Wednesday 12 February: The Government is throwing good money after bad on HS2, taking no account of its poor value

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/12/lettersthe-government-throwing-good-money-bad-hs2-taking-no/

834 thoughts on “Wednesday 12 February: The Government is throwing good money after bad on HS2, taking no account of its poor value”

  2. SIR – Given that the subject of HS2 seems likely to dominate the airwaves for the foreseeable future, I wonder if the Government might support a short campaign to teach interested parties how to pronounce the word “aitch”.

    Such a scheme would do much to lower listeners’ blood pressure.

    Richard Bundy
    Lymington, Hampshire

    ‘Ere ‘ere!

    2. Good morning all.

      I call it IHS2,with the ‘I’ standing for insane. And IHS also refers to the Lord Jesus, who will bring goodness and light to the dark areas of the Midlands and the North. If he can afford the fare.

      1. IHS – In haec signo (vinces) (in this sign shall ye conquer) rather than in haec signo (salvatio) (in this sign salvation) one assumes?

  3. I heard that Len McCluskey on the World Service asserting, yet again, that this is the fifth richest country in the world. He really ought to get out more.

    1. I don’t see it. I see run down estates, broken roads, crowded trains that don’t always run. Closed libraries, swimming pools, all public amenities.
      People dressed as scruffily as one can imagine. Even our built heritage, which should be treasured, is crumbling. OK for some, duff for most.

        1. Yes, but it is comparative. We expect more. The gap between the well-off and the poor is very wide.

          1. You won’t improve the lot of the poor by impoverishing the rich. For one thing, they will up sticks and emigrate (as they did when it was tried in the seventies).

    1. Aren’t they supposed to be locked in their cabins cells and not mixing with other passengers?

      Just now the BBC showed a video clip of people walking around the deck of the boat so maybe the quarantine is not quite that robust.

      1. I believe that a small number are ‘released’ at regular intervals to have a short promenade around the deck without mixing with each other.

  5. Some good news

    “Empire actor Jussie Smollett indicted again over alleged fake race attack

    Actor faces six felony counts of disorderly conduct after he allegedly lied to police about a racist and anti-gay attack”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/12/empire-actor-jussiesmollett-indicted-fake-race-attack/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter
    So being black,gay and bff with the rich and famous doesn’t mean you are immune from prosecution,there is hope in one country at least

    1. If every public figure accused of racism, instead of reaching for the standard apology, sued the accuser, we might get somewhere.

    1. So, what he’s saying is, people who aren’t interested in sport or royalty won’t be required to subsidise those who are. Suits me!

    2. Morning Rik

      It’s either black or it’s white .

      The nation is weakened already .

      If he wants to further his diversity programme , I’d rather not pay for it .

    3. Just what I thought, Rik. He is saying, in effect, that if you want to watch Royal Weddings you must pay the licence fee or else you will have to pay a subscription fee.

      1. Acksherly, the Royal weddings are good value. Each member of the royal family has several, so years of entertainment. 🙂
        Morning, Elsie.

        1. ‘Morning, Anne, you see one, you’ve seen ’em all.

          Now, I must brush up my job knowledge as a Coronation Programme Seller and go to the Job Centre and claim me Universal Credit

        2. They could offer s discount if you buy the whole package, slightly more if you pay by the event.. Would the total subscription include all hatchings, matchings and dispatchings?

        3. Morning, Annie. I am off later this morning to visit our old friend The Mekon so I will be sure to give him your regards.

  7. It was nice chatting with you all

    “New powers

    Communication

    watchdog Ofcom already regulates television and radio broadcasters,

    including the BBC, and deals with complaints about them.

    This is

    the government’s first response to the Online Harms consultation it

    carried out in the UK in 2019, which received 2,500 replies.

    The

    new rules will apply to firms hosting user-generated content, including

    comments, forums and video-sharing – that is likely to include Facebook,

    Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.

    The intention is that

    government sets the direction of the policy but gives Ofcom the freedom

    to draw up and adapt the details. By doing this, the watchdog should

    have the ability to tackle new online threats as they emerge without the

    need for further legislation.

    A full response will be published in the Spring.”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51446665

  12. Justin Welby says he is ‘sorry and ashamed’ over church’s racism. 12 February 2020.

    At a meeting in London of the church’s ruling body, the General Synod, Justin Welby said: “When we look at our own church, we are still deeply institutionally racist. Let’s be clear about that.”

    He said he was “personally sorry and ashamed. I’m ashamed of our history and I’m ashamed of our failure … I’m ashamed of my lack of urgent voice to the church.”

    Speaking in a debate on the Windrush scandal and racism in the church, Welby said: “I’ve often wondered how the German church in the 1930s managed to ignore what happened to the Jews. I think they just didn’t really notice … and perhaps that’s what we’ve done in the way we’ve behaved since Windrush.”

    Morning everyone. Really! I must have missed the Citizenship Laws during the Brexit Debate and Kristallnacht on Bonfire Night. These people are off their heads, ironically much like they were in Nazi Germany where the Political Elites were similarly obsessed with Race Theory and its supposed consequences.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/11/justin-welby-tells-synod-he-is-sorry-and-ashamed-over-churchs-racism

    2. Ahhhh

      The Windrush drugged up Yardies and stabby stabby fatherless generations ?

      What has Welby got to say about the slaughter of Christians in the Sudan, Nigeria and Syria?

      1. Nothing. He’s not concerned with the persecution of Christians or the mass rape of white children. Like the Pharisees of old, he’s concerned only with political expediency, which he’ll try to pass off as compassion.

        TEC in the US has gone down this route and it’s dying. ACNA, the independent breakaway conservative church, by contrast is growing and thriving. GAFCON is the worldwide umbrella organisation for the breakaway Anglican conservatives. The persecuted Africans are now mostly with GAFCON and ironically despite persecution are also growing.

          1. A chancer, an opportunist and a charlatan. A complete fraud. There, finished it off for you, Belle! Good morning, btw.

      2. Christians? What on earth do they have to do with Welby?
        He’s the main man of the ‘Anglican community’; nowt to do with Christianity.

  13. “Post-truth society” – how well I recall the days of yore when politicians never lied. Nor did the papers. Nor did the BBC. Nor, for that matter, did teachers.

    1. They didn’t lie! They could obfuscate, defer, avoid and mislead but to be caught in an outright untruth as Profumo was, was to be finished.

  14. Aha ! Saxon Queen passed the Captcha test stating she wasn’t a
    robot. But she’d enquire what’s a ‘ side walk’ ? English please,
    It’s called a pavement !
    Good Morning from the daughter of Alfred of Wessex of whom defeated
    the Vikings ( and the Welsh) a quite dull and calm morning.

    1. Morning all.
      Love it.
      He’s already sacked some of the bosses I believe.
      I’ll bet the cost of HS2 will even double current estimates.
      Still hopefully we won’t be handing over billions to the mafia now. And it’s long past time to draw back on foreign aid.

        1. Because it isn’t cost-effective. How long have we been pouring dosh into Efrika and what benefits have accrued? The percentage is an arbitrary figure and bares no relationship to how effective it is; witness the money thrown at the Efrikan equivalent of the Spice Girls because they needed to spend the money due to the deadline looming.

      2. Talking of foreign aid, how much of the colossal sum we taxpayers are being committed to will leave the country, go to non-British contractors and suppliers? For example, the rolling stock won’t be British.
        Morning hall.

        1. Good point.
          I don’t think I have ever seen any reference to the rolling stock. But the UK no longer has the capacity to produce it.
          Another version of forgien aid, is the increasing black economy with so many unregistered people working in the UK and subseqently removing money from the UK with out any significant contribution to the economy or the free services obtainable from the NHS.

      3. I’m afraid I don’t share your optimism about not handing over billions to the mafiosi in Brussels. As for foreign aid – mwahaha!

      4. Apparently we are handling over £39 + billion to the EU. So we won’t feel the difference for some time.

    1. Someone needs a lesson on the geography of Great Britain and he whereabouts of ‘The North’ with respect to HS2 and angels.

  18. Morning all

    SIR – I’m not surprised by the Government’s decision to push ahead with HS2 (report, February 11).

    For some time now, it has been following the logic of the sunk cost fallacy, whereby the billions of pounds ploughed into a project generate their own validity, regardless of the scheme’s ultimate benefit or value for money. Those overseeing the project lose sight of the possibility – and, indeed, advantages – of cancellation.

    There are three points to make. First, no business would continue with a project whose costs had more than doubled as HS2’s have. Secondly, the underwriting by the Government ensures that those costs will inflate even further. Thirdly, this all shows the Government’s pledge to reduce the national debt was nonsense.

    Jon Rollinson

    Balsall Common, West Midlands

    1. SIR – Once again, the Government has not listened. Crossrail in London is still not finished, and local stations are waiting to be completed. By the time HS2 is built, we will be expected to drive electric cars (obviously on beautifully resurfaced, pothole-free roads with lots of charging points). There will be no need for expensive high-speed trains. It would make more economic sense to spend taxpayers’ money on improving existing rail services in the Midlands and the North.

      Silvia Nesbitt

      London W13

    2. On ‘Midlands Today’ yesterday, they had a property developer in Birmingham, thrilled by how much money he will make on constructing a tower block at Curzon Street. No doubt the profits will be squirrelled away in the Bahamas before anyone can claw back the money required to repay UK plc’s creditors and bail out bankrupt councils.

      Remember too this was set off by a Labour Government, and Lord Adonis is a Labour peer. So who is going to oppose this?

      1. What was the line in Dominic Frisby’s song?

        “….Lord Adonis, who the f*** is he anyway?”

    3. How come the government are going on about this being the biggest infrastructure build not just in the UK but also in Europe?

      Isn’t it just a one hundred miles railway. That must be insignificant compared to the TGV construction effort – or are they good plating everything again?

      1. British procurement skills:

        25mg Trimipramine antidepressant.

        British price to local surgeries: £200.50 for 28 tablets (NHS Drugs Tariff)
        German price at High Street pharmacy with private prescription: €16.85 for 100 tablets

        Make your own conclusion as to the markup applied to British Government procurement officers, when it comes to infrastructure projects bearing a blank cheque from Parliament.

          1. Yachts, proper cars (not the tatty 30-something 2CV wot I drive), and cocaine parties are essential for the the human rights of the metropolitan go-getters. It’s whom Parliament has been elected to serve.

    4. Also, bearing in mind it is an EU project (and thus should have been ditched the moment we “left”), we should have binned it.

  19. The American Department of Employment, Division of Labour Standards claimed a small rancher was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to investigate him.

    GOVT AGENT: “I need a list of the people who work on your ranch and how much they earn.”

    RANCHER: “Well, there’s my hired hand who’s been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board.

    Then there’s the mentally challenged guy. He works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night so he can cope with life. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally.”

    GOVT AGENT: “That’s the guy I want to talk to – the mentally challenged one.”

    RANCHER: “That would be me.”

  20. SIR – I am disturbed to see photographs of hundreds of people wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus.

    As a virus is a hundred times smaller than a bacterium, few masks give any protection and the wearer will be lulled into a false sense of security.

    The only people really to benefit are the mask manufacturers (who are, in many cases, Chinese).

    John Roberts

    Wokingham, Berkshire

    1. Currently we seem to be being told that the problem is the exhaled aerosol containing droplets from the lungs with the virus which, when landing on surfaces can live for 24hours plus. The masks when worn by those already infected can help to prevent the wearer spreading the droplets.

      1. Also to be considered is the immediate viral load, how much of the virus you actually get. A large viral load, say from being in the path of an explosive sneeze, will do greater damage than picking it up from the handles of a supermarket trolley.

  21. Leo Varadkar has paid the price for banging on about Brexit
    Brendan O’Neill – 12 February 2020 – 7:03 AM

    There has been a revolt in Ireland. Not a huge one. It isn’t a Brexit-sized rebellion. It isn’t an all-out populist protest against the establishment of the kind we have seen in the US and various European countries in recent years. But still, the result of Saturday’s general election is a brilliant blow against the Irish establishment and its obsessively pro-EU, anti-Brexit leanings.

    People are talking up the election result as a humiliation for Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader, Leo Varadkar. It certainly is that. Varadkar’s attempt to make the election about Brexit — and about his apparently brave efforts to frustrate Brexit — fell spectacularly flat.

    But Varadkar isn’t the only one who failed to make Brexitphobia the organising principle of Irish political life. Vast swathes of the Dublin elite were likewise obsessed with Brexit. And now all of them have been exposed as being utterly out of touch with ordinary Irish people.

    The results are striking. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, the parties that sprung from the Irish Civil War of the 1920s and which dominated Irish politics for decades, are in serious decline. Between them, these parties once commanded more than 80 per cent of the Irish vote. In Saturday’s election, they got around 43 per cent of the vote. Ireland is emerging from the shadow of the Civil War and that’s no bad thing.

    Fine Gael’s failures are particularly striking given that Varadkar had become a globally talked-about, much-cheered national leader over the past couple of years. In the 2011 general election, Fine Gael (led by Enda Kenny) won 76 seats in the Dail. In the 2016 election (still led by Kenny) it got 50 seats. This time around, led by the Brussels-feted figure of Leo Varadkar, it got 35 seats. Oh dear.

    Understandably, many people are focusing on the Sinn Fein surge. Sinn Fein won 37 seats in the Dail, coming a very close second to Fianna Fail. That a party like Sinn Fein should push Fine Gael into third place is indeed extraordinary.

    But the question is why Sinn Fein was able to do this. Both the right-wingers who are fretting that the vote for Sinn Fein represents a return to hardcore republicanism and the leftists excitedly talking up Sinn Fein as a radical voice in 21st century Ireland are missing the key dynamic here. Sinn Fein did well because, unlike the technocratic, globally-inclined Dublin elites, it focused mostly on national and local issues, on things people are actually concerned about. Housing, health, jobs.

    Fine Gael’s catastrophic failure in this election is a searing indictment of the Varadkar approach to politics. Over the past couple of years, Varadkar allowed himself to become a patsy of the EU. He turned Ireland into little more than a battering ram against Brexit. With no sense of shame, he reduced himself to a pliant tool of the EU establishment, continually doing its bidding against Brexit by obsessing over (and exaggerating) the impact Brexit would have on the border in Ireland and on economic life in Ireland.

    For this, he was celebrated in Brussels and Paris. He was cheered by European technocrats. He became a hero of Remainers in the UK. He was applauded by establishment lackeys at the Irish Times. And he got so carried away with being fawned over by foreign bureaucrats and pro-EU luvvies that he forgot about, or simply ignored, his own people and the issues they consider to be important.

    Sure, he got pats on the back from powerful people in Paris and Berlin, but what about working people in Galway or Cork? Well, now we know what they think of Varadkar’s creepy love-ins with Eurocrats and his obsessive focus on the evils of Brexit — not much.

    Here is the most staggering statistic from the Irish election: just one per cent of voters said Brexit was a deciding factor in how they voted. According to an exit poll by Ipsos/MRBI, voters were far more driven by concerns about healthcare (32 per cent), housing (26 per cent), and pension issues (eight per cent).

    So there was the Taoiseach making speeches and writing articles for newspapers across Europe about the scourge of Brexit, while the people of Ireland were thinking about more pressing national issues. You couldn’t ask for a better snapshot of the chasm-sized moral and political divide that now separates the technocratic establishment from everyday voters.

    But it wasn’t only Varadkar who constantly and madly banged the Brexit-loathing drum. Dinner-party circles in Dublin talked about little else. From Fintan O’Toole’s anti-Brexit ramblings to every political talk show on RTE, Ireland’s great and good droned on endlessly about the horribleness of Brexit and the wonderfulness of the EU.

    Every time I’ve been on the Irish media over the past year I’ve been up against three or four people insisting Brexit is the worst disaster to befall Ireland since colonisation. It was nuts. And we now know that ordinary Irish people did not share this feverish loathing of Britain’s exit from the EU. The blinkered, elitist and often quite sneering worldview of virtually the entire Dublin chattering class has been wonderfully exposed by this election.

    Varadkar made himself a globetrotting spokesman for Brexitphobia, and the Irish people just weren’t interested. There’s a lesson in this for political elites across Europe: quit your anti-democratic sucking-up to Brussels and listen to your own people for a change.

    2. I think that some of the Irish fail to see that the better the economic deal Britain gets from the EU the better it will be for Ireland. The more the UK suffers the worse it will be for Ireland.

      Indeed, no Brexit econonic deal with the EU would probably be a far better outcome for Ireland than a bad deal.

  22. SIR – In the Seventies I paid £38,000 out of my taxed income for my house, which is now worth about £1 million. I also pay council tax each year, now out of my pension. When I die my estate will be assessed and I will pay inheritance tax.

    Enough is enough. Just because Mr Johnson has an 80-seat majority does not mean he can tax people – especially those who have just put him in power – until the pips squeak.

    Duncan Rayner

    Sunningdale, Berkshire

      1. He can become as unpopular as Gary Glitter, he’d still be in office in 2024, when the only alternative then is currently standing for the Labour leadership.

      2. Someone needs to tell Johnson that he has created his own hole in short order and that he should stop digging. Shortest UK political honeymoon period on record?

      3. Good morning Maggiebelle

        As you know I love women and I have the amazing good fortune to be married to the best one!

        However, women can destroy men completely – look at what has happened to Prince Harry and what seems to be happening to the prime minister.

        2. Comment in the Telegraph says that ‘Carrie’ was so appalled when she actually saw Johnson’s naked and bloated body that she screamed in horror. And that’s why now she has him completely under her control because he is trying to help her recover…

          1. Reminds me of the question put to Debbie McGee about her husband on live television

            “What first drew you towards the millionnaire Paul Daniels?”

            Here is one for Carrie Symonds:

            “Apart form his notoriety, political power, money and ability to advance your career what is it you see in Boris Johnson?”

            (At least Debbie McGee laughed out loud at the question. I wonder if Ms Symonds would do so?)

      1. Morning Anne ,

        I thought she was a little delicate thing with big hair and a loud voice.
        I am wondering whether the newspaper have her muddled up with some one else?

        1. Dolly Parton, delicate? She’s reputed to be a very tough cookie, especially where her career and businesses are concerned. Her net worth is >$500 million, in the music business you don’t get to keep that if you don’t know what you’re doing. As for big hair? She has other large assets that attract more attention, I’m sure.😎

          1. TB was referring to her physical size.
            I have a lot of time for DP.
            We need more women with her attitude.

          4. She’s also used a substantial amount of her fortune to assist others at the Trailer Park end of the Social Scale.

          6. I think she is splendid and her humour is self-mockingly attractive.

            Among her best comments:

            “The hair and the boobs may be false but the voice is real.”

            and about her make up, wigs and clothes:

            “It takes a hell of a lot of money to look this cheap.”

        2. “When people say I’m a dumb blonde, I don’t mind – I’m not dumb and I sure ain’t blonde..”

    3. ‘Morning, Mags, the red-tops have to provide their readers with pictures and without the reference to Dolly Parton, even the picture would be by-passed.

  24. Good Moaning. A couple of TCW articles to accompany your breakfasts.

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/tcws-hot-topic-was-raising-school-leave-age-to-18-a-mistake/?utm_source=TCW+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=35c41a3c16-Mailchimp+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a63cca1cc5-35c41a3c16-559682581

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/offsetting-for-the-rich-kill-the-poor-to-save-the-planet/?utm_source=TCW+Daily+Email&utm_campaign=35c41a3c16-Mailchimp+Daily+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a63cca1cc5-35c41a3c16-559682581

    1. Morning, Anne. Labour raised the school leaving age in order to make the unemployment figures look better.

      1. Good morning, Delboy,

        They also do everything they can to massage the unemployment figures in France.

        School leaving age is now 18 in France and the indoctrination starts early – from this year school attendance is compulsory from the age of three. Formerly children could not attend school until they were house-trained and out of nappies; this has gone by the board which does not delight primary school teachers who have to clean up the mess.

          4. We took our boys on one morning a week to école maternelle when they were three – but it was not compulsory.

            Now full-time attendance is compulsory.

      2. When I was teaching in the ’70s my classroom was in a ROSLA hut (Raising Of the School Leaving Age).

      1. Do they still have that “Have a nice day” welcoming message at bottom of arrivals questionnaires to Singapore, that went something like “Death to drug dealers”?

        1. Never been to Asia .

          My father told me too much about the war , and the consequences of it that friends of his suffered or never recovered from . He was based mainly in the Indian ocean , Southern India and Ceylon ..

    1. The census relies on the householder being honest about how many there are in the household. It used to work well enough.

      2. As we all know, the only troublesome migrants or troublesome offspring of migrants are a handful of rastafarians from Jamaica. Problem sorted – we can all sleep easy in our beds as they close down the prisons to pay for HS2.

      4. They know there would a a riot .. and of course thousands more are entering the UK every year.

        We are full up .

        874 miles miles in length.. over 70+ million people

      6. None, according to my responses.

        The state has no right intruding. If it can’t manage services without resorting to forcing me to tell it things it doens’t need to know then it can flip off.

        It already knows all this stuff. Births, marriages, deaths, electoral role. Sod off, state.

    1. It can go on the Adult Social Care supplement. Once it’s on the Council Tax, it’s the councillors’ responsibility to find the money.

  30. SIR—In the Seventies I paid £38,000 out of my taxed income for my house, which is now worth about £1 million. I also pay council tax each year, now out of my pension. When I die my estate will be assessed and I will pay inheritance tax.

    Enough is enough. Just because Mr Johnson has an 80-seat majority does not mean he can tax people – especially those who have just put him in power – until the pips squeak.

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    “When I die my estate will be assessed and I will pay inheritance tax.”?

    I bet you don’t, Dunc, I bet you don’t!

        1. This is the meaning of ”And”, Drizzly………..

          and
          conjunction

          used to join two words, phrases, parts of sentences, or related statements together.

    2. Council tax ought to go. It is a very unfair tax and many do not pay it at all. It puts the biggest burden on the poorest and the least burden on the richest. Another issue is a family of say 4 working adults will pay little more than a single person pays

      A local income tax would be a reasonable replacement. One would need to cover off though houses that are owned by people living abroad and for empty homes.

      1. Ironic, don’tcha think, that the “unfair” Council Tax was brought in as a replacement for the intrinsically much fairer (but politically “incorrect”) Community Charge?

    2. Someone tell that twat on the left to wear his helmet properly and not like a cartoon character!

  33. Note: Applebaum’s hubby (Sikorski) is ex-MEP:

    Leaving the EU

    Sir: Anne Applebaum (‘Letter from Strasbourg’, 25 January) notes the wistfulness of UK MEPs contemplating their departure from the European parliament. One can sympathise, as leaving employment is often a wrench, especially if one’s employment includes €70,000 per year (after tax), €4,500 for other travel expenses, €4,513 per month ‘general expenditure allowance’ (paid directly to MEPs, without need of receipts), business-class air travel, and even €353 per day just for turning up at the office. Though as one of the taxpayers funding this boondoggle, I’m more sanguine.
    Peter Lucey
    Wokingham, Berkshire

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/letters-cats-are-clearly-right-wing/

    1. No, not even half of it.
      Mr Radoslaw Sikorski is still a Polish MEP, and a friend of Donald Tusk. His wife is an American citizen, and I won’t be too rude about her because she wrote a great book about the USSR in which she showed that the Gulag was dismantled for economic reasons, not as an act of mercy.
      Her husband was given asylum in the UK at the time of Martial Law in Poland, and after taking a degree at Oxford he was granted British citizenship. When he became Defence Minister in Poland, he forswore his British citizenship.
      This was a classic Spectator article by a nowhere person, married to a turncoat, grumbling about Brexit.

  34. Cats or dogs?:

    Feline individualism
    Sir: I am not sure I agree with James Delingpole’s view (25 January) that dog owners are generally on the right while cat owners are on the left. I have always thought that dogs were collectivist pack animals whereas cats are highly individualistic, and I think their carers (cats don’t have owners) recognise this in them. My cats were certainly well to the right: they loved the countryside and all blood sports, and were tough on law and order as far as other species were concerned.
    Stephen Lord
    Arabba, Italy

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/letters-cats-are-clearly-right-wing/

    2. My terrierists were full on for country sports (NOT “blood sports” – that’s the language of the antis).

  35. Funny Old World
    As I went into town yesterday on the bus through the wind and rain for a pub lunch I couldn’t help noticing all the workers on the construction and roadwork sites were pale stale and male,as I walked past the council offices the workers emerging for lunch appeared to be exclusively bearded tinged males and mixed females
    That Damned White Male Privilege at work again I suppose

    2. That reminds me of ‘Live at the Apollo’ the other evening, when the Leftie comedians were bashing the Right as usual. Curiously, every single shot of the audience showed hideously white young people…

  36. A sample of gloomster’s past predictions:

    I was slightly surprised when Greta Thunberg announced at Davos that we had eight years left to save the planet. As long as that? Admittedly, that’s four years less than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who put it at 12, although, come to think of it, that was last January, so presumably she now thinks we’ve got 11 years left. But some doomsayers have been much less optimistic. According to Peter Wadhams, a Cambridge professor interviewed in the Guardian in 2013, Arctic ice would disappear by 2015 if we didn’t mend our ways, while Gordon Brown announced in 2009 that we had just 50 days to save the Earth. Then again, playing the long game can also catch up with you. In 2004, Observer readers were told Britain would have a ‘Siberian’ climate in 16 years’ time. We’re supposed to be in the midst of that now.

    On the face of it, we should be grateful that these gloomsters make such oddly precise predictions. It’s like putting a sell-by date on their credibility. After all, when the soothsayer in question is proved wrong, they just shuffle off with their tail between their legs, never to be heard from again, right? In eight years’ time, when the planet hasn’t disappeared in a cloud of toxic gas, presumably Greta will throw up her arms and say: ‘Sorry guys. Looked like I was wrong about you ruining my childhood. I’m now going to become a flight attendant.’

    But, weirdly, that never happens. No matter how often these ‘experts’ are shown to be no better at forecasting than Paul the Octopus — worse, actually — they just carry on as if nothing has happened. Take Paul Ehrlich, author of the 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb. ‘We must realise that unless we are extremely lucky, everybody will disappear in a cloud of blue steam in 20 years,’ he told the New York Times in 1969. Ehrlich also predicted America would be subject to water rationing by 1974 and food rationing by 1980. Ehrlich’s ‘bomb’ failed to explode, but his career didn’t. On the contrary, he’s now the Bing Professor of Population Studies at Stanford and the president of Stanford’s Center for Conservation Biology. All I can say is, it’s lucky he didn’t become a bookmaker.

    The fact that Ehrlich is still an eminent environmentalist — and Prince Charles can pose alongside Greta Thunberg in Davos in spite of claiming we had eight years left to save the planet 11 years ago — helps explain why these Mystic Megs have no hesitation about making these forecasts. It’s a great way of drawing attention to their cause and there’s literally no cost to getting it wrong. The panjandrums of the mainstream media forgive them for spinning these yarns because they know they’re doing it ‘for the right reasons’. They’re not peddling alarmist nonsense — no, they’re just exaggerating the risk. In any case, they might be right and doesn’t the ‘precautionary principle’ dictate that we should change our behaviour just in case? Oddly, these same secular humanists don’t apply the logic of Pascal’s Wager to believing in God. That would be unscientific.

    But is there also something else going on? I’m generous enough to think that these activists are not cynics trying to grab headlines, but are sincere in their prophecies of doom. For instance, when George Monbiot predicted a ‘structural global famine’ in as little as ten years’ time if we didn’t start eating less meat — this was in 2002 — he genuinely believed it. And when that famine failed to materialise, he didn’t abandon his apocalyptic environmentalism, but doubled-down, as readers of his Guardian column can testify.

    It’s a textbook example of cognitive dissonance — of not abandoning your beliefs when they run aground on the shore of reality. I am reminded of the members of the Heaven’s Gate cult who believed there was a spaceship flying in the wake of the Hale-Bopp comet that would beam them up and transport them to a distant planet. When the comet came and they remained on Earth, they didn’t conclude they were wrong about the spaceship. No, it must be concealed by some clever cloaking device, and the way to get on board was to commit suicide so their spirits could float upwards through the atmosphere. Sure enough, on 26 March 1997 the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department found 39 bodies in the cult’s headquarters in Rancho Santa Fe.

    I’m not wishing a similar fate on the current crop of doomsday cultists. But I do wish we would take them a smidgen less seriously when they turn out to be wrong — as they always do.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/climate-doomsayers-keep-putting-sell-by-dates-on-their-credibility/

    1. Religious cults have predicted the end of the world many times over the past few hundred years. We’re still here.

      1. They normally say that they got the date wrong as they misread some old text and go back to recalculate.

        1. They are quite often stymied in that when they find that the local council have long ago demolished the public lavatory on whose walls the wise words were written.

      2. I remember, in the ’70s, when the new apocalypse was the coming Ice Age. That worked out well, didn’t it?

    2. Those pesky Pacific Islands stubbonly refusing to sink beneath the waves no matter how many new airports weigh them down
      #GretaHatesYou

    3. The followers may not commit suicide but these dire predictions do seem to be leading to modern day mental trauma amongst young and fertile minds. Snake oil at its finest.

  37. Morning Each,
    See them shuffling along, reshuffle puts remainers back in with a shout seemingly, bit of cosmetic culling to make it look good.
    The usual outcome from the usual repeated voting pattern, from the usual players, ie nose grippers, best of the worst, make bojo PM he makes us laugh, straw clutchers galore.

    Looks like the campaign triggered on the 25/6/16 is now paying dividends, that is the damage limitations campaign.
    How can the country expect success when “hope” is the major element the peoples have in their
    political leader ?
    Still revenge at the next GE will be ours,as it was the last time & the time before that.
    IMO the electorate has once again been scammed
    by a treachery artist of Stradivarius standards.

  38. HS2 is not a railroad.

    5G is not communications.

    Hinkley Point is not a power station.

    Carbon elimination is not environmental.

    They are gravy pipelines.

  39. Has Philip Schofield had taken a super injunction out to silence people,
    well , I just checked with Google tools and not a single new story or
    interview has been released about him over the last 24 hours.
    It looks like he’s done a runner (Arf arf)

    1. A person who has deceived his wife and children for so long should not be given oxygen by the media. He’s worse than a piece of dog sh1t on the sole of my shoe.

      1. But cheats etc are treated as heros by the LGBT brigade and media had he been having an affair with a woman the media would be all against him

  41. Nicked Comment
    WRT getting rid of the pesky census.

    Some things about actual numbers of people you can’t hide. Which is why TPTB will never ask.

    You’ll never guess who pointed this out, 10 ago! For a different reason, sure, and she’s an expert on shite.

    Polly Toynbee.

    “

    One best estimate of population comes from sewage: Thames Water says

    the outflow of rich or poor alike reveals true numbers – and Slough has

    30,000 more people than officially registered. Bagley fears

    census-takers will have little time to check the estimated 3,500 houses

    in multiple occupation, or the estimated 2,500 living in unregistered

    sheds in gardens illegally let out, unlikely to return forms in the 56

    languages they speak. Besides, there are only slots for six people on

    each form”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/20/boundary-changes-census-millions-lose-out#comments

    1. There are only certain types and amounts of activity humans can get away with and that is not one of them. The guardian would know this. It thrives on such information.

    2. They are no longer asking the birthplace question – which has been so useful for family historians.

      I wonder why not?

  43. What is a ” Post-Brexit Colonial Flag Bearer “, please ?

    ”
    Britain’s first post-Brexit cultural flag-bearer has issued her clarion call: collaboration is the future.

    Sonia Boyce has been named this morning as the artist charged with parading
    Britain’s wares and boosting its cultural capital at the world’s most
    important visual arts platform.

    Ms Boyce, who becomes the first black woman selected to represent Britain
    at the Venice Biennale, said that while her name may be above the
    British Pavilion, she would be “encouraging other people to get
    involved”.

      1. Only in TV advertising and in BBC presenters.
        A couple of years ago we went to a music concert at Portland Place when we arrived we went to the restaurant
        /café upstairs, it has a view over the news studio. Looking down you can see all the people buzzing around or working at their desks and computer screens on news items and collection from around the globe. Out of around 100 people I saw only one black or Asian person.

  44. Belgium desperately needs UK trade deal – Barnier warned of consequenc

    BELGIUM desperately needs a trade deal with the United Kingdom to save some of its largest businesses, a leading professor has warned.

    A no-deal scenario after the end of the Brexit transition period would result in around 42,000 job losses across the country, according to Hylke Vandenbussche, professor of economics at the Katholike Universiteit Leuven. Even if Michel Barnier manages to broker a “soft Brexit deal” before the end of the year 10,000 jobs would be lost, her research adds. Belgium stands to be the fourth most affected EU member state by Brexit economically, with its food and beverages, administration and textiles industries all in the firing line.

    Britain is Belgium’s fourth-largest trading partner, responsible for eight percent of its exports and five percent of its imports.

    The Flanders region would be the worst hit, with almost 16,000 Flemish companies currently exporting to the UK.
    Bruges, Kortrijk, Antwerp and Ghent would be on the firing line with a predicted 1.8 percent hit to output in the area.

  46. Brexit WAR: Spain joins forces with France and Denmark in bitter bid to seize UK waters

    REXIT trade talks are set to start off on a bitter note after Spain joined France and Denmark in warning the EU will “defend” the right of European fishermen to catch in British waters.

    1. BJ,
      Our worst enemas are from the westminster area, wearing pinstripe,
      and mainly loitering in the political field.

    3. Cant our fishing industry come up with a s,organ to use alongside Brexit.
      I’m thinking Fixit

  48. Jeez

    BBC chairman Sir David Clementi warns over subscription fee

    Literally End of Days stuff.

    “Sitting
    behind a paywall, it would no longer be the place that brings the
    country together for the Strictly final, or Gavin & Stacey on
    Christmas Day.’

    Strange, I quite happily managed to avoid both of those.
    #Bring it on

          2. Yes, but not from the BBC tax pot.
            “In 2007, owing to severe funding difficulties, the channel sought government help and was granted a payment of £14 million over a six-year period. The money was to have come from the television licence fee, and would have been the first time that money from the licence fee had been given to any broadcaster other than the BBC.[38] However, the plan was scrapped by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Andy Burnham, ahead of “broader decisions about the future framework of public service broadcasting”.[39] The broadcasting regulator Ofcom released its review in January 2009 in which it suggested that Channel 4 would preferably be funded by “partnerships, joint ventures or mergers”.[40]”
            From the wiki.
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_4

          3. 90% of it does. The rest goes to pay Capita for collecting the money and to help support Ch4 and S4C.

          4. Where do you get this idea from? A small portion pays Capita for the BBC tax demand service. CH4, S4C are paid from general taxation.

          5. S4C receives a small amount from the licence fee but this will end by 2022.

            “All public money for S4C will come from the TV licence fee within four years, the UK government has said.

            It currently provides about 8% of the channel’s £84m budget – £6.672m – with 90% coming from the licence fee and 2% from S4C’s own commercial income.

            The UK contribution is guaranteed until 2020, but from 2022 S4C funding will be decided in the licence fee settlement.”

            https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-43569372

    2. Perhaps they need to try our pay to view for a few years and try to adjust their financial out goings.

    3. One wonders whether Sir David was glued to his television set for those productions. Or are they just for the plebs, to keep his income flowing in…
      The current governor of the BBC was of course governor of the Royal Opera House before he noticed the BBC as a nice little earner.

  49. I see Sad Dick Khan has been called out on Twitter by Laurence Fox, amongst others, over his hypocrisy in allowing an advert on TFL for “Nubian Skin” underwear which shows a group of assorted niggers and wogs in a state of undress. Sad Dick has previously banned adverts for a campaign by Protein World, to get “beach body ready”, featuring a blonde fitness model in a bikini, and an advert for “Heist” tights, using another white model.

    Meanwhile, on his LBC phone-in show, Sad Dick trots out that tired old mantra, “London’s greatest strength is our diversity,”

    London’s ‘bijou’ mayor should be challenged to explain what he means by “greatest strength”. Colour me thick, but for the life of me, I cannot see how nigger drug gangs and muggers or Paki child-rapists contribute in any way to making London “stronger”.

    2. “London’s greatest strength is our diversity,”
      Except in 2017 in a marginal seat when people of another faith might block me from becoming mayor.
      They didn’t get their ballot papers in time to vote ………an ‘admin error’ !

  50. Westminster Council votes down Holocaust memorial plan. 12 February 2020.

    A London council has voted down a proposal to build a national Holocaust memorial next to Parliament – but the senior Government minister who will have the final say has reiterated his commitment to the project.

    Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick, in a statement released before the meeting had ended, said: “The Government remains implacably committed to the construction of the Holocaust Memorial and Education Centre right at the heart of our democracy, beside our national parliament to ensure that future generations never forget.

    Well I was going to write that this is one piece of good news in an avalanche of bad but the second paragraph makes clear that it will be built regardless of anyone else’s views or opinions!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/12/westminister-council-votes-holocaust-memorial-plan/

    1. Instead of building a memorial in London, build them in every city in Germany. They are the ones who need reminding.

        1. The anti-semites in London would be disinclined to pay respect to such a memorial. It would probably attract vandalism such as that inflicted on the Bomber Command memorial.

          1. You think it should be put somewhere in the Pennines, where only nice people would be able to pay for day trips to it ?

          5. You miss my point. It is today’s British (who mostly were not alive at the time) who need to learn the consequences of behaviour such as led to the Holocaust, and a reminder to those who have forgotten what happened in Bosnia and Kosovo. Remember, Jeremy Corbyn could easily have become our Prime Minister.

          6. We don’t need to learn the consequences of anything! We already know because it’s on telly 10 times a year. Where is the memorial in Israel for the 220,000 Brits who were killed in the war!

          7. Is there a memorial outside the King David Hotel? Why did a UK Prime Minister attend the funeral of an Irgun terrorist?

          12. Well, let us be equitable. Let us build memorials to all who have been murdered in droves. There’s Armenia, Cambodia, China, VietNam, Russia, and quite a few places in Europe over the last thousand years.

          14. I am unbiased. I simply respond to some things. I look at facts and figures, at relationships. I analyse and consider. I am open to correction. While not wishing to get into an argument on anti-semitism (ie Jews) I find it very odd that we are supposed to care about something that happened in another country in the first half of the last century. If I wished to get into an argument, I’d ask where are the audited lists of victims? If the Germans were so efficient why were there any survivors? Except that the definition of survivor is anyone who lived in Europe. Why did the Jews go along with things? Why did the Jews in the USA, a rich an powerful group, do nothing at all to help? These are questions you are not supposed to ask, because this has now all become sacred myth. Research into this that treats it as history, as a series of actions, of recorded facts, is denounced. I did not raise this topic.

          16. Prove it. The use of that expression is in itself quite bizarre. If I argue about the exact colour of a car, that is not to deny the existence of the car.

          18. I think we have enough reminders. The fact is – it was the Germans who caused the holocaust. The memorials should be where they will be best placed to prevent any future recurrence.

            There is no memorial in Britain, as far as I know, to the Armenian genocide during WWI. Again. it wasn’t the British who caused it.

          19. If hear about the Armenian Genocide again, I will scream. You know bloody well that anti-semitism was as common in Britain as anywhere in the 1930’s, and only that strip of water called the Channel kept the Germans out. They would, as they did in Poland, find plenty of fellow travellers.

          20. I don’t agree. The British psyche differs from that of the German. The likelihood of the holocaust being caused by the Brits is negligible. Whereas the Germans caused two world wars by invading other countries. If anti-semitism was so rife in Britain in the 1930s, why was this country the goal of the kindertransport? Would Jewish parents have been so keen on sending their children to the UK if their fate may have been that which befell them in Germany?

    2. Reminding? We get films, articles, programmes, documentaries, dramatisations, personal witnesses, books, every couple of hours. Oh, and we didn’t do it.

    1. Perhaps it’ll take more than two hundreds years as has happened in Australia, for the ‘indigenous originals’ to get some their rights and a smidgen of their land back here in the UK. But hey don’t hold yer breath.

      1. But are there any rabid bleeding heart liberals among the Islamic faithful who would push for rights for us.

        2. A centillion upticks, Mola. Best comment this millennium (and the last).

          [And, I assure you, I jest not!]

  55. Top comment BTL on Brendan O’Neill’s Speccie article posted early this morning.

    jono • 3 hours ago • edited
    I agree with the article – mostly – but not the headline. I’m told journalists don’t write their own headlines, the editors do that, and this would be a good reminder of the principle.

    I’m Irish myself and have family in both country and Dublin, and the point made about the dinner party attitudes amonst the chattering classes is quite right: an almost unanimous hatred of the UK’s decision to be independent that even UK Remainers would die for.

    What is striking, to me at least, is the amount of ignorance upon which Irish Brexitphobia is constructed. It really is almost completely just self-interest disguised as high principle, but far more badly disguised than the UK Remain agenda achieved, and as we know even the UK Remain agenda fooled nobody except itself.

    But anyway, although it’s satisfying for the UK to see Varadkar relegated to third place, it is not in itself a vindication of Brexit. As the article says, only 1% of Irish voters included Brexit within their voting considerations. They mostly just do not care about it either way, which to me says something rather good about the Irish character and the principle of knowing when to mind your own damn business.

    Whether the result in general is welcome is another matter. For something similar to happen in UK politics, the Lib Dems would need to knock the Tories into third place and win the popular vote overall, which would be cataclysmic for the established political topography in the UK. What’s happened in Ireland is something similar, except instead of the third party being a bunch of wooly-headed self-righteous clowns with no practical idea how to turn a manifesto into executive policy, it’s a bunch of people who 20 years ago were shooting the kneecaps off people who dared to disagree with them. Right now, I fear for Ireland.

    1. I don’t care about Ireland, I care about Great Britain. If the Irish choose to elect politicians who want to be the catspaws of the EU megalomaniacs, or of terrorists for a cause that no longer means anything then I hope that we give them short shrift.

    1. Some people seem to get a strange kind of satisfaction out of using a vulgar expression, Rick.
      I don’t mind being told what to do, either, so long as the person telling me doesn’t mind being ignored, or told to take a running jump at themselves.

    3. Rik…i have been watching two new scifi series. The Expanse and Avenue 5. I recommend both but what made me laugh was Avenue 5 is a space cruise liner in trouble. Hugh Laurie as Captain. It turns out that all the bridge crew including the Captain are actors because everything it automated. What made me laugh louder was HBO rubbishing the snowflakery of the passengers.

  57. The ‘one ailment’ GP appointment is literally killing us ALLISON PEARSON

    As we are still struggling to make up our minds whether the coronavirus is panic or pandemic, I had lunch with a friend who told me that Lucy, her teenage daughter, had been really unwell. “I had to take her back to the GP six times,” she sighed.

    Good heavens, why?

    “Because at our surgery, you can only raise one thing at each appointment. The doctor said it was a virus, and it wasn’t. So we went back. Then he said it was her stomach, and it wasn’t. Back to the surgery again. It’s madness. Lucy was getting worse. I was really worried.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/one-ailment-gp-appointment-literally-killing-us/

    What on earth is going on these days ..

    An accumulation of symptoms lead to a diagnosis, well , don’t they .. Isn’t that why we need to visit a GP.. because we are not feeling too brilliant .. and cannot self diagnose ourselves.

    The comments are interesting .. I think most GP’s just glance at their computers and don’t do proper examinations any more .. They don’t mind that we don’t matter.

    1. That’s assuming you even get an appointment to see a doctor.

      My surgery is supposed to respond to phone calls at 8am
      ( their phone is constantly engaged till 8.30am and they then
      say all appointments are full and you have to call another day
      but they cannot make an appointment in advance) .
      Therefore people go to the surgery at 8am, they tell
      the receptionist their symptoms, she writes it all down
      and tells you to go home and that someone will call you
      back later. Some unnamed person calls you back and decides
      whether you can have an appointment. If you do it’s with
      the practice nurses ( who are very good but are not the doctors)
      and they Some times if concerned make patients an apt with
      the doctor ( it’s totally out of the patients hands).
      Nurses treat urgent cases, less urgent cases such as colds,
      rashes, upset stomach etc are told to see a pharmacist.

      Doctors are now rare things who are there Mon / Fri from
      8 to 6 pm but not everyday and not all of them per practice,
      and you don’t ‘ have your own doctor ‘ as you used to .

      We have to thank Tony Blair for all those changes.

      2. Goodmorning

        The same applies here .. The surgery expanded a few years ago , it serves a few villages .

        One has to be croaking before a doctor takes any notice, by then anyway , the blues and twos MAY put in an appearance .

      3. When I moved to the village, there were four doctors and one secretary at the surgery. Now there are still four doctors, now part-time, and a team of a dozen administrators, all female and vetted for gender diversity.

        I have to go to Germany for my tablets.

    3. I’ve had similar experiences with my once trusted GP practice TB.
      I have an arthritic hip and knee left side. They sent me to physio therapy who instructed me to carry out exercises. How stupid was that.
      The wear is quite obvious on the hip joint. It’s all about tightening the purse strings.
      My poor old neighbour went to his GP a few years ago, the doctor told him he had a virus.
      He had a brain tumour and died soon after diagnosis.

  58. Came upon this late last evening and I haven’t the time to check if it has been put up before. However, the figures expose the Government’s and Johnson’s stupidity and need regular repeating. There will not be enough eggs in the UK to cover Johnson’s face when reality hits home and he has to backtrack. I’m planning to copy and paste this article to my MP.

    ConWoman – Save Gas Sack this Numpty

    …First, some facts from the 2018 government Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES):

    Of the 1,700 Terawatt hours (TWh) of energy consumed by the UK, 600 TWh was provided by natural gas for heating. That’s both domestic and industrial. (Another 273 TWh of gas was used to generate electricity, but that’s not relevant here.)

    By comparison the total amount of electricity produced in the UK in 2018 was 330 TWh, of which half came from fossil fuels. Which raises the questions of where the additional electricity needed if gas is central heating is banned is to come from, and how it is to get from the power station (or wind/solar farm) to the user…

    …As I have previously written, we would also need an awful lot of wind turbines (250,000, twenty times the number installed) and solar parks (some 10 per cent of the UK’s agricultural acres in the South). Or about 50 Hinkley Point-sized nuclear power stations.

    ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
    BTL

    Tyke56 • 2 days ago

    Picked up an interesting bunch of figures from an article by Dominic Lawson in the Times: Last June a group of scientists led by Professor Richard Herrington, the Natural History Museum’s head of earth science, warned the government that to replace all cars on British roads with EVs, UK demand for the batteries needed would require almost twice the world’s current yearly supply of cobalt, the total amount of neodymium produced globally every year, three-quarters of the world’s annual supply of lithium and at least half its copper supply. No prizes for guessing the effect of this (even if it were feasible) on the prices of these minerals, and therefore the ultimate cost to the consumer. And what about the CO2 emissions generated by this vast excavatory process (chiefly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to most of the world’s cobalt reserves)?

    According to Tim Worstall, a former trader in rare elements: “VW has released the comparative numbers for its new electric Golf against the diesel version. The all-clean, all-climate-friendly version must do 120,000km [75,000 miles]” to break even, “given the emissions required to make the thing.”

    Lunar Tick • 2 days ago
    Here are a few facts that are quite chilling (literally). The UK National Grid’s maximum peak capacity stands at around 61Gigawatthrs. The peak domestic demand supplied from gas and oil-fired boilers – eg when coming home after work on a cold winter’s night is 145Gigawatthrs. That means the the National Grid can only supply 42% of the heating and cooking demand at peak times. Which means if there is no gas/oil/coal central heating, 60% of the nation will have to endure unheated houses for at least part of the evening.

    Now add to that the fact that the government is planning to get rid of all perfectly functioning gas and coal power stations by 2050

    Now add to that the fact that demand for electricity will also skyrocket by 2035 as electric vehicles become compulsory and domestic non-heating demands more than double.

    Cretinous lunacy doesn’t even begin to describe this government’s green policy.

    2. New Labour in disguise , I fear .

      We are going to be crippled financially and environmentally .

      The week end storm provided power outages as trees came down and messed up the power supply .. little things like that produced chaos with level crossing gates, milking parlours and everything else .

      We have been lied to , and the court jesters are in charge of the country .. lunatics in charge of the asylum .

      It just isn’t good enough .

      1. Belle, the figures quoted above ensure that Johnson’s hopes on carbon reduction will never see the light of day unless he is determined to be dragged out of No 10 and become the first Green Martyr. Not only is the timescale unrealistic the costs are astronomic and unable to be met. Figures I didn’t quote from the article:

        Delivering that by 2050 means converting 730,000 houses per year, which is 3,000 per working day or 375 per working hour for the next 30 years. As yet there is simply not the capacity to deliver that. And it doesn’t sound cheap – it’s an additional cost to producing the electricity.

        I doubt that the politicians have looked at the detail required to achieve their wish list. They look at the headlines pushed out by the likes of Johnson and St Greta and nod their collective Green heads safe in their virtue signalling.

        1. My local council is being sweet-talked into buying into a solar farm (green, climate change, blah-di-blah). I see it as a money-making (for the promoters) scam, but I foresee those who are less sceptical buying into it.

    3. Someone needs to ‘ave a word or two with mayor Khant. He’s allowing Barnet council to build a new gas fired power station on green belt land in NW7.
      Barnet have recently built and still are building thousands of new homes. And all though, due to ‘admin errors’, the local and other north London Jewish communities didn’t get their hands on mayoral election ballot papers until it was too late.
      They are expected to stump up more tax to support the over development of all the new building.
      Coporate greed is the main reason for climate change.

      1. I wonder how much carbon could be offset simply by cancelling HS2 and not cutting down the trees?

        1. All further demolition to people’s homes and gardens.
          The massive amounts of cement sand and gravel to supply the concrete.
          Not very green is it ?
          The Lord only knows where all the power will be produced to run the whole system.

      2. I’ve just heard an advert on the radio (LBC) for new gas boilers with a 10 year guarantee.😂

    4. Hopefully no other country will jump on the Greta appeasement bandwagon or there will be even bigger demands on those resources.

      Maybe they can point all of those new turbines South and tow this island somewhere warmer (if Ireland wants a tow, they can leave the EU and come along for the ride).

  59. There is a council truck working it’s way down the avenue close to a shopping parade near us, mixing paint I suppose, in one of those cylindrical things, and emitting an immense amount of choking filthy smoke. It is there to paint yellow lines at the side of the road, over the top of the existing yellow lines which are perfectly clear – an unsighted man could spot them from a mile away at midnight.
    It isn’t very good for the envitronment.The leaves will be dying on the branches shortly.Greta is barking up the wrong tree.

    2. Approaching the end of the financial year and spending wasting the remaining budget so not to have a surplus?

      1. I’ve never known them spend so much on the local roads for years. I have been wondering for ages where the money has suddenly come from.

  61. I do not know wht the Telegraph and others are going on and on about HS2 being ” poor value “. I am also glad that Boris is proposing to smarten up the Pennine route, and do a reverse-Beeching elsewhere.
    It is about time this country was shaken up, and Boris is proposing to ” do something ” Previous holders of his office just wanted to “do” us, to line their own pockets.
    Our country’s transport system is mostly unattractive and to a large attent not fit for purpose. It compares badly with most other countries scattered around the world.

    1. Most other countries have long distances between cities. We do not have that problem in our small country. Most of the trips are ‘local’ and we need the infrastructure to reflect that. To move people quickly and safely on short journeys a network railway lines connecting large cities would better serve the public.

    2. Do not forget that this Ms Morgan was the first prominent politician to pronounce that a person’s sex was the sex with which that person identified regardless of any biological evidence to the contrary.

      How do buffoons and buffoonesses like this survive in politics let alone in life in general?

    3. Rik, I posted a comment on this which was taken into moderation and it has disappeared. Any idea why? I wrote a new comment asking for a Mod’s help and that too went into moderation for a few minutes. Are they out to get me?😎

      1. It’s the downvote bot Korky it’s munched your Disqus standing you (like me) are now “low reputation” but Geoff has whitelisted you so you can comment here with no future problems
        If you wish to comment on any other Disqus site you will have to create a new persona
        Wear it like a badge of honour,some Leftard thinks it worth trying to silence you

        1. Thanks, Rik. I was ‘zeroed’ early on and created The Mekon to give me some street cred if I want to post elsewhere. Good to know I’ve got friends in high places in Nottle land.😎

    7. With Ofcom at the helm of a strong regulatory regime we have an incredible opportunity to lead the World in building a thriving digital economy…

      That’s an awful lot of words to say ‘more censorship’ is the way we’re heading, even for a politician with her reputation.

  64. These people are Dagenham,two stops past Barking

    “Thousands of people, of all races and backgrounds, have been flocking to

    the Tate this winter to see and read Blake’s creations, because they

    speak to the universal human condition. This is why he, Shakespeare and

    Virginia Woolf and the rest of the canon have endured. This appears to

    count for nothing to the moral guardians at Sheffield University, who

    see Blake as merely a dead, privileged white guy of questionable worth,

    propping up a racist society.”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/12/its-not-racism-that-makes-us-value-shakespeare/

    2. Bunch of silly Dee-Dars!

      [“Dee-Dar” is the Chesterfield slang nickname for Sheffield people. Instead of saying “thee” and “thar” (“thou”) like most North Midlands people; Sheffielders have a habit of pronouncing those words “dee” and “dar”. “Da’ what? (rhymes with ‘bat’) I’m tellin’ dee dat da’ wrong?” (“You what? I’m telling you that you’re wrong!”). Hence, “Dee-Dars”.]

      If Sheffield University thinks that studying Shakespeare, the greatest wordsmith in the English language, is down to “racial bias”; why don’t they track down the greatest literary behemoths from Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Swaziland and Togo so that their “diverse” students can learn, off pat, the collected works of great literature produced by the Bards of those nations?

  65. The High Speed Train

    NHS reductions,
    No ifs, no buts,
    Reducing our nursing,
    Ward closures and cuts.
    No money to pay
    for new drugs that cure pain,
    But they’re still buying
    The High Speed Train.

    Reduced education,
    No money for schools,
    A deprived generation,
    Fewer teachers, more fools.
    Less colleges, less uni’
    less for students to gain,
    But they’re still buying
    The High Speed Train.

    Battered old railways
    And crumbling old roads,
    The lifeblood of commerce
    that carries the loads.
    The potholes and diverts
    from fast to slow lane,
    But they’re still buying
    The High Speed Train.

    Making people work longer
    Until they retire
    Reducing their pensions
    For an old age so dire.
    Making petty cost cuts
    When no savings remain,
    But they’re still buying
    The High Speed Train.

    Less Air Force, less Navy,
    and even less Army
    Cutting everything sacred,
    doing things that are barmy.
    Sacked soldiers who have served us,
    through trauma and pain,
    But they’re still buying
    The High Speed Train.

    Neglect of our country,
    Abuse of their duty,
    Allowing destruction
    of the countryside’s beauty.
    Never learning a lesson
    Wrong, time and again,
    Yes, they’re still buying
    The High Speed Train.

  66. Morning again

    SIR – Now that there is a real risk that some of us may become infected with the coronavirus, can we all agree to stop shaking hands when we meet?

    As for the social kiss on each cheek, do not even think about it.

    Dr Michael Pegg

    Esher, Surrey

    SIR – During the early days of the Sars outbreak I was travelling to Singapore.

    On the flight, all passengers were issued with landing cards requiring name, passport details, residence while in Singapore and duration of stay.

    We were also told to enter the aircraft flight reference, our seat number, where we joined the aircraft and details of every country visited in the previous fortnight.

    On disembarking, passengers were individually screened by thermal-imaging cameras on the walkway from plane to terminal to check for anyone with a raised temperature. Each of the airport staff had a sticker on their uniform with that day’s date and their temperature.

    Singapore’s authorities also covered the wages of anyone suffering from Sars, encouraging those feeling unwell to be screened, so minimising the chance of them spreading the virus.

    Jim Anderson

    Crieff, Perthshire

    1. I have been caught out by Singapore’s efficiency.

      I was passing through with my sister and her family, visiting a friend there. Having a bit of post-flight dither and anticipating a half hour trek through immigration and passport control, I got in the stream. Before my brain got into gear, I found myself on the other side of the border wondering where my sister, still in no-man’s-land had gone.

      I also once got off the plane in transit to Australia with a tummy ache, so I was directed to a little clinic in Changi Airport. That evening I was in hospital there having my appendix out.

      There were these little questionnaires about what I thought of Changi Airport. What I loved were all these gardens and the swimming pool on the roof. What I hated most was the prospect that in 12 hours I would be in Heathrow.

      1. Did they have the butterfly enclosure when you went?
        I found it to be a most pleasant stop on the way to Australia.

        1. I never had time to appreciate anything when I went through Changi; it took me all my time to get from one terminal to another!

  67. Afternoon all.

    Have just been given yesterday’s DT Sudoku by our neighbour and an article caught my eye. “Stop (secret) use of AI”, civil servants warned. So I read that “Government and other public bodies are secretly using AI to make decisions about people’s lives”, according to The Committee on standards in Public Life.

    It goes on to say that “AI had already been deployed and trialled to help predict and investigate crime, determine benefit claims, prevent child abuse, identify failing schools, allocate pupil places and look after the elderly”.

    No wonder things are so bad!

    2. I think AI has been most successful in selecting MPs and Civil Servants. Not an OI (original idea) amongst the whole motley crew.

    3. Afternoon V,
      Something must replace the eu in the work department for the political rubber stamp brigade, real work should not enter the equation.

  68. As a retired duin’ uasal, who really doesn’t give a flying XXXX about how others perceive him, I consider myself lucky to enjoy such freedom of thought and opinion.

    I can only imagine what it must be like for many people in these strange times, whose very ability to practice their trade or profession is directly dependent on their acceptance of ‘wokeness’, and everybody fears getting ‘dobbed-in’ for a chance remark or joke made in a less censorious age.

  69. Yes another petition – from Change.org. I guess every little counts – i’ve signed anyway.

    “The EU is demanding a “divorce payment” of £39 billion, access to our territorial waters for their fishermen and restrictions on our business environment to prevent the UK becoming a successful trading nation. It will be a national disgrace if we give in to ANY of their demands for the following reasons:

    1 The UK has already given the EU nett budgetary payments currently totalling nearly £300 billion. More than practically all of the other 27 EU countries put together!

    2 The EU has already plundered our fish stocks for 47 years and this has currently cost us about £100 billion. (NOTE. No other EU country has had its assets plundered at all, or to that extent, or anywhere near it!)

    3 The EU has decimated our manufacturing ability to such an extent that from a near zero balance of payments with the EEC in 1973 when we joined, we now have a balance of payments DEFICIT currently totalling nearly £2 trillion today.

    Hence we owe the EU NOTHING as it has screwed the UK unmercifully ever since we joined. Other areas where the EU has severely penalised the UK are listed in the note, see:

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x1hmrAIOAIzAt0VT5Tbiy08w0AbQE_RjlefIrOCuD9Q/edit?usp=sharing

    Jerry Wraith”

    http://chng.it/kDSyV4h7nv

  71. DM Story

    Revealed: Prince Harry ‘is in talks with US banking giant Goldman Sachs in what could prove a ‘£1billion handshake’ – and contact began as he plunged Royals into Megxit crisis’

    The Duke of Sussex is said to have discussed following in the footsteps of David Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow by speaking at one of the Talks at GS events.

    Maybe we have misjudged Harry as an uxorious puppet to a sordid and manipulative woman. Maybe he is a thoroughly nasty piece of work in his own right?

    3. “following in the footsteps of David Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow..”

      Ah. Standing on the shoulders of giants, I see.

    4. Afternoon Richard.

      Prince Harry has got balder since he got married .. I suspect he needs every penny he can grab to have hair transplants , especially as his hair is so fuzzy and irksomely ginger..

  72. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62ca183b115f98403cba9c6cd40476f04fc6c38fa025d0bef4ac0a5c2c9282ff.jpg I took a Swedish friend to the local cop shop this morning to order a new passport (Swedish passports are issued by the police).

    Whilst I was kicking my heels inside the place I saw that every posted notice around the place was only written in Swedish. A rack full of leaflets was the sole exception since there was a copy of the solitary subject matter available in a number of languages. I chose an example of the one printed in English.

    And the subject matter was…?

      2. Isn’t every lunatic idea? Why are we wasting billions on H2S – sorry, HS2? At least H2S was useful during the last effort against the Krauts! We are supposed to have left the EU and its diktats. There is no business case for HS2 (or private companies would be vying to build it) and it won’t benefit anybody (any time saved will be lost getting to the destination city), although it will wreck large tracts of the countryside.

        1. Thinking of H2S, I’ve often wonder if the masts on Alport Heights, on the Chevin ridge between the Derwent & Ecclesbourne valleys, were installed as part of that system?

          1. As I understand it, H2S was airborne; it produced a scan of the landscape the aircraft was passing over so coasts, rivers, etc stood out and helped navigation. They may have been for Oboe, which relied on ground stations (and thus, due to the curvature of the earth, had a restricted range).

    4. “How to move to the UK and claim lots of benefits paid for by the British mugs tax payers.”

  75. Has this been discussed/analysed/highlighted on RemainStreamMedia today?:

    Eurozone industrial production slumped in December, as the monetary union’s beleaguered economy continued to be buffeted by global headwinds.

    According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office, industrial production was down 2.1% in December compared to the previous month, and by 2.0% across the wider 27 member states.

    Year-on-year, industrial production in the bloc slumped 4.1% in December and by -1.7% over the year. In the EU27, it fell 3.9% year-on-year in December and 1.1% across 2019.

    https://www.sharecast.com/news/international-economic/eurozone-industrial-production-tumbles-in-december–7307302.html

    1. I work for a German compamy, and we are going for voluntary early retirement and atse kicking for the rest. It’s getting tough.

      1. Always quite a good idea to be in the first wave, often they get a much better deal than the later people, because the company will discover just how little it can get away with.

        1. Well, that’s Capital, not Income. And I think they will have to keep that secure in a special piggy bank to fund the forthcoming War against Islam.

          2. No, no, no. Pensions for Eurocrats, that’s where that’s going – their pension scheme being currently “unfunded”.

          3. That’s a war where a belief in the Old Testament and full knowledge of the history of Lebanon will be more important.

  77. (This woman must be the pet owner from hell)

    Katie Price’s dog Sparkle has died after being hit by a car – making it her third pet to die in three years.

    Reports suggest the Alsatian escaped from Katie’s home and was mown down on a busy road nearby.

    Katie Price has an ill-fated track record with family pets after one of her family pets was run down and allegedly killed by a pizza delivery driver.

    Sparkle was reportedly hit by a car in a heartbreaking accident on the A24, which runs nearby her West Sussex ‘mucky mansion’.

    The busy dual carriageway has appeared troublesome for the former glamour model, 41, in the past after one of her old dogs, Bear, ran onto the road in February last year in a horrifying scare. https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/breaking-katie-prices-dog-sparkle-21481066

    2. Same with Alice and the Dijk on a Bike, Balding – left the gate open and the dog ran into the path of a car. What is it with slebs that they can’t manage to close gates or make their mansions escape proof for canines?

    1. It’s time someone pointed out to the “visitors” that the UK has an established Protestant Church and what they preach is Christianity, including the beliefs about the Son of God and false prophets. From the Sermon on the Mount:

      Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

      1. Afternoon Jtl,
        I tend to practise leaning towards Rome but I totally agree with your post.
        Our main enemas currently wear ermine and pinstripe, I have only really time for one / two politico’s, Batten & Braine.
        Their ilk I strongly feel are going to be sorely needed in the near future.
        As can be seen but denied by many, submission, PCism, Appeasement are well used tools of the governance parties.
        These tools have, are, & will again kill.

  79. Just seen Corbyns performance on pmq’s, you can understand Corbyn having a go at a perceived open goal, but it seems to me that we are never going to get on top of crime if politicians play the race card every time someone tries to do something, the only people that suffer are the victims, they don’t care tuppence about them politicians just want their moment in front of the camera.
    Not sure how this helps race relations either.

  81. With ballooning costs in the news, I imagine this is not entirely true of the much queried National Census.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51468919

    Sir Ian [Diamond] acknowledged that costs had been rising, though he pointed out
    that a drive to get most people to complete next year’s census online
    would allow resources to be targeted at those who were less likely to
    respond.     – Emphasis added by Larkers.

    I have little doubt the several millions of illegal immigrants would fill in a lengthy Census form. I don’t know why in all honesty; what would happen to them even if these forms were actually read by a human? There is also the question as to whether another discreet demographic might consider the Census a means of tracking them. A subject rich in Human Rights appeals amply and generously funded by Mr & Mrs White Privilege no doubt.

    In a 2018 white paper, the government said its “ambition” was that
    “other sources of data” would be used after 2021, though it did not
    explicitly say that the census itself should be scrapped.

    Why not scrap the National Census? The fundamental ground for a Census is there exists a unified country to census in the first place.

    1. Morning Lad,
      To counter balance getting rid of the census put a worthwhile bounty on an illegals head.

      1. Good morning; I am so old I like the ‘lad’ bit. I can see how that might become a money spinner. The sheer wretchedness of our Border Force in doing anything – you know you are in deep trouble when they change the names don’t you? ‘Police Service’ and there goes policing – they might as well be called Ushers. There is no serious effort to deal with this issue, that also involves sex and other forms of exploitation. The authorities – weaklings all – are terrified of being accused of racism or the human rights industry. The National Census is a joke in poor taste.

        1. Lad,
          They put a bounty on rabbits heads & rabbits
          were / are completely
          innocent, as with sheep.
          I have yet to see a sheep vote in, time & time again, the same type odious, treacherous, politicians / parties.
          In point of fact I cannot
          bring to mind a sheep
          abusing a ballot booth in such a manner, but there is evidence of the users of the ballot booth
          abusing sheep, without consent.

      1. I think that sounds good but given the ease with which criminals hack and impersonate now, the only thing an I.D. card would do is take even more taxation-by-another-name from the honest.

        1. The way around that would be to have the person’s previously verified biometric data stored on a central database, which could be called up by a police officer on a hand-held device.

          1. Straight to court as ‘police state’ activities that ‘unfairly’ concentrate on a particular demographic. As someone always being stopped at borders to make up the quotas of elderly white men, I can’t see the point. Incidentally, a Parliamentary Committee was told last century there were at that time five million more National Insurance Numbers in circulation than Census figures predicted. If we cannot control that measure what price any other?

          2. As you say, so long as they also pull over the requisite proportion of elderly white (Methodists), there can’t be any accusation of racial profiling. Not that it would stop the Perpetually Offended BAME Brigade from crying ‘waycists!’.

          4. Our quite small eleven year old red-headed girl child, travelling alone, was turned over by German Airport security. Barking.

          6. Yep. Geoff Hoon said something similar at the time, “3m more NI numbers than people”. It is fraud on a huge scale.

          8. The wife of a friend worked in the local NI office. Down the road (where NI numbers are issued) she said that allegedly that office was full of black staff – any applicant with a black-sounding name was registered. No searches, no background needed – just in.

          9. So when stopped by a policeman* you may be asked to take off your shoes and socks to have your feet measured, instruments would be used to check your retina, fingerprints would be taken, ear lobes would be compared to known biometrics, hair would be analysed for dyes and colourants, and finally all clothing would be required to be removed so that tattoos and piercings could be photographed for comparison with the central database. I can see that working.

            * Police persons of other sexes and genders maybe available.

      1. Tell them that there will be an exam at the end of each session with a 75% pass rate before they can be paid.

  83. Afternoon, all. Been a sunny, if cold, day here so managed to spend a bit of time in the garden trying to alleviate the ravages of having had it dug up to repair the drains. There’s still some work left to be done to restore it to its previous condition, but at least the drains are working (and I’ve managed to solve the problem with the grey water outlet which the builders had managed to partially block – if I hadn’t pointed out their error before the concrete set it would have been completely blocked!).

    1. We’ve been wallpapering, interrupted by finding smashed roof tiles on the bench just outside our patio doors.
      So tomorrow, we have a couple of roofers coming to assess the damage and give us a price.
      This will be after we see a legal expert about our damp and damp-course problem.

      I’m starting not to like this house. It’s out to get us.

  84. “Jeremy Corbyn launched a scathing personal attack on Boris Johnson
    over the way black and white children connected to class A drugs are
    treated by the government in the wake of the deportation of ex-offenders
    to Jamaica.

    Speaking in the Commons, the Labour leader called out the prime
    minister over allegations of Johnson’s own drug use, saying: “If there
    was a case of a young white boy with blond hair who later dabbled in
    class A drugs, and conspired with a friend to beat up a journalist,
    would he deport that boy?

    “Or is it one rule for black boys from the Caribbean and another for white boys from the United States?””

        1. Unfortunately, despite his allegiances, I think Corbyn is British. Boris, having been born in NY, not so much 🙂

    2. Hang on, the difference being that Corbyn didn’t mention is that these black kids are the offspring of Jamaican yardies and are again part of the rap stabby stab brigade .

      1. What about equality, though ? Why are the ” baddies ” deported and the others left behind ? Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander. No discrimination please. They should ALL be deported.

      2. Afternoon Belle. Yes it was a stupid comparison which is why I didn’t comment on it myself.

    3. Is the white, blond boy a British citizen?
      Are the Jamaicans British or Jamaican citizens?
      And as the crimes committed by the Jamaicans included rape and murder, is Corbyn still going to defend them and pretend they are upstanding citizens of this country, who positively contribute to our society…

      And on Boris’s current form, if he carries on much longer down this left-wing, woke path, I’m ok with him being deported too, before he does any more damage.

  85. With regard to all the discussions on the transport infrastructure of the UK, everyone seems to be losing sight of the fact that the country is the third most densely populated in Europe. The strain on the road and rail network is near to breaking point, yet no one is interested in discussing the biggest problem for us all (and the root cause of the situation): overpopulation.

    The population densities of the biggest countries in Europe, in descending order, are:

    Netherlands: 420 [people per square km.]
    Belgium: 376
    UK: 274
    Liechtenstein: 240
    Luxembourg: 237
    Germany: 233
    Switzerland: 208
    Italy: 200
    Czechia: 135
    Denmark: 135
    France: 123
    Poland: 123
    Portugal: 112
    Slovakia: 111
    Austria: 106
    Hungary: 105
    Slovenia: 103
    Albania: 100
    Spain: 93
    Serbia: 89
    Romania: 81
    Greece: 81
    Croatia: 72
    Ukraine: 70
    Ireland: 70
    Bosnia & Herzegovina: 69
    Bulgaria: 63
    Lithuania: 43
    Latvia: 30
    Estonia: 29
    Sweden: 23
    Norway: 16
    Finland: 16
    Iceland: 3·5

    Since successive governments seem hell-bent on increasing the population on a small isle, the money and effort being expended on one aspect of transport (HS2) is utterly ridiculous when you take into consideration the ongoing and increasing strain on the whole infrastructure of the country that a constant influx of invaders brings.

    Life for all will be beyond unbearable in a few years’ time, but do the politicians care? Not as long as they can go on feathering their own nests. The Marie Antoinette dismissal, “Let them eat cake”, will never be more apposite!

    2. You are painting a far better picture than is actually the case.
      You should only be looking at England’s population density for such comparison.

        2. Perhaps you should, you might be unpleasantly surprised.
          It might also make your comment more relevant.

    4. “According to the 2011 census, the total population of the United Kingdom was around 63,182,000.[1] It is the 21st-most populated country in the world. Its overall population density is 259 people per square kilometre (671 people per sq mi), with England having a significantly higher population density than Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.[2] Almost one-third of the population lives in England’s southeast, which is predominantly urban and suburban, with about 9 million in the capital city of London, the population density of which is just over 5,200 per square kilometre (13,468 per sq mi).[3]”

      Wikipedia.
      And we know those figures are well out of date. According to the same article, in 2011, the population density of England was 430 per square km, which is more than the Netherlands, i.e. England is the most densely populated country in Europe.

  86. I’ve send a post on a site I like to post
    ( Archbishop cranmer ) I send one of those posts directly
    to @AbpCranmar where the writing turns blue for the request .
    I asked to be white listed due to the problems with the issues that
    are present with the vote munching.
    He hasn’t responded yet, but others think it a joke,
    Like many others it’s a private site that uses Disqus that hasn’t
    been affected, so people think it sounds made up.
    I’ve not got many left. I shall be quiet online for a while and
    do other things. Thank you for white listing me here, it means a lot .
    Take care .

        2. He spends most of his time explaining to people that his surname is pronounced, “Butty Jeeje”.

          [The rest of the time he tries to dissuade fellow Demonrats from voting for a geriatic commie!]

          1. Why would you want to spend time telling people to pronounce your name as ‘Horse Sandwich’ or ‘Horse @rse’?

      1. I live on the Heart of Wales line and I am the only person who ever calls it Shrowsbury. I have a book in the bookcase called BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British place names. They should read it.

      2. Locals at Southwell in Nottinghamshire (birthplace of the Bramley Apple) call it “South Well”. At race meetings at the local racecourse, Peter O’Sullevan invariably called it “Suth‘ll”.

        Blidworth and Rainworth in Notts are “Bliddorth” and “Rennorth”.

          1. Nottingham was originally called Snottingham, a name which I delighted in reminding the locals of. :•)

        1. Cockermouth without the Ermouth.
          Penistone without the Tone.
          Lightwater without the Ligher.
          Clitheroe without the Heroe.

      4. Chillingham, Eglingham, Whittingham and the difference between Bellingham and Bellingham!

    3. You’re as bad as the Yanks, dear. You have pronounced Worcester correctly, but please don’t go public on YouTube misspelling it like you have done here: “Worchester”? You’ll only make yourself a laughing stock.

    1. Brill, Rik.

      But don’t tell Greta. The carbon footprint of those penguins must be planet-destroying! :•)

  97. Afternoon, Mods. I’m on the naughty step after replying to Riks’ ‘Awkward 2’ posting. Not a rude word in sight but I’ve been parked.

    1. Afternoon, KTK. Can’t see why your posts were held. I’ve approved them, and added you to ‘trusted users’, in case you weren’t already on that list. Carry on…

      1. You have a naughty step ? 😉
        There are those who’d see daughter of Alfred of Wessex
        speaking of bloodied axes and long bows as Anglo Saxon
        encouraging dark age type of white privilege skulduggery .

        Might investigate the naughty step 🙂

      1. Been on a Ketogenic low-carb diet since New Year. I’ve not eaten sugar (or alcohol) in any form since. I’ve shed a stone in the past 5 weeks, feel much more alert, and sleep like a log. I have no sugar cravings any more and I am full after a small portion of the one meal a day that I eat. Never felt better for years.

        However, if you handed me a slice of that Christmas cake, I’d still probably sniff it for a high! 👍🏻🎂☹️

    2. We went to a coffee shop today (not Costa) and they had Christmas pudding on the menu.

      Not a traditional February lunch but quite pleasing.

      1. Just before Christmas, I found one (a Christmas pudding) on a shelf in the darkest depths of the pantry that I had made two years earlier. The Christmas pudding, that is, not the shelf. I had wondered where that basin had got to….. Anyway, the pudding was absolutely scrumptious (not a word one hears very often these days) and totally delicious, full of lovely matured flavours.

        1. SWMBO buys Xmas puds, at the end of Christmas, for eating the next year. The extra year of maturing makes all the difference in flavour!

          1. We have a Waitrose Christmas Pudding bought Dec 2018 waiting to be consumed very shortly when I am up for the calorific load. One year I saved a pudding (homemade) over to the next and when I opened it to check on it a couple of days before The Day it had completely turned to dust! Aaagh. We had to dash out and buy a Cole’s Christmas pud, very last minute. (Cole’s are delicious puddings, found more frequently than they were back in those days but we lived not too distant from the site of manufacture in Saffron Walden).

  99. Off topic

    That areshole’s arsehole, Bercow, is on the TV. (I was refilling the woodburner).

    What a supercilious self aggrandising complete and utter fundamental female orifice that dwarf is.

    1. There’s a lot of them about……………..

      “Gove says in a speech yesterday that the ‘UK has a moral debt to the
      planet. Because we pioneered the Industrial Revolution we played the
      biggest role in powering the change in our climate through our use of
      carbon based fuels’. That a senior cabinet minister should come out with
      this palpable nonsense tells us that only a revolution will get us out
      of this hole.”

      1. I took MOH to Costa for drinks today (don’t ask! NOT my choice) and the walls were plastered with pictures of foreigners and how Costa were making a difference. Sorry, I want to be making a difference HERE to our indigenous.

      2. How do these utter idiots get elected, let alone be made ministers?

        Apart from anything else, pretty much the whole world burnt wood, a carbon based, if highly inefficient fuel, for centuries before the industrial revolution just to keep warm. Perhaps Gove should find out who invented fire and dump the blame there.

  100. Hello all,

    Just re-logged in.

    One has to have nerves and balls of steel to read all in one go, the endless details of corruption and incompetence that you’ve posted below. 🙁

    Edited to add: And above 🙁

  102. It must be pretty obvious by now to the electorate that the lesson to be learnt regarding HS2 is that the political butler holds the reins & you WILL fall in line.
    It is more a power move than anything else showing the peoples there is a pecking order and the peoples are
    down the line.
    The electorate MUST learn to bow the head & a touch to the forelock would not go amiss when the butler passes.

    2. Good grief, I’m very surprised that lacoste fancies you…

      If that came out of my shower, I would pray to be turned into a brewer, complete with droop.

      Yeaughhh.

          1. Can’t do much good for the toe joints either, I would have thought. Too crushing by the look of things. Bunion-makers!

          2. Yes!!…bunions indeed. Yuk. I have always loved my little ballet slipper slip ons, so comfy!

          5. Forgive my asking what might appear a stupid question, but why would you wear shoes when you’re lying down?

          9. They need a new set of shoes approximately every four weeks (depending on how much roadwork they do) – eat your heart out 🙂

          4. I had to look that up….you learn something new every day. So, he was a one word guy. How my hubby would wish that on me…ha ha.

        2. Ha ha…….I rang my GP surgery this morning as the lurgy is not improving and with heart problem, I was told always to check in so i did….the first thing the receptionist asked after explaining my problem was…’Have you been to China or in contact with anyone from there?…..lol. Made me smile the suggestion I could get to China.

          Anyway, GP came out and i have a lower respiratory infection in chest and lungs so on strong antibiotics now.

          1. When I visited my surgery this morning there were very few people in the waiting room. The car park in the other Practice in town had very few cars in it. I suspect many people are deciding not to visit the surgeries during these worrying times.

          6. Good evening, Jenny, the BBC have identified it as ‘contagious’ – I don’t think they know the difference between contagious and infectious.

          7. My neighbour has had the same; she hadn’t been any closer to China than a porcelain tea-cup as well 🙂

          8. Rofl…..China…I ask you. I wish I could have thought of something witty – but not at my best first thing….lol.

    3. Utterly wonderful. Tony Hicks was the most criminally underrated lead guitarist. His exquisite licks were the making of most of the Hollies’ hits.

  106. Just received another e-mail from our electricity supplier, stating that our meter is being phased (!) out. I assume it’s yet another attempt to bully us into having a smart meter installed. I’d love to know what the legal position is on this type of communication.

      1. Last time my electricity company asked me to have a “smart” meter and I refused, the woman asked me why. I said she didn’t have time for me to list the reasons!

  107. Just watched us lose the first of the 3 South African T20 matches by a couple of runs. An enjoyable close game all the same.

      1. Since the snow came all the wife has done is look through the window.
        If it gets any worse, I’ll have to let her in.

  109. Well that’s it. I’m down to zero upvotes! What’s next? Ragnarok? The Apocalypse? Coronavirus?

      2. Minty’s on the list. I added most people when we first started getting a bit worried by this bug.

    2. Me too. Not bothered, except as an ex software designer, it irks me to see software like Disqus being either very “buggy” or very easy to hack. As modern software goes, it’s not that complex, so no real excuses.

        2. I was zeroed some weeks ago and today Disqus bit back: I couldn’t post because I had become persona non grata even unto Nottle land. Rik explained why and Geoff has ‘white listed’ me, so I’m back. If you’re not on the little list you should ask Geoff to put you there.

    5. Me too. Not bothered, except as an ex software designer, it irks me to see software like Disqus being either very “buggy” or very easy to hack. As modern software goes, it’s not that complex, so no real excuses.

      1. If the system can be hacked to eat upvotes, how about a ‘reverse-hack’ to burp up some replacements?

          1. All our accounts were wiped when disqus did a clean up and now they only show comments from the new site.

          5. Ok, you’re worryingly obsessive if you’ve kept records of posts going back two years. What’s the point?

        2. Yes odd. I’m on my phone for a change. Normally I can’t get in via the phone, but suddenly I’m allowed. Happy posting!

          1. I found the other week that my phone uses my old account and not this one which I’m using on the laptop. As I don’t log out it really doesn’t matter much.

  110. Confucius, he say:”O Fuk!”
    “Today, two days after China officially returned to work, we got the first confirmation of just how catastrophic Beijing’s order to local enterprises and businesses to rush back reboot the economy could be, when Jennifer Zeng reported that a company in Suzhou reopened, and immediately at least one CoVid2019 case found. As a result, the company’s 200+ employees couldn’t go home and were immediately placed under quarantine.”

    2. I too, have lost over 4,000 votes. but Geoff assures me that the disqus teenagers don’t give a stuff since 90% on here are old, white and hate Californians.

    2. The darned thing is 600+ light years away, so Feb 21st is a bit irrelevant. It’s either “popped” already or it hasn’t.

      Time for the old Hank Williams song perhaps:

      I saw the light, I saw the light
      No more darkness, no more night
      Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight
      Praise the Lord, I saw the light.

      2. If it happened six million years ago next week we could be in for an interesting seven days.

          2. If Betelgeuse shows up as a supernova, it will have already taken place in 1377. That is when King Richard II succeeded Edward III, and Pope Gregory XI moved the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.

            THAT is how distant that tiny speck of orange—which you think you are seeing in real time—really is!

          3. It’s not looking very orange at the moment. Even I’d noticed how small it now appears, and I’m not the most observant.

      2. I’ve got a great big Gothic house,
        With turrets here and there
        And had the grounds all landscaped
        With gnomes leaping everywhere
        I’ve a lovely crazy-paved patio
        And an ornamental lake
        Where my wife and I take mid-morning tea
        With a slice of Madeira cake
        Oh I wish I could succeed and be a social winner
        And I wish my friends arrived at one
        When I asked them round for dinner.
        Oh, I know I’ve got the brass
        But I haven’t got the class
        And the whole situation
        Is getting up … I mean’s become a farce.

    2. Now if it could still fly….

      I always thought the Victor was the best looking of the three, but the Vulcan was really impressive – especially if it flew over you.

    6. Why don’t they offer it to Hendon or Cosford (or Elvington or Newark or, indeed, any other post WW2 aviation museum)? It’s free; all they have to do is arrange transport. If it’s preserved we may need it should the Argies kick off again!

      1. I’ve just read Vulcan 607, the story of the Falklands atttack. Even though you think you know the story, the details of planning, setbacks and the sheer logistical effort make it a gripping read.

        2. I have the book. That we only had one to complete the mission, (stuffing a rag in the cracked windscreen to try to complete it is typical) speaks volumes about how unprepared we, ie our government, were to fulfil the operational needs of the military, while the can-do attitude of the said military put them to shame.

  121. Vladimir Putin travels with his own private bathroom, according to Julia Louis-Dreyfus. 12 February 2020.

    “Then get a load of this,” Louis-Dreyfus said playfully, with a little bit of foreshadowing. “They told us that Vladimir Putin travels with his own bathroom, that they had to set up outside the museum, right in front, so that if he needed to use the facilities, he had his own. And it’s his very own ‘Porta Potty’ that he travels with on the plane. And he uses it on the plane, too.” And because Louis-Dreyfus was on a roll with her poop-related puns, the Downhill star concluded her story with the best statement.

    Of course Her Maj takes hers on Foreign trips, the seat is covered in Kid leather to protect the Royal Rear and there’s a choice of several on Air Force One!

    https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/vladimir-putin-travels-with-private-bathroom-according-julia-louis-dreyfus-072632066.html

  123. We are having a cup of tea , watching the box , BBC2 .. you should see what fishermen are pulling out of the North Sea , Wooly Rhino bones and Mammoth tusks and other delights found in the fishing nets as the boats trawl .

    Climate change?

    The bones are over 40,000 years old .

    What was that about doing away with petrol and diesel cars in 12 years time?

    2. They must be churning up the sea bed then and doing massive damage to the underwater environment.

      1. This is a result of the fishing available able to UK fishermen being relentlessly cut back year after year. They are forced into the difficult fringes.

  125. “Falklands badminton team face tournament expulsion after Argentina demands they play as ‘Islas Malvinas'”

    Oh well – no more Argentinian wine on the shopping list…..

      3. But French! No-no. We have to be prepared to pay for our freedom. There are other S. American wines…

        1. …at £1.00 less than the Argentinian, Lass, my patriotism is to my pocket, not to land-grabbing Argentinians. However, I do look at Chilean, Australian and NZ wines as well but I also appreciate some Spanish (I lived there for 5 years and made friends who introduced me to wines the average English never see) German and, yes, French. For a white wine it’s hard to beat a nice dry and cooled, Chablis.

          Forgive the delay in answering, disqus can be slow in delivering your comments. Txx

          1. IMO Chilean and Australian are the best bet wines, given that I try not to buy EU. Apart from English (though the latter is a bit pricey at the moment).

            I have to agree with you re. Chablis…

    5. the Argentine government launched a frenzied lobbying effort on the eve of the tournament, telling the sport’s governing bodies they do not have
      the power to recognise a region “subject to a sovereignty dispute”.

      Argie twats, I had thought we’d clarified the “sovereignty issue” for them in 1982.

      1. Lady Thatcher showed full metal jacket in that. Perhaps we should have done a Dresden or two on them to shut them up.

        2. She was a fine woman and a patriot, Phil.

          In these troubled times, we really could be doing with a leader with her determination and strength of character.

          1. I nominate President Trump but Putin would do if Trump was busy. We don’t appear to have anyone anymore to defend us.

  126. ‘The Falkland Islands badminton team are facing possible expulsion from an international tournament after Argentina demanded they play as ‘Islas Malvinas’.

    Organisers of the Pan America 2020 badminton tournament received an extraordinary series of letters from Argentine and Brazilian officials regarding players representing the British territory.’

    Unfinished business.

      1. Similarly, Johnny, the Spanish do not understand the wording of the Treaty of Utrecht that cedes Gibraltar to the United Kingdom, “In Perpetuity.”

        1. It has always been the same. Men living in a hot country with no weather go insane. They become argumentative and emotional. They become paranoid and start to wave their arms around a lot. When you confront this behaviour they lose it. It’s why our regiments/Military were so successful. And also for the same reasons they have been weakened to the point of being ineffectual.

  129. Just been out for a chow mein from the local Chinese.
    Their food is great. Certainly not to be sneezed at.

    2. Hopefully Bernie will have a heart attack. Might upset Lottie though. She thinks he is the bees knees.

      1. A very old bee – and unelectable. Americans don’t do socialism – of any sort. That’s why neither of the parties support anything like national healthcare – choice of doctor, hospital, surgeons, etc., is enshrined in US thinking.

  135. Oh dear……

    Are the wheels falling off already ?

    Who paid for Prime Minister Johnson’s mega expensive Caribbean holiday ?

    Let’s hope it’s not part of ”forming strong relationships with officials and politicians” !

    ”Boris Johnson’s holiday freebie riddle: Prime Minister declares phone millionaire as donor of his £15,000 New Year break in Mustique with Carrie Symonds – but tycoon says: Oh no, I wasn’t…”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7997379/Prime-Minister-declares-millionaire-donor-New-Year-break-tycoon-says-Oh-no-wasnt.html#comments

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