494 Responses to Midweek 15 December 2021

  1. tomo says:

    Have the BBC run this from HoC?

    I suspect not.

    ps has Twitter embedding changed ? – Seems broken from here…

       20 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Tomo – it’s difficult ‘in the moment ‘ to see where this is going . But here are some versions

      1 – the latest version of the Chinese virus doesn’t affect many seriously and passes quickly

      2 – it kills loads – big lock down again

      3 – another variant comes along – how will the public respond – in say – 3 months time ? Project Fear will either be based on actual overwhelmed hospitals or a ramped up project fear even bigger than now to get the public to comply .

      4
      Each variant will produce bigger public resistance to politicians and their medics telling us what to do …

      This assumes a virus which continues to target the same groups – not for instance – the nightmare of one which focuses on the young …

         9 likes

      • tomo says:

        Fed

        background / context

        Viruses absolutely and continuously mutate naturally – new critters (is a virus a critter?) are *absolutely* to be expected – some *might* be very nasty. There are no functional crystal balls to consult on what’s going to happen.

        It should concern us all that research that sought out unusual viruses and actually modified them to be more infectious and yes, dangerous – isn’t being supervised and sanctioned in clear view. My view fwiw is that we are dealing with a lab escape (accident) – and quite possibly a lab escapee that was contrived to explore how effectively a virus can be coerced between species and made more dangerous – albeit with a view to understanding the thing and contriving better protections in future.

        so:
        In evolutionary terms virus success could be defined by surviving and not killing the host – so some opinion has it that mild but everywhere is a high probability. This doesn’t account for a the possibility of a bonkers new “flash” rearrangement that kills everything…

        – life has to go on and we need to learn to live with it – the genie is out that jar.

        imho – it seems clear that many of the problems we are encountering are a consequence of the “problems are opportunities in disguise” where opportunistic power and wealth seekers leverage the crisis to accrue more of what they covet.

        Dying from SARS-Cov2 looks rather unpleasant – we now have vaccines but very perversely therapeutics have been disparaged … In all I feel we have – in the west – been profoundly failed by our public sectors and many politicians.

        The origin of the present virus is clearly being obfuscated. I have yet to see serious commentary from those with relevant experience on this month’s strain widely disseminated. The gits in the media lurch from scare to scare as they seem to think it helps their sales … others see it as away to impose control.

        Yes, that’s spilled milk – but it’s clear that there are chimera viruses still in labs.

        Statement of the bleedin obvious – – it’s a bluidy mess.

           10 likes

  2. tomo says:

       17 likes

  3. Eddy Booth says:

    Bank of England raises interest rates to 0.25%
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59682521

    BBC isn’t happy:

    “However, one business group said the rate rise would do little to stop prices going up, since costs were being pushed higher by global factors largely outside the Bank’s control.”

    “The MPC also voted unanimously to maintain the Bank’s asset purchase scheme at £875bn.”

    At least they’re holding the printing press

       9 likes

    • Garry Lavin says:

      Printing presses still going. What a scam. Everything else is theatre. They can’t raise rates to curb inflation….the debt is too great. The debt will be vapourised by inflation.
      QE continues and they make money from the bubbles…..but everybody’s savings become worthless.
      Welcome to the new feudalism.

         3 likes

  4. tomo says:

    I drove around the M4/M5 interchange quite a bit yesterday – there were two BMW estate police traffic cars that seemed to be idly circulating in convoy around the road system with their very bright blue lights on – saw them 3 times- they weren’t in a hurry…. looked like a presence gesture.

    Anyway… in Noo Yoik – DeBlasio is obviously having “fun”

       7 likes

  5. Seppers says:

    Just having a quick work break and flicking through bbc news website. Watched the interview with John Cleese on the bbc World network.
    It was awful – they had clearly set him up to somehow ‘answer’ for his beliefs that cancel culture is unhealthy. The woman interviewing looked like she was looking down on him. Her tone was patronising. She mentioned racism.
    He walked out.
    I despair and believe the bbc is an authoritarian danger to independent thinkers.

       41 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Martin Bashir: Police take no action over Diana interview
      Detectives will take no further action over Martin Bashir’s BBC interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.

      The Metropolitan Police looked at an independent review of the methods used to obtain the 1995 interview, but had “not identified evidence of activity that constituted a criminal offence”.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58576095

         8 likes

    • theisland says:

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/16/john-cleese-accuses-bbc-deceptive-dishonest-interview/

      Comment by Alison Clewes
      25 MIN AGO
      “I absolutely agree with John Cleese. The BBC presenters, in particular it’s news anchor team, seem to enjoy indulging in egotistical agendas that are aimed at trying to belittle and attack anyone they are interviewing. They are far from impartial and the BBC allows them carry on in their aggressive interview techniques. These Paxman wannabes seem to be under the illusion they are part of some sort of court prosecution team; sadly they are nowhere as skilled and have the entertainment value of a sixth form debating club. The days of the impartial BBC and impartial interviews are sadly gone, replaced by representatives of the whinge generation.”

         28 likes

    • tomo says:

      Seppers

      – one wonders at what point the gloves come off on both sides?

      Many present “Average Beeboids” seem to have had an overdose of entitlement and regard their BBC employment as imbuing them with the authority to be arbiters of a slew of things people can or cannot do. £4 billion gives the incestuous activist busybodies a stick budget like no other – and since they largely control the broadcast distribution of information – they get to mark their own homework.

         19 likes

  6. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    When you hear today that the number of positive tests is about 88,000 I bet they don’t mention that the number of tests taken has doubled to well over 1.6 million.

       23 likes

    • JimS says:

      My old games master reckoned that the army used to talk about ‘undetected crime’, i.e. no soldier was innocent, they just hadn’t been caught.

      These tests work on the same principle, you think you are well but they found a fraction of a virus on you so you are a ‘case’.

         12 likes

    • Lefty Wright says:

      EG
      Quite so sir. Also let us not overlook the fact that the UK population is now estimated at 68.4 million which for me anyway, kind of puts everything into perspective. No Fear.

         13 likes

  7. JimS says:

    I had the misfortune to use a parking ticket machine at a hospital today.

    The idea of paying for parking at a hospital is bad enough but whoever designed or specified these machines should be up against the proverbial wall – a keyboard at knee height requiring near hawk-like vision to resolve the dull painted letters and numbers against the bright metal surrounds. (Hospital patients as a class not being noted for their mobility and good eyesight).

    Yet no doubt some camera mounted somewhere hidden is able to pick out car number plates from everything else round about. Pity all that technology can’t actually help the visitor.

       30 likes

    • Zephir says:

      Must be the same idiot that put our train station ticket machines facing the morning sun so no one can see what is on the screen.

         12 likes

    • Messenger says:

      My husband was admitted to local hospital as a emergency after a fall some time ago, and I followed in our car. The parking machines in the emergency car park were so old and worn it was almost impossible to read them and I was not amused to find I was expected to have the exact change (which I hadn’t got) for 4 hours parking. The reception desk said they couldn’t help and I should go to the shops which, as it was after 6pm, were shut. Luckily when I eventually found where he was. my husband had change in his pockets . As we were still in A & E four hours later I was apparently expected to go out and feed the meter with more of the exact change…….

         10 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Messenger -sorry to hear that – I had a relative in ITU . I kept feeding the meter over a number of days . Then a ‘nurse ‘ asked why had I not used the ‘ITU tokens ‘ which were free and lasted all day …. My relative died the following day ( the hospital btw misdiagnosed and killed him )….

           2 likes

  8. StewGreen says:

    Positives are 74% higher than 7 days ago

    Deaths are still flat, 7 day average 115

    I wonder if some UK test kits are being used from abroad and sent here for free NHS processing
    and thus are not UK positives but German, Irish, Nigerian positives

       15 likes

    • Lefty Wright says:

      StewGreen
      Is it just coincidence that the disease was produced in China and now I find that the Covid test kits are also produced in China?
      A nice little earner for somebody. I don’t think even Private Walker from Dad’s Army could have organised THAT one.

         23 likes

      • tomo says:

        Lefty Wright

        iirc

        – the Chinese authorities gave the Chinese vaccine makers and Shanghai test kit makers preferential early access to technical details of the “novel coronavirus” – some of that access is still only conjecture – inscrutable …

        The connections between CCP nabobs and the huge PPE and Pharma opportunity is quite clear – for China anyway….

           9 likes

  9. StewGreen says:

    Guess what proportion of Covid positives are in the over 50s ??

    Look at the top 4 colours in the graph
    .. https://twitter.com/LawrenceGilder/status/1471524851231899652
    If that band was wide we’d expect deaths
    it was 30% five weeks ago
    now it’s FALLEN to 15% of all cases
    That tells me that not so many deaths are due
    cos 85% of cases are in the under 50s

       9 likes

  10. StewGreen says:

    BTW The omicron case tally is still mangled
    Thursdays tally is just a third of Wednesdays

       7 likes

  11. JohnC says:

    Sabina Nessa: Man accepts responsibility for teacher’s killing
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-59679899

    The trial has started so the BBC are obliged to put something up about it. It’s almost nothing at all compared to the uproar at the start before they learned who actually did it.

    And his name is all they tell us about him.

    Koci Selamaj. Who cannot even speak English.

    We certainly won’t be digging to how this murder could have been prevented and there will be no night-time vigils demanding something be done about it.

    Nothing but misandrist, racist hypocrites. All of them.

       34 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      “Assisted by an Albanian interpreter, the defendant spoke only to confirm his identity and enter a not guilty plea”

         7 likes

  12. Eddy Booth says:

    16:59
    Watch: Teen urges others to get jab after fight for life
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-59679703

    BBC shamelessly wheeling out Maisy Evans for their jab campaign in this video.

    From daily mail
    “After testing positive for the virus on August 14 three days after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, Maisy was admitted to hospital on August 25.
    The 17-year-old described how she experienced symptoms including dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, a loss of smell and taste as well as the blood clot on her lung.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9945441/Anti-vax-trolls-target-Covid-hit-schoolgirl-17-told-people-jab-hospital-bed.html#reader-comments

    Basically it could be argued, she took the vaccine, her immune system was temporarily suppressed, she caught covid, had a bad case, and also had a blood clot -complication perhaps from the vaccine.
    But we’re not allowed to have that conversation…

       19 likes

  13. Zephir says:

    French police look on as migrants leave coast on inflatable dinghy – new pics
    FRENCH police have been seen looking on as a group of migrants on an inflatable dinghy leave the coast of Northern France to cross the English Channel.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1537083/migrant-crisis-french-police-english-channel-dinghy-Wimereux-Calais

       24 likes

  14. Jeff says:

    I don’t have the news on at all these day, so I might be misinformed.

    However,… I’ve heard that Bunter has advised us not to do too much partying over Christmas. Yeh, okay Boris…

    FFS, does this gormless lump have no sense of irony?

       19 likes

    • moggie63 says:

      I would say he has very little sense of anything, everything he does is led by his cock.

         13 likes

  15. StewGreen says:

    BBC local news
    Gustavo Chavez Pavo and his Climate Change mural in Hull
    .. He doesn’t speak English

    #PRasNews for Climate activists

       11 likes

  16. StewGreen says:

    BBC local news ..piling on the Climate doom

    #2 Local doctor keeping a video blog, complains about government attitude towards NHS
    … of course BBC air her

    #3 New mother, who got Covid and now regrets not taking the vaccine

    #4 Polish pub owner ..Covid panicked customers are cancelling bookings, he’ll lose £20K/week

    .. Ironic that the the typical BBC items above encourage such cancellations.

       5 likes

  17. Lefty Wright says:

       6 likes

  18. JimS says:

    The colonisation of Britain:

    National Archives requests:

    ” We are interested in photographs of people who were living anywhere in the world in the 1920s, submitted by people who now call the UK home.”

    So non-Britons now become ‘British’ ancestors.

    The island of Manhattan was supposedly bought from the American Indians, the UK is being given away above our heads.

       15 likes

  19. TheRebelUK says:

    FOOTBALL LEGEND MATT LE TISSIER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT COVID/JAB DEATHS

    https://brandnewtube.com/watch/aqAG4OidkH5kIu9&cl=1291094

       8 likes

  20. theisland says:

    This is deliberate. ‘They’ want to see the back of English pubs because they are traditional and are places for ordinary people to meet and discuss things. Tradition and the exchange of independent views are frowned upon.
    Also (crucially) the serving of alcohol is against sharia law, which must be appeased and encouraged.

       31 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Surely this is a good thing? Many times on here I have shown our politicians who are the worst paid in Europe to be in the pay and at the behest of the Saudis and the Arab world – same thing in the rest of Europe and in America too.

      When I have raised the issue of low pay rates I am almost always told that it is better that the Saudi’s or other Middle Eastern interests make up their pay and hang the consequences.

      So suck it up, and after they have finished off the pubs, they will go for the supermarkets which they have already started doing.

      But what the hell, you can save maybe a ha’penny every decade for the trouble.

         6 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        @Thoughtful there is a politics of envy thing, that the Corbynistas played upon.
        “Look over there, those people earn ten times as much as me for half the work
        If I stop them, i’ll be better off”
        Yet of course stopping rich people from having money doesn’t make the poor better off.

        One thing is true £80K/yr salaries can make people out of touch
        That’s £200/day
        Yet I can live on less than £10/day in this country
        and far less in other countries.

           1 likes

    • digg says:

      I have suspected that the Muslim contingent have been busy, especially in the NHS to try to finish off the pub trade. You are quite right, they see it as the focal point for white working class British so to them closing pubs is a political act designed to weaken and finish off dissent to their orthodoxy and eventual longer term plans to seize control of the Nation.

      On a trip to Walthamstow in London yesterday I noticed that virtually every small and not so small business was run by South Asian or Middle Eastern people. The centre of the town is also heavily populated with Asian “help” centres for finding homes, financing people and businesses and immigration status lawyers. All Asian.

      And all on a single-minded mission to take control.

      I also believe that the transformation of the NHS from a caring profession to an uncaring authoritarian one where patient care comes last is another signal due to the high proportion of UK trained Asian medical professionals rising to the top.

      It’s funded by massive cash from the Middle East along with “tithes” extracted from Muslim citizens and It’s coming to every town soon folks!

      Our Government are blind to what is happening or too scared of faux backlash to take any action. Our educators parrot stuff which supports them. Our Churches can do no more than wring their hands in tacit support of the tidal wave.

      Enoch Powell was right, “The streets will run red with blood!”.

         19 likes

  21. StewGreen says:

    Yesterday’s BBC local news had an item where the reporter interviewed a Hull students union rep, inside
    since the both wore masks, you couldn’t work outwhat they were saying.

       11 likes

  22. StewGreen says:

    GBnews the screen has a tagline
    “Alfie Best the gypsy billionaire”

    … I doubt that.. tens of millions yes, but not 1,000 million
    “he was #382 in the Sunday Times 2020 UK rich list with a net worth of £341 million”

       10 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      In the interview Alfie said that the company is worth £1bn and that it is private
      I take that to mean that he is not the only shareholder
      and that the value of the company is not certain
      unlike companies which have a share price on the tock exchange.

         1 likes

      • G says:

        Farage sucked up the fact from Best, that the new style of Mobile Home is called a ‘Park Home Bungalow’ or something like that. Reality is, such moveable structures like caravans are called……….(wait for it)……….’Caravans’. You can call them what you want but the law recognises all as, ‘Caravans’. As in true gypsy style, Best conned Farage.

           1 likes

  23. Jeff says:

    I’ve only just seen this on GB News, but it’s brilliant…

    At yesterday’s prime minister’s press conference, ultra lockdown fanatic, ITVs Robert Peston, is seen sitting right at the front of a group of journalists, all ready to grill the PM about “Why are people still allowed to go out?” and “Don’t you think we need tougher lockdown measures?”

    And here’s the delicious part, Peston is clearly seen chatting away for about 20 minutes…without the bloody mask in place.

    The old phoney only attaches it properly when the main cameras start rolling. Superb!

    Now for Kuenssberg…

       34 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Not to excuse Peston in any way, but so far as I am aware the government has issued an edict to OFCOM preventing the media from questioning their approach to covid or the vaccines efficacy, hence he can only ask for more strict oppression rather than less.

         8 likes

  24. Up2snuff says:

    This is an interesting article on the TCW Defending Freedom site: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-civil-services-sabotage-of-brexit-marches-on/

    The Daily Mirror lays off the PM and the Conservative Government (sort of) today but the Guardian weighs in with an attack on Daniel Kawczynski. It just so happens that Daniel Kawczynski is a supporter of Brexit. Um, just like the former MP, Owen Paterson.

    Now there’s a surprise.

       15 likes

  25. Up2snuff says:

    No doubt tomorrow morning the TOADY Prog will be in meltdown over rising Virus numbers and Christmas and the fact no rules are in place to tell Beeboids what to do. (The rest of us know perfectly well what to do during the colds & ‘flu’ season.) The numbers were up but only by a relatively small amount and nowhere near one million … still. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274

    In round figures the increase is 10,000 on the day before, therefore up about 13%. Deaths are down to 146 and over 100 patients have been discharged from hospital. All good news. I expect TOADY to be in a flap. The BBC may also not be getting the hoped for result in the North Shropshire by-Election.

       11 likes

  26. StewGreen says:

    GBnews : The Dan Wootton show just stopped and went into a showreel loop which is not repeating itself.

       4 likes

  27. StewGreen says:

    Muslim Council of Britain lose their complaint against the Jewish Chronicle

    The article was a comment piece about reactions to a BBC interview with the Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain.

    It said that after the interview, a letter of complaint was sent to the BBC, stating that the interview had been “strikingly hostile”, which had been signed by multiple people, including Labour MPs and a Tory peer. It also stated that in “the 2010s, the then-Labour government cut off all dialogue with the MCB because of its links to extremism” and that the “Labour government — and all governments since — rightly regarded the MCB as beyond the pale”.

    It stated that “MCB supporters in the media gleefully smeared the presenter”
    and that radical social media activists wanted “to make sure that groups like the MCB have a free ride, not just on the BBC but in the culture as a whole”.

    https://www.ipso.co.uk/rulings-and-resolution-statements/ruling/?id=01933-21

       11 likes

  28. StewGreen says:

    Rob Burley muddying the waters

       8 likes

    • JimS says:

      Brexiteer: The BBC never puts the case for Brexit.
      Remainer: The BBC doesn’t oppose Brexit enough.

      Complaints from ‘both sides’ but really they are saying the same thing.

         15 likes

  29. taffman says:

    “Omicron: Nightclubs to shut in Wales after Boxing Day”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-59685864
    Here we go again!

       10 likes

  30. taffman says:

    “RAF Typhoon jet shoots down ‘small hostile drone’ in Syria”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59615769
    About time they started shooting down some of the hostile invaders crossing the Channel.
    It would be the first time since the Second World War.
    Bo Jo needs to realize that we are under attack from without and within.

       17 likes

  31. taffman says:

    “Brexit: UK signs free trade deal with Australia”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59690080
    Anyone spot that?
    Shouldn’t it be on the front page?

       15 likes

  32. StewGreen says:

    BBC2 top show gets 3% of UK population
    Though is seems that only 16 million people watch peak TV
    so that 1.6m is 10% of viewers

       7 likes

  33. taffman says:

    When is our Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, and Media going to defend our culture , push back against wokeism and defund the BBC !

       18 likes

  34. taffman says:

    Tories lose seat they held for nearly 200 years, to the Lib Dem’s of all people ! I bet Al Beeb are loving it. After all, the Tories have almost become the Lib Dems?

       18 likes

    • JohnC says:

      Not a dry pair of panties in the whole corporation.

      Let’s hope this gives Boris the wake-up call he so badly needs.

         16 likes

  35. taffman says:

    As Al Beeb cover the political disaster of the Tories, expect more covert invaders landing on our beaches while “Nero fiddles”.

       16 likes

  36. Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

    The people of North Shropshire have voted in the Lib Dems. An Anti Brexit, anti British, open borders shower who couldn’t run a flea market.
    I have a question; did any of the pro-Brexit Parties, ie Reform, Reclaim, Heritage etc point out to the electorate that the Liberal Democrats are open Borders enthusiasts?
    Did any mention stopping the boats?
    These parties only garnered just over five percent of the vote between them. I predicted in an earlier post that Reform would come in fifth and Reclaim sixth. I got Reform right but the pathetic remnant of Ukip managed to pip Reclaim for the glory of sixth place by three votes. (Wow, I didn’t see that coming)
    I’m not one to give any credit to the French, but one thing I do see coming out of France at the moment is that Zemmour is making an attempt to rally the patriotic spirit of France and wake them his country men to the evil of the woke and the worse (work it out yourselves). He has the historical knowledge and the determination to do it.
    There has been no British equivalent since Enoch Powell.
    It’s certainly not Boris, Gove or Sunak. Nor is it Farage who never defends Powell’s memory with any justice. and tiptoes around certain issues.
    Mark Steyn would be the best option that I can think of. It’s been a hundred years since Britain had a Canadian prime minister. It’s time, maybe, to give it another go?

       22 likes

  37. Fedup2 says:

    Today watch

    If you listen to ‘today’ enough you can hear the nuances . Today’ today ‘ is chirpy and our Justin sounds ‘interested ‘ when often he sounds bored. Robinson has messed his nappy.

    The turn out was 46% which I think was the biggest shock . Why bother voting ? Labour didn’t get any votes at all and the blue Labour chap was – by the looks of it – parachuted in . Being an ‘honourary NHS consultant ‘ didn’t get him any credits either . Good .

    One narrative is that true blue constituencies now feel forgotten by nut nut throwing money at the red wall .

    I think it’s about nut nut . The buffoonery has finished him and his flippant approach grates with the seriousness of the times .

    The government will say inflation is nothing to do with them . That is a lie . They could have ensured reserves and supplies of gas and electricity could be maintained at a lower cost .

    But nut nut went loon green – less gas storage – more dependancy on green crap and imported power .

    Let’s pray for a Right Wing government.

       28 likes

  38. dafydd says:

    As a rabid Tory I have to say I’m disappointed but not at all surprised by North Shropshire result. The LibDems were gifted this win.

    Why in God’s name didnt Owen Patterson just except the 30 day suspension from Parliament, this would not have happened.

    I’m disappointed that a party gets elected purely on supposed sleaze and innuendo, what are the LibDems policies.

    Why did the Tories let the media and particularly the BBC get away with there blatant lies and innuendo, from its legendary “source”.

    Time the Tories fight back and start by sorting out the BBC.

    Get rid of Boris now and then the BBC and other left wing media have won and got what they wanted.

    Time for a period of reflection and to regroup

       22 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      As a less rabid conservative I share your disappointment, dafydd, that the wise voters of North Shropshire would allow themselves to be diverted by the media campaign (who is trusted less than politicians? say no more) and silver-tongued LumpDems who would undo Brexit. But that is democracy for you. You are reliant on the understanding and far-sightedness of others. It is not a perfect system but it is better than all the alternatives that have been tried in other countries.

      We may soon be sampling one of those alternatives unless God steps in and saves us from it.

      I do note that the BBC declined to give the full vote results in the 6 a.m. News.

         20 likes

  39. popeye says:

    Evidence of BBC Bias – Headlines say ” Liberals EARN by-election win”. No, any neutral observer would say the that Tories LOST the by-election

       23 likes

  40. Fedup2 says:

    Yes – the turn out of `46% doesn’t feature much . I had to go to wiki to find it . Robinson – on today – interviewed John Curtis – who to me is about as objective as you can get . Mr Curtis sang the wrong tune and was cut off ‘for the weather ‘.

    But then Robinson put on an extract from some chat koonsberg and a BBC boy had done with a true lefty – namely the godless arch bish of cantab . You can guess his tune .
    Arch bish sang the approved tune so got about 4 minutes . Obviously he neither mentioned God or Jesus or Christianity but that’s par for the course .

       19 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Plus the BME…

      North Shropshire was a “safe” Tory seat, held for nearly 200 years. At the last general election, the party increased its majority to nearly 23,000 – gaining almost twice as many votes as all the other parties combined. But this morning constituents are waking up to a Liberal Democrat MP, after a by-election in which Helen Morgan secured 17,957 votes – nearly 6,000 more than her Conservative rival. The people of North Shropshire have spoken on behalf of the British people, she says, telling Boris Johnson “the party is over”. It’s a barb at the prime minister, who has been dogged by questions about parties in Downing Street while restrictions on gatherings were in place last year.

      The result bookends a torrid few weeks for the PM, beginning with his defence of Owen Paterson – who had been North Shropshire MP since 1997 – after he was found to have broken lobbying rules. His suspension was blocked by Conservative colleagues. But a backlash forced Downing Street to reverse its backing for the move and Mr Paterson stood down. The Conservative Party was also fined over the financing of Mr Johnson’s renovation of the No 10 flat. And this week he experienced his biggest rebellion in office, with 100 Tory MPs voting against the government’s updated Covid restrictions. Newsnight’s policy editor Lewis Goodall says: “This was – at least the Liberal Democrats put it this way – a referendum on Boris Johnson and how he runs his government.”

      The Limps now join the bbc in ‘speaking for the people’, it seems.

         15 likes

  41. Up2snuff says:

    sort of TOADY Watch #1 – not

    I wonder when Jennifer Arcuri is going to make a reappearance in some newspapers and on the BBC? I may not have to wait too long.

    On the other hand, the Sucker who leads the Labour Party may be out of office before bumbling Bojo. Under 10% of a rebellious vote?

    Oh dear!

       9 likes

  42. Up2snuff says:

    pug, I suspect ‘Omicron’ has been in the UK all along. Apprently the symptoms are ‘new’ for and ‘different’ from Covid, according to the Oxford Prof talking to the Evening Standard via Microsoft News Network (a.k.a. MSN): https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslondon/omicron-symptoms-are-different-from-previous-variants-says-oxford-professor/ar-AARNHcR?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBoPWjQ .

    I think if viruses mutate at random, and the various mutations of a virus are all present in a country, then it is likely that the virus will produce a mutation that is the same or similar, quite independently, in several countries. The symptoms Professor Bell notes are ones associated with common influenza.

       8 likes

  43. andyjsnape says:

    Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and other billionaires employ special strategies to avoid paying income tax, “reports” the bBC

    Yes, special strategies, or would that be an accountant who works within the law?

    How Russia tries to censor Western social media, “reports” the bBC – I guess in the west we have the likes of the bBC 🙂

       12 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Elon Musk tweeted the other day that he pays more tax than any American ever has.
      Surely he wouldn’t tweet that if that were not true.

      Businesses like Tesla probably don’t pay much tax
      cos you only pay tax on profits
      and it doesn’t make a big profit
      Rather it has a massive valuation based on speculation about it’s future.
      Musk is like a pyramid scheme scammer.

         2 likes

  44. Guest Who says:

    Overworked junior doctor
    MP
    Green room addict
    Lilly Allen tribute act

    Busy lady.

       14 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Word’s gone out… mental.

      Also BME, taking the Mick.

      ***

      ‘If I lock this door, he dies’

      Every seven seconds – on average – a person was referred for NHS mental health support in England in September. In Burnley, that comes as no surprise to Pastor Mick – a drug-dealer-turned-lifesaver during Covid – who each day meets people struggling to survive. Mick is particularly concerned about the lack of access to mental health care for the most vulnerable – people who find it difficult to see their GPs, let alone get access to a bed in a support facility.

      “The help available is negligible, the mental health system is on its backside.” Mick blames the Covid lockdowns and the many months of restrictions for making issues worse. In Burnley, he hears stories of people who, in isolation, have spiralled down – turning to drugs and alcohol.

      Read full analysis >

      Ed Thomas
      Special correspondent

         3 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Not doing jabs then ….she really qualified as a doctor?

         6 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Medics of Overwork maybe should not channel their inner Springster…

         2 likes

  45. Deborah says:

    The BBC have certainly been doing the anti-vaccers work. After Boris’ announcements of more boosters, the BBC were showing long queues at walk-in centred, ‘queues of up to 6 hours’ they were trumpeting.’ They were highlighting the government’s ineptness in its organisation. This allowed my son in London to walk straight into one yesterday.

    Last night on Dan Wooten, he interviewed Dr Coetze from South Africa. He really grasped and repeated several times after the interview that omicron is mild. What he didn’t seem to take in was the good doctor said at least twice that 9 out of 10 people in hospital in South Africa with covid were unvaccinated. Perhaps we all only hear what we want.

       7 likes

  46. Fedup2 says:

    John Redwood – on Twitter – says the BBC invited him to do the 710am today gig .but then cancelled him when they heard what he was going to say …..( I wonder what it was ?)

       10 likes

  47. Zephir says:

    I put this up before but with no annotation about what is was about.

    IMHO this is one thing that this site is about, laid bare for all to see.

    I mentioned the other day about the BBC attempted hatchet job on John Cleese which he publicy complained about but the bbc accept no responsibility for, accusing him of many thing by association: judge for yourselves

    He is making a documentary about cancel culture (which they would not let go like a dog with a bone), and they practcally accuse him of racism by association

    The interview is him in Singapore so also snidely infer breaking Covid travel etc etc

    he eventually walks out

    Worth looking at the comments, for example:

    “He made the point of people not listening then she proves his point for him”

    “Appalling interview. BBC should be ashamed. The last frame says it all – the interviewer is laughing, not from anxiety but from a sense of disdain for someone that she (and the rest of her patronising coworkers) think is misguided and ignorant to the ways of the modern world. A world that is constantly offended on the behalf of others. A world that wants to censor thought and opinion with a faux moral outrage that signals virtue, Yet in reality, her laughter indicates that this empathic ‘virtue’ is just a self-generated illusion and a vehicle to maintain moral superiority over others. Tear down the old world and replace it with moral virtues is her mantra. As she humiliates and patronises a living legend. Strange paradox?”

    BTW David Chappelle, who the bbc try to associate Cleese with, is a constroversial American (black }comedian who tells jokes about cancel culture:

    ‘I said what I said’: Dave Chappelle hits out at ‘cancel’ culture amid Netflix transgender row

    In his first public remarks since the controversy, he posted on Instagram that he was willing to discuss his show with members of the transgender community but said he would not be “bending to anybody’s demands”.

    https://news.sky.com/story/i-said-what-i-said-dave-chappelle-hits-out-at-cancel-culture-amid-netflix-transgender-row-12444682

       15 likes

  48. Sluff says:

    At the BBC this morning.
    The parties are in full flow.
    Smiles adorn many faces.
    The empty champagne bottles lie strewn on the floors.
    The overnight sleepers in Frankie Howard wake up with hangovers.
    The glee in the Toady studio is palpable.

    Yes, the Tories lost the by-election.

    And snoozing through an hour of Toady, I heard not one mention of the stupendous 3626 votes for the Labour candidate. Down from 12495. As a % decline that’s even worse than the Tories. But clearly not a topic BBCLabour want to mention.

       11 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @Sluff that is a key point
      The liberals picked up 12,000 votes
      and Labour lost 9,000 votes
      So it’s possible that the Liberals picked up that 9,000 from Labour
      plus 3,000 from elsewhere both past abstainers and exTory voters

         1 likes

  49. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #1 – it’s not about Brexit so why did the BBC mention … . .

    . . …… two EU related items – but not the important English Channel one – in the 6 a.m. News after the headline item about North Shropshire? And who do the BBC go to for comment on that by-Election – a lot – but Roger Gale? In a rare burst of BBC honesty, Nick Robinson mentions that Gale is an anti-Brexit, pro-Remain, Kent MP.

    What we need to know now is the impartiality status of Kathryn Stone, the independent Commissioner for Parliamentary Standards. Has she ever been a member of a Trade Union? If so, which one? Has she ever been a member of a political Party and, if so, was it the Labour Party?

       15 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      I wonder which bbc crew was embedded with her, until… reassigned….

         7 likes

      • MarkyMark says:

        Before I was elected, I was nervous about being a Muslim woman in the public eye. Growing up, I had seen the abuse that prominent British Muslims were subject to—I knew I would not be in for an easy ride. Today, I would like to say that I was wrong to be worried. When young Muslim girls ask me what it is like, I would like to say that there is nothing to worry about, that they would face the same challenges as their non-Muslim friends and colleagues. However, in truth, I cannot say that, because in my short time in Parliament, that is not my experience.

        https://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2021-09-09a.181.0&s=islam+speaker%3A25909#g184.0

        Let me read out a few examples. One person wrote to me to say, and I quote, “Sultana, you and your Muslim mob are a real danger to humanity.” Another wrote and said that I was a “cancer” everywhere I go, and soon, they said, “Europe will vomit you out.” A third called me a “terrorist sympathiser” and “scum of the earth”—and that is sanitising their unparliamentary language.

        . . . . . . . . . 1985 … UK ….. ISLAM MEETS ISLAM ……

        Ahmadis suffer vicious persecution around the world. The main source of fuel for that persecution is in Pakistan, but what happens in Pakistan does not stay in Pakistan.

        I know that from my experience in the Yorkshire market town of Batley. In August 1985, when I was 11 years old, my parents organised an inter-faith meeting in the town hall. It was interrupted and disturbed when, according to West Yorkshire police, more than 1,000 extremists, led by Pakistani hate preachers funded by the Pakistani state, were bused in from around the country. The mob brutally attacked my English mother and my father, a dermatologist; my eldest brother and I; and a Welsh Ahmadi schoolteacher who was with us. My first cousin, a GP, was by chance driving through the market town that day. He saw the mob and saw his family and friends being attacked, so he stopped. He was recognised, pulled from his vehicle and savagely beaten up.

        https://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2020-03-12a.177.0&s=islam+batley#g195.0

           5 likes