Tuesday 11 February: A mansion tax is wrong to demand a slice of the place people call home

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/11/lettersa-mansion-tax-wrong-demand-slice-place-people-call-home/

759 thoughts on “Tuesday 11 February: A mansion tax is wrong to demand a slice of the place people call home”

    1. Clear, bright, beautiful full moon high in the south-west sky and my golden conifer out front vigorously waving about for the third morning in a row.

  2. Just wondering with this corona virus outbreak, will the be cancelling the climate conference in Scotland?

    1. I can’t think of a better use for a massive outbreak.
      Where’s that super-spreader when you need him?

  3. ‘Morning All

    Jeez what a clusterfluck

    Just two months in and it appears the semi-sentient blonde floormop that purports to be PM can be pushed around by whoever grabs him last

    How shall we list the joke policies………………

    Huawei

    HS2

    Nonsense scientifically illiterate Climate Bolleux

    Endless flow of Gimmegrants across the Channel

    An Irish Sea Bridge FFS??

    Looking good for Brexit isn’t it??

    Just to complete my happiness yet again an unelected judge overturns the will of Parliament and lumbers us with a batch of criminals

    “Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Sub-Committee of the
    Inner Temple”. With people like that making the decisions we don’t stand
    a chance. And it was a Conservatve Govt which appointed her.”

      2. The top loop to Felixstowe is the vastly overloaded A14 and the bottom loop, M11/A120/A12 contains a single carriageway section of road on the A120 that is a perfect bottle neck with no plan in place for upgrade despite the plan to build tens of thousands of homes along its length. Bearing in mind the foregoing it is therefore a perfect plan for traffic chaos. I’m certain the government will go for it.

      3. I wonder too. It makes sense to improve the links to Felixstowe – the A14 is a horrible road. However, how do improved links to Ireland serve England or even Wales?

        If Ireland is reunited, and/or Scotland gets its independence from the UK with a bid, supported by the Irish, to rejoin the EU, then it makes complete sense for there to be a bridge between Scotland and Ireland, and Stranraer to Larne is the logical route (rather than the shorter sea crossing via the dogleg going down Kintyre).

        Until one or both of these are settled, then there is little point in the bridge.

        Ireland’s supply route to the continent may well depend on their lorries going through Great Britain, which thus depends on there being a swift and easy passage across or under the Channel to France. Their alternative is the longer sea crossing to Brittany, which bypasses Great Britain entirely.

        1. There is already a rail route paralleling the A14 from Felixstowe to Birmingham still waiting to be fully electrified. Upgrading of that would take a fair amount of pressure off the A14.

        2. ‘Morning, Jeremy, should Scotland gain its independence and Northern Ireland get subsumed into the Republic, then, and only then, would it be up to ROI and ROS and the EU to fund such a nonsense. We could put a heavy tax on any vehicles entering England and Wales from the EU and bound for Scotland and/or Ireland.

        4. Apparently international trade was prolific and existed long before the EU was even imagined and not even a glimmer in the a megalomaniac’s eyes:

          Big Steamers by Rudyard Kipling
          “Oh, where are you going to, all you Big Steamers,
          With England’s own coal, up and down the salt seas?”
          “We are going to fetch you your bread and your butter,
          Your beef, pork, and mutton, eggs, apples, and cheese.”

          “And where will you fetch it from, all you Big Steamers,
          And where shall I write you when you are away?”
          “We fetch it from Melbourne, Quebec, and Vancouver.
          Address us at Hobart, Hong-kong, and Bombay.”

          “But if anything happened to all you Big Steamers,
          And suppose you was wrecked up and down the salt sea?”
          “Why, then you’d have no coffee or bacon for breakfast,
          And you’d have no muffins or toast for your tea.”

          “Then I’ll pray for fine weather for all you Big Steamers
          For little blue billows and breezes so soft.”
          “Oh, billows and breezes don’t bother Big Steamers:
          We’re iron below and steel-rigging aloft.”

          “Then I’ll build a new lighthouse for all you Big Steamers,
          With plenty wise pilots to pilot you through.”
          “Oh, the Channel’s as bright as a ball-room already,
          And pilots are thicker than pilchards at Looe.”

          “Then what can I do for you, all you Big Steamers,
          Oh, what can I do for your comfort and good?”
          “Send out your big warships to watch your big waters,
          That no one may stop us from bringing you food.

          For the bread that you eat and the biscuits you nibble,
          The sweets that you suck and the joints that you carve,
          They are brought to you daily by All Us Big Steamers
          And if any one hinders our coming you’ll starve!”

    2. Lack of a mobile phone signal at the place where they were being held prior to being deported appears to one excuse for the appeal. It’s being claimed the lack of signal denied these miscreants access to legal advice. I thought that the justice system had had its say, they had been found guilty of committing crimes, sentenced and ordered to be deported. Concerning non-nationals guilty of committing crimes, where and when does the justice system process end for these unwanted criminals?
      Woman of colour making herself sound a complete arse on Nick Ferrari’s programme: resorting to the ‘institutional racism in the prison system’ trope as a last resort in her argument.

      1. They had access to landlines,this is just an excuse from a cultural marxist,common purpose judge to further her agenda and sod Parliament and the Government

    1. An Arundel Tomb
      BY PHILIP LARKIN

      Side by side, their faces blurred,
      The earl and countess lie in stone,
      Their proper habits vaguely shown
      As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,
      And that faint hint of the absurd—
      The little dogs under their feet.

      Such plainness of the pre-baroque
      Hardly involves the eye, until
      It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still
      Clasped empty in the other; and
      One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
      His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.

      They would not think to lie so long.
      Such faithfulness in effigy
      Was just a detail friends would see:
      A sculptor’s sweet commissioned grace
      Thrown off in helping to prolong
      The Latin names around the base.

      They would not guess how early in
      Their supine stationary voyage
      The air would change to soundless damage,
      Turn the old tenantry away;
      How soon succeeding eyes begin
      To look, not read. Rigidly they

      Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths
      Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light
      Each summer thronged the glass. A bright
      Litter of birdcalls strewed the same
      Bone-riddled ground. And up the paths
      The endless altered people came,

      Washing at their identity.
      Now, helpless in the hollow of
      An unarmorial age, a trough
      Of smoke in slow suspended skeins
      Above their scrap of history,
      Only an attitude remains:

      Time has transfigured them into
      Untruth. The stone fidelity
      They hardly meant has come to be
      Their final blazon, and to prove
      Our almost-instinct almost true:
      What will survive of us is love.

  7. But for people who anticipate a pandemic—an expanding epidemic that
    rapidly crosses borders—the masks blanketing China have an unsettling
    second meaning. They are a reminder that Chinese manufacturing is the
    source of most of the world’s masks and respirators. Now that the vast
    country is using more masks than it ever has before, fewer of them will
    likely be available to the countries that have been China’s regular
    customers.

    https://www.wired.com/story/amid-coronavirus-fears-a-mask-shortage-could-spread-globally/
    If the factories don’t reopen in China many supply chains will break asunder,maybe it’s time to reassess security of supply over cost…………

    1. ‘Morning, Rik, and it’s already been established that masks are ineffective against the coronavirus so, what’s the problem?

  8. Morning all

    SIR – It was heartening to read the Sunday Telegraph’s disapproval of a proposed mansion tax (Leading Article, February 9).

    Many people, like me, live in houses bought more than 50 years ago, in then run-down areas, which are now selling for unimaginable prices. I was obliged to take out an equity-release scheme when my husband developed Alzheimer’s disease and could no longer work, in order to give us sufficient income to live on.

    I now own about a quarter of the current equity in this 1860s semi, and am obliged to live frugally, having paid large sums of money for his care over more than two years before he died. I am nearly 83 and have no wish to move; this is my home.

    This area became desirable with the advent of the Docklands Light Railway, which gave easy access to Canary Wharf . These houses are being bought by younger people as family homes.

    Advertisement

    Maybe there should be some kind of sliding scale based on the original purchase price of our dwellings to help officialdom determine who can afford to pay more tax and who can’t. There’s a big difference between £12,500 (which we paid in 1969) and more than £2 million, the going rate in the past couple of years.

    Celia Moreton-Prichard

    London SE13

    SIR – In my view, it is wrong that people entering care may have to sell their houses to fund care-home fees.

    While the Government is searching for solutions, a short-term expedient could be to give a tax allowance, or tax credit, to those footing care-home fees above a specified level.

    I would suggest an allowance of, say, 75 per cent of fees above that level, leaving the balance to be met by the individual. It would be a relatively simple method of giving relief.

    I see the draining effect of fees, being a 91-year- old, wheelchair-bound care-home resident of four and three quarter years, during which time the fees paid amount to £300,000. HMRC tax the meagre interest on what remains of the proceeds of my house.

    Richard Ernest Johnson

    Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex

  9. SIR – Regarding coronavirus – do we all know where to get our face masks from, whether the specification of available masks is fit for purpose, whether they should be disposed of daily and whether there are sufficient supplies? I don’t.

    Geoff Green

    (Former HM Principal Inspector of Health and Safety)

    Lea-by-Backford, Chester

    1. I wonder where all the critics of various retired military officers are. They’re not jumping on this bandwagon.

      NoToNanny (Cpl, RAF, retd)

  10. Morning again

    SIR – I have spent the past 60 years trying to understand military history, latterly as director-general of the Royal Air Force Museums. I write in despair after viewing Sam Mendes’s latest creation, 1917.

    The effort was formidable, the cinematography incredible and the characterisations believable. But why spend so much time, effort and money and still get the details wrong?

    Simple errors, which could easily have been corrected, made an important historical film into a travesty.

    I am particularly upset by the introduction of modern profanities, which the Tommy of the period would not have used, the disrespectful behaviour of officers, unheard of then and now, and the simple lack of knowledge of the nature of interactions between ranks – for example, saluting with or without headgear.

    As is so often the case for us historians, the story would have been so much more real had more attention been paid to accuracy.

    Dr Michael A Fopp

    Soulbury, Buckinghamshire

  11. Transport restrictions

    There are unlikely to be bans on taking public transport but if the

    the spread of the virus picks up place, expect the government to

    recommend “non-essential” travel is avoided.

    Also expect a major information campaign about the importance of good

    hand and respiratory hygiene when using public transport systems.

    Trains, buses and especially hub stations are easy places to spread

    and catch viruses from shared surfaces such as ticket machines, hanging

    straps, and seats.

    With most pandemics “hotspots” appear – areas in which the spread of

    disease races ahead of others. It is possible that local authorities

    would introduce additional, more draconian, restrictions around such

    hotspots.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/10/british-government-would-do-coronavirus-spreads/
    “More Draconian Restrictions”
    Nothing to worry about,no sireeee,nothing to see here move along or rather don’t move along…………….
    Shopping for me today followed by an antisocial period of hibernation while I observe developments

  12. Now that the Board of HS2 has pushed it past the point of no return before the “independent” report could be sent to No.10, then we are stuck with a Vanity Tax worth £106 billion and counting.

    Income Tax must be hiked by 5% at all levels immediately to pay for this.

    1. ‘Morning Hugh

      Just when you thought that the BBC’s obsession with global warming couldn’t possibly get any worse… the TV Breakfast programme is now discussing Rastafarian hair styles in schools!

      When I was at school , our hair had to be tidy and if long, tied back in the dreaded bunches or plaits or ponytails , and no adornments!

      1. That’s one up to you, Belle – I can’t beat that in the stupidity stakes!

        Good morning (is it?)

    2. She is totally clueless as are Extinction Rebellion. Strangely the real problems which are uncontrolled mass migration and uncontrolled population growth are never mentions

      The UK is being bought t its knees by the massive population explosion. IT has increased by over 3M in little over a decade and thats only the official figure., WE know that the true UK population i about 7M higher than the government admits to

  14. Jamaica deportation flight goes ahead despite court battle

    This attempt by the judges to stop the flight must be the most ludicrous to date. The judge tries to claim that those that had an O2 phone could not be deported

    A planned deportation flight to Jamaica has gone ahead despite a court battle between the government and campaigners.
    The Home Office, which says foreign criminals are being deported, lost a court ruling yesterday after a judge said some detainees did not have proper access to legal advice.
    It is not known how many people are on the flight, but a government statement suggested it was complying with the judge’s ruling.
    The charity Detention Action said the court’s decision would affect 56 people but the Home Office said it was closer to 30.
    A Home Office spokesman said: “We make no apology for trying to protect the public from serious, violent and persistent foreign national offenders.
    “The court ruling does not apply to all of the foreign national offenders due to be deported and we are therefore proceeding with the flight.”

    2. Morning Bill

      Their next flighst should be to Somalia , Nigeria and Pakistan , but of course , they won’t regard Pakistan and Nigeria as foreign, will they

    1. Celia Walden wrote an amusing report, channelling Michael Deacon, in the Telegraph yesterday. I think the Oscar’s cover has been blown.

  16. Oscars Lose 6 Million Viewers From Last Year, Set New All-Time Lows in Ratings

    No surprise that this event of Luvies backslapping each over and making pompous political speeches is going down the drain

    It is about time they scrapped the whole lot of boring award programs

    The 2020 Oscars drew 23.6 million total viewers on ABC, down a whopping 6 million TV viewers, or minus 20% from last year. Like 2019, Sunday’s Academy Awards went host-less.
    That move didn’t work out this time around, but the mix of movies may have been an even bigger problem.
    In the key demographic, adults 18-49, the year to year drop-off was even steeper than the all-in decline. Last night’s show received a 5.3 rating in the demo, according to Nielsen, down 31% from the prior Oscars and to a new record low.

  17. Oh my what had this country come to. On BBC 1 they have a nice discussion going about afro hair styles being important and they should be protected under the law.

    I should have heeded comments about the BBC being past it’s sell by date but I was hoping for some Oscar free news.

      1. Did you see that programme where they plonked that Welsh semi with its occupants in a tribal village somewhere in darkest Africa?

        The delight of those real African women (not the US-inspired woke hip-hop gangstas) trying to persuade that overweight Welsh lass to take off her clothes was inspiring. They consider breasts are beautiful, so why hide them away? I’d like to see the BBC feminists do a feature on that. I expect though, in order to be trans-friendly, it would be full of man-boobs with an identity crisis.

        1. I did not see any of them wearing strange hair styles that are supposed to be African culture

  18. NTTL Awards 2020

    We are now seeking nominations for the following categories

    a) The best Poster
    b) The worst Poster
    c) The Most prolific poster
    d) The most Woke Poster

    Winners will be required to deliver a boring and political speech and should mention lack of diversity and Woke

  19. Boris Johnson to plough £5bn into restoring regional bus routes after years of austerity cuts

    Has Boris ever been on a bus outside of London?

    Higher Frequency services during evenings and weekends. Most areas have little more than a skeleton service during the day,. , There are no evening of Sunday services in most places

    Despite more individuals using buses than any other mode of public transport, funding for those services has dramatically fallen over the last decade with over 3,000 routes altered, reduced or withdrawn.

    n a statement to parliament on Tuesday, the prime minister will say the £5bn fund will focus on priorities such as higher frequency services during the evenings and on weekends, and “more affordable, simpler fares”.

      1. And a poor one. Continuing with HS2 and appeasing the north of England with a few buses is not the way to retain those voters.

    2. The price of a taxi here where I live , just to travel 12 miles to our County town and hospital costs £45 one way .. a rate set by the Council .

      There isn’t a regular bus service .. a train yes , but buses are as rare as hens teeth .

      1. They are i most places bar the cities and the very large towns and the little that is left is usually very unreliable. Who is going to use a service that is only every 2 hours and will be frequently late or cancelled

        Many bus fares are so high if there are two people travelling a taxi is cheaper

        2. The original idea of the free passes was to help fill the buses off peak but the bus companies kept putting up fares and cutting service so drove the fare paying passengers away so most bus now probably have 90% pensioners on them

          The ordinal reimbursement for the passes worked out at about 70% but in most cases it is now nearer 50% so the economics do not work

          The scheme was supposed to leave the operator no worse of but that failed. If say a bus has 10 passengers and the fare is £2 that comes to £20 but if it is 90% pensioners it only gets £11

          Bus companies are pricing them selves out of the market, The cost of running a bus are little higher than leaving it in the garage

          You can split the costs into 33%, 33% , 33%. They will not be quite that but it is a rough approximation

          So about a third will be the cost of the driver and fuel another third will be the cost of the bus and depreciation and insurance and maintenance etc and another third will be fixed costs and indirect cost so rent and rates, energy costs office costs management costs etc

      3. The car parking charges for the normal wait for triage would be as much as that, wouldn’t it? Someone’s got to pay for PFI and HS2.

    3. Where I live, a hamlet six miles from the nearest town or city, and two miles from the nearest village shop, the most efficient way to get around is a small car. Buses that pass by here rarely have more passengers than drivers.

      1. Down to the fact that the bus service are so expensive and so bad only the desperate with no alternative transport use them

    1. This is why there is a concerted hate campaign against environmentalists going on. They want to lump us in with the woke lunatics.

    2. In Wendover the objectors/protesters have created a huge camp in a strategic location. It’s like a small village.

      1. It didn’t save the Regents Park hedgehogs after their MP, one Keir Starmer, pledged to save them, but then went all quiet when they started work on their eviction.

        He wants to be Prime Minister, so I’ve heard.

  22. Good morning all.
    Just about 48 hours later, as predicted another grandchild arrive in the early hours of this morning. Both mum and beautiful little daughter are fine, no problems at all. 4 year old brother very happy.
    As proud father says, it’s amazing what 3 chunks of pineapple can do. 😆

      1. ☺ well spotted Miss Marple. 🔍
        But now with three grandchildren.
        One more wedding for our third son and his lovely lady on the cards as well.
        Write to Boris re the bus problem, he’s going to be investing 5 billion in public transport.

        1. That, like all public transport would take you where you didn’t want to go to from where you didn’t want to leave from.

          1. Yes I understand your point.
            I don’t know wether you have ever used a local bus service JS but compared to using a car, some journeys seem to take for ever.
            They have to take routes ‘around the houses’ in order to be available to people who don’t have access to their own form of transport.

          2. A new PFI hospital built – minute car parks as there was to be a free bus service. 50 yds from my back door was a new bus stop! It took just about 1 hour as it went on a “round the houses” trip to the hospital.

            It takes 10-12 minutes by car.

            I was on Chemo for 6 mths and the last thing I needed was to leave 80/90 mins early for 8.30 appt and arrive home some 80/90 mins after leaving the main door.

            The bus service was discontinued after the 3 year contract & the car parks were enlarged – intentions were good but the thinking was badly flawed. Hospital staff failed to use it – it might have taken them in but no return bus when they finished.

          3. On of our friends was in a similar situation. He worked out that if he didn’t use his car or his wife couldn’t drop him at his designated hospital and used local buses he would have to leave the night before for a 9 am appointment.
            I hope all is well now. 😊

          4. After I asked the average for me (I was a late diagnosis)
            Surgeon said “Most probably get 12 months at least & possibly 24”
            That was in 2010 – the Chemotherapy work BIG time for me!

            Big donation to the Oncology Department in June!

    3. Oh goodness. Please don’t tell anyone else about the power of pineapple chunks, especially the non-whites of this world!

      Congrats again Eddy, glad all is well.

      1. Thanks HL.
        We met the little lady this afternoon. She was fast asleep and lovely. Mum and dad were fine but very tired. All checks carried out, they’ll be home now.
        My wife has made two cot size quilts one blue material with beautiful designs, one pink. We buy a copy of the telegraph each to put away and keep for posterity. As we have when our son’s were born.
        Unfortunately for our eldest, he didn’t get a copy of the Adelaide Times.

  23. Pillar of the community’, 71, is jailed for five years after stealing £250,000 from charity pension fund to buy French holiday home and house in upmarket Hampshire village

    Unfortunately this is pretty common. Most charities have very lax financial controls that is if they have any at all

    Not sure how he was taking money out of the pension fund as that should be totally separate from the Charity

    2. Unfortunately this is pretty common.

      Actually it’s fairly uncommon! Most of Charity money is “stolen” in the form of gargantuan salaries to the Directors and the recipients who divert it from the cause into their own bank accounts! It’s more embezzlement than thievery!

    3. “buy French holiday home and house in upmarket Hampshire village”
      Did well to buy both for just a quarter of a million these days.

    4. £250k and got 5 years – he’ll serve probably 2 which made him £125k per year – not bad going

    5. Unfortunately this is pretty common.

      Actually it’s fairly uncommon! Most of Charity money is “stolen” in the form of gargantuan salaries to the Directors and the recipients who divert it from the cause into their own bank accounts! It’s more embezzlement than thievery!

      2. My general rule is: try not to give any money to a charity whose chief and staff earn more than you do.

  24. “Tuesday 11 February: A mansion tax is wrong to demand a slice of the place people call home”
    Is this one back again ? I thought it was dead.

    1. I see as we speak the aircraft is speeding it’s way to the Carribean. Good bye o diversity.

    2. It’s really hard these days to sort out what is satire and what is just unbelievable woke reality!

    3. And the BBC expect educated Britons to continue paying a ransom fee so that they can indulge themselves with third world ineducables.

          2. And me. I also hated Roadrunner, Bugs Bunny, Pixie and Dixie, Jerry and Tweetie Pie.

            I wanted to squash them all!

          5. Cheers !

            I quite liked bugs bunny when i was little. Don’t see the point in any cartoons anymore.
            Except for Aardman Animations.

          6. Didn’t you want Elmer Fudd to blast that pesky wabbit and make a stew out of it? I did! :•)

            I love the old hand-drawn 2D cartoons (Popeye the Sailor man is my all-time favourite. A lot of his asides were too adult for me when I was a sprog). I think the new 3D stuff is too over-the-top and has lost the simplicity of what cartoons originally set out to do.

          7. Didn’t you want Elmer Fudd to blast that pesky wabbit and make a stew out of it? I did! :•)

            I love the old hand-drawn 2D cartoons (Popeye the Sailor man is my all-time favourite. A lot of his asides were too adult for me when I was a sprog). I think the new 3D stuff is too over-the-top and has lost the simplicity of what cartoons originally set out to do.

    1. The drug profits are destined to take advantage of the exciting development opportunities springing up all over the Chilterns, as their lobbyists get to work on the planners, and an orchestrated hate campaign against environmentalists is set up among the faithful “business-friendly” anti-lefties.

      It’s the Council Tax payers who must pay indirectly for HS2.

  28. “Coronavirus ‘could infect 60% of global population if unchecked’

    Exclusive: Public health epidemiologist says other countries should consider adopting China-style containment measures”

    Is his assumption that nobody is intending to check it ?

  29. ”

    “As far as many of these former supporters were concerned, then, the
    Labour Party they rejected could not be trusted with the public
    finances, looked down on people who disagreed with it, was too
    left-wing, failed to understand or even listen to the people it was
    supposed to represent, was incompetent, appallingly divided, had no
    coherent priorities, did not understand aspiration or where prosperity
    comes from, disapproved of their values and treated them like fools.””

    Surely that’s the Conservative party?

    1. The fact remains though, Rik, that if humans abuse the planet … the planet will fight back.

      Every major outbreak of a ‘flu-like virus over the past century has started in China. The country with the most massive overpopulation problem and with one of the lowest standards of hygiene.

      1. ‘Twas ever thus.
        Apparently there is a permanent pool of marmot type creatures in that area that harbour the nasties.
        There are annual cases of bubonic plague in China and Tibet.

        1. There has also been a suggestion that the virus was transmitted to humans from bats via the illegal trade in pangolins.

          1. How does trade in a South American animal transmit virus between Chinese bats and Chinese people? I don’t see the link.

          3. Pangolins are the most trafficked animal world-wide. Most of them are trapped in African countries – Congo etc and shipped via Nigeria to China, Singapore and Vietnam. Their scales are used in TCM and also their meat is supposed to be a delicacy.
            They were found to be in the Wuhan live animal market along with bats and dogs for human consumption. Apparently the virus was found in them and it is 99% similar to that found in humans.

    2. Apart from a fit young doctor inconveniently wedded to the truth, do we have any idea of type of patients dying from the coronavirus?

  32. Morning Each,
    Are the peoples taking their collective eyes of off the real deal regarding Brexitexit ?
    To my way of thinking HS2 is an appeaser to brussels for
    the brexit upheaval & as such must be completed.
    Now they are saying talks have commenced on a bridge
    to Ireland what with the tunnel it is as if they have had long held regrets that the UK is an Island.
    Anyone know at this moment in time who is acting on
    behalf of the peoples of England / GB which party &
    which party is in opposition?

    I do put a great deal of emphasis on “acting”.

      1. Morning Bsk,
        As in putting the party before the Country in the power game.
        The very political game played out by the electorate that has got us to where we find ourselves today as a nation, in deep sh!te.

      2. Other than a few Mayors in the North few want HS”. They want the commuter services and Northern City links improved they are not interested in a High Speed line to London

    2. It is quite staggering that people would defend these criminals. Lammy is the first one to shout about crime in his constituency, but offer to do anything about it and he regurgitates his usual racist rants.

      1. He ought to be ashamed that he’s a pig ignorant racist pillock but he’s too thick to notice.

  34. Urgent questions scientists are asking about virus. Gabriel Leung – The New York Times – 10 February 2020.

    A fleet of invisible carriers sounds ominous; but in fact, an enormous hidden figure would mean many fewer of the infected are dying. Usually, simple math would determine this “case fatality” ratio: divide the total number of deaths by the total number of people infected. In an emerging epidemic, however, both numbers keep changing, and sometimes at different speeds. This makes simple division impossible; you will invariably get it wrong.

    In 2003, during the early days of the SARS outbreak, the medical community got the math wrong. At first, we believed that case fatality hovered between 2 percent and 3 percent. It took two pages of longhand algebra, written in Oxford, England, coded into a computer in London and then applied to data from Hong Kong, to get it right. The actual case fatality for Hong Kong was staggering: 17 percent.

    It’s time to get the grub in, seal the Front Door and lie low until Summer!

    Got this off Microsoft News!

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/10/opinion/coronavirus-china-research.html

    1. My projections tally with the figures being released. So still on target fo 1bn infected by end of April.

      The NY times article includes this strange paragraph, which is not explained;
      “And it could help roll back some measures seemingly fueled by populism and nativism. The travel advisories, outright travel bans, immigration controls and xenophobic treatment of people from different places are doing significant harm.”I. Significant harm? I don’t think so.

      S

      1. The Aussies are like us, unfortunately they have the same type of politicians as us, self serving, woke worshipping….. you know the rest.

    4. My concern relates to his Mental Health that he could possibly think he can represent true Londoners….

  37. My apologies, fellow NoTTLers, late on parade to day – another bad night – but let us cheer up with a little story:

    A guy walks into a bar with his pet monkey. He orders a drink and while he`s drinking, the monkey starts jumping all over the place. The monkey grabs some olives off the bar and eats them, then grabs some sliced limes and eats them, then jumps up on the pool table, grabs the cue ball, sticks it in his mouth and swallows it whole.

    The bartender screams at the guy, “Did you see what your monkey just did?” The guy says, “No, what?” “He just ate the cue ball off my pool table – whole!” says the bartender. “Yeah, that doesn`t surprise me,” replies the patron. “He eats everything in sight, the little twerp. I`ll pay for the cue ball and stuff.” He finishes his drink, pays his bill, and leaves. Two weeks later he`s in the bar again, and he has his monkey with him. He orders a drink and the monkey starts running around the bar again.

    While the man is drinking, the monkey finds a maraschino cherry on the bar. He grabs it, sticks it up his butt, pulls it out, and eats it. The bartender is disgusted. “Did you see what your monkey did now?” “Now what?” asks the patron. “Well, he stuck a maraschino cherry up his butt, then pulled it out and ate it!” says the barkeeper.

    “Yeah, that doesn`t surprise me,” replies the patron. “He still eats everything in sight, but ever since he ate that damn cue ball, he measures everything first!”

        2. Good morning Peddy

          I have had to express before my surprise that you occasionally fail to detect irony!

          When Shakespeare mentioned proud man’s glassy essence being similar to an angry ape he was not thinking about black people, as far as I know. However this has not stopped a news reader on ITV from being sacked when he used this quotation.

          Clearly, in the distorted world in which we live, any mention of apes or monkeys regardless of context might land you in trouble and get you accused of being a bigoted racist.

          1. Now you’re being racist, and I am reporting you to your local constabulary for a re-education programme. A truly diverse cue ball can be any colour it identifies with, as well you know.

  38. Irish Election Results in fo all seats

    The final results have changed things slight. It was being thought that SF would have the most seats and they would have the first go at trying to form coalition but they have got piped at the post by FF who have 38 seats. Where this goes now who knows it could even come to another election

    SF 37
    FF 38
    FG 35
    IO 21
    GP 12
    LAB 6
    SD 6
    SPBP 5

    1. Sinn Féin will seek to discuss the formation of a coalition government with the Green Party, the Social Democrats, Labour, Solidarity-People Before Profit and Independent TDs in the coming days.
      However, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald on Monday night acknowledged that the seat numbers needed to put her party in position to lead a left-leaning government may not be there when all the 160 Dáil seats are filled.

    2. 81 is the number required for a majority.

      Any Coalition must be either a grand coalition of two of the three major players plus one minor player, or one that contains both Greens and Independents and some minor players as well as one of the three major players.

      A minority Government is untenable if the majority Opposition can unite to frustrate any legislation (such as we saw in Westminster last year). It will then require another General Election. SF would then put up more candidates.

      1. It is difficult to see a coalition work. As I understand it FF & FG are about as far apart as the Church of England and the Catholic Church and many of the parties would not work with SF

    1. Morning Sue,

      Ironic if in their quest for more diversity, their own Hollywood productions are under increasing competition and they fail to be as successful.
      “Parasite” could just be taste of things to come. 🤣

    2. Are these viewing figures worldwide or just the U.K.? Watching self-congratulatory shindigs like this has no interest for me whatsoever so even 23m viewers seems an enormous number of people.

      1. It’s broadcast in 225 countries so I assume the 23m is spread across all of them but none of the online articles I can find actually specify that.

    4. The Breakfast news on the morning after the Oscars is unwatchable. Most of it is about the awards ceremony, with interviews of anyone who happens to be going to a ‘party’. Boring.

      1. I’ve never watched Breakfast News. Or any daytime telly, except when my OH has tennis or rugby or athletics on.

    5. I don’t watch it, or the Bafflers. They are exercises in Narcissism for the Overprivileged.

  40. Waitrose is planning to launch 5000 new products in the next few months in a scramble to retain its online customers as its Ocado partnership draws to a close.

    I dont get M&S’s logic of going with Orcado. Very few people do their main shop at M&S so having to deliver lots of small orders is going to be very expensive

    Online grocer Ocado currently stocks more than 4000 Waitrose products, including its own branded lines, and provides the technology behind its online platform.
    According to analysts at Berenberg Bank, this tie-up is thought to account for around six per cent of Waitrose’s sales.
    In August Ocado will replace Waitrose with its key upmarket grocery rival Marks & Spencer, swapping its Waitrose range for 6000 M&S products which it promises will be the “same price or lower, and of the same quality or better”.
    This could potentially have a major impact on Waitrose’s online operations, so it has launched a major revamp of its online product offering in a bid to prevent its customers from jumping ship to M&S.
    In the coming months Waitrose will launch thousands of new and revamped products, the equivalent of just under a third of its 17,000 own-label products, according to The Guardian.

    1. One supposes that data analysis has shown Ocado that its best customers are affluent, urban or suburban, and Jewish.
      Waitrose sells brands, M&S only its own label.

  42. May one ask has the “nige” dismantled the brexit group
    prematurely or does he consider it to be, job done ?

  44. Why can we not have a referendum on HS2? Why should it be up to a small cabal of men to decide if they can spend north of £100bn of our money and decimate the countryside?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/11/brexit-news-latest-hs2-jamaica-deportation-boris-johnson/

    Whilst we’re at it, would they like to ask our opinion on banning petrol/diesel cars by 2035, going carbon neutral by 2050, taxing pensions and high-value houses, letting Huawei into our 5G network?

    I won’t be holding my breath!

    1. Morning JK,
      This small cabal of men / women / things could have been told via the polling booth umpteen times on an
      assortment of policies definitely not agreeable to the peoples, but the peoples must agree to use the power of the polling booth in a beneficial manner as in being beneficial to the Country before the party, they don’t.

    2. In January 2009 the New Labour government established High Speed Two Limited (HS2 Ltd), chaired by Sir David Rowlands, to examine the case for a new high-speed line and present a potential route between London and the West Midlands.

    3. I can see it going close to £200B. They have hardly started on it and it is is about 3 1/2 times over budget so far and that in spite of pruning the project back

      1. Yes, and once construction has started then all bets are off, it will be an unlimited cheque-book. They had a chance now to cut their losses, but no, we will ‘keep digging’ no matter what it costs .

        And the poor taxpayer doesn’t even get a say. I demand a ‘People’s vote!’

        1. THe losses would not have been hat great as most of the budget so far has gone on buying up land and proprieties. These could be sold

          1. Quite right. My mother told me, don’t throw good money after bad! I suppose it’s easy to do that when it isn’t your money.

        2. It’s only money. If they hadn’t spent it on that they would have spent it on something equally stupid.

    4. We were given a referendum and we returned the wrong answer. They are not going to make that mistake again.

    5. We have elections to appoint people to make decisions. HS2 is not just one decision made on his own by a dictator, If there were a referendum tomorrow as to whether to reintroduce capital punishment, every politician would be hanged, but that would not be a good thing.
      To leave the EU as the result of a referendum was also debatable.

      1. So, you believe that the act of being elected makes someone all-knowing and all-wise, so they know what’s best for everybody, and the electorate are too dumb to bother their pretty little heads over these things?

        1. On the contrary, the electorate elect someone to represent them and make the decisions. The elected are deemed to be sufficiently competent to do that.
          (That is the theory, isn’t it ?).

          1. That works vaguely, if the decisions made by the elected representatives are reasonably representative of the electorate’s opinion. Now there is a wide divergence, I’m not sure it’s the way to go.
            I never was an adherent of representative democracy. I want to be asked personally, and now there’s IT widespread, that becomes feasible. Up to then the Swiss model works for me.
            I recall some years ago, the EU (EEC??) refused them entry, as they were “too democratic”… 🙂

    6. Good question. Would the money not have been better spent on joining up the railway lines inside London to allow a train from a Aberdeen to go direct to Marseilles, via Paris”? Or seeking an alternative route North?
      Or upgrading existing lines?

      There was a so-called Euro train from Edinburgh. An express that literally did not stop anywhere and on arriving in London you had to drag yourself to Waterloo. The train ran empty until withdrawn. It was a total fiasco.

    8. It’s not our money, given that we are already running a deficit. It’s 100billion+ borrowed from Javid’s friends in the city.

    9. The likelihood of having a referendum on any issue in future is very low. Referenda are only suggested when the government is confident of winning. 2016 changed all that.

      1. Yes I doubt they’ll let us have a say on any issue of importance ever again after the 2016 debacle. Most governments are very far away from what the electorate want on so many important issues, but what can we do? Johnson has an 80-seat majority and five years to do whatever the hell he likes.

  45. Has Prime Minister Johnson’s apparent sharp left turn with new economic thinking, in the form of possible wealth taxes and massively expensive state driven infrastructure projects which look likely financial failures, been ”leveraged” by the Institute for New Economic Thinking ?

    I ask because the First Minister for Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, was visited by the Institute for New Economic Thinking in 2017 as this article explains…….

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/economy-jobs/interview/johnson-i-was-hired-by-soros-for-black-wednesday/

    As ”Influence Watch” tells us…..

    ”The Institute for New Economic Thinking is a left-wing economics think tank. Founded in 2010 under the sponsorship of financier, philanthropist, and left-wing activist billionaire George Soros, the organization promotes an expansion of left-wing economics education in a search for a new statist economic policy consensus.”

    https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/institute-for-new-economic-thinking/

    In view of INET’s related organization, Open Society, conveniently positioned close to Downing Street and self admittedly dedicated to ”leveraging” government policy and forming ”strong relationships” with officials and politicians, perhaps possible influence from INET is the explanation for Prime Minister Johnson’s apparent sharp left turn ?

      1. It’s probable the ”leveragers” pop in and out of the Downing Street door like butterflies.

    2. I don’t think it is that. Boris seems like Donald – he doesn’t read books, he acts by impulse and gut reaction.

      1. I think he does what his current girlfriend tells him to.
        The rest of the Parliamentary Conservative party are nothing but spineless wimps.

  46. Update on the snow situation here in the Derbyshire Dales, Intermittent falls ranging from light flurries to heavyish, but only for 10 to 20 minutes at a time with bright sunshine between.

    S@H is due back from working away this afternoon, so I’ve three rather nice Herdwick mutton chops, bought from Tebay Services last week, in the pan.
    They smell lovely!

        1. OK, thanks BoB. Never bin there and have no need to use the M5 north of Bristol. But I’ve made a mental note…..

    2. Gosh it is Climate change. You will all be trapped in 20 foot snow drifts and be without power and water for months but dont worry Greta will if she can get there lecture you on climate change

        1. Just like Ashford. I remember when it was a Real Village, with cattle down the high street ‘n all… I passed through it a few years ago. Pretty but totally sanitised and dead.

  47. Boris Johnson Brexit deal to cause price hikes and shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables, retail chiefs warn

    Project fear again. Its total bunk. The ports are already ready much of the traffic in any case is already none EU. There will be no checking of lorries. It is just a paper work check and thats automatic they just swipe the bar code

    1. We could always re-establish our orchards, the ones grubbed up as a result of EU regulations. We could also establish new market gardens for which we were once famous.

      2. As a side effect it would reduce the number of huge lorries that trundle across the continent. Whats not to like Greta.

    2. Needle stuck in a groove again. They’ve been saying that for years. All the little kiddies will die of malnutrition.

      1. Dover hs been full ready for Brexit for over 12 months and neither Dover or Calais anticipate any delays

        1. BJ,
          The real UKIP has been working for & was ready for the Brexitexit
          until the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition & a multitude of supporting fools screwed it up.

    2. My life will never be the same again.

      I’m in negative equity. 5,300 upvotes on 5,337 comments.

      I’m distraught.

      (Not really).

    3. If we are thinking of the same muncher, she should be banned in all her various avatars.
      I still wonder how the bitch is allowed to stay.

    5. Mine are down too, having risen for a couple of weeks.
      The Phantom Downvoter is back from its holiday.

    6. If it bothers you then just set up a new account. My old one is at zero but the new one seems safe (famous last words, I know). You can use the same name and avatar but need a new e-mail address and password.

  50. Sweden Expects Rise in Asylum Seeker Numbers This Year

    The Swedish Migration Board has predicted that the number of asylum seekers entering the country will rise this year, with an increase in Syrian and South American migrants.

    The projection claims that at least 23,000 asylum seekers are expected to come to Sweden this year, up from the 21,958 who applied for asylum in 2019, with Migration Board planning manager Henrik Holmer labelling the estimate a “fairly marginal increase”. Thats ignoring the illegal influx as well

    1. Archaeologists of the future will be searching for relics of the Lost Tribes of Europe. A race of people alleged to be white skinned.

  51. Oh that’s rather fun…..

    The BBC and Greta are partnering up again…………..

    https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/02/10/bbc-to-partner-with-greta-thunberg-for-another-tv-climate-series/

    I wonder who is behind that ?

    ”We work to foster open societies inside and outside Europe by leveraging the EU’s policies, legislation, funding, and political influence……. by ……..building strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs, and other actors.”

  52. Victoria Tube station closed due to overcrowding as commuters face severe delays

    The whole system is creaking a t the seems due to the mass migration to London. Station closures are the norm now

    Victoria Station has been closed due to overcrowding as commuters face severe delays at rush hour.
    The Victoria line is experiencing severe delays due to a faulty train at Brixton, Transport for London said.

    2. BJ,
      And that was considered to be I believe one of the least crowded spots in the whole country.
      Must inquire of the next lab/lib/con voter I meet why they continue to vote for more incomers.

    3. Oxford Circus tube station regularly closes during the evening rush hour due to overcrowding and has done for years. When I first came to London in 1975 I wanted nothing more than to work in W1. Now I’m so glad that I don’t!

  53. This doesn’t seemed to have reached the newshounds of the British MSM: From yesterday,

    “the growing feud between Russia and Turkey over control of Syria last remaining rebel holdout in Idlib province escalated overnight, and as Bloomberg reports, Turkey sent hundreds of tanks, armoured personnel carriers and commandos to the Syrian province of Idlib as preparations continue for a likely attempt to break the siege of some of its outposts by Bashar al-Assad’s forces”.

    1. So long as they go on killing one another and leave us alone, that’s O.K. by me. And if it’s a matter of refugees, for preference I’ll take the Russians.

  54. Northern Ireland could find itself in a different time zone to the rest of the UK under Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.
    Currently, EU countries and the UK switch to summer time hours on the last Sunday of March and back to Greenwich Mean Time on the last Sunday of October.
    But if Europe moves to a “double summer time” arrangement, the prime minister’s Withdrawal Deal could mean Northern Ireland has to be one hour ahead for six months every year.

    The European Parliament voted last year to stop changing clocks twice annually.

      1. T,
        Supporting / voting lab/lib/con
        since the mid 70s was never going to put the peoples in the winning enclosure, as we are
        witnessing and many are now realising.

    2. Northern Ireland had been in a different time zone as long as I can remember.

      Still struggling to get out of the 17th Century.

  55. There’s nothing democratic about this climate assembly. Spiked. 11th February 2020.

    In short, no. Watching the proceedings of the first assembly, it became clear very quickly that the process is rigged in favour of the environmentalist agenda. Expert after expert, each echoing the same message, made his or her presentation to the assembly. This was followed by a rapid question-and-answer session in which the assembled were told what’s what by said experts. It didn’t look much like a democratic debate. It looked like instruction.

    Morning everyone. This is interesting because it’s the first account I have read of the actual workings of one of these “Citizen Assemblies”. It takes no great knowledge of people to know that if you gather any group together and then subject them to a one-sided diatribe on any complex subject that a large percentage will change their minds and fall into line. I’ve always had my suspicions of them simply from the sort of people who support them and the questions they are asked to solve, which are invariably social in nature. None so far as I am aware has ever been asked their opinion on Tax Rates or HS2 though they were used to solve the Irish Abortion and Gay Rights problems. Problem here of course means they couldn’t get them passed by legitimate democratic means but lo and behold they had assemblies and the wise and randomly selected members did the right thing. Aside from the points raised in the quote one wonders quite how random the selection of the “citizens” actually is? Who chooses them and by what measures? Is this random as in the BBC Question Time audience where in actuality they are chosen to fill Demographic, Racial and Social criteria that would do justice to North Korea? What we have in these Assemblies is yet another way of bypassing majority opinion in favour of progressive agendas by spurious democratic means.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/11/theres-nothing-democratic-about-this-climate-assembly/

    1. The lists of funding from the Quango-Tango are fascinating,I wonder if you chased that further upstream where you would get to
      ‘Morning Minty

  56. SIR – HM Inspector of Constabulary says the proportion of crime cases closed because the victim did not support a prosecution rose to 22.6 per cent in 2019 from 8.7 per cent in 2015 (report, February 7).

    Could this be because the police blame the victim for the failure of a prosecution as it removes the responsibility from themselves?

    I was the victim of a violent assault, after which the police failed to take appropriate action. I wrote complaining that they had missed an opportunity to bring a prosecution. I did not receive a reply.

    I then paid £120 and waited months for a copy of the crime report, which stated that I had refused to give evidence in court to support a prosecution. I can only surmise that this total fabrication was the force’s justification for closing the investigation down.

    Civil action resulted in £5,000 compensation, but I would much rather that the offender had been forced to face the justice system.

    Frank Chantry

    Holmfirth, West Yorkshire

    1. Bring in hundreds of thousands of third world immigrants and the average wealth/income per capita will plummet; relative poverty will rise, and to create equality those towards the top will have to be hammered and hammered hard. The elites will be able to mitigate the disaster, the middle classes won’t.

      He’s got a free rein for five years and the globalists will have won.

      1. Most of the elites have already fled the UK having seconds and third homes abroad and spending most of their time abroad

      2. Good morning Sos

        There are many cities and towns who are crumbling visibly under the stress and strain of third world immigrants who loiter and cause havoc by their radical views and hate for their hosts ..

        Sweden and France and of course Germany know that only too well, not forgetting Eire .

        Boris has well and truly scuppered us all.

  58. The evil of Shamima Begum. Spiked. Brendan O’Neill 11 February 2020.

    If you want to know how morally disorientated the cultural elite has become, just consider this: they have expressed more sympathy with the supposed ‘grooming victim’ Shamima Begum than they have with actual grooming victims in Manchester, Rochdale, Telford and other English cities and towns. When it comes to white working-class girls who really were groomed, in this case by largely Pakistani gangs, they are silent. But when it comes to Begum’s decision to join an Islamic death cult and to travel thousands of miles to assist a hysterical pseudo-state that was enslaving Yazidi women, crucifying Christians and executing homosexuals, they cry ‘grooming!’. They have shed more tears over a neo-fascist Islamic radical than they have over northern working-class girls.

    I’m not certain that Begum is evil in the classic sense. She is certainly a supporter of Islamic State and thus a supporter of Jihad to spread Islam. This is one of the better reasons for keeping her out of the UK since she is the very stuff of which Suicide Bombers are made. As to the support she receives from the UK elites this is simply a side effect of the hatred they have for the indigenous white population. This crosses all political boundaries, Labour, Tory, the various Libs, all of them hate us with that passion that is reserved for those that they most despise and of which by some unfortunate circumstance of birth they are members, thus doubling its effect.

    The reasons for this; what is in effect self-hatred, are rarely dealt with, but I would suggest that during WWII the UK in saving the world exhausted itself not only economically but culturally, emotionally and politically. The British Political Elites who survived the War inherited a world in which they could in no wise emulate their predecessors. They were pygmies stood between the Giants of the United States and the Soviet Union. They were still tainted with the policy of Appeasement. They had to oversee the dismantling of the Empire and were quite frequently treated with contempt during it and reduced to begging just for the country to survive and who among them could seriously follow Churchill? To bear these humiliations they shifted the psychological onus onto the people of the UK. They were responsible and thus was born the betrayal of the people!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/11/the-evil-of-shamima-begum/

  60. Makes you wonder why we bothered, doesn’t it? More taxes, more waste, bigger state.

    No, Boris. No. That’s the opposite way to solve the problems the UK has.

      1. Afternoon Rik,
        No way would I or did I vote for
        the proven toxics, a very obscure entity got my kiss.

    2. The honeymoon period didn’t last long, did it?
      I voted for Boris purely to get Brexit, and because there was nothing else electable on offer in my constituency, but even I didn’t expect so many crazy decisions to come out of No.10.

      1. According to the Excess, Carrie is having battles with Dom. This is probably her doing. Or maybe his.

        2. I’m afraid that Dominic is said not to be seeking a smaller state but rather a ‘more efficient’ civil service running it. He’s as bonkers as the rest of Westminster.

      2. Afternoon Ims,
        There has been
        stitch ups & treachery since the
        “nige” laid legs post 24/6/2016.
        As for supporting ( condoning)
        the turkish delight AKA amnesties R me, no way.
        Trying to prop up brexit with hope was never going to be a winner.
        The peoples cannot abhor
        treachery & support it at the same time, don’t work.

    3. W,
      Makes me truly wonder why the real UKIP bothered 28 years & about a million pavement miles ago.
      To have brexit handled in such a cavalier, treacherous manner makes one wonder at the sanity ratings of their fellow countrymen.

    4. “Bigger state” – the Cons used to be for smaller state IIRC. The honeymoon period is over.

    1. And elsewhere in the Express:
      “HS2 rebellion: Boris faces down angry Tory revolt as he gives high speed rail go ahead
      BORIS Johnson has given the go-ahead to the controversial HS2 high speed rail link – with cracks already emerging in the Tories’ post-election unity with Boris Johnson as a result of vehement opposition from many of his own MPs.”

    4. I followed the link and noted an article on the Commonwealth. Apparently. both New Zealand and Australia have already withdrawn funding from the organisation headed up by patently non-Scottish “Baroness Scotland”*. So Boris proposes a female black politician from Kenya in her place. Right! That will really sort out the sordid nepotism and possible fraud, won’t it? I mean, Kenyan politicians are known for their democratic, fair, honest, and decent approach, aren’t they?
      Surely someone from Australia or New Zealand should be sought out in order to get the Commonwealth back on the rails, and make it a meaningful trading bloc?

      * Is it any wonder that the Scots are in favour of independence when low lifes are handed Scottish titles without having ever been here?

    1. The most reliable, sensitive and conscientious student murderous thug.

      I can imagine what her and her boyfriends family think of all that high praise.

    2. Radio Four did a dramatisation of the case a few years ago, broadcast when I was driving up the Ecclesbourne Road from work, thought it was fiction at first, then realised it wasn’t.
      Had to pull up just short of Idridgehay in floods of tears.
      What made it even worse is that Andy, one of my then colleagues is a Goth and he knew Sophie Lancaster & her boyfriend. He’ll be bloody gutted over this.

  65. We Voted Boris; But We Got Jeremy Corbyn. JAMES DELINGPOLE. 10 Feb 2020

    I can’t believe I’m having to write Britain’s epitaph so soon after the joy and jubilation of Brexit Day but look at what Boris Johnson’s ‘Conservatives’ are offering a bemused nation:

    Higher taxes (Mansion tax, pensions raids, etc)
    An explosion of grand, unaffordable, and pointless infrastructure projects.
    A war on motorists.
    No more cooking or heating with gas.
    Elevation to the House of Lords for MPs who opposed Brexit.
    More green levies and regulations.

    How is any of this nonsense materially different from the ‘fully automated luxury communism’ Britain would have experienced under Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour?

    I haven’t come to a final conclusion yet but I am beginning to think that Delingpole is correct!

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/10/we-voted-boris-we-got-jeremy-corbyn/

    2. With a shudder and a shiver, i agree with you.. We have been well and truly had .. I cannot believe what that man is all about ..

      We have all been well and truly de Pfeffel’ed ;0(

    4. As usual I agree with you entirely, Minty

      As I have said before (sorry, Peddy) the jury is still out on Boris Johnson – but I fear it will soon be back with a very damning verdict and the judge will have to don his black cap.

      1. Johnson has already made significant decisions which will have far-reaching implications for our country for decades to come. He is letting the Chinese into our communications network. He is green-lighting HS2, with the unlimited cost and environmental destruction that will bring. He is fully signed-up to the ‘climate emergency’ nonsense which will take our economy back to the stone age and result in the lights going out. His economic policies appear to be straight out of the ‘soak the rich’ socialist playbook.

        We should have voted for Corbyn, at least he was honest in his intention to destroy the country. Johnson is no more on our side than any of his predecessors.

        1. Johnson is no more on our side than any of his predecessors.

          I had no trust in him and certainly none in the Tory candidate in my constituency and so I spoilt my ballot. I never voted for Blairites either, of which Johnson appears to be v5.0. If he had stood at the election on what he is now preparing to do he would not have won a majority as the electorate wasn’t prepared to vote for more of the same insane and wasteful policies. He is betraying many of those who supported him. If he carries on in this vein and support for the Tories plummets to May levels he may not last until the next election. His behaviour is reminiscent of the inept general who reinforces failure and finally sacrifices both his soldiers and his command.

          1. I voted UKIP in the absence of a Brexit Party candidate. I made my small protest in the only way available to me. I had severe doubts about Johnson when he failed to block the Benn Act. With five years and a huge majority he can do whatever he likes, be more radical than Blair or Corbyn if he chooses and I doubt there is a damn thing we can do about it.

    1. Its more probably been passed from animals into the human chain. They eat bats and all sorts of things in that part of the world. They are not like us.

      1. Let’s face it – they eat anything. Sea slugs, chickens’ feet, monkeys’ brains, raw coagulated blood, powdered rhinoceros horn…

        It reads like something from medieval quackery remedies.

    2. Maybe he reads this blog. This was suggested here some weeks ago. (conspiracy theory? Well we were pretty familiar with the diseases of the world by 1920. In the last few decades some really scary things have popped up from nowhere*. These include AIDS, Ebola, bird flu, and others.

      (* or from labs trying things out in the search for the perfect bio-weapon, a biological version of the neutron bomb.)

      1. Perhaps the fact that men from some countries are happy to copulate with animals may not help matters (I’m thinking of AIDS). Sheep seem to be relatively safe though…

          1. And Australia, and New Zealand. But nothing has arisen from there that is life-threatening, the way it has from China. Again and again.

            So, as I say, sheep appear to be relatively safe from that point of view.

          2. Their calls are baarred. Sorry, many disqus replies go straight to the spam folder, so I don’t notice them.

    3. If the Chinese had ever been anything but secretive, people might believe them. However, the Chinese have traditionally proved themselves not to be open when they are at fault.

      The fact that most governments are now like that is perhaps why we don’t people what any of them say.

      1. I wonder what the Duke of Edinburgh thinks about this virus and the Chinese. He’s not exactly known for being diplomatic in expressing his opinions!

    4. Meanwhile…

      https://mobile.twitter.com/JustinB84741875/status/1226655203539259392

      https://mobile.twitter.com/RainbowtearsLj/status/1226508723251826688
      “Claims of 50,000 bodies being burned and 49 Crematoriums working 24 hours a day, and this is just in #Wuhan”

      No one has any idea if this is true, but videos that are appearing on Twitter, etc, apparently showing what’s happening in China, do not show a government in control of a flu outbreak that has a death toll so far of 1000 people.

      “The man speaking in the video, Guo Wengui, also known as Miles Kwok, is a Chinese billionaire who fled China in 2014. He is known to work with Steve Bannon toward their common goal of “bringing about the demise of the Chinese Communist Party.” “

    2. This is a sad story all too common in the royal family where the queen’s sister, Margaret, and three of her four children: Charles. Anne, and Andrew have all had divorces.

      I wonder if Ladrookes are offering odds on who the next royal to divorce will be?

      On whom would the wise Nottler money be?

  70. MAGA = MakeAmericaGreatAgain

    MAGA = MicrosoftAmazonGoogleApple = 60/70% of gains in record breaking S&P500 US Stock Index this year

  71. Mansion Tax is as bad a label as Bedroom Tax a few years back. I believe a Mansion Tax, if it extended the local council tax revenue would be desirable, especially if it helped to remove the punitive and counter-productive stamp duties which has much reduced transactions in properties worth more than £500,000.

    1. Probably should be replaced by a local income tax. Council tax has no bearing at all on a persons ability to pay and in fact tends to hit the poorest the hardest

      Someone on say minimum pay might be paying over 10% of their income whilst a millionaire will be paying typically less than 1%

  72. WIFE: “There is trouble with the car. It has water in the carburettor.”

    HUSBAND: “Water in the carburettor? That’s ridiculous ”

    WIFE: “I tell you the car has water in the carburettor.”

    HUSBAND: “You don’t even know what a carburettor is. I’ll check it out. Where’s the car?
    WIFE: “In the pool”

  73. Diary of the daily incremental increase in the stupidity levels of the human species.

    Tuesday, February 11, 2020.

    Manchester bomber bought parts ‘with benefit payments’.

    Men given their own make-up range at John Lewis.

    The first national vegan milk round is coming to Britain’s doorsteps.

    Women could be allowed to freeze eggs for decades.

    Idiots in trainers saved from Ben Nevis blizzards.

    British man faces gaol for hiding migrants in car roof box.

    BBC announces Greta Thunberg documentary.

    Tech firm’s call to ditch pen and paper for exams.

    Tobacco giant experimenting with cannabis vapes.

    Home Office ordered to halt deportation to Jamaica.

    Pope to defend migrants’ rights on visit to Malta.

    Jihadists turn Mali haven into killing field.

    Playboy son of African leader fined €30m in corruption case.

    [And all that from just one day, in one newspaper, cataloguing the irreversible decline in the species.]

    2. In the physics lab. The teacher said that it was too difficult to stand a metre stick on end. Then he turned to the blackboard and chalked some stuff. When he faced us again, guess what?

      1. When he was very young, I taught Firstborn to make a pyramid of square wooden blocks, but standing on the point rather than the wide base (It needs a touch of care and a stable surface, such as a table-top). At his next development assessment by the medical folk, the nurse asked him to build a pyramid – so he built it standing on the point, as usual. She marked him down for not understanding… :-((

        1. It’s like all interviews were the interviewer is less intelligent, less knowledgeable, less experienced less flexible, and blinkered, compared to the interviewee.

  77. Challenger bank N26 to shut all UK accounts

    They have come out with a load of hogwash that it is Brexits fault

    Challenger bank N26 is closing accounts for UK customers on 15 April, blaming difficulties created by the Brexit process.
    The bank, which had a significant marketing push after launch, only started offering current accounts in the UK after the EU referendum.
    However, it said that the “timing and framework” of the Withdrawal Agreement made it impossible to continue.
    With about 200,000 customers, it was one of the smaller operators in the UK.
    Thomas Grosse, chief banking officer at N26 said: “While we respect the political decision that has been taken, it means that N26 will be unable to serve our customers in the UK and will have to leave the market.”

    1. Phew, what a relief, this article says my symptoms sound like a myocardial infarction. I’ll pop to the pub to celebrate.

      1. Various medical reports, that I’ve read, tell me that smoking is bad because it narrows the arteries. Drinking whisky is also bad because it thins the blood, but I have a cunning cardiac health plan.

        I calculate that if one smokes forty cigarettes a day then drinking a bottle of whisky daily will ensure that the blood is thin enough to pass easily through the narrowed arteries.

  79. Lib Dems in crisis

    LIB DEM infighting erupted as the battle to replace humiliated leader Jo Swinson began, with nearly half of the party’s MPs touting themselves as her replacement.

    Tensions within the party grew as MPs fought over how the party should be perceived, with many citing their calamitous coalition with the Conservatives in 2010 as a reason for voters turning against the Lib Dems. Leadership candidates were locked in bitter talks over the very heart of the party, with hopefuls battling over whether or not to reject or embrace their coalition legacy.

    Ms Swinson was the general election’s biggest casualty as she lost her Scottish seat – just four years after claiming it in 2015.
    The party will continue to be co-led by Sir Ed Davey and Mark Pack.
    The Lib Dem management opted to not replace Ms Swinson before May’s local election.

    So far, five of the Lib Dems’ 11 MPs have put themselves forward.
    Along with Sir Ed, the others are Layla Moran, Christine Jardine, Wera Hobhouse and Daisy Cooper.
    Ms Hobhouse was the first to publicly declare her intentions to run.

    None of the above with the Exception of Ed Davy have any public profile and Ed Davy is regarded as a bit of a joke

  80. How London got rid of private cars – and grew more congested than ever

    High Holborn on a bleak winter morning is a portrait of traffic hell. Vehicles grind east to west through an orange maze of construction and utility works. John Lewis and Argos trucks jostle with Thames Water vehicles; at one point, a flood of white vans appears in sequence, as if a fleet controller had ordered an invasion of the West End of London. Black-cab drivers lean on their steering wheels for support; one holds his head in his hands. The last passenger on a static number 8 bus hovers by the doors, hoping forlornly that the driver will release him into the streets.
    In the few visible cars, there are no-smoking stickers that identify them as rides for hire. In the melee, one type of vehicle seems almost completely absent: the private car.
    “London has achieved the impossible by eradicating the private car – and still having desperate traffic congestion,” says Prof Tony Travers, the director of LSE London, a research centre at the London School of Economics that explores the city’s economic and social concerns. “People keep saying we need to get the cars off the road. In central London, there aren’t any.”
    The idea of blocking cars from urban centres is catching on fast, accelerated by concerns over air pollution and the climate emergency. Brighton is the latest city to propose a zone where private car journeys are banned. Among others, York is considering barring cars within its medieval walls; Bristol will exclude diesel cars from a central area between 7am and 3pm; Birmingham is developing a plan to stop people driving through the city centre; and Cardiff wants to introduce a congestion charge.

  81. Storm Dennis set to bring ‘very strong winds’

    The Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for the weekend, when the new storm is set to hit the county.
    The warning said: “Storm Dennis will bring very strong winds and potential for disruption to many parts of England and Wales on Saturday.”
    A spokesman for East Anglian forecaster Weatherquest said it would bring similar weather to Storm Ciara, with the potential of gusts of wind of 50mph and heavy rain.

    2. Why are we worried about the flu when great swathes of millennials already have advanced mental illness?

  83. House of Lords daily allowance to go up to £323. [Independent] What other expenses can they claim.

      1. The UK cannot afford them in the numbers they are at this time. They need to be reduced in numbers ASAP.

    2. For most of the Lords it is a free day out in London with free meals provided plu a nice tax free cash bonus as well

      Do we need the Lords at all. NI. Scotland and Wales make no use of the Lords for their legislation. I have seen nothing to indicate their legislation is any the worse for not using the Lords

      The Lords now only cover England only legislation and UK wide legislation yet we have even more of them

    3. At the risk of stating the bloody obvious, the HoL has become a national disgrace.

      It’s nothing more than a device for politicians and their cronies to award themselves well-paid, permanent sinecures for the rest of their lives, at public expense but unaccountable to the public.

      1. It is to me a measure of how useless Cameron was that he put so much emphasis on reducing the “cost of politics” by his proposal to shrink the Commons from 650 to 600 members (a bad step imo) and none at all on shrinking the crony-packed Lords.

    6. Lords Reform

      Maximum Fixed Number of peers 200
      Fixed Term 5 years after which a peer could be put forward by his peers for reselection
      New members only put into HoL if it does not raise limit above the fixed number.
      Peers can be removed from office by resignation, retirement or deselection

    7. A tax-free elevation of £23, a day, just for walking through the door?

      My 40-years’ worth of NI stamps state pension rises in April. By £6·30 a week!

  84. We have a serious shortage of foreign criminals in the UK so we need to do everything we can to retain the ones we have and import even more. In fact a couple of MP’s have been saying exactly that although not in the same words

  85. Freight train, freight train, going so fast
    Freight train, freight train, going so fast
    Please don’t tell how much you cost
    We know that Brexit is lost.

  86. Paris Charles de Gaulle to overtake Heathrow as Europe’s top airport

    Well given Heathrow only has two runways and is operating at capacity thats no surprise. The airport in the French capital has four runways, compared with two at Heathrow

    Without expansion at Heathrow airlines and passengers will use other Hub airports

    1. On the rare occasions on which I cannot avoid flying, I try to use Schiphol, Brussels or CDG as the hub.

        1. I received training as an travel agent. A three week intensive course, with an exam every week.
          This included knowledge of the airport codes of the world. I scored 100% on each of the exams and was top of the 200 on the course. The thing is that I won a prize! The only prize I have won in my entire life. I chose a Pelikan rollerball.
          And yet, I confess to having to look up FRA and MUC. Well, it was thirty years ago…

          1. ;-))
            I travel quite a bit, so it’s easy to remember… including where to get a beer/cider and food when you’re there.

          2. I won a fluorescent yellow tennis ball, once, at Barry Island funfair. That, and the hand of SWMBO in marriage, of course (as well as the rest of her). #1 prize in life, that.

  87. What are the Lib-Dems About ?

    Even the Lib-Dems dont seem to know, For a very long time they were really just a small West Country Party and had some very safe seats now. The West Country though gave them the boot many decades ago

  89. BBC editorial director apologizes for £12,000 speaking fee days after 450 jobs cut

    The editorial director of BBC News has apologised for accepting a £12,000 fee to speak at a banking conference just days after he helped oversee the announcement of 450 journalist job cuts.

  91. HAPPY HOUR

    A wife asks her husband, “Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk and
    if they have avocados, get 6.

    A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk.
    The wife asks him, “Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk”

    He replied, “They had avocados.”

    If you’re a woman, I’m sure you’re going back to read it again! Men will get it the first time.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a85c7cf3365b015e556119704fe6d81487cb174e4bbd882b3b19a67c3cfbb2d8.gif

    3. SWMBO got it the first time… typical female instruction, and living in a family of males (including 2 cats), she knows how to give direction!

    2. That was the story that raised my blood pressure to dangerous levels this morning – point 1 is that those idiots were not “climbers”; as a climber (now retired) I resent being linked to a bunch of morons who try to climb the Ben in trainers with no winter climbing kit (or, presumably, training). They should certainly pay for the rescue!

      2. On the plus side, the MR Teams will have relished the chance to exercise their skills!
        😉

  93. Free school meals should be made available to ALL children no matter their family income, London Assembly says

    And no doubt free school uniform and free Ipads and Smart Phone and free Broadband

    Paid for by whom ? Well not by Khan. He wants the government to fund his freebies

    London has devolved powers if he wants to offer these freebies then put London’s Council tax up . He will not do that though as he would get the boot

    1. I’m sure I have seen that face in the bottom right hand square before. Is it the Mona Lisa ? Margaret Thatcher ? Theresa May ?
      The Hunchback of Notre Dame ? Cherie Blair ? No, I give in.

  96. Katie Price moves back into £2million ‘mucky mansion’ after being told she can ‘keep her home’ after bankruptcy

    Sounds like a made up story. She is bankrupt so no longer own the property. Try to claim she no longer own 1 room in it would not stop it being sold and it sounds as if it was done to try to block the bankruptcy. It will not work

    https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/10/katie-price-moves-back-into-2million-mucky-mansion-after-being-told-she-can-keep-her-home-after-bankruptcy-12218109/?

    1. Sad about her kid, but this woman must qualify as the most repulsive women in the entertainment industry for all time.

  97. I can’t think of a better way of increasing GDP per capita than sending that planeload of criminals to Jamaica. Mind you, it may well be more than offset by one lorryload of illlegals and the harvest of the Border Ferry Service over the next few nights.

    1. “Planeload”? Wasn’t the figure about 20, the other 30 being allowed to stay here because of a court order? I wish it had been a planeload or, better still, a fleet of planeloads.

        1. There was a gentle Phizz
          Who with ladies was a whizz
          When he was good, he was very very good.
          But when he was bad he was sordid?

          2. A better alternative to what is currently on offer. I think it was John Sergeant who said he had prepared for the worst.

        1. All Excellent M.
          Middle son and wife hoping to move to Wheato. To a bigger house. His bachelor days one bed is not quite adequate now. 😊
          They should have moved last summer but the buyer pulled out last minute. But that’s another story.
          Something that once committed should be followed through.

        1. He knows me well enough to know I’m joking and I know him well enough to get away with it.

        1. ‘………………………….my only sunshine
          You make me happy when skies are grey
          You’ll never know dear how much I love you
          So please don’t take my sunshine away
          ……………………………………………..’

          My dad used to sing this to my Mother,
          every day!

  101. This sounds good –

    “Boris Johnson has promised the north of
    England that it will not have to suffer “intolerable” delays to receive a
    full high-speed rail network as he approved the HS2 project in full.
    The prime minister said that an integrated network — “High Speed North” —
    would be created that merged a new express line across the Pennines
    with the existing second phase of HS2, north…”

    Boris will also be building an extra runway at Manchester Airport. Somebody told him that Northern pigs can fly.

    1. “now for several hours he’s been fingering me naan”
      I won’t stand for that, no one touches me food.

  106. Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10bc1e8ee3466699101ab3c1a7d5e633ad163c2f9714c811d38d014dcddc0982.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/352134ed4b7af551b7fec422d3151e560206e1f60d4c79e07572c0aebc2fbdad.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/94bcafee902d8cc35683214d352511b80a28604984f4ed9fb2d1648fd3a44e2b.gif

    https://pics.me.me/Facebook-Good-dog-Grumpy-Cat-ddf6fb.png

    https://freeaddon.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/dog-and-cat-memes-2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a1c0930f1c5212d48ca4b979e26bbacf5c5ad3d98806ba1801feadbf98f18437.jpg

    1. Best comment so far:

      When the BBC is promoting HS2, you know it’s a sh-one-t idea.

      1. It was reported as long ago as August that the Serious Fraud Office were investigating HS2, looking at allegations corruption in the award of contracts and defrauding home and landowners by deliberately undervaluing properties. Affidavits signed by former HS2 Ltd employees which have been supplied to the SFO make specific allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption.

        http://stophs2.org/news/19163-incomprehensible-hs2-approved-fraud-office-investigation-concluded

        2. With all the money sloshing about the big players will have bought a lot of carpet and a very big broom. The wolves will be untouchable but as for the (sacrificial) lambs…

        3. Too bad that they will be renovating the office where the cupboards are that hold all the affidavits and stuff and the entire contents will be disposed of.

    2. His Viking ancestors?? Since when, and how long, have Vikings been bleck? I have a touch of the cultural appropriations coming on here….. the smelling salts, quickly, please.

    3. LDA_6502
      @LDA_6502
      ·9m
      Replying to
      @DVATW and
      @SAS
      Everyone is ultimately from Africa.

      Yep, the further from being an African you are the more evolved you are.

      1. I’ve always maintained that our ancestors left Africa simply to get away from all those niggers.

        2. Whatever the reason it’s undeniable that those that left – if the Out of Africa story is true – were the smart people. They went on to colonise much of the World, invented the wheel, created civilisations, buildings, mathematics, science etc. while sub-Saharan Africa stagnated.

      2. The Journey of Man (book or TV prog) where Spencer Wells traces the changes in mytrochondial DNA from the African original to plot human migration, comes to pretty much comes to the same conclusion.

      3. Not so far apart in evolutionary terms such that inter-breeding is either not possible or the offspring are infertile.

          1. You are a lucky man!!!……Audrey Hepburn was the epitomy of elegance and my favorite actress.

  113. Jobsworths R Us.

    This is a totally unnecessary piece of road twiddling that, so far, has taken nearly two years to bodge up; it looks to take at least double that mount of time. The chaos it has caused is damaging businesses.
    But the councils are getting stroppy over hand made notices and threatening businesses that have been put at risk by the buggers’ muddle.
    (p.s. I hope you can get past the local rag’s ropey website.)

    https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/18224682.sign-times-firm-hit-roadworks/

  116. Oh well, there goes my favourite restaurant.

    Here in the Staffordshire town in which I live, HS2 is going to go whooshing through from Birmingham to Crewe and all we poor plebs can do is stand at the side of the track and wave at all the important people being very busy and important as they shave a few minutes off their very important journeys. In terms of improved travel links, I can’t imagine how this is going to make a scrap of difference to us.

    The real impact for us is the massive increase in construction traffic that will be with us for several years clogging up the roads and contributing massively to our quality of life as they build this thing and, in particular, the huge maintenance yard that they intend to build to service it. To achieve this, they will need to build a new roundabout to handle all the construction traffic and in order to build the new roundabout they will need to demolish one of the best restaurants we have round here.

    So yes, do I have a view on HS2? You bet!

    Edit – and before everyone accuses me of Nimbyism, yes I am, and you would be too, faced with what we expect over the next few years.

    1. The whole shambles, and it won’t stop at 106bn, is for 20 minutes. If you are going to go to Birmingham its going to be a day out anyway, so what’s the rush. My heart sank when I heard the news last night alongside the fact that the courts have dreamed up another way of stopping us get rid of criminals. Take them to Tottenham and let them loose in Lammy’s patch, see whether black lives matter then. I despair.

        1. A twenty minute walk from one station to the other, apparently. Thus neatly negating any benefit from ‘High Speed’ in one stroke.

    3. There are upto a 100 trains a day to London with a journey time of about 2 hours 15 minutes Given less than 10% of the population use rail and of that those that use intercity is about 1%. HS2 is just madness

      1. Can’t afford to catch a train anymore..

        I hate being crammed in , and the overcrowding , plus people with no seats , nowhere to put luggage is a disgrace.

        2. Some of the prices I see, it would be cheaper for even one person to go for a one-way car hire.

    4. I doubt it will ever make it to Crewe. They will be lucky if it gets to Birmingham before the Budget runs out

      1. These people don’t understand the concept of ‘sunk costs’. It’s a vanity project and, as such, they can afford it whatever it costs.

        1. Yes – the Budget has already run out – but what do they do? Continue. After all, it’s only our taxes. We can afford to go without so long as they can grandstand. (Though whether pig-ignorant stupidity is something worth grandstanding about is a matter of opinion.) Stupid, arrogant, tossers.

        2. A cardinal rule in business, never pour good money after bad.
          Similarly from the services, never reinforce failure.

  117. The coronavirus has been named by the WHO.

    COVID-19.

    That sounds like a type of Edgar Allan Poe Raven.

    3. Now look here, Mr Duncan, Sir, there is no need to insult us all in Greek!

      (Well, it’s all Greek to me!)

    3. It may look simple and immature but compared to a piece of ‘art’ on my daughter-in-law’s wall, it is rather sophisticated and rather more attractive! Emperor’s New Clothes anyone?

  122. I expect Philip Johnston to get a good kicking for this piece of dross.

    With HS2, Boris has rediscovered the can-do spirit of the Victorians

    Travelling recently on the Great Western Railway where it caresses the Devon coast between Exeter and Teignmouth was to marvel at the engineering brilliance and sheer vision that went into its construction.

    The genius behind it was, of course, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was advised to run the line inland because the difficulties of building so close to the sea were considerable. Brunel not only pooh-poohed such timidity; he planned an entirely new concept, a train propelled by atmospheric pressure with vacuums created by steam engines along the track.

    It worked, though not for long, and Brunel was forced to revert to traditional locomotion. But his was the quintessential can-do spirit of the 19th century engineer-cum-adventurer. When GWR’s directors balked at the speed with which he was pressing ahead with the 110-mile route from Bristol to London, he told them “Why not extend it to New York?” This was something he then achieved by linking it up with the Great Western steamship at Bristol.

    The Act of Parliament permitting construction of the GWR was passed in September 1835; by 1841 the line to Bristol was completed. It is extraordinary to think that virtually the country’s entire rail network was laid down in the ensuing half century. The Channel Tunnel link, or HS1, which opened in 2007, was the first new railway in England for more than 100 years; HS2 will be the second. After all the shenanigans of the past 10 years since the project was first announced, Boris Johnson gave the final go-ahead yesterday to sighs of relief from supporters and cacophony of outrage from critics.

    The PM’s announcement was delivered in the Commons with a brio that confounded the litany of gloom that always seems to accompany any major new scheme in this country. Why is it so difficult to get anything done anymore? Objections to HS2 include the impact on woodland; if that had been a consideration in the 19th century, we would still be travelling by coach-and-four and moving goods by canal.

    But, say detractors, we can’t compare today with Victorian times because the population was far smaller then and planning laws rudimentary. People didn’t really mind. But in truth, the arrival of the steam train was greeted with horror as the railways snaked their way across pristine meadows and tunnels were blasted out of the hillsides. The speed of construction left contemporaries bewildered; nothing quite like it had been seen before and the literature of mid-Victorian Britain reflected popular concerns.

    In Eliot’s Middlemarch, set around 1831, alarmed locals fret that the railway will tear apart the economic and social structure of daily life. Dickens in Dombey and Son likens the railway’s impact in north London to an earthquake. Nor is it just the railways. Canals, forts, roads, mines, New Towns, docks, mobile phone masts, electricity pylons, wind turbines – all have in their way desecrated the countryside and all have been opposed at some point or other. To mitigate its environmental impact, much of the HS2 route will be in tunnels and cuttings which partly accounts for its stupendous cost. Indeed, many of the objections are not to the concept but to the estimated £100 billion price tag.

    It is a mystery how infrastructure projects in Britain are so extortionately expensive. HS2 started off at £32.7 billion, which seemed steep enough. High-speed lines have been built in France, Japan and Spain at a tenth of the projected cost of HS2. Even allowing for greater population density in the UK (though Japan is pretty crowded, too) that is an inexplicable difference.

    Heathrow’s third runway, should it ever go ahead (and this is one grand projet that Mr Johnson is not so keen on), is estimated to cost around £19 billion. Even the car park will swallow £800 million. The Dutch built a fifth runway at Schipol Airport for £300 million. Two Royal Navy aircraft carriers have cost more than £6 billion before they are even equipped with fighters. We need more nuclear power if we are going to run the entire national car fleet on electricity yet we agonise over building new stations. The Hinkley Point C reactor will cost almost £20 billion to construct but the National Audit Office estimates the ongoing public subsidy at £60 billion.

    Whether or not you think one or all of these projects is needed, the fact remains that infrastructure costs far more here than almost anywhere else in the world. Why? Among the explanations are historic under-investment; new schemes cost more; a shortage of engineers pushes up prices; land is more expensive than in other countries; planning laws are more onerous; compensation arrangements are more generous; and procurement and contract management are woefully poor. Even so, the costs still seem out of proportion.

    But when it comes to infrastructure, we need to look not a few decades hence but 100 years or more ahead. Cost-benefit analysis of major schemes invariably underplays the long-term impact on the overall economy, whether through job creation or house building. The extension of the Jubilee Line and the Limehouse Tunnel – mile for mile the most expensive road in Europe – were criticised at the time; yet Canary Wharf is testament to how a mix of infrastructure and special development status can regenerate an area, producing many thousands of jobs and huge tax revenues.

    Projects like HS2 are not about shaving 20 minutes off the travel time from London to Birmingham. They are intended to be transformative, as Crossrail will be when it is eventually opened and HS2 can be. It will be around for our grandchildren and theirs, like the railways we inherited from the Victorians. In the modern world, connectivity is all. Arguably, even more important than new road and rail links is the provision of full-fibre web to all households and businesses.

    The arguments over HS2 have been had and a decision made so let’s get on with it and once more exhibit the can-do spirit that seems to have deserted us. Then again, we can do without Boris’s proposed bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland. Even Brunel would have considered that daft.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/11/hs2-boris-has-rediscovered-can-do-spirit-victorians/

    1. But HS2 will be built using yesterdays technology. Another consideration is he small size of the UK and the short distance between major towns and cities
      The UK is not really suitable for very high speed lines. WE cabn get to a 160 miles and even faster with current tracks and trains

    2. Corrupt governments often strong arm the media to write puff pieces.

      The Victorians used private money to build railways and the profits went to the stockholders. No profits and everyone goes broke. Elizabethans use public money to build railways not because there will be any profits because there won’t be, but because someone likely oiled in through the backdoor with a ”scratch my back” proposition.

  123. Freight train, freight train, going so fast
    Freight train, freight train, going so fast
    Please don’t tell how much you cost
    We know that Brexit is lost.

    2. Afternoon B3,
      I still hear the echo’s of “leave it to the tories” post 24/6/2016, no more need for UKIP.
      The bloody hours pavement pounding
      put in only to be castigated by a multitude of cretins who believed their party could never deal in treachery or contemplate a treacherous deal.
      Managing to turn over a complete nation to a bent foreign cartel without a shot being fired is unbelievable.
      The signs were there all the time but the party took prime position over the Country.
      If brexit fails then the politico’s of the toxic trio are at blame but their supporting pillocks are also, more so.

      1. I’ve met both Chas and Nancy.
        She performed at our concert at the Albert Hall, and thoroughly enjoyed herself. She died a few years afterwards.
        Chas is still going as far as I know:
        Notable recent engagements have been at The Royal Albert Hall in November 1997, The Roots Of British Rock. Chas hosted this concert which celebrated 40 years of Skiffle. The show featured; The Chris Barber Band, Chas & Dave, Tony Sheridan, Diz Disley, Nancy Whiskey, Ray Bush, Wee Willie Harris, Chas himself with The Lonnigans Skiffle Group and Lonnie Donegan with special guests, Adam Faith, Joe Brown and Bill Wyman. The promoters acknowledged the success of this show and were, proud to present the biggest gathering of skiffle minded musicians and fans to celebrate a thoroughly British institution.
        http://www.chasmcdevitt.co.uk/skiffle_page29.html

      2. It was a bit of a let down when we came to live in the US and found that their “freight trains” may be huge, with their length measured in miles these days, but “going so fast” definitely does not apply.

      2. To me it made no attempts to proselytise, Harry, if that is what you mean. Instead it just showed two men and how they reacted to events and with each other.

    2. The local Curzon cinema in Colchester showed it as a “special preview” in December of last year and I watched it myself. I thought it was excellent, Maggie.

    3. I watched it a couple of weeks ago. Apart from the flashback sequence in the middle, I thought it was excellent.
      I have been a huge fan of SAH for years. I went to see him in Pravda at the National Theatre for times.
      Check out on you tube a clip from Amistad where he makes a courtroom speech about five min long, all in one take.

  128. Know your facts…

    The Adonis creature has just been on Radio 4. He is very pleased with himself as HS2 was his idea in 2009. Before he had his say, the presenter spoke to protesters at Cubbington Woods. Adonis then told us that Cubbington was the suggested site of the third London airport in the early 1970s (“Oh, yes, I remember now!” said the presenter excitedly) and the protestors should think themselves lucky that they were only going to lose a narrow strip of the woods rather than the hundreds of acres necessary for an airport.

    The insensitivity of this remark was bad enough but it was compounded by his error. Cubbington is near Leamington Spa, rather a long way out for a London airport. The site suggested in the Roskill report was Cublington, near Leighton Buzzard.

    1. Manson would be a good choice for new London airport. It would mean most flights would be over the sea. It is not that far from HS1 and an upgrade to HS! would mean you could be in London within 20 minutes and it could easily be linked to Cross rail . Heathrow will always be a problem as they allowed building almost up to the perimeter fence. Enough space could be allowed at Manson to take it to 4 or 5 runways

          2. Better now than a week ago, Alf,
            I have had the lurgy and have felt
            quite poorly, thank you for asking.

            Perhaps you would like to make contact,
            re. 1st. April Anniversary?
            If you go onto an old post I will let you have
            my e-mail address.
            Regards.

  129. Shocked by my own Nude! Dame Mary Beard, 65, reveals ’embarrassment’ at posing naked for a life drawing in her own BBC2 series – but says she’s happy with how her ‘fleshy over 60s bits’ look.

    In the latest episode of Mary Beard’s Shock of the Nude, the classicist disrobes for a series of naked portraits in charcoal by artist Catherine Goodman
    Beard admits during the BBC2 show that she felt ‘brave’ for posing in the nude
    The professor, 65, said she expected to be ‘horrified’ by the ensuing images but actually said she wasn’t ‘remotely’ shocked by Goodman’s work
    The BBC series examines the role of nudes in art – and how bodies have been depicted through the ages from the Ancient Greeks to Renaissance artists

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7991381/Professor-Mary-Beard-reveals-embarrassment-posing-naked-life-drawing-BBC2-series.html

    A life drawing , would you enjoy sitting and enjoying a happy memory of your squidgy bits being sketched?

          4. Belle is one of those wonderful people who can keep tabs on birthdays.

            Many happy returns , Pip!

    3. Belle – No. And I suspect I haven’t the squidgy bits that Mary Beard has. She had a reputation at the university of Cambridge for being a maverick 20 years ago.

  130. I didn’t think George Soros had any connection to HS2……

    ………. but two minutes research shows that apparently one of his best buddies is on the board of the HS2 Commission, was formerly chair of the National Infrastructure Commission and is a vice chair of the Open Society part funded European Movement…

    What a remarkable totally innocent random coincidence !

    https://commentcentral.co.uk/soros-and-adonis-united-in-their-contempt-for-democracy/

  131. DT Headline

    Cabinet reshuffle: Remainers back in favour, but Boris Johnson steers clear of top table ‘revolution’
    Theresa Villiers is expected to be sacked, leaving just Priti Patel as the only member of the Cabinet who voted against Theresa May’s deal

    Boris Johnson wants to go into show business.

    He is currently hoping to star in a biblical epic and is auditioning for the role of Judas Iscariot.

    1. Boris and Priti make a good couple. Both a little wild and unconventional, and not afraid to follow their own inclinations.
      I don’t think Boris would get that job.

      1. His ”inclination” was always Remain. Then to further his career he had to become a Leaver, and now he’s going home to Remain.

        I think HS2 looks deeply dodgy.

  134. Endal – Dog of the Millennium”.
    Something of a headline-maker, this labrador retriever’s incredible abilities as an assistance dog to injured 1991 Gulf War British veteran Allen Parton led him to be hailed “Dog of the Millennium”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39bb7a2fc39c1aee825a2cccda4bd7eb6df6b107e2146787b881addbc2761652.jpg
    Endal learned to respond to hundreds of verbal and signed commands. He could get items from supermarket shelves, operate buttons and switches, load and empty a washing machine, as well as put Allen’s cash card into an ATM, then return the card to his wallet.
    When Allen was once knocked out of his wheelchair by a passing car, Endal pulled him into the recovery position, retrieved his mobile phone from beneath a car, got a blanket from the wheelchair and covered Allen, before barking at a nearby hotel for assistance. When no-one responded, Endal then ran into the hotel to get help.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/the-call-of-the-wild/real-life-dogs/?utm_campaign=tmgspk_plrbin_2885_Atx9hgts2mQj&plr=1&utm_content=2885&utm_source=tmgspk&

    More real-life hero dogs

  136. I shall be away briefly as I had one of those “follow the ambulance to the hospital in the middle of the night” moments and have spent most of the day sitting next to a bed in different parts of the building. Even I have been there before, so I’m sure we all have. So I’m off to bed now, as I intend to appear on the ward tomorrow as the moment that visiting hours begins. I leave you with a photo that raised a smile here a few days ago.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/657f02f3664d260443a268474ae7463711f599142017096263003b223cf4ff30.jpg

  137. Just had dinner.
    Chinese pork with sweet chilli, red peppers, onions, garlic with Jasmine Rice .
    I’m now at 13246.

      1. I made Highland venison casserole with mashed potatoes
        two days ago and will have wild boar sausages tomorrow.. so there;)

          1. ‘We had lamb………’

            English/Welsh of course!

            Slaps my wrist, I should not insult you by asking!!

            Good evening, J.

          2. Good evening, G
            The lamb was English, of course! A bit of neck fillet, very tender.

            I bought the pot in France, more than 30 years ago and it’s had a lot of use since then.

          3. I know what you mean about a favourite dish [container.]
            I feel just the same, a couple of years ago my Brother bought me
            a ‘Marmite’ as a Christmas present……….but the very old and
            trusted Rhodian pot is still the preferred receptacle!!

      1. Yes I know, it’s the weather, totally natural and not influenced
        by us humans whatsoever. That’ll upset Greta .
        Meant to be walking by the coast on Sunday but maybe not.

    4. Roasted chicken thighs and gratin of potatoes, parsnip and carrot, followed by panna cotta with blackberries from the garden. A good mix of French and Italian cuisines tonight.

      3. From Thailand with a delicate floral fragrance,
        white in colour ( rice is usually a cream colour not pure white 😉

  138. The Saxon Queen is to go to sleep now, goodnight
    tomorrow is another day.
    Every time a post is made numbers drop orf 🤔
    never mind. God bless Xxx

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