Thursday 29 September: Grave doubts about a tax-cutting plan without savings to balance it

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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699 thoughts on “Thursday 29 September: Grave doubts about a tax-cutting plan without savings to balance it”

  3. Mornings.
    Now I’m getting concerned.
    Sudden flurry of articles in Aftenposten today about how awful Russia is, attacks on innocent pipelines bla bla, but a new edge to the rhetoric. It looks like preparing the people for a war… “How the Norwegian people can help in a war” kind of flavour.
    Buying iodine tablets if I can on the way home today.

        1. That map omits the LNG receiving terminals, storage tanks and regasification facilities at Milford Haven and Isle of Grain. They would make a much more dramatic ‘BANG!!’

      1. These people are marching us to their doom just as they did in 1914.
        More accurate, I think.

  4. Mornings.
    Now I’m getting concerned.
    Sudden flurry of articles in Aftenposten today about how awful Russia is, attacks on innocent pipelines bla bla, but a new edge to the rhetoric. It looks like preparing the people for a war… “How the Norwegian people can help in a war” kind of flavour.
    Buying iodine tablets if I can on the way home today.

  5. The apparent attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines are a wake-up call. 29 September 2022.

    The West remains vulnerable to Russian sabotage and needs to do more to keep up its guard.

    The apparent underwater sabotage of the two main gas pipelines from Russia to Germany is a matter of grave concern given the vulnerability of these connections and other critical links. Two powerful blasts were detected on Nord Stream 1 and 2, where gas leaks have subsequently been reported. Seismologists in Denmark and Sweden said there was no doubt that these were explosions but whether they were deliberate acts remains unclear.

    They have caused unprecedented damage to the pipelines on which Germany relies for much of its energy but which have recently been out of action as a result of Russian restrictions in retaliation for Western sanctions.

    Despite the title and the sub-heading the text of this editorial does not accuse the Russians directly of sabotaging the pipelines. This is in in line with the UK Government who have also declined to comment. This is not from any respect for the truth but that they are waiting to see how the Germans take this (they being the most affected) because it has closed off to them a rapprochement with Russia and can hardly be enthusiastic about what is now almost certain to be a Major War in Europe sometime in the coming year. The recklessness and stupidity of this act by the Americans can hardly be overstated. It is not only a casus belli but risks splitting NATO.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/09/28/apparent-attacks-nord-stream-1-2-gas-pipelines-wake-call/

    1. Well, we will be right there offering men and money for the front line, and 66 million civilian hostages on these islands all in order to push US world hegemony a little further.
      (As I have said recently the US has failed to emulate and recreate the British Empire as is their ambition. They chose the wrong methods and the wrong wars in a completely different world to that of the 19th century nor have they learned from their many mistakes.)

    2. It was deffo an attack, but by whom?
      My opinion is that Russia has the least to gain, since they could have just shut off supply, and reopened when they were ready & welcome.
      The US/Ukraine has most to gain – Russia gets the blame, US gas is unaffected, and the Germans don’t get to backslide on US orders. US seem to be desperate to have a war in Europe “started by Russia”. Why does Putin not make this point?
      Likewise, the “war rhetoric” seems to have stepped up this morning. I’m getting uneasy about it.

    3. Russia is in no position to threaten anybody who has a box of tin soldiers. This means:
      – Their threshold for use of nuclear weapons is drastically reduced
      – NATO is not required for protection against Russia, since they can’t pull the skin…
      So, by fomenting war, NATO show they have a reason for continued existence, the US keep creaming off all those defence dollars, and being in charge. What’s not to like?

  7. Grave doubts about a tax-cutting plan without savings to balance it

    I don’t know if they did it on purpose or not as part of some strategy but the Kwasi tax cuts have certainly unmasked all the globalist so called Conservatives and all the technocrats in the bank of England, the IMF and the UN.

    1. The saving will have to be made, just watch.The left can always open more political foodbanks.

  10. ‘Morning, Peeps. Off to brave the M25 today…I may be gone some time.

    SIR – It is remarkable to hear Labour claiming that, on the economy, it is the “responsible” party.

    When the Government put the country into lockdown – a shock to the economy far greater than anything in the mini-Budget – Labour not only supported the measures but demanded they went further. When Rishi Sunak announced the furlough package, spending money that was not there, Labour said it was not enough. Every time the Government proposed to lift the lockdown measures and restart the economy, Labour objected.

    Now, Labour’s only response to the mini-Budget is to say it will reverse the top rate of tax, which everyone agrees will have little positive impact and is simply the politics of envy. This party is not responsible, just opportunistic.

    Fr Seth Phipps
    Reading, Berkshire

    Well said, Fr Seth.

  11. Good morning all. A dull, damp drizzly start to the day with 7°C outside.
    Sounds a bit rough in Florida.

  12. SIR – I’ve just asked Google to help with a recipe and, once again, been put through an extremely tedious test to prove that I’m not a robot.

    Even when I correctly identify a fire hydrant, bicycle or set of traffic lights (something I’m sure an automaton can do better than I can) I have to go through the rigmarole several times more. Would it really be a huge security risk if a robot got hold of the secret to making dumplings?

    Mark Rayner
    Eastbourne, East Sussex

    Yes, Craptcha is a pain.

    1. It’s worse. Some of the items are so far in the distance you’d need binoculars to see them.

    2. Those items are to teach autonomous vehicles what those objects are. That’s why it’s always to do with vehicles or street furniture.
      We are starting with the same thing, to teach software what various types of corrosion look like, using pictures of, well, corrosion. This so that robots can carry out visual inspection on plant, and mark areas of corrosion of whatever type.

  13. SIR – Received pronunciation is not “posh”, as the presenter Amol Rajan claims (report, September 28).

    It is precise, which means anyone can understand it. In making speech accessible to all, it is the very opposite of elitist. Mr Rajan is hard to understand not because of his accent, but because he gabbles, slurs and swallows his consonants.

    Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
    Northwood, Middlesex

    SIR – When Amol Rajan calls broadcasters “posh”, he simply means that they speak properly.

    He is right to complain that only 10 per cent of the population speak with received pronunciation. The tragedy, however, is that this figure is not higher. Broadcasters are in the communications business; if they employ people who use appalling grammar or have incomprehensible accents, they are doing viewers and listeners a great disservice.

    This is not snobbery. Anyone can speak the English language as it should be spoken if they make the effort. Inverted snobbery on the part of broadcasters who encourage bad English is a national disgrace.

    Nicholas Young
    London W13

    Well said, Mr Young and Cynthia Double-Barrelled!

    1. My Dad grew up speaking Monkey-hangerish. Realised this didn’t suit his ambition, learned to speak so he could be understood (and sound less toiling-class) – so, a mild version of RP.

    2. When I was at university – in the first half of the 1980s – I shared a flat with a working-class chap from Birmingham. He was a very talented linguist and wanted to become a translator and interpreter – and he decided to take elocution lessons to smooth over his very broad Brummy accent, on the basis that the non-native English speakers he would end up working with would not understand him – not good for a career as an international interpreter, he thought.

      I agreed with him, but sadly he had to bear the brunt of a certain amount of very unpleasant “teasing”, generally by chaps from similar working-class backgrounds who seemed to think that somehow he was a traitor to their class.

  14. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with blooded axe and longbow ( in handbag ).

    The new chancellor is correct
    There has been nothing but incompetence for over 30 years, the response by the establishment, IMF etc – all the hysterics from those who prefer the status quo and have too much influence and invested interest is just fear mongering. I hope Truss and the chancellor don’t back down.

    1. I agree with your main points, Lady of the Mercians, but am puzzled by your very first sentence. Where on earth do you keep your marmalade sandwiches?!?!? Lol.

  15. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c64636c9f0348a571e719f581a516860437fe8e5/0_0_3933_2360/master/3933.jpg?width=720&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3c29ef779f0a2f8507f885e95069ef28

    ‘Every September farmers collect their sheep from the mountains in order to separate the lambs from the ewes. They use some of the unique sheepfolds found in our area, some of which are over 200 years old. Sheep are driven into the centre of the fold. Each farm has its own cell round the outside and the sheep are moved from the centre (through holes in the walls) into each farm’s cell. The picture was taken in Snowdonia, Wales, after the sheep had been rounded up and one or two of the farmers were having a quick lunch before doing the sorting.’
    Photograph: Nigel Beidas

  17. A beautifully sunny day in East Anglia. Deep blue sky with just a few fluffy clouds, it could still be summer instead of autumn. Mind you I have already put away all my summer clothes, and have my winter clothes out. The problem with me is I hardly bother with autumn clothing and jump quickly to winter . So therefore there are wool jumpers, trousers and skirts and dresses that are all warm. I do easily feel the cold so should be okay.

      1. I think many have started putting the heating on or lighting a fire.
        We haven’t yet, we do have the heating on rather a lot over winter as the cold makes my bones ache but I’m trying to be more hardy this early in the autumn.

    2. Wool is good. Can cope with most levels of external temperature. If a bit warm, slow down a little.

      1. I have a friend here in Moffat, who is going to knit me an Aran Sweater with the wool I bought for it. I think I’ll need it for the forecast of a very cold winter.

        1. I wear a Norwegian version all winter, indoors & out – will start in a week or few. Very rarely am I too hot or too cold – except in a strong wind, or doing heavy exercise, then I pop on a jacket, or take it off. Normal activity, it’s great for thermal regulation. See scary picture (taken from pc camera) attached for the neck part, at least. (A SWMBO creation)
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d33edde90d935b1b4186158af0970b34d605ac95fa90b8edab679434a232ed63.jpg

          3. The lady is very special to me. Just to keep up i treat her to Aspinal silk scarves.
            There has been so much disruption, illness and cancellations for a variety of reasons i haven’t seen her in ages. Hopefully next April if not sooner.

        2. MB used to knit Arran; I’m absolutely useless, I get bored with all that checking and counting.

  18. A beautifully sunny day in East Anglia. Deep blue sky with just a few fluffy clouds, it could still be summer instead of autumn. Mind you I have already put away all my summer clothes, and have my winter clothes out. The problem with me is I hardly bother with autumn clothing and jump quickly to winter . So therefore there are wool jumpers, trousers and skirts and dresses that are all warm. I do easily feel the cold so should be okay.

  19. Where has all the money for the NHS gone to asks Lynne Stewart of Tadley:-

    NHS delays
    SIR – On Tuesday my husband received a phone call from the local hospital telling him to expect a call from the oncology department on October 5 – four weeks to the day since the scan to see how far his cancer has progressed.

    Four weeks? Where have all the billions pumped in to the NHS gone?

    Lynne Stewart
    Tadley, Hampshire

    https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1575375357536047105

    1. When I was in Lister recently for my cardioversion. There were no hospital porters. The poor nurses struggled pushing the beds around and getting the patients in and out of the lifts.
      I felt sorry for them.

    2. Make a call to advise you are getting a call…? Like having a meeting to decide whether to have a meeting.
      Clearly people with too little to do!
      Or, was that a hint tha you will need to take the call sitting down, as it’s bad news…

    3. Make a call to advise you are getting a call…? Like having a meeting to decide whether to have a meeting.
      Clearly people with too little to do!
      Or, was that a hint tha you will need to take the call sitting down, as it’s bad news…

  20. 365664+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 29 September: Grave doubts about a tax-cutting plan without savings to balance it

    There are graver concerns to be answered before the tax / economy issues, a stable economy goes hand in hand with a stable Country the latter has been in serious doubt these last 40 years, thanks to the polling booth.

    Graver issues as the truth concerning covid 19 spot lighting the
    fear / premature death / serious fallout from the, in many cases, mandatory jabbing campaign.

    Link that to, after witnessing the actions of the governing bodies these past two years, a doctors research concerning cancer leading into positive results leads me to ask is ongoing cancer cases supporting lifestyles ?

    https://twitter.com/thehealthb0t/status/1574791753525350401?s=20&t=KFi_Fuh4YVhSSI9UUzokOg

  21. Sunak isn’t going to attend the Conservstive Party conference.
    Of course he isn’t, he’s part of the establishment blob hand in glove with the IMF etc,
    he’d never rattle the cozy monetary club.

  22. Picked up from a BTL Comment:-

    Jimmy Greaves
    1 HR AGO
    More letters from people who still erroneously think Covid is something to worry about.
    If they watch this short video from GB News a couple of nights ago, they’ll really have something to worry about:

    https://youtu.be/Z4qbbMoECzA

    1. Excellent and about time.
      During all of my hospital visits over the period I suffered atrial fibrillation, every single individual medic I spoke to agreed that my problem was caused by my two jabs.
      What he says is exactly what happened to me.
      And I have family members who have had every jab possible and still caught covid.
      We caught covid in Cornwall in August, it was no worse than a bad cold.

        1. When I tell people about my experiences especially the relationship with covid jabs and after I still get impression they think I’m making it up. That video clip explains exactly what happened to me.
          And I lost three mates during the covid ‘ pandemic ‘ there were never autopsies after death. No explanations as to why.

          1. Same with BiL. Autopsy “Massive heart attack” – yes, but caused by what? Lightning strike?

  23. Good Morning. Abit dull, but it is early yet. It rained most of yesterday and “same again’ is expected today.

    1. Good morning Horace – it’s supposed to clear up today after a wet night and be wet again tomorrow.

  24. Just took an empty milk bottle outside and it’s raining fairly hard now.
    I don’t think I’ll be doing much outside today.

      1. Just been doing some chopping down of ash I sycamore shoots that have sprouted from the stumps of trees I’ve felled over the past couple of years.

        1. Nature gets back at you.
          I’ve got a squirrel plant walnut tree sapling now in a large pot. I’m looking for somewhere to plant it.
          And a fir tree sapling. I’d love them to be my legacy.

        1. He will be buried in a private vault with George Soros and Klaus Schwab. Governments in mmuch of the Western World may well fly flags at half-mast.

      2. That thought crossed my mind but if natural forces e.g. vulcanism are the main drivers of CO₂ then the level may never fall so low as to kill all plant life – around 155ppm? Gates would be long dead – big cheer – before that happened.

    2. Good morning, Korky. I’m perfectly happy for those people who want to save the planet to go and live on a planet of their choice – just as long as it isn’t Planet Earth.

      2. If we could send them to Mars – is >30 Million miles sufficient separation? – each competing group could have their own unique biosphere wherein they could live as they wished. Reduced gravity would drive evolution to transform the inhabitants to become other than human, another item in their bucket-list of misery they want to force on homo sapiens.

  27. Good morning, everyone. Well, I almost made it to October. But this morning I awoke and the temperature was just 18% so I decided I just wanted to manually increase the CH to 21 degrees Centigrade. Once the CH cuts back to 15 degrees at 9 am, I am hoping the sun’s rays will keep the room at 21.

      1. At 8 am, the sun had not risen high enough to warm the living room through the window, hence my switching on the CH for one single hour. At 9 am the CH automatically switched off, but the sun was high enough in the sky by then for its rays to keep the temperature at 21 degrees. Hope this clarifies the situation for you.

  29. Morning all 😉
    Grave doubts about tax cutting plan …..
    Typically our ‘mastermind’ political classes are still trying to hide their huge and massively expensive mistakes under the proverbial carpet.
    It’s costing us billions to accommodate half the third world’s illegal entrants. Admit your errors and get these people out of the UK. Do something positive for us for a change.
    And stop legal aid. And stop foreign aid.
    Because unless you haven’t noticed it’s now glaringly obvious that we the UK, can’t afford it. Similarly we can’t afford to allow politicians to take home 132million pounds in personal ‘expenses’.
    If you people don’t like the job leave. Nobody will care or even notice that you’ve gone.

      1. 365664+ up ticks,

        Morning FA,
        I now describe them as “enemas”.

        Much better title for someone who contacts “their MPs”
        instead of “the area MP”

    3. If he really said that – as in recently, not a clip from years back – then he is NOTTL’s Moscow correspondent..

  32. This is a Stock Market announcement which will not be mentioned on the MSM or, indeed, any of the business channels (the WOKE CNBC and Bloomberg):

    29 September 2022

    BRAEMAR PLC

    (“Braemar”, the “Company” or the “Group”)

    Pre-close trading update

    Braemar Plc (LSE: BMS), a leading international Shipbroker and provider of expert advice in shipping investment, chartering and risk management services, is pleased to provide a trading update for the six months ended 31 August 2022 (the “Period”).

    Braemar continues to benefit from the increased scale and breadth of its broking operations which have achieved significantly higher trading activity and transaction volumes during the Period. Trading has been very strong with all sectors of the core Shipbroking business generating higher revenue than in the previous six months.

    Revenue to 31 August 2022 is expected to be not less than GBP69m (H1 2021: GBP47m), an increase of 47%, with underlying operating profit for the period not less than GBP10.5m, an increase of 88% (H1 2021 GBP5.6m). Of the 47% increase in revenue, 36% has been derived from the Group’s business activities and 11% from exchange rate movements between the US dollar and Sterling. In US dollar terms, revenue for the period is expected to be not less than $88m (H1 2021 $65m).

    The board looks forward to the second half of the year with a high degree of confidence in the ongoing execution of its growth strategy.

    The Group will announce its Interim Results for the six months ended 31 August 2022 in mid-November 2022.

    …..
    Indeed, CNBC will work itself into a lather about the 10% fall (38p) in the price of housebuilder Barratt Developments, without mentioning that the true fall is a much less dramatic 3% because holders became entitled to a 25.7p dividend this morning.

    1. The MSM is making the argument for government censorship more credible by the day.
      Most people are so tired of being ground down by bad news, that they would unthinkingly go along with any measures to curb it.
      I cannot decide if the media is stupid or is secretly wanting to have censorship so it doesn’t have to think.

  33. ‘Unique’ autumn show predicted for UK trees – but decline may follow. 29 september 2022.

    After a year of extreme weather, a “unique” show of golden browns and buttery yellows could light up the UK’s trees in the next few weeks, a conservation charity has predicted, while warning that the impact of the climate emergency could threaten the show in autumns to come.

    So it’s going to be a good autumn display but the future not so much? Is there anything that this miserabilist mob can leave to providence? Once the future was full of hope! Now it’s a grim prospect without relief. No wonder the nutters have taken over!

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/29/autumn-show-uk-trees-extreme-summers-national-trust

    4. Self-fulfilling prophecies. It’s going to be bad. So everyone prepares for bad. That causes bad.

    2. A superficial fact about Miss Fuq is that she sounds posh and was privately educated.

      Funny that….

  37. ‘Morning All

    Just awoken from the best nights sleep in years,not looked at the “news” yet so some laffs and c&d’s

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c87eef898bf3a7c731c0113baeae5c33a2fc59bef3ed82fb7bceb0db9aeb81f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5e83fe807cb8f376100cb6ea2b90d9c93564a602334edce808eb6e10438bbba4.jpg

    https://twitter.com/Omar_pets0/status/1574919981317476353?s=20&t=DHbYHaJ1Py41sAeSw7YQBw

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2428e86c3c9c848ffd08e539aec8bc01fa881096f142a949503957bb3ccaee2d.jpg

        1. Yes Phizzee,

          I had just started a break with MOH at her holiday lodge on the Suffok coast and was finding that a lot of data on the lodge wireless router was being used for the new remote security camera at home.
          So Nottling had to take a back seat.

          Then, since the Queen died I have had to find a way disposing of my increasingly useless and rapidly depreciating family 7–seater 2009 diesel Mazda 5 manual with a clogged particulate filter warning light.

          Finally traded it in for a new Hyundai Kona EV which has about 275 mile range when delivered today. I’m very impressed with its handling and performannce.I needed two hours of EV training this morning to work out to get it home in one piece without settimg off any of the many default auto assist alarms.

  38. Spent the last half hour consoling my neighbour. Sasher the cat was hit by a car last night. Car didn’t stop but they probably didn’t notice. A lady on a bike found him and another lady stopped to help. Took him to the Vet but he had gone by then.
    Something that Facbook is good for…local groups. The message went up and my neighbour spotted it. At least it was quick. Made me a bit weepy too.

    1. It is something I expect daily. Pickles, in particular, is forever crossing the road – when – this side – there are 10,000 acres for him to hunt in.

      1. Fit them with those reflective collars. At least they can be seen in the dark hours. Puts signs on the verge saying cats are crossing.

        1. They’d have collars off in a trice. Signs encourage some people to drive faster. There are a lot of bastards about.

    2. Our last cat was run over outside our house. The driver brought the poor thing to the door. He said he frequently drove past and knew that it was our cat. Poor Benny was smashed up and died in my arms a short time later.
      Sometimes I still see him sitting on our window ledge as I drive up the hill to the house.

  39. A late good morning to all of you.

    Damp day here, 9c..slight breeze, and I hope the sun breaks through soon, have a basket of washed clothes to dry on the line .

    What do you think of the Chancellor .. is he a wild crazy spendthrift similar to all those who have crippled Africa ?

      1. He is also a former King´s Scholar at Eton College, where his name would have born the letters ‘KS’ after his name. K…. K…. K….s

        In the good ol’ US of A, KKK men tend not to blessed with dark skin.

  40. We had to take urgent action to get our economy growing’: Liz Truss says she will make ‘difficult decisions’ and backs economic plans amid mini-Budget market turmoil as she finally breaks cover and runs gauntlet of EIGHT local BBC interviews in an hour

    Truss insisted she had the ‘right plan’ to repair Britain’s economy today as she tried to restore City confidence
    PM presented with examples of the potential hardship facing millions during eight BBC local news interviews

    Ministers are drawing up plans for billions of pounds in spending cuts to reassure panicked markets
    PM said country was ‘on a better trajectory for the long term’ but conditions would not improve overnight

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11261567/Liz-Truss-expected-say-WONT-reverse-economic-plans-finally-emerges-face-public.html?ito=social-facebook&fbclid=IwAR17dAmzK7ZQY8bC0CjetH_67eXykGXSzD9u36bMiAhk2xWeJAh2rdvf4tk

  42. Off Topic

    Blood test this morning 08:30, results in my e-mail 11:17!

    If it is possible in France why can’t the UK organise similarly

    2. Not quite that quick but when I used to take Warfarin I had the blood test on a Thursday morning and by Saturday I received the dosage for the next period.

      1. Put the NHS onto piece work and tell the managers they are now time & motion experts. Works for me.

    2. Crikey! How convenient!

      Although… special forces don’t tend to bother carrying identifying information with them, certainly not a passport.

  47. On a beautiful, warm autumn day I took this picture of my Early Sensation hydrangea. It first flowers with creamy white petals that over the following months turn to this final colour. The hydrangea is partially shaded by that beautiful weed, a wisteria that doesn’t know when to stop growing!😎
    Off out to cut, for the first time in months, the meadow that masquerades as a lawn chez Korky. Followed by a bit of tidying up out the front, and does the front need it!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7a3c9483006bb98235559300ccf318f05e031aa043c0d8c0c4faf3b5913ff112.jpg

    1. We’ve had about 5 minutes of sunshine today – in 10 second chunks. My washing’s out on the line but i don’t think it’s going to dry.

      Your hydrangea is beautiful!

      1. The rain earlier ceased shortly after I posted about it and I’ve a load of washing out too.

      2. Warm today compared to yesterday when the wind was really chilly. I wasn’t sure about the more open flower type but it’s grown (groan) on me.

        1. The sun decided to come out about 2.30 and the rest of the afternoon has been sunny and breezy, so the washing may have dried after all.

    2. We have about 50 hydrangeas. Half a dozen were definitely killed in the drought. The rest struggle on – some better than others.

      1. Shame that you’ve lost some plants. I haven’t lost any but the drought ruined some of my soft fruit; no blackberry preserve this year but the grapes are making up for that with a little help from the Bramley apples. As for hydrangeas, I have a spot further up the garden where I want to plant a ‘mophead’ type next Spring.

    3. We have a rhododendron with a single pink flower. It flowered earlier this year – March or April I think.

  49. Bloody hell, that was nice!!
    The DT is eating at Student Son’s tonight and S@H working a late shift, so I’m home alone!!

    So, I took the opportunity of frying up a couple of small pickling onions with some bacon, defrosting some lamb’s liver that’s been in the freezer for over a year and doing myself liver, bacon & onions!
    A bit short of meat or vegetable stock, so used the brine from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes for the gravy and served the lot up with some reheated turnip, (swede to soft Southerners) carrot & parsnip.

    I might be having to load the camping gear into the van this afternoon. I’m bidding on a bit of lathe tooling for t’Lad and if I buy it will have to go to Bridgewater to pick it up, so will go via Basingstoke & call in on eldest daughter.

        1. I’ve only had haggis once and it came with bashed neeps as far as I remember and they were swedes.
          Perhaps turnips haven’t reached the north yet.

          2. We always ate swedes mashed with carrots in Lancashire but called them turnips. I like them both.

        2. Swede. Though turnips are often referred to as neeps the neeps and tatties are mashed potato and mashed swede with haggis.

    2. The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in
      temperate climates worldwide for its white, fleshy taproot. The word
      turnip is a compound of turn as in turned/rounded on a lathe and neep,
      derived from Latin napus, the word for the plant. Wikipedia

      Swedes are bigger and yellow fleshed.

  50. I realise that not everyone is as obsessed with trying to second guess what is going to happen in the next couple of years as I am, but if you are, this is a really interesting 20 minute talk. Willem Middelkoop runs a metal mining investment fund. His take is that we won’t see hyperinflation as the fiat currencies die – they will head off the Weimar scenario and go straight to the fascismgovernment regulation of more and more of the economy.
    The implication is that when China is firmly established as the owner of the next reserve currency, and we embark on the next cycle of financial stability, this government regulation won’t be there any more.
    I don’t think the people ever get any freedom that they haven’t wrested from the hands of bankers or kings. It’s an interesting talk anyway – especially for those of us whose pensions are still hanging in the balance….!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMhJecmH9bQ

    1. So the government regulation stops when the BRICS group wins? Digital currency doesn’t have to be government controlled of course. It does’t have to be any more regulated than loading fiat money onto an unregistered Oyster card. But the WEF and World Bank want it to be regulated.

      Crunched on my lunch today so straight to the dentist. Two new crowns, side by side, coming up on 19 Oct – the first 4 hour slot available. Thank the Lord for savings and private treatment. The crowns will be made right there and then on the premises, hence the 4 hours.

      1. I am very careful of what i eat so as to retain my crowns for as long as possible. No toffee popcorn for a start. Nothing particularly chewy though i do eat steak. I never bite into apples !

  51. Toppling Edward Colston’s statue not protected by human rights, judges rule

    Court of Appeal ruled it couldn’t be used as licence to cause significant damage such as the felling of the 17th-century merchant’s memorial

    By Charles Hymas, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR • 28 September 2022 • 6:12pm

    Toppling Edward Colston’s statue was not protected by human rights laws, judges have decided in a landmark ruling.

    The Court of Appeal ruled that human rights was not a defence for significant damage or that caused during violent protests such as the felling of Colston’s statue in Bristol.

    Instead, the three judges – led by Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett – ruled protesters might only “theoretically” be able to claim human rights as a defence for criminal damage if it was “minor or trivial”.

    Their judgment came after Suella Braverman, when she was Attorney General, asked the Court of Appeal to review the case of four protesters cleared of toppling the bronze memorial to Colston, a 17th-century merchant whose company transported slaves, during a Black Lives Matters demonstration.

    The new Home Secretary asked the judges to clarify the law amidst concerns that the “Colston Four” verdict could set a legal precedent that would allow people to argue their human right to protest overrode criminal damage.

    The ruling does not overturn their acquittal but it will have far-reaching consequences for defences that protesters use in future to defend violent demonstrations be it blocking roads and oil depots or tearing down statues or memorials.

    In a summary of the judgment, the court said: “The European Convention on Human Rights does not provide any protection for violent/non-peaceful conduct in the course of protest. Neither would it be disproportionate to convict someone of causing significant damage to property or damage to private property.”

    Lord Burnett said: “Although this case did not involve the destruction of the statue, the damage that was caused was clearly significant. Pulling this heavy bronze statue to the ground required it to be climbed, ropes attached to it and then the use of a good deal of force to bring it crashing to the ground.”

    He added: “The circumstances in which the statue was damaged did not involve peaceful protest. The toppling of the statute was violent. Moreover, the damage to the statue was significant.

    “On both these bases, we conclude that the prosecution was correct in its submission at the abuse hearing that the conduct in question fell outside the protection of the Convention.”

    However, the Court of Appeal judges accepted that Strasbourg case law had established that where damage to property during a protest was “transient or insignificant”, this had not been found to be “outside” protection offered by the Convention.

    However, it accepted that Strasbourg judges had argued that “any” damage caused to property during a protest, however minor, was not protected by human rights.

    “It is theoretically possible that cases involving minor or trivial damage to property heard in the Magistrates’ Court may raise a question of the proportionality of conviction. In those limited circumstances, a conviction may not be a proportionate response in the context of protest,” said the summary judgement.

    However, the judges made clear that damage worth less than £5,000 – the cut-off point for dealing with the case in magistrates rather than crown court – could still be “significant”, potentially denying protesters the protection of human rights.

    Human rights group Liberty expressed concern that the judgment set a threshold above which rights were weakened. “By placing weight on the value of an object in deciding if human rights can be taken into account, we feel that the court is shifting the balance too far away from our essential human rights,” said Liberty lawyer Katy Watts.

    Raj Chada, a partner at law firm Hodge Jones and Allen, who represented the four, said: “The clear view from an expert valuer, which we were prevented from relying upon during the trial, was that the value of the statue had increased exponentially after the toppling.

    “The statue is still on public display as a monument to the evils of the slave trade, not as an obscene glorification of a slave trader. It is a shame that this is the attorney general’s focus rather than the multiple crises facing this country.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/28/colston-four-cannot-use-human-rights-defence-toppling-bristol

    There’s something wrong here. The fact remains that this gang of four vandals committed an act of serious criminal damage and got away with it but the courts are going around in circles arguing over the cost of the damage and the human right to protest. Their fellow travellers won’t be deterred.

    Here are the smug four. Do their names tell us something about them?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/287f7b2e4ab724d073601e63f70d686657663ccad7f706fe78a500e54eb4394c.jpg
    Sage Willoughby, Jake Skuse, Milo Ponsford and Rhian Graham CREDIT: Ben Birchall/PA Wire

    1. They should have a rope put round their necks, pulled down and thrown into the nearest scum and oil polluted dock. See how they like it.

    2. Imagine going through life with the moniker Milo Ponsford. It’s enough to make you run amok and damage things …….. um … er ……….

  52. Spending good, tax cuts bad: the BBC can’t hide its Brownite bias

    With its attachment to conventional wisdom, the Corporation is cherishing the opportunity to give a government it dislikes a good kicking

    ROBIN AITKEN • 27 September 2022 • 7:00pm

    Since Friday, the BBC has been trying hard, but not quite succeeding to disguise its schadenfreude at the pound’s decline and the Government’s discomfiture. The Chancellor’s “fiscal event” was greeted with near-incredulity by Corporation commentators because the BBC is wedded to a Brownite economic orthodoxy to which Kwasi Kwarteng’s radicalism is a brazen affront.

    BBC apologists will argue that the Corporation is merely doing its job – accurately reflecting what has been happening in the markets. But there is a clear ideology buried in its vocabulary. To understand this, we must borrow that favourite instrument of Leftist intellectuals – “deconstructionism”.

    The BBC’s view of events springs from its essential character; as itself a creature of the public sector, it has a natural affinity for state spending. The Corporation lives comfortably off its own hypothecated tax, the licence fee; naturally, it approves of taxation and public spending. Indeed, on air, spending is almost always described as “investment”, especially if it’s for the NHS. And “investment”, as we all know, is what the prudent do to hedge against future adversity.

    So curbs on spending are seen as a cruel reversal of the natural order and lead to the dreaded land of “austerity”, with fewer public sector jobs and pay restraint. But, this time round, even the BBC is unable to portray the Government’s approach as tight-fisted; that would be impossible given the likely cost of the energy price cap. The BBC’s ire is therefore directed instead at “unfunded” tax cuts.

    But what does this phrase actually mean? At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious – BBC presenters, take note – taxes are themselves “funds”. Reducing them doesn’t “cost” anything – it just means the Government has taken less of our money. The problem comes if the tax-take falls but spending remains unchanged. This argument, however, ignores the Chancellor’s belief that reducing the level of tax can increase revenue by incentivising growth. This rationale underpins his whole strategy and, to underplay or ignore it, as the BBC so often has, unbalances the entire debate.

    The BBC’s tone is reinforced by its choice of experts, particularly the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In the BBC’s view, the IFS is the oracle whose pronouncements are incontrovertible. It is treated like the impartial guardian of economic truth – and, suffice to say, the “respected think tank” does not like the Government’s tax cuts.

    But is it entirely neutral? There are serious commentators who are sceptical of the economic models it relies on. Some of its statements can also appear highly political. Other, perfectly respectable research outfits, like the Institute of Economic Affairs, are more optimistic about tax cutting; but when the BBC allows them air time, they are introduced as “Right-leaning” or “free-market” and, therefore, somehow less reliable and more partisan; a BBC “trigger-warning”.

    What this all adds up to is this: the BBC “dresses Left” in all matters, but especially so on economics. Sterling’s travails are, for it, a heaven-sent opportunity to give a government it dislikes a good kicking. Predictably, it is amplifying Opposition allegations of incompetence.

    But the snap judgments of professional economists are far from infallible – remember the 364 economists who condemned Mrs Thatcher’s 1981 budget? Back then conventional wisdom turned out to be wrong. Then as now, the BBC and its ideological allies might again be proved mistaken.

    Robin Aitken is a former BBC journalist

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/27/spending-good-tax-cuts-bad-bbc-cant-hide-brownite-bias/

    2. There’s a much simpler way to cut state spending. It’s… by cutting state spending. Shred the departments. What does business do? Health? When there are NHS trusts, quangos galore? The Home office is deficit, education a failure, transport is absurd.

  54. To the citizens of the United States of America from His Sovereign Majesty King Charles III.

    In light of your failure to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA, and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. His Sovereign Majesty King Charles III will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except North Carolina, which he does not fancy).

    Our new Prime Minister, Elizabeth Truss, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

    To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

    1. The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘colour,’ ‘favour,’ ‘labour’ and ‘neighbour.’ Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters; tonight is not spelt ‘tonite’; and the suffix ‘-ize’ will be replaced by the suffix ‘-ise.’ Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up ‘vocabulary’).

    2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ‘like’ and ‘you know’ is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English: it is properly called ‘Americanese’. We will let Apple and Microsoft know on your behalf. The Apple and Microsoft spell-checkers will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of ‘-ize.’ The word ‘bunch’ (for a collection of items) has a hundred synonyms, all of which should be learnt, if for no other reason that to stop you uttering suchlike inanities as “a bunch of water”.

    3. July 4 will no longer be celebrated as a holiday. You will celebrate Bonfire Night on November 5 instead.

    4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can’t sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not ready to shoot grouse.

    5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

    6. All ‘intersections’ will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

    7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling ‘gasoline’) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

    8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thickly cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with ‘catsup’ but with vinegar.

    9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth — see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

    10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as ‘good guys’. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one’s ears removed with a cheese grater.

    11. You will cease playing American football (it should, in any case, be renamed ‘throwball’). There is only one kind of proper football; you call it ‘soccer’. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

    12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside America (except for Canada). Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

    13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us mad.

    14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from His Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

    15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits ( not ‘cookies’, see below) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

    16. You must stop calling biscuits ‘cookies’ and stop calling drop scones ‘biscuits’. Biscuit means twice-cooked, which our biscuits are, but our scones are never.

    17. You will stop calling hockey ‘field hockey’ and no longer refer to ice-hockey simply as ‘hockey’. Mothers are to be known as mums, never ‘moms’. Jugs aren’t called ‘pitchers’, nappies are not ‘diapers’ and taps are not ‘faucets’.

    No doubt you will all scream and shout (not ‘yell’) but you’ll soon get used to a more civilised way of living.

    Charles R.

    2. And all domain names will end with col.emp, to properly recognise you are a colony of the British empire.

    4. Dear Chuck.
      Stuff the metric system. It’s a nasty French imposition.
      And, Your Maj, it is not “outside of” – it is “outside”. So you’ve fallen at the 12th. fence.

      1. Only North Carolina, which Virginia and South Carolina prefer (understandably imo) not to think about. Courtesy of the late, great Florence King:

        “Lost in this shuffle is the state of North Carolina, much larger than South Carolina and contiguous to Virginia but singularly unblessed by
        membership in the Upper South. It has plenty of tobacco but not a lot of horses or Episcopalians; it doesn’t grow cotton, is not famous for
        mules, but it has Baptists galore. North Carolina simply fell between the slats and, there being no such thing as the mid-South, had to be
        called something else. The name that Virginia and South Carolina came up with is ‘a desert between two oases’.”

        https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/reason-vs-romanticism

    1. All we had was a tuck shop in the morning that sold sticky buns and lollies, and a terrible lunch at lunchtime.

        2. I remember those but I don’t think they were available in the tuck shop, which had a very limited range.

      3. The only food we got was doshed out at lunchtime.
        I particularly dreaded the new potatoes, which I normally loved. They were soggy and had a strange musty flavour.
        And don’t get me onto the school swede; boiled cubes of stringy stuff. Twenty years later and married, I learnt to make it edible.

        1. Real new potatoes are an utter delight. Yours at school were probably tinned, then reheated for too long.

          I suspect that even new crop jersey royals have spent a year stored in sand.

          Grow your own !

          1. I have to agree, except for this year. I grew Sharpe’s Express and they were tasteless. I will return to either Pentland Javelin or Arran Pilot next year.
            I grew International Kidney, aka Jersey Royals once. OK but nothing special.

          3. MOH got tons of the stuff for the garden and her spuds were and are delicious. Her first time at it and I hope she grows more next year.

          8. “…probably tinned…”

            Indeed. Commercial catering crap. They had a sticky texture and tasted of mud.

          9. When i took over the catering at a working men’s club i was required to cook Christmas dinner for 300 pensioners. For free.

            I didn’t mind that, though a hell of a lot of work.

            The pay off was the regional darts finals were held there and i only had one till which i had to keep emptying.

            The previous person who had done Christmas dinner had done deep fried tinned new potatoes.

            I gave them a proper three course Christmas dinner and got my photo in the local newspaper !

          10. Freshly dug garden ones are good – but otherwise I’m not a great lover of potatoes. Roasties are an exception but they have to be King Edwards, or Maris Piper at a push……. done in dripping.

          17. Have goose for Christmas – you’ll have enough to last through the year. Make sure you’ve plenty of empty jars!

            I have a cracking recipe for Christmas goose. Would you like it?

          19. Cooking Your Goose
            Roast goose – never cooked a goose before? Don’t worry – it’s simple!

            Who better to ask for some simple tips for first-timers than Claire Symington who began her career in catering and became a lecturer and head cook at Leith’s Good Food in London? She then moved to Seldom Seen Farm, Billesdon in Leicestershire, where she and her husband Robert rear 4,000 geese for Christmas each year.
            ‘Goose is naturally juicier than a turkey, so there is no fear of drying out,’ says Claire. ‘Indeed, it’s coping with the fat that puts some people off – but of course the fat is such a wonderful by-product much prized by top chefs today.’
            Six simple tips to cook your Christmas goose to perfection

            1. Choose a goose of the weight you need – 4.5kg (10lb) goose will feed 6-8 people, 6kg (13lb) goose 8-10 people.
            2. Make sure the oven and roasting tin will accommodate the bird. If a tight fit, place bird diagonally in tin.
            3. Use large width tin foil to wrap roasting tin, to avoid spillages.
            4. Cover legs in fat and wrap in foil. Remove foil for the last 20 minutes, baste the breast with the fat and pour off the surplus.
            5. Siphon off some fat from the roasting tin during cooking, ideally using a bulb baster, and use for potatoes and parsnips.
            6. Rest for 30 minutes, then carve either from the breast or remove complete breasts and carve across the grain into slices.

            Storing

            Remove the giblets and the body cavity fat. Store the giblets and the goose separately in the fridge. Frozen birds must be allowed to thaw thoroughly before cooking, follow instructions
            Cooking times

            Allow 15 minutes per 450g / l lb plus 20 minutes.
            Do not overcook.
            Approximate time:
            3 hours for 4.5kg (10lb)
            3.5 hours for 5.4kg (12lb)
            Oven 200 C / 400 F (Fan oven 180 C / 350 F)
            Gas mark 6
            Aga top right-hand oven
            Utensils

            A large, deep meat tin ideally with a trivet or rack, foil, salt and pepper and stuffing of your choice.

            Sage and Onion is probably the best stuffing – don’t waste time trying to put your own together – Paxo is your friend!

            Keep the aperture closed once stuffed.
            Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Remove any excess fat from the goose cavity. Prick the goose all over with a fork (especially the really fatty bits) then rub with the sea salt flakes. Put the stuffing, onion and rosemary in the cavity then sit the goose on a trivet in a large roasting tray. Cook for 30 minutes then turn the oven down to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and cook for another 1½-2 hours (drain off the excess fat a couple of times during cooking). To test if the goose is cooked, pierce the thick part of the thigh with a skewer – the juices should run clear.

            Cover the legs with foil as they cook much slower than the rest

            Once cooked – allow to rest for at least 20, preferably 30 minutes.

            Carving

            After resting in cool oven for at least 30 minutes, place on board to carve, take long slices from the breast, or, and I prefer this, remove the whole breast from either side of the bird and then with a short-bladed knife carve across the grain into slices. Then carve the meat from the legs.

          21. 4.3kg – 4.8kg

            –

            £92.25 from Pipers Farm. Might give it a swerve.

            I will have a look at smaller joints.

          22. We’ll probably have a big chicken as we did last year – haven’t had goose for many years but I can’t be bothered with turkey now. No jars left as I used them all for the MR’s tomata recipe.

          23. I much prefer goose, but turkey seems to appeal to everyone else. Even if posh, it still has to be the most boring meat on the planet.

          24. Absolutely agree, my dear friend. Goose it is and Goose it has to be. Turkey is not posh at all it’s just boring (and generally v dry).

          25. With hindsight, I suspect they were cooked in the morning (you could smell the cabbage cooking at 09.00ish), left in the hot water until quickly reboiled at lunchtime. But it wouldn’t surprise me if they were tinned.
            The headmaster kept pigs, and we reckoned the meals were deliberately awful so he got free pig swill.

        2. Did you read the earlier thread about swede? Ours at school was the indigestible cubes as well. Mashed with butter and pepper it’s edible, but not something I’d gladly choose – and my current OH won’t touch it.

          1. I love it! Can’t have haggis without it! And when my sister comes over from Greece it’s the first thing I have to make! They can’t get it over there!

          4. I cooked the haggis, tatties and neeps (swede) for my neighbours and two other friends last Burns night. Lots and lots of white pepper ! Went down a treat with the whisky.
            I bought two haggii because two of them are gluten intolerant.
            See how nice i am? shines halo :@)

          7. They are great neighbours and both being ex Royal Navy know lots of people. Lots of people means lots of party invites !

          16. You know me. I make it from scratch. Except for Massaman. Too many ingredients so i buy Charlie Bigham’s when i fancy one of those.

      1. If it’s anything like Her Highness’ old school, they just ring up Daddy when they’re down to the last thousand.

        1. I was shocked to learn that children at the boarding school where the MR taught for ten years until 2009 had CREDIT CARDS…..

          1. A WHOLE 960 farthings?
            Blimey;
            You’re so old that that would have bought lots of sticky buns and sweets.

          2. 2/6 went on stamps – a letter a week home. A jar of peanut butter to last a term. Very occasional Tube to London – including the one at the end of term. The Lunn (two “n”s by the way) was definitely a treat and NOT a daily event.

          5. I didn’t get pocket money in that way as such, being a day boy probably made the difference. I was able to earn money for chores, but I don’t recall ever getting as much as half a crown in a week.

          6. My parents were desperately hard up. I urged them to send me to a day school (they were living at Waterbeach – 20 minutes from Cambridge) but they insisted – for the daft reason that MTS was where my brothers had gone. As dayboys….

            While, as a parent, I can sort of understand, I still think they were crazy.

          7. To think you could have gone to the Perse as a day boy and probably had a similar education and possibly enjoyed it a lot more;
            My father was at MTS.

          8. Quite. I loathed boarding. Had I gone to The Perse I suspect that my career would have been completely different.

          10. My parents were boracic – especially as my father couldn’t get a full-time job; the moment he mentioned his TB history he was rejected. My mother did all sorts of tough jobs to pay the school fees.
            We lived in decrepit old houses that were cheap to rent.

    3. Liquorice sticks (Not the soft, sweet, rubbery black stuff – we called that Spanish) The hard dried fibrous roots of the liquorice plant which had to be chewed for twenty or thirty minutes before you got the beautiful smell and taste of liquorice. They were two for a ha’penny. The shopkeeper would even let you have one for a farthing if you were hard up.

      3. The attraction of liquorice totally escapes me.
        My father loved Pontefract cakes – uuurrgghhhh…………
        Danish D-in-L loves salted liquorice …… double uuuurrrgggghhhhhhh ………

    4. Went there once to play them at football. Got slaughtered by a very fit bunch led by an exceptional forward who was rumoured to be on Portsmouth’s books at the time. Very friendly bunch and as I recall, a wonderful after match cooked tea, hungry 15 year olds remember such things.
      Now, Friend’s School, a Quaker establishment in Saffron Walden, weren’t up to much on the pitch at both football and cricket, but served a great tea. My small impoverished village grammar school couldn’t compete on the tea front but overall we were not bad on the sporting field for our size.
      Very Happy Days.

      1. I recall playing rugby against Harrow School; Individual rather than communal baths for the first XV, shandy brought to the baths and then an excellent cooked high tea.
        Other schools on the circuit were nowhere near as good.

          3. Oddly, sos is right (most unusual, I know). But William Webb Ellis “pickup up the ball and ran” in 1823.

        2. I remember playing for Blundell’s 2nd XV against BRNC Dartmouth – after the match they brought trays loaded with pints of beer onto the pitch for us all. I can’t remember the result of the match but I do remember the beer.

      2. There is an obit today for a Friends’ School old boy:

        “Andrew Edmunds, who has died aged 78, was a Soho character, print
        dealer, restaurateur, wine and opera lover and all-round flâneur who was
        also passionately involved in country life.
        He was born in Epping, Essex, on September 16 1943 to a Quaker
        family, and his childhood was spent riding in Epping forest with his
        older brother Martin. He was later educated at Friends’ School, Saffron
        Walden….”

      3. Earls Colne Grammar School?
        The father of one of my school friends was the Latin teacher during the 1950s.

  57. Odd that the Royal family should be called urgently to someone dying of old age. Its almost as if the establishment thinks we are fick or sommat.

    1. We have spare Hellfire missiles, don’t we? As for broadcasting that ghastly noise, no. If they want to wail, they can do so – in the middle east.

          1. Oliver isn’t a Chef. He just reworks other peeps recipes and calls them his own. Wanker. Him not you !

    2. Main meal tonight is a lash up in the slow cooker from what I had available. Home grown spuds, the last of my oignon de paris, diced carrots, peas, kidney beans, red lentils, home grown chillies, a chopped up quarter pound burger and a tin of corned beef. The corned beef has pretty much dissolved and will make a lovely broth for the veggies to simmer in. Large bowl and soup spoon to the ready after my shower. Then it’s out with the lads for a couple of beers, probably at the Donkey and Buskins in the village just down the road.

    1. Par 4 for me.

      Wordle 467 4/6

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

    2. Could only manage bogey 5 today

      Wordle 467 5/6

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

  64. Take heart…

    ‘Dirty Dirk’, the 70-year-old tortoise, fathers eight babies in one year

    It is not uncommon for the females to sport minor battle wounds from their trysts with the reptile

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/09/28/TELEMMGLPICT000310844191_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqz-FXoeVOaPua5HgnRe_3Qvqw82iywYigOf_MWIWAHyc.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Dirk, the randy geriatric giant tortoise, has left his keepers shell-shocked after fathering eight babies at the grand age of 70

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2022/09/28/TELEMMGLPICT000310844226_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqT-QJ144TUQOEVRBigp_zdimnkS4mVfqI2Nbp52Bxn2w.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    The tortoise is named after the porn star character Dirk Diggler from Boogie Nights
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/29/dirty-dirk-70-year-old-tortoise-fathers-eight-babies-one-year/

    2. That nasty miserable little git couldn’t even be bothered to pay any respect to the Queen lying in state. Why ?
      Is it because he and others of a certain religious persuasion do not appreciate royalty.
      Time to pack their bags and eff off.

      1. It’s a suggested reply to those who insist upon using banalities such as: “could of”, “should of” and “would of” (instead of, properly, could have, should have and would have).

        2. Ah… sorry, slow today.
          Norwegian is going the same way… folk use “Å” (to) instead of “og” (and) in spelungs… and taken literally, make no sense whatsoever.
          “Du å jeg” – you to me, making “me” the verb… huh? Just because they sound similar.

      2. It’s a suggested reply to those who insist upon using banalities such as: “could of”, “should of” and “would of” (instead of, properly, could have, should have and would have).

    2. Clammy probably forgot to mention his appearance money for zed Ledbrity mastermind.
      He wouldn’t have won anything.

  68. “En tur på Numedal kro er som å være på en bedre restaurant, men med rausere porsjoner” https://www.laagendalsposten.no/
    Restaurant/cafe review local to Firstborn, run by a charming young couple, he being French knowing summat about food.
    A feature of the review was blackberry crumble, made with Firstborn’s blackberries: “tastes like the berries were freshly picked from the forest (well, from Firstborn’s farm just across the water, by SWMBO & I), light & fresh and better than Grandma used to make”.
    Excellent! The restaurateurs deserve a mega review, they work hard and make excellent food.

          1. Rail is almost as bad…….. our trip to Sheffield on 7th October is buggered because the buggers are on strike. We can go on the Saturday morning and arrive late for the family lunch…….. it’s a long way to go just for one night.

  69. Dear Mods. Since I got my computer back from having a service, Disqus insists on spellchecking and arbitrarily altering everything I type. This is getting to be a bit more than an annoyance.

    Would you please tell me how to disable their spellchecker?

        2. I can’t find any general Disqus setting, so, since nobody else seems to have it, it must be personal.
          I can’t find smellchucker in my personal settings, either, so not sure what else to do…

      1. I don’t think it will be them, Alf. All they did was remove an old Fusion Drive (a hybrid Hard-Disk and Solid-State Drive) and installed, in its place, a brand new SSD. I had previously backed everything up onto an external Hard-Disk ready for re-installing.

        I’ve already successfully disabled the spellchecker on my Google email account, but I can’t find out where to find it on my Disqus account.

          4. Sure is, gal. :@)

            Where are my Crimbo cards ?

            Already got dates on the 2023 calendar. Isle of Wight Garlic Festival and Doggie beauty pageant in August !

      1. STOP PRESS: I’ve just Googled the answer and discovered how to disable it on Safari. Successfully.

        Thanks to all for your suggestions.

          3. Odd? ODD?

            I’m the Most well-balanced individual on this forum, I’ll have you know!

            I have a chip on both shoulders!

    2. And yet…
      He doesn’t name names himself.
      Perhaps he doesn’t fancy a fatwa, and who can blame him?

        1. Indeed. But if they do, bombings, stabbings, marches and violence will swiftly follow. The idiots (PTB) Khan’t seem to see that the more you submit, the more they take.
          Bite the bullet now, because it will soon be too late, assuming that it isn’t already.

    3. The trouble is that we have never stood up to the problems caused by the nastiness of some Muslims and the PTB have neither the interest nor the will to take the action thatis needed.

    4. It seems that we, the police farce, the judiciary and the PTB have all decided we must just put up with it, rather than call the army in, round them up, each and every one, put them on a naval frigate and dump them on a beach in Somalia at midnight wearing nothing but their underpants – if they even wear them.

      Problem solved.

    1. John Bowe played a tour de force as Kester Woodseaves in the 1989 television production of Mary Webb’s Precious Bane, which I’ve recently acquired on DVD.

      1. He seems to be a good man. He is seriously concerned about the adverse effects of the injection, and has got together and chivvied responsible people into setting up a helpline for those affected, someone at the end of the line to talk to and offer advice at a time when the nhs simply doesn’t want to know – it is more than their collective jobs are worth to decry any part of the ‘vaccine’. Information about the helpline is on his profile page on Twitter.

  72. ‘Night All

    Cooling

    https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1575240226410500096

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41c46e7cd7aedcd9b444b41bff736d2274681706d8283cdc08bef9e8fd6fc15b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7213ffad345273d6fd7c09eb26dd1acaab6c7cb4b998bf28ab5a8f2382b7e07c.jpg

    Warming

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9cf2634ed74d9b64e580302aaa654f58092b5dda8c7a35bb6876b933b766e483.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f825dc4e779dd06ffed2b523313c883aaf5f55f571978be49c74d502a4719bef.jpg

    2. That ice machine video.

      In the late 1970s, I lived in London. I had my hound, Robinson, and a cat, Pluto.

      One day I heard an odd knocking sound from the kitchen.

      Pluto had climbed on top of the cooker and was reaching a paw into the jar where the Spillers Shapes were kept (safely out of the way of animals, I thought).

      She was hoicking Shapes out of the jar one by one and they fell to the floor where her chum, Robinson, was tucking in!!

        1. She adored Robinson. They shared a basket for years. The day he died, he lay in front of the AGA as we waited for the vet. Pluto washed him all over.

          Two weeks later she died – of a broken heart.

  73. That’s me for today. Lovely warm (indoors) afternoon – lotsa sun. Three mile bike ride. Time for medicine.

    Up early tomorrow as the MR is off to Narridge for a hairdo. She flies (impetuous fool) to Amsterdam on Saturday (even earlier start) for a reunion at the school she taught in for ten years. Back on Sunday. So any lady NoTTLer who is available……

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  74. A somewhat pleasant end to the day. MH went to the library to change our cards and to put mine in my married name. Then he went to the shop to get all the stuff I forgot yesterday 🙁
    Meantime, our nice neighbour with the allotment came by with another huge pile of tomatoes. Help!! They are all lovely looking.
    And my husband came home with a bunch of lovely flame coloured Gladioli for me. In a vase on the coffee table.
    I might have to start up a Deranged Gentlefolks Tomato tossing festival.

    1. Depending on the size of the tomatoes AND your power charges.
      Halve them, extract the seeds, and dry them in the oven slowly.
      When dried, but still very slightly soft, put them in sterilised jars and press them down very firmly, then add olive oil and seal the jars.
      Six months hence you’ll be drinking my health as you sample the product!

      3. I tried some “sundried” (oven dried) cherry toms last year and they looked good – but when I opened the kilner-type jar I’d used, I found they had fermented slightly.

          1. Maybe. They didn’t seem to decompose even after they’d been opened for a while. Anyway, what was left went into the pot with this year’s surplus to make some jars of Tomata to the MR’s recipe.

      4. I tried doing that with some of the excess crop this year. They were so tasty that none have gone into the Kilner jars, they were just eaten warm or went into salads.

      1. To be honest, there are quite a few people I’d love to chuck tomatoes at. Form an orderly queue….

  75. “Imogen Brooke, 30, continues to deny that she forced a smaller man to have sex
    Said she couldn’t have tugged him over onto his back as ‘I’m not Superwoman’
    She also denies giving alleged victim a love-bite while they were having sex
    Claims she gave it while they were kissing when her onion rings were in oven
    She told the court he was asleep when she got back and had to eat them herself”

    I’m sorry; I really need to stop sniggering. The detail about the onion rings is a classic …. presumably she cleared Iceland’s entire stock.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d66f5168dda1715ddc3bf73bc66ea085648c3a700e234d90c4bd0de5138145e1.jpg

    1. “…. presumably she cleared Iceland’s entire stock.”

      …and draped them around the tool she was desperate to ride.

    3. Sorry, I think this entire thing was made up or at least exaggerated out of all recognition by the DM. They seem to have taken over from Jeremy Vine.
      I can’t even be amused, it’s just disgusting.

    8. Good God!
      Not even after 10 pints in the NAAFI!!
      Pass the mind-bleach!
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac7146eb7411b8acc3bfe1598853b55aac57e1e1647a8d4330266ad661de75cb.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d37ca7f3610384593d703a1b51314f421a85e1cc28751ee8bb7abed0151115b8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb1e9b56c95d9e8d1f5dfda4b7d0a1a0a1bad113be5e33105a8651adaf504238.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/326b9dad9bd9e721cda44c26fb3ef31e410bdc248d2cc825dddf26cc769ef252.jpg

    1. My son, in NC, and his wife have tickets this weekend for a Hurricanes ( Ice hockey) training event. If it does get rough they are planning on hunkering down with their kitkats.
      No word from friend in GA although I emailed her a couple of days ago.
      Hurricanes are nasty.

    4. Can never understand the stupidity of standing in the open reporting a hurricane and being blown about.

    2. Pre the type of ‘slavery’, the ‘underprivileged’ have been moaned about for decades. And still are. They never mention this…..
      The Muslims (moors) were sailing around the coastal areas of Britain Ireland and Northern France. They stole thousands of white children, and kept them trapped in caves near the Alhambra Palace. When they had finished their sexual preferences, they fed the used children to the prides of captured lions.
      N.B. mayor khant, you horrible nasty little git.
      STFU.

    3. Lefties ignore the slavery still going on – the white slave trade where children are stolen and sold to middle easterners.

      2. I was surprised to catch a BBC podcast talking about modern day slavery in Qatar (Philipino maids).

        It’s almost as if Britain isnt the worst, most evil place on earth.

      1. I see a very ill old man losing his mind, and think of his wife watching his humiliation in public as his administration ruins america.

    1. Always thick Rock-apes, never, ever anything else. Why else would you enjoy square-bashing drill?

      1. Went to RAF Catterick in 1960 with the ATC, 329 Finsbury Squadron.
        If it moved you saluted it if I’d didn’t move you painted it. Just a day trip we stayed at RAF Dishforth. Transport command with Beverley’s snd Hastings. My first flight as in a Chipmunk.

  82. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN can never be anything else than a multi-billion-pound toy. Scientists (and governments) are squandering untold riches, and trillions of manhours, trying to give an element of proof to a theory (one of countless theories, that is) about how the universe may have originated.

    OK so far?

    What, I ask myself, are they going to do with that proof, if and when they discover it?

    While all this is taking place at vast expense, the human species continues on its unstoppable campaign to replace every other life form with its own, in exponentially increasing numbers, on a planet that is not expanding in size. By the time any such discovery is made, there will be no humans left to gawp in wonder at it.

    The word ‘pointless’ has been redefined!

    [BTW: is the “Large Hadron Collider” a large collider for hadrons, a collider for large hadrons, or a large collider for large hadrons? I’m confused since I always thought that a ‘hadron’ was infinitesimally tiny!]

    3. …and what about all our theories? Conspiracy or otherwise – most seem to reveal themselves, as not just theories but based on the facts as we see it.

    4. Money well spent to my mind. Knowledge is a worthwhile goal. There are many things that are pointless, or even have negative value, but cost far more. Astronomy is also to be supported, again, to my view.

      1. I have always been fascinated by Astronomy and would have liked the opportunity to study it further, just the beauty of the night sky was sufficient for me!!

        1. Absolutely goes for me too. It’s far more attractive than any religion to me. The scale of it makes this whole planet diminish into the smallest speck of dust.

          1. What worries me most is that the Left never, ever look up. They’re so dementedly obsessed with forcing humankind backward that they more than any other group will hold mankind back from getting into space.

    6. It is pure science. The sort of mavellous ivnention and utter ‘waste’ of money that separates man from beast. It shows what we can do and that we’re so bloody rich in food, resources, time that we can spend it building something solely to bang atoms together.

      1. It is bloody not. It’s just as corrupt and funded by the same interests as fund “The Science!”

        1. The big money might be going to “The Science!”, but these, as wibbles says, pure science studies, use a relative pittance to further our knowledge.

  83. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN can never be anything else than a multi-billion-pound toy. Scientists (and governments) are squandering untold riches, and trillions of manhours, trying to give an element of proof to a theory (one of countless theories, that is) about how the universe may have originated.

    OK so far?

    What, I ask myself, are they going to do with that proof, if and when they discover it?

    While all this is taking place at vast expense, the human species continues on its unstoppable campaign to replace every other life form with its own, in exponentially increasing numbers, on a planet that is not expanding in size. By the time any such discovery is made, there will be no humans left to gawp in wonder at it.

    The word ‘pointless’ has been redefined!

    [BTW: is the “Large Hadron Collider” a large collider for hadrons, a collider for large hadrons, or a large collider for large hadrons? I’m confused since I always thought that a ‘hadron’ was infinitesimally tiny!]

  84. 365664+ up ticks,

    Perhaps those that never listened in the past
    will eventually listen to…. echoing silence in the near future Gerard

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    2h
    Here we go … EU warning that energy shortages will cause mobile network blackouts this winter.

    How better to control the masses, & their capacity to rebel, than by removing their means of
    communications. Many people today have never lived without mobile phones & social media & we don’t realise how dependent society has become on them.

    It has always been the case that mobile numbers are prioritised & can be selectively closed down leaving only certain levels to work, e.g., for emergency services.

    When the Globalist seriously implement the Great Reset they will need to suppress organised rebellion, & such rebellions need comms between the people. And energy shortages are the ideal excuse.

    Exclusive: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts
    Exclusive: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

    Once unthinkable, mobile phones could go dark around Europe this winter if power cuts or energy rationing knocks out parts of the

    https://gettr.com/post/p1skrjpfa8e

    1. Well, it won’t just be mobiles, but the internet generally. Oh, and heating. Boilers run on gas, right? Yes, but they have electronic starters and controllers. Energy underpins our entire economy. It and fuel cannot be mucked about with and should be abundant. Only utter morons totally detached from reality think they can force down energy use – it will only ever go up.

    2. Perhaps that will make the idiots wake up and realise that a CBDC is not in their best interests!

    3. I fully expect this. Storm Eunice was a ‘heads up’. Cell towers aren’t equipped with backup power. Openreach telephone exchanges are – even the most isolated village exhange has a diesel generator. But, since rthe powers that be have decreed that we shall all move to VOIP, it hardly matters.

      2. After the great storm of 1987, one of my exchanges was left with no power for over a week. This particular exchange had no built in diesel generator, a mobile petrol generator had to be sourced and connected up. As the engineer in charge of the exchange my task was to ensure it never ran out of fuel. I made sure it was always full before nightfall as I never fancied trying to refill it in the pitch black.
        It was an odd experience to drive into the village, completely reliant on candles and the like, with the exchange being the only place where flicking a light switch had any effect.

  85. 365664+ up ticks,

    Perhaps those that never listened in the past
    will eventually listen to…. echoing silence in the near future Gerard

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    2h
    Here we go … EU warning that energy shortages will cause mobile network blackouts this winter.

    How better to control the masses, & their capacity to rebel, than by removing their means of
    communications. Many people today have never lived without mobile phones & social media & we don’t realise how dependent society has become on them.

    It has always been the case that mobile numbers are prioritised & can be selectively closed down leaving only certain levels to work, e.g., for emergency services.

    When the Globalist seriously implement the Great Reset they will need to suppress organised rebellion, & such rebellions need comms between the people. And energy shortages are the ideal excuse.

    Exclusive: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts
    Exclusive: Europe braces for mobile network blackouts

    Once unthinkable, mobile phones could go dark around Europe this winter if power cuts or energy rationing knocks out parts of the

    https://gettr.com/post/p1skrjpfa8e

          1. MG3 is the modern version of MG42. Excellent piece of kit – horribly high cyclic rate, so better be sure the troops are carrying oceans of it.

          2. I fired one on an exchange with the Bundeswehr in 1978. What a beast. My unit had an exchange scheme with a German signal batallion and a a young lance corporal with the colloquial German qualification, I was selected, along with three siggies from my squadron to spend five days shooting with the Erichs. The senior officers and warrant officers were all ex-Wehrmacht veterans.

          3. MG3 is the modern version of MG42. Excellent piece of kit – horribly high cyclic rate, so better be sure the troops are carrying oceans of it.

        2. They used to say that the main job of a Wehrmacht infantryman was to carry the ammunition for the MGs.

          1. Be about right. The MG was the main weapon of the wehrmacht section. And the cyclic rate meant that a LOT of ammo needed carried!

          2. Though the high rate of fire was enough to keep the heads of opposing troops down, the accuracy was pretty terrible, often the bursts going everywhere except where it was actually being aimed at.
            The BREN on the other hand was pretty effective knocking out the German guns with short bursts or even single shots because it was so accurate.

          3. Depended on how they were expected to be used.
            MG42/MG3 is an area-denial weapon, Bren was a sniper weapon made automatic.
            If you have a field of Russkies running at you, with bayonets, I’d prefer the MG.
            Trying to pick off the MG nest – the Bren. As a cadet, I saw one fied semi-auto, rapid fire, pretty well through the same hole in the target at 100m, Gun must have been nearly 40 years old, too. (My and Firstborn’s Mauser K98Ks will shoot the bollocks off a fly at 100m, BTW) – with telescope.

          5. Be about right. The MG was the main weapon of the wehrmacht section. And the cyclic rate meant that a LOT of ammo needed carried!

    5. Caravan_of_Light #Convoy_of_Light

      More like darkness to the whole European aegis. Now is the time to fight back against these idealogical sub-humans.

      1. Same with me, Richard. I first heard it on a camping holiday as a youngster and later chose it for our wedding. A beautiful tune with sublime lyrics.

  90. Well, I was going to listen to Bruckner’s 4th tonight, but picked up on R3’s live concert with Schuman’s 1st.

    Was successful bidding on a bit of lathe tooling for t’Lad so have to go and pick it up sometime next week.
    From blooming Shaftsbury!! So have loaded camping gear into Van and will trundle down to Basingstoke to see eldest daughter over the weekend before trekking West.
    Plan to leave tomorrow and pause at Adderbury en route for the night.

    Now off to bed so goodnight all.

    2. Shaftesbury, with an “e”!
      And now it’s Autumn, it is no longer in bloom!
      Unfortunately we are away this weekend and next week otherwise you’d have been welcome to drop in.

    3. Shaftesbury, with an “e”!
      And now it’s Autumn, it is no longer in bloom!
      Unfortunately we are away this weekend and next week otherwise you’d have been welcome to drop in.

    2. 365664+ up ticks,

      Evening TB,
      I believe a reptile MP / PM
      Had access to a penny a piece prayer mats 1 million in number and decided to make a financial killing / peoples inclusive.

Comments are closed.