Tuesday 22 March: The Patriarch of Moscow must be sanctioned for encouraging invasion

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

517 thoughts on “Tuesday 22 March: The Patriarch of Moscow must be sanctioned for encouraging invasion”

        1. Wonderful isn’t it! My brother in law in Athens sent us a video yesterday – 2 degrees and 4 inches of snow! All their daffs and tulips were looking really sad! However, at least they know their summer is likely to be a bit better than ours! But we did laugh!

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – My council tax bill has just landed on the doormat.

    Since 1993 I have recorded the rises against RPI. If my council tax had increased with inflation it would be £1,363 today. It is in fact £3,488.

    Not so stealthy, really.

    Ian Brent-Smith
    Stratton Audley, Oxfordshire

    SIR – We have just received our council tax bill for 2022-23.

    Barnet Council has not increased its share of the tax from last year but the Greater London Authority’s share has risen by 8.8 per cent.

    Why has nobody asked the Mayor about this outrageous increase? Are such rises to be expected from now on, to make up for his disastrous handling of London’s finances?

    Cynthia Bengen
    London N3

    Plenty more to come, too…

  6. SIR – I do not see why we need all these wind turbines and solar panels when we will also need nuclear backup for when it is neither windy nor sunny.

    Why not just build the nuclear stuff and forget about the turbines? It would save a fortune.

    Charles Blackwell
    Edinburgh

    The average energy consumer is now paying around £700 pa in green taxes, and until there’s an uprising against such a basic fraud they will go on doing so!

    1. There is more to it than simply building a facility and tapping off the energy.

      The biggest cost of nuclear is at the decommissioning stage. Unless facilities that have come to the end of their productive lives are dismantled carefully, there could remain a serious public health hazard for thousands of years. it is like discovering asbestos when demolishing a building, but much much more so.

      The other hazard of nuclear is at a time of instability. It could be a war (as we are seeing in Ukraine right now), or seismic instability (Fukishima), or corner-cutting by careless or malign managers (Chernobyl), or market trickery (the China/France stitch-up at Sizewell). In addition, where a by-product of the decay cycle has a half-life of 10,000 years, we need to be able to guarantee that civiisation itself, with sufficient knowledge and skills to understand what we are dealing with, will survive 10,000 years. The way Putin is threatening anyone who does not give him what he wants, civilisation will be lucky to last until this Christmas!

      All is not lost though, thanks to human ingenuity. The Rolls-Royce local system is showing promise, and whilst one of the by-products of the Thorium cycle (U-232 I think) is very nasty indeed, giving off high levels of gamma that cannot be easily contained, it only has a half-life of seventy years. The holy grail is Fusion, but that’s still a way off. It’s what the Sun uses, so the technology is there, once we learn how to control it.

      1. If civilisation is gone by Christmas, Jeremy, it won’t be Putin to blame but our own lot of numpties.

  7. SIR – In 1987 I was buying fertiliser (the main variable cost on an arable farm)for £90 a ton and selling wheat for £100 a ton.

    Today wheat is worth around £285 a ton and fertiliser is pushing £1,000 a ton (if you can get it).

    As Jeremy Clarkson said, growing wheat is a mug’s game.

    William Rusbridge
    Tregony, Cornwall

    I hear (Farming Today) that muck-spreading may be making a welcome return – and not before time.

    1. Those big muck spreading machines would soon get rid of Johnson, Snivel Serpents, XR, Greens, the Bliars etc.

    2. Big surprise, EU Directives affected muck spreading. Where is Jen SP when we need her?

    3. Not gone away in the Yorkshire Wolds. Plenty of Country Smells when out on a bike ride 🤣

      1. Same here! Walking field paths at this time of year is a full on experience for most of the senses!

      2. Over the past two weeks we have been treated to a long lost situation and recently wafted over by the aroma of pig swill. Oink oink.

      3. When I stepped outside this morning, I thought, “ah! they’ve been manuring the fields in the distance”. It was faint, but discernable.

    4. Thereby setting up a conflict within the environmentalists against Veganism.

      One of the most useful byproducts (outside America where they trash everything for money) of livestock farming, including wool, eggs and dairy, is muck. You don’t get muck with pure arable, relying on chemical inputs and composting to maintain soil fertility.

      Ever since I lived in Herefordshire in the 1980s and saw at first hand the environmental degradation that occurs when pasture is converted to arable, especially in formerly mixed farms, I have maintained that Veganism is undesirable environmentally.

      Vegans claim that one requires less land to feed someone from pure arable than it does from pasture, but this ignores many other factors, such as soil fertility, suitability of land, the provision of hedgerows, and providing habitats to many benign species that are denied in an arable monoculture. Why won’t they consider these?

      1. All the while this government remains obsessed by ‘trees ‘n bees’ we will continue to see perfectly good arable and grazing being taken out of use, which is just insane with a growing population to feed.

        1. Can’t have arable without the bees, unless you have the labour to pollinate the crops using a paintbrush.

          As for trees, they provide shelter and even emergency fodder for lifestock as well as regulating the soil, water levels and air quality. Elizabeth Barling (who created a nature reserve in the next village to me) once wrote “with trees around, no man is comfortless”.

          It is possible, and even preferable to have trees and bees without needing to take perfectly good arable and grazing out of use. The problem is over mechanisation and lack of imagination.

      2. I think pure arable organic farming will work very well for two or three years. Then it won’t.

    5. Other than Westminster, where will you get the muck. Certainly not horse-powered transport – yet!

  8. SIR – I realise that learning to sing traditional hymns is no longer considered an essential part of a child’s education. However, while watching the Commonwealth Service last week in Westminster Abbey, I couldn’t help noticing that many of the pupils who had been invited were staring blankly at their service sheets during the very well-known hymns.

    One would have thought that any self-respecting teacher, knowing that the school would be represented at the service, would have wanted the pupils to participate fully and taken the trouble to make sure they knew how to sing the hymns.

    Glynis Bailey
    Olney, Buckinghamshire

    2. Assuming, of course, they knew which hymns were going to be sung. Last Sunday there was one hymn I’d never heard before (and I’m a regular churchgoer who used to sing in a church choir). It had the most meandering tune which was really hard to get a grip on.

  9. Letters: The Patriarch of Moscow must be sanctioned for encouraging invasion. 22 March 2022.

    SIR – The Orthodox Church in Russia bears huge responsibility for legitimising and encouraging the invasion of Ukraine. The support of Patriarch Kirill in particular is a key element in the regime’s justification for the invasion. There has been no coercion – Kirill’s pronouncements have been quite explicit.

    The Ukrainian Orthodox Church had already broken with the Russian Patriarchy in 2019, and many other affiliated churches across the world are now doing the same. The Patriarchy will find itself increasingly isolated.

    Kirill and his acolytes have blood on their hands, and should surely face the same sanctions as other enablers of Vladimir Putin’s regime. It would be a symbolic gesture and important for this very reason. The Marquess of Cholmondeley.

    Since they are committing similar offences perhaps we could do the same for the Archbishop of Canterbury?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/03/22/letters-patriarch-moscow-must-sanctioned-encouraging-invasion/

      1. He has been affected by his vicious surname, David Rocksavage, poor chap. Nice houses and gardens, particularly Houghton Hall, but he did hide Peter Mandelson there for some time when the mortgage scandal broke. Seems to have fallen out with Russian sympathisers since then , which is rather amusing.

        1. I thought Rocksavage was his courtesy title before he became Marquess. The memorials in the Cholmondeley chapel in church are all surnamed Cholmondeley. I visit the Castle on a regular basis and you’re right; the gardens are magnificent.

    2. Archbishop of Canterbury?

      Shirley, the above post is unoccupied

      Get the candles out

  10. SIR – I joined the National Union of Seamen in June 1973, four days before my 16th birthday.

    The NUS dragged its members in Dover out on strike in 1988 based on spurious claims, placing us all in breach of contract. As a consequence, P&O removed all ships from Dover and subsequently offered new contracts with dramatically reduced terms and conditions. The NUS split a previously close-knit community and even today there are former work colleagues who refuse to talk to one another.

    Now in 2022 it is P&O that has acted appallingly, but militant trade unions have learnt little from history. In blaming “Tory laws” (report, March 19), Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, demonstrates how eager those on the Left are to prioritise political propaganda rather than seek to resolve the issue with pragmatism. Similarly, the RMT’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, has been threatening to “organise a series of rail strikes in 2022” which will only inflict harm on innocent members of society (including of course railway staff) and their families.

    Such aggressive statements from the general secretaries of trade unions merely demonstrate the unions’ weakness and abuse of the trust that members place in their chosen union.

    Michael Young
    River, Kent

    This is just the beginning, Mr Young. Rising inflation will provide the more militant unions with a great opportunity for some long-awaited muscle-flexing. I’m sorry to say you ain’t seen nuffin yet!

    1. One wonders why so many Union General Secretaries are called ‘Mike’.

      Are they taking the mickey?

    1. It’s almost as is we are undergoing a process that cannot be acknowledged or spoken about by the MSM or our supposed political representatives.

      1. 351646+ up ticks,

        Morning B3,
        They, the political overseers & MsM work to an anti United Kingdom agenda, via supporting the lab/lib/con
        mass uncontrolled immigration, paedophile umbrella coalition party.

  13. From yesterday’s DT:

    Cost of charging electric cars on the street hits new high
    Calls mount to close VAT loophole that leaves drivers without home charging points paying more in tax

    By
    James Titcomb
    21 March 2022 • 5:12pm

    The cost of charging an electric car on the street has climbed to a record high, intensifying calls for the Chancellor to end a VAT loophole that leaves drivers unable to charge at home paying more in tax.

    Plugging in at public chargers has become about 25pc more expensive in the past three months, according to data from Zap Map, a mapping service for electric car owners.

    The average cost of rapid charging has risen from 35p per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in December to 44p, while slower charging speeds have climbed from 24p per kWh to 30p.

    Campaigners said the difference between VAT at public charge points and at home amounted to a “stealth tax” on motorists without driveways, costing them £125 a year.

    Public charge points must charge VAT at 20pc, compared to just 5pc for domestic electricity.

    The rise in charging costs, put down to higher electricity prices due to soaring fossil fuel prices, means the cost of “filling up” a Tesla Model 3 Long Range, with a 75kWh battery and 374 mile range, has risen above £30 if using a rapid charger.

    Charging an electric car remains significantly cheaper than filling up a car with petrol, which has climbed to a record high of more than £90 in recent days.

    Last year, the Competition and Markets Authority found that the average monthly cost of home charging was about £31, compared to £38 for on-street charging and £48 for rapid charging.

    More than 8m households, or about a quarter of drivers, do not have access to a driveway or garage and cannot install a home chargepoint.

    FairCharge, a group campaigning for the 20pc VAT rate on public charging points to be cut, said the disparity meant those paying at public points paid £185 a year in VAT, compared to £59 for a motorist with off-street parking.

    Transport campaigner Quentin Wilson, who leads the group, said: “If the Government’s stated ambition is mass adoption of EVs, this VAT regime is at best confusing messaging and at worst a policy blunder. It’s certainly a massive disincentive for wider adoption.

    “We are calling on the Treasury to equalise the VAT rate at 5pc for all EV charging for both public and home charging. We expect the Chancellor to use his upcoming Spring Statement to make the common-sense and logical change.”

    Professor David Bailey of Birmingham University said the VAT disparity penalised those who live in smaller houses and apartments.

    Electric car owners also faced a lack of transparency over charging prices, which differ across providers, he added.

    “They need much clearer signage and information about what price you’re actually paying. When you go in to pay with petrol, you can see how much it will cost.”

    However, Mr Bailey said a lack of available chargers, rather than the cost of charging, was more likely to put people off buying EVs.

    “Increasing petrol prices are driving more interest in electric vehicles. And I don’t think the increase in charging prices is putting people off: it’s that the charging network isn’t being built out quickly enough.”

    Erik Fairbairn, chief executive of charging company Pod Point, said: “In reality, no operator can absorb what’s happened to the underlying cost of energy. So unsurprisingly, each operator is in the process of either has done or is about to adjust the cost of public charging.”

    A Treasury spokesman said: “We are providing over £1.3bn to support electric vehicles through the continued rollout of chargepoints at homes, businesses and on residential streets, and our upcoming EV infrastructure strategy will set out our vision to create a world-leading charging infrastructure network across the UK. We keep all taxes under review.”

    * * *

    I’m not sure why EV owners should expect their ‘refuelling’ cost to remain artificially low when electricity prices everywhere else are rapidly heading north. And don’t they love to boast how cheap it is to recharge their vehicles, while conveniently ignoring the fact that a replacement battery pack after 6 to 8 years will effectively write-off the value of their cars, leaving them with little more than scrap value. Oh dear, how sad, never mind…

    2. This is nonsense;
      ‘Charging an electric car remains significantly cheaper than filling up a car with petrol, which has climbed to a record high of more than £90 in recent days.’

      If I filled my diesel tank I could get the best part of 600 miles of uninterrupted travel from one fueling stop. I don’t know of any EVs of similar size that could do so.

      Therefore whilst ‘filling up’ an EV may appear cheaper, the increased frequency of doing so – with inherent delays to onward travel and possible accommodation costs – would add considerably to the cost.

    3. This all conspires against the so-called desirability to own an electric vehicle.

      What with the costs of installing a charging point, paying £15,000 for a new battery and the possibility of a raging battery fire, I think (I know) I’ll pass.

  14. ‘Clear sign’ Putin is weighing up use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, says Biden. 22 March 2022.

    “They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That’s a clear sign he’s considering using both of those. He’s already used chemical weapons in the past, and we should be careful of what’s about to come.”

    “Accuse others of that which you yourself are guilty.”

    This continuous harping on about Chemical Weapons is a sure sign that it has been chosen as the trigger to widen the war. It will probably follow the same pattern as the UK False Flag operations in Syria. A limited strike with an orchestrated victim list (Women, Children) for maximum publicity effect.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/22/clear-sign-putin-is-weighing-up-use-of-chemical-weapons-in-ukraine-says-biden

      1. So another eminent scientist will be in for the chop.
        Note to all disinterested nerds; avoid solitary walks through woodland.

    3. If I suspect a False Flag operation, I will ignore it as just another dastardly tactic in war. I dismissed the “coup” against Erdogan, where they deliberately chose targets with minimum actual effect on the regime and maximum propaganda effect.

      Polly has identified a handful of cases in Ukraine where the news has been hyped up using old images, or even photoshopped to tell a more convincing story. Whoever does it may impress the stupid, the celeb-minded of us, and of course Russian civilians who, by law, are not supposed to know any different. It is like the action-movie music with 80 piece orchestra and heavy reverb drums that accompany documentaries about old buildings are because the broadcasters believe the attention span of a normal person is that of a distracted toddler. It is the done thing.

      What interests me, and bothers me far more, are the genuine images of suffering in war – row upon row of Grenfell Towers. Considering the scale of heavy artillery on the ground, which the Russians do not deny, and the substantial amount of firepower of one sort or another required to hold them up and to cut off their supply lines, I cannot believe these images coming in of utter devastation are not genuine.

      What I suspect is that, with all wars, the actual evidence of atrocity is hard to come by when any war reporter is going to get shot at even counting the bodies. Therefore a certain poetic licence to get the flavour of what is going on is in order. This is nothing new. The famous footage of the allies, East and West, meeting on the Elbe were reshot after the event. Even the recordings of Churchill’s speeches were made several years after the war for posterity, since nobody thought of of recording them at the time – they had better things to do.

      I had a comment very recently from a pro-Russian sympathiser suggesting that they no longer care what sanctimonious folk in the West have to say about atrocities. They can do what they will, because they can, and that we, along with the Ukrainian citizens resisting the might of Russia, can like it or lump it.

      I suggest there was a precedent in this craven attitude towards justice and civilisation in Westminster. When pushing Single Gender Marriage into the statute book without any mandate in 2014, Liberal Democrat MP (now Baroness) Lynne Featherstone told the nation during the “public consultation”: “you will get this whether you like it or not; all we are interested in is the most efficient way to implement it”. It is a travesty of democracy, and her party was rightly trounced at the following election. A pity the same did not happen to the Conservative and Labour parties, whose MPs also backed the Bill. It led on to the anarchy over Brexit in 2019, where nobody, not even the Speaker of the House of Commons, believed that representative democracy was worth a candle in the mother of parliaments.

      What a message to send Putin, who must have been watching avidly!

    1. He has missed off the third and fourth syllables of the word ‘mother…’, easy mistake to make.

    2. Fightback is good, but I cringe at the thought of being involved in a bathroom row like the one above, especially with someone who instantly plays the victim.

    4. “You’ve never birthed your children, you’re not a mother”.

      Kerching! Nail hit firmly on head.

  16. Coe says future of women’s sport at stake in latest transgender row.

    Lord Coe, the World Athletics president, has warned that the “future of women’s sport” is at stake over the issue of transgender athletes and insisted that “gender cannot trump biology”.

    American swimmer Lia Thomas last week controversially became the first known transgender woman to win the highest United States national college title, while New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first openly transgender woman to compete at an Olympics at last year’s Tokyo Games.

    If transgender patients (for that is what they are) are so desperate to partake in sport, simply give them their own category. That way you will still have proper men’s events, proper women’s events, and a third category for those who do not fit the biological criteria for the two former categories.

    I am not “transphobic”, i.e. scared of them. I am transfurious at all those wimps in power continually kowtowing to their whims; and transapoplectic at how these mentally ill people are given the succour to call the tune.

    1. Well said, Grizz. (Is that banging, splintering sound your front door being modified?)

      1. ‘Morning, Hugh, and thanks.

        I have an arsenal of extremely sharp tools (courtesy of my Tormek T-4) in my workshop. No foot-stamping trannie would wish to mess with any of those.

        1. We is safe at Allan Towers.
          Spartie can savage ankles. But he can also jump very high. (As a late mouse, innocently bimbling through the ivy discovered.)

    2. “I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.”(She added in a deep voice)

    3. I agree with you Griz but the trans lobby will not. Having a special category denies their fundamental claim that “trans women are women”.

      The only way I can see is to abolish male and female sport altogether and have testosterone level and size based events. I’ve pondered for a while why boxing is the only sport to gave categories of competition based on size – not much chance of being a basketball player jf you’re 5’2″.

      Size/weight categories and testosterone level tests every six months along with the drugs tests.

      It’s the future I’m telling you.

      Morning btw 🙂

      1. Morning, D-Cup.

        The best thing about this forum is how it stimulates discussion in such a way that all our minds are expanded towards seeing things in different ways. Your proposal for sport (based on size and weight) certainly has merit.

    4. A couple of points (hah !!!) I read in one of many articles on this subject:

      “The 22-year-old has gone from 554th in the event as a man to first as a woman.”

      “In January, one of her teammates told Shawn Cohen of DailyMail.com that they feel ‘awkward’ sharing a locker room with her because ‘Lia still has male body parts and is still attracted to women’.”

      1. Good morning,
        Just proves that Lia (pronounced as liar?) Is a total fraud. Its justification is supposedly that it wants to be a lesbian trans woman. I would suggest some heavy duty psychiatric treatment in a secure facility….. on a men’s ward.

      2. An aks and a knife in Malmo have recently undergone a successful testing process, so perhaps such instruments should be available in female sports changing rooms.

  17. From yesterday’s DT:

    Boris Johnson prepares planning overhaul to speed up nuclear power plants
    Prime Minister considering reforms that would make it easier to build new reactors after meetings with industry

    By
    Tony Diver,
    WHITEHALL CORRESPONDENT and
    Rachel Millard
    21 March 2022 • 7:43pm

    Boris Johnson is readying an overhaul of planning laws to speed up the building of nuclear power stations as Europe fights to wean itself off Russian gas.

    At a meeting with senior energy executives in Downing Street, ministers indicated that they were considering reforming rules to make it more difficult for residents and officials to object to the construction of new nuclear sites.

    Mr Johnson has previously pledged to put “big bets on nuclear power” as a way of shoring up UK energy security following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and concerns about the cost of imported fossil fuel.

    Local people may have their ability to oppose new plants stripped away under proposals being considered by ministers, but industry bosses are more concerned about the Environment Agency and Marine Management Organisation wrapping their projects in red tape and slowing them down, The Telegraph understands.

    Nuclear power stations provide about 15pc of the UK’s electricity. However, all but one of them are due to close by 2030 despite government ambitions for their capacity to increase fivefold in the 20 years after that.

    Ministers are aiming to deliver more nuclear power at “warp speed” and want it to be responsible for a quarter of Britain’s energy mix by 2050. Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, is pushing for a new nuclear task force that would be responsible for delivering the project.

    The meeting came as No10 admitted Mr Johnson’s energy security strategy has been delayed again until next week, amid reports that the Treasury attempted to block the building of more power stations because of concerns about the cost.

    Mr Johnson’s official spokesman denied there had been a disagreement over strategy between the Prime Minister and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor.

    Ministers are also concerned about the private financing needed for their new energy projects, including nuclear power stations and oil and gas rigs in the North Sea.

    The North Sea Transition Authority – the new name for the Oil and Gas Authority – plans to hold its first new licensing round for oil and gas fields since 2020, which its chief executive said would be “pretty much ready to go” if companies are willing to drill them.

    Helen Whately, the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, also met lenders on Monday in a bid to persuade them they should invest in UK fossil fuels despite environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets to sell out of the industry.

    A source close to the discussions said: “It’s all well and good issuing licences for the North Sea oil sector but a lot of banks are restricting lending on the basis that they have been told by activist shareholders to divest.

    “Nowadays funds want to show off their ‘ESGness’. It is increasingly difficult to encourage them to invest in fossil fuel companies, but choking off finance now causes difficulties down the line.”

    Insurers including Aviva Investors and Legal & General also used Monday’s nuclear summit to urge the Treasury to speed up plans to scrap Solvency II, an EU regulation that prevents insurance companies from investing in national infrastructure projects.

    Downing Street said that the meeting was used to discuss “removing barriers facing development” of nuclear power, but Whitehall and industry sources said planning regulation was a major concern for potential developers.

    Rolls-Royce, which has begun the approval process to build new small reactors a seventh of the power of a traditional station but only a twelfth of the cost, is expected to play a key part in the shift to nuclear energy alongside the likes of EDF.

    Ministers are considering introducing a new “net zero duty” that would force environmental regulators to factor in the Government’s desire to increase UK energy production and make it “harder for them to block nuclear projects”, a source said.

    Following a record four year inquiry and 16m words of evidence to approve the building of Sizewell B in 1985, reforms could also restrict local people from opposing nuclear plants near their homes.

    Next week’s energy security strategy is likely to contain a heavy focus on nuclear power and oil and gas drilling. Ministers are not expected to change the Government’s policy on fracking, which has been forbidden since the 2019 general election.

    Downing Street said the fact the strategy had been delayed twice was “a factor of wanting to make sure we have a comprehensive approach”.

    * * *

    A target of 25% nuclear by 2050 is totally inadequate. Currently nuclear is providing 17.8% of total demand, so another 7.2% over the next 28 years is, frankly, pathetic.

    3. Let me think …. if these decisions had been made in, say, 1994, we wouldn’t have this problem.
      Why weren’t they made then?

      1. Quite so, Annie. Short-termism strikes again. Plenty of affordable gas to import…and tomorrow never comes. Idiots.

    4. “Insurers including Aviva Investors and Legal & General also used Monday’s nuclear summit to urge the Treasury to speed up plans to scrap Solvency II, an EU regulation…”
      Is that the same EU we left some time ago?

    3. This kind of thing is happening at random all over Europe. Only a couple of days a ago a car went rogue in Belgium, killing six people. The car is now being examined for mechanical or metal health problems.

  19. Cost of vegetables soars by 75 per cent as inflation strikes Aussie wallets – and the price of meat and chicken is about to increase even MORE

    The price of vegetables is set to skyrocket across Australia as the supply chain crisis worsens – with some products to jump as much as 75 per cent.

    The devastating floods that have hit large parts of the country’s east coast combined with the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has seen shortages in a variety of industries, with consumers set to feel the pinch.

    IGA’s chief executive told the ABC frozen vegetables, in particular, had been hardest hit, while fresh broccoli had risen to $7 per kilogram.

    This is about Oz but it will almost certainly be much worse here. We are about to experience a Tsunami of Inflation that will reduce a large proportion of the indigenous population to absolute beggary. One should not be surprised to see scenes similar to those in Russia just after the Soviet Union collapsed. This has nothing to do with either Vladimir Putin or Ukraine, it is due solely to the incompetence and stupidity of the UK Political Elites over many years!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10637245/Cost-vegetables-soar-75-cent-inflation-strikes-Aussies-floods-Ukraine-invasion.html

    2. Massive inflation caused by taxation, a massive shortage of energy due to government incompetence, the fertilizer costs – that DEFRA seems to think farmers can do without….

      It is astonishing how malignant big government is.

    2. One with Long Experience sez: “It’s easy to confuse the senile. We are assuming that the name ‘Hunter’ even registered as his son’s name.”

    2. An absolute shoo-in to be the next Member of Parliament for Hackney North and Stoke Newington.

    1. I find it difficult to see how the USA avoid a civil war or a huge splitting of its states unless people like this are exiled or jailed …. Not that any place would want them.

    2. Her poor housebound sports the same expression as the Whinger formerly known as Prince Harry.

      1. Seriously I think that her husband and daughter would have been far better off if she had not been brought back to the UK.

    1. (Gasp…… slaps forehead)
      You mean ….. you are saying …… a British government lied to us?!?
      Nooooooo …. I just don’t believe it.

      1. 351536+ up ticks,

        Morning Anne,

        The sad thing is, that being the case a majority of the electorate are knowingly STILL supporting / voting for them.

    3. Why was it disgraceful to want to protect Britain’s borders but magnificent that the Ukrainians should be prepared to die in order to protect theirs. And why is it disgraceful for Putin to try to occupy Ukraine but acceptable for the EU to occupy Northern Ireland, a part of the UK.

      And why was Johnson attacked for making the comparison?

      Why do the Left Woke Remoaners hate Britain so much?

      1. 351546+ up ticks,

        Morning R,
        Selective political overseeing couched in a certain manner will have the majority electorate sucking it up.

  28. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The Boys in the Bubble are convulsed in a ludicrous fit of faux outrage over Brexit. Don’t they know that there’s a war on?
    *
    *
    *
    Today’s edition of Mind How You Go comes from the West Midlands, where trainee bobbies are falling worryingly short of required standards.

    Insiders report that some recruits are too soft. They are frightened of flashing blue lights and frequently sick during highspeed car chases.

    Over-protective parents are turning up at nicks like Private Pike’s mum in Dad’s Army. One woman asked why her son hadn’t come home at the end of their shift.

    ‘They should have finished by now and I’m waiting to take him home.’

    Another, in Wolverhampton, complained to a senior officer: ‘That job you sent my daughter on really upset her.’

    Things have obviously changed since my days on the Birmingham Evening Mail in the mid-to-late 1970s. We used to dread playing football against Stechford CID. They were the dirtiest, hardest opponents imaginable.

    There was always an ambulance on standby on the touchline. I don’t know what they did to the Birmingham Six, but they scared the life out of me. These days, West Midlands Plod even employs a ‘director of fairness and belonging’.

    We’re not talking The Sweeney here. More Softly, Softly. Put your trousers on, chummy, you’ll catch your death of cold.
    *
    *
    *
    Did you see that picture of Boris bounding along Blackpool beach during a break from the Tories’ Spring conference?

    All I could think of was the old railway poster, featuring the Jolly Fisherman: Skegness Is So Bracing!

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/03/22/02/55637411-10637369-image-a-14_1647916317012.jpg

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/03/22/02/55637409-10637369-image-m-15_1647916326184.jpg

  30. Wey hey! No work for the rest of the week – I’m on me ollydays.
    To sleep, perchance to dream.

  31. SWMBO, has just had text:

    Tomorrow is National Stay at Home with your Dog and Drink Wine Day

    This is nothing official……….It was made up, Tell others

    Zoom Dogs are available for Hire

  33. Headline in the DT:

    ‘Vladimir Putin’s superyacht’ faces seizure from Italian marina
    The £500m vessel, called Scheherazade, could be sanctioned as investigation reveals staff are from Russia’s security service

    Judging by the array of aerials and comms gear ‘oop top this looks like the natural successor to the Russian ‘trawlers’ which pretended to fish in our waters in the 60s and 70s.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/09266c030c4e203c5c61c79c152866ff418cd63f3361048c8d8541e5feca84dc.jpg

    1. This is simply thieving with the added benefit of propaganda. All these stories about Vlad’s wealth founder on a lack (the reason that they do not go to law) of proof. This boat, the properties that he supposedly owns, beg one question, why has he never been seen enjoying their benefits?

    2. You leave ‘Charlie, the one following the proper HMS Ark Royal back in the 60’s 70’s, out of this.

      Every morning, as part its’ daily Test Flight, our Wessex SAR used to deliver freshly baked bread to Charlie

  34. I am sure that Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, net worth estimated to be roughly $60 million.
    would be quite willing to be the next Labour candidate for PM

  35. Good morning everyone .

    Golden sunny day here .

    Son who lives with us , tested properly Covid positive yesterday.. He had a notification last night , and he has a hacking cough , He thought at first he had a cold , then lost his energy, headache , dry throat , slight temp , loss of smell .. He received an appt at a testing centre 12 miles away yesterday .. the results were rapid .

    Moh played in an away golf competition yesterday , he feels tired and chesty today ..

    Hey ho.. we are due to celebrate b/day on Sunday with family , and have been waiting to see dentist for 3 months , tomorrrow , so will have to cancel everything .

    Hey ho .. and the rest.

    1. Hope he gets better soon.
      I got a positive PCR test yesterday – have a very faint headache, but would not have suspected I was ill if not for the test.
      Zelenko protocol holding firm up til now!

        1. We don’t understand it either. We have a lot of testers in our bowls club.
          Common sense is is not very common.

        2. I opted for a useless PCR test because it is taken in the throat, while the useless lateral flow test is taken in the nose, which is unacceptable penetration of an orifice that was not designed to have things rammed up it.
          I only took the stupid test because of a stupid, wicked law requiring it.
          Apparently the girl who sits next to my daughter at school got a positive test last week, but daughter is very sensibly avoiding all tests! She says she had a faint sore throat on Friday, and may have passed the MINOR COLD on to me.
          Yesterday was the hazy kind of day when I often get weather change headaches anyway.
          I am a bit peed off with the whole thing, as you will understand.

          1. I’ve only tried one of each – the LFT before Christmas at a friend’s request as she was hosting her first coffee morning since having knee surgery; the PCR test as a pre-flight requisite. The LFT I did myself, very gingerly and it was unpleasant. The PCR test at a travel clinic was so quick I hardly noticed it. How accurate either of them was is of course another issue.

          2. The one to avoid is having someone else do the lateral flow test, especially an idiot who’s been trained that it must be taken right from the back of the nose. I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for these people.

    2. It seems to be rife at the moment – next door neighbours have it and had to cancel a few days in Bridport; table tennis friend and all his family have it…….. so far nothing here.

      Hope son and all of you feel better soon.

      Would we be so worried if this was just a cold? Omicron appears to have pushed old-fashioned colds out of the way and everyone seems obsessed with testing.

    3. Good morning TB and everyone.
      Best to avoid the tests.
      Remember, covid is a disease which mainly affects those with a pre-existing ailment, the right to WFH, sick pay or a decent pension. Taxi drivers, van drivers, plumbers, part timers all seem to have acquired some mysterious immunity.
      Incidentally, this must have been covered in the past on NTTL, but here is a Toby Young comment from autumn 2021:
      “Two new analyses of Covid test swabs find dangerous levels of aluminium, silicon and ethylene oxide, raising questions again about how safe they are and how effectively they are being regulated”
      C2H4O, ethylene oxide, is carcinogenic.
      (apologies to those who have had the bug badly)

    4. Good morning TB and everyone.
      Best to avoid the tests.
      Remember, covid is a disease which mainly affects those with a pre-existing ailment, the right to WFH, sick pay or a decent pension. Taxi drivers, van drivers, plumbers, part timers all seem to have acquired some mysterious immunity.
      Incidentally, this must have been covered in the past on NTTL, but here is a Toby Young comment from autumn 2021:
      “Two new analyses of Covid test swabs find dangerous levels of aluminium, silicon and ethylene oxide, raising questions again about how safe they are and how effectively they are being regulated”
      C2H4O, ethylene oxide, is carcinogenic.
      (apologies to those who have had the bug badly)

    2. Mind your head, the Power Supply Cable is liable to hit you

      Plan B, would be charging 12 Volt Batteries in ‘Russian Space Station” and ferrying them to and fro in by Rocket

    4. If this is what I think it is it is actually a good idea. I remember reading about this some years ago. It is a solar energy collector in space. How the energy is transmitted to earth I don’t remember, would have to look it up. But the point is that in space there is no problem about weather or clouds so if the panels are aligned properly with the sun, it is a power station making an unlimited source of energy.

      To edit because I found it. https://www.energy.gov/articles/space-based-solar-power Transmitted to earth by microwave.

      1. Even supposing the collected energy may be transmithtted safely and easily to earth, it only takes a mad Russian, American, Chinese, EUrocrat (Take your pick) to send up an anti-satellite missile and that’s your supply ‘kered.

        1. Not really an argument against it. The same could be said for any source of energy. A missile right into your Atomic Power Station and that’s that.

          1. Just an easier target with minimal damage on earth but an increase in space-debris.

    5. Even from the express this is bonkers. An incredible waste of money for a dubious return all to achieve a fantasy of a deranged child’s mind.

  37. Good morning, everyone. Yesterday I went with 10 other wrinkles to watch the latest Mark Rylance comedy-drama, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN. We all loved it and I can highly recommend it for any NoTTLers whose local cinema is showing it. A feel-good movie to take you away from the cares of today’s world for an hour and three quarters.

  38. Good morning all. Another nice day so far and I have to say that todays letter is a total misrepresentation of what is going on in the Orthodox Church. It says in part: “The Ukrainian Orthodox Church had already broken with the Russian Patriarchy in 2019, and many other affiliated churches across the world are now doing the same.” No, not quite. In fact it is the converse, many churches refused to recognize the split of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Russian Orthodox Church which was not legitimate and, as a result, the Ukrainian Church with its false patriarch was roundly condemned in a ritual of excommunication by not only the Russian Orthodox Church but several others. In fact the ceremony of excommunication is somewhere on You Tube.

    It really is a bit much. Not only are these cretins going after innocent women and children and hounding animals, but now going after the Church. The West, well, perhaps not the West, but we in Britain used to have principles. They seem to have been disposed of, taken to the rubbish dump and disregarded entirely. And all to conceal just who started this war by breaking promises made long ago to Russia by the West and in particular, the NATO countries.

      1. So they should have been. It really is disgusting. We didn’t even go after the wives and mistresses of the NAZI’s. really how did we degenerate to this pass? It really is shameful.

    2. Our Lady has on several occasions ordered that a reigning pope must consecrate the Russian church to her sacred heart. Bergoglio claims that he’s going to do it in St Peter’s Basilica on Friday afternoon, it being Lady Day. He’s going to fudge it though, as one would expect, by claiming to consecrate Russia and Ukraine. Not what she said so I think not valid. Besides, Ratzinger is the pope, not Bergoglio. Popes do not retire.

      1. Well, I don’t want to get into a religious war but as an Orthodox Christian, I don’t give a rats arse about what or who a heretic tries to consecrate the Russian Church to. Any interference in the life of the Church by Rome I find deeply offensive. Since Rome is the original corruptor of Christianity and has brought it low by its evil doctrines in the West.

  39. For Rose Morning Rose! South Eastern Horticultural on ebay is an excellent company. Their plants are better than those you would buy from the regular suppliers, i.e. T & M, Parkers etc. Plants are always a nice size and healthy. It’s my go to company for garden plants. He carries pinks and sweet Williams too. A lot of traditional/cottage style plants. I recommend him highly.
    A PS Just looked and her they are, “Grans Favourite”
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144419362713?hash=item21a0109799:g:DCwAAOSwW2JiDrt2

    1. Bought my Lantanas from there last year. Excellent plants. Don’t seem to have them yet, this year.

      1. I would guess to early. But I have some from there from last year. Held them over in the greenhouse. Illness interfered, but what I was going to do was a combo in a tub of Lantana, Bougainvillea and brilliant red pelargoniums. Those plants are in a bed together at Mission Carmel in California and it really is a beautiful and colourful grouping. Of course, at the Mission the Bougainvillea covers a whole wall and the Lantana and Pelargoniums are huge. That part of California is a perfect climate, no frost because it is on the coast. You can do an English cottage garden to a sub tropical one with Hibiscus and Gingers if you want. Gardeners paradise. But I think J Parker has Lantana although I would rather use South Eastern Horticultural, great plants.

    1. https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/what-arent-we-being-told-about-petulant-nazanins-release-by-iran/

      Presumably she knew the risk she was taking by going there. She also
      knew her status immediately made Britain’s negotiating position
      extremely challenging: Whatever the rights and wrongs of the case, the
      British government, which has not enjoyed strong relations with Iran in
      recent years, was in no position to dictate terms to Iran over the
      release of a person whom the Iranian regime considered to be one of its
      own.

    1. “The site was destroyed overnight in a missile strike, which the Ukrainian authorities described as an indiscriminate bombing of a civilian target.

      “On March 21, during the night, a high-precision long-distance weapon was used to destroy a battery of Ukrainian multiple rocket launcher artillery and the base where they stored ammunition in a defunct shopping center,” Major General Igor Konashenkov told reporters”.

    1. It’s nothing new, nor not known about. The problem is they all close ranks to achieve their end goal. The scary bit is that the more normalised madness becomes in the trans nonsense, the more they’ll want to move to make child abuse normal.

      1. 351546+ up ticks,

        Morning w,
        That is surely the aim of the lab/lib/con paedophile importers / protectors/ member voters.

    3. Is this the Andrew Neil who in failing to turn GB News into another propaganda channel went off in a huff on his private plane and tried to sabotage the station? That source of credible information, lackey for the BBC.

    1. Hard to tell at that size because the wild ones have white spines first – but the noses look a bit too pink.

    1. Boom,both barrels
      Anyone got a link to that French documentary starting with Poroshenko’s speech
      I’ve lost it,need it for my sister

    2. Talks sense – when will we see it on BBC, Sky, Chan4 and ITV news?

      Oh, that’s right – never!

        1. You’ll find, Jonathan, that I have long believed in, “Say it how it is.” It may hurt but it’ll be the truth.

      1. Because if you had been keeping up you would know it is all verifiable from other sources.

        1. I can’t be arsed checking sources, I leave that to people with too much time on their hands

  49. In this hyper-sensitive age, we are all desperate to avoid giving offence, in case it gets us in trouble. But it isn’t easy. There seem to be so many rules to follow. Not only are these rules ferociously strict, but, without warning, they can change. And sometimes, the new rule will turn out to be the exact opposite of the old rule.

    If, for example, you’re an author, you can get in trouble not just for what you write, but for what you write about. This problem was highlighted at the weekend by Anne Tyler. In an interview, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, who turned 80 last year, suggested that the fear of cancel culture could restrict a writer’s artistic freedom.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/03/22/pc-rules-writers-arent-just-chilling-wildly-hypocritical/

    Off topic , but slightly on topic , do these rules apply to the advertising industry who seems to assume that mixed race marriages are the norm and that the majority of adverts are pitched at black families apart from of course adverts for funeral plans for white families?.

    1. That’s the joy of the BBC; when the synchronised diversity adverts appear, you can cancel them by switching to beeb for a few minutes.

    2. That’s the joy of the BBC; when the synchronised diversity adverts appear, you can cancel them by switching to beeb for a few minutes.

    3. As far as I can see, writers have no freedom any more. The entire publishing industry has gone woke, and bookshops have followed suit.
      Our local bookshop proudly trumpets its virtue with a sign in the window proclaiming that they deliver by bicycle. That, together with their left wing decor (lots of white paint and rainbows) is enough to put me off.
      I rarely buy newly published books any more, because they are so woke.
      I exist on second hand book sales and charity shops…

        1. One of my favourite books ever is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I have loved it since I was little. Would it too be banned because there is a crippled boy in it?
          What about Dickens? Some nitwits have already tried to have a go about Oliver Twist because of the portrayal of Fagin- a Jew. It is deemed unsympathetic. Ditto The Merchant of Venice. Grrrr.
          All this stuff makes me want to throw up- let people read and make up their own minds. If these dopey students are offended by something, then don’t bloody read it. It is their loss!

      2. #Me too. I don’t want diversity shoe-horned into every possible (and, indeed, impossible) situation or homosexuality, come to that. I read for entertainment, not to be conditioned or brain-washed.

    4. As I have said- I would not last 5 minutes in any school these days. Many states in the US are removing and banning books from school libraries. Among those targeted are Little House on the Prairie, Maus, Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird and others. Maus is about the holocaust and the reason for it being banned is that it contains swear words- sure does…”God damn”.
      Little House is being banned because the native Americans are described as frightening.
      Librarians have traditionally never banned books- you select books that are age appropriate and content appropriate. It is yet another example of others trying to control what others have access to and to limit what people can read and see.
      Librarians are attempting to resist this but are being placed under pressure to remove the books. For the first time, I am truly glad to be out of education; I hate what I see and read about.

      1. I read the Little House books so often as a child that I practically know them off by heart! My children read them too.

        Jonathan Myles-Lea, the conservative artist who died of cancer recently, said that we should keep our books, because nothing on the internet is safe as data – it can be changed any time.
        He had gone to look up a quote online, and found that classic quotations had disappeared, to be replaced by PC drivel from the likes of Meghan Markle. Plus he was under threat of being censored himself for his subversive opinions!
        He was right, and I shall make sure that I have the full Little House set to read to my grandchildren!

    5. Sorry, Maggie but bugger avoiding giving offence – if they’re that fragile, take a lesson from the Oz playbook and, “Harden the f**k up.“

    6. I remember reading a dystopia novel sometime in the late 70’s about the UK becoming a ‘one party’ state.
      Rules, regulations and the guidance of law kept being change on an almost daily basis: society became so confused, open revolt broke out.
      Government (who had deliberately orchestrated the situation) were then able to introduce Martial law and claimed that the only way to stabilise the country was to ban all othe political parties and make public protest illegal.

      My problem is, I cannot for the life of me, remember the author or title, but it was a rather prophetic book, which is why I am annoyed I can’t remember its title.

      1. “Rules, regulations and the guidance of law kept being change on an almost daily basis: society became so confused, open revolt broke out.” Exactly what happened with the scamdemic, except for the open revolt breaking out. Even now people are still wearing face nappies. I can’t make out what’s wrong with people.

        1. According to the WHO: In 2020, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. 5.6 million men, 3.3 million women and 1.1 million children.
          That’s just one year!
          Government and ill-informed hysteria by lots of people; no control or money in other illnesses.

        2. According to the WHO: In 2020, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) worldwide. 5.6 million men, 3.3 million women and 1.1 million children.
          That’s just one year!
          Government and ill-informed hysteria by lots of people; no control or money in other illnesses.

      2. We’ve lived the last 2 years under that directive. The proper phrase is ‘the government has been gaslighting the population ‘ and by and large it’s worked beyond their wildest dreams.
        People still wearing face nappies and testing themselves for coronavirus. There is no test for Covid 19.

      3. The rot started with the crash helmet and seat belt laws. Should never have been passed. it should be your choice.

        1. I’m not sure I’d agree with those examples, especially looking at the mad sods on the roads these days.
          I’m more inclined to think it was the (as someone else mentioned) introduction of race discrimination laws. Especially after the ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech was made by Enoch Powell, which has subsequently been proved right.

          1. But it was removing your freedom of choice of course you can wear them is you wish. Just think about what it has led to.

          2. My own opinion is that the rot (freedom of choice) set in with the slow (hopefully not noticed by the population) replacement of common law by continental Napoleonic law.
            It must have been a shock when after exit of the EU, government and law enforcement needed to undo the introduction, hence the debacle of courts trying to subvert parliament.

          3. I’ve been saying that ever since I joined nottl.blog. Nothing has changed. The closure of local courts has gathered pace over the years.

          4. Trouble is, Andrew, they haven’t really been trying to back pedal on it and reintroduce the primacy of Common Law. They are still introducing EU legislation (and pretending it’s ours)!

        2. Compounded by the fact that Sikhs were granted exemption. It was the end of “one rule for all”.

      4. The rot started with the crash helmet and seat belt laws. Should never have been passed. it should be your choice.

    7. We have been denied the right to freedom of speech and opinion by an Act of Parliament……..The Race Relations Act.of the mid sixties…That has kept us silent
      and angry.

    2. Still alive, thank you. Just keeping a low profile and taking things very easy.

  54. Just in case we avoid a world war, Canada is suddenly in even deeper doggie doo.

    Althougn it is hard to believe from his actions, Trudeau has only a minority in parliament so there is the vague possibility that he could be unseated. Word is just coming out about a deal between Trudeaus woke rabble and the ultra left party where they will vote as a block. I guess that we can look forward to some really extreme policies in the next few years

    I other news, there is now a strike / lockout on CP rail. The truckers have announced that they will not be helping move goods.

  55. Hi all. Just heard from grandson. He had to do a 1,000 word essay on gonorrhoea last week. He got 85%! Not sure whether to feel proud or not! 🤭🤭🤭

    3. Q. What did the syphilis bug say to his paramour?
      A. I’m a gonner’ere!

  56. Wordle 276 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Got lucky today.

      1. Wait until they start asking for you to scan a QR code before you’re allowed to withdraw cash, or pay your taxes. I don’t have it either, but they are going to make life increasingly hard for those of us who hold out.

          1. Cheer up, it’s Spring and the barstards haven’t won yet. Are you finding plenty of things to do?

          3. The “Things I’m going to do when I retire” list?
            Gotta learn to put your feet up too!

      2. #metoo. However TPTB are gradually tightening the noose around our necks. CBDC, the great reset, total control here we come.

  59. Good morning. The hysteria whipped up over the Ukraine is remarkable given that is is done by the same toxic people who have been killing and injuring millions around the world with their Injectate fraud. One would have expected the vast majority now to realise that we are facing not governments and media but a deadly enemy who lie when their lips move.

    Biden’s puppet masters wanted the conflict as the next stage of their attack on us. Europe is in the firing line I consider. We complain that there are not enough free thinkers in Western civilisation, but for the globalists there are far too many and eastern cultures are much more promising for creating a docile and obedient collective.

    Zelensky admits he was told that Ukraine would not join NATO before this all started. Did anyone mention that to Russia? And while we wring our hands over the present violence the lying media give us no chance of assessing the situation. A small example from today is the screech over a missile that destroyed a shopping centre. – slight details omitted being that it was closed and that Ukrainian military vehicles were pictured being parked under it. Where were all these indignant folk when 15,000 people in the Donbass were being killed by Ukrainian shelling over the last 8 years (UN figures)?

    The Ukrainian fascists as exemplified by the Azov militia absorbed into the Ukrainian army are no myth. Thos of us who care to may remember it took about 3 days after the Maidan for the new regime to start threatening the Russian-speaking east of the country. This piece may be of interest.

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/03/20/meet-ukraine-azov-figurehead-olena-semenyaka-europe-female-fuhrer/

      1. There was an advert in the DM for a ceramic egg shaped BBQ ripping off the original which costs £1000. Aldi were selling it for the knock down price of £399.99. Sod that, i’ll use my grill and BBQ sauce !

    3. Oh my skies! How uncomfortable! Where would you arms go? Where’s the back support? Then your legs are danging over the side with metal cutting into them.

      A chair for people who would never use it.

      1. It’s an egg chair. All the rage, apparently. I seem to recall them being in vogue (and possibly even in Vogue) in the sixties. Fashion is cyclical.

  61. 351546+ up ticks,

    I could not agree more so retweeting Seans post,
    I visualise it as a mantra chanted on the way to the polling booth in the May by elections by the lab/lib/con coalition supporter / voters,

    Sean Miller forsakenamerican • 16 hours ago
    Sad to see my former homeland basically surrender to an army of thugs, with no country and uniform. Makes me think about the old Kinks song “Living on a thin line”.

    “All the stories have been told, of kings and days of old, but there’s no England now.
    All the wars that were won and lost, don’t seem to matter anymore, because there’s no England now.”

    A successful DIY three + decade of treachery / destruction very near completion of a Nation via the polling booth.

    3. The most commonly used letters of the English language are e, t, a, i, o, n, s, h, and r. The letters that are most commonly found at the beginning of words are t, a, o, d, and w. The letters that are most commonly found at the end of words are e, s, d, and t.

    4. The most commonly used letters of the English language are e, t, a, i, o, n, s, h, and r. The letters that are most commonly found at the beginning of words are t, a, o, d, and w. The letters that are most commonly found at the end of words are e, s, d, and t.

    1. Set a thief to catch a thief. Didn’t work though did it? They have ended up with a load of rapists.

    2. They were diverse, and that’s all that matters. We live in the post-truth world. Some of us just have unrealistic expectations, that’s all.

      In fact, there is nothing in Britain today standing between law abiding people and criminals mass raping and looting. It’s only going to get worse as more people with criminal tendencies realise that.

    5. The body of a man who went missing in 2012 was found in a freezer in the basement of a deserted pub. The Rozzers are trying to discover when he was last seen – good luck with that one, considering it was darkest Lunnon.

  65. Historic England makes 100-year-old photo archive available to public for first time online
    The newly-digitised archive of aerial photographs, dating back to 1919, may help future applicants seeking listed status for old buildings

    Historic England says the public can use a new online archive of aerial photographs to help get their buildings listed.

    The body, which oversees the protection of heritage buildings, launched a new digital map on Tuesday with over 400,000 aerial photographs covering a third of England. The aerial photograph explorer is freely accessible to the public.

    “We hope that making these images widely accessible through the map will help people discover more about their area and could provide [listing] applicants with useful background information,” Historic England said.

    “The more information, including images and historical background, supplied to support a listing application, the better.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/22/historic-england-makes-100-year-old-photo-archive-available/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  66. Half-hearted sanctions against Russia have already failed. A E-P 22 March 2022.

    Russia has enough usable foreign currency to stay afloat for a long time. Western sanctions against the central bank are not proving to be the killer blow supposed at first, and nor is the ejection of some Russian banks from the SWIFT nexus of global payments. There are too many deliberate exemptions.

    Goldman’s deep-dive into the effect of sanctions ought to end all wishful thinking. The US investment bank forecasts that the Russian economy will contract by 10pc this year, a bad recession but not an economic breakdown. Growth will then recover to 2.4pc next year and 3.4pc in 2024 as the country adjusts. Exports will be back to 98pc of prior levels by early next year. If so, Putin is not going to lose sleep over this.

    Don’t read all of this, you will cry. These so called sanctions are going to hit us hardest of all

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/22/half-hearted-sanctions-against-russia-have-already-failed/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    2. Stephen linked a Slog article yesterday evening that essentially suggested that Germany owns so many of Russia’s debts that if Russia defaults or pays in roubles, the Euro could collapse.

        1. That would be the quickest way to get a digital currency.
          Oh look, a crisis that we engineered – the best solution is a CBDC.

          1. We’re screwed whichever way we look at it, but at least the EU would take a hammering which would please the southern countries, such as Greece.

          2. They have nobody but themselves to blame – they thought they could leach off Germany ad infinitum.

          3. True, but what the demos want and what government provide.
            Their economy, as I understood it, did not meet EU monetary rules, but the all encompassing EU hegemony saw another star on their flag, regardless of the consequences.

      2. Afternoon BB. The world economy is so interlinked that you cannot possibly sanction one part without doing something to yourself, witness the current fiasco!

    3. I’m afraid that was obvious from the day they were suggested. As a puppet of the USA Johnson didn’t seem to understand that the USA has alternative sources of oil. Europe and ourselves are far more dependent on Russian resources. Same with wheat.

    4. I’m afraid that was obvious from the day they were suggested. As a puppet of the USA Johnson didn’t seem to understand that the USA has alternative sources of oil. Europe and ourselves are far more dependant on Russian resources. Same with wheat.

    5. It wasn’t going to work anyway, regardless of the Wests bombastic claim that “everyone” was against Russia. Most of Asia is carrying on as normal in its relationship and, indeed, why should it back NATO of which they are have no part. A part of the world that is blown apart on occasion thanks to people like Blair, Obama, and Biden.

  67. The number of fluent Russian speakers in the Foreign Office fell by a quarter in the years before the invasion of Ukraine.

    The cuts came despite warnings about the lack of language experts in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Last night Labour said it showed Conservative ministers were “asleep at the wheel”.

    The Foreign Office has faced a string of cuts and overstretched budgets under successive foreign secretaries, with critics warning that this has adversely affected Britain’s ability to monitor and engage with both allies and threats around the world.

    In spring 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea from Ukraine. A year later the Commons foreign affairs committee used a report to sound the alarm on the decline of language

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cuts-in-russian-speakers-show-foreign-office-asleep-at-the-wheel-fz92xjtbx

    I haven’t been able to access the rest of the article because I don’t subscribe to the Times .

    The photos I have seen of F/O staff appear to me to be of rather dusky skinned hue?

    2. The photos I have seen of F/O staff appear to me to be of rather dusky skinned hue?

      Afternoon Belle. This applies across the board, NHS, Home Office etc. These people were unemployable in the private sector so they drafted them in en masse! The result? Asian levels of incompetence!

      1. The chaos at Heathrow was being marshalled by Asians when we arrived home a few weeks ago. I didn’t notice many indigenous faces.

        1. I was grilled extensively when flying out of HR a few years ago. Questioned about why I’d been in UK, where I’d been etc He looked Indian or Pakistani. I looked him right in the eyes and simply said, “This my home land and I am British.” There were a few supportive sniggers from behind me. Bloody cheek.

          1. Nothing was checked when we arrived home – just the normal e-gate to shove the passport through. Same when we left – except the queue at the Kenya airways desk took forever as everything was checked three times – QR codes, vax pass, the lot. In Kenya before we left – two lots of security, everything else checked three times.

          3. I got the same treatment when I came back from America. A Jamaican person asked me why I was coming to Britain. I was very tired and not in the best of humour having flown from California. I answered. I’m English, this is my home, do you mind?” I assume you had, like me, a British passport? My very irritable tone made it perfectly clear that I thought his question was a bloody cheek.

    3. Oh dear. It seems that the new, diverse, inclusive education system isn’t producing anyone with the requisite skills for the real world.
      I bet they’ve had no trouble recruiting Diversity Managers trained in Critical Race Theory.

    4. Miracle if they could even speak english correctly.
      To be fair, other languages are only really necessary for communicating with those unfortunate foreigners who happen to be old, poor or uneducated.

    5. Given all that’s gone on, I’m glad I, as a Russian speaker, decided against joining the FCO.

    1. Ha! just goes to prove that you can spot a lefty a mile off.
      I said she had a Guardian reader face.

      1. Let’s pray that Mr NZR can prevent his daughter from ever, ever travelling to Iran again until she is as old as a Nottler, or even older.

    3. Senior Iranian agent checks out security at Palace of Westminster. I bet Lady Starmer wasn’t fooled.

    4. What a b—h (female dog)

      Steerpike
      Hacks in uproar about Nazanin briefing
      22 March 2022, 10:40am

      elcome home Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, released after six years imprisonment. The 43-year-old returned to the UK last week after the government settled a historical £400 million debt owed to Iran over a cancelled 1970s order for British tanks.

      But it seems the mother-of-one is not done generating headlines yet, after she caused something of a stir yesterday with her comments at a press conference in parliament about her return from Iran. ‘How many foreign secretaries does it take for somebody to come home?’ she said. ‘What happened now should have happened six years ago.’

      The drama of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s appearance in the Macmillan room though was nothing compared to what was going on outside the room. For Her Majesty’s press corps – those trusty seekers of truth – were in uproar about the seating arrangements for the British-Iranian’s first Q&A here in the UK.

      Invitations to the appearance were sent out to only a select few on Sunday night, with other journos only learning about it on Monday morning. There then followed an undignified palaver as frustrated hacks sought to get into the room, which rapidly filled up in light of the historic significance of Zagahari-Ratcliffe’s return.

      https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt5d45ec45ff738b7d/6239b223d0a6e54cb5f123ea/Screenshot_2022-03-22_at_11.24.47.png?format=jpg&width=1440

      Confusion now reigns as to who is responsible for the mess. Zagahari-Ratcliffe or her local Labour MP, Tulip Siddiq, naturally have the right to organise a press conference with invites to a selected few. But is it really right for Commons bosses, invoking the authority of the Speaker, to shut out newspapers from parliamentary rooms for a public appearance?

      The House of Commons declined to provide a comment. Let’s just hope such scenes aren’t repeated again – particularly given the irony of Zagahari-Ratcliffe’s return from a regime which bars freedom of the press…

      **********************************************************

      robertsonjames • 6 hours ago • edited
      How very typical of the leftist Guardianista bubble that she obviously inhabits that she seeks to blame our ministers for not getting her released sooner rather than the fanatical Islamist human rights abusers who imprisoned her.

      It’s ALWAYS our fault, innit?

      How many ungrateful anti-British lefties does it take to remind you why they are so repellent?

      robertsonjames • 6 hours ago • edited
      How very typical of the leftist Guardianista bubble that she obviously inhabits that she seeks to blame our ministers for not getting her released sooner rather than the fanatical Islamist human rights abusers who imprisoned her.

      It’s ALWAYS our fault, innit?

      How many ungrateful anti-British lefties does it take to remind you why they are so repellent?

      ********************************************************************************

      Very funny comments over on The Grauniad – so predictable

    1. If you look up Peter Santenello on You Tube he has done a series on the Amish. They live very nice lives. The irony of it is that people think they are quint but if the economy collapsed, they would chug along hardly touched by the mess. Peter Santenello is also worth watching because he lives in Ukraine, has also done a series on that and also one on Russia.

      1. The Amish and other groups like them are continually under attack for the way they live. Not long ago a court case about child labour exploitation was lost. Their defense was that children from a young age works alongside their parents. It’s their culture. Another was for corporal punishment of the boys when they didn’t meet the standards of the group. They won both court cases.

        1. When Amish boys and girls reach a certain age, 16, they are allowed to go out into the world and explore and they can do what they like. They aren’t supervised in any way at all, so drugs, drink, and rock n’ roll if they so wish. The return rate after that is 80 to 90% depending on the settlement they are from. Their childhoods cannot be that dreadful if they choose freely to return.

          1. Yes. I did know that. Trouble is they don’t fit the consumer society model and so are considered suspect in some way.

            There are videos on youtube of them building barns. Everyone lends a hand and of course no money involved. (Again the PTB have no control). One i saw recently the barn was huge. Must have been a hundred or more men lifting it up from the inside and walking it to where it needed to be. Looked like it had sprouted legs !

            I expect afterwards with all the bowls and plates of food provided by all the women they had a great party.

          2. Did you hear about the way they dealt with Covid? Held parties like people used to for chickenpox. They were over it in weeks while everyone else was floundering around in a panic. And their death rate was minimal, probably because they live such healthy lives. Here is an interesting article about what some of them did.
            https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/10/10/attkisson_how_amish_communities_became_the_first_to_acheive_herd_immunity_from_covid-19_in_may_2020.html

          3. Again they don’t fit the consumer model. Billions were made out of covid. They just carried on as normal. I expect one of those Labs that Fauci denies exists is already designing a virus to wipe them out.

          5. The latter, Ann. Although I think a lot of the former goes on when doing the latter!

        2. I used to spend a lot of time in my summer hols on my uncle’s farm in Ayrshire. If you were there, you helped with the chores. I did all sorts but my favourite was feeding the calves. Aaaaah.

      2. Lancaster County in Pennsylvania is beautiful, very like rural England scenery wise. It had a large Amish community and the farm houses are lovely. A lot of them have decamped to the mid-west because Lancaster is close to NJ and NY and the tourism was getting to the Amish folk. They don’t like being photographed and their buggies caused traffic tail backs which not all tourists were nice about.
        The Harrison Ford movie Witness was filmed there.

  71. Oh dear, well never mind.

    Half-hearted sanctions against Russia have already failed
    Read this exclusive extract from our Economic Intelligence newsletter and sign up at the bottom of the article to get it every Tuesday

    AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD
    Russia has not defaulted on its sovereign debt after all. Nor is it likely to do so under the current sanctions regime, and as long as Europe continues to finance Vladimir Putin’s military state with purchases of gas, oil, and coal.

    The Kremlin is already sufficiently confident to reopen the Moscow stock exchange for bond transactions. The US Treasury’s sanctions office (OFAC) has made life easier by leaving a loophole for sovereign debt repayments, concerned that there might otherwise be a Lehmanesque shock to global finance.

    The uninterrupted flow of fossil revenues – at windfall prices – is enough to cover interest service costs and redemptions. Goldman Sachs even thinks that the central bank will be able to relax capital controls gradually.

    The rouble has not collapsed. It has stabilised after a 40pc devaluation, a manageable drop for a semi-autarkic closed economy. The fall is less than the currency slide in Turkey over recent months, which few even noticed outside specialist circles.

    We are facing the failure of western sanctions policy. Calibrated half-measures are not sufficient to change the Kremlin calculus or to dissuade Putin from a policy of attrition against civilian targets.

    Yes, Russia is having to sell some crude oil at a steep discount but the gap is already narrowing as shippers learn to navigate the political reefs.

    India and others are competing for bargain supplies, cutting the discount to $20 this week from $28 a barrel after the invasion of Ukraine. If Europe is still buying Russian oil, how can distant states in Asia be persuaded to desist?

    The Kremlin is still earning almost $100 a barrel at today’s global prices ($118), twice the average of the last eight years. The Russian current account is in rude good health. Clemens Grafe from Goldman Sachs expects the surplus to top $200bn this year as imports of western consumer goods are slashed.

    Russia has enough usable foreign currency to stay afloat for a long time. Western sanctions against the central bank are not proving to be the killer blow supposed at first, and nor is the ejection of some Russian banks from the SWIFT nexus of global payments. There are too many deliberate exemptions.

    Goldman’s deep-dive into the effect of sanctions ought to end all wishful thinking. The US investment bank forecasts that the Russian economy will contract by 10pc this year, a bad recession but not an economic breakdown. Growth will then recover to 2.4pc next year and 3.4pc in 2024 as the country adjusts. Exports will be back to 98pc of prior levels by early next year. If so, Putin is not going to lose sleep over this.

    Russia’s trade will mostly be diverted rather than destroyed. There may even be some short-term growth stimulus as Russia replaces western goods with home-made manufactures. Putin has been building a fortress economy ever since the annexation of Crimea. Net foreign funding is negligible. Total public debt is 18pc of GDP, one of the lowest ratios in the world.

    Over four-fifths of GDP come from sectors that import just 15pc or less of their inputs, falling to 7pc in the mining industry. This is a radically different economic structure from western states such as Poland.

    “If Russia were fully integrated into global supply chains, restrictions on imports and exports would be immediately destructive. However, Russia largely exports goods that are almost fully produced locally,” said Mr Grafe.

    Iran endured tougher sanctions without buckling. Cornell professor Nick Mulder, author of The Economic Weapon, said the country settled into a new equilibrium within a couple of months. “If Iran’s experience is any guide, Russia will survive and return to lacklustre growth,” he said.

    “Historically, sanctions have hardly ever been successful in stopping wars,” he said. A rare exception was the Balkan ‘war of the stray dog’ in 1925. Needless to say, Putin’s war on Ukraine is not a border skirmish. It is a long-planned attempt to overturn the post-Cold War settlement and alter the world’s balance of power.

    European ministers once again grappled with a hydrocarbon embargo – the fifth package of sanctions – at an EU meeting on Monday. Once again the proposals ran into resistance from Germany, with Italy and others happy to tuck in behind.

    There is a pervasive fear of a gilets jaunes uprising across Europe, a suspicion that a fickle public will not tolerate a cost-of-living shock once the horrors of Ukraine lose their novelty on TV screens – but that is to abdicate leadership.
    The business-as-usual lobbies in Germany have dusted down a catastrophe scenario known as Lükex 18, a report by the German civil defence agency (BBK) painting a portrait fit for Hieronymous Bosch of what might happen if gas supplies were ever cut off.

    It is to throw sand in our eyes. We are already in late March. The winter is over and Europe will have enough gas to last deep into the late autumn. It has sufficient spare import capacity for liquefied natural gas to rebuild some of its depleted storage with shipments of LNG from the US and Qatar over the summer months.

    Professor Moritz Schularick from Bonn University said an immediate halt to all purchases of Russian gas, oil, and coal, would cut German GDP by 3pc this year and cost around €120bn but is perfectly feasible. “The world wouldn’t end,” he said.

    The possible measures are by now well known. Every one degree cut in home heating saves 10 billion cubic metres (BCM) of gas. If Europe dialled down from an average of 22 to 19 degrees, which happened in some states in the 1973 crisis, it could already cover one fifth of total Russian supply. Targeted sections of heavy industry can be rationed with a small loss of GDP.

    As for oil, the International Energy Agency has just cut its forecast for global demand this year by 1.3m barrels a day (b/d). It has issued a 10-point plan for rapid cuts that could shave a use by a further 2.7m b/d without causing an economic crisis, chiefly by a string of temporary measures such as lowering speed limits by 10 km/h, car-free Sundays, and less air travel. Together these savings add up to 4m b/d, equal to most of Russia’s oil exports to Europe.
    The issue is no longer whether it can be done but whether Europe has the political courage to try. What is clear is that western sanctions policy is the worst of all worlds. We are suffering an energy shock that is further inflating Russia’s war-fighting revenues.

    While it is hard to separate the effect of sanctions from war disruption and market psychology, the current situation is intolerable. We are allowing Putin to exploit Russia’s leverage as a full-spectrum commodity superpower.

    The spot price for ammonia in Europe has risen sevenfold this year, deliberately pushed higher by a Kremlin ban on fertiliser exports that has no other purpose than causing maximum chaos and probably a global food shortage over the next year. Shortages of nickel, palladium, and other metals are becoming critical.
    It is a strategic imperative to bring this crisis to a head immediately by raising the ante. A total energy embargo would buttress the military resistance of the Ukrainian armed forces and test whether it is even possible for Putin to continue prosecuting a bungled invasion.

    As matters now stand, the sanctions have failed to achieve anything. It is Ukrainian resistance, and military kit mostly provided by the Anglo-Saxon powers of Nato and frontline EU states, that have so far held the line. Core Europe has done little more than bleat on the margins.

    The spontaneous willingness of European nations to welcome millions of refugees is marvellous – and the UK should drop its tone-deaf visa requirement immediately – but what is most needed is to confront the cause of this vast human convulsion.

    1. “…but what is most needed is to confront the cause of this vast human convulsion.” Is he referring to the lies, deceit, and broken promises of the West to Russia? I think not. He means, of course, blaming Putin because the West hasn’t the decency to admit that it is in the wrong and caused this war to break out.

  72. Trans women are reportedly being denied passage to safer countries, despite their legal status as women and the danger posed by Russia’s transphobic policies
    As strange hands searched her body and pulled back her hair to check if it was a wig, Judis looked at the faces of the Ukrainian border guards and felt fear and despair.

    LGBTQ+ associations and human rights defenders are warning that, since the beginning of the invasion, trans people are running out of hormones because of pharmacy closures and lack of medicines across the country. “If you stop taking hormones suddenly, it is extremely harmful to your health,” says Alice.

    Bernard Vaernes works for Safebow, an organisation helping to evacuate vulnerable people to safety. He and Safebow founder Rain Dove Dubilewski were with Alice and Judis when they attempted to cross into Poland.

    “This is the moment where we need to show that there are people suffering, not only from the war, but because of sexism and transphobia, and yet [those at risk] cannot leave,” says Vaernes.

    Vaernes says that Russia’s discriminatory and hostile approach to LGBTQ+ rights is terrifying Ukraine’s trans community. In 2013, a “gay propaganda” law was introduced in Russia, making it illegal to promote gay rights. President Vladimir Putin has described gender fluidity as “a crime against humanity”.

    “Many of the trans people I have talked to in Ukraine are afraid of Russia,’’ Vaernes says.

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/22/i-will-not-be-held-prisoner-the-trans-women-turned-back-at-ukraines-borders

    1. We saw the same thing in Afghanistan. The West moves in and promotes all sorts of LGBTQ nonsense. It can only end in trouble. Clearly they haven’t just been trying and failing to bring democracy to these shitholes they have also been peddling an agenda.
      If you wanted to be be trans why not go to a country that already allows it? The PTB are polluting other cultures while destroying our own. See WEF for details.

    2. What sickens me is not their treatment but the fact that yet again “trans” seems to trump all.

    3. What sickens me is not their treatment but the fact that yet again “trans” seems to trump all.

    4. That’s nonsense from top to bottom. If they are women then they don’t need drugs to keep up the pretence, reality has intruded. As for Russia. The attitude there is you can do what you like sexually only you can’t recruit the children. So there is no need to be “afraid” of Russia any more than there is a need to be “afraid” of Ukrainians. That people will hold you in contempt for what you have done has nothing to do with the laws in those countries. It has to do with what the people themselves think of it. Which is pretty much the same as what people think about it in the West and would express if they were allowed free speech to say so.

    5. I don’t believe there are any trans people in Ukraine. They have better things to think about.

    2. Most of the ads I see are during Sky Sports.coverage. If ‘Erectile Dysfunction’ and ‘Ball Shavers’ are only for the under 50s, then perhaps.

    3. The warqueen – usually asleep to this stuff – commented that not a single product was aimed at us, so what on earth could we buy?

      2. That’s my reaction when yet another BAME appears in an advert. I’m not black, so clearly you don’t want my money or custom.

      1. It seems to be by boycotting “Russian” vodka and handing over large amounts of cash – oh, and inviting unvouched for strangers into your home.

      1. If it keeps moving, regulate it.

        When it stops moving subsidise it (electric cars?).

        Government policy could be summed up with ‘stupidity’.

  77. Off topic.
    I’m sure it should be too early for small birds breeding already, but we have a large bush near the house which is alive with chirping.
    No obvious signs of nests so I don’t want to investigate too closely.
    The bush in question is well sheltered by a large tree and a roundel, which has nests under the eaves and in the stone walls every year.
    Same in the bay tree near an outbuilding, where blackbirds are going in and out with beaks full of insects.
    Climate change adaptations?

      1. I may be mistaken but it seems to be much earlier this year.
        The Jays have also suddenly become much more visible and have been very busy, so I suspect they are predating.
        Not as many magpies as usual.
        I saw a couple of sparrow remains, but assumed they were taken by the hawks in the normal scheme of things here. There is certainly a pleasing amount of birdsong and the cuckoos have finally arrived in force.

        1. It’s been a mild winter on the whole and some warm spring weather recently – so they are all getting on with it.

          1. Possibly, but here it has been very variable and the cold spells have been lower than most of the Southern UK. Typical daily ranges recently have been 40+ degrees F.
            Although I’m a lot further South, we seem to get changes that I might expect to disturb patterns.

          4. I’m happy to accept the variances.
            We get on average 700 hours more sunshine a year than Southern England!
            The equivalent of three months of 7 hour days of sunshine.

          5. It’s the first year that my gingers have not lost their top growth and they’ve been there about 8 years now.

          7. It’s the first year that my gingers have not lost their top growth and they’ve been there about 8 years now.

          8. It’s the first year that my gingers have not lost their top growth and they’ve been there about 8 years now.

          1. Haven’t seen any this year yet. I thought I would try taming some and the robin that lives in my garden. Inspired by, ‘Notes From the Stix’ at CW.

      2. Yes, Beaky is back out the front. Our chief Blackbird. Still no sign of Nutkin.

      3. The same one as last year is around the pond here . Using the same technique he learnt last year. He goes round the edge picking off the young ramshorn snails, leaving the empty shells lying around.

    2. Be careful, if no sign of birds it could be a poltergeist, they are very found of chirping.

  79. Evening, all. Been a lovely day here; I even ate breakfast outside! After doing various errands in town, I spent the rest of the time in the garden; weeding, removing dead wood, moving pots around, bringing some garden furniture out of storage (oh, yes, and sitting out on the chaise longue drinking a glass of Pimms). Hedonism is not yet dead. I’m wondering who else is going to be in line for sanctioning – there can’t be many left. I saw a smartly dressed chap in a suit in town – he had a Union flag/Ukraine flag badge on his lapel. I doubt he noticed my curled lip at his virtue signalling. One of the hair dressers had a banner proclaiming “We stand with the Ukraine” in the window and a yellow and blue window display. I wouldn’t have had my hair cut there anyway, but they’ve just ruled themselves out!

    1. Is she drunk as they seem to think, or is she just past it? She looks as though organising a tea party is beyond her, never mind pretending to run the country. I don’t feel sorry for her because of her vile behaviour in the past.

      Biden, Harris, Pelosi, what a bunch of clowns.

      1. She’s past it but I suspect that she has had a stroke of late. She wasn’t this bad a year ago by any means. Thoroughly obnoxious yes, but not incoherent.

        1. She should just retire then and let someone competent take over. The Democrats are going to have a huge vacuum when the current cabal finally release their death grip on power.

          1. She’s the type that would demand being embalmed and propped up in the Speakers Chair. Only trouble is that few would notice the difference.

        2. The media won’t call these senile old fools out, because they are the ones who put them there, and it seems that Mr Global is quite happy with the situation. It’s a farce, and anyone who voted for Biden should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

    2. That’s the same magnitude as the San Francisco earthquake in 1989. The first time I was afraid of an earthquake. Ran out of the house in my bare feet and promptly stepped in dog sh..t. My wife the evil Daughter of the Antichrist was worshipping the porcelain God, unable to move because she was vomiting after having her wisdom teeth removed. Pity the house didn’t cave in on her. I would have got the life insurance! Taiwan builds very well for safety so hopefully no one or few have died. Would be different if it were mainland China. Shoddy building practices and plenty dead.

        1. I actually used to have a pair of those. Very comfy in winter. But sorry, didn’t notice. I’m fading fast

        1. No she was the last one and she is alive. The evil old @*%$+ . I have not had good fortune in marriage. The first one whom I still consider to be my real wife, died of cancer and then the second died after a massive heart attack. Then there was the Daughter of The Anti Christ, who turned out to have borderline personality disorder and made my life so miserable that even after divorce she was out to get me. In large measure, although not the only factor, her harassment is why I left the USA. I got the message about relationships and I, and have not had a relationship in the last 25(?) years. Friendships with women, yes, but not close relationships.

          1. Oh dear , poor you , what a terrible runaround you have had , and 2 deep losses as well .

            My apols for asking you personal questions like that.

          2. It doesn’t bother me Belle to be asked questions, personal or otherwise. Things are what they are and all things pass. The trick, to me, is that for a happy life, you learn to accept that. Equanimity.

      4. There was a World Series game going on when it hit- Oakland stadium, if I recall. You could see the stadium shaking on the TV. Was in CT then.

        1. Lotl

          The only CT I know is Cape Town where my sister lives .. so whereabouts was your CT, not terribly familiar with America, never been there ..

          1. Connecticut, East Coast. California, West Coast. It is an 8 hour plane ride between the two. The USA is a big country.

          2. Jonathan beat me to it. It’s one of the New England states and is truly beautiful and also sensible. 70% forested and has many lakes, rivers and ponds. I lived there for 22 years and, if I were to return to the US, that is the state I would want to live in, despite the sometimes brutal winters. But I shall be staying here until the Grim Reaper comes for me;-)

  82. Blasted vaccines.
    A good friend had heart problems. To travel he needed an exemption and his doctor refused to give one, even though the problems were well known and documented.
    He was vaccinated a few days ago and died on Monday.
    Bastards.

      1. Indeed, and he was someone who always put others before himself.
        A sacrifice on the altar of idiocy…

          1. I think there may be. He wasn’t very old, even if there were health issues. AS THEY KNEW.

          2. So sorry for you, sos. What a horrible experience. They are b*stards, aren’t they?

    7. I’m late here today, but my sympathies for the loss of your friend are sincere.

  83. A bus run to Derby today, but I missed the bus from Stepson’s flat to the Hospital by less than a minute which actually cost me over an hour as I then had to wait until after his dinner, 12 to 1, to see him.
    On the way back I missed the Transpeak by a couple of minutes at Derby bus station so jumped onto a different service and dropped off at Duffield Co-op to do a bit of shopping.

    Now, I think one and all will agree that “Rachel” Levine is fuggly enough as a bloke without pretending to be a woman.
    Well, you should see the Betty Swollocks behind the counter in the Duffield Co-op! He makes Levine look positively pleasant!!

      1. I had to go for a pint in the neighbouring white Hart to recover.
        Then a 2nd at the next pub up the road before jumping onto the next Transpeak bus!

          1. Of course.
            Even managed to get the DT to pick me up at Whatstandwell as she drove past after work!

          4. Am OK- going to try and not whinge. MH is doing quite well. He made himself a huge portion of squabble and beak with a fried egg on top for a late lunch. Much better than previous days.
            I’m still in pain which isn’t good or right. Shall call the hospital tomorrow if no improvement.
            Thank god for alcohol!!
            Thanks for asking.

          5. What’s the betting YH has appalling gas as a result of his lunch… that’ll be fun!
            Be sure to call tomorrow if no improvement. Pain isn’t fun. It needs sorted.

          6. He used up the remaining Brussels sprouts- brace yourself; it could get as far as Norway;-)))

      1. I was tempted to take a photo but lifting the Nikon up would have been a bit of a give away.

        1. That’s something else. Nicky Stackers is closely allied to Betty Swollocks [think about it].

    2. When they arrive, put them on to a P&O ferry.

      When the hold is full – with no room to move – sail it back to France and throw a few molotovs in it. When they’re all out, do it again.

      1. Wait til your customer forces you to liaise with an Egyptian IT provider, whom they picked because they were cheap…

        1. So far I’ve never had that. One customer had their support outsourced to India and has us go through them for change requests to their current network.

          We pocketed about 80,000 in profit on that as nothing got bought, nothing got installed. We tried to work around the incompetence and apologised to the customer endlessly but, fundamentally they were too slow.

          1. My experience of development in India has been very positive.
            In Egypt…not so much.

  88. Visited a property for sale in Fincham this afternoon. We have accepted an offer on our home.

    Whilst the brochure showed a spacious and attractive fairly modern house my heart sank as the windows were plastic imitations of traditional sashes, the bricks were good quality but the mortar grey cement, bucket handle pointed with no sharp sand in the mix, every door, architrave and skirting in the property might as well have been plastic, the doors probably autoclaved to give a faux appearance of wood.

    Despite being on a small gated development the house interiors were what I expect from any developer estate house. The price at 650k more than I would wish to pay. The adjacent B road was noisy if you sat in the garden and the gated access positively dangerous when exiting the property with poor sight lines and speeding heavy traffic.

    The search goes on.

    1. Wish you good luck, Corim.
      House sale & moving is an awful business.
      What attracts you to Fincham?

      1. Agreed. I dread the moving process.

        We thought somewhere on Norfolk or North Suffolk where prices are lower than North Essex where we presently live in a large thatched ‘chocolate box’ house with mediaeval parts and lovely cottage garden.

        Anywhere accessible on the A134 would suit as we love Thetford and areas north and would like access to the coast. So Needham Market, Swaffham, those areas would suit us.

        I am 70 in a few months and find our steep staircases (x2) will be a problem in years to come, plus Council tax at about £280 pcm and other high maintenance costs are crippling now that we are pensioners.

        Having said that, our stairs, which whilst steep, have wide treads. The stairs in the place we visited in Fincham, whilst modern, was more difficult to negotiate than our present ones. The treads were too narrow and I am a mere size 8.

        1. How sad to leave your cottage. It sounds lovely. But, best to move on before it becomes a necessity. Mother left it too late, and now we’re selling her house for her – after playing catch-up on maintenance, that is.
          Wish you luck, man. It’s an awful experience in England.

        1. Charles is a pure bred Elitist. He actually believes that he is better than the rest of us where in reality he is as thick as two short planks bolted together, has the intelligence of an amoeba and needs servants to put his socks on and dispense his toothpaste.

          He knows nothing of the struggles of the rest of us and has always embraced the most malevolent and evil people from Saudi ‘Royal’ princes to ‘Sir’ Jimmy Savile.

      2. That fool is a national embarrassment and a primary argument for doing away with the first born inheriting everything.

        He may have been the first born but he was the first born idiot. His sister Anne has more common sense and more balls than this buffoon and his woke sons come to that. His two brothers, like him, are prize fools too.

      3. …and this is going to be our Monarch?

        A King above politics?

        Enough to make a cat laugh.

    3. The dissadvantage of being knowledgeable, many of us would have not seen how shallow the structure was.

      We are trying to downsize and buy something back in town, there are so few properties on the market that the only way to buy is to offer at least 100,000 over asking and to waive any inspections.

      1. I’d not waive inspections. You can always disregard them, but at least you know what you’re getting in to.
        What kind of property are you looking for?

        1. On an old house that has been renovated for resale, not getting an inspection would be a dumb move but it is happening. I would imagine that there will be many horror stories coming to the surface as major structural problems are found.

          1. Last place we looked at in the UK back in 1995 or so was a newbuilt piece of junk.
            – The bedroom window couldn’t be opened, as it banged into the gutter.
            – No floors were flat or level: One dipped by several inches into the corner
            – All the interior doors didn’t shut properly: the sneck didn’t enter the brass frame on the doorframe.
            – The kitchen floor was concrete, wavy, and finished with a board tapped onto it. Would need screed before tiling.
            – The windowframes were cheap softwood that, through the paint, you could push your thumbnail into.
            We didn’t make an offer. The agent was surprised, and said they would snaglist all the above points, but if a quick inspection pulled all those up, what about a proper survey. Forget it.

          2. Good heavens- it sounds like the post war house my dad bought in south London in 1960. None of the walls were straight; Dad put up some wallpaper with sort of cubes on it and he couldn’t get it level. My brother and I learned some new words while that was going on!
            The floors weren’t level, the doors stuck and the stairs were so steep I know I couldn’t get up them now. The whole place had to be rewired and the garden was overgrown. (Garden main reason for Dad wanting the house.)
            Guess some things never change- although there was a reason in those days for getting houses built quickly.

          3. We went that route after retiring and ended up buying land and building, just what we wanted and 14yrs later, no regrets!

          4. That’s what we did then severed several lots and sold them at great profit. However, now it is time to move back into town and get away from never ending grass cutting.

      2. I’d not waive inspections. You can always disregard them, but at least you know what you’re getting in to.
        What kind of property are you looking for?

    4. Not easy to find something that matches up to your previous house but more convenient.

  90. One for Geoff…..

    Why don’t skeletons play church music?
    They don’t have any organs.

    Sorry- will leave the stage…

    1. Another for Geoff…

      “Have you heard Bach’s organ works?”
      “Twenty children? I’d say so!”

      From r/Jokes, Reddit.

      …and it’s goodnight from me.

      1. What do skeletons sing when they go to a Hallowe’en party?

        “I ain’t got nobody.”

  91. A few weeks ago I sought admission to Addenbrookes for tests as I had been having severe breathing difficulties. In short, I was permanently wheezing and coughing up buckets of accumulated mucus from my upper airway.

    After X-ray and other scans (the doughnut job CT scan after which you think you have bladder problems) I was diagnosed with late onset asthma. Subsequent tests showed that one of my arteries was narrowed near to my heart which will likely have contributed to my breathing difficulties. I now await the results of ultrasound tests in order to discover whether or not I might require the insertion of a stent in said artery.

    During the whole of this minor ordeal I was greatly impressed by the clinical staff attending on me at Addenbrookes. I remain unimpressed by the performance of my local GPs who conspicuously avoided face to face consultations whilst instead relying on telephone triage.

    I mention this episode because it reinforces my first notion that we may have been seriously let down by our GPs. A nurse admitted as much to me on my admittance to the ward.

    My other recollection was questioning a doctor registrar on jabs and mask wearing. I was met with the response that this was not a conversation she was able to get involved in.

    We have some very serious problems in our NHS. The disconnect between the clinical staff and those directing them is a national scandal in my view.

    1. Wow ,

      I can imagine you are really labouring with your breathing problems .

      Have you considered a bungalow .. something easy no stairs and no huffing and puffing ?

      1. I have steroid inhalers, a nasal spray for my sinuses and various other medications so am now able to sleep in my bed at night. Hitherto I slept in my wingback armchair because I could not lie horizontally without wheezing and coughing.

        My main point was that we have been let down by our GPs. They have restricted patient access, made it very difficult to speak to a doctor and by so doing ignored or relegated the vital medical needs of their patients.

        The Covid episode is now seen to be
        a globalist scam and the medical establishment are quite obviously in cahoots with that scam. The work from home device combined with any excuse to avoid face to face contact with patients has caused an immense lack in patient-doctor trust which might now take decades to repair.

    1. Typical of these free-loading blacks that think the world owes them a living.

      Have they ever considered their outcome if their forefathers hadn’t been shipped to a semi-literate country that was finding its own way in the world?

      Just suppose they’d ALL been left in the Dark Continent – how much progress would they have made there?

      Certainly not sufficient to rip whitey off for £1.5 million.

  95. Craven politicians are too scared to confront the true cost of electric cars
    The Treasury will soon face a £35 billion hole in the nation’s finances that no leader is prepared to fill

    PHILIP JOHNSTON : DT – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03/22/craven-politicians-scared-confront-true-cost-electric-cars/

    BTL

    What about LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas)?

    We are looking into getting a car fuelled by LPG.

    It costs half the cost per mile of petrol – and emits only 20% of the carbon.

    But so determined are the government to make everyone drive impractical and unaffordably expensive electric cars other environmentally friendly options have been abandoned.

    And Shell has just decided to abandon selling LPG in the UK!

    1. We won’t get any further until people realise that the fascists who are currently enacting a coup on the West want to make energy the currency unit. They are not interested in whether anyone can afford a car or not, and they know perfectly well that the whole carbon thing is a scam. Their only interest is in controlling the energy of all kinds that we use.

      They are even trying to control wood burning by taking ownership of the trees – hence the government’s generous offer to pay land owners in some carbon related fraud for trees that they plant on their land, and if you take the money, you won’t be able to burn the tree.

      1. “The heads of one of the largest commodity trading houses and the biggest independent oil trader who were speaking at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland on Tuesday.

        The corporate leaders estimated that as much as 3 million barrels of oil and its products a day could be lost from Russia as a result of sanctions, in line with previous estimates, and warned that global markets face a squeeze on diesel with Europe most at risk of a “systemic” shortage that could lead to fuel rationing.

        “The thing that everybody’s concerned about will be diesel supplies. Europe imports about half of its diesel from Russia and about half of its diesel from the Middle East,” said Russell Hardy, chief of Switzerland-based oil trader Vitol. “That systemic shortfall of diesel is there.”

        Those imports mean that Russian supplies account for about 15% of Europe’s diesel consumption, according to the FT which carried their comments.

        Hardy said the shift to more diesel consumption over gasoline in Europe had helped to create shortages of the fuel. He added that refineries could boost their diesel output in response to higher prices at the expense of other oil-derived products to shore up supply, but warned that rationing was a possibility.

        Torbjorn Tornqvist, co-founder and chair of Geneva-headquartered Gunvor Group, added: “Diesel is not just a European problem; this is a global problem. It really is.”

        Tornqvist also warned that European gas markets were no longer functioning properly as traders faced huge demands from banks for cash to cover hedging positions. “I think it’s broken. It really is,” he said. “I never thought that somebody could say ‘ah, gas has fallen below 100 per megawatt hours is really cheap’.”

        Gas futures linked to TTF, Europe’s wholesale gas price have swung from about €70 a megawatt hour before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to about €230 two weeks ago and then slid below €100 this week. Before May 2021, European gas prices were below €20 a megawatt hour.”

        From a report over on ZH…..

  97. Biden has yet to show world leadership
    Telegraph Editorial (23/03/22).

    Past visits of US presidents to Europe have been defined by East-west tensions. In 1963, John F Kennedy travelled to West Berlin and declared himself a citizen of a city physically divided by the recently completed wall. “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’”

    As most schoolboys know Kennedy’s skewed fervour for statesmanship led to him uttering, to a worldwide audience, an absurdity. If he had wished to declare his camaraderie with the citizens of Berlin he should have simply announced “Ich bin Berliner”. His witless addition of the unnecessary “ein” completely changed the sense of the message, which had him saying (effectively and loudly) “I am a doughnut!”.

    [Just like a “Frankfurter” is a sausage, and a “Hamburger” is a beef patty; a “Berliner” is a doughnut.]

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