Wednesday 5 February: Carbon-free motoring makes huge demands on energy generation

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/05/letterscarbon-free-motoring-makes-huge-demands-energy-generation/

778 thoughts on “Wednesday 5 February: Carbon-free motoring makes huge demands on energy generation”

  1. Morning Each,
    These are sidetrack issue I am bloody sure, distracting from the real deal outcome.

      1. Morning NtN,
        So you take the governance proposed policies at face value do you, very trusting.
        They are masters at deception, without their input we would never have got into such a state as a nation we find ourselves in today.

    1. That tweet by Nish Kumar seems to have backfired. So desperate was he to sneer and mock “British things” that he failed to spot the Horrible Histories clip, implied that foreign people were not British at all. Can’t have it both ways Nish.

    2. I hope the Daphne’s crew were diverse.
      Otherwise that would be Whitey criticising cultural norms.

    3. Rather sad that my cousin’s research into the family history was lost when he died. I’d love to know more about the several times Great Uncle who died whilst serving in the RN during that ear.
      According to what I did hear, he lost his life boarding a slaving dhow in just such an operation.

  6. Christian man has “robust” views on Gay sex

    Christian man has “robust” views on abortion

    The mob in both cases attempts to hound them out of their jobs and public life

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/51368373

    https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/06/tim-farron-resignation-liberal-christianity-liberal-democrat-party-leader-resigns/
    Now I hold no particular brief for either man but I find it very strange that Christians are battered over these issues while Moslems get a free pass and are never questioned

    1. Well, this is not about the views of these people, per se, however inelegantly expressed.
      The MSM routinely refers to Mr Folau’s remarks as”homophobic”. Apart from the fact that the word means “fear of” rather than hatred, a meaning that it has assumed by those too lazy to express things properly, i.e. soi disant journalists, Mr Folau’s remarks to the effect that unrepentant practising homosexuals will go the Hell were nothing other than orthodox Christian teaching. This is so, to the extent that we cannot pre-determine the outcome of the Last Judgement, but we we believe it.
      Of course, as with many much more obvious truths, we are not allowed to say such things. A man is being hounded out of being able to earn a living in his chosen profession for expressing his beliefs, and no one is standing up with him. There has been no visible support from the Christian churches.
      However, the wider view must be taken. This is an attack on Christianity. For attacks on Christianity any excuse will do. If a devout Christian expressed the view that boiled eggs should be cracked only from the big end then that would suffice for a whirlwind of outrage to be whipped up, and delivered by the MSM, BBC in the lead.

  7. Definition of the word “coincidence”.

    A chicken farmer went to the local bar. He sat next to a woman and ordered champagne.

    The woman said, “How strange, I also just ordered a glass of champagne”.

    “What a coincidence” said the farmer, who added, “It is a special day for me – I’m celebrating”

    “It is a special day for me too, I am also celebrating!” said the woman.

    “What a coincidence” said the farmer.

    While they toasted, the man asked: “What are you celebrating?”

    “My husband and I are trying to have a child for years, and today, my gynaecologist told me that I was pregnant”.

    “What a coincidence!” said the man. ” I’m a chicken farmer and for years all my hens were infertile, but now they are all set to lay fertilized eggs.”

    “This is awesome” said the woman. “What did you do for your chickens to become fertile?”

    “I used a different rooster.” the farmer said.

    The woman smiled and said: “What a coincidence”

        1. Good Morning Nan……the cold has got me clambouring for warmth and I have an awful virus thingy…..needed that smile today, thank you..

  8. Just in case anybody missed this last night (it was pretty late) here’s a repeat performance.

    Bloody Hell.

    As if leaving his bairns in a pub wasn’t enough, now he’s leaving loaded guns in aircraft toilets.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk…

  10. So Boris offers the job of heading the COP26 climate change conference to Cameron.
    Just heard on radio 4 that they thought that Boris was trying to patch up their long term differences with the offer.
    I suppose it depends how you look at it, the job appears to be a poison chalice that you would only give to damage your worst enemy.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51381258

    3. The way that the letter was broken into different sections meant that you needed to copy / paste it in sections, but it was worth it. Every now and then you get someone who strips an argument right down to the bone and that was one of them. It might even make one or two of the great brainwashed young people start to think for themselves.

      Although those youth who are mentally challenged will dismiss it with a wave of their hands as “old white propaganda” without even bothering to check if the writer was black, white or yellow.

  13. BBC Radio 3 News has just reported that first reported results from Iowa indicate that the first openly Gay Presidential hopeful Pete Buttiget is in front. How wonderful!

    Morning all.

    3. Plenty of BBC high-fives, no doubt. Any reference to his abilities as a presidential candidate, rather than his gayness??

      ‘Morning, Stephen.

      1. Apparently he is Democratic presidential material. It’s reported he authorised a substantial financial contribution to the company that produced the failed Vote Collating App…..

        Morning Hugh

      2. Apparently he is Democratic presidential material. It’s reported he authorised a substantial financial contribution to the company that produced the failed Vote Collating App…..

        Morning Hugh

    5. Faced with a choice between the homosexual Buttigieg and the communist Sanders, I know which way I’d vote.

        1. Well, precisely.

          However I was mooting the choice available had I been a brain-dead, dyed-in-th-wool Demotwat.

    1. Ah, Alex. Peattie & Taylor’s tedious one-joke cartoon strip, which regurgitates the same story-line over and over, year in, year out, ad nauseam.

      1. Cripes, Sunshine.
        Which side of the bed did you get out of this morning?
        Signed
        Official Cripple not a Wimp.
        xx
        (My x-rays show severe wear and tear on left hip.)

        1. Sorry, Nursey,

          I thought whingeing was my inalienable right, especially when surrounded by similar types on a forum initiated for the use of, and by, grumpy old men/women?

  15. Fears of a HUGE spike in UK coronavirus cases as Foreign Office continues to allow thousands of passengers into Britain from China without checks – despite US, France, Australia and other nations BANNING travellers as death toll soars over 490. Mail. 4 February 2020

    There are fears of a huge spike in UK coronavirus cases as thousands of passengers continue to flood into the UK from China on scheduled flights.

    Despite the US, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Taiwan and Vietnam barring foreigners entry from China, hulking passenger jets continue to land at Heathrow each day.

    We’re doomed!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7966321/Fears-spike-UK-coronavirus-cases-thousands-continue-flooding-UK-China.html

    1. BUT…think of all the elderly, infirm, homeless, drug addicted and weakened: dying as a result.

      No pensions, no NHS drain, no local authority care homes.
      No subsidies, TV licences Christmas bonuses, bus passes and the like.

      No need for thousands of immigrants to care for them all.
      More housing stock available.
      Lots of inheritances to spend.
      Fewer cars and mobility scooters etc.
      Less fuel keeping them warm, clean and dry.

      Hell one might think there is some planning behind it all.

    2. BUT…think of all the elderly, infirm, homeless, drug addicted and weakened: dying as a result.

      No pensions, no NHS drain, no local authority care homes.
      No subsidies, TV licences Christmas bonuses, bus passes and the like.

      No need for thousands of immigrants to care for them all.
      More housing stock available.
      Lots of inheritances to spend.
      Fewer cars and mobility scooters etc.
      Less fuel keeping them warm, clean and dry.

      Hell one might think there is some planning behind it all.

    3. A lady I know* recently had a visitor from Wuhan. She has decided to quarantine herself for a fortnight.

      Edit:* For the avoidance of doubt – not in the Biblical sense.

    5. If this report is true then the Government is taking a calculated risk with the health of the nation. Johnson, Raab et al. will have much to answer for if they’ve got it wrong.

      1. They are only taking risk if they actually care. As only old people, including Nottlers I suppose, will be killed by corona virus it could be seen as a Good Thing.

  16. Morning all

    SIR – I fully support the drive towards achieving net zero-carbon emissions (“New hybrid cars will be banned from sale from 2035”, report, February 4).

    However, there are many factors involved if we are to achieve a transition to carbon-free motoring. First, if we are only to have plug-in electric cars on our roads, then we need a massive increase in generating capacity. A better solution might be to have the majority of cars run on hydrogen, either used in fuel cells to power electric motors or as an alternative (to petrol or diesel) to burn in internal combustion engines.

    In either case, we would need to produce a vast volume of hydrogen, which would in turn need a massive increase in generating capacity. Has the Government asked the motor and power-generating industries whether this can be achieved?

    Benson Greatrex

    Stafford

    SIR – It is common knowledge that the biggest polluters are the airlines and shipping. What is intended in this direction?

    Advertisement

    Policy in the rest of the world also needs to be considered. If the United States and China – not to mention India and the EU – are not on board, then the Prime Minister’s proposed ban will be a waste of time and effort.

    John Jukes

    Bosherston, Pembrokeshire

    1. SIR – Farmers in Somerset are ploughing, planting, reaping and then chipping fodder-grade maize and lugging it on an 80-mile round trip with a diesel tractor to put into biodigesters to convert to methane and generate electricity.

      Very like the felling and chopping of Canadian and Baltic lumber for fuelling power stations, this is surely morally indefensible and an abuse of the spirit in which governments have pledged to produce “green” energy.

      Dorian Wood

      Castle Cary, Somerset

      2. Morning Epi

        That is exactly what a very big farming landowner does around here in South Dorset.

        I made a comment here on Notl probably over a week ago about the same issues . i wonder whether the letter writer from Somerset is a Nottler.

  18. One of the most environmental sustainable, and ancient, ways of getting about is the horse. Feed it oats and grass and it will get you there. It is also a mode of transport where the driver can be completely plastered after a night out, and it will still get you home without mishap.

    The problem with the horse, though, is that it generates both carbon dioxide and methane.

    1. Morning Jeremy. We should get rid of them after all it’s what those pesky Mongols used to infringe on Peoples Human Rights. Like Breathing!

    4. Not quite right according to this.

      Everyone knows the dangers of drinking and driving, but what about drinking and riding a horse or cattle?

      Under the Licensing Act 1872, it is illegal to be “drunk while in charge on any highway or other public place of any carriage, horse, cattle…” If you find yourself responsible of either after you’ve had a drink be sure to have a designated rider on standby.

      1. They had this down to a fine art in rural Poland in the 1970s. Every village had a designated horse and cart. The horse didn’t need a rider or even a driver; it knew precisely what to do. By about 11am the drunks would be loaded onto the cart, and the horse plodded around the village, where the wives would claim their husbands, much like the carousel in an airport.

  19. Another morning ,another billet-doux from the Capita goons promising as “We are at the FINAL stages of our investigations an officer has been scheduled to visit your address”
    Just like the last three “scheduled visits” that were no shows??
    I suppose I could tell them I don’t watch live tv but then they might leave me alone and stop sending letters and I like to think my silence irritates them and after all every letter costs money the Al-Beeb can’t use for propaganda.
    The procedure is interesting,the letter implies they will turn up with a seach warrant on a first visit,a total fantasy as no magistrate in the land would issue a warrant without a prior visit and a sworn statement from a Capita goon that they have reason to believe the law is being broken.
    Obviously if I get a visit (eventually) I shall not communicate with them at all it will be simply
    Hello
    Goodby
    Then life may get interesting
    I have seen youtube videos where an enforcement officer claims that because a tv setup is “capable” (if you plug wires back in) of watching live tv you are guilty and the magistrates will find you so
    Interesting concept
    Me “How did you arrive at my home”
    CG “By car”
    Me “Is your car capable of 100mph?”
    CG “Yes”
    Me “So by your logic I should ask for you to be fined £1000 and banned from driving for a year because your car is “capable” of 100mph??”
    CG “But I wasn’t caught speeding!!”
    Me “I wasn’t caught watching live tv but you’re still trying to prosecute me!!”

    1. I don’t believe they have any enforcement officers just someone in a back office sending out lots of letters. I’ve lost count of how many years I’ve been binning such letters and have never had sight nor sound of any enforcement officers.

    2. Good morning Rik and all.
      I think I have said previously that in my 10 years as a Magistrate’s Court Usher I never experienced a TV Licence official apply for a Right of Entry Warrant. If they are going to apply they have to inform you and you can attend court to challenge it. I have ushered many times when people have been fined but that is after their own admission of using a TV.

    3. Just flicking through my Mary Berry books.
      I’m sure she has a suitable cake recipe that will support a file.

    4. The enforcement officers aren’t enforcement officers, they are people who have been on a weekend course and are paid as piecework by the number of signed agreements confirming by the user that television was being watched. They have no more right to enter your premises than any other door to door salesman. And NEVER sign anything.

  21. Parts of NHS ‘seriously financially unstable’, auditors find

    Well until the NHS is run on a proper business like basis thi will continue. The NHS still sees itself as there to provide Free treatment to anyone that turns up. The government says GP’s should treatment one that turns up for free. No where else in the world would this happen

    In the few instances when patients are billed the NHS makes no attempt to ensure they have the means to pay before treating them. The NHS makes little attempt to recover EHIC payments it is due from other countries

    Almost all other Health systems have some small at point of use charges such as a modest charge to see a GP and a modest charge for Inpatient treat to cover the cost of things like meals

    Parts of the NHS are “seriously financially unstable” and trusts are building up levels of debt they are unlikely to ever repay, according to Whitehall’s spending watchdog.

    The National Audit Office found that NHS provider trusts reported a combined deficit of £827m and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) a £150m deficit in the financial year ending 31 March 2019.

    It said extra money provided by the government to stabilise the finances of individual NHS bodies had not been fully effective.
    Trusts in financial difficulty were increasingly relying on short-term loans from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the auditors said. The loans were in effect being treated as income by trusts who had built up debts totalling £10.9bn in March 2019

    Meg Hillier, the chair of the public accounts committee, said the NAO reports showed that the NHS was “addicted to unacceptable short-term fixes” to cover longstanding problems.
    “Hospitals have built up loans they’ll never repay, workforce shortages continue and waiting times are getting longer. There is no long-term plan for social care in sight, but what is clear is the lack of investment in public health, equipment and buildings. It is the start of a new parliament and the Department of Health and Social Care needs to urgently get a grip and wisely use the new money it’s been given,” she said.

    The auditors noted that patient waiting times continued to get worse and the number of people waiting for treatment continued to increase. They found that the health service had failed to achieve “the fundamental transformation in services and finance regime needed to meet rising demand”.
    The first report said: “Trusts are becoming increasingly reliant on short-term measures, including one-off savings – rather than more permanent year-on-year savings – to meet yearly financial targets. Short-term fixes have made some parts of the NHS seriously financially unstable.”

    In the past five years the government has transferred £4.3bn from capital to revenue budgets to help the NHS cope with day-to-day pressures. The second NAO report said ministers had been unable to clearly say how this had affected patient services or demonstrate their approach to capital funding reforms.

    Over the last three years, NHS providers had requested on average £1.1bn more for buildings and equipment than their spending limits allowed, they said. The backlog of maintenance work to get all buildings up to standard stood at about £6.5bn, the report said.
    Gareth Davies, the NAO’s head, said the short-term fixes introduced to manage the NHS’s finances were not sustainable. “The Department of Health and Social Care continues to provide some trusts with short-term loans just to meet their day-to-day costs with little hope they will be repaid. This is not a sustainable way to run public bodies,” he said.
    Auditors found that the rising demand for capital spending and the growing maintenance backlog meant there was an increasing risk of harm to patients.

    1. BJ,
      The governance parties make NO attempt to stem or controlled the daily incoming hoards of potential patients.

    2. That sums up the Democrats nicely. Not thinking ahead in any meaningful fashion to the results of their actions. If the young man was unsure of how to catch the coin he ought to have had people stand back and allow it to land on the floor, for all to see.

      Not end up with the coin vertical in his fist with him trying to decide which way to turn his hand to reveal it.

        1. Quite a few of our British ones seem to find the money to buy one as well. At least, on those days when they are appearing in court.

  23. Spiked

    This is why the public is routinely confronted with absurd articles in the media grounded in an extreme form of intersectionality. One, for instance, claims that white women are ‘evil’, another that white DNA is an ‘abomination’. Barely a day goes by without some frenzied denunciation of a movie or a television series

    for its lack of diversity and positive representation, as though the

    function of the arts is to send a message that accords with identitarian

    values.

    Few members of the public are entirely familiar with the jargon

    (‘cisgender’, ‘mansplaining’, ‘toxic masculinity’), but are assured

    nonetheless that the premises are indisputable. There’s a very good

    reason why the Catholic Church resisted translating the Bible into the

    vernacular for so long. Those in power are always threatened when the

    plebeians start thinking for themselves and asking difficult questions.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/05/why-im-anti-woke/
    This Pleb wishes the “Woke” would just either fluck off and die or leave and create their own paradise (think B ark)

    1. Morning Rik,

      I just had to turn the TV off when BBC Dan whatever his name is was talking diversity in football with 2 football mad teen agers . one mumbling inarticulate black kid and the other a sparky eyed alert white kid .. Black kid lamented that there were no black managers .. white kid said something about merit.. I flicked the off button ..

    2. Dove’s sponsorship of SKYWitness is similarly spattered, with women of colour spouting platitudes about diversity and that all women are good to be ‘Leading Ladies’

    3. the point of keeping the key documents the Universal Church in Latin was because Latin was universal and pretty much unchanging. It mean theta there was only one interpretation, in theory. That did not prevent disagreement, disputation and heresies, but it did tend to lessen them.

  24. M&S food finance chief quits in latest top exit

    The finance director of Marks & Spencer’s (M&S) food division has quit, leaving another of the retailer’s key finance roles in the hands of an interim boss.
    Sky News understands that Nick Hewitt, who was only in the role for little more than a year, left M&S last month.
    His exit, which M&S said was the result of a family decision to return to the US, came just weeks after chief finance officer Humphrey Singer left the company.
    Mr Hewitt’s role is being filled on a temporary basis by Adam Dobbs, an executive in M&S’s finance team.
    Meanwhile, the company brought in David Surdeau, a former Tesco manager, to act as Mr Singer’s interim replacement.
    The ongoing churn in its leadership, and the absence of permanent successors, will do little to dispel the notion that M&S is lacking a clear sense of strategic direction under Steve Rowe, its chief executive.

  25. The trusting idiocies of liberal idealism have set hate-filled jihadists free to kill. ALLISON PEARSON. 4 FEBRUARY 2020.

    Let’s start with a question. If a jihadist is safe enough to be let out of jail, how can he simultaneously be considered dangerous enough to require round-the-clock surveillance?

    The simple answer is, he isn’t safe. Not remotely.

    The answer to the problem of Islamic Jihadism on the UK’s Streets is the same as the old chestnut about the stranger asking for directions. After much cogitation the local can only declare, “Well I wouldn’t start from here!”

    Pearsons headline is correct, Twenty years of Neoliberalism has created this problem such that it is now a Gordian Knot that they, with their beliefs, cannot unravel. What we need is an Alexander with a sword! It is either this or Conquest and Extinction!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/trusting-idiocies-liberal-class-have-set-hate-filled-jihadists/

    1. Allison on fine form as usual, if only she was PM.

      As I said yesterday, you cannot ‘de-radicalise’ a religious fanatic. Somebody who honestly believes that they are fighting a holy war and wants to die as a martyr will never renouce their beliefs. As we saw with Usman Khan, they are clever enough to say all the right things then revert to type when released. Life imprisonment, deportation to a remote island or (for preference) execution are the only sure ways to keep the public safe.

      1. I liked your post until you gave life imprisonment as one of the alternatives. If we do not act, decisively, to remove a clear and present danger to the realm, then we (and future generations) will regret, at leisure, our dithering procrastination.

        1. They need to be put somewhere that they can’t do harm to innocent people. Execution for treason would be my preference (a bullet or rope is very effective and cheap), or deportation to a remote island with no phone or internet.

          Sadly, I don’t think our current crop of hand-wringing politicians have the stomach for the hard action which is needed. They caused this awful situation and are doing nothing to remedy it.

          1. Unfortunately no set of 20th or 21st century hand-wringing politicians—past, present or future—have, had or will have the stomach balls for any kind of hard action.

    2. AS,
      Fraid old Alex would be done on a carrying a weapon likely to cause damage, then castigated as with Gerard Batten & co as being far right racist.

    3. In his elegy Lycidas John Milton, the ardent protestant, is worried about the renewed threat of Catholicism returning. The people are sheep who are improperly nourished and are rotting inside while the grim wolf (representing the catholic church) is allowed to advance without being checked.

      Today’s grim wolf is Islam which is unheeded and unchecked in Britain today.

      The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
      But, swoll’n with wind and the rank mist they draw,
      Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread;
      Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
      Daily devours apace, and nothing said,

      1. ‘Morning, Richard (just).

        Would you mind if I modify it slightly and post to Ar$ebook. I want to emphasise that the wolf is now Islam (but subtly)?

    1. Morning Plum.
      I can’t ever see any of this working. Back in the day, the UK had more nuclear power than the rest of the world put together.
      The aging stations were never upgraded. Let alone replaced.
      A massive mistake by our daft politicos. And now they are making more and ongoing massive mistakes.
      Apparently by 2050 or before, all gas boilers will be banned log burners and any other forms of heating other than ‘green power’.
      Which still needs to be fully explained.
      Barnet council is about to build a new gas fired power station on green belt land because it has built so many new homes over the past 15 years. It doesn’t have enough energy to supply all the new mainly migrant housing.

      1. Last night, MB was watching a programme about beavers (a member of the Castoridae family, M’Lud).
        They merely repaired established dams.
        Are they like British nuclear experts who now can only repair existing stations rather than building new ones?

        1. I don’t know any beavers Anne nor any nuclear scientists. But beavers seem to making a bit of a mess of rivers and destroying many trees on their so far small patches. Left to their own devices. IMHO It can only end floods of tears.

        1. ‘Morning, Paul, just sit down at the back and be quiet – we don’t do awkward questions.

        3. Apparently not green enough.
          Unless they have been processed as the chips are by carbon consuming machinery.
          It’ll soon be “come in and warm yourselves by this blazing candle”.

    2. Great time listening to Nick Ferrari almost ‘losing it’ this morning with a loon from Extinction Rebellion. Far too heated and far too much verbiage to make mental notes but it’s quite clear that people of the stripe of the interviewee are certifiable.

    3. Do you remember the howls of protest when Jeremy Clarkson made this very point on Top Gear?

      1. I think that was the reason for the contrived dismissal, the loss of his platform to speak his wisdom to the nation as their plans got under way for electric cars.

    1. His immediate Response, “Oh, merda!”

      ‘Morning, Mags, I had that one scheduled for several days ahead – I don’t suppose a repeat will go amiss.

  28. Huge Tax Hikes in Financial Crisis Swedish Municipality That Took Too Many Migrants

    Many parts of Sweden have now been turned into a third world hell hole

    The Swedish municipality of Filipstad is facing a financial crisis due to taking in too many migrants during the 2015 migrant crisis and is now looking to hike taxes by ten per cent to cover costs.

    The proposed tax hike would take place by 2022 and is in response to the surge in social costs due to the mass migration of asylum seekers to the municipality, with local Social Democrat politician Åsa Hååkman Felth saying the area is in dire need of help, Expressen reports.

    “In the municipality, we have no jobs for people who have studied and have a good education, so they move. Those who remain with us are those who have no education and who are not ready for the labour market. Maybe even illiterate,” Felth said.

    “Making a change costs a lot of money then. You have to start from the beginning, so to speak,” she added.

    She added that funding promised by the national government was just “a drop in the ocean”, saying the municipality received only around 10 million Swedish krona (£800,000/$1 million), when it needed at least 100 million krona (£8 million/$10.3 million).
    Minister of Civil Affairs Lena Micko, also a Social Democrat, said that while the government was aware of the predicament of Filipstad, the total needs over other municipalities had to be taken into consideration.

    “A combination of measures will be needed to protect welfare. Municipalities need to adjust to the challenges they face. The state should support this work, but a great responsibility also lies with the municipalities,” she said.

    Filipstad initially sounded the alarm over their financial situation last year in September, noting that many tax-paying residents with jobs had moved away, weakening the overall tax base.

    In 2018, Urban Hansson Brusewitz, head of the National Institute of Economic Research (KI) predicted that municipalities would be forced to increase taxes in order to pay for social costs related to population growth and mass migration.

    1. No doubt swiftly followed by “white flight” to cheaper, less diverse municipalities, leaving behind embryonic ghettoes.

      1. Yay; how apposite is that!!!!
        I looked up the Swedish for Tower Hamlets: this was the result ‘Torn Hamlets’.
        (Unless Peddy knows better.)

    3. In the UK we are soooo very lucky to have on the ball enlightened politicians who only allow immigrants who work and contribute to the well-being of the nation to come and settle here. No shirkers and definitely no lounging about on benefits in the UK.🙃

  29. Health officials on mainland China have updated the tally of confirmed cases.

    NEWLY CONFIRMED CORONAVIRUS CASES ON MAINLAND AT 3,887 ON FEB 4
    MAINLAND CHINA REPORTS 65 NEW CORONAVIRUS DEATHS ON FEB 4
    CHINA’S TOTAL NUMBER OF CONFIRMED CORONAVIRUS CASES ON MAINLAND HITS 24,324 AS OF END-FEB 4
    CHINA’S TOTAL NUMBER OF CORONAVIRUS DEATHS ON MAINLAND REACHES 490 AS OF END-FEB 4
    Additionally, according to China’s NHC, 185,555 cases under medical observation, up from 171,329 yesterday. Meanwhile, 892 cases have been cured.

    The Deaths to Cured Ratio doesn’t look very encouraging 🙁

    (And:At least 10 cases of coronavirus have been discovered aboard the Carnival Japan cruise ship “the Diamond Princess”, which has been quarantined at Japan’s Yokohama port since yesterday after officials learned that a passenger who recently disembarked tested positive for the virus in Hong Kong. 3000 passengers in quarantine – I bet the Holiday Brochure didn’t hint at this particular aspect of “a cruise of a lifetime”….

  30. Hope I’m not duplicating something already seen on this forum: a letter in the Spectator which amused me:

    Tabling a motion?

    Sir: I was fascinated to read (Letters 25 January) that the respected position of Groom of
    the Stool has been sadly vacant in the Royal Household since the, excuse the
    pun, passing of Henry VIII. Might I suggest that the public could nominate some worthy candidates so as to re-institute this duty, perhaps through the honours list? I will kick things off by suggesting John Bercow.

    Nicky Samengo-Turner

    3. The Groom of the Stool became a powerful Privy Chamberlain.

      I don’t want to see Bercow with that much power.

    1. The printers are deliberately low priced. Once you have a particular model, you are locked in to several years of sales.
      I always use the cheapo inks; they are fine for everyday use, though probably not for professional use.

      1. I confess!

        I’ve several personae in the DT, where I use characters from “The Goon Show” – Major Dennis Bloodnok, Count Jim Moriarty, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister.

        ;¬)

          1. No indeed. I’ve had more than one run-in with ‘Am Faochagach’ – he’s an eejit right enough!

            BTW, his nom-de-plume is the name of a mountain in Wester-Ross and means ‘whelk-like’.

            Make of that what you will!

    4. That reminds me….
      The other day it was raining cats and dogs. I know because I trod in a poodle.

  34. Watching that democrat woman in the USA tearing up the address to the nation, I was taken back to the time when Khrushchev took off his shoe to bang the lectern at the UN. Equally low intelligence, methinks.

  35. Good Moaning.
    Overslept somewhat. MB is coughing like Puffing Billy; NOT the Chinese takeaway, though.

    1. I hope he doesn’t have the virus we have now recovered from – it started mid-January and I still have cloggy tubes, especially in the morning, though the cough has mostly gone now.

    3. Doesn’t Sparky wake you up at the crack of dawn?

      Missy gets more & more persistent until I give in at about 9 am.

      1. Spartie is not a morning person.
        That’s why he fits in so well. I must admit I did wonder if he’d go through the extra hour, but he had.

  36. For those of us who spent a lot of time working nights, we would mark the return of spring as the day the “scareball” returned to the sky early in the morning. Driving home you would suddenly have the blast of light at eye level where once there was blessed darkness. These days I note the return of spring as the day when I am typing innocently on the computer before the Sun comes up past the house opposite and I cannot see a thing until I close the curtains. The joys of having a study that faces almost due East.

    It is still blindingly bright outside while being very cold, so I now have 3 months of curtained mornings ahead before I can draw them back and see the outside world before midday. I did love working nights though. The Moon is a much gentler mistress to have looking down on your world.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ec1e4f239a513b5d34dbbd7b7887c5f431c9187430ccfbd80d403918c408d4ae.jpg

      1. “The Moon is a much gentler mistress” is shirley the reason the Arabs first favoured the Moon God of Mecca over his wife, the Sun

      2. I like reading Heinlein and have recently finished a collection of his early stories called “The Green Hills Of Earth.” I gather that feminists don’t like some of his work, which is always a good sign. I have “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” on the shelf, but it is one of the many that I have not enjoyed yet. 🙂

          1. So many books, so little time. We live in a gifted age to be able to sit down for a few hours to read, without worrying where the next meal is coming from or if the crops are in. 🙂

        3. It was from his books that I first found TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.

  37. Met Office predicting Gales up to 90mph across the UK at the weekend. The name for this strong wind is Ciara .

    1. We drove over Soutra last week. Very windy. Two-thirds of the turbines were turning, the remainder were stationary. Many of the trees alongside the road had been flattened by the wind.

      1. I presume it is lubrication oil which fuels the fire. I wonder how much lubricant is used up by these turbines in the average 24hours.

        2. I wouldn’t fancy the job of going round checking the oil via the dipstick. I’d feel a right dipstick meself.

      2. At the moment Wind is producing 3.633% 0f demand, Solar slightly less. Gas supplying the Lions share and Nuclear backing the gas supply up.Our politicians are backing the wrong horses.

        1. Solar in the UK is a waste of time but there i a lot of money to be made pushing it. 1% is about typical. There is as far as I know no public record of the total solar capacity installed but it must be quite a lot. I guess it would be to embarrassing to declare the total solar installed capacity

  38. I got a flash news notice about half an hour ago that a School , in Derbyshire I think, is in lock down with many police in the vicinity. The report has not been repeated so I was unable to check the facts.

      2. Scaremongering by the police farce to shew that they’re ‘doing something’.

        I trust they all wore high-heels and lipstick in their rainbow-flagged vehicles, minced up to the culprit saying, “See you, you bitch, cum with me!” and got all butch with him.

    2. If I read the report correctly, these Salvaldorans – who have no legal right to be in the USA – are being murdered in El Salvador by other Salvadorans.

      Well, colour me cold-hearted but I don’t see this as the USA’s problem.

      What should concern US citizens is the amount of crime perpetrated in their country by that singularly unpleasant gang of Salvadoran criminals, known as MS-13.

    1. If I found myself working for someone who whined that much, I’d resign. Did she expect an easy life with everyone waiting to hand her the world on a plate just because she was black?

  43. Whilst Ofgem considers ripping out gas boilers to make way for “100% efficient” electric cental heating and hot water, Falkirkians are counting the cost:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/bills/article-7966625/The-eco-boilers-cost-5K-year-green-energy-deal-gone-wrong.html

    The problem is that your electrical supply must be capable of supplying at least 40 amps i.e. 9.6 kW for the 9kW Thermaflow and even more for the 12kW version. There are bigger output Thermastore but they need 3-phase electricity.

    You can work out the implications of ditching your gas boiler in favour of an electric solution by reference to

    http://www.thermaflowheating.co.uk/electric-boilers/#benefits

    You’d be lucky to be able to have central heating and a hot water supply whilst charging your EV!

    (N.B. keep fork handles at the ready)

    2. Is 100% efficiency attainable when converting electrical energy to heat? In a recent programme investigating power sources for inter-stellar travel an ex-NASA scientist/astronomer stated that the only 100% efficient conversion/transfer of energy known is when a particle of matter meets a particle of anti-matter = 100% BOOM! = 100% pure energy. With anti-matter much rarer than hen’s teeth, thank goodness, we’ll have to do with putting up with some losses, however small.

    3. Just looked at the plate on my 25 year old Ideal gas boiler. It’s 30kw. So to replace that would apparently require a 3phase supply from that spec sheet. And this isn’t the biggest house in the road by a long chalk. The replacement idea is a total farce!

      1. Totally agree jsckeckter.

        I have a house of about 2000 square feet with fifteen radiators and a hot water storage tank which was originally supplied with a 28kW wall mounted boiler.
        I found it struggled to maintain an adequate heat delivery in cold weather even though it was running at its maximum efficiency of 75%.

        I devised an upgrade to meet improved performance and together with my chosen heating installer implemented a solution with a 40kW wall mounted boiler with a rapid transfer insulated hot water storage tank.

        The boiler may use more gas but it only takes half an hour to provide hot water needs for the whole day with plenty of reserve should the family visit. Latest rad stats also fitted with rapid heating profile until desired temperature in each room reached.

        Yes, replacing a gas boiler with an electric boiler is a total farce.

      1. Funny none of the others mentioned this. I’d have thought it would have hit the headlines ages ago.

    4. ‘Afternoon, Lewis, it will all boil down to his word against hers – uncorroborated evidence.

  45. Ex-PM David Cameron’s bodyguard ‘left gun in aeroplane toilet’

    A bodyguard for David Cameron is being investigated after he reportedly left his gun in a toilet on a transatlantic jet.
    A “terrified passenger” found the gun and gave it to staff on a British Airways flight from New York to London on Monday, according to the Daily Mail.
    As a former prime minister, Mr Cameron is entitled to continued security provided by the Metropolitan Police.
    The Met said the officer involved has been removed from operational duties.
    Mr Cameron’s team said it could not comment on security matters.
    The gun, believed to be a 9mm Glock 17 pistol, is said to have been left by a close-protection officer from the Met’s Specialist Protection unit, who took off his holster while in the toilet.
    Mr Cameron’s passport – and that of the officer – were found with the weapon, according to the Sun.
    A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “We are aware of the incident on a flight into the UK on February 3 and the officer involved has since been removed from operational duties.

      1. I am surprised that even the security services are allowed to take a loaded gun o a plane., Discharging it can be catastrophic

        A small hole in the fuselage would do no real harm but the fuselage is packed with control cable and fuel lines. Hit those and you are in trouble. Hit a window and you are in trouble

        2. El Al have armed guards on all of their flights. I’m told that the use of hollow-nose bullets largely obviates the risk. (Only illegal if used in war, btw.)

        3. Mythbusters did a test of that in a pressurised DC-9 some years ago. The bullet just made a hole – and there’s plenty in planes already (holes, that is).
          More likely he’d shoot a passenger or 2, the way they are packed in.

      2. A close protection officer to David Cameron left a loaded handgun in the loo on a transatlantic flight.

        Unsurprisingly, Cameron declined to do the decent thing.

        2. The cop had been talking to the Camerons for 10 minutes and went to the loo to blow his own brains out. Talked himself out of it and just forgot his Glock.

    2. I find it very worrying that a man who treats his sidearm in such a cavalier fashion was allowed to take his weapon aboard an ordinary civilian flight. An accidental discharge of a 9mm round not only would be a grave risk to passengers, it could certainly shatter a window, resulting in rapid and catastrophic depressurisation of the cabin.

      Come to think of it, I find it very worrying that such a numpty was ever authorised to carry a firearm at all.
      :¬(

    3. Keep up Bill. I posted that late last night and because it was late I posted it again at the start of today’s page.

  46. Nine protestors arrested at BP

    Police have arrested nine people after climate change protesters temporarily shut down BP headquarters in London on new boss Bernard Looney’s first day in office.

    More than 100 Greenpeace activists attempted to place 500 solar panels in front of BP’s office, blocking the building’s entrances with oil barrels.

    The people were “arrested for offences including aggravated trespass, highway obstruction and conspiracy to commit public nuisance and have been taken to police stations in central London”, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

      1. Afternoon M,
        At school we had a lad called
        called Percy Clatter ( hope he it still going strong) now he is
        either the meanest, toughest, critter in his neighbourhood, or he has gone the other way.

      1. If I can remember the classification and “target recognition” definitions;

        Greenpeace = Smelly Hippies, smack them about a bit and arrest them. Answers to “Swampy.”

        Extinction Rebellion = Nice smelling posh kids on larks, parents may be judges or politicians, speak gently to them and just request that they cease. Answers to the names Jocasta and Tarquin.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8f2d5532782c62955b8c7cb067873686487dfc7006d9d6d85deb6755beef63a.jpg

          2. Ndovu – Yes they are. I was referring to the children on the streets, gluing themselves to starbucks windows and protesting while eating from the picnic hamper and drinking glasses of wine. 🙂

            Many of these well meaning protest groups are being funded by the same people. Sadly, they have a very limited grasp on reality and do not see how they are being used. Just like those Gay Rights activists marching to defend islam… That most be the single worst example of being utterly stupid and suicidal that we have seen.

  47. Morning again

    SIR – I have just bought a new Canon printer for my computer for £29.99 from a local store. It comes with two standard ink cartridges. To replace these, the cheapest I have found (online) cost £33.50, post included.

    Perhaps, whenever I need to replace ink, I should buy a new printer, extract the inks and discard the hardware.

    Nigel Duncan

    Dunfermline, Fife

    1. This is an old complaint! Printer ink costs more than the most expensive Champagne. Cheaper just to buy a new printer every time!

    2. I bought a Canon printer/copier/scanner last week for £29.99 and was informed both by an advisor and the many notices stating, “Do not forget your ink,” that I required the additional purchase, at around £32, of a black and colour cartridge pack. On opening the printer box, lo and behold, there were cartridges required to run the printer. Close inspection of the printer’s box disclosed that the printer came with ink. I was a bit miffed that I had been given incorrect information but I’ve decided to keep the additional ink in readiness for making Christmas cards later this year. So far the printer has met all expectations and for less than £30.

    3. This is an old complaint! Printer ink costs more than the most expensive Champagne. Cheaper just to buy a new printer every time!

      2. Some years ago I owned a Canon printer. After a couple of years it went on strike. On the interweb I found reference to a built-in device that caused it to stop working after a period of time and/or a predetermined number of copies. Having downloaded and activated the remedy from the same website it carried on quite happily. Guess which manufacturer I now avoid like the plague?

      3. I am thinking of buying a printer with ink reservoirs which last until the ink is really exhausted. They are around £150 but will not stop working when the cartridge has counted its programmed number of copies. The machine comes with enough ink for 7000 copies apparently. Some online places are giving away printers, so its a matter of whether you want to go on buying carts. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07J5Q2YJY/?coliid=I1LHJXXFHY7C56&colid=27W01QRAVKB8F&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

        1. ‘Morning, Kaypea – that printer only prints in monochrome (black). If you want colour, which I do for the books I write and edit, it’ll cost £340

          https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075NDX63F/ref=sspa_dk_detail_1?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B075NDX63F&pd_rd_w=e3g24&pf_rd_p=1055d8b2-c10c-4d7d-b50d-96300553e15d&pd_rd_wg=7W04E&pf_rd_r=4PBCWXTYS8ANRF5QF362&pd_rd_r=62871205-22dc-412c-b916-5967ba75b80b&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFJOVFSM1lZNzZZNjImZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA4MzkzMDkxTENDUFc0Nlg4WTgwJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA3MTQzNjcxVjM0MEpPSUtOQ0g3JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

      4. I’ve always had Epson printers. I always find compatible cartridges online for a fraction the cost of Epson originals.

    4. I am already getting a collection of power drills, where the kit is cheaper than the batteries.

    5. We’re still using the old Epson printer we’ve had since 2004. The ink cartridges are still obtainable online. It’s no good for photo printing but still fine for text.

  48. SIR – Lord Carlile of Berriew, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation (report, February 4), and others (Letters, February 4) object to proposals by the Government to delay release of terrorists, on the grounds that they will eventually be let out to resume their activities anyway. They miss the point.

    Reducing the time available to terrorists to undertake terrorist activities will clearly reduce the number of crimes.

    If Lord Carlile is right that the danger is not reduced by longer sentences, then why impose sentences at all, since ultimately they do not protect us and presumably do not act as a deterrent? The alternative is for a sentence to remove the terrorist for the whole of his or her lifetime, which means either whole-life sentences or the death penalty, but I don’t hear Lord Carlile arguing for these.

    Tony Cox

    Redhill, Surrey

    SIR – Terrorism is commonly defined as the attempt to change people’s political views by the use or threat of violence. Terrorists, therefore, do not have to belong to a group; they may be lone wolves. This raises questions as to whether threats of violence during online political debates could also be defined as terrorism.

    Alan Nugent

    Brierley Hill, Staffordshire

    1. Terrorism is surely an expression of cultural diversity? They ought to dedicate prime time TV to it, and monitor and enforce Equality quotas and targets.

      1. They should be gaoled for life; purely to protect them from the evil influence of western culture, of course.

    3. SIR – Terrorism is a period of armed hostility, as is war. A prisoner of war’s early release is subject to an individual’s health, otherwise detention is imposed until the conflict ceases. Why are terrorists not treated as prisoners of war?

      Ivor Knight

      Southsea, Hampshire

      SIR – Terrorism is an act against the state; it is perpetrated by zealots seeking religious hegemony in the Christian West through violence against innocent members of the British public. Such action can be deemed only as treason. It follows that punishment should be correspondingly harsh.

      However, death sentences would create symbols of martyrdom and simply encourage more attacks. Lifetime incarceration could be a more appropriate sentence. This might also mean that British Muslims could go about their lives normally and without fear of misplaced retribution.

      Brian Weatherley

      Salisbury, Wiltshire

      1. I think the time has come to limit Muslim immigration and for the removal of the defence that protects faith when that faith is aggressive violent and cruel not in its excesses but in its essentials. Why import people whose aim is to convert to kill?

        1. As I have suggested over and over the only reason muslims have expanded their territory is to avenge the slaughter carried out by the crusaders.
          There are no islamic terrosim incidents in the countries of South America.
          Not that they would last long if they turned up to try it on.
          Collectively our european political classes are stupid.
          It is not possible to educate or use kindness or appeasement, to even attempt to alter the minds set in stone of such people.
          Even wearing face and head covers and middle eastern male apparel is part of their ongoing program. And of course our liberals and leftards are aiding and abbeting the wedge driving process.
          It’s back to the drawing board I’m afraid, as happened in the 13 century.
          They don’t fit in with western societies.

          1. Whilst I think that you are on the right track in some areas, the overriding intention of “pure islam” is the conversion of all non-believers on the whole planet to islam. It is a nice bonus for them that being in Europe they can kill Christians and Jews because they can be thin on the ground in some of their home countries, and many of them are armed over there. There are also lots of churches here that can be burned / destroyed as well. We have seen what their followers did to to the ruins in Palmyra and those Buddhist statutes. They will attack anywhere.

            “There are no islamic terrorism incidents in the countries of South America.”

            This is a slight error, but it is completely understandable. Our biased media tries to downplay the attacks that we have here, so it is no surprise at all that they do not bring up old attacks from 30 years ago. The following page is for information only, it is not meant as a criticism of your comment. The more information that we all have about how widespread this threat is, and how long it has been going on the better. 🙂 (Welcome to the page by the way.)

            “1992 attack on Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
            The attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was a suicide bombing attack on the building of the Israeli embassy of Argentina, located in Buenos Aires, which was carried out on 17 March 1992. 29 civilians were killed in the attack and 242 additional civilians were injured.

            The attack
            On 17 March 1992, at 2:42 pm (UTC−3), a pick-up truck driven by a suicide bomber and loaded with explosives smashed into the front of the Israeli Embassy located on the corner of Arroyo and Suipacha, and detonated. The embassy, a Catholic church, and a nearby school building were destroyed. Four Israelis died, but most of the victims were Argentine civilians, many of them children. The blast killed 29 and wounded 242. It was Argentina’s deadliest terror attack until the 1994 AMIA bombing and it remains the deadliest attack on an Israeli diplomatic mission.

            A group called Islamic Jihad Organization, which has been linked to Iran and possibly Hezbollah, claimed responsibility; their stated motive for the attack was Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayed Abbas al-Musawi in February 1992. Islamic Jihad also released surveillance footage they took of the embassy before the blast.”

            So the followers of this cult are after everyone in all countries.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_attack_on_Israeli_embassy_in_Buenos_Aires

          2. Interestingand enlightening MM, I had long forgotten those incidents. Thanks for taking the time to add your comment.
            Have you read the book by Terry Hayes called I Am Pilgrim ?
            I was chatting to some friends the other day about the recent outbreak of the virus in China.
            Someone suggested that due to the way China had been treating muslims in recent years it could be a manufactured virus.
            One can never tell. And I’m sure if it was the case, the truth would have to be suppressed.

        2. I went down town yesterday. I found it quite frightening! Even the White Faces didn’t speak English!

        3. Morning E,
          You are flying in the face of the submission /
          PCism / Appeasement brigade.
          Mr Gerard Batten ex leader of UKIP warned of the dangers of islamic ideology & continues to warn of the dangers of islamic ideology rhetorically & in book form since 2005,only to be castigated and tagged as a far right racist along with many of his supporters.

      2. ‘Morning, Epi. As I said yesterday, I am willing to take my chances with a terrorist martyr, rather than keeping the barsteward alive for many decades at our expense.

        1. Morning HJ,
          Why would we feel obliged to keep it within our borders ?
          Day of release deport it
          along with family, close friends to country of origin, return to sender.

          2. Afternoon Anne,
            Really we could have the fingerprints / DNA
            of everyone on the planet but the terrorist cares little when his torso is pebble dashing the pavement and his arse is allah bound along with many innocents.
            Either jail or same day deportation, no half measures.
            Half measures, submission, PCISM, Appeasement, ALL
            killers.

      3. “…death sentences would create symbols of martyrdom and simply encourage more attacks.”

        That is applicable to an innocent population under oppression and facing violence and death. Such as those Jews who fought back in desperation because there was no other choice, and doing nothing led to the train journey and the showers. The followers of islam in our countries are under no such pressure and can leave freely at any time. Instead of leaving they are choosing to come here in their hundreds of thousands, for reasons that are becoming increasingly obvious.

        The risk of creating more martyrs does not apply to those who want to be martyrs in the first place. In islam, being killed while attacking the enemy gives these individuals “bonus points” in the afterlife and a guaranteed free entrance to heaven, no matter how unclean they have been here on Earth. Which is why they like wearing false suicide belts, because they desperately want to die in the act.

        These attacks will happen anyway. The best thing that we can do is to remove those who believe in these fairy-tales. Or at least let the word go out that they will be buried in such a way that getting into their version of heaven is impossible for them. This will use up a lot of deceased pigs, but will be a strong deterrent against coming here to murder the innocent.

      4. Are we still worrying about St. Catherine? Once she’d invented an erratically performing firework, she dropped out of popular ken.

  49. Lego to turn all its bricks ‘green’ by 2030 as company develops sugar cane and wood alternatives to plastic. 4 February 2020.

    Lego wants all its bricks to be made from sustainable materials within a decade, the company said on Tuesday. The Danish toy giant hopes to have all its bricks and figurines manufactured from sustainable plastic made from materials such as wood or sugar cane by 2030.

    Good old Lego. It’s going to chop all the trees down and then clear the scrub and plant Sugar Cane which requires a sub-tropical climate with plentiful water supplies and which is harvested by first burning the fields! Of course the workers will welcome the fatalities that accompany cane harvesting by hand!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/04/lego-turn-bricks-green-2030-companys-develops-sugar-cane-wood/

    1. Ordinary people are rightly concerned over the latest infection coming out of China but do not seem overly concerned with the already widespread infection that is affecting our elites i.e. CO2itis. A debilitating disease that quickly erases all rational thought and which real science doesn’t seem to have a cure for.

      1. Morning Korky. If it weren’t such an inherently impossible idea I would suggest that the Human Race is going collectively crackers!

    2. Robert Spowart
      5 Feb 2020 8:47AM
      Plagiarised from another place:-

      “Good old Lego. It’s going to chop all the trees down and then clear the scrub and plant Sugar Cane which requires a sub-tropical climate with plentiful water supplies and which is harvested by first burning the fields! Of course the workers will welcome the fatalities that accompany cane harvesting by hand!”

    3. Morning all.
      By that ‘wonderful’ but rather token gesture, we can suppose in order to be carbon neutral, that all road vehicles aircraft shipping and all other forms of transport will made from recycled products.
      Next objective,….. to invent the wheel.

        2. Give them old-fashioned wooden blocks, as they are posh and entitled… oh, wait…

    5. I don’t think children will be happy if all the bricks are green – they like the variety of colours.

      1. That plantation model is a marketing idea of the calibre of the sadly rejected “My Little Pony Abattoir and Pie Factory.”

    7. Not satisfied with inflicting excrutiating pain do they now want to ensure infection and sepsis through contaminated splinters when one steps on the bricks in bare feet?

  50. Military personnel at freshers’ fair could hurt people’s mental health, warns Cambridge student union

    Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of the British Forces in Afghanistan, labelled the motion as ‘pathetic, to say the very least’

    OK.

    Let me get my head around this.

    Cambridge University Nonentities and Twats’ Union [a.k.a CUNTS Union] is made up of delicate little flowers and snowflakes who don’t want nasty soldier-woldiers with their gunny-wunnys on their campus!

    Yet the very same TWATS that make up the CUNTS union are fully behind moves to ‘no platform’ any speaker who dares to disagree with their mob logic.

    And

    They vocally support “diversity” and welcome the influx into the country of those who wish to stab, shoot, axe, maim and kill UK citizens for no other reason than they are non-Muslim.

    It would seem that their mental health is only affected by British people doing British things. OK, let’s make them happier. Let’s shepherd them into a squadron of C130s, fly them over Mogadishu, and drop them out by parachute. That will delight them beyond belief.

    We could then replace them at University with intelligent British-minded Britons who have a genuine desire to learn.

    Sorted!

        2. ‘Afternoon, J, if they were forced to do National Service – for two years – they would eventually, as the Australians say, “Harden the f*** up.”

          Apologies for the language but I must speak as I find.

      2. The last thing that we need at this stage of the invasion is National Service and have the followers of islam who are “British” being trained how to shoot their weapons with any accuracy. Far better to let them adopt the current methods that we see from time to time on the TV. When they stop smiling and pour out of the mosques they will run out of ammunition within 24 hours. We can then bury our 3 casualties.

        Then it will be hand to hand fighting against some very angry British people, and many of those of us who have picked up some firearms by then will know how to shoot straight. You do sometimes get followers of islam who know how to shoot, but you do not want to improve their skills to the level of the British Army.

        (We have trained many already… That was short sighted.)

    2. My response using Best Beloved’s sign in:

      “judith ewing
      5 Feb 2020 7:11AM
      Poor little snowflakes – who will they look to, to keep them safe in the event of war? The mad, common purpose Dons and Professors?

    3. Back in the pre-Blair days only the UK’s top 5-7% had the necessary intellectual horsepower to get to “uni”, there were one or two oddballs but on the whole I believe they enriched our civilisation , the extra 43% that have been added since are the children that have been indoctrinated in the none shall lose and are always right ethos and as far as I have observed in Bristol (UWE) spend most of their time in either a state of drink and drug hazed bemusement or a state of holier than thou permanent snowflakery outrage.

      1. Didn’t it start prior to Blair? Major was the one who converted all the polytechnics into “universities”.

        1. It was Bliar who wanted to massage the unemployment figures by sending 50% of young people to “Uni”.

          “Educashun, educashun, educashun”. Many of those young people with degrees who darkened my desk at the JobCentre could barely fill in the forms.

        3. Yes – you’re right , a quick check tells me the rot started with the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992 – under the Major government, my sincere apologies to Mr Blair for maligning him ( in this matter alone)

          1. Don’t worry yourself too much, Blair can take his share of the blame after his pronouncement of Educashun! Educashun! Educashun!

      2. I bought my house from a chap who had been a lecturer in ‘philosophy’ at Middlesex Polytechnic. He took the lightbulbs.

        He went from being a mere Poly lecturer on a basic salary to become the Vice Chancellor of the new University of Derby with a wedge in excess of six figures. He now owns a valley in Derbyshire.

        1. I wonder if he would choke on the following “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit”?

        2. Multiply that by the number of ex-tech colleges and polys that Major encouraged to become ‘unis’ under the 1992 act and you begin to understand the magnitude of the problem.

      3. While many of the people who post on my old school (which closed in ’86) Facebook page were in the C stream, left at age 15 and have actually done very well for themselves.

    1. I gave three interviews to continental journos while on Brexit demos (German, Danish and French). All very good-natured, but perhaps that’s just me.

    2. What is the point of this shrivelled up, unfunny, gobby little dwarf? Is he related to John Bercow?

      Or Colin Moynihan, or John Selwyn Gummer, or Oliver Letwin, or any other stunted wanker nonentity?

          2. According to my avatar, I’m a triangular border-stone on the Belgo-German frontier. Or maybe I’m the fire hydrant sign.

          3. My avatar is a 1963 Sindy doll. 12 inches tall, hollow plastic, with Made in England stamped in to the back of her neck.

    3. Irrespective of Pie’s politics he makes some very important points especially the one at the very end about the appalling state of journalism in the UK today.

    1. I can’t see that there is any chance of reforming Islam. Certainly not in the manner that most people in the West would interpret ‘reform’ as meaning.

      1. Afternoon C,
        Then why is it, via the polling booth, encouraged to flourish , and in parliament sworn by ?

      2. Islam never has had, and never will have, the concept of ‘turning the other cheek’. It is all about submission, and taking revenge for perceived slights to its ‘prophet’.

    2. “A corruption of that belief”.
      Really,…. every where they are on the planet there’s trouble centered around the religion of peace.

        2. Somalia, and now parts of South Africa.
          Egypt where Christians have been murdered.
          There were riots a few years ago 2005 in a Sydney suburb ( i think it’s called Cronulla) where Lebanese muslim men were atacking life guards who were protecting young females from harrasment on beaches.
          The local lads stepped in and stopped it.
          It goes on where ever they are.

          1. I was taking a taxi to Sydney airport, 2015(?) and the taxi driver was a Lebanese Christian. He was ranting about Muslim males entering “his” part of town.
            He claimed that any Muslim who come in was required to be out by dusk or they would be beaten up and chucked out. He said they had had a lot of problems with “grooming”.
            I’m not sure how they can tell that any random male is a Muslim, but he was very aggressive over it.

          2. At risk of being repetitive Sos. ….every where they are they cause trouble.
            By the way it’s cheaper and quicker on the train from Sydney to the airport.

          3. Indeed and as to the airport ride, that depends very much on where you start from.

            And with two large suitcases and hand luggage, bus, bus, bus and train isn’t worth the savings.

          4. We were luckily close to the railway station and short walk from our hotel. But I did struggle with our suitcases. The lift was out of order.

    3. Head, sand. They just fail to get it don’t they.
      Please don’t reply, ogga, with the lib/lab/con bit we all know were you stand on that.

      1. Afternoon Atg,
        If “we all know” then surely the voting pattern would change
        unless peoples are for condoning the governance parties actions.

        1. I was not suggesting the whole country read your posts but was referring to the people who regularly visit this blog. It just becomes a bit tedious.

          1. Atg,
            Then I do not know what to suggest, would not like to see you go but maybe new pastures are calling, or try interspersing each of my comments with a drink, at evening end you could be p!st off totally or totally p!st.
            Stay in touch if more help is needed.

          3. Alf_the_Great – You are a brave man to make a comment there. 🙂 Even a single reply places you on a slippery slope that leads you to an unending cascade of obviousness and deliberate misunderstanding. Almost always ending with a question to draw you even further in.

            Alice encountered more sanity as she tumbled down the rabbit hole.

          4. Yes I know. Doing the same thing over again expecting a different result.
            I do it out hope rather than expectation.

    4. The brush off answer given was I believe recognition that if the government tried to get to the root of the problem as suggested by the Noble Lord, they would told precisely where to go in precisely two words.

        1. And he gets away with it because, as he says in this clip, he has the right accent. Those that don’t, get called racist, etc.

          1. Ims,
            As with Gerard Batten an everyday blokes bloke, credited with being a far right racist as with many of us, by easy led fools & political treachery merchants.

      1. Any initiative to drastically reduce the human population of this planet should be the No. 1 priority for the species.

        Homo cretinus, the modern-day counterpart of H. sapiens is hell-bent on self-destruction as an adjunct to its ongoing and determined campaign for total environmental and biodiversity annihilation.

    2. Welby is obviously not a Christian – he is a Moslem who is trying to hasten the arrival of the Caliphate in Britain by destroying the Church.

    4. Lent is about self-denial. The Christian thing to do is to refrain from using the lavatory for forty days.

      Seems to me that Archbishop Welby adheres to this particular form of mortification of the flesh, since he is full of shit.

      1. Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space.

        1. Hey, Philip, would you believe this?

          Dictionary.com sends me a “new” word every day. Today’s word was philippic noun [fil-ip-ik], any speech or discourse of bitter denunciation.

          Wow. That’s as mind-blowing as monkey nuts in space! :•)

      2. There was an article in the Daily Express 3 years ago about the Voyager probe and how far away it was, and the journalist mixed up miles with light-years. I tried to put that gigantic distance into a frame of reference in the comments section but it was so large that I couldn’t. So I went to different websites to get the figures, turned on the calculator, and realised why my brain had baulked at the scale.

        That distance in light years was 13 times the width of the observable Universe. Not our galaxy, the entire Universe. That must be one of the biggest harmless accidental errors in scale ever made. I tried to find the page, but there are too many others there on space to dig it out. It did lead on to another question in the comments about sending probes to the stars, and the calculator was used again.

        When Voyager passed the theoretical boundary of our solar system it was travelling at 11 miles a second. If we could build a probe and accelerate it up to that speed, and aimed it towards Alpha Centauri, then it would take 77,000 years to get there. That is the star that is usually defined as the closest one to us, apart from our own. At 11 miles a second… That gives an indication of the scale. 🙂

        So if we don’t invent warp drives, jump drives or wormhole technology, we will be restricted to our own solar system for quite a while. Although it should be big enough for us to pass the time while we invent interstellar travel, if it is possible at all.

        1. Dazzlingly mind-blowing. The Alpha Centauri system is the nearest one to our solar system but it is the small star, Proxima Centauri, within that system which is the nearest actual star to us.

          4. Which is why I just said Alpha Centauri is “usually defined.” I knew the difference but thought that the comment was long enough as it was. 🙂

        2. “Although it should be big enough for us to pass the time while we invent interstellar travel, if it is possible at all.”

          Not if XR and all those leftists get there way. No one will be going anywhere, unless it’s to escape.

      3. There was an article in the Daily Express 3 years ago about the Voyager probe and how far away it was, and the journalist mixed up miles with light-years. I tried to put that gigantic distance into a frame of reference in the comments section but it was so large that I couldn’t. So I went to different websites to get the figures, turned on the calculator, and realised why my brain had baulked at the scale.

        That distance in light years was 13 times the width of the observable Universe. Not our galaxy, the entire Universe. That must be one of the biggest harmless accidental errors in scale ever made. I tried to find the page, but there are too many others there on space to dig it out. It did lead on to another question in the comments about sending probes to the stars, and the calculator was used again.

        When Voyager passed the theoretical boundary of our solar system it was travelling at 11 miles a second. If we could build a probe and accelerate it up to that speed, and aimed it towards Alpha Centauri, then it would take 77,000 years to get there. That is the star that is usually defined as the closest one to us, apart from our own. At 11 miles a second… That gives an indication of the scale. 🙂

        So if we don’t invent warp drives, jump drives or wormhole technology, we will be restricted to our own solar system for quite a while. Although it should be big enough for us to pass the time while we invent interstellar travel, if it is possible at all.

          1. Transition again into a John Dory and I’ll grill you, drench you in lime juice and butter, and eat you with chips. :•)

    2. They will get some abuse for even this craven attempt at appeasement. How dare they remotely hint that a black person could be a monster, even if the book does have “Frankenstein” on the cover.

        1. Even books written with black characters shown in a good light are considered racist because they were written by a white person.

    4. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am sick to death of these fake celebratory months. I would like to say I don’t care, but it’s become such a nauseating, in-your-face, virtue-signalling bandwagon, that where I was completely ok with whatever race or sexual-orientation anyone is, now I want them gone, out of my life, preferably to Mars or somewhere even further, so I don’t have to see or hear about them ever again.

  57. DT Story

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/02/04/lawyer-spent-night-drunk-female-colleague-escaped-ban-one/

    Lawyer who spent the night with drunk female colleague escaped ban because it was a ‘one off’
    Ryan Beckwith’s judgement “had been affected by the amount of alcohol he had consumed”, a tribunal found

    As far as I can see both the man and the woman were drunk and the sex was consensual.

    The man may have escaped a ban but surely it is sexist for the man to have his photograph in the newspaper and to suffer severe financial penalties and lose his job while the woman escapes with her identity in tact and with no penalties.

    Does this mean that a woman should, because she is a woman, escape the consequences if she drives a car and has an accident when she is drunk?

    1. Precisely.
      And if ‘Ryan the lawyer’ had been ‘Ryan the forklift driver’, the book would have been thrown at him.

      1. Presumably the forklift driver is very adept in certain positions when time is pressing.

      1. The man obviously did not suffer from one of the problems of drinking too much identified by Macbeth’s Porter and now commonly referred to as Brewer’s Droop:

        ….lechery, sir, it provokes and unprovokes. It provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance. Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery. It makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

        2. Rastus, quoting Shakespeare at me will most likely ruin your chances of replacing Alastair Thingummy on television news. How dare you equate me with a sheep!?!?!

          :-))

  58. The Government must get emergency terror legislation passed by February 27 to prevent the automatic release of convicted terrorists

  59. Local MP reveals Extinction Rebellion left 20 TONNES of rubbish on the streets

    Local authorities had to pick up 20 tonnes of rubbish from the streets following the protests by Extinction Rebellion last year, the local MP told LBC.
    Cities of London and Westminster MP Nickie Aiken told Nick Ferrari that during just the Trafalgar Square demonstration on just one night, six tonnes of rubbish was left.

    Ms Aiken was appearing on LBC to support Nick Ferrari’s Enough Is Enough campaign, which is urging the government to give police more power to halt protests which will cause serious public disorder.

    She told Nick: “The clean-up cost would have been in the hundreds of thousands.
    “I can tell you exactly that we picked up 20 tonnes of rubbish left behind by Extinction Rebellion protesters during their time here. But also on one night, when they were camping in Trafalgar Square, six tonnes of rubbish.

    “So there is that knock-on effect for local authorities, who don’t get the extra money. Westminster Council have to absorb that and it means that they have to take services away from people and businesses.”

    3. What the hell is a “TONNE”? Is that some ridiculous EU weight?

      We’re British, we use TONS (i.e. 2,240lbs, or 160 st, or 80 qr, or 20cwt).

    1. You are right about that, but being a Labour M.P. the biggest problem would be the body odour.

    2. “Well it is not really appropriate wear for business”

      Oh I dunno …… rather depends on what kind of business one’s in.

    4. Judging by what the other people were wearing at the ‘music event’, namely tee-shirts and jeans, she was overdressed for that occasion as well.

    6. Nothing at all to do with sexism. If a male MP had turned up dressed like that, he’d have been pilloried too.

    7. She was called among other things ‘a slapper’. Bit cruel i thought but fitting. Unlike her dress sense.

    10. Quite frankly, it Slapper Wear regardless of time or place.
      And talking of time – she’s pushing 60.

    1. Mr Bramwell was filmed at the event saying: “Extinction Rebellion is the spirit of our age. It contains absolutely every dichotomy and absolutely every flaw and beauty that our present society encapsulates. It is white-supremacist, it is racist. It is also very very beautiful and there is incredible people doing incredible work within the organisation. It is also deeply deeply patriarchal and people like Roger Hallam completely and utterly 100 percent exemplify that patriarchy”

      You know that he’s a nutter after reading this drivel!

      1. So, Mr White Supremacist Bramwell, how come you have appointed yourself as the “spokesman”? Surely that’s racist.

        Nutter.

        1. Amazing. I’ve never seen so many white people involved in a demonstration. How and why can this be, I ask myself?

          1. Not as individuals. It will interesting to see if LE actually reduces as the current middle age generation die earlier from over-eating and unhealthy lifestyles like veganism.

    1. There is someone there called “LSW1” and I was almost tempted to open a fake twitter account to answer her unbelievably stupid comment. Then I remembered that is the tactic of left wing trolls. To make knowingly stupid comments to draw people into pointless discussion just to waste our time. Her question was:

      “I have been told over and over again that the UK sold it’s fishing rights years ago, so how can we take something back that we don’t own?”

      The answer is obvious as it was part of the deal when we joined what became the EU, now that we are leaving the waters become ours again. Then when I looked at her panda avatar I realised what she was as she identifies herself as: “J.Woke, Anti-Zionist.” There is no talking to those people online.

      (Edit: I am not defending extremist Zionism either. The point is neither do most of the Jews. Not in the way that LSW1 would define it.)

  64. Is the BBC worth its £154.50 licence fee a year due to rise to £157.50.?
    The BBC’S plan to scrap its TV licence for pensioners aged over-75 has been blasted by campaigners and MPs over the last few weeks.

    I was happy to pay the licence fee for BBC4 enjoying history, politics, music, art programmes, and looking forward to
    Life Drawing Class Live 8pm. Having attempted life drawing with our local art group.
    However after two hours I’d had enough….this was then followed by repeats of ‘This Life’ if anyone was still awake….

    Come on Aunty pull your socks up…

    1. Have any of you any idea how much £154.50 is, to an OAP on a basic pension with a few thousand quid in the bank (so no benefits) who wonders what they will do in a few years time when the money runs out ? Admittedly, they have lived too long, but while they continue to breathe they are unlikely to vote Conservative at the next election.This is one thing that Boris must put right.
      The increase is a slap in the face to everyone.

  65. Er ” Lib / Lab / Con ”

    Wonder how many times that’s been said today, hey Mr Silverback Ape.

    1. Afternoon A,
      Their governance input has been a beacon for treachery, deceit, lies & political dishonesty for many a year
      for ALL to see, who want to see.
      Do you not agree ?

          1. It was just a mischievous hello, Mr Silverback Ape,
            I’ve known you for 15 years or so. It wasn’t taking a pop,
            apologies if you saw it that way .

  66. Apols. if this is repetition – I’m only on briefly at the moment and don;t catch up with all that has gone before.

    Just sharing a good article – Professor Anthony Coughlan, Emeritus Professor of Trinity College Dublin, explains how Boris Johnson’s election victory in December 2019 shocked the Irish Establishment and media into stunned silence. For three and a half years they blithely assumed that Brexit could be reversed. Only now is the reality of the UK leaving the EU sinking in.

    To be honest, I think that Varadkhar (sp?) has been so bouyed up by the EU, that he has been unforgivable in forgetting the Republic’s bail-out by the UK not so long ago. Hopefully his days will be over in a couple of days time.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/the-reality-of-brexit-is-finally-hitting-home-in-ireland/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=INDEPENDENCE+Daily+Newsletter1

    1. Comment btw: “Ireland can’t leave the EU! No, no, no – and just to make sure, Ireland are replacing their population so voters vote the right way in future (unlike 2002 and 2009).”

      Discussing Ireland’s upcoming election:
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aXAPH_Vgq5s

      An Interview with Philip Dwyer, National Party Candidate #GE2020
      Computing Forever (Dave Cullen)

      It’s 27 mins long, but very interesting to listen to, if only to hear the parallels with UK politics.

  67. Photography firm Jessops closes down last Kent store in Canterbury

    They have been quietly closing down stores for a few months I think over 20 branchs have been closed down

    Stunned staff at a city camera shop were sent home jobless just hours after arriving for work.
    The six employees at Jessops in Canterbury were handed redundancy letters before the store was immediately dismantled ahead of its unceremonious closure.

    1. What’s a camera ? Oh, yes, I had one once. It was a politically correct one. It was called a Kodak Brownie.

      1. Kodak once the world leader in point and shoot cameras. Almost went bust a few years ago went bust. They are now almost out of the camera market. Ilford have done no better. They were still around as niche supplier of black and white film & photographic papers

        1. I did some work at the Kodak hq a few years ago. My what a dreary place, they were deep into cost cutting, many lights had been removed making the place dark and even the lights in the vending machine had been disabled.

    2. Jessop of Leicester have closed down more than once over the past two decades, only to be rescued, time and again by different organisations.

      Snap Equity, Peter Jones (of Dragon’s Den) and Morrison’s supermarkets variously rescuing the brand.

  69. Britain cannot ignore the desperate plight of persecuted Christians in Africa

    Article by Edward Leigh in today’s DT

    I am sorry Mr Leigh but I disagree with you. Our repulsive politicians can and will do that very thing

  70. Bull-runner is sent flying through the air at Spanish festival before the rampaging beast gores him and stamps on his head, leaving him badly injured. Mail. 5 February 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6fdb3bb6fcc40679dbcaee03b06bd3da4bde38b7652ca735fb23577394e2bc7f.jpg

    The 56-year-old was flipped up in the air by the rampaging half-tonne beast, who then skewered and kicked him in the head after falling from metal railings in Benaocaz, Cádiz, at around 5pm on Sunday.

    Oh dear! How sad!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7968681/Bull-runner-sent-flying-air-Spanish-festival.html

    2. “The 56-year-old was flipped up in the air by the rampaging half-tonne beast, who then skewered and kicked him in the head after falling from metal railings in Benaocaz, Cádiz, at around 5pm on Sunday.”

      This sentence makes no sense. The rampaging half-tonne beast fell from metal railings? What was it doing on the railings? Lying in wait for any passing stranger, so it could pounce on the unexpecting?

    5. Shame it didn’t disembowel the twat (and a few hundred more of the scum for good measure).

  76. Coronavirus: NHS orders ‘assessment pods’ for every hospital

    Every hospital in England is being asked to create “priority assessment pods” for patients with suspected coronavirus, the NHS has said.
    Patients who are concerned they may have the virus are still advised to isolate themselves and call 111.
    But the contingency measure is intended to prevent any patients who do arrive at hospital from mixing with vulnerable patients.
    The secure areas are expected to be introduced this month.

    1. So they will be located outside A&E entrances? Not if what happened with the unprotected coach drivers is any guide.

        1. “The problem hospitals face is where to create these pods. There is not lots of spare space on many sites to house coronavirus patients and building separate facilities may not be practical”.

          1. That’s easily solved.
            Put them in any hospital car park and charge the patients the equivalent fees for occupying that number of car parking spaces.

            They might well make a huge profit.

    4. I do not understand this eyebrow thing. I have seen perfectly sensible woman in their sixties emerge with newly (and scary) tattooed eyebrows. Fat eyebrows and fat lips…. whatever next?

  80. I won’t be here in 2050, but what’s going to happen when the northern hemisphere needs air con to survive. And how can a person hope to drink a favourite tipple or cocktail with out ice ?
    We’re all doomed.

  81. Government in race against time to bring in new terror legislation before the end of Feb ?
    Don’t want to go into Tommy Robinson mode might very well upset the finally tuned submissive,PC,
    Appeasement brigade.

    1. Don’t worry, the legislation will only affect white people that complain about grooming gangs and street attacks.

      1. Evening B3,
        These grooming gangs and street attacks are not a new issue
        they have been going on for years, these governance parties do NOT seem up to the mark when it comes to protection of the peoples in general & really noticeable especially among the very young.
        The cover up of 16 plus years regarding rotherham & mass paedophilia brought into play by mass uncontrolled immigration parties. ( Jay report)
        I do ask who in their right mind especially if they have children
        would support & vote for a mass uncontrolled unchecked immigration party ?

    2. Let’s hope the political classes spend a bit of time in a few pubs before the set up the legislation.
      They might actually learn something useful.

    3. Is he taking time off from the “Palestinian Campaign for the Academic
      and Cultural Boycott of Israel”?

    1. Why is this suddenly news? I’ve been reading for years that these turbine blades can’t be recycled and are destined for land-fill.

      The media must have been aware, but ignored it.

      1. Evening B,
        Nobody in the political / media hierarchy are going to put down a good scam as like the eu, it has seen them all profiting for years.
        Of late scams are taking a hit, truth popping up all over, past time the governance parties were seriously checked out & rated
        as to what benefit they have proved to be over the last four decades.

    3. 10s of thousands seems an awful lot of redundant blades already. What is the life span of a blade and what is the life span of the turbine?. The truth about turbine cost/ benefit is now becoming clearer.

      1. Evening C,
        A great many things are becoming clearer especially when peoples can bring themselves to look.
        Others that seek out & point out what needs looking at closely
        are promptly deemed to be tagged far right racist, and many too feared to look closely join in the condemnation.

    1. Wikipedia re the 2016 election –

      “As the Republican presidential nomination race went into the primaries
      season, Romney had not endorsed anyone but was one of the Republican
      establishment figures who were becoming increasingly concerned about the
      front-runner status of New York businessman Donald Trump.[402] Romney publicly criticized Trump for not releasing his taxes, saying there might be a “bombshell” in them.[403] Trump responded by calling Romney “one of the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics.”[402] Then Romney gave a speech on March 3, 2016, at the Hinckley Institute of Politics,
      that represented a scathing attack on Trump’s personal behavior,
      business performance, and domestic and foreign policy stances. He said
      Trump was “a phony, a fraud … He’s playing members of the American
      public for suckers” and that “If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as
      our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly
      diminished.”[404][405] In response Trump dismissed Romney as a “choke artist”

  86. UK government hints BBC licence fee could be scrapped

    Culture minister Nicky Morgan hinted on Wednesday that the annual BBC licence fee on Britain’s television-watching households could be scrapped after the next review of its royal charter, as crunch funding talks with the broadcaster near.
    The possibility of losing guaranteed licence fee money comes at a time when the 100-year-old BBC is under attack on several fronts ranging from accusations of extravagant spending to political bias.
    “The licence fee will remain in place this charter period which ends in December 2027, however we must all be open-minded about the future of the licence fee beyond this point,” Morgan said.

    1. I will be a nonagenarian by 2028. Or dead. If that’s the best she can do, come back Mr Corbyn, all is forgiven.
      Free viewing for the over-75s to continue , or you will live to regret it. Baby, it’s cold outside.

      1. The current fee is set till 2022 so there’ll be a review then. However, the government could decriminalise non-payment?

        1. They have already said that they are to do that. Not much help, as it is even easier to thow a court order for non-payment at someone. A nice way to treat impoverished(nearly) old people.

      2. I would not go so far as to welcome Corbyn, but I agree in your thoughts of Johnson and his goverments performance so far.
        It is not looking good, only turning out as I and many more expected. As they say down here, “like the barber’s cat, all wind and pi$$”

        1. Not just Johnson. Memories are short, but the propaganda that old people were rich now because they owned their houses and all had pensions was all over the media. (“You silly old bugger, all you have to do pay the fee is sell a few bricks”).
          In some countries, old people are respected.Over her, they are an irritant and a curse.

          1. We know how we compare with pensions, and we all know what pitiful interest rates we are getting on any savings we have built up over a lifetime working.
            Truth be told we don’t count, in their minds we bring nothing to the table, as you say an irritant and curse in the minds of the PTB.
            I expect nothing less mind, I just get fed up watching the trough feeders gorge themselves whilst the man (and woman) in the street gets sh**t upon.
            Blair, Brown, Cameron, May and Johnson, a pox on you all. I understand why revolutions come about.

    1. There are political shake-ups all over the world. It’s getting so exciting that the media don’t even have to invent stuff.

  88. A final note for today. NHS hospitals have been asked to set up “pods’ to quarantine suspected cases of coronavirus. So how it works is that people who feel ill, go to the A&E and present themselves at reception. They are then told to take a seat. They then wait for four hours, breathing the same air as a couple of dozen other people, until a doctor can take look at them. Oh, that’ll work.

    How about setting up completely separate clinics in empty out of town units? If you are being serious…

  89. Well, I have a dreadful virus at the moment and I am hoping it’s not the C one. Jeez, what a stinker.

          1. Good evening.

            Controlled breathing and deep breaths help. If i didn’t do that i would be crashing my supermarket trolley into everyone blocking the aisle. :o)

    2. Was up at Dr. daughter’s at weekend helping her move to Carlisle for the next phase of her training and got home yesterday to find the Dearly Tolerant suffering from an ear infection that’s knocked the stuffing out of her.

  90. After Iowa, Donald Trump looks invincible. Freddy Gray. 5 February 2020

    It’s easy to see why Trump might think that the Almighty is on side. Standing behind the President, Nancy Pelosi, the -Democratic Speaker of the House, tore up her copy of Trump’s speech — an act that summed up her party’s impotent rage at his success. The video will be used in Republican attack ads for the rest of the year. The party of Pelosi feels cursed. The President just got impeached, yet it’s the Democrats who find themselves in hell.

    Yes they are cursed by their own stupidity! Had they followed the path of reason and accepted their defeat in 2016 and sought to find out why they would now be sitting confidently waiting for their man to step into the White House next year. What they did instead was to begin a Witch Hunt that has achieved nothing except the denigration of American Politics. The Steele Dossier, the Impeachment Lies, the Russian Trolls were all fantasies dreamed up by the apparatchiks of the Democratic Party. They are the ones who have guaranteed Trumps second term!

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/after-iowa-donald-trump-looks-invincible/

    1. Just as Jean-Claude Juncker was the man who guaranteed Brexit.

      If he had given Cameron even the most minor concessions to take back to the British electorate then the British would have undoubtedly voted to stay in the EU.

      Should there not be a statue of him on the top of a column in Trafalgar Square?

    1. Excellent, I’m not particularly a fan, of Trump. But all the same an absolutely excellent outcome.

  94. Goodnight everyone, I am to sink into my warm feather duvet
    and go to sleep by moonlight.

      1. So do you say things so nicely from your beautiful
        soul. Goodnight and sweet dreams.
        The moon and her shards of diamonds lighting up
        the midnight sky whilst the stars sparkle like heavens poetry .

      1. It would have been front page news a few decades ago . now the national press dont even mention it

        1. I live in a beautiful little village and we had a shooting here just last year and one a few months before in a neighbouring vilage. I have lived here nearly 50 years and not so much as a neighbourly discord – then shootings! My goodness.

    2. ” Excuse me, son, is this your machete ? I think you dropped it on the ground when you were running away. “

    3. ” Excuse me, son, is this your machete ? I think you dropped it on the ground when you were running away. “

  103. Gene Reynolds, Director and creator of M*A*S*H has died aged 96. One of my favourite Box Sets. RIP [Metro]

      1. Oh, I don’t know.

        Bush Bush, Clinton Clinton, Bush Bush, Obama Obama, must be as funny peculiar a series as it gets!

        2. Frasier was very good, and was one of those series that I had watched so many times that I would just have it playing in the background as I did other things. I even bought several of the books that went with the series, where they outline the individual episodes with the actors saying things that went on behind the camera as they were filming it. 🙂

          There are so many moments that stand out. Such as the one where the brothers bought a restaurant and Niles was a chef trying to kill an eel to cook it by batting at it with a ladle. Then Daphne taking a far more direct approach.

      3. Check out Arrested Development, Brooklyn 99, Schitt’s Creek, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and How I Met Your Mother.

  105. I’ve often wondered is there much difference between
    porridge and ready brex ( apart from the latter being finely ground ).
    I like porridge when cold but it’s a messy hassle to make first thing
    ready brex is instant. But is it less healthy then porridge, I really don’t know .

    1. It’s like wallpaper paste.
      I seldom eat real porridge but it is filling and tasty and has substance. It’s also slow-release energy.

      1. Last week I had some of my husband’s weetabix for breakfast
        with honey and warm milk which was quick and instant
        to make and I enjoyed it but I think it contained too much
        fibre for me to have every day. I like porridge with brown
        sugar, cinnamon and sliced bananas but it’s not quick
        and simple to make which is why I was wondering about
        ready brek. During the colder months I need warm breakfasts
        I don’t eat anything with cold milk until April and then
        I will have oat and wheat flakes with pecan nuts and dried
        apricots. Weekends it’s cooked breakfasts but i don’t
        have those during the week .

        1. I have a double saucepan which means the porridge can cook itself while I do other things. Otherwise you do need to stir it.

          I don’t think there’s a great deal of fibre in porridge but fibre is good for your digestion.

          1. I like to add half a finely chopped apple, and a few prunes to my porridge, all cooked in together.

          2. I sometimes add Sainsbury’s 1kg Granola ,variety roasted honied oats with sultanas and other dry fruit. I add a small cupfull of this to my 2 Shredded Wheats and add milk and microwave for 2 minutes. That is my treat. I usually add Sainsbury’s Fruit and Fibre to the milk and Shreddies. That plus a slice of Harvest Grain toast, Olive spread and basic SainsburY’s marmalade and a mug of Earl Grey tea . My breakfast never varies.

          6. Ah the good old microwave. I find the microwave the best way to cook rice. Comes out perfect every time

          7. Why do you ‘need to do other things’ in the five minutes that it takes to make proper porridge? Those ‘other things’ can surely wait until you’ve done.

            I make mine by adding 2½ parts of water to 1 part oats and a pinch of salt. I slowly bring this to the boil, stirring continuously (around three minutes), then reduce the heat and continue stirring for another couple of minutes. I then add a squeeze of Acacia honey (my favourite) and a splash of milk, stirring it in until incorporated.

          8. In the days when I was working and making porridge in the mornings, the “other things” were getting washed and dressed.
            It appears there are as many ways of making porridge as there are people, and each has their own preferred way. I’ll stick to mine.

        2. I put the oats and milk into a dish and put it in the microwave for a minute then stir and put on for another minute or so. No saucepan just one dish. Finish off with Demerara sugar, blueberries and sliced banana. Purists will decry my method but it works for me and I’m still alive. 🙂

          2. Ours is multi functional. It’s a microwave, grill, fan oven and grill/microwave. Clever bit of kit. We also have a separate fan oven.

          3. We tried a microwave to cook oatmeal – once.

            Just a second or two after it is ready, the stuff explodes and coats the microwave walls.

            It is quicker to use a normal stove and avoid the cleanup.

          4. How much oats and milk.
            I usually use a teacup of oats and 1 and a half teacups
            of milk or milk and water mixed. I might try that method
            But I’d add a quarter of a tspoon of dried cinnamon
            and a few slices of banana .

          8. I go by the line in my saucepan but I think it’s one cup of oats to two cups water – never milk. I add the milk on top when it’s cooked.

        3. I do one measure of porridge, two of milk, mixed the night before, then 2½m zap in the microwave.
          Serve with plain yogurt & honey.

          1. I shall try that tomorrow, if I get the ingredient measurements
            right and the timing in the microwave it should be fine .
            It’s just so much hassle doing porridge on the hob first thing .

          2. I’ll often replace half the porridge with a similar amount of a decent nutty muesli like Dorset cereals.

          3. I’ll often replace half the porridge with a similar amount of a decent nutty muesli like Dorset cereals.

          1. I’ll do that with the summer breakfast of wheat and
            oat flakes with pecans, almond slices and dried apricots,
            another dried fruit will be nice and dried bananas arnt nice .
            It’ll be good with raisins.

    2. Make your porridge the night before. In the morning loosen with a little milk and then warm it up.

    3. About 45 years ago I shared a 3 bed flat in Twickenham with my Swiss girlfriend, her young French girl friend and my older brother. We got back late one night to find my brother passed out face down in a plate of porridge (dry). There was large semicircle of white flakes covering half of the large kitchen table.

    5. I think it is more highly processed, the Ready Brek, that is. Therefore not so good for you. Like the Oats So Tastey (this from memory, several years ago). I loved them, I loved the flavours they came in and…… I put on loads of weight that winter and spent the rest of the summer having to make a deliberate effort to lose it. I think that is the difference – the processing. The more highly processed, the more it is de-natured and the less good it is for you. More about calories and less about nutrition. But yum all the same, perhaps once a week rather than every day.

      1. It’s a shame because ready brek is quick and easy
        to make. I’ve not tried the oats so tasty but usually
        what’s lovely is high in calories .
        It’s a struggle during the colder months during the
        week days ( weekends are fine, Saturday I ‘ll have
        toast with peanut butter or marmalade and a cooked
        brunch on a Sunday if not having a roast lunch ).
        I just won’t eat anything with cold milk for breakfast
        until April . I shall not eat ready brek but will
        have the warmed oats with bananas, just will have
        to get up earlier and make it. I think I shall try in
        In the microwave instead of a saucepan .

        1. I know, I just want to eat potatoes (esp jackets with butter) during the winter months and chocolate – as soon as the days start properly lengthening these cravings fall away. I do try not to give in to them. I have a slice of toast at the moment with butter and honey with grated ginger (Sainsbury’s). I find it delicious and the ginger just takes away the over-sweetness of the honey. In the spring it will be grapefruit, too chilly at the moment. My husband has made porridge in the m/wave but you have to keep an eye on it, use a bigger bowl than you think you will need because as it comes to the boil it is up and over the top edge of the bowl before you know what has happened.

    1. Was that public help TB ?
      But how strange only a few months ago if was often said the problem with UK crime was thought to be everyone else fault but the perpetrators.
      Let’s be perfectly honest here, our political classes and civil service have proven time again, they couldn’t collectively pull off something as a simple as running a bath, without flooding the imeadiate area.
      And then the rot sets in.
      As it now has.

    1. Friday and Saturday nights would see the homeless being wheeled to places they had no intention of going, whether they liked it or not.

      1. Reminiscent of the young RAF man who went missing in Bury St Edmunds a few years ago. Back to the drawing board, methinks.

        1. I have never been wholly convinced of that one.
          His girlfriend was in early stages of pregnancy (in fact, given the timing, they might have only just learned about it) and their ‘hobby’ was attending swingers’ parties.
          I suspect he may have done a bunk.

          3. Yes, I thought that too when I first heard of it – a situation and remedy as old as the hills.

      2. The businessman said he first hit on the idea of using the bins as a place to sleep when he built a prototype of a single person car, also made from a bin.

        Unfortunately no pictures of the car…

    2. He’s obviously given a lot of thought on it and invested a lot of money on this one.
      Dragons Den next.

        1. Talking of which and watts.
          I was listening to Mr Dyson on the radio earlier this week. My word he’s a boring individual.

      1. Believe it or not, the bicycle shop on Mill Road had a couple of these ‘slippers’ for hire alongside their bikes In the seventies. But then that was Cambridge, a once decent city reduced to foolery by an ignorant council and barbarian university authorities. By ‘slipper’ I refer to its shape and the likelihood that driving one you could so easlily ‘slip’ under the wheels of a lorry.

        Cambridge is now a complete mess.

        Sinclair himself lived in a stone built property on Madingly Road not far from Westminster College. Now worth millions.

  112. Just made some porridge as recommended by my father
    Alf the Great of these pages. In the morning I shall just
    heat it up and add some milk.

    Afterwards I shall be doing the next part of my monarchy course,
    Elizabeth I was the end of the Tudors and we start with James I
    and the Stuart’s tomorrow. Must admit not knowing as much about
    him as more famous Stuart’s.
    (I will also add our Tutor is a very bias anti Royalist, he liked
    Henry but not his son Henry VIII who he called extravagant,
    and selfish but he liked Elizabeth I and thought her the most
    Intelligent monachist in history).

      3. You would wish to Know that I had an American Uncle who along with hundreds of thousands of others fought for your freedom to say that….

      4. You would wish to Know that I had an American Uncle who along with hundreds of thousands of others fought for your freedom to say that….

    1. All that stuff in the mainstream media a decade ago about an Arab SPRING when they should have been calling it the opposite an Arab AUTUMN.

Comments are closed.