Saturday 21 January: The Prime Minister insults his critics while failing to set out any vision of his own

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

436 thoughts on “Saturday 21 January: The Prime Minister insults his critics while failing to set out any vision of his own”

    2. All enabled by the UK’s top tier drug abusers in Parliament not bothering to control the use of cocain.
      Time for regular Drug and Alcohol testing in Westminster.

  6. How an unknown minister had the fate of Ukraine’s tanks thrust into his hands. 21January 2023.

    As he walked into Ramstein air base, Boris Pistorius stepped out of obscurity, on to the world stage and right into the middle of an international furore over Berlin’s support for Ukraine.

    Representatives from no fewer than 50 nations had gathered to pledge weapons to Kyiv’s cause. The press was waiting too.

    50 Nations? Not really of course. Most of these were diplomatic padding . To understand the enormous pressure that Germany is being subjected to it is necessary to realise that it is absolutely vital for the United States that Germany is forced into joining its proxy war against Russia. The tanks themselves are just a symbol. Poland, that has physical possession of them, could hand them over tomorrow and no one would even blink. The Germans themselves would probably give a sigh of relief. The real reason is that it will add political legitimacy, spread the cost and put Europe’s most powerful nation on side with no chance of backing out.

    We should be under no illusions here. The United States is intent on a wider and more destructive war waged against Russia by the Europeans and probably bypassing NATO entirely which would allow them to sit it out and simply supply the weapons and cash. It would be the EU versus Russia. Both would probably lose which would cause no concern in Washington whatsoever!

    To a Germany, that according to the latest survey, is split; one half wanting to send the tanks and the others not, the decision required here is reminiscent of one posed to them during WWI. Finding itself bogged down on the Western Front the civilian administration was asked by the military to approve unrestricted submarine warfare against the Allies. All the advantages were pointed out. The UK would be knocked out of the war as its supply lines were cut. The alliance would collapse and victory would be assured. The then chancellor, Bethmann Hollweg pointed out that rather than bringing victory this would draw the United States into the war. This was pooh poohed. The war would be over before the Americans could get out of bed. Germany would be triumphant and all would be well with the world.

    Well we all know how that ended. Let us hope this time they are wiser and stay out of this.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/20/how-unknown-minister-boris-pistorius-left-fate-ukraines-tanks/

    1. In this conflict, the instant there is a “coalition of the willing” containing countries which are not members of NATO will likely be the point at which the US can say an attack on a NATO member requires a response from all NATO members no longer applies, and they will sit it out on the side-lines.

    2. Good morning Minty and everyone.
      IIRC Australia was lured into the Vietnam war, whereas Harold Wilson resisted the call from the Americans.

  7. ‘Morning, Peeps. We are about to enter the positive temperature territory…1°C at 8am, although currently it feels a lot less than that.

    SIR – Recent letters have discussed how the Government is pursuing net zero without a plan to get there.

    I live in a Grade II listed Cotswolds stone house with no insulation. My utility bill in December was £721 (so the heating is now off). Yet to partially insulate my home while following the Grade II listing rules would cost tens of thousands of pounds, and even then its Energy Performance Certificate rating would not reach C.

    I have double yellow lines outside my front door and no off-road parking. If I ran an electric vehicle I would be dependent on oversubscribed public charging points. We have sons who live 175 and 241 miles away in opposite directions, and they don’t have off-street parking either, and public transport in the surrounding area is poor.

    The drive for net zero, coupled with the lack of a cogent energy policy, show that this Government is out of touch with reality. It’s time the arbitrary deadline was scrapped until Britain has a credible energy strategy, in which nuclear power plays a more significant role.

    Paul Walker
    Gloucester

    Good letter, Mr Walker, and I’m sure many Nottlrs are with you. Trouble is, this isn’t a listening government, so much more time will need to pass before the population at large wakes up to the hideously expensive scam that is being perpetrated by idiotic and ignorant politicians.

      1. Until 2 years ago we lived very close to the highest town in E Sussex, at nearly 800 ft asl. It was always noticeably colder, although not quite as severe as your -6.5°. An inch of snow in Eastbourne usually meant a foot up there. We were not sorry to move to yer sarf coast!

      1. I don’t think those idiots allow even secondary glazing in listed houses.
        The biggest heat loss being the less than 4mm original glazing.

    3. This is a classic example of how the political classes eff up everything they come into contact with.
      We live in a modern house built in the 1950s it has no cavity wall insulation except for the extension.
      I have applied twice for the government grant to have the walls insulated. But apparently we are not eligible. Although some of our neighbours had their walls insulated twenty years ago.
      We were too young then.

      1. I have a house built in the thirties. It has no cavity to insulate. I have had insulation added internally to the external walls. It’s the best I can do; I live in a conservation area, so external alterations are supposed to conform.

        1. Insulating the inner walls is probably the best way to save energy. It’s stops the warmth seeping out into the cavity even it the cavity is Insulated.

          1. It’s taken a couple of inches off the internal dimensions, but I think it’s worth it. The room does seem to be warmer; in fact, I’m sitting by the fire typing this and it’s reasonably warm. It would probably be warmer if I lit a fire in it every day. I had to warm the chimney before I could light the fire as the cold air was creating a downdraught.

          2. We had a single story extension across the rear already when we moved in over 30 years ago. It had a tiled lean-to roof. No insulation at all. I stripped it all off, raised it about two feet, exposed timbers in side plasterboard above the rafters with 70mm celotex insulation over plasterboard, but under the roof tiles and I used solid rock wool insulation and plasterboard on the inside walls.
            And had the north facing outer walls rendered.
            The problem we seem to have in this country is too many old buildings with too many silly couter productive regulations being applied.

  8. SIR – The Archbishop of Canterbury’s recent announcement that the Church of England is to set aside a massive £100 million to make up for the “past wrongs of slavery” (Letters, January 17) is but the latest example of the misguided priorities of our current Church leaders.

    I wrote last June to our bishop, the Bishop of St Edmundsbury, to protest that he had time to add his name to a letter publicly criticising Priti Patel, the then Home Secretary, for her Rwanda policy, but no time to acknowledge the good work in our rural benefice of five parishes. In this village (population 120) we have just completed a £330,000 improvement project on our 14th-century church, while the other four parishes also have capital projects under way.

    We have an incredibly diligent rector who, with his wife, is working flat out on half a stipend (less than £15,000) to provide pastoral care of a high order. Surely the needs of today’s clergy and their parishioners should take precedence over financially incontinent virtue-signalling.

    Despite numerous calls to his office, the bishop has not even acknowledged my letter, let alone replied or asked to visit a success story in his diocese. What a depressing state of affairs.

    Sir Gerald Howarth
    Chelsworth, Suffolk

    I think the Bishop of St Edmundsbury may be regretting this morning his (inexcusable) failure to respond to Sir Gerald!

  9. This BTL comment caught my eye:

    J McMenemy2 HRS AGO

    The photo editor has made a mistake. The choir children shown cannot possibly be living in this country , the ethnic mix bears no relation to any British tv programme or advertisement shown over the past few years, it cannot be real.

    Get a grip DT.

    Mrs M

    And here is the totally unrepresentative photo: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0600ec8323507c48594c8dec311f05aea0c12ffffac2008811286c0290061ff8.jpg

  10. 370281+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Saturday 21 January: The Prime Minister insults his critics while failing to set out any vision of his own

    NONE, post M Thatcher have had “visions” beneficial to the United Kingdom , just orders.

    This Rishi Sunak chap, ask yourself do we as a nation after giving succour to such as the lab/lib/con coalition these last 40 years via the polling booth,deserve any better ?

    Political role models such as a cottaging / PM we were surely a first there, now to be found ranting at Davos and probably doubling as a toilet attendant recognised by his greeting
    “wotcha cock” these cretins & likes STILL find support.

    Where to turn ? the brexit / reform / tory (ino) Mk2 party did reveal a glimpse of true colours concerning the ex whip and the mrsa jab.

  11. Morning, all. A less harsh frost this morning.

    Apologies if this has been posted before. Another attempt at shedding responsibility?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39febb2f20a3825457e78c038a2b76aff769f1a636bc3a1ea16682a0447cf125.png

    The Highwire’s non-profit, ICAN has extracted information from the UK’s MHRA regarding the Astra Zeneca jab by issuing a FOI request.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1c7c897fbbc7460940a370eea32fce30c74f8ff555bc24c2e0ed2fdbcd4f2fd.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/efcde722952b6d2cb112404ddbba82370d98c474328e806ef003f6b6d87a0742.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0055924b9b2bc2ee5e29fc107d1e4099bd4a4bede373f83f4cb862dc757d0af.png

    Courtesy of The Highwire and Daily Sceptics

  13. From today’s DT.  It’s lengthy and unfortunately I have not been able to copy the various graphs, so here is the link:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/20/green-revolution-fuelling-environmental-destruction/

    * * *

    The green revolution is fuelling environmental destruction

    Net zero warning as the staggering true cost of going green is revealed

    ByMatt Oliver and Jack Ryan 20 January 2023 • 6:54pm

    Roughly 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire, the new generation of offshore wind turbines being built at Dogger Bank will be taller than some skyscrapers.

    Along with masses of solar panels and electric cars, these feats of human engineering will become the backbone of a new, green economy that will emerge as we abandon fossil fuels.

    Yet as we embrace net zero carbon emissions in the name of saving the planet, growing tensions are emerging over what must be done to achieve this goal.

    According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Bank, the switch to “cleaner” renewable energy sources is going to require an unprecedented surge in the extraction of precious minerals from the earth.

    Whether it is lithium and cobalt needed for batteries, or rare earth elements used for magnets that power wind turbines and electric car motors, we simply can’t make the green technologies we need without them.

    Yet campaigners and researchers warn that the mines producing these minerals raise troubling environmental questions of their own, with the worst examples ravaging landscapes, polluting water supplies and desolating crops. The industry also poses geopolitical challenges for Britain and its allies, with China currently dominating the supply chains.

    It means that without drastic improvements to global standards and greater engagement by the West, the switch to clean power risks becoming very dirty indeed.

    Henry Sanderson, a business journalist and author of Volt Rush, a book that examines the complicated issues surrounding transition minerals, believes that overcoming these contradictions is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses and policymakers. 

    “Mining has an impact. And often local communities don’t want it,” he says. “So how do you reconcile those facts with the fact we need mining for clean energy technologies?

    “It is a hard question to answer. But we are seeing a lot of these trade-offs come up now.

    “And if we don’t want other countries to control the green transition, we need to grapple with and grasp these issues.”

    The sheer quantity of minerals and metals needed for the green revolution – which entails the widespread electrification of transport and energy production – is staggering.

    Minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel will go into batteries that store electricity and power billions of electric cars. Copper will be required for new power lines needed everywhere. Rare earth metals will be used to make magnets that are vital for the spinning parts in wind turbines and electric motors.

    What’s more, they will be needed in much bigger quantities than ever before. Whereas a conventional car uses about 34kg of minerals, an electric car requires 207kg, or six times as much, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

    Meanwhile, a typical offshore wind turbine requires 13 times more minerals than a gas-fired power plant for each megawatt of capacity.

    The IEA predicts this will cause demand for critical minerals to soar to 42.3m tonnes per year by 2050 – up from around 7m tonnes in 2020.

    Per Kalvig, an expert at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, says this will require an “explosion” of mining in the coming years.

    “They’re necessary for wind turbines, for electric vehicles. Europe needs these minerals, and it doesn’t want to continue relying on China to produce them”, he explains. 

    It is prompting difficult questions for the EU, which believes it will need five times as much rare earth minerals by 2030, a meteoric rise that will require a correspondingly rapid increase in extraction.

    Whether the practice of actually mining the materials will be permitted within the bloc is another matter, however.

    Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice president, has said there are 11 potentially viable lithium projects in Europe and that if they all become operational they could meet nearly two-fifths of EU demand by 2030. They include sites in Finland, Spain, Portugal, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Austria.

    But in Portugal, for example, where large lithium resources exist, there has been persistent opposition from local communities against new mining schemes.

    British company Savannah is among those trying to open a project in the northern region of Barroso by 2025 with EU funding. It plans to produce about 5,000 tons of lithium a year.

    But despite the company’s protestations that it has been “specifically designed to minimise its impact on the natural environment and local communities wherever possible” – such as new ways of storing waste and recycling 85pc of its water – it has struggled to persuade naysayers.

    In Sweden too, where Europe’s biggest ever discovery of rare earth oxides was recently made, progress is proving tricky.

    Miner LKAB wants to start producing but needs to secure a string of permits. Meanwhile, a court battle is ongoing over the revocation of a licence in 2016, amid concerns that operations in Norra Karr, in the south of Sweden, were polluting local water supplies.

    Given the strength of feeling in communities, Kalvig is doubtful there is the political will in Europe to push through many domestic mining schemes.

    “Generally, we experience public resistance against mining projects,” he adds.

    But if Europe is unwilling to extract minerals itself for the green transition, it will simply need to import them from somewhere else – and typically, that means Africa and Asia.

    A handful of countries currently produce more than three quarters of the world’s supply of critical minerals and rare earth metals – with China chief among them.

    The Democratic Republic of Congo was responsible for 70pc of global cobalt production in 2019, for example, while China produced 60pc of the rare earth metals.

    Crucially, China dominates refining, with its plants processing 90pc of rare earth metals, between 50pc and 70pc of lithium and cobalt and 35pc of nickel. With the help of generous state subsidies, Chinese companies have spent years snapping up mines in other countries too, from Australia to Chile, the DRC and Indonesia, to further entrench their positions.

    It means the question of how far governments are willing to go is not only domestic in nature but geopolitical as well. This is why some are examining the potential of mineral extraction from the sea bed – despite loud protestations from environmental groups.

    While China has raced ahead producing critical minerals since the 1980s, the country also presents a cautionary tale of environmental destruction as well.

    Lax oversight and poor standards have blighted landscapes and cost rural residents their lives, saddling provincial governments with massive cleanup operations in recent years.

    Some of the most visible damage has been in Inner Mongolia, where local media described fields of wheat and corn “carpeted in black dust”, brown-coloured rivers and unusually high numbers of deaths in what became known as “cancer villages” near the mines.

    Every year, millions of tonnes of toxic waste was discharged into a 10km wide lake not far from the Yellow River – leading to fears it could poison a source of drinking water used by 150m people.

    But worryingly, as Beijing now cracks down on mineral mining at home, it is exporting these same toxic practices elsewhere.

    In neighbouring Myanmar, parts of the mountainous area known as Kachin already resemble the ravaged wastelands in China.

    There, violent militias – with the blessing of the military junta that usurped Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021 – have set up a string of illegal rare earth mines, pock-marking the landscape with bright blue chemical pools, an investigation by the charity Global Witness found.

    In a crude and ecologically devastating process, they remove vegetation, drill holes into mountains and inject an acidic solution to effectively liquidate the earth. This is then drained into chemical pools where the liquid evaporates, leaving behind the minerals.

    Once the process is finished, the site is abandoned and the militias simply move on, starting all over again in a new location.

    Just a few years ago, there were only a handful of these mines. But since then, satellite imagery has revealed hundreds of them – with nearly 3,000 pools recorded across an area the size of Singapore as recently as five months ago.

    The militia operations are being bankrolled by Chinese businesses, Global Witness claims, and have quickly turned Myanmar into one of the biggest rare earth minerals producers globally.

    The price for local people has been poisoned water, chemically-blighted crops and a growing threat of landslides, with experts concerned that the mountains could collapse.

    “We found that most of them [companies] are going to China for the production of magnets in green energy technologies, like wind turbines and electric vehicles,” says Hanna Hindstrom, a senior campaigner at Global Witness.

    “Of course, it’s a great irony. Because although these technologies are essential to the green energy transition, we are fuelling demand for mining that is causing environmental destruction.

    “What we’re seeing in Myanmar is probably the most egregious example of how it could be done, because there’s no environmental regulation, no enforcement, nothing – and no cleanup afterwards.

    “It is an inherently dirty business.”

    Even in places where mining is done legally, the industry’s reputation is chequered.

    Glencore, the FTSE 100 miner, was ordered by a High Court judge to pay £280m in fines and costs in November after pleading guilty to a sprawling bribery scheme in Nigeria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan.

    Meanwhile, BHP, the world’s largest mining company, is battling the biggest group claim in British legal history after the collapse of a dam in southeastern Brazil spewed toxic mud and water over the landscape and residents.

    Industry figures say that efforts are constantly under way to improve standards and make modern mining more efficient – but there remain inescapable drawbacks.

    The process involves digging up large amounts of earth – which may only be 1pc lithium, cobalt or another kind of metal – crushing it into fine sand, then using chemicals to extract the target minerals.

    Anything left over at the end is waste, known as “tailings” in trade jargon. This can be a mix of earth, chemicals, minerals and water – and can often be toxic or even radioactive.

    What mining companies do with this sludge varies around the world. Some still dump tailings into the nearest water source – as has been done in China and Indonesia – but more standard practice today is to create tailing dams.

    However, research has found that one in 100 tailing dams fail, largely due to poor maintenance and monitoring. The comparable figure for water dams is one in 10,000.

    Gawen Jenkin, a geology professor at Leicester University, describes tailing dam failures as “appalling” and warns that they have “catastrophic” consequences for the environment and communities.

    “We simply have to do better, if we are going to produce these metals at this scale,” he says.

    Beyond environmental issues, mining can also take a terrible toll on workers. In the DRC, tens of thousands of children are pressed into working in dangerous, small mines, while research published in medical journal The Lancet has found that labourers working in the African “copperbelt” were at higher risk of having children with birth defects.

    At the same time, the degree to which communities truly benefit is up for debate. Big mining projects do indisputably bring jobs, wages and development.

    But Gavin Hilson, a professor at Surrey University, says smaller local operations – known as “artisanal miners” – are often muscled out by big multinational corporations in developing countries where state corruption is rife and officials tend to prefer quick wins.

    “You just can’t have a conversation with these governments about how if we formalise small scale mining and support them, down the road you’ll be in a position to tax them. They don’t want to hear that,” he says, citing years of field research.

    “They want to see the large mining companies come in and set up shop, because then they get revenue from permit fees, from royalties, as well as from exploration companies whose work facilitates or leads to that mine being opened.
    “All of that provides instantaneous revenue that can also be renewed.”

    The London Mining Network, which monitors Glencore, Rio Tinto, Anglo-American and other miners listed on the London Stock Exchange, argues that the coming “wave of green extractivism” risks “reproducing the same dynamics and practices that caused the climate crisis in the first place”.

    “Mining projects increase the threat that an unstable climate already poses,” a report by the group says.

    The process involves digging up large amounts of earth – which may only be 1pc lithium, cobalt or another kind of metal – crushing it into fine sand, then using chemicals to extract the target minerals.

    Anything left over at the end is waste, known as “tailings” in trade jargon. This can be a mix of earth, chemicals, minerals and water – and can often be toxic or even radioactive.

    What mining companies do with this sludge varies around the world. Some still dump tailings into the nearest water source – as has been done in China and Indonesia – but more standard practice today is to create tailing dams.

    However, research has found that one in 100 tailing dams fail, largely due to poor maintenance and monitoring. The comparable figure for water dams is one in 10,000.

    Gawen Jenkin, a geology professor at Leicester University, describes tailing dam failures as “appalling” and warns that they have “catastrophic” consequences for the environment and communities.

    “We simply have to do better, if we are going to produce these metals at this scale,” he says.

    Beyond environmental issues, mining can also take a terrible toll on workers. In the DRC, tens of thousands of children are pressed into working in dangerous, small mines, while research published in medical journal The Lancet has found that labourers working in the African “copperbelt” were at higher risk of having children with birth defects.

    At the same time, the degree to which communities truly benefit is up for debate. Big mining projects do indisputably bring jobs, wages and development.

    But Gavin Hilson, a professor at Surrey University, says smaller local operations – known as “artisanal miners” – are often muscled out by big multinational corporations in developing countries where state corruption is rife and officials tend to prefer quick wins.

    “You just can’t have a conversation with these governments about how if we formalise small scale mining and support them, down the road you’ll be in a position to tax them. They don’t want to hear that,” he says, citing years of field research.

    “They want to see the large mining companies come in and set up shop, because then they get revenue from permit fees, from royalties, as well as from exploration companies whose work facilitates or leads to that mine being opened.
    “All of that provides instantaneous revenue that can also be renewed.”

    The London Mining Network, which monitors Glencore, Rio Tinto, Anglo-American and other miners listed on the London Stock Exchange, argues that the coming “wave of green extractivism” risks “reproducing the same dynamics and practices that caused the climate crisis in the first place”.

    “Mining projects increase the threat that an unstable climate already poses,” a report by the group says.

    The arid plains of west Texas seem like the furthest place in the world from an ocean.

    And yet this lunar-like landscape was once at the bottom of the sea, a huge glittering mass that stretched from the New Mexico border to the southern tip of the state forming what is now called the Permian Basin.

    The fossilised remains of the organisms that inhabited this ocean 250 million years ago – now forming oil and gas reserves – have already brought vast wealth to this part of Texas. Nearly one in 10 barrels of oil produced globally come from the Permian field alone.

    But Anthony Marchese, chairman of Texas Mineral Resources, thinks the landscape could hold yet more treasure still. His company hopes to develop one of North America’s largest rare earth mineral mines at Round Top mountain, 85 miles east of El Paso.

    Marchese believes there is a huge and growing gap in US supply chains for rare earth minerals mined on domestic soil.

    His scheme is one of several cropping up across the West, as American and European companies turn their hands once again to the kinds of mining and mineral processing activities that have not been done domestically for decades.

    Another mine is already operational at Mountain Pass – the only one of its kind in North America, an hour’s drive from Las Vegas – where JHL Capital Group is extracting neodymium and praseodymium, two metals used to make magnets for electric vehicle powertrains.

    There, Joe Biden’s administration has also provided federal funding to ensure a minerals processing facility is established nearby. Other similar initiatives are being pushed with money unlocked through the mammoth – and deceptively-named – Inflation Reduction Act.

    In Marchese’s opinion, China’s grip on the market has left the US vulnerable – unable to independently produce even the materials needed for F-35 fighter jets and radar systems. But he acknowledges that ramping up domestic mining will be controversial too.

    “It’s a very touchy political issue,” he says. “On the one hand you have a tremendous need for the material. And on the other hand, people don’t want mining of any kind in this country.”

    Marchese says that the methods his company uses for mining are far less environmentally damaging then those used in China, and that in the US they are governed by the strictest environmental standards in the world. “If this stuff has to be produced, surely we should produce it here?” he says.

    A similar ethos underpins proposals to establish minerals processing facilities in the UK, where multiple projects are progressing. Among the vanguard hoping to break our dependence on Beijing is Pensana, which is building a £125m rare earth minerals processing plant at the Port of Hull in Yorkshire.

    Paul Atherley, the company’s chairman, who is also chairing a scheme to establish lithium refining in Teesside, says Pensana’s feedstock will come from a mine in Longonjo, western Angola. He is also seeking to source lithium from Australia for his other company.

    “What we’re arguing is that Australia, and South America and Africa should be doing what they are good at, which is mining and the extraction phase. And the processing should be done in Europe, in UK chemical parks hooked up to offshore wind, so we create these independent and sustainable supply chains, independent of China, so we can be absolutely sure about how it’s mined and how it’s processed.”
    Many people in the mining industry also speak evangelically about the potential for recycling materials from existing electronics and batteries. Although the point at which a so-called infinite loop – a holy grail situation where all the material can be recovered – is still some time away. Glencore, which counts Tesla, BMW and Samsung among its customers, already has a huge lithium recycling business in North America, a spokesman noted.

    Leicester University’s Jenkin says the mining sector is also working to improve the efficiency of processes and reduce the need for harmful chemicals. He has just returned from a trip to the Philippines where he has been helping to extract more useful minerals from tailings than before.

    Even further into the future, he says scientists could develop chemical solutions that are harmless for the environment and even methods to extract ore that require circulating liquid through the ground rather than disturbing large amounts of earth.

    “There are good sides,” he says. “The standards are ever-improving. And mining provides income to local economies, to national economies. There’s a nuanced debate that people need to have about this – but often it becomes very polarised and it just becomes ‘mining bad’.”

    Sanderson too is hopeful about efforts to overhaul the murkier practices in green technology supply chains, arguing that businesses will come under more and more pressure from consumers to clean up their acts. Some efforts are already under way to create a global “battery passport” that would ensure supply chains are transparent and meet the same standards.

    “Green products should have clean supply chains, because, by nature, they are supposed to be good for the environment,” Sanderson adds.

    “For many years, most consumers were completely blind about how things got made and where the materials came from.

    “But we are moving to a greater awareness. And there’s now a strong link between electric vehicle manufacturers and the mining industry – and EV producers do not want to wake up and see the minerals they are using splashed across the front pages or in an Amnesty International report.

    “So there are strong incentives – if miners want to be part of the supply chain – to clean up.”

    * * *

    And finally, a couple of the leading BTLs.  The posters are not slow – the article only went up yesterday evening but already the comments are approaching 500::

    DaveNewWorld IIJUST NOW

    There are too many people in the world. Most are poor and have an understandable desire to be richer, with “developed” lifestyles that include toilet rolls, toothpaste, fridges, TVs, cars, holidays abroad, etc, etc.

    As those billions achieve their goals, the environment will suffer. We should only allow foreign aid that funds reductions in global population growth (and critical emergency help).

    This reduction needs to be done slowly, over many decades, a couple of centuries perhaps, to avoid demographic chaos.

    I’ve been saying this for several decades, but it is rarely mentioned by politicians. Partly inverted racism, partly the simpleton “bigger GDP is better” mindset.

    Michael Staples10 HRS AGO

    Our politicians are out of control. Although some may be enriching themselves, others are caught up in a sinister groupthink, where they pat each other on the back at international conferences, are congratulated by the green lobbyists, and wined and dined by the Net Zero profit-making industrialists and landowners. The pleasure derived from their virtue-signalling weakens their logical thinking. Very few have scientific training and are shielded from the sceptics by similar-minded advisers. The whole situation stinks.

    1. I’m just staggered that anyone ever took this nonsense seriously. I have always regarded it as the decadent hobby of fools in a spoilt, rich society.

    2. It’s all nonsense isn’t it? We endorse green power to save the planet and despoil the planet to do it.

    3. 3,487 words to spell out what we’ve been saying for over two years.

      Green energy is dirtier than fossil fuels.

      1. Are these the same Hinduja family which caused Mandelslime to step down from his 2nd cabinet position…before Miranda Blair rewarded him with a commission on the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train?

        1. I believe so , they are everywhere . If you glance at the family tree on that link, they are all over the world , and what I really want to know .. is there a connection to Sunak somewhere?

    5. Scenario

      The Ukraine problem continues

      We are sitting Smug and Green, no fossil fuel or nuclear power electrical power generatotion at all

      Russia has a bad Day

      Aircraft Bomb/ Warships attacks the 20000+, or however many there are, Off Shore Wind Turbines

      We send our 4 seagoing warships and/or our 180 Typhoons to to challenge them.

      Result, We have No warships, No fighter aircraft, No electrical power

      Ogg the cave man sharpens his cudgel

      Mr Putin is put in Downing Street as PM of UK

    6. “Gawen Jenkin, a geology professor at Leicester University, says scientists could develop chemical solutions that are harmless for the environment and even methods to extract ore that require circulating liquid through the ground rather than disturbing large amounts of earth.”

      But fracking, also using chemicals underground, is off the menu…

      1. Comes up with an easy solution and then says, “No.”

        Same as all the rest of the silly anti-frackers.

      2. It can’t be off the menu William.

        Most LNG from the USA is obtained through fracking.

        It is only when Britain wishes to frack in the North Sea for gas that the lefties claim that it’s so bad.

        But buying gas from the USA is fine.

    7. TLDR 🙁

      But why is it all the things we need are under the Earth in dodgy countries?

      2. They come from a variety of countries, but most of them are processed in China.
        We’ve used all our commodities, and theirs would be worth nothing if we hadn’t invented technologies to use them.
        But the commodity rich countries see it differently, and now they want to profit.

  14. Good Morrow, Gentlefolk. Here is today’s story:

    B&Q Job Application

    This is an actual job application that a 75-year-old pensioner submitted to B&Q in Tunbridge Wells.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5c6a62495a53fa0eb2e876bf109b3668ba35b39ea83ae630cddfe9844be0bd0e.jpg
    NAME:
    Kenneth Way (Grumpy Bastard)

    SEX:
    Not lately, but I am looking for the right woman (or at least one who will cooperate)

    DESIRED POSITON:
    Company’s Chief Executive or Managing Director. But seriously, whatever’s available. If I was in a position to be picky, I wouldn’t be applying in the first place – would I?

    DESIRED SALARY:
    £150,000 a year plus share options and a Tony Blair style redundancy package. If that’s not possible, make an offer and we can haggle.

    EDUCATION:
    Yes.

    LAST POSITON HELD:
    Target for middle management hostility.

    PREVIOUS SALARY:
    A lot less than I’m worth.

    MOST NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT:
    My incredible collection of stolen pens and post-it notes.

    REASON FOR LEAVING:
    It was a crap job.

    HOURS AVAILABLE TO WORK:
    Any.

    PREFERRED HOURS:
    1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

    DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL SKILLS?
    Yes, but they’re better suited to a more intimate environment.

    MAY WE CONTACT YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYER?
    If I had one, would I be here’?

    DO YOU HAVE ANY PHYSICAL CONDITONS THAT WOULD PROHIBIT YOU FROM LIFTING UP TO 50 lbs?
    Of what?

    DO YOU HAVE A CAR?
    I think the more appropriate question here would be “Do you have a car that runs?”

    HAVE YOU RECEIVED ANY SPECIAL AWARDS OR RECOGNITON?
    I may already be a winner of the Reader’s Digest Timeshare Free Holiday Offer, so they tell me.

    DO YOU SMOKE?
    On the job – no! On my breaks – yes!

    WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE DOING IN FIVE YEARS?
    Living in the Bahamas with a fabulously wealthy Swedish supermodel with big tits and who thinks I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread. Actually, I’d like to be doing that now.

    NEAREST RELATIVE?
    7 miles

    DO YOU CERTIFY THAT THE ABOVE IS TRUE AND COMPLETE TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE?
    Oh yes. Absolutely.

    They hired him…
    But…

    After landing my new job as a B & Q “Greeter” – a good find for many retirees. I lasted less than a day.

    About two hours into my first day on the job a very loud, unattractive, mean-acting tattooed babe walked into the store with her two kids, yelling obscenities at them all the way through the entrance.

    As I had been instructed, I said, pleasantly, “Good morning and welcome to B & Q.” I then said, “Nice children you have there. Are they twins?”

    The woman stopped yelling long enough to say, “No, they ain’t effin twins. The oldest one’s 9, and the other one’s 7, why the hell would you think they’re twins? Are you blind, or just effin stupid?”

    I replied, “I’m neither blind nor stupid, Madam. I just couldn’t believe someone shagged you twice… Have a good day and thank you for shopping at B & Q.”

    My supervisor said I probably wasn’t cut out for this line of work.

    1. We had a guy from NZ working as a greeter in wickes. He was fine until he asked a large builder if he needed decking. 🤔

  15. Yo and Good Morning all

    Solar powered batteries ‘stole’ enough energy from the Sun, to get us through the night. without having to pay Octopus

    The drive for net zero, coupled with the lack of a cogent energy policy, show that this Government is out of touch with reality.

    Net Zero has absolutely nothing to do with Green Energy.

    It is all about controlling people.

    With Effect From (WEF) soon will have its’way

    Private car ownership will disappear,

    Utility Bills will be sky high

    We will all be vegans

    UK will be a Calphate

    2. Do vegans and vegetarians eat bugs? Aren’t bugs living creatures?

      Have any of my Nottler companions read Samuel Butler’s Erewhon which I read along with The Way of All Flesh when I was at school.

      Erewhon (anagram of Nowhere) is a dystopian/Utopian novel which describes an imaginary country where things are not as they are in our world.

      A vegetarian/vegan movement eventually had to be stopped. The rule that people should respect the rights of vegetables and therefore not eat them was leading to starvation.

    1. Regarding the middle image. I read on here or GP that holes on the edge of the road were no longer deemed to be potholes but were classified under verge maintenance. Thus cutting the number of potholes the local council had to fix at the stroke of a pen. Ingenious!

      If only they could use their imagination for the common good.

  18. Good morning all.
    A rather chilly -6½°C on the yard thermometer and it’s turned misty outside.

  19. Morning Medley

    https://media.patriots.win/post/Vn1DuYH6pfZt.jpeg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f3f8af7400337f5a81166cb98224073fb6b90f49b00df51c3eb9c807357efb77.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd365da5aca8359df16e79578728224c6de3367450d00d015b09090ee0fbcb57.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc2e8a7fdec65ee02b2bbf022b3f93b03b3d9d3ba6e9069c578a0e48458b79dc.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90f9c474700147aee0083016329cb4b39ae5699043eaebaddca015ff32c9bdae.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f53052a654e39671a7bbe2dc231c0c4493a6dc3ed174bb832e29997740cce62.jpg

  20. Time to be controversial before I go where NOTTlers can’ find me. In France in 2021, tax accounted for 45.1% of GDP. In the UK, 39.0%. The French economy is now larger than it was before the pandemic, the UK’s is still smaller.

    2. Indeed, but in France the health service works, education works, the transport systems are pretty good and fast, the bureaucracy, of which there is a lot, works.

      The rubbish is collected, the roads are well repaired, the ditches are cleared and drainage works, the verges are cut and generally litter is cleared, and people are employed in many of those so-called menial public jobs that the British refuse to do rather than being paid for doing nothing.

      Emergency services respond quickly and hospitals don’t tend to leave patients lying around in corridors

      Oddly enough, people in our income bracket pay less direct tax and rates etc than we would in the UK.

      It certainly isn’t perfect, far from it, but it makes the UK look third world.
      And, a huge plus point, the quality of life is much better.

      1. UK is 3rd world. Very little works, the place is dirty, scruffy and surly.
        Glad we left.

        2. Every time we go back, roughly every six months, it seems worse than the previous time.

          As Rastus points out below, urban centres here aren’t great, but I prefer those of France to their UK equivalents.

          Unfortunately, I suspect that we’ll need to return in due course, as neither of us could cope readily on our own. Together we can muddle through reasonably well and people are very helpful but those rare life-events become more difficult to handle as we age.

      2. UK is 3rd world. Very little works, the place is dirty, scruffy and surly.
        Glad we left.

        1. }:-)

          You’ll need a carte de sejour, which will be lot harder to obtain nowadays, although in the very few instances guests have needed health care or emergency service the French have certainly come up trumps.

          1. I was about to suggest claiming asylum …. and then remembered the French don’t fall for that crap.

          2. If you are a genuine asylum seeker, they treat you well. It’s the gimmegrants, crooks and chancers that they won’t assist. Hence the reason I assume anyone leaving France on a dinghy has zero right to be in Britain.

        1. It can work; the fly in the ointment is the huge number pouring in who only intend to take from the system.
          Hence the urban problems that one sees where they congregate, bringing their third world habits with them..

  21. BTL Comments, Well said Edwin Pugh:-

    Warren Sheehy
    55 MIN AGO
    Somehow, after the catastrophic attempt of invading Ukraine, even if Russia is appeased with their land grab I really can’t see them having the ability, or appetite to go any further West.

    EP Edwin Pugh
    45 MIN AGO
    I don’t believe Putin originally had any intention of ‘going any further west’. He went in to the Ukraine to stop the persecution of people who considered themselves Russian and to whom he felt he owed some allegiance. Remember, right at the beginning Biden said that this was justifed.

    1. The selective indignation of the West defies belief.

      We can get on our moral high horses about trivia and ignore the Muslim gang rapes, today’s slave labour in central Africa and Russian views on the enslavement of Russians in Ukraine. And that’s before we even start on the global warming, carbon dioxide and Covid vaccination scams.

    2. Here is the argument FOR Russia:

      Why Putin Invaded Ukraine Pt I

      Too many people obviously have no idea as to why Putin invaded Ukraine.

      Here is the first reason:
      It was Zelensky’s Azov Brigade, ruthlessly slaughtering over 14,000 Russian speakers in Donbass and other Eastern Ukrainian provinces, that made him feel that someone should endeavour to put a stop to this slaughter of his near neighbours by a despotic tyrant.
      The sad thing is that the US, the EU and NATO all joined in on Zelensky’s side.
      I take it they all agreed that the slaughter was a good thing!

      Why Putin Invaded Ukraine Pt II

      Russia invaded Ukraine (a part of its country) in order to expose and eliminate U.S. funded bio labs. We are referring to US funded ‘gain of function’ research into bio-weapons research.
      This exposure was the objective of the Russian ‘special operations’.
      The US ‘gain of function’ research laboratories were placed in Ukraine for the reason that Ukraine, neither a country nor an independent state, is not subject to international weapons conventions and control of weapons.
      The ‘vaccines’ are proven to be gene therapies produced by companies specialising in the introduction of specific known pathogens into the world populations. These ‘vaccines’ aim to infect every recipient with synthetic mRNA nano technology. This renders human recipients as trans human in much the same way that mice, rats and ferrets are rendered transgenic in our research laboratories.
      My own research evidenced that Malaysia has already convicted George W Bush and our own Tony Blair as war criminals. Regrettably Malaysia has no international clout and these two criminals are above our decrepit international law, a law, if properly instituted, would condemn these war criminals to a life of servitude in gaol.

      The Truth will always out. Just give it a few more months and these fuckers will be exposed.

    3. I have a couple of doubts about Edwin Pugh’s analysis.

      One concerns the great similarity between the justification of the annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, and that of the provinces of Crimea and parts of the Donbas in 2014. The former led on to the invasion of the rest of Czechoslovakia, and of Poland, ostensibly to free up a corridor to East Prussia (now the Russian outpost of Kaliningrad). The latter would have been fine had it stopped with the Minsk Agreement, but it led on to the declared annexation of the entire Donbas, including those parts that remained loyal to Maidan, and also the attempted push on to the capital of Ukraine itself, with a fairly transparent objective to transform it to a puppet satellite similar to Belarus.

      Had Putin been successful, then almost certainly the three former-Soviet Baltic states would have been in his sights, as would Transnistria, opening up a claim to the rest of Moldova. Poland too would be vulnerable, uniting the Slav Brotherhood under a strong leadership.

      1. Remember, Jeremy, Zelensky and the West tore up the Minsk agreement before the ink was dry.

        1. So, it must be said, did the Russian-backed insurgents in the Donbas, although Crimea seemed calm enough to build that bridge at Kerch.

    4. Right at the start a well known well respected ex army General gave his opinion to the bbc. If I remember correctly this conflict was the result of the EU and Nato pushing their invented issue. Which of course the US joined in with.
      But the general’s ongoing opinion has never been sought since.
      It must have been something he said.

      1. Certainly no one has ever raised that the EU’s overtures to Ukraine to join it’s communist failure was a significant trigger to Putin.

  22. Good morning all

    Sunny cold morning here , 0c, deep frost and a sparrow hawk has just flown through the garden past the patio window clutching its breakfast.

    4. And from me, happy birthday to you, 🍾🍾🥂I would shout it a bit louder but I’m feeling a little hoarse. 🐎🐴

    1. With what’s being revealed worldwide this prat might want to keep quiet from now on and hope that people forget his totalitarian stance. Sadly for him the internet doesn’t forget.

    2. What a stilted delivery. Why couldn’t he say ‘we have prepareed vaccines for anyone who wants them. Just come and get it if you do. For those who don’t want it, we hope you will, but it is your choice.’

      Crikey! Imagine that! A libertarian politician!

      1. Because that is not what he wanted to say. He wants to try and con people into believing that the vaccine is mandatory and you will be in trouble if you don’t have it.

  26. Good morning fellow Nottlers, a dreich start to the day following two clear days. Currently 4°C.

    As to the headline; of course Sunak hasn’t set out any vision of his ‘own’. His masters have been too busy on their annual beanfest to inform him what ‘his’ vision is.

    I expect (the latest) grand plans will be announced this coming week.

  27. Well I was awake early and saw Elsie make the first post. I must have dozed off again.
    Thank you all very much for your kind thoughts and support for our little grandson. His name is Henry. We wait for news from his father who has spent 5 days alongside him in hospital. 🙏

    2. Sorry to hear about your grandson, Eddy.

      It sounds serious and we can only hope that he pulls through.

      1. I don’t mind fascists. It’s National Socialists that I find objectionable, a prime example being the current ‘Conservative’ party.

    2. The man is an idiot and his party is doomed to failure.

      Reform will not succeed in getting any significant electoral support if it is just as doctrinaire as the other parties are on evil Covid 19 vaccines gene therapy.

  29. There was a sad little pile of ‘Spare’ @ £15 apiece in Morrisons yesterday. I’ve never seen them try to sell books in there before. I guess they’ve been shifted out from bigger stores where they stayed unsold.

    1. Most places seem to be selling it at £14, which is half its ‘official’ price, and have done so since it was first published. My son-in-law ordered a copy (why?) from Amazon, and was accidentally sent two copies. He offered one to me free of charge. I declined.

      1. There’s been a small pile in my local Tesco for about a week.

        Unless someone keeps topping up the pile it appears that very few, if any, have sold at £14-

        1. Yo janet

          Could the small pile be Ginge himself?
          ie

          If it looks like S5.t
          tastes like S5.t
          It probably is S5.t

  30. US to designate Russia’s Wagner Group as ‘transnational criminal organization’. 21 January 2023.

    The US will designate the Russian mercenary group Wagner as a “significant transnational criminal organization”, imposing further sanctions on the military contractor which has been aiding Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.

    The White House national security council spokesman, John Kirby, announced on Friday that the treasury will apply the new designation in the coming days, putting it in the same category as Italian mafia groups and Japanese and Russian organized crime.

    This of course conveniently forgets that Wagner is a copy of what used to be called Blackwater an American mercenary organisation and convicted of various crimes including murder. It now goes under the name, after several cosmetic changes, of Constellis. There are no plans to ban it!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/20/us-russia-wagner-group-transnational-criminal-organization

  31. The Tories are beyond help and standing in the wings, stage left, is this creature. He’s in Davos talking to CEOs, for appearances’ sake, but anyone with a tad of nous can determine what the real goal is. He would have been more convincing (difficult I know) if he had publicly renounced the Davos junket and made a credible attempt at telling the truth. It’s clear that replacing Sunak with this creature and his acolytes will make not a jot of improvement to the wellbeing of the UK and its people. WEF infection is running wild in the UK, we need a huge dose of reality, certainly not a “vaccine”, to sterilise this pathogen at source.

    https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1616403294665973761

    Here’s the WFF’s propaganda take on the Blair creature, I erased the picture as I know it is as upsetting to many Nottlers as it is to me. Is Starmer about to receive similar treatment from his WEF partners?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/199a3f42107480f588dedf2c153de76d195a8bfb09e1bf022f72baeca8089cc4.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17feed066bcced6215eb25ac902e860653e32117064b46971810288d4f97f7df.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb2e2b4cf39bfcfc38200beaa9521f1448243409baf4d4b9a3147ce2fef0628b.png

    2. There is nothing green about unreliables. They are useless as a form of energy generation and far form 9 times cheaper, they are disgustingly expensive. The man is an oaf. A lying oaf.

    1. Next breaking news the entire board of the RNLI has been arrested for people trafficking
      Oh Wait………….

  33. Funny Old World
    Once just once will someone ask the Greeniac Net Zero fanatics the question
    “Where’s the storage going to come from??”
    1 million Wind turbines
    10 million solar panels
    Would still produce zero power when the wind don’t blow and the sun don’t shine and there is currently(geddit) no viable method to store* the power they produce when working for future use……….
    I have read that every battery on the planet could supply a whole ten minutes of the energy requirements of civilisation
    Best description of current policy I’ve ever read
    “We are being asked to throw ourselves out of an aircraft without a parachute praying like hell someone invents and delivers a parachute befoe we go splat on landing”
    * If someone starts blathering about the hydrogen production fantasy just laff at them

    1. Huge containers all over the place, jam-packed with Lithium-Ion batteries.

      All fire brigades need to be on high alert and have several large water-bowsers in reserve.

    2. Only the state would consider wasting hundreds of billions on something that only works some of the time, causes great ecological damage and call it green, hail the green jobs created – when the things are built in China and that cost a fortune to operate, require massive upgrades to manage the fact they are unreliable.

      It is utter, demented folly.

    3. Only the state would consider wasting hundreds of billions on something that only works some of the time, causes great ecological damage and call it green, hail the green jobs created – when the things are built in China and that cost a fortune to operate, require massive upgrades to manage the fact they are unreliable.

      It is utter, demented folly.

    4. We need the solution to her late majesty and Paddington’s marmalade sandwich question so that there is something always available for later.

      Unfortunately our current king is such a dimwit that he does not understand this very simple requirement.

  34. ‘Nuff Said

    “Julia Hartley-Brewer@JuliaHB1 = It’s very simple. If Nadhim Zahawi had
    to pay a large fine to HMRC for failure to pay his due taxes to the
    tune of millions, then it is untenable for him to remain as a government
    minister. That’s it. Nothing left to discuss.
    ————————————————————————————————————————–
    Actually untenable for him to remain an MP.”
    Spivs,crooks and chancers what a nest of vipers they all are

    1. I don’t know – if he failed because of a filing problem, a muddle, his company not being organised enough then no, he shouldn’t as he already will be.

      If he personally set out to avoid paying tax then I don’t blame him, but he should face the full penalty of th elaw, including jail – as the state loves to punish the thing that gives it it’s power. Tax avoidance carries a harsher penalty than knifing someone.

    2. One problem is that if the HMRC constantly try and cheat people then the inevitable reaction will be that ordinary people will hit back and then try to cheat them instead.

      1. People keep demanding more free stuff. Much as I hate the current man-made “crises” we do need a jubilee. People have been living in a fantasy land for years now, thinking that luxuries are cheap and the government has the power to give out free stuff.
        It doesn’t; it’s all paid for by racking up the debt.

    1. I’ll second that as it’s unlikely that we will see her today.

      Happy, happy day, Naggers.

    2. I thought that it was Common Law that one couldn’t profit from a crime?

      Why is this man being allowed to do so?

      1. Not profiting from crime by law is the biggest joke of all!

        A friend of mine was recently ordered by a court to pay maintenance to her bone idle, violent, abusive ex husband – because he had stayed at home while she went out to work.
        Fortunately it was an interim order, and now that his slave has left him, he has got a job – probably so that he can con the next victim.

    3. I would burn down/blow up the place and go to gaol rather than let the sleaze bag move in.

    4. Stall. Then ‘allow’ squatters (whom she trusts) to live in the bungalow. It will take time to evict them. Anything to waste time, in the hope that the pervert will die before he can move into the property.

  37. Exclusive: World Athletics set to allow transgender athletes to compete against women under new rules
    New plans drawn up as the governing body’s ‘preferred option’ will see testosterone limit reduced and treatment time lengthened
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2023/01/20/exclusive-world-athletics-set-allow-transgender-athletes-compete/

    BTLs

    Madelaine Coote

    Just as you start to hope that sanity is dawning and trans swimmers are banned from women’s events World Athletics shows that we are still completely mad.

    Percival Wrattstrangler

    The minimum requirement for trans people to have access to women’s sport or women’s spaces (such as lavatories and changing rooms) must be that these people have had their penises surgically removed and are thus physically not capable of rape.

          3. Despite it giving you a 4 hour erection for the sake of a little prick (that doesn’t hurt)

        2. The school dinner new potatoes were enough to kill enthusiasm for life in general.
          Add the gristle stew to clog up the arteries.

    2. The real reason transgenders want to compete in female rather than a special transgender category is that they know they have a better chance of medals and money than they would competing against men.

      If real women want to nip this in the bud they should boycott and/or picket any event where a transgender athlete is competing and take it in turns to impede the cheats whenever possible.

      1. But what about trans men, ie women? Will they ha e to compete in mens events? It’s a lose-lose for women either way.

        1. Agreed, and that’s why I would give them separate transsexual events.

          For me, the thing that actually shows what a nonsense it is, is the fact that with very few sporting exceptions no transman, ie a woman, is ever likely to get even close to beating men in the types of events where transwomen, ie men, can beat women..

          Hell, if one can have heaven knows how many categories in Paralympic, why not have separate trans categories too?

          1. There would be no problem in equestrian events; men and women already compete on equal terms.

          2. I am always slightly wary when generalising, because of competitions like eventing.
            It’s the technical plus equipment events, in this case horses, where they can compete on level terms. But those events are comparatively rare and strength doesn’t really come into it.

          3. Eventing, show jumping, dressage (most of the blokes – not ALL, I hasten to add! – are queer), horse racing, carriage driving, horseball, polo, showing …

          4. I didn’t know that, and would not have guessed.
            No wonder Harry the hampton fits in well!

        2. The special Olympics seem to be able to put like with like to provide a competitive equality.
          I’m sure something similar could easily be arranged.
          However, that would upset those who want to pretend mental illness is normal.

      2. It worked for Irina and Tamara Press (allegedly,) but they retired just before testing came in

    3. This is just another ploy to set people fighting against each other. Far more important news is that central banks are buying more gold than ever before, as are wealthy family trusts, and Saudi Arabia is accepting payment for oil in other currencies apart from the dollar. One day we will wake up and the price of gold will have been re-set, and the Great Muppet Reaping will have happened while people were getting worked up over Harry and Meghan, and transgender issues.
      (NOTTLers as a group are more clued up than most!)

      1. Women’s world record deadlift is bout 640lb, mens about 1,210lbs according to Google.

  38. 371281+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    Pure evil,

    Blair Calls for Digital Vaccine Tracking at Davos Ahead of New Slew of ’Injectables’,

    OK, meet him & supporters part way with the
    provisoe that they are first, to have the trail vax, with a fire break
    of ten years between them and the cautious jab virgins.

      1. 370281+ up ticks,

        Afternoon RE,
        That particular political reptile and followers were the initial cause of our nations downfall, as mass uncontrolled immigration latch lifters.

        Currently the only difference between them & the tory’s (ino) party is the tory’s (ino) party control morally mass illegal
        immigration, through Dover via the RNLI.

        1. From what I have been reading about recent breeches in law and order we all need to get a new set of pitchforks.
          Blair did more damage to the UK than hitler.

  39. Jamaican investment firm relieves Usain Bolt of over ?10 million.

    So much for Anthony Joshua’s advice that blacks should only invest in black-owned companies.

          2. Could have bean a Contender
            the name of Bill Thomas’s favourite haricot, very prolific!

            How’s your contender?

  40. A bit harsh to fine Rishi Sunak £100 for not wearing a seat belt, how on
    earth is he supposed to get a belt passed those ears whilst sitting on a
    booster seat?

    1. Morning all

      Don’t expect to hear from Nagsman today. Her children are entertaining her royally for her Birthday and she’s got a ‘Spa Day’ scheduled for tomorrow, whatever that may be. She’s due here for lunch next Sunday.

      I’m taking a break from Nottlers – newest granddaughter Leona has been spending months in an oxygen tent etc. Seems to be past all danger now but it’s been exhausting for everyone. Son and his Missus have been superb ignoring all the interfering advice from Leona’s six aunts.

      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fa4a4acea-98fb-11ed-a4b6-b73ca9335ee1.jpg?crop=2582%2C1721%2C674%2C194&resize=900

      1. Heyup!
        Hope you’re keeping well and will pass our regards on to her.

        You’ve had a bit of a worrying time with your Grand daughter so not surprising you’ve been a bit distracted for coming on to here. I hope her recovery continues.

      3. Best wishes to your grand-daughter, Citroen.
        See you later – don’t be a stranger.

    2. The motives for fining him had nothing to do with road safety and everything to do with political expediency.

    1. 😄😄

      Could have tried harder with Harry’s voice though. Rory Bremner not available?

    1. Exacto. Cows are fair,ybplacid – they’ll only stampede if you’ve done something to frighten them.

      1. Don’t get between a mother and her baby/calf. That will cause trouble, whether bears, moose or cattle.

  44. Afternoon all, we have been into the big city this morning, I am amazed how many idiots there are driving on the roads without any lights in foggy conditions.

    It proves to me that speed cameras are no substitute for police patrols!

    1. I’m sure some folks think no lights whilst driving in the murk and gloom saves them energy costs.

      2. It’s these auto lights which are supposed to switch on in low light conditions. Drivers don’t bother to check or can’t see that they are not on and assume they are.

        1. Many older cars (including mine) don’t have such mod cons.
          I put my lights on when it’s wet or murky, a grey car on a grey day needs all the help it can get.

          1. Same here. When I sold my last (dark green) car I joined the ranks of the anonymous silver car brigade.

  45. Well the morning mist got worse, but has now dissipated and all the logs stacked beside the house have been sawn ready for chopping and stacking. Still below freezing outside, but not so cold.

    And guess who’s got a ban from Tw@ter again!
    Looks like some Kiwi disliked my comments about Shergar.

    1. I could have done with your assistance yesterday.

      The snow brought down a medium sized oak tree, completely blocking the entrance to our property, and numerous large branches from pine and other trees. On the plus side, I’ll have the better part of a year’s supply of wood for the log burner.

      Of course the chain saw was out of commission, so I’ve been busy with the loppers, the bow saws, hand and felling axes and the long iron bar for levering logs about.
      Temperatures well below zero but by the end I was in shirtsleeves and cooking gently in my own juice. It makes one appreciate how hard you’ve been at it recently.

      2. Get the chain saw serviced? Also, get a tirfor so you can skid big timber out of the way.

        1. The chainsaw only recently decided to pack up, clogged line into the carburettor I’m told, I’m not remotely mechanically inclined so can’t do it myself. I’m convinced it’s the modern fuels, the old 98 with older style oils worked fine.
          The trunk wood can be cut in situ and even if I had one, a tirfor would be not much better than my lever for what I need to do. The oak was only a 50 or 60 footer, it fell because the ditch diggers undermine the roots and it was already leaning, the weight of the dense wet snow tipped the balance.

          The pine branches are just about draggable and the hand axe makes them easier very quickly.

    2. Shergar’s big sister – or one of her minions – blocked me on Twitter for criticising her selective stance on Islam and “homophobia”.

  48. Well, that’s a start made on chopping the logs I cut this morning. Now got to get what I’ve done so far over to where they are going and getting them stacked.

    Then get another lot chopped!

  49. Last night, Lottie posted that her other half was now home. Another further news from her?

    1. I don’t expect it, Elsie. Too busy enjoying each other’s company.

      We can only wish them well.

  50. Just about to post an update. My husband is indeed home and already looking better. His leg is painful but he’s eating and drinking and slept OK last night.
    It takes him a long time to move about and going up and down stairs takes a while. He came down on his bottom this morning!
    But he’s relaxed and very relieved to be out of the stalag. Tomorrow we are going to start getting him walking about a few times a day which will help.
    As I have said before, I cannot speak highly enough of our local cab company. Because he discharged himself no hospital transport was provided but the guy who picked up was simply the best. He waited for MH to get to the cab, brought his belongings in and then helped him into the house and into his chair. I gave him a big tip.
    It’s going to be a slow journey but he’ll be better here. If left there he’d be in bed all the time and basically ignored. I shall find out who the MP is for that area and email him/her. The treatment there borders on negligence and the indifference was blatant.
    Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement.

    1. You must feel so relieved to have him home!! Best wishes to you both for his speedy recovery.

    3. Good news, Ann. Sounds like he’ll need to be patient with himself. At least now you’re at the beginning of the end not the end of the beginning – or the endoscopy!

      1. El Alamein, rather than Dunkirk? There are a pair of cottages I walk past occasionally that have those names.

      1. It’s a small place- smallish LR, kitchen and wet room down and our bedroom and a loo up. Plus, I think he needs to try. He was really chuffed last night when he made it upstairs. They’d just left him lying in bed for a week.

        1. It seems the care people receive from the NHS can be really very good or non existent. Glad he is home with you. Best place.

        2. They were very keen in Oxford to get my OH up and walking very soon after his major op. It’s not good to leave him lying in bed.

        3. That’s utter bullshit treatment. How is he supposed to build strength in his leg unless he is exercising it?

          A friend broke her hip a few weeks ago, the physiotherapists wers practically by her bedside as she came out of the anesthetic with their demands that she kept exercising.

    6. Good to hear he’s home and improving. Shocking to hear about the lack of care and attention. in hospital.

    7. Marvellous news, Ann! He’ll be so much happier and better cared for at home with you! Get plenty of rest y’all! 🍷💐

    8. Very good to hear, Ann, and I’m sure you’re both much happier to be together in the comfort of your home.

      Both of you, KBO.

    9. It’s good to hear he’s home and recovering – not so good to hear that his treatment in hospital was lacking.

    11. The MP will tell you that you are not in their constituency, talk to your MP, your MP will naturally say that the hospital is outside of their area – but please vote for me in the next election..

    14. Thank goodness. And thank you for keeping us posted, particularly as you have rather a lot on your plate in addition to NOTTLing.

      1. I am sure I bore everyone to pieces but having carried on about it, thought I would let y’all know the latest.

    15. Good news all round. I’m sure he’s well on the way to recovery now. Well done that cabbie, too. Service over and above.

      1. That cab company is great. We always use them and they know us well now. The guy was super, kept saying that he’d got my husband, hang onto me, I’ve got you etc.
        I shall call and compliment them- need some rest and sleep first.

        1. When lockdown started, Mother was cut off. I couldn’t get food deliveries from the supermarkets as they needed a UK credit card. Local grocer was happy to help out – I could send a sms order, they would deliver, and I’d pay by bank transfer. That solved a serious problem. Sent them champagne for Christmas, to express my heartfelt thanks for their invaluable help.

        2. When lockdown started, Mother was cut off. I couldn’t get food deliveries from the supermarkets as they needed a UK credit card. Local grocer was happy to help out – I could send a sms order, they would deliver, and I’d pay by bank transfer. That solved a serious problem. Sent them champagne for Christmas, to express my heartfelt thanks for their invaluable help.

        3. Take some time, Ann. You and YOH have had a lot of stress recently. RElax a bit before getting back into the fray!

          1. I shall- I too am pretty worn out which is to be expected. Softly, softly will be how I go.

  51. That’s me for the day. A couple of batches of logs chopped and stacked with another 16 waiting for splitting, then it’s sort out the logs & sticks up the “garden”.

    I need a bath!!!

    1. Good grief! That first pic looks like Cur kneeler! And the second one…..well, what culture are you appropriating? It’s very..er..green? I’m guessing fertility?

  53. Appears Tice has shot himself in both feet re Bridgen. With independent information flooding the alternative media and exposing the jabs as unsafe and completely ineffective there is no reason why Tice shouldn’t be aware of this information. Whether or not he chooses to accept the government narrative as opposed to that from independent researchers is neither here nor there, the very fact that so much independent research attacks the narrative should have been a warning to Tice to tread warily. That he didn’t err on the side of caution is a big mistake.

    Not to be outdone, Sir Kneel has come out and stated that he prefers Davos to Westminster. Who would have thought that? The man’s a tool in more ways than one.

    https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1616768520494223362

      1. It may awaken a few more sheep and that doesn’t sound much when the PTB continue to be playing deaf and the MSM support that position. Basically we’re in a war of attrition with the PTB/MSM axis i.e. for how long can the PTB maintain their silence in the face of the mounting evidence of dead and disabled people? It’s imperative that the data are released and the good guys continue to erode the PTB’s position. Some in the PTB have eased their way out in the hope of being missing in action when the evidence becomes irrefutable.

  56. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/42f0fc6bf3a7de8dbc7c59f3df473c177dc27ca254e22d823209654d00b127cc.jpg

    I’m just listening to the Delingpod with Tom Luongo. Absolutely brilliant, and will cheer you up if you feel a bit oppressed by the WEF’s evil plans for our future.
    Luongo thinks that there has been a split in the bankster cabal, and Jamie Dimon and Jerome Powell in the US are on one side, and the Rothschilds and their “Eurotrash” WEF on the other.

    https://rumble.com/v24yngg-tom-luongo.html
    Bring on the WEF memes! Tinpot dictators die under ridicule.

  57. Flippin’ Bogey Five today.

    Wordle 581 5/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par for me.

      Wordle 581 4/6

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

    2. And me.

      Wordle 581 5/6

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

    3. I managed a birdie 3, but it was more luck than judgement – getting that last letter in the second round was a bit of a giveaway.

      Wordle 581 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. AI is whatever it’s programmed to be. Humans are what we’re programmed to be too but who would you want the programmer to be. Bill Gates or Jesus of Nazareth. Free will makes us fallible but it also confers great potential. The robot is what it is.

      1. I suspect that at some point in the future there is going to be significant, genuine, uncompromised, research which might start to join dots and I think will paint an unexpected picture of just how harmful the combination of all the efforts to eradicate Covid have actually been as far as overall public health is concerned.

      1. I noticed that and was tempted to respond:
        “And when you do get something, because you’ve compromised your natural immunity to minor things, the minor thing to me might be fatal to you.”

        1. Oh how disappointing – I had hoped it was genuine and reflected concern at the potential dystopian future in store for us all!

    2. It’s fascinating. I wonder how much is programmed (that duck and roll lark) and how much is dynamic? What would happen if the block size were to change at the end, for example? The plank was interesting at the beginnning – must have been programmed, but what if the plank had not been there, and it had had to go back for it?

      1. Very cleverly done. However, I have a question.

        Why do all robots (and, moreover, all “little green men” aliens) invariably have to be anthropomorphic?

        1. Not so for robots, Grizz.
          We’re working to make inspection rounds for a robot similar to the old bomb disposal “wheelbarrow” – less dynamic, more autonomous. The alternative is a robot dog from Boston Dynamics.
          Legs are useful, because the world is designed for things with legs. Wheels and caterpillar tracks are less good – caterpillars can climb some stairs, not all, and cannot step over an obstruction. Legs can, and can also climb ladders.
          Little green men on TV and in films were coloured up actors, so were very anthropomorphic.

  64. Evening, all. In addition to the snow and ice we were blessed with freezing fog this morning. I haven’t been out apart from slithering round the block with the dogs.

      1. They aren’t that sort of dog, unfortunately. I was glad enough that they didn’t pull me when I was walking them.

    2. Good evening!
      Freezing fog here too.
      It did clear for a short while, then a 2nd bank rolled in. From a start point of -6½°C this morning, I don’t think it got above -3½° all day.
      Did the dogs enjoy the slithering about?

        1. The last four races at Wolverhampton were abandoned because of fog. All-weather racing? Yeah, right 🙂

      2. Kadi loves to be anywhere I am. Oscar is a grumpy sod when it’s time for a walk, but he’s resigned to having to do it.

    3. The fog lifted here by late morning – I went out at about 11.30am to walk down to the paper shop. Still chilly out then but sunny. This afternoon I made marmalade.

  65. Life with 100% inflation in Argentina.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FGZTN9rwk
    Maybe Ashes can tell us how accurate this is…
    Note that people are using barter, or using the dollar. What happens when the dollar fails?
    I guess only barter is left. But they are doing it via social media, putting a lot of information and control potentially into the hands of big tech.
    Also, they still seem to be using cash. In a similar short film I saw about Venezuela, it was said that the govt hasn’t printed higher denomination notes, forcing people to use cards.

  66. Life with 100% inflation in Argentina.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3FGZTN9rwk
    Maybe Ashes can tell us how accurate this is…
    Note that people are using barter, or using the dollar. What happens when the dollar fails?
    I guess only barter is left. But they are doing it via social media, putting a lot of information and control potentially into the hands of big tech.
    Also, they still seem to be using cash. In a similar short film I saw about Venezuela, it was said that the govt hasn’t printed higher denomination notes, forcing people to use cards.

    2. I would ask her which ‘gender’ male, female or neuter? ‘Cos that’s all you’ve got.

        1. I would have had to make it simpler for that fat bimbo,

          Those are long and hard to pronounce words for those of limited education.

  69. Good evening , still frosty and very cold here .

    I have been busy sorting out more cupboards , been to the tip and various charity shops with surplus stuff..

    The meadows from here to Wareham are still flooded.. fluvial plains work, and idiot national builders don’t think about things like that , neither do planners who drift around the country .

    What do you think of this then ?

    https://twitter.com/RojBlakeB7/status/1616776997727764480.

  70. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk.

    Bad night, last night so I’m hoping to catch up on zeds tonight.

  71. This (Saturday) morning I couldn’t sleep so I got up at 2.30 am. I haven’t had an afternoon nap today, so I am now quite tired so I shall wish you all a Good Night, and head upstairs for a decent night’s sleep.

      1. The breakdown of a Function(ist)ing Society.
        Anything to upset the Effnik Brits andour ways of life

      1. Sturgeon takes instructions from WEF. The disintegration of our traditional norms and values is the aim. Sturgeon is a queer so has a stake in the game.

    2. Over the years I’ve paid plenty. It’s time I had the service I’ve paid for otherwise it’s taking money under false pretences.

    1. Check out Bryn Terfel singing The Vagabond; Songs of Travel. Poems of RL Stevenson and music by Vaughn Williams. Wonderful.

      1. Thomas Allen set the standard with the same songs. Bryn Terfel is as good but has a more lyrical delivery. Tom Allen now feels a bit dry by comparison yet both are great.

    2. Thank you Bob.

      I heard this version when I was a youngster . My parents loved jazz , so do I , but my parents didn’t listen to opera .

      I heard this played at a friends house , when she and I were speed reading our way through a pile of books , her parents must have had the radio on , and I asked where the music was from . The duet is perfect .

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYt2HlBuyI

        1. You don’t need talent Paul….just sing! Put on the 2012 Last Night of the Proms on You Tube and bawl your lungs out!

          2. Better- he’s eaten more today than he did all week and he’s trying really hard to be more mobile. Tomorrow we will start walking him round the lower level of the house a few times. It won’t be easy but we’ll get there.
            He’s relaxed and looks quite well and is pleased to be home. I reckon by midweek he’ll be walking unaided and able to get on with things.

  75. It has been reported that the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is poised to grant a £300m funding package for British Steel.
    The money has not been confirmed by the Treasury, but the BBC understands it would depend on the firm’s Chinese owners, Jingye, investing in greener technology.

    So it’s true: – A pat on back really will fill rice bowl….

    1. We have identified a tiny fraction of the number of species inhabiting the planet, most of those remaining discovery in the deep oceans and vents in the ocean floor.

      The number of species we have identified as living in the present time is about 1% of those already identified as extinct. A species is born, lives and dies. Extinction is a normal process of evolution.

      I have been reading ‘Biodiversity’ by Christian Leveque and Jean-Claude Mounolou translated by Vivienne Reuter.

      We will continue to identify more species as scientific instruments improve allowing detection and measurement of the tiniest organisms. Likewise we will obtain fabulous images of life forms such as the jellyfish.

  78. With nothing else in mind but some decent evening entertainment.
    We have just watched a film called Green Book.
    It’s based on a true story from the 1960s, very well acted and thoroughly enjoyed it.
    Bbc iplayer.
    Our little grandson is now back at Addenbrooks hospital where they are trying to sort out the infection problem. Fingers crossed 🤞 🙏
    And now it’s goodnight all.

  80. Goodnight, all. The fire’s dying down and the Rayburn has been stoked for the night. I’m off to fill my hot water bottles and get ready for bed.

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