Saturday 4 June: The Jubilee enables the British to see the things they share that make them proud

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.

593 thoughts on “Saturday 4 June: The Jubilee enables the British to see the things they share that make them proud”

  3. We are lurching from crisis to crisis. Spiked 4 June 2022.

    The cost-of-living crisis is not just a question of increasing prices. The reason the current inflation can even be considered a crisis is that the UK has not been creating enough wealth for people to afford these higher prices. And while the recent dislocations and disruptions caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine have had an impact, Whitehall still seems incapable of acknowledging that things were not going well economically both before the war and before the pandemic.

    All Socialist States are essentially cancerous in nature. They live off the remains of healthy and more vibrant polities. This is why they eventually collapse. They suck the life out of personal motivation and stifle all innovation and invention. The UK was once a World Leader in both. Now it simply feeds off others. We are approaching that moment when this will be made obvious. The State itself is disintegrating around us. Its bureaucracy is corrupt and useless and it no longer obeys its Political Masters who are themselves a decadent class of effete cowards and useless time servers.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/06/03/we-are-lurching-from-crisis-to-crisis/

    2. Morning, all.

      Not a gale, perhaps half, blowing here in N Essex. After yesterday’s shorts and tee shirt attire for gardening I will be back to tee shirt, jumper and fleece today. Shredding last year’s raspberry and loganberry canes for mulch is on the cards.

      2. Morning Korky. My raspberry canes are at least 15 years old and still very productive despite 2 transplants. Why the shredding?

        1. I’ve shredded last year’s canes that I pruned out after they fruited, leaving last year’s new growth to provide the fruit for this year. That’s the accepted process for the summer raspberry, loganberry and blackberry bushes that I have. The raspberries that fruit later are pruned out in the Spring when new growth appears, usually around mid March.

  5. Good morning all.
    An calm and dry but overcast start this morning, with a tad above 8°C in the yard and a dry day forecast.

  6. ‘Morning All
    I note my last post last night including a controversial Bob Moran cartoon seems to have upset a few people so a couple of points
    1 Don’t shoot the messenger
    2 If my posts overall offend you so much either don’t open them or disqus has a new handy dandy block feature and you never need to see them again!!
    For me while the Monachy was completely apolitical they were off limits but the promotion of the clotshot by the Queen and the eco-fuckwittery of the younger generations has changed that for ever

    1. I missed that last night ( too busy studying the bottom of a glass of Shiraz ) so I just had a quick view and yes it’s offensive , disrespectful and unnecessary but absolutely typical of the republican/lefty bile/hatred spouted by feeble inadequate parasites, however – it doesn’t hurt to be made aware of the mindset of seemingly otherwise sane and functioning people.

    2. I flinched at the cartoon but I also think HM has been badly advised of late and it seems to date from the loss of Philip’s influence.

    3. I think the Queen was probably taken in by the clot shots as were so many other people. That doesn’t wipe out her 70 years of service to this country.

      1. I expect it was scripted, but no doubt she read it beforehand. I have difficulty with that occasion, but she is old and probably lacks intellectual ability now, she takes things as seen.

        1. I think she is still all there but millions of people have been taken in by this stuff

    4. I was surprised by his target when there are so many more appropriate alternatives.

      1. Yes, he had poor judgment. I’m surprised the Telegraph sacked him, they seem to like woke rubbish.

        1. I think he’s a fine cartoonist.
          I suspect he was shot precisely because he’s anti woke and very anti the vaccines and all the mandates and restrictions

    5. Bugger!! I missed that and cannot find it this morning, has Twitter removed it?

      “Just keep offending and carry on…..??

      Nil illegitimi carborundum Rik!

    6. Good morning, Rik

      Your posts are consistently one of the very best things on the Nottlers’ Forum.

      (When I post something a bit smutty I put it behind a spoiler as I am afraid of offending Bill Thomas.)

  7. Good morning all! 39 years ago my old man and I got married in St. Helens Church, Low Fell. It was a wonderful day and looking at the photos yesterday, I was horrified to realise how many of the guests are no longer with us! The most recent death being that of our best man, about 3 weeks ago. Very sad.

    1. Good morning Sue.
      Very sad, but a part of life.
      Tempus Fugit I’m afraid.

    2. Congratulations to you both, Sue.
      We have 40th anniversary next month. By far the biggest cohort is “Absent Friends”. 🙁

      1. Have you finished the planning? We’re having a party tomorrow – combined Jubilee and anniversary! About 20 of us including 6 children! The weather? Who knows!

        1. All is on hold. Mother’s house should be on the market next week and will need emptied at about auction time, so we’re not sure when we should be where. That, plus some close guests still not received their passport, so postponed to later in summer.
          Bugger.

      3. My brother in law and sister have been very happily married for 65 years – it was a shotgun wedding. When I wrote to wish them congratulations they told me that, apart from themselves, I was the only person still alive who was at their wedding except my niece who was in utero!

    3. Congratulations, Sue! I recall my mother at about the age I am now lamenting her lost friends.

      2. One of the things that your preacher is liable to teach yer in Proverbs 31:10-31 is that a virtuous woman’s price is above Ruby’s!

        1. I was saving that comment for next year!
          Perhaps you could record it on your birthday register, as it’s such a significant anniversary.

    9. Happy anniversary (if a bit belated). May you both enjoy many more happy years together.

      1. Thank you Hertslass! It’s sunny here and a lot less windy than it was all those years ago! In one photo my veil is vertical!

      1. Thank you Mr Grizzly! Nice to see you back here, and in the DT! Omnipresent aren’t you?

        1. Oh, I don’t know about that. ‘Very busy’ generally covers it. Too much to do: too little time to achieve it.

    12. Enjoy your anniversary Sue. My maternal grandmother’s family lived in Low Fell. There were two houses I vaguely recall, Home House and Ashfield. It was in the 60s I last visited.

      1. Thank you Mr Twig! Home House is on Kells Lane at the bottom of Church Road, opposite what used to be the laundry! Both my sets of grandparents lived on Kells lane! Ashfield house I think, has gone. I was born in
        Harlow Green.

    14. Happy anniversary! I once asked the Warqueen if we’d make it to ten years and she replied of course we would, but she’d have bumped me off long before.

    15. ‘Morning, Sue. a fine day to wish both you and your old man (sic) a very very Happy Anniversary.

    5. I’m sure I met her Mum in the “Golden Fleece” pub in Pompey in the 60s!

      1. HIS mum, please!
        And was she using her knickers to keep her ankles warm?

    6. Not she – he, because that’s a man. As for diversity – well, now they’re taking advice from the mentally ill. Quite literally, the world has gone mad.

    7. Will the Snivel Service, bbc, MSM etc please note

      IT IS STILL LEGAL TO HIRE WHITE HETEROSEXUAL PEOPLE, WHO ARE EITHER MALE OF FEMALE.

  10. Good Morning All

    There’s a BTL this A.M. giving a link to a FOI answer ( please excuse the TLAs ), it’s quite odd all being said .
    I post here my expanded version of the table

    Table 1: Number of deaths where COVID-19
    was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate,
    1 February 2020 to 31 December 2021,
    by sex and age group, England and Wales

    Age Males Females
    <1 1 0
    1-4 0 0
    5-9 0 0
    10-14 0 1
    15-19 1 0
    20-24 4 1
    25-29 12 3
    30-34 24 7
    35-39 42 15
    40-44 52 24
    45-49 87 43
    50-54 138 52
    55-59 234 92
    60-64 254 102
    65-69 279 119
    70-74 357 204
    75-79 395 252
    80-84 492 402
    85-89 470 533
    90+ 520 971

    3362 2821

    Total 6183

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/covid19deathsandautopsiesfeb2020todec2021

    1. Yikes that didn’t format as I’d hoped, the upshot is total deaths purely down to covid for those 20 ( edit tks vw) months was 6183

      1. Have you – has anyone? – the true stats for those who died as a result of taking the vaccine gene therapy?

      2. Morning all. Don’t want to be pedantic but From February 2020 to December 2021 is actually 20 months, not 12. Puts the figures into more stark contrast with the BS we’ve been fed.

    1. Zuby is an excellent and clever chap.

      Not all those who go to university become total idiots – it is worth noting that Zuby himself achieved a first class degree in Computer Science from Oxford University.

  12. Just been round my local supermarket, and noticed that processed meat products are labelled with some childish traffic light “nutrition” system.
    Healthy organic pork sausages have a big red “E” while overprocessed vegan muck fake meat has a green “A”.
    From the colour scheme, I deduce that this is crude propaganda to try and persuade people that the muck is good for you and meat is poison.

    1. Which supermarket is that, bb2? Then I’ll know which to avoid. Sigh. The list is growing ever longer.

    2. It sounds a lot like finding food marked with the red light are the ones to get. Thanks for letting us know!

    3. Yo bb2

      Went to Co-op this morning.

      If you have their “Loyalty Card” (it is not a clubcard – that’s Tesco) as a teenager told me

      You can get 10 cans of San Mig for 8 quid
      &
      Pizza, Wedges, Chicken Nuggets, Iced Lollipops and a 12 Baby Ice Chocolates, all for 5 Quid
      saves £8.00+

      1. The only good think to come out of Wales is the road back to England, said one if my uncles.

      2. It’s all balance, isn’t it? There they are, whinging and complaining and you think, for goodness sake. You’re utterly dependent on English cash. By all means, celebrate your community but until you pay your own bills show some respect.

    2. Just a bloody coincidence, then? Why didn’t they do it on St David’s Day?

    4. Countless years of abuse – yes, and when are the Welsh going to stop? Pandereed, spoiled, indulged and still soaking up billions yet refusing to change their socialist attitudes.

  17. I was just about to go in the shop when a group of teenagers stopped me and asked me to get them 20 Richmond.
    They got in a right strop when i came out and started swearing at me.
    I shouted back…Get your own sausages next time !

    1. RIchmond used to do frozen whipped cream sticks, which I found very useful. But like so much else, they have vanished in the post covid era…

    1. Why is it discourteous to boo someone actively making our lives worse? I’d have clocked the oaf one.

        2. Despite all my violent nature and poor temper at the moment, I don’t want politicians to die. I want them to serve. To have a concept of what they’re there to do and to serve the public good rather than their own pocket and ego.

          Sadly that’ll neve rhappen because the political class have no checks on them to restrain their impulses. No legal recourse to remove them, to revoke policy or to prevent their idiotic law. There’s a reason Switzerland has part time MPs – it’s because the people tell them what to do.

          1. Hopefully all will understand my comment was tongue-in -cheek. Completely agree with your following comments.

  19. Shopping arrived for brother. Substitutions. I knew we should have gone in person but I ran out of time.

    Mother in law supposedly visiting for lunch. Warqueen already getting stressed so have removed her from the kitchen. She’ll (MiL) complain whoever cooks.

    It promises to be a difficult day.

    1. Offer a kindly cup of ratsbane. It will do her good. Well…it will do you good.

      1. If she were to be stopped for drink driving I don’t think they’d believe the meter. They’d probably think they’d dipped the thing in ethanol.

        She is best handled by having Mongo strap her down and being served significant quantities of sherry, brandy, vodka and martini – where she’ll complain about the lack of olives.

        Brother is still struggling with the new warden who has mellowed, but still doesn’t keep to a consistent routine and while is probably a lovely lady, the last bloke had a ‘uniform’. Bow tie, red bracers, black trousers, black belt, pressed blue shirt. All the time – 3am, 3pm, morning, noon and night. Same tone of voice, same ancient pocket thing for his telephone (a Christmas present once was buying the man 50 spares made specially).

        The lady changes her skirt thing from navy to brown to black. It’s minor, but for severe autistics patterns are everything.

    2. Provide the MiL with a strong alcoholic beverage upon arrival. Keep her topped up .

  21. OPINIONS REQUESTED.

    Good morning, dear NoTTLers!

    Compulsory metering
    I have a bit of a conundrum: I live in an area which is due to have completely compulsory water metering in a year or so. I have checked, and this area falls within those designated areas where this can be done without my agreement. A year ago the water company, “Affinity Water” (AW), fitted a meter outside my property, under the pavement. It is not “switched on” such that my bills are still calculated on the old basis, but the meter can read the amount that I would have paid had the meter been “on” .

    Invariably the comparison I get each time I get a bill shows that I would have paid less if I was paying through metering, but I am wary of agreeing and wanted to look into this further. Bear in mind that the meter wil be turned “on” whether I like it or not, I was coming round to the idea that if it is going to be forced on me anyway, I might as well do it. I have had the opportunity of opting-in to the metereed tariff during this time.

    Water testing service
    AW have offered a free water-testing service. This test will tell you if, and where, there are any parts of your system (including their pipes leading to my house) where there are leaks or other obstacles. I have wanted this testing to be done for a while, as I know that our pipes are old and the water pressure is rather low.

    On 25 January this year, I rang to request a test. I was told that this part of the company was being taken over/outsourced, so that they were not taking on any more tests for the moment, but that I was on a list and would be contacted.

    Having heard nothing further, in MArch/April (I have the date written down somewhere) I rang them again and was told that my request would be pased to the relevant department and that I would hear back within 15 working days.

    Agaiin nothing, so I rang again a couple of weeks ago and couldn’t gt through to anyone, but left my details after a message promised me I would me called back. Again nothing to date, nobody has called me back

    Today
    Today I received a letter saying that as they had noticed (by comparing the meter reading with my payments) that I would have saved £188 last year if my meter was “on”, so they are going to switch me onto the metered tarriff, without my permission. But I do have the option to opt out by emailing a certain address.

    My view is that no they jolly well don’t, they can’t be bothered to give me the water testing service I have been asking for since January. They can’t be bothered to contact me. But they can be bothered to tell me that they are going to switch my tariff, without asking.

    I do think their conduct has been apalling, cavalier and very poor service. BUT, I was thinking of moving tariff anyway, so will I just be cutting my nose off to spite my face? My ow view is that I leave them to switch, given that his will happen anyway, but In any event I intend to write as high as I can get in their hierarchy to complain about their shoddy service.

    Any views, please?

    Ed. P.S. We have not reach the compulsory change yet, that comes next year. Doe anyone know anything about the downsides of water meter tariffs?

    1. In 2013 my water supplier, Southern Water, installed a water meter at my property. They had previously informed all customers that metering was compulsory. After a few months, my bills were switched to metering instead of rates. I found that my bills were substantially reduced. At the time there were four people living in my house. It would seem that the fewer people living at a property, the better the case for switching to a metered supply.

      1. That’s true, but this is a family house and may be full again in th future, and once switched I can’t switch back…

    2. If they test, they won’t do anything to fix the issue. We lose masses of water from leaks but replacing the aging infrastructure is simply too expensive.

      My only problem once with a meter was being sent a bill for the wrong one and having a massive panic about where the swimming pool sized leak was.

      The problem is once you’re metered they won’t swap you back – even though it just means ignoring the meter, so you can’t ‘try it and see’ if you will save money. If I were being honest, I don’t think you will save anything. It isn’t the nature of companies to help you and over time they’ll ratchet up the price. Heck, with us still being chained to EU water control water is only going to get more expensive, especially as the energy needed to clean it becomes – deliberately – ever more scarce

      1. I guess I’ll go with it. It’s just the cavalier way this whole thing has been done gets my back up!

    3. We switched to a meter some years ago and it has saved us a fortune.
      We are on Affinity Water and they have just reduced our monthly payment from £24 to £20. We have varied between £24 and £28 for a number of years but this is the lowest it’s been. It’ll go up again in 6 months time.

    6. I hate to think what ‘testing’ would do to the 100 year old pipe that brings my water down the garden, under mature shrubs and trees. Same with the gas. I believe that costs of ‘ground work’ and re-piping are very high and down to the property owner. It’s unskilled manual work you see, very very expensive…

          1. I’ll check – but I think it is still covered from the road pipe to my house, but not within my land, and not going away from the house. We have what is known as section 21 drains at the back, which were subject to different rules.

          2. Agreed, you now own any problems that occur on your land and pipes under it…

          3. Agreed, you now own any problems that occur on your land and pipes under it…

          4. I’ll check – but I think it is still covered from the road pipe to my house, but not within my land, and not going away from the house. We have what is known as section 21 drains at the back, which were subject to different rules.

      2. The water companies are constantly blamed for leakage but you have made the observation that so many critics cannot see and that is that the greatest volume of leakage is not from street mains but on private property. About 10 years ago a change was made in the law to reduce the liability of companies in respect of leakage from private property by extending the responsibility of the property owner from the curtilage to the street main.

        1. That is what I thought. I recall all the companies attempting to get you to replace the pipes.

    7. I lived in a large house and when I went with a meter the bill just about halved, even though we were 2 adults and kids. At least you will pay for what you use and the bill will not depend upon a rateable value. I am happy to watch my usage, such as not leaving a tap running when cleaning teeth and having barrels to collect rainwater for the garden. My annual bill is about £360 for two adults and two grown up kids which I think is good value for a vital resource and dealing with all the waste water.

        1. Its rare to actually benefit from a change these days, but the meter is a plus unless you water the lawn and wash the car daily.

          1. I guess I’m just peed off at the poor customer service…and have lost sight of any benefit – which according to the rsponses, seem to be real. Thank you.

      4. My water charge (including waste water) is less than £160 a year paid through my council tax. I might look into the cost if a meter was fitted.

    8. Hi Lass. You can conduct your own test for leaks. The meter will be fitted with a ‘spinner’, this is a clearly visible rotating disc behind the meter glass. This spinner is highly sensitive and will rotate with the slightest movement of water.

      Turn everything off and leave it a few minutes for cisterns etc. to refill, so that there is (hopefully) no water consumption in the property. Then go outside with a torch, lift the meter cover and see what the spinner is doing. If it is static, you have no leaks. The AW saving calculation would suggest this to be the case.

      I agree with others here, metered water has saved ££££s.

      1. Hello Harry!

        I think I might pass – the meter is under the pavement! I am persuaded about getting on to the meter tariff…

        1. The meter will have an easily removable inspection cover. It’s neither difficult nor time consuming.

          2. May as well join plum and have a few Sherri before the exercise then!

            In the long run the water company are going to keep revenues stable whether you have a meter or not. You may as well take advantage of cheaper water now, they wil only up prices later.

    9. Unless you have a swimming pool or a large drought-stricken garden, water metering will save you money. The money that you save could be put towards the cost of rain water butts and, a long shot, the installation of a grey water system. (recycling, either for lavatory cisterns or irrigation). Also, should there be an unnoticed subterranean leak in the future, any increase in consumption would tip you off.

      1. For the water company to break even, at least half the customers have to be paying more than they were before!
        Plus there is the cost of installing the meters to be paid for.

    10. I can also testify that change to metering has been very worthwhile. Thought the water company were very reasonable as they stated I could change back to unmetered at any time within two years of meter installation if I wished. Like others, bills have halved, although the idle b*ggers rarely read the meter, which can be done remotely as long as they are somewhere near the house. This year they have increased monthly payment by 30% despite me being more than 3 months’ payments in credit. Same thing happened last year and was resolved once I submitted accurate meter reading.

      1. Do they put a meter in your housse, or accessible to you? My supposed meter is under the pavement oustide and I don’t know how I would ever get to read it.

    11. I will add my vote for a change to metering.
      When we moved into our new house a few years ago, I was shocked at what wewere being charged for water: questioned the justification for the amount and was told the rateable value and number of rooms. We could go for a meter and and if it didn’t make a difference, change back within 2 years.
      Our annual bill has been a 1/3 of what we would have paid without the meter.

      Edit because my fingers hate phone entries.

      2. Thank you. In this case I won’t be able to change back, but as it’s coming anyway I might as well go with it. The lack of any kind of customer service gets me.

    12. I will add my vote for a change to metering.
      When we moved into our new house a few years ago, I was shocked at what wewere being charged for water: questioned the justification for the amount and was told the rateable value and number of rooms. We coukd go for a meter and and if it didn’t make a difference, change back within 2 years.
      Our annual bill has been a 1/3 of what we would have paid without the meter.

    13. I will add my vote for a change to metering.
      When we moved into our new house a few years ago, I was shocked at what wewere being charged for water: questioned the justification for the amount and was told the rateable value and number of rooms. We coukd go for a meter and and if it didn’t make a difference, change back within 2 years.
      Our annual bill has been a 1/3 of what we would have paid without the meter.

    14. When everybody is on a meter, the rate will rise so the water company makes the same revenues, so no advantage then.

  22. Follow the science.
    I recognise that they are trying to find solutions to problems, but does anyone else think that it’s about time these mad scientists were locked away and the keys disposed of? So often the experiments and the ensuing results backfire spectacularly.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10884147/Vicious-hamsters-bred-lab-accident.html

    Scientists accidentally create super-vicious HAMSTERS in a lab after gene editing experiment goes wrong and makes aggressive rodents chase, bite and pin each other down
    Gene editing lab test inadvertently makes horde of rage-fuelled hamsters
    Scientists removed key hormone in the hope it would boost animals’ cooperation
    But it turned them wild, prompting chasing, biting and pinning among hamsters
    ‘We [thought] it would reduce aggression. But the opposite happened’: test chief
    ‘We don’t understand this system as well as we thought we did’, Professor added

      1. Not just black, they all face east and get on their hamster knees at sundown each day. And then start howling.

    2. Africanised, like those killer bees! I have been stung whilst standing more than 60 metres from the hives.
      I won’t bother to read the article, but there is probably a rational explanation involving mating and ‘territorial imperative’ rather than aggression.

    4. No doubt one day some will “escape” and and we’ll have a plague of killer hamsters to be locked up from.

      1. The professor added: We don’t understand this system as well as we thought we did.
        ‘The counterintuitive findings tell us we need to start thinking about the actions of these receptors across entire circuits of the brain, not just in specific brain regions.
        ‘Developing gene-edited hamsters was not easy. But it is important to understand that the neurocircuitry involved in human social behaviour and our model has […] relevance for human health.’
        Professor Albers said the gene editing tests are intended to help find solutions to neuropsychiatric disorders including autism and depression.

        The road to Hell is paved with good intentions

      1. Far too long. The Warqueen has a very low and very high cocktail dress that she looks fabulously slutty in, especially with her hair in ringlets.

    2. A speech should be like a woman’s dress, long enough to cover all the essentials but short enough to be interesting.

  25. Robert Purry is indeed right when he says the diameter of car and motorcycle wheels is measured in inches, what he failed to mention is that the width is measured in millimetres

      2. Hey, Beatnik, when you kept those ol’ highways open for the emergency services, was it so those that were zapped with hypothermia could be treated, Dude. Nothing beats that Big Outdoors experience, in June in the UK except a Bar-B-Q on the top of Mount McKinley, Hombre.

        1. Way to go, Dean. I could never mosey along to the McKinley gig, Man, due to having mucho trouble getting the old caboose over Denali.

  27. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10884281/Vandals-SMASH-windows-West-London-restaurant-just-days-owners-spat-trans-activists.html

    Bitter, vicious, violent scum. The weirdo trannies are revolting creatures. If they want to be accepted, then they need to behave properly. It is this very arrogance and ego that people are angry at. Folk can do what they like. What they forget is that their rights stop where mine begin; and they’ve absolutely no right to demand that we change to accommodate their proclivities – be that the fantasy they’re a woman when they’re a man, the climate change drivel, their socialist arrogance – none of it.

    1. Had email from BFI headed: ‘3 You Must See: LGBTQIA+ Pride Month’. Not sure if this is an invitation or an order but, either way, won’t be complying!

      1. That is what really gets up my nose. O’Bummer was given a good start in life by his white mother and especially her parents.
        Hamilton – let’s just say that mummy doesn’t seem to get much of a look-in.
        “Caucasian” MeGain suddenly discovered being black is the big earner.
        Thank goodness for people like Thomas Sewell and Candace Owens, otherwise I would become really cynical.

  29. Science turned on it’s head.

    Previously I proved that the old adage there’s no smoke without fire was completely without foundation and that in fact it was the other way round: there’s no fire without smoke

    However, many experimenters are demonstrating the generation of smoky wood gas by building ‘pyrolytic’ stoves which have to be started with a flame inducing accelerant on top of the feedstock (fuel) being used. This somewhat confuses any scientific claims that the heat from the stove has come purely from the wood gas being generated through pyrolytic action on the feedstock.

    Here is today’s experiment where a sample of an egg carton is subjected not to a flame but just to heat on an AGA boiling plate measured at over 360 degC:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e062b26ce622cb0f3d70570967121dcc3c7ed654ed0b924359dc82b0d28ca91.gif

    Note that the egg carton sample whilst on the boiling plate does not produce a flame after blackening but does produce smoke which is the precursor to a flame. However when lifted above boiling plate the increased air flow creates an incandescent red ring on the sample which converges to the centre leaving a white ash.

    So how do you explain what’s going here?
    When lifted above the AGA boiling plate

  30. Finally:
    – Stopped doing stuff
    – Sunny & warm enough to sit outside
    So I am, with a beer.

    1. Good man yourself! MH has put up again the coat rack hooks that fell down yesterday so we are rewarding ourselves with a small beverage- not tea;-)

      1. I’ve just made Earl Grey Tea syrup to go with the gin.
        Some serious experimenting needed; must get the ratios right.

        1. Good luck- can’t stand gin meself but I am sure I have got the ratio right here re Pinot….one glass= full 😉

    4. Good for you, Herr Oberst! It’s absolutely roasting here! You can guarantee rain tomorrow for our party! Have just put the 4th cake in the oven for the multi-coloured Jubilee cake!

    5. Was very hot and humid for a time. Still reasonable at 18.4C but full cloud again…

    4. The hand formed W must for something significant in his liaaff.
      I can’t think what.
      Blimey I forgotten how steep it all is in Salcombe. Phew 😂

  32. As Piers Morgan’s viewing figures plummet, Murdoch’s finger edges closer to the kill switch. 4 June 2022.

    Since launching on April 25, when Morgan attracted an average 316,800 viewers, the picture for TalkTV has been getting gradually worse.

    Just one month later, on May 23, when he interviewed the so-called ‘Mac Daddy’, Morgan attracted an average viewership of just 41,500, according to the TV ratings compiler BARB.

    It has to fold! This channel is absolutely puerile. In essence it is Radio on TV. Just talking heads and those with nothing to say!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/06/04/piers-morgans-viewing-figures-plummet-murdochs-finger-edges/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. In addition, an absolute fortune was spent on advertising. I was told that the first rule of advertising is (or should be) ‘never promote a duff product’.

    2. A boiling water heater? I don’t think they took off. Too many people got scalded I suppose!

      1. Boiling water taps seem to be the latest kitchen ‘must have’ for those susceptible to sales speak.

        1. I see those ads. They fill me despair. What will the woke eco-freak purchasers DO when the electricity is cut?

    3. Our first house had a geyser that provided hot water for the kitchen and the bathroom.
      It needed frequent cleaning or it exploded and sent out clouds of ash.
      If we had a visitor we didn’t like, we would wait until they went to the loo and turn on the hot tap in the kitchen.
      The explosion and the wild shriek was very satisfying.

      1. Oh, I do hope you have read and seen The Enchanted April. There is a scene like that!

          1. The Enchanted April by Elisabeth von Arnim. That’s the book but the full movie, true to the book, is on You Tube and has Joan Plowright, Miranda Richardson, Michael Kitchen and Alfred Molina. It is a sheer delight and I know Phizzee will back me up because he loves it too.

  35. I’m sure our resident ex Bobby could advise but I would have thought this a risky strategy:

    Police evacuate Trafalgar Square over ‘suspicious vehicle’

    I’d have evacuated them away from the vehicle meself. I hope they gave the hoi polloi by some Kevlar and a leg up.

  36. A line from Charles Moore’s otherwise excellent article about Brenda, “Look how far the Queen has come with the type of leadership modernity does not understand” implies Brenda’s aspiring to ‘kingly leadership’.
    Cheek. Given she’s up there with Liz I and Mrs Brown, I’d imagine she aspires to (and will encourage the same in her son and grandson) queenly leadership.

  37. Good evening y’all. As stated, yesterday was strange. Bit of a bunfight and then it poured and we all got soaked. Got home and husband hung his jacket up and the whole rack fell off the wall.
    Much of today was spent in putting it back up and what a mess. Gawd knows what the walls are made of here but it took ages. If I thought yesterday’s bad language during the Jubilee service was bad- well, it’s damn good thing HM wasn’t listening today.
    Supposed to be thundery overnight- oh joy- and wet tomorrow.
    Oh to be in England with the wonderful weather! Where is this global warming then? I am sick of wearing me fuzzy socks- it’s June.

    1. We are getting English global warming, very unreliable, or reliable depending on which way you look at it.

    2. We’ve got weak sunshine here at the moment but it’s none too warm and unpleasantly windy. I just went out to tie up my tomato plants and didn’t stay out long.

    1. We don’t do Wordle, Quordle or any other ordles. However, we have begun referring to the loo as the Loodle.

          4. You, Mola, Bob and Stephen- gawd I wish you had been in my class at school!

        1. See my comment below re Sos, Mola and others. Boys just never grow up;-))

    2. Par 4.
      Wordle 350 4/6

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

      Edited; See the schoolboy error I made?

    3. Birdie Three for me also.
      Wordle 350 3/6

      🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Moi aussi.

        Wordle 350 3/6
        🟨🟩⬛⬛⬛
        🟨🟩⬛⬛🟨
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Trois 😋
      Wordle 350 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. Wordle 350 4/6

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

  39. By popular request (well from Phizee anyway) here’s some wildlife photos taken a few days ago:
    (The duck and ducklings were really that close – no zoom required!)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8df88df4d6ba346b713eee6013ff6d2da4203c6fa23ee30ae045506835a997a4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ccdd2e2733d8b5865d4a991acd3b463550563048cac75556981153d215c8204.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee2d385e556f143c7ee96b6ba6d5992fe963072e164cdab2f066a32253f1529c.jpg

        1. At least in this village there is no flagpole at the church.

          There is only one Uke flag – rather shamefacedly drooping from a resident’s private pole.

      1. Indeed. There was a much larger brood but I didn’t have my phone to hand….

    1. Serving the teas I assume. Did she have a little black dress with a white apron, or did her astonishing lack of fashion sense come to the fore once more?

    2. Serving the teas I assume. Did she have a little black dress with a white apron, or did her astonishing lack of fashion sense come to the fore once more?

  42. Photos by the Boatload:
    (The chap with the mini- steamer like Geoff had had some extreme Chiropody with a left leg above the knee, replaced with some fantastic metal work.)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b12e189db1b2f528c3e9339d931df3f96ca874c25bd15f56d58aaca3e57ab239.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2adb0ab613fce1d86a09ce8fab7774001a3bee5735f35f6f238bbd083c445476.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0fed42919da65d52dd5b289db4524aa7204f8ce6517fd5fc414ee422435a1054.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b26d300a78201ef6988cd9378e8e2d21d0076771aefa4f314838519c0b92cf0.jpg

    1. That wee steamer in the top picture is fantastic! More power to his elbow (other parts of the anatomy, unless surgically removed, are available!)

  43. I say Bunter, what bad luck – and on a public holiday:

    For someone who likes to be liked yesterday’s booing of Johnson, seen by tens of millions as he arrived at St Paul’s, must have been very difficult to stomach. I’m not a fan of the PM but it was hard not to feel for him as he walked up the Cathedral steps with the cameras on him yesterday,

    At the very minimum, this public display of antagonism to the PM will have been noticed by Tory MPs who soon might have to cast their ballots in a secret vote of confidence.

    I just wonder whether some of his friends are working on a face-saving way out. The very worst thing that can happen is for the confidence vote to happen that he loses and he has to go to the Palace to resign.

    Given that it looks as though Tory MPs are waiting till after the June 23rd by elections to happen there is possibly a little bit of breathing space for a solution to be found.

    In the betting a 2022 exit is now the favourite.

    Mike Smithson

    https://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2022/06/04/is-there-a-face-saving-way-johnson-can-step-aside/

    2. The way I feel about the buffoon at the moment, is that it would be the best Jubilee present the Queen receives.

    3. I’m as sorry for him as for H!tler. He made his bed, now he can effing sleep in it, or shit in it as far as I care.

  44. BTL comment:

    Andy RoadKing
    4 HRS AGO
    Janet**, how can you discuss Johnson and his leadership without mentioning Net Zero? Or the fact he is a pathological liar bereft of a backbone? Or the fact a million extra people arrived in the UK last year under his stewardship? Or the fact he closed the country down for a bad cold and has destroyed many lives and things the UK stood for? Or the fact he is deliberately destroying food and energy security? or the fact his witless wife half his age dominates the way the country is being run?
    You might as well put the pope in charge of the country and rule us from a different set of beliefs not facts.
    Net Zero is a cult, This man stood up while parliament was closed down and announced the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars in the UK in 400 weeks (2030) with no mandate or debate.
    He has been found out, we should have listened to those who warned us about him.
    He has to go before the clown does any more damage.
    And to think I voted for him!!!

    REPLY
    6 REPLIES
    81

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/04/personality-principle-key-deciding-boris-should-stay-go/

    ** Daley

      1. I think you’ll find that he is currently in deep water and treading water to save his skin…

        1. Ask around, I’m sure you can find an Ahab or an Ishmael to lend a harpoon.

          1. You’ve reminded me I don’t recall any time in the past when I’ve seen so many Land Whales – a frightening number of young women….

          5. I fancied a Norland Nanny once. Cor, she was a corker. Understandably not interested in me. Saw her next 50 years later. Still a good looking lady!!

          9. Late Brother-in-Law’s daughter has trained as a nanny. The kind with big brimmed hats and weird capes. Norland, I believe.

          10. I share your despair. It is now increasingly rare to see a normal sized woman.

          15. I’m not entirely surprised, having had the benefit of your wisdom on Nottle!

          16. Ooops ….. (quietly regrets the chunk of fruit and nut chokkie for pudding)

          17. Anne, I have seen the pics of you- you could down 6 bars of that and still be tiny. As an 8 stone weakling at 5’4 I think I also qualify;-))

          19. I won’t show husband that pic….he’ll want to go out for a pint of that;-)

  46. A bit close to home – our clinic in this area hasn’t had its bins emptied for two weeks because the collection lorry can no longer get through.

    LTN residents’ postboxes boarded up as new traffic rules mean postmen cannot meet collection times

    LTNs have proven controversial, with critics claiming they increase congestion and pollution on roads where traffic has been diverted.
    Postboxes in Oxfordshire were boarded up after congestion caused by road closures to create low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) meant postmen could no longer meet collection times.
    Royal Mail was forced to reduce services in Cowley and East Oxford after traffic was funnelled onto main roads making journey times markedly longer.
    A number of boxes were sealed with a message that read: “It has become necessary to temporarily remove this postbox from service due to not being able to meet the final collection time as a result of the LTN scheme.”
    Oxfordshire County Council introduced three LTNs within the Cowley area in 2021 as part of the so-called “green transport revolution” introduced by Grant Shapps, the Transport
    Secretary, to try to promote cycling and walking.

    However, the schemes have proven controversial, with critics claiming they increase congestion and pollution on boundary and main roads where traffic has been diverted.

    The council’s own consultation found businesses had warned that LTNs would adversely affect trade. A report noted how taxi companies feared passengers would be reluctant to pay more if “stationary for long periods in congestion” and that “displacement of traffic onto arterial routes” would result in increased journey times.

    1. Shapps is a total fool. I’ve actually met him. Stupid sod said he wouldn’t spend 50 quid to have me repair his laptop he’d just get a new one on expenses.

  47. I have just looked at the TV programmes for Monday. Not ONE – NOT ONE – reference to, or prog/film about, what happened 78 years ago.

    I give up.

      1. Only relatively. The 5th was awful – but if they didn’t go on the 6th – it would have be put off for a month. A ghastly decision for anyone (even an American) to make.

          1. Quite.

            Wouldn’t happen today. Elfin safety, Lgqbt etc isshoos; BLM…

          2. Believe they were up against the light nights as well, so it was now or next year kind of decision.

    2. Here you go, ‘6 June 44 – The Light of Dawn‘, Sky History, Monday 6th. 2200-2300.

      ‘The first of a two-part documentary made entirely with remastered and colourised archive footage, tracing Operation Overlord from its genesis to the Battle of Normandy. The film depicts the epic story of one of the greatest military operations ever conceived by man, from the summer of 1941 – when Churchill and Roosevelt first discussed the issue – to the touch down on June 6 1944. It sets out Hitler’s strategy for preventing and countering the landings‘

      1. Immediately followed by ‘Memories of D-Day‘. Same channel.
        ‘Exploring the images and recollections of veteran photographers Peter Norris and discovering D-Day through the eyes of British soldiers as photographed on the ground‘

    3. I’m also miffed, as I was born 78 tears ago, 13 days before D-Day and I think my Birthday sparked them off to greater effort.

  48. That’s me for this really most unpleasant day. Mainly grey – cold and a strong wind. Made attempting anything in the garden hopeless.

    Rain promised for tomorrow (our Village Party Event – fortunately, “if wet in village hall”) and Monday – so at least the water butts should replenish.

    One thing I found amusing yesterday, was the appalling TV “commentary” by Dimblebottom. He had no idea who anybody was, or what was happening or, I began to wonder, what the event was for.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. First day of summer in Argyll and Bute: SUN, dry, light breeze and 19 C 🙂

      1. Same here, Lacoste. Gives one a real lift to be able to sit out & enjoy a cold beer… 😀

        or two…

      2. Same here, Lacoste. Gives one a real lift to be able to sit out & enjoy a cold beer… 😀

        or two…

          2. Terrible here, thunderstorms in between bright blue skies.
            Pool is only 27 C.

          2. Last time he fell orf a ladder he was swiftly introduced to sods he would rather not have met so soon

      5. Not until June 21st accoding to Soltices. Perhaps Scotland are looking for a bargain 17 days early.

    2. Been lovely here. Sun, 20C, nice dinner out, gallons of red medicine… Hic!

        1. Csheersh!
          😉
          Nice evening in the countryside. Silent, sunshine, and the ravens are around – Hiugin & Munin, also known as Kraa! and Kraaa!

          1. I can do a fair raven’s croak, at least it gets them to look down quizzically at me.

          2. It’s amusing how many garden birds actually do react to imitation responses.

          4. There’s one bird been teasing me. I think it may be one of the tit family.
            It sings knick nack paddy wack and expects me to whistle “give the dog a bone”.
            It happens throughout the day.

    3. As a space filler, there was some bespectacled Beeboid bint deliberately asking each Windie Commonwealth representative about their country’s wish to remove the Queen as Head of State.
      She didn’t ask if they also wanted to forego any foreign aid.

    1. “We are very insulted. We have a right not to be insulted.”

      Sooner or later…

    2. You know where the door is.
      If you’re not happy here, head to a place where you are happier.
      Hell perhaps!

    1. Evidently the Duchess of Sussex managed to pay a sizeable number of frauds to cheer her entrance to St Paul’s on the day. Many booed too.

  51. England players booed by children in Hungary when taking a knee before Nations League opener

    The national anthems of both countries were respected as the players made their way out onto the pitch, but jeers appeared to be audible from the crowd when England took a knee before kick-off in what was their first visit to the stadium since they were racially abused last year.

    However, UEFA will not punish Hungary for booing the act of taking a knee, as it is not against its rules†.

    https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12010/12627757/england-players-booed-by-hungary-fans-when-taking-a-knee-before-nations-league-opener-in-budapest

    † It will be soon…

    1. How much longer will the England players continue to perform this ridiculous gesture? I don’t think any other national team does it.

      2. Taking the knee seems to me to be an admission of weakness and supplication. The stupid fuckers should stop this virtual signalling and ridiculous posturing forthwith. It signifies nothing of worth and is based on falsehoods.

    3. Stupid b*ggers! The cretinous Southgate is sooo thick that he can’t see how wrong he is!

      1. I do agree. This whole nonsense started with Black Lives Matter and the death of the felon George Floyd, an evil cretin and thug of the first water.

        The fact that the FA and their tool Southgate have not yet cottoned on to the facts surrounding the BLM mob and George Floyd’s death merely shows their ignorance of real world affairs. These idiots must live in some sort of cocoon where their vast unjustified and unearned wealth seemingly gives them immunity to common sense and the truth.

    4. ‘England players booed by children in Hungary when taking a knee before Nations League opener‘

      Good, but why just the children?

      1. ‘ coz dem racist Hungarian Nazis abused de blek players in an earlier game and only families were allowed to attend.
        A classic example of “like fathers like sons”

  52. PS – I told a LIE.

    Good old PBS America are carrying a prog about D-Day on Monday.

    2. One of the best channels …

      BTW, Bill: ‘PBS America’ is a collective noun; ‘IS’ will do …

  53. Snippet from the DT on the state of AffGaff.

    “The economic collapse and hunger which followed the Taliban’s takeover last summer has not spared this once prosperous, middle-class corner of the Afghan capital.

    “She would die if we did not have this aid,” said a woman in the queue called Simin, pointing to her daughter Reyhana. Her husband is jobless and the couple must somehow feed six children.”

    SIX – I repeat SIX – Children.

    1. Indeed, what a small family, presumably her husband can only afford one wife.

  54. Can anyone tell me why shaking a cocktail mixes the ingredients better than stirring?
    Keep it simple.

    4. Think in terms of kneading something and whisking something, which gets the better mix?
      Stirring is to kneading as shaking is to whisking.

  55. I see the woke mob couldn’t resist getting pride colours displayed by fireworks after the first number at the concert.

    1. Glad i’m not watching then. Poor Queen. That it has cone to this.

      1. She’s probably got the sound on mute. And a nice dubonnet and gin to cope with the pictures.

          1. If she has to wear a hearing aid (and I don’t think she does), if I were her I’d switch it off when they walk into the room.

    2. I was appalled to see a (pride colours display?) fireworks minutes before the Epsom Derby.

      There is a proud tradition in Britain and Ireland: ‘We don’t frighten the horses’.

  56. This lunchtime up to Crich to drop off the large tool cabinet at the tramway museum workshop.
    No real problems, there were enough hand to make it light work.
    On the way out I scrounged some logs, including some meaty hawthorn, from trees that has been cleared from the trackside.

    Rather depressing at Crich. It’s the “Seaside fun” event which is normally heaving, but sadly they have been stopped from operating the trams on safety grounds. The Office of the Rail Regulator paid a visit a month ago and, looking at the condition of some of the tram poles supporting the OLE, slammed a prohibited to run notice on them.
    The poles have been deteriorating for years with minimal preventative maintenance carried out, despite warning from the more technically minded volunteers, and the neglect has come round to bite them on the arse.

    I suspect the next AGM in September will be rather interesting as well as being heated.

  57. I’m enjoying the Palace gig.
    It is interesting to see how the crowd rocks to the old music but stands relatively numbed to the c rap

    1. Ashly Banjo did a good job, but George’s face at the end was a picture of boredom.

      1. I feel very sorry for that child.
        His entire life is about training him to be King. He’s never, ever, off duty.

        1. In any other walk of life the Social Workers would have taken him away and put him into care!

        2. Much like the rest of them. I cannot imagine the life they have to lead. No privacy, no ability to slob about in their pyjamas, everything stage managed, someoen to tell them what to wear, dictating where they’ll go and how long they’ll be there for.

        1. Nope, he has become the epitome of a woke national treasure. Just askin’ but do we have any non blick pop icons that are not pensioners..seems very few looking at the performers

          2. Please Miss, may I be White, but not hideous

            Are ther hideous BAMES? (apart from on the bbc?)

  58. I’m enjoying the Palace gig.
    It is interesting to see how the crowd rocks to the old music but stands relatively numbed to the c rap

  59. Cripes. At least our food caddies are collected each week.

    “Firefighters rushed to reports of a blaze at Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire shortly after 9pm on Friday evening but by the time they arrived, locals had extinguished the blaze. The fire is believed to have started when yobs set fire to waste and refuse outside the abbey, which dates from the 12th century.”

    1. Well, at least credit’s cheap – for the time being.

      Did you fund it against your mortgage or through a personal loan?

    1. Just started reading Dominic Frisby’s Life After the State. AS usual, he’s spot on. The state is a perncious thug which brutalises our country. The massive expension in tax theft is directly linked to state inefficiency, waste and incompetence.

      Cut taxes, shred the state. If they won’t then they go. Start at the top and strim. It’s as simple as that.

    2. I’m always amazed that humming bird territory extends all the way up to Canada.

      1. A couple outside at the Oriole feeder a few minutes ago.

        There’s always a moment of panic when you hear the buzzing and are not sure if it’s a hummingbird or a mosquito on steroids.

      2. My late brother had a love for Humming Birds, both in Arizona and North Carolina, where he had those Humming Bird feeders for them.

  64. Oh gawwd, Attenborough harping on. The end of the world is nigh. With luck Brenda will have turned over to Coronation Street.

    1. The OTT Concert has sunk to absurdity. After numerous pics of embarrassed princes waving miniature Union Flags; and focusing on David Attenborough, it has turned into a Zero Carbon Fest -, led by Prince William – politicising the future of the Royal Family.

      IMHO, this is a road to disaster …

        1. I too, J, gave it a wide swerve but, from what I heard from one side of the house to the other, was an awful lot of screeching.

  65. Just discovered a bottle of my home made cider from a couple of years ago.
    hic!

  67. I quite enjoyed a lot of the Jubilee concert; Queen were great and some of the others. Too much prancing but too little Rod and Elton.
    Prince Charles’s speech was spot on and I thought Camilla looked super.
    Nessun Dorma- lovely- I always thought it was a camper van.

    1. The production was fantastic. Not an easy thing to stage on a roundabout in the centre of London. Pity about the woke themes running through the concert, but not too much from the slammers. They are not so keen on singing and dancing, I understand.

      1. I didn’t think I would enjoy it but it was fun. Sometimes we have to be young again.

        1. I have only seen the Brenda and Paddington skit so far,.There’s a solution no coverage over here I don’t think that Trudeau approves of morale boosting events in his post nationhood world.

          1. Paddington and HM scene was superb. And also that P Charles referred to it in his speech.

  68. I thought the two white performers were quite good….

    Woke William is a Wazzock.

    TTFN

    1. Brenda and Steven Fry, national treasures. Fry didn’t look as if he had much left in him and was Dianna Ross miming, surely not..

      1. Don’t like Fry, never have done. Another who has succeeded spectacularly by ticking boxes and isn’t as clever as he thinks he is.

Comments are closed.