Wednesday 8 December: The booster rollout is being hampered by inaccurate NHS records

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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806 thoughts on “Wednesday 8 December: The booster rollout is being hampered by inaccurate NHS records”

  2. Anglo-French Differences

    Ah ze French and English eternal differences!

    During an international gynaecology conference, an English doctor and a French doctor were discussing unusual cases they had treated recently. “Only last week” the Frenchman said “a woman came to see me with a clitoris like a melon!”

    “Don’t be absurd” the Brit exclaimed. “It couldn’t have been that big My God, man, she wouldn’t have been able to walk if it were.”

    “Aah, you English, always thinking about size” replied the Frenchman. “I was talking about ze flavour!”

    2. Wake up Herr Oberst, you’re having a nightmare. Everyone knows about Global Warming. I guess even BoB will tell you that the temperature in his yard is at least 10 degrees Centigrade.

      Lol.

  4. The Foreign Office isn’t fit for purpose. 7 December 2021, 5:56pm.

    The general success of the war in Afghanistan never came down to British policy. It’s for Washington’s post-mortem to confront the difficult truths about the limits of military power in the pursuit of political objectives. The American state can take some comfort from the thought that British and Russian politicians past would recognise the quagmire they found themselves in. The question Britain has to answer is considerably simpler, but not necessarily less painful: do we still have a functioning Foreign Office?

    Apart from Mi6s murderous and self-harming activities in Syria the answer would be no! It’s not all bad news however. The Home Office is even worse; it simply ignores the instructions of Ministers and brings the Refugees in instead of keeping them out. The Government dare not even complain! The Ministry of Defence is a byword for financial incompetence and spends most of its time reducing the number of its soldiers and teaching them Woke Doctrine. This peculation is vastly exceeded by the NHS, into which vast sums are poured to no effect whatsoever, while the Social and Medical Catastrophe that is Covid looms over the future like some dreadful curse.

    You would think this would be enough but the Government itself is riddled with Liars and Incompetents of every persuasion. Most of them have no understanding of the world as it actually is at all. The Prime Minister himself blithely involving us in a possible Major War in Eastern Europe with no more concern than if it were a manoeuvre on Salisbury Plain.

    Holidays during crises? Christmas Parties? Fake Wars on Drug Crime? These are nothing less than a Decadent Elite indulging its fecklessness.

    Barring some Military or Foreign Political Crisis none of this will end until the only institution that still works, the Exchequer, finally collapses under the strain of financing it all.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-foreign-office-isn-t-fit-for-purpose

    1. ‘Morning, Minty. A small but typical example of BTL comments so far:

      Olivia Wilde
      1 HR AGO
      Is anyone really at all surprised at the Xmas party at 10 Downing Street last year?
      The picture of Carrie Johnson’s friend Allegra Stratton barely containing her laughter when recalling the supposed “business meeting”, only serves to perfectly Illustrate the utter contempt politicians and the civil service hold for the general public, depriving so many families of that last Christmas with an elderly or ailing relative as In my daughter In laws case.
      Boris should consider the calibre of his staff and scrutinise potential candidates with the due diligence a post In government affairs requires.
      Most of all, should stop giving jobs to people on his wife Carrie’s recommendation as well as giving her undue Influence on so many other Issues whilst he’s at It! EDITED

      Helen Rivans
      1 HR AGO
      Better still, Boris should resign and let a grown up become Prime Minister.

      Perigo Minas
      1 HR AGO
      As Julia Hartley Brewer just said – it’s you they’re laughing at.

    2. The idea that the exchequer works is hilarious. It’s a hidebound, incompetent bunch wedded to Keynesian spend economics. There’s a reason taxes keep going up and tax revenues fall. It’s because those fools refuse to admit that their ideology is a complete failure.

    2. Two cartoons, two broadsides against the FCO. And so richly deserved after yesterday’s pitiful performance before the Committee. And now Bunter is denying any involvement in the matter of the dogs. I don’t remember any such denial at the time. And besides, why did his PPS get involved? His lies are finally catching up with him. With any luck this will prompt his removal early in the New Year.

      ‘Morning, C1.

  8. California Academics Warn Woke Math Curriculum ‘Will Do Lasting Damage’

    An open letter from more than 1,200 California academics and teachers is protesting the state’s proposed K-12 math curriculum, which the signatories state amounts to “an endless river of new pedagogical fads that effectively distort and displace actual math.”

    Signatories of Independent Institute’s “Open Letter to Replace the Proposed New California Math Curriculum Framework” include 900 academics, at 67 California colleges and in universities, who assert the state is “on the verge of politicizing K-12 math in a potentially disastrous way.”

    The letter sends a similar warning as another from hundreds of the nation’s top scientists and mathematicians that expresses “alarm” at what the signers say are the likely devastating consequences of California’s “Equitable Math” framework that prioritizes social justice ideology over actual math.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/education/2021/12/07/california-academics-warn-woke-math-curriculum-will-do-lasting-dam

          1. …and multiply the ‘woke’ – who’d rather I said ‘times’ ‘cos multiply is a very difficult word.

  9. Good morning all.

    To read the papers, one would believe that Storm Barra was still raging for another 12 hours, yet for most of us it finished yesterday evening.

    2. ‘Morning Peddy!
      Yep! We had a raw, sleety day with not much wind, but 40 miles South in Lanarkshire there was a lot of snow and trees blown down! As was said yesterday, you’d almost think it was winter!

      1. We had misty drizzle all afternoon, followed by a short downpour at dusk. Light winds throughout.

      2. Seasons no longer exist. All we have is climate change. If you will not obey the settled science, you will be re-educated.

    4. Finished at lunchtime here, though we had the tail end in the evening after a calm afternoon.

  10. Paris: Christmas Market Set Up for Black Merchants Only Criticised

    A Christmas market in Paris’s 18th arrondissement requiring that all of the merchants be black led to allegations of racism and segregation.

    A Christmas market held over the weekend at the Hasard Ludique cultural space in the 18th arrondissement (district) of Paris was organised by the association Je Consomme Noir (I Consume Black), with a focus on products such as food, drink, books, and beauty products made by “African and Afro-descendant creators”.

    French newspaper Le Figaro reported on the backlash against the event on social media, quoting some as stating the market was an example of “segregation” and launching accusations of racism. A volunteer of Je Consomme Noir, however, claimed the association did not want to debate politics.

    “We don’t do politics. We want to convey a positive message, by doing things for our community,” the volunteer told the newspaper. She added that they had “expected to have this kind of criticism” and said that customers of all races were welcome at the market.

    Commercial lawyer Michaël Amado stated that the market was not discriminatory despite all sellers being black, telling the French newspaper that “it would be discriminatory to prohibit consumers from coming to enjoy the products on the sole pretext that they would not be part of the organising community.”

    Issues around immigration and segregation have become one of the main focuses of the upcoming French presidential campaign, with conservative writer Eric Zemmour holding his first official campaign rally over the weekend to an audience of at least 10,000 after formally announcing his candidacy last week.

    Zemmour has spoken at length on the demographic shifts occurring in France as well as the theory of the “Great Replacement”, with a poll from late November finding half of French people believe in the demographic shift theory.

    Demographics, specifically birth rates, is a subject also being discussed by other politicians across the political spectrum in the run-up to next year’s election, as well as other issues including Islamist separatism, a matter even being debated by the government of current French President Emmanuel Macron.

    Among the French public, there is also a growing number of people concerned about anti-white racism, with a poll conducted in June of last year revealing that 47 per cent believe that anti-white racism exists and is an issue in the country.

    1. I can’t help thinking that the vast majority of anti white racism is driven by left wing white people.

      1. Not sure about vast majority

        This little charmer will do anything to stir the pot

        Revealed: Tory-hating ex-head girl behind Durham University protests launched ‘culture commission’ to ‘deconstruct toxicity’ on campus
        Seun Twins was behind campaign to oust Durham Uni Professor Tim Luckhurst
        Came after he branded walkout in Rod Liddle speech by woke students ‘pathetic’
        Twins has launched a ‘culture commission’ to ‘locate and deconstruct toxicity’ at her university
        She has previously hailed ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as ‘the white king’

        https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/12/07/22/51466563-10285785-image-m-9_1638915067379.jpg

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10285785/Tory-hating-ex-head-girl-Durham-University-protests.html

        1. These people are merely the foot soldiers, being driven and encouraged by the self-loathing whites in all our institutions, not just here but across what was the “white world”

        4. I thought you went to university to learn. That sai, I was a prat while there as well.

          She’ll grow up and look at her life with shame. Or she’ll become a diversity wonk in the feather bedded public sector and never grow up at all.

    2. Plain, abject, total racism. Positive message my back side. It’s blatant racism. It would be illegal if tried in this country.

      1. You sure about that, wibbling? I suspect nt, since blekks cannot be racist, by definition.
        Just don’t spend money there. The takings will be low, and so the enthusiasm to continue will flag, too.

  11. Morning all,

    Before the world has come to grips with COVID-19 infections caused by the Omicron variant by trying to find something in its genome that isn’t there ( a deletion), scientists have now discovered that there is an Omicron variant where the thing that was not there before may no longer not be there now. This is the BA.2 version of the B.1.1.529.

    The discovery of the new form of Omicron prompted researchers to split the B.1.1.529 lineage into standard Omicron, known as BA.1, and the newer variant, known as BA.2.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/07/scientists-find-stealth-version-of-omicron-not-identifiable-with-pcr-test-covid-variant

    2. Omicron variant may be a ‘live Covid vaccine’, claims Vladimir Putin. 8 December 2021.

      On Tuesday the Russian President suggested fears about omicron, a highly mutated coronavirus strain which is designated a variant of concern by the World Health Organization, may turn out to be “premature”.

      “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Mr Putin said. “They say it’s not that virulent. Some specialists even call it a live vaccine.”

      Live vaccines include an attenuated, or weakened, form of the virus that causes a particular disease to trigger an immune response that will generate protective antibodies, but is not strong enough to make an individual sick. The measles mumps and rubella (MMR) and yellow fever vaccines both include attenuated virus, for instance.

      Vlad’s not the daftest Leader on the block!

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/07/omicron-variant-may-live-covid-vaccine-claims-vladimir-putin/

      1. A live vaccine that comes free at the point of catching would be anathema to all those in the world with interests in Pharma vaccines.

  13. Sam Ashworth-Hayes
    The Foreign Office isn’t fit for purpose
    7 December 2021, 5:56pm

    Now that the dust from the choppers has settled, we are left with two abiding images of the West’s adventure in Afghanistan. The first is an American Chinook hovering over its embassy, rescuing staff in a botched evacuation. This debacle unfolded just weeks after president Biden promised the world there would be no parallel with the fall of Saigon, and ‘no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy’. The second is a plane taking off from Kabul laden with 150 pets.

    The general success of the war in Afghanistan never came down to British policy. It’s for Washington’s post-mortem to confront the difficult truths about the limits of military power in the pursuit of political objectives. The American state can take some comfort from the thought that British and Russian politicians past would recognise the quagmire they found themselves in. The question Britain has to answer is considerably simpler, but not necessarily less painful: do we still have a functioning Foreign Office?

    The testimony of Raphael Marshall suggests we do not. It was obvious in August that something had gone badly awry with Britain’s evacuation, when government priorities lead to the juxtaposition of American soldiers lifting their dead for their final flight home while British soldiers loaded dogs onto a plane. That the evacuation was shambolic and subject to political interference was clear then. The degree to which the instruments of the British state simply collapsed under the strain was not.

    Appeals from Afghans desperate for help went unread. Those who risked their lives to work with the British state guarding our Embassy were deemed ineligible for help. Very little effort was made to distinguish the truthfulness of claims of risk made. Priority was not given to those able to reach Kabul in time to be evacuated. Calls to Afghans for evacuation were made in English; there was no Dari or Pashto language capability. The BBC’s cleaning staff were evacuated while interpreters were left behind.

    The process was chaotic, the prioritisation arbitrary, and the civil service inefficient. When logins for phone systems were lost, staffers were told that any attempt to obtain new logins to speed the evacuation was a security risk; the correct response was to wait 12 hours for the IT team to turn up for work in the morning. The team processing appeals consisted of six people, and at times there were no night shifts; on one Saturday afternoon the team consisted of Raphael Marshall alone. The expectation was for eight hours of work, five days a week; any more than that would be ‘selfish’ and interfere with a healthy ‘work-life balance’. There was no expertise on Afghanistan in the unit.

    A government department cannot function with the agility of a startup, but we cannot have an effective state when the motto of the civil service may as well be ‘move slow but still break things’. We also cannot have an effective state without clear leadership, and a failure of this magnitude does not occur without at least some political assistance.

    This was ably provided by the Prime Minister’s alleged instruction (which he has denied) to focus capacity on airlifting animals. When I wrote about this particular moral abomination in August, the Ministry of Defence insisted that no resources were diverted from operational work getting people out of Kabul. That was not credible at the time, even leaving aside the Defence Secretary claiming the exact opposite. It is somehow even less so today.

    In evacuating Afghanistan, Britain faced a crippling lack of capacity not due to a lack of aircraft, but due to a limited number of troops able to bring people into the airport. People who had been approved for evacuation were turned away because of this constraint. And with the scarce logistical, military, and organisational attention we had, we airlifted pets.

    A war cannot be won without an achievable objective. In much the same light, policy cannot be implemented without clear instructions and aims. The failure of Britain’s Kabul evacuation may lack the grand scale of the end of American interventionism, but the combination of political and organisational disarray is painfully familiar.

    What, exactly, did we hope to achieve with this evacuation? While it was impossible to help everyone, the point was surely to get out those who worked with us, who we owed a moral obligation to, and to show that we were a reliable friend and ally. Instead, we chose to evacuate dogs. We decided that esoteric Western domestic priorities will always be put ahead of the people we were supposedly there to help, and that Britain cannot be trusted to keep its promises to the people who help it.

    Salisbury said of Afghanistan that ‘we cannot conquer it; we cannot leave it alone. We can only spare it to our utmost vigilance’. From a 21st century perspective, he may as well have been speaking of the wider world; the formless places which give rise to crime and terrorism that reach us wherever we are. When we next decide to intervene overseas, wherever it may be, we will once again turn to the local population for help and support. And when they decide whether or not to grant it, they will make their decision knowing that, in the end, the British state views them as less than dogs.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-foreign-office-isn-t-fit-for-purpose

      1. It’s difficult to identify any ministers that one has confidence in but even if the whole lot are replaced, the civil service is so irredeemably lefty and incompetent.

        1. Ship them all off to administer the Highlands, Islands Orkney and Shetland, not forgetting sweet Rockall.

          The new lot to be inducted with the fear that non-compliance means a term overseas in the Somali Embassy.

          1. What have the Orkneys etc done to deserve that?

            No, I’ve a better idea. Sack every Grade 4 and above and start again.

          2. Sacking is by far the best option, Iff, but my understanding is that they cannot be sacked.

            Their new posts will be in specially built brick sh1thouses with no telephone or Wi-Fi and a curfew during the hours of darkness.

          3. Maggie would have sacked them, the same way that Reagan (I think) sacked the air traffic controllers. All it needs is the political will.

            However, it would be difficult for Boris to sack his senior civil servants, what with him being more useless than them.

          4. Thing is, there’s a lot of civil servants doing useful stuff. Well, useful as far as the state goes.

            The problem is the stuff they’re doing usefully doesn’t need to be done, so the jobs don’t need to exist. On top of that, the jobs that create the unnecessary work don’t need to exist going all the way up the chain fifteen or so rungs of waste.

          5. I think, Wibbles that Iffy and I were talking particularly about the worst of the lot – The Home Office and the Foreign Office – they both need culling.

            It will probably bring up the rest with – as my Mama would say – a round turn. An effective virtual slap in the lug, real if you don’t shape up.

          6. The HO and FCO are stuffed with “diverse” people who have their own – non British – agendas..

          7. Precisely the reason, Bill, to be shot of them, lock, stock and barrel – and maybe several boxes of ammo.

          8. They’d probably set up shipping them here.

            It’s simply time to start cutting. We cannot afford the massive waste in the public sector.

      2. I am just wondering , but please don’t have a pop at me , whether we were better off being governed by Europe ?

        The government and shadow wallahs are utterly inept.

        This whole fiasco reminds me of the time we had the most hopeless fumbling trainee teacher attempting to teach us all maths .

        We sussed her out straight away , her black board methods and thought processes certainly weren’t the crispest in the box .

        Boris and his crew really have to try harder , otherwise we will be well and truly on the road to hell.

        1. Not having a pop, Maggie but, “Governed by Europe?”

          Sorry, no way but we must find an alternative to the current set-up and, in my mind, it means over-seeing whatever the Commons do by the power that the Lords had prior to 1911; i.e., the ability to delay legislation for up to 12 months if it could be seen that it was not in the best interests of the UK at large – and that included Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland without any assemblies, wee pretendy parliaments trying to put their twopennorth in as spoilers.

          I would also add the power of recall by the electorate, if the sitting MP was idle or over-stepped the mark.

          They managed to get rid of the ‘Rotten Boroughs’ by the Reform Act of 1832. Now we need another Reform Act to get rid of the Rotten MPs.

        2. It’s because this useless lot became accustomed to being “governed by ‘Europe'” in other words, the EU, that we’re in the state we’re in. They lost the habit of making sound decisions because some foreign bureaucrat always made them for them.

          1. I have said for years that it is scribbled notepad politics that has gazundered us .

            Everything appears to be a timed power point presentation with role play .

            The Media are an absolute disgrace , what do they want to achieve in this time of plague and crisis .

            Boris is a wild card .. but he is our PM, there is no one of any merit who stands out as a potential
            headman .

            The thought of Starmer in charge or Corbyn reappearing is terrifying .

            There is a growing rage which is getting out of hand .

            We don’t need riots , do we .

    2. All very well, but the basic premise underlying this debacle was that we should accept responsibility for saving anyone who asked for help. This is self-evidently tripe. If it is your country you should stay and fix it. When London was bombed nightly and hit by flying bombs and ballistic missiles, the inhabitants did not run away, they sent their children away to be safe, and then got on with it. If Afghanistan is to be fixed, the Afghans must fix it. If Syria is to be fixed, the Syrians must fix it. If the UK is to be fixed that is our job.

  15. British military must embrace diversity after scandals, says new chief. 8 December 2021.

    In his first speech, Adm Tony Radakin pointedly declared that the armed forces had to “strive to do better” in every “aspect of our leadership” in a speech to the Rusi thinktank. “That includes reflecting the diverse nation we serve. Because if we don’t, then quite simply, we risk looking ridiculous.”

    The chief of the defence staff, the first to come from the navy for two decades, said diversity was “not about wokefulness”, adding: “It is about woefulness. The woefulness of too few women. The woefulness of not reflecting the ethnic, religious and cognitive diversity of our nation.

    “And the woefulness of not following our own values, whether respect for each other or the simple integrity of claiming expenses. This affects our culture, our fighting power, our prowess.”

    Social Justice Warrior as Chief of Defence Staff. This lot wouldn’t last five minutes against the present Russian Army.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/07/british-military-must-embrace-diversity-after-scandals-says-new-chief

    1. “This lot wouldn’t last five minutes against the present Russian Army.”

      Then it will be “Woe is me,” all around, amid a great wailing and gnashing of teeth and a lot of senior officer retirements on reduced pension, if at all.

      1. Morning Nan. There will probably be some noble “Last Stands” or “Heroic Withdrawals”!

    2. The UK is 98% white – or should be. The last memory i have of one of the ropers serving was as soon as he was deployed he said it was against his religion to kill people. I think he got away with the salary and pension he’d claimed in that time as well.

      As for women – yes, of course. As long as that woman can carry her male counterpart, kit and weapon 50 metres in 20 seconds. Otherwise she’s a battle field liability.

      What we really need is far fewer woke admirals waffling on about Left wing idiocy. We need to redesign the military and start culling the waste.

        1. Ooh, I say! The MD of a company in which I worked for a while was a nephew of Joyce Grenfell. He said that some of her anecdotes and tales were unprintably different from the public persona.

    4. What is the military there for? Defence against an aggressive foe? These pansies seem to have forgotten they are there to protect the rest of us.

    5. I have an uneasy feeling that Radakin will be even worse than Carter, and that takes some doing!

    2. Nice!
      I love the Lights in colour – I have only seen them in green – and that was magical enough.

    5. That is what North Norfolk will look like when the no gas, no petrol, no diesel, no woodstoves regime so loved by Cariion and the Eco-freaks kicks in.

    6. Looks like a stage set: Aladdin and cowardly servant/animal venture into King Rat’s realm.

  18. Morning all

    The booster rollout is being undermined by inaccurate NHS records

    SIR – Tim Oldfield (Letters, December 7) discusses the inaccurate recording of Covid vaccinations.

    My wife received a letter from the NHS in Bristol saying she had not yet had the booster. She had, in fact, received it 28 days earlier. How many other people’s records are wrong?

    Accurate recording is vital, as the Covid response is reliant on data. How can the Government make informed decisions if it is being guided by experts using incorrect figures? When I was having outpatient treatment in hospital, this was a topic of discussion. One woman said she had received eight letters telling her (wrongly) that she had missed her booster.

    A further error was that my wife was invited to get her booster many days before me, even though, due to our age difference, I had my first two jabs a month before her.

    Adrian Bailey

    Hayling Island, Hampshire

    SIR – There is a further problem for elderly housebound patients trying to get a booster (report, December 6) if they live across a Welsh county border.

    An elderly housebound relative – who is a patient of a Powys border practice, which probably has a third of its patients in the Neath Port Talbot (NPT) area – is awaiting a booster. She lives half a mile over the border.

    Apparently, senior nursing managers had a meeting last week but could not decide whether NPT or Powys district nurses, or even the practice nurses, could provide home boosters.

    This problem should have been recognised and resolved months ago. Have the bureaucrats forgotten that the “s” in NHS stands for “service”?

    Dr Ken Harvey FRCGP

    Glasbury-on-Wye, Brecknockshire

    SIR – Sherelle Jacobs (Comment, December 7) argues that “punishing the unvaccinated would be both immoral and unjustified”.

    It is the continued punishment of double and triple-vaccinated citizens that deserves censure. If people value their freedom so much, they should get vaccinated. Then we will all be able to live and travel without restrictions.

    Dr Aidan Gill

    Unterägeri, Zug, Switzerland

    SIR – I was chilled to learn that the Government has allowed GPs to reduce routine checks for the over-75s. My father’s prostate cancer was caught early enough for it to be treated as a result of one of these checks.

    Covid has taken enough precious time with our families away from us. Decisions like this risk taking away relatives for good.

    Claire Wright

    Derry Hill, Wiltshire

    SIR – I have come from a country (Zambia) with fewer than 20 new cases of Covid per day, and very few omicron cases, to a country with 40,000 new cases a day and hundreds of recorded omicron cases. I am in quarantine for 10 days and 11 nights. Why?

    Dr Richard Hiles

    Thirsk, North Yorkshire

      1. Dr Gill is clearly unaware that the huge rise in cases is almost exclusively in the vaccinated, since almost everybody is vaccinated. And the new variants of the virus that keep popping up (Who’d a thunk it?) avoid the vaccines, and result in more restrictions by a panicked and idiotic government.
        But, let’s blame the unvaxxed, ‘cos that’s easy, and we need someone to blame.

        1. It’s more likely that the vaccinated are not only more likely to visit the doctor, but also going about their lives thinking themselves safe and coming in to contact with more people.

          The unvaccinated are more likely to be ‘off book’ and not so easily recognised by the systems.

        2. Is Aidan Gill for real? What a clown!

          Q: What do the vaccinated and the unvaccinated have in common?
          A: Both groups will never be fully vaccinated.

        3. Sturgeon has denounced the unvaccinated as “selfish”. The Scottish government is now discussing restrictions daily. Grinch Central.

          1. Oy Vay, Anne, I’m off to the Synagogue with my packet of pork scratchings for the sermon.

      2. Dr Hiles should have gone further and drawn a comparison between the number vaccinated in the UK last summer and the number vaccinated in Zambia now…

    2. I’m surprised at the faith people put in the NHS. It’s sheer bureaucracy and inefficiency guarantees records are inaccurate.

      The infighting is par for the course. There’s no interest in solving the problem as it’s easier to argue over who’s budget it comes out of. It doesn’t consider ‘service’ part of it’s remit. It’s primary duty is to itself.

      1. I worked in the NHS briefly. Annual financial budgets were prepared by inflating actual expenditure fraudulently and adding a few percentage point to the total. The amount required by the budget was always an increase on the previous year. At ground level, the finance department would receive a request from a ward ( a Cost Centre) to charge another ward for an empty cardboard folder ( cost 2op) that had been transferred.

        1. I remember the panic buying and installation of carpets in geriatric wards to use up the budget.
          Fitted in February, practically walked out on their own by June.

        2. Decreasing NHS Budgets

          I also worked in the NHS, for five years from 1994-1999 when GP Fundholding was in operation.

          In the first years of GPFH the practices which applied to become Fundholders and manage their own budgets were given very generous amounts which often let them build smart new premises. To quote Wikipedia: Some of the first wave of fundholders ended the year with surpluses in excess of £100,000. Five had surpluses of £200,000.
          In the second and later years, government realisation began to dawn and the generous flow of money steadily declined year on year until Bliar (accepted spelling here) decided that Fundholding had caused an unfair two-tier system which must be abolished, so the Labour government did that in 1995.

          3. On a serious note: “…Blair decided that Fundholding had caused an unfair two-tier system which must be abolished.”

            The Labour mindset summed up: “If all cannot have it, none shall have it.” Surely it should be “If some can do it well, all should try and do it well.”

            Fundholding brought about a big improvement in GP services in many parts of the country. Blair managed to undermine that even as, to his credit, many more people were going through medical school.

    3. Well done Dr Harvey, on remembering the ‘s’ in NHS stands for Service. Whilst he is at it, he might remember that the ‘n’ stands for National.

    4. The left hand has not the remotest idea what the right hand does in the NHS in my experience. I made an appointment as requested only to get a text from the same people telling me “our records show you have not made an appointment”. This same text came immediately after the confirmation letter of the appointment and again after the appointment was cancelled. Then I got a text threatening to take me off the system! Clap for the NHS? Crap is the NHS more like.

  19. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    What a remarkable, and valuable, career for a former RAF apprentice:

    Air Commodore John Clements, RAF apprentice who rose to become an expert in airborne radar systems – obituary

    Surviving a crash into the sea, escaping from the submerged aircraft, he went on to carry out much vital work on radar research and testing

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    6 December 2021 • 4:25pm

    Air Commodore John Clements, who has died aged 99, was an aircraft apprentice who played a key role in the development of airborne radars and who went on to hold a senior post in RAF Signals.

    After training as a wireless operator mechanic at the Electrical and Wireless School at RAF Cranwell in January 1940, Clements joined a small team at RAF St Athan who were completing the development of the first airborne radar equipment, Air to Surface (ASV) and Air Interception (AI). Their role was to undertake the ground and flight testing of these new systems before they were delivered to the RAF for operational use.

    Initially, Clements was involved in testing ASV Mark 1 in Coastal Command aircraft. He took every opportunity to fly, which included acting as the radar operator in Sunderland aircraft flying on anti-submarine operations. After working on Catalinas and the long-range Liberator he started testing airborne radars in the Beaufort and Beaufighter.

    On April 8 1942 he was detailed to fly in a Botha aircraft, equipped as a flying classroom to train ASV Mark 2 operators. Minutes after take-off, the aircraft plunged into the sea, killing the pilot. Clements managed to escape from the submerged aircraft before being picked up and transferred to hospital. His experience qualified him for membership of the exclusive “Goldfish Club”.

    After a series of accidents that killed some of his ex-apprentice colleagues, those acting as flight test observers were granted flying pay of 1/6d (7.5p) per day. They were not, however, awarded the recently introduced RO (Radar Operator) flying brevet.

    By 1943, Clements had started flight-testing the new bombing radar aid H2S being fitted to the Halifax and Lancaster bombers. By the second half of 1944 he was assessing the new American radar being installed in the Fleet Air Arm’s Firefly fighter.

    When he left St Athan at the end of the war to be commissioned, he had carried out some 300 flight tests of 10 different radars installed in 19 different aircraft types.

    Arthur John Baskett Clements was born in Swansea on December 2 1921 and was educated at Bristol’s Cotham Grammar School. In 1937 he passed out third out of almost 2,000 candidates in the competitive examination for aircraft apprentices. In September 1937 he began his training at Cranwell.

    Following commissioning in 1945, he served in India, including the post of adjutant at RAF Dum Dum, now the international airport at Kolkata (Calcutta). On his return to England he was posted to Lyneham, a major air transport base operating the York aircraft.

    He was detached to Wünsdorf in Germany and flew on several flights delivering supplies during the Berlin Airlift. In May 1950, while a staff officer at HQ 38 Group, he flew on the last York flight to Singapore and shared the signaller’s duties.

    In 1952-53 he did a one-year postgraduate electronics course at Southampton University, where he was able to join the University Air Squadron and fly.

    He then went to the Radar Research Establishment at Malvern as project officer on three airborne radar projects currently under development. These included a new bombing radar, and Clements flew 100 hours testing the equipment in a Canberra bomber.

    After a series of staff appointments at Nato, the Air Ministry and at HQ Fighter Command, he left for Singapore to be the Command Electrical Engineer at the RAF’s HQ Far East Air Force. He initiated the installation of an airborne radio relay system to improve communications with low-flying helicopters over the Malaysian jungle.

    Returning to England, he took command of the Radio Engineering Unit at Henlow, which was responsible for the worldwide installation of communication systems and navigational aids. In 1972-73 he was Assistant Controller of the Defence Communications Network (DCN).

    In late 1973 Clements was appointed Air Officer Signals at HQ Air Support Command. His time was coloured by a series of take-over battles and attempts to break up the electronic warfare organisation by transferring his organisation to other MoD departments. Clements won all the battles to retain his establishment as the centre of RAF signals expertise.

    After retiring in December 1976, he joined Marconi Defence Systems. In January 1983 he was the company’s member of a UK industrial team which sold the Sea King helicopter equipped with the Sea Eagle missile to the Indian Navy.

    Three years later he initiated the proposal to fit the American Rockwell Hellfire missile with a Marconi millimetric active radar seeker. This became known as the Brimstone air-launched anti-armour missile, used to great effect by RAF Tornados and Harrier aircraft.

    He left Marconi in 1987 and worked as an independent defence consultant, retiring on his 72nd birthday after 56 years’ involvement with electronics.

    Clements was proud of being an RAF apprentice and later became the president of the RAF Cranwell Apprentices Association (1993-03). His autobiography Electronic Airborne Goldfish was published in 2001. He was a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and of the Chartered Institute of Management.

    In his younger days, his 15-stone heft was useful in the second row of the rugby scrum. In later life he discovered golf, but while enjoying the inquests at the 19th hole, he never succeeded in getting his handicap below 20. He was involved with a number of local organisations in Northwood.

    John Clements married, in 1957, Monica Jenkins; they had a son and a daughter.

    John Clements, born December 2 1921, died October 23 2021

    1. My father in law was a radar apprentice too and rose to Wing Commander. He met Clements at the annual apprentices gathering
      The paper said he was Knighted. Was he?

      1. That seems to be in some doubt at the moment. It is unusual for an Air Cdre to be knighted while still in post, but not impossible – Air Cdre Sir Frank Whittle springs to mind. The technical contribution in both cases was quite remarkable for someone of Air rank.

  20. Safe older drivers

    SIR – There have been several articles concerning the safety of older drivers (report, December 2).

    Four of my friends have written off their cars recently by smashing into their garages and walls, and have given up driving as a result. The fault? Depressing the wrong pedal on the automatic gearbox.

    For this reason I sold my over-complex Lexus and bought a Dacia Duster with a manual gearbox. With this kind of car it is impossible to cause a crash by pressing the wrong pedal or by pressing any two pedals simultaneously.

    I am 83 years old and have driven about two million miles in my life in countries including Britain, the United States, South Africa, and on the Continent, mostly with cars with an automatic gearbox.

    I never had a major accident. I have good eyesight and reactions but nevertheless have taken the precaution of avoiding these gearboxes from now on.

    Colin Dawson

    Canterbury, Kent

    1. ‘Morning, Epi. Honest John advocated the two-footed method for driving an automatic, but I always thought he was wrong. If you use your right foot only then in my view the chances of getting them, and the pedals, muddled up is much reduced. I drive either of two buses for a local community group. Both are automatics. I have never used the two-footed method. I have yet to hit the wrong pedal, but the day that I do is the day that I give up.

      In my work I investigated several ‘through the garage’ accidents, and almost without exception the drivers were in the habit of using both feet. Not exactly a scientific sample, but good enough for me.

      1. I have witnessed a “runaway” when the driver of a manual Daihatsu selected reverse, started to move, foot slipped off the clutch and she pressed the accelerator into the floor in a panic, thinking it was the brake.The short journey ended in a house.
        Mother-in-law crashed a Morris Marina (Hooray!) by pressing the accelerator rather than the brake, whilst wondering why it wouldn’t stop.
        Single foot operation of an automatic seems as safe as you can get.

        1. No question. When I drive our automatic car I use my right foot to work the pedals. This leaves my left foot free to play chess. (Actually I have no idea which foot I use . I trust them to know what they are doing.)

          1. Automatic Cars

            I have been driving cars and vans for 65 years, almost all with manual gearboxes. After a year in the States driving an old wreck with an automatic box I had to re-learn manual driving on returning to UK.

            But during a long series of foreign holidays where I often rented automatics (after driving to the UK airport in a manual) I adopted the ruse of taking off my left shoe as soon as I got into any automatic rental car. I had enough to do navigating and driving on the right without ‘muscle learning’ getting in the way, and this ‘shoe off’ ruse, which forces right-foot-only driving, has been passed on to others.

          4. I hadn’t thought of that, except for the fancy dress party where I could go as Long John Silver. Hmm.

    2. ‘Morning, Epi. Honest John advocated the two-footed method for driving an automatic, but I always thought he was wrong. If you use your right foot only then in my view the chances of getting them, and the pedals,muddled up is much reduced. I drive either of two buses for a local community group. Both are automatics. I have never used the two-footed method. I have yet to hit the wrong pedal, but the day that I do is the day that I give up.

      In my work I investigated several ‘through the garage’ accidents, and almost without exception the drivers were in the habit of using both feet. Not exactly a scientific sample, but good enough for me.

    3. I’ve big feet, and all cars pedals are too close together. Without ‘bragging’ I can cover the accelerator and brake at the same time.

      I have to roll my foot one way or the other using my toes, and thus driving is uncomfortable. I test drove one of those electric cars – not for the green nonsense as they’re not, but because it’s a go cart. Foot off the go and you stop. Come to a complete stop and the handbrake comes on automatically. The pedals are also big enough to use properly – as others have said, with one foot you can’t really go wrong.

      You’ve forward, back – nowt else. The automation is very nice – stop, brake on. Try to move, brake off. Makes hill starts and going down hill much easier.

        2. When i stand up straight (I can hear the war queen telling me this in my head), 194cm.

          But I usually slouch about.

      3. Automatic handbrakes, indeed all electric handbrakes, are a pain in the arse for recovery drivers. If it’s necessary to winch a car up the ramps and onto a sloping bed on a downward slope you can’t ‘feather’ the handbrake to provide some rolling resistance.
        Electric car owners may not be aware that there is still a 12v battery which supplies power to the non-driving functions like locks, handbrake, etc. If this battery goes flat you’re fuct

  21. SIR – After Nicola Sturgeon opposed development of the Cambo oil field, Shell pulled out of the project, as the economic case for involvement was no longer worth the uncertainty and political turmoil (report, December 4).

    While many Holyrood nationalists celebrated the news, importing energy from abroad will be more expensive and do more harm to the planet than using energy on Scotland’s doorstep.

    It was astonishing to see a Scottish government minister cheering on such serious job losses. This ridiculous virtue-signalling will actually undermine efforts to achieve net zero.

    Dr John Cameron
    St Andrews, Fife

    Hear, hear Dr Cameron!

    1. You have to look at these people and ask if they’re truly sane. These decisions are irrational, damaging and moronic.

      That the demented Left support it shows just how completely out of touch they are. Scotland needs jobs, it needs investment. All they do is hurt the public in high taxes and unemployment.

      Like it or not, we need energy – lots of it. Our population cannot support the mad fantasies of wasteful, expense accounts ideologists dreaming of a green world where everyone has enough – because enough doesn’t exist. People are different. Needs are different. Wants are different. We achieve that differentiation by earning it.

      We are being made poorer, unhappier, and our lives destroyed by the very people elected to manage our country. They need to go – by the door or by gunpoint. They’re making everything worse.

      1. Morning Wibbles. One wonders if some sort of Group Psychosis has overtaken the intellectual elites, perhaps a result of Cultural Marxism which requires a denial of reality and consequently the derangement of the reasoning processes. This would explain its widespread nature.

      2. Morning, wibbling. It appears that our elected “elite” have decided that a reliable source of energy is not required by modern society. Their proposals that “renewable” sources will be sufficient displays a complete lack of scientific and economic understanding. In addition, their complete failure to consider how we want our society to be organised is manifest. It is all about what they want and they have forgotten that we remain capable of removing them and putting in place people who will do our bidding. One caveat to consider, the current power grab by these people via a manufactured pandemic is the route for them to end our ability to evict them from office. I do not want to imagine the kind of World these ignorant would-be-despots wish to impose on us.

        1. Good morning, Front Pager

          …. they have forgotten that we remain capable of removing them and putting in place people who will do our bidding.

          Great in principle – but at the moment are there any alternatives who will try and do our bidding?

          1. You spotted the current flaw in my argument.

            We have to maintain our strength, dignity and desire for change. These people are gradually eroding their position and by so doing are exposing their lack of every basic attribute required by a person who desires public office and who wants to serve the people. Change will happen, I’m convinced of that, that it will take some time is a given but the current situation cannot be maintained by more lies, distractions etc for much longer.

  22. We are told that the spread of Omicron is rather rapid. We are also told that symptoms on the whole are no worse than the common cold. One wonders then, how many victims are not coming forward because they believe they have caught merely the latter. Therefore the spread could be even more rapid.

    1. Morning Peddy. Panic stations for what appears to be nothing more than a mild infection!

      2. As we type, SPADs, SAGE et al. are feverishly working on a scheme to increase the fear factor and improve their masters’ ability to spout more bullshit in support of restrictions.

        Javid the Bald looked very uncomfortable yesterday when he was forced, by a very self satisfied looking Sir Desmond Swayne, into revealing the numbers and condition of those ‘infected’ by the Omicron variant. With a short probing question, Sir Desmond exposed the paucity of facts to support the government’s argument for more restrictions, Sir D had every right to have a self satisfied look.

        2. But did you notice that Javid failed to answer the specific question? How many are suffering from the omicron variant?
          Javid’s answer was to tell him how many had tested positive.

    2. Good morning Peter

      Vlad Putin is reported as saying that the omicron variant could give people the immunity from corona viruses which the vaccines are failing to do because they are not proper vaccines.

  24. Good morning all and a dark, wet, miserable one it is too. 0°C with cold rain that’s not quite sleet.

    And I have a run into Derby today too.

  25. Good morning, all.. Blueish sky and sunnyish. Gale? What gale? A bit breezy, that’s all.

    Leccy went off twice more- then stayed on.

  26. Tucker stands up for Putin over Russian president’s fears about Ukraine joining NATO. 8 December 2021.

    Tucker Carlson lambasted President Joe Biden for saber-rattling with Russia over Ukraine, and warned that he risked a ‘hot war’ with Vladimir Putin that could cost thousands of lives.

    The anchor opened up his top-rated cable program on Tuesday by blasting Biden, warning that the president was playing with fire.
    He said: ‘Here’s something that we need to internal idea. Just because something is far-fetched or crazy or seems totally destructive to core American interests doesn’t mean the U.S. Government won’t do it.

    Carlson is of course correct. The aggressors here are The US and EU. They are trying to provoke Russia into action and then blame them for it. We don’t know what Vlad is going to do. He will probably take a few days to mull over his options after the Summit with Biden. I myself see no real alternative other than to seize Ukraine, though I would stop when I could see the White Cliffs of Dover. Lol!.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10286971/Tucker-stands-Putin-fears-Ukraine-join-NATO.html

    2. Don’t get carried away.Carlson is anti-Biden not pro-Putin.
      If Trump had said the same as Biden,Carlson would be praising him from the roof tops.

  27. Morning all, yesterday on the Costa Clyde was a tad wild and sleety. Today it’s back to merely dreich. I shall be attempting the north face of Irvine Tesco shortly. Well wrapped and mask-free. The plan is to reach the tills at 10.00, so that the booze can be purchased and before the muzak starts.

  28. 342602+ up ticks,

    The “party” in Downing Street really ought to be of great concern to the peoples, that is to people power and regarding a NEW PARTY ASAP.

    We are daily witnessing the odious actions taken by the mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophiles R us, close shop coalition that has been building for decades so if the same voting pattern is adhered to by the electorate then that means that is what the peoples want, surely, that’s democracy.

    Sum up, the more the peoples struggle under the same voting pattern
    ie lab/lib/con coalition then the deeper they sink in the sh!te bog.

    1. Good morning ogga

      Give the people an alternative or they will either abstain, spoil their ballot papers or vote for the the person they hate the least. What other options do they have?

      1. 342602+ ticks,
        Morning R,
        To many are reluctant to let go of the umbilical cord
        aka lab/lib/con coalition.

        The referendum proved people power with a four million plus vote, put that same type people power
        behind a fringe party you perceive to be genuinely
        pro United Kingdom with financial backing and you are on course.

        Gerard Batten proved that with his one year leadership run, that is an undeniable truth.

    2. Good morning ogga

      Give the people an alternative or they will either abstain, spoil their ballot papers or vote for the the person they hate the least. What other options do they have?

  31. ‘Morning again. Another hugely expensive shambles that we, as consumers, are paying for:

    2G and 3G to be phased out by 2033 in blow to smart meter roll out
    The energy industry will have to upgrade older mobile networks to 4G

    By
    Ben Woods
    8 December 2021 • 6:00am

    Millions of energy bill payers face the threat of disruption after the Government announced it will phase out the mobile signal used by smart meters.

    The 2G and 3G networks which the meters use to communicate are to be turned off in 2033 to free up space for more advanced 5G signals that will underpin driverless cars and smart cities.

    It means the industry will now need to carry out sweeping changes to smart meters relying on these older mobile networks by upgrading them to 4G.

    The Telegraph understands work is underway between government and industry to ensure there is a smooth transition to the new generation of smart meter technology.

    In an announcement, the government said that it will work with operators to make certain they meet the needs of users, consumers and vulnerable groups.

    Energy suppliers have been urged by ministers to speed up roll-out of smart meters to ensure all consumers are offered one by 2025 to help cut carbon emissions and provide more accurate bills.

    The devices allow customers to monitor power use in real time and send automatic readings to their supplier, meaning bills no longer have to be estimated. However, opponents have criticised them as an invasion of privacy.

    Around 24m smart meters have already been installed with a life cycle of 15 years.

    The switch-off also threatens to create disruption for vehicles with in-built satellite navigation and safety systems, as many need 3G signals to operate.

    It came as the Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries unveiled £50m of new investment to speed up innovation in mobile technology.

    Among the measures were plans to ensure 35pc of Britain’s mobile traffic is carried over equipment made by smaller suppliers once Huawei technology is removed from the country’s communications network.

    To hit the target, mobile operators will be encouraged to move away from using a single network equipment supplier in favour of OpenRan, a technology standard that allows more companies to supply equipment to mobile networks.

    The government is attempting to speed up the adoption of OpenRan by investing £36m in 15 projects trialling the technology across England, Wales and Scotland.

    A further £15m will also be invested into a prototype testing facility for telecoms technology, called Sonic.

    Ms Dorries announced the measures ahead of a meeting in Washington DC with Gina Raimondo, the US secretary for commerce, to renew their commitment to diversifying the global telecoms supply chain.

    Ms Dorries said: “We are announcing a further £50m to put the UK at the forefront of mobile connectivity and to make sure our telecoms networks are safe and secure now and in the future.

    “We can only do this through stronger international collaboration and I will be meeting with our US allies as we strengthen our ties on technology.”

    A task force headed by Lord Livingston, the former BT boss, had recommended that smaller equipment manufacturers should make a quarter of the equipment used in 5G networks.

    UK mobile networks are poised to spend up to £2bn ripping out Huawei kit after Boris Johnson followed America’s lead and blacklisted the company over spying fears.

      2. We smartly read our own meter and buzz over the readings.
        But then we’re old farts who were brung up to use our own grey matter.

      1. “…that I announce another lockdown for you mugs, but fear not, the elite will be partying as usual. You can be safe in the knowledge that we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that we have a normal, jolly Holiday Winterval Season”

        1. And what these cretins don’t seem to understand is that WFH is not only open to abuse, but that it depends on others not working from home – delivery drivers, refuse collectors etc.

      1. Panic Johnson’s last spiteful throw of the dice after he’s been exposed as a liar and a fraud? After yesterday’s disclosure that Omicron is looking very much a damp squib how can he take the covid cases route? Massive non-compliance with anything he proposes must be route out of this would-be-despot’s clutches.

    1. Apropos vaccine passes, it appears that the German father who killed his 3 daughters & his wife before committing suicide, would have faced a fine or up to 1 year in prison for forging his wife’s pass.

        1. Probably the last straw for him. Things seem so much more intense over on the ‘continent’.

          2. But you haven’t been there for the last couple of years when they seem to have now reverted to Nazism.

  38. The Evil Empire skewed the rules to favour its own machines? Blimey, whoda thunkit!

    Why I fought the EU’s innovation-crushing rules

    It would be a terrible waste now if Brexit Britain were to throw away its chance to make its own regulations

    JAMES DYSON

    8 December 2021 • 6:00am

    Bad regulation misleads people, stifles innovation, hits jobs and is a hidden trade barrier deployed by the European Union – in addition to the six per cent tariff we pay to import into the EU. Dyson has experienced this first-hand over the past seven years, in our drawn-out but ultimately successful legal battle against the EU’s flawed energy labelling regulation, which illegally misled millions of consumers.

    The case has not only revealed the complexity of EU regulation but has shone a light on the dark arts of lobbying in Europe. Today it reaches what we hope is the final act. We have already won the case to scrap the regulation in its entirety, but now we find out whether the European General Court will award us damages.

    To most people, the regulation in question may seem innocuous. The EU directive stipulated that every vacuum cleaner sold in the EU should display a label designed to show how energy efficient each machine was and help drive down energy usage. A good idea in theory, where the best would be given the highest A-grade and the worst a G-grade.

    In reality, however, the testing regime behind the grading was a sham. Flying in the face of logic, science and the EU’s own laws, the Commission decided that unlike washing machines and dishwashers, which are tested when loaded, all vacuums should be tested empty, in dust-free conditions that were nothing like real world use. It created false results and illegally benefited one group, principally the bagged European vacuum cleaner manufacturers.

    The label overstated the real-world performance of old-fashioned bagged vacuum cleaners, many of which were awarded green A-grade labels. As we found out from correspondence obtained through Freedom of Information requests, this was influenced by lobbying from European industry, including the leading German bagged-machine manufacturers who had much to gain from using regulation to keep unwanted rivals out. The sentiment felt clear. Ignore Dyson, they’re British.

    Only once people got their machines home did they discover the truth. Bags and filters would start clogging with dust – as they do – meaning the real-world performance of a so-called A-grade machine could be as low as a G. In addition, some manufacturers installed devices to increase the motor wattage as the bag filled with dust. This would not be detected in a test state, therefore circumventing the regulation. Dyson’s vacuums, in contrast, have constant performance and are tested on dust – 60 different kinds, in fact. What you see is what you get.

    Not only was this misleading to European consumers, but it also put Dyson at an unfair disadvantage. After a tortuous legal battle involving a lengthy appeal at the European Court of Justice, we eventually won our case in 2018, which had been initially rejected by the European General Court in 2015. The European Court of Justice found that “the General Court manifestly distorted the position taken by Dyson”. It “infringed its obligation to state reasons … erred in law and … distorted the facts and failed to comply with its duty to give reasons”. It was an indictment of how European regulation works.

    The flawed label was scrapped – one of only a handful of occasions when an EU regulation has been overturned. Revealingly, the Commission did not appeal this decision.

    The energy label is a case study in bad regulation and its insidious effects. It cost Dyson over a hundred million pounds, diverting time and resources away from what we should have been doing – innovating, inventing, and developing new products. Investment destined for research at our two UK campuses, where we employ 3,500 people and support thousands more jobs around the world, went instead into lawyers’ pockets. Dyson fought this case for itself and to protect consumers from misleading regulations devised by EU bureaucrats and the European manufacturers they favour.

    Regulation, used sparingly, doesn’t have to be damaging to innovation. Dyson, for instance, was the first manufacturer to support a regulation that proposed a cap on the energy wattage of vacuum cleaners sold in Europe. This challenges companies to innovate in order to use each joule of energy more efficiently. It is not a tick-box exercise but sets a clear objective, then allows companies the freedom to work out how to achieve it.

    At a time when the world needs innovation, governments should be encouraging companies, not tying their hands. Dyson is investing £2.75 billion over the next five years in new technology. Both regulation and the tax system should support those companies taking risks – backing those who invest their own money, rather than bureaucrats picking winners, supporting favourites or directing innovation through regulation. For example, Dyson’s battery-powered vacuums can now do with 200 watts what mains-powered machines did with 2,000 watts – an energy saving that was research-led, rather than government-directed.

    I fear EU bureaucrats may yet decide to reintroduce an energy label, using a similarly flawed testing regime. Worse still, we could even see the UK Government unwisely adopt it. The whole point of leaving the EU was to give the UK the freedom to create our own regulations. It would be a terrible waste to throw away that opportunity. Nevertheless, Dyson will always fight bad regulation – to defend consumers, boost innovation and develop the best technology in the world.

    1. A leading BTL, and plenty more where that came from;

      Julian Hodgson
      2 HRS AGO
      Remember the abuse Dyson got from the parasitical, self-serving establishment when he offered to repurpose his business towards manufacturing ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic. The BBC were at the forefront – as usual – trying imply he got tax breaks for being a Tory donor. The lies about being a Tory donor were soon exposed and the tax breaks themselves were to protect his technicians from being taxed twice. The BBC were all over it. The broadcaster is jam packed full of time servers, whiners and superannuated layabouts who have never added value or innovated anything in their entire sorry lives but were quite happy to propagate lies out of spite because Dyson supported Brexit and dared to expose the EU’s venal corporate lobbying. The BBC and their ilk truly disgust me and the sooner we are rid of them the better for all concerned.

    2. The whole point of leaving the EU was to give the UK the freedom to create our own regulations. It would be a terrible waste to throw away that opportunity.

      The remainers in Parliament, aided and abetted by the civil service, will do their best to make sure that Britain does not exploit any of the freedoms and opportunities that Brexit has given.

  39. Just when you thought the Blik Broadcasting Corporation could not tie themselves up in any more knots on this subject, they come along with this load of time-wasting drivel. Another week, another exercise in trying to find yet another acronym. Were they not the enthusiastic users of ‘BAME’ when it first appeared? For all I know they probably invented it:

    BBC bans ‘Bame’ as report reveals ‘white nervousness’ when talking about race

    ‘Catch-all’ term is not fit for purpose, says broadcaster, with diversity report finding it can cause ‘serious insult’ to ethnic minorities

    By
    Anita Singh,
    ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
    7 December 2021 • 8:51pm

    The BBC is to drop the “Bame” acronym after a report found the term could “cause serious insult” by treating ethnic minorities as a single group.

    Along with ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, the corporation has committed to move away from the “catch-all” term. Instead, it will refer to specific ethnic groups where possible, or use the full description of “black, Asian and minority ethnic”.

    The pledge applies not only to news reports and programmes, but also to internal and external corporate communications.

    June Sarpong, the BBC’s director of creative diversity, is among those to have regularly used the Bame acronym.

    However, a report commissioned by the BBC on behalf of the broadcasting industry, and carried out by the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, said the term was “problematic”.

    It also identified “white nervousness” around language used to describe ethnicity, saying such changes should be made gradually because “the last thing we would want is for journalists to avoid discussing race and ethnicity altogether due to nervousness of ‘getting it wrong’”.

    The report concluded: “There seems to be a general acceptance that Bame is no longer fit for purpose as a collective term in describing a group of people who do not identify as white, and if used needs to come with several caveats.”

    During the course of their research, the study’s authors “did not come across anybody who described themselves as Bame when describing their racial identity”. The term did not emerge from the people it described “but was imposed on them”.

    Confusion over Bame definition
    They added that use of the term in headlines “does not enable deeper understandings of often complex stories”, and it could “cause serious insult to some members of the audience”.

    Many people think the “A” stands for “and” rather than “Asian”.

    The report suggested that applying the Bame label to stories such as the incidence of Covid-19 or educational outcomes was not useful, as those statistics applied to some ethnic minority groups and not others.

    It also identified a “lack of trust” from within the black, Asian and ethnic minority community, with concerns that organisations are hiding discrimination against certain racial groups by collating everyone under the BAME label to meet diversity targets.

    The report called for a ban of BAME as a noun to rhyme with “game”, saying most of those interviewed for the report found it “totally unacceptable”. Contributors to the report included Pat Younge, the BBC’s former head of production, who said: “BAME, to me, is a thing: black and minority ethnic. BAME is not a word.”

    Term ‘makes little sense for global audience’
    Other interviewees included Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the Channel 4 News presenter, and Megha Mohan, the BBC’s gender and identity correspondent, plus representatives of employee network groups at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV.

    “There is a social problem that needs to be addressed. BAME is widely used in the creative sector, but public criticism of the term is increasingly mobilising. We identify strong evidence to suggest that the term BAME is problematic for many, and that a case can be made for considering alternative language,” the report said.

    However, it went on: “This is not to say that the term BAME can simply be replaced with an alternative term, as there is no easy consensus on what such a term might be.”

    Journalists who work for the BBC World Service and the corporation’s Asia Region said referring to an ethnic “minority” made little sense when reporting news for a global audience.

    Some arts organisations including RADA and the Casting Directors Guild now use the phrase “black and global majority”, the report said, but it did not recommend that be taken up more widely.

    The BBC said it would still use BAME in its annual report when detailing the proportion of staff from non-white backgrounds, as is required by Ofcom. Though it will also break down the data into constituent groups.

    * * *

    No comments allowed (naturally) but that is not the case here, thank goodness!

  42. I see the media is going in to a feeding frenzy over rumours of a Christmas Party at Number 10. Just a reminder, Kay Burley was suspended six months for breaking COVID rules.

    But fine – knock yourselves out, it kind of suits me to undermine any further compliance with COVID rules. Looks like Christmas is back on folks – let the media and the Government rip into each-other, neither of them could lay straight in a bed in any case so what do I care about what they say anymore?

    2. BBC radio 4 World News at 4am this morning had one of the top news subjects the Parties in Downing Street . Most of the world would not be interested. We know our PM is untruthful on more important subjects.

      1. Just a thought but they might be trying to cover up a period of total and utter incompetence. The great escape.

      2. Yep and story number 2 – the accusation by a clerk that the Foreign Office fell down on the job over Afghanistan.

        For the BBC all that counts is the accusation, I have noticed they quickly drop the story when facts emerge that undermines the accusation or the accuser.

        Oh – and I really do not need broadcasters to keep telling me all too many of our politicians are lying toe-rags, that factoid is already in the bank. Would be nice for a change for them to consider they aren’t exactly in a good place to lecture when it comes to lying toe-rags.

      3. Noticed that over five times he refused to answer the question simply and just dissembled.

        I know they’re serial liars, but it was putrid.

  43. Good Morning Friends

    Just checking in to see who admits to having developed webbing between their toes yet 🙂

        1. I even managed to hobble around the street delivering cards to the neighbours. Quite balmy it was.

  44. A pity England are not playing Australia at snooker. If so we’d have a winning score.

    2. Perhaps the Australians will bat left handed and bowl underarm to make a match of it….

  45. The much “dissed” Pat Cummins seems to be quite handy with the ball – and as captain.

    I don’t follow sport any more (well, only peripherally) but it did seem to me that the press were over-enthusiastic about England’s prospects – and were too eager to have a go at Australia and its “woes”.

    1. 147 in 50 overs! Australia’s bowlers should be nice and fresh for the second innings mauling.

        1. Whats “sober”? or are you referring to doing comic impressions of Sir Gary Sobers?

    3. Not a Clue eh, it’s almost as if the selectors want out country humiliated.
      Back in the day just before the final of the series Geoff Boycott was carrying his bag walking along a country lane on the way to a Sunday charity match. He heard Hello Geoff nice to see you this bright morning………Boycott looked round and could see no one than it happened again this time as he passed a gate with a white horse standing looking over. As he passed the horse said i can play cricket Geoff gives us a go of yer bat. Don’t be daft said Geoff horse’s don’t play crickit, but he reluctantly passed the horse the bat. The horse stood on guard by the nearest tree and Geoff bowled a few balls at him the horse smashed them out of sight. No balls left boycott organised for the white stallion to be opener with him at the final test at the Oval next Thursday.
      The sunny morning arrived and the crowd were going mad with excitement as angry Dennis Lilley bowled 6 of the fastest balls ever recorded in a game.
      The horse hit 6 sixes and one ball was lost on the road out of the ground. The Aussies were very angry but the crowd were ecstatic. Jeff Thomson was warming up and Boycott was on strike. He tapped the ball into a vacant area of the pitch and ran to the far end. When he arrived the horse was till standing. Boycott was run out and very angry he said what is the effing matter with you you had me run out, why you didn’t you run ??? The horse calmly replied. Don’t be daft Geoff if I could run i’d be at Epsom. And so it goes on eh.

    4. An article in yesterday’s DT told how Pat Cummins was a schoolboy prodigy at cricket in batting, bowling and fielding. He featured in adult matches when he was a youngster and more than held his own. His path towards being captain of his country was forecast a long time ago.

      I always want England to beat Australia at cricket, but I love to marvel at innate skill no matter who wields it.

        1. I know it is very unChristian of me to say so but i hope Boris has a fatal heart attack. The fat bastard.

          1. I couldn’t agree more. I am livid. Off for lunch now, to the Ickleton Lion. When we booked, yesterday, the web site referred to ‘covid regulations’ so we asked what they were. Much whispering at the other end of the line. ‘…er… you can’t order at the bar.. you have to sit down’. ‘Is that all?’ asked poppiesdad. ‘….er…yes’ came the reply. ‘Good!’ said poppiesdad. ‘See you tommorrow!’ So let’s hear it for the Ickleton Lion!

            Blowing a gale out there folks with blustery rain. And Poppie, bless her heart, wanted to walk poppiesdad all the way down to the duckpond this morning, almost a mile away, bless her little doggie heart. She didn’t succeed. P’psdad put his foot down with a firm paw.

          2. Last week I went to two pubs for lunch, The Maybush at Waldringfield and the Kersey Bell, both in Suffolk. Neither mentioned nor enforced any restrictions. I ordered drinks at the bar in both and paid the bill at the bar in the former. At both pubs the staff were not masked and at the Bell the staff were happy to chat about the new owners and the plans for the future.

          3. When we arrived, the waiting-on-tables staff were wearing masks although the landlord wasn’t. It was difficult to hear what the waiting staff were saying to us. Apart from that all normal although seated service. It was good to get out as we haven’t been out for ages. Sadly The Plough in the next village at Shepreth is closing down this weekend. The landlord of the Ickleton Lion said he was well booked up for December, and getting bookings for January now.

        2. I think he just wants his money and a quiet life at this point, instead of everyone hating him. Tough.

  52. 342602+ up ticks,

    One good reason for tearing up lab/lib/con party membership cards,

    breitbart
    EXCLUSIVE – UK Govt: ‘Not In Public Interest’ to Disclose How Many Afghan Evacuees Are Ex-Deportees or on Watch Lists

  54. ‘Morning All

    Yesterday I lead on “Partygate”,today the media is in full frothing hysteria

    https://twitter.com/PoliticsForAlI/status/1468363977646297091?s=20

    We are being played,AGAIN,why now?? Cui bono?? We are told “senior media” attended these parties they have been well known to them for a full year!!

    Now look at Bojo,he looks wretched,exhausted,haggard and miserable,desperately unhappy he has made a couple of major slips undermining the vaccine passports,he certainly doesn’t look like he has the will to drive through the last removal of our freedoms!!

    We have seen the exact same tactics with Handcock earlier this year,a delayed scandal used to remove him from the public gaze just as awkward questions started being asked about Midozalan……..

    Cynical Rik says it’s time for a replacement NWO fanatic to drive the last nails into the coffin of freedom,now who might that be…..

    Oh Wait

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61506ccd80d576e607c2bfb970ff25ce16a4a72946e05f6905f704dfdb6dfeb8.jpg

  55. #CovidClownWorld

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df53998e04c2f7930f548bc309ce610619d61b0adcde800786e71aee79492c53.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/039382ec1937a7bd1856829d3fb0692486bf6cee35eb2165c34539b444a96988.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/67046d44abeca01eb6e1005cddff15150b59221f0bba27910ce9526025ece515.jpg

    https://twitter.com/BCscifience/status/1467989314046943238?s=20

    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/092/502/623/original/0938051251aec052.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/923913b25385b41533970176106880e64fe187b94de57e458ee9c87c0e71ef9e.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0ed9fcb9efa771c1e9f5f30825aa1fb200ea3724a23f20838f9afee919a979a.jpg

    1. Not only one elephant in the room, but the elephant in Westminster,…….. the un-jabbed aren’t catching anything.
      Boris faked his the nurse who was supposed to have looked after him for two days, suddenly vanished.

  56. Oh dear i have caught a stinking head cold probably been passed on by our youngest Grand children (have they no consideration) 🥵🤩 and baby it’s cold out side so i’m going back to bed. With a Jack Reacher, he’d know how to deal with useless politicos.

    3. Gosh – I hope it hasn’t spread to NoTTLand… Computers gobble up viruses….!!!

      Stay warm.

    4. Commiserations. The advice is rest, stay warm, stay hydrated, eat even if you don’t feel like it and take the vitamin pills, isn’t it? I find that works better than medication anyway!

    5. Just look out for the tell-tale signs. Taste and smell totally disappear, accompanied by a cough, that happened to all 3 of us, jabbed and unjabbed. Otherwise a mishmash of fever, loss of appetite, stomach cramps, runny nose, muscle aches, tired and weak all the time. Not a headache between us though. Hope it’s a cold.

  57. Greenthink…………

    The BBC reports that the small Island nations want money from the
    developed nations for causing sea level rise. ” some islands are
    experiencing 4 times the sea level rise as others”.
    Words Fail Me………

      1. Aha Sue,By Jove you’ve got it,they must be sinking under the weight of all the money scammed from us over Covid

    2. Sea level was never a level playing field.

      For more than 100 years it has been repeatedly forecast that the Maldives —a low-lying archipelago in the Indian ocean — would be “definitely under water in just (?)-years’ time.” Funny how they are still “afloat”. Must be that unlevel sea level.

      1. Al Gore claimed that London would be under water by 2016 and the loonies are still saying it will be…in 10 years time. Always 10 years but the decades pass and…

    4. There goes the tourist industry. If the sea level around those islands is increasing that dramatically, cruise ships will not be able to visit them.

    6. Presumably some of the islands are closer to the Moon than others, and that is what drags the sea uphill?

      1. The Golden Ball at Snatchems, just off Morecambe Bay (now, sadly, permanently closed), got cut off by tides twice a day. The pub and car park are situated on a ramp; this kept both the building and visiting cars safe from the high waters; however, many is the time that regulars were forced to remain there overnight!
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d09c49750db9eb72f5f75dff6c9174b36435e2fd317d72020df5c381743ce982.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a246d40ef007c1a96e7be3e9b9850cbd0fd9968bb8d1dcdd9ac0b334270f0533.png

  59. And now for something completely different….

    For the first time ever, Russia has entered the top 10 of the world’s chocolate exporters, beating ​the famed Swiss chocolatiers in terms of value of products sold abroad, the Russian Association of Confectionary Producers said.
    Exports of chocolate produced in Russia totaled $839 million in monetary terms in the year to September 2021, the association reported citing data revealed by ITC Trademap and UN Comtrade.

    Swiss miss: Russia projected to overtake Switzerland in chocolate exports by end of year
    Meanwhile, Switzerland reportedly exported $819 million worth of chocolate during the specified period.

    China, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, were the major importers of Russian chocolate, the union said as quoted by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

    According to the association’s estimates, Russian confectionary manufacturing has seen a steady growth over recent years.

    In 2021, exports are expected to increase by more than 19% to 824.5 thousand tons in terms of volume, and to $1.68 billion in monetary terms, almost a third higher than pre-pandemic levels.

    Chocolate accounts for 51.5% of Russia’s total exports of confectionary.

    1. Where does all the chocolate come from? Even if only 20% of the weight is cocoa, that is still around 160,000 tonnes of cocoa. Are cocoa plantations springing up all over places that used to be rain forest? I think that we should told.

      1. It’s your climate change innit. The Russians now have several chocolate forests in Crimea, that is why they want to invade Ukraine.

        1. Oh, yes, right , I forgot, management of the planet and its future has to be left in the hands of Greta and her pals.

    1. Not a surprise.

      In the Spring Chancellor Merkel made a speech stating that all the EU nations PLUS Britain had agreed that Covid passports were the way to go

  62. As many readers will know Pfizer wanted the FDA to seal their
    documentation on the injectates for 57 years. However as a result of
    enforcement of a FOI application by a US judge one of the most shocking
    documents of recent years has been revealed, namely a list of the
    conditions encountered as adverse effects in the first 90 days of use
    among the 157,000 adverse effects reported for the period. It is an
    extraordinary list and alone confirms the total criminality of what has
    been done and of those including the paid media who persist with the
    lying narrative.

    The booster roll-out, forsooth! Why not fire shotguns at us all as well?

    https://www.tarableu.com/pfizer-smoking-gun-a-real-shocker/

    1. I thought he’d been dropped from SAGE [home of the commie propagandist] but it seems he’s an unflushable turd! Why on earth are people still paying any attention to this cretin, who also broke the lockdown rules?

  64. ‘Afternoon, all.

    Nigel Farage reacts to leaked video of Johnson’s Christmas party:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGgd9R160Nk

    However, IMHO, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. It is not the middle of the beginning of the end, or the end of the middle. But it is, perhaps, the beginning of the middle of the end of the beginning – or close to it.

    1. Very good to see you here again. Many of us sent you the very best of wishes for your birthday on Monday.

        2. Thank God you are back, O Monarch of the Glen. We feared the worst – that you had taken to commenting on the Grauniad!!

          1. No chance, Bill, i was banned by the Grauniad a good while ago …. can’t imagine why ….
            :¬(

        1. Missed? I’ll say. We’ve been firing blind. Latin verbs, conjunctions and what nots and not one on target!

          1. Latine loqui coactus sum!
            ;¬)

            And as Cicero so succinctly put it: “Non tam praeclarum est scire latine quam turpe nescire”

          3. Knowing Latin is not a matter of boasting, but not knowing it is embarrassing.

            Irrumabo it !

  65. Did the BPAPM announce his resignation at PMQs? Was he slaughtered by the few remaining true Conservative MPs?

    Thought not. Back to the crossword.

  68. More than 40 camels are disqualified from £49million Saudi beauty pageant after dozens of animals were given BOTOX, face lifts and muscle-boosting hormones
    Beauties were booted from the royal contest held in the desert outside Riyadh
    Judges this year are using ‘specialised’ tech to weed out nip and tuck breeders
    Cheaters use procedures to improve the shape of camels’ heads, necks, humps

    https://twitter.com/True_Belle/status/1468583194303807489

  69. I shall try and retain my composure but it will be tough. Two elderly relatives of mine died last year alone. No-one was allowed to be with them at the end. Hell, that nurse in the place my much loved uncle was in wouldn’t even carry a phone to him because “of covid rules.” A couple of weeks ago, a very dear friend lost her mother who was in hospital with various ailments and in her mid 90s. She contracted covid in hospital, so they said, and she died. No-one was allowed to see her. My friend said it seems as though her mum just disappeared into thin air.
    And now we find out that those slimy, mendacious gits in the government were partying and god knows what else while the rest of us were locked up.
    They can issue as many diktats as they want but I will be following none of them.
    I despise and loath these people who are playing us for fools and they think we are simpletons who don’t know what they are up to.
    Boris, go to hell and take the rest of your disgusting and unprincipled oiks with you.

    1. Very moderately put, LotL – I am with you all the away.

      I simply do not understand how this despicable shower have the nerve to remain in post

      1. Thanks Bill, I am so furious that I find it hard to be moderate. I am relieved that my parents and my husband’s dad are out of it.
        Is this where I should start my Get out of Jail fund? 😉

        2. I am glad my dear Mum didn’t live to see this totally cruel and inhumane, neglectful treatment of our loved ones, denied virtually all contact with family when they are in most need. We lost mother-in-law almost a year ago. (The home’s GP never even suggested convid was involved!) MiL had weak heart, already in failure, was practically immobile, had dementia (which worsened considerably once convid struck and visiting was stopped). I firmly believe she must have felt abandoned and simply gave up, probably heart-broken at being abandoned. The one comfort is that the care home she was in is a staffed by genuine, kind and hard-working carers. They did their best to make up for lack of visiting with providing extra entertainment, holding little events on top of their normal duties.
          When my dear Mum was there quite a few years ago, the staff treated residents like family, and for that I am forever grateful. I cannot imagine being unable to pop in after work several days a week.
          We were told that many dementia patients can’t really understand why visitors stop coming and apparently don’t grasp that the person in the video call, who looks just like their family, really is that person not a tv show.

          1. My aunt who died gave up, according to her daughter, my cousin. She thought no-one cared anymore plus she was very deaf so you couldn’t even phone her.
            If that moron Johnson has the effing gall to announce more restrictions today, it will only highlight even more how out of touch he and his joke of a government are.
            Am looking on Amazon for a book “Tunnel Digging for Dummies” for when they incarcerate me…

  70. Millions of Whitehall parties before Christmas.

    Now you know what John Effingdale MP meant when he said that the covid rules did not apply to “important” people – such as MPs and Top People.

  71. Politics latest news: Boris Johnson apologises ‘unreservedly’ for leaked video of Downing Street Christmas Party and launches inquiry .

    DT – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/covid-news-coronavirus-omicron-stealth-variant-cases-vaccine/

    Words are cheap.

    Perhaps all the fines that were imposed last Christmas for violation of Covid rules should be refunded – and these refunds taken from Conservative Party funds

    1. An “enquiry” is an excellent way to kill an issue – everyone gets bored and the issue fizzles out.

      1. In Scotland it can take many, many years. This ensures that anyone to be blamed has passed on, changed jobs, or retired.

    3. Of course what he’s apologising for is the fact that they’ve been caught out – not that they had a party in the first place!

    4. The graphic that heads that page suggests that while cases are 3% up, deaths [180!] are -19%!

    5. Doris is now ‘considering’ ‘plan B’. You just know that as soon as he says something is being ‘considered’, it is only a matter of time before it is actioned. So much for hoping we could actually spend Christmas with our younger son – anyone care to lay bets on Christmas being ‘cancelled’? They wouldn’t have dared cancel Eid or Ramadama-dingdong even if at that time hospitals & ICUs were ‘overflowing’ with convid and mortuaries were fully stacked. (not that that latter prediction has ever been close to true)

    6. We mustn’t get too excited. The word “inquiry” has now become synonymous with “whitewash”.

  72. Perhaps everyone who has a “Conservative” (ha, ha ha) MP should write to him/her/they setting out the trenchant views so admirably expressed by LotL.

    Today. Now.

    1. Well, treat us like terrorists and we may well respond accordingly. You won’t like us when we’re angry.

      1. 342602+ up ticks,

        Afternoon HP,

        Ode to a current long waited for start.,

        When we begin, “the beginning”.
        .

          4. You may well laugh; but the increasingly deplorable (and seemingly unstoppable) downward trend in the quality of people in power would lead to that as the next natural progression.

          6. The first time Disqusting posted it in the wrong bloody place, so I had to delete it and start again!

        2. Apparently the pair of them were in Salop Nord today. That should scupper their candidate’s chances!

        1. Political leaders just shouldn’t look like that. I mean, Merkel, May et al look like they are politicos.

    5. Ok – it’s the 36 year old Prime Minister of Finland>

      “In Finland, the country’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has apologised for going clubbing after coming into close contact with a Covid-19 case.

      Sanna Marin went on a night out in Helsinki on Saturday, hours after her foreign minister had tested positive.

      She was initially told she did not need to isolate because she had been fully vaccinated, but later missed a text that advised her to do so.

      The Social Democratic prime minister, 36, said the text message that advised her to avoid social contact was sent to her work phone, which she had left at home.

      In a Facebook post on Monday, Ms Marin said she should have double-checked the guidance and used better judgement.

      2. “Sanna Marin has apologised for going clubbing”
        No need to apologise to me, if she needed a nice new warm jacket and killed the fur seal pups herself.

        1. Oh, clubbing? If that picture is a good likeness, she’d get my vote. Up the Trotskyites, or whatever she is.

    6. Call me old-fashioned – but WTF is ANY Prime Minister doing going “clubbing”?

      Unless she was going the Finnish equivalent of the Athenaeum , of course…

  76. “India’s top military commander has been killed in a helicopter crash in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the country’s Air Force says.
    Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 others died after the Mi-17V5 helicopter came down in hills near Coonoor city on Wednesday morning.
    One survivor is being treated for his injuries in hospital.
    Gen Rawat, 63, was appointed India’s first-ever Chief of Defence Staff in January 2019.
    This brought together the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and Gen Rawat had been in charge of a range of operations including in Indian-administered Kashmir.

    3. ‘One survivor is being treated for his injuries in hospital.’
      Awkward, will he survive the night?

  77. If there ever were proof of pro-EU persons being incapable of rational thought and reasoned argument, then Clodagh Dunne is it.
    At a guess she is not only pro-EU to the point of insanity, but Irish and, quite likely, Sein Fein.

    If any of the NOTTL tw@terati would care to have a laugh at the thread this is part of, as well as taking a few potshots at her, it will all add to the fun!

    https://twitter.com/ClodaghSnarks/status/1468516944945070081

    1. Looking – very briefly – at her “tweets”, she is a complete nutcase.

      Don’t touch with a Stephen Pole.

      1. Actually I’ve been enjoying winding her up and letting her make a total arse of herself!

  78. Good afternoon good Nottl friends.

    Our d-I-l has just called and said she was there when they woke our son up at 3 pm.
    He’s very weak but smiled and gave thumbs up as she spoke to him.
    Great news this is the real turning of the corner and, fingers crossed, is on the road to a full recovery. He’s still on 30% oxygen and understands the tracheostomy is a temporary measure until he’s able to breath on his own.

    Once again vw and I thank you all for your support and prayers which we’re sure helped him fight back to get over this nasty virus.

    2. Great news! Will keep my fingers crossed but might uncross various other bits now. Keep us posted!

    3. Pleased to see they allowed your d-i-l to be there, it will have provided reassurance to him. Delighted for you all, let’s hope further progress is swift.

    5. Thank you for the update with positive news! If one of my sons were to be in this situation, I’d find it torture to be unable to see him. Hopefully, all the comments here are at least of some help – we’re all rooting for your son!

  79. Good afternoon. I need to issue a correction to the report on Blue Tara I posted earlier. The list of conditions reported was it appears of conditions which Pfizer says they were monitoring for and not conditions actually reported in the first 90 days of use. The question of the 157,000 adverse reports during that period with the toll of dead and injured remains a live one. Here’s the link to the piece with the correction:

    https://www.tarableu.com/pfizer-smoking-gun-a-real-shocker/

  80. BBC radio news at 4pm on the Cabinet lock-up meeting: “SAGE warns that the new [sic] variant could cause 1,000 hospitalisations a day.”

    How does that compare with previous highs and lows?

    1. The key word being ‘could’. About as likely as their previous wildly inaccurate doomsday predictions. These little snippets will be continually put out just to ‘soften us up’ for the announcement of the coming, but totally unnecessary, lockdown. I suspect they will struggle to get 1000 or so alleged cases a day, never mind hospitalisations.

      1. Quite, but the BBC reports these forecasts (as well as the ‘data’) in a grave and serious manner that persuades so many that the Apocalypse is nigh.

        1. So many are clamouring for tighter restrictions, lockdowns, ‘cancelling’ Christmas, jabby passports, masks compulsory everywhere – even outdoors, the lot. Well and truly gullible. All fro the latest scariant that, while it may well spread more than previous versions, only seems to cause very mild symptoms and is not expected to ‘fill up’ hospital beds or cause a rise in deaths.

          3. I think the government are looking for an excuse to bring in vaxx passports, as an introduction to the new digital currency.
            As an exit from a hated lockdown would be one strategy.

      2. Husband is printing out a sign for our front door- it says,

        “No chimney available here, so please leave all gifts and goodies right there, under the garden table. Many thanks. “

    4. It’s odds on now. Doris won’t care how little notice he gives either. I would ignore it but, unfortunately, our son in Leeds is fully brainwashed so wouldn’t visit. He wouldn’t ‘break the rules’ last year and we didn’t see him the at Christmas 20219 as he was in bed with flu.

    1. Can’t possibly be. Everyone there was “important”. Important people are exempt from everything, including the pox plague

    2. 342602+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      The political overseers kapos in action more is the pity action with such zest was not shown in rotherham, paedophilia long,long.term protectors.

      Did your last vote give them consent ?

  84. The ghastly Stratton woman has resigned “in tears”. “I’ll regret those words for the rest of my life”. Hope so. Join Halfcock in the Rogues’ Gallery.

      4. Yes. she was certainly spoken to along the lines of “We need to save ourselves, so somebody has to take the rap. it’s you I’m afraid. We’ll get you something better, of course. But right now we need to be able to deny everything and you are a major obstacle to that. “You do understand, don’t you”*

        *They always say, “You do understand, don’t you” when they fire you. I don’t know why.

      5. The one thing that I can say in her favour is that she drives a diesel car which is not only more practical but far more environmentally friendly than an electric car.

    3. Was she just blindsided by the questin, became nervous and giggled, or did she actually remember a funny party?

      For some reason, I cannot type today. Apols for the myriad of typos.

      1. Remember the US President practicing a speech saying “I’m going to nuke Russia”. Just a humorous remark. It didn’t do him any harm.

    5. Why? She wasn’t as far as we know at the actual party. The party itself is still something of a mystery. Who was there? What were they doing? All this is concealed behind this decoy resignation!

  85. Why on earth did the Durham Professor apologise for calling the pathetic students “pathetic”?

      1. Man with no guts. The lady (forgotten name) who was got at by the Alphabet trans folk resigned and took a much better paid job elsewhere.

          2. Insincere apologies are considerably worse than useless.

            It is insincere and hypocritical to say you are sorry for something when you are not but if you are sincerely sorry for something then you must back up your apology with action.

            Boris Johnson is not ever sorry for what he has done – he is only sorry that he has been found out. As I suggested below, were he sorry for his covid rules defying party last Christmas he would insist that all fines levied on those last year should have their fines refunded from Conservative Party funds.

          1. The very one.

            What struck me as (vaguely) interesting was that Miss Stock is a raging leftie feminist lesbian – the very sort whom one would expect to be IN FAVOUR of the trans bollox!

  86. I see Rod LIddle has demanded that the Durham authorities apologise for their treatment of the Prof.

  87. OOER Mrs…….where’s my tin hat…..?

    Cummings hints another bombshell about to explode on Boris with devastating new claims.

    DOMINIC CUMMINGS has suggested there were several parties in Downing Street in the run-up to last Christmas as Boris Johnson is facing a party crisis.
    By STEVEN BROWN
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1533182/dominic-Cummings-Boris-Johnson-latest-Downing-Street-flat-party-lockdown-rules-UK-Covid

    Is the shit abaout to hit the fan….?

    1. Conservative Party card holders without invitations must be feeling a bit left out in the cold.

      1. You are right. The drip drip is all very well but I want the dirt now. Anything to get rid of this disgusting PM. I know that a successor is hard to name but Sir Christopher Chope or Sir Desmond Swayne are good men I think. Any other suggestions peeps?

          1. I agree he was very effective when it came to the flooding in Somerset but not flavour of the month now

          2. Too effective which is why he was shunted out of his post and may be why he’s been torpedoed now.

          3. Tragically his wife took her own life on Owen Paterson’s birthday.
            Was it Enoch Powell who said that all political careers end in failure?

    3. Is this the Boris equivalent of Hancock’s staged groping moment? i.e. I’ve done enough, I want my dosh and out now before I get lynched.

        1. yes, the self-righteous little sht has already been on the media condemning them for breaking the rules, I think.

    1. What a great lady, Grizz.
      Unfortunately she’s talking to closed minds that ignore the real science.
      If these people are impotent what hope for the rest of being heard.

    1. I suspect Michael’s shirt front is dripping wet with all that salivating at the prospect….

    2. Perhaps South Africa have caught onto the fraud and reduced their numbers so that plane flights will resume?
      It’s all such a farce, but real people are suffering.

  92. Plan B being discussed at the moment. Johnson expected to make a statement in the next half hour. If he imposes plan B he will regret it.

    2. I do hope so. I’m looking forward to a revolution and stuff on pikes by the city gates. There are more of us. I must remember though to add hundreds of thousands of the government’s pets into the revolutionary equation.

  95. That’s me gone. Cats demanding MORE food. Have a jolly evening cutting back on your Christmas plans.

    A demain.

    1. “Elahi was arrested by the National Crime Agency in December 2018 but was released, after which he was able to continue his offending until August 2020, despite being on bail.”
      FFS

          2. It would be appropriate if they could see what was happening. These are the kind of people who nail a young girl’s tongue to a table.

      2. How can you tell when Fataturk isn’t lying?
        Only at his funeral and assuming the coffin is standing upright

    2. Headline in the Mail:
      “Professor Neil Ferguson warns a full lockdown might be needed to stop Omicron overwhelming NHS as he says super-variant may have been seeded at COP26 summit in Glasgow.”
      NO! WHY should Doris and co take the slightest notice of that lying windbag – every single one of his forecasts, predictions and models have been so wide of the mark. it would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious, with such terrible consequences for the economy, all health except Convid, education and so on.
      All for a scariant that is known to be far less consequence to those who allegedly catch it, far less likely to lead to masses of hospitalisations and no major death figures.
      A worldwide respiratory viral epidemic/Scamdemic and they thought it was fine to have thousands of self-important politicians and so-called ‘experts’ from all over the world all meeting together with none of the ‘safety’ measures we are all subject to (except when the cameras were on them). What did they expect? Same with sports ‘stars’ and their entourages travelling freely all over.
      Meanwhile we have to jump through ever-changing hoops and are strongly discouraged from seeing family overseas.
      Am I mad? mad as hell. How many days before we’re strongly discouraged from seeing even UK family for Christmas, again.
      Edit – rant over for now.

      2. As I watch the WFH, middle class, middle level, unaffected demanding their rights while expecting delivery people, shop workers, care home workers etc to carry on and seeing the elite totally unaffected it’s turning me into a communist.

        1. Let’s face it, even when the Scamdemic was at its height, and before muzzles were in use, shop workers, including all the older supposedly vulnerable staff, were hardly dropping like flies. Same with care home and community carers. Most shop staff, carers and others who had to be off work were only at home because they had been pinged or in contact with someone who was an alleged ‘case’ (most of whom weren’t more than mildly unwell).
          Why shouldn’t it just be the supposedly ‘clinically vulnerable’ (whether very old and frail or with serious underlying health conditions) who have to hide away? For the majority, this is no more risk than catching regular flu, and we don’t panic over that.

      1. True, but I doubt that even our incompetent civil service would allow bribes as tax deductible, though on second thoughts….

  102. 342602+ up ticks,
    Fat turk at it on the Broken Biscuit Co, may one ask,

    🎵,
    How long will this be going on,
    do the electorate realise they are supporting / voting for three IN NAME ONLY party’s, and in doing so knowingly are giving their consent as in condoning rape / abuse of the Country’s children at the same time as denying them their legacy.

    These are not party politico’s as was, imo we are going through pay back time for the 24/6/2016 result inclusive with softening up for the ratcheting in of replace, reset, these are proven, without morales, lying,deceiving, political enemas of the state as in piss takers of the highest order.

  103. NO, NO, NO! How that fat liar has the effing nerve to come out with more of this shit after the revelations today. I WILL not co-operate and neither will MH. Shut the sodding govt down and let this country and its people get on with our lives.
    Propaganda and lies and obviously planned to destroy the holiday season.
    NO, NO- NO MORE!

      1. Oh I have. Am trying to calm down before my BP blows the roof off. Have never seen MH so angry either.

        1. I think they might bypass the mandatory jabs. They really only need the passports to implement the digital currency.
          In Germany, 80% of unvaccinated in a poll said they wouldn’t get vaccinated if it was made mandatory, about 12 million people in total. I know that some are already planning their exit from Austria and Germany, though the mandatory vaxxes aren’t certain in either country.

          1. I reckon Johnson is still taking directions from his EU masters who in turn are directed by the global elite brotherhood.

            The Fataturk never believed in Brexit but used it to opportunistically gain power on those directions. Everything else was mere bluster.

            Hence the continuance of unfettered illegals arriving in greater numbers than ever, the deliberate destruction of the livelihoods of the self employed and demise of hospitality and retail sectors of the economy and the betrayal of our promises to others, left right and centre.

          3. I reckon Johnson is still taking directions from his EU masters who in turn are directed by the global elite brotherhood.

            The Fataturk never believed in Brexit but used it to opportunistically gain power on those directions. Everything else was mere bluster.

            Hence the continuance of unfettered illegals arriving in greater numbers than ever, the deliberate destruction of the livelihoods of the self employed and demise of hospitality and retail sectors of the economy and the betrayal of our promises to others, left right and centre.

    3. It was utterly predictable and we all now need to ignore the entire shitshow.

      Johnson hates us and is taking revenge for the sacrifice of his former press spokesman Allegra Stratton.

      1. Covid passports have been planned all along. Johnson is very successfully implementing the plan. Next step, Johnson resigns and his successor brings in the digital currency, and then it’s game over.

          1. Worse. I’m not saying the government are Nazis, but Hitler would have been jealous that he didn’t think of mandatory vaxxes and covid passes.

    4. See my comment a short while ago. Mad as can be, sick of this whole scam that is ruining the economy, adversely affecting health through stress & ignoring of virtually all health issues, cancers and other serious illnesses going undiagnosed, the list goes on.
      I’m glad my time is running out but fear for my sons and little grandchildren. The youngest, who only turned four a week ago, had yet another convid test yesterday – all for a snotty nose.

    1. We don’t need a ‘conversation’ about mandatory jabs. It wouldn’t be a ‘conversation’ anyway, it would just be imposed, no debate, MPs would just roll over – ‘it’s for everyone’s safety’ – if the jabs were so good, and given that the majority of people are at least double jabbed, then it wouldn’t still be spreading. They are ignoring that this latest scariant is actually far milder than previous ones, will cause but a fraction of the serious illness and deaths. Nuremburg 2 awaits (well, it’s good to dream…).

      1. A German contact told me today that mandatory jabs are by no means a certainty in that country.
        The two biggest parties are the SDP and the Union (lab and con respectively)
        Most of those members will be for compulsory medication.
        However, the free voters, the greens, the far left party and the Afd will be against. The liberals are sitting on the fence (bastards!)

        “736 members from six parliamentary groups will have seats in parliament, more than ever before. The strongest parliamentary group will be the SPD with 206 members, while the CDU/CSU – previously the largest group – will have only 197 seats. The Greens will be represented by 118 parliamentarians, while the FDP will have 92, the AfD 83 and The Left 39. Thanks to a special rule, one seat in the Bundestag will go to the South Schleswig Voters’ Association (SSW).”

        So the vote will be close. It really depends on how many SPD members reject the proposal, because the Union will probably go along with it.

    2. If I were to twit a reply, it would result in plod hammering on the door pdq. It’s a massive over-reaction. Where is the evidence that hospital admissions are rocketing? Where is the evidence, from anywhere, that deaths are spiking? Both are at a mere fraction of earlier in the year, and show no signs of negatively changing.

        1. Bearing in mind there are circa 150 acute hospitals in England alone that works out on average 48 inpatients per hospital and currently less than 6 pts in ICU or HDU on ventilation (many of whom will have serious co-morbidities as well ad Covid due to their weakened immune status).

  106. Yaay!
    Sick PC returned to life, brought back from Microsoft horsepickle by UPS, and fit-for-fight again!

  107. ‘Night All

    Enough,more than enough

    It was not part of their blood,

    It came to them very late

    With long arrears to make good,

    When the English began to hate.

    They were not easily moved,

    They were icy-willing to wait

    Till every count should be proved,

    Ere the English began to hate.

    Their voices were even and low,

    Their eyes were level and straight.

    There was neither sign nor show,

    When the English began to hate.

    It was not preached to the crowd,

    It was not taught by the State.

    No man spoke it aloud,

    When the English began to hate.

    It was not suddenly bred,

    It will not swiftly abate,
    Through the chill years ahead,
    When Time shall count from the date
    That the English began to hate.

  108. Looking at this from another direction, are we to believe, to place reliance and trust, in a Prime Minister who did not know that there was a big party going on in his own house? Number 10 Downing Street is the official residence of the Prime Minister. Anything that happens within the building, official or unofficial, is his proper concern. For him to argue that nothing happened, or if it did happen, he knew nothing about it is to claim a degree of ignorance that we have to suppose extends to all of his concerns. If that is so, as he so strenuously claims, then he is thereby claiming that he is completely unfit to sweep the steps at Downing Street, and certainly not fit to be our Prime Minister.

        2. How about you take Trudeau? At least the idiot is honest about being anti anything and doesn’t pretend to be conservative.

          Actually that is the only thing he is honest about.

  110. The local Christingles service has just been cancelled, or rather postponed until an imaginary date next year.

      1. They wouldn’t dare to impose restrictions on slammer festivals, that would be waycist and against their ‘human rights to freely practise their cult. Though as so many of those savages are barely human, why should they get any human rights?

        1. Everyone’s rights should be respected, but when they don’t neither should we be expected to.

      1. Organisers are oldish, and scared of infecting others I suppose.

        Yet well over a year ago a female Russian doctor explained that God would not allow sars cov 2 to spread within his House.

        2. A widespread belief amongst old dears who turn up to Church and sit behind you, gurgling and coughing their germs all over you and everyone else. God won’t let them get the flu, and He’ll cure me…

    2. Not being flippant but I spent many of my primary school years in the corner…and I had to write lines. 500 lines on one occasion, can’t remember why.

  112. I’ve worked it out. The order to wear masks isn’t about stopping the transmission of the virus. It is to stop us SPITTING Feathers!

        1. Thank you I had missed it. I shall read tonight.

          My wife has this instant shown me the most horrific effect on babies born to vaccinated mothers. Babies are being born with black eyes when they should initially have blue eyes.

          I truly believe that we are being manipulated by evil people. They are amassing vast fortunes with this pandemic scam which involves the transference of wealth from the poorest to the wealthiest.

          Our present increased life expectancy has derived from clean water, good sanitation, good diets and environmental improvements.

          The employment of certain medical interventions has contributed to our longevity but other medical interventions have proven to be disastrous. I believe these Covid jabs are proving to fall within the ‘disastrous’ category.

  113. I wonder if the Prime Minister, our Prime Minister, has instructed No10 to follow Plan B.

  114. Evening, all. Thank goodness the booster roll out is being hampered; it’s probably the only good thing about NHS incompetence!

    1. I wrote a letter to my GP and hand delivered. I laid out all my problems and the response was how much had i cut down on my drinking and smoking.

      I am now getting daily texts to have my booster.

      Perhaps i should look at how to perform my own Angioplasty.

      2. I’m sorry, Phizzee, how long have you been waiting for an angioplasty, if you don’t mind me asking?

  115. On the subject of the BBC and the ‘mostly civil’ attack by Muslims on a bus carrying Jewish children.

    The BBC has questions to answer on anti-Semitism

    Our national broadcaster looks as though it is bending over backwards to find an equivalence between anti-Semites and their victims

    IAN AUSTIN • 6 December 2021 • 5:10pm

    If far-Right thugs attacked a bus of Muslim children in central London, I would hope and expect universal condemnation and wall-to-wall coverage, with mug shots of those responsible broadcast until they had been identified and prosecuted. That is not what happened when a group of Asian men on Oxford Street attacked a bus of Jewish children celebrating Chanukah. The men hit the bus, spat at and threatened the children, and made Nazi salutes.

    The BBC called the anti-Semitism “alleged”, and claimed racial slurs from inside the bus could be heard on a recording of the incident. This was subsequently amended in its report to say that only one insult had been made, as if that made much difference. I have listened repeatedly and can’t hear any such thing – nor can fluent Hebrew speakers who have watched the footage. Instead, I’m told the terrified children, speaking in Hebrew, are calling for help. Did the BBC consult Hebrew speakers before arriving at its conclusions?

    The BBC has questions to answer. Was it attempting to draw an equivalence between a group of men intimidating children and their victims? And why did it report the abuse from thugs on the street as “alleged” but present the disputed allegation of a slur inside the bus by children as a fact?

    I have always defended the BBC, but can’t imagine an incident involving any other group being reported in this way. It needs to listen to people from the Jewish community and look at this very carefully. We can’t have people thinking that incidents of racism are handled differently depending on who the perpetrators and victims might be.

    It is not as if the threat posed by anti-Semitism has lessened. According to the Community Security Trust, a charity that protects Jewish people, anti-Semitic incidents soared during the conflict caused by Hamas terrorism against Israel earlier this year. Synagogues were defaced and Jewish people attacked. Students reported racist abuse, including death threats.

    A convoy of bigots drove hundreds of miles from Bradford to intimidate people in neighbourhoods with large numbers of Jewish residents. Some merely shouted “free Palestine”, as if people living in north London are responsible for a conflict thousands of miles away. Others screamed disgusting abuse and threats to rape Jewish women.

    What is the difference between these bigots and the National Front targeting areas of London with large black communities in the 1980s? And what is going on in some of our communities that leads to this racist obsession?

    Anti-Semitism has festered on campuses, and in the far-Right and hard-Left, but it became mainstream during Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party. Israel became an obsession on the Left, held to standards never applied to other countries, and Jewish people in Britain were expected to account for a government of another country.

    The demonisation of Israel leads to racist attacks against Britain’s Jewish community. Our national broadcaster should be shining a spotlight on that, exposing the racists and standing up for the victims, not bending over backwards seemingly to find an equivalence where none exists.

    Lord Austin is a former Labour MP and chairs the anti-extremism campaign Mainstream

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/06/bbc-has-questions-answer-anti-semitism/

    1. Dear Lord. The perpetrators were muslims. Muslims. Get it, Lord Austin? Muslims. The reason that you could not see their faces is that their faces were obscured by “Get Out Of Jail Free Cards”.

  116. Well,well,well,BoJo follows his Globalist orders and just like that Scotland Yard drop any investigations into the party……
    Pure coincidence of course

    1. It was a year ago, it’s not like he called Sad Dick Khant ‘one of you lot’ 20 years ago or anything.

  117. The Commons go into Xmas recess a week on Friday. Boris Johnson will likely cling on to office until then. They return on 4th January.
    The first item on the Agenda will be the resignation of Boris Johnson. It may be that there will be an excuse, “tired and emotional”, “under great strain for years”, “Brexit and Covid”. These will not be the the real reason. The real reason will be his making the Tories look foolish and thereby threatening the grip that the government has on the people.
    The real reason will drive the big boys, the grandees of the Conservative Party, to engineer his departure. The Xmas break gives them time to sort out a successor. It will not make a lot of difference maybe, regardless of who it is, Truss, Gove, whoever.

    1. If the Tories lose votes big time in the by elections (or even seats) that will mean the end.

    2. Yes, I think he will be left hanging in the wind until after the New Year.
      Too many people have now been made to look stupid.

    3. Addendum. If Boris cannot handle the flack from an illicit party how can he be expected to handle war with Russia? I mean, for a start does he know that the Ukraine is right next door to Russia and they are getting very narky with each other?

    4. The septic tank will be drained, the shit stirred and resprayed.
      It will still be a shower of shits.

    5. I said in 2019 that the Conservative Party needs to die a total death to enable a true right of centre with conservative values to be born. Nothing I have seen, heard or read since has given me reason to change my view, and that was before what has come to light recently.

  118. The Christmas lockdown will become an annual tradition

    First, the press conferences come once a week, then twice a week, and then every day until – splat! – we are in full lockdown until spring

    ROSS CLARK • 8 December 2021 • 2:03pm

    Here we go again. Like clockwork, the Government is clunking its way towards what threatens to become an annual Christmas tradition: the festive lockdown. Last week we were told to wear masks in shops and on public transport. This week it looks as if we are going full Plan B – mask-wearing, the return of social distancing [thankfully not coming back, though some people will act as though it has], working from home and possibly vaccine passports, too. You can already fill in your diary for next week: as soon as the annual Downing Street staff party is out of the way a full lockdown will be called and we’ll be forced to cancel the in-laws yet again.

    I almost wish we could go straight into lockdown to save us this agonising drip-drip-drip erosion of our freedoms. It starts with some modest gesture, and we are assured that is all it is – there will be no more nasties heading our way. Then, a gloomy Chris Whitty takes us through his slides, and, before those measures have had chance to take effect, we have to have tighter restrictions.

    When society was being reopened earlier this year, the Government took it gently, taking a minimum of five weeks between each step, so as to allow it time to analyse data. Yet when locking us down there is no such caution – in spite of the huge economic cost which the Government is inflicting on us all. First, the press conferences come once a week, then twice a week, and then every day until – splat! – we are in full lockdown until spring.

    There is zero chance that the Covid picture will be looking any different next week than it does now. Numbers of omicron cases will continue to rise – obviously, because it is out-competing delta and is on its way to constituting virtually 100 per cent of cases. That will generate panicked decision-making. As for evidence from South Africa that omicron cases identified so far appear to be relatively mild, that will be put aside until we have more data. The bad news, in other words, will be amplified with gruesome worst-case scenarios; the good news will be dismissed until a later date.

    If we are going to do lockdown again this year, when most of us are fully jabbed, there is little reason to think that it will become anything other than a perennial fixture on the calendar. We have become prisoners of NHS ICU capacity. Even before Covid, the NHS complained of being close to bursting point every winter. Add in a novel, endemic virus and it will tip the whole system into overload every year without fail.

    Part of me wants to cancel every public infrastructure project and instead build an ICU unit on every street corner, so we never run out of capacity again. Except, that is, that the Government already tried that with its Nightingale hospitals – and still we were forced into lockdown as those hospitals remained empty.

    Yet there is one big difference between this year and last. Following the debacle over last year’s Downing Street party the willingness of the public to conform to further lockdowns will be seriously diminished. Some will meekly obey, but many others will start to say: if Downing Street staff are allowed to interpret the rules so loosely that they can have a knees-up, then so will we. Good luck to the police trying to enforce any more lockdown rules if there are several parties taking place on every street.

    This pandemic will eventually end not because the virus has gone away or because government ministers and their advisers will have settled on some way of living with it, but because a critical mass of the public will have decided that it can no longer be doing with regular lockdowns and starts breaking the rules in the manner that Neil Ferguson, Dominic Cummings, Matt Hancock and a bevy of unidentified Downing Street staffers seem to have done. Roll on the day.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/08/christmas-lockdown-will-become-annual-tradition/

    1. If all civil servants lost all their pay at the outset. I can guarantee no lockdowns would happen.

      1. Likewise if all MPs and I mean all 650 of them were put on the same furlough terms as the rest of the country the idea wouldn’t have got off the ground.

        I hate them all with a vengeance.

      2. My favourite saying seems to come true more and more regularly. Everything our political classes and civil service come into contact with they F8CK UP ! Even with the help of a countless supply queue of experts. And I mean EVERYTHING.
        Dosed up again with paracetamol i’m off to bed again, good night all.

  119. I have just seen a farce book post from our GP centre. They are thanking the local Rotary club for giving them a big Christmas tree “to make the practice waiting room look festive.” What’s the point when hardly any patients get appointments? Hardly any patients will see it. Out of around 100 seats, maybe more, only single figures remain as they stated some months ago that they have no intention of face-to-face appointments ever again being the norm. Most of the limited numbers of appointments are with nurses or phlebotomist – only then because they haven’t yet found a way to take blood by phone.

  120. Nicked from “We Took the Oath”

    A fart it is a pleasant thing,
    It gives the belly ease,
    It warms the bed in winter
    And suffocates the fleas.
    A fart can be quiet,
    A fart can be loud,
    Some leave a powerful,
    Poisonous cloud
    A fart can be short,
    Or a fart can be long,
    Some farts have been known To sound like a song……
    A fart can create
    A most curious medley,
    A fart can be harmless,
    Or silent, and deadly.
    A fart might not smell,
    While others are vile,
    A fart may pass quickly,
    Or linger a while……
    A fart can occur in a number of places,
    And leave everyone there,
    With strange looks on their faces.

    From wide-open prairie,
    To small elevators,
    A fart will find all of us sooner or later.
    But farts are all bad,
    Is simply not true.
    We must never forget…
    Sweet old farts like you!
    Kinda brings a tear to your eye – doesn’t it?.

    1. I miss them a bit. My sense of smell not back properly. From the dog’s expression and tummy rumblings I think he’s been taking advantage of me.

      2. MH has on Billy Connolly and this made me laugh…”it sounded like a goose farting in the fog.” Thank god for laughter.

  121. Mpfffff ….. Splurp ….. Kkkfoosh …..
    Just practising my festive greetings under the latest government panic diktat.
    Have been merrily waltzing in and out of shops with a naked face.
    Oh, well, at least I’ll get my money’s worth out of my exemption lanyard.

    This must the be longest three weeks in human history.

    3. Stuff the lanyard. In the unlikely event that you’re challenged, two words are all you need. “I’m exempt”. I’ve only ever been challenged once, at Sainsburys on Monday as it happens. This nonsense will only end when we end it.

        1. Yep. Shops are very masky again. Aldi (80%) was better than Sainsburys (99%). The cashier was mask-free. No-one batted an eyelid. Nothing was said on the bus or the subsequent train.

      2. I got challenged – well, questioned, really – in a charity shop; woman said, “have you got a mask?” “No,” I replied. “Are you exempt?” “Yes.” End of conversation.

        1. Charity shops are the worst of all. Friend Dianne made an appointment to drop some stuff off at the Estuary League of Friends shop in Topsham. She even phoned again to make sure that the appointment was booked. Turned up with a car load of stuff, and they denied that she had an appointment, and flatly refused to allow her to donate to them. They’ve been removed from her will, and Devon Air Ambulance were happy to take her stuff. While I technically work for the Third Sector, I despise most of it…

          1. Good luck to you, Geoff. You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din;-)
            As I stated earlier, I am getting very bolshy and will not put up with any more nonsense. See earlier post about buying a book- “Tunnel Digging for Dummies” for when I am locked up 😉

          3. We will start the Tunnel Committee- you can shovel and I’ll shake the rubble out of me trousers;-)

      3. A great final sentence, Geoff. As a matter of interest I had to wear the mask I always carry but seldom ever use because on Wednesday morning I had my biennial eye test. They insisted I wear a mask and I really value these tests to give me early warning of anything such as macular degeneration. But there was a really good result from my reading the wall chart. Through my mask I said “B, D, G, V”. “Excellent” said the optician “Q, Z, H, W. You got them 100% right.”

        1. Alf and I have both had appointments at Specsavers in the last 3 weeks or so. Neither of us wore a mask and simply said “I’m exempt” when a mask was mentioned. It is simply a matter of being quietly and politely determined not to wear one.

  122. Just picked up this on my homepage (has feeds from all sorts). HOW can these places use the word ‘care’ in their titles? Already many are setting out plans to needlessly harm their residents.
    “Solehawk – which has homes in Newcastle and Gateshead – told families that Christmas visiting was “very restricted”. Any resident who leaves will need to be isolated for up to 14 days upon their return.”
    “Larchwood Care, with homes in England, Scotland and Wales, said “visiting will not normally be taking place on Christmas Day to allow our staff to focus on providing an enjoyable experience for our residents”. Meanwhile, a poster at Hengoed Park Care Home in Swansea makes clear that visits are banned on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.”
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/soon-to-be-too-late-fury-as-care-homes-about-to-ban-visits-during-the-festive-season/ar-AARyN1N?ocid=msedgntp

    The home where my dear Mum stayed close on ten years ago, and where late mother-in-law stayed for her final year up to last December, WELCOMED family on Christmas day, a very relaxed atmosphere that was valued by residents, families and staff alike. They said that having lots of residents ‘out’ for the day, meant they could spend quality time with those residents remaining in.
    I know they are having to now take extra precautions but maybe getting families to take tests prior to ‘claiming’ their loved one for the day, and the resident being tested on return, would help?
    Edit:
    “Government guidance makes it clear there are no national visiting restrictions on family and friends. It expects and encourages care providers to facilitate visits where possible, in a risk-managed way.”
    “There remains wide ignorance about the guidance on Essential Care Givers (ECG). EVERY HOME RESIDENT IS ENTITLED TO ONE, WHO IS ALLOWED TO VISIT EVEN WHEN THE PERSON IS ISOLATING OR DURING A COVID OUTBREAK, TO PROVIDE COMPANIONSHIP AND SUPPORT”
    Well, that is kept very quiet.

    1. I sympathise with the homes, under the current regime whatever they do will be wrong for someone.

      2. That gave me an unintended laugh, Stormy. I mis-read the final word as “señorita”!

    2. Chicken korma with pilau rice, Peter? Now that gives me an idea for tomorrow’s Curry Thursday meal with the u3a wrinklies. Yummy, yummy.

  126. More institutional failure…

    Arthur’s tragic tale shows how lockdown became an abusers’ charter

    While that lost boy was being tortured, the networks that should have protected him were shut down – serious questions must be answered

    ALLISON PEARSON

    “A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood.” That’s how The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson begins. In the dark wood, the mouse meets several creatures who frighten him so, cunningly, the little creature invents a monster that will scare off his predators. Arthur Labinjo-Hughes loved The Gruffalo. The six-year-old loved to read or be read to. A joyful boy “always smiling and with the most inquisitive little mind”, according to his natural mother, Arthur adored school where a love of reading became a love of learning how to write new words. Small children often use stories to master their imaginary fears, finding comfort between the covers. Arthur’s fears were soon to become all too terrifyingly real.

    After the start of lockdown in March 2020, when he moved in with his father and stepmother, Arthur’s story swiftly turned into a harrowing tale of cruel, dehumanising treatment. Emma Tustin and Thomas Hughes deprived him of food and water, poisoned him with salt and made him stand alone in a hallway for 14 hours at a time for “discipline”. (Did the insecure Tustin hate the “ugly little brat” because he was clever and chatty, a daily reminder of his mother, the privately-educated Olivia who started a degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Nottingham University before she fell in with bad company, finally being jailed for stabbing her lover? I reckon she did.) Video recorded towards the end of Arthur’s life shows a wraith-like creature, almost too weak to get up from the duvet on the floor where he was made to sleep. Even then, even when the brutes had broken him, the bright little boy retained an ability to articulate his predicament. “Nobody loves me,” he cried, and, over and over. “No one is going to feed me.”

    The whole country is haunted by Arthur. And so we should be. That lost boy cries out to our society: how could this be allowed to happen?

    If he had been a character in one of his own books, a beloved uncle would have turned up at that hellish house in Solihull and rescued his nephew. As it happens, in an impossibly bitter twist, a concerned uncle did go to the house to confront Tustin and Hughes. When he was unable to gain entry, Daniel Hughes sent photos of the hand-size bruise on Arthur’s back to West Midlands Police. Instead of taking any action, officers told Hughes that he would be arrested for breaking Covid rules if he tried to visit again.

    What manner of madness is it that puts compliance with lockdown above the safety of a child? I’m afraid it is the self-same national consensus that silenced powerful voices in children’s charities, education and government who should have been speaking up for vulnerable youngsters during a pandemic which, as the authorities knew full well, had created the perfect conditions for child abuse.

    As the blame game begins, the Government has announced a national inquiry to review events leading up to Arthur’s killing. Policing minister Kit Malthouse says it is so far unclear “whether there were just individual failings by human beings or whether there was a systemic fail”. We have heard expressions of sympathy and promises of action from the Prime Minister downwards. Not one has given me any confidence that the conditions which contributed to Arthur’s death and the people whose actions – or lack of them – allowed it to happen will be identified, let alone that justice will be done.

    Of course, there are serious questions to be answered about how Arthur’s case was handled by the agencies involved. Why were repeated tip-offs from anxious family members largely ignored? When they finally visited the Solihull house, why did two social workers readily accept the manipulative Tustin’s reassurances that Arthur was “happy” and write a clueless report saying there were “no safeguarding issues”?

    Such failings need to be exposed. But they should not distract us from the fact that, during the period Arthur was being tortured, all of society – the vital network of noticing that should have protected him – was shut down. What role did lockdown play in that little boy’s death and how many other nameless children have suffered because of it? When he was finally taken to hospital with an irrecoverable injury (Tustin claimed he had banged his own head on the floor), Arthur had 130 injuries on his body. As a heartbreaking headline in this newspaper put it: “A bruise for every day of lockdown.”

    In no particular order, here are the people I would summon to take the stand in the case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes:

    The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies

    According to a Sage document of April 2020, it was already known that 94 per cent of vulnerable kids were not in school. The Government was fully aware of the risks to that group during lockdown and although at-risk children were permitted to attend school, it was not mandatory.

    Most of the document is concerned with children as likely vectors of disease for adults. You have to scroll to the bottom to find “The Wider Impact of School Closures on Children”. It notes that a Department for Education report found that the risk to vulnerable children’s welfare “has increased significantly as a result of school closures. The risk of harm and abuse in the home is likely to be higher due to isolation.” You don’t say!

    The Sage report ends with a series of questions: “Where are these children? How are they being supported and, importantly, safeguarded?” The answer was: nobody had a clue.

    Gavin Williamson and the Department for Education

    Why was school attendance not made mandatory for vulnerable children? Why did the Secretary of State repeatedly cave in to pressure from teaching unions to shut schools? Why were British schools closed for longer than those in any other European country except Italy, when officials knew what a crucial lifeline teachers were for pupils who live in fear at home? (Sweden never closed schools for children under 14). Before lockdown, Arthur was receiving good support from the safeguarding lead at Dickens Heath Community primary school. If she had seen his deterioration since he moved in with his father and stepmother, she would likely have raised the alarm.

    There were almost 10,000 fewer safeguarding referrals in March 2020 compared with that month the previous year. The Department observed that the dramatic reduction was “driven by a fall in referrals from schools”. As if they had nothing to do with it.

    The National Education Union

    Throughout the pandemic, joint general secretaries Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney helped keep schools closed. They put the interests of their teacher members – who weren’t at higher risk from severe Covid or hospitalisation than any other profession – above the welfare of pupils, causing untold mental and physical harm to children.

    Independent Sage

    On June 1 2020, the Left-wing scientists’ pressure group published an interim report, following a public session with Mumsnet, saying it was “still too soon” to open schools. In fact, for many children it was far too late. Arthur died on June 16.

    Essentially, and there is no palatable way of putting this, Arthur and thousands of children like him were left to take their chances. It was all right for them to be at risk so long as the more important risk – of spreading Covid to vulnerable adults – was contained. According to Robert Halfon, one of the very few MPs to champion the young throughout, there are still tens of thousands of “ghost children” who are at risk of abuse after failing to return to school following the lockdowns. Let that sink in; up to 100,000 kids have fallen off the radar. Are they dead or alive?

    A few days ago, I popped a card round to a friend whose lockdown baby just turned one. Like all infants, Freddie was due to be seen by a health visitor for a regular health and development check. But I was astonished to discover that health visitors are still working remotely. Freddie’s check was carried out over the phone. His mum, Becky, was not impressed. “You know, Alli, no one official has seen Fred since he was three days old. I mean, a mum could be lying to the health visitor on the phone, couldn’t she? She could be hurting her baby, not feeding him properly or anything and how would they know?”

    Becky, a 38-year-old mother of three small children, can spot this flaw in the system but the brilliant fellows at the Department of Health are seemingly unaware of it. Or, maybe, they know that some health visitors still aren’t checking infants in person and are crossing their fingers and praying that no baby is starved or tortured to death. At which point, you can guarantee that the politicians will express horror that such a thing should have been allowed to happen. They will promise that systems will be reviewed and, yes, lessons will be learned.

    The lesson I would like this Government to learn would be taken on board before another child dies. The lesson is to stop prioritising Covid, which we must live with now, and to start putting resources into finding those haunting “ghost children”.

    If schools had been open during lockdown would Arthur Labinjo-Hughes be alive today? I believe that he would. By shutting down society and banning family interaction, it meant the small boy was left at the mercy of malevolent adults who felt they could do as they pleased with him.

    The Prime Minister has talked about introducing Arthur’s Law that would see anyone who plans then carries out the murder of a child sent to prison indefinitely. While I would gladly see Tustin and Hughes rot in jail, there are better laws to commemorate him.

    Let’s have an Arthur’s Law against a lockdown ever being imposed again. Children paid too high a price for staying at home and “safe”. We won’t know the final bill for decades.

    “A mouse took a stroll through the deep dark wood…” It makes me weep to think there would be no happy ending for that sweet boy who loved to read and be read to. All we can do is not give the monsters a chance to prey on children next time.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/12/07/arthur-labinjo-hughess-tragic-tale-shows-lockdown-became-abusers/

    1. That little boy haunts me. And if bloody Boris wants someone to blame- he should look in the mirror. He and his government have that little lad’s blood on their hands.

    2. Boris Johnson and his government of useless boughten cronies have the blood of many on their hands. I never thought to witness such callous disregard for human life under the guise of protecting our health in my lifetime.

      1. Yes. People warned in advance about the dangers of irresponsible lockdown, and weren’t heeded.
        I’m afraid there are more children in danger – this little boy is not the only one who didn’t go back to school.

    3. William, I have given you a single upvote for your post of Allison’s article. If I could, I would have given you one billion upvotes – at least! This post brought back unhappy memories of my own “stepmother”, although my childhood miseries were infinitesimally compared with those of little Arthur.

      EDIT: I obviously meant to write “infinitesimally small“,

  127. If you wish to, go on You Tube and click on Neil Oliver…the 2021 Smith Lecture. Very good indeed about cancel culture.

  128. 342602+ up ticks,

    Surely the lab/lib/con coalition has burnt its bridges using mass uncontrolled immigration / the rape & abuse of children, treachery, deceit, lying,the mass manipulation of simpleton fools, there cannot be a comeback for this political trash.

    They have sucked the electorate in over the last near four decades and are now regurgitating them in the deformed shape of reset.

    Left & right wing politics are out the window, tis now down to two options RIGHT & WRONG.

    Your choice.

    1. The wheels are falling off the Fauci bandwagon in America. Nobody believes a word he utters as he is exposed as a fraud in bed with Pharma and profiting from the promotion of vaccines for decades. Vaccines which have been responsible for hundreds of thousands of injuries and many deaths.

      Vaccines the definition of which have now to be altered multiple times in order to accommodate the multiple failures of single, double and booster shots. The evil skunk Fauci is now proposing to redefine the meaning of ‘fully vaccinated’ to require multiple booster shots with the vaccine for the latest moronic ‘variant’ requiring three shots.

      I simply cannot understand how we have gotten into a situation where corrupt medicos and those investing in them are allowed to shape our lives.

      As Neil Oliver states we must protest.

  131. A late night joke from my mate in GA USA….

    It is only when a mosquito lands on your testicles
    That you realise that there is always a way to solve problems
    Without using violence.

    1. Let’s just bear in mind that the only mosquitoes that are interested in human blood are female.

      1. This was sent to my mate from a fellow volunteer at the Carter Center ;-))
        And yes, I did know that.

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