G-AGTM. This belonged to something called Classic Airforce which was most recently based at Coventry but has now been wound up – as of 2016. They had three Rapides – G-AGTM, G-AIDL and G-AKRP.

            G-AIDL now seems to belong to Classic Wings in Clacton-on-Sea. They claim ownership of two Rapides but seem to have a link with Duxford so maybe the other one is one of those attributed to Duxford?

          3. I think the Duxford Rapide is Tango Mike.
            A pity I was a bit far away to see the registration.

        1. I can remember when oldies still referred to BHX as “Elmdon Aerodrome.” And the Avro Anson on display by the A45.

        2. Sadly I’ve never been in one. Some designs just look ‘right’ and this is one of them.

    4. At least 1 airport is missing from the list and thats Cornwall Airport more conmmonly known as Newquay Airport

  76. Woman who made child mimic breastfeeding in a twisted game is put on sex offenders register

    A twisted woman who preyed on a youngster by telling her she was only playing a game has been placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.

    Former nursery teacher Wendy McGill, 48, was also ordered to attend the Pathways Project after admitting she abused a young girl, who was aged between four and six at the time of the sex attack.

  77. Great relief today. After a referral for testing by my GP following my reports of pain in breast, results show no cancerous lumps. Pain most prob caused by intercostal bruising due to coughing.
    I was getting ready to be storminahalfcup.

    2. That’s a relief that needs celebrated with copious alcohol, Stormy!
      🍷🍷🍷🍷 Hic!

        1. Common enough style of speech in these parts, Grizz, and we were here long before the Yanks!

          Just felt that needs said…..

        2. Cultural appropriation, don’t yer know.
          Most Weegies speak Yank, it’s easier to fall in than explain.

    5. Brilliant news, D-cup. If I weren’t on the wagon I’d raise a large Scotch to you, but I am (purely for weight-loss reasons) so I’ll raise a cup of tea. 👍🏻☕️

    7. I’m greatly relieved for you , SWMBO had a recall following a scan that arrived on her 60th, needless to say it cast a damper on proceedings but we thought we’d hidden it well at the party but after a while my eldest daughter sidled up to me and asked if we’d had a major row ( never have had bty ) so she had to be told, as it was it turned out to be a false positive and subsequent scans have been fine.

    10. Phew. However much you tell yourself you’re being silly …. a little voice keeps telling you otherwise.

  79. How do you keep your legs when you’re sitting down? This is what your sitting posture says about your personality!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/221db94daa2239650472246cfad71b99f0123c87f3bcbbc8a82fd9320640cbeb.jpg

    Position A
    People who sit like this are very creative and charismatic. They’re spontaneous and don’t think too long about the decisions they make. This can cause some trouble every now and then, but their natural charm will help them out of a sticky situation. These people view life as an adventure and are open to new experiences. They’re also very popular and easily make new friends, although many of these relationships are fleeting.

    Position B
    People who sit in this position are true dreamers. They have a rich imagination and can completely lose themselves in a daydream. They’re very empathetic and can easily make contact with other people, but they sometimes put themselves in the background because of this. They are very good listeners and are strongly in touch with their own feelings.

    Position C
    These are chaotic people who have a lot of trouble concentrating and sitting still. Their minds are always moving and they often speak before thinking about the impact of their words. They’re easily bored and have a short attention span. They shine most in a fast environment with loads of stimuli. In relationships they can quickly become disinterested as well, and they need someone who can push back.

    Position D
    These are often very smart people who are good rational thinkers. They’re punctual, neat and orderly. Their homes are often squeaky clean and neat, and everything has its own proper place. They’re a little reserved and won’t quickly reveal everything about themselves. Yet they are very honest and don’t like to gossip. They remain calm in every situation and don’t easily lose perspective.

    Position E
    These people are very goal-oriented and value their careers a lot. They place importance on setting ambitious goals for themselves and are not satisfied with less. On a personal level they also like to set goals, for example when it comes to health and love. They’re very perfectionistic about everything, including their own appearance. This sometimes causes them to lose sight of what they already have because they’re always aspiring for more.

    2. Position A – I’m having my period.

      Position B – I’m about to have my period.

      Position C – I’m up for it.

      Position D – I’m on the pill.

      Position E – Put that camera away!

    3. None of the above, same as I vote. My legs are straight, crossed at the ankle.

  80. More disturbing Coronavirus news:

    The WHO has admitted medical professionals are ill-equipped to deal with the potential looming pandemic.

    Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that each month, the organisation estimates that about 89 million medical masks, 76 million pairs of examination gloves and 1.6 million goggles will be required globally for healthcare workers to respond to the outbreak.

    Ghebreyesus wept.
    :¬(

    3. Dont panic. I am sure that the Chinese manufacturers are capable of producing that equipment for you. Unfortunately production may be delayed a tad until the coronavirus panic is over.

      89 million masks. Is that all?

    4. Glove and mask manufacturers are in to make more dosh than a 1997 flower-seller.

  82. I’m sure most of you already know this but I’ve just discovered that if you open a “Premium” article on the Telegraph website, but press the “ESC” key as the article headline appears, it appears to defeat the paywall and you can read the entire article……..

  83. I read somewhere that the two officers who arrested Tommy Robinson for assault were not of the white persuasion. Is that the case, does anyone know?

      1. Because it is normal. We can see for ourselves the huge campaign of misinformation that there has been on Brexit. Those who organised and participated carry on in their jobs.
        We have seen the vast cover up of muslim crimes of the most appalling kind, with the police condoning them. We have noted that the names of arrested people are frequently withheld, unless they are white.
        There is no clear route to the truth. We have seen, and it continues, that people in the highest positions of State cannot get access to reports that may contain truths hurtful to our enemies. Reports for which they have assumed responsibility by virtue of their position.

      1. Interesting. Maybe not the case. However, one gives the police 0/100 for their actions. In such cases, in almost every case, the police would detain both parties. How low we are sinking.

  84. Serious question: How long before cruise ships are required to perform burials at sea for folk who may die from Covid-19 whilst the ship is in quarantine?

    “California Governor Bars ‘Grand Princess’ Cruise Ship From Docking As Passengers Show Virus Symptoms”

      1. And the further into a cruise they get, the more space opens up in those freezers.

        A natural fit – take out todays steaks, roll in yesterdays deceased.

        1. How about further into the quarantine period take out last weeks deceased and open a few bottles of a nice Chianti. Now that is ghoulish.😎

  85. Can someone explain this one to me ?

    “Half of all coronavirus cases in the UK were most likely to occur in
    just a three-week period, with 95% of them over a nine-week period, he
    added.”

      1. …….Half of cases occur in a three week period
        95 percent of that half appear over a nine week period
        Pythagoras wept.

  86. Bbc banging on about Islamophobia in the Tory Party. They interviewed two Tory Muslims, neither of whom had experienced any Islamophobia personally, but believed it went on somewhere. That reminds me, when is the Home Office going to publish the grooming gang report?

    3. 316870+ up ticks,
      Evening AA,
      Petition just kicked off calling for release of that report.

    4. 316870+ up ticks,
      Evening AA,
      Petition just kicked off calling for release of that report.

  87. DM Story

    MPs get 3.1 per cent pay rise as their bill for salaries and expenses is set to top £200million a year for the first time – up 40% since the 2009 scandal

    Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile.
    Filths savour but themselves.

    (King Lear)

    1. They’ll spin it as good news and they’ll tell us they are a bargain.

      500 Parliaments for the same price as 1 HS2

  88. Musings over the first glass of wine,the priorities of those advocating a bit of “Prepping” seem a little strange
    Toilet Rolls…………Is this the first flu in history that causes endless dysentry??
    Bottled Water……..May I suggest if things have broken down so badly water no longer emerges from the tap we will be in “I wish we had a Second Amendment” territory

    1. The USA has a lot of wilderness areas for ‘survivalists’ to do their thing, it’s just a bit harder to visualise a Surbiton survivalist.

  89. When does the silent majority not really exist?

    When it’s the so called silent majority who support Tommy Robinson!

          3. 2.24% was the share of the vote achieved by Tommy Robinson when he had the balls to test his actual popularity through a secret ballot. The good old voter can spot a racist criminal a mile off.

  90. Met officer arrested on suspicion of belonging to banned rightwing group. Thu 5 Mar 2020 18.09 GMT.

    Last year the Guardian revealed that a suspected far-right sympathiser was feared to be at large in the Met, after managing to scrawl, undetected, a swastika in a secure area of a police station. The culprit has not been caught and the discovery shocked ethnic minority and other staff.

    The swastika was found in February 2019 drawn on an inside wall at Edmonton police station in Enfield, north London, in an area only accessible to officers and staff.

    Counter-terror chiefs have described the far right as the fastest-growing terror threat. The British military has put in extra measures amid concerns about attempts at far-right infiltration and concern about some forces’ apparent support for extremist figures such as Tommy Robinson.

    Swastikas in the toilet! Wow! When I was at school they were carved on every desk, ruler and satchel and on the walls and back of every door in the toilet!

    This lads a sacrificial goat and sin eater!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/05/met-police-officer-arrested-suspected-of-belonging-to-group-linked-to-terrorism

    1. I remember being hauled before the janitor for (allegedly) inscribing a swastika on my desk at Wallop school and given a long lecture.

      1. Evening Rusty. Yes and this was when our families had just spent five years fighting them!

          1. COCHRANE.

            Cochrane’s first post on Nottl was on November 6 2016 and despite being deeply disliked from the very beginning he has persisted on and off since then. Why is this? Why does he continue in spite of universal contempt? Any normal person would have long since given up and proceeded to a more amenable environment. It is not as if he likes anyone on here or their views, in fact his activities are confined almost totally to opposing the former’s comments with the occasional ad hominem spasm against the more vulnerable members of the blog. This is the norm; he makes no effort to start his own thread or propagate his own views.

            You can oppose the opinions and beliefs generally held on this blog in perfectly good faith, Brexit is not irrefutable, a case can be made out for immigration, Russian foreign policy in the Middle East is not faultless. In fact I have often wished for it to happen, since there is a sameness in the contributions here that palls occasionally, and of course one learns from such exchanges, even if it is only to avoid making the same mistake twice. So why does Cochrane not do so? Well he knows from long previous experience that he would lose the argument against those he regards as his moral inferiors and so resorts to the untruths that are common to those who have an emotional investment in the result and feels free to do so on the somewhat dubious principle that lying in defence of that which you support is no sin! His technique in pursuance of this is somewhat limited. As William [Stanier] has observed of it. They’re [his posts] consistent. Soften up an opponent by appearing to agree with him part of the way and then turn on him, firing off the predictable slurs. I would have written insinuations or misdirections, but William’s choice of words is equally valid. The truly interesting part of this that it must all be done consciously on Cochrane’s part since to lie means to invent methods of evading the truth. It requires effort. It cannot be arrived at by errors in reason, deduction or logic. In other words Cochrane must know however much he may deny it to others and more importantly to himself, that he is a Liar.

          4. Well that went well! A personal attack which must have taken you some time to write, and you got a mere two upticks, one from one of the more abusive people here and the second from your other login. LOL. Stick to the pro-Putin trolling; at least you get a few more “likes” for that.

    1. We don’t need any more holidays. Lets use what we have got.
      Let Guy Fawkes Night be replaced with a ” Bonfire of the Remainers ” night.

        1. Far better to have a higher number of leave days to be taken when actually wanted.

          2. Also many don’t move the public holiday to the nearest weekday if it falls on the weekend.

        2. ‘aye up Grizz.

          By the early 19th century it was widely realised that bones, rich in

          calcium, were a valuable fertiliser, and within a few years of

          Napoleon’s defeat, agents of fertiliser manufacturers were scouring

          battlefields. The bones of men and horses were removed from places such

          as Austerlitz, Leipzig and Waterloo and shipped, usually to Hull, and on

          to bone-grinders, many in Doncaster.

          This was not a well-documented business, but it was reported on and

          became part of popular folklore. In 1822, a correspondent wrote in The Observer:

          “It is now ascertained beyond a doubt, by actual experiment on an

          extensive scale, that a dead soldier is a most valuable article of

          commerce; and, for aught known to the contrary, the good farmers of

          Yorkshire are, in a great measure, indebted to the bones of their

          children for their daily bread.”

          It seems a shocking disrespect to us, but times were different. For

          centuries, corpses on battlefields had been stripped of valuables by

          other soldiers, camp followers and local peasants, and the Napoleonic

          Wars were no different.

          https://www.historyextra.com/period/were-the-pulverised-bones-of-soldiers-and-horses-who-died-at-the-battle-of-waterloo-sold-as-soil-fertiliser/

          Waste not want not.

        3. With the exception of the position of Mexico on the list, the number of holidays seems to be in inverse proportion to the economic wealth of the country.
          Some meaningful correlation there, shurely.

        4. In some cases like France if they fall on a Sunday there is no extra added on to the w/e as in the UK. I found when I worked in France for a short while that you ende up with the same number of actual holidays off work. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other countries the same. As for India with 21, that’s clearly why we still have to send them aid.

        5. The British have extra days off, though, from a tradition going back to when Queen Victoria was Empress of India.
          It’s known unofficially as Ringin Sikh.

      1. 316923+ up ticks,
        Morning NtN,
        No submission, it really should amount to at least 52% of the peoples.

      1. Signed. “Not in the public interest..” (!!!) I cannot imagine anything more in the public interest. Not in the interests of the governing politicos is what is meant. That we have come to this – have we hit rock bottom, do you think, are we bumping along the bottom or is there further to fall? I suspect that there is.

      1. 316870+ up ticks,
        Evening Anne,
        Every little helps as the old lady said as she peed
        in the Medway, excuse the crudity.

  93. I couldn’t believe the bbc news tonight.
    The had a specific section where they allowed the MCB (?) And friends to make very serious accusations directed against the Tory party. Every description of obviously invented discrimination was listed.
    WTF are you on about you daft stupid senile old auntie ?

    1. I thought the MCB had been keeping it’s head down for a while.
      They can always rely on the BBC when they feel like a bit of publicity.

      1. The Bbc seem to drip feed anti-Muslim stories every other day. Just wait until the Home Office grooming report is released. They will go into overdrive. /sarc

    2. Well, discrimination is both normal and improving. If mankind had not discriminated between Pod’s square wheel on Og’s round one, civilisation would not have advanced. When we look at a menu, we discriminate. Those whose forbears were born elsewhere take the approach that we, the indigenous ones, should not discriminate against them. Why should we not? I ask.

      1. Discrimination is sensible when done for rational reasons based on facts. Discrimination towards someone you’ve never met based on something they can’t change e.g. their race, for no reason apart ignorance, is the mark of the poorly educated who should, of course be discriminated against.

        2. I know plenty of people who cannot help being blind but I doubt that you would argue that blind fighter pilots should be recruited by the RAF. I know even more people who cannot help being staggeringly stupid but I don’t want them running the country (OK, rewind that – they are!). Why do immigrants the world over tend to group together? Because they feel more comfortable in the collective company of people who are just like them in appearance, language, religion, culture and experiences. Are they not discriminating?

        3. Quite so but one could reasonably discriminate against someone who professed a faith that discriminated against you to the extent that it called for your submission or death.

          1. Agreed. But that requires the individual to profess an extreme interpretation of that faith.

      2. The meaning of the word discrimination has been completely distorted, another example of changing the meaning.

        1. Quite. Tomorrow I’m running a workshop designed to discriminate between options which would all solve a problem with facing my client.

      3. IMHO I believe if you have decided to move away from your often phyically dangerous previous environment and don’t or won’t speak the language, don’t integrate socially, will not accept or deliberately spurn inevitable cultural changes. Choose to live in ghetoised communities.
        Draw attention to the most obvious diversions in cultures. Often by wearing clothing they know is offensive to the new culture they move amongst.
        Constantly making complaints about invented isms and hide social and culturally unacceptable dangerous criminality within their communities.

      4. Spent some time this afternoon listening to Indian friend talking about Punjabis.
        I can’t say she was noticeably complimentary.
        (Her family are from further south.)

  94. I just had a phone call from my friend Priti at the Home Office.
    She asked me if I knew what the word ” redacted ” meant.
    Seems she’s working on some document or other.

    2. Just tell her to open the document in Word and use the relevant commands to show previous versions that aren’t redacted. If you think I’m joking, some years ago No 10 released a sensitive document in electronic form where they hadn’t rolled up the changes into a final (redacted) version.

  95. First UK death

    No great detail. Described as an older patient who had been in and out of hospital with an underlying health condition

    2. According to The Times –

      ” The patient, believed to be a woman, was being treated at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.”

      How times have changed. Seemingly hard to tell the difference these days.

      1. So far the death rate is less than 1%, Clearly though at present the virus is spreading and the numbers could double over the next week

        1. That’s the UK death rate. The Chinese worldwide death rate is a better indicator.

  96. Can’t get over all this fuss by the MSM over corona , not so long ago they wanted the elderly to die off so that they could have another referendum

    1. My OH went to a committee meeting today, where CV was on the agenda as it might impact on the club’s forthcoming meetings. “Well,” said one 85 year old lady rather dismissively, “it’s not as though the elderly are going to survive it, is it?”, without a hint of irony.

      1. I like The Lady in the Van as well.

        I’m downloading ‘A Private Function’. Bennett wrote the screenplay.

        I also have his Talking Heads DVD. Patricia Routledge as Kitty in close up. She tells this long and involved story and it only clicks into place in the last part of the monologue. I won’t say what it is in case you haven’t seen it. It is good work.

        1. A Private Function is a very amusing film with a strong cast. One of my favourites.

    2. I wonder if Alan Bennett would be quite so celebrated if he were heterosexual. His sixth-form History Boys seem far less interested in girls than we were at my northern direct grant grammar school in the 1960s.

      1. Boarding school rendered me terribly self-conscious and shy of girls but, thank God, I soon grew out of it

  100. Government delays Budget Infrastructure Plan

    With the current financial uncertainty it is sensible to delay the plan

    2. Dishonesty isn’t limited to the BME community. It’s an equal opportunities trait.

          1. Admittedly quite a few will be Romas, French Gypsies and Albanians. Quite frankly it is difficult to both keep up with and account for the numerous filthy scum this country has admitted from Europe and overseas for decades.

            Muslims are on an altogether more evil level even to those undesirables to which I have referred.

      2. But the vast bulk of the Grenfell frauds have been carried out by the Cultural enrichment.

          1. Given that the UK is still, despite the Labour & Tory Parties’ worst efforts, an overwhelmingly white country, I find that a most remarkable stupid question.

  102. The new Spekkie lay out is certainly a bit of a lash-up.
    I’ve done my best.

    Eco-friendly is not female-friendly
    Laura Freeman

    “Green drudgery is reversing women’s hard-fought freedoms

    Forgive me, Greta, for I have sinned. It has been five days since my last Waitrose order. I meant to be good and green. To go from Whole Foods to farmers’ market with my canvas bag and eco-conscience. But it was cold and dark and the boys from the supermarket come right to the door. So I filled the bin with plastic wrappers and turtle-trappers and laid waste to my good intentions.

    I try, I really do. I wash every yoghurt pot, rinse every tin. I carry a KeepCup, a water flask, a folded tote. I trudge to the Edgware Road with empty bottles for shampoo, conditioner and laundry soap and fill them up, one splurting pump at a time. I take off my make-up with washable pads. I reuse envelopes, salvage rags, turn the bed sheets sides-to-middle. I save every cabbage leaf, every fennel frond, every parsley stalk for vegetable stock. I am doing my bit. I am going half-mad in the process.

    It was scrubbing muddy spuds, hands raw under cold water, that drove me back to the online shop. This was not the future I imagined when I graduated university ten years ago: red fingers, planetary anxiety and one-hundred-and-one-ways with winter roots. It’s all very well this buy-local, eat-seasonal, cook-from-scratch and leave-no-turnip-top-behind business, but it takes its toll in time and energy. As for reusable, refillable, zero-waste shopping… it really is a faff-and-a-half. And I’m a freelancer, in a double-income-no-kids household. What’s the commuting single mum with a massive mortgage supposed to do? I can, grudgingly, choose to pay double to buy my fruit and vegetables loose, but if I were on a budget, feeding a family, counting every pantry penny, I’d buy my satsumas cheaper by far by the bag. Supermarket checkout banners boast of green initiatives, while passing on the cost — and the packaging — to customers.

    Eco-friendly is not woman-friendly. Because you can be sure it is women who are bearing the burden of the new eco diktats. No microwaves, no ready-meals, no takeaways. No pre-peeled and ready-chopped convenience. No stir-fry veg, no tip-and-go. No shortcuts, no time-savers, no Charlie Bigham’s bung-’em-in and pour the wine. No hearty, meaty, one-pot meals to feed the boys.

    I reuse envelopes, salvage rags, save every fennel frond and parsley stalk. I am going half-mad in the process.

    Online, the eco queens, the angelic influencers, call up the image of their grandmothers, going from butcher to baker to candlestick maker, buying bread and oranges and carrying them home in an old string bag. Yes, but, I want to howl, your sainted grandmama did nothing else. She would have throttled a hedgehog with her string bag for a chance at a career and an Ocado order. The idea that we should return to the earth, to some prelapsarian never-never-was-land of foraging for berries and straining our own nut milk, amounts to a hobbling of women and a loss of hard-fought freedoms. Every time I read a recipe from an additives-free mummy blogger that starts ‘soak chickpeas overnight’ or ‘chop and steam a sweet potato’, it makes me nostalgic for the good old days of glass-ceiling smashing and the Marks & Spencer’s chicken Kiev.

    If we are saying no to nasty, squeezy, straight-to-landfill baby food pouches, it’s no, too, to disposable nappies. Instead, it’s Little Lamb and Beaming Baby’s washable cloths. Before Christmas, the model, activist and art historian Lily Cole gave an interview in which she expressed her ‘guilt’ at having used throwaway nappies. Oh goodie, I thought. Just what working mothers need: more guilt. Late for the nursery pickup and the planet is burning. Formula milk, too, is out. A report published by Imperial College London in October found that the energy used for boiling kettles to sterilise bottles and the disposal of formula packaging is a global concern. Breastfeeding, the report concluded, was an ‘environmental imperative’. Breast is best — not just for baby but for the whole planet. Nothing about what might be best for a mother facing a ‘financial imperative’ to get back to work or weeping over mastitis and a fretful newborn. Of course the birthers would say: don’t have kids at all. But who are we saving the planet for then? The polar bears, I suppose.

    Periods, too, are a problem. Tampons are bad for the oceans, sanitary pads bad for the earth. But both are good for feminine ease and discretion. I notice that the new cotton sanitary pad companies all describe their products as ‘reusable’. What they mean is ‘washable’, which means that someone has to do the washing. While working in a university library recently, I picked up a copy of the student paper. An article about ‘people who have periods’ sought to de-stigmatise the boiling of menstrual cups on shared hobs to sterilise the plastic. I take my hat off to the girl who manages that in the freshers’ flatshare. And what are the girls starting their periods at schools with gender-neutral loos supposed to do? Rinse their Mooncups beside the boys at the sink? Another battle, perhaps, for another, bloodier-minded, day.

    When it comes to contraception, the Pill is a major pollutant. Plastic blister packs go to landfill, oestrogen leaks into the seas. The alternatives are menstrual apps that promise to track your natural cycle, telling you when your body is and isn’t fertile. Fine if you’re trying to get pregnant, not if you’re aiming against. One app — Natural Cycles — was found in breach of advertising standards with its promise of a ‘highly accurate contraceptive’. Such apps are really just whizzier versions of the old pray-to-the-moon-and-hope method that has served women so very badly for centuries. And if the greatest threat to our planet isn’t fossil fuels, or plastic straws or even Donald ‘Fracking’ Trump, but simply that there are ‘too menny’ people for the earth’s resources, well, there is a Pill for that.

    While we’re on fossil fuels: forget about driving your kids to school. Or to work, or the shops, or to visit elderly relatives. Through the nine attempts it took to pass my driving test, what kept me going was one thought: freedom. No longer dependent on parents, Sunday taxis, erratic trains. Twice in December I was stranded by cancelled cross-country services. I wished I’d taken the car. What is practical in London — Uber, Streetcar, the dockless bike — is not so good in rural Saxmunden. To many men, cars are about torque and top gear, power and speed. To women, a car of one’s own is a symbol of safety and independence. A car means never waiting for a lift on a dark street corner, never calling the number of an unknown cabbie, never waiting at a party for a driver who’s still drinking. In domestic extremis, a car means putting the kids and the cat on the backseat and getting the hell out. Until some scientist — man or woman — comes up with sustainable fuels, rechargeable batteries, reliable hybrids at the price of a second-hand hatchback, I will continue revving my Mini down the A-road to petrol hell.

    If I focus on women it is because it is still mostly women who do the school run, cook the supper and wrap the children’s lunches in sustainable beeswax wrappers. I wish I could be as chipper as my husband arriving at a restaurant, wishing the table ‘Happy Veganuary!’ and ordering the deep-fried pork knuckles. Instead, I zhuzh-up cannellini beans and feel sad about empty milk cartoons. (I’ve noticed, incidentally, a new species of infidelity: the men who meat-cheat. The chaps who nod loyally as their partners announce ‘We’ve gone vegan’ and who then do dirty burgers and doner kebabs when out with the lads.) As the diet and beauty industries know so well, women and their worries are easy prey. Energy that might once have gone to counting calories now goes elsewhere. Does my carbon footprint look big in this? Who has the teeniest-weeniest, most wasp–waistedest emissions output?

    Eco–signalling is becoming a luxury lifestyle choice, an economic affection. Western women with money to burn — or should that be to compost? — can choose to switch to high-cost, low-impact products. Doesn’t this bamboo toothbrush go well with my copper-clad bath? As I order silk dental floss and rock crystal deodorant from the online eco shop, I feel half-Marie Antoinette, half-Swampy.

    As a woman and as a consumer, I consider myself relatively sensible, if susceptible, but the repeated message that the EARTH IS ON FIRE has got to me a bit. It is right to do better, to consume less and recycle more, but not to make oneself miserable or one’s life impossible. As I add shrinkwrapped cheeses and packets of mince to the virtual shopping basket, I feel both shame and relief. Lord, make me green. But not yet.Eco-friendly is not female-friendly

    Green drudgery is reversing women’s hard-fought freedom.”

    1. Oh that is so funny and very true…

      We carry a Waitrose bamboo mug for coffee in each of our cars, so today was a busy morning, hospital visit then a shop in a very large Poole Waitrose .. I forgot the mug was in my car .. which was parked opposite the electric car that was being recharged.. Moh dashed back to the carpark to fetch the mug so that we could have a cup of Waitrose latte coffee after our shop .. which we shared when we got back to my old car .. and wondered how long and how much it took to charge the new Jaguar up with electricity parked across from us ..

      Our shopping trip took an hour , we sat and sipped and shared the delicious coffee.. We noticed the recharging light on the wall was green .. the Jaguar was full or not full?

    2. ECO friendly is not human friendly in fact if you followed all their mad ideas the world would not support its current population

    3. Wonderful stuff – so true! (But to steal a bit of thunder from another, Nottler “an economic affection” should maybe be “an economic affectation”?)

  103. The idea that family courts are biased against men is a dangerous fallacy. Sonia Sodha. Thu 5 Mar 2020 11.38 GMT

    If you’ve binged on the BBC drama The Split, which follows a family of glamorous divorce lawyers, you might be forgiven for thinking that family law is all about multimillion-pound footballer prenups and the fallout from ministerial affairs. But the reality of family courts couldn’t be more different. By far the most fraught issue that crops up is not money, but contact with children. The family courts are equipped with some of the most intrusive powers the state has: not just the power to remove children, but the power to determine how much separated parents get to see them. Most of these judgments are never published, meaning the level of scrutiny into how those powers get used is utterly inadequate.

    Even the most ill-informed would surely know that this headline is in its absolute essence a lie! No man will receive any consideration whatsoever in a UK family court. I only read the article to see how Sodha would get around this simple reality. Well she does it by a combination of misdirection, evasion and untruth. When what is left of European Christian Civilisation finally collapses then so will Feminism since it is a product of that society’s generosity of spirit.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/commentisfree/2020/mar/05/family-courts-biased-men-dangerous-fallacy-abuse

    1. The Late Great Christopher Booker would have eaten the silly bint alive,his regular exposes of the Family court were legendary

    2. Alf has seen some of what goes on in Family Courts. The two parties arrive with their wishes expressed through their lawyers, the magistrates listen to the arguments. The Court is then emptied, magistrates to the retiring room, parents outside, and the lawyers go to a separate room where they can agree between them what is to happen.

  107. Noughts and Crosses
    No agenda there no sireee
    Evil black overlords straight out of the worst of apartheid (That’s us by the way)
    Plucky put upon whites struggling for justice (That;s the stabby stabby types)
    Fluck you and fluck the horse you rode in on

    1. Allow me to repeat this comment I made on another site:

      The BBC are about to roll out some wokefest called Noughts and Crosses right now. I’m not sure how much BBC creative input there is, they are the ones screening it though.

      “Noughts and Crosses is a forthcoming BBC television adaptation of the first book in the novel series of the same name by Malorie Blackman. The series is speculative fiction set in an alternate history, where black “Cross” people rule over white “Noughts”. The first episode will air on BBC One on 5 March 2020″

      This imminent cringe fest is only on my radar at all because I saw one of the source books the other day in a shop. A young woman/girl was saying to her mum it was one of her favourite books and she was glad it was going to be on TV.

      I got nosy and went to investigate. What masterwork could have enthralled her so?

      It’s endorsed by Stormzy no less!

      On the front cover:

      “The Noughts & Crosses series are my favourite books of all time” – STABBZY

      On the back:

      “The most original book I’ve ever read” – BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH

      Well, there you have it. Who could argue with these cultural titans?

      1. Looked this up after you wrote about it before. ‘Noughts and Crosses’ is the game Americans know as Tic-Tac-Toe, but the whole point of the title is of course to equate White people with 0, zero.

        The main characters are Callum and Sephy (Persephone), Gaelic and Greek words … Iow, more shameless cultural appropriation grift.

        YA is probably one of the easier genres in which to get published, especially for a black woman named Blackman. It’s writing for impressionable, idealistic young people. And in this case writing to demoralise impressionable young White people with anti-White propaganda. It’s on the order of drag queen story hour for brainwashing and damaging the young.

        This is supposed to be fantasy based around an alternative history of slavery and Jim Crow. Together with the pure fantasy of Africans having a technological superiority to Europeans’. But it’s really an envy fest.

        I propose a new storyline based on repatriation to Wakanda achieved through actual technological competence that reclaims Europe for Europeans entitled, Dreadnoughts and Burning Crosses.

      2. Looked this up after you wrote about it before. ‘Noughts and Crosses’ is the game Americans know as Tic-Tac-Toe, but the whole point of the title is of course to equate White people with 0, zero.

        The main characters are Callum and Sephy (Persephone), Gaelic and Greek words … Iow, more shameless cultural appropriation grift.

        YA is probably one of the easier genres in which to get published, especially for a black woman named Blackman. It’s writing for impressionable, idealistic young people. And in this case writing to demoralise impressionable young White people with anti-White propaganda. It’s on the order of drag queen story hour for brainwashing and damaging the young.

        This is supposed to be fantasy based around an alternative history of slavery and Jim Crow. Together with the pure fantasy of Africans having a technological superiority to Europeans’. But it’s really an envy fest.

        I propose a new storyline based on repatriation to Wakanda achieved through actual technological competence that reclaims Europe for Europeans entitled, Dreadnoughts and Burning Crosses.

    1. You should have let Bill J tell us. Nothing gives him more pleasure than telling us when a business or enterprising individual has come to grief.

    2. From memory I read that Bristol were gifted the BMW designs as part of war reparations. Fat lot of use that was in the hands of British management.

      That I am afraid to say is the history of our formerly great pre-war motor industry.

      1. The last car they built was a BMW-engined car The Bullet (2016) – Fired from a Luger perhaps?

      2. Not just the engine – the original Bristols had the same front grille design. But, when they did the 401, the design was done by their aircraft guys, hence the good aerodynamics. Most later Bristols used Chrysler V8’s – as did Jensen.

        –Jack.

        1. In the early 60’s, I lusted after a 401 but couldn’t afford one. Even today, they seem remarkably elegant.

          3. I saw a beautiful Bristol a few years ago, parked at a town somewhere in the Cotswolds. I took a couple of photos, just as the owner appeared, a well dressed middle aged man

            “A lovely car” I said.

            “Yes” he replied “Tell me, what do you like about it?”

            “Well, I suppose the way it looks as much as anything.”

            “Oh” he said in a tone and with an expression which clearly signalled I had just waved a fresh dog poo right under his nose.

            I walked off, offended by his rudeness. I would have liked to have said to him that I would be back shortly and getting to work with a bottle of brake fluid and wire wool. Because, you know, the aesthetics of the car were clearly a matter of supreme indifference.

        2. In the early 60’s, I lusted after a 401 but couldn’t afford one. Even today, they seem remarkably elegant.

      3. I believe that the early XK Jaguars also had some BMW influence – the bonnet lines of the Bristol 400/401 are very similar to, for example, an XK120.

      4. I believe that the early XK Jaguars also had some BMW influence – the bonnet lines of the Bristol 400/401 are very similar to, for example, an XK120.

      5. ” The winding-up order was made against the five group companies after HMRC brought proceedings.”
        As usual with these bloody companies, it is you and me who lose out. They just don’t pay their taxes and wait until HMRC lose patience.

      6. From Wiki:’The British aircraft industry suffered a dramatic loss of orders and great financial difficulties following the Armistice of 1918. To provide immediate employment for its considerable workforce, the Bristol Aeroplane Company undertook the manufacture of a light car (the Bristol Monocar), the construction of car bodies for Armstrong Siddeley and bus bodies for their sister company, Bristol Tramways.

        On the outbreak of World War II, Sir George Stanley White, managing director of the Bristol Aeroplane Company from 1911–1954, was determined not to suffer the same difficulties a second time. The company now employed 70,000 and he knew he must plan for the time when the voracious wartime demand for Bristol aircraft and aircraft engines would suddenly end. The company began working with AFN Ltd, makers of Frazer Nash cars and British importer of BMWs before the war, on plans for a joint venture in automotive manufacture.[7]

        As early as 1941, a number of papers were written or commissioned by George S. M. White, Sir Stanley’s son, proposing a post-war car manufacturing division. It was decided to purchase an existing manufacturer for this purpose. Alvis, Aston Martin, Lagonda, ERA and Lea-Francis were considered…etc’

        1. Ironically BMW started off in the car business, before WW2, building a version of the Austin 7, calling it the BMW Dixi.

  110. Thanks go out to everyone for their messages of support following my recent scare and the good news I received today. I really appreciate the messages everyone has sent me.

      1. That was from 1962 – the year I took my “O” levels and the year that Caroline was born!

        I have already e-mailed a link to it to Henry.

  113. Good night all.

    QT: far too much time wasted going round in circles over the coronavirus.

  114. This headline is unnecessarily fuelling the sort of panic that Greta would be proud of.
    This was by all accounts a person who was elderly, a regular inpatient likely to have had problematic long term conditions and who unluckily seems to have become infected by the coronavirus.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11102624/coronavirus-uk-death/amp/

    The high level of accelerated morbidity in patients with this kind of presentation might even be a blesssing for the individual and relatives.

    1. A crafty map showing only the counties, not big towns/cities. I suppose the header “MAN DIES IN LEEDS ” would be a lot more frightening than ” VIRUS RAMPANT IN WEST YORKSHIRE ” Or would it ?

      1. Just one COVID-19 death in China would have coloured the whole country red.

    2. Someone posted a link yesterday to an article about someone wanting to use Dignitas, who had motor neurone disease. It put me in mind of a friend who died of the disease – when visiting during her illness I and another friend had taken her out in a wheelchair and got caught in a rain storm. Other friend insisted on getting into shelter and wrapping the patient up to stop her getting pneumonia – if I had been the next of kin I would have walked home slowly through the rain and let nature take its course. It would have been a better outcome that the following months of incarceration in her own body as she lost all physical abilities, whilst her mind remained as alert as ever.

      Anyone in that situation would see coronavirus as a friend.

      1. Indeed! A dear friend and colleague (we retired on the same day from the same employer) was diagnosed with MND. To watch him lose the ability to talk or swallow and have a food tube inserted in his abdomen was horrible. He was a devout Roman Catholic and would not consider suicide. So he suffocated to death, a horrible way to go.

  115. Good evening, all. A quick visit, and:

    PETITION FOR[sic] TO REQUIRE THE HOME OFFICE TO PUBLISH THEIR GROOMING GANGS REPORT

    THE LATEST COVER UP IN THE GROOMING GANGS SCANDAL

    Last year in response to demands nationally and in Parliament for a proper in depth enquiry into the Pakistani Muslim Child Rape Gangs, the so called “Grooming Gangs”, the former Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, promised to have a proper enquiry and to publish the results.

    At the time Sajid Javid claimed that “there will be no no-go areas” and that he would “not let cultural or political sensitivities get in the way of understanding the problem and doing something about it”. In the event yet again the British State in general and the “Conservative” Government have let down the many tens of thousands of the victims of these gangs.

    Although the enquiry completed its work in December 2019, the Home Office has refused to publish its findings, despite calls from victims and from victim support bodies to publish, claiming that it would not be in the “Public Interest” to do so. This seems to be based on the old line that investigating these “Grooming Gangs” properly would harm “Community Cohesion”.

    The English Democrats take the view that this failing is yet another horrific example of the inadequacy and incompetence of the British State and British Political Establishment and its failure to take seriously any duty to look after the English People.

    The English Democrats take the view that there should be Zero Tolerance for this type of crime and an important step in achieving this is to get publication of this report.

    The fact that the Home Office has refused to release this report strongly suggests that it contains material that is embarrassing to the British Government’s multi-culturalist agenda, which all too often seems to give preference to the customs and habits of immigrant “communities” over traditional English customs and habits, morals and even, it seems, all too often, to our laws also!

    I shall be writing to the Home Secretary with a formal Letter Before Action with a view to bringing a Judicial Review requiring the publication of the report and I do hope you will support my doing so by signing our petition. TOGETHER WE ARE STRONG!

    Sign here: http://www.englishdemocrats.party/publish_the_home_office_grooming_gang_report?recruiter_id=45638

    1. “No Time To Die” is highly ironic given the current situation. No wonder they’ve pushed the release date back to November….

    3. It’s SuperpanicfragilisticWuhanFluGawd’elpus
      Even the very sound of it
      Is something quite atrocious
      If you say it loud enough
      You’ll always sound precocious

      Um-dittle-ittl-am gonna die
      Um-dittle-ittl-am gonna die
      Um-dittle-ittl-am gonna die
      Um-dittle-ittl-am gonna die

      Because I was afraid to speak
      When I was just a lad
      My father gave me nose a mask
      And told me it was bad
      But then one day I learned a word
      That saved me sneezing nose
      The biggest word you ever heard
      And this is how it goes
      Oh it’s SuperpanicfragilisticWuhanFluGawd’elpus
      Even the very sound of it
      Is something quite atrocious
      If you say it loud enough
      You’ll always sound precocious

    2. More fashion victims at the BBC. If you don’t want to shake hands, don’t. That’s it.

      If you feel like going any further, just give a slight twist of the head to the right while inquiring ‘Hoo yi gannin?’.

      Works every time.

      I wouldn’t be saying it to that short one on the right though. Looks a wrang’un.

  122. Bethlehem under quarantine

    Israel
    and the Palestinian Authority have put the city of Bethlehem under
    quarantine after seven people were diagnosed with the coronavirus there.

    The Israeli Defence Ministry said it had imposed emergency measures, with all people “forbidden from entering or leaving”.

    The
    Israeli military’s Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the
    Territories (Cogat) said it was “working closely with the Palestinian
    Authority” to stem the spread of the virus.

    2. It appears the experiment was a success. The next one will be lethal and only target caucasians.

  124. It’s a super dry day here after torrential rain for over 10 hours yesterday so I’m not surprise to learn that we received 34.3mm of rain yesterday. Bringing the total for the month to date to 46.5mm (compared with the Historical monthly average for the whole of March of 41.9mm). If I were a lowland farmer I might seriously be thinking of planting rice!

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