Tuesday 12 January: Muddling Covid advice and the law is a deception by the authorities

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/12/lettersmuddling-covid-advice-law-deception-authorities/

921 thoughts on “Tuesday 12 January: Muddling Covid advice and the law is a deception by the authorities”

  3. THERE WE GO !

    President Donald J Trump will be inaugurated on January 20.

    State of emergency declared in DC.

      1. Morning Obers! We’ve been promised snow over the next 4 days! Will wait and see! Arcturus very bright this morning!

    2. Good morning m’dear.
      Cold down here in Derbyshire, but it’s stopped raining after last night’s weather.

  5. Morning, all.
    Interesting snippet heree (in Weegie – Google translate is your friend…). https://www.aftenposten.no/norge/i/weRk1M/dette-maa-skje-for-at-alle-voksne-kan-vaere-vaksinert-til-sommeren
    Reports that Astra-Zeneca buggered up their testing by not giving the right dose, but too little. Result: Less side effects, and antibodies against the vaccine as opposed to the virus!
    Remind me, isn’t the UK planning to use one out of two shots just now? In the light of the article and the licensing, doesn’t look too smart.

  6. Statements & Releases

    President Donald J. Trump Approves District of Columbia Emergency Declaration

    Issued on: January 11, 2021

  7. Today, President Donald J. Trump declared that an emergency exists in the District of Columbia and ordered Federal assistance to supplement the District’s response efforts due to the emergency conditions resulting from the 59th Presidential Inauguration from January 11 to January 24, 2021.

    The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, and to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the District of Columbia.

    Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, limited to direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 100 percent Federal funding.

    Pete Gaynor, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named Thomas J. Fargione as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

  8. Democracy is in far greater peril than the complacent West realises. 12 January 2021.

    Of course, this is a vast and complex task. Democracies like ours will have to forge a stronger common national purpose so that conflicting cultural identities don’t pull us apart. We will have to allow more decentralised decision-making. It will be vital to regulate social media so that varied views are heard instead of a stream of assertions that reinforce our prejudices. We will have to be better prepared for an unexpected crisis such as the pandemic. Such challenges will be the work of decades.

    Morning everyone. I have to confess that when I read the headline I felt a surge of hope that Hague’s Ghostwriter had seen the light. Alas no it is a fraudulent path to the dreadful future. A “common national purpose” can only be a Marxist tyranny and the Regulation of Social Media is Censorship by another name. The rest of the article reads the same; the juxtaposition of opposites and false equivalence to justify what has already happened; the extinction of Western Democracy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/11/democracy-far-greater-perilthan-complacent-west-realises/

    3. It’s a bizarre world of doublethink where more views means regulation and common purpose means to promote minorities.

      If Hague really wanted democracy, he would be in for a monumental shock to realise that no one thinks like he does and that he’s now required, by law to obey the very views he has spent so long ignoring.

  9. Something to cheer us up in these dark days……..
    Two Scotsmen go to Hell
    A demon approaches the devil and says “Dark lord! Two men from Glasgow in Scotland have been sent here. What should be done with them?”
    The devil says “Glaswegians? Their kind are normally very friendly, helpful and honest, so we do not see many such men in my dark domain… Hang them in a cage over the lake of fire for now and I shall check on them later.”
    But when the devil flew up to the cage to check on the Scotsmen, he found them happily lounging around with their shirts off.
    “What is the meaning of this?” The devil cried. “You’re supposed to be in torment!”
    The Glaswegians looked surprised “Naw” they said “it’s pure quality taps aff weather here man. It’s no drab an’ dreek like Scotland, ye ken that way?”
    Fuming, the devil flew to the great thermostat of Hell and cranked it all the way to the top. And the next day, the temperature was so high that even the demons were sweating, the stones of hell were melting and the flames from the lake of fire were leaping higher than ever before.
    So the devil was surprised when he visited the Scotsmen and found that they had somehow procured plastic lawn furniture and Buckfast tonic wine.
    Raising a glass to the devil, one of the Scotsmen said “Hey big man! If I’d known it was so lovely an warm doon here, I’d’ve done a whole lot more sinning! Weather’s always shite in Glasgae. Always freezin’ ma nuts off, ye ken?”
    “I see.” The devil replied, smiling though clenched teeth “your dismal country has given you a great love of heat. The hotter it is, the happier you are. Well, we’ll see about that.”
    So saying, he flew to the great thermostat of Hell once more, but this time, he turned it all the way down.
    The next day, the lake of fire was frozen solid for the first time, sinners were frozen in blocks of ice and demons huddled in corners for warmth, their teeth chattering.
    But when the devil visited the Scotsmen, he found them jumping for joy, tearfully cheering “Scotland! SCOTLAND!!!”
    The devil’s jaw dropped. “What? Why? How? I burn you and you are happy! I freeze you and you celebrate! What is wrong with you?”
    One of Glaswegians turned back and said “Is it no feckin’ obvious ye daft bastart? Hell’s frozen ower! Scotland’s won the world cup!”

    2. Hi Polly,
      last Wednesday, you posted a vote graph from Georgia. The image has now disappeared from your post (was it a link to an image that has now been taken down?)
      What was the context of that graph? what vote did it represent, and can you still find it? Thank you!

  11. ANOTHER mutant strain of COVID is discovered in Japan – as experts warn it’s similar to highly contagious UK and South Africa variants. 12 January 2021

    A new mutant strain of coronavirus has been discovered in Japan which health official say has similarities to that of the highly-contagious variants in Britain and South Africa.

    The mutation, which has not been spotted before, was found in four people who arrived on a flight from Brazil.

    This doesn’t even rate a headline but it is ominous in the extreme. At the rate the virus is mutating one must eventually arrive that is not covered by the vaccine and all the measures taken so far will be nullified. This will effectively mean that the virus has become endemic and set us back to square one. Could the economy stand another 12 months of engineered depression? It seems unlikely!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9131745/New-mutant-strain-coronavirus-discovered-Japan.html

      1. We must learn to live with it.

        Therein lies the problem: there are those in authority who are calling for, “…zero Covid”, to be the aim. To those people, “…to live with it”, does not appear to be an option.

        2. 328412+ up ticks,
          Morning KtK,
          This zero covid pelt the political viruses are pushing now is on par with TB in their handling of it, near enough eradicated in the UK only to find due to the
          governance party’s, is once again thriving, & killing.

        3. There are four variants of flu. There could be sixty, a hundred variants of covid. They’re the same family of disease, after all.

          A vaccination is a very good idea. A welcome and noble aim. However, ultimately all it does is give the immune system tools to do what it would do normally.

          The lock ups seem engineered for political reason (no s… Sherlock, someone is no doubt saying) because the NHS couldn’t cope with the influx. Really then, is all this economic damage, all the resultant impoverishment, mental health concerns and sheer waste of life simply to protect an already failed institution?

          1. Flu is a different virus family to C-19, it’s the Common Cold that it’s closely related to.

    2. A new mutant strain of coronavirus has been discovered in Japan which health official say has similarities to that of the highly-contagious variants in Britain

      Cue more hangdog expressions from Hancock as yet again he does his impression of an undertaker who has misplaced a body.

    3. The more we have lockdowns the more mutated virus wil be found. It has to run its course as soon as possible.

    4. Eventually politicians and even the medical people will realise that they cannot turn back the tide and that a virus will mutate, that there’s nothing to stop that and yes, we’ve got to live with it.

      Then it will dawn on them that all the lock ups, all the enforced distance nonsense, all the mask bullying was.. pointless. We need to get out and be infected. If the NHS cannot cope, then the NHS is not fit for purpose. Hell, screw it: the NHS is not fit for purpose.

      1. I would so like to agree with you, but the government and its apparatchiks are enjoying this farrago far too much.
        A mutant strain is the perfect excuse to let this ‘crisis’ run and run.

    5. ANOTHER new strain? WOW – -BJ, Hancock and Chris Witty will be having a party !!! C’mon lads – more severe lockdown rules to dream up and punish them with ( while waving in anyone in a dinghy ).

  13. Latest News Just Breaking – Since the Capitol uprising the song Nellie the Elephant has been banned from the airwaves, no longer will she be allowed to pack her bags and say goodbye to the circus while going off singing Trumpity, Trump Trump Trump.

  14. Trump approves state of emergency declaration in US capital. 12 January 2021.

    Donald Trump has approved a state of emergency declaration in the United States capital, the White House press office said late on Monday, after US law enforcement officials warned of threats before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

    The order authorises federal assistance to be extended through January 24 to support efforts in Washington, DC to respond to the emergency situation.

    This is just to back up Polly’s Post since it is not being reported in the UK MSM! Its purpose is not yet clear!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/12/trump-approves-state-of-emergency-declaration-in-us-capital

  15. Trump approves state of emergency declaration in US capital. 12 January 2021.

    Donald Trump has approved a state of emergency declaration in the United States capital, the White House press office said late on Monday, after US law enforcement officials warned of threats before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

    The order authorises federal assistance to be extended through January 24 to support efforts in Washington, DC to respond to the emergency situation.

    This is just to back up Polly’s Post since it is not being reported in the UK MSM! Its purpose is not yet clear!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/1/12/trump-approves-state-of-emergency-declaration-in-us-capital

  16. Ex-intelligence officer Skripal did not contact relatives after his mother’s death. 12 january 2021.

    TASS, January 11. Former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal did not get in touch with his relatives after the news of his mother’s death came on January 7, his niece Viktoria Skripal told TASS on Monday.

    Skripal’s daughter Yulia did not get in touch with anyone after her grandmother’s death either, she added.

    Both Skripals are of course long dead though one is surprised that Mi6 didn’t run to a wreath of some kind on their behalf.

    https://tass.com/society/1243395

  18. Good Morning all and especially Bob of B for giving me the first chuckle of the day with his DT letters BTL reference to the rug munching CC of the Derby Constabulary.

    2. If that’s the polder reference, the sod I responded to got the name wrong and I was too bog eyed to realise!

  19. The BBC spin machine this morning wheels out the usual child abuse distraction to bury bad news.

    It seems that bored girls between 11 and 13 are passing their time locked down in their bedrooms exposing themselves online as a form of amateur reality TV. It beats lessons.

    I said years ago that it was idiotic closing down systematically all contact between children and adults, mostly benign and some where the children would be wise to develop skills to handle them safely. “Always keep away from children” is the message we get from TV ads these days.

    Now, these children cannot even engage with their peers safely. All they have is their bedrooms, the internet, and their animal instincts to see them through life, and the prospect of a spell in a student hall of residence with plates of food pushed under the door, like feeding a caged monkey.

    1. It’s the modern equivalent to “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine” games that have gone on for centuries, but the use of the Internet does open up huge possibilities of abuse.
      And yes, I agree with the closing off of normal contact between adults and children is increasing the gap between the generations.

  20. Morning all

    SIR – Derbyshire police have harassed people and issued Fixed Penalty Notices for activities that are permitted by the Covid regulations.

    Failure to distinguish between guidance and statutory regulations indicates a level of incompetence by senior management which surely requires a visit by a member of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.

    David Over

    Cholsey, Berkshire

    SIR – I wholeheartedly agree with His Honour Charles Wide (Letters, January 11). Law and guidance are separate matters. The former is enforceable and must be followed. I would suggest that government website guidance deliberately tries to conflate the two in the minds of the public.

    The web pages should be revised to provide a clear picture, and the system of statutory instruments (hard to follow for any without a legal training) be tidied up.

    Philip Adrian

    Marple Bridge, Cheshire

  21. Morning again

    SIR – We are confronted daily with grim television visuals of hospital wards full of victims and their nurses. On Sunday the BBC took a further macabre step by giving a tour of the inside of a temporary mortuary.

    Editors of news programmes should be more responsible than to compete in a race to ramp up horrors.

    Illtyd L Lewis

    London SW6

    SIR – The notion that a threatened “crackdown” on outdoor activities will do anything to limit the spread of a disease transmitted in confined indoor spaces is doubtful. It could even be counterproductive if it pushes social interaction illicitly indoors. The only certainty is that it would be severely detrimental to the physical and mental health of the nation. There is no need for knee-jerk authoritarianism, and no prizes for making the population as miserable as possible.

    Andrew Evans

    Poole, Dorset

    SIR – Ministers threaten to tighten lockdown by scrapping social bubbles and exercise with a friend. For me and other people who live alone these are a lifeline and their abolition would be catastrophic for my mental health.

    Janet Sayers

    Alton, Hampshire

    SIR – Now that police have classified a cup of coffee as a picnic, this will presumably constitute a substantial meal when we exit full lockdown.

    Alistair Bishop

    Northwood, Middlesex

    1. ” scrapping social bubbles ” I bet the 150 or so new arrivals over the weekend are now sat warm, dry, fed etc, watching their free tv ( no license ) and NOT mixing at all with the rest of the guests.

        1. I know – I forgot the “(sarc)” after it. My point was THEY get it all free – WE are paying, socially, financially and culturally.

  22. The second dose

    SIR – The most effective vaccines, such as the live, attenuated Sabin polio vaccine, are delivered by the natural route of infection and establish a sustained, subclinical infection to induce adequate protection by a single dose. They work by causing a clonal expansion of the specific T and B cells of the immune system necessary to combat the disease.

    The three Covid vaccines currently licensed for use in Britain are not live, attenuated vaccines, which is why their clinical evaluation employed two intramuscular injections 21 or 28 days apart. The first serves to prime the immune system; the second as a booster to improve substantially the protection afforded by the first shot.

    There is no evidence in the data published that a single dose will give adequate protection against Covid-19 – particularly in the most vulnerable groups, who are likely to have a reduced immune response to a single shot – or that a gap of 12 weeks between doses will engender sufficient protection. Protection from a single dose is likely to be partial or transient.

    By altering the dosing regimens of these vaccines, the Government is undertaking a massive experiment and potentially putting lives at risk.

    The vaccine should not be seen as the saviour, but as one element of the “Swiss cheese” approach to the personal and shared responsibilities we must all adopt to protect ourselves and others for many months to come.

    I fear we may pay a high price for the approach the authorities are taking in response to the opportunity presented by the vaccines to alter the trajectory of this terrible infection.

    Professor Peter W Taylor

    Professor of Microbiology

    UCL School of Pharmacy

    London WC1

    SIR – I am a GP in an area with one of the highest Covid incidences in the UK.

    Imagine my delight at having 100 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines delivered last Thursday evening, which we gave to our elderly and vulnerable patients within 12 hours.

    Imagine my despair upon discovering that my next delivery of 100 will not be for at least two weeks.

    Dr Darren Lloyds

    Tonyrefail, Glamorgan

  23. Gay roles should be given to gay actors, Russell T Davies says. 12 January 2021.

    In his new series, gay characters are played by gay actors, which Davies says is the only way to guarantee authentic performances.

    “It’s about authenticity, the taste of 2020. You wouldn’t cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair, you wouldn’t black someone up. Authenticity is leading us to joyous places.”

    Of course it is and we are going to have murderers played by homicidal maniacs and old ladies by pensioners etc. The stupidity of this is beyond measure. The sooner they ring down the curtain on this farce the better!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2021/01/12/gay-roles-should-given-gay-actors-russell-t-davies-says/

    5. At least there will employment for murderers on release if Midsomer has any residents remaining.

  24. Perilous postal delays

    SIR – In my area we have had no post for a week, due to the high number of postal staff self-isolating. If the vaccine programme relies on notification by post, government targets may not be met – and people will be put at risk.

    This is another sector where there is an army of volunteers who would be willing to help but would no doubt be deterred by a sea of bureaucracy.

    Jackie Lover

    Kingswood, Surrey

  25. Dry – like sherry

    SIR – Visiting my local bottle bank, the signs for a dry January are not great.

    Mark Solon

    London E1

    1. Bottle banks disappeared from this area years ago. Now all glass has to go in the recycling wheelie-bin.

      1. I’m so old, I can remember when there were separate bins for clear, green and brown bottles.

        1. Do you mean separate bins, or separate bottle banks? I remember the latter. I used to get up early on a Saturday morning to visit the BBs in Sainsbury’s car park, then straight into the supermarket to beat the rush.

        2. I remember when

          Milk came in returnable bottles
          You paid a 3d deposit (refundable) on a beer bottle
          Old newspapers were reused to wrap fish and chips (or wipe bums)
          Plastic was not ‘money;
          Loos were outside
          Baths hung in the outside cludge
          TVs were watched through Radio Rentals shop Window
          The bread was delivered by horse and cart
          Shop assistants served you
          Tills did not ‘add up’ how much you had spent, the shop assisitant did
          You bought sugar, butter, flour etc loose
          Cars were owned by someone else
          The indoor loo was a Potty
          etc

          1. …and I remember that milkfloats were battery-powered even 60 years ago. (Eat your heart out, Eco Brat!) There is nothing new in the world.

            ‘Morning, Tryers.

          2. …and I remember that milkfloats were battery-powered even 60 years ago. (Eat your heart out, Eco Brat!) There is nothing new in the world.

            ‘Morning, Tryers.

  26. SIR – Very few people would respond well to being branded “deplorables”, as Hillary Clinton memorably described followers of Donald Trump.

    I do not believe that most of the 73 million Americans who voted for him are deplorable, racist or ignorant. I think it much more likely that they are people who see that the traditional values they hold dear are not shared by a Left-wing political class that has ignored and insulted them for years.

    “Trumpism” is as much a creation of the Left as the Right. Something similar was seen in the Brexit debate.

    Chris Davies

    Woking, Surrey

    SIR – The Democrats seem determined to make Mr Trump more of a martyr than his wildest supporters consider him to be.

    Are there no politicians with common sense in the US?

    Christopher Timbrell

    Kington Langley, Wiltshire

    1. Prime Minister was seen cycling in park in east London and later commented to colleagues he was concerned about how busy it was.

      Lol!

      2. One would think they would be more concerned about cocaine given that the Netherlands are the gateway to Europe for drug smuggling.

        They behave like the Gestapo.

    2. They’ve also had their pulse trawling stopped in the UK’s EEZ. The EU has decreed no more Dutch pulse trawling by the middle of this year anywhere in EU waters.

  30. Given the censorship by social media and the one-sided, anti-Trump reporting in most of the MSM, I think that this video is excellent at calling a spade a spade.

    The speaker’s appearance might endear him to the Left and young people, so that his discussion (with a sprinkling of F words), would tell them things that they have never thought of before!

    https://youtu.be/8S3_vwTMMJY

    5. I’ve been watching his channel for a couple of years now. His videos about Brexit and the EU were incredibly well researched and informed.

  31. Yo All

    How long before we have the COVID equivalent of the Jarrow March, in protest at the stupidity and
    ineffectiveness of the lockdown and actions of the Perlice

    1. Now it would be unlikely to get two hundred yards down the road before the police were laying in to them.

          2. If Boris and his merry idiots continue in this way, the UK will become severely polarised and the tumbrils will roll.

  32. Good morning all,

    The temperature here is mild and we have had a fair amount of rain , still breezy and drizzly .

    How many of you on here use Zoom, I have shied away from it , but time is ticking away , so I will be having a lesson later.

    1. ‘Morning, Belle.

      It’s nothing to be scared of. I was very wary before I started using it, but now I’m quite at home with it. In fact I have a Swedish session this morning.

        1. Since nearly all the participants look like they’re over 80 & the tutor has a face which would curdle milk, there’s nothing to get excited about.

          German mixed saunas make Swedish ones seem very tame.

          2. When I lived in Germany I went to the sauna at least once, usually twice a week. Once I got to Sweden, I soon dropped the habit.

          11. The Swimming/sauna complex in Germany was large. 4 indoor & outdoor pools, separate sauna area where the rule regarding nakedness was strictly enforced. To get from the changing rooms to the sauna area, you had to pass through the swimming complex, wearing a towel round your waist. Once when I went with a friend, we had stripped off in the changing rooms & with our towels walked, chatting away, the whole length of the swim-hall. As we went through the door separating the 2 areas, we removed our towels, but to my horror I discovered that my towel was already draped over my arm. I had walked all the way stark naked.

    4. Morning T-B – My elder son in the USA set up a Zoom “bubble” with his brother in North London and me. I enjoyed the “meeting” but very soon politics got in the way and my son, a teacher, pulled out.
      My sons are both grand lads but cannot agree to differ on political matters.
      Zoom is still there for us but hasn’t been used since that first confrontation.
      It is certainly worth a try.

    5. ‘Morning, Belle. By a spooky coincidence I used Zoom yesterday for the first time. Apart from a few hiccups it worked! Our d-i-l organised a ‘meeting’ over dinner, and it went really well. I was expecting to be cut off after 40 minutes, but nothing happened and we kept going for another hour. So good to see our grandson, too.

      1. My Mother doesn’t go out and has no ‘puter. So, no Zoom discussions. She hasn’t seen any of us since New Year 2020.
        :-((

        1. Prob a good idea to get her a cheap smart phone or tablet to use for vid meetings. She may be reluctant but will probably find she will gradually start using it for other things too.

    6. I dont use Zoom but I do use Facebook Messenger for family and Microsoft Teams for work video calls, both to good effect.

        1. At one meeting Iwent to, I sat behind Jim who used zoom and the other participants were on screen. I was there to tske the notes.

  34. Cracking letter in the DT this morning! She’s getting some stick in the BTL! She actually runs a company called Au Pair Eccose! Can’t imagine what she’s a doctor of!
    g childcare harder

    SIR – During the first lockdown when schools were shut, au pairs, who largely came from the EU, provided vital help to many frontline families, allowing them to work long hours knowing their children were being well cared for and educated in the home.

    Now schools are shut again, but as of January 1 there is no route for au pairs from the EU to come to Britain since no visa has been made available. The British Au Pair Agencies Association campaigned to keep the au pair programme running after our exit from the EU but to no avail.

    Au pairs are not immigrants – they don’t occupy council houses or take British people’s jobs and rarely use the NHS.

    Families who are already stretched to the limit will now be denied this vital support at a time when they most need it.

    Dr Ruth Campbell
    Stirling

        1. Dr Ruth is an Experimental Psychologist at Stirling University
          and runs (or RAN) a side line in au pairs.

          “Frontline families” An up your own ar$e description of high earning couples.

          Try & employ a UK citizen & pay them a decent wage.

          When my kids were young we sacrificed the 2nd salary to give our 3 x kids the best upbringing – we did not farm them out to child minders.

          2. Apart from looking after the kids & doing light domestic work, foreign au pairs usually bring a new language with them. That would be my main reason for engaging one.

          3. When my elder daughter was about a year old, I was asked to take part in some psychological research with her, at Stirling University, which ran for about 6 months once a week. It was new opportunity for interaction and Emma seemed to enjoy it. She even got a certificate and photo to prove it! Might go and check out the signature!

    2. She has had her business shut down by vicious Remainer civil servants, possibly with the help of our “negotiators”. The lady is perfectly correct.
      We had an au pair for a while. A wonderful help to the Sultana and a friend and role model to the four brats. Not always the same one. A Spanish girl who had a driving licence – because she bribed the examiner in Spain – as we discovered around about the same time as she asked us how she could sign on the dole (just like her brother did). A German girl who smoked (we had specified non-smokers to the agency) and came home one day without our obstreperous son whom she had put out of the car to walk. A Slovak girl who collided with a car belonging to a neighbour of the Sultana’s parents who lived in town. She did not tell us but the wing mirror hanging off was a clue. None stayed very long. Then a girl arrived from Croatia. She had been a tourist guide but the war had ended tourism. She spoke seven languages and stayed with us for a couple of years. Shortly after she arrived a bloke from MI6 turned up to interview us. Our au pair’s father was in the Croatian government, but that’s another story.
      Au pairs may seem to be a luxury for the rich. We were never rich, or even well off, but we traded foreign holidays for home help. We lived on a farm miles from the nearest shop and even further from the schools. Our young Croatian lady was a blessing.

      1. I dont see it as a luxury for the rich. Employing an au pair costs less than the mother’s giving up work.

        2. Or any, it seems. Frustration is a killer. Why don’t people just do things right?

    3. Why can’t the au pairs be British??
      I thought the yoof were complaining about a lack of jobs.

      1. Too busy on their iPhones.
        What’s going to happen next spring/summer when we need fruit pickers and farm workers ?

    4. Au pairs used to come here long before we joined the EU. I have a German friend who will be 80 this year – she came as a teenage au pair and eventually married an Englishman. She’s been a widow since 1985 and still lives here.

  35. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with cleaned axe and newly sprung longbow .
    A mild day today .
    Shall go and find a slice of toast to have with marmalade.

  36. On a brief scan of the BBC as I passed through the exercise room, the Chief Medico of Scotland was struggling to find ways to make the lockdown stricter, as it mostly covers everything.
    Two ladies were arrested yesterday at lockdown protest at the Scottish Parliament building. They were bundled into the back of a small van. None of the old-fashioned civilised sitting in the back of a police car. Being thrown into a van will hurt, there will be scrapes and bruises and it will be humiliating. But it is not assault, of course.
    The protest consisted of a handful of people, most of whom went home when the police told them to.

  37. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    A CFI who only stopped at age 80 due to a heart condition…truly remarkable, as was his wartime service and his dedication to aviation:

    Flight Lieutenant Bill Eames, RAF observer who survived D-Day and was wounded in the Arnhem raid – obituary

    His love of flying never left him and until the age of 80 he was chief flying instructor at the Ulster Flying Club at Newtownards

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    11 January 2021 • 3:33pm

    Flight Lieutenant Bill Eames, who has died aged 97, was one of the last remaining aircrew who took part in the D-Day landings and during the ill-fated Operation Market Garden.

    In September 1943, he was posted to 570 Squadron based at Harwell. The squadron was equipped with the twin-engined Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle aircraft engaged in training airborne troops with glider towing and parachute dropping.

    In February 1944 it began supply dropping missions to resistance forces in occupied Europe. On one occasion Eames and his crew dropped a female SOE agent. The crew were not permitted to see the operative in case they were subsequently shot down, captured and interrogated by the Gestapo if the brave woman had also fallen into enemy hands.

    On the evening before D-Day, Eames and his comrades were personally briefed by Major General Richard “Windy” Gale, GOC 6th Airborne Division, who, along with his headquarters, they would be towing in a Horsa glider to Normandy. Eames recalled Gale as an impressive figure, a natural leader who during his short briefing won over the RAF men: “We would have followed him anywhere!”

    Shortly after D-Day the squadron converted to the four-engine Short Stirling bombers modified to be supply aircraft. Nineteen Stirlings, including Eames’s aircraft, towed Horsa gliders during the airborne assault at Arnhem on September 17.

    Two days later on a re-supply sortie, his aircraft was hit by flak and Eames was severely wounded. A fellow crew member, also from Co Fermanagh, saved his life by applying tourniquets and field dressings. Eames spent many months in hospital, and until the end of his life pieces of shrapnel would regularly emerge from his body. He was Mentioned in Despatches.

    The son of an Inniskilling Fusilier who had fought in the First World War, William Joseph Eames was born in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, on May 27 1923. He attended Enniskillen Model School and Oscar Wilde’s alma mater, Portora Royal, where he enjoyed sport and was a member of the officer training corps. Eames also developed a lifelong love of boating and was a King’s Scout.

    When war was declared, he and many of his classmates enlisted in the Local Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard). Eames recalled that unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, the volunteers in Ulster did not experience a shortage of rifles because the Northern Ireland government, fearing renewed IRA violence, had stockpiled large quantities.

    Under age, he and a friend attempted to enlist in the Inniskillings but were rejected; Eames then decided to try for the RAF. His friend persisted with the Army, was accepted, but was killed in Italy.

    Eames travelled to Belfast to enlist in the RAF, accompanied by another Co Fermanagh youth, Gilmore Hudson, who would later save his life over Arnhem. Eames commenced training as a pilot but was re-mustered as an observer. At one stage he was billeted in a five-man room, of whom three were killed in flying accidents.

    Due to the injuries he sustained over Arnhem, Eames’s flying career was over. He left the RAF in June 1947 to pursue a career in civilian air traffic control. For his last 12 years of service he was the Chief Air Traffic Controller for Northern Ireland.

    In 1955 he had been commissioned in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force based in Northern Ireland and he attended annual training camps at various RAF stations until he retired in 1965.

    His love of flying, as with boating, never left him and he was, until the age of 80, chief flying instructor at the Ulster Flying Club at Newtownards, Co Down. He much resented the authorities taking away his licence due to a minor heart ailment.

    Eames remained devoted to the RAF and was heavily involved with both the RAF and Air Crew Associations, together with other service organisations, schools and charities.

    He supported the Ulster Aviation Society and the ex-paratroopers, who held him in great respect. For his services, he was recently awarded the British Empire Medal. In 2014 the French government appointed him to the Légion d’honneur.

    He met his wife Fay in the RAF where she was a WAAF parachute packer. After returning in the early hours from night missions over France, he would press a piece of chewing gum on her window so that when she awoke she would know that he had returned safely.

    Bill Eames was, in common with many of his generation and comrades who survived the war, an extremely modest man. He knew only too well that pure luck had played a major part in his longevity.

    His wife predeceased him, and he is survived by their two sons.

    Flight Lieutenant Bill Eames, born May 27 1923, died November 15 2020

    The leading BTL comment:

    DAVID PIMBLETT
    11 Jan 2021 3:47PM
    These sort of people did us proud and should always be remembered for the years they gave for the rest of us :we can never repay their service :RIP.

      4. Agreed. Now our govt welcomes our enemy in – allows them to demand WE change and accept THEIR ways/laws/rules etc. Tells us we cannot offend them – but the other way round is ok. And not only welcomes them – uses our taxes for them to live here and destroy us.

    3. One of my fellow Shropshire Air Crew Association members is still flying (albeit with a second pilot due to regs) at the age of 99! They breed ’em tough in Shropshire.

    1. And if France leaves – what will the EU bills to the other contributing countries go up to?

      1. 328412+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        I do not believe that it will concern us, via the continuing lab/lib/con coalition party governance we will continue to pay one way or tother.

    2. When vote happened and the leavers won, we were surprised by how many French people, on hearing our English accents, approached us saying how they wished they could vote and get out of the EU too.

      1. One of my French friends (a doctor) had always been pro-EU. When I made the case for leaving, she always said that it was better off being within the Union. Over the last few years I’ve been able to meet up with her, she started to say we were right to want to go, then she started to toast le Brexit and last time I spoke it was a case of “Vive le Brexit! Vive le Frexit!” I have seen “Vive le Frexit” stickers in the back of cars in the south of France, too.

      2. I rather hope that Poland leaves they have never really been happy with the Brussels mafia. And the Czech republic.
        And who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch……..our truck drivers are having their home made sarnies and other goodies confiscated by the rather childish border control freaks.

        1. Me too.

          On the meat thing – HMG did make it very clear that foreign countries may ban the import of certain types of meat; just as we will do, too. I have no problem with it.

          1. I doubt if yer Froglé’s ever paid the fine for banning British beef after CJD was cleared.
            Perhaps it’s time to send Toy Boy a reminder and of the amount of interest accrued.
            I believe that our home produced products are a better option the animal husbandry is far better monitored in the UK.
            I just wish they stop adding water and whatever it is, to chicken and bacon. I must get in touch with Greg Wallace. 😲
            But the successive DH’s in government need to wind it in on building on agricultural land.
            I have always admired British farmers for their dedication hard work. Well most of them eh ! 😉

    6. Is this real? The reader’s calling him ‘Em’ Gallois rather than ‘Monsieur’ is a bit suss.

  39. 328412+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Really what is needed in my view, is a new political broom as in the Nation needs a 100% political culling, a peoples
    re-set campaign, sanitising the ballot booth for starters.

    Quite clearly seen over the last three decades is the voting pattern has been on party before Country lines, THAT cannot be denied.

    Resulting in same sh!te guaranteed, just change the party
    name in a rota fashion.

    This has proved since the mid 70s to be a self inflicted, unmitigated disaster with peoples murdered, youngsters
    raped,& abused plus a multitude of added evils.
    Bringing us, after decades of construction the triggering of re-set via the politico’s.

    People power has shown us over the years what it can achieve over the decades via the polling booth, nigh on
    complete sh!te.

    How about seeing as the 650 have been tried & tested and found, not once, but every time, to be of a very treacherous & dangerous nature.

    Give those that the proven political toxic trio & followers deemed to be, time & again, far right racist a shout in the
    future of these Isles, it can only be an improvement on our present down on one knee stance as a Nation.

    Continue to support the coalition party and one pledge that WILL be guaranteed will be every house WILL morph into a torture chamber.

    1. The lockdown suits Boris as it overshadows the extent of his cave in on the half agreed Agreement with the EU. The small print treachery which the PM signed up for is coming to light and Starmer’s statement today that the Agreement needs little change confirms that.

      1. 328412+ up ticks,
        Morning C,
        We in the real UKIP knew this on hearing “leave it to the torys” post 24/6/2016, a mantle of doom settled over many.

        Any warnings voiced went unheeded, sacrificed on the alter of the party first lab/lib/con coalition voter baying ” they are far right racist” take no notice.

        At the same time a multitude of the electorate were continuing to support / vote for the political purveyors of what we are receiving.

  41. This is the first reference i’ve seen to hospital mortuaries not coping. However, I seem to recall that following the Christmas and New year holidays when Crematoriums are closed and it can in some cases take over 3 weeks to arrange a cremation.

    Dr Campbell makes some interesting points about the significant increases in hospitalisations. However, his statistical series lacks numbers relating to recoveries and discharges as well as the numbers of deaths in hospital where Covid is the Prime cause:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxJtHPWmicE&feature=emb_rel_end

      1. Speaking about all this to a learned elderly relative last week, his initial reaction was, “So you don’t believe that there is a virus going around” ?
        “Of course i believe it, but how many people in the country have and do die from seasonal flu every year and how many people have in this past year and are now, dying of flu” ? Stumped for an answer, that made a change.

      3. It would have been even more effective if it had shown the crises in the Blair years…

    2. Too much information i fear. And when did it become known as Cov Vid ?
      Some good questions, but you’re asking the wrong people Dr Campbell.
      Why politicians YES indeed WHY ?
      Perhaps older people are just more susceptible to the usual bouts of seasonal influenza and are thus catching this similar viral infection so readily.
      As we already know with the aging effects their weaknesses go before them.
      Maybe it’s just because in the past people were not usually tested as soon as they have symptoms of seasonal flu.
      Every mention on the media of how many people have on that day tested positive for the virus, does not mean they go on to be seriously ill or hospitalised. Which is the underlying message.

      1. I’ve stopped paying any attention to the figures spouted every night on the news. OH puts it on, but I just don’t bother listening unless there’s some other item of interest.

        1. A few days ago someone made a fuss about the high numbers of Covid in Dover, and pointed out that the many asylum seekers are not required to be tested.

          It worked.

          On last night’s BBC local news it showed that Covid diagnoses have dropped quite considerably in Dover.

          What delightful news!

          1. Are there Lies, Damned Lies and statistics?
            Mark Twain – There are lies, damned lies and statistics. ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

    3. At about 17-18 minutes “He’s a brilliant man or else he wouldn’t be in that position.”

      Ah bless. Politicians are fools. The ones who aren’t are venal and power hungry.

  42. DT Story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2021/01/12/gay-roles-should-given-gay-actors-russell-t-davies-says/

    Gay roles should be given to gay actors, Russell T Davies has said, on the same basis that “you wouldn’t black someone up” in 2020.

    Davies, one of Britain’s most acclaimed screenwriters and the man who revived Doctor Who, has written a new series for Channel 4, It’s A Sin, following the lives of young gay men in the early 1980s as the HIV and Aids crisis emerged.

    The gay characters are played by gay actors, and Davies said that was the only way to guarantee authentic performances.

    (Surprise, surprise – no comments allowed under this article)

    Heterosexual roles should only be given to heterosexual actors
    White roles should only be given to white actors
    Male roles should only be given to male actors
    Female roles should only be given to female actors
    Transgender roles should only be given to transgender actors
    Animal roles should only be given to animals rather than puppets.

    This could go on for ever.

    No more plays like Twelfth Night, no more pantomimes, no more horror monster movies (only monsters allowed to play monster roles) etc. etc.

      1. When theatre producers advertise for actors for a new play it would probably be quite acceptable to say only homosexual actors need apply but very, very illegal indeed to say only heterosexual actors need apply

        We must demand clarity from Equity (the actors’ union) on this matter.

        1. Yo mr t

          If the BBC stuck to heterosexuals must play heterosexual parts roles. they would soon run out of actors

        2. Along with the rules on race – if a black actor can play say, Elizabeth I, can a white actor play say, Nelson Mandela?

    4. Did RTD think when writing Dr Who that Dr Who should be played only by time lords?
      (Plag)

    5. Davies needs a slap and to be reminded what acting is. Besides, his obsession with pushing homosexuality has been tantamount to a scream for help.

  43. ‘Morning again,

    Normally I would not be reading any article about football, but as soon as I saw the headline to the piece I found myself in fundamental disagreement. I have yet to understand the logic of allowing football to continue and yet golf courses are all closed under the rules. I frequently visit our local course for dog-walking, but have yet to see any golfers acting like footballers whenever a ball goes down the hole. The BTL comments I have seen so far seem to be universally hostile to this article, too:

    It is unrealistic and unreasonable to expect players to stop celebrating
    Stopping celebrations can hardly be portrayed as a public health imperative, given all the interactions that take place during the match

    OLIVER BROWN
    CHIEF SPORTS WRITER
    12 January 2021 • 8:00am

    There comes a point where being seen to do the right thing flies in the face of common sense. Last weekend, it arrived when Paolo Odogwu scored a wonderful try in the corner for Wasps, before staying scrupulously distant from his team-mates as they swarmed to acclaim him. By the book, the winger’s reaction was correct, but it scarcely counted as a public health imperative when every player had spent 80 minutes barrelling into seething, sweating mounds of bodies. As talk swirls of intensifying Covid restrictions on elite sport, it pays to remember that certain protocols are underpinned less by impeccable science than by a desperation to project a worthy message.

    Football has long ceased to bother with any crackdowns on celebrations. At Crawley Town, players marked a glorious triumph over Leeds in the time-honoured tradition of FA Cup giant-slayers, embracing, high-fiving, and cracking open the beers. Soon enough, there were tuts of disapproval in Whitehall, with briefings that such revelries would have to stop if the game hoped to continue amid a third national lockdown.

    While it is difficult to see the Government tolerating any repeat of the scenes in Crosby, where hundreds of Marine fans lined the streets to await Tottenham’s arrival, the quest to dilute players’ natural adrenalin rush on scoring a goal or achieving a famous victory is one fated to fail. We were in the same territory last May, when the Bundesliga became the first of Europe’s major leagues to restart after a continent-wide shutdown. For one round of games, teams were on their best behaviour, with Erling Haaland toasting his first goal back for Borussia Dortmund with an awkward, socially-distanced dance. But they tired of how cringeworthy it felt, reverting quickly to the usual free-for-all.

    This was tolerated for as long as Covid infection rates at clubs remained low, and match postponements minimal. But with a far more transmissible variant stalking the UK, and training grounds highly susceptible to outbreaks, there is a perceived need to tighten the screw once more. One might assume that leading managers would be in favour, anxious as they are to complete an already daunting calendar. It is striking, though, how those who truly understand football recognise the futility of trying to police the primal forces that it unleashes.

    Pep Guardiola can hardly be dismissed as a Covid-sceptic or as a man who plays fast and loose with the rules. He lost his mother, Dolors, to the virus last April. But he raised his eyebrows at suggestions that players’ reactions could be controlled by government decree. “One guy scores a goal, he has the joy to celebrate it,” he said. “I don’t know if he is going to think, ‘I cannot hug my mate for two, three seconds.’” His protégé at Arsenal, Mikel Arteta, agreed, explaining: “To control the emotion when you’re going at 200mph in the game is very difficult. We’re asking our players at corners to be man-marking people, to be pushing people around, and then we cannot say hello to anybody. It gets a little bit controversial and difficult to understand.”

    Bemused by the incoherence in the regulations, players have taken increasingly to conducting their own assessments of risk. Their critics might claim that by leaping all over each other, they are risking taking the virus back to their families or into the wider community. But equally, all those involved in the FA Cup third round had to test negative 72 hours before their matches to be passed fit to play. In that context, they could be forgiven for assuming that they were not putting themselves or their loved ones in intolerable danger. True, the official line from Professor Chris Whitty, the Government’s chief medical officer, is for people to act as if they have the virus. He also conceded on Monday, however, that football was being allowed to carry on to preserve a sense of normality. At some stage, it must be accepted that the fundamentals of the game he is protecting would break down if players were subject to every rule foisted on the rest of society.

    Finally, there is the vexed question of whether footballers are neglecting to set an example. This has always seemed like a stretch of conventional logic: are we to believe that if fans see footballers flouting social-distancing, they will be emboldened to barge into the nearest passer-by on their next jog around the park? At some stage, people need to stop being taken for fools. Everybody has lived with this pandemic for 10 months, bombarded by government guidance at every turn. We have retreated quite enough into the theatre of the absurd. We do not need football, the one light amid the gloom, to be sanitised any further to reinforce rules that we have already learned by rote.

    * * * *

    A few BTL comments:

    Andrew K Smart
    12 Jan 2021 8:46AM
    Let’s just stop our beloved football for 3 or 4 months. Our heroes can manage to kneel for a dubious cause, but they can’t manage to stop hugging each other in the national interest. All the time, more and more clubs are having problems fulfilling their commitments because of virus problems – but still our boys can’t set an example. That’s football for you – preach one minute, defy all government advice the next.

    Peter Harrison
    12 Jan 2021 8:55AM
    I am not allowed to see my children and their families, yet elite football carries on. They are still getting the tv money. Lower league football is cancelled. Come on scrap the football let us be equal.

    Ed Hoy
    12 Jan 2021 9:02AM
    No it’s not. They are all severely overpaid so I think they can stop celebrating for a few months for the sake of coronavirus. Utterly pathetic if they can’t

    Ian Stewart
    12 Jan 2021 8:47AM
    So stop the football then – we’ve hit a crisis point and they’re clearly spreading the virus judging by the number of positive cases.

    Roger Fitton
    12 Jan 2021 9:14AM

    What a frighteningly irresponsible article.

    So everybody has to obey the “2-metre rule” except professional footballers?

    So because you were tested 72 hours ago, that leaves you free to ignore the presence of the virus?

    So nobody copies professional footballers?

    So, the joy of scoring a goal is more important than life and death of loved-ones?

    And the conclusion is to accept the public flouting of laws and advice.

    As a life-long football fan, I can only conclude that all leagues ought to be shut-down.

    1. It’s to fill the TV sports schedules. so the proles at home have something to watch to lift their spirits.

      2. Am I the only person who wonders how football clubs are managing to pay the huge salaries to their players and management, with so many thousands of empty seats ?

          1. Not possible Bill, Gareth Bale of Spurs is paid over 300.000 a week for a starter.
            Advertising would help. But he’s not done much of that since he’s returned from Spain. Hardly played.

    3. It’s not sport anymore, Hugh, it’s just business and the spectators paying through the nose for ridiculous antics put me in mind of Roman Circuses where all the bread goes to the managers and gladiators.

    4. Everybody obeying the 2 metre rule could mean problems for rugby players having scrums and tackling others.

  44. A foretaste of the New America under Biden, who says that he will bring the country together:

    His choice to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Kristen Clarke, believes black people are superior to white people because they possess more melanin. “Melanin endows blacks with greater mental, physical, and spiritual abilities — something which cannot be measured by Eurocentric standards”, she wrote.

    On Sunday he said: “Our priority will be Black, Latino, Asian, and Native American owned small businesses, women-owned businesses, and finally having equal access to resources needed to reopen and rebuild.”

    Obviously, Biden is a racist because whites need not apply!

    2. I usually approach these shock horror outrage type revelations with considerable caution and try to find the ( out of ) context of its origins, when I first found that this was from a letter penned as an undergraduate my immediate reaction was to put it down to youthful naivety , however the letter was written in 1994 when she was 27, she’s trouble folks.

    3. I usually approach these shock horror outrage type revelations with considerable caution and try to find the ( out of ) context of its origins, when I first found that this was from a letter penned as an undergraduate my immediate reaction was to put it down to youthful naivety , however the letter was written in 1994 when she was 27, she’s trouble folks.

    4. If he is going to help Asians then I hope he has a good time explaining Grooming Gangs raping thousands of young American white kids.

    6. Oh great, so he’s not only hired a bigot but a complete idiot as well. Another diversity hire that wasn’t needed! Do these Lefties not realise that the more you label, the more you divide?

    1. It could equally have something to do with the price of gold having moved up considerably over the last couple of years.

    2. Multi year drive, latest figures from June 2020

      Yes that’s bidens fault. He wasn’t selected until August by the way.

  47. After the Watergate scandal various films were made about the event all of which vilified Nixon and praised the investigators who exposed what had happened.

    How long before a film is made about the Great US Election Triumph of 2020?

    In this film the Democrats will be portrayed as clever and brilliant people who managed to rid the world of the evil Trump by stealing the election from under his nose. The election fraudsters and counters who cheated will be given heroic roles and be applauded and praised for their skulduggery.

  48. An old softie writes:

    Gus and Pickles are having their operation today. The house is weirdly quiet. No thunder of paws upstairs echoing through the house; no rolling play-fighting. No unexplained “silences” when we go to see what naughtiness they are up to. No warm bundle on the lap “helping” with the crossword….

    They have been with us for eleven weeks. How quickly they became part of the family…..

    Can’t wait for the vet to ring to say we can collect them.

    1. You’ll have to give them some peace for a couple of days.
      The evening after my vasectomy, I was lying on one of the sofas feeling a bit sore, when out of the blue one of the Labs jumped on top of me.

      Ouch!

    2. We have always remarked on how it’s the little noises that you miss. Like checking before you shut doors, these sounds and routines rapidly become part of the fabric of life.

      1. Still, after nearly 5 years, miss Magnificat. He’s sleep on the shoe drying mat just inside the front door, and I still find myself looking for him as I come in.

          1. Mine too – always part of the family. I sometimes forget and call my ginger whinger by the name of one of our old cats

          4. Our first cats – brothers, Bob and Thompson (gingers, of course) – lived happily for ten years. Then Bob died. Thompson was bereft. Went into a decline – inconsolable. We managed to find a new ginger kitten, Mousie. After a day of disregard, Thompson and she became inseparable and he was rejuvenated.

            PS The vet has just rung – op done, kittens “up and about” we collect them at 2 pm. Hooray!

          7. Snoopy, Demelza (‘Dusty’), Dorothy (‘Dot’), Veronica, Geoff, Muriel (‘Plop’), Moppy, Su-Su, Ted, Rocky, Billy, Ken, Ginny, Molly, Polly, Millie, Fritzie.

            Nah, I can’t remember any of them!

          9. Over a 40-years period I suppose so. The first, Snoopy, was the mother of the next five. We kept them all for a while but decided it was best to give some away to good homes so we just kept Dusty and Plop. Plop was later stolen! Moppy and Su-Su came with my next wife. Ted followed but was killed on the road ( a regular feature, sadly).

            Rocky, a gorgeous small tortoiseshell female was my favourite (sigh!). Billy died mysteriously as a kitten but Ken (a choccy-point siamese) was Rocky’s best mate. Ginny also disappeared as a kitten but Molly stayed around a while. Polly and Millie were twins but Millie also got run over. Fritzie was a large ginger Norwegian forest cat here in Sweden. Currently we’re catless.

          10. Tibby, Rem, Fred, Tiger, Pat, Joe, Suzie,Sam, and now Lily. All lived to a good age apart from Rem (knocked down on the road aged 8) and dear little Fred (knocked down at four months.) We’ve only had one or two at a time.

          11. We had a succession of kittens when I was a child, but they all, one after another, went hunting in the churchyard across a busy road and none of them made it back, on a regular basis. After that, we gave up having cats. While I like cats, I prefer to share my life with a dog.

          12. I only had one dog in my life and he was my mother’s dog – old Nick – he was a great character and lived to 16 – Mum had him put to sleep eventually as he lost the use of his hind legs. That was in 1956.
            He lived dangerously – she got fined in 1950 because he was accused of sheep worrying. I think there was sufficient doubt over his identity for him to escape the chop then.
            Although he was a lab/setter cross (and black) he was gunshy – when there were thunderstorms he’d open the back door and go galloping across the fields. He didn’t like fireworks either. He used to lie on a dark rug, so you’d fall over him and then he’d nip your ankles.

        1. Looking at the wording – it should be the ‘last castrato’ or ‘the last of the castrati’.

    4. Good morning, Bill

      What a thing to do to family members – or should I say the members’ accoutrements.

        1. That was the point I was making – a castrated person has the accoutrements severed from his member – but the member is left in tact..

    5. At least they wont have a big bald patch on their sides when they come home like my poor little female PCs.
      Bl**dy catriarchy.

    6. When we got Magnificat home from his snip, he was slightly drunk and very hung over. Poor moggy.

  49. Moved from a lot lower down, about recycling

    I remember when

    Milk came in returnable bottles
    You paid a 3d deposit (refundable) on a beer bottle
    Old newspapers were reused to wrap fish and chips (or wipe bums)
    Plastic was not ‘money;
    Loos were outside
    Baths hung in the outside cludge
    TVs were watched through Radio Rentals shop Window
    The bread was delivered by horse and cart
    Shop assistants served you
    Tills did not ‘add up’ how much you had spent, the shop assisitant did
    You bought sugar, butter, flour etc loose
    Cars were owned by someone else
    The indoor loo was a Potty

    2. The bread was delivered by horse and cart – my mother did the bakers rounds when she was young – a sort of G-G-Granville-with-an-‘orse.
      And when I’m having a bad day, the sugar still gets loose – all over the kitchen floor! :-((

    3. We still have our milk delivered in glass bottles. In the fifties it came by horse and cart, as did the greengroceries.

    4. “Tills did not ‘add up’ how much you had spent, the shop assistant did.”

      Yeah. And how many times did their ‘creative accountancy’ or piss-poor arithmetic rip you off?

      1. Yo Mr Grizzle

        Very rarely, they had learnt how to do sums, when at school

        Adding to base of

        2 ape knees in a Penny
        !2 pence in a shilling
        20 shillings in £

        3. MB went to a Sec. Mod. I realise that ability enters the equation, but he can tot up to down a column of figures far more quickly and accurately than I can. In fact, I tend to pass anything like that over to him.

        4. I remember seeing a bookkeeper adding a page of figures in pounds, shillings and pence by just running his finger down the page at an incredible speed. It was called casting.

          They also used to have comptometer machines – but a competent bookkeeper could count the column of figures more quickly than it could be done on the machine.

      2. Good morning,

        The shopkeepers when I was a boy were scrupulously honest. They had to be – we could do all the sums in our heads ourselves.

          1. Good afternoon, my friend

            In those days we had to do it in pounds, shillings and pence.

          2. I used to love standing at the counter of a shop in the UK whilst the young assistant struggled, even with an electronic till, to reckon up the total. As soon as they had announced it I would immediately hand over the exact amount.

            The look of utter astonishment on their faces was frequently accompanied by an exasperated, “How did you know that?” I would simply reply, “I used the calculator I have between my ears.”

      5. ‘Morning, George, in 1966 I worked as a part-time barman in the Punchbowl in Stonegate, York. I had to tot up up some fairly large ’rounds’ (yes, unusual in Yorkshire, I know) in Pounds, shillings and pence.

        Very often, one of the roundsmen would return and just ask for, “Same again.” Not only did I have to remember all the various drinks but had to be sure that the cost was exactly the same as before.

        Get the round or the cost wrong and one would be roundly castigated (the unkindest cut of all. © The Goon Show 1950s)

    5. I remember getting dressed in the morning with thick frost on the windows…..inside!
      I was always cold as a child, no central heating….. open log fires.
      Frozen water pipes were a regular occurence, a blessing as I often skipped washing in a cold bathroom. My brother made coffee from the contents of a hot water bottle from the previous evening….put me off Camp coffee for ever!

      1. And the “Ideal” (how inappropriately named) stove was ALWAYS out when one got to the kicthen.

      2. Along with ice on the insides of the windows, I remember living in one student shared house where my perfume froze.
        Alcohol freezes at about -100 C so it must have been pretty cheap perfume with a low ETOH content.

      3. I remember having to wear woollen underwear in winter. How it itched! I hated it & hated my mother because of it.

      4. Liberty bodice , vests , full slips .

        Grandparent’s gas poker to start the coal fire.
        Winter curtains , thick heavy ones,
        Potty under the bed
        Eiderdowns .. large heavy puffed up ones
        Cellular blankets,
        Woollen blankets with satin borders
        Scary dark coal house, with dead pheasants hanging in the cool space, spiders webs
        The acrid smell of north sea gas in the kitchen from the black gas cooker.

        Large containers of salt and grit to grit the slippery front path and drive way/ and clinker from the coal fire.
        Smell of pea and ham soup, proper oxtail soup, rice pudding , cauliflower cheese , jam suet pudding , custard.

        Shall I start on boarding school stories?

  50. Media bias and Democrat zeal may turn Trumpists into martyrs. 12 January 2021.

    The same people – and remember, more people voted for Donald Trump in November than for any Republican presidential candidate in history – are already complaining, with justice, about attacks on free speech. Twitter’s decision on Friday to ban the president of the United States was an astonishingly high-handed act against a still-serving elected official (even though Mr Trump does have difficulty in accepting that he was elected only once).

    In short, the seeds of a narrative of suppression and martyrdom have already been sown. President-elect Biden calls for “healing” once he takes office. It will be much, much harder to heal America if people think his administration wants to punish and suppress opponents. Donald Trump could never be described as unimpeachable, but that does not make it wise to impeach him. Despite everything, the US constitution is working its way through the recent horrors successfully. Let it do so with “malice towards none”.

    The Democrats and their Globalist allies are incapable of such forbearance since they will need both a scapegoat and an enemy to disguise the coming tyranny. Trump’s followers will be hounded off the Internet and out of Public Life. If you are so classified the Police and Security Forces will harass you. Your job, credit rating and travel will all be at risk unless you submit to the New Order. Only the Woke will be heard.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/12/media-bias-democrat-zeal-may-turn-trumpists-martyrs/

    1. More people voted for Trump than for Obama in 2008, and by a considerable margin. It’s why so many on the political Right just don’t believe that another 5M+ voted for a basement-dwelling senile, creepy, plagiarist crook.

      Little Willy Hague’s OMB article (dressed up as defending democracy) today was an absolute disgrace. If you didn’t know who was writing the piece or what paper it was published in, you’d thought it came from The Guardian, ‘Indepednent’ or other lefty rag. He’s rightly getting absolutely slated in the comments. At least he has some small amount of honour left, given he doesn’t stipulate the DT mods not allow reader comments at all, unlike many of their columnists and Editorial staff.

        1. Beautiful music, but I wonder what on earth do the Black Lies Matter lobby make of the title?

  52. Last night – for want of anything better – we watch yet another episode of “The Crown”. It is SO bad it is good, if you know what I mean.

    One curious thing I noticed – which one would have thought a thespian could have managed to get right – the bloke playing Charlie Boy is left-handed. And we saw Chas writing away with his left hand.

    When they spend a fortune on getting costumes and locations to look right – why on earth….?

    2. This season did seem determined to be political.

      It’s odd, in many ways. The previous two didn’t and were better for the factual, reserved attitudes on show of the characters – the steady decline of Churchill, the discomfort of the Labour man who was no doubt a solid and decent fellow.

      It’s a shame.

  53. I’ve reached the Bonfire of the Vanities stage.
    Like Florentines (not the biscuits) in 1497, I’m sitting back and watching the credulous destroy themselves and their futures.
    Just hope I can shield the grandchildren from the worst of the fallout.

  54. As Paul Weston tells us………..

    ”I lost a lot of money on a horse race recently. My money was on “Stars and Stripes” despite the out and out bookies favourite being “Hammer and Sickle.”

    I watched it live, but a curious thing happened: with just under a furlong to go, Stars & Stripes was well ahead of Hammer & Sickle when a sudden power cut intervened. When the telly came back to life, Hammer & Sickle had pipped my horse on the line.

    We were never allowed to see a re-run of the closing seconds, but the Global News Team informed us that while the cameras were down, Stars & Stripes averaged a mere 0.5 MPH over the last few yards, whilst Hammer & Sickle speeded up massively to an astonishing 5,000 MPH.

    This seems to have struck quite a nerve. The Jockey Club is now threatening to throw all who doubt the credibility of Hammer & Sickle’s win into something called a Gulag. All very odd”.

  55. I buy books from France. One seller has books on sale and on the listing it says “20% VAT will be applied”. What is going on?
    I sent the seller an email asking this question because VAT on printed books is 5% in France and in the UK it is zero.

    Even in less than a fortnight over a holiday period it is now clear that the UK gave away too much and has allowed the EU to impose petty but time-consuming and difficult protocols that are resulting in a lot of damage to small traders between the UK and the EU. The MSM are commenting but only on the “back pages”.

    https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/scottish-smoked-salmon-producer-hits-out-brexit-after-barrage-useless-information-3090633

  57. Tony Blair is deluding himself on a ‘De Gaulle-style comeback’ 12 January 2021.

    You can see why Blair might be keen on a comeback. Whatever you think of him, it’s not unreasonable to see Blair as something of a political heavyweight compared to some of the politicians who have led our political parties since he left office. But while Blair might well fancy his chances of a return to Downing Street, such an ambition makes him look deeply deluded.

    To Brexiteers, he is someone who conspired to try and keep us in the EU; to liberals, he is not only the architect of the Iraq war but a prime minister who trampled all over civil liberties; to the left, he is the betrayer of their values, the man who sold Labour out to the highest bidder; to the centre-left, he is the guy who announced he was riding to the rescue to save British centrism a few years back, only to then set up an organisation bearing his name that talked about Middle Eastern politics most of the time. To your average run-of-the-mill voter, Blair is someone from another time, an artefact from a bygone era.

    Amen to that, and the rest!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/tony-blair-is-deluding-himself-on-a-de-gaulle-style-comeback-

    2. I think that the description of Blair as deluded is sufficient reason to exclude him from any chance of making a comeback.

        1. Backford is just another a band waggoner

          an Blackford net worth: How much is Scottish MP actually …
          https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/life/1213820/Ian-Blackford-net…
          06/12/2019 · Ian Blackford’s net worth is not known. However, his salary as an MP is on public record. The SNP Westminster leader earned £74,962 from his MP salary this year.

          Author: Vickiie Oliphant
          SNP outrage: Eye-watering sum Ian Blackford earns outside …
          https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1310467/snp-news-ian-blackford-jobs…
          17/07/2020 · The MP received an annual salary of £12,000 for working 32 hours per year and held shares worth more than £70,000 in the company. … “Ian Blackford MP was honoured to be asked to sit on this …

          Ian Blackford Net Worth 2021: Wiki Bio, Age, Height …
          https://networthpost.org/net-worth/ian-blackford-net-worth
          15/10/2015 · Net Worth: $1.1 Million: Date Of Birth: 1961-05-14: Place Of Birth: Edinburgh, Scotland: Profession: Sound Department: Work Position: Member of Parliament for Ross, Skye and Lochaber: Nicknames: Ian Blackford, Blackford, Ian

          SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford takes another £3k …
          https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/nat-takes-another-3k-from-tory-millionaire
          23/07/2017 · SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford had his General Election campaign bankrolled by a Tory-donating hedge fund boss. … which manages around £14 billion-worth of …

    5. The best electoral politician of my lifetime. Labour hadn’t got a sniff of a win since Wilson before he came in, and haven’t looked much like winning since. Sir Kneel? I doubt it, all percentage plays and no dazzle.

          1. He had the reverse Midas touch, everything he and his crew of wreckers came into contact with turned to dross.

          5. He did rather earn his reputation B Liar.
            I can’t remember anything he did that improved the UK. Except resignation. And then he rubbed it in by leaving Daft Vader in his place.

    6. Good day, Minty!

      Nick Tyrone’s comparison between Bliar and Charles de Gaulle is an absurd one. De Gaulle, for all his arrogance and vanity, was at least a patriot.

    8. Yes but never mind why not Blair.

      There is a whole new generation since him and that mouth last disgraced the steps of Downing Street and the schools have taught that new generation about all things woke, they will love him and his proven track record (spin merchant speak for hiding facts).

      Be afraid, in fact be very afraid if he starts putting in appearances with the doomgoblin as he goes for the green vote.

      Blair and Trudeau together would be a wonderful photo op, well it would be if they were marooned together on some far away island.

    10. Far more details should emerge of the fact that Blair campaigned at the 1992 general election for Britain to leave the EU and the Lib/Dems campaigned in favour of an IN/OUT EU referendum.

      Or is it better that we forget these things?

  58. Looks like it’s all over at Breitbart. All comments go to pre-mod and so never appear !

      1. Hopefully that and the mods have switched to premod while they kill the spammers, breitbart has certainly been on the list of sites attacked by the spammers that we ban, but that also means that the mods should be ready for spam.

        They are going mad in the US trying to distance themselves from Trump so attacking a US based right wing site could well be a step to far.

        AT&T, Comcast and many other companies are pulling Trump funding, the PGA are even pulling a golf tournament from a Trump course. Just a bunch of hypocrites out to save their brand, it they are opposed to Trump it is a year too late for them to put their money where their ethical values supposedly lie.

    2. US site as well as Europe, just the occasional comment making it through on some US stories and those comments are purely “Why premod this comment?”.

      I would guess that they have been hacked big time. You have contacts Polly, please find out what has happened.

  59. The Anglo Saxon Queen with axe and longbow shall parembulate into the
    kitchen and make husband and herself a cheddar cheese and mushroom omelette
    with thyme. Didn’t have much breakfast and didn’t want more soup.

    2. I am going for a first today and am not looking forward to it.

      A local shop has donated fifty Pot Noodles to staff. I cant imagine I shall ever buy one so this is my opportunity to find out what everyone sees in them.

      I shall report back if conscious.

      1. The Great Unwashed need have no fear. I shall not be drawing on their stocks again anytime soon or ever.
        Dis gus ting

      2. Pot Noodles give you the illusion that they are nourishing when they are only hot and wet and taste primarily of monosodium glutamate.

        But on a cold damp night thrashing about in the English Channel in a 22 footer – as I used to do – they can be a godsend as they just require boiling water to activate them.

        I have in the past posted pictures of Mianda – the 42 footer aboard whom we explored the Med and homeschooled out boys – and Raua – the 31 footer aboard whom I made my transatlantic crossings but here is a picture of Inca – my beloved 22 footer – on whom I had a tremendous amount of fun although I never took her further than Brittany, the Channel Islands and Normandy and spent most of my time sailing along the Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall coasts during the school holidays when I was a schoolmaster. Here she is in St Mawes.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b27bd1011954b66db22db5a9e154743a77baa885f5085aded4933e5ec46a892.jpg

          1. I do hope so. I sold Inca in 1981 to a man in Poole. I bought Raua that year in Dartmouth and after having done the Atlantic crossings in 1984/85. I sold her to a Dutch man who took her back to Holland in 1987 as my carefree bachelor days were drawing to a close!

            In 1988 my bride and I got married and bought our house in France and set about setting up our business and – when it proved successful and economically viable – we started our family: Christo being born in 1993 and Henry in 1995. We bought Mianda in the Baltic in 2003 and sailed her slowly down to and around the Med with our two sons whom we home schooled; she is now moored in the marina at Marmaris, Turkey. We are very disappointed that Covid travel restrictions meant that we did not do any sailing in 2020.

  60. Oh Bugger.
    Not quite sure what I did but my browser didn’t like it & shut down!
    Now, do I download all 289 comments to catch up with the ones I missed or not??

      1. When you first open Disqus, it displays 50 comments. To get the entire comments for the day you have to go to the foot of the page and click on More Comments.

        1. Can you not get in through Geoff Graham on Google? You’ll probably need to log in though!

    2. So why is Witless telling the truth?

      Could it be that his nether regions are getting too hot, due to the fire in his underpants caused by all the lies he’s told in previous statements?

      1. Different audience. Not certain but I think he was addressing medical students rather than Joe Public.

    3. Why isn’t this broadcast every time before and after the nightly ghoulfest?
      No need to answer.

  63. 328412+ up ticks.
    I do believe the “deal” was inclusive of we leave on Mondays,Wednesdays, Fridays, the remaining days are for eu running a re- education / humiliation re-entry campaign
    regarding the English / GB nations.
    The “deal” I also believe has a very strong tie to the Royal Mint.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK

    3. Two female local carers had their booster yesterday. One was unaffected, but the other (mid forties) has suffered a reaction; fever and other symptoms and she has had to take the day off.

    1. Quite right too, although the “immediate suspension” looks a bit heavy-handed. I would have thought a brief, no-coffee interview more sensible. If only our Plod had been as hot on our partial policing nonsense.

      1. I agree.
        As I’ve observed previously, I think one reason our police are being so heavy handed with Covid protesters is because they were prevented, by their bosses, from cracking skulls over Green, Antifa and BLM protests.

    2. This is Commander Ade Adelekan, the man in charge of the Met. Police’s appallingly violent response to the peaceful “anti-New Normal” protest that took place in Trafalgar Square last October, where elderly white men and women were viciously attacked.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3fbf21a286c9e1a732fcd122028a69b719d26fa6771f2fc1291a477dfa95281b.jpg

      With people like him in charge, it’s easy to see why the same tactics were not used on BLM rioters.

      1. Adelekan exudes a remarkable optimism for someone in his line of work.
        There is no trace of cynicism or world-weariness in him. Born in the UK to parents originally from Nigeria, Adelekan went and studied at university in Nigeria but returned to work in the UK. He stumbled on policing having studied microbiology, almost ending up in a lab but actually joining the London Underground. He then applied to the police service, the fire service and the prison service. The police service came through first and he has worked in it for the last 24 years.

        https://medium.com/unfollow-journal/killing-crime-with-kindness-c156e18996a1

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots

        1. Well, he deserves some reward for his service …… somebody should give him a banana.
          ;¬)

  67. 328412+ up ticks,
    Was this not the same chap who made it big on the property scene back in the mid 70s, under a different title though,yes
    cottages, etc etc,something like that.

    breitbart,
    Tony Blair Advising British Govt on Vaccinations, Pushes for ‘COVID Passes

      1. 328412+Up ticks.
        Afternoon JBF,
        After being called all nasty things, far right racist
        being the nicest, as a long term real UKIP member it shows me in no uncertain manner the depth many peoples have sank to in the sh!te bog when the likes of that political creature still as a shout and IS LISTENED TO.

  68. Have eaten the mushroom and cheddar omelette for luncheon, it’ll keep us full until dinner which is a little later on a Tuesday due to one of the zoom courses.

  69. Pinched off Faceache:-

    I saw this and had to re-post it. Don’t know who wrote it.
    One man’s view on the difference between Cockers and Springers. Made me laugh and from a household with dogs.
    Some one once said to me…. you have a Springer and a cocker…..what’s that like? ….well.
    The cocker has ….
    Been run over and survived.
    Been rushed to Emergancy vets due to eating an asthma pump that nearly killed him due to overdose of steroids depleting his muscle pottasium.
    Escaped from park came back wet and smelling of chlorine being chased by the bloke who’s swimming pool he was swimming in.
    Escaped from park chasing a fox found 5 streets away by a builder.
    Ate the box for a champagne bottle…then the gold paper then the wire mesh over the cork and was just about to bite through cork when we caught him.
    Got found on next doors flat roof.!
    Got found on next doors shed roof.( both sides) !
    Got stuck in garden to the rear and had to be rescued with ladders.
    Will drop tennis balls behind you in kitchen so you step back and fall over them.
    Will go onto back off sofa….look at you and drop his ball behind it and then go mental till you move sofa.
    Has had an operation for inner ear infection.
    Got into fight with 2 year old great Dane and floored it !!!!
    Opens doors at home to let the other dog into rooms.
    Opens top kitchen doors to steal the butter.
    Ate a whole Xmas pudding from the cupboard. (A marks and sparks one !!)
    Ate my charcuterie meat from borough market I bought for Xmas day cheese board!
    Stole and ate 5 mince tarts.
    Carries single shoes through dog flap and leaves them in the garden.
    Got found stuck hanging by back leg upsidedown on top of 6ft wire mesh fence.
    Can take off cones of shame at will.
    Pooed out gold paper, which was odd, then I discovered he had eaten my box of Ferrero Rocher.
    Escaped from park found in a garden playing with kids and being fed at their bbq.!!!
    And now…..
    Just had Emergancy operation to have tail amputated due to snapping it !!!!!
    The Springer……
    He sleeps upside down and snores a bit……oh and chases birds.

  70. Gosh – G & P home – operation? What operation? They are berserk. The protective collars (which have to stay on for TEN days) were off before we had gone 400 yards.

    I just hope they calm down soon. They are exhausting me….

      1. There was an episode of The Simpsons where the cat had fleas. He wouldn’t keep a flea collar on so the whole family went round wearing them.

    2. Glad you’re only exhausted by the op.

      When we had our cat, Chaucer, done, poor Rastus had tears in his eyes and said that he felt he was betraying the poor creature.

      1. The old joke about it only hurting if you left your thumbs between the bricks when crashing them together was not entirely true. As a fellow male creature I empathised with Chaucer and, as the current woke expression goes – I felt his pain.

      2. Hi Caroline! My old man wouldn’t even take his Hector to the vet!! She’s one of our vet daughters friends, but I had to take him so that Hector wouldn’t blame Daddy! And yes, he had tears when I brought him home!

      5. I’ve always felt bad about it; particularly when doglet snuggles up to me for comfort – the very person who organised the little mite’s suffering.

    3. Does that mean they can go out in the garden now? Some house-cats will stay inside and just stare at an open door but I get the impression that won’t be the case with G & P?

    4. One of our Jack Russells had to have surgery round his bum. We were warned to let him rest and not jump about.
      By the following day he was leaping on and off the sofa while we sat watching, legs, buttocks and teeth clenched, wincing at every move and going “Aaarrgghhh….”

    5. When my dog had to have a cyst removed from his front leg, he managed to destroy two protective collars within a few days and proceeded to remove the dressing by getting his tongue over and around the edge of the collar! My legs were black and blue and the furniture had been battered.

  71. Been a few insurance topics recently going about

    Here’s who to go to to make sure you get the correct insurance for the sex you are having.

    Sex with your Wife: Legal & General

    Sex on the telephone: Direct Line

    Sex with your Partner: Standard Life

    Sex with someone different: Go Compare

    Sex with a lady of generous proportions: More Than

    Sex on the back seat of a car: Sheila’s Wheels

    Sex with a posh bird: Privileged

    Sex with a prostitute: Commercial Union

    Sex with your maid: Employer’s Liability

    Sex with an OAP: Saga

    Sex resulting in pregnancy: General Accident

    and finally……….

    Sex with a transvestite: confused.com

  72. Police ask the government to ‘define local’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/12/not-knowing-covid-rules-preposterous-says-met-police-commissioner/

    Like the row over whether a scotch egg constitutes a ‘substantial meal’ it would be farcically amusing if it weren’t our most basic rights and freedoms being discussed.

    Why is Boris Johnson cycling seven miles ok (presumably will full security detail in tow), but two women driving 5 miles for a socially-distanced walk not ok? And on the day when he continually lectures us to stay at home, why could he have not used a Downing Street exercise bike rather than jaunting round the streets of London?

    And why can’t he just leave us alone to make our own decisions and live our lives as we see fit?

      1. No wonder, round my way, the Eastern Europeans are the ones ignoring most of the authoritarian elements of the pandemic response and going about their day as normally as they can.

    1. The first one is apparently a FAILED ( so why still in the country? ) asylum seeker of the RoP trying to do his duty. WE now get the pleasure? of paying several millions over his lifetime keeping him warm, dry, fed and all healthcare treatment. I have NO doubt that within a few years a lawyer ( of the same persuasion ) campaigns that it is against the killer’s Human Rights to be locked up till he dies – and he WILL be released, back on the streets here to do the same again.

      1. Even so. Why was he even admitted to the country? He was a terrorist, so are we allowing in some terrorists, but not others, or all of them?

        Why is there not a logjam of pro bono lawyers eager to sue the Home Secretary and everybody else who are jointly and severally responsible for the deaths of the three victims and for the injuries to the others?

        1. About 150 arrived from France over the weekend – most, if not all – will have destroyed their documents – or have false ones. With large groups of them put in hotels together, with inevitably the freedom to “socailise” with each other , God knows what is being planned.

  74. Back from W/rose. No shortages except for Époisses cheese. Roads quiet, store almost deserted, beautiful sunny afternoon.

      1. That’s how it started here. I wasn’t going to go, but the sun came out & it’s gonna rain tomorrow.

      3. It’s been a beautiful day here.
        Took Spartie for a really long walk across the fields. Both of us felt rather bucked up by the time we got home.

  75. DM Story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9137861/Dutch-customs-staff-post-photo-confiscated-UK-food.html#newcomment

    Now they’re taking our muesli! Gloating Dutch customs staff reveal MORE food seized from Britons entering the country after Brexit – but it includes Spanish oranges and American orange juice

    Don’t forget that the Dutch voted 60-40 against the European Constitution Treaty in the referendum which the ‘powers that be’ ignored This was renamed The Lisbon Treaty and nobody – not even the British – was given the chance to vote on it.

    Brexit could well be only the beginning – there are a lot of anti EU voters in the Netherlands and in France who are eager to join Britain outside the EU.

    1. Dutch Customs staff steal British lorry drivers’ food, whilst British villagers handed out food and drink to foreign lorry drivers prevented from travelling to France just before Christmas last year.

      1. Shows we made the right choice to leave. I mean, with ‘friends’ like that, who would have enemies?

    3. All independent nations have rules about what food you can or cannot bring in.

      There is nothing new or odd about the Dutch confiscating what are – to the EU – illegal food imports. The Swiss do it; the Australians, Americans – and, er, the British.

      This is a silly story that far too much is being made of by the rag press. And, of course, by sodding remainiacs.

      1. Years ago (way way before Trump) a friend was stopped at the US border and the immigration official spotted the burger box on the car passenger seat.

        When told that he couldn’t take meat into the states, he just sat there and ate the burger right in front of the officious official.

        Just try taking fruit into Australia or NZ, you cannot even carry fruit across states.

        1. At Customs at Sydney airport I was asked if I had brought any food with me. When I told him, “Just one jar for my brother.”, he replied, “Marmite?”

          I confirmed this with a smile and he just waved me through. Most ex-pat Poms hate Vegemite, Australia’s pale pastiche of the real thing.

      2. When we go to England we always stock up with Stilton and other delicious English foods that we cannot get in France. Off we shall be jolly well pissed if we have to stop doing this.

    4. Remind me again of the RAF food drops to the starving Dutch after the Nazis were driven out of Holland….

      1. Wrong generation.

        Are Dutch school kids taught about the food drops? They certainly still get taught about Canadian troops freeing them.

        1. They certainly were, at least up to the end of last century when a Dutch friend’s children were at school.

          When my parents visited Dutch friends in the 1970s an elderly neighbour arrived in the yard with the sole purpose of shaking my father by the hand and uttering his only bit of English… “Tommy OK”. I should add that the friends lived just a few miles from Arnhem and very close to the border.

          But we wanted to change the rules. We’ve got what we asked for. All food imports are subject to phytosanitary checks… including the truck drivers’ butties. I am very glad that I’m not currently working in international haulage.

      2. Operation Manna and Operation Chowhound were humanitarian food drops, carried out to relieve a famine in the German-occupied Netherlands, undertaken by Allied bomber crews during the final days of World War II in Europe. Manna was carried out by British RAF units, as well as squadrons from the Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Polish air forces, between 29 April and 7 May 1945. Chowhound (1–8 May) was undertaken by the United States Army Air Forces, which dropped, together with Operation Manna, a total of over 11,000 tons,[1] of food into the still-unliberated western part of the Netherlands, with the acquiescence of the occupying German forces,[2] to help feed Dutch civilians in danger of starvation.

      3. Can someone drop a Facebook or other reminder to a Dutch tv show – or the govt – with a very sarcastic Thanks on the end

    5. 338412+ up ticks,
      Evening R,
      Trouble being with sticking to the same voting pattern lab/lib/con coalition party with no credible opposition the time the frogs and cloggies come out we will be back in.

  76. For what it’s worth, the England lockdown thingy is likely* to continue until 31st March.

    That comes from an anonymous person who could lose their job for blabbing.

    * 100% likely.

      1. 328412+up ticks,
        Afternoon M,
        Been on the cards since mayday
        introduced the 9 month delay.

        There is a master plan to this lot
        as in political evilness, taking advantage of a mentally damaged electorate.

        This really is taking “biting the hand
        that feeds it in the polling booth on a regular basis” a tad to far.

          1. 328412+ upticks,
            M,
            Sad to say they have had that for at least three decades, they rely on it.

    3. This had always been on the cards ever since Rishi extended the furlough scheme until then. (Think now it’s been extended again for April).

  78. I’ve just received this email.

    Dear Horace,
    “…
    Security guards will support our colleagues at the front of store and will challenge customers who are not wearing masks or who are shopping in groups. I know you’ll understand and support what we are trying to do.
    …
    Best wishes
    Simon

    Simon Roberts
    Chief Executive Sainsbury’s”

    I wonder what Simon means by “challenged”? Could be fun.
    Also seems a bit informal,as we have not been introduced.

    1. Maybe all we need to do to get in say the magic words? “Hail, Hydra” perhaps? I’m glad I have my official printed Asthma UK exemption badge, plus I bring along my inhailor for proof. Presumably in the US, the magic words are ‘”I hate Trump” or “I love Biden”.

      #1984IsHere

    2. Just been shopping at Morrison’s and we’re “challenged” by the security guard. Alf produced his exemption badge and that was that.

      1. Just hope that lots of fake exemption cards don’t appear. If that happens exemptions will not be exempt.

        2. The law in the UK does not require any form of exemption document to be produced. All the security guard is permitted to do is ask if a shopper is exempt. If the shopper replies ‘yes’, legally the guard cannot demand proof.

          1. So when all of the “I won’t wear a mask” types say they have exemption cards, the government will overreact and come up with a strict no mask, no entry rule.
            Vw and Alf will be the ones suffering the consequences of that.

          2. I don’t think the provision of documented proof of exemption would be possible. This would probably require the endorsement of a doctor. The NHS is under enough strain at the moment as it is.

          3. True. I watched Rik-Redux do exactly that. He quoted the Disability Act and told them they were not allowed by law to question him further.

            I was most impressed.

    3. A friend did a stint as greeter at a local supermarket. In the two months he worked in that role, he was rattled against the door twice.

      This is nice compliant canada and my friend is one of the gregarious types who will chat to everyone. Put an immature officious oaf in that door keeper role and I could see a lot more aggression.

      1. On arrival at Calgary, I was amazed that they have greeters in a sort of Western garb, with 10 gallon hats, to greet you off the flight! Very nice, it was.

        1. I preferred the free expresso coffee on arrival in Auckland.

          Actually the best greeting was when I got back to Toronto after a month on the road, the immigration officer greeted me with a simple Welcome home Richard.

    4. After Sainsburys last bit of offensive BLM “marketing” I will never darken their doors again!

      1. I can’t remember when I last went into Sainsbury’s, but I do remember being horrified.

          2. Odd – it is a sort of co-operative when the employees (partners) have a stake in the business (although I believe this year due to tough trading conditions the partners didn’t receive a bonus). Apparently studies show that a trolley of branded and own branded goods is only approx12% more expensive than a similar trolly from Aldi…..

          4. M&S now have a market stall of remarkably fresh high quality produce e.g Super sweet pineapples for 65p ….

          8. I make a simple version: pineapple juice (and a few pieces); slices of tomato; tomato ketchup, malt vinegar; dark soy sauce, and thickened with a little cornstarch slurry in water.

          11. He has been around forever ! I have one of his early cook books. All seemed to foreign then but now i happily use a cleaver on most things. Excellent for mincing meat for a stirfry.

    5. My local Sainsbury’s has a watcher in the foyer and another just inside the main doors (presumably to catch anybody who slipped past the first guard) to check out non-mask wearers. I wear my “I am exempt” certificate prominently displayed on a lanyard round my neck and they’ve just glared and said “good afternoon” so far.

      1. The mention of the “exempt” badge has now all but disappeared from the various reputations of the rules. It may vanish altogether and “exempt ” people will have to get others to do their shopping.

        1. Sainsbury’s actually mentions “unless exempt” in its exhortation that all wear a mask at the entrance. It is, to be fair, the only store I have seen that does that.

  79. When I see what’s been happening with the steady flow of dinghies crossing the channel into Dover and other coastal landings in the south-east, I reflect how true were Trump’s many loud statements that “without borders. you don’t have a country”. I presume Biden and the Dems will open the floodgates at the US southern border to try and let in another X million “undocumented immigrants” (future Democrat voters). Unlike the Tories they were never pledging to stop this type of illegal invasion.

    1. Doesn’t need to open the floodgates, they have millions of illegal workers who would love to get an opportunity it to become legal and get a vote.

      After Trump tried to kill DACA, they certainly won’t be voting republican.

      1. Opening the borders has nothing to do with the welfare of workers as is becoming much better understood by many of the Latinos in the southern states.

        Can’t understand why Obama and the Dems didn’t sort DACA out when they had dominance in the years between 2008 and 2010.

        1. Why bother fixing data when you can just do nothing and pass the issue on.

          Wasn’t Trump speaking against daca back in 2016? You can just hear the political minds whirring away and deciding that it would be a minefield for Trump.

        2. They were probably so arrangant thinking they already had it all sown up for 2016 and didn’t need to do anything. After Trump got in, the and their chums in the US civil service, media and big tech didn’t take any chances this time around. They aren’t even trying to do things secretly any more.

  80. Well – that’s me for the day. Don’t fall for the vet’s statement that “The kittens will soon get used to their protective collars…”

    Like hell they will. It has taken us two hours to get them to stay on for more than two minutes.

    I’ll join you tomorrow, in the unlikely even that I get through the night…

    A demain.

  81. You were once born free……not any more:

    From the DT:

    “Thousands of Britons who have received their coronavirus vaccine are set to be offered a health passport as part of a government-funded trial taking place this month.

    The passport, created by biometrics firm iProov and cybersecurity firm Mvine , will be issued in the form of a free app allowing users to digitally prove if they have received the vaccine.

    The trial will be overseen by two directors of public health in local authorities and will be complete in March. However, the locations have yet to be agreed.”

      1. “Et faciet omnes pusillos et magnos et divites et pauperes et liberos et servos habere caracter in dextera manu aut in frontibus suis
        Et ne quis possit emere aut vendere nisi qui habet caracter nomen bestiae aut numerum nominis eius”
        — Apoc. 13:16-17

        1. Thank you Duncan. I had to look it up. How prescient were our forebears.

          REVELATION, 13.

          16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

          17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he had that mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

          18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

          Edited.

    3. Sorry to inadvertantly steal your thunder – we must’ve both seen the article at the same time. Great minds think alike? 😉

        1. Indeed. Meanwhile, over on another previously sane forum that discusses other issues away from politics, half the people there have gone insane and sound like they’re organising a possee to go after Trump and all 75M voters who voted for him in November.

          The Western World has gone nuts. I bet the Chinese are rubbing their hands in glee, thinking: Its our time now. I wonder what the odds are for them to invade Taiwan this year?

          1. Given the strides China has made developing infrastructure around the world and securing land, food and mineral resources from across the globe and given its huge balance of payments surplus, I doubt China needs to invade Taiwan. With the USA in disarray and about to be completely fupt, I suspect the Chinese leadership will simply make the Taiwanese leadership an offer they cannot refuse.

            两国经济或政治结合 联合

          4. Not sure. Taiwan is where the microchips are made.

            I still remember references to Taiwanese Soft Metal when the first computers were produced for the domestic market.

    4. What if you don’t own a mobile phone, like many elderly? Have a QR code tattooed on your forehead? Or wear a yellow star if you haven’t had the jab?

      1. Walk around ringing a bell shouting “Unclean unclean “? and having an X painted on your door.

    5. As the vaccine doesn’t stop you getting it again, then the Health Passport can’t fully work. Time will show that the disease will have been spread by a vaccinated person going about their life. False passports are already available – so are fake surgeon and doctor qualifications and degrees. The fake Health Passports will soon be available to download.
      Another app on the mobile is another tracker system, just like Track and Trace.

      1. It’ll be a very brave government that doesn’t follow this ‘lead’. Whichever does, I’ll be considering moving there. Hopefully a negative test will all I’ll need to endure to do so.

    2. The EU is proposing an EU wide passport scheme. If the UK does not introduce its own scheme then in the near future there will be no travel to the EU. Then those whingeing about passports would be whingeing about the lack of passports.

      1. And yet, vaccination does not prevent passing on the infection. So, how will it help, except for more restrictions on movement?
        “Ausweis, bitte!”

        1. I didn’t say it was good, I just pointed out what is happening. Those who refuse to co-operate will find they have to stay home. Anyway, keep up with the news, these days it’s “Shinkenbroetchen bitte”.

    3. Just common sense that a passport / certificate would be coming.

      Even before Qantas started demanding proof of a negative test, the vaccine deniers were being called out as anti social.

      Won’t do any good though, if the vaccine works on 70% the lurgi will have nowhere to go and if the vaccine doesn’t work, well better luck next time.

  83. For Sale; One cardboard Box (with garage extension)

    Little used by two pensioners

    Available Friday 15 January

    4. Christopher John MacRae Whitty was born in Gloucester on 21 April 1966, the first of four sons born to Kenneth and Susannah Whitty.[4][1] He spent his childhood in northern Nigeria.[5] His father was Deputy Director of the British Council in Athens and was killed by terrorists in 1984 when Whitty was 17; his mother was a teacher.[5][6][7] His maternal uncle Christopher MacRae was also a diplomat,[8] and his maternal grandmother Grace Summerhayes was a pioneering obstetrician in Africa.[4] Whitty was sent back to the UK for his schooling,[4] and was educated at Windlesham House School in Pulborough, West Sussex, and Malvern College, Worcestershire. Following this, he was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford (BA in Physiology, DSc in medical science), Wolfson College (BM BCh in Medicine, 1991), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (DTM&H in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1996; MSc in Epidemiology, 1996), Northumbria University (LLM in Medical Law, 2005), Heriot-Watt University (MBA in Business Administration, 2010), and the Open University (DipEcon in Economics).[1][5]

      Look , I think he is ok, dour , but ok , any one who fronts a public grilling , yet has knowledge and experience how viruses work gets my total admiration . It is very wrong to bully a good man to try to bring him down.

      1. Belle, I’m sorry to disagree, but he has been “educated” for most of his life! From 1971 until 2010! He may well be a very clever man but his charisma is zero and his presentation skills, non-existent. He obviously knows how a virus may behave, but as with so many academics, he knows nothing of people or places or things.

        1. From 2009 to 2015, he was Chief Scientific Adviser and director of research for the Department for International Development (DFID).[2][5][12] He led the Research and Evidence Division, which worked on health, agriculture, climate change, energy, infrastructure, economic and governance research. During this time, with co-authors Neil Ferguson and Jeremy Farrar, he wrote an article in Nature titled “Infectious disease: Tough choices to reduce Ebola transmission”,[13] explaining the UK government’s response to Ebola in support of the government of Sierra Leone, which he took a leading role in designing, including the proposal to build and support centres where people could self-isolate voluntarily if they suspected that they could have the disease.[14]

          From 2016, he has been Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) and head of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), funded by the Department of Health and Social Care.[1] From 2017 to 2018, he was also interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser and head of the science and engineering profession in government.[1] During this period Novichok, the military nerve agent, was responsible for the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, and Whitty chaired the government SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies) and advised COBR for the crisis.[1][5]

          He was appointed Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England in 2019.[1]

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Whitty

          He is a batchelor , and childless, and is a private person .

          4. The idiotic term ‘childless’ implies a melancholy longing for procreation that is not manifested. I have never desired parenthood, therefore I am free of something I have never had any desire for.

            Calling me (or anyone of a similar mind) ‘childless’ is a crass insult.

          5. A civil servant, basically. Highly educated but at least two of his positions are somewhat dubious. The Ebola transmission and the Novichok nerve agent both over-egged by “the science”.

          8. I was sticking up for Prof Whitty , and seeing before me an insular man who is probably very knowledgeable and capable at what he does.
            I don’t care what he looks like , it is his brain that I admire !

          10. Good that you stick by your guns on this, but I still think he’s revelling in his 15 minutes of fame that unfortunately is turning into15 months of what I suspect will be infamy.

      2. Agreed, Maggie. I listened today to his Gresham’s speech from last April and he was clear and very precise.

        I posted it on here earlier but it has been ignored!

      4. Am I really reading NTTL where the prevailing opinion (verging on obsession) seems to be that Whitty, Van Dam and the rest of the experts in this crisis are little short of evil incarnate? Very well said, True_Belle!

        1. Perhaps your opinion of their motives may change after you watch this video:

          https://www.bitchute.com/video/Hmxo720ccw4V/

          Prof Van Tam makes an appearance at the ‘seminar’ at the end, and to say what the speaker (from Belguim’s equivalent of PHE/SAGE) is saying, the audience laughing/agreeing and Van Tam being there is rather sinister indeed. It is a long video (45 mins), l but I’d urge you to watch it all for the context is really important, not just the ‘appearance’ of JV-T. Much of it is documentary evidence from other videos of people involved in SAGE-type organisations.

          Note that Dave Cullen’s video was deleted by YouTube because its uncovered some VERY interesting facts about the people who are ‘guiding’ politicians and their agenda.

          1. Ah, you mean a video on Bitchute? You know, the one that numerous expert and authoritative sources say is notorious for its far-right contributors and conspiracy theorists. Were you ever an engineer and, if you were, did it not teach you the value of objective analysis?

          2. Yes, I am an engineer – and I’m more than happy to prove evidence that isn’t doxxing.

            I note that rather than watching the video and making your own mind up, you just call it ‘far right’ and dismiss it. Given that the vast majority of the video is just playing clips from the actual video from the Chatham House seminar, how is that ‘far right’?

            The video was originally on YouTube, but they removed it because it debunked the left’s narrative.

            As an engineer, I weigh up all evidence, then make my mind up. Sounds like you live in a leftist echo chamber and only believe stuff from left wing sources. Amazing when you lot ask for evidence, you dismiss it when when it is provided.

          3. Actually, you had said that the video was 45 minutes so, late last night, I settled down with my iPad and earphones to watch it. However, in spite of clicking a number of times on the link you provided, the video refused to play.

          4. I have always considered myself fairly well towards the right but that does not mean that everything from the right is correct, neither does it mean that everything from the left is incorrect. I can’t view the video in question but any video produced from clips in a seminar can easily be welded together to support a particular partisan view.

          6. I have checked and found that I can view the Youtube video but I haven’t got time to look at the complete file until later today. I also checked on the Bitchute video and it took an inordinately long time to load – I can assume only that last night was particularly slow and my patience was limited.

            What exactly are the videos supposed to provide evidence of?

          7. The Bitchute clip takes longer to load because the way the site works – it’s a peer-to-peer system. It’s probably slower at the moment because many people have been migrating away from YouTube after the censorious mass deletions of conservative channels (Dave Cullen’s was, then YT reinstated it a few days later without word).

            The first video is Dave giving commentary on large sections of the YT source video – which was a early 2019 seminar given at Chatham House by the Belguim equivalent of ‘our’ Prof Van Tam (who was in the audience at the front) on how to ‘convince’ the public to do what the authorities want during a pandemic. Apparently they all found it funny. Dave and I certainly did not.

            I urge you to watch them (you should at least watch Dave’s, as most of the seminar is run – he just stops the clip and comments on what is said) – it will be well worth your time. Being busy or impatient should never be an excuse for finding out the truth about something this important.

          8. I had never heard of Dave Cullen but looked him up. He is an American journalist and speaks entirely for himself. I did not see JVT in the Youtube clip but, if the keynote speaker was, as you put it, the Belgian Van Tam, it would not be surprising, would it? The Youtube clip was titled “Communication and Public Engagement” and, guess what, the speaker spoke about Communication and Public Engagement. What on earth do you think that an expert on pandemics is going to talk about other than the need to convince the public of the threat and to comply with government instructions? Ok, you might think that the pandemic is all a big conspiracy but the fact that the overwhelming majority of scientists, medical experts and public health authorities in almost every country in the world doesn’t agree with you does not make it a conspiracy.

            So much for Dave Cullen’s communication skills that I still haven’t managed to get his video to load!

      5. Yet his experience of how virus works doesn’t seem to help much, in knocking down the infection. Or maybe something else is causing infections to escalate, not people locked away in their houses.

      6. May I suggest that you look at how cosy he is with Professor pants down and then come back to us.

        He’s an epidemiologist, a type of glorified statistician, not an expert in the viruses themselves.

      8. I’m beginning to worry that the constant drip-drip of propaganda is getting to you, Maggie. This man, together with Vallance and Ferguson, has been bought and paid for by the eugenicist Gates and the “Big Pharma” companies – who stand to make billions from vaccine sales – while thousands of better qualified professionals all around the world have been sidelined, de-plaformed and silenced.

        1. I completely agree with you. I watched his speech to Greshams which was reasonable. His statements during this pandemic are the opposite to what he proclaimed to the school.

          His association with Neil Ferguson, a known charlatan, speaks volumes and his background in pharmaceuticals at board level just adds insult to injury.

          Whitty stands to profit from the roll out of vaccines, the cost of the development and sale of which are being met by the taxpayer.

          2. Yup. The government (taxpayer funded) indemnity gives the lie to the wider game. All we have witnessed are dodgy testing, falsified positives, inappropriate attributions of death ‘with Covid’, wild scaremongering and the denial of expert advice given by qualified experts outside of SAGE and its closed shop.

            If I did not have appropriate professional indemnity insurance in my business I would be barred from practicing.

      9. You have to wonder, given all that ‘expertise’ how he made so many monumental blunders over the last year or so. As someone who has a degree themselves, what you do afterwards, especially the experience and knowledge you gain on-the-job, is of far more use than what you learn in a lecture theatre or correspondance course.

        I suspect he has little experience living in the real world, away from pure academia to really understand what life is like for the vast majority of us and what the consequences, especially over the longer term, are of the policies he’s been involved in forming. That also makes him, in my view, blinkered and naive when it comes to dealing with non-academics and especially the many shadowing organisations, companies and uber-rich/powerful people behind them who have been orchestrating the pandemic response from the start.

        1. Indeed you do have to wonder. If he’s so damn’ clever, how come he cannot recognise the dangers we all face?

          He may have qualifications coming out of his arse but it doesn’t take a degree in applied bollocks to see that the consequences of pursuing these insane policies, that he has played no small part in formulating, will destroy society.

          4. In my experience when at school and university, the very academically bright are so naive that you can easily pull the proverbial wool over their eyes. Many pay little attention to what they would consider ‘minutiae’, but in reality is very important to the ordinary person in the street.

            A relative of mine is like that, and through not paying any attention to his finances (thinking it not important while he was ‘working and being paid’), he never bothered to save for a rainy day (holiday, etc), to be able replace expensive items in his home (boiler, etc etc) or for retirement – he lived from day to day. It was only due to the intervention of the family that things improved – by doing what most of us here would be considered ‘normal’ and ‘basic common sense’ – that last thing is, I’m afraid, often completely lacking in such people.

            These people should never be involved in top-level policy-making and only be used as technical advisors on very specific issues. I think that the general low calibre (including their own experience in real world jobs/professions – not the media, law or professional politics) of politicians over the last 30+ years has meant that they rely way too heavily on a cadre of advisors and don’t have the skills necessary to properly weigh up all sides of an issue.

            Even though Whitty has some qualifications in ‘economics’ and ‘business’, his personal lack of experience in the private sector means they are practically worthless, possibly even contributing to poor decision-making, as the debate over what to do generally as regars the COVID response and society/the economy needs people with far more experience. ‘The science’ shouldn’t just come first by default.

          5. But isn’t the destruction of our society what Agenda 21 is all about? Mass immigration from Africa and Asia. Enough to wipe us out are coming – and we have had nothing but lies about controlling it – for decades. Our laws and culture altered to suit the invaders while WE are threatened with arrest and a criminal record if we offend them.

          1. Exactly. He should simply provide medical advice, and leave Boris to balance that against the socio-economic impact of that advice.

          3. Exactly, but even then his influence (as is most of the SAGE committee) is way too high. I think Boris & Co (Labour would be doing just the same, but more incompetently) are using them as ‘shields’ against their own lack of knowledge and to buffer themselves when things do go well, as they inevitably have done.

            The daft thing is that it makes them make worse decisions, and that’s why they are doubling down on (failed) lockdowns, mask wearing (proven to not work for viruses well over a decade ago, proven again in a Dnish study that was suppressed by the medical and science journals on the say-so of governemnts, the WHO and maybe big pharma and their financial backers) and many other authoritarian policies, like the COVID-passport (which they denied was being developed).

          4. Like when the failure of socialism is pointed out, the answer is “It was not socialist enough.”

      10. Having lots of degrees is no guarantee of being any good at anything, T_B. I speak from experience 🙂

      11. His entire family appears to have sucked at the taxpayer teat. Of course someone like him is not going to understand the impact of driving businesses bankrupt!

          4. I thought those woofter ‘cure’ things didn’t work? You learn something everyday.

          1. Ah. I feel your pain. I had entertained the idea of Dry January, but bloody Johnson has put paid to that. The red medicine has little effect on blood glucose, but the calorific value is not insignificant…

          3. Dieting starts with what you put in your trolley. Then again…a little of what you fancy does you good.

          4. This is true, Phil. Unfortunately, with a minimum price for most/all supermarket deliveries, I’m forced to buy a few bottles of red medicine with each order…

          5. Very sensible. My wine racks and wine fridges are chocca. I had to ask the neighbours for extra storage.

            They get to benefit though on Birthdays and celebrations. I always open the good stuff.

          7. It’s too cold at the moment to dig the garden. I was so bored today I thought I’d bake something. Just call me Alfred – the Rayburn, a little recalcitrant to get going in the morning, went from “simmer” to “roast” in no time flat as soon as I put the cake in, barely pausing as it whizzed through “bake”. MOH asked, “is it supposed to look like this?”

          8. Hi, Geoff.

            I have a dry January to May every year. Even though the house is full of beer, wine and spirits, I don’t even think about them until I purposely break my self-imposed abstinence on the arrival of warmer Pimm’s weather. I know many people don’t have the sort of discipline required but I don’t think of it as discipline. I just enjoy drinking tea, coffee and lots of water.

          9. Me too. I dont intentionally avoid alcohol, but I’ve never been one for drinking at home or alone. I would drink if I went out, but I don’t do much of that either.

          12. Hi Grizz. I enjoy tea, and coffee (but since moving, I’ve lost the Bean to Cup machine). Regardless, lockdown has increased my consumption of the red medicine (©BT). This is not good news, but frankly. I don’t care. I’ll die at some stage. At 63+, with diabetes, my demise could happen tomorrow. Hopefully, it won’t. But I’m past caring.

          13. I get past caring at times, Geoff, but it’s good that we can all speak to each other and keep each other going.

            My abstinence is for no other reason than my striving to reach the ideal weight. Once I’m there (and I do feel better for it—physically and mentally— with each passing day) then I shall celebrate with the same red (or brown) medicine.

            I attain my three-score-and-ten in just six weeks’ time. I may just break my ‘fast’ temporarily with some decent Jock juice on that occasion.

          14. Eight weeks and I’ll be 64. You’re clearly doing better in the self-management stakes than I am. On the positive side, though, my new diabetes nurse is happy. My Hba1c has improved – cholesterol is OK, kidneys slightly sub-optimal. Thankfully, she didn’t mention the liver…

            Six weeks from now, I’ll break out the 18yo Ledaig in your honour. Any excuse…

          16. You’re around six years ahead of me, Grizz. The weight is fairly stable; it improved instantly when I had the lower legs amputated. But I freely admit that the loss of some weight would be beneficial. I’m already careful about carbs, to a point. Less so about calories, I’m afraid. Regardless, there’s most of a bottle of 18 yo Ledaig lurking in the kitchen. I may seek it out in six weeks, to toast your milestone…

          17. Hi, Geoff.

            I have a dry January to May every year. Even though the house is full of beer, wine and spirits, I don’t even think about them until I purposely break my self-imposed abstinence on the arrival of warmer Pimm’s weather. I know many people don’t have the sort of discipline required but I don’t think of it as discipline. I just enjoy drinking tea, coffee and lots of water.

          18. I’m amazed at the effect covid has had on my clothes. They all shrank! Where’s the vaccine or government action for that?

          19. From Christmas 2019 to now I’ve been the same weight of 13st + or – 1lb. I drink a lot but I don’t eat that much. It appears, visually at least, to friends I’ve lost weight apparently, but I’m sure it’s just lack of Guinness. Calorie intake is about the same as before the Rona.

  86. “[A] deception”? I don’t think so. A deliberate act, more like. Evening, all. It started off a lovely day – blue sky with acres of mares’ tails and sunny, if cold. It’s cooled down a lot now (2 degrees C last time I looked).

    1. I totally approve of Boris riding a bike. Having a PM who understands why the Highway Code needs to change is an excellent idea. Getting people over 50 to actually read it would be even better.

        1. If find that drivers under 40 do a far, far better job of passing cyclists than their elders. But then they are aware of Section 163 which shows how it should be done. That is entirely contrary to the belief of many elderly drivers that mode than 6″ from the kerb is “too far out”.

          1. I find that most drivers do a terrible job of passing horses. Pass wide and slow, not see how quickly you can take the stirrup off the rider’s off foot.

          2. Not me pet! “Give them plenty of room to fall off” I was told and I passed my test in 1975!

  88. From the BBC Cricket pages “Steve Smith ‘shocked and disappointed’ at claims he erased guard in third Australia-India Test”. I was more ‘shocked and disappointed’ that he erased the original guard, and then put a new one next to it. It’s like a known shoplifter get upset at being accused of stealing.

    1. Smith is a superb cricketer.

      It’s a great pity that he needs to cheat; he has ruined what might have been a fine legacy.

      Similar to many fine English cricketers.

    2. It should have read “Well-known cheat Steve Smith ‘shocked and disappointed’ at claims he erased guard in third Australia-India Test”.

    2. But… but… only those who are as they are (supposedly) acting can play the part.
      Anne Boleyn wasn’t black. So this person shouldn’t have the part.

  90. Does anyone watch Staged with Michael Sheen and David Tennant (Or should that be David Tennant and Michael Sheen 😊)?
    V funny. Recommended, but start from Ep 1

    1. Stormy. I know being obsessively pedantic is a form of autism but you have spelt ‘caricature’ wrong in your Bio.

  91. The Number 10 platform and podium were set up for Home Secretary Priti Patel MP (Con. Witham) this evening. Behind the podium she was somewhat wooden. Her words were the same. In short, she’s not up to it. Fortunately for Ms. Patel, she was supported by two more impressive figures: the bearded Martin Hewitt, chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, whom I used to know and who knows his stuff. Hewitt’s quote for the day was, ‘We will not waste time trying to reason with those who flout the regulations’; and Dr. Vin Diwakar, the Regional Medical Director for the London Region for NHS England and a practising consultant paediatrician. He has a difficult job but he also impressed. Questions about BoJo’s bike antics were dodged.

    1. It is scary when presentation skills matter more than effectiveness, not that I hear much about Patel being effective.

      That must be why Reagan was so effective, he had a lifetime as an actor when he honed his speaking skills.

    2. Priti doesn’t have a very broad vocabulary, I cannot imagine her having any authority whatsoever .

      Dr. Vin Diwakar https://www.fmlm.ac.uk/vin-diwakar.. The only thing that bothers me is what on earth do they mean by clinical leadership and a long standing interest in the development of clinical leaders, and has set up leadership programmes, mentored clinical leadership fellows and been an active member of a Medical Directors’ Action Learning Set…

      Does anything actually get done . Does anyone get healed .. are we looking at Common Purpose in medicine .. ?

      2. Someone who has said the rights things to the right people but actually done nothing. A career civil servant looking for high office rather than medical practitioner.

    3. “… and Dr. Vin Diwakar, the Regional
      Medical Director for the London Region for NHS England and a practising
      consultant paediatrician. He has a difficult job but he also impressed.”

      He may have impressed you, Geoffrey; he didn’t impress me one little bit.

      1. He didn’t impress me either , Lacoste.

        He seemed to me as if he had been a tool of Common Purpose in medicine … Here there and everywhere , but not actually getting anything done!

        1. Civil Servants and medical professionals should not be doing this. The should only do what they were originally intended. Too many of them are naive, weak-minded people who can be easily manipulated into doing things that are contrary to the good of the nation.

    4. Will they waste time with those who don’t follow the guidance which, after all, is not law?
      EDIT: So, why was BoJo not arrested, Mr Hewitt, for “flouting”, yet two ladies in Derbyshire were? Is BoJo miraculously virus-proof, and the two lasses not? Or is it one rule for the high hiedyins and another for the plebs? Where were the police when “flouting” went on by BLM, but were there mob-handed when ordinary folk also marched in a peaceful crowd.
      Mr Hewitt sounds, frankly, Geoffrey, like a prize Fascist.

    5. ‘We will not waste time trying to reason with those who flout the regulations’;

      Of course not, we’ll merely ship them out on trains, one suitcase only…

    6. I’m wondering if your old pal, the impressively bearded Martin Hewitt, has any thoughts on tackling real crime, you know, stabbings, robbery, burglary, that sort of thing?

      Just curious…

      1. What? You mean Policing like in the old days? Don’t be silly. There are far more serious offences committed on fora such as this one. Beat yourself up and throw yourself into room 101 immediately. Sheesh !

    7. No, she isn’t up to it. She should be issuing guidance to tell the police that heavy handed oppressive antics are precisely the wrong approach and that a quiet request will garner better results.

  92. 328412+ up ticks,
    May one ask, If I were to mingle on the beach at Dover with a life jacket on would I get issued one ?

    Exclusive: Vaccine passports to be trialled by thousands of Britons

      1. Free room, Broadband, food, bed, room cleaned and bed made, water, electricity, heating. And over a hundred mates to socialise with in the hotel. NO being kept separate for them.

      1. I would love to know the make up of that 77%, Boots’ number 7 no doubt.

        I suspect that they will be pensioners, civil servants and people still being paid by the taxpayers, come what may.

          1. Me too, but I’m willing to bet that of that 77% a lot actually are pensioners, judging by what I hear from friends.

      2. They’ll be the same ones I have heard on the 1am – 5 am Radio 5live phone in with Jim Davis. The things some of them come out with are totally unreal. Singing hymns down the phone at 3am. Others saying those going outside should be fined a £1000 THEN shot. Others screaming ( and yes I DO mean screaming ) that anyone going outside during lockdown “Are going to kill us all”. That type are ALL allowed to spout on. Anyone saying opposing views are cut off within seconds.

          1. A few days ago they suspiciously had a queue of phoners saying cheerily ( at 3 am ) how wonderful having the jab was !

    1. She set Dan on the job to take the flak off her. Anyone seen anything he’s done about stopping the invasion? No, me neither.

      1. Each and every beach invader should be quarantined in a tent wearing a ‘Return to Sender’ label …

        Home Secretary, Priti P doesn’t have what it takes …

    3. showed that as of Tuesday, a further 1,243 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19,

      Interesting statement that. 12,000 people die every week in the UK. Did all of the 1243 people have covid? Did they all die directly from covid? Were they all say, under 65?

      It’s a lack of trust in the government’s information that bothers me.

      1. A classic case of post hoc, ergo propter hoc. These could have been people on the Liverpool Pathway, people dying in car crashes (they still take place), people dying of untreated cancers and otherwise survivable heart attacks, suicides, accidents in the home … the list is endless, but if they happened to have a (perhaps false) positive test for Covid – bingo!

    2. Well, if the increases , eg, the added 2.5%, went back to the councils, it might just work. A VAT rate of20% is already very high though, especially as there is no sign that the government uses any of our money on anything that we would consider useful.

      1. The thing about VAT is, unless they are going to extend its remit, it’s possible to avoid it (as long as you don’t wash, clean your teeth, use loo rolls, kitchen towels, dishwasher products, washing powder or dustbin bags – oh, or give your dog treats). Many of my shops are VAT free (I use stores where the amount of VAT paid is broken down on the receipt).

    3. Of course, comments not allowed.

      They never think in terms of cutting taxes, do they? It’s all give a bit with one side, take with the other. The obvious solution is to scrap business rates, halve council tax and reduce VAT to 10% or better, replace it with a sales tax gathered by local councils and limited to 20% with a referendum every year to reduce it, and sack an official.

      1. I have given you an upvote to counteract JSP’s. She really doesn’t like anything written against the Great Project (the EU) does she?

  96. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking a few moments ago………..

    ””We can’t ignore this truth. And just as we have done with other horrible regimes like the one in China, the Trump Administrations will look to this as it is, not as we wish it to be”

    Anyone notice something in particular here ?

    Like a plural……… Trump Administrations !

    1. I do hope and pray that Pompeo is anticipating exposure of Biden and Pelosi (puppets of Obama) for the crooks they are.

      There have been several other developments recently, in particular Pompeo’s official reference to and exposure of Ukrainian involvement in the 2020 Presidential election.

      I reckon more is to follow this week.

      1. Let’s hope that half-inched laptop has a lot of revealing content (that was actually stored on the PC, not just on a server), and I don’t mean ‘risque’ photos of Pelosi (oh God, no!). It won’t be admissible in a court of law, but as long as the information is released to the public, the ONLY court that matters in this case, the court of public opinion, then that’ll be good enough.

        I’d say they aren’t puppets of Obama, more of China, Gates and Schwab, amongst many others.

        I somehow doubt it though, after what happened with the Hunter Biden laptop. I bet the Dems have been busy scrubbing their computers and/or putting everything in secure online storage as Mrs Clinton did with her dodgy computer data.

        2. They are too stupid and arrogant to scrub their computers. But it doesn’t matter anyway, because they are bomb-proof and they know it.

    2. You are clutching at a straw. What about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, General Services Administration etc etc etc? There are numerous US “Administrations”.

  97. I’ve just be listening to Radio 3 and to the wonderfully named:
    Albina Shag im ur a tova….. She really is a sweetie!

      1. I could live with proving vaccination if I want to fly to another country. We in Britain could do with being a lot better at screening for infectious diseases like TB. My worry is that this will be the thin end of a wedge. Will I need show show my vaccination passort get a job? Go to the pub? Live any kind of normal life?

        2. It’s the only reason I will accept vaccination. It’s a get out of jail pass. As it is I will have to postpone my trip to Kenya booked last September for March.

    1. 76k watching and it won’t even be starting for 30 minutes! What’s the betting that this getting deleted mid-stream?

      1. Colonel Crockett received several large inoculations by lance, if the film was anything to go by.

    3. He made some brief remarks this morning when leaving Washington.

      I wish that he would think before speaking, every major exaggeration is picked on by the media to the exclusion of everything else.

      1. “He made some grief remarks this morning when leaving Washington.”

        Freudian, but accurate, slip.

        1. OK, I think that I need to fix that one.

          He came up with something along the lines ofI have been watching TV and reading the news, no one thinks that I spoke inappropriately on Wednesday ! He can only be watching OANN, even Fox was dumping on him, never mind the main stream. Its self defeating, the media are jumping over this. And this alone.

          Now let’s see if any of them show Trumps last stand at the Alamo.

      2. I think that his ‘saying it off the cuff’ with no thoughts to others’ interpretation is/was a weakness, but was also something that endeared him to a lot of people. He never was a politician.

        1. Oh God yes, not a politician was / is a key attraction for so many of his base. All of those posh gits up in Washington looking out for each other and ignoring the needs of the average Joe.

          When you are working close to minimum wage with very limited access to healthcare, having someone speak like Trump is a big draw.

      1. The census tells us that ten people live at that address.

        Joe Biden tells us that they all voted for him.

        1. Given that Muslims are supposed to wash/purify every time before their 5 a day prayer meetings it is surprising that they are so disease ridden. Ho Hum. Must be because of their toilet habits…None.

    1. There was an article in the Wail about parents not getting a lot of food in a £30 supposed value children’s school meals thing.

      My take on that has always been that part of having a child is making sure you’ve the time, money and ability to provide for them. Those people who can’t shouldn’t have them. Sadly the attitude seems to be that regardless, the state will – must pay for whatever life choices you make.

      This doesn’t, at any level preclude that you simply ignore those who genuinely do need help. Worse, the legions of spongers and wasters take monies away from those who need it.

      1. I find it irritating too. They say they can’t afford to feed their children. Child benefit covers that if you do the sums. Shop at Iceland and Aldi and you could feed a family of four on £30 a week.

        1. Our weekly shop is about £80 for the three of us. If the wife didn’t drink so much and I didn’t buy biscuits we’d save £40 off that easily. Tenner for the merlot, the rest in hobnobs.

          1. I know we are supposed to eat fresh fruit and veg but Iceland does meals for a quid. Veg is cheap.

            Merlot fine but stay away from the Hobnobs !

          2. Never! They’re getting expensive now!

            However more sensibly yes, it is. Heck, even meat isn’t expensive. I can make a lasagne that’ll last us 2 days, longer if I add in carrots and what not to the plate.

          7. Lasagne, Hotpot, Curry and Stews. All cheap to make and will last. Just half a pound of mince with veggies can feed a family. Trouble is they want their Maccy D’s. They want to eat different things. I remember you ate what was in front of you or you went without.

          8. You can add in a lot more veg. Celery even if you don’t like it you won’t taste it and pretty much any root veg diced up. Goes a long way and still tastes good.

            I think people expect too much. They should stop watching adverts !

            I remember when mortgage rates hit 17% i was living on toast with a sprinkling of salt.

            Anyone who can’t feed their children when they themselves are overweight need to be fat shamed.

          9. I don’t think they should be fat shamed but I do think they need educating on nutrition, cookery skills and money management.

        2. I was over at my sister’s today cooking a stir-fry a chicken breast ,omlette,onion garlic ginger pak choi green beans baby corn broccoli mange tout soy and sweet chilli and egg noodles
          Served 4 generously at about £1.80 a portion
          Ain’t brain surgery

          1. Ain’t brain surgery

            Sadly it is. Many of the young women/girls who have numerous offspring don’t even know how to boil water, let alone cook. I blame the education system for teaching them how to fill in benefit forms rather than domestic science.

    2. I always wondered how all of our foreign aid was spent. Obviously not on any form of contraception. Just more rubber boats.
      And palaces for people like Mugabe.

    1. I said the same thing to someone the other day, what could the storming of the Capitol building possibly achieve what was the endgame?
      What would they have considered a successful outcome.
      I can understand them protesting outside while the process was rubber stamped mass protest can work, they stopped the poll tax after all, imagine if they had gotten into Westminster, Thatcher might even have got another term out of the fall out.
      I was watching them debating Arizona when it all conveniently kicked off, it really did look like they had a head of steam building on the Trump side before that.
      To my mind it was a fait accompli, very clever bit of theatre and following narrative, that must have been planned the way it all fell into place.
      Biden will never be accepted as anything other than a President in name only by half the country and most probably half the world, it will be difficult for him to govern.
      All the anti Trump stuff against Trump through his presidency was mostly based on lies and faked news, the accusations against Biden will be real.

      1. Wasn’t the poll tax replaced with council tax?

        Frankly, there should be incredible strictures on government’s ability to tax the public.

        Biden will be fine. The entire state edifice is for him. He’ll get whatever he wants pushed through. However, clearly that’s part of the fundamental problem.

        1. But not with the support of the electorate, just imagine what it would be like here if half the population thought he was only there by fraud when he starts taxing and sending jobs back off to China and starting wars in the Middle East.

          1. We’re heading for an almighty train wreck ourselves. There’s only so much longer the tax and waste cycle, private to public to private tax circle can go around. We’re already circling the economic drain.

            The difference is most people just don’t realise it.

            Biden won’t need the electorate. He has the state machine.

          2. I given up thinking about our own mess, I thought with a Trump win it might put an end to all this great reset, climate change agenda, now it will all got through, I really think this save the planet lot in league with world government, Frankenstein science, big corporations and billionaire plutocrats are about to unleash a planet saving cull on humanity, at least in the West, what else can they possibly be doing?

      2. If they had managed to get hold of the electoral college votes, what would have happened?

        They apparently have multiple copies of the vote from each state but if someone had managed to substitute an alternate result to the box of results in the senate and that had been read out in the Senate, I can see mayhem.

  114. An anniversary that almost passed us by.

    Roger Scruton was the voice of meaning in a rudderless world

    He often seemed like the voice inside our heads, uniquely able to put into words what we knew to be true, yet could rarely express

    MADELINE GRANT • 10 January 2021 • 11:00am

    Next week [today, actually] will mark the first anniversary of Sir Roger Scruton’s death. One of the world’s great philosophers, he often seemed to conservatives like the voice inside our heads, uniquely able to put into words what we intuitively knew to be true, yet could rarely express so eloquently.

    I long to know what he would have made of the extraordinary events of last year, which are continuing unabated. Just last week, two young women on a socially distanced walk with takeaway cups of tea were surrounded by police, read their rights and fined £200 after their rural stroll was branded a “picnic” by over-zealous Derbyshire bobbies.

    Scruton championed individualism within an interconnected society, viewing common law, rooted in centuries of human precedent, as a refuge from centralised authority. With its arbitrary law enforcement, tech giants playing philosopher-kings, unchallenged orthodoxies, and language slipping ever further from the world it seeks to describe, the last year has been something of a Scrutonian nightmare.

    Fortunately, this workaholic polymath bequeathed a vast body of writing and interviews, which stun you with their foresight. In a book on environmentalism, he warns of precautionary politics breeding an increasingly unquestioning and risk-averse population. The concept of Western civilisation has almost become a term of abuse; but Scruton understood that it was not some peculiar, narrow obsession, but an ever-expanding inheritance. Amid the West’s crisis of confidence, such values are often best demonstrated elsewhere – by Hong Kong’s democracy activists, for example.

    Sadly I never met Sir Roger, but as a student I heard him speak. Despite our mainly stupid questions, he treated us as if we were his intellectual equals. He approached all debate in much the same spirit; a rarity when so many place deeply uncharitable interpretations on one another’s motives. In Britain, wrote Scruton, “We don’t stone people to death… but we do the next worst thing, which is to bludgeon to death their characters”. This he learnt the hard way following his now-infamous interview with the New Statesman, though he would probably have wished nothing bad on those who strove to malign him.

    His conservatism is more instinct than ideology, while his philosophy seems less an ideology than a new way of examining the world. His aesthetic writings don’t just champion high art, but train you to see beauty everywhere – after reading Scruton you invariably look up and notice the pretty Edwardian facade above the fish-and-chip shop. This joyful, inquiring outlook is under threat. Meaningful social interactions have been replaced by spiteful social media exchanges. Cooped up indoors, we become as intellectually labile as we are physically flabby.

    I don’t agree with Scruton on everything, but I believe he lived life properly: with generosity and open-mindedness, welcoming debate and seeking beauty in everyday things. It’s hard to find meaning in a seemingly rudderless, uncertain world. But we owe it to him to try.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/10/roger-scruton-voice-meaning-rudderless-world/

    1. It is the mark of the extraordinarily poor quality of those in politics and public life that Roger Scruton was not given the respect he deserved.

      1. In a small way he was when appointed as the unpaid chair of the Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission but we all know what happened to him after he had been in the post for less than six months. What a miserable affair that was.

      2. That was one of the fruits of Cameron and Gove’s 2010 A list, and the resulting poor quality of members of the House of Commons.

  115. Ms Patel’s turn at the rostrum had some very dark and menacing undertones. Good people obey all the Covid laws, rules, regulations and recommendations. Bad people do not. Bad people must be shunned, even punished. How long before the good people are beating up the bad people?

      1. 328412+ up ticks,
        Evening M,
        Look no further that the governance employees / council members of rotherham & the three monkeys highly active in the polling booth.

      2. The same way the parents of children allowed them to have sleepovers at Neverland Ranch even after they had heard the rumours. Money and power. The ultimate aphrodisiac.

    2. Are all left wing people potential perverts?

      The poor little girl does not look very happy.

      Just imagine how the MSM would be screaming if Trump did anything like this?

      Or would they claim that the video has been faked?

      1. 328412+ up ticks,
        Evening R, look no further than the Jay report on rotherham, guardians of the peoples & council members,
        over a 16 plus year span.

    3. Thats part of a whole string of weird, uncomfortable scenes from when Joe was VP.

      A comment I posted twice at the UK Spectator but cannot get past pre-moderation:

      I don’t know that he’s actually a perv.

      I watched that set of vids where he’s making the girls and their parents very uncomfortable with the touching, stroking and hair sniffing and making the same feeble, unfunny, creepy joke over and over. The vibe I get is merely that of an awkward, uncharismatic, inarticulate, unimaginative humourless d1ck who’s not particularly bright.

      This would obviously explain how he has become a multimillionaire off the back of his public speaking (and certainly not from any impropriety). And of course, in popular votes terms, the most successful presidential candidate in history. Nothing suspicious or unlikely about that at all. No sir.

      1. Kind of ties in with these photos of his son that are doing the rounds on the internet though.

    1. Yes this whole shutdown of Trump is a very dangerous precedent for several reasons.
      It should be up to the government to define boundaries of free speech, not some geeks on the west coast. Yes I wrote boundaries, free speech is not the right to say anything no matter how harmful.

      On a more practical note, where are the plotters now plotting? With the FBI warning of suspected plots next week, it might have been safer to leave them plotting away on Parler where they could have been monitored.

      Social media has taken over but any of the self control that normally comes with publishing newspapers is missing, ethics have been thrown out in favour of unhindered expression.

      Trump wanted the platforms to be treated as publishers making them liable for the content. They will just ship the servers offshore to avoid US jurisdiction so that is not going to work. Who knows what the solution is, leaving it in the hands of a bunch of techies from either side of the coin will not give a satisfactory outcome.

      1. Not just shutting down the internet, but defunding Republicans who dared to question the election result. This is about whipping the Republican party into shape to be Agenda 2030-compliant.

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