Tuesday 27 April: Dominic Cummings must realise that advisers cannot say: ‘I told you so’

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/26/lettersdominic-cummings-must-realise-advisers-cannot-say-told/

631 thoughts on “Tuesday 27 April: Dominic Cummings must realise that advisers cannot say: ‘I told you so’”

        1. Mng to you – I’ve a couple of botts of Black Stump left and have just taken delivery of a case of asst botts from Naked Wines, they do a great selection of SA , Portuguese and S.American wines , never had a dud yet so the temptation will be significant.

          1. agreed, given good variety of choice / quality and with decent weather and clock ticking down, am sure you’ll be convincing yourself of a taster, merely for Quality Assurance purposes, ahead of BiL arrival. This end unfortunately, wine choice is fairly limited other than those imported from SA and not good quality. With bars under lockdown, usual way round that, call owner, door briefly “ajar” for his select few, ie; those who pay] and sit in small garden. Given decent weather in Nairobi today, it’ll be either Tusker or Pilsner “baridi” [cold]

          2. agreed, given good variety of choice / quality and with decent weather and clock ticking down, am sure you’ll be convincing yourself of a taster, merely for Quality Assurance purposes, ahead of BiL arrival. This end unfortunately, wine choice is fairly limited other than those imported from SA and not good quality. With bars under lockdown, usual way round that, call owner, door briefly “ajar” for his select few, ie; those who pay] and sit in small garden. Given decent weather in Nairobi today, it’ll be either Tusker or Pilsner “baridi” [cold]

        2. Mng to you – I’ve a couple of botts of Black Stump left and have just taken delivery of a case of asst botts from Naked Wines, they do a great selection of SA , Portuguese and S.American wines , never had a dud yet so the temptation will be significant.

    1. A poll yesterday by the Evening Standard and reported on the Guido Fawkes site shows that two thirds of the population is happy with the current speed of Covid unlocking , and that only 9% believe it should be faster.

  3. Mng all here you go: Presumably apologies [not forthcoming] from Fiona Wild, someone removed her toe from the plug socket and was unable to finish her letter: Off out in 15 mins, usual daughter errands:

    SIR – In my 40 years as an engineer in industry, I have found that the task of an adviser is just that, to advise.

    The advice should be sufficiently well thought through to convince the boss that yours is the course of action to be taken. There are times when another course of action is decided upon. It is then the duty of the adviser wholeheartedly to make it work.

    It appears that Dominic Cummings suffers from a surfeit of ego and arrogance in not accepting reality or using his best efforts to ensure success.

    He has forgotten a fundamental fact: if his advice is not followed, he cannot tell his boss: “I told you so”. The boss’s legitimate retort would be: “It is your fault for not presenting the arguments to convince me I was wrong.”

    Clive Williams
    Wrexham

    SIR – Whether you think Boris Johnson is doing a good or a bad job, he is nonetheless doing the “job” during a critical point in the pandemic and indeed our nation’s history. “Unhelpful” doesn’t begin to describe Dominic Cummings’s latest antics, but “treachery” is perhaps going too far. Can anyone suggest an apposite word?

    Tim Palmer
    Poole, Dorset

    SIR – Has Dominic Cummings no shame?

    Sheena Lane
    Aston-on-Trent, Derbyshire

    SIR – I never thought the time would come, but I must say I am rather warming towards Dominic Cummings.

    Peter H York
    Daventry, Northamptonshire

    SIR – I note with concern that Dominic Cummings has said he is prepared to publish all his emails and messages in relation to his work with the Prime Minister. How has he been able to retain these emails and messages after leaving the office of the Prime Minister in November 2020?

    How many other ex-ministerial aides, or indeed ministers, continue to have access to privileged and possibly sensitive exchanges?

    In the financial services sector, as I know from first-hand experience, such retention of information is simply not acceptable.

    Steve Bishop
    Sanderstead, Surrey

    SIR – The arguments between Mr Cummings and the PM seem to focus on decisions examined in hindsight and, when made, being on the spectrum
    between guesswork and certainty.

    In favour of the PM, the public appears to prefer being vaccinated promptly and not dying from Covid, rather than following the EU and landing up at the end of the queue. If the PM is somewhat Machiavellian, at least he is our Machiavelli.

    Dr Ramon Gardner
    Cambridge

    SIR – Salmond and Sturgeon, Johnson and Cummings, Blair and Brown…

    Fiona Wild
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    Armenian genocide

    SIR – President Biden’s decision to recognise the massacre of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 as genocide is a huge moment. As an Armenian, I joined the ceremony in Yerevan on Saturday, the day of remembrance for the estimated 1.5 million victims.

    My great grandfather and his sons were slaughtered in what is now eastern Turkey in a wave of violence that accompanied the fall of the Ottoman empire, and my grandmother escaped with her mother by walking for six weeks to Iraq, where I was born.

    Last weekend I returned to Armenia to chair a movement, founded on the 100th anniversary of the genocide, to celebrate the spirit that allowed Armenians to survive and build an independent nation. The Aurora Humanitarian Initiative honours laureates who struggle against genocidal violence in the world today.

    Yet as the first Armenian in the British Parliament, I have a lasting regret. At least 29 countries have acknowledged the Armenian genocide, including most European nations. What will it take for the UK to do so?

    As with the proper commemoration of our black and Asian war dead, the reparations to Windrush victims and the reassessment of our colonial heritage, we cannot move forward until we acknowledge the past.

    Professor Lord Darzi of Denham
    Imperial College, London

    Aid to India

    SIR – I applaud the Government for sending ventilation equipment to India at a time of great need. All countries must help struggling ones with this terrible illness. Well done, Britain.

    Dr Robert McKinty
    Darlington, Co Durham

    Click for a jab

    SIR – Recent texts from the NHS to my wife’s ancient mobile urged us to book jabs by clicking a link. The phone doesn’t have that capability, so I went on the NHS website, which said that, due to high demand in our area, no slots were available for days. When our granddaughter visited she put the link into her phone and in five minutes had two next-day slots at a local pharmacy.

    T A Newton
    Thornton, North Yorkshire

    Air on planes

    SIR – Mike Penberth (Letters, April 23) repeats the common error that the air in an aeroplane cabin is recirculated.

    Air is drawn in via the engines, processed through the pneumatic system, fed through the cabins and then vented overboard through discharge valves. As a retired pilot, I will have no qualms about flying.

    Huw Baumgartner
    Bridell, Pembrokeshire

    Unfair funeral rules

    SIR – Four thousand people will attend the Brit Awards, and over 100 worshipped in Canterbury Cathedral on Easter Sunday. Large numbers are soon to be permitted at sporting events. Why keep the rule of allowing only 30 people at a funeral?

    Christina Daniels
    Market Harborough, Leicestershire

    Risky roads

    SIR – As more daily deaths are now caused by road accidents than Covid, let’s hope the Government doesn’t reintroduce lockdown and a ban on non-essential journeys.

    Martin Mears
    East Ord, Northumberland

    In care and in despair

    SIR – Sadly I have personal knowledge of the situation Jemima Lewis describes.

    My 92-year-old aunt lives in a care village; she owns her apartment and a high monthly charge pays for all services including social facilities, shop and so forth.

    Since March last year, apart from brief periods, the facilities have been closed and residents “advised” to stay inside their apartments, with any meetings banned and even chatting on the stairs forbidden.

    Despite being a strong person and in good physical health at the start, my aunt has now lost all desire to live, and constantly reports physical ailments. She says she has nothing to live for and wishes she’d caught Covid and died.

    This Government clearly has no idea of the impact continuing draconian measures are having on the elderly.

    Eve Wilson
    Hill Head, Hampshire

    A quick change

    SIR – Reading about Primark’s problems with changing rooms (Letters, April 24) reminded me of when I was a young architect working in Paris in the 1970s, and our firm handed over Marks and Spencer’s first French store in Boulevard Haussmann.

    At that time, no M&S store had changing rooms. The French did not know of M&S and did not believe their returns policy. The result was that when the store opened, the Parisiennes stripped to their waists to try on lingerie. We were quickly instructed to add changing rooms.

    Mervyn Orchard-Lisle
    Taunton, Somerset

    Eau de Paris

    SIR – Smell is perhaps the most evocative of the senses. But those nostalgic for the unique aroma of the Paris Metro “back then” (Letters, April 23) are forgetting two other ingredients: sweat and perfume.

    These, combined in the subterranean warmth with Gauloises and garlic, were almost intoxicating. And sadly a lost experience.

    Antony Martin
    Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

    SIR – To really appreciate the true pleasures of garlic, one has to travel in a packed cable car, preferably in the French Alps.

    Richard Beaugie
    Ashford, Kent

    Bagpipes can blow away the lockdown blues

    SIR – If the mastery of the Highland bagpipe demonstrated by Colour Sergeant Peter Grant on the occasion of the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh is at one end of the scale, then I am at the other.

    For reasons I still cannot fathom, I decided to spend lockdown learning how to play this instrument. Equipped with a chanter, some teaching materials from my local Boys’ Brigade pipe band and a patient, highly competent tutor, I began in March last year.

    Despite the protests of howling dogs, and the cruel remarks of a household who compared the noises generated to those of an elephant in distress, I have persevered. On the chanter I have six tunes tucked under my sporran, but with a failure to grasp the breathing technique on the pipes themselves, I press on.

    I am glad of my decision: learning the bagpipes has been an antidote to lockdown fatigue and mental health issues – and has proved a great help with social distancing.

    Dr Clifford Smyth
    Belfast

    Look what happens when the electricity fails

    SIR – I wonder what Boris Johnson would have thought of the situation our village faced last Friday evening.

    From 4.15 until 6.15, all electric power failed. The Co-op closed. Farm shops stayed open, trusting people to pay at a later date. Petrol stations could not sell fuel or charge electric vehicles. Two hairdressers with full bookings could not work. The doctor’s surgery was closed and those working at home had no access to Zoom. Three restaurants, fully booked, went to extraordinary lengths to feed guests. This is not to mention the disruption to villagers’ normal lives.

    Britain cannot rely on electricity alone. Mr Johnson cannot allow green idealists hoping for zero emissions to rule his plans, and he must not believe the many countries that will happily lie about their low-emission targets.

    Peter Lewis
    Kelsall, Cheshire

    SIR – The new carbon reduction targets are ambitious indeed. To meet them we will need to build two dozen Hinkley Point-style nuclear power stations – or their equivalent – and a new grid. And in 10 years’ time I will be asked to throw away my gas Aga cooker, my 2020 Valiant gas boiler and my 2019 car, all of which could have a decade more life in them at that time. This is hardly conservation-minded.

    The 2035 changes will involve a huge effort by civil engineers and the construction industry. Can we do it? As a civil engineer who has worked on Crossrail and other big projects, I have no trouble answering this question: no.

    It’s good to encourage people to crack the renewable energy storage problem. But, unless oil is administered to the machinery of British government, the targets are a fantasy.

    Edmund Sixsmith
    London W6

    1. Clive Williams has obviously never been subjected to plots to be rid of him by those who fear the advice being given.

      1. am sure he was told “STFU” before being fired. His various jobs as an “adviser” to shelf stackers has been “robotised”

  5. Some Breitbart clickbait

    Boris ‘Let the Bodies Pile’ Leaks Point to Cabinet Coup in Making
    *
    *
    It is said that the Prime Minister ultimately bent to the will of his ally-turned-rival-turned-ally — and possibly to turn rival again — Michael Gove, on ordering a second lockdown at a high-level meeting between the pair and senior government ministers.

    “Michael said that if he didn’t impose a second lockdown there would be a catastrophe,” said “a source close to Mr Gove”.

    “Hospitals would be over-run, people would be turned away from A&E [Accident and Emergency Departments] and people would be dying in hospital corridors and hospital car parks,” he is said to have argued.

    The Prime Minister was allegedly told if he didn’t impose a lockdown he would have to deploy the army to hospitals to control the crowds and that this would be seen around the world as an indictment of his “post-Brexit Britain”.

    In terms of whether Mr Gove, perhaps angling for the premiership himself, could have something to do with the leak, Ben Harris-Quinney of the Bow Group, Britain’s oldest conservative think tank, told Breitbart London: “Westminster is the spiritual home of skullduggery, and it is perfectly possible aspects of this are being orchestrated, not by ex-staffers or concerned investigators, but by those with an eye on the top job for themselves.”

    He added, however, that it is his belief that “if Boris falls his replacement will not be an obvious candidate but a seachange, and if it is a Michael Gove or a Grant Shapps manoeuvre, [the premiership] will prove even more of a poisoned chalice for them than it has been for Boris and Carrie.”
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/04/26/boris-let-the-bodies-pile-leaks-point-to-cabinet-coup-in-making/

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fd025bfa4-a6b7-11eb-9b76-9500a3917e5f.jpg?crop=2847%2C1898%2C588%2C158&resize=1027.5

    1. he certainly seems to be a tad closer to his Julius Caeser moment, albeit there will be a long queue [and not because of social distancing] to stab him in the back

      1. Thank you for reply yesterday, and all information, it filled in the gaps of things I have come to realise. The ‘reply’ facility in notifications was locked so I could not reply there – I think one is only allowed a certain quota.

        2. The reply facility closes after two days due to the spam attacks. There is no quota. If they were left open for five days as they used to be the spammers would be able to target older pages and make it much harder to eliminate them.

          1. Thanks Ndovu. I thought it was a disqus thing. There was a tiny padlock symbol next to the ‘reply’ button.

          2. It’s both a Disqus thing and one that we can control. We used to have five days to reply to posts but the spam attacks have forced us to reduce it. They are still ongoing but at least now they go into the mod panel instead of cluttering up the page.

      2. A depressing fact from another newspaper. Priti Awful is at 24 to 1 for next PM.

        1. Flybet Uganda will be piling on the Uganda Shillings as a good punt until the Far East betting markets kick in. Priti Awful as PM would rubber stamp colonisation of UK and formally a 3rd world country

  8. SIR – The new carbon reduction targets are ambitious indeed. To meet them we will need to build two dozen Hinkley Point-style nuclear power stations – or their equivalent – and a new grid. And in 10 years’ time I will be asked to throw away my gas Aga cooker, my 2020 Valiant gas boiler and my 2019 car, all of which could have a decade more life in them at that time. This is hardly conservation-minded.

    The 2035 changes will involve a huge effort by civil engineers and the construction industry. Can we do it? As a civil engineer who has worked on Crossrail and other big projects, I have no trouble answering this question: no.

    It’s good to encourage people to crack the renewable energy storage problem. But, unless oil is administered to the machinery of British government, the targets are a fantasy.

    Edmund Sixsmith
    London W6

    Aye. ES is a friend and contemporary from Cambridge Engineering Department. He got a 1st; I didn’t. We are both right.

    1. “But, unless oil is administered to the machinery of British government, the targets are a fantasy.”

      Wasn’t the oil sold off cheap and the money used to party with?

    1. It depends on how one defines “worst”.

      Without the groundwork laid down by Blair and his wrecking crew, I think Johnson would be unlikely even to have become PM and do the damage he has, using Blair’s foundations.

      In my view Blair is the worst by a considerable margin.

      1. ‘Morning sos! I’m with you on that! I can’t believe that people equate what Boris has done with the ongoing destruction of Britain and its heritage, traditions and goodness, set in train by the evil, twisted and vindictive ba****d Blair! And that’s before you consider his foreign adventures!

          1. My mother was rushed to hospital in 2000 and not expected to live. After some fairly aggressive resus she was transferred to a bed and her consultant asked various questions to check her mental state. When he asked who the PM was she answered firmly “Bloody Blair”! She came home the next day!

          4. Walking from my hotel to the middle of Inverness when I was on a work stopover, decided to call my much missed sister.
            She made the mistake of mentioning Blair and, even though she understood and agreed with my views, was taken aback by the vituperation with which I expressed them!

          5. LD morning, been a while. Re your point, I was / still am. My own take is Blair laid the foundation path for the idealogist elite wrecking ball that everyone else post his tenure has simply followed. Blair certainly lost traditional core Labour base aka One Eyed Brown, Millipede, the allotment shed owner and Sir Kneel. Johnson’s again merely following same route [Call me Dave, the offspring of Blakey from Of the Buses] and weakening the Conservative core base. Now regardless of label, all within are merely one unitary party in beliefs [themselves] with the odd dash of colour to differentiate to satisfy / represent Buy Large Mansions and any other alphabet soup of groups representing ‘People of Colour” / Muslims and other assorted shirtlifters. If Johnson collapses the Conservative party, then Johnny’s point is as valid as Sos and others.

        2. I believe Blair is so evil that John Smith’s and many other people’s conveniently helpful deaths were positively Clintonesque.

          1. “Clintonesque: adi., meanings “assisted by malfeasance”, “perpetrated by assassins”

  10. Good moaning.
    My first larf of the day. That’s what you get for greasing up to unreconstructed old Muzzie dinosaurs. You were lucky he didn’t expect three more inferior bints to appear with you.
    Imagine Maggie being treated like that. No, neither can I.

    “‘Sofagate’ wouldn’t have happened if I was a man, says Ursula von der Leyen

    Simmering briefing war erupts as European Commission president turns upon her European Council counterpart, Charles Michel

    By James Crisp, Europe Editor26 April 2021 • 8:57pm

    ‘I felt hurt and I felt alone, as a woman and as a European,’ Mrs von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Monday Credit: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Europe

    Ursula von der Leyen humiliated Charles Michel on Monday in revenge for the European Council president’s part in the sexist “sofagate” scandal that embarrassed her on a diplomatic visit to Turkey.

    She was forced to sit on a sofa after Mr Michel took one of the only two chairs provided for the meeting with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in April.

    Video footage of an uncomfortable Mrs von der Leyen, the first woman to lead the European Commission, standing before the two seated men went viral and fuelled talk of a rift between the leaders of the two EU institutions.

    “I felt hurt and I felt, I felt alone, as a woman and as a European,” Mrs von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Monday after Mr Michel apologised to MEPs.

    She dismissed Mr Michel’s excuse that sofagate was a “protocol incident”, as the simmering briefing war between the two EU presidents erupted in the Brussels’ seat of the parliament.

    “I am the first woman to be president of the European Commission. I am the president of the European Commission. And this is how I expected to be treated when visiting Turkey,” she said.

    “I cannot find any justification for how I was treated in the European treaties. So, I have to conclude that it happened because I am a woman. Would this have happened if I had worn a suit and a tie?” she said.

    “It is not about seating arrangements or protocol. This goes to the core of who we are […] and this shows how far we still have to go before women are treated as equals, always and everywhere.”

    Mr Michel told MEPs the council protocol team did not have access to the room before the meeting was held and that the Commission did not send a protocol team in advance.

    The former prime minister of Belgium said: “On the protocol incident, on a number of occasions, I have expressed my regret, publicly, for the situation that was created. My apologies to the Commission, and all those who felt offended.”

    Mr Michel said he heard the criticism of his conduct “but at that time, and without the hindsight we all have today. I decided not to react further, so as not to create a political incident that I thought would be still more serious and would risk ruining months of political and diplomatic groundwork”.

    He added: “I understand the images will have offended many women, and I would like to reaffirm my total full and absolute commitment to support women and gender equality.”

    The meeting was held shortly after Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul convention to fight violence against women. Senior Turkish politicians claimed the seating arrangements were made in agreement with the EU.

    Mrs von der Leyen, who appointed the first gender balanced team of EU commissioners in history, said there were cameras in the meeting room when she arrived, which captured her discomfort.

    “Thanks to them, the short video of my arrival immediately went viral, and caused headlines around the world. There was no need for subtitles. There was no need for translations, the images spoke for themselves,” she said.

    She added: “I am the president of an institution which is highly respected all around the world, and even more important, as a leader, I can speak up and make myself heard. But what about the millions of women who cannot?”

    1. Wow! Talk about over-thinking things! But I’m really pleased she thinks that the EU is “respected all around the world”! Deluded, or what? Good morning Anne and all!

    2. I am the president of an institution which is highly respected all around the world, and even more important, as a leader…

      Self delusion approaching monomania!

      Morning Anne.

    1. Perhaps someone in that galaxy is taking a piccy of ours, it would look pretty similar.

    1. 332051+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      One large point with consequences ” they are given the
      freedom REPEATEDLY” to strip away the decent peoples freedom.

  14. Homeland Security launching internal review to root out white supremacy in its ranks. 27 April 2021.

    The US Department of Homeland Security will perform an internal review to address the state of domestic violent extremism within its own ranks, the latest probe across federal law enforcement and US agencies in the wake of the Capitol insurrection amid a growing threat of white supremacist violence.

    This is of course standard practice in Marxist States. In the lower orders, particularly the military, time will be set aside for group “self-examination” this to make sure that all are on message and that the “purity” of the doctrine is being maintained. The North Vietnamese during the war against the Americans insisted on this even in the most adverse conditions. The irony eh?

    Fortunately the US Army has not yet succumbed but measures are already being taken to ensure that the future will be doctrinally acceptable.

    We don’t need to worry about this in the UK since the transition is already completed and Mi6 and its associated agencies are already fully Woke!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/homeland-security-white-supremacy-investigation-b1837971.html

    1. ‘Afternoon, Minty, “We don’t need to worry about this in the UK…”

      ‘cos we don’t have a viable armed forces anyway.

    1. So why EXACTLY would we be needing Covid Marshalls from July until Jan 2022??

      So as to enforce compliance with “normality” – To force you to remove your mask; to force you to stand shoulder to shoulder…

    2. Morning Rik. We are pre-WW2 Germany with the internet! They had no way of knowing if their views were shared or able to voice them!

    3. Here’s something to get worried about:

      Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi – “The UK currently operates a system of informed consent for vaccinations.”

      Poor choice of word or has he made another gaff and let the cat out of the bag? Surely this would entail wholesale changes to Acts of Parliament?

      1. I was in the garden centre on Sunday, it was very busy, everyone was masked up except me and I remember thinking that this lot aren’t going to give up their security blankets in a hurry, if ever. WHO 20 March 2020 downgraded the covid coronavirus as no longer a threat to public health, but it would seem our junta never received the email, for some reason. On another tack, I am hearing on the grapevine that the Indian Minister for Health died 24 hours after receiving the ‘vax’.

        Good morning, an early one for me!

          2. Then the sooner you find your new chum (pedigree or not) the better.

            I am 80 – old and haggard and in poor shape. G & P have (sort of) rejuvenated me.

          3. I don’t mind a cross breed (they always have such endearing characters). As it happens, the one I’m considering is a pure bred. It depends on whether we click when we meet (next week, possibly).

    1. It was interesting how he approached the police line, and after checking around then made his move at the extreme edge.

      2. I think, Joseph, that they realised that they were slightly outnumbered.

        If they cut up rough the tables would soon be turned and they’d end up on the floor with most of their equipment being nicked (and turned against them).

    1. 332051+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      ” Our goal is to re-energise grassroots activists”

      Was your input along with the ersatz uKiP nEc regarding the takedown of Gerard Batten & the real UKIP a re-energising exercise then ? and to be reenacted .

  22. Good morning from a bright Derbyshire. Cloudy overnight, but not clearing with a warm 5°C in the yard.

    Good BTL Comment regarding the No.10 redecorating:-

    Barrie Newton
    27 Apr 2021 4:46AM
    @b green
    Perhaps No 10 could be put in the hands of the armed services married quarters organisation. No nonsense and you get what you’re given.

    I said a LONG time ago when Chelsea Barracks were being sold off that they should have been refurbished and turned into accommodation for those non-London MPs who feel the need for a 2nd home in the city.

  26. Nicked from another Rick

    “Marianna Spring was the latest globalist marketing front-mong. She’s been as well-received as any of these I typed about.

    Global Propaganda marketing seems to be staffed by disconnected idiots these
    days. They’ve misjudged the people rather badly and come out with some
    terribly dire projects.

    First they decided that Gina Miller would
    be a great idea as a rallying symbol for opposition to Brexit. Exotic
    former model turned business woman. Worked hard to get where she is
    against the disadvantages of a bit of a tinge and of being a woman in a
    patriarch world. The people were certain to love this plucky and
    intelligent lady working hard to save Britain from making a huge
    mistake. Wrong. We saw through all that. She’s a brassy little mercenary
    ethnic out to destroy democracy by order.

    Then Femi. A cool young
    black dude. Lawyer who’s forgoing the big bucks and putting in the time
    to campaign against the evil forces of Brexit which are going to steal
    the future of da yoot. “Not on ma watch, yo!”. A hip and happening
    intelligent negro icon that any liberal momma would be glad to take home
    and make her daughter join them for progressive uninhibited sex. Except
    the public can easily see the thicko dimwit puppet inside the
    packaging.

    EU Subgirl. Well, just look at it. 21st Century sex
    appeal for unspecific gender nomads. There can’t be THAT much soy. The
    talent and brains of a housefly.

    Steve Bray. A loudmouth
    irritating drone. Just what the silly little people, bless their hearts,
    are going to take to their bosom and trust implicity. Complete with
    hat, flag, megaphone and no flipping brain.

    Greta Thunberg. The
    marketing team’s gone balls out with this one. Fading show business
    mummy donated her to the cause and the team is working her harder than
    they worked Aled Jones in the recording studio to do one more album
    before his balls dropped. A creepy looking know-nothing reject Bratz
    doll lecturing us on the absolute necessity of allowing government to
    further overtax and regulate us for our own good. Or at least for hers.
    Because how dare we?

    And the latest star in the globalist
    propaganda constellation. Marianna Spring. The BBC has her billed as The
    Truth Fairy. Flitting hither and yon bestowing her sparkly wand of
    authenticity on the official New World Order narrative while cautioning
    innocent children not to talk to strange sources of information. But we
    can all see her approaching Tony Blair levels of bare-face lie.

    Some rather isolated Millennial Madmen and Madcows are behind these failed
    advertising campaigns. If the mainstream media weren’t totally bought
    and paid for these pitiful goons would have been ridiculed to death in
    moments. Instead they’re splattered into our faces time after time. Long
    after they’ve been discredited.”
    Ain’t THAT the truth !!

  27. Good morning, everyone. Going out with No. 2 daughter and son-in-law. Will check in later.

  28. Raab wired to the wrong moon again https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-sanctions-22-individuals-involved-in-serious-international-corruption?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=06fa8e3f-146a-47ae-810e-a8ff629d42a0&utm_content=daily the Guptas in SA were the “US front for Zuma” and Sudanese “Al Cardinal” is seriously connected to Hilary Clinton / deep state and Priti Awful / Liam Fox viz his dealings in oil when based out of Uganda. In essence another smokescreen cover up to airbrush any blowback on corruption back to Western Govts.

    1. Raab needs to get a bit introspective and start by looking at the Cabinet, the Commons and the Lords, if he wants to see (and root out) corruption.

      He might get his chum at the Home Office to help.

      Start with mirrors and graduate to lamp posts and piano-wire – before we do.

      1. NTN mng, wouldn’t surprise me Raab and all within innrer “Ministerial Circles” are sponsored by Kleenex although no one will hear about it. I do agree re lamp post, piano wire

  31. Why can advisors not say I told you so? Boris has made an error – many errors, the first being letting his wife run the country – that should be penalised.

    1. I thought Marina Warner had given him the heave-ho and was getting on with her own life.

  32. Politically incorrect

    Police in London found a bomb outside a mosque…
    They’ve told the public not to panic as they’ve managed to push it back inside.

    =============================

    During last night’s high winds, an African family were killed by a falling tree. A spokesman for the Birmingham City council said “We didn’t even know they were living up there”.

    =============================

    Jamaican minorities in the UK have complained that there are not enough television shows with minorities in mind, so Crime watch is being shown 5 times a week now.

    =============================

    I was reading in the paper today about this dwarf that got pick-pocketed.
    How could anyone stoop so low?

    =============================

    I was walking down the road when I saw an Afghan bloke standing on a fifth-floor balcony shaking a carpet. I shouted up to him, “What’s up Abdul, won’t it start?”

  34. ‘Sofagate’ wouldn’t have happened if I was a man, says Ursula von der Leyen
    Simmering briefing war erupts as European Commission president turns upon her European Council counterpart, Charles Michel

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/26/ursula-von-der-leyen-says-sofagate-snub-would-not-have-happened/

    She added:

    “I am the president of an institution which is highly respected all around the world, and even more important, as a leader, I can speak up and make myself heard. But what about the millions of women who cannot?”

    How can an institution ‘be highly respected all around the world‘ when its ‘leader’ is a small-minded woman with a victim mentality suffering from that fatal mixture of empty arrogance and lack of self-confidence?

    1. I think it very impressive that she concentrates on the things which are the most important. Far better than looking into international matters….

    2. She should learn her place. The hussy entered a room containing great leaders (caliphs) without covering her scrawny body and offensive face. It was gracious of them to allow her to breathe the same air. She should be get stoned (whisky, gin or vodka are available) and retire to a nunnery for a life of repentance.

      1. I don’t know about a nunnery. An asylum perhaps.

        Why on earth does she expect a Muslim Jihhadi enabler to even notice she, as a woman, is even in the room?

        1. ‘Morning, Sue, reminds me of one from the 70s:

          Martina Navratilova, sponsored by ‘Snap-on Tools‘.

  37. Prince Andrew set up business with banker accused of sexual harassment
    Duke set up Lincelles last year with Harry Keogh, who resigned from Coutts after allegations from female colleagues

    By Telegraph Reporters: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/04/27/prince-andrewset-business-banker-accused-sexual-harassment/

    I have no particular affection for Prince Andrew but surely he is innocent until proven guilty? This is a deliberate slur by association by the thoroughly third rate newspaper. Two points of interest:

    i) Why does the DT not identify who has written the article;
    ii) If I accuse somebody of sexual harassment does that mean that person is guilty because of what I have said? And does this mean that nobody should ever have any dealings with someone accused of doing something regardless of their innocence or guilt?

    I suppose that the basic premises of Magna Carta are no longer relevant in this country now ruled by an empty charlatan and his meddling whore.

    1. It could be reworded;
      Banker Harry Keogh set up business with prince accused of sex with underage girls in US.

      2. What we must never forget in this post truth age is that what is important is the accusation and not the fact.

  38. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warns the UK the Brexit trade deal has ‘real teeth’ and Brussels ‘will not hesitate’ to punish Britain if Boris Johnson breaks its terms amid rumbling row over Northern Ireland Protocol
    Ursula von der Leyen said Brexit trade deal has ‘real teeth’ to ensure it is stuck to
    She said EU ‘will not hesitate’ to take action against the UK if it breaches terms
    Came as MEPs prepared to finally vote for Trade and Cooperation Agreement

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9515947/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-warns-UK-Brexit-trade-deal-real-teeth.html

    Why on earth did Boris Johnson agree to such a disastrous “deal” when “no deal” was clearly the better answer?

    I am sure he would not have let this happen had Dominic Cummings not been dismissed by the remainer whore in residence who refuses to restrict her activities to the bedroom.

    There is still time for Britain to back out but unfortunately Boris no longer has the testicular strength as it has all been drained away by his harlot.

    1. I was about to suggest that His, His, His Delilah and his haircut have drained him.
      But then I remember that he was behaving that way when he still looked like a bleached Giant Haystacks.

      1. Poor old Boris has modelled himself on Billy Bunter , of that I am certain .
        Is Boris as clever as he believes he is , and does he have to pinch himself everyday to convince himself that he is PM?

        I don’t know, and I worry about that Carrie woman guiding him towards absolute disaster !

        The undisputed school “star” was the immortal fat owl of the Remove, noted for his colourful phrasing. Chapters often open with Bunter being caught in flagrante sneaking tuck: “I say, you fellows. Oops yarooooh! Look here, it wasn’t me. Stoppit! Oh, crikey, wow-wow-wow!” Bunter was referred to by the Removites as a “blinkering, blethering, burbling bandersnatch”, while his lies were dismissed as “piffling, pernicious porkers”.

        Memorable sayings still resonate. If Bunter was vacillating, Richards would invoke the line: “He who hesitates is lost.”

        Frequently, the sword of Damocles hung over him as an ever-present peril for missing Latin homework translation, or non-payment of a debt because his father’s postal order failed to arrive. Bunter was never famous for having cash. He also failed to appreciate the qualities in Virgilian verse, and while others were delving into the Aeneid, he was invariably busy lining his stomach, sneaking biscuits from Coker’s study or scrounging from the form room. The tuck consisted of calorific cakes topped with marzipan, caramels, éclairs, meringues, jam-tarts and doughnuts, which today would be frowned on, if not outlawed, by the dental and health education police.

        https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/i-say-you-fellows-an-irishman-s-diary-on-billy-bunter-1.3215818

        1. ‘Afternoon, Mags, I think Boris is waiting (in trepidation) for his ‘Remittance’, i.e., a Postal Order.

          I’ll happily send him an order by post – please “Go away in short jerking movements and take that tart with you.”

          1. Hi Tom,

            Who do you think would be capable of stepping in to the role of PM .

            Boris and his useless Home Sec and a few others are wrecking the mantle that protects us all and his green agenda is alarming many .

          2. After his recent run-in with (supposed) authority, my money would be on Johnny Mercer.

            Probably the only honest MP in either of the two houses.

          1. Yes , I think so too, she has certainly got her claws into him .

            Still she probably enjoyed being fumbled by a smelly old Boris who probably hasn’t a clue about the finer delicacies of fornication !

    2. The BBC Radio 4 News reporter thinks the EU 27 will vote to support the trade agreement partly out of weariness of the whole business. Boris’s Trade Agreement was a cave-in and the EU will cause us trouble at every opportunity.

    2. Afternoon Anne

      RL is a good hand , he has a powerful voice , I hope some one high up in the grand scheme of things takes heed of his scribblings.

  40. Twenty retired French generals call for MILITARY RULE in the country if President Macron cannot halt society’s ‘disintegration’ caused by Islamists – sparking political uproar ahead of elections. 27 April 2021.

    Twenty retired French generals have called for military rule if Emmanuel Macron fails to halt the ‘disintegration’ of the country ‘at the hands of Islamists’, in an open letter published ahead of next year’s presidential election.

    Though one longs for Rational Government either here or in France history tells us that the Military cannot supply it. What you get is Regimentation instead of Freedom and Orders instead of Laws!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9514863/Twenty-retired-French-generals-call-MILITARY-RULE-country.html

  41. ‘Morning, all. Finally, it seems the fat lady has sung….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3568d63eee3c74f10f5d74c5d09fe93bb8605a4ca80975307a07b2f39752435b.png

    Thousands of scientists around the world are looking for new work after they realised the science is settled and there was no need for them anymore.

    “The science is settled,” said climatologist Blorg Norbergrobben as he hung his head sadly. “I heard that on the BBC. What am I going to do with my life now that all knowledge has been uncovered and will never be overturned by new discoveries? Maybe I’ll get a job as a political advisor.”

    Experts have indeed found that the science is settled on climate change, infectious diseases, gender, the origin of biological life, sociology, nutrition, and pretty much every other scientific discipline the government is still willing to fund. Most scientists have taken new jobs as politicians and media personalities so they can assure the public about how incredibly settled the science is.

    One scientist tried to insist that the science wasn’t settled, but he was labeled as a “science denier” and kicked off social media.

    1. 331051+ up ticks,
      Morning DM,
      The one thing that still does mystify them ongoing is why do peoples continue to support & vote for (ino) parties, so by denying reality ?

  42. Good morning all.

    Feeling a bit grot this morning.

    My doorbell woke me at 1.30 a.m. My 90 year old neighbour was looking for his wife.

    Obviously i didn’t have her stashed away. He went off and i threw on some unglad rags and hobbled down the street in my dressing gown to make sure he got home okay.

    I rang their doorbell and his wife answered and said ‘Who are you?’

    Joy (his wife ) then told him to go to bed or she would call the authorities and have him locked up

    It could have been worse. Especially on a cold night i was worried he forgot where he lived.

    I would like to ask the advice of Nottlers about what to do.

    Do i

    A. In future answer the door with a shot gun.
    B. Call Social Services and have him put away.
    C. Pretend that I don’t know him.
    D. Tell him his wife passed away 10 years ago.

    Or………And i know there is a risk from fire hazard. Tell her to double lock the doors at night? Any suggestions?

      1. Hi Belle.

        That looks like a good idea.

        I’m not sure he has dementia. Just a bit confused some times.

        He finished writing his story about his life on the railways last year. He managed that from memory. He self published.

        It wouldn’t surprise me if he and Bob of Bonsall had crossed paths at one time.

        Though he did often come calling for help because he had done something on his computer and messed up the settings. Easily sorted.

        1. Hi pHizzee. Alf’s mum and dad lived on the 12th floor of a block of flats in Goswell Road, EC1. One night he apparently went to the bathroom and missed the bedroom on the way back. Let himself out, went down in the left, and was found wandering the streets by the police later in the night and brought back home. Dressed just in pjs and dressing gown. Turned out he was on such a load of medication that he became so confused he didn’t know where he was or where he was going. Luckily he remembered where he lived. It was a freezing cold night as well. Maybe it’s a similar situation with your neighbour.

          1. Hi VW.

            He was properly dressed and also wearing his hat. You may be right about the medication but he has been like it for as long as i remember.

            Glad Alf’s Dad was okay.

            BTW. I lived in E1 for a while. Next to St Katherine’s dock. Heady days. Glad i’m not there any more.

          2. Poor old chap. Your neighbour, not you!

            We left London in 1968 when we married. I’d never ever go back. It’s a hellhole. Mind you, woking’s not much better at the mo. One day, long after we’re gone, it’ll be finished. I think you said you lived in Canary Wharf, is that right. Very posh. We drove around CW when it was built but not occupied many years ago and it did look mightily modern. Wonder how it’s fared.

          3. Canary Wharf first for two years then Wapping.

            Next was Surrey Quays No 1 Baltic Gate. That building featured in the Ford advert. Very modern.

            Then Leytonstone. Then Bromley. Then Walthamstowe.

            You can see where this is going. Down hill. Glad i got out when i did.

      1. :@(

        He’s a lovely chap but he never stops talking. It would drive me round the bend where i would probably bump into him again !

    3. Do you know his wife well enough to discuss the matter – using his night-time visit as a starter and then see where the conversation leads?

      1. We do stop and chat whenever we see each other. We are also on first name terms. One does have to tread carefully though.

        1. Maybe a neighbourly question about how he is after being out in the cold. Listen to the reply and see if there’s possibly an unspoken opening to more information being volunteered.
          In many such couples the well one stays schtum and tries to cope out of a sense of loyalty.

  43. 332051+ up ticks,
    It can only get worse, could we now be witnessing a carrie on spying via the pillow whisperer,

    breitbart,
    Green Enforcer: MI6 Spying on Nations to Ensure They Abide by Climate Change Pledges, Chief Admits

    In the battle of the political crap parties lab/lib/con, lab will certainly have to go some to beat the tories ( ino) this time, they have truly excelled themselves in enhancing the national downfall whilst revving up the ratchet of reset.
    This current political mob are rodeo stars in their own right one horse to another smooth transition, covid to climate change.

  44. If anyone would like to know what the march on Saturday was *actually* like, here‘s a rather lovely film that captures the feeling perfectly.

          1. I’m afraid I don’t know what (who) I’m looking for, A & D. Good on you for joining in. There are many here who would have joined in if limbs, joints, hearts and lungs would let us, though I can wield a mean walking -stick but not for long.

          2. I might have hobbled along, but I dared not leave MOH unattended for any length of time. I shall have to arrange cover if I ever do manage to get away in the camper.

    2. Well Done!!
      One thing that stands out,all the individual,obviously home produced signs,what a contrast to the XR/BLM mass (Soros) produced signage

    7. My frustration is that even with all those people, wiht the genuine resistance, the state will *still* force itself on us knowing there’s nothing we can do about it.

  45. Happy Tuesday all Nottlers. Is there anybody on here interested in Art & Writing ? One of my lady moderator Mrs. Laura J from the USA https://disqus.com/by/disqus_ZAeDCzsqoJ/ is looking for a blog page poster & moderator ( it requires a Gmail account ) for her Art & Writing blog called Words & Brush. It is non political small niche blog. Here is a link to it: https://disqus.com/home/forum/https-www-wordsandbrush-com/ Anyone interested can mail me at Admin_News@mail2world.com & I will co-ordinate it with her.

  46. Can’t sit about here all day – the MR is living it up in Narridge – having her hair cut for the first time since June 2020. I did offer…

    So I must get my own lunch (sighs…)

    1. So did I but my Caroline is as sceptical about my my skills as a coiffeur as your Carolyn is!

      1. Strange . My wife is quite happy to borrow the shears from the neighboring sheep farm to cut my hair but when I offer to return the favour, she declines to be coiffed.

  47. News UK kills off plans for TV channel. 27 April 2021

    Plans for a News UK channel to rival the BBC appear to be dead in the water. Last year it was reported that Rupert Murdoch was planning to expand his news empire by launching a new channel in the UK that would take inspiration of Fox News in the US.

    Alas it’s not to be. The company’s Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks has emailed all staff to announce that broadcast executive David Rhodes is leaving the company at the end of June. Brooks says the company concluded that it was not ‘commercially viable’ to launch a linear news channel. Instead the company is looking at on demand products.

    That Murdoch would, of all people, have failed to check the “commercial viability” of any project is beyond belief. There’s a fix here. Either a political or economic threat!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/exclusive-news-uk-kills-long-awaited-tv-channel

    1. No doubt all the woke CEOs of potential advertisers told him how little business would be put his way.

      1. Afternoon Sos. I would probably go for political. A threat from Ofcom that he would get no broadcast space.

    2. I don’t think much of Fox News , their coverage is so limited but there is certainly ned for a good right of centre news source – like the Telegraph used to be before the kids took over and ruined it.

      I look back at the Fox coverage during the election. All you got were countless stories bashing Biden and son then stories about trump bashing by the msm, relevant maybe but was nothing else happening? I want a news source that is complete.

    3. I’ve never had the good fortune to see a coconut crab, the world’s largest terrestrial arthropod.

      1. Not me or my shorts, Michael. And i’m not smart enough to be a professor of anything. :@(

      1. Usually such people have a point. They might be divisive and I disagree with him over Lady T, but he pushed for a zeitgeist.

      3. John Lydon always talks sense…Look on you tube for John being interviewed by Andrew Neil,it’s worth a look.

      4. We live in interesting times; I find myself agreeing with the oddest of people whose views, normally, I wouldn’t entertain!

  50. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warns the UK the Brexit trade deal has ‘real teeth’ and Brussels ‘will not hesitate’ to punish Britain if Boris Johnson breaks its terms amid rumbling row over Northern Ireland Protocol. 27 April 2021.

    Ursula von der Leyen today warned Boris Johnson the European Union ‘will not hesitate’ to take action against the UK if it breaches the terms of the Brexit trade deal.

    The President of the European Commission said the Trade and Cooperation

    Agreement has ‘real teeth’ and ‘unilateral remedial measures’ will be deployed ‘where necessary’.

    She stressed that she and the commission ‘do not want to have to use these tools’ as MEPs prepared to finally vote for the trade agreement which was struck by the two sides in December.

    The UK’s main geopolitical problem for the last thousand years has been the rise of tyrannies in Europe. Nothing has changed! These people are our real enemies; just as much as the Kaiser, Napoleon and Hitler were. We should form an alliance with Russia, our natural ally and see them off again!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9515947/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-warns-UK-Brexit-trade-deal-real-teeth.html

        1. Dream on..given the present government’s attitude and the security service’s attitude,not to mention Britain’s subservience to Washington…its a non-starter.

          2. Arternoon kiddo.Nor will be in the foreseeable future.
            The first thing Moscow would want is the return of the stolen finances and the oligarchs from London.
            That would hurt the present government.

  51. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warns the UK the Brexit trade deal has ‘real teeth’ and Brussels ‘will not hesitate’ to punish Britain if Boris Johnson breaks its terms amid rumbling row over Northern Ireland Protocol. 27 April 2021.

    Ursula von der Leyen today warned Boris Johnson the European Union ‘will not hesitate’ to take action against the UK if it breaches the terms of the Brexit trade deal.

    The President of the European Commission said the Trade and Cooperation

    Agreement has ‘real teeth’ and ‘unilateral remedial measures’ will be deployed ‘where necessary’.

    She stressed that she and the commission ‘do not want to have to use these tools’ as MEPs prepared to finally vote for the trade agreement which was struck by the two sides in December.

    The UK’s main geopolitical problem for the last thousand years has been the rise of tyrannies in Europe. Nothing has changed! These people are our real enemies; just as much as the Kaiser, Napoleon and Hitler were. We should form an alliance with Russia, our natural ally and see them off again!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9515947/Ursula-von-der-Leyen-warns-UK-Brexit-trade-deal-real-teeth.html

  52. Pakistan PM Imran Khan urges the Muslim world to unite and use trade boycotts to force the West to pass blasphemy laws to protect the Prophet
    Imran Khan has claimed his plan for Muslim-majority countries to force Western governments to criminalise insulting the Prophet Mohammed will work
    He said Monday that lobbying Western nations, the EU and UN to adopt blasphemy laws with a warning of a trade boycott will be ‘effective’
    Khan said the West should ‘stop hurting the feelings’ of Muslims across world
    By RACHAEL BUNYAN FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 11:27 BST, 27 April 2021 | UPDATED: 12:29 BST, 27 April 2021

    He used to be a very good bowler. He also used to be Zac Goldsmith’s brother-in-law!

    So if we are expected to pass blasphemy laws in the West what other laws might we consider in retaliation?

    1. Afternoon Richard. There is already an Islamic Blasphemy Law in effect in Europe. It is imposed by the fear of attack or the social cancelling of your life!

    3. In retaliation all Muslim countries must increase minimum size of stoning pebbles to 3″ diameter, thereby decreasing the length of time the stonee suffers (a couple of headshots with cobbles will put the stonee out of its misery). Likewise, the throwing of homosexuals from rooftops may now only be permitted from 4 storey buildings or fewer, minimising the chuckee’s time of watching the concrete approach.

    4. Laws, we don’t need…
      How about “any attempt to stop the West getting what it wants will be dealt with appropriately”. For example, if the Saudis stop selling oil to the West the West will destroy Mecca and Medina with nuclear weapons. Any attempt to stop the supply of palm oil from Indonesia and the west will destroy Mecca and Medina. The list is long.

    5. It is yet another straw in the wind, telling us what to expect when the Muslims become a majority.
      Perhaps the renegade French Generals are right.

    6. Odd that it would be permitted under the ‘uman wights act. After all, religious speech is specifically excluded.

      No doubt Boris would think this a good idea. It is, of course; nonsense. Far better for Pakistan to pass freedom of speech laws to insult Mo.

    9. The west could implement a law that states every person in the land must draw pictures on the wall of Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed every morning.

  53. I’ve thought for a long time that there’s something unsettling about Matt Hancock, there’s something of a very dark night about him and that feeling is reinforced when he openly claims to become excited over offering gene therapy jabs to 42 years old healthy people. Perhaps he should get himself another hobby.

    https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1386980612309934080

    1. You remember Invasion of the Body Snatchers Korky? Just what does Carrie keep in that flat one wonders!

    2. Gawd, you’ve reminded of a case where masochistic homosexuals went to court over their right to nail each others penises to the floor on the grounds that the practice was consensual. (No, I am not making it up.)

    3. Matt Hancock has taught me a lesson over the past year. I now understand why our medieval forebears regarded Smithfield and Tyburn as entertainment venues.

  54. Who on here does online banking ?

    I have just phoned the bank and have been put through to another part of the country re a query .

    A large velux window has a crack right down the middle , Moh asked me to sort a few things out whilst he is playing in a golf competition.

    30mts of rattle tattle messages and recorded voices .. I just need to speak to my branch .

    It appears that every excuse is due to Covid , and people are working from home .

    My phone ran out of battery , my landline !!

    Stuff everyone , I have had enough.

      1. I’ve tried using Windows to try and contact my bank but the sound doesn’t travel that far.

    3. Hi Belle. Sorry you’re being given the run around. We do online banking and fortunately have not had the need to actually speak to someone. However Covid” has become the National excuse not to. Do anything! It’s infuriating when you really need help.

      1. I’ve recently had to speak to Barclays about my personal account and a business account (different numbers). On both occasions, the wit was not specially long, and the service was first class.

      2. I think it’s given the biggest institutions the ideal excuse to be even more incompetent.

    4. Change your bank to First Direct.

      Sorry, but that’s my best advice. I had the same frustrations and annoyances. Yes, First now take a bit longer to answer – 5 or six, sometimes 8 rings (it used to be 3).

      However when they do answer, it’s a person, not a machine. They then take you through security and so on and WILL solve whatever problem you have.

      I am not sure how your landline… ah, hang on. cordless? Yes, those do. Probably not charging on the base station or, as my mother is wont to do, left lying around and flat when needed.

      deep breaths, nice cup of tea, bourbon biccie, put feet up and try again in an hour.

      1. deep breaths, nice cup of tea bourbon, rich tea biccie, put feet up and try again in an hour.
        I think that’s better
        :-))

    5. I do online banking both on main computer and iPhone. Have multiple accounts with Barclays and Lloyds, the latter are better and iPhone is to be preferred to computer.

    6. I’ve used online banking for many years with no problems and have not visited my branch (or any other) for years, except on the odd occasion when someone or company has sent me a cheque.

      So I’ve no idea if anyone in the branches that remain have any means of sorting out a problem. There isn’t one near here any more.

      The one time my debit card was hacked the fraud team sorted it out quickly and efficiently, by phone and later letter. My card was cancelled and a replacement arrived promptly. The offending fraudulent items were removed from my account.

  55. This summer we must be given true normality, not the ‘new normal’ of Covid bureaucracy

    Thanks to the success of our vaccine programme there is no excuse for politicians to extend measures

    PROFESSOR KAROL SIKORA

    Politicians have had an impossible job over these unique last 14 months. Can any of us say with certainty we would have made better decisions? Mistakes have been made, and continue to happen, but it’s easy to snipe on social media without the enormous responsibility political office comes with in such a crisis.

    It seems like a long time ago now that the Prime Minister outlined his roadmap out of lockdown but the 21st of June is now looming large. Many people accepted such a cautious path on the premises that full freedom would be delivered at the end of it – I was one of them. Arguing to accelerate the process is futile, it just won’t happen, so my view is that we should focus on ensuring the smoothest path back to full normality on June 21.

    I was asked to sign a letter emphasising that alongside 21 other scientists, and so I did.

    We want to fully support Government and take back control of our lives. What has been achieved with the vaccine rollout is a historic success for our country and it will have saved countless lives. In comparison to the chaotic mess in continental Europe, our programme has been serene and comprehensive. The scope of current protection should not be underestimated, by the middle of June it will be even more significant – with increasing evidence to show that vaccines reduce transmission, not just severe illness. We are in a really strong position to move forward. Hopefully, ministers share that view.

    Normality on June 21 has to mean just that, normality – no ‘new normal’. I’ve had much sympathy for politicians, but what we can’t accept is any form of Covid certification, passports or whatever it’s being labelled as. If, as has been reported, on June 22 there could be one pub for the vaccinated free from social distancing, and another for the unvaccinated then we will have failed. Some form of vaccine proof may be required for international travel, that is inevitable if some countries demand it, but dividing society based on someone’s health status is intolerable, regardless for how long the politicians may say it will last. And the duration of protection from the different vaccines is bound to differ. Does that mean the expiration date the passport will vary? A bureaucratic nightmare.

    Many will disagree with our view and believe that impositions and restrictions should continue well beyond June. That is their opinion and I will respectfully disagree. Already the usual slurs and smears have been flung at the 22 signatories of our letter. I have always hoped we can disagree without being disagreeable, but sadly that notion appears naive in today’s world of social media.

    Having concerns about the cost of lockdown does not make you a ‘Covid-denier’, I would never dream of labelling someone a ‘cancer-denier’. The personal attacks and vicious insults have been relentless, but it’s important to rise above it. I refuse to smear and deride anyone in the search for Twitter ‘likes’.

    It’s a sad truth that the severe negative consequences of lockdown have been largely ignored, presumably for political reasons. In cancer alone, the damage has been significant. Diagnosis, treatment, research and more have suffered enormously. There are no daily updates or ministerial press conferences, but this is a major public health crisis which will take years to recover from.

    Awareness, funding, infrastructure, staff – it all needs immense Government attention. It will take time cancer patients simply don’t have. I’m currently involved on the clinical side with Rutherford Diagnostics building 5 new diagnostic centres, for NHS use, and getting these operational is a mammoth task. But cancer doesn’t wait and the sooner we can diagnose it, the sooner we can treat it. Delays cost lives. Cancer truly is the forgotten ‘C’ of this pandemic.

    I sincerely hope that Government pursues their roadmap to freedom, with no significant strings attached on the 21st of June and beyond. We were told the vaccines were the route out of this, and they are, so let’s embrace the opportunity that the rollout success has given us and finally end lockdowns for good.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/26/vaccine-success-will-allow-us-return-old-normal-politicians/

    Sikora refers to smears in the media. This subject was raised in another Telegraph article over the weekend. Here’s an extract from it:

    Here are just a few examples. Tory MP Neil O’Brien wrote an article in The Guardian under a headline that attacked the “fantasies” and “tall tales” of Dr Gupta and other critics of lockdown. They “make stuff up”, he said, and have “a hell of a lot to answer for”. Based on a lay website full of misleading claims about the pandemic, The Guardian’s George Monbiot ironically claimed that Dr Gupta is a “pundit” who makes “misleading claims about the pandemic”.

    In March, Dr Gupta offered a wide range of plausible infection estimates, which good scientists do under uncertainty (Imperial College: hint, hint). Inevitably, some of those plausible estimates will turn out to be wrong, as only one can be correct. That Paul Mason and The New Statesman would then cherry-pick one of the wrong estimates and call Dr Gupta’s work “laughable” is itself laughable.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/24/lockdown-proponents-cant-escape-blame-biggest-public-health/

    I found the two of the articles to which the authors refer.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/27/covid-lies-cost-lives-right-clamp-down-misinformation
    https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/01/covid-deniers-have-been-humiliated-they-are-still-dangerous

    When Moonbat blames the BBC for ‘Covid disinformation’ and Mason equates ‘Covid denialism’ with ‘full-blown fascism’, you know you are dealing with two people unfamiliar with objective truth. Moonbat is simply, well, simple-minded but Mason is plain nasty as demonstrated by his ‘We’re coming for you, Johnson’ video at the height of the 2019 Brexit war.

    1. If the state had presented clear statistics such as age group / deaths from covid, no other co-morbidities / deaths with other co-morbidities / this year / last year people could have better understood the situation – especially if that data had been consistent, the source traced and independently verified.

      for example, as a fat bloke with asthma, I contract covid. I would clearly be in the 40-50 with co-morbidities. No worries there.

      If we had seen a massive spike in otherwise health individuals in the 20-40 bracket, all dying solely from covid, then we have a real situation and the limitations and restrictions were entirely necessary – I don’t say they were not now, but it is a question of perspective.

      However, one death is a tragedy, a million a statistic. Behind every death is a family, a human being.

    2. Apologies for two replies – surely fascism is forcing everyone to accept what you tell them unquestioningly?

      Surely questioning the state is the precise opposite of fascism? Perhaps that’s the BBC’s problem. It has become so mixed up that it now thinks war is peace, ignorance is strength… no, hang on, diversity strength, black lives matter is not racist… violence, thuggery, looting and rioting is peaceful….

    1. Hmm, Anne, an open denunciation of the tribalism that has always prevented Africa from becoming a player on the World Stage and, as well as being visible in Islam (one hopes the dragon consumes itself from the tail upwards) it is now becoming apparent in the tribalism of Build Large Mansions, Antifa, Extinction Rebellion and the ‘Woke’ tribal virtue-signallers.

      I look forward to a few population reducing bun-fights in several parts of the World.

      Only China poses the real threat.

  57. “He could not make up his mind. He hated these people for their lack of
    spirit, for their subservience to civil servants, for their outmoded
    political system of one man one vote that kept them in the chains of
    demagogues.”
    In The Wet Neville Shute
    A depressing read in many ways,shows what Her Maj should have risked for the country

    1. Crumbs, I was in my teens when I read that.
      Is that the book based on the visions of an old man dying (I think) of cancer?

          1. I liked the multiple voting system he envisaged Australia having where, in recognition of how useful you’d been to Society, you were given several extra votes.

          2. Never read the book, BoB, so I don’t know the details of how Shute envisaged that multiple voting system might work, but on the face of it, I see a built-in problem and it’s this – who exactly defines how ‘useful’ one is to society? On what basis would ‘usefulness’ be measured and how many extra votes does one individual’s particular level of ‘usefulness’ earn?

            Would useful idiots get more votes than useless idiots?
            ;¬)

          3. Do you mean like Bradford/Bolton/Birmingham? Other slammer areas are available, terms and conditions apply.

        1. Hi Oberst. I like pretty much all of them but I have a soft spot for The Far Country and the understated pathos of On the Beach in particular!

          1. My soft spot was for “A Town Like Alice” which gave me my love of all things Australian! And my thrill at finally being able to visit Alice Springs and the Flying Doctor museum there, in, I think, 1988

  58. A treat in store in 10 minutes. I am off to Venice for a LIVE guided walk around Murano. Free at last – and NO TESTS needed.
    Will report back.

  59. Russia Restricts Navalny Anti-Corruption Group’s Work Ahead of ‘Extremist’ Ruling. 27 April 2021.

    A Moscow court has restricted the work of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) ahead of its ruling to blacklist the group, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.

    There’s something odd going on here! Though there are articles in all the MSM outlets about this clampdown, there are no opinion pieces by the CIA/Mi6 shills who produce the anti-Putin/Russia propaganda. Not one! It’s the dog in the night that didn’t bark! There’s either a big staff meeting going on or whatever Vlad said to the Americans last week has scared the bejazus out of them!

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/04/27/russia-suspends-navalny-anti-corruption-groups-work-ahead-of-extremist-ruling-a73753

      1. I chose it because it was the most recent Harry. It’s in all the others as well!

        1. Moscow prosecutors order suspension of jailed Alexey Navalny’s political operations ahead of possible ‘extremism’ court ruling

          In RT yesterday.

    1. Lovely colour…….but I have to say I’m not keen on Amaryllis. Even though my mother had some and they remind me of her…….. if I’m given one at Christmas I look after them till they flower, but then – out they go! My mum used to manage to keep them going for years.

      2. We have two, live in the sitting-room window.
        The older one (dark red) we bought in 1985 for 10p, or it would be thrown out – from Woolworth in Newport Pagness. The second, paler one, we got in Norway about 20 years ago.
        I like them a lot.

          1. I agree with you Ndovu! My dear (late) friend bought me one every Christmas, because I had over-enthusiastically admired hers! I miss her an awful lot!

          1. Finger trouble… again! :-(( Mea culpa.
            Brain is tired, fingers not quite doing as they are told.
            S & L are at the opposite ends of the God-damned keyboard, too! Gotta get a grip!

          4. There IS a Kingston Bagpuize! Six miles west of Abingdon. 40 years ago I went to a wedding there. The bride was called Janice, the groom, Bob. The bride’s father managed to refer to them as “Bobice and Jan”…

        1. Reminded me of a time I was walking my dog and a car pulled up on the other side of the road. The driver wound down his window and asked, “Is this the way to Amarillo?” I cracked up laughing.

      5. Were it not better done, as others use,
        To sport with Amaryllis in the shade,
        Or with the tangles of Neæra’s hair?
        Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise
        (That last infirmity of noble mind)
        To scorn delights and live laborious days.

        John Milton: Lycidas)

        I must say sporting with Amaryllis and playing with Neaera’s hair were far more appealing to me than scorning delights and living laborious days when I was a young man which is is why my wife and both my sons got better degrees than I did! (But I stoutly maintain I had more fun!)

        A question which Plum will be able to answer. Who took a phrase from the above lines as the title of one of his novels?

        (Fame is the Spur : Howard Spring. I have just started reading his Shabby Tiger again. I read novels I have read before as I do 20 – 30 minutes each morning on my exercise bicycle so it does not matter if I lose my concentration)

    2. ♫ “Show me the way to grow Amaryllis
      Every day I’ve been planting hot chilies
      Dreaming dreams of Amaryllis …… ” ♫

  62. No wonder viewers are boycotting the Oscars. 27 April 2021.

    The hypocrisy of the woke elites has been on full display at the Oscars, too. At recent ceremonies luvvies took potshots at Trump over the border crisis and the disgraceful spectacle of ‘kids in cages’. ‘There are no borders… that can restrain ingenuity and talent’, said Javier Bardem at the 2019 ceremony to gushing approval from the uniformly anti-Trump Hollywood set.

    And yet this year none of them raised a peep about these issues, even though the border crisis has intensified under Joe Biden and even though there are still ‘kids in cages’. (Though now, of course, they’re called ‘unaccompanied migrants in overflow facilities’.) Do these things no longer matter now that they’re happening under a Democratic president luvvies approve of rather than the Bad Orange Man they loathed? If Hollywood thinks ordinary Americans aren’t clocking these extraordinary double standards, it’s sorely mistaken.

    MeToo, the race issue, the alleged climate-change apocalypse, borders, the wickedness of Trump… the Oscars has been full of it. A once entertaining look-back at the best films of the year has morphed into an exasperating annual gathering of smug, self-important rich people preaching to the TV-watching masses about all the ills of the world. As the American comic Toby Muresianu put it, watching the Oscars is now like ‘three hours of being told to eat your vegetables’. It’s actually amazing 9.85m people still tuned in.

    The Hollywood Set like the Political Elites have come to believe their own propaganda!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/no-wonder-viewers-are-boycotting-the-oscars

    1. I never even knew the luvvie awards was on, neither did anyone else I talked to – and nobody gave a flying one, either.

      2. Me neither, haven’t watched any award shows in years. I’ve better things to do with my time than watching self-congratulating ‘stars’ telling us how wonderful they are!!

      3. Well I knew that it was on but honestly who wants to watch a bunch of luvvies telling each other how great they are.

        From the little that I have heard, quality of the film did not matter, awards depended on skin colour.

        1. but honestly who wants to watch a bunch of luvvies telling each other how great they are you how awful you are

    2. ‘Kids in Cages’ was an Obama policy. Trump tried to end it by stopping cross-border activity with his wall.

      Alas, the luvvies didn’t let it happen, they want sticks to beat him with.

  65. Gosh – I’ll wager a groat that I am the only NoTTLer who has been on a waterbus in Murano this afternoon.

    Just a hour and a half of bliss – though the sky was grey and uninviting and it was cold – all the natives dressed in coats, hats, mufflers and gloves.

    Wonderful guide – perfect English with thata fantastica accenta….! We ended up in a glass showroom where the 87 year old chap explained how he devised and made all the (hideous*) items.

    Ag me… back to grey, cold, Norfolk.

    * Other views are available…

  66. Afternoon, all. Just hitting the bottle after dealing with taking MOH to the surgery (appt was running 40 min late) 🙁 “My hearing aid isn’t working”. “We’re right by audiology, I’ll drop it off”. “I’ve lost my other hearing aid”. “What, the brand new one that arrived this morning?” “I put it in my pocket and it isn’t there now”. It turns out it was, but I didn’t find it until we got home. After half an hour or more of, “I’m deaf. You don’t understand. It was in my pocket and it isn’t there now” I was ready to change my mind on opposition to euthanasia! It was going to be drugs today (my hip is killing me, especially after lugging MOH around), but the need to tie one on is greater! I’ll take the drugs tomorrow. To make matters worse, when I was checking the aid hadn’t fallen on the floor, I found one of Charlie’s biscuits 🙁 I don’t know how I didn’t break down and howl.

      1. Thanks. It’s a struggle and I am constantly reminded of my shortcomings. Nothing I do seems to be right 🙁

          6. True, but on those criteria, I have built the Great Wall of China, the Mausoleum and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon! 🙂

          1. Tomorrow afternoon. I get to ride the Connemara this time, so it will be interesting to see if he remembers me.

          1. Yep. The glass was still full when I shlurped it. It’s just that some of the liquid was running over the surface the glass was resting on.

          4. Use surprise, approach from on high, out of the Sun; its a doddle …
            ack, ack, ack …

          5. Beware of the Hun in the sun. Make sure you have the height advantage and get close enough to see the whites of his eyes. Sailor Malan – good advice!

          6. Hmm, you leave me out of this. This Hun(n) having lived in Southern Spain for 5 years, avoids the sun and walks in the shade as much as possible – but I love the warmth.

        2. Now that taking it too far. Best to have several glasses, not try to squeeze as much as you can into a single glass. Hang in there, life can only get better.

          Several years ago we had to take MIL into Peterborough to get her hearing aids checked. It was a disaster, the boss has a tough time navigating at the best of times, MIL in the back of the car continually adding what did he say, are we there yet? did not help the mood. We finally found the audiologist but it was in a pedestrian area, I cannot walk that far so we eventually found another location with a car park and got her checked over. Frustrating isn’t it.

          1. Frustrating doesn’t even come close! I am not patient at the best of times, so wearing a mask (and being oxygen deprived) trims the short fuse to non-existent! Then I go through the whole guilt trip – I am a bad person, I ought to be able to cope better … Nope, the truth of the matter is, I’m a short-tempered bastard doing my best 🙁

          2. Well if the short tempered bastard is doing his best, that’s all that matters.

            Now drink up and don’t spill any more.

        3. Now that taking it too far. Best to have several glasses, not try to squeeze as much as you can into a single glass. Hang in there, life can only get better.

          Several years ago we had to take MIL into Peterborough to get her hearing aids checked. It was a disaster, the boss has a tough time navigating at the best of times, MIL in the back of the car continually adding what did he say, are we there yet? did not help the mood. We finally found the audiologist but it was in a pedestrian area, I cannot walk that far so we eventually found another location with a car park and got her checked over. Frustrating isn’t it.

    7. Sometimes, when the thick skin wears a bit thin or the stiff upper lip goes a bit wobbly, a good howl is what you need.

      1. I was severely tempted to go back to the garage, close the doors and leave the engine running. I didn’t, of course, because that would be the coward’s way out, but the temptation was VERY strong 🙁

        1. Sorry you felt that way, Conners.
          There would be a surprisingly large number of people who would be really upset if you did that – those of us on Nottl, for a start, YOH, and your Connemara and others.
          Hell, what about the new dog you haven’t got yet? (S)he’ll miss out on your love and affection, and that wouldn’t be good.
          A big glass of something good cures nothing, just helps you relax and get it back together. So, go for it!

          1. I’ve been at the point of ending it all once before, in the seventies, but I know it’s not the answer. It solves nothing (except that I don’t have to keep struggling any more). It’s nice to know I would be missed. Let’s be realistic; the Connemara would only miss his Polos! I admit his eyes do light up when he sees me. The new dog seems to be getting closer; I am trying to find a time and date that is mutually acceptable to meet.

          2. Blue Cross are good, that’s where our little Dotty came from nearly three years ago.

          3. I’ve found a small place in Stafford (not a million miles away) that has a Patterdale that needs a home. He has issues (but then, what rescue dog doesn’t and it isn’t as though I haven’t managed to win round a feisty terrierist, who always wanted to start WW3, before?), but apparently, he is fine in the home. I’ve previously had a Patterdale cross, so it isn’t as though I’ve no experience with the breed. It is now a matter of finding a mutual time (the people who run the centre have full-time NHS jobs) to meet up and see if he’ll agree to be rehomed by us. All my adult dogs have chosen me; I went out with some friends who were looking for a dog and my setter looked at me and said, “take me”, so I went home with a dog and they didn’t! My latest, the 17 year old plus I’ve just lost, escaped from his garden and joined up with my old boy before his owners decided they couldn’t cope and he came to us. I believe there’s a dog out there waiting for me; we just have to meet up.

          4. You’re right, Connors, the dog chooses you.

            Dotty, a feisty Chihuahua had issues with men and Best Beloved was talking to the staff when she came into the room and straightaway, Dotty came across and licked my hand and I’m a 6’2″ male with a handlebar moustache. It was love at first sight though these days she is Best Beloved dog.

          5. You would definitely be missed. Offer still stands; Hertslass has my details. So sorry you’re having such a dreadful time.

            Raising a glass in your general direction. I mean, I wasn’t going to, but couldn’t let you drink alone 😉

          7. Thank God, my six one litre bottles of Scotch arrived this afternoon. How do you spell cirrhosis, as if I cared – part of the lesson learning.

        2. I believe that way too, Connors. No point, ‘cos you only have to come back and do it all again until the lesson is learnt.

        3. It’s the wrong way, and I would never advise anyone to take it, but it does require courage.

        4. It’s scary when that happens. Coward or no coward, the pain of being in the space one is in is just so great that one just wants to get out of that space. I’ve been there, I think several of us have been there, and it is a dreadful and very frightening experience. Let the positive thoughts of others penetrate your black cloud…

    8. All joking aside, Conway, do you have any form of respite care?
      24/7 of this scenario can knock the starch out of the stiffest of lips.

        1. Good. Are you reaching the stage where you could do with some help with bathing, dressing, feeding etc…?

          1. I’ve been beyond that for a while, but soldiering on. Trouble is, neither MOH nor I are very keen to have strangers in the house. We have heard horror tales from friends about carers coming in and it rather confirms our doubts.

          2. Pay a cleaner the going rate to come once a week. Get to know her/him then offer them a bit extra to help out with the laundry and such.

          3. I already have that in place. She is a gem. As the Psalm says, a good woman is above rubies.

          4. Yes. That’s how we got our rather individual lass (Cockney and bold with it). She cleaned for our elder son who asked her to help out when I fell through the ceiling. She’s still with us 5+ years later. Luckily, I needed no help with MB after his hearty session, but I wouldn’t have hesitated to get D to do longer hours including some nursing if it had been needed.

          5. Excellent. I just rehired my cleaner as i am unable to do any cleaning at the moment.

            A good investment in people pays dividends in the future.

          6. Yes and no. Do you have friends with good experiences and people they could recommend?
            (Rather like one never picks a tradesman from Yellow Pages.)

      2. The older couple who live about 20 yards away from me – She hasn’t been outside of the house for over a decade, except in an ambulance. He stays with her. Both in their 80s. The son comes down most days. Occasionally he stays for a while when he can and his dad will take a stroll to the shops just to get out of the house. No carers to give the old chap respite. It makes my blood boil when the authorities say there isn’t any cash to help them – but the govt waves in foreign freeloaders and spends millions on them.

        1. I often say that if I’d rocked up in a boat and not paid a penny, I would get everything laid on. My mistake was to be prudent and work hard, so I end up with nothing.

    9. A lot of people are losing their hearing aids while taking masks on and off, my mum for one.
      Sometimes the old grieving can take over, then one day it just passes.

      1. I thought I was getting better with the prospect of a successor, but now I’m not so sure 🙁

      2. The damn face nappies always hook the earpiece of my specs, so I do without the specs. Problem is, I then can’t see a damn. Very weird when buying wine, holding the bottle virtually to my nose to read the label.

          3. Carry a magnifying glass in your pocket. Don’t forget your deerstalker hat. You won’t look at all weird…trust me.

          4. I have a couple of deerstalkers (one from Donegal and one from Durham); they are immensely practical.

        2. I can’t hear people who are wearing masks. When I take mine off as I emerge from a shop they catch on my specs so I nearly can’t see either.

          1. Several times nearly ended up with specs on the floor, that’s why I take them off first.

          2. I can hear them; I just pretend I can’t so they get p!ssed off having to repeat themselves.
            It might just help to drive home the fact that the things are a darn nuisance.

        3. Wear pince-nez or get a monacle.

          I was looking for the sun glasses that Daniel Craig wore in SPECTRE.
          Ludicrous price. I bought some looky likeys from SmartBuyGlasses.co.uk for a fraction of the price. They do your prescription too.

          1. I fancy having a monocle because I have monocular vision (one eye is corrected for long-distance vision and the other for reading). I am always on the look out.

      3. I can vouch for that, aids plus glasses do not make for easy putting on of masks, or taking off!!

    10. A lot of people are losing their hearing aids while taking masks on and off, my mum for one.
      Sometimes the old grieving can take over, then one day it just passes.

    11. Heyup, lad, you have all the sympathy from the extended NoTTLe family, pouring out to you and, let us know what, and I’m sure someone will help.

      Hertslass has the e-mail addresses, let me know what, if anything, I can do.

        1. Empathy helps – you are not alone. On NoTTL you already know that – I’m sure many of us are thinking of you, so please sing out if we can help.

    12. Good evening Conway.

      I listened to BBC radio 4 late this afternoon when they were doing a wonderful programme about Ivor Cutler , his songs are a cross between Edward Lear nonsense and some one else who I have forgotten .

      After reading about your traumatic time with your MOH, I just wonder whether you would regard this as a load of nonsense ..
      Just a silly bit of stuff , perhaps not your thing anyway here it is .

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt-GeuNAQKU

        1. You’re thinking of the over shoulder boulder holder’s cousin, the slack jock cock lock.

  68. Had a lovely day. Went to Kimmeridge Bay , the Springer did a lot of swimming. We walked the beach and then had a drink and a lovely lunch at the Clavells Restaurant. Great to be with close family after 12 months.

    3. Those castors are going to ruin that overly expensive rug. She should have used castor cups. Daft bint

      1. Ruining the rug would improve it.
        There must a skip somewhere just begging to be filled.

        1. You’re right. A mixture of the German, French, Ukrainian and BAME flags. I wonder what inspired that.

      2. Those chairs are purely for show.
        Nobody will ever sit on them and they will never be moved.

    4. Top centre: A rifleman in Afghanistan?
      Top right: A portrait of a Corona Virus?
      Left and right: A brace of pointy phalluses?

    5. Is that really their room?

      It doesn’t look very child friendly , poor little Wilf will hurt himself , no fire guards , nothing and horribly pink.

          2. Proggy is English. Admittedly it’s from the North so no wonder you have never heard of such a thing.

            I’ll get me shuttle and don’t give me any stick !

          3. It’s a rug made by ‘progging’ strips of material through a canvas backing, using a ‘progger’ to create a thick mat!

          4. My mother used to make proggy mats when I was a child and I remember them in my grandmother’s house as well.

  71. Did anyone watch the Mastermind Final last night? the young man that won was so comical, one can almost forgive him for being Scottish

    1. His quick-fire answers gave him time for more questions.
      I also wonder about the length of the questions….I was fed up with the pre-amble before each contestant began….

      1. Some questions are a bit long winded, I’ve usually tuned out before they get to the end.
        How long will it be before every contestant has to have a little cry in the preambles?

  72. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-56903048 British Red Cross wants ex-military sites closed to stop those refugees “fleeing war” being re-tramautised. Should the Red Cross be reminded that all those are no longer fleeing war – when they have come through Europe to get here? They choose to get here for all the freebies – and SHOULD have claimed asylum in the first safe country – but they don’t.. Also – where would the Red Cross put them all? Hotels and waited on for life? Maybe if all the Red Cross workers had their houses filled with them first they might see another viewpoint. Can the world turn up and be handed free everything – clearly some people think they can.

  73. That’s me for the day. A grey, cold dreary one made better by an excellent loaf (for a change) and the live walk round Murano. Though the glass was hideous, the old boy, aged 87, who made it was wonderful to see and listen to.

    I’ll join you tomorrow. BTW – we watched most of “Dangerous Liaisons” last evening and thought how disappointing it was. We have decided not to bother with the last half hour.

    A demain – when I hope to have a bonfire.

    1. Well done for getting as far as you did, Bilty. I cant sit through anything with John Malkovitch in.

  74. No ‘compelling evidence’ to justify prosecution of soldiers for IRA gunman murder
    Former police officer admits he had found no fresh evidence to warrant a criminal inquiry, landmark trial told

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/27/no-compelling-evidence-justify-prosecution-soldiers-ira-gunman/

    If this is not compelling evidence for the foul Joris Johnson and his sordid mistress to be dragged out of Downing Street, put on the stocks and pelted with rotten tomatoes then what is?

    I would then like to see Boris Johnson, Carrie Symonds, and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex all locked up in the same cell together.

    6. ‘If you don’t do as i say Boris i will tell everyone that Dominic has a bigger cock than you’.

  76. From John Ward’s The Slog:

    Yesterday, Hertfordshire County Council published a tender asking potential providers to supply 60 COVID Marshals to 10 districts throughout the County. The intention is that these Marshals will ‘continue the service delivery to the residents of Hertfordshire from 1st July 2021, that Hertfordshire County Council implemented in November 2020. This will be in complement to the recovery of Hertfordshire from COVID-19, and there are some practical activities that we are keen to carry on throughout this programme of COVID Marshals…’

    The point of the emphases above is not hard to discern: the contract on offer (worth £3 million) is due to start ten days after the date set for “normality”, and is not simply a tying-loose-ends programme. The tender specifically says that the initial period runs until January, but could be ‘extended for a further year’.

    This means that Covid Marshals are likely to be with us until the start of 2023. Here’s a selection of what these vigilantes will be doing:

    ‘….encourage compliance….and understanding of regulations and guidance….collated through an intelligence-led approach…’

    Sorry, but if you can’t see the dead hand of obligation, propaganda, and surveillance in all that, you’ve learned nothing from the last fifteen months. Whoever is driving this operation, it’s clear they won’t be happy until everyone has been badgered into jabs, obedience, and the use of snooping to “mop up” the residue of the UnClean Unvaccinated.

    2. I emailed my MP today about these marshalls: “Why is HMG advertising for Covid Marshalls to start from 1st July? I understood that all restrictions were to be lifted on 21st June”.

      He replied: “I don’t know. I presume that there will still be a testing regime to check for any particularly nasty ‘variants’ that might emerge”. And that was it.

      HMG will not relinquish control willingly.

  77. Laff Time…

    Atticus Finch the famous defence attorney is making another appearance on the silver screen in a sequel to the famous movie.
    This time he is defending a gang of Mexican bootleggers.
    “Tequila Mockingbird .”

  79. To those who are becoming a little ‘stir-crazy’ from well over a year of lockdowns, I dedicate this cheerful wee ditty from the sunny South of Italy to show we are not alone. It”s in the Calabrese dialect but I’ve translated the first verse so you can get the gist. It’s called “Lu cantu du carceratu” (The prisoner’s song)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_VVdrDNc7c

    “The clock strikes midnight, the sky is black,
    And in the silence, the birds are sleeping
    The clock strikes midnight in my cell,
    The chimes breaking my sleep
    Heavenly Father, have mercy on me,
    Locked away in this cell
    Humbly, I deliver myself to you.”

    It goes on in similar vein, ending with the lines:

    “But although I am innocent,
    You have destroyed what I am.
    And the suffering I’ve endured,
    Only my cell knows.”

    Well, the chimes of the clock might disturb his sleep but on the plus side, at least the damn’ birds have shut up.
    :¬(

    1. But…but…it doesn’t even mention broccoli! Actually I used to work with an Italian called Calabrese!

    2. But…but…it doesn’t even mention broccoli! Actually I used to work with an Italian called Calabrese!

    2. “Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
      Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
      Thy fate is the common fate of all,
      Into each life some rain must fall,
      Some days must be dark and dreary.”
      — Longfellow

  81. “This month is provisionally the frostiest April in the UK for at least 60 years, the Met Office has said.
    April 2021 has already seen an average of 13 days of air frosts across the UK, beating the previous record of 11 days reported in April 1970”

    Global Warming or coming Solar Minimum…..?

  82. My neighbour’s son just came round to thank me for looking out for his father at 1.30 this morning.

    He said i was a Saint.

    Well, i wouldn’t go that far !

    I will only accept beatification after i am dead and buried.

    Cash or cheques accepted NOW !

    1. That was really nice of him. Would it have been the wrong moment to have suggested the pressure mat as an emergency measure, just in case ?

      Night wanderings can be an absolute night mare .

    3. After beatification comes canonisation. That’s when you become a human cannonball.

      1. Thanks Cori. Morality is something i taught myself by doing the opposite of what my family did/do.

    1. The subliminal message behind the adverts that feature multi-culti families is not really aimed at grown adults, who can see in their daily lives that these adverts do not represent the current reality.

      They’re a deliberate attempt by the globalist adherents of the Coudenhove-Kalergi plan to brainwash our young people and children, to indoctrinate them to believe that miscegenation is not only acceptable, it’s desirable.

  88. The use of statutory instruments can be traced back to 1893. They are handy way of getting around parliamentary scrutiny and are very useful for ministers who want to put down local protests without having to bother arguing a case. The latest row about them concerns Permitted Development Orders of 2015, granted by the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Highways England wants to use the powers to infill or demolish dozens of historic railway bridges. Here’s a brief video on the subject. Take a look at the splendid skew arch at about 6 minutes. Even if the trackbed is never used again, this structure and others like it should be well publicised so that the public can see what happens when engineering meets art. Would a modern engineer even know (or, more to the point, care) what a skew arch is?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_JUNXUPkFQ

    1. Almost every bridge is a thing of beauty.
      Look at the stonework, the shapes, the curves of the arches, the engineering efficiency, and (my favourite…) the beautifully closed rivets.
      Sigh

        1. I love little bridges like that, Geoff, a bit raggedy, mossy, a bit ovegrown, maybe been there a thousand years…

    2. T here is one a mile from us. A bloody nightmare. The sooner it is wiped out, the better.

      I am am a great believer in conservation.

    3. T here is one a mile from us. A bloody nightmare. The sooner it is wiped out, the better.

      I am am a great believer in conservation.

      1. I mistrust most statistics.

        If 10,000 men aged 70 – 80 in average health for their age actually get Covid then how many of them will survive or die of something else?

    2. So say all Brits, apart from Boros and co, who do not seem to be working for the Good of Britain

      1. Ingress & egress must be a tad awkward, since somebody shortened it and welded up the doors.

  92. I used to have a friend who collected airline sick-bags. I wish I had one of them now, having just read the latest headlines from the US.

    Harry, Meghan Join the Bidens, Kamala Harris, for Celebrity-Studded Multi-Network Vaccine Benefit Concert

  93. I’d forgotten this one:
    “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money”
    (c) Margaret Thatcher

    1. Better yet:

      Winston Churchill had it just about right when he said, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy, its only virtue being the equal sharing of misery“.

    1. Mmmmm, on Twitter this morning there was a small video of people dropping in the street, falling out of cars, being pushed into ambulances in a fainting condition. Someone shortly identified it as a clip from a chemical leak (not Bopal) some years ago, and yes, it did look like people suffering from the effects of chemicals rather than a respiratory illness. We must not believe all that we see. Actually, everything is suspect now.

      1. A pony tail could be useful when the bastard’s head is removed as purchase when thrown into a bucket before being served to pigs.

        Alternatively the Devil would more easily grab him and drag the bastard off to Hell.

  96. A few random but connected thoughts.

    On the subject of Cummings I understood that he spent several years in Russia and is fluent in the language. His contacts and influence goes way back and he is almost certainly a Russian asset.

    Thankfully China has reigned-in Russia and rendered Biden impotent. Who knows how the fluidity of global geopolitics will eventually play out. My guess is that Bezos and the Islamic terrorists have also been stumped.

    There were obvious clues. During the unrest in Hongkong we were treated to crowds of flag waving protesters. Many were waving American flags yet anyone with knowledge of the populace will know that the States have very little purchase or influence there. Those demonstrations were funded by Big Tech Americans and their globalist allies.

    Interesting times.

    Many refer to the Wuhan virus and suggest that it was leaked from a laboratory. I now believe it totally implausible that the Chinese would leak a virus from their own laboratory in Wuhan. The laboratory was their showpiece Virology Laboratory. Why would they do that?

    1. Certainly gone way down in my estimation – she used to be funny but her humour escapes me today.

  98. This ‘chatty rat’ spat is no Watergate moment

    It is far closer to Mrs Thatcher and the Westland affair, where legitimate grievances threatened to distract from a much bigger picture

    CHARLES MOORE

    You rarely get through a political scandal without the word “Watergate” coming up. The enforced resignation of President Richard Nixon because of his cover-up is usually seen by posterity as a victory for truth.

    In relation to Boris Johnson’s “chatty rat” scandal, however, the comparison that comes to my mind is Westland. Between 1985 and 1986, the defence secretary, Michael Heseltine, wanted a European takeover of the small British helicopter firm. Mrs Thatcher, the prime minister, did not.

    The quarrel became so frantic that a letter from a government law officer rebuking Mr Heseltine was leaked against him. Had Mrs Thatcher caused this leak to happen? If so, should she resign for having done so while pretending she had not? Things got quite close to the edge.

    It was strongly suspected that Mrs Thatcher had misbehaved and the truth was being concealed. To some, it followed that she should resign. To others, that logic seemed false. She had been sorely provoked, they said, and it would be crazy to get her out of office on a matter of little real importance.

    This time, the issue also concerns leaks. Which rat was chatty – Dominic Cummings, the now-ousted chief of staff at 10 Downing Street, or Henry Newman, currently senior adviser to the Prime Minister there? In last week’s spat about whether Mr Cummings had leaked texts between Sir James Dyson and Boris Johnson, did Johnson, à la Thatcher, get too personally involved?

    Defenders of Mr Cummings take their stand on truth. They believe it was Mr Newman who last year leaked the sensational news (the “chatty rat” story) that the Government was about to impose another lockdown. They are furious that, as they see it, Boris is making grave and untrue allegations against Mr Cummings “in order to keep his girlfriend [Carrie Symonds] happy”.

    In terms of the facts, I take Mr Cummings seriously. He keeps good records. He is right to feel aggrieved if he has been unfairly accused. But, in the strange world of politics, does it follow that his attempt to discredit Boris is justified?

    As in the Westland case, the issue of a controversial leak may not loom so large when one looks at the wider picture. The country is gradually recovering from a unique plague. Despite its many errors along the way, the Government’s key, correct decisions on vaccination are making recovery possible. Boris’s shambolic approach to the processes of government is proving far more effective than a more conventional one. Of course, he should not incite off-the-record denunciations of Mr Cummings (if he did) or solicit Tory donors to redecorate his Downing Street flat (if he did). But are these truly grave matters of state? Does it help the public good to try to destabilise the Prime Minister over them?

    When studying the records of the Westland affair for my biography of Mrs Thatcher, I came to think that Mr Heseltine’s suspicion of her role in leaking had been largely justified. That did not cause me to agree with him that Mrs Thatcher should therefore have been forced out. He had overreached.

    At least Mr Heseltine was a Cabinet minister. All these Cummingses, Newmans etc have never been elected to anything. It matters greatly to them who’s in at court, and who’s out: it may not matter quite so much to the general population.

    A friend emailed me angrily at the weekend to complain that: “a story of bickering at No 10 pushes the greatest miscarriage of justice in British history into the news background.” He was referring to the unjust convictions for fraud of many sub-postmasters and postmistresses. He might be right.
    ____________________________________________________

    On which point, more sympathetic attention should be paid to those who execute work for the government without being part of it. If you are a public employee, you may well suffer at the hands of government inefficiency, but you do have recourse within the system. If you are self-employed, or employed in the private sector, and yet undertake tasks for the public sector, you are often at its mercy.

    The sub-postmasters are a classic example – performing a vital social role, but victims of a high-handed Post Office which suspected them rather than its own computer. Another, as we now all know, is care homes, used by the NHS in the early weeks of Covid as little better than human dumps.
    ____________________________________________________

    At the weekend, I received my new passport. My old burgundy one was headed “European Union”. My new navy-blue one is headed “British Passport”.

    It was a pleasant experience. The document took only seven days from official receipt of my application to courier delivery – astonishing for anyone who remembers the chaos in 1999 when many passports took 50 days to be processed and 3.5 million calls from the worried public went unanswered.

    As for the passport itself, it is more rationally laid out than the old one. Rather than having to scrabble around for the right page, one simply opens it at the first one to find photograph and number clearly displayed.

    The main pleasure is simply to have a passport which reflects one’s independent nationality. I do recognise that my new passport will probably gain me access to fewer advantages than my old one: it restricts my previously greater freedom of movement. The strange thing is, I don’t care.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/27/chatty-rat-spat-no-watergate-moment/

    1. I just wish otherwise intelligent people such as Charles Moore would be careful about proclaiming the government’s vaccination programmme as some sort of triumph. Rushed gene therapies are just as likely to prove a public health disaster as many eminent scientists have predicted.

      To ignore the excess mortality caused by lockdowns is also unforgivable in an honest and presumably studious journalist.

      1. Most people seem to have swallowed the propaganda wholesale. “Vaccines” were being hailed in church on Sunday and my Parish Clerk thinks they are the salvation of the situation.

        1. Hi Conway. So sorry to have read your comments and serious tribulations.

          The lack of awareness about vaccines (in this case gene therapies) is astounding. The ease with which otherwise intelligent people have rolled over and submitted to what is essentially a medical experiment is staggering.

          With the ease with which we can research questions online I find it unfathomable that so many appear to have placed their trust in vaccines, which are anything but, but gene therapies, untried, untested and unethical.

          1. It was being declared by the researchers on the vaccines that they had ‘hacked the software of life.’ I find that terrifying. I find everything about these experimental injections terrifying.

  100. About those Covid marshal job ads…

    It would be madness to reach June and still baulk at returning to normality

    We may not be “out of the woods” quite yet. But the idea that we will still be wandering around in a darkened forest in June is ridiculous.

    TELEGRAPH VIEW

    The recruitment of an army of so-called Covid marshals for the summer is a worrying development. They are wanted for the period after June 21, the date on Boris Johnson’s road map when the final stage of lockdown is due to end. According to that plan, “the Government hopes to be in a position to remove all legal limits on social contact”. Premises still closed will reopen, including nightclubs, and the restrictions on large gatherings will be eased.

    It must be conceded that this is the “earliest date” for these relaxations and they are dependent upon scientific advice. But when the plan was set out in February there were 10,000 new cases of Covid daily and 178 deaths. About 17 million people had been vaccinated. As of yesterday, there were 2,000 new cases and six deaths. More than 30 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine.

    We have been concerned that Mr Johnson is reopening too slowly. But it would be completely unacceptable to reach June 21 with even fewer cases than now and baulk at a full return to normality. The Prime Minister told his Cabinet yesterday that “we are not out of the woods yet”, but the idea that we will still be wandering around in a darkened forest in June is ridiculous.

    Mr Johnson has been attacked for allegedly saying in a fit of frustration last autumn that he would rather see bodies piled in the streets than implement another lockdown; and yet he did agree not to one but two. The big difference between now and then is the vaccine. People will not understand being corralled, masked and marshalled when most of them have been given the jab. This must all end in June at the latest.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/27/would-madness-reach-june-still-baulk-returning-normality/

    1. The problem is of course that the jabs are untested and may not work as advertised. There is a high probability that the vaccinated will become super spreaders as a result.

      I reckon Boris Johnson and his criminal cabal understand this and are conscripting thugs to man the streets in readiness for when the rest of us revolt.

      1. ‘Evening, Corri, can you or someone else, please give me the names of those five C,A,B,A and L who formed the original Cabal in Charles I reign?

        Google comes up with some nonsense about Kaballah.

        1. According to Wikipedia:

          The linchpin of the Cabal was probably George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Although he only held the household office of Master of the Horse, with responsibility for overseeing the King’s travel arrangements, Buckingham was a long and close associate of King Charles II, having been practically raised together since they were children, during the close association of their fathers, Charles I and the first Duke of Buckingham, a relationship they consciously compared themselves to in adulthood, and might have replicated had the younger Buckingham possessed the skills of his father. Nonetheless, Buckingham was in constant contact and clear favourite of the king, and the centre of the Cabal’s grip on power. Gilbert Burnet, who knew some of its members personally, said that Buckingham stood somewhat apart from the rest of the Cabal, hating them and being hated in return.[3]

          The Lord High Treasurer Wriothesley having died just before Clarendon’s departure, the Treasury went into commission in 1667, under the nominal chairmanship of George Monck (Duke of Albermarle). But as Monck was practically retired from public life, control of the Treasury commission was taken up by Sir Thomas Clifford (Comptroller and soon Treasurer of the Household) and Anthony Ashley Cooper (Chancellor of the Exchequer). With the assistance of their close associates John Duncombe (Ashley’s deputy at the Exchequer), Stephen Fox (the Paymaster of the Forces) and notably Sir George Downing, the highly capable secretary to the Treasury commission, Clifford and Ashley overhauled the monarchical finances, placing them in a much more solvent state than before.[4]

          Foreign affairs was principally directed by Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington (Secretary of the South), with occasional assistance from George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.[1] (Although foreign affairs were notionally in the purview of the Secretary of the North, the Cabal bullied Sir William Morice into selling the seat to Sir John Trevor, and then sidelined the latter.)

          John Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale (Secretary of State for Scotland) had already consolidated his position in 1663 by securing the dismissal of his principal rival, John Middleton (Lord High Commissioner to the Parliament of Scotland) and his replacement by the more pliable John Leslie, Earl of Rothes. In 1669, Lauderdale went one step further, and got Leslie dismissed and the Lord High Commissioner position for himself, consolidating his hold and ruling Scotland as a virtual autocrat for the remainder of his career.

          Sir Orlando Bridgeman, the Royalist lawyer who had prosecuted the Regicides, and who took over Clarendon’s duties as Lord Keeper of the Great Seal in 1667, was outside of this inner circle, although cooperative with their goals.

          Despite their comparative energy and efficiency, the Cabal was a fractious and unpopular lot.[5] Although perceived as a secretive and unsavoury junta, they rarely formed a united front, and their internal quarrels often spilled over into the public arena.[1] J. P. Kenyon suggests that the King actually encouraged the Cabal members to quarrel, in the belief that this made them easier to control.[6] They in turn, never trusted him not to bring them down as he had brought down Clarendon, and as Kenyon remarks, they hardly dared turn their backs on him for fear of sudden dismissal.[7] It was said that the King treated his ministers very much as he did his mistresses: “he used them, but he was not in love with them, and was tied to them no more than they to him, which implies sufficient liberty on either side”. Sir William Coventry, the Secretary to the Admiralty, resigned from office following a duel challenge from the Duke of Buckingham, and re-emerged in the House of Commons at the head of a group of MPs known as the “Country Party”, which loudly opposed the Cabal and its policies.[8] Causing poor relations with members of parliament, Charles II acceded to the Cabal’s recommendation to prorogue parliament repeatedly, keeping it out of session for as long as he could, and leaving the Cabal to run the country on their own. In financial exigency (a pressing need to levy taxes), following the Great Stop of the Exchequer in 1672 and the outbreak of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Charles was obliged to re-convene parliament in 1673 and the parliamentarians were bent on revenge.

          Nothing much has changed in the intervening period. Think Johnson, Gove, Cummings, Raab, Patel, and the rest of the rabble pretending to government.

  103. The Wednesday letters column is a curious thing. Between one letter from Lt-Col Ewen Southby-Tailyour RM (retd) about an attempt by a certain Ian Rivers to row across the Atlantic and another by Susan Fleck about hoarding and boxes containing “Pieces of string which have no use any more” and “Junk too good to throw away” there is a photo of Matt Hancock with neither caption nor explanation.

    I wonder if the letters editor is suggesting that Hancock is a useless piece of junk that should be thrown in the sea?

  104. Goodnight to all, still here! I’m off to watch the sunset and then the ‘pink moon’ rise!!

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