Friday 4 March: The bitter irony of Britain’s defence-cutting politicians applauding the bravery of Ukraine

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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919 thoughts on “Friday 4 March: The bitter irony of Britain’s defence-cutting politicians applauding the bravery of Ukraine”

    3. I used to see a lot of those lunatics when living by the Rhine. Kept a charged martini glass on the balcony to wave cheerily at them as they panted past 🙂

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Some good DT letters today…

    SIR – Less than a fortnight ago we were happy to trade with Russia and Russians, buy energy from them and allow them to sponsor major sporting institutions and events.

    Yet their political, military and commercial cadres are exactly the same as they were, and their nature was known. We were dealing with people who beyond all reasonable doubt were – and still are – murderers (Alexander Litvinenko, Salisbury), thieves (the vast misappropriation of Russian wealth into a handful of well-disguised pockets) and war criminals (Syria). Now we suddenly refuse to deal with them.

    The parallels with China are almost too awful to draw. Will we continue in coming months and years to fund this country – despite its treatment of the Uyghurs and Tibetans, along with its own military build-up – until it actually seizes Taiwan by force, when we will doubtless wring our hands and impose sanctions? We need to take steps before the event, not afterwards.

    David Waddington
    Longstowe, Cambridgeshire

    1. Gosh, David. The Russians are not all sweetness and light, but that is to be expected after the constrictions and brutality of 70 years of communist brutality? What is our excuse?
      We are the ones who decided to buy energy and food from Russia and every other conceivable piece of manufactured junk from the Chinese. We voted for it.

  4. SIR – Has a defence review ever unravelled quite so swiftly and comprehensively as the Integrated Review unveiled by the Government less than a year ago?

    First Afghanistan, now Ukraine. This review has created an army of gestures at the cost of substance; 
of small teams at the cost of fighting formations, based on a prayer that 
any conflict can be resolved upstream; 
that numbers do not count and that your enemy doesn’t have a vote.

    Even as events unfold in Ukraine, the Army is being reduced by 9,000 personnel, infantry battalion strengths are being decimated and armoured infantry fighting vehicles are being replaced with turretless battlefield taxis.

    The race is on to prevent a Third World War. Deterrence must start now, with a government statement that these measures are being reversed and resources put in place to deliver a defence capability fit for purpose.
In parallel, it must be asked how the defence establishment managed to persuade itself that combat of the 
 kind we are seeing in Ukraine was for the history books. Why was this view not challenged? Governments are frequently surprised; it is Defence’s job to be prepared.

    Alongside a major shift in resources, a complete reboot of minds is required within defence. This should start with an honest, unvarnished appraisal of our current capability, following the example recently set by the chief of the German army: “The army I am privileged to lead is more or less bare.”

    Lt Gen Sir James Bucknall (retd)
    Commander, Nato Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, 2011-2013
    Blandford, Dorset

    1. ‘Morning, Hugh,

      I wasn’t born then but history tells me that we are at the 1938 stage, with possibly just one year – or less- to re-arm PDQ.

  5. SIR – MPs stood to applaud the Ukrainian ambassador in Parliament on Wednesday, then sat down, suffused with a sense of righteousness.

    How many had previously nodded through defence cuts? Such complacency, founded on a misplaced belief that Europe would never again be riven by war, has led the West’s enemies to calculate that it has no 
real stomach for defending freedom and liberty from mad dictators.

    David Saunders
    Sidmouth, Devon

    1. Some BTL posters were also unimpressed by the circus sealions:

      Michael Geddes
      1 HR AGO
      DAVID SAUNDERS
      “MPs stood to applaud the Ukrainian ambassador in Parliament on Wednesday, then sat down, suffused with a sense of righteousness.”
      Yes, aren’t we fortune to have such just and upright folk representing us? Surely there must be a few MBEs or CBEs for those applauding most loudly.

      Olivia Wilde
      1 HR AGO
      No doubt they all felt all warm and fuzzy inside for doing so bless them.

  6. Dodgy Russian money has destabilised Britain’s democracy. We have to crack down on it. Gina Miller. 4 March 2022.

    Even back then, questions were raised about the ability to move large sums of money out of Russia without permission from Vladimir Putin. There was a lot of good we could have done with such a vast sum, but it would have compromised all my principles.

    Gina Miller! Democracy? Lol! The headline was bad enough but I finally stopped reading with “principles”!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/03/dodgy-russian-money-britain-democracy-conservatives-londongrad

    2. She has missed out the bit about stealing other peoples money. As for principles, she may have others.

    3. What does one expect from The Guardian. The only Miller I like is the one whose band played “Moonlight Serenade”.

    4. Gina Miller is a barometer by which we can judge whether something is worthy or fake.

      1. It does save an awful lot of soul searching. If the likes of Miller or Blair are for it, it is automatically a bad idea.

  8. SIR – For reasons of national security and independence from EU manipulation of the Galileo satellite programme against UK national interests, we were both early and enthusiastic proponents of the OneWeb LEO (low earth orbit) purchase.

    However, we are both astonished and angered by the strategic naivety of whoever thought it a good idea to allow our OneWeb launch programme to be a hostage to Russian will (“Putin takes OneWeb satellites hostage”, report, March 3). Was this on a blinkered “least cost” calculation? That world is long gone for strategic assets.

    Now our satellites are physical hostages at Baikonur Cosmodrome. What a mess. There must be a swift inquiry and severe reckoning.

    Meanwhile, we shall have to cut losses, press forward and switch to Cape Canaveral. Elon Musk’s Starlink is currently deploying to backstop the Ukrainian internet. Thank goodness.

    Sir Richard Dearlove
    Professor Gwythian Prins
    Pembroke College, Cambridge

    I think we can assume that the 36 satellites currently impounded will not see the light of day for a long time, if ever. All that valuable technology in the hands of a hostile foreign power…I’m willing to bet that at least one of them will be dismantled to see what IT secrets may be discovered.

    1. Well, dearest professor, were “we” not a party to this decision? Is it not the politicians of the West, of the EU, the USA and the UK who have brought this about? Why did we pick a side, and the wrong side at that? Why did we then demonise the other? Why, without any rational reason, did we then mount commercial, political and cultural attacks on Russia of a scale that has never before been seen in history?

        1. I must declare an interest.
          I’ve met and spoken with the man a few times and found him to be very interesting. If you read his wiki profile he appears to be an independent thinker, prepared to challenge accepted thinking, and my own view is that he was a scapegoat to protect that evil bastard Blair.

        2. I did not know that. Thanks. So where was the intelligence then?
          We are currently building a rocket launching site in the North of Scotland ( without the necessary roads to access it, of course). An intelligent country would maybe have bought the rockets and launched them from here rather than sending our secret satellites to Russia, or Kazakhstan.
          Why, we could even have launched them from Woomera.
          We did have a successful rocket in the Black Arrow. Our aerospace technical developments were started/cancelled/started/cancelled in an unintelligent political merry-go-round. (Some do say that Labour leaned towards the Soviet Union and cancelled anything that looked really good.)

          1. I suspect a lot was merely hearsay, reported as fact.
            Then blown up (ho ho) out of all proportion by Campbell and Blair.
            Labour governments hate GB even more than Conservative ones.

    2. The evil Ruskies will be so absorbed in cooing over photos of Spartie that they’ll forget to zap our economy.

  9. Look at the age group. Nowt to do with people being expected to go back to work?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/03/number-long-covid-symptoms-britain-almost-200000-month/

    Number with long Covid symptoms up by almost 200,000 in a month

    People in mid to late 30s and 40s most likely to be impacted in reflection of working age infections during omicron wave

    By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor3 March 2022 • 3:10pm

    ONS data show that 1.52 million people – one in 41 – were experiencing at least one symptom four weeks after recovering from an infection

    The number of people suffering long Covid symptoms in Britain has jumped by nearly 200,000 in a month, with 35 to 49-year-olds now the most likely to report ongoing problems.

    The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 1.52 million people – one in 41 – were experiencing at least one symptom four weeks after recovering from an infection, an increase of 15 per cent from 1.33 million last month.

    People in their mid to late 30s and 40s were the most likely to be impacted – a reflection of how many working-age younger groups became infected during the omicron wave.

    Nearly a million people in Britain said long Covid was negatively affecting their daily lives, while 685,000 said they were still experiencing symptoms more than a year after recovering from the virus.

    The figures show that 1.1 million (71 per cent) had been struggling with symptoms for at least 12 weeks since an infection.

    Self-reported long Covid is defined as symptoms persisting for more than four weeks after a first suspected virus infection that could not be explained by something else.

    Although it is still not fully understood, many people continue to experience debilitating symptoms after a Covid infection, including extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, chest pain, memory problems, insomnia, heart palpitations, dizziness and joint pain.

    Fatigue continues to be the most common symptom – experienced by 51 per cent of those with self-reported long Covid in the ONS survey – followed by shortness of breath (35 per cent) and loss of smell (34 per cent), with a quarter of people continuing to experience loss of taste and having difficulty concentrating.

    Some 281,000 (18 per cent) reported that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been “limited a lot” by symptoms.

    The ONS said prevalence was greatest in people deprived areas, those working in teaching and education, social care or healthcare, and those with another activity-limiting health condition or disability. These groups also align with those most at risk from Covid in general.

    Women were also found to report more symptoms, although studies have shown that they are generally better at spotting symptoms for most illnesses.”

    1. Although it is still not fully understood, many people continue to experience debilitating symptoms after a Covid infection, including extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, chest pain, memory problems, insomnia, heart palpitations, dizziness and joint pain.

      How many of these have also been Jabbed! Morning Anne.

      1. I suffered the symptoms attributed to Long Covid throughout 2020.

        My first jab (A-Z), in February 2021, did actually alleviate my condition, allowing me to do more than an hour’s work without being knackered for three days after, although I never recovered full fitness.

        The second jab (also A-Z) and the booster (Pfizer) produced a very moderate response, but if anything my general condition deteriorated. I have since had a classic cold, which showed up negative on the LFT, which I recovered from in a few days.

        1. I’m sorry to hear that Jeremy. I’m unable to offer any personal view because I’ve had neither the Jabs nor confirmed Covid!

          1. ‘Morning, Minty.

            #MeNeither!

            I just fall over and end up in the hosty piddle.

          2. So what you are saying is that Qatar is more of a toilet than a lavatory?

        2. Sinusitis; now that can bring you to a halt for a while.
          The only ailment that I’ve seen reduce MB to tears.

    3. Hello, hello: “those working in teaching and education, […] These groups also align with those most at risk from Covid in general.” Swedish teachers, who worked throughout in person and without a mask in sight, were found to have a lower risk from covid than the general population.

      Whilst there will be people who are unfortunate enough to have full-on post-viral syndrome, and lord alone knows what this manufactured virus can actually do long-term, having an annoying symptom which persists for a few weeks should not be conflated with their problems.

      And symptoms “that could not be explained by something else” ignores completely the nocebo effect; there was a study showing that many of those reporting long covid had never actually been infected. Argh.

        1. As I remember, it was a study involving children, and they hadn’t started to jab them at that point.

    6. I know that there are plenty of real sufferers of post viral syndome, including in my family and acquaintance circle.
      However, part of the Long Covid phenomenon may be explained by another person I know who has just reveled in having covid all over Twit.
      Twit followers were given every detail of the isolation and how hard it was, but necessary, because another person in the house was vulnerable, and musn’t be exposed to covid. Followers duly obliged with tweets about how brave that was, and how much it was appreciated that the person is staying in one room to protect others. Long covid was mentioned very early on, and the patient started to suffer from it, even though they had had only the symptoms of a mild cold. Everything was reported on Twit!
      I couldn’t help laughing when the brave sufferer posted a photo of the negative covid test, with words saying “free at last!” and all the covid groupies started to say that it looked like a faint positive to them.

    1. Oligarchs? They’re ALL bloody oligarchs!

      There are no democracies in the West: they are ALL elective oligarchies!

  12. Good morning from a damp Derbyshire and the passing stream of HGV quarry traffic making a lot of noise on the wet road. It’s now light drizzle after the overnight rain and a still chilly 2°C outside.

  13. NZ’s parliament protests were frightening but they don’t mean the country is splintering. 4 March 2022.

    The occupation of New Zealand’s parliament was fractured from the outset: fascists vied for control with controversial pastors, conspiracy theorists and more moderate anti-mandate protesters. And even as the occupation violently collapsed with rioters lobbing cobblestones at police, the divisions remained. Some shouted “burn it down”, while others tried to restrain them.

    As New Zealand reacts to some of its darkest days in recent memory, these internal rivalries are, obscurely, a hopeful sign – a reminder there was far more division inside the protest than between the protesters and the wider nation.

    Despite all the emollient words in this article; in fact because of them and the fake comparisons and false equivalences it is in fact quite reasonable to assume that the country is indeed splintering.

    PS. You can tell who are fascists” and “conspiracy theorists” just by looking at them?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2022/mar/04/nzs-parliament-protests-were-frightening-but-they-dont-mean-the-country-is-splintering

  14. SIR – One of the Ofcom requirements placed on BT for telephone landline customers (Letters, March 3) is that, if any changes are made to the connection method, those customers must continue to be able to contact emergency services by telephone in the event of a power cut, or if they have no mobile phone signal.

    Chris Howe, BT’s Customer Care Change Director (Letters, February 28), appears not to understand that a battery pack, which is able to power a broadband signal for just one hour, is wholly inadequate.

    Before any more customers are switched from a landline over to a digital connection, Ofcom needs to make certain that the regulations for BT and other service providers are sufficiently robust, and that they are able to ensure that customers will continue to have a phone connection for a considerably longer period than one hour – with or without broadband or a mobile phone signal.

    John Leng
    Christchurch, Dorset

    SIR – I wonder if the person who has decided that it is sensible to replace analogue landline telephones with digital ones that do not work in a power cut is somehow related to the person who believes that smart motorways are safe.

    Howard Neale
    Redlynch, Wiltshire

    It is scandalous that the elderly, the sick and the frail in particular will be unable to call for help via their panic alarms. Ofcom should have seen this coming and prevented the changeover until a working alternative had been found. Another dangerous shambles in the making.

    1. Around here the broadband and digital connection went off. Quite understandable after the storm.

      Unfortunately the local transmitter for mobile ‘phones is not big enough to process all the calls, so people were unable to get a connection.

        1. So many important people in the Elite are determined to rejoin.

          Whether they will be as determined to get our £40billion back is another question.

          1. Maybe the money is still in escrow until we are properly out of the EU? Oh, wait. We wouldn’t have thought of doing that would we?

        1. Good question. Maybe he does not have time right now to run the country, look at difficult issues, wants his mummy, kind of thing?

      3. Ahem…. he’s a man and can’t multi-task?
        Does the counter argument – that it means he can concentrate better – hold water?

      1. The UN dictating changes to agriculture and food provision on the grounds of “sustainability” and many countries being stupid enough to support it.

          3. That is how I read it.
            With the advantage that it engenders a drop in the population of the lower orders.

          4. Germany is one of the richest agricultural lands in Europe, yet they suffered food shortages in the twentieth century due to politicians’ decisions. Idiots do not realise how fragile and valuable the food delivery chains are.

          5. France actually produces and exports more wheat than the Ukraine. Not a lot of people know that, well I didn’t.

          6. That surprises me.
            Must be all those poor farmers reliant on CAP handouts, like old Woollard used to be.

            I would guess that Russia also produces most of its wheat very close to Ukraine so it could still be referred to as the breadbasket of Europe..

          7. That is surprising!
            Another surprise to me was years ago in southern Germany seeing an artic lorry with Ukrainian numberplates carrying firewood – something that I would have thought Germany produced enough of.

  16. Can anyone understand why so many people are still wearing masks. What is wrong with them.??

      2. It is worrying that people who were trained by the media to demonise unvaccinated or unmasked people are now demonising Russians. Who are they going to pick on next?

    3. It’s their choice, Johnny. However, I am a member of Colchester Recalled and was told yesterday that they plan to hold the occasional “live” meeting (in a gradual move from Zoom meetings back to normality) at the Colchester Roman Circus. However, we have been advised that the venue tells us we must wear masks to attend. I have told them that this edict is against the Government’s advice, and that I shall only attend Zoom meetings until this changes and I am allowed to exercise my rights to not wear a mask. Incidentally, attached to the email was a photo of Colchester Roman Circus people preparing a display for the venue and they were not wearing masks!

      On another front, I attended a Book Club meeting yesterday. After a cursory discussion of the month’s book, the others on my table (three females) then veered on to the subject of Ukraine. It was the usual unthinking airing of opinions: Putin is the devil incarnate, thank goodness Biden is in charge of the USA (just imagine how much worse it would be were Trump to be in charge), Trump was guilty of organising the storming of the Capitol building, Trump is terrible because he uses orange make-up and hair dye, the world has gone mad since Brexit, etc. etc. I just kept my mouth shut, because I knew that if I presented a counter-argument I would simply be viciously attacked by the others. Which is what would have happened had I attended the Roman Circus Centre and stood my ground. This in itself is a form of victimisation. The only safe space where points of view are courteously held seems to be on this site.

      1. It’s interesting how a short but intense period of brainwashing by the media has produced such violent attitudes.

        Now we can better understand the wild anti-Semitic hostility shown by the German nation in the 1930s after many

        years of similar indoctrination.

  17. 351214+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 4 March: The bitter irony of Britain’s defence-cutting politicians applauding the bravery of Ukraine.

    -Would one expect different ?

    Say no more, Britain’s defence can be summed up daily at DOVER.

    See the Birmingham by election went to labour no change in the voting pattern there then, I do believe that political shite addiction MUST
    play a big part among the member / voters of the lab/lib/con coalition.

    1. I don’t agree with you about the change in voting pattern at Birmingham Erdington.

      Turnout 2019 – 53.3%
      Turnout 2022 – 27.0%.

      Labour: -8307 votes
      Conservative: -7972 votes
      Brexit/Reform: -1148 votes
      Liberal Democrat: -1128 votes
      Green: -412 votes

      Third place there in 2022 was actually Dave Nellist, who managed 360 votes. The Church of the Militant Elvis got eight.

      1. 351214+ up ticks,
        Morning JM,
        My meaning was lab/lib
        still ruling the roost with NO fringe party coming through snapping at their heels.

    2. Hitchens is right, I’ve been having feelings of 1914 as well. A spoilt generation of idiots bigging up war talk because they have no idea how bad things can and would become.

      1. Well, you don’r expect him to use his own money? He needs his own money to buy up all the farmland in the USA.

  21. On the utter farce of Williamson’s knighthood, I never thought I would find myself on the side of a teachers’ union:

    Chris Harris
    1 HR AGO
    “Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “Honours such as [knighthoods] should be a reward for honourable service and being effective and competent in your job. Well, no one could really say that Gavin Williamson was any of these.”
    DT.

    Well that didn’t prevent major cockup and Bliar and many many other specimens from benefiting too

      1. Aren’t they all now? Politicians have torn the ar5e out of the honours system, to such an extent that it is now just about worthless.

        ‘Morning, N.

  22. Awkward………..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/84d75f87bed95a84b375e5b4ea724c9fe68af7c5b3ae0affa7370aac3704eee7.jpg

    Still US troops in Syria I understand,aha just checked yes there are…

    The United States will not be withdrawing its roughly 900 troops from

    northeast Syria any time soon, despite mounting speculation it would do

    so following its much-maligned August pull-out from Afghanistan,

    according to officials with knowledge of the Biden administration’s

    plans.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/26/will-us-leave-syria

    2. The most shocking part of the above post is the last three words. They have plans?

  24. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday I missed this site as it was a very busy day for me. I hope you are all well.

    2. Good morning, Auntie Elsie. Did you have to go out and buy a real, paper, DT? 😉

      1. No, young Grizzly, I get my news from a good friend who is a Purveyor of Crossword Puzzles. :-))

        1. A chap who was at school with me called Donald Manley composes crossword puzzles for many different newspapers and magazines. He uses pseudonyms such as Duck, Quixote, Bradman, Giovanni but I don’t think he has added Trump to his list,

    2. “Don’t you dare come here and tell the truth about the 14000 deaths in Donbass since 2014……get out!”

      Incidentally,the UN figure for deaths in the whole of Ukraine for the past week…………..249.

    3. I won’t describe this young man as foolish he has just been brought up to believe in Freedom and Democracy . He has I hope learned a lesson!

      1. Which is why I said above that the “mad dictators” we have to worry about are not external to our borders. They live among us, our politicians and government with their mouthpiece the MSM.

    4. However much one deplores Putin’s actions in the current conflict is it really wise to try and suppress Truth that does not confirm the line the politicians and MSM want us to believe unquestioningly?

    5. He wants a proper conversation. What a liar and a coward that he wants one side of the issue censored.

  26. I note that the current wind direction in Kyiv is south, and that in Mariupol is west. Any wind from the south-west will blow any fallout from a nuclear catastrophe arising from the shelling of a Ukrainian power station right over Russia.

    I think they should be warned.

    1. After Chernobyl I’m sure that the Russians are extremely sensitive about radioactive fallout.

      Any takeover of any nuclear facility would be accompanied by Russian experts, who would very probably do a better job than the Ukrainians.

      Don’t get overwrought about imaginative media speculations.

      1. According to IAEA and Ukrainian officials the plant is operating normally.Radiation levels are normal.
        The fire was in a training facility away from the actual plant.

        1. Back in the late 1980s, there was a big news splash on the TV “Fire at Oldbury Nuclear Power Station” wit endless scaremongering and speculation. Big Meeja panic.
          There was indeed a file – in the office toilets. Nothing nuclear at all…

          1. I remember that Windscale had problems so they changed its name to Sellafield.

          2. “problems” – a bit understated… the core caught fire and was very difficult to extinguish. Got so hot that the heat stripped the oxygen from the hydrogen in the firewater, contributing to the fire.

      2. There is not much that cannot be achieved with a Birmingham toolkit. I know – I am currently doing amateur NHS-standard dentistry at home.

        However well-qualified Russian nuclear engineers are, might maintaining nuclear facilities using precision cruise missiles be handing over the maintenance contract to the cowboys?

    2. Despite all the hysteria about that. It is standard practice in a war to seize all such facilities in order to deprive the enemy of their use. The ridiculous furore about it in the Western press, as if Nuclear war was imminent is not only stupid but dangerous. Cool heads need to prevail not cheap shots that we know are so base that all they are about is the MSM trying to get ratings, as if it were appropriate in such a situation to be doing that. Still it only reinforces Putin’s assertions about the decedent West that he does not want inflicted on Russia.

      2. Does anyone know what those symbols are supposed to represent? Masons? Intergalactic alien lizards?

          1. I was close.

            By Lee Austin

            While observing the above photo of Klaus Schwab you’ll notice a nine
            pointed star on his robe and podium. This is the Star of Ishtar, known
            as the Enneagram. The Enneagram is the fusion of all that is and used
            as a vehicle for the pursuit and interaction of cosmic deities (demons),
            knowledge and an examination of the good and bad side of people. To
            foster a greater understanding through a universal language transcending
            religion, nationalism. and culture. Using sacred geometry the Enneagram
            is an esoteric tool used to seek mental equilibrium without the
            interference of God. A modern reflection and symbolic representation of
            The Tower of Babel.

            The triangle of Freemasonry combined with the pentacle forms of an
            Enneagram represent the Satanic Trinity. Baha’i Faith is the latest
            religion of deception purposing all of the worlds people and faiths are
            the same and should unite into a one world religion.

            Another prominent icon displayed on both Schwab’s robe and the podium
            is a bull with a cross positioned between his horns. The is the symbol
            of the pagan mystery religion Mithraism. Mithras is also known as Sol
            Invictus or RA the unconquered sun god.

  28. Don’t you just love football players and their strong sense of justice and ethics? Last night there was a televised football match between Boredom Wood and some other team. The Boreham players wore T-shirts with the message “We stand with Ukraine” on the back. I did not see the fronts, they may have said “We Kneel with BLM”.

    1. And they did kneel. Before a previous FA cup match, the Spurs players knelt whilst the Middlesbrough players did not. Middlesbrough went on to win.

      1. Well, that really is the pits.
        Add lack of taste to Putin’s list of failings.

    2. Bryant is surely one of the most unpleasant people in parliament.

      According to Twitter Blair said in 2014 that we should side with Putin rather than the Ukrainians. Of course 8 years is a short time in politics (!) but it would be good if this fact, backed up with textual and video links, was well publicised.

      1. If it is actually a fact.

        Blair was/is so pro EU I would have expected him to support Ukraine as another EU satrap state.

  30. This week’s ‘The Highwire’ has its focus on Ivermectin. The interview with Dr Tess Lawrie is really damning – from around 1 hour in. The WHO are preparing to become the overarching authority on future pandemics with control over governments. After watching Dr Lawrie’s statements that must never happen.

    Watch Liverpool University’s professor’s body language and lack of eye contact when confronted by Dr Lawrie and draw your own conclusions.

    The Highwire Episode 257 – Who Killed Ivermectin?

    5. The Daily Mail is hardly in a position to sling around insults like “ranting madman.”

    3. Note self: Auntie Agnes (RIP) woz rite. Keep your money in a shoebox under the bed.

    2. “The Wild West Is Where I Wanna Be”: (Tom Lehrer)

      Along the trail you’ll find me lopin’
      Where the spaces are wide open
      In the land of the old A.E.C. Yee-hoo!
      Where the scenery’s attractive
      And the air is radioactive
      Oh, the Wild West is where I wanna be
      ‘Mid the sagebrush and the cactus
      I’ll watch the fellows practice
      Droppin’ bombs through the clean desert breeze
      A-ha!
      I’ll have on my sombrero
      And of course I’ll wear a pair o’
      Levis over my lead B.V.D.’s
      I will leave the city’s rush
      Leave the fancy and the plush
      Leave the snow and leave the slush
      And the crowds
      I will seek the desert’s hush
      Where the scenery is lush
      How I long to see the mush-room clouds
      ‘Mid the yuccas and the thistles
      I’ll watch the guided missiles
      While the old F.B.I. watches me
      Yee-hoo!
      Yes, I’ll soon make my appearance
      (Soon as I can get my clearance)
      ‘Cause the Wild West is where I wanna be

  34. Hamlet gives good advice to actors telling them not to saw the air. His advice should be extended to television presenters too.

    We were watching GB News yesterday evening and Caroline found Mark Dolan’s constant gesticulation and arm waving, combined with his excessive use of hyperbole, rather tedious. He did not merely saw the air – he stabbed it and, when he was not sawing it he was impersonating an epileptic windmill and telling us in Panglossian terms that his superstar panel was the best of all superstar panels in the best of all possible worlds

    As he is always asking his audience for their views Caroline sent hin an e-mail saying:

    Dear Mark,

    We love GB News and no longer watch the mainstream media.

    You ask how you can improve!

    Two things, in our opinion: firstly, stop jabbing your finger at the camera! It’s irritating and your mother should have told you not to do that kind of thing.

    And secondly, more seriously, stop the hyperbole: your “fantastic, superstar” panel and contributors, everything is “great”, “best”, “marvellous” – it’s all just a bit much.

    Otherwise, keep up the good work!

    Best wishes

    Caroline and Richard

    To her astonishment no sooner had she pressed the send button than Mark read out her in e-mail in full on live TV and clearly enjoyed her comments and entered into the spirit of things very cheerfully.

    On the subject of GB News last night. It was sad to see Martin Bell – he has become senile and incoherent.

    1. ……”And secondly, more seriously, stop the hyperbole: your “fantastic, superstar” panel and contributors, everything is “great”, “best”, “marvellous” – it’s all just a bit much.”

      Caroline should have added………. “Amazing”

      1. Could be worse. They could be using that Americanism ‘awesome’ (pronounced ‘arse-um’).

    2. Oooh yes! Excellent email!
      I have ranted before about younger colleagues and how everything is “amazing” to them.

    3. Very good! However, someone from GBN’s heavy mob will be round with a crowbar….!

    2. I think I pointed out yesterday, if not it was the day before. That the Russians were offering a guarantee of safe passage out of Kiev via a certain highway. It now turns out that their own government would not let them leave and were using them, in effect as human shields.

      Who’s leading the Ukrainian forces
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZE3vCu2Q-Q

      1. Mariupol is the place to watch.The Azov Battalion is inside the city which is now surrounded by Russian troops.
        Some people have been allowed to leave but they have been strictly vetted on their way out.

        1. I was aware of that but, of course, there will be no mention in the Western media about the Russians vetting for Neo-Nazis.

    3. It demonstrates how one piece can be used as fakery in another context, it’s awkward for whoever published it re Ukraine, because it undermines other genuinely fake news.

  37. Morning all. A nice gloomy cold day in West Sussex, as it should be.

    Reading the above letter to the Daily Telegraph: “The bitter irony of Britain’s defence-cutting politicians applauding the bravery of Ukraine.” It asserts that our politicians have “… no real stomach for defending freedom and liberty from mad dictators.” Struck me that the only mad dictators we have to worry about is our own government and politicians who seem to be intent in destroying our way of life and our freedom.

    I note today that Birmingham has voted in another Racist who, in order for Blacks to get their way, should speak down the barrel of a gun. Paulette Hamilton, who seems to think her parents situation in coming voluntarily to the UK was the equivalent of slavery. I wish these people were offered, in no uncertain terms, the opportunity to go to the countries their ancestors originated from

    1. Slightly brighter here today than it has been since I arrived home. Been starved of sunshine this week.

      1. I bet. You got plenty of Sunshine in Africa, no doubt, or did they see you coming and present you with drizzle instead?

        1. We got lots of sunshine and lots of rain. Mornings mainly sunny, rain in the afternoons and at night

          and some cracking thunderstorms as well.

          1. That patter of Sun in the morning, rain in the afternoon, is typical of Africa. I suppose it is something to do with heat rising, forming clouds and then producing rain. We kids never bothered with umbrellas or the like, it would come down so hard that it was pointless. But you would soon dry out when the sun popped out again.

      1. We lived under the flight path of a US base – we loved plane-spotting as children!

    1. Sense of humour failure by the “victims”. The could have send from some cosmetics and a scarf for the “voyeuse”…!!

      Cost them a damned sight less than litigation.

    2. The comments are scathing. Eg: ” In addition to the valid comments here, is it not the
      case that the complainants larger dormer window, which is clearly a
      later addition to the original building and faces directly at Mr Cooks
      house, intrudes on Mr Cook’s privacy?”

    3. Around 20 years ago i built a loft conversion for the old guy opposite our house. He wanted Velux roof lights in the front roof and the planning department said no. Poor old john died his daughter sold the house and people from North London moved in the built a massive ground floor extension and re jigged the lot with a ‘must have’ Juliet balcony at the rear. And two roof lights on the front roof. When I objected on the basis they were not previously allowed because is the possible invasion of privacy i.e.the two windows are around 3 metres higher than out front bedroom windows opposite across a narrower than usual road. My objection was thrown out. Saying it didn’t contravene the planning protocol. It appears from further more recent planning applications in our once tidy and quite cul-de-Sac that the planning departments no longer seem to give a damn about the design effects of new projects, which quite often set new precedents in size along with height. As long as they are making a profit out of doing absolutely nothing to alleviate the stress during the process it puts on others. Councils are now filled with complete and utterly useless box ticking do nothing pathetic tossers. Who are probably scared they might offend some one. Who is donating to their salaries.

      1. I put 4 Velux windows in my roof, no planning permission needed however the planning dept said building control would have to be informed and inspect them but they never did

        1. You’ve probably been able to get away with it Alec.
          After a few years they planning/regs, control write it off.
          As they did with another local job i did a large extension when the people refused to change their double glazed UPVC door into their newly built garage.
          The regs demanded a new fire door so much more inferior then what they had. And he never did get his Aston martin to put in the garage. Although he worked for them.

          1. They’re pretty good up here Eddy, I think they dislike leaving their nice warm offices in Dingwall to travel to the wilds of Ross-shire. There was one Hitleress who made life difficult for you and she’s gone now

  40. One thing puzzles me (well, many things do but…)

    Putin has repeated said that Russians and Ukrainians are brothers – that there is no difference between them.

    Destroying your “brothers'” infrastructure and cities and villages and killing some of them seems an odd way to show fraternity. But perhaps I am missing something…

    2. You haven’t met my brothers. They are riven with jealousy about my success compared to theirs. They feel i have had an easy ride while they have to work all hours.

      1. That’s peculiar. I thought your success on NTTL was entirely due to your hard work and bubbly personality; surely NTTL is open to (almost) everyone, so the bros. could easily participate and achieve fame & upvotes too.

        1. I have three elder brothers. Two of them had learning difficulties (thick as a plank) and the other one can’t make a decision on anything and gets nothing done.

          As for the rest of your post…..i couldn’t possibly comment. :@)

    5. Correct Bill.Ukrainians have been killing Ukrainians (14000) in the Donbass region since 2014.

      1. And their crime was that they spoke Russian. I wonder how many people here are aware that “democratic” Ukraine banned Russian and was forcing Russian speaking children in school to use Ukrainian? This is just one more small piece of information that is missing in the Western Media as to why this mess started.

    6. Yes, you are missing the long term threat to Russia if the younger brother gets his way and allows NATO on Russia’s borders. Brothers are often fratricidal, it starts, so it is said, with Cain and Abel thousands of years ago.

      1. Thank you. I sort of knew that. The effing EU should never have started provoking Russia.

        That said, killing your brothers does seem extreme – whether Ukes on Russians on vice versa.

        1. I cannot disagree with you on the fact that it is awful that brother is killing brother. I have observed already that their is little difference between Russia and Ukraine. I used the difference, if you recall, of Yorkshire men as opposed to the rest of the English. Certain quirks that make for difference but not enough to consider such people as foreigners.
          It is good that you bring up the EU because many people forget that there is still a democratically elected President of Ukraine exiled in Russia. So, really the present Ukrainian government is illegitimate, born out of violence caused in large part by the EU and USA’s false promises to Ukraine. If you recall there were snippers in the Euromaiden in 2013. What is not well known is that a court case in Ukraine itself found that the snipers were brought and paid for by the EU. I am trying to find a report of that trial but for obvious reasons, it seems to have been buried deep. This court case, by the way, was way before the current troubles.

    7. But, but…that happens in every civil war and there have been many. This one was engineered by the US and EU for their own purposes. Hardline Moslem Iran has now come out in support of Christian Russia. The enemy of my enemy is my friend?

    8. Cain and Abel?

      There is often hostility between siblings. Our two boys do not get on very well with each other and although I adored one of my sisters I did not much like the other one.

      2. Two of my brothers didn’t speak for many years, which upset my mother greatly. They were finally reconciled when they had to organise her funeral together.

        1. My two sons are like chalk and cheese – they usually meet here at Christmas for a few days and that’s enough for them – when the elder one was a teenager and started going to parties he was highly miffed if the younger one was invited too, as they had mutual friends.

          Apart from both working in IT, they don’t have much in common. One is somewhat to the right of Maggie Thatcher and the other is quite leftie and very much anti-Brexit – we fell out over that a few years ago.

    1. Caroline and I are becoming ever happier to be un-gene-therapied and to have taken Daily Vitamins C and zinc tablets and Vitamin D drops so that when we did get Covid it was very mild. This means that our natural immunity has been boosted and there is even less reason for us to be gene-therapied.

      [My fellow Nottlers will recall that for some time I have been referring to the jabs as vaccines gene therapies.]

  42. Spring is here. I have turned the garden water on. And one of the clivias that have been out all ‘winter’ is budding up, so I’ve brought it indoors.

  43. Anne-Laure Bonnel.Remember that name.She is a young French journalist who has been filming in the Donbass region since 2015.
    Hopefully she will somehow be able to have her work shown in the West.

    1. She was on Russia today yesterday. Saying that she has proof that the Ukrainians have been committing war crimes. She herself said she hopes that the evidence she has of that can be shown in the West. Good luck to her, hopefully she will survive long enough to get the truth out. Would not be in the slightest bit surprised if she met with a fatal accident.

      2. Only the losers in any conflict ever commit war crimes. I suppose for this conflict, we can expand that to include the people we wanted to lose.

  44. Name that chicken competition.

    Can NoTTlers dream up a new name for this dish.

    Chicken Kiev…..anyone?
    First buy your prepared Kiev.
    Slice off the top and fill with chopped BRITISH smoked bacon. Add chopped ENGLISH tomatoes, top with strong CHEDDAR cheese and a dash of sweet chilli sauce. Replace top and shove in oven……

    First prize – a trip to Kiev…

          2. Nothing so posh Plum. They were recue Chooks from the laying factories. Pay id around 2 quid each. We did get a quite few eggs, but the had all but two died with in two years. I Buried them at each corner of the plot I gave the two others to another allotment holder when I had to forego the plot.

          3. I took in some ‘end of life’ battery hens. They were in a shocking state, with few feathers, nearly bald and their beaks overgrown. They soon recovered and mixed with the other hens to enjoy a life of freedom producing plenty of eggs.

          4. Ours were almost bald as well, but became quite friendly at feeding times.
            We also had a problem with brown rats burrowing into the chicken Coup.

    6. Well I suppose “Chicken Hunter” is already gone, so how about “Chicken Blanchiment d’argent?”

    7. Second prize is two trips to Kiev…no, upon reflection you would need to survive the first trip to go again…

  45. Name that chicken competition.

    Can NoTTlers dream up a new name for this dish.

    Chicken Kiev…..anyone?
    First buy your prepared Kiev.
    Slice off the top and fill with chopped BRITISH smoked bacon. Add chopped ENGLISH tomatoes, top with strong CHEDDAR cheese and a dash of sweet chilli sauce. Replace top and shove in oven……

    First prize – a trip to Kiev…

    1. Good Morning Johnny, just to mention that facebook only works for facebook insiders, a bit like the NHS.

      1. And so can some Russian Oligarchs … (and not just to George Osborne and Peter Mandelson).

        2. That is a Spotted (Nordmann’s) Greenshank Tringa guttifer which, as you say, is a rarity in both Russia and China.

    2. If Carol really is Canadian I feel she’d be better off worrying about Turdeau and his violent response to protests!

    3. If Carol really is Canadian I feel she’d be better off worrying about Turdeau and his violent response to protests!

    1. That’s not funny.

      Take off the fancy dress and he has said most of those things.

    1. This is basically what the now removed BBC TV news live interview around three weeks ago between Lord Robert Dannatt and Victoria Derbyshire was about.
      They just didn’t want that to be shown again, it would have upset their planned apple cart.

      1. Hi Eddy. Don’t watch TV so missed Lord Dannatt and Derbyshire. Every now and then I take a look at TV and am so repulsed by it that it cures me for a year or two.

        1. Problem is JR I’ve tried in vain to find the interview on line,, it’s obviously been sanctioned and removed from public gaze.

          1. Well, thank you for the effort Eddy but I would be surprised if you found it.

          2. The BBC are absolute hypocritical bustards, they pump out the propaganda 24 /7 but when someone as knowledgeable as the EX army general who knows everything about military matters passes on a relevant comment with such important information, they put a block on it.
            The interview was around ten minutes long as well.

  50. Flt Lt Ronald Agar (ret) – you have no right to put (ret) after your name unless you are on the reserve list – you need to be a Sqdn Ldr or above

      1. I was in the CCF at school (in the RN section) and had two stripes on the arms of my tunic.

    2. I thought it was the rank of Captain or above, in which case, he’d qualify, surely?

      1. Only Captain in the Horseguards I think (see Capt Mark Phillips), everyone else is Sqdn Ldr (or equivalent) and above

  51. One more for the cat lovers, the cat on the bed at around the 40 second mark. I often watch this last thing at night for a little light relief at the end of the day. This and Stern duTube which is longer but very similar in its subject matter. Good things at the end of the day.

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

    1. “Badger setts are protected and it is advised a dog must be left for 48 hours before any action is taken.” I would like to know why. It isn’t as if Badgers are endangered but they are certainly endangering other animals with TB and the killing of other wildlife, particularly hedgehogs because badgers are out of control. At this point they are little more than vermin.

      1. Bugger the badgers – dig out the dog.

        Mind you, if the sett had been active, they have might have been retrieving a corpse.

        1. Nah! After the badger had finished with it, there’d not have been much left of it.

      2. That’s as maybe, but they have more rights than we do, thanks to the Wildlife Act of 1972.

        1. Certainly seems that way Conway. It also seems incredibly cruel to leave a dog trapped underground for such a length of time. If you did that to a dog the RSPCA would be right after you.

    2. More public money needed for public services. Did the owners of the dog not own a spade? (They could have asked the spade to get a shovel and dig out the sett and recover the dog.)

      1. Badger setts can be extensive – they didn’t know where the dog was.

    3. More public money needed for public services. Did the owners of the dog not own a spade? (They could have asked the spade to get a shovel and dig out the sett and recover the dog.)

      2. “specialist equipment” = don’t you possibly think that you can do anything by yourself. Officials must be involved at all times, and you must have the government’s permission.

    1. A very clever caricature – I haven’t seen a cartoon of this woman before but I could identify her immediately.

      2. She had very over-demarkated eyebrows when I saw her on telly yesterday; also she has very thin lips. A caricaturists dream.

        1. Just looked further down the thread and Rastus says it is Truss. Don’t watch telly and couldn’t ID her at all from this caricature.

  56. Thank you for the kind messages, posted on my birthday.

    Yes, Rastus, add me to the birthday list; thank you.

      1. I shan’t miss you on 1st. April ……. when I give you a clip round the ear! :-))

    4. It is very good to see you back here again.

      As I said to Phizzee here the other day: If we take the average of the age he says you are and the age you say you are then we get the age my Caroline is – and she will be 60 on 26th March.

      My mother’s birthday is March 9th – she would be 118 if she were still with us; my eldest niece is 65 today (I became an uncle at the age of 10). My sisters both married at the age of 20 – I married at the age of 41¾ which is why which we have overlapping generations with four of my sisters’ children being older than my wife.

      1. Rastus, Phil is a very naughty boy …. he also tells fibs;

        most people know I am 28!

      1. I hope you enjoyed your hols; it must have
        been wonderful to go back to Africa.

  57. What is the best way to describe people like Mr Ingilby?
    James Delingpole had tweeted how people were looking at him when he was the only maskless person on a plane, and someone couldn’t resist making the reply below:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2c831ab4dc380c92000359a57d2395cc68d907dbf0ace8c7340ce52841d2a8f.jpg

    Now, I can understand people being scared of catching covid, and I can understand people getting the jab because they believe it’s the right decision for them and it will protect them, or turning it down because they believe the opposite.
    People have different opinions, and that’s normal. But this attitude seems to be fairly common among the left, and it’s more to do with shaming others for supposed selfishness. Someone in my family does it. When you get two or more of them together, they gang up and make life intolerable for everyone else if not stopped.
    I need a catchy word or phrase to describe this behaviour, to make clear that it’s not acceptable.

    covid signalling?
    maskier than thou?
    sancticovious?
    Branch Covidians?

    3. Here a nice little facebook comment that I received last night because I dared to suggest that the truckers have the right to protest –


      the division in this country is between
      -those who look at a 65-year-old with a heart condition and say to themselves, “That guys gonna die anyways, so I don’t wanna wear this mask”; between those who show up at hospitals to spit at health care workers; those who think they have the “right” to get in a group of 5 guys and yell “FREEDOM” in some old ladies face…
      -and the rest of us who are humans.
      The divide heals when you grow the fuck up and act like men.

      Nice eh?

      1. They’re not teaching critical thinking in Canadian schools any more, are they?

        1. Our school system is completely woke, they are turning youngsters into Trudeau voters.

          That response was in response to a fairly conciliatory comment where I suggested that the truckers could have made their point and left Ottawa after a few days.

  59. Welcome to the Free Speech Union’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    Calls to ban RT amid warnings of reciprocal Russian ban of the BBC

    Broadcasting regulator Ofcom has opened a series of investigations in to RT, previously known as Russia Today, following a letter from Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries demanding action amid wider calls to ban the Kremlin propaganda channel from the UK.Dorries described culture as “the third front in the Ukrainian war” in an article for the Telegraph. The channel was removed from Sky, and has already vanished from all TV platforms in the UK following EU sanctions of the satellite companies in Luxembourg and France which “provided the RT feed to Sky, Freesat and Freeview”.

    RT has also disappeared from YouTube, which also took down Sputnik. Facebook owner Meta has pledged to do likewise. Both have also been removed from the App store. But Fraser Myers warned in Spiked that banning RT would almost certainly mean reciprocal censorship of the BBC in Russia. The BBC Press Office said millions of Russians are turning to BBC News for independent, factual reporting about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A ban on Russian state media “goes flatly against the liberal principles” the West should be upholding, argued Laurie Wastell. Ella Whelan wrote:

    Unlike Russia, Western liberal democracies are supposed to trust their citizens to have access to alternative and even controversial news outlets. Unlike the Kremlin, we do not ban or penalise journalism that does not fit with our worldview. And unlike Putin, we do not sequester ourselves away from difficult or conflictual information. Press freedom is never easy to defend, but it is what differentiates us from the oppressive regime we find ourselves coming face to face with today.

    Toby Young, our founder, made much the same point on Twitter:

    Suppressing free speech to show our solidarity with a country fighting to uphold the right to free speech, among other democratic rights, is illogical and self-defeating; and Putin will retaliate by banning the BBC in Russia.

    Meanwhile, Russia is to punish the circulation of so-called “fake news” with 15 years in jail.

    The University of Milan-Bicocca has announced that a course on Dostoevsky will now no longer be taught, in order to “avoid any controversy… during a time of strong tensions”. Valery Gergiev, conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, has been sacked for refusing to condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He is a “close friend” of the Russian president, the Guardian reported. Meanwhile, a councillor in Tunbridge Wells is calling for the cancellation of a show by the Russian State Opera.

    Journalist Tom Burgis has triumphed in court after an attempt by Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation to sue him for libel. His book Kleptopia (which can be bought here) exposes the dirty money of Russian oligarchs, among others. Speaking after his victory, Burgis said: ‘I wrote a book about what I believe is the greatest threat to freedom today: the rise of kleptocracy. I’m delighted this attempt to censor Kleptopia has failed.’ He still faces a second libel action, however, this time related to an article he wrote in the Financial Times. His publisher HarperCollins has said the attempt to silence him is “lawfare”.

    Cardiff fails to act despite months of harassment targeting academics

    An open letter from academics at institutions across the UK has strongly rebuked Cardiff University for its failure to defend academics against a months-long campaign of harassment and intimidation for having dared to oppose Cardiff’s continued affiliation with Stonewall. We’ve been working with the beleaguered Cardiff staff and if you’re an academic, please contact us to add your signature.

    According to the Daily Mail, Cardiff claims they “have found insufficient evidence to link Cardiff University staff or students to any actions that would breach our internal disciplinary codes” – despite the academics supplying ample documentary evidence. Our general secretary Toby Young told the paper that the institution needs to launch a full investigation: “Cardiff University has completely failed to intervene while militant trans activists have created a culture of abject fear, with anyone who opposes their ideology afraid to speak out.” This was also reported by the Christian Institute.

    Raquel Rosario Sanchez wrote for the Daily Mail about her experience of being targeted by trans activists at Bristol University, and Bristol’s failure to protect her rights: “While I wasn’t naive about the extent to which cancel culture had started to exert its grip here, I couldn’t believe it was happening to me, and at a university that apparently prides itself on being open-minded and welcoming.”

    Online Speakeasy with Andrew Doyle

    Join us on Tuesday, March 22 for our next Online Speakeasy, when Toby will be joined by comedian, author, and GB News presenter Andrew Doyle. The event is exclusive to FSU members and free to attend. Register here.

    Woke institutions

    Rakib Ehsan wrote in Spiked about the capture of the security services by woke ideology. Shortly after the Russian invasion began, MI6 chief Richard Moore, who helpfully displays his preferred gender pronouns on his Twitter profile, tweeted: “We should remember the values and hard won [sic] freedoms that distinguish us from Putin, none more than LGBT+ rights. So let’s resume our series of tweets to mark #LGBTHM2022.” In response, Charles Moore wrote in the Telegraph:

    The central point about Western freedom is that it is a condition of all living. It cannot be boiled down to sexuality, sex, race, region, age, religion etc.: it is not a list of specific rights granted to designated minorities, but freedom for everyone. It follows that the most important defences of freedom are general, too – the rule of law, habeas corpus, parliamentary democracy, freedom of speech. It is a serious mistake to exalt group rights over the rights of each person.

    The request to share one’s pronouns, common on university campuses, is really a “test” of “fealty to a fashionable ideology”, wrote Andrew Doyle.

    Ministers have been told to pull their departments out of Stonewall’s censorious Diversity Champions scheme, the Times reported.

    Zoe Strimpel said the trans activists’ censorship is putting women’s health in jeopardy. How did the word “woman” become taboo, asked Julie Burchill in the Spectator.

    Government rejects call to eliminate the word “chairman”

    The British Chambers of Commerce has asked Companies House to remove the word “chairman” from its documentation, arguing the term produces sexual inequality. The move would require a vote in the House of Commons, but the Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said the Government had other priorities.

    Large corporations have big incentives to embrace “woke capitalism”. But the pursuit of one particular type of “equality and diversity” in the workplace – at almost any cost – is driving out dissenting opinions. Ultimately this will do huge damage, wrote William Malcolmson (a pseudonym) in Quillette.

    Ceramic artist cancelled for her views on the trans debate

    Artist Claudia Clare has been cancelled by Ceramic Art London, the show where she was to exhibit her work. She was told her presence there would “put the show itself under threat” because of the reaction to her gender-critical views. Women continue to bear the brunt of woke censorship, said Jo Bartosch in Spiked.

    Teacher suspended after bin Laden picture used to illustrate Muhammad in class

    A religious studies teacher has been suspended for having used a picture of Osama bin Laden to represent the Prophet Muhammad in a lesson. It is unclear how this came to happen. All Saints Academy in Dunstable apologised for the “deep insult”. Joanna Rossiter wrote about several recent similar cases in schools, most significantly at Batley Grammar. She also noted the case of the trainee teacher at Manchester Metropolitan University, who we assisted after he was made to attend a “fitness to practice cause for concern meeting” for having defended the right to show a Muhammad cartoon in the context of a relevant classroom discussion.

    Legislative updates

    Lord Frost has urged the Government to rethink the Online Safety Bill. He told the Telegraph: “The Government would be wise to take a fresh look at the Online Safety Bill before beginning discussion in Parliament. Aspects of it present a real risk to freedom of expression in this country.” Joanna Rossiter noted our concern about the loose definition of “harm” in the bill.

    Feminist groups plan to take the Scottish government to court over draft legislation to introduce gender self-identification, despite widespread opposition and calls to pause the legislative process to resolve concerns raised by women about preserving same-sex spaces.

    A UK Supreme Court ruling has “held that there must be a certain degree of tolerance to disruption to ordinary life, including disruption of traffic, caused by the exercise of the right to freedom of expression or freedom of peaceful assembly”.

    The chiefs of six police forces have criticised Home Secretary Priti Patel for not having made misogyny a hate crime.

    Book now! Free speech from Socrates to social media

    Join us in London for a live public lecture, discussion, and book launch on Thursday, March 17, as Jacob Mchangama introduces his new book, Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media. Jacob is an author and lawyer, and the founder and director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think tank focusing on human rights, freedom of speech, and the rule of law.

    Following a short lecture, Jacob will be joined in conversation by Dr Joanna Williams, writer and director of the think tank Cieo, and our general secretary Toby Young. The discussion will be chaired by Claire Fox, director of the Academy of Ideas. There will then be a wine reception, hosted by Basic Books. Tickets are £10/£5, with special rates for FSU members using this link or the promo code FSUmember. Founder Members should email events@freespeechunion.org if they would like a complimentary ticket.

    Reminder: You can tell the Government to protect free speech

    The Government is currently holding a consultation on proposals to reform the Human Rights Act 1998. This is an opportunity to push for the maintenance and strengthening of the right to freedom of expression in the UK. If you’d like to submit a response, we’ve published some FAQs to guide you.

    Sharing the newsletter

    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

    1. The newsletter is very long this week. It has been a terrible week for freedom of speech!

  60. Further to my post yesterday, about going to prison if things get too expensive

    This place beats a costly retirement home. The Government obviously are closet Nottlers

    Well done raab can I put my name down for a room

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/03/take-look-inside-super-prison-future-latest-mod-cons-no-cells/

    Take a look inside the ‘super prison’ of the future, with all the mod cons but no ‘cells’

    New HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire takes a radically different approach to crime and punishment in bid to cut reoffending

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/03/03/TELEMMGLPICT000000288122843_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqq6GZV2TOCTHAqKdXYOVHJGbWgOafkjRCkN60-0kSgNg.jpeg?imwidth=960

    1. I’ve been saying for years that most British pensioners would be better off in Prison.
      What a terribly sad reflection on our society.

        1. It is i wholly agree and if it weren’t true many people as they age, would feel much happier.
          It’s also a well know fact that anyone who has come to the UK as a ‘migrant’ in the last ten years are better off than retired working class people who worked for over 40 years. And so many have done.

          3. Well done. Anyone who says my state pension is a benefit will get a punch on the nose

    3. Is the idea that prisoners will be so comfortable inside that they won’t want to come out? That will cut the re-offending rates.

        2. Alf says that, when working at the local Magistrates Court, they were all asked to call the defendants customers! They all refused.

    6. The original prison was closed in 2012, by the then HS … Mrs T. May
      … to spite the MP for Wellingborough … Mr. P. Bone because he was
      an out and out Brexiteer. The prison was eventually demolished. A new
      prison was commissioned at an estimated cost of £34 million ….
      local gossip reckons the final cost is £157 million!![
      [Knowing NCC’s propensity for spending our money I shall not be
      surprised if this is the true sum!]

      Edited.

  61. Irony is dead……..
    On the way back from shopping flicked on the radio to hear some yank pontificating about how evil Putin was for cutting off the Al-Beeb and a few others and “Preventing the Russian people from listening to reputable and trustworthy news sources”
    Of course here in the liberal West we are free to listen to any news outlets and make up our own minds………
    Oh Wait
    RT anyone??

    1. Both websites,RT.com and Sputnik have gone too here in Finland.
      Now my workaround site for RT News is down.
      They are determined to cut off any dissenting voices.

      1. Ooh look, gone here as well. Well to be exact, the browser just sits there, no error message back.

        We will soon be getting cbc and BBC only.

      2. I am still getting RT.com via Japan and the US. Just had a brief glance at the Daily Mail, who are still pushing that photo of the woman with the blood-stained face from the 2018 gas explosion, plus a map of Ukraine that is definitely not correct, as it doesn’t show the Russian troop movement via Belarus, and a denunciation of British employees of RT as modern day Lord HawHaws.
        Two unreliable but opposing news sources have got to be better than one!

    1. Does that take place after Blair, Brown and the rest are tried for Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan etc etc etc.

    1. I think it’s a British thing. In other European countries, you carry on with arts and sciences until the end of your school career.

    2. Maths is handy for Uni students so they are able to calculate how much of their loan is outstanding

      1. If more of them could do compound interest calculations and figure out how much they would be paying over the years, they might not enter these crippling contracts!

  65. Putin’s energy shock is broadening into a world food crisis, so brace for rationing. Evans-Pritchard 4 March 2022.

    The world was facing a grain supply crunch even before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The United Nations food price index was already higher in real terms than at the height of the global hunger crisis a decade ago, when Tunisian bread protests set off the Arab Spring.

    The tight global market for grains, vegetable oil, and fertilisers was probably one of the many reasons that Putin chose this moment to strike, calculating – wrongly it may prove – that the West would not dare to squeeze him too hard.

    The world faces what amounts to a commodity “black swan” across the gamut of primary resources. Oil, gas, coal, and the “ags” are all spiraling higher together, with metals catching up fast. It is a systemic stagflation shock, an intractable problem for central bankers. It acts like a war reparations tax on the economies of importing nations and is ultimately contractionary.

    Natasha Kaneva from JP Morgan said inventories of tradable commodities are critically-low and the world is running out of safety buffers. This is a recipe for “nonlinear price increases”, she said.

    Unlike the West, China is prepared. It has been stocking up for months and currently holds 84pc of the world’s copper reserve, 70pc of its corn, and 51pc of its wheat.

    “China has bought enormous quantities of US soy in recent weeks,” said Rabobank. One might ask if Xi Jinping knew something in advance.

    Record food commodity prices are an ordeal by fire for some 45 poorer countries that rely heavily on food imports: the Maghreb, the non-oil Middle East, swaths of Africa, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan. The World Food Programme warned of “catastrophic” scarcity for several hundred million people last November. The picture is worse today.

    “Everything is going up vertically. The whole production chain for food is under pressure from every side,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, the ex-head of agro-markets at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

    “I have never seen anything like it in 30 years and I fear that prices are going to go much higher in the 2022-2023 season. The situation is just awful and at some point people are going to realise what may be coming. We’re all going to have to tighten our belts, and the mood could get very nasty even in OECD countries like Britain,” he said.

    Energy and farm commodities are interlinked. Natural gas is a feedstock for fertiliser production in Europe, and lest we forget, Russia and Belarus together account for a third of the world’s exports of potash. Rocketing oil prices are driving a switch to biodiesel in South East Asia, further tightening the global market for vegetable oils.

    Roughly 33pc of world exports of barley come from Russia and Ukraine combined, 29pc of wheat, 19pc of maize, as well as 80pc of sunflower oil. Much of this is usually shipped through the Black Sea ports of Odesa, or Kherson – scene of hand-to-hand street battles until it fell on Wednesday – or Mykolaiv, where a Russian missile hit a Bangladeshi-flagged bulk carrier this week and killed one of the crew.

    “Loading is at a standstill. It is not just the ports: you can’t get a ship in there. Nobody wants to get stranded,” said Mr Abbassian. Lloyd’s List reports that the northern Black Sea and the Azov have been declared “warlike operations areas’, implying double pay for crews, if you can get them.
    Insurance rates are prohibitive and banks are refusing letters of credit, even though grains, fertilisers, and energy products are exempt from sanctions. Shippers are scrambling to find out what it means for a counterparty to be “connected with Russia”.

    Everybody is wary of the US Treasury’s sanctions police, known as OFAC. The US law firm Crowell and Moring said clients fear that they may be caught in the net inadvertently, given that targeted oligarchs control much of Russia’s agro-industrial nexus in one way or another. Every transaction has to be screened to the finest detail.

    “Russian and Ukrainian wheat are not being offered. Critical corn flows to the world are being stymied. If Ukraine farmers do not plant substantial quantities of corn next month, the supply crunch will be very severe,” said Rabobank.

    Smaller farmers in Russia have been shut out of the domestic credit market just before planting season. Emergency tightening by the central bank has lifted average loan cost to 27pc this week.

    Chicago wheat futures have hit an all-time high of $1,131. The squeeze is worse for the rest of the world because the broad dollar index is up 30pc since the last peak in 2008.

    For good measure, Rabobank says we must contend with intense La Niña weather patterns and drought in Brazil and Argentina. “Grain shortfalls are likely to be so pronounced as to require demand destruction, or rationing,” it said.

    The commodity index of the International Monetary Fund – purer than misleading market indexes – shows that primary commodities are today more expensive as a whole in real terms than in 2008 even in dollars. It is much higher for Europe or Africa. This is fast resembling the raw material shock of the early 1970s.

    Brent crude hit an all-time high in euros and sterling yesterday morning. But unlike the last oil shock, this shock is spread across every sector of energy. European natural gas contracts for April hit a new high of €198 MWh. Thermal coal has risen 75pc this month.

    The roots of this crunch are complex but Putin’s manipulation of pipeline flows explains a big part of the gas crisis since September. We are now learning the second lesson: what it means to eject the world’s only full-spectrum commodity superpower from the international financial and trading system.

    We have not even begun to feel the blowback for the Western aerospace and semiconductor industry should Russia retaliate by exploiting its lockhold over the global supply chain for titanium. palladium, and neon. That is not to say that the West should back away. We are in a war. We must win it.

    Normally, commodity booms short-circuit by causing recessions, with the help of central banks, apt to overreact and tighten just as the economy is slowing anyway.

    This episode may be different. I do not see how the West can continue buying any oil, gas, or coal, from Russia as the Kremlin unleashes artillery on Ukraine’s civilians, in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Kyiv today, and everywhere soon judging by how Putin swatted away Emmanuel Macron’s plea for restraint.

    As for the “ags”, all the makings of an enduring food crisis are before our eyes. A billion of the world’s poorest people will go even hungrier thanks to Putin’s deranged misadventure, and some will starve. Our next moral mission is to help them.

    A glimpse of the reality behind the West’s Sanctions and Infantile Propaganda!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/04/putins-energy-shock-broadening-world-food-crisis-brace-rationing/

    3. Golly! Our Politicians are so smart. It takes some ingenuity to ingest poison, shoot yourself in the foot (while it’s in your mouth) and do this while standing on a chair, with a rope around your neck, in order to hang yourself. And us, of course.

    5. “We are in a war. We must win it”

      We’re in a war alright, but it’s not against the Russians. It’s against the people who will manipulate the Russian/Ukraine conflict to impose food rationing in our countries.
      “Eat the bugs, bigot!” will be next.

    7. Good old “just in time” supply chains are about to break into little links.

    8. Morrison has always supported Australia’s mining industry with a policy of digging up and exporting whatever the countries of the world need to achieve their net-zero targets. He’s even brought a lump of coal into paliament to show politicians what it looks like.

      https://reneweconomy.com.au/morrison-digs-in-for-last-ditch-battle-to-protect-coal-generators/

      Coal could well be saviour of the forthcoming energy supply crunch and save Morrison’s coal mining initiative. Nicola has personally blown up Scotand’s last coal fired power station but will Boris now hold back on doing the same for England to continue down the path to net-zero energy availability?

  66. Putin’s energy shock is broadening into a world food crisis, so brace for rationing. Evans-Pritchard 4 March 2022.

    The world was facing a grain supply crunch even before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The United Nations food price index was already higher in real terms than at the height of the global hunger crisis a decade ago, when Tunisian bread protests set off the Arab Spring.

    The tight global market for grains, vegetable oil, and fertilisers was probably one of the many reasons that Putin chose this moment to strike, calculating – wrongly it may prove – that the West would not dare to squeeze him too hard.

    The world faces what amounts to a commodity “black swan” across the gamut of primary resources. Oil, gas, coal, and the “ags” are all spiraling higher together, with metals catching up fast. It is a systemic stagflation shock, an intractable problem for central bankers. It acts like a war reparations tax on the economies of importing nations and is ultimately contractionary.

    Natasha Kaneva from JP Morgan said inventories of tradable commodities are critically-low and the world is running out of safety buffers. This is a recipe for “nonlinear price increases”, she said.

    Unlike the West, China is prepared. It has been stocking up for months and currently holds 84pc of the world’s copper reserve, 70pc of its corn, and 51pc of its wheat.

    “China has bought enormous quantities of US soy in recent weeks,” said Rabobank. One might ask if Xi Jinping knew something in advance.

    Record food commodity prices are an ordeal by fire for some 45 poorer countries that rely heavily on food imports: the Maghreb, the non-oil Middle East, swaths of Africa, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan. The World Food Programme warned of “catastrophic” scarcity for several hundred million people last November. The picture is worse today.

    “Everything is going up vertically. The whole production chain for food is under pressure from every side,” said Abdolreza Abbassian, the ex-head of agro-markets at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.

    “I have never seen anything like it in 30 years and I fear that prices are going to go much higher in the 2022-2023 season. The situation is just awful and at some point people are going to realise what may be coming. We’re all going to have to tighten our belts, and the mood could get very nasty even in OECD countries like Britain,” he said.

    Energy and farm commodities are interlinked. Natural gas is a feedstock for fertiliser production in Europe, and lest we forget, Russia and Belarus together account for a third of the world’s exports of potash. Rocketing oil prices are driving a switch to biodiesel in South East Asia, further tightening the global market for vegetable oils.

    Roughly 33pc of world exports of barley come from Russia and Ukraine combined, 29pc of wheat, 19pc of maize, as well as 80pc of sunflower oil. Much of this is usually shipped through the Black Sea ports of Odesa, or Kherson – scene of hand-to-hand street battles until it fell on Wednesday – or Mykolaiv, where a Russian missile hit a Bangladeshi-flagged bulk carrier this week and killed one of the crew.

    “Loading is at a standstill. It is not just the ports: you can’t get a ship in there. Nobody wants to get stranded,” said Mr Abbassian. Lloyd’s List reports that the northern Black Sea and the Azov have been declared “warlike operations areas’, implying double pay for crews, if you can get them.
    Insurance rates are prohibitive and banks are refusing letters of credit, even though grains, fertilisers, and energy products are exempt from sanctions. Shippers are scrambling to find out what it means for a counterparty to be “connected with Russia”.

    Everybody is wary of the US Treasury’s sanctions police, known as OFAC. The US law firm Crowell and Moring said clients fear that they may be caught in the net inadvertently, given that targeted oligarchs control much of Russia’s agro-industrial nexus in one way or another. Every transaction has to be screened to the finest detail.

    “Russian and Ukrainian wheat are not being offered. Critical corn flows to the world are being stymied. If Ukraine farmers do not plant substantial quantities of corn next month, the supply crunch will be very severe,” said Rabobank.

    Smaller farmers in Russia have been shut out of the domestic credit market just before planting season. Emergency tightening by the central bank has lifted average loan cost to 27pc this week.

    Chicago wheat futures have hit an all-time high of $1,131. The squeeze is worse for the rest of the world because the broad dollar index is up 30pc since the last peak in 2008.

    For good measure, Rabobank says we must contend with intense La Niña weather patterns and drought in Brazil and Argentina. “Grain shortfalls are likely to be so pronounced as to require demand destruction, or rationing,” it said.

    The commodity index of the International Monetary Fund – purer than misleading market indexes – shows that primary commodities are today more expensive as a whole in real terms than in 2008 even in dollars. It is much higher for Europe or Africa. This is fast resembling the raw material shock of the early 1970s.

    Brent crude hit an all-time high in euros and sterling yesterday morning. But unlike the last oil shock, this shock is spread across every sector of energy. European natural gas contracts for April hit a new high of €198 MWh. Thermal coal has risen 75pc this month.

    The roots of this crunch are complex but Putin’s manipulation of pipeline flows explains a big part of the gas crisis since September. We are now learning the second lesson: what it means to eject the world’s only full-spectrum commodity superpower from the international financial and trading system.

    We have not even begun to feel the blowback for the Western aerospace and semiconductor industry should Russia retaliate by exploiting its lockhold over the global supply chain for titanium. palladium, and neon. That is not to say that the West should back away. We are in a war. We must win it.

    Normally, commodity booms short-circuit by causing recessions, with the help of central banks, apt to overreact and tighten just as the economy is slowing anyway.

    This episode may be different. I do not see how the West can continue buying any oil, gas, or coal, from Russia as the Kremlin unleashes artillery on Ukraine’s civilians, in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Kyiv today, and everywhere soon judging by how Putin swatted away Emmanuel Macron’s plea for restraint.
    As for the “ags”, all the makings of an enduring food crisis are before our eyes. A billion of the world’s poorest people will go even hungrier thanks to Putin’s deranged misadventure, and some will starve. Our next moral mission is to help them.

    A glimpse of the reality behind the West’s Sanctions and infantile propaganda!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/04/putins-energy-shock-broadening-world-food-crisis-brace-rationing/

    1. I’m actually watching RT on VPN at the moment. Putin’s approval ratings today in Russia 71%.

        1. Try expressvpn, it free.

          Their services cost money, they need to maintain an infrastructure across different countries.

          I use nordvpn, it allows me to connect as if I was in the UK.

        3. Proton mail does a free one too, you can upgrade to their paid service which I think gives better quality, but the free one is usable.

  68. To Morrisons to buy petrol at £1.60 (less their special offer of 7p a litre). Most customers still bagged up, including those in filling station.

    Drizzling. Much happening in the World? Thought not.

  69. Dalrymple on fine form again.

    According to a Gallup poll, the percentage of the American population that now “identifies” as LGBTQ+ has doubled by comparison with ten years ago, and now stands at 7.1 percent. Among the youngest cohort polled, it was over 20 percent.

    There is no more weaselly expression in the modern lexicon than “identifies as,” which inherently emphasizes feelings over facts. I can identify as a nice person, but that does not mean that I am a nice person. Indeed, if most people who meet me abominate me, my self-identification as a nice person means nothing except (if I truly believe it) that I am deluded.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-fallacy-of-the-real-me/

  70. Oh well left alone today whilst Erin looks after some of the grand children, i’ll attempt to take the dog for a short walk with my arthritic left knee.
    I’ve been trying to get another steroid injection, it does seem to help. But the furthest I have managed to get over 4 weeks is a text message from my GP practice saying he’s going to phone me next Friday afternoon………….. oh what a relief that is heaven sent ………..I wonder how the medics would cope if they were faced with with such trails and tribulations.

      1. The problem is JR my knee joint is totally worn away the steroid eases the pain. And as you know, unless one can pay for an op theses days the chances of getting anything done is zero. But funny how surgeons are never too over worked because of all the current excuses to carry out private ops to earn a few extra bob eh.

        1. Are you young enough to get it done privately and then pay it off? You may as well if you can, better that being incapacitated for the rest of your natural.

          1. I have seen surgeons at spire regarding a hip op on the same side and what they told be was because of other underlaying health issues (cardiology issues which were caused by the covid jabs) a private hospital would not be able to a carry out an operation as there are no facilities for sudden emergencies. Looks as if i’m stuck with it until the end of time. I’ll need to remind my rather stand offish over defensive GP of this.

          2. Then you should start shouting. I talked about that the other day because I hadn’t been seen by a doctor for over 4 months despite difficulties from Radiotherapy. Screaming bloody murder and threatening that I would go into the hospital and cause a fuss in public, that did it. Shouted down the phone on Thursday, got an appointment for Tuesday. As I said while relating that on here: “The squeaky wheel gets the oil.” This was after several polite phone calls over the months in which I was promised call backs etc and was given nothing.

      2. There was a programme the other day on Danish footballer Ericsson who collapsed on the pitch over a year ago. They covered every minute detail and aspect of his life and future but when it came to asking what caused his massive heart problem there was a blank look and we were pointedly told that nobody really knew. That’s very difficult to believe.

    3. Noooo!
      He’ll always be that cheeky young man who ruled the world in his first Test match at Lords in my memory.
      Far too young to die.

      Vaccinated??

        1. That is no age either. It is more than coincidence that so many sportsmen and women are dying of heart problems. The Aussies are some of the most vaccinated.

          1. I have posted here before that a 17 year old boy who came on a French course with us last October had had to go to hospital with myocarditis after having had the compulsory gene therapy to allow him to travel. Two other boys at the same school also had the jabs and they too ended up in hospital.

            People are encouraged to be afraid of Covid but the actual disease is becoming less frightening that the gene therapy!

          2. In the mid nineties I was responsible for designing several projects at The Babraham Institute near Cambridge. Those buildings included a new Immunology and Signalling Laboratory which was completed.

            Babraham is an animal testing facility and I was persuaded by the scientists, laboratory technical staff and the Director of the Institute that animal testing was a prerequisite before drugs were tested using human trials.

            Needless to say the drugs the evil pseudo-scientists are pushing remain untested on animals and nor have the experimental jabs undergone essential testing in human trials. I refused the jabs for this reason and because over the years I have discovered I have a nose for the smell of rat.

            I predict that the promotion and release of the jabs on the populations of the world at large will prove to be the most heinous political crime of all time.

            Many believe that the Nazis died off with the demise of the Third Reich. How wrong they were. Just take a look at Klaus Schwab with his ludicrous futuristic outfits and confounding pronouncements that nobody but a fool would follow.

    6. ‘F***!!!!!!!! RIP King’: Kevin Pietersen leads the stunned reaction to the news of Shane Warne’s shock death at 52, with Ben Stokes, Ian Bell and Shoaib Akhtar leading the tributes from across cricket and sport
      Australian cricket hero has died of a suspected heart attack at the age of 52 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10578019/Shane-Warne-Kevin-Pietersen-leads-tributes-Australian-cricketer-death.html?ito=push-notification&ci=bGBihEM5HG&cri=sjq5T3ifKR&si=26738248&ai=10578019

        1. and he is now dead. When I first researched the vaccine I came to the cnclusion there was no way I would take it. I have been proved right. Far too many people have just done what they were told or forced to take it. more and more is coming to light. about it all.

  72. Now MOTHS are racist! Scientists officially rename gypsy moth ‘spongy moth’ because its old moniker is a derogatory term for Romani people
    The Entomological Society of America unanimously voted to adopt the moniker ‘Spongy Moth’ for the Lymantria dispar moth
    The organization unanimously voted to adopt the moniker in order to replace it’s previous name ‘gypsy moth’- a term Romani people view as derogatory
    The ‘Spongy’ name was recommended by a group that had over 50 scientists as well as Romani scholars working on human rights issues
    The term ‘gypsy’ has been widely declared a racist slur against the Romani people, an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who mostly live in Europe, and in America

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10575509/Scientists-officially-rename-gypsy-moth-Spongy-Moth-old-derogatory-term.html

    2. Do the Romani scholars and scientists have a term for the woman who came to my house and silently opened the door and entered the hall instead of ringing the bell, because she thought nobody was up?

    3. Belle. I’m asking because I believe you are a fair person. Please watch the video that Bob of Bonsall just posted. “Oof! A lot of Truth Bombs.”

  73. Not wishing to scare anyone but if you look at flightradar24.com, there are a couple of American B52 bombers circling just outside Ukraine.

    Uncle Joe (Biden not Stalin) has probably just finished breaking.

    3. No, I’m not scared…just praying the big red button is well out of Joe Biden’s reach…

      1. It makes no sense unless they are intentionally visible as a warning to Putin.

        Maybe flightradar is posting false flights as well.

        1. Putin wouldn’t need to look at flightradar24 to know they are there. He’ll know when they take off as we do with theirs

        2. Lots of commercial traffic. Need to maintain separation, and stealth less imporrtant.

      2. It’s probably seeing IFF/SSR returns which are obligatory unless in a hostile situation.

      3. You have to filter by aircraft type e.g. ‘B-52’, FA.

        I found a solitary westbound B-52 over Germany – probably enroute to Mildenhall – c17.30 … there is no callsign.

          2. I’m mostly under the approach to Farnborough, but – depending on weather, I get plenty of LHR and LGW flights. And Odiham is only a few miles away, so I’m fairly used to overflying Wockas.

          4. I’m surprised, I thought the transponders were scrambled, I know it happens with ships, unless they turn them off. I used to try to follow the military aircraft when they were exercising near me above Loch Ewe but flightradar24 didn’t show them. I also tried listening in on my scanner but couldn’t. That was years ago so maybe it’s all changed.

        2. I’m looking at the radar now – I’m guessing combat aircraft are not shown hence my previous surprise

          1. They are shown FA – if you specify the type of aircraft e.g. ‘B-52’ via the filter …

          2. They are shown FA – if you specify the type of aircraft e.g. ‘B-52’ via the filter …

          3. Looking at FR24 around here, there’s hardly any more planes in the air than over Ukraine. And only one on the ground at FAB – a Maltese Embraer. It’s spookily quiet.

      5. They can be seen, FA – if you take the effing trouble to look – by filter of aircraft type e.g. ‘B-52’ …

    5. Just now – 17.45 – there is a B-52 flying west near the German/ Dutch border … ‘No callsign’ …

      1. Presumably when you click on a particular aircraft it tells you all the flight details

        1. No military aircraft are ‘flagged’.

          Military aircraft may be found by ‘filtering’ the aircraft type e.g. ‘B-52’, ‘KC-135’ etcetera …

          1. Ok be pedantic.

            Flightradar called these planes B52s, the associated picture was of the standard US B52 bomber.

  74. It’s amazing how sports people are dropping like flies since mass vaccination, when compared with politicians.

          2. My first mouthful of cold Pinot always hits the spot- similar to the first gulp of coffee in the morning.

          4. “Small pleasures, small pleasures, who would deny us these?
            Gin toddies, large measures, no skimping if you please…..”

            From: It’s a fine life from Oliver!

        2. I’ve only done it 4 times now and got it each time. I haven’t got addicted yet, coz I forgot it today until your post, but it is good. The friend who showed me how to access it apparently plays against umpteen other people, not sure of the details, but says she is totally addicted.

          1. Perhaps we could start a NoTTlers WORDLE game. Given at a certain time each day. SPOILERS recommended!

            I’m kept busy with HH around 5PM….any takers?

          2. I’ll give it a go (if I remember!) but setting it up is completely beyond me, wouldn’t have a clue where to start.

    2. Ah, four today. I usuzlly start with ATONE but today I started with PIOUS. Should have stuck with my usual.

  76. It seems that Zelenskiy is a grifter and tool of WEF. He has been raking in billions in bribes from an assortment of oligarchs whilst pretending to be a man of the people.

    It seems obvious that whatever we are told by Johnson and his cohorts in WHO and WEF the precise opposite will more closely resemble the truth.

    1. Well, no one appears to mention the suborning of the man who is now American President, ironically with the American Taxpayer’s own money and even more, the Ambassador who received such a fine standing ovation in Parliament t’other day has a bit of form for alleged corruption:-

      Vadym Prystaiko
      Politician, diplomat

      https://en.thepage.ua/dossier/prystaiko-vadym

      Scandals:-
      The media often attracts attention to the real estate of the diplomat’s wife. According to the journalists, all the apartments that Inna rents are located in Kyiv downtown, on Gogolevska street and Ivan Franko street. Since Inna often travels abroad, Vadym Prystaiko’s mother-in-law Anna Uglyarenko often comes for rental payments.

      In 2019, right after being appointed head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prystaiko received a state-owned real estate in Koncha-Zaspa, even though President Volodymyr Zelensky announced selling the property of the State Administration of Affairs.

      The journalists found out that the neighbors of the top official have more than once used the same scheme of withdrawing property from state property.

      The scheme is following: the building is declared a write-off, lawyers draw up the appropriate act, then a complete reconstruction takes place, and instead of an old summer house there is an elite villa standing on the site.

      In June 2019, Zelensky got involved in a scandal. After he met with Donald Tusk, the media published passages in the new president’s speech, however, they turned out to be the quotes from the speech of Petro Poroshenko at the European Solidarity party convention.

      The Presidential Administration of Ukraine conducted an investigation and declared about “sabotage by certain employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a deliberate provocation by the team of Petro Poroshenko.”

      ‘Prystaiko’s colleagues considered that he had violated corporate ethics at that time by not protecting the employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,’ wrote Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.

      They cite another episode when “Prystaiko was not able to defend the position of the Foreign Ministry and make decisions.” After the PACE deputies decided to return the voting rights to the Russian delegation, Prystaiko left for Brussels on personal matters.

      In September 2019, Vadym Prystaiko made a scandalous statement about his intention to hold local elections all over the country, including the territories occupied by Russia.

      ‘We offer to hold the elections in the entire territory simultaneously, including the occupied parts. Let’s see if it works,’ he said.

      Prystaiko was then accused of surrendering national interests. The diplomat clarified that elections in the occupied part of Donbas will become possible only after implementing certain security conditions and the withdrawing troops.

    3. One of the problems is that you cannot even consider causes and effects objectively without being accused of supporting the ‘wrong’ side. Whether it is global warming, Brexit, Covid or the Ukraine you must only see and express the accepted point of view unquestioningly. Anyone who might see a connection between this map of NATO’s enlargement and the Cuban missile crisis must be very wrong-headed!

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c836aed6874a6af0db93b2eb50c6de689be44f9b921c348552ef1c3c36ed428c.jpg

      2. To me, it looks like NATO’s systematic provocation of the Russian Bear – who is/ has been always paranoid about his western borders …

  79. Another one slips through the cracks. A two year old boy, Kyrell Mathews has been murdered by his mother and her boyfriend in south London. Weeks of abuse and when examined the poor little guy had all sorts of horrific injuries.
    This is another side effect of what this government has done to this country over the last two years; the recent murders we have heard about are the tip of the iceberg, I suspect.
    People’s health undermined, prices soaring and small children being abused and murdered. And that’s only part of it.

    1. I saw that today and felt sickened too. So much wrong, and they only ever seem to “fix” stuff by making it worse.

    2. It is the inevitable consequence of globalisation where national states and all their moral values are systematically stripped away.

  80. Make of it what you will…

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier said that he has not left the country’s capital Kiev due to the ongoing Russian military operation in Ukraine to “demilitarise and de-Nazify” the country.
    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has left Ukraine and is currently in Poland, Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin asserted.
    “Zelensky left Ukraine. Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada said that they could not get to him in Lvov”, he wrote on his Telegram channel. “He is now in Poland”.
    Shortly after Volodin’s statement, Verkhovna Rada asserted that Zelensky did not leave Ukraine and remains in Kiev.
    Later, however, Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Ilya Kiva claimed that the president “urgently” left for Poland and is hiding in the US Embassy there.
    “This is where he is set to continue to utilise the Ukrainian Army and civilians while making insane orders that cost thousands of human lives”, Kiva said in a video message on his Telegram channel.

  81. First class post to increase by £0.10 on April 4th.
    Two flipping bob, in proper money, it used to cost three pence!

        1. I remember when the big news was that stamps had gone up to 3d. No first and second class then and how many deliveries a day?

          2. We know from the Nottlers’ birthday list what Bill’s age is but you have expressed the woman’s right (which I respect) for your own age not to be revealed!

          4. When I announced to my mother that at the age of 41 I had found the girl I wanted to marry and that she was 25 years old her first reaction was to say: “Thank God. You will need someone to look after you and care for you!”

            She was right – funnily enough this was one of my mother’s favourite songs:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YayX4Cn5mts

          5. It seems that I am too – prices just stay the same for a long time with careful fiscal budgeting and probably nil inflation.

        3. Petrol was 3/3d a gallon, three gallons and 3d tip;
          all for a grand total of a 10 bob note!

          1. Three gallons and 3 shots of Redex at 1d each, shirley?

            Hope you had a delightful birthday.

      1. Ah! Printed Paper Rate, including post cards and, if the envelopes were not sealed down, birthday & christmas cards!

  84. A healthy old woman of 86 was happily gardening and cheerfully chatting to the passers by last Tuesday (10 days ago) and had her third dose of gene therapy on Wednesday, was taken to hospital on Thursday and died last Saturday. Caroline played the organ at her funeral yesterday.

    Of course nobody will admit it and no statistics will be verified or published but Death From Gene Therapy seems to be the leading cause of mortality in our parish at the moment.

    1. What was Shane Warne’s gene therapy status?

      I fear we are at the dawn of something very terrible.

      1. Double jabbed.

        He did lead a very “vigorous” life – wine, women and more women.

        2. When the hurlyburly’s done
          When the battle’s lost and won

          Of course he was once engaged to Elizabeth Hurley and the poor chap has, metaphorically, ended up on the blasted heath.

    1. As soon as I saw those boots on the RH side- I knew it was Spike! And Yes- I said BOOTS;-)

        2. Which is why I reread his war memoirs periodically. Tinged with great sadness in parts but very funny.

  90. Seeing reports Zelensky has done a runner and is in the American Embassy in Poland
    Soon to be reunited with his billions and 34 million villa in Florida no doubt

    1. Allegedly…i’m seeking confirmation.If i get anything more i’ll post it.

      1. Nothing on RT that I can see?
        That really would be the most incredibly stupid move, I can’t believe he would do it.

    2. Needs to arrange for a safe transfer of his millions to Florida now that Antonov has been damaged. Paper dollar bills are quite bulky.

    3. Needs to arrange for a safe transfer of his millions to Florida now that Antonov has been damaged. Paper dollar bills are quite bulky.

    4. Needs to arrange for a safe transfer of his millions to Florida now that Antonov has been damaged. Paper dollar bills are quite bulky.

    2. I seem to remember that when Putin moved into the Kremlin he had a strong anti-corruption policy which led to a lot of former Soviet Nomenklatura and Apparatchiks rapidly moving out of Russia to the UK taking a lot of money, asset stripped from Russia, with them.

  93. Amongst all this doom and gloom; I’ve been reading ‘The Sunne and Splendour’ by Sharon Penman – all 1248 pages!
    It did mean I’ve spent a lot of time with The Encyclopædia Britannica and a long list of names and dates.
    This is not a criticism of the book, it just gives an indication of the vast amount of historical detail given within its pages about the period (Richard of York & The wars of the roses).
    Have enjoyed the book very much: this is a thank you to our Lady of the Lake for her recommendation.

    1. I am so pleased you enjoyed it- I love it although I always weep at the end, even though I know what’s coming.

      1. I’m going to buy a copy and sneak it onto our bookshelf: with the excuse that it’s so long, I need to read it again and the library may not keep it on their shelves.
        I just need to find a copy with a good print size, the one I have at the moment has a rather small font.

        1. When I go upstairs I will look at my copy and check the print size- if it’s a good size will let you know.
          Same topic but different style- The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. Another good read but much shorter ;-))

          2. My copy of Sunne is published by Pan. You may well be able to get a larger print version. Mine has print that is OK for my eyes but it’s not huge.

          3. I find small print ok with most fonts, but for some reason (maybe the paper colour?) some really strain my eyes.

          4. That book was my first introduction to viewing Richard III as anything other than a villain.

          1. Re-discovered, 🙄 I thought the original had just been banned and ready for burning.

        3. Max Hastings’ Vietnam in paperback being a good example of silly font size.
          Great book, but almost more trouble that it’s worth with my eyesight.

          1. Yes my copy was so bad I ended up getting a second hand hardback.
            Incidentally, have you read Bernard Fall’s books about Vietnam, they were required reading in certan quarters during the 70’s

          2. No.
            I’ll look out for them although at the moment I have several fairly heavy tomes on the go.

          3. ‘Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege Of Dien Bien Phu’ .
            Was my introduction to Bernard Fall.

          5. Th flat we rented in Cap d’Ail had belonged to the Captain (later General) Darde of the French Air Force, who flew the last plane out of DBP.

            The General was also one of the original co-proprietors of the block of flats. The flat was inherited by his daughter.

            Not many people know that.

          6. That whole debacle resulted in the deaths of some very brave people.
            America/UK didn’t help but at least UK stayed out when America blundered in. They never seem to read the history of places they intend to get involved with.

          7. That’s why i like my Kindle. You can alter the font size. Read in landscape or portrait and you can adjust the light.

          8. I must admit that you are right, but I like sitting with a book in my hands.
            It also means I can easily flick back and fore when checking my understanding of names or dates.
            I like the fact that I own the book: if I recall, there was a controversial deleting of e-books already purchased, by Sony?? a few years ago.

  94. Shane Warne dies of suspected heart attack, aged 52

    The Australian was one of the greatest cricketers the game has ever seen – his impact cannot be overstated

    By
    Ben Rumsby
    4 March 2022 • 4:58pm

    Shane Warne, the Australian cricket great, has died after suffering a suspected heart attack, aged 52.

    A statement from his management team, issued on Friday afternoon, said that Warne had died suddenly while in Thailand.

    It read: “Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived.

    “The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course.”

    Warne had posted a message on Twitter just 12 hours before news of his death emerged, paying tribute to fellow Australian cricket great Rod Marsh, who died on Thursday at the age of 74.

    It read: “Sad to hear the news that Rod Marsh has passed. He was a legend of our great game & an inspiration to so many young boys & girls. Rod cared deeply about cricket & gave so much-especially to Australia & England players. Sending lots & lots of love to Ros & the family. RIP mate.”

    Warne was not only one of the most successful cricketers of all time but well-liked and respected
    Warne was not only one of the most successful cricketers of all time but well-liked and respected CREDIT: AFP
    Widely considered one of the greatest cricketers of all time, Warne’s 15-year international career saw him take 708 Test wickets, surpassed only by fellow spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.

    He was also arguably the best player in Australia’s all-conquering side of the 1990s and early 2000s, winning multiple Ashes series and the 1999 World Cup.

    Warne had been ill with coronavirus in August last year, after testing positive for the disease following his stint as coach of The Hundred franchise the London Spirit.

    Revealing he had been put on “a special ventilator” to prevent him developing long Covid, he told The Herald Sun: “It wasn’t because I could not breathe, or anything like that. It was basically a special ventilator that I was trialling to make sure there were no longer-lasting effects that Covid would have on me.

    “I have been fine, I have been able to run, I have been able to do everything. I have been absolutely fine.”

    Describing his symptoms, he added: “It was a bit like a hangover, I had a pounding headache. The first couple of days, when I tested positive, I just had a thumping headache and I had one day where I had the shivers, but sweating, like when you have the flu.

    shane warne dead heart attack cricketer news
    Australian cricket great Shane Warne played 145 Test matches for Australia, taking 708 wickets CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
    “I lost a bit of sense of taste for a few days, but after three or four days I was fine. I have apparently got the holy grail. I have been double vaccinated and I have had Covid, so I am meant to be absolutely fine now.”

    ‘One of the greatest spinners… the man who made spin cool’
    Tributes and expressions of shock quickly emerged on Twitter as former team-mates, rival players and fans of Warne reacted to the news.

    Fellow all-time great, and India batting legend, Sachin Tendulkar paid tribute saying “Indians always had a special place for you”. He tweeted: “Shocked, stunned & miserable… Will miss you Warnie. There was never a dull moment with you around, on or off the field. Will always treasure our on field duels & off field banter. You always had a special place for India & Indians had a special place for you. Gone too young!”

    Brian Lara, another of the game’s true greats and only man to score 400 runs in a Test innings, wrote he was both heartbroken and speechless.

    He added: “I literally don’t know how to sum up this situation. My friend is gone!! We have lost one of the Greatest Sportsmen of all time!! My condolences goes out to his family. RIP Warnie!! You will be missed.”

    South Africa great Jacques Kallis wrote: “He was one of the greatest competitors. Played hard on field and was one of the first to have a beer with you after. Was always a pleasure and challenge playing against him. More importantly loved his kids endlessly. One of crickets greats. Rip Shane. You will be missed.”

    Warne grew a famed reputation for taunting England fans throughout his career during Ashes series, and a tribute was quickly paid from the national team’s official supporters’ group.

    The Barmy Army Twitter account posted: “Simply can’t believe we are writing this.

    “RIP Shane Warne, one of the game’s best characters and finest bowlers.

    “Forever etched in Ashes history.”

    Fellow Ashes legend Lord Botham sent his condolences to Warne’s family, writing: “I’ve lost a great friend on and off the playing field. ‘One of the best’ my thoughts are with Jackson Summer & Brooke….RIP Warnster.”

    Michael Vaughan, Telegraph Sport columnist, captain of England’s 2005 Ashes-winning team, and good friend of Warne, posted a heartbreak emoji and: “Love ya king …”

    Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen, an ex-team-mate and Ashes rival, posted an expletive and a series of crying emojis along with the hashtag #RIPKing, whilst former Australia team-mate Adam Gilchrist wrote: “Numb. The highlight of my cricketing career was to keep wicket to Warnie. Best seat in the house to watch the maestro at work. Have often felt a tad selfish, that Heals and I pretty much exclusively are the only ones who had that thrill and pleasure at Test level. Rip Warnie.”

    England’s players held a minute’s silence for Warne ahead of the fourth day of their tour match in the West Indies.

    All-rounder Ben Stokes also posted: “Australian Legend. @rajasthanroyals Legend. Was an honour to know you and work with you. This man is a LEGEND. #theking.”

    Former Pakistan quick bowler Shoaib Akhtar wrote: “Just heard the devastating news about legendary Shane Warne passing away. No words to describe how shocked & sad i am. What a legend. What a man. What a cricketer.”

    Pakistan great Waqar Younis posted: “Shane Warne no more.. I’m Shocked and Shattered. Simply can’t believe I’m hearing this. Very very sad day for our cricket community. The biggest superstar of my generation gone. Goodbye Legend @ShaneWarne #RIP Condolences to the family and friends.”

    Current India captain Rohit Sharma posted: “I’m truly lost for words here, this is extremely sad. An absolute legend and champion of our game has left us. RIP Shane Warne….still can’t believe it.”

    The Board of Control for Cricket in India wrote: “The global cricketing community is poorer today with the passing away of Australian great Shane Warne. The BCCI mourns the loss of the champion cricketer who enriched the game with his craft.”

    Cult West Indies hero Chris Gayle simply wrote: “RIP LEGEND.”

    Former England football captain Gary Lineker said: “Terribly saddened and shocked to hear the news that Shane Warne has died. The greatest spin bowler of all time. Can’t quite believe it. RIP Shane.”

    1. And he bowled legally. I have never been convinced by Muttiah Muralitharan’s action even though it was cleared.

      1. How nice, too, to hear dear old Richie Benaud’s voice…

        Those were the days.

          2. Even I used to enjoy listening to TMS even though any cricketing terms meant nothing to me. (They’re very silly!).

    3. Sad news of a great cricketer but…

      …no information on his jab status. Quelle surprise.

  95. HAPPY HOUR – Chicken Kev…. anyone?
    I spent a pleasant morning watching tennis at the club bathed in warm sunshine.
    All courts were busy and I became engrossed in a full on men’s doubles.
    I used to play like that in my youth I thought …alas no more!
    .
    I ordered lunch and asked if Chicken Kev was on the menu………..WOW!
    I await my marching orders….

      1. You are asking for trouble phrasing a question like that on this site….sit back and wait;-)

        2. If it’s open season, it’s very dangerous to say you’re game; you could be shot!

      3. I wish….
        However a sympathetic player (female) recently recovering from a hip replacement
        offered me a knock up!
        I’m tempted…keep you posted Sue…

        1. Well, that was very kind of her…wasn’t it? I’m a year into my new hip and I’m game!

      4. You’re certain to get one of the dirty minded individuals suggesting you’re asking for trouble phrasing a question like that on this site….sit back and wait.
        };-O

  96. I’m a little discompopulated at the moment having received my Dell Latitude only to find it’s a different type number, no DVD Drive although specified and no Office 2016, despite having paid for it.

    I await developments before I publicly shame the company.

    1. Mine arrived with no camera, but to be honest I couldn’t care less, as I had a camera from years ago that could be attached and it means the damned computer can’t spy on me.

    2. Man, what a royal PITA, Tom. GRR!!
      Endless argufying to get what you ordered & paid for.
      In these modern times of interwebby shopping, I like to buy captal items from folk I can glare in the face of, and punch in the throat if necessary.

      1. Face to face shopping is increasingly difficult, Paul, and for technology, one basically has the choice of bloody Currys or perhaps John Lewis if you’re posh. And rich. Oh, and the punchable throats generally belong to minimum-wage drones, who prolly weren’t responsible for the fuck up in the first place…

  97. Short article from RT:

    Germany downplays extremists traveling to fight in Ukraine
    Berlin suggested potential combatants could have their passports confiscated to prevent them from leaving the country

    “The German Interior Ministry has sought to downplay suggestions that right-wing extremists are traveling from the European nation to fight in Ukraine, saying these are only isolated cases.

    “Significantly fewer” extremists have traveled from Germany to Ukraine than the 10 individuals reported, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Friday. They did not, however, specify how many confirmed cases there had been.

    In a bid to prevent right-wing extremists from traveling to engage in combat operations in Ukraine, the spokesperson confirmed Germany is looking at ways to halt them, including taking away their passports.

    As it stands, German law does not bar Ukrainian nationals or Germans Ukrainians from traveling to the country to fight against Russian forces amid the ongoing invasion.

    The statement from Berlin comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 16,000 foreign citizens have volunteered to fight against Russia, joining “the defense of Ukraine, Europe and the world” as part of an “international legion.”

    Kiev has temporarily dropped visa requirements for any foreign citizen who wishes to travel to war-torn parts of the country and fight against approaching Russian forces.

    Foreign citizens have supported Ukrainian forces since 2014, when separatists seized parts of the Donbass region in the east. Russia recognized the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk republics as independent states just days before beginning its military offensive last week.”

    Questions:
    1. why would these “far right wingers” be travelling to Ukraine when we have been told repeatedly that the far right in Ukraine is a Russian propaganda myth?
    2. under what law is taking people’s passports away in case they might do something that is not against the law with them valid?

    2. I must have missed the news about Rod Marsh. Whose will be the third wicket to fall, I wonder.

  101. That’s me for this dreary (weather-wise) day. Rain promised tomorrow – then some dry days.

    Funny thing. I could have sworn that two weeks ago there was a global plague killing millions every day. Seems to have stopped – just like that. Anyone heard of it lately?

    Have a jolly evening – tweeting.

    A demain

    3. Bill, you’ll be delighted to hear that President Putin has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for ending Covid.

  102. That’s me for this dreary (weather-wise) day. Rain promised tomorrow – then some dry days.

    Funny thing. I could have sworn that two weeks ago there was a global plague killing millions every day. Seems to have stopped – just like that. Anyone heard of it lately?

    Have a jolly evening – tweeting.

    A demain

  103. Wonderful news, the Ukrainian war is shortly to conclude.
    How do I know?

    UK’s Covid cases soar 40% in first week after No10’s ‘Freedom Day’: Britain logs 44,740 positive tests as hospital admissions creep up
    UK Health Security Agency figures show 44,740 Covid cases were spotted today, a surge on last Friday
    Office for National Statistics estimates 1.9million (one in 30) in England had Covid in week to February 26
    Figure marks 8% week-on-week fall and is lowest number reported by the statistics body since December 19
    However, it comes as Government dashboard data suggests infections have been rising for the last two days

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10577643/Englands-Covid-outbreak-shrinks-smallest-size-Christmas.html

    1. Honestly, I cannot for the life of me understand why people are taking the tests. Can anyone on here explain?

      3. I know why someone I know took one recently – the pure desire to make themselves important!!

        1. I was struggling to find something to give up for Lent – unfortunately, while giving up the Bbc would have been very easy, I gave that up long ago.

          1. Same here. I’m working on giving up red wine. And failing miserably.
            If I wasn’t the organist, I’d seriously consider giving up Church for Lent…

          2. I decided that, rather than give up alcohol (the spirit might be willing, but the flesh is far, far too weak!) I’d just give up port and sherry and take a little wine for my health’s sake (thank you, St Paul!).

          3. Since I have neither Port or Sherry (sorry, Plum) in the house, I’m inclined to agree. So, a little wine it is. “Little”, when compared to a case of the stuff…

  104. Wonderful news, the Ukrainian war is shortly to conclude.
    How do I know?

    UK’s Covid cases soar 40% in first week after No10’s ‘Freedom Day’: Britain logs 44,740 positive tests as hospital admissions creep up
    UK Health Security Agency figures show 44,740 Covid cases were spotted today, a surge on last Friday
    Office for National Statistics estimates 1.9million (one in 30) in England had Covid in week to February 26
    Figure marks 8% week-on-week fall and is lowest number reported by the statistics body since December 19
    However, it comes as Government dashboard data suggests infections have been rising for the last two days

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10577643/Englands-Covid-outbreak-shrinks-smallest-size-Christmas.html

  105. Todays Groaners

    A teacher asked,
    “Johnny, can you tell me the name of three great kings who have brought happiness and peace into people’s lives?”
    Little Johnny responded, “Drin-king, smo-king, and f*c-king.”

    Teacher: “Where was the Constitution of India signed?”
    Student: “At the bottom of the page!”

    Teacher: “Kids, what does the chicken give you?”
    Student: “Meat!”
    Teacher: “Very good! Now what does the pig give you?”
    Student: “Bacon!”
    Teacher: “Great! And what does the fat cow give you?”
    Student: “Homework!”

  106. OT but they’ve closed the comments on Shane Warne’s untimely death. I’m getting a bit fed up with the lack of honesty.

    1. You should avoid the Telegraph then. Their lead story is about the large number of Russian generals who’ve been wiped out. The paper is a complete joke, it’s not even subtle.

      1. Be fair.

        You could probably wipe out:
        30 RN of Rear Admiral and above.
        30 RAF of Air Vice-Marshall and above
        40 Army of Major General and above.

        And still have plenty left over to go round.

        1. But, but, but… Sos. Those numbers add up to 100, so it means that you would decimate our total Armed Forces! Lol.

    2. You should avoid the Telegraph then. Their lead story is about the large number of Russian generals who’ve been wiped out. The paper is a complete joke, it’s not even subtle.

    3. One or two early comments hinted at the possible vax connection; much pearl-clutching ensued. Th DT’s commenting policy is hopeless. Pretty much like its so-called journalists. But I still subscribe, because I have to get my news from somewhere that isn’t the BBC…

      1. The Evening Standard is similar, but free, Geoff.
        I also read German papers (Berliner Zeitung), Korean Herald, Norwegian papers, BBC (!), NRK (!), as a regular thing. One gets a flavour, and disbelieves everything except the Ugly Potato vegetable competition results.

        1. If I didn’t subscribe to the DT, I could post a link to the letters, but wouldn’t be able to read them (until someone else posted them). However, I take all media offerings with a generous pinch of Sodium Chloride. If I’ve ever seen a report on a subject of which I have any knowledge, the report has been – often hilariously – wrong. In the past I’ve been misquoted in the local press to the extent that black became white. So – why on Earth would I unquestioningly believe all the reports of which I have no particular knowledge?

          2. I agree. I realised how unreliable and untrustworthy the Bbc were when I watched their coverage in the run up to the hunting bill.

      2. Apparently double jabbed. It’s just coincidental then? Rod Marsh heart attack yesterday…Tuigalama rugby player Jack Jeffrey rugby, several young footballers…all very odd…and no connection? I’ll get my tin foil!

  107. Questions that Harry Meneely may be able/willing to answer: Is it right/correct that support for Nato membership has grown to 53 per cent in Finland? And what is your opinion?

    1. I’ve searched and i can’t find anything about a poll.Where did you get it from?

          2. I have no way of knowing what the present feeling in the country is.
            The proposal,if it comes.has to go to a referendum.There have been two in the past…both defeated.
            I would obviously vote against it.

          12. The trick with opinion polls is how they pose the question.
            eg,
            Do you think Geoffrey Woollard is correct to try to overturn the result of a democratic vote?
            If so, do you accept he is anti-democracy?

          13. I worked to obtain a Tory victory on many occasions. Others voted to overturn democratic votes. In 2016 I voted Remain. Others didn’t. I have been in favour of another vote ever since and I would be glad to overturn the 2016 result. That’s democracy, not anti-democracy..

          14. You’ve missed the point.

            Yet again.

            I was demonstrating to you how any opinion poll can produce a specific answer that the questionner requires.

          16. Unfortunately Geoffrey, that seems to be the way the EU operate, like the SNP: keep asking the same question and with voter fatigue, the (right) answer will eventually be forthcoming.

          17. Geoffrey, I have read a lot of tripe in my life but what you have just written ranks a one of the stupidest things ever. How can you tell us that trying to overturn a democratic vote is democratic? Are you Humpty Dumpty? Words are what you want them to mean? How silly you are.

          18. To be fair to GW, the whole point of democracy is that you can get the chance to vote again.

            I voted to stay in the EU on the first time I got a vote, I voted against in 2016.

          19. Sorry sos, but that doesn’t wash. The decision was made and hasn’t yet been fulfilled. But people like Geoffrey, and the Gina Millers of this world, cannot and will not accept the will of the people. They want to agitate for no apparent reason.

          20. I certainly think they are/were wrong, but that doesn’t change the fact that in theory Democracy should give one the opportunity to try to get the result you want.

            On the Brexit issue, what really pisses me off is that the likes of your examples won’t do what the voters wanted.
            I believe:
            1. Accept the result, even if you don’t like it.
            2. Do what needs to be done to fulfil the result, even if you don’t like it.
            3. Live with what is done and see how it works out.

            And only then try to reverse it if you still believe things are worse.

          21. You infer that a promised ‘once in a lifetime vote’ was a lie.

            You are truly a European. If you do
            not obtain the result you seek, change a few words, utter a few threats and have some traitor politician sign away your rights in camera.

          22. It’s good that you tell us what you’re seeking, re the EU. I lived in Switzerland in the early and mid 70s and referendums were de rigueur and whatever the result was, was honoured.

  108. Questions that Harry Meneely may be able/willing to answer: Is it right/correct that support for Nato membership has grown to 53 per cent in Finland? And what is your opinion?

  109. Questions that Harry Meneely may be able/willing to answer: Is it right/correct that support for Nato membership has grown to 53 per cent in Finland? And what is your opinion?

  110. https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/60614983

    A Russian decides to change allegiance so that he can continue to compete.

    1. I would not ban individuals from sporting events just because they were Chinese, North Korean or Canadian, to name three effectively fascist states.

    2. If they are banned by the arseholes running the sports just because they happen to be Russian or whatever hate group is currently flavour of the month, they should not be permitted to change nationality to suit themselves.

    BUT

    Let’s be honest and:

    3. Get rid of Nationality altogether and let teams compete under their real flags, their sponsors.

      1. Good example.
        Too many of these people compete under flags of convenience, often purely to emigrate to a better life.
        And to be honest, can you blame them, Sir Mo Farah?

        1. Zola? Bloke with a cape and a mask, wasn’t it? (The literary version would pass most Gen Y by).

    2. Totally agree. I’m very pissed off about this ‘Russians bad’ business. The Jews lucky enough to leave Germany in the 30s were Germans.

      2. … and the biggest number of gassed at Auschwitz were Germans. By a huge margein.

  111. Has anyone noticed a rise in single vehicle crashes? The type of crash that occurs when someone passes out, or has a heart attack when driving.

      1. I don’t know. But I have noticed that there have been three in the last week around Aberdeenshire way. If someone drops dead on football pitch it is obvious. If some dies while driving a car and then piles into a tree, not so obvious. I wonder how it would be reported, or if.

        1. Well, if they’ve tested +ve for Covid within the last 28 days they’ll be Covid deaths.

    1. Down from its highs then.
      As an indicator of who is winning what does that suggest?

      1. Another week with a 20% increase will see people in Europe and US start to ask awkward questions.

          1. I filled my car 2 weeks ago but with it still being Winter here i don’t drive much.

          3. Its -10C here at the moment.Forecast to drop to -14C overnight.
            With a bit of luck we’ll get Zero tomorrow.

          4. I turned off the CH yesterday.
            HG isn’t impressed, but I have fired up the wood burner to keep her warm in the sitting room.

          6. Its a state of mind living in Northern climes.I don’t really notice it any more.

          7. Visitors remark on how cold our house is. I explain that we are English, and they go “Ahhh…. of course!”

          8. I’m the opposite; visitors usually remark how warm my house is (thanks to the Rayburn).

          10. My Mum and Dad used to have weegie students from Newcastle University lodging with them, and they loved our very warm house!

          11. I don’t particularly feel the cold any more. I’ve no idea why, probably no sense no feeling!

            It was minus 5 the other day, not cold by your standards, obviously, and I’m in a shirt and a cardigan in the garden while HG has about nine layers on and looks like an Eskimo and is still cold.

          12. :-))
            I used to be hot all the time, but something changed some years ago and now I’m always cold. Firstborn wears T shirt the whole year round, indoors & out (except when there’s a lot of winter wind, when it can be COLD!). I like sweaters, real wool, warm when you need it, cool when you need it.

          15. Beer, beer and more beer.
            Piss into a hot water bottle and use that to keep warm.
            This practical living tip is brought to you by….

          17. I have never suffered from cold feet even in CT. I wear socks all the time these days.

          24. SWMBO developed a freezing rear end when she was pregnant. My warming it up (think spooning) was pleasant for the both of us!
            God knew what he was doing when he created Woman…

          25. I don’t have heating in the conservatory, but it was warm enough (60 degrees F) this afternoon for me to sit down, read a few chapters and quaff a glass of wine without feeling chilly.

          26. We have been having our afternoon cup of tea outside for several days now, but today was miserable, that cold drizzle that never becomes proper rain.
            My least favourite weather condition, by a long way.

          30. You should return to sunny, globally warmed Engerland.. No CH here since April 2021

          32. In the new place (1-bed terraced retirement bungalow) I only have gas central heating. But compared to the last place (3-bed detached house), I have cavity wall insulation and double glazing throughout. I brought my Nest thermostat with me, and have set it fairly frugally. If it starts to feel chilly, or I want a shower, say, I’ll ask Alexa to set the heat to 20ish. Nest keeps a record of my heating history, and it is fairly meagre. Which is just as well…

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ecad3cc24568af7fd4d361a66eedb5af4bd7266dd65c0e7ddb0e7498574f3e96.jpg

          33. Chateau sosraboc has two settings.

            On or off.

            The wood burners are lit or unlit.

            Simples…

            Oops, that’s meerkat, so I’ve just banned myself as a Ukraine sceptic.

          34. That’s more or less the situation here. Once the Rayburn is lit, it stays lit until the weather warms up enough to let it go out. Then if the temperature drops, the oil heating goes on for an hour to take the chill off.

          35. Mother’s house is due to get a new tank next week, and will need filling… :-((

          36. Why bother now?
            As long as it won’t freeze pipes, spring and summer are on the way, and you shouldn’t need heating. I would be tempted to wait until this has all settled down.

          37. My thoughts exactly. We might put a few gallons in it, but otherwise leave it. The house will hopefully be sold this spring anyway.

          38. I’ve just filled mine up for just over £1,000 that’ll last me over a year

          40. The use is mitigated somewhat by my solar panels which , if the electricity isn’t being used, heats the hot water before any is exported to the grid – I still get paid for this as it is all deemed to be exported. I have a device which does this automatically and tells me how much electricity I have saved. This obviously saves oil too.

          41. Friend bought a “Zero Carbon Eco Home” in Devon, late 2019. While the description is utter bolleaux, she does have several solar panels and a Tesla Powerwall, triple glazing, a mechanical heat recovery ventilation system and lots of insulation. She’s currently on Octopus’ Tesla tariff, which nightly drains her Powerwall, then recharges it. I’m unconvinced. There are losses in charging, which may heat her garage, but they are fairly irrelevant. And the life of the Powerwall is likely to be shortened by the constant draining/recharging…

        1. Fortunately on my infrequent longer runs I can get 62mpg. Another month, all being well, the builders will be finished and we can move in and the car can be garaged and used just for the long runs….

          2. Bearing in mind it weighs 14 tons and doesn’t often exceed 4mph approx 8 miles to the gallon I believe (which with all the locks amounts to a goodly day’s boating….)

          14. Very good. My machine is now 5 years old and has less than 17,000 on the clock…

          15. I would have kept it, but it needed money spent, mainly on suspension parts, which I could have fitted once upon a time, but not now. And the labour costs would have been more than the car was worth. Besides, since I now live 3-4 minutes’ walk from a station, I don’t think I need a car any more.

          16. My Megane Coupe, 150k on the clock does 64mpg on a decent run which drops to 60mpg on very short runs

        1. Ah yer see that’s your Barnet formula at work. It’s pretty hair raising…

        2. But the good news is you don’t get stuck in traffic jams like down south where the mpg goes south!

          3. Tell me about it. A normally £15, 4.3 mile taxi ride from Guildford Station to St John the Baptist Puttenham cost me £25 yesterday, purely due to traffic congestion.

  113. Evening, all. Given that successive governments have run down our armed forces to such an extent we can no longer protect ourselves (let alone wage a serious war), politicians should keep their mouths shut and keep the country out of trouble.

    1. Yes, but they do so love posturing. After all, it’s not they or their children who are risked.

    1. For me, yes, thank you. How about you? I had friends round for coffee and then carried on getting the place straight after all the work that was done. It’s a work in progress, but at least I can see some progress! Oscar surpassed himself! He ignored my guests and went to sleep. He didn’t even grump when I had to step over him.

        1. It was, thank you. The only downside was, I felt so lucky, I wondered when the punch was going to come to ruin it 🙁

      2. Oh Conway! What a joy! He must be such a friend now! Trust is a huge thing and you deserve it.

        1. Yes, he’s been really good the last couple of times. He’s been getting under my feet a lot (I’ve been carrying stuff and moving stuff around and he has to see what’s going on) and a couple of times I’ve accidentally stepped on him unavoidably. He seems to realise that I don’t do it on purpose and my toes are still intact!

      1. Tomorrow I start preparations for the main bedroom. Painting to be finished early next week and then moving on to decorating the kitchen diner…..

        1. Old saying “The bloke who invented decorating wants f**king and the bloke who invented f**king wants decorating”

        2. We’ve decided to move house – mostly for retirement and space reasons. As a consequence, I am emptying my beloved library in prep for some maintanence work. So far, 45 large boxes have been moved into storage – every penny of which I resent.

          There’s about 20 more to go, of books, tools, toys, models.

          1. I sympathise. £15 a week for 18 months adds up to a lot of dosh. Thankfully I retrieved my books from store last Monday..

          3. I cleared my bookshelves in advance of the last (and it is the final) move. One of our Churches hosted a book sale. I’ve kept a dozen or so. Mostly, my shelves are laden with hymn books and organ scores – most of the latter being pretty useless these days, since I can’t easily play the pedal part. But I’ll hang on to them regardless.

          5. Get yourself an arranger keyboard with auto-bass and you’ll also have about 200 different organ voices plus rotary effects

          6. Check out the Dexibell Classico L3. Found one on eBay last year for £1k, which is basically half price. Like my old Roland C-190, it’s a digital pipe organ in keyboard format. Both have a Pedal division, and the bottom note of each chord is sent there. Some pipe organs have the same facility, sometimes called ‘Melodic Bass’. Some just have a 16′ stop, no pedals, but do it anyway…

          8. My Yamaha Tyros 5 has everything – one feature is ‘fingered chord’ which also plays the bottom note of the chord (or its inversion) as the bass note. You can also get a set of bass pedals which connect to a keyboard via midi if you like playing bass with your foot.

          9. When we left Oman and merged the contents of both our UK & Oman houses (into a new house) books and my photography/darkroom equipment was a significant amount of boxes.
            I often need to remind myself that 71 (for me) years can result in a lot of accumulated stuff.
            I refuse to part with my books.

          10. When we left Oman and merged the contents of both our UK & Oman houses (into a new house) books and my photography/darkroom equipment was a significant amount of boxes.
            I often need to remind myself that 71 (for me) years can result in a lot of accumulated stuff.
            I refuse to part with my books.

      3. Apologies Plum. I didn’t recognise the sentiments expressed by way of War Memorials.

    1. The netzero nonsense is classic politicians logic. It is ‘if energy isn’t created here, then we are greener.’ Net zero will make absolutely no difference to the planet, but it will destroy this country – our economy, our way of life. Big government wants socialism? Then it can have it – they’ll go first.

  116. Don’t forget guys…..
    …
    TUESDAY MARCH 8, 2022 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
    Will you help #BreakTheBias?..

    Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality.

    Get outtta here….FFS grow up!

    1. I thought women were already superior – do they want to downgrade to equality? 🙂

      1. As Junior said ‘This is a man’s house Mummy, and the toilet seat stays up.”

        Mongo ran away. I grabbed Junior. We nearly made it before the nuke went off.

    3. Bollocks. Tuesday 8 March is someone’s 65th birthday. And he’s pretty pissed off that his special day has been hijacked by wimmin… (Sorry, ladies… :-(( )

      6. Oh sod it- it’s your birthday innit? Edited because I can’t remember which day of the week it is.
        It is also law that all organists have to be born on March 8 ;-))

      7. Look at it positively, Geoff

        It will be the one and only time ever, until Eternity, or even Net Zero is stopped, that it will happen
        Being 66/67/68 etc is a different mater

      8. I’ve got it on the list
        And I know it won’t be missed!

        (Any musical requests)

    4. Women do have equality. The problem is the Left want to treat every woman in the same way, and they can’t as everyone’s different.

      It is notable though, that they are determined to make transmen in a dress equal to women… and women – real ones, not pretend ones – don’t like that.

    1. A great number of the citizens of Bath are still in the moment…. Saw a few today – one dressed like a sweet counter the other with yellow and red hair….

      1. Our elder daughter is down there at the moment – for a hen do! Gosh! I hope it wasn’t her!

  123. If we shadows have offended
    Think but this and all is mended;
    That you have but slumbered here
    While these visions did appear.
    And this weak and idle theme
    Nor more yielding but a dream,
    Gentles do not reprehend-
    If you pardon we will mend….& etc

      1. Thank you Ann! Your good wishes are much appreciated, so I’m sending mine to you and your lovely husband!😘

    3. Thank you very much, Caroline and Rastus! What lovely people you are!💕

          2. Thank you Geoff! I’ve got to say, being 65 isn’t all it’s cracked up to be! It makes you wake up even earlier!

      4. Happy Birthday! Have a lovely day, Sue. It’s true, being 60-something is a welcome to the 3am bathroom run but there are compensations aplenty too!

      5. Have a really lovely day Sue and good wishes for all you want from vw and me. xxx

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