Tuesday 9 August:

Posted on by Geoff Graham

Banning hosepipes is irrelevant to the recurrent shortages of water

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.

494 thoughts on “Tuesday 9 August:”

  1. ‘Morning, Peeps and Geoff.  A very welcome start to today before the arrival of 25°C this afternoon.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I feel it is time there was an adult conversation about water usage, rather than a knee-jerk call for hosepipe bans by George Eustice, the Environment Secretary (report, August 7).

    Here, in the South, water leakage rates are about 25 per cent. So of the total water supplied only 75 per cent is available.

    Commercial and agriculture use 90 per cent of that water. This leaves 10 per cent for domestic customers.

    According to Water UK, a hosepipe ban saves 10 per cent of that water. Doing the sums shows a hosepipe ban saves only 0.75 per cent of water supplied.

    As leaks account for 25 per cent of water, I feel that Mr Eustice’s conversation should be with the water suppliers, and he should penalise them for these losses, rather than imposing a virtue-signalling hosepipe ban for metered water that we pay for already.

    During the last big dry spell in 1976, there was talk of building a national water grid to bring water from the North, where the industrial demand has shrunk, to the South. Maybe it’s now time to invest in that water grid, especially in the light of the vast numbers of houses built in the South.

    Larry Armitstead
    Medstead, Hampshire

    Full marks, Mr Armitstead!  Various hosepipe bans are just sticking plaster for another useless regulator and a series of similarly useless Environment Secretaries. Should we have expected anything better in Broken Britain?  Probably not.

        1. Wotcher, Bamse! I was thinking exactly the same – you took the formula right out of my mouth! So to speak.

    3. Let’s not be too, too critical. Sometimes water companies work just a little slower than usual.

      We’ve had a major water leak in our road since March. Green algae is growing on the road.

      You’ll be pleased to know that SE Water have finally promised to look at it tomorrow.

      Even if they don’t repair the leak, they can certainly brush the algae off the road.

      PS: Hedges looking delightfully fresh and green.

      1. I once lived in a town with its own water company supplying water from a local spring. I rang up to report a leak – the engineer was clearly at home (in the town) and arrived to look at the leak the same evening. It was fixed the next day.

        Oh yes, but economies of scale, bleat the government and the water companies…

    4. Two really excellent letters about water supply from Larry Armitstead and Charles Duncan.
      I have the feeling that running down the water supply is not just mismanagement, it’s part of the creeping authoritarianism. Make water a scarce resource, then you have “justification” for imposing more petty rules on people.

  2. ‘Morning, Peeps and Geoff.  A very welcome start to today before the arrival of 25°C this afternoon.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I feel it is time there was an adult conversation about water usage, rather than a knee-jerk call for hosepipe bans by George Eustice, the Environment Secretary (report, August 7).

    Here, in the South, water leakage rates are about 25 per cent. So of the total water supplied only 75 per cent is available.

    Commercial and agriculture use 90 per cent of that water. This leaves 10 per cent for domestic customers.

    According to Water UK, a hosepipe ban saves 10 per cent of that water. Doing the sums shows a hosepipe ban saves only 0.75 per cent of water supplied.

    As leaks account for 25 per cent of water, I feel that Mr Eustice’s conversation should be with the water suppliers, and he should penalise them for these losses, rather than imposing a virtue-signalling hosepipe ban for metered water that we pay for already.

    During the last big dry spell in 1976, there was talk of building a national water grid to bring water from the North, where the industrial demand has shrunk, to the South. Maybe it’s now time to invest in that water grid, especially in the light of the vast numbers of houses built in the South.

    Larry Armitstead
    Medstead, Hampshire

    Full marks, Mr Armitstead!  Various hosepipe bans are just sticking plaster for another useless regulator and a series of similarly useless Environment Secretaries. Should we have expected anything better in Broken Britain?  Probably not.

  4. SIR – Thames Water has been caught out by the worst drought in its region since 1976. In the first seven months of 1976 rainfall in the South East was, according to the Met Office records, less than 60 per cent of this year.

    Such droughts used to be common. Between 1920 and 1950 there were five years where rainfall in the first seven months was less than in 2022.

    From 1873, when records started, to 1970, the average rainfall in the South East for the first seven months of each year was 375mm; since 2000 it has risen by nearly 7 per cent to 400mm. But the population of London has increased by more than 25 per cent.

    Perhaps the problem is not so much exceptional lack of rain, but a failure to plan for wholly predictable events.

    Charles Duncan
    St Mawes, Cornwall

    What we need are more water CEOs like that of Thames Water – £2m plus bonus of £750k…that should sort out our future supply problems!

    1. And booby traps along the Kent beaches.
      Asking for politicians with a spine is the stuff of fantasy.

  7. Good Moaning.
    All helpful hints on how to switch off a brain that spends the night working out which furniture to send to the auctioneers would be welcome.
    Short of smacking it with a mallet, natch.

    1. Morning Anne. Best to give them all numbers and then draw them out of a hat. It reduces the angst!

    2. My children swear by melatonin.
      For me, counterintuitively, going to bed early does the trick.

    3. Good morning Anne

      Unless you are sure you have some very high value furniture that is collectable .. through my own experience , dark stuff has crashed in price .

        1. Now I’m a little confused, Anne. Are you still in your “old” house, in the “new” one or in rented digs? I need to know by Christmas or I might letterbox your Christmas card to the wrong people.

          1. Currently at Allan Towers in a paper shuffling limbo.
            Unsurprisingly, these transactions have become more rigid and bureaucratic since we last went through the procedure.

      1. The problem is, MB is more sentimental than I am.
        He seems to think the ‘Dower House’ is a Tardis.

  8. SIR – I’m just so grateful to be able to turn on a tap and drink water in my house. Let’s remember millions in the world are unable to do so.

    Tim Woolcock
    London SW18

    I wouldn’t bank on it, Tim Woodcock. At this rate those heady days are limited because the idiots are in charge!

    1. Remind me again, when are they going to start putting fluoride into the water? I certainly don’t want to drink that.

      1. Here, SE Water says there are currently no plans to add fluoride. Worrying use of the word ‘currently’…next week then?

      2. Here, SE Water says there are currently no plans to add fluoride. Worrying use of the word ‘currently’…next week then?

    2. “Let’s remember millions in the world are unable to do so.”

      If they got off their arses and used the TRILLIONS in aid that they have been given – every single mud hut in the world could have running water and modern sewerage.

  9. Morning, all. Overcast with mist hanging between the trees in N Essex.

    MAGA/America First have stirred up the ‘ Biden’ cabal in recent days with the results in primary elections. So much so that armed FBI agents raided Trump’s home, Mar-A-Largo, yesterday. They took away unopened boxes for inspection later at another site. Desperation has set in. Does Biden remain in isolation in his basement with multiple ‘positive’ covid tests?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27d556f6cd7a791ad3a9837b0d8c374666fcf972d4dbe3161fb07c1edba7fa80.png

    1. Remind me of the different political systems in Russia and the USA.
      Morning, Korky.

      1. The ‘Uniparty’ i.e. many “Democrats” and the RINOs appear to have gone fully communist in their approach.
        If they can find Trump guilty of a particular offence he will be barred from standing as President. Removing unchecked boxes of documents and the contents of his safe to another location for ‘investigation’ doesn’t appear to be the smartest action to take but desperation can lead to rash decisions. The Biden cabal could be hoping to force a reaction but I think Trump and his advisors are unlikely to fall into that trap.

    2. It will be used to stop him standing again, yet Hilary Clinton almost certainly got away with far worse.

  10. Morning folks. About to go out to play removing builders’ rubble from a large raised flower bed in front of the house, before the sun gets high and temperatures soar to the point where I shall be looking round to see if some of TE Lawrence’s bedouin have spotted the oasis!

    1. Perhaps someone could give us the figures for heat related deaths year by year so we can see whether nanny’s announcements and warnings have had any effect.

      Incidentally, there used to be a lot of short public information films on TV – what happened to those? There was clunk click (Jimmy S as I remember), Tufty, the green cross code man, a cartoon of a man drowning, one about dipping your headlights,…I’m sure others will come to me.

  12. SIR – As a manager in retail I can confirm the “quiet quitting” phenomenon is all too real (report, August 8). Younger workers in particular approach their work as if they are doing the company a favour by gracing our team with their presence each day. Many expect incentives to meet minimum performance targets, dismissing the idea that this is what their wage is for.

    I recently challenged an employee on his poor performance, who replied: “Minimum wage, minimum effort.” This despite his wage being above the minimum and his effort non-existent.

    John Beech
    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    I blame his teachers, Mr Beech. The ‘work ethic’ seems to have deserted their pupils – if they ever had it, that is. If he has any exam grades I’m willing to bet that these were awarded at increasingly inflated levels…easy come, easy go?

          2. ‘Morning Spikey! I’ll be cutting the hedge this pm. but will be in touch later! 💕

    2. They’ll change their tune when unemployment bites. They annoy me in the office too, floating in and out with their childish ways and absolute confidence that their degree in media studies has equipped them to be high powered business men or women.
      I am delighted to report however, that young programmers and engineers are exactly the same as they always were.

      2. “They’ll change their tune when unemployment bites.”

        I’m sorry to say it probably won’t. UB and its various top ups like housing benefit etc pay much better than work, especially if you have fifteen children

        1. They can’t keep printing money to fund benefits forever. We’re already at the end of the road for the fiat pound, and only a few conjuring tricks and a lot of mad printing is keeping it afloat at this stage.
          They may try CBDCs (aka food stamps) for benefits first.

    3. Morning all.

      Imprisonment for nearly 2 years has helped to change and foster the “no need to work” attitude. Pay people not to work and, hey presto, they don’t!

    2. Either panting for the internet by now, or having realised that he can get on well without it?

      Has johnathanrackham posted recently? He was having a rough time healthwise if I remember rightly.

  14. SIR – I like crisp sandwiches, although I can’t decide whether I prefer salt and vinegar or cheese and onion.

    Liz Kwantes
    Cookham, Berkshire

    Non-letter of the week, Ms Kwantes, and all so effortlessly!

  15. SIR – Is the BBC’s remit to create news? Many reports start with the statement, “BBC research has established that …”, followed by a mini-documentary. All participants support the report’s premise, criticising the Government.

    A public-service broadcaster should be impartial; any research should be independently generated, peer reviewed and validated. Otherwise it is political propaganda.

    G P Fothergill
    Rothley, Leicestershire

    There is no “should” about it – the BBC’s Charter demands it. It is unfortunate that no one seems interested in enforcing it.

      1. …yes, look what our broken government isn’t doing about it. We must be due yet another visit to a food bank, for the same reason. All so predictable.

        ‘Morning, B3.

    2. Remove the social media slush and the “human interest” stories and there is not much left. Almost all stories are being interpreted with reference to “refugees” and incomers.

  17. BBC axing the results is cultural vandalism. Jim White.

    This is the time when the football scores become verified, authorised and meaningful

    For so many of us, it has for so long been a Saturday afternoon ritual. At the end of the match, as you head to the car park for the drive home, you always make sure you arrive in time to hear blurting out of the car radio the familiar jaunty bounce of Out of the Blue, Hubert Bath’s theme tune for Sports Report on BBC Radio Five Live.

    This is a tune which has been part of football fans’ lives since 1946, the notes that herald the single most significant bit of Saturday afternoon broadcasting. Because what follows are the classified football results, when everything stops, when hush falls not only in your car, but, it always seemed, across the football-loving nation.

    Read first in the clipped tones of James Alexander Gordon, then later in the smooth-as-velvet hush of Charlotte Green, this is the moment we all stop and listen. This is the point at which the afternoon falls into perspective, when you learn of what has happened elsewhere. From the National League, through the Scottish League Two to the JD Cymru Premier League, this is when you see how your result fits into the wider pattern.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_Wsoq1PGQo [Len Martin can be heard on this video from 9:15]
    No BBC football results-reading voice ever surpassed the rich, clear timbre of Len Martin on BBC’s Grandstand every Saturday afternoon. James Alexander Gordon, on the radio, was never as good; frequently speaking too rapidly and often slurring the names of some of the teams he read out.

    1. Maybe they should read out the results without the scores but for their diversity and wokeness.
      For Example

      Crystal Palace fully diverse 10 v Arsenal 90% diverse 9
      But then with bonus points for kneeling, wearing rainbow badges and for a player coming out or transitioning live.

    2. No one who followed Len Martin…ever surpassed him…

      None were able to master the simple use of inflection to indicate the result. With LM, you knew who had won or if it had been a draw before he’d finished giving the score.

  18. Banning hosepipes is irrelevant to the recurrent shortages of water

    It’s about as useful as wearing a mask, I suppose.

  19. SIR – In March you published a letter about my attempts to register for lasting power of attorney. I write with an update.

    My applications, submitted to the Office of the Public Guardian in February, have finally been registered after 24 weeks. That the previous chief executive of the OPG was paid a bonus for this abject performance is a disgrace, and shows how senior civil servant pay rewards failure. The private sector would have had him removed without any bonus long ago.

    Dr John Davies
    Morpeth, Northumberland

    SIR – You report (August 7) on the chaos at the Passport Office.

    We are still waiting for the return of our original marriage certificate, which we were required to send in order to renew my wife’s passport. A researcher working for our MP, who is chasing this on our behalf, has told us that there are millions of such documents waiting to be sent back.

    This is a scandal that reveals the ineptitude at the heart of the Passport Office. When will someone take responsibility and ensure that these valuable documents are returned?

    Brian Hoffmann
    York

    Fear not, Snivel Serpents; although your Covid excuse is wearing a bit thin now  I predict a new and more virulent version will be along shortly…

    2. And people still believe what the government tells the to do.
      As Grizzly would say, the epidemic of stupidity is rife.

      Edit of for is

    3. Why are civil servants given a bonus for doing their jobs? Do they get a deduction when they fail, or would that see none of them paid a penny?

  20. 354988+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Banning hosepipes is irrelevant to the recurrent shortages of water

    Sure;y part & parcel of the repress /replace/ reset campaign, even plant life MUST suffer
    before fully appreciating reset.

    The biggest SCAM surely is the electoral voting scam under the guise of democracy
    to keep the herd entering the polling booth
    in a perpetual motion manner is a SCAM of GIANT proportions

    Once upon a time the herd supported / voted on party’s that took action on manifesto policies that also benefited the peoples as well as the Country,to be part of the English scene as an indigenous person you really had won a top life’s lottery prize

    This is no longer the case, today the support & vote is, clear to see, aimed at the destruction of the United Kingdom in it’s entirety, plus it’s indigenous peoples

    You support & vote for the lab/lib/con/ ukip coalition you are consenting to your own & decencies demise.

    1. If that’s the goal of the state then it needs to start working out who’s going to pay all the taxes.

  21. Good morning all. Sunny.

    Delightful half hour on the beach at East Runton last night. Just people enjoying themselves. Quite a lot swimming. Sea relatively warm – we paddled and it was not a shock!

    1. When the sea is warm, I can’t get out of my head the suspicion that a lot of people have peed into it. As children, we took our holidays further up the coast and swam in the north sea – the sea should be freezing cold in my book!

      Good morning.

      1. I know what you mean!

        Had we been there in the middle of the day, I might have been tempted to swim – though the combination of a very sandy (gritty) beach and the shower being cleverly set on a concrete slab up the tarmac road and surrounded by sand – was a bit off-putting. I am so used to swimming at Cap d’Ail – on a stony beach – where one simply walks up the 154 steps to the flat and has a shower!

        Given that there has been nothing but sunshine for nearly three months, the warmth of the sea was not a surprise.

      3. “When the sea is warm, I can’t get out of my head the suspicion that a lot of people have peed into it.”

        Far more fish and birds will have crapped in it!

      5. What we drink has been peed trillions of times as the amount of water on earth will be very similar to that at the beginning of our planet some 4 billion years ago.

        1. And so it is said that every breath you take contains an atom of oxygen breathed out by Julius Caesar

          1. Similarly we played bowls at Hurst near Reading on Sunday which has been in constant use since 1747. One of our players wondered if there was any of the original grass left.
            Who knows?

      6. Sign in Bracelet Bay, Gower… “If you don’t pee in our sea we won’t surf in your toilet”.

  23. UK helpline launched for east and south-east Asian victims of racism. 9 August 2022.

    The On Your Side helpline will be run by specialist advisers to provide tailored and culturally sensitive support. Longer-term support from a trained casework advocate will be offered, with case workers helping people understand their rights and direct them to specialist support services.

    The service operates seven days a week and was created in response to the “dramatic rise” in hate crime directed towards the people from east and south-east Asian backgrounds in the UK since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, organisers said. This increase had highlighted the gap in support and reporting services, the organisers added.

    On Your Side, which is described as the first of its kind in the UK, is being funded by the Hong Kong British nationals (overseas) welcome programme through the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

    Unemployed? Start your own quango. Cash supplied by the taxpayer!

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/aug/09/uk-helpline-launched-east-south-east-asian-victims-racism-on-your-side-hate-crime

    1. And I’m sorry to be repetitive but it seems our political classes are at it again.
      Get over yourselves people from East and Southern Asia.
      No body forced you to move here.
      I know some lovely people who originate from the subcontinent they are hard working and have very successful since their elders ‘came to the UK to work’.
      Perhaps that is the difference.

      1. Yes, we seem to have a clear split of immigrants who come here to work, get jobs, contribute, live quiet, decent lives – and dross who live on welfare.

    2. How to get arrested

      UK helpline launched for white, heterosexual, family orirtated, ethnic who are the victims of racism and attackes by the LGBTQ brigade

  24. Morning all 😃 lovely day again.
    Four ball with my 3 sons this afternoon.
    I might not be a long hitter but I’ve been playing longer 🏌‍♂️⛳ …….

    2. I’ll be out releasing balls back into the wild in just over an hour’s time. No breeze, sunny and forecast to reach the high 60s…unlike my golf which will be even higher.

  25. Banning hose pipes now….And once more it proves that everything they come into contact with, our political classes eff it up.

  26. Good Morning. Cloudy, cold and gray again. We were promised a warm, sunny day.

  27. 354988+ up ticks,

    May one ask, could any supporter / member / voters of the lab/lib/con/ukip coalition tell me
    what side of the English Channel theses
    “in dire need of help” are residing on ?

    May one say, would hotel bills past & future for the upkeep of mass illegal foreign “guest”
    alleviate in any way the indigenous persons water bill, or are the coalition supporter / voters prepared to see their children’s tongues / lips turn black / cracked, for the sake of “the party”.

      1. They didn’t wait to see what the jabs did to the animals – they killed them all after a few days.

        1. They were probably thinking to themselves:

          “What if this is how the virus was created in the first place and escaped from Wuhan”

        3. Perhaps they did see what the jabs did to the animals. And decided to kill them before the news got out.

      3. A quandary if ever there was.
        How do we test new drugs to ensure safety. Do we experiment on humans or do we not have any more new drugs?
        A real ethical quandary. What would you do?
        The ‘covid’ drugs have now been tested on humans and shown that they don’t do what was promised but the humans, in ever decreasing numbers, are now seeing the truth.

          1. Yes Anne
            It’s very difficult to look at things in isolation and draw an overall conclusion.

      4. Could we not use murderers, terrorists, rapists, mutilators and kiddy-fiddlers instead?

    2. When is the full extent of the criminality of the behaviour of the the MSM, the PTB and Big Pharma going to be properly exposed?

      I suspect that Neil Oliver is completely right when he says that it will not be exposed in our lifetimes as too many people will be found guilty.

      1. I think he is correct, it won’t be exposed via the official channels. But it may well be exposed by angry people, and it is starting, there is a clip of an angry man in Australia – whose close relative died because of the vaccine – assaulting a doctor’s car; they had both got caught up in a traffic queue, tightly packed. The windows were broken and he grabbed the doctor. There will be a lot more of this kind of action, especially when the true nature is realised of the concealment.

      2. The greater the crime the lesser the punishment.
        Always has been for those in power.

    3. The dishonesty evidenced by the article takes one’s breath away. I have long thought the line ‘we could not find any evidence of…..’ emerged because the answer to the query had not been sought, and there was no intention to do so.

  29. We do not shop at John Lewis. Dull and drab. However, the boss has a real handle on things.
    “Dame Sharon White said John Lewis had doubled its financial assistance fund – a pot of cash where workers can apply for grants and loans if they have difficulty paying bills – from £400,000 to £800,000.”. Hmmm. John Lewis does not pay workers enough to live on?

    Edit: Note to Dame Sharon White, the correct term you should use when referring to your employees is “partners”. Please see Wikipedia for some further information on the John Lewis Partnership. You might have read even a little about it before taking up the job. Anyway, what exactly can you, as a former civil servant, contribute to a consumer facing business in a very difficult market in a downturn of the economy? Anything?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62471260

    The John Lewis Partnership plc (JLP) is a British company which operates John Lewis & Partners department stores, Waitrose & Partners supermarkets, its banking and financial services, and other retail-related activities. The privately-held public limited company is owned by a trust on behalf of all its employees — known as Partners – and a bonus, akin to a share of the profit is paid to employees. John Lewis has around 80,800 Partners/employees as of 2020.

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

    2. Golly! They had weather that long ago! Who knew? (I thought that it had been invented by that wee foreign girl.)

  31. Question.

    When does a “delightful hot summer” become a “dangerous indication of climate change and global catastrophe”?

    4. I remember when I were a lad, ’twas like this every year… picnics on the shore, sand in the tomato sandwiches ‘n all. Melting tarmac on the lane down to the beach. Luverly.

      1. I seem to recall fine weather – but mainly, I think, because the family photo album only shows snaps taken on fine days!!

        1. I’m back where I grew up and I also remember cross country runs along the proms with my then little nadgers being frozen off by the biting winter gales…

      2. Picnic sarnies aren’t right unless there’s sand in them. Damp towels, chasing your little brother with a large piece of wet seaweed and chucking a bucket of water over a dozing dad and then running for it….

    5. I remember when I were a lad, ’twas like this every year… picnics on the shore, sand in the tomato sandwiches ‘n all. Melting tarmac on the lane down to the beach. Luverly.

    7. I think we have just had a run of miserable unsettled summers in recent times and now anything more than 2 days of fine weather is deemed the coming of the apocalypse.

      1. Well, the meeja was projecting “thousands dead” the first time it as a bit warmer than usual.

    8. I think we have just had a run of miserable unsettled summers in recent times and now anything more than 2 days of fine weather is deemed the coming of the apocalypse.

      1. Is it now illegal to whistle at pretty girls and cast appreciative eyes over them? Isn’t that something Adultera Truss wants to make against the law?

        I was never a wolf-whistler but I always enjoyed looking at pretty girls and I eventually found an exceptionally pretty one to marry me!

  33. There’s a huge oil well fire in Texas. The oil company phones Red Adair. He replies that he’d love to earn his $10,000,000 callout fee, but he’s on another job. He recommends his Irish cousin, Green Adair.
    Shell phones Green Adair: Yes, he’ll do it, for his customary fee of £50.
    The next morning, the world’s press and hundreds of onlookers gather by the huge blaze. Misfiring aero engines are heard, and a vintage Hercules running on only three motors appears. lt lands by the conflagration, and the rear ramp drops. Down it rolls a 1952 Land Rover, straight into the heart of the flames. Out leaps one man, clad only in an overall and wellies, who begins frantically stamping on the fire. Within two minutes, it’s extinguished.
    The crowd goes wild.
    The press rush up to Green Adair. One reporter thrusts a microphone into his face and asks, “Green Adair, you’ve just earned £50 the hard way. What do you plan to do with the money?”
    Green Adair replies, “I’m going to fix the handbrake on that f**king Land Rover!”

  34. Egg mayonaise sandwich for breakfast – after a shower. Too hot, too bright. Went for a drive to get prescriptions and I couldn’t see. It was just like driving staring at the sun.

    I hate this weather. Hate it hate it hate. Got some nytol to sleep and pain killers for my shoulder. Ha. My summer. Pain and suffering. Soon may it bloody end.

    1. Stay cool, keep all the doors and windows closed except at night. Lovely weather!

    2. I hate the heat as well.

      My racing snake husband now looks like a migrant , brown .. golf and sunbathing .. and I just hide indoors and venture out for an hour or so ..to go for a walk or do some weeding . I am very fair and freckly.

      Early walks are best with my spaniels as are late evening ones .. the beaches are crowded and car parking fees shocking .

      I am hosting a meeting and lunch toda at our local RBL for some very old ex service veterans who served in the Canalzone ,, I was there when I was a child and was evacuated in 1956 with other expats ( wives and children, the British civilian men who worked out there were taken prisoner for 3 months, my father included )

      Heat and flies .. riots and dead animals are my memories of Africa.. where I spent m childhood and early teenage years .. not forgetting scorpions and huge spiders and a snake or 2 .

      Purchase a watermelon , chop it up and refrigerate , a chunk or 2 will cool you down when you eat it . Your dog will enoy it as well

    3. Sorry Wibbs but I love it. Have been sitting out under the umbrella most afternoons and will again today, after my phone consult with el Quacko.
      Keep cool as best you can; can you share Mongo’s pool?

      1. Consume appropriately chilled drinks and eat food designed for hot weather – think yourself to Southern Italy, Thailand, or other places that one enjoys when warm.

        1. We do- lots of salad these days. And we still have the Chinese chicken in the fridge- so there’s that too.

  35. Good morning all.
    I hope the weather isn’t too hot for you!

    I’m sat in a Nero’s cafe in Great Malvern on the 3rd day of my trip out, checking up on e-mails.
    Did a walk up Great Malvern Hill yesterday and parked up on the West side of the hill last night.

    I got up to pump bilges at 03:00, spent half an hour marveling at how clear the stars were!

    Watching an auction I’m bidding on, on behalf of my eldest lad, otherwise I’d already be walking up the hill! Will do a walk this afternoon.

          5. They don’t get very large before the birds have eaten them all, so we don’t know.
            I think they are, but they were given to us.

  36. I’ve been trying to get Lantana to overwinter, rather than being treated as a summer annual, and this year I seem to have managed it. The pink buds are Lantana flowers on last year’s plant

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41b04637bd2c98912277525e954ed1735685cc68c2175b2e6fcbd609614a8bd4.jpg

    Of course it has a long way to go to match the one I took this picture of on Ischia! That’s its trunk climbing the wall…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d16325d5a592e447de187878217454e7dc7ee8b7b2eb1760a115b6b70b8ff2c.jpg

    1. I didn’t understand what anyone saw in her. As mentioned below, she didn’t exactly have the greatest back catalogue.

      1. She was not a great actress or a great singer but she had the appearance of youth and freshness which were immensely attractive in an increasingly jaded age.

        1. She broke the heart of the Shadows’ rhythm rhythm guitarist, Bruce Welsh, when she ended their engagement and he tried to kill himself.

      2. I thought she was beyond bland and anodyne in everything she did. I once tried to watch the execrable, dire musical, Grease, but gave up.

  38. Apropos the forecast energy price rise in autumn, my gas and lecce combined are £43 per month, so about £490 a year.

    Notwithstanding I live alone, how on earth does an ‘average family’ manage to push its bill up to £3800 a year?

    2. How… is your bill so low? Ours used to be 66. A wash every other day, dishwasher every 3 or so, 4 showers a day. Heating rarely on.

      2. I don’t know ow. I use as much as I need. I don’t use the oven very often and I’d have a tumble dryer in the house only over my dead body whereas some people I know put their entire wash in the tumble dryer straight from the washing machine.

    3. My lecce is just £20 per month, as I live in a 310 sq ft studio and use very little but my heating and hot water are included in the service charge which comes in at just under £4000 per annum. That includes exterior and communal maintenance and also staff salaries, as there are people on duty 24 hrs a day. The heating and hot water cost will almost certainly rise?

    4. Mine’s £39, gone up from £20 because of the ripoff standing charge increase

          1. A fridge freezer, two under counter freezers, two wine fridges (one for sparkly and one for beers and mixers), Then there is the dishwasher, the washerdryer, assorted kitchen gadgets, vax air purifier and assorted computers and gadgets. Oh, and a Henry hoover. (which only gets used once a fortnight !) An assortment of chandeliers and upright lamps.

          2. I had a Henry hoover- my third Golden. There was never anything remotely edible left on any floor. Sometimes dropped food didn’t even make it to the floor…

          4. Dogs always act as though they are being starved to death. Goldens have the added advantage (?) of being able to produce copious amounts of drool, I guess as encouragement. You’d be surprised how well that works 😉

          5. Yep I guess it mounts up
            I only have the fridge, a large freezer, I don’t watch TV but I use one as a dvd player for an hour in the evening. A few of cups of tea, toast in the morning. The PC and my keyboard don’t use much. The oven only gets used when the sun is shining and my lecky is free. All lights are LED and are only on in the room I’m in. The washing machine and spin drier only get used when the sun is shining.

          6. I am taking out one wine fridge and one freezer. Won’t really make any difference though with the next increase i get.

      2. Our electricity, heating oil, and coal bills are now projected at around £7500 per year for a 3 bedroom cottage, with no insulation in the stone walls.

    5. I am pretty frugal with power but seem to be the ‘average’ user. Last month’s bill was £85, what it used to cost in winter. Gas cooking, hot water on when needed and 101 small electrical devices. They have ramped the standing charges, so no escape. Winter is going to be cooler than normal indoors, maybe save something on the fridge running.

      1. If the state were truly interested in reducing usage it would have scrapped the standing charge. As it is, the intent is just to make energy unaffordable, thus it hiked the standing charge out of spite.

      2. “Gas cooking…”

        Anyone with a gas hob should boil water in a pan rather than an electric kettle.

        1. Not necessarily.

          Kettles remember to switch themselves off when the water reaches boiling point…

          1. I’m assuming the user has the sense to (a) keep an eye on it (b) buy a hob kettle.

        2. I have a gas hob but it’s Butane – a 19Kg cylinder lasts me 3 years. I cook my veg and spuds in the same pan and boil the water in the kettle first then transfer it to the pan on the hob

        3. We have one of those electric things that only heats up the amount of water you actually use. The downside is if you want boiling water (eg for tea). The upside is if you want it to put on vegetables on the gas cooker, in which case it is as good as boiling, and is instant.

      3. When the meter went from about £1.50 a day during the summer to over £2 instead of 60p before 10am it was clear something was horribly wrong. When the end of the day would be £3.50 rather than £1.50 I slapped the thing down and unplugged it. I just don’t care. We fixed our bills at £170 a month. That’s basically my net salary for a month, solely on energy. If we were not overpaying, it’s HALF our mortgage costs.

        All so some useless bastard like Gummer can get fat and rich off windmills, so Boris can swan about getting free holidays in his chums houses. After all, what’s gifting someone a half million quid house compared to twenty million in forced tax payer stolen subsidy for your wind mill shares?

        I hate them. I hate them all.

        1. I have had to endure many speech day speeches over the years but the worst I have ever heard was given by the odious Gumboil (aka Lord Deben) in 2011 at Gresham’s . He told the schoolboys and schoolgirls and their parents that the EU was a marvellous organisation and Britain should never dream of leaving it and that it was a proven scientific fact global warming was made by man and a scientific fact that we needed to put windmills everywhere to save the planet.

    6. Three out of four don’t pay the bills, so they don’t see and feel the costs.

  39. If the politicians had planned their environmental policies with a fraction of the necessary meticulous foresight required for their idealistic visions then we would not be in the total mess with which this completely unprepared Net Zero policy has lumbered us. Who will be the first Conservative member of the next government to break ranks and admit that the whole thing has been a tragic error which will lead to devastation?

    Politicians seem unaware that all great projects need thought and planning. When I decided to sail my 30′ boat Raua, across the Atlantic I knew that I would have to devote plenty of time, energy and money into making sure that the venture would be successful. I bought a sextant and learnt how to use it, I fitted wind-powered self steering, a wind-powered electricity generator, and extra fresh water tanks, I bought new charts almanacs and sight reduction tables and other essential navigational equipment (it was before the days of GPS), new harnesses and safety gear, a new safety raft, and new arrangements for down wind sailing etc etc etc. I made and fitted another bookcase, I joined the Cruising Association and spent some time in the library at the headquarters at St Katherine’s Dock looking at the sailing logs of other members who had made Atlantic crossing and so on until I was confident that I had done all I could to ensure the safety of my two friends who were going to join me and that the boat was as sound as I could make her.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a06b37a266d59d3e207bcaa99bf8e6c412ebf91c57e6d516e07921950504b244.jpg

    1. The government has planned for this. It’s not built new power stations, mothballed older ones and removed storage facilities.

      They didn’t do that by accident, it was deliberate!

    1. Excellent, another one that so far I have failed to over-winter. But your plant is the proof that one should never give up!

      1. Needs to be indoors (greenhouse/shed) during winter.

        Much much easier to propagate than we imagined.

    3. Talk about blowing your own trumpet!

      I repotted my sole Bird of Paradise plant (having given 5 away earlier and shortly before I found out Waitrose were flogging them at £125 each) and thought in so doing I had executed it. However, it recently put forth some new leaves and what looks like a new flower stem so fingers crossed!

  41. Talking of closed minds – the Project Fear department at The Grimes today shows a bit of cliff falling into the sea at Sidmouth.

    Caused by “extreme heat”…. Not: natural erosion; slight earth tremble; one of those thing that has been happening these last 4 billion years….

    1. At least it didn’t catch on fire.

      Edit….Hang on back to reality……it wasn’t set alight.

    2. Sidmouth is the most boring place. Went there for a week when I was about 14. The best thing was the drunken waiter in the cheesy hotel; creased my brother and me up. If he made it to lunch it was a good day!

      1. I should think it was boring for a 14 year old. You might view it differently now. I like the Spanish style balconies.

    1. Get the impression that supposed ‘Climate Emergency’ is not weighing heavily on his mind!

    1. I think they already have more brains in bags than you could poke a stick at.
      Whitney Webb.

    2. No need to hand it to them, Rik, they’ve brainwashed most of the population and we are rendered helpless.

  44. Good afternoon all. Late on parade today. I was doing some research to find inexpensive accommodation for a holiday break at the end of the month. Now to do a bit of reading and various chores before an early supper and this evening’s film, which is THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY’S with Norman Wisdom, Bert Lahr (the Cowardly Lion in THE WIZARD OF OZ) and with Britt Ekland, Harry Andrews and Jason Robards.

  45. Going to the dentist this afternoon – for 20 minutes of torture with the hygenist and then a check-up. At least my teeth are better than the ones we saw on last night’s noos.

    2. if your hygienist is a man as he leans over grab his scrotum. Smile sweetly and say ‘now we are not going to hurt each other are we’…

        2. Ah the one who did “Hard Lovin’ Man” ? How did it start – “break my ba**s back with hard lovin’…” (acksherly I had the LP).

      2. Actually she’s a woman called Emma and I’ve been going to her for years. She’s fine but I can’t say I enjoy it!

  46. From health to transport to crime, our systems are failing us – why do we stand by and accept it? 9 August 2022.

    Cancelled flights and dentist shortages used to be unthinkable – when the sun stops shining, the national mood will turn.

    What, I wonder, is the tipping point? Why do we accept that so many basic but fundamental systems that we need to live decent lives are so broken down? Are we lobsters being boiled slowly to death, talking about “the cost of living crisis” while understanding that no one will do anything radical enough to change this?

    This ‘learned helplessness”, where we are passengers on a journey not of our choosing, is in part a post-pandemic reaction too. The virus was something that we could not control. The only thing we could actively do was comply by isolating and withdrawing. Most of us did comply. We accepted restrictions, delays, cancellations, shortages and setbacks that were once unthinkable.

    The delusion that we would spring back to “normal” is just that. The delusion that Brexit would bring us nothing but freedom is collapsing. The delusion that our political class, now with its sovereign power, would somehow improve the lives of ordinary folk is well and truly shattered. Those in power look totally ineffectual and powerless as they promise little more than bungs. Britain’s status is smaller on the world stage than ever before.

    Well because there is absolutely nothing we can do! What we are seeing is not a single crisis but the collapse of an entire Social System brought about by the failed policies of Cultural Marxism. It will be as profound as the one that brought the old Soviet Union to an end and for the same reasons. An utter lack of belief that the system has any purpose other than keeping the Elites in comfortable and well paid jobs. This is not to say the end is coming tomorrow. They can spin it out for a good few years yet but the writing is on the wall.

    Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2022/08/09/health-transport-crime-systems-failing-us-why-do-stand-accept/

    1. The first year of lock down- the weather was like this; like an extended holiday so there wasn’t much moaning even though the pubs were shut and restrictions were in place. I wonder if people would have gone along with it all so readily if it had been a wet and chilly summer.

      1. Quite agree. Plus the fact that HMG – I mean WE paid everyone 80% salary to STAY AT HOME (work from home) – all nudges us towards the universal credit/great reset. Coronovirus couldn’t have “come along” at a better moment! Almost as if it were planned!

        1. Yes, strange coincidence, that. In fact strange coincidences seem to be increasing exponentially with the influence of WEF and WHO. WHO’d have thunk it?

          ed. I meant exponentially, rather than the original expedentially, but on second thoughts both apply.

    2. 354988+ up ticks,

      Afternoon AS,

      Why do we stand by and accept it ?

      Why ?

      For the good of the “party” of course.

      Vote tory (ino) keep out lab,

      it is a bloody proven .coalition.

    4. I haven’t heard many critics of the Tories say they were against the madness of lockdown, the biggest single reason for the economic collapse. More than 70% of the population, right across the political spectrum, were in favour of it. All you hear is “Brexit did this”.

      1. 354988+ up ticks,

        Afternoon VW,
        They lost four initially when they attempted to lick their arse’s and broke their necks,

  48. Hello Plum
    Hope to welcome you back very soon. x

    Wordle 416 4/6

    ⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛
    ⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛
    🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Daily Quordle 197

    5️⃣7️⃣
    8️⃣9️⃣

    1. Par Four for me too.

      Wordle 416 4/6
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Wordle 416 4/6

        I could have had it in two if I had just gone for the right word of the three options… Blast!

        🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
        🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
        🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. The rescue Newfie has been eating Mongo’s food so we’ve doubled his up. He was underweight and had probably had a poor diet. Well, likely ‘dog food’ whereas Mongo’s fed ‘Human food’ pasta, vegetables – a carrot, broccoli, (both small amounts, unncooked cauliflour, chicken tuna or salmon and his bone meal biscuits.

      However once he has eaten he goes back to Mongo’s bed and hides around the corners. I’m wondering if he’s been hit, or if he is frightened he’ll be taken and away and is hiding, hoping we won’t notice him.

      I spent a while with him today just sitting there with my book and he seemed to tolerate me, but if I do that with Mongs he’ll be sat across my lap or beside me. The little fellow is horribly timid. We were planning puppy classes but decided against it, and are bringing over a very well behaved Labrador as a socialiser.

      1. You know what you are doing. Just treat him the same as Mongo and he will come round. Some dogs are introverts apparently.

      2. Poppie is given human food: chicken, beef, veg – carrots, broccoli, cabbage, sweet potato. Fish doesn’t seem to agree with her. She also has kibbles she can nibble on when she’s feeling peckish.

        I have read that it can take a long while for a rescue dog to settle in, it seems to happen when the dog realises it is permanently home, that it has a place there and isn’t going to be moved on. It can take months before that light bulb switches on. I think the labrador as socialiser is a good idea to show him the ropes. An elderly gentleman in the village has acquired a rescue dog from Romania, it was terribly shy and then one day, him having spurned Poppie’s advances to play, Poppie sat down with her back towards him and thus non-threatening, he suddenly turned round and wagged his tail, ears up and for all the world he seemed to be saying ‘come on then, let’s play!’ and they had a little run round together. His little dog is improving all the time now, but it has taken several months to get to this point.

        1. I’ve had Oscar 14 months and, although he’s come a long way, he’s still not 100%. I reckon it will take a few years. He reverted to type the other day and caught hold of my trouser leg. Fortunately, it didn’t amount to anything and he let go when I said, “NO! Don’t do that!”

          1. Perhaps the older the dog, the longer it takes. It may seem as if you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, it just takes more time (and possibly more patience). The Romanian rescue dog I mentioned in reply to Wibbling was taken for a walk by his son and daughter-in-law – after about 100 yards into the walk he got himself out of his harness and dashed back home. His temporary walkers returned to collect him and start again, and the little dog went for them (i.e. he snapped at them). We can only think he thought he was being taken away from the person he regarded as his rescuer and the security of his home, and he was having none of it. He told them in the only way he knew how.

            It does sound as though you are getting there with Oscar, when you look back over the months you probably see an improvement in his demeanour?

          2. He is definitely calmer and doesn’t flinch as often when I stroke his head. I am trying to desensitise him.

      3. You are just what that poor little rescue dog needs – thank goodness he found you! xxx

      4. Conners knows how that works. He seems to have turned his Oscar around rather nicely.

        1. That’s kind of you to say so. Oscar has made giant strides (and he now has a little brother to look after).

  50. 354988+ up ticks,

    Is America Becoming a Banana Republic?’ Farage Expresses ‘Shock’ at ‘Appalling’ Raid on Trump’s Home

    May one ask, does everything this farage chap touches turn to gold ?

    1. Farage was sometimes right and often wrong.

      His greatest error was in allowing Johnson’s remainer MPs to be unchallenged by Brexit Party candidates in the last general election. This left far too many Conservative Party remainers still in parliament and has meant that Parliament, the civil service and Johnson himself have been able to thwart Brexit rather than make sure it was successful. If Northern Ireland, for example, is still under the EU’s control three months after Adultera Truss becomes PM then the Conservative Party will probably be finished for ever.

      1. 354988+ up ticks,

        Evening R,

        Then she can claim one major success
        in destroying a ersatz, phony, tory (ino)
        facade party.

        The muslim /paedophiles will, in time, take care of labour

      2. 355005+ up ticks,

        Morning R,

        In the case of “nige” there is NO excuse for orchestrated treachery.

  51. https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fcolumnists%2F2022%2F08%2F09%2Fhealth-transport-crime-systems-failing-us-why-do-stand-accept%2F

    We accept them because they’re so expensive we have no choice NOT to use them. Only this morning some daft bint demanded more money to resolve the NHS waiting lists issue. The solution is not more money. You waste what you’re given. The solution is for you to be more efficient, make better use of resources and to work harder getting more done.

    Which means you have to exist in a market, not the state. You really, really won’t like that.

    There’s also the infuriating fact that ‘the blob’ have imported 20 million plus breeding wasters.

    1. Firing half the management would be a start. They are empire building because they think they are untouchable.

      1. We have NHS trusts, the monolithic failure that is the department for health, local boards, hospital managers and goodness knows how many layers of management inside the thing.

        Half the staff are not healthcare workers and it’s simply not fit for purpose.

      2. They might be empire building because they are frrightened that they are not untouchable, and want an empire in order to make themselves untouchable – they think.

    3. Govt departments are useless; I accidentally pressed the wrong option on a DWP call and the woman said she couldn’t deal with it nor could she transfer me, I’d have to ring and press the right option. I rang my insurer and the woman said she couldn’t deal with it, but she’d put me through to the right department, which she did.

  52. https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fcolumnists%2F2022%2F08%2F09%2Fhealth-transport-crime-systems-failing-us-why-do-stand-accept%2F

    We accept them because they’re so expensive we have no choice NOT to use them. Only this morning some daft bint demanded more money to resolve the NHS waiting lists issue. The solution is not more money. You waste what you’re given. The solution is for you to be more efficient, make better use of resources and to work harder getting more done.

    Which means you have to exist in a market, not the state. You really, really won’t like that.

    There’s also the infuriating fact that ‘the blob’ have imported 20 million plus breeding wasters.

  53. Some 1500 asylum seekers were set to be housed in the former RAF base at Linton on Ouse amid massive opposition from residents and local politicians.

    But on Tuesday Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he has “withdrawn” the offer for the disused North Yorkshire RAF base to be used to house asylum seekers.

    https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/politics/linton-on-ouse-planned-asylum-seeker-centre-scrapped-as-defence-secretary-says-he-has-withdrawn-the-site-from-home-office-3798928

          2. I’m assuming there’s a very hospitable local guide there to show them the local delights?

          4. Ha ! They don’t even let people from Portsmouth settle there. No one under the age of 50 is allowed.

          2. I wouldn’t say they are exactly gluttons; more like järv, quickhatches, mountain devils, skunk-bears, carcajous or wolverines.

    3. Didn’t come up to scratch, I suspect, because they don’t take any notice of what the locals think. 4* and above only please, for the next offering.

    1. From the reports I’ve seen, it would appear that no one [that well known chap] actually authorised the raid!?

  56. Quacko call received and I am heading into the sunshine. Good news for me,but maybe upsetting for some of you- I am going to be alive a bit longer;-)) Pauses for wicked laughter…..

      1. Yes, I shall be around to torment people like Sos for some time to come……hee-haw!

  57. The Met office say it will be 30C on Thusday and Friday and have issued an amber warning for it. I just do not understand why.In my time in Germany we has summers of over 40c and no one even said anything about it . We are losing it in Britain.

    1. Yesterday in the children’s playground Mums were slathering their offspring with suntan lotion – a substance that wasn’t readily available in my home during the school holidays when I was a child…

      1. They are trying to avoid the risks of sun induced skin cancer that so many of our generation now experience.

        1. I too was frequently sunburnt in my childhood, jgf; the calamine lotion did SFA to relieve it!

    2. The more people are kept frightened the easier they are to control, the less responsibility for their lives they’re required to take.

      Then you have to factor in the lie of ‘climate change’. The more you make of the weather, the more weak people will conflate the issues. The more those are mentioned together the more people will think it’s real rather than the earth being a few mm closer to the sun.

    4. We have not had a day in the last 13 where the temperature has not passed 30° and don’t expect one for another 4 days, when rain is forecast.

      Most of those have been/will be mid to high 30’s and around the pool we’ve been well over 40° due to the heat rising from the paving.

  58. There’s a real “smart city of the future” rising at White City on that part of the 1908 Olympic site not occupied by Westfield shopping mall. I was curious about the prices so looked it up.
    https://landgah.com/scheme/the-acer-apartments-at-white-city/?gclid=CjwKCAjwi8iXBhBeEiwAKbUofULmyNRT5jGAkdHdxc4DLnsLta2UYr4MSHIEGg5Q92MucOcTpn4tehoCpm0QAvD_BwE
    It’s billed as “affordable housing” but the blurb on the website includes…
    Affordability guidance for the various apartment types below:
    Studio minimum income £59,311 & maximum income £73,556.
    1 bed minimum income £70,662 & maximum £78,100.
    2 bed minimum income £75,559 & maximum £78,100.
    Also, the rates spreadsheet has several categories marked “Reserved”. Reserved for whom?

    2. I guess the housing is ‘affordable’ if a person or a couple can demonstrate those levels of income whether the accommodation is desirable is another question

        2. But just think of the energy bill savings! Couple of candles a week should do the trick!

    3. When I was at school I competed on the 440 yard track there and also on the Crystal Palace tartan track ,not long after it opened, and for a very brief time was part of a 4×400 relay team that held an age group track record, because so very few events had been held there at that stage.

  59. We were joined (eventually – IT never their strong point) on a Zoom with old friends who live in Lunnon. We drivel on for an hour every couple of months. Socialists of the Corbyn flavour…and very, very well off – as such people so often are.

    Anyway – we got on to handwriting and I mentioned that I had the full set of “Writing and Writing Patterns” by Marion Richardson – which was all the rage in the 1940s when I were nobbut a lad. Neither chap had heard of it. It is so familiar to me (and to the MR, as a teacher of English) that I wondered whether the books had any value. There are two on Ebay. One for £99.90 – the other for £2.50….

    So if any NoTTLer wants to give something useful to a young person to learn them to right proper – The whole kit (and caboodle) are available for £50 – buyer collects…!

  61. Ref JN’s post below – my e-mail inbox has just been swamped by “advice” from my insurance company about how to cope with the “new heatwave…”

    Here is a flavour…

    “Mr Thomas, there’s a lot to love about a long, hot summer. But with reports of another heatwave on the way, there’s more to think about than just that leisurely drive to the beach or soaking up the sun in the garden. A hot, dry, sunny spell can create a perfect storm of unfortunate events – but just one thing could be enough to break the chain.

    I just don’t know how I would have coped – apart from setting fire to the adjoining countryside, burning down the house and dying from heat exhaustion.

    2. From RT, for balance.
      Russian military comments on blasts in Crimea
      Explosions at the Saki airfield were caused by the detonation of aviation munitions, defense ministry has claimed
      Russian military comments on blasts in Crimea
      Russia’s Defense Ministry has released an official statement on the explosions at the Saki military airfield on the Crimean Peninsula, explaining that the incident was caused by the detonation of aviation munitions stored at the site.

      The blasts occurred near the city of Novofedorovka on Tuesday afternoon, with locals reporting hearing several explosions coming from the airfield and sharing videos online showing smoke coming from the area. According to eyewitnesses, the blasts had knocked out the windows in houses near the airfield.

      Moscow has stated that no one has been injured in the explosion and that none of the aviation equipment at the airfield was damaged by the blasts.

      “Measures are being taken to extinguish the fire and find out the causes of the explosion. According to a report from the site, there was no fire impact on the bunded ammunition storage area at the airfield,” the Defense Ministry said.

      Local authorities have said that all necessary measures have been strengthened to ensure the safety of infrastructure facilities and of the population near the airfield.

      Screenshot from a video purporting to show the incident https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e60b33ffba52fffe9bde1fbafa6cf7b7fc51e34db531e857945b69f006f5449.png

      2. Always a good idea to blow up your own munitions. Stops them falling into the wrong hands…..

      3. To be fair to the DM, most of that is also in their reporting.
        It’s only one Ukraniacrazy claiming responsibility.

        However, Viktor Andrusiv, a political scientist and former adviser to Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, wrote on the Telegram: ‘As you can understand – missiles with a range of 200-300km are already in service with us and are being used in our country.

        ‘The explosions… today at the airfield in Novofedorivka in Crimea, are public proof of this.’

    3. So much for the promises not to attack targets in Russia! There will be a response to this!

      1. The Russians have claimed it wasn’t due to an attack, so if they do respond I don’t think it will be direct.
        Most of the International community regard Crimea as Ukrainian.

  65. The bloody truth about the Benin bronzes. Spiked. 9 August 2022.

    Why is Britain making reparations to the heirs of slave owners?

    Earlier this year, St Paul’s Cathedral displayed a flattering effigy of the Oba of Benin. And last year Jesus College, Cambridge solemnly presented a bronze statuette to his descendants. This weekend’s Sunday Times reported that the Horniman Museum in London – having consulted local schoolchildren, among others – is to repatriate 72 Benin artefacts. Other museums, including the Pitt Rivers in Oxford and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, are set on doing the same, as are museums in Germany and France.

    Nowhere have I seen a mention – certainly there is not a whisper in the Sunday Times report – of the fact that Benin was a hyper-violent, slave-raiding, slave-owning and slave-killing society. Slaves were regularly sacrificed, commonly by being buried alive. This ended in 1897, after a British expedition captured Benin and found mutilated slaves dying in agony. The slave trade was stopped and the slaves were freed. Yet The Sunday Times considers this ‘one of the darkest [episodes] in British colonial history’.

    The delusions of the Elites. Most of these bronzes will appear on the Black Market shortly.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/09/the-bloody-truth-about-the-benin-bronzes/

    3. “Beware and take care of the Bight of Benin. There’s one comes out for forty goes in.”

  66. Rumour has it that the security services that raided Trumps house and broke into his safe only found Obama’s birth certificate

      1. Just out of interest why if it is a British protectorate would the second doctor sign using the US system of dating i.e month /day /year?

  67. That’s me for this hot day. Just done the watering. Hard work. The heart-breaking aspect is having to ignore the shrubs etc that are dying of thirst. One just hopes that SOME of them will recover when – eventually – the rain comes. We have about 50 hydrangeas – half of which are half-dead.

    Anyway – have a jolly evening – if you can.

    A demain.

  68. The French electricity company EDF has been “asked “to offer lower prices by the State. In consequence EDF are taking their government to court to ask for compensation amounting to €8 billion. That’s a bit like the French government suing itself. All good fun. (On the other hand, EDF may increase their prices to the UK.)

  70. OT

    Forget China & Taiwan, Russia & Ukraine and EUrocrapery.

    Watch out for the Second American Civil* War …

    *Twon’t be

    1. There are times when I think that that is exactly what the Democrats seek, and along racial lines.

    1. Deja-flu: China sounds alarm as 35 people fall ill with ‘newly identified’ Langya virus that is thought to have jumped from shrews

      Cunning Langyasts those Chinese

  72. A bit of heat, a bit of rain, some cold weather, some wind…..panic, panic in UK.
    What would happen if a major hurricane swept in? And don’t mention that one some years ago- I saw the results of that. Trees down and a few green houses smashed. Any snowfall is predicted as “snowmageddon”- even if only half an inch is forecast.
    It is just weather- it is not climate change. Can you imagine the chaos if something really serious headed this way? Oh yes, another excuse for a lock down.

    1. Fish and chips in our local costs about £8. Thats def a luxury compared with beans on toast, about 80p

  75. Well, Stumpy Steyn has lost my respect. Anyone who can take Michelle Bachman seriously cannot himself be taken seriously. She’s nuts and a religious fanatic. Her performance at a presidential debate some years ago was one of the most embarrassing things I have ever seen.

  76. Evening, all. I may not be here long – my computer’s health problems, rather than mine.

  77. Have been listening to the Mozart Prom but am going to pause it and head to bed.
    Sleep well Y’all.

Comments are closed.