Wednesday 17 March: European vaccine ‘precautions’ are based on a shaky grasp of risk

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/03/17/letterseuropean-vaccine-precautions-based-shaky-grasp-risk/

742 thoughts on “Wednesday 17 March: European vaccine ‘precautions’ are based on a shaky grasp of risk”

  1. First! Good morning, all. It’s just turned midnight and I’m now off to bed. Good night, all.

        1. At least you can’t recall nightmares either, I suppose living through the past year is nightmare enough.

    1. Top o’ the mornin’ to yer, Conners! If you’re goin’ to an Irish “bash” tonight don’t forget yer shillailigh!

      :-))

  3. Star Trek!
    or should it be the dark side?

    The Iranian Ambassador to the UN had just finished giving a speech and walked out into the lobby of the convention centre where he was introduced to a U.S. Marine General.

    As they talked, the Iranian said, “I have just one question about what I have seen in America.”

    The General said, “Well, anything I can do to help?”

    The Iranian whispered, “My son watches this show called Star Trek and in it there is… Kirk who is Canadian, Chekhov who is Russian, Scotty who is Scottish, Uhura who is black, and Sulu who is Japanese, but there are NO Muslims. My son is very upset and doesn’t understand why there aren’t any Iranians, Iraqis, Afghans, Egyptians, Palestinians, Saudis, Syrians, or Pakistanis on Star Trek.”

    The General leaned toward the Iranian Ambassador, and whispered in his ear, “That’s because it takes place in the future.”

  5. I really dont like the expression “In any way, shape or form”.

    I just thought I’d get that off my chest.

    2. I know what’s you mean Stormy. I have a problem with the word ‘stylish’.

  6. ‘Morning All

    Undercover cops in pubs,ever more powers to criminalise protest,it’s all getting very sinister…

    Will it come to this……………..

    “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have
    been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make
    an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to
    say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as
    for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire
    city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror
    at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the
    staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had
    boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people
    with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs
    would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport
    and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would
    have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even
    more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and
    simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
    Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

    1. 330438+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      Up until now that warning has fell on thick / deaf ears and is so fitting for our present standing as a Country.

      Currently benefit of doubt a high % of lab/lib/con MPs could be Saints but they answer to treacherous /controlling overseers, so to benefit ALL the saints MUST be starved of support / votes thereby denying power to the overseers.

      Start with the 6th May keeping in mind a vote for
      reset / replacement will only be achieved by a lab/lib/con
      vote, these two campaigns are up & running with people’s consent via the last GE.

    2. “We are ruled by cretins.”

      I wasn’t aware that you were given to understatement, Rik? 😉

    1. Actually Rik, I believe that In parts of Africa the women prefer midhusbands because they are much more sympathetic to the pains. Most of the midwives have had up to 10 children and say “it’s only a little pain – stop bawling and get on with it!”

  12. Boris Johnson is a champion of liberty – but only for people like him. Owen Jones. 17 March 2021.

    The battle cry of “free speech” is yet another striking example. For the right, this is not a defence of genuine free expression – a precondition of any democracy worthy of the name – but rather of using public platforms to broadcast bigoted views against minorities, who largely lack representation in a media ecosystem dominated by the right. While we are told that there is a “free speech” crisis in universities, one study of 10,000 student events in 2020 found two instances of “no platforming” – one involving a convicted fraudster, the other Jeremy Corbyn.

    Morning everyone. Here we see in one paragraph the inutility of the Socialist Mind. Free Speech has to be “genuine” i.e. approved by Owen and his ilk. That it would include everyone Good or Bad, Stupid or Smart, is beyond his comprehension. It is to be reserved for those who have the right views, his views. It also explains their bewilderment when they are arrested by the very laws that they have themselves promulgated!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/16/boris-johnson-champion-liberty-rights-freedoms

    1. ‘Morning, Minty, what a twisted mind that Jones thing has.

      He sees the MSM (a media ecosystem) as dominated by the bigoted right when in truth, it is he and his ilk who dominate the ‘Media Ecosystem’.

  15. Police and crime commissioners call for misogyny to be made hate crime. 17 March 2021.

    Ms Bourne said there needed to be a “culture change” across society, with concerns about the way women were treated brought to a head by the suspected abduction and suspected murder of Ms Everard.

    “This micro-aggression that women and girls experience every day is endemic,” she said. “We can change as a society. You need legislation to change this. Yes, I think misogyny should be a hate crime. But I would like to go further. I think we should have sexual harassment in public as a crime that we should adopt.”

    We are going to have a “culture change” to the means by which boys have met girls for tens of thousands of years? I don’t doubt that they will attempt but I don’t give much for their chances. That it will cause great anxiety to those first setting out to find someone is a certainty. It does however illustrate the deep departure from reality that the Woke Elites have adopted. As a body they are now quite simply unhinged. Every evil they perceive, every human frailty, can be set right by passing some law!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/17/police-crime-commissioners-call-misogyny-made-hate-crime/

    1. In other words, the reason so many women feel so unsafe is not because the entire male sex is a menace, nor because there aren’t enough laws to criminalise them. It’s because of the seismic cultural shift in which the bargain of mutual interest between the sexes has been torn up. Women are unsafe in large measure because the culture has become degenerate. And there’s not one politician brave enough to do a thing about it.

      Morning Anne. Words of Wisdom there! Who can ever be safe in a decadent and corrupt society?

    2. Melanie Phillips- the voice of reason, often the only sensible speaker on The Moral Maze.
      Pity her initials aren’t also her post-nominals.

    1. Interesting article Anñe, thank you.

      One has to wonder though why this has to happen in the first place:

      If a UK firm buys a ton of cheese from the US and then cuts it up, packages and sells it to the EU, it must pay a tariff under the rules of origin. […] Why is cheese imported from the EU, cut up and wrapped in UK and exported back to the EU, treated the same as if the cheese originally came from outside the EU.

      Likewise with the tanker of Spanish wine bottles in Britain then sold back to Spain.

  19. AstraZeneca…….

    Morning

    SIR – Several European countries have stopped using the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine “as a precaution” because of fears it may cause blood clots.

    At best this seems a curious choice of words, and at worst a failure to understand risk management.

    Pausing vaccinations carries its own risks because many millions of people will remain unprotected against Covid for longer. Many others in Europe and beyond may also be deterred from receiving the jab, even when inoculations resume.

    Suspending the rollout can be justified as a precautionary measure only if European leaders know already that the risks from adverse reactions to the jab outweigh the risks of halting the programme.

    Paul Bennington

    Guildford, Surrey

    SIR – Consider a population in which Covid is currently killing 1,000 people per day. Accept the hypothesis that completing the vaccination programme will end the pandemic. It follows that delaying the programme by one day will prolong the pandemic by one day, and will therefore cause 1,000 avoidable deaths.

    Advertisement

    European leaders are not using a “precautionary’” principle at all. In fact, they are seeking to manage blame. If you die from Covid, you blame the virus. Die following a vaccination, and you blame whoever gave you the vaccine.

    For those yet to be inoculated, it is important to remember that we are comparing a handful of deaths from blood clots, which may have nothing to do with the vaccine, with thousands of daily deaths from Covid. The logical choice is obvious. Have the vaccine.

    The only other explanation for Europe’s failure of logic is that it’s driven by the politics of Brexit. Call me naive, but I hope it’s statistical ignorance rather than malice.

    Professor Peter Furness

    Whissendine, Rutland

    SIR – The temporary suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine by several European countries is manna from heaven for the anti-vaxxers who already have a significant presence in France and elsewhere.

    As a result of the EU’s continued briefing against a vaccine to hide its own appalling inertia, even more European citizens will succumb to Covid and perhaps die.

    Advertisement

    Bill Todd

    Twickenham, Middlesex

    SIR – If the EU no longer wants to use the AstraZeneca vaccine, could it please send doses to Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax), which I am sure would be most happy to use them?

    This is a political decision, taken to cover up a disastrous vaccination programme, and has nothing to do with safety, as the World Health Organisation, European Medicines Agency and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency have all said the vaccine is safe.

    Dr Martin Keech

    Guildford, Surrey

    1. The first few letters suggest a failure to understand the nature of the perception of personal risk, even among those who understand statistics.
      I do not in the least care if the mortality rate from vaccine side effects is 1%. I do care very much about being in that 1%. The 99 who get the vaccine and go away singing and dancing do not concern me. My concern is that I might be the one that succumbs.
      So why do so people get side effects and some do not? Without that information, how do I decide if I am in that 1%?

      This is an illustration, not my personal view.
      It is particularly noticeable that the side effects are explained away as not being side effects but coincidental. The reasons are not given. there are no facts on which to make an informed decision. It is simply another case of “trust us, trust the science, trust your government” when it has been obvious since January 2020 that none of them had the least clue, and still don’t.

  20. Morning again

    Police priorities

    SIR – Monday’s Telegraph carried this quotation from a Scotland Yard spokesman: “Members of the public can report allegations of any kind of harassment to local police online or on 101 – the information will be assessed and all evidence investigated thoroughly.”

    I live in the Thames Valley Police area. Three times in the past two years I have called 101 with a non-emergency concern (a dangerous dog, for example) and on each occasion, after waiting 15 minutes, I have reverted to 999 and then been rudely admonished for using the emergency number.

    Advertisement

    Would a police spokesman like to clarify what members of the public should really do?

    V T Evenson

    Didcot, Oxfordshire

    SIR – The police would be in a much better position to protect women (and everyone else) had Theresa May not foolishly agreed to Treasury demands in 2010 to reduce funding for police by 18 per cent, resulting in the loss of more than 20,000 mainly experienced officers.

    John Preston

    Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire

    SIR – Undoubtedly it will affect the recruitment of police officers if potential recruits are aware that they will be vilified for carrying out their duty of upholding the law.

    Pauline Edwards

    Harrow, Middlesex

    SIR – I wonder how Sarah Everard’s parents feel about their daughter’s tragic murder being hijacked and politicised by the likes of Reclaim These Streets.

    As the mother of three young sons, I am disgusted by the way men are being demonised in the media, portrayed as manipulative sex pests, rapists and now murderers. Let’s learn to treat each other with respect.

    Lorna Robertson

    Whyteleafe, Surrey

  21. Lockdowns don’t work

    SIR – The suggestion that “it’s unarguable that we should have gone into lockdown earlier” is simply wrong.

    The weight of academic evidence is that lockdowns have little independent impact on hospitalisations and deaths. In contrast, voluntary changes to behaviour seem to be a significant factor in slowing and eventually reversing surges in infections.

    Given the lag between infection and death, the fact that Covid-related deaths peaked in England on April 8 last year suggests that infections had begun to drop well before the national lockdown on March 23. More recently, every indicator confirms that infections were falling in England well before the third national lockdown in January.

    What is certain, however, is that compulsory lockdown restrictions have carried unimaginable economic and social costs to society – to say nothing of their devastating impact on freedom, basic rights and respect for the law.

    Professor David Paton

    Chair of Industrial Economics, Nottingham University Business School

    1. Lockdowns and dreadful dereliction of duty by doctors some of whom claim never to have heard of Ivermectin a transforming drug which would have saved thousands of lives.

    4. The lock up was designed to allow the NHS toadapt to the circumstances.

      It didn’t do anything differently, so when the next wave hit the response was the same.

      Distancing is pointless as, well, air travels. Masks are to help other people not get infected by you, which again, is daft as you want to get infected – that’s what the vaccine is – to build an immunity.

      In sum, the protect the NHS proved pointless, distancing was pointless and the ultimate goal was to infect us all anyway. Why did we do anything differently?

  22. Garden loofahs

    SIR – My wife grew loofahs (Letters, March 16) in the open air in our front garden last year. One can’t get much greener than that.

    We now use them as pan scrubbers.

    Alexander Simpson

    Market Drayton, Shropshire

  23. Pressure mounts on Boris Johnson to launch coronavirus inquiry. 17 March 2021.

    Senior doctors, government scientific advisers and a former head of the civil service have spoken out in favour of a public inquiry into the UK’s handling of Covid-19, raising pressure on Boris Johnson to finally launch the process as the UK’s coronavirus fatalities rose to almost 126,000.

    Thousands of bereaved families, nurses and ethnic minority leaders also backed calls for an inquiry into everything from lockdown tactics to test and trace after the UK’s handling of the pandemic resulted in the worst death toll per capita of any of the world’s large economies.

    We need not concern ourselves about an inquiry! I have seen a score or more in my lifetime and there hasn’t been one that didn’t arrive at a conclusion that seriously affected any Government or Politician and most have absolved them of all responsibility for Gross Incompetence or War Crimes!.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/16/pressure-mounts-on-boris-johnson-to-launch-coronavirus-inquiry

    1. And they cost hundreds of millions. I know that is but a drop in the ocean compared with Test and Trace — but still, let us save hat we can.

    3. An inquiry is designed to put the state in the clear. If the Left want one, then it’s to attack those they hate. If the Right want one it’s to find the truth. No inquiry in history has ever found the cause because doing so would reveal incompetence, corruption and fraud on a monstrous scale.

  24. My sceptical views on the covid vaccine are known: taking the jab is a box ticking exercise to allow my grandchildren to be (gasp) young.
    However, I did enjoy this article by Allison Pearson.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/eu-cutting-nose-spite-face-astrazeneca-jab/

    “The EU is cutting off its nose to spite its face over the AstraZeneca jab

    Whether they mean to or not, Europe’s petulant leaders are promulgating an anti-vaxxer message

    17 March 2021 • 5:00am

    I had my first jab last week and I literally didn’t feel a thing. In fact, I wondered if it had happened at all. Where was that terrible knitting-needle thing you see plunged into people’s arms on the TV news?

    The gusting rain outside could not dampen the festive atmosphere in the queue. It was like being seven years old and lining up to meet Father Christmas. One of the marshalls joked that he’d volunteered “just to get out the house”. He told us we’d be having the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. They’d had some of the Pfizer earlier on, but this one was much easier to store.

    A woman in front of me said she’d be injected with absolutely anything “if I can go out and eat a meal I haven’t cooked myself”. That pretty much summed up the mood. Despite what the polls say, I reckon most people are done with Covid and lockdown.

    Friends warned me about possible side effects – fever, headache like a shoe-last buried in the back of your skull – but I didn’t have any. Except feeling tired, fed up and shouting at Matt Hancock, which is par for the course these days.

    In general, our group felt lucky to have got the AstraZeneca. I was about to say I was surprised that so many European countries have suspended the Oxford vaccine rollout amid safety fears. But that wouldn’t strictly be true. I mean, how many people could have predicted that the arrogant, unaccountable, fabulously incompetent EU would rather act spitefully and punish British success by cutting off its nose to spite its face than protect its citizens from severe illness and death?

    Apart from the 17,410,742 prophetic geniuses who voted for Brexit, that is.

    Fifteen EU states have “paused” use of our vaccine, despite the fact that the EMA, Europe’s medical regulator, has said that the benefits “outweigh the risks of side effects”. First, Austria reported that a person was diagnosed with blood clots and died 10 days after they received the vaccination. Another was hospitalised with a pulmonary embolism. Germany reported “cases” of cerebral blood clots and said further investigations were necessary. More people are dying of excess strudel in Baden-Württemberg than the British vaccine.

    No connection, I’m sure, between this scientifically unjustified response and the dire headlines European leaders are attracting for failing to secure enough vaccine. Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats slumped to their worst-ever election defeat in two states this week. Apparently, the Germans are not impressed by their Government’s distinctly un-German, chaotic response to the pandemic.

    The UK’s decision to pursue a successful, independent vaccine strategy has acutely embarrassed the EU. That’s what this tantrum is about. While the Europeans are playing “We didn’t want your vaccine anyway, so, ner!”, all remaining over-50s in the UK are expected to be called up for a vaccine in the coming days. A sudden surge in supply means that half of all British adults will have had a jab by the end of the week. If you can’t join ’em, beat ’em.

    Honesty about vaccine safety is essential to maintain public confidence, which has been incredibly high so far in the UK. Whether they mean to or not, though, Europe’s petulant leaders are promulgating an anti-vaxxer message, which could result in thousands of unnecessary deaths.

    With fewer than three dozen cases of blood clots after more than 10 million vaccinations, the AstraZeneca jab carries the same risk as taking the Pill.

    Funny, no one is talking about suspending that, are they?”

    1. Four weeks ago I had my first jab (Oxford). I am still “aware” of the puncture point. Not pain; not an itch – just a feeling on my upper arm.

      1. Have you looked at your arm in the mirror? Could it be the nurse having a joke and instead of the vaccination, giving you a tattoo which says “Kilroy woz ‘ere” in Chinese characters?

      2. Have you looked at your arm in the mirror? Could it be the nurse having a joke and instead of the vaccination, giving you a tattoo which says “Kilroy woz ‘ere” in Chinese characters?

      3. It must have been longer ago than that, Bill – I had mine on 6th Feb and I’m younger than you!

    2. Why are nations chained to the EU now called ‘state’s’? It is not a United State’s of Europe. Those are independent countries – or they were, before their politicians wanted cash.

      1. If they do, the headline will be “Poor little dragons slain by wicked Englishman in heavy-handed use of a sword”.

      2. If they do, the headline will be “Poor little dragons slain by wicked Englishman in heavy-handed use of a sword”.

    2. The description is ambiguous. It could mean a man enslaved by the British, or it could mean a British man who was enslaved. The latter is the truth, as Patrick was captured by Irish raiders in Britain and enslaved in Ireland.

  27. To take your minds off the ghastliness that is the news.

    When I went to bed last night, Pickles came upstairs. He started having a go at the airing cupboard door. Banging on it, trying to tunnel underneath.

    I got up and told him not to be stupid. He jumped onto the bed and seemed agitated – then went off to the airing cupboard door again.

    After ten more minutes of noise, I got up AGAIN and went to him. “Look,” I said, “There is NOTHING there.”

    I opened the door to show him.

    Out walked his brother….

  28. President Trump says that he is not a fan of ‘Migraine’!

    But he hopes that she runs for President in 2024 because it will give him an even stronger reason towards running!

    1. If she does become POTUS, Ginge will have overtaken his Dad, when he becomes First Gentleman

      Charlie was never that to his mother

  30. 330438+ up ticks,
    The killing fields of westminster,
    Dt
    China ‘threat’ and nuclear stockpiling: Boris Johnson reveals a vision for ‘match-fit’ Britain in a post-Brexit world
    The Prime Minister has published the results of a months-long Integrated Review into defence, security and foreign policy

    That should read “match lit ” Britain, reset up & running, more potential troops / felons entering via the smoothly running DOVER campaign
    well proven allies kicked into touch, plus highly polished plump carrots
    laid out in preparation for multi support on the 6th May.

    I personally liken the lab/lib/con coalition as the black widow spider fan club in so far as their supporters are in danger of being devoured after
    planting their loving X, then replaced, via DOVER even.

    1. Result

      defence,: Very little

      security None

      foreign policy : Organised by Davos/Big Reset/Sors etc

      1. 330438+ up ticks,
        Morning Olt,
        To consent to these policies then a lab/lib/con vote is a must, and that will bring the death of a Nation that much nearer.

  31. Good morning from a bright but overcast Derbyshire with a somewhat chillier 1°C in the yard.

    1. Yes. Definitely do not want Germany valuing the UK to their advantage, but will the £ be worth anything by the time Sunak et al have finished printing to fill the chasm they have created with this “crisis”?

      1. ‘Morning, LIM, when Sunak has devalued the Pound it will have to be replaced by the Reichspfund, on the orders of a new ‘Strong’ leader.

        Isn’t that how it goes?

        2. I think it will be the Reichscoin won’t it? Put us all on some kind of cryptocurrency.

  33. Good morning all! Today I will mostly be getting my first dose of vaccine. I have no idea which brand it will be and ?I am not happy about having it. However, if I want to see my family in Greece and to “open up ” the country I will need to have it. I am being blackmailed.

    1. My other half had it yesterday, bit of a sleepless night, tossing and turning, but that’s enough about me, must have been suffering some vaxx sympathy symptoms.

      2. I don’t understand anti-vaxers. Are they not as good as Hoovers, Dysons and Sharks?

      2. It will be annoying if we all have it and they still wont let us travel, personally i think we have seen the end of cheap flights and holidays abroad for the masses.

        2. 330438+ up ticks,
          Morning B3,
          As with the state of the Nation, done with the consent of the masses.
          What I will find ” bloody annoying” Bob is when they, the political wardens start with the rubber bullets leading to ….

        3. Which is what the state wants. That way by forcing down use it can claim to have met the utterly pointless and unnecessary climate change target drivel.

    3. Ditto to see my sisters and their families in New Zealand at a later date, Sue.

    4. It’ll probably be the OAZ. My brother, a volunteer vaccinator, tells me that’s all people seem to be getting, with Pfizer’s kept back for second doses. I had the OAZ and had no effects and my brother reports a lot of aching joints for a while but few others, whereas my wife had the Pfizer and suffered a reaction. The statistics show that the OAZ is safe and, if anything, has a lower occurrence of many illnesses than without vaccination. I was sceptical at first, but now we’ve had millions of doses for the most vulnerable it’s clear to me That the risks of harm from not taking it are far higher. Have it with confidence.

      1. Many thanks Dale! My old man (I was a child bride!) had his Pfizer jag weeks ago and suffered a bit of pain and confusion (how would you know?) so I’m pleased to have a positive comment!

        2. My OH had the Pfizer back in January, with no adverse reactions – I had the AZ – again no reactions at all.

      2. I was offered OAZ, but refused temporarily in the hope of Biontech, but like your brother I was told that supplies are being kept in reserve for second jabs.
        The Biontech jab definitely works well.

    5. 330438+ up ticks,
      Morning SM,
      Sad to say,
      Blackmailed by consent, keep in mind that a blackmailer
      ALWAYS returns for more, especially when they are of the political persuasion.

    6. I think GP surgeries use O/AZ as it’s easier to store and the centralised clinics use Pfizer.

      1. Good morning Anne. I’m having mine at the college in Stirlng! Husband had his at Falkirk Town Hall, administered by the Army! Gawd knows what this inept bunch are doing! My appointment is 12.14pm!

    7. I had it (OAZ) 2 weeks ago, Sue, and have had no side effects that I’m aware of.

    8. #Metoo, family in Australia. No chance to ever see them again without the jab.
      We used to fly out for a week in Rhodes, Crete or somewhere similar, occasionally drive down to SW France or the Costas for a holiday, that will never happen again without having the jab I think.

    10. You can travel internationally without being vaccinated – you just need to get a test before going.
      Not trying to influence your decision, but a lot of people have said similar and it isn’t true at the moment. People I know have travelled all over Europe in 2021.

      1. Yes, bb2 and then you have to come back here, and goodness knows what hoops we’ll need to jump through by then! They do have a tendency to make it up as they go along! Anyway, it’s done now and I’m fi….

      2. Yes, bb2 and then you have to come back here, and goodness knows what hoops we’ll need to jump through by then! They do have a tendency to make it up as they go along! Anyway, it’s done now and I’m fi….

  34. 330438+ up ticks,
    Brought to you by the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration
    ( ongoing) coalition,

    Richard Braine Retweeted
    Damian Ward
    @DamainWard
    There are so many African and Romanians coming into the UK it hardly feels like Poland anymore.

  36. Biden has attacked Trump’s Presidential campaign with a report that DT connived with V Putin to accuse the Democrats of cheating on the voting counts and discrediting Biden. BBC Radio 4 news this morning,

  37. It is reported that there are now as many as 13,000 illegal unaccompanied minors who are in custody at the southern border of the US. Countless illegal adults are being allowed into the US with coronavirus infections ten times greater than average. And it is the American citizens who work and pay their taxes who have to foot the bill for this illegality.

    Nancy Pelosi says that it is all Trump’s fault. But Biden is reported today as saying in an interview: “Because I heard the other day that they’re coming because they know I’m a nice guy and I won’t do what Trump did.”

    “They’re saying this?”

    Biden responded, “Yeah. Well, here’s the deal. They’re not.”

    Poor, confused Joe! He is supposed to hold his first press conference on March 25th. It will be very amusing unless he does what Saddam Hussein used to do – send a look-alike!

    1. Poor, confused Joe! He is supposed to hold his first press conference on March 25th. It will be very amusing unless he does what Saddam Hussein used to do – send a look-alike!

      Morning Sguest. Send a look alike? Where would they find an unemployed Paedophile Zombie?

      2. Good morning to you! Yes, my comment was very tongue-in-cheek because I doubt if they could ever find someone who looks like Biden with all the baggage that comes with him. However, in Iraq it wasn’t difficult to find Saddam substitutes!

        1. I shall probably watch some of this Press Conference in an attempt to spot how they are going to get around the obvious difficulties of interviewing a moron! Remote questions are an obvious avenue and directional speakers, visual prompts and earwigs another line!

          2. One thing for sure, when you hear him in debate back in 2019 when Kamala Harris attacked him ferociously, he appeared to be about ten times more on the ball than now- where Harris appears to be his carer in the White House assisting “Dr Jill”.

      3. Good morning to you! Yes, my comment was very tongue-in-cheek because I doubt if they could ever find someone who looks like Biden with all the baggage that comes with him. However, in Iraq it wasn’t difficult to find Saddam substitutes!

  38. Right, that’s me caught up with the comments and too overwhelmed by current events to make a sensible comment, so off to Matlock to pick my drugs supplies up and tank the van up.

  39. A Labour MP in the North East has resigned. I wonder if A.Blair is thinking of standing as the Labour candidate in the forthcoming election.

    2. He was the Labour MP for Hartlepool and he got frustrated by not being able to find any guacamole in the local fish and chip shops!

        2. Mandelson should be flayed, flogged and thrown in a pit of quick lime.

          His screams should then be played back at the opening of future parliaments as a reminder to the next lot that corruption, fraud, theft and being scum will not be tolerated.

      3. According to foreign news he has been very handy with his hands.

        Strangely the BBC hasn’t commented.

        When feminism clashes with lefties, lefties always win!

    1. The last one i signed was for women to get the vote.I wish i hadn’t bothered.

      2. That means you’re the oldest person in the UK, given women got the vote in 1918 (over 30s) – 1928 (all people over 21).

      3. While giving wimmin the vote was obviously a complete disaster, I’d suggest it be limited to those net tax payers who are then required to pass a simple test to prove an understanding of government spending, funding and the link between high taxes and unemployment.

        The first restricts Labour voters, so weeding out that lot, the next removes the idiots and leaves either the mendacious Lefty or the intelligent conservative.

    2. Hey, Beatnik, I thought you were “just too cool for school” and got your education hopping freights and hitching along the highway, Dude.

      1. I was the A#1 ‘bo, Dean, man.

        I rode them rails, bummed rides on charabancs, and got streetwise with my fellow travellers, Dude.

      1. I just remember her trouncing J Clarkson on a circuit, admittedly where she was already an expert.
        What saddens me is that there are still no female drivers in Formula 1.
        Strength is a factor, but women are good at endurance and can be excellent pilots.
        L Hamilton is obviously a good driver, but part of his fame (not his success) derives from his physical appearance .
        Simply, he is half pale, half of colour, whereas Sabine was completely female.

    3. I remember her taking on the Nuremburg Ring in a stripped down Ford Transit to prove how slow Clarkson was driving his far sportier Porsche. She couldn’t quite beat his time but she almost matched it.

  46. I just had a thought. I’ve had the OAZ jab and don’t appear to have any side effects. The reported blood clots appear to be perhaps a little above what statistics would predict. What got me thinking though was how many vaccinations are being administered by persons newly trained in the ‘art’.
    “When an air bubble enters a vein, it’s called a venous air embolism. When an air bubble enters an artery, it’s called an arterial air embolism. These air bubbles can travel to your brain, heart, or lungs and cause a heart attack, stroke, or respiratory failure.”
    https://www.healthline.com/health/air-embolism

    2. I’m ignorant of such things but aren’t these vaccinations intra-muscular rather than intravenous or intra-arterial?

        1. The problem with intramuscular injections is the rate at which the fluid is introduced. The fluid , being incompressible, will part muscle tissue if introduced faster than it can be absorbed, this will damage the tissue hence the pain and swelling. If it’s so bad that bruising occurs then I suppose it’s possible that a clot could form. My dentist did explain it all to me when I asked him why he took so long over the injection

          1. Blood clots in muscle often occur with injections and are a prime cause of pain after injection. After all, the muscle is being stabbed. . However, they are relatively small, dissipate fairly quickly and cause no lasting harm.

    3. I’m ignorant of such things but aren’t these vaccinations intra-muscular rather than intravenous or intra-arterial?

    4. Do some more research. The injection is into muscle and goes nowhere near veins and arteries. You could train inside 5 minutes a monkey to do vaccinations. My brother is vaccinating people at several different centres; all the staff are medically-trained and have been doing injections for donkeys’ years. You’re vastly more likely to be killed or seriously injured travelling for the vaccination than from it. People fall ill or die all the time so we can expect some after the vaccination; statistics need to be taken in context, for example looking at no-warning illnesses and deaths rather than all, but however you look at the it there is no evidence that the vaccines are causing harm – quite the opposite.

    5. They’re not intravenous.
      When we were being trained and were worried kaput that very point, our tutor held up the usual line used for administering drips, and explained that 3 foot of air from that tube would be needed to kill anyone.

  47. Hancock wants everyone to have vaccination every year.

    Do you seriously trust Hancock who has fiddled the statistics to make you do what he wants.

    I’ve had C-19 and it was nothing much at all.

    Yet Hancock even wants people with immunity to be vaccinated.

    That, imho, proves Hancock has an ulterior motive.

  48. Not again: Boris warns another pandemic ‘realistic possibility’ as global population soars
    BORIS Johnson has spoken of the “realistic possibility” of another pandemic by 2030 because of the accelerating growth of the world’s human population.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1410803/boris-johnson-next-pandemic-warning-Covid-latest-human-population-growth-integrated-review

    Over the past few weeks there’s been at least half hearted discussions regarding population control and now Johnson has mentioned it. He wants to reduce a fast growing population in a relatively short space of time. Wonder how he intends to do that?

    One method might be to prevent anyone having children so the population simply reduces as the old depart.

    Another would be to start a world war.

    Could try a lethal pandemic.

    If all else fails he could vaccinate everybody with something.

    1. What the F is a “realistic possibility”? There is realistic possibility of winning the lottery, of being in a road accident, of being mugged. There is also a realistic possibility of a politician having a brain though that is rather remote. What are buffoons like Blobby trying to prove by coming out with inane utterly meaningless comments like this?

    2. 330438+ up ticks,
      Morning H,
      Bumpoffer bumberling boris the very dangerous buffoon.

      Maybe it is to late for the herd to listen after being on a steady menu of locoweed for decades

    3. Best make lockdown permanent. Two years the country will be bankrupt, millions unemployed. No food – we all die. A perfect end.

      1. Makes you wonder when you add it all up…the lockdown is not going to end anytime soon no matter what they tell us.

        This three week lockdown that began a year ago is still with us a year on.

        2. One has to live in hope that more sheep wake up and begin to understand that Johnson is not their friend nor saviour.

          1. Probably too late now. They already have us in an invisible gas chamber and could increase the pressure anytime they like.

            Johnson wouldn’t tell us if he didn’t think he could get away with it with no resistance.

          2. I don’t know. It may not be too late and in a way the police handling of the vigil on Clapham Common may have at least resulted in some good. Apparently protests are to be allowed from 29th March because there was an outcry about police behaviour.

          3. Just in time for Spring.

            Expect Extinction rebellion and BLM to be out in force, causing maximum inconvenience for the general public and being ignored, while any lockdown protesters or boat people objectors are thoroughly bashed.

      2. and all those Dover Dinghies will be used to move us Nottlers to Friendly France, where we will be looked after like Kings

        NUUUURRRRSSSSEYYYY. I am having a mad moment

      3. and all those Dover Dinghies will be used to move us Nottlers to Friendly France, where we will be looked after like Kings

        NUUUURRRRSSSSEYYYY. I am having a mad moment

    4. If all else fails he could vaccinate everybody with something.

      I’m surprised that no-one has thought of doing that before?😎
      Doing away with everybody might be overkill, just the useless mouths for starters.

      1. Just took an oil delivery. Driver proud to have taken the Pfizer jab and remarked that the deaths in a nursing home he delivers to had plummeted.

        It never occurred to the chap that the deaths had plummeted not because of vaccinations but because the old and vulnerable had already died after being deliberately infected by decanted hospital ‘bed blockers’.

      2. I think there is a good reason for that, actually. The current situation, where billionaires have no attachment to any country, but see themselves as above nationality, is something new in history.

    5. Perhaps, if family unit stayed togther, the reproduction rate would go down

      Woman calves, father (if known) leaves

      She claims benefits : meets new man, preggers. she calves, he leaves

      She claims more benefits : meets new man, preggers. she calves, he leaves

      She claims moresterer benefits : meets new man, preggers. she calves, he leaves

      Ad infinitum

      2. During lockdown I’ve noticed many bad habits of today’s population…

        Litter pickers have been out filling bin liners with rubbish strewn all over the place. People jamming roads when parking at beauty spots and much more.

        Maybe not surprising that the elite want to cull the population except their methods might not be discriminatory.

        1. My council designates litter picked up by litter patrols as commercial waste and more than once tried to fine people, my friend included, for putting it in roadside bins, their own wheelies or the local tip. Only when it made the local paper did they allow it to be dropped off at the tip for free.

    7. As soon as everyone is trained obediently to have a vaccine every year, the possibility for that to be abused is present. The elite who control governments and thus vaccines are too remote from the rest of us. They don’t even share a country with us.
      The danger is real.

  50. Lockdowns don’t work

    SIR – The suggestion that “it’s unarguable that we should have gone into lockdown earlier” is simply wrong.

    The explanation of the effects of ‘Lockdown’ given by the learned people
    remind me very much of the Two Ronnies sketch Matermind, where the
    little one answers the question yet to be asked, ie Ronnie Barker (aka
    Boris and Co ) are trying to catchup .

    https://youtu.be/y0C59pI_ypQ

  51. Harry’s new talks with Charles and William were ‘not productive’
    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have spoken to Gayle King about the Royal Family’s response to their Oprah Winfrey allegations
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/03/16/harry-meghan-accuse-palace-continuing-leak-stories-reveal-conversations/

    This reminds me of the phrase a doctor or nurse might ask you: “is your cough productive?”

    Certainly the antics of Migraine and Toyhusband produce a lot of phlegm that needs to be spat out.

  53. ‘Morning, all.

    SJWs in America are up in arms yet again, this time because of “racist” remarks by one Bill Burr, an actor and stand-up comedian who presented the awards for Latino music at the Grammys 2021. Now, I confess I’ve never heard of Mr. Burr who has appeared in “Breaking Bad” and “Mandalorian” neither of which series have I ever watched. He also stars in his own shows on Netflix and apparently he’s known as an ‘edgy’ comedian with conservative views.

    Among his sins were remarking “The feminists are going nuts. Why is the cis-white male doing all this Latino stuff?” and mispronouncing the name of the winner of the award for Best Mexican Regional Music – Natalia Lafourcade – which led to accusations of racism.

    But here’s the thing, his wife Nia is a ‘woman of colour’, which begs the question, how can a man married to a woman who is blacker than the Earl of Hell’s waistcoat be a racist?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b010c4121018a7e26485a82d1518769161034311c6d1450fdae3613885dcb4bd.jpg

    Puzzling is it not? But puzzle ye not – the SJWs have the answer:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7234695f6dff5d7f04462ed22e58f290e2862b76ffcccc41fc2485d36c9bea94.png

    How’s it possible to engage these morons in rational debate when their world-view is based on such irrational and specious argument?

      1. That was 2010. They all have the vote, now. No wonder Biden “sailed home”….

    2. “Saying you don’t notice my colour is the most racist thing you can say!” was screamed at a friend in the private health sector.

    3. If anyone had not made their mind up that SJWs were the racist bigots and not everyone else, perhaps they need to be committed if they now can’t see it. What I found amazing (I saw several videos discussing this issue from our side) is how many of the SJW (inlcuding the famed Twatter ‘blue checkmarks’) were engaging in vile racism against Burr’s wife for the ‘crime’ of ‘being married to him’.

      If ever there was evidence that the education system of many Western nations has been taken over by Marxists/Leftists for brainwashing purposes, then this is it.

    4. Very unusually, i’m laughing out loud sat at my desk. I’d venture to say that your more than a bit Potty Mr Griffin.

    6. IMHO his wife Nis is the racist; she deliberately paired herself with him in order to have children lighter skinned than herself.

  54. (Radio 4 today) American William Allen Jordan, 48, a fake spy in the UK, arrested (2017) for the same scam in New Jersey.
    Conman was outwitted by his most recent victim, Mischele Lewis, of Florence Township, New Jersey after she lured him to parking lot.
    She fell in love with him but became suspicious after he distanced himself when she got pregnant
    She also handed over $1,300 to ‘British men’ on phone who talked to her in code and said they worked secretly with Jordan for the UK government.
    She contacted previous wife, Mary Turner Thomson, Scotswoman, who wrote book on him called ‘The Psychopath’.
    Jordan told her he was childless, when he had 13 kids with 8 women. At one time Jordan had two wives, two fiancés and a girlfriend in the UK
    He told Thompson he was infertile. She wondered how she had got pregnant. He’d also spent time behind bars for molesting girl under the age of 13

    Mary Turner Thomson with her wonderful companion who impregnated her and defrauded her of £198,000.

    Conman William Jordan is estimated to have defrauded 21 women from five different countries out of £300,000

    https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.0MavG9j79QspKoIGzhJo7wHaEK?pid=ImgDet&w=940&h=529&rs=1

    Never mind walking in the dark, ladies. Beware of on-line dating. He may be out and about again.

  55. Following on from bringing Agenda 21 to the table….

    Already mentioned the car scrappage trial in Coventry where ten year old vehicles can be scrapped in return for using alternative transport like buses and push bikes. Now the BBC is highlighting how bollards appearing everywhere are preventing residents in London using their cars and even leaving them nowhere to park.

    Locally they have turned a long road into more cycle friendly leaving residents unable to park outside their own homes and what happens in one area is being replicated everywhere else in the country.

  56. 330438+ up ticks,
    Remember on the 6th May do NOT ask “your Mp” as the question will more than likely offend,

    UK to Build Reception Centres for Boat Migrants, No More Hotel Stays: Report, WHY ???

    1. 330438+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      The reason being I believe to be that the processing procedure via hotels is limited so a bulk process is urgently needed, the electorate are beginning to wise up
      in beginning to sniff political rodents operating and cannot be counted on much longer after 4 decades of preparing for reset.

      Party before family / Country among lab/lib/con
      supporter / voters is surely wearing thin.

  57. America’s Cup 2021: How Team New Zealand won the Auld Mug – and is having such a built-in advantage fair?
    Team New Zealand win the trophy for the fourth time since 1995 – we look at what they did right, what’s next and if anything needs to change

    By
    Tom Cary,
    SENIOR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
    17 March 2021 • 9:50am

    I have been following the series (on recordings; the races have been at 03.00 and 04.00 our time) with interest; I am unaware of any other AC fans on here ?

    1. I stopped following it when the “J” class yachts were retired. The current racing machines are very impressive, yet somehow completely unreal.

      1. The new boats have none of the grace or elegance of the J class or even the 12 metres – they are not boats they look like rheumatic spiders on their hydrofoils.

        Ben Ainslie’s machine was finally trounced by the Italians and could only have won if there had been more wind.

      2. The new boats have none of the grace or elegance of the J class or even the 12 metres – they are not boats they look like rheumatic spiders on their hydrofoils.

        Ben Ainslie’s machine was finally trounced by the Italians and could only have won if there had been more wind.

          5. Maybe not so grand but I loved Raua (named after an Inca Princess as my parents used to have a boat called Atahualpa.)

            In 1984 – 85 a former head of house, a young doctor friend and I took a year’s sabbatical and sailed over to the Caribbean and back. We were all bachelors at the time but within three years of returning to England all three of us were married:

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f8c2a0970f565a4848a6e17d30f964df5803255766b1021fc25a9f8a2e5e3216.jpg

            and here is Raua

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9300c85802f1e7ae650bdc75bc7f9f2d93908201892b7ce4155789a8a6e16bf5.jpg

    2. My son won a competition and was permitted to helm an AC racer on Sydney Harbour. The experience of a lifetime.

      1. And as you know Sos the wonderful harbour is quite busy at times. Well done son of Sos.
        One of my favourite places, I wish I was there now.

        1. When he was doing the sailing there were restrictions on who could be on that part of the water, because of the yachts. And “yacht” has to be a total misnomer for the thing he was on, more like what an F1 is to a road car than a sailing boat.
          I just pray that the vaccinations will allow us to get back one day

          1. We had planned to fly into Perth via Singapore later this year. This time including a visit from Melbourne to Tassie. Then up to Sydney again we love it. And hoping to meet my long lost Cousins from QLD

          2. Have you considered the direct Perth flight?

            I know people who have, and said never again immediately afterwards, but now changed their mind, saying that unless you are going to enjoy a decent stopover anywhere, the time gained was worth the palaver.

            BUT, their family are just outside Perth.

            We love Australia and were particularly taken by Adelaide and the surrounding areas.

          3. We like Singapore, it’s great place to stop over and we have always found Singapore airlines are very good. We had a few freebies last time,
            city travel.
            When we fist arrived lived in SA, Morphet vale Reynella area, wine region, . Then Christies beach. 26 Hunter Road, a 2 minute walk from the beach, we could hear the waves breaking at night time.
            The house is covered by shrubbery now if you look on Google earth. I suspect it’s to stop the sun light and heat build up late afternoon.
            I use to motor bike to Noarlunga jetty park up and run along the beach to the Onkaparinga river and back, at least twice a week. I Played a lot of squash.
            So many times in my life i wished we had stayed. But my wife is an only child and sadly missed her parents. And construction work had dried up, we spent our last 6 months in Oz with our first born, living in a caravan in Gladstone QLD.

          4. If I can persuade HG we will be heading there, qualifying under the balance of family rule.
            The block is her mother, who is very likely to live well past 100. I think she will see me out.

      2. I got rat-arsed on champagne whilst chomping on oysters and prawns on a cruiser in Sydney harbour.

        1. I once saw in the New Year at the Opera Bar. A very expensive night out, but a once in a lifetime experience.

      3. My son used to race for the Navy. They entered Fastnet some years ago and did OK. The following year they competed in an inter-service competition in New Zealand, taking on teams from the NZ and Australian navies and thrashed them 🙂

    3. A boy in my English set many years ago was a crew member in one of England’s challenges for the America’s Cup in a 12 metre boat called White Crusader which unfortunately did not win. In his day Alexis had been captain of the Allhallows rugby First XV and was as strong as an ox and he worked on the coffee grinders – as the boat’s winches were called.

      When we were sailing in the Eastern Med and homeschooling Christo and Henry as we sailed around the classical world we met him on Paros, an island in the Cyclades, where he and his wife ran a successful boating business. His mother was English but his father was Greek and he was bilingual which was a very great asset in his business.

      Here is a picture of White Crusader:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3db9b2e3f6abce85d681899f9e5eac7bc0f4ed9b199bb8688fdc95b754430a8.jpg

    4. I was fascinated at the whining complaints about ” Home advantage”

      In all the years that the USA won in American waters I never heard a word from the Americans that they thought it was unfair.

      Funny old world!

    1. 330438+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Busy lady that priti awful, waving them through at DOVER whilst overseeing the reception / race replacement centre construction.

  59. This is worth watching.

    I was looking up a quotation from John Betjeman

    “Little, alas, to you I mean,
    For I am bald and old and green.”

    (green in the sense of inexperienced rather than ecological)

    And I stumbled upon this film featuring Nigel Hawthorne and a choreography of dancers presenting the world of Betjeman’s poetry. It is very dated, very old-fashioned, very English and just the sort of thing I love!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtA-GC6sowk

    1. Oh how i would laugh if he was turned back at the border because plod considered his journey to be ‘not essential’.

    3. He’s organising the new facilities for the ‘poor men’ who have been ushered out of Penally ?

    4. As I said yesterday, maybe he’s getting bored of Carrie and would like to try a Welsh rarebit!

    1. I suppose it is defamatory to say that Mohammed, who married girls before they reached puberty, was a paedophile.

      1. Married at six and consummated at nine. Quite apart from his mumblings and visions, he was probably smoking some pretty high-class weed.

        What does that tell you?

  63. 330438+ up ticks,
    Heath & safety warning,

    Note before you vote, The incoming replacement campaign running smoothly at DOVER, spokething has said they are building
    reception centres NOT centre.

    So the future agenda is boost the intake seeing the success so far.

      1. 330438+ up tick,
        Afternoon VOM,
        That will not be an issue fast track accommodation is the order of the day.

    2. I read this morning that the Penally Camp for legal immigrants in Pembrokeshire has now closed. Any one know where they are settling in now ?

  64. Why can’t Britain handle the truth about Winston Churchill? Priyamvada Gopal. 17 March 2021.

    Nothing, it seems, can be allowed to tarnish the national myth – as I found when hosting a Cambridge debate about his murkier side.
    In a sea of fawningly reverential Churchill biographies, hardly any books seriously examine his documented racism. Nothing, it seems, can be allowed to complicate, let alone tarnish, the national myth of a flawless hero: an idol who “saved our civilisation”, as Boris Johnson claims, or “humanity as a whole”, as David Cameron did. Make an uncomfortable observation about his views on white supremacy and the likes of Piers Morgan will ask: “Why do you live in this country?”

    The “Cambridge Debate” that Gopal refers to here was actually a staged slagfest where no dissenting voices from the anti-Churchill theme were allowed to speak. Its members, Kehinde Andrews, Madhusree Mukerjee and Onyeka Nubia are all disciples of Woke and virulently anti-British. That they are allowed to reside here is not a tribute to our tolerance but an exhibition of our foolishness!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/17/why-cant-britain-handle-the-truth-about-winston-churchill

      1. Yes we are seeing something like the Witchcraft Mania of the 17th Century only on a larger scale.

      3. Indeed. I recall quite clearly Him saying: ‘Suffer all white children unto me’.

    3. I wouldn’t keep reading the Guardian – I looks like it does nothing for your blood pressure. That ‘paper’ used to bother reporting factual news 30 years ago (albeit with a poor proof-reader on the spelling); IMHO nowadays it’s no better than Marxist rags like the Morning Star or Socialist ‘Worker’ (what a contraditcion in terms that last title is).

      4. I’m 1/8th Irish. I’m tea-totalled, so no celebrations today! I do like potatos and (naturally) red-haired women though. Must be me genes…

      6. Family on Dad’s side, haven’t been over for a while. The last time we went over a cousin came back from holiday on the coast to have a drink with me, stopped the night then went back.
        Sociable people my distant family, full of laughter and good wishes, a great way to spend an evening in the pub.

  67. Biden finally tells migrants NOT to come to the US amid largest surge in 20 years: President has NO plans to travel to border and administration still refuses to label situation a ‘crisis’. 17 march 2021.

    Joe Biden on Tuesday had a message for migrants considering crossing into the United States: ‘Don’t come over.’

    The president’s team is struggling to cope with a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, in what is shaping up, along with the fight against COVID, to be one of the biggest challenges of his first 100 days.

    His Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, said on Tuesday that the country was on track to see the highest number of arrivals across the southern border in 20 years.

    Poor old Joe. Hoist with his own petard! Shot himself in the foot!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9370341/Too-little-late-Joe-Biden-tells-migrants-NOT-come-amid-largest-migrant-surge-20-years.html

    2. I suspect he’s happy. All those future Democrat voters when he gives them all amnesty and citizenship. And plenty of cheap cleaners, nannies, gardeners, drivers etc for their main supporters whilst rubbing diversity into the noses of the Trump-voting working class.

    3. Shot himself in the foot!

      Cripes! You mean his minders let him loose with a gun?🤦‍♀️

  69. ‘Significant new information’ led to arrest of man, 50, over pool ‘murder’ at Michael Barrymore’s home: Star to be quizzed again as police reveal new lead followed C4 documentary about death of Stuart Lubbock. 17 March 2021.

    Police today revealed they will speak to Michael Barrymore ‘in the coming days’ after ‘significant new information’ led to the arrest of a 50-year-old man in connection with the murder and sexual assault of Stuart Lubbock during a party at the star’s mansion 20 years ago.

    Mr Lubbock was found floating in the swimming pool during a party at 68-year-old Barrymore’s luxury home in the Essex village of Roydon attended by eight other people including the Strike it Lucky host, who will all now be contacted, Supt Morris said.

    Is this emerging from the Primeval Ooze after twenty years? Lubbock was of course gang raped by Barrymore and his friends after being jelly banged and then pushed into the pool to destroy the forensic evidence! I never liked “the peoples’s comedian” anyway! He gave me the creeps!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9371161/Police-arrest-man-50-death-31-year-old-Stuart-Lubbock-Michael-Barrymores-home-2001.html

        1. Afternoon, Araminta.

          Mum was obsessed with watching ITV. It’s all she ever watched; she thought the BBC was “not for us”. I found ITV’s output mind-numbing when I was a child so became determined to expunge it from my viewing preferences when I left home.

        2. Afternoon, Araminta.

          Mum was obsessed with watching ITV. It’s all she ever watched; she thought the BBC was “not for us”. I found ITV’s output mind-numbing when I was a child so became determined to expunge it from my viewing preferences when I left home.

        1. They’d have to pay my travelling and residential expenses for the duration if they did.

          In any case, as an ex-copper I’m exempt from performing jury duty.

          2. It’s because we have the Judge Jeffreys tendency.

            They’re all guilty: hang ’em!

          3. No longer the case. As with solicitors and barristers. All are liable to serve.

            Only criminals (convicted within the preceding 10 years, lunatics and over 70s are disqualified.

          6. So, (© Silly Ch4 bint) Bill, just ‘cos I’m over 70, as are you, does that mean that we fall into the same category as lunatic criminals?

            Hmmm, thought so.

    4. I took an instinctive dislike to the man. IMO he is guilty of being involved in the cover-up but we may never know if he was actually involved in the rape and murder. The participants are keeping Schtum and almost certainly have insurance to use against anyone breaking ranks. Throwing in a few scumbag lawyers and the time elapsed means I’m sceptical that anything will come of this.

      1. But, but – at this “difficult time” the plod will be able to show that they are “doing something”…..(sarc)

      2. Afternoon Dale. They are catamites so they are motivated by the petty jealousies that fill their world. A lovers tiff might well tip the scale!

      1. And as his foot ware caused him to trip across the stage he sang “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucile”. 😉

        1. I don’t know anything about the identity of Kris Kristofferson’s Bobby McGee and I also don’t know whom or what Kenny was rogering but a promiscuous serpentine fish may have had something to do with it.

    3. They should change the date to after 29th March, as that’s when Boris said that demonstrations could legally return. Then they’d be no issues if it were undertaken.

    4. I must be mistaken surely it’s not the job of the police to invent new processes of public punishment.

    5. How will the police tell the difference between demonstrators and football supporters, between tourist groups and a dozen nuns out for a walk, and demonstrators?

      1. They don’t need to tell the difference. They know what elderly ladies and teenage girls look like.

        1. Indeed. I’d almost forgotten them. They’ve been quiet lately, haven’t they?

  71. Undoubtedly it will affect the recruitment of police officers ifpotential recruits are

    aware that they will be vilified for carrying out heir duty of upholding the law.

    Pauline Edwards Harrow, Middlesex

    Please take into account, that certain sections of the population are above the Law

    Extinction rebellion, BlM marchers on the move,

    Grooming gangs from Rochdale etc

  72. Biden says Putin ‘will pay a price’ for Russian interference in US election. 17 March 2021.

    Joe Biden said the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will face consequences for directing efforts to swing the 2020 US presidential election to Donald Trump, and that they would come soon.

    “He will pay a price,” Biden told ABC News in an interview that aired on Wednesday morning.

    Asked by the Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos what the consequences would be, he said: “You’ll see shortly.”

    Corrupt, lying, senile sexual deviant threatens World Statesman and Judo expert! Irony knows no limits!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2021/mar/17/joe-biden-covid-coronavirus-relief-plan-andrew-cuomo-atlanta-shooting-live-updates?page=with:block-6051f7b28f0832395ae582da#block-6051f7b28f0832395ae582da

    1. Putin came to power when Clinton was President.He’ll see Joe off too.
      I really hope he takes up the opportunity of another term.

      1. So do I Harry. As far as I’m concerned he’s the only voice for moderation and stability on the world stage!

    2. Hmm. Not a peep about the alleged Democratic Party interference in the Election. Straight out of Joseph Goebbel’s playbook – after Meagain had finished with it.

    3. I will have such revenges on you both

      That all the world shall- I will do such things-

      What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be

      The terrors of the earth! You think I’ll weep.

      No, I’ll not weep.

      I have full cause of weeping, but this heart

      Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws

      Or ere I’ll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

      2. The most moving of Shakespeare’s plays.

        I had a particularly good and sensitive Upper Sixth one year and as we read Act V together in class and thought about it several of us had wet eyes or silent tears trickling down our cheeks.

  73. The Hitlerine speaks:

    The European Union is preparing to use emergency powers to grab “Europe’s fair share” of vaccines from Britain including export bans, the seizure of factories and overriding patents on the Oxford-AstraZeneca jabs.

    Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said she was no longer prepared for vaccines made in the EU to be exported to Britain while Europe faces shortages of the critical medicines.

    To ensure supplies, the German EU chief warned that Brussels is ready to trigger an emergency treaty clause allowing the commission quasi-wartime powers to confiscate production plants and to tear up patent controls over medicines.

      1. Through the looking glass with Ursula in EUland. 17 March 2021.

        Because in the world of Ursula Through the Looking Glass, the important thing is to score points against Brexit and try to vaccinate the continent against the further dangerous spread of ‘populism’ – aka democracy. As the head of Italy’s medicines agency admitted, the decision to suspend use of the AstraZeneca vaccine was ‘a political one’, imposed ‘because other European countries, including Germany and France, preferred to interrupt’. There is one Eurocrat at least who does not always talk nonsense.

        https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/17/through-the-looking-glass-with-ursula-in-euland/

    3. Hopefully we will see a mad rush of laboratories relocating to Britain. Then we nuke Brussels.

      1. I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. Ripley.

    4. Just remember thr motto of the French, learnt from Two World Wars

      No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

  74. DT Story

    Donald Trump says he’s ‘not a fan’ of Meghan – and hopes she runs for US president in 2024
    Former president said he would have “an even stronger feeling toward running” if the Duchess of Sussex launched a White House bid

    And if further proof is needed of Johnson’s imbecility remember he favoured Biden who looks as if he is very much against Britain’s best interests.

  76. Good men joining forces with women is the only way we will ever walk the streets without fear

    Lockdown restrictions pose a far bigger threat than Covid itself, with women at greater risk of violence both at home and on the streets

    ALLISON PEARSON

    We have to teach our daughters things we never teach our sons. That’s just the way it is. Lately, mine has been taking these long nocturnal walks. She says it helps with the anxiety caused by lockdown.

    “You shouldn’t go by yourself. It’s not safe!”

    “Don’t worry, Mum, it’s always really busy in Brixton,” my daughter sighs. “Nothing’s gonna happen to me, just chill, OK?”

    If she gets an Uber home late at night, I tell her to call a friend and pretend she’s talking to them, even if they didn’t pick up.

    “Just say loudly what time you’ll be home and that you’ll see them soon.”

    “What for?”

    “So the driver thinks someone’s expecting you and he’ll think twice before attacking you.”

    “Mu-um, that’s literally insane.”

    “Just do it, darling, OK? Do it for your mad old mum.”

    When I gave birth to that baby girl 25 years ago, no one told me that, in 2021, a part of my heart would be walking the streets of south London by itself. It’s not ideal, is it? The world is too bad and the girl is too good.

    “Don’t worry, nothing’s gonna happen to me,” she says.

    A doorbell CCTV captured the very last image of Sarah Everard. Same short, puffy jacket as my daughter, same AirPods, same beanie hat, even the same chunky trainers for walking home to Brixton. Only Sarah never got home. The two worst words in the language: human remains. That poor beautiful girl.

    You don’t need to have a daughter living in the same postal district to have been powerfully affected by Sarah’s disappearance and killing. Millions of us were shaken, especially women who all have their own tales of flashers and scary near-misses.

    Sarah Everard was monstrously unlucky. We know that. Generally, women are killed by men they know (one dies from domestic violence every three days). It is young men, in grotesque numbers in Sadiq Khan’s London, who are most likely to meet their death at the hands of a stranger. But in the pressure cooker of lockdown, emotions quickly build up a head of steam. All of that distress and anger provoked by Sarah’s killing needed a safety valve, a communal catharsis. A vigil on Clapham Common, organised by Reclaim These Streets, sounded ideal, except it was banned by police because it was illegal under the emergency Covid restrictions. That didn’t stop previous gatherings going ahead, though, did it?

    Cast your minds back. Nine months ago, members of the Metropolitan Police knelt at the feet of violent, jeering Black Lives Matter protesters. (They were given permission by senior officers for that craven act of obeisance to a group whose stated aim is – ahem – to “defund the police”.) Compare and contrast with what happened on Saturday. Members of the Metropolitan Police wrestled to the ground and handcuffed women who had decided to go and pay their respects to Sarah Everard. An exemption permitting demonstrations during the pandemic was removed in November – but still there was a stench of double standards.

    Yesterday, Sue Fish, former Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire, accused the Met of “institutionalised misogynism, sexism, a complete lack of understanding into women’s experience”. She was dismayed that the Clapham event had been “policed as a protest instead of a vigil”. Me too.

    Clearly, there were a few hard-Left infiltrators there, shamelessly exploiting the tragedy for their tedious causes (Sarah’s close friends stayed away precisely because they feared her death had been hijacked for political purposes). [Not just a few. It would have been very naïve to think that professional demonstrators would not turn out in big numbers.] But most of the women who attended were mourners, not demonstrators. The decision to forcibly remove them from the bandstand, which had become a temporary shrine, trampling floral tributes underfoot, was a disgrace. Which senior copper thought that using violence against women at a vigil for a woman who was a victim of violence (allegedly by a policeman, for heaven’s sake) would be a good look? [Indeed. PITA she may have been but it wasn’t necessary to pin the red-headed nuisance to the ground.]

    Why did Dame Cressida Dick not have the empathy to grasp what her officers were dealing with? An emotional, highly charged gathering, it transcended the loss of one life to express a shared sorrow and rage at the way in which every female life is, to some extent, compromised by daily fears. There but for the grace of God go we. [Come on AP, Dick Of The Yard does not have normal human emotions.]

    Even the former Kate Middleton, doubtless recalling her own days as a single girl about town, came quietly to lay a bunch of daffodils from the Palace garden on the bandstand. If an event has such universal resonance that our future Queen is prepared to stretch the definition of permitted “daily exercise” to be there, then even the densest Plod must surely click that this is not the moment for heavy-handed law enforcement. Sadly not. The insensitivity of the police, the authoritarian thuggishness with which that show of sisterly solidarity was manhandled, was utterly appalling.

    Dame Cressida said that her officers policing the vigil felt “quite rightly, that it was an unlawful gathering, which posed a considerable risk to people’s health”. Where was the common sense, the compassion?

    Only last week, Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific officer, said: “It’s difficult to see how outdoor gatherings lead to spikes [in cases].” [I missed that one!] If you look at the interactive map on the Government’s own website, the whole of Clapham and most of south east London now has so few Covid cases that the data is unavailable. Why didn’t the police use that crucial information to conclude the vigil posed no threat to public health and could be considered an exception?

    In the Commons, Priti Patel continued Commissioner Dick’s disingenuous theme, saying: “The right to protest is the cornerstone of our democracy, but the Government’s duty remains to prevent more lives being lost during this pandemic.”

    Sorry, this phase of the pandemic is clearly at its end, Home Secretary. Across the entire capital, Covid patients now occupy a mere 6 per cent of hospital beds. A group of women meeting outside in the chill spring air are neither going to catch nor spread the virus. Last March, it may have been justifiable to ban peaceful protest in order to protect the population from contagion. Today, it is morally indefensible. The only emergency now is the draconian restraints on people’s freedom, which criminalise the most basic human impulse – to come together for comfort in a moment of anguish.

    Many have called for Cressida Dick to resign. Be careful what you wish for. Her likely successor, Neil Basu, is a BLM sympathiser who admitted he would “probably have joined” the anti-police group. [See below.] There are worse things than a complete Dick. It is wrong that MPs criticise the police for enforcing cruel and nonsensical laws, which were voted for by – oh, yes! – MPs.

    Calling for Dame Cressida’s head is a distraction. It is how we improve safety for women that counts. The ongoing restrictions pose a far bigger threat than Covid itself. Who could have predicted that locking up thousands of women with their abusers would dramatically compound domestic violence? The streets of Brixton, which Sarah Everard, and my daughter, walked at night, were much safer when women could rely on brightly-lit restaurants and plentiful passers-by to deter attackers. Lockdown is a killer for women.

    To his credit, the Prime Minister recognises this is a watershed moment. The Sarah Everard case, he said, had “unleashed a wave of feeling about women not feeling safe. We must drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to better protect and defend them.”

    The PM announced plans that will see bars and clubs patrolled by plain-clothes police officers to protect women from sexual harassment and assault. Frankly, I would rather see a more visible presence of uniformed police on our streets. It’s a scandal that, since 2010, half of all police stations in the UK have closed. Instead of pursuing online hate crimes, coppers should be apprehending hateful criminals.

    On Friday night, Dame Cressida joined a “reassurance patrol” on Clapham Common. If those had been a regular feature, Sarah Everard might still be living her promising young life in blissful anonymity instead of becoming a tragic symbol for the cause of women’s safety. My heart bleeds for her parents. It may be some consolation for them if something good and important can come from such deafening loss.

    Mothers take it for granted that we have to teach our daughters things we never teach our sons. That’s just the way it is. Well, it really shouldn’t be. In a quarter of a century, I don’t want my daughter to be telling her daughter how to protect herself from predators. We can do better.

    It was Sarah Everard’s male friends who led the desperate search to find her. Ultimately, good men joining forces with female campaigners to defeat an evil minority is the only way women will ever walk the streets without fear.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/good-men-joining-forces-women-way-will-ever-walk-streets-without/

    Neil Basu:
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/met-assistant-commissioner-neil-basu-stand-up-to-racists-protests-a4464561.html
    https://www.channel4.com/news/met-police-assistant-commissioner-would-have-probably-joined-blm-protesters-if-he-was-not-an-officer

    1. Ultimately, good men joining forces with female campaigners to defeat an evil minority is the only way women will ever walk the streets without fear.

      Such a world used to exist! It was destroyed by the very people who now complain!

      1. I agree totally! I normally like Alison Pearson’s articles, as she seems to understand the main point, but in this case she appears to have fallen for the popular “men are bad” refrain. She makes no attempt to look at the problem objectively. This situation has always been there, and we have to deal with “unsafe” streets as individuals and use our common sense. The laws are there- it’s time they were used properly.

        1. It’s more measured than some of the bilge produced by some columnists on the subject.

          1. Yes I know, but Ms. Pearson is usually a lot smarter than that effort. The other wimmin who contribute to the DT are a joke.

          2. Janet Daley is erratic – but from time to time she writes some good stuff.

            The two real duds on the DT staff are: Little Willy Hague of the the Tiny Testicles and Bryony Gordon of the Mammoth Mammaries.

          4. I agree bb2, but I just thought she was a bit off with this one. OK I disagree with her!

          5. Agreed. I don’t always have the same opinions as AP, but her pieces are intelligent enough that I don’t just stop reading in disgust!

    2. Alison Pearson writes well, but she has lost the plot. Ms Pearson also assumes that the killer did not know Ms Everard, but that is not certain.
      Violent behaviour between human beings has always existed, and whenever & wherever social structures became established (tribes, longhouses, villages, towns, nations),the relevant authority would introduce various levels of sanctions to control the populace.
      Over the last fifty years, the UK has abolished capital punishment, improved prison conditions, shortened periods of incarceration and imported millions of people from cultures where acts of violence may be occasionally justified (eg crime passionel). And people suffer the consequences.

  77. Good men joining forces with women is the only way we will ever walk the streets without fear

    Lockdown restrictions pose a far bigger threat than Covid itself, with women at greater risk of violence both at home and on the streets

    ALLISON PEARSON

    We have to teach our daughters things we never teach our sons. That’s just the way it is. Lately, mine has been taking these long nocturnal walks. She says it helps with the anxiety caused by lockdown.

    “You shouldn’t go by yourself. It’s not safe!”

    “Don’t worry, Mum, it’s always really busy in Brixton,” my daughter sighs. “Nothing’s gonna happen to me, just chill, OK?”

    If she gets an Uber home late at night, I tell her to call a friend and pretend she’s talking to them, even if they didn’t pick up.

    “Just say loudly what time you’ll be home and that you’ll see them soon.”

    “What for?”

    “So the driver thinks someone’s expecting you and he’ll think twice before attacking you.”

    “Mu-um, that’s literally insane.”

    “Just do it, darling, OK? Do it for your mad old mum.”

    When I gave birth to that baby girl 25 years ago, no one told me that, in 2021, a part of my heart would be walking the streets of south London by itself. It’s not ideal, is it? The world is too bad and the girl is too good.

    “Don’t worry, nothing’s gonna happen to me,” she says.

    A doorbell CCTV captured the very last image of Sarah Everard. Same short, puffy jacket as my daughter, same AirPods, same beanie hat, even the same chunky trainers for walking home to Brixton. Only Sarah never got home. The two worst words in the language: human remains. That poor beautiful girl.

    You don’t need to have a daughter living in the same postal district to have been powerfully affected by Sarah’s disappearance and killing. Millions of us were shaken, especially women who all have their own tales of flashers and scary near-misses.

    Sarah Everard was monstrously unlucky. We know that. Generally, women are killed by men they know (one dies from domestic violence every three days). It is young men, in grotesque numbers in Sadiq Khan’s London, who are most likely to meet their death at the hands of a stranger. But in the pressure cooker of lockdown, emotions quickly build up a head of steam. All of that distress and anger provoked by Sarah’s killing needed a safety valve, a communal catharsis. A vigil on Clapham Common, organised by Reclaim These Streets, sounded ideal, except it was banned by police because it was illegal under the emergency Covid restrictions. That didn’t stop previous gatherings going ahead, though, did it?

    Cast your minds back. Nine months ago, members of the Metropolitan Police knelt at the feet of violent, jeering Black Lives Matter protesters. (They were given permission by senior officers for that craven act of obeisance to a group whose stated aim is – ahem – to “defund the police”.) Compare and contrast with what happened on Saturday. Members of the Metropolitan Police wrestled to the ground and handcuffed women who had decided to go and pay their respects to Sarah Everard. An exemption permitting demonstrations during the pandemic was removed in November – but still there was a stench of double standards.

    Yesterday, Sue Fish, former Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire, accused the Met of “institutionalised misogynism, sexism, a complete lack of understanding into women’s experience”. She was dismayed that the Clapham event had been “policed as a protest instead of a vigil”. Me too.

    Clearly, there were a few hard-Left infiltrators there, shamelessly exploiting the tragedy for their tedious causes (Sarah’s close friends stayed away precisely because they feared her death had been hijacked for political purposes). [Not just a few. It would have been very naïve to think that professional demonstrators would not turn out in big numbers.] But most of the women who attended were mourners, not demonstrators. The decision to forcibly remove them from the bandstand, which had become a temporary shrine, trampling floral tributes underfoot, was a disgrace. Which senior copper thought that using violence against women at a vigil for a woman who was a victim of violence (allegedly by a policeman, for heaven’s sake) would be a good look? [Indeed. PITA she may have been but it wasn’t necessary to pin the red-headed nuisance to the ground.]

    Why did Dame Cressida Dick not have the empathy to grasp what her officers were dealing with? An emotional, highly charged gathering, it transcended the loss of one life to express a shared sorrow and rage at the way in which every female life is, to some extent, compromised by daily fears. There but for the grace of God go we. [Come on AP, Dick Of The Yard does not have normal human emotions.]

    Even the former Kate Middleton, doubtless recalling her own days as a single girl about town, came quietly to lay a bunch of daffodils from the Palace garden on the bandstand. If an event has such universal resonance that our future Queen is prepared to stretch the definition of permitted “daily exercise” to be there, then even the densest Plod must surely click that this is not the moment for heavy-handed law enforcement. Sadly not. The insensitivity of the police, the authoritarian thuggishness with which that show of sisterly solidarity was manhandled, was utterly appalling.

    Dame Cressida said that her officers policing the vigil felt “quite rightly, that it was an unlawful gathering, which posed a considerable risk to people’s health”. Where was the common sense, the compassion?

    Only last week, Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific officer, said: “It’s difficult to see how outdoor gatherings lead to spikes [in cases].” [I missed that one!] If you look at the interactive map on the Government’s own website, the whole of Clapham and most of south east London now has so few Covid cases that the data is unavailable. Why didn’t the police use that crucial information to conclude the vigil posed no threat to public health and could be considered an exception?

    In the Commons, Priti Patel continued Commissioner Dick’s disingenuous theme, saying: “The right to protest is the cornerstone of our democracy, but the Government’s duty remains to prevent more lives being lost during this pandemic.”

    Sorry, this phase of the pandemic is clearly at its end, Home Secretary. Across the entire capital, Covid patients now occupy a mere 6 per cent of hospital beds. A group of women meeting outside in the chill spring air are neither going to catch nor spread the virus. Last March, it may have been justifiable to ban peaceful protest in order to protect the population from contagion. Today, it is morally indefensible. The only emergency now is the draconian restraints on people’s freedom, which criminalise the most basic human impulse – to come together for comfort in a moment of anguish.

    Many have called for Cressida Dick to resign. Be careful what you wish for. Her likely successor, Neil Basu, is a BLM sympathiser who admitted he would “probably have joined” the anti-police group. [See below.] There are worse things than a complete Dick. It is wrong that MPs criticise the police for enforcing cruel and nonsensical laws, which were voted for by – oh, yes! – MPs.

    Calling for Dame Cressida’s head is a distraction. It is how we improve safety for women that counts. The ongoing restrictions pose a far bigger threat than Covid itself. Who could have predicted that locking up thousands of women with their abusers would dramatically compound domestic violence? The streets of Brixton, which Sarah Everard, and my daughter, walked at night, were much safer when women could rely on brightly-lit restaurants and plentiful passers-by to deter attackers. Lockdown is a killer for women.

    To his credit, the Prime Minister recognises this is a watershed moment. The Sarah Everard case, he said, had “unleashed a wave of feeling about women not feeling safe. We must drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to better protect and defend them.”

    The PM announced plans that will see bars and clubs patrolled by plain-clothes police officers to protect women from sexual harassment and assault. Frankly, I would rather see a more visible presence of uniformed police on our streets. It’s a scandal that, since 2010, half of all police stations in the UK have closed. Instead of pursuing online hate crimes, coppers should be apprehending hateful criminals.

    On Friday night, Dame Cressida joined a “reassurance patrol” on Clapham Common. If those had been a regular feature, Sarah Everard might still be living her promising young life in blissful anonymity instead of becoming a tragic symbol for the cause of women’s safety. My heart bleeds for her parents. It may be some consolation for them if something good and important can come from such deafening loss.

    Mothers take it for granted that we have to teach our daughters things we never teach our sons. That’s just the way it is. Well, it really shouldn’t be. In a quarter of a century, I don’t want my daughter to be telling her daughter how to protect herself from predators. We can do better.

    It was Sarah Everard’s male friends who led the desperate search to find her. Ultimately, good men joining forces with female campaigners to defeat an evil minority is the only way women will ever walk the streets without fear.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/good-men-joining-forces-women-way-will-ever-walk-streets-without/

    Neil Basu:
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/met-assistant-commissioner-neil-basu-stand-up-to-racists-protests-a4464561.html
    https://www.channel4.com/news/met-police-assistant-commissioner-would-have-probably-joined-blm-protesters-if-he-was-not-an-officer

  78. Good men joining forces with women is the only way we will ever walk the streets without fear

    Lockdown restrictions pose a far bigger threat than Covid itself, with women at greater risk of violence both at home and on the streets

    ALLISON PEARSON

    We have to teach our daughters things we never teach our sons. That’s just the way it is. Lately, mine has been taking these long nocturnal walks. She says it helps with the anxiety caused by lockdown.

    “You shouldn’t go by yourself. It’s not safe!”

    “Don’t worry, Mum, it’s always really busy in Brixton,” my daughter sighs. “Nothing’s gonna happen to me, just chill, OK?”

    If she gets an Uber home late at night, I tell her to call a friend and pretend she’s talking to them, even if they didn’t pick up.

    “Just say loudly what time you’ll be home and that you’ll see them soon.”

    “What for?”

    “So the driver thinks someone’s expecting you and he’ll think twice before attacking you.”

    “Mu-um, that’s literally insane.”

    “Just do it, darling, OK? Do it for your mad old mum.”

    When I gave birth to that baby girl 25 years ago, no one told me that, in 2021, a part of my heart would be walking the streets of south London by itself. It’s not ideal, is it? The world is too bad and the girl is too good.

    “Don’t worry, nothing’s gonna happen to me,” she says.

    A doorbell CCTV captured the very last image of Sarah Everard. Same short, puffy jacket as my daughter, same AirPods, same beanie hat, even the same chunky trainers for walking home to Brixton. Only Sarah never got home. The two worst words in the language: human remains. That poor beautiful girl.

    You don’t need to have a daughter living in the same postal district to have been powerfully affected by Sarah’s disappearance and killing. Millions of us were shaken, especially women who all have their own tales of flashers and scary near-misses.

    Sarah Everard was monstrously unlucky. We know that. Generally, women are killed by men they know (one dies from domestic violence every three days). It is young men, in grotesque numbers in Sadiq Khan’s London, who are most likely to meet their death at the hands of a stranger. But in the pressure cooker of lockdown, emotions quickly build up a head of steam. All of that distress and anger provoked by Sarah’s killing needed a safety valve, a communal catharsis. A vigil on Clapham Common, organised by Reclaim These Streets, sounded ideal, except it was banned by police because it was illegal under the emergency Covid restrictions. That didn’t stop previous gatherings going ahead, though, did it?

    Cast your minds back. Nine months ago, members of the Metropolitan Police knelt at the feet of violent, jeering Black Lives Matter protesters. (They were given permission by senior officers for that craven act of obeisance to a group whose stated aim is – ahem – to “defund the police”.) Compare and contrast with what happened on Saturday. Members of the Metropolitan Police wrestled to the ground and handcuffed women who had decided to go and pay their respects to Sarah Everard. An exemption permitting demonstrations during the pandemic was removed in November – but still there was a stench of double standards.

    Yesterday, Sue Fish, former Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire, accused the Met of “institutionalised misogynism, sexism, a complete lack of understanding into women’s experience”. She was dismayed that the Clapham event had been “policed as a protest instead of a vigil”. Me too.

    Clearly, there were a few hard-Left infiltrators there, shamelessly exploiting the tragedy for their tedious causes (Sarah’s close friends stayed away precisely because they feared her death had been hijacked for political purposes). [Not just a few. It would have been very naïve to think that professional demonstrators would not turn out in big numbers.] But most of the women who attended were mourners, not demonstrators. The decision to forcibly remove them from the bandstand, which had become a temporary shrine, trampling floral tributes underfoot, was a disgrace. Which senior copper thought that using violence against women at a vigil for a woman who was a victim of violence (allegedly by a policeman, for heaven’s sake) would be a good look? [Indeed. PITA she may have been but it wasn’t necessary to pin the red-headed nuisance to the ground.]

    Why did Dame Cressida Dick not have the empathy to grasp what her officers were dealing with? An emotional, highly charged gathering, it transcended the loss of one life to express a shared sorrow and rage at the way in which every female life is, to some extent, compromised by daily fears. There but for the grace of God go we. [Come on AP, Dick Of The Yard does not have normal human emotions.]

    Even the former Kate Middleton, doubtless recalling her own days as a single girl about town, came quietly to lay a bunch of daffodils from the Palace garden on the bandstand. If an event has such universal resonance that our future Queen is prepared to stretch the definition of permitted “daily exercise” to be there, then even the densest Plod must surely click that this is not the moment for heavy-handed law enforcement. Sadly not. The insensitivity of the police, the authoritarian thuggishness with which that show of sisterly solidarity was manhandled, was utterly appalling.

    Dame Cressida said that her officers policing the vigil felt “quite rightly, that it was an unlawful gathering, which posed a considerable risk to people’s health”. Where was the common sense, the compassion?

    Only last week, Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific officer, said: “It’s difficult to see how outdoor gatherings lead to spikes [in cases].” [I missed that one!] If you look at the interactive map on the Government’s own website, the whole of Clapham and most of south east London now has so few Covid cases that the data is unavailable. Why didn’t the police use that crucial information to conclude the vigil posed no threat to public health and could be considered an exception?

    In the Commons, Priti Patel continued Commissioner Dick’s disingenuous theme, saying: “The right to protest is the cornerstone of our democracy, but the Government’s duty remains to prevent more lives being lost during this pandemic.”

    Sorry, this phase of the pandemic is clearly at its end, Home Secretary. Across the entire capital, Covid patients now occupy a mere 6 per cent of hospital beds. A group of women meeting outside in the chill spring air are neither going to catch nor spread the virus. Last March, it may have been justifiable to ban peaceful protest in order to protect the population from contagion. Today, it is morally indefensible. The only emergency now is the draconian restraints on people’s freedom, which criminalise the most basic human impulse – to come together for comfort in a moment of anguish.

    Many have called for Cressida Dick to resign. Be careful what you wish for. Her likely successor, Neil Basu, is a BLM sympathiser who admitted he would “probably have joined” the anti-police group. [See below.] There are worse things than a complete Dick. It is wrong that MPs criticise the police for enforcing cruel and nonsensical laws, which were voted for by – oh, yes! – MPs.

    Calling for Dame Cressida’s head is a distraction. It is how we improve safety for women that counts. The ongoing restrictions pose a far bigger threat than Covid itself. Who could have predicted that locking up thousands of women with their abusers would dramatically compound domestic violence? The streets of Brixton, which Sarah Everard, and my daughter, walked at night, were much safer when women could rely on brightly-lit restaurants and plentiful passers-by to deter attackers. Lockdown is a killer for women.

    To his credit, the Prime Minister recognises this is a watershed moment. The Sarah Everard case, he said, had “unleashed a wave of feeling about women not feeling safe. We must drive out violence against women and girls and make every part of the criminal justice system work to better protect and defend them.”

    The PM announced plans that will see bars and clubs patrolled by plain-clothes police officers to protect women from sexual harassment and assault. Frankly, I would rather see a more visible presence of uniformed police on our streets. It’s a scandal that, since 2010, half of all police stations in the UK have closed. Instead of pursuing online hate crimes, coppers should be apprehending hateful criminals.

    On Friday night, Dame Cressida joined a “reassurance patrol” on Clapham Common. If those had been a regular feature, Sarah Everard might still be living her promising young life in blissful anonymity instead of becoming a tragic symbol for the cause of women’s safety. My heart bleeds for her parents. It may be some consolation for them if something good and important can come from such deafening loss.

    Mothers take it for granted that we have to teach our daughters things we never teach our sons. That’s just the way it is. Well, it really shouldn’t be. In a quarter of a century, I don’t want my daughter to be telling her daughter how to protect herself from predators. We can do better.

    It was Sarah Everard’s male friends who led the desperate search to find her. Ultimately, good men joining forces with female campaigners to defeat an evil minority is the only way women will ever walk the streets without fear.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/good-men-joining-forces-women-way-will-ever-walk-streets-without/

    Neil Basu:
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/met-assistant-commissioner-neil-basu-stand-up-to-racists-protests-a4464561.html
    https://www.channel4.com/news/met-police-assistant-commissioner-would-have-probably-joined-blm-protesters-if-he-was-not-an-officer

  79. A guy believed that his wife is cheating on him, so he hired a private investigator.

    The cheapest he could find was a Chinese man. This was the Chinese PI’s report about what he found:

    “Most honorable, sir. You leave house. I watch house. He come to house. I watch. He and she leave house. I follow. He and she go in hotel. I climb tree. I look in window. He kiss she. He strip she. She strip he. He play with she. She play with he. I play with me. I fall out tree. I not see. No fee. Cheng Lee.”

  81. Three people were sat in the same compartment in a train all doing the Sun crossword…

    There was a young nurse…a sailor and a vicar.

    After 30 minutes the sailor declared that he had finished his and asked the young nurse if she needed help.

    The nurse said she was stuck on 17 across..the clue was something most women had and was a four letter word ending in UNT.

    “That’s easy” said the sailor…it’s AUNT.

    The vicar coughed and asked…”Anybody got an eraser”?

          2. Tell Bill Thomas.

            Was it Lewis Carroll or Robert Southey who mocked Father William’s age?

        3. Ancient Joke No 1′

          A new inmate (when they were called that and not Guests/residents etc) arrives at Strangeways (very apt now) Nick

          He is allocated to a cell, when his already incacerated cellmate calls out

          “Number 76” the Block erupts iwith laughter.
          Then someone calls out “Number 16” again laughter>
          The newby says to the Old Lag, what is going

          Well we have all been here so long, we have saved time on repeating the Jokes by giving them a number.

          Ooo says the Newby and calla out “Number 32″
          Silence, so he aks why

          The old Lag looks at him and says It’s the way I tell them”

          1. One for any ex-Infanteers on here:

            Henry V was at Agincourt when a French poilu ran at the English with lance held high. Henry scribbled a note on parchment, sealed it with wax, called for his most trusted messgenger and told him that the message had to get to the Privy Council in London with the utmost haste. He rode and rode all day and night until the horse couldn’t take another step. He went to the nearest village and fought the local French for their fastest horse and rode and rode that as far as the Channel where he fought the local French boatmen for their fastest boat.
            Battered, he rowed and rowed across the channel, collapsing on the beach at Dover. He dragged himself to the nearest village and said “I have a message friom the King of England which I must deliver with utmost haste to the Privy Council” The villagers gave him their fastest horse and he rose and rode it to London where he said “I am the King’s most trusted messenger. I have come from the field at Agincourt with a message from the King. I demand to see be taken to deliver it to the Privy Council.”

            As he looked so battered and bedraggled, the guards were suspicious and he was tortured until they gave up. He did not change his story and so they believed he must be telling the truth.

            The guards took him to the Privy Council where the Chancellor opened the scroll, read the message and said “Thank you. That wil be all. Away with you”.

            The messenger asked whether there was any reply to which the Chancellor said “No. Now away with you”

            A little miffed, after his tribulations, the messenger asked if he could be told the content of such an important message that needed no reply. The Chancellor shrugged and threw him the scroll. The messenger opened it and read Contact. Wait out.

    2. On another but early morning Rail Journey, including a vicar a rabbi and a catholic priest, all on their way to a convention. The breakfast menu came along and the Vicar chose toast marmalade and tea. The priest chose some cereal buttered toast and a coffee. The rabbi chose a double bacon sandwich and a coffee. After they had finished the catholic priest leaned forward and said to the rabbi. Forgive me rabbi but i thought it was against your religious beliefs the eat pork products. The rabbi replied, well i’m amongst friends and out of close scrutiny so a little of what you fancy eh. Then the rabbi said to the priest, tell me father have you ever been tempted to let’s say dally with the ladies at all ? Well as a matter of fact and don’t let this go any further i have a few times after mass. The rabbi spends a few moments looking out of the window he turns back to the priest and says it’s better than bacon isn’t it ?

    3. The other clue was “Found in the bottom of a bird cage” ending in IT
      Answer was GRIT and the vicar still needed the eraser

    4. I remember my brother-in-law, a solicitor in the City, telling me this joke about fifty years ago when I had just left UEA. He was a great enthusiast for dirty jokes and he knew the whole of Eskimo Nell by heart which was a great asset when he was captain of Esher RFU club’s Extra B team which he persuaded me to turn out for from time to time.

      (Not my fault if you take away the spoiler!)

      Apparently the rugby crowd used to visit a city pub which put on a lunchtime stripper and when she was totally naked she lay on her back on the bar’s stage and spreadeagled her legs which prompted the remark from a well-known stockbroker: “Pass the mustard.”

  82. Breitbart comment below the Charlie Hedbo article ….

    michaelbarningham • 16 hours ago • edited

    Well Henry Windsor or Harry Hewitt or whoever you are. There is now no doubt
    who wears the trousers in the house you are living in – until she tires
    of you. You clearly do not realise that you are in well over your head,
    and perhaps you had no idea that things would spiral this far out of
    control, because you see, in the Tinsel town world you have chosen to
    live in, with the sensation seeking second rate actress and ‘Duchess’ of
    Santa Barbara, the rule is that there are no rules, there is only a
    story. But if there is no story, you fabricate one.

    But even if her Majesty the Queen is not your paternal Grand Mother, is this any way
    to treat a ninety-four year old lady with her husband in hospital with a
    life threatening condition? – Cat got your tongue?

    You see I already held a low opinion of you when you turned up for a party at the
    age of twenty, dressed as a Naz!. I thought at the time that not only
    was something missing in your education, you also lacked judgement. But
    perhaps the loss of your mother at such a young age had somehow
    unhinged you.

    At the age of twenty, I had already sworn an oath of
    allegiance to Her Majesty The Queen, and already served in the British
    military for three years, but at that time, being under twenty-one, I
    couldn’t vote. Seeing the photo of you complete with swas t!ka, I
    pondered that perhaps they were correct back in my day, twenty-year olds
    should not be allowed to vote.

    I am happy that at the time of your ‘practical joke’ my father was dead, and did not see the ‘alleged’
    son of the heir to the throne, wearing the insignia of a regime that had
    killed his two brothers and a cousin. As a Royal Marine who had seen
    Dieppe and Normandy, he would probably have chucked his DSM back over
    the palace wall.

    Astonishingly, you went on to become an army
    officer. I cannot imagine what my chances of a commission would have
    been if I had turned up to the Admiralty Interview Board with a photo of
    me dressed as a Naz !, splashed on the front page of a national
    newspaper. I think I would have stood more chance of space flight. But I
    suppose your royal privilege had some bearing on the War office Board’s
    decision. A privilege you make full use of to this day.

    I thought that after you had gone through Sandhurst and served in Afghanistan you
    would have matured, with better judgement. Sadly I was wrong.

    I do not condone the cartoon caricature of Charlie Hebdo, it is not only
    in poor taste, it is factually wrong. But sensation is the business that
    Charlie Hebdo is in, so I cannot condemn them for plying their trade.

    But it does bring me back to my first paragraph. You are in over your head.
    Your poor judgement for choice for a wife, and your continued public
    support of her tasteless antics, whether intended or not, will see you
    forever associated as agent provocateur of that caricature, and you will
    never again be welcome in the UK that you and your Tinsel Town re-tread
    ‘wife’ seek payment to continually damage.

    1. Does any rational person still feel sorry for Harry? He is not only seriously stupid – which you could argue is not his fault – he is also cruel, nasty and sadistic.

      The next thing we know Migraine will be demanding a DNA test to see if Prince Charles is actually his father. But if it is proved that he is not it could seriously backfire on her.

      2. I’ve always stood up for the position that he IS definitely Brian’s son as they are the image of eachother in some photo’s.
        I would be quite happy now though, to find out that he is not.

      3. What a future he faces.
        If he stays in the US, he will become the despised adjunct to an ageing and bitter third rate actress.
        If he returns to Blighty, he will be the distrusted outcast – the Uncle Andrew of his generation.

      4. A controlling abuser can control their victim to a level that is unbelievable until you have seen it with your own eyes. They usually force the victim to do their dirty work for them. So Harry-as-controlled-victim is still possible.
        After the divorce, we may be treated to endless public soul-searching as he tells us that none of this was his fault because he was under the influence of a narcissistic controlling abuser.

        It’s tempting to just condemn him, but at the same time, professional abusers are very, very good at what they do. For example, Harry is probably genuinely convinced that everyone is out to get him, and only Meghan is standing up for him. There was a hint of this in the version that they told to Oprah – that they had to flee because the Mafiosos of the House of Windsor had taken Meghan’s keys, passport and driving licence, and she hadn’t been out of the house more than twice in the month.
        I’m not saying any of this is true, just that this is probably what Harry believes.

        1. That woman is like a female Rasputin …

          She is a tormentor , a bully , a grasping vindictive destroyer of all good feeling and generosity of spirit .

          She believes she can control , smile and lie. she has a narcissistic personality ..

          She dumped her family, 1st husband friends and her dog ..

          The Royal family must close ranks , they are dealing with a dangerous adversary .. That cruel coercive manipulator of the the truth is as mad as any tyrant we have seen in recent history .

          I hope she is kind to her child , and not cruel and dismissive .. How can a woman so mentally disturbed and vindictive be a well balanced loving mother ..

          If she were in the UK , the Social Services would hear alarm bells ringing , not only for her children but for her husband as well.

          She can fool some of the people some of the time , but not all of the time , she will be rumbled sooner or later .

    2. Yes, I read that comment on Breit Bart and was fascinated to discover that the UK voting age wasn’t lowered to 18 until 1970. Mind you, in France women could not vote in elections & referendums until late 1945.

    1. I have had many holidays over the years in France with strong memories of wonderful meals.

      I don’t think i will be going again until they have a Marine Government.

      Paris suburbs are now no go areas where people shit in the streets.

      Admittedly the French always had a dubious attitude to hygiene which probably makes the squatters more acceptable to the left wing Mayor.

      2. I wandered into a café in Boulogne and ordered some of their soup-of-the-day (from a large tureen). It was a wishy-washy, watery, pale grey colour, looking not dissimilar to an over-diluted Polycell wallpaper paste. It was a potato potage.

        It remains, to this day, one of the tastiest and most delicious dishes of soup I have ever enjoyed.

  85. ‘Total disaster’ Cummings attacks Hancock over ‘smoking ruin’ of PPE
    By
    Catherine Neilan

    DT Story

    Had Boris Johnson not been so uxorious and surrendered so limply to his mistress then Dominic Cummings would have stayed in place and ensured that we did not surrender to the EU by agreeing to an absurd deal which reveals itself daily as a complete sell-out.

    Ursula Fond of Lying now plans to block exports to Britain of anything to do with Covid vaccines.

    Does Boris Johnson still seriously believe the EU is a friend of Britain? Hasn’t the EU’s behaviour already shown clearly enough that the WA and the deal must be abandoned without further delay.

      1. 330438+ up ticks,
        Afternoon H,
        All the time they take down a link / video that has been seen by some, it surely strengthens the content of the video.

    1. He’s right though.
      As are those who wrote to support his stance.

      Although I think it’s James and Andrew Grant.

    2. I read it Grizz and I can understand the guy’s frustration and utter demoralisation. Unfortunately because of the actions of some officers in enforcing petty rules and not using common sense, nor policing even handedly, a great many people have lost their respect for the police (as I believe you yourself have). It will take a long time to repair the reputational damage, a good proportion of the blame for which comes from the lack of leadership at senior levels and front line politicians.

      1. I started to lose respect for senior ranks and politicians way back in 1978 when political control was exerted on the police, taking us away from being public servants.

      2. The selective policing of events and sections of society have created this situation.
        If you are a pikey or a BLM demonstrator, you get a free pass. A normally law abiding driver who strays over the speed limit – not so much.
        I realise that politicians and ‘politicians in uniform’ are to blame for this situation and I am at a loss to think how on earth it will ever change while the current political drift continues.

        1. I think that they ONLY way will be (generally) that enough ordinary people – the so-called ‘silent majority’ say ‘that’s it – I’ve had enough of this sh*t’ and come together to do something about it – starting at local level and then spreading nationwide. Sadly, I think the only sort of thing that will kick this sort of thing off is if something REALLY BAD happens first. Too many people are either scared, complacent, selfish or naive.

          1. There was a story in the mamers a couple-three weeks ago where the Italian police entered a restaurant to eject all those having lunch, and were driven away by shouts of “You work for us! Get lost” and similar.
            Same thing needed in the UK.

        2. ‘Political drift’? I like that expression. ‘Political flotsam’ would be just as descriptive too.

      3. It takes a lifetime to build trust and respect, it takes just a moment to lose it.

    3. Excellent piece. I fully appreciate their position, as I felt similar frustrations in my former line of work in the Construction Industry, and why I jacked it in a few years ago. In the end, it was just one day after the other banging my head against a brick wall.

      A shame that only a few in society would publicly agree with the opinion from the article and would want to do something about it. I tried to in my own industry and got nowhere, except in the bad books of my employers.

      A lot of our society is either very near to, at or (sadly) beyond the point of no return. And yet most people either don’t care or don’t see it.

    4. A sad reflection of society when good people can no longer feel they can uphold the law.

    5. A sad indictment of the dumbing down of society, from top to bottom. All must have prizes, we are all equal no matter how ridiculous that concept is, there must be no discrimination, the list is endless and as no one is told “No” any longer, this will continue to unravel until we have destroyed what we prized.

    6. None of it is wrong, that’s the scary part. Orderly society has essentially already broken down, just most people don’t realise it yet.

  88. Daily rant.

    Just been to B&Q. We need some moulding to frame two mirrors. In a very short time we had found exactly what we want. BUT – the only had one piece. We need two.

    Asked if they could order it for us. NOT A CHANCE. We haveto click and collect (which doesn’t operate in the Fakenham store) and then go 40 miles to Thetford to collect.

    Why on earth can’t they simply re-order for the Fakenham store? (And please don’t suggest I go elsewhere. There ISN’T another timber merchant worth its salt within 30 miles).

      1. It is something one needs to see in the flesh. And – stupid boy – as I said there ISN’T anywhere else within 30 miles.

        1. Just order 6 different from sites that give you free returns. Most places i order stuff from is the other end of the country…Grand dad !

          1. If the stuff you order comes from the other end of the country, I was just wondering ……. have you thought of moving to the other end of the country? You’d save a fortune in postage.
            ;¬)

          2. I’m torn….Donald Russel or Cornish fish. Not sure i would be welcome in either place….and i’m not even a nignog!

    3. Hah!!!! While we’re in whinge mode …. a restrained summary of today.
      1. Ordered and paid for Spartie’s pills. Scanned and buzzed over prescription. Email claiming it was too small and blurred. Politely pointed out that I had scanned it on 300 dpm resolution and the size was A4. Silence. Phoned to check and woman couldn’t find it on her system because she was a different dept. Re-sent – she couldn’t see it. Apparently I will get an email tomorrow. I had already had to wait longer for the vet to sign the scrip because of sodding covid. And the post is slower than usual – because of ….. so I’m having to organise everything well in advance.
      2. Went to Wickes to get a couple of bolts to secure elderly chum’s door. Fell foul of the assistant because of the queuing system. Bugger me, I’m only the blasted customer! How dare I get riled at being spoken to like a naughty child.
      3. Took 3 goes to make an appt. with the solicitor. They have fewer staff in the office because …… go on, make a wild guess.
      Every bloody thing I’ve tried to sort out today has either been a complete hassle and/or been a case of 2 steps forward and 3 back.
      I AM SICK OF IT.

      2. In that mood, Anne, don’t try ringing the bank… just don’t.
        “Due to the virus situation, the expected delay before we can take your call is 45 minutes. Your call is important to us”. Like bolux it it.

    4. How about emailing the CEO. Alf does this regularly if those beneath are unhelpful. There is a ceo email list online which I will ask Slf to put on but he’s on the dog and bone just now.

    5. How urgent is it. If you buy one, their bot might then reorder automatically if they’re out of stock so you could go back in a wek or two to buy another.

      In the meantime, write a complaint to B&Q

    1. Didn’t work for me – it appears that you have to be logged into Facebook to access it, and handing over my personal data to and getting cookiefied by Facebook ain’t something I’ll be doing. See if you can save it elsewhere.

      1. I’ve tries a few times with Facbook and Twitter, Andy, but I’m afraid the technology is beyond me!

        1. Not to worry. You could try (if its mainly a video) any of the YouTube rivals, like BitChute and odysee if you feel up to the task. They often have ‘how to’ help features for novices.

        2. Unusual for you to admit defeat…Us Southerners would have found a way…just sayin’.

    1. God! I will pack, and take a train,
      And get me to England once again!
      For England’s the one land, I know,
      Where men with Splendid Hearts may go…

      Granchester . Rupert Brooke.

        1. OH, to be in England now that April ’s there
          And whoever wakes in England sees, some morning, unaware,
          That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
          Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
          While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
          In England—now!

          Home Thoughts from Abroad. Browning.

          There you are Plum. There will be no more of such stuff. It is gone forever. It’s strange they destroyed all that was best and left us with the trash!

          1. Plum is laying landmines and caltrops as we speak along with the Dahlias. No cat shits in her garden for long.

          2. Tnaks Ara…
            “The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
            You know how it is with an April day.
            When the sun is out and the wind is still,
            You’re one month on in the middle of May.
            But if you so much as dare to speak,
            a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
            And wind comes off a frozen peak,
            And you’re two months back in the middle of March.”

            – Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time, 1926

    2. Bloomin’ typical that where I am, the blue sky and sunshine was briefly out whilst I was having my lunch. 🙁
      Dull and rainy otherwise.

    4. Can I make out the pepperpot?
      That skyline altered quite a bit after the storm of 1987.

  91. Off topic

    First orchid in flower this year has appeared in the garden, an early marsh.

    The hares are having a great time. They spend a lot of effort grooming themselves, very cat-like in their approach and will even pull their ears into their mouths to clean them. The process can continue for 20 minutes or more. I was very surprised to see how big their paws are when fully stretched out. When they are hunkered down or moving the paws appear quite small, whereas in fact they are relatively wide, bigger than a domestic cat’s.

      1. First catch your Hare. Strangle. Chop head off and peel back skin taking the fur with it. Eat. Preferably with a Chianti.

        *signed H. Lecter.

        1. First catch your hare (or rabbit), kill, then give to the dog!

          Neither are fit for human consumption!

      2. The hare is still there as I write, and it would taste very good, but once an animal gets into sosrasantuary it’s safe from me.

        Apart from moles…

    2. I don’t have any Orchids sadly even though i had the opportunity to steal them from a farm near Boggle Hole but decided to be sensible for once.

      My fritillaries are poking out though.

      2. I like fritillaries and we had snake’s head in the UK.

        Apart from roses and replanted houseplants most of the stuff here is “wild”, much to HG’s chagrin, she likes order.

      1. We have several regular visitors, I would guess that the biggest is the better part of three feet long, stretched out, and certainly far bigger and bulkier than next door’s cat. It can move from stationary to well over 30mph in an instant.
        I particularly enjoy watching them boxing.

        Because they see me wandering around the garden they are remarkably tolerant of my presence. I always keep a respectful distance, if I spot them, although sometimes I can nearly have stepped on them before they flee.

          1. It would certainly give one a shock.

            I am always surprised by how confident they are that the lying stock-still strategy works, particularly the levets.

            Evolution, certainly, but I have approached, slowly, and been within inches of them. I even rubbed the nose of one very gently and it didn’t flee.

            I’ve shown friends around, when I’ve known where one is “scraped down” and even they have been able to get within about 10 feet.

            Guests in the cottage are warned to watch but not approach and if they stay still at the outside table they can get some really good pictures. If they try to move toward them the hares will vanish and probably not return until those guests have departed.

  92. Independent reporting that NHS is warning that from 29 March there will be a significant reduction in weekly supply of Covid Vaccines for 4 weeks. No reason given.

    1. Odd how they said that after a dip at the end of Feb/early March, supplies would then be high and thus so would vaccination rates. They’ve been relatively constant and not over 500k/day for two weeks. The DT reported that stocks were high, so I’m not sure who to believe. Maybe they’re factoring in the EU not letting them leave that Belgian factory.

      1. I hope so. They should not be vaccinating the under 70’s who are otherwise healthy.

        They might be lucky and get away with the AZ vaccine but the Pfizer and Moderna jabs are not vaccines but gene therapies and likely to cause serious health problems both now and down the line.

        The stated aim of vaccinating everyone including children is an abomination. Likewise lockdowns are counter productive with yet more damage than allowing normal life.

        Both social distancing and masking are feeding infections not diminishing them.

      2. It will be a big difficult to explain, if everyone drops dead during the coming winter months, to the few remaining standing. If the young are spared being jabbed then they will be delighted to see the back of the Boomers, perhaps all those manipulative newspaper articles (e.g. ‘The Boomers have stolen your future’) really were in preparation for this very moment.

  93. England, My England

    Oh England, My England
    Where have you gone?
    The Pride of Being English
    Rejoicing in song

    Them days are now over
    As Bad as it’s been
    I dread for my children
    The things that i’ve seen

    No Neighbours to rely on
    No Kids In the street
    No respect for the elderly
    As a country, we are beat

    Governed by greed
    Country run by fools
    Drug riddled children
    Hang round like ghouls

    No prospects or parents
    This country is wrong
    Oh England, My England
    Where have you gone?

    3. Pity these thugs can’t be given something better to do – repairing the damage for instance.

      1. I wouldn’t trust the twats to repair it. The hides were built by skilled craftsmen. Brain-dead morons don’t possess (nor ever will) one thousandth of the skill set required.

          1. I disagree. They don’t have the mindset to make it work. Save for thrashing them to within an inch of their lives the only fit punishment is a bootcamp.

  95. 3 30438+ up ticks,
    Which will bring them down to our level, threatening to withhold a vaccine that in many cases the real use of which is to “see Naples & maybe die”

    I would not mind in the least being wrong.

    Dt,
    The vaccine fiasco will ignite a second Eurozone crisis that will bring the EU to its knees

    2. And there were oi tinking dat dat Plum_Tart would already ‘av mowed em down wid ‘er Zimmer.

    3. And there were oi tinking dat dat Plum_Tart would already ‘av mowed em down wid ‘er Zimmer.

    6. That makes sense though – if you are trying to cross the road before a bus/truck arrives, and you walk slowly … ?

  97. Bbc News at Six gleefully announcing that vaccine supplies may be restricted [because of Brexit], whereas in reality it’s because of the EU’s asinine behaviour.

  98. According to the latest stats there are now 968 ‘Covid’ patients in ITU or on ventilation (HDU?). I don’t know the exact figure for the number of ITUs in the UK but it must be between 150-180 which means that on average there will be 5 or 6 patients with Covid either requiring ITU or ventilation in each District General Hospital. I would suggest that the NHS is no longer at crisis level.

    1. Note that the figure was about 3x higher just a month ago. The number of people in hospital generally with COVID has dropped like a stone. We should already be back open.

      1. The local Beeb Radio station has broadcast many times a day the “statistics” of the infected and deaths. I realised something had changed as one of today’s readouts seemed odd. As you said – numbers had been falling but when it came on again later it suddenly hit me that the “area” that had been used on previous reports ( for months ) had changed – now it was a larger area. Presumably this was to inflate the figures, without admitting to why. The con rolls on.

    2. The NHS is permanently at “crisis level”. When the price is zero, demand is infinite.

      2. In short patients will go on demanding treatment until the marginal utility of treatment is zero.
        Sr B.Sc(Econ)

  99. An interesting take on the vaccine roll-out from Allison Pearson:

    “A woman in front of me said she’d be injected with absolutely anything “if I can go out and eat a meal I haven’t cooked myself”. That pretty much summed up the mood. Despite what the polls say, I reckon most people are done with Covid and lockdown.”

    This concerns me, people are not having the jab because they are worried about the virus, but because the government has made life so intolerable that we have to have it if we want our lives back. This is coercion, we have never shut down society until everyone has had a flu jab.

    As a Brexiteer, I am enjoying the Schadenfreude of seeing the EU tear itself apart over vaccines. But people have died quite soon after having the vaccine. Are they really suspending the Astrazeneca one because of Brexit? Or because of a genuine concern that it causes blood clots? People need to be able to make an informed choice if the risk of the virus is greater than that of the vaccine. I don’t like this attitude of ‘just roll your sleeve up if you ever want your life back!’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/eu-cutting-nose-spite-face-astrazeneca-jab/

    1. A friend told me earlier today that his Son in Law ( here in the UK ) had the jab – now in hospital with a blood clot on the brain.

      2. That is sad – but do not blood clots happen for lots of reasons when thee is NOT a plague?

        1. Maybe they do but they do not apply the same common sense reasoning when blaming every death on covid.

        3. They say blood clots on the brain are very rare even when there’s not a plague.

    2. I suppose it is how a farmer would think when injecting his herd, oh i might lose one or two but overall my vet bill will be less and more will survive.

    3. A work colleague had the AZ jab yesterday, “Because I want to go on holiday”. Apparently her children found her wandering the house during the night, delirious (and not in the colloquial sense). She thought she was looking for her eldest daughter, who lives in the US.

    4. I reckon that this is a Declaration of War by Fraulein Always Lies – in retaliation for Brexit.

      It demands immediate retaliation.

      A ban on all German car imports, perhaps ?

    5. I see the EU is pondering a certificate (NOT, they assure us, a passport) to allow people to travel. Been jabbed, tested negative or had the virus and recovered.

  100. That’s me for the day. Just spent an hour and a half watching a fascinating talk from the British School at Rome about framing renaissance paintings. Brilliant. And free.

    I’ll join you tomorrow in the rain.

    A demain.

    1. Damn! I missed that.

      If only I hadn’t been busy framing the Donatello that Mrs, Mac has been nagging me about…

        1. Donatello was a sculptor not a painter or so I understood. He was taught by Lorenzo Ghiberti with whom he worked on the bronze doors to Florence Cathedral Baptistery.

          There is a riveting account of the competition between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi in Vasari’s ‘Lives of the Artists’.

          2. Yup. Will take a look. I have worked for two architects involved in mentoring students from my old college UCL who had been invited to apply to spend (two or three?) years at the British School in Rome on a Rome Scholarship.

            A girl from my course at UCL was interviewed by Sir William Whitfield, for whom I worked for donkeys years. She had elected to study Bernini which struck me as odd given that many eminent historians had written treatises on his work. After the first year she returned to England and forfeited her place.

            I met her by chance on Exhibition Road and she said she was bored. I reckon I would have been a better candidate.

          5. I think that is a panel from the Baptistery doors and is Ghiberti’s design. Donatello learned his metalwork craft from Ghiberti and thereafter excelled in life size marble and bronze freestanding sculptures.

            Edit: I think he did some bas relief from memory.

    1. I usually do it first thing in the morning. Forgot today but I’ve done it now. What difference does it actually make?

        1. Given some of the opinions expressed here (yes,yes,me too) flying under the radar isn’t the worst option in the world…….

          1. True. 🙂

            Over at going-postal.com we have well over 10 times the number of comments than here daily. And each stream only attracts about 150-ish likes (on average-ish.)

            Your opinions here are valid. But not that extreme. 🙂 😉

  103. Has anyone heard and understood the gist of Dominic Cumming’s interventions, today ?

  105. A priest, an imam and a rabbit went to a clinic to donate blood.
    The nurse asked the rabbit “What is your blood group?”
    The rabbit said “I’m probably a Type O”

  106. Another old joke you will have heard many years ago…

    A sailor was sitting on a train from Guz to join a new ship in Pompey.

    The train pulled into the next stop and a young couple joined him in the compartment.

    Jolly Jack looked at the guy’s wife and noticed she had the biggest pair of “headlamps” he’d ever set eyes on and started foaming at the mouth.

    “Are you OK said the husband?”

    “I’m OK” replied Jack. “It’s your wife that’s making me foam”. “I’d give you £50 just to be able to kiss one of her “headlamps”.

    The husband told his wife that £50 would come in handy and no one else needs to know, it’s only a kiss.

    The husband agreed and his wife sat on Jack’s knee facing him. Jack slowly unbuttoned her dress before slipping his hands under her bra which he ripped clean off.

    Now he faced her bare chest and began more foaming at the mouth. He first stroked the left one and then the right one.

    The husband reminded Jack that he and his wife would be leaving the train in an hour.

    Jack continued to fondle the wife as the train raced towards Exeter.

    Looking at his watch the husband told Jack they they would be in Exeter and just two minutes and that he should hurry and kiss his wife’s “headlight”.

    Then the train entered the station and the husband said, “For God’s sake man, we have to get off now so please kiss her”.

    “I can’t” replied Jack.

    “Why ever not” screamed the husband in panic.

    “I haven’t got £50” replied Jack.

  108. UEFA will not impose any sanctions on a team of officials, led by Russian referee Sergey Karasev, who decided not to kneel in support of the Black Lives Matter campaign before Tuesday’s Champions League game at Manchester City.
    All of the players from both squads took the knee at the Etihad Stadium, where the English Premier League leaders and German side Borussia Monchengladbach met in the second leg of the round of 16 tie.

    Karasev and his assistants Igor Demeshko and Maxim Gavrilin, as well as fourth official Aleksey Kulbakov, of Belarus, did not join the contentious call to action, sparking some viewers to insist that the trio should be punished by UEFA.

    1. sparking some viewers to insist that the trio should be punished by UEFA.

      Do the police watch football?

    2. it seems to be the modus operandi of the Wokerati. Don’t do something and it proves you are against our [latest] cause. We saw it in the US with those screaming BLM harpies who laid into a poor white woman sitting outside a cafe, having a quiet coffee while watching the protests, or the BLM mob in the UK last year with their ‘Stay silent are you support racism’. And just a few days ago it was ‘Stay silent and you support rape’. What a sad perverse world we now inhabit.

    3. It is because of this nonsense that I have given up support for English Rugby. I wonder if English Football Fans have the same integrity.

    1. A total, shocking disgrace for the MSM to even think of publishing those photographs.

      1. And yesterday there were so many of them, one after the other, different angles. Could they not have put him in a blacked-out car?

    3. I thought he was looking a bit Michael Foot, but then I realised it’s the headrest behind his head.

    2. “Top o’ the world, Ma!” And then you shot him.
      Edit: Sorry,I see it was Herr Oberst who shot his cats.

    3. A moment akin to when you realise your newly toddling child can reach the door handle and you know that it has realised that the world is their oyster.

  111. Wow! WOW!

    If only we had a journalist of this calibre in the UK: A longish read but savour every word:

    “Perhaps it is wrong to hold Varadkar to the kind of standard his status in Irish life has come to insinuate. In fairness to him, Varadkar is an incorrigible airhead, a dope, a gobshite and a lump eejit — in our native tongue, a gom, an amadán and a ludramán. Nobody can recall a single intelligent sentence he has uttered. The nicest thing I can say about him is that he is a bear who has been blessed with very little brain”

    https://johnwaters.substack.com/p/the-long-and-wasted-year?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoyODYwNTgzNiwicG9zdF9pZCI6MzM4MTA4NjUsIl8iOiJDelBnVyIsImlhdCI6MTYxNTk5MTA2NiwiZXhwIjoxNjE1OTk0NjY2LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTA4MTg1Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.64GCx-F6GgA-Mu47_tlu_I3FD_TOqDdcPS3AEWx8rO0
    .

    3. All applicable to our “leader” only minus the good looks. And our leader likes to be accompanied by Shitty and Unbalanced.

  112. Evening, all. By “Europeans” I assume they mean the EU. The two are not the same. Mind you, continentals do have a different attitude to risk from us British Europeans; we manage risk while the continentals see hazard and want to ban it if they can.

    1. Good evening Conners and all.

      Our Parliament is trying to ban risk and as expected risk will not be legislated against.

      MPs continue to try to ban it but it just won’t go away. They seem to challenge Einstein’s theory without success.

      1. It is a tad better than some of the Cornish abattoirs I visited as a student working for Initial 46 years ago….

    2. The family have been twice, I’ve managed to avoid the place. That’s the EP and IKEA.

  114. The Truth will out:

    Speech by David Davis in The House of Commons:

    “For the past few months, Scotland has been transfixed by the Holyrood inquiry seeking the truth of what went wrong with the investigations into the former First Minister, Alex Salmond. The inquiry is investigating matters of the most serious kind. Serious for the proper handling of sexual harassment complaints in Scotland. Serious for the accountability of those in positions of power, including the Scottish Government’s Permanent Secretary and its Lord Advocate. And serious, if the former First Minister’s claims hold any water, for the future of the present First Minister’s administration of Scotland. These matters are unquestionably something that should properly be dealt with in Holyrood. But Holyrood has great difficulties exposing what went on. The inquiry has come up against endless impediments in its efforts to fulfil its remit”

    It continues here:

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/david-davis-scotland-a-deficit-of-power-and-accountability

      1. Yes, it’s a real blast from the past when the House of Commons meant something more than greedy troughers hoovering up expenses, isn’t it!

    2. David Davis is the RAB Butler of our times.

      Three times the Conservative Party had the opportunity to elect him as leader and it failed, miserably, on each occasion. As with Butler, the three who were preferred were sub-standard in every way.

      1. It is a mystery to me as to why the Conservatives chose the pathetic David Cameron instead of David Davis.

        1. Young, attractive to older women, at a guess. They had just had three leaders who had failed to get elected against Mr Toothpaste Grin and I think they wanted to break the deadlock.

    3. All in all it seems to me – a believer in fairness and justice – that the only solution is the dissolving of this lying, deceitful Wee Pretendy Parliament.

    1. How many of Laurence Fox’s party are standing for the Police & Crime Commissioner elections in May?

    2. I used to read several policeman’s blogs. Night Owl. Inspector Gadget. (think he does watered down Tweets on Twitter).

      Plus the Magistrates blog.

      The serving officers were warned off. The only ones you will see now are those in favour of the service or blatant propaganda or threats.

      1. And also from me. I may take a day off from NoTTLing tomorrow (meaning today, Thursday) as I have a lot of things to catch up with. And I fancy a lie-in in the morning. Keep well, everyone.

Comments are closed.