Tuesday 20 September: British pageantry at its best as the nation gives thanks for the life of Queen ElizabethBritish pageantry at its best as the nation gives thanks for the life of Queen Elizabeth

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

755 thoughts on “Tuesday 20 September: British pageantry at its best as the nation gives thanks for the life of Queen ElizabethBritish pageantry at its best as the nation gives thanks for the life of Queen Elizabeth”

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    What a remarkable life:

    Kenneth Tout, tank gunner in the D-Day landings who later served in the Salvation Army – obituary

    He worked on disaster relief and for the poor and elderly and wrote well-received books about tank warfare and the Polish armed forces

    ByTelegraph Obituaries 19 September 2022 • 10:48am

    Kenneth Tout, who died aged 98, served in the Second World War a as a Sherman tank gunner and commander and devoted the rest of his life to disaster relief work and helping the poor and elderly.

    In May 1947 Tout was commissioned as an Army Officer (Minister of Religion) in the Salvation Army. A number of appointments followed in Manchester, Durham and West Yorkshire and, during this time, he launched one of the first clubs for older people and an experimental youth centre.

    In 1954 the Salvation Army posted him to Quilmes Children’s Home, near Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he became involved in rescue work after flooding of the River Plate caused loss of life and the destruction of many homes.

    While in South America, he crossed the Andes and lived in Santiago, Chile. In May 1960, one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck the south of the country, killing or injuring more than 4,000 people and leaving two million homeless. The president, Jorge Alessandri Rodríguez, asked him to co-ordinate relief work in the town of Valdivia, close to the epicentre.

    In 1963 the Salvation Army posted him to South Africa, where he was an editor and travelling reporter and a member of the Archbishop of Cape Town’s Racial Affairs Committee and the National Christian Aid Committee. He had an editorial role from 1969 to 1971 in the International Headquarters in London. His final rank in the Salvation Army was that of major.

    For the next 28 years, he worked with Oxfam, HelpAge International and the UN Ageing Unit. In retirement, he set up his own consultancy. He was a guest speaker at international conferences and became the first lecturer in transcultural gerontology at the University of Florida.

    When advising Pope John Paul II on age-related poverty in developing countries, he took the opportunity to suggest that some of the unused silverware belonging to the Church should be de-consecrated and sold to benefit those in greatest need. His recommendation bore fruit. For services to the elderly, he received a UN citation and in 1994 he was appointed OBE.

    Kenneth John Tout was born on January 10 1924 in Hereford. His father, John, served with the Royal Engineers in the First World War before settling in the town, where he established a shoe-repair business. He was the choirmaster of the Salvation Army for 50 years.

    Young Ken helped in the business, cycling to customers’ homes and delivering shoes. On one occasion he was given a sixpence tip by Sir Edward Elgar. Educated on a scholarship at Hereford High School, he immersed himself in the musical side of Salvation Army activities, became a junior bandsman, played the euphonium and, aged 17, was appointed junior choirmaster.

    He worked for Hereford County Council before being called up in 1942 and trained on tanks with the Royal Armoured Corps at Catterick. After promotion to lance-corporal, he was posted to 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry and, on D-Day, June 6 1944, landed in Normandy. As a Sherman tank gunner and commander he took part in fierce fighting around Caen and the thrust eastwards to the Netherlands.

    In October he was wounded and evacuated to England. Arriving at Hereford railway station at night, he was helped off the train. Unable to walk, he was delighted to be recognised by the local postmaster, who hurried to his parents’ house and threw pebbles at their bedroom window to wake them up and tell them that their son was safe.

    After a spell in Hereford General Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, he returned to Catterick Camp. In 1946 he served in Palestine with the 1st King’s Dragoon Guards and became the regimental education sergeant. After demob he entered the Salvation Army William Booth International Theological College as a student.

    Tout was a recognised military historian and wrote many excellent books. Tank, 40 hours of battle, August 1944 is one of the best first-hand accounts of tank warfare in the Second World War. In 1986 he visited the Bergen-Hohne training area in West Germany as the guest of the 1st Battalion the Royal Tank Regiment to discuss the crewing of a future main battle tank. For researching the history of the Polish armed forces in the west in the Second World War he was awarded a Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Polish Republic.

    He became vice-president of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry Regimental Association as well as organising many return trips to the Normandy battlefield. He was appointed to the Légion d’honneur.

    He also wrote a book of war poems, musicals and the history of the Christian Church. He was a doctor of philosophy and an honorary research fellow at Keele University. An accomplished pianist, settled in a village in Sussex, he enjoyed music, and maintained an interest in discussing world events.

    Ken Tout married, in 1974, Jai Naylor, who survives him with a son and three daughters.

    Kenneth Tout, born January 10 1924, died July 10 2022

    * * *
    A fitting BTL comment:

    John Huddlestone7 HRS AGO

    He certainly led a full and varied life, and an inspiring one at that. Fighting in those poorly armored tanks took much bravery. To do his military service and then revert back to the “Sally Army” certainly defined his love for our country and his more spiritual beliefs.

    Job very well done Sir. RIP.

    * * *

    Life in a Sherman tended to be shorter, due to the storage of ammo in the sane compartment as the crew. Not the cleverest of designs!

    2. Mr Tout did not marry until he was fifty, but he still had plenty of ammo and thus was able to father four children.

  5. A requiem for Black Lives Matter. Spiked 20 September 2022.

    Be that as it may, organisational contributions and individual speaking fees have certainly enabled a pleasant lifestyle for the Black Lives Matter national leadership team, as well as those affiliated with the charities they support. During 2020 and 2021, former BLMGNF CEO Patrisse Cullors made headlines repeatedly because of her taste in luxury real estate – purchasing ‘a custom ranch … featuring a private aeroplane hangar’ on 3.2 acres of prime Georgia land, and a 2,370 square foot Topanga Canyon property including ‘two houses on a quarter acre’, as well as checking out a third property in a trendy Bahamas resort ‘where Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods both have homes’. These new toys joined the two homes she already owned: an $800,000 property in Inglewood, and a $720,000 home in diverse but gentrifying South LA. From the balcony of any of those, glass in hand, revolution must seem a fine thing indeed.

    No surprises here! This thing was always a scam.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/20/a-requiem-for-black-lives-matter/

    1. It was a clever one, though, because so many who should have known better willingly fell for it. I wonder how much Hamilton and other wealthy blicks donated to it?

      ‘Morning Minty.

      1. Morning Hugh. I was surprised at how quickly it took off, particularly as the victim was so unsavoury; until I realised that it was all arranged in advance. They were simply waiting for someone! Anyone (provided they were black) would have sufficed really!

    2. No surprise, indeed. We are beset with scams and as dark and evil as BLM is it is small beer compared to what governments around the World are currently involved in e.g. Climate Change and pandemics. That’s not to say that BLM isn’t another brick in the wall of oppression being encouraged by governments/intelligence agencies. The latter are past-masters at using useful idiots to further their nefarious aims.

  6. Lots of Brent Geese flying in from Russia landing at Cuckmere Haven then flying into the South Downs to feed..Womderful to see..

    2. Yesterday afternoon, in a beautiful blue sky, I enjoyed the spectacle of no fewer than 5,000 Common Cranes flying in in massive V formations and then circulating in one mass directly over my house. They then thermalled from about 1,000 feet up to around 8,000 feet before reforming their huge Vs and flying off south.

  7. I have generally avoided letters about the Queen’s funeral, but having been a pall bearer myself on one occasion (at the request of the widow 5 minutes before the start of the service and therefore without any training or practice) this letter stood out:

    SIR – I was particularly struck by the dedication and discipline of the Grenadier Guards who bore our late Queen, in her lead-lined coffin, in and out of Westminster Abbey, and finally into St George’s Chapel, with such dignity, grace and precision.

    The weight of expectation on those young men must have been as heavy as the physical burden on their shoulders – carried for 10 long minutes each way at the Abbey, and up at least four flights of steps at the chapel.

    They acquitted themselves with honour and distinction, and anyone who saw them could not have failed to be impressed. Well done, lads – very well done indeed. You have made King and country proud.

    David Platts
    Newark, Nottinghamshire

        1. Watching JHB on TalkTV this morning, I realise that others shared my awe and relief when steps were safely /flawlessly negotiated and the coffin was placed … on the gun carriage; in the Abbey, out onto the gun carriage again; into the hearse, etc. etc.

          1. To reword an oldie: “It’s gravity – the gravity of what would happen if they got it wrong…”

  8. Good morning, all. Cloudy.

    I still find it very hard to believe that the Queen – who appeared reasonably fit and well and smiling – and doing her constitutional job two weeks ago – is dead.

    1. Me too, Bill. Admittedly she did look a little more frail than usual when she invited Liz Truss to form a government, but her deterioration must have been swift.

      1. That big purple bruise on her hand indicated she’d had a cannula in there. Perhaps for an infusion of something? She probably was determined to stay alive for that final duty and then that was it.

        2. I get those – each time I bang my hands/arms – bloody great dark “bruise”. Dr Sensible told me they just happened and were the least of my worries

    2. She isn’t dead, except in the most morbid undertaker’s mind. I’m sure you read Stig’s most wonderful description posted here a couple of days ago of all the faces that filed past Her in Westminster Hall. She will continue to live on in our generation’s spirit and the generation behind us and for several years to come if we are diligent. We need to stomp on the BBC types and the rest of them whenever they try to assert themselves, on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the hills and the streets, we shall never surrender.

    3. Its very odd, not even the main family knew in time to be at her bedside. And not a word of explanation..

      1. It could have been any number of things: a fall banging her head, a stroke, a heart attack. At her age almost any problem could be deadly.

    4. Morning all.

      I saw that again recently and only then thought how much weight she had lost. As Ndovu says I think our Queen hung on for her last public act in appointing Liz Truss Prime Minister.

  9. 356279+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 20 September: British pageantry at its best as the nation gives thanks for the life of Queen Elizabeth British pageantry at its best as the nation gives thanks for the life of Queen Elizabeth.

    Amen to that

    Total agreement from me with one additive
    can we now start to build on the Queens legacy in a beneficial to the United Kingdom
    manner instead of the complete reversal as has been the case, openly, these past three
    plus decades.

    We are witnessing today people power via the polling booth and what it has achieved on coming to fruition as in rotherham, rochdale,
    the daily invasion, mass paedophilia, murder,
    malicious serious injuries, ONGOING.

    The feeding of the hydra heads in governance
    should have been brought to heel decades ago, the electorate are in party (ino) before Country mode, and that mode dictates that the end of beloved Blighty is nigh.

  10. SIR – The performance of the Armed Forces – whose outstanding fortitude, dedication, commitment, attention to detail and utter refusal to countenance the possibility of failure during Queen Elizabeth’s funeral – surely serves as a lesson to all of us.

    It stands in stark contrast to the behaviour of large sections of society, both private and public, who are more than ready to provide shoddy (or no) service, while offering up the flimsiest of excuses and demanding more money.

    Keith Whittaker
    Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire

    Hear, hear Mr Whittaker!

    1. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      I personally think that Mr Whittaker’s letter is probably the best letter of the year and should be recognised as so. It highlights the one solitary thing that is missing from most elements of British society but, thankfully and crucially, it remains as the essence of the armed forces.

      DISCIPLINE.

      Another letter, touching on the same topic, also deserves highlighting:

      SIR — Why can’t the people who organised and carried out Queen Elizabeth’s funeral be put in charge of the NHS, Passport Office and DVLA?

      John Dunn
      Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire.

      I would ago one further than that, Mr Dunn. I would sack all those who are currently in charge and offer them no compensation. That way they may live long enough to think deeply about (and repent at leisure over) their own lack of discipline; both self- and instilled.

  11. Jeremy Morfey, our contributor from the acting world, has not posted a comment for eleven days now. I know that he’s been going to Poland for Dental Treatment but that should not interfere unduly with his activities online. I hope he’s OK!

      2. I’ve been staring at one word for five minutes thinking it doesn’t look right. It’s finally dawned on me – sporadic 🙂

    1. I bumped into two ladies yesterday whilst we were walking our labradors.
      Both from Zim. They Had to leave because of murdering Mugabe and his government. It became too dangerous for white people to live there. All due to new arrivals, as in people from more Northern parts of Africa. Nigeria etc etc you name it. All newly arrived to Rob steal rape and pillage. So far right down to JHB and southern suburbs.
      Once a bustling metropolis, now just another filthy scruffy ‘No Go’ African shit hole. Their own words.
      You need to get out more at home Cyril.

  14. A BTL comment that, for me, hugely understates the writers reaction to a particularly silly letter:

    Lost World
    32 MIN AGO
    SIR – Huw Edwards deserves a knighthood for his splendid, tasteful commentary on the funeral.
    Pauline Grove
    Pauline, your suggestion is ridiculous hyperbolic nonsense.

    * * *

    Ms Grove seems to have accepted that pretty well anyone who can run fast/cycle fast/hit things/make pots of money for themselves should be put up for a Knighthood. In the case of Edwards his ridiculous salary of north of £400,000 obviously isn’t sufficient in the eyes of the writer!

    1. Well I am very glad that I watched on GB News! Three right wing icons on one programme was wonderful! The vocabulary and sentiments were NORMAL instead of grating on me.

  15. A BTL comment that, for me, hugely understates the writers reaction to a particularly silly letter:

    Lost World
    32 MIN AGO
    SIR – Huw Edwards deserves a knighthood for his splendid, tasteful commentary on the funeral.
    Pauline Grove
    Pauline, your suggestion is ridiculous hyperbolic nonsense.

    * * *

    Ms Grove seems to have accepted that pretty well anyone who can run fast/cycle fast/hit things/make pots of money for themselves should be put up for a Knighthood. In the case of Edwards his ridiculous salary of north of £400,000 obviously isn’t sufficient in the eyes of the writer!

  16. Thanks to everyone for supportive comments yesterday, I think we are seeing some progress, however slight.

    1. 18 days ago (!) you asked about the aroma of Vosene shampoo. Wiki states that : “The Original formula contains salicylic acid, an anti-dandruff ingredient. However, this was not the active ingredient prior to the late 1980’s. Before the change to salicylic acid, the two active ingredients in Vosene were coal tar and sulphusuccinated undecylenic monoalkanolamide (no idea). These chemicals were discovered to be carcinogenic, leading to their replacement with salicylic acid; therefore, what’s now marketed as “original formula” is not the same product..”
      Traditional coal tar shampoo was excellent at relieving undefinable varieties of itchy scalp, but the EU managed to ban it. IMHO it is unlikely that coal tar shampoo has any carcinogenic effect when applied in such tiny doses as >25ml, because the dangerous constituent is benzene; without spending hours reading chemistry papers, I cannot be certain but I suspect that the coal tar extract has been distilled and therefore the benzene will have been removed (think of alcohol free beer).
      Correct me if I am mistaken, but benzene is in unleaded petrol, and every occasion that you fill up the vehicle, that petrol smell is due to benzene molecules wafting through your nose, mouth and throat.

      1. Gosh, thank you for looking all that up. I suppose I could have done it myself. I plan to buy some Vosene next time I need shampoo – prob not for a couple of months – and will read the small print then.

  17. Headline in today’s DT:

    “End petrol and diesel car sales by 2035, urges International Energy Agency

    Efforts to cut emissions ‘falls short’ to boost energy security and tackle climate change, group warns”

    Yes, that’s fine – provided we can all be provided with cars that cost the same (or less, even) than present, can be refuelled in minutes and where a tankful in my case will take me 650 miles…

    Edit…Oh yes, and a car that retains a decent used value.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/20/end-petrol-diesel-car-sales-2035-urges-international-energy/

    1. Agreed and more to the global point…..
      Who are the International Energy Agency. Where are they based and who are the members ?
      And who voted for them ?

      1. The IEA was founded on November 18, 1974, after the 1973 oil crisis, to avoid future shocks by helping to ensure reliable energy supplies, promote energy efficiency, ensure energy security and encourage technological research and innovation.

        The Agreement on an International Energy Program (IEP Agreement) established the mandates and structure of the IEA, chartering it as an autonomous organisation under the umbrella of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

        The IEA operates autonomously, with its own budget and governance structure. The organization began with 16 founding member countries and has since expanded to 31, with the latest addition being Lithuania in 2022. Full members of the IEA must also be members of the OECD and are required to hold 90 days worth of oil imports as emergency stocks. These emergency stocks can be released to stabilize oil markets worldwide and have been activated five times: January 1991 due to the Gulf War, 2005 after devastation in the Gulf of Mexico from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 2011 during the Libyan crisis, and twice in 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

        This of course evades the question as to who is paying for it! The list of members is more instructive for who is not on it!

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

        1. ensure reliable energy supplies = Nope

          ensure energy security = Nope

          encourage technological research and innovation = Windmills.

      2. The IEA was founded on November 18, 1974, after the 1973 oil crisis, to avoid future shocks by helping to ensure reliable energy supplies, promote energy efficiency, ensure energy security and encourage technological research and innovation.

        The Agreement on an International Energy Program (IEP Agreement) established the mandates and structure of the IEA, chartering it as an autonomous organisation under the umbrella of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

        The IEA operates autonomously, with its own budget and governance structure. The organization began with 16 founding member countries and has since expanded to 31, with the latest addition being Lithuania in 2022. Full members of the IEA must also be members of the OECD and are required to hold 90 days worth of oil imports as emergency stocks. These emergency stocks can be released to stabilize oil markets worldwide and have been activated five times: January 1991 due to the Gulf War, 2005 after devastation in the Gulf of Mexico from hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 2011 during the Libyan crisis, and twice in 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

        This of course evades the question as to who is paying for it! The list of members is more instructive for who is not on it!

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

    2. “End petrol and diesel car sales by 2035″ except for the rich, urges International Energy Agency.

      1. Or cycle. Twice yesterday I was close to being rammed on public footpaths.
        Why have some people weaponised
        cycling ?
        Just slow down !

        1. Very true, Eddy. What a contrast to the sedate and polite cyclists in Holland we saw a few years ago

          1. Had the same experience in Tilberg, we couldn’t believe how many bikes there were. And one act of aggression.

        2. Here they cycle on the pavements – barely feet away from the unused cycle track beside the carriageway.

        1. ITV swears that those two shysters didn’t jump any queues at the Lying-in-State. Just very lucky that there was absolutely no one there when they “popped in”….

      3. A bit like POTUS arriving yesterday in his imported motorcade and the others travelling by bus. The division is already upon us.

      4. Paul Simon ought to front up a campaign to encourage bus travel. He should codename it Augustus.

    4. Your and my pipe dreams of practical, affordable and efficient electric cars are not compatible with reality or what the bastards want for us plebs.

    5. I say – End the International Agency for coming out with that rubbish. We all know what the end game is – no more cars/international travel for we plebs.

    7. It’s a real Mandy Rice Davis moment by the “International Energy Agency”, isn’t it?!

  18. Headline in today’s DT:

    “End petrol and diesel car sales by 2035, urges International Energy Agency

    Efforts to cut emissions ‘falls short’ to boost energy security and tackle climate change, group warns”

    Yes, that’s fine – provided we can all be provided with cars that cost the same (or less, even) than present, can be refuelled in minutes and where a tankful in my case will take me 650 miles…

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/20/end-petrol-diesel-car-sales-2035-urges-international-energy/

  19. Two letters today commenting on our wonderful “servicemen and women”.
    Now I know we women are all wonderful, goes without saying, but I do wish female service personnel would be given the correct acknowledgement. What the letter writers meant, and the DT should have corrected, is “servicemen and servicewomen’.

    1. Grammatically it’s perfectly acceptable (although clearly not to you) to omit a qualifying noun which would be duplicated in the second phrase.

      1. It’s grammatically acceptable to say ‘gender inequality is something up with which I will not put’ but we don’t say that, do we?

        1. It isn’t gender (I think you mean sex) inequality, though, is it? If it pains you, you can say servicewomen and men. It’s the same thing. I do get the impression that you’re looking for things to complain about, to be honest.

  20. 356279+ up ticks,

    @gjb2021

    Gerard Batten,
    ·
    14h
    China, & their Globalist allies, are preparing for the coming energy & food crises, & the collapse of currencies. It’s not possible to predict exactly what will happen but it looks like a new CBDC backed by gold & the collapse of the dollar.

    It’s been obvious for years that mounting national debts can never be repaid or books balanced. Globalist controlled governments have been deliberately driving their nations off a cliff.

    previewImg
    Why China may soon reveal “astounding” gold reserves | Asia Markets

    A finance veteran believes an imminent announcement could see China reveal secret gold reserves that will astound the world.

    http://www.asiamarkets.com

    1. Gold bugs, look away now! No government will surrender its ability to manipulate and debase its currency.

        1. Morning Ogga. I speak as I find. Currency debasement has been the rule since WW II. So used are we to permanent inflation that falling prices are regarded with horror.

          1. 356279 + up ticks,

            JBF,
            Agreed, in my book these Isles do seem to have incurred a great number of practising
            masochist

      2. It reminds me of November 1976 as we sailed from Southampton to Australia, the bloody government devalued the Dollar
        by 14 %. Leaving a bit of a hole in our transfered hard earned savings.

    2. This rumour is persistently going around, that China may have up to 20 000 tonnes of gold. So much gold has disappeared eastwards for years now, apparently.
      The US says it has 8000+, but is probably lying.
      In the UK of course, it’s “don’t mention the gold.”
      All rather worrying.

    1. They are all exhausted after their efforts during the lying in state and the funeral and taking a well-earned rest.

    4. It’s a strange drawing. Maybe it is showing the tiredness and relief of the participating male soldiers and sailors at the end of yesterday’s ceremonies.
      No room for a female soldier in the drawing obvs.

      1. I think your excellent campaign for more recognition for female services personnel is wasted by just airing it on this forum, D-Cup.

        It needs escalating to other areas in order for it to smack the chops … hard … of those who possess the real influence to change it.

        1. Oh I did while I was serving, believe me.
          Our CSM always used to refer to wives and girlfriends when inviting partners to a social event. I said that I had neither and asked if my boyfriend was invited. This went on for a couple of years until an edict was put out by the CO that terminoligy should change.

          Another battle won was for accommodation. Whenever the battalion was billeted at a camp there would be separate accommodation for male officers, male SNCOs and male JNCOs and ORs. There would then also be ‘female’ accommodation.

          I asked the RQMS why the men were separated by rank (knowing full well the answer) and he said that officers and seniors shouldn’t mix with juniors because a. They have earned the respect of having slightly better accommodation and b. It gives the juniors a chance to relax away from their bosses, somI asked why that wasn’t the case for the women on camp.

          We had separate accommodation for juniors and seniors the next time we went away and on every camp thereafter.

          1. Or the Royal Navy dinner toast for Saturdays:

            “Our wives and sweethearts” with the normal whispered addition; “May they never meet!”

      2. I think your excellent campaign for more recognition for female services personnel is wasted by just airing it on this forum, D-Cup.

        It needs escalating to other areas in order for it to smack the chops … hard … of those who possess the real influence to change it.

      3. My God you’re sad. Give it a rest, Stormy. You have lost all my sympathy and I bet my three (feminist) daughters would agree with me.

        My mother signed up and served in the army in WWII (not merely in the catering corps or somesuch) and she wouldn’t give you the time of day. Clear off.

        1. I’m sorry to have upset your sensibilities Citroën. Perhaps if you saw the world through my eyes’ experiences you would be more sympathetic.

          Edit- I wonder how many times suffragettes were told to ‘give it a rest’. I bet your daughters are glad they didn’t listen.

          3. I have met many fine women who serve. My neighbour being Commander RN, being of the female persuasion. They certainly know how to party and are much more fun than the matelots.

        2. Oh dear. My very presence seems to offend now. Will you be asking those who have upticked my comments to leave too?

          1. Not for a moment. Each and every one of your admirers is going to get a big wet kiss from me, like it or not, now that I have had my 2nd mug of coffee and the sun has come out. Previously on this blog, a couple of minutes ago, I apologised to you but I cannot now find the bloo*y message thingy below or above – I repeat it with guilty kisses.

            I am a very slow typist trying to get used to a new laptop. It’s all Nagsmans’ fault. {:^}}

        3. Good moaning all.

          You seem rather harsh in your comments Citroen. I would hope that we all would take heart and inspiration from our late Queen. I thought overall her message was “hope and kindness” to others.

          1. You are entirely correct, VW, and I deserve a vicious spanking for my appallingly bad behaviour so early in the morning. I am a very slow typist/thinker and if you look below, you will see that I have tried to apologise to Stormy. I am not going to write anything more at the moment because experience tells me that, once I have buggered up, I can only make things worser than they already are.

      4. It reminds me of Kipling’s Sing Song of Old Man Kangaroo in which Old Man Kangaroo has been chased all around Australia by Yellow Dog Dingo

        Down sat Dingo—Poor Dog Dingo—always hungry, dusky in the sunshine; hung out his tongue and howled.
        Down sat Kangaroo—Old Man Kangaroo—stuck out his tail like a milking-stool behind him, and said, ‘Thank goodness that’s finished!’

      5. I think the sailor has some lipstick on. I know that doesn’t mean much these days, but I think it’s a Jacqueline Tar.

    2. I can’t seem to be able to sleep beyond 6am. No matter what time i put my book down.

      Good morning.

      1. Odd that “mild” Covid might be worse long term with respect to heart disease than the full blown version, and yet the shots are designed to make it milder if you get the disease. They certainly don’t stop you getting it.
        One might thus argue that the shots are contributing to the cardiac problem.

        I would also be interested to know how many people who had it mildly but have never been jabbed are suffering similar heart problems.

    3. How very convenient. More “research” is being carried out to prove the gene therapy isn’t bad than ever was carried out to prove it was beneficial.

      2. Morning Ndovu. This vaccination program will be seen in retrospect as the most complete fiasco! Yet another nail in the coffin of Democratic Accountability!

    1. I said the same to Mrs VVOF yesterday. Her answer was they are half way there, HM the Queen is on her own again, just like Prince Phillip’s funeral.

      She can be very sharp at times, that’s why I keep her held in reserve in the social media battlefield.

  28. Good Morning. The cold light of day. For several decades a succession of governments have passed laws, some domestic, some devised by the European Union, that have emasculated our nation and impoverished our people.

    1. LOLOLOL remember all those saying Liz would put this country first?

      Well we never actually believed it!

    1. I think you’re making very valid observations, Maggie.

      Kwasi Kwarteng appeared to be on drugs, like many Old Etonians.
      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/19/09/62557737-11226783-image-a-8_1663576197803.jpg

      Jacob Rees-Mogg showed up in a top hat, merely to draw attention to himself. He (and his father before him) are such oiks, longing to be from old Recusant Caaatholic families but without a hope in hell of ever making the grade.
      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/19/09/62557663-11226783-image-a-1_1663576139128.jpg
      One only has to look at the furniture and carpets in his Somerset house to realise that he is a parvenu, and more bogus than most of that genre. Ugh.

      I have suddenly become a massive fan of the other Cabinet Catholic, Thérèse Coffey https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/19/10/62559725-11226783-image-a-30_1663579040471.jpg
      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Fsundaytimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F62ba1ea8-35d4-11ed-82d6-4227ab514d62.jpg?crop=1600%2C900%2C0%2C0&resize=1500
      Entirely my kinda gal.

      1. In amongst the tide of left wing hate on Twatter, there was one comment that did amuse me “Eton is a sort of Hogwarts for wankers”!

  31. ‘Morning All

    “It is a fact that a large majority of British people want the

    insanity of unlimited mass-immigration to stop. This has been clear for

    years. But instead of honouring the people’s wish to preserve their

    country, the machinery of government has been used to turn a river into a

    flood, a border-breach into an invasion. In a breathtakingly short

    time, the Conservative Party has become the Far Left, indulging an

    across-the-board sweep of collectivist agendas that Blair and co. never

    dared to attempt. Preserving the United Kingdom is the last thing on

    this government’s mind.

    Bankrupting the society, however, is so

    important that the forgers running the Bank of England have

    money-printing machines rolling around the clock, churning out bales of

    imaginary cash guaranteed to collapse the tattered remains of our

    post-covid economy. We are spectating -in real time- on a flat-out race

    to be the next bankrupt country in europe. The chancellors of Germany,

    France, Spain and the UK are sprinting into the abyss of unpayable debt

    as if medals and prizes were waiting -and perhaps they are.

    Dead

    Queen? Blow couple of billion on that. Russia still fighting? Sling

    another wedge to Zelensky’s stash in the Cayman Islands. Gas too

    expensive? Print another billion. Three thousand new benefit tourists

    paddling this way? Print another few billion. And all the time the

    taxpayers sit on their hands grumbling, when we should have torn this

    sham of a democracy to pieces ten years ago when they first pissed in

    our faces and claimed it was raining” Ian Andrew-Patrick

    https://99endof.blogspot.com/2022/09/a-nation-in-accident-and-emergency-ward.html#more

    1. I see Truss has already said that “we” need to match this year’s bung to Ukraine with the same again [or better] next year – not a good start!

    2. I’m just in the middle of watching Lynette Zhang’s comments on a recent IMF document.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lQ4ko73XJ0
      Lynette Zhang’s business is selling wealth management plans, so she’s not unbiased. But her point that hyperinflation is coming, as they try to inflate debts away, seems pretty likely to happen.

  32. Cultural vandalism explained.

    This is where another term is useful: cultural vandalism. This is where non-Western people, who now control the centers of cultural production, have nothing to offer, so they set about vandalizing the culture they acquired. The people behind the reboot of the Lord of the Rings are engaged in cultural vandalism. The point of the effort was not to improve the original, but to deface it.

    Independent critics have noted that this is the message that came from the performers during the promotional tour for the series. The first video in this post is amusing as the white guy struggles not to laugh while the dumpy black woman drones on about defacing the product. In other words, the starting point was to ruin the original content by smearing it with the goofy values of the new religion.

    That means the dynamic here—the dialectic, if you will—is the people defacing the product are reacting to Western culture. As Joe Sobran noted years ago, “Western man towers over the rest of the world in ways so large as to be almost inexpressible.” The creative energy behind something like the Tolkien books is beyond the imagination of our alien rulers. The result, as Sobran also noted, is envy.

    Envy naturally leads to hostility. The point of the cultural vandalism is to express the frustration and anger that naturally wells up in these people when confronted by Western culture. They fling their poo at it because that is all they can do. Like the Taliban blowing up the Buddhas of Bamiyan or BLM tearing down white statues, the people defacing our culture are moved by resentment at their own inferiority.

    A little green shoot in this age of crises is the fact that the fans of Tolkien appear to be unmoved by the poo flingers crying racism. The response has been mockery. Another feature of Western man has always been generosity. It is assumed others can be brought around, but that generosity may be finally running low. Maybe Western man is finally tiring of the ungrateful guests he generously invited into his lands.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/lord-of-the-wrongs/

  33. Spiked

    Charles the Terrible

    t seems Charles III wasn’t only proclaimed king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the weekend. Apparently he became king of the world, too. ‘The world has a climate king’, gushed one green observer. A writer for Forbes went one better, pleading with His Majesty to be a ‘climate

    monarch’ and to use ‘the power of the bully pulpit’ – seriously – to

    ‘influence climate policy’ around the world. The best thing about having

    a climate king, says this commentator who wants His Majesty to bully us

    eco-spoiling plebs, is that his clout means he’ll be able to sway the

    minds of Brits and non-Brits. Because when a king speaks,

    ‘people tend to listen, even outside Britain’. Your Majesty, go forth

    and civilise the climate-harming foreigners!

    It’s amazing that one wing of the liberal elite is prattling on about Elizabeth II having been a ‘coloniser queen’

    while another is begging Charles III effectively to be a coloniser

    king, to use his God-given, kingly power to prise open the ignorant eyes

    of the little people at home and abroad. An editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald,

    a newspaper published in one of the lands where Charles is now king,

    humbly implores His Majesty to ‘use his position to pursue the greater

    good when it comes to the environment’. Strikingly, that paper says that

    while the ‘official domain’ of the British monarch may have shrunk in

    recent decades – more than a dozen nations ditched the queen as head of

    state during her 70-year reign – it doesn’t matter because Charles-style

    eco-activism is what ‘the whole world is waiting for’ (my

    emphasis). In short, forget the historic restraints humanity placed on

    monarchical power, the most important of which is surely that a monarch

    has no power outside his ‘official domain’ – our glorious new eco-king should still use ‘his throne’s influence’ to encourage global action on the climate.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/13/charles-the-terrible/

    2. ‘Celebrities’ think their opinions are worth more than those of ordinary people. Unfortunately, many ordinary people are dazzled by the cult of celebrity, and listen to what these self-important people say.

      The saving grace of the monarchy is that it is apolitical. The Queen demonstrated this superbly during her reign. Charles should have learnt this lesson during the last 70 years.

    3. “ our glorious new eco-king should still use ‘his throne’s influence’ to encourage global action on the climate.”. I don’t think we’re going to have much choice – he’s all for it.

    4. He is way too political, and trying to pretend that environmental extremism isn’t party politics is BS, because they own both parties.
      The world can have him, frankly.
      Using Elizabeth’s funeral – which did garner worldwide attention – to launch the new monarch’s career as a world ecobully would be an appalling thing to do. Yet he’s been doing this world ecobullying since at least 1994 with the WEF.

  34. Leaden-browed, stricken, the Duke of Sussex resembles a tragic hero
    Once the people’s favourite, Prince Harry stood alongside – and yet, apart from – all that he has left behind in recent years

    Hannah Betts: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/19/leaden-browed-stricken-prince-harry-resembles-tragic-hero/

    The nature of tragedy and what makes a tragic hero are topics which “A” level English students are often asked to consider. The tragic hero falls from an
    elevated position in which he is respected and is destroyed, not by bad luck, but as the result of a vital flaw in his character or, as Hamlet describes it, a vicious mole of nature.

    So oft it chances in particular men
    That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
    As in their birth,- wherein they are not guilty,
    Since nature cannot choose his origin,-
    By the o’ergrowth of some complexion,
    Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
    Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens
    The form of plausive manners, that these men
    Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
    Being nature’s livery, or fortune’s star,
    Their virtues else- be they as pure as grace,
    As infinite as man may undergo-
    Shall in the general censure take corruption
    From that particular fault.

    Shakespeare’s major tragic heroes are undone by their own faults: Macbeth’s vicious mole was ambition, Othello’s was jealousy, Hamlet’s was indecision, Antony’s was uxorious lust for Cleopatra which destroys his judgement and King Lear’s was vanity. In each case the story ends with the character’s death.

    Harry is not a significant enough character to be considered a tragic hero – but his character was certainly very flawed. Anyone with a lawn knows that it is virtually impossible to get rid of a subterranean infestation of moles!

    In tragic life, God wot,
    No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
    We are betrayed by what is false within.

    [George Meredith]

    1. Harry and William gained an immense amount of goodwill throughout not just the UK but the world after the death of their mother. Even when Harry ‘went off the rails’ slightly people made allowances, and he rehabilitated himself through his army service. When he married, people wished him and his wife success and a happy marriage.

      He has now frittered away that consideration, and with the personal attacks on members of his family, has lost nearly all sympathy. I wonder what went wrong? It’s puzzling…

      1. I see a parallel between the peace dividend when the Berlin Wall fell and the Good Will dividend that The Princess of Wales’s sons were given when she died.

        In both cases the dividend will have proved to have been illusory.

    2. Harry and William gained an immense amount of goodwill throughout not just the UK but the world after the death of their mother. Even when Harry ‘went off the rails’ slightly people made allowances, and he rehabilitated himself through his army service. When he married, people wished him and his wife success and a happy marriage.

      He has now frittered away that consideration, and with the personal attacks on members of his family, has lost nearly all sympathy. I wonder what went wrong? It’s puzzling…

    3. How much is this “tragic hero” story media spin, and how much is their own doing? It’s hard to tell.

        1. The spoiler, obviously, is always culpable. Without the spoiler’s malign influence there is no spoilt child.

  35. Leaden-browed, stricken, the Duke of Sussex resembles a tragic hero
    Once the people’s favourite, Prince Harry stood alongside – and yet, apart from – all that he has left behind in recent years

    Hannah Betts: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/19/leaden-browed-stricken-prince-harry-resembles-tragic-hero/

    The nature of tragedy and what makes a tragic hero are topics which “A” level English students are often asked to consider. The tragic hero falls from an
    elevated position in which he is respected and is destroyed, not by bad luck, but as the result of a vital flaw in his character or, as Hamlet describes it, a vicious mole of nature.

    So oft it chances in particular men
    That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
    As in their birth,- wherein they are not guilty,
    Since nature cannot choose his origin,-
    By the o’ergrowth of some complexion,
    Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
    Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens
    The form of plausive manners, that these men
    Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
    Being nature’s livery, or fortune’s star,
    Their virtues else- be they as pure as grace,
    As infinite as man may undergo-
    Shall in the general censure take corruption
    From that particular fault.

    Shakespeare’s major tragic heroes are undone by their own faults: Macbeth’s vicious mole was ambition, Othello’s was jealousy, Hamlet’s was indecision, Antony’s was uxorious lust for Cleopatra whixch destroys his judgement and King Lear’s was vanity. In each case the story ends with the character’s death.

    Harry is not a significant enough character to be considered a tragic hero – but his character was certainly very flawed. Anyone with a lawn knows that it virtually impossible to get rid of a colony of moles!

    In tragic life, God wot,
    No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
    We are betrayed by what is false within.

    [George Meredith]

  36. Leaden-browed, stricken, the Duke of Sussex resembles a tragic hero
    Once the people’s favourite, Prince Harry stood alongside – and yet, apart from – all that he has left behind in recent years

    Hannah Betts: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/19/leaden-browed-stricken-prince-harry-resembles-tragic-hero/

    The nature of tragedy and what makes a tragic hero are topics which “A” level English students are often asked to consider. The tragic hero falls from an
    elevated position in which he is respected and is destroyed, not by bad luck, but as the result of a vital flaw in his character or, as Hamlet describes it, a vicious mole of nature.

    So oft it chances in particular men
    That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
    As in their birth,- wherein they are not guilty,
    Since nature cannot choose his origin,-
    By the o’ergrowth of some complexion,
    Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason,
    Or by some habit that too much o’erleavens
    The form of plausive manners, that these men
    Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,
    Being nature’s livery, or fortune’s star,
    Their virtues else- be they as pure as grace,
    As infinite as man may undergo-
    Shall in the general censure take corruption
    From that particular fault.

    Shakespeare’s major tragic heroes are undone by their own faults: Macbeth’s vicious mole was ambition, Othello’s was jealousy, Hamlet’s was indecision, Antony’s was uxorious lust for Cleopatra whixch destroys his judgement and King Lear’s was vanity. In each case the story ends with the character’s death.

    Harry is not a significant enough character to be considered a tragic hero – but his character was certainly very flawed. Anyone with a lawn knows that it virtually impossible to get rid of a colony of moles!

    In tragic life, God wot,
    No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
    We are betrayed by what is false within.

    [George Meredith]

    1. ‘Your area’, pal, is the Khyber Pass. I suggest that you, and all your ilk in the UK, disappear back up it!

    2. They don’t want to fit in and never will and they will never take part in the secondary suggestion.
      How quickly so many of them arrived at the Albert Hall in London after one of their holidays and then occupied the steps and part of the street.

  39. Seen elsewhere

    Met Police confirm, huge White Lives Matter rally in London yesterday passed off without violent thuggery, looting, rapes, or stabbings. Innit.

    1. I noticed that those splendid young Grenadier Guards, who were Her Majesty’s pall-bearers, were all hideously white (and male)!

      Shirley someone will complain to The Guardian.

      1. My friend Jeremy Taylor wrote a brilliant song about a Liberal Man who repeatedly exposes himself as a hypocrite and reveals that he has all the faults he accuses those with whom he disagrees of having.

        I am a studious man and I do the best I can
        To set the world at rights so I can read at nights:
        Philosophic tracts and Penguin paperbacks
        But next door there’d be a riot if he changed his literary diet
        He takes the Telegraph and Punch and the Daily Express,
        The Illustrated London News and the Reader’sDigest
        Country Life and The Field are his intellectual limit
        And he always takes the Tatler – just in case he’s in it
        And I hate him, I loathe him the fat head lah-di-dahdian
        I’ve a mind to go and whip him with my copy of The Guardian.

        I know that a preposition is a bad word with which to end a sentnce but the whole song is worth listening to.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga4oFHu2hok

    2. ha ha very good!

      But actually there were black people involved – patriotic, law-abiding, decent ones, and Baroness Scotland and the Chancellor of the Exchequer as well.

      2. Baroness Scotland is not exactly an example of probity. Apart from employing illegal aliens, “In January 2020, Scotland faced further criticism of her role as secretary-general of the Commonwealth for awarding a consultancy contract to a company run by a friend. The Audit Committee of the international organisation noted that she offered a contract to a fellow Labour peer, Lord Patel of Bradford, despite his firm being “apparently insolvent” and “circumventing” the normal competitive tendering process. Auditors also found that procurement rules had not been observed by the secretariat on over 50 occasions.”

        1. Read what I wrote again!

          I used to listen to a comedy slot on Antenna Bayern (German language radio), and one of the running jokes was the ex Minister President of Bavaria entering the room and saying “Hallo, dear friends…and Markus” (Söder, current Minister President)

    1. Notifications of replies and upticks/downticks have stopped.
      Edit: But email notifications of replies are still arriving.

      1. Deep joy. I got kicked out and had to log back in again yesterday evening but the notifications were still working then.

      2. I just up ticked.
        But two days ago, I posted a couple of comments, and they seemed not to be what I actually said at the time ???!!!
        Unless I’m more forgetful than I actually realise.

  41. Earlier this morning Minty remarked that Jeremy Morfey hasn’t posted for 12 days – and I had noticed that OLT hasn’t been here recently either. I just checked and he hasn’t posted since 12th August – is anyone in touch with him to know whether he’s ok or ill?

      1. Yes – we do seem to have lost some regulars – it’s a long time since we heard anything from Duncan. Garlands has upticked occasionally but is otherwise silent.

        1. Garlands popped in the other day – I don’t think she is well but people are in touch. Plum’s wellbeing is of deep concern but I understand that her daughter is on hand. Duncan’s absence is very worrying – I don’t know of anyone who might be able to contact him – Kemi Badenoch’s in-laws live just across Loch Ness from him but it might be excessive to ask the Cabinet Office to check up on him.

        2. I emailed Peddy on his birthday; the email did not bounce back but I have had no reply. I fear the worst.

          1. I was going to, but didn’t. I have sent him a couple a while ago, with no reply. If ‘the worst’ is that he’s died, then surely his email address would be inactive.

          3. No. But I just remember that when Poppiesmum went to see him he just fobbed her off, saying he’d had internet problems. I think he got bored with us all.

    2. OLT comments on the DT still, especially on the letters today. I have seen him .

      Although I have been banned by the DT moderators , I still subscribe and am able to read articles and view the comments .

      Very frustrating for me , and I am too idle to change things .

      1. Well at least he’s ok then – I wonder why he seems to have abandoned us here then.

        I use the 12ft ladder to see the DT articles but it doesn’t include the comments, which are usually the more interesting part.

  42. I don’t know if Charles III will manage to abstain from interfering and meddling in political matters – we shall see.

    To be fair his speeches over the last few days have been far better than I expected but I cannot forget how very boring a speaker he usually is.

    Will he be a Dogberry King?

    Dogberry, Shakespeare’s Mr Plod in Much Ado About Nothing, is like Mrs Malaprop in his confusion of what words mean. Indeed he goes on at length to very little purpose and is, justifiably, accused of being tedious. Dogberry takes this as an enormous compliment.

    LEONATO : Neighbours, you are tedious.

    DOGBERRY : It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke’s officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.

    LEONATO : All thy tediousness on me, ah?

    In fact this became integrated into our family vocabulary. If, for example, any member of the family – especially Christo or even myself – was banging on a bit and becoming boring the rest of the family would plead: “Stop being so King-like.” (i.e. Stop being so tedious!)

  43. I don’t know if Charles III will manage to abstain from interfering and meddling in political matters – we shall see.

    To be fair his speeches over the last few days have been far better than I expected but I cannot forget how very boring a speaker he usually is.

    Will he be a Dogberry King?

    Dogberry, Shakespeare’s Mr Plod in Much Ado About Nothing, is like Mrs Malaprop in his confusion of what words mean. Indeed he goes on at length to very little purpose and is, justifiably, accused of being tedious. Dogberry takes this as an enormous compliment.

    LEONATO : Neighbours, you are tedious.

    DOGBERRY : It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor duke’s officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.

    LEONATO : All thy tediousness on me, ah?

    In fact this became integrated into our family vocabulary. If, for example, any member of the family – especially Christo or even myself – was banging on a bit and becoming boring the rest of the family would plead: “Stop being so King-like.” (i.e. Stop being so tedious!)

  44. Sat with a well earned mug of tea.
    6 bags of sand filled and hoiked on top of the woodstack ready for carrying them up the hill.
    6 more filled and on the wall ready for hoiking onto the stack & carrying up after I’ve carried the 1st batch.
    At a guess another 12 bags should finish the job.

  45. Yesterday I mentioned my surprise at seeing two workmen digging up our road on a Bank Holiday! In fact the hole isn’t actually on the road, which has however been closed to traffic just in case. Having dug the hole and seemingly replaced what was broken, normal service was resumed – the hole was fenced off and everyone concerned vanished. Today there has been no sign of any action; maybe, having closed the road until 21 Sept, they are in no hurry to fill in the crater?

    2. This is a “dig a hole and bugger off” moment as Alf calls it. He once emailed a ceo I think it was (Alf is out just now so can’t ask him) of some utilities company and because the email was funny and not rude he actually got a reply back. Oh, it was gas. With a very good explanation of why it was so.

      1. The hole diggers and filler in-ers are usually not the same folk who are doing the work (or ‘traffic management’). One company comes along and sets up the signage and traffic lights, next company provides access (digs the hole), actual work/maintenance is then done and then the reverse process. It’s why you see deserted roadworks etc. The regulatory notice always aims off for bad weather etc so the two providing companies always turn up early/late.

  46. After everything we witnessed yesterday, the splendour of highly disciplined service men and service women , the rythm of old established pageantry.. yet… yes a big yet .. what the blazes are we doing with our veterans .. they are being neglected as are their widows/ widowers.

    The armed forces are a family.. they sometimes look after their own ..No to Nanny is a prime example .. he is being accommodated now , thankfully by a benefactor to the RAF.

    There are many many elderly men and women and youngsters who require help with housing , health problems and rehabilitation .

    Who cares about them , not the Royals and not the government .

    Blair, the bastard of all bastards , is a multi millionaire, and the worst war monger ever , and importer of Muslims to this small island of ours ..

    Our deceased Queen was unfortunate enough to have had the WORST series of prime ministers apart from Churchill and Thatcher ..

    1. Thank you for the mention, Maggie. RAFA, does a great job and inhabitants here include not just ex-airmen but several Army wives.

  47. After everything we witnessed yesterday, the splendour of highly disciplined service men and service women , the rythm of old established pageantry.. yet… yes a big yet .. what the blazes are we doing with our veterans .. they are being neglected as are their widows/ widowers.

    The armed forces are a family.. they sometimes look after their own ..No to Nanny is a prime example .. he is being accommodated now , thankfully by a benefactor to the RAF.

    There are many many elderly men and women and youngsters who require help with housing , health problems and rehabilitation .

    Who cares about them , not the Royals and not the government .

    Blair, the bastard of all bastards , is a multi millionaire, and the worst war monger ever , and importer of Muslims to this small island of ours ..

    Our deceased Queen was unfortunate enough to have had the WORST series of prime ministers apart from Churchill and Thatcher ..

      1. Let’s Go Brandon.

        Some months ago, a football crowd was chanting “Fk off Biden” and the broadcaster tried to make out that the crowd was saying “Let’s go, Brandon!”
        Ever since then, Let’s go Brandon has become code for…

  49. Goodness knows how I have little time for that bloke — Blair’s placement — who is masquerading as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Having said that, Welby did make one telling and very pertinent comment in his eulogy for HM The Queen yesterday that I felt obliged to copy. He said:

    ‘People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. But in all cases those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privilege are forgotten.’

    I bet, though, that those he alluded to did not squirm half as well as they might.

    1. Yo Grizz – I too flinched at that moment, thinking of all the people it applied to.

      Welbum, who is loathed and despised by our local CofE vicar, was inflicted on us by his Etonian schoolchum, Cameron, not Blair. That doesn’t make him any better or more acceptable, but we all know what a stickler for historical truth you are.

    2. Good afternoon, Ursa Major

      Post deleted (I had just said what Citroen had already mentioned – that Cameron was at the same school as Welby and made the appointment)

      The former mayor our our village has one of these in excellent condition. (see below)

  50. Queen Elizabeth’s parting gift to Britain? Pure affection for the monarchy

    The service was filled with grand surroundings, pomp and ceremony – but, above all, this was a modest Christian service of comfort and hope

    ALLISON PEARSON • 19 September 2022 • 7:14pm

    It had to be a fitting end to a remarkable reign, the last page of the final act of one of Britain’s most enduring and beloved dramas. We wanted so badly to do her proud (as she did us proud). Thousands upon thousands of people lining the Mall partook of an almost mystical togetherness (“It’s like the Queen is the crowd or the crowd is the Queen,” marvelled a friend who was there). And the millions of us watching at home, on tenterhooks, all wanting a great funeral that would honour the best monarch any country could wish for. And so it proved.

    For too long, we have thought that nothing in this country works any more. Boy, did this work. It is, we were glad to be reminded, what we still do best. Pageantry, precision, the click of spurs, the hypnotic death-beat of the drums, the crunch of synchronised boots, the flashes of scarlet and gold, fluttering plumes of swan feathers, heralds as colourful and intricately-patterned as playing cards, the skirl of the advancing pipers in formidable formation, the full-moon circles of naval caps when a hundred sailors’ heads were bowed.

    Hands up, who cried that didn’t expect to cry? Maybe it’s easier to ask, who didn’t shed a tear? Sorrow fought with elation in the nation’s breast, grief with gratitude, at the sheer majestic glory of it all. Emotions went up and down (sad, happy, sad, happy).

    If the wreath containing myrtle cut from a plant grown from Princess Elizabeth’s wedding bouquet didn’t turn you to mush, there was the sight of those eight grenadiers carrying that wonderful lady in their arms. Shiny young faces solemn with effort, they hefted the late Queen’s coffin onto their shoulders before – a moment of maximum peril – raising it aloft then swivelling it onto the gun carriage, pulling Her Majesty’s standard out of the way lest it get caught. (These things can go wrong. During the funeral of George V the orb rolled off into a gutter.) Once the coffin was safely aboard, the naval ratings snapped together in a protective phalanx, perfect West-End choreography, the monarch’s children marching behind. (Prince Andrew looked like a prep-school boy trying not to cry, perhaps fearing his own public life will be buried with his mother.)

    “She is in good hands,” one veteran commented approvingly on Twitter. Yes, she clearly was. There was a sense, hard to describe, easy to feel, that although our sovereign has departed this life, she must still be shown the most tender and reverent care.

    Inside Westminster Abbey, the most powerful people on Earth had come to pay tribute to Elizabeth the Second. Amidst a dark forest of hats, you spotted Arab head-dresses and fezes.

    The President of the United States showed up late because he had refused to take the shuttle bus with other world leaders and, predictably, got caught up in traffic. If Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, an actual god, could board the Hoppa then Biden might have done as he was bidden. But we forgave him because he said, unimprovably, of our beloved departed monarch, “The world is better for her.”

    Her Majesty had an awful lot of history with that sacred place. She married darling, dashing Philip there, her happiness more dazzling than the diamonds in her tiara. It is where she became Queen seventy years ago and where she watched her dear papa’s own Coronation. “I thought it all very, very wonderful and I expect the Abbey did too,” eleven-year-old Lilibet wrote in her diary on 12 May 1937, “the arches and beams at the top were covered with a sort of haze of wonder.”

    Some questioned whether nine-year-old Prince George and Princess Charlotte, aged just seven and in a lovely hat to rival her beautiful mother’s, were too young to attend Gan Gan’s funeral. They have forgotten that, on 27 January 1936, a nine-year-old Lilibet, wearing a new black coat and a black velvet beret, was taken to the lying in state of George V in Westminster Hall. The next day, the future Queen clutched her mother’s hand as the man she called Grandpa England was lowered, in his coffin, into the family vault beneath St George’s Chapel Windsor, where Lilibet now joins him.

    Exactly the age his great-grandmother was then, Prince George yesterday looked with solemn, childish eyes upon his Destiny. He begins to learn, from this day forward, that Royal life is a series of tableaux. (As it happens, both children were impeccably behaved, requiring only the occasional hand of reassurance from their parents.) The BBC’s commentator, a mellifluous Fergal Keane, summed it up perfectly as “all part of the recurring seasons of death and renewal”. A profundity and sense of continuity that politics never gives us, but monarchy can.

    Despite the grandeur of the surroundings, the service itself was notably homely, even modest. The Queen’s choice of hymns were firm favourites that even her most agnostic subjects could sing along with. (Everyone can have a crack at The Lord’s My Shepherd; the descant was even attempted in my house.) Belted out by choir, congregation and country, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling raised the roof of the sky, let alone the Abbey.

    It was a grander version of a million mothers’ funerals. And that felt exactly right for a modest woman who lived to serve. Our late Queen never liked a service to go on a minute longer than was necessary, and this one didn’t. Marvellously, she once ticked off a bishop for a service that had been too mournful; people should leave a church with hope, she said.

    Prime Minister Liz Truss read a lesson well (she has visibly grown in confidence, a good omen) although I admit to a pang when thinking how her predecessor would have knocked it out of the park. Boris, nearby and once again comb-less, would not be human if he didn’t feel the same loving.

    Above all, this was a Christian service of comfort and hope for the British people, rooted in what the Archbishop of Canterbury called the dear departed’s “allegiance to God”. For Elizabeth being Queen was never about her. People of service “are rare in any walk of life,” said Justin Welby, “Leaders of loving service are rarer still”.

    And the world fell silent at 11.56. An overhead camera looked down at that glowing coffin on the chequerboard floor, granting a perspective from heaven. We were left in no doubt that was where our late Majesty believed she was going. At the very end, when they started singing God Save The King, the face of her son, who has performed so valiantly since her death, crumpled in weeping; Charles’s accession the proof that she was gone.

    As her parting gift, Elizabeth the Good bequeaths a vast reservoir of affection for the monarchy which her successor can draw deeply upon. In these past ten days, she has taught a fractious nation a new and delightful sense of togetherness. That strangers in a queue can become friends.

    “The Queen has spoken gently to the better angels of our nature. Hers has been the quiet heroism of service, the dignity of dedication to the common good, the good that’s so much bigger and nobler than self-interest” said the late great Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.

    Quite. Honestly, we loved her so much she may even have persuaded us to like bagpipes.

    It was indeed a very, very wonderful funeral. Thank you. Take it easy now. You’re in the best of hands.

    Elizabeth the Second spoke gently to the quiet angels of our nature. That voice is gone forever, but if we listen hard enough we may hear it still.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/19/queen-elizabeths-funeral-stark-reminder-what-british-do-best/

    2. I thought one of the best parts was when Biden and his wife had to wait whilst holders of the VC and GC took their places. Take that Biden!

    3. BTL:

      Richard Charlesworth
      Stolen from another comments section but the words resonated:
      “For the past fortnight it has felt as though Britain has been returned to the British. Men and woman, married couples, families, a Christian service, respect for British history, military, heritage and culture. British people. In the millions who have been to pay their respects the woke have barely been seen, despite everything being free and optional. That says so much. Maybe we will have learned something about being British as well.”

      Yet many inhabitants are avowedly and determinedly not British, Mr C.

    4. BTL:

      Richard Charlesworth
      Stolen from another comments section but the words resonated:
      “For the past fortnight it has felt as though Britain has been returned to the British. Men and woman, married couples, families, a Christian service, respect for British history, military, heritage and culture. British people. In the millions who have been to pay their respects the woke have barely been seen, despite everything being free and optional. That says so much. Maybe we will have learned something about being British as well.”

      Yet many inhabitants are avowedly and determinedly not British, Mr C.

    5. BTL:

      Richard Charlesworth
      Stolen from another comments section but the words resonated:
      “For the past fortnight it has felt as though Britain has been returned to the British. Men and woman, married couples, families, a Christian service, respect for British history, military, heritage and culture. British people. In the millions who have been to pay their respects the woke have barely been seen, despite everything being free and optional. That says so much. Maybe we will have learned something about being British as well.”

      Yet many inhabitants are avowedly and determinedly not British, Mr C.

      1. Probably because the car looks quite old and the door needs a good hard push to ensure it clicks properly shut.

          1. Thought bubble:
            “Damn, I so nearly caught his fingers, I’ll try harder if there’s a next time”

      2. He brought it all upon himself.

        He should have listened to his grandfather who warned him quite clearly that actresses are for a bit of fun but not for marriage.

    3. Oh, Harry.
      What have you done?
      I feel very sorry for him; I suspect most NOTTLers have had similar family contretemps.

      1. I did initially; but what he and Meghan have done over the last two years is unforgivable, It would take a better Christian than I to do so.

        1. In my opinion there has to be a forgiver and a forgivee. It is pointless to the point of stupidity to forgive a person who is not sorry for what he/she has done and may well commit the same deed again and again without regret or remorse

          2. As the BCP has it, ye who do truly and earnestly repent of your sins and are in love and charity with your neighbours, make your humble confession to Almighty God, meekly kneeling upon your knees.

      2. You only have to mention your own family woes and you soon discover that every family has its own problems.

        Imagine that your son has an unhappy marriage and he is unfaithful to his wife with a woman whom he knew before he married and whom he had wanted to marry but was prevented from doing so and this was the only person with whom he was unfaithful. Imagine his wife was having an affair at the same time and then went on to have many more lovers. Imagine that your daughter-in-law then is killed with her playboy Arab lover in a car driven by a drunken chauffeur.

        With whom would you sympathise – your son or your daughter-in-law? And yet the Queen was criticised.

  52. Leicester and the unravelling of multiculturalism. Spiked 20 September 2022.

    After all, if young people in Leicester feel a greater affinity with Pakistan or India than they do with the country they grew up in, then clearly ‘multicultural Britain’ is failing to cohere its diverse communities around any sense of Britishness or belonging. That a mini-Kashmir erupted in Leicester at the same time as others were taking part in the shared national experience of the queen’s funeral speaks to the Balkanising impact of the homegrown ideology of multiculturalism. The problem here is not immigration or the everyday experience of diversity. It certainly isn’t the recent arrival of Modi fanatics. No, it’s the way multiculturalism, as an ideology, grates against the idea of a common culture, of national identity, and instead implicitly invites communities to live in their own cultures, their own worlds. If youths in Leicester feel more passion for Kashmir than the queen, we have a problem.

    They don’t belong here. They have never belonged here. They will never belong here!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/20/leicester-and-the-unravelling-of-multiculturalism/

    1. “If youths in Leicester feel more passion for Kashmir than the queen, we have a problem.”

      How do we ship them all there – that’s the problem?

    3. As you say:

      They don’t belong here. They have never belonged here. They will never belong here!

      So where do they belong and how can they get there?

    4. Anyone with any sense would know multiculturalisam was bound to fail. Politicians cause most of our problems and all they ever do is react, never ever anticipate. They are still doing nothing about it.

  53. Moh has just come back from visiting elderly pal .. born in 1935!

    Pal has a lovely fluffy cat , gorgeous , a real mouser , and is about 12 years old .

    Moh was greeted with the words as soon as he got in through pals front door … Fluffy has had a day trip to West Bay… Bridport ..

    The cat had climbed into a neighbours van for a sleep , and unknown to the driver..stayed asleep !

    Thank gooodness the neighbour knew the cat , and all’s well that ends well.

    Cats do do that sort of thing , don’t they

    1. When I moved lodgings as a student, the cat tried to smuggle itself in with the luggage. Regretfully, I had to leave it behind (I think I was the only one who made a fuss of it).

  54. OMG is this what we can expect to happen next ?

    Over the weekend :

    We have learned that banks are preparing for massive “bail-ins” which means they confiscate consumer deposits in order to keep themselves solvent, essentially converting deposits into “investments” in the bank, while restricting your ability to withdraw funds or to even send wire transfers. This is coming for many banks beginning with the next financial crisis.

    Hear that full podcast here.

    Meanwhile, Germany is preparing for widespread blackouts, Israel has been caught covering up vaccine injuries, and the USDA is trying to throw an Amish farmer in prison for selling raw milk. The governments of the world are out of control and have fully plunged into tyranny.
    https://ce-publiclw.naturalnews.com/ct.asp?id=6BB2D71C3BE910272E3A97B0D9B91DE0E73D053A4F01642B6F44242E4EDBA36A18C8E0103F6A950D29620DDD7428EF0E&ct=4aeUsz4AAABCWmgzMUFZJlNZ8c8tBwAAF5mAAAP%2f8D%2fj3IAgAFRECYmTATAAY2iPU9TTIHijTGoW%2bGrU4oSTAjiCOnATQYLc81UyR%2bWjw8izh9r8TXCEVO5wo9hfou5IpwoSHjnloOA%3d

    1. There was a bail in in Cyprus during the last banking crisis for those accounts over €100k, so it is possible. The word was that the Russians based there, surprisingly didn’t have much in their accounts at the time.

        1. It’s my lovely ladies ** Birthday Tmz that’s where she is now.
          Out to dinner this evening with all the family and out all day Tomorrow.
          The Essential coiffure.

      3. Some thing seems to tie in with our recent letter from Barclays bank telling us that we no longer qualified for premier banking. And we had to pay 20 pounds to remain part of it, if I remember correctly I think I told them to do one.

    2. 356279+ up ticks,Afternoon

      RE,
      Does not take a lot of imagination to hear the mantra , as I said before, with noise distortion
      _ILL _ILL -ILL.

  55. Going out to a lecture – and then a walk along the sea.

    I’ll look in later. Play nicely while I am away..

      1. Assuming that all those who attended were there, any POTUS would have been placed in exactly the same seat where Biden was placed.

          1. Biden’s Seating at Queen’s Funeral Explained

            According to British newspaper The Telegraph, the leader of the U.S.—whoever they would have been at the time of the queen’s death—would have been seated in the same fashion, with members of the royal family, past and present U.K. prime ministers, and Commonwealth leaders taking precedent.

            With royal protocol dictating that Commonwealth leaders outrank those from other parts of the world at the Queen’s funeral, it meant that Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was seated nine rows ahead of Biden.

            https://www.newsweek.com/why-president-joe-biden-was-seated-far-behind-other-world-leaders-queen-elizabeth-funeral-1744377

          3. In which case, more fool him, it would have set him up before the world as an utterly arrogant bastard.

            Even in the USA there were protocols which he had to follow and he did so.

          5. Indeed.
            But he would have been told in no uncertain terms that this is our country and I suspect that he would have accepted that, because that’s exactly what he would have done if someone tried to tell his USA to do as they demanded

    3. Just in. Trump would have never been late like Biden.

      Joe Biden and the First Lady were seated in the 14th row back for the
      funeral of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II,
      after the U.S. president arrived more than half an hour later than had
      been requested, it has emerged.

      Almost all of the VIPs invited to the ceremony at Westminster Abbey
      in London on Monday opted to take a charter bus from central London to
      the venue; however, the U.S. president was given special dispensation on
      security grounds and insisted on being driven in “The Beast,” the
      heavily armored limousine that travels with the American leader.

      A schedule published by Buckingham Palace revealed that foreign
      dignitaries were expected to take their seats between 9:35 a.m. and 9:55
      a.m., ahead of the prompt 11 a.m. start of the widely broadcast
      ceremony; however, the Bidens were reportedly not sat in place until
      10:07 a.m.

      When Biden finally arrived at the venue, he suffered the further
      embarrassment of being made to stand and wait as a procession of George
      and Victoria Cross-holders, Britain’s highest military awards, went
      ahead of them into the Abbey.

      The first couple were then escorted to seats in the 14th row back
      from the front, where they sat before Polish President Andrzej Duda, and
      next to Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, according to the Guardian.

      Further up the pecking order towards the front of the abbey included
      leaders of other Anglosphere nations such as Justin Trudeau of Canada,
      Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and New Zealand Prime
      Minister Jacinda Ardern.

      Europe differently

      1. I agree Trump would probably not have been late, early more likely, but he would still have been shown to his allocated seat in the 14th row.

          4. Not his original allocation. Can you not understand that he was late lost his seat nearer the front whenhe arrived about 25 mim late. he had to have what was left. You can see the story in many locations if you care to look. I think we just need to wrap it up.

          5. Do you really think that they could play musical chairs?

            This was organised to the minute, if not the second, and he was eventually taken to his allocated seat.

            I notice that you have not provided any links, let alone a reputable one, to demonstrate where Biden was originally supposed to sit nearer the front.

    1. I tried to post BTL but it wouldn’t accept:

      “I’ve never heard such crass rubbish as spouted by this evil little man”

          1. What he wrote was good, in my view.
            I don’t believe he necessarily meant it applied to him, but those he speaks for (Londoners) will have said similar, if given his platform

  62. Liz Truss: No talks on US-UK trade deal for years
    Prime Minister casts doubt on deal as she flies to UN summit in New York for talks with Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron

    Daniel Martin : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/20/liz-truss-no-talks-us-uk-trade-deal-years/

    BTL

    Can anybody still doubt that Britain would have been far better off if Trump had remained president?

    And yet our MSM and many of our politicians were so porcinely excremental in their stupidity that they could not see it.

    1. You assume that any such treaty would be to our mutual advantage. How often has HMG signed up to a treaty only to find we’d been sold a pup (Maastricht, for example)?

    2. Our politicians seem to be ever bedazzled by the glamour and illusion of the “special relationship”. This has only ever worked in favour of the US. The US has consistently worked to reduce the power and influence of the UK. We have fallen into becoming a catspaw of the US, in return for which we are allowed to retain nuclear weapons.

    3. The world would have been far better off had Trump remained President, the great reset would have been put back in the box.

    4. I had to listen to one of my neighbours (he’s a Limp Dim, but otherwise an amusing chap) denigrating Trump this morning. He wouldn’t have a good word said for him.

  63. Frustrating Wordle today.
    Wordle 458 4/6

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

  64. I recently had a bond mature. Looking around i saw that Yorkshire building society were offering quite good rates. I phoned them this morning and made an appointment.

    Then i received an email telling me of changes to my T&C’s. Effectively to protect their solvency they can now close my account and keep all my money.
    I cancelled the appointment.
    I then went to HSBC to withdraw £5000 in cash. There are no tellers at my branch now. I asked how i could withdraw the cash from a savings account that doesn’t have a ATM card attached to it. He said i would have to go to the next town.
    I said to him…I have a better idea… transfer all my money out of HSBC and put it in TSB where i do have a card.

    I am giving up on banks and bonds and buying gold.

    1. There was a vid posted earlier advising the same, although instead of gold/silver, I was going to go for wine women and song (other genders are available)..

      2. I was livid that they could legally steal my savings. On top of what i said earlier about HSBC i got home and opened my account. £8,766.08. I withdrew all the money except the 8pence. They can do what they like with that. Batsards !

          1. All the banks and Building societies are doing it. Keep it under your mattress.

            We saw it first with Greece and Cyprus.

  65. Well, that’s the last of the large builder’s bag of sand shifted.
    Just putting some belly pork onto a bed of stuffing and into the oven. The pork has been steeping in home made cider for two days and the drained off cider used to make the stuffing.
    Some piccies:-
    Aforesaid builder’s bag, now nearly empty and two batches of sandbags ready to go up the hill;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0caf55c706950325352be45357dbc871f4674f7bebfd93a1a132cf7a1aa3f27.jpg

    Filled bags waiting to be hoiked up onto the wood shelter;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38bea35776aeb3aca1a8a3e90220839f8ebddc942c1c59cb0fc0010406e377b6.jpg

    The wood shelter will need a little bit of attention before being refilled this winter!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4cab777801f690b8db988163fa02fa003aaa9012fa5d07821c16b51f29f84cbf.jpg

    Bags on top of the shelter waiting to be carried up…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dc8e29dfd8648eb36d00e1fd930b64f42f5e5e8afe26b473362a8f6c1de3a5eb.jpg

    …to here;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f1bb6082724d2f46619db126d652d1ab0c22d67de91b2cbf4da8e297337674b.jpg

    And the next step for digging out on the other project. The kerbstone will be relocated to form part of the The Wall as it’s a curved one. At least I’ve several spare kerbs to replace it.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/70e9aafe9b00dd40be18d5cd0c193eeb57547fbcb43ecb54417f5690a1aaadf6.jpg

    I really must get that white currant bush in the orange pot replanted!

    1. Do you know Bob, I sang the Sandman in the operetta Hansel and Gretel when I was at grammar school. You have made me feel very inadequate;-)

  66. The service for our Queen was wonderful yesterday.
    Our history, culture, values, the unifying nature of our monarchy, something above politics.
    Quintessentially English, thousands queuing and In the crowds. Even the BBC did a good job and Justin Welby managed an excellent truly Christian address which honoured our truly Christian, faithful Queen. It was magnificent.

    1. Never mind tonsillitis. Get up to the school, identify the teacher involved, and punch their lights out.

          1. A nice fat stuffed squab, Gut it, pluck it and casserole it for about 4 hours at low temp. Delicious, particularly the breasts.

    2. Sweden welcomed 160,000 migrants [in 2015, the year of the great migrant crisis], to the pride of the then prime minister Stefan Löfven. ‘My Europe takes in refugees, my Europe doesn’t build walls,’ he told a rally in Stockholm in September 2015. ‘We need to decide right now what kind of Europe we are going to be.’

      Seven years later Sweden has decided what kind of Europe it wants to be, and it’s not Löfven’s kind. It remains to be seen whether France will follow in its footsteps.

      Just in case anyone needs reminding:

      In 2006, Jens Orback, a former Swedish government minister, famously said: “We must be open and tolerant toward Islam and Muslims because when we become a minority, they will be so toward us.”

      http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2006/07/dhimmi-of-year.html

      2. “We must be open and tolerant toward Islam and Muslims because when we become a minority, they will be so toward us.” What did Churchill say about feeding the crocodile?

      3. It was Löfven’s forerunner as statsminister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who opened the floodgates to mass immigration.

        After the nationalist Sweden Democrats entered the Riksdag, Reinfeldt wanted to seek bipartisan consensus on immigration policy in an attempt to undercut and isolate the Sweden Democrats on their main issue. In early 2011 an agreement between the Alliance and the Green Party was reached, which would among other things, give undocumented immigrants access to universal healthcare and lessen the requirements for family reunification. During the last year of Reinfeldt’s time in office Sweden faced the biggest influx of immigrants it had ever seen up until that point. During a press conference in the run-up to the 2014 election campaign Reinfeldt urged the Swedish people to “open their hearts” (Swedish: ‘öppna era hjärtan’) to people fleeing wars, stating that he wouldn’t promise much in the upcoming campaign considering the costs that the immigration would bring. The Sweden Democrats perceived the press conference as confirming their belief that asylum immigration is in conflict with the Swedish welfare state.

    3. Well, they’ll have to stop their practice of “voter blanc” and put their X against her name, won’t they?

  72. Trump was amusing himself with the fact that Biden was sitting at the back yesterday.
    Biden was late – he didn’t take the bus with all the other foreign dignities – he took his own huge car into London . But nevertheless, there was protocol, no one just turned up and sat where they wanted – seating was arranged beforehand. US Presidents are not more important then European royals and the commonwealth even if Americans don’t know that.
    Must I must say that what Trump said of our Queen when hearing she passed away was the most wonderful words.

    1. I found it interesting that The Russian Contakion of the Departed was used again at the private Windsor service. A reminder that although we are often on different sides, we have close royal connections with the Orthodox church that Putin has encouraged. I also found the Dean of Windsor a much more impressive figure than the Canterbury fellow. He seemed to really mean what he was saying. I also detected a caring gentleness missing from Welby.

      2. I preferred the Committal Service, frankly. But Welby nevertheless exceeded my expectations. The Contakion is a glorious piece of music, which I have sung on occasion. The fact that the tune is known as Kiev Melody, and Olena Zelenska was present, made it all the more fitting.

    2. I found it interesting that The Russian Contakion of the Departed was used again at the private Windsor service. A reminder that although we are often on different sides, we have close royal connections with the Orthodox church that Putin has encouraged. I also found the Dean of Windsor a much more impressive figure than the Canterbury fellow. He seemed to really mean what he was saying. I also detected a caring gentleness missing from Welby.

    3. I liked what Alison Pearson had to say about it in the DT. She said even Emperor Naruhito who is considered to be a living God got on the bus. Biden should have done as he was bidden.

      Let’s go Brandon !

  73. It was very emotional to see the corgis and Emma the Queen’s pony at Windsor.
    On Emma’s saddle there was the Queen’s riding head scarf. The Queen had last ridden Emma just 8 weeks ago, a week before heading for Balmoral, it all happened so very quickly.

  74. The reason the Queens State Funeral was such a great success was because it was done the old school way and they didn’t have one bit of interference from the woke brigade.

  75. Hello again, Gentlefolk. I had to retire to bed, as a result of left-hand chest pains. With only ⅔ of a functioning heart, I have to be careful.

    2. Ouch!
      Sounds like you have to really take it easy so I won’t be asking you for a hand up the “garden”!

    3. Take it easy, Tom. Apropos your comments of last night, I suggest you get in touch with the RAF Association; they offer a (highly recommended) befriending service. Even if there isn’t a branch near you (if there is, go to it; ours puts on interesting talks and there are lots of people who like company to chat to) they’ll find someone who can do it, even if it’s only regular telephone chats.

        1. Do you get Air Mail? The contact details are in there. I’ve just looked it up in RAF News: RAFBF 0300 102 1919. That’s the listening and counselling service. They can surely put you in touch with the befriending side.

      1. Yes, for all the good it might do me. NHS (Scotland) is, if you could believe, is even worse than the rest of the ‘woke’ nhs

      3. It’s sad that the focus isn’t on practical issues of the day rather than petty point scoring.

        The country has genuine and significant problems. Sky should be addressing those. If Burley hasn’t the intellectual calbire or researchers to do it then don’t bother.

  77. What a surprise – the package from FedEx which should have been delivered Thursday, when we wasted a whole day staying in, was supposed to be delivered today. Customer “care” assured me that they would be monitoring the delivery to ensure there was no further delay. Having wasted yet another day [and waited in on Friday, in case] you can imagine that we were unimpressed when FedEx claimed that the delivery was again delayed as “customer was unavailable”. Even by the standards of some other delivery firms, these people seem to be remarkably incompetent!

    1. In my experience these deliveries are plagued by a hostile workforce who see no benefit in their providing a decent service!

  78. Disqus is doing its usual thing of the little red notification thingy not working and not seeing ones own posts on accounts.

        2. No – it’s the same format as usual. Will send your cards when I have them. Thanks again for ordering.

          1. Thank you.

            Since i have turned all my assets into glod you won’t be experiencing such largess in future. Sorry.

            A pack of cards around Christmas will be about it.

  79. To the title:
    My French-Malagasy wife who has often opined that the Monarchy is an anachronistic waste of money (but who somehow takes far more interest in it than I do) was incredibly impressed with the funeral.
    My own primary interest being Christianity, I also thought it was a pretty decent shop window to the world.
    Then I would not look too deeply into the faithfulness of any particular individual, but still a memorable day for all the right reasons.

    1. When people start dying from cold and losing their homes due to the economy tanking, it will, of course be a price worth paying for those with safe government jobs.

      1. 356279+ up ticks,

        Evening KP,
        Plus multiple houses.

        Now a cynic would say the herd is seemingly being attacked
        internally / externally.

  82. Inheritance tax.

    Be very clear, it is being taken from your estate to stop your children/chosen people from having the money so that it can be given to the gimmegrants.

    1. Quite shocking that the limit on annual gifts hasn’t been increased from £3,000 since 1981 .

  83. A few minutes ago I received the from the Free Speech Union. PayPal is ‘demonetising’ the FSU. In retaliation I have decided to demonetise PayPal.

    I’m writing to you because PayPal, the company that processes your membership payments, has decided to demonetise the Free Speech Union. That is, it has notified us that it is closing our account because we have violated its Acceptable Use Policy and won’t process any more payments. At exactly the same time, PayPal sent an identical notification to my personal account and the account of the Daily Sceptic, the pro-free speech news website I set up. So, all three PayPal accounts have now been shut down.

    I contacted a customer service agent to find out how, exactly, all three accounts have violated PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy, but he could throw no light on the matter. I then submitted an appeal about the decisions to close the accounts, asking again how I’d violated the Policy, and they have not been successful. PayPal has still refused to say how the Free Speech Union violated its Policy.
    I can only assume the reason for the closure of the accounts is because PayPal disapproves of my efforts to uphold the right to free speech. We already know PayPal doesn’t set any store by free speech because it has closed the accounts of a number of websites and individuals who challenge the prevailing orthodoxy, whether it’s the wisdom of the vaccine mandates, the trans rights agenda or the claim that we’re in the midst of a ‘climate emergency’. As I’m sure you know, the withdrawal of financial services from websites and individuals that challenge the dominant narrative is the latest battlefront in the ongoing war against free speech.

    Can I please ask you to update the payment method for your FSU membership? If you click here you will be directed to a page where you can do this by selecting “Change payment” or “Pay”.
    I apologise for this inconvenience and hope you will take the trouble to update your payment method. In case you need a reminder of why the FSU is so important, this is it.

    Kind regards,

    Toby Young
    General Secretary

    3. PayPal are awful. I stopped using them when they demonetised Tommy Robinson a few years ago. Whether you like him or not, that was a huge red flag for the way things were going – NOBODY should have their bank account, pension or other financial products cancelled because of their political opinion.

      Now they’ve moved on to the FSU. Fascist barstewards.

      2. Our government isn’t shy of doing similar with freezing Russian assets here in the U.K. Probably a prequel to its own citizens.

        1. Theft is the new ‘go to’ acceptable crime.

          When will we revolt against this evil in our midst?

  84. Afternoon, all. The headline was so good they had to type it twice! Glad that life is back to normal today; chats with friends while out walking the dog, coffee in town, a bit of shopping, finding I’m double booked on Sunday … 🙂

  86. Did someone earlier ask whether the Queen’s burial place would be open to the public? The answer is yes – Windsor Castle is closed at the moment, but re-opens on 29th September.

    The castle will open again after a period of royal mourning, with visitors welcomed back in for tours, including of St George’s Chapel.

    They will not be permitted to take flowers but can look inside the tiny King George VI Memorial Chapel, where the Queen is buried alongside the Duke of Edinburgh.

    By then, the headstone – of black marble, and inscribed with her parents’ names – will also carry an inscription for Elizabeth II 1926-2022.

    There will not be a new book of condolence, with mourners asked to contribute thoughts and memories online instead.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/09/20/public-can-visit-queens-final-resting-place-next-week/

  87. That’s me for today. The lecture was excellent. The walk along the sea at Cley invigorating. Quite rough seas – one large lady ventured in only to be knocked over by a roller and return, chastened.

    Have a jolly evening – buying gold. If Phil says it is a good idea……

    I still can’t get over the professionalism of the lads in the Bearer Party yesterday. Gobsmacking.

    A demain

      1. I hope that King Charles creates a special medal for that group of men.

        It would be good if a series of special medals was created to honour all the others for their very specific tasks.

          1. Have you been looking at the official Canadian party at the funeral? It included an actress, a swimmer and a pianist. What a damned insult.

          2. Sandra Oh seems a decent person. At least she wasn’t singing Bohemian Rhapsody the night before the funeral. The Canadian PM is another stupid oaf.

          5. Oddly enough, I believe that having “ordinary” people representing the country is a good, rather than a bad, thing.

        3. It used to be that, after a State Funeral, the Sovereign awarded members of the bearer party a BEM.

          1. It’s a splendid medal, which for me draws a picture of farmers’ wives defending the empire with muskets.

    3. I thought the same. Having to bear the weight of a lead lined coffin down the long Abbey nave and those excruciating moments at the steps of St George’s Chapel Windsor.

      The young Grenadier Guardsmen made me proud to be British. The sight of the politicians in attendance, less so.

  88. That video of my despised leader leading a sing song on Sunday evening has reached some of our media – not all of course, the left are not mentioning it at all.
    Some are actually defending his crass act as acceptable behaviour – after all why include a jazz pianist in the official party if they did not intend to party.
    Some of us had vainly hoped that his behaviour on Sunday might have been enough to force the party grandees to tell him to go but it appears that his embarrassing actions and disrespect for the crown are to be accepted.

    I used to be proud to say that I was Canadian but now I am embarrassed by that oaf.

    2. Well, this may be a case of sour grapes, BElle, but they didn’t have to actually do anything, did they, I mean it’s not as if there was any rioting or stabbing or thuggery or sexual assault. And they probably got paid double time. Sorry to put a damper on things.

      1. I promise you, if they had not been there, then I guarantee many of the things you mention would have occurred. When the cat’s away, the rats will make hay.

          1. 1919 was the only occasion that the British police ever went on strike, and it lasted just 24 hours. During that time serious and widespread rioting and looting took place in many English cities. The 1919 Police Act was hurriedly brought in and it prevented, by law, police officers from taking industrial action ever again. The facts are clear: remove law enforcement and anarchy takes over with immediate effect.

    1. So sorry, corri, it’s really hard. Be comforted in the knowledge that you did the right thing for him at the end.

    2. Oh no, that is sad. He’s been with you such a long time. Funnily enough, my younger daughter was just saying that her boyfriend’s dog is the same age, and the family have finally decided that it would be kinder to have it put down. Upsetting for all concerned.

    6. Gorgeous little Sinbad .. You all had a great time rogether , and I can see he was a well loved pet .

      So sad when we have to say goodnight and goodbye, but we are their guardians and we have to do the best we can when times become very painful and difficult .

    7. When the sadness eases, remember the good times, the walks, the cuddles and licks, and as you walk the old paths, smile. recall what was, and smile again.

    9. Always hurts like hell even though it’s the right thing to do
      Just think Rainbow Bridge
      Sorry for your loss

    10. So sorry to hear of that but when our furry friends are suffering it’s best to let them go.
      You and your wife will miss him but he will always be with you.

    11. So sorry for you, corimmobile. The loss is awful and the gap in your lives will be huge.
      Our Hector is getting to that stage, at 12 years old and the decision will have to be made soon.
      Thinking of you all. 🌹

    15. It is always sad to hear this, but I think most of us here have many fond memories of beloved pets, but Sinbad will surely live on in your hearts.

  95. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-62924112
    Great Escape prisoner Vyvyan Howard, dies aged 102
    A World War 2 pilot, who was a prisoner of war at the camp made famous by the film The Great Escape, has died aged 102. Captain Vyvyan Howard, from Banbury, was captured and held at the German Stalag Luft III camp after his plane was shot down in 1941. During that time, he aided attempts to dig tunnels under the perimeter fences.
    His family paid tribute to his “quiet wisdom” following his death at a nursing home in Banbury, Oxfordshire. Mr Howard joined the Royal Navy as a pilot shortly before the start of World War 2 and was shot down and captured in the ill-fated Kirkenes raid in the north of Norway.

    Captain Howard had 36 years’ service with the Royal Navy before his retirement. He spent two-and-a-half years at the Nazis’ Stalag Luft III POW camp in Lower Silesia, now part of Poland. During that time, he helped in escape attempts immortalised in the films, The Wooden Horse and the Great Escape.
    In the wooden horse attempt, he and others continuously jumped over a vaulting horse which covered the trap door to an escape tunnel.
    While not among those who made it clear of the camp during the 1944 Great Escape, he used his fluent German to engage the guards in conversation to distract them from covert digging of tunnels – codenamed Tom, Dick and Harry.
    In January 1945 the camp was marched westward in treacherous winter conditions in the so-called Long March, before being liberated by British forces at Lubeck in May.
    Mr Howard later said he owed his life to advice from a Polish soldier who told him “don’t ever take your boots off”, to prevent his feet from swelling.
    After the war, he continued his career in the Fleet Air Arm after the war and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for gallantry during the Suez Crisis.
    His knowledge of Polish, picked up in the POW camp, led him to become a naval translator and he eventually became the British Naval Attaché in Bonn, West Germany. Recalling his wartime experiences on his 100th birthday in 2019 he said: “It was bloody awful but you were in it and that was it – you couldn’t just walk out of the door.” His son, also called Vyvyan, said: “In common with a lot of people of that generation, a lot of the war experiences only came out later in life. “He had a quiet wisdom – family came first. He was a wonderful man,” he added.
    A funeral service for Captain Howard is due to be held at Mollington Parish Church on 30 September.

  96. Call my bluff?

    Margarita Simonyan, the Editor-in-chief of state-funded RT news, made the following ominous prediction: “By what is happening and still about to happen, this week marks either the eve of our imminent victory, or the eve of nuclear war. I can’t see anything third.”

        2. Deport all the black and muslim bastards, they’ll never integrate. We, England and Ireland, will be better off without them. Fcuk multiculturism – it doesn’t/isn’t working. Exclusion is the only option.

  98. Watching Farage on GBN just now and it seems the Hindu/’Slammer problems have spread to Birmingham.
    Not good.

    1. Time to organise ‘The Anger Games’ – open up a football ground, order a load of sawdust and let the two teams compete without external interference….

    2. Good evening Bob. The Muslims have the Hindus surrounded in one of the Hindu buildings in Birmingham. Any politician with commonsense would have agreed with EP.
      Our politicians did not listen to him.

      1. ………they did not listen, they don’t know, perhaps they never will.

        ©️Don McLean, Vincent

      2. When Powell warned of ‘the black man having the whip hand over the white man’ was he referring to the African in particular or the immigrant in general? He knew well of the antipathy between Muslims and Hindus because of India but it was people of African descent who were the most noticeable in the UK in the 60s because of their numbers (although in Birmingham they have been overtaken by Pakistanis).

        1. I think he was referring to different races being allowed willy-nilly into the UK and the obvious problems that would arrive in the future. Enoch Powell has been proved right with his predictions.

          1. Using ‘black’ for anyone who wasn’t white ancestral British. That caused a lot of fuss for a long time and, TBF, it was a bit insensitive. The problem is that now they don’t seem to know what they should be called…

        1. Dare I say it?

          The late great ERII was a bad role model; she never promoted safe headgear for riding horses!

          2. For the avoidance of doubt, I’ve never knowingly digested Cheval, but I believe Tesco was once found to be selling meat products which contained ‘My Little Pony’….

          4. I have telephoned her on Tuesdays for many weeks; she has not responded. I think she has been affected mentally by her severe dose of Covid …

          5. Perhaps Plum is in Hospital. I seem to remember a Nottler contacted her in hospital at an early stage in her illness? I hope Plum is getting proper and appropriate care.

          6. No clydesider; she is only contactable on her landline; she has abandoned her mobile and her computer. She is alone, missing her dog and frustrated with her ankle injury. Her daughter and partner visited her briefly when she left hospital – but returned to Bristol for her partner’s hernia surgery.

            She is not a happy bunny …

  101. Seriously, shouldn’t the police be taking strong action? I am not a fan of violence but these mobs are using violence. Water cannons, tasers and arrest them all.
    MH’s suggestions. He’s nicer than I.
    It’s only going to spread.
    And why is our PM in NYC when she has so much to sort out here in the UK.

  102. Look on the bright side.
    The Hindus are the same colour as the Muslims, so accusations of racism won’t wash.
    The Hindus/ Sikhs tend to be exceptional warriors and won’t roll over for the Muslims, where the white British would.
    Hopefully a debate over what should be done can now be opened.

  103. As our Muslim friends kick off yet again, I would ask the apologists for Islam to show me a single Muslim country where they permit non Muslims to demand the rights that Muslims demand wherever they go.

    1. Just imagining the media coverage if it had been white gangs versus Muslims or Hindus and the accusations of far right racism.

    2. Just a small clarification:
      Most of the problems we see here in the UK are from Pakistan and Bangladesh Muslims, with the Salafi movement and Saudi money helping to fund fundamental extremism.
      We are in a situation where ill-informed hysteria by both government and the msm, brand all Muslims as suspect (Jews in 1930’s Germany, come to mind) and it’s a dangerous misrepresentation of what a great majority of Muslims in Uk believe.
      The government/police need to crack down hard on fundamentalist movements in Leicester, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Bradford and not to be left out London!!
      Enoch Powell was right when he foretold the future of UK. Unfortunately he assumed most people were educated enough to understand his allegory of the ‘Sibyl ‘s prophecy and the Tiber foaming with much blood’.
      I’m probably living in dream land, but one can always hope.

      1. All adherents of the koran (immutable word of allah) and followers of the prophet (who is the “perfect man” and thus to be emulated) are a danger to kuffars, given the book’s contents and his actions.

        1. One could find sections of the New & Old Testament, along with the Torah, that have similar attitudes to ‘nonbelievers’ and seems to be inherent in monotheistic religeon.

          1. Christianity and Judaism have moved on from those days. Islam is not allowed to modernise. Nobody is being killed to the tune of “Praise to our lord Jesus Christ” but many for many victims, the last words they hear are “Allahu Akbar”.

          3. I must admit that you do have a very valid observation. Although in most cases, a lot of the fundamentalist interpretation of that book is because sections are taken out of context and used as a justfication for sectarian violence.
            It’s made worse by Sunni/Shia hatred of each others interpretation.

          4. There is, as far as I know, no equivalent in the koran of the injunction to love thy neighbour. Even the instruction not to murder “the innocent” refers only to muslims – and the “right” sort of muslims at that.

          5. From my admittedly limited knowledge of the Quran, you’re right on your first point.
            But as for killing, it gets complicated, but in general terms:
            Kill only the enemy in battle.
            Do not kill, women, children or the old and sick, even if they are nonbelievers.
            Then there is a lot about not destroying water supplies, crops and places of worship – Muslim or other beliefs, people of the book etc.
            The difficulty come when it says kill the idolater who doesn’t admit their misunderstanding of the ‘one God’. Who makes that decision is, it seems to me very questionable and that’s how isis justify their actions.

          6. From my admittedly limited knowledge of the Quran, you’re right on your first point.
            But as for killing, it gets complicated, but in general terms:
            Kill only the enemy in battle.
            Do not kill, women, children or the old and sick, even if they are nonbelievers.
            Then there is a lot about not destroying water supplies, crops and places of worship – Muslim or other beliefs, people of the book etc.
            The difficulty come when it says kill the idolater who doesn’t admit their misunderstanding of the ‘one God’. Who makes that decision is, it seems to me very questionable and that’s how isis justify their actions.

  104. 356279+ up ticks,

    I believe it is causing problems at Dover as to what war zone gets what,No hotels for these boyo’s pk of sarnies and straight up to the whackadoodal war front.

    1. Yikes. Do they not realise that the police check the boot of every car at Dunkirk – hope they do the same at Calais!

          1. Will be soon- I won’t be up late- was a long day yesterday and we had a huge dinner with all the resultant clearing up. Been shopping as well today so worn out.
            Also, have to see the Doc on Friday;-) No wonder I am so Dopey.

          4. Naming the new royal baby
            Rumours were that Harry and Meghan were going to name the child “Seatbelt”

            When questioned about this, Prince Harry responded with “Its what my mum would have wanted”


  107. You can always rely on the BBC…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0f4c0ec287ec1290cf92bc645cfc4eb5de683f7bdcbf6b3cb00cb4ca23f9cd9.jpg


    “Look at me!”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e397444617e06a50c13e48037329c7ae8e91a6253885f9deb322080f95f2d07.jpg


    Provide your own caption for this one.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9fcdd5d12a86b1bb4c98f2813cd1cb548320132153e25bae7d6c1608320d195.jpg

    More here:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-2d82cfba-f5ea-4072-ba5e-32c28c749a55


  108. You can always rely on the BBC…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0f4c0ec287ec1290cf92bc645cfc4eb5de683f7bdcbf6b3cb00cb4ca23f9cd9.jpg


    “Look at me!”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e397444617e06a50c13e48037329c7ae8e91a6253885f9deb322080f95f2d07.jpg


    Provide your own caption for this one.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e9fcdd5d12a86b1bb4c98f2813cd1cb548320132153e25bae7d6c1608320d195.jpg

    More here:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-2d82cfba-f5ea-4072-ba5e-32c28c749a55

  109. This is long (an hour) but a very interesting discussion about depopulation. (I watched it at 1.5 speed)
    What I find particularly fascinating is that it’s put out by a large US foundation, but it’s not the WEF propaganda about wicked humans overpopulating the planet. Climate change was just mentioned briefly in passing, as being something that many young people are scared about.
    We tend to get so much WEF/Bilderberg propaganda that we feel as though it’s the only voice on stage.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNdnlrkx-wg

    2. Yes, if so many Muslims suffer from mental health problems, why is the Government so keen to import more?

  111. Today has been a reasonably good day for me. Went shopping this morning and bought a 10 year old single malt whisky reduced to £20 but with a £4.50 voucher it reduced the price to a mere £15.50. It is now resting in the Cupboard for Christmas. I then cleaned the car inside & out (it hadn’t been cleaned for months – i’d almost forgotten what colour it was) . I then weeded the newly sown front lawns and watered the new lawn seed bed at the side of the house.. Can’t wait until Thursday when the Skip I’ve ordered arrives and I can clear 4 tons of rocks and stones. And on that happy note I will bid you all good night!

      1. The only old fossil amongst that lot is me. I did spot some Ooliths on one rock now in a flower border ( O level Geology does come in useful once in 50 years!)

  112. A stupid cow on Dan Woodentop just said that the people who protected Anne Frank broke the law; those who turned her in were obeying the law. This woman was an eco idiot who saw nothing wrong with vandalising petrol pumps etc
    This country is lost unless some sense prevails. I will not be holding my breath.

    1. Playing devil’s advocate, strictly speaking that was the case; the Racial Purity laws mandated that Jews should be handed over to the authorities. That they were vile laws is another matter.

      2. I posted this reply to LOTL before I read this comment: “The Anne Frank is a fatuous analogy. It is not valid as it was a law imposed by an occupying Army without the consent of the Dutch people.”

        1. It was, however, a law that was obeyed by a lot of Dutch people (according to one of my Dutch friends who wrote a book about collaboration).

          1. Obeying such a law under occupation does not give it legitimacy. Yes there was a lot of collaboration but considerably more actively resisted than are given credit for.

      3. Same in Norway – the resistance were classed as terrorists as they fought against the “legitimate” government of Norway.

      3. What the idiotic woman doesn’t understand is that there are thousands of products synthesised from crude oil..

        From wiki…

        Specialty and By-products

        Oil
        refineries will blend various feedstocks, mix appropriate additives,
        provide short-term storage, and prepare for bulk loading to trucks,
        barges, product ships, and railcars.[4]

        Gasses like propane and methane are stored within petroleum.

        Liquid fuels blending (producing automotive and aviation grades of gasoline, kerosene,
        various aviation turbine fuels, and diesel fuels, adding dyes,
        detergents, antiknock additives, oxygenates, and anti-fungal compounds
        as required). Shipped by barge, rail, and tanker ship. May be shipped
        regionally in dedicated pipelines
        to point consumers, particularly aviation jet fuel to major airports,
        or piped to distributors in multi-product pipelines using product
        separators called pipeline inspection gauges (“pigs”).

        Lubricants (produces light machine oils, motor oils, and greases, adding viscosity stabilizers as required), usually shipped in bulk to an offsite packaging plant.

        Paraffin wax, used in illumination (candle wax) and other uses. May be shipped in bulk to a site to prepare as packaged blocks.

        Slack wax, a raw refinery output comprising a mixture of oil and wax used as a precursor for scale wax and paraffin wax and as-is in non-food products such as wax emulsions, construction board, matches, candles, rust protection, and vapour barriers.

        Sulfur, by-product of sulfur removal[5][6][7] from petroleum, which contain percent of organosulfur compounds.

        Bulk tar shipping for offsite unit packaging for use in tar-and-gravel roofing or similar uses.

        Asphalt, used as a binder for gravel to form asphalt concrete, which is used for paving roads, lots, etc. An asphalt unit prepares bulk asphalt for shipment.

        Petroleum coke, used in specialty carbon products such as certain types of electrodes, or as solid fuel.

        Petrochemicals or petrochemical feedstocks such as ethylene,[8] propylene, acrylic acid,[9][10][11] and benzene-toluene-xylenes[8][12][13] (“BTX”) and others. These organic compounds are turned into polymers, plastics, and pharmaceuticals, among others.

        Petroleum by-products

        Over 6,000 items are made from petroleum waste by-products, including: fertilizer, flooring (floor covering), perfume, insecticide, petroleum jelly, soap, vitamins and some essential amino acids.[14]

        Oil can be used to make many products in a way that is more sustainable than use as a fuel, which creates pollution.

    3. The Anne Frank is a fatuous analogy. It is not valid as it was a law imposed by an occupying Army without the consent of the Dutch people.

    4. The Anne Frank is a fatuous analogy. It is not valid as it was a law imposed by an occupying Army without the consent of the Dutch people.

  114. Am truly Sleepy now so off to bed.
    Be good Y’all and sleep well. I apologise in advance for any loud snoring.

    1. In the classic 1960s (i.e. from 1963–1969) the girls were the prettiest and they had the most attractive haircuts and clothes of all-time.

      5. vw and I met in 1962 started going out together in 1964 and married in 1968.
        The swinging sixties seemed to passed us by without us noticing.

    4. I remember it so well, as I worked in Clifford Street, Right by the back of Savile Row cop shop. 1970 – 74.

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