Friday 5 August: We turn off the tap while cleaning our teeth as unmended mains leak

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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425 thoughts on “Friday 5 August: We turn off the tap while cleaning our teeth as unmended mains leak”

  6. Ukraine intelligence chief repeats claim Putin is using a body double.4 August 2022.

    Budanov further alleged that Putin body doubles ‘have different habits, different mannerisms, different gaits, sometimes even different heights if you looked closely’.

    Budanov had previously claimed a Vladimir Putin body ‘double’ may have been used for his arrival at a summit in Tehran this week, according to the head of Ukrainian military intelligence.

    While the Russian leader looked awkward as he came down the steps of his presidential plane in Tehran, Ukrainian sources noted he moved unusually quickly and was more alert than in prior public appearances.

    Vlad employs a body double who doesn’t look or behave anything like him! Lol! You couldn’t make it up! Oh wait this moron has!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11081845/Ukraine-intelligence-chief-repeats-claim-Putin-using-body-doubles-says-EARS-giveaway.html

    1. Yo minty

      Biden uses Two body-doubles, depending on what his doing Archie Andrews, or Kermit the Frog and

  7. 354894+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Friday 5 August: We turn off the tap while cleaning our teeth as unmended mains leak

    So ?
    If that is considered to be that serious then when you get round to a thousand a week illegal immigrants, potential troops, assorted felons,
    paedophiles, rapist, welfare abusers,etc,etc.then you can actually see a Nation’s political overseers orchestrated lethal leaking

    Over the last three decades plus the political overseers actions / NON actions have been, odious & brutal and everything BUT beneficial
    to the Country, in all honesty, if you have a helping hand in this Nations downfall then may YOUR head be first to roll, and roll they will.

      1. 354894+ up ticks,

        Morning N,
        Maybe one answer would be mandatory
        teeth in a glass.

        By the by it would bring about new courtship patter,
        ” He has a lovely smile his gums glow with vitality.”

        1. My teeth are all still attached to my head, thanks – when I clean them I use a toothbrush but I don’t wet it first. There’s no need to turn on the tap till I’ve finished brushing.

          1. 354894+ up ticks,

            Horror of horrors, I did not mean to offend I truly think you still have sixteen bobs worth.

            Tooth fairy, sixpence a tooth.

  8. Good morning, all. Mixture of blue sky, clouds and a noticeable breeze in N Essex this morning. No rain, sadly.

    Florida’s DeSantis takes a swipe at Soros and the unsettling influence this old man has on some areas of society in the USA. Follow the law and the State’s Constitution when performing your duty, is the message DeSantis is promoting.

    DeSantis Suspends State Attorney

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps. Pleasant, refreshing breeze here this morning, just what we need following a couple of full-on days looking after the grandchildren.

    SIR – South East Water blames a hosepipe ban on the weather. A more likely cause is demand from thousands of new houses in Kent and Sussex.

    Philip Jordan
    East Malling, Kent

    You are not wrong, Philip Jordan! And with up to 700 per day arriving at Dover it can only get worse.

    SIR – Chris Packham and green campaigners prevented construction of a Hampshire desalination plant. Were Hampshire’s people consulted or did Southern Water just cave in?

    Robin Nonhebel
    Swanage, Dorset

    Thanks, Packham. Hope your taps run dry pdq. Mind you, Thames Water has one of those and it’s offline for maintenance. That’s rather like a power station doing the same thing in the depths of winter!

  10. Lovely bright morning here! In case you think I’ve changed the habits of a lifetime, I’m up early because I’ll be out all day manning (?) the hedgehog stall at the Three Day Event at Gatcombe. I shall be exhausted by the end of it.

    1. ‘Morning, N. You have just set us up for yet another punning session. Anyway, hope the day goes well and you can avoid the prickly heat…

    3. Yo Nd

      Steer clear of any campfires near ‘travellers” or things might get hot

    5. Oscar found a hedgehog in our garden a couple of nights ago. Fortunately for both of them (or, indeed, all of us) he only danced around it rather than tried to pick it up (unlike my idiot Patterdale cross who never learned not to mess with the prickly creatures and always came back in with spines in his chin and blood dripping from the puncture wounds).

      1. The hogs struck back to him then! Dogs can do a lot of damage to hedgehogs – Jack Russells especially. Quite a lot come in with dog wounds. But the worst thing of all for them is strimmers.

        1. To be fair to him, I don’t think he was trying to hurt it, just pick it up and carry it!

  11. SIR – We are an island surrounded by water, seawater. So where are the desalination plants?

    John Griffith
    Bampton, Devon

    We don’t need seawater, Mr Griffith, because we only retain about 2% of our rainfall. Besides, desalination is energy-hungry, and we are a bit short of that too…

    1. Good morning Hugh

      Population growth and thousands and thousands of new homes in the UK have contributed to the lack of fresh water .

      The process involves removing salt from seawater and filtering it to produce drinking quality water. But the fossil fuels normally used in the energy-intensive desalination process contribute to global warming, and the toxic brine it produces pollutes coastal ecosystems.

      How is desalination harmful to the environment?
      Image result for israel desalination environmental impact
      The desalination process involves taking seawater and forcing it through reverse osmosis membranes to clean it (Figure 1 and 3). This process can negatively impact community land use, increase erosion, cause visual and acoustic disturbances, and spread emissions into the water and atmosphere.

      Desalination plants consume vast amounts of energy, and producing the electricity to power them pollutes the air.

      1. We could, you know, just dig more holes in the ground. I know councils would leap at this and call potholes reservoirs, but it’s really that simple. However, big government is desperate to remain chained to the EU, so refuses every request.

  12. This letter made me smile:

    SIR – Allister Heath wonders whether Liz Truss can turn around a sinking supertanker.

    Maybe she can – but that just means it will sink while going in the opposite direction, which doesn’t help much.

    James Hadley
    Epsom, Surrey

  13. Floods, storms and heatwaves are a direct product of the climate crisis – that’s a fact, so where is the action? 5 August 2022.

    In November 2015, prolonged and heavy rainfall dumped 341mm (13.4in) of rain in Honister, Cumbria, within 24 hours. Just as in 2009 and again in 2013, when massive rainstorms inundated Cumbria and the West Country, lives were lost, thousands of homes were flooded, it took months to recover from and cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

    But how far have these winter storms been caused by the climate crisis? Until 2015, the stock answer of government and meteorologists was that it was impossible to attribute the climate emergency to any particular weather event and that they were most likely extreme, once-in-a-century disasters and by implication not much for politicians to worry about.

    I see. No more equivocation! Any deviation from the norm is now to be “attributed” to the Climate Crisis!

    On the walls of the café at Seathwaite (the wettest place in England) there were/are photographs of the Great Flood of September 1966 where in one hour 5 inches of rain fell on the farm and surrounding area. This severely damaged the old packhorse bridge up the valley and was the cause of many of the steel box reinforcements that you can still see today if you walk the banks of the River Derwent down to Derwentwater.

    P.S. In passing can I say that Google seems to be particularly unhelpful in researching the history of those events outside the Climate Crisis boundary! Just saying.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/04/floods-storms-heatwaves-direct-product-climate-crisis

  14. SIR – It is not surprising that some Conservative Party members wanted Boris Johnson to remain their leader. There is rarely much enthusiasm among the party at large for a change at the top.

    When Margaret Thatcher challenged Ted Heath at the beginning of 1975, a massive consultation exercise took place, co-ordinated by constituency association chairmen. Heath, who had just lost two general elections, got overwhelming support.

    David Campbell Bannerman, once a significant figure in Ukip, who has been at the forefront of the pro-Johnson brigade, claims to be distantly related to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal prime minister in the early 20th century.

    Like Mr Johnson, Sir Henry did not have much idea of how to run a successful government. But his premiership came to be regarded as a success because he got very able ministers, including Asquith and Lloyd George, to carry out a major programme of reform.

    Mr Johnson might well have survived his scandals if he had not ignored so many talented MPs in favour of accommodating nonentities, incapable of implementing manifesto commitments successfully. No one tried to oust Henry Campbell-Bannerman. He is the only prime minister to have died at No 10.

    Lord Lexden (Con)
    London SW1

    1. A BTL poster writes:

      Whipping boy
      1 HR AGO
      LORD LEXDEN
      “Mr Johnson might well have survived his scandals if he had not ignored so many talented MPs in favour of accommodating nonentities, incapable of implementing manifesto commitments successfully.”
      That’s all you needed to say, really.

      1. Lord Lexden is assuming that Johnson wanted good governance from the people he selected to do his bidding. Collapsing the current pillars of society to usher in massive change and allow Johnson’s mantra of choice, “Build Back Better, ” to become a reality would require a cover story: all-round incompetence is as good as any.

        1. This build back better slogan all the wasters parrotted – it’s not worked, has it? Or did they want this sort of carnage, debt and chaos?

          The only way to make the country better is by taking a scythe to the state machine and cutting taxes.

  16. SIR – I had to laugh at the two letters in your paper regarding service from banks. The readers concerned are lucky to have a bank to go to, let alone a “choice” of banks. For many towns in this country all banks have left. In Frinton-on-Sea we lost all our banks some time ago.

    I worked for Lloyds Bank for 30 years and I am heartbroken that we now only have a Dad’s Army type van, parking for a couple of hours a week, to do our banking.

    I suppose it helps to reduce costs, but it is not a lot of good to an ageing population in Frinton and other towns around the country. It is especially galling when Lloyds advertisements announce that the bank is “with you for the journey”.

    Peter Dias
    Frinton-on-Sea, Essex

    Other similarly stupid slogans from banks are available, they all seem to specialise in such obviously moronic sophistry!

      1. We’ve always had one up here. They will stop at your house if you arrange it
        Can’t see it working in a town though – it’d be empty within 100 yds

  17. We turn off the tap while cleaning our teeth as unmended mains leak

    Sorry but I leave it running on hot, for some reason.

    2. What about the bacteria in the hot water tank – I was told by a dentist never to use hot water for cleaning teeth

        1. I was told that as the header tank did not have a constant flow through bacteria could form and even survive heating up as it’s nowhere near boiling point. I doubt if anyone would drink the water from the hot tap even before the hot water came through

        2. You don’t have a tank? Tell HM Government that the Russians have invaded your back garden and they will provide you with one free of charge. Lol.

    3. You’re obviously made of money if you pay for water, pay again for heating it, then let it just run in quantity down the plughole.

  18. With reference to my earlier post about looking after the little darlings:

    SIR – My two-year-old grandson was delighted to read your endorsement of his lifestyle (“The best daily routine for a healthy life in 2022 – and it’s not the same for men and women”, Features, August 1).

    Wake up an hour before mum and dad would choose, breakfast at 7.11am, do important work (manoeuvring toy vehicles) before lunch at 12.38, followed by a nap. Dinner at 5pm, and an excitable rush around the lounge during the male workout prime time at 6.30pm.

    His parents have wisely removed the last paragraph, which prescribed not sleeping until 10pm.

    Lesley Drew
    Seaford, East Sussex

    But where’s the bit about getting down and running around during meals? Eating with their fingers? Answering back when gently chastised? Grrrr!

        1. Oh dear life, the adults who scream at their children having a tantrum followed by the child going from screaming to crying – good grief. The kid if bored, tired and fed up. They’re in a hostile, frightening environment (at least my local Tesco is).

    2. I don’t mind the eating with fingers in a 2 year old. Answering back is forming an identity and it’s quashed because parents ar enot honest with their children (and at 2 they won’t understand it).

      ‘Don’t do that’
      ‘Why not?’
      Now the parent invents a reason which the child challenges. They don’t say ‘I don’t like it’.

      1. What an appalling thing to call Jules…{:¬))

        Good day to you, young man. On yer bike.

          2. Hmmm – just looked at “menu”. All industrial food out of the freezer.

            Enjoy……

    1. What in the name of absolute fwittery is going on in this country? It’s a bloke in a dress hectoring children about paedophilia and the police – the people responsible for protecting society – are enforcing it?

      It’s a waste of money having the drags there. Just stop paying for it. Parents are the ultimate authority and frankly, plod – who are statistically incompetent – have better things to do. At this rate I’ll demand flipping Mega City 1.

    2. Disgraceful! Those police officers are improperly dressed – they should be wearing rainbow-coloured face paint and carrying rainbow flags. And why is their car not rainbow-coloured?

  21. As predicted by many, monkeypox is now a declared ’emergency’ in the USA. With the mid-terms only three months away and the Biden administration’s popularity bumping along the bottom of the ratings a lockdown and only mail-in voting allowed is the suspected course of action to save Biden & Co’s position.
    A test for the incoming PM?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1dcdd6e50f9f94936963483c9dedc473892387899e7e0990a01c26a24ed097c9.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20a0d482e5c3299103d33b3f474293b15977b66008980827c1cf3b358b2a32ad.png

  22. ‘My elderly neighbour is breaking the hosepipe ban to fill a paddling pool – can I report her?’ 5 August 2022.

    I’ve resigned myself to the ban, because such measures are put in place for a reason and our community clearly needs to conserve water. But to my increasing irritation my elderly neighbour has chosen to ignore this.

    Every day, she fills up her (recently purchased) paddling pool using water from her hosepipe for her grandchildren and her dog. They splash around in there all day, making an infuriating amount of noise, ruining my concentration as I work from home.

    Of course you can inform on her if you are a Spineless Government Lackey devoid of any self-respect. You will thus join the pantheon of Marxist and Fascist creeps who have thought it their duty to suck up to the Powers That Be by dobbing their neighbours in!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/elderly-neighbour-breaking-hosepipe-ban-fill-paddling-pool/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

      1. Better still, obtain a pavement stopcock tool and, at the dead of night, put it to good use…it would save them money too!

    3. Remember those who dobbed their neighbours during the lockdown?

      They’ll be having a field day.

    4. The water butt is empty and Mongo’s pool is dry. I didn’t use a hosepipe. I filled three buckets up.

  23. Headline in today’s DT:

    AA president hides keyless car fob inside microwave to foil hackers
    Edmund King urges motorists to safeguard their property after crime gang uses online tech kit to steal his wife’s £50,000 Lexus

    Well, that’s fine until someone else uses the microwave without seeing them…

    I’m amazed that the president of the AA, and his wife, were not aware of the need to protect ‘keyless’ car keys…now they are carless! Mr Farady kindly invented his ‘cage’ and these are available on the interweb for a fiver. Wake up man and get a grip! It’s no good pleading ignorance in your position either!

      1. BBC? And the scenario described, as I pointed out in a later post cannot happen with current Lexus cars. I suspect a rogue servicing employee, if the incident actually occurred.

        1. Nah – RAC.

          Funny things, cars. Last month I went to the garden centre. Chap brought some sacks of compost. I unlocked the car, put the keys in the ignition. Closed the front door. Opened the boot. Chap put stuff in and shut the boot. All doors LOCKED. Keys inside. Very awkward….. An hour later, the MR came over with a neighbour and the spare key.

          Since then I have tried endlessly to repeat what happened – without being able to do so. Garage stumped. Forums useless.

          Just a freak incident. Just glad I wasn’t 200 miles from home….. Now always remove keys from ignition.

      2. BBC? And the scenario described, as I pointed out in a later post cannot happen with current Lexus cars. I suspect a rogue employee, if the incident actually occurred.

    2. Does he not mean that he wrapped his keys in *foil*? I wouldn’t be surprised if the incompetent churnalists misunderstood.

    3. So many ‘pronouncements’ from Edmund King suggest he’s a day late and a dollar short.

  25. 354894+ up ticks,

    No of course there was no
    intent to deceive, not many benny,

    Post
    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    9h
    What is far more interesting & pertinent about Sir Beer is that he is a member of the Trilateral Commission. An organisation committed to world government.

    But the MSM would never comment on that.

    Translate post
    previewImg
    Sir Keir Starmer found to have breached MPs’ code of conduct — The Independent

    The commissioner found the breaches were ‘minor and/or inadvertent’, and that there was ‘no deliberate attempt to mislead’.

    apple.news

    https://gettr.com/post/p1l5cqa0bb8

  27. Russia plans to plant ‘evidence’ blaming the West for Ukrainian prison camp rocket blast, US officials fear. 5 August 2022.

    Russia is working to fake evidence to claim Western rockets destroyed a jail housing Ukrainian prisoners of war, Washington warned yesterday.

    US intelligence officials say Russia wants it to appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the July 29 attack on Olenivka prison that left 53 dead.

    Russia has said Ukraine’s military used US rocket launchers to strike the prison in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

    Get your denials in early folks. Lol!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11082887/Russia-plant-evidence-blaming-West-Ukrainian-prison-camp-rocket-blast-officials-fear.html

      1. I cannot say Phizz. They were hardline Azov people. I suspect that the Ukies thought it was a Russian barracks!

      1. Yeah… look around you. Everything built by white men. What’ve you ever produced? What’ve you ever built? Hell, you’re savages.

        1. My sister has been staying with me for a week , she is here on holiday .. she and the rest of my siblings have lived in South Africa for over 56 years ..

          She is also staying with relatives in the nice part of North Yorkshire and Norfolk .

          I am here in the Purbecks , enjoying all that a quiet life offers. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/460f13ef49cd96d92b7eb00572cacf99885ed2d43fd418e2966c85737dbd8c60.jpg

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9af45ffe4c5f28e234c4379dd49880692ad62eeea0f86d85e40f952aa6b41fe4.jpg

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47c58157e73edd675d3a9729ca2d55acab545aeed84c2ecd08a8f773276d84aa.jpg

          We enjoyed a tractor trip on private land , and the coastline was superb.

      2. Grayling should be flogged, flayed and catapulted to another country. Or against a wall.

    3. They are NOT British. They are illegal immigrants. If that damned MP won’t acknowledge that then she should be removed. Of course, they can’t be, can they? They sit there, incompetent and smug knowing we cannot recall them. That is the first thing that must be imposed upon these fools.

  29. Thirty years and more ago, I heard a woman on the radio say, “I woke in pain as usual.” I thought, “Silly cow.”

    Now I know exactly what she meant. Depressing, isn’t it?

      1. If only. Nah – just chronic and debilitating back pain. Horizontal, all is relatively OK; stand up – and it is a though a knife had been jabbed between my vertebrae…

        1. I know how that feels, suffered from bad backs myself when I was younger, they lock up over night getting out of bed is the worst.

        2. That’s just a Phantom Pain on my behalf, thank you for sharing it. Seriously that’s an absolute bugger, my sympathies are with you, I’m still suffering the same symptoms and am getting frustrated at not being able to get on with the day to day activities .

          1. I struggle on. My back has always been dodgy – since teenage years; and, of course, falling off a ladder 5 years ago, and landing on my back has not helped.

            Lots of “experts” have look at the isshoo. Just told me to learn to live with it…

          4. My Tens is Premier and programmable. From a tickle to a thump. Perhaps you placed the patches in the wrong place.

          5. With mine I have found that when the back has recovered it is better to do some back stretching exercises first thing in the morning. it takes about twenty minutes or so, but touch wood my back has been okay for a few years now,

          6. Exactly right. I had chronic neck pain and the yoga and stretching exercises build up the muscles around the weak point and support it. Three months of doing that twice a day and my neck pain is no more.
            Lots of videos on youtube for exercising gently all parts of the body. The Doctors were useless.

        3. You are lucky you are relatively pain free when horizontal. There are times when even lying down I’m in a lot of pain.

  30. Good morning all. A rather disturbed night with the DT having a nasty stomach upset keeping us both up until after 2!
    A wet start when I got up half an hour ago, with rain and 8°C outside, but the rain has stopped and it’s bright sunshine now!

  31. I assume Edmund King , the ‘President’ of the insurance company that was the AA was trying to get a new free Lexus for his wife and they turned him down. Hence the silly report in the DT, which cannot have happened with current Lexuses, or even my 2019 car. Or maybe he has shares in Krooklok and they are languishing . I replied with a perfectly polite and accurate comment to the article, but it has gone into ‘moderation’. What a mess the DT is now…

    Another 1mm of rain overnight and I awoke to more rain.

  32. Imagine I have £100,000 in a bank account which pays me 5% in gross income. Imagine inflation is running at 10%. Ergo I am losing money at a rate of 5%.
    Imagine I am a higher rate tax payer. My tax bill on this ‘income’ of £5,000 will be 40% = £2,000 leaving me with a net ‘income’ £3,000 and I shall be losing money at a rate of 7%.

    In fact the situation is far worse – inflation is higher than 10% and few banks pay as much as 5% in interest..

    Is there not a case for the government to subtract the rate of inflation from interest before taxing it?

    1. How then would it
      1. Reduce the motivation to earn more
      2. Crow about punishing the higher earners (broadest shoulders and all that)
      3. Use inflation as a weapon to erode the debt?

      And folk wonder why high earners avoid tax.

    2. Yorkshire building society are paying 5%. You have to have saved with them for a year and deposit £500 a month.

          1. My friend Mr Rashid can get you a better deal…….. just send bank details…….

      2. NO, Phizzee!
        Many of these attractive interest rates of 5% are illusory. They are only offered on products where the depositor has to pay in monthly for a year. The apparent 5% is actually only about half of that in most cases, if you measure the cumulated interest month by month.

        Paying in £500 a month will total £6,000 over the year. “Oh goody!” says the investor, “I’ll get £300 at the end of the year”. But the interest at the end of month 1 is a twelfth of 5% of £500, or £2.08.

        At the end of month 2, interest paid on the £1,000 so far accumulated is £4.17, making £6.25 to date. The following months attract £8.33, £10.42, £12.50 and so on until the twelfth month attracts £25 interest, its own twelfth of 5% on the £6,000 paid in to date. Adding all those twelfths up and it makes £162.50, which is 2.71%, a lot less than the 5% overall that SEEMED to be promised. Yes, investors ARE getting 5% on their individual monthly investments, but it is definitely not on the whole target sum.

        So it is not a scam, but an attractive 5% on a slowly rising balance. Be warned. Look at the small print. Visit Yorkshire Building Society’s own on-line Interest Calculator here: https://www.ybs.co.uk/savings/regular-saver and plug in £500 per month. Their calculator shows possible interest of £162.67 if you Make NO withdrawals at all during the period. That’s pretty close to the result of my calculations above.

        1. Thank you. I did understand that but it is better than NS&I bonds where the money is now. Just about to mature.

          1. Yes, Phizzee, I bunged £20,000 into an NS&I ISA at 0.9% p.a. back in April 2019. After earning £177 in year 1 it swiftly dropped to 0.1% p.a. and it has earned me a total of £333.35 since then, a little over 0.5% per year on average. Great, but at least it’s tax free . Thank goodness for Premium Bonds, where (like you) I get a drip, drip, drip of little £25 wins.

          2. I allowed £10,000 to roll over and kept the same rate. This time it rolls over to the lower rate so i’m shopping around.
            My premium bonds pay out 10 out of 12 months but i’m at the top limit so can’t invest any more.
            My best PB win was £550. :@)

  34. A happy “mid-summer” to all NoTTLers.

    [Today, 5 August, is the precise centre point of the season of summer, i.e. exactly midway between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. Or, to put it another way, a quarter of the way between the longest day and the shortest day.]

    1. The nights are drawing in… Get those children out in the fields, bringing in the harvest.

    2. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

      ―

      William Shakespeare,

      A Midsummer Night’s Dream

  35. Cripes on a trouserpress that headline is atrocious. What about ‘Leaking pipes blocked by obscene executive salaries’ or ‘hosepipe ban enforced as infrastructure crumbles.’

      1. Reminds me of the banker waiting to be served by the barber in Penny Lane.

    2. Even looked at as it is supposed to be – a knife wielding person, likely on minimum wage is not a passionate person. They just cut fat off.

      1. And by doing so they are removing the tastiest, healthiest and most nutritious bit.

        1. I was in a restaurant once where they had cut the fat off a sirloin steak before cooking it. Didn’t go back.

          1. People were brainwashed by the false “science” promulgated by vested interests from the 1970s until recently. Thy were told that animal fat kills you but margarine and other Frankenstein “vegetable” oils will make you live forever. They were wrong on every level.

  37. The source of the Thames has dried up during the drought, with river experts saying it is the first time they have seen it happen while forecasters warn of further high temperatures to come.

    The river’s source has shifted from its official start point outside Cirencester during the continuing dry weather and is now more than 5 miles (8km) downstream.

    Dr Rob Collins, director of policy and science at the Rivers Trust, said: “Following the prolonged dry weather, the source of the Thames in Gloucestershire has dried up, with a weak flow now only just about discernible more than 5 miles downstream (at Somerford Keynes).https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/04/source-of-river-thames-dries-out-for-first-time-during-drought

    1. My rain gauge now shows 1.8mm in the last 24 hours here. And the skies are ominously grey.

      1. Here in Northants we’ve had just 60% of our average rainfall in the year to the end of July. Just three months were near or above average. The worst were Sep 54%, Nov 28%, Jan 18%, Apr 24%, Jul 9%.

    2. My rain gauge now shows 1.8mm in the last 24 hours here. And the skies are ominously grey.

    3. Hmm. The location of the source of the Thames is disputed. There are several springs that could be claimed to be the source and I simply don’t believe that it hasn’t dried up before.

      More end-of-the-world stuff from the loonies at the Guardian.

      2. Well, I saw a documentary on that. The explorers followed the river back to its source. It was a dripping standpipe in a field. They turned the tap off. The goodies?

    4. It is not drought or global warming or climate change. It’s because they are taking too much water from the aquifers. Too many people !

    1. Nigel, old chap – you don’t NEED to put your OMBE in your title. Showing off, doncha know…

      1. I always make a point of showing off. If you got it, flaunt it. I’m flash too. :@)

        3. Much like someone with an academic doctorate being required to be called ‘Dr Miles Harris’.

          2. Cheeky bugger. This pisses me off royally.
            🙁
            You face down the Nigerian army and General who wants to come on campus and shoot rioting students, purely by force of character, and then tell me it’s not worth something. No money involed, just undead students.
            Downvote.

          3. It is a well known axiom

            Those honours are not usually military bravery ones

            You get medals for that

          4. Father got his medal. As a civilian, preventing bloodshed in karge volumes.
            I resent the piss-taking, with no information on why someone was awarded a medal.

      3. Like

        Tim Oldfield
        Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
        Wye, Kent

        in today’s letters

    2. The standard of writing and editing in the DT and ST gets more execrable by the day.

    3. It read ‘brake’ when I read the article, so someone in the DT must have been reading the BTL comments.

  40. More from the Guardian:

    Time to admit it – Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster

    Thank you, John Harris, for speaking the devastating truth about the nightmare after Brexit (Spiralling inflation, crops left in the field and travel chaos: 10 reasons Brexit has been disastrous for Britain, 3 August). He left out visual artists, who are suffering along with musicians. The bureaucracy Brexit has inflicted on them is Kafkaesque.

    The artists I work for recently had to ship an exhibition from their studio in Wales to a glass museum in France, necessitating days lost on the preparation of the magic “carnet” for export. Where before they would simply hire a van and set off, now they spend precious time compiling mindless lists: a description, value and weight for every single work being exhibited, the weight of the packing cases, a list of the tools needed for installing the exhibition, together with the value of each. The list goes on. Then there’s the cost of the customs agent and the fee for exporting the goods.

    Any chance we could get the ideologues and those allergic to the truth to admit that Brexit has been a grotesque mistake?

    Emma Lilley
    Presteigne, Powys

    Editorial:
    John Harris is right in everything that he says, but there is a simpler way to put it. If Brexit is a good thing, it must have benefited someone at least in a measurable way. Who is that someone (excluding politicians and the media)? We need only one name. We need empirical proof that there is at least one more winner than there are losers.

    Unless we can be introduced to this model Brexit citizen by Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss, all politicians should start undoing the damage caused by the ineptitude of the Conservative party. The result of the 2016 referendum can be respected while applying the pre-2016 British virtues of common sense and moderation.

    1. The guardian always ignores that the reasons Brexit has not been a success is because the state insists on implementing moronic, Left wing policies. EU policies.

      Brexit could easily be a success. We just need to force big fat state to start implementing rational policies.

  41. Teams cannot stop taking the knee, says Palace boss Vieira

    Players will take the knee during the opening match round of the new season, “No Room for Racism” match rounds in October and March, Boxing Day fixtures after the World Cup, league matches on the final day of the season and FA Cup and EFL Cup finals.

    “We can’t stop straight away because there are statements to make,” Vieira told reporters ahead of their campaign opener at home against his former side Arsenal on Friday. “It is important to keep taking the knee because we are all against discrimination. There will be a few occasions where we will keep doing it. It will be a long fight and that’s why we still have to take the knee.”

    Meanwhile, Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch (a white Yank) said taking the knee was “absolutely the right thing”.

    “I love the fact that there’s been an appreciation of diversity in our sport which I think our sport is the most unique than any in the world,” Marsch said. “It’s not just racial, it’s international, it’s cultural, it’s religion. It’s everything. Whether we take a knee or not I know here that we have a massive appreciation for all of the different people we have.”

    From Reuters.

    1. When are people going to start speaking English and call this idiocy what it is. “Taking the knee” (taking the bloody thing where?) is Americanese bollocks. If it is going to be referred to it should be called “genuflecting” or “grovelling” or something more apt, apposite, pertinent … and English.

        1. Hmmm. Kneeling suggests (to me, anyway) both legs being bent. With the Marxist salute, only one leg is offered. Just remember, though, Black Legs Matter.

          4. I have always politely turned down all “honours” offered to me.

            Anyway, one only uses ONE knee at a dubbing. Thought you would have known that…!!

  42. Ooh, touched a nerve, did he?

    Call for scrutiny of Scottish Government at Westminster ‘utterly ridiculous’

    A former Conservative leader’s call for time to be set aside at Westminster for the SNP to be grilled on the Scottish Government’s record has been described as “utterly ridiculous”. Sir Iain Duncan Smith – who led the Tories between 2001 and 2003 – told an event in Stirling there should be a specific question time session that would “turn the tables” on the SNP. The former work and pensions secretary was speaking at an event in support of Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss.

    According to the Times, he said that should Ms Truss become prime minister as polls suggest she will, he would ask her to grill “SNP MPs about what they deliver in Scotland, rather than them constantly asking us”.

    He said: “We need to turn the tables on them and start saying, ‘Well, can we have a period of question time for you lot to talk about what you are doing in Scotland as the devolved administration?’. And start examining some of this stuff because they’re not just SNP protesters down in Parliament, they are actually part of the Government up here.”

    But SNP deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald said the idea is “utterly ridiculous” and shows “even the Tories are out of ideas for how to fix the broken Westminster system”.

    From PA Media.

    1. Actually a good idea. I have repeatedly asked Mr Ross, the leader of the Scottish Tories, to ignore independence blethers and nail the Scottish government on their expensive, wasteful incompetence. There will be a Tory party in Scotland after independence, I have pointed out.

      1. I know of one correspondent who thinks the SNP is heroically defending the nation against English hegemony and if any of its policies fail, it is the fault of Westminster. He is blind to the failings in education and health but holds up as an example of its benevolence and humanity the spending on drug addicts.

        He is an English-born socialist who affects Scottishness in some turns of phrase, rather like Blair ‘getting down with the kids’. Any accusations of prejudice by the SNP against the English is deflected by reference to ‘civic’ nationalism.

    1. Yo Mr N.

      Vaccine: Definition

      a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases,
      prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute,
      treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease.

      Ten days of Convid and we had a Vaccine, wonder how that happened.

      Mr Edward Jenner* would be right jealous of the Big Pharma finding a vaccine so quickly

      *https://www.jenner.ac.uk/about/edward-jenner

      1. 3.8 billion years is the average estimate for life’s first appearance on our planet.

  45. 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.

    Lisa Keogh sues her University for breach of the Equality Act – show your support here!

    FSU member Lisa Keogh was in the final year of a law degree at Abertay University when she was placed under investigation for ‘inappropriate’ comments. Her ‘crime’ was to have challenged the view that transwomen should be treated exactly like women and be allowed to compete against women in contact sports during a seminar on ‘Gender, Feminism and the Law’. The FSU supported Lisa throughout the proceedings, and last year she was cleared of all charges by the University. She is now taking legal action against her alma mater for an alleged breach of the Equality Act 2010, and her solicitors have recently instructed FSU Scottish Advisory Council member Joanna Cherry QC to assist with the case. The next court hearing is on 22nd August. We’ve written about the case previously here. You can find out more about the case and pledge your support here.

    Conservative Party leadership contest – this week’s free speech news

    Having identified our top five policy commitments for the next Prime Minister (here), we’ve been asking members and supporters who are also members of the Conservative Party to reach out to the candidates in the current leadership contest to see where they stand on these issues.

    It’s clear from the tone and tenor of the leadership contest to date that our campaign is working. Thanks to our new campaigning tool, over 4,000 emails have now been sent to the Tory leadership candidates, urging them to do more to protect free speech. This week the contest continued with hustings in Leeds, Exeter and Cardiff, and at the Exeter event both candidates expressed their reservations about the Online Safety Bill.

    Asked whether she would scrap the Bill, Liz Truss said she was “frankly worried” about some of what her 16 and 13-year-old daughters have seen online. But she went on to make it clear that “grown adults should be able to speak freely”. That was why, if elected leader, she would be “engaging with all my friends in the Conservative Party to make sure the Bill protects free speech”.

    Rishi Sunak went further. He said there is “a very particular bit” of the Bill that he would look at again – namely, the “grey area” around legal but harmful speech.

    The “very particular bit” in question is Clause 13, something that nine senior Tories, including FSU Advisory Council member Lord Frost, wrote to Nadine Dorries about in July, urging the Government to remove it. “We are concerned,” they said, “about both the legal precedent set by the state targeting so-called ‘legal but harmful’ speech and the censorious impact this measure would have.” The concept of putting restrictions on such speech, they reminded the Secretary of State, “undermines our long tradition of promoting freedom of expression”, and is therefore “as unConservative as it is unBritish”.

    Mr Sunak’s pledge will play well with the grassroots – a recent YouGov poll of 982 Conservative Party members found that four in five (79%) believe people should be able to post things online that are offensive but legal, and that if something is legal to say offline it should be legal to type online. (Guido).

    Over the next five weeks, the FSU is looking to extract similar commitments from both candidates in relation to the other issues we address in our five-point free speech manifesto: legal protections for workers’ speech rights, non-crime hate incidents, how to guard against political indoctrination in schools, and amending the Equality Act 2010 to ensure it cannot be used by universities to no-platform those who challenge fashionable woke orthodoxies

    If you’re a Conservative Party member and you haven’t done so, please use our new campaigning tool to send them an email. If you’ve sent them an email, remember that the template can be tweaked to accommodate whatever free speech issues you’d now like to raise with Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.

    Tavistock gender identity clinic to shut down

    The Tavistock gender identity clinic is being shut down by the NHS after a review found that it failed vulnerable children. (Spectator). Critics have long argued that the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic, which has been prescribing puberty blockers to under-16 year-olds if they were deemed capable of giving consent, is “rushing” children into irreversible, “life-altering” medical procedures without proper consultation (Times), and, as Professor Kathleen Stock puts it, “handing out harmful drugs to gender-confused youth as if they were sweets” (Unherd).

    As quoted in the Mail, the paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, who is leading a review of the service, found it was “not a safe or viable long-term option” and issued a series of recommendations for a radical overhaul of how the NHS treats young people who are questioning their gender. NHS England, which commissioned Cass to review the service in September 2020, says it will implement her recommendations in full and decommission the Tavistock clinic “by Spring 2023”. (Guardian).

    “Hundreds of lives may have been blighted, some irreversibly,” said the Telegraph. “Such is the price of dangerous dogma ignoring caring common sense for far too long.” But bona fide medical concerns were ignored too, says Fraser Myers (Spiked), who goes on to point out that the interim findings from the Cass Review suggest clinicians “felt under pressure to adopt an unquestioning affirmative approach” to children seeking to change their sex. One clinical psychologist at Leeds GIDS expressed concerns to a colleague and was promptly branded “transphobic”. (Telegraph). The clinic’s child-safeguarding lead, Sonia Appleby, tried to report staff concerns to management, but was subsequently described as “hostile” and accused of having an “agenda”. (BBC). In 2018, Dr David Bell, staff governor at the Tavistock and a distinguished psychiatrist, wrote a report that captured the concerns of ten GIDS clinicians who were frustrated and horrified about what was happening at the clinic, only to see it suppressed by GIDS. (Telegraph). In 2019, a governor of the NHS trust in charge of the clinic resigned, claiming the “debate and discussion required is continually being closed down or effectively described as ‘transphobic”’. And so on and so forth. For Fraser Myers, the fact that those who raised concerns “were met with dismissal at best and venom at worst” contributed to a “lack of critical thinking and questioning” at GIDS, which, in turn, “opened the door to all kinds of strange and illogical views about gender”.

    And what about the civil service – are they at fault too, for “crushing any dissent against gender ideology”, as Sam Ashworth-Hayes puts it, thereby enabling the scandal to be “smothered” for so long? (Spiked). Writing for the Times, former Conservative Party leadership candidate, Kemi Badenoch, certainly thinks so. When she became Equalities Minister in 2020, she was told by her officials that the clinic offered “a positive medical provision to support children”. Having received correspondence on the matter, she “decided to listen to every perspective on the issue”, in spite of being “advised strongly and repeatedly by civil servants that it would be ‘inappropriate’ to speak to former Tavistock service user, Keira Bell”, a woman whom the clinic helped transition but came to regret it.

    Kemi overruled the advice of her officials, and met Keira. “Her testimony was harrowing and brought many on the Zoom call to tears,” she recounts. “Keira described how, after being put on puberty blockers at the age of 16, she was given testosterone shots at 17, before her breasts were cut off at 20. Worse was the casual indifference she described from the GIDS service to her continued post-surgery wellbeing.”

    In light of the interim Cass review’s findings, NHS England says it will move young people who believe they’ve been born into the wrong bodies into regional centres which will take a more “holistic” approach to treatment and look at other mental health or medical issues they may have. (Guardian). Let’s hope that the holism in question provides for the type of academic and intellectual freedom that, as Heather Brunskell-Evans points out for Spiked, dissenting parents, detransitioners, academics, medical professionals, Tavistock whistleblowers and gender-critical feminists have been denied for so many years.

    The Online Safety Bill and the future of WhatsApp in the UK

    Twitter’s Head of Site Integrity, Yoel Roth, said his company is seeing “governments become more aggressive in how they try to use legal tactics to unmask the people using our service” and as a way to “silence people”. (Tech Outlook). It’s a view echoed by WhatsApp CEO, Will Cathcart, who this week said his company might cease operating in the UK if the Online Safety Bill reaches the statute book in its current form. (BBC).

    Mr Cathcart was talking specifically about a Government-backed amendment to the Bill. “What’s being proposed,” he said, “is that… we read everyone’s messages.” He is concerned that Ofcom may ask online service providers like WhatsApp to pursue “client-side scanning”, a controversial surveillance method whereby end-to-end encrypted communication services automatically scan private chats, messages, texts, images, videos and speech for suspicious content which is then automatically reported to the police. (BBC News). Critics say the technology could be subject to “scope creep” once it’s installed on phones and computers, so it isn’t just used to search for illegal content. (Computer Weekly).

    For Mr Cathcart, the fundamental problem with client-side scanning is that it undermines WhatsApp’s unique selling point, namely, secure, end-to-end encryption. As he told the BBC’s Tech Tent podcast, “WhatsApp’s a global product. People use it… to talk across countries all the time. And so if we had to lower security for the world to accommodate a [regulatory] requirement in one country, as a business decision, that would be very foolish for us.” Would WhatsApp disable services in the UK if the newly amended Online Safety Bill passed into law?, asked the interviewer. “To date, the way we’ve worked is we’ve offered a global service and some countries choose to block it,” he replied. “I hope that never happens in a liberal democracy.”

    The case for the Government’s amendment is of course that it will protect children. According to the National Crime Agency, there are between 550,000 and 850,000 people in the UK who pose a sexual risk to children, and it’s not difficult to understand why secure, end-to-end encryption might prove useful to those wishing to circulate depraved images online. That’s why Home Secretary Priti Patel has argued that “things like end-to-end encryption significantly reduce the ability for platforms to detect child sexual abuse”. (Telegraph).

    But is the amendment a sledgehammer to crack a nut? Back in 2021, Apple abandoned attempts to introduce its own client-side scanning software after 14 top computer scientists, including encryption pioneers Ron Rivest and Whit Diffie, found its plans were unworkable, open to abuse, and threatened internet security. (Tech Times). Their paper Bugs in our pockets: the risks of client-side scanning, identified 15 ways that states, malicious actors, and even targeted child abusers, could expoloit the technology to cause harm to others. (Computer Weekly). Even the UK’s own Information Commissioner’s Office has said that encrypting communications actually strengthens online safety for children by reducing their exposure to threats such as blackmail. (Guardian).

    Political neutrality and the civil service

    Point four in the FSU’s five-point free speech manifesto concerns workers’ rights, making the case for “stronger legal protections for workers so employees cannot be disciplined or sacked for refusing to take diversity training courses” – a great idea, of course, but one that’s unlikely to find many supporters among senior civil servants, for whom these courses hold an irresistible allure.

    The Attorney General Suella Braverman revealed this week that 1,000 of her officials in her department – including 600 lawyers – have managed to clock up 1,900 hours of attendance on various diversity and inclusion training courses. (Telegraph). That’s a total of 253 working days spent listening to the “foot soldiers” of the “Diversity Industrial Complex” – as Inaya Folarin Aman put it (Telegraph) – spouting “all the usual fashionable lingo” about white fragility, white privilege and hierarchies of oppression.

    According to the UK’s civil service code, any bureaucrats who are still able to find time in their crowded training schedules for advising Government ministers must remain politically impartial at all times. It’s a task which must surely be getting harder and harder – as Juliet Samuel notes (Telegraph), the “fashionable lingo” to which Inaya alludes above is often little more than “a channel for the dissemination of radical political ideas like critical race theory”, a racialised offshoot of critical theory, which, in turn, was the brainchild of the ‘Frankfurt School’, a group of 20th century cultural Marxists.

    Civil servants in Ms Braverman’s Department were informed during one lecture that “not being racist isn’t enough – we must be anti-racist”, which is effectively a watered-down version of the Black Lives Matter slogan “silence is violence”. At that same session, participants were told that it was “not up to you as a white person” to tell black people whether or not a phrase was offensive and were urged to instead “educate yourself as to why the phrase is offensive and stop using it”. A useful strategy in that regard, the course suggested, would be to follow commentators “who are not white” on social media. They should start with Inaya Folarin Iman.

    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. I filled in a Radio Diary online for IPSOS about three weeks ago. this followed a chap coming to the door and asking if I would be interested. I agreed. We sat on the garden wall in the sunshine and he filled in some background information on this laptop. We chatted, he declined refreshments. The next week I filled in the daily diary for the required week.
      I have since had an email asking me to download an app to my smartphone that would automatically record all my internet activity. I declined.
      The Sultana has completed an onlineRadio Diary for about 2 years. Now she has received the same request to download an app that will allow Ipsos to record her phone and internet activity. The Sultana declined, so losing the £10 M&S voucher that she received every month.
      We have left the EU but have retained the Data Protection Act. This Act frightens social clubs into keeping membership lists secret from members. It allows governments and public bodies to hide their wrongdoing and incompetence. It should be abolished.
      Let individuals make choices.

    2. That video reveals a mindset in those young men so different from ours that they might as well be aliens from another planet.

  52. There is a God, after all. Though the well in the garden is 40 feet below its top level, I have just been able to pump out 750 litres.

    Talk about a garden life-saver.

    1. I had a pond on my property in NC which the sprinklers ran from. It was fed by a stream and only once did it get low- so stopped sprinkling until it recovered. Poor old bull frogs were miserable and noisy!

  53. Ukraine ‘endangers civilians’ with army bases in residential areas, says Amnesty. 5 august 2022.

    Amnesty International has said the Ukrainian army is endangering the life of civilians by basing themselves in residential areas, in a report rejected by Ukrainian government representatives as placing blame on it for Russia’s invasion.

    The human rights group’s researchers found that Ukrainian forces were using some schools and hospitals as bases, firing near houses and sometimes living in residential flats. The report concluded that this meant in some instances Russian forces would respond to an attack or target residential areas – putting civilians at risk and damaging civilian infrastructure.

    Of course they have. No one wastes £1M cruise missiles knocking out little Igor playing Halo on his Xbox series X!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/04/ukraine-civilians-army-bases-amnesty-russia-war

    1. Have the Ukes been learning from the Arabs in Gaza or are both instructed by the Yanks? As civilisation crumbles, it becomes more and more dificult to trace the source of guilt. (Having learnt that ukraine is just Old Russian for borderland, I think of the Ukes now as The Borderlanders.)

    2. DM has an article too.

      The group noted, however, that the tactics ‘in no way justify Russia’s indiscriminate attacks’, which have battered civilian populations.

      ‘We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas,’ said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General in the report.

      ‘Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.’

      The group went on to say that not ever Russian attack ‘followed this pattern’.

      The report said: ‘In certain other locations in which Amnesty International concluded that Russia had committed war crimes, including in some areas of the city of Kharkiv, the organization did not find evidence of Ukrainian forces located in the civilian areas unlawfully targeted by the Russian military.’

      At the end of the report, Callamard – a French human rights lawyer – also called on Ukraine to move ‘its forces away from populated areas, or should evacuate civilians from areas where the military is operating.

      ‘Militaries should never use hospitals to engage in warfare, and should only use schools or civilian homes as a last resort when there are no viable alternatives.’


      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11083903/Zelensky-fury-Amnesty-International-accuses-UKRAINE-endangering-civilians-lives.html

  54. Ukraine ‘endangers civilians’ with army bases in residential areas, says Amnesty. 5 august 2022.

    Amnesty International has said the Ukrainian army is endangering the life of civilians by basing themselves in residential areas, in a report rejected by Ukrainian government representatives as placing blame on it for Russia’s invasion.

    The human rights group’s researchers found that Ukrainian forces were using some schools and hospitals as bases, firing near houses and sometimes living in residential flats. The report concluded that this meant in some instances Russian forces would respond to an attack or target residential areas – putting civilians at risk and damaging civilian infrastructure.

    Of course they have. No one wastes £1M cruise missiles knocking out little Igor playing Halo on his Xbox series X!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/04/ukraine-civilians-army-bases-amnesty-russia-war

  55. Cold and windy here now. I suspect “temperature inversion” as the bases of the clouds form a very straight line. We have just had heavy rain and hailstones.

  56. Datz Law ( which I have been guilty of ignoring recently to my embarrassment ) if something seems outrageous it probably is untrue or wildly exaggerated and as such more often than not seized upon by the left to demonstrate the venality and corruption of the Tory Party. So it is with the £70Bn contact awarded to a two man Cornish company and the left are still spitting feathers and f*rting blue sparks about it. 8^)

    https://fullfact.org/online/70-billion-contract/

    2. Or as Mr Honeycombe-Foster explained: “essentially, the supplier chosen [by E2BN] becomes a middleman, matching up companies who can work on green projects with local councils, schools and hospitals”.

      I wonder what their fees will be for acting as middleman? Even 0.01% of £70Bn is not to be sneezed at for a two man band.

  57. British tourists warned of ‘extreme violence’ when visiting South Africa. 5 August 2022.

    British holidaymakers have been warned about the high rates of violent crime experienced by tourists visiting South Africa. The Government has issued a new warning to anyone thinking of going on holiday to the African continent.

    The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) confirmed the new advisory on Thursday, August 4, reports Birmingham Live. It stated: “South Africa has a high rate of crime, including carjacking, house robbery, rape, and murder.

    I called in at Cape Town on my way to Australia many years ago. I thought it was the most beautiful City that I had ever seen. None of these once White Run countries have benefited in any way from the introduction of native rule. Ironically it is the natives who have suffered the most. South Africa is poised for massive disturbances. One hopes that we are not going to see a repeat of the atrocities that haunted the Belgian Congo!

    British tourists warned of ‘extreme violence’ when visiting SOuth Africa (msn.com)

    1. My younger sister is visiting us from SA.

      She lives outside Cape Town , Muizenberg.. very pleasant , as are all the outlying areas like Simonstown , Kalke Bay etc .

      She is like a highly strung horse , and she still hasn’t decompressed after being in the UK for 2 weeks .

      There are power outages , killings everyday, shortages , and even white poverty .

      City of Cape Town residents urged to boil water as a precautionary measure as load shedding results in fault at water treatment plant

      https://www.iol.co.za/news/city-of-cape-town-residents-urged-to-boil-water-as-a-precautionary-measure-as-load-shedding-results-in-fault-at-water-treatment-plant-492be798-61f3-4a3a-ac63-d4f7596e9b87

      1. “There are power outages , killings everyday, shortages , and even white poverty .”

        Could be Blighty……

      2. Can’t be white poverty. Jut white priviledge.
        Hope your sister gets some relaxation, Belle. Give her a hug from me.

  59. Case Workers – Borders and Enforcement (EO)
    UK, Europe
    From £24,883 to £31,519 per annum
    Home Office
    Permanent
    Recently
    The Home Office works to build a safe, fair and prosperous UK. We achieve this through our work on counter-terrorism, policing, fire, crime, drugs policy, immigration and passports.

    We’re currently recruiting for 210 Immigration Caseworkers and 70 Casework Support roles based at locations across the country. You can learn more about these roles, including how to apply, below.

    Immigration Enforcement is an operational command of the Home Office, which works with law enforcement and cross-government partners to tackle serious and organised immigration crime. We have a focus on bringing to justice those who exploit the vulnerable, for example in cases of modern slavery and human trafficking.

    More about the roles
    Both these roles are pivotal to the work we do to track immigration offenders and increase compliance with Immigration Laws.

    There are currently roles available in three of our business areas.:

    National Returns Command is mainly concerned with the removal or repatriation of foreign nationals who have no right to stay in the UK.
    The Interventions and Sanctions Directorate has responsibility for achieving greater compliance with the Immigration Rules by removing the incentives which encourage people to enter or remain in the UK illegally.
    Returns Preparation is responsible for progressing cases of individuals who have had their applications refused or rejected by the Home Office to the most appropriate conclusion, taking full account of their safeguarding needs.
    These are exciting, dynamic, and fast paced environments. If you join any of these teams you could be working on a range of cases including:

    The removal or voluntary return of an immigration offender
    A claim of human trafficking
    Whether to pursue sanctions with respect to those living in the UK illegally
    If you can demonstrate that you have the skills we are looking for, we will teach you what you will need to become an effective team member and match your skills and location to one of our teams.

    These roles will be based at one of the locations shown in the relevant sections below, but in line with our hybrid working policy of at least 40 per cent of your time worked from the office and up to 60 per cent from home.

    Benefits
    We offer competitive starting salaries, details of which are shown in the relevant sections below, a Civil Service Pension with employer contribution rates of at least 26.6%, and a range of other brilliant benefits including flexible working and 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.

    Contact: Recruitment Team
    Reference: Totaljobs
    Job ID: 9814359

    3. “National Returns Command is mainly concerned with the removal or repatriation of foreign nationals who have no right to stay in the UK.”- money for old rope as they don’t ever seem to do that!

      1. “…repatriation of foreign nationals who have no right to stay in the UK…”

        What? Both of them?

    4. “National Returns Command is mainly concerned with the removal or repatriation of foreign nationals who have no right to stay in the UK.”- money for old rope as they don’t ever seem to do that!

    5. “Interventions and Sanctions Directorate has responsibility for… removing the incentives which encourage people to enter or remain in the UK illegal”. This is simplicity itself: handcuff these illegals to the nearest tree and leave them there. No food, no water, no free hotel accommodation, no free handouts (“pocket money and mobile phones”). Then remove the handcuffs from the dead bodies and re-use on any new illegal arrivals. Where do I apply for the job?

  60. Just back from a boozy brunch. Lovely sunny day. Town centre deserted. Had two watermelon Margaritas. Dolly had a sausage. Then to Antonio’s to find him shut. Stepped into the Red Lion for another cocktail. Then up the high st to the Golden Lion for another. There was a mime artist so i pretended to throw a custard pie at him. Why are they always so miserable…

  61. Have you ever noticed how the most annoying things breed in swarms of hundreds, Flies, Wasps, Ants, Midges, Pakis…

  62. I saw a monkey in the jungle holding a tin opener.

    I said to him, “You don’t need a tin opener for a banana.”

    He replied, “I know.

    This is for the custard.”

  63. Wales v Malawi netball on TV.
    Would you believe it. Not a white person in the Malawi team.
    Total lack of diversity.

      1. And talking of racism in Malawi … my Indian chum and her family had to flee the country.
        Her grandparents had settled there after the war in what was then Nyasaland.
        When Hastings Banda took over, he went down the Idi Amin route.
        Friend’s aunt had founded and run a girl’s school for years. One day, the pupils were all hauled out and made to witness the aunt’s utter humiliation at the hands of Banda’s thugs.

    2. I bet they are also (w)hole wimmen as well, not strapped up ‘ toggle+two’ to be seen anywhere

        1. I am money rich, at the moment, after receiving Bill’s 5/- Postal Order (less transfer charges) from Mr Rashid

      1. Worth a punt. You only have to give them an email address and if you are anything like me you would have several.

  65. For any lovers of fantasy out there. Netflix has launched a new series. The Sandman co-written by Neil Gaiman. Extremely high production values even though it is mostly CGI. Gwendoline Christie plays Lucifer.

    2. They completely, intentionally recast Death. No longer to match the comic illustraion, now it’s a diversity hire.

      I know Gaiman is ok about it, but really, could they not, just once keep to the representation?

    3. Years ago I read The Ananzi Boys by Neil Gaiman. Enjoyed it. Ananzi is an African trickster spider and there are many fables about him.

  66. Its been raining so no house painting being done, the good thing is I’d scheduled grass cutting, can’t do 🙂
    Settle down with a book and some fall over juice + this from my LP collection.

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMC2EY28bcwejJmNVU4l2aKq6YCK6hy6-

    I hear the drizzle of the rain
    Like a memory it falls
    Soft and warm, continuing
    Tapping on my roof and walls

    And from the shelter of my mind
    Through the window of my eyes
    I gaze beyond the rain drenched streets
    To England where my heart lies

    My mind’s distracted and diffused
    My thoughts are many miles away
    They lie with you when you’re asleep
    And kiss you when you start your day

    And a song I was writing is left undone
    I don’t know why I spend my time
    Writing songs I can’t believe
    With words that tear and strain to rhyme

    And so you see I have come to doubt
    All that I once held as true
    I stand alone without beliefs
    The only truth I know is you
    And as I watch the drops of rain
    Weave their weary paths and die
    I know that I am like the rain
    There but for the grace of you go I

    Paul Simon.

      1. You’re very welcome (as our friends across the big pond would say), I have a large collection of LPs that I enjoy listening to.
        CDs/FLAC files are good but holding the record sleeve and reading the notes is like reading a book, rather than using an e-reader.

  67. That’s me for the day. Have slightly overdone the physical activity – bad back and head. Too much lugging of buckets and heavy hosepipe and lifting potatoes and more buckets..

    Some tension in the house as the MR is examining the garden produce to see which items she will be selecting in the morning for the Annual Food Production Club Show. Always a fraught time! Usually she wins the Rose Bowl – but this year’s roses are pathetic. I shall keep a low profile for the next 24 hours!

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – prolly…

          2. I know. HarryKobeans said he would stalk him at market. I’m waiting for the comprising pictures !

          3. As far as I am aware, HK is the only Nottler I have met; he kindly brought me some summer truffles. They were absolutely delicious.
            I exchange e-mails with a few others.

          4. I have met Max twice. Fine fellow. Reminded me of my Uncles. The second time i had the pleasure of meeting him was in the presence of his lovely wife. Truffleless !!!

          5. She escorted him here.

            He might not feel the same way, but I thought he was someone who could be a good friend, they are pleasant people.

            They must be, because my antennae, otherwise known as HG, liked them very much

          6. Pleasant yes but not people to bugger about. I liked the way he dealt with a recaltricant Bar manager. He gave instruction.

          10. You would be most welcome, but from what I read of you, I suspect it might be a little too “rurale” for your very expensive tastes!

          11. Not at all. I have dongle and other devices to remain connected and i also know how to raid wine cellars ! :@)

          12. A word to the wise:
            The cellar has only one entrance/exit and it floods if the automatic pump is switched off…

          13. Funny….
            I holidayed on the Norfolk Broads for 20 years. You think i don’t know boredom? Being bored can be a release from the non stop news. I think i might book you next year if you will if you will allow.

          14. As I say, you would be most welcome.

            Many of our regular guests come purely for the peace and quiet. They can relax, look at the view and absorb the silence, some don’t even leave the grounds except to shop; it doesn’t suit everyone but if you want to get away from the stresses of life it’s a good place.

            Because we are fairly central to very interesting parts of France it’s a good base for touring, wine/archaeology/history/literature it has something for most tastes.

            Over the years it’s been interesting to see how couples/families react. Children like it because they can run wild and the parents like it because they know the children are relatively safe, the pool is a huge draw, large enough and deep enough to enjoy, either as a wallower or a swimmer.

          16. I’m not sure we ever e-mailed.
            HL has my details.

            Look for “the little house” in French, near Bergerac on TA

    3. I’m glad it isn’t only my roses that have been a disappointment. Somehow, knowing I’m not alone is a comfort.

        1. We haven’t been as dry here as some places; in fact, one of my horses couldn’t run at Chester because the heavens opened and the ground was too soft (he likes it on the firm side)!

      1. Yes – tomatoes and fuchsias are wilting here so will have to do some watering. There was a cool wind but most of the time it was pretty sunny and scorching.

        1. It’s a great pity that Anne can’t takeover from mum and Zara take over from her.
          The Monarchy would have a much better chance of surviving.

      1. A very small selection of charities has a stall there – and we are one of them! Along with the BHS, the Brooke, Cats Protection and Forever Hounds…… we’re further down the site this year – we’ve usually been just at the start of the cross country, and not so far to walk to the dressage arena, but this time we’re down by the main arena, but we’ll see a bit of the cross country as they go by.

        We were too hot and busy to make the trek to the dressage this time – but we might see a bit of the show jumping and other things in the arena if we have a few minutes off – but the Saturday and Sunday are the busiest days. As there are only three of us to run the stall, it’s a bit harder to take time out to go and have a wander round.

  70. OT

    I am concerned about Plum; it has been c. two weeks.

    I found and phoned Penzance Tennis Club – but got the foreign housekeeper; the club is closed for the weekend.

        1. A close friend whom you talk to daily on the internet and who lives
          alone has been silent for 2 weeks might work.

      2. I no longer share your trust in the NHS or the police, Clydesider; they share ‘woke-ish’ agendas.

    3. Is there a Nottler living nearby or one with her phone number who could check up on her?

      Let’s hope she’ll get wordle in two and be rousted to tell us!

      1. I have phoned her – every other month for some five years, srb.

        In the last fortnight, however:

        She hasn’t replied to several emails;
        Her Mob replies: “The number has not been recognised”.
        Her Landline doesn’t reply – or take messages.

        I find that ominous.

        3. Herts did a response a couple of weeks ago but i think the lady wishes to be left alone at the moment.

          1. Perhaps Herts should confirm / deny that statement, Phiz.

            Your ‘thoughts’ are irrelevant.

  71. Father, 32, is jailed for 19 years for stabbing burglar to death after running home when doorbell cam alerted him his property was being broken into by man searching for drug stash

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11084899/Father-32-jailed-19-years-stabbing-unarmed-burglar-death.html

    Forgive me, but my view is that the burglar brought it upon himself and when I look at the sentences passed down on “real” criminals I think the killer of the burglar has been very harshly treated.

    1. All our institutions are rotting at their core – the judiciary, health, education, law and order. But that was the Marxists’ intention, wasn’t it? Step forward Common Purpose and take a bow.

      1. The householder went crazy, stabbing the burglar, but even so, knowing there were three or four of his mates in the background I wonder how I might have reacted myself.

        When I taught such things, my advice was always “run away, give them what they want”.
        BUT, if given no other choice, react with extreme violence and don’t hesitate to use the skills/dirty fighting that I have taught you.

    2. Violent drug dealer stabs to death a potential drug dealer. Hard to conjure up much sympathy. At least he’s off the streets for several years. And ‘Father, 32’ ??? So what?

      1. I must admit that I wondered whether it was a dealer or one who held such things legally; but, when I look at what happens within the “protected” communities, 19 years seems heavy.

        1. I am sympathetic to people protecting their property. The case of the burglar Henry Vincent in 2018 in Hither Green springs to mind – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5613913/Stabbed-burglar-tried-rob-pensioner-spent-years-preying-elderly-gang-relatives.html

          In this latest case, however, the owner of the property not only attacked the burglar, but continued the assault outside the house. In my view, he was lucky not to have been found guilty of murder.

          1. As I commented earlier, below, he went crazy, but given the four to two disadvantage and the circumstances, I wonder how I might have reacted under a “red mist”.

            I’m probably biased against the burglars, a good friend of mine confronted yobs who were damaging his work van, having failed to break in.
            They beat him absolutely senseless, hospitalised him and he died a few years later having never really recovered from his beating.

  72. Re Plum

    GG or one of the Mods, could you put up a featured comment tomorrow to the effect that even if she isn’t up to posting could she click an up vote or two so we know she’s still with us?

    1. We haven’t heard from Citroen or Nagsman for a while – I hope they are both well

      1. There are quite a few who appear far less frequently, if at all.
        Let’s hope it’s a summer hiatus and that people will return to the fold.

        1. Too much to do outside in the summer. Wait until the long dark nights of the soul … 🙂

      2. Cooee – I had lunch with Nagsman yesterday – she’s fine but we both ate too much. She has moved house nearer to Chippenham.

        I have been out of circulation since Easter – family matters. Will return when things have quietened down.

        Be good

          1. Don’t know about kicking – BBC4 now broadcasting ‘Gaming Music at the Proms’ – the Beeb really can eff up anything they get their hands on.

            Am going to take a large glass of Bushmills into the garden and sulk. Love and kisses to all.

          2. When it comes to the Wokery of the beeb, like many of us here, wear your sulk with pride!

  74. Utterly off topic

    The cicadas had been very quiet for a few days; suddenly the sky has dark clouds forming and the creatures have immediately reappeared, sounding off like crazy! It is staggering how much of a racket they can produce.

    I wonder whether we’re due for an almighty thunderstorm, we certainly need the rain.

    1. Hope you get the rain!! We too, have noticed the cicadas have not been so noisy so far this summer.

  75. A week or so ago there was a thread about boats sinking in canals. Lo and behold:

    “Kennet & Avon Canal
    Location: Kennet and Avon, Lock 15, Semington Lock
    Starts At: Lock 15, Semington Lock
    Ends At: Lock 16, Harris Lock

    Friday 5 August 2022 21:30 until further notice

    Type: Navigation Closure
    Reason: Boat damage

    Please be advised that due to a sunken craft in lock 15 (Semington lock), the canal is currently closed from Lock 15 (Semington Lock) through to Lock 16 (Harris Lock).

    There’s going to be either one very unhappy boater or boat hire companny…

  76. If The Chingford Skinhead was the best prime minister we never had then The Vulcan was the best chancellor never to be…

    Liz Truss’s tax cut plan is perfectly Thatcherite

    Her targeted measures are needed to ease the squeeze on family budgets, especially as global energy prices go up

    JOHN REDWOOD • 5 August 2022 • 8:00pm

    This week, the Bank of England delivered grave news. It forecast even higher inflation for longer than it had previously admitted, and now predicts a recession lasting for the whole of next year. The Bank is in danger of doing too much, too late to curb the inflation it helped to bring about. It is no wonder that it has now come round to the view that, on current policy, we will have a recession.

    Writing in this paper before the Bank announced its latest decision, however, Nigel Lawson claimed that Rishi Sunak is right to say we need to press ahead with more tax rises on top of the tax squeeze that he has already imposed. This, it is said, is necessary in order to double up on the Bank’s efforts to curb inflation. Lord Lawson said that Mr Sunak is the true Thatcherite in this race. Having served myself as head of Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit, I beg to differ.

    I admired Lord Lawson’s work as financial secretary to the Treasury, when he helped design a strong anti-inflation policy to cure the rapid price rises inherited in 1979-81 from the outgoing Labour government. But that strategy rested heavily on tough control of money growth, along with switching some of the tax burden from income tax to VAT. It is a pity the Bank and Treasury today thought money supply growth did not matter and went in for a major expansion by creating more money and buying bonds with it. This may have been necessary in 2020 to combat the lockdowns, but was continued for too long in 2021 when we were well into recovery. It was clearly likely to prove inflationary.

    I was also a fan of Lord Lawson as chancellor when he made major reductions to taxation. He prided himself on removing smaller individual taxes, and made large reductions in the standard and higher rates of income tax. He thought then, rightly, that it would promote growth. As he cut the rates of tax the revenues rose, and the rich paid a bigger share of the total.

    He and I can agree that there are no easy options from here. It is important to prevent inflation from gaining a strong hold on our economy, creating a wage/price spiral where no one wins. It is also important to limit public sector borrowing. But this will prove a lot more difficult if we have a longer and deeper recession, exacerbated by overly high taxation. Lord Lawson tells us that Mr Sunak’s delayed cuts in income tax make more sense than Liz Truss’s immediate relief of some of the cost-of-living pressures. I struggle to understand how we can base income tax cuts in the period 2025-29 on planned growth in those years, when no one can make a reliable forecast that far out.

    The UK is the only major country adding a National Insurance rise, higher energy taxes and business tax rises to a substantial tightening of monetary policy and an energy shock. The big increase in global energy prices which we have to pay is like a huge tax rise, with the added disadvantage that most of the money goes to overseas interests so we cannot spend it at home on government priorities as an offset.

    Liz Truss’s targeted tax measures are needed both to ease the squeeze on family budgets a bit more, and to make a direct reduction in energy prices to help push inflation lower. If we can keep a labour market with plenty of vacancies for longer, we can help more people into work and off dependence on benefits, assisting public finances. A recession will raise the deficit mightily. Getting more people into work cuts benefit bills and will help curb public spending.

    We are now in the business of trying to manage ourselves out of the bad outcomes the Bank has described. That is only possible if we are clear about the causes of the situation we are in.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/05/liz-trusss-tax-cut-plan-perfectly-thatcherite/

    BTL:

    Party Pauper
    A shame Redwood wasn’t in the running. I’d have voted for him.

    Michelle Page
    It’s unlikely Truss will be able to stave off a recession but her proposed policies will create the conditions for a swifter recovery than would occur under Sunak’s planned strategy of managed decline. What she pledges may allow businesses to ride it out and survive whilst her opponent will effectively raze everything to the ground with a fiscal environment that will see existing businesses off for good and prevent new ones emerging. If there was any justice she’d win this bunfight and install Redwood in No.11, if ever an MP was wasted on the backbenches it’s the legendary Sir John.

  77. If The Chingford Skinhead was the best prime minister we never had then The Vulcan was the best chancellor never to be…but could he yet?

    Liz Truss’s tax cut plan is perfectly Thatcherite

    Her targeted measures are needed to ease the squeeze on family budgets, especially as global energy prices go up

    JOHN REDWOOD • 5 August 2022 • 8:00pm

    This week, the Bank of England delivered grave news. It forecast even higher inflation for longer than it had previously admitted, and now predicts a recession lasting for the whole of next year. The Bank is in danger of doing too much, too late to curb the inflation it helped to bring about. It is no wonder that it has now come round to the view that, on current policy, we will have a recession.

    Writing in this paper before the Bank announced its latest decision, however, Nigel Lawson claimed that Rishi Sunak is right to say we need to press ahead with more tax rises on top of the tax squeeze that he has already imposed. This, it is said, is necessary in order to double up on the Bank’s efforts to curb inflation. Lord Lawson said that Mr Sunak is the true Thatcherite in this race. Having served myself as head of Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit, I beg to differ.

    I admired Lord Lawson’s work as financial secretary to the Treasury, when he helped design a strong anti-inflation policy to cure the rapid price rises inherited in 1979-81 from the outgoing Labour government. But that strategy rested heavily on tough control of money growth, along with switching some of the tax burden from income tax to VAT. It is a pity the Bank and Treasury today thought money supply growth did not matter and went in for a major expansion by creating more money and buying bonds with it. This may have been necessary in 2020 to combat the lockdowns, but was continued for too long in 2021 when we were well into recovery. It was clearly likely to prove inflationary.

    I was also a fan of Lord Lawson as chancellor when he made major reductions to taxation. He prided himself on removing smaller individual taxes, and made large reductions in the standard and higher rates of income tax. He thought then, rightly, that it would promote growth. As he cut the rates of tax the revenues rose, and the rich paid a bigger share of the total.

    He and I can agree that there are no easy options from here. It is important to prevent inflation from gaining a strong hold on our economy, creating a wage/price spiral where no one wins. It is also important to limit public sector borrowing. But this will prove a lot more difficult if we have a longer and deeper recession, exacerbated by overly high taxation. Lord Lawson tells us that Mr Sunak’s delayed cuts in income tax make more sense than Liz Truss’s immediate relief of some of the cost-of-living pressures. I struggle to understand how we can base income tax cuts in the period 2025-29 on planned growth in those years, when no one can make a reliable forecast that far out.

    The UK is the only major country adding a National Insurance rise, higher energy taxes and business tax rises to a substantial tightening of monetary policy and an energy shock. The big increase in global energy prices which we have to pay is like a huge tax rise, with the added disadvantage that most of the money goes to overseas interests so we cannot spend it at home on government priorities as an offset.

    Liz Truss’s targeted tax measures are needed both to ease the squeeze on family budgets a bit more, and to make a direct reduction in energy prices to help push inflation lower. If we can keep a labour market with plenty of vacancies for longer, we can help more people into work and off dependence on benefits, assisting public finances. A recession will raise the deficit mightily. Getting more people into work cuts benefit bills and will help curb public spending.

    We are now in the business of trying to manage ourselves out of the bad outcomes the Bank has described. That is only possible if we are clear about the causes of the situation we are in.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/05/liz-trusss-tax-cut-plan-perfectly-thatcherite/

    BTL:

    Party Pauper
    A shame Redwood wasn’t in the running. I’d have voted for him.

    Michelle Page
    It’s unlikely Truss will be able to stave off a recession but her proposed policies will create the conditions for a swifter recovery than would occur under Sunak’s planned strategy of managed decline. What she pledges may allow businesses to ride it out and survive whilst her opponent will effectively raze everything to the ground with a fiscal environment that will see existing businesses off for good and prevent new ones emerging. If there was any justice she’d win this bunfight and install Redwood in No.11, if ever an MP was wasted on the backbenches it’s the legendary Sir John.

  78. Evening, all. The headline letter underlines why there is one rule for one an another rule for the rest of us.

    1. That case is probably the tip of the iceberg. Assisting illegal immigrants is obviously a lucrative business attracting the worst in society. Pakistanis always feature along with Albanians.

  81. Within hours of the MPC meeting, my job starting on Monday no longer exists. Recruitment placed on hold and it’s looking like I need a gofundme for bills.

    5. That’s appalling. You might be better off not being employed by such tossers.

    1. Re Plum

      GG or one of the Mods, could you put up a featured comment tomorrow to the effect that even if she isn’t up to posting could she click an up vote or two so we know she’s still with us?

Comments are closed.