Tuesday 19 January; A resounding yes to vaccinating older people faster by working round the clock

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/19/lettersa-resounding-yes-vaccinating-older-people-faster-working/

805 thoughts on “Tuesday 19 January; A resounding yes to vaccinating older people faster by working round the clock”

  1. Good morning, Geoff!

    Am I pleased to see you!

    Twenty minutes ago the burglar alarm
    set off…. after a couple of abortive
    attempts I reset it, this was followed
    by the electricity going off, I had to turn off
    all the fuses and main breaker switch and
    reset each one. I came upstairs and thought
    to have a look at NoTTL…. no internet
    connection, no matter what I tried it would not
    reconnect BUT you posted today’s page and
    all is right with the world!!

    1. Yo Gg

      Good morning.

      I have just been woken up, by a noise seemingly from our garage.

      Got dressed, went out in the rain: all seems well

      Well apart from not being able to get back to sleep

      1. Yo Tryers.

        Good morning! The noise that woke you up
        was possibly my alarm going off! I imagine
        it has woken everyone in the Close and
        possibly the Village and beyond!! :-))

      2. Here, it was the grinding of the snowploughs and their fabulously bright lights wot woke me.
        Morning, OLT.

        2. A combination of the wind outside and my boiler firing up woke up a queen wasp who has been hibernating somewhere in my bedroom. Her favourite spot is inside the ceiling light rose. She also rather enjoys the curtains and of course inside my trousers.

          Going to sleep again while this buzzing is going on gives me nightmares.

    2. Good morning, little g, apart from that, you had a good night’s sleep! {:¬))

      I trust you feel better today.

      1. Good morning, Nanners.

        I haven’t been back to sleep!
        I am an insomniac so a complete
        night’s sleep is a very rare but
        welcome occurrence.

  3. Good morning lovely Nottlers! I’m due at the hospital at 8am, couldn’t sleep so here I am! The consultant phoned me yesterday and said that all non-emergency surgery was stopping on Friday due to a big increase in covid cases. Basically the risk of infection is increasing as a lot of staff are now having to cover ICU as well as surgical wards and they can no longer keep them separate. He said the next chance of an op. would be March! So I’m going for it today and should be out on Thursday! Even if I catch something my underlying health is good and the cancer shouldn’t affect that!
    I appear to be rambling so I’ll thank you all for your good wishes and catch up with you later! X

    16. All the best Sue, wishing you a speedy recovery and that you are out of there pretty pronto and back home.

    20. Good luck, Sue.
      Have a good sleep and let the experts do their stuff while you’re sparko.

  5. Macron hails giant step for French Islam after Muslim leaders sign charter accepting secularism. 19 January 2021.

    President Emmanuel Macron on Monday hailed a major step for “enlightened Islam” in France after Muslim leaders approved a charter that rejects extremism and upholds the “primacy of Republican principles over religious values”.

    Mr Macron has been pushing for the charter since November after a jihadist killed a schoolteacher for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in class.

    He called it “a hugely important step” and “truly a foundational text in the relationship between the state and Islam of France”.

    Morning everyone. Utterly meaningless! Even if these people are not simply lying, as they are allowed to do under Islamic Law, they would still lie because it is in their interests to do so! There is also the not inconsiderable point that they have neither the Authority nor Power to sign anything on behalf of anyone else and one can hardly see the local Imam, let alone ISIS or al Qaeda signing up.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/18/macron-hails-giant-step-french-islam-muslim-leaders-sign-charter/

    1. Enlightened Islam… yeah, that’ll be right. More oxymoron than anything.
      Morning, Minty.

      1. Oxymoron – the ideal word to describe Macron! He likes to give the impression that he is being bullish (oxy) when in fact he is being rather stupid (moron).

          1. The French (or maybe it’s just my French friends) appear to be far more racist than we are allowed to be.

    4. They will be lying to advance the cause of islam. They have NO intention of accepting anything other than the caliphate.

  6. Macron hails giant step for French Islam after Muslim leaders sign charter accepting secularism. 19 January 2021.

    President Emmanuel Macron on Monday hailed a major step for “enlightened Islam” in France after Muslim leaders approved a charter that rejects extremism and upholds the “primacy of Republican principles over religious values”.

    Mr Macron has been pushing for the charter since November after a jihadist killed a schoolteacher for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in class.

    He called it “a hugely important step” and “truly a foundational text in the relationship between the state and Islam of France”.

    Morning everyone. Utterly meaningless! Even if these people are not simply lying, as they are allowed to do under Islamic Law, they would still lie because it is in their interests to do so! There is also the not inconsiderable point that they have neither the Authority nor Power to sign anything on behalf of anyone else and one can hardly see the local Imam, let alone ISIS or al Qaeda signing up.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/18/macron-hails-giant-step-french-islam-muslim-leaders-sign-charter/

  7. Macron hails giant step for French Islam after Muslim leaders sign charter accepting secularism. 19 January 2021.

    President Emmanuel Macron on Monday hailed a major step for “enlightened Islam” in France after Muslim leaders approved a charter that rejects extremism and upholds the “primacy of Republican principles over religious values”.

    Mr Macron has been pushing for the charter since November after a jihadist killed a schoolteacher for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in class.

    He called it “a hugely important step” and “truly a foundational text in the relationship between the state and Islam of France”.

    Morning everyone. Utterly meaningless! Even if these people are not simply lying, as they are allowed to do under Islamic Law, they would still lie because it is in their interests to do so! There is also the not inconsiderable point that they have neither the Authority nor Power to sign anything on behalf of anyone else and one can hardly see the local Imam, let alone ISIS or al Qaeda signing up.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/18/macron-hails-giant-step-french-islam-muslim-leaders-sign-charter/

  9. Matt? Hoodie-wearing Health Secretary plays rugby with his sons as he’s seen for second time over weekend… after Boris issued urgent plea for public to ‘stay at home’. 19 January 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28452a7d65bada7cc8bf976c75fce3a3ddccdbcfee336003a6d6f0edf520212d.jpg

    A hoodie-wearing Matt Hancock was spotted playing rugby with his sons in the park yesterday as he was seen outside for a second time this weekend following Boris Johnson’s urgent plea for the public to ‘stay at home’.

    One rule for you…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9159697/Dropped-ball-Matt-Hoodie-wearing-Health-Secretary-plays-rugby-sons.html

    1. Not kettled by a whole possse of coppers, like the lasses out for a walk in Derbyshire? Ah, but he didn’t have a flask of tea with him, that’s the clue!

    4. 328650+ up ticks,
      AS,
      I was ready yesterday to post the first time but on thinking nobody but nobody would have the brassed necked gall, erased it.
      Should have known better.

  14. Grandpa’s in the Hospital

    A man goes to visit his 85-year old grandpa in the hospital.

    “How are you grandpa?” he asks.

    “Feeling fine,” says the old man.

    “What’s the food like?”

    “Terrific, wonderful menus.”

    “And the nursing?”

    “Just couldn’t be better. These young nurses really take care of you.”

    “What about sleeping? Do you sleep okay?”

    “No problem at all, nine hours solid every night. At 10 o’clock they bring me a cup of hot chocolate and a Viagra tablet and that’s it. I go out like a light.”

    The grandson is puzzled and a little alarmed by this, so he rushes off to question the nurse in charge.

    “What are you people doing,” he says. “I’m told you’re giving an 85-year-old, Viagra on a daily basis. Surely that can’t be true?”

    “Oh, yes,” replies the nurse. “Every night at 10 o’clock we give him a cup of chocolate and a Viagra tablet. It works wonderfully well. The chocolate makes him sleep, and the Viagra stops him from rolling out of bed.”

    1. The only time that I tried Viagra the bloody thing stuck in my throat and I ended up with a stiff neck!

    2. An old chap went to the doctor and asked if he could have some viagra. The doctor said that he could give him a packet of six tablets immediately. The old man then asked if he would cut each tablet into four. The doctor replied that he did not think that viagra in such a low dose would be effective. The old man replied: “I am 96 years old. I don’t want a full erection, I just want enough to stop me peeing in my slippers.”

      1. They gave Viagra to a bloke who had severe burns to his legs – it kept the sheets off his legs

        1. Reminds me of Mae West’s famous line: “Is that a pistol in your trousers or are you just glad to see me?”

    3. I took a viagra tablet then promptly dropped the bottle and the tablets spilled all over the floor. I spent ten minutes on all-fives trying to retrieve them.

  15. Morning all

    Here are the vaccine letters….

    SIR – No one has asked me if I would like a vaccination during the night. I am 76 and my husband is 77. We would go at any time to be vaccinated, as long as it was reasonably local.

    Valerie Thompson

    West Horsley, Surrey

    SIR – Most people at some time in their lives have got up at an ungodly hour to catch a cheap flight. The same criteria must surely apply to a vaccine that will enable normality to return.

    Management consultants who reach a different conclusion are asking the wrong question, or the wrong people.

    Victoria Cockburn

    Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire

    SIR – Have received my vaccination appointment. Am planning my outfit.

    Katie Buddell

    Fetcham, Surrey

    SIR – Almost two years ago, the spire of Salisbury Cathedral was claimed to have attracted two Russian Novichok travellers to the city.

    How appropriate that the spire is now a beacon of hope over one of our nation’s new mass-vaccination centres.

    Geoffrey Taylor

    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    ADVERTISING

    SIR – I’m 75 and received a phone call on Sunday at 12.20pm inviting me for a vaccination at 1.45. I accepted and asked if my younger wife could also have one at the same time. We were home again by 2.10.

    Many thanks to all.

    Kit Slade

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – The figure of 140 vaccinations per minute that the NHS is achieving has been described as “mind boggling”. I beg to differ. In fact it is very poor.

    If this rate of vaccinating was to be maintained 24/7 then the target of 15 million would not be met until the middle of March.

    James Sutherland

    Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire

    SIR – I listened with increasing anxiety yesterday to Nadhim Zahawi, the minister charged with Covid vaccine deployment, heralding the proposed increased rollout programme.

    It is clear, from the many qualifications he applied to the plans, that distribution of the vaccine is a problem that is not being solved. Some areas get adequate vaccine supplies while many do not. This leads to the frustration that numerous people are wrongly aiming at their GPs.

    Brian Higgins

    Eastbourne, East Sussex

    SIR – The first minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, has explained his policy of not vaccinating vulnerable groups too quickly: “The sensible thing to do is use the vaccine you have got over the period that you have got it for, so your system can absorb it. You don’t have people standing about with nothing to do.”

    Surely the vaccine has no value until it is inside a human body. The objective is not a job-creation scheme for staff doing the work. They have mostly been diverted from other medical work, also important. Is this why Welsh vaccination rates are so abysmally slow?

    Chris James

    Abergele, Conwy

    SIR – For my 85-year-old mother to accept her invitation to be vaccinated would mean a 120-mile round trip. This is not practicable, given her needs. However, because she has had the invitation, she is now included in government data for those offered the vaccine.

    Chris Beesley

    Nottingham

    SIR – I am delighted to hear that the over-70s are now beginning to be offered vaccinations.

    My wife belongs to the over-80s group, and I to the over-90s, and we have yet to hear about vaccinations. Have we been forgotten?

    Kyriacos Kaye

    Telford, Shropshire

    1. “…a vaccine that will enable normality to return…”
      Well, Ms Cockburn, where did you get that idea?

  16. Stuck in a chain

    SIR – Wanting to move house, we have been in a chain of six since September last year. The original completion date was set for October 15 last year.

    The reason for delay is the amateur conveyancing by unqualified people who, due to the pandemic, have decided to advertise their service at rates undercutting qualified solicitors.

    This important legal process needs to be carried out by registered conveyancing firms, not individuals following the DIY process.

    Our qualified solicitor is annoyed and frustrated by the amateurs’ incompetence because it reflects back on him.

    Michael Marks

    Llandrindod Wells, Radnorshire

  17. White spirit

    SIR – In order to maintain equality, will Greene King (Letters, January 18) now rename all its “white” pubs – White Swan, White Bear, etc?

    Maurice Burbidge

    Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex

    SIR – Will the Brown Trout remain unchallenged?

    Simon Mcilroy

    Croydon, Surrey

  18. SIR – I agree with Patrick O’Flynn.

    We have three sons living at home. They are 25, 23 and 20 and are conscientious individuals with much to offer and enormous energy. Job interviews have been on Zoom and communication between interviews not great. Our youngest, who is in his second year at university, has just two hours of online teaching a week.

    Young people are the ones who are desperate to work their socks off and get this country back on its feet. We forget them at our peril.

    Lady Quilter

    Yoxford, Suffolk

  19. It’s a strange world where murderers are published, yet academics are cancelled and shut down. 19 January 2021.

    In Dennis Nilsen’s forthcoming autobiography the late serial killer admits that he toyed with the idea of feeding his dog, Bleep, a “small chunk” of human flesh. Elsewhere in the 6,000 pages of typewritten notes – which have been edited by a friend, Mark Austin, since Nilsen’s death two years ago – the mass murderer reflects on the “culinary possibilities” of those he killed, likening one part of the anatomy to “beef rump steaks.”

    How do the relatives of his victims – the 12 boys and young men strangled and drowned between 1978 and 1983 – feel about the publication of History Of A Drowning Boy this week? “Horrified.” “Disgusted.” “As if he’s still laughing at us from beyond the grave.” Julie Bentley, whose brother, Carl Stotter, survived a murder attempt by Nilsen and “fought all his life” to stop the memoirs’ publication, went so far as to call the book “morally wrong” – yet even that is an understatement.

    Once Christianity, which provided the Moral Compass of the West for 2000 years, was eleminated all this became inevitable. It is neither accident nor coincidence that the West’s moral decline has preceded that of its political institutions. Democracy, Freedom; both are now on their last breaths and will shortly expire completely.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/strange-world-murderers-published-yet-academics-cancelled-shut/

    1. 328650+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      The loss of both Democracy, freedom,can
      only finally be achieved ( they have been trying hard enough for decades) by the
      lab/lib/con coalition party respectively
      vowing, promising, & pledging in their manifesto’s to retain it.

      1. Morning Grizz. My link is still inactive and I note the article uses the future tense. lt also has a great many enemies so I am sceptical of its appearance!

        1. Morning, Araminta.

          I also found that the old link is inactive, so I binned it. I then just connected to parler.com and all was well.

        2. Morning, Araminta.

          I also found that the old link is inactive, so I binned it. I then just connected to parler.com and all was well.

      2. Morning Grizz. My link is still inactive and I note the article uses the future tense. lt also has a great many enemies so I am sceptical of its appearance!

  21. It’s not so much the waste (why would a government ring-fence private capacity and then not use it?) that is important now but the fact that ‘leaks’ released this shambles.We need more leaks, many more people need to expose this shambolic government.
    (Is Disqus playing up? I’ve got a full stop that I can’t erase, it’s hidden by the capital W following shambles but appears when I hit the space bar. Odd.)

    https://twitter.com/berniespofforth/status/1351288661980143616

    1. I’ve got a full stop that I can’t erase.

      Morning Korky. There seems to be some mild interference with the punctuation.

    1. Good morning all ,

      That wonderful cartoon begs the question , if cathedrals can be used for a huge mass vaccination of the trusting public , and considering the dangers involved , let us all hope and pray that God moves in mysterious ways.

    1. Ayup, Bob.

      Coincidentally it was at Derby where I saw that beguilingly delicious trio back in 1974.

    1. I doubt that next winter England will win even a single match down there with their first XI.

          1. Yes Del he does bat well at times but not all the time and I think he’s a poor captain

  31. Good morning all. When this Corona-crisis is over (assuming that it ever is) I think that we need to have a serious national debate, not only on the impact of the lockdown on our health and wealth, but on our democracy. Boris Johnson effectively suspended parliamentary democracy in this country on 23th March 2020, and since then we have lived under a medical dictatorship. Our most basic rights and freedoms have been taken away, Common Law has been upended so that we can only do what Johnson and his government give us permission to do.

    Are we happy that this was done in the name of this virus? Do we accept that it could be done again if the NHS is under pressure this winter or in years to come?

    If we accept this, then we have set a dangerous precedent where governments can step in and remove our freedoms ‘for our own good.’

    1. If we accept this, then we have set a dangerous precedent where governments can step in and remove our freedoms ‘for our own good.’

      I don’t think they are going to ask us Kuffar! Democracy is dead!

      1. You’re only allowed an illusion of democracy in the UK. A representative democracy where your representative couldn’t give a fig what you want unless it’s vote-buying time again, then they look uber interested, and make all sorts of promises which all gets forgotten within minutes of the election result.

    2. Just had my NHS dental checkup cancelled because of not enough dentists. Not sure I believe that excuse, given they’ve been saying that at my surgery since being officially allowed to reopen for routine work in the summer.

      I haven’t been able to get a checkup for a year now. My parents’ private dentist has been working normally since July.

      1. I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve had no problem getting appointments with my private dentist.

        The NHS has basically shut down for everything other than Covid.

        1. It’s not the NHS it’s the dentists. They get very little money for NHS work, so many see it as time wasted when they could have seen a real paying customer.

          I think dentists still get the same money for NHS work that they did ten years ago.

          1. That may be, but my dentist received a £60,000 grant from the NHS for surgery re-fitting. Their NHS work carried out by post-graduates who stay around two years before being replaced by the next one.

          2. The NHS pays in units of dental activity which are about 20 quid each. They get 1 unit for band 1 treatments, 3 units for a band 2, and 12 units for a band 3. Remember those charges cover the entire course of treatment, not just one visit, it could be multiple.

            For instance if i need 4 extractions, a root canal, a crown. I’ll pay about £250 quid for that. The dentist collects that on behalf of the nhs and keeps 12 units worth and passes the rest on. That’s probably 3-4 hours work over 3-4 visits and i suspect the cost of the crown is borne by the dentist.

          3. The value of a unit of dental activity depends on what is negotiated between the practice owner & local dental authority. I was on £25/unit before I retired, but there are associates who are on £15/unit. It’s a matter to be hammered out at job interviews.

            I you needed just one crown, you would still pay £250 for treatment which should take 75 minutes spread over 2 visits: 45/60 for the preparation, impressions & temporary crown, followed by 30/60 for the fitting of the permanent crown.

          4. I was reading only a few years back, I think during the May administration that NHS dentists were handing their contracts back in droves.
            My own dentist sold his practice and retired, the new owner only does private work.

          6. Im pretty much at the stage where I need dentures. My teeth are terrible. Ive lost 2 of 5 porcelain crowns at the front upper incisor area which broke off at the gum line. I have one broken canine left. one lower molar gold crown intact but the tooth above it is broken. I have 8-10 broken teeth that need extracting, some roots which are flush with the gums. All upper molars are missing or broken. And I can only afford NHS and even that would be a struggle, it’s an entire week’s wages.

          8. Only by applying to the low income scheme. I still live in a household with another low earner and so don’t qualify for any benefits. We also have Amy home because there’s no university at the moment, and she likes her food.

      2. You’ll not have an issue if you want to go private. Too many dentists refuse NHS work nowadays or just choose to see children.

        1. For many years my dentist used to employ a newly qualified dentist for their NHS patients and assist in day to day procedures to help build up experience.
          Eventually they stopped as they had found newly qualified dentists expected to go straight into private practice to make their fortune.

          1. Newly qualified dentists have to do a year of vocational training under the supervision of a recognised ‘tutor’ in a teaching practice before being let loose on their own. When I qualified 50 years ago, that wasn’t the case.

          2. A friend of mine does admin for the dental school at Guys and tells me that the courses are going ahead, though I’ve no idea on what basis. She says that the students are all already qualified.

          3. It sounds as though she means voluntary post-grad. courses which any practitioner can attend. I used to go to them in Norwich; a good day out, a chance to chat with colleagues & usually a slap-up lunch & all could be set against tax.

          5. Correct. At the end of the day, one was given a certificate of attendance, so the course could be counted towards verifiable CPD totals.

          6. Almost 8 years into retirement & I still receive notifications & invitations to go on these courses. Several times I have asked the authorities to take my name off the mailing list, but to no avail.

          7. Sounds like CAFOD. There used to be a chap living at our address who supported the charity. He died some 25 – 30 years ago. We still receive (very bulky) mail for him, presumably requesting more money.

          1. I have Denplan @ £30 a month. In a normal year that works out good value. It also includes four hygienist appointments. I only pay for Lab work.

      3. I am a private patient and have not seen the dentist for nearly a year since they “closed down” and only carry out “non-aerosol” hygienist treatments. There is now a NHS “local centre” for emergency treatment.

        1. I read that the re-opening of dental practices (last summer) could include that sort of thing if managed properly. Besides – mine’s only a checkup, which means no drilling or grinding/polishing – many dentists like to give their hygeinist that work as it’s a money-spinner, despite polishing being part of the £20-odd checkup fee.

          Wher ARE all the dentists? My local practice keeps on saying they don’t have the staff – but they’ve been saying that for nearly 6 months after re-opening was allowed.

          Every time a new deadline for them re-opening for normal work was given, it came and went without any notice on their website (which still says they are open for normal work, just with social distancing and fewer slots due to extra cleaning). They pretended to have texted me to cancel the appointment, and yet nothing received.

          Very fishy. Rather like my local doctor’s surgery that has almost no patients and the doctors’ consultation rooms are all unlit. I’ve only seen the nurse working there (because I had an appointment to dress a wound).

        2. MB has been caught in that bind. He had a much filled tooth collapse last summer. The dentist did her best, but currently he has a one tooth, temporary plate for cosmetic purposes. He can’t eat with it because the root is still in the gum. He is ready, and has put the money aside for an implant, but nothing can be done at the moment.

          3. When was that? Sounds like a bargain. I was quoted £2100 with ‘trade discount’ about 5 years ago for a premolar. It turned out that I didn’t miss the tooth, so I didn’t take it up.

          4. Round the corner from us is a road with 2 dental practices.
            Mine was probably about 5 years ago.

          5. I found a place in Solihull who will do the whole top set for £9000. I’m still not sure.

      4. I had my hygenist appointment cancelled last summer, but I saw both the hygenist and the dentist for my next appointment in December. It’s a private practice.

    3. You are quite right, although I’d take issue with the tense the you use. We have accepted it and we continue to accept it.

  32. I see that once again, the latest Biden great, Orange Man Bad ‘articles’ on the DT either come without reader comments allowed (e.g. little Willy Hague’s hypocritical piece on freedom) or the one about Biden’s ‘tragic’ past, which had all reader comments deleted yesterday.

    A slight piece of good news – an actual article about the overstating of the COVID second wave, though Ms Knapton spoils her article by saying it shouldn’t give those against lockdowns any encouragement.

    1. Report in Norway, Aftenposten, yesterday saying that it seems that nobody knows why/how the virus spreads,, and there’s no correlation betwen lockdowns and reduction in infection & hospitalisation rates. I’m not sure their data is quite so clear, but it’s in the paper, so it must be true.

    2. Little Willy Hague needs a good slap and a sending to bed without any supper!

      I’m old-fashioned, me.

      1. Why and what happened to William Hague .. was he just a PR stuntsman’s experiment .. A sort of dummy like Educating Archie ?

        He turned out to be an utter drip, and not the droll Yorkshire man we all thought he should be!

          1. It is a grave misfortune to peak too early.

            Many dull swots who get overgood exam results and end up going to Oxbridge never fulfil the expectations people have of them.

            The jolly dilettante who only does just enough to get by and then works very hard only when the need arises often has a far more satisfactory life.

      2. Indeed – and the highlight of his ‘career’ was addressing the Tory party conference in the 1970s and making Mrs T laugh. I looked up his wkiki entry and he was found guilty of dodgy election practices whilst studying for PPE (what else?) at Oxford.

        No wonder he’s a fan of Biden. Not-so-great minds think alike.

      1. We’ll be still pointing that out when we are on number 12. And on the 23rd variation of the virus.

      2. Apparently the Left is now considering ‘climate lockdowns’ to ‘save the planet’. No doubt the very rich will be exempt, as they appear to be from the current travel restrictions and gatherings.

        The Mail is full of ‘articles’ about them on lovely holidays abroad, whilst they and their ilk plead for ‘more government’ (our) cash for their ‘beleagured’ entertainment industries, or in the case of big tech/global businesses and pharma, more lockdowns and manditory annual COVID vaccines/passports – which they will benefit enormously from, as well as the crushing of dissenting voices and local competition.

      3. It’s not the lockdowns which are at fault; it’s the wild & insane carryings-on when they are lifted.

  33. Good morning, my friends

    An article in the DT today made me call to mind the last three lines of Philip Larkin’s poignant poem, Talking in Bed:

    It becomes still more difficult to find
    Words at once true and kind,
    Or not untrue and not unkind.

    Talking In Bed: Philip Larkin

    Talking in bed ought to be easiest,
    Lying together there goes back so far,
    An emblem of two people being honest.
    Yet more and more time passes silently.
    Outside, the wind’s incomplete unrest
    Builds and disperses clouds in the sky,
    And dark towns heap up on the horizon.
    None of this cares for us. Nothing shows why
    At this unique distance from isolation
    It becomes still more difficult to find
    Words at once true and kind,
    Or not untrue and not unkind.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/kindest-among-usare-quietest/

    The kindest among us are the quietest about it
    Real kindness saves lives and it makes lives worth living; it is a social glue that so many years of austerity and selfishness has destroyed

    1. Good morning Richard

      You have provided a kindly reminder , I must say I hadn’t read that PL poem before .

      “Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and ask not for reward, save that of knowing that I do your most holy will.”

      Many of us are familiar with this prayer attributed to St. Ignatius of Loyola

      We learned familiar prayers when school assembly was conducted and when we went to church . Some of these prayers were the bedrock of our humanity .

          1. Not sure we had a curriculum – apart from being coached to pass the 11+, but it was a very small village school, now long closed, that treated every child as an individual and gave a lot of help to children who would now be classed as “special needs”.

      4. We regularly had that one in school assembly when I was a pupil. By the time I was teaching, school assemblies were becoming less and less Christian.

    2. Larkin, the best Poet Laureate we never had, turned down the opportunity after Betjeman died, citing that he was past the time when he was still producing ‘meaningful poetry’. Shame, that, and he died just a year later.

  34. So – (© Telly Tart) if I have the vaccine – (only one, because it’ll not run to two doses, as required – and thus be useless) – I’ll still have to wear a mask, stay
    indoors, not see family and friends, not leave the local area, be banned from leaving the country and still be required to have an expensive PCR test, should I dare to apply to the Gestapo because I wish to go abroad.

    Question, from puzzled pensioner in his 9th decade – What is point?

    2. Morning, Bill.
      A colleague now has the virus for a second time… feels like a heavy cold, so he says, but not bad enough for himto not be able to work from home, just coughs up yukk and has no energy.

      1. Scaremongering – if you read their Q & A , the only real danger is for people who are heavy binge drinkers.

        1. Just don’t tell med students that. As I recall from my college days in the 1990s, med students were the heaviest drinkers of the all.

          1. No change there.
            My mother had medical student boyfriends in the 1930s. They were as wild and drunk then.

          2. {:¬)) I know what you mean. We swear each morning that they have grown in the night. Lying full stretch, each is more than 30 inches – and they are still only 18 weeks old… Their mother was a very long cat – so we expect them to be hoooge!

    7. You can’t talk face to face with your friends Bill – but all those sat in their free hotels can !

      2. Sue, I’ve more os, cue The Two Ronnies, in my so than you have. So there!😎
        Like minds.

        1. Where my youngest son works in W Sussex, half the staff are now on furlough for a while because colleague in his forties died within 3 days of being admitted to hospital with Covid .

          My feelings are that the intubation process can possibly have HUGE significant risks .

          1. The problem is that the chances of being infected in hospital is high, and because they still have infection control issues, I suspect that already infected people get worse just by being IN a COVID ICU ward. From what I understand as well, mechanical ventilation can often be more of a hinderance to recovery than using the next level down, especially in the elderly/already sick.

          2. “…infection control issues…” Mmm, I like it and nominate the phrase for Euphemism of the Week.
            Our General Hospital has carpets. There are framed pictures on the walls. Staff work across different wards (family-friendly HR policies, of course). I’ve worked in cleaner factories.
            I doubt that they will ever publish the number of those mechanically ventilated, and number of deaths by age group.

        2. Viruses always mutate. If we’re going to worry about that we’ll be locked down for evermore.

    4. I don’t get the moans about him going to the park since it’s not against the guidelines and certainly not against the law.

      1. Does anyone know what the law says? It has been so mixed in with exhortations and recommendations that even the Home Secretary gets it wrong when speaking to the nation.

        1. Last time I looked the law said that it was legal to leave home for a number of reasons including exercise. There was no mention of staying ‘local’, nor duration of your absence. This may have changed, but the frustration is the repeated muddling of law and guidance.

      2. There is simply no reason at all to moan about the trip to the park. Two young sons probably absorb quite a lot of exercise. It’s simply a matter of this is the next thing to complain about – because life depends on having a complaint.

        1. 328650+ up ticks,
          Morning Anne,
          So, you have had a glimpse of the future
          lab/lib/con coalition manifesto pledge have you ?

    2. It’s only a question of time. Will the camp be called Coviditz (on the grounds that Covid is much more serious than Colditz)….?

      1. Looks like the non Brits are winning though!

        Won’t be too long before we either have an Amin character in charge or a Nehru, or even a Saddam!!

        1. How long until someone like Chris Whitty gets nominated for a safe Labour seat? Don’t forget what their ‘Dear Leader’ used to do for a living before entering parliament.

    2. 328650+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      She comes across as crystal, what is as clear as mud to me is why do the main part of the electoral herd still support & vote the way they do KNOWING from their past
      input once again failure is the result.
      Once is forgivable, twice, be wary, thrice,
      no way, 4 times entering the corridors of treacherous & madness.

      1. Morning Ogga

        Well , she is probably under pressure from her elders ..

        Seeing as though the NHS is being propped up by Asian medical staff and other nationalities , she is tiptoing along , probably hoping the boat loads carry specialists of some sort ( carnage spreaders!)

    3. Threats from a talking head. Threatening people is a sure sign that you’re losing the argument.

      Rumours doing the rounds that January 30th is being earmarked for shops etc to open. Be interesting if the idea gains traction. What Patel has to realise is that she just doesn’t have the police numbers to quell national defiance of the rules when it happens. What then? More threats, to what end?

      1. Some very authoritarian coppers (in Kent, if I recall) are telling shoppers to prove with an exemption certificate that they don’t need to wear a mask. This is no such rule or law requiring this. It’s about being reasonable. I wear an exemption badge printed from the Asthma UK website and now always carry my inhailor as ‘proof’. Luckily, the security guards at the supermarkets in my area have thus far been reasonable themselves. Let’s hope that trend continues and spreads.

        3. I met a couple of friends (a fellow Mason and his wife) in the supermarket today. She asked me where my mask was – I just held up my exemption certificate (I keep it on a lanyard to put on when I’m in the shop – although I forgot yesterday and shopped without, but nobody challenged me).

          7. I didn’t get an invitation, I heard they were doing them today and rang the surgery who booked me in – I came just within the age frame

        2. I can just hear nurse Naughtie’s warbling voice as she squirts and taps the hypodermic, “Just a wee prick, Mr Alec.”

          3. “Sharp scratch” is the approved wording. Used by all donor care staff before insertion of canula. Most of them are pretty good at not causing pain.

        3. I can just hear nurse Naughtie’s warbling voice as she squirts and taps the hypodermic, “Just a wee prick, Mr Alec.”

      3. Morning Sue, are you commenting from your hospital bed ?

        When are you expecting to have your op ?

        Hope you have a comfy bed and nice food!

    5. My folks, 82 and 81 years old, are going for their Chinese Flu jab today. I’ve suggested that they ask which concoction they are being given and/or to ask for the Oxford/AstraZenica version. If only to wind up any Nationalist Socialist medical staff present.

      1. Our neighbour, well into his eighties, was summoned for his first jab a couple of weeks ago.

        They wouldn’t tell him which it was, and he had to sit for fifteen minutes afterwards in a freezing cold tent.

        He said that he suspected that a number of the eighty and ninety year olds would succumb to pneumonia.

      2. My neighbour told me, when I was out for a walk with the dog today, that he’d had the jab and it was the Astra Zenica one.

      1. Donald just had sworn in 2000 new US deputy marshals with global powers to hunt down fugitives from the law……

        Must be a crackdown on traffic violations… or something………

    1. Wouldn’t a sandwich board have been cheaper? They could always put “The End Is Nigh” with a picture of Whitty on the back to emphasise their point.

      1. 328650+ up ticks,
        Morning SiadC,
        A cardboard sign would not cost anywhere near
        the price of a telly that then begs the question which councillor has the telly shop ?

  42. 328650+ up ticks,
    Am I wrong in assuming that the peoples will take far more notice noting what must be adhered to so as to be in submissive step with the “Great re-set” book by klaus schwab, than notice ever taken in regards to ” The road to freedom” by Gerard Batten penned two years before the referendum.

  43. 328650+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    We Are Turning a Public Health Crisis into an Educational, Social, Economic Disaster: Sumption

    The whole campaign fine tuned & orchestrated by the governance coalition, by their hidden agenda they have got nothing wrong but successfully right.

    They are NOT acting for the benefit of this nation, stop feeding these political creatures, if not for yours then for your kids kids,kids, sake.

  44. BTL Comment from The Slog:

    BV on January 19, 2021 at 12:25 am
    “The decline and the apathy from the ‘Bought and Paid For’
    MSM, BBC et al really does suit TPTB, it is what they paid
    for, and obedience must be adhered to! MUUNNY WINS!!

    Pride, Self Worth, Responsibility, Conviction, Honesty has
    all been ‘SUCKED’ out of these people, and all we are left
    with are ‘Empty Shells’ feeding the narrative and directions
    to the masses with the hope that if they tell ‘lies’ often enough
    and for long enough that they will become ‘truths’ in the end!

    Mission accomplished, now where are my benefits and pension?

    Depressing … I know … all we have left is to laugh at them all,
    that they think they are doing something useful!”

    1. 328650+ up ticks,
      S,
      Maybe we should have listened to that alledged far right racist Gerard Batten after all in 2014, on producing “The road to freedom”
      Mind if he was right then that surely would mean that the governance party’s were wrong, is there any proof of that ?

  45. ”It stinks”…….

    https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmpubacc/151/151.pdf

    Q82 Geraldine Smith: It looks like there is a cosy little relationship between Carlyle
    and the senior managers who were agreeing and working with the bidder before they became the preferred bidder and working on their own incentive scheme which turned them into multimillionaires? It stinks. I do not think you can justify an investment of £100,000 where you end up with £20 million, a civil servant.”

    Why does it ”stink” ?

    Because it’s hush money and to ensure Carlyle got the sale worth $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to

    Mr Blair – Mr Major – Mr Soros !

  46. Despite the fact that the residents have received Covid Vaccinations, MiL’s Nursing Home has suspended all visiting (even though they have good quarantine measures in place….

    1. 328650+ up ticks,
      S,
      The re-set mold is cast and operational the
      ratchet has commenced to click.

  47. I wonder how many people are going to get COVID through attending their first vaccine jab at an indoors venue which won’t have dedicated high-spec mechanical ventilation systems. I mean – all those people inside, waiting around, with inevitably people unwittingly touching common surfaces/items and then their mouth/nose. The longer the wait, the worse it is. Bear in mind the vaccine (even after a second dose) won’t give instant immunity.

    2. 328650+ up ticks,
      EA,
      Just get your shower first then the finer points will be explained to you.

    3. Hospitals are built on the cheap, to be run on the cheap. There is one ventilation/air conditioning system for the entire building. The opening of the Sick Kids in Edinburgh has been delayed for years because of problems, some centred on the ventilation being “not fit for purpose. The new QE hospital in Glasgow has seen many patients die as a result of infections delivered by the air conditioning system.

    4. You mean:-

      Bear in mind the vaccine (even after a second dose) won’t give instant immunity.

  49. Hunter Biden: the president-elect’s second son who was the target of Donald Trump’s attacks. 19 January 2021.

    While working under Obama, Joe Biden encouraged the Ukrainian government to dismiss Viktor Shokin in 2016, the country’s top prosecutor at the time.

    This was interpreted, without evidence, by Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani as a move to protect Hunter Biden from investigation.

    The Post said it had obtained leaked emails from Mr Biden’s laptop, a fact that was seized upon by Mr Giuliani and the Trump campaign. Although the FBI seized the laptop, it has not been determined if the emails are authentic or if a meeting between the President-elect and Ukrainian officials ever took place.

    Joe Biden said the stories just before the November election linked to his son’s laptop were part of a politically-driven “smear” campaign designed to hurt his presidential bid.

    The whitewashing begins! Probably to get him a job in the administration, No one who has read the evidence would have the slightest doubt that he’s as crooked as his old man!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/19/hunter-biden-president-elects-second-son-target-donald-trumps/

    1. There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
      He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
      He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
      and they all lived together in a little crooked house.

    2. All part of the DT’s Biden rehabilitation scheme. Oh, and as usual comments not allowed.

  52. HMS Queen Elizabeth to be joined on maiden deployment by US Destroyer as Navy faces ‘biggest test for a generation’.

    Britain’s aircraft carrier is to be joined on her maiden deployment by a US ship as the navy faces its “biggest test for a generation”.

    The MoD says HMS Queen Elizabeth will be joined by USS The Sullivans, a Destroyer, and a detachment of US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II aircraft.

    So they’ve leased it to the US? No doubt they will sell it off to them eventually!

    The comments Below the Line (Courtesy of 77 Brigade ) are wonderfully amusing!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/19/hms-queen-elizabeth-joined-maiden-deployment-us-destroyer-navy/

    1. Is this the carrier that keeps leaking? Makes me embarrassed to be an engineer. To be fair to the 77th chappies, they regularly go up against known Ruskie state trolls like ‘Pavel Bashkanov’, as do many genuine readers. What’s a real concern about the 77th people is that they now officially are going after lockdown sceptics and anyone questioning the official line/asking searching questions on COVID.

  53. In a similar vien to little Willy Hagues ‘article’ about Biden ‘restoring’ freedom (presumably by censoring and cancelling his opponents) from yesterday evening, Celia Walden’s about censorship ALSO has no reader comment facility as of noon today. Wouldn’t it be ironic if it had before, but readers complained about the DT mods censoring them in almost every article, leading to the mods there removing the section entirely because they didn’t like the paper being heavily criticised for its OWN censorship, especially on articles it knows a large percentage of readers disapprove of.

    Pot, kettle and black time, DT. GET YOUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER, you steaming hypocrites!

      1. Fences are for keeping things and people in/out, not for sitting on. That’s why smart people invented chairs. 🙂

    2. I sent this letter to the DT on 10th January. Of course they did not publish it:

      Sir,

      One of the great advantages of being an on-line subscriber to The Daily Telegraph is that it offers readers the facility to express their views. However, there are certain areas where The Daily Telegraph is clearly nervous of allowing this. Anything to do with race, religion, immigration, gender, sex, the Royal Family and the American presidential elections is now seemingly off bounds.

      If The Daily Telegraph is nervous of what its readers might say then surely it should offer a very clear disclaimer at the top of all its comments facilities stating that the views expressed by the contributors are not those of the paper’s editors. This would go some way to restore the paper’s readers’ faith in its commitment to free speech.

      Richard Tracey

      1. I seriously doubt if they ever would publish anything highlighting the paper’s censorship, let alone them doing so because readers are critical (and not just the nasty stuff, which inevitably happens – though only a small minority) of articles, authors and the paper’s coverage/editorial policy and stance on certain issues.

        Rather like a good (or least no bad) manager would always welcome criticism if done correctly (as yours is), but a bad manager would not precisely because they are bad and don’t want it highlighted and those being critical silenced. That’s why I agree with damask_rose in that they only way the DT will learn is for subscribers to cancel their subs and to hit them in the wallet.

        1. Before we started running our business we went to stay with an old friend of mine, a former flatmate from bachelor days, who had set up his own business.

          He told us that we should welcome any complaint we might receive because, if you sorted out the complaint efficiently and thoroughly, you would have a great opportunity to show how good you can be and that this will generate lots more business.

          1. Handling a complaint properly and sensitively can be a great opportunity to generate business and goodwill.

  54. I really cannot see the point of ’round the clock’ vaccination centres, especially if the elderly are the target. 7am to 10pm yes OK, but no one over 60 is going to think that an appointment for 3:30am is ‘doing it right’.

    1. Given there are quite a few people who do shift work – including in the NHS/emergency services/Armed Forces, they would be prime candidates at the moment, especially as people who do shift work tend to live shorter lives due to the odd hours they work and the toll it takes on the body.

      1. Shift work, so they would be working 12 to 8, or 10 to 6 – how would they be going to a vaccination centre in the middle of the night? They would either go before or after shift.

        1. Not all shifts are of that timing, and besides, some could – with notice, take a long ‘lunch’ type break or have the jab as they come off shift. A friend of mine regularly worked either an early start (6 or 7am) or late finish (10 or 11pm) in some of his computer support jobs.

          2. Not sure about that. As Iffy says about, some supermarkets are open 24/7. There certain is LESS demand than during the day, but doing it at night can take the pressure off the daytime work.

          3. Did you ever go into Tesco in the middle of the night, did you ever talk to their staff? More to the point, have you ever seen an 24 hour analysis of takings. It drops rapidly after 10pm and by 1am it is half of nothing. It stays that way until about 7am.

          4. Staff are needed to restock the shelves overnight. A bright spark realised about thirty years ago that if there are staff in, with lights, heating etc, then the shops might as well use the time to bring in extra trade.

          5. True, but I had a customer who was a Tesco supplier for a few years and he knew a lot about their operations. He said even with the stripped down sales presence it was barely worth it in all but a very few stores. He thought it was mainly an ‘keep up with the competition’ thing.

            It will be interesting to see if the they bring it back after Covid.

        2. There are (or were until Covid) quite a lot of 7 x 24 supermarkets. If they are commercially viable then I guess they must have customers…

          1. Lidl and Aldi never did it, Tesco only had it for a few large stores, and cut the lighting with no manned checkout after 11pm because there was generally very little trade. They had people on site all night for deliveries and shelf stacking, so running the automatic tills was not a huge extra cost.

          2. Our local Tesco superstore tried 24hr opening, got fed up with a lack of customers, and closed at midnight.

            Recently they’ve changed to closing at 10pm

          4. They opened a 24 hr Tesco in Barrow in Furness. The women who worked overnight at the shipyard were delighted to be able to do their shopping on the way home at 06:00.

  55. Charles Hurt: Enter the Dumbest Administration on Earth

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2021/01/Joe-Biden-Addresses-Capitol-Breach-640×480.jpg

    Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the dumbest administration on earth.

    Make America Senile Again.

    Joe Biden was supposedly elected to end all the madness. Make the crazy stop. Give in to the media’s lunatic four-year temper tantrum so the rest of us can get a wink of sleep.

    All Joe Biden had to do is … nothing really.

    Just about all of his supposed plans for combatting the Chinese plague have been tried by Democrat governors and disastrously failed. Or they are ideas he stole from President Trump and are already working.

    So, Joe, just leave it alone and continue to deliver Mr. Trump’s miracle “Warp Speed” vaccines.

    The only thing Mr. Biden is supposed to do differently is NOT call it the “China Virus.” OK?

    Fine.

    How about the Wuhan? Or the Wu-flu? The CCP virus?

    Naw, we’re just funnin’ with you. We get it. Not allowed to mention where the “Kung Flu” came from. (It is kind of interesting to note for you “conspiracy” theorists out there that China was the only country on the planet last year to see its economy actually expand in 2020, Year of the China Virus.)

    But, again, don’t call it the “China Virus.” That is the sum total of Mr. Biden’s mandate in this curious, muddled 2020 election. No “Wu Flu.”

    So what is the first thing dopey Joe Biden wants to do? Pass a mask mandate.

    Because, after all, that’s what all the riots this summer were about. Antifa doesn’t care about “Black Lives Matter.” They just want everyone to wear a mask.

    They LOVE masks. Just watch them torch buildings, loot stores, shoot police and throw Molotov cocktails into cop cars. They are always wearing masks.

    That’s because they are responsible people dedicated to “stopping the spread” of COVID-19.

    The whole problem with the “armed insurrection” at the U.S. Capitol the other week is that they were NOT being socially responsible by wearing masks. There they were mugging for pictures on the dais of the United States Senate — totally maskless!

    Such terrorists!

    So, here comes Joe Biden promising an emergency executive order on the first day of his presidency. The so-called “100-Day Masking Challenge” will require Americans to wear a mask on all federal property and during interstate travel.

    First of all, when was the last time you went to the post office and somebody wasn’t wearing a mask? These people really need to get out more.

    And what, pray tell, Sleepy Joe, are you going to do to someone who refuses to wear a mask inside the post office? Are you going to lock them up, Joe? Maybe send a drone after them. Call in the National Guard?

    So is that why you guys were so anti-police all summer long during the endless riots? Since they were all masked up, no need to call in the National Guard.

    Or, will the “100-Day Masking Challenge” be just one more stupid, unenforced law that only agreeable, law-abiding citizens obey?

    Perhaps the best part of this emergency executive order is the mask requirement for all interstate travel. Because we don’t already laugh enough at people driving down the highway in a car all alone wearing a mask.

    Other hot priorities for the incoming Biden administration is reopening travel from majority Muslim countries that the Barack Obama administration had identified as terrorist hot spots.

    Also, Mr. Biden wants to jump back into bed with the Paris Climate Accords — to further hobble the U.S. economy while boosting the still-thriving Chinese economy.

    And, of course, grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens now in the country. Gee, I wonder why streams of caravans are piling up again on our Southern border.

    Wonder if the Biden administration will require them to wear masks before stealing across our border into our country? How about COVID-testing? And contact tracing?

    Probably not. That would be about as racist as calling it the “China Virus.”

    • Charles Hurt is opinion editor of The Washington Times. He can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.com.

    1. He wont be there long, they’ll soon Bin Biden.
      Not that will be a particularly helpful action.

      1. Ah, like Bin Laden his close cousin. Will they bury him at sea – out of a helicopter as well, in order to destroy the evidence.

        1. Did you know that Nancy Pelosi’s father was once investigated for mafia links by JFK ?
          Bang.

    2. But what is Sleepy Joe’s (or, rather Kameltoe’s) opinion of the expression ‘Bat Clap’?

    3. Also amazing how, just as Biden gets inaugurated, the Dem govenors and City mayors start to say that reopening businesses are vital after closing them all and fining them huge amounts of money for ‘doing business’. In his next act, Biden will part the Red Sea.

    1. Does the money to support ‘asylum seekers’ count as Foreign Aid? If not, why not?

  60. Here we are , Moh and I , on this very windy damp day listening to the news .
    Moh is fiddling with his phone , and had a notification re one of his apps .. Google maps and GPS locator , it tracked every movement and detail we made when we went out shopping , and with dog in the car to have a walk afterwards !

    1. Hi TB, and it keeps a history of where you’ve been, towns you’ve visited etc etc going back years. Handy for surreptitiously keeping track of where someone is going to, if that’s what you’re into.

      If you get into ‘Settings’ you can stop things being recorded on your device, but I’m not sure whether you can stop them being recorded by Google Maps centrally. I suppose the safest thing is to turn off GPS, but then you lose the advantages of GPS of course.

      1. I just turn GPS on when needed, like when using maps (actually sync, no need to tell the advertising giant where I am going).

        Google can also track you through wifi connections.

        1. If you use your ‘phone to make a ‘phone call or send a text msg, your location can be pinpointed to the nearest transmitter. Not as accurate as GPS, but pretty accurate.

          1. Better than the nearest transmitter – they can triangulate from all the transmitters the phone can contact, and get a pretty precise location. Try opening Google maps but with the gps off, and see the location blue circle of uncertainty shrink to a blob about the size of a small house.

          2. they can triangulate from all the transmitters the phone can contact,

            That would be none then, most of the time… mid Wales is a good place to live if you are paranoid about being tracked 😉

      2. Moh is aware of all of that, but thank you very much for your suggestion.

        I must admit I had no idea that there was such an app, and I feel rather uneasy that tracking like that on such a tiny phone is available .

    2. That’s why I don’t allow tracking on websites that say they’re doing it. Also why I wouldn’t use my phone as a Sarnav.

      1. I leave mine at home. So when my clutch went the other week I couldn’t let anyone know and had to walk home. Good job it wasn’t far!

    4. I have a very basic mobile phone and when I am with Mrs N it is switched off. I do not take voice messages on my mobile phone so they can text or ring back.

  61. Beeboid radio shrieking about 6,000+ deaths in the last week, “….including those with coronavirus”….

    Dickheads – In England alone, some 1450 people die EVERY SODDING DAY….

    1. Even so, if we have population of 68m in the UK and we all live to 80, then 68m/(80×365) = daily deaths, on average. A figure of some 2,300. Seasonality plays a part.
      Caveat: I have not yet had the sums checked by Ms Abbott.

      1. Bouncing around on the back of a motorbike certainly affected her
        Schnauzer… scratch .. scratch …

      1. Sadly, an otherwise (for once) decent piece from Ms Knapton was spoiled by her last paragraph about ‘lockdown sceptics’. Almost as if Bill Gates is going ‘tsk-tsk’…’that’s better’. No matter, Roger, the Telegraph have Bill’s $3.4M just for that section of the paper. That’s years of nice salaries for Sarah and her colleagues.

    4. Its not easy to find the total yearly figs for deaths any more. From what I can gather it is still “normal” other wise they would be shouting about it.

  62. OT – and something I commend to NoTTLers. To mark my birthday, we ought to have been in Cap d’Ail and we should ave been having a family lunch in a modest (really) restaurant in Monaco.

    I decided to divide what we would have spent on the trip, travel, hotels,petrol, rent, restos, drink etc – between my six grandchildren. They were gobsmacked; I was delighted and everyone had a smile….

  63. I bumped into a friend this morning whom I hadn’t seen for a while and he greeted me with Happy New Year.
    We’re three weeks in. When does it become too late to say that?

  64. Considering they’re anticipating an assassination in Washington tomorrow, I was just running down the shopping list of bodies required to bring Trump back legally:

    President Biden
    Vice-President Harris
    Speaker Pelosi
    Chief Justice Roberts
    Former President Carter
    Former President Clinton

    Former President Bush
    Former President Obama

    Can an outgoing president pardon mass murder in advance?

    1. More to the point; Carter, Bush Jr., Clinton and Obama are not ‘former’ presidents. They carry the title ‘President’ for life and are invariably addressed as ‘Mr President’.

  65. Bbc News doing their usual Trump hit job. Although begrudgingly admitting he had improved the US economy and created millions of jobs, they didn’t mention his successes in negotiating peace accords in the Middle East or not starting any wars (yet) unlike his predecessors. Oh, and taking great delight in pointing out he had got his ‘wall’, but not the one he wanted.

    1. That is not reporting. The B.B.C. abandoned reporting for instructing years ago. De-Fund the B.B.C. Do it today.

    3. And of course he has not gone away. Would not be suprised if he did not start his own party STDAR. (stuff the democrsats and republicans.) They may be sorry he did not obtain four more years.

    4. Sadly, you may as well been describing the coverage from the Telegraph. No difference, in my view.

    5. Keeping the US out of the Paris accord and the UN Invasion pact were also solid achievements, soon to be reversed by President Fraud.

  66. Received an email from the Devon and Cornwall police regarding the G7 Summit being held in Cornwall in June this year. Says how good it will be for tourism etc and adds this; “We want a lasting legacy that maximises inward investment, translating our moment on the global stage into trade. A legacy that helps Cornwall bounce forward and make its full contribution to the country’s ambitions in areas like space and satellite, floating offshore wind and other sources of clean energy, and globally significant geo-resources including lithium to power our future.”
    Will we have to send for African minors to help mine our lithium?

      1. All the G7 team and sundry personnel will be immune to any restrictions imposed on us plebs.

    7. Assuming there’s not a no-go area surrounding the venue that interrupts ordinary traffic and/or stopping locals or holidaymakers go about their business due to ‘security concerns’. Where exactly in Cornwall is it going to be held? Hopefully I’ll be well away from the. Why on earth are they holding this event anyway, given they also go to Davos, which is this year being held in Singapore, just in case any protesters decide to make the journey to Switzerland.

      1. Carbis Bay, which is a stone’s throw from St Ives. There will be guaranteed mayhem. You obviously missed the indignation about it on here the other day.

        1. Tregenna Castle is St Ives, certainly not Carbis Bay. The NE corner of the castle grounds is 50 yds from a property we have a third share in.

          2. It is, I just didn’t know before reading your post. The house is a cracking place, but with one of MOH’s ugly sisters, refusing to sell, or cough up the dosh of one third of its market price. The other ugly sister is in bed (financially only, I hope) with first one. Their parents’ house, left to all 3 girls. Litigation been going on for 4 years or more since the sisters fell out. Just ranting, sorry.

    8. I would imagine It’s usually quite an well advanced organisational commitment to set up something like a G7 conference. Especially during the covid pandemic. I wonder how the organisers managed to commit to June this year when nobody else seemed to know whether it would be safe for so many people to travel and converge on such a limited space.
      What were the organisers aware of that the public are not privy to ?
      Only 5 months ago our family holiday to Harlyn Bay (not far from Padstow) had to be cancelled because we would have been taking our then 6months old grandson with us all. And would have amounted to 7 people.

    9. Bounce forward? Will it be flung up in the air to fall to ground a little farther on and then repeat ad infinitum?

  67. Why this obsession with “getting the vaccine into people’s arms”? Good job it isn’t an injection into the gluteus maximus, as ‘”getting the vaccine into people’s bums” wouldn’t help to persuade everybody to have the jab.

  68. Must have a dozen sparrows buzzing around the bird feeder at the moment.
    They seem to drop more seed than they eat.

    1. Mine do the same; however, there are plenty of assorted finches on the deck hoovering up the spillage.

      Seven hawfinches and six bullfinches this morning supplementing the host of bramblings, chaffinches and greenfinches.

    2. I bought a small quantity of millett the other day and put some on my terrace to see if it attracted any birds so close to the house. Two sparrows arrived! I put out more millett and now I have 30 sparrows who sit on a wire waiting for me every morning. They now seem to think that they have an acquired right to my largesse! At least I am loved!

    3. Some of our feathered visitors haul out seeds from the feeder when they are mixed and drop them on the ground to get access more easily to the ones they do like. Not so bird-brained.

      1. The great tits on my feeders are the worst offenders, flinging the unwanted seeds over their shoulders with gay abandon. Fortunately there enough ground feeders, e.g, chaffinches, to take them up. If you put out nigella for the goldfinches, more than 1/2 of it ends up on the ground.

        1. Great tits? ……”gay” abandon? …… “putting out” Nigella?

          Your garden sounds like a hotbed of degeneracy.

        3. One year we had several feeders filled with nigella seeds. We counted fifty or so goldfinches either on the feeders, or waiting for their turn. We also ended up with rampart like structures approximately 12 inches high surrounding the feeders where they had thrown the unwanted seeds on the ground. It was lovely to see the goldfinches, so reminiscent of Victorian drawings of birds on a feeder but because of the wastage we decided to abandon the nigella. We were filling up all the feeders on a daily basis. Now we get flocks of long-tailed tits which flit in and out of the bushes as they await their opportunity – delightful little birds.

          2. Niger seeds, apologies for the misunderstanding. P’dad has just confirmed ‘niger’. He buys them.

          3. I had goldfinches nesting in my garden for 2 or 3 summers. Don’t see them now, though.

          4. Probably three years since we had the plethora of goldfinches. Every so often nature over-produces and then following years there seem to be fewer than one would expect.

  70. My daughter, who is working punishingly long shifts in a London hospital, often now has to wait an hour in a freezing mainline station to get home, thanks to the decision to provide just one train per hour instead of three.
    For our lauded and applauded NHS workers, this is extremely unhelpful.
    Emma Isworth

    I dont fancy your daughter’s patients’ chances Ms Isworth, if she can’t work out a simple solution Iike waiting longer in work where it is warm before walking to the station.

      1. I remember trips from Yorkshire to Aberdeen by train many years ago. One train north as far as Edinburgh every 2 hours. One train from Edinburgh to Aberdeen every two hours – leaving exactly 10 minutes before the train from York pulled in. One hour fifty minutes wasted time at Waverley station – where it usually is very chilly.

        1. That was when the railways were run for the benefit of the operators, not the passengers and, very often, the time table were altered little from day to day.
          When the operations side was taken away from the Regions and split into the different sectors, BR actually began to look at how it could improve the service and that was one of the problems they did their best to remove.

          1. By that point I had left Yorkshire. Since coming across to the west side of the country I’ve simply given up on trains entirely.

          2. I have to say that when I was coming back late from London and my train to Crewe was delayed, I told the train manageress that I would miss the last connection and be stuck on Crewe all night. She must have radioed through because they held the train for me. I dashed over the bridge and flung myself into a seat only to be told that they couldn’t leave just yet because they’d missed their slot!

        2. That was when the railways were run for the benefit of the operators, not the passengers and, very often, the time table were altered little from day to day.
          When the operations side was taken away from the Regions and split into the different sectors, BR actually began to look at how it could improve the service and that was one of the problems they did their best to remove.

        3. Infuriating, but a familiar tale. Obviously, times have changed, but sometimes the best option is to take some refreshment in a nearby hotel lounge, warm and safe, for the price of a cup of coffee. And a free newspaper. And clean facilities.

          1. I don’t know whether luggage lockers have been re-introduced but there were none in the early 1980s. That meant carting all one’s gear to the “nearby” hotel. Not really a viable prospect especially if travelling at Christmas time with extra luggage, it was much easier just to stay put. They did give the “Ladies Retiring Room” a bit of a face lift half way through my years in Yorkshire, so things were better after that. The north train came in about 30 minutes before departure so sometimes one could board and get luggage stowed before most of the passengers arrived.

            The facilities at Waverley were usually clean, unlike my memories of those at Kings Cross on a few occasions… even further back in the past.

  71. Facing smog and blackouts, Iran blames illegal Bitcoin mining. 19 January 2021.

    Iranian authorities have blamed a novel culprit for rolling blackouts and heavy smog in major cities this winter: illegal cryptocurrency mining.

    In recent weeks air pollution in the capital Tehran and other metropolitan areas in Iran has reached hazardous levels, while residents report widespread power cuts.

    Winter cold has increased demand for domestic heating, creating a shortage of natural-gas And forcing power plants to burn low-grade fuel oil, contributing to the pollution, the semi-official Iranian Students’ News Agency reported.

    Huge deposits of Crypto were found in Iran during the oil drilling exploration era and the Americans have been trying to get hold of it ever since! The Iranians have never been able to realise this asset because mining it is both polluting and expensive while processing it into bitcoin is even more so!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/18/facing-smog-blackouts-iran-blames-illegal-bitcoin-mining/

  75. Just back from getting the Covid jab. Wonderful organisation. Arrived in car, 4 people in Hi-viz come to the cars as you arrive at your appointed time. They usher the 5 people with the timed appointment into the hall, sanitised gel on the way in. Inside are 4 groups of 5 chairs, everything at least 2 metres apart. One group is waiting for jab, one group is having the jab, one group waiting the statutory 20 min and the last group is empty but getting cleaned. Shown to an empty group of chairs. The nurses are going to each group in turn with a trolley on which all the injection stuff is held with one nurse pre-loading the jabber and the other taking your details and giving the jab. Once done (absolutely painless) your group is then given a board with the time you are allowed to go. There was a big clock which showed the time. When it was your time to go the doc escorted you out of another door and back into the car park. Very impressed but normal for our surgery staff.. Now they will contact me again when they get the second dose, probably 12 weeks.

    1. Pleased to hear that it was hassle and pain free for you. What brand of vaccine were you given, do you know?

          1. All 3 parents/PiL had the jab last week. None of them felt a thing, none had any side effects.

            That was Pfizer though.

          3. Yes, that’s what I heard last week. Two carers, one unaffected, the other was knocked for six.

        2. Let us know how you get on with it. And especially after the second jab (another pessimist writes, it’s those January birthdays in the bleak mid-winter)…..

        3. Ah, the Oxford one. Let us know if you start feeling like you want to climb trees or have a sudden urge for a banana.

    2. Hello FA

      Your experience is identical to a pal of mine who I spoke to this morning who had her jab last week at a sports club .

      It seems they have all got the whole routine down to a T.

      She said it was so easy and seamless that she assumed the Army had organised it with military precision .

      2. Oddly, our Army Nurse sergeant was recalled from her leave to help organise a vacccintre (a word I just made up) in Kent. Not sure if it’s actually on the Gurkha base.

    6. And the first mass vaccination centre in Ontario opened yesterday with a target of 250 vaccinations a day.

      Even die hard liberals are beginning to question the incompetence of our pretendy PM (yes Bill, that one who plays dress up). Something good may come of this whole mess after all, now if only he believes that he is wonderful and calls an election.

      2. You need another factor, though; that the electorate decides that they aren’t going to do the same thing and expect a different result.

      1. We keep inventing things that challenge the next generation less than previous ones.
        And we pay the least successful in society to have children.
        If that were not enough, we kindly provide free healthcare to save the children of the least successful in society, who would previously have died, so that they can grow up and reproduce.

        Society is definitely getting stupider!

        2. More and more evidence is clearly and unambiguously presented every minute of every day. All you have to do is look at the newspapers, the television, the internet, out of the window, in the streets of every village, town and city. It is blatantly crystal clear everywhere you look. Anyone denying these clear facts are burying their heads in the sand.

  77. Mindful of the fact that we are in for heavy rain & possible flooding, I went to the bank & w/rose late morning. Roads empty, store deserted – wonderful.

    1. Sumption’s sensible and rational views on the covid debacle explain why his equally sensible views on the value of human lives have been highly publicised and rubbished in the last two days by certain media. It wants the public to conflate the two and thus regard his observations on covid as a subject of mockery and not worth listening. The government require their social and medical experiment to continue unhindered; to this end Sumption is being taken down, as will anybody else who gets in its way.

      2. I’ve got arthritis, so if it works, I’ll let you know, peddy. I’ll try it so you don’t have to 🙂 What does work for me is rosehip. I’d be completely crippled if I hadn’t started taking that years ago. Turmeric and black pepper does nothing.

      3. I’ve tried it, with no effect at all. On the other hand individual responses are often different so one person’s response is not necessarily relevant to another.

    2. My Mum had an idea at one time that apple cider vinegar would help with her arthritis. Not sure it ever did though.

    3. Take a small bottle of apple cider vinegar with you when you go to a hot country. If you get stung or bitten by an insect, especially mosquitos, rub a little on the sting as soon as possible. The itching and swelling will disappear within ten minutes. It is far more effective than the expensive creams for sale in Boots.

      1. 328650+ up ticks,
        Evening S,
        Various sites in Africa they never bothered me, in
        Libya the two electricians were technicolor with anti mossie, different daubs, never know with contract sparks, some of the colouring looked suspiciously like female make up to me.

      2. I had a couple of soft wart-like growths on the back of my neck. I checked on line for a possible remedy and apple cider vinegar was recommended. After a few applications, it worked!

    4. Thank you, ogga. I’ll give it a go. I’ll have to wait until I next brave the shops before I can get any, though. Touch wood, so far I’ve been okay today (I’ve changed taking my medicine until the afternoon and that seemed to work last night – except MOH woke me up this morning when I’d barely got to sleep!). Oh, joy!

  80. Women are finally being allowed to join the SAS.

    About time as well, there’s no way those brave lads should be cooking their own meals .

      1. Apparently it has a reversible propeller.

        The first time I saw it, in the early part of the flight, I thought it must have been on wires.

        1. Click on the screen and I get “An Error has occurred.”

          Right click on link & open in new tab and it Video unavailable.

          1. No idea why, possibly your browser.

            Try googling Winner of the International Model Aircraft Competition, there are numerous similar ones.

          5. I think he is prolly not. As for the daft bint down-voter – she prolly doesn’t realise that all my votes – plus or minus – are in the ether, after the resident discurse bot removed everything.

            I expect she forgot her medication again.

  82. In 1986, the BBC World Service acquired a new managing director, John Tusa. He is of the far left and immediately set about getting rid of the newsreaders who spoke with clear educated voices, for example, John Wing, Elizabeth Francis and Pippa Harben. They were replaced with people who spoke with regional accents, which were hard to follow, especially for listeners whose original language is not English.

    Suddenly, no news broadcast was complete without a mention of the environment, human ‘rights’ and Amnesty International. Amnesty International is a group of left-wing busybodies who interfere in the internal affairs of numerous countries. They always side with criminals, terrorists and assorted ‘activists’ but never have anything to say about the victims of crime and terrorism.

    This weekend there have been disturbances in many towns and cities in Tunisia, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the revolution following the so-called Arab Spring. Most of the culprits were young men aged 15 – 20 who were suddenly at the ready with Molotov cocktails, tyres and matches to light in the street and various weapons. They were only too willing to loot supermarkets and try to rob banks. The security forces were obliged to use tear gas and water cannons to restore order. Most people said that such people were paid/bribed by a certain political party to carry out its sinister agenda, namely the Islamic party (Ennahdha) headed by a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Rachid Ghannouchi.

    Naturally, Amnesty International in the UK was quick to condemn the police and security services, and they called for the immediate release of an ‘activist’ who was arrested. They also called for restraint of the security services but not of the rioters.

    Why are these leftists allowed to get away with their consistent support of illegality?

    1. I noted that the beeboids were saying what a wonderful chap Phil Spector was – apart from his little “difficulty”….

    2. In January 2011, I travelled from Sfax to Tunis a four hour journey, totally at ease, as was the outward trip in late December. I noted how few women were wearing hijabs compared to here in Birmingham. Two nights later, I was in the pub with my brother – he drew my attention to the TV news. I recognised the location – it was Tunis main railway station where I had been 48 hours before. Close call!

      1. Fifty percent of the voters plus five million!

        Or to be more correct, less distrust of Biden than the Trump family firm.

      2. Black Lives Matter, Antifa and the globalists at Davos.

        Without the electoral fraud it is estimated that Trump received 79 million votes and Biden 68 million.

        2. Well you’re not wrong.
          But I ‘akchewley’ feel very sorry for them.
          Deliberately withholding knowledge is a distinct form of bullying and brainwashing.
          But how would they know Walter ?

    3. Oh c’mon, Rik. They’re from Nottingham, …like me. You can’t expect them to know complicated stuff.

        1. The very same (Baron Clarke of Nottingham, CH, QC, PC, to you) He was MP for Rushcliffe, just sarf of Nottingham. The gorgeous Anna Soubry was a near neighbour MP for Broxtowe.

    5. Pity they didn’t get one of us to be there at the same time and watch these idiots squirm. Did they EVER go to school?

    6. As I’ve explained for decades (or is it millennia?) the intelligence of the human species is deteriorating at an ever-increasing rate. This is being accelerated by a generation of the teaching profession who are, themselves, thicker than pigshit.

      Imbecilic teachers and useless parents: where is the species going?

      My ‘Theory of Progressive Stupidity’ ToPS holds fast. No one can provide any evidence, whatsoever, to refute it.

    7. But…but…but…aren’t there some Nottlers who say that English is of our island and what the people of the USA speak isn’t really English but something else…like…you know…American?

    8. Vox pops are always suspect. How many people were asked? How many were edited out? You can always get the results you want if you ask enough people.

      Also the first one is a trick question I think. There is no official language in the US. One girl actually gets that right.

      1. English has been considered to be America’s official language but it wasn’t made official by the government until 2006. English was voted as the national language of the country as the government feared the heavy influence immigrants were having in the country. To counter the influence, the government decided to officially vote on making English the official language, which was passed.

        2. OK, thanks, I’m obviously way behind the times!

          However my complaints regarding vox pops stand.

    9. In the US, ‘Campus Reform’ often do vox pops of students and The Daily Wire did one of city-dwelling Dem voters, and the level of ignorance of what Trump did/din’t say (and what Biden/Harris did) and the disgusting attitudes of the former group who pretended to want ‘reconcillation’ but really wanted revenge a-la The French and Russia Revolutions was just mind-blowing.

      The generation to follow will be worse, having grown up through lockdowns, little schooling (and what schooling they do have will be lead by leftists) and who live for social media. They might be great with computers and mobile phones, but they don’t know much else.

      I remember my mum said to me a few years ago that she was at the checkout in her local supermarket when the young assistant asked her what the loose item she had was to be able to put it through. “Peas,” my mum replied. “Peas? What’s peas?” asked the assistant.

      God help us all.

    10. Sadly, when you realise how dim the average person is, it dawns on you that vastly more people are thicker than that.

      In their defence, people are simply not taught these things – incuding basic numeracy – any more. It isn’t considered valuable or worthy to be learned and intelligent any more.

        2. Every couple of Years he does a fundraiser for a Church in Sevenoaks about 200 choristers attend for a full on one day workshop. He is a very good and it is a joy to take part.

    4. I love the way they have their little paws around each other. So comforting to observe. I wonder if they will separate when they are adult?

    1. To look at that link I have to agree to their cookies no matter how I try to change them. Not prepared to say yes.

      Guess I’ll give the prog a miss.

        1. Thank you janet but I can’t imagine it will be very objective and will regurgitate all the tosh that’s been rammed down our throats for the last year. Sorry to be so negative but I’ll wash my hands at 9pm just to help.

      4. Just run your browser with “Delete all cookies on close”. Both Firefox and Brave do this. The site is happy, they posted their cookie! You’re happy, it was gone when you shut your browser.

    2. There’s the smoking gun we were looking for. Noting that the CCP knew about it and chose to stop all transport in/out of Wuhan province, EXCEPT for international flights. I suspect that the 5000 or so ‘official COVID deaths’ in China are really several hundred thousand, which is why the WHO people have been denied entry for so long – they’ve been spending 2020 covering it all up.

      TRUMP WAS RIGHT. It was Chy-nah. Will any Western nations confront President Xi the Pooh about this? Unlikely, given most of them can’t even stand up to their own ‘medical experts’ on mask wearing and lockdowns. Biden certainly won’t.

  89. Afternoon, all. Busy day with little to show for it. I did the household chores plus cooking, walked the dog, went shopping, dealt with the final details of the maintenance work I’ve had done, received the invoice, wrote the cheque and walked to the post box to send it off first class. They can’t accuse me of being dilatory. As it will go tonight (I just caught the post), they will probably have the payment sooner than if I’d done a bank transfer (especially if it took as long to get them to send it from my current account as it did to transfer it from my savings). Nearly got mowed down by some idiot doing well over 30 in a 30 zone. He had to brake hard because he clearly hadn’t been looking where he was going.

    1. I encountered one of those the other morning – while I risked walking 400 yards to the bottle bank. He was on the phone and by the time he saw me had to swerve into a large puddle in which a very large pothole lurks. Very satisfying….though, sadly, no harm was done to him or his vehicle.

      1. I only posted it because I was shocked, utterly shocked and I want to give you the opportunity to express your disapproval.

          2. They wouldn’t be dressed like that this time of the year in Green Bay. They’re pussies.😎

      1. This is a US business effort, lead and controlled by Marketing. They won’t make a mistake like that.

          2. Dykes? I’ve known a few. They don’t look remotely like it. I doubt dykes would be allowed in. Bad publicity.

    3. It’s racist white supremacist, because the colour mix is nothing like the “real thing”?

      1. OTOH, any one of those girls could very likely flatten you or I, no problem, if they so chose.

    7. Am I the only one hoping next week’s installment will be a rainy game? I also bet that the pause, FF and RW buttons or jog dial are worn out on the instant replay machine.

      1. I thought they were good competent players. The outfits that their contract obliges them to wear aside, they clearly train and are trying to play the best they can. The fact that none of them are muscle blobs like so many men in the NFL and Rugby Union, gives a fluency to the game that would improve the men’s game.

        1. Same with womens vs mens tennis. Much more fluid, you get the ball returned several times as opposed to serve like a cannon, that’s it.

  93. That’s me for the day. Have a jolly evening think about Halfcock and Witless. Where is Unballanced??? He absence worries me!

    A demain.

  94. The shape of things to cum….

    President-elect Joe Biden has ticked another diversity box, tapping Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine for his assistant secretary of health, which would make her the first transgender federal official confirmed by the US Senate.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3309ca350690cc91399c455c7f9b62f5c2d5454ead3186be5f38383b62c8ae08.png

    Levine made headlines last month after her department issued guidance for Pennsylvania orgy enthusiasts who wish to remain COVID-safe while engaging in group sex. The PA official also drew criticism for pulling her mother out of a nursing home after issuing a state-wide order forcing them to accept COVID patients.

    Trained as a pediatrician, Levine was appointed to her current role by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf in 2017, winning confirmation by the Republican-majority PA Senate before emerging as “the public face of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic,” according to NBC Philadelphia.

      1. They always look like blokes, Conwy. Just thin of “Jan” Morris – and compare with Cur Simon Rattle. Spitting image.

        1. Jan Morris was a bloody good writer, and didn’t push things (as it were) in your face. I believe there really are a small percentage who are convinced they are the wrong sex, and am happy to let them live as they please, even if they’re not entirely convincing.

          1. I think that a background in practical medicine is far more important for a health secretary than any amount of mockery over his/her gender.

            Good luck to her, she’ll need it.

    3. Apropos nothing in particular I thought the star spangled banner could do with a little updating….

      O say can you see by the dawn’s early light
      What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last dreaming
      Whose broad stripes and porn stars through the perverts’ fight
      O’er the ramparts we watched, the youtube live streaming?
      And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air
      Gave proof through the night that our fag was still there
      O say does that star-spangled bummer yet wave
      O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave

      1. You really, really have to ask if it rational to employ someone so obviously mentally ill into a government post.

        That’s a man pretending to be a woman. They don’t need promoting, they should be in intensive therapy.

          3. They used to say that you could tell a person’s sex by pulling down his or her jeans genes. How can you tell now?

    7. I read that as ‘Levine was appointed to her corrupt role…..’ – probably more appropriate under the circumstances. A Freudian blip of the mind.

      1. I’d be more concerned about the use of ‘tapping’, which is a rather naughty word according to the Urban Dictionary.

    2. Realistically, they are there to protect President Fraud from the 84 million people who didn’t vote for him.

  99. An utterly callous bastard, who would probably have been taken out too, writes:

    If the virus had been allowed to let rip.

    1. Huge numbers of elderly, infirm, terminally ill people would have died in their thousands.
    2. The costs of treating and caring for them for many years would have been eliminated.
    3. Their pensions would no longer need to be paid
    4. Their assets would have been passed down a generation.
    5. The economy would not have been wrecked.
    6. The national debt would have been eliminated, IHT, Stamp duty, CGT would have seen to that.
    7. There would be herd immunity.

    When the young look back in 10 years time, I wonder if they will think the right decisions were made.

    1. I was once more disgusted with the news reports that the death rates in so called ‘care homes has risen enormously. How can this have happened they are the most isolated people in the whole country. It makes no sense whatsoever. I very much doubt if there will ever be a logical explanation for this. It stinks.

          1. The Swiss have worked out that the test swabs are as infectious as the virus.

            Worrying times indeed. This Covid nonsense is a global scam of epic deception. Not dissimilar to the federal elections in the USA.

      2. They have all had the jab thats why. It has not been properly tested it has not had the time.

        1. It s very worrying that old folk are persuaded to take these jabs. No one will know what caused their deaths when they drop like flies and the pharmaceutical companies, meanwhile, are laughing all the way to the bank.

        2. Who’s the effing idiot down voter JN ?
          And IMHO I would suggest that 99.9 % of the elderly especially those locked up under ‘house arrest ‘ are taking hundreds of forms of medications every week.
          I’ve tried in vain to get some information about what reactions might happen if certain types of medications are taken daily.
          Apparently the vaccine contains cholesterol. Millions of people in the UK are taking statins.

    2. It took me a moment to realise that you were the ‘callous bastard’, but I absolutely agree.

    1. I’ve just spotted a case of post hoc, ergo propter hoc among my emails; it was claimed that “cases are falling which shows the lockdown is working”. No, there is not necessarily any causation involved. The weather has been getting warmer (at least here) so it’s likely that cases will be falling anyway, given that it’s a seasonal virus.

    1. £600,000 from an anonymous investor and backed by Gates et al. It is all about who you know, it ever was.

      1. Hopefully appointing someone with a practical background in medicine will prove a good move — who she is doesn’t matter if she can do the job.

  104. Good night all.

    Salmon smoked with Lapsang tea.

    Tartiflex.

    Rhubarb stewed with ginger.

    1. Have we given up hope Polly or do we have to witness two years of Biden incompetence assuming the bugger lasts that long? Biden is dead on his feet already.

          3. Once upon a time the parrot was in his own world, many others have caught Psittacosis recently.

  107. For there to be no wiggle room, the crime has to be committed first.

    That means Lieden being sworn in.

    1. I’m afraid that is what all this storm has been about the last few weeks Polly. Getting Biden safely in and distracting from how he got there. This is the worst step for the West since Blair destabilised Britain.

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