Friday 8 October: As fuel prices rise to an all-time high, the PM cannot rest on his laurels

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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812 thoughts on “Friday 8 October: As fuel prices rise to an all-time high, the PM cannot rest on his laurels”

  1. Metropolitan Police worst force for solving sexual and violent crime. 8 October 2021.

    The Metropolitan Police is the worst force in England and Wales for solving sexual and violent crime with just one in 20 offences resulting in a charge, a new database shows.

    It will increase pressure on the Met as it faces an inquiry into Sarah Everard’s murder and how Wayne Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and killed her, remained a police officer despite evidence of misogynism and two allegations of indecent exposure against him.

    Simon Harding, professor of criminology at the University of West London, said the Met had lost up to half its experienced detectives in recent years through early retirement, restructuring and cuts.

    Morning everyone. The irony here is that the Met with its Lesbian Flagship Commissioner is a Woke Police Force. Over the last ten years it has been diversified, feminised and purged of any white, male, homophobic or misogynistic influences. It is the Police Force the Elites wanted and having attained it, have found that it is essentially useless. There is nothing that can be done. If you want a Police Force that catches criminals as opposed to suppressing Free Speech and making virtuous Cultural Marxist noises it needs to be abolished and a new organisation created. This of course is not going to happen! It would be an admission of total failure; not only of the Met but also of the Doctrine it espouses. Such a decision would also have profound implications for Government Policy and the entirety of Government Institutions who are all similarly aligned. We must therefore go on until the whole system collapses under universal mismanagement and its own incompetence.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/07/metropolitan-police-worst-force-solving-sexual-violent-crime/

    3. We must therefore go on until the whole system collapses under universal mismanagement and its own incompetence.

      Morning, Araminta.

      Then what? Why, Build Back Better, of course. The most threatening alliteration one could ever have come across. It is at this point, if those pushing BBB are successful, the tyranny will really kick in. Any politician who has used the BBB phrase has to be seen as the enemy of the people.

      1. ‘Morning, Korky, similarly, those who spout about a ‘New World Order‘ are immediately suspect.

    4. Sloppy journalism. Solving and charging are 2 different issues. The CPS hogs the authority to charge or not, frequently letting the Police down.

      From personal experience, my wife’s first husband was attacked in a hospital car park. The Police gathered the CCTV, investigated, identified then arrested the man and submitted the case to the CPS. The CPS decided not to prosecute. This would not be solved by that definition, which is clearly nonsense.

      The Police are only one leg of the stool here, the CPS and the courts being the other 3 and arguably the Police have the least influence of the 3 but get most of any blame.

      1. How many times have we heard the phrase “Not in the public interest” uttered by the CPS, when in fact they are simply terrified of losing a case? Remember also the revelation 2-3 years ago that they effectively turned a blind eye to the failure of police investigators to obtain evidence on rape complainants’ phones, which resulted in some very unsafe convictions of alleged offenders? The other problem is that we seem to have some very soft judges and others who are constrained by the guidelines they are required to follow.

    5. ‘Morning Minty. If you are looking for wokeism you should try Sussex…I believe I am right in saying that they pioneered the annual ‘Pride’ painting of police cars and fire appliances, allowing – even encouraging – uniformed officers to cavort in Pride parades and, possibly worst of all, their supposedly independent P&CC shouting from the rooftops her attendance at Pride events. Heaven know what other stunts they got up to that were below the publicity radar.

      I have consistently voted against the current incumbent, but down here you could pin a blue rosette on a dead donkey and it would still romp home…

      1. I refused to vote this year for the PCC. I wrote on the paper that it was another useless layer of bureaucracy.

        1. I wrote that on the very first ballot paper for the useless position. I also added “expensive”. I have not changed my mind.

  2. Metropolitan Police worst force for solving sexual and violent crime. 8 October 2021.

    The Metropolitan Police is the worst force in England and Wales for solving sexual and violent crime with just one in 20 offences resulting in a charge, a new database shows.

    It will increase pressure on the Met as it faces an inquiry into Sarah Everard’s murder and how Wayne Couzens, who kidnapped, raped and killed her, remained a police officer despite evidence of misogynism and two allegations of indecent exposure against him.

    Simon Harding, professor of criminology at the University of West London, said the Met had lost up to half its experienced detectives in recent years through early retirement, restructuring and cuts.

    Morning everyone. The irony here is that the Met with its Lesbian Flagship Commissioner is a Woke Police Force. Over the last ten years it has been diversified, feminised and purged of any white, male, homophobic or misogynistic influences. It is the Police Force the Elites wanted and having attained it, have found that it is essentially useless. There is nothing that can be done. If you want a Police Force that catches criminals as opposed to suppressing Free Speech and making virtuous Cultural Marxist noises it needs to be abolished and a new organisation created. This of course is not going to happen! It would be an admission of total failure; not only of the Met but also of the Doctrine it espouses. Such a decision would also have profound implications for Government Policy and the entirety of Government Institutions who are all similarly aligned. We must therefore go on until the whole system collapses under universal mismanagement and its own incompetence.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/07/metropolitan-police-worst-force-solving-sexual-violent-crime/

    1. In a time of universal deceit — telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

      Morning Stephen.

  5. Good morning all,

    It was a warm night here , bedroom windows were wide open , and of course last week I had switched the summer duvet over for the heavier winter one , so the heat built up.

    Marcus Rashford should say , my mother slept with different men , she is a single mother of five children , he should be honest and say … eoo many children when you are poor , makes you poorer , if you can’t afford children , don’t expect the state to support you when you have 5 with no dedicated father !

    Marcus Rashford says it was ‘bittersweet’ to collect his honorary degree for tackling child poverty just one day after the £20-a-week Universal Credit uplift was withdrawn
    Marcus Rashford, 23, collected his honorary degree for tackling child poverty
    He said it was ‘bittersweet’ as it came after Universal Credit uplift was retracted
    The £20 a week uplift, introduced amid the Covid-19 pandemic, was withdrawn
    The England player has urged politicians to go and see the struggle ‘first-hand’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10071099/Marcus-Rashford-says-bittersweet-honorary-degree-uplift-withdrawn.html

    1. What a clueless piece of virtue-signalling! They’re always so proud of their mothers aren’t they, and the way they slept with anything in trousers? How very wonderful!
      Sorry! Good morning Belle, and all Nottlers!

        3. Afghanistan’s female youth football team have found asylum
          in Portugal after they were forced to flee from the Taliban in August.
          … After anxious weeks, they have made it to Lisbon with some of their
          family members and are back in training and in their football kits.7 days ago

          Afghan female youth football team relocate to Portugal – ITVAfghan female youth football team relocate to Portugal – ITV
          I think they are perfectly safe in Portugal. Why the rush to bring them to the UK?

        1. Could still have had an affair with a turkey baster to produce the sprogs that bring in the bennies.

  6. Russia rides high as Europe scrambles to keep the lights on. 8 October.

    Russia, meanwhile, appears to be in a good position, riding a “double supercycle” of high oil and gas prices.
    “Gas prices are regulated here,” notes Ron Smith, a senior oil and gas analyst at BCS Global Markets, based in Moscow. “It’s about 14/15 times lower [than in Europe].

    By some truly bizarre freak of history we have all changed places. Russia is well on its way to becoming a prosperous, Christian democratic state while the West has become the Soviet Union with its Marxist rulers. Like the former communist state we also have Political Censorship and Repression with rocketing prices and shortages for the Proletariat. This is not to forget our very own Nomenklatura, who ride out these difficulties with slogans, self-awarded pay rises and positions of influence. The parallels are so uncanny as to make you wonder!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/10/08/russia-rides-high-europe-scrambles-keep-lights/

          1. But not yet, giving us time to build nuclear power stations, and reopen coal mines.

    2. You post frequently eulogising Russia and Putin and criticising the West. I’m curious, what is your connection or interest?

          3. Hi Dale,
            Minty posts lots of opinions with which I disagree, but that’s the point. We can’t all be funny but grumpy old racists all the time, it would be too BORING.

      2. Dale, ‘Minty is not the only one who views the west’s Demonisation of Russia with suspicion, especially when one considers the West’s actions at the collapse of the USSR.
        At a time when Russia needed assistance to recover and rebuild its confidence the EU & NATO jumped straight in to push their influence right up to the Russian borders. Given Russia’s paranoia about being invaded this was not a good move.
        Nor was giving support to the Governments of former Soviet Republics whose own corruption was, if anything, worse than corruption within Russia its self.
        At the same time, our bankers and financiers began cosying up to asset stripping Russian Oligarchs whose corruption would make an African Despot or South American Dictator blush in shame.

        And then we come to Salisbury where the official narrative on the “deadliest nerve gas in the world” falls far short of what I learned in my NBC training 40odd years ago.

        I agree that Putin is a hard and ruthless bastard, but somehow, given the lies, pontificating and outright appalling behaviour of Western Leaders, I would sooner trust him, warts and all, than the shower of shite we have as a ruling class.

        If only we’d offered support and the hand of friendship to Moscow on the collapse of the USSR, especially after the 1991 coup attempt, we might be seeing a differed relationship.

        1. Yes. The root cause of the current ‘crisis’ is the appalling attitude of the west towards Russia in the 1990s.
          Lessons were not learnt from the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles.
          The West’s hubris has caught up with it.

    3. Morning Minty

      I do get your train of thought , I get it .

      Britain has become repressive , with censorship and shortages , and is sliding into something that existed before the Berlin wall fell.

      I think people should take this emerging British Marxist state very seriously .

      Don’t fret about being criticised, say what you feel , I suspect many others feel the same.

    4. “This is not to forget our very own Nomenklatura, who ride out these difficulties with” big black cars and armed personal bodyguards.
      Sorted for you, no need to thank me.

      s

    1. Morning Citroen. I always look at yours as soon as they appear. There is no compulsion on anyone to read my comments. You can block them if they so distress you! By the generosity of Geoff Graham I post my own thoughts on this blog. Apart from Nottl I am not a member of any clique, group, cult, gang, cabal, sect, Party or Intelligence Organisation. No one is obliged to agree or support my opinions in any way. Those seeking to demur from them may use the reply tab at the bottom of the post, though I would prefer that they oppose the argument rather than the author. The Song not the Singer.

        1. One of the drawbacks to being a Paid Troll is that you are a Slave both to your masters and your nature. A Troll must always follow the path of personal attack since they cannot possibly encompass or match what subject or opinion might come up next. This morning is the third time that you have hinted at my being such as yourself. It’s not true. You are a traitor not only to your country but an enemy of Free Speech and Freedom everywhere. Enjoy your thirty pieces of silver!

          2. Morning Phizzee. I don’t know what it is but I have an almost sixth sense about these people as soon as they appear. It’s like knowing when people are talking about you as they are pretending something else. I had the same with EngineerAndy who now posts on the Spectator as AlbatrossSoup. It’s always the same! Personal!

          4. Good morning Phizzee. There is a fuzzy article in the Telegraph about blood groups and a possible connection to inherited health conditions.

        2. One of the drawbacks to being a Paid Troll is that you are a Slave both to your masters and your nature. A Troll must always follow the path of personal attack since they cannot possibly encompass or match what subject or opinion might come up next. This morning is the third time that you have hinted at my being such as yourself. It’s not true. You are a traitor not only to your country but an enemy of Free Speech and Freedom everywhere. Enjoy your thirty pieces of silver!

        3. “below?” – if reading by oldest first, try saying, “earlier” as above and below seldom apply.

      2. Minty, Minty, Minty…you Darling chap. Neither content nor intent of your postings seldom if ever distress me. You are a natural born insomniac and prepare your postings long before Geoff gets out of bed to toll the bell for all the faithful to come to prayer. Almost without exception I read all your pithy comments later in the morning and often add an uptick. My metabolism works differently. Mug of tea, fart, another mug of tea, look at the cartoons in the DT, Grimes, Guardian, and post any that I think might amuse fellow NoTTLers; scan the letters, scan the headlines, cook breakfast, return to NoTLLers to see who is being rude to whom. Depending on the day and the weather, I return at random. Rest assured that, should you not register the first or second posting of the day, I would be deeply concerned. Still wouldn’t read it before breakfast. {:^))

    2. I used to read his/her/their* comments as they had some insights, but then got bored with their anti-Western and pro-Russian stance. I rarely read beyond the first line now.

      A lot of people respond, often in support, but then we are only a few hundred here out of an adult population of over 40 million , even more if you include the number of ex-pats, with many posting here, so we’re not necessarily representative of the country. Each to their own.

      * Delete as appropriate. I doubt he/she/it/them is a barmaid in their About on discus, but you never know.

  10. Morning, all.
    Seems that Google will ban any mention of causes other than man-made climate gas, CO2, as the cause of global warming, which itself may not be criticised. Whatever the evidence.
    Who needs governmeng censorship?

    1. I don’t doubt that Google might have announced such but from where did you here that, Oberst?

      1. Sorry, seems to be in Norwegian only.
        https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/
        05:52 Google ut mot klimafornektere I nye retningslinjer for annonsører, utgivere og folk som lager YouTube-videoer, varsler Google at de vil forby det å tjene penger på innhold som bryter med «veletablert vitenskapelig konsensus rundt eksistensen og årsakene» til klimaendringene, heter det i en uttalelse fra selskapet. – Dette omfatter innhold som omtaler klimaendringer som tøys eller svindel, påstander som nekter for at langtidstrendene viser at det globale klimaet varmes opp, og påstander som nekter for at utslipp av drivhusgasser og menneskelig aktivitet bidrar til klimaendringene, skriver Google.

          1. Ironically if Google translate is used, this is the result,

            05:52 Google against climate deniers In new guidelines for advertisers, publishers and people making YouTube videos, Google warns that it will ban monetization of content that violates “well-established scientific consensus on the existence and causes” of climate change, states it in a statement from the company. “This includes content that mentions climate change as nonsense or fraud, claims that deny that long-term trends are showing that the global climate is warming, and claims that deny that greenhouse gas emissions and human activity contribute to climate change,” writes Google.

          4. If that is a well established fact regarding your mother then you should have no issues with Google, however if they deem it not to be so, well………

        3. 05:52 Google against climate deniers In new guidelines for advertisers, publishers, and people making YouTube videos, Google warns that it will ban monetization of content that violates “well-established scientific consensus on the existence and causes of climate change,” the company said in a statement. “This includes content that mentions climate change as nonsense or fraud, claims that deny that long-term trends are showing that the global climate is warming, and claims that deny that greenhouse gas emissions and human activity contribute to climate change,” writes Google.

        4. Wonder how they would have treated Galileo Galilei, and the people who said the earth was flat?

        5. Richard Feynman: “Better the question that cannot be answered than the answer that cannot be questioned.”

      1. The vile BBC did a hit piece yesterday on Ivermectin. Determined that early safe effective treatment should not be used. What is the nature of these men and women and into whatever other categories of sexual self indulgence they insert themselves that in addition to their monotonous practice they desire the death of others?

      2. But Ivermectin is approved against Covid, in India, and India is in the WHO. Thus, discussion of it’s use must be allowed, surely – or is that dangerous thought to be stifled?

        1. Giordano Bruno. On 17 February 1600, in the Campo de’ Fiori (a central Roman market square), with his “tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words”, he was hung upside down naked before finally being burned at the stake.[34][35] His ashes were thrown into the Tiber river.
          On the 400th anniversary of Bruno’s death, in 2000, the appropriately named Cardinal Angelo Sodano declared Bruno’s death to be a “sad episode” but, despite his regret, he defended Bruno’s prosecutors, maintaining that the Inquisitors “had the desire to serve freedom and promote the common good and did everything possible to save his life”.

          1. Pretty much representative of the inhabitants of modern Paris. All that’s missing is the obligatory blek.

    3. This morning they had a piece about the scooping up of all life from the sea bed by industrial trawlers in the North Sea. It was reported as a global warming issue, since it seems that marine life there is a carbon sink, and the effect of the trawlers are about the same as the entire aviation industry.

      Quite apart from this, would Google report this desecration as a contribution to man-made mass extinction of species that is well under way in this century?

      1. Why are the trawlers there? It’s our sea bed for our fishing boats. Anyway, most fishing does not scrape the sea bed, other than scallop dredgers and sand eel hoovers. We could stop this dead, and we should.

        (Edited in attempt to correct typos and protestant intoxication.)

  11. 338719+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 8 October: As fuel prices rise to an all-time high, the PM cannot rest on his laurels,

    I for one think he is doing a splendid job, as the political pilot of the eu semi reentry missile pending on full return membership, the “DEAL” is
    showing out to be in full working order.

    This under the guise of “getting brexit done” he / minions have not put a foot wrong, ten downing street making the Hammer House of Horrors envious, in running their fear campaign, everyday open door day for incoming potential troops, patients, felons etc,etc via DOVER.

    ALL infrastructure heads are seemingly to be of a dangerous imbecilic
    standing as in, the toxic trio lab/lib/con, the guardians of law, and the NHS
    with as many chiefs as REDSKINS.

    Without radical change to these treacherous political overseers those
    sitting in protest across pot hole riddled roads fighting against party’s THEY have most likely voted in, would be far better off knitting bloody heavy sweaters / scarves to ward off the coming orchestrated cull this winter.

    The question that MUST be answered is if these politico’s are so dangerously inept should they NOT be in an institution for the criminally insane, before MORE innocents are put to death ?

    1. Friday 8 October: As fuel prices rise to an all-time high, the PM cannot rest on his laurels.

      I don’t know; laurel bushes can grow quite tall.

      1. 339719+ up ticks,
        Morning PA,
        My feeling is that Laurel & Hardy have a deformation claim as in being associated with the political fat turk.

  12. Morning all

    SIR – Until recently, the price per unit for electricity was four times that of gas, which would make the replacement of gas domestic heating by electricity extremely expensive.

    In the past couple of weeks, however, the wholesale price of gas has rocketed fourfold – bringing it more in line with the cost of electricity – resulting in an increase in home energy bills.

    Is this what is known as levelling up?

    George Lindsay

    Kinross

    SIR – The Prime Minister’s closing speech to the Conservative Party conference was long on rhetoric but very short on substance.

    Where are the freeports that we were promised would spur investment after Brexit?

    Why is he allowing the French a free hand in shipping illegal immigrants to our shores, in spite of British taxpayers sending millions of pounds to France to prevent this?

    Why are our fishing grounds being plundered by foreign vessels, a situation that is apparently to continue for years to come?

    Why does he tolerate the partial annexation of Northern Ireland under the guise of the “protocol”?

    In short, we have not “taken back control” and we never will until the Prime Minister stops talking about negotiations with our “friends” in Europe and decides to implement Article 16, which may bring about constructive dialogue.

    Roger G Hopgood

    Kirby-le-Soken, Essex

    SIR – I thought that Boris Johnson’s speech was a disgraceful combination of bluster, economic illiteracy and obvious untruths.

    This country is heading off an economic cliff edge and he and his cheerleaders appear to be in a state of complete denial.

    It is particularly shameful that a party that was once the proud champion of British businesses, large and small, is now led by a man who clearly has no interest in business at all. Furthermore, the PM’s claim that in future new housing estates will not be built on greenfield sites (report, October 7) is completely unbelievable.

    Philip Aitchison

    Kirk Langley, Derbyshire

    SIR – It is so reassuring that Mr Johnson is “not worried” and that we are all doing so well. My husband has scouted five fuel stations yesterday morning in our locality and none have petrol.

    We are now two weeks into this crazy situation. Can Mr Johnson tell us when this madness will end?

    Valerie Gilmore

    Wokingham, Berkshire

    SIR – When they could not afford to buy fuel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze would apparently waltz around the house to keep warm.

    Should we all be booking dance lessons?

    Tricia Barnes

    Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

    1. ‘Morning, Mike.

      It must be all the recent bad publicity: I automatically read that as ‘a copper’.

    4. Nah – that is a former serviceman “enjoying” living in one of the Caliph of Londonistan’s new homes for Londoners.

  14. Good morning all.
    A grey and overcast but dry start to the morning with 8°C in the yard.

  15. For NTN

    THE FIRST NOTABLE QUOTE OF THE CENTURY

    Monica Lewinsky (on CNN’s Larry King Live discussing her miraculous Jenny Craig weight loss):

    “I’ve learned not to put things in my mouth that are bad for me.”

    1. Was it bad for her? Nobody would have heard of her otherwise, no opportunities to monetise the experience.

    2. Thank you, OLT, I can only guess that that might have been in one of daily jocular comments.

  16. Was the switch to green fuel behind the petrol crisis? Retailers blame low stock on switch to E10
    Retailers have blamed the spiralling petrol crisis on the government’s switchover to greener fuel.

    Industry leaders said they had been ’emptying their tanks as fast as we could’ ahead of the rollout – which left them short during the recent panic buying.

    They demanded an inquiry into the forecourt chaos that has left pumps dry across the country.

    Official figures released today said tankers kept a steady supply of fuel to petrol stations throughout the summer and the start of September.

    But from September 1 the amount of excess kept at forecourts plummeted by up to 25 per cent due to the switch to E10.

    It led to the crisis Britain is gripped in when panic buying from September 24 swept the country.

    E10 petrol became the ‘standard’ type of unleaded being sold at forecourts from September 1.

    The greener fuel was introduced by government to try to reduce vehicle emissions as part of its wider efforts to hit its decarbonisation targets.

    But while it will cut CO2 outputs from road transport there are a number of drawbacks.

    Experts warned not all cars can use it, it is expected to make your vehicle less efficient and it will cost every motorists more in fuel bills.

    Industry leaders said they had been ’emptying their tanks as fast as we could’ ahead of the rollout – which left them short during the recent panic buying (file photo)
    Industry leaders said they had been ’emptying their tanks as fast as we could’ ahead of the rollout – which left them short during the recent panic buying (file photo)
    Chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association Brian Madderson (pictured) the new figures show the fuel crisis was an ‘unintended consequence’ of the E10 rollout
    Chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association Brian Madderson (pictured) the new figures show the fuel crisis was an ‘unintended consequence’ of the E10 rollout
    Most registered cars that are incompatible with E10 fuel
    1. Volkswagen Golf – 28,066
    2. MG MGB – 20,890
    3. Mazda MX-5 – 18,162
    4. Nissan Micra – 15,785
    5. Morris Minor – 12,796
    6. Rover 25 – 9,879
    7. MG MGF – 9,352
    8. Ford Escort – 8,947
    9. Rover Mini – 7,614
    10. MG TF – 7,568
    Source: RAC Foundation (2020)
    Chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association Brian Madderson the new figures show the fuel crisis was an ‘unintended consequence’ of the E10 rollout.

    He told the Telegraph: ‘For weeks we had been emptying our tanks of E5, the old fuel, as fast as we could to get ready for E10. We had all run our petrol stocks down.

    ‘So when the panic buying started, many of our members ran out pretty quickly. Then the shortage of HGV drivers meant we couldn’t get supplies quickly enough.

    ‘I don’t blame the Government particularly but the E10 switchover clearly had an unintended consequence: we couldn’t cope with the surge in demand.’

    The name E10 is a reference to the ethanol – or bioethanol – mix in the fuel before it is sold on forecourts.

    It is 10 per cent, up from a 5 per cent mix from E5 petrol that’s been supplied at forecourts for years. The higher the ethanol mix, the greener the fuel.

    This is because the bioethanol content is an alcohol-based product created from the fermentation of a range of plants including sugarcane, cassava and hemp.

    It makes any bioethanol mix partially ‘atmospherically carbon-neutral’ because the plants have absorbed more carbon dioxide while growing than what is released.

    While ministers will argue that this – in theory – offsets greenhouse gas emissions, there is much debate about by how much.

    Materials needed for the higher concentration of bioethanol in E10 will be produced and refined in the UK.

    Official estimates suggest 700,000 cars are not compatible with the new E10 fuel (file photo)
    Official estimates suggest 700,000 cars are not compatible with the new E10 fuel (file photo)
    Eco-friendly E10 fuel to be rolled out across the UK

    Its introduction is said to have generated up to 100 jobs in the North East, with AB Sugar’s Vivergo plant set to reopen.

    Some petrol stations have already opted to sell only E10 at their forecourts – including Asda – while BP said it will only sell E5 at some sites.

    MPs claim the introduction of E10 petrol will cut CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes a year.

    That is equivalent to taking 350,000 cars off the road today – or every motor registered in North Yorkshire.

    Grant Shapps said the ‘small switch’ to E10 petrol will ‘help drivers across the country reduce the environmental impact of every journey, as we build back greener’.

    Doubling the renewable bioethanol mix to 10 per cent also means less fossil fuel is needed in unleaded, which has environmental benefits.

    These are the rough estimations from the Department for Transport regarding E10 compatibility by years for each car and motorcycle brand. That said, motorists are urged to use the compatibility checker to double check they can fill up with the greener fuel
    These are the rough estimations from the Department for Transport regarding E10 compatibility by years for each car and motorcycle brand. That said, motorists are urged to use the compatibility checker to double check they can fill up with the greener fuel

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10069591/Was-switch-green-fuel-petrol-crisis-Retailers-blame-low-stock-switch-E10.html

    1. ‘Morning Belle. I have seen it said that the loss of efficiency with E10 is of the order of 7%, which is not insignificant. I’m also surprised that a much bigger fuss wasn’t made when the prospect of E10 was first mooted. Of course, the PRA would not be likely to object as in effect they would be selling more fuel for the same mileage!

    3. So retailers run pumps to minimum to prepare for new fuel then get caught out by the panic buying created by the BBC’s manufactured crisis?
      An interesting little nuance to the farce.

    4. “Materials needed for the higher concentration of bioethanol in E10 will be produced and refined in the UK.”
      Does that mean that arable land will be turned over to producing petrol, while we have vast supplies of petrol under the North Sea?

  17. Scan QR-code menus with a side of caution, say privacy experts

    Online menus accessed through QR codes have become common during the pandemic

    Stating the bleeding obvious to me

    My phone does not do these things

    https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving/there-just-aren-t-enough-houses-for-canadians-to-buy-plus-digital-menus-and-getting-into-sports-betting-1.6173009/scan-qr-code-menus-with-a-side-of-caution-say-privacy-experts-1.6188515?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

    1. I don’t like those codes- when we were supposed to sign in to restaurants in the summer I ignored them .

      1. I used to sign in with their paper list.
        They found “Eric Blair, Tel.0198448910” more than satisfactory.

      2. I didn’t know what they meant and I didn’t intend to find out. I don’t do apps, I don’t know what they are.

        1. I just nodded in the direction of the scanner thing or the notepad without actually telling them anything.

      2. Or nothing to do with elderly pensioners, high energy bills , elderly people who have saved and been economical , who are not championed by millionaire footballers …

    5. So, let me get this straight: Lockdown and distancing were key to defeating Covid, a flu-like virus, but will worsen the spread of the flu virus, which operates in a similar way to Covid? Have I got that right? Is there any reasoning as to why this reverse effect might happen??

  19. Good morning, all. Grey and quite foggy.

    Good to know that the government has no responsibility for the nightmare world in which they have forced us to live.

    And that millions will die from ‘flu this winter. Funny that. They seem to have remembered that ‘flu has always been around —– having overlooked it for two years.

    2. If we’re all going to be dead, there won’t be any Christmas shortages – brilliant government policy – look on the bright side for once.

    3. There were only one and a half thousand cases of flu in the US last year. There were millions in preceding years. Funny, that.

  20. 339719+ up ticks,

    Hopeless ministers should have seen the entirely predictable gas crisis coming
    From geopolitical disputes to Britain’s overreliance on competition, the only surprising part of this crisis is how poorly prepared we were

    They did.

  21. One of the preoccupations of the elderly is the realisation that one is deteriorating, and that something that worked twenty-five years ago is no longer feasible. It is why I shall be shortly drawing my State pension, and that the likelihood of me benefiting from the higher wages, higher demand for labour, and maybe one day reversing the closure of colleges (other than those dedicated to woke studies) is nil. Employers simply don’t want my sort, and haven’t done for a while.

    In my latest rantings about my dental woes, I sent a letter rethinking from the draft I posted the other day:

    “Dear Sharlene Derench

    Thank you for your last email requesting further information.

    1. I have already explained why I do not wish to divulge the name of my dentist until I have had emergency treatment done on my front teeth. I hope at least to have a temporary denture fitted on 13th October, but may have to return if it fails to function correctly. Please explain the reason for the extreme haste for this.

    2. I consider that nothing would be achieved by simply repeating my suspicions to him, which he would simply deny. It is a leading question.

    Far better, I respectfully suggest, would be to ask him why he recommended re-using the existing bridge, modified as a cantilever and supported by the one loose pin upon which it rotates, rather than putting two new stump post crowns over the two healthy roots either side of the missing tooth, which would be properly anchored (after root-filling and redrilling the enlarged hole where the old bridge’s pin worked itself loose), and then fitting a new bridge over the new crowns. This would simply repeat the correct prognosis arrived at in 1995.

    If he can give good clinical reasons, then we can both draw our own conclusions; if he says, without prompting from either of us, that he was simply obeying instructions from the Department about cost-saving, then we too can draw conclusions from this.

    If he was making cost-savings unilaterally to improve the viability of his practice, then the Department may well consider whether the practice is being adequately funded, or whether he is profiteering. You may also consider asking why so few NHS dentists in the area are open to new patients.

    3. I bear no malice against the Government, nor the Department nor anyone else in the NHS.

    I am interested in restoring proper function to my teeth, and to ensuring a regular supply of the medication I have relied on for the last twenty-three years. If both these objectives have been achieved, then I have no further cause for complaint, and would then consider the matter closed.

    With best regards
    Jeremy Morfey”

    This was in response to this email from Sharlene Derench:

    “Dear Mr Morfey,

    Thank you for your email and confirming you do not wish to complain about the treatment you received in 1995.

    From your email, my interpretation is that you feel the Department of Health has instructed your dental provider to lie to patients and not provide appropriate treatment. You have explained at the current time you do not wish to disclose the name of your dentist. Due to this, we are unable to approach your dental practitioner for comment and cannot take your concerns forward. Would you like me to liaise with our Primary Care Team in relation to whether the Department of Health have instructed providers to lie to patients?
    If you could let me know by 7 October it would be appreciated.

    I look forward to hearing from you.”

    Yesterday, I sought a second opinion privately. It cost me £50, but it was worth doing.

    It seems that I have over-estimated the capability of the dental profession to restore ageing teeth. It is not realistic to expect a crown to last, supported on a post where the tooth has broken off at gum level and has had root canal treatment. The only option for a permanent restoration is to extract the root and start again with an implant.

    Furthermore a bridge cannot be supported on teeth which are root-filled both sides and be expected to last. Best to support such a bridge with implants each side, and this would cost me about £6000 – rather more than the £285 NHS maximum charge, and not available on the NHS unless the mouth is so deformed, it cannot hold a denture.

    I am now mulling over my options – whether to go for crowns both sides and an implant in the middle, or implants both side and a bridge over the middle. In the meantime, I get a temporary denture from the NHS, which might fit and last a few weeks. At least it buys me time to consider and watch whether the new crown fails quickly.

    1. Many Norwegians go to Hungary for dental tretament, as the quality is said to be excellent, and the cost low. Even paying for flights and hotels, you come out with noticeable change when compared with a Norwegian dentist’s costs.
      How you ascertain the best dentist to go to, I don’t know.

      1. Thanks for that. At choir practice the other day, I saw a flyer for a choral event in Budapest next Spring. It’s tempting, but I am not sure how much I’d be up to intensive singing during major surgery on my front teeth.

        1. Do the singing, then stay on for a week for the dentistry. Pleasure before pain… in any case, I expect there will be a surgery visit for investigation, X-rays and planning before any drilling starts.

          Edit: BTW, the most beautiful woman I ever worked with is Hungarian. Just saying. A rest for the eyes…

          2. I was thinking about Hungarian women, who are beautiful. The most beautiful woman I have ever seen though was Norwegian, when I was a lot younger.

            Norway is one of few places in the world where I can be mistaken for a local. I actually looked a bit like a Viking. It was in Oslo, and there was this girl of extreme fantasy, with intelligent eyes, a kindly expression, a lithe body and wonderful flaxen hair down to her hips. She said something to me in Norwegian, but alas I didn’t catch a word of it.

            When I got home, I bought a book about learning the Norwegian language, but never studied it and still only know one word “regn” which I picked up from their weather forecasts. They love the weather even more than we do, but they kept repeating the same word over and over again. Perhaps the only difference between the land and the sea in Norway is that it is a different sort of wet. I saw a video of a beautiful Norwegian pop singer showing off her home town. Several times its wooden buildings burnt to the ground. They would wait for the rain to put it out, and then build them up again.

            I have fond memories of Norway , which is oddly familiar. like the North of England. t is wilder than Sweden, which can be a touch ordered and suburban. I spent most of my time in Denmark sheltering from the wind and rain, so I didn’t see so much of it. They have serious weather in Denmark. Alcohol is very hard to come by in Norway – so many Calvinists, and a lot of the Viking drunks seem to end up in Germany. It was in September and they had these foot-long carrots, grown in places with very little night in summer. It is a great cycling nation. I’ve only seen more bicycles in daily use in the Netherlands, which is understandable because it is flat. Norway is not flat, but do they care?

        2. Do the singing, then stay on for a week for the dentistry. Pleasure before pain… in any case, I expect there will be a surgery visit for investigation, X-rays and planning before any drilling starts.

          Edit: BTW, the most beautiful woman I ever worked with is Hungarian. Just saying. A rest for the eyes…

      2. Our daughter-in-law did that.
        The practices book nearby hotels (possibly economies of scale and a steady flow of guests mean they can negotiate good terms).
        Before and after care takes place (in our case) in London.

      1. I used to cycle from Tiverton to Sidmouth on Sundays when I was a schoolboy. We left school at 11.15 after the chapel service and covered the fairly hilly 25 miles in about 1¾ hours arriving at Sidmouth where we devoured our picnic at about lunch time. After swimming and mooching about we cycled back to school in time for ‘high tea’ at 6.15.

        Sidmouth is indeed a pleasant little town. I was exploring some of my old haunts with the girlfriend of the time when I was a student and had my MGA. We did not want to squander our money on a b&b so we had a tent. We wanted to get some fish and chips but the bourgeois sensibilities of the place would not allow such a vulgar proletarian food outlet in their town.”Sidmouth”, as lady explained it to us in rhyme, “is a naice place” so at that time there were no fish and chip shops in Sidmouth

        (This is a stock photo – but it is the same model and the same colour as the one I had – the 1958 1500)

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10407819ac9e63b4ede30a31cf5aab3f1f4ecc8363c4da7941d3d6a28e2879b4.jpg

        2. I always wanted an MGA. Best I could manage was a couple of MG Midgets (the second of which I still have).

  23. 339719+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Could flat-pack homes solve Britain’s housing crisis?

    NOT all the while the mass uncontrolled immigration coalition & the current supporting cast of idiots have the unopposed shout.

    1. 339719+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      How long has these type meeting been going on, years ,decades, no notable change in the voting pattern which surely points out the herd is content with the status quo
      as in,vote & whinge mode being the way to go.

    2. I wonder if one might hire a private jet to drop a MOAB, which in one flash would do more to prevent climate change hardship than any number of green initiatives. It would probably also make the world a better place.

      Davos or Glasgow, your choice.

        1. I reckon it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. They might be stupid, but their minders won’t be.

  29. Wise Words on Marriage

    When a man steals your wife, there is no better revenge than to let him keep her.

    After marriage, husband and wife become two sides of a coin; they just can’t face each other, but still they stay together.

    By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll be happy. If you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

    Woman inspires us to great things, and prevents us from achieving them.

    The great question which I have not been able to answer is, “What does a woman want?”

    I had some words with my wife, and she had some paragraphs with me.

    ‘Some people ask the secret of our long marriage. We take time to go to a restaurant
    two times a week. A little candlelight, dinner, soft music and dancing.
    She goes Tuesdays,
    I go Fridays.’

    ‘There’s a way of transferring funds that is even faster than electronic banking.
    It’s called marriage.’

    The first one left me,
    and the second one didn’t.’

    Two secrets to keep your marriage brimming.
    1. Whenever you’re wrong, admit it,
    2. Whenever you’re right, shut up.

    The most effective way to remember your wife’s birthday is to forget it… once

    You know what I did before I married?
    Anything I wanted to.

    My wife and I were happy for twenty years.
    Then we met.

    A good wife always forgives her husband when she’s wrong.

    A man inserted an ‘Ad’ in the classifieds: ‘Wife wanted’.
    Next day he received a hundred letters.
    They all said the same thing, ‘You can have mine.’

    First Guy (proudly), ‘My wife’s an angel!’
    Second Guy, ‘You’re lucky, mine’s still alive.’

  30. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am fed to the back teeth with Project Fear.

    Covid and more Covid; millions dead; no fuel; green policy to ruin every household; food shortages; power cuts.; no armed forces; useles police.

    Now “millions dead” from ordinary, seasonal ‘flu with which we have lived normally for 100 years and more.

    Why doesn’t BPAPM and his team of doom-mongers just ishoo every person with a death pill – and be done with it?

    1. We’re starting the table tennis 🏓 season next week- after a gap of 18 months and instead of getting back to normal there are all sorts of stupid protocols to put in place.

        1. I will- but I was asked to put them on a poster. EG – “masks not required ” – no – say they are optional. I said – use “common sense” – no – safety concerns.

          2. Display the poster upside down; that’ll keep the Aussie govt happy, and it would be appropriate as the chinese bug turned our lives in that direction.

    3. They are trying to get people to take the “flu vaccine”, if they won’t get the covid. A toxin by any other name will still do the job. Good morning, Bill and everyone.

      What a cynical old rat-bag I am.

      3. If there was no flu last year we have to wonder what strain(s) the medicos are basing this year’s jab on. Covid spike proteins will probably be in the mix.

        Avoid all jabs. The medicos are proven liars and dissemblers.

        1. I will never have a jab again. My trust has gone, forever. My last one was for tetanus, about 40 years ago. I never had the tb vaccination. I had the smallpox vaccination, the diptheria one and a little later for polio. Then tetanus.

    2. Good Morning Mr T, and all other Nottlers.
      Yes, it’s a gem of a documentary that I watched by chance. Never heard of the bloke previously, and thrilled to see that he is still breathing.

    3. Morning Bill,

      Quite a few years back when I was new to my job and we used the phone more than email, I rang Christopher Nupen to ask for consent for the use of a clip from his film about Jacqueline Du Pre in a progrramme that was then in production.

      Christopher kept me on the phone for a full hour. He was very luvvy and very gushing and went on about how much he adored Jackie and how the Philharmonia are the best orchestra ever. The latter seemed to be based on the fact that he’d been to a concert of theirs the night before. I suspect that if he’d heard a different orchestra, they too would be the best ever. He was very nice and very entertaining. I didn’t regret the time it took to finally pin him down to the business in hand!

      1. 339719+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        We have,. as a country been politically raped & abused by politico e 10 products inclusive of the fat turk & the wretch cameron.

  33. Good morning, my friends,

    She’s a real charmer who warms the cockles of our hearts with her warmth and generosity of spirit:

    ‘I’ve got time on my side’: Nicola Sturgeon is slammed for ‘chilling’ suggestion the death of elderly Scots who back the Union will help deliver independence.”

    The First Minister’s remarks were branded ‘chilling’ yesterday after she said she has got ‘time on my side’ because of the demographics of support for Scotland breaking away from the UK.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10071065/Nicola-Sturgeon-slammed-chilling-comments-older-pro-UK-voters.html

      1. or, a Sewerer(esterer)

        She makes Rats, Corbyn, Kneel Starmer, the ‘champion of the poor’ footballer and even Ginge and Cringe seem nice

        1. There is “stuff” known about her. I just hope and pray that it comes into the public domain very soon.

    2. Think of the economic boost to Scottish builders when the ‘labour camps’ are under construction.

    3. The same sort of remarks were made by Remainers after the Brexit vote in 2016 to back up their call for a second referendum i.e. older people who were more likely to vote Leave were dying off, while younger people, who would be more likely to vote Remain, were gaining the vote at age 18. This would then result in a Remain vote in another referendum.

      What Sturgeon and Remainers overlook is the fact that people naturally become more conservative (with a small ‘c’) as they get older, so are very likely to change their views with age and wisdom.

    4. How old is she? Saw a recent closeup of her yesterday, she isn’t exactly young by the looks of it. Puffy face and going to seed.

  34. Good Moaning.
    Positively Dickensian out there. All we need is the muffled clip, clop of a hackney carriage.

  35. I’d like to tell that Chinese looking “medical expert” that the one and only time had a ‘flu jab, I was extremely ill for four weeks.

    So his yammering on will have no effect on me at all.

    1. Never had the jab, had flu so long ago that I can’t remember when it was. (Hubris, nemesis…)

      2. Why the big fear over a bit of flu? I’ve never really thought about it before, it comes and goes once in a very long while.

      3. I had influenza in 1976. In bed for 10 days and a further 2 weeks to recover.
        Probably given long term immunity to something. :-))

      1. “I say, would you mind awfully standing to attention – when you feel ready, of course.”

    2. I noticed the other day that “service personnel” (what we once called servicemen and women) are now “defence people”.

    3. As Samuel Goldwyn, the movie mogul, is rumoured to have said when refusing to agree to a business deal in the 1930s – “Include me out”.

    4. If you can’t stand hurty words, or get offended by the use of the wrong pronoun, you are in the wrong job. What happens when the words aren’t as hurty as the high-speed bits of metal that fly around, that you’d have to deal with? And people who mean you hurt & dead, too, rather than accidentally mispronouning someone…

      1. I just posted the “Contact Us” which turns out to be in San Francisco, the belly of the beast. Because I was going to suggest to them that why not simply promote good manners and politeness as those of us over a certain age have done all our lives. But, I suppose that is far to straightforward and doesn’t help with the brainwashing and propaganda of the left that this is really all about.

    6. Did you notice the “Contact Us” address:
      460 Bryant Street, #100

      San Francisco, CA

      94107-2594

      USA

    7. Thanks, Janet, but I don’t need to download 30 pages of wokism that will be deleted immediately after reading.

  38. Poland ‘on path to Polexit’ after judges rule national laws supersede EU. 8 October 2021.

    Poland’s future in the European Union was thrown into doubt on Thursday after judges ruled that Polish law superseded EU law in the latest clash between Warsaw and Brussels.

    The ruling that the Polish constitution carried more weight than the EU treaties drew a furious reaction from politicians in Brussels, the de facto capital of the bloc. The European Commission said it “will not hesitate to make use of its powers” to protect the primacy of EU law.

    They accused Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, of putting the country on the “path to Polexit”, raising the prospect of Warsaw leaving the bloc as the UK did on Dec 31.

    We must sincerely hope so. The EU is probably the single greatest danger to Freedom and Democracy anywhere in Europe!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/10/07/poland-path-polexit-judges-rule-national-law-supersedes-eu/

    2. What would happen if Poland set up a unilateral reciprocal trade and visa agreement with the UK?

      2. Frankly, having got out of the EU we should be going out of our way to encourage and support others who want out. Then perhaps we could have a proper Common Market, which was a good thing before it metastasized into the evil it is now. We never voted for the EU and its anti-democratic tyranny and neither did most countries that are now trapped in it. Look what it has done for Europe with the leaders Germany and France. Germany invited the continent to be swamped by hostiles who will eventually destroy us and France is run be an insane belligerent Gaul who married his mother and like the child that he is, can’t grow up and throws tantrums in order to get his own way. The German woman will, I am convinced, go down in history as another German that caused destruction and ruin to be remembered in the same vain as the Kaiser and Adolf. The ridiculous Frenchman will be memorialized as another but totally ineffectual Napoleon, not even worth exile for all his impotence and folly in alienating not only us but everyone else that doesn’t obey his ridiculous ego.

        1. Well, Tom, the Commons Chamber is frequently almost empty. Especially when there is a “debate” about destroying our fundamental freedom.

        2. Like the closed minded ideology they espouse they probably deliberately vacated the hall. Reality and truth must not encroach!

  39. ‘Morning Peeps.

    Late on parade this morning, so apologies if already posted:

    SIR – I thought that Boris Johnson’s speech was a disgraceful combination of bluster, economic illiteracy and obvious untruths.

    This country is heading off an economic cliff edge and he and his cheerleaders appear to be in a state of complete denial.

    It is particularly shameful that a party that was once the proud champion of British businesses, large and small, is now led by a man who clearly has no interest in business at all. Furthermore, the PM’s claim that in future new housing estates will not be built on greenfield sites (report, October 7) is completely unbelievable.

    Philip Aitchison
    Kirk Langley, Derbyshire

    SIR – It is so reassuring that Mr Johnson is “not worried” and that we are all doing so well. My husband has scouted five fuel stations yesterday morning in our locality and none have petrol.

    We are now two weeks into this crazy situation. Can Mr Johnson tell us when this madness will end?

    Valerie Gilmore
    Wokingham, Berkshire

    These letters are a complete waste of time, ‘cos he ain’t listening. And neither are the goons who advise him.

    1. Morning all. He ain’t listening. No, but maybe someone in their focus groups will read these letters and perhaps even realise that much of the public has had enough of bluster, rhetoric and lies? We can but hope.

      1. Just before the 1997 election, I was invited to a Conservative bash. Nicolas Soames stood on the staircase beside me and wittered on about how they were going to win. I said nothing, but thought, “you haven’t got a clue how people are feeling. They’ve had enough of sleaze and all the rest of it; you are completely out of touch”. Sure enough, Blair got in with a landslide.

  40. SIR – It is unacceptable that, in a first-world country with advanced engineering and scientific capabilities, so many sewage spillages are allowed to enter rivers and the sea (Letters, October 7).

    There should be heavy penalties for those in charge of the offending companies. The same goes for water wastage through pipe bursts and leaks.

    Alastair Clarke
    Oxford

    And guess who will have to stump up the latest fine (more to come) of £90m, Mr Clarke? Why, their poor sodding customers!

    2. Nothing to do with engineering, but a willingness (and ability to understand) to see the need for an asset integrity management process that includes checking the pressure integrity of your systems and plant – including pipelines.

      1. ps: I did this for a living for decades, in oil & gas industry. Management systems and technical integrity work. It’s not difficult.

        2. and IS9001:2000 or similar

          I applied properly, the ‘shop-floor’ workers can tell their ‘deaf managers what is wrong with systems

          And it then is Managements responsibility to fix the adverse occurences.

          The alternative is ‘Whistleblowers’ who are ignored then sacked

        3. and IS9001:2000 or similar

          I applied properly, the ‘shop-floor’ workers can tell their ‘deaf managers what is wrong with systems

          And it then is Managements responsibility to fix the adverse occurences.

          The alternative is ‘Whistleblowers’ who are ignored then sacked

    3. Criminal charges against the Directors with swingeing punative fines,loss of bonuses,pensions and shareholdings might actually concentrate a few minds
      ‘Morning Hugh

  41. Another diversive group

    Winners of Black British Business Awards 2021 revealed

    The awards, now in their eighth year, celebrate the achievements of some of the UK’s leading corporate bosses and entrepreneurs

    How on earth can we have ‘Racial Integration’ in the .country, when people of colour are allowed their own organisations and awards

    Imagine the uproar, if we had

    MOWO Music of White Origin

    White Police Association

    White British Business Awards

    White England Football Team etc

    It is a disgusting state of affairs

    Which group do the likes of Hamilton, fit into…. Do not answer that

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/10/08/winners-black-british-business-awards-2021-revealed/

  42. Another excellent BTL comment from Carolyn Bates. I reckon she speaks for many Nottlrs:

    Carolyn Bates
    8 Oct 2021 5:27AM
    I see the level of criticism of our Prime Minister is growing daily if this Letters section is anything to go by; the same is true on all comments sections in the DT as well. Yet, we are still told by a select few that this is not a true representative of the country.

    With a new poll out yesterday that showed that adults in general in this country, now believe that we are taxed more by the Conservatives than Labour, even though as Conservatives we have always been known as the Party of low tax, it is a damning indictment of how the Prime Minister is affecting the reputation of the Party. Of course, this is not the only area of governance by this leadership that is affected.

    That we are currently experiencing an economic crisis, energy crisis, fuel crisis, cost of living crisis, lorry driver crisis, tanker driver crisis and food shortages, and yet our leader asks, ‘Crisis, what crisis’ when questioned about it this week, just goes to show how bizarre his reaction was.

    His disturbing rhetoric and demeanour in general in Conference has highlighted just how much trouble we are in, as he clearly is not in control of the country, or in control of any planning that may get us our of this frightening situation.

    That the Prime Minister takes the position of Office he was given by his electorate, with the added bonus of an eighty seat majority, with such a cavalier attitude, is shocking; that he seems to be having some sort of mental health crisis is obvious after his display this week.

    Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that he is losing support across the country and when Lord Young felt the need to write an article in this publication, criticising Johnson’s reference to Mrs Thatcher in his Conference speech, it is clear things are getting increasingly worse for the PM in this country, across the board.

    I was accused yesterday by another reader as being ‘a UKIP type’ for criticising the shambles of this leadership which is becoming more evident by the day; would that same reader accuse Lord Young, a lifelong Conservative, as am I, and someone who served under Mrs Thatcher in Cabinet, a ‘UKIP type’ as well?

    1. All well and good, Hugh. But where are the radical Tory MPs (the “men in suits”) who once took a PM to one side and warned that his office was not necessarily “secure”?

      Good day to you.

      1. On a poor salary of £82,000 a year and with below average IQs it’s unlikely any of them will rock the boat.

      2. Good question, Bill. Keeping their heads down and not rocking the boat for fear of scuppering their chances of promotion? Threatened by the Whips perhaps?

      3. Good question, Bill. Keeping their heads down and not rocking the boat for fear of scuppering their chances of promotion? Threatened by the Whips perhaps?

    3. I have read that Liz Truss is the up and coming choice for P.M. What do others think? I like her, she strikes me as a real Conservative.

      2. She started her ascent up the greasy pole (if you’ll pardon the obscene metaphor) with an extra-marital affair with another older Conservative, Mike Field, who, she hoped would further her career. This affair did not seem to harm her ascent and even her marriage survived the extra-curricular fornication while her paramour’s did not as his wife divorced him. I usually refer to her as Adultera Truss.

        1. I wrote to her recently in her former role. No reply. I’m thinking of publishing the correspondence here, for fun and jollity.

      3. Me too. She keeps her head down and produces results. In my view she could never be as bad as BJ.

        On another subject, I thought it was particularly sad that James Brockenshire has died. My impression was that he was a capable minister who did his job well and without fuss, and without the usual craving for endless publicity.

        1. To be honest I have no clue who James Brockenshire was. How long ago was he a minister?

          1. Part of his Wiki entry:

            James Peter Brokenshire was a British politician and Cabinet minister. A Conservative, he served in Theresa May’s Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from 2016 to 2018, and then as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2018 to 2019.

          2. Well, I was certainly in the UK then. He couldn’t have made much of a splash. Still, it is cruel for someone that young to die.

      4. The only real Tory left is Lord Tebbit, and there’s not much left of him these days.

    4. Carolyn Bates declares, “…he seems to be having some sort of mental health crisis.” Well, he has dug himself into a globalist hole and crunch time is probably approaching and there is nothing he can do other than keep digging. There is for him, and those who have aided and abetted him in his quest, no escape route with their integrity intact.

      .

      1. It’s that Carrion woman. He is fettered to her. His domestic history is so awful that he cannot now get rid of her.

  43. It is as mild as muck outside – but, maddeningly, very damp. If only the Sun would come out.

    1. The sun’ll come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow there’ll be sun.

    3. Warm here too.
      Just been over to Wirksworth and the overcast I mentioned earlier is low cloud we drove through at Steeple Grange at the top of Cromford Hill.

  44. Loads of articles extolling the virtues of an Admiral who has climbed a pole. I like this btl:
    “Chris Morris
    8 Oct 2021
    I know she won the US Open but isn’t this too much too soon ?”

  45. Good Morning all. another dull day.

    A MYSTERY illness appears to be sweeping across the Canadian province of New Brunswick as six people have been confirmed dead and dozens more falling ill to a unknown brain disease.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_AOfzrQYV0

    Spent a year in Canada. The worst country in existence, dull as ditch water. Proof, look at their Prime Minister.

    1. Champix marketed by Pfizer as a stop smoking aid has been linked with cancers of the brain.

      It has since been withdrawn worldwide.

      1. To be ground down, mixed with solvents and marketed as a booster vaccine, the new wonder cure for Covid

  47. I thought my garlic order was overdue so checked the order status. FFS.
    ‘Track Your D.T. Brown Order
    We’re currently experiencing supply chain issues in some areas, due to a combination of unusual factors. These include higher than normal demand, suppliers and couriers experiencing staff shortages and some short term material supply issues occurring as a result of Brexit. We’re doing everything we can to overcome these and expect the majority of orders to be delivered successfully, well in advance of the growing season. However, in some cases, shipping dates may prove to be slightly later than originally anticipated.

    To help ensure we can allocate customer service resources where they’re most needed, please check our Covid update page for latest information before contacting us.‘

    1. There’s a glut of vampires all around the world and people are panic buying the garlic. Eastern Europe takes priority.

      2. The NWO have been working on that. The Wuhan bat thing was its first attempt. Fangs ain’t what they used to be.

    2. Things fall apart – the centre cannot hold
      Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

      This is just as true as when W.B.Yeats wrote it.

      As I wrote yesterday we have just tried to order a spare part for our Clearview Stove which is made in Shropshire but we have received this message:

      “Continued suspension of deliveries to European destinations. Northern Ireland unaffected.
      If any part of your order is out of stock we will contact you by email – please monitor your spam/junk filters. During these difficult times, delivery schedules from suppliers may vary greatly. In particular, those originating from Europe and rest of world are seeing significant delays. Please be patient as we work with manufacturers to keep waiting times to a minimum. If your order is an emergency, please call one of our team on 01837 680068 during weekday office hours, to check stock prior to your order.

      Our best wishes to all our customers at this difficult time. Thank-you for your custom and understanding.”

      The woman at Clearview was very helpful when we spoke to her on the phone and she is going to send the spare part to our son in Lancaster who will then post it on to us. We asked her whether these problems – which is causing Clearview to lose orders – is down to Covid or Brexit. Her reply was: “Probably a bit of both.”

      BUT

      Wasn’t the whole point of having a deal with the EU rather than going for WTO terms meant to make sure that this sort of problem would not happen?

      Given the EU’s incredibly dishonourable behaviour we must abandon Article 16 and abandon any sort of deal with the EU. At the moment we have the worst of both worlds and people like Emanuel Macron and Ursula Fonda Lying must never be trusted again. And does anyone trust Boris Johnson or Michael Gove?

      1. WE should have gone to WTO in the first place. It is a waste of time dealing with poisonous snakes.

  48. Britons cut meat-eating by 17%, but must double that to hit target. 8 October 2021.

    Britons have cut their meat consumption by 17% over the past decade but will need to double these efforts if they are to meet targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production set out in the national food strategy earlier this year.

    Meat production is a major contributor to global heating and land degradation, while eating lots of red and processed meat has been linked to a greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer.

    Hmmm! Good luck to them! This 75 year old is just off to Morrison’s to buy a rib-eye steak for Sunday dinner!

    https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/oct/08/cuts-uk-meat-consumption-doubled-health-researchers-food

      1. Morning Bill. I’m assured that Morrisons steaks are very good and I don’t mind them myself!

          2. Hence your belief in (real) butchers, Bill.

            Go, try Morrisons if there is one in the city of Fakenham.

          3. I buy Morrison’s meat – it’s good and always British. Though that might change now they’ve been bought by Americans.

          4. Except that Terry Leahy (late of Tesco) is in charge of the outfit making the latest offer – and he is relatively sound as a British retailer.

          6. There is a Morrisons – very good for a small supermarket. I’d never buy their meat or fish.

            Within a five mile radius of this house we have four excellent, old-fashioned butchers who rear their own meat. Why go elsewhere?

        2. When i have space in my freezer i use these people. New Forest Stores and Pipers Farm. Fantastic quality.

      2. Morrisons do have a butchery department, open to the public and will cut meat to order.

        As far as I know, Bill, they’re the only supermarket that do – and they have wonderful oxcheek.

    2. “land degradation”? Is that not when speculators build hundred of houses, out of tick-tacky, on farmland?

    4. I’ve increased my meat-eating by 17% and I’ve never felt better.

      Our ancestors were hunter/gatherers, i.e. they hunted animals and picked berries for their food. No obesity, cancer, heart disease or strokes on that diet.

    1. While one is naturally sorry to see a death at an early age – he was an absolute shit as a politician.

  50. Our neighbour is a lovely 80 year old. She lives in a little cottage a stone’s throw away.

    She talked to me about changing her little garden into a rockery, which I think would be great. Why did she ask me? Because it sort of clips our driveway, so I offered to shift our route a bit to get her a bit more space.

    Now. We’ve a grumpy old man (even grumpier than me) shouting and screaming at the council cutting the hedges down the way. That he could be heard over the leaf blower is something.

    Anyway, grumpy old man comes out of his house and properly launches my my elderly neighbour. Not only was he not listening, he wasn’t thinking. His complaint? The bricks she’d chosen weere sat on the pavement. Yes, the man was arriving the next day to fit them. We’re not talking thousands of bricks all over the place. Jst a dozen or so, on a pallet barely on the path.

    Grumpy is ranting and raving and as the wife’s office window looks out on this, she’s seeing all of it. And being disturbed.

    So she goes outside to ask the grumpy man to keep quiet and be civil. Thus, she comes back angry and grabs me by the collar. Together we approach and grumpy is STILL shouting. Being both too tired, ill and generally cranky, I try to understand the issue but when it reaches the level of triviata I lose my already short temper and tell the Grumpy man to please be quiet and civil, that the rockery was being built tomorrow and the bricks would then be gone. Grumpy continues shouting – not a raised voice, shouting.

    I dislike confrontation and arguments. I like a quiet, calm, unflapped life. Grumpy continues shouting. After a while I say ‘You’re upsetting my neighbour and my wife.’ He continues to shout, so I repeat ‘ You’re upsetting my wife.’

    Now, the war queen is not little, nor timid. She’s a ruddy hellcat when riled but I’d had enough. I worry that force -intimated or applied – is going to become increasingly necessary. Maybe I should get the bloke around for a drinkie.

    1. Grumpy old man obviously has little to do all day. The news is
      dire and bluddy depressing…
      Any opportunity for a moan is fair game and makes his day.

      I’m heading in that direction myself NoTTlers …so beware!

  51. 339719+ up ticks,

    Increase Meat and Dairy Prices to Tackle Climate Change, Cambridge Report Demands

    Role models philby, macclain, burgess, hunt, well in evidence.

  52. Following on from the Insulate Britain campaigner who hadn’t insulated his house…

    Insulate Britain protester Cameron Ford admits ‘I’m not perfect’ after photos emerge of his 10,000-mile holiday
    The eco-activist, who helped to block roads on the M25, drove from Cambridge to Poland in a diesel van after a four-month stint in Canada

    An Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain activist embarked on a 10,000-mile, four-month long holiday and toured across Europe in a diesel van last year, new photos have revealed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/07/not-perfect-says-insulate-britain-protester-photos-emerge-10000/

  53. Our PM should be informed, before Cop26, that his plan to vandalise houses by removing gas boilers and replacing them with heat pumps is not the wish of the majority of householders. [I suspect.]
    He should seek the householders who wish to have a heat pump and supply them with a heat pump. The people should have a choice and not forced to submit to the Zero Carbon policies of our PM.

    1. It seems that the planners who planned COP26 were away with the fairies. It seems to be the case that HM The Queen, The Pope and Joe whatsit will all be staying in Edinburgh. The word on the street is that they will travel to Glasgow by car, with the M8 being closed for the purpose, presumably.
      I’d have thought that they would have travelled by helicopter, ah well.

        1. Apparently so, or maybe not. This whole thing could go very pear-shaped. A lot of people are maybe a bit “pit oot” by the fact that tens of thousands of attendees’ hangers-on will not be subject to any of the Covid-19 rules currently oppressing the lieges.

          1. This is what I don’t understand. The public at large is still terrified about covid, wearing masks in their car when alone and walking along the street. Why can they not see how ridiculous it all is? There truly is a lot of stupidity around.

    2. “The people should have a choice” – – yes – we voted for less immigration too- on a promise by the govt – THAT turned out to be yet another lie – for the umpteenth time – – and we were given the same one from them yet again.

    1. Sharia should be banned in the UK. The Muslims should settle their problems within the UK law.

      1. I’ll play Devil’s Advocate on this one…
        Maybe the West would stand a better chance if they didn’t impose their laws on Muslim countries…Afghanistan,Iraq,Libya to name but three.

        1. Sorry, Harry, but WTF are the west doing in Afgaff, Iraq and Libya? By the way, what imposition on Afghanistan today – get up to date.

          Leave the silly ar5es to slaughter each other – the world is well rid of them.

          1. So sorry..please forgive. I picked up the wrong hymn-sheet.
            I’ll now be singing from the same one as most posters here.

          2. Just in case you are unaware, Harry.

            This site grew out of people who commented on the Daily Telegraph letters page.

            When they closed that function (at least for a while) Geoff set up a site so we could continue posting.

            It has gone beyond that now and a lot of the posts aren’t about letters at all.

            But is does imply a certain demographic.

            Mostly older. Mostly retired. Mostly centre-right politics.

          3. I was posting on the Telegraph in the days of “Shakespeare” and John Ward (he of The Slog).
            If a difference of opinion isn’t allowed then Geoff should say so.

          5. I’m old,retired and like everyone,my politics evolve with life’s experiences.
            Mine have gone in a different direction in that i’m anti NATO,US foreign policy and am pro-Russian because i meet a lot of working class Russians who holiday in this area.

          6. Not sure that your opinions differ much from others on here regarding NATO and U.S Foreign policy.

            There seemed to be quite a lot of Russians holidaying in Cyprus when i was there. Quite boisterous. At least they weren’t as loud as the Italians.

          7. Most who come here are from the Liningrad Oblast (the St Petersburg area).
            At a guess at least 50 own a holiday cottage on the lake.
            Most rent for a few weeks in Summer and return for New Year to the local hotel for a huge party.
            Of course the fact the their New Year is at 23:00 here doesn’t dull the spirits.
            New Year just lasts that bit longer!

          8. I’ll see your “anti NATO,US foreign policy … pro-Russian,” and raise you anti-UN, ant -EU, anti-International Courts, and anti-Human Rights

          9. The high hideyins either:
            a) firmly in the belief that their belief system is so superior, or
            b) having found what they reckon is a good excuse,
            decided to try & crush the shonet out of these countries – but weren’t smart enough to be able to do it properly, thus killing a lot of people and spending more money than you could believe in achieving a much worse outcome than the original situation.

          10. I’ve never taken the time to delve into the figures but i’d love to know the number of refugees/immigrants before and after the Bush/Blair invasion of Iraq.
            It gave Muslims the perfect excuse to come to Britain and yes..i do believe they intend to one day take control.

      2. That’s all very well in theory clydesider but U.K. law is not being applied, witness the lack of prosecutions, the explosion inf the number of cautions, invisibility of the police, closure of many magistrates’ courts over the last 20 years, the freeing of the Insulate Britain protesters, the XR protesters, etc. etc. we are in a very sorry state.

      3. No such thing as UK law.
        There’s English & Welsh law, and Scottish law. Not sure where NI stands.
        I’ll get me wig…

      4. Within their own communities, as long as UK law is over-riding, they should be able to settle their disputes amongst themselves, if both sides agree. It’s when they try to apply it to others or its rulings are incompatible with UK law that I object.

        1. VERY politely put. Sos. But one group doesn’t do politely, And they want this country, then they’ll destroy it, then blame us. They cannot understand that THEIR culture is the problem. If one told me he was dead, I wouldn’t believe him – even after his cremation.

          1. There are times when I think that they’ll be welcome to it.

            “We’ve” had the luck to have inherited a fortune and just pissed it away.

  57. ‘You are messing with children’s education!’: Furious mother on school run blasts eco mob as they block M25 and roundabout near hipster enclave in London on ELEVENTH day of chaos in past month

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10072003/Fury-eco-mob-target-M25-busy-roundabout-near-hipster-enclave-London.html

    Priti Patel should be paying me a consultancy fee because I have the answer:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8242f6c7d97b55596dcd00a61ced464beb49a34bf7d51c5372a2e72ecf2b102b.jpg

    1. I’ve already identified, Richard, that the front row of those stopped by these Insulate idiots, should turn around, back up as close as possible and then rev their engines to blast exhaust fumes over their insulated brains.

      I’m sure they’d soon pack up an F**k off – Colloquially known as PUFO.

    3. Our lives would be a lot easier to live if the Krays Twins had grandsons operating in Lunnon, the way that they did

      1. If you have to have crime it may as well be organised. At least under the Krays, women were mostly safe. At least safer than they are today.

  58. Bradford are bidding for City of Culture 2025.

    That has got to be worth putting money on. They will be a shoo-in.

      1. Harry Corbett and Sooty clinches it. Here is small sample of people born in Bradford (letter B to start of letter D) – I think it is a remarkable list:

        David Bairstow – (1951–1998) was a cricketer, born in Bradford, who played for Yorkshire CCC and England. He also played football for Bradford City.[10]
        Jonny Bairstow – (born 1989) cricketer, born in Bradford, who plays first-class cricket for Yorkshire CCC and England.[11]
        Juliet Barker FRSL – (born 1958) British historian, specialising in the Middle Ages and literary biography.[12]
        Linda Barker – (born 6 October 1961) English interior designer and television presenter. Educated at Bradford Girls’ Grammar School.
        Geoffrey Barraclough – (10 May 1908 – 26 December 1984) British historian, known as a medievalist and historian of Germany. Born in Bradford
        Simon Beaufoy – (born 1967) Academy Award-winning screenwriter, born in Keighley.[13]
        Bradford, who was killed in the line of duty on Friday 18 November 2005.[17]
        Rodney Bewes – (1937–2017) English television actor and writer. Born in Bingley.
        David Blamires – (born 16 March 1957) English Grammy award-winning musician, born in Bradford.[19]

        Aidy Boothroyd – (born 1971) football coach and manager, born in Baildon.
        Bill Bowes – (25 July 1908 – 4 September 1987) one of the best bowlers of the interwar period and, for a time, the most important force behind Yorkshire’s then dominance of the County Championship. Lived in Menston.[21]
        John Gerard Braine – (1922–1986) novelist, born in Bingley.
        Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs – (born 7 May 1921) English historian known for his work on the Victorian era.
        Anne Brontë – (1820–1849) novelist and poet, born in Thornton on the outskirts of Bradford.[22]
        Charlotte Brontë – (1816–1855) novelist and poet, born in Thornton.[23]
        Emily Brontë – (1818–1848) novelist and poet, born in Thornton.[24]
        Patrick Branwell Brontë – (1817–1848) painter, writer and poet, born in Thornton.
        Alfred J. Brown – (1894-1969) travel writer, novelist (pseudonym: Julian Laverack) and poet.
        C
        Alastair Campbell – (born 1957) political aide and Labour Party strategist associated with Tony Blair. Born in Keighley.[25]
        Barbara Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, PC, GCOT – (1910–2002) British Labour Party politician. Her family lived in Bradford from when she was 12; she was educated at Bradford Girls’ Grammar School.

        Harry Corbett OBE – (1918–1989) puppeteer, born in Bradford. Known as the creator in 1948 of the long running ‘Sooty’ glove puppet character.[29]

        Albert Crewe – (1927–2009) American physicist born in Bradford, inventor of the modern scanning transmission electron microscope.
        Bryan R. Cullen – (born 1951) professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Duke University Medical Center

        D

        Kiki Dee – (born 1947) singer, born Pauline Matthews in Little Horton.[32]
        Frederick Delius, CH – (1862–1934) composer born in Bradford.[33]

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

        1. Bill Bowes was the first-change back up quick bowler to Harold Larwood and Bill Voce in the 1932-33 “Bodyline” Ashes series.

      2. On radio yesterday, chap ( no comment needed ) had won an award for getting immigrants etc out into the countryside and showing them how wonderful England is – – some said it was absolutely wonderful – – wonder if it will still be wonderful when the population density is the same as what they left? When everything is exactly the same as what they escaped from? Some wanted to be involved in big decisions – I assume that included removing all the white people whose work and taxes built this place that they so enjoy. Why alter something you so enjoy? Once WE have been removed – bliss !!! – until they realise ( if they can ) that WE are the reason this country is here,

          1. The immigramts seem to be too. Come here – want everything how THEY want it – and US to pay for it. The slammers certainly want it that way.

    1. We were driving through Nottingham on Tuesday, cyclists wer riding two abreast along bus lanes, causing traffic mayhem

      Have the rules changed for them now or have they priority over vehicles that must pay for road tax, insurance and MOT

  61. I’ve noticed round my part of the world that there is never a shortage of labour when it comes to putting in anti car measures on our roads, double yellow lines going in everywhere, parking metres and permits, roads being blocked off, traffic cameras on every corner and there is always a traffic warden on hand for any minor transgression.

      1. Yes, thank you it happened to coincide with a golf society day.
        Although I did incur a fine for having a birthday.

    2. Well of course there’s no shortage of Labour when …. as you say. This is all helpful to the ongoing “greening” of the public.

  63. Can the addtional costs because of the move to Electric Vehicles, fuel shortage on the forecourts and a dramatic increase in motor fuel
    price per Litre (to around £6.35 a gallon) be called

    Grand Theft Auto

  64. Can the addtional costs because of the move to Electric Vehicles, fuel shortage on the forecourts and a dramatic increase in motor fuel
    price per Litre (to around £6.35 a gallon) be called

    Grand Theft Auto

  65. The EU are prepared to offer the UK the right to send National Identity goods such as sausages to Northern Ireland for sale there. Our side see it as a victory but it doesn’t resolve the problem of UK being still having a middle of the Irish Sea border with the rest of the UK.

    1. Huh! Why do we take this abject humiliation? EU says we’ll let them buy their own sausages in return for control of all UK fishing and all UK farming and all UK financial business and they said ‘Yes”. Some of these EU negotiators may be in danger of dying laughing.

        2. That is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to celebrate sausages, or by consuming, end them?

          2. When we were in Germany staying with relatives, they insisted we try Currywurst. Dreadful!

          3. I agree, but when I went back to Germany on a short visit, I had currywurst from a stand & thoroughly enjoyed it.

          4. Nowt wrong with a good Currywurst. I make them at home: a decent Bratwurst (Unearthed are good), Hela Currywurst Sauce and medium curry powder. Mit Pommes, lecker!

  66. DT headline

    Watch: Why flu deaths could be the worst for 50 years

    Because all deaths next year will be attributed to Influenza.
    I wonder whose turn it’ll be in 2023? What about Pneumonia.

    1. Miracle that flu jabs are back – after last year’s deaths dropped dramatically. They really are losing their marbles on the whole show. Will people be dying of Fluvid 21 this time? Why don’t they just shoot us ??

      1. Don’t give legitimacy to their ideas. I suspect that will be on the menu further down the line under the guise of ‘civil unrest’.

      2. Why does no-one shoot THEM? They have armed security guards who must see and hear what’s really going on. Are those people hired for their lack of morals. Do they kowtow because they have criminal records.

        1. The world has become a very sick place Sue. Politicians are no longer there to run a country – now just there to fill their pockets. It is cleat they live in a totally different world to the real one WE have to live in.

      1. 339719+ up ticks,
        Afternoon VW,
        The whole thing is a test bed for control, to be used in the future with reset in mind imo.

      2. There was some pillock in my local rag writing in to say vaccines should be compulsory, anybody not vaxxed should be made to take a weekly test and “children should learn to trust our wonderful National Health Service”. Clearly a totally deluded bint. Children should be taught to question everything!

    1. One of many I expect most of them being attributed to something else in a attempt to hide the truth.

  69. Good afternoon from the anglo saxon daughter of Alfred . with blooded axe, sharpened arrows and pursed longbow. A cloudy and dull afternoon back in East Anglia. Devon Is probably still sunny.

    2. Tomorrow’s supposed to be brighter.
      (If not, I’ll have some very dejected sheets hanging on the line!)

    1. It’s funny that Boris looks to businesses to increase wages just as he hikes taxes on them.

      In fact, they’ll be laying people off.

      I thought he was a bright fellow? Or, as I suspect, do the economically illiterate buffoons in the treasury think that’s how life works?

  72. I can’t wait for it to go ‘BANG’ and destroy half of central Africa – only for reasons of scientific research, of course.

  73. From the Free Speech Union.

    Professor Dorian Abbot, a geophysicist at the University of Chicago, was no-platformed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology earlier this week after an online mob pressured MIT to cancel his guest lecture on the grounds that he had argued for “academic freedom and merit-based evaluations” rather than “equality of outcomes”. Members will recall that the FSU started a petition last year asking the President of the University of Chicago to affirm Prof Abbot’s right to free speech when another online mob called for him to be demoted. The petition got almost 15,000 signatures and the Chicago President complied with our request a few days later.

    Professor Dorian Abbot [I had to read that twice] should inform the Massachusetts Institute of Mediocrity (MIM) that it has, for so long, been considered to be the world’s top seat of learning. It gained that reputation for being an institution devoted to tutoring scholars to an exceptionally high level of merit. Its examinations (and the appraisal of theses, dissertations, etc.) were designed to ensure that standards of tuition remained at the highest level and, consequently, its ‘merit-based evaluations’ were designed to fit in with this stated aim of producing the best.

    The MIM’s descent into inferiority does not sit well with the meaning of ‘education’ in its universally accepted sense. That it has now kowtowed to those who would wish everyone to be reduced to a very low common denominator, when it comes to learning, is nothing more than another nail in the coffin of common sense and intelligence. These people (the faceless online mob) are simply intent on accelerating the progression of the exponential — and unstoppable — rise of stupidity in the human species.

    The very concept of the idiotic term ‘equality of outcomes’ is risible, puerile, and an affront to those who want to work hard in order to achieve high merit. Those who insist on calling for such a moronic proposition to be routine should be expelled and sent back to a primary school, ideally one which has high academic standards (if such an establishment still exists), in order to cleanse the minds of these revolutionary fools and ensure that they are re-taught the basics of a normal education.

    1. Equality of outcomes was to be achieved by making questions easier for people of colour viz. blacks. Many white students supported and advocated for this ‘levelling down’.

    2. Equality of outcome: Would you like a pilot with 20,000 hours experience in charge of your holiday flight, or one who has only “flown” Microsoft Flight Simulator? Both with gold bars on their shoulder.

  74. Johnson and the media are proven liars and we should not invest energy in considering anything but how best to rid ourselves of the evil they are doing to our society. They don’t listen in any event. This is truly how conflict starts.

    Today we read about a 13 year old boy made blind just 10 days after the Pfizer injectate, and here is a set of metrics that should make us all realise that these people are not anything but enemies of ordinary decent people.

    https://theexpose.uk/2021/10/08/80-percent-covid-deaths-september-england-were-vaccinated/

    1. But the EU is not a country. Why is NS giving this person the accolade of receiving him as such?

  76. Afghanistan: Deadly attack hits Kunduz mosque during Friday prayers

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-58842793

    The attack was probably by IS (Sunni) on a Shia (minority) mosque. IS in Afghanistan is opposed to, and has attacked, the Taliban, which is also Sunni. This has the makings of another civil war, with IS in the north and the Taliban in the south, a repeat of the last one in the 90s after the Russians left. Of course, the Taliban is effectively a Pakistani movement so it could be a messy affair.

    Will it spill over onto our streets?

    2. There was a similar attack a short while ago in Kabul. The Taliban claimed to have hunted down and killed the perpetrators.
      Do you have any guess for the split between the various Satanic flavours in the UK?

    3. As long as they stick (it) to each other, I don’t much care.
      They’ve already created their ghettos. Leave ’em to it.

  77. Gosh – I’d forgotten what hard work lifting potatoes is. A medium crop – given blight and poor weather, we can’t complain. One more bed to do tomorrow.

    How appropriate that “Duke of York” is very susceptible to blight and many of the spuds are rotten.,…

          1. More likely the woman he claims never to have met – let alone shagged – – Charlotte

  78. A classic quote from my seventeen year old daughter; “Everyone in my class is such a left wing extremist. I don’t see why I have to go through a stupid phase to become an adult.”

    1. Keep your fingers crossed that she stays that way and doesn’t go bananas in her 20s….

    3. The key is to do your own thinking, not just follow everyone else, blankly.
      Works a treat.

    1. Reminds me of the ‘Minister for Drought’ in 1976. Days after Denis Howell was appointed in August, the heavens opened and September and October were very wet months.

  80. I thought today was meant to be warm and slightly breezy , I am wearing a jumper , jeans and gilet to keep the chill out .

    Elderly friend brought his bedding and other washing over to me , so that I could bung it in my machine and get it clean and dried on the same day .. It started to drizzle at lunchtime , then backed off , low cloud and an Autumn feel . I hope the weather is better tomorrow, don’t want to use my electric clothes dryer so early in the season .

    There are a few trees near here draped in Virginia creeper , the redness looks like veins or dripping blood to be gruesome.. the long stone wall is capped in vivid red as the ivy has spread so far , very pretty really .

    1. It’s been overcast and still today – I hung my washing out but I doubt if it’s dried. Still, we might put some heating on this evening. Our creeper has started to turn red now.

  81. We are all sorted for Christmas, the wife has procured a quantity of pigs in blankets from Waitrose, they are all safely now nestling in the freezer.
    Just hope the electricity doesn’t go off now.

          1. SWMBO & Firstborn make their own sausages – difficult to get an English sausage here.
            And, this winter, trying to make their own bacon – FB has grown the pigs, and the sausage & bacon process is scheduled to start tomorrow…
            Poor pigs. They are endearing creatures.. :-((

          3. My God, but they shred the ground. Their pig pen (about 1/4 acre) looks like amateur night at the ploughing competition, where the entrants were drunk. We’ll have to get the disc harrow onto it to level the ground, and grow next year’s pork somewhere else, so the land can recover!

          4. They are an easy option for reclaiming ‘rough’ ground.

            They fertilise it as they roam,as well

          5. Our two are very careful to crap in a specific corner. Very tidy, they are, but then they are two girl piggies.

        2. My absolutely favourite way of eating pork – oven-roast, stuffing, gravy… drool!

          2. Roasted pork loin with crisp crackling, apple sauce, Colman’s English mustard, roasted spuds, Brussels sprouts, broad beans and thick onion gravy takes some beating.

          3. Agreed, Grizz – I’d swap kidney beans for “parallelogram-cut” runner beans – my favourite bean, whether cooked or raw.
            Love sprouts, too, me.

          4. You ought to try “Cobra” beans – a fantastic, long-lasting variety. We are still picking them – sown in May.

          5. Get your sprouts on now, in the pressure cooker for Ramadam 2027

            Christmas will be cancelled by Sad Dick Cant, our Prime Minister and leader of the Halal Party

          6. Young runner beans are delicious, the older ones with the built in razor blades, not so much!

          9. Parallelogram-cut runner beans were my mum’s favourite and I’d not eaten them for years until this summer when we grew some on the allotment. I also cut them that way, me.

          10. As do I, George, courtesy of my mum.

            btw, we had loin of pork (frozen previously cooked slices), crackling, sage & onion stuffing, kale and carrots with roasted baby onions, and parsnips, finished off with KE potatoes cooked in bacon fat. ‘Twas scrummy – at least, that’s what she said!

          11. Delicious, John. I’d eat that today (except for the spuds: I’m on a low carb, high fat diet).

          13. Marinaded some strips of belly pork in cider overnight
            Use the cider make up some sage & onion stuffing
            Place the stuffing in an ovenproof dish and place the belly pork on top
            Place in oven and cook.
            Gorgeous!

      2. EU surrenders over British bangers sold in Northern Ireland. 8 October 2021.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6bdbf6aa67dc3da91db08e48417cfca72e874907385ae2d54f530be214e20d83.png

        Britain may have won the sausage war with the EU after Brussels offered surrender terms to keep the British banger being sold in Northern Ireland after Brexit.

        Afternoon Belle. These aren’t Pigs in Blankets they are from M&S and are mucho delicious!

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/10/08/eu-offers-surrenders-terms-sausage-wars/

        1. Is it? That’s not sausages wrapped in bacon which we generally have at Christmas. Toad in the hole is sausages in batter pudding.

        2. First recipe to be found was in Betty Crocker’s Cook Book. A sort of Mrs. Beaton of the USA. I think they are out of fashion in the USA. In 40 years of Christmases there I never saw them or had them mentioned by anyone. Had no idea they existed until I came back to the UK. They seem now to be peculiarly British. In fact I thought they were exclusively British. Toad in the Hole doesn’t exist at all in the USA, neither does the Yorkshire Pudding you make Toad in the Hole with. In fact British style sausages are pretty unusual in the U.S. Hot dogs yes, but not what we think of sausages.

      5. Small sausage (half a chipolata) with a thin half rasher of bacon wrapped round them.
        I find them pointless.

          1. I’m a bit of a grinch when it comes to Christmas dinner. I’m not keen on turkey (I’d rather have goose) and pigs in blankets and sprouts do not rock my boat.
            I do like bread sauce and Christmas pudding (but not together!).

    2. Isn’t that rather cruel? Pigs are gregarious animals and don’t like the cold. Blankets are all very well – but they’d be much better in a sty.

  82. Things are getting back towards normal. I’m now receiving advertising emails from the many airlines I have loyalty cards for.
    Vert tempting!

  83. Another for NTN

    Bob, aged 92, and Mary, aged 89, were excited about their decision to get married. While out for a stroll to discuss the wedding,
    they passed a Chemist’s Shop:. Bob suggested they go in.

    Bob asked to speak to the pharmacist. He explained they’re about to get married, and asked, “Do you sell heart medication?”

    “Of course we do,” the pharmacist replied.

    “Medicine for rheumatism?”

    “Definitely,” he said.

    “How about Viagra?”

    “Of course.”

    “Medicine for memory problems, arthritis, jaundice?”

    “Yes, the works.”

    “What about vitamins, sleeping pills, Geritol, antacids?”

    “Absolutely.”

    “Do you sell wheelchairs and walkers?”

    “All speeds and sizes.”

    “Good,” Bob said to the pharmacist.

    “We’d like to register for our wedding gifts here, please.”

  84. Another for NTN

    Bob, aged 92, and Mary, aged 89, were excited about their decision to get married. While out for a stroll to discuss the wedding,
    they passed a Chemist’s Shop:. Bob suggested they go in.

    Bob asked to speak to the pharmacist. He explained they’re about to get married, and asked, “Do you sell heart medication?”

    “Of course we do,” the pharmacist replied.

    “Medicine for rheumatism?”

    “Definitely,” he said.

    “How about Viagra?”

    “Of course.”

    “Medicine for memory problems, arthritis, jaundice?”

    “Yes, the works.”

    “What about vitamins, sleeping pills, Geritol, antacids?”

    “Absolutely.”

    “Do you sell wheelchairs and walkers?”

    “All speeds and sizes.”

    “Good,” Bob said to the pharmacist.

    “We’d like to register for our wedding gifts here, please.”

  85. Another for NTN

    Bob, aged 92, and Mary, aged 89, were excited about their decision to get married. While out for a stroll to discuss the wedding,
    they passed a Chemist’s Shop:. Bob suggested they go in.

    Bob asked to speak to the pharmacist. He explained they’re about to get married, and asked, “Do you sell heart medication?”

    “Of course we do,” the pharmacist replied.

    “Medicine for rheumatism?”

    “Definitely,” he said.

    “How about Viagra?”

    “Of course.”

    “Medicine for memory problems, arthritis, jaundice?”

    “Yes, the works.”

    “What about vitamins, sleeping pills, Geritol, antacids?”

    “Absolutely.”

    “Do you sell wheelchairs and walkers?”

    “All speeds and sizes.”

    “Good,” Bob said to the pharmacist.

    “We’d like to register for our wedding gifts here, please.”

  86. Stunned holidaymakers say they have been branded racists by staff after complaining about Afghan child refugees ‘running riot’ at Scarborough’s historic Grand Hotel
    Guests who have stayed at hotel say they were branded racist over complaints
    Reviews claim Afghan refugee children are ‘running riot’ round hotel unchecked
    Hotel was the subject of a bomb hoax thought to be linked to arrival of refugees
    By KATIE FEEHAN FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 11:16, 8 October 2021 | UPDATED: 16:45, 8 October 202

    Holidaymakers were branded ‘racists’ when they complained to staff about the children of Afghan refugees ‘running riot’ at Scarborough’s Grand Hotel.

    Coach-loads of migrant families fleeing the Taliban have been arriving at the iconic venue which was evacuated earlier this week in a bomb scare believed to be linked to their arrival.

    Hotel guests say they have every sympathy with the 200 refugees staying there until they find permanent homes – but their children have disrupted their stay and caused havoc.

    According to the complaints, unruly Afghan children are running in and out other people’s rooms, screaming and shouting and setting off fire extinguishers,

    The unsupervised youngsters were also said to be riding scooters all over the hotel, pressing all the buttons on lifts, causing damage, and ‘intimidating’ guests.

    Visitors who complained to hotel workers about the disruption or requested an early checkout say they were stunned to be accused of racism by the staff.

    Two women from Billingham who requested a cancellation of their £338 stay from booking agent National Holidays say they were warned they would not get a penny back.

    One said: ‘Our concern is about safety and leaving things in our room, because of what we read about theft and kids running wild.

    ‘By no means are we racist – I’ve worked with refugees, and it is not their fault.

    ‘I totally agree they should have got out the country, but my concern is the company didn’t inform us what the Grand Hotel was doing.’

    TripAdvisor for the Grand Hotel, a Grade II listed building which was once the largest hotel in Europe, has been deluged with complaints about alleged conditions at the hotel and the behaviour of the children.

    One woman wrote that after queuing for an hour to check in she and her partner went to their room and were shocked by what they found.

    The Grand Hotel in Scarborough was the subject of a bomb hoax on Monday which is thought to be linked with complaints over the arrival of a large number of Afghan refugees at the hotel +4
    The Grand Hotel in Scarborough was the subject of a bomb hoax on Monday which is thought to be linked with complaints over the arrival of a large number of Afghan refugees at the hotel

    She said: ‘On the way I realised there were a lot of people just stood about while hundreds (or seemed like) of children raced around screaming and shouting.

    ‘After plenty of “excuse me” etc we found the room. After squeezing past folk in we went.

    ‘P**s up the walls and no quilt on the bed and these said children running in and out of the room!

    We decided we didn’t want to stay there and headed back downstairs (same carry on as going up!).

    ‘I overheard people talking angrily about the kids and people just stood about, they were refugees and more buses were just parking up.

    ‘I didn’t have a problem with this. I just felt we should have been made aware that the hotel would be this “hectic” then we could decide if the noise would be a problem for us.

    ‘I spoke to the man on the desk and asked for a refund and explained why. He then started shouting at me calling me a racist!

    ‘I am no racist – I booked the break when the school holidays had ended so it would be quieter!

    ‘He flatly refused me a refund so we left. We went on to pay £150 to get a room for 1 night then left and went home a day early as we were both worn out.

    ‘As I was at the desk getting insulted at least three others were demanding a refund for the same reasons.’

    Another disgusted guest wrote: ‘The place is full of uncontrolled refugee children, who are absolutely out of control and nobody is disciplining them.’

    Another review read: ‘People called racist by the receptionists if they complain. I saw a man getting in a lift after a queue of 30 people.

    He said to an employee – Why are all these people staying here to which the man who works at the hotel said to him – You are a racist you should not complain.

    ‘The guest then said “I am paying to be here, so I have the right to complain” to which the employee said – “No, you don’t”.’

    The hotel was targeted for a bomb scare on Monday which may be linked to leaflets complaining about the use of the hotel for refugees.

    National Holidays said: ‘We appreciate the guests sharing their concerns with us, and do understand that news cycles during challenging times can cause heightened concern and confusion.

    ‘However, rest assured that we are in constant contact with the hotel, which is operating as normal, and has been welcoming National Holidays guests for many years.’

    Britannia Hotels, who manage the resort, have been contacted by MailOnline.

    2. ‘The guest then said “I am paying to be here,” – – the guest will also be paying, through their taxes – for the refugees to be there too.

    3. Another bit of news blatantly stolen from “far right wing” independent journalists’ investigations.

    4. What is wrong with being “racist”. Discrimination is the driving force of progress and civilisation.

  87. ‘You will FREEZE!’ Russia sends terrifying threat as millions of Brits face winter crisis Daily Express

    Bring it on. The sooner the idiots in charge realise that they can’t run the country and the economy without self-sourced energy the better..

    A hard winter and no gas might just turn some of the green morons blue.

    1. As I wrote recently, we need a very cold, very still, very cloudy winter which might cause the Greeniacs to woke up.

      1. Nah – they’ll say that it show their “policies” are needed. Don’t forget that – when they first came on the political scene – one of the planks in their wonky platform was to reduce the population by 50 percent.

        1. one of the planks in their wonky platform was to reduce the population by 50 percent.

          But no sign of them attempting to block the beaches and ports of the south-east.

        2. When their electric cars, solar panels and internet are not working they might realise how stupid the total reliance on renewables actually is.

          1. You misunderstand them. Just look at the wazzocks blocking streets etc. They don’t care about the things we all take for granted.

          2. Nah, they are all hypocrites of the first water.

            They will be the first to complain when their lives are inconvenienced.

          5. It’s as if marxist revolutionary tactics had been completely forgotten by the MSM and PTB.

    2. The Names and Addresses of these Insulate Morons should be published,

      Then us normal people can go round to ‘theirs’ block cars in, stop them travelling and shopping, etc as well a bit of Fizzical Violence

    3. When i see headlines like that i wish Putin would instruct Gazprom to pump the bare minimum to cover the contracts.

    4. “The sooner the idiots in charge realise that they can’t run the country and the economy without self-sourced energy”
      Think that’s a tad more accurate, Ped.

    5. The Russians have no intention of cutting off the gas. More hysteria from a rag that’s worse than the Daily Mail!

        1. Greenies thought it produced earthquakes. I would have thought it could be done away from centres of population.

          1. The worst earthquake caused by fracking was a 3 on the Richter scale. That is the equivalent of a heavy lorry passing by.

          4. Yes, it can. I listened to some scientist explaining it on the radio. Fracking may cause some tremors as it involves bursting up the rocks deep in the earth. However, the same rock systems as under Lancashire etc are under the North Sea. Fracking can be done at sea in a similar manner to extracting oil. We are very good at that. Tremors on the sea bed are not of any concern, unlike tremors under a housing estate. The frackers want to do it on land because it is cheaper and easier and therefore they make more profit. No one ever mentions doing it at sea. Is that because the frackers have got the lobbyists and politicians and the MSM all sewn up?

        3. 33979+ up ticks,
          Evening JR,
          The ruling political class are fracking
          treacherous,must apologise for my typing lisp tonight it is really showing through.

    8. From TCW climate nonsense round-up today; the climate fraud lobby’s answer to the gas crisis:
      …”accountancy giant KPMG’s energy chief Simon Virley said last month that the Government should ‘double down’ on green energy as it moves towards net zero by 2050: ‘This will help to reduce our growing dependency on imported fossil fuels,…”

      1. I’m guessing he’s a typical member of the anagrammatical profession.
        A no act ….

        Cost of everything value of nothing.

        1. Eton mess should only* contain strawberries, sweet meringue and rich cream.

          *But others recommend British summer berries like raspberries, red and rose currants and even cherries have a touch more sharpness which pairs perfectly with the meringue and rich cream.

          1. That’s all there is to it? I frequently buy ready made meringue ‘baskets, put cut up strawberries or raspberries in them and cover with whiped cream. So I have been making Eton Mess, of a sort, anyway?

          3. If you’ve dropped it and then scooped it back into the bowl, then yes, you have done precisely that.

          4. Haven’t dropped it so haven’t quite got there!
            Listening to an interesting discussion about George III. I will post it tomorrow. It’s 45 minutes long so not a quick listen. But it’s fascinating.

          6. The Eton Mess I was brought up on, in the 50s, consisted of strawberries (hulled) sugar and cream all mashed together – not a meringue in sight, though my mother was very capable of making them.

        3. Smashed meringues. Whipped cream. Fruit such as strawberries or raspberries. Some form of sweet, thick sauce.
          Pile them up together in a pudding bowl or sundae glass.
          You can vary as much as you like: ice cream, nuts, different fruit, any sauce, whether chocolate, fruit, caramel ….. do your own thing.

          3. I put the various bowls in the middle of the dining table and let our guests get creative.
            Since, by the pudding course, drink has been taken, the results can be interesting.

    4. For all his faults he has a sense of humour, but Boris may have forgotten another Eton delicacy known as Brown Cow.
      (bowl of white ice cream garnished with Coca Cola)

        1. 339719+ up ticks,
          Evening W,
          “Starting” tis only been building for three plus decades.

    3. It does seem as if everything is back to front. The state takes ever more money, but we get ever less for it.

          1. Nah, teechers, inginurs, enguniers, unjinurs, peeple who design fings, dotters, people who make other people be’uher, and lo’ uh’ s of ovver fings.

    2. One can only hope that the Chinese will piss off so many countries that if WW3 breaks out the rest of the world chooses the rest of the world and not China to side with.

  91. That’s me gone for this curious day. It started grey and foggy and very damp – but terribly mild, and remained like that. No sign of the much promised sun. Tomorrow, perhaps.

    Have a jolly evening storing your gas and electricity against the winter.

    A demain

        1. I’ve one ash tree overhanging the road to drop at this end of the garden and noted there are several plus a dead clump of elm to drop at the Cromford end.

    3. I’m filling up the plastic crates in the attic. Blue for Electricity, Red for Gas …. or, is it the other way round?

    4. We had a spot of sun this evening.
      I noted that it’s angle is dropping behind the opposite side of the valley a lot earlier now.

    1. A broccoli cutter, on £30 an hour, would need to work 60 hour weeks 52 weeks a year for four years to take home what he “earns” (ha ha) in a week.

      1. Local radio phone in football show has had quite a few calls this week when the show mentioned the local teams are tired – – as one caller said – 3 games, total 4.5 hrs, stop for a break after 45 minutes. I have to do 4 hrs before I get a break !!! – – and i’ve just finished my FOURTH 12 HR SHIFT. . . . . He was NOT happy. Then he started on how “they walk off trying to look tired”. Then the cost of the tickets. !!!!!!!

        1. But, but, but…
          Don’t forget that they have to train for a few hours a day, poor dears.

        2. Another good reason why Wendyball (and other professional ‘sports’) are just big business.

      1. No reference. No parking. Load not ready. So he has an all-day job priced as a half-day job. He should put conditions in his quote – but then, won’t be awarded the work because he’s too much trouble and the company can’t organise themselves and he has the fall-out.
        Utter effing chaos. From where I sit, this total inability to organise is very typical of the UK, and why I don’t live there.

  94. Sausage wars victory: EU surrenders over British bangers sold in Northern Ireland
    European Commission plans to offer a sausage clause allowing ‘national identity goods’ to enter Northern Ireland

    DT’s James Crisp, Harry Yorke, Joe Barnes : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/10/08/eu-offers-surrenders-terms-sausage-wars/

    The EU has got used to running rings around us.

    Here the are the simple EU tactics:

    i) Make an unreasonable and completely ridiculous rule about sausages which insists that one part of Britain cannot export sausages to another part of Britain;
    ii) Apply this rule without leeway – in fact be completely tyrannical about it and refuse to discuss it;
    iii) When Britain at last Britain tries to talk tough and get a change in the way in which the NI Protocol is being unfairly applied say that you will be generous and withdraw the sausage rule knowing that the gullible British negotiators will forget that you introduced this rule as a future bargaining chip in the first place and are not making any proper concessions at all;
    iv) Make sure that the EU takes the moral highground and makes the British feel guilty.

    QED Britain will not invoke Article 16 and the EU will continue to occupy British territory ad nauseam..

    Does anybody really believe that the N Ireland problem with the EU will be sorted out in the next couple of years and that Britain won’t just give in yet again?

  95. Whatever happened to that Nottler who used to copy&paste stuff? Here’s a tribute cutting from sunny Derbyshire:

    Shoppers go wild for Home Bargains ‘genius’ new Christmas product.
    There are fewer than 80 days until Christmas and that can mean only one thing – shops are starting to be transformed into winter wonderlands.
    Friday, 8th October 2021, 8:21 am
    The season (sic) music might not yet be playing through the speakers and the halls aren’t being decked just yet, but the festive products are already starting to appear on the shelves.
    From tubs of Lindt chocolates that will be perfect to devour on Boxing Day to snow globe gin and advent calendars.
    But Home Bargains have stepped up the game with its latest Christmas product.
    The retailer is selling a sleigh serving board for £5.99.
    It is available instore and online.
    The serving board has already gone down a treat with Home Bargains customers on social media.
    After the retailer shared an image of the product on Instagram, people were quick to rave about it.
    One person wrote: ‘How lovely is this?’
    Another said: ‘Need this in our lives.’
    One commented: ‘This is genius.’
    A person said: ‘How cute is this.’

    1. Do you mean Bill Jackson? He got upset when Garlands banned him for a day for being annoying.

        2. He was all right. A bit gloomy, perhaps, but then he fit (fat??) in well here…

    2. Morrisons had some Christmas puddings on the shelf today. I didn’t buy one because they were not the “best” ones which we’ve had before and they are good.

    3. Could this be ….. I’ll get to it eventually ….. no, don’t hassle me …. an advert for Home Bargains?

    4. Not in my HB it isn’t. Mind you, I don’t go down the “seasonal” aisle so I could be mistaken.

    1. Somehow, the SWR EMUs here on the North Downs line are less evocative. Same goes for the GWR DMUs. But they all get me to ‘civilisation’. Since there are no shops in the village (Normandy), my nearest convenience store is either M+S Simply Food at Guildford Station, or Tesco Metro, just down the road from there. If I’m quick, I can return on the same train, which generally waits at Platform Six for around 25 minutes…

          1. It’s fairly bland. The only odd bit was the jumping off the cliff; girls don’t do that.

          5. I remember talking to a girl for half an hour at a bus stop years ago. I was telling her all about my stamps and train numbers. Weird, but when the bus came along she leapt beneath the wheels.

          2. An intellectual, moi? I have to say I thought you were being facetious. I do remember a ‘Follow the Sun, song from some years ago.
            I just checked that and saw it was a Beatles song, not my favourites. blackbox2, I apologise if I’ve been tasteless, wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been accused of that. I could upset the Pope these days, my taste in almost everything I see and hear these days appears out of kilter with the majority. Take care.

          3. I was being facetious! And don’t apologise – I know my taste in music is low brow.

  99. Did you know that Baileys has launched a strawberry-flavoured cream-&-whiskey based drink?
    It’s absolutely effing disgusting!
    :-(>)

    1. I think it has been out for a while, bought a bottle a couple of Christmases ago, I quite liked it but haven’t seen it on the shelves since.

          1. Quite. I’m prolly about to order another 18 y o Ledaig, if I can’t wangle one as a Christmas pressie. Around £80, but it is used very sparingly. Visited Tobermory distillery some years ago, and was very impressed.

          3. Bunnahabhain my fave. £55 a bottle here, but at least it’s available! More than you could say about the offies and airport duty-free last time I was in Aberdeen.

          4. My recomendation to try is Glen Elgin. They do not neeed to advertise and I came across by accident.

          5. Macallan 12 Y O.

            I cannot drink the Western Isles stuff – too peaty – give me the clean cut Speyside Malts.

      2. A capful, I should think. I like dawdies, but I can’t stand them when they’re messed about, e.g. I hate strawberry jam.

    3. One to avoid. Bob of Bonsall has the right idea. His post last night re. Ledaig resonates with me. I’ve just finished a bottle of the 18 yo version. I would add that it has lasted since April last year. Would that I could do the same with Shiraz…

      1. Yo Boss

        You will find that there are Local Bye Laws, throughout UK, banning the storage of wine in Opened Bottles

        Sup Up

  100. Just been watching the volcano live feed with added subsciber chat at:

    https://youtu.be/Q3FcD_FrPkI

    The volcano image is that of the same old pulsating fountains of molten lava and plumes of smoke but its fury is making viewers see a vision of hell and so the chat stream has turned to a relgious thread. God and Jesus getting top billing with calls to moderators to get the comments back on topic.

    As funny as the disqus chat on Downdetector when facebook crashed.

  102. Police search child migrants at the roadside after boats land on beaches in Kent while two more dinghies are intercepted as ruthless smugglers take advantage of warmer weather
    At least three incidents saw migrants manage to get onto land without being stopped until minutes later
    The landings happened in different areas across the Kent coast and saw the authorities’ resources stretched
    Official Home Office statistics showed more than 3,872 people have arrived in 113 incidents last month

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10072921/Police-search-child-migrants-roadside-boats-land-beaches-Kent.html

  104. With Covid quarantining coming to an end there will be many many rooms empty – – – to be filled with those coming from Calais????- – paid for by us of course. Millions more cash to the hotel owners from our govt – from our pockets of course. No power/heat/food/tv/cost problems for them. WE have to pay for ours – – AND THEIRS TOO. We can get cut off – – THEY WON’T BE.

    1. And (if or) when Summer comes around again and holidays are not allowed abroad, as we will be back in Lockdown,
      all the UK Hotels will be full of Taliban,

      Better get used to it

      We have lost our Freedom

  105. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/beyond-a-joke-anger-in-area-of-kent-at-how-easy-it-is-to-cross-channel-and-walk-into-uk/ar-AAPhJaj?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/as-overt-as-you-could-get-sky-news-witnesses-police-watching-on-as-migrant-boats-launch-near-calais/ar-AAPhjZS?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/french-police-fail-to-stop-migrant-crossings/vi-AAPhnsn?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
    And we gave them ??? £millions

      1. There should be a Special Nobel Prize for the Swedish Muppet.

        A Kilogram of Dynamite, perhaps …

      2. I lost all respect when Torbjørn Jagland ensured Obama won it for being Obama.
        It’s just bollox.

  108. Evening, all. Been a lovely, sunny, WARM (21 degrees C!) day here; I sat and ate my breakfast outside – who knows how many more opportunities I might get to do that this year? I removed the last of my tomato plants and cut down my raspberry canes ready for winter. If it stays fine I’ll be continuing to put the garden to bed for the winter in the next few days. As for the headline – Bojo doesn’t have any laurels to rest on; he’s achieved eff all positive with his massive majority.

      1. I told my MP (Paterson) that there was no difference between the Cons and Labour now; the Cons were just as high tax, profligate spend and big state. Not that it will register.

    3. …and we trust that Oscar is enjoying his Autumnal activities. Love and hugs to you both.

      1. Thank you, Tom. Oscar is starting to push the boundaries; he is needing to be reminded of the rules (MY rules, not his!). I am sure once we’ve worked through this pre-teen (he turned 12 last Saturday) flexing of muscles he will be a wonderful companion and a terrific dog.

  109. Jesus wept:-

    Women prisoners who call transgender inmates ‘he’ or ‘him’ face extra jail time
    Under equality rules, offenders who use terms deemed ‘threatening, abusive or insulting’ could have additional days added to their sentence

    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    8 October 2021 • 6:23pm
    Women prisoners who call transgender inmates by the wrong pronoun could face extra time in jail under equality rules, says a justice minister.

    Female inmates who deliberately call a transgender woman “he” or “him” could be punished under rules barring “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour”.

    The penalties will be decided by an independent adjudicator, a visiting judge, who has the power to impose additional days if they feel the abuse merits such a punishment.

    The disclosure comes amid a growing debate over the policy of holding male-to-female transgender prisoners in women’s jails.

    This summer, the High Court rejected a legal challenge to prevent transgender inmates with convictions for sexual or violent offences against women being imprisoned alongside other women.

    In 2019, there were 34 transgender women who were still legally male detained at the 12 women’s prisons in England and Wales.

    Aggravating factors
    Asked about the policy on the words allowed for transgender inmates, Lord Wolfson, the justice minister, said: “Incidents where a prisoner uses incorrect pronouns for another prisoner will be considered on a case-by-case basis, in line with the prisoner discipline procedures policy and the prison rules.

    “Prisoners may sometimes make an honest mistake in relation to pronouns and disciplinary action would not usually be appropriate in those circumstances.

    “However, if an officer deems it appropriate to place a prisoner on report, the rule against ‘using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour’ – Prison Rule 51(20) – may apply. The adjudicator will weigh each incident on its own merits.

    “The policy stipulates that an offence motivated by another person’s protected characteristic(s) under the Equality Act 2010 is an aggravating factor and may merit referral to an Independent Adjudicator.”

    The most severe punishment available
    Official guidelines state that disciplinary cases are normally heard by a prison governor, and are only referred to an Independent Adjudicator where there is the possibility of days being added on to the sentence – which is the most severe punishment available.

    Under Prison Service policy, any prisoner who has legally changed their gender, and been granted a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to prove it, will automatically be sent to a jail appropriate to their new gender.

    A prisoner who identifies as the opposite sex but does not have a GRC will initially go to a prison for their old, legally-recognised gender, but may later move after an assessment of their case.

    Lord Wolfson added: “The Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service are committed to advancing equality, eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation.

    “As part of this, we ensure that all prisoners are treated fairly and in a way that respects their rights, and encourage them to act in a way that is respectful and considerate of others.”

    2. Why, oh why, are we so soft on these transgender (transexuals)?

      Hit down hard, because the males (shes without a cervix) are just chancers.

  110. I was only thinking earlier today that if we only had time machines we could send Extinction Rebellion and the Insulators back to the Jurassic period and save the dinosaurs

    1. There’s a flock been hanging around Kit Hill for the last few weeks, but nothing like that.

  112. This is why people are flocking to their religion whist watching the livestream video from La Palma.

    https://youtu.be/Zb4T8a1K5tw

    At least in the UK we’ll get more than a four minute warning that we had in the sixties when loaded V-bombers were sitting, engines running, waiting on the tarmac for chocks away and the pilots had said their farewells to spouses and children.

    As they say on Crimewatch – don’t have nightmares, things like this (e.g. Scotland going independent) hardly ever happen in a lifetime.
    And as Dave Allen used to say:
    “Goodnight – and may your god go with you”

    2. As I have said before, back in 1964, I was ordered to guard a RAF V Bomber, dispersed to RNAS Lossiemouth

      I stood under its wings, for about 4 hours, armed with a pick handle and a whistle

      I must have been a scary figure, no-one stole it

      1. In 1972 we’d all stop work and have a ciggie outside the hangar when the Vulcans took off from St Athan.

        1. As a 21-year-old undergraduate in 1962, I recall The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis of 1962 (Spanish: Crisis de Octubre), the Caribbean Crisis (Russian: Карибский кризис, tr. Karibsky krizis, IPA: [kɐˈrʲipskʲɪj ˈkrʲizʲɪs]), or the Missile Scare, was a 1 month, 4 day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union which escalated into an international crisis when American deployments of missiles in Italy and Turkey were matched by Soviet deployments of similar ballistic missiles in Cuba. Despite the short time frame, the Cuban Missile Crisis remains a defining moment in U.S. national security and nuclear war preparation. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.[3]

          It was scary.

          1. Scary – too bluddy right – I had visions of our North Norfolk airfield being obliterated in one big bang. See earlier post.

          2. I remember the drills about under the kitchen table or under the stairs, but the Cuba Crisis disappeared with the coming ’62/’63 wicked (but fun) winter snows.

      2. In 1962 (Cuba Crisis) we were confined to the Squadron for 72 hours (sleep under an engine cover or some such) with all 17 aircraft (including the T3 trainer), fully armed and 4 lightening missiles on board, sat on the ORP (Operational Readiness Platform) on telescramble at the end of the runway. The Thor missiles at North Pickering were down to 2 minutes – and had NO recall. Scary times.

    1. NO bills for them !!!! power, heat, food, tv bed etc etc. police force, nhs, fire service they arrive – – and we have to pay for their lives. Said it for months – – –

    2. On any of the few video clips showing them in the hotels – – The few clips also show that we must be paying for clothing as well as the rest of what they get. but never gets mentionrd. They aren’t wearing the clothes they arrive in – and don’t carry suitcases. We are being had for idiots.

      1. They are mostly crap hotels which i would never stay in. That includes the ‘Spa’ resort hotels. Wouldn’t surprise me if they take over Alton Towers….given how much the Taliban like dodging flumes and water boards.

        1. Given where they come from – – and it is ALL FREE. their arrogance is unreal. Why the hell should WE be paying for someone who CANNOT be fleeing a war etc in Europe to be living here in a hotel???? getting free everything, free heathcare etc etc – – – and our govt carry on allowing more and more to arrive with the cost coming from our taxes????

          1. You have to understand it’s all a massive money laundering scheme from the taxpayers to the favoured few via the government
            See Serco housing contracts for further details to name just one..,

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