Tuesday 10 November: It has come to being made a criminal for driving a partner to work

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),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/11/10/lettersit-has-come-made-criminal-driving-partner-work/

806 thoughts on “Tuesday 10 November: It has come to being made a criminal for driving a partner to work

  1. How close is a Covid-19 vaccine after the Pfizer breakthrough – and who will get it first? 10 November 2020.

    Vaccines being developed by Oxford University and in Germany could be ready this year, experts have said, but there are also candidates being tested in the US, Russia and China. There are also some signs that China is pulling ahead in the race.

    But in an exciting development, 30 million doses of coronavirus vaccine could be heading to the UK before Christmas after US multinational Pfizer and German biotech firm BioNTech revealed on November 9 that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 among those without evidence of prior infection.

    Morning everyone. As noted here the Chinese and Russians are already well on their way to proving their vaccines and yet there has been no effort to contact them or acquire their product. One would have thought that in a supposed global crisis that anything that promised succour would have been taken up or at the very least investigated. Buying a vaccine is after all much like buying anything else. You pays your money and takes your choice. The only reasonable conclusion is that it has always been the intention of the US and UK governments to accept only a Western produced vaccine, no matter what the sacrifice in economic destruction or human life in the West.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/covid-19-vaccine-pfizer/

    1. The question I was asking myself last night was do they want to give it to the people they want to survive and control or do they want to give it to the people that they want to die?

    2. I’m wary enough of a Pfizer vaccine. Wouldn’t let any Chinese crap near me.
      And the economic destruction is purely made by panicky governments not following the numbers, nothing to do with vaccines or lack thereof. Since governments made the descisons to destroy the economy, what makes you think they won’t make other stupid decisions when vaccines (effective??) are fully available (hah! don’t hold your breath!)?

    3. ‘Morning, Minty. “…Chinese and Russians…no effort to contact them or acquire their product”.

      Apart from not believing a word they say, and certainly not trusting that their vaccines are both effective and safe, information regarding their manufacture was probably stolen from the west via their hacking activities. No thanks! The West (and elsewhere) has been poisoned by the Chinese plague, so why should we ever trust them again, never mind allowing them to profit from it?

      1. …certainly not trusting that their vaccines are effective and safe…

        How can you know this without finding out and if they were indeed stolen from the West in what light does that place the Western vaccine?

        1. Never forget the crash of the Tupolev Tu 144 at the Paris Airshow in 1973. There is a very strong suspicion that ‘modified’ plans were leaked to the Russians, which included a weakness in the airframe causing the aircraft to break up. This stopped their ‘Concordski’ programme dead in its tracks. There is always the possibility that the Chinese and Russian thirst for nicking our ideas has been exploited in other areas. We may never find out whether or not their vaccines are what they say they are, but we should never take the risk.

          1. I’m sure they stole Sputnik from us and inveigled the Light Brigade to charge the guns!

          2. I don’t know about the Light Brigade, one would have to ask the Stevensons about that. However, given the amount of spying and betrayal in the 50s, it is very possible that information on satellites and rocketry did find its way from the USA to the Soviet Union.

          3. I was urged to have the ‘flu jab 20 years ago. I gave in and had it. I was extremely ill for a month – “pure coincidence” said the Quack. Noting will persuade me to have any other injection, vaccination etc. Ever.

          4. For the first time in my life I had a flu jab 2 weeks ago. No ill effects whatsoever until it came to removing the sticking plaster the nurse put on my arm. It removed hair with it. Painfully!

          5. Shouldn’t have been necessary to apply a plaster after a flu jab, however, they can be soaked off in the bath quite easily.

          6. Well, neither have I, because my arthritis would stop me from getting out of the tub. But then, I don’t let nurses stick unnecessary plasters on me.

          1. Annie, I am beginning to think like a conspiracy theorist. Since Boris (and most governments) seem to have painted themselves into a corner, could this really be a placebo drug to convince us all that we are now safe and can thus stop constant lockdowns and return to normality?

        2. Morning all. I find it extremely sinister that already there is talk of making anti-vax comments illegal. Think of that. Apparently in Singapore there have been prosecutions for “spreading misinformation”. We are completely at the mercy of our government. Locked up until closer to Christmas, when we’ll be allowed maybe 5 days freedom, then locked down again probably until March 2021. To coincide with the Chancellor’s extended furlough scheme.

          Not enough people are willing to kick back against this present regime to make a difference and when whichever vaccine becomes available will eventually become mandatory. No vaccine – no travel, etc. etc.

  2. Morning, all Y’all.
    Still darker than the inside of a Cabinet minister – had to turn the lights on to check if my eyes were open… but Second Son has employment all week, a first, and he’s well chuffed! He enjoys the work, and the pay (once it arrives) – but he’ll get his first “socialist” moment when he sees how much tax there is to pay!

      1. Been trying to keep to my normal days when I would have a wine with company otherwise I’ll end up with a bottle a day

        1. I know the feeling! I am amazed I have managed not to have a drink for the last three days. Something will be building up to make my life difficult shortly, I’m sure.

    1. It was fairly dry here, too. I did manage to get out in the garden and get some more tidying up done. I also planted some daffs that I’d stuffed in pots earlier in the year. They are beginning to break through the soil. Spring is on its way 🙂

  3. Britain responds angrily to expulsion of diplomats from Belarus.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a9624fa44148ceec7c932d47f8ad79cf453f6ef598356209a1eaa9605d4df74.png

    The UK’s foreign and defence secretaries have reacted angrily to the expulsion of two British diplomats from strife-torn Belarus.

    Have some dignity Raab! It looks like two meddling Mi6 spooks have been kicked out to me.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/09/britain-responds-angrily-to-expulsion-of-diplomats-from-belarus

    1. And how about practising what you preach? “Accountability for violence against demonstrators” @UKPoliceFarce.

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    I do hope that the NT is starting to feel the heat:

    Tory MP says National Trust ‘behaving like conglomerate’ by sacking hundreds despite cash reserves
    Julian Knight says he will write to Trust asking it to justify cuts it is making in wake of coronavirus pandemic

    By
    Christopher Hope,
    CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    9 November 2020 • 9:30pm

    The National Trust is behaving like a “big conglomerate” by sacking nearly 1,300 staff including dozens of curators while sitting on cash reserves of more than £1.3 billion, a senior Tory MP has said.

    Julian Knight, who chairs the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee, said he would be writing to the Trust to ask it to justify the cuts it is making in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

    The news came after National Trust members attacked the board at Saturday’s virtual annual meeting, asking why it had not spent at least £300 million of “unrestricted reserves” – out of a total £1.3 billion – to stem the job losses, which were announced in the summer.

    Mr Knight told The Telegraph: “They are incredibly rich. I was blown away when I looked at their reserves. Put it this way, they could bail out a substantial proportion of the charity sector.”

    He said the job cuts were “the sort of thing you expect from a big conglomerate making redundancies while still sitting on a huge cash pile.”

    The Trust is already under fire over its controversial report into the links between its properties and slavery and colonialism, with members accusing it of pursuing a “woke agenda”. MPs are due to debate the future of the Trust in the Commons on Wednesday.

    Mr Knight said: “Many members of the National Trust are clearly questioning whether the recent initiatives are truly about relevance and modernisation, or potentially the sort of woke culture capture we are seeing in many parts of society.”

    At Saturday’s annual general meeting National Trust members asked why the Trust had not spent more of its £300 million of the £1.3 billion of “unrestricted reserves” on its costs to stem the job losses. One member, called Darren, said: “This is a short-term situation yet you are not prepared to stand by your employees and at the first sign of trouble you are laying them off.”

    Another member, Clive from Plymouth, asked the Trust “to explain why you intend to make so many skilled staff redundant when you can cover the shortfall in income by using reserves”, saying: “In a year we should be beyond Covid-19 and the Trust will no doubt see its income levels restored, yet you have paid a lot of money on redundancies”.

    A third member, Tony from Preston, asked why some of the £300 million in unrestricted reserves was not “used to prevent your announced redundancies and cost cuts given the pandemic is temporary”.

    Peter Vermeulen, the Trust’s chief financial officer, said the unrestricted reserves would cover just half of the Trust’s annual operating costs of around £700 million for five months. He added: “We have to view it against the challenge we are facing.

    “Our drop in income this year is going to be well in excess of £200 million and it will remain in excess of £100 million for several more years to come. So our reserves would not provide that level of resilience against the challenge we are seeing.”

    Hilary McGrady, the director general who it emerged has volunteered to take a 20 per cent pay cut on her £196,000 salary this year, added: “I cannot begin to tell you how much I regret losing anyone from the National Trust… I would not be making these decisions were we not required to.”

    It also emerged that the Trust had received £7 million to support its heritage and conservation work during the pandemic.

    The Trust said that the effects of the pandemic had meant it was “forced to make 514 posts redundant, with 782 people taking voluntary redundancy”.

    A spokesman said on Monday night: “We have used our unrestricted reserves to get us through the initial crisis, but this isn’t a long-term solution. We need reserves to guard against future problems including the threat of further lockdowns, as we are currently seeing.

    “The vast majority of our funds are restricted, made up of donations given to us for specific conservation projects, in good faith. It is legally and morally wrong to spend them on the running of the organisation, including unrelated wages or redundancy costs.”

    1. If it has restricted reserves why has this money not been spent on the purposes for which it was donated?
      As time passes the purpose of the donation may be overtaken by events. I worked for a charity that had been gifted properties to be used as care/retirement homes. Legislation and practice rendered these properties unviable as it was very expensive to make the changes required to deal with regulations on access, fire safety, and the like. As the donors were no longer around they could not be asked for permission to do something else, eg, sell the property and buy a purpose built facility. The only recourse was to go to court and have the conditions set aside. This is expensive and not always successful.
      I know about this stuff. When I worked for a charity, I objected to their embezzling money from a restricted account by spending it on something other that what the still living donor had specified. I was fired.

    2. And there’s more…Charles Moore today:

      I do feel for the National Trust. Its membership is falling fast, and its earnings faster. The shortfall is £227 million this year. This is not the trust’s fault, but Covid’s. Most staff – including its director-general, Hilary McGrady – do genuinely care for the buildings and places for which they are responsible.

      I also agree with the trust that it is wrong to argue it should simply not inquire into the history of its properties lest discreditable stories emerge. The fact that some were built with money from slavery should not be – and, by the way, never has been – a secret. The same applies to other past wrongs. Who could sensibly tell the story of Fountains Abbey without recording that it was forcibly seized from the Catholic monks who owned it?

      The problem with the trust is naivety. It has been rolled over by extremists who care nothing for the membership or the collection. At the angry virtual AGM on Saturday, many NT members protested indignantly at the disrespect shown to former occupants of trust houses, such as Winston Churchill. They attacked the trust for seeming to accept the agenda of Black Lives Matter (BLM), following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. In reply, Tim Parker, the trust’s chairman, defended BLM as “a human-rights movement with no party-political affiliations”.

      Mr Parker is beside the point. No one has ever accused BLM of party affiliations; and I fear that almost all pressure groups invoke human rights. The general point about BLM is that it is a hard-Left campaigning organisation, committed to defeating capitalism, “defunding” the police, destroying the “nuclear” family and rejecting white people’s capacity to understand racism – a view which is itself racist. BLM is an extremist movement which flirts with violence.

      The more particular point about BLM is that it bears no relation to the National Trust. It is an activist player in the American race war, not a heritage body. I bet very few of its supporters are National Trust members. Even on issues such as slavery or colonial history, BLM has no reliable body of knowledge, since it is not a scholarly organisation. It therefore has nothing to contribute to a charity whose statutory purpose is to look after “places of historic interest or natural beauty”. It has no standing on gardens, landscape, agriculture, architecture, furniture, textiles or paintings, any more than does the National Trust on policing American cities.

      In a recent blog, the trust’s director of culture and engagement, John Orna-Ornstein, writes: “Cumulatively they [the trust’s properties] are quite simply the nation’s most significant cultural collection. And the trust’s primary purpose will always be to care for and cherish them on behalf of the whole nation.” Yet at the AGM, he also said that the current anti-“colonialism” makeover of trust properties was “a normal part of our continually changing interpretation of our houses”. There is an unsustainable contradiction here. How can the trust “cherish” the “nation’s most significant cultural collection” and yet give in to BLM-style attacks on it?

      Tomorrow, MPs will debate the future of the National Trust. I hope they do not waste time chuntering against “woke nonsense”. This is not just about verbiage. It is about whether the National Trust can be nationally trusted.

      1. ‘Morning, Hugh, morning all!

        BLM “flirts with violence”?! It does more than flirt, Mr Moore – it has a full-on torrid affair with violence.

      2. Oh, yes. When are the Catholic Church and the monastic orders going to have their property, churches and lands restored? If the answer is, “forget it!” why does that not apply to the slavery issue? (Moreover, as the country, ie king and favourites, benefited there is interest to be paid.)
        As for the descendants of the slaves we paid to have freed – some of my tax went to repaying the loans the government took out to do this – how about they are required to refund all of the money? Or they could just shut their greeting faces?

    3. Getting rid of knowledgeable staff is what any Left Wing organisation does to stop power accumulating outside its direct control.

    4. Why has the DG not put herself on furlough I.e., 80% of salary up to £2,500? And all the other members of the Board? Funny how “we’re all in this together” lark never extends to the ones at the top!

      1. It’s what recording engineers call a ‘dead cat’ (a wind noise suppressor). Does it hide a complete recording system?
        Or perhaps it actually is his favourite dead moggy.

  5. Morning all

    Here’s the first lot….

    SIR – I have taken the trouble to read the latest Coronavirus Regulations in view of their overwhelming impact on the lives of all of us.

    My partner, who lives with me, is a key worker. She does not drive. I therefore drive her to work, otherwise she would have to take public transport.

    It seems I am no longer allowed to do so.

    Leaving my home is now a criminal offence under Regulation 5 of the latest coronavirus legislation, unless it is for a necessary permitted journey as defined by Regulation 6. Permitted journeys include visiting an estate agent, but not, it appears, taking another member of one’s own household to work, regardless of the importance of that work.

    I can only assume that our MPs, who approved these regulations with little or no scrutiny in their haste to lock everyone in their homes, failed to consider this obvious point.

    Nigel P S Mills

    Bournemouth, Dorset

    Advertisement

    SIR – The Church of England followed government rules that “organisers should take reasonable steps to discourage the public from attending events” for Remembrance Sunday.

    As a result we had at least double the congregation we normally have at a lovely outdoor service in rural Berkshire. Sooner or later the Church and the Government have got to listen to the will of the people.

    Charles Puxley

    Easton, Berkshire

    SIR – There is overwhelming evidence, backed by eminent experts including the Government’s own scientific advisers, that restrictions on children’s sport and other activities, including golf and tennis, are unjustified and backed by no “science” at all.

    Admitting errors and taking prompt remedial action would be to the Government’s credit and help mitigate the continuing damage to many people’s lives.

    R J Hart

    Newark, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – As the statistics used at the press conference on Saturday October 31 have now been widely discredited, will the Prime Minister accept that the Government has made a mistake?

    Another vote in Parliament could end the lockdown immediately, saving thousands of jobs, and giving many of us at least some of our freedoms back.

    Paul Cook

    Hayling Island, Hampshire

    SIR – Your “One hundred years ago” column last Friday featured a first-hand account of life in Russia. It said: “There is a total absence of individual freedom. Everything is done by compulsion, according to decree, and under the menace of heavy penalties.”

    We may be 100 years behind Russia, but we are catching up fast.

    John Bushell

    Oxshott, Surrey

    SIR – Who knew there were 17 million mink in Denmark?

    Carole Cronin

    Chelmsford, Essex

    1. Nigel, Nigel, for Goodness sake use what passes for your brain & do a bit of “essential” shopping on the way home after you’ve dropped your partner off, if your that worried.

          1. Wake up Horace; Rusty Twig pointed that out ages ago.
            You don’t want to be thought of as being as slow as Alf, now do you?

          2. Go back to your cave, Gollom, & stop interfering with things you can’t possibly understand.

      1. He may already have thought of that – but simply wishes to point out yet another factor in the overwhelming silliness of the legislation.

  6. SIR – Amid the challenges of Covid-19, villagers here developed an effective method of selling poppies.

    Those of our loyal band of house-to-house collectors who live in parts of the village where there is plenty of footfall put notices outside their houses saying: “Buy a poppy here”, with a tray of poppies and a request to put contributions through the letterbox. There was also a QR scanner for donations by phone.

    This has proved to be a successful way of both supporting the Royal British Legion and enabling people to buy a poppy if they wish. One house has collected £100 so far, and another over £200.

    Mary Thompson

    Steventon, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Congratulations to those who organised the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph.

    I felt that it was a very sombre and meaningful commemoration and think that it would benefit by continuing in this (emergency) format.

    John Butler

    Chester

    SIR – It has become the norm to misquote from “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon. The fourth stanza does not begin: “They shall not grow old”. It reads: “They shall grow not old”.

    There is a subtle difference in meaning that the author must have wanted and to be understood.

    Am I alone in finding this mistake upsetting?

    Anne Betchley

    Bognor Regis, West Sussex

    1. They shall grow not old.

      Surely this is a split infinitive but I wait for Peddy’s definitive judgement!

      1. A split infinitive requires the word ‘to’, an adverb, and an infinitive. In the hackneyed expression, ‘to boldly go’, to is present, boldly is the adverb, and go is the infinitive.

        Those who deride the split infinitive are to be derided themselves as anally-retentive according to all the respected authorities on English usage, such as H W Fowler, Sir Ernest Gowers and many more. Their conclusion is that it is far better to split an infinitive than to rearrange the expression into a clumsy unit. I agree with the authorities and I split my infinitives with impunity if doing so makes sense, regardless of the criticism of those who think they know better.

      2. It is not a split infinitive, but the simple future tense.
        It implies that they shall grow in spirit/our memories without getting any older (as they are dead).

        1. Thank you. Very few people even attempt to understand Laurence Binyon’s words.

          IIRC, the film title avoids the tort of passing off, simultaneously showing respect to the poet.
          And the film is a marvellous achievement by Sir Peter Jackson and his team.
          BTW, a youngish lady dentist who lives locally genuinely has covid and is self isolating with her family. So much for ppe masks etc.

          1. My pleasure. I can’t think why; after all it is plain English.
            The young lady dentist may have picked up covid while shopping or anywhere out & about, not necessarily while wearing PPE in the surgery.

    2. No, you are not alone, Anne Betchley. Given that this was raised here very recently, I suspect that you are also a Nottlr! It is unfortunate that the excellent film “They shall not grow old” chose to misquote Binyon’s poem…deliberate or just ignorance I wonder?

  7. Barr tells prosecutors to investigate ‘vote irregularities’ despite lack of evidence. 10 November 2020.

    The US attorney general, William Barr, has authorized federal prosecutors to begin investigating “substantial allegations” of voter irregularities across the country in a stark break with longstanding practice and despite a lack of evidence of any major fraud having been committed.

    The intervention of Barr, who has frequently been accused of politicizing the DoJ, comes as Donald Trump refuses to concede defeat and promotes a number of legally meritless lawsuits aimed at casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election. Joe Biden was confirmed as president-elect on Saturday after he won the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania.

    Well if there is no evidence and they are legally meritless why bother objecting? Surely the Democrat cause would be better served by seeing them fail?

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/09/william-barr-vote-irregularities-donald-trump-election

  8. GPs out of reach

    SIR – Once again hundreds of GPs (Letters, November 9) are annoyed at the perception that they do not currently want to see patients.

    These GPs should try phoning their own surgeries and see how many messages they have to negotiate before, if they’re lucky, they can talk to a receptionist.

    Kevin Platt

    Walsall, Staffordshire

    1. Once we get through after six attempts we got a message that the clinic was closed and we should wait for a”patient navigator “ who arrived after another wait and was very pleasant and at last we reached a receptionist.

      1. ‘Morning, Horace, we have call navigators. Similar to alligators but they have to mind their snappishness.

    2. I know that if I press a certain number I can short-circuit all the rigmarole and get straight to the receptionist. Saves me a lot of time.

  9. Morning again

    Jesus. College …….

    History erased

    SIR – In 2019 Jesus College, Cambridge, arranged to return a Benin bronze cock to Nigeria.

    At the time the Master of Jesus College, Sonita Alleyne, said that the college was not trying to “erase history”. She said the decision came after “diligent and careful” work by the Legacy of Slavery Working Party on the links between Jesus College and the slave trade.

    I now read that the college has applied to the Church of England to remove a memorial to Tobias Rustat (report, November 7) from the college chapel due to his historic links to slavery.

    Sonita Alleyne was quoted as saying that the decision was made “in the honest spirit of acknowledging the past and shaping an inclusive future”. If the removal of Rustat’s memorial to shape an inclusive future is not erasing history, then what is?

    In light of the actions of the Master, 
I have now cancelled my modest monthly donation to the college and written to the college council to explain why.

    Dr Jeff Slater

    Kelso, Roxburghshire

  10. Anti-Covid Vitamin D

    SIR – The British Government is to be congratulated on initiating a Vitamin D supplement programme for vulnerable people. The importance of Vitamin D in building immunity against respiratory viruses is well-known, and research points to probable benefits against Covid-19.

    Addressing Vitamin D deficiency is especially important as Britain heads into winter, and for those who spend little time outdoors. I have been urging the Australian government to take this path for months, with little response, but am hopeful that Britain’s leadership will prompt greater reflection here. While our Covid cases are low, we have only to look north to see how a resurgence is possible.

    Prevention is better than cure. Appropriate and therapeutic Vitamin D supplementation is crucial to this, and I have no doubt it will save lives.

    Professor Ian Brighthope

    Director of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, National Institute of Integrative Medicine

    Melbourne, Australia

    1. I hope people don’t overdo the Vitamin D supplement , too much vitamin D can cause toxicity, resulting in damage to the kidneys , skin, and brain.

      1. I think you have to take much, much more than the dose in over-the-counter tablets for that to be a pr, although you are of course right.

          1. We store vitamin A in our livers. Animals which eat meat/fish consume more vitamin A and also store large quantities of it their livers against possible hungry periods. Polar bears, as we know from watching wildlife films, may have to fast for long periods and all the dog family are adapted to survive lean times. Their livers, therefore, tend to have far more vitamin A than the lambs or calves livers which are more likely to form parts of our normal diet.

            Fortunately we are not required to go on polar expeditions and eat our sled dogs. I doubt whether Spartie would supply a large enough amount of liver to poison you… even were you to be sufficiently hungry to contemplate eating him 😉

          2. There wouldn’t be much meat on him anyway..

            He won’t know enough to thank you for it, but you are doing him a favour – however hard it is to ignore those pleading eyes.

          3. I thought it was vitamin A.

            More serious is hypervitaminosis A, an excess of the vitamin that can be contracted from eating the liver of polar bears, seals and walrus. Affecting the central nervous system, it can cause hair loss, extreme peeling of the skin, birth defects, liver problems, vomiting, blurred vision and even death.5 Feb 2017

            The perils of eating polar bear – Anchorage Daily News

    2. Don’t forget your zinc and hydroxychloroquine if you can get your trembling hands on it. Thousands lost because of political interference in the process of medicine

    3. I take Cod Liver Oil capsules whch provide 100% of the required daily Vitamin D. Strangely these are never mentioned on the recommended list.

      1. The fish-oil capsules that I obtain here in Sweden are high in Omega-3 fatty acids but not so high in Vitamin D. Consequently I take a further capsule that gives me my daily calciferol (Vitamin D) requirement.

      2. I tried those after my mother died leaving an opened bottle. I couldn’t stand the endless fishy burps they induced and went back to Vitamin D pills and eating fish as often as I fancy.

      3. I can still see (and smell) the two cod liver oil spoons that my mother kept separately from the other cutlery.
        I take cod liver oil during the winter and capsules are one modern development I bless on a daily basis.

          1. I’ve never particularly liked it although I’d drink it if there was nothing else and someone else was paying :o)

        1. Statement.
          “It’ll do you good.”
          Reality.
          A morning of great oily oceanic burps like the belches of a Blue Whale in the depths of the Weddell Sea,

        2. I take my own in capsule form nowadays because it is much less messy (and infinitely portable… if you are ever allowed to leave home again) but I keep a bottle in the kitchen from which the pup receives a dessert-spoonful with her breakfast every Sunday – she polishes the bottom of the bowl afterwards and it keeps her coat and skin in good condition.

          1. My springer (1990 -1998) had a variety of problems including a tendency to itch and my vet recommended cod liver oil for her (in rather larger quantities). I’ve kept it up with both the cockers although neither has specific problems.

            I’m very glad to know that you source your supplements in the UK. The cod-liver oil is from the UK too – but undoubtedly a by-product from processing largely imported cod nowadays.

            I used to put herring-meal in my calf rations. It had a very strong smell (but it didn’t have to come into the house).

  11. ‘Morning again.

    A word or two from our Culture Secretary, courtesy of the DT. I’m certainly not convinced that any effective action will result…

    When people around the world think of Britain, they think of the Royal family, and the Premier League. And they think of the BBC. From the moment its first radio transmitter crackled into life a century ago, our oldest broadcaster has been a steadfast national institution, a champion of British values across the globe. But 100 years on, it’s time to ask what we want from the BBC of the future.

    The pandemic has illustrated what the BBC does best. It has helped us educate our children, and been a trusted source of information on the virus. And it has provided a national gathering place for millions tuning in to hear government updates or watch the first live Premier League game on the BBC.

    But while Covid has brought out the best in the BBC, that hasn’t made it immune to some stark realities. The first is the utter transformation of the media landscape. The rise of Netflix, Amazon Prime and others has lobbed a grenade into the system – upending the way most of us consume our favourite shows.

    The second is the growing number of questions the BBC faces over some of its key commitments. Is the Beeb continuing to deliver value for money for licence-fee payers? Is it keeping the British public’s confidence when it comes to its impartiality, and does it truly represent the nation?

    By the latter, I mean the entire nation. Someone switching on their TV from their semi in Bradford should feel just as represented by the Beeb as a person watching in their Islington townhouse. Instead, a growing number of viewers feel harangued or ignored when they tune in – and not just by the news output, but by its drama and comedy too.

    So, as negotiations over the level of the next licence fee kick off, I have formally written to the BBC asking them for answers to six key questions. Those include: how will it make savings, including around talent pay levels? How will the next licence-fee level affect the vulnerable, the elderly, and those on the lowest incomes? And how will it use its global might to fly the flag for Britain?

    However, the BBC is just one piece of a bigger puzzle. The world has changed, and every broadcaster needs to change with it. So I’m taking a close look at the future of our entire public service broadcasting system. That includes ITV and Channels 4 and 5 – and S4C in Wales and STV in Scotland, both of which are important to those nations.

    Today I am pulling together a team of broadcasting and tech heavyweights to help us shape the future of public broadcasting. This 10-strong panel won’t just be tiptoeing around the edges. They have been tasked with asking really profound questions about the role these broadcasters have to play in the digital age – and indeed whether we need them at all. It is a crucial task, given how central public service broadcasters are to our entire creative ecosystem.

    Together, they employ more than 20,000 staff, and indirectly support the employment of tens of thousands more. They helped drive £3.3 billion in revenue last year, and they beam the best of Britain – our culture, our talent, our castles, churches and more – into homes around the world.

    We’ve got to get this right. Public service broadcasting has already lived, adapted and thrived through a hundred years of history. It’s time to start thinking about what it does next.

    Oliver Dowden is the Culture Secretary

    1. Oliver Dowden looks suspiciously like a Soros mole and his committee is largely composed of Neoliberal Yes men!

    2. Good morning Hugh

      “By the latter, I mean the entire nation. Someone switching on their TV from their semi in Bradford should feel just as represented by the Beeb as a person watching in their Islington townhouse. Instead, a growing number of viewers feel harangued or ignored when they tune in – and not just by the news output, but by its drama and comedy too”

      Grrrrrrrrr.

      For the past couple of years or more , we who were here first have been harangued by the patois of those who want to rearrange our history and culture!

    3. Oh, dear. I stopped reading after the fourth paragraph. I nearly threw up. It’s too early in the morning for this bunkum.

      1. I just happened [honest] to see a little of Gogglebox last night – I joined just as they were reacting to Boris appearing, rather later than scheduled, to announce lockdown 2. As Boris, Witless and Vallance wandered towards their socially distanced lecterns one wag commented – “Look it’s the Fun Boy Three” – priceless!

    4. Ironic that Dowden should use a semi in Bradford and an Islington townhouse as his examples. The two groups being most pandered too. The rest of us are ignored.

      1. Indeed. I particularly liked this one:

        tony moore
        10 Nov 2020 12:39AM
        Four reasons that the BBC should go:-

        The first: you are right to say the world has moved on. It actually moved on decades ago with Sky. The BBC payment model has been obsolete since soon after then, and certainly since the rise of the internet. Breaking-up of state monopolies, to increase competition, only serves the consumer well, as telecoms, railways and energy industries have shown. Though they are flawed, the improvements of all since the days of state ownership are dramatic. It is time for the same to be done with our own bloated, self-serving, inefficient BBC.

        The second reason for ending the BBC comes by way of the statement by the BBC controller of drama commissioning, Ben Stephenson: “We need to foster peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking.” From before then but more so afterwards, the BBC has sought to employ left-wing activists, not journalists, nor analysts. It has black sports stars commentate on history but rids itself of David Starkey. It offers tacit support for BLM, whose baseless implicit bias narrative would be more insulting if only there was any substance behind the vitriol. The list goes on. People want to work for the BBC, it seems, not because they want to discover the news, but, as we saw with the overt Brexit and BLM bias alike, to manipulate it. So not only is the licence fee an abuse of market power that fundamentally prevents innovation and progress, but it lacks integrity, honesty and quality.

        A third reason for ending the BBC is a shady area. From my professional experience, I know the BBC employed a neuroscience agency a few years ago as a means to influence perceptions of viewers without them realising. It is akin to the old “subliminal advertising”. Without knowing what this was for, I’d say that the BBC have over-stretched a moral boundary and can’t be trusted to “do the right thing”.It has a long history, now, of unethical practices – the Diana interview is emerging. It evidently nurtured a culture that protected paedophiles for years before that. It doesn’t learn and has a dishonourable code like no other organisation I can think of.

        The fourth issue is the greed, which at a time when our nation creaks under income inequality, has become grossly insulting. There is nothing that justifies the salaries to the Zoe Ball and Gary Lineker et al, when you have to charge pensioners, who built this nation after the war with their labour and decency, for watching.

        ‘Moaning, Annie.

  12. SIR — If everyone used full-cream milk, there would be no need for Vitamin D supplements.

    Dr Peter Robin
    West Kirby, Wirral

    The big problem here, Doc Pete, is that health professionals — like you — have preached for decades that drinking full-fat milk is bad for you and causes all manner of diseases and ill-health situations.

    Now that that previous terrible advice has been scientifically disproved, aren’t you now guilty of just jumping on the current bandwagon in the same way as you did before?

    1. I’ve been on full-fat milk since I was weaned, Jersey milk at that – I only managed 6′ 3″ by the time I was 18 and haven’t broken a bone in my 76 years. I automatically ignore ‘medical evidence’ of this kind as one knows from experience that within a few years the reverse is ‘proven’ to be true.

      Stick your white water medicos, I want to stay healthy.

    2. Good morning Mr G, and other Nottlers.
      Sweden dopes some type of long life milk with extra Vitamin D3. Incidentally, Wiki explains that D3 is not really a vitamin.
      Also, magnesium (think bananas) aids absorption of D3. And baked potato skins are good for you (if not green).
      Probably the moral is that a balanced diet and sufficient exercise are concomitant with overall health and wellbeing.

      1. Probably the moral is that a balanced diet and sufficient exercise are concomitant with overall health and wellbeing.

        Vitamin D3 = cholecalciferol – this is the precursor which we use to make our own vitamin D. Cholesterol (that well known “toxin” which we have all been told to avoid for several decades) is, in turn, a precursor for cholecalciferol. Which is why whole milk and meat with a bit of fat on it allow us to supply most of our own needs… in the summer.

        But, rather as plants need sunlight to grow, so we need sunlight to synthesise calciferol (vitamin D). Sadly, for most of us, we just don’t get enough sunshine between October and March in our grey northern climate with its overcast skies and short days (added to long trousers, long sleeves, hats gloves etc) which is why we need to take supplements. When I worked out of doors all the year round I didn’t need to take supplements – but most of us do not work out of doors. Individuals vary in their ability to synthesise, but most people in Northern Europe will be deficient by the end of winter without some supplementation.

        If you live in sunnier climes then your comment holds good. Here, under the grey skies of Wales and tied to a desk to earn a living… I take the capsules, because even full fat milk isn’t quite enough.

    3. ‘morning G. – I don’t think the problem lies with the health care professionals but with the media that will take any morsel of untested or speculative research ( on a couple of occasions 6th form experiments ) and present it as an established fact, whenever I see this sort of thing I take a look at the NHS fact checking site, which seems as far as I can tell the only bit of the organisation not mired on corp.BS or wokism. Oddly its been very quiet since the beginning of the present unpleasantness, make of that what you will.

      https://www.nhs.uk/news/

      1. A school friend’s mother made quite a lot of cheese. A fairly firm, unpasteurised and undyed cheese with an open curd (not a smooth texture) using the milk from their Jersey cow. She used no culture, it was simply made with the milk after standing in the pantry for a day or so (depending on the season) and matured it at ambient temperature for a month or two. It had a full flavour but the milk was always run once through the separator to remove about half the fat. She did this because if she made it with whole milk the curd was too “free” and the cheese wouldn’t set firm but would crumble even after maturing; which was not favoured by her customers.

        On the other hand the Jersey milk was about 6% fat so the cheese wouldn’t be very far from the 3.59% fat which is required to describe milk as “whole”.

        It also meant pint jugs of cream on the table with pudding….

          1. She made the most wonderful jam roly-poly, just the thing to absorb lots of cream.

            Fortunately in those days I was both skinny and very active so jam roly-poly and cream were very acceptable.

          2. I don’t know how many decades it is since I had a jam roly-poly. Cream, custard or whatever on it.
            Sigh…

          3. Don’t think I’ve had one since I left school. Probably just as well, I don’t think I would run it off nearly as easily nowadays.

  13. SIR – The National Trust should be seen and not heard.

    David Thornton
    Cheadle, Cheshire

    Hear, hear…

  14. And now, in other news. Pickles and Gus have been with us for two weeks, They are now eight weeks old. They are 100% secure with the tray. They eat well. They have increased their weight by a third. They have learned how to climb on chairs, and thence on tables. To race round the ground floor – and now venture upstairs. They have discovered what “NO!” means. They spend hours play fighting. And then seek a lap on which to go instantly to sleep. They are also very affectionate towards us and each other. They have been life savers. We are extremely fortunate.

    No further bulletins will be issued (today!)

  15. Massive headlines across the MSM……

    “I asked my doctor friend to take a look at the NHS England slide

    deck that was leaked to me yesterday. He found the smoking gun that I

    missed: the overall impression it gives is that the NHS is coping

    perfectly well with the ‘second wave’, has considerable spare capacity

    and isn’t anywhere close to being overwhelmed. Why is that significant?

    Because it was presented to NHS managers on November 2nd, so could have

    been shown to MPs before the Lockdown 2.0 vote on November 4th. But

    instead MPs were presented with a completely different data set that

    gave the opposite impression. In other words, the Government and its

    scientific advisors knew the NHS was coping perfectly well with rising

    Covid infections and deliberately misled MPs.”

    https://lockdownsceptics.org/2020/11/10/latest-news-189/
    Aye Right,and then I woke up…………

    1. The NHS effectively collapsed about 20 months ago.
      The UK has an ageing population and uncontrolled immigration, and has no easy means to adequately increase capacity in any area (aspect?) of healthcare. With a price of zero, demand is infinite.

      1. When the uncontrolled immigration can access free NHS, needing translation back and forth for every comment, taking up time and cost to us, for NO contribution whatsoever the end result is that WE cannot access the service that we pay our taxes for. Only one result.

  16. John Major says Britain should accept the country is no longer a first-rate global power. 10 November 2020.

    Britain needs to accept it is no longer a first-rate global power, former prime minister Sir John Major has declared.

    In a speech in London last night, Sir John said: ‘We are no longer a great power. We will never be so again…

    ‘We are a top second-rank power but, over the next half century – however well we perform – our small size and population makes it likely we will be passed by the growth of other, far larger, countries.’

    We all know this, in fact it is worse than he says but it is largely the result of Major and his ilk that we have sunk so low. Size actually plays no part in the rankings for Global Power. Empires are the prerogative of small highly motivated states. Rome ruled the Mediterranean for 500 years. The England of Elizabeth I was able to confront and defeat the Spanish Superpower. The UK was able to bring down Napoleon, the Kaiser and Adolf Hitler. These things speak for themselves. It is the dearth of leadership that has led to Britain’s decline!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8931881/John-Major-says-Britain-accept-country-no-longer-rate-global-power.html

  17. Here’s a thought re: the new wonder vaccine. With a normal recovery rate in the high 98% region and only the old and infirm seriously at risk you could bottle saline solution, give everyone a squirt and when the odd unfortunate succumbs you say no vaccine is 100% effective. Sorted.

    1. That occurred to me yesterday when it was announced to have 90% efficacy. I wondered what age group it would be least efficacious for.

    2. You jest. I remember a particularly stroppy patient refusing to sleep, claiming she just couldn’t nod off; she was bright enough to use the word ‘insomnia’. The night nurse gave her an injection of 5ml of saline; patient had a perfect night and woke just in time for breakfast.

      1. Banning the use of placebos was a disaster. Studies have shown that people get drunk if they believe they’re drinking alcohol even if they aren’t (I reckon they can’t have had very discerning palates) and, incredibly, that chronic knee pain was cured in several instances by a fake operation that simply involved an incision which was then sewn up. The mind is a strange and powerful thing.

          1. As I always said to my German patients as I filled out a prescription, “Was schmeckt gut, tut nicht gut,”

  18. Off topic
    Is anyone else finding it impossible to open Firefox after the automatic update this morning?

    1. Firefox no longer opens automatically on boot-up, but that could be due to a Win !0 update Monday. Anyone know how to switch on the ‘auto-boot’?

      1. I can’t get it to open from any approach. It crashes and a crash report goes back but that’s all that happens.

        1. Restart your PC. I had probs the other day which were resolved by that simple move (after I had wasted two hours).

          1. I’ve been through that route several times this morning.
            It’s definitely a Firefox problem as other browsers are fine, what I don’t know is if it’s just me. I shall hunt via google

          2. Indeed, I’ve tried Restart, sleep, reboot.

            I may have to resort to a system restore off a few days ago.

          3. I reinstalled without uninstalling, because I did not want to lose everything that makes it convenient to use, it appears to have worked

    2. I did until I powered down and switched on again. Then it started working. If in doubt, switch off and switch on again 🙂

        1. I have downloaded the latest version. When I tried to watch the RAFA service of remembrance from the Runnymede Memorial this morning, Mozilla refused to open, so I missed it. When I switched on later in the day, it worked fine – hence I was able to download it. If it continues to work, then fine, but if it doesn’t, at least I have the program to run.

    1. The Hippocratic Oath has really transmogrified into the Hypocritic Oath these days. They should be struck off and forced to sweep the streets.

      1. Ideally, Grizz, we should train so many doctors that they are as vulnerable to market forces as most of the rest of us.

  19. Firefox
    As a last resort I reloaded from the FF site, fearing that it would delete all links, choices etc. Fortunately it appears to have retained settings bookmarks etc.
    Bizarre.
    Thanks to those who tried to help.

  20. 326283+ up ticks,
    May one ask, does the governance open door policy concerning the incoming potential troop movements on the South East coast ie Dover, not give them cause for concern.

    Maybe any indigenous deaths as in decapitation, arse detachments via IEDs will be covered by the covis tag.

    If so will it be reflected in the polling booth or will the three monkey, party before Country, nasal grippers, best of the worst finally finish of these Isles completing the mission they have been on for years.

    breitbart,
    Report: Apologies for Terrorism ‘Exploding’ in France After Samuel Paty Murder

      1. As an older teenager i always wondered how it became known as a ‘shag carpet’, but i must admit i did try it out a few times. 🤩

          1. lino is probably the best floor covering when you are shagging, which I believe is the officilal state dance of North Carolina.

          1. G’day T.
            A mate of mine was trying his luck, while his parents he thought were asleep upstairs. His mother said to the father i’d better go down and see what they are up to. His father related the story to him a couple of years later. He calmed his wife saying, leave him alone he’s got to learn sooner or later. Mind you it would have been about 54 years ago now.

    1. One also had to walk to the television to give it a good thump on the top of the cabinet when it wasn’t working properly.

  21. Spreading anti-vaxx myths ‘should be made a criminal offence’. 10 November 2020.

    Professor Melinda Mills, the director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford and the lead author of the review, said it was critical to address genuine concerns about the vaccine while preventing misleading facts from spreading on the internet.

    No we don’t want any misleading facts spreading around. Lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/10/spreading-anti-vaxx-myths-should-made-criminal-offence/

    1. Myths,MYTHS??
      Like the myth that normal vaccine development is measured in decades not months??
      Like the myth there has NEVER been a Coronavirus vaccine ever??
      I note the article is bravely open for comment
      Oh Wait………………..
      Jeez I need to take a break,two irony meters trashed in one day I can’t afford this

    2. Sorry Minty – have just reached your post. Up late today so just reading last posts first and have sort of repeated yours

  22. Islamists behead more than 50 people on a football pitch in Mozambique then chop the bodies to pieces after abducting female villagers. 10 November 2020.

    Islamist militants have beheaded more than 50 people, chopped up the bodies of victims and abducted women in a gruesome attack in Mozambique.

    The bodies of dismembered victims were found scattered across a forest clearing on Monday after a football pitch was turned into an ‘execution ground’.

    At least 15 boys were among the dead, and some of the victims were teenagers taking part in a male initiation ceremony, it is believed.

    If it weren’t the Religion of Peace we would be in really deep shit!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8932787/Islamists-behead-50-people-football-pitch-Mozambique.html

    1. As Mozambique is member of the Commonwealth we should send some troops to deal with these killers. We send troops to Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq when the troubles there are nothing to do with us, and haven’t been for half a century and more. So sorting our the bad guys in Mozambique can be justified, not just because of the Commonwealth connection, but also because it would be a good thing to do. It would have the additional benefit of giving our soldiers some live action experience.

  23. Another wonderful November day on over over here in Ontario. Temperatures up around 20C, bright and sunny with not much wind.

    Just because I could, I opened the sunroof and turned the air conditioning on in my car.

    Eat your heart out doomgoblin, this global warming is good.

  24. Morning all, cloudy and grey here in Norf Zummerzet, just waiting for the weather report from Norway now. 😉

  25. 326283+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    May one say, the establishments route in handling this virus
    contains a large amount of suppression inclusive of some very un-English controlling factions.
    How come when re- introduced by the governance party’s
    via mass uncontrolled immigration TB a proven killer never rated the same treatment ?

  26. “Coloured people” bad, “people of colour” good? FFS! And the pillock apologised..

    1. You should refer to them as FUN people. BAME, People of colour, BLM are all FUN people. I’ll let you work out what F,U and N stand for.

    2. Unless some people are completely transparent (see-through), then EVERYONE is ‘coloured’. Maybe the Left thinks that white or (in reality) ‘light pink’ isn’t a colour any more. I bet that Martin Luther King is currently turning in his grave.

  27. 326283+up ticks,
    This is confirming for me how much the governing party’s
    politico’s hate us.

    Live Coronavirus latest news: British public to be among first to receive Covid-19 vaccine.

    The talking rodent b liar also gave it the go ahead on the vine show.

    1. Hopefully, 650 of our most important people will get it first, afterwards the MPs can get back to the office.

      1. 326283+up ticks,
        Afternoon KP,
        The tone the treacherous ( king rat) was on the vine show singing the praises of the potion,
        will he & family be first up?

        1. He is very evasive about vaccines where his family is involved. That tells one all one needs to know. He pushes it for the plebs, though. Obeying his master as always.

    2. Hopefully, 650 of our most important people will get it first, afterwards the MPs can get back to the office.

        1. Because his children’s medical records were, after all, personal to the children – and nothing to do with the public.

  28. John Major says Britain should accept the country is no longer a first-rate global power. 10 November 2020.

    Britain needs to accept it is no longer a first-rate global power, former prime minister Sir John Major has declared.

    In a speech in London last night, Sir John said: ‘We are no longer a great power. We will never be so again…

    ‘We are a top second-rank power but, over the next half century – however well we perform – our small size and population makes it likely we will be passed by the growth of other, far larger, countries.’

    We all know this, in fact it is worse than he says but it is largely the result of Major and his ilk that we have sunk so low. Size actually plays no part in the rankings for Global Power. Empires are the prerogative of small highly motivated states. Rome ruled the Mediterranean for 500 years. The England of Elizabeth I was able to confront and defeat the Spanish Superpower. The UK was able to bring down Napoleon, the Kaiser and Adolf Hitler. These things speak for themselves. It is the dearth of leadership that has led to Britain’s decline!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8931881/John-Major-says-Britain-accept-country-no-longer-rate-global-power.html

    1. ‘Leaders’ like Major, with the BBC trying for many years to undermine our culture, heritage and traditions, are the reasons why we are on the decline.

      What happened to pride and confidence in our country plus a dose of optimism? Those of us who say we are proud of Queen and Country are now mocked by the Left!

    2. A very long period of silence from the adulterous little Major would be greatly appreciated.

    3. Redraft:

      “Britain needs to accept it no longer a first rate global major power, former Prime Minister Sir John Major said.”

      Sir John Major needs to recognise he is no longer.

    4. Redraft:

      “Britain needs to accept it no longer a first rate global major power, former Prime Minister Sir John Major said.”

      Sir John Major needs to recognise he is no longer.

    5. Major has almost certainly arrived at this conclusion, not by deep historical knowledge and reading, but rather by thinking about how much moolah he gets from speaking engagements and consultancies in the US, the EU, and China compared to damp old UK.

      1. Do we have any psychiatrists or clinical psychologists on the Nottlers site? If so please could they explain why John Major now fawns upon George Soros, the person who destroyed him politically in the ERM fiasco. Is it the consequence of a flawed relationship with his mother or father? This, apparently, is not unusual and Mrs May’s relationship with her father is considered by many as the root cause of many of her personality defects.

        1. Minor Major fell from his mother’s nipple at 6 weeks and never recovered.

          Good afternoon, Rastus.

        2. I’m not a psychologist or anything, but I would guess that both Major and May in the horrible aftermath of being obviously FAILED PMs may have adopted the Spike Milligan attitude “All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.”

          PS Interestingly, both May and Major are enthusiastic cricket followers, so obviously some interest in numbers there.

        3. Minor Major fell from his mother’s nipple at 6 weeks and never recovered.

          Good afternoon, Rastus.

  29. Good morning my friends

    DT Headline: Politics latest news: Ministers refuse to back down on Brexit bill after Lords refuse to sanction breaking law

    Clear evidence in this headline that the DT is treacherous. Surely Bill Cash’s amendment – which he had the foresight to have inserted – means that we can escape the EU’s planned violation of our borders without breaking the law?

    And why, if the EU does not intend to violate our borders and hold a Sword of Damocles over our heads, don’t they just accept the amendment?

    The EU has acted throughout in bad faith

    1. They are just the latest to try and take all of Europe into a French/German dictatorship.thats all they have ever done in their history.

    2. “The EU has acted throughout in bad faith”
      Bears and woods. Not Popes and Catholic because the present incumbent seems sorta non-religious.
      Morning, Rastus.

      1. Sssshh – her Ladyship is busy decorating another room, she hasn’t the time to waste on severed heads.

        1. Oops, sorry, didn’t mean to distract her. But, but, surely she employs immigrants for such jobs?

    1. Morning P-P – Someone on BBC Radio 4 News this morning was saying the Pfizer vaccine has not been tested on the elderly and that they therefore don’t know the effect it will have on the elderly. A good reason for avoiding the vaccine if Pfizer haven’t thoroughly tested it.

      1. If, as reported, the elderly are going to be placed at the front of the queue then we shall soon find out…perhaps that is the intention!

        ‘Morning, Clyde

        1. Pfizer should test it out on their own elderly relatives first then. But I doubt that would happen.

    2. I get the impression that some Luddites on here would criticise the introduction of a vaccine even if it had been exhaustively tested on a million volunteers & no ill effects found.

      1. Vaccines have proven efficacy. But this vaccine has been developed from scratch in a matter of months. I worked in the Pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years, providing IT support for the Research and Development department of a major British company. To bring a drug or vaccine to market takes years of exhaustive tests and clinical trials, with a rigorous assessment by medicines agencies e.g. the US FDA before it is licensed.

        Forgive me if I view this headlong rush to produce an answer to the current pandemic with a great deal of scepticism. I would be very wary of accepting a vaccine which in my view has not been tested thoroughly.

        1. There is also a huge difference between the singular and stable pathogens for which successful vaccines have been produced and the multiplicity of mutable cold and flu viruses that have all but defeated such efforts.

        1. I was wondering how the 10% of people who didn’t respond in a positive way to the vaccine trials were fairing today…..perhaps they are also on the list.

        1. ‘Morning, Anne.

          If we had listened to the sceptics, we wouldn’t have defeated smallpox, or polio, or…

          1. But smallpox and polio have terrible consequences. Most of us have little or nothing to fear from coronavirus.

          2. Tell that to someone I know, a formerly fit bloke of around 50, who has been left crippled by long covid.

          3. I’m not convinced that smallpox has disappeared.
            It’s the speed and the timing that causes the scepticism.

          4. Morning Anne

            I hope the illegals will be vaccinated / innoculated when they land on British shores, or would the French or Germans have done that already.

          5. Smallpox is dead. Samples exist in only two labs on Earth. There hasn’t been a case of smallpox in 50 years or more.

          6. It’s not as long as that since a lab technician in Birmingham caught it from a sample and died.

          7. You’re right, that was 42 years ago. It’s accepted that she died from exposure to the virus which was being researched a floor below but it is still unknown how she came into contact with it. That can’t happen here again, we don’t have samples.
            The last natural case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977.

          8. It’s similar perhaps but a totally different virus to the smallpox virus which only exists in two labs. The CDC holds some samples at Atlanta. The other samples are in a Russian lab.

        1. And who decides to publish in the MSM the news that there is absolutely no evidence at all that fraud has been rampant in the US elections?

        2. And how long do we wait to find out any I’ll effects? The fact that the vax producers have been given immunity from prosecution if there are any ill effects/unfortunate consequences from their vaccine is enough to scare anyone off having the vaccine.

          1. Perhaps those whose racial makeup makes them most susceptible to Covid 19 would welcome the vaccinations…

      2. As we lie back, almost prostrate, in the dentist’s chair we are confident that he has no evil intent and does not want to hurt or damage us with the injection he is about to give us. If we do not trust him we would get out of the chair as quickly as possible and run!

        In the case of politicians who but themselves have bred the mistrust millions now have in them?

        1. I was just thinking that, Rastus. I have a dental appointment on Thursday. All based on trust. How will we know now that ‘special ingredients’ speculated to be included in the covid vaccine won’t be slipped into everything (at the point of manufacture) that is injected into us?

      3. Correct. Unless it had been tested on a large sample, including many pregnant ladies and we waited five years for possible side-effects.
        This is not 60 years ago when the medicos were more or less trusted to do their best. This is now, in the post-thalidomide world where Bill Gates not only wants to use “immunisation” to control and reduce birth-rates and insert nanobots across the entire world, but has the money, the power and influence, and the support to do so.

      4. That turn of phrase is the tactic that JSP uses to insult a larger group of unnamed people.

        People have the right to choose their own path through life without being shamed or forced to do something against their wishes.

        That would be the path to dictatorship.

  30. ‘It’s like a severe hangover’: Volunteers who were first in the world to be given Pfizer’s Covid vaccine reveal how the side effects gave them headaches and left them ‘aching all over’. 10 November 2020.

    Volunteers on the Pfizer vaccine trial have compared the jab’s side effects to a ‘severe hangover’ and said it left them with headaches, fever and muscle aches similar to the flu vaccine.

    One 45-year-old volunteer said the first dose left her suffering side effects similar to the flu jab but that her symptoms were ‘more severe’ after her second jab.

    Another volunteer, 44-year-old Glenn Deshields, said Pfizer’s vaccine made him feel like he had a ‘severe hangover’ but that symptoms quickly cleared up.

    Wait until the next full moon and they start howling!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8933799/Volunteers-given-Pfizers-breakthrough-Covid-vaccine-compare-jabs-effects-severe-hangover.html

      1. All carried out in line with the protocols. So we should worry about the protocols. Possibly typed up in a hurry on Word.

    1. I also liked especially this paragraph from the Daily Mail article:

      “This suggests with a good degree of confidence that the vaccine is safe for humans at least in the short term. Long-term safety can only be proven when huge numbers of people have had the vaccine and had their health tracked for years or even decades afterwards, so scientists cannot yet be 100 per cent sure that no side effects will ever appear.”

      So there you have it. Do not touch with a barge pole.

        1. Exactly. Must never be forgotten. Every generation needs to learn over again certain lessons, it seems, in their headlong dash for cash. They overlook the fact that very real people with very real lives are at the end of this particular chain in their pursuit of profit. A recipe for potential disaster once again.

        1. It is free. Although you have to dodge the ads. Once upon a time in the land of myths and legends we had the DT delivered until it laid out its stall and went rogue a few months prior to the Referendum. We refuse to pay for propaganda and opinion pieces.

      1. Fine by me. I just won’t be one of the people having the vaccine and having my health tracked for years. I’ll sit on the sidelines and watch as they grow a second head.

  31. The Nottlers do discuss things such as child poverty and how it all results from parents spending money on tattoos and mobile phones. That may not be the whole story.
    This article from the BBC website is interesting. It did not reference the original research so I sought it out. That is even more interesting. The bar chart showing the percentage of pupils whose first language is not English is very interesting.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54834759

    https://www.schooldash.com/blog.html

    1. Child poverty is a useful tool for the left to beat “The Tories” with, there is no concession that there’s a huge difference between relative poverty where you can still be well fed and clothed ( for example is a Millionaire in Jersey is living in relative poverty as he/she/it will be surrounded by Billionaires ) and genuine depravation, My other bugbear is the egregious lefty rant that Tory austerity killed 130,000 people in the UK. One thing I have noticed is that most of the outraged reports of evictions, poverty, hunger and general deprivation emanate from Labour controlled councils, it’s almost as if a little collateral damage is a small price to pay to discredit “The Tories”

      1. Relative poverty can never be eradicated except by a totalitarian government where everybody has the same income. Perhaps that is coming with the Great Reset and the Universal income.

        1. Yesterday, I asked how many impoverished, starving children there really were in England. A learned NoTTLer replied, “More than you think”. I asked him for a ballpark figure. Silence.

          Still, I hope that Brashford has put all the enormous fees he got for “modelling” ugly clothes towards his endless (and boring) campaign….

          1. There is no need for any child to go hungry in this country. Parents claim child benefit and that should be spent on the child’s food and other needs.

        2. When I first visited East Germany and Poland early seventies I discovered that there was a tiered income system. The professionally qualified received more income from the state than the refuse disposal collectors. In Poland I was advised they had three tiers but had no way of checking.

          I doubt that Poles and former Eastern European’s and others gaining relative freedom after the fall of the Berlin Wall would wish to see a return to communism under The Great Reset (planned by a Nazi-like elite of Satanists headed by a German).

    2. If I’d had 10 children, I could have made an addition to the dreadful Child Poverty in the UK and had some terrible Labour Harpie whining in Parliament about the Tories uncaring attitude … so there!

  32. Just back from an agreeable half-hour bike ride.

    Very mild indeed – 18º – warmer than Laure Minervois! Won’t last, of course – but it is nice wile it does.

    1. Have you found all this bike riding has made improvement to your appetite?

      The kitties seem to have improved your outlook.

      Keep it up !

      1. When you ride out on your
        e-bicycle does Dolly come with you
        … in your bicycle basket, or does she
        sit on the passenger seat and grip your
        waist … with horror?

        1. I did purchase a bespoke carrier for her which would be safe but i haven’t plucked up the courage to use it yet. Next Spring probably.

          She did eventually settle in the car. But if she hasn’t been for a while she gets a bit nervous. It will be the same with the bike. She uses displacement activity like yawning and shivering. I will use distraction techniques to fool her.

          I think she will look rather fetching in her kerchief and shades the next time Kaz and i go on a pub crawl along the beach with our bikes.

          1. Dolly will just have to cope with water. I’m not buying a round in the Pub where she always forgets to bring any money !

      2. No change to appetite – I don’t eat much, anyway. Makes me look forward to the evening medicine, though!

  33. Some octogenarian friends have very recently moved to a small, easily managed, house on the Essex coast.

    Someone named Scott Robson whose title is ‘Enforcement Manager, Cambridge’ has written to them saying that he has authorised a visit to their house, with a warning that “a visit could lead to prosecution/fine up to £1,000”.

    My friends are respectable, professional people, so what on earth are they being accused of? Grand larceny, hate crime, grievous bodily harm, breaking and entering, attempted murder? No! Although they haven’t even finished unpacking yet, they are being accused of not yet paying their BBC license fee!

    I could understand this in the former USSR or even North Korea, but in the UK? Unbelievable!

    To me, one of the worst things about the fee is that you are supposed to pay it even if you never watch the BBC. Not only that, but they dare to threaten my friends while being in shameful violation of their own charter requiring them to be impartial, which they clearly are not. As for the grossly inflated salaries paid to their bigoted leftist presenters, this is an insult to all who pay the dreaded fee.

    Rant over!

    1. Incredible. The sort of thing that might frighten someone of their age to death.

      When I moved to Sweden & bought a TV & went to pay the licence fee, the authorities told me that there was no hurry & I could pay at my leisure. That was in 2002.

    2. They have no right to enter the property unless they have a Right of Entry Warrant signed by a local Magistrate. In my 10 years as a Court Usher I never knew of TV licensing applying for a warrant. Unfortunately people shop themselves.

      Additionally if they do get a visit they can tell them to leave their property immediately. If they do not the ‘Enforcement Officer’ is guilty of Trespass, a criminal act.

        1. ‘Morning, Spikey.

          Does that law of nuisance apply on Sauchiehall Street and George Square in Glasgow on a Saturday night? :•)

          1. Mate & me were walking down Sauchiehall Street on a work stopover a couple of years back and we paused to listen to a fairly decent busker.
            He then started doing “Wagon Wheel” so I went up and, to his great delight and great embarrassment of my mate, joined him on the mic for the chorus!
            Mate later said that it was a decent turn!
            https://youtu.be/1gX1EP6mG-E

          2. That’s actually a new one on me (I’m a bit behind the door when it comes to C&W) but I like it.

          3. Quick note: Ken Burns’ series on Country starts again next week on PBS America. It is a must watch!

    3. There are ways around the TV licence. Some legal, others less so, but one thing you do have in your favour is you can tell the Crapita heavies to get off your land. They can’t prove anything. Not only do they have to prove that you have a TV, they have to prove you use it to receive live broadcasts. It’s a wonder that anyone pays for it!

    4. Let them visit – they don’t have to answer any questions and they don’t have to let them in. It’s not an offence to own a TV, they have to prove you watch live TV broadcasts which they can’t do if they don’t catch you watching it. Tell them to join the rest of us and don’t pay

    5. Please tell your friends that the “Enforcement Manager” or any TV Licensing (aka BBC) employee who visits their house has no more legal authority than a double-glazing salesman. There is no obligation for the householder to talk to them and they can just shut the door without engaging with the other party.

      https://www.tvlicenceresistance.info/forum/index.php

    6. Please tell your friends that the “Enforcement Manager” or any TV Licensing (aka BBC) employee who visits their house has no more legal authority than a double-glazing salesman. There is no obligation for the householder to talk to them and they can just shut the door without engaging with the other party.

      https://www.tvlicenceresistance.info/forum/index.php

  34. Letters: It has come to being made a criminal for driving a partner to work.

    Back to Nigel’s letter, which was obviously written by one who cannot understand plain English. It is NOT an offence to drive your partner to his/her work. The following Govt guidelines state quite clearly that people from the same household may share a car for essential journeys. Nowhere does is say that you may not drive your partner for an essential journey.

    https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-safer-travel-guidance-for-passengers#private-cars-and-other-vehicles

        1. WHAT?

          Are you seriously saying that the guidance you linked to isn’t a lot clearer than the legislation it is supposed to be explaining, that I’ve linked to and to which “Nigel” was referring?

          1. He has trouble understanding what he reads. Old age you know.

            As we all know it comes down to how Plod interprets these things. Normally badly.

          2. Oh. You seem to have eventually worked out the correct spelling. Well done. I know how difficult it must be for you.

          3. I think Lady Hale would struggle with concluding that that gobbledegook allows Nigel to drive his partner to work.

            How the writer of the guidance can justify their interpretation of the legislation is beyond me as a layman.

          4. Ha-Ha Gotcha! 😉
            Of course the guidance is clearer; that’s why it was published. Lay people are not expected to understand the legislation.

          5. I would actually challenge people to find how the guidance regarding taking a partner to work by car can be construed from the legislation.

          6. Exacto. Perhaps because nowhere does it state that you may drive your partner to his/her work, the activity is assumed to be illegal.

    1. A friend’s husband is a serial offender in that regard. I’ve recommended buying him hankies for Christmas.

      1. My staff deal with all that sort of thing. I have trained them to go through the pockets…

        (Fortunately they don’t read this forum…!!)

          1. The Flowers o’ the Forest (posted on Sunday night) has a similar effect.

            But it’s not your eyes Bob… be a proper man and admit to just a touch of emotion (there might be fewer men seeking oblivion too soon and in too many ways if a few more of you did).

    2. I thought that there was a shortage of paper products, shouldn’t you be trying to piece the tissue back together so that it can be reused?

    3. Afternoon Plum

      I always carry a couple or more of empty dog poo bags in my pocket , just in case .

      Hmm, any way , I needed to pick up the nice firm turds laid by my dogs , and the dog poo bag disintergrated into confetti .. it had used up it’s best before date and that was it , so I had to use a pair of sticks like chopsticks to move the nicely formed turds into the heather away from view!

      1. I would have loved to have been there to see that.
        I hope you disposed with the sticks suitably.

    4. Ah, we’ve all done it. At least it wasn’t a ball point pen. Many years ago my mum washed a £5 note and took the remains to Barclays bank. They dried it, blew the bits apart, identified the number and gave her a new one.

      1. I still have half of a ripped-in-two one pound note from donkey’s yonks back. I attempted to take it into the bank for an exchange at the time but they told me to bugger off.

        They reasoned that the holder of the other half could try the same trick and, between us, end up with £2 for a ripped £1 note. They explained that both serial numbers need to be present, otherwise a nationwide scam of ripped banknotes would ensue.

      2. Given my recent experience with Barclays, while sorting out probate and my late mother’s accounts, I can’t imagine anything like that happening today – their customer service [or total lack thereof] in my case was appalling!

        1. Experience with banks is incredibly patchy. A couple of years ago I found a couple of out of date notes in an old handbag. On a visit to a local branch of Lloyds bank I asked if they could be changed – and received new money in seconds. I don’t even have an account with Lloyds, I was just dealing with a society account for which I was, at that time, treasurer. On other days and in other places I’ve found the same sort of obstructionism which has clearly been your experience.

      3. Farmers tend to pop a note in the top pocket for their overalls when running errands; they don’t need money to pay for the errands because they have accounts with all the local agricultural merchants and at the local filling station, but they might want a bar of chocolate or a sticky bun.

        If they don’t use the note (and therefore have small change which jingles) they forget about it and it ends up in the washing machine. Wise launderers check pockets – but sometimes you don’t want to get too close to farm overalls, so they get missed. I can, therefore, vouch for the fact that the new fiver is much tougher than the old one.. several of my clients have told me so.

      1. Our present speaker doesn’t seem so bad…..at the moment. Now if they were to go after Bercow i would cheer.

  35. And in other news:-

    ‘It should be made a criminal offence to spread anti-vaccination myths and the public should report offenders, the Royal Society and British Academy have said amid concerns that baseless fears over a coronavirus vaccine will damage uptake.’ – today’s DT

    Why does a picture of farmers dipping sheep come to mind?

        1. As our Police have lost all respect we are now being told the Army will be involved in the Vax process. They will be armed of course to make sure people comply. I wonder how long it will be before they turn against their masters and assassinate Nick Carter.

      1. Gates is a Eugenicist. He wants to kill off all the old people. He knows nothing about immunology but simply wishes to profit from his vaccine patents, which even pre-date the announcement of Covid SARS 2.

    1. What else related to free speech would they like criminalised? Warming denial? Unicorn denial?
      Where do these fuckwits come from? Lost all respect for the RS as a result of that statement.

  36. Is it true that Biden is no longer the president elect because of an audit of the Pennsylvania vote?

    I am reminded of Hilaire Belloc’s Introduction to his Cautionary Verses:

    And is it True?
    It is not True.
    And if it were it wouldn’t do,
    For people such as me and you
    Who pretty nearly all day long
    Are doing something rather wrong.
    Because if things were really so,
    You would have perished long ago
    And I would not have lived to write
    The noble lines that meet your sight,
    Nor B. T. B. survived to draw
    The nicest things you ever saw.

    1. Biden is not President Elect yet. Most media have read the tea leaves and concluded that Biden has won but that is as far as it goes, not many states have certified the election result yet. Evens there are many members of the senate and congress moving forward on the basis of the not quite complete election counts.

      It may be convention for the presidential candidates to accept the media predictions once the result is apparent but Trump does not do media. They say that recounts have never changed the results by enough votes to reverse the outcome of this election, but that is surely just another projection.

      The big loser at the moment would appear to be the refusal of the government to start working with Bidens team for a probable transition of power.

    2. Is it true that Biden is no longer the president elect because of an audit of the Pennsylvania vote?
      Morning Richard, unfortunately it seems virtually impossible to obtain anywhere close to a grain of truth from any where in the UK.
      Our media and our political system has been taken over by aliens.

    3. Another very apt Hilaire Belloc poem.

      The Microbe is so very small
      You cannot make him out at all,
      But many sanguine people hope
      To see him through a microscope.
      His jointed tongue that lies beneath
      A hundred curious rows of teeth;
      His seven tufted tails with lots
      Of lovely pink and purple spots,
      On each of which a pattern stands,
      Composed of forty separate bands;
      His eyebrows of a tender green;
      All these have never yet been seen–
      But Scientists, who ought to know,
      Assure us that they must be so….
      Oh! let us never, never doubt
      What nobody is sure about!

    1. And Keef on drums.
      He almost died a few years ago old Wilko, he had a huge tumour in his stomach.

    1. By the by, how is the famous “million tests a day” track ‘n Trace going?

      Just asking….

    2. How do, R-R.

      I heard the slime-ball unequivocally state on Al-Beeb this morning that having the vaccine will not be mandatory. His reasoning being that people will rush to have it pumped into their arms. Of course, not being mandatory is quite different from being coerced by threats of restrictions being placed on those who will not accept the vaccine. If the rush of sheeples doesn’t materialise then we may see a different scenario unfold. IMHO Hancock is the most dangerous wretch in the Cabinet.

    3. 326283+up ticks,
      Evening Rik,
      Worry when digit dick says strike up the orchestra, a lullaby methinks, the ovis are going to take a shower.

    4. The Daily Mail was an utter joke this morning. Loads of headlines inviting the reader to share the joyous news of the second coming, I mean vaccine.

      Buried half way down the page was the news that the C of E is going to start conducting fake gay “marriages.”

      I do not know what to do. At this point, I could happily go over to the Romans, but if we all do that, many C of E churches will close, probably including the one in our village, as it is small enough to be converted to a private residence.

        1. It was said that he was misquoted. I do believe the RCs are bigger than one marxist Pope though. Welby, on the other hand looks like killing the Church of England – which I suppose, is the job he was put in to do.

        2. That’s not correct. The Pope expressed a personal view about same sex relationships, not marriage. The RC Church then clarified the official view didn’t agree with the Pope.

      1. As a member of the CofE you could join the Ordinate. I toyed with the idea (because I’m a High Church Anglican anyway), but the Marxist Papa put me off.

      2. What difference does it really make to you, and your relationship with God?

        What’s wrong with two people in love being joined under the eyes of God as married partners if they believe it’s the right thing for them to do?

        I’m an atheist personally, but as an observer it’s good to see churches making forward progress away from the prejudices of the middle ages. You might consider that too.

        1. Your error is to confuse marriage with love.
          Marriage is a contract that attempts to protect children born out of heterosexual sexual intercourse, and in the days before DNA testing, to assure men that the children they raised were actually theirs. The latter is no longer relevant, the former is still as relevant as ever. The central tenet of marriage is sexual fidelity in order to protect children. This simply does not apply to gay couples, who need a strong legal contract, but not one that places sexual fidelity at its core.
          It is known that male gay couples place less importance on sexual fidelity than couples where a woman is involved, and this is perfectly logical. Trying to pretend that this is compatible with marriage, is not!

          Prejudice, noun, “The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions.”
          Perhaps you should rid yourself of your prejudices that gay sex is equivalent to heterosexual sex, and that gay relationships are equivalent to heterosexual ones, as well as your prejudice that heterosexual relationships don’t need a contract of sexual fidelity.

          1. Had quite a few gay friends over the years. You are wrong. Gay relationships are just like heterosexual relationships. Fidelity is important to them on a similar scale as it would be to heterosexuals.
            Marriage is two people making a lifelong commitment to each other. If those getting married are fairly religious then they may want to make that commitment to each other in a church. Nothing wrong with that at all.
            Your idea of marriage is just that, simply your interpretation.
            Gay couples also adopt or have children too. Remember gay couples could be two lesbians that can fall pregnant in a natural way or by use of a turkey baster 🙂
            We now realise people are born gay and don’t choose to be gay. Why should those born gay be marginalised and those born heterosexual free to express their love and commitment to each other in a place of worship? Why shouldn’t the children of gay couples be given whatever protections heterosexual couples get from marriage? They are no less important.

          2. Legal protections are very important and absolutely should be available to gay couples. But not by trying to squash their legal contracts into the heterosexual contract that has sexual fidelity at its core.
            You are simply blinkered and blinded by your prejudice.

            https://virtueonline.org/homosexuality-infidelity-key-stable-marriage
            This kind of open relationship is perfectly valid between consenting adults. But it should have a different contract from the one for relationships where sex produces children.

            If heterosexual couples were a minority, you’d be falling over yourself to get them their own contract with their own specific requirements, admit it. As for your final sentence “They are no less important” that is just a straw man argument. Nobody says that a tailored contract for gay relationships should be less important than marriage.

          3. I meant the children of gay couples are no less important than the children of heterosexual couples. If marriage is an institution to protect children then it should be available to gays too, they have kids in some instances.
            Again fidelity means the same to gay couples as it does to hetero couples. There are plenty of hetero open marriages and many gays that won’t stand for their partner cheating. Relationships are the same whether you sleep with people of the same or opposite gender or even both.
            It really is a good thing that religions are making forward progress in this area. We have far better understanding these days than we did back in the days when gay relationships were illegal and prosecuted.

          4. It is not forward progress, it is blind progress down an illogical path led by emotions.

            The danger to the family from sexual infidelity by heterosexual spouses is the conception of children inside or outside the family.
            Inside the family, a man might have to bring up a child that wasn’t his, or a child might be brought up without a father.
            Outside the family, the family might have to pay out its resources to support a child.

            Gay sex does not result in the conception of children. So families with gay parents do not need protection from these two results. Children of families with gay parents do not need protection from these results.

            Whatiffery about gay couples where one partner decides to have an affair with a member of the opposite sex is just that – whatiffery. Hard cases make bad laws, and we don’t trash the heterosexual marriage contract for a very tiny number of cases.

            Relationships are NOT the same whether you sleep with people of the same or opposite sex. For example, it is known that male gay relationships are more likely to include sexual infidelity, and that female gay relationships are statistically the most likely to be violent. Stop believing all this 1960s claptrap and open your eyes to reality!

          5. Churches opening themselves to gay marriages are not ‘trashing the heterosexual marriage contract’. Nothing has changed where heterosexual marriage is concerned. Two men marrying in church doesn’t change your marriage, your contract with your husband made in the eyes of God, one iota. Nor does it change the forthcoming marriage in church of Mr X and Miss Y.
            So you think the contract two men are making or two women are making together in a similar way is meaningless. The point is, it isn’t to them. They could have slipped down to a registrar’s office. They have chosen to be married in church, to them that has meaning. Why shouldn’t this be allowed, even welcomed, in a religion that preaches acceptance and forgiveness??

          6. Christianity preaches acceptance and forgiveness to those who confess and truly repent of their sins.
            People who are fond of practicing anal sex nowadays don’t want to admit that it is a sin at all.
            They are far, far from Christian doctrine, yet they expect not only to be accepted by the Church but to change Gospel teaching.

            Infidelity cannot be defined for gay couples. If gay couples are included in the marriage contract, infidelity disappears. If people haven’t signed up to sexual fidelity, why should they stick to it?
            I want a marriage contract, backed by the state, that *explicitly* includes the commitment to sexual fidelity. I had that before the fake conservatives started messing with marriage – now I don’t have it. The biggest lie peddled by the pro-gay marriage lobby is that it doesn’t change the heterosexual marriage contract.

            The Christian marriage service explicitly includes a commitment to sexual fidelity. Yet they are now proposing to extend this to a group who are known to be less likely to be sexually faithful to their partner. So either the Christian definition of marriage must change to accommodate them, or else ministers will be conducting sham marriages.
            Of course the former is not going to happen, so the Church of England will be carrying out sham marriages between people who have no intention of being sexually faithful to each other.

    1. I have always loved Joe Brown – I think A Picture of You was the first of his songs that I came across and I have an old 45 of it somewhere in the attic. But this version of the Don Gibson classic is tremendous. He plays many stringed instruments brilliantly – immensely talented and sorely underrated:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do6wg3xVf2k

  37. Absolutely crystal clear sky here in yer Narfurk. A brilliantly clear view of Mars (to help you work, rest and play). In the east.

    Tomorrow should be a good day to dig out some more of the box hedge. (The work ethic of that Bonsall chap is getting to me!!)

  38. BBC Radio 4 is in mourning. Black armbands all round.

    Ex secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, vocal critic of the Trump administration’s peace plan, Saeb Erekat, has died at the age of 65 due to coronavirus-related complications.

    2012 hospitalized in Ramallah after suffering a heart attack. October 2017,he had a lung transplant in Northern Virginia, United States. Recently underwent a bronchostomy,was suffering from pulmonary fibrosis… but died of ‘Coconut virus’. Tough luck that, that virus is a real b*st*rd!

  39. 326283+ up ticks,
    Maybe there is a method in their madness, being if they make us ALL criminals then how do we differentiate between
    us & them ?

    1. Criminalise the population is a well known tactic in a dictatorship. The more people are worried about breaking the rules, the less they are likely to have time to challenge you.

      1. 326283+ up ticks,
        Evening BB2,
        Agreed, much of this is not “off the cuff stuff” but orchestrated
        it never really tried to have the peoples backing,seemingly far from it.

  40. That’s me gone for this quite jolly day. Apart from the news, that is.

    I hope to be able to shift a couple of kittens enough to be able to sit down with a glass. They have taken over my armchair!

    A demain

  41. ******* Breaking news ********

    Wonder vaccine to trade under the Brand names of “Viragoes” and “Ciallisgone”

    Pfizer vaccine side effects:

    It restores hair but makes men impotent…
    Women grow beards and stop menstruating….

  42. NAPOLEON Bonaparte has been remembered as much for his small frame as his military exploits – but an error in the Frenchman’s autopsy suggests he was far taller than is commonly thought.. Dilly Express

    So, The ‘Little Corporal’ was 7ft 5 not 5ft 7. Who would have guessed from his nickname. All six million survivors of those who served in the French resistance during WW2 are celebrating this recent revelation by French scientists.

    1. 5′ 7″ is taller than the average height back in those days. It was the British press who portrayed him as a short ariss.

      1. Precisely. Even in the C19 the average height of the Victorian man was 5’4”. The lower deck of the Cutty Sark and ships of the time allowed for this height in their structure.

        Edit: Nowadays most of us have to crouch when walking the lower deck.

        1. Reading some of the medical reports on men enlisting in 1914 is enlightening about how much bigger we are now – chest measurements are the one that often stand out. My great grandfather had a 34 inch chest.

  43. The chairman of the Football Association has resigned after causing controversy by referring to “coloured footballers” and “Asians working in IT” during an appearance before MPs. The Grimes

    How disgusting, calling someone coloured, He should be flayed alive his head cut off and given to the pigs to eat, said a BBC spokesperthingwhatever, Nothing said can atone for his heinous crime against coloured people…oops, sorry. didn’t mean that. Has anyone got a private helicopter I can borrow?

    1. There is a very good BTL comment by a black woman (that’s how she describes herself) – saying it is bollocks.

        1. Why do losers always dispute election results? First it was the Remainers, now it’s the Republicans. Get over it and prepare for 2024.

          1. People need to have faith in the election system, and there are a few things that seem a bit strange (sudden jumps in Biden votes for example), plus it really is time to crack down on the people who think Vote Early, Vote Often is an instruction, not a joke.

          2. Absolutely agree, which is why I say, let’s see what ‘evidence’ Trump actually comes up with. I’ve got my popcorn ready!

          3. Absolutely agree, which is why I say, let’s see the evidence. It is legal convention that the accuser needs to prove his case.

          4. The losers in this case didn’t like the fact Trump was winning, so in swing states they stopped the counts in the early hours, the poll watchers went home, then they got down to business creating fake mail in votes by the thousands, and even imported more in box loads.

            Not just that, they had already programmed the software of the election machines to switch large numbers of votes R to D.

            All the proof is upcoming and that will lead to four more wonderful years of President Trump !

          5. “All the proof is upcoming”, now where have I read that before? Oh yes, almost every day you’ve posted a claim that Trump is about to release some info or other which will ‘drain the swamp’!

          6. She has Trumpitis. It’s a common condition that decreases IQ by 70% and objectivity by 99% and installs a belief that Donald Trump is the son of God who can turn crap into gold.

          7. She has Trumpitis. It’s a common condition that decreases IQ by 70% and objectivity by 99% and installs a belief that Donald Trump is the son of God who can turn crap into gold.

          8. Did Remainers dispute the result of the 2016 Referendum? I thought they just complained that voters were stupid and/or gullible.

          9. They claimed the vote was illegitimate in that ‘1.3m’ (sic) Brits living in the EU should have been allowed to vote, that a 2/3 majority should have been required, that 16-17 year olds should have had a vote, that EU citizens living here should have been allowed to vote (ignoring the Irish, Cypriot and Maltese citizens who did).

          10. And then they tried to pretend that just over a million was “a small majority” and should be discounted.

    1. It would be interesting to know just how this largesse was distributed. Were the blacks paid a lump sum to vote for Biden? Stranger things have happened.

        1. Tower Hamlets was mostly harvesting of Muslim women and Muslim idiot votes collected at the Mosques and voter intimidation at the polling stations.

  44. From Friday’s DT.

    The upswell of liberal apologism for violent Islamism is sickening

    There can be no compromise on the right to freedom of expression

    TOM HARRIS

    There are some very good reasons why UK ministers should have shown a far greater degree of solidarity and support for Emmanuel Macron, the president of French, when he robustly defended his country’s liberal culture against ferocious attacks from Islamist terrorists.

    First, it would have been the right thing to do. The very notion that law-abiding citizens should not take full advantage of their freedoms, that to tread, however cautiously, over a line that has been drawn by violent religious fanatics is somehow unacceptable even if it is legal, should be anathema to all of us. Those who claim that Samuel Paty, the Paris teacher who dared to show his pupils cartoons of Mohammed as part of a lesson on freedom of expression was in any way responsible for his dreadful fate, that his murderer somehow had less agency because of the faith he chose to follow, are adopting a dangerously regressive moral outlook.

    Second, less importantly and at the risk of displaying a degree of cynicism and opportunism, it would have done Britain a great deal of good in the current Brexit negotiations to have been at the front of the queue applauding President Macron’s brave and principled words of condemnation of the terrorists and in defence of French freedoms.

    And lastly (to continue the cynicism part), it would have done Boris Johnson a great deal of good domestically for him to be seen and heard condemning Islamism (note: not Islam) unequivocally. We are told that the great majority of British Muslims share the president’s antipathy to Islamism and that any such condemnation from Number 10 would be welcomed. But let’s be clear: such agreement is unnecessary. What’s right is right, however many of our citizens are made to feel uncomfortable or angry.

    If anyone needed any convincing about the capacity of the woke Left to inflict real harm, if proof were needed that this obnoxious of all US imports was more than just an amusing excuse to create hilarious GIFs to distribute via social media, then the latest terrorist attacks in France have exposed its true nature.

    Under the headline “Is France Fuelling Muslim Terrorism By Trying To Prevent It?”, the New York Times, that great mouthpiece of wokeness, chose to place the blame for the attack on Paty on the teacher himself, not on his attacker, quoting one academic (of course) as describing Paty’s decision to show the Mohammed cartons to his class as not conforming “to his obligation to be neutral.”

    In another NYT article headlined “Muslim Countries Denounce French Response to Killing of Teacher, Urge Boycott”, Macron’s defence of secularism is described as having “opened France to criticism [in the Muslim world] that the nation’s complicated, post-colonial relationship with its six million Muslim citizens has taken an ugly turn.” I would have thought that 200 French citizens killed by Islamist terrorists in the last eight years would have been the thing to focus on, but maybe that’s just me. And if this is all about colonialism, why the spate of attacks in the last decade?

    Over on the Politico website last weekend, an article by an academic (of course) headlined, “France’s dangerous religion of secularism” sought to draw some obnoxious form of moral equivalence between the Islamists and secularism, the latter of which “has its own priests (government ministers), pontiff (the president of the republic), acolytes (intellectuals) and heretics (anyone who calls for a less antagonistic attitude is rejected and described as Islamo-Leftists).”

    The article, which was subsequently removed from the website after an outcry, contained the chilling line, “They should have thought more carefully about their words.” In other words, if you’re going to wear a skirt that short, love, what did you think was going to happen?

    (Incidentally, it’s interesting to note how far we’ve come from the days when Leftists claimed that Britain was being targeted by Islamists because of its involvement in the invasion of Iraq, an adventure in which France refused to involve itself. We are left with the conclusion that, after all, it is western principles and morals that the terrorists despise, not just our foreign policy.)

    In 2013, after two Islamist terrorists murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby and tried to decapitate him, the House of Commons went to great lengths, not to condemn Islamism in the strongest terms, but to demand measures to combat the rise of Islamophobia. This inversion of national priorities is itself a paradox: the Left spend half their time claiming that Islamist terrorism is nothing to do with mainstream Islam and the other half fretting that robust condemnation of Islamism and defence of secularism is somehow offensive and threatening to mainstream Muslims.

    There can and should be no compromise on the principle of secularism and the right to freedom of expression, including the right to offend without the fear of physical reprisals. President Macron is one of the few national leaders to state this in such unequivocal terms. He deserves our thanks and our absolute support for taking a stand. Why hasn’t he received it?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/11/06/upswell-liberal-apologism-violent-islamism-sickening/

    1. If twenty plus years ago i could and did predict what has happened in western societies, the political classes are not worth a rotten carrot.
      Every where the religion of peace are, there is trouble.

      1. Noted that the 50 black lives taken yesterday by the slammers do not seem to matter much to Black Lives. Wrong shade of black, I suppose.

    2. Our lot of rogues and knaves in Westminster are terrified of self-styled muslim leaders, and have zero understanding of the muslim world.

      1. Apparently the ubiquitous ‘They’ are going to be culling deer near where we live, due to Ash die back and subsequent felling, lots of new saplings will need to be planted. He said the deer will eat the saplings. I witnessed a chap loading two butchered carcases into his LR a few months ago. My dog was quite interested in his produce. None spare though.

        1. And among the thieving bastards are badgers, deer of all shapes and sizes. Bloody nightmare

          1. Country gardens in Bavaria (which is heaving with wildlife) are always surrounded by a thick hedge or fence.

        1. Can’t shoot for toffee. My son can (and does – his freezers are full of stuff he has killed and butchered) – but he is in Gloucestershire…

  45. Astonishing item on Bbc lunchtime news just now about young children losing social skills, such as the ability to toilet themselves or use a knife and fork. And guess who is to blame? Yes, schools not being open. Not a single word about the parents.

    1. “the (in)ability to toilet themselves or use a knife and fork – Not a single word about the parents..”

      These are children of the BBC and MSM, 10 to 15 years old. You can’t expect the parents to do everything for them. They have more urgent things to attend to – Climate conferences, BLM demonstrations, Pan-sexual indoctrination classes. The schools are doing a good job in Marxism and anti-British studies but seriously lacking in toiletry and knife and forkery.

  46. Thought for the day:

    Let’s inject the front-line health care workers with the untrialled vaccine.

    They drop like flies.

    Then what?
    The very last people we should be experimenting on are the health care workers.

      1. Precisely. Those bastards are advocating mass inoculation of an untried and untested DNA modifier.

        They should be the first to be inoculated. This might prove beneficial to the well-being of our country should they all drop like flies.

  47. I am exchanging emails with a political dogsbody.
    My point is that the more testing that goes on the more “cases” result because the testing detects when people have had Covid-19, harmlessly and without symptoms.

    Please correct me if I am wrong.

    1. I’m sure you’re right, and the more young people they test the more positives, though asymptomatic, will be found.

    2. It’s worse than that. The test at its best may be only 60% accurate and there is a worrying %age of false positives. The test detects viral RNA that may or may not be Covid19, that may or may not have been in the subject for months, that may or may not have caused illness in the subject who may or may not have passed it on to someone else.

      On the basis of this flawed science, life is being crushed.

    3. It’s worse than that. The test at its best may be only 60% accurate and there is a worrying %age of false positives. The test detects viral RNA that may or may not be Covid19, that may or may not have been in the subject for months, that may or may not have caused illness in the subject who may or may not have passed it on to someone else.

      On the basis of this flawed science, life is being crushed.

    4. The PCR test doesn’t detect whether a person has actually suffered from the virus in question – see WS’s 3rd sentence in his post below. The ‘amplification factor’ being used in bulking up the RNA molecules is >40 and this leads to many ‘false positives’ that our PTB count as ‘cases’. Watch Paul Weston give an easy to follow explanation of the statistical method re ‘false positives’.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06yja21V7xg

    5. Agree. Don’t forget that the second lockdown is to protect the NHS, due to the number of its staff who are off work for corona-related reasons, so they need to find plenty of cases to justify it!
      Plus all that lovely money being paid to someone for the tests themselves.

    6. It is also not very specific to the Wuhan Virus and will pick up RNA markers that are common to a range of corona type viruses, including varieties of the common cold.

    7. It’s worse than that. The test at its best may be only 60% accurate and there is a worrying %age of false positives. The test detects viral RNA that may or may not be Covid19, that may or may not have been in the subject for months, that may or may not have caused illness in the subject who may or may not have passed it on to someone else.

      On the basis of this flawed science, life is being crushed.

      1. On the basis of replies from Cochrane and molamola as well as yourself, it seems that I may be correct.
        That being so, as the virus continues to spread secretly without symptoms, add the false positives and dead markers, the number of “cases” can only continue to climb. The end point is when everyone, or nearly everyone, tests positive. “Following the science”, the Government will confine everyone to permanent house arrest and shut everything down. Is that the real reductio ad absurdum of all this?

        PS Students who test positive on the new extra rapido test will be locked up for Xmas.

      2. The test is inappropriate and as good as useless. It is just another means by which our money can be transferred to the Tory cronies. The whole enterprise stinks to high heaven and has done from the start.

        1. I hate to contradict you here, but the real winners will be those on the Left; the Tory cronies will be picking up the crumbs from the rich men’s tables.

          1. I agree. Wealth is comparative, Soros and Gates will be trillionaires but Boris, Hancock, Whitty, Vallance and Co will be lucky to break a billion or so.

      3. I heard today from a friend that a couple of chaps from the local RAF station weren’t able to take up their C19 tests so they asked for them to be allocated to someone else. Nonetheless, they received a report that they were both positive! It took some explaining before the red alert was rescinded.

      4. We’ve tested approx 30 people weekly for over 6 months. In all that time we’ve had 1 false positive and no false negatives.

        Anecdotal I know, but that’s our experience.

      5. The rates are nowhere near that high.

        A PCR test for RNA will detect a specific strand of RNA only. But these tests are designed by humans with an incomplete understanding of all viral genomes. They decide which particular sequence of RNA the test will look for. It should be a strand that is absolutely unique to SARS-CoV-2 but with humans incomplete understanding that cannot be guaranteed. Viruses mutate faster than we can map their genomes and new viruses are found often too.

        There isn’t a better test.

          1. About as useless as genetic fingerprinting for court cases but I bet you’re happy to see people banged up where there’s DNA evidence?

            Roughly over 99% accuracy.

          2. A bit confusing. You agree on the shortcomings of Covid tests then go off in the opposite direction on DNA testing in criminal cases, an entirely different matter and far more reliable.

          3. DNA fingerprinting using the exact same PCR technique for DNA amplification as the covid test does for RNA amplificaton.

          4. The Covid test is so much less accurate than that used for forensic purposes that it’s unacceptable. Can’t you see that? Why are there such differences if the same PCR technique is used? As you say, because it’s hard to isolate and it changes. This not the case with forensic testing, which has a more reliable sample and has to make matches on many more markers to prove a case. Also, a court, criminal or civil, is much more likely to challenge the evidence if it’s questionable.

            “…I bet you’re happy to see people banged up…”. Well, yes.

          5. There is slightly less accuracy because RNA mutates a lot faster than DNA. Also DNA fingerprinting uses the whole genome whereas the covid test is looking for probably 1-4 specific segments of RNA. The test is still very highly specific, as specific as possible. PCR is just a way of amplifying nucleic acids, cloning them rapidly to produce a large enough sample for testing.
            If there are inherent problems in the PCR technique, the technique of amplifying nucleic acids those same problems would present in DNA testing.

          6. That it’s useless?

            No.

            That it’s not entirely accurate?

            Of course.

            Yet we’re still looking at very high accuracy figures, over 99%. There are no better tests.

          7. 60% at best is next to useless for the decisions that are being made. And that is at best. Given what we know of the often shambolic practices of the testing up and down the country, the overall accuracy is probably some way short of that.

            Better than 99% for forensic tests is what we would expect in cases where much higher standards are required and where a court would quickly throw out evidence if there was any suspicion of the compromising of samples.

            When you wrote “DNA fingerprinting using the exact same PCR technique for DNA amplification as the covid test does for RNA amplificaton” and then “About as useless as genetic fingerprinting for court cases but I bet you’re happy to see people banged up where there’s DNA evidence?” you were effectively making a charge of hypocrisy.

          8. 60% at best?

            Where do you get such wildly wrong information. There’s nowhere near that rate of false positive and negatives, that’s little better than calling head or tails.

            This is state of the art nucleic acid amplification and genome matching.

          9. There’s plenty of reading out there on the subject, though some recent offerings suggest 70%. Good figures will be recorded in highly controlled conditions e.g. research establishments with experienced and well-trained staff. Out in the field, mass testing by inexperienced staff in imperfect conditions is bound to lead to significant error.

          10. That 70% figure doesn’t mean the test is 70% accurate at all.

            There are reasons infections are missed. Bad positioning of the swab is one. Another is viral shedding load of a very early or dying infection. Another is position in the body of infection. It maybe in the lungs but not in the phalanx where we are taking swabs from.

            That 70% figure doesn’t say this test is 70% effective. It’s over 99% effective ( sensitivity and selectivity) and so it should be considering there’s no better test than a genetic material test.

            Yes the testing regime will miss cases of coronavirus for reasons listed above or others, and may cause false positives for those without an infection but had a previous infection and there’s still some viral DNA about. However the actual test itself is very sensitive and very specific.

          11. Then can we agree that in strictly controlled laboratory conditions the test is highly accurate but much less so in the field with inexperienced staff and variable (often poor) conditions.

            Even the late inventor of the test was much quoted as saying it should be used experimentally and not for in-the-field diagnostic purposes.

            And I’ve ‘tamed’ a couple of my remarks above that were unnecessarily critical.

          12. The test itself is incredibly accurate. The PCR to amplify the nucleic acids is also extremely accurate.
            There are still reasons why false negatives will appear. I gave three or four reasons why.
            False positives tend to be caused by past infections. They can also occur due to cross-contamination but that really shouldn’t be a problem, although I suspect that tests are done en masse to get the numbers of tests done we are doing.

            They likely bundle 100 samples together and if they test negative that’s 100 people cleared from 1 test. If positive maybe break them down into batches of ten ruling out as many people as possible and individually testing each member of groups of ten that tested positive.

        1. And the punchline on your link:

          Where some of the confusion might have come about is because of the accuracy of antibody tests. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says:
          “There is a chance that a positive result means you have antibodies
          from an infection with a different virus from the same family of
          viruses.”

          1. Yep, tests for a new disease aren’t as accurate as tests for established disease. Who’d have thought it!

          2. And the PTB are ploughing on regardless.

            As I wrote earlier, vaccinating front line NHS workers first, with an experimental vaccine, is not a good idea.

          3. That is hardly the point. The point is that claims are made that the tests indicate Covid SARS 2 whereas they demonstrably do not. You are being conned and professional immunologists and clinicians have been arguing against this absurdity for several months.

        2. Search for ‘faulty pcr testing’. The references should keep you occupied for a good while.

    8. The percentage testing positive is a more important measure for the reasons you quote. It’s also worth noting that testing capacity has been deliberately moved around the country to areas with outbreaks to help track and trace, so several factors can lead to the number testing positive going on.

  48. NEW: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo just asked by journalists whether the State Department will cooperate with the Biden transition, says…………..

    “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration” !

    1. Perhaps Trump can run a US Government in Exile. Perhaps he could base it in whichever tax haven he chose to hide his claimed billions to avoid US tax.

      1. If he has any sense he’ll ask the Biden family and Pelosi’s and Obama’s mob which one to choose.

        1. He could, although rather pointless, given that all of those people have voluntarily published their tax returns, unlike Trump who didn’t despite saying he would i.e. he lied, who’d have though it!

          1. Are you really that naive?

            If you think ANY of the top politicians finances are open to public scrutiny you had better review your own finances and passwords.

          2. No SOS, I’m not naive, I just have an old fashioned view that if a politician promises to release his tax returns, he should!

          3. Which tax returns?
            I understood that DT had released his own but was not releasing every one of his many companies.

            Unlike most of the career politicians on both sides of the House, Trump has myriad company as well as his own returns.
            And, just as a matter of interest, where in the various laws of the USA does it demand that the President’s personal finances be placed open to public scrutiny?

            This, as far as I am aware, is a recnt stick, created by politicians to beat other politicians. (much as I approve of it)

          4. Interesting, but I pose my question again:

            where in the various laws of the USA does it demand that the President’s personal finances be placed open to public scrutiny?

          5. As the Wiki article states, it’s not a legal requirement, but it’s convention and the key point is that Trump promised to release his tax returns and then didn’t. One might think he has something to hide and of course, when a few years of returns were recently leaked, guess what he’d paid less tax than a waitress!

          6. Context dear boy, context.

            Legality is everything.

            And I will laugh for the next four years if Biden loses on a point of legality.

            Quadrupally so, if Clarence Thomas is the one to tell him.

          7. Don’t be so impatient, histaxreturns will be released straight after his new healthcare plan that will replace obamacare is released!

            The healthcare plant has has been promised for as long as his tax returns.

          8. Good grief. You go for Trump yet ignore the activities of Obama, the Clintons and Biden family who have amassed vast wealth from deals with the Russians, Chinese, Ukrainians and God knows who else.

          9. Good grief. You go for Trump yet ignore the activities of Obama, the Clintons and Biden family who have amassed vast wealth from deals with the Russians, Chinese, Ukrainians and God knows who else.

          10. The man in the spotlight is Trump. If they have acted illegal, they should be charged; if they have acted immorally, the electorate should know, but the current news is about Trump.

      2. Donald will be running his second term as usual from the White House while the fraudsters will be heading to jail.

        1. Sadly, it isn’t going to happen.

          The swamp is still too deep and DT will be drowned therein.

          Hopefully he’ll take a lot of them down with him.

          1. That cartoon looks exactly like Bill Gates when being interviewed. His hand waving is very distractng.

          1. Given the abuse and arrogance of the media I really, really want him to win.

            Not because I think he will, but because just once it’d be nice if they gave these halfwits a damned good kicking.

          2. Crikey. You must be losing big time. Betting is not good for you.

            By the way it costs 19,000.00 dollars to attend Davos. Have you by any chance attended.

            I imagine your private jet will have cost a tad more. Are you worth a yearly turnover of at least 5 billion US dollars to qualify for attendance (there seems to be an exception for the dolt Greta Thunberg but then she is funded by Soros).

            Or are you just a reseller of bog rolls to “our” NHS.

    1. It’d be more accurate to say that of those 10,000, 7 of them would die. Given the vaccine is only 90% effective, that means 1000 aren’t protected.

      Maybe my statistics are wrong. They usually are. Does it mean that of the *infected* it would protect 90% of them? OK, that makes more sense, reducing the infection rate from 42,000 odd down to 4000 odd, call it 5000 and then less than 1 percent of those would then die?

    2. RR aftn, re yr 14 Oct heavy duty tin foil hat post. Benghazi angle / tentacles goes even way deeper & wider. That lad on vid [& others involved] on vid posted is on hit list if Demented Joe gets in. Posting on here as no means to do so thru yr orig post, no worries. But thanks for the upload, being in Africa, fragmented links

  49. Another day, another DT puff piece about Kamala Harris and how wonderful she is. The only reason why she isn’t considered the worst Democrat currently in office (don’t forget she was one of the first to drop out of the race to be Dem Pres candidate) is because AOC, Omar and Pelosi are still there. I hope more DT readers finally understand what has happened to this once great paper and LEAVE.

      1. That this is a professional, live on air to use such language shows the immaturity of these people.

    1. What goes around comes around. “Oh Shit, Fuck!” Those phrases sum up perfectly the Biden chance of election.

      We all know and see this but the MSM and Fake News deny the reality.

    1. It’s being done to undermine our Common Law history.

      This is the introduction to the way things will be when we leave the EU. Our laws will be based on the Napoleonic Code. You can only do what the state says you can do and it will be written in pedantic detail as in the Lisbon Constitution. Our Common Law heritage will be consigned to history.

      This is the big test to see how compliant the population will be and the sheeple have not disappointed them. As HC says below it’s utterly depressing. The scamdemic is a political construct.

      1. Time, I think, for a bit of creative civil disobedience. Maximum disruption to the Them with minimum cost to ourselves. They might then realise just how much they rely on public confidence and co-operation.

    2. 326285+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      The orchestrated handling of covid has been a complete success.
      The governance win double when pulled of will be the orchestrated handling of the brexitexit.

    1. Good evening, Paul

      Many thanks for posting this. It should be compulsory viewing not only for the Nottlers but also for the editors of the MSM in UK.

    2. Cracking good piece. That’s the kind of broadcast that we ought to be getting on the BBC and ITV…(please let me stay sleeping for a few minutes longer)…

    1. Not so far, but then I am avoiding all news apart from on here. What particularly should I be depressed about?

        1. Yes, well that goes without saying. My personal life isn’t brilliant, either, but I try not to let it get me down. I wondered if there were some new catastrophe that the government had thought up to try to break us.

          1. Life must be hard for you at the best of times, looking after your wife with dementia. Magnified this year by all the restrictions and petty nuisances, and lack of freedom. I can moan about my lack of social life this year, but I know others are worse affected.

          2. I lost all my escape routes that made life bearable and then, of course, lockdown accelerated the decline for MOH. Trying to get any help from social services, GPs or anybody has been a nightmare because it’s all been shut down “due to Coronavirus”.

          3. You told us a while ago about the difficulties you had getting any help – did any of those issues get resolved at all?
            Now we hear that the GPs are going to be cutting back on normal services, as they will all be bust doing vaccinations. Have they been providing normal service the last few months?
            I don’t know what the situation is at my surgery, as I keep well away.
            I did go for the flu jab this time, and it was well-organised. The nurse remembered me as The “hedgehog lady” although it was six years since we released one in her garden.

          4. I’m still soldiering on without any official help. I have a friend come in once a week and help out. It does give me a bit of a breathing space – not that there is anywhere to go thanks to the loonies in power.

          5. By a technicality. I have the Connemara “on loan” so it’s permissible to exercise him – and it looks as though I’m going to have to do the BHS Stage 3 (I have the equivalent of Stage 2) exam as teaching is permitted for a recognised industry qualification. A pox on all of them!

    2. 326285+ up ticks.
      Morning M,
      Today could show up some more condemning facts around the cenotaph area.
      Don’t get depressed, get even.

  50. I enjoy cooking,I enjoy experimenting with spices and techniques but so often simple is best
    Home cooked gammon ham
    Triple cooked chips
    Two fried Burford Browns
    Slice of well buttered sourdough
    Heaven on a plate!!
    Edit
    My arteries are attempting a coup about this comment but I still have control of the keyboard so screw them

    1. I thought it was already assumed that he had won there and that this confirmation changes nothing.

      1. It was. Every electoral map I’ve seen over the last week shows NC as light red because Trump had a large enough lead there that the outcome was a near certainty. This changes nothing.

        1. I’ll point out that the BBC’s live map on the morning of the 4th showed NV, AZ, PA, WI and MI in light red. I saw it for several hours.

    2. At this point, given the crowing and toddlerish braying from the BBC at Trump’s losing I really, really want him to win just to shut them the [insert expletive of choice] up.

    3. As of 3:43PM EST, the NC election is still undecided. They estimate about 150 000 votes remaining be counted.

      Trump has a 1.3% lead but to quote Trumps line on the overall result, its not over so don’t call it a Trump victory yet.

      1. Says he chewing his nails at home hoping desperately that Trump will lose and Biden will destroy the US and Western civilization.

        That’s not going to happen sweetie. Donald is not going to let Biden into the White House to screw America.

        1. “Donald is not going to let Biden into the White House…” and that has been the plan from day 1 regardless of the outcome of the democratic process. Trump is effectively trying to stage a coup.

          1. Dems tried several coups since 2016.

            Donald doesn’t need to because he genuinely won and he will prove that beyond reasonable doubt which will be more than enough for the Supreme Court of the United States.

            However… due to the lies and propaganda of the billionaire backed Dems who are trying to protect their mafia-esque exploitation of their past power base, Donald is morally perfectly justified to do whatever it takes to keep them out of the White House anyway.

          2. “…Donald is morally perfectly justified to do whatever it takes to keep them out of the White House anyway.”

            Incredible words. But thank you for being truthful in your belief that election results are irrelevant when it comes to Trump’s ‘right’ to remain in power!

          3. No problem.

            Four years of lies and malign propaganda by criminals who have already screwed America under Obama have inevitable consequences.

            Tney will not get a second chance.

          4. Four years of lies and maligned propaganda by criminals.

            Well Trump hasn’t been convicted yet but that certainly defines his reign.

        2. You are a dreamer aren’t you.

          Instead of spreading rumours and making false predictions, why don’t you do something useful for the Trump campaign and deliver some evidence of mass election fraud that is being claimed..

          Trump promised legal action on Monday, he has obviously lost his calendar.

          1. What false predictions ?

            I was right about Donald’s 2016 victory and the referendum.

            You’re just burdened with TDS.

            Tough for you.

            4 more years of Donald coming up. Maybe longer.

            Keep on chewing your nails.

Comments are closed.