Gary Waldhorn who played Councillor David Horton in The Vicar of Dibley has died aged just 78. RIP Sir.

Is Boris going to survive or has he been arrogant one step too far?

https://twitter.com/MichaelRosenYes/status/1480664420946780164?s=20

https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/e-scooter-rider-hit-london-22700805?utm_source=mylondon_newsletter&utm_campaign=myeastlondon_newsletter2&utm_medium=email

https://twnews.it/gb-news/fuming-vegans-complain-about-ignorant-meat-sign-erected-by-psychopath-butchers

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1547648/gina-miller-news-new-political-party-true-and-fair-party-brexit

The final 3rd round FA cup tie is an all Premier League clash. Get your predictions in by 7.30pm.
Thanks

We always use the sniff test, it easily lasts at least 2 more days.

https://www.aol.co.uk/news/morrisons-scrap-dates-milk-reduce-122702789.html

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/sinead-oconnor-please-be-at-peace-irish-singers-teenage-son-shane-dies-after-going-missing-12511557

According to this article we are more likely to catch Covid doing the weekly shop than sitting in a cinema for 3 hours. I find that really difficult to believe.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1546933/covid-shopping-twice-the-risk-of-infection-omicron

Am trying to renew my passport online but it won't accept any of the pictures we've taken on the mobile. It's looking like I'll have to go to a photo booth but does that mean I'm going to have to send the application rather than loading it up online?

This 3rd round FA Cup tie is another Championship v Premier League clash. Get your predictions in by 4.20pm.
Good luck

Scotland have halted IVF treatment for women who have not had their covid vaccinations

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59914425

Do members feel this is fair, should be stopped elsewhere, or is discriminatory?

Did anyone else watch this last week on BBC1?
About the gay serial killer Stephen Port. Some very good serioius acting by Stephen Merchant. And by Sheridan Smith as the first victim's mother.

I have just seen that the UK has now had more than 150,000 covid deaths, and that's the most in Europe, but 7th after the US, Brazil, India, Russia, Mexico and Peru. As all those countries, except Peru, have populations of millions more than the UK, doesn't the percentage make our numbers of deaths even more shocking? I don't know we we stand in Europe in terms of percentage of deaths per population - and I don't know at what point the named countries reached 150,000 deaths, or what the totals for those countries are now. Some journalist somewhere needs to "do the math" as it were. But comparative percentages are more indicative of seriousness of the outcomes, and therefore some analysis of the success or failures of various protections taken or not taken.

That the FT 100 index ended the year 2021 at 7385, the highest that it has been since 2016 ie. before Brexit.
I don't know what this tells you but to me it shows that the big money movers are favouring the higher risk equity market above the safer bond and gilt investments and this suggests that those in the know believe that the UK economy is going to grow.
Could this be the first signs that the inevitable benefits of Brexit are beginning to show through, I wonder?. On a personal note, our savings portfolio grew by a healthy 8.5% after tax in the year. despite Covid, which makes us very happy.
If I am right then the remain lobby will find their ship sinking under them. I would welcome other views supported with reasons why.

1. Dad, are we pyromaniacs? Yes, we arson.
2. What do you call a pig with laryngitis? Disgruntled.
3. Writing my name in cursive is my signature move.
4. Why do bees stay in their hives during winter? ’Swarm.
5. If you’re bad at haggling, you’ll end up paying the price.
6. Just so everyone’s clear, I’m going to put my glasses on.
7. A commander walks into a bar and orders everyone around.
8. I lost my job as a stage designer. I left without making a scene.
9. Never buy flowers from a monk. Only you can prevent florist friars.
10. How much did the pirate pay to get his ears pierced? A buccaneer.
11. I once worked at a cheap pizza shop to get by. I kneaded the dough.
12. My friends and I have named our band ‘Duvet’. It’s a cover band.
13. I lost my girlfriend’s audiobook, and now I’ll never hear the end of it.
14. Why is ‘dark’ spelled with a k and not c? Because you can’t see in the dark.
15. Why is it unwise to share your secrets with a clock? Well, time will tell.
16. When I told my contractor I didn’t want carpeted steps, they gave me a blank stare.
17. Bono and The Edge walk into a Dublin bar and the bartender says, “Oh no, not U2 again.”
18. Prison is just one word to you, but for some people, it’s a whole sentence.
19. Scientists got together to study the effects of alcohol on a person’s walk, and the result was staggering.
20. I’m trying to organize a hide and seek tournament, but good players are really hard to find.
21. I got over my addiction to chocolate, marshmallows, and nuts. I won’t lie, it was a rocky road.
22. What do you say to comfort a friend who’s struggling with grammar? There, their, they’re.
23. I went to the toy store and asked the assistant where the Schwarzenegger dolls are and he replied, “Aisle B, back.”
24. What did the surgeon say to the patient who insisted on closing up their own incision? Suture self.
25. I’ve started telling everyone about the benefits of eating dried grapes. It’s all about raisin awareness.

Today's 3rd round FA cup tie pits Championship against Premier League. Get your predictions in by 5pm.
Good luck

America today 🥲

And these scum bags are going to appeal after chasing and murdering a black man who was jogging through the area they lived
Following him and shooting him in cold blood and then saying that it was self defence

https://news.sky.com/story/ahmaud-arbery-murder-three-white-men-who-chased-and-shot-black-man-out-running-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-12511323

Helloo... great loop

Having best friends!

It's the weekend of the FA Cup 3rd round when the lower division and non-league teams are joined by the Championship and Premier League teams. Tonight's tie pitches League Two against Premier League. Get your predictions in by 7.30pm
Good luck

Had mixed success over the years, but usually blue-tits have used my bird boxes.
Interested to know if you have any tips for the best boxes, where to find them - and anything else that you can suggest please.

If allowed to play I can imagine the response from the Australian people

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/05/appalling-message-outrage-over-novak-djokovics-medical-exemption-to-play-australian-open

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/17/pet-flea-treatments-poisoning-rivers-across-england-scientists-find

What an amazing portrayal of Anne Williams, mother of Kevin Williams who died in the Hillsborough tragedy, by Maxine Peak on ITV which concluded tonight. I wept for the 96.

Or common sense

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10367903/amp/Clothing-designer-27-says-felt-fat-shamed-12-week-pregnancy-scan-NHS-staff.html

....Sorry folks I have had to delete another Post as it degenerated into another spat about nothing to do with the original subject ( more like Cluedo ) and as I'm not going to try to work out who did what to who, with what and where .... it's gone !
Please can we try and be nice to each other (it's only the 5th Jan !!!)

Essentially, it's not the time to go for a fixed energy contract, despite the horrid prospect of the price cap going up hugely in April.
There will be a few exceptions, however, for some very low or very high consumers of household energy. It's worth checking to see if either of those covers your case, but staying on a capped rate is still the safest option for almost everyone, for now.
See https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/latesttip/?anchor=energy&utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=04-Jan-22-601f0e1500346a58738-61d4bc53452a53e583486e234472563f&source=CRM-MSETIP-601f0e1500346a58738&utm_campaign=nt-hiya&utm_content=3#energy

Seems highly vulnerable people are being sent kits for use in case they contract Covid. They they will be given anti viral drugs as a priority.

People who test positive for Covid with a home lateral flow test (LFT) will no longer need to take a PCR follow-up test to confirm they have Covid, it has been reported.

Currently, most people who have tested positive for Covid on an LFT will then order a PCR test which is more accurate to ensure the initial home test was correct.

According to The Sun, people will instead be advised to self-isolate for only a week purely based on the LFT and allowed to leave home if they are negative on day six and seven.

Tonight is the Carabao Cup semi-final 1st leg. Get your predictions in by 7pm.
Good luck

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/29/climate-scientist-dont-look-up-madness

https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/27/climate-change-cost-of-extreme-weather-events-increased-in-2021-says-ngo

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8EbjHsg/

New years resolutions…In case you want to exercise more in 2022, ponder this:
• The inventor of the treadmill died at the age of 54.
• The inventor of gymnastics died at the age of 57.
• The world bodybuilding champion died at the age of 41.
• The best footballer in the world, Maradona, died at the age of 60.
• James Fuller Fixx, credited with helping start America's fitness revolution by popularising running, died of a heart attack while jogging at age 52.
However ...
• The Kentucky Fried Chicken inventor died at 94.
• Cigarette maker Charles Winston died at the age of 102.
• The inventor of opium died at the age of 116, not even of natural causes but in an earthquake.
• And, the Hennessey whiskey creator died at 98.
How did smart people come to the conclusion that exercise prolongs life?
The rabbit is always jumping up and down, but it lives for only two years, and the turtle, that doesn't exercise at all, lives for 400 years.
Oh yes of course, Hugh Hefner died at 90 on the job ( or shortly thereafter)
So in 2022 chill, stay cool, eat, drink and enjoy your life!

Not being a driver, I know practically nothing about what restrictions there may be on parking what vehicles on our streets overnight. Very occasionally, something like a caravan appears briefly but usually disappears very soon.
Some selfish person parked a huge, dirty-white van outside my house before Christmas, overflowing the parking space there at both ends and blocking the view from both my and my next-door neighbour's front windows; then another, identical van appeared on a single yellow line next to it last night. Neither shows any parking lights but the traffic wardens haven't done anything about them yet, so there they maddeningly remain.
Talking to unreliable, barely adult children at both my neighbours' homes suggests that someone in each family who doesn't live there permanently may be responsible for each of these vans but catch them removing obstacles to other people's view!
As this is a quiet residential street, not an industrial vehicle park, can anything prevent such intrusion?

The AA claims that "Parking rules in London mean that parking commercial vehicles in residential streets overnight is banned in boroughs across the city. [They cite] Rule 244 of the Highway Code" but I can't substantiate that claim by reference to the Highway Code, let alone the legislation said in it to underlie that provision or any other possibly relevant one.

Does anyone happen to know how to stop this kind of abuse in practice? I need an irrefutable way to stop the selfish tweenager next door from doing this again (such as a criminal offence which would put points on his very new HGV licence) - or from leaving this eyesore parked there any longer, this time - but I can't find anything clear enough.

https://www.firstpost.com/world/british-sikh-army-officer-preet-chandi-becomes-first-woman-of-colour-to-make-solo-trip-to-south-pole-10256251.html

With the start of our third year of Covid, the situation is worse than ever, with new cases escalating world wide. The UK is consistently many tens of thousands of cases higher than any other country in the world with almost 1.1/4 million new cases in the past 7 days and daily readings of around 150,000.

Out of control ? It certainly looks like it and our near future is very bleak indeed.
People simply do not take the necessary precautions, with a significant number of anti-vaxers present and riot at every attempt by the Government to implement lockdowns.

With this attitude by populations, the airborne and touch risks of spreading the disease are beyond control and the rapid mutations of the virus is rendering medical efforts of vaccination a fruitless pursuit.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

This is progress, I suppose...... or a nightmare future? ....... anybody think this is a good idea?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10329221/Swedish-startup-unveils-rice-sized-microchip-implant-stores-COVID-vaccine-passport.html

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/hands-off-our-nhs-no-to-a-tax-on-sickness-hdr-0?sp_ref=754165060.99.221036.f.677918.2&referring_source=fb_ads_23848945945460231_23848945945450231_23848945945470231&source=fb

What a random committee . It predicts which celebrity may die!

https://www.mylondon.news/news/celebs/sick-website-names-queen-eastenders-22625609

But worse still the error in Sir Captain Tom Moore’s name . In this article

Wanted to do more research?

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-couple-with-four-children-die-on-same-day-after-contracting-coronavirus-and-family-encourages-others-to-get-vaccinated-12507593

Monday Night Football. Get your predictions in by 5pm.
Good luck

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/problem-solving/should-you-feed-wild-garden-birds-uk-autumn-winter-2021/

'What a disgusting, shameful decision': Fury as Tony Blair is given a knighthood with Britons branding him a 'war criminal' and demanding honours system is scrapped – as petition calling for him to be stripped of the award reaches 25,000 signatures

from the Mail