Friday 1 July: Cuts in Western defence spending encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine

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.

505 thoughts on “Friday 1 July: Cuts in Western defence spending encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine”

  5. ‘Morning, Peeps. Nice, fresh start today following some organised rainfall during the night, so a break from garden watering for a day or two.

    Here is today’s leading letter, and rightly so in my view:

    SIR – The war in Ukraine represents 
a failure of Western deterrence. Under-investment in conventional forces by consecutive governments since 1989, together with American strategic impatience, ensured defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Vladimir Putin concluded that the West had neither the stomach nor the capability to challenge him.

    Without technologically advanced conventional forces in sufficient quantity, our options are limited to strong language or nuclear war. General Sir Patrick Sanders, the Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, is to be commended for his courage in pointing out our current shortfalls (report, June 30).

    The Government was happy to spend £400 billion to paralyse our economy over an illness with a mortality rate of less than 1 per cent. It seems markedly less keen to invest in the tools to deter a nuclear war, with a potential 100 per cent mortality rate.

    W J P Hennessy-Barrett
    St Martin, Jersey

    With Johnson having sprayed a cool £1bn of our money around as he plays at war leader and statesman, I wonder where it will all end?  Blustering and blundering around on the world stage is costing the rest of us dear, while on the home front so much is being neglected.

    1. Well, we may disregard the first paragraph. No external power has ever won in Afghanistan. We may have lost in Iraq, but we did manage to destroy everything that had been built up over 30 years.
      Nuclear obliteration has one benefit for our politicians, in that there will nobody left to apportion blame.

    2. More than £1Bn I fear – that’s just the latest instalment of Fataturk’s largesse to a country that this time last year was being described, even by our MSM, as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

  7. Freedom can’t be bought cheap. 1 July 2022.

    At the close of the Nato summit in Madrid, Boris Johnson reiterated a statement that he had made earlier in the week. “The cost of freedom is always worth paying,” he said. Unless Vladimir Putin is defeated in Ukraine, he added, the Russian leader would be emboldened to commit further acts of aggression.

    This is just cheap theatre. Johnson has no intention of paying anything. That is to be borne by the taxpayers and those who risk their lives. This aside there is no freedom on display anywhere in this affair that can be purchased at any price. Ukraine is a corrupt polity where all the opposition parties have been banned and the UK is simply a moribund Police State where Censorship and Thought Crime are on the statute books!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/06/30/freedom-cant-bought-cheap/

    1. It’s also horribly ironic. Freedom, eh, Johnson? The freedom you have taken from us (at massive cost to many of us) whilst retaining it for yourself?

    2. We have paid the cost WITH our freedom. Thanks to the covid hysteria, we are financially, socially and psychologically in a mess.
      From now on, all our freedoms, our smallest pleasures, are at the whim of governmental diktat.

  8. SIR – Your report on the changes to the Schools Bill (“Nadhim Zahawi U-turns on ‘enormous grab for power’ over schools”, June 30) fails to mention that clause 49 of the Bill singles out home-educating families, requiring them to register and submit to investigation by local authorities. This despite the fact that the Government has no evidence of a systemic problem with home education or that the current laws fail children.

    The proposed legislation, which drives a coach and horses through human rights, data protection and equality legislation, has been widely criticised in the House of Lords. One amendment list ran to 60 pages.

    This power grab on home-educating families is ideological. Whitehall instinctively distrusts anyone it cannot tag and monitor, and that now extends into the privacy of the family home.

    Tristram C Llewellyn Jones
    Church Stretton, Shropshire

    And all the while some schools are apparently indoctrinating 4-5 year olds in matters such as masturbation.

    1. Actually Ukraine became a country when the USSR fell. It had never been one before. Lenin renamed a Russian province when the Soviet Union was created in 1922. Ukraine had no prior existence.

      1. That explains why someone still living in the Soviet era thinks that Ukraine should not exist, 🤔

  10. And now for something from a true Conservative…

    COMMENT

    Energy rationing is inevitable without a fundamental rethink of net zero

    A dangerous world view is gaining ground, one that dictates we must atone for the “sin” of prosperity

    DAVID FROST
    30 June 2022 • 9:30pm

    An announcement on fracking is coming next week, says Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business and Energy Secretary. That will be an important decision. But it is only part of the picture. Nothing is more vital to a modern economy than copious supplies of energy.

    But the truth is that neither we nor the EU have an energy policy that can actually deliver it. Fundamentally misconceived, exposed by the Covid switch-off/switch-on of the world economy and then the war in Ukraine, our approach needs a rethink. Without that, all ministers can do is put in place increasingly complex and expensive palliatives until, in due course, they are overwhelmed by events.

    What is going wrong? To understand properly we have to look at the fundamentals.

    Let’s take the 2050 net zero target as a given for the moment. There are only two ways of getting there.

    The first is to put in place by 2050 systems of energy supply that are both carbon-free and capable of generating the energy we need at a cost which people and businesses can actually pay.

    I don’t see how we are going to do this with current technology and the attempt to get there will be extremely expensive.

    Of course, we might get lucky with fusion power. But otherwise, the route there by renewables – wind, solar – doesn’t work because you require back-up for when they aren’t generating power. Battery technology is not good enough, so you need to run a parallel gas grid, and less efficiently than gas on its own because you have to turn it on and off as the wind blows. Obviously that is going to be more expensive, and it gets more so the more renewables you have. That is why it is simply not true to say that “gas is expensive and wind is free”, as so many do.

    Alternatively, we could invest properly in nuclear, although the Government does not seem wholeheartedly committed to it, and until they are, it won’t get built. Or else you have to decarbonise gas and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) – but unfortunately it hasn’t been shown to work at scale yet.

    The other way of reaching the target is to crush demand for energy so that it matches what can be produced, carbon-free, with the technology you do have. That can be done, a bit, by encouraging energy efficiency and measures such as home insulation – although the costs are high – around £25-30 billion every year until 2050 (5-6p on income tax unless people are made to pay themselves).

    It can also be done, a bit, by hectoring. But many of us tune that out, so it becomes compulsion, on electric cars, heat pump boilers, and so on.

    And making people do things they wouldn’t voluntarily do is not only unpopular – as the Government is finding – but a limit on prosperity. If a heat pump is as good as your current boiler, you will buy it anyway. If it isn’t, you’re worse off.

    The fundamental problem for the Government is that it can’t be honest about these two routes to its target, because one is impractical and the other deeply unpopular. But in the end, it can’t be avoided: either the net zero target has to evolve, or there must be compulsory demand control and rationing.

    This week’s Climate Change Committee statement was at least honest in pointing out that current Government policy won’t deliver the target. But the committee doesn’t have to worry about public opinion. The Government does. So, rather than face up to it, this Government’s strategy so far has been to obfuscate, pretend the technology is better than it is, and throw sand in our eyes with fantasies about thousands of green jobs based on renewables. (When will it realise that these new jobs are a cost of renewables, not a benefit?)

    That strategy has now come adrift because of the Covid and Ukraine crises. The cost of these supply shocks together with the huge costs of the move to net zero can’t be borne by individuals or businesses. This has been compounded by the irresponsibility over security of supply: there is essentially no gas storage capacity, the Government has realised it can’t necessarily get its hands on gas in the open market, certainly not cheaply, and the electricity interconnectors aren’t as reliable as it thought. In short, the Government has been caught on the hop.

    So what is to be done? The Government must realise that it faces a crisis. In the short run it must keep the lights on or pay a heavy price. It should then drop the mad dash for medieval wind power technology and focus on the only acceptably low-carbon form of power available – gas. Get shale gas extraction going, commit long-term to the North Sea, put in place proper storage – and build some new gas power stations. By all means commit to nuclear, too – but only gas solves the problems in a meaningful time frame.

    Of course I don’t think this will happen. We will muddle along, and then, one day soon, when we realise we don’t have the energy our economy needs, whoever is in power then will resort to rationing.

    I think this because I fear a different world view is now deeply embedded across politics. It’s one that sees industrial civilisation as damaging to the planet and low energy use as desirable. It’s one that thinks some form of original sin was committed in this country by James Watt and Richard Arkwright, for which we must now expiate – a view shared by the Prime Minister, to judge by his comments in Glasgow at Cop26.

    We must take on this view before it is too late. Modern civilisation needs energy, and lots of it. Abundant energy powered the Industrial Revolution and everything that came with it – proper housing, enough food, scientific and medical advances, economic growth that frees up time to do things you like doing as well as working.

    I don’t like poverty, I don’t like artificial limits on human aspiration and potential, and when you don’t have enough energy you get a lot of both. That’s why we need to change tack now. We need an energy policy that delivers power, at acceptable cost, whenever we need it – because an advanced economy without that will not stay advanced for long.

    * * *

    A couple of BTL posts:

    Peter Grant1 HR AGO

    The British Geological Society estimates that there is some 1300 trillion cubic feet of gas contained within the Bowland Hodder Shale. The UK currently uses 2.7 trillion cubic feet per annum, so we have centuries worth of supply, not just for ourselves but for Europe as well, freeing us from the blackmail of Russian madmen.

    It’s not going to happen because of the folly of the ludicrous date in the diary Net Zero policies.

    Rather than saying we will move towards sustainable energy sources as fast as we can, climate extremists have saddled us all with diary deadlines by which time fossil fuels must be phased out. But the technology to provide a sustainable energy structure when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine is not there yet. So demand for the much demonised fossil fuels remains as high as ever, but supply is constrained, leading to soaring prices, with no hope of relief because nobody is going to invest in new supplies faced with the green extremist deadlines. As is the case with so much of modern politics, a small, unrepresentative minority have bludgeoned the rest of us into a cul de sac with few ways out, and we keep letting that happen. OPEC caused carnage to our economy in the 1970’s. Now we are doing the job to ourselves via Net Zero. Net Zero is the new OPEC.

    Michelle Page45 MIN AGO

    The net zero target doesn’t need to ‘evolve’, it needs to be scrapped on the grounds it’s utterly absurd and unachievable and all futile attempts to reach it will drag us back to the stone age. The wanton destruction wrought by this government truly knows no bounds, we’re forked.

    1. Brilliant article. It shouldn’t be viewed as brilliant, because it is common sense; but common sense is now rarer than moon dust.
      Anyone with nous, knows that at a domestic level, you keep a stock of food and the means to keep warm. This basic housekeeping knowledge has escaped our politicians who are wedded to senseless – and inaccurate – dogma.

    2. Did anyone seriously think that net zero was anything other than another word for rationing for the peasants?

      Anyone?

    3. When people become desperate, they grasp at straws. A few years down the line that is what will happen. It will then be more difficult and more expensive to fix.

    4. I was chatting to one of my neighbours this morning. He’d just come back from North Wales and had visited Bodnant. He spoke about the destructive power of Storm Olwen (or whoever) in that huge specimen trees had been brought down. We both concluded that we were as nought compared with the might of the weather, so trying to control the climate was a complete non-starter.

  11. A bewildering morning to you all, As a lad I read copious amounts of Speculative/Science Fiction, tales of post apocalyptic scenes and dystopian futures but nothing I read then can come close to the utter weirdness that leads us to the point where the Scottish Government can think it rational and unremarkable to train their staff in such outright deranged guff as seen now :-

    “Staff who attended the training session, run by the Scottish Government’s taxpayer-funded LGBTI+ internal staff network, were also urged to study claims that biological sex is a “falsehood” invented by the medical profession to “reinforce white supremacy and gender oppression”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/30/farts-how-women-who-question-transgender-ideology-described/

    1. I’m sure Mr and Mrs Ug discussed that all the time. In between rutting to produce a string of Uglets, one of whom might survive to adulthood. On the plus side, there were no doctors to reinforce white oppression.

  12. ‘Morning All

    As a fully paid up member of the awkward squad I suspect this will be fun,you may remember I emailed my council telling them I had deducted the mandatory £150 energy rebate from my council tax

    Here (with a stern warning that under PROTECT that it is not to be shared in any way) is the reply

    “It has come to our attention that you needed assistance with your Energy Rebate application.

    Following

    your email, I am writing to you to inform you that the Energy rebate

    application does not concern the Council tax department. the £150 refund

    is in regards to your energy bills that the government is refunding to

    you. In Woking Borough Council, the Council Tax department have been

    chosen to help arrange the payments for the eligible people.

    Yours sincerely,”

    Bonkers………..

    My reply

    Dear X thank you for your email that confirms the Council Tax office IS
    the dept responsible for the mandatory energy rebate accounting

    I repeat I have already deducted my rebate at source from my council tax
    bill if any other paperwork is required I hereby authorize you to take
    care of that on my behalf

    As far as “PROTECT” goes I have already copied my original email to my MP
    Jonathon Lord and promised him details of further communication so I
    trust you will have no problem giving me permission to copy him in on
    your email
    Yours Rik
    Now let’s see them try and say no

    4. It’s all right; it’s only a girl child. Plenty more where that came from.

  14. ‘Napalm Girl’ at center of iconic Vietnam War photograph undergoes her FINAL skin treatment 50 years later at Miami clinic. 1 July 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/64380c117dc52b14b13707683c8dee832e4bebe192c14c41dd9180a8c4e80e53.png

    The Vietnamese girl seen in one of history’s most iconic war photographs received her final skin treatment at a Miami clinic this week, 50 years after she was scorched by a napalm bombing.

    Kim Phuc Phan Ti, now 59, was photographed by a journalist on June 8, 1972 running towards the camera and crying after the attack left her body covered in third degree burns. She was nine-years-old at the time and became commonly known as Napalm Girl.

    Her injuries left her suffering debilitating pain for most of her life, leading her to seek a number skin graft procedures and treatments over the last few years to ease her suffering. She received the last of those treatments yesterday.

    I can remember sitting at the dinner table after work and watching this footage. Like that of the Beijing Tank Man, it can, once seen, never be forgotten. It made all the US lies about the war redundant and probably contributed as much as anything to their eventual defeat. The present contretemps over Ukraine bears some considerable resemblance to the Vietnam War. The United States is supporting a profoundly corrupt government over the interests of its people.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10967057/Napalm-Girl-center-iconic-Vietnam-War-photo-undergoes-FINAL-skin-treatment-50-years-later.html

    1. Ironically, the napalm was dropped not ay an American plane, but a South Vietnamese Air Force one.

    2. Another unforgettable image is the South Vietnamese officer shooting an insurgent in the head.

  15. SIR – I see that Rolex watches are in great demand and supply is limited.

    I sold mine two years ago at a substantial profit. I now wear a battery golf watch which is more accurate, illuminates at night when I wake up, and tells me how far I am from the deep rough to the green.

    Tim Oldfield
    Wye, Kent

    You, Sir, are one very smug, gadget-loving b…..d. The Letters Editor must be short of material today.

  16. Good Moaning.
    After coming in from scraping food detritus from the fox proof food caddie off the road and pavement, I was about to boast of the superior intelligence of Allan Towers’ fox. After reading up about it, I realise that our chap is only an averagely intelligent vulpes.

  17. SIR – Boris Johnson should call Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff and let the whole United Kingdom vote on Scottish independence. Independence will save the cost of supporting Scotland, and the loss of Scottish MPs will probably ensure that Labour never wins again.

    As a bonus, Mr Johnson will probably remain Prime Minister.

    John Frankel
    Kingsclere, Berkshire

    This letter was fine until I got to the last bit!

  18. Today’s contribution from BTL’s Martin Selves:

    Martin Selves
    1 HR AGO
    Boris is wrong about a reduction in our Armed Forces by 9000 men and women. He is wrong about many other things, one of which is following Theresa Mays annoying habit of lying flat on the ground in Brussels and saying “like me”. He is wrong about Net Zero and Fracking. I am nearly certain he will stop Shale gas production just when we need it desperately. He is allowing WOKE to gain momentum in the Country, and his Party in many ways is coming apart at the seams. He is wrong about the £150 billion vanity HS2 project that will never run at full capacity when working from home gains momentum and the price of a ticket will be so huge the ordinary working man or woman will not be able to afford it. He has given the French every fishing license they asked for, and huge trawlers continue to destroy “our” sea bed. 250 people arrive in the UK every day by rubber boat, carefully ignored by the French Police looking for them. They are unwelcome, but live in the “Welcome Inns” around the Country costing £5,000,000 each and every day. Rwanda has stalled.
    In August a HoC Committee will decide if he lied to Parliament. I believe they will find him guilty, but Boris will refuse to go.
    Boris is wrong about many things. Without a successor in sight he will hang on like grim death to his home in No. 10, and his Party will approve. I think Nigel Farage is right when he says the Conservatives will pay for all this at the next GE. I think so too because all the things he has got wrong will not change, and this Green Liberal Left high tax and spend PM will keep digging the hole.

    1. The hole he is digging will be used to lay the foundations of an even greener, even more socialist platform which will destroy the UK of the white British once and for all. And all things that were conservative traits will be denigrated.

    2. In summary: Boris Johnson is useless beyond words but has all the clinging capacity of a limpet.

  19. Jesus bloody wept!

    ‘Farts’ – How women who question transgender ideology are described in Scottish Government training
    Staff attending a workplace ‘trans 101’ course told the term is an acronym for ‘feminism appropriating ridiculous transphobe’

    By
    Daniel Sanderson,
    SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT
    30 June 2022 • 6:23pm

    Women who question transgender ideology have been branded ‘farts’ as part of equalities training offered to civil servants in Nicola Sturgeon’s Government, it has emerged.

    Workers who attended a workplace “trans 101” course were told the term was an acronym for “feminism appropriating ridiculous transphobe” and that women who oppose inclusivity measures were part of a “trans hate group”.

    Staff who attended the training session, run by the Scottish Government’s taxpayer-funded LGBTI+ internal staff network, were also urged to study claims that biological sex is a “falsehood” invented by the medical profession to “reinforce white supremacy and gender oppression”.

    A grassroots feminist movement has become prominent in Scotland and is vocal in opposition to SNP plans to allow Scots to change their legal sex simply by signing a declaration.

    Civil servants were directed to claims that so-called “gender critical” women or “terfs” (trans exclusionary radical feminists) “hate all trans people” and have “an unhealthy fascination with trans kids”.

    The email including a link to a dictionary of terms called a “trans language primer” was sent to staff by a senior official from the Scottish Digital Academy, a Scottish Government body which delivers training across the public sector.

    The staff member has responsibility for “course development” and “quality assurance” at the organisation.

    ‘Highly political and discriminatory material’
    Susan Smith, a director at the For Women Scotland campaign group, said it was “shocking” to see a member of the organisation “promoting highly political and discriminatory material which flies in the face of UK law”.

    She added: “How are women to believe that civil servants, potentially including those drafting legislation like gender recognition reform, have any care for our rights when they are being trained to call us offensive names and told we are hate groups?

    “On top of this, the material manages to be highly offensive and inaccurate about gay people, transsexuals and those with DSDs [differences in sexual development].

    “Perhaps the Scottish Government think they are above the Equality Act and other laws on discrimination in the workplace – they are not.

    “An apology and a review are urgently needed, although we imagine that many women’s rights activists will be hard pressed to ever trust this Government.”

    Other claims set out in the document are that “all research” shows there is “virtually no difference” between sporting performance of transgender women and natural women, which is inaccurate.

    It goes on to state the idea that men and women have “inherent, unique and natural” distinct attributes based in biology is an “outdated understanding of sex”.

    It calls on non-trans people to acknowledge their “cisgender privilege”, asserts that trans people’s biology and genetics match their gender identity, and says people should ask for a person’s pronouns in “everyday conversations” as it is “impossible to know a person’s gender just by looking at them”.

    Insiders claim training run by ‘informal’ staff network
    Scottish Government insiders attempted to distance the devolved administration from the document, claiming the training had not been compulsory and was run by an “informal” staff network.

    However, the network is heavily promoted to civil servants on Scottish Government platforms and Leslie Evans, who was previously Ms Sturgeon’s chief mandarin, has boasted that it had helped shape internal policies and enjoys “active support from our most senior leaders”.

    The Scottish Government has faced repeated accusations that it is unduly influenced by radical transgender ideology, and is currently pushing legislation through Holyrood which would allow Scots to self-declare their own legal sex.

    The UK Government has ruled out a similar system for England and Wales and ministers are understood to be considering refusing to recognise Scottish gender recognition certificates issued under the new SNP approach.

    The email directing staff members to the trans language dictionary was leaked to an online Scottish nationalist blog which was once supportive of the SNP, but is now hostile to the party under Ms Sturgeon’s leadership.

    Other claims in the dictionary are that it is possible to be “polygender”, meaning a person can have multiple gender identities at once, and that colonialism has “erased or destroyed” the “indigenous understandings of gender and attraction”.

    It is stated that “gender non-conforming people”, especially children, can be described as “gender gifted” to reflect “how amazing it can be to have a unique and/or non-normative gender”.

    A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “This was an informal awareness raising event, held during Pride Month and within working hours, run by LGBTI+ network community members which colleagues can voluntarily choose to attend.

    “This was not an official Scottish Government training event and is not part of the SG Diversity and Inclusion curriculum.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2022/06/30/TELEMMGLPICT000301379202_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqApl59b1QLe2iruV9yNUMXImni5frl7ZqWjp6gvBIqg.jpeg?imwidth=1280

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2022/06/30/TELEMMGLPICT000301379206_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqx5egiJ9MQyAqq6uO2mksLRobldgl2Mh4dUsQFZRpNy0.jpeg

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2022/06/30/TELEMMGLPICT000301379208_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqGhFGD3OcMvc3EVqNhTDH_xfl2tm3vdajR31FVxnIwus.jpeg?imwidth=1280

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/06/30/farts-how-women-who-question-transgender-ideology-described/

    1. ‘Morning, BoB. I saw this earlier but stopped reading when I got to “Staff who attended the training session, run by the Scottish Government’s taxpayer-funded LGBTI+ internal staff network…”

      Never mind defunding the BBC, the Scottish ‘government’ is an even more deserving cause!

      The BTLs are pouring in and well worth a read. This one made me smile:

      Stuart Holden
      1 MIN AGO
      Forget the gender certificate, just ask them to lift up their kilt.

      1. Come friendly bombs and smite Glasgow
        It isn’t fit for humans, you know.

        1. If this khlown was daft enough to wear that get up around his ‘ain folk’, they would be giving him parachute lessons from the nearest tower block…minus the parachute.

    3. You have to ask the people constantly labelling those they disagree with why we shouldn’t be equally as vociferous to them. It is plain hypocrisy.

      After all, they don’t like being called names, so they shouldn’t do the same – or face the consequences. How about we call them what they are? Mentally ill.

        1. I used to have an irritatingly pain-in-the-arse neighbour of small stature. He was nicknamed SALTY. Short-Arsed Little Twat … Yob.

  21. Bernie Ecclestone under fire for saying he would ‘take a bullet’ for Vladimir Putin. 1 July 2022.

    Ms Truss, the Foreign Secretary, reacted angrily to the comments, which have been seized upon in Russia and played repeatedly on state television.

    “I think those comments are extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary,” she said, adding of Putin: “This is a man who has perpetrated an appalling war involving the systematic rape of women, the targeting of civilians in shopping centres.

    “I find those comments absolutely extraordinary by Bernie Ecclestone. Clearly, Vladimir Putin is toxic. I just find the apologists for Putin – when people can see on their TV screens the appalling things that are happening on the ground in Ukraine … absolutely shocking.”

    The vapidity of the Political Elites! Did she entertain similar views about Libya and Iraq? Does she ever think about Mosul with its twenty thousand dead? The City that was bombed by that well known defensive alliance NATO? Whatever Vlad’s shortcomings why do I not feel the same dread and fear of him as I do for the UK Government and its supposed allies? I’m with Bernie Ecclestone here, if it comes to a choice between the Western Elites and Vlad, I’ll take the latter!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/30/bernie-ecclestone-take-bullet-vladimir-putin/

    1. I see the cretina Truss also seems to ignore the fact that Ukrainians have been shelling civilians [other Ukrainians] since 2014!?

    3. I find it extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary that a Minister of State should be so poorly informed.

      Perhaps the daft bint should spend less time looking at the tv screen and used the reconnaissance and intelligence resources HMG has to hand. She would then know that the shopping centre – which had been closed to the general public since March – was not the target but was adjacent to the weapons dump which was targeted.

  22. Last evening I was out at a local village pub with some other ex-BT acquaintances and I saw, for the first time, an amazing sight. I noticed an increasing number of birds flying across the bottom of the pub’s garden. At first I thought they were starlings but on a closer look they were too large for that bird. This fly-past took about ten minutes and then just stopped. About half an hour later a very raucous din came from the direction where the birds had flown to, then, the sky over the pub became black with the noisy birds: best guess, jackdaws. The din and the sight of what must have been a couple of hundred birds wheeling around in a small area of sky was incredible. This show lasted some minutes before the birds returned to their roost in the nearby woods. The ‘show’, a somewhat smaller production this time, was repeated later. The beer wasn’t bad either, Colchester Brewery Metropolis golden ale, but we were disappointed that it was the only ‘real ale’ they had. The sunset across the Roman River valley was beautiful too.

    1. Morning, KtK.
      One day during the Spring, there were dozens of jackdaws gathering in a tree on Park Road. They were rabbiting on amongst each other; every so often a pair would fly off. I wondered if it was a jackdaw speed dating service.
      We have loads of jackdaws round here; presumably from the time when the bijou Stable Cottages etc…. actually housed horses.

      1. My granddaughter started her schooling across the road from the pub and I remember seeing quite a few jackdaws in the wood behind the school but nothing like the numbers on display last evening. We thought we’d need umbrellas when they flew overhead but we survived unscathed!

  23. 353674+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

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    A LETTER FROM OUR PARTY LEADER
    “We are so happy that you are here”

    By reaching this page, you have shown a commitment to join the fastest growing and most exciting political party in UK politics. You have shown that you are willing to stand up and make a difference.

    You probably know by now that we represent all the important issues that the British people are concerned about. We have finally left the EU, but many issues remain and require our full focus; from the economy and the NHS through to immigration, animal welfare and the threat from Islam. If you haven’t already, please read our manifesto as soon as you can after joining – we believe that we truly represent the majority of British people.

    People have asked about the tiers of membership. Ideally we would like membership to be free, but the truth is, running a party is expensive and the tiers offer the ability for those that can afford it to donate a little bit more. Only by investing in our growth can we be successful and become the political force we intend to be.

    We have won council seats, we will win more, and we won’t stop until we sit in Westminster.

    So welcome to the team – we are all family and hope to see you at one of our branches or events.

    Thank you.

    Anne Marie Waters

    For Britain Party Founder & Leader

    1. 353674+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      It has to be beneficial to the United Kingdom OG the down voter has set his seal of disapproval on it.

  24. Halved yesterday’s dire score : )

    Wordle 377 3/6

    🟩🟩🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩⬜🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I got pretty lucky with it today too…

      Wordle 377 3/6

      🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟨🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  25. We should all move to China or Russia to escape the WEF: they are the only countries the Great Resetters have no influence over.

    The WEF got rid of Trump to extend its influence over the West. Let’s see it attempt to depose Xi or Vlad.

    1. The Global South is pretty fed up with US imperialism and now looking to Xi and Vlad for support, especially with developing alternative financial systems based on local currencies. They want to break free of dollar dominance.

    1. Nadine is right of course – the disinformation and misinformation unit certainly is working – it’s pumping out ever more ridiculous
      disinformation and misinformation every day!!

      1. When you see a ‘fact checker’ you know it’s propaganda for an agenda. The opposite of facts.

    2. Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster may have had a stab at it if the words had been in current use in their day but has the modern OED got round to giving honest definitions of the words misinformation and disinformation as used by politicians.

    3. When they read 1984 – did they think it a guidebook? We have thoughtcrime, now thought police. From sodding Conservatives, of all people. Labour you’d expect this malice from, but these fellows are supposed to be against that.

    1. Those people protesting about her right to say what she thinks are likely the same group who’d promote the rights of muslims to kill people.

    2. Top one.
      Maybe there’s a move to get the world’s population down by confusing sexuality.

          1. Do you think he needs blowing up a bit ?

            Famous misread memo.
            Hold my calls and sack the cook !

    2. Everything is back to front. An unending tide of filth pouring in through Dover at the behest of the state, criminals let off with absurd sentences, as Halifax forces pronouns – but I’d bet not for the Muslim staff – in other areas a film is removed because the ding dings don’t like it.

      It’s putrid. If the law won’t support the law abiding, what’s the point of it?

    3. I thought it was just red wine that Boris Johnson spilt on the sofa to Carrie’s disgust.

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

    TRANS – When Ideology Meets Reality: register for our July speakeasy event here!

    We are delighted to announce that at our next Online Speakeasy, on Tuesday 12th July at 6.30pm BST, we will be joined by Helen Joyce. Helen is a long-time staff writer for The Economist. Her book, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, was published by OneWorld in July 2021 and became an immediate bestseller, named by the Times, Spectator and Observer as one of their books of the year. In early 2022 Helen took a leave of absence from the Economist, with the editor-in-chief’s blessing, to work with start-up human-rights organisation Sex Matters, which campaigns for clarity about the two sexes, male and female, in law and in life. Helen will be interviewed by Dr Jan Macvarish, the FSU’s Education and Events Director. Please register here to receive the Zoom link.

    The FSU’s forthcoming Regional Speakeasies

    Some of you may already have come along to our in-person meet-ups in pubs and bars, where members can socialise while exploring free speech issues. During July, Regional Speakeasies will be happening in Birmingham, Brighton, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and Oxford. You can check out the dates of these in the new Events section of our website, with more details being emailed to all members very shortly. Members are welcome to bring guests, particularly those likely to join the FSU!

    Comedy Night – a big thank you to everyone who attended!

    Thank you to all those who came to this week’s Comedy Night in London – we really enjoyed meeting you all. It was a great night for free-thinking comedy and we raised a good amount for the FSU coffers, meaning we can now do even more to defend free speech. Congratulations also to the four raffle winners. For members around the country, do look out for our Regional Speakeasies in Birmingham, Brighton, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester and oxford. You can see all our events here, but you’ll need to get the links to register from our regular FSU Events emails.

    Speakers’ Corner reaches its 150th birthday

    This week saw the 150th anniversary of the Parks Regulation Act, a piece of legislation that granted legal protection to that small portion of Hyde Park we know today as ‘Speakers’ Corner’. FSU General Secretary Toby Young was invited to the birthday celebrations for a site that’s become something of a symbol for the importance of free speech and freedom of expression in this country. As it happens, for media purposes Toby ended up addressing a sizeable crowd not just once, but twice (you can watch a clip here). Given Speakers’ Corner’s rich cultural history of impassioned debate, dissent, protest and vulgarity, it seemed entirely appropriate that during the second of those addresses Toby had to contend with a good deal of heckling. “Just as well speech is free, innit, because no one would pay to hear this rubbish,” said one, according to his piece in the Spectator about the experience.

    Still, those parts of his speech that were audible were well worth listening to. “In spite of all the recent assaults on free speech,” he said, “we should take the time to celebrate the fact that this marvellous place has existed and has provided a platform for people with a huge range of different views to speak for 150 years.”

    Later, Toby joined Mark Steyn on GB News to discuss the state of free speech in the UK. “Are we losing the habits of free speech?” Mark asked. Arguably, free speech was on a much surer footing 150 years ago, Toby said. The most celebrated defence of free speech ever written, John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, had only been published 13 years before Speakers’ Corner was given legal protection, and the general support for free speech – indeed, for the philosophical foundations of free speech – among the British intelligentsia at that time was much greater than it is now.

    The day before the 150th anniversary, the Metropolitan Police decided to mark the occasion in their own inimitable way by arresting Hatun Tash, an ex-Muslim turned evangelical Christian (Christian Concern) and member of the FSU. Hatun regularly debates the Qur’an at Speakers’ Corner, usually at great personal risk. In May of last year, for instance, a mob surrounded her screaming for her blood. In July, another mob dragged her to the ground. Later that month, she was stabbed. In October, she was punched in the face.

    Footage of the most recent incident shows Hatun being attacked, robbed and then surrounded by an angry group, before the police move in to arrest her and drag her away in an arm-lock while the crowd cheers gleefully. Having strip searched her and kept her in a cell overnight, they then released her without charge. As birthday presents go, it probably wasn’t quite what Speakers’ Corner was expecting from the Met.

    According to Hatun, whom Toby bumped into at Speakers’ Corner after her release, one of the things the police said to her by way of explanation was that some of the people in the park thought that her t-shirt, which reproduced one of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, was offensive. “So what?” you might think. Being offensive isn’t against the law – at least, not yet.

    In the wake of Hatun’s stabbing last year, the Mail reported that the Met was actively reviewing how to police Speakers’ Corner. If its new policy is to defuse tensions by forcibly denying citizens’ their right to freedom of expression simply because a mob finds what they have to say offensive, then free speech in the country of John Stuart Mill’s birth really is – as Toby put it on Mark Steyn’s show – “on life support”.

    It’s also worth noting that, other than Toby’s piece for the Spectator, his appearance on GB News and a few wobbly, handheld videos uploaded to YouTube, the media have had nothing to say about this latest infringement of a Christian’s right to free speech and freedom of expression. Sometimes that which is left unreported can reveal as much about a society as that which makes the headlines.

    We have written to the acting commissioners of the Metropolitan Police about the arrest of Hatun Tash, a letter you can read here. We’ve asked for a justification or, if they cannot provide one, an apology.

    Lord Frost reacts to an IEA report on the Online Safety Bill

    In the week that the House of Commons Public Bill Committee tasked with scrutinising the Online Safety Bill valiantly sat down to undertake its seventeenth sitting, the Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) published a new briefing paper titled An Unsafe Bill: How the Online Safety Bill threatens free speech, innovation and privacy. It’s well worth a read (as are the summaries that its co-authors, Matthew Lesh and Victoria Hewson, wrote for the Telegraph and Times). Specifically in relation to the Bill’s likely impact on freedom of expression online, the IEA briefing echoes many of the points the FSU has made in previous publications (here, here and here).

    Responding to the IEA’s findings for the Mail, FSU Advisory Council member Lord Frost was distinctly unimpressed. This “unsatisfactory” and “unconservative” Bill, he said, contained so many flaws that “it is hard to know where to start”. The peer did, however, go on to single out for criticism the fact that the Bill will discourage platforms from permitting the expression of views that the Secretary of State considers to be harmful, even if that speech is legal. As a result, he warned, the Bill will likely “pander to the views of the perennially offended – those who think the Government should protect them from ever encountering anything they disagree with”, before adding that the Tories “should not be putting this view into law”. The best thing the Government could do, he concluded, would be to slim it down (a view echoed in the Lords this week by Lord Strathcarron). This would allow it to “proceed rapidly with the genuinely uncontroversial aspects and consign the rest where it belongs – the wastepaper basket”.

    According to a recent article in ConHome, Lord Frost is hoping to become an MP, and – who knows – perhaps even take up a ministerial portfolio. In that light, it’s interesting to reflect on the results of a recent YouGov poll of 982 Conservative Party members commissioned by the Legal to Say, Legal to Type campaign (Guido). Four in five (79%) believe people should be able to post things online that are offensive but legal, and that speech online should not be more restricted than offline. A majority (51%) also worry that Ofcom, the proposed regulator, will not be impartial. In addition, when asked to rank issues relating to online safety by priority for the government, just 3% said the government should prioritise comments which are offensive but do not break any laws.

    The last prospective parliamentary candidate to find himself so in tune with the thoughts of the Conservative Party’s grassroots members while seeking to return to the Commons was Boris Johnson – now, of course, the Prime Minster.

    “Reflect” on your relationship to Advance HE, Michelle Donelan asks universities

    Universities minister Michelle Donelan this week wrote to higher education providers in England to ask them to “consider carefully” whether participation in schemes like Advance HE’s Race Equality Charter is compatible with free speech and academic freedom principles (Times, Telegraph, Times Higher). There is, she writes, “growing concern that a ‘chilling effect’ on university campuses leaves students, staff and academics unable to freely express their lawful views without fear of repercussion”. In particular, university membership and participation in external assurance and benchmarking diversity schemes like the Race Equality Charter, operated by Advance HE, are described by the Minister as potentially being “in tension with [the creation of] an environment that promotes and protects free speech”. Having acknowledged that universities and other HE providers are “autonomous institutions”, and that decisions over whether or not to join such schemes are “up to each individual provider”, she goes on to “ask” those institutions to “reflect carefully” as to whether membership of such schemes is conducive to establishing “an HE environment in which free speech and academic freedom can flourish”.

    Understood in its proper context, the letter is a devilishly clever piece of rhetoric with the potential to force HE providers to ‘choose sides’, as it were (on this point see Wonk HE here and here). “Autonomous institutions”, as Ms Donelan is at pains to point out, are as free to take or leave the government’s advice as they are free to take or leave membership schemes run by bodies like Advance HE. But where they do not end up standing on the side of free speech – the Government’s side, as Ms Donelan would see it – and instead continue to participate in membership schemes run by bodies like Advance HE, the minister will from now on understand them to be making an active and very deliberate choice not to do so.

    But then, if the Government stands for academic freedom, what exactly does Advance HE stand for? “Egregious wokery,” according to one anonymous Government source (Telegraph). Not that Advance HE is likely to adopt that as its marketing strapline anytime soon – to them, the Race Equality Charter simply represents a “framework through which institutions work to identify and self-reflect on institutional and cultural barriers standing in the way of black, Asian and minority ethnic staff and students”. (Although here it’s probably worth reading this piece by Dr. Wanjiru Njoya and Professor Doug Stokes, both members of the FSU’s Advisory Council, in which they point out that such barriers are imaginary.)

    And yet it isn’t just anonymous Government sources who are expressing concerns that a desire on the part of universities to find favour with Advance HE is behind moves such as overhauling curricula to remove classic texts that may now be deemed offensive. In a recent letter to the Education Secretary, for instance, 25 Conservative MPs and peers claimed that the Race Equality Charter programme, which now counts almost 100 universities and colleges as paid-up members, encourages “identity politics” on campuses (Telegraph). MPs in the Conservative Parliamentary Party’s Common Sense Group of Conservative MPs also believe that Advance HE’s influence, including its push for universities to “decolonise” their curricula, is leading to initiatives such as the use of “content notes” or “trigger warnings” to forewarn students about the subject matter of course texts, enabling them “to take the necessary steps to engage safely and with minimal psychological distress”.

    As the Telegraph reported last month, of the 23 universities who have signed up to the diversity scheme, 20 of them – including the University of Warwick and Imperial College London – have explicitly said they are “decolonising” courses, while the remaining three have pledged to “liberate”, “diversify” or introduce “compulsory race equality” to their syllabuses. As MPs have pointed out, this rather damning fact casts some doubt on Advance HE’s recent insistence that the charter does not require higher education institutions to decolonise their curricula in order to win an award. (Telegraph)

    The FSU believes Ms Donelan is right to challenge the relationship that charities like Advance HE have with universities, and, in particular, the sway they appear to hold over the nature, style and content of academic teaching at those institutions.

    Specifically, we believe the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill – which has just passed the second reading stage in the House of Lords – should be amended to specify the right of academic staff to be consulted on and express criticism of the curriculum choices of its institution, including where a university makes an ideological decision to ‘decolonise’ its curricula. This should form part of a broader commitment to enshrine in the HEB the fundamental right of academics to criticise the policies, procedures and decisions of their employers. After all, as Donelan rightly suggests, they’re independent bodies.

    This amendment is one of seven that we’ve proposed in our latest briefing paper on the Bill (which you can read here). Over the next few weeks, we’re looking forward to engaging with the FSU’s allies in both chambers of Parliament to ensure that the final version of the Bill makes its new protections for freedom of speech and academic freedom even more robust.

    Halifax tells its customers where to go if they don’t like its staff pronoun badges

    Preferred pronouns began their long march through the institutions some time ago, but it’s only in recent years that they’ve moved from “the preserve of over-enthusiastic Student Union reps or tie-dyed Labour Party conference attendees”, as Joanna Williams put it in Spiked, to the corporate mainstream. Asda, for instance, were an ‘early adopter’ in 2020. Last year, diversity managers at HSBC and Marks & Spencer also began introducing staff pronoun badges as part of a nationwide drive to help start what M&S’s food PR manager described at the time as “very necessary conversations around non-binary experiences”. Not to be outdone, taxpayer-backed NatWest announced that it was to trial a 2022 branch uniform that would give employees the option of adding their preferred pronouns on to new name badges that would be made not from plastic but – wait for it – environmentally friendly bamboo.

    No doubt feeling that Pride month was the perfect opportunity to catch up with the virtue-signalling corporate crowd, Halifax this week tweeted an image of one of its new staff pronoun badges in a post that read: “Pronouns matter. #It’sAPeopleThing.” The attached photograph showed a badge attached to the lapel of ‘Gemma’, with the pronouns ‘she/her/hers’ written beneath – the possessive (‘hers’) option presumably added to the standard nominative (she) and accusative (her) forms just in case female Gemma ever decides she wants to relate to her workplace stationary, coffee cup or uniform via an entirely different gender identity – ‘male’, say, or ‘pangender’.

    According to Halifax, the scheme “is completely optional” (as quoted in the Evening Standard), and the bank is “offering [its] colleagues the choice because we want to create a safe and accepting environment that opens the conversation around gender identity”. It’s hard to read that statement without feeling that a hint of moral compulsion starts to creep in towards the end.

    A few hours later, and presumably in response to the online criticism picked up by various media outlets (Independent, Telegraph, ITV, BBC), Halifax released another tweet. Although intended for customers, its tone, tenor and underlying message surely can’t have been missed by any staff members who may have been toying with the idea of opting out of their employer’s “completely optional” scheme. As statement’s go it’s not quite up there with the Daily News’s infamous 1975 rendering of President Ford’s response to New York City’s request for a Federal Government bailout (“Ford to City: Drop Dead”) but it is perhaps the latter-day, passive-aggressive woke equivalent: “We strive for inclusion, equality and quite simply in doing what’s right. If you disagree with our values, you’re welcome to close your account.”

    Close your account, hand in your notice – whatever. #It’sAPeopleThing.

    Writing about the sense of compulsion that seems to linger around this and other, similar schemes, Joanna Williams points out that staff who refuse to comply “risk being singled out, coming to the attention of managers, sent on diversity training sessions or accused of prejudice”. And yet those are all activist strategies; that is, they depend on an employer deliberately going after recalcitrant employees. Surely, though, a policy of passive neglect is just as likely. It’s certainly difficult to believe that staff wishing to opt out, and, by implication, wishing to do what Halifax has made clear it regards as “the wrong thing” – perpetuating an unsafe, exclusionary environment that stifles important conversations around gender identity – will be getting any good news in the firm’s next round of promotions.

    Still, anyone who feels brave enough to want to push back if their employer asks them to declare their preferred gender pronouns, might like to take a look at the Free Speech Union’s new FAQ on the issue here.

    Sharing the newsletter

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

    Best wishes,

    1. Surely if they want to be inclusive over the name badges then they should also respect those who choose *not* to provide them?

      Or in the new stasi empire must everyone be labelled, personal wishes be damned?

  30. $13 trillion wiped off markets in worst six months on record. 1 July 2022.

    The global market rout has wiped $13 trillion off world stocks in the worst start to any year on record as business and consumer confidence collapses amid surging inflation.

    The MSCI World Equity Index has shed more than 20pc so far this year in the steepest first-half decline since its creation, led by a plunge in loss-making tech companies as investors panic over the end of ultra-low interest rates.
    In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell 1.96pc on Thursday to close out its worst month since the early days of the Covid pandemic.

    The chooks are finally coming home to roost my friends. As if this were not bad enough we have possibly the worst people ever to deal with it. They will almost certainly try to blame Vlad for it while he and Russia will probably be the least affected!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/06/30/13-trillion-wiped-markets-worst-six-months-record/

    2. The abject refusal of the state to accept responsibility and to take steps to resolve it – by abolishing itself – is staggering.

      It is never the fault of the green agenda. Never the fault of a debased, inflated currency. Never the fault of moving away from the gold standard. Never the fault of high taxes. Never the fault of QE. Never their efforts at enforcing global socialism, never protectionist markets. It’s always the worker not doing enough or spending too much, or too little, owning too much or too little. These people are vermin.

  31. Having a second coffee after making three jars of raspberry/loganberry jelly. That’s 22 jars of jelly so far this season – raspberry, loganberry, raspberry/loganberry, redcurrant and gooseberry. I have some more redcurrants to pick today and if there’s enough I will make more jelly, if not then I’ll try summer puddings with any remaining raspberries, loganberries and my first pick of blueberries. Replacing most of my vegetable garden with fruit bushes saves digging etc but causes kitchen work at this time of year. Well worth the effort, though.

    1. It all sounds very yummy, Korky. My mouth is watering. I make raspberry jelly (sieving out the seeds is fun and necessary) and redcurrant jelly is a must for lamb and mutton.

      I’m not a great fan of mixing fruit, especially citrus fruits (lemon kills lime IMO), but I add a little lemon to orange marmalade to sharpen it up, and I’ve found that lime and grapefruit actually work wonderful together since the character and integrity of each of those fruits is not diminished and their individual flavours still shine through. I shall make a batch in the autumn.

      1. I mix the fruit at the first and last pickings to obtain sufficient juice to create a decent batch. Of the two, raspberry and loganberry, I prefer the latter’s tart taste but they work together quite well. I need to plant another loganberry to increase the yield, I do have a ‘rogue’ plant at the top of the garden that I can transplant this autumn: the problem is, where?

        1. I remember the first time I was given a loganberry to try. I was astounded by its deep flavour and juiciness. I don’t think I’ve ever tried the similar tayberry or the boysenberry.

  33. Octopus Intelligence
    Yesterday evening I spotted Mola’s post about octopus intelligence. This morning I woke about 4:30 as usual in Summer and watched the whole of Craig Foster’s movie ‘My Octopus Teacher’ on Netflix. A most impressive and quite moving piece of research and photography.

    As a former research scientist I can also highly recommend Peter Godfrey-Smith’s book: Other Minds: the Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life if you want to be impressed by these fascinating, intelligent animals. It won the Royal Society’s Science Book Prize in 2017.

    1. Good morning

      I was equally moved to tears when I viewed Mola’s post and the other short clip on octopus intelligence , all creatures are clever , but the octopus deserves greater respect than to end up as a meal on a plate .

      1. I have never felt comfortable eating octopus. And I haven’t for many years.

        1. They crossed an octopus with a chicken so that everyone could get a leg

        2. I have been rather put off eating pork and bacon after slaughtering Firstborns two pigs last autumn – they both had quite different personalities (piggonalities?), and to see them shot and throats cut was not pleasant for two rather nice, childishly enthusiastic animals.
          They made excellent pork, too.

        3. I ate some in Greece. I was fine until I got a piece with a sucker on it and then I had to stop. I don’t intend to eat any more.

          1. I had some in a Chinese restaurant in Singapore, I told the waiter it was rubbery – he replied “Thank you velly much”

    2. Adrian Chaikovsky wrote a middling book about Octopus civilisation evolving into a space faring race. Children of Ruin.

      I say middling not because it isn’t well written – it is, but because it’s difficult to have characters so ‘alien’ and ascribe motivations without it becoming a discussion about Octopi – which is what, by the nature of the difference, it does rather become. The first book, about the spider civilisation is easier to follow, but still gives that sense of otherness.

      1. There was a sci fi film some years ago about octopi from space.

        Very well written, very well acted, very enjoyable and surprisingly believable.

        If someone would print the title we would be very grateful.

          1. I enjoyed that film; a good cast and a story no dafter than many other sci-fi offerings.

        2. scifi.stackexchange.com
          › questions › 218737 › science-fiction-movie-featuring-an-octopus-type-alien

          It might be The Green Slime, which came out in 1968.

    3. There was a wonderful TV series from about 10 or 15 years ago, which had a pet psychiatrist to sort out mental illness in animals. There are still shows featuring cats and dogs around now, but all animals in that show were featured.

      Someone brought on a depressed octopus, who was just slumped down in the tank refusing to move or interact or do anything much. Like many of us around 11am on a gloomy day in February after listening to the news. Could anything be done?

      What the shrink did was to take one of those fiendish wooden puzzles where all the components have to be slid out in the right order. In sight of the octopus, he put a favourite titbit in the middle of the puzzle, reassembled it, and chucked it in the tank for the octopus to work out. With eight probing tentacles, it then spent the next few minutes prodding and sliding, and before long claimed the prize. More puzzles awaited that would tax the brain of any human more than six years old.

      The octopus cheered up enormously and before long was swimming round the bank and peering out at the humans beyond.

      There was one octopus that developed a close bond with the daughter of the household, and loved to be petted and stroked.

    4. A wonderful (literally) film, that. Thanks for the book recommendation.

      I decided to give up eating them after seeing some.footage of one who was happily using a camera to take photos of visitors to his aquarium. The very next day, an Italian friend (in the.landlocked south of Germany) presented an entire polpo for lunch . . . Delicious (I have manners), but my last.

  34. I am really feeling quite ill by the amount of time given by the media on TV declaring their support for men who want to penetrate other men , and the weird relationships women enter into .

    We don’t want to hear about these things .

    Why on earth have the adopted rainbow colours as a badge of Queerness?

    1. Is it a coincidence that sodomy, trans-castration, abortion and experimental drug use are all being aggressively promoted and all serve the purpose of population reduction or is it just a matter of if it’s morally degenerate, it must be good? Or both?

    2. I shall. Grattis på födelsedagen, Rastus. Hope you have a lovely day (I know that Caroline will ensure that you do). 🎂🥂👍🏻😉

      1. At first sight, the two clinking glasses looked like an extracted molar… had to look again!

    5. Many thanks my love.

      I shall be back at the helm this afternoon giving the lawn a trim.

      1. Happy Birthday, Rastus!
        Hope it’s better than you could wish for yourself, and that it’s followed by many more!

    7. Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, Mr Tastey! Hope you have a wonderful day and thank you for your sterling work as a birthday enabler! 🎂🍾🎉

    8. Dear Richard have a lovely day today and many more to come.
      Happy birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🥂

      There was a place in the sun prog on TV yesterday. Dordogne region that included Lalinde just one of the many places we have been.
      France is such a beautiful country.

    15. Happy Birthday, R!! Wishing you a wonderful day and singing lustily over La Manche x

    1. It is astonishing how few people can distinguish between adjectives and adverbs.

      And as for the comparison of these it seems that otherwise intelligent people go from the simple good to the superlative best or from the simple bad to superlative worst without the comparative stage of better and worse.

      1. I watched a film yesterday which featured two brothers. One was billed “younger brother”, the other as “eldest brother”.
        Well, it was American!

        1. They need that labelling, as did the Irishman who had his boots on the wrong feet. When the L & R labelling was explained to him, his face lit up and he said, “Ah, dat’s why in moi wife’s knickers the label says C & A.”.

          Yes, the oldies are still goodies.

  39. Interesting headline. I don’t see what difference the military strength of the West makes. If it is Russia’s intention to remove some of the military resources of the Ukraine In order to inhibit their actions in Donbas, it does not concern us, any more than Russia’a actions in Chechnya.
    If we are to believe that Russia took account of possible intervention by the West, then the decision was that we are not up to challenging Russia, I suppose.
    The West would rationally come to the same conclusion, and “lie low and say nuthin'”. Too bad our leaders are not rational.

    1. That’s a good point. Why didn’t we get involved in Chechnya? Or Bosnia? Serbia?

      Oh! I remember. Because they’ve nothing we want.

      1. Yes. The boy child is spoiled, stupid and ignorant. Perhaps he could be encouraged to live a life without oil? Like those zip ties. And superglue. And food. And clothes. Those glasses……all the way down to , oh, something really complicated… like clean bloody water.

        1. Spoiled, stupid and ignorant? It is my theory that the “system” is geared to making him that way.

        2. Like this?

          Greta’s Green Day
          One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named Greta woke up to a perfect world, one where there were no petroleum products ruining the earth. She tossed aside her cotton sheet and wool blanket and stepped out onto a dirt floor covered with willow bark that had been pulverised with rocks.
          “What’s this?” she asked.
          “Pulverised willow bark,” replied her fairy godmother.
          “What happened to the carpet?” she asked.
          “The carpet was nylon, which is made from Butadiene and hydrogen cyanide, both made from petroleum,” came the response.

          Greta smiled, acknowledging that adjustments are necessary to save the planet, and moved to the sink to brush her teeth where instead of a toothbrush, she found a willow, mangled on one end to expose wood fibre bristles.
          “Your old toothbrush?” noted her godmother, “Also nylon.”
          “Where’s the water?” asked Greta.
          “Down the road in the canal,” replied her godmother, ‘Just make sure you avoid water with cholera in it”
          “Why’s there no running water?” Greta asked, becoming a little peevish.
          “Well,” said her godmother, who happened to teach engineering at MIT, “Where do we begin?”

          There followed a long monologue about how sink valves need elastomer seats and how copper pipes contain copper, which has to be mined and how it’s impossible to make all-electric earth-moving equipment with no gear lubrication or tyres and how ore has to be smelted to make metal, and that’s tough to do, with only electricity as a source of heat, and, even if you use only electricity, the wires need insulation, which is petroleum-based, and though most of Sweden’s energy is produced in an environmentally friendly way because of hydro and nuclear, if you do a mass and energy balance around the whole system, you still need lots of petroleum products like lubricants and nylon and rubber for tyres and asphalt for filling potholes and wax and iPhone plastic and elastic to hold your underwear up while operating a copper smelting furnace and . . .
          “What’s for breakfast?” interjected Greta, whose head was hurting.
          “Fresh, range-fed chicken eggs,” replied her godmother. “raw.”
          “How so, raw?” inquired Greta.
          “Well, …

          . . .” And once again, Greta was told about the need for petroleum products like transformer oil and scores of petroleum products essential for producing metals for frying pans and in the end was educated about how you can’t have a petroleum-free world and then cook eggs. Unless you rip your front fence up and start a fire and carefully cook your egg in an orange peel like you do in Boy Scouts. Not that you can find oranges in Sweden anymore.
          “But I want poached eggs like my Aunt Tilda makes,” lamented Greta.
          “Tilda died this morning,” the godmother explained. “Bacterial pneumonia.”
          “What?!” interjected Greta. “No one dies of bacterial pneumonia! We have penicillin.”
          “Not anymore,” explained godmother “The production of penicillin requires chemical extraction using isobutyl acetate, which, if you know your organic chemistry, is petroleum-based. Lots of people are dying, which is problematic because there’s not any easy way of disposing of the bodies since backhoes need hydraulic oil and crematoriums can’t really burn many bodies using as fuel Swedish fences and furniture, which are rapidly disappearing – being used on the black market for roasting eggs and staying warm.”

          This represents only a fraction of Greta’s day, a day without microphones to exclaim into and a day without much food, and a day without carbon-fibre boats to sail in, but a day that will save the planet.

          Tune in tomorrow when Greta needs a root canal and learns how Novocain is synthesised.

          1. Silly, it’s to get a better grip on the tie to tighten it to a 2″ diameter neck.

      3. Don’t worry son, they’ll be here with the cutters before you suffocate, if they can find them.

    2. Why don’t people just ignore him, he’ll release himself once his mummy calls him in for his tea

  43. 353674+up ticks,

    Doctors looking for 30 % rise, train employees can be replaced by a robot system, and the coppers really are chancing the arm of the law with a work to rule when in certain areas it is safer if they don’t work at all.

    Now we are seeing MP whiplash allegedly being made minister of daisy chains.

    The farage called us as members of UKIP under Gerard Batten “VILE” . the nicer peoples called us
    fruitcakes etc,etc, ALL the while they, many in number voted for the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition party.

    True facts for anyone needing to check.

  44. Anyone telling me to my face that there are more than two sexes will soon find out just how stentorian and Anglo-Saxon my voice can be when agitated.

    1. Synonyms & Antonyms for stentorian
      Synonyms

      blaring, blasting, booming, clamorous, clangorous, deafening, earsplitting, loud, piercing, plangent, resounding, ringing, roaring, slam-bang, sonorous, thundering, thunderous
      Antonyms

      gentle, low, soft
      https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stentorian

      You may also like to look up Stertorian – often used instead

      2. I used the word stentorian since I am fully conversant with its meaning.

        “Stertorian” seems to be somewhat of a neologism of uncertain etymology.

          1. Stentorian appears in both the OED and Chambers dictionary. ‘Stertorian’ appears in neither. Both dictionaries do, however, have Stertorous, adj which means “of laboured and noisy breathing, sounding like snoring”.

    2. I was born in Middlesex. I often wonder why it was called that, and why they abolished it.

      1. Shirley you are playing agent provocateur, Sir. I take your amusing point, but I doubt the old-time Middle Saxons would. 😉

    3. The rocket engine which powered the Blue Steel missile was called a Stentor – if ever you heard a test firing you’d realise why

  45. A man escapes from a prison where he’s been locked up for 15 years.

    He breaks into a house and inside, he finds a young couple in bed.

    He ties him to a chair, while tying the wife to the bed.

    The convict gets on top of her, kisses her neck, then gets up and goes
    into the bathroom.

    While he’s in there, the husband whispers over to his wife,

    Listen, this guy is an escaped convict. Look at his clothes! He’s
    probably spent a lot of time in jail and hasn’t seen a woman in years.

    I saw how he kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don’t resist, don’t
    complain. Do whatever he tells you. Satisfy him no matter how much he
    nauseates you. This guy is obviously very dangerous. If he gets angry,
    he’ll kill us both. Be strong, honey. I love you!

    She responds: He wasn’t kissing my neck. He was whispering in my ear.
    He told me that he’s gay, thinks you’re cute, and asked if we had any
    Vaseline. I told him it was in the bathroom. Be strong honey. I love
    you, too.

      3. It’s like a rash.

        Find you way around the keyboard, Philip. There are plenty here who can help.

        ‘ is just below the @ button.

        1. I sometimes think it’s the ‘touch-typists’ who seem to get it wrong so often.

          1. ?It was a copy and paste. I didn?t notice it until it? was pointed out? Now corrected? :@)

          4. I can’t sing – at least, not unless drowned out by loud machinery!
            Or just drowned.

          5. I have to leave stick-it notes everywhere. I also use a calendar which i forget to look at !

          6. Get notebooks! I have one for bank/mobile info; one for hospital stuff and another which is a daily planner. An old habit from teaching days. That way I don’t have post-it notes floating about like confetti.
            Husband laughed at first but now he appreciates my record keeping.

    1. Could it be the pcr tests? It’s possible to lobotomise someone by ramming a stick up their noses into their brains? Or maybe the fluoride in the water?

      1. Ethylene oxide.
        According to the fullfact website, not at all risky. All political parties are represented on the Full Fact board of directors, so it’s a case of they would say that wouldn’t they.

    2. Could it be that this virtue-signaller REALLY believes that George Floyd was murdered, rather than identifying the fact that the drugged-up criminal, high on fentanyl, was the ‘victim’ of a police drug-bust?

      Like Grizz, I often despair of my fellow-humans and their lack of brain-power thinking.

      1. You/one, might even be forgiven if you imagined all those idiots behind all this stupid nonsense are probably complaining behind the scenes that there are not enough black people playing at Wimbledon this year. I wonder if they might not stop to consider that because of their absence are not good enough at tennis. Golf, snooker, darts, Cycling, swimming. And probably many other things that thousands of people take part in.
        But hey, they must feel part of the action because the camera teams have obviously been told to focus on BAME people who they spot in the audiences or crowds.
        To me that seems just a tad racist.

        1. 353674+ up ticks,

          Afternoon SM,

          Seemingly our NHS taking pressure off our NHS, clever A
          the hard core tory (ino) member / voters will go for it.

          The herd majority voting segment will say ” then they won’t be using our doctors
          so that will be an all round benefit.

          By the by have you seen this picture of ” our doctor” I bet he has aged since then.

          1. It’s odd that France became ‘war-torn’ when all those dusky invaders arrived!

      2. They’re gonna need an awful lot of specialists in rare tropical and middle eastern diseases.

    2. It doesn’t matter who you vote for any more. You may vote for the large established parties or any of the idiotic new-kid-on-the-block numpty parties (like Britain First and all the other clownish wannabes); you are still going to be ruled by the Global corporations and the WEF.

      Campaigning against it is like pissing into a hurricane.

      1. 353674+ up ticks,

        Afternoon G,

        So you recommend surrender A ? go with the flow.
        I do believe the kids in rotherham / rochdale etc etc,
        are suffering from authorities with the quit mindset.

        1. You seem to have a penchant for replying to posts with a non-sequitur. I am neither advocating nor recommending whatever it is you are suggesting.

          1. Ogga is a one-trick pony. I did block him for a while, but now I just gloss over his repetitive posts.

            I just don’t bother reading them and certainly very, very rarely, reply.

      2. “…the idiotic new-kid-on-the-block numpty parties...”

        All little vote-splitters. Should they ever get over their egos and unite into one party, they might, just might, form a viable opposition – but it won’t happen, the egos are insurmountable.

          1. I’m fed up with advocating their unity – nobody cares. Let’s just carry-on vote-splitting and yelling that, “We’re making a difference!”

          2. Yup. Nobody gives a shit except for their own pathetic egos!
            Contrast the leaders who have croaked recently, written up in the Tellygaffe.

          3. “I wouldn’t want the responsibility of being a megalomaniac”

            Phil Anthropy

          6. Every time I ‘refresh’ I have to go through the nausea of getting rid of the ‘adverts’ and then scrolling and scrolling to see all the older posts.

            I tend not to bother but this time, I will.

          10. But there is in Downtown Sandvika, Tom.
            I’m not much into spirits – too expensive & buggers my head.

        3. 353674+ up ticks,.

          Afternoon NtN,
          ” the egos are insurmountable”

          But are nothing in comparison to the treachery as shown by the lab/lib/con coalition
          party and the mass idiocy of the voting herd, ongoing.

      1. They are concerned we might get ideas of our own. These things are contagious.

    3. Here’s the coverage of farmers protesting in the Netherlands.
      The issue appears to centre on the governments of EU member states having to conform to EU emission directives:

      On its website, the European Commission says conservation and sustainable use of Natura 200 areas is “largely centered on people working with nature rather than against it. However, Member States must ensure that the sites are managed in a sustainable manner, both ecologically and economically.”

      https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/explainer-dutch-farmers-protesting-emissions-85848026

      1. That sort of EU nonsense will be one of the major reasons why the EU will implode – bring it on!

        1. I wonder if the remainers will succeed in getting the UK back into the EU in time to be there when it collapses.

      1. Oops! 🙄 Apologies to Katie (ATD) and to Sue.

        Thanks, ATD, I’ll look forward to reading it! Time for a strong espresso!😬

          1. Two large mugs of (Assam) tea (made properly in a teapot) upon rising. Two more late morning. Large cup of double espresso with double cream (a ‘double-double’) at 1300hrs, another at 1600hrs (or around there). Filtered tap water the rest of the day. I’m a creature of habit. Before I bought my first espresso machine, around 19 years ago, I wouldn’t drink coffee at all.

          3. I used to love a bit of afternoon delight when it was available!☹️.

            Ah, such memories!

  51. True Belle’s post earlier today relates the story of why Gavin Williamson was given a knighthood – he caught Boris Johnson and Ms Symonds in flagrante delicto engaged in a euphemistic ‘sex act’ in the office. Williamson, unlike the young lady was expected to keep his mouth shut!

    But we must feel sorry for Carrie – she turned up with her stamp album because she thought that Mr Johnson required a philatelist and was astonished to discover that what he wanted was a fellatiolist.

    3. Feel sorry for her?? Why? Even on your birthday I really can’t go along with that!!

      1. I suppose tastes may vary – but I am not sure I share those of Ms Symonds.

    1. Most of this cash Boris is sending to Ukraine is ending up in the Oligarchs pockets!

  53. Petrol and diesel prices rise again. 1 July 2022.

    UK petrol and diesel prices have hit record highs again, as June ended with more pain at the pumps.

    The average price of a litre of unleaded rose to 191.43p on Thursday, up from Wednesday’s record of 191.25p, Experian Catalyst data shows.

    Diesel headed towards the £2/litre mark for the first time, at 199.05p..

    At least we know that it’s hurting Vlad more than it is us! Petrol has risen to £0.80 a litre in Moscow!

    Just in passing they have made it more difficult to access this information!

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2022/jul/01/factory-slowdown-recession-fears-markets-ftse-dow-dax-business-live?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-62bed42a8f08b64e5c2dd572#block-62bed42a8f08b64e5c2dd572

    2. Everything that is now costing the earth in this country is costing the earth because our political classes and civil service have once again effed up all and sundry.
      Gas is a prime example. There is a massive project taking place across the UK right now, replacement of gas pipes for domestic supply. Digging up roads paths and driveways, It’s costing billions.
      Someone is having to pay for this. I’m quite sure it’s not the gas companies or the government.

    3. Headed towards? Headed towards? It has been £2.00+ per litre for some time now.

          1. I like that bar. It’s a “brown bar”, run by a Chinese, with excellent service, good pub grub with a THia twist, and his prices are the lowest in town. Completely unstylish, just what I like in a hostelry. And he has London Pride, Guinness abd Eurofizz lager. Excellent establishment, pub garden too.
            Today, Secon Son paid – and he hasn’t even received his paycheque for June yet!
            Result!

          1. There’s no modern styling, so it’s full of retired folk who sit there all day.
            Doesn’t stop the beer being OK and prices likewise.

  56. Flavoured heated tobacco products to be banned in Northern Ireland but not rest of UK because of Protocol
    EU ban must be imposed in Northern Ireland because of the Brexit treaty that created the Irish Sea border
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/01/flavoured-heated-tobacco-products-banned-northern-ireland-not/

    BTL

    While the NI Protocol is still there Brexit has not happened. While The ECHR still holds away Brexit has not happened. While there is still VAT on heating fuel Brexit has not happened.

    Boris Johnson will probably go down in history as the most successful remainer ever. He fooled people into thinking he was in favour of Britain leaving the EU.

    He has just this to say to the British public:

    “I fooled ya! Serves you right, suckers!”

  57. I am going to the shop- I may be some time….thank gawd it’s not snowing.

        3. Somebody gotta keep smiling, or we’ll all slide into the greasy pit of misery.

  58. Putin warned deadly apartment block bombing could be war crime. 1 July 2022.

    Vladimir Putin must be “held to account” for a missile strike on an apartment block near Odesa, which has left at least 19 people dead, Germany has said.

    At least two children were among those killed in the strike on a nine-story building in the small town of Serhiivka, near Odesa in southern Ukraine on Friday morning.

    Germany condemned the attack, suggesting it could amount to a war crime if civilians had been deliberately targeted.

    This Holier than Thou is pathetic. During the Gulf War they couldn’t show enough of the Shock and Awe on Baghdad and of course the scenes on the road from Kuwait where the Coalition aircraft napalmed the fleeing Iraqi’s must qualify as War Porn! One can think of countless examples over the last twenty years. The machine gunning of tank crews after they had abandoned their vehicles and the drone attacks on Wedding Parties and their like in Afghanistan.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-attack-nato-snake-island-b2113676.html

    1. Drove past that burned-out convoy in Kuwait. That was a real shocker – bodies still there, as well. Not nice.

    2. The NATO forces killed hundreds of civilians in Serbia but literally millions died in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan? Hence little or no support for the US and its puppets is now to be found in Asia, the Middle East and the Global South.

    3. Yo Minty

      If the Germans are happy to (Holo)caust the first stone………………….

    4. Yes but all that stuff was done by the Good Guys so doesn’t count.

  60. Yo All

    The French Armed Forces National Anthem

    (To the tune of The Red Flag)

    The people’s flag is deepest White
    It shrouded oft our martyr’sflight
    And ere their limbs grew stiff and col
    Their hearts’ blood dyed in every fold

    Then raise thescarlet standard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll live and die
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    It waved above ourinfant might
    When all ahead seemed dark as night
    It witnessed many a deed and vow
    We mustn’t change it’s colour now

    Raise the whitestandard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll run not Die
    Though brave men flinch and sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    It well recalls the triumphs past
    It gives the hope of peace at last
    The banner bright, the symbol plain
    Of human right and human gain

    Raise the white standard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll live, not die
    Though brave men flinch and sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    It suits today the fast and base
    Whose minds are fixed on a safe place
    To cringe beneath the rich man’s frown
    And haul that sacred emblem down

    Raise the white standard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll live and die
    Though brave men flinch and sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    With heads uncovered swear we all
    To run in retreat we won’t fall
    Come bistros dark or vinyards grim
    This song shall be our parting hymn

    Raise the white standard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll hide not die
    Though brave men flinch and sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

  61. Yo All

    The French Armed Forces National Anthem

    (To the tune of The Red Flag)

    The people’s flag is deepest White
    It shrouded oft our martyr’sflight
    And ere their limbs grew stiff and col
    Their hearts’ blood dyed in every fold

    Then raise thescarlet standard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll live and die
    Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    It waved above ourinfant might
    When all ahead seemed dark as night
    It witnessed many a deed and vow
    We mustn’t change it’s colour now

    Raise the whitestandard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll run not Die
    Though brave men flinch and sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    It well recalls the triumphs past
    It gives the hope of peace at last
    The banner bright, the symbol plain
    Of human right and human gain

    Raise the white standard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll live, not die
    Though brave men flinch and sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    It suits today the fast and base
    Whose minds are fixed on a safe place
    To cringe beneath the rich man’s frown
    And haul that sacred emblem down

    Raise the white standard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll live and die
    Though brave men flinch and sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    With heads uncovered swear we all
    To run in retreat we won’t fall
    Come bistros dark or vinyards grim
    This song shall be our parting hymn

    Raise the white standard high
    Beneath its folds we’ll hide not die
    Though brave men flinch and sneer
    We’ll keep the white flag flying here

    1. We English in Scotland read that sort of stuff all the time. It annoys not only the saltire-painted, drug-addled, benefit-junkie cult sheep, but also the more sane people who live here! The electoral and social set-up means we are screwed! Thanks Tony Blair!

  63. Afternoon, all. Forgive any typos because I’m having problems with my PC and I’m on the laptop. While cuts in our defence spending might not have helped deter Putin from taking action, his motivation was protecting his borders. It the EU and NATO hadn’t meddled, it wouldn’t have mattered what the state of our armed forces was. I shan’t be here long (nothing to do with the PC falling apart); I’m off to a concert later.

    1. 4 today … Tango!

      Wordle 377 4/6
      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟨🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      2. Me too.

        Wordle 377 4/6

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

    3. A birdie for me too.
      Wordle 377 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟨⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Modern diesel cars are probably the cleanest cars for the environment ever built – far cleaner than electric cars.

      But this is the inconvenient truth that environmentalists and politicians do not want you to know.

      2. Yes Rastus,

        I think the dirty diesel label attached to these cars is unjust.
        The EU is responsible for setting such demanding emission standards that it has presented demanding challenges for the motor manufacturers.

        Aftertreatment exhaust systems are so complicated now that they must be considered as part ot the engine yet there has emerged a whole industry to deal with their malfunctions.

        Vehicle dealers are reluctant to address problems with these systems leading to much confusion on appropriate remedial action.

    3. Imagine the number of people who are stupid enough to believe this sort of sh🙄t!

  67. Some extraordinary figures about population growth were published on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics, though they attracted very little comment from the BBC or much of the mainstream media.

    Between 2011 and 2021, the population of England and Wales grew by a staggering 3.5 million, or about 6.6 per cent. Since during this period net migration was usually running at over 200,000 a year, and occasionally at more than 300,000, the main cause of the rapid expansion isn’t hard to fathom.

    Most of the population growth took place in the South-East, parts of London (up 22.1 per cent in Tower Hamlets, though there was a 9.6 per cent decline in Kensington and Chelsea) and Eastern England, where it rose by a whopping 8.3 per cent.

    Imagine a city the size of Nottingham. Then one as big as Bristol. Add Birmingham. Then Manchester and Liverpool. Pop in Sheffield while you are at it. The combined population of these great cities roughly equates to the increase in the population of England and Wales that has taken place during a mere ten years.

    Is it any wonder that vast tracts of the country, particularly in the already congested South and East, are being built and Tarmac-ed over to accommodate a surge in population growth, most of it driven by immigration?

    Four days after the June 2016 referendum, a prominent politician doubted in his newspaper column whether ‘those who voted Leave were mainly driven by anxieties about immigration’. It was, of course, Boris Johnson.

    If he was attempting to play down the importance to many Leave voters of regaining control of our own borders, I fear that he was much mistaken, possibly fatally so.

    Would it be too cynical to suggest that the Government welcomes the kind of displacement that is taking place? People are encouraged to believe that it is grappling with the problem of the Channel crossings while it is, in fact, ignoring the more alarming wider picture.

    The Government may be able to get away with it for a while, but sooner or later what is really happening will begin to sink in. If net migration exceeds pre-Brexit levels over the next few years, as it seems on course to do, there may be hell to pay with voters.

    Many of them will reasonably ask: what was the point of taking back control if we end up with something worse than we had before?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10967425/STEPHEN-GLOVER-Theres-huge-new-migrant-issue-unfolding-isnt-debate-it.html

    1. Whatever they admit to, it has to be at least 80 million by now? The census figures are useless. Why would illegals complete census forms.

      1. A couple of years ago, when the official figures said that the UK population was c63 million. the supply chains of the major supermarkets were saying that, according to their analysis, that estimate was understated by about 20 million.

  68. Well,well well,thought it was all over did you……….

    UK Health Security Agency

    Published date: 13 June 2022

    Last edited date: 23 June 2022

    Industry

    Diagnostic kits – 33141625

    Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) equipment – 38950000

    Location of contract

    United Kingdom

    Value of contract

    £2,000,000,000
    An extra 2 Billion on test kits wonder when the next wave is due to be released
    https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/3cf33448-f257-4bf1-a5fe-95bebf9138eb?origin=SearchResults&p=1

  69. Well,well well,thought it was all over did you……….

    UK Health Security Agency

    Published date: 13 June 2022

    Last edited date: 23 June 2022

    Industry

    Diagnostic kits – 33141625

    Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) equipment – 38950000

    Location of contract

    United Kingdom

    Value of contract

    £2,000,000,000
    An extra 2 Billion on test kits wonder when the next wave is due to be released
    https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/3cf33448-f257-4bf1-a5fe-95bebf9138eb?origin=SearchResults&p=1

  70. ‘Night All

    https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSlWj8HkomL8J9CPIEnc0J1nGCnkgGe7wTR6gFUnoy1-mJOwD0Hv1yXXNv20QVlbchi_18pTAe9pzGtU9AYqMBxLwmkCfJv2-nFaezzuIBtrHLRijlpoR624NQloNVt_HaDvpq6pLj8d88pKKC2mjWJetELzSctX97bF4srVSS2KQSFX04rp0z5hAFXg/w512-h640/90mimb_c2c7c2aa2f59e2b44ea64ac37dca1f67_a5b6bb07_540.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a0cf1905902bfee3ff07db5657d5916d122884bb89b01700cd6fb6d3207d662.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79ef2193be09209f99a08dc8b18e9e62b864588d5683cf2fe746c6ca5f93fadd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be89608268084179e80d673bf6e8d830833fe724feb9f05605512e8b63e9697a.jpg

  71. A bientot (no accents on the laptop), mes amis. May or may not return after the concert.

  72. So what exactly has this Pincher fellow done wrong.
    Was he merely just celebrating the passing of pride month?

      1. Probably just as grim as anywhere else in Yorkshire, where they all keep whippets and wear catflaps.

        1. Where they eat proper food and not angling bait like disgusting bread pudding or Norfolk dumplings.

          1. The fodder that keeps them fat as lardy cake and stupid as barnsley chops.

    2. Not me Plum. I smoked pot once in my life and had, what I believe is called a “bad trip.” Never again- I much prefer my Pinot.

        3. Saw what it did to so many young people in my 10 years as a Court Usher. Never have nor ever will try it.

      2. I was in Bristol in the 70’s, dope capital of the UK at the time, and it never really did anything to me. I understand it’s much stronger these days.

        1. Oddly, I never encountered it at university and it was in CT that I smoked it- just the once. I prefer booze and particularly white wine.
          Hope all is well Mr. Prez.

          1. Hi LotL. Well enough, thanks. I think both parents in law are on their final descent, I hope they arrive at the same time. We booked a cruise back in January, leaving next Tuesday. We arranged for a friend to come and stay here with my 95 year old mother, we arranged to go with my son and his wife who have never been on a cruise before, we arranged to tie it all in down in Southampton with my 70th birthday on Monday, 4th July, all good.
            Got an e-mail from P&O yesterday ‘Oh, sorry, your cruise is cancelled. The ship is still in dry dock in Germany. Shit happens, never mind.’ or words to that effect. Furious doesn’t even touch the sides! Anyway, not to worry, after a day on the phones and the computers, Sue and I have managed to salvage most of it, so, three wheels on my wagon etc.
            How are you?

          2. What a bummer!
            I have had 3 surgeries on my face, what turned out to be skin cancer, and, oddly enough, am going for a check up appointment on Monday 4th 😉
            Am so sorry your cruise was cancelled and what a huge disappointment.
            I hope you have a very happy birthday anyway. I will raise a glass to you.

          3. Not really. The only reason we were going is because it was short and cheap! The annoying bit was all the work that had gone into making it happen. The alternative that we’ve organised is probably better anyway.
            Sorry to hear about the skin cancer. My mum had that on her head earlier this year, not aggressive but needed to be removed. 3 sessions of radiotherapy and all seems fine now.
            I’ll think of you when I’m celebrating on Monday, what weird things we do!
            Hope it all turns out good, keep smiling.

        1. Or anyone in this excuse for a government.
          I refer my learned friend to my preference for Pinot;-)

        2. You’ve got to have masochistic tendencies to start with if you listen to him.

    8. Cannabis production can consume 2,000 to 3,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per pound of product.

      To fully charge a Tesla EV you need 100 kWh which will send you on a 300 mile trip with Elon Musk.

      That means you will need up to (16 x 100 ÷ 3000) = 1/2 oz of cannabis to go on a similar trip!

    9. The electrician we use occasionally used to be a regular (twice a year) visitor to Las Vegas. He’s stopped going, he thinks the smell of cannabis makes the place reek. No principles involved, he just can’t stand the smell.

    10. No.
      And if you want to know why, I’ll introduce you to my mentally ill stepson.

    1. A small contribution from balcony boxes can at least supply you with tomatoes and herbs.

    2. Those squishy coloured polytheny plastic garden baskets are good for growing stuff in if you have a balcony.

  77. Jesus.
    Just talked to crazed teacher friend.
    She broke her wrist a few months ago.
    The NHS didn’t bother to set the break properly. Because nobody can be arsed. Now it needs a bone graft, as it STILL ISN’T MENDING! and keeps re-separating. That hurts!
    Nobody in the NHS gives a shit. There are many involved – GPs, Specialists. fuck-knows who, maybe even gardeners.
    She will be raising complaints with the GMC next week, for incompetence and negligence – she is elf-empoloyed, can’t work, has sheep to manage and can’t due to pain. She’s concerned that this will go as far as needing amputation…
    All because the NHS, in your pathetic stupid island, cannot give a shit – pretty well like everybody else who seem to be satisified with the lowest possible performance.
    Bloody glad we left years ago. I really, really, am delighted to not live there any more.

    1. I do honestly think it depends on where you live. I have had a letter from my hospital and have a follow up appointment on Monday July 4th! To check on healing I guess.
      Independence Day- if the bat out of hell is on duty, she will get a few rockets!!!

      1. Why did Covid give government employees carte blanche to be useless, incompetent and a waste of space?

        1. If I had the answer to that I would be running the country. I do not. Government employees have been stuffing it to us for the last two + years.
          And it is not over yet- I predict a lot more of this shit.

        2. It’s just shown them as they’ve always been but we didn’t know the full extent.

    2. I do honestly think it depends on where you live. I have had a letter from my hospital and have a follow up appointment on Monday July 4th! To check on healing I guess.
      Independence Day- if the bat out of hell is on duty, she will get a few rockets!!!

  78. Here’s one for you:
    Is a sweaty woman sexy or not?
    A Lass, all wet from a shower, is the sexiest thing on earth, but sweaty? Hmm…

      2. I was hoping to discuss the female form, rather than blokes who can’t make it as blokes, but hey.
        I’m gone.

  79. Has anyone noticed that our home grown tennis professionals appear to be doing much better this year after the worldwide covid jab levelling down experiment?

    1. The grimacing Scot and the conveniently British one haven’t done so well, but its nice to see the meeja forced to mention our other players.

    2. “Has anyone noticed that our home grown tennis professionals appear to be doing much better this year …”

      Your suggestion of cause is absurd, Bob

  80. https://youtu.be/iUiTQvT0W_0
    I used to drive through the Grampians from Aberdeen to Nairn on a Monday, because that’s where I worked back in 1990 (magic place, BTW), and Sinead would be playing on the car radio… and I was missing my young wife (living in Sussex) something shocking, so there’s a strong emotional tie to the recording.
    Just explained to SWMBO now, and I’m afraid I cried. It was hard, being separated from one’s young wife, and reliving it aged 61… Still hurts even now.

    1. Are you still in Wales?
      I’ve just been listening to this, picked up from Going Postal:-
      https://youtu.be/J8hjEYTpwE8

      And remembered how much my late ex-wife (we divorced over 40 years ago) loved Donovan and I still went a bit weepy.

      1. Music is so evocative. Like scents….music and scents can take me back, in an instant, to where I first heard it or smelled it.

        1. Last night, I was set off by ‘Waterloo Sunset’. Goodness knows why; I don’t even remember it coming out.
          Mind you, we did have a toddler and baby to cope with at the time!

          1. That also came up in our music game last evening. I love the Kinks and that song is so moving.

          1. At home in Norway. Flight at lunchtime to LGW, then collect the car we bought hired & drive to Penarth for ten days of house clearing.

    2. Written by Prince.
      Listen to his live recording with Rosie Gaines – better by a factor of a nmillion.

    1. It’s all part of the global great reset, makes no difference if you have a supposed Left or Right wing government it just creeps in regardless.

  83. A little poem for you….

    Who has seen the wind?
    Neither I nor you.
    But when the leaves hang trembling,
    The wind is passing through.
    Who has seen the wind
    Neither you or I.
    But when the trees bow down their heads,
    The wind is passing by.

    Christina Rossetti.

    Haven’t seen the wind here but have certainly heard it… ;-)))))

    2. …and she also wrote:

      Remember

      Remember me when I am gone away,
      Gone far away into the silent land;
      When you can no more hold me by the hand,
      Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
      Remember me when no more day by day

      You tell me of our future that you planned:
      Only remember me; you understand
      It will be late to counsel then or pray.
      Yet if you should forget me for a while
      And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

      For if the darkness and corruption leave
      A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
      Better by far you should forget and smile
      Than that you should remember and be sad.

      Christina Georgina Rossetti

  86. Good night, my friends

    I’m off to bed. Thank you for all your kind birthday wishes.

    3. Sorry Rastus, I nearly missed it. 21 min left, just enough time for me to squeeze in Birthday greetings.
      I’ll wish you a happy day for tomorrow instead.

    4. Oh – I missed it – had a busy day. Many belated good wishes and I hope you had a very good day.

    6. Happy birthday Richard.
      Sorry if it’s late but we weren’t around a lot yesterday.

  89. Good night, everyone. May not be able to pop in to the NoTTLe site tomorrow.

    1. 353800+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,

      We are being mugged by the electorate majority again,again,&again, first off with the immigrants being encouraged to build.

      1. Morning ogga1,

        Why are there so few mosques in Mosqow?
        Is it because the Russian majority always votes for Putin?
        They must have very undemocratic polling booths.

        1. 353800+ up ticks,

          Morning AoE,
          Could very well be a lack of welfare payments for multiple wives & kids.

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