Tuesday 28 June: Make cyclists have insurance and number plates, and ban headphones

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

526 thoughts on “Tuesday 28 June: Make cyclists have insurance and number plates, and ban headphones”

  2. Several letters this morning advising insurance, number plates etc. for cyclists. Some drivers seem to hate the freedom cyclists have. Not all cyclists are a nuisance.

    1. The British Disease. We would rather everyone share our misery than free ourselves!

    2. It’s not the cyclist fault, I suppose, cycling has been used as a way to make life even harder for motorists with the cycle lanes slowing up traffic and reducing road space.
      They want to fine drivers for innocently entering cycle lanes now with cameras everywhere.
      I’m sure the powers that be are happy for those affected to vent their anger at cyclists.
      Of course cyclist will face regulation eventually, the authorities need the money

      1. Morning Bob. It’s like the Middle Ages! The whole purpose of Government is the extraction of revenues from the peasants to finance the lifestyles of the rich!

      2. ‘Morning, B3. A BTL comment:

        Stuart Reed
        43 MIN AGO
        In Switzerland cycles have to be insured and a sticker displayed, the insurance is available from the Post Office and costs around SFr12 p.a. No doubt if introduced into the UK it would be priced at £120 p.a. And would be linked to mandated safety training, completion of a diversity course and rainbow coloured sticker. We have lost all sense of proportion, sense and the capacity to size solutions to their intended problems. (Note the 50 barristers employed for the Covid investigation before even it starts).

        * * *

        Yes, that sums it up nicely!

    3. It’s not the cyclist fault, I suppose, cycling has been used as a way to make life even harder for motorists with the cycle lanes slowing up traffic and reducing road space.
      They want to fine drivers for innocently entering cycle lanes now with cameras everywhere.
      I’m sure the powers that be are happy for those affected to vent their anger at cyclists.
      Of course cyclist will face regulation eventually, the authorities need the money

    4. Not all people are killers, but I support the banning of guns for everyone. (With exceptions for a few such as armed forces.)

      1. I support the right to bear arms for self defence . Why should politicians be protected by armed police and we cannot protect ourselves.

        1. Surely then politicians should not be protected, rather than we have guns? After all, a politician has nothing to fear from the public they serve?

    6. No, but when one pelts past on on the pavement nearly knocking you over they are. One was behind me the other day, frantically ringing his bell.

      I told the oik to get on the road.

      But as with the highway code, there will be people who simply ignore the rules and behave as they want to. You can’t change them. Plod aren’t interested, either.

        1. So you/re saying, Minty, (© Cathy Newman) that last night you took oggy1, a pot of paint, paintbrushes, etc. to bed with you and set to on oggy1? Lol.

  6. Many dead’ as Russian missile hits Ukrainian shopping mall with more than 1,000 inside. 28 June 2022.

    A Russian missile destroyed a crowded shopping mall in central Ukraine on Monday, continuing Vladimir Putin’s attacks on civilians living far behind the frontline.

    The missile strike appears to form part of an aggressive new Russian strategy. Over the past three days, its missiles have hit several civilian sites lying hundreds of miles from Ukraine’s main battlegrounds, including an apartment block in Kyiv.

    Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said that there were “a thousand people” inside the Amstor shopping mall in Kremenchuk when the missile struck in the middle of the afternoon.

    “The mall is on fire, firefighters are trying to extinguish the fire, the number of victims is impossible to imagine,” he said on his Telegram channel.

    Actually there are eleven so far but Zelensky is not alone in his hyper venting of this incident. John Simpson on the BBC News last night could hardly contain himself and Boris Johnson called it a barbarity. Aside from the hypocrisy that is apparent to anyone who has lived through several Middle Eastern Wars the reasons for this are not unfathomable; all hope to garner sufficient public support for a NATO intervention either directly or by proxy.

    The reasons for the strike itself are more mysterious. Missiles are very expensive while Shopping Malls are not high value military targets and this is not the first. A block of flats was hit yesterday. This could simply be poor production values in the Russian Military Industrial complex but one wonders if they are not being subjected to Electronic Counter Measures. (ECM) and being thrown off course deliberately. Needless to say no one is going to admit to anything of the sort!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/27/many-dead-russian-missile-hits-ukrainian-shopping-mall-1000/

    2. Picked this up from GP can’t vouch for the accuracy

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd9488b5a4fa414a3f9d95cb5c94cf148f17a49a96e7b07425fc93374070784e.jpg
      I did note in other pics there seemed to be no female shoppers,it would of course have been a very useful false flag for the warmongering summit…….
      Just saying
      Edit
      Watch as Ukes cower in fear as the missiles rain down (sarc)
      https://twitter.com/BNNBreaking/status/1541444707279986693?t=4Yu8Sxb66Poc-9L8ZL6Sfg&s=19

    3. The greatest terror attack in Europe in recent times apparently, says Zel. Well, apart from all those killed by slammers in Manchester, France, Germany, I could go on…

  7. Two letters which I enjoyed today in the Terriblegraph, the first because of its superb sarcasm and the fact it was penned by a man named Gary. I have a soft spot for Garies (?) and you don’t come across them very often.

    “ Sir – How can people say that the Government has lost touch with voters?
    It’s true that ministers have not been able to deport a single illegal immigrant and have raised taxes to the highest level in decades – but on the other hand they’ve made it possible for local authorities to add to motorists’ soaring living costs by issuing fines for transgressing a cycle lane.
    That should help shore up Tory prospects come the next by-election.”

    And the second, which just sums up our weariness with Plod:

    “ Sir – While a fall in burglaries may well be attributable to more widespread CCTV (Letters, June 23), I suspect it is also due to increased under-reporting.
    The only reason to notify the police is to obtain a crime reference for insurance purposes. If your claim is less than your insurance excess, why bother?
    I hope that the National Police Chiefs’ Council is not mistaking public loss of confidence for improved operational efficiency.”

    I shall refrain from commenting on the letter about mirrors being a construct of an evil patriarchal society intent on keeping women down. Well, that’s how I interpreted it, anyway.

    1. ‘Morning mir and Peeps.

      Nothing like a bit of sarcasm to ram home the message…

      And as for burglary excesses not making reporting to police worthwhile – good point, but some policyholders must be carrying some pretty sizeable excesses?

  8. 353577 up ticks,

    Morning

    There is a place or everything & everything has a place
    like priorities for instance,

    SOD another layer / department of political scammers
    people power must be reset and doing for decent peoples what a multitude of peoples have done for themselves when they, these last four decades, successfully constructed a three party atrocious coalition that Hideki Tojo would be honoured to lead.

    The turkish delight is right in one respect & that is we , the decent folk should be build,build,building on a very pro ,without doubt English / GB fringe party, my personal choice is Anne Marie Waters & FOR BRITAIN
    her fearless stance in fronting up to the islamic
    insidious ( proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with very harmful effects). take over coming shortly, she along with Tommy Robinson have shown they recognise treacherous political bollocks and are not shy in saying so by word & actions.

    Tuesday 28 June: Make cyclists have insurance and number plates, and ban headphones

        2. 353577+ up ticks,

          Morning Siadc,

          Given as a pacifying gift to the followers if islam in the main out of pure fear by the electorate majority supporters of lab/lib/con, the paedophile umbrella coalition party and what they have unleased upon these Isles via their odious
          continuing voting pattern.

      3. You’d think the police would remove the gimmigrants. I’m sick and tired of a spoiled, waster minority dictating to the majority.

        1. 353577+ up ticks,

          Morning W,
          If the majority of the imbecilic electorate keep up their voting pattern that minority shortly will be the
          Majority, then any discontent via the peoples will be cut short …… via the neck.

  9. The case for the lab-leak theory.. Spiked 27 June 2022.

    In researching our book Viral, updated and newly released in paperback, on the origin of Covid-19, the scientist Alina Chan and I concluded that it is highly likely the outbreak began in Wuhan. The earliest Covid cases in other parts of China, and other countries, link straight back to this modern and prosperous city on the banks of the Yangtze. For instance, a case in Beijing who fell ill as early as 17 December 2019 turns out to have travelled that day from Wuhan.

    First revealed on Nottl in February of 2020 if I recall correctly.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/06/27/the-case-for-the-lab-leak-theory/

    1. A ‘modern’ city where dogs and bats are killed in front of the customer so they know the meat is fresh?

      1. Our butcher does that. He always has a couple Aberdeen Angus bulls out the back of the shop. You choose one and he butchers it right there. Just go for coffee while he prepares your chosen cut.

    2. The thing is that Matt Ridley is 64, married to a scientist, comfortably well off and has no need to grease up to those in power.

  10. ‘Morning All

    Can’t we get ANYTHING right??

    A ringleader of the notorious Rochdale

    grooming gang has won his battle against deportation back to his native

    Pakistan, it was revealed yesterday.

    Aziz, known as ‘The Master’ by his fellow abusers, was stripped of his

    UK citizenship in 2018 after using human rights laws in a bid to avoid

    being thrown out of the country.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10959109/Grooming-gang-leader-WONT-kicked-UK-winning-fight-against-deportation.html
    Hundreds of thousands of legal aid to help convicted rapists avoid deportation not once but time after time…..
    Justice System?? Don’t make me laff………
    Edit
    “comments have been moderated in advance” I bet they bloody have!!
    Edit Again It is now clear comments are stuck on 17 and have been stopped gutless Swine!!

    1. 353577+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik,

      Let’s kill all the lawyers –

      “Let’s kill all the lawyers” is a line from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2.

      Old shaky Will was not far off base in voicing that.

    4. How can the highly paid lawyer creature who found the loophole sleep at night? Until one of their daughters, granddaughters or other family/friend becomes a victim of these backward filth, nothing will change.
      All foreign criminals, especially those committing serious crimes, should be permanently deported with no right of appeal. Their families must be removed with them.
      On the Mail’s “comments have been moderated in advance”, wh en hardly any comments get through their moderation censorship, we all know they don’t approve of the truth.

  12. SIR – In your report on the number of outstanding criminal cases, you say that 43 per cent of magistrates’ courts have closed in the past 12 years.

    When I sat on the local bench in 1998 there were 10 courts in Suffolk. Now there is just one. Local justice has been a great strength of our judicial system for hundreds of years because it is often helpful to know the area where crimes have been committed or where the offender has lived.

    Magistrates’ courts do not have to be in sophisticated buildings. In the past, some cases were heard in the back room of the local pub. More facilities are needed today, such as Wi-Fi, but there are many buildings where courts could be held and the backlog eased.

    Dr Richard Soper
    Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

    Good point, Dr Soper, but it would mean replacing all those staff who were ‘let go’ in order to save money.  Providing a rotten publicly-funded service these days seems to be the norm.

    1. Morning all.

      Alf has posted here before about the number of courts that have been closed in Surrey over the years. In my view it has been deliberate so as to push the U.K. into the EU way of doing things. Now it seems we have very little justice at all.

  13. SIR – I am aware that Wimbledon is a highlight of our summer calendar. However, is it really necessary for BBC One and BBC Two to be hijacked for the next fortnight?

    I know it’s Sue Barker’s swan-song, but this is just overkill.

    John Taylor
    Purley, Surrey

    SIR – Is it too much to hope that the television coverage of Wimbledon this year won’t be marred yet again by gabby commentators accustomed to talking between serves and even over live play?

    They seem to forget altogether the watching audience’s awareness of events on court. For once, let them show some restraint so that viewers can enjoy the tennis without their incessant babble.

    Brian Willis
    Cheam, Surrey

    Speaking of ‘hijacking’ the BBC was happy to blanket-bomb three out of four television channels on just one day for ‘Glasto’…

    As for commentators, surely the Dan Maskell principle should apply – a single voice who isn’t ‘paid by the word’?  Two of them were at it during my brief viewing of a match yesterday afternoon and the irritation proved to be too much…that, and constant shots of people in the upstairs front row about whom I know nothing and have no wish to.

    2. Lovely, lovely, pictures of the Ukraine Ambassador to the UK sitting in the Royal Box. Just lovely, and so meaningful.

    3. Yesterday late afternoon we listened to the car radio when the girl was playing tennis whilst we were travelling in the car .

      We were so irritated to hear the chatter and interviews WHILST the match was still being played , crucial moments about 15minutes before the girl won the match .

  14. 353577+ up ticks,

    Treacherous treasa in action a burnt out tier of the semi return to brussels missile IMO the turk is of the same ilk,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    10h
    I will never tire of saying it – there is no such thing as ‘international law’. There are only treaties between sovereign nations. History is littered with disregarded treaties that outlived their usefulness.

    Bririain & the Republic of Ireland are two sovereign nations. If the RoI subjugates itself to the EU that us its choice. But the UK is its biggest trading partner & provider of energy.

    Mrs May NEVER wanted or intended for Brexit to be implemented. That is why when she became PM she said we wouldn’t leave the EU without a “Deal”, something the EU had zero motivation to agree. Hence the ‘Not Really Leaving Deal’ we eventually got.

    https://gettr.com/post/p1g0bfo3a43

    1. “International Law” is up there with “Human Rights”. A nice little earner.

  16. The G7 summit has confirmed my worst fears about the chronic decline of the West. 28 June 2022.

    In happier times, G7 summits could be indulged and ignored. The latest carries the chill of historic failure. The gathering in the Bavarian Alps confirms our worst fears about Western decline. The free world’s commitment to liberty has faltered. It now seems all but official that the West lacks the unity and will to prevent Russia’s annexation of Ukraine. Nor does it have any coherent response to the rise of China.

    Vladimir Putin, as it stands, is on track to achieve his ultimate ambition of smashing the illusion of a liberal world order, so that the world divides into rival spheres of influence. That is because we seem to have lost our nerve, just as Russia’s invasion enters a grim new phase of attritional warfare. Right now Ukraine urgently requires ammunition, long-range Western artillery pieces and armoured fleets. Given that Nato’s stocks are depleted and outdated, providing decisive aid would take serious investment and will – something that the West does not seem quite able to muster.

    The Free World! Aghh! Once upon a time. Vlad wants to break the US Hegemony and establish a multi polar world. An important difference to the ambition in bold type and so far as I am concerned a worthwhile one, since the alternative is a Globalist American Tyranny.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/27/g7-summit-has-confirmed-worst-fears-chronic-decline-west/

        1. The bloke in the white jacket and black tie (a negative of those in tails-and-white-tie), front row, far left, looks miffed that he is not centre-stage.

          1. Could be Hermann Goering – he liked light coloured clothing and uniforms. The image is from Eva Braun’s photo album. She was an assistant and model for Hitler’s personal photographer before becoming a photographer herself.

          2. I think it’s Ernst Udet, Goering’s fellow WW1 ace. Over-promoted courtesy of Goering’s habit of giving jobs to his old Jagdstaffel comrades, he ended by shooting himself.

    2. The West smashed itself when it knee-jerked it’s way into neoliberalism and mad capital accumulation because of a little stagflation. That was only ever good for the richest, the rest of us have not felt the trickle-down effect at all, we’ve had lame pension growth, lame wages, lame rises, lame job security, high unemployment, and so on.
      Still this is actually what people voted for so why don’t they love it?

  17. Sigh,another day another futile headline………

    Channel migrant boat pilots face life in prison under new crackdown

    Nationality and Borders Act will increase maximum sentences for people smugglers and those who steer their vessels

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/27/channel-migrant-boat-pilots-face-life-prison-new-crackdown/
    1 It’s not going to happen
    2 If it did that’s £500,000 cost per pilot
    Just deport at once alongside their criminal invading passengers!!!

    2. This government and its constant trickle of initiatives, especially regarding the ongoing Channel invasion, is reminiscent of those people whom I’ve seen walking around hospitals and other institutions with clipboards and trying to look both busy and important. What are they for and what do they achieve? At best, not a lot, at worst, nothing at all. It’s all a charade.

    4. Why not just take the scum back to france?

      If they’re in French waters when they squeal, ignore them. If they’re in British waters. tow them back. However we run it, get rid of the feckers. Once they’re in French waters and sight of shore, destroy the boat. If we had done that from the outset this simply wouldn’t have been a problem.

  18. Morning, all! A couple of photos from a magical day in Cromer yesterday (my first visit). I swam in th https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c34a5a796d125d74cd8ab67c297c04cf583f765d42f5ce30f5420c6fa38b995b.jpg e cold water at the https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2f5c2847033e82e58fa69ba0c6fb438bc6bdaf9f17c429d0f113e0dc3ca6603e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cea24640e5f0a6afe0bae78ed35f8b173f5cdb8eb0c3c3254923296c9cb7f85b.jpg he end of the beach, alone, my footprints the first on that stretch of sand, and ate Cromer crab with my fingers, enjoying the smell of petrichor as it rained, and spent the whole day watching the sea change colour. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b45b94825ffb709ec1d16b3ff51570da1318c1eda1f68904fc70c4f7113cf1aa.jpg

      1. ‘Morning, atd. Nice pics. Did you by any chance ascend the church tower (St Peter and St Paul if I remember correctly)? It provides a magnificent view of Cromer – provided of course that the elfin safety lot haven’t closed it by now…

        2. As a Roman Catholic Christopher used to cycle from Holt to Sheringham on Sundays so that he could attend mass at the catholic church there.

    2. Mary Jane’s fish and chips. Nearly as good as those from Yorkshire! 👍🏻😉
      (Up to 10 years ago I lived just 11 miles down the road so I was a frequent visitor).

    3. Christo was at Gresham’s in Holt and Henry and I both were at UEA in Norwich so we know this part of Norfolk quite well.

  19. SIR – Michael Gove’s proposals for more regulation of private rented housing are another step in a process that started under John Major on the basis of a report by the Campaign for Bedsit Rights, which claimed that tenants of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) were 27 times more likely to die in house fires than occupants of normal housing.

    The statistic was queried by a landlords’ campaigning group, which found it was based on a gross misinterpretation of the Fire Service’s records. But by then the process was under way, with the Civil Service behind it, and HMO licensing was introduced, which is now being extended to all private lettings, with Mr Gove’s new standards added on top.

    The effects are that costs and rents are driven up, supply is driven down, and flexibility is reduced. Private landlords give up trying to meet the endless regulations, and sell their houses for owner-occupation.

    More importantly, the standards required of tenants increase while the housing supply shrinks, so only “better” tenants can get private rented accommodation. The less fortunate are left to housing associations and local authorities, which are increasingly inflexible. Local authorities build very little and housing associations have largely morphed into corporate landlords. “Difficult” tenants who would have been weekly tenants in an HMO are left homeless and end up on the streets – unheard of in the 1970s when HMOs were plentiful.

    The Campaign for Bedsit Rights’ mischievous manipulation of civil servants has inflamed the very thing they were claiming to eliminate. Now a Conservative government is putting the finishing touches to these strangling restrictions.

    J M B Young
    Oxford

    I don’t know whether J Young has a vested interest but he makes a good point.  Making life almost impossible for private landlords can only result in fewer places being available, and those that do survive even more expensive.  Just what Gove is up to isn’t clear…even he can’t be that stupid, so what is the aim?

    1. To regulate private ownership away entirely. Saw someone asking for a 3 bed house the other day, landlord must accept universal credit. Why must I be forced to pay for someone else to have things? Why haven’t they worked for it? Why must I be made to pay?

      I do genuinely believe the intent of government is socialism. The confiscation of all private earnings to be exchanged for a pittance. Try it, Gove. Hell, the online safety bill is just fascism.

      The sad thing is that when you resist and say no, thinking other people believe the same, you realise that half of them are actively against you and want this authoritarian oppression.

      1. You’ll only be happy living the way Murray Rothbard wanted to, no government at all.

        I wonder how long you’ll last in a complete state of anarchy. No healthcare. No money. Only bartering. No justice. No defence. No police. Nothing at all. A real dog eat dog world like the old wild west where the strong take what they want and the weak get effed.

  20. SIR – Michael Gove’s proposals for more regulation of private rented housing are another step in a process that started under John Major on the basis of a report by the Campaign for Bedsit Rights, which claimed that tenants of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) were 27 times more likely to die in house fires than occupants of normal housing.

    The statistic was queried by a landlords’ campaigning group, which found it was based on a gross misinterpretation of the Fire Service’s records. But by then the process was under way, with the Civil Service behind it, and HMO licensing was introduced, which is now being extended to all private lettings, with Mr Gove’s new standards added on top.

    The effects are that costs and rents are driven up, supply is driven down, and flexibility is reduced. Private landlords give up trying to meet the endless regulations, and sell their houses for owner-occupation.

    More importantly, the standards required of tenants increase while the housing supply shrinks, so only “better” tenants can get private rented accommodation. The less fortunate are left to housing associations and local authorities, which are increasingly inflexible. Local authorities build very little and housing associations have largely morphed into corporate landlords. “Difficult” tenants who would have been weekly tenants in an HMO are left homeless and end up on the streets – unheard of in the 1970s when HMOs were plentiful.

    The Campaign for Bedsit Rights’ mischievous manipulation of civil servants has inflamed the very thing they were claiming to eliminate. Now a Conservative government is putting the finishing touches to these strangling restrictions.

    J M B Young
    Oxford

    I don’t know whether J Young has a vested interest but he makes a good point.  Making life almost impossible for private landlords can only result in fewer places being available, and those that do survive even more expensive.  Just what Gove is up to isn’t clear…even he can’t be that stupid, so what is the aim?

      1. The man is a thick, ignorant, spoiled rich Lefty living off someone else’s money. He works in an overfunded, expensive, useless government department.

        Not one of them has the faintest clue about real life.

        1. He’s not a ‘Lefty’ but he’s certainly nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is.

          Everything the man touches turns into a steaming pile of dung.

          1. Someone demanding more regulation is defacto a Lefty (in my book). I see nothing Gove has done being remotely leave people alone normal. He has not once presented a tax cut, not once supported repealing legislation, not once demanded business pay less tax, not once demanded the remove of waste and inefficiency.

            He’s a good for nothing statist Lefty.

    2. Often UK legislative trends seem to shadow what is happening elsewhere in the world. For example, it is becoming increasingly difficult (and never was easy) to evict tenants in Spain.

      1. In Malta a left wing government froze the rents. Over the years private landlords stopped doing repairs and the quality of the housing stock collapsed.

        1. Then they should have regulated private landlords better so those that kept doing it kept their properties at a decent standard.

          1. Gah! No! You don’t improve things by regulating them. You don’t raise money by hiking taxes. markets define demand. The fundamental problem we have is too much demand, so the price falls – basic economics. If demand is high and supply is low, you get a high price (poor quality. If supply is high and demand is low, you get a lower price. People compete with one another to provide the best option.

            There are so few things government does that would not be better done by the market.

          2. You absolutely do improve things by regulating them, providing of course you get the regulation right.

            Quite right you don’t raise money by taxing in a fiat economy. You cut inflation opportunities. Yes markets define demand.

            One way of looking at things is currently we have too much demand, but really demand is mostly unchanged, it’s supply that’s lacking at the moment.

            People are not the rational actors in perfect competition buying from businesses in perfect competition at equilibrium that the classic liberal economists would have you believe.

          3. ….and the demand is being swelled by the illegals arriving here in their thousands, and the bluddy fool government pandering to them and give them money and shelter, that would be better spent on our own homeless, including ex-servicemen and women.

            No sense of proportion unless the PTB really want a Caliphate Army.

    3. It just seems that the state is desperate to legislate away any sort of private wealth. The assumption that state knows best won’t change the conditions of some properties – one landlord I know when a tenant complained simply burned the place down. For those gimmigrants living in sheds it also won’t change anything. The only group hurt by this rampant red tape is honest, decent folk trying to make the best of an owned flat.

    4. Rents are set by affordability not by landlord costs. Eventually you ask for too much and the property sits vacant because those looking for rented accommodation simply can’t afford it.

      Most housing association properties are every bit as good as the average private rental.

      The amount of social housing must be going down because we keep clearing council estates and building private for sale homes on the land that you need to be earning fortunes to buy. Councils have called this ‘regeneration’ but I don’t call the loss of cheap social housing to be replaced by expensive (and fugly) private housing regeneration. My old council, Barnet, did this to about three of their biggest council estates. The houses put up sold for 550k to 950k and they are just awful.

      1. No.
        The real problem is that the number of people requiring social housing is rising exponentially.
        Importing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people who won’t even earn enough to pay the cheapest rents puts enormous pressures on the social housing sector.

        1. Most immigrants were living at stupidly high ratios to 2-3 bed flats. We had 14 poles in the sister flat to ours across the hall, they just chuck sleeping bags down anywhere. It tends to be the large African family immigrants that don’t do that. They bleat and bleat until they get given a big property for their 6-15 kids.

          1. There’s plenty of Brits who see breeding as their form of ‘welfare promotion’ too. It’s disgusting.

          2. There were definitely some yes.

            If a system can be gamed then it will be by at least some people. That’s human nature.

            It was very in your face because of TV shows about these type of families, however they were never that commonplace. I mean who really wants a pregnant woman in their house for 20 years if their name isn’t Duggar. Not to mention needing a bus rather than a car etc.

          3. Those are/were likely to be workers trying to accumulate sufficient to make a difference when they eventually return home. The ones I have in mind have zero intention of doing either.

        2. That too is a result of state regulation and high rents though. The more people the more costs, demand spikes, supply falls, rents rise, the state provides more welfare – targeted, none for the worker – and taxes rise and so the cycle continues.

      2. Ah, you’re wrong there Thayaric. Once legislation becomes too much, rents sit high – everyone’s rents. The market is rigged.

        Then, because rents are too high due to regulation, the state has to provide monies for those people to afford them. Now, as the state is a useless corpulent pig, it keeps taking money in excess to pay for those rents but creates a fiddle to give money back to those who can’t afford the rent in ‘working tax credits’ rather than cutting taxes for everyone, or reducing regulation the state solution is ‘rob those earning’.

        The worker then has to earn more because he’s now paying for government tax and regulation policies. The lower paid are really no better off and now trapped in welfare. The state has created yet more work and continues to expand – as it is incapable of efficiency and so demands more tax to sustain itself.

        Of course, now more people are paying ever more tax and getting ever less, the state has to continually pay more out to help the ‘we had enough until the state took more’ group. That group keeps getting bigger every year as the state continues to rob the worker. Taxes rise, the state gets bigger, house prices soar. Everyone loses. The solution – shredding the state – is obvious. Government refuses to do that though. No headlines – no power in ‘we left you alone’.

        1. Again you’re slipping into government only has the money it takes from us mode.

          1. And from where else does government get money – the fairy, unicorn, money-tree?

          2. It creates it silly.

            The way you guys think is this….

            Lets start a new country with it’s own new currency. You instigate fiscal policy demanding taxes off about 75% of the population in this new currency. People can’t pay your taxes. Why not? You haven’t spent any currency into the economy. Where will the people get the currency to pay taxes if you haven’t spent currency first?

            Spending precedes taxes. Always.

            So government must create currency, spend it into the economy, and only then can it withdraw taxation from the economy.

            So taxes can’t fund spending.

            In actual fact spending funds taxation.

          3. Creating it, outside the legal mint and with no backing, is tantamount to forgery and therefore NOT legal tender.

          6. QE is central bank reserves. Although in theory it forms part of the money supply it can’t leave reserve accounts. It’s useful for interbank lending and promoting more loans to households and businesses, but it can’t be spent on goods and services so it’s unlikely to be inflationary.
            The currency has had 3 big drops over 30 years. None relate to QE. They were caused by Black Wednesday, the GFC and the Brexit referendum. The currency has actually risen while we’ve been using QE. It rose between 2012 and 2015, and 2017 and present day. That kind of blows your theory out of the water.

      3. I was on the board of an HA once. I didn’t really understand how it worked. As I was having our kitchen done at the time I asked why every 5 years a house was renovated. The HA person said ‘well, it’s to keep it updated’. Fair enough, i thought. Who pays for this? The client? No, she said. It comes from the government.

        Ah. I said. Me. Someone else gets what I cannot have.

  21. From today’s DT:

    Net zero red tape to be ditched as Britain returns to coal

    Checks on fossil fuel emissions to be watered down under Whitehall plans

    By Rachel Millard and Tom Rees
    28 June 2022 • 6:58am

    Fossil fuel power plants are set to be temporarily freed from planned checks on their emissions in a scramble to prevent blackouts as Britain turns back to coal.

    Coal and gas stations providing back-up supply in 2023 will not have to get reports on their emissions signed off by an independent expert under changes being proposed by Whitehall officials.

    There is growing concern over energy security amid fears Russia will shut off gas supplies to Europe in retaliation for sanctions imposed in response to its war on Ukraine.

    The gradual retirement of the UK’s nuclear fleet in coming years as well as problems with France’s nuclear stations are adding to the pressure in energy markets. 

    Coal-fired plants have already been asked to stay open this winter, while gas quality rules could also be relaxed to allow more from the North Sea into Britain’s pipes.

    Under rules from 2019, fossil fuel facilities bidding to take part in National Grid ESO’s market for back-up power supply have to declare their carbon emissions in line with limits.

    The Government wants to make it compulsory for these declarations to be independently verified — a service expected to be carried out mostly by niche consultants — but there have been delays in getting enough people accredited to do the verification.  

    Officials are concerned that if independent verification is compulsory, some plants will not be able qualify to provide back-up supply for the winter of 2023-2024.

    Officials now plan to postpone for a year the requirement to have emissions figures verified, meaning plants should be able to take part in the auction for 2023.

    It marks the second time the requirement has been delayed.

    In consultation papers, officials warned that failure to act could lead to lower competition which could trigger increased prices and “risks to security of supply”.

    They added: “We consider this proposal would be a reasonable precaution to take.” The Government believes there is only a “low” risk that plants would falsify their emissions claims.

    National Grid’s target for the amount of capacity they need to procure for the 2023-2024 back-up market is likely to be “stretching”, the officials said.

    Officials also plan to change criteria to make it easier for mothballed power plants to take part in the market. 

    Britain does not buy much gas directly from Russia but there are concerns about a significant knock-on impact if Russia cuts off supplies to Europe.

    Worst-case scenarios modelled in Whitehall indicate 6m households could face black-outs if this winter if that were the case.

    National Grid is now developing plans under which potentially millions of households will be paid if they choose to cut their electricity use at peak times, lessening the strain on the system.

    Under plans first reported by The Times, National Grid has asked power suppliers to indicate how many of their customers might shift usage out of peak times if they were paid to do so.

    It follows trials with Octopus Energy this year.

    National Grid said: “Demand shifting has the potential to save consumers money, reduce carbon emissions and offer greater flexibility on the system.”

    A spokesperson for the department for business, energy and industrial strategy said: “The Government is carefully considering respondents’ views and will publish a response setting out next steps in due course.

    “The UK has no issues with either gas or electricity supply and the government is fully prepared for any scenario, even those that are extreme and very unlikely to occur.”

    It came as the Treasury hit back against claims that economic growth is incompatible with efforts to slash carbon emissions, after official statisticians bowed to demands from activists for more data.

    The Office for National Statistics is piloting the release of climate figures alongside GDP data in a victory for activists critical of capitalism’s impact on the environment.

    But Helen Whately, a Treasury minister, insisted that growth can co-exist with the drive to go green and ruled out including a “Net Zero test” at the Budget to assess the impact of tax and spending decisions on the climate.

    Climate activists, including Greta Thunberg, have argued that the pursuit of economic growth is undermining the drive to cut emissions.

    In a letter to fellow Tory MP Philip Dunne, the chairman of the Environmental Audit Committee, Ms Whately said: “GDP remains one of our most important economic indicators as it tends to be closely correlated with employment, incomes and tax receipts.”

    She added that carbon emissions have dropped by 44pc since 1990, while the economy is 78pc bigger.

    * * *

    A couple of BTL posts:

    Carpe Jugulum11 HRS AGO

    Wouldn’t it be rather nice if the constant lies were suspended as well?

    Where is the logic in banning fracking in the UK and then importing shale gas from the USA with the energy consumption of liquefaction and transatlantic transportation added on?

    What is ‘green’ about cutting down trees in North America, expending huge amounts of energy in reducing them to pellets and shipping a low energy density fuel across the Atlantic to be burned in the UK?

    And, by far THE most utterly witless idea of truly moronic and scientifically illiterate bureaucrats – At a time of worldwide food insecurity insisting that agricultural land is diverted from food production to producing E10 ‘biofuel’!! ‘Biofuel’ that carries far higher production costs than petrol and increases food prices as well. Brilliant.

    Don Coyote12 HRS AGO

    ‘The government is fully prepared for any scenario’

    I absolutely guarantee that this is not true.

    Half of our gas comes from abroad. The morons in Whitehall think that, because Norway and Qatar and the rest currently sell us gas, they always will.

    If Europe is on its knees, those supplies are entirely vulnerable.

    This government is negligent to the point of treason.

    Gove rejected fracking just days ago. They are entirely unfit to govern.

    When the lights go out, this entire Cabinet must be sent to jail.

    1. I don’t understand why Gove is allowed to make that decision. We are woefully short of energy. If he is personally ideologically opposed to fracking, I don’t care. If the department for wasting money is, I don’t care. They are there to serve the public need, and we need energy.

      If they want to bleat about climate change, sack them. It’s long past time these fools learned the damage they’re doing. If they don’t want heat and light, let them live in the world they promote. Perhaps the best one was an aerial cartography analyst complaining about an aircraft’s CO2 emissions. Yes, she was bleating about the very thing that gave her a job.

    2. Why do we put a GP in the Treasury department and then let her out to say…
      “GDP remains one of our most important economic indicators as it tends to be closely correlated with employment, incomes and tax receipts.”

      Correlated?

      How GDP is worked out…

      1) Add up the value of goods and services produced. (output GDP)

      2) Add up wages and profits (Income GDP)

      3) Add up spending on goods and services in the UK, add spending on goods and services we exported, subtract spending on goods and services we imported (Expenditure GDP)

      All 3 measures should be the same.

    3. I thought that Biden and Trudeau were trying to stop this bit of common sense.

      Better that we freeze and starve whilst serving the great green climate God.

    3. Diane Abbot is an example of everything wrong with modern politics.

      She’s thick, ignorant and posessed of low cunning. She should never have been elected, but thanks to race replacement now has a safe seat. She’s an example of everything wrong with this country.

  23. Morning all 😃
    So some one in the hierarchy has begun to take notice of what the public have been recommending for many years.
    Cycling needs to be registered.
    Shame really, because three of our son’s cycle but they are never as aggressive and obstinate as the people who have brought this upon themselves.
    Next on the adgenda electric scooters.
    Still not sure any of this will happen.

    1. They could just enforce the laws we already have. Start by getting cyclists off the pavement.

      1. And public footpaths they seem to enjoy winding up walkers especially if you have a well behaved dog. Off its lead.

        1. The one time a cyclist bashed Mongo – to the point of tearing up his side – I caught up with him and kicked his flashy carbon fibre wheel. 20 stone landing on that breaks it.

          In another instance a family on their bikes behind us had the Dad call out to them all to brake, dismount and walk the bikes past as we gave them room to do so.

      2. There have been several schemes around here over the past five to ten years to create dedicated cycle lanes on busy roads. These have cost millions of pounds and yet the MAMILs refuse to use them and continue to use the road.

        1. Same here. They aren’t all lycra-clad, either. A young girl riding on the pavement said, “excuse me” when I was walking along. Granted she was polite, but I pointed out that pavements were for people on foot and that (pointing to it) was a cycle lane for cycles.

    2. We nearly witnessed a tragedy yesterday .. in the greater connurbation , while we were waiting ar traffic lights , an electric scooter with 2 people on board weaved around the traffic and shot across the red light .. at quite some speed .

  24. Here’s a silly doctor:

    SIR – Among healthcare staff, vaccinated against Covid early, then denied a fourth dose, there has been a predictable increase in Covid-19 infections recently, coinciding with the lifting of mandatory mask-wearing.

    I have now succumbed for the first time, despite continuing to wear a surgical mask in all indoor settings, including on public transport.

    Having retired and returned to clinical practice to assist with the backlog, I am now unable to continue to do so until my period of self-isolation is complete. Why did the Government decide not to offer healthcare staff the opportunity to boost their immunity in the spring, as soon as the clinically vulnerable had received their jabs?

    We were relying on being able to catch up over the summer, which I fear is now impossible.

    Dr Sarah A Pape
    Lanchester, Co Durham

    My BTL comment:

    “I have now succumbed for the first time, despite continuing to wear a surgical mask in all indoor settings, including on public transport.” says Dr Pape, which should, to a logical, medical mind, identify that masks are not effective against the tiny covid virus. Yet people still believe this guff.

    Physician, heal thyself.

    1. Strange as it may seem and contradictory to Dr Sarah, the only people I know of in our family who had covid, were those who went to extreme lengths to protect themselves and have had 4 jabs. And spent many weeks in isolation.
      But I think they were still going to church once a month.

    2. The doc doesn’t seem to realise that blood antibody levels are not a direct measure of ‘immunity’ and that the vaccinated are just as liable to catch a highly transmissible disease. The vaccine isn’t a bullet-proof vest. It just helps to ensure you won’t get so sick you need to go into hospital and be put on a ventilator. What are we teaching these people in medical school?
      If we jabbed someone every time blood antibodies dropped we’d be vaccinated against absolutely everything every 4-6 months. Antibodies are just one part of the immune system, the body remembers how to make them quickly when they are needed.

    3. It is becoming more and more clear to me that those who have not been vaccinated and, if they got Covid had it very mildly and recovered in a couple of days, are far better protected with their own natural immunity (aided by Vitamin C, Vitamin D and zinc) than those who have been fully jabbed.

      I am fat and 75 with a range of co-morbidities and yet I recovered from a very mild bout of Covid in no time at all. Caroline also got it and had one early night and that was that. By contrast, our 26 year son and his girlfriend are both triple jabbed: they are fit and healthy and yet when they got Covid they both had to take to their beds for a week.

      Why do the pro-Vax fanatics try to tell me that my observations are irrelevant and should not be aired?

    2. The Bavarians don’t seem too impressed by having the holiday season disrupted by a load of politicians who bring most of what they need with them!

  26. No cricket for three days, just idiotic Wimpledon (rhymes with simpleton) infesting the telly. Time to switch it off and do something that feeds the brain, not addles it!

    Back Friday for the Edgbaston test (England’s proper summer sport) against India.

    1. “…rest for the body some, none for the mind.”
      [John Milton: Samson Agonistes]

      If they now think that Thomas Hardy, Philip Larkin and Wilfred Owen are beyond the grasp of today’s “A” level students then the poor young things have truly lost all chance of gaining paradise!

      1. I think all they are doing by dropping the greats of literature is training young minds in woke, and depriving them of education. If they are supposed to be studying English Literature, then that is what they should study – not some modern rapper.
        Of course the intention is to produce a generation of uneducated morons who question nothing and believe what they are told.

      2. It won’t be long before they are also “dropping” Chaucer. And Shakespeare, and Austen, and Donne, and Goldsmith, and the Brontës, and Dickens, and Kipling …

        All writers from a golden age (i.e. pre-20th century) when mind-numbness had not become an international affliction.

      3. It won’t be long before they are also “dropping” Chaucer. And Shakespeare, and Austen, and Donne, and Goldsmith, and the Brontës, and Dickens, and Kipling …

        All writers from a golden age (i.e. pre-20th century) when mind-numbness had not become an international affliction.

    2. Good morning Grizzly

      Did you play cricket and if so were you a batsman or a bowler?

      I used to play in the MCR (Masters’ Common Room) XI and we played against local villages in the evening. I was a very poor No 10 or 11 bat but I did bowl in swingers which hardly swung at all unless the weather was just right and then nobody including myself had any idea what trajectory my balls would follow. Mike Cottam, a former England Test Team bowler, was the school’s cricket coach and groundsman and I opened the bowling with him sometimes: Sublime at one end – Ridiculous at the other!

      1. Good morning, Rastus. Like you, I was a ferret (who went in after the rabbits) No 11. I was a reasonable off-spinner but I never played club cricket, just a few matches for various works teams.

    3. I remember a funny old schoolmaster when I was a prep-school boy reading the account of The Village Cricket match in a chapter of A.G. McDonnel’s novel, England Their England. Any Nottler who has not read this must do so as it one of the funniest accounts of a sporting event ever written.

      As a child I remember tears of laughter trickling down my cheeks as the old boy read this to us and I used to read it to my classes when I too became a funny old English master.

      I do hope that children today are having this read to them by a funny old teacher. They are missing out if they don’t.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8SskHNaIIQ

    4. There’s the wimmin’s test with SA, but I just can’t get desperate enough to watch it.

  28. The Buffoon jumped into the Roe vs Wade debate saying that it was a tragic retrospective outrage. In effect the repeal of this old ruling does not ban abortion it leaves each state to decide its own policy.

    The Ignoramus Prime Bungler seems to be unaware that the US supreme court has decided that the issue should be more like the situation in the United Kingdom where England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can make their own judgements and decisions.

    And many people used to think this man had a good brain????

    1. It’s not just about abortion, it’s about autonomy over your own body.

      Now it’s been repealed the state can say force a Jehovah’s Witness into a blood transfusion they didn’t want as their religion disallows it. If the state so chooses the person has no say. The state practically owns her body.

      1. The ten points of the Nuremberg Code
        The ten points of the code were given in the section of the judges’ verdict entitled “Permissible Medical Experiments”:[6]

        1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment. The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs, or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.[13]
        2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.
        3. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results will justify the performance of the experiment.
        4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.
        5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.
        6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.
        7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death.
        8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment.
        9. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible.
        10. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.

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

        1. It relates to medical experiments only and isn’t international law.

          The point I made is that a Jehovah’s Witness can’t have a blood transfusion. If a doctor deems it necessary to save the woman and her unborn baby then the state can force the transfusion on her where beforehand she’d have been free to take her chances.

      1. I agree. I used two have two of them, Twilight & Twinkletoes. Endlessly amusing. 50 years later I still miss them.

        1. I had a pet goat too when I was a youngster! She was always in trouble escaping and annoying the hens…
          I missed her when we moved house and cried myself to sleep at night!

  30. Well – I’m into today’s comments! Couldn’t get them on my phone earlier on.

  31. Boring par four
    Wordle 374 4/6

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

    1. Wordle 374 5/6

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

    2. Double bloody bogey 6.

      Wordle 374 6/6

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

    3. A Less Boring par Four:
      Wordle 374 4/6
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      My first two words drew ‘blanks’ …

    1. I can almost hear the echos of the old Goonshow quote.
      “Come and warm your self by this blazing candle”.

    2. FFS – yet again rewarding profligacy. What about those of us who are frugal and already use the minimum?

    3. Has the state given any thought – any – to meeting demand? Or would that upset their demented, economy destroying Left wing obsession with the utterly irrelevant tax scam fantasy that they call climate change?

        1. See what that did to politics in 1979 – it brought us Maggie.

          Where’s today’s Maggie?

          1. Thing is, it’s the same party that previously gave us Lady T that is now causing the problems. Well, same party, different ideology.

          3. We don’t need another one thanks, the first one did more than enough damage.

          5. Too much. They needed taming not killing. Now the pendulum has swung too far to the employer and they can pay mickey mouse wages knowing the government is forced to top them up.

        2. But you will not be able to join a protest march. There will be no trains and who can afford to buy fuel nowadays.

  33. I can’t open this on my PC the message is.

    We are usable to load Disqus. If you are a moderator please see our troubleshooting guide.

    1. Unable to load disqus?

      Apologies Eddy, but how did you post this message?

      My firs thought would be try an incognito/private window.
      The second is to clear the cache – this can be quite destructive though as it’ll lose you all sorts of things, like saved shopping baskets, all those idiotic cookie prompts.
      The third, try a completely different browser (although the above should emulate the latter).

      Give you PC a reboot. I don’t know why this works, but it can. Depending on the complexity of your network (and I don’t imagine it’s anything like mine with proxies and so on) it could be something’s skewiff.

      Usually it’s cookies and cache. It might be browser extensions as well so try turning those off one at a time. One extension I used used to hijack your search engine entirely.

      1. I’m accessing via my mobile.
        I delete all the ‘king cookies every day on that device. They are a complete PIA.
        It’s possible Erin has been mucking about with the PC and had switched off certain channels. But it would of course be my fault 🤔😆🤣

        1. Other people have had problems Eddy so I think it’s something to do with Disqus. My laptop is ok but I couldn’t get the comments on my phone this morning. Not sure how to delete cookies on the phone.
          Now I find Twitter is down.

    2. I got that on my phone this morning. Ok at the moment on the laptop. Twitter seems to be down though. What’s going on?

    3. I had to open it on internet explorer. Right clicked on the tab at the top of the tab bar.

      2. Internet exploder is too old, badly constructed and dangerous. Why not try downloading an alternative, like Brave browser.

  34. Apparently the Canadian government has a National Apology Advisory Committee to help them decide which woke cause deserves an apology from the government.

    Absolutely beyond belief but I suppose we cannot have Trudeau pouring out those crocodile tears for someone just worthy of a quick Sorry!

        1. I tried to find information but the only results Google will return are from the Left wing press – most of them. The only one showing info different was India Times – flipping India! Which suggested that several people had been arrested, assets seized and the police used force to remove any blockades.

          Maybe there’s a BBC fact checker who can tell me what really happened (so I can deduce it was the opposite).

          1. I was away by the time the protest was ended, and had no internet access – but I understood Trudeau called out the National Guard to disperse the truckers and arrest the ringleaders. I don’t know what followed.

          2. We don’t have a national guard.

            He invoked the Emergency measures act which basically gave the government freedom to send in the heavy mob of local, provincial and rcmp officers.

            His handling of the act is being questioned and is uncovering a series of lies and mistruths in government actions – for example they claimed that the police asked for the act to be invoked but every police force involved has said that they didn’t ask for it.

          3. Why is Trudeau behaving in such as fascist, abusive, oppressive manner? Is it just the usual Lefty mindset?

          5. He has had his orders from Schwab, Gates and Co of the WEF. He also has serious investment in vaccines. When you start to dig you discover it is all interlinked – the FDA, Pfizer, Moderna, the EU, Ursula von den Leyenthe WEF, Reuters even. All have a partner who is involved in the vaccine pharmaceuticals, usually on the board of directors. It is a tightly woven, incestuous network with massive conflict of interest. But heyho, these things don’t matter any more, do they?

          6. Oh come on what do you mean serious investment in vaccines – they only committed to buying ten vaccine doses for every Canadian.

            Just look at how many liberal cabinet ministers are involved with the WEF.

          7. “Trudeau’s foundation owns 40% of Acuitas Therapeutics which makes mechanic lipids for Pfizer”. However much this may be denied, there is no smoke without fire.

          8. Because he is a spoilt brat with none of the interpersonal skills needed to work with opponents and reach compromise. His government is basically unbeatable unless some MPs act like adults.

            His handlers are decided that the freedom convoy should be derided and ignored, they have not backed down.

            This weekend is canada day, there are more demonstrations planned and police reinforcements are already arriving in Ottawa – to ensure our right to freely demonstrate!

          9. Sounds more like RIP Canada. A once proud, free and welcoming country, turning into more of a dictatorship every day.
            Convid has now been proved to have evolved into a disease with slightly lower death rate than flu but Turdeau is still insisting on jab mandates and preventing unjabbed people from leaving by plane, train or boat.
            But, based on false allegations, the storm troopers are happy to remove innocent passengers from planes.
            I hope large crowds do gather, and that they will not be targeted under those emergency powers that Turdeau invoked to end the trucker protests.

          10. Why is Trudeau behaving in such as fascist, abusive, oppressive manner? Is it just the usual Lefty mindset?

          11. Thanks – I don’t know much about how things work in Canada. I hope the questioners will get to the bottom of how he handled the protest and hopefully he will be exposed as a lying, fraulent tow-rag and imprisoned for life. (Then I woke up)

        2. Still persecuting the leaders. One has been in prison since March, the second has just been arrested for supposedly breaking parole conditions. Neither has been tried. Trudeau is out for vengeance.

          No point hoping for fair treatment either, this weeks scandal is about the government interfering in police investigations into a mass murder. One honest rcmp officer has blown the whistle on the meddling and demands from Trudeaus office.

          1. The more I hear about Trudeau the more I wonder who is protecting this fraudulent imposter of a so-called national leader. Perhaps Herr Schwab himself?

    1. When I tried to click on the heart to go through to Twitter – the page was down. Censorship?

    2. I’ve just eaten a yummy dish of home-made Halal* faggots with mushy peas (and sautéed spring greens).

      *They were Halal because I blessed the marvellous pig that provided the delicious pork mince and liver they were made from! 🤣

    3. At least Tesco keep their Halal stuff separate so we can avoid it – not that I buy meat there anyway.

    4. About time the Slammers shewed us some respect by integrating into our way of life – not forcing theirs down our throats.

      1. They won’t stop at the throats.

        We don’t go to Tesco. Can’t somebody drop a couple of packs of bacon or pork chops in that other type of meat section. 🤔

        1. I couldn’t read the small print on that. It wouldn’t enlarge. Some people eh 🤗

  36. Whatever happened to ‘protect and serve’? Spiked 28 June 2022.

    The Uvalde massacre has exposed the institutionalised cowardice of the US police.

    On 24 May, at 11.33am, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos allegedly walked into the school through an unlocked door armed with an AR-15-style rifle. Once inside, the suspect walked into an unlocked classroom and opened fire before entering another classroom through an adjoining door.

    Three officers with handguns entered the school building just two minutes after Ramos. They were soon followed by school-district police chief Pete Arredondo and seven more officers. As newly released video images have since shown, by 11.52am there was a significant armed police presence inside Robb Elementary School. When the suspect then shot at the cops, grazing two of them, they fell back and did not go back in until 12.50pm, when they finally shot Ramos dead.

    It’s alright writing this when you yourself are not exposed to the risk of a violent death and in which should you survive there is a better than reasonable prospect of your being prosecuted privately or by the State. The four officers who arrested George Floyd believed that they were acting legally and legitimately in arresting a violent criminal in the act. Their leader Chauvin has since been tried and convicted of murder while his colleagues have suffered lesser punishment and dismissal. Who knowing these things would be prepared to risk their lives?

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/06/28/whatever-happened-to-protect-and-serve/

    1. In the hour after they retreated, many children were killed, and others lay dying on the floor. The police should have the power to arrest or kill an armed intruder such as this one. The terror suffered by those abandoned children will be with them all their lives.

      Chauvin just did his job, using the techniques he had been taught to use. He was a scapegoat.

      1. Absolutely. He was thrown to the Lefty wolves by an ungracious, arrogant machine. I just hope one day a Lefty calls the police needing help and is ignored.

    2. “Whatever happened to ‘protect and serve’?”

      It was murdered by politicians.

  37. Hello everyone.
    For the last couple of days, I haven’t been able to see comments, and thought maybe Nottle had been censored for all our common sense values and opinions.
    I’m actually quite impressed with myself for working out how to see comments again. Gives self pat on head 🙂
    When I right clicked on the top bar, one option was ‘reload tab in Internet Explorer.’ Result!
    Unfortunately, there is no such option on my little Kindle tablet 🙁
    So much for windows 11.

    1. It’s all a plot, internet explorer is no longer supported by Microsoft. No more security patches!

    2. I’ve been very happy to stick with WIN 7 Professional, as I know how to clean it and keep it clean.

  40. The Online Safety Bill has terrifying implications

    The Bill will not just regulate public social media – it also covers private communications like WhatsApp messages and even search engines

    VICTORIA HEWSON

    The Government’s Online Safety Bill continues to rumble its way through Parliament, despite criticism from free speech groups, Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights and the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation.

    Today, my Institute of Economic Affairs colleague Matthew Lesh and I have published our explanation (†) of why the Bill threatens free speech, privacy and innovation. There are many reasons to be concerned about what it will mean for internet users, and all who value a free society.

    The Bill will not just regulate public social media. It also covers private communications such as WhatsApp messages and obliges providers to remove illegal content from them. The Bill creates a new criminal offence of intentionally sharing content “likely to cause psychological harm”.

    The Bill even covers search engines, meaning that your Google results will have to be risk-assessed and Google expected to remove content it believes to be unlawful.

    Supporters of the Bill are clearly concerned about child safety, and adults doubtless need to do more to protect young people when they are using the internet. But the Bill will effectively require age-gating of the most commonly used services. To differentiate between the sanitised version of a platform that has been made suitable for children, and the slightly less sanitised version that will still be available for adults, platforms will have to verify your age. If you thought the cookies pop-ups under privacy regulations were annoying, wait till you have to verify your age to search the internet.

    The Bill mandates all kinds of new things to be included in terms of service, which will probably lead to many more pop-ups and boxes to tick. The mild reforms to the GDPR and privacy regulation that the Government has announced will pale into insignificance when all the risk assessments, disclosures and empowerment duties have come into effect.

    This will not just affect global giants like Facebook. The Government has estimated that 25,000 search and user-to-user platforms will fall under the scope of the legislation. This will include specialist sites like Mumsnet, football fan message boards and trade union discussion forums. [That is, any forum discussing anything, serious or silly.]

    At the same time, the promised free speech protections are very weak – journalistic and democratically important content obligations only apply to Category 1 platforms (the largest services like Facebook). Even then the duties are only to “have regard to” the importance of such speech and provide fast track complaints processes. How workable will such “dedicated and expedited” complaints processes be, when citizen journalists and those who share their content can all claim the benefit of them? This could run to many hundreds of thousands of users and cover everyone from Lionel Barber to Tommy Robinson, and everyone who retweets them or uploads their blogs and articles.

    There are stronger protections for ‘official news publisher’ content, while material published by ‘recognised news publishers’ is exempt outright from the most significant duties. But this could be deceptive – platforms will not be obliged to apply their censorship systems to such content – but in the interest of simplicity, certainty, and consistency in user experience, it seems likely that at least some will do it anyway.

    From a free speech perspective this approach is objectionable – it privileges the expression of selected publishers and regulates the press by the back door: only news outlets that meet the Bill’s conditions will qualify for the exemption. Given that the criteria include having a UK business address, overseas publishers may be deprived of the protection, which could limit UK readers’ and viewers’ access to foreign news reporting.

    But maybe all this would be worth it, if we could be confident that it would materially reduce the amount of child abuse, terrorism and harassment online? Unfortunately, the Government has not made a strong case for the benefits of this legislation. It failed to consider the likely uptake of VPNs (virtual private networks) to circumvent restrictions applied to UK users. There was no meaningful attempt to balance any gains in safety against the costs to freedom of expression and association – costs which, despite ministers’ assurances, are clearly embedded in the words of the Bill.

    The Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries recently boasted that the Online Safety Bill would make Britain “the safest place in the world to go online”. But the legislation she champions looks far more likely to destroy online freedom, while making few, if any, of the promised safety gains.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/27/online-safety-bill-has-terrifying-implications/

    † https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/AN-UNSAFE-BILL.pdf

    1. Probably the end of NTTL – we are such a subservise group because we, generally, believe in the truth.

      My only response will be to utter something subservise, but true, and fight it in court.

  41. It’s going really really well……………..

    “Ukraine shows off French-provided howitzer ‘Nightmare of Russian occupiers’

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1627738/Ukraine-Army-Howitzer-Russia-NATO-France-Weapons-Artillery-Defence-War-Invasion-VN

    “Russia captures French Caesar self-propelled guns”

    https://frontierindia.com/russia-captures-french-caesar-self-propelled-guns/
    Why not cut out the middleman and send all these arms straight to Russia…………

  42. Farmers and environmentalists are natural allies

    The government spends £2.6 billion on food each year – by doing this more wisely it can make Britain healthier and more beautiful

    CHARLES MOORE

    Farmers tend to be presented today either as greedy villains raping the land or as quaint survivals fighting a losing battle against the modern world. Examples of both types exist, but they are untypical. I sense British farmers are starting to find a way through this, thanks to our renewed interest in food: its quality, its health value and now – with Putin’s war-driven grain blockade against a hungry world – its security.

    Last week, I went to Groundswell, a Hertfordshire festival organised “by farmers, for farmers”. I must declare a bias. The organising farmers, John and Paul Cherry, are my cousins; but I don’t think it is mere family piety to claim success for their cause.

    For 12 years, their Weston Park estate has been farming by the increasingly widespread “no till” method. They deploy Franklin Roosevelt’s phrase: “The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.” The plough is the most famous agricultural implement, but the Cherrys got rid of it, and fertilisers too. They believe the plough gradually depletes the soil: it is much better for carbon sequestration and fertility if the soil stays covered. They plant their seeds by drill alone.

    On their 2,000 acres of chalky boulder clay, their chosen methods produce a decent profit for their various wheats, their oats, millet, beans and peas, not to mention their Beef Shorthorn cross cattle which mob graze there. Yes, their yields are lower than before, but their costs (machinery, chemicals, even vets’ bills) are much lower. And their wildlife – corn buntings, yellow-hammers, the variety of insects, worms – is incomparably improved. The Cherrys started Groundswell in 2016. Then, 450 people came. Last week, it was 6,000. As a not-for-profit event, it is unlike those agricultural shows which, as John puts it, “sell farmers things they don’t really need”. People come not so much to spend, as to learn.

    It is the ancient right of farmers to complain – especially about the Government. Some did so, but what was striking about the questions asked of speakers like Henry Dimbleby, the government “food tsar”, was the keen interest of participants in what works.

    They were mainly current or would-be practitioners, rather than doctrinaires whose love of nature leads them to hate mankind. George Monbiot, who condemns all farming of animals, was present, but heavily outnumbered by those who see properly reared animals as good for the soil and for human health.

    John Cherry is strong on the health point. “Food is medicine,” he says: you could shut half our hospitals if people ate better. The Government’s new mantra is “public money for public goods” yet, perversely, food is not seen as a public good. There is a weird disjunction between our concern about obesity and diabetes, and our indifference to procuring good food for hospitals and schools. Farming has not traditionally paid this area much attention, focusing on retail.

    In the view of Alexia Robinson, who set up and runs the campaign group Love British Food, it is essential to pitch to the big food service companies. Many of society’s ills can be addressed by serving good, nutritious food to the young and the sick. The public sector provides a robust domestic market that gives farmers the confidence to invest.

    Currently, the Government spends £2.6 billion annually on food in the public sector. The NHS buys more than one pint of milk per patient per day. Yet food, in the administrative mind, comes under “soft facilities management” and is not seen as the stuff of life. Whenever she breaks through this, she finds public-sector catering managers longing to improve the food they serve and engage in the farming discussion. They enthuse about the close relationships with suppliers which can be built up.

    Government procurement policy won’t work without enthused people, Henry Dimbleby tells me: “Every school or hospital I have ever visited that serves nutritious, delicious food does so because a leader has personally brought about the change. You can’t pass a law that makes people cook well.”

    This autumn, every school and hospital is being invited by Love British Food to run a British-sourced menu during the national food celebrations, British Food Fortnight. Many have already signed up.

    This is confirmed by Oliver Hemsley, the former boss of Numis Securities, who sold up and now runs a 1,500-acre business, Hollis Mead Dairy, in Dorset. He is fascinated by nature, and complains that many agricultural colleges still teach their students “chemical warfare”; but he does not follow the “rewilding” fashion of many of his fellow self-made millionaires.

    Most of Britain is well suited to agriculture. He believes nature’s future here lies in its best coexistence with man and beast, not in producing nothing. Since he switched his style of farming, he reports, he has seen the return of lesser spotted woodpeckers, stonechats, linnets, hares and three pairs of breeding barn owls. Equally important, he has seen the return of human beings.

    Previously, Hemsley employed one man. He now has 14 staff making butter, cream, yoghurt and cheese from 220 dairy cows, pasture-fed only. The business turned its first profit last year. In Hemsley’s view, farmers forgot about marketing in the days of guaranteed prices. Produce such as his cannot compete on price alone, but “That is fine, if you are prepared to go out and sell it.” This he does, through vending machines in the surrounding counties, hotels and farmers’ markets. He is now attempting to seduce public-sector procurers with the joyful sight of his farm’s larks ascending.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/28/farmers-environmentalists-natural-allies/

    In one of its more objective reports, BBC’s Countryfile featured an aspect of this (soil management) on Sunday. It also featured a producer of pelleted fertiliser made from human dung, just the kind of sensible treatment of waste (and that should include manure from livestock) that should be practised throughout farming.

    It was a change from the more typical Countryfile fare, the sort that suggests we can survive on a diet of wild mushrooms and boiled seaweed, garnished with hand-picked juniper berries harvested from rewilded mountainsides and washed down with a glass of birch sap liqueur.

  43. Machine Gun Kelly – rapper – offspring of missionaries. 6ft 3in length of tattoos and drug residue. Real name Colson Baker. Can hardly keep his eyes open. Talking to his ‘bitch’ Megan on the phone – I was like, ‘You aren’t here for me.’ I’m in my room and I’m, like, freaking out on her. Dude, I put the shotgun in my mouth,” And I go to cock the shotgun and the bullet, as it comes back up, the shell just gets jammed. Megan’s like dead silent.”

    T*sser! Some people can’t do anything right.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/06/28/08/59610517-10960101-image-a-35_1656402303074.jpg

      2. He probably shoves a 9 mm in the barrel and slides out. What he really needs is a couple of SGs but shoved in the right place.

      3. One can certainly shoot a single projectile, but whether a slug counts as a bullet I’m unsure.
        Suicide by shotgun is particularly unpleasant for the poor sods who find the corpse or have to clear up.

        1. “Suicide by shotgun is particularly unpleasant for the poor sods who find the corpse or have to clear up.”

          I know that only too well. That happened on my shift at on at least three occasions during my service.

    2. Any ex Toms available to pop over to his house and teach him weapon handling drills, including how to correct a stoppage?

  44. One has to wonder whether the unionistas demanding pay increases understand basic economics.
    My first salary back in the 80s was £6000pA. I earn quite a bit more now but was better off then. Rising pay leads to rising prices which lead to rising pay which lea….

    1. There were far fewer taxes 40 years ago, and inflation hadn’t eroded most of our incomes. QE also hadn’t been used for 30 years to devalue the currency and render it worthless.

      1. 40 years ago inflation was something like 9-10%. Smack in the middle of the Thatcher monetarism recession.

        How does QE devalue currency and render it worthless? QE is bank reserves that never leave the central bank. It just gets shuffled between commercial banks reserve accounts.

        1. Not so, the commercial banks then pump money into the general public/businesses.

          Shortly before Thatcher’s government inflation had been at double that level.

          1. The QE reserves may make them loan more, but banks only make loans when they are sure they’ll get their money back. For us lending didn’t increase much which is why we had project merlin and funding for lending etc as more encouragement.

          2. In other words the money ended up in the hands of the general public/ business, it wasn’t merely

            shuffled between commercial banks reserve accounts

          3. It didn’t though, because even though we gave banks ample opportunity to make loans they didn’t. They were risk-averse. There was almost no money supply growth which suggests new loans barely replacing paid back debt. If banks went loan crazy on QE money because their reserve accounts were flush then money supply would have grown.
            Here’s M2….
            https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/united-kingdom/money-supply-m2
            Her’s M3…
            https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/money-supply-m3#:~:text=Money%20Supply%20M3%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom%20averaged%201527597.25%20GBP,Million%20in%20January%20of%201987.

            As you can see close to flat, no money supply growth.

          5. M1 is notes and coins in circulation. It excludes bank deposits. Pretty unimportant measure of the money supply.

            We’re discussing the 2009 to 2015 period when most of the QE took place.

            The recent rise in m3 is because of lockdowns then the economy reopening.

          6. Stop squirming, you’re wrong and the stats you originally posted did not relate to the period you’ve now moved back to.

          7. Yes they do. click ‘all’ you’ll see how flat the money supply was during the period of most QE.

      2. In the last 30 years the currency has experienced three big drops.

        1) Being forced out of the ERM 1992. (smallest drop)
        2) The GFC 2008. (largest drop)
        3) The Brexit referendum 2015. (2nd largest)

        QE had very little if any effect on the value of Sterling against a basket of major currencies. From Mid 2012 to 2015 the currency rose in value.

          1. Yeah. so im a year out. The GFC started it’s effects in 2007 too. It cost me my job in 2007 because our bank called in the overdraft my boss was operating on. Banks were trying to recover as many loans as possible.

    2. My first salary was £5.00 per week. I paid tax on that, gave £2 to my mum for my keep, and still managed to save up for my wedding.

  45. I came across this on Sunday and it was new to me. For those interested there are some links posted with the video. If this is true he should approach someone like Elon Musk for help and blow the Ecology frauds out of the water, so to speak. I should add that the links are visible if you click on the You Tube symbol and watch the video there.

    The highly controversial plan to stop climate change
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Hnv_ZJSQY

    1. One problem, it means that the self appointed global hierarchy can’t be in charge and running the show which includes their scaremongering adgenda.
      And what would an honest sort of guy really expect from a complete fraud like Trudeau who’s run by the ‘They’ and Soros.

    2. What climate change? It’s all a scam. What difference in climate naturally occurs is driven by solar activity. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is not harmful.

  46. The Wimln ball girls and boys appear to be wearing black and white stripes. How infra dig. What happened to green and purple?

        1. They do, but will the players join them or are they more civilised than footballers?

  47. Tory defectors should be careful what they wish for
    Boris Johnson is the most left-wing Conservative PM in living memory. Defecting to Labour now would be a bizarre move

    TOM HARRIS : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/28/tory-defectors-should-careful-what-wish/

    BTL

    I hoped that several Tory backbenchers would resign their seats out of disgust at Boris Johnson failing completely to go ahead with getting Brexit properly done. I hoped that they would then stand in the resulting by-elections either as part of an official ‘Conservative Party Get Brexit Done Splinter Group’ or as candidates for the Reform Party.

    However, the Reform Party’s dismal showing in Tiverton and Wakefield suggests that Brexit is no longer of interest to the voting public and the dismal lack of backbone amongst Conservative MPs indicates that they have no scruples about betraying the very reason they won their seats in the first place – which was under Johnson’s unfulfilled promise to Get Brexit Done.

    How long will it be before the UK is fully back in the EU under even worse terms than before?

    2. Not long to wait Rastus. Probably after the next GE the rumblings will grow louder and louder.

  48. I’ve just seen the end to a match and the umpire said in his announcement to the crowd while they were still applauding and cheering “Please ensure you take all your belongings with you”. This annoys me in three ways (I must get out more)

    1. Why say that. People will of course try to remember all of their belongings. If they leave something behind, it wouldn’t be intentional (unless a backpack making a ticking sound)
    2. If you think it is important to say, wait until people are listening, or at least are able to hear the announcement.
    3. ‘Ensure’. This word seems to be in every instruction now.
    – Please ensure you turn off the lights
    – Please ensure you read the instructions
    – Please ensure you wait for the train to stop

    How do I ‘ensure’ I turn off the lights? I either turn them off or I don’t. Do take a video of myself while I turn them off and then watch it back to ‘ensure’ I did what I was doing?
    .
    Why not please turn out the lights, please read the instructions, please wait for the train to stop etc, etc?

    1. It’s a politically correct way of saying:
      ” look you messy lazy bastards, take your damned litter home or dispose of it in the bins provided”

      Without causing the spectators to burst into tears!

      1. Or don’t give birth to your baby here , just because you want an SW19 on the birth certificate.

        In fact many of the tennis players sound as if they are about to give birth.

    2. I never listen or read signs. I did leave a kindle in a London taxi. I just bought another one and hoped someone enjoyed my reading list.

      1. Exacto, and you would probably have still left it behind if a sign had told you not to.

      1. They do have volunteer cleaner uppers. I expect they get a discount on their tickets. Quite a good way of doing it.

        The sign at Glasto should read.

        PLEASE TAKE ALL YOUR RUBBISH HOME WITH YOU INCLUDING YOUR POLITICS.

        1. The should be allocated a pitch and not be allowed to leave until it has been inspected.

          1. An easier way would be to weigh them as they enter and if they weigh less when they leave, chop some bits off.

            I think that was from HHGTTGalaxy. Or some other sci-fi.

          2. Bethselamin
            Bethselamin is a fabulously beautiful planet made of the finest cheese that is so concerned about its ever-accelerating weight loss, to which ten trillion hungry tourists are to blame each year, that the net difference between the amount you eat and the amount you while you are of the stay on the planet is eliminated again, is surgically deducted from the body weight before departure. That’s why it’s so important to get a receipt every time you go to the bathroom.

    4. While I’m on the subject, I’ll get ‘Please note’ off my chest.

      All posters start with please note.
      Please note, all patients must book in at reception
      Please note , this shop closes 5.00pm
      Please note, there has been a 2% increase in ticket prices

      A simple instruction on a poster is all that is needed. Once you have read it, you will be aware. Whether you then ‘note’ that information won’t change by being asked to note it.

      3. Think Yorkshire & omit all unnecessary words: This shop closes… There has been an increase… etc.

      4. All written memoranda issued to staff at Norwich Airport invariably began “Be advised …!”

        Perhaps one of our former RAF colleagues could confirm whether or not this is standard practice in that organisation, since many top staff at the airport were ex-RAF.

        1. I always hated the “Now! Listen in!” that preceded a briefing. Without fail.

          1. There’s more than a hint of arrogance in something written in such a way that supposes the writer knows more (and is wiser) than the reader could possibly be.

          2. I had a boss who was particularly ill disposed to the expression “in order to” in reports. I didn’t usually use the phrase but anyone who did was sent away with a flea in their ear.

            Do this in order to achieve that

  49. Birdie Three today, quite an inspired guess

    Wordle 374 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. A sad 6 for me, posted earlier.
      Wordle 374 6/6

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

      1. 5 for me.

        Wordle 374 5/6

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

    1. Tell her to STFU – she had one, at considerable expense – and lost! That was it – once in a lifetime – tough!

        1. She’s got £600,000 tucked away down the back of the sofa she’s nicked from a ‘ring fenced’ account! The polieas are still investigating! 2 years and counting (or not!)

          1. Yes, but the Chief Constable is chosen by the First Minister, the Justice Secretary is appointed by the First Minister, and the Lord Advocate, who has responsibility for all prosecutions, is chosen by the First Minister. I am not convinced that they are investigating too enthusiastically.

          2. Really! Well I never ever thought of that! As I’ve been banging on for months, the polis, judiciary and media are bought and paid for by the vile woman and her cult of clapping seals!

      2. Agreed.
        Everything she does is driven by a hatred of England and all things English. I despise the creature.

    2. Silly woman, she cannot, by law, hold a referendum on anything without Westminster’s sanction.

      1. Just a trouble maker, it will serve her right if it backfires horribly against the SNP

      2. She isn’t wanting to hold a referendum – just a kind of opinion piece so that if it is positive to her, she can come back and say that Scotland suports a referendum.

        1. But, if Westminster doesn’t, despite her ‘opinion’ piece, her goose is cooked.

      3. She isn’t wanting to hold a referendum – just a kind of opinion piece so that if it is positive to her, she can come back and say that Scotland suports a referendum.

      1. Not so good 4
        Wordle 374 4/6

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

  52. Read this then weep .

    Census 2021: Search how your area has changed as Britain becomes ‘older than ever’
    The UK’s population has risen by more than 6 per cent overall, fuelled by an increase in the number of people over the age of 65 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/28/census-2021-britain-older-ever-over-65s-grow-two-percentage/

    By
    Gabriella Swerling,
    SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EDITOR and
    Ben Butcher,
    DATA JOURNALIST
    28 June 2022 • 11:21am

    The UK’s population is the largest it has ever been, new census data have revealed, with growth fuelled by millions more older people living longer.

    The population of England and Wales grew by more than 3.5 million (6.3 per cent) since the last census in 2011, when it was 56,075,912.

    There were more people than ever before in the older age groups; the proportion of the population who were aged 65 years and over was 18.6 per cent (16.4 per cent in 2011).

    However, the data signal a slowdown in population growth over the last 10 years, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The previous census in 2011 showed the number of people living in England and Wales rose by a record 7.1 per cent in a decade.

    The ONS figures show 51.0 per cent of the population is female, and 49.0 per cent is male. This is a change from 50.8 per cent female and 49.2 per cent male in 2011.

    More than 20 million households across England and Wales filled in census questionnaires in spring last year, with a record 89 per cent of responses completed online. As well as Tuesday’s data, the ONS will publish further figures in autumn relating to other aspects of the UK population, such as faith and sexuality.

    The results from the repopulation and household estimates from the decennial survey will guide the future planning of local and national services.

    It focuses on the rounded estimates of the numbers of people and households resident in England and Wales in March 2021 and will provide information on:

    population size and change
    the age and sex of the population
    how densely areas were populated
    how many households there were in 2021
    Jen Woolford, of the ONS, said: “The first census estimates are hugely important as they underpin everything from the calculation of GDP, employment, wellbeing and, (now), Covid rates.

    “They will be essential to our long-term understanding of the health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

    “But they are, in fact, just the start of a programme which will continue from the autumn for the next two years. These will include data on ethnicity, religion, the labour market, education and housing.

    “For the first time, they will also include information on UK Armed Forces veterans, sexual orientation and gender identity.”

    Now read the comments .. please.

      1. Quite.
        Presumably the vast majority of those old people were also alive at the last census.

      2. As we all know, the alien invaders tend to have LOTS of children. When the parents instil their own intolerance, ‘values’/’culture’/cult and visceral hatred of everything British (Apart from the benefits) into those offspring, it will just hasten the final days of our once civilised, relatively safe and tolerant society.

    2. Growth due to people living longer? We had that BS from the planning department when they wanted to foist thousands of houses on our communities. That and people getting divorced. Meanwhile the elephant in the room blocked the view of all the RIBs rocking up at Dover.

    3. I’m surprised what with all the blatantly obviously mid twenties paedophiles claiming they’re 13.

      59 million my arse. Tesco reckon closer to 78 million. Clearly the demographic not filling in the form – nor expected to do so legally – are the massive ethnic communities ruining our country.

      1. I cant remember even getting census forms in 2021. I certainly remember filling them in during 2011.

    4. I’m surprised what with all the blatantly obviously mid twenties paedophiles claiming they’re 13.

      59 million my arse. Tesco reckon closer to 78 million. Clearly the demographic not filling in the form – nor expected to do so legally – are the massive ethnic communities ruining our country.

    2. I have had three Golden Retrievers and the idea of trying to get a tennis ball back from any of them was a joke. The only way it’s likely is if they want you to throw it again.
      Did no-one consider the drool either.

        1. Ha! You’ve never done the morning drool check. That moment when a great blob of the stuff falls from the ceiling on to your head.

          1. You sod! Just choked on my glass of plonk but thanks….best laugh today so far.

      2. I’m a total frost at this ball throwing lark.
        Every dog I’ve tried this with has merely given me a look that said …. “You threw it; you pick it up”.
        Maybe small dogs are just plain bolshie.

        1. Oscar loves to play ball and he will bring them back – although he keeps hold of them! The trouble with tennis balls is that he tends to rip them up. He has a larger, prickly plastic ball that has survived longer (but I noticed today that he’s managed to make a hole in it).

      3. Mongo looks at you as if you’re an idiot and wonders why you’d want him to get a ball you’ve just thrown away.

        His *football* though, that you can lob all day and he’ll happily well, not run, more ‘move the earth beneath him’ to get it.

        1. Funny how dogs are so different. Fred, my second Golden, always had a tennis ball in his mouth. They were everywhere. If some alien species excavates my yards in CT, GA and NC they are going to wonder if they are burial grounds for defunct tennis balls.

          1. Now, throw a branch for Mongo and he’ll bring back a tree. Either he thinks ‘Oooh! They want one of them!’ or he just goes for the upgrade.

            He’s lost a tooth trying to pull along a 6 foot sapling before. Instead of putting it down – and it is the only time he growled at me! (then he whimpered in shame) he sort of hoofed to the end as if to say ‘come on hoomahn, help me carry it!’

          2. Fred, when he was young, managed to drag a huge leafy branch into the upstairs in CT- he broke the screen door doing so. The small tree was removed, he was told off but his face at Christmas when his humans brought a whole tree into the house was a picture!
            I should explain that oak trees in US hang onto their leaves for ages so it’s quite possible to have a leafy branch in early Dec or late Nov.

    1. You can see from his presentation he doesn’t believe a word of what he is saying. If he knew his subject and was committed to it he wouldn’t have needed to view his prompts so often.

      3. Same as “this is your decision. The government will implement what you decide.”

    3. If at first you don’t succeed…

      Wasn’t that the moral of the story about Robert the Bruce and the spider?

  57. Just managed to get into comments using my phone. Clearing third party cookies worked.

    1. My log ons to supermarkets and the banks remain off site even when i clear all cookies. Discus still recognises me too.

  58. ‘Ghislaine must die in prison’: Maxwell sex abuse victims confront her in New York court as she prepares to be sentenced – with one revealing she tried to kill herself twice because she was ‘nothing more than a sex toy with a heartbeat’
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10958611/Ghislaine-Maxwell-sentenced-TODAY-faces-55-years-jail.html

    DM Leading Story

    I am glad to see that many of the BTL comments say that she should name all those who used her trafficking service.

    3. Who did she traffic to? Epstein cannot have humped all that teenage totty alone, he was too fat & unfit.

      2. Some of the women (girls then) admit that they participated in orgies, presumably not masked balls!

      3. I managed to use the 12ft ladder on the DT today – but how do you get to the comments?

        2. I pressed the escape button, the article appeared in full and after scrolling past a LOT of other bits, the comments appeared

    4. I’m sure she will, but not of old age.
      And, will the Asian grooming gangs in the UK also die in prison?

      1. Don’t be silly, such behaviour is part of their culture, got to respect the filthy savages’ culture. 🙂

  60. Here’s an interesting one from eugyppius on the difference between east and west Germany , their vaccination rates and incidence of Omicrom BA5 infection.

    https://www.eugyppius.com/p/omicron-ba5-prefers-hypervaccinated?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&action=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1ODkwNDQ5NSwiaWF0IjoxNjU2NDI5NDUwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMjY4NjIxIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.rH-cJ-rcUDz9hmb84YdSPBvRFUMwbvKskxXK6GXFoCw&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    1. As suggested, it’s almost as if the countries that endured 50 years of communism are able to see through the propaganda from the politicians and their supine #ScumMedia

      1. The manipulations and propaganda are engraved upon their souls and instantly recognised.

  61. Lot’s of interference going on on the Web, silly people, we will not change our minds and those in charge should know they will be on the losing side.

  62. Anybody know any septics? I have a question for them.
    Do male cheerleaders wave pompoms in support of their female sports teams?

    2. There are male cheerleaders but they don’t tend to use the pompoms.
      Cheerleading is almost a sport in its own right.

  63. I’m confused.
    Lewis Hamilton is always claiming to be blek; what’s the problem?

    2. Hamilton is a talented, cool and fair-playing driver – unlike some of his dangerous competitors.

      Unfortunately, he is obsessed with bling; he chooses to look ridiculous …

      1. He’s brilliant in wet conditions, but it’s still the quality of the car and the support crew that really determines the results.
        There are exceptions, but they are few and far between

        1. Button was the best driver in the wet. Pity he only had one season in a decent car.
          Likewise Alonso – moved t the wrong team just at the wrong time, twice.
          I’d like to have seen him at Mercedes alongside Hamilton, except Ham doesn’t get on with teammates who have the temerity to beat him.

          1. George Russell is showing the way, it will be interesting how the rest of the season pans out.
            Perhaps LH can fling out a few accusations of racism.

      2. A similar attitude that Nigel Kennedy adopted within the music establishment.

        1. Yes indeed, AL; (It took me a moment or two) – another talented guy who needs to rebel by contriving to look ridiculous …

          1. Bloody good violist though. I have his Elgar Violin concerto on CD and it’s wonderful.

          2. Yes indeed, Lotty – a bloody good violinist – but he has a chip on his shoulder …

          3. He does but I’ll give him credit where it’s due. I don’t know of any other musician who after playing at the Last Night of the Proms actually went round to Door 2 where the prommers always partied after the concert and stayed for a drink and a chat with his audience.

          6. I have never bothered much about his support for Aston Villa (?) or his funky jazz playing. His master, Yehudi Menuhin, was fond of violin jazz and would play with Stephane Grappelli.

            Nigel Kennedy was the best British violinist for decades. His tone was superb. You have to look to America, Russia/Ukraine, Poland and Korea for anyone matching his technique and brilliance.

            I think of Arthur Grumiaux, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell and Viktoria Mullova. We have Tasmin Little and Nicola Benedetti.

    2. Quite amazing.

      They haven’t discovered a single customer of Ms Maxwell’s collection of minors.

      1. Astonishing, isn’t it? No wonder no one is keen to face American “justice”!

    3. One thing I can almost guarantee: she won’t outlive the Clintons, unless they turn on each other.

    4. Just imagine if the took grooming young girls for sex on the basis of race for sex so seriously in our country

    5. For Bill Clinton, Gates, Biden – insert other high profile democrats.

      The state will make sure she’s silenced before she gets to talk.

  65. Evening, all. Been raining again here so I’m glad I cut the lawns yesterday. I can’t see today’s lycra-clad speedsters agreeing to that. They’ll be super-gluing their bicycles to the railings 🙂

  66. Music, so much more fun than plain unadulterated politics.
    We seem to be entering the same mindset that produced songs like this: does no one learn from history?
    Do I need to stock up on (purple berries) iodine pills.
    Whisky and Shiraz is probably a good alternative.
    The whole of the Western world is FUBAR.

    https://youtu.be/-vz8WKdTEL0

    I’ve tried adding the original version and for some reason, even though the link takes me to the song/video it’s edited and some
    words are missing. Strange because I have cleared cash/cookies but the bit after ‘purple berries’ “I’ve been taking them for some time now” is missing when I post it here, but not if I lidten on YouTube.

  67. I see on the news that Ghislaine Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years for sex trafficking young girls.

    As we appear to follow everything that the USA does.

    I hope then that our judiciary are taking note with all our child grooming gangs in the UK.
    And her crimes weren’t even carried out on the basis of racism .

    So they should get at least 40 years and deportation if they survive.

    1. Amazing given that there seem to have been no “clients” for any of the trafficked apart from Andrew!!

    2. No. I disagree. A waste of money. Don’t lock them up.

      The only expense I’d go to is a banana bag. Ram that in, then flay them, flog them. Kick the screaming remains into a lime pit. Laugh as the die over a period of days.

  69. BBC up to their usual channel hopping tricks – BBC2 at 2030 was supposed to be “Today at Wimblebore” with Panorama on BBC1. They moved Panorama to 2 and replaced the overview with the coverage of Williams [why has her face got masking tape on it??] v Tan – now at 2100 the tennis has move back to 2 – I suspect a good number of people might have recorded the programme – little chance they will appreciate what actually appears on their recording!

    1. I said to the wife as I sat down to watch the tennis, how come the Williams match is on at prime time? then when back into my safe space on the puter

          2. I’ve never looked at it that way, you have The Mona Lisa, The Milky Way, The Titanic, The Great Plague, it doesn’t mean one owns them

          3. I’m not sure I can explain, but I’ll give it a go.
            Your examples are entities that you have no personal conection with, if you owned them, they would be possessions.
            Would you refer to your son or daughter as ‘ the…..’
            My wife indicates a connection but not in a possessive way.

          5. But you are married so both of you could use the same term.
            Hell, I think I’ll give up on this one.
            My wife would probably explain the distinction better: she, rightly detests ‘the wife/husband’ and I’ve never used it for similar reasons.

          7. No and please don’t take offence, it’s just personal differences of terminology if you will.

          2. It’s always been a way of referring to one’s wife; women tend to say ” my husband.” Men have often said “the wife” as if she’s a possession. Not that I am accusing you of anything like it and it has become a figure of speech, in some ways.
            To me, if you like and respect your wife, then say, “my wife”.
            Sorry, just a private peeve.

          3. I’ve heard women call their husbands the other half over the years, is that just as bad?

          4. At least it indicates that they are half of a partnership.
            Anyway, to each their own.

          6. I’ve been ‘not married’ to the missus for 42 years, Ann. It’s just a term, and I know young Bob3 means no disrespect.

          7. A bit late for this thread but a pet peeve of mine is when women talk about the hubby! Grrrrrr. Can’t stand it.

  70. We need a tougher criminal code that doesn’t pander to the anti social. Lefties, greeniacs, gypos, remoaners, the vermin paedophile criminal gimmigrants – all must be punishable and removed, immediately from society. Especially gypos. As soon as they rock up they should be kicked out, he;d on their knees at gunpoint, their vehicles seized and them coralled into a pit and left to rot.

    Stop pandering, stop being nice, stop waiting 48 hours. Get. Rid.

      1. Yep.

        I really do think their caravans should be burned out and when they come out screaming and on fire they should be shot. Sell the cars to repair the damage.

        Frankly it’s a public service. They’re scum. And should be treated as the cancer they are.

          1. No doubt this is precisely the sort of thing the hateful fascist on line oppression bill would stop.

        2. I was guilty, when I was a young police constable, of “looking the other way” when local scallywags used their caravan windows as catapult-firing practice. It was an effective stratagem for quickly “moving them on”.

        3. Try and get a local farmer to do a bit of muck spreading in the vicinity of their camp – it can be very effective.

  71. Anyway, I am off to bed- I hope to sleep. Not had the best of days.
    Have enjoyed the doggy talk….much better than all the other BS that we are inundated with.
    see Y’all tomorrow, maybe.

  74. Meghan pledges to take on US Supreme Court over Roe v Wade abortion ruling
    The Duchess of Sussex said the reaction to the ruling in her house was “guttural” with “feminist” Prince Harry equally despairing

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/06/28/meghan-pledges-take-us-supreme-court-roe-v-wade-abortion-ruling/

    BTL

    I wonder if she will demand an abortion if she ‘falls pregnant’ again in which case all she will need to do is go to a state which is happy to do it for her!

    One thing we must hope for is that she would not come back to the UK and demand that it be done by the NHS.

    1. Ginge and Cringe will jump on any passing bandwagon. It is as though Ginge has met and married someone who has the same predilection for self-publicity as his late mother. (Yet another bloody Mummy’s Boy).

      These two are an embarrassment to our country. Their antics might pass muster in a corrupt Hollywood but will never work ‘over here’.

      Both need to read the US Constitution and if unable to understand its intents seek either education or else psychiatric help.

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