Wednesday 28 April: Inconsistency on lockdowns invites scrutiny of the PM’s fitness to lead

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/27/letterinconsistency-lockdowns-invites-scrutiny-pms-fitness-lead/

578 thoughts on “Wednesday 28 April: Inconsistency on lockdowns invites scrutiny of the PM’s fitness to lead”

    1. With the last one, the Black lass appears to be confirming that only white people have the ability to succeed with qualifications.

    2. With the last one, the Black lass appears to be confirming that only white people have the ability to succeed with qualifications.

    1. Morning, Minty – and all NoTTLers. Enjoy the day. Life’s too short not to do so.

    2. Morning, Minty – and all NoTTLers. Enjoy the day. Life’s too short not to do so.

        1. Same as me and D. He has had his first, although I was asked first and I am the elder of us.

          I am not having it. Basta!

  9. The collated waffle from the waffle collators:

    SIR – After agreeing in October 2020 to impose a second lockdown, Boris Johnson allegedly claimed he wanted no more such lockdowns, and said: “Let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” (report, April 27).

    He was either against lockdowns and caved in under pressure from Dominic Cummings, Michael Gove and others – proving his weakness – or he was in favour of the authoritarian measures his Government has introduced – in which case, his libertarian principles were merely a sop to his supporters, such as myself, during his quest for power.

    Either way, the current furore, which highlights questionable integrity and a tendency to be economical with the truth, is not as irrelevant as many would have us believe, since it goes to the heart of a debate that we should be having as to the type of prime minister we want to restore our freedoms and lead Britain to recovery after the pandemic.

    Tim Coles
    Carlton, Bedfordshire

    SIR – If the Prime Minister used hyperbole when conveying his determination not to introduce another lockdown, would it really matter?

    Surely he was just expressing what we all want: the return to normality.

    Political posturing is one reason why politicians are held in such low esteem.

    Christopher Piggins
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    SIR – What Boris Johnson might or might not have said during a heated debate in an extraordinary situation is less important than the outcome of that debate.

    If politicians and other decision-makers are to be held to account for every word uttered in private, debate will cease.

    Michael Heaton
    Warminster, Wiltshire

    SIR – In the case of Dominic Cummings, I suggest that the Prime Minister should have read Machiavelli.

    In The Prince, Machiavelli writes on choosing servants: “To enable a prince to form an opinion of his servant there is one test which never fails: when you see the servant thinking more of his own interests than of yours, and seeking inwardly his own profit in everything, such a man will never make a good servant, nor will you ever be able to trust him.”

    A bit late now, but could be useful in the future.

    David Smith
    Bognor Regis, West Sussex

    SIR – Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, a junior environment minister, claims that attacks on Carrie Symonds, the Prime Minister’s fiancé, are “1950s sexism” (report, April 26).

    Given that Ms Symonds has no role, elected or otherwise, in the Government, it is not sexist to question whether she has influence over the work of her partner, but a matter of public interest.

    Sarah Atkinson
    East Grinstead, West Sussex

    A war graves hero

    SIR – Amid the debate concerning the names engraved on memorials and graves of those who died in the First World War (Letters, April 26), let us remember Major-General Sir Fabian Ware – journalist, educator and, later, editor of the Morning Post, which was absorbed into The Daily Telegraph in 1937. His actions led to what would eventually become the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 1960.

    Early in the war, he commanded a British Red Cross ambulance unit in France. He was appalled by the casual way in which soldiers were buried on the battlefield, so he began to mark the graves of the dead.

    In 1916, the Army Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries was founded, headed by Fabian Ware. Then in 1917, he became vice-chairman of the newly established Imperial War Graves Commission. He continued to be actively involved with its work until he retired in 1948. He died in 1949.

    All those who have family members commemorated on memorials or headstones are indebted to Fabian Ware. It seems from the current debate that the work of the commission should continue to expand.

    Ian R Lowry
    Reading, Berkshire

    Safe with a sextant

    SIR – I am full of admiration for Ian Rivers (report, April 26) and his plan to row solo 3,000 nautical miles across the North Atlantic, from New York to the Isles of Scilly, without a GPS.

    This is not necessarily “the wrong way”, as reported. He should be helped by the prevailing winds, which also blow from west to east, while the Gulf Stream could push him on by about 70 nautical miles per day. Tropical storms in the North Atlantic are very rare.

    As to navigation, mariners have been using only the stars and a sextant for hundreds of years. So bravo, Mr Rivers, for choosing a sensible route and the best instruments possible.

    Lt-Col Ewen Southby-Tailyour RM (retd)
    Ermington, Devon

    Box of delights

    SIR – Sophia Money-Coutts (Modern Manners, April 25) writes of clearing the attic at Elmore Court, where the new owner found a box with a label that read: “Pieces of string which have no use any more.” In the garage, my husband has a box labelled: “Junk too good to throw away.”

    Susan Fleck
    Gretton, Gloucestershire

    Tories fail servicemen

    SIR – The trial of former soldiers for alleged crimes while on service in Northern Ireland (report, April 27) is an outrage.

    The Government has broken its manifesto pledge to shield soldiers from civil prosecutions for actions taken on active service, and failed to protect British citizens who risked their lives for the rest of us.

    Despite the successes over Brexit and Covid vaccinations, I will not vote Conservative again while Boris Johnson remains leader of the party. He has brought disgrace to his office.

    Nigel Gaspar
    Bures, Suffolk

    Clarity for Scots

    SIR – How would Scottish independence affect my mortgage with a UK bank, and will my cost of borrowing go up?

    Surely these are hugely important questions to which Scottish homeowners need a clear answer.

    Could I retain my mortgage with a bank in another country? I know that I cannot get a mortgage from America or the EU, so why would it be different if Scotland left the Union?

    Sam James
    Falkirk, Stirlingshire

    SIR – If the SNP were to gain independence from the UK, the defence situation for both Scotland and the UK would be dire.

    Scotland would be virtually defenceless. With the possible removal of the Royal Air Force, along with the nuclear deterrent on the Clyde, it would be solely dependent on its “dialogue” approach to any belligerent nations.

    What will be its defences against opposing reconnaissance air intruders who make regular incursions into UK and Scottish airspace?

    Geoffrey Lamming
    Chippenham, Wiltshire

    Hybrid motor hazards

    SIR – When our new hybrid car suddenly refused to respond to the accelerator or steering wheel, a sign flashed up saying “hybrid malfunction” and to check the instruction book.

    Luckily we were on a straight stretch of a minor road, so drifted to the side and called for help. We found that the engine had to be turned off, then restarted to get it into petrol mode, so we could drive to a garage.

    Though the fault was found and repaired, it happened again a few weeks later, so we replaced the car.

    What if we had been in the outside lane of a smart motorway when we came to a sudden dead stop? How are you supposed to cross two lanes in such a situation – or even survive long enough to try?

    Jane Thompson
    London SW6

    Deaf to bicycle bells

    SIR – There will be little point in a bicycle bell (Letters, April 26) until pedestrians stop wearing headphones or talking on their mobile devices.

    Perhaps a klaxon is the answer.

    Adrian Waller
    Woodsetts, South Yorkshire

    SIR – When cycling past pedestrians I call out: “Coming past.” They usually make way for me, often with a smile. Verbal communication is better than a bell. It’s about awareness, not alarm.

    Clive Williamson
    North Hersham, Surrey

    SIR – As a Cambridge undergraduate, I considered that my bicycle needed either a bell or brakes. I found that a bell was easier to maintain.

    Richard Pannett
    Keynsham, Somerset

    Critics must be free to question woke casting

    SIR – New “guidelines” drawn up by the actors’ union Equity (report, April 24) say that critics should avoid commenting on “immutable characteristics such as age, race, gender and appearance”.

    Does this mean it is now unacceptable to suggest that a certain actor might be too old to convince as Romeo, or too young to realistically represent King Lear; that a female actor has failed to capture the essentially martial nature of Henry V; or that a male actor is too tall to represent convincingly Napoleon or Hitler? 
Or, indeed, that it is historically inaccurate to depict Anne Boleyn 
as black (as a forthcoming 
Channel 5 series does), just as it would be to portray
    Nelson Mandela or Barack Obama as white?

    What started as a laudable attempt to improve opportunities for actors of all ages, races, genders and appearances has degenerated into farce. Just because we cannot be historically and culturally accurate everywhere does not mean we should not be so where we can.

    The theatre, film and television industries are currently, under the banner of inclusiveness, in danger of damaging the essential compact between performer and audience that Coleridge identified as “the willing suspension of disbelief”. It is surely the duty of critics to point out when, where and how this is happening.

    Michael Norris
    Hunstanton, Norfolk

    A partisan asylum debate helps nobody

    SIR – You report (April 25) that Conservative MPs have warned Priti Patel’s immigration reforms “must not be weakened by campaigners”.

    Most organisations working with asylum seekers and refugees in the UK agree that there is a need for reform. The current system is inefficient, characterised by huge delays in decision-making, and, sadly, often fails to meet the basic needs of very vulnerable people, as the British Red Cross’s new report on asylum accommodation shows.

    As the UK’s biggest provider of services to refugees, we see this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create an asylum system that is fair, humane, and which works for our country.

    Many organisations will want to offer expertise and insight as reforms develop, but they may now fear that, in doing so, they too will be accused by “sources” of being “on the side of criminal gangs”. The only side we take is that of people in crisis, so let’s not stifle constructive contributions and lose the chance to ensure that Global Britain lives up to its values within our own borders.

    Zoe Abrams

    Executive Director of Strategy, Communications and Advocacy
    British Red Cross
    London EC2

    1. Lt Col Southby-Tailyour should remember that Vikings accurately navigated all over without a sextant, never mind star charts, tables, and chronometers. Just a magnetised needle, string (and probably gaffa tape, too).

      2. He knows that – the person he is referring to is using a sextant. What is your complaint?

        1. As to navigation, mariners have been using only the stars and a sextant for hundreds of years. So bravo, Mr Rivers, for choosing a sensible route and the best instruments possible.
          And before anyone even thought of sextants, they used a needle and guesswork. Even more rudimentary. Anyhow, I wasn’t complaining, just making a point.

    2. To –

      Nigel Gaspar: as for appalling leaders of the Conservative Party – where have you been for the last 25 years? Or were you just a twinkle in your father’s eye, then?

      Zoe Abrams: “fair”??? To whom – certainly not to us, who are paying for the whole bl**dy party.

      1. Zoe’s official Woke blither ”

        “My role heads up communication and advocacy at the British Red Cross. In practice, that means marketing ourselves strategically as well as using evidence to advocate on behalf of those in crisis. Another way of describing that is: influencing how people think, feel and act in support of our humanitarian aims.

        We have an exciting and special role in helping to sustain and grow the movement that connects human kindness with human crisis. We want
        everyone to know four things: how to save a life, help those in crisis in their community, help those forced to flee in search of sanctuary and
        help in times of international emergency. We have done our job well if the public and people in power are inspired to join us in order to help
        make the world a kinder place.

        I have a strong belief in the power of creative communications and compelling argument to change hearts and minds for the better. Before becoming executive director in late 2015, I worked at the children’s charity Barnardo’s – and before that I spent nearly a decade working in government and politics in Whitehall and Westminster.

        I am so proud to be part of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. I am humbled every day by the compassion with which our volunteers and staff reach out to help people in times of crisis.”

        Whilst she never done 1 hour let alone worked doing real aid on the ground either in UK or internationally, the “woke proviso” for the job is to ensure you’ve swallowed a fridge https://www.redcross.org.uk/-/media/feature/projectred/16×9/about-us/staff-zoe-abrams.jpg?h=282&la=en&w=502&hash=A13B73AED096DCED4E54E1B76E566D3BA3A11874

  10. Good Morning Folks,

    Bit more cloud this morning, no frost.
    Apparently it is the frostiest April since records begun – 1960

    1. That cartoon works in his favour. He is said to be good a delegating so he should get on with it!

      Good morning, Michael.

  16. Morning all. Woe is me. I’m feeling very sorry for myself, this morning. I had dental implant fitted yesterday and the dentist mentioned there might be some swelling today. Well my top lip enters the room about three seconds before the rest of my face.
    I’m taking the day off.

    1. Are suggesting that your employers don’t need any more of your lip?
      };-O

      Hope you recover soon, and that it doesn’t over-inhibit your tea/coffee/wine intake.

      1. Thanks sos. I think I’ll be sticking to cold drinks today. It’s all a bit too tender for a hot drink, added to which, I cant drink without dribbling.

          1. Ain’t got none – it would mean going to the shops.
            I look pretty hideous but fortunately for me, someone said we all have to wear masks in public – couldnt have been done at a better time.

    2. Oh dear. Don’t look in the mirror and try and forget it. It won’t take long for the swelling to go down.

      I have been quoted £3000+ for an implant molar.
      May i ask the cost of yours?

          1. I was saving to move house, that’s set back another year now.
            No end in sight for the second job on nights and weekends 🙁

          3. Well, there hasn’t been much else to do this year. Might as well try to make some spondoolies

    3. My wife was in bed for a week in the run-up to Christmas 2016 with a face painfully swollen by injection of cow-bone before an implant.

    5. Ibuprofen is supposed to be good for swelling. And natural remedies, such as turmeric, saltwater etc.

      1. Thanks Herts. The dentist gave me a foul tasting antiseptic mouthwash that I have to swill around three or four times a day – I think I’d prefer the salt water.
        What do you do with turmeric. I have powdered turmeric – can I just dissolve that in warm water?

        1. Honestly I don’t know. I drink turmeric tea sometimes anyway but you can probably look it up online. I would use the saltwater rather than the yukky mouthwash, if it was me. Not saying it is better, but that is just what I would do.

          I don’t know if powdered turmeric alone in water would taste OK – you can try, and add other things (lemon, mint etc.) if you like.

          In the meantime, feeling for you.

  17. 332083+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    This really is reminiscent of the fall of Rome with the electorate giving the thumbs up / down to a piss poor motley collection of politico’s fighting a turf war to install their own brand of reset.

    Yes, I do believe a more fitting dress code for parliament would now be the toga, right arm bare so as not to tangle the strings of the johnson violin.

    “Wednesday 28 April: Inconsistency on lockdowns invites scrutiny of the PM’s fitness to lead”

    Truth be told the four party lab/lib/con/green close shop coalition needs a very serious coating of looking at, and imo avoidance in the ballot booth.

    1. If we donate vaccines to India, it must be on condition they are given to the population by caste, starting with the untouchables and working up.

      Oh, and in exchange, they can give us a couple of rockets.

    1. Three of the most dangerous clots in the battle against Covid-19 are Macron, Merkel and von Leyen.

    1. mng Ogga. Doubt it. Biggest “employment growth” is being involved in “Cultural entities / organisations” that claims racism, homophobia or Islamaphobia is endemic and prevalent in the UK for a long time. It’s yet another very lucrative racket, lots of grants, tv appearances and lots opportunity to portray yourself as a victim

      1. 332083+ up ticks,
        Morning AKW,
        The red zone in the ballot booth has surely been reached regarding the health & safety of the indigenous peoples and the actions of these now plainly seen as rogue ino parties ie
        the lab/lib/con/green coalition.

        In the main the electorate are getting what they voted for as
        recent history shows us, mayhem / treachery openly ongoing since the major era, serious change never really sought.

        The culture SHOCK will dawn on many with the five times a day mandatory prayers as in “what we are about to receive”
        due to the close shop voting pattern.

        1. the red zone in the ballot booth will be the ongoing duty of “Covid Marshalls” [read rebranded Hitler Youth] not to mention postal voting / online voting. Johnson [and all parties, whatever colour] has no intention of rescinding powers already grabbed. “Covid Marshalls” will ensure the “right for daily prayers, right to refuse jabs” while observing those that don’t.

          1. 332083+ up ticks,
            AWK,
            The reset ratchet + the three monkeys within the polling booth are a force to be reckoned with, what would truly make a difference would be if the electorate were on the side of moral decency.

        2. another slice of what passes for culture in the UNSC Global Talking Ship – what the UK govt rhetoric wants you to believe https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/protecting-international-humanitarian-law-and-objects-indispensable-to-civilians-survival?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_source=07db75e8-c97c-4b52-b72b-618398152cd2&utm_content=daily the reality in UNSC is somewhat closer to this https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5237a55060ae69f0fc35996b43daa7cf4420e10771c2c145cada8dd991ebaa3.jpg

          1. In other words you can blast each other to kingdom come but don’t use improvised explosive devices or barrel bombs, you must do it with expensive bombs sold to you by our arms industry.

    2. mng Ogga. Doubt it. Biggest “employment growth” is being involved in “Cultural entities / organisations” that claims racism, homophobia or Islamaphobia is endemic and prevalent in the UK for a long time. It’s yet another very lucrative racket, lots of grants, tv appearances and lots opportunity to portray yourself as a victim

    4. The niqab and burqa are banned in public buildings in a 98% Muslim country – Tunisia.

      1. It used to be the case in Turkey when we first sailed there over ten years ago as the central plank of Ataturk’ creation was that Turkey was a laic state. I am sure that Erdogan will change this if he hasn’t already done so – look at what he has done to the Hagia Sofia which was a church when it was constructed.

    5. The niqab and burqa are banned in public buildings in a 98% Muslim country – Tunisia.

    6. 332083+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Yer know Og I reckon only a politician could ID
      someone in a police burka wearing lineup.

  21. ‘We’re all in this together’: Dr Fauci says world has failed India as Covid cases surge. 28 April 2021.

    Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, has said countries have failed to unite to provide an adequate global response to prevent the “tragic” coronavirus outbreak from overwhelming India, and singled out wealthier nations for failing to provide equitable access to healthcare around the world.

    “The only way that you’re going to adequately respond to a global pandemic is by having a global response, and a global response means equity throughout the world,” Fauci said.

    When some Public Figure tells me that we are all in this together, I know with utter certitude that we are about to be shafted!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/28/were-all-in-this-together-dr-fauci-says-world-has-failed-india-as-covid-cases-surge

    3. It is no wonder why Donald Trump didn’t like Dr Fauci. In Fauci’s own words he uses what appears to be a disaster in India to further the aims of the globalist agenda.

      Good morning, Minty.

      1. Morning Phizzee. Trump has a nose for fakes! When told about the Skripals he dismissed it out of hand is as Intelligence nonsense!

  22. Chicken Farming

    The farmer bought a young rooster from his cousin Billy-Bob to replace his old rooster.

    The young rooster went up to the old rooster and said, “Ok old man, you’re out of it! I’m here to replace you.”

    The old rooster said to the young rooster, “I tell you what, we’ll have a race around the farmer’s house and whoever gets back here first can stay and rule the roost.”

    The young rooster said, “You’re on! And since you’re so old, I’ll even give you a 15 second head start.”

    The little chicken clucked GO! Off they went, running around the barnyard. However, when they passed the front of the house, the farmer was on the front porch. He saw the young rooster chasing the old rooster, grabbed his rifle and shot the young rooster’s head off.

    “God damn it!” yelled the farmer, “that fuckin’ Billy-Bob done sold me ANOTHER Homo rooster!“

  23. Good morning all.
    Dull, overcast and 3°C in Derbyshire. A bit of rain last night but the forecast heavy rain missed us out, though apparently Chesterfield had a downpour yesterday morning.

        1. I did hear that there was a wedding in the church and the bride was a virgin, so the steeple, after twisting round to get a look at such a rarity, was unable to straighten up fully.

  24. Harry and Meghan demand world leaders share vaccines to ‘restore faith in humanity’ amid calls for Joe Biden and Boris Johnson to give reserves to India – as couple prepare to join J.Lo and Selena Gomez at star-studded ‘VaxLive’ concert. 28 April 2021.

    Prince Harry and Meghan Markle today announced themselves ‘campaign chairs’ of an A-list event called ‘VaxLive’, where they will demand world leaders including Joe Biden and Boris Johnson ‘share’ vaccines’, especially with India.

    ‘Vax Live’: The Concert to Reunite the World, organised by Global Canada Citizen and hosted by star Selena Gomez, will be held virtually at the beginning of May, with the Sussexes saying it will ‘restore faith in humanity’ by celebrating the hope provided by the vaccination rollout.

    Harry, 35, and Meghan, 39, will be joined by an A-List line up, with appearances from the couple’s close friend Gayle King, as well as Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Olivia Munn and Sean Penn.

    Full speed ahead on Cringe Factor 10! Perhaps LaxLive would have been more appropriate?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9516701/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markle-campaign-chairs-Global-Canada-Citizen-concert-event.html

    1. Never mind vaccinations. Private jets for all Indians – that’s the way the fashionable world is going. Don’t we little people understand anything about equal rights?

    5. “Harry and Megan demand…” ??

      Harry and Megan can just get back in their box.

      1. Stormy you are far too polite ! As far as I’m concerned Mrs Goldigger & her frog Prince can “Freddy Uncle Charlie Katie Oscar Freddy Freddy “

        2. Good Lord! Get with the times!!
          It’s “Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo Oscar Foxtrot Foxtrot” nowadays!

    6. That will be the India that has a space programme, but can’t afford vaccine? That India?

      1. They’re making quite a lot of the OA-Z in India.
        “The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured locally by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. It says it is producing more than 60 million doses a month.”
        Plus Covaccine also made in India; “Bharat Biotech says it has a stockpile of 20 million doses of Covaxin, and is aiming to make 700 million doses out of its four facilities in two cities by the end of the year.”
        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-55748124#:~:text=The%20Oxford%2DAstraZeneca%20vaccine%20is,as%20an%20adenovirus)%20from%20chimpanzees.

    7. Is Vax Live a laxative – what it produces certainly suggests that it is.

    1. Warburtons boast that their Bread products are halal

      BREAD firm Warburtons found themselves at the centre of a social media storm over a halal label on the bakery’s products.

      Labels on the much-loved loaves state the bread is both halal and kosher.

      The bread has always been halal and has been certified for the last two-and-a-half years.

      But when one customer saw the label he wrote on Twitter: “Warburtons bread is now halal certified – why do 96 percent of population have to have Islamic halal put onto them in their lives and effectively overriding their own religions just because 4 percent want it?”

      Then why put the label on

      1. Put the label on, so that some of us can avoid the product if we wish.

        Edit: apart from that, IMO Warburtons tastes like pap.

      2. Happy Wednesday OLT basically it means that no pork products or fat went into the bread mixture nor was the bread baked & packed alongside other products containing pork products.

        1. …and every corn ear was slaughtered by having its throat cut while hanging upside-down.

          ‘Morning, Hat.

        2. Hi Hat. I believe Warburtons and others pay an Islamic entity to get halal certification. How much of that money goes on jihad?

      3. 332083+ up ticks,
        Morning OLT,
        We see that long ago, and when being bread eaters went on to Hovis, the lady of the house now makes her own and very nice to.

  26. Is France losing its war on terror? 28 April 2021.

    It’s a guerrilla war, that of the materially weak against the materially strong. This is the war that the Islamists want to fight against a people it believes are as spiritually fragile as they are ferocious. A civil war, after all, would be a brief conflict. The police and the military would not be fighting among themselves, but against a few thousand extremists armed with an assortment of small arms and Molotov cocktails.

    These are dangerous times for France, as Michel Houellebecq predicted in his 2015 novel, Submission. When Macron came to power two years later, he offered a more upbeat vision of the future, that of transforming France into a start-up nation. But Houellebecq turned out to be right. France is breaking down.

    Well I would suggest that the UK is closer to breakdown than France! We have an utterly spineless Political Elite who hate and despise the people they rule. They have no beliefs either Religious or Historical that would lead them to resist, only the idiocies of Cultural Marxism which is a manual for moral decadence. It is worth pointing out that, for all its shortcomings, Islam is highly resistant to the latter and if a choice should come, not a few might choose it instead of this Gospel of Depravity!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-france-losing-its-war-on-terror-

    1. Roman Catholics cannot ascend to the crown. Since Britain is a Christian country with a Head of state who is also Head of the Church surely we should pass legislation that all ministers of the crown should be Christians and that the prime minister should be legally married if he or she wants to live in Downing Street with a paramour?

  27. As there is absolutely no news today, and because the sun is shining, I shall go out and have a bonfire. My contribution to global warming.

      1. If that happened to be Caroline Lucas, the entire Green Party represented in Westminster would go up in smoke.

    1. 332083+ up ticks,
      Morning LD,
      Personally I would tread very warily after suffering under the brexit collection and the vote splitting, stand down, pro johnson, leggit farage.

      The four million that got behind UKIP in one act of mass sanity can be repeated in regards to someone of Anne Marie Waters ilk.

    2. About time Reform and Reclaim joined forces to prevent splitting the vote and letting the scoundrels back in.

          1. Ashesthandust has made a lovely pic. of Dolly, saw it when we were discussing her animal paintings.

          2. I’m very much looking forward to seeing it.

            Love to know when i could meet either or both of you. Had some nice lunches and…… er… boozy sessions with other Nottlers.

            Geoff could run a shadow site as a dating agency. :@)

          3. Ask Ashes!

            Edit: We’ve had some lovely meetings with Nottlers too, some more boozy than others…

          5. Of course I do, you silly billy! I meant ask Ashes about the picture.

            We haven’t been in the Hampshire parts for a while – in fact haven’t been anywhere for over a year.

          6. I don’t know where you are but i have been travelling about 50 miles to meet other Nottlers.

            I know some great places down here. :@)

          7. Ask Ashes!

            Edit: We’ve had some lovely meetings with Nottlers too, some more boozy than others…

    8. Blair’s portrait finally sees the light of day, having been kept in the attic for decades.

    2. Morning! Apparently she’s an actress and was in Les Mis, the movie. Can we now call the XR loonies Sharons?

      2. I believe that when Asda open a new store they employ pensioners to welcome customers to the store. These are called greeters.

    4. She probably got a pass on that… roughly the right ‘gender’. Paxman and Humphries – Useless quizmasters(sic) – turds with words.

      1. We had rain early this morning – dry and grey now and OH is on the tennis court with three ladies.

          1. In the early hours we had our first ‘proper’ rain for more than two months.

          2. Light rain late last night then from the looks of the ground, nothing in the small hours.

          2. I’ll believe you! So he is! Shame – a bit of diversity and inclusivity never goes amiss.

          6. You may be right. He could be a mulatto or a donketto or whatever they are called nowadays.

        1. From the small bits we were allowed to see of her – were they embarrassed or what?

  36. The Independent reporting that the EU 27 have ” overwhelmingly voted to ratify the Trade Deal”. Oh dear.

      1. Morning Ped – It always has been despite Boris’s triumphant public acceptance of it. If he had even read the summary version of the deal he might have realised it was not the Brexit people voted for in 2016.

      2. How on earth did Farage say it was an acceptable deal before he even had time to look at what was in this surrender to the EU deal? It has undone all Farage’s good work and totally destroyed his credibility.

    2. Apparently there were 5 dissenting countries. They are not named in the BBC report. I’d have thought that this was quite an important story and that the dissenters are part of it.

      1. I was puzzled by the “overwhelmingly”. I thought it had to be a unanimous vote.

      2. I think they are referring to the European Parliament’s vote, where five MEP’s voted against and 660 voted for it.

        1. Ah, OK thanks. Still, it would be nice to know the names and nationalities of those who opposed and abstained.

      3. Amongst the multitude of pledges he has broken or ignored the concupiscent Boris Johnson has reneged on reform of the BBC and protection of Northern Ireland veterans.

        How much longer must Britain be governed by a prime minister who is the sub-human personification of diarrhoetic excrement?

    3. Another opportunity missed by Boris Johnson who prefers fornicating to his country’s best interests.

      I have argued several times on this forum that I hoped against hope that this miserable government would come to its senses and cancel both the disastrous WA and the the total surrender deal before the EU agreed to it.

    1. We’ve a room with cabinets in it with rather expensive toys. It’s also my office. Mongo quite happily sits in his bed beside me. Only the once has his tail wagging cleared a shelf. Having a foot tall die cast figure fall on his head put a stop to that.

    2. Righty, he’s a corrupt, fraudulent, abusive liar with a track record on knife crime, rape and murder that would make a Rwandan general look positively humane. Why is he allowed to stand?

    2. Does that grinning ghoul really believe that her work is beautiful?

      More like an overblown nightmare.

      1. You may mock (and, indeed, vomit) Tom – but she makes shedloads from “designing” this hideous dross. She has really “seen them coming”.

      2. It looks like the inside of a brothel (not that I have personal experience, I hasten to add!).

          1. #MeToo. Plus i would like to list the other dens of iniquity that i have visited but i don’t have all day. :@)

      3. I very much doubt it. When faced with the choice between changing the nappy [Boris not the rug rat] or tripping on LSD before meeting the “designers”, she chose the latter. In semi full knowledge, if not liked, have “another trip” and change decor

      1. They are mostly in the ‘dunny’. The toilet is made entirely of Indian and African rhinestones with pure gold fittings. Only the finest crap for Carrie and Bo.

    4. A fool and his our money are soon parted. I’m sure it will look perfectly enchanting when they are stoned out of their minds at the weekends. I believe there is even a cot for the Swedish dvärg, Greta, for when she stops by to give her advice on global extinction.

      1. I said on here i thought it looked like the ante room to a Bordello and on the BTL on the DM another said it looked like a Brothel.

        Given how Boris has run his encounters with the opposite sex i would say they are appropriate descriptions.

        1. Look on the bright side Phil, at least Boris’s encounters have been with the opposite sex, with mature ladies & not little girls or little boys or goats, horses, donkeys, camels, letter boxes or drainpipes.

          1. And how do we know that?

            Blair was protected when it became clear it was he who had been convicted for importuning in a public lavatory.

            Didn’t seem to affect his career.

    8. What annoys me most of all about it is that one can almost guarantee that the next PM will hate it and replace the whole damned lot.

      1. I thought I would never say anything in favour of Mrs May but apparently the only two prime minsters who have not squandered public money on the decoration of their own living quarters in Downing Street were Mrs Thatcher and Mrs May.

        So Major, Blair, Brown, and Cameron are just as repulsively sleazy as the Bonker and his harlot.

        1. You’d think that would be more than enough! Not for Carrie’s tasteless makeover though.

          1. What grieves me more is the fact they’re allowed this amount of money every year! Greedy people.

    9. Reminds me of the hideous interiors at Brighton Pavilion. The only tastefully furnished rooms there are in Queen Vitoria’s apartment. She hated the rest too.

  40. When the BBC runs out of scare stories in the UK it imports one from foreign parts. This time it’s from India. There is a new variant of Covid-19 that spreads more easily and is more virulent and it is coming to the UK soon (obviously).
    Over 200,000 people in India have now died from Covid-19. This is appalling, terrible etc and the stories of horror, despair and inability to cope with it are endless.
    However, India has a population of 1.35 billion people and every day one would normally expect around 53,000 deaths. If the figure of 200,000 total deaths, as given by the BBC*, is over the period of a year that would mean that Covid deaths were around 1% of deaths. Upsetting for relatives and friends, it is statistically fairly insignificant.
    The BBC have not given a time period although it is crucial to correctly interpreting the figures. We’d either hold up our arms in horror, or recognise the story as simply more propaganda.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-56890174

  41. Republicans accuse Joe Biden of ‘economic sabotage’ over plans for massive tax raid on wealthy Americans
    President set to mark 100 days in office with proposal to hike capital gains tax and income tax that opponents deride as ‘socialism’

    The White House said the move would only affect 500,000 people, or about 0.3 per cent of taxpayers.

    …and when that top 0.3% remove themselves from the US tax regime, where will Biden look next?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/27/joe-biden-announce-massive-tax-raid-rich-americans/

    1. If you wish to retain US citizenship, once an American tax payer, always an American tax payer, no matter where you reside.

      They would have to find another country to accept them.
      Probably not too difficult if one is that wealthy.

    2. He’s thick. Truly, Biden is a total moron. High taxes drive wealth away. Wealth moves faster than the government. Lower taxes brings wealth back. If I can see this, why can’t he?

      2. Mrs Thatcher proved the point that politicians are very reluctant to accept:

        if you lower rates of tax tax revenue does not fall – tax revenue actually rises.

        So tax is not just about money – it is also about control.

    3. I believe that in the US – as in France – if you are a US citizen resident in another country you can still be nobbled for US tax. It is the same in France – a French citizen cannot altogether escape French tax by living elsewhere.

    1. Lily’s snuggled up next to me trying to keep warm. The last few sunny weeks she’s spent the whole day outside.

  43. If the vaccines are this good, then it’s good news for everyone, surely?

    Covid: One dose of vaccine halves transmission – study

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-56904993

    Radio 4’s ‘Today’ was getting quite excited about this and invited Peter Openshaw, Professor of Experimental Medicine at ICL, to speak. “It’s very reassuring, much better than we expected. We were hopeful that vaccination would prevent serious illness but we were less certain that it would prevent transmission.”

    So we’re free? No chance. On he went: “We must remain cautious, carry on wearing masks, testing and tracing, keeping our distance etc. Indoor events are particularly risky.”

    “Even in the summer, even after all adults are vaccinated?” asked the presenter.

    “We mustn’t drop our guard. We must use the summer to strengthen our precautions and to roll out vaccines into the groups that are most transmitting which are younger people who haven’t been vaccinated. We mustn’t ease too fast.”

    The presenter had mentioned the still high infection rates in Bradford and Leicester but no further reference was made to that.

    There are some who just don’t want to let go.

    1. It’s bizarre. The most likely to infect one another, but also the least likely to be affected are the young.

      Citing any area with that demographic is going to be delicate and won’t be discussed. Extended families, huge family groups, poor hygiene – it’s a recipe for disaster but because it upsets the narrative the truth isn’t discussed.

      The state doesn’t like giving up control.

        1. The pus is building up inside this fermenting unlanced boil – but the longer it is left to fester and swell the greater the volcanic fallout which will drench us all will be when it finally is lanced.

          1. That is almost poetic, Rastus. A little bit of polishing and I might award an A* :@)

      2. Extended families, huge family groups, poor hygiene – it’s a recipe for disaster but because it upsets the narrative the truth isn’t discussed.

        BUT and it could have been a much bigger BUT………..it’s not ‘their fault’ it’s as per usual, everyone else’s fault that they choose to and still live as they do.

    2. I’m beginning to think HMG will never give up their control. Remember, furlough has been extended until September, and HMG is putting out to tender for “Covid Marshalls” from 01/07/2021 . What the hell for? More coercion on the way. Said Marshalls will be working until January 2022 and the contract may be extended for another year! .

      They won’t let go willingly.

      1. they won’t all the time they believe people are buying into process despite the opposite being true. Furlough extension justifies the Covid Marshalls [Hitler Youth] tender exercise. All to avoid the fact the Coronavirus Act still on the statute books when should have been removed ages ago. But their agenda is not difficult to spot. But those still buying into the garbage have their own version of Stockholm Syndrome or too thick to figure it out and go with the flow as an easy option

        2. Not enough people are bombarding their MPs with protests unfortunately. Until they all wake up it’s just going to continue because we need younger people to make their feelings known. (But that’s if they are even likely to actually think about what’s going on and what the future may hold).

          1. fully agree vw. Am sure most, if not all, on here bombard their MPs. The core issue as you posted is the younger element. I’m not sure many as you put, know what’s really going on and the future.Part of the legacy of being conditioned and taught what to think not how to think

  44. DT Editorial Today:

    Does the EU want to be a friend or foe?
    Our relationship with the EU has become a serious foreign policy question that the Government urgently needs to address

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/28/does-eu-want-friend-foe/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    Good morning, my friends

    I often find I agree with many of the BTL comments. For example:

    It defies belief that Johnson and Gove, doubtless urged on by Symonds, agreed to a deal which did not restore British fishing rights in full and which did not give Britain complete sovereignty in Northern Ireland.

    No deal was the better solution and what we have got is entirely due to Boris Johnson’s incompetence and weakness.

    1. 332083+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      There was only ever one party that wanted total severance first… then deal.

      There was only ever one party that wanted controlled immigration.

      They struggled / suffered for 25 years the slings & arrows via the lab/lib/con coalition, supporters mass treacherous stupidity, the outcome of which can now be clearly seen.

      UKIP rising under Gerard Battens year of leadership
      was the answer, as it was in the eu elections & designing & triggering the referendum.

      What we have been left with is a successful campaign of treachery via the lab/lib/con/greens coalition party, current supporters / voters.

    2. Afternoon all.

      I assume the question is rhetorical. They have proved beyond doubt they are vindictive at all costs. It wouldn’t do for others in the 27 to see that Brexit was good.

  45. Much as I despise the corruption and the sordid squalor of the prime minister’s personal affairs I do wish that the Opposition and the MSM were more interested in the disastrous deal he has weakly ceded to the punitive EU and his other failures. The one thing they dare not attack is his vaccine policy and this is surely something that does merit very close examination.

  46. I have now lost another friend who did not get the medical treatment he needed because of the government and NHS’s obsession with Covid. I have another friend trapped in a deep depression where the NHS’s response is a telephone consultation, a prescription for random antidepressants and a possibility of being put on a waiting list over a year long for a specialist.

    Why is the media obsessing over Johnson’s throwaway rant not the thousands of bodies actually piling up through this unbalanced Covid obsession?

    1. My sympathy to you, Dale.
      The damage being caused by the Wuhan Virus precautions is causing more damage then the virus its self.

      1. You know that, we know that, the government knows that but having got this far with the psychological warfare against the public they’re not going to stop the terror and fear campaign any time soon.

        1. Hancock’s tweet yesterday claiming that he is excited at offering the jab to people around 42 years of age only adds to the terror.

          1. The Twit is a masochist and the those accepting it are fools. The cartoon a few days ago summed it when one guinea pig said to the other ‘I’m not having the jab until the human testing is complete’.

          3. The Twit is a masochist and the those accepting it are fools. The cartoon a few days ago summed it when one guinea pig said to the other ‘I’m not having the jab until the human testing is complete’.

    4. So sad for you, Dale.

      Whether or not the associated SARs-02 virus was deliberately released the resulting infection, Covid-19, fitted an agenda. Hailed as an opportunity by members of the WEF to bring on their 4th Industrial Revolution/Great Reset, governments sympathetic to the WEF’s aims were encouraged to weaponise the infection. And here we are.

      All the Covid-19 deaths, the real total remains a mystery, and those who have died by other means are mere collateral damage to the sociopaths running this evil plan. Johnson, Hancock etc. are part of the problem, not the solution.

    6. Very sorry to hear this. I suspect that, before another year has gone, most of us will know someone who has passed away because of the criminal neglect from the Saint NHS. My brother, who has had several basal cell carcinomas removed in recent years, managed to get seen in the flesh simply because he told the GP he didn’t have a phone with camera. Thankfully, the histology was clear. I am supposed to have investigations every 3 years for a long standing, potentially cancer-causing condition (and a family history to match) – but missed it last year and it won’t get done this year either.

    7. Sorry to hear that, Dale. I sympathise with your surviving, but depressed, friend. Trying to get help is like pushing water uphill.

  47. Just been outside to give a pair of lost hikers some directions and notice the display my Amaryllises (or should that be Amarylli?) are making.
    Out of four plants, 9 trumpets and four buds still to flower.

    We started with one the DT bought for t’Lad a couple of decades ago and now have four with, I think, a 5th bulb just forming in the right hand pot where a 2nd flower stalk has made an appearance!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10990eddfacc77547be339be491edb41caf6202ce21717872aaff1a5276cf1e3.jpg

    1. Were the lost hikers following Boris’s road map and did they ask you to show them the way to Amaryllis?

  48. Overwhelming majority of Russians believe Crimea is legally part of country, including those who don’t support Putin, poll reveals

    The vast majority of Russians (86%) support Moscow’s reabsorption of Crimea, with most convinced that the country did not violate international obligations and agreements when it gained control of the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.
    That’s according to a new poll from the Levada Center, which has revealed that the events of seven years ago enjoy support even from those who disapprove of President Vladimir Putin. The Levada Center is registered as a foreign agent by the country’s Ministry of Justice.

    Crimea was re-absorbed into Russia in March 2014 following a referendum. The vote is not recognized by most of the world, which views it as an illegally occupied Ukrainian peninsula. Crimea had been part of Russia until 1954, when it was transferred to Kiev’s control by former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, himself a native of Ukraine’s Donbass region.

  49. Raining again here now, with a cold north wind.

    OH curtailed his tennis. Not in a good mood.

    1. How is he getting on with the problem that caused your dash to the horsepiddle, Jules?

    2. I was up the garden earlier and came in because it felt so bloody cold!
      God! Am I turning into a wimp!

      1. Not at all, BoB. I had planned laying down some bark chippings to create new paths in the side veg/flower garden, but all I have done so far is buy the sacks of bark clippings from the local garden centre and water the Spring/Summer bedding plants indoors. The chill factor from fairly high wind speeds today and tomorrow affect the above freezing temperatures making them feel like minus one degree. So I shall now leave those jobs until Friday and focus on more indoors jobs. (I have just switched on the central heating!)

        1. The DT lit the woodburner in the other room for the first time in over a week last night!

      2. I’ve spent the best part of two hours pointing some pavers I laid the other day. Planned a two mix operation but after one I’ve come indoors to warm up. This afternoon I will attempt watering, badly needed here, followed later by my first haircut in around 6 months. I’ve chosen to show the hairdresser a picture of a once very popular singer/songwriter/actor of my vintage who has hair the same colour as mine and currently has the style I want/once had. A picture is worth a thousand words, and all that.

    3. First decent amount of rain for some while fell overnight here. Needed for sure. All looks dry outside already.

      1. For consolation – he picked up an empty eggshell underneath the starling box and turned the camera on – we now have at least two tiny chicks.

          2. Mine have brought in two voles this week. I managed to save one and let it go again, the other went behind the toilet and hasn’t been since, although I have put down some peanut butter to try to coax it out and that is being eaten.
            I’ll have to buy a humane trap.

          3. Nary twenty minutes after writing that, another squeaking sound came from the hallway. Another vole but I managed to rescue it too, I’m pleased to say.

          5. We had a spissmus – vole – this morning. Much shrieking from SWMBO that Big Cat should take it out, then she caught it and we put it out before Big could mash it.

  50. ‘Morning, all.

    Been wondering why Government’s scientific advisors are all so obsessed with mask-wearing, even though the threat from the dreaded plague seems to be receding and these face-nappies have been shown to be totally ineffective at preventing the spread of respiratory diseases.

    I believe the answer to this question has been staring us in the face, so to speak. They are all ugly bastards, jealous of better-looking folk, and they believe that having everybody cover his face makes their own ugliness less apparent. One only has to look at Messrs. Vallance, Whitty and Van-Tam.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6255067b3787255b74a82bd23405ea8ae54a2faf5a46b42fbfea07bc127f65a5.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa34a99dba30186c4b42c61689f4088b0a9b7626c68065c23cff8a93c754d61e.jpg

    And when one looks at mask enthusiasts like the Minster for the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove – the man who would be King – and Health Secretary, Mad Handjob – who looks like a lizard that has attempted to adopt human form with only limited success – this reinforces my theory.

      1. Only as long as their fathers kept paying alimony – if their mothers knew who they were.

    4. I don’t understand the claims that face masks are totally ineffective, DM. Has anyone told surgeons in operating theatres yet not to bother wearing them?

        2. Hmmm, seems their effectiveness in theatre is a bit itchy beard.
          20% surgeons say they wear them out of tradition

  53. U.K. funding to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has been cut by 95% – from £100 million ($139 million) expected this year to just £5 million https://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-uk-cuts-polio-funding-by-95-99774?access_key=b049999bc9d2ab8678854f22c216bfb2171d1cc9&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newswire&utm_content=text&mkt_tok=Njg1LUtCTC03NjUAAAF8tyBuk1NvF88HGCuAFR1Ds9ppcT45BS0D0ogncX6t9jjWLRmBCok2WV82BfMIWQkTrPWBiERhCB1yiOyIMdHq0sulxXDiG9zYzXuUV7OBvMzKgQ more evidence of beancounter lunatics fully taking over the asylum

      1. You could be on to something, Our Susan. Gus – on the left is more extrovert; Pickles – the thinker.

      2. I have just looked in on them only to find that they have completely reversed positions!

        2. They are fashioned from elastic, they look as though they would stretch forever.

  56. 332083+ up ticks,

    Delingpole: Bojo, Gove, Cummings, Princess Nut-Nut… If Only They Could All Lose

    Nigh on impossible backed by the lab/lib/con/green coalition
    supporters / voters and no pro United Kingdom opposition.

    1. If we sent the “modern version” it wouldn’t be creepy, it would freak them out, and they’d send the Death Star.

    2. Here’s a site to show live positions of Voyagers 1 and 2.
      https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
      Voyager 1 is moving away from us at 38,000 mph and is 21hr 04min 17sec (speed of light) distance, or 14 billion miles.
      “The Voyagers have enough electrical power and thruster fuel to keep its current suite of science instruments on until at least 2025. By that time, Voyager 1 will be about 13.8 billion miles (22.1 billion kilometers) from the Sun and Voyager 2 will be 11.4 billion miles (18.4 billion kilometers) away. Eventually, the Voyagers will pass other stars. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will drift within 1.6 light-years (9.3 trillion miles) of AC+79 3888, a star in the constellation of Camelopardalis which is heading toward the constellation Ophiuchus. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 2 will pass 1.7 light-years (9.7 trillion miles) from the star Ross 248 and in about 296,000 years, it will pass 4.3 light-years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. The Voyagers are destined—perhaps eternally—to wander the Milky Way.”
      https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/interstellar-mission/

        1. From the site’s FAQs;
          “If there is intelligent life in our universe and they were not a peace loving species, wouldn’t the information on the Voyager be enough to destroy human kind?

          We have received almost nothing but praise for the inclusion of the Golden Phonograph Record on Voyager. We have also received lots of compliments on the contents, however, that praise rightly belongs to Carl Sagan and his colleagues who chose, assembled and got permission to use the material.

          There were a few detractors, even as Sagan was formulating the disk.

          In the Sagan, et al book, “Murmurs of Earth, the Voyager Interstellar Record”, while describing some of his earlier work in sending messages from the Arecibo radar, spoke of two protests to that effort. Excerpts from that passage follow:

          “One was from a few scientists who worried that we hadn’t corrected for the speed of Earth in space in launching the message. ……………The other protest was a serious one, made by Sir Martin Ryle, a Nobel laureate and the Astronomer Royal of England. He wrote with great anxiety that he felt it was very hazardous to reveal our existence and location to the galaxy. For all we know, any creatures out there were malevolent or hungry, and once they knew of us, the might come to attack or eat us………..Many other less knowledgeable people had the same concerns.

          “The fact is, for better or for worse, we have already announced our presence and location to the universe, and continue to do so every day. There is a sphere of radio transmission about thirty light years thick expanding outward at the speed of light, announcing to every star it envelops that the earth is full of people. Our television programs flood space with signals detectable at enormous distances by instruments not much greater than our own. It is a sobering thought that the first news of us may be the outcome of the Super Bowl.

          “……….. Whether or not Sir Martin Ryle is justified in his anxieties about revealing the location of our civilization is of course a debatable subject. Even so, it is too late to worry about it, so we might as well try to be friendly”.

    1. I just had a call from the sub-continent from ‘John’, about my BT internet about to be switched off. I’ve stopped telling them to Foxtrot Oscar and have become more subtle with my replies.

      1. I just ask them if their mother knows what they are doing, and tell them that their mother would be very upset if she knew what they were doing for a living – trying to con people.

      2. Firstborn puts on an Indian accent and says something like:
        “Sanjeev? Is that you Sanjeev? What you do, bastard? Why you call me when I sit close to you?”
        Works a treat!

      3. John Warosa by any chance?
        There are some good You Tubes showing someone messing up his scams

      1. they’re busy watching the TV Series Mind Your Language on Youtube and still trying to understand it and can’t make up their mind whether to endorse or block

      2. they’re busy watching the TV Series Mind Your Language on Youtube and still trying to understand it and can’t make up their mind whether to endorse or block

    3. I had a call this morning from amazon prime with an order number apparently i owed them 900.00 quid.
      I spoke to the asian person and gave them my order number 3 2 1 NOW F U R K O F F.

    1. From what I’ve seen of the BAFTA’s advertised on TV it’s worth a huge swerve.

  62. 332083+ up ticks,
    Now the “deal” pays off big time, semi re-entry, indigenous replacement,reset ratchet will now pick up speed aiming for 60 clicks a minute regarding full re-entry.

    EU SIGNS OFF BREXIT DEAL, BORIS HAILS ‘FINAL STEP IN A LONG JOURNEY’
    Is it a fact that johnson said when shielding, his eyes that is, ” at long last brussels is in sight”

      2. See? We’ve become so damned jaded that we’ve forgotten that these are kids.

        skronking trousers – kids! That 15, 16 years ago was a smiling squalling bundle. I get that dark humour is the only way we can cope with this sort of thing and that there is nothing we can do but even at my most cynical one day that could be junior. Well, yes, it won’t be because he’d never get involved in drugs or gangs and talks to me about stuff that bothers him but still.

        1. I’m sure most of the boys mothers felt the same. There is a lot of pressure on these young men to join a gang.

          Hundreds of initiatives have been tried over the decades and all failed.

          I don’t mention fathers because 9 times out of 10 he was off long ago.

          That is the root of the problem.

        3. I fully get your point and, to a point agree with you. Elf & Safe T and I grew up in and round the now demmed bad areas of south London and we, I certainly did see it descend from mid / late 70s. The usual chip on shoulder of being “excluded”, creating their own code of what passes for behaviour. Break that code and you get dropped. The “blue on blue / black on black” has always been there, and those within what’s deemed, their “own kind” that don’t fit in [ie; want to better themselves ie; avoiding drugs etc] are treated with utmost caution from the outset. There’s never been any real attempt to address it and currently, it is what it is

    3. Round them all up, give them knives, put them in an arena and tell them that the last one standing gets his freedom.

      2. How about we put them into an arena and… teach them how to behave civily? Military discipline with the gloves off for disobedience. Teach them to read and write, get them trained as engineers and teach the how to behave. Give them pride and dignity and show them there’s a better way to live.

          1. Alas, schooling doesn’t teach them how to behave these days. No punishment for disobedience or poor behaviour.

    4. “Junior Jah is the twelfth teenager to be stabbed to death in London
      already this year. Seventeen teenagers were murdered in the capital in
      the whole of 2020.”

      London must be unlocking and getting back to normal then.

      1. We know why it is happening. The Press and the authorities don’t want us to point it out to them.

        1. But – and excuse my language:

          Kids are being ********* killed! How can we consider that acceptable? When did these folk stop being children and start being a statistic?

          Black, white, pink sky blue fricken green! They’re dying! It’s bally blooping wrong!

        1. You forgot gypsies.

          A high rate of dog thefts and plod apparently doesn’t know where to look.

    6. We always end up with the worst trends of American culture. The suburbs around London will all resemble Southside Chicago before long.

      I would write a drama musical about it but i think it has already been done.

      1. It’s just not necessary, either. The huge amounts of money, of support that goes in to those areas, the support and promotion of quota (which is itself deeply unfair), the academic efforts.. it’s wrong. The problem is sociological and inherited.

          1. I agree, there’s a host of issues: welfare, self discipline, school discipline, state support OF school discipline, parental responsibility, basic blasted dignity.

            Yet these days responsibility, dignity and pride seem to be bad words. They invoke shame and shame must be avoided.

        1. Met him in the BA lounge at LGW.
          Looks like Ghaddafi about the face & head, and the same height – small.

        2. If only he was bleck and a Methodist, he could still be walking the streets. Such a shame….(sarc)

    8. No! Diversity Strength!

      What are you, some sort of waycist? How dare you point out the gang membership, drug violence, stabbings, thefts are carried out predominantly by blacks? We go to great lengths to hide that information from you so we can accuse you rather than admit you’re right.

    9. Its so nice to know just how well Tony Blair’s plan for ” Social Re-engineering ” Britain has worked out for the makers of butchers knives in China

      1. A good question would be why are machetes still readily available when we have neither jungles nor bamboo.

        1. Its a cultural thing, machetes are part of the coconut splitting ritual in the voodoo temples of Brixton the largest city in the East Caribbean ( ie. England )

          2. Phizzee, he’s merely recalling his childhood on being sent on errands by his mum and running the gauntlet. As he said, “it’s cultural”

          1. Bluddy disqus. Downvote unintentional.

            And i suppose an Uzi is a good way of getting rid of moles from your lawn?

    1. Boris completely lost his cool. Went red in the face. Angrily pointing his finger. Shuffling his shoulders.

      If it were simply an oversight or he was too busy he would have been able to give reasonable answers.

      You don’t need to be an expert in body language to know he is lying through his teeth.

          1. I would be the last person in the world to stand up for that Champagne Socialist Hypocrite but it is his job to hold Boris to account as opposition leader.

            Just a shame for the rest of us that they are both such poor specimens.

      2. He has come to the end of his luck. It is time for him to be replaced – but with whom?

        I am feeling very gloomy today because the EU has signed the bogus disastrous deal – I hoped that this – and the deeply flawed WA – could be binned before the EU actually signed it. Now even this chance seems to have gone. May Johnson rot in the realm of Erebus.

        1. “May Johnson rot in the realm of Erebus”.

          With a mask on.

          I am having difficulty in deciding who should next become PM. I think Diane Abbot would be an absolute hoot seeing as we are already going to hell in a handcart. But at least we could have some laughs along the way. :@(

      3. He’s a politician; if his lips are moving, he’s definitely lying through his teeth!

    2. Why do all PMs redecorate when they move in? It is a grace and favour house and so as long as it is serviceable and well kept personal taste has nothing to do with it.
      And WTF are they given £30K a year for decoration? I’ve lived in my house for about thirty years and haven’t spent that much.

      New bathroom, new kitchen and painted a couple of times, prob about £25K if I add it all up.

      1. Apparently all of them don’t/didn’t.
        Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May.
        Notice a pattern emerging?

      2. US presidents get $100,000 to redecorate the White House, they have to pay for anything above that. Supposedly Trump spent $1.75 million.

        If makes the Downing Street wallpaper seem like a bargain.

  65. Crocs are BACK! Love then or loathe them… the foam slip-ons are branded the ‘IT-shoe’ of the pandemic as global sales soar 64% to £331m in first three months of year

    peddy went to the Oscars in disguise…

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/04/28/10/42314640-9520229-The_Academy_Awards_musical_director_Questlove_pictured_sent_fash-m-12_1619603982842.jpg
    The Academy Awards’ musical director Questlove (pictured) sent fashion directors quaking when he wore a gold pair on the red carpet on Sunday

    {:^))

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9520229/Crocs-Love-loathe-foam-slip-ons-branded-shoe.html

          3. Given your family’s association with Sudan, I wondered if you had heard this story before and, if so, whether you know if there is any truth in it.

            Many years ago, Rolex used to have advertisements that showed them in fires, sunk to the bottom of the sea, etc., but when they were retrieved they were always working perfectly and keeping accurate time.

            Someone wrote a letter to the Daily Telegraph to say that he used to be a district commissioner in The Sudan. With no air conditioning, he used to sleep on the roof of his house and he used to take off his Rolex watch and leave it beside him. One day, he woke up to find that the watch was not there.

            The man later went crocodile hunting. He shot a croc and took it to the taxidermist to be stuffed. Inside the croc’s stomach was the remains of a man, obviously the thief, who was wearing the missing Rolex. Naturally, the Rolex was still working perfectly and keeping accurate time!

          4. My father was not interested in shooting animals. MInd you, so many of the natives in the Sudan were killed and eaten by crocodiles that he always took a gun with him when travelling on the Nile and shot the beasts.

    6. The crocodile: Hilaire Belloc

      Whatever our faults, we can always engage
      That no fancy or fable shall sully our page,
      So take note of what follows, I beg.
      This creature so grand and august in its age,
      In its youth is hatched out of an egg.
      And oft in some far Coptic town
      The Missionary sits him down
      To breakfast by the Nile:
      The heart beneath his priestly gown
      Is innocent of guile;
      When suddenly the rigid frown
      Of Panic is observed to drown
      His customary smile.
      Why does he start and leap amain,
      And scour the sandy Libyan plain
      Like one that wants to catch a train,
      Or wrestles with internal pain?
      Because he finds his egg contain –
      Green, hungry, horrible and plain –
      An Infant Crocodile.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8b44b0eb8647b4c94f34e4046d729809d1c4804180961f017eaac7e71ddba42e.png

  66. Signing off early – a lecture from Romes starts at 5 pm. Have a jolly evening and try to forget about the cold miserable weather.

    I’ll look in tomorrow before I go to market.

    A demain

      2. It just – very briefly – reminds one of the days when one could travel…{:¬((

  67. Bbc News presenter interviewing a Green MP, who questioned why the Bbc aren’t taking Boris to task over Wallpapergate. “But we are and we do!” came the exasperated response. What a pity the Greenie didn’t ask why the Bbc aren’t taking Boris’ COVID strategy to task.

    1. BBC coverage here in Kenya is avoided [apart from Africa News Section in about 50 minutes]. However, A_A thanks for the ABC [Accurate, Brief, Clarity] post. I get the impression you were watching a live conversation between Bill and Ben

      1. Yes indeed. To add icing to the cake, the Bbc is showing the live No 10 COVID update, at which Laura Karlsberg was firmly put in her place by Matt Hancock when she asked whether Ministers who lie should resign.

        1. mng, power outage last night, so usual delay. Sounds like you ended up catching an abrupt version of childrens tv. The perspective of Halfock putting someone in their place given his record must have been fun

    2. BBC coverage here in Kenya is avoided [apart from Africa News Section in about 50 minutes]. However, A_A thanks for the ABC [Accurate, Brief, Clarity] post. I get the impression you were watching a live conversation between Bill and Ben

      1. Before the actual death of John Lennon there was a myth that Paul McCartney was dead which is why Ringo is in black and McCartney has no shoes.

        I cannot believe I am the only Nottler who heard this myth. And is there a single Nottler who has not heard about Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull and the Mars Bar?

        1. Don’t wish to know about your debauched ill spent youth thank you very much !

          I blame the Coffee Bars. :@)

    4. Get your hair cut. Stop taking the mind bending drugs and put some bloody shoes on !

        2. Thank you, sat in front the screen with tears of laughter streaming down my face.

    6. David Lammy:
      Now you see me, now you don’t, now you see me, now you don’t, now I see no zebras, now I do.

      1. Sos can you answer the age old question that has perplexed naturalists since the dawn of time, are zebra’s black with white stripes or white with black stripes?

          2. No such thing as a white horse, they are greys…

            Black horses are unbleached grey horses.

          3. Reminds me of a joke; a zebra is sent to a farm and the animals show him around and explain what they do. The hen says she lays eggs for the family, the dog explains that he helps round up the sheep, etc. Then the bull strolls up, but doesn’t say anything. “What do you do?” asks the zebra. “Get those pyjamas off and I’ll show you,” replied the bull 🙂

  70. Stop the world, I want to get off! I cannot cope with the DT’s first world problems any longer.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/putting-bins-causes-much-marital-friction-new-service-could/

    Why putting the bins out causes so much marital friction – and the new service that could end it
    The least fun of all domestic tasks, taking out the rubbish also causes the most arguments – so is it time you hired a ‘Bin Butler’?
    By
    Sarah Rodrigues
    28 April 2021
    To be fair, ‘dirty work’ has long been seen as ‘the man’s work’ CREDIT: Getty Images
    Let’s face it, chores have long been a potential battleground for couples. As much as anyone might claim that we are social beings who cannot thrive in isolation, there’s a big difference between having a lively conversation at the pub, on the one hand, and having to pick someone’s wet towel up off the bed, on the other. In fact, the latter is positively anti-social, if you ask me.
    But of the all household chores over which couples lock horns, putting the bins out – or failing to – seems to hold a special place in the universal psyche.
    It’s the stuff of bared teeth and muttered curses. It’s even, according to one Mumsnet thread, possible grounds for divorce.
    Why? Why is the simple act of wheeling a bin out onto the street such a domestic flashpoint? I’ve pondered this at length (I know, I know – you can send me my Nobel Peace Prize later) and I’d say that it’s a disastrous convergence of minor irritants.
    There’s the irregularity of it: unlike the daily grind of cooking and clearing up, it’s hard to autopilot around bins. They get picked up in the morning, which means that they usually have to be put out the night before. That’s clearly quite a lot for the average brain to compute.
    Even more confusingly, in many neighbourhoods, it’s weekly for the green bins and fortnightly for the black ones. No wonder our minds shut down on the subject. It’s overwhelming.
    The fact that they need to go out at night is a lot to take as well, isn’t it? The kitchen is tidy, the television is off, the door is chained.
    You feel a quiet sense of achievement as you shuffle, slipper-shod, towards the stairs when – wait, what! What day is it? Is it bins tomorrow? Evening calm, shattered.
    Naturally, as disturbing to one’s equilibrium as such occurrences are, you can at least rely on the cover of darkness to cloak your pyjama-clad walk of shame down the driveway.
    Worse are the mornings when the whirr and clunk of the collection truck momentarily disturbs your slumbers and you turn over contentedly before sitting bolt upright in bed, swearing loudly (think Hugh Grant at the beginning of Four Weddings and a Funeral) and having to run down the road with your dressing gown flapping and your overflowing bin disgorging its contents.
    The flipside of this, of course, is the deep sense of smugness you experience when the opposite occurs. It is no exaggeration to say that one of the high points of my adult life was the morning when I woke, not only to the sound of the garbage truck, but also to the sound of rain.
    Could there be a more dismaying combination for the person who has failed to put the bin out? I, however, was not that person – and believe me when I say that the sleep I sank back into was one of the sweetest ever.
    What else do we hate about the bins? Gender roles, it seems, can play a part: according to both The Relationship Guy John Kenny and coach and healer Tiffany Wardle, issues can arise around bins being seen as a ‘man’s job’, with men starting to resent this, and women feeling let down if they don’t perform.
    “To a lot of women, putting the bins out has huge significance,” says Kenny. “I’ve worked with so many female clients who have said, ‘I want a man who puts the bins out without being asked.’”
    Sexist? Almost certainly – but to be fair, ‘dirty work’ has long been seen as ‘the man’s work’ – and the very nature of a bin is deeply unpleasant.
    They’re fetid and grotty, full of up to two weeks’ worth of yuck. And you can’t win, can you – if it’s raining, then they’re a hassle to deal with, but if it’s warm and sunny, you practically keel over from the stench. They’re also loaded with a horrible sense of ‘now or never’, which just adds to the weighty drama of it all – I mean, if you forget to buy milk, it might be a pain to nip back out and get it, but if you forget the bins, you’re doomed. Stuck with your refuse for another week or so and nowhere to put the next week’s worth.
    I think there’s something to be said, too, for the fact that bins, more than any other household chore, are the great middle-class leveller. You can pretty much throw money at just about anything else – the cleaning of your home, the care of your children, the delivery of your groceries. Bins? Not so much.
    Well, until now that is, because rubbish disposal experts Divert are launching a Bin Butler service across the UK. For just £1 a week, you can hand over responsibility for your refuse and mix yourself another artisanal G&T while a Bin Butler (clad in high-vis rather than a suit, sadly, but you can’t win ‘em all) does your dirty work.
    Put simply, they will come to your house on the scheduled evening and put your bin out for you – and you will never have to waste another moment’s energy on the thought of it.
    Best of all, you can assuage any middle-class guilt by paying an extra 50p to have a neighbour’s bin taken out – someone elderly, or a shift worker, for example. “Over-indulged and smug, moi?” we will say. “No, no – I am a GOOD PERSON.”
    Good heavens, it’s pure genius – the equivalent to flouncing around Farmers’ Markets but reassuring yourself that you’re doing ‘your bit’ for local growers; or not deigning to wash your own car but patting yourself on the back for keeping those nice chaps at the garage gainfully employed.
    And you’ll never have to leave the house in your pyjamas again. Now if we can just slip them an extra couple of quid to come back the following morning to sanitise and replace them, life really will be far less rubbish.

    1. And the really ghastly thing is – they get paid for drivel like this! Who gives a stuff?

      1. If a couple are having arguments over such trivial things their marriage won’t last when something serious arrives on their doorstep. Which it will.

          1. None that the BBC is prepared to cover unless it is about how wrong white people are about everything.

  71. 332083+ up ticks,
    It has been noted that this has been the month since records were kept post major era deflective, deceitful, deceptive, chaff has been dropped in it’s highest quantity, so to help the reset, replacement, campaign get firmly establishment your vote is needed at the next opportunity and lets not forget the johnson / priti successful campaign at Dover it takes the peoples backing to keep going.

      1. I think Matt is indicating that he’s as fed up with the current situation as we NoTTLers are.

        2. Kenneth Horne in the centre plus Betty Marsden, Hugh Paddick and the announcer, Douglas Smith (on the right).

    2. Nothing wrong with the national broadcaster focusing programming on an age group that doesn’t tune into broadcast radio and TV.

      They probably learnt that trick from the Canadian cbc, they started the transition to shallow wokeness about ten years ago.

    1. “You have now exited this sterile area, and are now sterilised.

      We hope you didn’t want children.

      If you did, console yourself that you are saving the planet for Africans, Indians and Chinese.
      Have a nice day.”

    1. Back in the late 60s and early 70s, I used to live in Libya where I had a Maltese girlfriend.

      She bought a new Fiat 500 but on her very first drive in her new car she got stuck in a traffic jam behind a cement lorry. The lorry accidentally dumped cement onto her brand-new car! She was fluent in Italian and, from that day forth her car was always known as Cementina!

      By the way, she was a terrible driver. When she was on a roundabout in heavy traffic she used to get so confused that would stop the car and burst into tears, holding everything up. She never had to wait long to be rescued, by countless men all willing to help a damsel in distress!

      1. A few years ago the French suddenly got hit by roundaboutomania, every other cross road became a roundabout. Even now they are putting roundabouts on crossroads that see barely ten cars a day.

        On roundabouts here I’ve seen elderly Frenchmen turn left “naturally” against the traffic flow, I’ve seen them reverse to get back to their exit, I’ve seen women stop and look at a map/’phone.

        They signal one way and turn the other, they don’t signal at all, they drive at the centre and suddenly cut across to their exit.
        They don’t stop to give way, just drive straight on.
        I’ve been driven in Egypt; the Egyptians have more lane discipline than the French!

        And yer French will still spray anything anywhere to make a political point.

        More power to their elbows!

        1. They put in a roundabout near us, the first in the region. Everyone received a flyer through the post, showing us how to navigate the roundabout.

          Five years later navigating it is still a challenge, you can never tell if people will pull out in front of you or stop on the way round.

          1. If they are in the right places they are excellent.
            It’s when some moron puts one where the traffic flow is very one-sided that the problems start.

            Here, during rush hour, there isn’t sufficient flow to allow a steady access. Thus, when once upon a time one could get into the main stream, it’s no longer possible to join the flow. Waits of up to ten minutes are not particularly unusual.

          2. There is an etiquette on roundabouts that makes life a lot easier for everyone. Unfortunately, most people are crass, stupid and ignorant like Americans in upmarket SUVs, which is when we get major problems with congestion. Once traffic lights are put in, there are real problems, since much of the time is spent with everyone on red.

            First off, anyone accelerating on a roundabout should be done for dangerous driving and get points on their licence. A steady speed means one can rely on the gaps in the stream to let people in as others depart. Filling in these gaps because it is the smart thing to show one’s importance means those entering a system must pause to work out acceleration, rather than presence or speed. This creates delays.

            Next off, when there is a constant flow of traffic stopping traffic entering a roundabout, then an alternative filtering approach should be taken. Those in the stream should let in two or three enter, but no more. If those entering the system take advantage, then those already on the roundabout would be less inclined to let them in, so the the filtering breaks down.

    2. A few months ago when Boris was exhibiting ever more sleaze and both Ferguson and Cummings were flagrantly breaking the rules, which the rest of us were obliged to adhere to, I had a Eureka moment.

      What if Boris, whose private life of lasciviousness and fracture was widely known, was deliberately gifted the Prime Ministership because of his obvious deviousness and untrustworthiness.

      Likewise what if Ferguson was deliberately allowed and encouraged to make visits to his mistress and Cummings sent on a mission to Barnard Castle?

      Such actions are part and parcel of the degradation of trust between politicians and the country. Ditto the deliberate encouragement of BLM and Antifa and the cruel ‘cancelling’ of the millions whose voices are of reason.

      Now the two fingered gesture to the country as we see with the lavish yet tasteless redecoration of the flat above Number 11 Downing Street. It shouts ‘we care nothing for you plebs and will do whatever we want so stuff you and know your place’.

      This is all about dividing the country by setting people against each other. Precisely the same is occurring in the USA.

      1. What is so interesting about the interior decoration of the PM’s drawing room is that it really looks Islamic .. Take note of the paintings on the wall and the style .. it really looks like an exotic interior of a Turkish Pasha’s tent . His squeeze probably insists on candles as well and joss sticks .

        Loads of youngsters will want to emulate that style , and poor old John Lewis stores will sink into oblivion .. bit similar to the way Laura Ashley contracted and all the others did eventually.

  78. There’s one detail about the row over the funding for ‘tarting-up’ (pun intended) Johnson’s Downing Street flat which is either ignored or glossed over by both politicians and the media. It is this – the Prime Minister apparently receives a tax-free annual allowance of £30,000 to refurbish his accommodation.

    Forget about politicians – they are unlikely to mention it since they all love their perks and won’t want to rock the gravy-boat but why aren’t the media questioning why on earth anybody needs £30,000 every year to decorate a bloody flat? It works out at just under £577 per week, over four times the basic state pension, on which one may be liable for tax!

    It’s another example of the outrageous abuse of public funds by the greedy, unprincipled political classes.

    1. I wonder how much that works out at on a per square foot basis.

      “My name’s Juncker; stuff wall paper and furniture, I want wall to wall wine racks filled with expensive wines.

    2. Just for his little flat?

      I can see a decent amount if it also includes Chequers and the offices at number 10 but just for a flat? Obviously trying to keep up with Bercow and his refurbishment of the company flat.

      Way behind entitled Trudeau, he has authorized over $8 million to redo his summer cottage but is holding off on the $38 million budgeted to renovate the official residence in Ottawa.

  79. So Arlene has stepped down.
    Pity i have nothing to do with my BiL…he’s the party chairman.
    I might have been able to get some inside info.

    1. While it may be the case that she has not been very successful in a career dogged with controversy, sometimes heated*, she has been put in a very difficult position by the PM and the failure of the UK Brexit negotiating team. Her successor will be taking up a poisoned chalice. If they support the Brexit deal they will lose support of Unionists. If they support a breaking of the deal there will be internal conflict with Republicans and endless arguments with the Republic and the EU, and the EU will surely also have a go at the UK for good measure.
      In summary, there is now in NI every ingredient required for a complete breakdown. If the UK government steps in with direct rule that will hardly cool things down. It is going to be bad.

      *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_Heat_Incentive_scandal

      1. Which is no doubt why people like Tony Blair sowed the seed with the EU in the first place.

  82. Boris has played a blinder with his redecoration of number 10, nobody is going to want his job and move in there now.

    1. The stunt was organised by Boris’s controllers and paymasters. It is designed to signal ‘fuck you!’ to the plebs and to stoke further societal divisions. Nobody but a fool would spend so much on a makeover of a relatively small flat.

      I was surprised that they did not employ
      the firms responsible for the decorations of the ghastly Supreme Court. There the dog can be sick on the carpet and nobody would notice.

      If Johnson spills red wine on any item in this confection nobody will notice come to think of it. You would have to throw a wine-filled glass at the fireplace.

  84. “The move towards mandatory vaccination surprised some on the call due

    to the likely legal problems the trust will face trying to enforce the

    rule.

    The hospital has since said there was no intention to make vaccines

    compulsory for staff but the trust spokesman refused to explain why the

    letter had been written in the first place, why it had been shared among

    other senior London NHS figures and why people on the call with the

    chief executive were told it was happening.”

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-vaccine-nhs-trusts-compulsory-b1831484.html
    Outrageous,just FOAD

  86. We must call time on fear and rid ourselves of masks once and for all

    Enough is enough… I’ve obeyed the rules for more than a year, but they’re now proving to be counterproductive

    ALLISON PEARSON

    I will not be wearing a mask after June 21, when limits on social contact are removed. Nor will I obey any rules whose effect is to prevent each and every one of us returning to the life we loved (we didn’t know how much we loved it) before March 23 2020.

    Enough is enough. Businesses that want my custom will not be those who insist on daft and unnecessary measures. If they do, I will shop or dine elsewhere, or I will stay home. I’ve got a lot of practise at staying home. It’s going out that needs some work.

    Before you protest, this is a point of principle, not reckless individualism. Two moving encounters in the past week have convinced me it is the people who are happy for lockdown to go on indefinitely who are now the selfish ones.

    Lauren did a manicure for me in London. It was a warm day, the basement room in the salon was stifling and the 25-year-old was wearing full PPE – a gown, a mask plus a visor. I had to guess what she was feeling by the look in her eyes. Because they are desperately trying to catch up on lost business, Lauren is working 10-, even 12-hour, shifts. She feels sick at the end of the day (all the girls do) and sometimes, if there is a minute between clients, she nips into the street to gasp and take in the air.

    Lauren says that, even though Covid seems to have left the capital, a lot of her customers are still nervous. When she told one lady that she was counting the days until June 21, when she could take off the PPE for good, the woman was aghast. “But it’s not safe,” she protested. Ideally, the woman told Lauren, lockdown measures should continue for two years.

    “What did you say to her?”

    “I couldn’t say anything, really. She’s the client. I said that maybe wearing a mask was OK for her because she was at home most of the time, but it was different for us here in the salon.”

    “What did you really think?”

    “I thought she was very selfish. She doesn’t care what it’s like for people like me.”

    Lauren showed me the red-raw dents she has behind her ears from wearing the visor. She doesn’t know how long they will take to go away.

    My second encounter was with Sophie, a new mother who had baby Teddy during lockdown. Teddy, who will be one next month, has only really met two people (his parents), apart from one visit from his grandparents last summer. When an uncle with a thick lockdown beard came to sit in the garden, the terrified baby screamed and screamed. Teddy only knows smooth-skinned humans, you see.

    To try and get out more, a depressed Sophie joined a mother and baby group. The other day, they arranged to meet in a mum’s garden, but the weather was foul. Despite being in contravention of the current coronavirus restrictions, which, strictly speaking, is against the rules, but understandable in the circumstances, the group agreed that they all felt safe to move into the house where the delighted, grateful women had coffee while the babies were set down on a rug in another part of the room.

    “They just sat there in silence, staring at each other,” Sophie recalled. “It was so weird; they didn’t laugh or cry. They didn’t reach for any toys. They just sat there for ages, like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.”

    I am haunted by that image of those silent infants encountering another baby human for the first time. So much crucial social and emotional development takes place in the first two years of life. Babies in Teddy’s group have missed half of it. Will they be late to talk? Will they find it hard to engage with their peers? It’s too soon to tell. We do know that toddlers’ language development has been damaged. Experts talk of an alarming ‘word gap’, particularly among the most disadvantaged little ones.

    So I have a few words of my own for that woman who told Lauren that masks and social distancing should continue for two years after June 21. Fine, if you feel like that, stay home. Don’t go out. Don’t condemn others to some constrained half-life just because, even though you’re vaccinated and your risk from Covid is tiny (less than being in a road accident, actually), you still think it’s all about how “safe” you feel. It really isn’t. Not any more.

    People will get back to normal at very different speeds. I get that. The outrageous campaign of terror to which the British people have been subjected (far worse than in any other country) will have long-term casualties. But we have to call time on the fear on June 21 because it really is the case that, with nearly all the vulnerable vaccinated, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

    I have worn a mask since July 24 2020, when they became mandatory in shops. I don’t believe that masks make much difference to the spread of Covid (except maybe in a crowded bus or train). I wore a mask because it made other people feel better. From June 21, I will stop wearing a mask for the same reason.

    I will stop wearing a mask for Lauren and for Teddy and for the millions of young people and children who have sacrificed so much, even though the virus posed no danger to them. I will stop wearing a mask because we need to see people smile with their mouths not just their eyes.

    The old must be brave for the young now.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/must-call-time-fear-rid-masks/

  88. ****BREAKING NEWS****

    There is a new school of interior design.

    They call it Farts and Graft.

  89. I doubt that Paul Mason will be reading this.

    Academic debate was shut down during the Covid crisis. We must not let that happen again

    Academics must urgently counter the very real danger of groupthink across a range of issues, starting with lockdown

    PAUL DOLAN

    There is little room for ambivalence or nuance in modern debate. Any comment or piece of analysis will be taken as support for either of the polarised views on a particular issue. If you do not come down clearly on one side, then too many people are quick to conclude that you must support the other extreme. This makes it very difficult for us to steer an effective path through complex issues. In fact, it’s worse than that because one side of the debate will usually represent the prevailing narrative in society, and so any concerns about that perspective are greeted with much greater hostility than the other way around.

    Consider the case of the pandemic. The prevailing narrative, especially among academics like me, is that lockdowns are both required and effective. So, if I am not fervently supporting lockdowns, then I am assumed to be opposed to any form of restrictions. This has been the reaction from across the academy when I have variously suggested: that the stay at home messaging was so effective that it might have resulted in more life years being lost from missed cancer treatments; that middle-aged decision-makers might have been unduly influenced by their own fear of dying; that the life experiences of younger people have been seen as a luxury good whilst we focus on the life expectancies of older people; and that it unethical to scare people into believing that their own risks from the virus are higher than they really are.

    At no point have I ever endorsed a no-restrictions policy. At no point have other “lockdown sceptics” more prominent than me ever suggested that we simply let the virus rip. When Sunetra Gupta and colleagues argued for the focussed protection of older people (which is a long way from doing nothing), they were rounded on by many in the academy, and subjected to considerable personal abuse. Given all the uncertainties surrounding COVID, none of us can know with any degree of confidence what the right approach to the virus is, and I remain deeply sceptical of anyone who is so confident that strict lockdowns are best for social welfare in the UK.

    One of the main reasons I became an academic was to help to shed light on difficult questions, and to be respectful of evidence that might lead to different answers. In the final analysis, I am pretty sure that many more people will conclude that younger people have been required to pay too high a price, but I am open to weighing up any evidence that speaks to this issue. What I am not open to are attempts to shut down academic debate and empirical investigation into these issues on the grounds that the right response has already been established, and that any dissent represents denial of the seriousness of the virus.

    The academy must therefore urgently counter the very real danger of groupthink across a range of issues. Inter-group contact, where members of different groups are brought together to reduce prejudice, has been suggested as a method for tackling polarisation. While some research has shown that exposure to the ideas of the opposing group can increase polarisation, other research shows that inter-group contact works better in reducing prejudice if certain conditions are satisfied, such as prolonged exposure to more than one member of the other group.

    I therefore urge academics to embrace adversarial collaboration, which explicitly brings together people with different prior beliefs to work on a research question. I have started doing this more in my own academic work, such as when we sought to value the intangible benefits of the 2012 Olympic Games. I absolutely loved the Games and thought they were worth every penny, but most of my dull economist collaborators thought they were a waste of money. For those that are interested, it was the basically the opening ceremony wot won it.

    None of us – not even academics – can avoid bringing our own biases and beliefs to an issue and the evidence surrounding it. At least politicians are explicit about their disagreements. There is an honesty in that which is currently lacking in the academy. The world is a crazy place when an academic is extolling the honesty of politicians. But it does feel like the world has got a little crazier – and more polarised – over the past year. So, let us all use COVID and other potentially divisive contemporary issues as an opportunity to accept different perspectives, and to reduce polarisation rather than to increase it.

    Paul Dolan is Professor of Behavioural Science at the LSE and the creator and presenter of a new podcast, ‘Duck-Rabbit: taking sides’.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/28/academic-debate-shut-covid-crisis-must-not-let-happen/

    1. Welcome to the new technocratic age Mr Dolan, where your freedom of opinion is not wanted or sought.

  90. We are dealing – successfully – with a pandemic.

    The UK is facing a breakup of the Union;
    America has an Old Fool as POTUS;
    NATO has an existential crisis;
    Russia is threatening Ukraine with military might;
    Hong Kong is losing ‘Two Systems’ rights;
    And China is seeking an opportune moment to squash Taiwan.

    Meanwhile, our PTB, the Opposition and the MSM are obsessed with ?

    Tacky wallpaper in the PM’s N0. 11 flat ..

    1. By coincidence, the Taiwan foreign minister was on SKY News at 23.30 saying “Western Forces would be welcome for defence …”

      Meanwhile, Gordon Bruin’s aircraft carrier hasn’t got a naval escort …

  91. Why did an apparently sensible bloke like Prof Dingwall choose the much derided subject of sociology for a career?

    Our pandemic exit strategy should be rational, not dictated by Covid anxiety

    Are we really supposed to prefer the theoretical risks of a third wave to the real evidence of the success of the vaccination programme?

    ROBERT DINGWALL

    More and more people are recognising that the Prime Minister did not really mean it when he declared June 21 to be a great day of liberation from pandemic restrictions. The details of what life will be like after this final stage of the roadmap remain vague. Influential voices are pushing to continue the use of face coverings, social distancing and mass testing at least through the winter and next year. Local councils are hiring Covid marshals on renewable six-month contracts from July and immunity certificates are being actively developed. The Tony Blair Institute is already saying that June 21 is too early even for this heavily caveated return to “normal”.

    The scale of this resistance is a marker of the extent to which Covid anxiety has permeated the scientific and policy communities, as well as the general public. There is a constant search for bad news and worst-case scenarios – third waves, variants, long Covid, events in Brazil or India – rather than a focus on the documented achievements of the vaccination programme.

    It would be foolish to rip up the present guidance tomorrow, or even on May 17. By June 21, however, all the most vulnerable people in the country will have been offered two doses of the vaccines, with enough time for immunity to develop. They will be as protected as they will ever be. In addition, a substantial proportion of lower-risk adults will also have had a first dose, giving them a significant degree of protection. It is time to acknowledge the low level of vulnerability in a vaccinated population.

    This is effectively what the Chief Medical Officer has been saying since last autumn. Prof Chris Whitty has talked repeatedly of living with Covid as a generally mild endemic infection, much like all the other respiratory infections that we have always lived with. Any interventions in everyday life must be proportionate to that risk, not the images that have filled our TV screens for the last 12 months. If we would not wear face coverings, socially distance, mass test or certify immunity for any other respiratory infection, why would we keep doing it for Covid?

    We know that the vaccines give a high degree of protection against serious illness and death. No variant has yet been shown to undermine this, and respected scientists tell me that they are unlikely to do so. At worst, they increase the risk of mild infection.

    Let us be clear. A “mild infection” can still mean an unpleasant few days and recovery that may extend over several weeks. But does this justify restructuring the whole of everyday life beyond what we have always done for influenza? Your vaccination protects you against the infectious person standing beside you. Neither of you needs a face covering to interrupt that or an app to certify your status.

    Are we really supposed to prefer the theoretical risks of a third wave projected by modelling to the real evidence of the vaccination programme? Even the modellers concede that there is so much uncertainty that this wave may arrive any time between July this year and January 2022, and might be anything between a minor blip and a bigger peak than January 2021.

    Covid restrictions are not cost-free. This week, we have learned about their impact on language and social development in young children. We have known for months about their consequences for retail and hospitality industries. Interventions also cost. The £38 billion spent on Test and Trace would transform social care. The costs of continuing social distancing and of immunity certification will raise prices for everyone, as complaints about the £7 pint illustrate.

    So what is the exit strategy? Science and policy are supposed to be driven by rationality and evidence, not personal anxieties. June 21 is signalled as the end of a pathway founded on the vaccination programme. If this is not the first reasonable date to lift all restrictions and set a course for business as usual, then when is? If we allow the most pessimistic observers to dictate the pace and extent of reopening, normal life will be far more than two months away.

    Robert Dingwall is Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University and a member of several government advisory groups. He is writing in a personal capacity

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/28/pandemic-exit-strategy-should-rational-not-dictated-covid-anxiety/

    1. Any supposedly expert ‘scientist’ who supports claims that mass vaccination of the populace by the millions with an experimental gene therapy is a success story is frankly deluded. Anything else the ignorant fool propounds is equally worthless by default.

  92. Evening, all. It isn’t just lockdowns where the supposedly “Conservative” government has been inconsistent.

      1. Evening, Duncan. Yesterday was foul, but today has been much better, thanks. I went riding and discovered that the Connemara had forgotten pretty much everything he’d learned before lockdown! He had been doing some nice transitions without sticking his head in the air. Today he was star-gazing most of the time 🙁 I’m sure, once I start riding him regularly again, it will all come back to him 🙂 I have also decided it’s time I did something about my garden, so I bought some more shrubs. All I need now is the time, energy and decent weather to crack on with the planting, reorganising and weeding.

        2. Glad to hear things were better for you today and you’re riding your Connemara again. You seemed very down yesterday and I think I can speak for everybody when I say we were more than a little concerned.

          There’s an old Highland saying “Tha a’ ghrian air cùlaibh gach sgòthan” (The sun’s behind every cloud)…… KBO.

          1. Yesterday was not a good day at all. Thankfully, there aren’t too many of those in a week normally.

          1. He did indeed 🙂 I’m riding the Haflinger on Saturday – a different set of issues.

    2. 332083+ up ticks,
      Evening C,
      Since the may farce they have been consistently treacherous, ongoing.

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