Friday 13 May: The public is paying the price for the poor performance of civil servants

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

546 thoughts on “Friday 13 May: The public is paying the price for the poor performance of civil servants”

  1. Good morning all. Another bright start but with a light overcast and 7°C outside.

    I dropped one of the dying ash trees yesterday and plan getting some wall building done today. Whether I actually do that is anyone’s guess!

    1. I hope you didn’t drop the ash tree on your foot, BoB. (Painful!) And whether you do any wall building should not be of great concern to you. Don’t forget that Rome The Great Wall of China wasn’t built in a day. (You are attempting to match and overtake the Chinese wall, aren’t you?) Lol.

      2. Oops! But, but, but… I clicked on the Friday link and posted, then nothing appeared for at least a minute. How come you leapfrogged over me? Drat and double drat, I thought I had won today’s race. Lol. (Anyway, good morning BoB.)

  3. Morning everyone. Had some problems accessing NOTTL this morning. GCHQ?

      1. Morning Bob. It’s still acting a bit funny! Notifications are spasmodic and I have to keep refreshing to keep up with the comments.

      2. Morning Bob. It’s still acting a bit funny! Notifications are spasmodic and I have to keep refreshing to keep up with the comments.

    3. Sorry. The new page was a bit late this morning – was struggling to access the site. It seems that there are problems at Bluehost (who host the WordPress bit) at the moment. Hopefully they won’t affect commenting, but if things should go pear-shaped, I may not be able to fix things quickly. I’m travelling to Devon later…

      3. You are forgiven in advance. If it all goes tits up we ill all just have to do something else….like..er..um.

          1. Good morning, Grizzly. I’ve just spent the past two hours shredding pages from my Finances File which was chock-a-block with documentation going back in some cases to 2010. Apart from Tax papers (for which I have to legally keep all documents for the past 7 years plus current Tax Year) there really was no point in keeping anything before 2021. And now I can close the folder and put it on the bookcase without using a mallet to push it in! Kitchen spring-cleaning will have to wait for another day.

          2. Good afternoon, Auntie Elsie. I am well overdue a clear-out of ancient documentation from my filing cabinet. I’ll get on to it when my other chores are finished (whenever that may be!).

          7. Inspector Thursday was Morse’s boss when he was starting out. He was married to Mrs Thursday, obviously.

  4. British troops ‘ready to go and fight’ against Russia, says head of elite unit. 13 May 2022.

    British troops are “ready to go and fight” Russia in a “lethal” way if called upon, the head of an elite unit has said.

    Brigadier Nick Cowley, Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, admitted his soldiers bore a “huge responsibility to make sure we are ready because we may need to go and fight for our freedom”.

    “It’s very present and I think it’s something we need to keep reminding ourselves about,” he said.

    In an interview with The Telegraph from North Macedonia, where Brig Cowley’s troops are leading the Nato Exercise Swift Response, he warned that the war in Ukraine represented the absence of “freedom”, which he said the West had “taken for granted” in recent years.

    Yes. I’m sure that they are all brimming with enthusiasm! (sarc) The only “Absence of Freedom” I’ve noticed is here in the UK! One might assume; not unreasonably, since the military do not set the country’s Geopolitical Agenda, that Brigadier Cowley is dipping a toe in the water here on behalf of the UK Government. This leads one to wonder if the Ukrainians are doing quite as well as the MSM tells us and that the PTB are preparing to intervene. It hardly needs to be pointed out that British troops fighting Russians is a de facto state of war and the balance of forces being what they are, that a Nuclear Exchange of some sort will follow very quickly.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/12/british-troops-ready-go-fight-against-russia-says-head-commando/

    1. I’m certain that yesterday I heard firing in the woods that forms part of the Brigade’s training grounds.😎
      A mere brigadier commenting on the high politics of going to war. Way above his pay grade, he should keep quiet and get on with his day job. Mind you, in Johnson we have a classics scholar (2.1 degree I believe), journalist and buffoon dealing with the high politics. We’re not in a good position, are we?

    2. Cowley has ‘served’ 25 years and has had more jobs than fingers and toes. He obviously has been shoved from department to department in an effort to get rid of him, gathering pips and promotions at every turn. No military mouthpiece should be spouting politics, ever – especially at a time of potential crisis. The man’s an idiot.

    3. Cowley has ‘served’ 25 years and has had more jobs than fingers and toes. He obviously has been shoved from department to department in an effort to get rid of him, gathering pips and promotions at every turn. No military mouthpiece should be spouting politics, ever – especially at a time of potential crisis. The man’s an idiot.

    4. He is surely barking mad. On the other hand, his inflammatory war talk may have political approval. His statements have “plausible deniability”, but are entirely consistent with the Liz Truss approach.

    5. I would like our freedom to be defended (as well as our borders). I am more and more reminded of the old, pre-glasnost’ USSR (which I experienced first hand) by what’s currently happening in the UK.

  5. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    The natives are becoming increasingly restless, and sooner or later something has to give.  Some mass sackings of departmental heads would be a good start:

    SIR – Work may well not be “a place” in this day and age, but work remains work – and service remains service.

    I am surely not alone in receiving poor service from government departments, one example being the failure of the Department for Work and Pensions to deliver a document to me within its own six-week timescale. Despite regular reminders, escalation to a priority team and an official complaint (which was ignored), my document took six months to arrive.

    Whatever the cause of such poor service, it is surely the responsibility of senior civil servants to put it right rather than fight battles with their employer at the expense of the public.

    Rod Barrett
    Bromley, Kent

    SIR – Your front page (May 12) had a report on Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi’s “crackdown” on truancy next to one on senior civil servants in open revolt against the Government’s injunctions to return to the office.

    As a teacher with 34 years’ experience in comprehensive schools, including a decade as a headmaster, I can assure you that ample measures to tackle truancy have been in place for many years, with a proven record of success. Until lockdown.

    It is obvious that pretty well anyone in the public sector can now ignore government threats. This seems to apply in every area, at every level: GPs, teachers, staff at local authorities and in hospitals. Lockdown has proved to be a Pandora’s box, unleashing pandemonium on our country.

    David Kelly
    Broseley, Shropshire

    SIR – I can top the experience of Helen Bessemer-Clark at the Office of the Public Guardian. When my call was finally answered after 58 minutes and I threatened to complain, I was told: “That will delay your application further as it will be put on hold while we deal with your complaint.”

    You can never beat the system.

    Elizabeth Fehnrich
    London SW1

    1. It is obvious that pretty well anyone in the public sector can now ignore government threats. This seems to apply in every area, at every level: GPs, teachers, staff at local authorities and in hospitals. Lockdown has proved to be a Pandora’s box, unleashing pandemonium on our country.

      If anything Mr Kelly’s comment understates the problem!

      1. Good letter though. The more people realise what a disaster lockdown was, the better.

      2. At least in my nursing days, the union obsessive turned up for work – if only to put their feet up on the desk and tell us what were ‘non-nursing duties’.

    2. Rod Barrett is spot on – they managed to stir themselves to a swift response yesterday over their “right” to work from home – if only they would put the same amount of industry into doing the actual work.

  6. SIR – I recently returned from a holiday spent riding Britain’s narrow and standard gauge heritage railways.

    One line was burning coal from Romania, which the crew described as rubbish. Another was using coal imported from Bolivia, while yet another was burning Polish coal with a mixture of ovoids. When I asked about Welsh coal, I was told the mine had closed and was unlikely to reopen.

    If there is a demand for high-quality Welsh coal, why are we importing low-grade alternatives that do not burn so cleanly and cause more pollution?

    Our Government boasts of the reduction of the national carbon footprint, but we seem to have achieved this by exporting it.

    Stephen Rees-Jones
    Dulverton, Somerset

    Good question…I suggest it is probably more of the highly damaging ‘green’ dogma, Mr R-J.

  7. SIR – Boris Johnson regards Brexit as “done”, though it clearly isn’t.

    It is now almost six years since the referendum and Northern Ireland remains a sticking point. The DUP is citing the Northern Ireland Protocol as the reason for stalling power-sharing at Stormont. While this is more likely to be due to concerns about unification, the Protocol is nevertheless a major obstacle and progress will only be made once it is dealt with.

    The problem is that, to all intents and purposes, there is no solution. The UK, including Northern Ireland, left the EU in accordance with peoples’ wishes (including the DUP’s), and this resulted in a trading border between Northern Ireland, which is now outside the EU, and the Republic of Ireland, which is still a member.

    Anything that softens the border between the two will, by definition, result in a hardening of the border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. You can’t have it both ways: you are either in the EU or not. That was the choice we were given.

    Attempting to fudge the matter in order to appease all concerned, including the EU, is unlikely to succeed. At some point reality will have to prevail.

    Ron Stubberfield
    Broadway, Worcestershire

    And it will remain unfinished if Johnson persists with his Churchill act while it provides an ideal distraction from getting the basics done at home.  It is all very well committing British servicemen and women to defending other countries, but this government is storing up much trouble if it continues to ignore the shambolic NI protocol, and other serious problems, at home.

    1. The reality inside the state is that we are full members who are using the Euro, and this is a minor hiatus they need to undermine, erode and eventually overturn by stealth.

      The rest of the country voted to leave and expects the state to enact the public will.

        1. The Euro is set to continue its decline during 2022 and 2023.

          https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-performance-and-forecasts/economic-forecasts/winter-2022-economic-forecast-growth-expected-regain-traction-after-winter-slowdown_en#:~:text=Overall%2C%20inflation%20in%20the%20euro,growth%20outlook%20is%20broadly%20even.

          This will mean that GLOBAL traders will be reluctant to accept payment in Euros and may even start to cavil against US dollars, preferring gold-backed Roubles instead.

  8. From today’s DT:

    Lord Frost: Boris Johnson must face down EU threats and rip up Northern Ireland Protocol

    Former Brexit minister says Prime Minister must bring same tough approach he has shown over Ukraine to ending the deal

    ByNick Gutteridge, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT and Joe Barnes, BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT
    12 May 2022 • 10:00pm

    Boris Johnson must show the same leadership over Northern Ireland as he has on Ukraine by ripping up the Northern Ireland Protocol, Lord Frost has said.

    The former Brexit minister, the architect of the 2019 withdrawal deal, said efforts to broker an agreement had “reached the end of the road”. He urged the Prime Minister to act now to save the Union even if that meant “confrontation” with the EU.

    Writing for The Telegraph, he said Sinn Fein’s victory in last week’s Stormont elections and the refusal of the DUP to enter a power-sharing agreement had “forced the Government’s hand”.

    “The Government has no option now other than to act unilaterally to disapply part or all of the Protocol. The Belfast Good Friday Agreement, which the Protocol is supposed to protect, is on life support,” he wrote.

    “Sometimes governments and their leaders must just do the right thing. Fortunately, doing the right thing is usually also the best thing for our country. 

    “Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have shown they are leaders in Ukraine. They must now show the same determination in Northern Ireland and finally re-establish self-government for the whole of the UK.

    “We may, of course, face EU retaliation, though it would be disproportionate to the trade involved, only arguably legal and entirely self-defeating. If it happens nevertheless, it will complicate things – but we should not fear it.”

    Lord Frost’s intervention comes after a day during which strained relations deteriorated further, with Brussels saying any move to end border checks would be “simply not acceptable” and would “undermine trust between the EU and UK”.

    During a “tetchy” half-hour phone call with Ms Truss, the Foreign Secretary, Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s negotiator, refused to consider tabling any new proposals and accused Britain of treating the talks as a sham.

    A frustrated Mr Sefcovic later told reporters in Brussels that, instead of him budging, “the UK mandate needs to be expanded to contain political will to implement the protocol”.

    He claimed Ms Truss told him she planned to table legislation next week to override border checks and had rejected an offer of intensified negotiations he made in February. “It might have already been the plan at that time [that] the unilateral action is politically more feasible for the UK Government,” he added.

    Ms Truss told him the EU’s approach was creating a “two-tier system” within the UK and would leave her with “no choice” but to unilaterally cancel large parts of the protocol.

    She said she regretted that European leaders were not prepared to demonstrate more flexibility on red tape and that the bloc had a “responsibility to show more pragmatism”.

    A Whitehall source told The Telegraph: “Liz held her ground on the call and made the point that if the EU truly cares about peace, stability and the Belfast Good Friday Agreement then surely they can show more flexibility.”

    Mr Johnson told a meeting of the Cabinet in Stoke-on-Trent on Thursday that fixing the protocol was “an absolute slam dunk”.

    Speaking afterwards, he said: “There’s one community in Northern Ireland that won’t accept the way the protocol works at present – we’ve got to fix that.”

    It was reported on Thursday night that a delegation from the US Congress will fly to London within days amid concern in the White House about tensions over the protocol. The delegates will hold meetings in Brussels, Dublin, Belfast and London, the Guardian reported.

    The protocol was agreed to prevent the need for goods checks at the land border between Ulster and the Republic by effectively moving the customs border into the Irish Sea.

    But the level of red tape demanded by the EU on shipments arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain has spooked Unionists, who say they are being cut off from the rest of the UK.

    Britain has since proposed a system of “green” and “red” lanes under which goods destined only for Northern Ireland would undergo light-touch controls to reduce the burden on businesses.

    Brussels is open to the idea, but has been accused of an overly cautious approach to classifying which shipments are at risk of travelling onwards to the Republic.

    Lord Frost insisted signing up to the protocol had been “the right thing to do”, even though the Government had known it was “far from perfect”. But he said the EU had since “weaponised it” and “refused to agree to anything that would meaningfully improve the situation”.

    On Thursday night he also told Joe Biden, the US president, to stop giving Britain “lectures” about the peace process after a State Department spokesman urged Number 10 to continue with the talks.

    Delivering a speech to the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington DC, Lord Frost suggested Mr Biden did not understand the “niceties” of Northern Ireland.

    He said: “I get slightly frustrated when we are told by a third party, albeit a very important one in this context, how to manage these issues. It is our country that faced terrorism, faced the Troubles. We don’t need lectures from others about the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement.”

    Robert Buckland, a former justice secretary,  told The Telegraph he would back the Government taking action to override the protocol, saying: “I would much prefer a negotiated settlement and the Government would too, but we can’t just let things stand still.

    “This is affecting lives and businesses in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday settlement itself. We have to take some action on the basis of respectable legal arguments.”

    But Mr Johnson can expect opposition from some Tory MPs if he goes ahead with new legislation, as well as attempts to frustrate its passage through the Lords.

    “It’s not a good look for a leading member of the international community and one of the permanent five members of the UN to sign a treaty and then promptly unilaterally disavow it,” Andrew Mitchell, a former Cabinet minister, told The Telegraph.

    “It would be much better for people of goodwill to negotiate a sensible compromise – but that does of course depend on goodwill on both sides.”

    * * *

    The BTLs – nearly a thousand already – are pretty lively:

    Rob Riddell5 HRS AGO

    Irving, read the facts pal. Really get your head around what this is all about. Read Yanis Varoufakis’ book on how the EU behaved towards Greece. Get with the program, then comment.

    Treasonous May, Hammond, Robbins, and of course the slime ball Corbin were working with the undemocratic fourth reich of brussels to derail Brexit.

    Boris got us out, one hand tied behind his back. The EU admitted their intention was and is to weaponise NI.

    The UK, at this very moment is very well positioned to give the EU an almighty kick in the gonads, and that is precisely what we are going to do.

    Gary Alton8 HRS AGO

    Inserting Article 13 and Article 16 in the mutually agreed treaty was indeed a brilliant move. The NIP is not working for both communities and so is threatening the GFA and so the NIP needs to be altered (as the EU have admitted). A16 is the legal process given to unilaterally disapply the problematic parts – as agreed by both parties to the NIP, so what’s the problem?

    Farley Byzantine9 HRS AGO

    The EU insists there should be even more negotiation? These talks have been going on for ages without any significant progress. Meanwhile the political situation in Northern Ireland becomes more and more dangerous. Brussels sent David Cameron away with a flea in his ear when he requested very minor and reasonable modifications. The consequence was Brexit. The EU will respect only tough action which is long overdue. They are mired in a pea soup of ideological vindictiveness towards the UK and can’t/won’t see straight. We need to implement the kind of deal which is fair to both sides. Let them throw their toys out of the pram if they must until they come to their senses.

    1. America gave succour to the IRA while UK citizens were being attacked. They are no friends of ours.

      1. American politicians have a visceral hatred of the British and its former empire. They have schemed at destroying it since the Revolution. They stood back in two world wars, rubbed their hands with glee and made vast fortunes supplying arms to anyone willing to pay for them. They only entered the last world war after Japan had smacked them in the face (and wallet) at Pearl Harbour and Germany unilaterally declared war on them. At the end of the war, every country that had been destroyed by their war machines and material, was generously rebuilt with some of the profits they had made by it – except the UK and its dependencies. In 1956, when France, Israel and the UK sought to protect the Suez Canal trade route they threatened to bankrupt Britain. Anthony Eden, the worst Prime Minister before Blair and Co, surrendered to their threats. It was the start of the end of British influence in foreign affairs – and of the Empire itself.

        1. This we know and it shoud be writ large in both our’s and America’s history.

      2. I am trying to remember the name of the female US politician who sided with the Argentines in 1982 and did her best to kibosh Britain’s efforts.

    2. The Eurocrats and europhiles are frantically shouting how doing anything with NI is a terrible thing and the right thing to do is accept full EU integration permanently, so shredding the document is necessary.

      The CS will make a complete pigs ear of it out of spite, of course, but that just shows you who to remove.

    3. “It was reported on Thursday night that a delegation from the US Congress will fly to London” to threaten the insertion of US peace-keeping troops if there is a problem,

  9. Headline in today’s DT:

    “PM pledges to slash 91,000 Whitehall jobs after civil servants demand right to work from abroad”

    Another day, another empty promise to fix our broken and slothful civil service. Time to ‘do a Reagan’? The service is so appalling would anyone notice for a few weeks?

    1. Notices a bandwagon that’s making news and feels that he has to immediately leap(?) on to it and make soothing comments of action to come. He’s a massive fraud, a bumbling oaf putting on an act of being the man of action: nothing Johnson says about positive actions to improve situations comes to fruition.

      1. He’s bloody good at giving our money away to foreign countries and his buddies though!

        1. He not only gives it to foreign countries they come here now and live off the land 14 billion a year it cost to keep the most recent invaders.

    2. This will not change anything, the people re-organising, or overseeing the sackings are the useless jobs worth wrong doers, they never change.

      1. Morning Phizz. Five people are killed every year in the UK from falling out of bed!

        2. ‘Morning, Minty. I trust that we will be informed as soon as the 5th person has hit the floor and entered the long sleep? It will be one thing less to worry about!

  12. We are drowning in a sea of cant. Spiked. 13 May 2022.

    Does anyone really care about Starmer’s beer and curry?

    It is not the beer and it is not the cake. It is not even driving to Durham or inviting your girlfriend over for a bit of Nookie! It is doing these things when you have personally made them illegal and wicked for everyone else and then punished them for it!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/12/we-are-drowning-in-a-sea-of-cant/

    1. Morning Minty,
      Like everyone else, I wish journos would stop reporting on the point scoring tit for tat about beers and cakes.

      The story they should pursue is why politicians deem it OK to have a drink while they are working. If I were to drink alcohol while at work, I would be sacked.

      The HoP bars should be closed.

      1. I wish journos would stop reporting on the point scoring tit for tat about beers and cakes, especially as the evidence has gone missing.

      2. At a guess the Palace of Westminster bars exist to avoid the temptation to use nearby commercial premises for refreshment, which would entail various security risks. Whilst I am not an enthusiast for subsidised drinking in the HoP, an MP’s hours have traditionally been long and anti-social. Teetotal MPs might be healthier, or simply more puritanical and intolerant.

        1. I thought they were making HoC hours more mother-friendly, so not so long or anti-social.

    2. I remember the witch hunt – the weeks long witch hunt to destroy Cummings. Now the entire press group seem desperate to protect Starmer. The toady programme used to whinge every single day about Cummings, but not a flicker about Starmer.

      It’s putrid. All the more reason why he should have stayed to defy them and break up their poisonous drivel.

      1. Her defence should have been, “Why were they still there, why hadn’t the police cleared the road?”

        Difficult questions for the prosecution – and I’m no lawyer.

    2. Yo Bo B

      Must read more slowlierester,

      Thought you said “A bit of a SNOW start”

    1. Are SWMBO and myself the only two folk in UK, who have no idea what the Cartoon is about?

        1. Thank you, Anne but, having skimmed throught it I have to draw the conclusion, “Who gives a flying feck?”

      2. It must be of international importance because it has displaced Ginge and Minge from the headlines The Daily Fail has several hundred articles about the two slappers already and the end is not yet in sight.

  15. Good morning, all. Sunny and windy. Feel a bit brighter.

    I see that 91,000 snivel serpents are to be dismissed. That’ll mean even worse public “service”.

    1. I see that 91,000 snivel serpents are to be dismissed.

      Morning Bill. That’s just Boris bloviating!

      1. That’s nuffin… there are more than half a million civil servants and a further 5.6 million+ who work in the public sector (Public sector – isn’t that another name for snivil serpents?).

        The public sector is broad and spans many various industries. Some of the most common job areas in the public sector in the UK include the following:

        Healthcare: Doctors, nurses, GPs, paramedics and administrative assistants.
        Education: Teachers, teaching assistants and school librarians.
        Social care: Carers, social workers and probation officers
        Law enforcement: Police officers, lawyers and those in the armed forces.
        Local council: Councillors, administrators and bin collectors.
        Banking: Bankers working for the Bank of England.
        Culture and heritage: Curators working for the British Museum.

    2. They could sack all the diversity managers. No one would notice.
      Good morning.

      1. More importantly they should repeal the diversity and equalities act. Just get rid of it. At a stroke, it makes the entire lot of them redundant.

        1. Willum – have you looked into the side effects of beetroot juice and medication?

      1. Then they will probably all be re-hired as consultants at twice the cost, as the lack of work can’t get done without them.

    6. Given that there are about 15 departments and the smallest employs over 100,000 people (not the front line staff, just administrators) this number is relatively minor.

      It will – if it ever happens – be the front line staff the higher echelons get rid of. They’ll say ‘Look! You wanted cuts, we’ve cut – services.’

      That their ivory towers will be protected is the only thing they care about. But hey. Much like Rwanda, it’ll never happen. There should be a single illegal criminal gimmigrant on this island by now.

    7. Twelve year waiting list for passports, driving licences, or malpractice claims then. Try ringing their helpline (at premium call rates) and see how important your call is to them. If you have a heart attack or stroke, then you will have to walk in to Triage (they had to make the “hard decision” to cut back treatment) since there is nobody to check the Pay & Display is charging correctly at going rates that should not bother footballers and CEOs).

      Above all, it now gives them all a plausible reason for their uselessness that even threatens national security and high “market-led” charges, since it’s all down to the “cutbacks”.

      We can be sure that no diversity and race/gender compliance officers and their attendant statistics gatherers and consultants are affected by the cutbacks.

    8. I doubt we’ll notice their absence from what is now a very poor service.

    9. The advert in the Gurudian on Monday

      Situations vacant: Wanted 50,000 Snivel Serpents, to form new department to see manage reduction in Snivel (dis)Service posts
      Apply my telephone to Whitehall 1212, with CV

      2. There’s a phone number from the past when we had a real police force.

    10. The advert in the Gurudian on Monday

      Situations vacant: Wanted 50,000 Snivel Serpents, to form new department to see manage reduction in Snivel (dis)Service posts
      Apply my telephone to Whitehall 1212, with CV

    1. Diesel is £1.809 per litre in Edinburgh. (Anyone buying £100 worth gets a free car.)

      1. Petrol is currently £1.69 at our local garage athough I’ve seen £1.63 elsewhere..

        1. It varies here from 160.9 (in Shrewsbury) to 170.9 (Market Drayton). I’m trying not to make unnecessary journeys (so I didn’t go to the RR (1972) Ltd AGM yesterday).

        2. It varies here from 160.9 (in Shrewsbury) to 170.9 (Market Drayton). I’m trying not to make unnecessary journeys (so I didn’t go to the RR (1972) Ltd AGM yesterday).

    2. Sent to our friend in Nebraska. He complained yesterday that he had to pay nearly $4 for a gallon of petrol. At £1.65 a litre here that equates to £7.61 per US gallon. I await his response later.

      1. Actually it’s £6.25 per US gallon. There are 3.785 litres in a US liquid gallon. 4.546 litres in an Imperial gallon, and 4.405 litres in a US dry gallon (1/8 bushel).

  17. Ukraine and Western Geopolitical Mythology. 12 May 2022.

    A long time ago, everybody understood that war was an armed and violent enterprise undertaken by soldiers to achieve specific objectives. One was expected to hate the enemy and his goals, but even the most egregious jingoists were clear that the enemy had goals, and that their side did too. Now that Europe faces its most significant armed conflict since 1945, we are discouraged from understanding war in this way. The dominant message is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a bluntly evil thing, which the evil Vladimir Putin is perpetrating for vague evil expansionist purposes, or because he is crazy, or both. To judge from press reports, war is no longer something that soldiers wage, in battles, at the front; instead, it is an undifferentiated atrocity wrought upon civilians at home. For every sloppy, low-resolution piece the media publish on the strategic situation in Donbas, there are ten about mourning parents of fallen soldiers, about refugees, about air strikes on schools, about subway bomb shelters, about alleged war crimes against civilians.

    I’m not saying that war isn’t violent, or that civilian casualties don’t matter. I’m saying that you can’t understand what is happening in this war as a mere series of atrocities, and I’m also saying that press narratives of Russian war crimes are a monumental hypocrisy. They proceed from the American empire, which since World War II has demonstrated ruthless, near-total indifference to the civilian victims of their air campaigns. What’s happening in the Ukraine is nothing compared to the brutal shock and awe tactics that killed hundreds of thousands of ordinary people in Iraq.

    Recasting every global conflict as a 1940s morality play of genocidal evildoer vs. all that is righteous and good, is very dangerous. It has created a groundswell of popular demand for escalation against a nuclear-armed power, which the political actors themselves don’t always seem prudent enough to resist. Some Anglosphere politicians have taken this hysteria as permission to indulge their dangerous fantasies of regime change in Russia, while the intelligence services encourage still further escalation, by leaking stories about their role in helping the Ukrainians kill Russian generals and sink the Moskva. I’m not a geopolitical analyst, so I can’t realistically evaluate the risk of escalation, but I know that people massively underestimate the likelihood of rare catastrophic outcomes, and that nuclear war heads the list of both rare and catastrophic. To the extent the empire underestimates the risk, it will keep pushing.

    If 1945 moralising has encouraged some British and American leaders to reprise their role as conquerors in Europe, it is increasingly inspiring German politicians to cultivate corresponding period fantasies of defeat and deindustrialisation. As I type these words, our Minister of Economic Affairs is assuring us that we can get through the coming winter just fine without Russian gas; two days ago, our Foreign Minister pledged in Kiew that Germany will end its dependence on Russian energy forever. The worst case scenario is that they actually do this. The more likely scenario, is that Russian oil and gas are merely laundered through third countries, so that we can appear virtuous while continuing our imports at considerable mark-up. That might stave off catastrophe, but it will also make millions of Germans drastically poorer and it won’t hurt Russia.

    The politics of this war are the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. It is very strange indeed to be called a right-wing extremist in Germany for having pro-Russian sympathies. It is even stranger, for someone who is periodically accused of being a Nazi – despite totally disavowing National Socialism – to read editorials in mainstream newspapers insisting that the Azov battalion are not actually Neo-Nazis, even though this is what they claim to be. In the early days of the war, at the height of pro-Ukraine hysteria, a major German retailer was even caught selling the Azov flag in their online shop, complete with the Sonnenrad and the Wolfsangel. All of this confirms my long-running thesis, that the empire is firmly post-political. It employs political forms purely as a matter of expedience; its only real principles are expansion, assimilation and atomised consumerism.

    Russia could lose, but they’re not losing right now. If they were, the New York Times wouldn’t be running articles with headlines like “Ukraine War’s Geographic Reality: Russia Has Seized Much of the East”. The danger is what happens next, when it becomes clear to all and sundry that the slow, grinding destruction of the Ukrainian army by Russian artillery is continuing apace, despite sanctions and weapons deliveries.

    It has been a long, long time since the last major war – a much greater interval than Europe has ever seen before, thanks to nuclear deterrence. But the energies, ambitions and hatreds that cause war, and that war alone can dissipate, have been building under the surface this whole time, unabated. Sooner or later they will burst forth. The chances that this happens now, are not zero.

    Reasoned views well worth the reading.

    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/ukraine-and-western-geopolitical?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1ODkwNDQ5NSwiXyI6IjIvMFIzIiwiaWF0IjoxNjUyMzc4MjIyLCJleHAiOjE2NTIzODE4MjIsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNjg2MjEiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.VJC1ri86z_nyH9wML3NpHliDW2QwV7w5gnf8ywR8fXA&s=r

  18. Ukraine and Western Geopolitical Mythology. 12 May 2022.

    A long time ago, everybody understood that war was an armed and violent enterprise undertaken by soldiers to achieve specific objectives. One was expected to hate the enemy and his goals, but even the most egregious jingoists were clear that the enemy had goals, and that their side did too. Now that Europe faces its most significant armed conflict since 1945, we are discouraged from understanding war in this way. The dominant message is that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a bluntly evil thing, which the evil Vladimir Putin is perpetrating for vague evil expansionist purposes, or because he is crazy, or both. To judge from press reports, war is no longer something that soldiers wage, in battles, at the front; instead, it is an undifferentiated atrocity wrought upon civilians at home. For every sloppy, low-resolution piece the media publish on the strategic situation in Donbas, there are ten about mourning parents of fallen soldiers, about refugees, about air strikes on schools, about subway bomb shelters, about alleged war crimes against civilians.

    I’m not saying that war isn’t violent, or that civilian casualties don’t matter. I’m saying that you can’t understand what is happening in this war as a mere series of atrocities, and I’m also saying that press narratives of Russian war crimes are a monumental hypocrisy. They proceed from the American empire, which since World War II has demonstrated ruthless, near-total indifference to the civilian victims of their air campaigns. What’s happening in the Ukraine is nothing compared to the brutal shock and awe tactics that killed hundreds of thousands of ordinary people in Iraq.

    Recasting every global conflict as a 1940s morality play of genocidal evildoer vs. all that is righteous and good, is very dangerous. It has created a groundswell of popular demand for escalation against a nuclear-armed power, which the political actors themselves don’t always seem prudent enough to resist. Some Anglosphere politicians have taken this hysteria as permission to indulge their dangerous fantasies of regime change in Russia, while the intelligence services encourage still further escalation, by leaking stories about their role in helping the Ukrainians kill Russian generals and sink the Moskva. I’m not a geopolitical analyst, so I can’t realistically evaluate the risk of escalation, but I know that people massively underestimate the likelihood of rare catastrophic outcomes, and that nuclear war heads the list of both rare and catastrophic. To the extent the empire underestimates the risk, it will keep pushing.

    If 1945 moralising has encouraged some British and American leaders to reprise their role as conquerors in Europe, it is increasingly inspiring German politicians to cultivate corresponding period fantasies of defeat and deindustrialisation. As I type these words, our Minister of Economic Affairs is assuring us that we can get through the coming winter just fine without Russian gas; two days ago, our Foreign Minister pledged in Kiew that Germany will end its dependence on Russian energy forever. The worst case scenario is that they actually do this. The more likely scenario, is that Russian oil and gas are merely laundered through third countries, so that we can appear virtuous while continuing our imports at considerable mark-up. That might stave off catastrophe, but it will also make millions of Germans drastically poorer and it won’t hurt Russia.

    The politics of this war are the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. It is very strange indeed to be called a right-wing extremist in Germany for having pro-Russian sympathies. It is even stranger, for someone who is periodically accused of being a Nazi – despite totally disavowing National Socialism – to read editorials in mainstream newspapers insisting that the Azov battalion are not actually Neo-Nazis, even though this is what they claim to be. In the early days of the war, at the height of pro-Ukraine hysteria, a major German retailer was even caught selling the Azov flag in their online shop, complete with the Sonnenrad and the Wolfsangel. All of this confirms my long-running thesis, that the empire is firmly post-political. It employs political forms purely as a matter of expedience; its only real principles are expansion, assimilation and atomised consumerism.

    Russia could lose, but they’re not losing right now. If they were, the New York Times wouldn’t be running articles with headlines like “Ukraine War’s Geographic Reality: Russia Has Seized Much of the East”. The danger is what happens next, when it becomes clear to all and sundry that the slow, grinding destruction of the Ukrainian army by Russian artillery is continuing apace, despite sanctions and weapons deliveries.

    It has been a long, long time since the last major war – a much greater interval than Europe has ever seen before, thanks to nuclear deterrence. But the energies, ambitions and hatreds that cause war, and that war alone can dissipate, have been building under the surface this whole time, unabated. Sooner or later they will burst forth. The chances that this happens now, are not zero.

    Reasoned views well worth the reading.

    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/ukraine-and-western-geopolitical?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1ODkwNDQ5NSwiXyI6IjIvMFIzIiwiaWF0IjoxNjUyMzc4MjIyLCJleHAiOjE2NTIzODE4MjIsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yNjg2MjEiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.VJC1ri86z_nyH9wML3NpHliDW2QwV7w5gnf8ywR8fXA&s=r

  19. It looks as if notifications are not getting through. I’ve just refreshed and the then 7 comments have suddenly become 48.

      1. My notifications are only ‘replies’ with no ‘most recent’ at all!

      1. I always have to do that. Ever since we started. Assumed it was part of the system.

    3. I never get notifications. Probably because the address I used for setting up Discus was one of those throwaway ones, can’t even remember what it was…

      1. I turned off the emails years ago. I just use the blob at the top. If it’s red you’ve got new ones, if it’s black you might still have new ones but haven’t refreshed the page.

    5. It’s getting through but to wrong users. I have not commented or up voted for weeks and I got about 30 notifications in the last 24 hours.

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

    Free speech-related parliamentary business in the year ahead

    This year’s State Opening of Parliament was notable for the Prince of Wales making what most of us have come to regard simply – but in constitutional terms incorrectly – as “the Queen’s speech” on Her Majesty’s behalf, absent for only the third time in her 70-year reign. In total, the government announced 38 draft Bills that it will seek to introduce during the forthcoming, year-long parliamentary session. Once passed into legislation, at least three of those Bills will have a direct impact on free speech and freedom of expression in the UK.

    How will that affect the work of the FSU? On the one hand, there is much to be cautiously optimistic about in the details of the government’s newly announced Bill of Rights and the carried over Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill. On the other hand, the (similarly carried over) Online Safety Bill is still a cause of some concern – although the Bill makes welcome provision to protect children from illegal online content, it does not yet provide online freedom of speech and expression with the robust, meaningful protections that the FSU believe it needs.

    Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill

    It isn’t difficult to understand how we got here, to a situation in which the government of the day could conclude that a Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill was a necessary piece of legislation in a liberal democracy. Free speech was mentioned in this government’s 2019 election manifesto, and universities (along with their constituent colleges and students’ unions) have long been identified as problem areas when it comes to cancel culture. More than one in four students ‘self-censor’ their opinions on campus, according to an opinion poll in 2020. Three in four politically right-leaning academics say they have to hide their political views on campus. Academics of all political persuasions fear that their careers will be ruined if they speak out against progressive ideas. Speaking appearances from public figures that students – and staff – deem to be “inappropriate” are either summarily cancelled or, as in the case of feminist campaigner Julie Bindel just this week, undertaken amidst verbal abuse and threats of physical violence.

    The carried over Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill is, as the Mail suggests, an attempt to end this censorious culture and encourage the genuine, open exchange of ideas at institutions for which such exchanges were created. As Michelle Donelan, the Minister for Higher and Further Education, explained in a recent article for ConHom, the Bill strengthens the duties on universities and Students’ Unions not only to protect, but also to promote free speech and academic freedom.

    It’s true, of course, that the draft Bill has, as Lois McLatchie put it for The Critic this week, “languished in some corner of Westminster for the past six months because the government has had other priorities”. Will this be the year in which it finally passes into law? Wonk HE is sceptical: “In a packed legislative programme… it is entirely possible to see a world in which a Bill without buy-in from the Secretary of State fails to pass again.”

    The FSU hopes not. Our view is that the Bill cannot be passed too soon (although we’d like to see some amendments to make its free speech protections even stronger). Since February 2020, we’ve intervened in well over 100 cases involving students or academics, and in almost every instance these individuals would have been in a stronger position had the new law been in place. We’ve written a briefing on the Bill (which you can find here) summarising the evidence showing why the Bill is necessary and rebutting some of the most common criticisms of it.

    A UK Bill of Rights… and an Online Safety Bill?

    Earlier this year, the Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, reportedly told the Mail that democratic debate was slowly being “whittled away by wokery and political correctness”. He went on to promise reforms that would allow individuals to speak their minds. Free speech, he said, was to be given “trump card status in a whole range of areas”. It’s only now, however, with the government’s announcement of a new Bill of Rights that we get our first glimpse of the “reforms” Raab had in mind. The Mail describes this Bill of Rights pithily – and hopefully accurately – as a “landmark law to wage war on woke”. Understood in the longue dureé of modern British politics (where, as Harold Wilson put it, “a week is a long time”) it is effectively a replacement for New Labour’s controversial Human Rights Act, which embedded the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic law more than 20 years ago.

    That might seem like good news, but as the Spectator was quick to point out, the Bill won’t exist in a legislative vacuum. What, for instance, are we to make of its likely relationship to the Online Safety Bill? Is it “muddled” governmental thinking, the Spectator wonders, that led to Raab’s Bill of Rights being introduced – ostensibly to “enshrine freedom of speech” – just as an Online Safety Bill that will censor it is carried over from last year’s parliamentary session?

    It’s a good question, not least because, as the FSU has been arguing for some time, the Online Safety Bill will undoubtedly lead to much greater online censorship. That’s because there’s a strong bias towards the removal of questionable-yet-perfectly-permissible-material built into the very architecture of the Bill. Under the proposed legislation, online providers will risk fines and other sanctions from Ofcom if they don’t remove material but will easily be able to avoid punishment for acting precipitously by demonstrating compliance with an extremely weak duty to “have regard” for free speech.

    The relationship between the two Bills is therefore likely to prove rather difficult: the government’s avowed intention to protect adults from “legal but harmful” content will likely end up forcing Big Tech to clamp down on precisely the type of controversial speech that Raab’s Bill of Rights supposedly wants to protect. The Epoch Times made much the same point this week, citing the FSU’s own briefing papers. FSU General Secretary, Toby Young, also touched on these issues when he sat down to discuss the Online Safety Bill with the hosts of the TRIGGERnometry podcast, Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster (you can listen to that episode here).

    You can find our free, open access briefings on the Online Safety Bill here, along with our most recent press release about the Bill here.

    Douglas Murray speakeasy event on 25 May – book your place now!

    Tickets are still available for our exclusive members only online speakeasy on Wednesday 25 May with bestselling author, award winning political commentator and founding Director of the FSU Douglas Murray. Douglas will discuss his latest book – The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (2022) – and answer questions from the audience. (In fact, if you pop over to the FSU’s YouTube channel you’ll see that Douglas has very kindly filmed a little piece to camera for us, inviting all FSU members to come along to the event – and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel)

    As many of you will know, Douglas founded the Centre for Social Cohesion in 2007, which became part of the Henry Jackson Society, where he was Associate Director from 2011-18. In 2009, he was awarded the Charles Douglas-Home memorial prize for journalism. He is an associate editor of the Spectator, and a columnist for the New York Post and the Sun. Murray is also the bestselling author of seven books, including The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam (2017), which was translated into more than 20 languages. His follow-up, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity (2019) was named “Book of the Year” by both the Times and the Sunday Times. His latest book The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (2022) is currently in the New York Times Top 10 bestseller list, and recently went straight into the Sunday Times bestseller list at #1. This really is a unique opportunity to participate in an online conversation with the best-selling conservative author.

    If you’re not yet a member, but would like to attend, then you still can – just click here to join us and you’ll be able to secure your place at the event. Discount membership only costs £2.49 a month.

    Frances Widdowson’s crowd funder

    On 20 December 2021, Professor Frances Widdowson was fired from her position as a Professor in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University in Canada for questioning ‘woke’ ideas. In the ‘story’ section of her FundRazr page, Professor Widdowson offers up a formidably academic yet piercingly accurate definition of ‘Woke-ism’ as “the colloquial term used for the postmodern tactic of reducing scientific objectivity to subjective authoritarianism, imposing its arbitrary interpretation of what is acceptable”. In her own case, the weapons of ‘woke-ism’ were university policies that turned intellectual disagreements into matters for investigation and disciplinary action. One of her Tweets satirizing a cartoon about “misgendering fatigue” was found by an outside investigator (hired by Mount Royal University) to have violated three policies and two laws – without, of course, any legal rationale being provided for those conclusions.

    You can support Professor Widdowson in her fight for academic freedom here.

    Living Freedom event now open for applications

    The FSU is pleased to announce that Living Freedom 2022 is now open for applications. Living Freedom is devised and produced by Battle of Ideas (BOI) in association with the Free Speech Champions. The annual residential school takes place live and in person in central London, running from Thursday 30 June (6pm) to Saturday 2 July (7pm). Living Freedom will appeal to students and graduates as well as to young campaigners, academics, professionals and creatives. The school is for anyone aged 18-30 who values getting behind the headlines and relishes the chance to engage in an open-ended exploration of new ideas. Participants will attend expert talks, hear from critics and campaigners, and participate in debates, seminars and workshops – and with accommodation and meals provided, there’s plenty of time for socialising too. For information on the school and how to secure a place, click here. Should you need further information, please email the Living Freedom convenor, Alastair Donald here, or call +44 (0)20 7269 9233. And please do forward this email to friends, colleagues, contacts, students and anyone you think may be interested.

    Jacob Mchangama’s appearance on Tangle’s latest podcast

    Jacob Mchangama will be a familiar name to many of our members. The Danish lawyer, human-rights advocate, social commentator and founding director of Justitia, a Copenhagen-based think tank, was a guest speaker and panellist at the recent launch of the FSU’s Scottish office. You can hear Jacob discussing his latest book – Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media – on the latest episode of the podcast Tangle: Politics from all Sides. It’s a fascinating listen. The link is here.

    Spiked’s new internship opportunity

    Spiked has just announced details of its new internship programme. The online magazine will be offering paid, six-month placements to aspiring writers, editors, podcast producers and video makers. Successful applicants will work with Spiked for five days a week in the magazine’s London office. There are two tracks to choose from, an editorial internship (helping to produce articles, features and essays) or an audio/visual internship (helping to produce podcasts and videos.) You can find out how to apply for each track here.

    Sharing the newsletter

    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

    1. The other 3 out of 4 students are Chinese and do not permit themselves to hold opinions.

    2. “Liberal democracy” an oxymoron, to add to the list. Other example welcome.

      1. …and the ‘Liberal Democrat’ party is, of itself a completely moronic party, Oxy or otherwise.

    3. Time to leave the EHCR and repeal the Human Rights Act.

      I’ve been advocating this since the first deportation was struck down because the deportee had a cat!

  21. Boris has reached peak ‘cakeism’ – and all of us are paying the price. 13 May 2022.

    The Cabinet meeting in Stoke-on-Trent yesterday will have been a counsel of despair. The idea was to brainstorm solutions to the cost of living crisis, but ministers have no tools: they can’t control inflation any more than they can control the weather. They can control taxes and try to stoke economic growth. But lockdown left Britain with the worst economic hit in Europe and one of the slowest recoveries – made all the slower by what is, now, the highest tax rate for 71 years.

    Far worse is to come. The Bank of England thinks inflation will soon pass 10 per cent, with almost no growth for the next three years. It envisages a future of rising unemployment and, perhaps, outright recession (the economy contracted in March). Already, the statistics are translating into stories of real human misery: yesterday, we heard of a woman who asked to be evicted so she could qualify for social housing. A food bank manager in Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales said he had seen three months’ worth of clients in three weeks. And that’s with food price rises only beginning.

    Of course none of this is helped by shooting ourselves in both feet with Sanctions that affect us worse than the Russians themselves. We are heading for a Global Perfect Economic Storm.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/12/boris-has-reached-peak-cakeism-us-paying-price/

    3. Part of the problem is that everyone is looking for the government or other authority to help them. Nobody is saying “wow, I wish I’d saved a bit more in the good times” and certainly nobody dares to ask why the people at the foodbank didn’t save a bit more during times of prosperity, or even hint that it might have been better if they had done so.
      Since everything the government touches is automatically f*kd up, this is a short and quick way to perdition for all of us!

      1. You are preaching to the converted BB! Government can do a great a deal of good by doing very little. Once it starts to see itself as the Saviour of all it falls on its face!

      2. ‘Economists’ ,well the current generation of them, don’t like savings. To them it’s dead money that should be being used.

        1. And the value of savings are fingered out of their accounts to the tune of 10% a year and rising. If it were called a tax on top of a tax (which is what it is), then more people would complain. Not that they could do much about it, other than to set large dogs onto the thieves.

      3. Trouble is, government actively made it hard to want to save because it wanted to keep borrowing. It also wanted us to keep spending.

        My savings over the 3 years of Pandemicon, which should be around the 20,000 mark are still at what I’d put in around 16K. Government has destroyed their value deliberately.

        When you visit a food bank there are some genuine cases – the folk who haven’t received the welfare payment, the itinerant, illiterate chap just made redundant from his part time job – who usually has two or three and doesn’t know what to do because he can’t read or add up. The embarrassed middle class people weeping in the car as their husband has just left them and they’re trying to remain proud while he’s emptied the account and she’s facing foreclosure on the home she made for him.

        Then there’s the dross, who’ve never done a days work in their lives, ‘off with a bad back’ yet able to breed 5 kids to keep getting that bigger house off welfare. The tattooed yobs, the overweight left school at 16 career welfarist. yet with monstrous nails. They are stereotypes because they are real.

        The state is too bloated, lumpen and slow to help those who deserve it and kick those who shouldn’t have it. Welfare boards should be reinstated and local citizens put on them to help those who deserve and be given the power to stop supporting the – I’m sorry but it’s honest – parasites.

        1. Well, I’ve been in two of the situations that you describe as deserving, without the benefit of food banks. I think that deserving or not, assistance must be reduced to a minimum. Social welfare is good for individuals, but bad for society, conversely, reducing it to the bare minimum will be hard for individuals but beneficial for society. The idea that the government will make all your big decisions for you and look after you from cradle to grave is frankly toxic, yet that’s where most people are today in Britain.

    4. The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee have looked after their own. They don’t care about England and they don’t care about those who live there that have not had the foresight to get a good deal for themselves.

      If the Bank of England had any sense of responsibility to the nation, they would have put up interest rates to sensible levels when inflation was at 2%. Instead, they chose to get well paid to land the nation in the situation where one price rise invariably feeds the next, and it goes round-and-round until some MP asks politely for a “not my fault, guv” letter explaining why inflation was not kept below 2%.

      As for Russians holding us to ransom, what on earth was military intelligence doing but to warn Government long ago to become more self-sufficient in essentials and keep vital strategic assets firmly in British ownership? However, those that made those treasonable business decisions no doubt have looked after their own.

    5. Add to that they’ve appointed a remoaner to the BoE committee and we are well and truly stuffed.

    1. Elizabeth is on the right, not left, and Margaret was her younger sister, not elder. Apart from that, the story is correct.

      1. The photo looks a bit fake, as if they were glued onto the background.

      2. Apart from the photograph being reversed or Elizabeth is wearing a man’s jacket.

        1. The DT now has the caption ‘Princess Elizabeth with sister Margaret in the clip from the BBC trailer’. Maybe the trailer has the footage reversed. In any event, the DT had the original caption stating that Elizabeth was on the left and that Margaret was the elder sister. Wrong on both counts.

    5. Perhaps you are too young to remember Queen Margaret’s long and glorious reign. /sarc

  23. We watched the Navalny documentary (iPlayer) yesterday evening. A fascinating story of how a few clever people hoodwinked the mighty FSB to discover how Navalny was poisoned in mid-flight. Unfortunately the ending was entirely predictable, even for those as yet unaware that he received a prison sentence of 20 years (so far). Highly recommended.

  24. And in cat news.

    At night, G & P’s HQ is the porch – from which they can get out to hunt and kill. When we surface in the morning, there is always one cat – usually two – clamouring for breakfast.

    This morning at 8 am. None. Not even a scrap of ginger fur. Half an hour went by – Nothing.

    Now, at about 1 am, I heard the porch door shut. Very odd. Put two and two together and began to fear the worst – that the boys had been stolen.

    Spent half an hour going round the perimeter whistling (they come to the whistle). Gus materialised. Sauntered in and ate a large breakfast.

    Did the whistling trick again – and at the top of the garden, Pickles came running out of the undergrowth, squeaking loudly, tail raised in greeting.

    Phew….. Domestic animals don’t half give one stress!!

    I’ll go and have a lie down.

    2. Mine’s out all night and sleeps indoors all day – must be eating out too as she’s not eaten any of her food for weeks, just the occasional saucer of cream left out for her.

      1. You know the old cat story. “I have three names and I have three homes…”

    3. Cats are infuriating as they don’t come when you call them. Worse, they sit there mocking your wish to have them inside.

    1. That would be more entertainment than Eurovision has ever provided in the whole of its history!

      1. Morning BB. It is one of those shows I cannot abide! Fake as a £3 note and as kitsch as the US News!

        1. It’s so awful that even watching with a group of friends and getting progressively drunker and ruder no longer cuts it.

          1. Yes, the heady, happy, innocent days of dressing up in what we fondly imagined were the folk costumes of Nether Latvia, San Marino, Central Armenia, Brittany, Andalucia and Kievan Rus’ while eating Polish sausages, drinking kvass, slivovitz, grappa and scrumpy before passing out during the interminable voting process are far behind us now.

        2. I used to find it entertaining, but I suppose the last time I watched it must have been about twenty years ago! I cringe to think how politically correct it must be now.

          1. You have to be Black and Gay and that’s only to get in the audience!

          2. It was fun to listen to Wogan mock it as he got steadily tipsy. Now it’s just tedium.

    2. If that’s a possibility, we should send them flowers, chocolates, champagne.

      1. All memes are required to have at least one spelling or grammatical error
        It’s the rule {:^))

    1. …and the Border Collie is umpty-tump times more intelligent than all those mentioned – and mispelled – put together.

    3. No, they don’t hate you. They love you. The state wants to take the place of parent and give you everything. Once it has given you everything, you are then it’s servant. Unknowing, of course, but if your entire life is dependent on big state, you are nothing but a slave, a slave working to make your master richer, ever more corpulent and ever more wasteful.

      People seem to want this, as they keep voting for it.

  30. Net Zero? India Plans to DOUBLE Coal Use by 2040

    h/t JoNova; As the USA and Europe retreat from prosperity, India seems determined to overtake China, with a 400 million ton boost to coal production in the next two years, and a massive relaxation of environmental rules and other incentives to boost coal mining and industry.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/05/12/net-zero-india-plans-to-double-coal-use-by-2040/
    What a farce all this eco-loon virtue signalling is……….

    1. India needs to do so because jobs and industry have been shifted there from the loon countries, but the populations of the loon countries still want to consume the products made in India and China, whilst pretending to be “green”.

    2. Morning gall eh, the other day on TV there was a programme ‘highlighting’ the advantages of electric cars but as the programme progressed the disadvantages more than doubly outweighed the advantages.
      Then later an absolute contrast appeared on the screen, some footage was shown of a street in the Indian capital and the traffic was absolutely rammed and it was absolute bedlam.
      Who do these virtue signaling D.H’s think they are trying to kid ? Can any one on the planet imagine a place like India going all electric, even if it’s coal powered and produced electricity ? Their more than obvious efforts at wiring leave a lot more than concept to the imagination for a start.
      Once again I feel that all this is about the rich becoming richer, (how much money does any one actually need) by investing in the technologies that are already costing an absolute fortune. And over the next 250 years will be getting nowhere at all.

      1. I have said before that any US politician deluded enough to think he will stop a Redeck from driving his huge, gas guzzling pick-up truck will soon find out he’s wrong. Those people won’t give up their vehicles.

        1. Just like the old series the Clampetts https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=fc43976bc910389feccbbd951bb30979b9fb0b8c3bd543de69614d66fce613d4JmltdHM9MTY1MjQzNzMxNSZpZ3VpZD02ZTg1MjI1MC1mZDZmLTQ4ZDUtYjM4YS1kNjM2ZWZjOWQ1YzcmaW5zaWQ9NTM5Mg&ptn=3&fclid=8350d4dd-d2a6-11ec-9556-77e41d81a6f7&u=a1L2ltYWdlcy9zZWFyY2g_cT10ZXhhcyt0ZWErb2lsK29sZCt0ditzZXJpZXMmaWQ9ODQyNTcyMzE3QTA2MERDQzMyQzQ2NzRCNEE2MDQ1MTkyNjlDMjZCQyZGT1JNPUlRRlJCQQ&ntb=1

        2. With gas prices basically doubling in the past year, they are very unhappy rednecks .

          I assume you meant redneck, not the spell checker word!

    3. If the bumbling buffoon really believed in his net-zero nonsense he would say no aid to India – but he won’t and that makes him an idiot on two counts – net-zero and foreign aid.

  31. We had to agree to the Northern Ireland Protocol. Now we have to scrap it

    The EU may well retaliate against Britain, but the Government has a duty to Northern Ireland

    DAVID FROST

    And so the great drama of our exit from the EU may yet have one final act. Northern Ireland is about to return to centre stage. Maroš Sefčovič, the EU negotiator, told Liz Truss yesterday that there could be no change to the Protocol. The Foreign Secretary responded that the Government would then have “no choice but to act”. The stage is set for confrontation.

    Last week’s Stormont elections have forced the Government’s hand. Of course, the real story from the elections was not a supposed nationalist landslide. Unionism collectively still has more seats and more votes than nationalism. Sinn Féin has no more seats than in 2017. The real story is the one that was obvious before the elections – that unionists and Unionist parties have withdrawn consent for the Protocol arrangements, and that Northern Ireland can’t be governed properly until this situation changes.

    We could endlessly go over the circumstances that produced the Protocol in 2019, as many seem to want – preferring that to dealing with today’s problems. We knew the deal was far from perfect. We never wanted the arrangements that limited trade into Northern Ireland. But our Protocol got rid of the hated “backstop” that would have left us stuck in the EU customs union and unable to run a trade or economic policy of our own.

    Moreover, we had no walk away option, thanks to Messrs Benn and Burt, and their Surrender Act in Parliament, which made “no deal” impossible. If we had not signed up in October 2019, we would have faced endless further prevarication, the unravelling of the Brexit vote, and the complete disintegration of our constitutional process and confidence in our Westminster system. That’s why we did the deal. It was the right thing to do. If we hadn’t, I think we would still be in the EU now.

    Of course, none of us could have imagined that the Protocol would get the handling it got. The EU weaponised it in the 2020 trade negotiations, tried to impose a vaccine export ban across the land border, resorted to legal processes that would, and may yet, end in the EU Court of Justice, wanted every aspect of Northern Irish trade obsessively policed, and, as the situation deteriorated, refused to agree to anything that would meaningfully improve the situation.

    When I put forward proposals to renegotiate the Protocol last summer, I hoped that the very obvious problems would encourage a rethink by the EU. I was willing to give the process time and to see whether the EU might become less obdurate. With what looked like another Covid lockdown coming and strain on our supply chains, I wasn’t convinced that last December was the right moment to act unilaterally.

    That’s now changed. I no longer take that view. Covid is in the rear-view mirror. The international situation has changed utterly and no one can say Britain is anything other than a constructive player in support of European interests in the Ukraine war. If the EU won’t help fix this problem while this new mood prevails, I can’t see that it ever will.

    The Government has no option now other than to act unilaterally to disapply part or all of the Protocol. The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, which the Protocol is supposed to protect, is on life support. There is an imminent threat to our ability to govern Northern Ireland and protect its people’s economic, trading and security interests. It is obviously essential for the UK Government to be able to govern the whole country properly. That is why it needs to act – and has the absolute right and duty to do so.

    We may, of course, face EU retaliation, although it would be disproportionate to the trade involved, only arguably legal and entirely self-defeating. I am not convinced every EU member’s heart would be in it either. Logic may yet prevail. But if it does happen, it will complicate things, but we should not fear it. Indeed, it will only strengthen the case, which exists already, for dramatic economic reform, tax reductions, investment incentives, and tariff liberalisation for this country.

    Nevertheless, there will be turbulence. To get through it, the Government will need to show strategic sense and consistent determination to deliver its goal. I admit to a degree of concern that – aside from the Brexit talks and vaccine procurement – these have not generally been the most characteristic features of this Government’s actions, as the current on/off discussion over an energy windfall tax rather illustrates.

    The Government needs to up its game. Once it has acted, it cannot let itself be defeated, because to do so would mean profound damage to our country’s interests. So it must make sure it is ready.

    Sometimes governments and their leaders must just do the right thing. Fortunately, doing the right thing is usually also the best thing for our country. Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have shown they are leaders in Ukraine. They must now show the same determination in Northern Ireland, and finally re-establish self-government for the whole of the UK.

    They deserve the backing of the whole Conservative Party in doing so. They should be given it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/05/12/had-agree-northern-ireland-protocol-now-have-scrap/

    2. We didn’t have to agree. We could have said no. The state chose to remove WTO from the table. Once we were hamstrung, we couldn’t fight. The blame lies solely with remoaners.

      Also – there is no confidence in our political, democratic system whatsoever anyway. Only utter fools think the state serves the public will. The entire edifice of government is opposed to Brexit in any form. That’s now evident. In fact, it is actively fighting to destroy the economy with the sole intent of forcing us back in to the EU.

      I know this is a long banged drum, but the warning signs, the problems and their solutions are too obvious for not taking them to be an accident.

  32. I notice this petition is still going strong – over 43,000 signatures – perhaps helped by coverage on Mark Steyn on GB News:

    Do not sign any WHO Pandemic Treaty unless it is approved via public referendum
    We want the Government to commit to not signing any international treaty on pandemic prevention and preparedness established by the World Health Organization (WHO), unless this is approved through a public referendum.

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/614335

    1. BTW it is noticeable how relatively low the rate of signatures is in the constituencies of Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson, and Sajid Javid.

    3. The state doesn’t care. Even if the issue is debated the response will be ‘we know best’.

  33. OT – why do wendyball players, when attempting score, use the SIDE of their foot?

    Not what I was taught in 1950.

    1. More control over placement of the ball than using the instep, which is for power (which I was taught in the 1960s).

    2. Accuracy over power and it’s easier to generate spin which can make the ball swerve and dip.

      1. Thank you. Interesting. Looks weird, though! As though they had made a mistake..

    5. We used to play with a dubbin-coated leather case-ball. Today they play with a balloon.

    6. Never played football. Was forced into rugby for a few years at my schools. But dropped it as soon as we were allowed the freedom of cross country running. I have never seen the reason for any of these ball games.

        2. Because the Beeb – i.e. us – still shoulder much of the expense if this farrago.

  37. “Police raid unregistered school over female genital mutilation fears:

    Cops arrest three people after finding room with bed and medical

    equipment

    Police arrest three on suspicion of involvement in female genital mutilation

    Officers raided an unregistered school in Birmingham on Tuesday

    School inspectors found locked room with bed and medical equipment”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10812261/Police-raid-unregistered-school-FGM-fears.html

    No comments allowed and no mention of race or religion It’s almost as if there could be a rash of unregistered child mutilating catholic schools springing up around the country…(sarc)

    1. It’s those mentally-troubled Norwegian Methodists again – they are such bad people.

      2. If they are mutilating little girls it is more than fiddling. That is a despicable and heinous crime. I agree about the brutal punishment.

  38. Still no notifications I see.
    Going Postal appears to be similarly affected.

    1. Thought you were building the Derbyshire pyramids;-))
      I think everyone’s in hiding because of the date….

      1. 15 shovels of sand & 3 x of cement duly mixed and used up. Concrete blocks on the uphill side of the wall with random stone on the downhill side with the gap between them filled with mortar packed out with rubble.

  39. Calling a man ‘bald’ is sex harassment, employment tribunal rules.

    INSULTING a man by calling him “bald” amounts to sex harassment, a panel of balding judges has ruled.

    In a landmark judgment, an employment tribunal found that because men are more likely to lose their hair than women, using the term to describe someone is a form of discrimination.

    The ruling – made by a panel of three men who bemoaned their own lack of hair – came in a case between electrician Tony Finn and his West Yorkshirebased manufacturing firm employers.

    After the hearing, Mr Finn said: “I hope my win helps to stop other men being insulted and verbally attacked because they are bald.”

    Mr Finn, 64, worked for the British Bung Company for almost 24 years before he was fired last May.

    After he was sacked, he took the firm to the tribunal claiming, among other things, that he had been the victim of sex harassment following an incident with a factory supervisor, Jamie King.

    Mr Finn alleged that during a shop floor row in July 2019, Mr King referred to him as a “bald c—”.

    The allegation resulted in the panel – comprising Judge Jonathan Brain, David Dorman-smith and Keith Lannaman – deliberating on whether remarking on his baldness was simply insulting or actually harassment.

    “Mr King crossed the line by making remarks personal to the claimant about his appearance,” the panel said.

    A lawyer for the company argued that both men and women can be bald, but the panel said: “As all three members of the tribunal will vouchsafe, baldness is much more prevalent in men than women. We find it to be inherently related to sex.”

    The tribunal heard that after the confrontation Mr Finn had written a statement about the incident with his son Robert, who was a police officer, on official West Yorkshire Police paper. Mr Finn said it was not his intention to make the statement appear like an official police document, but the firm accused him of attempted intimidation and fired him for misconduct.

    The tribunal upheld Mr Finn’s claims of unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, being subjected to detriments and sex harassment. His compensation will be determined at a later date.

    The British Bung Company said it was “surprised” by the tribunal’s comments.

    I started going bald at age 18. My workmates took the mickey. I shut myself in a cupboard for the next 53 years so my feelings would not be hurt. I’m 71 now and still upset. By now you realise that the second half of my rant is a joke. These people need to get a life, man up and grow a pair.

    It would also appear that it is sexist to call a man ‘bald’, but quite OK to call him a ‘c—‘.

    1. There was a woman on GB News last night defending this nonsense. Later in the show she tossed out a wholly gratuitous fact free insult aimed at a conservative with a small c whose opinions were contrary to her own. Her fellow panellists, to their credit, didn’t let her get away with it.

    3. It would also appear that it is sexist to call a man ‘bald’, but quite OK to call him a ‘c—‘.

      Change ‘bald’ to ‘black’ and you have the John Terry v. Anton Ferdinand row in 2011/12. Terry was charged and banned by the FA but found not guilty in a criminal case.

      Both players used the foulest of language towards one another but Terry’s ‘crime’ was the greater because it included a racial element.

    4. Is one allowed to mention any obvious characteristic these days? Tallness, perhaps?

    5. Surely calling a man bald is just factual if he is? Isn’t it insulting to suggest that being bald is bad?

      1. Apparently in the same way that it is “racist” to call a person of colour “coloured”. Soon it will be racist to call someone “you non-white” – though exactly which race is being discriminated against is not clear. But then it is probably “world racist” discrimination…

    6. …. “Mr King referred to him as a “bald c—”.
      How did he know that Finn had overdone his Brazilian?

          1. Back to primary school….”What’s your name?” ” Nicholas.” ” Nicholas girls shouldn’t climb trees. “

  42. OT – you may recall that 10 days ago I raised the isshoo of a failed gasket on a 50 year old lawn sprinkler. Spikey offered to help.

    I posted the relevant part to him last Friday, 6th May – and a brand new, hand-made gasket, fitted to the part – arrived while I was having lunch.

    The man’s a genius.

    I commend Spikey FA Light Industrial Engingeering with all my heart,

      1. Now they are taught how to be diverse – and the engineering is contracted out…{:¬((((

  43. Calling a man ‘bald’ at work is a form of sexual harassment, rules employment tribunal

    I suppose calling the members of that tribunal a bunch of witless woke morons is frowned upon?

    1. Calling someone as ,” You are an effing useless, incompetent, sometimes seen sober, cretinous buffoon and a waste of oxygen. But you are not bald.” is OK? We’re going to need training in “Woke Insults – How to be Unbelievably Rude Without Attracting Disciplinary or Legal Actions”.

      1. “That white pointy hat really suits you.”
        “Red is definitely your colour.”
        “Love the scent; Superglue is my favourite.”

        1. You are on scintillating form today! (Apologies: That might seem like a criticism, implying that you are not on form every day. Then again as the word”form” has several meanings some of which might imply corset-wearing that might be sexist, although I could bring to my defence a number of Italian aristocratic gentlemen who squeeze themselves into a corset in order to achieve the “Bella figura” that they desire, although on further thought, they would probably not wish to be identified, so may not be willing witnesses. On balance, I should probably have left it as simple uptick.)

    4. The new morality. A leftie may call a conservative an effing moron but a conservative may not refer to factual evidence such as you are bald or you have a penis therefore you are not a woman.

  44. Back to a bogey 5.
    Wordle 328 5/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
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    🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Achieved an Eagle 2 today – my fifth of that ilk.
      Wordle 328 2/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Wordle 328 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Delightful. Don’t forget to close all your windows at night or have bug screens.

    4. That is lovely. A real childhood magical afternoon picture.
      I can see myself discarding regulation school ‘kipper feet’ sandals to paddle in that stream.

    6. I parked up in the village and took our Lab for a short flat and easy walk today she loves chasing her ball in the river. And there is a lot of lovely blossom on the trees.

  46. Moh’s birthday today, he has just arrived home after playing a good game of golf.. 76 years old .. and he will be running in the Weymouth 5K Park run tomorrow with no 1 son.

    I wish I had their energy, I just feel totally drained

    The postman delivered the NHS letter requesting my presence to have the fourth jab, no thanks.

    1. Happy Birthday to him!
      It seems the bug affected you more than it did him – have the anti-biotics made any difference?

      1. Not really, still full of gunk .

        Finished my antibiotics 2 days ago then doctor prescribed more pills to be taken 3 times a day Carbacisteine, which is meant to make it easier to clear my chest and sinuses .. one of the side effects of Covid unfortunately… never ever had so much trouble with sinus or my chest ..my head still feels as if I have a waterfall or ill tuned radio, and no smell or taste …

    2. Happy birthday to the elderly golfer, it keeps him fit. I wish i could still get a round in, hopefully when i have had my long awaited treatment i might be able to walk further than 50 yards with out getting out of breath.

    1. Can’t read the article as I’ve reach the limit of my free views – I wish wordlers had the reached their limit, but I shall just continue to ‘collapse’ those threads and save space on the site for more important things.

      1. You don’t like yellow and green squares in jolly patterns, Tom? Tsk! Tsk!
        ;-))

        1. I don’t even see any ambulances, Paul, just little rows of black squares

    2. Roosevelt’s doctors hid how ill he was. As Eastern Europe discovered to its cost.

  50. I am ashamed of British politicians , they make a right horlicks out of everything . Harold Wilson in particular , and of course the many others that followed on .

    Moh reminded me of the time when he was a young sprog RN officer serving on HMS Eagle on the first Beira patrol when this bloody government ordered sanctions against Ian Smith when he declared UDI in Rhodesia ..

    Britain interferred by destabilising the country … it knows nothing about tribal politics ..The Shona, massacred 30,000 Matabele because the Matabele were beginning to stand their ground.’

    Look what has happened to beautiful Zimbabwe now ..

    Britain needs to keep it’s nose out of everything , and keep it’s powder dry.

    1. Afternoon Belle. We seem to have exhausted all our stocks of virtue during WWII. Since then we have had only crooks and mountebanks leading the country. We are a pale shadow of that England that used to be! Oddly enough I have always considered the betrayal of the Rhodesians to be the first step we took on the road to decadence and moral corruption.

      1. Yes indeed Minty . but my feelings go right back to Egypt, Suez crisis when I was a child out there , when decisions were faulty and ill concieved

        1. The US played an ignoble role in that debacle.
          Remember, the US had been champing at the bit to demolish the British Empire for decades. Roosevelt did his bit and Eisenhower continued the trajectory.
          Think of support for the IRA and the bloody Jean Kirkpatrick during the Falklands War. And we now have a senile old twerp pretending he’s of Irish descent.

      2. The problem has always been and still is, our over self important civil service, they have always influenced more than we realise. I know Yes Prime Minister and Yes Minster were only TV comedy progs, but it was easy to see where and how the causes of the problems sprang from. The ‘Old Boys Net Work’ public school influences. Weak listless pathetic hovering politicians who knew nothing but what they were told by the civil service and the ongoing committees.

    2. TB i have just read your ‘indictment’ of the British political classes It’s so true. I have said this many times before they Eff up everything they come into contact with.
      I was in Rhodesia only around 3 years after Wilson had been poking his nose in on HMS Tiger and telling Ian Smith what to do. My friend Mike and I had met some people on the sea journey to Cape Town who knew the Smiths. We actually stayed with them for a few days in Salisbury. The people were absolutely disgusted with Wilson and rightly so. He brought about the ruination of probably the best run and organised country on the whole continent. The sanctions were driving the people of the country mad but the French were supplying goods and cars through Mozambique and you could still buy a bottle of scotch for less then you would have paid in Edinburgh. There was also a noticeable difference in the attitude and education of those further south.
      And after that murdering (POS) racist moron Mugabe the whole country has been wrecked, the Chinese have stolen all the minerals and most of the farmers who employed many Africans and provided homes for them have been long gone.
      I may have mentioned this before there is a decent account of the goings on in the book…… https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=ee11feb268114873dae81e173400d10db336e2fe03bb9813bc9ae6be7c143829JmltdHM9MTY1MjQ1MTg0MyZpZ3VpZD0wMTRlZDMwMi03OGQ3LTQyNjAtOTE2Yy03OTlhM2E0N2I1NDkmaW5zaWQ9NTE4NA&ptn=3&fclid=56a03be3-d2c8-11ec-8644-f9c91888968a&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZHJlYWRzLmNvbS9ib29rL3Nob3cvMTQ0MjE0LldoZW5fYV9Dcm9jb2RpbGVfRWF0c190aGVfU3Vu&ntb=1

      1. RE

        So agree, as do millions of others .

        British politicians know nothing about anywhere … their briefings are deluded … they know nothing of the African mentality or the mendacitiy of Africans , nor do they have a CLUE about tribalism … which now exists here in the UK..

        The creeping slime we now have in the UK … and the breakdown of law and order , child molestation by virtue of genital mutilation , drive by shootings , black birthrate and dependency on benefits or crime is now out of control … and no one has the know how nor the courage how to tackle it .

        1. I met some people at the Hatfield house Craft Fair around this time last week, they were from SA and we talked a lot about the demise of the country since the ANC has taken power. And something a lot of people fail to realise is a lot of the criminals now in SA cities were not born and bred they have traveled south from various other parts.

  51. Now back from a short break in the Tin Tent on the South Downs. Two outstanding visits within a couple of miles of each other were the West Dean Gardens and The Weald & Downland Living Museum, tranquil and beautiful and a soul soothing break from the real world.

    A few flower pics from West Down Gardens

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24bdd4054ed16a4984b77cdf3dd1caa6b15405d62a779be0cb522c184dbfb54c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b337e057c80502b81ff2715cbc3fb1f4e6cb56865001fb90e438c7325f698459.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a96f13dc2844aa6603e39bdce76bb1dde2736c0f137ab21d1b6fe2e9f0f8914.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe85ffdfac169c8bbcedd3de068d0aa36d2b62d8f737b501eca7724e6b9c332a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8c220a4f8df25b424b7071879929291d7134a2046fa017b4e5084b560f2f25e.jpg

    And from the living museum a truly bucolic scene of Reuben Scranletting down to Ticklepenny Corner and the village square

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90df564fcfd17e28686a325f237d15a5f500cd804e9da85e53ab400c3b48edcf.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0539da766fe92b5f3490b60d9a312fbd86fd68c93a8196e8e24a8fe0d47a110d.jpg

    3. Beautiful. What are the bedding plants in the top pic please? It’s too early for the majority of roses and the foliage looks like pelargoniums!

        1. Thanks, not seen them as full as that! Ranunculus Asiaticus it says here. Something I’ve never grown: an omission that I should remedy!.

        2. Ranunculus is a large genus of around 600 species of the buttercup family that includes: wood anemone, lesser celandine, common buttercup, water spearwort, crowfoot, hepatica, liverleaf and marsh marigold.

    4. What are the bedding plants in the top pic please? It’s too early for the majority of roses and the foliage looks like pelargoniums!

    5. Wonderful photos. I admire people that have natural talent such as yours. Not a single telegraph pole sprouting from a smiling head.

    1. I wonder if this big pharma abomination is causing the hepatitis in the children.

    1. I did it in TWO today, sweetie; double Cheers … x
      Wordle 328 2/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Don’t give out dual nationality passports, very simple. I recall ‘John Le Carré’ died an Oirish man, to assist the estate planning….

      1. And so that he could travel freely within the EUSSR. He was a staunch remaniac.

    2. Don’t give out dual nationality passports, very simple. I recall ‘John Le Carré’ died an Oirish man, to assist the estate planning….

      1. I work with an Iranian. No matter what other nationality you get, they never let you be quit Iranian – so, it’s like Herpes. You are also an object of suspicion, as you try to not be Iranian.
        Pity Jimmy Carter didn’t nuke the swine.

  56. https://twitter.com/martin13910794/status/1524808296338685952

    Home Office
    @ukhomeoffice
    ·
    21h
    Today we removed 23 dangerous foreign criminals on charter flights with combined sentences of over 46 years.

    We also removed 3 individuals who had entered the UK illegally.

    We are committed to ending the abuse of our asylum system and removing those with no right to be here.
    ———————————————————————————————————————————————
    Wow 3 individuals who entered the uk illegally, only another 1,000,000 or so to go then , keep up the good work 🤦🏻‍♂️

    1. Do not overlook the “Chinese” effect. By the time the last of the million is removed there will be another 2,000,000 to carry on with.

    2. At that rate it will take 105 years to rid us of 1,000,000. at 26 per day.

      !,000,000/26 = 38,461.53846153846/365 = 105.3740779768177

      In the meantime we will get another 1,000,000.

  57. Baby girl found dead at recycling centre during lockdown had suffered head injury, police reveal as search for her parents continues two years after tragic discovery
    Detectives also disclosed that Baby S was born alive at full term before dumping
    Confirmed that she is believed to be from black or mixed ethnicity background
    Officers have viewed 11,000 hours of CCTV footage and visited 800 homes
    By ISABELLA NIKOLIC FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 15:17, 13 May 2022 | UPDATED: 15:24, 13 May 2022

    During lockdown… hmm.

      1. Sad to say despite the advent (is that the mot juste?) of freely available contraception around 250,000 termination of pregnancy are performed in the UK each year

    2. Black men don’t care and have already scarpered long before the birth. Muslim men want warriors for the cause and that doesn’t include baby girls.
      Perhaps if Plod took their blinkers off they would probably find the father or at least a friend of the father who worked at a site where most of us couldn’t gain access during lockdown.

      Of course there are Muslim men who celebrate the birth of a daughter and the same goes for black men but we are looking for the lowest common denominator here.

      1. It’s not new, Phizz. I had my son in 1980 and was in a 4 bed ward. There was a Muslim woman in the bed opposite and all she did was moan. She’d had a baby girl which she totally ignored. The student nurses fed the wee thing.
        When my son was 3 days old he had to go for a complete blood transfusion and, I found out later, that he nearly died. I could not stand this woman moaning in self pity, ignoring her baby when mine was having to go through what he did.
        I demanded a single room which I got, and didn’t pay private either.
        One small glimmer was that Sister McGhie who ran the post natal wards, came in and gave this moaning woman a right old bollocking. As her name might suggest, the sister was from Glasgow and the woman, of course, did not understand a word. Being half Scots I got every word and it was a bright spark in a very worrying and traumatic time.
        Should add that my son is almost 42 and very fit.

  59. This is fascinating. Disqus is currently serving me your postings from 9 hours ago as the newest postings….:

    e.g:

    “Bill Thomas • 9 hours ago
    Good morning, all. Sunny and windy. Feel a bit brighter…..

    Gremlins or hackers?

  60. Discurse appears to be going mad – with 9 hours old posts suddenly appearing at the top of the page.

    2. There has been a stoppage of notifications which might now have been cleared.

      1. It’s taken me 5 tries to get back- kept telling me the site couldn’t be reached.

  62. As Discurse is just playing silly buggers, I am leaving. Can’t be doing with the morning’s stuff arriving “as new”. Makes my pore brane hurt.

    Have a jolly evening and play nicely.

    A demain – possibly.

    1. Not bad here in Derbyshire.
      I got a bit of wall built and then did a couple of hours chain sawing, chopping & stacking some logs.
      I’m now knackered and in need of a bath!

    2. Just poured a large Pinot- took what I hope is the last dressing off me mush as it’s supposed to dry. Still rather tender so some nerve tonic was needed.

      1. Be wary. After my last removal of an actinic keratosis by freezing,the nurse said leave it exposed to dry out. Result, an infection that took 3 goes with different antibiotics to fix. As a result, I stopped going to the NHS over them. Now have several that need removing and I’m trying to pluck up courage to go to a private hospital. Where I shall insist on mesh dressings…

      2. Be wary. After my last removal of an actinic keratosis by freezing,the nurse said leave it exposed to dry out. Result, an infection that took 3 goes with different antibiotics to fix. As a result, I stopped going to the NHS over them. Now have several that need removing and I’m trying to pluck up courage to go to a private hospital. Where I shall insist on mesh dressings…

  65. Just ordered some of those Ranculus Asiaticus bulbs or corms from Ebay. Will they come in time to flower for the summer I wonder….

  66. Just ordered some of those Ranculus Asiaticus bulbs or corms from Ebay. Will they come in time to flower for the summer I wonder….

  67. Evening Nottlers,
    There is a possibly odd chap who prefers to engage with me here than on TCW…
    I would ask that you refrain from excoriation until we’ve gathered why he believes vaccines are entirely safe.
    Then, please feel free to weigh in.

  69. On GB News this afternoon, Lord Frost was asked if he would be ‘returning to the green benches’.

    Lord Frost’s reply indicated:

    1. Not in the near future.
    2. Yes, if enough people want that.

    In ‘Polit-speak’, I reckon that’s a Cast Iron Guarantee …

  70. After my bit of wall building this morning, followed by a couple of hours chain sawing, chopping & stacking some logs, I am now off for a well deserved bath!

  71. 352673+ up ticks,
    Rees-Mogg: No More Dancing to EU’s Wishes, Northern Ireland Deal Must Change or Go

    He is a caution that moggie, that would mean the whole of the pro eu lab/lib/con coalition political hoofers would be out.

  75. Off topic

    While the world is at war with itself, I was sitting on our terrace with a glass of red, watching the birds moving around the garden into the longer grasses and feeding amongst the orchids.

    I was disturbed from my reverie by the sound of a swallowtail butterfly, flying past me.

    If that isn’t a close definition of heaven on earth I don’t know one.

      1. HG prepared a meal, a Spring risotto, which would warm even your taste-buds.

        We ate on the terrace and the silence was deafening. It really makes me appreciate even more where we settled.

        Having lived (livid) close to a fight-path in the UK (and really, where isn’t?!) and then moving to chateau sosraboc makes one appreciate peace and quiet. Every time I hear an insect or bird fly past I bless the day we decided to move here.

        Great pleasures in life #1:
        Walking the paths through the grasses, seeing the hares, smelling the wild herbs and absorbing silence apart form insects and other wild life.

        That’s true bliss..

        2. For me, it is living with a guy who really and truly likes and respects me. We talk about everything and, even if we disagree, it’s amicable.
          I consider myself blessed.

          1. I’ve been under HG’s spell for well over 50 years.
            I know what you’re writing about.
            Long may it continue.

    2. My definition right now….my husband is with me and doing OK; took the dressing off my face and it was tender but it’s slowly getting less sore; the sun is out and I can hear all sorts of birds twittering. And we didn’t have to go anywhere today- thank gawd.
      Printed out 2 copies of Halfway Down for the grand monsters which we’ll mail tomorrow.
      All in all a good day.

    3. We regularly take a break at our holiday lodge but our lodgecam always gets activated with any movement on the decking. This morning we got a shot of our security detail maggie strutting the bounds at sunrise.
      Maggie may be an early bird but the worms are the other side of the balustrade:

      2. As we were eating this evening, we were joking that we’re always on holiday here.

        In the UK I got the songbirds to feed very close to the house and the blackbirds would feed from my hand.

        Here they are far less tameable. I’ve managed to stroke a wild hare but none of the birds will get closer than a few feet.

        I managed to get a lizard to settle on my palm earlier today, it must have been traumatised because half its tail was missing!

  76. A far politer reply than I would have made to the self-obsessed fashion mavens of Noo Yawk.

    “‘I presume your magazine bases its name on the dictionary term for being in fashion which is uncapitalised as used in the Oxford English Dictionary.

    ‘If a member of your staff had taken the time to investigate they would have discovered that our company, the Star Inn, is in the small village of Vogue, near St Day, Cornwall.

    ‘Yes, that’s right, Vogue is the name of our village, which has been in existence for hundreds of years and in fact is a Cornish word, not English.

    ‘I note in your letter that you have only been in existence since 1916 and I presume that at the time when you chose the name Vogue in the capitalised version you didn’t seek permission from the villagers of the real Vogue.

    ‘I also presume that Madonna did not seek your permission to use the word Vogue (again the capitalised version) for her 1990s song of the same name.

    ‘You are both at liberty to use the uncapitalised version without our permission. As a side note she didn’t seek our permission either.’

    Mark concluded saying: ‘In answer to your question whether we would change our name, it is a categorical NO.'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10812661/Vogue-magazine-threatens-legal-action-against-tiny-Cornish-pub-name.html

  77. There are an ever increasing number of video reports on the way in which ordinary Ukrainian citizens are defending their territory but this one impressed me as Alex, a software engineer and now tank commander, shows off his newly acquired Russian T-90 tank in his garage. Unfortunately for the Russians their own tank has been responsible for the loss of dozens of Russian military vehicles thanks to Alex and personal tank called ‘bunny’:

    https://youtu.be/jexFvTZW2-A

    2. Pink elephants with blue spots? An effect of eating too many magic mushrooms, I hear.

      1. Pink elephants riding bicycles through keyholes was the ideal for those suffering from DTs in the 1950s.

    3. This is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous. Being drunk is self inflicted nobody is forced to drink until they are drunk and don’t know what they’re doing. It ought to be considered an aggravating factor not a mitigating one.

      1. I am currently downing a bunch of whisky, as I fear that Best Beloved will want rid of me tomorrow.

  80. Is ‘baldy’ REALLY a worse insult than ‘being hung like a small chipolata’? After man with no hair wins sexual harassment claim, JANET STREET-PORTER urges folically-challenged blokes to stop being so thin-skinned

    The chap-olata in question should have responded that his problem was that it was like being a mouth organ in St Paul’s cathedral.

    1. In Derbyshire we used to say, “It’s like chucking a sausage up a gennal.”

      [gennal (pron: “jennal”): A narrow passageway between houses linking the street to the “back alley” that runs along the rear of a terraced row. ]

          3. Alley, twitchel, holloway…

            They have as many dialectic variations as do: bread cobs, baps, buns, rolls, batches, teacakes, bread cakes …

          4. And West Yorkshire.

            “our” snicket was the only way down to the main road in winter.

            The trick was to drive down the snicket VERY slowly and apply brake and handbrake to slide around the corner.
            Once done it was fairly straightforward.

            Going up was an absolute bastard!!!

        2. Oh Grizz! I have a wonderful photo of a lane in Carlisle leading to Diamond Lils bar! I worked there in the late ‘70’s but I can’t paste it! Geoff may have the same pic!

          4. Thanks Geoff! That’s even better! The one I have is black and white – it’s a bit ‘moody’!

      2. Even a donkey couldn’t touch the sides.

        A coarse reply about such women, when I was living in Bradford

  82. Evening, all. I suspect there are many of “the public” who are paying nothing, but still taking out of the system.

  83. Looks like the Disqusting Gremlin’s clobbered the notifications again.
    I’m off to bed.
    Good night all.

    1. Who is the Disqusting Gremlin?

      Or am I just being thick, the notifications are back.

  84. Off to bed soon- went up at 7.30 last night as was so tired and slept until 8.30 this morning.
    Wish you all well and you have been so kind to me in your messages of support.
    See you anon.

  85. Lee Anderson, ex-Labour councillor turned Conservative MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, stirred up a bit of controversy with his ’30p a meal’ claim. That was a bit silly but he was making a serious point about the lives of some of Britain’s poorest people. BBC TV’s ‘East Midlands Today’ took up his invitation to visit one of the classes run in his constituency to help those who can’t cook or budget. It was, to be fair, a reasonably even-handed report.

    A little later I heard a bit of R4’s ‘Any Questions?’. This was rather less even-handed. I heard one female ranting about the cheek of man who earns £80K a year telling the public how to cook for 30p a day even as she spoke about ‘often being skint’ and ‘growing up with a single parent on benefits’ and so knowing how to budget. Well, precisely! She is Catrina Davies and her Wiki entry says she is a writer and songwriter based in Cornwall and has worked as a DJ, gardener, circus cellist, cleaner, TEFL teacher, dog walker, flower-picker, builder and waitress. Draw your own conclusions.

    It took presenter Chris Mason to ask the question ‘Isn’t he (Anderson) onto something?’. I don’t suppose many of the bleeding hearts will answer the other question, namely how the nation managed to produce such a huge underclass of domestically hopeless welfare dependents.

    Anyway, back to ‘East Midlands Today’. It included a report on Mansfield Town FC who are in the play-offs this weekend. It’s quite an achievement after a terrible start to the season. We were treated to brief interviews with manager Nigel Clough, the flamboyant owners John and Carolyn Radford (well, flamboyant for the fourth division), sports ed of the local paper John Lomas and then Kieran Halpin-Dandy [no, really, that’s his name] of the Proud Stags LGTBQ+ Supporters Group. Only after proud Kieran were any plebs included. This is the order of the universe.

    Finally, a pleasing little story about how the Richardson Endowed Primary School in Ilkeston had received a retired BR Mk 3 (HST-style) railway carriage to use as new classroom. For most of the pupils with their understandably limited vocabulary it was ‘amazing’ but one spirited lass told us that on first hearing about the idea she ‘were proper speechless’. Just one thing bothered me, though. It’s a first-class carriage. Haven’t they been taught about elitism?

  86. The Left always wanted to pay people to do nothing and now we are seeing the results

    Far from being harmless, the ‘progressive’ economic theories trialled during the pandemic have been tested to destruction

    JULIET SAMUEL • 13 May 2022 • 8:00pm

    They have been awfully quiet recently, the purveyors of those “modern” and “progressive” economic theories that were so in vogue before the pandemic. Not long ago, after all, we were being forced to listen to proponents of ideas like “modern monetary theory” (MMT) and “universal basic income” (UBI) tell us why there was little practical constraint on printing or spending money and that the problem was that governments spend too little, not too much.

    Then along came the pandemic and, quite suddenly, the moment arrived for us to experiment with these miraculous, economic cure-alls. Governments and central banks unleashed a wall of cash and for some of it, like furlough money, they had good reason. The chief advocate of MMT, a US professor called Stephanie Kelton, declared victory and told economists warning about the inflationary consequences to “take a hike”. Various forms of stimulus and furlough in the US and Europe were discussed as just the start of a massive expansion in the welfare state that would pay everyone to do nothing. Now, the reckoning has arrived.

    Going by the latest data, which showed the economy shrinking in March, the UK is very likely already in recession. Inflation is forecast to hit double digits this year. In the City, bankers report that we have switched almost overnight from a sellers’ market to a buyers. The Government is dithering, caught between the horror of millions of households unable to make ends meet and the parlous state of public finances.

    Meanwhile, post-furlough, the workforce has shrunk dramatically, workers are refusing demands to come back into the office and markets are demanding ever more in interest to lend to the Government. The public sector’s culture of producer-capture, whereby services are run for the benefit of their staff rather than users, has gone into overdrive. The pandemic maxim to “protect the NHS”, at the cost of our lives, has infected everything, so the Government is now castigated for the “mental health” effect of its immigration policy on Home Office staff and GPs’ surgeries display posters emphasising that doctors are overworked and under-appreciated. Guilt-tripping patients for needing medical treatment is par for the course.

    Advocates of radical, high-spending government policies have long told sceptics that they were wrong to fear malign effects from an over-expansion of the state. Supposedly, the natural good in humans would overcome the dark pull of financial incentives. If the Government, following the principle of UBI, paid everyone a minimum amount to do nothing, they would not just sit at home and milk the state, but would be more productive and creative. To be sure, if you measured economic output in Facebook posts and amateur sourdough production, furlough was undoubtedly a pro-growth strategy.

    Likewise with the enormous expansion in quantitative easing (QE) by central banks during the course of the pandemic. MMT, a series of tautologies masquerading as a new economic theory, appeared to suggest that any government with its own currency could print money to its heart’s content and never worry about ballooning deficits. No wonder the idea was embraced by the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, whose manifesto included a proposal for a “People’s QE” to fund all sorts of spending goodies.

    Not even in Mr Corbyn’s wildest dreams could he have imagined seeing a Conservative government effectively pursue the same policy – except that instead of spending the cash on infrastructure, as Labour was supposedly planning and which would in theory generate returns, it was handed out to households. Yet as The People’s QE has duly generated The People’s Inflation, promoters of MMT like Professor Kelton have begun to obfuscate and backtrack. She never said that inflation wasn’t a risk, she claims. All she meant was that governments could print and spend lots and lots more money without any ill effects. This is the rhetorical equivalent of a dog chasing its own tail.

    Despite the near-fraudulent silliness of these radical schemes, however, the scales have yet to fall from people’s eyes. As recently as February, The New York Times ran a glowing profile celebrating Professor Kelton’s “victory lap”, with just one or two sheepish “caveats” mentioned towards the end. The Welsh Government is pressing ahead with a “trial” of universal basic income, by handing 500 young people an unconditional annual income of £19,200 a year for two years. More broadly, even with a recession looming and warnings of job losses across the economy, public sector and corporate workplaces are still obsessing over lifestyle choices rather than survival.

    Few would argue that the Government should simply have done nothing in response to the pandemic. As the virus spread and the economy closed down, households needed emergency support to avoid catastrophic economic damage and it is likely they would have needed help even without the lockdowns imposed from above. [This spoils an otherwise reasonably sound criticism of the theory of the Magic Money Tree.] But for a large segment of the British Left, pandemic relief schemes were not a one-off lifeline and a massive gamble. They were the fulfilment of long-held dreams about the way they want society to be governed.

    It is only fair, then, to judge them on their outcomes. The resounding conclusion is that, far from being harmless and manageable, the vast expansion in state spending and monetary policy trialled by Covid policies have had profoundly damaging effects on the cost of living, the security of public finances and the resilience and working culture of our economy. Nor did it take years to generate this result. The effect has been almost immediate.

    If this cabal of self-righteous spendthrifts had any sense of dignity left, they would take a well-earned break from dispensing advice on how to run the economy and stop trying to build a façade of intellectual credibility to disguise their pie-in-the-sky notions.

    Instead, we have to listen to the Labour Party haranguing the Government simultaneously for failing to bring down the cost of living, not spending enough, and failing to address “climate justice” and “structural inequalities” all at the same time.

    The Left, however, has failed to learn the lesson of its own delusions: if a pet theory looks too good to be true, then it’s almost certainly false. There is nothing progressive about crashing the economy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/13/left-always-wanted-pay-people-do-nothing-now-seeing-results/

    1. “…Few would argue that the Government should simply have done nothing in response to the pandemic. As the virus spread and the economy closed down, households needed emergency support to avoid catastrophic economic damage…”
      Except that’s what Sweden did, and that wasn’t a disaster.

      1. Our government was not panicked into anything. They knew only you too well that the ‘pandemic’ was a global scam. They merely acted as instructed by the WHO, WEF, UN and the rest of the globalist master scumbags.

      2. Absolutely. And “As the virus spread and the economy WAS closed down “ It should read. But then, this fits perfectly with the great reset planned for us. Everything is conspiring towards that end.

    1. I’ll say goodnight to all and sundry here, wish you all, God bless and go and see what Saturday’s pages might have to offer.

      1. Morning Bob. I’m on the edge of Exmoor where friend Dianne has rented a large country house for the weekend, for a significant birthday. Since it was well after twelve when I retired, I thought I may as well post today’s page.

      2. Morning Bob. I’m on the edge of Exmoor where friend Dianne has rented a large country house for the weekend, for a significant birthday. Since it was well after twelve when I retired, I thought I may as well post today’s page.

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