Wednesday 22 June: Weeks of rail strikes could prove devastating for an outmoded and faltering industry

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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736 thoughts on “Wednesday 22 June: Weeks of rail strikes could prove devastating for an outmoded and faltering industry”

  2. Gosh! Almost first! I would have been only I got sidetracked by wondering what Richard Madeley said that was so terrible.

  5. It’s so bright this morning I’ve been awake for hours. Not really a morning person at all.

    1. The Kansas episode is being blamed on heat and humidity. However, it appears that although the temperature and humidity were high those conditions are not unknown in Kansas and that Texas experiences those conditions where huge numbers of cattle are reared without the cattle dying en mass.

    2. A guest at my cousin’s birthday bash on Sunday was going on about that.
      The topic didn’t add to the festive atmosphere.

    3. Also, a number of food processing plants have been catching fire in the US. No explanation offered.

  9. Good morning, all. Fine sunny start to the day in N Essex.

    Leaked e-mails and a gaffe from Biden re the next pandemic – I am unable to copy GETTR comment with the video – all support the ‘conspiracy theory’ that what has happened, and continues to happen, is a conspiracy of monumental proportions.

    Extract from the summary of a long article at Trial Site News. Emphasis is mine

    I spoke with Sasha Latypova, who has run clinical trials for over 25 years and owns her own biotech company, to ask her expert opinion on the leaked documents. She said, “The lack of mRNA integrity and presence of uncharacterized fragments of RNA in batches of Pfizer’s product was identified as a “Major Objection” – a formal regulatory red flag, deemed a product impurity and would have been a showstopper in any normal drug approval process. At a minimum, it required an additional “bridging” clinical trial to evaluate the clinical effects which would have taken months to design and conduct properly.

    Panic overruled scientific integrity, and an arbitrarily lowered batch acceptance standard was adopted for the sake of meeting a politically motivated deadline. To date, this issue remains unresolved and could be the underlying cause for the enormous variation in the rates of adverse events and deaths observed for different manufacturing batch numbers in the CDC VAERS and other databases.’

    Latypova made an apt reference to the fate of the Titanic, by drawing a comparison in the way regulatory bodies conducted their ‘warp speed’ process of authorising the Covid-19 vaccines. The Titanic’s captain, Edward J. Smith, was aiming to better the crossing time of another vessel, which meant the ship was travelling way too fast, in waters known to have ice. This set it on a fatal collision with an iceberg and the rest is history.

    Regulatory agencies, like the EMA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. and the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) are chartered to make decisions based to better the public. External influences such as political or media pressure are not meant to be a driving factor in their decision-making, however, when it came to pandemic conditions and the fast-tracked conditional marketing authorization of the Covid-19 vaccines (particularly for the mRNA-based vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), it appears the latter won the day.

    Full article here at Trial Site News

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1dc386a0ade8d2612e8686919397832570cfdbc568706dc3f8b84c904a1c7ea3.png

  10. Well I can’t find much to write about my friends. I think this is because things are going badly for the PTB in Ukraine and they figure no news is better than bad news!

  11. ‘Morning, Peeps. A cheery 14°C here so far, with an obliging 23° later.

    SIR – Union bosses love strikes. They justify their high salaries at the expense of their members.

    All strikes (like all wars) are resolved around the negotiating table. Thus a strike, like a war, is futile and supremely expensive both to the participants and the country. It achieves nothing that couldn’t have been negotiated by men of integrity in the first place.

    G M E Barber
    Sudbury, Suffolk

    “Men of integrity…” ? In the Commie-led RMT? I think you may be expecting rather a lot, G Barber. When the rank and file wake up to the fact that they are being led into a political strike in all but name, perhaps then they will see the light and make known their reluctance to continue.

    1. The Labour Party just like the Unions use the workers as political pawns for their own ends. They really don’t give a fuck about them except to use them to maintain their own lavish lifestyles and score meaningless points against people or groups they disapprove of.

  13. Good morning, everyone. Nice and sunny day, ideal for washing and drying.

  14. I had to visit the doctors yesterday, first time for many years, they have this new app where you can arrange for the doctor to call you and even send in pictures of any problem.
    So I’v missed their last few calls but got a call yesterday and the doctor said that I could be seen if I was available.
    I wasn’t far away so drove there.
    Went in, saw the receptionist, was asked to wear a mask.
    So went into the waiting room, completely empty, not a soul about.
    And I thought doctors were overwhelmed at the moment and people couldn’t get appointments.
    It all seemed a bit weird.

    1. On separate occasions two blood tests and an ECG. On each of the three visits i was kept waiting more than half an hour. The place was deserted. Not a soul. For the entire time i was there.

    2. Good morning Bob3.
      That sounds exactly like the bloated (by admin, not by functioning GPs or visible patients) practice from which I have just escaped. From over 100 seats in the waiting room pre-2020 to about 12 rarely used seats now. Numerous complaints from patients but a recent CQC inspection gave an overall ‘good’ rating while slating some aspects – a whitewash.
      I have just transferred to a highly regarded smaller practice in a nearby town. From the moment I walked in to deliver my registration form, the difference was unbelievable. Half the seats in the waiting area were occupied, and the receptionist smiled.
      The final straw with the old practice was when they unilaterally took it on themselves to halve the dosage of an essential medication and remove another completely …….. in spite of recently claiming in a letter to my consultant that my condition is one “for which we would not normally monitor or prescribe.” They have been both monitoring and prescribing for me for the entire 35 years we had been registered there. I suspect the issue would not have arisen had my old GP not retired. A chat with the clinical pharmacist at the new place, and me handing over the repeats order with the original items, and all was sorted, no fuss just did what was needed.
      From what I have heard, the new place initially give a telephone appointment but there is then no problem getting a face-to-face appointment. Fingers crossed.

    3. Was chatting to my painter the other day and he, like me, was complaining about the difficulty of seeing a doctor face to face. “They want you to send in a photograph,” he scoffed. “What if I had a problem with my dick – would I get arrested for sending a picture of it?” I told him he’d probably be on the sex offenders list!

  15. SIR – I’ve caught up with technology and have bought the latest iPhone.

    When will the manufacturers of jeans make a pocket that the iPhone will slip into? At present one third of the phone sticks out, leaving it vulnerable either to falling out or being lifted.

    Bryn Hatch
    Clevedon, Somerset

    More money than sense, Mr Hatch! The iPhone must surely be the most over-priced item going.

    2. Clevedon ( my town ) has a population of about 22,000, I follow the local Facewinge groups and you can bet that at least 2 people a day report having lost their iPhone/ Samsung mobiles in the local area, the majority of these “Losers” are teen/pre-teens and the phones worth between £250 to £900 plus, even my two granddaughters treat their phones with as much respect as they would a pencil case with the nub ends of a couple of HB pencils and a dry felt tip. Better pockets are not the answer. Facebook attracts a lot of criticism but as my town can best be described as living in the 1950s but with indoor plumbing the losers are nearly always reunited with their phones the same goes for lost keys and bank cards

    4. His jeans have enough room for a trouser snake but not an apple product. There’s a Garden of Eden joke in there somewhere.

  16. SIR – British Airways, easyJet, and Tui are to “wet lease” aircraft from EU countries, which means they will be crewed by EU pilots (report, June 21).

    While BA and Tui have made some effort to recruit British airline pilots, to my knowledge, easyJet has made absolutely none.

    I know this because my son is a pilot who lost his job at the beginning of the pandemic, but scans the airlines for any opportunity to get back in the air. To date, he has had no luck – and he is far from the only one. These airlines are a disgrace.

    Derek Jones
    Moffat, Dumfriesshire

    Presumably EU pilots are cheaper to employ?

  17. Russian forces capture settlements near Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk – as it happened. 22 June 2022.

    Earlier today, Russia captured the frontline village of Toshkivka near the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Donbas region. Continuing on, Russian forces captured Pidlisne and Mala Dolyna, located southwest of Sievierodonetsk, and saw success near the Hirske settlement in the Luhansk oblast.

    It’s the purest guesswork of course but it looks as though the Ukies have suffered a collapse in morale. Their best people; the volunteers and those who believe in an independent Ukraine have been killed leaving just the dog soldiers. This is the reason for opening a second front in Lithuania and the useless and irrelevant attack on Snake Island overnight. They are distractions. It is here under the pressure of events that miscalculations may arise and we will find ourselves at war with Russia.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/jun/21/russia-ukraine-war-moscow-to-summon-eu-ambassador-over-openly-hostile-kaliningrad-cargo-transit-ban-live-news?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-62b2346a8f08a75f2786fa5b#block-62b2346a8f08a75f2786fa5b

    1. That isn’t possible. The BBC told me that the Ukes are thrashing the Ruskies and Putin will be deposed by his own generals within days. Don’t believe everything you read in the papers.

      1. Most of the Russian offensives seem to be about using up vast stocks of heavy artillery, much of it dating back to when it would be paraded in front of waving Soviet Politburo officials outside the Kremlin.

        The poor bloody infantry on both sides are presumably taking a pasting, and neither are achieving much, apart from the grind of steady progress as the Russians trash their way in, smashed town by smashed town.

        The Lithuanian second front has nothing to do with Ukraine, which has its own battles to fight. This spat is about EU sanctions and Russia’s right to a transit corridor to its outpost in East Prussia. This has to be upheld by Treaty, and never mind sanctions, because if the Russians enforce the corridor, how do Lithuanian lorry drivers get into Poland and from there to the rest of Europe?

        The only alternative is for Kaliningrad to be invaded by someone not being sanctioned by the EU. I don’t see much of an appetite anywhere for that.

        The idea that it would only cost a couple of hundred billion to restore what has been wrecked since 24th February is laughable. How much to repair just one burnt-out tower block in West London? It cost the British £100 billion just to build one zil lane railway. Who is going to pay for restoring the Donbas back to what it was?

  18. SIR – Having placed a commission bid on a museum-quality pair of 19th-century duelling pistols with all their accessories, I am now informed by the auction house that all items within the fitted case containing bone or ivory will be removed and will not be available to the winning bidder.

    It is laughable to suppose that this act of legally imposed vandalism will save a single elephant from poachers. One might just as well burn priceless antique books to prevent modern deforestation.

    Andrew M Courtney
    Hampton Wick, Midddlesex

    As I understand it, an item must not contain more than 200g of ivory, and an exemption certificate can be obtained if it is at least 100 years old. If that is the case then the auction house appears to be ‘gold-plating’ the regulations.

    1. They don’t understood them, probably. Like covid regulations lots of people went nuts with “precautions”.
      I do not understand the laws that now forbid the sale of long dead elephants. None of this does anything to stop poaching or the ongoing illegal sales of ivory that take place in East Asia. It just puts the price up (Supply and Demand 101) making it more profitable all round.

  19. SIR – Last week I purchased €400 at our local post office. The details of my passport and debit card were entered on to the post office computer terminal. Can anyone tell me who needs these data, and why?

    Malcolm Bird
    Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire

    Evidence in case Malcolm Bird is money-laundering?

    2. Sub-postmasters know all about the reliability and security of the IT devices they have to use. I believe some senior managers got some nice payouts for what they did.

      I would check your bank account very carefully over the next couple of months.

    1. 353446+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik,
      The way coalitions work they ( lab ino) have the shout next .

    2. The real failure of the police, the prosecution service and every social worker is revealed by the use of the word “disrupting”. It means that there have been no arrests and no prosecutions. It seems now to be policy, not to arrest, but to “disrupt”. I do not know what it means.

  21. SIR – Some human resource managers have fully absorbed the woke dogma that “my feelings trump your facts” (“How the HR monster destroyed the workplace”, Comment, June 18).

    Earlier this year I left my job as a university lecturer in a business school, in part because I was tired of the politicisation of both the curriculum and the institution itself, much of it facilitated by human resources. I think, for instance, of Universities UK’s expensive campaign in 2016 against Brexit, the hostile atmosphere that this generated for those of us of a different mind and, more recently, the uncritical acceptance of “critical race theory” – not too subtly camouflaged as the Race Equality Charter of the charity Advance HE (report, June 19).

    On leaving, I found that this political posturing seemed to have replaced the efficient completion of basic human resource practice. I spent two months trying to obtain a leaver’s payslip and P45 from my HR department, even though the law states that employers must provide these. Eventually, when I mentioned the possibility of legal action, a human resource manager sent the PAYE documents to me, but not before chastising me for the “tone” of my email and the “impact” that it had had upon her.

    Rod Thomas
    Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland

    We are done for, Mr Thomas, well and truly done for.

    2. I complained once about Simon Mallinson, then Head of Legal & Democratic Services at Worcestershire County Council on a salary considerably higher than that for the Prime Minister, and coming out of my Council Tax. I was taken on as a junior office worker as a means of getting back into some sort of career after a spell of unemployment. I was overqualified, but this job was an opening, giving me the chance to sniff around for something more appropriate when it came up.

      However, I was 50 years old, male and ticked all the wrong boxes. I was their second choice, since the woman they really wanted turned it down, and I was the only other one on the shortlist that was qualified. The deal was that it was a permanent appointment, covering someone on long-term sick leave, who was unlikely to come back. If she did, then I would have to hand over my job and collect my P45, but that was a gamble I was prepared to take.

      Three weeks into the job, it was my birthday, so I brought along some cakes to share with my colleagues (all female, except for the section manager who had already serving out his time before retirement and was really no longer interested). They glowered at me and said “what’s the matter with you?” as if I was being patronising and harassing them. In the end, I had to eat the cakes myself.

      A week later, a brown envelope landed on my desk. It was a document signed by Simon Mallinson changing my terms of employment from permanent to casual with a monthly termination review with the next one being the following Wednesday. I was wondering why my training had stalled. Each time I asked the correct procedure to input cheques onto their system, I was told by my line manager “don’t bother me now, send the cheques downstairs”. I then looked into the Council’s own employment regulations and policies towards equality, and against bullying, and found that this letter from Simon Mallinson breached six of their own policies, so I complained to his line manager, the Corporate Director of the Council with a copy sent to HR. I approached the union, but they were not interested because I was not a woman.

      I did get a sympathetic response from the Disabilities Officer after I explained that I had a hearing disorder (totally deaf in one ear) that made it difficult to hear what someone was saying to me in the office when I was on the phone, or when there was a lot of background noise. I also went down with a serious bout of clinical depression during my time of “actively seeking work” that affected my memory in the short term, but not anything that a spell in work would not put right. I said at interview that I needed six weeks to get up to speed, which is what they gave new recruits anyway. Three weeks to recover my memory (I was using post-it notes constantly at the start), a week to make and deal with any mistakes as I gave up the post-it notes, and then two weeks to get fully up to speed and my performance to be assessed. They agreed to this then.

      I think what upset them was that one part of my job was to take all incoming conveyance requests from solicitors and perform a check whether any part of the property lay in a common. There was a definitive map to verify this. We were given a three-day turnround to do this, but I could do it in about ten minutes, and get the report back to the solicitors within the day. Another time, I came across a request concerning land that abutted my own home, so I went to my line manager to declare an interest. “Don’t bother me with that” was his response.

      They hauled me up on a disciplinary because before any cheque left my desk, I would put a little pencil tick in the ledger to signify to me that I had done so, had anything happened to the cheque. They told me I was complicating their system, and that this alone was grounds for termination.

      After my letter to Simon Mallinson’s line manager, I had a very sniffy letter from the Council Head Solicitor informing me that I was interfering with the management structure of the Council, and that I should have taken my complaint to my line manager. I knew that approaching him was a waste of time, and anyway he did not sign the document; Simon Mallinson did.

      In the end, they went ahead with the appointment for the termination review. The evening before, I had a mental breakdown and ceased to function. I could not even drive, let alone defend myself against all these Council lawyers, well paid by me to wreck my career.

      I did take it to ACAS, but they told me that I would not do better than a month’s pay in lieu of notice they were offering me, and it could have a serious impact on my health far more than what the job was worth. In any case, my life would not have been worth living had they been forced to keep me on, despite their “anti-bullying policy”. Of course my public sector pension was cancelled, and I got no references which effectively forced my retirement. I only had one casual, zero hours, minimum wage driving job after that, which dried up after Vauxhall went down in 2008.

      I am now mercifully 66 years old and can draw my State pension, even though I had to top up my contributions to get it in full.

      Considering my own experience being the model upon which employers in the private sector treat their staff, I am not really surprised that there is a labour shortage right now, as the gullible cheap foreigners either go home or go native.

      1. What a terrible experience. Council jobsworths with very slopey shoulders. My husband came across many when a company he worked for were contracted on a long project at a city council. Continual obstruction, buck-passing and inertia at best.

        1. More likely brazen and unaccountable skullduggery, for which I am forced by law to pay £1000 a year towards.

          There are 45 Conservative county councillors in Worcestershire, and they aren’t even interested in keeping the colleges viable and open, despite education and training being very much the County’s brief.

          Plenty of traffic lights though – put at considerable expense where there is little traffic and easy visibility. They are there primarily to make drivers crotchety and impatient.

          1. Probably good at adding ‘traffic calming’ speed bumps too. Maybe you also benefitted from plenty of ‘convid marshals’ and one-way lines painted onto footpaths to ‘help enforce social distancing and keep our residents safe.’

          2. They never say what they are keeping us “safe” from though, do they?

          3. These speed bumps are brilliant at sorting the problem of patients waiting in ambulances for hours before the PFI money generators (aka “hospitals”) let them in to Triage. Bump, bump – straight into the morgue. No hanging about!

    3. I remember a senior member of Newcastle’s staff getting totally smashed at a conference, in the years when I had to work for a living, it was extremely embarrassing. I assume she must have been an unreformed alcoholic foiled by the large amount of free alcohol available: they were hosting the conference and she had a prominent position on the top table, elevated above we mere normal attendees, but no one told her to regain control.

  22. Well said, Allison:

    COMMENT

    In Broken Britain the customer is always wrong

    It’s amazing how much time is spent warning us to be grateful for what we’re given and how little time is spent improving the service

    ALLISON PEARSON 21 June 2022 • 5:00pm

    Welcome back to Broken Britain! OK, so there wasn’t an actual sign saying that in passport control at Stansted last weekend, but thousands of travellers funnelled into cattle pens and a wait of an hour and 45 minutes until we got close to the ePassport gates, only a third of which were in use, told their own story.  

    What there was a sign for, several overhead digital screens declaring the same message, was this: “We respect you, and we expect staff to be treated with respect too.” There followed the usual warning about not being rude, aggressive, raising your voice or engaging in “other unreasonable behaviours”.

    Personally, I think using behaviour in the plural is grounds for shouting, ranting, crying out in pain and smiting your forehead against a wall until it bleeds. But that’s probably just me being a sad old pedant. The message beamed out on those screens was surely unarguable? Of course, airline passengers should not be abusive to Border Control officers. We would certainly have treated such staff with dignity and respect. If we’d seen any that is. Among the 2,000 or so patiently queuing souls, their holiday glow fading by the minute, I think I spotted two airport personnel doing precisely nothing, unless you count wearing a pink tabard and yawning as an activity.

    Reading all those multiple exhortations to behave well (I had a lot of time to do so), I found myself becoming deeply irritated. Essentially, the airport and the Border Force (hard to tell who exactly was responsible) were providing a dreadful, wholly inadequate service while warning their customers not to complain about it. Or else.

    It’s the same everywhere. With standards of consumer care deteriorating, and organisations deliberately making it harder to contact them, there is a proliferation of those passive-aggressive notices demanding our consideration for a service which is barely bog-standard. Hospitals, schools, police who no longer bother to investigate burglaries, all announce loftily they have a “zero tolerance” policy towards members of the public who dare to protest.

    As my train fare to London has gone up and up, the conductors who used to provide a comforting support to passengers – helping the elderly onto the platform, moving on a group of yobs – have disappeared. Now, we learn that train operators want to phase out ticket offices at stations altogether, telling passengers to buy tickets online. But we like ticket offices! We like the tiny human interaction with knowledgeable men and women who occasionally help us to plot a complex journey the cheapest possible way. And lots of people, particularly among the older generation, don’t have a smartphone. Besides, have you ever tried to show an online train ticket late at night and three G&Ts down only to discover your phone has run out of juice? I have. It’s hopeless. 

    But don’t go blaming them, those shoddy, sanctimonious, no-service “services”, whatever you do. The customer is always wrong and must know their place: “We take it very seriously if a member of staff is treated in an abusive or disrespectful way.” See, boys and girls, how they get their complaint in first to deflect our perfectly natural annoyance at how badly they treat us?

    It’s amazing how much time is spent warning the public to be grateful for what they’re given and how little time is spent improving the service about which we have just cause for complaint. I reckon it’s high time for a fightback; a very polite, non-abusive and totally reasonable one, of course.

    “Sorry, I have a zero-tolerance policy towards being treated with a total lack of respect by the services I pay for.” Something like that?

    1. Going through Heathrow last month in the rebuilt Terminal 2, I had to confront a face-recognition system grinding up and down with the speed of a ZX Spectrum on dial-up that didn’t even acknowledge I had a face. My sardonic comment to a passing employee was met by the equally sardonic “well, you should be glad you aren’t in Manchester.

      I was caught out passing through passport control in Singapore in 2007. I was travelling with my sister and her children, and we got separated after the plane landed. I thought I’d join the queue and wait for them there. Within 90 seconds, I was the other side of the border, with no easy way back to look for them!

      The only reason I was in Heathrow anyway was because there are no longer any dentists available to me in the UK that are competent or affordable, and I was having to travel to Poland to see to twenty years of NHS neglect, with two broken teeth only this year caused by an ill-fitting NHS plate because putting a bridge over my front teeth was beyond them. This NHS practitioner, who had five sets of letters after his name, did not even bother to check the bite. He waved a mirror in front of me, to assure me that the look was ok, but the fact that I couldn’t close my mouth was less important to him. In the end, this plastic thing pushed against the teeth either side, broke off the face from one pre-molar, and snapped the other one off at the gum. I wasn’t inclined then to go back to him, so off to Poland I went to find someone who could fix my teeth for less than £10,000.

      When I complained to the NHS, their Regional Complaints Officer wanted me to sign a declaration absolving them of all responsibility, and reword it as my dentist being instructed by the NHS to wreck my teeth, which of course he would deny. Case closed. I said that the funding structure for dentists since Alan Milburn reformed the service in 1999 made it unviable for them to doing anything other than fillings, extractions and cheap plastic denture plates. Certainly they were not going to investigate that, since it is probably true

  23. 353446+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Weeks of rail strikes could prove devastating for an outmoded and faltering industry

    Every little helps says the political overseers keeping reset / replace
    firmly in mind, the toxic trio have always maintained they would get the Country back on it’s feet, no falsehoods there and the replacement campaign coming on in leaps & bounds.

    “Could prove devastating” COULD ? as planned more like it.

    These political overseers are themselves creators of problems in action taken initially, they then they rhetorically set about looking for solutions that were never needed to start with, and the pay & perks are very good along with a cut of a scam.

    2. Not content with making us hide our faces, the elites now don’t want to hear us speak either.

  25. Morning, all!

    A few of the beautiful creatures I took a boat trip to see yesterday. Such a pleasure to watch them basking, skins shiny and taut with fat, their flippers far from reaching the sand.

    Perfect weather, and when I took some raisins on a whim to an artist I’d previously met in Blakeney, I was invited to take tea in his boat. So I spent a perfect afternoon enjoying the lovely weather and looking out over the salt marshes, discussing painting.

    Little pleasures.

    Per

    2. Ah. Should probably clarify that the raisins were for the birds he feeds at his studio door 🤣

    3. I took the same boat trip a few years back, ATD. It is a quite magical experience.

    4. “Such a pleasure to watch them basking, skins shiny and taut with fat, their flippers far from reaching the sand.”

      And some using beach umbrellas.

  26. Nicked

    “…the steep rises in food and record high petrol prices had been
    “offset” by the price of clothes rising less than they did this time
    last year, along with a drop in computer game costs.”
    Well I’ll eat my hat and play space invaders for lunch.
    Inflation at 9%,oh how we laffed,supermarket shopping yesterday basic block butter has gone fro £1.50 to £2.00,still,makes the premium Guernsey (delicious) butter look like a bargain at £2.20

    1. Two quid – the sign read 199.9 – per litre of diesel at Tesco Irvine this morning. Thankfully, I still have 3/4 a tank.

  27. Good morning all.
    Another beautiful start and somewhat warmer at 10½°C. A clear blue sky and it’s going to get warm.

    1. I’ve got to get outside while the shade is still over my second planter. I’ve got to shovel the rest of the content of a large compost bin into it. 1200 x 600, 700 high trough 300 deep, on legs to save bending.
      Made from 5 pallets. Those annular Ringshank nails are a pain. But free timber of course.

  28. Good Moaning.
    Gary Lineker, eat your heart out. This person has won the Victimhood Bingo Stakes! Well, apart from still having two legs and being on the pale side.

    “Transgender ex-neo-Nazi bank robber, 63, will get ‘gender surgeries’ fast-tracked by Texas Bureau of Prisons after she filed lawsuit against the agency over delays

    The Bureau of Prisons is speeding up ‘gender confirmation surgeries’ for transgender inmate Donna Langan, 63, an ex-neo-Nazi bank robber

    Langan, serving life in prison for two violent robberies, claimed she was suffering gender dysphoria and discrimination at a women’s prison

    After serving 20 years, Langan was one of a few transgender inmates allowed to transfer to Carswell Federal Medical Center women’s prison, in Texas

    She filed a complaint in 2021, with the BOP filing a joint report last week saying she would be granted the surgeries while avoiding battles in court”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10939663/Trans-ex-neo-Nazi-robber-fast-tracked-gender-surgeries-Bureau-Prisons.html

    1. My comment on line-acre was removed yesterday 🙃 I did call him the full Monty DH not these initials.

          2. A few of other union officials lived in council houses if i remember correctly, all paid for by the tax payers and union members.

          3. I remember a welsh union boss – forget his name now – when asked why he lived in a big mansion replied “Everyone should live in a big mansion” which shows the mentality of union leaders

    2. He would never admit that Wilson and Callaghan closed down more pits then Thatcher ever did.

      1. That’s absolutely correct, Eddy. Scargill’s power quest was always more about ideology than miners’ jobs or their welfare.

        Whilst its president, Scargill commissioned the building of a £500,000 — a lot of money in 1984 — National Union of Mineworkers HQ in Sheffield (the old one in London was perfectly serviceable). My father was a lifelong NUM member who got not a single penny from the union when he retired early suffering from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, a miners’ lung disease, despite the union having a massive fund for that purpose.

        1. I forget to add, around the same time Scargill also bought himself a £400,000 bungalow in Barnsley.

    1. Don’t forget the big fat gold plated bomb proof pensions they’ll all get, it wont be the 7k a year most people the UK are paid either.

      1. Didn’t the British Railways pension fund own an impressive number of Old Masters?

        1. Not sure Anne, but i know a chap who worked for London transport for most of his life as a driver and the union allowed a company from i think Germany take on the funds and the retired workers were paid very little as a result. That’s what Maxwell did.
          I was voted union rep for our branch of the massive aluminium smelter project in Gladstone QLD they use to call me Frank as i was about most things. We never had any problems during the six months I worked on the site. there were chaps from all over Russians Italians Swedish English Scots a Taff we all got a long well………..but.
          Oh yes spanner in the works, the short term site manager was a horrible really rude and nasty chap from Narrth Yarkshire and he seemed to hate every body, we had him transferred. We had a great atmosphere there and use to compete against each others in teams of 6 or ten to complete task as quickly as we could. Boxes of beer were the prizes. All drank as a happy group. Good fun.

        2. The BR Pension Fund was, and in it’s current guise still is, one of the best run funds in Britain.

      2. Didn’t the British Railways pension fund own an impressive number of Old Masters?

      1. Mick Lynch the General Secretary of RMT only gets over £124k. He should go on strike to get equal pay with boss of Network Rail, Andrew Haines.

    1. Good common sense as usual from Jordan Peterson.

      (My only criticism here is that his teleprompter screen is placed too low and it does not look as if he is addressing his audience)

        1. When I was at prep school they taught us how to read aloud and address an audience. It is important to look up regularly from the text and cast your eyes around those in front of you.

          I used to read the lesson in church from time to time. I always insisted that I did not use a microphone which, I find, distorts rather than clarifies. Knowing how to project your voice is vital.

    2. As a clinical psychologist, he’s on the front line of this particular struggle. They are under huge pressure to simply validate any belief that comes their way.

    3. Makes one wonder how many cards were available for Happy Fathers Gay on Sunday.

    4. Well said. However you got one minor point wrong, Jordan. America is not “the most populous democracy on earth”. That accolade belongs to India.

  32. Got to be thinking about my 10 o’clock appointment. Later – maybe. The Internet here keeps dropping out.

    1. Is yours virgin media ? I’ve just spent an hour trying to get ours to work suddenly it came back on line.

    2. I find sky drops out regularly at 2am every night – I think it’s telling me to go to bed!

  33. Good morning
    a question for Phizzee or anyone else who knows…
    How would you divide a larger bag of dehydrated food (eg 10 kg) in such a way that it would still keep for a long time?
    I’ve seen a youtuber from the US dropping a sachet of something that looked like silica gell in a heat-sealed bag.
    Would it be enough to pack it in zip-lock freezer bags inside an air-tight container?

      1. That looks interesting! I saw a video where the couple had a freeze dryer for their own produce, and one of these to store it. They aimed to grow everything they ate.
        I’m not sure that I have enough volume to justify it, I must think about that.

        1. I think that is a good idea and not just for dry things. If you vac packed everything for your freezer the items would take up a lot less room.

        1. You can re-use the bags by cutting off the sealed part, you can do this maybe 2 or 3 times until the bag is too small to hold anything and have enough surface left to seal

    3. Good morning. I believe you are on the right track but Fallick_Alec seems to have a better answer. See below.

  34. Speculation Putin could be ousted amid rumours about Russian President’s health, say Western officials. 22 June 2022.

    There is “more speculation” in Russia that Vladimir Putin could lose at the next election after the “huge strategic error” he made invading Ukraine, Western officials said on Tuesday.

    The Russian president will likely face “political consequences” when the country next goes to the polls in 2024, particularly as rumours about his health continue to circulate, they said.

    The Kremlin has clamped down on independent media and free speech in an attempt to prevent facts about the country’s widely condemned war reaching the population.

    Vlad of course has approval figures that no one in the West can even dream of! As to clamping down on Free Speech and Independent Media neither exists west of the Rhine.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/vladimir-putin-health-elections-russia-ukraine-western-officials-b1007508.html

    1. “The Kremlin has clamped down on independent media and free speech…”
      Aha! So that is why I cannot connect to RT.com!
      Silly old me! I thought it was somehow the work of the UK government and its chums in the EU.

    3. Does Russia respect presidential election results more scrupulously than the USA?

  35. A man was working in the garden and his wife was about to take a shower.
    He realized that he couldn’t find the rake.. and yelled up to his wife,
    “Where is the rake?”
    She couldn’t hear and she shouted back, “What?”
    He pointed to his eye, and then pointed to his knee and made a raking motion.
    his wife wasn’t sure and said “What?”
    He repeated the gestures. “Eye – Kneed – The Rake”
    His wife replied that she understands and signals back.
    She first points to her eye, next she points to her left breast, then she points to her backside, and finally to her crotch.
    Well, there is no way in hell he could even come close to that one.
    Exasperated, He went upstairs and asked her, “What the hell was that?”
    She replies:
    “Eye – Left Tit – Behind – The Bush”

    1. Good morning. Off to the dentist soon for the first fitting of my partial denture. To chew or not to chew. That is the question.

  37. Morning all 😊
    Perhaps this is the real reason we are having to pay three times the price for our gas now. I can’t find the actual details of the costs nation wide but one of the contractors in our road told me it runs into man many millions.
    Nothing to do with Putin at all.

    https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=23c827e2d1af3024bdb04d7617b05eceb2835755df806a6b7434003c454e7f14JmltdHM9MTY1NTg4NjA1MiZpZ3VpZD1jYjlkMzgxNy02YzZiLTQ5YjAtYTZlOC01NDliNDUyZjMwOGImaW5zaWQ9NTE3MA&ptn=3&fclid=3a9b3438-f204-11ec-a8be-194ba5b6cb91&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmV0dGVyZ2FzcGlwZXMuY28udWsv&ntb=1

  38. Important article on Jan 6 Hoax:

    Trump-Hating Kinzinger’s Anti-Constitution Violence
    As the Left’s violent rampages continue, he blames Trump supporters.
    by JEFFREY LORD
    June 20, 2022, 11:20 PM
    Rep. Adam Kinzinger on ABC’s This Week last Sunday (ABC News/YouTube)

    Illinois “Republican” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a worshiper deep in the heart of the Trump-hating cult that is symbolized by the corrupt, anti-Constitution January 6 Committee, made the Washington Post’s headlines the other day by saying this:

    GOP member of Jan. 6 committee warns that more violence is coming

    The Post quotes Kinzinger, without the slightest sense of self-awareness of the violence he himself has been doing to the Constitution, as follows from a weekend appearance on ABC’s This Week:

    “There is violence in the future, I’m going to tell you. And until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can’t expect any differently.”

    The story goes on to say:

    Kinzinger, who defied party leadership by serving on the Democratic-led committee, described an alarming message he received at home in the mail several days ago threatening to execute him, his wife and their 5-month-old baby.

    “I’d never seen or had anything like that. It was sent from the local area,” he said.

    Stop. Full stop.

    Let me say the obvious. It is self-evident that Kinzinger and his family should not only have never received such a disgusting threat, but that no one in American public life should ever receive them.

    That said, it is startling to realize that a sitting member of Congress does not understand that when he goes to work in Washington in one of the three House office buildings, not to mention the U.S. Capitol itself, there is a reason all have 24-hour, around-the-clock security — as members of Congress have for decades, long before Kinzinger was born, much less was elected to Congress.

    Rep. Kinzinger seems clueless about the constant threats to America’s elected federal government officials or, for that matter, any number of non-office-holders in the media or public life in general.

    As a House and Senate staffer in the 1970s and 1980s, every single entrance to the House or Senate buildings where I was working had, yes, 24-hour security. There was a reason for it.

    Here is but one sample of an episode that took place when I worked in the U.S. Senate, as per Politico:

    Bomb explodes in U.S. Capitol, Nov. 7, 1983

    The story says:

    At two minutes before 11 o’clock in the evening on this day in 1983, a thunderous explosion tore through the second floor of the U.S. Capitol’s Senate wing. Since the area was virtually deserted at the time, there were no casualties.

    Minutes before the bomb went off, a caller claiming to represent the “Armed Resistance Unit” warned a Capitol switchboard operator that a bomb had been placed near the chamber — purportedly in retaliation for the recent U.S. military actions in Grenada and Lebanon.

    Not to be forgotten either was the 1954 attack on the House chamber by leftist Puerto Rican nationalists which wounded five House members. One could go on with this type of list as there are other examples.

    The hard fact of real life which seems to escape Kinzinger is that threats of violence have been directed at people in the public political eye for all of American history, not to mention world history. (Can you say Archduke Ferdinand? Whose assassination — along with his wife — in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb nationalist in 1914 touched off that small skirmish known as World War I?) Obviously, there is no excuse for it. But the reality is that it happens — and always has.

    Back there in the ancient days of the 2016 campaign when I was frequently appearing on CNN and standing up for then-candidate Donald Trump, my home phone was repeatedly targeted with snarling, anonymous voices leaving threatening messages because they hated Trump and hence me. Is it wrong? Of course. Does it happen? All the time. Does it have anything to do with Donald Trump? Of course not. It has to do with deranged individuals like whoever sent Kinzinger that note.

    The other evening, The American Spectator’s own R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. hosted a delightful evening dinner with special guest Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the GOP House Whip. Scalise, recall, was almost killed by a gun-toting, Trump-hating Bernie Sanders fan, with three other Republican House members shot and wounded. Was this Sanders’ fault? Of course not.

    The point is sadly crystal clear. It has always been the case that political figures in public life attract controversy, and, sad to say, threats of violence. America is, after all, the country where four presidents have been assassinated. Two (Theodore Roosevelt, then an ex-president, and Ronald Reagan) survived assassination attempts, and four more (Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Gerald Ford) narrowly missed being hit by flying bullets or, in Jackson’s 1835 case, becoming the first president to be attacked, in that case on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, with his attacker’s misfiring gun aimed in his direction. All of this, obviously, long predates Donald Trump.

    And speaking of what Kinzinger warned of as “more violence coming,” here’s a newsflash. Political violence is here — right now. For some curious reason, Kinzinger neglects to mention this story that is, as this is written, in the news. Here is the Fox headline:

    Letter signed by radical abortion group Jane’s Revenge declares ‘open season’ on pro-life pregnancy centers

    The letter from Jane’s Revenge says ‘increasing drastic measures’ might not be ‘so easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti’

    The Fox story reports this:

    The pro-abortion radical group dubbed “Jane’s Revenge” that’s claimed responsibility for various arson attacks and vandalism since the leak of a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade published a new letter Tuesday declaring “open season” on pro-life pregnancy crisis centers.

    The letter spoke of a supposed 30-day deadline for all pro-life groups to cease operations and condemned those “who impersonate healthcare providers in order to harm the vulnerable.”

    The letter goes on to say that:

    Through attacking, we find joy, courage, and strip the veneer of impenetrability held by these violent institutions.

    Needless to say, this pro-violence left-wing group has zero connection to Trump or his supporters. As with the political violence over the centuries in America, their threat comes from the American Left.

    To name but three of many examples in American history, whether it has appeared in the form of labor violence, anti-Vietnam War violence attacking the Pentagon, Occupy Wall Street leftists attacking Wall Street, or today’s threats of violence over a potential overturn of Roe v. Wade — and not to mention all those hundreds of riots after the George Floyd killing in the summer of 2020 — the American Left is violent. Violence is in its political DNA.

    Yet the Trump-obsessed Kinzinger misses the larger point of all this exactly.

    Even more to the point, Kinzinger and fellow January 6 Committee member “Republican” Rep. Liz Cheney blithely ignore that they themselves are doing real violence to nothing less than the U.S. Constitution itself.

    My colleague Melissa Mackenzie has repeatedly zeroed in on the dangerous hoax and sham that is the January 6 Committee, as here and here. She correctly notes of the January 6 Committee:

    It is a political witch hunt. It is, again, the Democrats using all levers of the government against their political opposition à la the Russia Collusion hoax. These people hate Trump so much they’re willing to throw out the rule of law, and their so-called beloved “norms” to destroy their political opposition and anyone who would stand against them.

    Whether it was subpoenas being issued to Kinzinger’s House colleagues or prowling through “AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and others who are carriers of (private) texts, emails, and phone records,” Kinzinger has signed on for one effort after another to commit violence against the Constitution.

    The redoubtable Mark Levin, always front and center in a career of defending the Constitution, has said this about the corrupt January 6 Committee to which Reps. Kinzinger and Cheney have so eagerly lent their names:

    This is a sham. This will go down in history as a dark mark on the American political system. We can’t see it now, [but] the mob is in control, the mob runs the media, the propaganda is full-throated, you can’t see it now but history has a way of sobering events. And we will see this one day as the outrageous attack on our system, on the prior president, on scores of people that it truly is. It’s an abomination to the American system, not just of justice but our congressional and representative system.

    To sum it all up?

    Violence and threats of violence, no matter who or where they come from, have no place in American life. Period. But to take what has, sadly, been a fact of American political life for hundreds of years and ascribe its existence to former President Trump is rewriting history. It is despicable.

    Not to mention that by participating in the violence being done to the Constitution by the January 6 Committee, as Kinzinger and Cheney are actively doing, their historical reputation has been forever tainted.

    Talk about a self-inflicted wound.

    https://spectator.org/trump-hating-kinzingers-anti-constitution-violence/

  39. Off to Poland for 5 weeks (don’t tell Lenny Henry) … I shall miss decent internet connection and NoTTL …

  40. A new army to keep UK coasts safe from invaders – it’s going to be (wo)manned by DOCTORS’ RECEPTIONISTS …. NOBODY WILL GET THROUGH

    1. Nice to see you again Lewis. Long time no see? Totally agree with your post. Dragons to the fore!

      2. My mother never liked me to have “rough” friends … esp. if they taaalked Geordie … 🙂

  41. Necessary Spelling (or Spelling Necessary)
    Like many folk recently, I thought I might invest a few thousand in silver bullion (yeah, right!) so I went to the Royal Mint’s website. Their main site is in Llantrisant in Wales (colloquially known as the Hole with the Mint).

    The ubiquitous “Not-So-Fast!” cookie message appeared, part of which is shown below. They can’t even spell necessary on a Royal website!

    When I was in Junior School in the late forties we were taught mnemonics to remember difficult spellings. The one for necessary was: ‘Never Eat Cake Eat Salmon Sandwiches And Remain Young’. I’ve never forgotten that one. Have any other Nottlers come across that (or similar) mnemonics?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0c8b5e2d0a2b54dd701bed8b6ad5aad24e9c2da769b4dd3495af023ed880bed.jpg

    1. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
      Not sure what that’s meant to be a mnemonic for though.

      1. “Every good boy deserves fun and face”. Something musical?

        Of course we remember mnemonics, that’s how they work. What the are supposed to remind us of, well, that does not work so well, it seems.

        1. Every good boy deserves fruit (or favour) – the notes on the lines of the treble clef of music. FACE are the notes in the spaces.

      2. It’s a sentence which contains all the letters of the alphabet. Good to test your typing speed.

        1. Ooh. I was afraid to say that. I do have a typing certificate (expired).

      3. Good morning, Ndovo

        It’ s not really a mnemonic – it it is a short sentence to include each letter of the alphabet. Incidentally it should be dogs in the plural or you don’t have an ‘s’.

        I used to spell fairly well but I am considerably worse than I used to be now that I use a keyboard rather than a pen.

      2. Actually, I think it was Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (in memory of Richard III’s famous appeal as he lost the Battle of Bosworth Field against Henry Tudor in August 1425: “A horse, a horse, my Kingdom for a horse! in Shakespeare’s Richard III.

        In case any Nottler doesn’t know (hardly likely) it stands for the colours of the Rainbow in order: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet.

        2. In 67 years I’ve never needed to remember the colours of the rainbow in order.

    3. A girl in my class at school made a mnemonic up just before a spelling test for that one, which is our family’s one now.
      “Naughty Elephants Can’t Eat Strawberry Sauce And Raspberry Yoghurt.”

    4. (why buy from the mint, that’s TELLING the government what you’re up to!)

      1. I’ll bet the Gummint (notice the internal quote) have already got their bullion supplies in the bank. And in any case, the Royal Mint ain’t the cheapest supplier.

      2. I’ll bet the Gummint (notice the internal quote) have already got their bullion supplies in the bank. And in any case, the Royal Mint ain’t the cheapest supplier.

          1. Before or after you left the examination room??

            Did you see my question about dehydrated food below?

          2. I did very poorly in maths at school. I put it down to the fact that the last two years we didn’t have a maths teacher. The history teacher took the lessons. Occasionally.

            Not yet.

          3. We had a maths teacher; unfortunately, she was so good at the subject, she couldn’t understand her pupils’ struggles.

          4. I also had a maths teacher who was brilliant , but as you say, failed to understand her pupil’s struggles .

            We used to be called to the front , to her desk, where she used to say , show me your workings , then if we got things wrong , she would reach behind and slap our legs with her ruler .

          5. My maths teachers were both quite nice but struggled to teach me anything about maths. One was in the habit of throwing chalk and sometimes the blackboard rubber but I was not usually the target as I sat near the front.

          6. As you know we home-schooled our boys as we sailed around the Med and I had to brush up my “O” level Maths from 1962 in order to be able to teach them GCSE Maths at Higher Level. They both flew through the exams and one is now a design engineer in the Aviation industry and the other is doing very well in the computer business having got a Distinction in his M.Sc in Computer Science and Data Analytics last year.

          7. We had eight different teachers to take the eight maths lessons per week in my second year at grammar school (none of them maths specialists). I might, even with my numerical blindness, have been a bit better at the subject had we had consistency.

          8. My son failed English during his only year in the UK system for the same reason. The teacher was sacked for not going along with various kids’ trans fantasies, and there was nobody to replace him.

        2. The Great Lakes are best remembered (West to East) Old Elephants Have More Skin and (East to West) Some Men Hate Each Other.

      3. SWALK (Sealed With A Loving Kiss)
        BURMA (Be Undressed and Ready My Angel)
        SIAM (Sexual Intercourse At Midnight)

        and of course NORWICH which would have worked better had it been KORWICH.

    6. Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants. One of my boys was taught this.
      Edit ‘because‘

      1. We tried to teach Christo, our first son, that Big Boys are Gentle Boys because Big Boys grow into Gentlemen rather than Yobs. He tended to bully his younger brother, Henry.

        I have a godson called Jeremy whose elder brother used to bully him mercilessly. Fortunately Jeremy grew to be far bigger and physically stronger than his older brother and so the problem ended fairly soon. Sadly Henry remained smaller than his brother who is still rather a bully.

        People who are bullied respond in very different ways – some bullied people react to the experience by becoming bullies themselves; others who are more capable of empathy hate the idea of putting others through what they suffered themselves and never bully others. Christo was bullied at school when he was young and is still a bit of a bully; Henry was bullied by his brother but never bullied anyone else and, as a result, is far more popular amongst his peers.

        Girls bully just as much as boys – but the bullying of girls is more psychological and can be far nastier. Some of the stories about bullying on the Internet are horrific.

        1. Bullying can have lifelong effects. But at least none of my bullies lived in my village or used the same bus to school so I was able to ‘escape’ after school hours. I began to invent illnesses to avoid school but eventually broke down at home one morning. Once the school knew, it was swiftly and effectively dealt with.
          To be ‘available’ 24/7 online must make the victims lives so much worse.

        2. I should have added that my godson, Jeremy, qualified as a medical doctor and is now a psychiatrist.

    7. I remember part of a ditty that we were taught to recall names of kings and queens. These days, I can no longer get beyond the first few.
      Willie, Willie, Harry, Ste
      Harry, Dick, John, Harry 3
      I just looked it up (why didn’t I think of that before …. old age)
      Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee1,
      Harry, Dick, John, Harry three;
      One two, three Neds, Richard two
      Harrys four, five, six… then who?
      Edwards four, five, Dick the bad2,
      Harrys twain3 and Ned the Lad4;
      Mary, Bessie, James the Vain5,
      Charlie, Charlie, James again…
      William and Mary, Anna Gloria,
      Four Georges, William and Victoria;
      Edward seven next, and then
      George the fifth in 1910;
      Ned the eighth soon abdicated
      Then George the sixth was coronated6;
      After which Elizabeth
      And that’s the end until her death.

      1. I still remember this by heart though the version I learnt stopped with Victoria so I added:

        Then an Edward, George the Fifth,
        Another Edward, George the Sixth,
        Bessie, Charley, WiIlly Five

        (That’s if the kingdom’s still alive)

        I seem to be able to remember with great clarity things I learnt over 50 years ago but have no idea what I did yesterday.

        1. Ours may also have stopped at Victoria. I was taught it in the early 1960s.
          I doubt anything so blindingly white, racist, imperialist is taught. Much better to get the pupils to imagine the ‘feelings’ one of the ‘privileged’ downtrodden subjects under an old king, and other such touchy-feely claptrap.

          1. My grandmother was taught that one at the end of the nineteenth century, ending with Victoria of course.

          2. I always thought that Lady Jane Gray should have been squeezed into the rhyme between Edward VIth (Ned the Lad) and Broody Mary!

            Oliver and Richard Cromwell were rightly excluded.

          1. How about changing the last two lines to:

            Bessie, Henry Seven, Will

            (That’s if the kingdom’s with us still)

          2. That’s better. Forecasting then regnal names of future monarchs is never an easy task. Who would have thought that David would become Edward VIII or his brother, Bertie, would become George VI?

        2. Norman, Plantagenet, Lancaster, York, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, Windsor, Mountbatten.

          No Plan Like Yours To Study History Wisely Maybe

          1. Burqa, Niqab, Umiaq, Mbaqanga, Qabbala, Qajaq, Qat, Qi, Qintar, Qiviut, Sheqel, Suq, Tranq.

          3. It’s replacing English. Three-quarters of the words in the OED are of non-English derivation and etymology.

        1. It is ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ — except … when your foreign neighbour Keith receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters.

    9. Not in spelling but in telephony when relays were used in vast numbers. The rule for the sequence of contact operation was, ‘all breaks break before makes make.’ Of course there were exceptions e.g. the ‘make before break’ changeover contact used mainly in pulsing circuits and the much more rare ‘x’ and ‘y’ contacts. The last two were more difficult to adjust and I remember having to adjust one of those in poor light conditions during a power cut in December 1970. It was the last day of my basic Strowger course at Shirehampton near Bristol: I and several others had to complete the task to ensure we passed the course. Relief all round and then the long trek home, no M4/5 back then.

    10. There wax the non word BODMAS that defined the order of mathematical operations

      Brackets , Of Divide, Multiply, Add and Subtract.

      2. The version I was taught was Brackets, Outside( outside the brackets) Divide, Multiply (Times in modern parlence), Add, Subtract.

    1. Gay men soon to be offered a monkey jab. A few steps away until we are all declared to be at serious risk from monkey madness and must get jabbed to ‘protect granny’ from this fearful fatal disease. Many will fall into virtue-signalling line in case they are seen as selfish.

      1. It was in the plan for the end of this year (the dry run that they did at the start of this year).

          1. They held a monkey pox planning exercise. It centred around an outbreak that would appear in mid May, and by the end of the year would require a full blown lockdown, jabs etc.
            Surprise surprise, monkey pox appeared in mid May.
            Of course, they might have to bring the fake lockdowns for the fake pox forward if the money printing fails this summer, people lose faith in fiat and the economy crashes hard. Follow the money, it’s ALWAYS about the money.

          2. Just another conspiracy theory ….. oh, wait, another one that turned out to be true.

          3. In the USA there is a concern that Biden, via his puppeteers, will try a lockdown in an attempt to foil a Democrat wipe-out in the mid-term elections: either by cancelling the elections or forcing mail-in voting as the method for casting a vote. Could get very nasty.

      3. I shall do what I did to protect myself from Covid: take Vitmain D, Vitamin C. Zinc and avoid buggery.

        2. The PTB are really pissed off that most people have moved on from being terrified. Fear has always been an essential tool for those who wish to punish and control.

          Mind you, we still see people walking by themselves in the countryside in Brittany wearing masks and face-nappied people driving alone in their cars.

          Neil Oliver was interesting on the subject on GB News last night. He sees the face mask as the symbol of compliance which is why they are deemed so important by the PTB. He has vowed not ever to wear one even if it is made compulsory.

          1. I think he is exactly right. We are too hooked on the Christian way of seeing things – even people who say they are atheists, still see the world in a broadly Christian way, because those are the values on which our society is founded.
            The elite seeking to take over the world, or the West if they can’t get the rest, are not Christian – and we must quickly get used to the idea that they regard us as an inferior species. That’s not hyperbole – they have said themselves that the elite will develop so far from the common herd that they will be like a different species.
            They seek to deepen that split by muzzling and silencing us, not permitting us to show our faces in front of them, feeding us poor food and trashy pychops to make us deteriorate in mind and body.

          3. …that the elite will develop so far from the common herd that they will be like a different species.

            If they’re talking about Darwinian evolution they will be in for quite a long wait. Now, if like that mad acolyte of Schwab, Harari, they believe that they will be able to genetically modify themselves into a superior species then they should be careful what they wish for. Nature is an awesome power but even Nature makes mistakes. In their arrogance they believe that they too are all powerful. One tiny mistake in the genetic coding and it’s goodbye, forever. Has hubris ever been written so large?

          4. You can do quite a lot by manipulating the masses with bad food, computer games and junk “news”, eg you can make people smaller, weaker and lower IQ. Also if they succeed with their injection campaign to inject programmable stuff into people, they can manipulate behaviour that way. They have already altered people’s DNA too, and only a tiny minority are even aware of it.
            But I agree with you, they don’t know what they are messing around with. I hope I live to see Schwab’s little familiar get his comeuppance.
            Just been talking to my dearly beloved, which has cheered me up though, as he thinks there are lots of ways in which the CBDC plan could fail too.

            That BIS report has shown their hand in how they intend to push CBDCs. It barely mentions cash, and does so only in the context of criminal behaviour, and it draws a false equivalence between CBDCs and distributed crypto-currencies.

          5. From what our son in Canada and wife tell us, masks are still required in shops, museums, public transit, schools etc and very many (including them) even wear them in the streets and parks. Son and wife are in full support. When we visit in the summer, they are assuming we will comply….. husband will, avoids confrontation at all costs. We could well be told to be muzzled if we want to be with the grandchildren.

          6. Caroline and I are both unvaccinated and we had Covid very mildy in February; our younger son and his girl friend – both triple-vaxed – have just had Covid quite nastily and had to stay in bed for a week.

            You would have thought that the empirical evidence of our family suggests that a person is likely to get Covid worse if he or she has been fully vaccinated. However Caroline and I have Arts degrees and know nothing and Henry and Jess have M.Sc degrees and Jess is about to be awarded her doctorate in Epidemiology so they must know better than we do.

          7. My younger son visited us from Switzerland last Christmas – fully jabbed of course, and masked up when I met him at the station. Did his day3 test without a murmur. Elder son is unjabbed and unlikely to change his mind. They both work in IT, but the younger one did Biochemistry for his degree. Younger son has very short hair (though it was long when he was a student) the elder one has gone for the full caveman look.

            They both had the same upbringing – where did I go wrong?

          10. We were at the theatre on Friday evening. Masks were mandatory when in the building. If it hadn’t been my wifes birthday, I would have left in a cloud of anger.

            Anything Trudeau has a hand in is still pushing mask mandates. I need to renew my passport (it only has six months left until it expires so I may have left it too late), I can guarantee that I will need a mask when i go to the government office to submit the application.

          11. With all the restrictions still in place there, part of me wishes we weren’t going but I really want to see my grandchildren again. It’s bad enough having to be muzzled for the long flight, but I’m just praying the we clear Pearson airport quickly though I’m not holding my breath on that one.

          15. I wore a Chinese silk smoking jacket in my last passport photo. Doesn’t really show up though.

          17. Best of luck Mum – it looks as though your visit will be stressful, to say the least.

  43. Part of me thinks we would be better off letting NI go.
    “The British government intends to introduce legislation that would require non-Irish EU citizens in the Republic of Ireland to apply for electronic travel authorisation (ETA) to cross the border into Northern Ireland and thence Great Britain.”
    It seems the Irish object to these proposals. It is not suggested that Irish citizens would need the extra document. If the non-Irish didn’t need extra documentation to access OUR territory, then any old Fritz or Mohammed could walk in. (Well, it would make a change from floating in on a rubber boat via RNLI/Royal Navy.)

  45. Just seen a middle aged woman out walking with hubby, pass my house on this quiet suburban road wearing a mask!! She had a baseball cap on too, so that fits…

      1. The hair and walking stance. I couldn’t see her wedding ring, it might have been a lover, or ‘friend’ she was with.

    3. I was doing an anti-lockdown demonstration earlier this year, and a man drove past furiously making rude gestures at us. He was wearing a mask, in his car, alone.

      1. At the London marches, as we caused the traffic to grind to a halt, some naughty folk would peer into cars where lone drivers were masked and make fun ot them. I was always taught, “don’t mock the afflicted”.

  46. Talking of mnemonics, the colours of the rainbow (starting from the top) Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. If there is a second rainbow the colours are reversed: Visit Irish Breweries Get Your Order Right.

      2. Eat Good Jam Leave None is the mnemonic for BSF threads from 1/4″ to 1/2″ in 1/16″ steps when stamped on the head of such bolts used by the RAF – ex Brats will remember

    2. Oh dear – I still remember the order of colours in a distance line, used for replenishment at sea – Red Yellow Blue White Green – Rub Your Bowls [?] With Grease.

      1. It’s underexposed in the foreground and full sun at the back: the phone sensor has tried to cope and hasn’t done it terribly well!.

        1. That’s what makes it more aesthetically pleasing and interesting than your later one.

    3. Not a good photo?! It is in focus, shows the intended subject, and has no extraneous telegraph poles sticking up the back. I wish I could do that.

  48. This chap is very brave.

    General Sir Patrick Sanders KCB CBE DSO
    Ministry of Defence
    6 th Floor Main Building
    Whitehall
    Horse Guards Avenue
    London
    SW1A 2HB

    19-06-2022

    Ref : Stupidity

    Sir,

    It is illegal to attempt to dissuade a member of the Armed Forces from doing his duty to the Crown. However that depends on the definition of duty.

    It is the job of all in our armed forces to defend Her Majesty’s ancient Kingdom from harm. Ukraine is a rogue state that for years has been developing chemical weapons paid for by America when, if they produced chemical weapons in America, they would go to prison for a long time.

    For years Ukraine, a Nazi state , has been raping and murdering its own Russian speaking citizens. For eight years at least, President Putin has been asking the W est to use their influence to stop this. The West has ignored these pleas to stop the genocide of Russian speaking Ukrainians by the Azov militia incorporated into the Ukrainian army. Genocide is a major crime at international and English law.

    The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP is clearly nuts. Russia is a major nuclear power and Boris is supplying more weapons to Ukraine , a rogue state over which we have no control. Boris is supplying weapons which he has said will remove the Russian Black Seas fleet from the Black Sea. President Putin has said that if these are fired into Russia he will take out a city in England. With modern explosives he can do this without using nuclear warheads. With the new hypersonic missiles Russia has, they will be impossible to stop.

    Your instruction to H er Majesty’s Armed Forces to be prepared to fight WW3 in Europe against Russia is sheer lunacy . I would point out that the only time Russia has harmed us throughout history was when one of their battleships fired on a British trawler . Commodore Roger Keyes was ordered to arrest the offending ship which he did although the Russian fleet had fifty battleships in it. Russia fought with us against Napoleon and Hitler with far greater losses than the rest of the Allies put together.

    Russia is not the atheist Soviet Union . Russia is now a Christian country whilst our own churches are being converted to Mosques and Christian street preachers are being arrested. President Putin has built and restored 25000 churches in twenty years.

    I am hoping that your photograph where you look smug, does not mean you do not have a brain. You took your oath to the Queen. Go and see her. Ask her if she wants to go to war with a major nuclear power capable of destroying her Kingdom and all life in it.

    Respectfully submitted

    A B Full name redacted

      1. I don’t know him but i have known of him for a long time. A Friend sends me his on target out pourings.

    2. A very accurate summary of the truth. Johnson and Truss should have paid more attention rather than continuing to live in the 1970s.

    3. Sanders is another donkey put in charge of lions. A product of the modern higher education system.

      1. It must be that name. Many Yanks wanted another Sanders to become POTUS. Thank goodness their wishes didn’t materialise. ‘Bernie’ Sanders would be far worse for the world than the imbecilic geriatric who they did make president is.

  49. WHO says log burners need to be banned:

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1626306/Log-burners-wood-smoke-air-pollution-Bristol-study-World-Health-Organisation

    Every time Ii watch Escape to the Country https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/20210913121537/escape-to-the-country-how-to-apply-for-bbc-show-details/#:~:text=Escape%20to%20the%20Country%20is,those%20wanting%20to%20move%20home. Inevitably the couple want a log burner in an ingkenook fireplace.

    Do they know that Boris is sitting on a PM2.5 timebomb?
    Diesel cars had to have soot filters from 2008 but WHO air quality requirements are now catching up with the idyllic country home.

      1. I don’t have one, but I like the smell of other people’s drifting on the air, so have an uptick!

      2. I’d like to see them try stopping me using my woodburner – it would be fuelish of them to try

    2. I mentioned previously that i watched a programme last week featuring a medium size forest of pine trees. All around twenty five to thirty years old. Apparently they had ‘no commercial value’ something i expect that had been invented. They might have saved tree felling elsewhere if used in construction. So instead the trees were brutally cut down with huge machines reduced to long logs loaded on to trucks and sent for chipping. This was being used to heat water at an old peoples home (sounds great, the sighs of relief must have been well recognised) but obviously some one had made a massive profit out of that, especially the ‘overseas owner’ of the Care home. And then it left the land for possible future development. I expect planning already granted.

      1. Conifer forests have no environmental value in this country except as a crop. But they should have had a better use than chipping. Like the trees from South Carolina being burnt at Drax.

        1. I thought, J, that those chipped trees originated in Seattle, Washington State.

          1. I expect they have more than one source – the amount they are shipping over, they will probably run out.

        2. I seem remember a few celebrities were involved in investment in these plantations.

    5. Good grief! We’ve just got a quote to replace our coal burning Baxi with a multi fuel burner!! 😱

  50. Couple of things; slept for England last night and didn’t wake until 8.20. Have showered, wasn’t allowed to yesterday and am pain free! Yay!!

    Also, my husband called the doctor’s surgery to ask about a missing prescription of his. The message when you call has been changed. Instead of saying that masks must be worn unless you’re exempt, it now says that masks are not required unless there is a reason. Slowly, slowly….

    4. Great stuff, Ann! It’s amazing what a decent sleep and a shower can do for your well-being!

    5. Wonderful. A good night’s sleep is the perfect healer.
      Hence convalescent homes; now at one with Nineveh and Tyre.

    1. I preferred the earlier photo from an aesthetic point of view, I’m no horticulturist.

  53. In 2019, the most common ethnic group in England and Wales was White (84.8%), decreasing by 1.2 percentage points since the 2011 Census; the next biggest change from 2011 was within the Other ethnic group which increased by 0.9 percentage points.

    As part of the White ethnic group, an estimated 78.4% of the population in England and Wales identified their ethnic group as White British in 2019, a decrease of just over 2 percentage points since the 2011 Census; Other White increased by nearly 1.5 percentage points to an estimated 5.8%.

    Around half (51.0%) of the population reported their religion as Christian in England and Wales, a decrease of nearly 8.3 percentage points since the 2011 Census; No religion (including not stated), was the second most common response, increasing just over 6.1 percentage points from 32.3% in 2011 to 38.4% in 2019.

    Younger people were more likely than older age groups to report having No religion in 2019, with over half (53.4%) of those aged 20 to 29 years reporting having No religion.

    More women (54.9%) than men (47.4%) reported their religion as Christian; this difference was more pronounced in older age groups, with 71.4% of women aged from 60 to 69 years reporting as Christian compared with 61.3% of men the same age.

    London was the most ethnically and religiously diverse region in England and Wales where the largest ethnic groups were White British (43.4%), Other White (14.6%) and Black African (7.9%) people with a religion other than Christian accounted for over 25% of London’s population compared with an estimated 10.6% of the overall population.

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/peop…

    Heavens above, you can bet your bottom dollar that figures have increased by a couple of million or more.

    We are being diluted, aren’t we , and we are now being referred to as an ethnic group.

    1. I wrote yesterday of the 1970s mentality of rail strike pickets. Despite all the changes to railway management over the last 40 years, there are still many working practices that go back to the 70s. They would make a Glasgow shipyard trade unionist misty-eyed with nostalgia.

      Archaic rail rules mean it takes nine workers to ‘change a plug socket’

      RMT accused of calling strike to defend host of outdated practices

      By Oliver Gill, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT • 21 June 2022 • 8:04pm

      Rail unions have been accused of bringing the country to a standstill over archaic working practices that mean menial tasks such as “changing a plug socket” would take a team of nine workers.

      Industry sources on Tuesday shed new light on inefficiencies that are costing taxpayers billions of pounds.

      Demanding “walking time allowance” of 12 minutes for a one-minute walk, specialist teams refusing to share vans, and engineers being unable to stray 500 yards from their dedicated patch are among the working practices that union chiefs are determined to defend, they claimed.

      “We can’t roster individuals,” said one industry source. “Let’s imagine you want to change a single socket to a double in your kitchen. “Potentially you’d need an electrician, a tiler and a plumber as your dishwasher waste pipe will need adjusting too. Alternatively, you could find a competent odd-jobber to do the whole task. In Network Rail we can’t roster individuals, only teams and we can’t multi-skill those teams so we’d need to send a team of three electricians, three tilers and three plumbers – nine people to do a job one person could do. Eighty per cent of the most common infrastructure faults could be fixed by small, multi-skilled teams.”

      Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, on Tuesday said that “poor productivity” had become deeply entrenched throughout the railways.

      “We are such an archaic industry in many of our working practices we can offer a good pay rise to our colleagues and good value for the taxpayer if only we can get sensible reforms in.”

      Mick Lynch, Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) general secretary, has insisted he was not against change. “What we’ve got here is an unreasonable agenda of mass pay cuts, match job cuts and slashing of our terms and conditions,” he said on Monday.

      But industry sources suggest otherwise. Another example they cite relates to the renovation of Birmingham New Street station, which began in 2010. Prior to the rebuild, train crews were based in a “dark and dank” room in the bowels of the 19th Century station. Once the £750m station rebuild got underway in 2010, crews were moved to the Guildhall in central Birmingham, a short walk away.

      An industry source claimed: “The trade union insisted we renegotiate the walking time allowance, the paid time they get from leaving the train to arriving in the messroom – time that isn’t part of their breaktime. [But] the trade union used a driver with a gammy leg and timed them from the end of the longest train, at the farthest extent of the station, to reach the Guildhall,” the source adds.

      “And even then not via the rear exit to the Guildhall which spills out directly across the road from the station, but all the way around the building to use the main entrance where the lifts were located. The new walking time allowance was set at 12 minutes.”

      The walk takes one minute, according to Google Maps. Meanwhile, maintenance teams are not allowed to cross boundary lines. This means, for example, that if there is a fault on the Kings Cross to Potters Bar line and no staff available to fix it, a member from the nearby Euston to Watford line cannot step into the breach. [If] the Euston team who had no call outs on their patch could have popped across the 500 yards to Kings Cross to sort the issue in short order,” the source said.

      The list goes on, they add. “Our specialist teams won’t share vans or equipment so we can’t send one van with a mixed team in, we have to send two or more to each job. The specialist teams also won’t collaborate even to the point of not helping to unload another team’s kit.”

      Switching desks at short notice, commonplace in many 21st Century offices, is also off-limits.

      “In a major signalling centre we have up to half a dozen stations – desks with computers and screens on. If at the eleventh hour someone doesn’t turn up or falls sick we can ask a perfectly competent and qualified colleague to switch desks as they haven’t had adequate notice.”

      Hours before the strike began on Tuesday, rail chiefs vowed to “dump outdated working practices” and cut 1,800 staff. In a letter to trade unions, Network Rail said it would press ahead with plans to cut jobs and overhaul working hours in an effort to slash costs.

      Bosses at Network Rail said that despite spending “many hours” in discussions with union leaders, talks had not progressed. Tim Shoveller, who has led Network Rail’s discussions with union leaders to date, added: “Last night [Monday] Network Rail passed a letter to the RMT asking them to attend the start of formal consultation talks on Jul 1 on the introduction of modern working practices in our maintenance organisation.

      “The changes will mean dumping outdated working practices and introducing new technology, both of which will lead to a more effective and safer maintenance organisation.”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/06/21/archaic-rail-rules-mean-takes-nine-workers-change-plug-socket/

      1. They will cut costs and improve things by laying off drivers and signalmen.

      2. It was never privatised properly it should have included the track, but it never did. it was still part nationalised.

    2. I wrote yesterday of the 1970s mentality of rail strike pickets. Despite all the changes to railway management over the last 40 years, there are still many working practices that go back to the 70s. They would make a Glasgow shipyard trade unionist misty-eyed with nostalgia.

      Archaic rail rules mean it takes nine workers to ‘change a plug socket’

      RMT accused of calling strike to defend host of outdated practices

      By Oliver Gill, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT • 21 June 2022 • 8:04pm

      Rail unions have been accused of bringing the country to a standstill over archaic working practices that mean menial tasks such as “changing a plug socket” would take a team of nine workers.

      Industry sources on Tuesday shed new light on inefficiencies that are costing taxpayers billions of pounds.

      Demanding “walking time allowance” of 12 minutes for a one-minute walk, specialist teams refusing to share vans, and engineers being unable to stray 500 yards from their dedicated patch are among the working practices that union chiefs are determined to defend, they claimed.

      “We can’t roster individuals,” said one industry source. “Let’s imagine you want to change a single socket to a double in your kitchen. “Potentially you’d need an electrician, a tiler and a plumber as your dishwasher waste pipe will need adjusting too. Alternatively, you could find a competent odd-jobber to do the whole task. In Network Rail we can’t roster individuals, only teams and we can’t multi-skill those teams so we’d need to send a team of three electricians, three tilers and three plumbers – nine people to do a job one person could do. Eighty per cent of the most common infrastructure faults could be fixed by small, multi-skilled teams.”

      Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, on Tuesday said that “poor productivity” had become deeply entrenched throughout the railways.

      “We are such an archaic industry in many of our working practices we can offer a good pay rise to our colleagues and good value for the taxpayer if only we can get sensible reforms in.”

      Mick Lynch, Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) general secretary, has insisted he was not against change. “What we’ve got here is an unreasonable agenda of mass pay cuts, match job cuts and slashing of our terms and conditions,” he said on Monday.

      But industry sources suggest otherwise. Another example they cite relates to the renovation of Birmingham New Street station, which began in 2010. Prior to the rebuild, train crews were based in a “dark and dank” room in the bowels of the 19th Century station. Once the £750m station rebuild got underway in 2010, crews were moved to the Guildhall in central Birmingham, a short walk away.

      An industry source claimed: “The trade union insisted we renegotiate the walking time allowance, the paid time they get from leaving the train to arriving in the messroom – time that isn’t part of their breaktime. [But] the trade union used a driver with a gammy leg and timed them from the end of the longest train, at the farthest extent of the station, to reach the Guildhall,” the source adds.

      “And even then not via the rear exit to the Guildhall which spills out directly across the road from the station, but all the way around the building to use the main entrance where the lifts were located. The new walking time allowance was set at 12 minutes.”

      The walk takes one minute, according to Google Maps. Meanwhile, maintenance teams are not allowed to cross boundary lines. This means, for example, that if there is a fault on the Kings Cross to Potters Bar line and no staff available to fix it, a member from the nearby Euston to Watford line cannot step into the breach. [If] the Euston team who had no call outs on their patch could have popped across the 500 yards to Kings Cross to sort the issue in short order,” the source said.

      The list goes on, they add. “Our specialist teams won’t share vans or equipment so we can’t send one van with a mixed team in, we have to send two or more to each job. The specialist teams also won’t collaborate even to the point of not helping to unload another team’s kit.”

      Switching desks at short notice, commonplace in many 21st Century offices, is also off-limits.

      “In a major signalling centre we have up to half a dozen stations – desks with computers and screens on. If at the eleventh hour someone doesn’t turn up or falls sick we can ask a perfectly competent and qualified colleague to switch desks as they haven’t had adequate notice.”

      Hours before the strike began on Tuesday, rail chiefs vowed to “dump outdated working practices” and cut 1,800 staff. In a letter to trade unions, Network Rail said it would press ahead with plans to cut jobs and overhaul working hours in an effort to slash costs.

      Bosses at Network Rail said that despite spending “many hours” in discussions with union leaders, talks had not progressed. Tim Shoveller, who has led Network Rail’s discussions with union leaders to date, added: “Last night [Monday] Network Rail passed a letter to the RMT asking them to attend the start of formal consultation talks on Jul 1 on the introduction of modern working practices in our maintenance organisation.

      “The changes will mean dumping outdated working practices and introducing new technology, both of which will lead to a more effective and safer maintenance organisation.”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/06/21/archaic-rail-rules-mean-takes-nine-workers-change-plug-socket/

  55. In perhaps the biggest setback yet suffered by the transgenderist juggernaut, the International Swimming Federation has sunk the dreams of Olympic gold of Will “Lia” Thomas, the also-ran male swimmer who declared himself a woman and won an NCAA championship. In a shocking spasm of sanity, the ruling body declared that ex-men who had gone through male puberty (from age 12 onward) are ineligible to enter women’s events because of the permanent advantages in size and strength they have gained.

    It’s hard to lose when you have as much of an ideological tailwind at your back as Thomas has had, but his compulsion to crush his enemies and see them driven before him—and to hear the lamentation of the women he beat—made him a remarkably unsympathetic standard-bearer.

    And yet, Thomas’ toxic masculinity is not unusual among the better-known transgenders. An extraordinary fraction of the most prominent and influential male-to-female transgenders are, when you stop and think about them, obvious examples of male ego, aggression, and self-assertion run amok.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-truth-about-pervs/
    “the truth about pervs”

  56. Good morning. Sorry to see that TCW is unable to post this comment I made on a piece that said the French are in for a bumpy ride:

    That’s the message we should all be getting here. At home we are being robbed wholesale by the globalists and their porky local gauleiter,
    while thousands have been killed or injured by their pandemic fraud. Abroad we are seeing a blockade promoted by NATO by Lithuania of the
    Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, home of half a million Russians, which is a deliberate escalation of the conflict by the scum, including
    our government, who are driving the tragic farce unfolding in eastern Europe. War with Russia is the intent of these insane and deeply deluded
    people. The bumpy ride is the creation of bad people trying to enslave us all

  57. PM dodges question on whether he offered Carrie top job. 22 June 2022.

    The prime minister has failed to deny he offered his lover Carrie Symonds a top job while foreign secretary, when challenged in the Commons.

    Boris Johnson ducked the question – which follows an allegation that he was stopped from making his future wife his chief of staff.

    I don’t suppose that it is quite making your horse Consul but the principle is the same!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-news-no-confidence-vote-rwanda-b2106482.html

    2. When we were pubescent boys at boarding school we believed that they put bromide in our tea in order to suppress our libidinous enthusiasms.

      Perhaps all men who enter politics should receive a daily dose of bromide.

      1. All generalisations are dangerous including this one.

        My best boyhood friend who later became a naval officer and then when he retired became a teacher and then set up his own business and became an inventor was my best man. He was at Eton and I know few men as good as he.

        1. Cameron,Doris and Rees Mogg went there also……
          Too Many White Christian Faces in Britain….D.Cameron…a video…Look for That….

        2. Profumo,a nasty piece of work.I even met Christine Keeler once,she was broken by that Etonian horror.
          Harrold Macmillan,”you’ve never had it so good”,remember him.I even met Lord Lucan,a very imposing
          man,had a newspaper under his arm ,I thought the Times but no it was the Sporting Life.We all know
          what happened to him.Dont pontificate to me about those type of people I’ve met many of them…

    3. He’s a fusted blush.

      He is too glib; he is too oily; he is too pleased with himself. Yes, he is charming, witty and amusing but he is ineffectual.

      But who else is there in the government who is remotely interested in whether Brexit succeeds or fails?

  60. Teachers: We will strike if we don’t get ‘inflation-plus’ pay rise
    In a letter to Nadhim Zahawi, union bosses say their members are overworked and underpaid
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/22/teachers-threaten-strike-dont-get-inflation-plus-pay-rise/

    Haven’t children suffered enough? Their education has been damaged beyond repair and these monsters can only think of themselves.

    A couple of BTLs

    As a teacher I cannot express how humiliated and ashamed I am that teachers should go on strike at this time.

    &

    The best way to get a pay rise is to be so good at your job that your employers would not dare to risk losing you.

    I once hinted that I was thinking of moving from the small independent school in which I taught to another independent school and the headmaster immediately offered me more money and better terms than I would be offered elsewhere.

    It is part of the unwritten code that teachers in independent schools would never go on strike – their pupils’ welfare and education is the priority. It is this attitude that explains why pupils in the private sector have fared so very much better during the pandemic than pupils in the state system.

  62. Polio may be spreading in Britain for first time in 40 YEARS: Officials find evolved version of eradicated virus in London sewage and say community transmission is ‘likely’

    Officials have found traces of poliovirus in sewage samples in North East London
    Parents are being urged to ensure their children’s vaccinations are up to date
    New strain has been named vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2)
    Officials said risk to public ‘extremely low’ with one in 200 chance of paralysis
    By CONNOR BOYD DEPUTY HEALTH EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 13:29, 22 June 2022 | UPDATED: 13:35, 22 June 2022

    Polio may be spreading in the UK for the first time in nearly 40 years, health chiefs warned today.

    Officials have found traces of an evolved version of the virus in sewage samples in parts of London and say community spread is ‘likely’.

    Parents are being urged to ensure their children’s vaccinations are up to date, particularly after the pandemic when school immunisation schemes were disrupted.

    The virus was detected several times between February and May and has continued to mutate, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

    It is thought someone vaccinated with the live oral polio vaccine overseas travelled to the UK and shed part of the virus in their faeces.

    Polio spreads through coughs and sneezes or contact with objects contaminated wit faeces. It is believed to cause permanent paralysis in one in 100 cases.

    But health officials insist the risk to the public overall is ‘extremely low’, with urgent investigations now underway to find anyone who has been infected.

    The last time someone caught polio within the UK was in 1984 but there have been dozens of imported cases since then. Britain was declared polio-free in 2003.

    It comes as London battles an outbreak of monkeypox, another rare viral disease that was until recently confined to parts of western and central Africa.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10938639/Polio-spreading-UK-time-40-years-Evolved-version-virus-London-sewage.html?ito=push-notification&ci=Rh2O0FJVbH&cri=x9dWWx15XF&si=26738248&ai=10938639

    Dear Gawd, help us all , please .

    1. Afternoon Belle. Tempting as it is to make some snide comment this looks more like Project Fear than any real danger!

        1. Oh no, no too effnik, yet.! Only 30.3%

          London as a city is considerably more diverse than the rest of the United Kingdom. Across England and Wales, 86% of the population is white based on the 2011 Census, but in London that number falls to 69.7%. Additionally, in 2011, Scotland’s population was 96% white, while Northern Ireland‘s population was over 98% white. 48.4% of Londoners considered themselves to be Christian, more than 20% are muslim etc. That’s 33% of those that declared a religion are non-Christian.

          1. Things have moved on since then – they’re being very cagey about releasing figures from the 2021 census.

            I remember feeling distinctly uncomfortable walking through parts of London in 2011 – it was like a third world, downtown Bangladesh street market. #notmycity.

          6. Things have moved on since then – they’re being very cagey about releasing figures from the 2021 census.

            I remember feeling distinctly uncomfortable walking through parts of London in 2011 – it was like a third world, downtown Bangladesh street market. #notmycity.

          7. The next census is going to open a few peoples’ eyes and cause others’ jaws to drop.

          8. That is taking London overall.
            However, there will be more than a few boroughs where that figure is reversed.

      2. Public health is a serious issue .

        Australia and NZ appear to have higher health standards than here .
        We are really and truly the dustbin of the world .

        We know how polio advice and vaccinations were recieved in certain parts of Asia and Africa.

        Remember there were riots inPakistan , doctors were murdered

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-54269047

        A global multibillion dollar immunization campaign over the past few decades has made most of the world polio-free. But in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria the crippling disease remains endemic.

        Despite a coordinated United Nations polio-prevention drive in all three countries, dozens of children become paralyzed and ultimately die from the highly infectious disease every year.

        Political unrest, poor health infrastructure, and government negligence are among the reasons for the failure. But the cause analysts cite most often is opposition from religious militant groups.

        In all three countries, the most afflicted regions are those where the government’s reach is weakest and the presence of Islamic militants is strongest. From the remote, mountainous villages along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to towns across northern Nigeria, insurgents have kidnapped, beaten, and assassinated vaccinators in a bid to stop local antipolio initiatives.

        In justifying their resistance to the polio-prevention campaign, Taliban factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan — as well as Nigerian militant groups like Boko Haram — have claimed polio vaccinations are “un-Islamic” and an attempt to thwart the will of God.

        https://www.rferl.org/a/explainer-why-polio-remains-endemic-afghanistan-pakistan-nigeria/24804097.html

        1. Billy Goats’ foundation overplayed his hand in Asia and Africa – many children died from their enforced jabs so understandably people stopped bringing their children forward. And the piece mentions that the virus is “vaccine derived” ie the jabs have not provided the protection they were supposed to.

          Australia and NZ are a long way away – unsurprisingly they have fewer migrants from Africa and southern Asia. They have other problems.

    2. It’s another scare story to frighten us into compliance again.

      Of course importing the third world imports third world diseases again like TB which had been virtually eradicated here.

  63. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/best-foods-high-in-zinc

    Unlike some NoTTLers, I do not take any zinc tablets along with my daily Ω3 fish-oil capsules and Vitamin D3 capsule. This is because I eat a varied diet of items that are naturally high in zinc; e.g. meat, shellfish, legumes, dairy, eggs and many vegetables. This is yet another good reason not be become a “vegan” or any other similar brain-damaged faddist.

      1. Most of it seems to be manufactured rubbish masquerading as something else – eg ‘vegan sausages’ and ‘almond milk’. Probably full of chemicals and preservatives, not that I’ve bothered to read the labels.

        1. Almond milk is ok…just almonds & water…bit of a rip off though!
          Good in smoothies…

  64. J Edgar Hoover, first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), getting some stick from the BBC. Emily Mattress(sic) with Eight or more 15 minute programmes castigating the most famous G-man in US history. He must have done something right.

      1. J E Hoover – He’s been dead 50 years and still his shadow looms over the US. Today’s fears of a ‘deep state’ – of unaccountable government officials working against the public in their own interest – can be traced back to him. In the first of an 8-part series, Emily shows how though his job was to enforce the law…he would not always be bound by it. BBC Radio 4

        Obviously, where there’s money, there’s Maitlis.

        1. …his job was to enforce the law…he would not always be bound by it. Sounds like the current PM.

        2. Will it be adiscussion of enforcing justice over and above law, regardless or a Left wing diatribe on why he was wrong and made da poor blicks feel bad?

  65. Revealed: How police officers looked the other way while 1,400 girls were abused, trafficked and groomed by Asian gangs in Rotherham – but still kept their jobs
    South Yorkshire Police ‘failed to protect vulnerable children’ from 1997 to 2013
    47 officers investigated by watchdog but all kept their jobs despite complaints
    Teens were seen as ‘consenting to abuse’ by police, according to investigation
    Officers were instead told to prioritise other crimes, the report out today found
    By TOM PYMAN FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 12:08, 22 June 2022 | UPDATED: 13:47, 22 June 2022

    Failing to investigate an older man who was found undressed in a bedroom with one of the victims;
    Not acting when a criminal handed over a missing girl to them as part of a ‘deal’ not to arrest him;
    Doing nothing after approaching a parked car which a victim and her sister were in – even though the abuser told them one of the girls had just performed a sex act on him;
    Telling one girl’s father nothing could be done because of ‘racial tensions’ surrounding the investigation;
    Failing to safeguard a victim who was driven 180 miles to Bristol by two men.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10941619/The-damning-verdict-police-failed-Rotherham-victims.html

    1. Why aren’t the councillors, local MPs and the twats from social services being castigated as well? They also “looked the other way” and washed their hands of the whole matter so as not to upset the muzzies.

      1. A very good question. The publication of the report? A report carefully restricted, err, redacted… err, fiddled to find the result the state wants.

    3. La, la, la, trala, trala, tralee.
      I’m a Yorkshire bobby, happy, retired and free.
      There’s another enquiry but they can’t catch me.
      Ask me lots of questions, I won’t tell what I know.
      It doesn’t matter what I did, not that long ago,
      La, la, la, trala, trala, tralee,
      I’m on a full pension, untouchable and free.

    4. The mechanised abuse of children by pakistani muslims is simply disgusting. Worse is the state’s complicity and abject refusal to acknowledge it.

      1. Mark Stein is attacking this subject with great determination on GB News each night.

        And yet Boris Johnson has failed to stop illegal immigration and is not remotely concerned about Muslim rape gangs. Is this because his wife is especially close friends with a couple of the members of the cabinet?

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62d72e9aa3b98253e1abb585cd7fdbcc2ac29d830d56cd8c24bd480ebbc4e6c6.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e68995dca2e696a8dbca2afb798fcde3dc62cd2b6e6658dd4846ea2aa3bd73d.jpg

      2. There was a chief plod on the telly the other night saying they must do better. It has been accepted the policing and social services supervision of these events were lacking. I want the negligent to be named, shamed and fired. Gawd, you can get your marching orders for merely misgendering someone these days, so where are the repercussions for those who had responsibility.

    5. “….Officers were instead told to prioritise other crimes”

      Such as burglary where the solving of this crime is down to zero in some areas?

      Surely we must ask ourselves just what the police force is for? It costs the taxpayer billions of pounds and seems to be completely useless. The only thing it succeeds in doing is siding with the lawbreakers and punishing everyone else.

          1. They are more symbiote than parasite. They at least keep the pores from clogging. Too many and you get an itchy rash. Easily treated with Tea Tree Oil.

  70. Just watching Eastbourne and Maia Haddad from who knows where is playing our girl Jodie Burrage. The foreigner makes the most bloody awful noise when she serves, she sounds like a fox barking. I really think they should be disqualified for making such a racket. Surely all their energy should be going into the serve. It’s really off putting. And I’m only watching!

    1. And one of the female commentators said to the other “….it’s not easy being out there on your own.”
      For God’s sake it’s a bloody singles match.

      1. Yes, but the personal trainer, masseur, mental therapist, nutritionist, and coach are not allowed on the court at all! How can any player be expected to cope?

    4. Those stupid noises should be banned it’s an attempt to intimate the opponent.
      Imagine if it sread to snooker they’d get some stick. Give it a rest.

          1. There are, of course, some real jerks but many Americans are super. Kindness itself in many cases. Maybe I am just lucky in my US friends.

          3. I’ve worked with many over the years and agree, most have been exceptional work colleagues and drinking partners 🙄 generous and kind hearted.
            Although I was having a few beers with some US Marines prior to them going into Iraq and they were definitely not of this world.
            But they were buying so I should not complain.

      3. GBS I believe!

        I read virtually all his plays when I was at school.

        I am now re-reading Somerset Maugham’s short stories. If the woke ever get hold of them he will be cancelled immediately.

  72. Well, Mother’s house auction over. Hammer fell at 12:00 today on reserve +10%, so not at all bad.
    Also agreed a price for the better parts of the contents – a visit to a Cardiff auction www site was a rude awakening! We thought that the sideboard would be worth about £250 – but a similar one at the website went for under £50! Wow – we had to recalibrate our price expectations rather a lot!
    Now all that needs sorted is that the airline technicians stop effing striking so we can get over, and the moveout might go OK.

      1. Thanks, Ann.
        Be glad when it’s done. It’s been an interesting project management exercise that just shows that you can be blindsided by stupid shit like transport strikes that are difficult to allow for and awkward to manage.

    2. We inherited a Sheraton Secretaire valued at over10k, now we would be lucky to get 1,000. Brown wood furniture is totally out of fashion.

      1. I have a Ming style Rosewood coffee table. It was imported from Hong Kong. It is worth as much now as when i bought it 30 years ago.

        1. Win some, lose some.
          We sold some candle holders for a lot of money and we were going to give them to the Red Cross.

    2. Impressive indeed, sweetie! … x

      Wordle 368 4/6
      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟨⬜⬜🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      Mine’s a Party Four.

    4. Splendid 4

      Wordle 368 4/6

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

    6. Par 4 me.

      Wordle 368 4/6

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

    1. If some people fill their tanks up it would treble the value of the vehicle.

        1. I can beat that. During our week in Salcombe I had to use the provided spounge/scourer for the washing up to daily clean off the seagul poo from our car.
          I can remember as a youngster getting off the train in Broadstairs for our family holiday and my father proudly wearing his RAF blazer and a sea gull dumped it’s cargo on his shoulder and back. He had to take it to the cleaners.

      1. A spot of unemployment would work wonders for these buggers.
        If the conditions are so bad, then quit and work in a better place.

    2. The media have been stirring it up all day, encouraging teachers to strike. Shame the TV presenters are paid so much they might follow the trend. Who’s going to miss them ?
      Oh dear my glass is empty, BUTLER !

    1. This government lies and lies. They never give any straight answers- it’s all smoke and mirrors. They are all sodding crooks and complicit in terrorism and destroying the UK. This is the small tip of an ever increasing iceberg.

      1. Every single gimmigrant must be returned immediately to france. Any more towed straight back. It’s beyond preposterous now.

    2. I do wonder who made the decision that L-on-O should be subjected to this.
      Surely someone should put their hand up and justify the reasons for these people being foisted on a village population that almost certainly doesn’t want them.
      I do live in lala land sometimes: ask the local population and take responsibility for any negative reactions, no chance.

          2. Even give today’s prices, I’m happy to supply a full jerry-can.

            And I was stationed at Linton-on-Ouse in the mid 60s.

        2. When they hear of others of their ilk are being put up in four star hotels that is a certainty.

        4. Me too. I am all for it. It is what these migrants do if they don’t like the accommodation. Perhaps they will burn it down themselves. Save poor old Linton-on-Ouse the trouble.

  81. Did the Windrush lot help rebuild Britain after the war… The BBC has just told us so .

    Why should we be concerned for Afghanistan , another load of ZEALOTS took over the country … their problem .

    The Afghans took £billions to America and elsewhere when the evacuated the country before the Taliban took over and starved the rest ..

    The have caused their own humanitarian crisis .. not our problem .

    Let others like Iran etc assist them.

    1. They didn’t build anything. That was the Irish. The Windrush people drove buses.

      1. And they’re still moaning at every opportunity. Have you recently seen Lenny Henry on TV saying what has this country absorbed from my culture ? Agit prop or what ?
        What culture is he specifically speaking of, English where he was born, Caribbean where his parents are from of Africa where his ancestors are from?
        We hear about it evey five minutes of the day.

        1. We have absorbed some parts of his ancestral culture. But they complain when we dress like they do and have our hair like theirs. Plus, the reason why their food isn’t mainstream is because it’s crap. Okay Gumbo is okay but it’s just a stew.

          1. Now they seem to moan about everything. I worked with some black guys back in the late 60’s and mid 70s. Their colour was never an aspect. We just got on together.

          2. Exactly, Eddy, we had two black guys on the Squadron, one lighter than the other. It was taken as no surprise and readily accepted by them, as nick-names when one was nick-named ‘Midnight’ and the other 23:59.Totally non-malicious.

          3. Where did it all go wong Tom.
            Probably when the cultural absent fathers, moaning and the riots looting Kieth Blakelock’s brutal murder the drugs and knife and all the crime started.
            Is this the culture Lenny Henry talks about ?
            But of course with out any form of thorough investigation its always whities fault..

  82. Back to the Polio outbreak…

    Polio is caused by a virus that spreads easily when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It can also be caught from food or water that’s been in contact with the poo of someone who has the virus….

    Need I say anymore ?

        1. Restaurants can be good – we eat out typically weekly, Friday night, to celebrate getting through yet another week… and there’s no washing up!

    2. No pun intended, I don’t give a shit- I am with Neil Oliver and will not wear a mask ever again. GRRRRR.

        1. My hair is about the same length, maybe a bit longer, than Neil’s but no beard….;-)

          4. In an earlier post I said that I slept really well, had a shower, which I wasn’t supposed to yesterday and am pain free.
            Been outside today and, although, still rather tired, am doing well.
            Been a rough ride but I am hopeful it’s over for now.
            Thanks for asking.

          5. Take it easy, don’t over-exert, and go to bed early if tired.
            Went to zed at 20:30 last night, woke at 05:45 feeling much refreshed. I recommend enough sleep!

        2. They are going to have some real long term problems. Most are just so lazy to do anything about anything.

    3. We ex-servicemen were warned when going into the Asian Field to beware of the possibility of ‘Black-Syph’ a particularly virulent form of Syphilis for which there was/is? no cure.

        1. As I’ve said to Ann, (LoTL) I’ll report when I’ve read all the messages – as a new post.

          2. Thanks Mum, reported earlier – near the top of the page – but, alas, Dotty cannot come with me, her heart lies with Judy – I’m just good for throwing balls for her to fetch.

        1. Reported a little earlier, Geoff, if you sort by ‘newest’ it should be about 20-25 down.

      1. I understood the symptoms cleared but that he still tested positive.
        Where have we heard that before !?!

        1. He did at first but then it was cleared, according to the story. They’ve got to keep the population scared, though.

      1. Quite. Why the reluctance to state their real nationality? Does the author imagine that readers are too stupid to work it out for themselves from that of the victims?

        Slovakia is, of course, a hotspot for a certain breed of wagoner…

  85. Good evening, dear Nottlers!

    Something more to add to the many things I didn’t know, but it looks absolutely believable

    The Extreme Danger of the Dying Neocons
    Bad losers on steroids?
    Blue Tara
    Jun 22

    Having projected the Ukraine into massive destruction, death and social collapse, the neocons, that sinister cabal in the heart of US government, who believe that American hegemony is their divine right, have recognised that their enemy is well on the way to achieving its stated aims. So they have immediately segued into the next cynical commitment of other peoples lives and peace to their delusional cause.

    Kaliningrad is a Russian enclave of about half a million Russian citizens situated on the Baltic and surrounded by Lithuania and Poland. The neocons and NATO have strongarmed the Lithuanians into violating the long-standing rail and road access agreements that allow supply of goods to Kaliningrad, and the Russians are, naturally, not amused. This brazen action has nothing whatever to do with Ukraine and is simply designed to widen the war with Russia by provoking Russian action against Lithuania.

    Let there be no mistake, these creeps need a war, because the tower of shit and corruption, of which they are an unlovely part, is teetering as the world wakes up to the horror of what has been done.

    Whether a few or a few millions die humanity will prevail and endure. There is real trouble ahead, but the evil has over-reached and will fail, as it always does in the end.

    tarableu@substack.com

    1. Me too. I’m going to send this to my friends, Bertil and Marianne, who are both Rockabilly nuts. I shall challenge them to beat this couple at jive.

    2. I’d love to be able to dance like that! I’ve got no sense of rhythm though.

          3. I’ll take that as a compliment. Still regret never having attained ‘Feral’ on any staff appraisal I was required to undergo during the last couple of years of my working life before I said ” *uck it” and retired early!

          4. In my last job, I was fired. I also did as you did and retired early. If asked, I paint it slightly differently!
            My contract wasn’t renewed, before I could publish a damning audit report.

            The CEO had heard that I was investigating a deal that had accounted for a very significant proportion of their year’s profits and the dealer, who had to all intents and purposes committed a fraud on the bank’s client, had been transferred from London to Singapore. The external auditors hadn’t looked at the deal closely and in context, or if they had, they didn’t understand what had happened, probably the latter.
            I recognised it for what it was because I had been a broker/dealer in a previous existence.
            My final interview was hostile to say the least.
            Oddly enough, the person who took over from me got in touch to say how grateful they were for how I had established the internal audit department and that for the first time ever they had received a clean bill of health from head office in Tokyo.

            They also commented that they had not had an inkling of how much work I was doing behind the scenes until they had to juggle the responsibilities themselves.

          5. I wasn’t fired I simply couldn’t stand the Janet & John conformist world being imposed on me…

          6. A Logarithm is the method of birth control used by catholic Canadian lumberjacks.

          7. Yes, it is dreadful. That’s about the most insulting thing you can say to a mother of four children. Just in case there is any doubt, they all have the same father, and they were all born while I was married to their father. Another insinuation that I get often.

          8. Sorry BB – it wasn’t intended to be insulting just a pun on your ‘ lack of sense of rhythm’…

          9. I guess people are always thinking this sort of stuff even when they don’t say it.

      1. In peacetime parachutes are no longer considered necessary in civilian aircraft except when flying over Ukraine.

    2. We have had these trails all week, but none today. We live just 35 minutes from Stansted and probably 45 minutes from Luton. Some of these trails remain in the sky for ages, some disappear in the wake of the plane as it travels, sometimes alongside long-standing trails. Can anyone explain why? Is it connected to differing altitudes?

      1. I always thought it was from temperature differences high up….perhaps someone knowledgeable will respond!

      2. From Wiki: “Contrails (/ˈkɒntreɪlz/; short for “condensation trails”) or vapor trails are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust or changes in air pressure, typically at aircraft cruising altitudes several miles above the Earth’s surface. Contrails are composed primarily of water, in the form of ice crystals. The combination of water vapor in aircraft engine exhaust and the low ambient temperatures that exist at high altitudes allows the formation of the trails. Impurities in the engine exhaust from the fuel, including sulfur compounds (0.05% by weight in jet fuel) provide some of the particles that can serve as sites for water droplet growth in the exhaust and, if water droplets form, they might freeze to form ice particles that compose a contrail.[1] Their formation can also be triggered by changes in air pressure in wingtip vortices or in the air over the entire wing surface.[2] Contrails, and other clouds directly resulting from human activity, are collectively named homogenitus.[3]”

        I suspect their duration is due to the dry / moist/ saturated adiabatic lapse rates present in the atmosphere at the time the aircraft passes through:

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

        1. Thank you, Stephen. There is much discussion on other sites about chemtrails, as opposed to contrails, and although I would not put it past those who govern us to indulge in such nefarious activity, I feel that this should be balanced against the paranoia that can be felt in these troubled times.

          1. Agreed – you would have to have hundreds of airport workers (sworn to absolute secrecy) constantly filling tanks of chemicals on the thousands of aircraft that take off every day . Not very plausible.

      3. Good evening ppm
        I have no idea but logic tells m it must have something to do with altitude.

      4. Con trails form from the water exhausted from combustion of the fuel. Whether they persist, or not, or form at all, is down to the temperature of the air at the aircraft’s cruising level. I dont believe in chemtrails although I dont put anything past governments. There is a process of seeding clouds to produce rain.

    3. This time of the evening we have dozens of transatlantic frights out of Heathrow and Gatwick flying over north Herts. If I had the choice of all the places I have been I would be living in or near Denmark South Western Australia. It’s so peaceful there it would drive you bonkers.

    1. His “mither-in-loo does not look very well. She is more wronkled and higgerd than usual!”

  89. Australian newspaper tycoon Rupert Murdoch is divorcing Jerry Hall after just six years of marriage, it was reported today.

    This will be 91-year-old Murdoch’s fourth divorce, however Hall, 65, had never previously been married before tying the knot with the media titan in March 2016.

    She was previously in a long-term relationship with Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger, with whom she shares four children, however the two never wed during their 22-year relationship. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10943081/Rupert-Murdoch-Jerry-Hall-divorcing-six-years-marriage.html?ito=push-notification&ci=TNIeguxlqZ&cri=zMna4mBM6m&si=26738248&ai=10943081

    1. In another interview I’m sure she said she’d (thought) been married to him for 46 years. 🤔

    2. Honestly, kids these days, they just can’t stick at marriage, divorce on a whim.

      1. My parents and Caroline’s parents both made 50 years of marriage. But as I met and married my lovely wife after turning 40 I shall have to get to 91 to celebrate a golden wedding.

        1. My dearly beloved is a lot older than I am, so we are extremely unlikely to make 25 years. Every moment together is a treasure.

    3. Jerry Hall has always struck me a thoroughly good egg.
      What’s brought this about?
      I know the Chinese grifter bunked up with Blair (I was vaguely surprised that he strayed with a woman).

      1. She used to shop locally in Richmond Hill ‘village’ . We’d see her quite regularly with a couple of tow-haired kids across the road going into the Indian grocers and the greengrocers. Always plain and unmade-up, she seemed ok.

    4. Jerry Hall was in a previous relationship with Brian Ferry, a friend of Jagger’s, when Jagger ‘stole’ her to be his woman. When he was later asked why he ‘stole’ the girfriend of his friend, Jagger replied, “Because I didn’t want her to become Jerry Ferry.”

      1. And did Brian respond?
        “now she can be Ferry Jerry cross the Mersey with the great Mick-taker, Jack-off Jagger”

    2. You probably would never guess, but I always had a sneaking suspicion that the Marine colonel was in the right, even if the end result was harsh for the squaddie.

      1. It’s the old adage ‘You sleep peacefully at night knowing there are rough men standing guard’.

        Also reminds me of the poem ‘Tommy’ Atkins. Scoiety doesn’t like ot acknowledge the sacrifices men make to protect our way of life.

        But hey, very soon the West will be the third world, overrun with diseased savages.

        1. Time for a Kipple

          I went into a public ‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
          The publican ‘e up an’ sez, ” We serve no red-coats here.”
          The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
          I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
          O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ” Tommy, go away ” ;
          But it’s ” Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play
          The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
          O it’s ” Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play.

          I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
          They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
          They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls,
          But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
          For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ” Tommy, wait outside “;
          But it’s ” Special train for Atkins ” when the trooper’s on the tide
          The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
          O it’s ” Special train for Atkins ” when the trooper’s on the tide.

          Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
          Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap.
          An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
          Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
          Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul? ”
          But it’s ” Thin red line of ‘eroes ” when the drums begin to roll
          The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
          O it’s ” Thin red line of ‘eroes, ” when the drums begin to roll.

          We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
          But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
          An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
          Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
          While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Tommy, fall be’ind,”
          But it’s ” Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind
          There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
          O it’s ” Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind.

          You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
          We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
          Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
          The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
          For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Chuck him out, the brute! ”
          But it’s ” Saviour of ‘is country ” when the guns begin to shoot;
          An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
          An ‘Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!

  92. Just to quickly report in response to those who’ve kindly asked:

    In process – seen a great place with RAFA (Royal Air Force Association in Moffat (Scottish Borders) and am now jumping through the various administration hoops to secure it. It will make a great difference, though I’m very sad about the split.

    1. Thoughts with you Tom and hope it all goes according to plan. Keep us nosy sods posted, won’t you?

    2. Good luck, Tom.
      Are you staying up in Moffat while you wait for the verdict? Is Dotty with you?

      1. Dotty is totally bonded with Judy – another little regret is that I cannot have any pets.

        My thanks to all of you for your good wishes. I love my NoTTLer family.

        Long-haul back to Suffolk to get all the necessary papers, scanned, printed and sent.

        2. Yo,Tom. Pets can be an issue. Dianne’s grand-dog – Maddie the Schnauzer – is coming here on Friday. I’m not allowed to have pets, but Maddie’s just passing through. Next door have just inherited a parrot, and next door but one has a cat. What could possibly go wrong?

          1. Over on ZeroHedge, there was a suggestion that AOC should take Adam Schiff as a pet!

          2. Remind me to tell you about the time my cat dropped a live chipmunk in the house in CT….

          3. Chipmunks, one of nature’s most amusing creatures.
            We had them in the garden in Canada and they were remarkably tame.

          4. I will tell the chipmunk tales tomorrow,- am off to bed soon. Still very tired although doing much better.

          5. Glad it’s working out well and that you’re pain free.

            Apart from me, of course.

          6. You are peanuts compared to the pain I have had- but don’t get too smug.

          7. Do you want some? I am catching three or four of the beasties every day.

            I bought a lovely chipmunk zapper that does away with them in about ten seconds but it is hard to keep up.

        3. It is indeed a long haul. I lived in Thetford, and made frequent visits to Carlisle when my Mum was alive.

          Back in the day, I could get from Carlisle to Thorpe St Andrew in four hours, if I set off early enough. That’s 280 miles. Don’t tell anyone…

      1. Yaay!
        What’s not to like? As long as Tom escapes Norwegian prices for booze…

          3. In which case, lift the seat.
            I’m sure he, who ought to be obeyed, might be grateful.

          5. What did the old boy say to deserve that?
            Did he sit in one of your puddles and complain?

            Oh, were you talking to me?

    6. Good luck, Tom. I’m not sure what attractions Moffat has to offer, but you’re only 40 minutes from The Great Border City, from whence I came…

      I’ve worked in Dumfries, Galashiels, Kelso and Melrose. The latter being the Borders General Horse Spittle.

    7. Glad you’re getting sorted. Is the RAFA place the one that’s been made into individual accommodation?

      1. It certainly seems like and, what I’m offered fits all my desired retirement and sheltered accommodation. I now have to fill out and return yards of (sometimes personal) bumf in order to secure it and think about furnishings that may be required – some I have, some Judy has donated but there’s still a shopping list that has to be filled and delivered.

          1. But, meanwhile, I have to live with and cater for the termagant. Heaven help us. I cannot take a tot without it’s down on my case. May I find a respite?

      1. Puccini: Tosca – “E lucevan le stelle” (Live)
        With late lamented Pavarotti.
        I had that problem sometimes, Nord vpn sorts it.

      2. Puccini: Tosca – “E lucevan le stelle” (Live)
        With late lamented Pavarotti.
        I had that problem sometimes, Nord vpn sorts it.

    3. A few years back Channel 4 broadcast a live version of Tosca from Rome over two days following the time periods of the Opera. I subsequently purchased the DVD.

      1. It’s one of my favourite operas.
        Maria Callas recordings and more upto date (audio quality) Pavarotti.

      2. I am compelled to sing through a bit of it ‘Trionfal!’ – the magnificent expression of hope on Tosca’s part and despairing kindness on Cavaradossi’s – whenever I’m in Lidl, as one of their tunes to tell shop-floor workers something is identical to the run-up. I try to sing it in my head, to avoid scaring the horses.

  94. Internet here keeps dropping out, so I think, I’ll take the example and wish you all a Goodnight and God bless.

    2. Best of luck with your search for accommodation. I just know you will succeed.

      We have had a setback in our hope to move from our historic house to a spec builder bungalow in Norfolk. The buyers of our property have withdrawn having wasted three or more months of our time. We stand to forfeit a deposit on the new property of £1000 and surveyor / engineer fees of a similar amount.

      In that time we will have had multiple viewings and likely better offers given the urge of many to move from urban to suburban settings.

      How is it legal for people to waste the time, effort and expenses of others on what seems to me to be a whim?

      I lose faith in the population on a daily basis.

      1. Sorry to hear that. It doesn’t seem fair – violates the spirit of a contract. I really hope things sort themselves out.

      2. Sorry to hear that Corrie
        Cannot understand why it takes the legal ‘profession’ so long as almost everything is now available electronically and, therefore, instant. Are they just lazy buggers screwing their clients.

  95. Hhmm. Always two sides to a news item:

    “Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has said Russian claims of a rail blockade of its territorial outpost in Kaliningrad are a lie.
    Kaliningrad is on the Baltic Sea and uses a rail link to Russia via Lithuania for passengers and freight.
    When Lithuania banned the transit of steel and other ferrous metals under EU sanctions last Saturday, Russia threatened to respond.
    The Kremlin condemned the sanctions as illegal and unacceptable.
    Ms Simonyte explained that passengers were still able to travel freely across Lithuanian territory from Russia to Kaliningrad and only about 1% of Russian freight was affected.“

    1. Good grief. Who to believe nowadays.

      Simonyte is an interesting name. We have those named Simmonite in England. I took it to imply a follower of Simon.

  96. Hhmm. Always two sides to a news item:

    “Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has said Russian claims of a rail blockade of its territorial outpost in Kaliningrad are a lie.
    Kaliningrad is on the Baltic Sea and uses a rail link to Russia via Lithuania for passengers and freight.
    When Lithuania banned the transit of steel and other ferrous metals under EU sanctions last Saturday, Russia threatened to respond.
    The Kremlin condemned the sanctions as illegal and unacceptable.
    Ms Simonyte explained that passengers were still able to travel freely across Lithuanian territory from Russia to Kaliningrad and only about 1% of Russian freight was affected.“

  97. Saying goodnight- doing well but still very tired. Need to sleep. Thanks for the fun today which is welcome. The strawberries my husband bought for me are lovely and going down so well.
    I wish you all well and hope everything goes well for you until tomorrow.
    Sweet dreams.

  98. Evening, all. Had a busy day today; I finally managed to see the dentist (after a period of about six weeks) at 08.30 this morning and he confirmed what I suspected at the beginning – I have an abscess under my tooth. I shall be having treatment at the end of July! I do have a course of antibiotics to take which hopefully will help.

      1. Who knows, Johnny. I might have been pain free if I could have seen a dentist at the beginning.

    2. I had a course of Amoxycillin for five days in May which sorted out an infection at the base of a molar. Unfortunately the tooth has to come out, it is now past being saved and I will have an implant, the start of which is scheduled for 8 July. So far there has been no return of the infection, but it didn’t clear until I had taken the very last antibiotic.

      2. I was quoted £2,500 plus for a single implant. I’m having a partial denture instead which is covered by my dental insurance. Good luck.

        1. My back molar is going to cost £3,500. I don’t have dental insurance now, and from past experience my implant wouldn’t be covered. I have two other implants from 16 years ago which are still v. good and given me no trouble. I think this one will be my swan song, I am getting too old for strenuous dental work, you feel so mugged (in more ways than one!) and beaten up afterwards. It is an assault on the body after all.

      1. It’s still quite sore, but I’ve only been taking them two days, so I need to give them time to work.

  100. Mr Singh walks into a bank in London and asks for the loan officer. He says he’s going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow £5000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so Mr Singh hands over the keys to a new Rolls Royce, which costs quarter of a million pounds.
    “The car is parked on the street in front of the bank,” says Mr Singh, “and I have all the necessary papers.”
    The bank officer agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan. After Mr Singh leaves, the loan officer, the bank’s president and all their colleagues enjoy a good laugh at the man for using a £250,000 Rolls Royce as collateral against a £5,000 loan.
    One of the employees drives the Rolls into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later, Mr Singh returns, repays the £5000 and the interest, which comes to £15.41.
    The loan officer says, “Sir, I must tell you, we’re all a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and discovered that you’re a multimillionaire. Why would you bother to borrow £5,000?”
    The man replies, “Where else in London can I park my car for two weeks for only £15.41?”

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