Wednesay 19 May: Covid variants are the Government’s excuse for endless micromanaging

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/18/letterscovid-variants-governments-excuse-endless-micromanaging/

627 thoughts on “Wednesay 19 May: Covid variants are the Government’s excuse for endless micromanaging”

  1. mng for those not on night shift or woke up early: The usual array of “DT letters” around the chosen emotive topics to sound off.

    Someone let Austin Spreadbury out of the echo chamber box, briefly. Richard Dodson would do well to spend an hour or so on this site and be tuned into some basic reality. Clare Staffell makes a half hearted woke attempt at spouting technology, ignoring the basic principle of who is the customer? GPs hiding behind “technology” is another woke phrase for non existent “Customer Service”. Without customers, GPs have no job: Darren Henly in classic opaque woke mode aka elite talent and invisible ladder. Primary concern is why, as a CEO, would he want to see people running in a park? The Arts Council achieves nothing except a port in a storm to avoid the real world. Right, 2nd coffee [no G&T for me this am anneallen] and catch the rockspiders on their early am safari:

    SIR – When is the penny finally going to drop that the Government will never allow this Covid crisis to end? Perhaps it will not be until our supposed day of liberation, June 21, comes and goes and our lives are still micromanaged by the Man from the Ministry.

    The Government has grown used to unprecedented interference in our affairs. There are arbitrary rules: a distance of two metres is safe, but 1.9 is not; six people meeting indoors is safe, seven is not, unless they are from at most two households.

    There are unproven interventions: we are required by law to cover our faces, but there is no quality control over what we use, and very weak evidence for the benefits of doing so.

    There is mass testing of asymptomatic people, so even a tiny proportion of inevitable false positives prolongs the appearance of an epidemic, and continues to cause needless disruption to people’s lives, amplified by the hopeless and ruinous test-and-trace regime.

    Whatever makes anyone think this will stop? Even if we decide that the Indian variant isn’t a cataclysm, the certainty of continual mutations of Sars-CoV-2 means the Government will have endless excuses to carry on.

    In a few weeks, the miracle of vaccination – the one stand-out success of the whole lamentable tale on these islands – will have reduced Covid to another of the real but manageable risks inherent in being alive. The Government must say now that, as of then, we will treat it as such – as we do flu, cancer, crime and road accidents – and sweep away all the measures that started last March.

    Austin Spreadbury
    Enfield, Middlesex

    SIR – The lives of millions of people who have cheerfully accepted the Covid vaccine and its minuscule risks must not be affected because those who refuse the offer become ill.

    Unless the number of people who refuse the vaccine and succumb to the virus begins to overwhelm the NHS – and there is no evidence that this will happen – opening up the economy should continue as planned.

    Ian Goddard

    Wickham, Hampshire

    SIR – Why is there such panic over the Indian variant? All the evidence is that the vaccines are effective against it and most young people are not likely to be hospitalised. So the risk is for people who have decided not to be vaccinated.

    I support their right to say no, but why should their choice hold the rest of us hostage?

    Richard Dodson
    Polperro, Cornwall

    SIR – On Monday I attended choir practice – my first for 14 months. The sensation when we started singing together was indescribably wonderful.

    Our last song was Ain’t Misbehavin’, which was apt given the wide-open doors and enormous social distancing that our building permits. Roll on next week’s session – we deserve this!

    Tony Parrack
    London SW20

    The threat to Israel

    SIR – Sunday’s scenes of anti-Semitism in London were shocking, and the passive initial response of the police indefensible.

    The repercussions for civilians caught up in the current conflict on both sides are tragic, but we should never lose sight of what is at stake. Israel’s right to exist is under sustained and insidious attack from the terrorist Hamas regime and its puppetmaster, Iran. Hamas’s cynicism knows no bounds. It thinks nothing of diverting international aid from hospitals to bunkers, building rocket factories in civilian areas, and using children as human shields, all in pursuit of its overriding goal: the destruction of the Jewish state.

    The subtext of every “Free Palestine” banner remains the same: “Israel must be wiped off the face of the Earth.” If that is not racism, what is?

    Lord Shinkwin (Con)
    London SW1

    Pointless degrees

    SIR – Young people are now brainwashed into the belief that university is a natural progression from school.

    In fact, it’s an outrageously expensive way of throwing away the benefit of three years of paid work experience – as an apprentice.

    Academic study, except perhaps for professional careers, does not help with the nuts and bolts of earning a living. It does, however, release the Government from payment of any unemployment benefits – at least until graduation.

    Cameron Morice
    Reading, Berkshire

    SIR – When I trained as a solicitor in the early 1970s, many of my contemporaries were some of the last “five-year men” who had not been to university but had passed their professional exams during and at the end of their articles in solicitors’ firms.

    Their knowledge, practical ability and work ethic were way beyond the theoretical knowledge gleaned by us graduates, and I consider it to have been a backward step when that training route disappeared in the general rush to have graduate-only professions.

    I certainly learnt more about the law and its application during my articles than I did during my entire degree.

    Geraldine Wills
    Chard, Somerset

    Runners and riders

    SIR – Dogs do particularly enjoy a walk when accompanied (Letters, May 18). They have also been shown to display amazing initiative to make this happen.

    When running in Cyprus at an early-morning set time, I was invariably met by a small white terrier who would greet me and then enthusiastically accompany me all the way around the four-mile circular route in the Bellapais hills. I never did meet the dog’s owner.

    Paul French
    Andover, Hampshire

    SIR – In the 1950s, there was a legendary Fernie Hunt horse that had been retired after 15 seasons to a paddock behind the kennels in Great Bowden, near Market Harborough in Leicestershire.

    Often when the meet was at the kennels, this horse would pop over the rails of his paddock and join the hunt, jumping hedges and ditches alongside the field. When he’d had enough, he would trot back along the roads to the kennels where he was let into his paddock.

    I believe he lived to the age of 27.

    Dr Nicholas Courtney
    London SW6

    Green hypocrisy

    SIR – Almost daily, some government minister or other claims that Britain is a “world leader” in anything from border controls to conquering climate change – but seen from here, the only subject the country is leading the world in is rank hypocrisy, dishonesty and cover-up when it comes to the recycling and disposal of rubbish.

    For decades Britain has been illegally dumping its waste all over the Third World, and again it has been caught red-handed, dumping its plastic in Turkey.

    Stuart D Oakley
    Leiden, The Netherlands

    SIR – The Queen’s Speech on May 11 included the much lauded Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. However, the following morning George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, conceded in an interview that this would not apply to livestock and poultry that is religiously slaughtered, stating that this is a complicated matter.

    I don’t believe that the creatures slaughtered in this cruel way understand this complexity. I am disappointed on their behalf and I am disillusioned with the Government. These methods of slaughter have no place in the 21st century.

    Chris Winter
    Tiverton, Devon

    Unfair care funding

    SIR – We contribute towards social care through our council tax.

    My 105-year-old blind mother is in her fourth year in a care home, and we pay privately – currently £5,000 a month. Two years ago the council closed its local care home and put its residents where my mother is. The council pays a discounted rate. As a consequence the care home, to balance its books, charged us self-funders extra. Neither the care home nor the council will reveal how much the council pays.

    This is neither fair nor transparent. Care funding is in urgent need of overhauling.

    Peter Brown
    Lower Stondon, Bedfordshire

    Soaring ambition

    SIR – Good luck to Oxford University in its attempts to remove imperial measurements from a world where ships and aircraft travel at speeds measured in knots, aircraft fly at heights measured in feet, and half of America’s scientific community still use feet, inches and pounds.

    Philip Harris
    Crewkerne, Somerset

    The best way to nurture British creativity

    SIR – Ben Lawrence misunderstands, I think, what the Arts Council aims to achieve.

    We are unambiguous in our belief that work should always be of the very highest quality. Just as in sport, our investment in the arts develops a tier of elite creative talent and a ladder for more to join it.

    We also believe that everyone should have the chance to explore their own creativity and see how far it takes them. They are not mutually exclusive ambitions in culture, just as in sport we want to win gold medals for Team GB and see people going for a run in their local park.

    We don’t mistake one for the other and our funding reflects that. We know that not everyone will reach the peak of the artistic pyramid, but everyone should have the chance to enjoy the climb.

    Darren Henley
    Chief Executive, Arts Council England
    London WC1

    How general practice lost its sense of purpose

    SIR – NHS general practice (Letters, May 18) has clearly lost touch with the core values of primary care in providing accessible first-contact medical assistance as well as enabling individuals to receive comprehensive, co-ordinated support for their health problems.

    Well before the pandemic, we had given up looking after mothers throughout their pregnancies, stopped caring for patients outside office hours and moved away from having our own lists of individuals that we were responsible for. Many GPs no longer take blood, do any minor surgery, give immunisations, undertake family planning or syringe ears. There has even been a drive to stop visiting patients at home and relationships with many of our specialist colleagues have deteriorated.

    We now need an urgent, independent review examining how best to deliver a modern and effective primary-care service, including the future role of general practice.

    Dr Nick Summerton
    Brough, East Yorkshire

    SIR – I am in favour of using modern methods of communication to increase the efficiency of GP practices and ease their growing workload.

    I am 70. I have been happy to discuss symptoms with a GP over the phone; whenever a face-to-face consultation has been necessary, it has been offered for the same day. I have also had a number of blood tests and received results on my phone the same day.

    It is true that such services require an online NHS account and a suitable phone, but surely we should adopt these tools in the interests of our health. Some older citizens will require support, but that should not stop us embracing technology.

    Clare Staffell
    Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

    1. The subtext of every “Free Palestine” banner remains the same: “Israel must be wiped off the face of the Earth.” If that is not racism, what is?

      The Jews are not a race! That Lord Shinkwin does not know this beggars belief!

      3. ‘Morning, Minty,

        Shinkwin refers to Israel, not Jews. Are Israelis not a race?

    2. Geraldine Wills is spot on. I was articled between 1959 and 1964. Graduates were beginning to be more prevalent. Most were quite useless at the practical side of the work. And they also thought that going over the the Royal Courts of Justice to issue a writ quite beneath them!

    1. Morning, AWK.

      I read late last year that a doctor in Kenya became concerned that young women were not becoming pregnant after a tetanus jab. The report stated that the doctor sent samples of the potion to a lab in South Africa for analysis and it was discovered that it wasn’t just tetanus in the potion. Do you know if there is any truth in this story. IIRC no mention of Gates was made in the report. I know that there have been alleged problems with Gates’s work in India on polio.

      1. KtK morning. It’s correct. The good daktari [Dr] sent them to RSA as Kenya lab in Kisumu isn’t trusted. the baseline again was reigniting the 2013 scam, this time overtly in Dadaab refugee camp [tetanus and polio], but the Somalis simply refused to go near it. So UNICEF / WHO operating out of Gigiri [UN HQ in Nbo] restarted their attempted roll out in the slums [Mathare, Kibera, Dandora, Eastliegh]. Mathare refused anything to do with it as did Eastleigh. Kibera, Dandora [mainly communities from Western Kenya] started receiving jabs, until Daktari got wind of it. The roll back to 2013 is identical and Billy boy is the prime funder for UNICEF and WHO.

        Kenya MSM know about this but were muzzled [they’re predominantly owned by the political stomachs in what passes for Government] and whole issue was suppressed with Health Min Kagwe throwing Mystic Meg numbers of cases re C-19 which never existed and when challenged on live TV, became an expert in refusing to take questions. Followed by journos asking questions later being arrested.

        1. Difficult conundrum. Africa certainly needs to reduce its population and most African women aren’t in charge of their fertility.
          But ….

          1. an end of economic colonialsim would be a good starting point. Younger educated generations [East and Southern Africa] have figured this out, trying to break shackles of “old guard”. West Africa’s still a basket case

          2. ‘Morning, AWK, I think most of Africa is a basket case, riddled with tribalism as it is.

          3. it’s changing slowly. Younger generations have simply had enough of following the same old line garbage. They’re not yet at the level, having realised the problems, to forge their own solution. That said, the barriers are coming down. It’s interesting to observe here and sensible elder population are aware. Political stomachs couldn’t care less as most know they;re only “in” for one term, so milk the systems[s] they inherited at Independence.

    1. mng Araminta. Best get usual out of the way – cloudy but dry across Nbo. Rockspiders still bumbling around looking for wildebeest and buffalo.

  8. Good morning from Derbyshire and another bright & sunny start today if slightly chilly outside at 3°C, but rain forecast for mid-day.

  11. BBC Radio 4 briefing this morning – The expensive heavy wallpaper chosen for the Downing Street refurbishment is peeling off the walls. Decorators are being called in to remedy the problem. Another bad choice by our unfortunate PM.

    2. I wonder which relative (6 years at Eton and nary an “A” level to show for it) Lulu Lytle (get her!) chose to slap on the paper.
      MB and I have been reminiscing about the joys of vinyl wallpaper.

    1. not helped that his name’s close to the top of the “fraudsters” list. Johnson of course being above him, literally, on the list not position

    2. Whipping boy. He will be disposed of when he’s served his purpose.
      Booted upstairs to the HoL.

  13. Nancy Pelosi calls for US diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics. 19 May 2021

    US House speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for a US diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, criticising China for human rights abuses and saying global leaders who attend would lose their moral authority.

    “What I propose – and join those who are proposing – is a diplomatic boycott,” Pelosi said, in which “lead countries of the world withhold their attendance at the Olympics.”

    What I smell here is the beginnings of an attempt to prevent the athletes attending the Winter Games; after all how many Heads of State actually attend them anyway and in which there must already be an unofficial bar because of the adverse publicity that would result. This is typical of politicians sacrificing other people’s ambitions and hard work so that they can posture. No one in their right mind likes the Chinese Government but their policies will in no way be changed by such a ban!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/19/nancy-pelosi-calls-for-us-diplomatic-boycott-of-beijing-winter-olympics

    1. the message starts and ends with “Nancy Pelosi”. Anything she says is her creating heat and light before her next “tipple”

  14. Need to get more viewings for your social media posts?

    Use No 10 and wallpaper as tags!

    Gd mng btw

  15. As always the political think tanks lack intelligence, imagination, insight. They exist mostly as snouts in a trough of public borrowing. They are London parasites.

    I was thinking just now of the ridiculous plan to convert the internal combustion based personal transport to electric by 2030. It ain’t going to work – we don’t have the generating capacity to support it, the batteries die long before the cars or people they transport do, and graphene technology is still a way off.

    Electric cars are probably manageable for a trip to the shops, but a journey of any length, and they become a nightmare of breakdowns on the death traps that are the New! Improved! smart motorways as the sleeping driver of a 40-tonner on his second performance target disciplinary warning makes short work of Lithium batteries in the family car that must be protected from such things, or they catch fire.

    The answer may be to reverse the Beeching cuts and provide every town with a roll-on, roll-off railway network that can carry the cars on board over long distances, with easy changes at intersections. The drivers can then relax in the passenger section, with WiFi and refreshments, and their cars as a bonus can be charged on the way. All this at a price comparable to driving there.

    It would require a major investment and subsidy programme, but £100 billion would go a long way.

    So what do the experts propose? It’s more important to spare influential business interests the inconvenience of stopping overnight in the provinces when travelling up from London to direct the transfer of available money to their tax havens. Eight stations are all that are needed to get to the important places. That’s how to spend £100 billion.

    1. I was thinking just now of the ridiculous plan to convert the internal combustion based personal transport to electric by 2030. It ain’t going to work – we don’t have the generating capacity to support it, the batteries die long before the cars or people they transport do, and graphene technology is still a way off.

      Morning Jeremy. Common sense is now extinct in the public sphere! We are in something akin to the later Roman Empire where bizarre beliefs, sexual depravity and irrational personal ambition guide policy.

      1. That was part of the point made in the excellent lecture yesterday on the fall of Rome.

        The Romans simply refused to believe that Alaric just wanted land – and refused him everything. So he sacked the city and took over the western part of the Roman empire.

          1. Indeed, Stephen. Another aspect, just before the Fall – was that lotsa important Romans realised that if they wanted to get on, they should “convert” to this new Christianity malarkey. A skilled “barbarian” soldier did just that and ended up virtually running Rome.

            Just sign up to the slammers and you’ll be fine.

      2. Good morning Minty
        We are witnessing the collapse of the UK
        Where priorities are first and foremost the filling of one’s belly cooked by unknowns , and the sloshing of beer glasses and wine sitting in the rain , coupled with vomit and hangovers and rubbish in the street , plus appeasing the foreign masses by allowing them to disupt and vandalise our precious national treasures and interefere with our language .

        Britain has become soft in the head .

        1. Britain has become soft in the head .

          Spines and upper lips have also gone from stiff to soft and crumbly ….

    2. Thank God I won’t have the seven day trip to my house in France – re-charging every 200 miles….

    3. The abandonment of the old Motorail service was a huge mistake. When I was working, I used to see the loading ramp at various stations, ranging from Penzance and Brockenhurst via Euston & Harwich to Inverness and Fort William.

      1. Good morning Bob,

        Previous elderly neighbours of ours , in the 1980’s, used to put their car on the train at Brockenhurst , and go up to Scotland for a holiday , what luxury , and why has this wonderful facility been discontinued .

        1. Quite.
          The service made BR a fair profit, but was an awkward service to operate, requiring careful planning to ensure the vehicles ended up at the right destination and facing the right way to drive off. Also the rollingstock was knackered and the Beeching Mindset, still extant within the BR Hierarchy at the time, used that as an excuse to decree it was not worth building new vehicles.

          1. Yer French have done the same. Their excellent Trains Auto Couchette, which enabled you and your car to go overnight from Calais to Avignon, Toulouse or Nice (among other places) were scrapped – even though the fares were high and the comfort low!

          2. The terminal was in Boulogne, Bill. My longest (ever) break from work was a 3-week holiday in 1990. We took our (first ever again) new car to Bologna and then Eurocamped at Jesolo and back via Innsbruch and Kirschzarten. Memorable trip. Sat at the next table to Wendy Craig for another first: most expensive meal (to that point) in St Mar’s Square.

          3. The last one we took (and the train was filthy
            we avoided the loos) was from Calais to Tououse.

            The unloading was a complete shambles. It took
            SNCF three hours to off load a dozen cars!

        2. We did that a couple of times – the old Mini Traveller wasn’t up to journeys from Bucks to Inverness… Breakfast in the restaurant car coming over the mountains from Perth to Inverness, just as the sun was rising… Lovely!

        3. We did that a couple of times – the old Mini Traveller wasn’t up to journeys from Bucks to Inverness… Breakfast in the restaurant car coming over the mountains from Perth to Inverness, just as the sun was rising… Lovely!

    4. The internal combustion engine has now been advanced to such a stage that the exhaust emissions can be used in COVID ventilators and the water residue is purer than Buxton spring water.

      The biggest existential threat to life on this planet are cows.

      🤔

        1. I’ll eat beef until the cows come home!
          I could be more emphatic but I don’t want to milk it.

    5. Last week the head of Eon was interviewed on Sky Business News.

      He made the comment that we need to triple our power stations by 2030 to keep in with the Government’s desires.

      He said, slightly wistfully, “I don’t think that will happen”

  16. A Bullet Is Not For Life

    A woman pregnant with triplets is walking down the street when a masked robber runs out of the bank and shoots her three times in the stomach. Luckily the babies are okay.

    The surgeon decides to leave the bullets in because it’s too risky to operate.

    All is fine for 16 years, and then one day one daughter walks into the room in tears. “What’s wrong?” asks the mother.

    “I was peeing and this bullet came out,” replies the daughter.

    The mother tells her it’s okay and explains what happened 16 years ago.

    About a week later, the second daughter walks in to the room in tears. “Mom, I was peeing and this bullet came out.”

    Again, the mother tells her not to worry and explains what happened 16 years ago.

    A week later the boy walks into the room in tears. “It’s okay,” says the mom, “I know what happened, you were peeing and a bullet came out.”

    “No,” says the boy, “I was jerking off and I shot the dog.”

    1. 332938+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      Using the same mask used by many
      over the decades in the polling booth
      by the three monkey worshippers.

    1. Colour me cynical but I think the real motive behind the recruitment of ‘graduates’ to the police is to ensure that all policemen/women have received three to four years of brainwashing at the academies of ‘woke’ that used to be our universities, the better to become the unquestioning tools of the state.

      1. An astonishing idea, Duncan. They are after well-rounded, deep thinkers…..{:¬))

        2. Well, many of them certainly appear to be well-rounded, almost too well-rounded…

          Good morning BTW

      2. Good mrning DM,

        I read that as another infiltration of Common Purpose , which seems to be quietly forgotten about .

        https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easa2018/paper/44117

        This paper explores the theory of intentional depopulation shared by supporters of the ‘Anonymous’ movement in Britain. It argues that the theory is an analogical response to real crises of social and biological reproduction that have deepened in Britain since 2010.
        Paper long abstract:
        As a loose assembly of hackers, activists, and marginalized persons, Anonymous proclaims a populist message. Adherents maintain that ‘anyone can be Anonymous’, that it has no limiting ideology nor doctrine. In practice, those most committed to the movement in Britain share a theory of the world known as the ‘Depopulation Agenda’ or ‘Agenda 21’. Drawing on a UN resolution passed in 1992 to address the threat of climate change, Agenda 21 in their conceptualisation is a project by the world’s rich and powerful to depopulate the world by around six and a half billion people. The internet provides an important resource for this theory, as it enables the marshalling of various forms of documentary, visual, and audio-visual ‘evidence’ for the existence of mass existential threat.

        Rather than deconstructing the flawed epistemological bases on which the theory rests, I offer that the fear of organized depopulation is an analogical response to real crises of social and biological reproduction that have deepened in Britain since 2010. Drawing on Orlando Patterson’s concept of ‘social death’, the paper argues that Anonymous in Britain arises from experiences of invisibility that have been aggravated by precaritization and austerity policies. Social death is fundamentally a symbolic state, a position outside a hierarchy of value; yet it is also tacitly connected to biological death, as those outside a sphere of recognition might not benefit from life-giving institutional protections. Agenda 21 thus becomes a way for Anons to rationalize the social and biological risks that invisibility can produce.

      3. In the annual report of the Derbyshire branch of the National Association of Retired Police Officers, (NARPO) of which I am a member, the force’s current chief constable, Rachel Swann, was invited to write the Foreword (as is custom). One particular paragraph clearly shows her Common Purpose thinking and agenda:

        “This year will see our first cohort of PCDA [Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship] students complete their degree. Derbyshire was one of a small number of forces to take up the challenge of a new entry route to policing in 2018, and as such have helped to shape it for future years. Our third cohort joined in February. We have also seen a further intake of police officers through Police Now.”

        This one, lamentable, paragraph asks more questions than it answers. Apart from the appalling standard of English and the pretentious use of the word ‘cohort’, it has the audacity of referring to a degree course as an ‘apprenticeship’.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3840df27ae628d53536c8ae658d8b61c859a0564bc0e03039251f10d4bb1d507.png Two excellent letters in today’s edition of the Daily Telegraph describe what a proper apprenticeship is, and also go on to decry the now standard clamour for degrees as a grossly expensive waste of time and money.

        Until fools like Swann and her acolytes are replaced by professionals who understand traditional policing, it will behove you to continue to fear for the future of the British police.

        1. Our Lord Bishop of London destroyed nursing in exactly the same way when she was head nurse at the NHS. Nurses became graduates who see themselves as doctors cum administrators and regard actual nursing as beneath their dignity. God forbid that they touch a beadpan or feed a patient.

    2. Very strange.

      The average man in the street has been saying that for the last twenty years.

      …but I’m glad that the penny dropped finally.

  21. 330938+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Wednesay 19 May: Covid variants are the Government’s excuse for endless micromanaging,

    Why are their actions couched in such a nice manner
    when the governance parties are plainly seen to be working to a semi covert agenda.

    The virus WAS the perfect herd control vehicle, was it manufactured for such a purpose ? has anyone ascertained the true birthplace of this covid ?

    IMO it is packed with controlling ALL types of daily life
    material, whilst anti UK lifestyle material is handled as a
    lesser issue, for starters the DOVER invasion is picking up pace daily, the police are falling in step with the enema under foreign flags, etc,etc.

    Could be a General Election is the answer omitting the
    anti toxic foursome LLCG on the voting paper.

    Otherwise I can truly see a politically instigated via lab/lib/con/greens, a countrywide Chernobyl facing us in the near future.

    Also there are forces moving / moved into power now with the shout & actions that will make this lot seem like high powered pro English/ GB benefactors.

    Used in the correct manner people power works,

  22. Why women need their own loos. Spiked. 19 May 2021.

    The ‘gender neutral’ trend, which seemed to start in universities and theatres, also swept through Whitehall. According to reports in The Times, the Home Office changed its 10 single-sex loos to ‘unisex’ at a cost of £40,000. Female members of staff were not happy, with some walking to the Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government to use the facilities there. A note reportedly pinned to one gender-neutral stall door at the Home Office read: ‘Polite notice. Could men using these toilets please use them with the door shut. Women are finding the use of these toilets quite distressing.’

    A rare but welcome example of these people experiencing the realities of the policies they foist on the rest of us!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/18/why-women-need-their-own-loos/

    1. I really do wish we could rid ourselves of the victorian disgust of anything that takes place below the chin and adopt the French attitude. When I’ve been to France I’ve been surprised number of times I’ve handed a disinterested “vieille dame” a couple of centime to attend my business at the pissior as the French world, his wife and daughters pass by attend to theirs without demure. It took a bit of getting used to but once you adopt the mindset it’s quite liberating. I will however never never ever never ever come to terms with this:-

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22e37cc3d6035ed9c6ece6d80417695548602b7ed1d63e952cced93839abd249.png

      1. Hate the squat bog. :-((
        I don’t balance well when squatting, and am terrified of:
        a – toppling over into the keyhole, and
        b – crapping into my trousers (which are all bunched up around by ankles, making (a) above worse.
        The add a hosepipe with a strange fitting (to stop it going up yer bum?) as hygiene, and the day can’t get much worse.
        Comment from SWMBO: Try doing all that whilst wearing ski gear – salopettes and ski boots!

        At a works in Azerbaijan many years ago, the facilities consisted of about ten keyholes all lined up in a row, with a shoulder-high wall between them. Imagine the alarm of a nice English lad on being confronted with that! And, like every Russian bog in the world, they stank like they were never flushed. You don’t have to ask the way to the toilet in Russia, just follow your nose.

      2. Morning Datz. That was the sort of loo in the home of my French penfriend in the early 1970s. The ‘bathroom’ was a corrugated iron lean-to, lit by candles, on the back of the tiny house. One of my teachers in 6th form used to comment on the peasants in the south of France – we thought he was joking!

        1. When I lived in the Loire valley in the sixties, the house had a “toilette à la turque” – ie a hut at the end of the garden with a plank with a hole in it suspended over a drop.

          1. On a school trip to Paris and the Loire Valley at the end of the sixties, we stayed in two boarding schools. In both cases, each dormitory was allocated just one bath a week – and we missed the night in both cases! Given the primitive nature of the facilities, we probably had a narrow escape!

      1. the customers are friendly, the staff’s the problem. that said how they would operate Apps with broken fingers let alone having some basic manners may have something to do with “pay peanuts you get monkeys”

    2. Who the hell goes into a Wetherspoons, a cask-conditioned ale emporium, and willingly buys and drinks human effluent [sorry: ‘lager’]?

  26. Cabinet members, obese radio show presenters (yes, you, Fogarty) and all other ignorant people supporting discrimination against people exercising their right under law: this from the NHS website.

    Consent to treatment means a person must give permission before they receive any type of medical treatment, test or examination.

    This must be done on the basis of an explanation by a clinician.

    Consent from a patient is needed regardless of the procedure, whether it’s a physical examination, organ donation or something else.

    The principle of consent is an important part of medical ethics and international human rights law.

    Difficult position for Johnson & Co to overcome politically as it would expose them for what they are and what they are planning. Therefore the stirring up of hate/fear etc of the public.

    1. 332938+ up ticks,
      Morning KtK,
      I noticed yesterday that as with a bookie with a big bet, he will spread it,
      so obesity is being mentioned a great deal.

  27. Cabinet members, obese radio show presenters (yes, you, Fogarty) and all other ignorant people supporting discrimination against people exercising their right under law: this from the NHS website.

    Consent to treatment means a person must give permission before they receive any type of medical treatment, test or examination.

    This must be done on the basis of an explanation by a clinician.

    Consent from a patient is needed regardless of the procedure, whether it’s a physical examination, organ donation or something else.

    The principle of consent is an important part of medical ethics and international human rights law.

    Difficult position for Johnson & Co to overcome politically as it would expose them for what they are and what they are planning. Therefore the stirring up of hate/fear etc of the public.

    1. Displaying that picture is sowing mass fear and it is not unnecessary to be fearful of that creature.

      1. 322938+ up ticks,
        KtK,
        “Know thy enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles, you will never be defeated.
        Sun Tzu, had that about right.

  29. No wonder rents and house prices are increasing and green space is shrinking:

    More than five million EU citizens living in the UK have applied for settled status, nearly double the number thought to be residents before the EU referendum, official figures revealed on Thursday.

    The Home Office data showed 4.9 million of the 5.4 million had already been granted settled status, of which 4.88 million were living in England. This compares with the three million that were estimated to have been in the UK at the time of the vote on Brexit in 2016.

    It came as the Home Office launched a new information campaign urging EU citizens living in the UK to apply for the settlement scheme as soon as possible, before the deadline of June 30.

    But senior Tory MPs said it raised questions about the quality of government data on the numbers of migrants in Britain, which is critical for Whitehall departments, councils, health trusts and schools to plan the appropriate level of services to meet local demand.

    John Hayes, a former Conservative security minister, said the disparity between the estimated number and true figures demonstrated the need to improve the way the UK managed and checked migration.

    “The settled status scheme is a good thing and it’s good people are committing to Britain. That’s to be welcomed. However, it’s really clear that taking back control of our borders means knowing who is coming and going,” he said.

    “So once we’ve gone beyond this stage and established who is staying and who is going, we need to do one or two things urgently. The first is to take a view about population growth. The population has been growing at an unsustainable level now for many years, putting immense pressure on public services, roads. It is part of the reason for excessive housing demand which is driving up house prices.

    “It really isn’t acceptable to keep growth of the population at the pace we are, because it means building hundreds of new towns or a number of new cities. Do we really want to do that? That’s the question you’ve got to ask. And if you don’t want to do it, you’ve got to do something about controlling the population.”

    Sir Bernard Jenkin, the chairman of the Commons liaison committee, said: “It is a welcome surprise that so many EU nationals want to stay in Brexit Britain. But it underlines why Priti Patel and the new permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft are substantially strengthening the capability of the department to deal with challenges like this.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/13/five-million-eu-citizens-apply-uk-settled-status-nearly-double/

    1. Right, fine. Understanding who’s coming in and, more importantly, who we are getting rid of.

      Why are we not doing this? The laws are our own to make. Always have been for non-EU citizens (and the 20 million arrivals Blair brought in are NOT EU citizens). Why have we not enforced them? I know big state likes a client class, but we, the public didn’t ask for 25 million more people to enter this country.

      1. Palestine only came into existence with the British Mandate. Jewish migration to the region accelerated especially after World War II. The United Nations decided to partition Mandate Palestine. The Arabs tried to destroy the Jewish state, but lost the war in 1948 and continued to lose in 1956, 1967, 1973 and so on. The Palestinians were crammed into ever smaller territory, because with each war they lost territory. But if the Soviet Union can annex parts of Poland, and Poland can annex parts of Germany, is it only Jews who cannot gain territory after winning wars?

        Jewish people have the same rights to live where they do as any other migrant. If 9 million Jewish migrants don’t have the right to live in the Middle East, why do 44 million Muslims have the right to live in Europe? If Jewish migration to the Middle East is wrong, why is Muslim migration to Europe right?

        It appears as if the benefits of multiculturalism only apply to Europe and not to Palestine. If descendants of migrants such as Humza Yousaf can fight to partition Britain, why couldn’t descendants of Jewish migrants fight to partition Palestine not least because they were the majority in their part? If Muslims can create a Muslim state in Pakistan in 1947 there can be no moral reason for preventing Jews from doing likewise in 1948.

        Israel having been legally established in 1948 has the same right as any other state to defend itself. If a country is attacked it has the right of self-defence to defend itself. The task of any armed forces is to win, while suffering as few casualties as possible.

        https://www.effiedeans.com/2021/05/why-do-they-only-demonstrate-when-jews.html

        1. There are so many ways to solve problems that don’t involve throwing missiles at another country it’s staggering that this was Hamas’ first choice.

          But hey. It’s never been about land or rights. It’s about killing people they hate.

          Doesn’t Israel provide most of the water to Palestine through desalination plants? Couldn’t they just turn the taps off?

  31. Just imagine what little Archie might say to his future therapist
    Prince Harry could be in for a shock if he thinks his own children will give him an A* for parenting

    Allison Pearson: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/05/18/just-imagine-little-archie-might-say-future-therapist/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    I know we have several enthusiasts for A.A.Milne on this forum but a point that Caroline made to me a few days ago was that his son was very unhappy about the fact that he was the Christopher Robin upon whom his father had based his stories. He felt deeply embarrassed and felt his father was extremely callous and insensitive.

    Maybe little Archie will grow to ‘deeply resent’ that his name has been weaponised and prostituted to spearhead his parents’ disgusting commercial enterprises.

    1. Like many of my friends here I was brought up on A.A. Milne’s stories and verses and indeed both my sons read his stuff and loved it.

      I was disappointed when I learnt that he had joined the witch hunt against the rather naive P.G. Wodehouse during the War about the broadcasts he had made. I do not think that A.A.Milne was a very ‘nice’ person.

    2. This sort of thing goes a long way back. The House of Hanover in the 18th/19th Century saw all the first 3 King Georges detested by their eldest son, a cycle only broken when George IV (the ‘Prince Regent’) had no eldest son …. then Victoria & Albert had trouble with their eldest boy …

      1. Victoria blamed Bertie (the future Edward VII) for the Prince Consort’s death.

    3. This sort of thing goes a long way back. The House of Hanover in the 18th/19th Century saw all the first 3 King Georges detested by their eldest son, a cycle only broken when George IV (the ‘Prince Regent’) had no eldest son …. then Victoria & Albert had trouble with their eldest boy …

    1. Little Cat went up the silver birch just outside the house for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Had some difficulty in getting down, and was being mobbed by the magpies who nest at the top – to the extent of them tweaking his tail! He quickly realised that they were better in trees than he was, and eventually came down.
      Big Cat jumped into the lower branches and decided that trees were for the birds, and he wanted down.

      1. They love that tree – its bark is slightly soft, so their claws can dig in and get a good grip. Sometimes they climb up 30 feet! Gives me the willies!

        1. Your garden is beautiful! is that all yours? It must be more than an acre!

        2. I think we’ve had this discussion before, but it’s the type of tree in the graveyard at Caldbeck, where John Peel is buried! D’ye ken that?

      1. 332938+ up ticks,
        Morning Anne,
        Sauce for the goose, play them at their own game.

    3. You cannot change the government. By it’s nature it attracts greedy, spiteful people – certainly those who reach high office.

      Having reached that location they hire other like minded characters and the sewage continues. Some MPs may genuinely join out of a sense of service. Sadly, such people never become able to truly affect policy – because they believe in serving others, not themselves.

      1. 332938 + up ticks,
        Morning W,
        No decent right minded people continues down the path
        of treacherous incarceration / manipulation willingly
        roting voting lab/lib/con/greens is doing just that and surely has to change.

        YOU CAN most definitely change the government.

        1. You can’t. It is set on a fixed course. The civil service has an agenda, one not suited or applicable to this country or it’s people. Those individuals cannot be removed. They will continue going to their meetings and filling in their forms until they retire, and the next bunch of wasters take their place, saying and doing the same wrong things the same wrong way until they retire.

          Nothing – not a thing – will change because the state doesn’t want it to. Government has no ability to change what the state does because it is too trapped in remaining popular through short termism.

          The governing group want short term results, the administrative want a long term system. Neither cares what the public want or need.

    1. 332938+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      A people power much needed reset to benefit the Nation overall.

      1. People power was in play last week when Muslims in Glasgow assembled in large numbers to prevent Immigration officials trying to take 2 other muslims into detention. The police backed down on instructions from on high. In London Pakistanis with their national flags flying cruised through Golders Green shouting insults at the Jewish inhabitants . BLM and Climate Extinction Rebels use their power destructively to achieve their aims.
        The powers that be treat these protesters lightly. This is our future.

        1. And now Muslims have started killing Jews here in Britain. They’re savages, and should be treated as such.

          1. Every where on this planet they can be found, they quite deliberately cause endless problems.

        2. When the behaviour is too unacceptable even for the useless authorities and they have to rein it in, the violence will be bad, since all these barstewards now reckon they can get away with it. Turning that around will be very hard.
          See what the cowardice produces.

        3. 332938+ up ticks,
          Morning Cs,
          As I posted before a people’s reset to benefit the Country NOT take it down as the political reset surely will

          The ptb employees were seen to be in step & voice not treating lightly as seen yesterday.

        4. My understanding was that the two illegal immigrants being detained were Sikhs. Which makes TV’s Nicola Sturgeons fit of the vapours about ‘Eid’ being disturbed by the Tooaarrriiieee forces all the more puzzling

          1. Even more disturbing were the printed placards shown during a “spontaneous” demonstration.

        5. Well, I agree with your sentiments. (On a small point, the illegal immigrants, students who had overstayed their student visas by ten years, are Sikhs. That means nothing to the Rentamob that gathered.)

    2. We already pay for an organisation – many organisations, at great cost to patrol and manage our borders. The problem is they don’t want to do that.

      1. Ange represents the Unproductive Middle Class Party; she’s the statutory Bit of Rough from behind the bike sheds to keep the proles on board

      1. How do you sustain a business model? Oh! They mean keep taxing it until it can’t be done any more.

    2. Hence all the building on good farmland.
      Electric cargo ships to sail from NZ and Oz to UK reliably? Hmm…

    3. Wonder what they’re planning to do with all the vacant farmland that this scheme will create?
      :¬(

          1. Thanks for that link. There are some very incisive and pertinent speeches in there, plus some of the usual blether e.g. from the SNP.

            Liam Fox and Hilary Benn both made very good points about housing. One has to wonder why people with such a realistic grasp of the issues don’t find themselves placed into a relevant position either in government or the shadow? I’m still reading…

            …and Tim Farron spoke well too. Why are these people not listened to?

            …and on another point, almost everyone is talking about the need to build more homes, but so far not a single one has raised the subject of the reason we need to build so many more homes, namely uncontrolled IMMIGRATION. It’s almost as if they all run scared from the subject, but it is the SINGLE prevalent cause for the need to build so much additional housing. Second-home ownership comes way down the list, although in beauty spots it is of course the primary problem they face, as Tim Farron pointed out.

        2. Let’s be honest our very hard working and mainly respected farming people are rather hideously white.
          This sounds like the South African or Zimbabwe variant, where the ANC and murdering inhuman Mugabe threw all the white farmers off their land and the people of the country started to starve. And that some how suited his plan.
          More agricultural land, aka ‘brown field’ and room for more housing, for more people who do and produce absolutely nothing in support of the UK economy ?
          The secretary of the environment hasn’t got a clue what he’s talking about.

      3. Some years ago, it was decided that the UK could live on services, didn’t need manufacturing. This looks like the same BS – and what happens when the supply lines are cut, like, for example, a blockage in the Suez Canal?

        1. But not paid farm workers ….remember slavery started with boats across the water.
          I read there are 28 mosques in Bolton. But not a lot of farm land in the area.

      6. Diversifying into… such as camping…

        The point of farming is food production. Not running a holiday camp. I know the BBC is generally gormless and that most metro twits think that food comes from Pret a Manger or whatever it’s called, but it doesn’t, and they need to grow up and accept that the massive population they want, due to their utterly facile green policies requires a lot of food, a lot of energy and an awful lot of material goods.

        This truly fanatical idea that everyone will live in a thatched commune in the open with no heat, light, fuel or food is the stuff of Left wing fantasy. The real world must intrude on these cretins at some point.

        In fact, let’s have guardian and BBC readers and commenters go first. Once they’ve had a winter in Somerset they can realise that we have improved on our lot and their forcing us backward is something they should live with alone.

    4. Farming is a way of life, not a job. Farmers are the custodians of this country’s environment and countryside. I don’t buy NZ lamb – a) because it’s all halal, and b) it’s nothing like as good as British lamb. Why do they want to encourage all these food miles, when we can support local producers?

      1. Spot on. I frequently criticise farmers and aspects of farming. However, I do support them. I think that not only should the British people support them but the UK government should too. We should preserve farmland “for all time coming” as we say in Scotland. No “ifs or buts” or bribes to planners.
        We need to look at ways of ensuring that farmers can stay in business despite the relentless pressure towards reducing prices. We need to be prepared more, directly on the shelves of shops and also indirectly via carefully consider subsidies.

        (I have a clip somewhere of a farmer talking about how he became a millionaire through grain subsidies. That and other anomalies should not happen.)

        1. Another reason to support British farmers is the higher animal welfare standards that apply in this country.

          2. The petition is not well written, but I have signed it. Factory farms are awful.

          3. Sorry, the moment that I saw that she is a vegan activist, I left the site. I will not support these self effacing activists, who come across as ‘holier than thou.’ Silly woman just identified herself as one who is easily fooled.

      2. If no one in the country is farming meat it will be easier to turn us all vegetarians.

        1. There shouldn’t be any exemptions here, either.
          I last bought a piece of NZ lamb a few years ago, in Waittrose, because there wasn’t a great deal to choose from – not nearly as good as British.

    5. It is reported that one William Gates is now the largest Farm Land owner in the US – I wonder why?

    6. If too expensive, what’s the alternative? Forced disposession – a la Joe Stalin?

    8. This is a one-way street. Once the expertise is lost (never mind the productive ground and the livestock and plant varieties that have been adapted to British climate conditions), you never get it back. Ever.
      Just look at nuclear power – the UK once led the world, now cannot even lift a spanner in nuclear.

    9. Why has the poster the EU political organisation flag on his twitter?

      Does he not know that before we couldn’t make such deals with New Zealand and Australia?

    10. Cease meat and dairy production to fit in with the green vegan paramour’s desires and at the same time meet the globalists’ equally stupid demands. Meal worms and ground locust/grasshopper protein are on the menu. The former has been cleared for human consumption by the EU and rumours abound that Gates has some control over the latter. Got to save the planet.
      Johnson has to be ditched and soon.

    11. Cease meat and dairy production to fit in with the green vegan paramour’s desires and at the same time meet the globalists’ equally stupid demands. Meal worms and ground locust/grasshopper protein are on the menu. The former has been cleared for human consumption by the EU and rumours abound that Gates has some control over the latter. Got to save the planet.
      Johnson has to be ditched and soon.

    12. The BBC Radio 4 Farming Programme this morning reported that consideration was being given to paying older farmers to give up farming to allow in young people who want to farm with new ideas. £50,000 for farmers and £100,000 for farmers with more land. What an insult to elderly farmers.
      I doubt Australians have our animal welfare standards as they used to ship live sheep in overcrowded vessels and the many deaths were tipped overboard. They may still be doing that for all I know.
      Our deluded PM was asked at PMQs today about the trade deal with Australia and was adamant that the Scottish crofters and Welsh sheep farmers would have opportunities to sell their produce all over the world. We shall see.

  37. Hi All. I’ve just been taking a brief detour from the topics being discussed in here, courtesy of Nigel Farage. I’m not sure how well he is perceived in here, but I think he talks sense and always has done.

    One of the things that his associates at Fortune and Freedom (an investment business) drew attention to today is the revelation that there are almost twice as many EU citizens in the UK who have applied for permanent residence than were believed to be here before the Brexit vote. Apparently more than five million additional adult residents have descended on the UK and now seek to live here permanently. If anyone thinks that isn’t going to put a strain on our infrastructure they are insane.

    Then following my viewing of one of Nigel Farage’s videos on You Tube, the channel automatically played the next in a sequence – it was a scathing attack on Biden from a commentator on Sky News Australia. The clips of Biden are hilarious! You can watch it here:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fd9zQjYaUs

    Then there was another…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqYK_g23z6I

    I don’t think the Aussies like Biden! And I wonder if average Americans can quite believe what they have let themselves in for?

    1. I think its great that Joe is the President.
      It will accelerate their demise which can only be a good thing.

      1. …and then you get the black female – is that a good thing.

        The whole US political system is totally pushed to the lefty side and they are too thick to see that they are predicating their own demise at the hands of outside sources.

        God help America!

        1. You seem to be under the impression that i want the US to survive and prosper…i don’t

      1. Clearly Nige you are now more than slightly out of touch with reality.
        At least who ever they are, they wont be calling for beheadings and stoning’s for those who don’t follow their agenda.

      2. OK, Nigel, please answer this question, “when a war breaks out whom do you want in our country’s uniform, in the front line, with bayonets fixed, those tough guys with tattoos whom you despise, or limp-wristed political clerks?”

        1. 332938+ up ticks,
          Afternoon HP,
          If he is in the trenches with me and other ex real UKIP members just make sure he is positioned somewhere in front.

      3. I think the ridiculous title of the video indicates how his words are regularly misrepresented by people who, for reasons I don’t know, simply don’t like him and go out of their way to ridicule him. Because they don’t like him they never listen to what he actually says, only to what he is reported as having said (by people with this kind of obvious bias).

        1. 332938+ up ticks,
          TCS,
          ” how his words are regularly misrepresented by people who, for reasons I don’t know,”
          Precisely, then read up on his pedigree since wanting to get his life back, to achieve such he knifed 30000 members that had worked in his favour creating for him a platform to operate, plus….

          A self confessed treachery merchant is leggit nige.

    4. I read something last week about the massive US election fraud and the discoveries of thousands of votes from people in other states and those who never existed.

      1. I have read quite a bit about it, and heard even more, but I haven’t seen one bit of hard evidence. I am disappointed by that. If the evidence exists it should be put into the public domain, where it cannot be conveniently lost in a warehouse fire while awaiting a formal hearing.

        1. One problem the complainants have is that the cases have pretty much all been thrown out by the courts at the local levels, let alone State or SCOTUS, and if the details of the cases were published they might well then become inadmissible at a hearing.
          If the Supreme Court intervened it would be regarded as interference in the political process and almost certainly result in legislation by the Democrats to allow them to pack the SCOTUS.
          It’s extremely difficult for the courts.
          I would have liked to have seen the ballot machines tested independently but that was never going to happen.

          1. I think the court of public opinion would be better than the US Supreme Court, so I would like to see all the dirty laundry displayed for all to see. The covering-up of important information that we all deserve to know, in the name of national security or some other similar excuse, is one of the worst aspects of modern “democracy”. US citizens certainly deserve to know the truth.

          2. I think the court of public opinion would be better than the US Supreme Court, so I would like to see all the dirty laundry displayed for all to see. The covering-up of important information that we all deserve to know, in the name of national security or some other similar excuse, is one of the worst aspects of modern “democracy”. US citizens certainly deserve to know the truth.

    5. Strange how so much of the British media are so much in love with President Biden. I wonder why?

  39. 332938+ up ticks,
    breitbart,

    CHANCES OF LOCKDOWN ‘FREEDOM DAY’ GOING AHEAD IN JUNE ‘CLOSE TO NIL’: REPORT

    Line in the sand,

    All that needs showing now is who has actual / rhetorical
    bollocks in defiance of these overseers & minions.

    1. The ever creeping expansion of the state machine. It will never, ever end.

    2. We ALL, must totally ignore any further government utterances, on this load of (further) bolloxs.

    1. What happens when someone pulls into the gap you have left between your vehicle and the one in front? Will you get a ticket because you are suddenly too close to the car which has just invaded the space you deliberately reserved?

      1. No, because all roads, local and motorway are to be given an additional carriageway in each direction.

        1. and what happens at

          Traffic lights,
          Halt signs,
          Give way signs,
          People joining motorways.
          Parking on the road
          on roads through Urban areas

          Are these cameras calbrated in ‘imperial’ or metric units,

          I there a minimum speed that this ‘Two Seconds’ refers to

          88 ft/sec is 60 mph
          ergo
          44 ft/sec is 30 mph

          How often will the camers have NAMAS calibration check
          Will logs of authorised maintainers be maintained and what for, when and where cameras disturbed

          Will the ability to guage distances at various speeds be included in the Driving Test
          How will this be enforced on foreign drivers
          How about an Army Convoy
          When Boros moves around the country by car, will his ‘escorting’ vehicles have to comply
          Should be fun at Oulton Park or Brands Hatch

          I can see Bill’s Mates making loadsa money out of this Law

          The above is list of questions, that I would ask management, if I carried out an ISO9001:2000 audit on them

          1. These are very good questions. Of much higher quality than my intended little joke.

          2. No probs HP

            Your comment was the last one, I just tagged along on it.

            UK Law used to be geared to:

            Do as you want, unless specifically Prohibited

            Most other places were

            You cannot do anything unless specifically authorised

            The more legislation you bring in, the more laws you need to support every thing to do to ensure compliance

            Things fail, just look at all the Post Office managers who were jailed/given criminal records for fraud, when in fact the sysytem was at fault

            Postmaster wrongly jailed for nine months and widow whose husband
            died before clearing his name are among tearful victims celebrating
            after 39 convictions are quashed in Post Office’s Horizon IT scandal

            I can see a very large hole in road over the 2 second rule

          3. Post Office Head Honcho being called to account in the (white-washing) inquiry.

          4. No probs HP

            Your comment was the last one, I just tagged along on it.

            UK Law used to be geared to:

            Do as you want, unless specifically Prohibited

            Most other places were

            You cannot do anything unless specifically authorised

            The more legislation you bring in, the more laws you need to support every thing to do to ensure compliance

            Things fail, just look at all the Post Office managers who were jailed/given criminal records for fraud, when in fact the sysytem was at fault

            Postmaster wrongly jailed for nine months and widow whose husband
            died before clearing his name are among tearful victims celebrating
            after 39 convictions are quashed in Post Office’s Horizon IT scandal

            I can see a very large hole in road over the 2 second rule

        2. Yeah, right, Horace – see that happening on our single-track roads – all three of ’em!

      2. Yes as happened to me on the A1M south Monday.
        Dash cams will become more popular.
        Checking traffic from the RH side I approached and drove onto a medium sized Roundabout when a large van entered from the left and tried to over take me on the near side, i was turning right he almost clipped my car (gave him a blast) and followed where i was going. But at least he didn’t tail gate me on the 30 mph section of the road ahead. I seriously think the government should make every person with a foreign licence take the complete driving test in the UK.

        1. I forget which road it was, but was joining a dual carriageway t’other weekend and as I came off the slip road at about 55-60ish was checking the distance to car in front whilst also checking the lane to my right was clear before pulling out to overtake him.
          As I began to move across into the other lane, I realised that the car that had followed me down the slip road was adjacent to me and rapidly accelerating past me!

          1. Some time when you watch tv programmes filmed in parts of asia you can see the terrible driving where there seems to be no standard practice. My main worry is it seems to be happening in the UK.
            Carpenters Nursery where we had a coffee is till packing people in, every time I drive past the car park is rammed.
            My neighbour told me his father got his car (ran aground) stuck turning tight left left off the exit ramp the other day they had to get a forklift and a pallet the lift his car off the verge. But that cross over is council property. !!

    2. Such law won’t stop people from doing it though. Most people driving simply don’t care.

      1. We have a a mini roundabout at a Tee junction in our village, it’s at the bottom of a hill the road signs are completely worn away and drivers on the approach completely ignore the rules to give way to the right. I have written to the parish council to no avail not even an acknowledgement, i suggested they will be forced actually do something when there has ben a serious crash there.

        1. Mini roundabout eh? Is it more like a blob of paint? We have a lot of them and they are universally ignored!

          1. It use to to work Sue. There are bollards just passed it and they have been demolished by the useless idiots recently.

        2. Actually, it’s a matter for Highways and the police, rather than the Parish Council.

          1. My way of reckoning is to start local and then they, the parish council should get under the skin on the County council to get these problems repaired.

          2. As one who has been instrumental in trying to get under the skin of the County council to get problems sorted, I can assure you, it isn’t as easy as that! Our clerk is forever on to Highways to get problems sorted. She even sent a FOI request to Planning and it was ignored. We are still chasing up a VAS (Vehicle Activated Sign) that we paid for three years ago and which hasn’t yet been installed, although they have finally agreed where it will go when they get around to it!

      2. Agreed, Wikbbles, the nonsense law about middle-lane driving is totally unenforceable and prevents nothing. Same with using a phone while driving – unenforceable, as very few plod on the roads.

        All back at base, checking us, and those of our ilk, for ‘hate’ crimes.

    3. The problem is that a camera detecting vehicles that are too close to each other cannot tell (as in the photo in the article) whether the “tailgating” driver is actually tailgating or has been pulled-out on by another driver making an unsafe last-second overtaking manoeuvre. It would need video technology with sufficient time in the frame to determine which it is before anyone should be fined, otherwise there will be as many appeals as there are tickets issued.

      1. But of course if you had a dash cam it would show the driver you are supposed to be tailgating, pull directly in front of you.
        I’m quite sure this has happened to most people on the roads.

        1. Yes, but you should not have to install your own technology to prevent yourself from being falsely accused by other technology! I don’t have a dash cam.

          1. Hmm, because of this idiocy, and living in a rural area where the only roads out are single lane with (self-made) passing places. We have considered it de rigeur to have both front and rear mounted dash cams.

    4. My comment on that site is as follows:

      Has it occurred to anyone who takes part in these surveys, that there is just not enough room on our roads to prevent traffic bunching to such an extent that ‘tail-gating’ occurs in many, many areas and the Highways Agency’s answer is ‘Smart’ motorways. Guaranteed to kill and remove a few more from our overcrowded roads.

  41. Good Morning & Happy Wodensday all Nottlers, it was a quiet night in Tel Aviv but not so for our communities around the Gaza Strip where Ham-Arse rockets are continuing to rain down on them! Now for your daily dose of good music: Agua De Beber – Drinking Water by Antonio Carlos Jobim – Stringspace – Jazz Band https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCpQlmbWso

    1. “Et erit in die illa quaeram conterere omnes gentes quae veniunt contra Hierusalem”
      — Zac. 12:9

      1. “It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”

        William Blake suggested the building of a new Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land but the people who are trying to build their new Jerusalems in England are Muslims rather than Christians or Jews.

          1. See my earlier response to Lorraine from the USA, on that subject, Hat. There are many on here of a like mind.

          2. Happy Wednesday NTN us lesser mortals & serfs ( ie law abiding taxpaying suckers ) all agree on the danger of Islamic expansion in the West, but the corrupt politicians of the West simply see them as the folks who are going to vote for them in perpetuity if they bribe them with undeserved citizenship & unlimited welfare benefits paid for by us lesser mortals who do not live in giant villas with armed guards, private jets & kickbacks from business people !

        1. There’s’ a lot more than that one song behind that, it’s a whole Jobim album.

  42. Dr Zubaida Haque, a founding member of the group who berated the Government on Tuesday for not delaying the easing of
    Covid-19 restrictions in Britain is a social scientist turned race adviser who has no medical qualifications.

    However, she has no medical, clinical, virological or epidemiological qualifications.
    Her PhD [Doctor] thesis was titled: –
    “Exploring the validity and possible causes of the poor performances of Bangladeshi students in British schools”

    She now works for the Hamilton Commission, an organisation set up by Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton to improve the representation of Black People in UK

    1. She should haque herself back to Bangladesh then, and let the rest of us get on with whatever life we have left.

  43. Busy here this morning …..Nobody rushing off to Portugal?

    ://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1726509c626b820d8eea384375a86cada54793b4702124b633b5190f26d071f8.jpg

    2. This woman won’t suffer the aging effects of UV rays on her face will she.
      Maybe it will become a vanity thing. Except if no one can see your face, who cares?
      Must be killing the cosmetics industry.

    1. I wonder who might make that decision, does it have to be the whole Cabinet or could it merely be Priti Patel.

      1. Rules about tests and PCRs and quarantine do not apply to anyone from the Indian sub-continent. They are free to come and go as they please.

        Rather like slammers in another context.

        1. I was amused by a series of %ages of cases vs Indian variant cases
          Shock, horror, terror.
          75% of cases here,
          50% there
          60 % somewhere else
          Lock down immediately to save the NHS.

          When one actually looks at the numbers rather than the percentages it’s 3 of 4, 2 of 4, 3 of 5. 26 of 40, 60 of 100; and similar can be seen wherever it’s being reported although some cases can get into double figures, very, few go over the hundred mark. Even the worst case, Bolton, is under 520 cases and 80%.
          When one considers how few are dying now, the scaremongering is shameless.

        2. I thought it was only the Irish who were afforded any say in the Government of the United Kingdom. Both that and the Indian Summer must be halted forthwith.

    3. Its long past time since the government told and explained to the public exactly what this is all about.
      One of the few reasons I voted for the Tories at the last election was because they implicit and told the electorate they were going to stop all this illegal immigration. These illegal migrants are an absolute waste of space time and money. Why and for what legitimate reason are they here ?

      1. Good Morning from America. [Could it be] illegal immigration has as its main purpose, dilution of culture and traditional mores, which are the bedrock of a [cohesive] society, and [ultimately] the elimination of sovereignty?
        The result will be the diminution of civilization to its lowest common denominator.

        1. Thank you, Lorraine, though I think many on here have seen it as having an even more sinister objective.

          Breed little slammers from each of your 4 wives and eventually, there will be enough Muslim voters to overthrow democracy and institute the Great British Caliphate.

          Probably about the same time is the current ludicrous Government fails to reach its ‘Green’ target.

          Unfortunately at 77 next week, I’m too old and decrepit to to do anything militant about it. I wish the British Sheeple would rise up against it.

          1. Wisdom comes with age. You are quite correct about the attempted takeover of the western [world] by Islamization.
            Those who are still Christian know this is a battle till the end of the world at which time God will prevail over this evil.
            It’s all interwoven. The decline of Western civilization and the rise of all that is antithetical to goodness and freedom of mind and body. The soul, on the other hand, can never be captive without consent.

          2. Wisdom comes with age. You are quite correct about the attempted takeover of the western [world] by Islamization.
            Those who are still Christian know this is a battle till the end of the world at which time God will prevail over this evil.
            It’s all interwoven. The decline of Western civilization and the rise of all that is antithetical to goodness and freedom of mind and body. The soul, on the other hand, can never be captive without consent.

        2. My thoughts exactly Lorraine and as much as I try to tell my three adult sons this, they think i’m completely barmy.
          Thankyou.

          1. I am curious what they think is the effect of facilitating mass migration from places with no compatible culture, education, religion, or goals and values, and no desire to adopt them through assimilation?

          2. A Lot of Brits believe it is a disguised form of invasion, we have many political figures who are fawning and somewhat dribbling over the medieval qualities of islamic culture and IMHO I believe our country is being sold down the river. Our Political classes can not be trusted with anything.
            These illegal immigrants live solely off the proceeds of the British tax payers. Before the last general election we were promised this daily onslaught would stop.

          3. There was indeed a golden age of Islam that produced magnificent art, monumental architecture, timeless literature and made outstanding contributions to mathematics, science and astronomy. That culture is no more.
            This is not religion we are talking about, but a brutal soulless ideology bent on destruction of anything that does not conform to its standards. It seeks to control by enforcement of the most brutal and uncivilized kind.
            I wish people would awaken to what is happening to their heritage and cultural legacy here and around the world before it’s too late.
            As I see it, the violence of the present Muslim ideation is being taken advantage of by globalists as mercenary foot soldiers for the destruction of civilization, the degradation and elimination of humanity, to achieve manageable numbers for the arch criminals who intend to rule the world.

    4. Why are not the politicians and the PTB subjected to to penetrating questions by the MSM about this scandalous misappropriation of tax payers’ money?

      Has anybody, for example, seen Priti Patel put under an intensive spotlight of difficult questions by somebody like Andrew Neil?

      But our cowardly politicians wriggle away from such a thing. Indeed, Boris Johnson managed to avoid an in-depth interview with Andrew Neil before the general election as he knew that the sheer rottenness of his Withdrawal Agreement would be ruthlessly exposed. And where were a well-briefed MSM – and where were Johnson and Gove – when the shabby “deal” was struck? Every day more details of the full horror of this capitulating deal are coming to light. Even Farage – who now calls himself a journalist – let us down by running away from giving the “deal” the proper examination and scrutiny that was required.

    6. Mad? Oh, I do so agree, Rik, and it’s wasting OUR money. Put ’em on a Hebridean island and make it as much like their homeland, so that they’re happy. Gruinard springs to mind but the problem there is that it’s now anthrax free.

      1. By the way, who is the Judge? I’m sure they’ll have room for a dozen or so.

    1. Dan Hodges is Glenda Jacksons little boy.Whacko Jacko was a labour mp.maybe she still is.

  49. The Conservative Party used to be the party which supported individual responsibility and private enterprise.

    There is no better example of independent initiative, enterprise and taking personal responsibility than in private education. The people who have not used their entitlement to the state education system have taken responsibility and sent their children to independent schools paying for it out of their taxed income. By so doing they have saved the state the cost of educating their own children helping those with less means as more money per capita can be spent on state education. So you could argue that using private education was a morally virtuous thing to do so why has this admirable Conservative philosophy been replaced by a policy based on envy and spite?

    Indeed, in the 1960’s most Labour politicians sent their children to independent schools and in the 1990’s even the left leaning Major sent his son to a public school. But the public-school educated Blair, eager to prove his phony ‘socialist credentials’ eschewed private education. (But topped up his children’s education with private tutors from Westminster School when he hoped nobody was looking!)

    So what was the repulsively hypocritical Old Etonian, David Cameron, doing in using state education for his children rather than paying for it himself as he could easily have afforded? He was meant to be a Conservative with Conservative principles. In fact he was using his own children’s education for his own political propaganda. What a very nasty man he is.

    And how will his disgusting parents exploit Wilfred Symonds-Johnson?

    2. I think Cameron’s kiddiwinks were moved to a private school when he flounced off. No longer had to pretend to be profiler than thou.

      1. Indeed he did – he needed to confirm his total and blatant hypocrisy.

        Of course the fact that Conservative politicians are embarrassed about using private education shows just how far to the left the Conservative Party has gone.

        Margaret Thatcher’s children, Mark and Carol, went respectively to Harrow and St Paul’s Girls’ School but I wonder where Mrs May would have sent her children had she had any?

        1. I don’t believe that doing the best for your children should be something to be ashamed of.

          That Cameron was such a weathervane implies a huge lack of integrity.

          1. The sad part about it is that state education has been so badly damaged (Blair, of course, but others before him) that almost the only way to get a decent education for your children is to have them privately educated.

  50. Thunder and hailstorm now – just when I have to get ready to go out for lunch………

      1. It’s been fine & sunny all morning till a few minutes ago……… then Lily came in – and now she’s retreated behind the woodburner – she doesn’t like noisy weather.

        Just meeting a couple of friends at the local garden centre – haven’t seen them since sometime last year, apart from on Zoom. Lunch will probably just be a bowl of soup.

  51. Ahahaha! Fatty Blackford trying to tell PMQ’s that he’s a member of the “crofting community”! Comedy gold! Boris was brill and wished he could see the size of his “humble croft”!

      1. Hmm, Horace, I know that he is the leader of the Self Nurturing Porcines in the Commons and, as such, I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him through a plate-glass window.

        1. No, trusting any politician is never a good idea. The Scottish Courts have confirmed that it is permissible for politicians to lie, when wearing their politician hat.

          7. I had an Irish Shepherd (GSD x Irish Wolfhound). Brilliant dog. He even featured in Country Life.

          10. Quite. It is the stupid combined names suggesting that crosses such as a Labdoodle (or any of the others) IS SOMEHOW not A MONGREL.

          11. Pickles, a mongrel adopted by my parents when I was a child was
            incredibly quick to learn the house rules. My brother and I would hide all his toys, treats etc…..he never failed to find them!

          12. My Pickles – who is a mongrel – has his own cardboard box where he stashes his fave things. It is quite a zone of discovery.!

    2. NHS for pets? No, I’d much rather pay for the treatment on the spot than wait a long time for an appointment.

    3. If they set up an NHS for pets then you can expect to see Muslim & African invaders bringing in more camel trains, donkeys, Arabian stallions, flocks of sheep & goat herds for free treatment

          1. They will find the dosh. An Arabian stallion in the hands of a “poor” illegal should make any vet suspicious.

    6. Definitely not! The NHS service is crap compared with what I got from the vets!

  53. “This government is going to”
    “This government will”
    Why is it always future tense?

    2. Because they don’t want us thinking about anything they’ve done so far.

  54. A pro-Palestine protestor was struck by a hit-and-run driver and carried along on the bonnet before a mass of fellow demonstrators surrounded the victim. Faith Ridler Daily Fail

    Footage from Kensington, west London, captures the rally as it marches down the high street, with demonstrators clutching Palestinian flags over their shoulders.

    But the peaceful protest is suddenly interrupted by a motorist who crashes into one of the group, carrying them up the road on their car bonnet as they attempt to flee.

    Faith Ridler. User ratings: Not enough ratings. Location: Unknown. Publishers: Daily Mail . No social profiles known. Bio: No bio for this author yet. AllSides Media Bias Rating: Not Rated. Profile Owner: Unclaimed.

    Peaceful protest by Palestinian demonstrators – Porcine aviators seen following the procession.

  55. 332938+ up ticks,
    Is danse macabre one of his ?

    ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: ‘SELFISH’ PEOPLE WHO DECLINE VACCINES ARE LIKE DEADLY DRUNK DRIVERS

    2. In that case, our Yellow Fever vaccinations before we visited the Gambia were a waste of time as I doubt many any Gambians had been jabbed.

    4. I had a dental appointment at 11 this morning. Quite lucky really as my temporary crown came out while i was interdentalling.

  57. Independent Sage expert who warned against reopening is race adviser with no medical qualification

    Dr Zubaida Haque also criticised Matt Hancock for his comments on vaccine hesitancy

    She now works for the Hamilton Commission, an organisation

    set up by Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton to improve the representation of

    Black people in UK motorsport.

    Dr Haque was not the only member of the historically overly cautious

    Independent SAGE group to take to the airwaves criticising the latest

    step towards freedom.

    Dr Kit Yates and Prof Gabriel Scally both appeared on Sky

    News, on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, talking about the new

    variant.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/18/expert-warned-reopening-should-halted-race-adviser-no-medical/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  58. Had cramp this morning – about 1.30 local time – went for a walk in the garden and saw a strange string of sparkling lights slowly descending from the zenith and disappearing in the east. Watched it for a while then went back in for my camera but they had gone when I got back. Turns out it is a series of 60 satellites called Starlink Project, a high speed internet communication system. A spectacular and intriguing sight.

    https://dominicantoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/RD-2-1024×550.jpg

  59. Talking of cramp – anyone got any tips to deal with it? I get it several times every night – painful, uncomfortable and, seemingly, impossible to avoid.

    1. If you have a cramp, these actions may provide relief:
      Stretch and massage. Stretch the cramped muscle and gently rub it to help it relax. For a calf cramp, put your weight on your cramped leg and bend your knee slightly. …
      Apply heat or cold. Use a warm towel or heating pad on tense or tight muscles.
      3 Mar 2021

      Muscle cramp – Diagnosis and treatment – Mayo Clinic

    2. Try drinking a tin of tonic water daily, apparently quinine helps. We split a tin between us before supper and cramps have reduced since we started doing so.

      An old wives’ tale, but try putting a cork or two under the lower bed sheet, not where you will nudge it with your toes.

      You could consider using a blanket raiser at the foot of the bed so that there is let weight on your legs, which can also help as long as cold feet don’t then keep you awake.

    3. Massage/stroke affected part towards the heart. Stand barefoot on cold surface for calf cramp. Drink anything alcoholic in vast quantities until you don’t care any more.

    4. I suffer with this, Bill, especially after playing bowls.
      Stand an arms length away from a wall or windowsill and then move one foot as far as you can behind you then stretch it straight. It will stretch your calf muscles mainly but it cured my night thigh cramps.
      Also, lay on the bed or floor keep one leg straight and bend and pull the other one to your chest and hold for 10 seconds.

      Do each of these exercises 3 times x twice daily.

      Hope that helps.

          2. Let “wibbling two” know how you get on when you’re 80, arthritic, and asking Nottlers for advice on how to get up from the floor without putting your shoulders out of joint.

            };-O

          3. Only trying to help folks. As with everything adapt to what suits you at your level.

          4. Indeed.
            I was being a bit facetious.

            Carefully chosen, age, fitness, suppleness and strength related exercises and stretching can be extremely good for people.

            My wife who is a physio prescribed exercise regimes for her mother, who is now in her mid nineties. She does them religiously and is much fitter than most of her friends in their early 80’s and she puts most of that down to her exercises and stretches.

          5. “Bill is 80 years old ” Although that is perfectly true – it is really odd to see it in writing..!

        5. I have done many of those over the years and I was fine with most of them but now if I get on the floor it’s very difficult to get up. The ones I can cope with I’ve been doing following a knee operation last year and do not involve laying on the floor.

        1. Possibly add more to your food? Salt has become such bogeyman that many people go too far the other way.
          You are perfectly capable of judging for yourself.

          2. “salt has become such a bogeyman”…. and you the Salt of the Earth….

        2. I remember many years ago when cutting down on salt was all the rage, it must have been twenty-five years or so ago. I don’t have a lot of salt anyway, it’s not a taste I have ever really acquired. My nightly cramps-in-the-toes got worse, over time, and became excruciating. And then I realised…. we really do need salt in our diet. So I went back to putting a scant teaspoon of salt in the veg water, and that was all it took. I also take Fruitflow for circulation https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-ultra-fruitflow-circulatory-health-formula-1000-mg-90-liq-vegcap also at https://www.fruitflowplus.com/product/fruitflow-omega-3-30-capsules/

          1. I agree. I’m not a great salt eater, but I have learnt that some is needed.

      1. Be warned – anyone on blood thinners should not be taking magnesium tablets without medical supervision. We looked into this for Rastus and the GP said that while magnesium was very effective for avoiding cramp, it puts pressure on the kidneys. Blood thinners also put pressure on the kidneys and so, if you’re not careful, before you know it you’ve not got cramp anymore but you’ve given yourself a serious kidney condition.

    7. Go see your doc he can give you a test for gout and other things as well. He should give you a full blood test to findout..

      1. “Go and see your doc…”? Come on, JN – we don’t have doctors any more…!

        2. Mine is due to ring me up tomorrow morning sometime after 08.30. What the purpose will be I have no idea; I need my hip X-rayed.

          1. You are extremely fortunate. The GPs here decline all face to face appointments.

          2. You are extremely fortunate. The GPs here decline all face to face appointments.

      1. I find I have to get up and walk around when I get cramp. I usually wear bedsocks anyway; my circulation gets to my knees and turns back 🙁

    9. If the cramp is in your toes, feet, I find bedsocks work for me. They have to be fairly close fitting. As soon as my feet make contact with cooler parts of the bed, the foot muscles (and sometimes leg muscles) go into spasm. Warmth is the answer.

    10. Increase your salt intake. Yes, I know. But the cramp will go away immediately.

    1. Met two friends today – only one of us had to fill in the slip and it wasn’t me!

    2. I gave a former number when I went to the hairdressers’ a couple of weeks ago….. I suspect that is from where the nhs got my mobile number to harasss me with calls, I think all the filled in sheets have to be sent off to track and trace within a given period. My little effort towards civil disobedience. I certainly don’t have track and trace on my phone.

  61. Scoop: Biden to waive sanctions on company in charge of Nord Stream 2. 19 May 2021.

    The Biden administration will waive sanctions on the corporate entity and CEO overseeing the construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline into Germany, according to two sources briefed on the decision.

    The big picture: As Axios has previously reported, the completion of Nord Stream 2 would be a huge geopolitical win for Putin and give him substantial new leverage in Europe.

    I would give up Christmas to know what Vlad said to Biden a fortnight ago. Since the Crisis the Americans have thrown Navalny and Ukraine under the bus. The Belarus coup has been swept under the carpet and the Black Sea has become a Russian Lake! Now it’s full speed ahead with Nord Stream 2 an American Bête Noir that they’ve been trying to kill off for five years and makes them froth at the mouth when they think about it!

    Did Vlad make him an offer he couldn’t refuse? Did he say; “Joe, we have incriminating pictures of Hunter doing unspeakable things in a Moscow Hotel!” or even perhaps, “We have pictures of you doing unspeakable things in a Moscow Hotel!”

    https://www.axios.com/nord-stream-sanction-biden-russia-f6db2ae3-2c89-4343-b326-9f399d674077.html

    1. There is a big enough market in China and Asia to take all the gas that Russia can produce.
      Putin ,i believe,will review the European deal when it comes up for renewal and the price will increase.
      He wouldn’t worry about losing their custom because it would also deprive Ukraine of $9 Billions annually in transit fees.

        1. Err, my post was a joke.
          What has your comment got to do with UFOs?
          Or are you saying they’re powered by that crude oil?

      2. Afternoon Sos. Well I haven’t discounted this, or something close to it, as a possibility! A month ago the Americans, with some UK help, had a plan to regain the Donbass and thus make it politically possible for Ukraine to join NATO. Running concurrently they planned to assassinate Lukashenko the President of Belarus and eventually achieve the same. This would of course have destabilised Putin’s position inside Russia and maybe brought him down with the assistance of Navalny and his supporters! Now Vlad,as I wrote above, is riding high and there are signs that he might annex Belarus. These are massive geopolitical moves. Someone somewhere is wielding a big stick and it’s not the Americans!

        1. Biden’s crew might yet set off as bad a global mess as Blair and Bush did in the ME.

      1. Apart from him the US might also want to worry about the amount of farmland under foreign ownership.

        1. Indeed, but not as bad as ownership of Industry and Services, which can be exported, difficult to remove land although one can certainly degrade it.

  63. Dumping dollars: Russia ditches over a billion bucks of US government bonds as Moscow continues policy of diversifying investments

    Russia’s policy of de-dollarization is showing no signs of slowing down, with new figures from the US Treasury revealing that Moscow dropped its holding of US government securities by over a billion dollars from February to March.
    In February last year, the Bank of Russia held $5.756 billion, which dropped to just $3.976 billion a month later. Yet only a decade ago, the amount of US government bonds on Moscow’s balance sheet exceeded $170 billion.

    The sell-off began in 2014, following the imposition of harsh anti-Russian sanctions by Washington, but Moscow started to become really serious about de-dollarization in 2018, when it more than halved its US government bonds portfolio and used the money to buy gold, as well as euros and yuan.

    Since that time, Russia has continued to focus on relying less on the world’s most popular reserve currency. Last year, it was revealed that the first quarter of 2020 saw the share of the dollar in trade between Beijing and Moscow fall below 50% for the first time. Just four years prior, this figure accounted for over 90% of their bilateral currency settlements.

    1. Good job he’s retired and doesn’t need to work……… but I have to say I agree with most of what he says.

  66. 3329388+ up ticks,
    Seeing as we are as a nation in a daily odious state due to the governance parties and their supporting minions,
    special dispensations must be made such as, on reaching pensionable age
    a case of pepper spray / mace is issued.

    A real enemy can also have honour these in this issue are trash.

    https://twitter.com/NKrankie/status/1394989546014707713

  67. That’s me for the day, chaps. I’d forgotten that there is another lecture on Rome due to start at 5 pm. “The Catacombs”… Gus and Pickles are delighted at something with “Cat” in it…

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. One watches and hopes, forlornly, that the watermelon scene in Day of the Jackal might be enacted on this bastard’s head.

      1. 332938+ up ticks,
        S,
        In many ways hope is fickle, common sense in the polling booth would be a more beneficial certainty.

    2. 332938+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      This has been building for years via the polling booth, the very sad thing is those that tried to warn through book & rhetoric were not heeded but ridiculed, time & again.

    3. If I knew where, my lovely, I’d give you the biggest hug you’ve ever had. KBO, m’dear.

    1. just got back from there

      The A52 aka Roman Bank, which is the main road into Skeg, has been closed for months, for road works

      The fun wil just get bettererester

    7. “Why does it have three arms?”
      To show how well the lefties are doing, or is it a transplant from the Isle of Transman?

    9. Hmm, not only three arms but a willy as well – or is that just me being ‘non-binary’?

  79. British media report this week that the Royal Navy has sent a “warship” to the Black Sea in support of Ukraine against alleged Russian aggression.

    To describe HMS Trent as a “warship” is a bit of a stretch. It is actually an offshore patrol boat that is more commonly used for intercepting contraband and illegal fishing vessels. It is only armed with machine guns and has no missiles. It’s as harmless as a rowing boat armed with a catapult, as one wag put it.

    Russian naval defenses have been tracking the British boat since it entered the Black Sea on Sunday through the Bosphorus Strait. But the Russians say it poses “no serious threat”.

    Indeed, former Black Sea Fleet commander Admiral Vladimir Komoyedov is quoted as joking: “I would not even say that the British would be able to tickle our nerves. Maybe, only the heel, a little.”

    To fully appreciate the joke, we should recall that last month British media reported that the Royal Navy was planning to send two heavy warships to the Black Sea. Those vessels were a Type-45 guided-missile destroyer and an anti-submarine frigate.

    In other words, a patrol boat appearing in the Black Sea marks a serious climb down by the Brits. It looks like the wannabe Lord Nelsons at the British Ministry of Defense have come to their senses and realized that the previously reported plan was a reckless escalation with Russia.

    1. “Captain,

      We have boarded your row-boat because we consider it is a danger to our environment, what with you pumping your bilges which are filled with British Covid-shit. Please be advised that your vessel has been confiscated.”

      “But Ivan, we’re here to show strength and solidarity with Ukraine”

      “Take a close look at where the Ukrainian Navy is based and its strength, then come back to me”

      “OK what’s the heading for your home port?”

  80. Slightly off topic.

    If Labour lose Batley and Spen, the Abbottagottalottabottomarse suggests that Andy Burnbum could be leader.
    To do that, presumably a Labour MP has to be offered a place in the House of Lards and give up their seat.
    Wouldn’t it be a joy if the one sacrificed was rewarded with a Tory victory?
    And Burham’s bum really was burnt.

    1. Yo sos

      House of Lards, dissgustin. warra boot all the Bints, who got in there by lying on their back(s) and taking notes

      Should be the house of synchofants

    2. Yo sos

      House of Lards, dissgustin. warra boot all the Bints, who got in there by lying on their back(s) and taking notes

      Should be the house of synchofants

    1. Don’t tell me they’ve discovered a hospital where the nurses are so good they can make the patients without disturbing the beds?

    1. In answer to the question posed, Is the small bird (top middle) a Shit Shoveler?

    2. In answer to the question posed, Is the small bird (top middle) a Shit Shoveler?

    3. It’s unusual to find females larger than males. So, the poster is OK.

      1. Ms Abbottopotamus is bigger than most males 9and ladeze who says that they is men)

    4. Looks like they’re playing ducks and drakes with charity cash, as usual.

    5. The female birds ARE smaller and their plumage is usually more drab.
      That poster isn’t “sexist” (towards birds FFS!) it is realistic.

      2. Thanks, Girlie but the RSBP feels it must virtue signal in order to keep subscriptions from the idiot woke rolling in.

    1. That’s a big bag if they can get $4 Billions into it…no no sorry…that would be the Israeli bag.

        1. If both points are true, why do you want to hide Harry’s point?

          The whole thing is a pretty sad state of affairs, and I understand that you are biased to one side, but this whole “if you’re not with me, you’re against me” thing is also pretty tedious.

        2. We’re all here with differing opinions.
          Don’t you like different opinions?

    1. I would like to see Matt Hancock followed by a BBC camera crew go to Bolton and reassure all the people there that the Conservative Party is concerned about the low take up of the vaccine.

      He could also pretend that he gives a shit.

      1. At the very best Halfcock is a total incompetent, if even our biased press is to be believed his friends are doing very well out of this scam!

  86. From the Daily Mail:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9596159/Harry-Meghan-mark-wedding-anniversary-plans-build-community-relief-centre-India.html
    Harry and Meghan mark their third wedding anniversary by announcing plans to build a community relief centre in India that can be used as a vaccination hub to provide ‘healing and strength’ to locals
    An excellent idea Harry can be given the title of Nabob of Hyderabob & Meghan the title Nab-Hobbit & star in an Indian reality show called ” I’m worth a few na-bob “

    1. This is true, but direct democracy would entail removing universal franchise – a good thing, in my opinion. Then it should be based around public service.

      You’d also be required to understand the issues of the day rather than voting by reflex.

      I don’t care if those police officers kneel before the black looting mob. However when that mob ran out of control that officer should be questioned as to how he undermined the character of the police and exacerbated the mob’s behaviour.

      1. I would remove the universal franchise like a shot.
        Votes for home-owners would be one model, though sadly broken since the elites hiked up the price of property.
        No votes for women, because they consistently vote for weak borders and more social welfare, which rots countries.
        Votes for men over 25 is probably the most sensible solution to balance democracy with sustainability of the country.

  88. I’m not sure I share the authors’ optimism.

    GB News will smash the BBC’s biased, Left-wing broadcasting hegemony

    Andrew Neil’s insurgent new TV news channel has more chance of succeeding than its critics believe

    ALLISTER HEATH

    For years now, Britain’s television news market has been broken, its audience in decline and its business model undermined by technology. The BBC’s grip on TV news now faces an even more acute threat: in an era of Brexit, culture wars and the politicisation of everything, the corporation’s soft-Left, technocratic bias no longer satisfies anybody.

    Centre-Right audiences have run out of patience with broadcasters – the BBC, Sky, ITV and of course the explicitly Left-wing Channel 4 – that no longer understand the cultural conservative majority, that have bought into woke authoritarianism and whose attempts at impartiality are often risible. Left-wing audiences, for their part, have become so extreme that they somehow believe that the BBC is Tory. Mass market, universal news broadcasting is no longer viable: the BBC is going the way of the Labour Party, losing younger city-dwellers while alienating its older, Conservative audience.

    It is impossible to watch TV news without being struck by the near-uniformity of assumptions, the ideological conformity, the lack of genuine understanding of suburban, non-centre Left, non-university educated Britain. Of course, there are exceptions, and the industry employs plenty of brilliant journalists, and sometimes breaks great stories. The institutional cultures are the problem. Broadcasters are almost Tory and Brexiteer-free zones: for organisations that rightly value other forms of diversity, why is this acceptable?

    Simply moving a few more people to Manchester, a city which is far more Left-wing than London, won’t make any difference, and neither will spending more taxpayers’ money on regional news. This is why the launch of GB News is so intriguing: led by Andrew Neil, who gave me my first job on a national newspaper, it promises a very different kind of broadcasting experience, a much more centre-Right take on the news. It won’t automatically assume that the Government’s decisions are always mistaken, or that Britain must be in the wrong.

    There is a desperate need for greater pluralism in TV news, as already exists in newspapers. On Covid, the established broadcasters have failed to take a balanced and proportional approach. Their questioning of the Government has inevitably implied that it didn’t lock down fast, long or thoroughly enough, and almost never whether a more voluntarist approach might have been better in the round.

    Viewers were rarely exposed to the idea that lockdowns involve trade-offs, that saving lives, tragically, comes at a price, and that quality-adjusted life years are a better metric than gross deaths. This is not just, or even principally, about the economy: there is a value to lost freedom and to all the activities and opportunities for human interaction foregone. Some people, when all costs and benefits are genuinely tallied, will back lockdowns; others will be more sceptical. But the point is that viewers must be given proper tools to come to their own conclusions.

    On Israel-Palestine, the coverage continues to be slanted against the Jewish state. The BBC’s bias is nothing new, but Sky’s has become, if anything, even more disturbing. The subtext is all too often that Israel is obviously the oppressor, that it is responsible for the “violence in Gaza” and even that the Iranian-backed Hamas is a “resistance” movement (albeit on “the extreme end”) that has been “stirred” to “rise up against occupation”.

    Yes, of course Israel’s actions must be scrutinised, and errors exposed, as they should be for every side in any dispute. But this must be done within the proper context, not least the complexities of history and religion, the crucial fact that Israel has pulled out of Gaza, that many of its enemies want to wipe it and all of its inhabitants from the face of the earth, and that Hamas is a terrorist organisation committing war crimes by launching thousands of missiles on Israel and by embedding military installations among its civilians.

    Back in Britain, the widespread use on Twitter or on demonstrations of anti-Semitic slogans such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, which advocates the total destruction of Israel, are not sufficiently scrutinised by broadcasters that would rightly jump on all other instances of racism. It is a disgrace.

    Then there is economics: there are no broadcast voices querying the new statist, Macmillanite consensus. It’s all about what more the state should do, how much extra it should spend and why it doesn’t regulate enough. Why no debate? Why is big government Conservatism only ever scrutinised from the Left – with politicians asked why they are not doing even more – and not from the Right?

    As to environmentalism, the broadcasters have equally lost their critical faculty. Where is the relentless, forensic questioning about the costs the green revolution could impose on consumers? Or whether the claims relating to “green jobs” are true? Or the big bet on electric, rather than hydrogen-powered, cars?

    In all such cases, I expect GB News to be a breath of fresh air when it launches, and to gain a significant audience, assuming that its programming is of a sufficiently high quality. The company’s challenges will be commercial: unlike for the BBC, there will be no taxpayers’ cash. GB News believes that it could grab a bigger audience than Sky News by the end of the year, and a couple of hundred thousand viewers at peak time, a plausible target.

    A bigger issue is that, in America, Fox News and rivals make most of their money from charging fees to cable companies: in Britain this revenue stream won’t exist. As to TV advertising, it is in decline, susceptible to boycotts from hard-Left, anti-free speech groups intent on shutting down dissent. GB News believes that its ultra low-cost model means that it doesn’t actually need to make that much money from advertising to eventually break even. It will, down the road, seek to supplement this with digital subscriptions.

    If, as I expect, GB News is successful, and it takes a small but significant share of the broadcast market, the BBC, ITV and Sky will only have themselves to blame. They have proved singularly unable to understand modern Britain or to address the big issues of our day with an open mind. It is a shameful failure, and one for which they are about to pay a heavy price.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/19/gb-news-will-smash-bbcs-biased-left-wing-broadcasting-hegemony/

    1. I look forward to GB News with enthusiasm, WS; henceforth, my BBC News and SKY News channels will be OFF …

    2. “the BBC is going the way of the Labour Party, losing younger city-dwellers while alienating its older, Conservative audience.”
      I think the problem here is that he thinks the Conservative party is a viable entity.

      1. Indeed. Did you notice his description of normal people as “centre-right”? That’s pandering to the language of the left – they are allowed to be left, but we are only respectable if we are “centre right” because “right” is evil.

    3. Hopefully not as biased as Fox News in the US, I just want truly unbiased news not a channel that is so biased that it cannot be trusted.

      1. Fox news is the main balance against the near total American left wing news output, can you not see that..???

        1. I can see that their coverage is as biased as CNN. It is not me that is wearing blinkers!

          The biggest issue is not the bias in what they broadcast, it is what they do not cover.

        2. I see it as a balance against the rest and will refer to it but the fact remains that it is totally biased.

    4. God’s truth, William, we may only dream. Someone needs to give the BBC a major kick in the pants.

  89. Some photos before I go for a bath, taken earlier this evening shewing the number of ash trees we’ve lost up here:-
    Notice the stark and leafless ash trees standing out against the greenery?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da8645d8766e0fd38eb23dac8542f5611f7b0c05ff32834e1a010abd256fc197.jpg
    Ditto as you look up the road:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d8b56b45ec3aa61cf0c3a53b28497fad1d03f603ec9ef1f5a19b0c11c5832a50.jpg
    Looking up the hill behind the garden:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/edd023f76d6da8059487cc2ca91299ec66721bd6a7cc0b154c1d476392a03bfb.jpg
    And the ash tree opposite the house:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31b6213883a8d4988dca92179be04a41080629e3afc3fc54e579d09a27c37fda.jpg

      1. Dieback, I presume. They burn damn well though, so I’m sure Bob will have the chainsaw handy.

        1. Don’t you have the Emerald Ash Borer in the UK? This little bug is killing many trees in the US and Canada. The effect is as widespread as Bob has shown in his photos.

          You are right, ash burns really well so I am sure Bob will.be refilling his woodpiles.

          1. Ours is not caused by insects as far as I know.
            “Ash dieback (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) is a fungus which originated in Asia. It doesn’t cause much damage on its native hosts of the Manchurian ash (Fraxinus mandshurica) and the Chinese ash (Fraxinus chinensis) in its native range. However, its introduction to Europe about 30 years ago has devastated the European ash (Fraxinus excelsior) because our native ash species did not evolve with the fungus and this means it has no natural defence against it.”
            https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/tree-pests-and-diseases/key-tree-pests-and-diseases/ash-dieback/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7pKFBhDUARIsAFUoMDYFPL_9SMpKtEOSWZsiUcK6gdHp2P_8wTjoyq_LIxEDijBEw7a7zR4aAunaEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

          2. It must be a tough life being an ash tree, so many problems.

            The borer is spreading over here, we are not supposed to move ash firewood between regions but that isn’t helping stop the spread of the beastie.

          3. A lot of these problems are caused by human activities, whether through monocultural arboreal design or whatever. But natural environmental changes can also create these near or actual species extinctions. So let’s get the wood burners going while we are still able.

          6. Of course!
            I already harvest the dead elms we get.
            I think the main difference between Dutch Elm and Die Back is that the Dutch elm beetle allows elm saplings to reach a size where they produce seed so we have a continual cycle of self seeded elms that can get to a decent diameter before succumbing to the disease.

            On the other hand, Die Back, it seems, kills off the saplings as well as the mature trees.

      1. The oak disease has been around for longer that Ash Dieback but is much slower.

    3. Such a bloody shame that so many beautiful trees have to die – is this a caricature of our lives today?

    1. England, and England. I am sure that I have seen the first one before, but cannot remember where (or remember anything else, actually).

    2. I’ll stick my neck out here and say Scotland, and possibly Kirkcudbrightshire?

      1. I thought it might be Fife but I haven’t been able to place it. The church tower looks very old.

      2. “The church tower looks very old.”

        Strangford Castle, a 16th century tower house

    1. Yo T_B

      My comment about the baitch from yesterday

      Nurse who cared for Boris Johnson quits over ‘lack of pay and respect’

      I’m sick of it, says Jenny McGee, who looked after PM when he had Covid, as
      she criticises Government’s proposed 1pc pay rise for NHS staff

      Now, let me get this straight, she was doing her job and wants a big payrise

      Did servicemen get one, when the came back from trying to keep the peace in Northern Ireland:- No they got prosecuted.
      The same applies to all areas where our servicefolk have put themselves at Risk

      Do fishermen get pay rises, when the seas are rough, Lorry drivers when the roads are busy” No

      While she was esconced in a place protected from COVID: the rest of us were
      at Risk,infact enforced euthenasia for the oldies, via Old Folk sHomes

      Even now, the NHS locks itself up in Castles

      Good riddance to her

  93. Evening, all. The government is working on softening us up to accept withdrawal of any loosening of restrictions.

    3. Maybe the 21st June will go ahead as planned so the Government can say “See? Any one who doubted us is now a conspiracy theorist” and we’ll all breathe a sigh of relief and say “Mmm – maybe we should have more faith in Boris from now on”.

      Where’s me meds?

      1. What, you mean the loosening goes ahead on the 21st, immediately followed by lockdown on the 22nd?

        1. No – the loosening goes ahead and we all feel good because our fears about an extension are now dismissed as “Conspiracy theories.”

          Later, of course, when we get the Watford Gap variant or the Bourton-On-The -Water variant – more lockdowns.

          1. I’m afraid my prediction is gloomier. We get more lockdowns, to be blamed on those evil people who don’t want the vaxx, who clearly deserve to be punished.

      1. Re. your message – strange, I didn’t receive it in my email – but THANK YOU! xx

        2. Have you changed your e-mail address, or marked me a “junk”? 🙂

          1. No, neither, and I looked in the junk folder just in case. Could you possibly try just a test, please?

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