FIERY BIDEN WARNS RUSSIA
The Express reports that Joe Biden’s administration will send nuclear bombers to a US army air base near Russia, in a brutal warning to Vladimir Putin that relations with Washington have changed. The US army will send four B-1 bombers, capable of carrying nuclear missiles, and around 200 American troops to Orland Air Base in Norway. It will put the bombers just on the edge of Russian airspace. US forces are also expected to start carrying out drills in international airspace just off of northwestern Russia.Until now, US missions to the Arctic were carried out of the UK.
HOTEL QUARANTINA
The SUN reports: Brits will be slapped with a fine of up to £10,000 if they escape hotel quarantine before their isolation period is up – and face jail if they lie about their holiday destination. The Health Secretary also warned that passengers arriving from Red List countries will be forced to stay in hotels for longer than ten days, if they test positive. All travellers entering the UK will have to take two coronavirus tests while self-isolating, it’s been confirmed. And the entire process – including the two mandatory tests and a quarantine hotel room – will cost arrivals £1.750 each.If passengers leave the quarantine hotel before their 10 days are up, they will be handed a £5,000 coronavirus fine. But this figure can increase up to £10,000 as the Health Secretary Matt Hancock went on to say that Brits also face up to 10 years in jail if they refuse to tell authorities where they have been travelling and are later found to have visited ‘red-list’ countries.
NO BLACKLISTS KEPT BY DOWNING STREET
From the Mirror: Downing Street insists the Government does not keep a list of journalists who ask for public information, despite emails showing requests from reporters are flagged. Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests are required by law to be considered “applicant blind”. That means officials are banned from considering who is asking for information – or why – when they decide whether it can be released. It comes amid growing concern over the Cabinet Office’s FOI clearing house – which is accused of obstructing the release of information to reporters. Boris Johnson ’s official spokesman insisted requests were not checked against a list of known journalists. And no such list exists. However emails obtained by OpenDemocracy during an investigation into the Clearing House revealed requests had been flagged as coming from journalists – and noting they will require additional sign off as a result.
NOTHING ESCAPED FROM HERE SAYS WHO
From the Telegraph: Ross Clarke writes in the TELEGRAPH that no-one yet knows how SARS-CoV-2 originated, but an international probe that so readily rules out an important possibility is disappointing. He writes that the World Health Organisation (WHO) mission to China to investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid 19 has dismissed the possibility that it leaked in a laboratory accident from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
JOURNALIST GIVEN ONE MORE CHANCE AT BRIEFING
The Express reports that Nicola Sturgeon’s coronavirus press briefing descended into chaos as the SNP leader was grilled on the upcoming inquiry she is facing. Scotland’s First Minister clashed with Sky News journalist James Mattews as he grilled the SNP leader on her integrity. Ms Sturgeon appeared to lose her patience with Mr Mattews and warned him he had one more chance to ask a question regarding coronavirus after his first two questions were regarding the inquiry. The Sky journalist asked, Did Scottish Government lawyers in telling the Court of Session that the first you knew of Alex Salmond mislead the court and did they mislead the court on the basis of information that you provided?” The SNP leader replied: “This is a Covid briefing but I will briefly address that for this one time. No, that is not the case, I refute that absolutely and I look forward to getting the opportunity at long last to appear before the committee of inquiry. Let me be very clear I am willing to answer all questions put to me by that committee.”
SCOTLAND WORKING TO ENSHRINE EU LAW
From the Express: the SNP had 15 civil servants working on the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Bill last year, which became law on January 31, 2021. Scotland was the only devolved nation to pursue legislation of this nature, which seeks to give Scottish ministers power to keep its laws similar to those enshrined by the EU. The law allows for continuity of provision that would otherwise have been lost with Brexit. It also includes provisions to ensure EU environmental principles and governance can continue in Scotland and allows for a new organisation to be set up to ensure compliance with EU environmental law. Scotland’s Constitution Secretary Mike Russell said the new law will mean, on devolved matters, Scottish law can keep in line with those in Europe when appropriate and practicable to do so. The SNP politician also said the new law will make it much easier for Scotland to rejoin the EU if the country gained independence from the UK.
RELATIONS WITH THE EU STILL FROSTY
The Express reports that the EU is still struggling to accept the UK is now an independent sovereign nation, Lord David Frost has said. Britain’s chief negotiator of the EU trade deal has told peers Brussels is still learning to adapt to the new relationship with the UK. He said relations had been more than bumpy and said a different approach from the EU was required.He told the Lords European Union Committee: We said last year during the negotiations that we wanted friendly cooperation between sovereign equals as our vision of the future and that’s still what we want.I don’t think that’s been quite the experience of the last few weeks if we’re honest about it.
NO CHURCHILL OR ROWLING AT THIS SCHOOL
The Daily Mail reports that a school has dropped Winston Churchill and JK Rowling as house names after students said they did not think they represented them. Stunned parents with children at Seaford Head School in East Sussex received the letter this week slamming both famous figures. The note – which was marked as being from students – said wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill was ‘a figure who promoted racism and inequality, unfairly imprisoning and torturing many’.It then turned its attention to Harry Potter author JK Rowling, saying it did not think she was a suitable representative following her comments on the trans community.
NHS PERINATAL SERVICES NEW INSTRUCTIONS FOR MID-PERSONS
The Times reports that midwives have been told to say chestfeeding instead of breastfeeding and to replace the term mother with mother or birthing parent as part of moves to be more trans-friendly. Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is the first in the country to formally implement a gender inclusive language policy for its maternity services department, which will now be known as perinatal services. Staff have been instructed that breastmilk should be replaced with the phrases human milk, breast/chest milk or milk from the feeding mother or parent. Other changes include replacing the use of woman with woman or person and father with parent, co-parent or second biological parent depending on the circumstances.
I JUST DON’T CARE SAYS HEAD TEACHER
According to the Daily Mail a head teacher has hit out at moaning parents for saying they don’t have time to let their children play in the snow, after some schools announced they had cancelled online lessons and told kids to go sledging instead. Sue Blyth, a headteacher at Fourfields Community Primary School in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, took a swipe at working parents who had complained about children being given time to play in the snow during school hours saying there was a proper Face Book moan about it. Large parts of the UK were hit with snow from Storm Darcy yesterday and today, forcing hundreds of schools, which are currently open to children of key workers, to close. Principal Clare Greene from Eastcote Primary Academy, in Bexley, London, announced she wanted home-schooled students to ‘make a snowman’ for a lesson. She said on Twitter: ‘Looking forward to a snow day. Online learning tasks include making a snowman and having a snowball fight.’ Responding to a tweet about an online ‘snow day’ at another school, she said: ‘The remote learning tasks will be: make a snowman, go sledging, have a snowball fight and show me a pic of a snow angel. I’m sure one parent will complain, I just don’t care.’
LONGER SCHOOL DAY NOT RULED OUT IN ENGLAND
From the Guardian: The government has refused to rule out lengthening the school day and shortening summer holidays in England to help pupils catch up on lost learning, despite fierce opposition from school leaders who warned against attempts to “grind out more hours of learning from tired children. The schools standards minister, Nick Gibb, told MPs on the Commons education committee he was “open to all ideas” on how to help pupils make up for lost lessons. Headteachers responded that speculation about longer school days and shorter holidays was “misconceived and unhelpful”. Gibb told the committee many academies had already used their additional freedoms to lengthen the school day to drive up standards. He also appeared to acknowledge the appeal of a shorter summer break, accepting there was evidence of lost learning during the six-week holiday.
AND FINALLY
Warwickshire County Council has released the names of it’s new gritters and it’s snow joke. So, without further fanfare, the names selected for Warwickshire’s new fleet of highway gritters are: Usain Salt – Professor Chris Gritty – Gritta Thunberg – Snowbi-Gone Kenobi – The Mighty Thaw – Charlie Boy, named after a local child who sadly died in 2017, and Grey13 Hero, to commemorate Jack Mitchel who worked for the Council for 50 years, Grey 13 being his vehicle radio call sign when working on gritters. A spokesperson said ‘Our new gritters have been selected based on their low emissions so that we are keeping our commitment to doing all that we can, within our business, of reducing our Carbon footprint and minimise our impact on climate change.’
A midwife I used to know is probably laughing her socks off, rather than turning in her grave.
Don’t know anything about J.K. Rowling, but what on earth is all that about Churchill? Imprisoned and tortured people? What?! Those ‘Stunned Parents’ should withdraw their children from a school teaching that sort of crap. It sounds like a fee paying school.
So much of the news is cultural marxism. Otherwise it would just be laughable.
Cheers for Gritta Thunberg anyway.
Just goes to prove what passes for teachers these days should not be allowed to go anywhere near a school let the children that go there. Their understanding of history seems to be far below that of the old CSE standard. They are nothing more than political commissars pushing their own warped agendas, and as I have said before this is all happening under a supposed Conservative government who just turn a blind eye to it all. Just where for goodness is the leadership in this country. It seems to me that it is permanently absent without leave (AWOL). Since when did pupils of a school dictate policy over and above the head teacher and governors. It is an insult to most rational citizens of this country especially my parents generation who went to war against Nazi Germany under Winston Churchill. Racist, Inequality and Torture what utter tosh. Had it not been for Churchill the whole of Europe including this country would still be under the Nazi jackboot and millions of people enslaved and executed. Apart from this, don’t these imbecilic teachers in Seaford realise that Churchill’s wife (Clementine Churchill nee Hozier) had a home in Seaford prior to their marriage.
Dammit! Why, Oh! Why is this Government allowing snow to fall at all? That’s what I’M asking.
4 B1 bombers…all solar and wind powered ?
well played JoBi
I can only come to one conclusion after this update:
The rulers of the world and those supporting (controlling?) them have gone raving mad. I read elsewhere that Google is working with Ford to install a spy (disguised as an entertainment system) in all new cars from 2023. Expect ever more intrusion and control.
If we don’t fight back than it is the end of life as we knew it. Do we want our descendants to suffer from such acts of government and others?
Jack. Raving Mad indeed. Surely most of the madness will be unbelievable to most people. But unfortunately some of it will not be detected.
By clearing snow from roads, councils are lowering the world’s albedo. Pure white snow reflects the sun’s radiation, keeping us cool. Black asphalt absorbs radiation and warms the planet.
I wonder if all the roads are contributing to AGW.
I
Up yours Gritta Thunberg!