Wednesday 5 January: The Government knows that high energy bills will push up food prices

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 we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here

672 thoughts on “Wednesday 5 January: The Government knows that high energy bills will push up food prices”

    2. Good morning, clear skies on the Costa Clyde. I’ve just driven back from Tesco Irvine looking like a Japanese sniper.

    1. ood orning to you, Citroen.
      Dark here, too. And the decorative outside lights that people light 24/7 will be turned off shortly, making it even darker.
      Oh, well…

      1. Morn Oberst

        SIR – I set up my solar-powered fairy lights in a tree in my garden two weeks before Christmas. They lit for the first time on Christmas Day after a couple of hours of sun.

        I do not use solar power for my heating and hot water.

        Rodney Butler
        Beaminster, Dorset

        1. Solar power in Britain is the kind of scam that only a green fool could believe in, who has never lived outside the British Isles.

          1. Yet it isn’t, not really.

            The problem is that solar isn’t available when we need it, thus the energy needs to be stored. If we want a hot shower in the morning, we need to collect energy throughout the day – not on demand. Thus moving us toward solar/battery support for every home is a good thing. Frankly, the grid is about to become utterly unreliable and blackouts and brown outs common place. To combat this useless government’s incompetent, malicious strategy we need to be self sufficient.

            That means government must be forced to make solar and battery backup tax deductible. hell, if we could force government we would prevent this green fanaticism anyway.

          2. We have plenty of wind, but our sun is pathetic compared to other countries. Very pleasant for living, not at all efficient for trying to generate electricity.

        2. Some years ago, I tried using solar lights in the front garden over the Christmas period.
          Beeboid historical drama producers would have loved of the result.

  6. The Government knows that high energy bills will push up food prices

    Save the planet, make the UK carbon neutral, let people freeze and starve instead.

  7. The lead letters are all criticising the lack of a coherent energy policy from the Government.
    The lead letters and a clutch of BTL Comments giving Boris a hammering:-

    SIR – My energy tariff with Scottish Power ended on December 31.

    I was paying 13.5 p a unit for electricity and 2.51 p a unit for gas, which was a good deal. However, the “best fixed tariff” I have now been offered is 23.5 p a unit for electricity and 6.38 p a unit for gas. This is an increase of 74 per cent for my electricity and 154 per cent for my gas.

    As food processing and distribution require energy, food prices are also bound to increase. Inflation reached more than 5 per cent in December and I would predict that it will be closer to 10 per cent by the spring.

    The Government has lost control of energy prices. It has spent too much time defending its position on Covid rules (and whether it broke them). We face a hard six months, and those on low incomes will be in dire straits. Those experiencing food poverty will increase above the current 5 million. The Government should be ashamed of this statistic. It must get a grip.

    Mike Lewis
    Reading, Berkshire

    SIR – The primary energy use in Britain is for industrial power – not only for manufacturing but also for numerous public buildings such as hospitals and schools.

    Conventional gas-fired industrial boilers raise steam by efficient heat transfer. Substituting electricity, as currently proposed, would be expensive and less efficient, requiring much bigger boilers and boiler houses. As well as taking years and costing billions of pounds, this would probably entail huge rises in steel demand, inflating prices even further.

    The alternative is to replace natural gas with hydrogen for industrial boilers. Producing enough hydrogen would be daunting but possible; however, Britain’s domestic heating needs will account for an additional large demand.

    The proposal to use electricity as a transport fuel further skews the economics, even if hydrogen might be used as a cheaper alternative to electric batteries in cars.

    While substituting hydrogen for natural gas and electricity appears an economic option, the 20-year planning required for such a transition challenges short-term political cycles and demands cross-party cooperation.

    Is it possible that climate-change imperatives might effect such radical change in our political establishment?

    Elizabeth Marshall
    Edinburgh

    SIR – Rather than installing a solar farm in rural Dorset to power London’s Square Mile (report, January 1), might it not be greener to switch off the Gherkin and its neighbours at night?

    Kate Tivney
    Atworth, Wiltshire

    SIR – I set up my solar-powered fairy lights in a tree in my garden two weeks before Christmas. They lit for the first time on Christmas Day after a couple of hours of sun.

    I do not use solar power for my heating and hot water.

    Rodney Butler
    Beaminster, Dorset

    Michael Staples
    2 HRS AGO
    It beggars belief that Johnson and his ministers cannot see the dangers of blundering on with their green energy policies, especially Net Zero. The increases quoted by Tony Lewis are absolutely staggering.
    If the Conservatives don’t immediately allow fracking for gas and further exploration of the North Sea for oil and gas, they are done for. With British gas prices up to ten times those in America, our industry cannot sustain the cost and neither can the ordinary working family.
    How the Boris thinks we will shell out up to £20,000 to install heat pumps, which don’t even heat the average home properly, I have no idea. He lives in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

    Pete Flint
    4 HRS AGO
    The time is right for the 1922 committee to step in and get this lunatic we have as PM and the cabal referred to as ministers removed from office and replaced with conservatives.
    As a 40 year supporter of the conservative party, (and former councillor), I do not recognise this shambles we have elected as the conservative party anymore.
    I feel unless internal action is taken NOW the party will cease to exist.

    REPLY 22FLAG

    CB Carolyn Bates 5 HRS AGO
    The Prime Minister is so out of touch with the reality of living in Britain today that it makes me wonder if he ever considers how ordinary people are meant to manage in this current climate. It is part of his job description to do so, yet he rejects energy bill VAT cuts to help pensioners and those on low incomes, out-of-hand.
    When he thinks nothing of paying £500 for a roll of wallpaper, knowing it will be paid for by someone else, can he not see how awful the optics of that look when people are genuinely struggling to survive.
    With rocketing energy bills, food prices, petrol costs, highest tax burdens in seventy-years, NI hike and now the country back in a needless crisis due to staff shortages brought on by his ridiculous testing regime, just how much more does he think the people can take?
    His Press conference today was not only insulting but left us in no doubt as to how gullible and stupid he thinks we are. It is in his interest to keep this Covid crisis going as long as he can because he does not want to relinquish the unprecedented power he has been given.
    When any government is causing more harm to the welfare and well-being of its citizens than a viral pandemic, then we really do have problems. This Prime Minister has no answers to any of the problems facing us today, he only adds to them.

    REPLY 2 REPLIES 35FLAG

    CL Catherine Liversedge 5 HRS AGO
    Reply to Carolyn Bates
    Yesterday, I bought a bottle of fizz and put it in the fridge. It will come out when Johnson is dislodged.

    1. Meh. I think the Government is engineering a “crisis”, which will make a lot of people suffer greatly, from which they will be “rescued” by the benevolent Government paying them cash with a new digital currency.
      Net Zero is not incompetent, it is extremist dogma which anyone could see would steer us directly to this point. They have already prepared the “solution.”

      1. The final solution?

        Certainly the rate they’re destroying our buying power is so terrific pretty soon we’ll be stealing Wheel barrows.

        1. I was thinking of the energy crisis actually. I thought the plan was to have another lockdown this year in which furlough payments would be made with the digital currency, but covid doesn’t seem to be cooperating. Not nearly deadly enough.

      3. Quite. Not sure whether it’s widespread naivety at work, or the MSM weeding out any suggestion of deliberate action.

    2. Hydrogen is only a means for moving energy around. It still needs generated, either by use of electricity (!) or by reforming oil using heat. It is NOT an energy source in itself, and isn’t mined, drilled for or whatever. There are noticeable lossoes in energy in producing the stuff – you’d be better off using electricity directly.

      3. At the moment, yes. It isn’t efficient. However, without research and use it never will be. If we want to move on, we need hydrogen and fusion. There’s no alternative.

        This useless government likes wasting money: it’s about time ti did it on something useful.

        1. Yes there are alternatives. We live on a big coal field. The world is awash with oil. Perhaps a way could be found for us to use these God-given energy sources

          1. I cannot believe that I’m quoting Nye Bevin:

            “This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.”

            speech at Blackpool, 24 May 1945

    3. Mr Lewis – no, government hasn’t lost control. It *wants* high energy prices. By forcibly reducing supply it intentionally makes energy expensive. This will gather it billions in tax to spaff up the wall of waste that is big fat state.

    4. I have solar powered lights in my garden. Rodney Butler must have put the solar unit in a shaded place; mine light up every day and have done since they were installed.

  9. We do ‘ave ’em in Wiltshire

    SIR – Rather than installing a solar farm in rural Dorset to power London’s Square Mile (report, January 1), might it not be greener to switch off the Gherkin and its neighbours at night?

    Kate Tivney
    Atworth, Wiltshire

    Well Kate, my lovely, I don’t know the last time you were being in the neighbourhood of the Gherkin but when it’s all lit up nice at night Dorset can be very, very dark.

    1. To be fair, I don’t think she’s suggesting turning off the street lights. London is a festival of lights every night, as all the empty office buildings are lit up like electric candles.

      My brother took his ex-wife for a lovely country break once; she’s a Londoner, and was so freaked out by the darkness that she refused to go out at night 🤣

      1. I took the Warqueen up Scafel Pike when we were dating and the poor dear asked how they lit it. She’s terrifically bright, but clearly a townie.

        2. MOH was a townie, too. I’ll never forget looking out over a managed landscape of roads, canal, railway, farms, hedges, fields, coverts, copses and settlements to hear, “just look at that; it’s ALL completely natural“!

  10. We do ‘ave ’em in Wiltshire

    SIR – Rather than installing a solar farm in rural Dorset to power London’s Square Mile (report, January 1), might it not be greener to switch off the Gherkin and its neighbours at night?

    Kate Tivney
    Atworth, Wiltshire

    Well Kate, my lovely, I don’t know the last time you were being in the neighbourhood of the Gherkin but when it’s all lit up nice at night Dorset can be very, very dark.

  11. Sweden launches ‘Psychological Defence Agency’ to counter propaganda from Russia, China and Iran. 5 January 2021.

    Sweden has launched a new agency dedicated to defending the country against disinformation, propaganda and psychological warfare in the latest part of its efforts to bring military and civil defence back towards Cold War levels.

    The official opening of the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency came on the same day that Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö accused Russia of “challenging the sovereignty of several EU member states, including Sweden and Finland” by demanding security guarantees ruling out “Nato’s further movement eastward”.

    “Disinformation is a threat to Swedish democracy, our decision-makers and to our independence”, Sweden’s interior minister Mikael Damberg said at a press conference in October announcing the appointment of Henrik Landerholm, a former Vice-Chancellor for the Swedish Defence University, to head the agency.

    Yes but who decides what is disinformation? We can be sure for example that this body like the UK’s Nudge Unit and 77 Brigades activities are not going to condemn Trans Ideology and yet it is so transparently false that it makes the Flat Earth Society look sensible. In reality all these Government sponsored agencies are simply to counter the domestic resistance to Woke and Political disinformation! The great preponderance of propaganda in the UK is by its government. Who else but they could keep the BBC in being and alter the Black/White ratios in TV advertising?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/01/04/sweden-launches-psychological-defence-agency-counter-complex/

    2. Pravda lives.

      Don’t listen to them, only listen to us. Dear life, it’s insane. The terror these people have of dissenting, different voices is hilarious.When government tells me something I do not believe it. It’s always a lie, always a cheat and absolute deceit. The state is a self serving, arrogant, incompetent, lazy, fat useless oaf.

      As such, it should be treated as any pathological sociopath should: with absolute disdain. I think this will push people to pay more attention to China and Russia now. Certainly Russia, where most sensible discussion seems to come from.

  12. Sweden launches ‘Psychological Defence Agency’ to counter propaganda from Russia, China and Iran. 5 January 2021.

    Sweden has launched a new agency dedicated to defending the country against disinformation, propaganda and psychological warfare in the latest part of its efforts to bring military and civil defence back towards Cold War levels.

    The official opening of the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency came on the same day that Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö accused Russia of “challenging the sovereignty of several EU member states, including Sweden and Finland” by demanding security guarantees ruling out “Nato’s further movement eastward”.

    “Disinformation is a threat to Swedish democracy, our decision-makers and to our independence”, Sweden’s interior minister Mikael Damberg said at a press conference in October announcing the appointment of Henrik Landerholm, a former Vice-Chancellor for the Swedish Defence University, to head the agency.

    Yes but who decides what is disinformation? We can be sure for example that this body like the UK’s Nudge Unit and 77 Brigades activities are not going to condemn Trans Ideology and yet it is so transparently false that it makes the Flat Earth Society look sensible. In reality all these Government sponsored agencies are simply to counter the domestic resistance to Woke and Political disinformation! The great preponderance of propaganda in the UK is by its government. Who else but they could keep the BBC in being and alter the Black/White ratios in TV advertising?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/01/04/sweden-launches-psychological-defence-agency-counter-complex/

  13. I think it is well past time for Western countries to place severe restrictions on Chinese researchers:-

    Chinese Communist Researcher Stole U.S. Monoclonal Antibody ‘Secrets’… In 2015.

    Athird scientist employed by GlaxoSmithKline pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets – including the science behind COVID-19 treatments – to boost a competing, state-funded Chinese pharmaceutical company.

    Lucy Xi, along with three co-defendants, established the Chinese pharmaceutical company Renopharma with funding from the Chinese Communist Party to supposedly research and develop anti-cancer drugs. The team, however, used the company as a vessel to steal information from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in the United States.

    Xi and her colleagues worked at a GSK facility in Upper Merion, Pennsylvania.

    In January 2015, she sent co-conspirator Yan Mei a GSK document containing “confidential and trade secret data and information,” according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

    More at:-

    https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/01/04/ccp-pharma-stole-gsk-antibody-secrets/

  14. SIR – On Boxing Day my wife and I returned from the United States – where our pre-departure Covid test was free and negative – to Britain, where we had to purchase day-two tests and waited six days for negative results.

    The omicron virus was already rife in Britain, so I cannot see any point in our spending £120 to get a result that no one is interested in. The whole system is ridiculous and only serves to boost testing companies’ profits.

    Douglas Humphrey
    Elie, Fife

    Oh good….A disgruntled Scotsman

    1. Morning Citroen1 – There are many disgruntled Scots at the moment and not only in Scotland.

    2. Good morning.
      Apologies to Scottish Nottlers (and most of my relatives) but it’s often the Scots have to pay for anything.

        2. TBF, the drop in sales revenue from plastic drinking straws had to come from somewhere.

    5. It was P.G. Wodehouse who made the point that it was not hard to distinguish between a ray of sunshine and a Scotsman with a grievance.

  16. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Our lunatic PM isn’t listening. He seems to be on another planet. He is so besotted with his ridiculous and unworkable ‘net zero’ drivel he seems blind to the fast approaching economic and political disaster. He doesn’t realise that if energy takes a much larger proportion of household incomes then spending on other things will shrink even further. Industry is already paying over the odds and will shortly be unable to compete. And all of this on top of 5-6% (and rising) inflation. From today’s DT:

    Boris Johnson rejects energy bill VAT cuts to help struggling families

    Tory MPs hit back after Prime Minister says such a move would help ‘a lot of people who perhaps don’t need the support’

    By
    Lucy Fisher,
    DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR and
    Christopher Hope,
    CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    4 January 2022 • 10:11pm

    Boris Johnson has indicated that he will not cut VAT on energy bills because it would help “a lot of people who perhaps don’t need the support” with rising living costs.

    The Prime Minister on Tuesday night dismissed demands to enact the move to help struggling families, amid fears that residential energy bills could double to £2,000 in April when the price cap is set to rise.

    His intervention sparked a backlash among Tory MPs, who have insisted that slashing VAT from energy bills should be a “Brexit dividend” now Britain has quit the European Union, which mandates the tax is levied at a minimum of five per cent.

    Speaking at a televised Downing Street press conference, Mr Johnson was challenged about a vow he himself made in May 2016 to scrap VAT from energy bills if Britons voted Leave.

    He denied having misled voters with his previous remarks, but signalled that the Treasury would consider actions that were targeted only at the families most in need of support.

    The Prime Minister said he was “not ruling out further measures” and acknowledged that the UK did now enjoy the “freedom to regulate our own VAT”, but set out his opposition to the proposal.

    “The argument as you know is that it’s a bit of a blunt instrument and the difficulty is that you end up also cutting fuel bills for a lot of people who perhaps don’t need the support in quite the direct way that we need to give it. We need to help people who are in fuel poverty the most,” he said.

    He said that the Government would listen to consumers and businesses, adding that Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, was “very, very mindful of the increase in energy prices and the effect… on people up and down this country, and we are going to do all we can to help”.

    His intervention came as the weather is about to get colder, with the first widespread frost of the winter expected this week, meaning families are likely to rely more heavily on central heating.

    On Wednesday, Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, will resume crisis talks with energy bosses about how to ease the pressure that soaring energy bills are also heaping on business, as a 25 per cent spike in wholesale costs dampened hopes the market was stabilising.

    In April, energy bills are poised to rise 56 per cent or more, following months of soaring wholesale costs that have been exacerbated by Russia restricting supply to the Continent. The crisis has already caused a series of British energy suppliers to collapse and fuelled a growing cost of living squeeze.

    ‘VAT should be cut as a Brexit dividend’
    Mr Johnson’s comments came after 20 Tory MPs and peers wrote to The Telegraph last weekend demanding that he intervene to address the cost of living crisis.

    The news came as Liam Fox, a former Conservative Cabinet minister, accused Mr Johnson of being more like Sir Edward Heath than Margaret Thatcher over tax and spend.

    Writing for the ConservativeHome website, Dr Fox said that he did not think that “all is well in the Boris Johnson premiership”.

    He added: “For many Conservatives, including myself, the current government smacks too much of ‘big tax, big spend, big state’ – more reminiscent of Edward Heath than Margaret Thatcher.

    “The question of the Northern Ireland border remains a thorny subject, and for many a continued border within the United Kingdom is incompatible with the entire ethos of a Conservative and Unionist Party.”

    Dr Fox added that it was important to remember “we are 11 years into a period of Conservative government (or at least Conservative led) and it would be more remarkable if we were not having a dip in the polls”.

    He added that “governments have recovered from much worse positions than this, as those who remember the more difficult times of the 1980s will attest”.

    He said: “Leadership changes can bring about short-term improvements in political fortunes, but the internal wounds can leave long lasting scars, as the political assassination of Margaret Thatcher prove.”

    The suggestion was backed by Sir Anthony Seldon, the author of an acclaimed book of British prime ministers from 1721 to the present day, who said that Dr Fox was “completely right” in Mr Johnson’s belief that the state, rather than the market, is better placed to deal with issues such as levelling up.

    * * *

    No comments permitted so far.

    1. An investigative journalist on GB News Farage last night gave a list of all the “taxes on gas” to support renewables and VAT pales into almost insignificance. The government should stop supporting solar and wind farms and this would help to lighten the load.

      1. ‘Morning Clyde. I believe that the green taxes on electricity are currently 25% of the total bill, and for gas it is a further 2.5%. And, of course, another 5% VAT on the total.

        1. Thanks for clarifying the added “taxes” on energy. Solar and wind turbines should be able to stand on their own pillars. Our PM is just bribing them to support his own green futile policies.

          2. They *can’t*. A windmill is useless. It sits idle most of the time, generating nothing. No one sane would build them *UNLESS* the tax payer is forced to pay for them AND a fixed cost per day – not per MW produced, just per day.

            That allows the installer to make a very nice profit at the tax payers expense for materials paid for by the worker that they get absolutely no benefit from whatsoever.

            It is typicaly government: force people to pay for something they don’t want, need and that returns no benefit.

          3. We had a wind generator on Mianda which made a filthy noise and the power it gave was very intermittent. When the blades flew off in a gale we did not bother to replace them.

            As I have said here before, a green enthusiast should spend a week at anchor during a dull winter with only solar power and a wind generator to charge the batteries. And what about cooking – no environmentally unfriendly bottled gas allowed!

      2. What the government should do and what the government will do are not remotely the same.

    2. The problem with Dr Fox’s analysis is that we haven’t had a second of Conservative government since the hapless Major in the 90s, just before Soros and the WEF took over.
      Face facts, Thatcher had been in power a long time, and was beginning to lose her way. She also didn’t have such a good team as she had at the start – perhaps because they were inevitably getting younger, and there was a generational gap beginning to emerge. The lasting bitterness is not because the Tory right lost one leadership, it’s because we’ve never been allowed back since May’s “nasty party” speech twenty years ago.
      All we’ve had since Blair and Brown is simply more governments that answer to globalists. The Conservative Party’s internal wounds aren’t from getting rid of Thatcher – they are from the party’s adherence to the globalist agenda.

      1. It’s funny that folk call the Conservatives nasty for doing the right thing in cutting away the dead flesh to stop the gangrene. The Left libs are happy to leave the leg to fester, wrapping the patient up in coddles while the leg rots and the body dies.

    3. The real problem is that governments have been overspending by years, the current one by some £15,000 per taxpayer in a single year, so that any VAT cut will only see taxes rise elsewhere, leaving people no better, and probably significant worse, off.

      1. And as taxes rise, spending reduces, which reduces demand which creates unemployment which increases spending which creates high taxes… and so on, ever faster down the drain.

        High taxes lead to economic destruction.

        1. Economic destruction being part of the plan; they have no care for shredding any notion of financial competence.

    4. Help a lot of people who don’t need the support. There we go, it’s about hiing taxes. It’s not about energy, it’s all about tax.

      Same as fuel duty.

      The state, not the market… dear life. Government does not ever, ever ‘level up’. The very term means to take from one area and give it to another. That’s levelling down. Do you now what happens when the state takes from the earner and gives to the shirker? The earner stops bothering.

      Has this oaf ever read the articles he has written? Does he understand the very simplest of economic prinicples?

    5. “it would help ‘a lot of people who perhaps don’t need the support’ with rising living costs” ends any shred of respect ( very little now anyway ) I may have had for BJ and in my time it ranks with “We have become a grandmother” as signalling the end of a leaders credibility. It usually takes 2 terms of office to reach this point so perhaps we should adopt the American limit of 2 runs of 4 years max.

    6. A load of mince! “…for many a continued border within the United Kingdom is incompatible with the entire ethos of a Conservative and Unionist Party.” Who cares about the “ethos of a Conservative and Unionist Party”?
      The reality is that “a continued border within the United Kingdom is incompatible with” being a sovereign State.
      The writers of this guff must be really “up themselves”.
      It is surely axiomatic that cheap energy is the sine qua non of a successful economy?

    7. Why did anybody ever think that Boris Johnson was clever? He is just as stupid as Prince Charles.

    1. That’s a very clever cartoon. Unfortunately the painter should be labelled “The Conservative Party!”

  18. In other news J K Rowling isn’t only a TERF,she’s now an Anti-Semite
    It’s only taken 25 years for the “Woke” to suddenly discover the Goblins of Gringots Bank are in fact “A classic Elders of Zion trope of money grabbing Jews”
    No,me neither,what a farce,I think we know who are the real racists/anbti-semites here and it ain’t Rowling
    Now,about those Orcs in LOTR……

    1. The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the war was to accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing.

  21. The elite war on biological sex. Spiked 5 January 2022.

    Today’s political and cultural elites are not only indifferent to the views of the majority on sex and gender – they consider these views to be ignorant and prejudiced. Indeed, these elites believe they have a duty to educate and ‘raise the awareness’ of their culturally illiterate inferiors.

    This of course applies to pretty much everything else as well. The Elites; both Left and Right, hate and despise the very people who elected them! The things that the untermensch believe in; families, country, tradition etc. are of no importance to them, they actually seek their destruction. It would, despite Starmer’s recent self-serving declarations, make very little difference if Labour were in power! The Arch Enemy is the White Indigenous Male, the source of all the World’s Ills! His destruction is necessary for the New World to be!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/01/05/the-elite-war-on-biological-sex/

  22. Sir – Isobel Greenshields (Letters, January 4) recommends bay leaves as a moth deterrent. After squirrels dug up some tulip bulbs I planted in big pots this autumn, I replanted them, and, cutting up a few branches of bay (Laurus nobilis), scattered the clippings over the pots. The bulbs have remained undisturbed.

    Dean James
    Little Totham, Essex

    Now that’s a suggestion worth trying, given that we have several bay plants in the garden and plenty of destructive tree rats…

    1. Thanks for posting that. My cousin was really upset when squirrels ate all the bulbs in her memorial pot of bulbs in summer 2020 (Mother had bought tons of the things, and I naively thought I would be able to leave the house before anything had flowered, so I bunged them all in pots and handed them out after her funeral). I spent ages fishing out the sprouting bulbs I had left and wrapping them to post for her. Have passed on the recommendation.

    2. Breaking, Ms Greenshields stamps out moth infestation.

      I’ll get me coat before the deserved licking.

    3. Breaking, Ms Greenshields stamps out moth infestation.

      I’ll get me coat before the deserved licking.

  24. It’s The Way I Tell ‘Em
    A drunk is sitting in a bar. It’s a horrible, wet, windy day outside and he is making no progress with the attractive but seemingly stuck-up barmaid. A confident looking guy walks in, strolls up to the bar and says to the barmaid, “Tickle your ass with a feather.”
    “I beg your pardon?!” replies the barmaid in a huffy voice.
    “I said, particularly nasty weather!” the guy replies, at which the barmaid laughs and they begin an increasingly intimate conversation.
    Very impressed, the drunk staggers out into the cold and to another bar where an even more attractive barmaid works.
    He sidles up to the bar and as the barmaid approaches he says, “Stick a feather duster up your ass!”
    “I beg your pardon?!” exclaims the shocked barmaid.
    The drunk smiles and says “Shitty day, isn’t it?”

    1. Hoon has been sitting on this for a long time, ready to bring it out at the right moment. In the Mail, it said that he and a senior civil servant were very unhappy about the order to burn the memo, so they locked it in a safe instead. Wonder where it is now?
      I would have photographed it…that’s probably why I’m not a senior civil servant…

      1. I recall that Hoon was an ineffective SoS for Defence but this story strikes me as genuine. (My spellchecker prefers ‘Goon’, how perceptive!). Yes, I too would have copied it in some way, but then to reveal it, even years later, might have resulted in a problem with the Official Secrets Act?

        1. Could have done what so many inadvertently did – left it on a bus or a park bench 🙂

    2. Hoon has been sitting on this for a long time, ready to bring it out at the right moment. In the Mail, it said that he and a senior civil servant were very unhappy about the order to burn the memo, so they locked it in a safe instead. Wonder where it is now?
      I would have photographed it…that’s probably why I’m not a senior civil servant…

  26. Memorial to victims of Manchester Arena attack opens to public. 5 January 2022.

    A memorial to the 22 people murdered in the Manchester Arena terror attack will officially open to the public from Wednesday.

    The Glade of Light memorial is a white marble “halo” bearing the names of those killed in the May 2017 attack.

    Families of those who lost loved ones have been able to make personalised memory capsules, containing mementoes and messages, which are embedded inside the halo.

    Nothing about the perpetrator and his cause then?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/05/manchester-arena-attack-glade-of-light-memorial-opens-to-public

      1. Problem – Islamic terrorism.
        Solution, end Muslim immigration, deport suspected terror suspects, end race replacement policy.

        Result – report screwed up and thrown away.

    2. The guardian doesn’t bother itself with discussing the problem as it wants desperately to ignore it.

      At the rate of race replacement these memorials will be common place soon, then ultimately smashed to pieces by a vicious Islamic state.

  28. Good morning everyone.
    I’m not often here this early but I am feeling somewhat – not sure of the best word – definitely shocked but also upset.
    My 6 year old grandchild got the 2nd covid jab yesterday – just 5 WEEKS after the 1st. Poor child.
    Not sure if this is Canada-wide, but In Ontario 5 year olds can get the 1st jab. Initially a child who turned 5 during 2022 was to be eligible but now they must (a small blessing) wait until their 5th birthday – son & wife are disappointed. it is only a month since the younger child turned 4 so if rules hadn’t changed, she would have been jabbed at barely 4!
    What do fellow Nottlers feel on that? Am over-reacting?

    Off for a strong cup of tea. Well, it is only half eight 🙂

    1. What has happened to the Dominions? Australia, New Zealand and Canada seem to have gone mad.

      1. Pretty boy Trudy, witchy Adherne (or whatever the Kiwi boss is called), storm-trooper Gestapo cops with terrifying behaviour and powers in Australia. Maybe we’re not so badly off in comparison.

          1. Cutting these people out of government is going to be difficult, but it’s becoming necessary. That and a complicit media isn’t helping.

            But hey, they fill their trousers with our cash while the country suffers. It’s just staggering that so few seem able to understand where the problems stem from.

    2. No, I would also be pretty upset about that.
      Just hold in mind though, that the risk of an immediate bad outcome is low, and with average luck, she will be OK.

        1. Impossible to rule out. But likely to be as patchy as the immediate side effects. Humans are very resilient.

      2. But nobody knows what the long term effects may be.

        Not all pregnant women who took thalidomide gave birth to deformed or limbless children – but many did. Thalidomide, which had been thoroughly tested, was banned as soon as the dangers became apparent..

        1. One encouraging thing is that the forces ranged against humanity seem to be pretty incompetent at everything except psychological warfare. Their virus is not that deadly, and their “vaccine” seems to be inefficient at protecting people or killing them. So there’s no reason to suppose that long term effects will be any different.

          1. What I still can’t understand is why, when they have admitted the jabs neither stop you catching it, nor passing it on, that people are still queuing up for more of them. The psychological warfare and propaganda seems to have been very successful on that point.

          4. I’d forgotten that was coming up. They had to reserve some more ‘worthies’ for the summer.

          5. Hmm, if she’s allowed to make it that far. A Royal funeral will be a great diversion and that’s another awkward old biddy taken care of.

        2. I seem to remember there was 2 weeks – out of forty – where thalidomide could cause the deformities; the fortnight during which limbs developed.

          1. I hadn’t heard that before. it would help explain why only some babies were affected.

          2. From Wikipedia:

            Main article: Thalidomide scandal

            “In the late 1950s and early 1960s, more than 10,000 children in 46 countries were born with deformities, such as phocomelia, as a consequence of thalidomide use.[59] The severity and location of the deformities depended on how many days into the pregnancy the mother was before beginning treatment; thalidomide taken on the 20th day of pregnancy caused central brain damage, day 21 would damage the eyes, day 22 the ears and face, day 24 the arms, and leg damage would occur if taken up to day 28. Thalidomide did not damage the fetus if taken after 42 days gestation.[37]”

            Morning sickness tends to be at its worst during the first trimester (I think DR could give us chapter and verse.)

          3. Very specific. Interesting. Wonder if that is the time unborn babies are most likely affected if the mother gets covid jabbed.

        1. Chances are that she has indeed been exposed to the virus and developed proper antibodies, as have many of us.

    3. ‘Morning MIB! No! You’re not over-reacting! I find that quite sickening! How dare they do this when the recommendations are not to give these shots to children?

      1. Thank you.
        I suspect it is only a matter of time before Doris, van Tam etc give the green light for our 5-11 year olds.
        The very short gap between jabs was a shock, as well as the ages.

    4. Who knows what damage they are doing to the young child’s organs and immune system? You are quite right to be shocked and worried.
      As children are hardly affected by the virus this is surely state sanctioned child abuse.

      1. Thank you. It is the longer term damage which concerns me. Little children are being encouraged to get the jabs, certificate included.

    5. When Junior asked me if he should get the vaccine as school had told him to, I asked him what he wanted to do.

      He said ‘I don’t know. What does it do?’ so we spent a lot of time reading about vaccines and how they worked.

      He then asks why people kept needing more vaccines, as a vaccine isn’t supposed ot work that way, then it was ‘what are the side effects’ and now he asks his teachers who… don’t know either.

      Of course, because he’s an awkward sod, he then asked ‘If you don’t know what the side effects are, and if they don’t work as a normal vaccine, how do we know they’re safe?’

      We were called in to ask about this aberant behaviour. I just let the Warqueen do her thing and push the teacher down a path she has no get out from and leave her there.

      1. Smart lad! After the parental intervention, the teachers may now think twice before speaking to him again on the subject , maybe even avoid speaking to offspring of other parents known for tough attitudes.

        1. The school wants to mandate vaccinations and he wanted to learn. The school would prefer he just obeyed. All state authority does.

          I suppose they could expel him, and then we’re fighting a lazy, incompetent, and intentionally obstructive system with endless money

          1. Surely a school can’t unilaterally mandate jabs? I would hope even Doris would balk at mandatory jabs as a condition of receiving an education.

          2. Ah – they’ll be a bit subtler.

            Absolutely NO compulsion. Just no admittance to school without. Your totally free choice. Democracy at work.

            (sarc)

          3. Yes, that’s how they’ll no doubt do it. We’re not restricting you – YOU are. It’s your choices that stop you, not us.

    6. I find the whole thing very deeply sinister. Indeed, evil is not too strong a word for what is being done.

    8. It doesn’t surprise me, they have gone overboard on vaccinations being the answer.

      Schools are closed for the next two weeks so that everyone can get vaccinated. This will make everyone superhuman and able to resist the latest variant when schools reopen.

      It is the same with adults, a supposed three week shutdown of restaurants, gyms and life will persuade the unvaccinated to get done so that we can all live happily ever after.

      Not will not be canada wide, provinces do their own thing and Alberta retains some sanity.

      1. Not sure if you saw this earlier so reposting. The certificate my grandie got yesterday. 2nd jab just 5 weeks after the 1st, and she’s only 6. Younger sibling now asking when she can have a superhero paper. A sneaky way to get more little kids to be jabbed, get the kids to tell their classmates about being a superhero….except they missed a trick by shutting the schools.
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/307de1f98592a584996c10e2aee0508137bcbfc65dd16827bf69760d45187c98.jpg

        1. I hadn’t seen that over here but again, no surprise.

          Dissent is stifled, Trudeau gave the press many millions last year, the bribe is paying off with the lack of critical press

          The latest push is on mandatory vaccinations for work,. They now say that if you are laid off because of your refusal to be vaccinated, you will not qualify for unemployment payments.

          To think that Ontario has a supposedly conservative government.

    1. Yo Rik

      Do not Jest

      Before long, the Feministas will demand that men have pregnancy tests, periods, womanopause etc for rtue equality

      1. When reality imposes itself on these idiots it’ll be a good day. Then all this nonsense of “I’m a man and I’m pregnant’ will evaporate. Heck it was a comedy with Arnie in it, for goodness sake.

        1. Am I right in thinking that VAT won’t be a problem in Scotland anyway as girls and women can get them free if they claim they can’t afford them?

    2. Will that part of the medical profession that specialises in terminating pregnancies start looking for a new clientele amongst pregnant men?

  32. Why Jodie Whittaker failed as Doctor Who
    Despite being doubtlessly talented, the first woman to play the Time Lord was let down by poorly thought, at times nonsensical, plotlines
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/jodie-whittaker-failed-doctor/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    BTL

    Dr Who or Dr What?

    Mr Bond or Ms Bond?

    Trying to cash in on the success of known brands while trying to change them is unlikely to generate success – look what the Americans have done to Cadbury’s Creme Eggs!

    2. 343586+ up ticks,
      Morning R,

      Look no further than what the electorate have done to the /lab/lib/con parties.

    4. I see the front runner to replace her will be a black actress. Pity they couldn’t tick the trans and/or differently abled boxes too. I believe it’s what’s called ‘doubling down’.

  34. 343586+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Sad to say one death will never be enough in any issue where the United
    Kingdom electorate are concerned, they, the lab/lib/con current member / voters refuse to recognize bulk / mass paedophilia covered up & ongoing for decades of their OWN CHILDREN as victims, so what chance an individual footballer or for that matter 100 / 1000 footballers.

    ” The party” rules supreme in the United Kingdom, the realm of self confirmed dangerous voting idiots.

    https://twitter.com/OTURISK/status/1478653270180696068

    1. Is that from Canada? Honestly, this is going to be a textbook example of appalling, authoritarian government in the future, just like propaganda from the fascist and communist regimes of the twentieth century was. And people will say “how did they fall for it?”

      1. Yes, Ontario. Not sure if the policy is Canada-wide. Maybe this push to get both jabs into such young children will be a condition of being allowed back into school when they reopen.

    2. Wonderful. How long before the government creates a youth organisation? It could be called …. wait for it ….. The Young Pioneers.

          1. Extra badges for each ‘selfish’ person dobbed in for not being jabbed, telling the truth or failing to adhere to whatever stupid rules are in force – gold plated badge if it is a family member.

          4. USSR. A country that was so loveable they had to prevent people from leaving/escaping.
            In the late 70s, I worked with a woman born to Polish parents who came here during the war. She was able to visit a cousin trapped in Poland. Her way to get ‘luxury’ goods included taking slightly used make-up which she then ‘accidentally’ left in the cousin’s house.

          5. The “Mail’s” Peter Hitchens often refers to life in the USSR. Unpleasant at best, unless you were part of the elite.

          7. When I was in Moscow, the only Russian women who wore make up worked for Intourist or were party apparatchiks.

          9. What a fascinating article.
            No wonder Churchill described Russia as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”.
            Mind you, the west appears to be following the same trajectory.

          12. And no access to medical care, education, shopping or entertainment outside the home.

    3. Using children to protect others is abusive – they should not be used as human shields.

    1. Good for him, this needs to be broadcast across the nation i suspect he had a lot more more to say with equal relevance to the current situation.

      And today the government have announced more short comings with the NHS which means in real terms the people who have been waiting for operations to improve their health will now ha be made to wait even longer if at all. And the government are using covid as a false shield, they are basically saying FOAD to any one who can’t afford to pay for their treatment. Because it’s perfectly obvious if you can pay for it, you’ll be in and out like a shot through a private hospital. Just about 18 months ago the government employed several new ‘managers’ to run (down) the NHS, this is all part of the plan. And in the mean time the government have devised a way to rip off the tax payers and those who own their property, this has been devised as a way to pay for the 150 thousand plus people who have been invited and allowed to settle here, receive total financial support, free housing, free medical treatment, free schooling, free public transport and of course with out making a single contribution to their upkeep. This along with more than 13 billion in foreign aid will probably total to a lot more than 20 billion. PA. By my reckoning, to keep just one of these immigrants in the relative luxury they now enjoy. it probably cost British tax payers more then 500 pounds per person per week. No wonder the government are hiking up all of the the taxes in the UK.
      And as I speak builders are importing millions of bricks from Pakistan, Timber from Canada glass steel form other countries to bulld new homes for all of them, in our once green and pleasant land.
      Who voted for this ?

      1. The original newspaper article was deleted from the Internet when they tidied up his history.

        1. Hmmm.

          I remain unconvinced – much though I would like it to be the unvarnished truth.

          2. Apparently very few people at Fettes had a good word for him.

            In fact, rather than being proud of their former pupil, the school plays down the fact that he was there as much as they can.

          7. Most of Blur went to The Stanway School, then a comprehensive school on the edge of Colchester.
            One of my chums taught them (but not music).

  41. A spot of kulture from Sonny Boy:

    “There once was an MP called Keir,
    Who said Covid was his biggest fear.
    So whatever the task,
    He put on his face mask,
    And caught Covid most weeks of the year.”

    2. I’m always reminded of Falling Down when I see those pictures of ‘fast food’. He was right you know!

  44. Our in-car entertainment is a biography of King Edward 1 (Longshanks). Fascinating. All that endless gang warfare by the barons and their henchmen.

    An interesting snippet – in the 1260s, Jews in England were required to live in just a handful of towns – and in specified areas.

    And, guess what. They had to wear yellow cloth badges in the shape of a star of David on their outer garments.

    Of course that might have simply have been to show they were not vaccinated…

    1. How can this be allowed to take place ?
      I expect there will be searches made on everyone entering the court areas if Joke O Vitch plays. People were arrested and fined in Oz for trying to go to the local shops let alone playing effing tennis.
      Can you imagine the rubbish that would have been thrown onto the court at this insult to common mentality.

    2. 343586+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Rik,
      The latter would definitely form a high value core of a
      genuine peoples reset party, lab/lib/con current members need NOT apply as a punch in the gob often offends.

      We have suffered enough of their governance of destruction as being witnessed via the ongoing tally of sexually abused children alone.

  47. Just finished taking down the decorations. How plain the place looks! The MR did – yet again – a smashing job in designing the arrangement to be cat friendly. (ie – out of reach!!)

    1. Disturbing the dust again is the most annoying part. Fortunately, if you leave it long enough, it settles and you don’t notice it any more.

      1. The MR says that they should be removed the day BEFORE Epiphany.

        Who am I to argue?

        1. I don’t have anyone to argue with any more, Bill – I now take them down when I want 🙂 If I decide to leave them up until February, à la Sandringham, I can!

  48. Stabbed MP Stephen Timms: I am prepared to meet my attacker and want to forgive her
    Islamic extremist who assaulted former Labour minister says sorry in letter from jail as part of restorative justice process

    Danielle Sheridan : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/01/05/stabbed-mp-stephen-timms-prepared-meet-attacker-want-forgive/

    I am afraid that Stephen Timms is a prize pillock.

    From the Book of Common Prayer:

    Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all those who with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

    I have argued this matter with various priests. It is my firm opinion that forgiveness is a completely meaningless gesture if the person you are forgiving does not repent, regret or show any contrition for what he/she has done.

    There must be a forgivee as well as a forgiver.

    1. Wasn’t the woman an out and out fruit loop?
      I doubt if she’s yet had enough messages from the moon telling her to feel sorry.

    2. Timms has a suitable name. Timid, deluded, easily brainwashed do-gooder.
      ‘Restorative justice’ – yeah, right. Only saying and doing that to get out of jail a bit sooner. Back on the streets – back to the mission. These sub-human, scum are incapable of reform.

    3. I doubt there will be any contrition on the part of the Muslim, who will merely be being expedient and using taqiyya and kitman.

    5. Or

      Stabbed MP ( Military Policeman) Jack Reacher:

      I am prepared to meet my attacker and want to forgive her an Islamic extremist Welcome, as part of restorative justice process

          1. I’m not knocking his acting ability but………
            Taken was a good alternative to Reacher i have rad all Lee child’s books and enjoyed them, but i think he’s run out of ideas now.
            I have his latest, on chapter 6 now.

    8. Good afternoon, Rastus.

      Anyone stabbing me would not be forgiven, nor would I seek repentance from them. Instead I would invoke another time-honoured biblical phrase.

      Vengeance is mine.

    9. If she’s a muslim, she won’t be repentant about attacking a kuffar, she’ll just be practising taqiyya.

    1. And how and when was it tested on the most recent variant ? Jab Stocks were filled before it was even know of or announced.

      1. Oh but, yeah but, no but. Don’t ask awkward questions. You know the drill – listen, believe trust, obey and cower in fear of this terribly deadly variant that is behind 48 – yes, a massive, terrifying figure – deaths yesterday.

      2. I should have thought off that when walking Spartie today. The problems I had encouraging him to keep walking; it surprising how quickly your body temp. cools down while he leisurely investigates a clump of grass.

  53. Good morning. I make no apology for posting a link to an interview with Craig Paardekooper, who has marshalled millions of data from VAERS to find some extremely disturbing patterns. The variation of jab batches and the design of those variations seem undeniable. One of the most remarkable findings is that batches in the US tend to have higher lethality than serious injury while batches outside the US are the reverse by an appreciable amount.

    This sort of revelation will not cheer anyone, but we ignore it at our obvious peril.

    https://zeromandatoryvaxx.com/2022/how-bad-is-my-batch-craig-paardekooper/

    1. Then perhaps you shouldn’t let them in?

      Would you let someone you didn’t know into your home? No. Why should they be let into the country where they can do even more damage to a much broader range of people?

  55. Well, the honours system is not completely broken, though I’d say this guy’s contribution to our culture is far greater than that of may who receive greater recognition. Throughout the lockdown shit show he raised the money to continue concerts without an audience and stream them all online free of charge, keeping the musicians employed and the quality of music making high.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc7d908224951c3023ba7e16d3be47c408f31b4097d304e678594620fe5da9cf.png

    1. Shocking. He appears NOT to be a bame. Or a woman. Or, better still, a bame woman with no background or interest in music.

      How are you feeling now?

      1. Still lousy in the mornings but otherwise my appetite has returned and that’s a big bonus. I revive as the day goes on and have just enjoyed lunch – BBC cooking is a lot better than mine! (A colleague told me yesterday that he looks forward to coming into the office partly because the food is better than his live-in girlfriend makes too, though he wouldn’t tell her that!)

        John G is gay – does that count? He’s not camp though, so maybe not. He is also a fine singer in his own right though he doesn’t use the Wigmore stage to show that off.

        1. I had assumed that. Only ½ a point, I’m afraid. My candidates would have scored 8, 8, 15….{:¬))

        2. Keep on with the toast and marmite. And lots and lots of fluid. Wash the toxins out.

    2. Excellent fellow. And he didn’t even bother to enrich himself unlike politico’s and their cronies.

  56. 343586+ up ticks,
    Could it be that this latest highly contagious plague hitting society is a manufactured tool of manipulating political overseers, the plague only
    common symptom is in the back region of the many “sufferers” in regards to putting space betwixt back & mattress.

    The unacknowledged name of this latest age old plague is called GREED.
    .

    1. The virus is real and significant, the panic is manufactured.

      As a chum said, these instructions are not for us. They’re for the moron smoking through an oxygen mask tracheostomy

  58. Time has come to break up the NHS into bit sized pieces to esablish some control. Reduce the admin by at least 50% and let them get on with it.Then look to privatise those parts that wil benifit from it.

    1. It doesn’t have to be all of it to start. Just one small hospital run as a business, paid *after* it does the work. See how it gets on with close monitoring by say, Bupa, not the department for health which is inept.

      1. They did in Huntingdon I think, it was so successful they took it back into the NHS. The NHS is a monster.

    2. I am certainly for root and branch reform. Reducing support costs would be part of that as well. I’d avoid letting doctors dominate the reforms as I have absolutely no trust in them to do so. Privatising the NHS? I used to be all for this but I am not so sure any more. Things like laboratory services maybe but not mainline health provision.

      1. Stop translating everything into a dozen or more languages. Let them employ an interpreter if they don’t speak English. It isn’t as though it isn’t a world language.

  59. I see Novak has landed in Australia and been refused entry.Good man.Stir the sh!t and fly home.
    The tournament will now be known as The Australian Closed Tennis Championship (only for those who took the clodshot)

  60. Maureen Lipman’s ‘Jewface’ criticism of Helen Mirren isn’t fair. 5 January 2022.

    But anyway, here goes: Maureen Lipman is wrong to say Helen Mirren should not be playing Golda Meir in an upcoming film. Yes, these two dames, two of our finest actresses, have locked horns somewhat. Mirren will play the former Israeli PM, the Iron Lady of Israel, in Golda, which is due to be released later this year. And Lipman, who is Jewish, is not happy.

    ‘The Jewishness of the character is so integral’, she told the Jewish Chronicle. ‘I’m sure she will be marvellous, but it would never be allowed for Ben Kingsley to play Nelson Mandela. You just couldn’t even go there.’ In short, just as you wouldn’t employ a light-skinned mixed-raced man to play a black man – Kingsley’s father was a Gujarati Indian – so you shouldn’t ask a non-Jew to play a Jew.

    Golda Meir was Black! Who knew? Lol!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/maureen-lipman-s-jewface-criticism-of-helen-mirren-isn-t-fair

    1. What would Maureen Lipman’s reaction be to being turned down for a non-Jewish role because she is Jewish?

  61. One for Eddy. Spent the morning over at the project waiting to see various specialists one of which was the guy who came to template the worktops for the kitchen cabinets. I’ve only seen templating undertaken once before by a couple of guys who used large transparent polycarbonate sheets, Stanley knives and black marker pens to create the exact shapes of the work tops required.
    Earlier today the Templater had driven down from Lichfield. The first surprise is that he didn’t bring any transparent polycarbonate sheets. Instead he set up a tripod in the middle of the kitchen on which he mounted a laser and computer and with this £6,000 worth of kit proceeded over the next hour to measure distances and elevations the results of which will be emailed to the worktop cutters. At this rate, apart from the flooring the Kitchen could be completed within the next 10 days or so.

  62. Tom Cruise went to a walk-in vaccination clinic and asked for a booster.
    The doctor picked him up under his armpits and put him on a raised
    cushion.

    2. Lord Ahmed of Rotherham was convicted of a serious sexual assault against a boy and the attempted rape of a young girl.
      Appropriate title.

      1. Ah but, under their creed buggering young boys probably isn’t homosexuality, because they are children not men.

    4. Probably not as diverse as you might think. He is probably a sodomite with a preference for young bottoms regardless of sex.

    7. Filthy creature. Is he still using the Lord title? Anyone found guilty of a serious crime should automatically lose all titles.

          2. I am afraid you are mistaken. Despite the (forged) photograph, he is absolutely certain he never saw any of them. Not even in Woking.

    8. 343586+ up ticks,
      Evening M,
      A contender maybe but will have to do more to satisfy the party, a bit more rape & more BUM work also a touch
      of getting out & about regarding a bit of cottaging would not go amiss.

      anthony charlie lyntons title is in NO jeopardy.

  71. BTL from a favourite source:

    Carpe Jugulum
    3 HRS AGO
    There was NO scientific evidence whatsoever to support the implementation of a travel ban once SARS-CoV-2 was endemic. Hancock, Patel and Johnson lied from the start. The ONLY basis on which the ban was introduced was that it showed public ( scientifically illiterate ) support for such a ban. Johnson, Patel and Hancock lied, decimated an entire industry, ruined people’s holidays and destroyed tens of thousands of livelihoods for nothing more than pandering to witless popular support.
    Johnson? A leader?
    He is the lowest form of opportunist political trash to have held the post of PM.

    REPLY
    1 REPLY
    18

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/covid-travel-update-review-restrictions-rules-pre-departure/

    1. That’s true if the travel is between two areas where the infection is endemic. However to be endemic the reproductive rate has to be stably at one over an extended period of time. That has not yet happened to my knowledge.

    1. Sounds like the jury were either ‘got at’ or were such sheep that they endorsed BLM out of ignorance of its reality.

    2. Tommyrot. It was a very clear and indisputable act of criminal damage. Were the jury all POC or lefties?

    3. If someone puts a brick through the window of one of the jurors, I hope he/she doesn’t complain – it can’t be criminal damage, can it?

      1. Try tipping the statue of Mary Effing Seacole into the harbour and see what the outcome would be.

        1. Does that case set a suitable precedent to allow one to do just that?
          Would it have to go to appeal?

          1. No. Criminal cases do no set precedents. Every case is, “Judged on its own facts”. So, anyone having the temerity to damage a black statue would almost certainly be gaoled for six months – probably more – ASSUMING the jury convicted.

            Of course, if one was able to slant the jury – by having white readers of The Sun, for example – the defendant would prolly be acquitted.

            Remember the Clive Ponting case – when a civil servant as guilty as sin of leaking a government document was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act? Judge summed up to indicate quite clearly that the bloke should be convicted. Acquitted. Jury didn’t like the background story.

          3. Nope, you’d be in chokey with no chance of appeal before your feet could touch the ground.

    1. Is the labourness former, or the peerage former?
      Surely not so very new news, but based on the deselection of a cricketer due to a tweet when he was barely a youth, Ahmed should be seriously fired.

    3. I suffer from an inability to recognise faces. When I first saw that picture I thought it was Alan Sugar. Oops.

      However, in this case it was an inability to recognise faeces.

    1. Curious in that it showed 720,000 something when I checked a few moments ago. Still a very impressive number.

  75. Dinner and a couple of quiz shows looming large on the horizon.

    See ya after the bunfight.

    1. Risk to life from breathing cold air. “Millions dead by Friday,” says Professor Ferguson.

      1. The World’s Largest Snowball Fight Was Canceled Because of Too Much Snow…..
        It’s definitely possible to have too much of a good thing.

        The Six Flags Great Adventure theme park in Ocean County, New Jersey closed on Saturday due to a winter storm warning. The park was scheduled to host an attempt at breaking the Guinness World Record for world’s largest snowball fight with 9,000 participants.

        Not many people know that….

        3. Jill hasn’t been here the last couple of days and Virginia had tremendous snow….I-95 interstate was shut because of snow and people were stranded in their cars. Maybe they lost power. It happens- I know!!

          1. Jill is further west near I81 so hopefully they are OK.

            We have never had trouble that far south, it has always been Pennsylvania or northern New York where we had snow problems.

          2. Had snow twice in NC, second time about 4 inches. Dog was thrilled as he’d never seen it before and then he discovered he could eat it!

      2. That’s global warming for you. It would be minus 35 if there wasn’t a climate emergency!

    4. ‘Injuries from slips’ Patronising nannying nonsense. Any little child could tell you ice and snow can be slippery – and the more slippery, the better 🙂 .

    5. Has Johnson or Whitless mandated the wearing of gloves, scarves and warm coats, yet?

  79. Evening, all. We’ve had all the seasons in one day here; snow overnight, sunshine, biting cold wind, sleet and then sun again. As far as the headline goes, the government doesn’t give a toss; all those in Westmonster (sic) are insulated from the effects of their stupidity. It’s the PBI that has to pick up the tab again 🙁

      1. ‘Evening, Bill. Ah, there’s the rub. The sheep still seem to be compliant. I went shopping without a mask despite the notices saying masks are mandatory. Nobody challenged me or even looked askance. The rest of the flock were masked to the eyeballs.

        1. We had a skype with some London chums yesterday. As we closed, I said (as a joke) that I was shocked that they were not masked. “Oh, we were yesterday when the gas fitter called…”

          One wonders about sanity, really.

  80. Supper tonight.

    Delia’s marinaded Rump steak in a cream and port sauce. Baby broccoli and aligot. The aligot used up all the left over cheeses and cream from the holidays. Burp !

    1. Back then, butter wouldn’t melt…..etc but now that they have learnt to be fearless hunters in the uncharted jungles of Norfolk they are awaiting recognition by The Royal Geographic Society for their exploits.

      1. They asked me about the David Attenborough Award, the other day. The one for destroying wild life…!

  82. If we use the same amount of electricity and gas next year as we have in the last 12 months, it will cost us more than £4,500. That’s the quote from our OVO supplier for a 1, 2 or 3 year fixed rate plan.

        2. Not if you’re determined to have that mahogany coach and 8 grey horses, as well as the funeral bonfpyre (sic) with several sacrificed virgins.

      2. On a ‘Comparison’ website there’s one only that’s cheaper. Scottish Power says same 1, 2 or 3 year contract for £1,723 less, but a smart meter is mandatory, which we obviously don’t want. That’s the only cheaper one. OVO, if we go ‘Variable’ is initially 24% less than their fixed rates.

          1. We’ve got a dual wood/coal burner. Which we will be using more, but are you thinking of us incorporating a central heating/hot water system to it?

          2. That is one possibility, which I’m also considering at the moment. Friends got a new pellet woodstove a couple of years ago, and they say it’s much better than using logs; they just empty a box of pellets in in the morning, and it does the rest, and the central heating is always warm. But logs are cheaper of course. You can get stoves that can run on either.

            You can also have air vents attached to shoot warm air directly into other rooms, but it depends on the design of your house – I saw a modern system where the stove was in the (huge) entrance hall, and the warm air was directed into two rooms as well as up to the first floor.
            Another possibility would be solar panels that would give a bit back to the grid, of course.

            We have a very old, very basic woodstove, that sits in the kitchen, with a large, unsightly stove pipe connected to the chimney.
            (None of your fancypants glass door ones, tucked away in the fireplace so that all the heat goes efficiently up the chimney!)

            Our stove is waist high, and has a flat top for cooking. So we don’t use electric hotplates in winter, only the woodstove for cooking. We have a small dutch oven that we can sometimes use on the woodstove top instead of the electric oven.
            The ugly stove pipe is very good at dispersing heat, so we dry the clothes on a rack next to the stove (no tumble dryer).

            Hot water in the bathroom is set on the lower temperature setting. No water heater at the kitchen sink. Dishwasher is set at 50 degrees – I tried the washing machine at 30, but our clothes smelt bad, so had to switch that back up to 40.
            All our light bulbs are lowest energy possible of course. One electric heater of 500W in the bathroom, positioned to blow hot air directly at you when you’ve just got out of the shower – strictly to be switched off after showering! No electric heaters in the rest of the house – we use hot water bottles at night. No blarsted electric vehicles either! No TV. No electric kettle (though the children complain about that one). No unnecessary electric gadgets, including ones that require battery charging. Don’t bother ironing most things.

            I only cut out the things we don’t really miss – I might relent and get an electric kettle again in the summer!
            We had 3 or 4 people in the house over the last twelve months, and our electricity usage was equivalent to the average for a family with between 1 and 2 people.

          3. Very good, we’re making similar changes to some of our habits and will take on board (I know that sounds a bit woke) some of your suggestions. Thanks.

          5. The dishwasher is more efficient in water and electricity usage than doing it by hand. It’s also a LOT easier on my poor nerves than looking at mountains of washing up while I nag whoever’s turn it is to do it!

            After we moved into our current house, there was about six months when we didn’t even have a kitchen sink, but the dishwasher was connected!

          6. It would be interesting to know if compostable paper utensils and plates, with no washing up at all are more environmentally friendly than a dishwasher.

          7. I don’t care about environmentally friendly CO2 fraud, only about saving money!
            We could all eat off banana leaves, if it comes to that!

            Good point though – I wonder how the cost of a catering sized pack of paper plates would compare to running the dishwasher! But I’d still have to run it for the other stuff, and bamboo knives and forks would definitely be more expensive.
            Plus my children would die of embarrassment having Mrs Scrooge for a mother.

          13. Our is a largish 4 bed granite early 1800s cottage, not the easiest building to run pipes through or insulate.

          14. I have a similar system with a multi-fuel Rayburn. It heats the water, cooks the food, dries the clothes and runs the central heating. I normally never use electricity for heating unless you count running the pump to get the hot water round the system. Petrol car, diesel motorhome, run the washing machine overnight (economy 7) and the dishwasher ditto if I can arrange it. I do have a TV and pvr. Electric kettle is only used in the summer, as is the immersion heater. Usually my summer bills are higher than my winter ones.

          16. I think that’s the one I should probably get installed, with the water and central heating system, but I don’t want to lose the cooking possibility either! I don’t have central heating at the moment, so we have warm rooms and cool rooms.
            Wood has not gone up yet, but I expect it will if everything else is going up.

          17. My Rayburn has an oven, just like the electric cooker (only cheaper because it’s always on) as well as the hot plate.

    3. Avoiding long term fixed contracts for as long as possible is my approach at the moment.
      Even the Greeniest of Greeniacs is going to see the writing on the wall.

      2. I was talking to a German friend the other day. The Greens, he said, have lost their squeaky clean, virtuous image…no longer can they expect to hoover up votes from naive but well-meaning people who want to support recycling. The iron fist in the (green) velvet glove has become apparent!

        1. Watermelon politics; a layer of green on the outside, but blood red through and through.

    3. No! No more cookies. I have eaten more cookies and chocky lately than I have in the last 10 years.

  84. I have just realised that my medicine glass is empty. So I must away to refill it.

    Have a lovely evening doing something nice, like knitting a face mask.

    Going to be a chilly night with quite a frost – AT LAST – that’ll bring the leeks, cavolo nero and broccoli on nicely. Market tomorrow – must look out my thermal vest.

    A demain.

      1. Humph.
        That’s Bill Thomas you’re replying to.
        There’s enough red hot rage in there to power Drax.

          1. In respect to Convid, most people are ‘buying’ what they think is the danger’

    3. Hard to choose one, there are so many candidates. Boris is obvious, Hancock, Blair, Kahn the destroyer in London….

  86. Do we admire Micron for his honesty? Or do we think he is an arrogant little pwick? Quote from the Spekkie article.

    “In a television interview last month, Macron admitted he had on occasion erred in his attitude towards his people, a fault he attributed to ‘not being familiar with our compatriots’.”

    Wow … just “wow”. I can see him gambolling around Petit Trianon with his gussied-up sheep, the sunlight glinting on his hooky diamond necklace.

    2. Thank goodness maman is ambidextrous, she can toss him off with the little finger of either hand.

      1. When your drinking pal has had enough beer but you don’t want them to leave, it’s’ “Could you toss off a short?”

        1. Didn’t the England rugby team get into trouble some years ago for participating in dwarf tossing?

  87. Four Colston vandals cleared. Surely that will give the green light to a lot of others to destroy things they don’t like?

    1. Unless they’re white.
      Destroy a George Floyd memorial and you’re for the high jump.

    2. On Colchester High Street there is an incredibly tall and ugly statue of a woman taking up space on the pavement. Now that (today’s judgement) gives me ideas.

        1. You’re right, Tom, but the Colchester statue is an ugly one of an ugly woman, whereas the one in Ipswich is a lovely one of a lovely woman. She reminds me of someone, but I’m not sure who!

      1. 343586+ up ticks,
        Evening Lotl,
        I do wish they were mine but only retweeted, if we suffer just doom & gloom
        then we have lost our sense of decency/ humanity,that must NEVER be allowed to happen.

  89. I’m finding it difficult to understand how four people recorded on video committing criminal damage can be found not guilty of committing, er, criminal damage.

    There was a time when juries upheld the law, not re-interpreted it in accordance with their own prejudices. Is that time past? Do we no longer live under the rule of law?

      1. Only if you’re a Lefty though. The Left have set about destroying history and monuments for centuries. This isn’t new stuff. They’re just carrying on the vile fascism they have since their inception.

        If the black looting mob had been met with a gun line and shot a few hundred times htey’d be forced to realise they are wrong and kicked back in their nasty little hole and rational society would prevail but instead the state wanted them to riot, loot, steal and destroy. They were endorsed by big state.

    5. The legal system – and the Judiciary – have been corrupted; epitomised by the absurdity of Mrs Blair’s Supreme Court … reductio ad absurdum

  90. 343586+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    UK Vaccine Chief Says Constant Booster Shots Is ‘Not Sustainable’

    Am I missing something then if there is NO follow on, and heavens forbid adverse things begin to happen on the jabbing withdrawal stage what worth the unjabbed then, now there’s a question to ponder.

    1. I thought the boot was on the other foot; they want to create a “vaccine” that can be showered out of aeroplanes over cities so that nobody misses out on it.
      All for your own good of course.

      1. 343586+ up ticks,
        Evening BB2,
        Taking in the last two years & actions of the odious LLC coalition they would more than likely be up for dealing out a dosage of agent orange.

    3. They’ve already injected the pathogen i.e. the ‘spike’ protein and if the likes of Dr Peter McCullough, Dr Bhakdi, Dr Fleming, Dr Yeadon et al. are correct, that’s plenty to be going on with.

    3. If only everyone would take a leaf out of his book and put an 3nd of this nonsense once and for all.

    5. If you or I arrived in Oz and refused to show our vaccination status, we would be shown the door mighty quickly. In fact we wouldn’t get that far, we wouldn’t be able to board the flight.

      Whatever the rights and wrongs, he doesn’t deserve special handling because he is one of the elite. Male a stand against the overlords by all means but expect the same treatment as everyone else.

      After all the Aus and NZ lock downs and border controls have been such a success at keeping little buggie out! /sarc.

  98. Posted this earlier on today, it’s now red flagged.

    Robert Spowart
    10 HRS AGO
    Reply to Semper Faemina – view message
    Message Actions
    To repeat what i posted earlier:-
    One of the interesting points is that people are assuming this is a criminal prosecution.
    It isn’t. It’s a civil action for damages.
    Which in its self raises a few questions, especially as to why she is targeting him specifically and not the other prominent people involved?
    Was he REALLY the only one of Epstein’s friends to have sex with her?

    3. That woman Virginia Roberts…in that photo with P. Andrew- does she look scared, uncomfortable, anxious? No, and trust me, I am serious about child abuse and abuse against women. But come on. That seems to me a person totally at ease with where she is and whom she is with. Some women are enticed by wealth and she went back, didn’t she? As did others. This is about money and the reason they are targeting Andrew is that he is a British Royal and his reputation preceded him.
      I don’t like P Andrew very much but this seems a deliberate operation against him and, also, maybe aided and abetted by republicans in this country whose greatest desire is to bring down the monarchy.

      1. If anything, Andrew looks more startled, as if he was not expecting a photo. He looks caught unawares and she looks pleased as punch to have trapped him.

      2. I don’t really agree, because a good manipulator can make the victim go along with their own humiliation happily, and all the evidence points to Epstein and Maxwell being manipulative controlling abusers.
        If you study any abusive marriage, you can find photos of the abuser and their victim looking happy. It doesn’t mean the marriage wasn’t abusive. An integral part of abuse is rewarding the victim from time to time to make them keep coming back for more. Any fool can avoid someone who is nasty to them all the time; it’s much harder to avoid someone who is nice to you 70% of the time, and vile for the other 30%, especially when you don’t have much life experience and have been promised great rewards.
        She probably thought she was in with a chance of marrying Andrew when that photo was taken. Maxwell wasn’t going to tell her the truth.
        I think the people who are criticising the girls just don’t understand the nature of controlling abuse.

        1. I agree with you BB.

          Prince Andrew was newly divorced , and the stories and tragedy some of us hear about many men and women on the rebound is the stuff of best selling paperbacks and films .

          Prince Andrew had charisma , and had an eye for the girls . Moh and I met him years ago, he was the star turn , and a lads lad , although not too sure how popular he was when he served in the RN.

          There is a big but though .. if that young woman was star struck , she probably just wanted a photo of her and him for the photo album .

          I cannot imagine him being a gropey geezer actually, because of his status , he was probably a boring wham bang thank you mam type , and that is probablyy why his wife Sarah strayed , and Diana with boring old Charles .

          I reckon he fell into a venus fly trap, and is now being devoured alive.

          1. ha! yes I agree with that assessment of Andrew’s probable bedtime skills! Good-looking and a Prince to boot, he probably never had to make an effort, and he’s not the type to hone his skill for the sake of it.

    4. If the judge rules that the agreement can’t be used to protect Prince Andrew then it also can’t be used to protect who else? Must be a lot of nervous rich people tonight…

    6. Tacit consent to go after a Brit as long as she leaves the really important gangsters alone.

  102. Goodnight and God bless to our happy NoTTLers.

    I have a good one from Arizona for tomorrow.

      1. Good morning, Herr Oberst. It looks like we are both waiting to be first to post on Thursday.

          1. I’m on the point of brewing a cafetière of coffee at this moment. So you might just beat me to Thursday’s first post.

          2. I’m on the point of brewing a cafetière of coffee at this moment. So you might just beat me to Thursday’s first post.

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