Thursday 3 February: The PM’s betrayal of Tory voters extends far beyond the No 10 party row

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

591 thoughts on “Thursday 3 February: The PM’s betrayal of Tory voters extends far beyond the No 10 party row”

  3. The PM’s betrayal of Tory voters extends far beyond the No 10 party row

    Yep – the net zero carbon green energy scams , the illegal immigrant scam, the pandemic scams, the non Brexit scam and now the levelling up Balkanization of England scam.

    But at least he hasn’t let the forces of globalism down, well apart from not enforcing New Zealand style covid regulations on the country, hence they now want to replace him.

  4. What’s the purpose of the levelling up white paper?. 2 February 2022.

    As for the document itself, it comes in at a cool 332-pages and can be described as academic in places. While it sets out key missions, it is also heavy on history — complete with a timeline of the largest cities in the world since 7,000 BC including Jericho, Dobrovody, Yinxu and Ayutthaya. The biblical city, the paper states, ‘had natural irrigation from the Jordan River, allowing it to produce and export the most expensive essential oil in the ancient world’. Pages are devoted to Gove’s favoured ‘Medici model’ as an example of how today’s agenda can learn from 15th century Renaissance Italy:

    Across Europe, the Renaissance period in Italy and the Golden Age in Holland offered examples of similar periods of transformative, city-centric growth. In both cases the recipe was a familiar one — the magnetic attraction of people, culture, commerce and finance spreading ideas, innovation and ultimately growth.

    Much as I am addicted to history, its purpose here is obfuscation and twaddle. Leveliing Up like Net-Zero are simply cant slogans devoid of meaning. Their results are couched comfortably in the far future where they cannot be questioned or doubted. It can be said with fair certainty that within five years both they and their instigators will have been conveniently forgotten!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/levelling-up-paper

    1. I agree with you. When someone* goes out of their way to tell you that a particular plan is based on organic demand – then you just know that it is an unwanted something that the government wants to foist on people.

      *especially when that someone is Gove!

    2. It was the industrial revolution, led by Britain with steam engines, driven by fossil fuels that allowed us to build the biggest Empire the world has ever seen and putting money in the pockets of everyone, world-wide, willing to work.

      All this while the Black Africans were selling off their brethren to Arabic and African slave buyers. Many of whom ended up in the US and, with the freeing of slaves, caused the current BLM problem.

      Not so much an industrial revolution more like an ethnic revolution. Just suppose, as an apology for the slavery, we repatriated all the blacks back to Africa.

      Heigh-ho – just dreamin’.

    3. What is the purpose of the white paper? It’s a feeble attempt to hang on to the red wall votes, even though Johnson’s antics have probably destroyed much of it. Besides, where is the vast sum of money coming from to fund it all? The promise of ‘Regional mayors’ is just another expensive sop, another example of unnecessary duplication. Bliar let the devolution genie out of the bottle, and our idiotic conservative government is hell-bent on extending it. If there’s a manifestly wrong way of doing something this government will probably go for it.

      1. It isn’t a conservative government. It isn’t even a ‘libdem’ government . It’s a socialist government, run by the civil service.

  5. What’s the purpose of the levelling up white paper?. 2 February 2022.

    As for the document itself, it comes in at a cool 332-pages and can be described as academic in places. While it sets out key missions, it is also heavy on history — complete with a timeline of the largest cities in the world since 7,000 BC including Jericho, Dobrovody, Yinxu and Ayutthaya. The biblical city, the paper states, ‘had natural irrigation from the Jordan River, allowing it to produce and export the most expensive essential oil in the ancient world’. Pages are devoted to Gove’s favoured ‘Medici model’ as an example of how today’s agenda can learn from 15th century Renaissance Italy:

    Across Europe, the Renaissance period in Italy and the Golden Age in Holland offered examples of similar periods of transformative, city-centric growth. In both cases the recipe was a familiar one — the magnetic attraction of people, culture, commerce and finance spreading ideas, innovation and ultimately growth.

    Much as I am addicted to history, its purpose here is obfuscation and twaddle. Leveliing Up like Net-Zero are simply cant slogans devoid of meaning. Their results are couched comfortably in the far future where they cannot be questioned or doubted. It can be said with fair certainty that within five years both they and their instigators will have been conveniently forgotten!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/levelling-up-paper

  6. What’s the purpose of the levelling up white paper?. 2 February 2022.

    As for the document itself, it comes in at a cool 332-pages and can be described as academic in places. While it sets out key missions, it is also heavy on history — complete with a timeline of the largest cities in the world since 7,000 BC including Jericho, Dobrovody, Yinxu and Ayutthaya. The biblical city, the paper states, ‘had natural irrigation from the Jordan River, allowing it to produce and export the most expensive essential oil in the ancient world’. Pages are devoted to Gove’s favoured ‘Medici model’ as an example of how today’s agenda can learn from 15th century Renaissance Italy:

    Across Europe, the Renaissance period in Italy and the Golden Age in Holland offered examples of similar periods of transformative, city-centric growth. In both cases the recipe was a familiar one — the magnetic attraction of people, culture, commerce and finance spreading ideas, innovation and ultimately growth.

    Much as I am addicted to history, its purpose here is obfuscation and twaddle. Leveliing Up like Net-Zero are simply cant slogans devoid of meaning. Their results are couched comfortably in the far future where they cannot be questioned or doubted. It can be said with fair certainty that within five years both they and their instigators will have been conveniently forgotten!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/levelling-up-paper

  7. What’s the purpose of the levelling up white paper?. 2 February 2022.

    As for the document itself, it comes in at a cool 332-pages and can be described as academic in places. While it sets out key missions, it is also heavy on history — complete with a timeline of the largest cities in the world since 7,000 BC including Jericho, Dobrovody, Yinxu and Ayutthaya. The biblical city, the paper states, ‘had natural irrigation from the Jordan River, allowing it to produce and export the most expensive essential oil in the ancient world’. Pages are devoted to Gove’s favoured ‘Medici model’ as an example of how today’s agenda can learn from 15th century Renaissance Italy:

    Across Europe, the Renaissance period in Italy and the Golden Age in Holland offered examples of similar periods of transformative, city-centric growth. In both cases the recipe was a familiar one — the magnetic attraction of people, culture, commerce and finance spreading ideas, innovation and ultimately growth.

    Much as I am addicted to history, its purpose here is obfuscation and twaddle. Leveliing Up like Net-Zero are simply cant slogans devoid of meaning. Their results are couched comfortably in the far future where they cannot be questioned or doubted. It can be said with fair certainty that within five years both they and their instigators will have been conveniently forgotten!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/levelling-up-paper

  8. I see that Disqus have started yesterday with topping & tailing the page by putting in a pane of advertisements – you can make them go away, and they are proof against adblocker +.
    Not impressed. Wish folk could stop trying to sell me shit I don’t want.
    Morning, all Y’all.

    1. I left my landline number when seeking quotes for house insurance yesterday.

      Big mistake! I was plagued all day with nuisance calls, most of which are listed as “dangerous” “scam” or “harassing sales” on Whats That Number. I left my answering machine on speakerphone. Most ring off when they hear the recorded message, leaving just a couple of genuine brokers. They filled up my storage when I was listening to Elgar, so I just picked up and put down to silence it.

      What my mother does when she gets one of these is to put the handset down on a chair and then go to the loo, leaving them hanging on until they give up. I have a friend, a Brummie, who can do a neat impersonation of John Humphrys in a barely intelligible Turkish accent, often asking cold callers to spell out long words.

  9. Good morning to all who are about to be fuel impoverished!

    Yesterday I posted a snippet (snippet ha!) about the US Debt reaching $30 Trillion. The US Debt Clock calculates that’s only $90,000 per citizen but $240000 per yer actual tax payers:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/50d5a755c421833bfe8380f7413fa8b0328807aee3bd09055e78d96cd089b71a.png

    Some enterprising folk have created some graphic images of the scale of the debt as measured in greenbacks….:

    https://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/us_debt/us_debt.html

    3. The intention of the banks is to shore up their own index-linked bonus pots (hence the sneering complacency from the 6am Radio 4 economists) whilst carrying on with a policy of inflating away debt at the expense of those who need real money to live.

      That big scary number will buy a tin of beans next year, so no need to worry your pretty little head.

      1. remove banks and replace with ‘state’ and you’re right. the Wwar queen is an investment banker. She has lots of Japanese clients making pots of money. All offshore, all in tax vehicles she devised.

        Her pension is also kept away from the grasping thieves in Whitehall. The BBC is as complicit in this criminal arrogance as the state machine is. People blame banks because they are an easy target – rich, intelligent, untouchable they may be – they’re not the ones setting policy and making us poorer.

        1. The Bank of England is setting interest rates at way below inflation and making me poorer, while their mates pocket the difference.

          1. Yes, but the friends of the bank of England is the government. We’re all being crushed by inflation. The state is using it to control it’s destructive and disgusting level of borrowing.

            That’s not the commercial banks fault.

    4. Extrapolating from those figures for every tax payer there are 2.5 freeloaders. There’s the problem right there.

      1. A significant number of those “freeloaders”, as you put it, will be children.
        Although not impossible, it is a lot more difficult to live on benefits in the USA than it is here and in most of the EU.

          2. The list of things we pay 20% VAT on is endless; lavatory paper, soap, shampoo, kitchen towels, bath salts, plasters, disinfectant, bleach, cleaning materials, antiseptic cream, pet food (unless it’s for “working dogs”), mints, chocolate, alcohol, flowers …

        2. I suppose that makes Junior a welfare addict, as both of his parents now actively avoid paying direct taxes. Perhaps if the tax burden were not so high, we wouldn’t bother. When it is, we will.

          Atlas has shrugged off the yoke. He (we) refuse to contribute directly to the waste of the state machine.

    5. Note it ignores the offbook debt, same as ours does. All that’s unfunded as well – doesn’t mean it isn’t owed nor an on-going cost.

  10. The uncomfortable truth about Sweden. Spiked 3 February 2022.

    The Guardian, meanwhile, referred to the data to establish ‘the truth’ regarding gun crimes and immigration in Sweden, finding no swell in offences when the country accepted more than 160,000 Syrian refugees in 2015.

    But the facts have now become too shocking to ignore. In 2020, the Observer covered ‘the wave of explosions rocking Sweden’s streets’, lamenting the ‘crisis levels’ of incidents involving explosives.

    This will of course recur in the UK (with minor variations due to access to weapons etc.) just as soon as the incomers become tired of living in hotels and realise the utter uselessness of the Country’s Institutions and the spinelessness of the Political Elites. Unless I miss my guess and Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine (which would allow them to put the blame on Russia) a domestic crisis is coming that even Westminster will not be able to overcome with a few Weasel Words about Levelling up, Net-Zero et. al!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/02/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-sweden/

      1. Morning Bob. Yes to bring them into the Globalist Fold. The only opposition to this plan is Vladimir Putin and Russia which explains the intransigence of NATO and the West over Ukraine.

      2. Morning Bob. Yes to bring them into the Globalist Fold. The only opposition to this plan is Vladimir Putin and Russia which explains the intransigence of NATO and the West over Ukraine.

      3. 334912+ up ticks,

        Morning B3,

        The lab/lib/con coalition has certainly done their
        bit, especially these last three plus decades.

  11. Morning all, I understand the revised energy cap will be published today, that should be fun!

  13. Good morrow, gentlefolk – a shit night means I may depart for several whiles to partake of a nap. Yep, I admit to being a KOS (Knackered Old Shit).

    1. It’s not just you NTN. I find myself most welcoming of an afternoon doze. I find if i don’t get one I am increasingly useless.

      Often I was found having a nap in my chair in the office. The team knew I would be all the better for it.

      1. A nap is often all that is needed. I often feel fatigued as the day wears on so i have taken to drinking a glass of lucozade in the afternoons.

  14. Email from Save the Parish:

    Help Us Defeat GS2222
    Dear

    The CofE’s report on the consultation exercise on GS2222 (a green paper that proposed making church closures easier and quicker for the benefit of the dioceses) is now out. This document is called ‘GS1312’

    There were over 1600 responses to the public consultation on GS2222 and they were overwhelmingly hostile, However, worryingly, G1312 makes it clear (in paragraph 2 of the Introduction) that the intention is to proceed with a White Paper in July.

    There is to be a ‘consultation feedback’ meeting on Tuesday, 8TH FEB, at 7pm in the Emmanuel Centre, 9-23 Marsham Street, London SW1P 3DW.

    You do not need to be a member of General Synod to attend. Please come! Getting lots of opposition in the room, and asking questions, is the best way to let the powers that be know what we think.

    To attend, please book a free ticket online via:
    https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/review-of-the-mpm-2011-consultation-feedback-a-conversation-tickets-253270026467

    Parish Stories
    Parish Stories- stories sourced from our supporters about the pressures being faced by parishes- are shown here.
    https://savetheparish.com/category/parish-stories/
    The latest story- a warning from Wales- is particularly poignant. It show what ensues if you agree to subsume your parish and PCC into a group.

    We hugely welcome the contribution of new material. Sending in your story will help other parishes by pooling experiences, and get the problems out into a public forum. Submit your story.

    ‘How to Object’
    In addition to the Parish Pack- a collection of helpful advice and steps you can take to protect your Parish from diocesan interference-, in our Parish Resources section we now also have a ‘How To Object’ document. It is written to offer help and support to Incumbents, Churchwardens, PCC Members, congregations and parish residents. If you fear that your parish might be subject to an unwelcome reorganisation, then please read this document right to the end, because it is important to understand the whole procedure right from the earliest soundings being taken by the diocese.

    You can read/download ‘How to Object’ (from save the parish website)
    Kind regards,

    Emma Thompson
    on behalf of Save the Parish

    1. When I was recruited into the village church choir in 1994, I was in my late thirties, but the youngest one there. When I left the choir to become a Catholic, now in my forties, I was still the youngest one there. I am now in my mid sixties, and still one of the youngest there, although there is a 20-something organist who only knows one tune – the Lord of the Dance.

      Two key members of the parish died recently, and mortality is picking up. The British Legion lost their organiser, and the church lost their guitarist – from the postwar generation who used to entertain one another on their guitars, who are now in their seventies. There is no longer anyone to wind the clock, which has now packed up. Turning off the heating has left the Grade 1 listed church damp, and the hymn books are starting to go mouldy.

      Does Lambeth Palace really believe this can be turned round by bishops and central administrators and an online Alpha course for the Netflix Youth?

      [edit for the usual senior gobbledigookery]

      1. There are more younger people involved in my home parish. The main problem for many parishes is not that nobody wants to get involved, it’s that money is being channeled off to Lambeth to pay for the bloated management. At the same time, the bloated management’s left wing politics are actively putting people off coming to church. The independent Anglican churches are flourishing.

    2. While they don’t have to bother acknowledging your views, they won’t. Until a single voice can say no, and stop their entire assault, they will continue.

      1. SaveTheParish is well organised, and is trying to make it impossible for the leadership to ignore us. For example, they have a number of candidates elected into the Synod.
        If we don’t put up a fight, most of the churches in Britain will disappear, with disastrous consequences.

  15. Russia mocks ‘utterly confused’ Boris Johnson and ridicules Liz Truss for her ‘poor geography knowledge’ after she boasted UK would supply ‘our Baltic allies across the Black Sea’

    Russia has branded Boris Johnson ‘utterly confused’ and slammed Liz Truss’s ‘poor geography knowledge’ as diplomats ramped up the rhetoric over Ukraine today.

    Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said the Russian President is ready to provide explanations on the situation in eastern Europe ‘even to someone who is utterly confused’ after Mr Johnson cancelled a call with the Kremlin on Monday.

    I have no problem believing either of these things. Boris’s views on the Ukrainian Question are even more estranged from reality than his domestic opinions. Fortunately Vlad seem to have a profound understanding of the Globalist Mindset! That the Foreign Secretary; Liz Truss, does not know the difference between the Baltic and Black Sea is only to be expected!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10468729/Russia-mocks-Boris-Johnson-ridicules-Liz-Truss-row-Ukraine.htmlv

    1. Araminta, I think that you’re being far too harsh on Ms Truss: both seas consist of wet water, ships are able to float on both, fish swim in both and both contain the letters B, L, C and A in their names. An easy mistake to confuse them, especially from a Westminster bubble inhabiting politician.

      Good morning, by the way.

  17. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    From the DT:

    Energy bills: How Boris Johnson is still caught in a trap laid by Labour’s Ed Miliband

    Promises to cut fuel costs come to nothing as Tory governments remain bogged down in policies created years ago

    By
    Gordon Rayner,
    ASSOCIATE EDITOR
    2 February 2022 • 7:00pm

    After 12 years of Conservative prime ministers, energy customers are still standing in Ed Miliband’s shadow.

    Boris Johnson’s promises to cut fuel bills have come to nothing because successive Tory governments have fallen into a trap set for them by Labour.

    More than a quarter of the cost of an electricity bill is now made up of environmental and social levies championed by Mr Miliband when he was energy secretary.

    If Mr Johnson scrapped VAT on energy bills – as he has previously promised to do – and got rid of the levies, it would cut £250 from the average bill overnight.

    Instead, consumers are facing a £700 increase in the average bill as the energy price cap – also a Labour idea – rises from £1,277 to an estimated £2,000 in April.

    Critics say state interventions adopted by the Tories have prevented the energy market from operating competitively, driving up costs even before the recent rise in wholesale prices.

    The Government is now understood to be considering another intervention, in the form of loans to energy companies, giving its policies a distinctly socialist tinge rather than adhering to free market conservatism.

    The problems date back to 2008, when the Labour government imposed a series of green levies on households through their energy bills using the Climate Change Act, the brainchild of Mr Miliband.

    David Cameron was no fan of the levies, and in 2013 was reported to have told officials to “get rid of all the green crap” from energy bills to drive down costs – but his Liberal Democrat coalition partners watered down his plans to do so.

    Six levies ‘add £190 to cost of electricity bills’

    Today, bill-payers face no fewer than six levies on their bills, all of which appear under just one heading as “environmental and social obligation costs”.

    They include the renewables obligation, which subsidises the cost of wind farms and other renewable energy sources; feed-in tariffs, which pay householders for excess electricity generated through domestic wind turbines or solar panels, and contracts for difference, which subsidises low-carbon electricity generation schemes.

    The other levies are the warm home discount, which pays £140 to those on low incomes; the energy company obligation, which helps low-income households to upgrade to more efficient heating systems, and a small levy to subsidise the cost of providing power to the most remote areas.

    Altogether, they add £190 to the cost of electricity bills, according to the trade body Energy UK – which amounts to 25.5 per cent of the total bill. For dual fuel customers, the cost of the levies makes up 15.3 per cent of the bill, according to Ofgem, because the levies are heavily weighted towards electricity use.

    As the Labour leader in 2015, Mr Miliband proposed a price cap on energy bills. The idea proved popular with the public and, despite Mr Miliband losing that year’s election, the Tories stole the idea and introduced the cap in 2019.

    Some economists argue that the cap has led to rising costs because it gives consumers a sense of security and acts as a disincentive to shop around for lower prices from other suppliers.

    Critics of the cap say it was based on inflated claims about the extent to which consumers were being ripped off and that, if the energy market had been left to operate in free market conditions, competition would have led to efficiencies that would have kept prices down.

    Another method of cutting energy bills would be to scrap VAT on them, which is imposed at five per cent for domestic users. This would cut £60 from bills today, or £100 if average bills go up to £2,000.

    Labour and Tories occupying each other’s ground

    During the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign, Mr Johnson promised to do so – something Britain could not do while it remained in the EU. But he has now junked that idea, deciding that more targeted support for those struggling to pay, rather than a tax cut for all bill-payers, is needed.

    Ironically, Labour’s policy is to scrap VAT on domestic energy bills, leaving Labour and the Tories occupying each other’s traditional ground.

    Instead, Mr Johnson is reportedly proposing yet more state intervention in the energy market, in the form of loans that will pay for £200 “discounts” on bills (less than the amount that could be cut from them by scrapping VAT and green levies).

    The idea is for energy companies to borrow up to £6 billion from the Government between them, so that they can spread the cost of the price rise over several years rather than hitting consumers with the entire cost of the price hike now. Energy firms had hoped for £20 billion in loans.

    The drawback with the “loan and claw back” idea is that it relies on wholesale energy prices falling in order to even out the cost to customers over a period of years. If prices stay high or continue to rise, bills will keep going up.

    Instead of outflanking Labour, the Tories have become bogged down by policies that were entirely Labour’s creations.

    * * *

    And there you have it – or not. The final paragraph is particularly galling.The conservatives (so-called) have been in office since 2010. They have had 12 years to reverse Milliband’s damaging legislation, but all they have done is to pile on more and more of the unaffordable greenie drivel. During that period they have failed to devise a workable and cost-effective energy policy, and security of supply has gone out of the window. On the day when whole squadrons of chickens are coming home to roost to greet a tidal wave of massive increases in energy prices, we are now caught in an expensive trap which will leave many more in poverty, thanks to a combination of short-termism, incompetence and neglect.

    1. It will all be OK when they have a big enough working majority in Parliament and they can overturn Millipede’s inspired legislation, oh wait………..

    2. Critics say state interventions adopted by the Tories have prevented the energy market from operating competitively, driving up costs even before the recent rise in wholesale prices.

      Morning Hugh. This is pretty well true of everything. Socialist intervention in the form of legislation has led to the atrophying of all State Institutions that are now utterly useless. The only way out of this is Collapse!

    3. Aarrrgggghhh! No! No no and NO Again!

      The state keeps borrowingand giving money to energy companies for what? TO keep them going? To allow them to buy energy? Energy the state is making expensive. What will that mean? Higher taxes. More money moved from worker through a wasteful, useless state for soemthing that isn’t needed for a problem they have caused.

      All solely so they can continue to deflect the real problem away from themselves and be seen to ‘be doing something’. The sad thing? There are millions of stupid people who’ll fall for it.

    3. Just leave the doors fully open; that way you don’t get a draught. Here, in Sweden, we have a culture of open-plan homes; my bedroom door is always left wide open and the exchange of fresh air, throughout the house, keeps me healthy.

      Yes, I know that our homes are built to a higher standard of insulation than in the UK (my walls are 15″ thick) but those Jocks would be better off properly insulating the schools first then leaving the doors open.

  20. Good morning all from a dull Derbyshire. Dry at the moment with 4°C on the thermometer in the yard.

  21. Covid lockdown ‘prevented only 0.2pc of deaths in first wave’. 3 February 2022.

    Lockdowns prevented just 0.2 per cent of deaths in comparison with simply trusting people to do the right thing, a new study suggests.

    Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, in the US, Lund University, in Sweden and the Centre for Political Studies, in Denmark, said the costs to society far outweighed the benefits and called for lockdown to be “rejected out of hand” as a future pandemic policy.

    We knew all this last year but it got in the way Of Project Fear so it was suppressed!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/02/trusting-people-do-right-thing-saved-lives-covid-lockdowns/

    1. Not sure how, what or which way, but apparently there is going to be a raid on pension pots next month. I expect its something to do with tax free draw downs after the 5 of April. It’s the same old story, the politicians eff everything up and they expect the electorate to bail them out. Washing their filty hands of any responsibility. While their own gold plated pensions are bomb proof.

        1. It seems to be a general trend have you tried to contact any form of customer service recently ?
          It’s virtually impossible to get through and previous emails bounce.
          One of the most frustrating is virgin media.
          Previously a customer could ring a number and within a few minutes speak to members of a team in Swansea. And get some satisfaction. But now……….

    2. 334912+ up ticks,

      Morning FA,
      All part of the reset brainwash program, it will eventually
      include daily orders.

  24. 334912+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 3 February: The PM’s betrayal of Tory voters extends far beyond the No 10 party row,

    This can be echoed through the lab/lib/con mass party controlled illegal
    immigration intake via DOVER for one instance, an armada is crossing the English Channel while we are being sold down the river & get this,
    with a majority of the electorates consent.

  25. Morning all.
    We have builders two houses along the road from our house.
    When planning was applied for we didn’t get a planning notice. There is a lamp post Opposite but no planning notice attached.
    Opposite, the work, immediate neighbours and even the people who live around 80 yards away well passed the bottom of the garden had a notice.
    The people having the work done have moved out. But guess who is suffering the most from disturbances and vans parking out side their homes ?
    I think it’s time the council were brought up to date regarding their complete lack of support for others effected by such ongoing and long term events.
    And forthwith.

  26. As we enter the New Year, the British public faces a perfect storm of cost of living pressures: rising inflation and property prices and — perhaps most serious of all — rocketing energy costs.

    According to Ofgem, households are paying an average of £1,277 for their gas and electricity — a figure sure to rise sharply over the coming months as increases in wholesale gas and electricity prices feed through into domestic bills and the Government’s price cap is raised.

    Of this, green stealth taxes represent a significant factor. A fat 15.3 per cent — £195 a year — goes on ‘environmental and social costs’. On electricity bills alone, it’s a huge 25.5 per cent.

    This covers a bewildering and ever-growing number of green schemes — some of which are anything but.

    Renewables Obligation

    This was the original, underhand scheme which forced consumers to subsidise renewable energy at a cost of £6.3 billion a year, paid by both domestic consumers and business users of electricity.

    Energy suppliers are obliged to buy a certain number of Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) for every megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity they sell to consumers.

    The scheme, introduced in 2002, was closed to new generating plants in 2017, but consumers are still paying to fund contracts issued in the past.

    Generators were awarded 20-year contracts, meaning that consumers will still be paying for the scheme until 2037.

    The result of the policy is that wind and solar farms generate so much electricity on windy and sunny days that in 2020 they had to be paid £282 million in ‘constraint payments’ to turn off their turbines.

    Contracts for Difference

    This is a new scheme which replaced the Renewables Obligation in 2017. Operators of qualifying renewable energy plants (nuclear power stations are eligible) are guaranteed a ‘strike price’ for every MWh of electricity they generate.

    If the wholesale market rate for electricity falls below the strike price, a public body called the Low Carbon Contracts Company makes up the difference.

    In the most recent auction in September, the Government offered £265 million of subsidies. Needless to say, the bill ultimately falls on consumers.

    Climate Change Levy

    This is a straightforward tax on the burning of fossil fuels — paid by owners of gas and coal-fired power stations, and other industrial users.

    The levy is 0.46p for every kWh of gas and 0.78p for electricity generated by fossil fuels, and raises £2 billion annually.

    Green Gas Levy

    As if gas-fired power stations — which still provided 35.7 per cent of our electricity in 2020 — were not taxed highly enough, the government has just dreamed up another levy, designed to subsidise the development of ‘biogas’: a fuel derived from vegetable matter which can be fed into the gas grid. The scheme begins in the spring.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10366275/ROSS-CLARK-DOES-green-tax-energy-bill-actually-pay-for.html

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/how-avoid-paying-new-green-tax-energy-bill-2022-uk/

  27. BTL on Speccie Steerpike

    “Bellwether • 14 hours ago
    The Spectator has buried the article on the Canadian Trucker Convoy, so I will leave this post here.

    The Trudeau govt. has sent city police to issue fines for “noise pollution” and minor by-laws, for truck horns honking at the protest site, and car-parking within 50 ft, of a monument. That was to be expected.

    Word is that Canada’s First Nations are considering erecting teepees on the grounds of Parliament Hill. To be seen removing these symbols would cause much political angst for the Trudeau govt. It would effectively put the 600+ First Nations on the side of the Truckers.

    Bring it on!!

    2. Sounds like a poacher turned gamekeeper on the hunting front. He sees things as we do politically, and there’s nowhere to hide in the world anymore.

  31. I had the silliest of dreams , but I had an uneasy before I woke up nightmare that we were no better than a South American Junta .. eg Venezuala or even Zimbabwe .

    Has anyone else had similar feelings?

      1. I see the BBC managed to find a non-hijabbed woman for the photo – deliberately misleading re. the overwhelming (90%)young maleness of the invasion.

      2. I see the BBC managed to find a non-hijabbed woman for the photo – deliberately misleading re. the overwhelming (90%)young maleness of the invasion.

      3. Plus the pocket money, lawyers, social workers, administration and future costs of benefits. There is no end to it and I try not to think about it as I can do nothing.

      5. Bugger ‘permanent homes’, these are 99% illegal economic migrants come to sponge on us, the British taxpayer. Deport them without the hindrance of the ECHR and/or the Human Rights Act.

  34. Good BTL comment:

    paul greenwood
    16 HRS AGO
    I’m genuinely mystified about why any conservative would want johnson to continue- he’s been and is continuing to be a disaster in almost every respect – these parties are just a little icing. The retort that he’s an election winner makes about as much sense as picking Geoff Hurst for the next WC.

    REPLY
    2 REPLIES
    64

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/02/boris-johnsons-smoking-car-fall-pieces-even-dastardly-muttley/

      1. No problemo, the teaching staff wil be WFH or taking industrial action, and the children will be busy delivering substances to their clientele. Tough on the caretaker.

    4. That’s £150 to saw the bottom off each door ! Can anybody say Gigantic MacScam ? I wonder which friends of the SNP will be getting this cosy little contract to enrich themselves at public expense.

  36. The DUP Minister’s decision to stop inspection of goods coming from the UK seems to be getting little attention in the media and in the DT letters and on this site. There must be repercussions from the EU and the non- unionist party’s in NI. Will our PM support this decision or will he throw the DUP to the wolves? I hope he is on the side of the unionists and settles this problem without delay.

      1. Hi Harry, never quite sure as to which side you are on, but the worm analogy is excellent. Should some EU bureaucrat decide to impose a solid border within the island of Ireland, the locals will be out every night digging tunnels.

      1. That is an accusative genitive. If not an ablative absolute…

        I’ll get shortbread eating primer.

    4. 334912+ up ticks,

      Morning LD,

      “Why have we allowed this to happen ?”

      Democracy working, the lab/lib/con coalition has decades of input bringing this to fruition.

  39. ‘Morning All

    Convoy!!

    Best clip ever,REEEEEE

    https://twitter.com/jaysrule22/status/1488743345564311553?t=sz44Md3asKbVom6e2fNl1w&s=19

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76b43f7fffd370f2d43636708d938371627e7a5838ef3fb8a7f9df334d2c5743.jpg

    Excellent

    https://twitter.com/thecoastguy/status/1488859367344685059?s=20&t=uJCV0fb5nVy6gHgaHVaTnQ

    Unlucky RMCP

    https://twitter.com/Formylifeandyou/status/1488814629635575810

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e83912f7d2dfded9f8af4fe976b0b06a5623b7ba1e8e01da759e870c1f5c8b4c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2599ada3cfe2260ea93b4f33dd1b04fde9cb0cb5f471aad990a788cc93dd62b6.jpg

    1. When John Lennon said, “Woman is the nigger of the world”, he would have been best advised to have added, “The Left are the turds of the world.”

      1. What I find most interesting is that the Pinko Liberal Shite are whinging that ‘people’ can’t get to work because of the blockade.

        Funny how they had a different viewpoint when the Lefty cretins from Extinction Rebellion were stopping people from going to work.

    3. I chuckled at the predictability of Castro Jr’s response to the convoy. ‘Ban filling stations from fuelling the trucks.’ Sadly, for him, the truckers had planned ahead and brought fuel tankers along as part of the convoy.
      Hence Castro Jr stooping to calling them Nazis and all-round bad ‘uns in his demented tweet, whilst hiding away in a purely coincidentally timed Kung Flu isolation.

  40. #CovidClownworld

    Yup,I always take medical advice from actresses famous for spreading their legs..

    https://twitter.com/CharlotteEmmaUK/status/1488842326952796163

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c56380057a26b2f09d511637a4e2111911c82028d03da08f65185f2e687b03f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65401065cc9291b2b8fb468b79714d6fb3b43f63a05c379633230f41e409553e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/467cd55ad2bf305dd0f176da880526e25697494f8e9f8752787c3926b0772ac4.jpg
    Edit forgot this most important one…….
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25497b368657cb2d8ea2677889b192527110a10faa265dd329034f7ae78638e1.jpg

    1. Beep … beep … beep ……….
      Crunch …. sliiip ……. crunch …… sliiiiiiide ……
      Sound of ferrets reversing at a rate of knots.

    2. I do NOT want to see Carrie and him in charge of the country for another 8 years.
      He says he wants to be PM untill 2030.

      Boris is bad for our health .

      1. I don’t mind him being PM until 2030. 8pm would be better, but I won’t quibble over half-an-hour.

      1. I’ve always loved his grumpiness and his music is a background to my late teens/early 20’s. My daughters and their husbands bought me tickets to see him in Edinburgh in March! Can’t wait!

  43. Good Moaning.
    A question for all NOTTLers born before, say, 1970.
    Have you ever heard of this, let alone noticed siblings and other contemporaries keeling over from this?

    “This is the earliest known case of H. influenza, which causes septic arthritis and was a major cause of infant death before a vaccine against it was created in 1977.
    Today, this once-common childhood disease has been all but eradicated.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10468781/Archaeology-Anglo-Saxon-boy-Cambridgeshire-plague-meningitis-septic-arthritis.html

    —

    2. 334912+ up ticks,

      Morning Anne,

      It’ll be back as arnie says, as with TB the voting pattern demands it.

    3. Poor little chap he was same age as our first grand son. A lovely, clever thoughtful kind, little lad.
      Probably brought in via the coast by the invading Romans and their slaves…………oh hang on a mo………
      Shame his parents didn’t have a telephone a doctor would have ‘had a word’ and fixed it in seconds.

    4. Never heard of it, but apparently kids have been vaccinated against it. Is it still being used, I don’t know. This, from 2011:
      https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/147953/Green-Book-Chapter-16.pdf
      “Since the introduction of Hib immunisation in the UK, disease incidence has
      fallen (see Figure 16.1). In 1998, only 21 cases of invasive Hib were reported
      in England and Wales in children under five years of age (0.65 per 100,000)
      compared with 803 in 1991 (20.5 per 100,000). In infants under one year of
      age, the highest risk age group for disease, reported cases fell by over 95%
      (from 300 to 7). Notifications of H. influenzae meningitis for the same period
      declined from 485 to 29. In 1998, coverage by the second birthday was 95%.      “

  44. Using Canada as an example we set up a UK/British First Nation System to identify and look after all indigenous Brits

    At present,Incomers ie BAMES, are protected, whilst Whitey Citizens are called Slavemasters:..Our Rights and status needs to be set in stone

    Non naturalised incomers should get lower (if any at all) benefits etc than citizens

    (Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country)

    https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100013785/1529102490303

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

    3. Something similar happened to me. I left the Lady Cleaner to walk Dolly and when i came back i found her trapped in the bathroom. She said she had been phoning me. The phone was on my desk. Oops.

  47. Article from the Spekkie:

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-zac-pack-the-wellconnected-group-quietly-shaping-tory-policy

    “The Zac Pack: the well-connected group quietly shaping Tory policy

    Who let the dogs out? That’s the subject of a Whitehall probe into the recent Afghanistan debacle. When the Taliban took Kabul, an estimated 1,200 people who qualified for evacuation to the UK had to be left behind. But on 28 August, waiting Afghan families were left helpless on the ground as 173 cats and dogs were escorted past them into the airport and off to safety. The big question: on whose authority were animals put ahead of humans? And did any of this have the Prime Minister’s backing?

    As ever with Johnsonian drama, the truth is elusive, but one minister seems closer to it than others. A parliamentary investigation unearthed an email from Zac Goldsmith’s ministerial team within the Foreign Office declaring that the PM had ‘authorised’ the animal evacuation. The minister continues to deny responsibility. But it fits with messages from Trudy Harrison, the PM’s then parliamentary private secretary, offering round-the-clock advice to those leading the animal rescue mission. So what does Goldsmith know? And what, if anything, does this tell us about the Johnson operation?

    The affair also raises questions about the role of Carrie Johnson, the Prime Minister’s wife. Her friend Dominic Dyer, an animal welfare campaigner, was involved in the Afghan pet rescue and boasted at the time he had ‘no doubt that Carrie was in on this as well’. It was instantly denied. Understandably so: it was an incendiary claim, suggesting that Mrs Johnson was part of a powerful but informal group quietly shaping Tory policy and (in this case) military strategy. It’s too ludicrous to be true. Isn’t it?

    Zac Goldsmith occupies his own stratum in the Tory hierarchy. He’s stonkingly rich (he is probably worth more than half the cabinet members put together) and when he lost his seat to the Lib Dems in the 2019 election he was quickly ennobled and shifted his brief to the Lords. He is a minister not just at the Foreign Office but at Defra, where he helps shape environmental policy and pursues his high-regulation agenda. To some free-trade ministers he forms part of a protectionist ‘axis of evil’. He’d call it standards.

    Goldsmith, now 47, is the original vote-blue, go-green Tory; a millionaire who saw conservatism and environmentalism as bedfellows long before David Cameron started to champion the idea. Animal welfare has always been part of his conservationist package. Cameron helped him secure a place in parliament, winning his home constituency of Richmond Park in 2010. But Goldsmith always had his own, green agenda. Soon after taking his seat, he hired an ambitious young woman to help him forge his path: Carrie Symonds, now Mrs Johnson.

    When he resigned as a Tory MP in protest at the Heathrow expansion and stood as an independent, it was controversial among Tories. But not with Carrie. She ran his 2017 re-election campaign and among those out leafleting were her friends and future power-brokers Henry Newman and Josh Grimstone. As so often in politics, the friendship circle moved upwards together. Newman is now a senior adviser at No. 10; Grimstone is Michael Gove’s right-hand man.

    There is something of a ‘Zac Pack’ at the heart of government. Goldsmith’s former council leader, Nick True, serves alongside him in the Lords, while True’s daughter Sophia works in No. 10 (as does her fiancé, Declan Lyons). Then there’s Ben Elliot, the impeccably connected nephew of Camilla Parker Bowles and incumbent Tory party co-chairman. When the Prime Minister’s wife wanted some expensive new wallpaper for No. 10 in the now-notorious redecoration, the establishment fixer was there to help.

    Elliot has spoken in the past about how his life has been ‘intertwined’ with that of Goldsmith, a fellow Old Etonian whom he has known since childhood. Elliot’s parents were best friends with Lady Annabel Goldsmith; the boys started prep school together. Boris himself boasts ‘a longstanding personal friendship’ with Zac, who let the Johnson family stay for free at his £25,000-a-week holiday home in Marbella in October: just rewards for the man who gave him his peerage and first ministerial job. As with so much in Goldsmith’s life, the ties are ancestral: his uncle Teddy was a friend to and fellow eco-enthusiast of Johnson’s father Stanley.

    Many on the right fear that the environmental agenda clouds Johnson’s focus. Goldsmith’s fellow peer David Frost suggested last week that No. 10 is in hoc to a ‘woke’ green lobby. The Prime Minister has previously been happy to indulge such a faction, as part of his preference to run his administration as a series of competing courts. But now, mired in scandal, his hand may be forced to engage in some bloodletting. Some in Johnson’s party want an overhaul on policy, with net-zero initiatives sidelined until cost of living pressures are lifted.

    For Goldsmith, the trade-off is false; ‘vote blue, go green’ was never just a slogan for him. The peer’s belief in conservation is sincere, hereditary and central to his political mission. His tycoon father Jimmy nurtured his interest with a copy of Ancient Futures, a classic text on the dangers of globalisation. Zac later recalled: ‘He scribbled in the cover “This will change your life”. And it did.’ In the words of activist Derek Wall, ‘Green politics in Britain is branded with the Goldsmith logo and fertilised by Goldsmith seed funds.’ Zac’s uncle Teddy helped found the Ecologist, which Zac went on to edit, and the People party, a forerunner to the modern Greens. Environmentalism and Euroscepticism were the two causes of Jimmy Goldsmith in his final years, and both were taken up by Zac with relish.

    For the past half-century, the fortunes of the Goldsmiths have been linked to both the Aspinall and Birley clans. These three fabulously wealthy families have long been influential in the Conservative party, with shared interests in animal welfare and greenery. Goldsmith’s half-brother Robin Birley owns 5 Hertford Street, a fashionable political hangout. Until recently Zac served as a trustee of the Aspinall Foundation, a conservation charity. Its head of communications is Carrie Johnson.

    Ben Goldsmith has meanwhile served on the board of his brother Zac’s department Defra since 2018, having turned the moribund Conservative Environment Network into a powerhouse over the past decade. Its ideas become Tory policy with striking speed. Some 120 MPs and peers are involved in the caucus, and it has something of a revolving door with Defra, where two of its alumni now work as special advisers.

    There is one final piece in this green machinery. When the pet rescue was activated, Dyer boasted — perhaps unwisely — about the involvement of a group of Tory activists. ‘Carrie Johnson took the message forward,’ he said, ‘not just through me but through the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation.’ This Foundation has, as its patrons, both Zac Goldsmith and Mrs Johnson — as well as Stanley, the Prime Minister’s omnipresent father.

    Was this group, between them, capable of giving a helping hand to the team behind the Afghan pet rescue? Absolutely. Did they? That’s a question for the inquiry. Goldsmith, for his part, has said that he did not speak to the Prime Minister about the affair. But he wouldn’t need to. He has far better connections.”

    1. I don’t mind folk being green. I just expect them – and only them – to pay for their ego and hubris.

      They can pay £2000 per megawat, they can have energy 15% of the time. And the commensurate salary reductions. Let’s see the commies go without rather than forcing us to suffer for their malice.

    2. Green goes the Rich’s Ho!

      I’ll sing you one, O
      Green goes the Rich’s, Ho
      What is your one, O?
      One isn’t one, we’re all alone,
      And ever more shall be so.

      2. I’ll sing you two, O
      Green goes the Rich’s Ho
      What are your two, O?
      Two, two silly Eton boys
      Clothed all in green, O
      One isn’t one, we’re all alone,
      And ever more shall be so.

      3. I’ll sing you three, O
      Green goes the Rich’s, Ho
      What are your three, O?
      Three, Gove the rival!
      Two, two silly Eton boys
      Clothed all in green, O
      One isn’t one, we’re all alone,
      And ever more shall be so.

      4. I’ll sing you four, O
      Green grow the rushes, O
      What are your four, O?
      Four for the cock-up makers,
      Three, Gove the rival!
      Two, two silly Eton boys
      Clothed all in green, O
      One isn’t one, we’re all alone,
      And ever more shall be so.

    3. Good stuff. James Heale (a.k.a. Steerpike) fails to mention John Aspinall’s other great humanitarian airlift…(allegedly) whisking Lucky Lucan out of the country before Plod could track him down.

  48. There was a recent GB News item about the rapid worrying rise in the population of Africa which will ensure a steady flow of economic Immigrants, legal or illegal, to the UK and Europe for many years to come.

        1. Not sure we went soft, Poppiesmum. I think the state went hard. It looked at Brexit and it seethed with rage and anger at the temerity of the public having a say in their grand dream. Then that rage became vengeance. It turned that anger on the public who were sick and tired of gimmigrants and it so hated being told no that it intentionally set about flooding this country with human waste out of petty revenge.

          This is cold, vicious, pure uncomplicated spite.

          1. I would agree with that. I was referring to the fifties and sixties when mostly it was a privilege to be admitted to this country – although I do remember in the mid-late sixties gangs of ***istani males slouching around Leeds. It was during the Blair years that things really took off, and the door was opened wide to all comers. I do feel that what we are having to endure now and in other ways is revenge and punishment for voting Brexit – intended regardless at some point in the future but plans brought forward to suit.

          2. It happened long before we got the chance to vote for Brexit, though. It started with Windrush and the floodgates opened under Blair. Letting in the illegals has become a way of increasing the tide.

  49. A Heath writes a good analysis:

    This is the week a Government that began with such promise finally lost its soul. Its great policy relaunch is a tragic mush, proof that it no longer really believes in anything, not even its own self-preservation. Conservative supporters, keen to move on from Partygate, were desperate for a comprehensive package of conservative ideas to enrich the North, relaunch Brexit and pave the way for an electoral resurgence. It was not to be.

    Michael Gove’s levelling-up blueprint is a grotesque disappointment, a list of buzzwords and targets masquerading as strategy, its pseudo-intellectual veneer and cod history intended to camouflage the fact that it essentially advocates the very same nostrums that ultimately destroyed Labour.

    The Left, needless to say, is delighted at the strategy’s ideological underpinnings. Jonathan Portes, a Left-wing economist, welcomed the paper as “remarkably like [Gordon Brown’s] mid-2000s Public Service Agreement targets. Some are more or less directly recycled.” Gove’s paper even bears a striking resemblance to ​​a plan proposed by the Labour-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research in 2004. For those of us who argued against the wasteful, “ state knows best” nonsense of the Labour years, which needless to say failed or else we wouldn’t be in today’s mess, this is almost unbearably depressing.

    A proper conservative approach to levelling-up would focus on schooling, and the heart-breaking results of the white working class. It would investigate family policy and the values crisis. It would create dozens of libertarian pro-business areas, run by development corporations, with almost no taxes and regulation. It would target cheaper energy. It would liberate an extra one per cent of Britain’s landmass for house building. It would tackle the failed monolith that is the NHS. It would not see spending on public transport as a panacea. It would reject targets, subsidies and bureaucracies. It would break with socialism.

    Instead, Torsten Bell of the Left-wing Resolution Foundation, Britain’s most influential economics think-tank despite our nominally Tory administration, describes Johnsonian levelling up as a fusion between George Osborne and New Labour. “The agenda combines the devolution of the former Conservative Chancellor with the last Labour government’s bigger/activist central state reprioritising spend towards deprived areas”, as he puts it.

    A central problem is that too many Tories now have a vested interest in pretending that the form of devolution practiced in this country has been a success. This is the very reverse of the truth.

    Competition between local jurisdictions works, but only if set up correctly. Britain’s flawed model encourages bailouts from Westminster, grants power without fiscal responsibility and encourages municipal socialism. It doesn’t incentivise local leaders to improve competitiveness, or to think carefully enough about spending projects.

    Eurosceptics were always opposed to Labour’s flawed devolution: The North East Says No campaign, which defeated John Prescott’s devolution drive in 2004, was a dry run for the Brexit referendum, and included figures who went on to work for Vote Leave.

    The Tories also have not answered a fundamental contradiction: why do they want to make everywhere like London, given that our capital voted Corbyn and Remain? Left to its own devices, London would self-destruct, imposing punitive taxes and chasing away its value-creators. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is at it again, threatening to shut roads and tube services if he isn’t bailed out. We need more Canary Wharfs, created before devolution, and fewer City Halls.

    In the US, the Republicans don’t want to turn the whole of America into New York or San Francisco – they look instead at Texas or Florida. We need to replicate the brilliant bits of London, its ability to create jobs and wealth, without the socialism and cultural Left-wingery. If the Tories really believed in local accountability, they would break London up into several competing entities, not create yet more dysfunctional, statist, subsidy-hungry, rotten boroughs all over the country.

    If the establishment technocrats are getting everything they want, the Right has been left with almost nothing, including on Brexit. The scale of the betrayal is staggering. The Brexit white paper is one of the most shameful economic policy documents ever produced by a Conservative government. Margaret Thatcher’s Bruges Speech, Christopher Booker’s Mad Officials, Brian Hindley’s Better Off Out, the Open Europe deregulatory reports, Business for Britain’s Change or Go: all targeted over-regulation. Yet that powerful intellectual movement, built over decades, has virtually zero presence in the Remainers’ Brexit being delivered by Johnson.

    There have, of course, been major changes on immigration and foreign policy, and the vaccination success would not, in practice, have happened had we been part of the EU. That alone means that it was worth it, though the agricultural reforms are flawed. The decision to allow Hong Kongers to settle would also have been politically impossible had EU free movement still existed.

    But when it comes to the economy, the Government’s policy barely differs from Theresa May’s Brexit in name only. The authors of the 2016 Treasury attacks on Brexit have triumphed: they argued that there was very little in Britain’s tax, spend and regulatory structure that needed to be changed, and, staggeringly, Johnson’s government now agrees.

    All of which brings us to energy policy, another case study in extreme failure. A sensible government would urgently accelerate its nuclear plans by creating a powerful agency modelled on the vaccines taskforce. As a temporary solution, such an administration would also push to extract more oil and gas, including by fracking.

    Instead, a government that no longer believes in markets will now simply pretend that prices are much lower than they are. The Treasury will lend billions to energy companies to allow them to moderate price rises; customers will then pay higher bills in the future to ensure the Treasury (hopefully) recoups its money.

    The furlough and bailouts that accompanied Covid – necessary evils given state-mandated lockdowns – have perverted our politics, undermining self-reliance and normalising handouts.

    That wail you hear is the cry of Toryland: among the true believers, the long-marchers, the Eurosceptics and the free-marketeers, there is sorrow, anger and despair. We have been vanquished, but we will be back.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/02/boriss-betrayal-revolutionary-brexit-mandate-now-almost-total/

    1. Top BTL comment:

      Tim Cooke
      14 HRS AGO
      There really is no longer any reason to vote. Both major parties are socialist and neither of them feel bound to their manifesto promises once elected. The UK is doomed to the malaise of stagflation for the forseeable future with zero chance of any personalities coming through to save us.
      We desperately need to get rid of the Oxbridge career politicians and replace them with locally selected candidates who want only whats best for their area and stand by their political convictions.

      REPLY
      15 REPLIES

      1. Even when there are local candidates, locally selected who are alternatives to the one-party status quo, voters won’t vote for them in sufficient numbers to elect them.

    2. Government constantly forgets. You can delay, suppress, ignore and hide from markets, but eventually their sheer, essential fundamentals crash home. Damming the water doens’t stop it building up. When the wave hits, we’re [beeeped].

    3. Headline in my local rag: “Shropshire misses out on levelling up”. No wonder voters stuck two fingers up in a true blue constituency!

  50. Heat Pump Installation – not as simple as swapping out your old gas boiler for a new one.
    This guy gets accolades from professionals on the quality of his plumbing work and the creation of this honest video which highlights the problems faced by sub-contractors facing the new Government requirements to install heat pumps.
    I was dumbfounded by the complexity and operation of such a complex system!

    https://youtu.be/ialSHV4J8Dg

    An interesting read of the video’s comments to aid your own views on the advisability of installing heat pumps.

    1. I’ve seen them installed, they dug up half the garden to place the pipework into trenches. The system installation in the garage resembled something at Jodrell bank and they still had to switch on the electric emersion heaters to heat the water half way through the day.

      1. Now imagine living in a big apartment block. At least they will get a second chance to install the system after the building cladding is replaced.

        Hopefully the electricity supply can handle a heat pump as well as charging the electric vehicle.

        1. There’s the hidden problem, Richard. The electricity supply is almost certainly suitable to supply (both generation and grid, to the house) the enormous increase in demand that will come from exchanging gas heating for electric – however t might work.

        2. Absolutely. I had a chat with my neighbour thus afternoon we also mentioned older terraced homes with no access to the rear. And the problems of rechargeable cars and high rise or the concentration of many homes.
          The grid would crash if a dozen people plugged in at the same.
          Once again our political classes and civil service have effed up. Before they have even got started.
          It’s never going to work.

  51. Heat Pump Installation – not as simple as swapping out your old gas boiler for a new one.
    This guy gets accolades from professionals on the quality of his plumbing work and the creation of this honest video which highlights the problems faced by sub-contractors facing the new Government requirements to install heat pumps.
    I was dumbfounded by the complexity and operation of such a complex system!

    https://youtu.be/ialSHV4J8Dg

    An interesting read of the video’s comments to aid your own views on the advisability of installing heat pumps.

  52. You couldn’t make it up……….

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/ownership/highway-code-drivers-could-face-5-000-fine-for-this-common-practice-on-the-roads/ar-AATj4kU?ocid=msedgntp

    It reminds of the last time we were visiting South Australia not long after the state government had effed (don’t they all) up and were 40 million dollars adrift of their annual budget target. They sent the state police out in force to hide in bushes and nick any one who was driving one K over the speed limit. Both my self and my BiL also victims. The hire company passed on our information. The state police department received a very honest and fitting appraisal of their actions.

    1. It almost appeared rather too quickly IMHO, almost as if it had been stored in the freezers for quite a few months.

      1. Many months ago I picked up on a tweet from a chap claiming to have been employed in the pharmaceutical industry supply organisation. He expressed doubts on the roll-out of billions of doses within the time-frame.

        1. I actually had a friend who was active all his working life in the pharmaceutical sector. He had retired 5 years ago, but I hadn’t seen him for about three months we use to meet up with some other friends and go out for few pints. He was a fit and healthy chap keen at gardening.
          But out of the blue, he had a massive heart attack and a day later a fatal stroke, just before Christmas. I’ve not seen any mutual friends since, I wondered if he’d just had his booster.

      2. It would have to be well in advance with the vast numbers they have produced. That didn’t happen overnight.

    2. All planned so that they could release the Vax to solve the disease. They think people are stupid…………oh -wait………..

  54. Thoughts from the kitchen sink, No29:
    What happened to all the wonderful plans to obtain geothermal heating?

    1. After Cummings has fully exposed Boris as the duplicitous cretin he is. Dom should stand for election in Boris’s seat.

    1. Left unabated the Illegal Immigration crisis will see Great Britain destroyed.

      Job already done i’d say TB.

          2. There are very many dishes that are really simple to cook. Things like a pasta tuna bake where you just assemble and heat.

            They may not know how to cook but i think laziness is the real reason.

          3. Even I occasionally do a tuna pasta bake. Ditto omelettes, stir fries, sweet and sour, chow mien and also ready made ravioli with a tomato stir in sauce. I can even do fish and (oven) chips.

    2. 334912+ up ticks.

      Afternoon TB,

      Totally, the legacy of the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition
      supporter,member, voter.

  57. 334912+ up ticks,

    RUSSIA MOCKS ‘STUPIDITY AND IGNORANCE OF ANGLO-SAXON POLITICIANS’ add treachery and I will gladly second it.

    1. It is disgusting that our overpaid political class are so lazy, so happy giving away any vestige of effort to understand their briefs. Our civil service, now so useless in their information gathering that they can’t even get basic geography right because of their petty empire building.

      1. 334912+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        It comes across to me as if they are working for the benefit of “others” like before the 24/6/2016 result.

        They can’t go over there ( brussels) as was
        so they are bringing ” over there” “over here” via DOVER plus.

        In total “the coalition” must have a standing army in hotels , mosques, scattered over the country, many on welfare, seen as waiting time, their numbers MUST outnumber the indigenous army.

        To many of the electoral herd the final wake up call( remember the Alamo) is going to be one hell of a shock , sad to say probably the same type ending.

    2. I don’t think there are too many Anglo-Saxon politicians about, ogga. They mostly seem to be tinted, Polish, or Celts.

  59. Good morning. The fact that Starmer has quietly gone about turning the Labour Party into an unprincipled puppet of globalist viral corporatism running in parallel to the tottering Johnson regime does not seem to have struck many as the demonstration that it is that government is now corrupt in the majority of its motions irrespective of party, and that the interests of the people it is meant to serve are the last thing on the minds of these creatures.

    Many will remember that last year the establishment arranged the duffing-up by imprisonment on a totally spurious charge of contempt of Craig Roberts. he is not a man whose views I share entirely, but he does have integrity, unlike those who persecuted him, and he does have a quarter of a century’s experience as a senior diplomat. I have posted this piece by him.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2022/02/how-the-establishment-functions/?fbclid=IwAR1N4AzzUJgAQKqx_KsGCIDhAqH_0Y5CgpWvF1EzvevL8WCgZsaWus2Pq3Q

  65. Ukraine is at the mercy of the Russia-China pact of autocracies. 3 February 2022.

    Of course, the doves may be right about the risks. One feels a pang of unease at the headline ‘Bravo Boris’ splashed across the front page of the Kyiv Post. The British nation is being committed without the proper focus and filtering of Parliament, currently distracted by cakegate at the most dangerous moment of European politics since 1945.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Peter Grant.

    China and Russia best of pals? Shades of the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact perhaps, between Hitler and Stalin. A temporary marriage of convenience to put more pressure on the West which just spirals around in circles, completely flummoxed as to what to do and just hoping that everything will go away. It’s ironic that the collapse of the old Soviet Union and the apparent triumph of western liberal democracies unleashed all the forces which will be the West’s ultimate undoing. Globalisation and the West acting as midwife to the rise of China, the ascendancy of short term profit over long term strategic thinking, the replacement of consumption out of income with consumption via debt, and the unprovoked culture wars which are tearing at the very fabric of western societies, all really got going once we no longer faced the Soviet threat and thought that we could do what we liked with impunity. Hubris.

    Yes. We are being taken to War on the whim of a Liar and Fantasist!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/02/03/ukraine-mercy-russia-china-pact-autocracies/

    3. Well, we knew Boris had created a mistress shaped vacancy.
      At least Nads is too old to produce any more rug rats.

  68. Following the purchase of Wordle by the New York Times, the owners have
    announced they will be releasing a new two letter version of the word
    game so that Biden supporters can play too.

    1. Following the purchase of Wordle by the New York Times, English words will be abandoned for slovenly, vapid, gormless Americanisms such as “color”, “favor” and “humor”.

  69. Groundhog day or Deja poo?

    Partygate
    Footballer rapes woman
    Covid
    Brexit.
    Boris is lying.
    Ukraine.

    Been the same shit news for ages.

  70. “Germany bans Russian broadcaster RT’s German-language channel”

    Vladimir Putin said he isn’t bothered; another ten years and most Germans will be speaking Arabic.

  71. When asked about the evacuation of pets from Afghanistan, Boris Johnson replied “Rhubarb”
    I take it Custard never made it?
    I never liked that cat

      1. Steamed rhubarb and sauce Anglais as us poncy Southerners would do it. We invented Sweet & Sour !

  72. Stolen BTL

    The Tax Poem by Unknown Author

    Tax his land, tax his wage,

    Tax his bed in which he lays.

    Tax his tractor, tax his mule,

    Teach him taxes is the rule.

    Tax his cow, tax his goat,

    Tax his pants, tax his coat.

    Tax his ties, tax his shirts,

    Tax his work, tax his dirt.

    Tax his chew, tax his smoke,

    Teach him taxes are no joke.

    Tax his car, tax his grass,

    Tax the roads he must pass.

    Tax his food, tax his drink,

    Tax him if he tries to think.

    Tax his sodas, tax his beers,

    If he cries, tax his tears.

    Tax his bills, tax his gas,

    Tax his notes, tax his cash.

    Tax him good and let him know

    That after taxes, he has no dough.

    If he hollers, tax him more,

    Tax him until he’s good and sore.

    Tax his coffin, tax his grave,

    Tax the sod in which he lays.

    Put these words upon his tomb,

    “Taxes drove me to my doom!”

    And when he’s gone, we won’t relax,

    We’ll still be after the inheritance tax.

  74. Britain is accumulating vast alien communities who have no intention of being part of the British culture. By and large, we are importing vast numbers of misogynistic foreign males who find it difficult to adapt to their new lives.

    1. They have no intention of a new life. They want to continue their old life in a different country.

          1. No, the goods are already expensive because of market supply and demand AND government/civil service incompetence, the taxes make it worse.

  79. You know, there’s a stream about energy prices and inflation on the Mail and Telegraph. The comments from the Mail are the sad spread of the ignorant, the tax da wich and a slew of dross about nationalising energy. None resolve the problem. Few even acknowledge the problem. Even fewer understand it.

    There are many things that need to be done. All are painful – for the government. All have downsides, some people lose out but we are so far down the drain that that pain is getting worse and worse and worse on a daily basis.

    1. A game of Russian Roulette is required. All members of the House of Lords and the House of Commons to be forcibly entered. The survivors given six months to sort it all out or another game of Russian Roulette will take place.

      I only suggest this course of action because i am nice.

      2. That’s a good idea.

        However, not six months and we give them an automatic with a full clip and chambered round.

        The solutions are hard, painful and politically unpopular. It’s like amputation to save the rest of the body.

        At the moment the government is using a dirty catheter to infuse a gangrenous limb and thinks this is acceptable.

        1. 334912 + up ticks,
          Afternoon W,

          The Eton wall game is a game that originated at and is still played at Eton College. It is played on a strip of ground 5 metres wide and 110 metres long …
          An additive being the 650 stakes fronting the wall.

  80. Here’s an interesting link for you:
    Research and analysis
    Message testing studies on transport and coronavirus (COVID-19)
    Combines 3 COVID-19 behavioural science messaging reports conducted by the Department of Transport and Kantar Public.
    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/message-testing-studies-on-transport-and-coronavirus-covid-19?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=147b9c82-34bf-4d05-9275-3346b9c36433&utm_content=immediately

    1. All the Truckers have to do is remove a key electrical component from their engines and walk away – the trucks won’t be going anywhere in a hurry due to breakdown….

  83. Hey Ho – One of SWMBO’s best chums, an ex-nurse with a retired GP husband have both from the outset embraced full lockdown and have only ever ventured out fully face masked have assiduously sanitised trollies (shopping not undies), surfaces and shopping to an almost fanatical degree have – you’ve guessed by now – gone down with Covid. They are good people but I can’t help but :-

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/11e57d5f9cb1c62508d066e02458ec8c93ded40e159ae9d905ecc210d35599fe.gif

      1. I should have mentioned they’re full on Labour, dedicated to the EU, fanatical about the “Climate Emergency” and want the removal of ICE vehicles from the roads, as a side observation they live in a beautiful large Victorian House worth well over £1.5m and have a holiday home in Woolacombe which is bigger than my home. That much stupid and cognitive dissonance (IMHO) would take more than a slap.

    3. I remember the suggestion that you shouldn’t handle post or parcels and grocery deliveries for several hours. I ignored it. Still here. Still well.

      2. The postal services seem to be following the “do not handle” doctrine – judging by how slow deliveries are and how much is getting lost.

      3. The male half of married friends was a covid fanatic; gloves, masks, sanitise parcels, leave them out on the step for 72 hours. Weeks holed up in their cottage out in the boondocks.
        Until … he fancied popping round to visit a mate to chat about wendyball.
        You can guess the rest.
        He needn’t have worried about covid wiping him out as his wife nearly did so.
        Plus his son, who has been a type 1 diabetic since the age of 14, his daughter-in-law who can only work because her in-laws have the pre-school daughter to stay for two night’s per week ….

      4. Although yesterday I heard of a vulnerable mother who caught the bug from touching a Tesco delivery and sadly died, leaving a teenage child.
        (pre existing condition)

  84. Ladder work all done. Marking a line on a 15 ft hedge to show where it is to be reduced to. Bloody spray paint cans – they either run out after two minutes or are blocked up.

    Anyway, job done to the MR’s satisfaction – phew!

    Then a three mile bike ride. I feel ashamed – I didn’t wear a mask when cycling, and so was really embarrassed when couple of prudent motorists passed me wearing masks… in their cars.

      1. Funnily enough – a darker shade…. One can see the proposed line quite clearly.

        I wanted to use white. The MR said no.

  86. Munira Murza The Downing Street Head of Policy has resigned because she told Boros to apologise to Sneer Harmer about the ‘Savile comments’ and he refused.

    A non-Native was Head of Policy and has thrown her toys out of the pram
    because Boros wouldn’t do what she told him to for the first time ever
    obviously….;

    Former writer for “Living Marxism”…this is what a “Tory” PM surrounds himself with
    We truly live in ClownWorld

      2. Apart from Bojo, you mean? He, of course, is a Yank of Turkish extraction, so only white on the surface.

    2. Quite right too, he should not apologise.
      As I observed yesterday; given Savile’s profile, I refuse to believe that Starmer was not made aware and he could have intervened. By his inactions he is culpable.

      1. The comment was an unnecessary diversion and merely made Johnson look juvenile. It may have been factual, but the timing was poor.
        Realistically, given Savile’s high profile, Starmer would have been involved in the decision.
        Murza could be lining herself up to become Johnson’s version of Cameron’s Warsi.

          5. A large bowl with quite warm water and some epsom salts. Lower one’s posterior into bowl and soak for a while. Towel handy of course. My late former mother in law told me this in case I got this ailment when pregnant. I didn’t but I guess it’s good to know;-)) She was a district nurse.
            PS- I hope you noticed how polite I was- unusual I know.

      1. The statement on that petition basically says ‘We want to stack the deck in our favour’.

        Racism only exists in the mind of racists. All these whinging blacks should look at where they are and be grateful that we haven’t deported them.

        1. See the pictures from earlier today – two black kids, one in the mud and rain, one with a gold necklace.

        2. Racism exists in the mind of racists in order for them to get preferential treatment that they wouldn’t otherwise warrant.

        3. It occurred to me that when we left India (as it was then, before it split because they couldn’t live with each other), we had given them a legal system, democracy, a neutral common language, railways, health care and sanitation. What have they given us in return?

    4. Quite understandably, the BBC is wetting itself with excitement over this.

      “THE BUNKER IS COLLAPSING!”

    4. The points she made were valid. But the vitriol was a reminder of how spiteful she is.
      Spitting nails, to put it mildly.

        2. His point about responsiblity is especially poignant. So few people are willing to admit their lot is their own fault, to look at their mistakes and try to correct them. It is much easier to blame others.

  90. I know most of us here are over reproductive age – but these vaccines are dangerous for young women and girls.

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/former-pfizer-vp-michael-yeadon-demands-apology-from-media-over-lies-asserting-vaccine-safety/

    Wed Feb 2, 2022 – 9:19 pm EST

    (LifeSiteNews) — After being excoriated by mainstream media outlets regarding his concern that COVID-19 gene-based vaccines could cause fertility issues in young women, Dr. Michael Yeadon is now requesting contrition on the part of media outlets as leaked data from the U.S. military indicates heavy spikes in these tragic outcomes.

    2. There was a long bit on R4 refuting the fertility claims yesterday, and suggesting the outcomes for pregnant women and their babies getting Covid were very bad.

  91. I know most of us here are over reproductive age – but these vaccines are dangerous for young women and girls.

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/former-pfizer-vp-michael-yeadon-demands-apology-from-media-over-lies-asserting-vaccine-safety/

    Wed Feb 2, 2022 – 9:19 pm EST

    (LifeSiteNews) — After being excoriated by mainstream media outlets regarding his concern that COVID-19 gene-based vaccines could cause fertility issues in young women, Dr. Michael Yeadon is now requesting contrition on the part of media outlets as leaked data from the U.S. military indicates heavy spikes in these tragic outcomes.

      1. It’s light here but it’s been like Transylvania for days- gloomy, grey etc. We see the sun, if we’re lucky for about ten mins and then the murk descends again. One evening last week a figure walked past out the back…hard to make out as it was so misty but it was spooky.

      2. I have Dolly on the Peloton generator with a sausage just out of reach. Enough to power all my chandeliers.

    3. I think you’ll find that the barge is equally heavy at any time of the day or night…
      I’ll get me coat…

        1. Can you still get BB in the UK? My last visitor from UK brought me some and I am nearly out. Have been unable to get decent writing paper here.

          2. Thanks, shall have to look into that. I have always been an avid letter writer, although not so much these days with only a couple of distant cousins remaining.

          3. I never knew what to write in a letter. What in my life was interesting, or even worthy of note, and what could I ask the recipient without coming across as banal and, frankly, dull? With no response immediately, it just looked like a barrage of multiple-choice questions. As a youngster, I even sent my Father a list of sums… poor Dad. At school, there was the compulsory letter home every Sunday, on an airmail form. Same fcuking dull bla bla every week… I can see it now:
            Dear Mummy & Daddy.
            I hope you are well.
            This week, I bla bla bla. My House won the Rugby this week without me… I went for a bicycle ride yesterday to Medbourne and back. Hope the cat is still well. Love, …
            God, my parents must have wondered what they created.
            I’m no better at it now, I just don’t write letters. Easier all round that way.

          4. “Dearest Muddah, dearest Faddah, I hate it here at Camp Granada….” I can’t post the song otherwise my sad computer will throw a wobbler.
            I used to love writing letters but email is quicker-but I do still try to emulate my old style. Plus my handwriting has become awful; failing eyesight and lack of practise.

          8. I had to adopt a fountain pen, way back in 1990, as it forced me to write slowly and legibly. Still have it – excellent piece of kit.
            But, due to keyboards and screens, I’m sadly out of practice with handwriting, although I use a thing called ReMarkable (electronic paper) to handwrite notes and keep track of my work.

      2. She is still alive – 58 years after being sprayed with gold paint. I knew that was risky.

        When she pops her clogs – I bet it is registered as a Gold Covid death.

        1. Shirley Eaton (born 12 January 1937) is an English actress, author and model. Eaton appeared regularly in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and gained her highest profile for her iconic appearance as Bond Girl Jill Masterson in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964), which gained her bombshell status. Eaton also had roles in the early Carry On films. Preferring to devote herself to bringing up a family, she retired from acting in 1969. Eaton came out of retirement in 1999 to release her autobiography titled “Golden Girl” which was a best seller and has released three more books throughout the 2000s.

    1. Good night, Bill, and to all NoTTLers. Tonight’s film for me is CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. I was given this DVD by a friend and vaguely seem to remember it as being like a curate’s egg – good in parts. After watching it again i shall decide whether or not to keep it. See you all tomorrow.

      PS – Thanks, Phil, for the guidance on posting songs on here. So far I am not succeeding at all.

  94. Must have been 20% of Morrison shoppers unmasked this arvo. Earlier this evening I went up to the surgery to have an ear syringed (nasty waxy buildup). To be polite I wore my old black snoody thing to get past the SS machine gun nest they call reception. But in the waiting room was a girl texting with her mask below her chin. She immediately pulled it up on my arrival but I said no, if you don’t mind I’ll take mine off. She did the same, saying she hated them.
    The nurse who did my ear was great too. She took me off the flu jab list for this year after showing me the provenance of the vaccine they were using came a bit from Vietnam and Thailand or something.

    1. “but I said no, if you don’t mind I’ll take mine off. She did the same”

      And then they enjoyed social intercourse.

      The facts as reported by the BBC

    2. You are lucky they would syringe your ears. Our surgery refuse to do that; they said to go to the local opticians – at about £45 an ear! Stuff that!

      1. Must be quite a spectacle when they syringe your eye. Oww!
        My local GP service has become pretty dire, but the nurses make a lot of difference.

        1. We have been careful because of necessity. We live on a very limited income and try as much as possible to economise.

    1. Surely there wouldn’t be enough prisons to house them and they’d have to build special camps of some kind.

    2. Surely there wouldn’t be enough prisons to house them and they’d have to build special camps of some kind.

    4. Of course they have history books; it’s just that the genetic procession is so strong in that part of the world.

      1. Despite popular misconception / misdirection, the narsties were left-wing, not right wing.

          4. Slightly off topic.
            We’ve been watching the Dibnah series. Beautiful diction. There was a scene where the owner and FD were discussing a grand house. One, typical received pronunciation, and one in Northern pronunciation , both were immediately comprehensible, beautifully spoken. Clear, concise, and informative.
            Unlike so much modern gibberish

          5. We have a CD of Dibnah’s last journey. Excellent series – I love his practical approach, that he’s unafraid to take on pretty well anything, and (written as a Yorkshireman) his Lancashire accent & dialect.
            Best Line ever, on the subject of apprenticeships: “Tha’ needs an old bugger telling thee ‘Tha’s makiung a right booggah o’ that!'”
            Top bloke. Wish I’d known him. And there’s precious few I’ll write that about.
            RIP.

          6. One of the builders likes listening to Radio One (loudly). If you want to hear moronic, vacuous diatribes, biggin’ it up just tune in…..

        1. Went to Vienna one summer not many years ago. Rudest people I ever experienced. Won’t be going back. Yet, just over the broder, there are Bavarians, universally some of the nicest people you could know. WTF??

          1. That’s easy. Viennese are … Viennese. Good for pastries and coffee, otherwise pretty toxic.
            Bavarians are the same people as the Tirolers. Celts, and mountain people, possibly descended from Etruscans.
            South East Austria they’re different again. A bit like the Bohemians. Untrustworthy!

          2. Thanks for the heads-up. :-))
            I’ll try to be less judgemental… but so far, after 60 years practice, my judgement is pretty spot-on. Something to do with being an introvert, and observing and thinking rather than working the mouth…
            Edit: wasn’t too impressed with pastry & coffee, either. München is vastly better.
            (Stay on the Heiligeiststrasse. Hotem Am Markt)

          3. Where did Hitler develop his ideas? in coffee shops in Vienna, and not a lot has changed, the city has always been home to dodgy politics IMO.

            Some of the best cakes in Bayern, if you’re ever at the Tegernsee: http://www.cafe-wagner.de/

          6. Absolutely no way.
            14 years ago, with Firstborn’s class & travelling by bus, Auschwitz, Berge-Belsen & Ravensbrück in less than a week. My soul is broken from those, even now. Fuck the Austrians. And the nazis.

          7. Thanks for the heads-up. :-))
            I’ll try to be less judgemental… but so far, after 60 years practice, my judgement is pretty spot-on. Something to do with being an introvert, and observing and thinking rather than working the mouth…
            Edit: wasn’t too impressed with pastry & coffee, either. München is vastly better.
            (Stay on the Heiligeiststrasse. Hotem Am Markt)

  98. 334912+ up ticks,

    Could that be the reason for the DOVER campaign ? add that to he standing foreign army marking time on welfare, plenty of bang,bang
    experience there.

    May one ask, what did the electorate think the govn. were up to, “O look all young military age males” whilst the herd were busy with gotta vote tory (ino) keep out labour.

    https://gettr.com/post/ps7vs732f3

  100. apropos the Johnson, Starmer, Sunak debacle.
    All of them are at fault. Johnson is correct but if he suggests that Starmer must have known and acted he has to admit the he must have known about Pratygate (sic) and acted.

    2. “Pratie” is a Scots/ Irish word for a spud. I remember singing a song at primary school called… I Will Meet You In The Garden Where the Praties Grow.

      3. I was always under the impression that the word Spud was from the narrow spade used to dig out the potatoes 🥔 🤣 😕

        1. Believe so.
          When a drilling rig starts drilling and beginning with a hole, it’s called “spudding in”.

  101. Evening, all. Bojo has let down not just traditional Conservative voters (who might have reasonably expected that a Conservative government would be, well, actually conservative), but also those pro-Brexit people who lent him their vote to get Brexit delivered.

      1. What he’s delivered, and what I predicted he would deliver, is BRINO – Brexit I Name Only.

    2. They all represent the ruling class, who are still horrified that the voters voted against them in a plebiscite they didn’t want, and so must be punished.
      The voters need to rise up and hang the establishment from lamp-posts with piano wire.

      1. Just keep an eye out for Killary Clinton Obs. I heard she’s in Norway this weekend. 🤠😎🤭

          2. 44 MAG
            Ruger Redhawk. Excellent revolver. The “Bang!” shakes the fillings in your teeth, so it does.

          7. Big old boys eh.
            I remember working in London and seeing the Youngs brewery Drays in action. Beautiful creatures.

          8. They are beauties and so gentle. Badger Ales regularly sends a dray to Wincanton Races (they sponsor a race) and I often see drays at County shows.

          9. They were still using dray horses in Devizes not so long ago – Citroen would know if they still do.

          10. I use to know a lady who kept one at her stables. She invented me to go and say hello. But it’s another thing that I just didn’t get round to.

          11. Youngs accountants were able to demonstrate that using drays for deliveries within 10 miles of the brewery was cost effective. They ceased to do so because the traffic became too dangerous for the horses, as I understand it.

          15. It would work for me but I can’t afford to fund it (the County NHS won’t pay – too busy paying for hormone treatment to let people think they have changed “gender” no doubt).

          16. Strange as it may seem the NHS has thousands of people waiting for operations. But if a patient can afford to pay you’ll get it done for you in a couple of weeks.
            We are being ‘stitched’ up Conners.

          18. I am having an absolute nightmaremare with the cardiology department at my local hospital.
            I have been in touch with Pals now and they have tried to further advance my appointment and get a face to face and the department has declined saying they are overwhelmed and the only appointment can have is a telephone appointment in oever two months time. The lady was very helpful and is going to try another way. I have also written to my gp practice asking for a reference to go back to Watford hospital where I was treated previously. Phone calls are no good for people who have heart problems.
            I am also going to sureptisousy check and see that

          19. Good. But the clasp will cure Tennis elbow in a couple of weeks without the need for steroids…

          20. The clasp didn’t work, that’s why I had the steroid injections.
            Back in the day when it was possible to have access to a GP.

    3. Hi Conners. Spot on and to too many it appears that this government has been one of the most shambolic in living memory. And by further undermining our established culture. Close to None of the senior cabinet including Johnson have British heritage.
      Who do they actually think they represent. Certainly not those who installed them all.

      1. I’ve just watched an Endeavour before which the announcer intoned, “it contains racist language.” It featured a Britain First look-alike candidate standing for election who went on about too many people from Pakistan who didn’t share our culture, etc. All through, I kept thinking, ‘but he’s right!’

        1. London is famous for one of those.
          It seems he probably adopted some of his previous cultural vote counting methods.
          Remember at the first election when due to an ‘admin error’ thousands of Jewish people didn’t get their ballot papers in time to use them.

          2. They also had a character who anglicised his Polish name because he wanted to fit in; he claimed he was “British” (at that era – late sixties, I would guess – he would have been “English”). His mother, who was English, insisted on using his Polish name (after he was bumped off by a Paki). The widow of one of the Paki victims didn’t speak English and needed another Paki to interpret. To my mind, it was a showcase of everything that’s gone wrong since 1945!

    1. I see the Government spokesman gave the usual deflecting answer, without saying they were looking into stripping him of his title.

  104. I saw an exec (?) from Octopus energy saying that the more windmills we have, the cheaper energy will become. As they claim 100% renewables already, the plan doesn’t seem to be working too well. As I have sometimes said here, there are difficult times ahead for many, and we haven’t had a Ukraine invasion yet. The troops have not been sent on recreational break at a time when the weather is somewhat inclement.

    1. Can you imagine a cold winters day in 20 years time millions of cars on charge no gas for heating and not a puff of wind for a week.

      1. Unless it’s after Xmas and all those Sprouts…oh wait, we won’t be able to cook them, will we?

    2. The EDF advert goes on about windmills, nuclear and solar. Of those three, the only remotely viable source is nuclear and nobody seems to be going down that route by commissioning new reactors.

  105. After last night’s lack of sleep, despite napping through today, I’m off early to catch some zeds.

    Goodnight Gentlefolk and God bless you.

      2. I can’t think of anyone I would care for to replace him. But he’s got to go, he’s been absolutely useless.

        1. I agree he has to go, but we could well end up with something worse, such is the lack of quality available among possible replacements.

          4. I agree- he’s awful but that does seem, to me, how he’s behaving. They’re all as bad as each other.

  109. I think I might turn in as well, but it doesn’t mean I’ll be up early. 😉🤫
    I love a decent western, John Wayne and others in 1959 Rio Bravo on now. I’ll record the remainder.
    Now Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson dueting.
    Nytol.

  110. https://dailysceptic.org/ A very long list now of adverse events reported.

    According to an updated report
    published on January 20th, the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system has
    recorded a total of 1,439,579 events based on 439,578 reports. The total
    number of fatalities reported is 1,972.

Comments are closed.