Friday 1 October: France’s conduct in the fishing dispute shows that it is an unreliable ally

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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643 thoughts on “Friday 1 October: France’s conduct in the fishing dispute shows that it is an unreliable ally”

  1. Sarah Everard’s murder by police officer has ‘damaged precious bond of trust’. 1 October 2021.

    Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, also said the Met had lessons to learn from what had gone wrong, adding: “There are some serious questions that need to be answered about how we ensure something like this never happens again, and I’m determined that the lessons are not only learned by the police but also acted upon.”

    Responding to the calls in a statement delivered outside the Old Bailey, where Couzens was sentenced to a whole life term, Dame Cressida said: “I absolutely know that there are those who feel their trust in us is shaken. I recognise that in some people a precious bond of trust has been damaged.

    “Our dedication to you, our public, remains undiminished. As commissioner, I will do everything in my power to ensure we learn any lessons.”’

    Morning everyone. Really? This is utter drivel! No one could ever guarantee this anywhere let alone in a city where stabbings and murders are a regular occurrence! I’m always reluctant to assume that any one agrees with me except with their specific assurance, but I would have thought that anyone who has trust in the police is a fool! Not only is it a pale shadow of what it was in my youth; penetrated by the Woke, corrupted by Political Correctness and led by incompetent ideologues it is all but useless except as a tool of repression! The truth is; though unadmitted for obvious reasons, that the Police are simply another expression of the complete breakdown in the UK’s Institutions. Utterly decadent, completely corrupt, led by perverts and panderers we are living in the last days of a modern Babylon.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/30/sarah-everards-murder-police-officer-has-damaged-precious-bond/

    1. Further to my post on yesterday’s page, the case has really raised my blood pressure.
      Dick should not resign, she should be fired Immediately, not even to clear her desk, her stuff to be put in bin bags and forwarded. Then, the command taht allowed this to happen should also be fired.
      The arrest was months ago, and yet all they can come up with to potential future victims is “ask for the warrant card”? Yeah, that’ll stop a big burly bent copper kidnapping a small lass. Sure it will. Utterly fucking pathetic, the lot of them.

      If it wasn’t so serious, this would be ludicrous.
      Where do they get these people from? Dick has had what, 9 months to come up with a solution, and all the Met can say is to “ask why you are being arrested, and to see the warrant card”?
      https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58757375
      Pathetic, utterly pathetic. The article suggests strongly that the Met don’t actually give even one tiny little shit.

      1. Sarah Everard did indeed ask Couzens for his warrant card, which he duly presented before arresting her for breaching Covid regulations.

        Is Cressida Dick advising the public to do the one thing Everard thought she could do to protect herself? Is it like advising people to remain in a burning building, because they are assured it is safe to do so.

        That also happened in London. I wouldn’t want to live there.

        1. Covid regulations made it easy for him to “arrest” her. But I doubt we will see that in the hate-all-men headlines.

      2. Young women should carry whistles*, and wear sensible shoes that they can run in. And maybe practice running and and blowing a whistle at the same time. Do not go down dark streets, or alleys at any time of the day or night. If accosted scratch the attackers face. Carry a gentian violet spray and use it. Never be without money for a taxi – keep a £20 note in a shoe. Only use a black cab.
        * Acme “Thunderer”.

        2. Stay indoors and get male permission to go outsi …… works well in AfGaff, i understand.

    2. Further to my post on yesterday’s page, the case has really raised my blood pressure.
      Dick should not resign, she should be fired Immediately, not even to clear her desk, her stuff to be put in bin bags and forwarded. Then, the command taht allowed this to happen should also be fired.
      The arrest was months ago, and yet all they can come up with to potential future victims is “ask for the warrant card”? Yeah, that’ll stop a big burly bent copper kidnapping a small lass. Sure it will. Utterly fucking pathetic, the lot of them.

      If it wasn’t so serious, this would be ludicrous.
      Where do they get these people from? Dick has had what, 9 months to come up with a solution, and all the Met can say is to “ask why you are being arrested, and to see the warrant card”?
      https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58757375
      Pathetic, utterly pathetic. The article suggests strongly that the Met don’t actually give even one tiny little shit.

    3. Hopefully this was a one off once in a generation incident but it is obvious the Left are going to use it like they used the institution racism agenda to finally kill off the police for good and prevent any normal person that just wants to stand up for law and order from wanting to do the job.

      1. 339490+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        This now transcends any right / left in party IDs
        this is a right / wrong issue being nurtured via the polling booth and has been so for three plus decades, with wrong taking daily an ever increasing lead.

    5. 339490+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      Total agreement from me, the lackeys of political
      treacherous governance cartels who to my mind are
      replaced time after time with a new one of the same ilk, the only improvement made by them is in being of a worse stance.

      ALL under the pretext of “there was nothing else to vote for”

    6. I can only repeat my comment of last evening:

      “There is far too much innate thuggery present within today’s Police Farce and, as such, needs Chief Constables, with no political alliance, to order the practice of Zero Tolerance both internally and externally.“

    7. Would sacking or not even recruiting him have made any difference?

      Evil people and Sex offenders will do what they do regardless of their occupation. He may have used his police status to kidnap this woman, but his relative strength would have allowed him to do so regardless. You can get more forensic knowledge from the TV than from joining the Police.

      1. Hi Dale, I missed your comment. Misuse of steroids by body builders could be part of the problem, ie causing brain damage.

    8. Well, OK,but is it really all bad? What do you think of the food in the police canteens?

        1. Oops. I have not been keeping up to date, Frost being my last point of reference after Z-Cars. The only thing I knew about police canteens was that their menus were covered by the Official Secrets Act. Does that extend to police restaurants too? Are there different levels of restaurants? I worked in a company that served excellent meals in the canteen at lunchtime.
          There was a canteen for the hourly-paid, a dining room for staff, a Senior Staff dining room, a Very Senior Staff dining room and a Directors Restaurant.

    9. Ironically, I was at Hendon yesterday to watch my niece pass out as a new member of the Met. Dickless Tracy was meant to address the new PCs but was away, doing her sack cloth and ashes bit. However her replacement urged the assembled constables to pride themselves on having joined the best police force in the world. Sad …

  2. Sarah Everard’s murder by police officer has ‘damaged precious bond of trust’. 1 October 2021.

    Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, also said the Met had lessons to learn from what had gone wrong, adding: “There are some serious questions that need to be answered about how we ensure something like this never happens again, and I’m determined that the lessons are not only learned by the police but also acted upon.”

    Responding to the calls in a statement delivered outside the Old Bailey, where Couzens was sentenced to a whole life term, Dame Cressida said: “I absolutely know that there are those who feel their trust in us is shaken. I recognise that in some people a precious bond of trust has been damaged.

    “Our dedication to you, our public, remains undiminished. As commissioner, I will do everything in my power to ensure we learn any lessons.”’

    Morning everyone. Really? This is utter drivel! No one could ever guarantee this anywhere let alone in a city where stabbings and murders are a regular occurrence! I’m always reluctant to assume that any one agrees with me except with their specific assurance, but I would have thought that anyone who has trust in the police is a fool! Not only is it a pale shadow of what it was in my youth; penetrated by the Woke, corrupted by Political Correctness and led by incompetent ideologues it is all but useless except as a tool of repression! The truth is; though unadmitted for obvious reasons, that the Police are simply another expression of the complete breakdown in the UK’s Institutions. Utterly decadent, completely corrupt, led by perverts and panderers we are living in the last days of a modern Babylon.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/30/sarah-everards-murder-police-officer-has-damaged-precious-bond/

  3. Sarah Everard’s murder by police officer has ‘damaged precious bond of trust’. 1 October 2021.

    Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, also said the Met had lessons to learn from what had gone wrong, adding: “There are some serious questions that need to be answered about how we ensure something like this never happens again, and I’m determined that the lessons are not only learned by the police but also acted upon.”

    Responding to the calls in a statement delivered outside the Old Bailey, where Couzens was sentenced to a whole life term, Dame Cressida said: “I absolutely know that there are those who feel their trust in us is shaken. I recognise that in some people a precious bond of trust has been damaged.

    “Our dedication to you, our public, remains undiminished. As commissioner, I will do everything in my power to ensure we learn any lessons.”’

    Morning everyone. Really? This is utter drivel! No one could ever guarantee this anywhere let alone in a city where stabbings and murders are a regular occurrence! I’m always reluctant to assume that any one agrees with me except with their specific assurance, but I would have thought that anyone who has trust in the police is a fool! Not only is it a pale shadow of what it was in my youth; penetrated by the Woke, corrupted by Political Correctness and led by incompetent ideologues it is all but useless except as a tool of repression! The truth is; though unadmitted for obvious reasons, that the Police are simply another expression of the complete breakdown in the UK’s Institutions. Utterly decadent, completely corrupt, led by perverts and panderers we are living in the last days of a modern Babylon.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/30/sarah-everards-murder-police-officer-has-damaged-precious-bond/

  4. Good Morning Folks,
    Happy October.

    Grey wet start here, the clubs are still in the garage.

  5. The news this morning reports that China has an energy crisis, and are buying up global stocks of natural gas at any price, with implications of course for our own energy security.

    I have made a connection with a devastating Spectator article about currency reform in China. None of the “experts” who tell us what to think seem to have spotted this. Why?

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/will-chinas-digital-yuan-reinvent-money-as-we-know-it

    Note the second paragraph.

    1. Morning Jeremy. I think Ambrose Evans- Pritchard wrote an article about it earlier this week Though as you say he seems to have been the only one!

    2. Morning jM and all

      China is becoming a world leader – well in getting to stage of having power cuts anyway.
      It looks as though it has turned to mining cryptocurrency instead of coal and the demand for coal for powering its power stations.

      The result of course is that coal prices have gone through the roof and at this rate the commodity may soon become more valuable than gold.

      Thank goodness the UK still has massive reserves of this most valuable resource which powered our industrial revolution and fuelled the empire.

      It is time that our kids should realise that minors should become miners!

      https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/10/02/the-latest-shock-to-chinas-economy-power-shortages

      1. Good luck with getting people to go down mines now. The working conditions are too dirty and brutal, the traditions and captive local populations have been lost and the alternative jobs and/or state benefits are too cushy.

        1. We could import thousands of African children. They are used to the conditions and are experienced.

        2. As our nation is sitting on a sea of natural gas it would be a really good idea to consider mining it.

          Runs power stations, and burns cleanly.

          It would certainly produce employment as well as helping the Balance of Payments.

    3. Morning jM and all

      China is becoming a world leader – well in getting to stage of having power cuts anyway.
      It looks as though it has turned to mining cryptocurrency instead of coal and the demand for coal for powering its power stations.

      The result of course is that coal prices have gone through the roof and at this rate the commodity may soon become more valuable than gold.

      Thank goodness the UK still has massive reserves of this most valuable resource which powered our industrial revolution and fuelled the empire.

      It is time that our kids should realise that minors should become miners!

      https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/10/02/the-latest-shock-to-chinas-economy-power-shortages

  6. Black History Month launches in UK with ‘proud to be’ campaign. 1 October 2021.

    Local authorities across the UK, including the London borough of Barking and Dagenham and West Northamptonshire council, will raise the pan-African flag to mark the start of Black History Month on Friday.

    That’s about how much accumulated history they have is it not? The rest is sunk in the darkness of savagery and ignorance!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/01/black-history-month-launches-in-uk-with-proud-to-be-campaign

    3. This annual ‘Still’ fest deserves the only comment worth making:

      A Poem for Black History Month (October 2021)

      In the matter of racial comparisons
      The media shouts to the moon,
      About all the historic achievements
      Of the Redskin, Spic and the Coon.

      Yet strangely, when strolling museums,
      The white man’s creations stand thick;
      But all we can find of those others
      Is a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

      No telephones, time clocks or engines,
      No lights that go on with a flick.
      No aeroplanes, rockets or radios.
      Just a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

      Not one Sioux Indian submarine,
      No African ice cream to lick,
      Not a single Mexican x-ray machine,
      It’s a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

      So, remember when history’s the subject,
      And revisionists are up to their tricks,
      The evidence tells quite another tale,
      Of a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

      A poem by A. Wyatt Mann

      1. Black Holes have been discovered, not to mention Dark Energy, what more do you want?!

        1. Black holes are to be found in every Western city. There are clusters of them in northern England. Dark Energy has been postulated but never proven to exist.

  7. Poor Fanny Green

    An Irish man went to confession in St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.
    ‘Father’, he confessed, ‘it has been one month since my last confession.
    I had sex with Fanny Green twice last month.’
    The priest told the sinner, ‘You are forgiven. Go out and say three Hail Mary’s.’
    Soon thereafter, another Irish man entered the confessional.
    ‘Father, it has been two months since my last confession. I’ve had sex with Fanny Green twice a week for the past two months.’
    This time, the priest questioned, ‘Who is this Fanny Green?’
    ‘A new woman in the neighbourhood,’ the sinner replied.
    ‘Very well,’ sighed the priest.. Go and say ten Hail Mary’s.
    At mass the next morning, as the priest prepared to deliver the sermon, a tall, voluptuous, drop-dead gorgeous red headed woman entered the sanctuary.
    The eyes of every man in the church fell upon her as she slowly sashayed up the aisle and sat down right in front of the priest.
    Her dress was green and very short, and she wore matching, shiny emerald-green shoes.
    The priest and the altar boy gasped as the woman in the green dress and matching green shoes sat with her legs spread slightly apart, but just enough to realise she wasn’t wearing any underwear.
    The priest turned to the altar boy and whispered, ‘Is that Fanny Green?’
    The bug-eyed altar boy couldn’t believe his ears but managed to calmly reply,
    ‘No Father, I think it’s just a reflection from her shoes ‘…

  8. Reports coming in right now about taking the nation’s pigs. Instead of them going to bacon and sausages, they are now to be culled and dumped in skips. We will have to import our food, and prices will rise substantially as China hogs the world market for food.

    I voted to leave the EU in 2016 partly because of EU directives to close or bankrupt local abbatoirs, forcing farmers and butchers to deal with big central operations, transporting their stressed animals hundreds of miles to get there. Where I live, they closed the abbatoir in Ledbury, and forced people to use a large central abbatoir in Shrewsbury. This was on the understanding that “taking back control” meant we could put an end to this madness and re-open local slaughterhouses.

    Did this, or indeed any other reversals of the perversions imposed by the EU, ever happen. Is it likely to happen in my lifetime. What was the point of me voting ‘Leave’?

    1. The 2001 foot and mouth outbreak was worsened by pigs from Northumberland being taken to an Essex abattoir for slaughter.

  9. Morning all.

    SIR – Amid the dispute about fishing rights, France has yet again threatened to cut off electricity to Jersey (report, September 30). It won’t be long before it threatens the British mainland, too.

    France is proving itself to be a very unreliable trading partner and political ally. Energy supply is too important to be left to the whim of a country that throws its toys out of the pram at the drop of a hat.

    Don Edwards

    Lawford, Essex

    SIR – For hundreds of years, Britain had a thriving fishing industry – then Edward Heath, in order to satisfy the European Economic Community, gave its members equal access to our waters.

    Following the vote for Brexit in 2016, it was hoped that we would get them back. It is time that somebody in our very disappointing Government spelt things out: the French have no right to our waters, unless we kindly grant them access. It is obvious that Emmanuel Macron is using the issue to win support before the French election next April. He must be told publicly to stop it.

    Ron Fine

    Horsham, West Sussex

    SIR – Britain is paying the price for the total lack of strategic thinking and planning over its energy supply. It was obvious that shutting down our coal and gas-powered generating capacity would leave us exposed.

    We are in urgent need of a programme to ensure that we can be energy independent. We should not be reliant on solar panels, wind farms, or, indeed, other countries.

    Nigel Griffiths

    Wareham, Dorset

    SIR – If France acts on its threats, we should ban all French fishing boats from our territorial waters and use the Royal Navy for enforcement, impounding vessels if necessary and releasing them only after a heavy fine.

    Sadly, however, I am not confident that our Prime Minister has the backbone to do this. I suspect he would rather give in and throw our fishing folk under the bus while the French empty our waters as they have their own.

    Richard Barcock

    Seaford, East Sussex

    SIR – When Britain complains about the harmful effects of the Brexit agreement on our internal trade with Northern Ireland, the EU, led by President Macron, argues that the deal was signed up to by the British Government and must be rigidly enforced.

    When we apply the same rigidity to fishing rights, however, it is condemned by the French government as “unfair”.

    Digby Harper

    Benson, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Why not grant a fishing licence for every two illegal immigrant boats returned to French soil?

    Ralph Naylor

    London W1

    Culture of violence

    SIR – I served as an officer in the Metropolitan Police for 30 years, retiring in the 1990s. Since then I have noticed many changes in policing, often driven by societal changes.

    I am outraged at the murder of Sarah Everard (report, September 30), and especially at the fact that her killer had shown himself to have little respect for women and was alleged to have committed offences in the past (indecent exposure). In my time in the police, such an officer would have been removed from the force.

    We all know that some men’s attitudes to women have always been, are still and no doubt will continue to be reprehensible. However, doesn’t society in general have some part to play? People call for action to stop men behaving in this way and yet our films, television programmes and online entertainment are full of violent crime, pornography and negative behaviour to other human beings, often women. Despite this, we all choose to support many of the media outlets responsible.

    I think that what we put into our heads and hearts are the things that will form us and determine the sort of human beings we become. Some of us become hardened to violence, some become numb to it and some become attackers.

    Malcolm Boother

    Dorking, Surrey

  10. Morning again

    SIR – The last time a Left-wing Labour government was elected with a considerable majority was in 1966 – and, compared with the one elected in 1945, its socialism was debatable.

    Every time Labour members pop up at conference and scream angrily at the leader about not being socialist enough (report, September 30) , it adds five more years to the Tory tally. These people appear to hate each other more than they do the Conservative Party. Sir Keir Starmer has much work to do.

    Charles Foster

    Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – I listened to Sir Keir banging on about the halcyon days of the last Labour government. I remember the one: it left the country bankrupt.

    Peter Addison

    Upminster, Essex

    SIR – Whatever Sir Keir Starmer says, the important thing to know is that he does not believe in British democracy.

    The House of Commons voted by a vast majority to hold a referendum on whether or not to leave the EU. It was clearly understood by voters that the result would be accepted.

    When it was announced, Sir Keir fought tooth and nail to have it overturned. Voters cannot trust anything he says, or any policy of the Labour Party while he is its leader.

    Ken Rimmer

    Abernethy, Perthshire

    1. The labour government of 1945 did more for Germany than our country and thats why the were chucked out after only one term.

      1. Labour won in 1950, but lost in 1951, despite getting a larger proportion of the vote.

          2. The 1951 general election had the record for the highest-ever popular vote for the Labour Party and was never surpassed, not by Wilson and not by Blair. They even had more votes than the Conservatives, which won because of the way these votes were distributed.

            There have been many perversions over the years of this voting system. Here are a few:

            Margaret Thatcher secured a landslide in 1983 with an identical national share of the vote as Theresa May did, when she lost her majority in 2017.

            In the very first general election where I voted, the Liberals gained 14 MPs for six million votes. The change of Government came about then because the outgoing Conservative PM refused to consider electoral reform, even though an agreement with the Liberals would have kept him in Downing Street.

            In 2015, UKIP gained one MP for four million votes. Their leader was denied a seat in Parliament because of malpractice, which went unaddressed, since there was another general election and the resignation of that leader and the disintegration of the party before they did anything about it. The consequence was constitutional chaos in Parliament throughout 2019 as Parliament refused to implement a Referendum held three years earlier.

            In 2014, Parliament guillotined through an Act that had no democratic mandate whatsoever. It was not in any of the election manifestos, not in the Queen’s Speech, there was no White Paper or Green Paper, there was no overwhelming public support (and polling suggested a 50/50 split on the issue), proposals of the Bill during the Second Reading were given 45 minutes on both sides of the House to present the argument in favour; those against had to compete for the Speaker’s eye for their three-minutes with sycophantic and planted supporters and stood no chance. It was then pushed through the Lords on the nod. It made a complete mockery of constitutional democracy and has disgraced Parliament ever since.

  13. Latest episode of my Dentist saga. I sent this yesterday, and have since seen my dentist, who has given up on the bridge, does not feel competent to put in the crown over UL2, so now my only option on offer is a temporary 2-tooth denture over the filled root of UL2. It won’t fit properly, but if I want one that does fit, that will be another £285 Band 3 charge. Any traditional bridge, such as was originally prescribed in 1995, is out of the question.

    I have now booked a second opinion with a private dentist to examine what alternative options I have. They offer implants, starting at £2500 each. They suggested that the quality of dental bridges is nowhere near what it was in the 1990s, and I would be lucky to get one that survives more than a few years these days.

    ———–

    On 30 Sep 2021, at 09:20, COMPLAINTS-WESTMIDLANDS, England (NHS ENGLAND & NHS IMPROVEMENT – X24) wrote:

    Dear Mr Morfey,

    I am emailing to confirm receipt of your complaint which was shared with us via your MP Harriett Baldwin. I do hope you are keeping safe and well.

    I was sorry to read of your experience and would like to confirm that we will be in touch in due course to progress your complaint. I would like to explain that we will only be able to look into the issues that fall within NHS England’s remit; I have also let your MP know this.

    Could you provide a contact number in case I need to call you next week to discuss your complaint in more detail?

    I look forward to hearing from you.

    Kind regards,

    Sharlene

    Sharlene Derench
    Senior Complaints Officer
    NHS England Complaints Team – Midlands

    Dear Sharlene Derench

    Thank you for your email and your kind interest. It is much appreciated.

    You can leave messages on xxxxx xxxxxx. I don’t normally answer straight away because I have been plagued by cold calls circumventing the TPS. These sales people know very well how simple it is to use persuasive assertiveness against me. I would have thought that treating patients living in England fell within the NHS England’s remit, but this might have changed recently without necessarily informing the public.

    I actually have two complaints ongoing – one currently involving my dentist. I am trying to get a second opinion, but when I asked friends whether they knew any good dentist, all I got was a hollow laugh saying I was lucky to get one at all. The earliest a private practice could fit me in was December, and I am hoping to eat and sing before then. I have no idea what work they would find to do, but I imagine much depends on how much finance I can raise. The crown over UR1 is fine now, but the re-used bridge failed again, this time after five days. I’ve got an appointment to have it stuck back in again. Hopefully, it may see out the two-month NHS warranty period, but I don’t hold out much hope. Of course, I will keep you informed if my dentist comes up with a slightly more permanent solution. I think he is getting sick of the sight of me!

    The other goes back to 2018 and concerns the withdrawal of Trimipramine, following profiteering by the drugs cartel, which persuaded the NHS to increase the Drugs Tariff price hundreds of times over cost price. It is the only antidepressant that does not interfere with sleep patterns, and particularly useful for cases of aggravated chronic stress, rather than depression. These two conditions are often confused. The difference is that there is usually a good cause why someone may be stressed, but depression is irrational. It is highly likely that there are far more cases of aggravated stress than Covid right now. I imagine my dentist will go down with it soon.

    Best regards
    Jeremy Morfey

  15. Good morning, all. Pinch and a punch. Cold and wet and very windy.

    No fuel like an old fuel!

  18. 339490+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 1 October: France’s conduct in the fishing dispute shows that it is an unreliable ally

    We have known this since Arthur Wellesley went into action, besides as allies of the current United Kingdoms political overseers & as eu members, they are in tune regarding the British trawler-men.

    In regards to Sarah Everard RIP, and in this time of well founded peoples unease with the police stance,something like having two policemen in attendance before ANY such restraints as handcuffs are used.

    I do see it as a flight or fight issue as it is better to face the consequences of a mistake than a repeat of these evil happenings.

  19. Currently lashing down in Havering, not far from M25. Perhaps rain will put off the eco-loons today. Still not sure why they weren’t immediately imprisoned given breaking an injunction.

    2. ‘Morning, Oldie. Yes, strange isn’t it? Once again the law-abiding majority have been let down by the failure to put these eco-loons before a judge. I always understood that contempt of court is a very serious matter and one that would normally require an immediate custodial sentence – but not any more, it would seem.

      1. Yes, can’t help feeling that if, say, Tommy Robinson had been involved, his feet ….

        1. Let’s ask Tommy Robinson to join the next XR demonstration, and watch the collective heads of the police and XR explode…

    3. ‘Morning, Oldie. Yes, strange isn’t it? Once again the law-abiding majority have been let down by the failure to put these eco-loons before a judge. I always understood that contempt of court is a very serious matter and one that would normally require an immediate prison sentence – but not any more, it would seem.

  22. Recruiting drivers
    SIR – Hauliers (Letters, September 30) knew for at least 18 months that we were leaving the EU, and there are currently 1.64 million people unemployed in Britain. What have they been doing to recruit drivers? Instead of waiting for the Government to bail them out, they should manage their businesses to meet demand.

    The country has to stop relying on government to solve every problem that arises.

    David Shadwell
    Little Baddow, Essex

    I agree with Mr Shadwell up to a point, but with the DVLA sitting on a reported 54,000 HGV licence applications there is currently no prospect of getting any additional drivers on the road.

    1. Even before Brexit we had a shortage of 60,000 HGV drivers despite our taking advantage of poor people in other countries, something that was only going to exacerbate the long term issues facing the industry. Covid, with its furlough schemes and driver licensing, training and testing suspensions, and increasing shortages in other European countries were always going to increase shortages. But the RHA and government did nothing, preferring to milk cheap labour and turn a blind eye to problems they hoped would be someone else’s.

      One perversity of using Military drivers is that the fuel delivery company that has precipitated the fuel crisis will get free deliveries yet the rest, having treated their drivers better including paying more, will get no help. Bailing out the badly managed is no way to encourage responsibility and good practice.

      1. We had an excellent rail Freightliner system that could have been developed and extended. It would have taken heavy freight off the roads with all the benefits of safer, less congested roads.

        1. Rail freight for most goods isn’t economical compared to road haulage, particularly where the producer and user don’t have rail sidings and therefore require road haulage too. How does a government get companies to use rail more without worse unintended consequences? My father worked on the railways all his working life and I read the trade magazines that he still gets; there’s a lot of articles and discussion on the issue, but workable suggestions are in short supply.

          non-coal rail freight has been increasing gradually for a long time.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d7778ced7ebccbf818a4e9b0d74bf8870b4c70467bbfc49ecd63dc55f8fce43.png

          1. Yes. Investment in terminals would have extended the geographical scope and range of the service. I used a service based at a terminal in Edinburgh. I sent my parcels by van to the business at the terminal. They stuffed a container (sort of “groupage”) and the container was sent overnight to London. It was unloaded and the various parcels were delivered by a carrier the same day.
            I also used Red Star which was brilliant. Ho-Hum.

          2. When they built a new shopping complex next to the railway line in Wrexham, I could never understand why they didn’t incorporate a siding for unloading freight delivered by train.

  23. One of the things you have to learn as a schoolteacher and as a parent is that you must never issue threats that you are incapable of carrying out because by so doing you lose authority and respect and become held in contempt.

    Priti Patel has threatened illegal immigrants and now the M25 eco-vandals are being threatened knowing full well that the threats will never be carried out.

    If we are going to issue threats we must make sure we have the conviction and resources to carry them out.

  24. Couzens was known as ‘The Rapist’ within the police force….what a bunch of corrupt incompetents

    Calls From Left and Right for Police Chief to Step Down After London Rape-Murder Officer Jailed

    London chief of police Cressida Dick is facing calls to step down after one of her officers, a firearms specialist known to his friends on the force as “The Rapist”, was jailed for using his police powers to wrongly arrest a woman before raping and murdering her.

    The culture of policing in the London force was called into question over revelations made during the trial of Police Constable Wayne Couzens, a diplomatic and parliamentary protection firearms officer whose attitude towards women led to him being nicknamed “The Rapist” by fellow officers.

    That the Metropolitan police failed to prevent one of their own from killing — and their heavy-handed shutdown of a vigil for victim Sarah Everard under the pretext of lockdown rules afterwards — has damaged the credibility of the force in the eyes of some and has led to calls for its chief to step down.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/09/30/calls-from-left-and-right-for-police-chief-to-st

    1. While many of the changes have been incremental, from “bobby” on the beat to Judge Dredd commandoes, a clear turning point was the killing of Charles de Menenez. In another indicator a policeman who was murdered while he was chatting to tourists instead of doing his job, is treated by the Met to a funeral appropriate to a national hero. The police have lost all rational focus.

    2. But would sacking him have made any difference?

      He would still be the same twisted individual and he could have easily overpowered her, warrant card or not.

  26. I hear that plod is to send officers out on patrol to make it safer for women in public places. So, I wonder who will take responsibility for diverting officers and money into searching for hurty tweets and not prioritising real violence. Oh, its that chap who has a regiment of heavies to look after his own safety. Strewth, as we recognise on here, we are well and truly stuffed by our stupid leaders. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/police-online-hate-crime-hub-met-police

  27. I understand that Nigel Farage interviewed David Starkey on GB News yesterday, during which the latter very successfully challenged the bolleaux put about by the Eco-Brat, aka St Greta of Greenie. However, I can’t find it on YouTube. Does anyone have a link, please?

      1. I don’t watch telly – but have, on occasion, seen this chap. He seems quite sound.

      3. Starkey hits on something that I have said for years, that all the Green and woke issues are religious fervour that has become displaced from the Christian churches. People are looking for meaning in their lives and external validation and belonging that they used to get from Christianity.

        For example, people block motorways to show how pious they are rather than go to church on Sundays. It’s no surprise to me that several of these protestors are former church ministers.

        Is it no coincidence that few Muslims are involved in Green and woke hysteria, having an all-embracing religion/cult to absorb their needs?

        1. Well played. Throughout the 20th century advances in medicine and social welfare have diverted people away from prayer and religious piety.
          And a lot of religious observance may have been due to societal pressure, eg villagers attending church so as not to upset the squirearchy.
          Point is, many people now effectively worship the NHS, or its equivalent on the Continent.

      4. Does anybody have the piece about Greta’s awful day when she is subjected to pre-industrial age life?
        I thought I had kept it, but it would seem not.

        1. This one, Anne?

          Greta’s Green Day
          One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named Greta woke up to a perfect world, one where there were no petroleum products ruining the earth. She tossed aside her cotton sheet and wool blanket and stepped out onto a dirt floor covered with willow bark that had been pulverised with rocks.
          “What’s this?” she asked.
          “Pulverised willow bark,” replied her fairy godmother.
          “What happened to the carpet?” she asked.
          “The carpet was nylon, which is made from Butadiene and hydrogen cyanide, both made from petroleum,” came the response.

          Greta smiled, acknowledging that adjustments are necessary to save the planet, and moved to the sink to brush her teeth where instead of a toothbrush, she found a willow, mangled on one end to expose wood fibre bristles.
          “Your old toothbrush?” noted her godmother, “Also nylon.”
          “Where’s the water?” asked Greta.
          “Down the road in the canal,” replied her godmother, ‘Just make sure you avoid water with cholera in it”
          “Why’s there no running water?” Greta asked, becoming a little peevish.
          “Well,” said her godmother, who happened to teach engineering at MIT, “Where do we begin?”

          There followed a long monologue about how sink valves need elastomer seats and how copper pipes contain copper, which has to be mined and how it’s impossible to make all-electric earth-moving equipment with no gear lubrication or tyres and how ore has to be smelted to make metal, and that’s tough to do, with only electricity as a source of heat, and, even if you use only electricity, the wires need insulation, which is petroleum-based, and though most of Sweden’s energy is produced in an environmentally friendly way because of hydro and nuclear, if you do a mass and energy balance around the whole system, you still need lots of petroleum products like lubricants and nylon and rubber for tyres and asphalt for filling potholes and wax and iPhone plastic and elastic to hold your underwear up while operating a copper smelting furnace and . . .
          “What’s for breakfast?” interjected Greta, whose head was hurting.
          “Fresh, range-fed chicken eggs,” replied her godmother. “raw.”
          “How so, raw?” inquired Greta.
          “Well, …

          . . .” And once again, Greta was told about the need for petroleum products like transformer oil and scores of petroleum products essential for producing metals for frying pans and in the end was educated about how you can’t have a petroleum-free world and then cook eggs. Unless you rip your front fence up and start a fire and carefully cook your egg in an orange peel like you do in Boy Scouts. Not that you can find oranges in Sweden anymore.
          “But I want poached eggs like my Aunt Tilda makes,” lamented Greta.
          “Tilda died this morning,” the godmother explained. “Bacterial pneumonia.”
          “What?!” interjected Greta. “No one dies of bacterial pneumonia! We have penicillin.”
          “Not anymore,” explained godmother “The production of penicillin requires chemical extraction using isobutyl acetate, which, if you know your organic chemistry, is petroleum-based. Lots of people are dying, which is problematic because there’s not any easy way of disposing of the bodies since backhoes need hydraulic oil and crematoriums can’t really burn many bodies using as fuel Swedish fences and furniture, which are rapidly disappearing – being used on the black market for roasting eggs and staying warm.”

          This represents only a fraction of Greta’s day, a day without microphones to exclaim into and a day without much food, and a day without carbon-fibre boats to sail in, but a day that will save the planet.

          Tune in tomorrow when Greta needs a root canal and learns how Novocain is synthesised.

  28. ‘Morning again.

    Two military obituaries in the DT in one week…and this one left me breathless:

    Major Stuart Syrad, who has died aged 88, won the MC at Suez, piloted a hovercraft on the Amazon and commanded what is known today as the Special Boat Service.

    In 1956, 23-year-old Lieutenant Syrad was second-in-command of X troop, 45 Commando, when the Suez Crisis broke out and Britain launched Operation Musketeer, part of the Anglo-French landings to recover the Canal from nationalisation by Egypt.

    At dawn on November 6 1956, Syrad and his troop were landed by Sycamore helicopter next to the de Lesseps statue in Port Said, the first large-scale helicopter landing in history. But B troop and the headquarters troop were badly mauled in a blue-on-blue air strike, requiring hurried battlefield reorganisation.

    Hastily regrouping, Syrad’s men began three days of fierce close-quarters fighting, during which Syrad’s signaller was killed. “It should have been me, he was that close,” Syrad recalled.

    Undeterred, Syrad was at the front of Z troop when they were clearing a seven-story concrete block of flats which was heavily defended by snipers, machine-gunners and grenadiers. As they reached the top, some 70 feet above street level, a marine was severely wounded and fell on to a balcony fully exposed to enemy fire from adjacent buildings.

    Syrad immediately climbed on to the roof, crawled along a narrow parapet and jumped on to the balcony. Ignoring sniper and machine-gun fire attracted by his movements, he carried the wounded man to safety.

    Then, in a series of well-planned section attacks, he finished the task of clearing the building. Throughout, Syrad displayed outstanding courage, fearlessness and aggression, and his bearing contributed largely to the overall success of the operation.

    His brigadier, in endorsing the citation for Syrad’s Military Cross, wrote: “At all times during the battle he behaved with the utmost gallantry, and his example was an inspiration to his men.”

    Stuart Lawrence Syrad was born on August 7 1933 in Twickenham, the third of four brothers, and educated at Hampton Grammar School, where he was boxing captain and a sea scout.

    He was working in the export office of Royal Doulton when called up for National Service in 1952, and chose the Navy, but when offered two years as a steward or stoker, or as a marine, he decided that the Royal Marines had a nicer looking uniform.

    He was quickly identified as officer material: he had no intention of a long-term military career, but found the Marines the ideal vehicle for his unconventional thinking and daring and his dislike of rigid authority. While still a national serviceman, Syrad joined No 2 Special Boat Section. Seeing service in Norway and Germany he was trained in demolishing the bridges over the Rhine, and was taught stay-behind techniques should the Soviets advance.

    After he had qualified in diving, skiing, parachuting and canoeing, he became convinced that “this is a good place to be”.

    Ever the keen sportsman, he played Navy rugby, squash, cricket, skiing, hockey, and won the Devizes-to-Westminster canoe race three times, in 1954 and 1955, and setting a record in 1959.

    In the late 1950s and early 1960s Syrad commanded various Special Boat Sections in Malta and Singapore, conducted covert beach surveys around the world, participated in operations during the Indonesian Confrontation and a threatened Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1964, and helped to establish the SBS in Bahrain and Gibraltar.

    In 1965 Syrad’s career took an unexpected turn when he joined the Interservice Hovercraft Trials Unit, training as a pilot on the prototype SR.N1 hovercraft. Later he trialled the SR.N5 as a potential troop carrier on the rivers of Borneo during the Indonesian Confrontation, and in Thailand demonstrated its capability to US forces who were fighting in Vietnam.

    Back in England, Syrad was involved in what must have been the first road traffic accident between a hovercraft and a motorcyclist, when the latter ignored a halt sign and ran into Syrad’s craft as he was crossing from the sea over the road into the naval air station at Lee-on-Solent. The biker was fined £10.

    In 1968 Syrad co-piloted an SR.N6 on an expedition to the Amazon basin, travelling 2,500 miles from Manaus on the Amazon river, up the Rio Negro, through the Casiquiare river and along the Orinoco to the sea, mapping what had been thought to be a non-existent waterway route, and then on to Port of Spain in Trinidad.

    The expedition included scientists, reporters, Brazilian military officers and a BBC The World About Us film team. The successful journey was the subject of a documentary, The Last Great Journey on Earth, and a book of the same title by the producer Brian Branston. A sales tour of South America followed.

    At Poole, between 1968 and 1972 Syrad commanded the Special Boat Company, as it was then known. In May 1972 it came into prominence when Syrad put together a team to parachute into the Atlantic Ocean after a bomb threat on board RMS Queen Elizabeth, and the SBS also conducted anti-gun-running operations in Northern Ireland.

    Syrad was appointed OBE in 1973; the Special Boat Company became the Special Boat Squadron in 1974 and the Special Boat Service in 1987. His last appointment was as second-in-command of 41 Commando Group in Malta, before retiring in 1979 having attained the rank of major (equivalent of lieutenant-colonel in the Army).

    Syrad continued to travel the globe as a security consultant, was chairman of the Hovercraft Society, and was involved with the Hovercraft Museum for many years.

    The charitable function of the Masons was one of the important elements in his life. He was almoner of Hampton School Lodge for 17 years, a member of Purbeck Lodge, and a frequent guest and diner among the many RM and military masons at the Amphibious Lodge, where he helped to raise and distribute charitable funds.

    In 1955, Syrad married Ann Palmer, who he met when they were both sports-mad teenagers, and her support provided a solid base throughout his life and his frequent absences.

    In later years it was Syrad in the supporting role as Ann took part in flower-arranging competitions, winning a silver at the World Association of Floral Artists in Tokyo. She predeceased him in January, and he is survived by a daughter and two sons.

    Stuart Syrad, born August 7 1933, died August 23 2021

    1. To quibble, an RM Major is equivalent to an Army Major. Similarly, the RM equivalent to an Army Lieutenant Colonel is Lieutenant Colonel.

      1. Nowadays that is correct, but in times past the RM ranks were “one down” on the army, so in Major Syrad’s case he was a Lt Col equivalent.

        1. I’ve not heard that before and I can’t find anything with an internet search. Do you have a source for that and it’s reasons?

          2. Although from a different angle:

            The Royal Marines rank alongside their army equivalents. However, when on the books of any HM Ship or Naval Establishment, Royal Marines are subject to the Naval Discipline Act 1957. In those circumstances, many officer ranks in the Royal Marines formerly enjoyed greater status.
            Second lieutenants were equivalent to sub lieutenants and ranks from lieutenant to major were considered equivalent to one rank higher (OF-2 to OF-4). Lieutenant colonels were considered equivalent to RN captains with less than six years in the rank, and colonels were equivalent to captains with more than six years seniority. Higher ranks followed the equivalence on the table above. This state of affairs ended on 1 July 1999, when Royal Marine officer ranks were fully aligned with those of the army.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_United_Kingdom_and_United_States_military_ranks

          3. I found something. I already knew that RM captains were, until your 1999, boosted up a rank in name only when on board ship to avoid confusion with the ship’s captain. For a time Majors and lieutenant colonels when borne on the books of RN ships and establishments and therefore temporarily subject to RN rather than RM rules took the status of a low-seniority RN officer one rank higher; however, comparing levels of responsibility is difficult and, from what I can find, this was a courtesy and did not bring higher pay. https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_United_Kingdom_and_United_States_military_ranks

            That said, I still think that the obituary is wrong. He may have had the status of a junior Commander if he was borne by an RN establishment then, but in general RM Major is not equivalent to RN Commander or Army Lieutenant Colonel. Comparing the roles of ranks between the Services and specialisations within them is fraught with difficulty.

            As an aside, before the1999 changes I spent several weeks with a bunch of RM officers and men. I found them very different to the people I’d met in the other Services and I can see why there was friction with the RN. Great people with their own ways. Amongst all the discussion of their relationships with the RN the issue of status never arose other than their declared superiority in everything.

            Edit: sosraboc’s post only came up after I posted this, so he beat me to the gun. I’ve left my words in, so apologies for duplication.

          1. The simple answer is that they are soldiers, not sailors, and therefore modelled themselves on the Army when they were formed. IIRC initially their very senior officers were navy men and RM officers were limited to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

          2. Kipling explains it:-

            Soldier and Sailor Too

            AS I was spittin’ into the Ditch aboard o’ the Crocodile,
            I seed a man on a man-o’-war got up in the Reg’lars’ style.
            ‘E was scrapin’ the paint from off of ‘er plates, an’ I sez to ‘im, “‘Oo are you?”
            Sez ‘e, “I’m a Jolly—’Er Majesty’s Jolly—soldier an’ sailor too!”
            Now ‘is work begins by Gawd knows when, and ‘is work is never through;
            ‘E isn’t one o’ the reg’lar Line, nor ‘e isn’t one of the crew.
            ‘E’s a kind of a giddy harumfrodite—soldier an’ sailor too!

            An’, after I met ‘im all over the world, a-doin’ all kinds of things,
            Like landin’ ‘isself with a Gatlin’ gun to talk to them ‘eathen kings;
            ‘E sleeps in an ‘ammick instead of a cot, an’ ‘e drills with the deck on a slew,
            An’ ‘e sweats like a Jolly—’Er Majesty’s Jolly—soldier an’ sailor too!
            For there isn’t a job on the top o’ the earth the beggar don’t know, nor do—
            You can leave ‘im at night on a bald man’s ‘ead, to paddle ‘is own canoe—
            ‘E’s a sort of a bloomin’ cosmopolouse—soldier an’ sailor too.

            We’ve fought ’em in trooper, we’ve fought ’em in dock, and drunk with ’em in betweens,
            When they called us the seasick scull’ry-maids, an’ we called ’em the Ass–Marines;
            But, when we was down for a double fatigue, from Woolwich to Bernardmyo,
            We sent for the Jollies—’Er Majesty’s Jollies—soldier an’ sailor too!
            They think for ’emselves, an’ they steal for ’emselves, and they never ask what’s to do,
            But they’re camped an’ fed an’ they’re up an’ fed before our bugle’s blew.
            Ho! they ain’t no limpin’ procrastitutes—soldier an’ sailor too.

            You may say we are fond of an ‘arness-cut, or ‘ootin’ in barrick-yards,
            Or startin’ a Board School mutiny along o’ the Onion Guards;
            But once in a while we can finish in style for the ends of the earth to view,
            The same as the Jollies—’Er Majesty’s Jollies—soldier an’ sailor too!
            They come of our lot, they was brothers to us; they was beggars we’d met an’ knew;
            Yes, barrin’ an inch in the chest an’ the arm, they was doubles o’ me an’ you;
            For they weren’t no special chrysanthemums—soldier an’ sailor too!

            To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
            Is nothing so bad when you’ve cover to ‘and, an’ leave an’ likin’ to shout;
            But to stand an’ be still to the Birken’ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew,
            An’ they done it, the Jollies—’Er Majesty’s Jollies—soldier an’ sailor too!
            Their work was done when it ‘adn’t begun; they was younger nor me an’ you;
            Their choice it was plain between drownin’ in ‘eaps an’ bein’ mopped by the screw,
            So they stood an’ was still to the Birken’ead drill, soldier an’ sailor too!

            We’re most of us liars, we’re ‘arf of us thieves, an’ the rest are as rank as can be,
            But once in a while we can finish in style (which I ‘ope it won’t ‘appen to me).
            But it makes you think better o’ you an’ your friends, an’ the work you may ‘ave to do,
            When you think o’ the sinkin’ Victorier’s Jollies—soldier an’ sailor too!
            Now there isn’t no room for to say ye don’t know—they ‘ave proved it plain and true—
            That whether it’s Widow, or whether it’s ship, Victorier’s work is to do,
            An’ they done it, the Jollies—’Er Majesty’s Jollies—soldier an’ sailor too

          3. “Giddy harumfrodite”? Clearly the RMs were ahead of their time with the Trans hysteria.

    2. Good morning Hugh

      I was very interested but saddened to read the very late obituary for Major Stuart Syrad , many Suez veterans are now dwindling in number .

      At Poole, between 1968 and 1972 Syrad commanded the Special Boat Company, as it was then known. In May 1972 it came into prominence when Syrad put together a team to parachute into the Atlantic Ocean after a bomb threat on board RMS Queen Elizabeth, and the SBS also conducted anti-gun-running operations in Northern Ireland.

      I met one of those four SBS team members , Major Richard Clifford a few years ago , who lived locally , but sadly died 6 years ago .

      People like that possess silent strength and something more in their character , wisdom .

  29. Good morning all.

    Cloudy

    Leaving shortly to give a blood sample with my favourite Swedish nurse.

  30. Good morning all,

    The stormy wind did blow last night , I changed the duvet yesterday , and used the 15tog one , putting the summer one away , and my goodness , we cooked , the bed was so warm last night , the weather really is so mild this morning , and the storm has blown through thank goodness.

    I managed to put £30 of diesel in my car yesterday afternoon , joined the queue.. which was full of soldiers from Bovington topping up their cars .

    Ahead of us was a very young chap, wearing wellingtons , his girlfriend in the passenger seat , he was driving an old Golf .. We were parked right outside the little garage shop , and we saw an animated conversation inside , because the chap had rushed into the shop before putting fuel in his car.

    He appeared out of the shop with a big smile , and took forever to fill his car .. should have been £30 .. He then went back into pay and raced off in his golf in a Southerly direction .

    Moh was furious , and when he put the limited amount of fuel in my car , he then questioned the checkout chap in the shop about the boy , the guy said that the boy had told him he was an NHS worker and needed to get back to NORFOLK!! Huh… pull the the other one ..

    Now look at this.. how timely!

    https://twitter.com/True_Belle/status/1443844896197128203

    1. I don’t fill up very often – not going anywhere much – mine’s still 3/4 full so I’m not worrying yet until they run out next month!

      2. I drove past the local petrol station this lunchtime – no queues (I didn’t stop because my car’s not even taken the top bar off the indication), but the petrol has gone up a total of 4p since I last filled up.

      1. He certainly doesn’t realise that less is more.
        But, on this occasion, his cartoon is actually funny.
        It reminds me of when we went to a “Singa-Alonga-Sound-of-Music” where the audience wore costumes. I’ve never seen so many nuns with 5 0’clock shadow.

        1. When I went to an open-air showing of “Rocky Horror…” in Braunschweig, I was amazed at the numbers of teenage trannies in the audience. That was about mid-to-late-90s.

          5. MB and I have done that one as well.
            The sight of MB in a Frank n furter outfit probably traumatised our sons for life.

  31. Good morning everyone.
    If Cressida’s thug had never joined the Police would he have committed a similar crime elsewhere? If Mr C hadn’t been involved in gun-toting world of Diplomatic Protection, might he have been less likely to have felt the need to visit a gym and take anabolic steroids?
    We are what we eat.

    2. I think that thug would have been a criminal anyway – but he wouldn’t have been able to trick Sarah with his warrant card.

        2. What careers are open to young men with five “O” Levels that allow them to drive cars at top speed anywhere they like, kick in doors at 4 o’clock in the morning and drag people out of bed, stop drivers and demand they take breath tests, order pedestrians about using force just for fun?
          All with total impunity

      3. Traumatised McDonald’s worker reveals how she reported half-naked Wayne Couzens to police after he flashed her at drive-thru WEEKS before he murdered Sarah Everard
        EXCLUSIVE: Woman said she saw Couzens pulling up by hatch without trousers
        Claimed she was ‘not the only’ member of staff to have seen Couzens do this
        Couzens linked to three instances of indecent exposure that police are probing

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10045557/Traumatised-McDonalds-worker-reveals-half-naked-Wayne-Couzens-flashed-her.html

          1. The Met always clam up and protect their own. They have never been sorted. They should spilt into more managable parts.

          2. Half of you will be going North of the Thames, and half of you will be going South of the Thames. The top halves will be going North…

      4. He would probably – whatever job he was in – have used his position to further his crime.
        However, the government’s panicky legislation – nodded through by 600+ automata – made things easy for him.
        (And thousands of jobsworths countrywide.)

    3. A real chicken and egg situation.
      Was his basic character attracted to such a role? Did his being in such a job enhance his foul tendencies?

  32. Yo All

    And a very good morning to you.

    My couple of days of rest, to celebrate me reaching the age of 27, are over.

    Fences to pull down, stone chippings chippings to clean (by fire) to kill off old weed spores, cooking to do…

      1. I thoroughly enjoyed being 27. It was the year I found out that it was OK to go on holiday more than once.

        1. It was the age when I discovered that I had nothing in common with many mothers of small children.

  33. On entering the kitchen this morning, I discovered that I had forgotten to put the kitchen roll in a safe place.

    Pickles explained that he was simply helping by counting the sheets to see whether there were 1000….

      1. After breakfast today, he went out and killed and ate three mice…. Gus made do with one…

          1. I wonder that, sometimes…! Because they have this wonderful act of appearing to be starving…! And the MR falls for it every time!

    2. I take it that you’re on a roll this morning after escaping the hospital with a clean Bill of health.

      1. Up to a point, Lord Copper.

        I have a nagging problem which none of the men in white coats can pin-point and solve. They try different tablets – a sort of suck it and see approach. But as I might well have expired in August 2020 I don’t complain. Ever.

        1. The Doctor is IN Would you care to describe this nagging problem?

          A Nottler might have similar and know what to do about it.

          Is it.

          A. Fear of heights.
          B. Fear of depths.
          C. Fear of ladders.

  34. I see our unelected Prime Minister is going to be busy – the range of her abilities is staggering….

    Carrie Johnson will give LGBT rights speech at Tory party conference’s Pride reception

    1. She’s wonderful. Truly outstanding.

      Such a broad spread of knowledge.

      I’m amazed that she hasn’t stood for Parliament.

      1. The truly terrifying thing is that she gets all she wants without needing to be elected by anyone.

        1. Too many people do not know what the word uxorious means which is a shame because it describes Boris Johnson to a tee.

          6. uxorious

            adjective
            having or showing a great or excessive fondness for one’s wife.
            “he had always impressed me as home-loving and uxorious”

  36. Just back from bloods. It’s not easy chatting in Swedish when one is out of practice. & both parties are wearing masks, but we managed.

    Turned out sunny now.

    1. It’s not easy chatting in any language if both parties are wearing masks – especially when lip-reading.

      1. I declined to wear a mask in the NNUH yesterday and was asked to put on a visor. I can see why animals HATE those round collar things when they need to keep their mouths away from wounds etc…!!

        1. They didn’t put you in a ‘Cone of shame’ then? We went for an appointment last Friday and declined to wear a mask – the consultant put his under his chin as well.

  37. How the Pan African Flag came about. Do not play this if there is a woke within earshot: For historical information only.

    https://youtu.be/AmDCpDW16BY

    The song motivated the creation of the Pan-African flag in 1920 by the members of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League.

    1. “Four Eleven Forty-Four“, or “4-11-44” is a phrase that has been used repeatedly in popular music and as a reference to numbers allegedly chosen by poor African Americans for the purpose of gambling on lotteries.

  38. The MR and I watched a 2 part docu on Channel 4 about D-Day. All a bit “Janet and John Look at the War” – but they had some elderly gentlemen who had been there. Also – rather irritatingly – the daughters of two of the participants explaining in very J&J terms what their fathers had done.

    A number of black Americans told us how hard done by their fathers were – enslaved to white folk to fight other white folk was their drift.

    Also there was a bame “historian” who told us what we knew – and got several details completely wrong. He also, amusingly, used the word “exaggerated” instead of “exacerbated”.

    Given that, if one went back from 1944 the 77 years since D-Day, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was created – it must seem all very long ago to people today.
    I suppose.

    1. Thanks. Did you mean Channel 5? I did see a DT review pre-screening that gave it 5 stars. I’ll be watching that on catch up; forewarned is forearmed.

      2. Whoever gave it 5 stars must be of the generation who believe that England started the War against poor defenceless Germany…

        1. Bill, technically we did by declaring war on Germany, being the first to do so. Until then, Germany had neither attacked nor declared war on us. Also, Germany was relatively defenceless because it had committed its forces to Poland; the French made easy progress into Germany but stopped almost straight away as they didn’t want to provoke the Germans.

          Similarly, in WW1 we declared war on Germany, although technically didn’t start it as Germany declared war on France beforehand.

          1. Both instances, WWI and WWII, resulted in war because of previously entered into agreements and alliances, which identified that our assistance, military if necessary, would be sort and executed, in the event of aggression by other parties.

          2. Of course I know that.

            But children today are TAUGHT that we caused the war and stated it and that Germany was an innocent country taken by surprise.

            I would disagree with you that it was “relatively defenceless”. It they had not attacked Poland – in such a friendly, neighbourly way – just wanting to help – they would have had even more troops and aircraft available to “defend” themselves against the brutal, imperialist Britain

    2. I was thinking that the other day, sort of. If I go back my 74 years before my birth date, I would be in 1873. No cars, no internal combustion engines, no telephones, no TVs.

      1. … no radios, no penicillin …. association football just starting out …. no ashes tours …

        1. Interesting, thanks. Not very well written though. No explanation of the difference between compression ignition and spark ignition.

          2. I once updated a wiki article on Stephen King to suggest that his plot idea for “Under the Dome” was a lift from “All Flesh is Grass” by Clifford D, Simak”. My suggestion was deleted within hours.
            I suspect that celebs etc may employ wiki-watchers to keep the story straight, just as actors used to employ press-clipping agencies.

      3. Routemaster busses were running throughout Africa collecting slaves. (from the 1700s onwards

        They were operated only by Brits
        Only taken to away in British owned, crewd and operated by Brits
        Sold only to Brits when the ships stopped in the New World

      4. Hence why adhering to the current NHS system is so daft.
        If you go back 73 years from 1948, you land up in 1875.
        Would anyone in 1948 have looked back to the mid-Victorian era to set up a new model of health care?

  39. Excuse my separating this:

    OberL: “Then, the command that (the appt of C.Dick to Head of Met) allowed this to happen should also be fired.”

    My answer is: THEY ALREADY HAVE BEEN FIRED … because they were PM and Home Sec., Theresa May and Amber Rudd. Of course, there’ll be other senior Home Office and Police figures who advised on this and they should also be fired (to enjoy their gold-plated pensions).

    2. True… but the whole line of operational command should be summarily dismissed.

  42. Gosh – weather turnaround. Bright sunshine. Must get the table ready for lunch outdoors. (That’ll make it rain again)….

    1. Bu88er; it’s clearing up here so I can’t justify a day of hunkering down and doing cosy indoor jobs.

    2. Well, that’s all right then. I would not be happy about trying any of that in Scotland. Was once stopped while driving with the Sultana along on a Sunday morning on a dual carriageway outside Glasgow. We were signalled at random to pull into the side of the road. I was told that they were carrying out a “routine vehicle check”. I was asked to switch lights on and off etc. When I enquired as to their qualifications as motor engineers, it all went ballistic.
      The female sergeant was raving hysterically.
      As far as I knew there was no legal basis for random checks of private cars. It is very difficult to ascertain the truth.
      On another occasion in early summer we were stopped near Dalkeith having driven up from Duns. It was, we were told ,”a traffic census”.
      We were asked where we were from?
      “Duns”
      We were asked where we were going?
      “Musselburgh”.
      The purpose of your trip?
      “To buy ice cream.”
      We might have fared better if I had replied “bank robbery“, as they could have understood that.
      Apparently we were being interviewed by the only two policemen in Scotland who were unaware that Luca’s is one of the best ice cream shops in the known Universe. There are always queues outside, even in the dead of Winter. Well they did not shoot us, so we were lucky.

      1. There is another great Italian Ice Cream vendor in Largs but I can’t remember the name.

        Ah, Nardini’s – Google can be your friend – Scrummy ice-cream.

        1. Yes. There is list of the top ones somewhere. However, every town in Scotland had an Italian café making heir own ice cream. Now, we have Turkish barbers everywhere.

  45. Boating with gardening interest:
    Can’t remember the name of this lock on the Thames but the Lock keeper really does have green fingers:

        1. Yes, that’s a Datura – not winter-hardy in Britain.
          I remember seeing them in enormous tubs in the gardens of Schloss Herrenhausen in Hanover, when I attended an evening open-air performance of “Midsummer Night’s…” Each plant was at least 4m tall & the scent was rich & heavy. They must have used a crane to move them in & out of winter quarters.

          1. As above. Not Datura but Brugmansia. Great plants and very easy to grow almost as accommodating as weeds. I use them on occasion but didn’t bother this year due to being incapacitated. You can by them on ebay. Lots of different colours.

        3. Not Datura, Brugmansia “Charles Grimaldi” by the looks of it. What I’m curious about is are they there all year round? Because although Charles is the hardiest of the Brugmansia’s they are not supposed to be hardy.

      3. Steven. Are the Brugmansia there all year round or planted in the spring after frost and where is this specifically? Want to look up the climate.

        1. I think he cuts them down and puts some fleece over them. It occurred to me that water running through the lock and nearby over the weir possibly helps keep the temperature up in winter a la Peruvian Indians cultivating potatoes in fields surrounded by water.

          1. Thanks for that. I think I will try doing that next year. But I think I would cover them with some sort of plastic too. I discovered many years ago that you can grow a lot of plants that are half hardy through the winter as long as you keep them dry. It isn’t the cold that kills them but a combination of cold and wet. What happens is that the cells become full of water, frost comes, water expands and bursts the plant cells and that’s the end of the plant which then turns to mush.

            I grew a plant of clerodendrum thomsoniae, in California through a tree. But where I lived the water frequently froze in the winter, not all of California is warm. The plant survived and thrived. I grew it, more of less, in pure perlite and fed it as needed. One of my favourite climbers, I always have one, but here I keep it indoors. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/np3jTF14yC4/hqdefault.jpg

      4. Steven. Are the Brugmansia there all year round or planted in the spring after frost and where is this specifically? Want to look up the climate.

    1. And deportations have fallen rapidly, being a 1/4 of what they were 10 years ago and 1/2 of what they were 2 years ago.

    2. And deportations have fallen rapidly, being a 1/4 of what they were 10 years ago and 1/2 of what they were 2 years ago.

    3. That of course means No ID, No entry? Yes?

      …and it includes those illegals who’ve chucked away or destroyed any ID documents, Yes?

    4. 339490+ up ticks,

      Morning TB,
      More crap from the crapper, wrapper, rhetorical slapper
      AKA priti treacherous, colleague of the FAT turk.

    1. It’s a shame that car DVRs and phone cameras are so plentiful. Otherwise motorists would be quite happy to sort out the idiots before the Police arrived.

        1. “Darling, there’s blood and hair stuck to the front of the car!”
          “Ah, yes, Mavis. Uh, ran into an old dear on the way home I’m afraid.”

      2. 339490+ up ticks,
        Afternoon D,
        As with many current issues death IS needed to trigger a response even then using the three monkey mode the odious actions soon fade.

        Supporting & voting The lab/lib/con (ino) parties prove it every day.

        It does seem like a sacrifice has to be made before common sense can have a say.

  48. ‘In Rome, nothing works’: citizens despair in run-up to mayoral elections. 1 October 2021.

    Elio Perugini can’t remember the last time he had a decent night’s sleep. “It’s a disaster, the noise just doesn’t stop,” he said. “I hardly sleep any more. The worst of it is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.”

    Sleepless nights have become the norm for many in Trastevere, a neighbourhood in central Rome once treasured for its charm and old-world feel, but now known for its rowdy nightlife, petty crime, piles of rubbish and graffiti-scarred walls.

    The district’s problems are considered emblematic of what Romans repeatedly decry as the Italian capital’s degrado (decay), and as residents prepare to vote in mayoral elections on Sunday and Monday, they are asking themselves once again if anyone is capable of getting a grip on the city.

    This sense of hopelessness and helplessness is common to decadent polities. The UK is very similar. Why vote when nothing changes? The truth is that the West has run its course. It has no more ideas, nothing to excite the masses! It’s dying on its feet. The barbarians are on their way!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/01/in-rome-nothing-works-citizens-despair-in-run-up-to-mayoral-elections

  49. Bugger – just assembling the stuff to set the table for lunch in the garden – and dark clouds rolled over, the wind got up (even more) and the temp fell by 10ºC.

    Indoor lunch by the AGA!

      1. Only while they had their small piece of cheese. Then they buggered off. Gus (having had a large lunch) claimed still to be hungry. The MR was unmoved so he put on his, “Nobody will feed a starving cat” and “I was forced to go out through the catflap into the pouring rain” look.

      1. Substitute “vaccine passport” for “little red book”, and you’re on the right track.

    1. No need for consultations in Scotland. The Covid passport scheme became obligatory today.
      However the app that confirms vaccination status does not work.
      The government has announced that the law will not be enforced for another fortnight. I know that we are now a fascist police state with a government that can now do anything it likes, quite literally, but stating that the law that they have just introduced will not be implemented is surely a blatant interference with the operation of the police?

  55. Good afternoon from a Saxon Queen with blooded axe and pursed longbow ,
    Its quite sunny down here in Devon but nevertheless shall be leaving this lovely cottage tomorrow. Will be staying in Blagdon ( the Mendip Hills of Somerset that I love and know so well ) from then it’ll be Bath for a couple of days to see the husbands mother and home on Wednesday .

      1. The husband took a few with his camera when it wasn’t raining.
        I don’t know how to transfer pictures from phone / camera to disqus .
        People have told me how but it never sinks in and seems so complex .

          2. Don’t forget what I posted about the book about yer Saxons:

            The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England – Marc Morris

            Just finished listening to it for the second time. Even better second time round.

        2. ‘allo. Ethel.

          Doesn’t your blooded axe help?

          Glad to hear you are enjoying your trip.

          1. Hello Mr Viking, no the axe doesn’t help.
            Thank you, its been very nice down here but very wet .

    2. Wise move avoiding Bath on a Saturday. I was talking to a couple who spent over an hour on the Park & Ride bus getting into the city centre last Saturday, the place was at a standstill. Over an hour for a 2.5 mile trip, and it is becoming the norm now.
      Enjoy your visit.

      1. It will be full of those wretched escooters as well. Dont forget to pay the anti motorist tax should you drive in the centre.

        1. Been in this morning to visit very elderly family member, cars are exempt from the CAZ (so far) but when they expect me to pay to visit and drive through I will not seen again.
          Limp Dums at their finest.

          1. Yes, just read that it doesnt apply to private vehicles but does catch public transport and delivery vehicles. Odd really!

          2. Rest assured when the monies raised by fines fails to be enough, the zone will increase in size and private cars will be included. This year they expected just over £12m to come in through fines to help repay the loan taken out to set it all up.
            It will be interesting to see how much they get by years end.

    2. And to make it feel like home, Khan doesn’t advise any laydees to go out without male escorts.

    3. Must be posed as the lower manual is normally played with the left hand paw and the upper manual with the right hand paw

    1. They are still, though, clinging to the hope that Biden will somehow turn things around to be a ‘resounding success’.

  62. Natwest Chief hails China. Natwest were bailed out by the UK taxpayer to the tune of 40 billion.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10047803/NatWest-boss-Sir-Howard-Davies-applauds-China-banning-practice-crypto-trading.html

    The real reasons not stated in this report are that crypto mining takes a lot of energy which diverts energy away from factories. Secondly like all crypto currencies governments don’t have any control over it.

    I wonder how much the Chinese paid him.

  63. Hypocrite of the year award goes to Trudeau.

    Yesterday was a nice new woke public holiday, a day of reconciliation that was hoisted on us by the dolt. His public calendar showed that he was in Ottawa all day, having private meetings.

    Unfortunately for him, all fell apart when his government jet was tracked flying from Ottawa across to a surfing village on the west coast. Pretty boy has been caught lying and playing at surfing when we are supposed to be sitting at home and contemplating.

    His calendar has since been updated to show that he is in Tofino for a series of phone calls with native leaders.

    Cue photos of that man walking on the beach. F’in hypocrite.

  64. This article is truly depressing. It is time that the prime minister – that pathetic lump of procrastinating incompetence – sorted this nonsense out as many of the the BTL comments suggest. But is his current wife holding the reins and isn’t it time he traded this unsatisfactory model in for something rather better?

    If universities insist that their students fill in diversity forms to test their level and awareness of white privilege then the government should impose a Freedom Test on universities and remove all funding from those which try to restrict intellectual freedom.

    Frankly the University of Kent should cease to exist completely as should certain bits of Oxbridge!

    Now is the time for students to pick up their placards
    With universities withdrawing from liberal education, some students may wonder why they’re taking on so much debt to be indoctrinated

    ROSS CLARK

    Where have all those angry students suddenly gone, the ones who used to turn out en masse with placards and tee shirts to take sides in some civil war in Central America or to demand that uneconomic coal mines be kept open? Now their own universities are trying to indoctrinate them and suppress their right to critical thought they are nowhere to be seen.

    This week it emerged that at least two universities are forcing their students to take online ‘diversity’ tests – without passing which they are unable to matriculate. Students at the University of Kent, for example, are obliged to agree that someone enjoys ‘white privilege’ if they can answer ‘yes’ to the statement: “I can swear, or dress in second-hand clothes, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.” Up at St Andrews, undergraduates are obliged to agree with the statement: “Acknowledging your personal guilt is a useful start point in overcoming unconscious bias.” If they do not, their online course demands that they think again and give the ‘correct’ answer. If they still disagree then they cannot begin their studies and must leave the University.

    As one anonymous St Andrews student complained, students are being forced to agree not with facts but with opinions. It is as if students were being forced to agree with assertions like ‘the market economy is superior to the planned economy’ or ‘the disaster of Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth demonstrated how monarchy is a more stable form of government’. Yet she meekly completed the course anyway. Why not march on the Senate House or the Vice Chancellor’s office and demand that this disgraceful attempt to manipulate students, to force them to subscribe to woke dogma, be ended? There is, I fear, an answer to this: the kind of students who in the past were inclined to attend protests are actually in favour of the compulsory woke causes. St Andrews’ has gone so far as to claim that it introduced its course as a result of “clearly expressed student demand”. It didn’t produce any evidence of this, and I think we can guess what it means: that a small band of the most loud-mouthed, activist students – no lovers of freedom, just Marxist bully boys – and that the university bent to their demands.

    As for the majority of students, they never did have a great taste for student politics. They just want to get on with their studies, get a qualification and start their careers – while having a bit of fun along the way. But surely there will come a point when they will have to start asking themselves: why are we taking on big debts just to be indoctrinated? There is another way, as Euan Blair has shown – by building a £160 million fortune through persuading young people to reject his father’s target for getting 50 percent of young people into higher education by bypassing university straight into employment.

    The appeal of a liberal education used to be strong, whatever you intended to do in your career. The chance to develop critical thinking was worth three years of your life, even if you never again came across Otto von Bismarck, the works of Herodotus or whatever else it was you studied. But if universities are going to withdraw from the business of liberal education and retreat to their medieval origins by schooling their students in quasi-religious doctrines, while ‘burning’ heretics, then they lose all appeal. You might as well go straight into gainful employment and access stimulating debate by joining a historical society, or something, in your spare time.

    I would rather students rise in anger against what is being forced on them, but if they end up voting with their feet and we start losing universities — their campuses, say, converted to social housing — then I can’t say I will be all that sorry.

    1. University of Kent? The one that has given my granddaughter the square root of buggerall in her past 2 years, other than a few Zoom lectures.

    2. I recently completed an application for probate. Embedded in the on line form was a questionnaire on my sexuality/gender. Completion was voluntary, but strewth, don’t they ever give up.

    3. Rastus, thanks for posting the article.

      I think part of the problem is that the students’ parents themselves are “woke”. Witness all those who have unthinkingly gone along with the experimental jabs. I think rebellion may have been bred out of this year’s crop of students. Goodness, the rest of us haven’t done much better I think. Alf and I have not been and will not be jabbed and have never worn masks right from the start. However HMG is utterly determined to curtail our freedoms (Plan B they call it!) and they’ve carried out the most amazing psychological warfare campaign in this country. We have resigned ourselves to never going abroad again and, judging by our next door neighbours’ experience trying to get back into the U.K. yesterday, taking 3 of them almost a whole day to fill in some form or other before setting foot on the plane, and costing another arm and another leg for all the tests it doesn’t seem worth it. I detest and loathe HMG with a passion. They are the worst ever government.

      1. You missed the lunchtime BBC news.

        Professor Whitty wants the south coast resorts to smarten themselves up ready for more guests.

  65. Question:

    Yesterday (or Wed) there was a post about the new “Opportunity” Pass in Lithuania. It listed the things that you can’t do if you are an evil, vile and anti-social person and had not been vaccinated. Could someone repost it – or give me a link? Thanks.

      1. Thanks – but that was NOT the post. It was from a non-vaccinated person and listed in great detail all the prohibitions.

        What you kindly found was an official one – that says it is fine and dandy and easy peasy and no threat to anyone…. There are lots of hose.

          3. I didn’t, silly. Otherwise I would of (sic).

            PS when you have been to Malta (I know the main reason is cheap booze and adult entertainment) did you ever visit any of the archaeological sites?

          4. I went to Malta primarily for the fact not many Brits go there. The added bonus being i wouldn’t be bumping into you…cheeky sod !

            Food and alcohol not really much cheaper than here. As far as adult entertainment is concerned i wouldn’t know. Not likely to be any given it is a Catholic country.

            I visited several places of historic significance.

            St Johns co-Cathedral to admire the two Caravaggio and its ornate gold interior.

            Mdina and Valetta.

            Several Forts.

            Saflieni Hypogeum.

            The Tarxiem Temples.

            The Roman aqueducts.

            Many Churches.

            A Mosque (don’t remember where it was on a bus tour) Where the Prophet’s Aunt fell off her donkey and broke her neck….I liked that one.

            Visited lots of places over the years. As long as there was refreshment nearby !

          5. You should plan to Gozo there again soon, I’m sure they would welcome you Comino back..

          8. It’s where the Maltese go for their holidays and rent out their property in Malta in the season.

            Farms mostly.

          9. We visited Malta as a family once. I’d just been fired from my job so we had some severance pay. Generally we could not afford holidays. We booked three apartments and hired a minivan to get around. We quite enjoyed it. We visited the Mosta church, the second largest unsupported dome in the world at a that time, now 3rd apparently. Beaches were nice. Our eldest scared her mother by swimming far out to sea. We visited a market. We could not hear anything for the noise of the loudspeakers playing an song, surprising a Catholic state. (I cannot access it, as youtube requires age verification, and I discovered that I had lied to them about my DoB.)
            We went to Mass at a small church close to our apartments on Sunday morning. We were in time but it was very busy, the congregation could not all fit inside but were crowded on the steps and onto the street. Something very lovely happened. As we approached the crowd parted and we were “handed forward” up the steps, into the church and put into seats on a pew near the back. Almost in silence, with smiles. I’ve never forgotten that.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotunda_of_Mosta

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

          10. What a wonderful memory.

            The Maltese like the Brits very much. They still remember the sacrifices made for them. The Americans….not so much.

  66. Just as well I cancelled (SUCH a topical word) lunch outside. Half way through – the heavens opened, just for five minutes. But enough to have soaked us and everything else.

        1. I had to put up with a plate of gravlax, rocket with honey mustard dressing and a glass of sauvignon.

          Oh, how i suffer…

          3. No wine before 6 pm…

            Butternut squash soup; salad from the garden; tomato + basil (garden) tricolore; chef’s selection of cheese; toast from this week’s homemade loaf.

          4. Did you hurt your back, digging it up?

            GravlaxBurying fish, or meat, in the ground is an ancient means of storing and preserving.

            Gravlax is made up of the Scandinavian words “grav” and “laks,” which literally translated means “buried salmon.” Fishermen in the middle ages would use this fermentation technique of burying the salmon in sand to keep it cold.

  68. Spiked,the joys of uni life…………..

    The Kent course, titled

    ‘Expect Respect’, is only the latest example of students being

    inculcated into the ways of moral conformism. It’s a mandatory module,

    which takes four hours to complete, and is designed to raise students’

    awareness about white privilege, microaggressions, pronouns and other

    riveting topics. The module includes a ‘white privilege quiz’ – such

    fun! – in which the freshers are grilled over the societal benefits

    enjoyed by whitey. Apparently if you can swear without being called a

    disgrace to your race or go shopping without being followed or harassed,

    then you enjoy white privilege. Students who correctly identify all the

    indicators of racial privilege get a gold star. Presumably those who

    don’t get branded with the letter ‘R’ for racist.

    The list of things that are apparently signs of white privilege grows longer and more demented by the day. Saying ‘I don’t see colour’ is white privilege. Eating French food is white privilege. Drinking milk

    is white privilege. Saying ‘I don’t have white privilege’ is white

    privilege. Of course it is. ‘For white people to dismiss the benefits

    they’ve reaped because of their whiteness only goes to show how

    oblivious – and privileged – they really are’, says one writer.

    This is the Kafkaesque trap of identity politics. There’s no winning in

    this slippery game. Refuse to acknowledge another person’s race and

    you’re racist. But obsess over another person’s race and presumably

    you’re also racist. Saying ‘I don’t see difference’ is racist. But

    saying ‘Oh you seem different, where are you from?’ is racist too.

    Confess your white privilege, and clearly you’re privileged. Deny it and

    you’re really privileged. It’s like being an old lady on a ducking stool in medieval times. Float, you’re a witch. Die, you’re a witch.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/09/29/there-is-no-such-thing-as-white-privilege/
    All this AND 50k of debt jeez how lucky they are………………..

      1. White privilege – the inability to suffer life’s universal indignities without being able to blame another ethnic group.

      1. Senator Rand Paul is a physician by training. He has been after Fauci for some time, no love lost there.

        2. Let’s hope he keeps after him until Fauci’s given the ignominious send-off he so richly deserves.
          If even half the tales one reads about Fauci are true he deserves to be sacked in disgrace.

          1. Del Bigtree presenting The Highwire this week stated that he wanted to see Fauci arrested and jailed. Bigtree is not alone in that desire over in the USA. Problem is, Fauci is one of Biden’s go-to people.

    3. I planted some gone over sprouty ones in half a water butt, and we got some tasty little new ones – not many but they were good.

      1. Just for a laugh, I planted a couple of potatoes from the veg. box in a raised bed filled with other things. I didn’t do any earth-banking or other nonsense, but they cropped well. It took 3 years to eradicate them.

  71. As it rains (not forecast) I have been pondering.

    Let us assume that every single factor in the Everard case are the same. Then if the perpetrator had been a bame policeman – would he have been banged up for the rest of his life?

    Discuss.

      1. Yes but, no but.

        That chap is not a perliceman. My point about the Everard case related solely to the fat that the murderer WAS one.

        1. By abusing a position of trust he should get a stiffer penalty. But in both cases a young woman was horribly murdered.

          The muslim killer will probably be treated more leniently.

    2. I suspect that he might have been, but do you believe your straw man would have pleaded guilty?

    3. Paris serial killer of 80s and 90s was ex-police officer, DNA shows. 1 October 2021.

      A retired police officer has been identified as the serial killer behind a spate of murders and rapes in and around Paris in the 1980s and 1990s, in which he used his police card, handcuffs and professional restraint techniques to stop young women and girls, but eluded capture for decades until he took his life this week.

      In one of the biggest cold-case reviews in the history of the Paris police, investigators had been seeking DNA evidence to identify the notorious serial killer and rapist known as the “pockmarked man” who had avoided capture for 35 years.

      Couzens? Chickenfeed!

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/01/paris-serial-killer-of-80s-and-90s-was-ex-police-officer-dna-shows

  72. What a farce it all is…………

    https://www.thegwpf.com/content/uploads/2021/10/Screen-Shot-2021-10-01-at-12.03.01-768×578.png

    “Power producers in the continent are being forced to ask Russia for

    more coal to ease an energy crunch with winter approaching and

    record-high gas prices denting profitability, according to officials at

    two Russian coal companies.

    But they may be left stranded as any increase in exports from the country won’t be substantial, they said.”

    https://www.thegwpf.com/green-europe-begs-russia-for-more-coal-to-survive-winter-energy-crunch/

      3. A few people suffering ‘squeaky bum’ time? One domino down, we need more to complete the collapse of the narrative.

          2. Windows 10 has a bunch of extra security measures apparently.
            And icons of course. Lots of new icons.

          3. I can’t get on with W10 – nothing seems to be in the same place as the OS I’m used to. Fortunately, it’s only on the new laptop which I don’t use very often.

          4. You can download an overlay, Connors that makes your system look, feel and operate as it is still in Win 7.

            Just Google, “windows 7 look like windows 10 download”

  76. Blue sky to cloudburst in mere seconds. Guttering overflowing, looks like moss dislodged and blocking downpipe pointing to gutter clearing tomorrow. Oh joy! Think I’ll have to invest in some gutter protection.

    1. Try the press, K – gutter press

      I’ll get me coat.

      That sort of rain “event” (as the barmy weathermen call it) is, of course, entirely a result of global warming. Take note of it as you rip out your gas boiler and install a heat pump….

      1. Found Wickes have the brush type on offer and have plenty in stock, at the moment. Tomorrow’s job if it is dry.

    2. Didn’t have any of this
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHKsQYa9NjI

      But I had a bunch of this because I use it to grow things like sweet peas, thumbergia, attach it to a pole and then put in a tub. So I turned this into the gutter guard advertised above. My guess it’s the same thing anyway but you are going to pay an arm and a leg for the actual gutter guard product.

      https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxNjAw/z/1ekAAOSwq4VbTzMa/$_10.jpg?c=0

      Works very well.

          1. I had it at my previous house

            Especially good around the Conservatory, which got mossed over.

        1. Lots of horizontal rain dancing, eh.

          At your age,?
          Well done girl, a proper Nottler.

          };-O

  79. Climate change is causing distress, anger and other negative emotions in children and young people worldwide, a survey of thousands of 16- to 25-year-olds has found…
    Many associated negative emotions with climate change — the most commonly chosen were ‘sad’, ‘afraid’, ‘anxious’, ‘angry’ and ‘powerless’ (see ‘Climate anxiety’). Overall, 45% of participants said their feelings about climate change impacted their daily lives.
    .
    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02582-8

    Spend a decade or two telling children we are all doomed because man is killing the Earth’s climate and in the end they will believe it.
    It’s quite obvious that had these young people not had the climate crisis message rammed down their throats at school etc they wouldn’t be worried about it.

    1. Greta Thunberg stealing children’s futures. Ironic no?

      Each generation has to face what is. Get over it.

    2. Link doesn’t work.

      Bit like telling them they’ll kill Granny if they don’t get vaccinated.

  80. A Twitter Thread from the Great Leader:

    Tweet
    See new Tweets
    Conversation
    Boris Johnson
    @BorisJohnson
    ·
    4h

    United Kingdom government official
    THREAD: 1/4 We are fast-approaching a critical moment for our planet and our people, when – in just one month’s time – world leaders will gather in Glasgow for the long-awaited
    @COP26
    climate summit.
    Boris Johnson
    @BorisJohnson
    ·
    4h

    United Kingdom government official
    2/4 We need everyone to bring their ambition and action, so we can limit rising temperatures and set the world on the right path to net zero emissions.
    Boris Johnson
    @BorisJohnson
    ·
    4h

    United Kingdom government official
    3/4 That means bold commitments on coal, cars, cash and trees: to drive forward our green industrial revolution with clean energy and electric vehicles, close the gap on the climate finance promised to developing nations, and halt devastating deforestation.
    Boris Johnson
    @BorisJohnson
    ·
    4h

    United Kingdom government official
    4/4 We’ve seen positive progress so far, but it isn’t enough. I look forward to meeting with leaders – from big emitters to climate vulnerable nations – to make sure #COP26 counts.

    1. A virtue signalling half-wit who will do Britain enormous harm.
      I hope he gets sliced and diced by a wind turbine.

      1. There is a clip somewhere of the founder of Greenpeace explaining that the sainted David Attenborough is an inveterate liar and that the rain forest is regenerating faster than its despoilation.

        The notion that human activity can affect the climate is nonsense. A brief glance at historical events disproves this claim. Meanwhile we have increasing volcanic activity which is barely reported, volcanoes disgorging millions of tons of toxic gases and earthquakes generating similar along with tsunamis, all under reported.

        Who to believe?

        1. Human activity certainly affects the environment, often very adversely. Population and exponential population increase, with the ensuing pollution, as the whole world attempts to live at Western standards is far more dangerous to the planet than climate change is likely to be.

      2. There is a clip somewhere of the founder of Greenpeace explaining that the sainted David Attenborough is an inveterate liar and that the rain forest is regenerating faster than its despoliation.

        The notion that human activity can affect the climate is nonsense. A brief glance at historical events disproves this claim. Meanwhile we have increasing volcanic activity which is barely reported, volcanoes disgorging millions of tons of toxic gases and earthquakes generating similar along with tsunamis, all under reported.

        Who to believe?

    1. I liked this comment – “I’m a lifelong liberal and I am more conservative than 90% of the Conservative party“

  82. The BBC has just rebroadcast an interview which stated that 17,000 illegal migrants have arrived by boat so far this year, and that represents about 50% of the total arriving by sea and air. That means that about 40,000+ will have arrived by the end of the year. Are they bragging or what? Is it a ploy to attract even more by demonstrating that there are practically no actual restrictions on people entering the UK illegally? 40,000+ in one year – and that could well be an underestimate – it is madness!

    1. When they first started flooding over the Med years ago i said we would be seeing them in huge numbers. Our government is complicit in this regardless of what Priti Patel says about reducing immigration. She is a liar.

      We signed up to the Convention on migration put forward by the U.N under Theresa May.

      Since that dried up old witch’s time there have been 100s of thousands arriving at ports and airports. All they needed was a ticket, or as we now see…a dinghy.

      I estimate our population has increased by 8 million not including births.

      1. To my mind Blair and May are the two politicians who are actually evil rather than just incompetent, hypocritical, insincere and mendacious.

        Yes they are incompetent, hypocritical, insincere and mendacious just like Johnson, Major and the others but Blair and May share the common distinguishing characteristic of being diabolically evil as well.

    2. You know what Ped , the police are declaring misogeny must be cleared out of the police force , yet we are continually promoting and importing a culture where misogeny is rampant , where they beat their women , hold them back socially , treat them like rubbish , burn them , enslave them , rape them , abuse and defile them . How many Muslim police officers are there in the big cities where the violation of girls and women are rampant , and do these people stick together , you can bet the do.

      Wh are we being bullied into submitting to other cultures , it just isn’t right .

      I really just don’t think that Boris or an of the do gooding lot have thought this culture exchange through thoroughly enough .

      When are people going to wake up and recognise the real Elephant in the room ..

      That wicked murderer is deflecting the attention away from other cultural problems .

      1. Yes, the evil murder by one policeman has turned into something of a witch hunt dominating all the press and broadcasting companies. I wonder what they are trying to hide.

    3. Let’s play with numbers
      Madness indeed.
      If your figures are correct, at an absolute minimum of £10,000 a year per illegal that’s £400,000,000 every year!. Then next year is another 400 + 400, so 800 a year, then another 400 etc. etc. This will bankrupt us. There is no way these people will even get close to repaying the sums involved via taxation.

      1. Prolly not given his thrust about absentee black fathers. Candace’s parent divorced when she was small. No details are given on them.

        1. Candace apparently was brought up by her grandparents from the age of 12 after her parents divorced (according to Wiki…)

  85. That’s me gone for this day of two halves. Mild and sunny now after showers during the arvo. Fine tomorrow morning then more rain. Good for the trombetti – not so much for the raspberries.

    Have a splendid evening being nice to each other. I’ll be up betimes (© the Estate of the late S Pepys) as the MR is on vaccine volunteer duty tomorrow at 7.30.

    A demain.

    1. I volunteered to help , but I had to fill in a diversity thingy from the NHS , and I thought to hell with that !

      Have a good evening Bill.

    1. I take it there will not be fireworks in London this year? Khan wouldn’t like that anyway. Pro British and I’m sure that Khan doesn’t like that.

  87. 1 – Popular household item banned in the UK from today – costing £100 to replace. Halogen light bulbs will be banned from sale in the UK from today.
    From 1 October, shops will no longer be allowed to sell the energy draining bulbs meaning households will instead have to buy more efficient LEDs.

    2 – Up to 15 million household are set to see their energy bill increase from today because of a rise in wholesale energy prices, regulator Ofgem has said.

    All in the interest of saving the planet. Boris and his bedroom bonker have the country by the balls!

    1. Time and time again, the answer to saving the planet turns out to be a chimera.
      Get rid of x, replace with y.
      Oops, we were wrong get rid of y, replace with z.
      Ooops, wrong again.
      Replace z with x,.
      Bugger, isn’t this where we came in?

      1. Oh dear. Great minds? Or just my nonunderreadery? Please see “chimera” above…

    2. 339490+ up ticks,
      Evening P,
      For the last near four decades the balls are offered up
      at the General election ceremony the neutered wailing is heard quite clearly for the next five years,

      The “party” overrides everything.
      We could never have got to where we are today as a Country without the coalitions continuing input.

  88. Enough is enough?
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/killings-london-women-sarah-everard-priti-patel-sabina-nessa-b958306.html
    How many men have been murdered and raped, yes men do get raped, in the same time-frame?
    All murders/rapes/assaults are evil but let’s get a sense of who is really in danger here.

    And ideally, let’s bring back the death penalty. And before people bleat “what about the miscarriages of justice?” Tell that to the families of those who have been raped/killed by people who have been released from life sentences.

    1. I’ve stopped trying to fathom what motivated that terrible crime; instead I join in the universal condemnation.
      I just hope to God that some idiotic woke liberal doesn’t let him out on parole in 10 years’ time.

    3. Do what I did when my ex refused to let me see our kids over the 3 main Christmas days instead of doing a 1.5/1.5: have a 2nd Christmas in May.

  90. Evening, all. A lovely sunny day here after a wet start; visited a local training establishment this morning (very informative) and then planted dozens of bulbs in the garden in the afternoon, until it started to be showery. In between I was very green and used solar and wind power to finish drying the towels I washed yesterday. As for the headline; when has France ever been a reliable ally?

      1. Eek! I am hoping that they won’t get these. The bulbs that are already there seem to be surviving, but I had a net as a birthday present, then I bought some more myself because I wanted more spring colour.

  91. Grandson to me: how long have you been driving?
    Me: about 56 years.
    Grandson: Have you always wanted to kill the planet?

    He’s just 11 for goodness sake.

    1. Should have said, “yes, it’s my sole aim in life”. That’s what happens when you drip, drip, drip propaganda into inexperienced ears.

        1. It’s a case of “Lord forgive them for they know not what they do”. They have never been offered any counter argument. It’s heresy to “deny” the statement that man is responsible for climate change and that his actions are destroying the planet. Alternative views are cancelled.

          5. Severe Greenophilia will destroy Boris’s political career.
            He caught it from Carrie …

          7. The pernicious result of that is that sensible things are not done. Politicians are grandstanding for big and unachievable chimera.
            We need to accept that climate change does take place and we need to adapt. However, if we did the right things to conserve and save we would do all that is necessary by doing little things. Replace all plastic with glass, paper, wood and aluminium. Move liquids in bulk and bottle locally. As that is not big and glamorous it won’t happen.

    5. Get him the next time he wants a lift somewhere.
      Grandpa: “Have you always joined in killing the planet?”

    6. Ask him: “do you realise that the power wasted across the planet every day just watching Greta Thunderbug is greater than the energy released by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki?”
      Probably bollocks but hard to refute.

      1. Are you sure you’re a real Nottler?

        Tell him not to be so silly and up remove his pocket money!

    9. That is precisely what education and the system is striving for with the kids, it’s depressing.

  93. Just off to the villiage pub for food as its the last night in Devon ,
    I shall have fish and chips I think . And shall try out their orange gin and tonic ( they had a gin festival weekend a while ago and a beer one at the beginning of the month.
    The husband will have a steak. This is a beautiful peaceful villiage, its like going back in time,
    nothing modern here. Tomorrow we shall head towards the mendip hills and Blagdon before Bath on Sunday. Off to the pub now xx

  95. The time has come to trigger Article 16

    Unilateral action is needed against an intransigent EU to rectify the Northern Ireland Protocol impasse

    IAIN DUNCAN SMITH

    Iwas always led to believe that the survival of the Union must ultimately come above all else for a Conservative government.

    Yet as a result of the dangerous and deeply divisive Northern Ireland Protocol –which this Government made the mistake of signing up to – the place of Northern Ireland within the UK is looking more and more precarious. In short, as we all travel to Manchester for the first face-to-face party conference since the landslide victory in 2019, the Union has never been in greater jeopardy.

    At the heart of the problem with the protocol is the EU’s insistence that its law must govern goods coming in from the UK to Northern Ireland. Instead of imposing checks only on those goods that are at risk of being transported to the Irish Republic, EU negotiators have taken the unreasonable view that all goods coming into Northern Ireland are in danger of entering the EU.

    The result of this ridiculous assertion is – incredibly – that there are now more checks on the trade that flows into Northern Ireland than on all the trade which comes through the EU’s entire eastern frontier – a major smuggling route – or through the port of Rotterdam, the entrance into the EU for goods imported from the rest of the world.

    And these pettifogging and often incomprehensible regulations are causing real harm to the Northern Ireland economy. There are frustrated pet owners needing rabies checks to move animals across the Irish Sea, and consumers are being denied favourite products because retailers cannot yet “understand the changes”. Worse, trade is being diverted from GB to the Irish Republic, in contravention of the protocol itself.

    Lord Frost has tried to get the EU to see sense and be reasonable, but time and again EU negotiators have rebuffed his overtures. If anything they have become even more intransigent, maintaining that the only alternative to the protocol is a hard border.

    They say that their only agenda is to protect the Good Friday Agreement, but Lord Trimble (one of the principal architects of the GFA) has made it very clear that this is nonsense. In fact, he has gone further, arguing that the protocol is damaging the fine balance of his agreement by antagonising Unionists.

    The EU should be reminded that for Trimble, persuading the Unionist community to support the GFA was dangerous. He persevered in the hope of bringing peace to Northern Ireland and won out in the end because the Unionist population was guaranteed that the Union would be safe as long as the majority wanted to stay in the UK. For his efforts, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998. So the fact that he believes the assurances he was given back then are now being broken by the protocol should not be taken lightly.

    If EU negotiators were serious about protecting the peace in Northern Ireland, they would end the impasse with a “Mutual Enforcement” deal between Brussels and London, committing to writing that both sides will trust one another to apply the other’s rules to the movement of goods. The deal would remove any need for borders, either on the island of Ireland or in the Irish Sea, and would allow free passage without laborious paperwork and delays.

    Yet even though the wording of the protocol makes clear that it is a temporary mechanism which could be replaced, the EU remains adamant that it is sacrosanct – and that renegotiation must not even be considered.

    Perhaps this should come as no surprise. Ever since the Brexit referendum in 2016, the EU has made it clear that it wants to punish us for daring to take back control. From unnecessarily restrictive export rules on seafood to taking France’s side in the endless fishing rows, the bloc is doing everything in its power to make life difficult for Britain.

    Lord Frost has worked very hard to find a way forward with the EU, and he should be praised for his efforts. But now it is time for a different course. Article 16 makes clear the UK can take unilateral action if there are “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties or diversion of trade”. All are now present in Northern Ireland.

    If Boris Johnson is serious about the integrity of the Union, he must bite the bullet and invoke Article 16 before it is too late.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/30/time-has-come-trigger-article-16/

    Come off it, IDS. Boris has to save the world before he can save the UK and the Six Counties.

    1. The EU to see sense and be reasonable? How deluded can you get? The only way is to tell them to eff off.

    2. I was thinking about the above today, strangely. I was thinking “to what extent is Northern Ireland still in the UK?”
      I am still of the view that a haed border is not a problem inspect of the GFA which, as far as I can tell, makes no reference as to how the border is managed.

  96. Keir Starmer still views Britain through the lens of EU fanaticism

    One questions whether he thinks it is ever possible for Britain to be relevant outside of Brussels’ sphere of influence?

    RAKIB EHSAN

    During Sir Keir Starmer’s excessively lengthy and rather dull speech at the Labour Party conference, there was a moment where his faux-patriotism was well and truly unmasked.

    Starmer told delegates to be patriotic about their country – but then went on to describe Britain as being ‘isolated and irrelevant’. This was especially odd given that the UK Government has just signed up to a significant trilateral security pact with the United States and Australia, giving us a serious role in the Indo-Pacific for the foreseeable future. But then again, Labour delegates did vote in favour of an emergency motion which condemned the Aukus agreement, describing it as a “dangerous move” that threatens to “undermine world peace”.

    Irrespective of concerns over Aukus’ impact on nuclear proliferation, however, there should be no doubt that it dispels the myth that the UK is pursuing an isolationist foreign policy. Starmer’s outburst was revelatory in a different way, showing that he continues to analyse foreign policy through the lens of EU-fanaticism. Some may reasonably ask whether he thinks it is ever possible for the UK to be internationalist and relevant outside of Brussels’ sphere of influence.

    The same can be said for the rest of the party, which seems similarly incapable of cultivating a positive vision for post-Brexit Britain’s role in the world. It remains full-to-the-brim with politicians and activists who have yet to come to terms with Brexit.

    And yet that positive story is there to tell. It is ready to be exploited by any serious party of government. Starmer could, for instance, attempt to take part-ownership for the fact that Britain is investing time and energy in consolidating the ‘D-10’ – an international alliance of democratic powers, uniting the G7 with South Korea and two major Commonwealth partners in the form of India and Australia. But he clearly doesn’t take it seriously. We are also leading efforts to address vulnerable supply chains and create alternative suppliers of 5G equipment to avoid overdependence on China.

    Additionally, as Brexiteers stressed would happen, we are reinvigorating the Commonwealth grouping now that Whitehall can use the bandwidth previously devoted to endless negotiations in the corridors of the Berlaymont. India, Australia, Bangladesh, Ghana, Nigeria – this is the future of British foreign policy.

    Starmer didn’t understand this before we left the European Union. He doesn’t seem to want to understand it now.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/30/keir-starmer-still-views-britain-lens-eu-fanaticism/

      3. Vote Labour get Bre-entry.

        Braintree’s vote was poisoned by Emily Thornberry when she commented in Rochester

        1. It seems we’re going to be forced in regardless.

          Call me a cynic, but I think this was always the plan. Why else would the state achine refuse to take any advantage of leaving the wretched thing and, in fact, do the precise opposite?

  97. I just had a few early doors pints and failed to convince my ‘petrol head’ friends that the ‘green agenda’ would soon be stifling their petrol/diesel hobbies.

  98. OT
    Does anyone watch ‘Talking Pints’ on GB News?

    Not many of Nigel’s guests opt for a pint – but I strongly suspect that Nigel is using an under-sized glass …

    Let the libel actions commence …

    2. She’s the one who said it was part of the New World Order. Now to get rid of some of the others.

    2. I have to confess that I’ve not read any of the sisters’ novels. I’m sure that makes me a misogynist or something, but the romance stuff just doesn’t appeal to me(a culpa).

  101. Scottish academic worth $450m after New York float
    Andrew Hopkins of Dundee University founded Exscientia out of his research and is now one of Britain’s richest people. Apparently the company uses AI to develop molecules to make drugs….

  103. Good night all.

    Chicken Toskana – note the German spelling.

    The juices alone make a broth which is to die for.

  105. And further good news:

    “Whisper it, but is British politics finally rid of John Bercow?
    The former Speaker told his new Labour Party comrades he has accepted being snubbed for a peerage – and has no ambitions to be an MP again”

    1. Good. Now he needs to apologise for his abusive perversion of Commons rules in his attempt to hinder Brexit, and his expenses claims for those many trips to Brussels repaid ten fold.

    2. Paedophilia and rape are illegal, it didn’t stop Pakistani Muslims – of who Khan is one – practicing it, did it?

    1. Good night Conway .

      Clear sky here , bit chilly , we have a coal fire this evening because our CH boiler is playing up, might be the pump .

  109. Roll on Saturdays letters and the excellent letter by a certain A Barstow of parts foreign.

      1. Ackshally, I was up at 4 am – one of the many overnight “stops”….Wait till you get old…{:¬((

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