583 Responses to Midweek Thread 15 September 2021

  1. Up2snuff says:

    Hmmn, Battle of Britain, yes fond memories of commemorating that. Visits to air shows. Not last year. Not this year. Maybe next year? Heroes all, our pilots in blue. Maybe I will get a travel-free (for me) flypast from one of the Spitfires that fly out of airfields in central Kent.

    What will the BBC do for Battle of Britain Day?

    Probably not much, if anything at all.

       41 likes

  2. taffman says:

    They did no favours for the last Battle of Britain – Brexit Day!

       29 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      The BBC are still trying to undermine that, taffman!

      The BBC = The Fifth Column.

         31 likes

      • taffman says:

        Up2snuff
        That outfit should have been scrapped long ago especially after the great Brexit vote
        Why hasn’t BoJo called them out and brought them to book ?
        Call me cynical, but Is his ultimate aim to take us back into EU?

           20 likes

        • G says:

          Taffman,

          Yes, I always believed that the Con (gang) were all for the EU and erred in holding the referendum. At which point they all realised that they had to nominate one of their rank to head the ‘Leave’ effort. The Bottler drew the short straw….. Just for appearances.

             14 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          taffman: “Why hasn’t BoJo called them out and brought them to book ?”

          Because Bojo is scared of the power of the BBC and also scared of his missus. He’s in a Climate Cleft Stick. He’s dabbled a bit around the edges and has put the squeeze on the BBC’s constantly inflating income but that’s about it so far.

          Don’t think Bojo wants to take us back in to the EU. at least not deliberately. There’s no doubt the Sybil Serpents want that. Farming Today was interesting for something Anna Hill said: apparently the Serpents are still gold plating Brussels’ rules for farm produce.

             22 likes

  3. StewGreen says:

    GBnews just about to start on the AOC “Tax The Rich” dress

       14 likes

  4. vlad says:

    Rebecca Ryan of Defund the BBC argues that the BBC is in terminal decline.

    Nothing that readers of this site haven’t heard before, but always nice to hear.

       32 likes

  5. StewGreen says:

    GMB weather dolly *FLEW* to Norway to do a crying piece about polar bears and little children
    The video is cringing

    Twitter is normally talking about her leather trousers, or leather skirts.

       32 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Since polar bears greatly increased in the last 40 years
      .. I can’t see them ding out in the next 30

         35 likes

    • JohnC says:

      The media seem to have abandoned mature, professional journalists and switched to the kind of half-attractive, anyone-might-have-a-chance over-confident bimbo who can thrust her chest out at a camera and also identify with the students.

      The world is sinking to the lowest common denominator. Which is made up of people too stupid to realise they are stupid.

      It’s bizarre – but the internet is proving to be the downfall of civilisation.

         60 likes

      • Sick of it all says:

        ‘the internet is proving to be the downfall of civilisation.’

        Only because the masses aren’t using it correctly. It’s sobering that we have the most powerful educational tool ever created at our disposal – almost instant access to virtually every knowledge stream available – yet so many are attracted only to the entertainment value of this new toy.

        The internet should be a portal to the next stage of our evolution, but it’s evolving into the end of term pantomime at a special needs school.

           13 likes

        • Seppers says:

          I remember an older friend telling me – about 1993 – how there would be this interweb, and everyone in the world would be able to enter chat spaces and have conversations.
          I remember what I thought distinctly; I naively imagined us all chatting and getting on. Maybe discuss philosophy and what books we were reading or films we were watching.
          I did not imagine the twitter hatefest, the dark Web, or the use of it by terrorists or other horrible groups.
          I use it like everyone, and it has good points but I preferred the world without it.
          That said, given the dearth of comedy on TV I do find people on YouTube quite amusing sometimes.

             9 likes

      • Banania says:

        One of the really nastiest is Marianna whatsername. I long to see her come a cropper.

           7 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Stew, Laura Tobin really ought to know as a meterologist that at this time of year the temperatures at the North Pole and in the water, especially, are about to reach their warmest – despite a poor summer in parts of the northern hemisphere – before the winter freeze.

      BBC Fake tears?

         21 likes

  6. Zephir says:

    You couldnt make it up, no one would believe you, travel all the way to Norway to do a “weather report” on climate change that could have been achieved in your front room with a laptop and webcam, and start crying whilst filling out your travel expenses to avoid a little income tax that everyone else has to pay, but not you, or make up artists, hairdressers. sound recorders and camera crew

       44 likes

  7. JohnC says:

    And what is top of the BBC’s ‘Must See’ list today ?.

    Met Gala 2021

    _120540479_kimk.jpg

    They are absolutely out of touch with the real world. These people have no business reporting news.

       42 likes

  8. vlad says:

    9k=

       48 likes

    • JohnC says:

      Brought to you by CNN, the BBC, Twitter, Facebook and dozens of left-wing activist internet news sites.

      All of them are now soaked in blood.

         38 likes

  9. Zephir says:

    All we need now is a theme song to accompany the images of Afgees killing Afgees or anyone else in firing range

    Maybe Elton can help

    “Sandals in the Wind”

    although I would not suggest a tour over there, still one or two tall buildings left

       20 likes

  10. Zephir says:

       5 likes

  11. Zephir says:

    Keep talking about income tax, that will shut the bbc up for a while, er, ahem, moving on to the weather, oh look… a squirrel

    BBC to pay out millions to settle historic tax avoidance claims
    The BBC has set aside up to £12m to pay off the past tax liabilities of BBC presenters being pursued by HMRC for tax avoidance using personal service companies, the latest BBC annual report has revealed.

    2019

    https://www.taxwatchuk.org/bbc-tax_avoidance/

    However, the National Audit Office (NAO) has questioned whether the payments are a legitimate use of BBC funds, and has issued a qualified opinion of the BBC accounts as a result.

    The NAO highlights the difficulties that the BBC and other organisations have got into when seeking to avoid tax, and the thorny issue of who pays when tax avoidance schemes go wrong.

    The BBC started to employ presenters via personal service companies from the late 1990s. A personal service company is a company that is set up to manage the affairs of an employee. Instead of contracting with the employee directly, the BBC contracted with their company.

    The BBC got into these kinds of arrangements in a big way. Previously the BBC has said that 800 of their presenters were at risk of tax investigations by HMRC, 300 of them for their use of personal service companies.

    The other 500 were employed as freelancers through other schemes not involving personal services companies which the BBC is now also facing a large bill for. It is not made clear in the BBC annual accounts the nature of these schemes, however, it is possible that these are the kind of loan based tax avoidance schemes now being caught by the HMRC Loan Charge. It is also not clear what the liability is on these schemes. The total tax and litigation provision in the BBC accounts is £40m, this includes other money set aside for other issues and the £12m for liabilities arising from the personal service company schemes.

       30 likes

    • G says:

      Z,
      “The BBC has set aside up to £12m to pay off the past tax liabilities of BBC presenters….”

      On my reckoning, that’s over 76 thousand annual tv licences.

      Just to put it in perspective.

         35 likes

  12. Zephir says:

    “There is no doubt that this is a difficult issue. On the one hand, the contracts were made with the personal service companies, and then it was up to the people operating the company (the presenter) how they paid themselves (i.e. how much in dividend and how much in salary).

    On the other hand, it is clear from the testimony of many of the people involved in these schemes that the BBC was complicit in these arrangements. The corporation drew up the contracts and actively encouraged its presenters to organise their affairs in this way. Indeed, some presenters have said they were forced to use such arrangements. There is no doubt that the BBC benefited from the arrangements.”

       28 likes

  13. Zephir says:

    Which does not sit well with the frequent bbc demands for Government (taxpayers) money to pay for the NHS, climate change green measures, social care etc etc

    Warning over cuts to NHS services without £10bn extra funding https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-58417076

    Budget 2021: No ‘green revolution’ from Sunak

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56270528

    Critics have said Budget measures did not go far enough to address the scale of the challenge of climate change.

    Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a change to the Bank of England’s remit as part of green measures in the Budget.

    He also confirmed a infrastructure bank to invest mainly in green projects.

    But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the Budget stopped “way short” of the action needed to tackle the climate emergency.

    Mr Sunak shielded drivers from a fuel duty rise and he clawed back money from a key home insulation scheme.

       13 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Most green-measures add to NHS costs
      and therefore make it less effective

      eg if one government section gives Hull hospital £12m for solar panels
      That hospital will draw a bit less energy from the grid over 10 years …say £4m worth
      Overall the taxpayer has a £8m loss
      then that £8m taxpayer money cannot be used for nurses.

         9 likes

    • Banania says:

      It would be interesting to know what proportion of the population believes that there is a “climate emergency”. By what right does this arrogant elite distort our way of life and take our money in pursuance of such a fairy tale?

         13 likes

  14. Zephir says:

    “he clawed back money” well done with that comment, when you refuse to pay the income tax the rest of the country pays by taking a £732 per annum salary to avoid national insurance bills, and the rest in dividends after taking 45p a mile travel expenses, clothing allowance, lap tops, PCs iphones, hotel and taxi bills, meals, drinks etc etc offset against income tax

    Not much left there for the government to spend

       16 likes

  15. Fedup2 says:

    Looks like the Biden voting team have over egged some vote on the governor of California – who got a 105% vote on a turn out of 110% .
    This may or may not be true – but when you get away with stealing one election ( so easily ) it must surely be tempting to do the same with any more .

    Maybe people will start getting suspicious when no Republican ever wins an election – a real republican that is – not one of them RINO types ( seen here as Tory red MPs)

       32 likes

  16. JohnC says:

    #MeToo: China court dismisses landmark sex harassment case
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-58567142

    Dismissed because there is no evidence. Not a criteria needed to ‘convict’ someone over here. Weinstein was ruined long before he was found guilty. And the BIG point about Weinstein which the BBC keep well and truly hidden is how he was found not guilty of the charge of ‘predatory sexual assault’ which he had been ruined for.
    I’m not defending Weinstein : he’s the kind of scumbag Hollywood is full of – but it seems the law no longer applies if a certain group of people don’t like it. And they have no shame about it.

    The BBC actually write ‘the outcome was an example of how sexual harassment or assault survivors in China “face a steep, almost insurmountable, uphill climb in court” especially if they lack “hard” evidence’.
    So they have unilaterally declared her a sexual assault survivor and imply she shouldn’t need any evidence !!!.
    What if he spurned her for something and she is a spiteful hater and she is lying ?. Showbusiness is absolutely full of that kind of person. The trouble is, the BBC is full of that kind of person too.

       21 likes

  17. Zephir says:

    “Hard” evidence see what you did there…

       11 likes

  18. JohnC says:

    Russian elections: How democratic are they?
    https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-58557994

    Another BBC ‘news’ item given the full treatment to help push the message in. Jaunty music, damning statements given by … people nobody knows and a presenter looking for a job on Panorama.

    The irony is off the scale. Will they do one asking how democracy can exist in the USA when the entire mainstream and social media conspire to support the Left ?.

    One story which sticks in my mind is the ex-google employee who said google deliberately change their search algorithm to disadvantage Trump. Yet another story which would have been huge news if Trump had arranged it.

    It seems election rigging is outrageous when it’s not in line with the agenda but fine when it is. Outrageous and disgusting hypocrites.

       24 likes

  19. AsISeeIt says:

    Our press are happy, they’ve bagged pictures of our overnight British-branded international tennis prodigy in a frock having ditched her US breakfast TV outfit of jeans and cardie – tabloid punsters are now working overtime like Jeremy Vine’s comic brother was on crazy deuce: ‘Emma having a ball… Court on camera teen tennis sensation at glitzy Met ball‘ (Mirror)

    Don’t get your hopes up would be tennis sugar daddies… The Mail has found her boyfriend: ‘Sharing in her New York joy, the boy who’s been a magical friend to Emma since she was six

    Serving up style Radacanu at gala. Inside the Met Ball. It’s game, set and matchless A-lister style‘ (freebie Metro)

    Speaking of celebrity balls: ‘Whitty: Nicki’s talking a load of knackers‘ (Daily Star) – I think I will attempt to explain: ‘Chief medical officer hits back over singer’s cousin’s awkward testicle problem‘ – still not clear? Let’s try again: ‘Singer Nicki Minaj has made virus guru Chris Whitty furious by tweeting that a pal’s plumbs swelled up to an unfeasible size after a covid jab

    Well that’s as maybe. I’m not sure I’d appreciate my medical expert hitting back or getting furious should I have some concerning side effect of the vaccine. Reassurance and explanation might allay public fears in a more Hippocratic way than mockery and anger. That style is more in tune with the tone expected of propaganda than of public health.

    Back to that other ball: ‘Lady in red. Ocasio-Cortez shows up at Met Gala in “tax the rich” ball gown‘ (FT) – this is the American lefty political prodigy who has stolen the crown once worn by that old socialist Bernie Sanders. Think Latino Jeremy Corbyn in a frock.

    Inexplicably the Guardian frontpage forsakes politics for the celebrity pic angle: ‘Back in fashion… Billie Eilish lights up Met Gala‘ – the American singer is pictured beside a bloke in a tux, the pair looking like the sort of vintage metropolitan fashionable bright young things who would have laughed at the Jarrow March in 1936.

    The Times, once our paper of record, reports a tad less earnestly than the rest: ‘Mad, mad Met ball. How the A list do fancy dress

    A fancy dress ball… and not a masque in sight.

    Our global elite, eh?

    I’m tempted to misquote Fleet Street stalwart Derek Jameson’s catchphrase do they mean us to read instead are they laughing at us?

       17 likes

  20. Guest Who says:

    Just yer average BBC Getty image.

       6 likes

    • digg says:

      Yep, but not the normal normality, the new normality of becoming manipulated drones.

         10 likes

    • Banania says:

      “Covid vaccine would give children normality.”
      Just try not to notice the third ear sprouting from their foreheads.

         3 likes

  21. Zephir says:

    “Master” ? how very dare you, someone is in for a compulsory two day diversity, equality, LGBTXYZ course

    And probably a board meeting going on now about whether gingers can be shown ahead of black people

       16 likes

  22. Fedup2 says:

    Toady
    Something about the NHS – I get the same buzz in my ears when I hear medical mafia going on about the NHS as I do with hearing about the SNP ….

    …. Anyway – no mention of GP still refusing to see patients ‘face to face ‘ – my suspicion is that it is easier to just google on a telephone appointment that when the punter is in the same room …

    The last time a saw a GP ( who I had never seen before ) they spent their time looking and talking to their computer screen than me .

    I’m prejudiced against the medical mafia for all sorts of reasons which puts me at the extreme end of ‘approved BBC thought ‘ ….

    I caught some medical mafia chaos saying about how the NHS is ‘exhausted ‘ – because of covid – maybe a few at the pointy end have had to work hard but the other 1.7 million NHS employees ? Nah …

       20 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Careful @Fed you’ll get sent to the gulags for that kind of talk about “our wonderful NHS” (Cash be upon it)

         9 likes

  23. Zephir says:

    Talking of gingers..

       9 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Meanwhile the Fail are going big on his birthday and GMB on Lewis Hamilton’s mum in a refugee camp in ISIsville.

      The media are beyond contempt.

         10 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Ha ha – jayzus- he has got the look of a bogtrotter about him ..

         6 likes

  24. Guest Who says:

    Bet he gets them too.

    Likely on the house.

       7 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      MPs GET IN FREE …

      Name of donor: Glastonbury Festivals Events Ltd
      Address of donor: Worthy Farm, Pilton, Shepton Mallet BA4 4BY

      Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Two tickets to Glastonbury, total value £476, given to a member of my family

      Date received: 24 June 2017

      Date accepted: 24 June 2017

      Donor status: company, registration 04348175

      https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10133

         3 likes

    • micknotmike says:

      Interesting. I reckon that this could actually be a mighty fine “tribute”. I’m a big fan of the Smiths (No middle ground there) but if Morrisseys voice get’s on your nerves it’s all you are going to hear. His vocals worked because Johnny Marr’s Rickenbacker was always so upbeat and cheerful, giving a balance somewhere along the line. Morrissey was always in tune (Still is), and has a baritone which can fly off into a falsetto in a blink. Rick Astley, if I recall, had a similar sound, slightly muted by the Stock, Aiken and Waterman material he was contracted to sing. If the guitarist (Don’t know her name, sorry) can capture Johnny Marr’s jangly sound I can only hope that it crops up on youtube.

         4 likes

  25. StewGreen says:

    9am More or Less
    #1 Peston Covid count
    “New data appears to show that double vaxxed people between 40 and 79 are getting Covid at higher rates than people who are unvaccinated
    , but that’s not case. (bold claim)
    It’s all down to how Public Health England estimates the size of different populations.

    (BTW what’s the problem in getting Covid, if it’s mild Covid ?
    Getting Covid gives you the best immunity)

    #2 … 2020 was “the deadliest year in a century”.
    What about 2021 ?

    #3 your questions on the new health and social care levy

    #4 words of congratulations and caution following Emma Raducanu’s astonishing win in the US Open.

    #5 dishwasher vs kitchen sink
    (If they are talking CO2, you have to do full counting
    eg dishwasher people will use extra hot water, washing their hands etc.)

       6 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Thanks for the heads up on MoL at 9 a.m.. I loved this one, btw: “Careful @Fed you’ll get sent to the gulags for that kind of talk about “our wonderful NHS” (Cash be upon it)”

      Brilliant!

         6 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      “We don’t know the number of unvaccinated people in an age range
      … cos we don’t have an accurate idea of what the population is
      .. so we use estimates like the ONS one
      .. but this PHE report used NIMS data, the number of people registered with doctors
      .. but we believe a lot of those people are no longer in the country
      .. so you end up with an overestimate of the number of people who are unvaccinated.”

      …. hmm a lot of people think ONS underestimate the population.

         7 likes

      • MarkyMark says:

        The Home Office has lost track of more than 600,000 foreigners who should have left the UK, according to a report that lays bare Britain’s “shambolic” border checks. … Home Office staff admitted that they lacked confidence in the system, with one saying it had been “mis-sold”.29 Mar 2018

           8 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Peston’s apology
      I am profoundly sad that some of you thought I was promoting an anti vax agenda here.

      As I said in this thread, the evidence on vaccination reducing SEVERE disease is clear and unambiguous.

      I am wholeheartedly in favour of vaccination.
      But Covid, even for the vaccinated, is not a trivial illness.
      And it is also not trivial if the vaccinated population spreads Covid to the unvaccinated or the immuno suppressed.
      So what I hoped to do was show that even for a vaccinated population, mask wearing and social distancing are important.
      I am very very sorry if that implication was not clear enough.
      I have just recovered from Covid *
      So please accept this is my passionately held conviction”

      * Irony there Mr Double Vaxed is saying his recent Covid was heavy enough to affect his judgement.

         7 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Re : health and social care levy
      The bottom line is the £12bn works out at £200 per person
      The mentioned that half is paid by employers
      but didn’t make it clear that simply gets passed back to us in inevitable price rises.
      So £12bn is about a £200/year health poll tax.

      The item went into UK tax
      and the trick of pretending income tax is low
      when actually National Insurance is an income tax
      Such that overall UK is a pretty high tax country
      though not at the top like France , Sweden etc.

         6 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Dishwasher Item was weak
      You should consider
      #1 full life cycle
      #2 full real world
      eg detergent costs
      #3 Contexts : They waffled on about renewables
      that doesn’t matter much cos energy used is only 20p/day
      So a tiny % of your households CO2 footprint.

      They
      – threw in manufacturing cost as after thought

      – *Didn’t even mention pans*
      Handwashers wash pans in same water as plates
      Dishwasher folks use water pre-rinsing & washing hands

      Proper analysis would be done by real world long term experiment
      eg in cooking school
      2 sets of students cook the same breakfast, lunch, dinner in 2 identical kitchens set up to measure water/energy costs
      One set use a dishwasher.

         3 likes

  26. Zephir says:

    The Manchester icons, yeh right, and in other news, 2016

       5 likes

  27. Doublethinker says:

    Interesting contrast of article on a GBN in the Telegraph this morning. One by Aitkin who says a Fox look alike is exactly what the UK needs and one by a regular liberal who says just the opposite. The comments under the Aitkin article are about 75% favourable to GBN and a move to the right , significantly no comments are allowed under the anti GBN/Fox article.
    At least the Telegraph printed both articles but it must have known that its readership would be strongly anti the liberal apparatchik one and so suppressed their comments. It certainly has a very bad look to it from the Telegraph’s perspective.

       17 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Double – I’d rather see GBN be a Fox News UK than some palid version of woke – kow towing to OFCOM . If it confronted the self censoring and got spanked by OFCOM for some non approved thinking that would be good with me …

      … if only Fox News was free to air – but I know it would be taken down ….

         13 likes

    • Banania says:

      There has to be a channel willing to have on it people who have been cut dead by the MSM: Tommy Robinson, Katie Hopkins, and so forth. That is only fair.

         8 likes

  28. Foscari says:

    Nothing to do with the BBC, but just a recent personal
    experience. I had to travel on the tube for a hospital
    appointment at UCH. On the Tube train carriage I was in
    there was around 65% seating capacity which is about 25
    passengers were seated and around half a dozen standing.
    All but two young women were wearing masks which are mandatory
    on the tube. At Tufnell Park two London Transport policemen got
    on the train. One stood next to one of the maskless women,
    And the other was in clear vision of the other. At the next stop
    Kentish Town they got out without saying anything to the
    women.
    Vaccine Passports? Do me a favour !!

       14 likes

  29. Fedup2 says:

    Maybe the transport plod were at the end of their shift so suffered temporary blindness … ?

    Elsewhere – I wonder if the MSM will make any reference to Battle of Britain day ….. ?

       5 likes

    • Foscari says:

      Not enough diversity Fedup. Yes I know up to 15% Polish and Czech fighter pilots. BUT.

         7 likes

    • Foscari says:

      Fedup -Maybe they got into the next carriage for another
      bout of short- sightedness . Before getting out at Camden Town
      and crossing over to the Edgeware branch.

         3 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Fed, I listened to R4 from about 5.43 a.m. and in the segment ‘On this day in previous years …’ they played a clip of Churchill speaking after 15th September was over.

         5 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Up2 – well that s nice – the Alexa app told me it was Agatha Christie’s birthday – but there again the US special relationship didn’t go so far as helping out when British cities and towns were systematically attacked by our German Friends – so maybe they’d want to forget that too ….

        … don’t get me going …

           4 likes

    • Banania says:

      The maskless ones could have said they were exempt – end of conversation. Perhaps the police, charitably, assumed that masklessness meant exemption. Or had they even begun to realize the idiocy of this whole business?

         5 likes

  30. Fedup2 says:

    I still can’t figure out how there was one Israeli pilot ….

       5 likes

    • Foscari says:

      Fed up George “Benny” Goodman was born in Haifa in British mandated Palestine. He had an English dad and a Turkish Jewish mum. He actually went to Highgate school which is also on the Northern Line
      of the tube. But the mask that Benny wore was different to the ones that the LT policemen didn’t want to see not being worn was different.
      Goodman distinguished himself in the Battle of Britain being awarded the DFC. He was killed in Lybia in 1941.

         7 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Foscari – Thanks -i was vaguely aware of ‘benny’ (RIP) but couldnt get the israel bit because of the 8 year gap between the BoB and the founding of israel – only a small thing really – for some – i guess …

           4 likes

  31. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #1 – asking but not asking

    Bondage and harsh discipline are all the go in fashion at present and our beloved Beeb is keen on fashion and wants to be on trend. Except it doesn’t really. The current fashion – among the real public, the ordinary public – is for no masks, no social distancing and for learning to live with the extra virus (or viruses?) in our lives.

    On the other hand, the BBC (a.k.a. the Labour Party) wants to be strict, to have rules and restrictions and it is Nick Robinson (rather than HarshMistress Mishal) who tries to give SoS for Health, Sajid Javid, a grilling in the Big Interview. Sajid remains cool and calm despite desperation from Nick. Nick is only interested in more bondage.

    Nick does not ask the killer question that this member of the public and I think many others want asked and answered: “Is this a natural virus or a bio-weapon; what are Porton Down telling you as Health Secretary and telling the Government?”

       15 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Sajid Javid – followed by 12 year olds being interviewed and feeling great they can decide on Covid Vaccines.

         6 likes

  32. Zephir says:

    It is interesting when perusing the shops, the vast majority will leave it to you whether to wear a mask or not, yet there are the few, hippy type shops selling stuff like dolphin friendly candles and free range vegetarian crystals that have signs in their wndows not only requiring masks but insisting you will sanitise your hands even if you are wearing gloves.
    I can make a guess which part of the political spectrum they inhabit, even before I apply for a second mortgage to be able to purchase one of their Andalusian pipe music CDs

    I am also tempted to ask the next time whether they consider shampoo as part of sanitisation

       11 likes

    • Banania says:

      Those kinds of shops are full of toxic fumes emitted by candles and other things. Insisting on masks may be a prudent precaution against lawsuits.

         5 likes

  33. MarkyMark says:

    “What happens if a child and their parent disagree over the vaccine?
    The law is quite clear: there must be a test of whether the child understands what is being proposed and that their decision is in their best interests.
    Under the law, children under 16-years-old who can prove that they understand the risks and benefits of a specific medical procedure can ask for the vaccine – or refuse to take it – if they disagree with what their parents want.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-58536961

    Doctors can seek a court order to administer a medicine to a child where they can prove it is in their “best interests” to receive it, even if a parent or a child who has been assessed as Gillick competent child opposes.

       4 likes

    • G says:

      MM,

      On the subject of vaccines, I have a question.

      The majority of the British Public were given Astra Zeneca jabs. The proposed ‘Booster’ for > 50’s is to be the Pfizer. I can’t remember which way round it is but one works on the DNA, the other, on RNA. On the basis that, “anything goes” these days and the elite decision makers fail to follow logic, anybody got any ideas as to what the proposed concoction will do to the body?

      Maybe it will result in a ‘confused’ system, compatible with all the other confusion involved with Covid.

         7 likes

      • MarkyMark says:

        A confused citizen is a happy one.

        _116730964_vaccines_comparedincl_janssen_novavax_29_jan_640_2x-nc.png

           3 likes

      • Thatcherrevolutionary says:

        Pick ‘n’ Mix – Mix ‘n’ Match

        I know of one friend who was vaccinated at a walk in centre. He is on 12 medications per day for Blood Pressure, Gluacoma, and some digestive issues. Not one question asked about his medications.

        So in summary, mix and match any vaccine, same doses for everyone, regardless of age, weight, health, etc, and none of the vaccines have any reaction to any other prescribed medication at all! A true wonder drug!

           12 likes

  34. Old Goat says:

    I doubt most parents have sufficient knowledge about the disadvantages of this poison, so it’s rather unlikely that their children wiil, either.

       13 likes

  35. Foscari says:

    Fedup – I have made a faux -pas!! It is not mandatory to
    wear a mask on the underground now!! I have apologized to LT,
    who just telephoned me after I had sent them an E Mail.

       8 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Not mandatory ?! Surely the emir of TfL would demand homage from the pleps using workers ‘ transport ?

         7 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        I, too, was thinking the Meir Khan had got his way with TfL for mandatory masks. I was going to ‘test the rules’ at the end of the month.

           4 likes

        • Sick of it all says:

          Get yourself an epilepsy wristband and identification card, both available online for a fiver each. Epileptics are a high risk group since wearing a mask may trigger a fit. It’s foolproof. I also advise asking any nosey parkers if they are familiar assisting someone having a seizure, or the procedure for resetting a tongue that’s been swallowed – guaranteed to shut the mouth of the stroppiest of twats.

             5 likes

  36. G says:

    In the midst of such important news as, “Met Gala 2021: Which celeb shone brightest on the red carpet?”, or what blacks are getting up to, our Worlds Most Trusted Broadcaster didn’t have the space or time to inform the public of what is currently happening around the South China Sea. Here BBC let me explain.

    Mercouris of, “The Duran” sets out why war with China is now inevitable any time now.

    Whilst my senses tell me that Mercouris has a hidden ‘tat’ in the form of a hammer and sickle knowledge of which he does his utmost to keep well hidden for the sake of apparent unbiased reporting, he has a good nose for what’s coming. On the back of that assertion, moves in Japan as a response to China’s threats make it apparent that Japan agrees with him and is making preparations for war. 100,000 men have been “mobilized” in preparation for what the Japanese believe is to come when Taiwan is invaded.

    https://tfiglobalnews.com/2021/09/12/japan-mobilizes-100000-troops-against-china-to-defend-taiwan/

    Where’s Donald when he is needed most?

       8 likes

    • Zephir says:

      God help them, there may be a reckoning to come

      The Nanjing Massacre or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly written as Nanking Massacre or Rape of Nanking)[note 1] was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Imperial Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing (Nanking), at that time the capital of China, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). The massacre occurred over a period of six weeks starting on December 13, 1937, the day that the Japanese captured Nanjing. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered tens or hundreds of thousands of disarmed combatants and unarmed Chinese civilians, and perpetrated widespread rape and looting.[8][9] The event remains a contentious political issue and an obstacle in Sino-Japanese relations. The controversy surrounding the massacre also remains a central issue in Japanese relations with other East Asian nations, such as South Korea.[10]

      An estimated 40,000 to over 300,000 Chinese were killed.[11][12] Since most Japanese military records on the killings were kept secret or destroyed shortly after the surrender of Japan in 1945, historians have been unable to accurately estimate the death toll of the massacre. In 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo estimated that over 200,000 Chinese were killed in the massacre.[13] China’s official estimate is “more than 300,000” dead, based on the evaluation of China’s own Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal in 1947. The death toll has been contested by scholars since at least the 1980s.[3][14]

      The Chinese government has been accused by many Japanese of exaggerating details surrounding the massacre, such as the death toll.[12][15][16][17] The government of Japan has admitted to the killing of many non-combatants, looting, and other violence committed by the Imperial Japanese Army after the fall of Nanjing,[18][19] and Japanese veterans who served there have confirmed that a massacre took place.[20] In Japan, public opinion of the massacre varies, but few deny outright that the event occurred.[21] A small but vocal minority in the Japanese government and society have argued that the death toll was military in nature and that no such crimes ever occurred. Denial of the massacre and revisionist accounts of the killings have become a staple of Japanese nationalism.[21] Historical negationists go as far as claiming the massacre was fabricated for propaganda purposes.[22]

      http://www.bjreview.com/report/download/site23/20061221/000bdb4a2fc706f4c10701.jpg

      https://factsanddetails.com/media/2/20080218-heads%20raope%20of%20najing%20history%20wiz.jpg

         8 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      It was pulled from a film festival, censored by the state and now it’s the year’s second biggest film. Is The Eight Hundred an exhilarating war movie – or slick propaganda?

      Steve Rose
      @steverose7
      Fri 18 Sep 2020 08.00 BST
      ‘No one knows how this history will be written,” a soldier muses portentously in the new Chinese blockbuster The Eight Hundred. If he could see 80 years into the future, he would have the answer: as an epic, effects-enhanced patriotic action movie. While the rest of the world’s cinemas are still in coronavirus recovery mode, most of China’s 70,000 screens have been open since early August, and The Eight Hundred is a sign it no longer needs Hollywood.

      https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/18/the-eight-hundred-how-chinas-blockbusters-became-a-new-political-battleground

         2 likes

  37. digg says:

    Big todo this morning on BBC as Squintin Minchin has her last day.

    Any bets on her replacement?

       3 likes

  38. MarkyMark says:

    The median age for breakthrough deaths was 84 and 61.1% of the deaths occurred in males, despite there being more elderly women than men, and therefore initially more fully vaccinated women who could experience a breakthrough death. For all other deaths involving COVID-19 occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021 in the PHDA dataset, the median age was 82 and 52.2% were male.

    Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021

       3 likes

  39. Up2snuff says:

    BBC WEB-SITE Watch #1 – Er, no, BBC. UK Inflation Records go back a long, long time.

    From memory, about 250 years. There is a document in the House of Commons Library that details inflation over that period. Certainly inflation was a hot topic – globally – in the mid to late-1970s and it was carefully recorded back then. I was in the world of work and watching an incredible shrinking salary.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58563417

       3 likes

  40. MarkyMark says:

    NHS given 1% by Boris.
    Inflation at 3%.

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices

       2 likes

  41. MarkyMark says:

    Soon … why stop at 12?

    Children Under 12
    In March 2021, Pfizer and BioNTech dosed the first healthy children in a global Phase 1/2/3 continuous study to further evaluate the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children 11 years to 6 month old.
    https://www.pfizer.com/science/coronavirus/vaccine/additional-population-studies

       4 likes

  42. Zephir says:

    More money for the NHS please: latest vacancies:

    Net Zero and Sustainable Procurement Senior Manager £54,764 – £63,862 per annum

    Regional Sustainability Net Zero Manager £65,664 – £75,874 per annum

    Senior Net Zero Programme Manager £54,764 – £63,862 per annum

    NHS England and NHS Improvement
    Net Zero Delivery Manager £47,126 – £53,219 per annum

    Digital Net Zero Lead-NHSX £65,664 – £75,874 per annum

    https://jobs.theguardian.com/employer/4773736/nhs-england-and-nhs-improvement/

       12 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Carbon Zero – No patients.

         5 likes

    • JohnC says:

      This is what it’s all about.
      Tax-payers money for everyone.

         5 likes

    • digg says:

      Gravy Train with no brakes….

      That’s a quarter of a million quid to 6 new employees.

      …or the wages for around 20-25 of us folk.

      I can visualise all those shiny new blue NHS lanyards entitling them to nominated parking spaces etc. being draped around necks. plus 6 new higher level NHS union members to press the Government for more salaries for staff. And when they chirp “to join the wider greener (greedier) NHS team” they really mean very much “wider”. No doubt every NHS trust is going to need hordes of these new posts.

      No doubt the senior NHS managers responsible for their appointment will all need hefty salary rises to maintain their “status” too. Because that’s how it works at the top in all nationalised institutions.

      Get a grip Boris!

      Someone save this link for the next time they start to wail about “underfunding”.

         14 likes

  43. Zephir says:

    “An exciting opportunity has arisen to join NHSEI’s Sustainable Procurement Team in the commercial directorate and be part of the wider Greener NHS team delivering on our Net Zero Commitments. With the NHS supply chain accounting for 62% of the of the NHS Carbon Footprint Plus, and the health and care system in England being responsible for an estimated 4-5% of the country’s carbon footprint, this role is a substantial opportunity to help us tackle the climate ‘health emergency’.

    have a think about that while you are in a 4 hour queue in A and E, (what may be called a health emergency?) I am sure it will make you more comfortable

    amd call me cynical, but my last experience with A and E tells me that if we refused to treat overweight gutbucket Sunday footballers with twisted ankles the queues would magically disappear

    If Sports Direct demanded a waiver form to be filled in promising never to attempt to kick a football or run or stand up too long every time an XXXL Arsenal shirt was purchased we could save the NHS some cash

       9 likes

  44. MarkyMark says:

    The Battle of Britain began on 10 July 1940, when the first Luftwaffe bomber fleets began attacking convoys and Royal Navy forces in English ports and the …
    Date: 15 September 1940

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

    ONE LITTLE ARTICLE ….
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-58565502

    BBC – British Broadcasting Company – BRITISH …. no more.

       5 likes

  45. digg says:

    BBC report on the Holyfield fight with guest commentators the evil Trumps.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/58539196

    Just dripping with the usual bile and hate against the Trumps…. so normal BBC guff.

    More of a Political report than a Sport one.

       4 likes

    • Sick of it all says:

      No mention from the Beeb about the Trump 2024 banners around the place and large sections of the crowd chanting his name. How quaint. We’re getting close to a year on from the steal and enthusiasm for Big Donny T is still through the roof. I figured another run at the top job was beyond him, but now I’m not so sure.

         5 likes

  46. MarkyMark says:

    The Battle of Britain began on 10 July 1940, when the first Luftwaffe bomber fleets began attacking convoys and Royal Navy forces in English ports and the …
    Date: 15 September 1940

    . . . . . .

    Battle of Britain: The schoolgirl who helped design the Spitfire

    Battle of Britain: The schoolgirl who helped design the Spitfire
    Close
    Meet the young mathematician who helped design the Spitfire, the iconic aircraft that took part in the Battle of Britain, which started 80 years ago today.

    Hazel Hill helped her father do the calculations that meant Spitfires could be built with eight guns instead of four. Many believe this made a big difference to the outcome of the Battle of Britain.

    ‘The Schoolgirl who Helped Win a War’ will be broadcast on the BBC News Channel at 13.30, 17.30 and 20.30 on Saturday and 10.30 and 16.30 on Sunday. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer.

    Edited Katy Hastings and Paul Riseley

    Published10 July 2020SectionBBC NewsSubsectionUK
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-53352233

       4 likes

  47. MarkyMark says:

    Strictly Come Dancing: How Rose Ayling-Ellis will hear the music
    By Steven McIntosh
    Entertainment reporter

    Published9 hours ago
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57867412

       1 likes

  48. JohnC says:

    Home page:
    Life at 50C : How to cool a megacity.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-58557995
    And an outrageously misleading picture showing a city glowing red.

    Then what do you know, the headline in the article has morphed and the 50C part has been dropped.

    The city is Karachi. I searched for the highest temperature:

    ‘The highest temperature was recorded on 9 May 1938, when temperatures reached 47.8 °C (118.0 °F)’.

    1938. How incovenient.

    Today it’s 37 degrees and the average for 2020 was 32.2.

    Now I’m sure the BBC report has lots of carefully worded half-truths in there to hide the above but I simply cannot be bothered to watch it and find out. I’m absolutely sick of their biased videos which belong in a climate-fiction TV program, not on a news site.

       16 likes

    • Sick of it all says:

      The pygmies at Auntie should pick up a copy of Ballard’s Drowned World if they want a more viable vision of how ‘global warming’ might eventually pan out.

         2 likes

  49. MarkyMark says:

    NHS works better without patients and more diversity managers.

       9 likes

    • JohnC says:

      Notice how they use ‘diversity’ instead of ‘equality’ for those job titles.
      Because diversity has nothing whatsoever to do with equality. It is the exact opposite.

         11 likes

  50. JohnC says:

    In case you were wondering how the EU plan to shore up their budget deficit now the cash-cow has left:

    ‘Spain targets energy firms as European bills surge’
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58556073

    It’s all hidden between the lines but it seems the EU is simply taxing ‘CO2’ through the roof and also creating some kind of market for the permits to let them be sold for profit.

    ‘.. but hikes in the price of CO2 permits under the EU’s emissions trading scheme ..’

    ‘Italian minister Robert Cingolani warned on Monday that electricity bills were likely to go up by 40% in the coming quarter, after a 9.9% increase in the last one. “We have to face these things,” he said, blaming the increase on the cost of both natural gas and CO2.’
    Excuse me ?. There is no ‘CO2’ cost. It’s a straight tax from thin air.

    How long before the riots start ?.

    Again I experienced how utterly useless the BBC search is.
    ‘EU energy bills’ brought me the top result:

    ‘Reality Check: Would Brexit add £500m to energy bills?’ from 2016 where they back up a claim by Amber Rudd.
    Incompetent staff or loaded algortihm ?.

       4 likes