Tuesday 2 November: Car exports to Britain will bring France to its senses in the fishing row

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

707 thoughts on “Tuesday 2 November: Car exports to Britain will bring France to its senses in the fishing row”

  1. Good morning one and all.
    Still dark as I type this, but dry & cold outside with 1½°C on the yard thermometer.

  2. A single £25 consolation prize from ERNIE for me this morning, whilst the DT received two!

    1. Better than a kick in the teeth!
      of which I had two yesterday. In amongst other worries, I missed the deadline for a Christmas exhibition at which I was hoping to sell three paintings, and the court turned down my application for a care order for my son, which appears to be the only way to help him, without even assessing his mental state. I am going to see a lawyer this morning I hope. I didn’t want to get up this morning. And then I have to go to work because some imbecile who has been working for the company years longer than I have is too lazy to figure out how to run tests himself.

      2. Mental Health provision in this country is an utter disgrace,when I had my total breakdown 20 years ago if I hadn’t had the means for private treatment at the Priory I would either have been dead or in jail for life
        I was a danger to myself and others……….
        Good luck and best wishes for you and your son

        1. 12 years ago my son was in a very bad place. Prescriptions from the GP did nothing, he went weekly for private counselling and CBT – both around £100/hour and after some months achieved nothing.
          He was finally seen at hospital but 6+ months had elapsed.

          The Doctor said he had mental health problems of depression but added to that was anxiety and prescribed tablets.
          2 weeks later he was “as good as new”

          He was at that time self employed but had “rainy day money” to cope with no income for the 7 months. Many people are not so fortunate. Lack of money/debts would add to their poor state of health.

          1. MB and I have said time without number that the closing the mental hospitals was a huge mistake.
            They were not perfect – what human institution is? – but they provided supervision and refuge for many who either permanently or temporarily needed to be protected from the outside world.
            And, with some of the more florid cases, the outside world needed protection from the patients.

      3. Best of luck, BB2. Life today seems to be a constant struggle against stupidity and dogma.

      4. Sorry to hear about that, bb2. Life gets in the way sometimes. I hope you manage to get your son some help. It’s not a good sign (believe me, I’ve been there and done that) when you don’t want to get up in the morning.

        1. Global Warming?
          Don’t you mean Climate Change/The CLIMATE EMERGENCY!!/A CLIMATE CATASTROPHE!!!!!/{insert latest panic & scare mongering catch phrase here}

    1. When that poster of a small girl appeared last spring with the caption “It’s me they’re coming for – you have to stand in their way” I thought the anti-vaxxers were being melodramatic. But here, we are, with the next age group in their sights being 5 – 11, despite the 47% rise in deaths from all causes of young men aged 15-19 since the vaccination rollout.

      1. Good morning bb2. Sorry to learn about your woes. I hope they are resolved without being dragged out. The article published by The Strategic Culture Foundation in my link above gives an insight into the minds and thinking of those who would be kings. An interesting read (when you have some time).

    2. Despite the short-term side effects, evidence of which can be seen, and the total lack of knowledge of what the mid and long-term effects might be, the ‘creep’ at Education wants to write to every pupil to convince those young people to accept this potion without reservation. A question being asked but being ignored is: “What is the threshold of deaths and serious side-effects before this potion is pulled from being used”?
      The “vaccine’s” selling point i.e. to protect people from the ‘virus’ is wearing very thin as the infection rate amongst the “double vaccinated” rises. What price the boosters?
      MPs, except those who have opposed the mass “vaccination” programme (do any exist?) must all be held accountable for the tragedy released on this Country. No excuse must be accepted, none must be spared the opprobrium they deserve for not protecting the people.

  8. Boris Johnson will travel home from Cop26 by private plane. 2 November 2021.

    Boris Johnson is flying back from the Cop26 climate conference on a private plane rather than the train after spending two days warning world leaders to reduce their emissions.

    Earlier, he told a roundtable of leaders of developing nations: “When it comes to tackling climate change, words without action, without deeds are absolutely pointless.

    Lol! Anyone who believes this tripe deserves what they get. The whole i.e. real, purpose of this scam is to hitch the people to a non-existent goal and justify the measures that will bring about their descent into serfdom. When they complain they will be told that it is for their own good, when nothing happens they will be told that they are not trying hard enough and sterner measures are required. All this while the Elites bask in the luxury and decadence that their positions give them!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/01/boris-johnson-will-travel-home-from-cop26-by-private-plane

      1. Morning Stephen. That’s already happened and the Bolsheviks are running the show. We will probably have to wait fifty or sixty years for it to collapse!

    3. COP26: India PM Narendra Modi pledges net zero by 2070

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-59125143

      Greta should be happy now that Narendra Modi has enumerated India’s action points for reaching Net Zero by 2070.
      Greta has insisted that she has no responsibilities whatsoever for any solutions to the foreseeable extinction of the human race but that she remains a committed activist in blaming those who think they control the planet’s environment to do something.

      Well, Narendra certainly has a plan with a realistic timescale and he has even got credible targets. Greta can now be comforted that she can now enjoy a lifetime of being an inactive activist, knitting woolly jumpers by her nice warm coal fire, and look forward to a retirement in the Net Zero world of 2070.

      1. Morning Angie. This is all impossibly distant. No one has the faintest idea what is going to happen in the interim. It is more than probable that some other crisis will intervene and Global Warming will be conveniently forgotten!

        1. Seems to me that Narendra, almost alone amongst the so called leaders, has a Modi-cum of sense….

        2. Seems to me that Narendra, almost alone amongst the so called leaders, has a Modi-cum of sense….

        3. Morning Minty.

          Exactly. That’s what is so great about Narendra’s solution. It’s impossible to prove that it wont work.

  9. Boris Johnson will travel home from Cop26 by private plane. 2 November 2021.

    Boris Johnson is flying back from the Cop26 climate conference on a private plane rather than the train after spending two days warning world leaders to reduce their emissions.

    Earlier, he told a roundtable of leaders of developing nations: “When it comes to tackling climate change, words without action, without deeds are absolutely pointless.

    Lol! Anyone who believes this tripe deserves what they get. The whole i.e, real, purpose of this scam is to hitch the people to a non-existent goal and justify the measures that will bring about their descent into serfdom. When they complain they will be told that it is for their own good, when nothing happens they will be told that they are not trying hard enough and sterner measures are required. All this while the Elites bask in the luxury and decadence that their positions give them!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/01/boris-johnson-will-travel-home-from-cop26-by-private-plane

  10. BTL Comment

    Robert Spowart
    2 Nov 2021 6:50AM
    @G Lush When one looks into the tiny percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere and the even tinier percentage of that which is due to human activity, the amount of Global Warming/Climate Change/The CLIMATE EMERGENCY!!/THE CLIMATE CATASTROPHE!!!!!/{insert latest panic & scare mongering catch phrase here} caused by human activity becomes somewhere in the range of a statistical error.Edit ()

  11. Notable BTL Comment:
    “GrievingGod
    The childish elite can’t play by their own rules and keep moving the goalposts of this charade pademic. So far they’ve banned ivermectin and HCQ, and have changed the definitions of:

    Herd Immunity: now only includes those vaccinated—They removed ‘natural immunity’ altogether

    Vaccine: no longer grants immunity from disease. Now merely gives ‘protection’.

    Pandemic: no longer requires mass sickness and death. Disease merely needs to be widespread.

    Meanwhile the entire pandemic is built on a foundation of false positives from fraudulent PCR testing.

    The game is rigged, folks.”

    The article which provoked the above comment is a lengthy but interesting read on the Links between Darwin, HG Wells & Aldous Huxley, looking at the themes of breeding and population control aka Eugenics.
    It can be read here:
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/10/30/war-science-and-20-century-descent-man/

    Disclaimer: I’ve no idea about the provenance of either the author or the organisation she writes for, consequently ‘Reader beware…’

  12. Notable BTL Comment:
    “GrievingGod
    The childish elite can’t play by their own rules and keep moving the goalposts of this charade pademic. So far they’ve banned ivermectin and HCQ, and have changed the definitions of:

    Herd Immunity: now only includes those vaccinated—They removed ‘natural immunity’ altogether

    Vaccine: no longer grants immunity from disease. Now merely gives ‘protection’.

    Pandemic: no longer requires mass sickness and death. Disease merely needs to be widespread.

    Meanwhile the entire pandemic is built on a foundation of false positives from fraudulent PCR testing.

    The game is rigged, folks.”

    The article which provoked the above comment is a lengthy but interesting read on the Links between Darwin, HG Wells & Aldous Huxley, looking at the themes of breeding and population control aka Eugenics.
    It can be read here:
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/10/30/war-science-and-20-century-descent-man/

    Disclaimer: I’ve no idea about the provenance of either the author or the organisation she writes for, consequently ‘Reader beware…’

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    This letters BTL comment suggests that I’m not alone in imposing a CON26 news blackout – and no, I’m not W Stevens:

    “W Stevens
    2 Nov 2021 6:16AM
    I am doing my bit to keep electricity consumption down.

    Since Saturday I have not watched any news / current affairs/ COP coverage on TV and do not intend to do so for the next 2 weeks. Likewise I am ignoring on-line coverage of Glasgow as well.

    I have decided to speak to my wife instead, but only for the 2 weeks!”

    1. When I walked Oscar this morning, there was barely a wisp of cloud in the deep blue sky. When I put Bandit back in his stable this afternoon the rain came down like stair rods accompanied by hail! All the seasons in one day.

  15. The NT seems determined to go woke and broke:

    SIR – Tim Banks (Letters, October 30) is not alone in noticing new entrance fees at National Trust properties.

    Our local property, Wimpole Estate, now charges £18 per person, which includes access to the hall, farm and garden. One cannot visit the shop or cafe or walk in the park without paying this extortionate fee.

    Suzanne Brazier
    Royston, Hertfordshire

    SIR – It is now impossible to visit Stourhead gardens without paying for entrance to the house.

    I go twice a year and don’t need to see the house, so I will cease visiting while this regime is in force.

    N J Meeker
    Warminster, Wiltshire

    SIR – Before Covid, a team of 20 to 30 volunteers grew up over 10 years at the National Trust’s Wallington Hall, Northumberland, with varying numbers coming on Wednesdays to work on paths, woods and fences.

    We were certainly appreciated at a local level, with meetings explaining what we had achieved and what was coming, but many have now been put off by mandatory e-learning, which is irrelevant to our outdoor, non-public-facing role, and having to pre-book attendance, which limits numbers to six per day.

    The work we did was mentally stimulating and healthy, and loss of a sense of freedom has reduced our pool of volunteers to around half the previous level.

    Andrew Bassett
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    SIR – I am running out of memberships to cancel.

    Charlotte MacKay
    Shaftesbury, Dorset

    The rather simplistic “For everyone, for ever” has an increasingly hollow ring to it.

    1. Don’t worry, the vast properties will I’m sure be put to good use when we run out of hotel accommodation for ‘asylum’ seekers….

    1. What a handy way to block the police inside their own sties ! What’s good for the goose is good for the pigs gander and all that……

  17. So Justin Welby yesterday compared climate change denial to those good people who stood by and did nothing under the national socialists.
    Well he couldn’t have been more wrong.
    Us baby boomers can just begin to understand the reasons why now, what these people must have been subjected to in order to make them compliant, we have now seen it ourselves what government can do with their propaganda machines with covid when they have the mainstream media, public services, experts and opposition parties all on board.
    People will ask in the future why did we do nothing when they came for the children with experiential vaccinations
    The one thing we can learn from the likes of the totalitarian dictators of the 20th century and their evil regimes whether it be Hitler, Stalin of Mao, is they all believed and were committed to an idea, an idea that couldn’t be challenged, an idea that required total compliance by the masses, an idea that couldn’t be scrutinised, anyone that tried was cancelled, imprisoned or murdered, this I believe is where the people attending COP26 are at the moment.

  18. So Justin Welby yesterday compared climate change denial to those good people who stood by and did nothing under the national socialists.
    Well he couldn’t have been more wrong.
    Us baby boomers can just begin to understand the reasons why now, what these people must have been subjected to in order to make them compliant, we have now seen it ourselves what government can do with their propaganda machines with covid when they have the mainstream media, public services, experts and opposition parties all on board.
    People will ask in the future why did we do nothing when they came for the children with experiential vaccinations
    The one thing we can learn from the likes of the totalitarian dictators of the 20th century and their evil regimes whether it be Hitler, Stalin of Mao, is they all believed and were committed to an idea, an idea that couldn’t be challenged, an idea that required total compliance by the masses, an idea that couldn’t be scrutinised, anyone that tried was cancelled, imprisoned or murdered, this I believe is where the people attending COP26 are at the moment.

  19. Several letters today are critical of the French (“our friends and partners” according to Johnson) and these caught my eye:

    SIR – Isn’t it strange how France assumes that all the fish in the Channel are theirs, yet all the people attempting to cross it to get to England are ours?

    David Hewitt
    Heacham, Norfolk

    SIR – If God had wanted us to get on with the French, he would not have created the English Channel.

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    SIR – We have our country back. President Macron has lost his.

    T Neil Cook
    Goostrey, Cheshire

    I imagine that the Letters Editor is probably inundated with plenty more that are completely unprintable!

    Off now, busy day today.

  20. The demonisation of Poland and Hungary. Spiked 2 October 2021.

    In our polarised media landscape, myths and untruths can spread like wildfire. In the absence of discussion and debate, journalists today often end up cultivating parallel realities. They see what they want to see.

    You can see this distortion at work in the Western media’s coverage of events in Hungary and Poland. If you were to take this coverage at face value, it would be easy to conclude that democratic life and the rule of law in these central European nations has been overturned by tyrannical and authoritarian governments.

    One wonders at the author’s naiveté. Apart from true Marxist sympathisers like Aaronovitch “Journalists” write what they are told; are instructed what to say. If they do not then they do not appear in MSM print or its digital equal. People like Murray, Hitchens and Liddle survive by the judicious use of their skills; avoiding direct confrontation to escape the fate of the likes of Katie Hopkins and others that do not conform.

    Though Furedi doesn’t draw the parallel here, this approach to Orbán and his Polish colleague is from the Vladimir Putin playbook. It is not the Country or its Parliament or the State or the Doctrine, but the personal wickedness of the ruler that counts. This because it is through the medium of the highest office that the Policies of the State are articulated. Capture it and you control the rest. The iniquity that these three have in common is that they do not subscribe to the Globalist Cause or its Cultural Marxist creed. All believe in Nation States, Christianity and the Supremacy of the People, or in other words Democracy. Paradoxically it is this latter that renders them vulnerable to the forces that hide behind Globalism. To defend it they are required to use methods that are less than admirable and thus render themselves vulnerable to attack. Not to do so is to surrender to the same as here in the UK.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/01/the-demonisation-of-poland-and-hungary/

      1. Wasn’t Morton the chap who tried to fork Prince Charles with his biography of his first wife?

  21. The demonisation of Poland and Hungary. Spiked 2 October 2021.

    In our polarised media landscape, myths and untruths can spread like wildfire. In the absence of discussion and debate, journalists today often end up cultivating parallel realities. They see what they want to see.

    You can see this distortion at work in the Western media’s coverage of events in Hungary and Poland. If you were to take this coverage at face value, it would be easy to conclude that democratic life and the rule of law in these central European nations has been overturned by tyrannical and authoritarian governments.

    One wonders at the author’s naiveté. Apart from true Marxist sympathisers like Aaronovitch “Journalists” write what they are told; are instructed what to say. If they do not then they do not appear in MSM print or its digital equal. People like Murray, Hitchens and Liddle survive by the judicious use of their skills; avoiding direct confrontation to escape the fate of the likes of Katie Hopkins and others that do not conform.

    Though Furedi doesn’t draw the parallel here, this approach to Orbán and his Polish colleague is from the Vladimir Putin playbook. It is not the Country or its Parliament or the State or the Doctrine, but the personal wickedness of the ruler that counts. This because it is through the medium of the highest office that the Policies of the State are articulated. Capture it and you control the rest. The iniquity that these three have in common is that they do not subscribe to the Globalist Cause or its Cultural Marxist creed. All believe in Nation States, Christianity and the Supremacy of the People, or in other words Democracy. Paradoxically it is this latter that renders them vulnerable to the forces that hide behind Globalism. To defend it they are required to use methods that are less than admirable and thus render themselves vulnerable to attack. Not to do so is to surrender to the same as here in the UK.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/01/the-demonisation-of-poland-and-hungary/

  22. Good Morning, all

    Clear skies – light ground frost

    SIR – I am running out of memberships to cancel.

    Charlotte MacKay
    Shaftesbury, Dorset

    1. 340784+ up post,
      Morning C,
      Wonder if Charlotte is inclusive of lab/lib/con on her
      cancellation calendar.

  24. A bit of a convoluted read, it is a Google Translate from the Italian original, but it seems the Italian government has reduced the death figures from the Wuhan Virus by taking out the numbers who died With it from other diseases:-

    Big mess in the death report. For the ISS, most of the deaths were not caused by Covid

    Franco Bechis October 21, 2021to to to
    According to the new report (which had not been updated since July) from the Higher Institute of Health on mortality from Covid, the virus that brought the world to its knees would have killed far less than a common flu.

    It seems a bizarre and no vax statement, but according to the statistical sample of medical records collected by the institute, only 2.9% of the deaths registered since the end of February 2020 would be due to Covid 19.

    So of the 130,468 deaths registered by official statistics at the time of preparation of the new report only 3,783 would be due to the power of the virus itself.

    Because all the other Italians who lost their lives had from one to five diseases which, according to the ISS, therefore already left them little hope. Even 67.7% would have had more than three contemporary diseases together, and 18% at least two together. Now I personally know many people, but none who have the misfortune of having five serious illnesses at the same time.

    I would like to trust our scientists, then I go to read the ailments listed which would be no secondary reason for the loss of so many Italians and I begin to feed some profane doubts. According to the ISS, 65.8% of Italians who are no longer there after being infected with Covid were ill with arterial hypertension, that is, they had high blood pressure. 23.5% were also demented, 29.3% added some diabetes to their ailments, 24.8% also atrial fibrillation.

    And that’s not enough: 17.4% already had sick lungs, 16.3% had had cancer in the last 5 years; 15.7% suffered from heart failure, 28% had ischemic heart disease, 24.8% suffered from atrial fibrillation, more than one in ten were also obese,It will all be true, I do not question our scientists.

    But if it is not the virus that kills the Italians, then can you explain to me why science has imposed everything we have seen in this abundant year and a half? From masks, to spacing, to lockdown and so on?

    And how did we manage to have almost 126,000 Italians reduced to those conditions with 3, 4 or 5 serious illnesses, destined to go away if the coronavirus never existed in a short time? Those numbers would be a sensational indictment against the Italian health system from which they also come.

    I use the conditional because I have some doubts about what is written from the first day in that report. Which is affected as every communication of the ISS or the CTS of the government directives provided gradually over the months,

    At the beginning the government then in charge, that of Giuseppe Conte, while Italy showed itself to be the most unprepared country in the world and also unable to face the pandemic, asked for data to reassure the Italians. And I remember well the weekly ISS and civil protection press conferences in which these deaths were always minimized, always placing the emphasis on the many pathologies found in those who had not made it.

    It must be said that this virus did not kill itself, but accompanied by other ailments in frail people it could hasten an end that was in any case near. Then, during the vaccination campaign, the government need became the diametrically opposite one: to dramatize and push anyone towards the safety of the vials made available. which it followed in its increasingly thin and never drummed publication, the approach given at the beginning.

    A great confusion, therefore, which also feeds fears and stiffens the resistance of a few million Italians who have chosen to avoid vaccination. Perhaps with a little less propaganda, less rigidity and more correct information this would not be the case … less rigidity and more correct information all this would not be so … less rigidity and more correct information all this would not be so. ..

    https://www-iltempo-it.translate.goog/attualita/2021/10/21/news/rapporto-iss-morti-covid-malattie-patologie-come-influenza-pandemia-disastro-mortalita-bechis-29134543/?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_pto=nui

  26. Ross Clark
    The wishful thinking of COP26
    It’s time to look at the evidence
    1 November 2021, 2:10pm

    History records that George II was the last British king to lead his troops on the battlefield, at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743. But maybe it is only a matter of time… Addressing the COP26 summit in Glasgow Prince Charles called for a ‘vast military-style campaign’ against climate change. We must put ourselves on a ‘war-like footing’, marshalling the resources of the private sector as we did during wartime. I look forward to the sight of Charles, on horseback, leading a battalion against Xi Jinping’s People’s Army to try to take the site of China’s latest coal-fired power station.

    There is a very big problem with this kind of rhetoric. If, as Prince Charles added, COP26 is the ‘last chance saloon’ then where will that leave delegates at COP27? Clearly, there will be no point in them attending at all, given that it will be too late and the world will presumably be finished. In fact, according to Charles, we have already run out of time. Addressing the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009 he told delegates ‘our planet has reached a point of crisis and we have only seven years before we lose the levers of control’. By my calculations that would have taken us to 2016, yet carbon emissions continued to rise after that date and are still rising.

    It isn’t just Prince Charles, either. The Prime Minister has been equally alarmist, taking of mankind being ‘one minute from midnight’. Perhaps they think that dialling up the rhetoric will spur countries into action, but the opposite is true. When the hosts of COP26 start claiming we are teetering on the edge of doom they are going to turn off many world leaders, who can see such stuff is at odds with reality.

    Anyone who read through the UN’s sixth IPPC report, published in August, would not come to the conclusion that we are in an existential crisis, lashed by flood, fire and tempest. Inevitably, perhaps, COP delegates held up on a train on Sunday delayed by a fallen tree near Milton Keynes started blaming climate change, with one passenger, described as a scientist on his way to advise African governments, reported in the Guardian as saying: ‘It is obviously very inconvenient and a reminder that climate change causes all manner of extreme weather events.’ Yet to blame climate change for a pretty moderate October storm flies in the face of the evidence presented by the IPCC, which reveals a falling trend in average wind speeds over land in the northern hemisphere, as well as a sharp decline in very strong storms in the North Atlantic and Arctic region since 1990. The IPCC itself cites a study published in the Journal of Climate in 2013 that shows that the downward trend in storms with a central pressure of fewer than 960 millibars has been picked by several independent data sets.

    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/bltb750315cae897b8d/617ff49e8544150f29ab0c0d/Screen_Shot_2021-11-01_at_14.06.58.png?format=jpg&width=1440

    So much, then, for all those lazy claims that we are facing a future of ever bigger and stronger storms thanks to climate change — in our part of the world at least observational evidence rather suggests the opposite. If COP delegates want to blame anything for their delayed train it isn’t climate change, it is the modern practice of using railway embankments as nature reserves rather than clearing every tree and shrub as was standard practice in the days of steam engines — lineside vegetation being a fire risk thanks to sparks from the locomotives.

    In the end-of-times mood at Glasgow, however, none of this will register. The entire planet is facing human-induced destruction and that is that.

    *******************************************************************

    gerronwithit • 16 hours ago
    Of course the whole adolescent charade is bunkum! Boris apologised for us starting the Industrial Revolution which ultimately gave us our modern comfortable standard of living rather than just existing. How crass and stupid is that?

    And having Charles lecture us on anything is an insult to all intelligent life. The man cannot even put toothpaste on his toothbrush, but he can tell us that his Aston Martin has been converted to run on cheese and wine. They told him that because he could not understand the science of making ethanol.

    Plus all the third world arriving by private jet as they believe, and rightly so, that Boris is handing out billions for their Swiss bank accounts – all they have to do is sell a sob story.

    Whats Up • 15 hours ago
    The BBC treatment of this bonanza is shabby and not worthy even of Pravda on a good day.

    We have teenage presenters giving us documentaries from Calcutta as though it were Blue Peter, and journalists standing in the water in Bangladesh as though it had never flooded before.

    It is an appallingly low standard of journalism.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-wishful-thinking-of-cop26#

    1. It is an appallingly low standard of journalism.

      That’s because it’s propaganda What’s Up!

    2. If you read the ancient Buddhist texts from 2,500 years ago you will find that the area now called Bangladesh was well known as an area to be avoided because, even back then, it was notorious as a flood plain and environmentally unfavourable place to live.

    3. Whilst sitting in the car waiting for my wife to have her booster jab I found I couldn’t catch up with the nottlers blog as there was no mobile Internet signal (in the Royal Welsh Showground for goodness sake) so tuned in to R3 only to find they were spouting COP26 cr*p. I changed to R2 where in the news summary some guy was saying the Salisbury train crash was the result of climate change and that there would be an increase in such incidents in the future. How can ANYONE believe anything said on the Bonkers Broadcasting Corp?

  27. 340784 + up ticks,

    The marching politico ( top of the hill, then down again) slipping methinks into Brutus mode again against his former role model.

    ‘Let’s Act!’ – Farage Calls on Boris to Suspend EU Brexit Payments Amid French Fishing Threats

  28. Oh To Be Eight again!

    A man was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching his wife, who was looking at herself in the mirror. Since her birthday was not far off he asked what she’d like to have for her birthday.

    ‘I’d like to be eight again’, she replied, still looking in the mirror .

    On the morning of her birthday, he arose early, made her a nice big bowl of Coco Pops, and then took her to “Adventure World” theme park.

    What a day! He put her on every ride in the park; the Death Slide, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Roller Coaster, everything there was.

    Five hours later they staggered out of the theme park. Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down. He then took her to a McDonald’s where he ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a chocolate milkshake.

    Then it was off to a movie, popcorn, a soft drink, and her favourite lollies, M&M’s. What a fabulous adventure!

    Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed exhausted.

    He leaned over his wife with a big smile and lovingly asked, ‘Well Dear, what was it like being eight again?

    Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed.

    ‘I meant my dress size, you f@*#*! retard!’

    The moral of the story: Even when a man is listening, he is gonna get it wrong.

  30. Am I alone in being reminded by Johnson’s reference to the time on the clock for the environment of Blair’s saying that we are just 45 minutes away from being hit by Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction?

    Johnson is now openly pursuing a scorched earth policy. He senses that the game is up for him and he will never again be elected to office. He will probably be very happy to go away with plenty of moolah to some overseas fornicatorium with his current wife and any potential future bonkies he can get to join them.

    But until he does, he wants to to inflict as much damage on Britain and fear in the British people as he possibly can.

    1. Johnson should be told, its him and his party that are about to become toast not the climate.

      1. Unfortunately he has probably done enough for the people who pull the strings to be set up for life with a future in the oligarchy of global foundations and banking/funds along with the creepy UN linked network that seems to run the global governance infrastructure.

      2. I do not think he would care. The Tories should dump him immediately in an attempt at damage limitation but the current bunch appear to be gutless beyond belief and will watch him continue playing out his destruction derby.

      3. 3440784+ up ticks,
        Morning Kp,
        Their actions are not haphazard, off the cuff, they are organised, after being in the toaster for decades they are now brazenly coming out of the toaster showing their true colours ( sh!te brown)
        there ain’t NO going back in that there toaster
        reset or bust is NOW in progress.

        Clear cut is, that if you want MORE of the same ie
        reset, repress, incarceration and a daily jab then
        you want lab/lib/con membership, heaven may
        forgive you, OGGA1 won’t.

    2. My view is that Johnson and his sycophantic Cabinet are at the stage where they do not know which way is up. Complete lack of leadership and firm direction from a PM who is in thrall to powerful people outside of this Country was always going to lead to confusion. Does anyone know what Johnson really believes in, other than himself , of course?

  31. Morning all,

    Clear morning here, frosty last night , and the stars were twinkling in the early hours .

    I hope all firework displays are cancelled , well, actions are louder than words, aren’t they?

  32. I am not a religious man but I do, very sincerely, hope and pray that Glasgow suffers a complete power failure and all the lights go out and heating fails in all the hotels occupied by the COPs and robbers.

    Nice for them to suffer what their jamboree is deciding for us plebs. Let’s hope they all freeze in hell.

      1. We do, in buckets.

        Same as we give them advice on not having sex if they are HIV positive, but they go on to – boffing a wife who’s husband has died while so infected.

        Then we pay for the treatment of these people who, if they had listened and practiced safe sex would not now have spread this disease.

        They’re ignorant. We keep giving them our technology without their having the education and infrastructure to use it. It’s like giving a chimp an axe.

  33. 340784+ up ticks,

    I believe the reporter got this statement from “nige” whilst at the track getting some sprinting practice in.

    breitbart,
    Brexit Leader Farage: Pushing for Referendum on Green Taxes ’Could Be My Latest Campaign’

          1. 340784+ up ticks,
            Morning NtN,
            Regarding the tory (ino) party pro johnson
            supporter / voters mate, who took off to “get it’s life back” my comment needs little if any explanation.

          2. As usual, Ogga, clear as mud.

            I still have no idea where a dead Czech runner fits into the dialogue.

  34. For non-subscribers

    Emmanuel Macron’s chauvinistic liberalism is a danger to the West

    The French president has failed to reconcile the elite system he represents with rising populist anger

    SHERELLE JACOBS
    1 November 2021 • 9:30pm

    The “proxy wars” that have erupted between the UK and France, on everything from fish and vaccines, to Aukus and immigration, are about so much more than any of those individual issues. Not in the sense that Remainers like to think, of course. We have not been witnessing a clash between the dark nationalist forces of Brexit Britain and the enlightened European order. This Franco-UK split is much more epic than that. It is collateral damage from the moral collapse of Emmanuel Macron’s brand of Western liberalism, as it collapses beneath its own contradictions.

    By voting for Brexit, the UK recognised that that the liberal order can best be safeguarded by bringing power back to the people. We weren’t rejecting the international rules that underpin everything from free trade to the laws of the sea; rather, Brexit was a vote of confidence in the continued relevance of the nation state and its ability to navigate those rules itself. More than that, it was a way of tackling the causes of populism and reconciling the nation state with the global order. Failed elites have been dethroned at home and abroad. Over time, and with a democratically accountable government, we ought to reap the benefits.

    To Macron, however – the standard-bearer of those failed elites – Brexit is quite literally revolting. The causes of populism aren’t meant to be resolved: that would mean doing the unthinkable and slaughtering the liberal order’s sacred cows, such as clawing powers back from Brussels. Still unlike neo-liberal predecessors like Tony Blair, he acknowledges that anger at the status quo cannot be ignored. So Macron has positioned himself as a champion of a new Third Way: through skilful demagoguery and antagonistic attacks on the hated British, he has sought to inflame and channel populism towards his own establishment ends.We are witnessing the chaotic failure of that approach today.

    That much is clear in the President’s panicked grandstanding in the run-up to the French elections;. His “Third Way” – which has unapologetically embraced international institutions like EU, while tossing gilets jaunes types the odd bone on trade and immigration – has not impressed voters. Three years ago, Macron sneered in Donald Trump’s direction that “nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism”. Now there is apparently no low Macron will not stoop to, as he scrambles to avoid being toppled by France’s Trumpian wildcard candidate Eric Zemmour. Not only has Macron been forced to take a wrecking ball to French relations in the Maghreb, the country’s only remaining sphere of influence, by slashing visas for North African citizens – he has shown himself happy to break international law in order to make nationalist points.

    The president’s recent antics have proved a masterclass in populist post-truth. His claim that the fishing dispute was a test of UK “credibility” was particularly daring considering that Paris either failed to read the UK-EU trade agreement that it ratified, or knowingly attempted to blackmail the UK. True, Britain might have been too bureaucratic in its interpretation of the rules. But this pales in comparison with France’s conduct. The Elysee impugned Britain for “unilaterally” imposing license conditions for French fishermen, when these are stated in the treaty text. It also claimed – without evidence – that “small” vessels were exempt from having to provide the paperwork for a license. Macron has probably poisoned relations with the UK for a generation.

    Will Macron care? Probably not, if his performative spats avec les Anglais win him the election. But by damaging the international order itself, they could have much more serious consequences than that.

    Firstly, they have further sabotaged the credibility of the multilateralism that Macron purports to uphold. Donald Trump and Brexiteers have been lambasted for undermining global institutions by challenging their current terms. The French President’s strategy of aligning himself with the rules-based order while flagrantly ignoring those rules when it suits him is far more destructive. After displaying such contempt for fishing agreements in the Channel, what leg does Paris have left to stand on as China smashes years of painstaking progress in maritime law? Given that it has struggled to discipline its members to accept the fishing settlements it negotiates, can Brussels look anything but ridiculous in lecturing Beijing as it aggressively expands its fishing activities across the South China Sea?

    Macron’s Third Way also threatens the global order for a more basic reason: it is incapable of confronting the over-reach of international institutions at the expense of the nation state. Until recently, Macron happily neglected the sufferings of French fishermen. If he were really serious about reconciling populist anxieties with elite liberal ambitions, he would have spent his term negotiating the phasing out of Brussels’ Common Fisheries Policy, in recognition of the basic reality that as the world becomes more globalised, maritime borders become more symbolically powerful.

    He also would have been at the forefront of calls to reform the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The US has refused to ratify this convention because the UN has declared the deep sea bed “common heritage”, to protect it from exploitative mining by rich countries. That stance may sound noble, but the UN is acting on behalf of developing nations fearful of a drop in demand for land-mined minerals. A perfect example of how the global system only weakens itself with insincere altruistic displays that corrode national powers.

    The failure of Macron’s vision is all the more catastrophic given the rise of the Chinese civilisation state. Beijing isn’t just a challenge to the rules based order, but to the nation state itself. Take its ambitions to reclaim territories like Taiwan. Or its modern spin on the ancient tributary system through its Belt and Road agenda, and colonial domination of African countries. It is giving other countries with imperial pasts dangerous ideas, from Turkey, to Russia. This is no time for the likes of France to be playing fast and loose with the international order.

    The great irony is that in this emerging age of neo-empires, Brexit Britain – so often derided for its dangerous nostalgia – is one of the few trying to stand up for the twin nemeses of imperialism: free trade and the modern nation state. It’s the kind of chauvinistic liberalism espoused by Macron that will destabilise the West.

    ******************************************************************

    Arthur Pewty
    1 Nov 2021 11:39PM
    Agree with everything here, except the ridiculous proposal about the UK being “too bureaucratic” in its application of the WA. Living in France, it is the bureaucracy that is almost impregnable at times. Nothing, NOTHING can be done in a single computer click. Everything has to be followed up, often in triplicate, with signed copies, certified by an “authorized person”. No, the French get bureaucracy, they revel in it when they are in control of the process. They simply don’t like it being applied to them.

    The simple fact in France is that you can do anything unless you are caught out. Then the full weight of the system (read bureaucracy) is brought to bear. The French response to that is to deny, argue, claim dispensation, refuse to accept the facts, state the opposite and accuse the accuser. It is how life works here. If you have broken the rules, never, EVER, accept you have. It is up to the accuser to prove they are right (even then they will never publicly accept fault). As the French have the EU to support them, they firmly believe that they will win out. Trouble is, the fishermen have been exposed to be trying it on. It remains to be seen how supportive the rest of the EU is when it comes to application of the EU rules they, themselves have set.

    1. Once, in France, I had an appointment with a bureaucrat. We sat and discussed the problem, the, suddenly, he left his desk. I assumed he had gone for a pee – but no. His colleague told me that he had gone for his lunch and would be back two hours later…..

      1. Walking across a large lawn with the owner of a big house, he smiled and pointed out an abandoned wheelbarrow full of leaves, with a rake stood next to it. Apparently the gardener was a former public sector employee; when the clock struck one, he wouldn’t even take the barrowload to the compost heap on the way to eat his sandwiches.

    2. ‘Macron has probably poisoned relations with the UK for a generation.’
      Ptwuh! Ah spit in their general deerection.

    3. Pity it isn’t in French and in Le Monde, otherwise it is just preaching to the choir. Jacobs does write good articles though.

    5. It is odd how much journalists tie themselves in knots trying to equate patriotism and nationalism.

      Equally it is comical to consider that the UK government is interested in free trade and a global view. It is following EU policy fervently, continuing the destructive, unwanted, ill thought out stupidity of the Hard Left command economy types in Brussels.

      Increasingly government seems to be opposed to the public will, acting specifically against it. When the money that so hated populist electorate produces dries up precisely because of statist policy, what will big, fat state do?

        1. It’s trying that. The end result is inflation, another tax on earnings. That’s why the economy is stagnant. It’s why it is so difficult to get ahead.

      1. Mum won a fridge when I was 12 (otherwise they wouldn’t have bought one). My parents didn’t get a telephone until I had left home. They were both in their 50s when they had one installed.

      2. 340784+ up ticks,

        Morning M,

        The old dad use to put pigs head brawn on the
        windowsill to set.

    2. It was made grounds for divorce back in 1990, when I mistreated a roast chicken.

      Learning from my mother, who was a teenager in the Blitz, the first day would be roast chicken with crisp skin and quite delicious. On the second day, it would be served up cold. On the third day, into sandwiches. On the fourth day, it would be curried. Meanwhile all the bones and unspeakables that did not end up in gravy would be boiled up with an onion, and become a nourishing soup. Jews call chicken soup “Jewish penicillin” as they claim it cures most illnesses. Finally, the mush would be thrown into a hedge to give a nice treat to a passing badger or fox.

      The Petitioner of my divorce and her mother, however, insisted that the best bits be served for one meal, and the rest then thrown in the bin for landfill, and that I was a male abuser to thinking it correct to do otherwise.

      Who then is the abuser?

      2. Oh my goodness , you have had a few upsets.

        Chicken bones leftovers simmered away for a couple of hours then strained and clear of bones , and add chopped leeks , celery, chopped potatoes , salt and pepper, and perhaps more water.. cook untill veg are tender .. so delicious and nourishing .

        1. I make stock after stripping the carcass. Then i go through the bones picking off any meat or gristle. Normally manage about 4 oz which goes into Dolly’s food box.

          No waste.

      3. Those of us brought up in post-war austerity still make what we can from a chicken – including soup from the bones.

        1. (Sigh) We peasants, once we were blessed with telephonic communications, had one large, black bakelite object sitting on a hall table. The hall was unheated because we wos poor. Once the clocks went back, the hallway was very dark as we couldn’t afford to turn on the 40 watt bulb in the overhead light.

          1. I am obliged for your graceful explanation.

            Funny the way the phone was always in the hall. I suppose it was so the GPO used as little cable as possible.

          2. When my mum eventually had a phone installed, things had moved on so hers was in the sitting room, so she didn’t have to move from where she sat.

          5. Quite – it cost 3/- to make a 3 minute trunk call (via operator) in 1960. Roughly £3.50 today, when it costs a few pence.

          6. My phone is still in the hall (but I also have an answerphone in the dining room and another phone in the shack).

          7. I am obliged for your graceful explanation.

            Funny the way the phone was always in the hall. I suppose it was so the GPO used as little cable as possible.

          9. I didn’t have any brothers to share with, but when my cousins came to stay, my cousin had to sleep at the other end of my bed – top and tail – and she ended up on the floor. She was nine and I was six.

      2. My mum didn’t even have a telephone until long after I moved out – she just used the phone in the office if she needed to make a call.

  36. Boris Johnson, Autumn 2019: “Lend me your vote. I’ll make sure you don’t regret it. We’ll deliver on what you want.”

    Boris Johnson, Autumn 2021: “Im taking your money, your cars, your food and your central heating. Now #### off & have another jab before I lock you down again.”

          1. I think she’s been on them all her life. Now with added puberty blockers.
            Think Nadia Comaneci.

          3. As we become older, young adults start to look like children. I remember meeting the sister of a friend (ages ago) whom I guessed to be about 14; she indignantly replied that she was ‘nearly 19’.
            One sadness is that as they grow into adulthood, young people with disabilities (mental, physical, etc) become more aware that they are ‘different’, and that they will have to march through life often ignoring how they may be perceived by strangers.

        1. Can’t help thinking she didn’t know what she was singing, unless she’s had a damascene conversion. We can but hope.

          1. She ‘s behaving like Kevin the Teenager. She wasn’t invited to the ‘Crisis’ talks. She gatecrashed.

        2. If only. I fear that her foul mouthed exhibition will endear her even more to the woke wankers.

          1. She won’t half cop it from her parents when she gets home…. their little cash-cow turning rogue…!

        4. She is now 18. Her days as a child prophet are over. She will become more and more outrageous and eventually take to drugs and drink and end up in rehab. That’s what happens to all has beens in their pathetic bids for attention.

          1. She certainly doesn’t look 18, but seems to be getting more deranged by the minute – what have her parents done to her? Interesting to ponder how long a Greta clone that protested against lock downs and vaccination would last before being arrested and having Social Services swarming all over her parents! She certainly wouldn’t get much funding!

          3. Who cares what her parents have done to her. She is now an adult, she can take responsibility for herself and do us all a mercy and shut up.

          4. But will she go on virgin’ on the ridiculous? Or is that a phase well passed by now?

            I’ve just thought of an unprintable joke which must be hidden behind a spoiler so please don’t look if you are likely to be offended:

            Does Greta the Pixie go to Goblin parties?

        5. A neat BTL – I don’t see little Greta and her entourage visiting countries such as China, Russia or Brazil..!!! Perhaps the easy targets are more lucrative for her and her family. Where there’s muck there’s money….just saying.

    1. Some idiot somewhere thought that putting on a big extravaganza with all the worlds elites and lackey politicians in tow would influence the little people and making it all the more believable.

    2. Some idiot somewhere thought that putting on a big extravaganza with all the worlds elites and lackey politicians in tow would influence the little people and making it all the more believable.

      1. Morning Anne ,

        I had similar thoughts .

        I was trying to locate the Blah blah song from decades ago , I wonder of anyone of you can remember it ?

  39. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Remember, remember, it’s the 11th of November… not October! It’s time to stop this mission creep of ostentatious early ‘tributes’ for Remembrance Day
    *
    *
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/11/01/23/49922163-10154301-Across_the_country_at_the_weekend_Premier_League_clubs_held_a_mi-a-7_1635810278420.jpg
    The sincerity of these ostentatious ‘tributes’ was immediately undermined when it was followed by players and officials ‘taking the knee’ — a fatuous, divisive gesture in support of a statue-toppling Marxist rabble that wants to tear down the society Britain’s wartime generation fought to defend
    *
    *
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/11/01/21/49921411-10154301-image-a-8_1635800596878.jpg
    Lewis Hamilton put on an elaborate disguise for a visit to a school. He looked the spitting image of Liverpool FC’s German manager Jurgen Klopp.

    Hang on a minute. We’re told it’s a racist hate crime for white actors and Morris Men to wear blackface, for white students to don Mexican sombreros and white women to plait their hair into cornrows.

    So why is it OK for a mixed-race Formula One driver, and prominent supporter of Black Lives Matter, to culturally appropriate a Teutonic adopted Scouser? Cancel him!
    *
    *
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10154301/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Remember-remember-11th-November.html

    3. Remembrance Day 2020 is when Micron ignored the deaths of 1000’s of British and Commonwealth servicmen in freeing France
      from the Germans.

      1. With his constant abuse of white people, it certainly looks as if he has a serious relationship problem

        1. That often happens to extremely wealthy people and a minimal effort to obtain such wealth, they lose touch with certain realities.

  40. Yo All

    I just been pondering

    Ponder One

    How long after you have had the Convid Booster (just to be able to go to the shops) will it be before Convid Booster +1 is required and so on, until you are addicted.and obedient

    Will there be National Awards,for people who have had 25, then 50 Boosters?

    Ponder 2

    Who is going to be investigating whether babies born to the Boostered have more medical problems than those born 5, 10, 15 etc years ago,
    ie pre Convid

    What has been the effect of mother only., father only, both or neither have been vaxxed, on the medical problems: are there trends?

    Ponders over, Bunker to build

  42. Good morning, everyone. Walked the Springer in sunshine but a heavy frost meant it was very cold.

    2. Hallo Delboy! Cold here too in West Sussex. 45f. and clear, but no frost. You live up North?

  43. Just been to the postbox. Bright sun but very nippy – a touch of frost still lingering. Pickles prefers lying on the rug in front of the stove. Gus is out hunting.

      1. They eat everything they catch except for the guts. These they leave in the porch, often on the doormat – in the place where one is most likely to tread on them…..

  44. One way of protesting about the face nappy:

    “Knifeman shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ and ‘France belongs to Islamic State’ is shot and injured at Paris train station after attacking security staff when they asked him to wear a Covid mask”

    Guess what? “Known to the police”….. Yet another.

  47. Steerpike
    The great Greta rebrand
    2 November 2021, 8:30am

    Steerpike is no prude but even he has been surprised by some of the blue language from green activists at COP. Temperatures are running high outside the official conference zone, where angel-faced iconoclast Greta Thunberg has been leading protestors in a chorus of ‘You can shove your climate crisis up your arse’ and telling her devoted followers that it is now time for ‘no more blah blah blah’ and ‘no more whatever the fuck they’re doing in there.’ All this a day after her performance on the Andrew Marr show when Thunberg told the veteran broadcaster she was ‘pissed off’ with world leaders.

    So what is behind the sudden transformation from unimpeachable schoolgirl to foul-mouthed teen? Surely the answer is the tired and tested formula of Disney Club star gone bad. Like Miley Cyrus or Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan or Alyssa Milano, Thunberg is growing conspicuously more punk and sweary, as record labels do with child pop stars when they grow up. Make them say something rude or shocking to generate interest; the old persona is shed and a new identity adopted. After all, what is politics but showbiz by other means?

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1455201968432029710

    Her mother was a Swedish Eurovision star and her father a feted actor: between them they nurtured the greatest cabaret act the world has ever seen. But after three years of worldwide domination, with presidents and prime ministers at her feet, Greta has hit a problem. Aged 18, she’s getting a bit old to carry off her ‘child clairvoyant’ act. The ‘school strike’ card is harder to play if you’re not at school. So now we are treated instead to her dancing to Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up, clenched fists raised high at the front of various demos, an adolescent exasperation with elected officials and profanity-peppered appearances before genuflecting journalists.

    Like any great performer, Thunberg’s act has moved with the times. But what of the future? All artists run the risk of becoming stale and repetitive, forced to repeat their greatest hits while rapidly running out of new ways to shock, surprise and push creative boundaries. Will the same fate befall the Cassandra of Stockholm? Steerpike looks forward to seeing the next act in the life of Thunberg as she moves from adolescence into adulthood, with the vocabulary to match.

    2. Sexual frustration, probably. Airdrop her over Bradford and we’ll be free of her nonsense for good.

    3. Sexual frustration, probably. Airdrop her over Bradford and we’ll be free of her nonsense for good.

    4. Innuendo came in with the naming of puppets – it was doubtless in order to raise a wry smile that Dobbing The Donkey gave birth to Muffing the Mule, the bastard offspring.

    5. Innuendo came in with the naming of puppets – it was doubtless in order to raise a wry smile that Dobbing The Donkey gave birth to Muffing the Mule, her bastard offspring.

    6. Innuendo came in with the naming of puppets – it was doubtless in order to raise a wry smile that Dobbing The Donkey gave birth to Muffing the Mule, her bastard offspring.

    7. Innuendo came in with the naming of puppets – it was doubtless in order to raise a wry smile that Dobbing The Donkey gave birth to Muffing the Mule, her bastard offspring.

    4. When I saw the white vehicles in the motorcade I thought, “Ice cream vans.”
      Sleepy, literally, Joe does like his ice cream but three vans is overkill, IMHO.😎

  49. The Great Tower of Bullshyt

    1 And all the global morons were of one language, and of one speech.

    2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east and west, that they found a plain in the land of Go-glaz; and they gathered there.

    3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make tricks, and turn them throughly. And they had mendacity for purpose, and verbal slime had they for morter.

    4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a lie and a crisis, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

    5 And the LORD came down to see the lie and the crisis, which the children of men builded.

    6 And the LORD said, Behold, the morons are one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

    7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.

    8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the hokum.

    9 Therefore is the name of it called Bullshyt; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the global morons: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

    — Genesis 11:1-9 (Thanks Citroen1 for the image)

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F080cbb92-3b3d-11ec-a9ce-48a11f44f00d.jpg?crop=2711%2C1807%2C601%2C182&resize=900

  50. Apropos Copulate26 – B-in-L tells me that they have laid hundreds of miles of cable and ethernet stuff – ALL OF WHICH will go for recycling when the charade ends. To say nothing of the acres of carpet and misc fittings which will be trashed.

        1. I reckon that daft old git’s motorcade has spent the last 5 months driving to Glasgow from Carbis Bay causing the fuel shortage on the way.

        2. I reckon that daft old git’s motorcade has spent the last 5 months driving to Glasgow from Carbis Bay causing the fuel shortage on the way.

    4. I believe that at the Olympic Games companies such as Durex provided free packs of condoms for the athletes. I wonder if they were also asked to provide the same service at the Corbis Bay G7 conference and for those attending the Glasgow Fiasco.

  51. Out on parole, I presume

    Waning immunity should not alarm us

    Covid 19 is here to stay. But now the vulnerable have been protected against severe disease, restrictions cannot be justified

    SUNETRA GUPTA • 31 October 2021 • 8:00pm

    Many of the measures taken to curb the spread of Covid were justified on the basis that we were dealing with a novel pathogen and therefore had no idea about the nature of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 or the clinical consequences of infection.

    The truth is, however, that SARS-CoV-2 belongs to a family of coronaviruses with which we already have some acquaintance. Unlike measles and mumps, these viruses do not induce lifelong immunity to further infection. Instead, herd immunity is maintained through continuous re-infection. Fortunately, immunity to severe disease and death does not decay on the same timescale and so repeat infections are rarely dangerous unless the immune system itself has begun to fail due to old age and other factors.

    The presentation of the epidemic in waves across much of the world can be readily explained by the waning of natural immunity against infection on a timescale of six months to a year (which is shorter than I expected) within a background of seasonal variation in transmissibility. It is much harder to ascribe these patterns to the imposition and withdrawal of restrictions on mixing, although these interventions will no doubt have had some effect on specific dynamics.

    A short duration of immunity against infection permits us to reconcile the extreme infectiousness of the virus with the apparent absence of a substantial first wave in many settings where it is clear that SARS-CoV-2 had arrived by late 2019/early 2020. In other words, while the proportion immune may well have shot beyond the threshold of herd immunity in late winter (and remained so over the summer), due to the waning of infection-blocking immunity it would have declined sufficiently by autumn for another wave to occur when the conditions favoured a rise. A rapid decay in infection-blocking immunity is what maintains the seasonal increase in infection prevalence in the endemic state; it is also what makes the ride towards this state so very bumpy.

    Although current vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 may confer durable immunity against severe disease and death, they only confer a transient and incomplete ability to resist infection. This does not compromise the value of these vaccines in avoiding a high death toll while shepherding us towards an endemic state such as we enjoy with other seasonal coronaviruses. But it does mean that these vaccines should not be viewed as tools of eradication or indeed as an alternative route to this endemic state. The latter would require a permanent dependence on regular mass vaccination which is a much poorer solution (from a resource allocation perspective alone) than allowing an endemic state to establish naturally once those who are vulnerable have been protected.

    Neither does the waning of immunity against infection warrant the imposition of restrictions which we now can be certain cause extreme harm to the economically vulnerable and to children and young adults throughout the world. Once the vulnerable have been protected, there is no logic to putting any further resources towards preventing the spread of infection. The vaccines should also have reduced the risk of hospitalisable illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection, thereby protecting the healthcare systems from being overwhelmed. If this is not the case, then we should rapidly invest in building resilience so that the delivery of other forms of healthcare (which should never, in any case, have been deprioritised) is not compromised.

    The imposition of restrictions upon the economically disadvantaged effectively transfers to them the costs of our long history of underfunding the NHS. In order to reverse this injustice, we need to increase capacity – although much of that will now be needed to deal with the other pathogens whose transmission was temporarily halted by interventions designed to tackle Covid but are now returning with a vengeance.

    In future, we should be more aware of the larger uncertainties regarding the potential of interventions to control pandemics and balance them more wisely against the very real possibility that they may cause harm.

    Sunetra Gupta is professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/31/waning-immunity-should-not-alarm-us/

    1. We would remind Nottlers that SAGE regularly abused Professor Guptra in the last eighteen months.

    2. The greatest failure was the deliberate banning of early intervention drugs to accommodate the introduction of the “vaccine” programme. The latter has an ulterior motive as we perceive the threat of the “vaccine passport”. Early intervention would have obviated the need for a “vaccine”, saved lives and the “passport” idea could never have found traction: that would never do as the plan was already laid.

    3. The greatest failure was the deliberate banning of early intervention drugs to accommodate the introduction of the “vaccine” programme. The latter has an ulterior motive as we perceive the threat of the “vaccine passport”. Early intervention would have obviated the need for a “vaccine”, saved lives and the “passport” idea could never have found traction: that would never do as the plan was already laid.

    4. Who opened his box? Well written, calm and considered. Objective and knowledgeable. If only he had been the advisor to the government rather than the rag-bag of smug nutters that is SAGE.

    5. Who opened his box? Well written, calm and considered. Objective and knowledgeable. If only he had been the advisor to the government rather than the rag-bag of smug nutters that is SAGE.

  52. Out on parole, I presume

    Waning immunity should not alarm us

    Covid 19 is here to stay. But now the vulnerable have been protected against severe disease, restrictions cannot be justified

    SUNETRA GUPTA • 31 October 2021 • 8:00pm

    Many of the measures taken to curb the spread of Covid were justified on the basis that we were dealing with a novel pathogen and therefore had no idea about the nature of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 or the clinical consequences of infection.

    The truth is, however, that SARS-CoV-2 belongs to a family of coronaviruses with which we already have some acquaintance. Unlike measles and mumps, these viruses do not induce lifelong immunity to further infection. Instead, herd immunity is maintained through continuous re-infection. Fortunately, immunity to severe disease and death does not decay on the same timescale and so repeat infections are rarely dangerous unless the immune system itself has begun to fail due to old age and other factors.

    The presentation of the epidemic in waves across much of the world can be readily explained by the waning of natural immunity against infection on a timescale of six months to a year (which is shorter than I expected) within a background of seasonal variation in transmissibility. It is much harder to ascribe these patterns to the imposition and withdrawal of restrictions on mixing, although these interventions will no doubt have had some effect on specific dynamics.

    A short duration of immunity against infection permits us to reconcile the extreme infectiousness of the virus with the apparent absence of a substantial first wave in many settings where it is clear that SARS-CoV-2 had arrived by late 2019/early 2020. In other words, while the proportion immune may well have shot beyond the threshold of herd immunity in late winter (and remained so over the summer), due to the waning of infection-blocking immunity it would have declined sufficiently by autumn for another wave to occur when the conditions favoured a rise. A rapid decay in infection-blocking immunity is what maintains the seasonal increase in infection prevalence in the endemic state; it is also what makes the ride towards this state so very bumpy.

    Although current vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 may confer durable immunity against severe disease and death, they only confer a transient and incomplete ability to resist infection. This does not compromise the value of these vaccines in avoiding a high death toll while shepherding us towards an endemic state such as we enjoy with other seasonal coronaviruses. But it does mean that these vaccines should not be viewed as tools of eradication or indeed as an alternative route to this endemic state. The latter would require a permanent dependence on regular mass vaccination which is a much poorer solution (from a resource allocation perspective alone) than allowing an endemic state to establish naturally once those who are vulnerable have been protected.

    Neither does the waning of immunity against infection warrant the imposition of restrictions which we now can be certain cause extreme harm to the economically vulnerable and to children and young adults throughout the world. Once the vulnerable have been protected, there is no logic to putting any further resources towards preventing the spread of infection. The vaccines should also have reduced the risk of hospitalisable illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection, thereby protecting the healthcare systems from being overwhelmed. If this is not the case, then we should rapidly invest in building resilience so that the delivery of other forms of healthcare (which should never, in any case, have been deprioritised) is not compromised.

    The imposition of restrictions upon the economically disadvantaged effectively transfers to them the costs of our long history of underfunding the NHS. In order to reverse this injustice, we need to increase capacity – although much of that will now be needed to deal with the other pathogens whose transmission was temporarily halted by interventions designed to tackle Covid but are now returning with a vengeance.

    In future, we should be more aware of the larger uncertainties regarding the potential of interventions to control pandemics and balance them more wisely against the very real possibility that they may cause harm.

    Sunetra Gupta is professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/31/waning-immunity-should-not-alarm-us/

  53. Out on parole, I presume

    Waning immunity should not alarm us

    Covid 19 is here to stay. But now the vulnerable have been protected against severe disease, restrictions cannot be justified

    SUNETRA GUPTA • 31 October 2021 • 8:00pm

    Many of the measures taken to curb the spread of Covid were justified on the basis that we were dealing with a novel pathogen and therefore had no idea about the nature of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 or the clinical consequences of infection.

    The truth is, however, that SARS-CoV-2 belongs to a family of coronaviruses with which we already have some acquaintance. Unlike measles and mumps, these viruses do not induce lifelong immunity to further infection. Instead, herd immunity is maintained through continuous re-infection. Fortunately, immunity to severe disease and death does not decay on the same timescale and so repeat infections are rarely dangerous unless the immune system itself has begun to fail due to old age and other factors.

    The presentation of the epidemic in waves across much of the world can be readily explained by the waning of natural immunity against infection on a timescale of six months to a year (which is shorter than I expected) within a background of seasonal variation in transmissibility. It is much harder to ascribe these patterns to the imposition and withdrawal of restrictions on mixing, although these interventions will no doubt have had some effect on specific dynamics.

    A short duration of immunity against infection permits us to reconcile the extreme infectiousness of the virus with the apparent absence of a substantial first wave in many settings where it is clear that SARS-CoV-2 had arrived by late 2019/early 2020. In other words, while the proportion immune may well have shot beyond the threshold of herd immunity in late winter (and remained so over the summer), due to the waning of infection-blocking immunity it would have declined sufficiently by autumn for another wave to occur when the conditions favoured a rise. A rapid decay in infection-blocking immunity is what maintains the seasonal increase in infection prevalence in the endemic state; it is also what makes the ride towards this state so very bumpy.

    Although current vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 may confer durable immunity against severe disease and death, they only confer a transient and incomplete ability to resist infection. This does not compromise the value of these vaccines in avoiding a high death toll while shepherding us towards an endemic state such as we enjoy with other seasonal coronaviruses. But it does mean that these vaccines should not be viewed as tools of eradication or indeed as an alternative route to this endemic state. The latter would require a permanent dependence on regular mass vaccination which is a much poorer solution (from a resource allocation perspective alone) than allowing an endemic state to establish naturally once those who are vulnerable have been protected.

    Neither does the waning of immunity against infection warrant the imposition of restrictions which we now can be certain cause extreme harm to the economically vulnerable and to children and young adults throughout the world. Once the vulnerable have been protected, there is no logic to putting any further resources towards preventing the spread of infection. The vaccines should also have reduced the risk of hospitalisable illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection, thereby protecting the healthcare systems from being overwhelmed. If this is not the case, then we should rapidly invest in building resilience so that the delivery of other forms of healthcare (which should never, in any case, have been deprioritised) is not compromised.

    The imposition of restrictions upon the economically disadvantaged effectively transfers to them the costs of our long history of underfunding the NHS. In order to reverse this injustice, we need to increase capacity – although much of that will now be needed to deal with the other pathogens whose transmission was temporarily halted by interventions designed to tackle Covid but are now returning with a vengeance.

    In future, we should be more aware of the larger uncertainties regarding the potential of interventions to control pandemics and balance them more wisely against the very real possibility that they may cause harm.

    Sunetra Gupta is professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/31/waning-immunity-should-not-alarm-us/

    1. Many are the self same – when they get out of bed in the morning they swing in the direction that the mood takes them.

    2. If Johnson thought it would have enhanced his international standing he would have stopped the illegals immediately he came into power. On the other hand, posing as the World’s saviour and the provider of largesse to all and sundry puts glitter on Johnson: we all know you can’t polish one, so glitter it has to be.

    1. It is astonishing that anyone actually takes this overpaid wokist idiot seriously.

      They say he was a good footballer but so was the existentialist playwright and novelist, Albert Camus – who was a goalie – and Recep Erdogan who was a professional footballer before becoming the Islamic Tyrant of the Land of Boris Johnson’s forefathers.

  59. Stanley Johnson: ‘My great-grandfather married a 14-year-old white slave’
    The Turkish side of the Prime Minister’s family has brought revelations but, for his father, those links have always been intriguing
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/stanley-johnson-great-grandfather-married-14-year-old-white/

    So Boris Johnson’s sordid priapism is down to his genes and has been passed down from generation to generation.

    And what about the white slave girl. Shouldn’t the white people in Europe be howling for reparations?

  61. It is truly uplifting to see how the UK’s Foreign Aid budget is bringing relief to the needy of the Developing Nations.

    Raise a glass to saving the planet! Zimbabweans stock up on Costco whisky, wine and beer in Glasgow as they hold huge party to welcome president Emmerson ‘the crocodile’ Mnangagwa
    Video shared on Twitter by Zimbabwe’s Information Minister, Nick Mangwana
    It showed two men wheeling out trolley loads of alcohol and crisps from Costco
    It comes as president Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa arrived for the Cop26
    Mr Mnangagwa met Boris Johnson and UN chief Antonio Guterres yesterday

    https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2021/11/02/8400064654742014649/640x360_MP4_8400064654742014649.mp4

  62. It is truly uplifting to see how the UK’s Foreign Aid budget is bringing relief to the needy of the Developing Nations.

    Raise a glass to saving the planet! Zimbabweans stock up on Costco whisky, wine and beer in Glasgow as they hold huge party to welcome president Emmerson ‘the crocodile’ Mnangagwa
    Video shared on Twitter by Zimbabwe’s Information Minister, Nick Mangwana
    It showed two men wheeling out trolley loads of alcohol and crisps from Costco
    It comes as president Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa arrived for the Cop26
    Mr Mnangagwa met Boris Johnson and UN chief Antonio Guterres yesterday

    https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2021/11/02/8400064654742014649/640x360_MP4_8400064654742014649.mp4

  63. 340784+ up ticks,

    Maybe the people smugglers could help, or could Lucky Luciano who helped in WW2 could make an offer that WILL NOT be refused.

    Fish wars: British trawler still being held in France despite UK minister claiming it had been released
    George Eustice said Scottish-registered Cornelis Gert Jan was held due to ‘administrative error’, but its owner said it was still impounded

    1. Although most people think of twisters striking ‘Tornado Alley’ in the US, the UK actually has more tornadoes per area than any other country. And now we know where they are most likely to occur.

      In a paper published in the journal Monthly Weather Review, the team from the University of Manchester show how they used eye-witness reports of the twisters to put together the map, which covers the UK from 1980–2012. Data for the study came from TORRO, an organisation which collects severe weather reports from the media and over 350 observers in the UK, Ireland and around the world.

      During that period the country experienced an average of 34 tornadoes every year. Although the peak season for tornadoes is from May to October, they can occur at any time of the year. Most of those were in England (78%), with the most prone regions the south, south east and west where the threat of a tornado may be as high as 6% in any given year (in other words, a one in 17-year event).

      Few of the storms were very strong however, with 95% classified as being F0 or F1 (or estimated wind speeds of up to 112 mph) with the remainder F2 (estimated wind speeds up to 157 mph). There were none any stronger than that, such as the devastating F5s (estimated wind speeds over 300 mph) that can hit the United States and cause widespread loss of life and damage to property. There were no tornadoes reported at all in large parts of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland during 1980–2012.

    2. Although most people think of twisters striking ‘Tornado Alley’ in the US, the UK actually has more tornadoes per area than any other country. And now we know where they are most likely to occur.

      In a paper published in the journal Monthly Weather Review, the team from the University of Manchester show how they used eye-witness reports of the twisters to put together the map, which covers the UK from 1980–2012. Data for the study came from TORRO, an organisation which collects severe weather reports from the media and over 350 observers in the UK, Ireland and around the world.

      During that period the country experienced an average of 34 tornadoes every year. Although the peak season for tornadoes is from May to October, they can occur at any time of the year. Most of those were in England (78%), with the most prone regions the south, south east and west where the threat of a tornado may be as high as 6% in any given year (in other words, a one in 17-year event).

      Few of the storms were very strong however, with 95% classified as being F0 or F1 (or estimated wind speeds of up to 112 mph) with the remainder F2 (estimated wind speeds up to 157 mph). There were none any stronger than that, such as the devastating F5s (estimated wind speeds over 300 mph) that can hit the United States and cause widespread loss of life and damage to property. There were no tornadoes reported at all in large parts of Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland during 1980–2012.

    3. I have a friend near there. She bought a static caravan as a holiday home next to the fishing lakes. Better phone her i suppose.

    4. I have a friend near there. She bought a static caravan as a holiday home next to the fishing lakes. Better phone her i suppose.

    4. One Law, that should be written in stone, is that all Senior Staff, mast be vaccinated infront of witness,. from the workforce,
      with vaccines supplied from an independent source, by the ‘workers’

      It is so easy for The great and the Good to operate on

      One Rule for the Proles

      A totally different one, for the Lords and the Mistress’

      Look at COP26, HoL, G7 etc

      1. IMO no “Vaccine” should be mandatory. Especially one that took only 8/9 months to produce, doesn’t give immunity from the disease, and requires “booster” shots just 5/6 months later. And, who knows, every 5/6 months onwards for ever.

        1. I agree`, however, if the NHS demands that ‘workers’ mus have, so must the bosses.

          That way, they will suffer the same as the Plebs

          I doubt if Boros and the H o C bastards conform to what we have to dio

      2. IMO no “Vaccine” should be mandatory. Especially one that took only 8/9 months to produce, doesn’t give immunity from the disease, and requires “booster” shots just 5/6 months later. And, who knows, every 5/6 months onwards for ever.

      3. IMO no “Vaccine” should be mandatory. Especially one that took only 8/9 months to produce, doesn’t give immunity from the disease, and requires “booster” shots just 5/6 months later. And, who knows, every 5/6 months onwards for ever.

      4. IMO no “Vaccine” should be mandatory. Especially one that took only 8/9 months to produce, doesn’t give immunity from the disease, and requires “booster” shots just 5/6 months later. And, who knows, every 5/6 months onwards for ever.

      5. IMO no “Vaccine” should be mandatory. Especially one that took only 8/9 months to produce, doesn’t give immunity from the disease, and requires “booster” shots just 5/6 months later. And, who knows, every 5/6 months onwards for ever.

    5. One Law, that should be written in stone, is that all Senior Staff, mast be vaccinated infront of witness,. from the workforce,
      with vaccines supplied from an independent source, by the ‘workers’

      It is so easy for The great and the Good to operate on

      One Rule for the Proles

      A totally different one, for the Lords and the Mistress’

      Look at COP26, HoL, G7 etc

  67. Is Disgust ‘playing up’ with anyone else

    1. When I click the box, beside my name, to checl ticks, praise, abuse etc, I now get taken to a new page.
    Until yesterday, the iLH side of the screen ‘went dark’ and my comments opened on the RH side.

    2. Many times now, I type the first line of a ‘New Comment’, Press “Enter” to move to next line: Woi Typed has Gorn

    2. 2) was happening to me when I was using Firefox. Another issue with Firefox was when copying in, the text already on the page would be moved down the page by auto line insertion. Tidying up was always a chore. Switched back to Opera the other day and all seems well at the moment.

    3. For more tan 6 months I have not been able to log onto discuss on my phone, it tells me that i’m already registered, well I know but………

  68. Hands up who would actually want to buy a french car any way ? 😏☝🏽✌🏽 suitable gestures.

      1. I wouldn’t do it to Dolly but i don’t see the harm. Dolly has a Rudolph the Red nose reindeer jumper.

          1. If it serves a purpose, like keeping the animal warm, all well and good. But to dress an animal up for gratuitous fun is not on.

          3. I think he looks lovely and joining in the spirit of Christmas – dogs do love to join in. He looks very imperious.

      2. I wouldn’t do it to Dolly but i don’t see the harm. Dolly has a Rudolph the Red nose reindeer jumper.

  71. 12:50 02/11/2021

    Wind isn’t much cop.

    UK electricity generation
    Gas 20.04 GW (54%)
    Nuclear 5.60 GW (15.1%)
    Wind 1.22 GW (3.3%)

    1. It can’t cope with the great wind blasting forth from Glasgow. It should have been held offshore – way, way offshore.

      1. Too many bird-chomping windmills in the way! I did suggest Rockall. It’s what the creeps will achieve anyway!

    1. Just found a parcel on the passenger seat of my car. I wondered when it was going to be delivered. 🙂

  74. Putin ‘is right’ in claiming the West is destroying itself through woke politics. 2 November 2021.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin “is right” when he claims the West is destroying itself through woke politics, according to Herald Sun journalist Caleb Bond.

    It comes after the Russian President gave a speech last week where he warned against the cancel culture and identity politics of the West and argued Russia had “been there already” while under communist rule.

    Of course he’s right! Vlad’s a Nottler!

    https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/andrew-bolt/putin-is-right-in-claiming-the-west-is-destroying-itself-through-woke-politics/video/8afbf3686f05f8ddb0016f7d71dc9e51

    1. And here is Putin giving that speech in which he sounds more Pro-Western than our own politicians. You will have to turn subtitles on because he is speaking in Russia, For subtitles, for those who don’t know, it is the thing on the bottom right next to the cog on the left that looks like a mini credit card. This man is supposed to be the villain but I would rather him than Boris.

      Putin: Wokeness Is Dismantling The West: Cancel Culture First Happened In Russia During Bolsheviks!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45gV_0owJ20&list=TLPQMDExMTIwMjH-lkyO-HcE5Q&index=44

      1. Turns out he’s a ‘moderate conservative’. Perhaps The UK’s ‘Conservative’ Party can ask for some tips?…..

        1. Yes, if you take him at his word it is quite absurd to think of him as either a remnant of the USSR plotting a return to glory or as a right wing extremist. He comes across as perfectly moderate in his views, and, what is more important, sensible.

      2. As the Ozzie’s suggest you just can not fix stoopid, it might be something that just dies out eventually.
        Sometimes i have the feeling that Vlad would much better at running this country than all of our current dopey wokey idiots.

        2. I agree Eddy. I watch Putin’s long press interviews and contrary to what the West claims, he comes across as perfectly reasonable, a person with a sense of humour, long on patience and not despotic at all. Even when he gets long questions from Americans etc that are clearly designed to insult his country and him. There is a particularly humorous exchange between him and a banker on You Tube, in which the banker asks him for a donation and when he says yes, the banker is right there with a blank cheque. To which Putin makes a remark about them always being after a persons wallet!

          1. The problem most western societies have, is there are far too many politicians who want to be ‘in the running’ and need to be recognised but hardy every achieve anything except their own ego boosting. We simply do not need 680 plus all the hangers on interfering in the lives of ordinary people. As I have said many times, everything they come into contact with the eff it up. Everything.

    2. And here is Putin giving that speech in which he sounds more Pro-Western than our own politicians. You will have to turn subtitles on because he is speaking in Russia, For subtitles, for those who don’t know, it is the thing on the bottom right next to the cog on the left that looks like a mini credit card. This man is supposed to be the villain but I would rather him than Boris.

      Putin: Wokeness Is Dismantling The West: Cancel Culture First Happened In Russia During Bolsheviks!

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45gV_0owJ20&list=TLPQMDExMTIwMjH-lkyO-HcE5Q&index=44

    3. 340784+ up ticks,

      Afternoon AS,
      On the whine show they could no say the Vlad & the Charlie Chans number one son were tipping the gathering bollocks so they were fabricating excuses along the lines the pair had serious bones in their legs
      so would not be attending.

      1. Why do you put yourself through the Whine fest, ogga? I gave it up and feel so much cleaner!

        1. 340784+ up ticks,
          Afternoon S m,
          I listen down the garage where I can shout
          in a stress relief anti whine manner, haven’t seen an insect in the garage for ages either so it works in many ways.

    4. I often wish he was in charge of our once fair, functional, ordered and trustworthy nation. Since Major and others it’s been in a downward bottomless chute.

  75. Just to join in the general atmosphere of gloom: the Council of Europe and the European Union are now funding a campaign announcing that wearing the hijab is a “choice” and “freedom”. They seem to have forgotten that thousands of women in the world are being persecuted precisely because they want to exercise their freedom of choice and not wear the hijab!

    https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-speech/campaign-on-countering-anti-muslim-hate-speech

      4. What’s the word? No! This isn’t a Muslim continent. We don’t want the terrorists here. In the west we do not cover our faces.

        1. Wearing this garb has been a form of deliberate provocation in Europe. These people know that if governments tried to stop it they would have the much sought after excuse to riot.
          It’s not long ago when men were stopped from wearing hats in public buildings and other public places, because it was not possible to see their faces on CCTV.

    3. Mendacity – thy name is EU!

      Look at Iran! Women are being persecuted for not wearing Muslim dress.

      And in Europe – and even in Britain – wearing a hijab is very much not a choice. Young women are often compelled by their tyrannical fathers to wear the hijab and are beaten – even killed – if they do not comply.

      If the EU really wanted to run a campaign to liberate Muslim women and give them freedom to dress as they like they would be running a campaign encouraging them to do so.

    4. The EU rather suffers from the same problem americaland does – it thinks it is the centre of the universe.

    5. ‘Messages on countering anti-Muslim hate speech
      Download and use the visual materials which were developed by participants during our recent workshop on developing human rights-based narratives to counter anti-Muslim hate speech (27-28 September 2021) using the online toolkit for human rights speech.’

      I see our European ‘friends and partners’ are still using English (the native language of only two EU countries – the small Ireland and the even smaller Malta) to push their messages. Have they no self-respect?

    6. ‘Messages on countering anti-Muslim hate speech
      Download and use the visual materials which were developed by participants during our recent workshop on developing human rights-based narratives to counter anti-Muslim hate speech (27-28 September 2021) using the online toolkit for human rights speech.’

      I see our European ‘friends and partners’ are still using English (the native language of only two EU countries – the small Ireland and the even smaller Malta) to push their messages. Have they no self-respect?

    7. If there are choices to be made, one can almost guarantee that the EU will make the wrong ones.

  76. We need a change of mindset – the climate crisis could make Covid feel like a mere blip. Mary Robinson. 2 November 2021.

    Climate summits like Cop26 are a test of leaders’ mettle. As a former head of state and a UN climate envoy, I know the pressure they will be under in Glasgow, but also the power they have to make lasting, positive change at a time of crisis.

    For the climate crisis is most definitely upon us, in every corner of the globe. We have even seen trains taking delegates and activists to Glasgow for the Cop26 climate summit being cancelled due to extreme heavy rain in the North of England.

    Mary Robinson is a former President of Ireland! ‘Nuff said?

    https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/cop26-climate-crisis-cut-emissions-the-elders-b1949682.html

    1. I assume she isn’t aware that the North of England and Scotland tend to get quite wet in October/November? It’s called weather, and not climate catastrophe!

      1. Afternoon Sue. There is always a default tendency to believe that politicians are Smart but Crooked. In reality there are just as many who are Dumb but Honest!

        3. Not sure about the ‘honest’! Minty! They don’t really help themselves, collectively!

      2. Afternoon Sue. There is always a default tendency to believe that politicians are Smart but Crooked. In reality there are just as many who are Dumb but Honest!

      3. Afternoon Sue. There is always a default tendency to believe that politicians are Smart but Crooked. In reality there are just as many who are Dumb but Honest!

    1. The head of Morrisons is David Tom Potts. He failed all five O-Level exams. He could have become a politician but started work in a greengrocer’s – and has got greener and greener ever since. Potts by name, pots by nature.

      1. It’s a real shame, as the ‘real’ Morrison (Sir Ken) was a bluff, no-nonsense Yorkshireman who wouldn’t have given a monkeys what the wailing whingers thought! I met him a couple of times and he was a charming man!

        1. AFAIK David Potts is a quiet and thoughtful person, an excellent listener and highly ‘focused’. Has always been keen on sport. The story is that when he was a youngster working in a branch of Tesco in the 1970s, a Head Office type appeared and wanted to inspect the store. As the manager was absent, Dave showed the bloke around, and the visitor was so impressed that Dave was selected for training & promotion etc.

          1. I wasn’t having a go at him! He really sounds as though he’s good at what he does! Just wish they wouldn’t cave to the loons!
            PS. What is AFAIK?
            Forget that! I’ve just worked it out!

      3. Good grief! I’ve just googled him! Born the same month and year as me, and went to the same College (Hollings)!
        He seems to have done OK for himself – at least I passed my ‘O’ levels!🙄

    2. Because they have a marketing department that on seeing this, let out a long, deep sigh at the ignorance, stupidity and spite of remoaners and published a non-apology that the nutcase Left won’t accept and the common sense normals will shake their heads at, as everyone thinks… thank goodness we left the hated EU.

    3. Because they have a marketing department that on seeing this, let out a long, deep sigh at the ignorance, stupidity and spite of remoaners and published a non-apology that the nutcase Left won’t accept and the common sense normals will shake their heads at, as everyone thinks… thank goodness we left the hated EU.

      1. Flunkey is derived from the notion of one who is employed to attract the Flu virus away from a VIP – hence why the Flunkey isn’t masked…..

    5. Whenever I see Charlie it reminds me of his mentor and close friend, Laurens van der Post, who in the early 1950s, when he was 46, raped Bonny Kohler-Baker, the 14-year-old daughter of a prominent South African wine-making family, who had been entrusted to his care during a sea voyage. She became pregnant, and although he sent her a small stipend, he never publicly acknowledged the daughter born of the relationship. I don’t think he was prosecuted for it either. Van der Post described the African Bushmen as the “lost soul” of all mankind, a type of noble savage. He was also unfaithful to his wives I have wondered just how close Charlie was to the sex starved pervert.

  79. Nice afternoon – if a tad chilly. Lovely in the sun. Have removed the climbing bean frames. “Cobra” is the variety – that has supplied us with very tasty beans since July. And, true to form, gave one last large handful today.

    It is a remarkable variety – I recommend it to anyone who likes beans and has a square yard of ground available.

  80. Any news about the Swedish Muppet being arrested for using foul language in a public place?

    Thought not. Pity.

    2. They have changed tactics so are evading the filters – keep flagging. I’ve dealt with all the ones I’ve seen.

  83. A Cambridge University study found that 93% of clinicians say their quality of diagnoses are worse on remote consultations.

    Spectator Lunchtime Briefing

    2. And this, folks is where all the lovely Foreign Aid ends up! We were in there last week with the twins! They like the freebies as well!

    3. And this, folks is where all the lovely Foreign Aid ends up! We were in there last week with the twins! They like the freebies as well!

  85. The clarion cry of this coblers28 farce – Bloody hypocrites

    There was an interview on the radio last night where they were interviewing swooning over some 15 year old school girlie from Calgary who has flown over to Glasgow to be part of the chin wag.

    What on earth does she expect to achieve? Even if she was part of the official conflab, what impact on things would she have and would the impact outweigh the pollution resulting from her (I hope commercial) flight?

    2. “Please, please if anyone is struggling – please speak out, because we as a family are broken
      and we wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what we are.”,

      hints that he took his own life, if so what a tragedy

      1. Afternoon Sue, This is the President of the United States we are looking at! The world’s most powerful country. No one’s surprised by it. If you had seen something like this about Eisenhower or Kennedy there would have been an eruption of protest. Biden is on the cusp of senility and no one says a word! Should some crisis develop who can say what might happen?

        1. Biden has never seriously been considered as PotUS, by millions of people. How he came to be there, is a much bigger question and who on earth is backing him? As you say, what could possibly go wrong?
          The overwhelming sense of helplessness and frustration with our own political ‘class’ is replicated across Europe, and the world. Apart from proper national countries like Poland, Hungary and dare ?I say, Russia, who at least seem to like their countrymen!

          1. Apparently if he is deposed, Kamala becomes President and the Dems lose their casting vote in the Senate. Hoisted by their own Pet Tard!

  92. Tom Slater
    Un-cancel Terry Gilliam!

    All he’s done is express widely held opinions
    2 November 2021, 1:55pm

    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt6e9a6fa436325a70/618143b25eacb518da5aaa14/GettyImages-960142606.jpg?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=crop

    Iam starting to wonder if the world of arts and culture is staffed, in large part if not exclusively, by massive whinging babies. What other plausible explanation is there for the frequency with which publishing houses, streaming services and theatres are going into open revolt because their employers have commissioned work by someone whose opinions they happen to find disagreeable?

    Terry Gilliam is the latest artist in the crosshairs. The Monty Python legend and director was due to co-direct a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at the Old Vic in London next year. Sondheim had expressed support for Gilliam’s vision for the show. But according to reports in the Stage, ‘staff unrest’ about his personal views has led to the show being cancelled.

    So, what bigotries and heresies has Gilliam uttered that so upset the staff at the Old Vic? He has said that #MeToo got a bit out of hand — that while he ‘hated’ Harvey Weinstein there were ‘decent people’ who were ‘getting hammered’ by the movement. He has also rubbished the idea of white privilege and had a pop at identity politics, quipping last year (to a clearly unimpressed interviewer for the Independent) that he was a ‘black lesbian in transition’.

    In sum, he has expressed pretty widely held views — that we should punish sexual abusers but avoid witch hunts; and that notions of self-identification and privilege are not just wrong but also quite amusing. That is precisely what you’d expect from an 80-year-old Python. And yet this has apparently so ‘upset’ the staff at the Old Vic that management cannot abide his presence at their theatre next year.

    The Old Vic has told the Stage that executive director Kate Varah met members of staff about their concerns and that senior management then met Gilliam and his co-director ‘to discuss our culture and values’, eventually deciding it was best not to go ahead. Any suggestion that this was a commercial decision, perhaps owing to fears of a public backlash, should be dispelled by reports that ‘thousands of tickets’ had already been sold at the time the production was canned.

    There are particular sensitivities around #MeToo at the Old Vic due to the case of Kevin Spacey. (During the Hollywood actor’s time as artistic director there a number of allegations of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ were made against him.) But then Gilliam has said nothing about Spacey.

    This is clearly part of a broader trend, whereby culture sector workers are now staging protests not over pay or working conditions but over their own hurt feelings.

    Just last month Netflix workers staged a walkout over comedian Dave Chappelle’s latest special, The Closer, because in it he makes jokes about transgenderism. Last year, staff at publishing house Hachette, who were working on a new J.K. Rowling childrens’ book, threatened to down tools over her views on gender identity. A few months later at Penguin Random House Canada, tearful staff confronted management over its decision to publish conservative psychologist Jordan Peterson’s latest self help book.

    In all those cases, management held out, usually after much apologising for the ‘pain’ they’d somehow inflicted. So the Old Vic’s capitulation suggests the resolve of senior management may be wearing thin, under the intense pressure of their hysterical staff. The notion of artistic freedom, across fiction, comedy and theatre, is facing a serious, internal challenge from staff who seem to think it’s a worker’s right not to be offended.

    In this, they are playing a dangerous game. Indeed, if Terry Gilliam can be sacked because someone takes offence to his opinions, then the same could easily happen to someone further down the pecking order who later finds themselves in breach of our ever-changing moral code. These revolts just hand more power to management to police acceptable thought.

    Nevertheless, these tearful little Torquemadas appear intent on making a cultural sphere — long criticised for its bias towards metropolitan values — even more narrow and homogeneous. Big institutions that already acted as cultural gatekeepers are now being encouraged to submit all art and artists to a punishing purity test.

    It’s time we stood up to this tyranny of overgrown infants.

    WRITTEN BY
    Tom Slater
    Tom Slater is deputy editor of Spiked

    *****************************************************************

    BeMoreBader • 2 hours ago
    ‘Senior management then met Gilliam and his co-director ‘to discuss our culture and values’, at which meeting he discovered they didn’t have any.

    BeMoreBader • 2 hours ago
    ‘he was a ‘black lesbian in transition’.’ Are you saying that the Independent interviewer actually refused to accept his self-declared identity? Isn’t that punishable by death in 2021?

    1. Ah, K Verah, Verah whatever will be will be, the future’s not ours you see… K Verah, Verah

    3. “Our culture and values”? Not the culture and values of the country, presumably, since most people I know would agree with Gilliam.

    2. Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, supported his comments, also insisting the ECB must launch a “swift and fully transparent”
      investigation.

      “Azeem Rafiq’s treatment after the racism he faced was disgusting, and the investigation that followed only makes it even worse,” she
      tweeted. “Racism must be confronted, and never written off as just ‘banter’.”

      Perhaps, if the Authorities pursued the Grooming Gangs of Rochdale et al, who are of Pakistani Origin, with as much vigour, as they are doing in this case, perhaps we show more respect to them

      I would like Norries and/or Jabid to point out, the last time, if it has ever happened, that a Pakistani was accused of racism against a White Person
      I think Never would be the answer or do they honestly think, that Pakistanis can be racist as well

  99. As expected – here we go again:

    “MPs told to wear masks in Parliament amid rising Covid cases….”

    1. What rising cases? Who is dreaming up these “rising cases”? These people make me utterly 🤒 sick.

  100. Ross Clark
    Did Covid first emerge at the Wuhan Institute of Virology?
    2 November 2021, 1:49pm

    The net around the Wuhan Institute of Virology continues to tighten. A letter from Lawrence Tabak, principal deputy director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, has shed more light on the grant which the institute made to the EcoHealth Alliance for work at the Wuhan Institute.

    One of the experiments, it reveals, involved testing to see whether the spike protein of a naturally-occurring coronavirus found in the bat population was capable of attaching itself to a human receptor, via experiments with mice engineered with a human gene. The experiment amounted to ‘gain of function’ research (something the NIH has denied) – modifying viruses so that they have qualities which don’t exist in nature. According to the Republican group on the oversight committee which received the letter, Tabak’s note contradicts an earlier one sent on 28 July which claimed that no funding had been provided for gain of function research.

    The letter also reveals that mice which became infected with the modified virus became sicker than those infected with the naturally-occurring one. The NIH goes on to assert that the viruses used in the experiments could not possibly have gone on to evolve into SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes Covid 19. But that is rather beside the point.

    What the letter confirms is that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was involved in experiments which played around with naturally-occurring viruses, in at least one instance creating a virus that was capable of making mice – and quite probably humans, too – sicker than the virus from which it was derived.

    That the head of the EcoHealth Alliance, Peter Daszak, was among a number of eminent scientists to sign a round robin letter last year refuting any suggestion that SARS-CoV-2 could possibly have had a man-made origin adds to the sense of suspicion that it was a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – rather than a natural virus jumping from an animal in a market, or some other place – which was to blame for the pandemic.

    Short of a whistleblower emerging from the institute to tell us exactly what might have gone on there, we are unlikely ever to know for sure, but at some point Western governments are going to have to take the issue very seriously.

    Throughout the pandemic, virologists in particular and scientists in general have been held up as rock stars, people whose wisdom and knowledge has helped us fight a deadly disease. Of course, in many instances, that is true. But if, as seems increasingly likely, it was virologists who also caused the disaster in the first place, that cannot simply be brushed aside. There will have to be debate as to which experiments should be allowed and which should not, under what conditions and by whom. International scientists cannot be allowed to suppress this debate as some attempted to do last year.

    There is also the small matter of to what extent we can trust China. Given its own behaviour in trying to block WHO investigators from looking into the Wuhan institute as a possible source of Covid-19, the lesson would appear to be that we can’t trust it at all. In which case, we certainly shouldn’t be funding any research which takes place in its scientific institutions.

    1. It is patently obvious that it came from the lab at Wuhan. Either deliberately, as a local experiment, or accidentally. Either way, the Chinese are responsible for (perhaps) millions of premature deaths.

        2. And if Covid doesn’t kill you the vaccine will.

          The number of funerals at which Caroline has played this year is well up on last year and most of the deceased were double jabbed.

          1. Have you compiled a list of the ages of the deceased? Most of the elderly population are probably double vaccinated. If there is a disproportionate number of young deceased then it becomes worrying….

  101. Flop26: William gobbing off like his father’ They should keep out of politics.

    A report, from April, said that vocal eco-campaigner Prince Charles was the worst offender, with 25 trips covering 120,213 air miles at a cost of more than £2.4 million.
    Over the same period William flew 48,496 air miles during 10 trips at a cost of £477,054. A total of 70 percent of these were by private jet.     (D Express)

    1. Prince Charles had 521 engagements in 2019, the last time they were reported. So what would you have him do, take a balloon? I would think it obviously impractical for him or his sister, the second hardest working royal, to travel another way than by plane since meeting and greeting is their job and, on behalf of the UK, they have far greater merit than some dull politician, including the PM. So, no, they are not hypocrites the hypocrisy is in expecting them to do their jobs and then complaining because they are doing it. Conversely the same people that complain, would do so to if they did not travel or meet people. It is totally unfair to blamer the royals because either way, they are condemned as hypocrites in the unenviable position of damned if they do and damned if they don’t. In particular, in his personal life, Charles does a tremendous amount in terms of trying to live a life in concert with ecological concepts and has done for years, even before it became fashionable, but even on that he is mocked and regarded by some as “feeble minded” when he is demonstrably anything but. And, by the way, constitutionally, they have every right to be involved in politics until one or the other ascends the throne. Where people got the idea they should not be involved, I have no idea, it isn’t in the constitution. Also people certainly didn’t mind when the Prince of Wales, the one that married “that woman” was involved in politics. on the contrary, he was regarded as some sort of ‘golden boy by the public.

      1. If they simply did their jobs of “meeting and greeting” no one would object.

        Their hypocrisy is DOING the job and then lecturing us of how we must do this, that and the other to avoid air travel, heating, driving, shopping etc etc etc. IN other words THEY can do what they like because it’s “the job” but we can’t – even if our job requires travel etc.

        They should just shut their mouths and stop lecturing us.

        2. As I said. They are perfectly entitled to their opinion until they ascend the throne. So I see no reason for them to “shut up” at all. I happen not to agree with their ecological nonsense but that does not make me wish they should be silent. They are not automatons and, I think it, quite reasonable to have them behave as if they were robots. So, no, I do not see it as “hypocrisy” at all and to think they can do what they like is simply untrue as you well know. Harry tried that, didn’t he? And look where that got him!

          2. We will differ. But I would ask you to consider this. When the last corner stone, the last bastion of true Britishness and more specifically Englishness has been chipped away and falls after more that 1000 years of tradition. Whence England, who will we be and what for?

          3. I fear, Johnathan, that their blatant hypocrisy will be their undoing. Fair enough that they need to fly to do their job, but it’s too rich when they use their privileged position to tell us plebs what we can’t do when they are doing it themselves. It doesn’t go down well among the natives; they get restless and that could well be the end of them and more than 1000 years of tradition.

          4. I do not see them as hypocrites, as I have already pointed out. They are in the position of being damned if they do and damned if they don’t. But I do see people who want to preserve the English way of life constantly gnawing at the foundations of what it is to be British or English as the hypocrites. People should thing about the larger picture. We all have our likes and dislikes but in the end the constant destruction of our institutions are far more serious than our personal discontents. I believe that if we constantly criticise the monarchy and it collapses then that will be the end of England. It is the bastion, the keep of the castle and when it falls, evil will triumph. And we all know where that evil is coming from and it is perverse to aid and abet it. I would urge people to see the larger picture and not allow themselves to become embroiled in things that are transitory and, in the end, of little consequence to the good of the country.

          6. And that is precisely my point. Once you have destroyed all the institutions that make Britain, a vacuum will be created into which Islam will walk in. And, if I may say so, those who did not hold up British and English traditions will have themselves to blame for the consequences.

  102. An elderly man living alone in Scotland wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, since the ground was hard. His only son, Paul, who used to help him, was in prison (Strangeways) Manchester . The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

    Dear Paul,

    I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.

    Love, Dad

    A few days later he received a letter from his son.

    Dear Dad,

    Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.

    Love,

    Paul.

    At 4 a.m. the next morning, CID officers and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

    Dear Dad,

    Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.

  103. An elderly man living alone in Scotland wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, since the ground was hard. His only son, Paul, who used to help him, was in prison (Strangeways) Manchester . The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

    Dear Paul,

    I am feeling pretty sad, because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over.. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days.

    Love, Dad

    A few days later he received a letter from his son.

    Dear Dad,

    Don’t dig up that garden. That’s where the bodies are buried.

    Love,

    Paul.

    At 4 a.m. the next morning, CID officers and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

    Dear Dad,

    Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That’s the best I could do under the circumstances.

      2. The familiarity of an joke can be rather comfortable – but there is a limit to how many times you can enjoy it. As this was only the second time I have heard it I did enjoy it once again and Caroline did too when I read it aloud to her as she had not heard it before.

          4. Fell a bit flat, my attempted joke… I was thinking of the roadside bombs that slammers use against infidel troops.

          5. I remember my father putting one of those Fray Bentos steak and kidney pudding tins in the oven without opening the tin. Blew the oven door off.

          8. Not as bad as my first father in law. Quite literally had no idea how to turn on the gas to heat water. Would have starved to death without a wife or housemaid to cater to him.

          13. None, I would guess. You’d have to open the can before you can tell whether it’s disgusting or not.

    2. They only put 500 tins on sale on their disgusting website. No wonder they sold out. Probably all bought by shareholders who then donated them to the unsuspecting poor and food banks.

      Utterly fucking vile. Far too much salt and processing.

      I once worked for a small business supplying vac packed cheeses and sliced meats to corner shops in the South West. Mostly to people who couldn’t afford to buy the whole item from supermarkets.

      Bournemouth in particular was bedsit land given the student population.

      I developed a vac packed goldish backed pouche containing real slices of roast turkey for Christmas. Pigs in blankets x two. Stuffing, red cabbage and a small pot of cranberry sauce.

      These were designed to be hung on the shelves in the chillers.

      £1.50.

      I gave a shit for those that couldn’t do. Unlike Heinz.

        1. Completely sold out. Unlike the Heinz dipping a toe PR exercise.

          The gold backed pouches were twice as much as an ordinary vac pac but i could see a market for them so total sales still covered costs and turned a profit.

          Obviously i had to cook lots of turkeys but then i was already boiling 30lb hams and so it made business sense.

          I couldn’t and have never been able to make/produce/sell anything i wouldn’t buy myself.

          2. Dorset Larder. Since sold.

            The hams were sliced for those vac pouches for small shops. Just like the 40lb blocks of Cheddar. My brother and partner knew that if we were producing ready to eat food on this scale we could also do outside catering at the same time and make the Unit rent pay for itself.

            Some quite spectacular weddings. One in Winchester that was particularly good. They forgot how much Champagne they had ordered and paid for. :@(

    3. Heinz claims their soup is the perfect antidote to long cooking times and promises to bring all the flavours of a perfectly executed Christmas Dinner in just one can.

      But how does it work on the taste buds? FEMAIL journalist Claire Toureille puts the tin to the – taste – test!

      Rating:

      Verdict:

      It is hard to imagine that a tinned meal would ever compare with a homemade Christmas dinner, and the Heinz offer won’t dethrone your parents’ cooking any time soon.

      The soup is pleasant on its own.

      While it looks wrong, it doesn’t taste as bad as one could imagine.

      The soup is brown and thick in consistency, with lots of veggies, meat and sausages all thrown in together.

      Heinz delivers on its promise and the soup does include a generous amount of turkey as well as veggies, and two pigs in blanket.

      The soup is easy to prep, and can be heated on the hob or in the microwave.

      The mix is salty and rich in flavour, although apart from the turkey and Brussels sprouts, which are easily recognisable, the rest of the soup could be described as salty mush and some ingredients are hard to distinguish from others.

      The soup is a funny novelty meal, but it doesn’t stack up against a quintessentially British Christmas meal, and if it were a Christmas character, it wouldn’t be Scrooge, but it’d definitely be the Grinch.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-10153347/Femail-puts-Heinzs-Christmas-soup-test-REALLY-save-years-celebration.html

    4. Whilst we’re busy dissing Heinz tinned soup, has anyone ever bought a Fray Bentos steak and Kidney pie?

      Give marks out of 10…

      I did once ……I didn’t like the pastry!

      3. I make my own steak and kidney pie- if I can get stewing steak that isn’t lean. Lean stewing steak has no flavour.

      5. Yes.
        Bought one for dinner a few weeks ago, to show he boys what shite was for eating in the 70s. Also found smash mashed “potato” to go with it.
        They were horrified.
        I was amazed they are still available, the tinned pies…

      6. Yes.
        Bought one for dinner a few weeks ago, to show he boys what shite was for eating in the 70s. Also found smash mashed “potato” to go with it.
        They were horrified.
        I was amazed they are still available, the tinned pies…

  107. I am off – stoves to stoke – cats to feed, tables to lay. Rain expected for next two days. And a gale. Can’t wait…{:¬((

    Have a jolly evening planning your Copulate26 Speech.

    A demain

    1. “It’s all a hoax. Go home.”

      I told my dearly beloved about the private jets not having enough space to park, and his response was “Doesn’t Great Britain have any anti-aircraft guns any more?”

      1. Rapier missiles were used in the Falklands (someone I know nearly got shot down by one in his Chinook). Knowing the MoD, they probably left them all there.

  108. Pleased to report that the masked intruder has been escorted back to her place of confinement. One of the young Wardens involved in her capture is called Ophelia (and we aren’t currently living anywhere near the posh areas of Bath….)…

  109. 340784+ up ticks,

    The lab /lib /con coalition are going through a flauntation period flexing their reset muscles & showing YOU how things are going to be going forward.

    May one ask would there be surprise on seeing the DOVER Daily intake
    on arrival entering the hotel then later exiting …… in uniform.

  110. 340784+ up ticks,

    The lab /lib /con coalition are going through a flauntation period flexing their reset muscles & showing YOU how things are going to be going forward.

    May one ask would there be surprise on seeing the DOVER Daily intake
    on arrival entering the hotel then later exiting …… in uniform.

  111. First case of bird flu found this year in Wrexham. We are truly doomed, if the ‘rona doesn’t get you first.

  112. We live in a constitutional monarchy. The monarch is head of state but stays out of politics. That’s the deal.

    But Net Zero is taking on a political nature. Sides are being taken (even if the press isn’t reporting it) and there will come a time when there will be a political confrontation between the climate change zealots and the climate change deniers. And the monarchy has aligned itself firmly with the former.

    I’m surprised. I thought their advisors had more political nous than this. We could be watching the end of the Royal Family.

    1. For the first time in my life I am now doubting it.
      I have been firmly Royalist before now.

    2. Those who don’t think climate change is man-made are hardly “climate change deniers”. Some of us think the climate has always changed and always will and most of it has to do with that big yellow thing that occasionally makes an appearance in the sky.

      1. I have to say that I believe mankind is influencing climate change to some degree, but it’s a relatively small amount. Better to concentrate on radically reducing pollution, deforestation and overpopulation.

        1. Influencing it (particularly with over-population) is not quite the same as making it. We shouldn’t be building so many houses, cutting down so many trees and putting such pressure on habitats by popping out so many sprogs (or importing more inhabitants). CO2 is plant food.

          1. I didn’t mention CO₂ because it’s a natural gas that fluctuates in its small % of the atmosphere. I sailed the oceans for many years and there’s an awful lot of crap out there, albeit mainly SE Asian and African in origin.

          3. You may not have mentioned CO2, but it figures high on the demonic list for the climate change fanatics.

          3. The planet is overpopulated by humans. Fewer humans on it the better as far as I’m concerned, as long as we’re not talking eugenics.

        3. Overpopulation.
          Thank St Bob Geldorf for that.
          We now have hoards of International Charities with CEOs providing £billions to promote population growth in Africa. I often think there may be mor3 people starving in Africa than there were in 1985 when it all seemed to start. The starving or just a smaller percentage of the burgeoning population.
          The big international charities are the problem, not the solution.

    3. Mr. Prez- are you building your war chest ready to run for office?
      It is no secret that HM has long been a believer in homeopathic remedies, as was her mother. P. Charles seems to also be a believer. I do think that steps need to be taken to help the environment but not what these people are blowing hot air about. I simply cannot take anyone seriously who flies into Scotland in a private jet and then has the barefaced cheek to lecture us plebs about what WE should be doing.
      And as for that pernicious little doomgoblin…wish she’d been in my class at school…

        1. I am and have always been a Cavalier. I could not support a presidency in this country but….maybe you could throw your hat into the ring into running as an Independent MP. I have no idea what age you are and if I felt more able I would do it myself. I am only 67 but MH has health issues so I feel limited.

          1. There are many like you and I, LotL that would wish to stand for Parliament as Independents or, if there was a suitably strong Party that gelled with our philosophies but, alas, at 77 with a bolloxed heart and COPD, if I stood to make a speech, I would soon fall over.

            I look to younger firebrands to stand up and represent us against this Parliament of self-serving jack-asses.

          2. I had no idea you were that age- you seem so much younger. Maybe I should get off my ass and do something- but we have so much other BS to handle of late.
            One of my mantras is the poem by Emily Bronte which begins….”No coward soul is mine…”
            Goodnight.

          3. Hi, LotL. I’m 69, but feeling young and fit (and lighter than I was 20 years ago!). Maybe I should give it a shot. Unfortunately my local MP (Sir Bill Cash) is a renowned Eurosceptic, has been for many years and is unlikely to be too worried about my candidacy!

    4. The latest rot was restarted when the Queen and Prince Philip consented to advertising the jabs. Whether they took the Covid jabs or not should have remained private. They likely were given saline solution but had allowed themselves to be manipulated by politicians and the medical tyranny that has blighted our lives.

      The rot continued with the granting of peerages and other honours to the ‘scientists’ responsible for developing the ‘vaccines’ albeit on the advice of Fataturk.

      Now we have the spectacle of Prince Charles speaking at COP26 with the fervour of a rich globalist when by now anyone with an ounce of grey matter can see this is founded on a medical tyranny coupled with a climate scam.

      This COP26 is a political event, an unsavoury and hypocritical elitist movement with dark Satanic overtones.

    5. I can understand Charles getting involved. It was very clearly apparent from an early age that he was a dud, but not only a dud but a stupid dud and a dolt.

      What dismays me is that his mother has been dragged into it. I cannot believe she would have allowed herself to be hi-jacked in this way were her husband still alive.

      1. Philip was up to his neck in it back in the 60s. WWF was one of their early organisations.

        1. He also indulged in trophy hunting, as did other founding members of WWF. This organisation still endorses trophy hunting.

      2. She managed to escape by being “ill”.
        Don’t forget, she’s an old lady now, and her husband is no longer there to advise and console her.

  114. Evening, all. To bring France to its senses (really it needs to be brought to heel), we would need a government that was on our side. Had a good ride today (I missed out last week because I was travelling down to Taunton and back), schooling the new Irish Draught. I was delighted to be able to feel the progress after three quarters of an hour; he was more connected (his front and back end working together), more rhythmical, more consistent. What was really interesting was that I could get him to soften (drop his head and accept the bit) in the trot if I kept my hands low and wide, but if I brought them up and together (as they should be), he immediately hollowed and stuck his ears in my face. Obviously, that’s the way he’s always been ridden and thinks it’s the way it should be, so probably I’ll spend the next few weeks educating him as to how things really should be.

      1. If Noah had had some of my family members with him…he’d have thrown himself overboard;-)

  116. The BBC’s prophet of doom belongs in a pulpit

    Roger Harrabin, the BBC’s environment analyst, doesn’t even attempt to suggest his claims about the state of the planet are disputable

    CHARLES MOORE

    The other day, I was standing in a London street chatting to Trevor Phillips, the former head of the Commission for Racial Equality. We were approached by a man with a beard who cried out that Jesus Christ is coming to save the world. Why did Mr Phillips not announce this, he wanted to know, whenever he appeared on television? I tried to defend Mr Phillips, saying that he was a good Christian, but the bearded gentleman was having none of it. In his view, Jesus’s imminent arrival should be mentioned to the exclusion of all other subjects.

    Yesterday, I heard another bearded prophet, Roger Harrabin, the BBC’s environment analyst, on the Today programme. He took a very similar line to our street preacher. Reporting from Cop26 in Glasgow, he complained about “the fishing dispute [with France] that’s rumbling on which is taking away the headlines from this”. By “this”, Harrabin meant Boris Johnson’s claim that the planet is at “one minute to midnight”. (We have heard that phrase so often that it feels to me as if that political clock must have been stopped for about 30 years.) Such “apocalyptic warnings”, Harrabin went on, “are actually borne out by scientists”. Doom is upon us: we might be able to make it “less bad: we can’t make it good any more”. Therefore, declared the voice of the BBC, “We need revolutions right across the board”.

    Currently, the BBC’s director-general, Tim Davie, is engaged in a push to make the corporation’s commitment to impartiality real. I think he should start with its environment analyst. In yesterday’s broadcast, none of Harrabin’s assertions was sourced beyond “the scientists say” (he often refers in similar general terms to “experts” and “green groups”). There was not even the faintest attempt to suggest that his claims about the state of the planet were disputable. His call for “revolutions” – getting rid of coal, cars etc – though obviously a matter of policy and therefore of politics too, was unqualified by any sense that in a democracy views on such things may legitimately differ. It was pure preaching, and deliberately frightening preaching too.

    Harrabin expresses his views eloquently. He should obviously, in a free country, be free to do so. One would have no objection to him walking around with a placard saying “The end of the world is nigh. Flee from the wrath to come”, but I do question whether he should be allowed to do the broadcasting equivalent at the expense of TV licence payers. Perhaps it would be unkind to sack him, but couldn’t Mr Davie confine him to a weekly slot on Thought for the Day?

    Are they snowflakes, or are we just insensitive?

    For us columnists, it is almost a duty to make up our minds on every subject. I try to oblige. But Covid has produced a case in which I simply cannot come down on one side or the other.

    In baby-boomer circles, much of our conversation centres on the severe mental effect the plague has had upon the young. Most of us can cite people known to us, aged from their teens to their thirties, who have become depressed, anxious, anorexic, paranoid. After agreeing how hard it is for them, and how it seems easier for us, we tend to go on to imply a certain superiority in our generation – that we were less coddled, more self-reliant.

    My first instinct is to agree with this – arguing that we benefitted from being toughened up. We had few means, before mobile phones and the internet, of getting in touch with our parents when things went wrong, so we learnt to fend for ourselves. Survivors of the wartime generation feel the same thing, even more strongly.

    My contrary feeling, however, is that perhaps we were simply insensitive. Trained not to examine ourselves, we had very little idea of what we were feeling. We ploughed on, taking university places, jobs, even partners, because it was vaguely expected of us. This narrowed our understanding. In particular, it made us uncomprehending of those of our contemporaries who really were having a hard time.

    And one must add that we never experienced a pandemic (beyond a few nasty bouts of flu), so we cannot say how we would have faced one.

    So, has the younger generation been driven collectively mad by its very concentration on “wellness”, mental health, therapy and so on, or was it the older generation, fooling itself that things were all right, that bequeathed to its children the nervous breakdown it should have had itself? They may be snowflakes, but were we blocks of ice?

    I apologise for my unprofessional inability to answer this question.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/02/bbcs-prophet-doom-belongs-pulpit/

    1. The protestors are inciting civil unrest, and the Common Purpose police are on message (with them). Civil unrest will lead to martial law.

        1. I am thinking that revolution is the only way out of this, I do not see ‘them’ backing down. They have come so far, this is their only chance and they will go for it. COP26 is their celebration of things going to plan, more or less. They think they are getting away with it. We can protest as much and for as many and as long as we like, all they will do is stick their fingers in their ears with a la-la-la we’re not listening. Protests are no skin off their noses.

    3. So as far as stopping global warming goes the West Midlands Police will give us until nine minutes past midnight to sort something out?

    4. I can imagine law-breakers asking Plod for another 10 minutes to carry on with their nefarious deeds.

    1. I pinned my poppies to my coats yesterday in honour of great uncle Charlie who was killed in the opening days of WW I and also in honour of my two late fathers in law and my own parents, who both served. Dad in the Rifle Brigade and my mother in the ATS. MH’s father was in the RAF Coastal Command.
      They deserve our respect and recognition.

      1. Well done. My father was in the RAOC and my father in law was in the Royal Signals. I have a regimental tie for each of them and wear them often to remember them and what they did in WW2.

      2. My Father joined the Queen’s Westminster Rifles at the outbreak of WWI in 1914 as a prvate, He was commissioned in the field in 1915, wounded, recovered and returned to the field.

        In 1939, he got a friend to get him a copy of the Eye-test Card, Memorised it and entered WWII ending up as a Provost Marshal in the RMP and The Suffolk Regiment.

        He died aged 60, in 1955. I was just 11 but even then, knew of the sacrifices my Father and others made in both those World-wars.

        1. I never knew my Scots grandfather who worked for John Clyde Shipbuilders and died when I was 6 months old. He never went to war as I guess he was needed where he was.

        2. My father was in a protected industry (but joined the Home Guard), his elder brother was a miner, his younger brother was, I believe, a Chindit. My mother’s brother served in the RAF. He came home, thankfully, but died when I was about 8.

      3. I often think Coastal Command was the forgotten part of the air war. It took a lot of skill to navigate far out over hostile seas and get back to base, which, sadly, many didn’t. Hunting U-boats was a vital part of protecting our supply chain.

        1. Many up votes Conners!! I only met my late father in law twice and he wouldn’t talk about his experiences and MH didn’t get much out of him either. I think he was crew in Sunderland and Catalina Flying Boats. But don’t quote me.

          1. Sunderlands had quite a large crew, I believe. They are massive aircraft (I have been in one, but not flown in it). Catalinas were considerably smaller.

          2. From what I understand, the crew in the Sunderland was seven. But again, I am only saying what MH has told me, as told to him by his father.

          3. I thought I read somewhere that it was eleven, but perhaps my memory is playing tricks. There were seven in a Lancaster.

    1. “A police spokesperson said the passenger had his head ajar and his eyes closed so he may have been mistaken as being asleep, Spiegel reported.”
      His head was slightly open, might be the cause of death.

  124. Soldiers WILL carry Troubles veteran Dennis Hutchings’ coffin at his funeral after MoD caves in to pressure

    The Ministry of Defence has U-turned on its refusal to let serving soldiers carry the coffin of Troubles veteran Dennis Hutchings (pictured), 80, who who died last month while on trial in Belfast.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10158721/Soldiers-carry-Troubles-veteran-Dennis-Hutchings-coffin-funeral-MoD-caves-in.html

    At last there is some good news about this – serving soldiers will be able to carry the coffin.

    The Bonking Buffoon has broken so many promises it is hard to keep up. I distinctly remember that before the election he said he would end the persecution and prosecution of British soldiers who served in Northern Ireland. This very fundamental betrayal should be enough to have him expelled from Downing Street, Parliament and exiled for ever from Britain. But there are so few people of integrity in government who actually have the guts to do anything.

    1. The MoD didn’t really have a choice, given that Royal Marines carried Jimmy Savile’s coffin at his funeral – and he wasn’t even in the military, just an ‘honorary Marine’, which blew one of their pathetic excuses out of the water.

    2. Do you know what Richard? I am not a political creature but all this BS right now is nauseating. I loathe the so-called government as it is- but what is the alternative? As I replied to Iff the Prez earlier, I cannot be a republican. I stand for the Crown. At times I despair, I truly do.
      Thank god for Mozart who I am listening to now before heading to bed.

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