Saturday 2 October: Officers’ attitudes must change for women to trust the police again

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

628 thoughts on “Saturday 2 October: Officers’ attitudes must change for women to trust the police again”

  1. Is Cressida Dick the problem – or is it the Met itself? 2 October 2021.

    Whether she survives in the job – a question which remains in the balance this weekend – will depend on how politicians weigh the blame for the current crisis. Is it because the Met itself is flawed, unwieldy, perhaps even unleadable, or is it Dame Cressida who is the root of the problem?

    For now, she retains the support of the Home Secretary, but Priti Patel knows that Dame Cressida is standing on the precipice. Asked whether she had full confidence in her, she would only say the force had “questions to answer”.

    Morning everyone. Cressida Dick is the example par excellence of the folly of appointing people; not for their abilities, but as an example to the rest of us. Probably the single most important factor in her selection was that she was a lesbian. This trumped not only the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes but her staggering incompetence in every other matter of importance. She is without doubt the worst Police Commissioner of the Met there has ever been. All this said it is nothing to what she has done to the organisation itself. It is now a flagship for everything a Police Force should not be. It has evolved under her leadership into a Quasi- fascist Gestapo that is indifferent to actual crime but spends huge amounts of time and money enforcing the orthodoxy of Political Correctness. The recent announcement of vast resources being directed to the impossible task of protecting women from every form of offence spanning Wolf Whistles to Indefinable Misogyny shows that they have learned nothing. We should rid ourselves not only of Dick but the Met itself. It has a history of corruption but nothing that matches its present condition.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/02/cressida-dick-problem-met/

    2. If CD goes, that would put Patel in a very dodgy position; it’s only a week ago since she extended Dijk’s contract.

      1. Morning, Anne.

        What’s one more failure to a politician long on rhetoric but short on real achievements?

    3. Morning, Araminta.

      Agree with what you write but Dick is just one symptom of the malaise that infects the Met (and much of every other organisation that the government is involved with). If she goes then who will replace her? IMO a clone with the exact same agenda. The upper echelons will be full of Common Purpose “graduates” and putting a real policeman in charge will be nigh on impossible. Then there is the problem of Sad Khant.

      Radical measures are required to clean up this Country’s massive problems but where are the radical politicians?

        1. Today’s generals are just as bad, Delboy. All Common Purpose, woke, bleeding hearts.

          1. General Sir Nick Carter being a fine example. Utter tosspot.

            I hear you’re loafing today.

            Good morning.

          2. Getting up at 6 has enabled me to do all sorts of things – have breakfast (take medication); clean out the stove; empty the ashes and also the compost; refill the water softener; prepare the loaf (to go in AGA in five minutes) – then to pick raspberries and outdoor tomatoes. And it is 9 15!!

    5. The police’s actions over the pandemic – the desperation to enforce ‘the rules’ without thought or common sense have made people wary of them.

      I imagine this is because the state machine demands obedience and plod have seized on that.

  2. Good morning, all. Again. Up betimes – as promised. Grey and overcast – weather much the same.

    No real news, I see – just confected stuff about women and safety. That’ll all die out by the end of the week.

  3. Is the hatred so deep that those who practice it can’t even spell Missogyny properly with two s’s?

  6. Good Morning Folks,

    Grey start here, went out early to try and get petrol, still none about.

    1. Clearly The Times has got the knives out for this rare breed: ‘The Old Etonian Odd Spot’

    3. Gosh, that’s pretty aggressive for our hurty-feelings age. If he were a Labour wimmin politician, the police would be calling on Peter Brookes.

      2. Wouldn’t have drawn up that cartoon for an MP belonging to a group that begins with M and ends in uslim

    6. I do no care at all for BPAPM – but I do find the endless attacks on him by The Times – and Brookes in particular – go too far.

  9. Just realised that October is Cultural Marxism Gaslighting Month, the same as every other month

  10. Czexit could be closer than we think. 2 October 2021.

    Is Czexit closer than we think? Ahead of the Czech general elections in October, the rise of an anti-EU party as a potential kingmaker is making a referendum on EU membership a distinct possibility.

    One would like to think so! Without a shadow of a doubt the EU is the single greatest danger to freedom and democracy in the world. It is an unelected Globalist Government; forwarding its instructions, and implementing its policies. Its dissolution is much to be desired!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/czexit-could-be-closer-than-we-think

    1. Czechs, like Poles and Hungarians, have recent and painful memories of being ruled by outside forces.

          1. Funny you should say that – I am in the middle of weighing out flour for today’s loaf!

  11. From John Redwood

    Sad news that COVID deaths now exceed 700,000 in the USA. The media that highlight this never mentioned EU deaths now at 768,000 when they went through that number. Why the different treatment?

    1. Possibly because the Americans used it politically, particularly to bash Trump and praise Biden, whereas the EU countries used it and continue to use it to a greater extent to gain significant control over their citizens rather than attack/praise those in charge.

    2. Has there been any mention that Norway has been free of Covid restrictions for a week now? And the infection rate continues to fall…
      Edit: As has Sweden. Both countries have seen a huge rise in arrests for drunkenness since… folk out & partying!

    3. Today on R4 pointed our that more people in the US have died of covid than died in the flu pandemic a hundred years ago. Didn’t mention what the population of the US was then.

  12. Good Moaning. Sorry to start the day on such a bum note, but anger levels at Allan Towers are at spontaneous combustion point.
    Bring back local police forces and watch committees.
    The Sarah Everard case reinforces the fact that these large, amorphous police forces with no local ties or knowledge are as remote and useless as any elephantine Whitehall Department.
    MB and I are convinced, given the slick manner in which Couzens operated, that he has done this before; the silence between 2015 and 2021 is very ominous.
    Stand by for the exculpatory whinges of ‘Tory cuts’ and ‘because of Covid’ … yada, yada, yada…..

    1. Good morning Anne ,

      I was also querying the slick manner the monster went about his business re acquiring stuff to dispose of the result of his crime .

      I am the mother of 2 sons , and even when they were children and young teenagers , we lectured them to respect the law … but now I have been feeling very uncomfortable thinking about the many mothers whose sons and daughters are missing .. those young men and women who vanished into thin air , were they victims of rogue policemen?

      1. It went so smoothly that ‘rehearsals’ had taken place before, possibly in the hiatus between 2015 and 2021.
        As a preliminary action, the Met and Kent police need to trawl through their unsolved missing women files for that 6 year period.

    2. Why was his nickname “The Rapist”? Are there rapes for which he is guilty, and why not convicted? Deliberate or incompetence? This smells bad.

      1. Nicknames are usually affectionate pisstakes or cliche’s – like Chalky White. Something was sensed about this chap or possibly known about by his WhatApp groupies. It would seem that his superiors were either ignorant of the unpleasant nickname – which suggests they had little rapport with their underlings – or they knew and turned a blind eye.

      2. We have a psychosexual therapist working in our service. I have more than once suggested he change his job title to psychosexual counsellor.

    3. Yep, sadly I imagine this will be politicised at speed to blame ‘austerity’. One day I hope someone wakes up and asks why spending 99 instead of £1 is called a cut.

  13. That Barstow chap must be insufferable. Thank goodness he is not a NoTTLer…{:¬))

  15. Must away and run through the music before Choir practice this morning. A new work commissioned by four choirs, yet to be recorded with the World premier performance in just 8 weeks….

        1. When they are announced on the beeboid radio, we reach for the off switch even before the cacophony starts.

          They are frequently “commissioned” by the beeboids – played once to enormous acclaim – and never heard again.

          1. To be fair, there *is* some good new music around. It seldom manages to sneak through, though.

          2. I must have missed it…!

            But, then, for me – anything after Schubert is a bit modern.

    2. Get you !

      Will we lowly Nottlers with squeaky voices get a chance to hear this melodious extravaganza?

      1. Not sure about the Mel bit but yes it will be a public performance in bath Abbey on 27th November. There also be a chance to hear Braimah Kanneh – Mason play Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

  16. Morning all

    SIR – It is perfectly true to say that, in the wake of the Sarah Everard case, women no longer trust the police.

    I have not done so for 15 years, in fact, ever since I reported an ex-boyfriend who became a threatening stalker, and was asked by an officer: “What have you done to annoy this bloke?” A minor incident, of course, compared with the behaviour of Wayne Couzens, and the way in which he abused the excessive powers handed to him by the Coronavirus Act, but indicative of a certain mindset.

    There is no easy answer to this. The police will be required to tick more boxes, men will be demonised still further, and it is possible that both these things will be counter-productive.

    The only thing that might help is the deployment of common sense, a quality that seems to be lacking everywhere, but which could surely have led to a deviant individual like Couzens being acknowledged as a danger and dealt with as such.

    Laura Thompson

    Richmond, Surrey

    SIR – Having served in the Met and in overseas police forces, I was appalled when I returned from Australia to find that applicants to the police were allowed to join even if they had spent convictions, up to and including actual bodily harm.

    In conversation with a retired female officer who at the end of her service was attached to Scotland Yard’s recruitment department, I shared her disgust that applicants she interviewed were accepted against her wishes.

    Harry Ellis

    Dawlish, Devon

    SIR – Wayne Couzens seems to have been known to many of his Met colleagues as a thoroughly unsavoury, even criminal, character for many years. He was even jokingly referred to as “ the rapist” (report, October 1).

    What this suggests is a level of tolerance of bad apples in the service that has no place in modern policing.

    Can it simply be explained as part of the historical cover-up culture endemic in the Met, or are there more totally unsuitable officers out there getting away with heaven knows what, totally unchallenged?

    Colin Drury

    Dinas Powys, Glamorgan

    SIR – In the 1950s the Crichel Down affair incorporated into public life the principle that the person ultimately responsible for a public body took the honourable course of action when something went wrong and resigned.

    It speaks volumes about the deterioration of public life that Dame Cressida Dick, the Met Commissioner, has not done so.

    Simon Sherbrooke

    Blandford Forum, Dorset

    SIR – Following the sentencing of Wayne Couzens for a revolting murder, Dame Cressida Dick stated that the “precious bond of trust” between the police and the public had been damaged (report, October 1), but she is wrong.

    This is the latest in a long list of blunders – including the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Stephen Lawrence case, the jaw-droppingly stupid Operation Midland – by which trust in the Met has been shattered into a million pieces.

    There is no quick fix to restore confidence in what was once regarded as the greatest police force in the Western world. It will take a root-and-branch review, led by people of integrity and experience, and it will take a generation of police officers before it is achieved.

    As a step in the right direction, Dame Cressida must be sacked – not allowed to resign – together with the other university-generated incompetents who inhabit New Scotland Yard.

    Dick Kirby

    Former detective sergeant, Flying Squad

    Great Whelnetham, Suffolk

    SIR – The decline in recruiting standards for the police began in 1978 with the implementation of the graduate entry scheme, in which newly recruited graduates were given accelerated promotion to the top ranks after spending scant time learning the basics of policing on the streets.

    This accounts for the proliferation of clueless senior officers who have very little experience of policing at the sharp end.

    Perhaps the country’s most successful police chief of all time was Sir Percy Sillitoe, who tackled the razor gangs of Sheffield and Glasgow in the years after the First World War.

    Sillitoe’s opinion, which is still relevant, was: “I am convinced that a man who has a university degree does not ipso facto make a good policeman; and I am equally sure that there is no way of becoming a good senior police officer other than by starting at the bottom and spending at least a few years doing the work of an ordinary police constable.”

    He added: “My view was – and still is – that the police force needs not exceptionally high standards of education, but very great integrity and strength of character, combined with the wisdom which comes to some – though not all – men when they have had wide and varied practical experience of human nature.”

    It was the clamour of politicians in the 1970s to overturn this sage advice in order to “get rid of the dinosaurs” and install some “brains” in the top echelons of the police. Perhaps, in light of the recent clear evidence of the utter lack of faith the British public has in the police, the time is ripe to return to Sillitoe’s basics.

    Alan G Barstow

    Onslunda, Skåne County, Swedem

        1. Grizz is a busy man. He has many interests which keep him occupied.

          One of which is trying to get to my standard in food production…

          Good morning, Nanny.

    2. Dick Kirby wrote almost word-for-word what I feel.
      And Grizzly – agreed. The same malaise is seen in commercial life, where the CEO has been hustled up the pay grades so quickly that they have never been anywhere long enough to understand the job properly, and so end up leading an organisation by age 40 – completely inexperienced in managing workers, and through economic cycles.

    4. Bang on, Mr Barstow, if I may call you that. I managed a wine & spirit operation in London. It was in what I euphemistically called “East Islington”, actually Hackney. Our area was patrolled by a bobby, an experienced policeman and a ex Guardsman. He was tough, but no match for a gang of thugs who duffed him up one day.
      He was back on foot patrol a couple of days later, his face still lumpy and bruised. Now the police sweep through in a Panda car once a fortnight. Two to a car and they do not stop.

    5. The head of Hampshire police is a short, spikey haired lesbian with glasses.

      A least fitting choice of representative for the police force I cannot imagine.

  17. Teeth relief

    SIR – I read with interest the letter (October 1) from Sue Ajax-Lewis, outlining her difficulties applying toothpaste to her brush while nursing an injured arm. I have had to muddle along with only one arm since an incident with a twin-tub washing machine in the late 1980s. The simple solution is to apply a dab of toothpaste to a saucer using your good arm, then scoop it up on to the bristles of your brush, again using your good arm.

    Advertisement

    I hope this will make her mornings a little easier.

    Andrew Carstairs

    Poole, Dorset

    SIR – Ms Ajax-Lewis should simply suck a little toothpaste out of the tube. While not attractive, this method is effective, as I have discovered during several bouts of shoulder surgery.

    Kate Graeme-Cook

    Brixham, Devon

    SIR – I suggest Ms Ajax-Lewis uses toothpaste tablets, available from Boots. They are also better for the environment than the clumsy tube.

    Karen Elder

    Idlicote, Warwickshire

    SIR – Ms Ajax-Lewis could apply toothpaste to her front teeth then pick up her brush and sweep. Or, as I do, place the teeth in the dishwasher.

    Derek Tanner

    Woodley, Berkshire

    3. FFS, the letters ed does love a trail of whimsy every so often.
      Why not just hold the toothbrush between your teeth and apply the toothpaste?
      Job done. Move on.

  18. Everything you need to know about whitey but were afraid to ask ….

    Black History Month website brands white people ‘genetically defective descendants of albino mutants’

    Campaigners distance themselves from ‘loopy’ material on site run by white publisher

    By Investigations team
    1 October 2021 • 8:24pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2021/10/01/TELEMMGLPICT000273229221_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqxhN-F2r5dfIz2sOiRs0KUfXwHW1bqNqqbFqQZPKkJ2A.jpeg?imwidth=680
    The work of Dr Frances Cress Welsing, a controversial American psychiatrist, was featured on the site
    A Black History Month website controlled by a white man featured taxpayer-funded adverts alongside claims that white people are the “genetically defective descendants of albino mutants”, a Telegraph investigation has found.

    Adverts for organisations such as the police and MI6 ran alongside the anti-white propaganda, which also included the claim that a white man can “fantasise that he is genetically equal to the black male”.

    The website removed some of the most problematic content after it was contacted by The Telegraph, amid fierce criticism from one of the founders of the Black History Month celebration.

    The Black History Month website, which is linked to a magazine of the same name, is the first to appear in online searches for Black History Month and has included content by renowned black figures, as well as the leaders of all major political parties.

    However, it is owned by a private business, controlled by Ian Thomas, an advertising executive, who set it up long after the annual celebration was established.

    On Friday, Linda Bellos, who was instrumental in launching the Black History Month celebration in the UK in the late Eighties, compared the website’s white ownership to “enslavement”.

    “The whole purpose of Black History Month is to empower us [black people] … I don’t want some white man, or even white woman, playing that role,” she said. “The taking of ideas, and indeed the taking of people, was done very successfully by the British, it is called enslavement. I am not talking about his motives, but I am talking about the outcome.”

    ‘Loopy theories’
    Ms Bellos also condemned some of the content as “loopy” theories that should “absolutely not” be associated with Black History Month, which takes place in the UK every October.

    Mr Thomas described the Black History Month celebration as a “grassroots” organisation, and his commercial website as the “glue” which had come on the back of a long history of working for racial equality.

    He added: “I can’t help who I am [as a white man]. I just hope that there are people out there in the community that appreciate the work that I do.”

    Mr Thomas said that the magazine and website had an editor, who decided what goes in them, but that he proof-read pages as the magazine’s managing editor and publisher.

    He controls the website via a 70 per cent stake in SMM Media, which he set up in January last year with his business partner, Abdul Rob.

    While Mr Rob defended their right to run the Black History Month website as a commercial enterprise, Mr Thomas said that SMM Media only covered its costs and that it may have been better as a charity.

    Anti-white content removedTaxpayer-funded adverts
    Government organisations did not comment on whether their taxpayer-funded adverts for bodies including the Ministry of Defence and GCHQ would be pulled.

    The Crown Prosecution Service flip-flopped, initially vowing to have the adverts pulled but later reversing its decision.

    “Racism of any kind is entirely unacceptable,” a spokesperson said.

    A spokesman for Number 10 Downing Street said the Government “does not agree with the views put forward in the specific articles referenced” and that communications campaigns “are kept under regular review”.

    The Liberal Democrats – whose leader Ed Davey featured on the website – said that it had supplied the statement with “no scrutiny of other content”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/01/black-history-month-website-brands-white-people-

    1. …white people are the “genetically defective descendants of albino mutants”,…

      Someone needs to read and digest a bit of evolutionary science before making statements like the above.

      1. But the science was written by the whites (what black ever invented anything but a blanket, a cup and a stick?), so it would say that, wouldn’t it?

    2. Me: looks at Blenheim palace, or the Elizabeth tower…railways, the steam engine, spinning Jenny, ships, computers, processors…..

      And then looks at African mud huts.

      We’re feckin’ amazing. We built this world. Everything you have is a result of the mutant albino’s artifice.

    3. Would she calm down if I chucked her a banana? As long as I could aim straight through the tree branches, natch.

      And as far as Mr. IAN Thomas is concerned; if you lie down with dogs you get fleas.

  19. Twitter has removed the BIRD group site for promoting Ivermectin. Just as the drug companies prepare their copies. Corruption festers all around us.

  20. 339533+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Saturday 2 October: Officers’ attitudes must change for women to trust the police again,

    NO good whatsoever piecemeal bringing back old style policing alone without kicking into touch the lab/lib/con coalition in its total.

    Bring back,bring back the old style matron, school teacher,National Anthem in the flicks, the cane,etc,etc, to me, to me, bring back………

    Peoples reset is sorely needed.

    In regards to the eu the political head of the United Kingdoms fish has
    returned to the gaping greedy grasping mouth of the eu, if it ever really left, we are once again being ingested via the United Kingdoms polling booths.

    We are still a herd of eu asset milch cows, potential troops / felons IN
    revenue OUT.

  21. It Pays to Argue

    A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.
    For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.
    In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box.
    When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totalling $95,000.
    He asked her about the contents.
    ‘When we were to be married,’ she said, ‘ my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.’
    The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving!!
    He almost burst with happiness.
    ‘Honey,’ he said, ‘that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?’
    ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘that’s the money I made from selling the dolls.‘

  24. Went out early this morning, only one garage open, queued up for a while but was then told they only had diesel.
    The problem appears to be more serious than first thought, a week in and it’s only getting worse.
    It’s the first time I’ve tried to fill up and am nearly out.
    A problem that came from nowhere as there hasn’t been any strikes or shortages or worldwide crises, apart from the pandemic and the lockdowns.
    Is it all part of Boris’s and the planets great reset?
    After all we are hosting the COP 26 conference in the UK this month, the great and the good will be jetting in from all over the planet to lecture us and tell us we have to reduce consumption, Boris can put his hand up and say well we have in the UK, we’ll be at net zero by Christmas at this rate.
    Well done they will say as they quaff champagne and dine on the finest foods, but what about the people? someone might say in a rare moment of selfless insight, silence in the hall, you could hear a pin drop, Boris chimes in, oh they’re okay, they can eat cake.
    Everyone carries on with their loud chuntering, waiter more champas over here please.
    Someone remarks to Boris, the service isn’t as good as the last conference, staff shortages he say’s, we did issue a hundred visas for some Albanians to come over and help, but they all disappeared to some five star hotel somewhere.
    What to work? no silly, as guests says Boris, we know how to treat the new pleb replacements.

    1. 339533+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      ALL given legality by the lab/lib/con coalitions
      member / voters via the polling booth, done in their names.

      This coalition has the majority backing of the peoples.

    1. An excellent commentary on our government’s negligence and our PM’s disastrous net zero policy.
      I hope at this weekend’s Conservative [in name only]Conference some courageous MP will stand up and challenge our PM’s policies.

      1. Sadly, few genuine grassroot Conservatives attend the conference.
        It has become a very expensive corporate boondoggle, and most cannot afford it or even feel particularly welcome.
        There was a reason why conferences were held out of season in seaside resorts.

    2. He might be speaking sense, I don’t know. He needs to work on his delivery (excuse the pun) before I can listen to him.

  27. Good morning from a Anglo Saxon Queen with pursed longbow, sharp arrows and blooded axe.
    Torrential rain and heavy winds in Devon now, as we prepare to leave this lovely old cottage
    and travel towards lovely Somerset to the Mendip hills and Blagdon, shall be there overnight before Bath tomorrow. Nasty old weather for travelling and will need to find petrol.

      1. Morning J, Did a recovery last night – pitch black and torrential rain. Like driving down a canal – thank god my skin is waterproof

          11. Every time the Strood floods, some numpty thinks they can drive across. Either to escape the delights of Mersea Island or just that bit too keen to get there.

    2. Good morning

      It has just started to pour with rain here in these Dorsetty parts , no wind yet , just a downpour.

      Have a safe journey and watch the speed traps .

      1. We have golden sunshine and long shadows on the damp grass. The sky is blue after a cold night. The forecasters have promise rain and clouds of deep dark purple gather at the edge of the sky.

          1. Thank you. I wish I’d swallowed a book of “typewriting for beginners”. My Pitman’s certificate seems to have expired.

      2. Good morning , im glad it’s a little brighter in Dorset.
        Thank you, shall look out for the speed traps .

      3. Cloudy but dry in these Suffolksy parts and there is a strange light, high above the clouds to the SE.

          1. Well, I got what I wished for. ‘Crab Apple Lady’ came up trumps. I now have a plastic stacking tray full of them. A lovely job for a grey, uninspiring day.

    3. We had to go on a diesel hunt in North Yorkshire, Aethel. We tried eight stations between Kirbymoorside, Pickering and Malton. All had no diesel. I was almost beside myself by the time we did find some; I was wondering how we would get home – we had had no access to what was going on in the world as we had no Internet, no tv….. Safe journey home to the flat lands of our country.

  28. The Hood will be making the headlines during the day. In an almost fevered performance on this morning’s ‘Today’ programme, Sajid Javid told health care workers who don’t want to be vaccinated against the Wuhan flu that they should ‘get out and get another job’. He sounded like he’d certainly had his meds this morning – an overdose of amphetamines. It was extraordinary.

    Give it a listen when it’s available later.

    2. His underlying message was that the vaccine did not protect those who it was meant to save. I thought that his words were rather extreme and might come back to bite him.

  29. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    My thanks to JBF for the link to the David Starkey interview on GBN. Watched it last night, and his destruction of the Eco-Brat’s greenie drivel was something to behold. Ever since DS was on the Moral Maze all those years ago I have admired his intellect and his ability to call a spade an effing shovel without fear or favour. That is probably why the BBC dropped him, of course.

    Below is a BTL comment about GBN, with which I am in full agreement, as are (I suspect) many Nottlrs:

    John Condon
    2 Oct 2021 7:25AM
    GB News has not gone like Sky News of Australia ie it has not become the mirror image of the BBC surrounding and shouting down Remainers and left wingers – while the “impartial” host sits back and gloats at the treatment.

    Despite trying to be fair Ms McElvoy is obviously a typical Guardianista BBC type finding faults – which no doubt still exist – but omitting to give credit for the obvious benefits of having another voice – an alternative to ALL the other tv news stations which sing from the left wing hymn sheet.

    She fails to praise the length of discussions which stop the interruptions and shouting down that occurs in the BBC – because both sides know that to defeat the other side all that is needed is to crowd out the sound. After all the producers have to move on to an important story about a cat being trapped up a tall tree.

    Neil Oliver is great. Farage is great. Brazier is great. And some of the younger ones, like Liam Halligan are surprisingly good.

    GB News is middle of the road politically. It only looks right wing because the rest of the tv media is basically the Guardian on tv.

    2. As I posted above some of the guests and panellists are abysmal – Rebecca Hutson and Rebecca Reid are especially foul.

    3. As I posted above some of the guests and panellists are abysmal – Rebecca Hutson and Rebecca Reid are especially foul.

    4. The Left hate it because they fear it. I can’t imagine what it’s like to live in such constant terror of other people’s views

      They know they’re wrong, so to continually reinforce their attitudes they have to keep telling themselves they’re right. When someone comes along to challenge that their minds fall apart.

      1. …and then they hurl insults because anything like rational debate is beyond most of them.

  30. Yo All

    Our Grizzly

    It was the clamour of politicians in the 1970s to overturn this sage advice in order to “get rid of the dinosaurs” and install some “brains”
    in the top echelons of the police. Perhaps, in light of the recent clear evidence of the utter lack of faith the British public has in the
    police, the time is ripe to return to Sillitoe’s basics.

    Alan G Barstow
    Onslunda, Skåne County, Sweden

    1. Already agreed with Julien’s comment earlier but Grizzly (George) is conspicuous by his absence.

  32. Which reminds me – on Thursday, returning from NNUH, a 44-ton lorry had overturned on a roundabout (fortunately going the opposite direction to me – the tailback was over two miles).

    Fuzz in attendance (making problem worse, of course – see tailback) – in the open air, in the rain. All effing masked, for God’s sake….

  33. With Andrew Neil gone, can Alastair Stewart save GB News?
    As the upstart channel makes headlines of its own, the veteran broadcaster has emerged as one of the main winners in its reshuffle
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/andrew-neil-gone-can-alastair-stewart-save-gb-news/

    BTL

    I think that many aspects of GB News are excellent and its attempts to present both sides of an argument are commmendable.

    One thing that irks me is the sycophantic hyperbole of the otherwise competent presenters Dan Wootton and Mark Dolan with their “superstar” panels and guests who are often very below par. I find Rebecca Reid and Rebecca Hutson especially annoying but Calvin Robinson is excellent.

    If only Nigel Farage had been as good at making UKIP and the Brexit Party as electable in the British Parliament as he is competent as a journalist – apart, of course for his unquenchable vanity!

    Farage reminds me of the reason why Cassius did not want Cicero in the band of conspirators in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Cicero, Cassius said, was not a good team player and could not follow another leader! Nigel would certainly make a good government minister but it is understandable why no prime minister would want him in his or her team.

    1. Good morning Rastus and everyone.
      More than twenty years ago I attended a UKIP public meeting, and Nigel spoke. He seemed a bit flashy, wearing wide pinstripes, but that was his style as a commodities trader.
      Point is, he had the guts to stand up and be counted.
      There was no safe constituency list for him or UKIP or the Referendum Party; all were outsiders, even Jimmy Goldsmith. You have mentioned a GP in your commune who is sceptical about aspects of Covid; out of that scepticism, that dissatisfaction with government policy, politicians can emerge.

      2. Nigel Farage’s success with both UKIP and the Brexit Party was phenomenal in the elections for the EU parliament. But why was this never the same in the elections for Westminster House of Commons?

        There was certainly skulduggery by the Conservative Party and maybe even election fraud against Farage but my point is that the party leaders were terrified of having him in their parties because he always wanted to be the leader – just like the lugubrious bloodhound in The Aristocats!.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgn-n6L5Fro

    1. Morning Duncan. They are much of a muchness! Neither has any time for Free Speech!

      1. Certainly is. Yousaf has messed up as Justice Minister. He is now Health Minister. That’s not going so well. Now, if there was a position as Minister for Dressing Up, I am sure that he would be ideal for the job. ( He has never had anything resembling a proper job.)

    3. I suggested this on this forum last Monday at the beginning of the “so-called crisis.”

      We as a people are no longer capable of straight thinking let alone lateral thinking! This is what I posted:

      A bit of lateral thinking.

      In France a few years ago when there was a shortage of petrol and diesel at the pumps they imposed a limit on how much you could buy – not more than 20€’s worth at a time. This resulted in people going from filling station to filling station and topping up with 20€’s worth at one pump, 20€’s worth at the next and so on until they were full. This only increased the congestion and queues and everyone was driving around in cars with full tanks.

      A wiser solution might have been to impose a minimum rather than a maximum that you could buy at any one time – i.e. however much petrol or diesel you bought – even if it was under 10 litres – you would be charged fully for 80% of your car’s tank’s capacity. Our car’s tank holds 80 litres – so if we only bought 10 litres we would be charged for 64 litres. This would result in people only filling their tanks when they needed to do so.

      1. The fuel “crisis” has brought out an odd idea at the local Co-op fuel station. I went there early this morning on the off chance, before going to the butcher’s shop just down the road, to see if it was open. It was open but with a line of traffic cones restricting the entrance, similar to two days ago but minus the tape ‘securing’ the entrance.

        What was odd was the surly young bod policing the entrance: on asking him if fuel was available he mumbled something incoherently and waved in the general direction of the pumps. He was more concerned with rolling himself something to smoke. It would appear that he was there to direct prospective customers to the pumps. Why would Co-op management employ somebody to direct customers to do something they have always done i.e. drive to the first vacant pump of their choice? Is it a case of doing something in a “crisis” so they are perceived to be doing something, even though that something doesn’t achieve anything at all (except bewilderment in this 72 yo)?

        1. “Co-operative” is a oxymoron.

          I like the idea of the bod smoking next to the pumps….

          1. He wasn’t too close to the pumps to cause me to worry but I have my suspicions that he wouldn’t be the sharpest knife in most people’s cutlery drawer.

        2. I fell foul of some spotty Coop jobsworth at FiveWays some 18 months ago.
          Then the same happened at West Bergholt Coop when shopping for Elderly Chum.
          I don’t think the Coop have grasped the concept of customer service.

  37. The Prime Minister must remember his Conservative principles. 2 October 2021.

    Sir Keir Starmer did an unconvincing impersonation of a Blairite in his conference speech. All we ask of Mr Johnson next week is that he remember the principles on which he won election.

    This might be difficult. So far as I am aware Boris has no principles and is certainly not a Tory!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/02/prime-minister-must-remember-conservative-principles/

        1. You mean no other totty has superseded her yet? I thought a vacancy was created last May.

          1. Well, conferences are notorious places for finding a bit of nooky (I’m told by a friend).

  39. It is 17.5’c inside. I have grudging put the heating on to 18.5 but with the boiler temp of 55 rather than the 70 it wil push out.

    1. We were hoping to hang in there until 1st. October.
      But the last 3 evenings of September did for us. Fine while we were busy, but even with extra jerseys, the cold crept through our bones once we sat down.

      1. We have had the stove in the afternoon – chuntering in the evening – for a few days.

        We resist and resist. The new (six years old) double-glazing made an enormous improvement.

        1. It’s on, but after getting the roof done the heat doesn’t instantly fly up through the ceiling so it got to temp and has turned off.

    2. Sweatier than a dogs bollocks here. 15C, sun, and the aftermath of torrential rain makes for humidity!

  40. 339533+ up ticks,

    May one ask,
    Are you really the right type of person to be making such an observation
    with DOVER very much in evidence and the liquorice invasion clearly seen daily.

    Dt,
    Priti Patel: Police must take harassment of women seriously
    Speaking to The Telegraph, Home Secretary dismisses suggestions that flashing and verbal or physical abuse of women are ‘low level’ offences

    1. Compare and contrast. 1965. A man insults Jock’s girlfriend, or even his girlfriend’s girlfriend. Fisticuffs ensue. Sorted.
      Now. A man insults Jocks’s girlfriend. Everybody films everything. Jock belts man. Jock is hauled before Sheriff.

      1. 339533+up ticks,
        Morning HP,
        I believe England to be worse, same time era, clouts on snouts are exchanges, return INSIDE to the bar pints are exchanged.

        Now one bloke calls other blokes squeeze, a bloke, a tranny, an it of unknown species, and knives are drawn
        loser wins a tag on the toe the other gets 3 months, if he has broken the other chaps kids arm in the melee then he could be seriously looking at six.

  41. OT – for those NoTTLers who like the music of the Everly Brothers, there was re-shown last week on BBC4 a 1984 documentary. I know nothing about pop music or rock and roll. I knew two or three of their songs. I had absolutely no idea how influential their style was in what came later with the Beatles etc etc. It was a very wel made and informative film. I commend it to you ravers.

    Still available on catch up: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03tx91g

      1. That’s not Chet Atkins, that’s Dubya.
        The EBs were never lookers, and definitely developed faces for radio as they got older.

  42. ‘Morning All
    Nothing says health crisis and world wide pandemic like sacking health workers that don’t fancy the clotshot……..
    Are you listening Slaphead??
    About a virus?? Phooee!!

  44. Unvaccinated Premier League players given a quarantine free pass by
    @BorisJohnson as they return from playing abroad. So many concessions given to “celebrities” while workers face the sack for being un-jabbed. The whole Covid farce is beyond parody.

    1. Call me cynical but my first thought was this was just propaganda. I will believe it when the boats stop coming. And not just because Winter is coming.

      1. Mine too! And the Daily Mail didn’t print my comment saying that it was jolly good start but more needed to be done!

    2. *We* need to stop bringing them here. The default should be to tow them back to France.

      If they get out and swim, leave them.

    4. Notice the word “accuse” as if what they were doing is a criminal act, firing on innocents.

    1. It just shows how far the cancer of the left has penetrated. The other women who went through sweat and tears to achieve their victories must feel that they have been kicked in the goolies arse.

    2. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has been named sportswoman of the year by the University of Otago.

      Praise from the converted!

      2. When a few more real women start losing their places in selections, particularly sports scholarships and professional teams perhaps they will finally wake up.
        If this nonsense is to continue there will need to be three types: male, female and open.

        1. Yes, men who have transed into women have insisted on being sent to women’s prisons where they have then either sexually abused and even raped cervix-possessing prisoners.

          But has there ever been a woman who transed into a man who then wanted to join a men’s sporting team? Is Mario Otogi’s place in the England and Lions rugby teams likely to come under threat from a trans-man?

          Maybe we need four divisions: Male; Female; Transed Male; Trans Female.

          1. To create a completely level playing field for the various “types”, there’s not really a totally satisfactory answer apart from creating as many categories as there are in the Paralympic sports.

          2. The only sensible way is recognise that your sex at birth determines it for the rest of your life, no matter what deviant operations you may go through.

          3. Up to a point.
            There are some poor sods who really are mis-gendered/sexed at birth.
            They can’t help it and it damns them forever under your approach.
            Fortunately I believe they are few and far between.

      3. Lord, don’t give the Beeb ideas. It (Hubbard) will probably be given SPOTY’s international award.

    3. Another great BTL comment – “New Zealand, the comedy show that keeps on giving. Basically, it’s a woke version of North Korea, but with lots of sheep.“

    4. In the 70’s I had a friend from New Zealand. He left because he maintained it was already a totalitarian state. The place is small enough for the government to keep tabs on everybody. He hated the place and, as far as I know, has never gone back. I’m sure he is smirking somewhere saying: “I told you so.”

      2. I spent six months in NZ about twenty years ago and loved every minute I was there. I was, however, on sabbatical, travelling around, living in hostels and earning just enough by picking fruit or cleaning and paid no attention whatsoever to the politics of the country.
        I even appeared on tv there, being taught fire eating when staying at a hostel run by professional jugglers which was featured on a travel show 🙂
        Happy days

  47. America thinks the unthinkable: More than half of Trump voters and 41% of Biden supporters want red and blue states to SECEDE from one another and form two new countries, shock new poll finds
    52% of Trump voters want red states to secede from the union, and 41% of Biden voters want blue states to split off
    Over 40% of voters in both parties favor abolishing the checks and balances built into federal government and giving the president greater control
    Over 75% of voters on both sides agree that strong supporters of the opposite party present a ‘clear and present danger’ to American life
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10050039/More-HALF-Trump-voters-want-red-states-secede-union.html#newcomment

    The more the globalists want a new world order (or disorder) with just one world government the more it seems that ordinary people wish their part of a political union to leave it. For example England wanted to leave the EU just as many people in Scotland and Northern Ireland want to leave the UK.

    “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.”

    3. Saw that article Rastus. 10+ years ago when I left the USA to come home it was obvious to me that the writing was on the wall. But Americans could not see it. There is a difference between people born in the Goldfish bowl and those who visit it. There were acute warning signs. The middle class was sinking, no longer upwardly mobile and taxes were increasing. Last but not least immigration was already out of control and the white population was losing ground. To me they were recipes for disaster. Without a white middle class who’s ‘ethics’ were Anglo-Saxon, for want of a term, thus predisposed to a belief in democracy, the flood of immigrants not wedded to to the same values spelt, I thought hitting the rocks was inevitable. I would warn people about that and would be promptly labelled as Anti-American. This is another problem with Americans. They are full of themselves and so ignorant of history, you can’t tell them much unless they agree in the first place and that first place always has to do with the supremacy of what they think of as ‘American values’. So now the birds as I kept predicting, are coming home to roost and by the time it actually clicks with Americans, it will be to late. The consequence of self pride that will not listen and thus hubris.

      I do not think America will survive, the condition for that survival are being pulled out from under, primarily by Democrats who are under the illusion that they can use immigrants as voting fodder that will automatically vote for them. That will happen but the white Democrats fail to realize that they too will be replaced eventually and deposed from their perch. The future for America, if it doesn’t split up, is in people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush and others of their ilk. For the Republican states to spilt would be better, at least a true America would survive as the Democrats go down the path of socialism and inevitable disaster. All you have to do is look at how California, where I used to live and was the ‘Golden State’ is now a place unliveable from which, those who can, are fleeing.

      1. I think it’s only a question of time before a minority white population is offered reservations with permits to operate casinos and drinking dens……

        1. I’m certain it will not. The divisions between Republicans and Democrats are to deep. It isn’t just about politics but a conception of what America and its culture is and what it stands for. To me the Republicans are the inheritors of the ideal propagated from the founding fathers and the English ideals that they transformed into traditional American culture.

          The Democrats do not inherit that culture but basically are hostile to it. Far more orientated to centralized control, big government and consequentially big brother. Hence the attraction for socialism, an anathema to Republicans.

        1. Approx a third of the cabinet members are bame and part foreign (ie potentially of dual nationality).

          1. The fact that there are slammers in places of so-called power, depresses and frightens me.

          2. You will be depressed and frightened even more if you were to visit any local authority that has achieved its Diversity goals…

          4. Agreed 100%, Bill, call it Islamophobia if you must I admit they frighten me shïtless and I don’t want them anywhere near the levers of power, since our cultures are so disparate and lying to the infidel is one of their basic tenets.

    2. Interesting that they appear to need name badges.

      Perhaps it’s to let them know where they are supposed to sit and allows them to establish where they are in the hierarchy.

    6. I read recently a reference in an American book that showed the name ‘Tanker’ to have been a legitimate surname about 100 years ago.

  49. Time to start panic buying. Ocado ran out of Christmas slots. Customers who have paid a fee for a regular slot have been shafted.

    Like dominos this will begin to affect all other online grocery delivery.

    I went on the Waitrose site and increased my pending order. Lots of rice and pasta. No long life milk available.

    I also increased my meat delivery from New Forest Stores. I will be okay until July 2022.

    1. Waitrose Christmas slots are open but going fast,bagged one for the 23rd thanks for the heads up Phil

      1. I doubt there will any Christmas delivery slots available anywhere after today.

        If you want to buy a turkey from me for Christmas the starting price is £1,500 ono. Buyer collects.. :@)

        2. I’ll gobble up the offer but there are still plenty of Turkeys available in Downing St.

    2. Can no one shop for their own.We like to pick our own food with the best dates, and when I see they type of people who are picking orders for home delivery it confirms why we do it.

      1. I could do my own if someone was prepared to push my wheelchair.

        Regarding dates. If Waitrose send me something with a short date they don’t charge for it.

        If i am not satisfied with an item for any reason they reimburse me.

      2. I shop for my Mother, from Norway, via Morrisons. And the local grocer, Valley View, at Dinas Powys, who also do delivery.

    1. 339533+ up ticks,
      Morning SB,
      Inform Boss, there are 650 going spare, westminster area Contact
      Whitehall 1212. Richard Head has all t,he info.

  51. ‘Morning again.

    Excellent article by David Davis about taxation. Problem is, no one in No 10 is listening:

    Tory MPs are sick of tax hikes and green spending

    Many of us remain deeply disturbed by the direction of Government economic policy

    DAVID DAVIS
    2 October 2021 • 6:00am

    The French politician Jean-Baptiste Colbert described the tax riddle best: “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.”

    Well, there has been a lot of hissing on the Tory benches of late after Boris Johnson’s decision to rack up national insurance payments. True, after much honking and squawking, the din died down by the time the NI hike came to a vote. But many of us remain deeply disturbed by the direction of Government economic policy.

    We are heading down a road that history teaches led to national ruination and political disaster for my party when it was last attempted. At 36 per cent of national output the tax burden in the UK is at its highest level for 70 years and is set to go even higher. For Tory MPs fearful of losing their seats, it is worth bearing in mind that no government in recent times has raised taxes and then gone on to win an election.

    Margaret Thatcher cut taxes sharply and went on to win three elections. John Major put them up and lost spectacularly. Tony Blair fought off attempts by Gordon Brown to raise taxes and won twice. Brown, as Prime Minister, put them up and lost. David Cameron resisted pressure for higher taxes in the austerity years and won.

    Of course, the public finances have been knocked for six by the pandemic as the Government has borrowed eye-watering sums – £400 billion at the last count – to finance lockdown. This money will have to be paid back – ultimately – but slapping more taxes on a population already groaning under a burden last seen in the aftermath of World War II is not the way to do it.

    If taxes are high, so is spending. According to the latest ONS figures, total managed expenditure now sits at the dizzying height of 52 per cent of national output – 12 percentage points higher than before the virus struck.

    As a former Brexit Secretary and ardent advocate of quitting the EU, I find it ironic that we have broken free of the Brussels yoke only to embrace Continental levels of taxation and public spending. We should not forget that since the formation of the Eurozone 20 years ago, the UK has grown faster than the members of that club, which include the supposed economic powerhouses of France and Germany. Who would bet that on our present trajectory, we will be able to say the same 20 years from now?

    Raising taxes beyond a certain point – and we have reached it – just does not work.

    First, it depresses economic activity, stifling the growth that we need to maintain and then raise living standards. It pushes up unemployment and restricts the formation of dynamic new firms essential for prosperity.

    Second, we should stop obsessing about how to share out the national cake. We should concentrate on baking a bigger cake so there is more to go round. The Chancellor’s decision in his last Budget to raise corporation tax – the tax on company profits – from 19 per cent to 25 per cent, reversing the downward path of recent years, is exactly calculated to bake a smaller cake.

    Third, we should remember the policies of Nigel Lawson, probably our greatest post-war chancellor, who cut tax rates and increased the tax take. By cutting taxes, he helped transform Great Britain from the sick man of Europe to the envy of the western world. And the corollary of his policy is that beyond a certain point, increasing taxes reduces revenue to the Treasury.

    With higher taxes people in general work less hard and for fewer hours. Why slog away for 60-70 hours a week (as many owners of small businesses do) only to see most of the extra wages disappearing into the Treasury black hole? As for the well-off, they just hire more and better tax lawyers. Or leave the country, along with their investments. Right now, the top one per cent of earners pay nearly 30 per cent of all income tax. Push tax rates higher and they are going to find more ways of escaping the clutches of the taxman.

    But it is not just our quasi-socialist tax and spend policy that bothers me. Cheap energy was the foundation stone of UK prosperity. The Industrial Revolution, which transformed our country and in time the rest of the Western world, was built on coal. But now, under intense pressure from global warming radicals, we have embraced a policy of expensive energy.

    Coal has gone, nuclear is dying, gas and oil are being phased out. Before us looms the energy gap – not enough energy to keep the lights on – and after that will come a combination of a swingeing increase in bills for domestic and industrial consumers and, as the current crisis illustrates, insecurity of supply.

    The Government’s hell for leather pursuit of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (including the banning of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030) threatens a huge drop in living standards for our children and grandchildren.

    This might be worthwhile if it did any good for the climate. But Britain accounts for one per cent of global CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, China merrily carries on building legions of new coal-fired power stations while relishing our self-inflicted penury to come.

    It is perfectly proper for the government to pursue a rigorous policy to deal with climate change, but it must think through the consequences for ordinary working people, their cost of living, their jobs, their energy security. Whether this involves more nuclear power, or even more exotic ideas like the proposed enormous electrical interlinks with Moroccan wind farms, the policy demands that they match their enthusiasm with more imagination and more careful planning.

    If not, the current combination of tax, energy and regulatory policies, far from levelling up, will impose a crushing cost of living crisis on the ordinary working families. Increasing wages may help a bit, but these will feed into more inflation if not matched by increasing productivity. That will demand more investment, which will not be helped by the corporation tax hike. It will also demand more deregulation, more competition, and more – not less – economic freedom.

    We need a whole new, Conservative, economic strategy. It starts by dealing with the £400 billion cost of Covid. We should treat it like war debt and get it off the nation’s short term balance sheet. We should issue long-dated Covid bonds and sell them at home and abroad. Then in 50 years from now Covid will be just a distant memory and cost.

    Once we have done that we have a reasonable chance of balancing the books, which should primarily be done by encouraging economic growth, not cruel tax hikes. Savings will have to be made, but they should be achieved with an eye always on the impact both on the ordinary family and on our economic growth. We might start by saving at least £100 billion with the cancellation of HS2.

    Boris was once the nation’s foremost advocate of creating a dynamic, low tax, high investment, light-regulation, high productivity society and economy – the one that we all dreamed of when we voted to leave the EU.

    Let us hope that when we return from our conference he will have been reinvigorated in his belief in these foundational concepts of conservatism. They have worked so well for our country down the decades, and only by embracing them will he deliver the prosperity that this nation is capable of.

    1. Hmm. Lawson also began the inflation of property prices and prepared the ground for the disaster that was ERM.

      “It is perfectly proper for the government to pursue a rigorous policy to deal with climate change…”

      No, it’s not. Obsessing about CO2 emissions and setting targets is the wrong tactic. Preparing for the time when we run out of fossil fuels requires a different perspective.

    3. 339533 + up ticks
      Morning HJ,
      The tory ( INO ) party are a close shop within a close
      lab/lib/con coalition shop.

      They fight a good rhetorical fight, almost believable, internally.

      Whether they are for or agin rhetorically , the end game result is they ALL abide by the same already agreed motion, finally.

    4. It’s all government must do this, government must do that. Government has no purpose, value or function. It’s job is to cut taxes and get out fo the way. Whenever it meddles by trying to help one group or penalise another, it makes a mess of things.

      Simply put, set a tax rate of 20% on income. Job done, walk away. Don’t tax companies – that would at least silence the morons demanding they – through Amazon – pay more for goods. Impose a local sales tax that starts at 10% and goes ot local councils. This forces councils to acknowledge that private wealth funds their plans. Less spending from high taxes, less income.

      In return, shred the state. We could practically close the home office, climate change, media and sport, certainly education and much of defence. Reform welfare and end fraud. Stop funding quangos and fake charities.

      1. Exactly! Well put, Wibbles!
        Copied and kept for later use, if that’s OK with you.

    5. Dear David, it all makes sense when you realise that Boris is a WEF Global Young Leader, yours sincerely, an ex Conservative Party voter.

      1. When will these party before Country, sitting on hands Tories come to their senses (I know, I know), and rumble that Johnson isn’t one of them?

    6. Many of us remain deeply disturbed by the direction of Government economic policy policies

      That’s that fixed, now do something about this rogue government, for heaven’s sake.

    1. Well that went well – so I am sure he’s going to solve the NHS conundrum.

      With the full support of existing NHS managers, of course…

      1. Well, at least he has done a proper job and been involved with leadership. It depends whether he is willing to truthfully criticise the sacred cow and suggest reform rather than more cash. But if he goes for the administrators and keeps away from the ‘angels’ it will be a start.

    5. Put him charge of repelling the immigrant invasion. After all marines know all about invading beaches and should make excellent poacher-turned-gamekeepers.

  53. I caught up with the factual account of The Night Stalker last night. A series of crimes over 17 years that involved entering homes of the elderly and usually committing sexual offences. A member of the black policeman’s Ass said it was racist to profile the offender as coloured even though his dna showed him to be from the Caribbean. When caught, he was indeed black. So here is another story where the colour of the offender is ignored but his bicycle is described if fine detail. TBH I can not tell ethnicity from the photo but I’m sure the victims can. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10051899/Police-release-image-hunt-serial-sex-attacker-targeted-seven-women-London.html

    1. Tower Hamlets? Place your bets. My money’s on dark brown rather than black skin.

      Given the recent Islamic punishment of hand-chopping for black thieves there, I suspect black sex offenders are keeping well away.

  54. I’ve just been out to the garage. The car has number plates that have just become illegal for use abroad. It has GB and Euro stars on Blue. It needs to be changed to UK and Union Flag. Apparently “Ecosse” won’t work either.

    1. Get a sticker off ebay. Surround the UK motive with two fingers and the appropriate gesture.

      1. The Scottish government is currently advertising it’s latest super scheme. Every house in Scotland now has to have a smoke detector, a heat detector(linked to smoke detector) and a carbon monoxide detector. Of course if your home has more than two or three rooms more detectors will be required.

    3. Just think of it as putting 2 fingers up to the EU, showing them that NI is ours, not a separate entity they can annex because we only think of GB, which excludes NI.

    4. I suppose it would be illegal if you simply bought some red nail polish and lacquered a neat X over the EU flag?

    5. Just Google Amazon UK number plate stickers and you’ll find lots of them from £1.89

      1. You are James Bond, or International Man of of Mystery, and I claim my free Hotspur spy kit.

        1. Nah! I’m just a confirmed leaver; they had the sphincter of stars on them when I bought the camper, but I had new, plain number plates fitted. The car was EU free when I bought it.

  55. 339533+ up ticks,
    Surely that is a typo error, should it not read shooing people regarding beach at Dunkirk.

    Dt,
    French police accused of shooting migrants trying to reach Britain
    The number of people who have made the crossing in small boats this year has doubled the total for all of 2020

  56. I feel a close attachment to Captain Sir Percy Sillitoe, KBE, not only because he was once Chief Constable of Chesterfield, my home town where I also served, but also because he made so many innovations to improve the working conditions and living standards of officers serving under him, and because he was always supportive of them.

    He smashed the razor gangs of Sheffield and Glasgow by using uncompromising methods that would not be permitted in todays’ wimpish, fucking useless society. In his excellent autobiography Cloak Without Dagger (1955) Sillitoe explains his tactics, first used in Sheffield:

    “I called my senior officers together and asked them to select very carefully for me some of the strongest, hardest-hitting men under their commands. I had 700 policemen, each with a minimum chest measurement of thirty-six inches and height of five feet ten inches, all fit and healthy men, and none of them was disinclined to play the gangsters at their own game and meet violence with the strong arm of the law.

    “It was not difficult to pick a dozen of the best of these, to form a ‘flying squad’ specially to deal with the gangster problem. These men were taught ju-jitsu and various other methods of attack and defence, and it was surprising how little teaching they needed. They had just been waiting for the chance to learn!

    “They soon divided themselves into little teams—usually pairs—for patrol work in the notorious gangster districts. One of the most famous of these teams was that of ‘Loxley and Lunn’. Loxley was six feet three inches tall and weighed eighteen stone. There was not an ounce of soft flesh on him. He was granite hard and to hit him, even with boxing gloves, was like striking a brick wall. Jerry Lunn was not quite so tall, but was a beautifully balanced man who could hit like the kick of a mule. As they walked down the streets together they looked like a battleship with its attendant destroyer. And they were staunch friends. Both had a contempt for the ‘cowardly little gangster rats’, as they always called the Garvin and Mooney mobsters.

    “Sergt. Robinson and a giant Irishman named Geraghty made another celebrated ‘flying squad’ team. Geraghty was the only man I have ever known who could not merely hold seven tennis balls in one fist, but could actually pick up five loose tennis balls in one hand.

    “I called a meeting of the publicans who were being most frequently victimized by the gangsters. I told them about my plans. I said: ‘I have picked some of my officers, and am going to put them in plain clothes. Their job will be to patrol the pubs and streets of your districts. If they come to your public houses, they will make themselves known to you and will then sit quietly and wait. If these gangs of thugs arrive and there is any disorderliness or attempts at intimidation, all you have to do is say to my men that you want these people removed from your premises, as they are causing a disturbance. If my men are not there, you can telephone for them to be sent down and they will be with you in less than ten minutes.’

    “I told my men—not merely those of the flying squad, but also the entire force—that in any of their dealings with known gangsters and bullies I would stand by them whatever happened.

    “I sent for Sam Garvin and George Mooney, and gave them both a stern warning. I said: ‘From now on you must understand that you and your kind are an offence to decent citizens. If you see a police officer you had better get out of his sight. If any of my police officers are put in the dock for hammering you, I shall be in the dock with them!

    “Then, having delivered fair warning, I sent the ‘flying squad’ into action and the cases began to flow into court. The charge was usually ‘disorderly conduct AND assaulting the police’.

    “When the gangsters were brought into the court, I always made it my business to attend the trials, and after the hooligans had been convicted, the prosecuting solicitor would ask permission for me to enter the witness-box. There, upon oath, I would give evidence as Chief Constable of the City, about the menace of these gangs and the frequency of such offences, and ask for exemplary punishment. By doing this I took the weight of responsibility from the magistrates and let it fall upon my own shoulders. The results were good.”

    Oh, for a police chief today of Sir Percy’s intelligence and tactical abilities (not to mention his balls and brains). Unfortunately, society has become so soft and useless that his methods would not be tolerated. That is why crime goes unpunished and what is nowadays called ‘the police’ ( a pale excuse and a shadow of what used to be) are nothing more than a bunch of poseurs doing whatever the piss-poor politicians of today want them to do. They certainly do not protect the public.

    Among Sillitoe’s other, numerous, innovations for the police were: the routine recruitment of policewomen for patrol work; the instigation of police boxes; the introduction of two-way police radios in cars; setting up some of the first forensic science laboratories, and the introduction (in Glasgow at first) of the chequered-bands on police caps, which are still known as ‘Sillitoe Tartan’.

    What would I have given to go back to 1923 in a time-machine to have worked for him?

    The funny thing is that when I was a toddler in the 1950s, my uncle Arthur always used to tell me how the problem with ‘Teddy Boys’ ought to be dealt with. He would say: “We need another Sillitoe to come and sort them out. He didn’t mess around.” The man, and his legend it seems, left an indelible—and positive—mark on everyone in the area.

    Evening all. Mind how you go.

    1. Did he not run MI5, and wasn’t he also Chief Constable in Hong Kong – maybe my memory deceives me.
      Looks like a man who could lead.

      1. Ayup, Paul.

        He started off as a police trooper in Southern Rhodesia, working his way up to Assistant District Political Officer. He later returned to Africa to work with the Colonial Service. On his return to England his CV was as follows:
        Chief Constable, Chesterfield.
        Chief Constable, East Riding of Yorkshire.
        Chief Constable, Sheffield.
        Chief Constable, Glasgow.
        Chief Constable, Kent.
        Director-General, MI5.
        There is no record of his involvement in Hong Kong.

        1. Ah – former colonial – nowadays utterly doomed. Cancelled – cast into outer darkness.

          1. Many Colonials coud kick some serious arse.
            Just look at Rastus’ dad. Mine was pretty handy, for a monkey hanger! (He faced down the Nigerian Army during the civil war).

          2. O course. I know that, you know that. But in modern Engerland such people are worse than dross.

        2. Eyup, Our Grizz.
          Looked in wikipedia, but the entry was rather thin. I was sure I’d read ina “History of MI5” kind of book, that he’d cut his teeth in Hong Kong.
          Better go edit the memory brain…

        3. Nowadays, he would probably never make it past Police Constable. They have to weed out dangerous straight white men like him early on.

    3. Bravo Grizz! Your letter to the DT was superb!
      I’m a little bit tired of the media and others, making this awful case into a ‘men bad’,’women are always victims’!
      A bit of objectivity wouldn’t go amiss!

  57. I hold no brief for Prince Andrew but surely he is innocent until proved guilty?

    DM Story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10051795/

    Queen ‘is spending millions privately funding Prince Andrew’s fight against Virginia Giuffre sex assault lawsuit’
    Queen ‘agreed to pay for the duke’s legal defence after his Newsnight interview’
    Her Majesty ‘will source the funds from her private Duchy of Lancaster estate’
    Royal courtiers are said to expect the legal bill to run into millions of pounds

    BTL Comment

    If you have a much loved son and you believe him to be completely innocent of the accusations got up against him do you abandon him or do you do all you can to help him?

    1. This reminds me of Howard Spring’s novel ‘My Son, My Son‘ which takes its title from the Bible story of David and the death of his son:

      And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!

      In Spring’s story the father cannot hand over his son to the police for a murder he has committed although he knows he should do so. What demands the greater loyalty from us – our loyalty to those whom we love the most or our loyalty to an often repulsive state which we hold in contempt?

      1. If I had to choose between the State and my Friends. I hope that I would have the courage to choose my Friends. Anon.

    2. Guilt is an existential state. We presume innocence until proved otherwise in legal proceedings to avoid injustices. That does not stop us having and sharing our own opinions on the subject.

      I have heard people using “innocent until proved guilty” line to defend Putin, as if he were ever going to face justice in a court of law.

    3. I think he is innocent in the sense that he probably didn’t have sex with a girl under 16 in the UK, however he is mahooosively guilty of being a sleazy pal of paedophiles. He should NEVER have any public role in the UK ever again.

  59. Well said, Janet Daley! (And I know exactly what I thought when the lunatic ‘climate protesters’ started their nonsense…)

    Boris Johnson should drop the green pieties. People want work, independence, dignity.

    If you mess with people’s livelihoods or deprive families of necessities like affordable fuel, you will enter the valley of electoral death.

    JANET DALEY
    2 October 2021 • 1:00pm

    What went through your mind when you heard that the police had to intervene to stop furious motorists from confronting the climate protesters who were blocking the M25? Was it: the police are right to prevent affray and violence? Or: the police should clear off and let the motorists put an end to this nonsense once and for all?

    No really. In the darkest corner of your consciousness where no one can hear you scream, what did you think? Let me make it easier for you to admit that it was something along the lines of the second option. It may be rash, even irresponsible, to support impromptu vengeance, but it is not shameful to feel outrage on behalf of innocent people who are exercising their right to use the public highway to earn a living or travel for private purposes.

    The question of making a living is particularly pertinent here. Not only were urgent delivery vehicles, independent tradesmen, and employed staff trying to reach their workplaces (some of which were NHS hospitals) being victimised in a completely gratuitous way, but a fundamental principle of civic order – the right of law-abiding citizens to move freely – was traduced. As it happens, this eccentric delinquent behaviour was perpetrated in the name of precisely the cause on which the Prime Minister has chosen to base the credibility of his government. Bad luck.

    There will come a moment when Boris Johnson discovers that however much mainstream approval the climate change movement has achieved in theory, its popularity has not yet been subjected to the test that matters for a governing party: will embracing this policy make it impossible for many ordinary people to provide for themselves and their families in the way that they have come to expect?

    In case it has escaped the notice of those presently in government (or in opposition), let us be clear about the greatest lesson that the Thatcher political revolution taught all prospective governing parties: there is nothing – absolutely nothing – more important to the functioning majority of the electorate than the ability to earn a living, and the self-respect that comes with providing for one’s household. You can ask people to make concessions in their everyday behaviour or some sacrifices in their lifestyle choices for the good of The Planet. But if you mess with their livelihoods or deprive their families of basic necessities like affordable fuel and food, you will enter the valley of electoral death.

    And it is precisely that, it becomes clear, which climate activism is proposing – although its most publicity-seeking extreme wing seems unaware of this. Insulate Britain has actually issued a statement demanding that the government take action to “cut our carbon emissions, eliminate fuel poverty and help hard-working families with their rising energy bills.”

    Seriously? Are they not aware that green policies – the elimination of coal-fired energy and the reliance on carbon neutral fuels – are directly responsible for rising energy bills and fuel poverty? Which brings us on to what is the most politically dangerous territory in any advanced democracy: the cost of living.

    Significant increases in the price of essential commodities like energy, transport and food have undermined the popular support of governments in the past even when those increases could be credibly ascribed to causes beyond their control. What we are now seeing before our eyes is a deliberate decision to enact policies which will – at least in the short and medium term (which is to say, for the lifespan of most adults) – raise the cost of consuming those things which are essential to modern life.

    Indeed many of the more excitable leaders of the climate movement make clear that it is modern life itself which is to blame for the coming apocalypse.

    Greta Thunberg, in her latest pronouncement, condemns Britain for having initiated the Industrial Revolution, that momentous series of innovations which made present-day comforts and mass prosperity possible. To get things into some sort of perspective, could the more astute political strategists in Downing Street ask themselves whether voters are more likely to be concerned about the outcome of the Cop26 climate change summit – or the terrifying increase in their energy bills? And will they believe that the Government should be making Britain’s responsibility for global warming its top priority, as opposed, say, to the failings of public sector services like the availability of GP appointments?

    What should the Tories – and specifically, the Prime Minister in his concluding speech – be saying to the country at their party conference this week?

    There is one message that any party in power must get across if it is to maintain the confidence of its population, and that is: we know what matters most to you. It is not necessary to claim to have all the answers to your discontents. The solutions to social and economic problems are often complex and counterintuitive. Most voters understand that.

    But at the very least, they must get the impression that there is a plan for the future which puts their real, urgent anxieties at the top of the list. And whatever pious generalities are uttered in focus groups (with all the moral pressure they exert) about the future of The Planet, the real imperatives of daily life will always – inevitably – take precedence.

    There is nothing shameful or invidious about this. To put economic survival and the needs of one’s family first, is not selfish or irresponsible. Indeed, it is the essence of personal responsibility. This is not a contest between the duty to provide for yourself and those who depend on you, and a broader duty to society. If the past thirty years of British politics have taught us anything it is that without all those “little platoons” of family and community looking after themselves, there is, as somebody once said, no such thing as society.

    Perhaps something like that was on the minds of those raging motorists who felt that whatever action they took would be righteous. The work ethic and everything that springs from it – including a talent for resourcefulness and innovation – are still central to the British character. Surely a Conservative government should understand that.

    * * *

    Leading BTL comment:

    Richard Burns
    2 Oct 2021 1:30PM
    An excellent article, as we have come to expect,from Janet Daley. Presumably members of the Government read the Telegraph amongst other newspapers – excluding the Guardian I would of course hope – but do they inwardly digest? If they did then this nonsensical “green” agenda would be rapidly dropped, HS2 would be cancelled, the NHS made fit for purpose and the present head of the Met Police sacked. And this just for starters…..

    2. I don’t know if Carrie’s cuisine is captivating and if so if the prime minister has frequently goosed his cook but, unless he takes this green nonsense off the menu, his goose will surely be cooked.

      1. Huh, he will be counting his Central Bank Digital Currency Gatesoroses while the rest of us are huddling under blankets, scared to burn the furniture to keep warm because of screaming Green Stasis reporting us.

          2. Carbon capture. We have the technology. We could then feed them to the grid.

            Phizzee’s Lights Matter.

    3. If you mess with people’s livelihoods or deprive families of necessities like affordable fuel, you will enter the valley of electoral death.

      Afternoon Hugh. I don’t think that they are much worried about future elections. There aren’t going to be any, or any that might change things.

    4. If you mess with people’s livelihoods or deprive families of necessities like affordable fuel, you will enter the valley of electoral death.

      Afternoon Hugh. I don’t think that they are much worried about future elections. There aren’t going to be any, or any that might change things.

      1. The problem is we have to wait another 3/4 years to show our disapproval. By then the damage will really be done and many more people will be in fuel poverty/lost their job/been prevented from working in the NHS due to non-vax status, more children in poverty … I need to stop. The list is endless.

      2. Exactly. That’s the scary thing – they wouldn’t be doing all this if they cared about public opinion.
        The clear proof that democracy is over.

    5. If you mess with people’s livelihoods or deprive families of necessities like affordable fuel, you will enter the valley of electoral death.

      Afternoon Hugh. I don’t think that they are much worried about future elections. There aren’t going to be any, or any that might change things.

    6. I’ve a very simple solution. The greeniacs are identified and well known. All the public to send them the bills for the hinderance and high energy prices.

      A bill for a few hundred thousand will focus their minds very sharply.

  62. Boris Johnson: police failings on violence against women ‘infuriating’. 2 October 2021.

    He suggested the police were responsible for the long delays that victims face and issues such as people who report being raped having their own phones taken away.

    He said: “Can you trust the police? Yes you can. But there is an issue about how we handle sexual violence, domestic violence, the sensitivity, the diligence, the time, the delay, the confusion about your mobile phone. That’s the thing we need to fix.”

    God this is desperate stuff! Is every woman to have her own Personal Police Bodyguard? Are all cases concerning them to be fast tracked through the system. Does no one else matter?

    https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/oct/02/boris-johnson-police-failings-on-violence-against-women-infuriating

    1. Bad things happen in the world. As terrible as this murder was she was one of 7 billion souls on the planet where suffering and injustice happen every hour and every day.

    2. The guardian once again ignoring the real problem because that would intrude upon the doublethink.

  63. Boris Johnson: police failings on violence against women ‘infuriating’. 2 October 2021.

    He suggested the police were responsible for the long delays that victims face and issues such as people who report being raped having their own phones taken away.

    He said: “Can you trust the police? Yes you can. But there is an issue about how we handle sexual violence, domestic violence, the sensitivity, the diligence, the time, the delay, the confusion about your mobile phone. That’s the thing we need to fix.”

    God this is desperate stuff! Is every woman to have her own Personal Police Bodyguard? Are any cases concerning them to be fast tracked through the system. Does no one else matter?

    https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/oct/02/boris-johnson-police-failings-on-violence-against-women-infuriating

  64. Boris Johnson: police failings on violence against women ‘infuriating’. 2 October 2021.

    He suggested the police were responsible for the long delays that victims face and issues such as people who report being raped having their own phones taken away.

    He said: “Can you trust the police? Yes you can. But there is an issue about how we handle sexual violence, domestic violence, the sensitivity, the diligence, the time, the delay, the confusion about your mobile phone. That’s the thing we need to fix.”

    God this is desperate stuff! Is every woman to have her own Personal Police Bodyguard? Are any cases concerning them to be fast tracked through the system. Does no one else matter?

    https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/oct/02/boris-johnson-police-failings-on-violence-against-women-infuriating

  65. TikTok star Gabriel Salazar, 19, was ‘smuggling illegal immigrants from Mexico’ in his Chevrolet Camaro muscle car when cops tried to pull him over: All four men died in fiery crash when he lost control of vehicle. According to the police report, officers tried to stop Salazar while he was driving a white Chevrolet Camaro around 1.25am but he refused to pull over. The car eventually crashed into a tree and rolled over multiple times before catching fire. All four people in the car were pronounced dead at the scene.

    Cockles – heart ?

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/09/30/21/48593105-10045559-TikTok_star_Gabriel_Salazar_19_has_died_following_a_car_accident-a-87_1633034213996.jpg
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/09/30/21/48606903-10045559-According_to_the_police_report_officers_tried_to_stop_Salazar_wh-a-86_1633034213916.jpg

  66. Mass Migration Agenda Part of ‘Global Plan’ to Create ‘New Proletariat’ in the West. 2 October 2021.

    Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán believes the mass migration agenda is part of a “global plan” to create a “new proletariat” in the West, advanced by people who care nothing for culture and national identity and consider only economics.

    Orbán is of course a Nottler! You can see why the Borg want to be rid of him!

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/09/24/orban-mass-migration-agenda-part-global-plan-create-new-proletariat-west/

    1. Victor Orban can walk the streets of Hungary without 24 hour protection of a dozen officers.

      Unlike Khan.

        1. Quite straightforward – once they rowed/punted to Marseille. Just go down the Adriatic, up the left hand side of Italy across to Marseille – and voilà.

          You are always making difficulties!!

          1. Yes of course and just pop it on a large rubber dinghy when they reach Calais for the semi channel crossing whereupon they’ll be met by the UK Official welcoming part and given an escort to Dover. From there it’s only a short punt to Margate, round the North Foreland and before you know it past the Dartford Crossing.

  71. Does anyone know a good word for the forcible destruction of the culture of a group?
    for example, when the Fen people were driven out of the marshes and dispersed and their language lost, or when the Tunisians were forbidden from speaking Berber.

    I thought it was included in “genocide” but apparently that is specifically killing people, not killing a culture.

      2. Good Lord, that really is a word. Thanks!
        I just knew there had to be some whiny BS word for this.

        Ethnocide is what the Church of England is planning for the English, by closing and selling off our parish churches.

    4. Unmaking England. 11 January 2016.

      But the mass immigration that Britain has experienced since 1997—the year Tony Blair’s New Labour government radically revised the immigration laws in a deliberate effort to transform Britain into a multicultural society—has had an effect wholly different from that of all previous political and social disruptions. Mass immigration hasn’t merely embellished, changed, or even assaulted the enduring, resilient national culture that Orwell adumbrated. Rather, by its very nature—by its inherent logic, and by the ideology, aspirations, and world-historical forces from which it springs and to which it gives expression—it perforce obliterates that culture.

      https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/unmaking-england/

    5. Cultural marxism. The commies decided long ago that marxism could not be imposed by war. But by infiltration of education, government and institutions, their ideas could be implanted and the host population would actually implement these ideas. A bit like cancer, actually, a lot like cancer. It eventually kills the host.

        1. Except… we’re not going to be equal because that requires force. These sorts of people invent these wonderful models, but because they never account for human nature, they always get it wrong.

          We’re heading for hell in a handcart, and the gimmigrant, fuel poverty, energy lack and welfare classes will take over. Then the country will collapse as the economy disintegrates. Government will have nothing and will have millions of mouths to feed and then, then people get angry and they die in their millions.

    6. Ye-es. For example, when Gaelic was forbidden in Scotland, as was the wearing of the kilt, and tartan in general. I think it was known as “Clearances”…

      1. “Clearances” is very specific to the Highlands, but that is the concept.
        You got Balmoral in return, what are you complaining about? (Dons hard hat and takes cover)

          11. Tanked up at Morrison’s in Berwick with just under £100’s worth.
            Still had about 200 miles in the tank, but now, even allowing for the mileage home from Falstone up the North Tyne Valley, I’m still good for 700 miles.

    3. I thought that the chap on the bottom rhs spelt (or spelled in the US) his name Keef? And wasn’t his second name the same as the second name in Harry Webb’s stage name?

  74. Right: Could Grizz send over emergency supplies of his pork pies around 20th. December. Then we won’t have to share our Christmas dinner with the ‘refugees’.

    “Boris’ message on eve of Tory conference: Be ‘very confident’ in the economy, there will be no ‘uncontrolled immigration’ to solve HGV crisis and Christmas ‘WILL be better than last year'”

    1. We should feel very concerned that by asking foreigners back to drive our fuel trucks etc , we could be inviting a 9/11 scenario.. suicide bombers in charge of fuel trucks is not a very pleasant thought .

    2. If Boris really wants to stop Christmas then he must ban the Carols from King’s College, Cambridge on Christmas Eve and have some wailing from assorted Mosques instead.

      1. You want a laugh Richard, read this from the DT, they mention Johnson and conservative principles….. ha ha ha ha
        You can imagine the BTL comments.

        The Prime Minister must remember his Conservative principles.
        Telegraph View 2 October 2021 • 6:00am
        2 minutes
        Taxes are at their highest level for decades, so Oliver Dowden’s words to this newspaper are welcome: the Tories have always kept taxes low and sought to cut them, he says, and that’s where the Prime Minister and Chancellor’s hearts lie, too.
        Readers will be wondering: if the present Conservative Government is keen on low taxes, when might we expect them to start coming down? We are picking up the tab for lockdown; at some point, there needs to be a strategy for creating more wealth. The Tories have traditionally backed lower taxes for moral reasons but also because they pay for themselves. Businesses and workers are going to need all the help they can get if the country is going to “level up” by generating growth.
        The Conservative Party conference starts tomorrow and Boris Johnson will hopefully use it as a chance to reconnect with the aspirations of his party’s grass roots. They speak for most of the country. From Tunbridge Wells to Hartlepool, voters seek reassurance that crime is being tackled, the borders brought under control, the woke will have their wings clipped and the direction of economic policy will be towards greater freedom, not state control.
        There is a misunderstanding among some Tories that holding on to the Red Wall necessitates embracing the nanny state and that the Government’s popularity under lockdown is an endorsement of greater bureaucracy. But the desire to live free of control is timeless and universal – this was what Brexit was really about, pushing back the boundaries of the state.
        Sir Keir Starmer did an unconvincing impersonation of a Blairite in his conference speech. All we ask of Mr Johnson next week is that he remember the principles on which he won election.         https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/02/prime-minister-must-remember-conservative-principles/

    1. Anyone who loses a family member to an adverse reaction to the mandatory vaccination should be permitted to shoot this bastard on sight.

    2. If the vaccine does not stop you getting the disease;
      If the vaccine does not stop you passing it on,
      If the vaccine often leads to dire consequences including death
      And if the vaccine may, but only may, stop you getting it as badly as if you had not had the vaccine.
      Then how can this odious chap claim that the vaccine works?

      1. It’s gone beyond truth or reason. They’re in a hole and, typically of government are digging furiously.

        It’s going to take genuine rebellion, where the police are swamped and can no longer react and then the government forcibly removed – I think they need to be lterally dragged out of office and the entire party disbanded.

        Hell, let’s do that here.

      3. Not only that, but I was told today that the vaccine pass (my friend needs to go to Ireland for a family funeral) has a time expiry on it! How does that work? My smallpox vaccination is still valid decades after I had it.

    3. How can he even say those words? You can hear the journalists are shocked, but nobody comes out and asks him whether he’s worried that history will have him down on the same page as Adolf Hitler.

    4. I wonder how many ‘transportees’ his ancestors happily heaved over the side of the ships?

    5. The man is a disgusting totalitarian. Where’s an assassin when you need one?

    2. My brother in law has posted a request on Face book to ask some one to identify the type of Cobra that lingered in their garden , the family live in SA.

          1. A spoonful of snake oil helps the feline go down
            The feline go down-wown
            The feline go down
            Just a spoonful of snake oil helps the feline go down
            In a most delightful way……

  79. I sent this to David Davis – following his DT article today.

    “I am not a constituent of yours. I expect
    that you will discard my e-mail.

    I have been a Conservative voter most of
    my life. I voted Tory in 2019.

    I read your article in today’s Daily Telegraph.
    While I agree with what you say, my object
    in writing to you is to say that unless the
    present government abandons its ludicrous
    policies immediately, none of the life-long
    Conservative supporters I know will ever
    vote Tory again.

    It is time that someone created the Real
    Conservative Party – with a platform based
    on common-sense and on what true
    Conservatives want.

    Without that – your party is doomed.”

    I don’t expect a reply.

    1. I imagine he knows, but increasingly I assume they’re relying solely on not voting tory lets in Labour.

      At this point… who cares. One bunch are forcing us into poverty, the other bunch will do the same.

    3. Dear Mr Thomas,
      You are, of course, quite correct.
      However, there is a flaw in your plan.
      NO true Conservative would ever go near British politics.
      Good luck,
      Doris Davis

  81. The Germans gave us the word Schadenfreude for just this kind of occasion.

    FRom ZH:

    “A massive wind turbine in the town of Haltern, Germany, collapsed just hours before it was set to be inaugurated this week.

    The huge alternative energy device sported rotor blades at a height of 784 feet, according to a report by AP. It fell over, without warning, late on Wednesday this week.

    The turbine was supposed to be officially launched the next day and had been hooked up to the power grid for over six months”.

    3. When I get the MG on the road, that could well be us! I hope that isn’t a recent video because now it’s an offence to drive without your dog secured.

  83. Well, for ‘O’ level we did British Empire history from 1558 – 1783, but they never told us about this.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-will-become-of-jamaicas-maroons

    What will become of Jamaica’s Maroons?

    Jamaican police entered farms in the village of Accompong in August to destroy ganja crops. The village chief, carrying a rifle, drove them away. ‘This is a gross disrespect and violation of Maroon territorial jurisdiction,’ said the chief, on his Instagram. Richard Currie talks a lot about sovereignty: he was elected colonel, or chief, on a platform of taking back control. A breathless profile in the Jamaica Gleaner refers to him as being like a cross between the hero and villain in Marvel’s Black Panther, but Accompong, with its 788 inhabitants, is no Wakanda. For nearly 300 years it has been more like Asterix’s village in Gaul, holding out against a hostile Empire.

    Some history. The year is 1739. Jamaica is entirely occupied by the British. Well, not entirely… Several small villages of indomitable Taíno hold against the invaders. They are reinforced by escaped slaves, and together become known as ‘maroons’, from the Spanish word cimarrón or ‘untamed’. They have been skirmishing with the British army for over a century, using their knowledge of the interior and ambush tactics to resist any direct attack. The colonial government finally accepts the stalemate, and over the next two years makes treaties with the Maroons as sovereign nations. Throughout the colonial period, British governors received their leaders as if they were foreign dignitaries.

    And the Maroons still exist. Their towns are still states within a state, they still pay no taxes to the Jamaican government on ‘treaty land’, and they are still led by a chief known as a colonel. This title, which goes back to the treaties, is pure propaganda: the commander of the British troops in Jamaica was a colonel; the leaders of the Maroons must be colonels too. Any lower rank would give the (correct) impression that a British regiment had been defeated by a smaller force.

    Colonel Wallace Sterling, of the Moore Town Maroons, told me that this was tact on the part of his ancestors. ‘The British did not want to tell the public in England, here is a king of African descent in Jamaica… So we let them make something up. You can’t be telling the people back home that this wild bunch of [people] are beating you with jongas and machetes… It’s kind of embarrassing.’

    I met him on a visit to Jamaica — in fact, my honeymoon. My wife understood that I am more interested in romantic histories than romantic dinners, and she agreed to come with me to Moore Town, high in the mountains above Port Antonio, to meet him. We drove up a dirt track teetering on the edge of the valley of the Rio Grande (Colonel Sterling later told me that a bus had slipped off this road, killing 15 people) until we arrived in Maroon country, where the land opened out in a bowl of tropical vegetation. Everywhere there were brightly coloured parrots, circling in chattering flocks and landing on the trees before they were chased away. Here, parrots are just pests that eat your citrus.

    We parked by the grave of Moore Town’s founder and first chief, Nanny of the Maroons, an escaped Ashanti slave from Ghana. A Rastafarian flag flew above. Unlike other Maroon leaders, who agreed to return run-away slaves to their owners, Nanny was untainted by compromise with the British. She is a national hero and her portrait appears on the Jamaican $500 bill. I counted five murals of her before I found the colonel.

    The decision to send the police in to destroy a ganja farm looks like escalation

    Colonel Sterling was dressed in a T-shirt, thornproof trousers and a grubby baseball cap. He came down from the field where he had been working, wiped his machete on some leaves and grumbled about the parrots. He’s more of an elder statesman than Colonel Currie, more of a diplomat. When I asked whether he thinks of himself as a head of state, he demurred: ‘In a sense, because the Maroon community is a state by itself, in one aspect, as some people would want to look at it.’ But, sitting on a plastic chair on his veranda, the colonel did not invite me to sit down with him. I remained standing for an hour — as protocol demands in the presence of a head of state — as he gave me a lecture on Maroon history.

    His sources were quite unlike those of any other lecturer I’ve ever heard. I asked him, for example, whether Nanny actually existed. Many of the stories sound more like myth than history: she was said to have ‘a lot of Science about her’, and would catch English bullets between her buttocks and fart them back at the militia, which seems improbable.

    The colonel sighed. ‘Let’s put it this way. The history of our foreparents is pretty much wrapped up in the Kromanti songs that we sing. I’m not a good singer, but I’ll tell you the words anyway. Grandy Nanny come-oo/ ya ye yanimi/ me bin a Anabo/ ya ye yanimi…’ As he recited the words, his eyes closed, and within three lines he had begun to chant. Anabo is a town in Ghana, now known as Anomabu, where Ashanti slaves were held prior to the Middle Passage. ‘Singing Kromanti songs is spiritual, yes, but it is record-keeping too. So we know Nanny exist.’ In the same way, he knows that the Maroons were sovereign nations even before the treaties were signed. ‘Our foreparents were independent long before the signing of the treaty — some even before the British arrived. It is that reason why they call themselves Yenkunkun: it’s an Akan word — it means an independent people.’

    Not everyone agrees with the Maroons’ record-keeping. Despite the treaties being unimpeachable written sources, the Jamaican national security minister, Dr Horace Chang, commenting on the ‘kerfuffle’ at Accompong, said there was no such thing as ‘Maroon land’. Up until now, the government in Kingston has not seriously tried to impose its will on the Maroons. The decision to send the police in to destroy a ganja farm looks like escalation.

    Colonel Currie is determined to fight for his people’s independence — not just to grow ganja, but also to prevent the mining of bauxite on Maroon lands. Colonel Sterling is pushing for a ‘siddung’ to negotiate a way forward with the Jamaican government. ‘It seems to me,’ he said in an interview with Jamaica’s Sunday Observer, ‘like the word sovereignty is where the problem lies.’ It always is. “

    1. How very interesting. I had heard of the Maroons, but didn’t know about their history.
      Is Jamaica signed up to the Belt and Road initiative?
      If so, then we know who wants the bauxite.

    2. Hence Marooned: ” to place or leave in isolation or without hope of ready escape”…..

          1. Or macarooned. Barred from eating sweets.
            Macaroon bars (INGREDIENTS 4 ounces mashed potatoes, cold, 16 ounces icing sugar (approx), 8 ounces dark chocolate chips (approx), 4 ounces desiccated coconut (approx))

    3. ‘Our foreparents were independent long before the signing of the treaty — some even before the British arrived.
      Err, doesn’t that mean someone else kept slaves in the Caribbean?
      I thought only the British were evil slavers

    5. Very interesting. I didn’t bother reading it as it is tooo loong. On me second gange me…

      I did find it funny that under the Afghan puppet government they didn’t have many problems exporting the opium crop. Obviously all bound to Labs for medicinal purposes.

    6. I remember reading about the Maroons, but didn’t know they were still around. I say leave ’em be.

  84. Biggest Crash in World History. Indy 2 October 2021.

    Personal finance expert Robert Kiyosaki warned the crash is coming regardless of whether the US debt ceiling is raised or what measures are imposed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen or Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.

    “This is going to be the biggest crash in world history. We have never had this much debt pumped up… the debt to GDP ratio is out of sight,” Mr Kiyosaki said.

    I know next to nothing about economics but I have noted that all sense of fiscal propriety has been abandoned during the “epidemic” so I won’t cock a snook at this!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/robert-kiyosaki-market-crash-october-b1930754.html

    1. Then China buys all the billions of shares for a fraction of a penny each – and becomes the richest, strongest country in the World.

        2. Dunno. They certainly own a lot of debt, but how much is that worth when countries can’t repay? It just gives them a fig leaf of an excuse to invade the small countries.

      2. Using the crypto-currency they have been mining with all the power coming from their coal fired power stations…

      3. I believe, China has the wherewithal to do that in terms of foreign currency reserves as a result of all the Made in China tat we have all been buying for the past 3 decades,,,,

      4. Or the Yanks do to the Chinese what they did to the Japs,allow them to buy vastly overpriced shares,property and other assets engineer a crash and buy them back at ten cents on the dollar

        1. I have read, although I don’t understand it. That it if they so wished the Americans, because the Chinese control 5.6 trillion dollars, all the Americans have to do is reschedule Chinas debt and could, thereby, bring the country down almost immediately.

          “If United States decides to block top Chinese firms from US dollar financings, everyone will have to stop trading their bonds immediately, analyst says.”
          https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3106413/chinas-us-dollar-debt-market-showing-cracks-us-sanctions-and?module=hard_link&pgtype=article

          Would be grateful to someone to explain how this would work in simple English!

    3. If you haven’t seen it i suggest you watch the un-edited version of the series ‘American Gods’. Series 3 is now out there but the rest is as they say Cancelled.

  85. Time for me to go – having risen at 6 am – it feels like midnight!

    I’ll leave you with this snippet from Robin Oakley’s horse column in this week’s Spectator. He is writing about his previous career as a reporter for CNN – and the brilliant cameramen with whom he worked:

    “I forget which one told me of the colleague ordered to scramble to a plane waiting for him to take aerial shots of a mountain fire.
    He belted to the airfield, saw a two-seater trundling jerkily out of a hangar and flung his gear in the back seat.
    As they lurched unsteadily into the air, he told the pilot:
    ‘Get as close as you can to that smoke over there.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Because I need the best shots I can get.’ ”
    ‘Oh, so you’re not my flying instructor!’

    Well, it made me smile….for once!

    A demain

  88. Good evening, all!

    I am getting so fed up with history being distorted to fit in with a warped narrative. David Olusoga is the one who is either “misleading or mistaken”, in this case. It appears rather blatant and obvious (I have not read the book in question) – perhaps one should question his doctorate…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6x4B1qh-Em0

    1. I avoid him. He’s a hypocrite of the first order, and always banging on about race. No wonder the BBC love him…

      1. Yes, but this is about the foreword of a book about a slave, where the foreword is ridicuously untrue. It is about Olusoga’s foreword and the suggestion that Olusoga completely taking the p***. A 7-minute clip from History Debunked (which I always enjoy).

        1. He loathes Britain so much, especially the imperialist slave trading Britain – that he accepted an OBE.

          I wonder what his white English mother thinks about it all.

    2. I take it that David Olusoga is the man sitting on the steps? He looks like another Megan Markle, that is, you have to be told he is black to know he is. Yet another one playing the oppression game.

        1. You mean the same way that Meagain isn’t black? I don’t know who this man is apart from this video because I don’t watch T.V.

    3. He wrote an article about how lots of ‘regular’ type Brits profited by buying slaves as if buying shares. I looked at the monetary equivalents of the dates he quoted and today’s values. He was sometimes out by a factor of 5. He doesn’t even try to be truthful.

  89. ‘Night All

    Just drop these off before I shut down

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/796a1d3548d3ee30afc6f0eda658d746053fe8c26730c0e4671f92c55627ec73.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8834c6453375d6d703cb052e4279e0137f542ad116fc36a8d10ed15d5dec943f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f1f617a7b04fe3538bbc3014acc5dd2a4411dbe0b24b5a7d7aceca699e3621d.jpg

    Awkward…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6866dd5a5c1c9b9efbe3e3967cf61f2fb18108e33a92812f052263e3ae468303.jpg

    Gus and Pickles approve of this message……….

    https://twistedsifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/queue-four-3.gif

  92. 339533+ up ticks,
    This rabid type should just get while the getting is available because something is surely coming down the line to rectify matters.

    Dt,
    Sajid Javid: unvaccinated care workers should ‘get out and get another job’
    Health Secretary says he is not prepared to pause the requirement for care home staff to be fully-vaccinated by November 11

        1. The Tory establishment and 1922 Committee need to get their act together and replace Johnson and his cabal of assorted misfits. There must be many patriots and discontents full of loathing for this front bench. They need to act.

          1. I would like to agree, except who would you choose? None of the backbenchers have really stood up to Johnson and his cabals, look at the voting in the lobbies, they’re ALL sheep or sheep-shit.

    2. All around the world this approach is being adopted.

      It isn’t about health, it’s about control.
      Damn their eyes and to Hell with them all.

    3. Hmmm. Will Javid accept responsibility for people dying for lack of care in care homes? Or will he blame the care home operators?
      Having worked in the business I know that some of the financial margins can be quite slim.

  94. Evening all,
    So Neil Oliver is on holiday for the next two weeks and Ray Mears is taking over his GB News show. Could be interesting. I guess that’s another who won’t be doing any more Beeb work?

  95. Good night all.

    Pan fried fillet of red mullet with Camel Valley rosé brut. The fish is meaty with a unique, almost nutty taste. beware pinbones.
    The fizz was to celebrate my recovery from my fall 2 weeks ago.

  96. 339533+ up ticks,

    ALL this carrot sh!te comes under the jurisdiction of the new repress
    reset,replace department named as HERD CONTROL.

    Holiday freedom as Boris Johnson slashes red list in time for half-term
    Quarantine is set to be abolished for almost all countries as the Prime Minister prepares for post-Covid ‘normality’

    Lest we forget also the meeting of the dons is to take place shortly.

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