Tuesday 22 February: Sick relatives will still be isolated by harmful Covid visiting policies

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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840 thoughts on “Tuesday 22 February: Sick relatives will still be isolated by harmful Covid visiting policies”

    3. Morning AS – I wasn’t away. When I had neither power or internet on Friday, I sent a text to HL, in the hope that she could warn the troops that I might not be able to post Saturday’s new page. In the event, power was restored at 2315 hrs on Friday. With hindsight, I should have cancelled the message, which was only picked up yesterday…

      1. Good morning Geoff, again we are reminded of what we owe you every day! Thank you – glad that you are back online.

      2. Hello – I thought I only got your message yesterday! Most strange – Sorry, my fault for not realising that it was sent earlier… :o(

  7. Sick relatives will still be isolated by harmful Covid visiting policies

    I get the feeling that Freedom Day is going to be just like Getting Brexit Done, it never really happens in reality.

    1. I am fed up to the back teeth with being lied to. Every liar thinks people don’t know s/he is lying; they don’t realise that BS has the same smell everywhere.

  8. Where is the liberal outrage at Trudeau’s monstrously illiberal behaviour? 21 February 2022.

    If the truckers are the wrong kind of protesters, Trudeau is most definitely the right type of President. The woke elite recognise he is one of them: they share the same high status opinions and speak the same made-up language. (‘She-cession,’ ‘people-kind’? No. Me neither.) Despite being a white man, Trudeau evokes every identitarian shibboleth in his own defence. It is no coincidence that his go-to insult was to accuse the truckers of “hate, abuse and racism” showing how woke thinking justifies attacks on the working class. In his handling of the freedom convoy, Trudeau looks like an insecure authoritarian desperate to suppress dissent in order to hang on to power at all costs. That he is cheered on by left wing commentators as he does so is shameful.

    Trudeau is of course like Biden, Ardern, Morrison and Johnson simply another Globalist Stooge. There is both irony and hypocrisy in that as the “west” confronts Russia; a real Liberal state, it ignores the establishment of an overt Marxist Dictatorship among its members. We should be in no doubt that behind the Propaganda and False Rhetoric we are engaged in a battle between Freedom and Tyranny. Russia for all its shortcomings stands as much for the former as the West for the latter. Should the Globalists prevail then Europe will sink into a new Dark Age, its people replaced and its culture erased from the pages of history!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/21/liberal-outrage-trudeaus-monstrously-illiberal-behaviour/

    2. Morning all.

      Why is nobody in authority protesting against freezing of financial assets and accounts of the truckers, closing down of local businesses who are supporting them, and generally riding roughshod over all their citizens’ rights?

      Could it be because our own authoritarians will be doing the same thing at the drop of a hat? Well, at least we know what’s in store for us in the not too distant future and, of course, it fits in with the great reset and “you will own nothing and be happy”.

  9. Seems to be some argument and indecision as to whether Russia has invaded Ukraine or not… clearly, nobody has noticed whether 100,000 soldiers have crossed the borders.

    1. Morning Oberst. They appear to have infiltrated some regular Russian Forces into the Donbass!

      1. A line of peaceful unmarked tanks have been reported as advancing into the cease fire Minsk zone of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic which is part of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.

        1. Tanks are never peaceful, Angie!
          And don’t cite the qwerty-soup pink tank – that one proves my point!!

    2. In any case, it can’t be invasion. That has to happen last Wednesday according to Sleepy Joe!

    4. As far as I can see, the western media is ignoring the collapse of the Minsk agreement, and that these areas want independence from the US/corruption-riddled government in Kiev,* and are running with “Putin invades Ukraine”.

      *quite right too, they want their own local corruption, not the globalist variety.

  10. – Trudeau makes Blair look like a lightweight, Blair only wanted to march people to the cash point to make them pay fines.
    Trudeau takes the whole bank

    1. Blair would be doing exactly the same if he were in power now. He did as much destruction as he could at the time.

  11. Who can blame Putin for rightly or wrongly looking after his countries own national interests while Western leaders are busy destroying all our own national interests.

    1. Hmm, prescient typo there Bob.
      Poot only has one country for now, but maybe not for much longer.

  13. ‘Morning All

    Convoy!!

    https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1495861355550810117?t=BwKeAFv1FS9QXUuifRhq3Q&s=19

    https://twitter.com/Resist_05/status/1495893001788588033

    https://twitter.com/OttawaGestapo/status/1495576276836438017?s=20&t=BtHDnH1htid8edg0F-Y2Rg

    https://twitter.com/21stCenturyWire/status/1495841932265861129

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb2ce2d6ed497981f3de7d1b05cb264a1480f70ec8fb7a7299c10a04f0d981de.png

    https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1495793664378953728?s=20&t=BtHDnH1htid8edg0F-Y2Rg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17b192f18436e490304355be30e4b3f71d406dae3ea2b60dcc32e3adc32e940a.jpg

    https://twitter.com/davidkurten/status/1495664361700052993

      1. I think that the likes of Macron and Johnson have an orgasmic dream at the thought of doing themselves what Trudeau seems to be getting away with.

    2. It really is hilariously wrong. They have absolutely no concept of decency of fairness. It’s all about hurting their enemies. Such powers must be forbidden, permanently.

      All, I’m going to hide my disqus profile because it’s simply a scammers paradise. They must be scanning it for new posts and botting an upvote.

    3. Last Wednesday Vlad was invading Ukraine.
      This Wednesday – allegedly – Turdeau resigns.
      What is planned for next Wednesday?

      2. I don’t know Annie, but whether he resigns tomorrow, Wednesday for me will be a Red Letter Day. First of all I go to a nearby depot to collect three free fruit bushes courtesy of the Borough Council (actually from a Council supplier but the Council want to be seen as generous just when they announce the new – higher – Council Tax rates). Then the postman delivers a new supply of printer ink for my printer, and finally the postman is due to deliver two CDs for my collection: the Beatles’ RUBBER SOUL and Sergio Mendes and BRASIL ’66. Trudeau going might just be a bonus.

    1. Bail out – you’ll pay more tax
      Spreading democracy – war for future material resources
      Voting – pointless

  15. This is an interesting direction of travel….the article details even more alarming leprechaunic nonsense further down the page

    Sexual Predators Have ‘Right to Be Forgotten’ Under EU Law: Irish Migrant Amnesty Minister

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2022/02/GettyImages-1203058135-e1645370893551-640×480.jpg

    Ireland’s Minister for Justice — who implemented a broad amnesty for illegal migrants earlier in the year — has told parliament that sexual predators have a “right to be forgotten”.

    Helen McEntee, Ireland’s Minister for Justice, has told Ireland’s lower parliamentary house that sex offenders have a “right to be forgotten” under European Union law, and that the Irish Department of Justice aims to uphold that law.

    This is despite Minister McEntee — who is a member of Ireland’s europhile Fine Gael party — having previously promised to do more to tackle “domestic, sexual and gender-based violence”.

    Responding to a question on whether she would intervene on sex offenders having their data scrubbed from search engines, the minister said that she was determined “to prevent serious criminals from hiding their pasts” but contradicted herself by saying the relevant legislation was in the hands of the EU, and not the Irish government.

    “The right to be forgotten is a data protection right, which the European Court of Justice developed in 2014 after the Google Spain case,” the minister said, though emphasised that companies could reject requests to have data scrubbed if it falls within the category of legitimate public interest.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/02/21/sexual-predators-have-right-to-be-forgotten-under-eu-law-irish-migrant-amnesty-minister/

    1. In the hands of the EU…. these people really haven’t accepted that they’re completely controlled by an unelected cabal of liars, cheats and thieves..

      1. No idea, Annie, but if she were to be raped by some illegal immigrant of an Allah-loving illegal immigrant I suspect she might just quickly change her mind.

    3. She speaks like many UK politicians in recent decades: “Nothing we can about it – EU orders, I’m afraid.”

    1. Oscar is putting on weight; I had to abandon putting him in his tweed jacket the other day; I couldn’t get the button to do up round his middle!

  20. https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1495861355550810117?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1495861355550810117%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dnottlt_i%3D214420https3A2F2Fnttl.blog2F3Fp3D2144t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fnttl.blog2Ftuesday-22-february-sick-relatives-will-still-be-isolated-by-harmful-covid-visiting-policies2Ft_e%3DTuesday202220February3A20Sick20relatives20will20still20be20isolated20by20harmful20Covid20visiting20policiest_d%3DTuesday202220February3A20Sick20relatives20will20still20be20isolated20by20harmful20Covid20visiting20policiest_t%3DTuesday202220February3A20Sick20relatives20will20still20be20isolated20by20harmful20Covid20visiting20policiess_o%3Ddefaultversion%3D36d86d847b1173b5b939b94bc7be6e80

  21. ‘Morning, Peeps. I cannot imagine how hard this must be:

    SIR – It is 101 weeks since I was first refused entry to the care home where my husband of 50 years now lives.

    While everyone else is being told they are more or less free to do as they wish – to move about, go to work, socialise, mix with others – thousands of residents in care homes have no such freedom.

    Every time more than one person among the residents or the staff tests positive for Covid, the home goes into “outbreak status”. This is in effect another lockdown, with residents unable to leave, or even at times move about the home, while only one essential caregiver is allowed to visit each person.

    This has to be done by booking a time, taking a lateral flow test, having your temperature taken, filling in paperwork and wearing a mask throughout the visit, which can only be in the resident’s room. Other visits can be facilitated through use of a visitor’s pod, with a screen.

    No hairdresser, chiropodist or entertainer is allowed in, so staff have to fill all those essential capacities as they have been doing for most of two years now. I have nothing but admiration for the management and staff who have administered this state of affairs with all the loving care they can muster.

    But they have witnessed, as have I, the mental deterioration of their residents under these inhumane regimes. In the early days we could see the necessity for extreme caution. No longer.

    Brief respites from outbreak status have made us all realise how much we have lost in two years that can never be regained. My husband and I celebrated our golden wedding during this time. One of the few moments when my husband has seen my face without a mask in two years was when we sat with a lovely surprise tea the staff provided for us.

    Sustaining these restrictions on the lives of so many thousands of elderly and unwell citizens is now unwarranted. I see no necessity for my visits to my husband to be the reason he is once again confined to his room because I am not allowed to move about the home.

    Anna M Bratby
    Alconbury Weston, Huntingdonshire

    SIR – I currently have a very sick relative in hospital suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and an aggressive cancer. Due to Covid-19 the current visiting regime allows one dedicated visitor. It appears that many hospitals will prefer to keep this system in place once the Covid threat has diminished.

    Not only is the policy detrimental for the patient, particularly one suffering with dementia or a terminal illness, but it also places huge pressure on the nominated person, who may be distressed seeing the deterioration of their loved one daily. Should they be unable to visit through illness no replacement is allowed.

    How can this be seen as humane and a reasonable way to proceed in a post-pandemic future?

    Geoffrey Malkie
    Manchester

    1. My heart goes out to Mr & Mrs Bratby. How utterly appalling that is. Imprisonment without trial.

  22. ‘Morning, Peeps. I cannot imagine how hard this must be:

    SIR – It is 101 weeks since I was first refused entry to the care home where my husband of 50 years now lives.

    While everyone else is being told they are more or less free to do as they wish – to move about, go to work, socialise, mix with others – thousands of residents in care homes have no such freedom.

    Every time more than one person among the residents or the staff tests positive for Covid, the home goes into “outbreak status”. This is in effect another lockdown, with residents unable to leave, or even at times move about the home, while only one essential caregiver is allowed to visit each person.

    This has to be done by booking a time, taking a lateral flow test, having your temperature taken, filling in paperwork and wearing a mask throughout the visit, which can only be in the resident’s room. Other visits can be facilitated through use of a visitor’s pod, with a screen.

    No hairdresser, chiropodist or entertainer is allowed in, so staff have to fill all those essential capacities as they have been doing for most of two years now. I have nothing but admiration for the management and staff who have administered this state of affairs with all the loving care they can muster.

    But they have witnessed, as have I, the mental deterioration of their residents under these inhumane regimes. In the early days we could see the necessity for extreme caution. No longer.

    Brief respites from outbreak status have made us all realise how much we have lost in two years that can never be regained. My husband and I celebrated our golden wedding during this time. One of the few moments when my husband has seen my face without a mask in two years was when we sat with a lovely surprise tea the staff provided for us.

    Sustaining these restrictions on the lives of so many thousands of elderly and unwell citizens is now unwarranted. I see no necessity for my visits to my husband to be the reason he is once again confined to his room because I am not allowed to move about the home.

    Anna M Bratby
    Alconbury Weston, Huntingdonshire

    SIR – I currently have a very sick relative in hospital suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and an aggressive cancer. Due to Covid-19 the current visiting regime allows one dedicated visitor. It appears that many hospitals will prefer to keep this system in place once the Covid threat has diminished.

    Not only is the policy detrimental for the patient, particularly one suffering with dementia or a terminal illness, but it also places huge pressure on the nominated person, who may be distressed seeing the deterioration of their loved one daily. Should they be unable to visit through illness no replacement is allowed.

    How can this be seen as humane and a reasonable way to proceed in a post-pandemic future?

    Geoffrey Malkie
    Manchester

    1. Hah!! 7% my arse
      I (very unwisely) said how pleased I was with my Electricity supplier until yesterday’s letter raising the prices
      On Peak up from 28p PKH to 36p
      Off Peak up from 7p PKH to 17p
      Hubris meets Nemesis……………

  25. SIR – The weekend before last I visited my local cinema to watch the very enjoyable remake of Death on the Nile.

    I was surprised, however, to see no fewer than three advertisements for the BBC during the pre-film reel. These were also shown before Uncharted last weekend.

    A search on Google suggests that cinema advertising costs on average £3,000 per ad, per cinema, per week. I do wonder if this is the wisest use of the BBC’s funds.

    James Reckitt
    Sancton, East Yorkshire

    Is our national broadcaster wasting yet more money in a vain attempt to stave off the inevitable?

    1. BBC execs spending the licence fee on advertisements in an effort to protect the licence fee which funds their outrageous compensation.

  26. Hope for hedgehogs as numbers in Britain’s towns show signs of recovery. 22 February 2022.

    The charismatic prickly creature, voted the UK’s favourite mammal in 2016, has experienced a dramatic fall in numbers since the turn of the millennium due to loss of habitat, attacks by dogs, vanishing prey and being killed by traffic. However, new analysis of hedgehog surveys has revealed a stark distinction between the fortunes of the town and country hedgehog, with clear signs the urban population has stabilised and may even be on the up.

    A flash of light in the darkness. Hopefully Ndovu will read it!

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/22/hedgehogs-britain-urban-city-recovery-aoe

          1. Nasty buggers, they are. Some years ago, a badger tore our wooden bin box to bits, and only left when I threatened it with a spade. Like a clawed sandbag, it was.
            Firstborn had a sett undermining his orchard until a large boulder mysteriously rolled into the entrance. The occupants clawed through the roof, and departed, leaving a huge hole.

          2. Haven’t seen them here for some years now, but I recall a night when the peace was disturbed by the most incredible row and large monsters roving around the garden. It turned out to be a pair of badgers engaging in marital bliss, which went on noisily for some time.

          3. Kenneth Graham got it wrong.

            Ratty was an imposter – not a rat at all but a water vole.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3f6ea3483bebb45bb88e71511c0edb28020abd683b6583f8af8b3b1837bf455.jpg

            I dislike moles – not only do they ruin my lawn but they are cannibalistic and anti-social with each other; badgers are predatory and nastily aggressive, but we used to have a very affable toad which made its home just outside our back door wand croaked affably without causing any distress to anyone.

            And let’s raise a glass to the stoats and weasels!

      2. Exactly! All the other factors have remained more or less constant, but the rise in the badger population has been most noticeable.

  27. SIR – On Friday morning we suffered a power cut. That meant that my heat pump stopped working and my solar panels stopped generating as they both rely on the National Grid to operate. I was lucky that my power was restored within a few hours. However, there are over 600 households in my area still without power.

    Storms like Eunice do not happen that often, but when they do, the grid will fail some and take days to be recovered. The rush for net zero does not seem to have taken this inconvenient truth into account.

    Mark Lichfield
    Blandford Forum, Dorset

    There is something else that ‘net zero’ has failed to take into account: It’s called common sense.

      1. Morning E. Yes that’s true. It will not however prevent Bojo Junior standing up and saying, “There we are. We saved you!”

      2. The intent of ‘net zero’ is not to make a jot of difference to the environment – it will, if anything, get worse – it’s simply a scam to move money from the earner to the state.

    2. Solar panels relied on the grid?

      Surely the point of them is to provide you with energy first, then distribute some to the grid and if you need more energy when the sun isn’t shining you draw from the grid.

      1. Unfortunately they require a grid connection to operate the inverter(s). It is not a lot, but without it they won’t generate.

  28. SIR – Brian Sewell, the late Evening Standard art critic, told me just before he died that Rex Whistler would have changed the direction of art had he survived the Second World War.

    Instead, Whistler’s wonderful skills as a painter have earned him accusations of racism by Tate Britain, which deemed that his work was “offensive” to diners in its restaurant (“Whistler’s ‘racist’ mural to remain on display at Tate Britain”, report, February 17). How utterly pathetic.

    Whistler joined the Welsh Guards, writing to the colonel that he wanted to serve the cause despite having no military vocation or skills. He surrendered his life in Normandy aged 39 fighting racist Nazism.

    I wonder if it is wise for this oversensitive generation to visit art galleries at all. Rex Whistler’s reputation must not be tarnished by any hint of racism.

    Vyvyan Harmsworth
    London W8

    Quite right, Ms Harmsworth. Tate Britain is just one of many such bodies basking in the warm glow of ignorance!

      2. …and I have a female cousin who spells her name like that.

        In the same family, there is a Hilary (Male) and a Noel (Female)

      3. Yes, one of the Harmsworth family, in his mid fifties, and he is involved with the Imperial War Museum. (thanks google)

  30. Edward Dowd (successful financial expert – ex-Blackrock) has recently emerged as a critic of the “vaccine” and especially Pfizer and Moderna. Here are some extracts from The Desert Review that expound some of Dowd’s views. (emphasis is mine)

    Dowd has sounded the alarm on Moderna and Pfizer as sinking ships that investors need to abandon. So what does the man who foresaw the dot com and the subprime mortgage crisis have to say about Moderna and Pfizer, and what trouble could exist in the paradise of COVID vaccine profits?

    Dowd predicts Moderna will drop to zero with bankruptcy as fraud related to concealing the COVID vaccine dangers surfaces, and he predicts Pfizer will become a sub-ten-dollar stock. Dowd explains that the smart money has already left Moderna and will soon be exiting Pfizer.

    Dowd foresees an avalanche of lawsuits coming as the insurance industry continues to uncover the legions of mounting deaths coming from the complications of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.

    Dowd teamed up with an insurance industry analyst and researched the life insurance claims. They found that since OneAmerica shocked the world by announcing a 40% rise in non-COVID deaths in younger working-class employees, multiple other insurance companies worldwide have seen the same thing – massive rises in non-COVID deaths. And the evidence inescapably points to the vaccines as the cause.

    Meanwhile, the funeral company stocks have outperformed the S&P. “Funeral Home companies are growth stocks. They had a great year in 2021 compared to 2020, and they outperformed the S&P 500. The peer group of Funeral Home stocks was up 40 plus percent while the S&P was up 26 percent – and they started accelerating price-wise in 2021 during the roll-out of the vaccines – You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to connect the dots here.”

    Other insurance companies have reported the same or worse death numbers as OneAmerica. For example, “Unum Insurance is up 36%, Lincoln National plus 57%, Prudential plus 41%, Reinsurance Group of America plus 21%, Hartford plus 32%, Met Life plus 24%, and Aegon – which is a Dutch insurer – saw in their US arm plus 57% in the 4th quarter – in the 3rd quarter they saw a 258% increase in death claims.”
    “They raised (mortality) expectations 300,000 for 2022 over 2021 due to COVID plus ‘indirect COVID,’ which I think we know what that’s code for…

    1. My singing teacher has gone down with a bad reaction to the Moderna vaccine, leaving him with chronic fatigue and an eye infection. His voice has also suffered and cannot be kept up to concert standard.

      It’s been a bit of a lottery. I responded positively to my first Astra-Zeneca jab. The second brought a limited return of the fatigue, but neither that nor the Pfizer booster really affected me that much. I have taken chronic fatigue though for granted now, and the penalty for getting old.

      1. At the weekend, I was doing a sign demonstation by a main road. I was standing near the traffic lights, so got some interaction with drivers. It was mostly quite light hearted, though some insults were traded, but we try to keep things jokey as much as possible.
        One man then stopped and said that his wife is in a coma, since shortly after she got the vaccine.
        It was very sobering to hear that, even though I was holding a sign drawing attention to myocarditis as a side effect.

        1. My beautiful Polish friend also had myocarditis. Mostly recovered now
          My Brother-in-law died.
          The only vax I’m interested in is made by Bosch.

    2. Very interesting article, thank you for the link.
      I wonder how that will play out in Europe, given the findings of howbadismybatch, that there was more death in the US and more chronic illness in Europe. I guess British financial institutions won’t be so hard hit, given the socialist nature of NHS funding, but the insurance companies that provide the social health insurance in other European countries will presumably be hit with increased claims.

  33. From today’s DT. Methinks the Prof knows what he is talking about. And this should wind up nicely the heat pump suppliers, some of whom made it to the Letters column very recently:

    Expensive and wasteful heat pumps are not the solution to Britain’s energy crisis

    Installing carbon-friendly heat sources could cost homeowners £20,000, plus an extra £30,000 for insulation

    ROY FAULKNER
    EMERITUS PROFESSOR AT LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY
    22 February 2022 • 6:00am

    Heat pumps are receiving much attention as the alternative to home heating now that the switch from gas is beginning to take effect. The Government’s “net zero” initiative demands that we move to a more electricity-centric economy.

    Roughly a third of our future electricity demand will be for home and office heating – amounting to an approximately 50 gigawatt peak requirement. Air source and ground source heat pumps are being proposed to be the major provider of this heat.

    But is this realistic?

    Ground source heat pumps require digging up substantial pieces of land surrounding the property; this adds to cost and means they are useless for flats and office accommodation.

    Air source heat pumps seem to be the answer, but they do not work very well when the outside temperature is less than 5°c. Many people have to use supplementary heating with gas or oil to keep warm. This, of course, is not carbon friendly.

    The answer is to insulate homes more effectively, but for most homes this is impractical. Already the cost of the heat pump installation is £15,000 to £20,000 and adding another £20,000 or £30,000 for better insulation is unthinkable for most people. The efficiency of heat pumps is roughly half that of a gas boiler because the working fluid is typical of that used in refrigerators and only operates at 37°c, as opposed to 70°c for water in gas boilers.

    So, the large part of the electricity used to drive a typical household heat pump is wasted compared to a gas boiler with similar power rating. The conclusion is that the move to heat pumps is going to be impossibly expensive, and will be less energy-efficient than with current gas boilers.

    The best solution is to use green hydrogen in a gas boiler. This means that all homes can carry on much as before but with hydrogen as fuel. This hydrogen can be manufactured by electrolysis from water, and emits no CO2 when combusted. The only issue is that large amounts of electricity are required.

    Which brings us to the core issue: how can we produce electricity economically from green sources in the quantities that we require? Adding requirements for transport and industry, and hydrogen production, to that for heating adds up to a 150 gigawatt peak demand.

    Sadly, Britain’s electrical energy provision policy has been non-existent for the past 30 years. In response to the zero carbon initiative, ministers have invested in renewable sources of energy at the expense of the public and common sense.

    They have argued that renewable energy is cheap, but it isn’t, as the green levies on our electricity bills are now telling us. They have been unable to comprehend that renewable energy is intermittent, so that we cannot rely on it to provide stable supplies of electricity to run our industry, to run our cars, and to heat our homes.

    So, what are our alternatives? In the growing realisation that renewables are not the answer, gas has come back into favour, even though it produces vast amounts of CO2. Now, due to the activities of Mr Putin, amongst others, gas is becoming a strategic weapon, and we are faced with hugely increased energy bills if we continue to burn gas to produce electricity.

    Because of our lack of energy policy we seem incapable of making proper, appropriate, investment decisions to benefit the country. Rolls Royce could produce 100 modular nuclear “pressurised water reactor” systems in the time that it is going to take to finish Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C. This would produce stable, economically attractive, green electricity that the country now so desperately needs.

    Roy Faulkner is Emeritus Professor of Materials Engineering at Loughborough University and has wide experience in the energy industry, particularly with coal and nuclear, and the drive to reduce emissions. He is currently a consultant with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

    1. Roy Faulkner is Emeritus Professor of Materials Engineering. Yes, but what does he know?

    2. In Norway, and air-to-air heat pump is between Kr 10.000 – 30.000, so up to £3 000. Fitted. And they work, too even when it’s cold outside, and we have more cold than you Brits do. Some fit air-to-water (as they have pipes under the floor) at 3 000 to £ 13 000, or ground-source pumps at £ 25 000 (much drilling and earthworks).
      As fo insulation, nobody stopping you fitting it to your house, and the building regs should be updated for newbuilds – but, since we’re all due to cook in the next few years, why bother? It’ll be plenty warm enough outside anyway.
      Whilst I support the nuclear option, having worked in the industry some decades ago, I suspect that bunny-huggers will veto it. Hell, you can’t call a NMR machine using the “N” letter, although it rattles the nuclei of atoms rather than blowing the world to smithereens, people still won’t have it. MR scan for me, then.

      1. We aren’t going to cook as climate change is a nonsense that’s really just a scam to soak the worker for tax.

        The difference is in insulation – not just double glazing but brick orientation, material and what not.

    2. There was a character in ‘Allo Allo’ whose catchphrase sounded like “Clop”. It was actually a lazy rendition of “Heil Hitler”.

    4. Demonise you enemies, accuse them of what you are. Goebbels would be proud of her. The terror the Left have of democracy is shocking. Seeriously, they’re like fricken’ Daleks. Obey! Obey! Conform! Do NOT resist!

    5. Demonise you enemies, accuse them of what you are. Goebbels would be proud of her. The terror the Left have of democracy is shocking. Seeriously, they’re like fricken’ Daleks. Obey! Obey! Conform! Do NOT resist!

  35. UK to announce sanctions after Putin recognises breakaway regions. 22 February 2022.

    The UK Government will announce sanctions on Russia on Tuesday after Vladimir Putin recognised the breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine as independent.

    Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, said: “Tomorrow we will be announcing new sanctions on Russia in response to their breach of international law and attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

    Hear that whooshing sound? That’s cash disappearing from the UK in the direction of Abu Dhabi and Singapore!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/21/ukraine-russia-invasion-news-latest-putin-biden-war-updates/

    1. In their keenness to foment international uproar, to try and conceal their domestic failures and the resulting fallout, these small politicians are destroying what little remains. They care not for the ‘little people’ but do believe they are performing on the World stage, with reputations to match: however, their reputations, such as they are, will be tarnished further by their current stupidity in goading Putin. Politicians using deflection tactics is surely a sign of them recognising their curent failures.

      2. And I do sincerely wish that Canada stands up to the oppression of Trudeau. The entire Left wing, big state illiberal backward agenda of these people needs to be resisted.

        An up vote within 3 seconds? For goodness sake. BOTS!

    2. Sadly, I think ‘Sam’ is right. The majority just want to be told how to live. A follow the yellow line type life.

    1. Shhh! Don’t tell people.

      Sadly I had to explain what a palindrome was to folk at the gym. It was most distressing.

  38. Dr Jordan B Peterson @jordanbpeterson
    ·
    16h Trudeau Government Moves to Make Expanded Surveillance Powers over Financial Transactions “Permanent’

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c2cf72051ed144d495248b00ae1d56517ea40bdda337fc9f6b069a29c68e5b65.jpg
    nationalreview.com
    Trudeau Government Moves to Make Expanded Surveillance Powers over Financial Transactions ‘Perman…
    One official justified the move as a way to ‘mitigate the risk’ of ‘illicit funds.’

      1. Community healing he says – this is the man who wants to “hunt down” anyone involved in the protests! I wonder which branch of the Gestapo he works for?

    3. This repulsive effeminate-looking man is rapidly making himself a prime assassination target.

      BTW – What happened to this story from the past which has been in the News recently? Of course there are those who say it is fake news just as there are those who think it is true. Still some specualtion on the Internet:

      “Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had sexual relations with a minor and had her sign a two and a quarter million dollar non-disclosure agreement so no one would find out about it.“

    4. It is the activities of most of the major banks that are guilty of handling illicit funds. Most of them have been lacking in security procedures regarding money laundering.

    7. Have a drink to toast it at 2222 (10.22 pm to many). Come to think of it, do that at every 22 minutes past the hour as that will be 2222 22/2/22 or 2222 2/22/22 somewhere in the world then.

      Edited to add US date format.

        1. Ah, I’ve just switched on and seen you here. I believe in personal greetings so, Happy bithday old troop.

    2. Happy Birthday AWK. You are going to have to peddle faster if you want to catch up with the rest of us !

    1. Frustrating. Probably too far away and I’ve no space for more logs at the moment until I finish burning the current stack.

  42. Wordled in two again today 😁😁 (and yesterday)
    Wordle 248 2/6

    ⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  43. FreebieTime!!

    John Kerry Issues Urgent Call: Time for Another Climate Summit

    Climate activist John Kerry warned Monday that geopolitical tensions including floods, famine, pestilence, war and rumors of war must all be set to one side as the time has come for another “urgent” climate conference to seal the fate of the world.

    Kerry appealed for everyone to focus on him and his climate call as the U.S. and Egypt on Monday launched a joint working group to prepare for the COP27 conference in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in November, AP reports.
    *
    *
    https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/1462795539913887745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1462795539913887745%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fenvironment%2F2022%2F02%2F21%2Fjohn-kerry-issues-urgent-call-time-for-another-climate-summit%2F

    https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2022/02/21/john-kerry-issues-urgent-call-time-for-another-climate-summit/

    2. These the same Uyghurs who spent a decade abusing, raping, firebombing, murdering, stealing children from their neighbours?

      They’re Muslims. They are finally being treated appropriately.

      1. ” finally being treated appropriately” just like Chinese Christians, Falun Gongers, Buddhists and other anti communists.

      2. With the Chinese and the moslems it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. The Burmese were justified in expelling their moslem contingent?

    4. It was said recently that Kerry’s son is on the board of a company with investments in Ukraine. I don’t know if that’s true or not.

    6. ‘Swiftboat’ Kerry, the Earl of Ketchup, who upgraded his medals from ‘Nam. Just the sort of man one can trust.

  44. A dull, grey. morning. It is windy and rain is sweeping across the fields. Yesterday was quite nice. Some showers but sunny and mild. I am a bit concerned that we are seeing a “false Spring”. Daffodils are sprouting green. Male and female blackbirds are having conversations in the field. If the Spring progress takes place now there is a real danger that a cold March with snow and ice will cause a lot of damage.

  45. Thoughts from the shower, No 873. Very few countries are lucky enough to have geographically and ethnically consistent borders. We do. However, Europe from Alsace to the Urals has been divided again and again by people sitting round tables, paying no heed the ethnicity, needs, and desires of the inhabitants?
    The Ukraine is an example. It has no historical foundation.

    1. Mountain ranges and rivers can sometimes form good natural borders but the best border comes from the sea. A land border will always be politically exploited – look at Northern Ireland’s border with the Irish Republic and Scotland’s borders with England.

      1. And I will stress, Scotland’s BORDER, not that bloody Roman artifact some distance to the South!

        1. Shush. You’ll get the SNP demanding that be the border in order to return claimed historical lands.

          2. It would be simpler to cordon off Glasgow and North Lanark and let the rest of us get on with our lives in peace.

    2. Morning! No, exactly, which is why Vlad’s speech began with a history lesson explaining the complexities.

      1. Of course, his version of the complexities, just one a multitude of self-interested versions that make the situation more complex.

    3. It is war and conquest that those men around tables have used to determine Europe’s borders, not some arbitrary administration in far off lands such as Iraq. However, we have moved on from those days and more war and conquest is not the answer.

      The borders of the European nations have fluctuated repeatedly but have been pretty stable for some 75 years now. Populations are inter-mixed now, but they have been for centuries. As you allude to, Every European country has significant majorities that want to break away and form separate areas under the control of their most vocal, narcissistic and ambitious politicians and rich people. I defy you to rearrange any of Europe’s borders to make a more consistent and favourable division without causing more problems than it solves.

      IMO Ukraine is not a nation of arbitrary borders. It has been a nation since 1917, broadly similar to the current Russia . Ethnic Ukrainians make up 78% of the population, broadly similar to the 80% of ethnic Russians in Russia. The Ukrainians have repeatedly voiced their wish to be part of Ukraine, not Russia. Poland has just as much a historical claim to Ukraine as Russia, and Turkey to the Crimea as Russia.

      1. “since 1917”. That is one of my points. Not long. “… sitting round tables”, after they have kicked lumps out of each other. I was taking an overview.
        Is the Ukraine anything to do with us? Did the Grand Duchy of Lithuania not extend to the Black Sea, encompassing the Ukraine around 1250 -ish? (Lunchtime)
        In those years the borders of Great Britain were pretty well what they are now.

        1. 1917 indeed. Carved out of the collapsed Russian Empire by Lenin, whose statues were quickly removed by the Ukrainian people upon the fall of communism.

    1. It was the hysteric reaction of the American MEEJAH to the death of St. George Floyd of Fentanyl that engendered these riots as much as the lack of action by the Authorities in containing them.
      Taking prominent MEEJAH figures like Goldberg to the cleaners might just be a lesson for them.
      Good luck Kyle.

      1. She’s got more money, more time and loses nothing. The best thing he could do is ask for an apology. That’s magnanimous and makes him the better man in the public’s eye.

  48. Good morning all from a very bright, sunny and calm Derbyshire with 3½°C outside.

    And a happy birthday to Grizz and AWK.

      1. Oh bugger. I was hoping to get a bit done up the chunk of Derbyshire hillside that passes its self off as my “garden”.

          2. Done my shopping and filled up with petrol in case the strike happens. Sky now gone blue again!!! (10.15am)

  49. I should be going shopping, but the wind is howling and the rain is pouring… I shall wait…

  50. Yo all

    Savage Jabid says do not go to work if you have a cold

    A Solution

    Perhaps, the NHS could open small units throughout UK, staffed by trained Nurses and Doctors, who could ‘serve’ the local
    populace and determine the level of the illness of attendees, who would be known as Patients.

    The enterprise could be funded by a deduction of pay from the lower classses and stipend for the PTB and called National
    Insurance,

    Since, the whole suggestion is far reaching and not specialised, we could call the doctors General Practioners and where
    they work from, Surgeries or Health Centres

    These people could determine whether it is the Seasonal Sniffles or Convid

    1. We could call these units … um …. er …. it’ll come to me in a moment: Cottage Hospitals.

      1. Uncle Bill has nurses (sic) coming to his Cottage to fix pooly things, wot is wrong with it.

        Therefore he does not need a ‘Cottage Hospital”

  51. Yo all

    Savage Jabid says do not go to work if you have a cold

    A Solution

    Perhaps, the NHS could open small units throughout UK, staffed by trained Nurses and Doctors, who could ‘serve’ the local
    populace and determine the level of the illness of attendees, who would be known as Patients.

    The enterprise could be funded by a deduction of pay from the lower classses and stipend for the PTB and called National
    Insurance,

    Since, the whole suggestion is far reaching and not specialised, we could call the doctors General Practioners and where
    they work from, Surgeries or Health Centres

    These people could determine whether it is the Seasonal Sniffles or Convid

    2. I haven’t seen Georgie Porgy here today. Pudding and Pie? Kissing the girls and making them cry?

      1. Thanks, Rastus. Actually it is:

        Georgy Porgy, pudding and plum,
        Kissed the girl and made them ….         (I’ll leave you to work out the rhyme! 😉)

  53. What the auto-bot upvoter doesn’t understand is that all my 150,000 plus upvotes were removed by a different bot some years ago – so that the constant uptick on my every comment don’t count for anything!!

  55. Good morning all!

    Hoping the new page means that Geoff is online – and Happy Birthday, Grizz!

      1. Does that mean they will be
        – available
        – recommended
        – compulsory
        – bank account frozen if you demonstrate against them?

        Government lying by omission again.

        1. They won’t be compulsory – we are not Canada. You just won’t be able to go abroad without… Easy, really…{:¬((

          3. Realistic!
            They have the digital currency ready to launch. Sunak has admitted it. We know they have developed the digital ID as well.
            Ours are just as bad, a little more subtle, that’s all.

  57. The Government needs to do more to support hard-working families. Richard Wheeler Newton Abbot, Devon

    Mr Wheeler,

    By an inflatable boat

    Take it and the family on a one-day holiday to Calais

    Inflate boat

    Out into Channel

    Border Farce rescue you

    5* Hotel + latsa dosh for years

    Sorry for being facecious, bur it seems the only way

    Brit bad Immigrant good

    1. I know it’s a bit old-fashioned, but how about ‘hard-working families’ do more to support their dreams of material riches rather than demand other hard-working families do it for them?

      Perhaps first of all governments can help hard-working families by not spending, wasting and taxing so much, thus encouraging them to work more. Printing money (is their a more banal but deadly euphemism or technical term than ‘quantitative easing’?) and causing inflation to deflate savings and handicap the economy is not the answer.

      Edited spelling.

      1. In Janus Towers “quantitative easing” is a euphamism for a certain bodily function…and the result is much the same as the real version.

  59. A couple of weeks ago, we had to change our knackered bedside lamps. This article really rang a bell.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/interiors/home/did-lightbulbs-get-complicated/

    When did lightbulbs get so complicated?

    Today’s versions are voice activated, app programmable, colour changing and mood enhancing. Some can even clean your work surfaces…

    21 February 2022 • 6:00pm

    lightbulbs led

    Now you can control your lighting with a touch of your phone…

    It took Thomas Edison and his team of 40 researchers 14 months, 3,000 theories and 1,200 attempts to perfect a functioning lightbulb in 1879. Which is around the same effort level required to choose the right bulb for a bedside lamp today.

    Edison is no doubt spinning in his grave like a dynamo at the modern-day bastardisation of his beautifully simple invention, a filament housed in a glass vacuum bulb lit up with an electrical current. Today’s versions are voice activated, app programmable, colour changing and mood enhancing. Some can even clean your work surfaces.

    Yet for 100 years little changed for consumers. Neon and fluorescent tubes arrived in the 1920s, soft light arrived in the 1940s, halogen lamps were patented in 1959 and the first Light Emitting Diode (LED) was invented in the 1960s, but for home use incandescent was king and the main choices remained wattage, bayonet, or screw.

    LED Lightbulbs

    The climate crisis signalled dark times for Edison’s energy guzzlers however, and incandescent bulbs were banned in the UK in 2012. Halogens followed in September 2021; a move estimated to cut 1.26 million tonnes of CO2. As choices diminished, prices rose. LED bulbs cost up to three times more than halogens.

    The payoff, energy experts said, was that LEDs would typically save a household £40 a year in energy costs. But they took time to reach peak brightness, and many preferred the crisp, instant light of halogens, so they stockpiled or went online to bulk buy from abroad. Time will also soon be up for fluorescent tubes which are due for the chop from September 2023 and include the unpopular curly compact fluorescents, the Mr Whippy of the bulb world.

    Currently, around two-thirds of bulbs now sold in Britain are LED. By 2030 that is expected to rise to 85 percent.

    Bulb type may have simplified, but choice certainly hasn’t, as anyone who has recently stood scratching their head in front of the lightbulb section in Tesco will attest. CFL, LED, Kelvin, Lumens, A to G energy ratings? One needs to be a particle physicist to understand what each product does.

    And the current incarnation of the lightbulb, the smart bulb, presents even more baffling options. These not only allow you to switch the lights on in your home from a smartphone or smart speaker, but they also allow you to control the colour and the ambiance of each room in staggering detail.

    The £15 A60 4lite smart bulb, for example, offers 64,000 shades of white and 16 million colours and allows you to set light levels to mimic natural daylight and ‘regulate your body clock’. It has a 25,000-hour lifespan

    Anthony Parkinson, 4lite Technical Manager, says: “With cool blue hues in the daytime, you can be more awake, then the lights can be set to automatically change to warmer yellow tones ready for a good night’s rest.”

    Some smart bulbs now transcend lighting. The LIFX Clean is the world’s first anti-bacterial bulb. It costs £69.99 and uses High Energy Visible (HEV) light to help eliminate bacteria on surfaces.

    Our quest to turn the humble bulb into the lighting equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife, however, may backfire. Smart bulbs connect to your home Wi-Fi network which connects to all your other gadgets, laptops, PCs, and tablets. As such they provide what cybersecurity experts call an ‘attack surface’, a means by which hackers can access your data and devices. Yet security is seldom a consideration for smart bulb buyers or for some of the manufacturers of the cheaper unrecognisable brands you find when you scroll through Amazon.

    The LIFX Clean is the world’s first anti-bacterial bulb

    As Dr Duncan Hodges, Senior Lecturer in Cyberspace Operations at Cranfield University explains: “We have these devices which are incredibly vulnerable, and we put them into the most sensitive locations we have – our homes. A lot of cheap smart bulbs have systemic vulnerabilities like backdoors and hard-coded passwords because they’ve all come from the same factory but are just branded differently.”

    It appears that on top of all the other consumer complexities, hi-tech light bulbs have an even darker side. It’s enough to make you incandescent.

    Lightbulb moment

    B&Q Category Manager Danny Crouchman illuminates the confusing world of light bulbs

    CRI or Colour rendering index

    This is how close the colour of an object is when lit by a certain light source compared to looking at that object in natural light (sunlight)

    Colour temperature

    How warm (yellow) or how cool (white) the light is – this is measured on a scale in units called ‘kelvins’, or K.

    Lumens

    The brightness of the lightbulb. In ‘old money’ this was measured in wattage. Historically the greater the power output, the brighter the light became. Modern bulbs generate huge variances in brightness with very little change in power usage.

    Room suitability

    For activity-based rooms such as kitchens or bathrooms we suggest using a cooler, whiter light in your lightbulbs.

    In living or relaxing spaces, a warmer light creates a more homely ambience. Simple plastic bulbs suffice in light fittings where the bulb is largely concealed, but you may want to pay a little more for a glass or glass filament bulb in decorative fittings where bulbs are exposed.”

    1. Yo ann

      We bought some, for under 10 pound, that you just touch the frame.to make work (Ddigitally controlled)

      Three light settings and shades
      Ideal when it is dark and you set foot to cludge, no hunting for switch

      1. I had a lamp like that once. It was great, until one day it simply stopped working. Pile of junk!

    3. Talking of which – the bulb in the bathroom “went” last evening. “Guaranteed for 10,000 hours” – my foot. It has only been there two years – 700 hours at most.

      1. Even worse, we have a couple of lamps where the LED part is built in. When the LEDs go, there’s no possibility to replace them and the whole thing is junk.

        1. But but but how would we ever meet the green targets which are essential to our wellbeing if we don’t keep switching them on and off…

          1. We would meet those green targets if it were left in the off position. They will make it easier for you to make that decision by terminating your electricity supply.

    5. A btl post confirms that it wasn’t the American Edison, it was the BRIT Joseph Swan who invented the lamp. He eventually won the patent battle. Quite right too.

    6. I wouldn’t worry too much. At current progress by 2030 we’ll all be more worried about what candle or kerosene lamp to get.

      1. Kerosene being a hydrocarbon derived from petroleum will be illegal to use. And make sure your candles don’t use paraffin wax either.

          4. I wasn’t keen on him as a politician but i do think he makes a reasonable presenter. He is enthusiastic and curious about his subject. At least he isn’t some lesbian ogress.

          6. I like him! Ha reminds me of my Uncle Brian, my Dads cousins husband! Ex vet and very funny! He always wears a shirt and tie, and is immaculate. And he’s 88!

          7. It’s that generation Sue – my late father (he would be in his 97th year now) always wore a tie (regimental) except when decorating. And if it was a hot day he would dispense with clothing altogether. Good job he didn’t decorate the outside in the summer…

          8. Brian wears shirt and tie when gardening! He has a pal known as ‘digger Brian’ who does the heavy lifting! Digger Brian is 69 and had just had his shoulder replaced!!

          9. Close, though.

            It’s the phoney “joining in” with locals that puts me off – further…

          10. Yes, me too. The Portaloo stunts are pathetic, and have absolutely bugger-all to do with trains.

    2. Well, those boats aren’t designed to go to sea (‘C’ – geddit? Oh well, please yourselves).

    7. Piles of fun. Sorry, couldn’t resist. I have a referral to the colorectal clinic but I’m not expecting a speedy response. One just has to sit on the problem and lump it. So many puns but no threat to life.

    1. Odd, that. You need one more to count as enemy action. Who could that be I wonder? Anyone want to ask the Clintons?

      1. There seem to be an awful lot of suicides where the camera is, conveniently, not working in the jail cell, don’t you think?

        1. It’s pure abuse that the media and the establishment expect the public to swallow this cr*p.

          2. Has anyone told him he doesn’t need a mask or vaccine but he does need a blue rinse to post on this site?

          5. Good afternoon, Sos. I think you missed the comparison between mangetout and haricot beans.

          6. Very good! I did miss that.

            I’m slightly conscious of HK’s absence, he lives not very far away from me.
            One of the very few Nottlers I am in irregular contact with and a thoroughly decent bloke, it’s a pity we don’t see more of him.

      1. Me too … I’d gladly watch some Ceuscescu style trials of attendees at Davos (BTW – wait for Trudeau, Blair, Zuckerberg, and Gates to arrive).

  63. Still very windy here , although the sun is shining,
    Last night was calm , dark sky , stars and chilly.. and srill no rain.

    Attended the monthly PC meeting last night .. yippeee no masks ..

    2. Nice and sunny here 51f. and no breeze at all. Lets hope things recover and it rains this afternoon. It’s just not proper this sort of thing.

    3. It’s a good sign, isn’t it, Maggie? Although it’s not happening so much because people are being convinced logically, simply “because the Government and the MSM say so”.

    4. After the beautiful start followed by a couple of hours of rain, it’s fine again.
      Just done a half hour of strimming along the “grass” (more like bramble, nettle and ivy verge) trying to avoid the chunks of tarmac dumped on the verge by assorted road digging contractors. I think a half hour is enough for my knackered hearing, even with ear muffs.

      1. The assumption is always that only around 10% of the actual figures are reported. In the past, govenments themselves have said that about their own systems, though I don’t doubt they’ll now conveniently claim that these numbers are inflated and that causality cannot be proven. Whereas death from all causes within 28 days…

    2. We now know that in Pfizer’s trials, more people died in the vaxxed group than in the unvaxxed group. The difference is statistically small, but the vaxx was supposed to save lives!

        1. Edward Dowd thinks they will end up on the receiving end of claims by the far larger insurance industry. I certainly hope so!

        1. The trouble is it is almost impossible to distinguish between false facts and true facts!

        2. Well that rude reply puts me in the dunce’s corner, doesn’t it!

          https://www.iheart.com/podcast/867-war-room-impeachment-52276954/episode/episode-1602-the-big-short-92212337/
          At about 25 minutes, this group of financial and medical experts including Robert Malone and Edward Dowd refer to the all-cause mortality in the Pfizer results. I do not think they are planning to use fake results in a legal challenge, or that they don’t know what they are talking about.

          Here’s a Jessica Rose article with links to Moderna’s results: https://jessicar.substack.com/p/i-dont-know-what-to-say?utm_source=url

    3. subcutaneous microvasculature………….. Oh right, that explains everything.

      No wonder those devious bustards have hidden all their information away for 50 plus years.

    4. Alas, without context those figures are meaningless.

      Furthermore, A simple calculation of a life expectancy of around 1,000 months and 80% vaccination rate gives a base figure of 56,000 uk residents dying in the month following an injection through non-COVID vaccination causes. Double that for 2 injections. Of course, that’s simplistic but however you play with the figures the claimed deaths are a tiny fraction and extreme care must be taken to attribute a death to the vaccine not coincidence.

    2. Whilst I believe the western powers should not have interfered in Libya as they did, I must have missed that bit where NATO invaded Libya. The Romans, Italians, British, Germans did so before NATO was formed, but that’s a different kettle of fish. Some NATO nations bombed Libya and provided a small number of troops for training, but the fighting was mostly a civil war aided by mercenaries and money from neighbouring countries.

      Is he perhaps getting confused with Russia and Syria, but even that wasn’t invasion as Putin was invited in by the despot in power?

      NATO or the western powers didn’t cause ISIS, migration and all the rest of it. The locals did that all by themselves and we’ve had more Islamist atrocities before ISIS than during it.

      Edited for autocorrect tpyos

      1. We never think of the”despots in power” as the good guys. They do not conform to what has become the democratic norm. The democratic norm mostly doesn’t work in uncivilised parts. (It took us hundreds of years before the notion was adopted. Universal suffrage did not come about until the 1950s.)
        Before Saddam Hussein took over Iraq the country was a nasty shambles. He changed that for the better, education ( for women even!) health (more doctors per head than the UK!)etc. He brooked no opposition and did not want outside interference. As for the latter, he had on the borders with Iran an example of the results of the work of the CIA and their stooge MI6.)

  69. Good morning all.
    Interesting.
    Mention the pervert John Money to a Trans supporter and they immediately begin bring out the antisemitic and Nazi smears!

    I am also advised that the original meme gave the opposite message:-

    The original (i.e. funny and true) version had the odd-looking chap in the top left with pink hair and a rainbow flag on his T-shirt telling the baseballed-capped normie type to ‘Stop being transphobic and educate himself’ or similar.

    As I say in another post, The Left can’t help but smear and attack criticism because, all too often, they have no valid arguments.

    https://twitter.com/WhatIsKinkEven/status/1496032330426851332

  71. Remind me.
    What happened in Yugoslavia and who was quick to recognise the independent states? Who was quick to take sides? Who interfered in the process?

    One former country, seven new ones and lots of ethnic cleansing.

    It doesn’t make what is happening in Ukraine right, but tell me, what are the real differences?

      1. The breakaway groups in Ukraine are no different from those in former Yugoslavia. Putin is merely doing what the UN, NATO and the EU did in Yugoslavia., quite possibly pre-empting a new Srebrenica.

        1. Learn history. Yugoslavia was an accumulation of states held together by force until the fall of the USSR and changing attitudes led to a loss of control. The genie was out the bottle and couldn’t be put back in, with allowing the warring factions to set up viable entities on their own being the best of the many bad options.

          That said, the violence was wrong then just as it is now. The difference is that we went in there to stop the violence but Putin has caused and taken part in the violence there.

          1. The EU and the West were standing on the side-lines cheering it on.

            And they are doing the same in Ukraine.
            Sending troops into Ukraine, where there was already fighting before Putin stepped in.
            Provoking Russia again and again.

            https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/19/west-plans-to-arm-resistance-if-russian-forces-occupy-ukraine
            https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/us/politics/russia-ukraine-biden-military.html

            You want some history:
            https://www.rt.com/news/549849-natos-expansion-destroyed-dream/

            The West has brought this upon itself.

          3. Actually I was deliberately posting to places that I had you down as empathising with. I must have been mistaken.

          4. Come come – Putin is simply liberating Russians who have lived under the Ukrainian jackboot since 1954.

  73. I’m watching the “Ukrainian” debate and Starmer is speaking.
    I get the distinct impression that we are being pushed into a war that nobody can really win. And that we as the UK can most certainly lose.

    1. I do not believe that it is remotely worth a war when the eastern areas of Ukraine have majority Russian populations who would much rather be part of Russia …

          1. Particularly when you have billions worth to recoup that you left behind after your last little adventure.

    2. Afternoon Sos. When this is finished the UK will be an impoverished and broken satellite of the United States!

      1. I fear China more like.
        This one could easily bring down the USA.
        Look at their enemies within as well as without.

  74. As expected, the little dictator got his emergency measures act approved in parliament with liberals supported by the even lefter ndp. A few opposition MPs had spoken against the bill but Trudeau make it a confidence vote and any dissenting ndp mp just fell into line and did as they were told.

    They are already spinning a lie to allow extension of the bill beyond thirty days there are still protesterers who might try to return to Ottawa, we need to keep the measures active .

    Vindictive bastards are out in force, it is claimed that some people who gave a few dollars to support the convoy have had their bank accounts frozen. The Ottawa mayor is still talking about selling trucks that were towed at the wee,end (shame they are leased) and revoking truckers licenses.

    At the local level names of protest donors are being spread on loca, social media in an attempt to shame them (donor names hacked and then gleefully released by the liberal loving media). I was called a Trump supporting extremist several times on facebook yesterday, I don’t think the woke mob see any issues with such undemocratic actions.

    1. As a trucker pointed out the other day (it might have been posted by you) the way forward is to stop trucking. When the shelves start to empty in Ottawa and the like the woke won’t be quite so keen to prevent them from working.

      1. Not going to happen though, must workers are desperate to keep their jobs and stay above water financially.

        It is only the fat civil servants with no lost wages during the past few years that could afford to do that.

          1. A lot of the truckers are vaccinated. Their complaint is over the way big government is forcing this on them.

          2. I think a number of them are also very unhappy with regular boosters being forced on them and their families, now that it is clear the vaccinations do not do what was promised.

        1. I can’t help thinking that the people who run the Unions themselves are pro-vaccination and I wonder what the split is between refusniks and acceptniks in terms of what I would call real work, rather than desk jockeying.

          Delivery and warehouse workers might be the key.

    2. This is not that different from the crucifying of many individuals undertaken in places like East Germany and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s lucky that the Gulags haven’t yet been built by Trudeau.

      1. “It’s lucky that the Gulags haven’t yet been built by Trudeau.”

        What makes you think they haven’t?

        1. Two years ago there was a government request for proposals to build covid isolation centres. Who knows what happened, the mp who exposed this program wax quickly shut down.

    4. Tell them this:
      When the Nazis came for the communists,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a communist.

      When they locked up the social democrats,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a social democrat.

      When they came for the trade unionists,
      I did not speak out;
      I was not a trade unionist.

      When they came for the Jews,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a Jew.

      When they came for me,
      there was no one left to speak out.

    5. Tell them this:
      When the Nazis came for the communists,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a communist.

      When they locked up the social democrats,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a social democrat.

      When they came for the trade unionists,
      I did not speak out;
      I was not a trade unionist.

      When they came for the Jews,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a Jew.

      When they came for me,
      there was no one left to speak out.

  75. Hands off Ukraine. Spiked 22 February 2022.

    Answer me this: why is Putin’s assault on Ukrainian sovereignty deemed any worse than Western governments’ destruction of Iraqi sovereignty or Libyan sovereignty? Is it because the nations whose sovereignty they treated as a sick joke, to be overridden at will, are largely non-white, and thus less important? Is it because they were poorer countries? Is it because they are not in Europe, and who gives a damn about nations outside of civilised Europe, right? While we’re at it, why is Putin’s support for breakaway regions in Ukraine so much worse, apparently, than Western centrists’ support for so-called ‘rebel’ forces in Syria that included Islamist fanatics who slit the throats of teenagers and violently subjugated women? This is more than hypocrisy, of course. It is flagrant Western chauvinism, motored by a warped conviction that when we do things, it is good, but when other nations do the same things, it is criminal, intolerable, deserving of the severest punishment. How these people feel about Putin’s current actions is exactly how we felt about theirs for the past two decades, and their inability to understand that is quite remarkable.

    Brendan performs the remarkable trick here of exposing the Globalist’s Hypocrisy and Double Standards under a headline that will gain him no enmity.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/22/hands-off-ukraine/

      1. I thought that when the mechanic who brought my camper van to reception said, “I’ve left it running for you”!

  78. Homelessness set to soar in England amid cost of living crisis

    Core homelessness in England – a concept which captures the most acute forms of homelessness – is estimated to have totalled 203,400 in 2020, down 5% on 2019 levels. This was primarily due to the widely praised “Everyone In” initiative during the pandemic which saw rough sleepers housed in hotels. But this measure is now predicted to rise to 270,000 by 2024 and reach close to 300,000 by 2036, unless further countermeasures are taken.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/22/homelessness-set-to-soar-in-england-amid-cost-of-living-crisis

    No more room at the inn! And not a single mention of the ‘i’ word…

    2. It won’t be them who are homeless. They will move into the homes of people evicted because they couldn’t pay their Bills.

  79. Russia-Ukraine latest news: Right to ‘snip the feed’ of Nord Stream 2, says Boris Johnson as he imposes own sanctions. 22 february 2022

    “Today the UK is sanctioning the following five Russian banks: Rossiya, Jenn Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank,” the PM told the House of Commons.

    “We are also sanctioning three very high net worth individuals: Boris Rotenberg, Igor Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko.”

    It comes as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he has ordered the withdrawal of a key document needed for certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline after Russia’s incursion into eastern Ukraine.

    One has to ask the question why should Vladimir Putin restrain himself if economic ruin is to be the outcome anyway? The obvious answer to the NS 2 pipeline gambit is to cut off the gas now while it will have the greatest impact. These realities will soon make themselves obvious and very shortly we will be at War!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/02/22/russia-invasion-ukraine-war-putin-crisis-latest-news2/

    1. Boris has agreed to shoot himself in the foot declaiming “Putin made me do it”. While not an expert shot Johnson has tried his hand a number of times at clay pigeon shooting and on the Scottish sporting estates of his friends. As one of his friends, Rupert “Whizzer” de Havilland-Smythe remarked, “Bojo should be able to hit his foot, if he holds the gun close enough”.

    2. So what Boris is saying is that millions of Germans should have their central heating cut off in order to teach Putin who’s boss? Riiiight….

    1. There was a story in the media about 500,000 penguins killed in the Falklands due to the activity by British Military. All bollocks of course.

    2. The person identifying as a penguin on this site wishes to object to that portrayal of her distant cousin.

    1. Mmm, that is a tricky one. People have to make small sacrifices of their individual freedom all the time when they live in a society with others.
      There has to be something else to define crime, surely?
      Non-consensual diminishment of freedom?

      1. Willingly making a change to your behaviour to exist in a civil society is rational. A world where others do as they please is anarchy. Imagine a case of a boy racer who’s argument when asked to drive more carefully is ‘I’ll do what I want’ and the entirely rational response is to fiddle with his brake lines and slash his tires. After all, ‘I’ll do what I want as well’ is chaos.

        When you are forced to make changes that specifically impinge on your ability to live as a free citizen is oppression.

  83. Thank God Jeremy Corbyn isn’t in charge. 22 February 2022

    So consider that scenario: a UK government, probably a “rainbow” coalition with all the chaos and stupidity such a phrase conjures up, led by a man who opposes the military alliance on which his own country’s security is based. Imagine that day in parliament, when the prime minister’s bike arrives and he steps off it, removes the straps securing his red box and heads into the building, preparing for his statement.

    I am no supporter of Corbyn (who is?) but this is largely what we already have. A collection of spineless Cultural Marxist clones devoid of any semblance of courage, patriotism or the urge to self-sacrifice. Rather send some straight white erks from the forces on a futile errand that has nothing to do with the security of the UK! Now where have we seen that before? Just watch when this goes pear shaped. It will make Batley Man look like the Battle of the Somme!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/22/thank-god-jeremy-corbyn-isnt-charge/

    1. The reason why Megain isn’t popular here is because she’s a manipulative grifter who has turned a pleasant – if none too bright – prince into a pouting grudge-laden whinger.
      She hasn’t exactly brightened the remaining years of a respected monarch’s life, either.

      1. I think he was that already, we just didn’t realise it. Why Doesn’t He Just Get A Proper Job?

  85. The spectacle of the lying media and the criminal Johnson vapouring about Russia’s declaration of the sovreignty of the Donbass republics is unremarakable but as emetic as it could be. These parasites are playing with the lives of thousands in order to prop up their corrupt existences. Russia has made what it needs totally clear from the outset. Biden is quite happy to try to divert attention from his domestic disaster by throwing Europe into chaos, and we have the Telegraph the rest of the legacy media and the Johnson regime to shame us all in the process.

  86. Yorkshire Building Society launches two new easy-access savings rates which reward those with bigger balances

    The mutual has launched new versions of two of its easy-access savings deals

    Both accounts pay tiered variable interest rates of up to 0.7%

    Two equivalent Isa deals are also available to its customers

    Yorkshire BS has boosted 93 of a possible 110 accounts since 1st base rate rise

    Average rates have only risen by 0.1% – not the full 0.4%

    Nationwide has only put up rates on 32 existing accounts, leaving 91 unchanged

    By Ed Magnus For Thisismoney.co.uk

    Published: 08:10, 22 February 2022 | Updated: 08:10, 22 February 2022

    e-mail

    21 shares

    16

    View comments

    Whoopdyfockingdoo. I intend to spend my money on booze, food, friends and other entertainments. Not necessarily in that order !

    Yorkshire Building Society has launched two easy-access savings accounts which now offer a competitive return.

    Its Access Saver Plus issue 7 and Internet Saver Plus issue 10 come with a tiered variable interest rate of up to 0.7 per cent on balances above £50,000.

    The

    Internet Saver Plus account pays 0.6 per cent on balances up to

    £10,000, 0.65 per cent up to £50,000 and 0.7 per cent thereafter.

    Meanwhile, the Access Saver Plus pays 0.5 per cent up to £10,000, 0.6 per cent up to £50,000 and 0.7 per cent thereafter.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/saving/article-10535533/Best-buy-savings-rates-Yorkshire-ups-easy-access-deals.html

    1. I’ve been getting that from Goldmans Sachs for many months already. It’s still trivial.

    2. I’ve been getting that from Goldmans Sachs for many months already. It’s still trivial.

    3. 0.7! Wow! If it were 7% I’d be bothered. I’ll keep my shares ISA, thank you 20% return in that.

    4. My nearest YBS is in Nantwich. I’d spend more in petrol getting there than I would accrue in extra interest.

  87. 351055+ up ticks,

    The fat American turk see’s the Russian issue as an invasion no mention of the ongoing DOVER daily potential troop movements.

    1. Yo Ogga

      You really must check your facts with Carrie on PMing, before you accuse the Fick, Fat American Turk of anything.

      Like Biden. Johnson has absolutely no idea what is going on (Though, he may be better than Truss and know wher U Crane is)

    2. He wants that. Why, I don’t know. They bring nothing and cost everything.

      Replacement of a society and way of life by an outside force is a war crime. We should start with Blair.

      1. Too Many White Christian Faces in Britain…D.Cameron…Google that ..it’s a video…
        That will explain all,its about 5minutes.

  88. Personal trainer shot dead after thwarting gang rape was bombarded with ‘you’re a snitch’ threats

    Abraham Badru, 26, feared retribution after helping to convict nine people over sexual assault more than a decade earlier, inquest hears

    Who would have thought this was possible, in this multi-culti country of ours

    Again, it is time that we had the Krays back

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/21/personal-trainer-shot-dead-thwarting-gang-rape-bombarded-snitch/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Now that’s disgusting. The justice system just does not work. Frankly, enact martial law across London – including that wretched stunted Kahn excrement.

    2. Caliph of Londonistan had anything to say? Apart from, “Learn to live with it.”

      Thought not.

  89. If you have some spare time then listening to Edward Dowd is worth the time. Here, he goes into detail with interesting snippets that make a lot of sense. He believes that ‘THEY’ i.e. the perpetrators, are caught and cornered but because of that fact they are ‘tripling’ down to cause as much chaos as possible. Trudeau probably fits that idea, as does the meddling with Putin. His prediction is a virus to disrupt media i.e. take down the internet etc.

    ‘THEY’ will not go quietly into the night as ‘THEY’ have nowhere to hide.

    Apparently Fauci has been absent from his usual media outlets for three weeks and Alex Jones described Psaki’s, Biden’s mouthpiece, current body language as that of a person facing a firing squad. Best I’ve seen of Alex Jones as he let Dowd have the floor for most of the programme.

    Edward Dowd with Alex Jones on Forbidden Knowledge

  90. A lovely early part of the afternoon. 1½ hours usefully spent tidying up the timber debris. One more effort and most will be ready to burn WHEN we get a north wind. The rest will be pea-sticks.

    Indoors now – to find that neither G nor P has moved since 1 pm!

  91. USAF flying round in circles – I did think about putting out a sign saying “Ukraine” with an arrow pointing east…..

    1. You would have the police on your doorstep in no time to record a non-crime directional incident Jokes are no laughing matter these days, you know.

      1. Fortunately I have no sense of humour….{:¬))

        Anyway, if we see a police car around her, we assume the driver is lost…!!

        1. I once went on a church trip for a week at Walsingham and a friend offered me a lift but we got hopelessly lost and strayed on to an approach road to a US base. A girly American soldier came out to tell us off but when we explained our predicament she was very nice and gave helpful directions. You’ll know how far off track we’d strayed but we had no idea at all.

          1. You remind me of a couple of Londoners who came here for the night. I gave them full instructions and a map.

            They didn’t arrive for lunch. Then eventually phoned to say that they were in Felixstowe.. Just have a shufti on google maps!!!

          3. I had a similar experience at RAF Waddington; I put the postcode for the WAVE (Waddington Air Viewing Experience) into my satnav, but it took me to the RAF base instead. I approached the chap on guard (who was armed with a sub-machine gun) and asked for directions. He was able to put me right.

  93. I see the big electricity rip-off has started. Energy prices are increasing from 1st April – actual energy cost on my bill is going up by around 30% – ok I can live with that. BUT how can the increase of nearly 100% be applied to the daily standing charge – the energy price has no effect on this and it’s pure profiteering by the supplier. So most of the increase is related to the standing charge. All suppliers appear to be doing the same – a pox on the lot of them

    1. Government is giving energy companies loans to help the poorest (pay for energy that government is making deliberately expensive). They’ll be forced to pay that money back, and that will come through higher charges.

      It’s utterly idiotic. An artificial situation created, enforced and entirely designed by a useless government’s malice.

  94. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f24b92e4e853e94d8e146b2d3712d95b42c5daab75d896b31d7942fbdf0862dd.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2f603a8398f928f9f02c6eb97678191743716b9c79765bf9979f850beb52a95.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34e0ba671b0b250ff2200646abfbb86d9ae0e2ed80d08ba6559ef4cd269fe8bd.jpg

    Many thanks to Rastus and Caroline on my birthday greetings today, and to all those lovely NoTTLers who sent their good wishes. 👍🏻😘

    That little ditty, Rastus, about a Conscientious Coppers “sideline” (burgling) actually reminded me of a real event in that vein.

    When I turned up for my first day as a recruit at Derbyshire Constabulary headquarters, on Monday 12 November 1973, one fellow recruit, among an intake of about 15, didn’t seem quite au fait to me. There was something about him and his manner that didn’t sit quite comfortably with me. After returning from initial training at Pannal Ash police training centre, Harrogate, we all went to our allocated divisions. I went to ‘C’ Division (Chesterfield) and this other character went to ‘A’ Division (Alfreton).

    I next saw this chap at the first intermediate training week at HQ a few months later; however, by the time the second training week came around he was absent. His contemporaries told me that he had been out on night duty with an older, seasoned colleague when they came across a local branch of Currys that had been burgled. Now, instead of doing what conscientious coppers ought to have done; i.e. contacted the management of the shop before securing it and commencing investigations; our resourceful pair decided to fill their police van with about a dozen television sets!

    Naturally, they didn’t get away with this and were arrested, suspended, sacked and taken to court. Not so good a “sideline” in their case! It seems my initial misgivings about this character were not far off.

    This past few days I have been very busy in my workshop/studio renovating an old 98-year old washing mangle that I was given by a friend. It is a huge and very heavy contraption that had been sitting in a corner of his barn for years, having once belonged to his grandmother. He knew that I was on the look-out for a printing roller so he thought this might do the trick.

    The only problem was that being designed to wring out clothes, the two heavy beechwood rollers (each 2 foot long and 4½ inches in diameter) would only separate by just ¼ inch. A system of six heavy tool-steel leaf springs (similar to those on an old-fashioned car’s suspension) pressed the top roller down to close the gap, but would not open that gap further than ¼ inch, too narrow for my purpose.

    Gaining access to the inner workings presented a problem. I removed the winding mechanism and all its cogs but the springs were secreted inside a thick fabricated steel housing that was immovable. I managed to raise that housing somewhat but was prevented from going further by the device’s inner workings, which seemed to be inaccessible.

    Eventually I managed to raise one side sufficiently high enough to pass a hacksaw blade beneath one end of the springs. It took me about an hour of heavy sawing to cut through the ¼ inch thick spring. That done I eased it out. Now the top roller is unimpeded and I can manage to achieve a full one inch gap between the rollers, which is sufficient to pass through a jig containing my linocuts and printing paper.

    I shall report back, anon, on my success or failure in this respect.

    1. Happy Birthday, Grizz!

      My mum had a favourite old saying about catching your titty in a mangle and the only time I tried to operate one, in the museum at Gunnersbury, I totally understood that saying. It was really difficult leaning over it far enough to operate the handle without catching myself in the rollers (and I’m not a big girl)!

      2. Thank you, Sue. You do realise, don’t you, that thinking about your reminiscences of your painful mangled nip will bring me out in hot flushes? 😘😂

      3. My bother, when he was very small, once got his hand caught in an electric mangle. It pulled him in up to the armpit and gave him an extremely nasty friction burn.

    2. Hello Mr. Grizz! Many happy returns for a wonderful birthday! Hope you have a lovely day and enjoy every bit of it! Sending love and good wishes to you! 😘🎉🎂🍾

    4. Lino press sounds interesting. I follow a lot of lino printers on instag – the skill is amazing. Do show us your prints some time, won’t you!

    5. A very happy birthday. I hope you had and continue to have a good one.

      Perhaps you could roll some extra thick pastas and pastries.

    8. Grattis pa fogelsdagen (or as close as I can get), Grizz! Good luck with the printing press. I was never any good with doing prints.

  95. Any snaps of the newly liberated people in eastern Ukraine greeting their Russian brothers with hugs and kisses and roses and cups of tea?

    Just asking….

      1. Amazing how they all just happened to have those fireworks and those Russian flags in their back pockets, isn’t it!

        3. Not really since the people there are Russian. Logically they should have been in Russia in the first place.

    3. The Samovar runeth over with joy! Probably because the people there are all Russians, not Ukrainians.

  96. I’ve been out today for a very late coffee with a friend! Came back to find the old man watching the dear leader Nikeliar spitting her usual anti English venom. I am so bluddy sick of the evil little troll and her vile cult! I yearn for my homeland!

      1. In February 2020 there was a Nike conference in Edinburgh. Delegates from all over Europe came, mixed, tried on kilts, socialised and then went away. Then convid arrived and Nikeliar denied all knowledge of these people and the outbreak. Just before she sent all the old b*ggers in hospital back to their care homes with no testing!

          1. Probably not…the list keeps growing! She is a wicked divisive woman and I shouldn’t let her get to me!

          2. You have my sympathies. I could spit nails when the stuffed little haggis looms up on our screens.
            She is pure poison.

          3. Thanks Anne! I’ve just about had enough – I want to go home! Of course there’s no one left there but…

          4. She also based her original response to the con, on her ‘not remembering’ the Nike get together. In other words, she lied!

  97. Female World Cup official faces a sentence of 100 lashes and seven years in jail for ‘extramarital sex’ after complaining she was raped while working in Qatar
    Paola Schietekat, 28, faces 100 lashes and seven years in jail for extramarital sex
    Mexican woman charged after she reported being raped while working in Qatar
    Lawyers told her she could possibly avoid a conviction by marrying her attacker
    The man, a colleague, allegedly broke into her apartment, threatening to kill her
    Schietekat, who has since left the Gulf state, was helping to organise World Cup
    By LAUREN LEWIS FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 12:20, 22 February 2022 | UPDATED: 15:54, 22 February 2022 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10538379/Female-World-Cup-official-faces-lashes-jail-extramarital-sex-alleged-RAPE-Qatar.html

    2. If reporting a rape gets you lashed and locked up I wonder how many rapes are actually going on and the females involved just keeping quiet.

  99. In the post today I received a letter from the NHS inviting me to make an appointment to be vaccinated against pneumococcal infection. Apparently one should be vaccinated every 5 years after the age of 65. This is the first I have heard of it.
    In the accompanying pamphlet there is this;
    Q. “How Safe Is The Vaccine?
    A. Before they are allowed to be used, all medicines (including vaccines) are tested assess their safety and effectiveness. One that have been licensed for use, their safety continues to be monitored.”
    Following the links in the letter to http://www.nhsinform/scot/pneumococcalvaccine, and then on to takes you to this:
    https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/1061/pil where the page heading is “Discontinued”. This is not encouraging. But wait!
    If the MSD vaccine is now discontinued, perhaps another pharmaceutical company will fill the breach?
    Yes? Pfizer will!
    The date on the NHS letter is 16th February, the day after Pfizer gained EU approval. Mmm. Suspicious, moi? Am I paranoid? Yes, you bet I am.

    Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) announced on 15 February that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the company’s 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV20), which will be marketed in the European Union (EU) under the brand name APEXXNAR. The vaccine is approved for active immunization for the prevention of invasive disease and pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in individuals 18 years of age and older.

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/european-medicines-agency-approves-pfizer-150200070.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
    https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/22694/PIL/Prevenar+13+suspension+for+injection/

    1. The majority of deaths of the old end with pneumonia. I had no hesitation in taking the anti pneumonia jab. And will do so again, if it’s offered.

      1. I too, have had the pneumonia jab, and have no objection to further jabs as recommended by my doctor.

          1. I had it at my doctor’s office on a routine visit. The Shingles jab I had to make an appointment for at my local pharmacy.

    2. The majority of deaths of the old end with pneumonia. I had no hesitation in taking the anti pneumonia jab. And will do so again, if it’s offered.

    3. Keep those jab maniacs away from my arm!
      (I am aware that this response is not necessarily rational, but after the last two years it will take a long time for me to trust them again. Anyway Pfizer will be very, very poor soon – I hope)

    4. I had that jab a few years ago (when I trusted what went into “inoculations and vaccinations”.

  100. February winds and
    March Showers bring
    Forth April flowers..

    Just an updated version of the old rhyme, to reflect natural climate change..
    Very spring like today here.

      1. Indeed. It is cold, only 8 here. But any snow is usually short-lived when it’s only come about now.

      2. We have enjoyed spring like temperatures for the past few days, but we are assured it will not last, and to be prepared for freezing rain/snow on Thursday, and very cold weather for the weekend. I think I will go back to bed…

        2. We always had the January thaw in CT and then it got horrible again. At school we used to say that February may have been the shortest calendar month but it always felt like the longest.

  101. HAPPY HOUR – Hero Hertz
    RAF sniffer dog Hertz awarded highest honour after saving lives in Afghanistan.
    The PDSA Dickin Medal is the highest award a pooch can receive for serving in military conflict and is recognised worldwide as the animals’ Victoria Cross.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bcd9d4814c2d5241cc61872e9c730736c145346957f18a9b55e62aafd47a0232.jpg

    A RETIRED RAF Police dog has received the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross for protecting British and Allied troops in Afghanistan.
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1569875/dog-news-raf-sniffer-hertz-pdsa-dickin-medal-afghanistan

    1. Lots of Good Boys incoming. And deservedly so.I wonder whether all those unneeded pups that were destined for Afghanistan have found homes yet?

    2. Lots of Good Boys incoming. And deservedly so.I wonder whether all those unneeded pups that were destined for Afghanistan have found homes yet?

    5. Just saw him on the news- what a super dog. Dogs rule!

      How about your pooch hunt Plum? Any joy?

        1. Sharp intake of breath. What ARE you suggesting? {:¬))

          Da bro wiv da shoo’er of paid out the lady wot got in the way of da bullit. (I suggest to my learned friend).

          6. Bluddy Hell, that was a joke, and when I looked her up I discover that’s what she’s known as.
            OOpps

    6. Gawd; life at Allan Towers is just soooooooo boring.
      It didn’t occur to us on Sunday to station heavies at the front door, let alone frisk our visitors before we handed out the drinks and nibbles. Obviously, we’re lucky to be alive.

  103. Boris Johnson promises Britain will ‘receive those who are fleeing in fear of persecution’ from Ukraine. 22 February 2022.

    Boris Johnson today promised Britain will ‘receive those who are fleeing in fear of persecution’ from Ukraine as he faced calls to welcome all Ukrainian refugees who want to come to the UK.

    The Prime Minister said the UK ‘will continue to do what it has always done’ and help people displaced by conflict.

    Yes come to the UK! We have lots of room! Plenty of housing. Good benefits.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10539669/Boris-Johnson-urged-welcome-Ukrainian-refugees-UK.html

    7. What about those of us ethnic English who are suffering persecution in our own country – largely due to idiot politicians bringing in all and sundry who hate us?

  104. Sheku Bayoh died in police custody in 2015. There is footage of him being “restrained” by police.
    A public inquiry into his death is now in progress. The police officers involved have asked for immunity from prosecution or discipline before they will give evidence.
    Elsewhere, Manchester police have cleared Scottish police of any failings in respect of a man whose body was recovered from Wick harbour. My informants told me that it was the police who threw the man into the harbour.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-60478171

    1. Wonderful isn’t it? The fantastic Polis Scotland! Quite happy to leave 2 people in a ditch for 2 days but have time to dance with rainbow loonies! I feel soo safe!

  106. I note that sanctions are to be applied to Russian banks. There will be extra levels of security in an attempt to stop money laundering.
    Maybe it’s me, but won’t all that extra security be applied to all accounts? Don’t we have enough of a rigmarole now when attempting to access our bank accounts?
    When I need to pay bills, I have to enter my password and secret codes to access the account. Thereafter for every payment, I have to re-enter my password, wait for the SMS message with another secret code and then enter the code to the payment form on screen. I have to do this for every single bill being paid by BACS even if I am paying them all in a single session.
    How much more difficult and complex are they going to make it?

  107. POTUS Dopey Joe, Leader of the Western World, is already 48 minutes late for his press conference …

  108. That’s me gone. Another very nice day – and lotsa useful work done. Th MR was part of the gang who took part in the formal pre-interview “visit” by candidate no 1 for the rector’s job. Clims to “love” the Prayer Book. Hmmm. Didn’t agree with churches being close during the plague (at least, that is what she said.)

    Lesbian, of course. White – there’s a shock – and not in a wheelchair. Three more to go.

    Anyway, I stayed well clear. I might have said the wrong thing.. (What? I hear you cry – impossible).

    A demain – fingers crossed.

    2. Don’t rule out lesbian vicars.
      One of the very best, real BoCP, caring and hard working clergy I have ever met is one.

      1. It matters neither a jot nor a tittle to me – as I have given up religion completely. I go to church once a quarter – to doze….

  109. ‘Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c5c8bae33171df255984e1f5a80e5c8060fd5cf0954f77cd1d0a1d705de4a3df.jpg

    On a lighter note

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc07386051f598f90f5951ac4335fa9cdea5e1c436a632f271b0660d5b741ab5.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93a17255bd99bd8dcd059c05243c33b941be29c5ac28502dbaaead731ade414c.png

    https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/funny-evil-cat-planning-to-kill-you-49__605.jpg

  112. Evening, all. I have spent most of the day hanging around waiting for the garage to service my camper, although I took it to them yesterday at 09.00 for them to service it before they did its MoT test. The test was done, but the service hadn’t even been started when I walked Oscar down intending to pick it up. I had to get a lift back (with Oscar on my lap) and then, nearing 17.00 when they close, I rang them up to find out what was happening. They’d just finished it and would be sending a car to pick me up (minus Oscar) in about five minutes. Hooray! Thankfully, now all is signed, sealed and paid for and I can relax. I don’t know what it is, but when things aren’t finished and are still hanging over me, so to speak, I feel very unsettled.

      1. Oscar is very much more relaxed than he was, noticeably so. He’s been brushed without his muzzle on this morning and no problem. Currently he’s flat out in his bed next to the computer.

          1. It’s definitely progress. When I had him on my lap in the car when we had a lift home, he wanted to bite me (he was stressed), but he didn’t! Then he just lay back and enjoyed the ride. 🙂

      1. I lived through the Cold War (when I was part of Britain’s “First Line of Defence”), the Cuban Crisis and now I’m in my seventies. I’ve had a good life. I intend to chill for what’s left of it! 🙂

        1. I am some ten years older, had a gas mask as a child – and lived with more than a decade of rationing …

          1. We still had gas masks (kept in the the bottom of the wardrobe, for some reason!) when I was a child, and I remember sugar and sweets coming off ration in the early fifties.

    3. Glad it’s all done and dusted, Conway! I know what you mean about things not quite finished! Very unsettling! OCD much?

        1. I wasn’t being rude, Conway! I was down this morning at 5 am because I just knew the wind would have blown the cover off the barbecue! Creeping about the garden in the howling rain…!

          2. I think we all do. Things that matter at the time need to be done. Probably the way we prioritise at that moment. Quite why 5 o’clock was one of those moments will remain a mystery…

        2. I know what you mean. I am working from home at the moment ,and I can’t fully concentrate until I’ve picked my daughter up from school in the afternoon and know that I don’t have to go out again! Very annoying.

    4. I know all about the unsettled bit, Conners. Affects me too, makes me grumpy when I can’t seem to finish even one simple thing! Argh!

      1. Yes, as I was saying to Sue Mac below (or above, depending on which way you read it), I do suffer from a bit of OCD and I want to complete things. I really dislike being stopped in the middle of something before it’s finished.

        1. I can’t drop stuff in the middle, either. Got to find a reasonable point to pause – the end of a chapter, not a sentence. The family call me Sheldon (reference to Big Bang! theory on TV).
          OCD gets things done. A bit more OCD in Boris and less blether would make so many things better!

          1. I can so sympathise with Sheldon! Maybe I’m not as literal as he is, but having to complete things definitely strikes a chord.

          2. I am so not OCD….I can leave things for hours, days. If there was an Olympic medal in procrastination-I would win gold everytime.

          3. I can leave things as long as I haven’t started them. Once I’ve started, though, I have to finish!

        2. I can’t drop stuff in the middle, either. Got to find a reasonable point to pause – the end of a chapter, not a sentence. The family call me Sheldon (reference to Big Bang! theory on TV).
          OCD gets things done. A bit more OCD in Boris and less blether would make so many things better!

  113. Getting the feeling that the contrived troubles in Ukraine is just another part of the great reset strategy

    1. Do you read Russia Today?
      The awful thing is, it makes more sense on the subject than the Daily Mail, and I can’t access the so-called “quality press” due to paywalls. But it usually just provides a different version of the same thing with slightly longer words anyway.

      1. This breaks most paywalls: Just open the page, put the link in the box at the bottom, and away you go!
        https://12ft.io/
        It’s not so good on non-English websites, though.

        1. I just can’t be bothered!
          Thanks for the link though, anyway. I do appreciate when people are kind enough to post the odd article on here.

  114. Wow! Dinner was entrecote with bearnaise and vegetables, cooked beautifully by Second Son.
    I’m now stuffed, and happy.! Good man!

  115. Wow! Dinner was entrecote with bearnaise and vegetables, cooked beautifully by Second Son.
    I’m now stuffed, and happy.! Good man!

      1. Forget nice pork sausages, give them the fatty apology for bacon that they serve up over here. It would give streaky bacon a bad name.

    3. Pre-war at the Scrubs people used to accidentally fall off a landing.
      In Franco’s Spain when you were re-captured after escaping, they would break your legs.

  117. Happy Birthday Grizz. Sorry I’m late with the felicitations, but my mind has been on higher things all day (insulating the loft using 50mm thick Kingspan cut in sections to fit between the 56 rafters – likely to be several more days of work before its finished! :-((. )

      1. Yes LotL! He is still going! And still gorgeous! He was my idol when I was young and was from a small village near Durham. Eric Burdon was the nephew of my grandparents maid! I met him and Alan Price several times!! My claim to fame!

          2. The Price of Fame.
            I last saw GF at the Herts jazz festival WGC around 6 years ago his son played drums in the band. Alan Skidmore was playing sax. He played the wonderful solo in the Blue Flames hit Yeah Yeah.

          3. I saw him quite recently (8 years ago) with the Manfreds at a private party. Paul Jones was amazing and when we were chatting later on he said the Geordie accent was the only one he couldn’t copy!

          5. Can’t believe Paul Jones is 79! He’s still lovely looking and I miss his Radio2 show!

          6. Well, you do move in some circles. I’ve met a few people but not lately. I was taken for Emma Thompson in Litchfield CT once. No idea why apart from a British accent. Don’t look like her nor do I have a flat estuary accent either.

          10. Georgie Fame still does small sets. Not with full band. Last saw him at Sturmer Hall under one of their heated tents a few years ago at Christmas.

            Was a class act in the seventies art Ronnie Scotts where I saw him several times.

          11. Sorry to interrupt…Garlands asked me what you thought of the building/architecture surrounding the Mary Rose.

          12. Not sure about the museum enclosure which I have only seen in photographs. A bit bland and uninspiring but in these days probably deliberately so in order to focus attention on the Mary Rose hull and artefacts.

            I prefer light and air, especially so since for years the Mary Rose exhibit was drenched in fine water sprays which detracted greatly from any enjoyment of the wreck.

            I love the way the Scandinavians display their ancient vessels where the enveloping structures contain the same sweeping shapes and timber materials as the object on display.

            Off Topic:
            I have just got home after 5 nights in Addenbrookes. Problems breathing and with mucous coughs for months now. Late onset Asthma diagnosed and also a narrowing of an arterial heart valve which needs further investigation. Also treatment for chronic sinusitus. Various drugs switched to new ones so onwards and upwards hopefully.

          13. Sorry to hear about your hospital stay. It must be a relief to know that something is being done to help you. It’s very frightening to feel ill and helpless and I’m so pleased things are morning forwards. Love to you and KBO!

          14. Both Garlands and I thoroughly enjoyed the Mary Rose museum experience. It was very well done. Worth a visit if you are in the area.

            Sorry to hear of your ill health. I have just finished a year of appointments (30 plus) and had my Op. NHS staff were wonderful.

            I hope your end experience will be as positive as mine was.

  119. Never again must we repeat the errors of the Covid lockdowns

    We have developed unrealistic expectations of control over nature, and seem to have lost our sense of risk

    ROBERT DINGWALL

    As the pandemic draws to a likely close, we can begin to make more informed judgments about what we have lived through.

    To begin with, we ought to recognise that, thankfully, Covid-19 did not turn out to be the “Big One” pandemic that infectious disease specialists, both medical and non-medical, have long feared. The Great Plague of Athens ripped through the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa around 430 BC, killing about one-third of the population. The Plague of Justinian in the 540s and the Black Death in the 1340s were similarly lethal. An outbreak of Ebola or a genetic shift in the Mers or influenza viruses would present a similar risk. Covid-19 has been comparatively less deadly, in part because of the rapid development of vaccines.

    At times, however, policy-makers did not put Covid-19 into context. Nor did they ask what responses would be possible, effective and proportionate. Indeed, we must recognise that too many interventions were ineffective, poorly evaluated and damaged important institutions. We must learn the right lessons for next time – and the time after, and the time after that.

    When I contributed to UK pandemic planning around 2005-06, our work was admired throughout Europe because we approached it as a “whole of society” problem, not solely a public health one. We assigned leadership to the emergency planning team in the Cabinet Office, with its responsibility to engage every government department. Most other countries gave the lead to their health ministries. The UK thought this would focus the response narrowly on medical interests without regard to the wider impact on economy and society. The management of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the UK has demonstrated that we were correct.

    But there are other “never again” lessons from Covid-19.

    • Do not allow lab-based scientists to rip up established hierarchies of evidence in advising on policy interventions – or, worse, to be indifferent to the need to evaluate social and economic interventions. We need real world evidence of effectiveness, not expert beliefs in things like face masks or ventilation.

    • Do not rely on the blunt instruments of law and fear to bring the population along for a long haul. These will always produce conflict and injustice, weakening trust in government and public health institutions.

    • Do not undermine parliamentary accountability or pretend that responsible oppositions do not ask hard questions about the evidence and logic behind policies. The UK has already drifted too close to an elective dictatorship. This should be a moment to strengthen the review of government actions.

    • Do not treat modellers as oracles forecasting the future. Modelling is really important in its place, which is answering what-if questions from policy-makers, not driving policy.

    More fundamentally, the modern world has developed unrealistic expectations of control over nature. In other areas of life, we tolerate risks to a certain level and accept that they cannot be wholly eradicated. Our forebears understood that death was unavoidable but we seem to aspire to immortality.

    All these issues have been on the agenda for at least half a century. There have always been better options than those chosen by many governments, not least our own. It is time to re-examine them.

    Robert Dingwall is professor of sociology at Nottingham Trent University

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/21/never-must-repeat-errors-covid-lockdowns/

    1. He was doing so well until these words “… in part because of the rapid development of vaccines.”!

      1. Lost me at …”The management of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the UK has demonstrated that we were correct.” Never mind the planning, they clearly just flew into a panic, ignored everyone except SAGE & that shit-for-brains Ferguson (long record of errors), and badly mismanaged the approach.

    2. Well, here’s the thing. The evidence for, and history of the diseases and epidemics of the past spelled out these lessons. Our super smart scientists, modellers, and politicians took no heed. They thought that they were smarter, and they were not.

      1. There is still plenty of support for lockdown in the comments. Some of the debate is still nasty, although few are as unhinged as this from Adam Hill:
        The major lesson to learn is to lock down properly like Australia, which keeps the economy going and markedly lowers the death toll.
        The other lesson to learn is that the hard right libertarians fools would have caused the NHS to collapse and the Army to be on the streets. Anyone stupid enough to implement the idiocies they proposed would have been removed very quickly.

  120. The Ukraine War (?)

    As I see it:

    The EU – and NATO – encroached Eastwards and destabilised the Democratic Government of Ukraine.

    This lies at the feet of Catherine Margaret Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, GCMG, PC – Gordon Brown’s creation – the dreadfully ignorant Baroness personified the de-stabilisation of Ukraine …

    We are reaping the whirlwind …

  121. It’s time to put an end to our default crisis mentality – and not just with Covid

    Pausing our whole lives for one outside event is about as unnatural as it gets but, from storms to Covid, that’s exactly what we are doing

    CHARLOTTE LYTTON

    California is bringing an end to its Covid restrictions, and with them, the “crisis mentality” it has been operating under for the past two years, according to Governor Gavin Newsom. Here too, as plans for “living with the virus” officially kick in this week, we can only hope for the same.

    In truth, the two-year state of calamity in which we have been living, in which our threat response has been to shut down and lock up, will likely prove harder to shake. It has become an ethos no longer just applied to the virus, but other areas of life; a now-default mechanism in which, having grown so used to cancelling everything at the drop of a hat and operating entirely from within our own four walls, doing so ad infinitum is now muscle memory.

    Take the recent storms, which have led to mass train and flight cancellations, and the closures of a number of parks, libraries and shops. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, expressed concern at the scale of travel disruption, warning that shutting off services must not be the “default position”; evidently, closing down where there is the risk of genuine danger is the right course. Why it is the default one for so many, however, presents the bigger question. During tumultuous weather, as well as much else, pandemic mode has become the natural go-to – even creeping into the lexicon (yesterday’s storm was dramatically described on the radio as a meteorological “third wave”). In reality, stopping our whole lives for one outside event is about as unnatural as it gets.

    In pre-coronavirus times, the everyday was a pick’n’mix of global threats: a North Korean nuclear war, terrorist attack or extreme weather event being an occurrence that would at most provoke some harrumphing/terse dinner table chatter. Having spent two years reducing life to one main threat – Covid – all others faded into the background, fooling us into believing that we could live safely and normally if we just avoided the monster beyond the front door.

    At points and places during the pandemic, the shutdown approach has been necessary. Now it is not, but the same gusto that went into creating this elevated state of fear has not been applied to the messaging that it is no longer required. Like the various other catchphrases the Government likes to repeat in the hope of signalling a strategy they’ve not bothered to form, “living with the virus” sounds snappy enough, but focuses little on unpicking the behaviours formed (and mandated) over the past two years. You can lift restrictions and tell people they no longer need to behave in a certain way, but we are creatures of habit, prone to changing little unless explicitly necessary; it’s the same reason we stick with overpriced phone providers, or bring the same lunch to work every day. Expensive and boring, certainly, but deemed less hassle than changing course.

    We have spent most of the pandemic being among the worst, globally speaking, at living with the virus, resorting to starker, longer lockdowns in lieu of more sustained periods of lower-level restrictions elsewhere. This constant snapping back and forth between total inertia and normal-ish living has only heightened, for many, the sense that any lifting of rules will soon after be met with a crackdown – something Boris Johnson has not ruled out. Add to this the fact that Covid will not fade from view like normal outside threats, but bubble away for the foreseeable, and detaching from a crisis mentality seems harder still.

    The post-crisis messaging is muddled all the more by the fact the Government’s “great return” has been more sluggish than hoped; that the scientists they elevated during the past two years frequently disagree entirely with their stance, further dampening the likelihood of people believing the risk level truly has dropped. And that the Prime Minister’s popularity has plummeted since Partygate, chipping away yet more at the credence of official assurances.

    In California, Newsom’s goal is to rebuild “sustainable” lives – exactly what lives filled with shutdowns are not. For any benefits perceived, there are genuinely few wins to be had by yanking the handbrake every time a challenge is presented; of spending life jolting between stop and start. To ditch the crisis mentality requires two things: for people to genuinely believe that the crisis is over, and that responding to it, and other stressful events like it, in such a manner is now surplus to requirements. Like any unused muscle, it just needs flexing, and this week is beginning to feel like the last chance to do.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/02/21/crisis-mentality-has-become-default-must-stop-living-fear/

  122. These lippy bots are a bit annoying! I know we’re supposed to ignore them but why on earth aren’t discurse doing something?

          5. Any Nottler passing this way is welcome to drop in and see us.

            Bill and his MR are the only people on the forum whom we have actually met in person – indeed it was Bill who invited us to come to Nottlers.

    2. They are also on Breitbart disqus, probably some Ukrainian working girls looking for business if all those Russian soldiers are short of dollars.

    3. What… Its the only offer I get these days (unless I invest in half a lager and a bunch of flowers).

  123. Considering that we are stumbling into WW3, does anyone else notice how little there actually is about this on the TV and in the Press?

    Plenty of:
    Celebrities, twats,
    footballers, twats,
    police gropers, twats,
    blackstabbers, twats,
    Kate on a slide, twats,
    Islam blaming the raped, twats,
    twats twats twats twats,
    errr, hold on a second, the world is about to explode what’s the focus on twats all about???

    1. Get your cellar ready Sos, there will be a transport of escaping Nottlers coming to shelter.
      Edit- as long as it’s a wine cellar for me and the Sues and Plum….& etc

    1. Used to go to a splendid pub in the Peak District called the Blue Ball. Great homemade pub food.

    1. If they feel so strongly about it they should get quadruple vaxxed. Get a plane ticket and book a hotel. Spend some money in local Bars. Get the shit beaten out of them.

    1. Night Night Elsie. Grizz coping with his Birthday or has he over dosed on swede? The root of all evil.

      2. I rang him yesterday (February 22nd) and he reported that he went out with a friend for a meal to celebrate. Unfortunately, it gets so cold in Sweden at this time pf the year that most of the local restaurants close for the duration as business is virtually non-existent. He did manage to find somewhere which was open and had a light celebratory lunch. I jokingly asked if he enjoyed the Big Mac!!! Lol.

      3. I rang him yesterday (February 22nd) and he reported that he went out with a friend for a meal to celebrate. Unfortunately, it gets so cold in Sweden at this time pf the year that most of the local restaurants close for the duration as business is virtually non-existent. He did manage to find somewhere which was open and had a light celebratory lunch. I jokingly asked if he enjoyed the Big Mac!!! Lol.

      4. Good morning, Philip.

        Swedes don’t eat swede, thy hate it. What they do is overdose on Swedeweed [dill] which is ubiquitous. They put it on pizzas, FFS! They even put it in the pan when boiling new spuds (instead of mint, which they don’t “get”). You can’t escape the damn stuff!

        1. The Germans don’t seem to like root vegetables much either. Strange people.
          Big lumps of pork and strings of sausages, oh yes. A fine swede puree, Nein !

          I first came across Dill in a restaurant. Salmon in puff pastry with Dill and a hollandaise on the side. I have never seen it paired with anything else.

          I’m sure your Birthday celebrations went swimmingly. Did you have some friends round for LUNCH? :@)

          1. No. Just went out to a local lake to photograph some wildfowl and then on to a small café in Ystad to have an open sandwich (no dill!) and a cappuccino. Quiet day, really, with a nice glass of single malt in the evening. I’m having a proper celebration on March 6 when I’ll be roasting a rib of beef on the bone for about six people. I might roast some swede and parsnip with it and see how they react. 😉

          3. I did. All crows are very bright and resourceful, but magpies, especially Australian magpies, are a cut above.

  129. I have just read this :

    Today’s Cossacks are a far cry from their Czarist-era ancestors, the fierce horsemen with woollen papakha hats, sabres and horsewhips, best known as a buffer force on the borders of the Russian Empire. But revival communities of Russians claiming Cossack heritage are increasingly making their mark as conservative shock troops, fighting alongside separatist forces in southeast Ukraine and embracing, and sometimes policing, a return to conservative values under President Vladimir Putin.
    The Kremlin under Putin has generally promoted conservative values, and Cossacks have emerged as avatars for all that is Russian, and have been described as similar to cowboys for the United States or samurai in Japan. Their legacy, however, is also bound up with vigilante-style violence and their historical role against Muslim invaders and Jews.

    4. But their role has been far more pronounced as paramilitary troops during the Ukrainian crisis. When unmarked Russian troops began appearing in Crimea, seizing government buildings ahead of a hastily executed referendum to join Russia, Cossacks in traditional hats began manning checkpoints and providing crowd control. When war broke out in east Ukraine, Cossacks from Russia fought as individual units and even took control of whole cities, until later facing reprisals from competing separatist fighters.

    In an interview, one of the Cossacks who fought in east Ukraine told an interviewer that if he met Putin, he would ask for “weapons.”

    “To create a Cossack army and declare a day of peace on earth, for everyone to leave peacefully, and to those who want war, for Cossacks to come and say: Okay, let’s fight,” Alexander Mozhayev, who was better known by the nom de guerre Babay, said in the interview last week. “First of all I would ask him to help the Cossack people, so that we could live how we want to. The Cossacks will be united by either Putin or war. The government should be thankful to us, but we haven’t seen thankfulness for either Crimea or Donbas. Although Crimea and Donbas showed that the Cossacks are a real force.”

    2. Putin is trying to become a Tsar. I have read several books about Peter the Great, Elizabeth the Great and others . The Tsars were absolute monarchs, which is why the last Tsar Nicholas II was not suited to the role.
      Churchill said when asked about Pearl Harbour- I studied history so I knew something cataclysmic would occur. I do wish people would read history!!

      1. I do not question your knowledge of history but i do have a question.

        Why would he attempt to recreate such a thing without support? He does seem to be alone as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

        1. I do not think he’s alone and the Dumas are twerps and so scared that they will do whatever he says.
          He is seizing his chance as the rest of the world has been weakened by covid(?).
          Seriously- do you think Boris has a clue?
          There is something very sinister going on in this world right now and it makes me very uncomfortable and unhappy.

          4. I am sure one of the 200 spads employed in his entourage would point out which one is left or right. Unlike poor old Diane Abbot and Mr Biden when they both appeared with mis mantched shoes. Perhaps they were trying to set a trend.

          5. I am thinking just the same .
            Putin is so narcissistic.. he rides bare chested , he loves his body , he is a coercive controller and has forgotten that the planet is getting smaller and that we are in a fresh new century , 2022.

    1. I agree with Nadia MP (who i have never heard of).

      We must evacuate all Ukrainians immediately ! Send them to Taiwan.

          2. Perhaps they’re confused – that I might be one of them?

            Morning bb2

            PS 75% of my previous comment was a direct quote from W. Shakespeare Esq ….

          5. Perhaps they’re confused – that I might be one of them?

            Morning bb2

            PS 75% of my previous comment was a direct quote from W. Shakespeare Esq ….

  132. Been away so long that there are more than 400 new posts which I don’t have time to read so, Goodnight,and God bless, one and all.

Comments are closed.