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 banned.
Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/07/letters-vaccine-passports-could-help-lift-fear-has-engulfed/
Why fear a society that’s tearing itself apart? 8 April 2021.
Fast-forward, and in the West trashing your own country has become a central preoccupation of the ruling class. University administrators, corporate board members and media pundits compete with one another over who can denounce their disgusting society with more fervour. Shame, or what passes for it, is the new ostentation. America’s own President decries his country’s.
Morning everyone. It’s pretty difficult to put a limit on the loathing the UK Elites have for the country that they lead but I would suppose that the top of any list would be the people that they rule. Both Left and Right, Labour and Conservative actively hate the Native population. They are foremost in the operation to replace them! The importation of huge numbers of Immigrants, the constant denigration of the indigenous culture and religion, the destruction of pro-UK institutions, all this speaks of a profound nihilistic hatred! In their view the sooner we are gone the better! There is a bright side to this; such as it is, once we are gone, so will they be!
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-fear-a-society-that-s-tearing-itself-apart-
Why fear a society that’s tearing itself apart? 8 April 2021.
Fast-forward, and in the West trashing your own country has become a central preoccupation of the ruling class. University administrators, corporate board members and media pundits compete with one another over who can denounce their disgusting society with more fervour. Shame, or what passes for it, is the new ostentation. America’s own President decries his country’s.
Morning everyone. It’s pretty difficult to put a limit on the loathing the UK Elites have for the country that they lead but I would suppose that the top of any list would be the people that they rule. Both Left and Right, Labour and Conservative actively hate the Native population. They are foremost in the operation to replace them! The importation of huge numbers of Immigrants, the constant denigration of the indigenous culture and religion, the destruction of pro-UK institutions, all this speaks of a profound nihilistic hatred! In their view the sooner we are gone the better! There is a bright side to this; such as it is, once we are gone, so will they be!
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-fear-a-society-that-s-tearing-itself-apart-
There are two statues in a park…
One of a nude man and one of a nude woman. They had been facing each other across a path way for a hundred years, when one day an angel comes down from the sky and, with a single gesture, brings the two to life.
The angel tells them, ‘As a reward for being so patient through a hundred blazing summers and dismal winters, you have been given life for thirty minutes to do what you’ve wished to do the most.’
He looks at her, she looks at him, and they go running behind the shrubbery.
The angel waits patiently as the bushes rustle and giggling ensues. After fifteen minutes, the two return, out of breath and laughing.
The angel tells them, ‘Um, you have fifteen minutes left, would you care to do it again?’
He asks her ‘Shall we?’
She eagerly replies, ‘Oh, yes, let’s! But let’s change positions. This time, I’ll hold the pigeon down and you shït on its head.
This must be the best song ever written about statues:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku5TtmODmck
When you are hungry, raw pigeon is a delicacy.
mng to the usual “early birds” or ending night shift
There are an awful lot of smug letters today by those who’ve had the vaccine and exhort those of us who are still wary, to join them
Morning, NtN. Do you think that these smug letters were written by real smug people or are they the product of government agents attempting to push back against the people’s desire for freedom? Twitter timelines and blogs that criticise the government’s actions are replete with very obvious frauds who attempt to disrupt the flow of comments or lie outright in support of government policy.
KtK mng, all info war comms daily prepped via wannabee 77 Bde interns on usual array of subjects.
Morning, AWK. All very obvious and so boring but they stick to their tasks. Little imagination required and even less delivered.
v true and add to that none of them will have been jabbed, they’re all on furlough yet attempting mass “peer online pressure” guess they’ve overlooked the obvious https://postimg.cc/hfyfkxHQ
Do you think that these smug letters were written by real smug people or are they the product of government agents attempting to push back against the people’s desire for freedom.
Morning Korky. I think I’ve noticed recently a change from simple opposition to other posts (Trolling) to active posting of Government Propaganda as personal opinion!
Morning, Araminta. There’s no doubt that that is happening. However, it remains quite easy to spot as there appears to be a distinct lack of imagination with much of what is broadcast. On one site yesterday an individual posted around 20 comments attacking other posters’ comments. Regulars on that blog recognised the style and even named previous IDs that this “person” had used previously.
Today’s letters are largely a Smugathon.
Still, at least while writing them, the writers aren’t marching around virtuously masked and leaping into the middle of the road if they spot another human being.
Morning, Nanners.
I bet they have their masks on in the house, though…{:¬))
I bet they have their masks on in the house, though…{:¬))
Thank you, Anne, “A Smugathon.” Delightful idea.
I haven’t been on long walks recently as the garden is the priority and I miss the stupidity, especially along “Shady Lane”
where there really is little space to jump into. A few weeks ago I was entering the underpass by the Police Station when a group of four masked and fairly young people turned up towards me and drove themselves into contortions to try and get away from the unmasked approaching Korky. Without thinking, really, it just happened, I put my arms out and made a scary noise towards them. The looks on their faces…
I laughed out loud at that!
I know that underpass; I laughed even louder.
“Shady Lane” is brilliant; I can guarantee that the moment the bed wetters jump into the brambles/mud etc…. Spartie feels the urge to check out every blade of grass. And, as a caring parent, I have to let him thoroughly explore his surroundings.
It’s even better on the narrow hedged and fenced path between the school playing fields; I wonder some of them haven’t expired out of sheer fright.
I haven’t been on long walks recently as the garden is the priority and I miss the stupidity, especially along “Shady Lane”
where there really is little space to jump into. A few weeks ago I was entering the underpass by the Police Station when a group of four masked and fairly young people turned up towards me and drove themselves into contortions to try and get away from the unmasked approaching Korky. Without thinking, really, it just happened, I put my arms out and made a scary noise towards them. The looks on their faces…
Morning, all Y’all. Sunny, chilly (-4 or so).
SIR – Linda Lewin (Letters, April 7) says she is grateful for what Frederick Forsyth describes as a “campaign of mass fear” designed to secure “obedience to the policy of lockdown” – because, without it, she might not still be here.
However, she might also consider those who have been less fortunate: those, for example, who have died as result of cancer treatment being delayed, those afraid to seek treatment due to this Government’s policy of spreading fear, and those who will die in the future as the NHS struggles to catch up with the backlog.
It seems there is less compassion for the people who have died – and will continue to die – because of Covid rather than from Covid. Are their lives less valuable?
Clare Grange
London N10
SIR – Following the Countryside Alliance rally in Hyde Park in July 1997, the park rangers reported that it was the first time a rally of 300,000 people had left the park with less litter in it than before they arrived.
Apparently it took just 30 minutes to clear any remaining rubbish. It is a shame that in the intervening years others have not followed this example.
George Atkinson-Clark
Lidlington, Bedfordshire
The usual:gluttony. Tim Pope’s corker summary on excpetions overlooks “anyone with a medically certified reason not to have one” such as not being ill / there is no virus except for “vaccine is the virus”. And a pearl of wisdom from Jane Prescott [related to Johnny 2 Jags?]
SIR – The Government’s campaign of fear to get us to obey the rules has been incredibly successful.
Reversing this will require a campaign of positive messages and actions. Vaccine passports (Letters, April 7) can help to give the population the confidence to go out and get back to work. If people refuse a jab, that should not affect the rest of us. Exceptions could be made for anyone with a medically certified reason not to have one.
There would also need to be a time limit on the passports – a year, say. But if they help to eliminate the fear factor, they are worth it.
Tim Pope
Weybridge, Surrey
SIR – My twice-stamped Covid-19 vaccination card is tucked into my wallet next to my driving licence.
If I’m asked at any door to show either, I will do so without a fuss. Life is too short.
Garry May
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire
SIR – The AstraZeneca vaccine has been linked with blood clots.
However, the risk of dying in a car accident is much higher. It is essential that hysteria is not allowed to spread, as this will lead to more Covid deaths as a result of people not having the vaccine.
Jonathan Bryant
Brighton, East Sussex
SIR – The fear around Covid-19 is not helped by people like Frederick Forsyth (Letters, April 6), who persist in thinking they know better than the scientists advising the Government on how to deal with this pandemic.
They are encouraged by a group of MPs who have consistently argued against the sensible precautions implemented over the last year. It would be helpful to those of us trying to use our common sense and make the best of a bad situation if these so-called experts would publish any qualifications they might have that give credence to their superior knowledge, other than their travels to Eastern Europe and the writing of novels.
Barbara Whitaker
Halton, Buckinghamshire
SIR – Linda Lewin (Letters, April 7) says she is grateful for what Frederick Forsyth describes as a “campaign of mass fear” designed to secure “obedience to the policy of lockdown” – because, without it, she might not still be here.
However, she might also consider those who have been less fortunate: those, for example, who have died as result of cancer treatment being delayed, those afraid to seek treatment due to this Government’s policy of spreading fear, and those who will die in the future as the NHS struggles to catch up with the backlog.
It seems there is less compassion for the people who have died – and will continue to die – because of Covid rather than from Covid. Are their lives less valuable?
Clare Grange
London N10
Praise for heat pumps
SIR – I have followed the recent negative letters (April 7) about heat pumps, but there are advantages to them, too.
My family business has created 20 barn-conversion offices that use the technology. It cools rooms in summer just as efficiently as it warms them.
As long as the Government ensures that the electricity in the grid is environmentally friendly, it’s a win-win situation.
Simon Collins
Harlow, Essex
SIR – In this household, the secondary heating to which Tim Lee refers (Letters, April 7) is putting on another jersey.
Michael Fielding
Winchester, Hampshire
Classical film scores
SIR – I think it’s safe to say that a film score can be considered a variety of classical music, on the grounds that it borrows from the techniques and aesthetic of classical (Leading Article, April 6). The most famous film scores in the history of cinema were written by some of the greatest composers of the 20th -century.
Emilie Lamplough
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
SIR – A definition of classical music could be that it is written for posterity, in contrast to pop or rock, which is written for the current era and aimed at a particular age group.
On that basis, I don’t mind film scores appearing in the Classic FM Hall of Fame with with the works of the greatest classical composers – though, for me, they will never compare with the best of Mozart or Bach.
William Cook
Blandford Forum, Dorset
Greenishn in blue
SIR – According to Cambridge University’s own style guide, its official colour (Letters, April 6) is Pantone 557, variously described as greyish spring-green or light green-cyan.
Any suggestion that we of a Dark Blue persuasion refer to the Tabs as the “minty greens” is unfounded.
Richard Packer
Westcott, Surrey
SIR – From In the Colour of Cambridge crews’ shirts, in The Happy Cricketer by A Country Vicar: “The most beautiful Cambridge blazer is the ‘Blue’ … it always seems to me that the true colour, with its slight suggestion of green, is only obtainable in flannel.”
A G Burns
Lee-on-the Solent, Hampshire
Who is the BBC for?
SIR – If the BBC has consciously taken the decision not to make programmes for those aged 50 and above (report, April 7), could it similarly decide to discount a proportion of its growing licence fee for those excluded?
Christine Stewart Munro
London SW1
SIR – The BBC does not wish to make programmes for older people because “their tastes are too varied”. As opposed to what?
Liz Wheeldon
Seaton, Devon
SIR – Over my adult lifetime and during my time as a university lecturer, I always extolled the virtues of the BBC News to students.
However, over the past five years or so I have seen a significant decline in the way the BBC portrays social and world events. This is, of course, a combination of editorial input and the actions of individual news presenters. They no longer simply report the news, but provide their version of reality. This is a truly sad reflection on an organisation that was once a valuable asset to our nation.
Dr Jonathan Edwards
Ringwood, Hampshire
Phones in classrooms
SIR – I agree with Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, that maintaining good pupil discipline should be a priority (Commentary, April 7). However, this will not be achieved by banning mobile phones in schools, which is almost an impossible task.
Many children have used their devices to learn during the lockdowns and have saved resources and completed work on their phones. Now is the time to embrace technology and build on the lessons already learnt about the effective use of a digital device.
Jane Prescott
Headmistress, Portsmouth High School
Votes for women
SIR – Andrew Roberts (Comment, April 6) claims that women “would almost certainly have got the vote 20 years earlier had not the suffragettes started sending bombs to the homes of Liberal politicians”.
This is a gross distortion of the truth. Women – some women – first got the vote in 1918. Twenty years earlier suffragists, not suffragettes, were writing letters to newspapers, holding meetings, being polite and getting absolutely nowhere.
The campaign didn’t turn militant until the new group of suffragettes disrupted a Liberal Party rally in Manchester in 1905 when they discovered that the Liberals, about to win a landslide at the next general election, had no intention whatsoever of giving women the vote, for fear that the women would all vote Tory. Indeed, the local Manchester candidate, one Winston Churchill, was vehemently against women having the vote.
Without the violent militant tactics of the suffragettes, led by the Pankhursts, women would still be disenfranchised.
Ed Glinert
Stretford, Lancashire
Out of hand
SIR – Alan Hart (Obituaries, April 5) observed that his left-handedness meant that “… of course, potato peelers are out of the question”.
The gravy ladle has always been my downfall, and for the past 50 years or so has been the cause of much mirth in my family each time I tried to use one.
David Jepson
Darley Abbey, Derby
Celebrating Sir Walter Scott without Ivanhoe
SIR – Does anyone know why the official video launching commemorations for the 250th birthday of Sir Walter Scott makes no mention of Ivanhoe, arguably his most popular and influential novel? Could the reason be that Ivanhoe is set in England and glorifies such very English heroes as Robin Hood and Richard the Lionheart?
Scott’s organising of the visit of his friend, King George IV, to Edinburgh in 1822 is also ignored in the video. Could the reason be that Scott, despite being a Tory and a firm believer in the benefits of the 1707 union of the kingdoms, has, like so much else, been hijacked by the SNP to serve itst anti-English propaganda?
George Campbell
Bangor, Co Down
Compulsory lessons to pick up and stop litter
SIR – On a recent cruise in the Caribbean, we stopped at Bermuda and went on a coach ride.
There was absolutely no litter by the roadside (Letters, April 7), a fact so striking that we mentioned it to the driver. He replied that in Bermuda the schools are expected to teach pupils the damage that litter causes and the children, as part of their schooling, have to go out on litter-picking sessions. He added that, as well as eliminating litter, this prevents the children from becoming litter bugs when they grow up.
We need a similar system.
Tony Rice-Oxley
Denmead, Hampshire
SIR – For many years I have led the litter pick in my local parish. The majority of it is cans and plastic bottles.
In Sweden, which I know well, there is a deposit on all containers for consumption-ready beverages. The recycling rate is 91 per cent for aluminium cans and 84 per cent for plastic bottles. The litter problem there is very small. The recycling rate in Britain for plastic bottles is estimated at 50 per cent.
If Britain started a compulsory deposit scheme, it would have a dramatic effect on efforts to keep our streets and countryside litter-free, improve recycling rates and greatly reduce the cost of the clean-up by local authorities. For the items that are still discarded, volunteers would at last be able to claim a small reward for their efforts.
Nicholas Bostock
Stafford
SIR – Following the Countryside Alliance rally in Hyde Park in July 1997, the park rangers reported that it was the first time a rally of 300,000 people had left the park with less litter in it than before they arrived.
Apparently it took just 30 minutes to clear any remaining rubbish. It is a shame that in the intervening years others have not followed this example.
George Atkinson-Clark
Lidlington, Bedfordshire”
SIR – My twice-stamped Covid-19 vaccination card is tucked into my wallet next to my driving licence.
If I’m asked at any door to show either, I will do so without a fuss. Life is too short.
Little Crawler!
“Don’t worry, Leutnant, I’ll find my own way to the gas ovens”.
“Don’t want to be a bother.”
‘Morning, Minty, a classic example of the smugness I wrote about earlier.
presume he’s “an expert” then when ram raiding off licences
The Welsh drunkard comes to mind:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Has anybody killed the light as much as our current dictatorial government?
(Will the pub in Llareggub ever be open again?)
“Without the violent militant tactics of the suffragettes, led by the Pankhursts, women would still be disenfranchised.” WW1 and the contribution women made during it were more influential than the suffragettes, Ed Glinert.
The usual:gluttony. Tim Pope’s corker summary on excpetions overlooks “anyone with a medically certified reason not to have one” such as not being ill / there is no virus except for “vaccine is the virus”. And a pearl of wisdom from Jane Prescott [related to Johnny 2 Jags?]
SIR – The Government’s campaign of fear to get us to obey the rules has been incredibly successful.
Reversing this will require a campaign of positive messages and actions. Vaccine passports (Letters, April 7) can help to give the population the confidence to go out and get back to work. If people refuse a jab, that should not affect the rest of us. Exceptions could be made for anyone with a medically certified reason not to have one.
There would also need to be a time limit on the passports – a year, say. But if they help to eliminate the fear factor, they are worth it.
Tim Pope
Weybridge, Surrey
SIR – My twice-stamped Covid-19 vaccination card is tucked into my wallet next to my driving licence.
If I’m asked at any door to show either, I will do so without a fuss. Life is too short.
Garry May
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire
SIR – The AstraZeneca vaccine has been linked with blood clots.
However, the risk of dying in a car accident is much higher. It is essential that hysteria is not allowed to spread, as this will lead to more Covid deaths as a result of people not having the vaccine.
Jonathan Bryant
Brighton, East Sussex
SIR – The fear around Covid-19 is not helped by people like Frederick Forsyth (Letters, April 6), who persist in thinking they know better than the scientists advising the Government on how to deal with this pandemic.
They are encouraged by a group of MPs who have consistently argued against the sensible precautions implemented over the last year. It would be helpful to those of us trying to use our common sense and make the best of a bad situation if these so-called experts would publish any qualifications they might have that give credence to their superior knowledge, other than their travels to Eastern Europe and the writing of novels.
Barbara Whitaker
Halton, Buckinghamshire
SIR – Linda Lewin (Letters, April 7) says she is grateful for what Frederick Forsyth describes as a “campaign of mass fear” designed to secure “obedience to the policy of lockdown” – because, without it, she might not still be here.
However, she might also consider those who have been less fortunate: those, for example, who have died as result of cancer treatment being delayed, those afraid to seek treatment due to this Government’s policy of spreading fear, and those who will die in the future as the NHS struggles to catch up with the backlog.
It seems there is less compassion for the people who have died – and will continue to die – because of Covid rather than from Covid. Are their lives less valuable?
Clare Grange
London N10
Praise for heat pumps
SIR – I have followed the recent negative letters (April 7) about heat pumps, but there are advantages to them, too.
My family business has created 20 barn-conversion offices that use the technology. It cools rooms in summer just as efficiently as it warms them.
As long as the Government ensures that the electricity in the grid is environmentally friendly, it’s a win-win situation.
Simon Collins
Harlow, Essex
SIR – In this household, the secondary heating to which Tim Lee refers (Letters, April 7) is putting on another jersey.
Michael Fielding
Winchester, Hampshire
Classical film scores
SIR – I think it’s safe to say that a film score can be considered a variety of classical music, on the grounds that it borrows from the techniques and aesthetic of classical (Leading Article, April 6). The most famous film scores in the history of cinema were written by some of the greatest composers of the 20th -century.
Emilie Lamplough
Trowbridge, Wiltshire
SIR – A definition of classical music could be that it is written for posterity, in contrast to pop or rock, which is written for the current era and aimed at a particular age group.
On that basis, I don’t mind film scores appearing in the Classic FM Hall of Fame with with the works of the greatest classical composers – though, for me, they will never compare with the best of Mozart or Bach.
William Cook
Blandford Forum, Dorset
Greenishn in blue
SIR – According to Cambridge University’s own style guide, its official colour (Letters, April 6) is Pantone 557, variously described as greyish spring-green or light green-cyan.
Any suggestion that we of a Dark Blue persuasion refer to the Tabs as the “minty greens” is unfounded.
Richard Packer
Westcott, Surrey
SIR – From In the Colour of Cambridge crews’ shirts, in The Happy Cricketer by A Country Vicar: “The most beautiful Cambridge blazer is the ‘Blue’ … it always seems to me that the true colour, with its slight suggestion of green, is only obtainable in flannel.”
A G Burns
Lee-on-the Solent, Hampshire
Who is the BBC for?
SIR – If the BBC has consciously taken the decision not to make programmes for those aged 50 and above (report, April 7), could it similarly decide to discount a proportion of its growing licence fee for those excluded?
Christine Stewart Munro
London SW1
SIR – The BBC does not wish to make programmes for older people because “their tastes are too varied”. As opposed to what?
Liz Wheeldon
Seaton, Devon
SIR – Over my adult lifetime and during my time as a university lecturer, I always extolled the virtues of the BBC News to students.
However, over the past five years or so I have seen a significant decline in the way the BBC portrays social and world events. This is, of course, a combination of editorial input and the actions of individual news presenters. They no longer simply report the news, but provide their version of reality. This is a truly sad reflection on an organisation that was once a valuable asset to our nation.
Dr Jonathan Edwards
Ringwood, Hampshire
Phones in classrooms
SIR – I agree with Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, that maintaining good pupil discipline should be a priority (Commentary, April 7). However, this will not be achieved by banning mobile phones in schools, which is almost an impossible task.
Many children have used their devices to learn during the lockdowns and have saved resources and completed work on their phones. Now is the time to embrace technology and build on the lessons already learnt about the effective use of a digital device.
Jane Prescott
Headmistress, Portsmouth High School
Votes for women
SIR – Andrew Roberts (Comment, April 6) claims that women “would almost certainly have got the vote 20 years earlier had not the suffragettes started sending bombs to the homes of Liberal politicians”.
This is a gross distortion of the truth. Women – some women – first got the vote in 1918. Twenty years earlier suffragists, not suffragettes, were writing letters to newspapers, holding meetings, being polite and getting absolutely nowhere.
The campaign didn’t turn militant until the new group of suffragettes disrupted a Liberal Party rally in Manchester in 1905 when they discovered that the Liberals, about to win a landslide at the next general election, had no intention whatsoever of giving women the vote, for fear that the women would all vote Tory. Indeed, the local Manchester candidate, one Winston Churchill, was vehemently against women having the vote.
Without the violent militant tactics of the suffragettes, led by the Pankhursts, women would still be disenfranchised.
Ed Glinert
Stretford, Lancashire
Out of hand
SIR – Alan Hart (Obituaries, April 5) observed that his left-handedness meant that “… of course, potato peelers are out of the question”.
The gravy ladle has always been my downfall, and for the past 50 years or so has been the cause of much mirth in my family each time I tried to use one.
David Jepson
Darley Abbey, Derby
Celebrating Sir Walter Scott without Ivanhoe
SIR – Does anyone know why the official video launching commemorations for the 250th birthday of Sir Walter Scott makes no mention of Ivanhoe, arguably his most popular and influential novel? Could the reason be that Ivanhoe is set in England and glorifies such very English heroes as Robin Hood and Richard the Lionheart?
Scott’s organising of the visit of his friend, King George IV, to Edinburgh in 1822 is also ignored in the video. Could the reason be that Scott, despite being a Tory and a firm believer in the benefits of the 1707 union of the kingdoms, has, like so much else, been hijacked by the SNP to serve itst anti-English propaganda?
George Campbell
Bangor, Co Down
Compulsory lessons to pick up and stop litter
SIR – On a recent cruise in the Caribbean, we stopped at Bermuda and went on a coach ride.
There was absolutely no litter by the roadside (Letters, April 7), a fact so striking that we mentioned it to the driver. He replied that in Bermuda the schools are expected to teach pupils the damage that litter causes and the children, as part of their schooling, have to go out on litter-picking sessions. He added that, as well as eliminating litter, this prevents the children from becoming litter bugs when they grow up.
We need a similar system.
Tony Rice-Oxley
Denmead, Hampshire
SIR – For many years I have led the litter pick in my local parish. The majority of it is cans and plastic bottles.
In Sweden, which I know well, there is a deposit on all containers for consumption-ready beverages. The recycling rate is 91 per cent for aluminium cans and 84 per cent for plastic bottles. The litter problem there is very small. The recycling rate in Britain for plastic bottles is estimated at 50 per cent.
If Britain started a compulsory deposit scheme, it would have a dramatic effect on efforts to keep our streets and countryside litter-free, improve recycling rates and greatly reduce the cost of the clean-up by local authorities. For the items that are still discarded, volunteers would at last be able to claim a small reward for their efforts.
Nicholas Bostock
Stafford
SIR – Following the Countryside Alliance rally in Hyde Park in July 1997, the park rangers reported that it was the first time a rally of 300,000 people had left the park with less litter in it than before they arrived.
Apparently it took just 30 minutes to clear any remaining rubbish. It is a shame that in the intervening years others have not followed this example.
George Atkinson-Clark
Lidlington, Bedfordshire”
Morning all
SIR – The Government’s campaign of fear to get us to obey the rules has been incredibly successful.
Reversing this will require a campaign of positive messages and actions. Vaccine passports (Letters, April 7) can help to give the population the confidence to go out and get back to work. If people refuse a jab, that should not affect the rest of us. Exceptions could be made for anyone with a medically certified reason not to have one.
There would also need to be a time limit on the passports – a year, say. But if they help to eliminate the fear factor, they are worth it.
Tim Pope
Weybridge, Surrey
SIR – My twice-stamped Covid-19 vaccination card is tucked into my wallet next to my driving licence.
If I’m asked at any door to show either, I will do so without a fuss. Life is too short.
Garry May
Haddenham, Buckinghamshire
SIR – The AstraZeneca vaccine has been linked with blood clots.
However, the risk of dying in a car accident is much higher. It is essential that hysteria is not allowed to spread, as this will lead to more Covid deaths as a result of people not having the vaccine.
Jonathan Bryant
Brighton, East Sussex
SIR – The fear around Covid-19 is not helped by people like Frederick Forsyth (Letters, April 6), who persist in thinking they know better than the scientists advising the Government on how to deal with this pandemic.
They are encouraged by a group of MPs who have consistently argued against the sensible precautions implemented over the last year. It would be helpful to those of us trying to use our common sense and make the best of a bad situation if these so-called experts would publish any qualifications they might have that give credence to their superior knowledge, other than their travels to Eastern Europe and the writing of novels.
Barbara Whitaker
Halton, Buckinghamshire
I never realised that the 19 in the covid 19 jab meant deaths per million from blood clots.
I would imagine, Barbara Whitaker, judging by our own experience and data provided, that Frederick Forsyth and indeed many of us, know much better than the false pseudo scientists.
Professor Lockdown Ferguson is a classic example of these twerps.
I would imagine, Barbara Whitaker, judging by our own experience and data provided, that Frederick Forsyth and indeed many of us, know much better than the false pseudo scientists.
Professor Lockdown Ferguson is a classic example of these twerps.
People thinking like Tim Pope are making me apoplectic. How can anyone be so unthinking as to advocate a system of medical apartheid just to soothe some people’s feelings, and so naive as to believe it would be time-limited?
Morning ATD and everyone. These people have allowed themselves to be brainwashed. I wonder if it ever occurs to them that the coronavirus will spread, until there aren’t enough hosts, becoming weaker as it goes, and eventually quite naturally run out of people to infect.
Makes me wonder why they aren’t advocating jabs for flu every year for everyone. And the flu jab is only up to 60% effective as we’re always catching up with last year’s mutation.
vw mng, probably due to no annual flu jabs as not enough profit in it and no means of corporate command and control
Obviously Tim Pope isn’t infallible!
There is no cure for stupid.
SIR – In this household, the secondary heating to which Tim Lee refers (Letters, April 7) is putting on another jersey.
Michael Fielding
Winchester, Hampshire
Good Morning Folks,
Cloudy start here not so cold as yesterday
Good morning, all. Grey but less windy in North Norfolk.
Morning again
SIR – If the BBC has consciously taken the decision not to make programmes for those aged 50 and above (report, April 7), could it similarly decide to discount a proportion of its growing licence fee for those excluded?
Christine Stewart Munro
London SW1
SIR – The BBC does not wish to make programmes for older people because “their tastes are too varied”. As opposed to what?
Liz Wheeldon
Seaton, Devon
SIR – Over my adult lifetime and during my time as a university lecturer, I always extolled the virtues of the BBC News to students.
However, over the past five years or so I have seen a significant decline in the way the BBC portrays social and world events. This is, of course, a combination of editorial input and the actions of individual news presenters. They no longer simply report the news, but provide their version of reality. This is a truly sad reflection on an organisation that was once a valuable asset to our nation.
Dr Jonathan Edwards
Ringwood, Hampshire
Dr Edwards, yes, we all know that it takes longer for the light to dawn in academia.
Yo All
SIR – The BBC does not wish to make programmes for older people because “their tastes are too varied”. As opposed to what?
The Brussel’s Broadcasting Company’s propaganda/party line
They know that we Oldsters just ignore wha they say
They will just concentrate on the age groupd that they can still Brainwash
SIR – If the BBC has consciously taken the decision not to make programmes for those aged 50 and above (report, April 7), could it similarly decide to discount a proportion of its growing licence fee for those excluded?
Christine Stewart Munro
London SW1
SIR – The BBC does not wish to make programmes for older people because “their tastes are too varied”. As opposed to what?
Liz Wheeldon
Seaton, Devon
SIR – Over my adult lifetime and during my time as a university lecturer, I always extolled the virtues of the BBC News to students.
However, over the past five years or so I have seen a significant decline in the way the BBC portrays social and world events. This is, of course, a combination of editorial input and the actions of individual news presenters. They no longer simply report the news, but provide their version of reality. This is a truly sad reflection on an organisation that was once a valuable asset to our nation.
Dr Jonathan Edwards
Ringwood, Hampshire
UK is prepared to confront Putin’s ‘private army’, says Defence Secretary. 8 April 2021.
Britain should confront Russian “mercenary groups”, the Defence Secretary has said, as intelligence images show Vladimir Putin is supplying tanks and planes to his “private army”.
The Russian Wagner Group mercenary force, run by a man known as “Putin’s chef”, showed “how modern warfare is rapidly changing,” Ben Wallace told The Telegraph.
The Defence Secretary’s comments come as recently declassified intelligence photos, below, show the Wagner Group using regular Russian military equipment in Libya, suggesting it is, in effect, a deniable part of the Kremlin’s army.
We are? The UK’s ever shrinking forces taking on ever more tasks? A Private Army is probably our limit but one doubts it would end there! Thankfully this has no more reality than any of Wallace’s other pronouncements which are geared mostly to self-advertisement! It’s also wise to remember that Libya is not the creation of Putin but that of Cameron and Sarkozy!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/07/exclusive-uk-prepared-confront-putins-private-army-says-defence/
Araminta mng. Am sure tomorrow DT’s “Defence & Sy clown” Dominic Nicholls will share another exclusive of Kim Yong Un’s border scouts invading the Isle of Wight. Given timeline datestamp of pics, that firmly places US Private Mil Contractor PAE on ground with support from Erik Prince.
I trust the Duke of Atholl has his troops primed and ready.
A private army led by a cook. There is no dearth of private “security” services in the UK. For example, Aegis Defence Services which was chaired by Nicholas Soames at one time. They provided guards to American contractors in Afghanistan.
Breaking News – The Oxford AZ jab is to be renamed the Norwegian Blue in an attempt to make it sound more palatable to the public
The Porterhouse Blue is perhaps closer to the mark.
Compulsory lessons to pick up and stop litter
SIR – On a recent cruise in the Caribbean, we stopped at Bermuda and went on a coach ride.
There was absolutely no litter by the roadside (Letters, April 7), a fact so striking that we mentioned it to the driver. He replied that in Bermuda the schools are expected to teach pupils the damage that litter causes and the children, as part of their schooling, have to go out on litter-picking sessions. He added that, as well as eliminating litter, this prevents the children from becoming litter bugs when they grow up.
We need a similar system.
Tony Rice-Oxley
Denmead, Hampshire
SIR – For many years I have led the litter pick in my local parish. The majority of it is cans and plastic bottles.
In Sweden, which I know well, there is a deposit on all containers for consumption-ready beverages. The recycling rate is 91 per cent for aluminium cans and 84 per cent for plastic bottles. The litter problem there is very small. The recycling rate in Britain for plastic bottles is estimated at 50 per cent.
If Britain started a compulsory deposit scheme, it would have a dramatic effect on efforts to keep our streets and countryside litter-free, improve recycling rates and greatly reduce the cost of the clean-up by local authorities. For the items that are still discarded, volunteers would at last be able to claim a small reward for their efforts.
Nicholas Bostock
Stafford
SIR – Following the Countryside Alliance rally in Hyde Park in July 1997, the park rangers reported that it was the first time a rally of 300,000 people had left the park with less litter in it than before they arrived.
Apparently it took just 30 minutes to clear any remaining rubbish. It is a shame that in the intervening years others have not followed this example.
George Atkinson-Clark
Lidlington, Bedfordshire
In Finland we pay a deposit of 35 cents per can or bottle.On return ,it is returned with a machine in every supermarket.
You don’t see cans or bottles discarded here.That would be money lying in the hedge!!
Ahh, Corona pop bottles in my youth. Thruppence a bottle returned which was a tidy sum to a youngster.
I used to supplement my pocket money when I was a child by scouring the sea shore at St Mawes for bottles on which I could reclaim the deposit. Lean pickings in the winter but the emmets in the summer always provided me with a good supplementary income.
Dickman’s and Waters & Robson when I lived in Newbiggin and Middlemass of Kelso when I lived in Wooler.
Same in Norway.
Kr 2 (E0,20) per drinks can, Kr5 (E 0,50) for a 2 litre plastic bottle of fizzy. Redeemed at a machine at the supermarket.
You occasionally find street bums rooting through the rubbish bins in town looking for thrown-away ones.
Morning, Campers.
Sorry, bit of a flashback; the weather reminds me of family camping holidays stuck for a fortnight in some chilly field that was forever Cornwall – or Wales.
Reminds me of the first camping trip of the spring when my younger son was only three months old – I spent a sleepless night worrying that he’d frozen to death. Good job he was a tough one.
Yesterday’s online Grimes reported that the Chief Cunstable of Avon (responsible for the non-policing in Bristol) is not going to renew his contract. I made the following comment – which received 72 upvotes. I only mention it because, usually, The Grimes BTLers are rabid, woke remaniacs, anti-establishment (especially the Tory party) – and so I expected to be kicked in the teeth. That is how my measured comments are generally received. It shows, I think, that below the seething surface of wokedom, there are a lot of people for whom my We Have Had Enough Party would be very attractive.
“I think the problem is the way the Police choose their targets.
For example, they will invade a church service in Croydon and send the congregation packing – for breaches of the covid regulations. But they will “attend” a crowd threatening a teacher (and the school) in Batley – and do nothing, despite the protesters failing to comply with the covid regs. (Leaving aside the threats, of course).
They will watch BLM protesters and kneel; they will watch XR protesters and dance with them. But they will hassle a woman reading a list of the war dead next to the Cenotaph. They paint their police cars (at our expense) with rainbows to placate a tiny minority of a minority.
Of course they have an unenviable task – but I would be happier if they showed consistency. If they did not give the impression that some things are easier to deal with than others – and so they’ll not bother with the “too hard”.”
mng Billl, the usual woke response when basic facts are pointed out in “b/w” is say / post nothing
Their actions are quite consistent. White, right wing patriots, followers of the established religion, all get a kicking. Darker shades, lefties, loons and those not sure what do to with the wedding tackle, invite round for a chat and cup of tea. Now Tommy Robinson has disappeared it seems that plod are hounding the commentator Alex Belfield.
Excellent comment. You probably picked up some votes from teaching staff, who previously thought that they were reasonably safe.
Yesterday’s online Grimes reported that the Chief Cunstable of Avon (responsible for the non-policing in Bristol) is not going to renew his contract. I made the following comment – which received 72 upvotes. I only mention it because, usually, The Grimes BTLers are rabid, woke remaniacs, anti-establishment (especially the Tory party) – and so I expected to be kicked in the teeth. That is how my measured comments are generally received. It shows, I think, that below the seething surface of wokedom, there are a lot of people for whom my We Have Had Enough Party would be very attractive.
“I think the problem is the way the Police choose their targets.
For example, they will invade a church service in Croydon and send the congregation packing – for breaches of the covid regulations. But they will “attend” a crowd threatening a teacher (and the school) in Batley – and do nothing, despite the protesters failing to comply with the covid regs. (Leaving aside the threats, of course).
They will watch BLM protesters and kneel; they will watch XR protesters and dance with them. But they will hassle a woman reading a list of the war dead next to the Cenotaph. They paint their police cars (at our expense) with rainbows to placate a tiny minority of a minority.
Of course they have an unenviable task – but I would be happier if they showed consistency. If they did not give the impression that some things are easier to deal with than others – and so they’ll not bother with the “too hard”.”
Good morning, everyone.
Good morning, young Delboy36, and all NoTTLers.
I love the “young”.
Well, your name suggests that you are just a boy.
Good morning.
331276+ up ticks,
Morning Each,
There is that “could” word coming into play, forerunner to the carrot
offer.
Much of this is in regards to getting jabbed that opens the door to two weeks on the costa plenty but you still have to return to the war zone AKA the UK.
Would the eventual enforcement of passports & the odious fallout of their being be worth those two weeks ?
Thursday 8 April: Vaccine passports could help to lift the fear that has engulfed our nation.
A beneficial fear lifter will be the boycotting of the political fear mongers
as in the lab/lib/con/green coalition group, and the elimination of the three monkeys within the polling booth.
331276 up ticks,
O2O,
The Delly view on johnson via breitbart,
Johnson’s most recent announcement on ‘vaccine passports’, cruelly timed for Easter Monday when families might have expected a glimmer of hope rather than more grinding despair, was typical of his slippery, devious, procrastinating style.
Johnson is ignoring some very important problems, his failed withdrawal agreement, will the EU agree the WA at the end of this month, the growing problem of violence and border problems in Northern Ireland , Illegal immigrants arriving in the UK in ever increasing numbers. the damage Covid lockdowns is doing to the economy, the upcoming Scottish Election next month and the aftermath. His environment policies will drastically damage this country. He is out of control.
He is not fit to be our Prime Minister
331276+ up ticks,
Morning Cs,
Many of us have been trying to point out the fact that the party con ( ino) is unfit for purpose and along with lab/lib
forming a totally unacceptable coalition.
I do believe he is trying and succeeding in a campaign where
he will eventually say, we as a nation are now in such a piss poor condition that we must unite as one, so I am contacting brussels for meaningful talks on re-entry.
Past post will show johnson to be the last tier of the re-entry
missile with the wretch cameron first tier, may second and via ” the deal” johnson the third.
Morning everyone ,
Dull cloudy day, but not as cold . No breeze .
Wood pigeons and Collared doves are busy fornicating/ gathering twigs for nests , billing and cooing . The sound is pleasant.
We had a visit from a sparrow hawk yesterday whilst we were out with the dogs , came home to feathers everywhere , we think the victim was a young magpie
One for sorrow.
Good. Around me Magpies are big killers of other birds. Last year I saw a pair kill 2 broods of smaller birds for fun.
H’mmmm …. if – IF – the DT has it correctly, I will be opening a bottle at home in the warm and without a ginormous cotton bud shoved up me snoot.
New rules for paying at pubs
All drinkers and diners must check in on the NHS Test and Trace app, not just one per group.
Pubs must take “contactless” orders where possible, for instance by using an app.
Staff should take payment outdoors at the table, ideally by card.
Customers can go indoors to pass through to the garden or visit the toilets, but must wear a mask.
Good morning Anne
With all this mask business, which of course cuts down on aerosol spread of the virus , as the experts say.
What happens to one’s pee etc , No one has talked about pee carrying the virus into our water sources, just wondering whether sewerage farms , our rivers and streams carry the virus along on it’s journey?
Use of masks “of course cuts down on aerosol spread of the virus”. Does it?
As the holes in masks are wider than the viruses, the viruses can sail through masks.
The wearing of masks has long been a common sight in TV news and other programmes from the Far East, Hong King, Japan, China. In this country masks were worn during periods of smog in London. The idea of wearing masks is neither unusual nor alien.
However, where is the evidence, real statistical analyses, that they are any use at all?
Or are they an imposition intended to make us feel safer – a psychological trick (like “airport security”), as well as a mechanism being used by the government to increase control?
They are useless and merely used to enforce compliance.
They have found it in sewage in lots of places – including in Italy from 2019, before the Chinese admitted its existence.
What about drinkers and diners without smartphones? I have one but I leave it at home. Husband hasn’t got one.
nothing changes here https://diasporamessenger.com/2021/04/imf-approves-sh255bn-loan-to-kenya-to-cover-covid-19-response/ and wananchi know what’s coming aka re Uhuru’s next ad hoc utterance [and no questions from Kenya MSM re no virus, no vaccines……]. And current IMF head for Kenya is “on leave” in Malindi, fishing
SIR – Over my adult lifetime and during my time as a university lecturer, I always extolled the virtues of the BBC News to students.
However, over the past five years or so I have seen a significant decline in the way the BBC portrays social and world events. This is, of course, a combination of editorial input and the actions of individual news presenters. They no longer simply report the news, but provide their version of reality. This is a truly sad reflection on an organisation that was once a valuable asset to our nation.
Dr Jonathan Edwards
Ringwood, Hampshire
Wrong, more like 30 years!
The racism industry is going from strength to strength. Who would have thought that one of the world’s largest airlines, with 827 aircraft in its fleet, could be racist?
Announcement from United Airlines: “Our flight deck should reflect the diverse group of people on board our planes every day. That’s why we plan for 50% of the 5,000 pilots we train in the next decade to be women or people of color,”
What’s wrong with training the most competent people to do the job, irrespective of whether they are men or women and irrespective of their skin colour?
united airlines biggest problem will be maintaining a fleet of Boeing 777s with unaddressed mechanical problems. Agree they’ll have a colour coded problem and it’ll be the lack of “green”back
Remember this poor chap who had his guitar ruined by United Airlines?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
united airlines biggest problem will be maintaining a fleet of Boeing 777s with unaddressed mechanical problems. Agree they’ll have a colour coded problem and it’ll be the lack of “green”back
Oh dear
Having flown on some really appalling African Airlines as well as experiencing some frightening and dangerous incidents , their idea of competence isn’t mine .
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/c776555d-c253-4637-ba44-ce6ecc69e5b1
Good Morning TB,
Many years ago I was assured that safety in African skies depended on the maintenance contract; if the aeroplanes were serviced by Swissair, nowt to worry about. IIRC the advice came from a now very elderly Flight Engineer who used to do the Mecca run.
Good morning T
When I was a lot younger I was invited on to the flight deck of an SA747, with my glass of champagne ( during the Noughties) flying from the UK to JB and I was given the left hand seat and allowed to take the aircraft up to 40 ,000 ft to take advantage of a jet stream , I was travelling on my own at the time and about 3 hours into the flight … Er, it was quite an experience.
7 mile high club???
Noooh , I am not that impressionable ..
Besides , most flight crews are full of themselves !
Amazing. Not in the same league, but I was once invited on to the flight deck for a landing at Heathrow. Jump seat of course.
9/11 put the kibosh on that sort of innocent fun.
My Moh used the jump seat frequently, when he was commuting to Aberdeen ,and then onto Sumburgh for his off shore flying.
The last time I landed at Sumburgh, I was in the single row of seats on the left hand side of some small Saab.. As we came in to land, for a few seconds. I was looking along the length of the runway without having to strain my neck. Most
exhilarating.scary!When I flew Olympic into Thessaloniki, it was an interesting landing; high angle approach, touch down virtually on the threshold markings, full reverse thrust, lots of heavy braking and still the end of the runway (and the sea) were getting VERY close!
https://i.imgur.com/8YDWH1u.gif
https://media2.giphy.com/media/l4FB50XRRq7v7iwEg/giphy.gif
Is it a dildo that she sees before her?
It’s a tv screen in the controls watching Demented Joe fall off the toilet. She’s wondering whether to get the co-pilot to mention “fasten seat belts, we’re experiencing some turbulence” or ignore it and roll out the duty free
It’s a tv screen in the controls watching Demented Joe fall off the toilet. She’s wondering whether to get the co-pilot to mention “fasten seat belts, we’re experiencing some turbulence” or ignore it and roll out the duty free
I seem to recall that Aeroflot allowed young Komsomolets to fly their planes…
Ah! Nothing would surprise me about Aeroflot, especially at the height of communism! I used to have to fly Aeroflot fairly often between Tripoli and Lagos on IL18s. The stewardesses were fat and hirsute! The only drink was sour wine and the ‘food’ was always a sort of inedible hamburger slapped in front of you and the plane rattled and vibrated so much that it was almost impossible to converse. Sometimes the flight arrived from Moscow in Tripoli earlier than scheduled, so it left early without the Tripoli passengers!
One day, the American head of my company arrived with an important oil industry client from Lagos. I met them at the airport and asked them, with a smug expression, how the flight was. They said: excellent – caviar and vodka all the way! It turned out that the chief engineer of Aeroflot was also on the flight so no messing around with him! Communism was only for the proletariat!
I recall flying (just the twice) Tarom. A Romanian sitting next to me told me that the landings would be very, very gentle. I asked why. “Because there are no spare parts…”
The in-flight snack was ONE ball of bubble-gum. And one glass of either “orange juice” or local fire-water. The fat, hirsute cabin staff dished all that out in five minutes then retreated behind the curtain at the rear of the plane and smoked cigarettes.
The other interesting aspect of the flight was that all baggage was X-rayed on departure (fair enough) but also on arrival – as though we had managed to put contraband in the bags while in the air!
Also, though we had boarding cards – at loading a disorderly queue formed – with all the passengers in military uniform automatically walking to the head of the queue and elbowing civilians aside.
Then there were the stray dogs on the runway…..
What type of aircraft was it?
I once flew on a TU134 of Balkan (Bulgarian). It had military style canvas seats, so close together that there was virtually no legroom. It also had toilets with no flushing – I won’t lower the standard of this website by describing it in any detail!
Russian – propellers.
First x-ray for bombs, second x-ray to see what might be worth stealing?
The last time I flew Aeroflot, the steward offered me shreem. Shto eto takoe? It turned out it was shrimp! I think it was bad shrimp as well, as I went down with food poisoning later.
On my first Aeroflot flight the landing seemed normal so I was perplexed when most passengers erupted into a round of applause. Then, on the return flight, the landing was so hard most overhead lockers fell open and panels fell off the ceiling . . . Then I knew.
Aircraft made from lead.
Sir, you are a wise bird, but prejudice takes many forms; eg melanin, religion, snobbery, nationalism, gender, age.
The USA is much browner than previously, and large firms need to plan for the future. If they can train and establish a pool of darker-skinned talent, even if the failure rate is enormous, it could be great for marketing.
As for ‘most competent’ does it matter in an age of processes, automation, and artificial intelligence?
Let’s face it, none of the super-rich travel on commercial airlines, let alone coach.
When the plane crashes, the first class passengers die as well, and often first.
If you want to make serious money, just invent a mechanism to prevent fatalities in civil helicopter crashes.
(yes, I know, leave earlier and travel in a car or train or boat)
Hate the paraffin budgie, me. Bloody awful means of transport.
Dear oh dear! You do live in the past, don’t you?
.
“Our flight deck should reflect the diverse group of people on board our planes every day”
Why?
You sweet little old fashioned thing.
tucker Carlson has a good rant about that:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGroUS5OcYE
United Airlines will be the one to avoid at all costs in that case! Quota-ism of the worst sort.
A corker of an article about the whole grim situation by Daniel Miller for Conservative Woman here: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/a-very-convenient-pandemic/
Sorry to say but the whole article was a load of gibberish nonsense.
All very concerning to say the least.
Plausible.
Good morning, Ashey.
Morning Phizz and Dolly 🙂
Blood clots….
Until now the BBC has been full on getting people vaccinated. Then, all of a sudden a seeming minuscule number of people suffer from blood clots and the BBC is now full on with that. Why the change of direction when it would be in their interest to dismiss the clots as a storm in a tea cup and continue urging everyone to get jabbed. The BBC are past masters for hiding the news so why 24/7 coverage of something likely to dissuade people being vaccinated?
The conspiracies (alleged) are becoming far more believable than anything Ali Johnson says and what the BBC is telling us.
An acquaintence messaged this morning: “Not too much from me today , bit of an emergency overnight , Sue to A&E
vaccine related blood clot they think.” I just hope the clot thinners are effective.
Hope not too serious…
Each step of this agenda requires casualties to convince people to follow the rules. They purposely infected the care homes at the start of the virus to cause enough deaths for the public to take the virus seriously and to get vaccinated. Now they have blood clots to slow the process down. Were these intended or pure bad luck?
Care homes were not deliberately infected. By their very nature of visits and staffing (younger people with families/schools/same age friends) they’re statistically more prone to infection .
The clotting is simply a side effect that wasn’t forseen because the vaccine wasn’t tested fully.
They put infected hospital patients into care homes.
Lordy.
Hope it goes well for her.
Further to this there is a lesson to be learned here.
They have been banging on to GP about not feeling great since the AZ.
Basically they infer its all in the mind .One even asked Sue if this was because she was feeling depressed during lockdown! Where do they get these people from?
Anyway , lesson is , if you feel at all unwell after the AZ…keep an eye on it and insist on a second opinion , bloods and scans.
Its taken them six weeks to get someone to take notice !
I had a TIA ten years ago. Fortunately it did no noticeable damage but now I have to take Pradaxa each day – which makes my blood as thin as water – to prevent clots. I saw my doctor and she said she was not sure whether Pradaxa had any effect on Covid treatments but she advised me to wait until after my 75th birthday in July when I would be given an injection without blot clotting fears associated with it.
The trouble with Pradaxa is that even a slight scratch causes bleeding which takes some time to staunch.
At least you saw a GP to discuss the vaccine suitability. Until now they seem determined to jab everyone over a certian age no matter what the outcome might be.
Fear has gripped people – and they like it.
They are turning the news off instead of confronting it.
Wikipedia on Pradaxa: “Initially, there was no specific way to reverse the anticoagulant effect of dabigatran in the event of a major bleeding event,unlike for warfarin. Since then, the dabigatran-specific antidoteid arucizumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody for intravenous administration, was developed and received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2015.”
It might be a precaution to carry the antidote when you are at sea. Warfarin is easier to stop, just a dose of vitamin K.
Edit:
I HAVE NO CLINICAL KNOWLEDGE WHATSOEVER. ALWAYS CONSULT A QUALIFIED PHYSICIAN OR APPROPRIATE PROFESSIONAL PERSON WHEN TIM OFFERS ADVICE.
Same problem with warfarin, Richard which I take on a daily basis since Feb 2002.
The slightest bump also results in a purple haematoma under the skin.
Ditto – I’ve a genetic condition that makes my blood clot very quickly. However the only time I have noticed bruising is when hoovering the stairs I pulled the hoover on to my head. I saw stars for a bit and the warqueen suggested I go to hosp to make sure I was ok.
Warfarin has been found to have absolutely NO effect on thinning my blood – only makes me feel sick. I was took off it. Was told last week by a doctor it is rare and that I was the only one he had ever met, though he had heard of it before.
Ask your Doc about Apixaban as an alternative, Richard. I have been on it for two years without any untoward bleeding problems.
The vaccinations were going too well- those bloody compliant Brits – so somehow they had to be put off having a jab.
It gives the government time to think up a new reason for continuing the ’emergency’.
Wait for the Little Bogwort-on-the-Wold variant.
Interesting how they keep a winter bug going as we approach summer.
Is the vaccine debacle to fill a void until winter arrives?
You already know the answer.
A mathematician recently pointed out that your chances of dying from an embolism from the Astra Seneca vaccine are lower than being run over going to/from the vaccination centre.
An interesting article on divide and rule.
https://www.takimag.com/article/the-radicalization-of-black-america/
Much applies in the UK.
another trigger on stoking emotional fear and control – the Oprah Winfrey project for the gullible
Once an accusation of racism has been made, it is extremely difficult to refute; particularly if one is white.
agree sosraboc, only if playing the game by their rules
Good morning all.
Bright & dry up here at the moment with 3°C in the yard.
Bluss – it was cold in Fakenham Market this morning. Grey skies – drizzle of almost sleet. Strong south-westerly wind. Still, Tony’s Knock-off stall was there, and Mr Weston’s Fish van; and Christie’s cheeseman. Didn’t linger – and, tellingly, the cats rushed outdoors first thing – and rushed back in pronto!
I wonder whether covid is causing the miserable weather?
Good morning Bill
Are you missing any Bluebell bulbs/ plants from your garden .. These were stolen from woods nr Fakenham .
https://twitter.com/True_Belle/status/1380081723631865860
False news! The police don’t care about yer actual crime any more, just if someone might have been offended.
I do have to wonder when someone being upset is cause for a crime. I don’t understand it, either. The police don’t investigate burglaries but it happily patrols twitter for people telling other people the truth, such as a man in a dress isn’t a woman. Those being told don’t like it and kick up a stink, the police harass the man telling the truth.
Everything is back to front.
It’s still early April; Britain doesn’t warm up until mid-September.
If you are lucky. In 1986, we had 3 inches of snow on 26 April….
Snow is white privilege.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/rewind-to-1975-snow-stopped-play-462037
Which day?
Spetember?! It’s baking hot at the end of May! I remember travelling up to see my niece for her birthday at beginning of June and it was 32’c.
The only thing drinking more than me was the fuel gauge for the air con.
‘Morning All
#CovidClownWorld
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a65921fec719f25911de2bcf8b3a635413afbf7eb9439d2035442a46cc513a52.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6184678d6c0eb8786a82c986d6b1794f60fb4b5554281cf875d027f94de213fd.png
https://twitter.com/naomirwolf/status/1379870677319180290
I just collect used serf coverings outside supermarkets and wash them. Ironing is a bit of a problem, so a spell on the line and in the tumble drier seems to work.
The germs don’t worry me, but rather the microparticles of fibrous plastic that everyone is forced to inhale.
Round 2
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65dd7e30bb4097b3756d216a3680c21759057305082b4b4e43564b318ab822ce.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e41adce4799fc5fd8be8d2fc50e52190fdd29bf055e27b3d647de7cbff9b4b05.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ee006577e886e7badb11f13e83fc79c6799eb745385b2cb81a832526cb8b568.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/874ebe0646430043a5d6763b6a112c85065d11a308b9ebde95f3788a78201445.jpg
More of this please
https://twitter.com/TheFreds/status/1379845027317358596?s=20
Rocking all over the world…
The new status quo?
To take your minds off the shyte weather – the chaps who bought our house in Laure have sent us some snaps of the garden yesterday. We planted both the wisteria and the yellow Banksia rose.
They are very keen gardeners and have added large quantities of trees (yes – even a palm tree) and shrubs in pots.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57e32643a4b5e3bddca6cd92141af2bde814a1ae3413a6bf48f4a2a954e8facb.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/182ccf3d021a950105e7f70b75adbe9fd9b136e3f14fb9fcecc3f543f1033e43.jpg
How lucky that they like plants – and didn’t just cut everything down (as some people who looked round would have done).
Feeling home sick?
For the weather – yes. For everything else – not even a tiny bit!
We had a terraced house with a small back garden. When we moved in at the beginning of the year we saw that it had been neglected for over a year.
We did not touch anything but waited to see what came up. There were tiger lilies, sweet peas, a quince, as well as an acer and some other nice small tree, as well as many nameless* flowers around the small lawn. It was lovely. All we did threreafter was some maintenance and weeding.
After we left, the people who moved in laid concrete slabs over the entire area.
*My knowledge of gardening and flowers is still zero. Everything I plant dies.
In the top photo is that a BBQ or a latrine?
Believe it or not, it contains a fishpond. The chaps were very keen on Koi Carp. They wanted to put it on the upper terrace – until we explained that, in high summer, the fish would – literally – cook in the 40ºC plus heat!
A bit small, isn’t it? Koi carp are huge.
It will be ok when they finish the second floor and put the roof on.
Not my problem, Missus. I think they may have chosen something smaller!
I have a globe shaped tank with Neons. They are strange. If you put your face close to the glass they swim close to you and stare back.
Neons? Staring? That must be a sign…..
My aquarium is situated near the window. This week I saw my fish staring
at the sleet and rain and they were thinking: “Glad we are inside”.
Sounds fishy.
Warm and dry!
Staring’s no big deal. The time to worry is when the Neons start ‘mooning’ at you….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4sdG5frA0Q
From The Express…
Oh dear Angela! Joe Biden forms crack team to cancel Russia-Germany project
Is it fair to assume that Hunter will be involved in this “crack” team?
There’s a crack between the cheeks… I’ll get me shorts.
Risky Laff
http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d49ce5af944e635df339a031a6b6dbb73e163ea2099ca541b12ada0a13e08b75.jpg
20 minutes late! Unthinkable. Incredibly rude.
It’s not sleeping with someone that causes the trouble, it’s the staying awake!
Is WW3 about to go hot?
Over on BB there’s an article about conflict brewing on the Russia/Ukraine border and reports of a huge build up of Russian troops and hardware in the area. Interestingly the article has attracted comments from people living in that region and their take is somewhat scary.
Forget about who voted for who, Biden is POTUS because the elite wanted him to be. Much the same as how we ended up with Johnson. Biden is supplying the Ukraine with hardware which at first would create a US/Russia proxy war. However, this could lead to a more direct confrontation which would not be ideal on the borders of the EU. Biden is the last person you’d want in the White House in a global war and the scene would be set for China to invade Taiwan which would provide two fronts to stretch the US military.
The EU and the UK as members of NATO would have to get involved on European soil and no doubt in the Far East also at a time when all western countries have domestic issues ongoing.
Should we dismiss it as just another cold war type bout of hype or take the situation seriously?
Take it seriously.
I could post a lot more about what’s going on but i would be seen as a “Putin apologist”…which i am!…so i don’t.
If there was a choice of Putin or Johnson…
I’d prefer Putin.
In the past I have suggested how we should have seen Putin as an ally in the war against Islam. Imagine a combined force of Russia, the US and ourselves just like the last time we had a world war.
Another misconception about Russia and Putin.
Muslims have lived in Russia for over 400 years! They have opened a huge new Mosque in Moscow and Putin attended the ceremony
Russia doesn’t have a problem with its millions of muslims because they are Russian first,religion second..the same with all religions.
Putin has a problem with all extremists whoever they are and they are hunted down.
I had heard that as well. Bit like America …
Pity the same doesn’t apply here in the UK.
I was quite recently in post Soviet Central Asia…a Muslim country and learned that Soviet Muslims are totally different to the types we are plagued with.
Because they were assimilated over centuries.
Yes….The former Soviet republics are still full of actual Russians and the dividing line is the border with Afghanistan where there’s a huge difference between the two sets of Muslims.
Afghanistan was once a beautiful forward-looking country before the West took an interest…same with Syria.
I won’t go into detail…you wouldn’t like it.
In the 70’s and 80’s Afghanistan was quite westernised…
Woman wore mini skirts and high heels until the Taliban came down from the mountains and changed everything back to the dark ages.
I’m off before i say what i really think…bye.
I can handle it….I know about the body bags containing Russian soldiers and how the Taliban laid young soldier’s intestines beside them so they could watch them moving during the 24 hours it took to finally die.
A spot of Kipling:
“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!”
Back to the future.
Thanks for that.
Same with Iran when it was Persia – until 1979.
We might even agree…
I can remember a gas attack, on a theatre in Moscow a few years back,by moslems….
In the 1990s, the West mishandled the collapse of the Soviet empire.
Instead of gleefully blowing raspberries, it should have realised that the European Russians – despite their somewhat dodgy dealings (and who are the EU in particular to throw stones!) – were brought up in much the same traditions as the the Christian based West.
There’s no comparison! One’s a Liar and Traitor the other is a Patriot and World Class Leader!
A minor quibble, if I may, the EU is not a member of NATO (can you imagine the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train taking military direction from such a heavily USA-subsidised organisation?), though many of it’s member states are in NATO.
The EU, in the shape of Barosa and Ashton, almost brought Ukraine to the brink of war in 2014 perhaps believing that NATO would back up their antagonising actions. But the tail shouldn’t wag the dog.
The general sekertary is Beaker, a failed Weegie prime minister hopeful from Labour party. Can hardly utter a word of English, and is a complete pillock. Easily dominated by the US, UK, and everybody else.
Should we dismiss it as just another cold war type bout of hype or take the situation seriously?
The Americans are pushing this and this time the Russians are going to push back!
I have arranged a skype call with friends in Moscow later today in order to get their take on the situation. Will let you know the outcome.
Should we dismiss it as just another cold war type bout of hype or take the situation seriously?
The Americans are pushing this and this time the Russians are going to push back!
27 things you’d never know about Britain if it were not for Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey is a much-loved institution helping hikers and bikers find their way around Great Britain since 1791. Its detailed maps of our nation’s peaks, troughs, churches and phone boxes are inimitable, so we thought we’d ask what more it knew about the UK that others do not.
Read on for 27 tidbits about our green and pleasant land…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/articles/ordnance-survey-facts-about-great-britain/
3. Cornwall is the county with the longest coastline (1,086km)…
4. The lowest point in Great Britain is Holme Fen in Cambridgeshire, at nine foot below sea level…
Does it indicate sites where statues were toppled?
Does it indicate sites where statues were toppled?
1. There are more than 1,000 High Streets. But OS maps don’t have street names on. Good joined-up free ad, then.
https://twitter.com/pritipatel/status/1380089114847027200
Another kneejerk reaction!
Perhaps she could try to look after the citizens of the U.K. first against our own tyrannical government.
Why are politicians always more concerned about civil rights abuses in other countries whilst ignoring those abuses in this country.
With a name like Patel do you think she has ANY concern for the likes of us?
331276+ up ticks,
Afternoon AtG,
Deflection.
What about freedom in the UK, ye daft bint?
That is only for the replacements Bill. We are of no consequence, except to be taxed.
They will also have an appetite for pet dogs and cats .. and ripping organs out for organ transplants .
We know what this means … It is all a plot to Chinkify the UK
Is there any date set for these people to be here by?
331276+ up ticks,
Afternoon W,
Yesterday.
I believe there’s a vow coming out tomorrow about that.
£43m support package? – for over 5 mllion people? Not much each then?
This support is to cover the first wave of highly skilled people and to house them all over the UK . 27,000 have already applied for a visa to come to the UK . The UK government expects 150000 are likely to apply. I have heard such predictions before in Blair’s time in office.
I remember the “13000 a year from Poland ” – and it turned out to be 13000 a month.
Better move out sufficient illegals in order to make room for our new neighbours (and some CCP sleepers).
Bloody Hell…………Sinister or what??
https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1380099753657167873?s=20
No point in saying we have Left the EU I suppose.
We have “left” the EU as much as Priti Patel has stopped the dinghies.
331276+ up ticks,
Morning B3,
All the time the peoples are supporting / voting for the lab/lib/con/green mass uncontrolled immigration ( in their face ongoing) paedophile umbrella coalition,the peoples have NEVER/EVER left the eu.
We left on paper but in reality and to ease the conscience of many party members, but we are still touching the forelock whilst taking the knee in regards to brussels.
The ECHR is nothing to do with the EU. It is a creature of the Council of Europe – set up long before the EUSSR.
Was that the one that Blair said had no more relevance than a copy of The Beano?
The word ‘Democracy’ is proving to be more bendy than a bendy thing in Bendyland.
All the more reason to leave the ECHR, notify our non-recognition of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and repeal the Human Rights Act.
Now, about those deportations, Priti Patel, JFDI and quickly.
Isn’t it the ECHR and the ECJ who always rule that foreign murderers, rapists and terrorists can stay in the UK after DELIBERATELY committing their crimes?
Very wise. They don’t want those evil people to move to Europe.
History obviously isn’t their strong point!
Mr Justice Mengele presiding…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1pZ5NrdZ2o
Beautiful, Plum. Thanks.
Mi piacero….
Funny coincidence just now. As we were having the thread about flying in Soviet bloc aircraft, the MR asked me copy type an extract from a book about a Yank who lived in China for two years teaching.
“Jian Nan Chun airlines flight 100, direct from Beijing to Chengdu, offered me my first glimpse into life in a country of more than a billion people. I walked to my seat midway down the aisle and settle in next to an old Chinese lady with thinning gray hair. She was munching on spicy chicken feet and silently offered me a bite. I politely declined. She belched in response.
Together, we watched the rows fill in front o us. We also watched as a handful of passengers struggled to find their seats. They looked from their boarding passes to the numbers above the seats, and back to the boarding passes. Eventually, though all the eats were taken, our people stood in the aisle moving in confused circles. The flight, it seemed, was standing-room only. I sighed, felling pity for the four passengers who would not be delayed. “What a bummer,” I mumbled.
Yes and no. A stewardess guided the four standing passengers towards the back of the plane where they doubled up with others. There was a bit of grumbling, especially from a petite octogenarian who ended up with a chubby teenager on his lap, but the eight people crammed into four small seats quickly struck up conversations with each other and began sharing cigarette. We prepared for liftoff.
Lesson one from China: overpopulation leads to a certain flexibility when it comes to definitions of both comfort and safety.
I was one of fifty-seven Peace Corps trainees sprinkled throughout the plane. We were giddy, apprehensive, and fidgety as we imagined the ten weeks of training awaiting us in western China. It was meant to be an all-encompassing immersion that would prepare us for two years of volunteer teaching. We knew we would learn Chinese. Beyond this, however, we had only vague notions of what was to come.
The televisions in the cabin blinked to life and the stewardess who had solved the seating problem pooped what appeared to be a Betamax cassette into a machine hidden in an overhead compartment. An Asian man in a white lab coat appeared in grainy Technicolor. I felt for a moment like I was watching an instructional video from the Dharma Initiative.
The video was in Mandarin with Japanese subtitles, so I wasn’t entirely sure what was being communicated, but the tenor of the video – and the images of people panicking during a simulated emergency landing- led me to believe that an English translation of the voice-over would have included the following fortune-cookie wisdom: “In case of emergency, accept you fate.” The actors in the video pantomimed the crash-landing protocol for passengers: we were to remove our shoes and cover our eyes.”
Brought it all back!!
“and the stewardess who had solved the seating problem pooped what appeared to be a Betamax cassette”
Certainly an interesting flight.
And she managed to get it into a Betamax player in an overhead locker too !!! – – Surprised she’s not on Britain’s Got Talent.
I am much obliged. I MUST tell the MR before she sends it to her online students…!!
I would leave it in. Adds to the hilarity.
Blame the Chinese diet. They’ll eat anything.
No need to be catty! Chow, bella!
331276+ up ticks,
Is one allowed to ask, “who has brought this to the
people’s front-door ”
https://twitter.com/berniespofforth/status/1380107124005605378
Ummm… does Bernie know that the European court is firstly not remotely bothered about rights or freedoms (except taking them) and is always going to side with the EU and that as a result has absolutely no interest in what people want or need?
Having spent the morning as a taxi service (I assume there are roads without big holes in the – but where?) I’ve settled down with a hot chocolate and a dystopian read.
From UnHerd:
The first one is a discussion point. Analysis is reasonable; to my way of thinking, the proposed solution merely creates a different can of worms.
https://unherd.com/2021/04/the-hypocrisy-of-david-cameron/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=5453b1038d&mc_eid=3b0897cf14
https://unherd.com/2021/04/why-we-love-big-brother/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=5453b1038d&mc_eid=3b0897cf1
Well, Lord Sumption. What are you going to do about it?
You could lead my new “We Have Had Enough Party”.…
It seems if you want to be taken seriously in the UK you need to hit the streets,burn a few buses.
I see Brandon Lewis has “rushed” to Belfast.
SIR – On a recent cruise in the Caribbean, we stopped at Bermuda and went on a coach ride.
There was absolutely no litter by the roadside … in Bermuda the schools are expected to teach pupils the damage that litter causes and the children, as part of their schooling, have to go out on litter-picking sessions… this prevents the children from becoming litter bugs when they grow up.
We need a similar system: Tony Rice-Oxley, Denmead, Hampshire.
We have one. They come across in their tens of thousands each year, dump their parents, wives and kids and leave their mud huts and drug dens back in the Caribbean in a better state than they would have been otherwise.
I sailed into Bermuda on my boat Raua and spent a week on the island in 1985 before setting off for the Azores. I hired a moped and went the whole way around the island.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9300c85802f1e7ae650bdc75bc7f9f2d93908201892b7ce4155789a8a6e16bf5.jpg
Bermuda:
Corporal punishment is lawful in the home. Article 266 of the Criminal Code 1907 states: “Domestic and school discipline. It is lawful for a parent, or a person in the place of a parent, or for a schoolmaster or master, to use, by way of correction towards a child, pupil, or apprentice, under his care, such force as is reasonable under the circumstances.” Children have limited protection from violence and abuse under other provisions in the Criminal Code 1907, the Children Act 1998 and the Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Act 1997.
Could explain why children tend to do as they are told….
Don’t forget our wonderful “Travellers” who stick their 4x4s and caravans on someone else’s land for a few weeks, then depart leaving it like a landfill site complete with everything you can think of – to be cleaned up at great expense by the taxpayer.
Turkey blames EU for Ursula von der Leyen ‘sofagate’ scandal
‘The seating arrangements were made in line with the EU suggestion,’ said Ankara after being criticised for sexist chair setup
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/08/turkey-blames-eu-ursula-von-der-leyen-sofagate-scandal/
You can’t win with some women: offer them a chair and you’re patronising, condescending and sexist; don’t offer them a chair and you’re an ill-bred, ungentlemanly sexist.
They probably thought of how haggard she looked and would appreciate a comfy chair.
***cue Monty Python…
She wants to be obeyed, but who would Rider?
That is exactly the reply I would have given if I were taking the p.
331276+ up ticks,
There surely MUST be a politically wised up patriotic personage out there to kick start a people’s reset party, then call a snap General election NOT when the overseers want it, but when the people’s want it.
The way to end this calendar of continuing sh!te is to deny them YOUR vote via the polling booth.
331276+ up ticks,
O2O,
Ian Bothams post with small alteration,
It’s time to make a ‘Great Stink’ about the appalling state of Britain
riversThieves broke into my house while i was at work.
Alexa…lock all the doors and windows and release the Roombas.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/857c0dceefac735531ab4984ff0f87a5264a6a8ed24c64d459f8de69f29d0d04.jpg
I see Robert has been out and about….I thought he’d been quiet for the last day or so:
Better call Special Branch! Police hunt phantom lumberjack after dozens of trees are mysteriously felled with a chainsaw along bank of the Thames
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9449483/Police-hunt-phantom-chopper-dozens-trees-mysteriously-felled-chainsaw.html
Not guilty!
All my logs are from already fallen or dead trees.
Court told…!!
I diagnose a case of chainsaw ecstasy, or as my mother used to call it “Man with Chainsaw.”
Some of them just can’t stop!
A horse walks into a bar. The batman asks “why the long…”
“wait a minute, said the horse, did you see that typo?
Robin us of half the joke.
Okay…You do the chicken crossing the road one and see how difficult it is to get upvotes when all the Nottlers roosting !… :@)
I’ve been up above the lime kiln getting a few logs down home and it was rather magical.
A woodpecker, sadly out of sight, drumming up the hill above me with each short burst being answered by a similarly short “yaffle” call in response.
It sounded as if the bird doing the drumming was calling in a mate and the (potential?) mate was responding “Where are you?” as it got closer.
Having heard the hoopoe a few days ago, I saw one in the garden this afternoon.
Woodpeckers by the dozen here.
Strictly speaking, Bob, the ‘yaffle’ is the green woodpecker and doesn’t drum. The lesser and greater spotted do but have quite different calls.
In the first 10 seconds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqWu9tLmWNg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7nmHe1zZIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNcwwVGCukc
Green Woodpeckers mating with Spotted Woodpeckers, eh?
Damn’ miscegenation, even the birds are at it.
:¬(
Lesser spotted by the sounds of it.
332176+ up ticks,
He has a very, very valid point,
https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1380073594051555328
I’ve had two emails this morning, begging for money.
ZAP!
Damn. I thought you fall for it.
That leaves us with no rational choices.
While I approve – a country without the meddling fools in Westminster interfereing would be a blessing for a decade or ten.
331276+ up ticks,
Afternoon W,
NOTA is a very strong message in itself, and that is a rational choice surely.
Yawning is catching…
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/641c04678143a436664b68218ec16a17e44aa4a86475a9b4100ad7597decf46e.jpg
Thank goodness the killer was of colour or there would be hell to play at the murder of at least 3 people. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/phillip-adams-south-carolina-shooting-nfl-b1828474.html
Probably wouldn’t provide a fentanyl prescription.
Poor kiddies.
What?? Really??
The older I get the more depths my ignorance plumbs………….
https://twitter.com/romanpalace/status/1379694827466588160
Rex’s hands were too short to hold a phone next to its ear. No wonder they died out.
They died broken hearted because the pub wouldn’t let them in.
Nice place. Avoid the looney staff.
A chimp is even closer to a vaccine passport.
Me, “What’s going on in there?”
Cheese grater “Nothing.”
Ice cream scoop, “ We are just watching tv.”
http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ec5b9b28c64cb194c37a7a7bb5db02399e1acb9caddc970430350ac3a60b70a.jpg
Goddess Anoia…
Goddess of Things That Get Stuck in Drawers, a minor goddess on the Discworld.
When someone rattles a drawer and cries “How can it close on the damned
thing but not open with it? Who bought this? Do we ever use it?”, even
though the person might be genuinely irritated or even exasperated, it
is as praise unto Anoia. Faithful Anoians (worshippers of Anoia)
purposefully rattle their drawers and complain every day. Anoia also
finds objects that roll under other objects and things stuck in sofa
cushions, and is considering handling stuck zippers. She eats
corkscrews.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93b3b531251316f20685fe40043afb07696b40713cd0c61e72513bf5fcf198ae.jpg
I have been banned from Twitter for 12 hours!
We’ve temporarily limited some of your account features
True_Belle
@True_Belle
What happened?
We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically, for:
Violating our rules against hateful conduct.
You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.
True_Belle
@True_Belle
@pritipatel More protection gangs , more knife crimes , drugs etc etc.. and more of our pet dogs and cats eaten !
4:02 AM – 8 Apr 2021
As a result, we’ve temporarily limited some of your account features. While in this state, you can still browse Twitter, but you’re limited to only sending Direct Messages to your followers –– no Tweets, Retweets, follows, or likes. Learn more. Your account will be restored to full functionality in: 12 hours and 0 minutes.
Badge of Honour these days T_B
I don’t do Twitter, but I gather you should be flattered: you are bang over the target.
Lucky its not your front door. Having smashed down Alex Belfield’s door, the police contracted a company to board it up after they took him away, then invoiced him for the work! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msFmEnPYVOw
The Express is the only national paper that comes up on a search for ‘alex belfield arrested’:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1417296/bbc-news-alex-belfield-police-scandal-andrew-bridgen-youtube-priti-patel-complaint
What did you do, Belle?
I responded to Priti Patel re her spending £millions on allowing thousands of Hong Kong fueys into Britain
@True_Belle
@pritipatel More protection gangs , more knife crimes , drugs etc etc.. and more of our pet dogs and cats eaten !
4:02 AM – 8 Apr 2021
My little sarccy remark was the result of me retweeting this and commenting .. and now banned .
🇬🇧 We promised to uphold freedom for the people of Hong Kong, which is why I am proud that we’ve been able to support so many in need of our help.
We’re working hard to successfully resettle people here through this unprecedented and generous scheme.
Hong Kong families moving to UK to benefit from £43m support package | ITV News
The new immigration route was announced in the wake of Beijing’s national security law being imposed on Hong Kong last year.
itv.com
10:24 AM · Apr 8, 2021
Ooo, twitter & PP are sensitive – you hit a spot, Belle, and it’s a lot milder than I have sent to that useless jerk Patel without being banned. Well done! True_Belle ROCKS!
I have been suspended from twatter, question is this, is it worth the fuss to get reinstated because I would only cancel my account now.
No. Life is better without it.
Evening Obs, yes it is . I must admit it was a few weeks before I realised I was suspended, that shows how little I looked at it.
Not just the pets but the tins of pet food as well!
Join the club! I don’t bother commenting there much now.
Awkward………
https://twitter.com/SonicDalek/status/1380120444234252289
Not defending the scumbag but they are distanced and as we all know the virus is inactive if you are sitting at a table eating or drinking.
BoJo’s head doesn’t look to be in right place – photoshopped?
It certainly looks odd, his head’s usually up his arse.
So that’s why he talks shit all the time…
Badley fitted suit with padded shoulders to disguise his sloping ones.
But shirley, cafés aren’t supposed to be open at all, until 12th April when they can serve outdoors only??
Probably not a cafe but a meeting room.
And don’t call me Shirley !
Can’t be genuine – Carrion isn’t there.
Boris could still be a carrier of the virus. He is setting a bad example. Can we identify the people he is meeting.
He looks rough.
Quick! Rejoin the EU!
https://twitter.com/acatherwoodnews/status/1379702255897698304
What are they upset about?
Police inaction over the funeral of an IRA terrorist attended by a member of NI assembly and several thousand others, ignoring Covid Regulations, and the fact that the police not prevent it, or intervene, or arrest anyone. The riots are the response of the rougher Unionist types.
We know how they feel, here on the mainland when the police kneel to BLM and Antifa while they smash up statues.
IRA terrorists have same status as travellers on the mainland then, unlimited crowds allowed while normal people get arrested for having a coffee.
You name it.
Have we got all
dayyear?What aren’t they upset about?
Why is the response of immature thugs to destroy and throw bombs about?
Why can’t they behave civily? Are they savages?
Drew Allen nails it. Here are a selection of his writings.
https://email.mg2.substack.com/c/eJxVklFvmzAQxz9NeAvCxoB54KFrmo21oUoXZc1ekLEvwQEMsk0S-PRzGmnSpPOdfPc_27qfObNw6vWUDb2x3t2VdhogU3A1LVgL2hsN6FKKDFNKkwQRT2REIBpRT5ryqAE6JtvM6hG8YaxayZmVvfrqiBCKU6_OIkhwFfMjg5hREUEUASY0oCLEQYB59LiYjUKC4pDBBfTUK_DarLZ2MIvwaYHXzoSGK2tbUL4ZK2MZb3zed64wuMX7ixSKdUvWsOWRjVya5ZXpRbi2fQNqEa5g-ok43k-fuG3ycz-9r06kmPmteL5K_j2dxTod_jzn8Wbeuvz2VpwPJu_aWtxzu8OtmE-3zSoP3p2efRazO0PyH3v5tsvRZveC33_lJlcFOsg8ztW3Cw-3lnf7-hB-DBUm8rj1g6hJLD18vFzogF6H1722nWDHdYeb63oVPG1Sxefwt34b3XgzHGAUkCBBEXHeRz7GIU0hJoSRiNI0RIkzngoAEnBR8QUJuhP-bzqezs59rVzlHurJQWXG9Fw68sYJ_LG5cyudtBuVtFMJilUtiAdS-_gZX5DLEyjQrk-UzGYoRglFgQOZUPIg6JiHbktQHHvuDaJ3XSr7R-0vt1vRKA
And now for something completely different; Not The Covid Crisis.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/08/cow-behind-first-smallpox-vaccine-stinking-bishop-cheese-risk/
Cows behind first smallpox vaccine and Stinking Bishop cheese at risk of dying out
Gloucester breed is famous for role in Edward Jenner’s 1796 experiment, which paved the way for inoculations
8 April 2021 • 6:00am
The cow behind the first smallpox vaccine is at risk of dying out, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust has said after releasing its new watchlist.
Gloucester cows have been named as a “priority” species as the number of herds has halved across the UK due to lack of breeder interest.
The cattle are famous for the crucial role of dairy cow Blossom in Edward Jenner’s 1796 experiment, which paved the way for the first vaccine. Breeding numbers have been low but consistent for some years, but herd numbers have declined significantly from 54 herds in 2006 to 27 herds in 2020.
The cow was credited with Jenner discovering the vaccine, as a milkmaid presented with cowpox which was assumed to be from this infected cow’s udder. He took some pus from her pock-mocked hand and scratched it into the arm of young Phipps, the son of his gardener, who became mildly ill, but recovered, confirming that cowpox can be transmitted from person to person. The boy was then scratched with the skin scab material of someone with a mild form of smallpox, and did not fall ill, proving the success of vaccination.
Outstanding British cheese is made from the milk of these cows, as it is high in protein and butterfat. Single Gloucester and Stinking Bishop cheeses are made exclusively from their milk.
These cheeses have PDO (protected designation of origin) status so can only be made from Gloucester Cattle in the local area.
But because they do not provide much milk, they almost died out in 1972, when only one significant herd remained and the specialist cattle society was set up to save the breed.
Rare Breeds Survival Trust Chief Executive Christopher Price told The Telegraph: “Gloucester cattle are an ancient native breed which have provided us with milk, beef and draught power for centuries. The breed also has a special place in the UK’s scientific heritage, thanks to the instrumental role of a Gloucester cow called Blossom in Edward Jenner’s 1796 experiment, which paved the way for what became known as vaccination.
“But this year’s RBST Watchlist shows that the number of Gloucester cattle herds has halved since 2006, we are working together with the Gloucester Cattle Society to help turn around this decline in herd numbers so that this wonderful native breed can have a strong future.”
The RBST reveals its “watchlist” annually, and most on the list have remained at the same or better levels due to a greater recognition of the benefits of native breeds. The government is currently considering paying farmers more to grow traditional breeds which add to biodiversity and usually achieve better welfare standards as they are slow-growing and suited to the British weather.
Tamworth pigs have also been labelled as at risk and in decline. They are the closest living relative of the Old English Forest Pig. In 2020 there were only 29 herds that registered offspring in the year, down from 66 in 2010. Female registrations in 2020 were 125, down from 268 in 2010.
Conservationists hail these pigs as “nature’s gardeners” as they root in the soil with their noses, spreading seeds allowing wildflowers and other plants to grow.
Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs board member Ben Goldsmith breeds the pigs on his Somerset farm.
Of his pigs, he said: “The Tamworths doing their thing, gardening, ploughing up the ground, doing what their wild boar ancestors did here across millennia… preparing the earth for a burst of annual wildflowers, opening up the ground for the songbirds which follow them everywhere. Pigs (or wild boar) are truly a keystone species – our landscapes are terribly impoverished for their absence.”
Other animals at risk include the Cleveland Bay Horse, which credits The Queen among its surviving breeders, and the Old English Goat, which was the most popular goat in the 19th century.”
Gloucester cows have been named as a “priority” species…
Breed!
They are our local breed and very beautiful, too. There are several herds round here, including at the Royal Agricultural University (formerly college)
If any college deserved “University” status the RAC is the one.
Pity it was not the Cow behind Bliar
The price of corn and wheat is rising at a fair old lick on the commodities markets.
A sign of things to come?
Best make sure you get your oats.
I used to build the machines that crush oats.
Not a lot of people know that.
Begorrah!
No..Peterborough.
The markets are just a maze. I’ll get our c oats.
The markets are just a maze. I’ll get our c oats.
331276+ up ticks,
Afternoon HM,
Good , go ketogenic, eat fat lab/lib/con politico’s
with greens added.
ogga…
All articles below are purely coincidental
Bill Gates Explains Why He’s the Largest Farmland Owner in America
It’s the first time Gates has publicly commented on land purchases made by his associated entities.
Bill Gates is now America’s biggest farmer – but what does he want with all that land?
The tech billionaire has been buying up prime land at a rapid rate, but is it for the sake of the planet, or purely financial?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/07/bill-gates-now-americas-biggest-farmer-does-want-land/
Nothing beats land: Bill Gates is now America’s biggest farmer
https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/nothing-beats-land-bill-gates-is-now-america-s-biggest-farmer-20210408-p57hd0.html
https://static.standard.co.uk/2021/04/08/15/ADAMS20210408-1.jpg?crop=3%3A2%2Csmart&width=640&auto=webp&quality=75
Putin’s Syria Stance Left ‘Strong Impression,’ Former Japanese PM Abe Says. 8 April 2021.
Putin challenged his counterparts to name a person who would be able to rule Syria if Assad were removed, a question they struggled to answer, Abe recounted.
“The G7 leaders said they had the Free Syrian Army, in response to which Putin asked if the Free Syrian Army had ever won a battle. He said they are ‘moderates’ and that ‘moderates’ do not fight. He said that he knew that the West were selling weapons to them and that they were reselling them to others. Putin asked if they were really ready to govern Syria. This was realism,” Abe said.
“I do not want to say that Putin was right. Whether good or bad, his ideas were based on a strong concept of power politics believing that in the Middle East, the ruthless and strong win,” the former prime minister said.
Rare piece this. Putin is usually portrayed unfavourably so as to dis his policies which are usually superior to those of the West, which in this case, and still is, was to hand Syria over to the Jihadists!
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/08/putins-syria-stance-left-strong-impression-former-japanese-pm-abe-says-a73510
A strange piece from “The Moscow Times”,a west -leaning (used to be a newspaper but now only in digital format) with its head office in Helsinki.
“Putin was never on his back foot against the seven other nations. Indeed, he appeared almost dominant,” Abe told the Japan Foreign Policy Forum in the interview published last week.
Colour me surprised!
Putin has got Russia to the stage where it is self-sufficient.He doesn’t have to make any deals that don’t advance Russia.
Putin’s Syria Stance Left ‘Strong Impression,’ Former Japanese PM Abe Says. 8 April 2021.
Putin challenged his counterparts to name a person who would be able to rule Syria if Assad were removed, a question they struggled to answer, Abe recounted.
“The G7 leaders said they had the Free Syrian Army, in response to which Putin asked if the Free Syrian Army had ever won a battle. He said they are ‘moderates’ and that ‘moderates’ do not fight. He said that he knew that the West were selling weapons to them and that they were reselling them to others. Putin asked if they were really ready to govern Syria. This was realism,” Abe said.
“I do not want to say that Putin was right. Whether good or bad, his ideas were based on a strong concept of power politics believing that in the Middle East, the ruthless and strong win,” the former prime minister said.
Rare piece this. Putin is usually portrayed unfavourably so as to dis his policies which are usually superior to those of the West, which in this case, and still is, was to hand Syria over to the Jihadists!
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/08/putins-syria-stance-left-strong-impression-former-japanese-pm-abe-says-a73510
The Independent reporting that thousands of “UK citizens” are rushing to return to the UK from Pakistan to avoid the expensive Red Line Covid rules coming into force at the weekend. Many airlines are flying them in.
I wonder if new “spouses” will be admitted – -and all their families given the right to arrive and sponge.
331276+up ticks,
ALL in house, you have, bearing in mind genuine opposition then you have in-house tory (ino) opposition, remember the way moggy use to go to the wire regarding dealings with may, may always come out on top, he was not attacking her he was protecting her & her policies.
breitbart,
‘Sunset Clause’ Could Time Limit Vaccine Passport Mandate: Report
If only more of us had listened to you back then and put Nigel in No.10 🙁
Nicked,sick Modern Life
“I see in the modern Britain utopia that’s been created for us a public park in
Worthing is described as a ‘no go area plagued by drug dealers’ after a
father was nearly beaten to death standing up for his son.
The Mail reported: ‘Sellers and users were said to openly trade and take
drugs, including crack cocaine, making Longcroft Park a menacing place
to visit in daylight and completely avoided after dark.’
What a great job our politicans have done for this country. A suburban park
where you can get nearly beaten to death in broad daylight. And what a
fantastic job the police do, dressed as clowns with isis beards and UFC
tattoos, allowing public spaces to be defiled whilst they fine people
for buying a coffee or going for a walk.”
331276+ up ticks,
Afternoon Rik,
My belief is they are suitably rewarded at every voting opportunity by a very grateful electorate who return them to their lucrative positions of power every time.
Mind many of the people do their bit, as in if a fringe party starts spouting common sense & truthsaying they are promptly stomped on, NO ONE threatens the L/L/C/G coalition close shop.
Police called to Prince Harry and Meghan’s California home nine times in as many months
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/04/08/police-called-harry-meghans-california-home-nine-times-many/
I wonder how many times they have also called out the Life Boat, the Fire Brigade, the Social Services and Meals on Wheels?
Harry is reported to have said: “We wanted to get away from the media attention and lead quiet, private lives but we got severe withdrawal symptoms if we were not on the front page of the papers or in front of the cameras for more than 24 hours.“
Not DV, surely?
I have highlighted some of the juicier insults
Dominic Green
How Prince Harry became celebrity frontman for a very questionable industry
Prince Harry is now chief impact officer for BetterUp, a Californian corporate consultancy whose ‘mission’ is to sell online life coaching with — in his words, — ‘innovation, impact and integrity’. Harry may not realise it, but he is the latest celebrity frontman for the rapidly growing, broadly unregulated and frequently dubious corporate ‘coaching’ industry. And you might not realise it, but Harry, Duke of Malibu is your future, because California’s today is America’s tomorrow and Britain’s next week.
BetterUp is one of a group of Californian companies on the growing, corporate edge of life coaching. Its competitors have names like Workbot, Hone and Clear Review and they all claim to have discovered the secret to improving motivation and productivity at every level of corporate life — using data modelling and artificial intelligence to target what BetterUp calls ‘hyperpersonalised coaching’ at every employee. Imagine Big Brother running the department of human resources in the voice of an especially insistent yoga instructor. Imagine a future in which your boss feels you’re not productive enough, so he sends you to online therapy to make you a better worker, and receives reports on your innermost emotions.
BetterUp was co-founded in 2013 by a 27-year-old Texan named Alexi Robichaux. At the time he was, he says, ‘bummed’ by his experiences as a Silicon Valley product manager and ‘soul-searching’ for a better way to do digital business: ‘I started to look for help and engaged in everything from executive coaching to life coaching to therapy to self-help books. I even walked across Spain on the Camino de Santiago.’ Robichaux says that his vision ‘crystallised’ on his pilgrimage: to ‘use technology to scale coaching and make the lives of millions of professionals better’.
BetterUp now calls itself the world’s largest coaching network. It has 270 full-time employees, and subcontracts the services of 2,000 coaches to more than 300 companies, including Nasa, Hilton, Chevron and Warner Media. In February, BetterUp’s market value was more than $1.7 billion. And that was before the wave of publicity and interest when Prince Harry joined the firm.
In early March, three weeks before Harry announced that he’d ‘personally found working with a BetterUp coach to be invaluable’, the company launched two new products, Identify AI and Coaching Clouds. Identify AI gathers data on every employee — ‘where each person is in their career, their mindsets and behaviours, learning preferences’ —and assesses their ‘readiness for coaching’. It then filters this information through a company’s ‘strategic priorities’ to identify ‘who the right people are to invest in, and the appropriate dosage and type of coaching needed to best meet their needs’.
Coaching Clouds comprises three layers of hyperpersonalised coaching. The top layer, Executive Coaching, will keep you in the corner office. In Professional Clouds, coaches with ‘at least ten years of prior corporate coaching’ mentor ‘emerging leaders and high potential individual contributors’. The third format, Field Cloud, is aimed at ‘frontline employees’, cannon fodder like ‘customer service agents and retail associates’: call centre workers, for instance, who are coached to show more ‘empathy’.
Robichaux claims BetterUp’s data demonstrates that when employees are ‘offered learning programs tailored to their preferences, they put twice as much effort into learning and development, and experience a 180 per cent increase in job effectiveness’. He doesn’t say what happens to employees who refuse the offer or dislike the dosage, or lack the requisite ‘readiness’ to submit to cod-psychiatric management-speak.
BetterUp claims to give its clients a ‘validated, quantitative measure of the impact of our service’. But there is no external assessment, and the validation and quantitative measurement are as arbitrary as BetterUp’s sales pitch. For BetterUp, ‘meaning’ and ‘satisfaction’ lie in the directing of work towards a collective goal. But there can be no objective measure of how people feel about their jobs. Consider Meghan, Duchess of Sussex’s dissatisfaction when she was temping in Britain, and how she felt about The Firm’s collective goals.
And who would dare to tell the boss that they think it’s intrusive of BetterUp to ‘isolate’ the ‘psychological factors’ that determine ‘whether, short of a medical emergency, an employee chooses to come to work’, or that it’s manipulative to use an algorithm to detect individual failures in nutrition and sleep? Who’d dare suggest that it can be irrelevant whether a worker is insufficiently keen on ‘diversity and inclusion’? Or even that BetterUp is a sinister waste of time?
Laszlo Bock, who worked on Google’s attempt at data-driven HR, calls the promise of data-driven efficiency ‘Silicon Valley fairy dust’. Peter Cappelli, a professor of management at the Wharton School of Business, believes that there is ‘virtually nothing — indeed, nothing I can think of — at the level of the individual employee that clearly drives revenue and so forth. There are far too many steps in the chain’.
Business coaching and life coaching are the modern faces of what the Boomers called the Human Potential Movement. The HPM’s godfather was Abraham Maslow, who devised the now-ubiquitous hierarchy of needs, a triangle with the physiological basics at the bottom and ‘self-actualisation’ at the top. The goal of therapy was no longer Sigmund Freud’s modest aim of reconciling the patient to ‘ordinary unhappiness’; it was unleashing everyone’s innate genius.
Not surprisingly, the HPM took off in 1960s California. Incubated at the Esalen Institute at Big Sur, it became the counter-culture’s way of doing self-help: the long, strange trip of encounter groups, Gestalt therapy, Zen, holotropic breathwork and Transcendental Meditation.
As the Boomers aged, the seekers and swingers in the hot springs at Esalen mutated into the spiritual businessmen of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1971, Werner Erhard, a car salesman influenced by Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, launched Erhard Seminars Training in San Francisco. EST was a therapeutic bootcamp: no wristwatches, no bathroom breaks, no talking until spoken to. The goal was to force rapid enlightenment about personal potential through ‘ruthless compassion’. Erhard is still alive and highly litigious, so you’ll have to look online to read how he beat accusations of incest, bullying and tax evasion. In 1984, he launched a less ruthless version of EST, the Forum. Its successor, Landmark, is still going. You may be familiar with the glassy-eyed zeal of graduates of its three-day psychotic break, the Landmark Forum. They sound not unlike Prince Harry when he gushes about ‘peak performance’, ‘transforming pain into purpose’ and unlocking ‘potential and opportunity that we never knew we had inside of us’.
There is no federal oversight of America’s coaching industry. Anyone can call themselves a ‘life coach’ or a ‘business coach’. BetterUp says that its coaches are ‘ICF–certified experts or licensed therapists’. The ICF is the International Coaching Federation. Its founder, Thomas J. Leonard, worked at EST in the 1980s. He also founded the International Association of Coaching, which sells ICF-accredited courses, and CoachVille, which sells add-on training and coaches the coaches at its Center for Coaching Mastery.
The ICF is not a neutral self-regulator like the American Bar Association. It is part of the coaching economy. Apart from selling accreditation, the ICF runs a Coaching in Organisations programme for businesses, and a Thought Leadership Institute that ‘facilitates interaction between innovators, technologists, venture capitalists, press and influencers’. It also sells tickets to ICF Converge, its annual seminar for coaches.
The modern coaching industry is to Sigmund Freud what Ronald McDonald is to Auguste Escoffier. Workers are sliced and diced into profiles through digital astrology. Corporations love this because it promises to raise productivity and reduce healthcare costs. Insurers love it for the same reasons.
It’s almost painful to think that Prince Harry believes his enlistment as a corporate mascot will have a positive impact on mental health in the boardrooms and call centres of America, when the only impact of him serving as the credulous face of a dodgy and shoddily regulated industry will be to embarrass his family once again.
Clucking Bell. Who needs Mogadon?
Do people really plough through this garbage; and pay for it?
How to win friends and influence people ?
The power of positive thinking
Through every adversity lies the greater benefit
“Americans used to roar like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security.”
Among the Covid sceptics: ‘We are being manipulated, without a shadow of a doubt’
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/94c7518b48f2d7d8969465dec4d84e4a9b22873a/201_34_4693_2817/master/4693.jpg?width=1300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=f08c91b7a0a63ae26e12cbdb5c5e021e
Apparently there is a march in Vienna on Saturday. Is this an international thing? will there be marches in other capitals?
Bit i found odd: talking to my swiss chum slumming in Geneva we drifted on to vaccine passports.
I said ‘we’ll have to fight them’. He didn’t really understand why. I said ‘because they’ll force them on us to live normally.’
‘Why don’t you just tell the government to stick it?’
‘Well, we can’t. They do what they want.’
‘Not really a democracy then, is it?’
“Jack S mitchelin • 27 minutes ago • edited
Notice you still haven’t given us a credible reason why we should vote For Britain. No surprise there mitchelin.
ETA: UKIP 2010 manifesto. Nigel, “A load of drivel” as he binned it. Possibly the only honest politician regards party manifestoes 🙂
1•Edit•Reply”
Any fringe party supporters here want to try convincing we millions of centre-right voters?
Do you mean ‘normal people’?
As a Lefty, what did you make of Brown going to court to prove his manifesto was a load of made up tripe?
Afternoon wibbling 🙂
I mean the millions of centre-right voters with no party to vote for obviously.
“When you’re far enough to the right, almost the entire populace are “Lefties.”
Your problem, not ours.
I am not ‘right wing’, I am a libertarian.
You are a Lefty though. Why do you keep denying it?
Why do you “libertarians” keep rejecting every election result?
You’re as bad as the Far-Left.
HAPPY HOUR
Ada ” Have you had your jab yet, Bert?”
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dadee5c18e095b3b26eac604f0f1330db4f2337ac30ee0acc0331382e35dcbf6.jpg
“Not yet, pet. Shall I get the blood clot, the nausea or the AARRGGHHHH!”
Ada “Bert, since having the jab I have had really bad headaches”
Bert ” Sorry to hear that, Ada, so have I”
Ada ” But Bert, you haven’t had the Jab yet”
Bert ” I know, I think I’m having sympathy symptoms”
Ada ” Have you had your jab yet, Bert?”
Bert ” It’s tomorrow, any chance of a farewell shag?”
Ada ” I’ve got a headache Bert”
Bert “That’s the vaccine, the only known cure is a shag”
A Bardic reply !
Nurse: Which arm?
WS: As you like it
Nurse: was that painful?
WS: Much ado about nothing.
Nurse: you will have to have a second jab.
WS: Measure for measure?
Nurse: so what do you think of the govt handling of Covid?
WS: Comedy of Errors.
Nurse: Let me introduce myself; I’m Sister MacBeth.
All’s Well That Ends Well….
WS: How long before I’m free of side effects?
N: Twelfth Night [if you’re lucky]?
WS: Where did you get the dodgy PPE?
N: Merchant of Venice [a friend of Halfcock’s]
The semiconductor shortage has been forcing international auto manufacturers to shut production in some countries. The disruption is expected to last for several months, experts say.
Wolf Richter of wolfstreet.com, who has worked for a decade as general manager and COO of a large Ford dealership and its subsidiaries, about the ongoing chip turmoil.
“The semiconductor shortage is a real problem,” says Wolf, adding, “one of the drivers behind it is that we have the sudden boom in durable goods sales in the United States and other countries too.”
He explains that there’s been a historic spike in durable goods and manufacturers just weren’t ready for it. “This goes up the supply chain, there’s all kinds of problems in shipping now.”
“It’s pretty crazy, I’ve never seen anything like that,” Wolf says, pointing out that the semiconductor shortage has hit the car industry particularly hard.
Well at least Rattle has gone from England. He’s a semi-conductor, if ever there was one.
Can’t they just cut whole conductors in half?
Horizontally or vertically?
They only ever seem to have one baton when conducting anyway.
They did, thats why they are called semi conductors!
Ahem……………..
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06ae8a6f015372e4ddf3dc474eda76b22a27d9d269deeb2769770071259db6a4.jpg
Bunch of tax-dodgers.
Could arrange a Tea Party, though!
Nah. Chucked it in the harbour instead of nicking it.
Only a few, just for show, the rest they took.
They dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbour, taking almost three hours to complete the task.
Wanna bet they didn’t float?
Like Deliveroo… (stock exchange joke).
Many, many years ago I bought shares in the company I worked for on the float.
Lost every penny.
Crash of 87.
Also, to add injury to insult, I lost my job with them!
That’s me for yet another cold dreary day of weather. I am getting bored of (sic) it! Tomorrow the same and Saturday. Thank God for the jigsaw.
Tomorrow the MR is volunteering at the GP Surgery while another 1,000 people receive the Final Solution.
I commend the programme on the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Waldemar
PolishnameJanuszczak on (of all unlikely places) Channel 5. He does an immense amount of research, makes his own films and so – unlike virtually every “presenter” these days, actually knows what he talking about. Over the years, he has taught me and the MR so much about art, Yes, he is quirky, and his style takes getting used to. But the knowledge is profound.A demain.
He is very interesting; some time ago, we watched his programme on the Vandals. It was an eye opener.
His prog on Tilman Reimanschneider led to us making the trip of a lifetime to the Wurzburg area where we saw about 70% of all Tilman’s magnificent carvings.
Search on Januszczak in YouTube, and there’s a lot to watch!
That’s me for yet another cold dreary day of weather. I am getting bored of (sic) it! Tomorrow the same and Saturday. Thank God for the jigsaw.
Tomorrow the MR is volunteering at the GP Surgery while another 1,000 people receive the Final Solution.
I commend the programme on the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Waldemar
PolishnameJanuszczak on (of all unlikely places) Channel 5. He does an immense amount of research, makes his own films and so – unlike virtually every “presenter” these days, actually knows what he talking about. Over the years, he has taught me and the MR so much about art, Yes, he is quirky, and his style takes getting used to. But the knowledge is profound.A demain.
Today went shopping. Took the mother in law as staying in would mean dismemberment.
Got to checkout, I say ‘blast, forgot the tonic water’ (as her in doors gets cramps).
Mother in law scoots off and comes back with a bottle of bathtub gin. It’s like some bonkers word association game.
An usually serious article by Michael Deacon in the DT.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/should-ban-children-social-media-ruins-futures/
“We should ban children from social media before it ruins their futures
Luckily, my son is too young to know what social media is, but when he finds out, I’m going to prohibit him from using it – for his own good
7 April 2021 • 7:00pm
I was going to start by saying that social media is the most dangerous invention since the nuclear bomb. But then I realised that it would be an absurd piece of hyperbole. After all, you can easily argue that nuclear weapons help to preserve peace. On social media, by contrast, people do nothing but fight. So really, social media is far worse.
There are two main reasons it is so dreadful. The first is that it’s full of people expressing opinions we disagree with.
Before the advent of social media, this wasn’t something we had to put up with all that much. That was because we formed friendships with people who thought much the same way as we did; we married people who thought much the same way as we did; and we only read whichever newspaper best reflected the world as we saw it.
Of course, we were at least dimly aware that, in society as a whole, there existed people who held opinions that were different from our own. But we tended not to marry those people, or to read their newspapers. As a result, we were able to live undisturbed in our happy, soundproof little bubbles.
Social media, however, has made that impossible. Because on social media we’re perpetually bombarded by opinions different from our own, and links to articles that contradict, or even ridicule, our view of the world. The experience is both confusing and upsetting. Until now, we simply had no idea that other people were so stupid, rude and intolerant. Why can’t they just be intelligent, pleasant and generous, like us?
In short: we were a lot better off when we didn’t know what other people thought all the time. And, by the same token, we were a lot better off when other people didn’t know what we thought all the time, either.
Because this is the second big problem with social media. The opinions we express on it can be held against us – not just now, but for the rest of our lives.
As reported in The Telegraph this week, children are now being warned that their future careers could be jeopardised by their old tweets and online comments. A tweet considered “offensive” can be recorded by the police as a “non-crime hate incident”, which will show up when prospective employers carry out a background check. It could very easily put those employers off.
Even if the police don’t get involved, a childhood tweet can still cost you your job. Take the recent example of Alexi McCammond. Last month she lost her new job as editor of Teen Vogue after it was discovered that, 10 years earlier, as a teenager, she’d posted a tweet grumbling about her class’s “stupid Asian” teaching assistant, and another tweet saying she was “Googling how not to wake up with swollen, Asian eyes”.
But the story doesn’t quite end there. Among those who called for McCammond’s sacking was Christine Davitt, Teen Vogue’s social media manager. It then emerged that, 11 years earlier, as a teenager, Davitt herself had posted tweets featuring a racial slur. Davitt, thankfully for her, remains in her job.
How alarming, though, to think that you could be fired for a view you held as a teenager. Indeed, fired for a view that you may never really have held at all. Rather than the public proclamation of some deep-seated belief, it may simply have been an immature expression of annoyance, an unthinking use of slang, or even just a joke intended to amuse the tiny band of friends who follow you online.
Yet now, years or even decades later, it’s cost you your job, your prospects, your ability to pay your rent. You’re being punished as an adult for your sins as a child. Sins that, at the time you committed them, may not even have been considered sins at all.
But these days, the past is invariably judged by the standards of the present. Which means that, on social media, you not only have to avoid offending people who might read your words now – you also have to avoid offending people who might read your words 10 or 20 years’ time. Which isn’t easy – because you have no idea what might cause offence in 10 or 20 years’ time. Eating meat? Driving a car? Enjoying Mrs Brown’s Boys? Your guess is as good as mine.
All I can say is: I’m glad we didn’t have social media when I was a teenager. Goodness knows how many of today’s ethical certainties I would have violated 25 years in advance.
Luckily, my son is too young even to know what social media is. But when he finds out, I’m going to ban him from using it – for his own good. No doubt he’ll be angry, and consider it cruel and unfair. But I’m sure he’ll come round to my point of view, in a decade or three. The risk simply isn’t worth it.
Forget buying your children books, and taking them to museums, and hiring them a private tutor. If you want to boost their career prospects, the best thing you can do is rip their phone from their hand, and smash it to bits.”
I hope, probably forlornly, that there will come a time when people get praised for standing up to the bullies on twitter, Instagram, disqus etc.
The people who refused to back down when attacked by the politically correct, the perpetually offended and the always certain they are right.
Where being banned is a badge, where blocking and flagging is the new offence.
“I hope, probably forlornly…”
My history isn’t the best, but I’m thinking in battle, the “Forlorn Hope” were a lost cause.
10/10.
But the greatest glory was heaped on those who survived.
It’s why I chose that wording.
Think I first learnt the term reading up on the Siege of Badajoz 1812.
Mr Sharpe told me
And he was there 🙂
ETA: When he wasn’t advertising Yorkshire Tea.
Possibly his finest role 🙂
That comment makes me feel unsafe – you are cancelled.
You should get yourself over to Breitbart. You’d fit in well there 🙂
You should get yourself over to Breitbart. You’d fit in well there 🙂
Equally, politicians shoul be banned from social media as well
Not necessarily.
The more they post, the more they expose themselves.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sir-richard-lexington-sutton-one-of-the-uks-richest-men-stabbed-to-death-at-country-estate-hk06dgztr
Not even being a multi millionaire makes you safe.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eef05eddd762cb4967ead9c5e117b95f7a463b79ddfa518d0c0853aa4b786658.png
Sad but too true. For some.
The price of corn and wheat is rising at a fair old lick on the commodities markets.
All articles below are purely coincidental, or are they
Bill Gates Explains Why He’s the Largest Farmland Owner in America
It’s the first time Gates has publicly commented on land purchases made by his associated entities.
Bill Gates is now America’s biggest farmer – but what does he want with all that land?
The tech billionaire has been buying up prime land at a rapid rate, but is it for the sake of the planet, or purely financial?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk…
Nothing beats land: Bill Gates is now America’s biggest farmer
https://www.smh.com.au/busi…
But I thought the idea was nobody would “own” land any more. Well, except Mr Gates, of course!
He certainly wants to control our meat-not-meat diets,
I was watching a Q&A session with mayor Sadiq Khan early this morning when the first questioner, a young lady, seemed to suggest that panic alarms should be provided by the State (or maybe just London).
Amazon UK sell a pack of 3 for £9.99; even the Police-approved unit costs only £10.92, so hardly an expensive item for women in their late teens to twenties – the ones who are most likely to be targeted.
My invalid wife has several young female carers, mostly around 19-25 years old, and most of whom have the fashionable long straight hair (though scrunched up in buns when they are carrying out close personal care). I discovered to my amazement that almost all of them are wearing hair extensions (so that’s how they grow it so fast!) and on enquiring how much those cost, was told that the typical charge was around £350-400, and that’s not in London. Then there’s a recurring charge of around £40 a time to move the extensions up as the owner’s own hair grows out.
So if ladies like the young person in the Q&A session are concerned about their security but balk at paying around £10 for an attack alarm, or even one for each handbag (if they carry such a thing these days) then something’s wrong with the young. The Entitlement mind-set has really taken hold.
2017 General Election…
“Dementia Tax is the only issue at this election!!!”
Who knew elderly homeowners were such socialists when it comes to who should pay for their care.
Happy Thursday, Jack. Remember, those elderly homeowners will have paid a lot of tax and NICs.
Strewth!
Plenty money sloshing about, then.
Other people’s money.
Don’t be so judgemental, Herr Oberst. I have seen lots of young women walking down the street and they can’t even afford a decent pair of jeans. Most of them have horizontal tears in the knees area. And worse still, they can’t even afford to buy a needle and cotton to mend the tears.
:-))
http://i3.cmail19.com/ei/j/4D/725/9B3/csimport/Screenshot2021-04-08at16.29.40.162951.png
‘Next slide please.’
The first thing i thought of when i saw that was the three ski-jumps at Lahti.
The one the ‘girl’ is on is forEddie The Eagle
A ski jumper is never more than 2 metres from the ground.
Have you tried? Firstborn did, when he was young, but became too wide in relation to his height to make anything of it. Can ski alpine like a champion, though!
Too old for that lark.But we do go to the Championship meet at Lahti.Its pretty close.
And if they become a cropper 2 metres from the surface…..
Sexist – woman has smaller slide.
Yes,it’s a parody account but it’s soooo hard to tell these days………….
https://twitter.com/EcommunistForum/status/1379856795083010052?s=20
Duke of Edinburgh parody account was better: 🙂
Blimey. Don’t show the portrait in the attic.
I’m not normally a vindictive person, but I do hope there is a hell so that Blair can rot in it!
Some say Maggie will be waiting for him.
They were each other’s greatest fans.
Maggie and Blair?
I reckon that they were from different planets …
I reckon the portrait in the attic would be an improvement on the sight of that evil bastard. A sort of reverse ferret.
‘Night All
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6fc192608ce15640fcfd9e6253d140616b69d9d7c1932ade7fc5bb5ce8ac902.jpg
Night .I’m off too.
Its 22:15 here.
SNP leader to replace Sturgeon?
331276+ up ticks,
But the electorate is still working on left / right, party first and foremost, sod the consequences,
https://twitter.com/berniespofforth/status/1380210813470978049
The Left have never wanted or fought for freedom. Throughout history they’ve been the oppressors, the thugs, the warmongers.
The Left didn’t give up on freedom, they seek to kill it and replace it with their own demented, back to front ideology.
331276+ up ticks,
Evening W,
The left has always been there, three decades ago the cons (ino) openly showed they had formed a coalition ultimately
the great reset being top of the agenda.
Evening, all. What would really lift the fear that has engulfed our nation would be for the government and MSM to stop stoking it.
‘Nuff Said
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d859df11fa625ce5ef4c7337714748cf1c5e52306c97576b1f709b6d1ff9f79.png
Evening Conners
MOH has had the first jab and I’ve had texts to book the second. When I put the URL in (I don’t have a smartphone to click on the link), it comes up with Server Not Found. I shall have to ring the surgery tomorrow because when I access the digital NHS site to book a test it tells me it can’t be booked for that person. Left hand – meet right hand.
Read Dr Yeadon on Conservative Woman before booking your injection.
Three part articles starting on Tuesday.
It’ll put you off for sure.
Conway is booking it for his wife, I understood, who is a high risk person.
The government response to a relatively harmless Corona virus has all but wrecked the economy, put millions out of work, allowed public ‘servants’ to avoid work whilst furloughed, scared the shit out of the population, caused much more harm by devoting the NHS response exclusively to Covid whilst neglecting other diseases and necessary cancer and other vital treatments, squandered billions on their corrupt ‘chumocracy’ and the entirely useless Test and Trace App.
In addition relatively cheap treatments for this cold flu have been sidelined in favour of untested vaccines which are likely to prove harmful if not devastating to human health in the longer term, experienced clinical and research scientists contesting the Whitty-Vallance-Ferguson modelling have been ‘cancelled’ and all opposition to the mad hatter modelling predictions by Imperial College of imminent doom have been threatened with sanctions at their place of work if they do not shut up.
The psychological damage to the Nation arising from lockdowns and restrictions on normal human activity is incalculable and will take years to resolve and heal.
The government led by Johnson and his henchman (a mere boy) Hancock have been complicit in possibly the most deliberate and nihilistic fraud on the British people. I expect when the full extent of their treachery is measured that they will be brought to trial and convicted for crimes against humanity.
The winning side will tell the story, as usual.
Unfortunately, corium, the greater the crime the less the punishment. ‘Twas ever thus.
I couldn’t agree more with you. Except for the last sentence. I do not believe there ever will be a proper investigation into this monumental fraud on the western world. It is part of a deliberate policy to depopulate and/or impoverish the U.K. the middle class will practically disappear in terms of salary, land and home ownership will gradually be outlawed, foreign travel vastly restricted (going that way already with talk of injection passports and the cost of “gold” standard PCR tests), but those smug people who boast about having had the injections will be upset when they discover, having dispensed with the uninjectioned, they are then at the mercy of some other restriction/noose tightening.
As the majority of the population has been so obliging as to fall in with all the petty restrictions, rules, regulations and legislation, they will have no option but to fall in with the next round of orders.
I am not religious but I pray that people will wake up and smell the coffee very soon before it’s too late.
Goodnight, all.
Sod it! Just had to get out of bed, get the ladder out and go up into the attic to see what the hell was making the noise up there. It turned out that a little furry invader had been caught by its leg in one of the traps and was scrabbling about dragging the trap with it!
Now dispatched and disposed of.
Sounds horrible !
Poor thing.
Why not block the holes to stop them getting in instead of such horrible cruelty ?
We would never do a thing like that.
The house is over 120 years old with 2′ think stone walls. They will find a way in whatever I do. You learn to live with it.
Horrible thing to do though.
The trap snapped shut on it’s leg so it was probably in agony with a broken leg.
How grotesque !
Are you going to keep on enacting the same horror story time and time over ?
The traps usually kill them instantaneously. I’ve never seen a mouse get caught and not killed. The only thing that really gets rid of them is a cat that likes to hunt at night though.
He’s talking about squirrels I think.
Not that it makes any difference because traps can mean slow painful death to anything.
A bit like coronavirus legislation then. Coronavirus is not the killer it’s the collateral damage from the legislation. Similar to animal traps.
Catching squirrels by the leg is nothing to be proud of and proof that traps are inhumane.
I’m not saying it is but accidents like this happen and I sure that was not intended.
Coronavirus legislation on the other hand has been an intentional slow death of large numbers of people but there seems to be a general acceptance that that’s OK. It appears to me that some people have their priorities wrong.
I agree with you about C-19 but, presumably, accusing me of ”wrong priorities” is very strange when I was analyzing the ulterior motives of the Johnson gang over a year ago.
You weren’t doing any such analysis at all ever to my knowledge.
Traps are inhumane. If he doesn’t want squirrels in his attic or loft then the only thing to do is block up all the holes. Dad had that done and now this house is squirrel proof.
Otherwise it will be an endless cycle of horrible trapping because there is an endless supply of squirrels looking for a cozy home.
I thought mice. Mousetraps are pretty good at killing instantaneously, as I said, I’ve never seen this happen before.
First time we’ve had one still alive after setting the trap off.
That’s life in the countryside.
It is for people who are cruel.
To set a trap so that the caught animal drags it around in agony with a broken leg.
As long as it’s only mice and not rats!
You should use a humane trap and set them free.
Not so humane when I often don’t go into the attic from one week to the next.
You’d need to check them, obviously.
Covid is a strange thing..
There are two care homes within a few miles of home. Covid has been right through both care homes with virtually all patients and staff testing positive.
Fortunately no fatalities. No hospitalizations and everyone recovered.
Some nasty side effects to the vaccines though..
Same at the hospital where my daughter was working last spring. It ripped through the place, staff and patients, mostly elderly – not one fatality, even the woman in her nineties.
The relish with which some people on places like twitter are bragging about their post vaccine symptoms as proof that “it’s working” is a bit distasteful considering that it’s a trial, so the long term effects aren’t known, and some unfortunates have been taken to hospital or even died.
Two of the people involved in the QinetiQ scandal of 2003 where 31% of the company was handed over free to Carlyle Group where Mr Soros was a star client, are involved in determining the UK’s fate in 2021.
Particularly as QinetiQ was quite possibly a billion dollar plus fraud, that’s very worrying.
Good morning all – Friday’s new page is here.