Thursday 8 September: Can voters have confidence in Liz Truss’s Cabinet of friends and allies?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

867 thoughts on “Thursday 8 September: Can voters have confidence in Liz Truss’s Cabinet of friends and allies?”

  4. Bonjour as they say in Germany.

    I am vaguely impressed that she has chosen an explicit anti-abortionist as deputy. Some other interesting faces – Badenoch, Braveman,

    Are any white?

    Joking. I really don’t care anyway. As long as she doesn’t come out with “diversity is our strength” drivel and then miss penalties.

  5. Morning, all Y’all.
    Rest of the week off work to finish the harvest & hopefully the painting outside. Visit to the Apiarists shop for bee equipment this afternoon… including queen paint!

      1. There is a colour of the year that you dab on the back of the queen bee, so you can easily spot her in the crowded hive, and know how old she is. Once she’s getting past it, and if the hive haven’t done something about it (they often do), you squish her and a new queen is made.
        Harsh, eh?

        2. “Squish the Queen!” It does have a certain ring to it. It may appeal to anarchists as well as apiarists.

  6. ‘Morning, Peeps, from a soggy sarf coast – thank goodness.  And there’s plenty more on its way.

    Not the leading letter today:

    SIR – I am aghast at the letters and articles lauding Boris Johnson.

    He lied, and failed to help the poor and needy of this country. We became a laughing stock.

    If people think his Covid strategy and Brexit agreement are achievements for which he should be remembered, then this country is in a very sorry state.

    Alan Lloyd
    Liverpool

    I, too, am aghast Alan Lloyd.  If he was an example of a good PM then something is very wrong.   I think elements of the media have taken leave of their senses in lamenting Johnson’s demise.

  7. SIR – Encouraging as it is to see greater diversity in some ways in the new Cabinet (report, September 7), there is a clear impression of a lack of cognitive diversity, as Liz Truss has chosen to surround herself with like-minded friends and allies.

    The words “purge” and “clear-out” have cropped up extensively, and it is disheartening – while the country suffers, having endured weeks of government stagnation and self-indulgence by the Conservatives – to see the new Prime Minister use these critical appointments to settle scores and reward support rather than in the interests of the country.

    Confidence in government and politics is at an all-time low, and this behaviour does nothing to restore it.

    Mark Mortimer
    Blandford, Dorset

    Believe it or not this is the leading letter.   Mr Mortimer should at least give the new PM a chance – she was only appointed 48 hours ago!    If her performance in the bear-pit of PMQs yesterday is any guide she will be a distinct improvement on her predecessor, who usually resorted to shouting out endless ‘tractor stats’ in response to a question he had no intention of addressing.

    1. Yes, it’s beginning to irritate me.
      No wonder the standard of those going into politics is so low.
      It’s become a vicious circle.

    1. Yes, it is interesting, but there’s a large part of Theresa Coffey’s life upon which it does not touch, but which I think has hurt her deeply and shapes her reaction to the world. I mean that she isn’t the kind of slim, beautiful, successful person that she has actively sought out in life.
      Before she got her PhD from another university, she dropped out of Oxford. Incidentally, she hasn’t changed at all since then – she looked exactly the same, and had the same hairstyle and clothes.
      Nothing in any of that speaks against her. But I suspect that her own health issues may have influenced her votes for draconian and unnecessary intervention during the covid pandemic. Her personal issues certainly influenced her public intervention in the May/Leadsom vote, while May remained silent and let her followers do the dirty work for her.
      I just can’t rid myself of the feeling that depending on Coffey to do the right thing is likely to result in disappointment.

  9. How Russia has weaponised the energy crisis. Spiked 8 September 2022.

    So there you have it. Russia has effectively sanctioned the West in retaliation for the West’s own sanctions.

    There is a further, miserable irony to this turn of events. The G7’s decision to try to cap Russian oil, which has now prompted Russia to finally turn off the gas, was largely driven by the failure of the Western sanctions regime itself. The regime that was meant to punish Russia has, in part, benefitted it.

    No sanctions regime has ever resulted in the overthrow of the government targeted. They have mostly made the lives of its ordinary citizens more difficult and in some cases hellish. One is minded of the Iraq program and the deaths of tens of thousands of children from starvation; something Madeline Albright described as a price worth paying. This time it appears to be actually counterproductive and the Energy Crisis is only a part of it. To implement the sanctions the United States and its Allies have abandoned the Rule of Law and Natural Justice and sacrificed the sanctity of Foreign Holdings by seizing Russia’s currency reserves. These are long term negatives that will almost certainly result in the end of the Dollar Hegemony. Who after all wishes to deposit their cash where it may be seized when the US is miffed at you? Measures are already underway in the BRIC’S countries to replace it and introduce a more equitable system. Anything that leads to a multi-polar world is to be welcomed since the alternative is a Globalist Tyranny.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/08/how-russia-has-weaponised-the-energy-crisis/

    1. Morning Bob; morning, all. Been raining on and off all night here, and my head says it won’t be stopping any time soon. I shall abandon my plans to get my washing done, and go and insert myself down mediaeval sewers in Exeter instead.

  12. SIR – Is it perhaps time for an incoming administration to finally grasp the 
NHS nettle?

    The ability of any government to continue funding this unwieldy megalith can no longer be sustained. How many more billions are to be set aside to keep it afloat?

    Surely Britain needs to adopt a system such as the Australian Medicare, where people pay a small percentage of their income towards future medical requirements. Or the German Krankenkasse system, one of the oldest in the world.

    The current cost of the NHS is well over £120 billion a year and is increased annually, sometimes biannually. Even the health unions must recognise that it can’t go on like this for much longer. But who will be brave enough to risk everlasting damnation by bringing in a more efficient and cost-effective system?

    Alan F Judge
    Deeping St James, Lincolnshire

    I couldn’t agree more, Mr Judge, but reforming the NHS will surely require a full term to achieve.   However, the next General Election has to be held no later than January 2025 and, contrary to the old saying that ‘a week in politics is a long time’ it is in fact rushing towards us, given that no party in its right mind would want to leave it that late with Christmas intervening.  If it is autumn ’24 then it’s even closer.  Let us hope also that Liz Truss doesn’t want to ‘do a Maybot’ and squander a majority, because we all know how that ended.

    1. It’s a great suggestion, but does ANYTHING about Liz Truss and the collection of wets and mediocrities that she has assembled in her “Cabinet”* (Badenoch and Braverman honourably excluded) suggest that she has the courage to grasp any sort of nettle?

      *Not saying they aren’t grasping, mind you.

  14. SIR – It is disingenuous of the Prime Minister to lay the blame for Britain’s energy crisis at Vladimir Putin’s door.

    This crisis has been a long time in the making. Contributory factors have been a failed nuclear energy policy, a blinkered decision to stop developing our domestic oil and gas reserves, an obsession with net zero targets, a crumbling in the face of minority opposition to fracking, and an over-reliance on imported energy to make up for our domestic failings.

    Mr Putin has only played a role in the last of these. The remaining responsibility is ours, and it is for the Government to set this right – and soon.

    Christopher Wilton
    Petersfield, Hampshire

    Yes, it was indeed the last straw, Mr Wilton.  If you really expected Johnson to accept any part of the blame then all I can say is that you haven’t been paying attention!

    1. Good morning, all. Rain overnight by the condition of the patio and the sky is starting to brighten.

      Too, too true, Mr Wilton. However, do not expect even an iota of contrition from the political class. If Truss should back off from the abyss of ‘Net Zero’ her decision will likely be couched in terms long in words and yet short of the details necessary for the idea to be put out of its, and especially our, misery.

  16. SIR – I agree with Jos Binns’s letter (September 7) outlining a German proposal for energy, whereby all consumers would be entitled to a standard amount of power at a cheap rate, with usage above that charged at nearer the market rate.

    In France the peak-time usage charge is within 10 per cent of what I’m paying here, but the off-peak charge is half that rate. Similarly, in Spain, there are multiple rates, with the cheapest on Saturday and Sunday.

    As my energy bill already counts the days in order to calculate the standing charge, and caters for multiple tariffs if there’s a change in price mid-quarter, we could relatively easily introduce a basic cheap-rate allowance – equal to, say, 8kWh per day – then charge a premium on usage above that rate.

    This approach would not subsidise wealthy or profligate users. Nor would it require the smart meter rollout to be completed, as it could be achieved using the current metering system.

    Keith Appleyard
    West Wickham, Kent

    This is definitely food for thought. What do other Nottlrs think?

    2. There is no such thing as a free lunch.
      This is all about power and control.
      Once government starts using taxation and borrowing to subsidise, then market forces will never bring that price down again.

      1. Government fcuks up everything it touches, and should butt out & NOT MESS! Markets will sort it out.

        1. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”; oh, for the days of Ronnie and Maggie.

    3. The more money they print, the faster the fiat currencies will crash. They want the corrupt old edifices to totter on until the CBDC is ready to launch.

          1. Thank you, kind Sir. I still have no idea what this means. We have the Bank of England, is the Central Bank the equivalent in the USA? And is Digital Currency using your credit/debit card instead of paper/plastic money?

          2. Oi. I haven’t transitioned yet, Elsie!

            “Gold is money. Everything else is debt” – JP Morgan in 1912.
            Since we came off the gold standard and took silver out of our coins, our money has basically been debt masquerading as money. The bank of England creates it out of thin air on a computer when some person or company applies to a bank for a loan.
            But because of the link with real money from the old days, people still have the right to convert those numbers on a computer into physical coins and notes. These things have no intrinsic value, but they work because people accept them as money.
            Cash can be used anonymously, so it guarantees people’s privacy. Because people have the option of taking their money out as cash, the BoE can’t impose negative interest rates on your bank a/c, because clearly if they started deducting money from your a/c, you’d just take it all out and hide it under your mattress.

            The financial system (which owns the government, by the way) hates cash, which they regard as an unnecessary expense that restricts their ability to control the masses.

            A CBDC is fundamentally different from the current system.
            It will be blockchain, like Bitcoin, but improved and faster. There will be no cash option, which means no privacy, and no safeguard against negative interest rates. It will be programmeable, which means that they can add rules to what you can spend.
            Examples might be:
            – if you don’t spend any government handout by the end of the month, any remaining credit in your a/c disappears – this would be to encourage consumption to keep the economy flowing.
            – they can apply a negative interest rate, so they take a certain % every month
            – you might be assigned a “carbon allowance” on “climate unfriendly” products like meat, eggs, dairy products, petrol etc, and your CBDC card simply won’t allow you to purchase these things beyond a certain limit.
            – citizens might be forbidden altogether from buying certain things, eg precious metals.
            – a social credit system would analyse all your spending and use it to reward or punish you.

            CBDCs are not money and will never be money even if backed by gold or commodities (a ruse that the govt might try!), they are basically just digital food stamps that make people totally dependent upon the state.
            Use cash as much as you can!

    4. Ever complex systems developed to try and defeat market forces. And these measures deal with just the energy problem, what about fertiliser and the looming food crisis. Will food be capped! No one has suggested getting to the root of the immediate problem, sorting out Ukraine.

      1. We should distance ourselves from every aspect of the Ukraine debacle. We should apologise to Russia and institute friendly relations.

    5. The government should introduce resale price maintenance on energy. Rather than tax business profits after the event, the profits should curtailed. The cost of producing and delivering energy to businesses and homes has not gone up. Price rises are market manipulation.

      1. Unfortunately that’s unlikely to happen, what with gung ho untrustworthy leading the attack against Russia. The U.K. seems anxious to do USA’s dirty work for them, sending money and munitions and goodness knows what else. And, of course, all the ridiculous sanctions” are doing is damage to us.

    6. I’d like to see the scrapping of VAT (it’s an EU tax, why is it still there?) and the green levy.

        1. If that’s true, it’s good news. I have given up watching TV or reading the MSM, hence my ignorance of this. I’ve been out today trying to help a friend sort out her father’s electricity bill. His smart meter is saying he has used £36 worth of electricity in the past month and the company is going to raise his direct debit to nearly £300 a month!

  17. OT – I do not care for Miguel Portaloo – and I found his railway progs tedious, repetitive and, frankly, stupid.

    However – his four part series on the Pyrenees is surprisingly good. I know that a lot of it is fake – he is filmed walking then gets in a car etc etc. But for once, he actually seems interested in what he is doing. And the scenery is stunning!

    1. ‘Morning, Bill. I agree – he seems to have moved up a notch or two. What struck me was the absence of any other human beings undertaking the same ‘walk’. It was also encouraging to see him indulging in very few stunts like what he undertakes in his railways series. Portaloo has done good this time!

    2. I quite enjoyed his railway travelogues. He comes across with charm. Unlike some people i could mention. :o)

      Good morning.

      1. I like his taste in clothes. He carries them off well. A walk along Princes’ Street in Edinburgh in the 60s and 70s was a delight. People nicely dressed and the fair sex in wonderful coloured dresses and frocks. (You always met someone you knew.)
        Now it is a third world bazaar and the clothes are dull at best, atrociously so at worst. An observation replicated across the country.

          1. We loved that shop. I have silk ties bought in sales for very small sums (Fornasetti!). We have the super expensive Eva-Trio pots and pans. I bought one every year in the sale at one-third off. We have one-litre Parfait jars that came filled with real Dijon mustard for less than a fiver. A walk around the Food Hall was Paradise. The selection of clothing for ladies, and wives, was extensive, good quality and excellent taste. There was a barber’s shop. and a very good cafe…
            It was the last remaining family-owned department store in Europe. After many changes of ownership, Frasers, Chinese… it now seems to be destined to be a hotel.

        2. I agree, although it amuses me that his overnight stays in hotels require not one additional item of clothing! And no toiletries either. Clever trick if you can pull it off…

      3. We enjoy his being ‘made’ to join in various ethnic dances.
        You just wait for it. Even though MP and his crew know it’s fixed, you can feel them enjoying the joke.
        The hoofing Portaloo makes a plank look like Nureyev.

    3. Good job for helicopters eh Bill
      I doubt if he actually did much walking.
      But it’s lovely to see what the average person on the planet will never have the opportunity to witness.
      A Superb part of Europe.

  19. From the DT.  I really, really would love to believe that they really will do it this time:

    New Culture Secretary wants to scrap the BBC licence fee

    Newly-appointed Cabinet minister accused the corporation of failing older viewers and criticised presenters’ salaries in a column in 2019

    ByAnita Singh, ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR 7 September 2022 • 7:00pm

    The new Culture Secretary is set to take on the BBC after making clear that she wants to see the licence fee scrapped.

    Michelle Donelan has also accused the corporation of failing older viewers, opposed the decision to collect licence fee money from the over-75s, and criticised the huge salaries paid to BBC presenters and executives.

    In a column for her local newspaper in 2019, Ms Donelan wrote: “I was outraged by the BBC’s decision to revoke free TV licences for the over-75s.

    “Personally, I think the licence fee is an unfair tax and should be scrapped altogether but that is a different debate.

    “The BBC have acted appallingly and I am determined to do everything in my power to change their mind.”

    Ms Donelan launched a petition to reverse the over-75s decision, which she shared via Facebook and her local newspaper, the Melksham Independent News.

    The MP for Chippenham is the 11th Tory culture secretary in the past 12 years, and succeeds Nadine Dorries.

    BBC ‘shirking obligation to older viewers’

    In her column, Ms Donelan continued: “I am so very disappointed that the BBC has now abdicated its responsibility to over-75s, especially as BBC salaries have skyrocketed since 2015 with a huge number of BBC employees earning six- or seven-figure salaries funded by the licence fee!

    “The BBC are shirking their obligation to its older viewers, many of whom have been their most loyal viewers and have paid the full price for TV licences for years.”

    She said it was “perfectly within the BBC’s budget” to retain the free over-75s concession without programming adjustments and without negatively affecting the quality of content”.

    A Government White Paper on the future of broadcasting stated that “there are clear challenges on the horizon to the sustainability of the licence fee” as fewer people choose to watch live television.

    Ms Donelan holds the distinction of being the shortest-serving Cabinet member in British history, resigning from her role as Education Secretary less than 36 hours after her appointment by Boris Johnson.

    She has been a member of Parliament since 2015 and previously worked in marketing for The History Channel and WWE wrestling.

    The BTL posters just can’t contain their enthusism for the licence fee (sarc):

    Claude Tucker1 HR AGO

    I watch the television but don’t watch the BBC, so why am I legally obliged to pay for it.

    I don’t have to pay Waitrose to shop in Aldi’s, so why should I have to pay El Beba to watch or listen to their Lefty propaganda.

    Lord Inso Much-as1 HR AGO

    Good news. Please go ahead and destroy the lefty woke anti-British monster

    Pa Lewis1 HR AGO

    The BBC destroyed itself by tying itself to the left then constant brain washing about climate change and finally ridiculous diversity and wokeness. It is finished. Someone in charge please get rid of its festering body and start afresh.

    Soren Lorenson1 HR AGO

    A small national broadcaster with a single channel devoted to the stuff that is not commercially viable and funded by tax. Everything else on subscription. Let’s see if the UKs diverse population is prepared to pay for its diversity obcessed programming.

    mike flynn28 MIN AGO

    So please, just get rid of the thing. Alot of our problems at the moment are due their virtue signalling tripe. Tripe zero. Gender tripe. Immigration tripe

    Toby Jug18 MIN AGO

    I bet the BBC were cheering when Dorries, who wanted to abolish the licence fee, was sacked . And now her replacement wants to abolish it too! Brilliant news!

      1. I suspect that “I’m going to abolish the licence fee” is going to be said by every new Culture secretary, and probably feature on every Tory manifesto until enough voters realise that they are never going to do it.

      1. Why does the BBC, a non-competitive, non-commercial enterprise feel that it is appropriate to pay any of its employees a six figure salary? The universities and colleges are churning out people with degrees in journalism, media studies and the like. They would all be very happy yo work for £40k. Moreover, I wonder how much of BBC’s output has been produced in house? From the credits at the end of programmes much seems to be produced for them, often commissioned by the BBC from production companies owned by former employees. Presumably with comfortable profit margins all round.
        Nice work if you can get it and many do.

      2. You take public money the public are entitled to see how it’s being spent.
        No sympathy whatsoever.

    3. Michelle Donelan is one of the thickest people in Parliament (and that is saying something). I suspect she doesn’t even know what the letters BBC stand for.

  20. SIR – Janet Milliken (Letters, September 5) is struggling to get her driving licence renewed by the DVLA. I suggest she contacts her MP.

    MPs have a direct line to the DVLA and can resolve these matters swiftly. I work for one and do this almost every day. The same goes for passports.

    Hilary Hunter
    Henley, Oxfordshire

    Very true, having been down this route more than once. Perhaps when MPs are thoroughly fed up with all the additional correspondence they will finally get their act together and do something about the pitiful service from Snivel Serpents…

    1. I agree. As soon as I threatened to get Owen (Paterson) on the case, the DVLA finally coughed up my licence (after a six-month wait).

  21. SIR – Charles Moore (Notebook, September 6) is wrong to suggest that National Trust members exercise no power and that “the existing management can almost always defeat reform”.

    All AGM resolutions and council election recommendations are the decisions of the trust’s non-executive (members and volunteers), and the management has no say.

    A “quick vote” option is standard for large membership organisations and was recommended to us by Civica (Britain’s leading provider of election services), which independently administers our AGM voting process.

    If members don’t want to use “quick vote”, they don’t have to – just as, if they don’t want to give the chair their discretionary proxy vote, they can select to vote “for”, “against” or “abstain” on any of the eight resolutions to be heard on November 5.

    If Mr Moore is a National Trust member, I very much hope that he exercises his democratic right.

    Jan Lasik
    General Counsel and Secretary, National Trust
    Swindon, Wiltshire

    Strangely, Jan Lasik makes no mention of the proxy vote method, as highlighted in detail by Restore Trust. I wonder why??

    https://www.restoretrust.org.uk/members-resolutions

    1. I had a bit of a rant earlier on PressReader on the article on page 3 of today’s Terriblegraph entitled “ Na­tional Trust vol­un­teer num­bers at low­est in decade as ac­tivists pre­pare for AGM clash”.

      This sentence caught my eye: “The continued fall in volunteer numbers comes ahead of its annual general meeting where the council is expected to clash with socially conservative activist members.”

      I wondered why it is considered to be “socially conservative” not to promote left-wing ideology.

    1. Morning, CV1. This comment is not personal.
      I am getting rather tired of this constant sniping at an administration that’s barely got its feet under the table.
      After the past thirty years, I have few illusions about the standard of politicians that the West is producing. However, this cartoon sums up one reason why we cannot get a higher standard of political leadership.
      After 3 disastrous years, both the May and Johnson governments were ripe for a shredding, as indeed were their predecessors: but give people a chance.

      1. Far too many in the cabinet – probably a ploy to reduce dissent. In industry the ideal number of managers reporting to the CEO is just six.

        1. And whoever is thinning out the Cabinet (fat chance of course) would they then like to make a start on the House of Lords…

      3. I agree with you Annie, every word. Just back from breakfast with friends, you have saved me the trouble of posting something similar.

  23. 355798+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 8 September: Can voters have confidence in Liz Truss’s Cabinet of friends and allies?

    The same confidence many of the same voters had in major / the wretch cameron / leg over clegg / treacherous treasa / the turkish delight, the question that should really be asked is can peoples of decency have
    confidence in the majority voter, their voting pedigree time after time really should undergo a sanity check.

    False hope plays a big part when supporting / voting for counterfeit parties
    you can almost hear an undertow mantra ” you gotta vote tory (ino) to
    keep out labour (ino) ”

    Thanks to the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration (ongoing) mass paedophile actions (ongoing) input over the last four decades, we are now
    as a nation leaving the last chance hotel , making room for the illegal influx.

    Keep in mind “for what we are about to receive ” in many respects was voted for.

    The drive has started the herd is on the trail, destination reset.

  25. I just saw a post on t’internet saying that the Govt is going to scrap the fracking ban?
    Have I just not been paying attention? and how long will it take to get fracking going?

    2. Just so long as the surrounding picket fence has entwined rambling roses, Gove will give it the nod.

    3. Oh how we laffed………

      1/ planning decisions

      (centralise them or leave local?)

      2/ environment permits

      (any effort to speed up approval?)

      3/ seismology rules

      (any increase in the old limit?)

      Will see tomorrow if any of these change too

      https://twitter.com/benrileysmith/status/1567617883231993858
      All the usual greeniac blockers will still be there,deceptive headline lies at their best
      (or am I being too cynical)

      2. I suggest that as many test sites as possible are announced and started at the same time, thus causing the great unwashed to spread themselves very thinly. We should avoid another Balcombe, where it was just about the only site test-drilling, and thus attracting hundreds of ’em from all over the country like flies round a p*ss pot.

        No, it won’t happen (or work).

  27. Good Moaning.
    Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll soon change that.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/07/nhs-wellbeing-festival-leaves-medics-wondering-parody/

    “‘Imagine you’re a salmon’: NHS offers staff a fishy route to wellbeing

    Medics left wondering if week-long ‘wellbeing festival’ – including men-only events on the menopause – is a parody

    7 September 2022 • 9:00pm

    The festival is being run by NHS East of England, covering the Suffolk constituency of Therese Coffey, the new Health Secretary

    The festival is being run by NHS East of England, covering the Suffolk constituency of Therese Coffey, the new Health Secretary Credit: Anadolu Agency

    The NHS is to launch a week-long “wellbeing festival” – just as ministers eye up the health service budget for cuts.

    Health chiefs are promising sessions next week on “dynamic breath work”, “emotional freedom” – with one, intriguingly, named “What if we were salmon?”

    Officials said the festival, running from Monday, would help staff who felt they were “swimming hard against the current” and provide a “compassionate space” for mindfulness.

    The festival is being run by NHS East of England, covering the Suffolk constituency of Therese Coffey, the new Health Secretary.

    Fitness sessions from Mr Motivator are on offer, along with a “boys’ club” for men who are confused by the menopause and want to talk about it “in a safe environment”.

    Sessions on offer for staff include “What if we were salmon?” Publicity material states: “This interactive, supportive session will pose the question, what if we were salmon? Do you ever feel like you’re swimming hard against the current, longing to get to calmer waters?”

    A session on mindfulness promises “an open and compassionate space for self-enquiry and exploration, through mindful practice of stillness, movement and breath”.

    ‘It looks absolutely terrible’

    One health source said: “It’s just outrageous, and it couldn’t come at a worse time, with a new Health Secretary and all eyes on the NHS budget. Of course staff wellbeing is important, but men-only events on the menopause, hiring Mr Motivator? It looks absolutely terrible, this is not how NHS resources should be used.”

    A government source said: “This kind of errant nonsense is more proof of an NHS gone completely tonto.

    “Whilst ordinary Brits are worrying about what the winter will bring, NHS managers are wasting money on this rot. The new health secretary must be sharpening her axe with glee to cut waste like this and focus the NHS on looking after people who need help.”

    Medics on Wednesday ridiculed the efforts, with some wondering if the NHS plans were the stuff of parody.

    It comes as waiting lists are at a record high, with 6.7 million people waiting, with ambulance average waits of almost one hour for heart attack and stroke victims.

    Official figures last month showed almost 30,000 patients stuck in A&E for more than 12 hours, a jump of a third in one month.

    In her first day in post, Ms Coffey on Wednesday vowed to “stand up for patients,” having been tasked by the Prime Minister to put the NHS “back on a firm footing”.

    Liz Truss has said billions of pounds will be diverted from the NHS to social care, with record numbers of frail patients stuck in hospital for want of care elsewhere.

    On Wednesday Ms Coffey said she had four priorities – “A, B, C and D” – ambulances, backlogs, care, doctors and dentists” as she signalled a determination to focus on the frontline.

    In coming days the new Health Secretary is expected to work on plans which aim to help the NHS cope this winter, while shoring up social care services, to free up hospital beds.

    Ms Truss has promised to reverse a National Insurance increase brought in to fund health and social care, and said the £13 billion a year will be raised from general taxation.

    NHS trusts in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight held a week-long “wellfest” in July to promote wellbeing to staff. Isle of Wight NHS trust announced the plans in its board meeting as it submitted plans to deal with a £22.5 million deficit.

    Trusts in Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin last year held a week-long festival, where staff could learn about “herbology” and take part in band practice, and end the day with a “book at bedtime”.

    It follows warnings that the NHS has spent more than £1 million on hundreds of “woke” staff networks while patients face record waits.

    Repeated pledges to cut down on ‘waste and wokery’

    Last month an audit found that at least 493 such groups have been set up by NHS trusts across the country – taking up around 36,000 hours of staff time a year.

    The events on transgender issues, sexuality and racism came despite repeated pledges by previous health secretaries to cut down on “waste and wokery”.

    Events identified in the audit by the TaxPayers’ Alliance included “tea and rainbow cake” picnics, a special session about pronouns and a Filipino martial arts performance.

    Danielle Boxall, from the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers expect NHS Trusts to be focused on frontline care, not wasting time on wellbeing workshops.

    “While patients face serious delays to their appointments and operations, NHS middle managers are busy organising a progressive programme of lectures and events.

    “NHS bosses must put a stop to this kind of waste and get back to tackling the huge health backlogs.”

    A spokesman for the NHS in the East of England said: “This regional event was designed to offer NHS staff help with finances and cost of living as well as managing fatigue following the pandemic, so that they can better focus on delivering for patients.”

    Following the outcry from medics, the “what if we were salmon?” session has been renamed as “resilience under pressure.” “

    1. I take it the men-only menopause section is not a support group for husbands dealing with ultra-hormonal wives?

    2. Quite scary. I would assume that the “salmon” thing will involve climbing ladders?

  28. Morning all 😃
    Early doors I believe to ask if people can have confidence in our most recent PM.
    We’ve had around 25 years of people in the hot seat who have appeared to trying to do as much damage to our country it’s culture and social structure as they possibly can.
    Fingers crossed 🤞 .

    1. “You’ll feel better when you’ve put your clothes on.” (Standard response to children who did not feel well enough to go to school.)

      1. We used to say “Well, go and see if you can make a poo come out” – thta usually solved it.

  30. – A new PM, a young black man shot by the police, mainstream media giving it the full race baiting monty.

    Cue race riots

    1. Any excuse for a riot and some looting, this was happening in Leicester last week as well. It seems pushing the boundaries has never been abandoned by decendants of migrants.
      The doors swings both ways.

      Of only he’d and the rest of them behaved there might not be a problem.
      I thought that some wacky baccy DJ was shot dead last week as well.

  31. Good Morning and Good Luck! Another day in miserable, poverty-stricken, hagridden Blighty. Rain forecast. The only glimpse of normality.

  32. 355798+ up ticks,

    Treacherous treasa strikes again, the mind boggles at the horrors of creation as in if the nine month delay was due to her having a chavvie via anthony charlie lynton

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    9h
    This isn’t happening by chance or because the UK Govnt has somehow lost control of our borders. In late 2018 Theresa May signed Britain up to the ‘UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly & Regular Migration, & Refugees’. The migration invasions have been made ‘legal’ & are meant to be permanent & overwhelming. Forget what politicians say, look at what they do.

    Migrant crossings: Nearly 1,000 people cross English Channel in a day as numbers approach total for all of 2021
    Young children were among those seen being brought ashore in recent days, as people continue to risk their lives in the perilous journey from northern France.

    https://gettr.com/post/p1q2sn35352

    1. 355798+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Surely crossing the English Channel in such a hazardous fashion flies in the face of health & safety does it not
      So could be stopped before entering British waters
      in a safety first manner.

      1. Yep. Turn back, or you’ll be fired upon. If they don’t turn back, shoot over their heads. If they continue to not return to France, sink them.

  33. 355798+ up ticks,

    New Normal: EU President Calls for ‘Mandatory’ Energy Rationing to ‘Flatten the Curve’ of Demand

    To return to the road of GENUINE normal we must first incarcerate A:LL
    politicians…

    1. As a recognised sign of achievement,
      Major Blair Brown Cameron May Bore-us (and many others) all need nailing to their own individual cross.
      But I think they might actually enjoy it.

      Houston I have a problem with my handset.
      That should have arrive at your comment below.

  34. ‘Morning All

    Modern Life…….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/82d286e86865b233fb34464a1aec95753915b620e0af15d45e7a42b3d3a85217.png

    https://media.greatawakening.win/post/IwynPVrY7brU.jpeg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e920342d34c709ec2e8a87fdd873bb899831955a1177e1f98aac3d9b9586d33.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3dd535234b7c2492782a947e3bb510807c407d2679535bae5568efbbd2003a8a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dc870285f0cb8dd1817c5ec433a3cdeab3f74f13aeed82c233055ca97404df57.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7176a2631c47de4a176bff88df441bcde284cf71d08e6d1cc8b1fa7ce3bc4432.jpg

    1. Every time I see that POS’s face it reminds me of a senior Nazi.
      Why hasn’t he had a fatal accident ?

      1. The people who’d normally bump off people like him him are paid by him.

        The good thing is that eventually people like him are hanged. It costs millions of lives but they never end well. For some reason their sort refuse to leave other people alone.

    2. When you’re told the same thing, over and over again with conditioned phrases “excess profits”, “flatten the curve” it is inevitable that you’ll believe it.

      They’re trying the same with the black white couples on TV. It’s relentless propaganda to promote ‘the message’. The weak minded (most people, sadly) will just give up questioning. The grump, the combative, the free thinkers will reject it.

  36. The CV-19 ‘row back’ or is it more akin to, “…not me guv, honest,” continues: this time with the “vaccine”.

    Naomi Wolf’s team of ‘War Room Deplorables’ continues to unearth effects of the Pfizer serum from that company’s own documentation. The latest revelation concerns male fertility and development.

    Alarmingly, men continue to receive incomprehensibly contradictory messages, being told to keep injecting the mRNA vaccines even when the study that contains these exhortations, clearly demonstrates adverse fertility results – to men.

    The Public Is Left with More Questions Than Answers
    This review of documents and studies, culminating with one that shows shocking data about mRNA vaccines conclusively reducing men’s fertility, gives rise to important questions:

    When, if at all, do men’s fertility fully recover from such a drastic decline after a two-dose vaccination course?

    Do boosters, which twenty-nine percent of the world’s population have received as of July 31, 2021, have an even stronger negative impact on men’s fertility?

    [Holder, Josh. “Tracking Coronavirus Vaccinations around the World.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-vaccinations-tracker.html.%5D

    Does giving mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to pre-pubescent and adolescent males affect their normal sexual development and ability to reproduce, as the implication of the study on NPs in testes suggest it may?

    Is the decline in birth rates being seen in highly vaccinated countries at least in part due to how mRNA vaccines have conclusively affected male fertility? [Chudov, Igor. “Igor’s Newsletter.” Substack.]

    Much more at: Behind the Curtain substack

    Around the same time the jabbing of 5 – 11 years old children has been stopped in the UK. Those responsible state that the jabbing has been discontinued, others believe that it has literally been banned as GPs are refusing to administer the serum to this age group even when asked by parents to complete the double jab programme.

    This is great news.

    I just wanted to post a quick note because, in many places and news media, this news is not described properly. People mention this program as being “discontinued”. That benign sounding description is not quite exactly correct.

    The correct statement is that in the UK, Covid vaccines were just BANNED for all children under 12. Not a single UK child under 12 is allowed to get any doses of Covid vaccines.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e870f2ed30bec1a0ea0fda8ddd0450760b086d08ff395079285bdff77b36f41d.png

    All I want to say about this story is that it should be described as a BAN on mRNA vaccinations for those under 12, as no one under 12 is allowed to vaccinate even if their parents really want to. The above tweet author’s doctor, being mindful of liability and the ban, is REFUSING to give Claire’s kid the vaccine and Claire has nowhere else to go.

    Bill-Gates sponsored The Guardian published this article, citing angered WEF member Christina Pagel:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f2aea4d75e8b1b6d57fb1f935a08c336ed76736eda71aa5f666326446721bc56.png

    More at Igor Chudov’s substack

    1. I think Ms Jennings needs to sit in the classes her 12 year old attends. They might be too advanced for her, though.

      2. It’s the link in my comment, ‘Behind the Curtain substack’. It’s very long with many links and references. Here is Naomi Wolf talking on The War Room about this latest development (short piece from 13 minutes in).

        Naomi Wolf

        2. Will there be a good market for the sperm of unvaccinated men of high IQ and good physique when fertile husbands are no longer easy to find?

          1. A similar market could exist for women who fit your criteria. Of course, if the globalist elite do take over then procreation within the serf class will be closely controlled, by one of their “vaccines”.

    2. The Mayor has dressed nicely for the occasion. Pity Harry couldn’t be arsed to wear a tie, even, and his jacket could do with a pressing. Fire that footman!

    2. So… rationing. It’s funny. Capitalism gives the world plenty: wealth, free time, the market responds to give people things to buy to fill that free time with.

      We eat more, better, we live longer, we live happier, more fulfilled lives and then along comes government, like some 50 wheeled, 4 lane juggernaught to smash through all that has made everything great and forces us to fuel it.

      There’s no need for rationing when there are markets. There’s no need for government when there are markets. It is only the manipulation of markets that prevent wealth creation, leisure time and happiness.

      Truly, these socialists need to be folded up, hammered into crates and dumped somewhere else. Let them create their own poisonous utopia.

    3. When will we be required to bang the saucepans, that we can’t afford to cook with, in support of our wonderful Energy companies?

      1. I have just lit the woodstove. Tears of thankfulness are being shed in our household over being able to boil the kettle whenever we want.

        Because I bought the wood in May – early July, I bought the whole winter’s stock at a 5% rise on last year’s prices. Shudder to think what it will be next year.
        We’ve got a whole winter’s supply from trees that we felled last year, sitting uselessly at our property in France, that isn’t yet worth the cost of bringing!

        1. One of the very few sensible investments I have ever made was to set 70 beech trees in the garden when I bought the house in 1984.

          We will never run out of burnable hardwood.

          1. We have a laurel hedge around the perimeter of our grounds. Some of the trees are over 30′ high so, by coppicing each year we shall never run out of firewood. Though not as good as beech or oak, laurel makes excellent firewood – far better than people think. It burns hot with a bright flame in our woodburners – both of which have air wash systems to keep the glass clean

            The Clearview is over 30 years old and we have had to replace the door seal ropes a couple of times and have the opening handle rethreaded but it still works very well; the smaller Woodwarm is fifteen years old and has required virtually no maintenance at all other than cleaning thoroughly before each new season. Our chimneys are lined with stainless steel tubing and it is easy for us to clean them ourselves.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65ee372b98c3fd1ef72c1ad0aa5d875dae0b835a9f126a817ee73fbbf8a706c6.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ac94e7ab625140e89e715aa2c6b998a1808dd06c06ffa4eb17d6beae71312ae.jpg

        2. My supply is probably worth more than my car, several cubic metres of split, seasoned and dry wood, ready for the stoves.
          I have visions of the wood being “requisitioned” by the local travelling community.

          1. Ours is stacked out of sight of the road, against the house. I think theft is a real possibility this year – we normally stack it on the north side of the house, visible from the road but sheltered from the elements.
            There are some neighbours whom frankly, I wouldn’t trust if they hit hard times.

        3. Good morning bb2

          Where are you in France? If you pass through Brittany to get there then do look us up.

          2. The other side of France (Alsace)! It’s just a hovel, relic of a former life. But thank you anyway – will do if we are ever passing through!

  40. Good morning, everyone. House seems empty without the Springer. The bonus is the first lie-in for seven years.

      1. Yes. Mario will phone us after surgery today to update us and will probably give us a time to collect her tomorrow.

    7. I know exactly how you feel, DB. Any plans for another? We are on the lookout for a suitable rescue mutt.

      Edit: Oops, apologies for writing him off!!

    8. I know exactly how you feel, DB. Any plans for another? We are on the lookout for a suitable rescue mutt.

      Edit: Oops, apologies for writing him off!!

  41. The second murderer of 10 people in Canada has been caught and taken into custody and has died in custody. BBC Radio 4 news.

  42. Ref the Portaloo thread I started. The lie about the series began at the beginning.

    At the stat of the first prog, Miguel said that he would be, “Walking from Hondaribbia to Cadaques” – which is a distance of 375 miles. It would take a skilled, experienced hill walker at least a month.

    In episode three, he said, “I am on my third day of my walk …..” But he was well over half way along the range….!!

    Nonetheless, leaving the fakery aside the photography is stunning.

  43. Anyone know how the Swedish Muppet managed to get to England without using any oil, plastic etc etc?

          2. …and that nice Dr Schwab will sentence her and all of us to this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

          3. …and that nice Dr Schwab will sentence her and all of us to this:

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

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

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

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

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

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

  44. Today’s article by DT’ s EU Editor James Crisp and Nick Gutteridge is about Liz Truss’s appointment of Chris Heaton -Harris and Steve Baker to drive through the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill. Both are Brexiteers. James Cleverley, Foreign Secretary, will take responsibility for leading talks with the EU. JC is another Brexiteer.
    They have a difficult task ahead but must stand firm as must our new PM.

    1. James Crisp is far too pro-EU to be the DT’s EU editor – he would be far more at home at the BBC.

    1. I think Tim Davie would welcomg scrapping the licence fee in favour of funding from general taxation. My boss thinks that would remove editorial independence and give the government too much control. I don’t think the BBC ever had editorial independence. If it’s dominated by Cultural Marxism that’s because the entire establishment is dominated by Cultural Marxism. Funding by subscription ain’t gonna happen without a complete clear out of the Augean Stables and think on it – you can choose to cancel the licence fee but one way or another, you can’t choose not to pay tax. Fire, frying pan, out of.

      1. Completely understood. SE.
        And still they don’t want to recognise The elephant in the room.
        A few years ago my good lady and my self went to a bbc radio concert at London HQ. We went up to the restaurant for a drink and something to eat. It was quite interesting to look from above at the staff working below. But I have to say I was truly amazed to notice that although at the time there were many people ofcolour to be seen on TV programmes. I could see only one person who was similarly diverse working at a desk. And the majority of the desks were occupied.
        Now they even employ people with exaggerated African accents to make programmes announcements.
        I and many others I know feel that it’s some sort of deliberate antagonism.
        The hierarchy act like a dictatorship.

  46. OT – to relieve the gloom.

    Last Friday was our last day at Quiberon. The MR wanted to visit one of the sardine canning plants. They do guided tours several times a day.

    Fascinating. There is a lot of mechanisation of cooking BUT every single thing needed to be done to the fish (they can sardines and tuna) is done BY HAND. The cans when filled are then set on a giant Scalectrix circuit to be oiled, bits added and then sealed. Watching the people at work, one realised that the “hands on” process was no different from the early 20th century when canning was in its infancy. The guide was brilliant.

    I then popped next door and bought a dozen bottles of Breton beer!

    1. We had a family holiday there a few years ago, a lovely place. And I like sardines.
      Have you read Cannery Row Bill ?
      I often wonder what sent on in Canning Town Noorff Lundun.

        1. Wiki –

          The area is thought to be named after the first Viceroy of India, Charles John Canning, who suppressed the Indian Mutiny about the time the district expanded.

    2. How many bottles of the Breton beer survived long enough to be released into the wild in Norfolkshire?

  47. I must get on, I’ve got so many things to do before winter draws on.
    Zyder fermenting away quite nicely, more apples on the way this weekend.
    Even a 4 ball golf early Sunday arvo and a couple of pints after with my boys. A Three birthday celebration. Plus tradition Sunday ‘lunch’ but later on.
    Now off to be Rubbing down and more painting of doors……..but not Diana.

  48. Europe’s metal industry on brink of collapse from surging power prices. 8 September 2022.

    The expense of reopening means that “once a plant is closed it very often becomes a permanent situation,” they warned.

    Potential solutions would include reducing the price of energy from fossil fuel-powered generators, loosening the state aid subsidy rules to support struggling companies, boosting renewable energy supplies and capping taxes and charges on energy, the industry group said.

    The meeting was called by the Czech government, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

    Jozef Sikela, the country’s industry minister, said he does not want the European Commission’s proposed cap on Russian energy prices to be on the agenda.
    He said: “It is not a constructive proposal.

    “It is another way to sanction Russia than an actual solution to the energy crisis in Europe.”

    Europe will be lucky to come out of this with anything left that is worthwhile!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/07/europes-metal-industry-brink-collapse-surging-power-prices/

    2. Another nail in the coffin of the EU I hope.
      When the Germans, French and other nations decide the EU rules cause more harm than good and start to ignore them others will follow suit.

      He’s hit the nail on the head: “It is another way to sanction Russia than an actual solution to the energy crisis in Europe.”

      1. My fear is the UK’s civil service will still be rigidly applying EU rules long after the French and Germans have left it and the whole edifice of the EU has been abandoned.

    3. Its not just the metal industry, everything is now interdependant. I suggest we’re all screw*d.

  49. 355798+ up ticks,

    In regards to English Channel crossers and treacherous treasa signing the agreement can she, her party , her parties current supporters / voters be done for “Corporate Homicide” under the Act of 2007.

    Not so much as in regards to peoples escaping from a safe country but of the evil consequences dealt to indigenous peoples especially children once the “escapees” land in the United Kingdom.

    The may creature & supporters knew there would be odious repercussions
    so in m,y book premeditated murder would be more apt.

  50. The Mayor of London has authorised the emplacement of a new statue on the fourth plinth in Trafalger Square. It is of a black Baptist pastor and his English born Scotch missionary companion, who fomented riots and murder in his native Malawi. He once conducted a church service with the severed head of a colonialist farmer impaled on a pole. I may be mistaken but I don’t think it represents a symbol of racial harmony and integration. What could it possibly mean? Why is the ‘whitey’ only half size… and who’s paying for it?

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.contentstack.io%2Fv3%2Fassets%2Fbltf04078f3cf7a9c30%2Fblt9679749749449e96%2F6318507760da4245bfe0b3d6%2F10Septlead.jpg&w=1200&q=75 (To see the statue right click and open new tab)

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/John_Chilembwe_%282%29.png/220px-John_Chilembwe_%282%29.png

      3. I also wonder how long it will be before some ‘far-right’ group tears it down and throws it in the fountains.

        Just thinking…

  52. Therese Coffey doesn’t deserve this Leftist hate

    It’s hypocritical and wrong for her political opponents to attack both her body size and her Catholic faith

    NICK TIMOTHY • 7 September 2022 • 7:33pm

    Do you have a copy of the rules for the diversity game? It is just that, sometimes, it can get a little confusing.

    Take Dr Thérèse Coffey, the new Deputy Prime Minister and Health Secretary. Coffey is an accomplished woman. She grew up in Liverpool, went to Oxford and UCL and holds a PhD in chemistry. As work and pensions secretary, she guided the welfare system through the pandemic with no little administrative skill.

    Coffey is clever, quirky and fun. Yesterday her mobile phone interrupted an interview as its alarm went off, blaring out rap music by Dr Dre. She listens to Muse and is quick to grab the microphone at karaoke. She cheers on Liverpool at football and enjoys her cricket. And she likes a drink and, sometimes, a cigar.

    She drinks! She smokes! She is, Lefty activists sneered, somewhat above the weight recommended by health experts for a woman of her height. “Is it really appropriate to have an overweight smoker,” one pundit asked, “as health secretary?” Others posted pictures of Coffey at a party holding a cigar, making sarcastic comments about “our next inspirational health secretary”.

    The response was odd, because Coffey is hardly the first health secretary to carry some extra timber, as football managers put it, or to like a drink or smoke. Ken Clarke was fat, swilled beer and smoked cigars. Frank Dobson, Tony Blair’s man in the Department of Health, was more than portly. John Reid, another Blair appointment, was a former chain-smoker and recovering alcoholic.

    So what is different about Coffey? Undoubtedly, our society judges women more harshly than it does men for their looks and appearance. But if this were the simple explanation, Labour’s Emily Thornberry – a former shadow health minister who drinks and smokes and shows similar disdain for public health guidelines – would also have experienced the nastiness directed at Coffey.

    But the attacks are not even limited to Coffey’s appearance. Within hours of her appointment, the BBC ran the headline: “Thérèse Coffey’s views on abortion concerning, charity says.” Despite knowing that abortion laws are matters of conscience in Parliament – meaning MPs vote in accordance with their personal beliefs – and despite knowing that both Coffey and Liz Truss have made clear that abortion rights are safe, activists and rival politicians seized on the fact that Coffey had, as a Roman Catholic, voted against abortion rights earlier in her career.

    Of course, it is perfectly legitimate to criticise voting against abortion rights. I support existing abortion laws and a woman’s right to control her own body. But it is disingenuous to suggest that Coffey’s religious conviction means that those rights are in danger in any way. And it is dangerous – if we really value diversity of belief, true pluralism and a representative Parliament – to force Catholics to choose between voting against their consciences or leaving public life altogether.

    Yet, increasingly, this is what is happening. When Rebecca Long-Bailey, then a Labour leadership candidate, gave her views on abortion, Paul Mason, the Left-wing pundit, said: “I don’t want Labour’s policy on reproductive rights dictated by the Vatican.” Rob Flello, a Lib Dem candidate, was deselected over his Catholic beliefs. Secular “progressives”, many of whom would not dream of defending the Batley teacher who showed his pupils a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, do not even try to hide their contempt for Roman Catholics and their faith.

    And yet there is still something more to the attacks on Coffey. There is more hatred in our politics than at any time I have known. Partisanship causes many to scream about things they see in their enemies – and enemies is the right word – that they applaud on their own side. The more people preach about diversity, the more they want to shut down other beliefs. The more they lecture others to “be kind”, the more foam-flecked and abusive they become.

    The Tories are now on their third female Prime Minister, and she has appointed the most racially diverse Cabinet in Europe. Many on the Left, who see only evil in their opponents, whose Pavlovian reaction to almost anything is to scream “misogynist!” or “racist!”, are furious. And that makes them nastier than ever.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/07/therese-coffey-doesnt-deserve-leftist-hate/

    1. Hmmm. While I agree with the general thrust – the right have been pretty vitriolic about Angela Scum Gobshite….

      1. More about her dress-sense and behaviour than her looks. Coffey could go on a crash diet and still look like a female hobbit.

          1. Ah ha! So you really go for the bovver boots twinned with the rubber buttoned liberty bodice look.

          2. I thought she came from Brazil – in which case is she a ginger growler or was she until she had a close shave?.

            I remember a production of Charley’s Aunt with Danny La Rue in the title role which was on BBC TV many years ago. When he/she delivered the line “I come from Brazil where the nuts come from” I greatly enjoyed the ambiguity of the line!

    2. The “left” are the nasty party. Must admit any vitriol directed at Angela “Scum Gobshite”( isn’t that just as horrible Bill) has passed me by.

  53. Therese Coffey doesn’t deserve this Leftist hate

    It’s hypocritical and wrong for her political opponents to attack both her body size and her Catholic faith

    NICK TIMOTHY • 7 September 2022 • 7:33pm

    Do you have a copy of the rules for the diversity game? It is just that, sometimes, it can get a little confusing.

    Take Dr Thérèse Coffey, the new Deputy Prime Minister and Health Secretary. Coffey is an accomplished woman. She grew up in Liverpool, went to Oxford and UCL and holds a PhD in chemistry. As work and pensions secretary, she guided the welfare system through the pandemic with no little administrative skill.

    Coffey is clever, quirky and fun. Yesterday her mobile phone interrupted an interview as its alarm went off, blaring out rap music by Dr Dre. She listens to Muse and is quick to grab the microphone at karaoke. She cheers on Liverpool at football and enjoys her cricket. And she likes a drink and, sometimes, a cigar.

    She drinks! She smokes! She is, Lefty activists sneered, somewhat above the weight recommended by health experts for a woman of her height. “Is it really appropriate to have an overweight smoker,” one pundit asked, “as health secretary?” Others posted pictures of Coffey at a party holding a cigar, making sarcastic comments about “our next inspirational health secretary”.

    The response was odd, because Coffey is hardly the first health secretary to carry some extra timber, as football managers put it, or to like a drink or smoke. Ken Clarke was fat, swilled beer and smoked cigars. Frank Dobson, Tony Blair’s man in the Department of Health, was more than portly. John Reid, another Blair appointment, was a former chain-smoker and recovering alcoholic.

    So what is different about Coffey? Undoubtedly, our society judges women more harshly than it does men for their looks and appearance. But if this were the simple explanation, Labour’s Emily Thornberry – a former shadow health minister who drinks and smokes and shows similar disdain for public health guidelines – would also have experienced the nastiness directed at Coffey.

    But the attacks are not even limited to Coffey’s appearance. Within hours of her appointment, the BBC ran the headline: “Thérèse Coffey’s views on abortion concerning, charity says.” Despite knowing that abortion laws are matters of conscience in Parliament – meaning MPs vote in accordance with their personal beliefs – and despite knowing that both Coffey and Liz Truss have made clear that abortion rights are safe, activists and rival politicians seized on the fact that Coffey had, as a Roman Catholic, voted against abortion rights earlier in her career.

    Of course, it is perfectly legitimate to criticise voting against abortion rights. I support existing abortion laws and a woman’s right to control her own body. But it is disingenuous to suggest that Coffey’s religious conviction means that those rights are in danger in any way. And it is dangerous – if we really value diversity of belief, true pluralism and a representative Parliament – to force Catholics to choose between voting against their consciences or leaving public life altogether.

    Yet, increasingly, this is what is happening. When Rebecca Long-Bailey, then a Labour leadership candidate, gave her views on abortion, Paul Mason, the Left-wing pundit, said: “I don’t want Labour’s policy on reproductive rights dictated by the Vatican.” Rob Flello, a Lib Dem candidate, was deselected over his Catholic beliefs. Secular “progressives”, many of whom would not dream of defending the Batley teacher who showed his pupils a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad, do not even try to hide their contempt for Roman Catholics and their faith.

    And yet there is still something more to the attacks on Coffey. There is more hatred in our politics than at any time I have known. Partisanship causes many to scream about things they see in their enemies – and enemies is the right word – that they applaud on their own side. The more people preach about diversity, the more they want to shut down other beliefs. The more they lecture others to “be kind”, the more foam-flecked and abusive they become.

    The Tories are now on their third female Prime Minister, and she has appointed the most racially diverse Cabinet in Europe. Many on the Left, who see only evil in their opponents, whose Pavlovian reaction to almost anything is to scream “misogynist!” or “racist!”, are furious. And that makes them nastier than ever.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/07/therese-coffey-doesnt-deserve-leftist-hate/

  55. Mr Burke shouldn’t require the God argument to reject this nonsense.

    I’d rather stay in prison for a century than play by these transgender rules, says jailed teacher

    Enoch Burke, an evangelical Christian, tells court he will ‘only obey God’ and ‘not obey man’ as he refuses to comply to injunction

    By James Crisp, EUROPE EDITOR and Aodhan O’Faolain, IN DUBLIN • 7 September 2022 • 6:49pm

    An Irish teacher suspended for refusing to use gender-neutral pronouns has said he would rather stay in prison for a century than compromise his beliefs on transgenderism.

    Enoch Burke, an evangelical Christian, was jailed for contempt of court on Monday after breaching the injunction not to go to or try to teach at Wilson’s Hospital School in Co Westmeath. Burke was arrested after turning up to the school “to work” after a disciplinary process begun after he refused to refer to a transgender student as “they”. Wednesday’s hearing in Dublin was a chance for the secondary school history and German teacher to “purge” his contempt and be freed by consenting to the order during a hearing to review its terms.

    Instead, he told the court that even if he had to remain in prison for “every hour of every day for the next 100 years” he would not comply. He said transgenderism was contrary to scripture, and that in this instance he would “only obey God,” and would “not obey man”.

    Burke, who represented himself, was returned to Mountjoy Prison to spend a third night in jail and was ordered to pay the legal costs of the school, which has suspended him on full pay. He has been told he can be freed simply by signalling his intention to abide by the injunction, which the Church of Ireland school took out to prevent disruption at the beginning of the school term.

    In June, Burke had publicly confronted the principal over the policy at a church service and dinner to mark the school’s 260th anniversary. Despite his paid suspension, he would turn up at the school for “meetings” or simply to sit in an empty classroom declaring he was ready to teach before his arrest earlier this week.

    Mr Justice Max Barrett, ruled that the injunction should remain in place until a High Court decision. The court’s decision was about the terms of the injunction and Burke’s suspension, and not his religious beliefs, he said.

    Burke had earlier claimed he was before the courts over his refusal to comply with what he said was his unlawful suspension. The direction by the school to address one of its students by a different pronoun was to deny him his constitutional rights to religious freedom, he claimed. “That is the issue,” he said.

    He said that by agreeing to comply with his suspension would be akin to agreeing with transgenderism. He claimed the disciplinary procedures against him were flawed and described any allegation of gross misconduct against him as being “ludicrous”. Burke said the student at the centre of the request was not in any of his classes, nor had he had any direct dealings with the pupil.

    In correspondence to Mr Burke, the school denied that anyone is being “forced” to do anything. The school said that it is focusing on the needs and welfare of its students and is affirming its policy in accordance with the 2000 Equal Status Act of not discriminating against any student. The school said it has acknowledged Mr Burke’s religious beliefs but expects him to communicate with the student in accordance with the student and their parent’s wishes. The school says despite his suspension Mr Burke has not been sanctioned and no finding has been made against him.

    The next stage of the school’s disciplinary process is due to take place later this month.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/07/rather-stay-prison-century-believe-transgenderism-teacher-says/

    1. Good for Mr Burke. “Mr Justice Max Barrett, ruled that the injunction should remain in place until a High Court decision. The court’s decision was about weaselling around the terms of the injunction and Burke’s suspension, and not his religious beliefs, he said.”
      Words in bold, inserted by me.

    2. I agree it should not need God, but if Muslims can use the argument successfully, why shouldn’t he?

    3. So the school’s attitude is that if he will just shut up and obey, then there’s nothing to talk about. These Christians and their inconvenient consciences, eh.

      1. But if the Batley teacher apologised for offending Muslims by showing pictorial representation of their prophet would he be forgiven and out of danger of being murdered. Could they replace their draconian fatwa with a less severe thinwa?

  56. 355798+ up ticks,

    May one ask, when this issues spreads to England will our veterans , sleeping on the streets be in jeopardy ? to put it in a crude manner we have stood for enforced rodgering in England ( rape /abuse) will enforced lodgering be put into action ?

  57. Sweeteners [are] not safe sugar alternatives, say scientists.

    ARTIFICIAL sweeteners may contribute to a higher risk of heart disease, a study has found.

    Researchers said that food additives “should not be considered a healthy and safe alternative to sugar”.

    The study, published in The BMJ, examined information on more than 100,000 adults in France.

    The authors, led by experts from the Sorbonne Paris Nord University, examined participants’ intake of sweeteners from all dietary sources including drinks, table top sweeteners, and dairy products, and compared it to their risk of heart or circulatory diseases.

    Participants had an average age of 42 and four out of five were female.

    Participants noted what they ate, including which brand, for 24 hours, with the diet diary repeated three times at six-month intervals – twice on week days and once on a weekend day.

    Some 37 per cent of participants consumed artificial sweeteners.

    During an average follow-up period of nine years, 1,502 cardiovascular events were recorded by participants.

    This included heart attacks, strokes, transient ischemic attacks (mini strokes) and angina – chest pain linked to poor blood flow to heart muscles. Researchers found that artificial sweetener consumption was linked to a 9 per cent higher risk of heart disease.

    Artificial sweetener consumption was linked to an 18 per cent higher risk of cerebrovascular disease – conditions which affect the blood flow to the brain.

    A common sweetener – aspartame – was associated with a 17 per cent increased risk of cerebrovascular events, while acesulfame potassium and sucralose were associated with increased coronary heart disease risk.

    “In this cohort, artificial sweeteners (especially aspartame, acesulfame potassium and sucralose) were associated with increased risk of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and coronary heart diseases,” the authors wrote.

    “The results suggest that artificial sweeteners might represent a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease prevention. These food additives, consumed daily by millions of people and present in thousands of foods and beverages, should not be considered a healthy and safe alternative to sugar, in line with the current position of several health agencies.”

    Tracy Parker, senior dietitian at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Look at the sugar and sweeteners in your diet. Swap fizzy drinks for water and increase your intake of heart healthy foods, like lentils, nuts and seeds, as well as fruit, vegetables and wholegrains.”

    It has been my fervent belief, for decades, that Frankenstein ‘foods’, such as margarine (in particular), and all artificial additives, substitutes and ‘flavourings’ are killers.

    1. I’ve been avoiding the cited sweeteners for years, since the first stuff about them was reported.

    3. Still strange that despite all these studies and ‘evidence’ we were all living longer until the experimental injections.
      Why do you think this is?

      1. ‘They’ wish to reduce the world population to one billion…slaves. Then they will have their utopia.

      2. Hard to say, Alf.
        How many times have you read reports in the news from ‘scientists’, one day, that coffee, tea, meat, bread, or whatever is good for you; then read the next day that other ‘scientists’ are telling you that the same foodstuffs will kill you?

        1. All the time, Grizz.
          As we know the science is never settled but don’t tell the politicians.

  58. “… successful, award-winning development programme for those identifying as women, which is delivered through an extensive network of licensed trainers and has been used by over 230,000 people in over 40 countries, The programme is d…”

    This sort of thing is idiotic. It is long past time pretending you can identify as something you are not. This exclusionary language must end and the entire edifice of Left wing wokery be dismantled.

      1. Bill , I cannot access the main Nottler comments , is there a problem with Disqus , or is a question of clearing cookies .

        I can see the page and click for the DT letters , but the comments aren’t visible to me .

        Strangely enough , I had saved your avatar in my book marks , so you are the only one in my book marks , I have no idea why there is no one else ..

        Oh dear , this is so frustrating .

        Our poor Queen ..it is a sad solemn moment .. I won’t be able to see your errudite reply .

    1. Stand by for a wave of fake patriotism from the BBC, and a quick takeover by Charles to eliminate any republican debate. Never thought that I would not be cheering at a Coronation.

      1. I doubt I’ll be watching it, to be honest. At least now I’m no longer Chairman of the Parish Council I shan’t have to undertake any civic duties related to it.

  62. The Speaker has just made an announcement in the HoC about the the Queen’s health. Her doctors are concerned.

  63. I do wonder how badly the actions of Harry and the Harridan have affected the Queen’s wellbeing.
    And of course Andrew’s problems and Boris’s nonsense when the Queen followed the rules for Prince Philip’s funeral will have added to an unpleasant mix.
    Small wonder she has gone downhill so quickly.

    1. I think the loss of Prince Philip hit her hard. Poor lady, I don’t want her to suffer in any way but I sincerely hope she can hang on a while longer.
      Bless her.

    2. 355798+ up ticks,

      S,
      May she brighten considerable and say to the pair of them,

      SWORD DORPH you pair

      A headline for the history books.

    1. A generally brainwashed bunch of sheeple in all Western Countries and I include the antipodes with those countries.

    3. We have relatives in NZ.

      They are quite convinced that Jacinda is a raging megalomaniac, but by handing out large sums of Government money

      to the Press she has managed to get the continued adoration of the Press.

      Most Kiwis are very nice, but completely unsophisticated and trusting, so only the more intelligent have rumbled her.

      That’s why the many demonstrations have been full of middle class educated people. The many demonstrations that have

      been minimised or ignored by the Press.

      2. Oh, and the rellies pointed out that it has just snowed in Wellington, the first time for ten years.

        This global warming doesn’t seem to be happening.

        1. Why do you think it was renamed “climate CHANGE”. Too hot? Climate change. Too cold? Climate change. Too wet? Climate change. Too dry? Climate change. Too windy? Climate change. Too still? Climate change …

    4. Kiwis are a bit sleepy and tend to be a few steps behind the rest of the western world.
      Lovely country though.

  65. Just heard the news of the decline of HM The Queen.

    Time for us to let her go I think, though the thought of Charles taking over does concern me.

    1. I’ve just been sitting watching the news.
      Lots of lovely thoughts and wishing well but…….
      And Such a fine lady.

      1. Not a chance. He’ll carry on with his “Very, very old man” quavering voice spouting bollox about the end of the world….and, of course, following Schwab’s orders.

  66. Just keeping you up to date with my performance at last night’s Porm (sic). From The Grimes:

    “The other standout soloist was the bass Will Thomas, launching the Agnus Dei in a way that suggested how much turmoil and terror was still to come before peace is finally attained. “From the heart, to the heart,” Beethoven wrote on his manuscript. That was certainly how it felt here.

  67. The truly dreadful Nicholas Witchell has just appeared on the beeb, in the sycophantic mess they’re churning out. I fear the end and I’m so sorry for the poor little soul, who has endured so much in such a short time. God bless you, your majesty.

  69. I have been trying to understand the energy “price cap”. It is the cost per kWh that is the important thing, but I cannot find that figure anywhere?

  71. I feel a deep foreboding; the announcement being made, in itself unusual and Charles, Camilla, Andrew, Anne and William are all en route.
    Please may she be all right but I suspect otherwise.
    Dear lady who has served us well.

      1. I was hoping that they would have the tact and decency to stay away, but they don’t know the meaning of those words.
        Yes, I do think it’s very serious.

        1. Likewise. I was a bit suspicious about her somewhat casual dress at such an important state occasion on Tuesday. It was so unlike her not to be dressed correctly for every occasion. That, and the huge bruise on the back of her right hand, suggesting perhaps a recent blood test. And she looked terribly frail, too…

          We shall not see again a monarch who has been so utterly selfless and dedicated to her ‘job’. I certainly fear for the future.

          1. Chanelling HM- she is the only monarch my husband and I have ever known. I shall be very distressed at her passing.

          2. The same here. Although I was born during the reign of her father I was far too young to have had any idea of who or what he was.

          3. We were both born in 1954 so she’d been Queen for a couple of years before we turned up.
            My late dad was a big admirer of George VI and, having read several biographies, so am I. He passed on his work ethic to his daughter.

          6. I made an oath to serve Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors when I joined the RAF. Same as everyone who joined the military. She was my boss, not some jumped up politician.

          7. I was 8 when George VI died. The caretaker leaned into the classroom, gravely announcing, “The King has passed.” I wondered what he was doing in Ditchingham, our little Norfolk village.

    5. Indeed, and it is a blessing that she did manage to celebrate her Platinum, but might struggle to break the Sun King’s record. She has done all that she promised she would do, and some. I think she deserves to rest now with a smile in her heart.

      There was quite a bit of foreboding back in 1901 about the suitability of the partygoing Edward, after the long reign of Queen Vic. He turned out very different, but he was a splendid king using his talents in bed to great benefit to the Firm.

      Sir Edward Elgar composed this poignant little coronation anthem for George V, that captured the raw terror of the little stamp collector, quite incapable of filling his father’s shoes and even less his bodily presence, and who had some quite dreadful things in his reign to contend with and a deep trepidation about his own succession.

      Unlike some others here, I have no concerns about Charles. He is a good, thoughtful and conscientious man and will rise to the job well. He knows what is involved – he’s been on intimate terms with it all his life. Some of his passions are mine too, and I am glad he is patron of a number of causes the politicians seem incapable of taking on. Only recently, I watched a heartwarming series about young artisans keeping traditional crafts alive for the smartphone generation, and Charles had his hand all over this show.

      It may well be that he and Liz Truss (if she is still PM when he comes to the throne) may have very fundamental differences of opinion, and having to keep out of her business will torment him. However, it is something he must do if he wants to keep a head under that crown. His namesake predecessor was determined never to have to go on his travels again, even if it meant keeping very quiet about his own Catholic sympathies. The common people were content with the Merrie Monarch to reign over them instead.

        1. I fear that Elgar and his ilk wil be absent from the Coronation of the the new Defender of All Faiths. It will begin with the Adhan (i.e. the Muzzie Call to Prayer). Elton will get Bernie to re-write Candle in the Wind again (goodbye, you old Queen…). Much “World Music” will follow, and the Christian element will be represented by something rushed out by Graham Kendrick…

          2. I don’t agree. Charles and Camilla’s wedding was full of beautiful music. If Charles wants all that BS he cannot be crowned and certainly not in Westminster Abbey.
            He’s waited a long time and I doubt will want to blow it now.
            And also, HM is still with us!!

          3. She is indeed, Big Sis. I hope she hangs on until she bresaks the Sun King’s record, if only to stuff the French.

            I have some sympathy for Charles, He’s spent his entire life waiting for his Mum to shuffle off, so he can start his job. My career began 47 years ago, give or take a few days. I’m now retired. Charles is several years older than me, yet he’s still waiting to begin his career.

            One might even speculate that the rest of the family are hot-footing it to Balmoral to make sure Charles doesn’t have the opportunity to acidentally leave a pillow on his Mum’s face…

        1. That may be because the Jacobites claim that Bonnie Prince Charlie is the true Charles III. It may also have been in homage to his grandfather, who himself chose George over Albert.

          Catholics may point out that there have been two John XXIIIs. The first was declared an antipope as late as 1958 and his numbering removed. The second John XXIII reformed the church and is now a saint.

          Charles Philip Arthur George can choose any of these names. King Arthur would be fun.

          For the superstitious, perhaps one should consider the sequence: Victoria, Edward VII, George V and Edward VIII? There is a real possibility of getting Elizabeth II, George VII, William V and George VIII. We have had just two eighths – Henry and Edward. Both were problematic.

  72. Though the BBC knows no more about what is happening inside Balmoral than I do it is waffling on about it endlessly!

      1. So glad I don’t have to listen to it….shall go and find something useful to take my mind off it all!!

          5. One of the benefits of wearing hearing aids, I can turn sound off…like Mrs Richards with Basil Fawlty….thus saving batteries ;-))
            How’s Dolly, btw, are you back home now?

    3. I have just heard that Meghan and Ginge are on their way to Balmoral. A sure sign that she senses a photo opportunity.

        1. I have tried to Google ‘Omid Scoobie Doo’. All I get is a picture of a pissed Maltese Phizzee – hope you are having a wholly wonderful time….without getting into any trouble that we will have to pay for.

          Not being an avid follower of Soshal Meeja, am not sure who Omid is. Megadisaster’s PR consultant??? When you have a spare minute in your crushingly busy schedule quaffing booze-a-plenty, please inform me and fellow NoTTLers who Omid is and why we should care.

    4. I know exactly what is happening at Balmoral now all the dusting and polishing has been done. Given the understairs gossip i’m surprised Meagain’s ears haven’t combusted !

      1. So true, Phizz, so true. She’s dreaming of being left a component of the Koh-in-Noor diamond whereas it’s more likely that Her Maj has used personal dosh to buy Meghan a one way ticket to Tristan da Cuna.

    6. I heard some darkie “interviewer” on the Toady Prog this morning talking to – of all people – Ed Miliband (remember him? Thought not.).

      “Let’s talk about the Budget – We don’t know ANY of the details, but never mind, I know there is a lot to say.”

      Ubiquitous wanqueur.

  73. Well, we can all relax- Tony the Creature Blair is deeply concerned. Ye gods, what a poseur that thing is.

          2. Sorry Geoff, I thought you were discussing the Duchess of Montecito.

            ……………the expressions could certainly cover both.

  74. Thieves stole Disney princess castle and Minecraft Lego sets in £4k raids on B&M stores. 8 September 2022.

    The gang were caught when a police officer spotted their getaway vehicle packed full of Minecraft and Disney sets of Lego on August 31.

    CCTV showed three men wearing baseball caps entering the store during opening hours and taking reusable shopping bags, before filling them up with Lego products and walking out without paying.

    The box prices of Lego must have profit margins vastly exceeding their production and material costs. It’s probably a better return than actually printing the money used to buy them! That said it is one of the best toys ever invented!

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/thieves-stole-disney-princess-castle-lego-sets-raids-b-and-m-b1024107.html

      1. Originally, when most of us Nottlers were children, the Lego bricks were made of rubber rather than plastic and the variety of shapes and colours and special bits and pieces were much more limited. When our boys were little things had changed and they made the most amazing constructions. Christo used to display some of the things he made on the Internet. (He is now a design engineer in the aerospace industry.)

        Our attic is full of boxes packed full with Lego waiting for our children to procreate.

    2. If you just take the plastic, yes. If you include the cost of research and development, probably reasonable. When we bought the Tumbler for me Junior you can see where the money goes.

    3. Stepping on a small lego brick in bare feet is the most exquisite agony- also kneeling one one.

  75. Fortunately I have missed the endless speculation about (in essence) whether a very, very old lady is dying.

    I have spent 1½ hours up a ladder doing what I hope will be the final pruning on two large wisterias and a Rosa Banksia. It is the third time the “final pruning” has been done this year.

    Just as I snipped the last bit – the rain started. How about that for timing?

    I shall ask Cook to put the kettle on.

    1. I think the death of our Queen will be the end of an era and a huge change for us all. Only people as old as you can remember life before QE2.

      1. I remember very clearly being told of the King’s death about 2 pm on 6 Feb 1952 as we were about to start football practice. Pacy said, “That’ll mean new stamps” – and was cuffed for it… Though, of course, that was true!!

          1. There is one in our church with little paper labels written in ink carefully stuck over each relevant word in the BCP services – dating from the death of Victoria, I think.

          2. Our BCP booklets are falling apart, so a new set would be good. The new Rector can’t read the instructions anyway 🙁

        2. Oh I hadn’t thought about that! Stamps and coins with big ears’ fizzog on them. How does he look in profile? Will it be flattering or truthfull? Maybe that’s another reason for the ptb to favour central bank digital currency. Saves them producing new coins and notes.

          4. With a pint of bitter North of £4 here in leafy Surrey, and likely to hit double figures with the energy crisis, that’s a lot of stamps. Contactless is convenient, but cash must remain as an alternative.

          6. And who uses coins and notes these days? I’m currently rolling out card payment facilities in our four village churches, since – post Covid – no-one carries cash. Hence the empty collection plate at every wedding and funeral in the last couple of years…;

          8. Will he insist that the engraving of Fid.Def upon coins of the realm is amended to mean Defender of Assorted Ragbag of Faiths rather than the Christian Faith?

          10. We should brace ourselves for the multi-kulti-fest that is about to be unleashed upon us.
            Charles will never get the loyalty of muslims – it’s against their religion – but he will certainly lose the loyalty of patriotic Britons.

          12. He’s facing the wrong way. The convention for coins is that the new monarch faces the opposite way from the previous one. Although the Queen faces left on stamps, but right on coins.

          13. They were going to have new, bar-coded, stamps anyway. According to a frank on one of the envelopes I received recently, the old, non-bar-coded ones need to be used up by early next year.

      4. I was in Tripoli, in Libya, when the King died. I was 5½ years old but I remember bursting into a flood of tears because I thought kings lived for ever and the end of the world was nigh..

        I greatly fear that Charles is so muddle-headedly arrogant, stupid and opinionated that he will do immense damage to the country if he is not prevented from doing so. Could he be sectioned and locked up or is there a better way to get him out of the way?

        1. I would dearly love to see Charles and the rest of the Davos crowd get their comeuppance for their loathesome Malthusian creed.

          2. I sincerely hope I don’t. I’d like to either fall off me cloud, laughing or welcome each and every one into the other place.

          1. Philip was in it up to his neck. I think the Queen deferred to him. She has certainly supported multi-culturalism at every turn, which was a key part of destroying the UK.

          3. If it is true that the Windsors one of the families that own everything, then they make the policies. One can only assume that they supported this one.

    2. The day will come when the MR will get pissed off with you referring to her as ‘Cook’ and she will cuff you one and you’ll be sorry, very sorry, and you’ll get no sympathy from us NoTTLers, given the clever-arsed abuse you have dished out.

    3. I’ve just sat down as well I had to stop painting outside obs ‘cos it’s been raining. I’ve been making some new rebated glazing beads for the side garage door. I had to turn off the bbc they are stripping and analysing every pass moment of that dear ladies life.
      I hope their insistence and boring continuous rhetoric convinces PM Truss to remove the compulsory licence fee.

  76. Bloody Hell!
    It’s absolutely chucking it down! Single thunderclap half an hour ago with light rain, now a bloody monsoon!

    1. Yo, BoB. It’s been precipitating here for at least four days. The garden needs it, but the turf I laid last November, whch has remained green throughout the drought conditions, grows visibly each day. Too wet for the mower…

        1. Tell me about it, Maggie. Still – I’m relieved from the endless watering regime, which has included five fromt and three back gardens. On my water meter…

  77. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5b61d8e464e7f9b1d9da5b584cb309cd8d31b87e27ec8255d2ccb05646afbb1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a1baadf057abe23b420522843c2b32341489d6f788cbb0370bfd727b3d03b9c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca8d69a60ce663ec2bfe489514036bd9ea4ed36af88ecb77ee2e9f6e9cef5ba9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/509ca0c9365bdbd682a5ed3a4d77f551ecdfda48cb85dbc3e93ff21ced98b3e8.jpg Yesterday, at Falsterbo, was quite quiet on the bird front, especially when compared with my visit 12 months ago when the sky and lagoons were heaving with migrating birdlife. Kestrels (a rarity where I live) were the commonest raptor, and ruff was the most common wader, with a few avocets and a small number of ducks. The drake pintail (in eclipse plumage) was the first I’ve seen of that species in years.

  78. Hello people , I have struggled to get on here for hours and now all of a sudden , Eureka .

    Chucking down with rain , are we still in drought restrictions ?

  79. ”
    The Duke and
    Duchess of Sussex are travelling to Balmoral “separately but in
    coordination” with the Royal family, the Telegraph understands.”
    Separately? The predicted beginning of their end?

    3. Quelle web tangled they weave:

      “The
      Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s office have issued a clarification, after
      previously stating that the couple had both travelled to Scotland.

      Just before 2pm, the Telegraph was told both the Duke and Duchess would be travelling to Scotland.

      They later said the Sussexes were travelling separately to the rest
      of the family, but that that plans had been coordinated with the other
      royal households.

      A source clarified at 4.40pm, that the duchess was not in fact “travelling today”.

  81. The execrable standards at the BBC continues to annoy. Just now, on the “News Special” reporting on the deteriorating health of Her Majesty, the BBC’s Scotland Correspondent has just uttered than banal opinion, “She has a great deal of pryvacy here [Balmoral] …”

    What the hell is “pryvacy”? Did she mean to say privacy but thought, for a second, that she was a brain-dead Yank?

    1. Yo, George. I live in the formerly United Kingdom, yet manage to ignore all that exudes from the Bastard Broadcasting Corporation. My advice would be to ignore it.

      I feel unutterably sad at present. Brenda has been a constant presence throughout my life. It’s somewhat ironic that, within two days of Elizabeth II instituting Elizabeth Truss, the unusual situation of having a Head of State and a PM with the same name looks somewhat brief..

      1. I remember watching Princess Elizabeth’s coronation on my Grandparent’s TV, accompanied by a number of neighbours who’d mysteriously appeared. A time of great joy.

        1. …and we all stood for the National Anthem, as you did in them there, far off forgotten days and manners.

          2. When the NA was played on the radio or television my Father-in-Law always stood up.

            Very odd I thought; I always suspected he did it for show rather than out of respect.

        3. #Me too. A little, flickering, 9″ screen that you could only see if you had the curtains drawn! We had the neighbours round, too.

      2. Her Majesty acceded the throne, Geoff, when I was just 50 weeks of age. I am the only member of my family who has lived (albeit briefly) under a King.

        2. I was not quite four when HM acceded the throne. I was born a Georgian, lived as an Elizabethan and may well die as a republican!

  82. Alf just watching, but can’t hear, cricket between England and Sri Lanka. Monsoon here, bright sunshine in Worcester.

    1. I’m not surprised he can’t hear it, but I am surprised he can see it, as England are playing South Africa, not Sri Lanka.

  83. STOP PRESS

    A spokestrans for Queen Meghan says that Her Majesty will be publishing later today a Podcast – the theme of which will be how very, very fortunate Brash’s grandmother was to know Queen Meghan.

    1. Being at the bedside of a dying legend is manna from heaven for Meghan, I should think. Genuine material that doesn’t revolve around “they were racist to me.” She’ll be the only American reporter present!

      1. He is repenting at leisure. Each time he is caught off guard, his body language gives him away.

        If only he’d listened to us here.

          1. If some of the comments here were to be followed, we would have been invading Ukraine from the West whilst Vlad invaded from the East.

          3. A small country far away, where we have no interests be they commercial, familial or diplomatic.

            Once their $12billion in gold reserves disappeared we should have left as well.

          4. A small country far away, where we have no interests be they commercial, familial or diplomatic.

            Once their $12billion in gold reserves disappeared we should have left as well.

          5. And that would have been a bad thing, why?
            One of the most corrupt countries in world might have been improved!

          7. Big difference, those invasions weren’t supported by opposing sides to eliminate a common enemy.

          8. I agree entirely. Especially my comments. Though here may be a flaw in there somewhere but hey ho….. :@)

  84. Wordle/quordle anyone?

    Wordle 446 3/6
    🟨⬛🟩⬛⬛
    🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Daily Quordle 227

    4️⃣5️⃣
    6️⃣8️⃣

    1. A Birdie Three for me also …

      Wordle 446 3/6
      🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  85. It is prolly just me – but could all this MSM stuff STOP until the Queen finally leaves this world? Which may well be years ahead.

    It is just a different version of Project Fear – and, quite honestly, it sickens me.

    1. You seem to be short of endorphins today, just let it all wash over you or change TV channel, if that’s the problem!

      1. As I have said many times, I neither watch nor listen to ANY TV or radio output containing “news”, current affairs, politics.

    2. I find it sickening too. We all know the BBC despises white people and British tradition, so they just cram down our throats what they think we want to hear. Fake as anything.

    3. It’s an incredibly fortuitous distraction from all the other misfortunes about to befall us.
      I’m sure the PTB will make the most of it to bury bad news.

  86. Charles may have to choose a new name when he takes the reins at Buck House. He could remain as Charles III or honour his grandfather with George VII. He could, of course, wish to honour his current wife and take the title King Monolulu the First. There was a Prince Monolulu but he was never crowned. He was famous for his boast “I gotta horse” but Charlie has gone one better, he has a horse, and he will have a crown too.

    https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Charles-and-Camilla.jpg

    Some of you oldies may remember Ras Prince Monolulu, horse-racing tipster.

      1. Ruling over a re-wilded Britain, with the few remaining peasants crammed into tiny flats in cities where they don’t clutter up his beautiful countrside with their vile dwellings and cars.

      2. He’ll have to change his attitudes.

        As far as we understand, there is no place for royalty in the New World Order.

        2. Au contraire, I think the group of families that own most of the wealth and run everything see themselves as a super-human elite, and certainly as royal.

    5. Charles Philip Arthur George?

      There have been a few King Charles’s and King George’s … and King Arthur is mythical. What about King Philip? Or would that give him the Pip?

      2. Regnal names:
        Charles, the executed Richard the hated Arthur the half-baked Philip the Greek
        King CRAP the last?

  87. I am very pleased to read that trouble has changed its travel plans and isn’t heading for Balmoral. Doubtless she’s writing her condolence speech ready for a podcast.

  88. Christian chaplain was dismissed from fee-paying boarding school after he refused to chant ‘smash heteronormativity’ when invited to by LGBT+ charity, tribunal hears
    Reverend Dr Bernard Randall, 49, was dismissed from Trent College last year
    Made claims of discrimination and unfair dismissal against his former employer
    Educate and Celebrate worked with school to provide LGBT inclusivity training
    Rev Randall told tribunal E&C’s programme was ‘contrary to Christian teaching’
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11193253/Chaplain-dismissed-refusing-chant-smash-heteronormativity-tribunal-hears.html#newcomment

    Woke has got into too many independent schools – this will not do them any good at all.

    BTL

    I expect that many prospective parents looking for a good independent school for their children will be striking Trent College off the list.

    2. As would any normal person have done.
      Parents would have to be bonkers to send their children to that school now!

  91. All of today’s events – ‘Notes’ passed in the House of Commons, cancellation of Household events and appointment of Privy Councilors, MSM speculation about the Queen’s health and the emergency gathering of the Royal clan at Balmoral – would make sense if based on a medical bulletin – issued about Noon today – to the Royal Household, indicating that Her Majesty was likely to die in a matter of hours …

    2. I think you’re right; to bring them all in from public engagements suggests it actually is serious.

      Liverpool pathway, but she’ll never walk alone.

  92. That’s me for today. Very successful at the market – far fewer people there. Then useful ladder work. Greenhouse sorting – seeds sown for winter salads.

    Have a jolly evening NOT listening to any news.

    A demain.

  93. Pouring here again and really raining. I have a pot of coriander I want to put in a bigger pot but it’s going to have to wait until a dry spell tomorrow. Think I’m developing mildew 😉

    1. I would fly the flag at half mast to mark HM’s passing, but the rain here is torrential and it’s as black as your hat, so it will have to wait until tomorrow now.

      1. There is one of the crew that looks the image of Schwab but I can’t remember who it is. I suspect they are all clones.

      2. Too true. The hand gesture alone tells me that he is a Bilderberger, part of the supra national Masonic mafia.

        Nothing in the mainstream media (that’s you BBC) on the Dutch farmer protests, which have been going on for weeks, nor the massive demonstrations in Eastern Europe, Germany, France, Italy and other nations against the mad Green Energy/Climate Change Agenda of the Davos shite.

        Folk are also showing signs of life and finally understanding the Covid hoax for what it was. Multiple lawsuits especially in the United States where Courts are requiring full disclosure of emails between Fauci and Zuckerberg and the rest of the corrupt media.

        1. I am very sad. I think I thought she would live forever. God rest the poor little soul, and reunite her with her beloved Philip.

    1. I reckon that her recent decline and inability to carry out normal functions – the ceremony re newly appointed Privy Councillors, Cabinet Ministers etc. – broke her heart and damaged her will to live.

    2. One must respect her fortitude and determination to perform one of her most important duties, appointing her Prime Minister to form Her Majesty’s government. Heaven only knows what that must have taken out of her.

      I am staggered by her determination to fulfil her coronation vows right up to and until her death.
      To plagiarise a famous quote:
      If the British and their peoples last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘She was their finest monarch.’
      God rest the Queen

    1. Can’t stop crying, me. I even had an email from my son in NC who was shocked. He is still a British Subject.

        2. I left the Army three years ago but had to stand to attention in front of the tv and saluted as the anthem was played by the BBC.

          1. I remember, vividly, standing before a Justice of the Peace and swearing the oath of allegiance to the Crown. That allegiance has never wavered.

      1. I’m descended from the Border Reivers.

        Dalston, Cumbria is close to where I grew up. Sadly, my main connection with that Dalston was that I played the organ for a wedding of someone who had been a potential life partner. We’re still in touch, however. I think it worked out for the best.

        1. I won a 3rd prize at Dalton Show for a posy of wild flowers in a teacup! I think I was about 8 years old, so 1965!

    5. In 1962 she waved to me, along with most of my schoolmates, as she was driven through Ham, where to and from I had no idea. I did like her a lot, and old Phil. None left now that I have much interest in. I’m sure Charles will make a cock of it.

      1. I had a similar experience in the fifties when I formed a guard of honour and HM was driven in an open-topped Landy through our massed ranks.

  104. Maybe we Nottlers need to start a new page. I can’t even think about anything else now we have lost our Dear Queen.

  105. A true servant of the people. Never mind the riches, she served the nation, we shall never see the like again. Rest in Peace, Lillibet, and give our regards to your first and lifelong true love, Philip.

      1. She was so devoted to Philip that I thought that she wouldn’t be able to bear life without him at her side. It was something of a surprise that she lived for 17 months after she lost him.

        1. Agreed, Grizz. He was her rock, and it was clear she was visibly diminished when he died.

      1. Yes and no, she appointed her Prime minister and told her to form a government only a couple of days ago. I doubt any of participants thought she would be dead three days later.

        1. MB and I think she deliberately kept herself going to carry out that last duty.
          Mind often rules over matter.

          1. An extraordinary devotion to duty.

            If the time comes that “vow” is redefined, it will be along the lines of “it’s as sure as Queen Elizabeth’s promise”

    2. Have a good hols anyway. Grief is the price we pay for love-as the Queen herself said after 9-11. Many of us loved HM and we will grieve for her.

    3. Have a great time, Stormy.
      Cold sweet sherry, with ice, is good. The flavour doesn’t get chilled away.

        1. Sunshine and a change of scenery will do you good.
          Raise a glass to Her Majesty whilst you are there – but not with cheap alcohol in it, something suitable.
          Skål!

  110. A curious fact. The Queen reigned for more than a quarter of the existence of the United Sates.

  111. “How shall I abide
    In this dull world, which in thy absence is
    No better than a sty?”

    The death of Antony is movingly portrayed in Antony and Cleopatra. I wonder if the Queen wondered, as Shakespeare’s Cleopatra did, if this world would be worth staying in after Prince Philip, the great love of her life, had died?

  112. So in almost 62 years I’ve only known only one Monarch,
    But have endured loads of very useless prime ministers.
    Well apart from one, I suppose,
    Even though I’m not expecting much from the next Monarch.
    It proves that our system is far superior to the Presidential model.

    2. I love that Rik but can’t listen right now- the tears have dried for now but I can’t risk it. Was also played at my husband’s dad’s funeral.

  115. The fourth plinth on Trafalgar square should be Queen Elizabeth the Second on an Equestrian statue.

    3. No. She is worthy of more than a quarter of Trafalgar Square and should not stand lower than Nelson, a commoner.

    1. Last time we went to Nottingham we got back as far as Alfreton [by train] and had to hide in the waiting room while the heavens opened and the car park began to flood. Today we were back in Nottingham and escaped most of the rain until safely in the train – sadly the cloud followed us and, once again, it absolutely poured down as we arrived in Alfreton – same time of day too!

    3. You’ve obviously sent it our way! It’s hammering down as I type. Even my renovated drain can’t cope (but at least the flooding isn’t as bad as it used to be).

      1. While I’ve nothing against Richard the 3rd, to be fair, I cannot help my heritage and their use of rhyming slang humour.

    2. Not sure I support that – she deserves better than to be just on a plinth with others underneath Nelson.

      1. I agree.
        But it should be one of many.
        This is the easiest and most prominent and could almost be in place tomorrow.

    3. Apparently it may already be a done deal.
      Picked up from Going Postal:-

      Fred 14 minutes ago
      It’s already been sorted. James Max on Talk Radio was talking a few months ago and stated that it takes about 6 years from her death for the permanent statue to be in place. He has a colleague who works in the specific department that deals with this, hence why for the past few years it has been occupied temporarily with crap statues.

  119. Much will be revealed about the state of our nation over the next week or two. It won’t all be good…

    2. I am bracing myself for a tide of multi-kulti propaganda and hypocrisy. I don’t expect anything good from Charles.

        2. I thought that until the start of this year when I realised how deeply he is involved with malthusianism and the WEF.
          His speech at Davos in 2022 was far too political – in the world war currently raging between the elites and the people, he has declared against the people, for the other side.
          That alone should disqualify him from becoming our head of state.

        2. I shall avoid it. Elizabeth’s great merit was that she came from a past era where the elites knew that they needed the people, plus she was naturally serious and devoted to duty. Her son has had his head turned by pseudo intellectual malthusianism like that peddled by Harari, which is the basis for Charles’s contempt for us.

  121. Evening, all. RIP Her Majesty. I doubt we’ll see her like again for dedication to duty. The later races at the AW tracks were abandoned after the announcement, which struck me as somewhat ironic, given HM’s great interest in horseracing!

      1. That was my first reaction! The first I learned of HM’s demise was a tribute to her life with horses in Horse and Hound.

  122. Dammit,I was holding up quite well,but…….

    Phillip came to me today,
    and said it was time to go.
    I looked at him and smiled,
    as i whispered that “I know”

    I then turned and looked behind me,
    and seen I was asleep.
    All my Family were around me,
    and I could hear them weep.

    I gently touched each shoulder,
    with Phillip by my side.
    Then I turned away and walked,
    with My Angel guide.

    Phillip held my hand,
    as he lead the way,
    to a world where King’s and Queens,
    are Monarch’s every day.

    I was given a crown to wear
    or a Halo known by some.
    The difference is up here,
    they are worn by everyone.

    I felt a sense of peace,
    my reign had seen its end.
    70 years I had served my Country,
    as the peoples friend.

    Thank you for the years,
    for all your time and love.
    Now I am one of two again,
    in our Palace up above 🇬🇧

    1. I am well into a second bottle- There will be no-one else like the Queen. I keep crying and have had a few emails from my son and pals in US. She was well loved there also.

      1. She had a good innings. She’s better off now. I just will not listen to, or watch, the MSM fawning and shedding fake tears over her. We know how good she was.

      4. I have just had a message of condolence from my Omani friend, he says Oman is very saddened by her death.
        They lost their very much loved Sultan Qaboos a short while back, so can feel our loss.

        Ps.
        Flags will be at half mast on all Oman public and private buildings as a mark of respect for Britain’s late Queen.

        1. Know how you feel, little Bro’.
          I guessed it was coming earlier today but didn’t quite expect it so soon.
          May she rest in eternal peace and be reunited with her husband.
          I reckon half the country (world) will be getting pissed tonight. My son and US pals are beside themselves.

  129. Harry and the Harridan should keep their heads down.
    If the stupid grasping bitch makes a silly podcast she might well get lynched.

      1. Nope.
        The very last thing we need at the moment is for that poisonous, venomous piece of shit to become a martyr of the left.

        1. Sod the white wine, I think I shall have a G&T tonight, I don’t want to see anything about that pair…

          1. I can’t stand gin but go for it Jill. I am so upset I shall probably get a bit pissed tonight.

  131. Just removing my inappropriate quip about pronouns. I will recycle it at a later date. (HER Britannic Majesty’s Government in passports)

    1. Well, fcuk you Macron, I’m not going to France anytime soon and if I do go abroad, it’ll be either via Spain or Belgium. We should ALL avoid Macrons petit little bollock-hell.

    2. Very good, But a friend in the pub last night, a sailing man, told us of the horror stories of docking vessels in small French ports. One needs to travel many miles to a hub port to get one’s passport stamped. So you land in a small French port and have to travel 50 miles or more, by whatever transport you can manage, and back again just to stay for a day or two.

    1. Let us hope he recognises:
      “ If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

  133. From https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/

    “21:11 Sorg og sang utenfor Buckingham Palace Da det ble varslet torsdag ettermiddag at det var bekymring om dronningens helsetilstand, samlet en menneskemengde seg i pøsregnet utenfor slottet.
    Sent på ettermiddagen dukket det opp en regnbue som løftet humøret, men klokka 18.30 britisk tid – 19.30 norsk tid – ble nyheten om dronningens død kunngjort. Journalister på stedet forteller om folk som gråt idet flagget ble senket til halv stang.

    Deretter ble det helt stille. Så begynte de mange hundre som hadde samlet seg å synge nasjonalsangen – som fra nå av heter «God Save the King».

    21:11 Sorrow and song outside Buckingham Palace when the message came on Thursday afternoon that there was concern over the Queen’s health, and a crowd assembled in the downpour outside the Palace.
    Later in the afernoon, a rainbow appeared and that lifted the mood, but at 18:30 UK time the news that the Queen had died was released. Journalists there reported on people who cried as the flag was lowered to half mast.

    Then it became totally silent, and the many hundreds who had assembled there began to sing the national anthem – now called “God save the King,”

  134. What a ‘sad’ day three letters can mean so much. But never cover the sentiments of the life of such a magnificent person whose life in reality effected all of us. Rest in peace lovely lady.
    Slopping off to bed now.
    Good night everyone.

  135. There are only two occasions in my life when I have been totally moved, to the point of tears, by the death of a public figure, today and the death of Winston Churchill.

    And today is by far the more poignant;

    2. I remember Churchill’s death but I was young. I am and have been moved to tears by HM’s death. I don’t want her gone,

    3. My feelings today bring back the sane emotions I felt during repatriation ceremonies at Camp Bastion. Not public figures, but mourned by the nation nonetheless.

    4. I agree, Sos, The dipping of the cranes along the Thames was the most poignant for me. I sincerely hope that the organisers of her funeral will come up with something as tear-jerking. She was a great lady.

    5. I only saw my father cry twice, once on the death of Churchill and again on that of his elder brother.

  137. Goodnight.
    King Charles, may you be guided by your mother as you embark upon what may be a period of great turmoil.
    God save the King

    1. Condolences, respect and sadness all around the world.
      What a remarkable lady Her Majesty was!

  139. Out of context perhaps , but I think it is appropriate for now.

    The Life That I Have :
    The life that I have
    Is all that I have
    And the life that I have
    Is yours

    The love that I have
    Of the life that I have
    Is yours and yours and yours.
    A sleep I shall have
    A rest I shall have
    Yet death will be but a pause
    For the peace of my years
    In the long green grass
    Will be yours and yours and yours.

    By Leo Marks

    1. Yes, Leo Marks wrote a memoir called Silk and Cyanide.
      Odd that he wasn’t asked to work for the Security Services rather than the SOE.
      He was very young, but a natural cryptographer, so I wonder if it was anti-semitism.

  141. I was immensely sad to learn of the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II today, and we will indeed mourn. I had the great honour of meeting her which I will never forget.

  142. Going to bed, very tired and distressed.
    RIP Queen Elisabeth II – you served us so well.

  144. That’s me for today. Hope to see from all Y’all tomorrow.
    Maybe some interesting dreams, who knows?

      1. My reply:

        “Stupid boy. Her Majesty regained her rightful place as sovereign of a sovereign nation. We shall never see her like again. For all your stupid rants.”

      2. My reply:

        “Stupid boy. Her Majesty regained her rightful place as sovereign of a sovereign nation. We shall never see her like again. For all your stupid rants.”

      3. Good grief. We are here attempting to re establish our identity as a nation state as we watch Europe, or rather the EU, disintegrating before our very eyes as predicted.

        There is plain dumb and then there is rank stupid.

      5. Richard Morris’s comment is just about the most crass statement I have read. A woman, the Head of State has passed away, and all he thinks of is his beloved EU, a sinister movement that is ripping the heart out of Europe.
        Elizabeth II was nothing if not consistent in performing her duties and she must have been ailing when she had her audience with Truss. An era that spanned my life has ended and a new one has begun. Let us hope that Elizabeth II’s successor’s reign is as consistent as benign as hers was.

    2. Not a fan of either, and bugger Johnson if he thinks he has any of Churchill’s oratory or literary skills.

      1. I believe Enoch Powell, professor of Greek at Oxford, would have made a more fitting eulogy on the life of our dear departed Queen Elizabeth. A commentary based on a true understanding on the one hand of the vital relevance of our Monarchy and on the other a profound knowledge of the classics as opposed to some ham fisted rhetoric of a schoolboy as we have witnessed from Johnson time and again.

      2. I believe Enoch Powell, professor of Greek at Oxford, would have made a more fitting eulogy on the life of our dear departed Queen Elizabeth. A commentary based on a true understanding on the one hand of the vital relevance of our Monarchy and on the other a profound knowledge of the classics as opposed to some ham fisted rhetoric of a schoolboy as we have witnessed from Johnson time and again.

  148. We had a nice relaxing meal out with our friends in Hexham and I’m quite glad we didn’t hear the news till we got back here. Just read all your tributes and a bit of the news on the radio. It really is the end of the era. I’m glad her family were able to be there with her.

    1. I was at the Wigmore this evening for a wonderful concert. The director of the hall came out just before it began and asked for a minute silence for Our Late Queen. I’d been told at work to expect it tonight but the news still came too soon.

  149. I shall leave you all with this by Shelley.

    A Lament:

    O World ! O Life ! O Time !
    On whose last steps I climb,
    Trembling at that where I had stood before;
    When will return the glory of your prime?
    No more–Oh, never more!
    Out of the day and night
    A joy has taken flight;
    Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar
    Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight No more–Oh, never more !

  150. I shall leave you all with this by Shelley:
    A Lament:

    O World ! O Life ! O Time !
    On whose last steps I climb,
    Trembling at that where I had stood before;
    When will return the glory of your prime?
    No more–Oh, never more!
    Out of the day and night
    A joy has taken flight;
    Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar
    Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight No more–Oh, never more !

  152. A sad day for our nation. My thoughts are with the Royal Family, as I wish you all a good night.

  157. Purists will frown at the selection of individual movements from a work but 60 minutes is a long haul at this hour and the third movement is a bit ‘Knees up, Muvvah Brahn’. The work is Ralph Vaughan Williams ‘London Symphony’ in its original version with the last movement’s 7-minute epilogue restored.

    II. Listen for the great crescendo at about 8:30. Grip the armchair. Twice.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt86LRFtmnA

    IV. RWV was apparently inspired by HG Wells’s Tono-Bungay. From the distant Westminster chimes at about 11:00, the movement fades away into the night. Wells wrote of this:
    The last great movement in the London Symphony in which the true scheme of the old order is altogether dwarfed and swallowed up … Light after light goes down. England and the Kingdom, Britain and the Empire, the old prides and the old devotions, glide abeam, astern, sink down upon the horizon, pass – pass. The river passes – London passes, England passes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88IHQYC1HU

    1. Composers such as RVW were committed to the ideas of the American writer and poet Walt Whitman whose collection of essays ‘Leaves of Grass’ became the light of democracy for many following WWI.

      Delius in particular represented that body of English composers committed to Whitman’s ideas. His work Sea Drift is the perfect example.

  158. The BBC Proms have been pulled, so no Last Night. The final concert was thus on Wednesday evening, appropriately Beethoven’s Missa solemnis.

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