Thursday 9 February: Remarkable President Zelensky restores faith in the power of leadership

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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561 thoughts on “Thursday 9 February: Remarkable President Zelensky restores faith in the power of leadership”

  1. Good morning all from the Prince Regent Hotel, Woodford Bridge.
    An excellent concert at the RFH last night!

    1. That useless fat git has apparently made nearly 5 million pounds profit since he left his last job. There’s hope he’ll keep his nose out. But it doesn’t look that way so far.

      1. I’m glad you said “made” rather than “earned”!! Fataturk needs to be told to zip it – and that goes for Major too!

        1. As some one pointed out on TV this morning they are all making thousands with private jobs out side parliament. No wonder they managed to wreck the country and the economy.

          1. But surely, Eddy, by wrecking the country and the economy, they just foul their own nest and ruin their own economy.

          2. There was talk this morning of them being presented with medals when they leave parliament.
            A fresh cow pat would be too good for most of them.

  4. SIR – The NHS is one of the largest employers in Europe, run by largely poor-quality managers from top to bottom (Letters, February 8).

    When I was still working, most of us had no difficulty in accepting being managed by good-quality managers, thus freeing us for clinical practice, but sadly there were none.

    For many years at regional and national level, through the medical royal colleges and labyrinthine committees of the NHS, I lobbied for the government to establish a staff college for the NHS in order to provide high-quality medical managers.

    Surely now is the time for this. There are plenty of experienced former NHS staff who, aided by the expertise of successful captains of industry and the military, could make this succeed.

    Charles Mitchell FRCP
    Ebberston, North Yorkshire

    And staffing the Staff College would be sure to add to the NHS’s non-medical staffing levels. Let’s hope you are never put in charge.

    SIR – Like many public institutions, the NHS suffers from a surfeit of managers. It’s the result of the British fixation with training managers instead of leaders. Leaders take decisions; managers take meetings.

    Mik Shaw
    Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex

    B..b..but Charles Mitchell says we need more managers…and he has FRCP after his name.

  5. ‘Morning All

    The sight of our politicians en masse playing the sycophant to Zelensky filled me with nausea but felt eerily familiar “where had I seen this before” then it came to me it’s all Greta Mk2 theatre in a putrid cause

    I don’t use the Grauniad as a source often but this cracker from 2014 shows how the doublethink has taken over………..

    “So you don’t hear much about the Ukrainian government’s veneration of wartime Nazi collaborators and pogromists, or the arson attacks on the homes and offices of elected communist leaders, or the integration of the extreme Right Sector into the national guard, while the anti-semitism and white supremacism

    of the government’s ultra-nationalists is assiduously played down, and

    false identifications of Russian special forces are relayed as fact.

    The reality is that, after two decades of eastward Nato expansion, this

    crisis was triggered by the west’s attempt to pull Ukraine decisively

    into its orbit and defence structure, via an explicitly anti-Moscow EU

    association agreement. Its rejection led to the Maidan protests and the

    installation of an anti-Russian administration – rejected by half the

    country – that went on to sign the EU and International Monetary Fund

    agreements regardless.

    No Russian government

    could have acquiesced in such a threat from territory that was at the

    heart of both Russia and the Soviet Union. Putin’s absorption of Crimea

    and support for the rebellion in eastern Ukraine is clearly defensive,

    and the red line now drawn: the east of Ukraine, at least, is not going

    to be swallowed up by Nato or the EU.

    Rest here

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/30/russia-ukraine-war-kiev-conflict

  6. Morning Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce68a8a94a2cef9b195b32e7b09f48d32d8bc13598ad02a7657dc654e28286ed.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f3bfb0b8e4150b9c12c4cfb20c6acbc8629dc2c83d8ab318c3d5a1a48060c12.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa53332ff5c10c0004527ec1c83a5cd5f8fd59deb39c9a288d04fee781afc720.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1379e991b3eec98d2560102c9b97bc59c472b64c435e37618d5b98ac370278e5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe6ae073c20233780202df3a3c85b91c743639fbc55c788dc9dd5287c45cd68a.jpg

    It will come to this,if not us our grandchildren………..

    https://i.imgflip.com/7a732j.jpg

    1. 370885+ up ticks,

      Morning Rik,

      Complete agreement with all the contents of your post.

      We are living through a period of political self inflicted SHITE, as in bygone days the few came to the fore in the shape of the party I supported and whos one major action gave us the referendum win , and a chance to start righting the treacherous wrongs.

      Sad to say fools and their Country are soon parted, the internal battle over the past four decades much to the politico’s delight has won the day that being, party before Country.

      The legacy we are leaving will have no bearing on my happy childhood, the kids of the near future will face a future of hate & despair courtesy of the lab/lib/con current coalition party, the trailer of the main events being rotherham plus heralds LOUDLY what is to come.

      Happiness cannot IMO be bought as we know, BUT on this occasion in the future it must definitely be FOUGHT for.

        1. 370885+ up ticks,

          Morning N,

          Spartacus,

          “The Beginnings” in A Diversity of Creatures
          “The Beginnings” is a 1917 poem by the English writer Rudyard Kipling. The poem is about how the English people, although naturally peaceful, slowly become filled with a hate which will lead to the advent of a new epoch.

          The first four stanzas have four lines each with alternate rhymes, while the fifth (and final) stanza has five lines. The last line of every stanza ends with “… the English began to hate”. The context is the anti-German sentiment in Britain during World War I.[1][2] Kipling was known for never portraying Germans in a positive light, and had been the first to use the word “Hun” as a slur for Germans.[3] The poem was written following the death of his son in that war.

          That Mr Kipling chap makes very good poems.

      2. Ogga, a previous comment needs repeating:

        A lot of people are making the mistake of confusing the modern British with the generations that existed until the 1960s; they are totally different! Firstly there are many millions living here in Britain who have no loyalty to the country, her history, culture or way of life.

        Secondly for the last 40 years or so British schoolchildren, students etc have been taught to despise their country’s history and culture . Many of these people have gone through university yet are ignorant of Nelson and Trafalgar, Wellington and Waterloo and the great achievements of the British Empire. They have never read Shakespeare, Dickens, Wells, Orwell, Thackeray, Scott or any of the great British authors. They know nothing of these authors and care less.

        Thirdly Socialism has turned the people into soft, whining, whingers, full of a sense of entitlement and with no sense of duty or self reliance. No one cares – why should they when there are no consequences for not caring?

        If the British are so craven and cowardly as to prefer the E.U. teat of supposed security to the invigorating food of freedom to rule their own affairs and decide their own future, then they deserve all that comes their way in future years.
        It certainly won’t be pleasant. It will be a fairly rapid descent into slavery.

        Once the “old ” people have gone then no one will ever know what and who the British were, only what they have become; snivelling, dependent, second rate citizens in what once was their own country, the country they trashed and threw away.

        1. 370885+ up ticks,

          Morning J jH,

          I am in total agreement with you but I still maintain that the voting majority are suffering mass Stockholm Syndrome and this is played upon by the anti
          democracy politico’s continually preying on the afflicted.

          The proven dummies are giving these Isles away every time they cast a vote.

  7. Roger Waters: Why I’ve re-recorded The Dark Side of the Moon – without Pink Floyd. 9 February 2023.

    Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he went much further. The idea that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked” is, in Waters’s view, “f—–g insane”. “Nazis,” he tells me, echoing Russian propaganda, are “in control of the government” in the war-torn country.

    I don’t have any particular view on Waters, he lies outside my musical preferences and the only reason that I am acquainted with his views is that they are in the MSM. He’s an oddity to them because he does not conform to the Politically Correct celebrity stereotype. He is in fact not Woke at all as far as I can see. He is of that generation, like Nottlers who were brought up to think for themselves and are non-conformist in both word and deed. The quote is interesting because of the interpolation by the author who wanted to make it clear both where his own allegiances lie and why Waters is wrong! No one is allowed to contradict the political narrative!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/roger-waters-pink-floyd-dark-side-moon-gilmour-putin-ukraine/

    1. The history of the Levant in 3 minutes and 33 seconds. The root of ALL the trouble in the West.

  10. Nicola Sturgeon and Sadiq Khan are the final proof: devolution is a disaster

    It’s time for the Tories to call the bluff of provincial potentates and rethink the system from first principles

    ALLISTER HEATH 8 February 2023 • 9:00pm

    Our political class refuses to admit it, but Scottish, Welsh and London devolution have failed disastrously. In a classic case of New Labour constitutional vandalism, a project purportedly designed to shift political power closer to the people and to buttress national and civic identities within the UK has backfired catastrophically.

    Far from promoting proud self-reliance in Edinburgh, Cardiff and City Hall, it has enshrined dependency, resentment and a begging-bowl culture. Instead of a race to excellence, it has encouraged mediocrity, over-promoting non-entities too useless to make it in national politics and empowering an army of little tyrants who want to tell us what a woman is, how and when to travel, and what we are allowed to think. Rather than saving the UK, it has fractured it. Instead of generating competition, driving taxes down and the quality of services up, it has encouraged pork-barrel politics.

    You won’t find anybody in Westminster with the temerity to state this, but Scotland and Wales would be richer, better educated and healthier today had they been governed directly from Westminster by Labour, Coalition and Tory governments since 1997. London probably would be little different.

    Labour weakened Westminster in three ways, handing powers to Brussels, judges and devolved assemblies, and the winners were technocrats, not ordinary voters. None of this should be read as a reactionary paean against devolution per se: I’m all for genuine localism and true people power. I backed Brexit to bring power downwards. Extreme centralisation (in London, or Brussels, or Washington) isn’t the answer, and other countries, not least Switzerland and America, have developed models that we must learn from. The UK would benefit immensely were nations, counties, cities, towns and villages incentivised to compete for business and residents. Local referenda would prevent ideologues from imposing their dystopian social engineering.

    But the dirty secret of devolution is that Holyrood or the Senedd don’t want the real deal: they are terrified of having to pay for their spending. They don’t want to risk going bust, as states and cities can do in America. They don’t want real UK federalism. They prefer bureaucratic rule, subsidised by others, and are being indulged by Labour and Tories alike. In the latter’s case, this is partly out of fear of a UK break-up, and, more recently, out of a bizarre belief that handing power to Left-wing municipal politicians is tantamount to levelling up.

    We are thus stuck in the worst of all worlds: after 25 years, what more evidence do we need that Britain’s brand of devolution is broken? Scotland has been ruined by Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond, and before that by Scottish Labour, despite immense subsidies from English taxpayers. Its once world-class schools have been wrecked. Its budget deficit in 2021-22, at 12.3 per cent of GDP, was more than twice as bad as the UK’s. Sturgeon’s embrace of a radical woke ideology and a socialist, anti-prosperity agenda will further cripple Scotland.

    Taxes on the better off are shooting up; the top income tax rates will be 42 per cent and 47 per cent. Why bother being successful, if you cannot send your children to university as Scotland now discriminates against those who aren’t poor? The SNP call themselves nationalists, but they are destroying the nation of Adam Smith, and, infected by wokery, are no longer proud of their history or of great philosophers like David Hume.

    Sturgeon is also increasing welfare, introducing new benefits that will boost the incomes of several important categories of recipients by a fifth. Such kind-sounding policies often have unintended consequences, trapping people on welfare, a state of affairs which, over time, hurts them and their children more than it helps them. Tragic doesn’t even begin to describe it.

    Wales mirrors Scotland’s decline. It is controlled by an even lower calibre of power-crazed bureaucrats, as epitomised by their absurdly strict lockdown which saw the erection of a border with England and clothing and toys sections of supermarkets cordoned off. Wales’s NHS is even worse than England’s: Welsh patients have been more likely than those in England to wait four hours in A&E in every single month since 2012, according to figures from the Nuffield Trust last year. Wales’s median waiting time for referral to treatment is also much higher.

    As to the capital, Sadiq Khan’s latest idiocy is the roll-out of the Ulez tax on older vehicles, hitting the poor and pensioners hardest. The mayor’s failure on crime and the Met is unforgivable. Proponents of devolution point to the improvements in public transport since 1997 as the principal benefit of the mayoralty, but Khan’s management of the loss-making Transport for London has been abysmal. He has refused to take on the unions.

    Unlike Scotland and Wales, London craves real devolution, but will never get it: it is too big to fail, a prosperous city-state tacked onto a middle-income country that desperately needs its cash. A hard-Left London mayor with full tax powers would take down not just London’s economy but that of the whole country. Businesses would flee to Frankfurt or New York, not Birmingham or Manchester. The reason? Our idiotic planning system, which means there is no capacity for people or firms to move to the Oxford-Cambridge arc or elsewhere which could rival London. There is no realistic alternative in the UK.

    Another reason for the failure of our sham devolution is that nations or cities have become rotten boroughs. People vote on identitarian grounds, backing Labour in urban areas or the SNP in Scotland regardless of results. They might hate anti-car low-traffic neighbourhoods, but can’t find it in themselves to vote Tory. There is no punishment for failure.

    It’s time for the Tories to call the provincial potentates’ bluff, and to stop sucking up to them. Rishi Sunak’s decision to veto Sturgeon’s appalling Gender Recognition Reform Bill was a masterstroke, and has sent her support and that for Scottish independence plummeting. He should now intervene in London, and block Ulez expansion. The Tories need to rethink devolution from first principles. In the meantime, they have much to gain from going to war with Sturgeon and Khan.

    *********************************

    Antony Foster
    10 HRS AGO
    Why aren’t Sturgeon, Drakeford and Kahn quizzed by a Parliamentary Committee o in the way that the prime minister is? They certainly aren’t held to account by their respective assemblies…

    David Evans
    10 HRS AGO
    The Scottish parliament should be reduced to quality control for scotch whisky and tartans.

    Khan to supervisor for street cleaning

    Drakeford as a cure for insomnia

    1. I’m not sure I want the SNP cretins anywhere near quality control for one of my favourite tipples – most of them seem to be incapable of organising twins into 2 watches! [for the non RN – “can’t run a bath” or “couldn’t organise a pi$$ up in a brewery”]

  11. First Steyn,next………..

    https://twitter.com/mikesjw1/status/1623395682634670083?s=20&t=lp42KZ9sKqTsGDkqbdZqPQ

    Oh and the guy that broke the Phizer gain of function story James O’Keefe??

    James O’Keefe, the founder and chairman of Project Veritas,

    has taken a paid leave from the conservative nonprofit media

    organization as its board considers whether to remove him from his

    leadership position, according to current and former employees of the

    organization.

    https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/james-okeefe-project-veritas-paid-leave.html
    Tommy Robinson is sending sympathy cards,he knows how it feels

    1. I think the most ‘racist’ words that Neil Oliver ever uttered were: “I’m a Scottish person … you may have noticed!”

      1. Morning Grizzly – Neil Oliver is a good Scot and I have a great respect for him and his monologues.

        1. Morning, Clyde, me too. Neil is personable, knowledgeable and witty. He was also the most listenable presenter on those wonderful Coast programmes.

        2. His latest “Love Letter to The British Isles is on the Acts of Union 1707 and centred on St.Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh. It’s a very good summary and worth a watch/listen.

          The Jacobite rebellion next. That should be good too.

  12. Good moaning all,

    Dull start at the McPhee Estate, calm and 2℃.

    Isn’t it remarkable how Wishi Washy can promise all sorts of whizz-bangs to the Ukrainian clown but he can’t stop the Channel invasion, stop the NHS seeing off the elderly before their time or fill in the pot-holes on fairly major public roads?

    Anyway, what do we think of the Board of British Jews and Guardian attack on Neil Oliver’s Saturday monologues? UK column has featured the story along with their report on Mark Steyn’s constructive removal. It starts at 37:45.

    https://odysee.com/@ukcolumn:9/Ukcolumn-news-080223:d

  13. ‘Morning, Peeps. Cold start with orange/pink sky – but no rain forecast.

    SIR – I am a supporter of the British Government’s military aid to Ukraine and the provision of suitable heavy weapons to ensure that Vladimir Putin is defeated.

    However, the Prime Minister’s announcement that Britain will now begin to train Ukrainian fighter-jet pilots raises more questions than it answers. The RAF is already failing to train enough pilots to meet Britain’s own defence needs, and training could only be offered to Ukrainian pilots at the expense of RAF trainees.

    If the plan is to convert qualified Ukrainian pilots on Nato fast-jet aircraft, Nato will need to decide, and decide very quickly, which aircraft and weapon systems are suitable for the Ukrainian theatre of operations.

    Typically it takes about 75 flying hours and several months of ground-school and simulator training to convert a fully qualified pilot to a new fast-jet aircraft type. If the Russian spring offensive is to be defeated, time is of the essence, especially when some Nato nations will take a very different position from Britain on any commitment to provide air-power support to Ukraine.

    Add to that the huge logistic and complex engineering support tail required to deliver offensive air operations by modern fast-jet aircraft, and the offer of “training fighter pilots” sounds like political posturing. This is not what Ukraine needs in the short term.

    Far better to provide additional Challenger 2 and Leopard 1 or 2 tanks quickly, which, when complemented by ground-based anti-aircraft artillery, will blunt a Russian spring offensive and cause unacceptable casualties to a brutal Russian dictator and his people.

    Gp Capt Alan Ferguson RAF (retd)
    Hadleigh, Suffolk

    Just what I was thinking when this crackpot scheme was announced. And long gone are the days when a pilot did a few hours on a type and was then sent solo!

    1. Why does the Gp Capt think that conversion to a different tank, plus supply of all the necessary logistics, would be quicker than converting to a NATO fast jet? Challenger is sufficiently different in main armament (rifled barrel compared to smoothbore, 120mm not 105mm, that special ammunition is needed, for example.
      Remember how long it took for the US to move all their fighting capability to invade Kuwait in 1990? And tat was properly trained troops.

    2. Why should training UK pilots worry him.
      If the RAF gives away its jets to the Ukraine it will need fewer pilots.
      /sarc

    3. I think we should butt out! We owe Ukraine nothing and have no ties with them. This should be Russia/Ukraine. NOT U.K.

      1. It is a Yankee land grab using the corrupt clowns running the EU. The objective is to place nuclear armed missiles as close to Russia as possible. The morons running the US, NATO and most EU countries are happy to go ahead with this, even if it leads to Armageddon. Idiots all!

  15. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd6001f79ad847a3c2c0a503b90b36ab1a93f0c13152df1206738f629dcfebde.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2a5ba39d4d985a923bf7b9e5f9b3fafe7d66ce5bdd8d16d0240514973f3057b6.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb1d69784bc39ffcfa31d878e40595ba3d2893911617d6c7414c01f72ee83d72.png You are evidently not looking far and wide enough, Mick lad. My last three cars have been cars of dazzlingly bright colour. First the red one, followed by the blue one, and now happily enjoying the green one. No drab John Major greys for me, Sir.

    1. When i was a teenager, my Dad always let me choose the colour of his next car. I seem to recall a wide and colourful selection.
      Nowadays, car dealers charge extra for anything other than shades of dull off-whites, greys and black. Remove the colour surcharges, and our cars would soon be more colourful.

      1. I paid a small surcharge for the metallic blue Ford Focus, but not a penny extra for either of the two Opels (Astra and Mokka).

  16. Good morning, chums. I had another long sleep last night (10.15 pm to 8 am). I did wake up at 3.45 am, but was able to get back to sleep without a trip to the loo. And the de-cluttering proceeds apace, so I am a Happy Chapp y ess.

  17. Good morning, chums. I had another long sleep last night (10.15 pm to 8 am). I did wake up at 3.45 am, but was able to get back to sleep without a trip to the loo. And the de-cluttering proceeds apace, so I am a Happy Chapp y ess.

  18. Good morning, all. Cloudy with a frost this morning.

    Is this article sufficiently vague to hide a bloody great wedge for insertion later? Am I a conspiracy theorist for thinking that the BoE, government and their financial cronies are cooking up something that isn’t needed, certainly isn’t necessary and will benefit only a certain group?

    Reuters – BoE Looking at £20,000 limit on Digital Pound

    https://twitter.com/ClauseSchwab/status/1623590828055699456

  19. Zelensky knows Britain is still the leader of Europe. Con Coughlin. 9 February 2023,

    It is no accident that Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, chose Britain as the stage on which to launch his latest campaign for the West to provide his military with much-needed warplanes.

    No it was deliberate. He knows where the Globalists rule!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/08/zelensky-knows-britain-still-leader-europe/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  20. Slash energy use by 15pc, new Net Zero department to urge households

    Rishi Sunak has made the target, to be achieved by 2030, one of six priorities

    By Ben Riley-Smith, POLITICAL EDITOR
    8 February 2023 • 9:45pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2023/02/08/TELEMMGLPICT000324604295_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq9At9d4QAPsi2bREZaLztlenfNnnXpjGMR40d0dWsxA0.jpeg?imwidth=680

    Grant Schnapps
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/08/slash-energy-use-15pc-new-net-zero-department-urge-households/

    ********************************************************

    Rishi and pals really don’t understand very much. This by Ross Clark in CAPEX

    It’s vital to understand the difference between ‘territorial emissions’ and ‘consumption emissions’

    Emissions from UK products made in China have grown by 61% since 1996

    Net zero is a powerful incentive to offshore even more of Britain’s manufacturing industry

    When I first heard that the House of Commons had passed a measure legally committing Britain to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, I sat down to ask the questions which MPs should have asked, but failed to do so, before they nodded it through (there wasn’t even a formal vote). It didn’t take long to discover that MPs had handed the Government a very powerful – and deeply perverse – incentive to offshore Britain’s carbon emissions, along with much of our remaining manufacturing industry and the jobs which go with it.

    It is not widely understood that Britain’s net zero target refers only to what are called ‘territorial emissions’. This is carbon dioxide, or other greenhouse gases, which are physically spewed out within Britain. It excludes aviation, shipping and, crucially, emissions generated elsewhere in the world in the cause of growing food or making goods for UK consumers. The alternative is to count emissions on a ‘consumption basis’ – totting up emissions all around the world which accrue from the business of keeping UK residents fed, clothed and entertained.

    The difference is considerable. In 2019 — the year before the pandemic – UK territorial emissions were 455 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Emissions on a consumption basis, by contrast, were more than half as high again, at 774 million tonnes.

    What’s more, consumption-based emissions are falling much more slowly than territorial emissions. Between 1996 and 2019 territorial emissions fell by 41.6%. This figure (or the drop of 48% since 1990) has regularly been used by the Government to boast about how well it is doing in tacking climate change and what a great influence Britain is on the rest of the world. Look at consumption-based emissions, however, and they fell by a far less impressive 13.6% between 1990 and 2019.

    What explains the difference? The decline of UK manufacturing and heavy industry, that’s what. When the Government invites us to congratulate ourselves on the near-halving of UK carbon emissions over the past 30 years, it is really asking us to celebrate the closure of factories, farms, chemical works and oil refineries.

    True, there has been genuine progress in decarbonising the electricity grid by replacing coal power with wind and solar. Homes and cars have become a little more efficient, too. But as the above figures indicate, the biggest factor is that we have outsourced our greenhouse gas emissions to other countries – other countries, that is, which have dirtier production processes than their UK equivalents. Close down a factory in the Midlands and transfer production to China, for example, and you have replaced a production facility that is powered mostly by gas, nuclear and renewables with one that is powered mostly by coal. The UK’s official carbon emissions may have fallen in the process, but the world’s carbon emissions have grown. The amount of greenhouse gas emissions embedded in UK imports from China alone has grown by 61% since 1996.

    The Government does have plans to include emissions from UK-based aviation and shipping at some point, but it has no intention of resetting the net zero target to reflect consumption-based emissions. This has two main implications: firstly, that Britain is a lot further from eliminating net greenhouse gas emissions than the Government would have us believe. That matters, because if we think – falsely – that we have already reduced our carbon footprints by nearly half in the past three decades we will under-estimate just how much further there is to go. We will fail to realise just how big an impact it could have on our lifestyles if we were genuinely to reach net zero emissions.

    Secondly, the Government has ensured that it retains a powerful incentive to de-industrialise Britain even further. Forget ‘levelling up’ – ministers might say they want to encourage production in the Midlands and North, but in the back of their minds must always arise the question: do we really want to make it more difficult to fulfil our legal commitment to reach net zero? The Government prevaricated for years before Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove finally allowed the go-ahead for a Cumbrian mine producing coking coal, which is still a vital ingredient for what remains of the UK’s steel industry.

    The same is true of agriculture. Close down a beef farm and ‘rewild’ the land, and the Government earns itself a double whammy: the emissions from the cattle disappear from the UK’s carbon budget, while carbon locked up in trees planted on the former pastures also help towards reaching net zero emissions. But it does absolutely nothing for the planet if UK consumers simply switch to buying meat produced abroad, perhaps on land cleared from the Amazonian forests.

    Ministers keep telling us that there will be plenty of ‘green jobs’ to replace the dirty, old economy ones. But where are they? The ‘green economy’ – as defined by the Office of National Statistics – hasn’t grown in the past decade.

    The solution to all this is stop setting targets based on territorial emissions and instead set them in terms of consumption emissions. That would make it highly unlikely that Britain could get anywhere near net zero by 2050. The legally binding target would have to be abandoned, perhaps to be replaced by a non-binding target with a later date. But it would mean that we were counting emissions more honestly – and eliminate the perverse incentive to destroy UK jobs.

    Ross Clark is the author of ‘Not Zero: How an Irrational Target Will Impoverish You, Help China (and Won’t even Save the Planet)’.

    1. Phase Two via Net Zero, to wipe out what is left of the elderly population of UK,, after the Phase One attack through ” Death by Care Home” and Covid

      Well, they need our houses for the never ending invasion by the GimmeGrants

    3. Good morning everyone.
      Not sure that ´slash´ is an appropriate expression, as it is a trigger word.

    4. We have pointed out “consumer emissions” to our Greens since Net Zero was introduced. This includes consumer emissions involved in the construction of wind turbines and solar panels. I am glad this is being debated now. We need to bring back essential business to the UK and encouraging our farmers to produce more of our food, not insects.

    5. My petition to cancel Net Zero was rejected because I made “an unproven claim” that all Net Zero did was transfer emmissions from UK to other parts of the world. They don’t like to be challenged.

    7. As, on the BTL comments, I replied to Martin Selves with this:

      Climate Change and You

      The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

      The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

      The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves.

      Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate.

  21. SIR – Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston spent an uncomfortable hour in front of the House of Commons defence select committee last week (report, February 3). Gender and discrimination were at the fore.

    Last year it came to light that the RAF had been fast-tracking females and individuals from under-represented ethnic groups on to initial training courses, ahead of their white male peers. While this may very well prove to be discriminatory, it was not, as some have reported, brought about by a change to selection criteria or the standards required. The sequencing of course allocation took place after selection not before, so the claim that this has meant a drop in standards or capability of the RAF is simply untrue.

    The RAF’s intention was to improve diversity in order to make the service more attractive to under-represented groups. The Ministry of Defence sets annual diversity targets, which it has failed to meet year after year; many may disagree with this target approach, but it is MoD policy. So why can’t the military attract talent from across the widest possible pool?

    I have been very lucky to witness the incredible organisation that is the Air Cadets, which is full of brilliant young men and women. It is truly diverse and representative of any region where it sits, with all ethnic groups well represented and probably close to half of its members being female. Although the Air Cadets is not a direct recruiting tool for the RAF, an extremely high number of those serving were once cadets. So why does the RAF have so much difficulty translating the laudable diversity of the cadets into the Armed Forces? One critical reason is the lack of role models. As the saying goes, you can only be what you can see.

    Regrettably, I served with only a few women or individuals from diverse ethnic backgrounds because we recruited even fewer in my day than we do now. They were every bit as good as anyone else and I was proud to have them as my wingmen, and happy to be theirs.

    Those individuals who were fast-tracked last year have every right to be in the service. They passed the same tests and probably had to overcome that little bit more to get there. I wish them well and hope that they are the inspiration for the next generation that will stand on their shoulders.

    Air Marshal Greg Bagwell (retd)
    President, Air and Space Power Association
    London NW1

    He is right about the Air Cadets; they have inspired and trained a great number of talented and highly motivated youngsters, many of whom went on to make a great success of their careers – and not only in the armed forces.

    1. I remember Bagwell when he was a junior pilot. I didn’t have him down as a future Air Marshall. But then that applies to a few Air Marshalls I have known in their younger days. The people I DID have down as future Air Marshalls all left the RAF mid-career. What does that tell you?

      1. I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting him when he was a serving officer but I had great respect for his mother who served our Hospital Friends as a tireless and very capable volunteer for many years.

    2. Good morning all

      I don’t know why I feel concerned about the RAF selection of potential pilots to satisfy the diversity tally, but I do.

      One just needs needs a home grown malevolent recruit , who turns bush, in charge of a lethal weapon to fly amok , and it will be curtains for all of us .

      Of course , my imagination has been stirred up by the amount of police who have caused endth harm to the public , MPs who are troughing , public figures who are not to be trusted with money, and a coloured actress wench who is hell bent on destroying the RF.

      Do you understand what I mean ?

      1. Perfectly. But it is also not good to have them in positions of power – for example Khan has done irreparable harm to London.

        As for the “diversity” loons…why should we have to strive for diversity in the first place? It’s not as if it achieves anything.

      2. I certainly do, N. Wokery should have no place in any selection process. Just pick the best – how hard can it be?

      3. Although there are slammers in the forces, I dont think it is within their culture to fight for king and their adopted country. Grayson Perry did a series on what defines Englishness which made interesting viewing even from his lefty liberal stance. Some well to do British born Indians said they felt most ‘english’ when they visit India. So in UK, as we know, they Identify as Indian first.

      4. No, Maggie, I get the gist of most of it but unexplained abbreviations defeat me.

        What’s an RF? Republic français?

      5. It would be nice to see Rishi being protected by some personal protectionists of Indian heritage, even if it´s only for PR purposes.

    4. Sea Cadets saw #1 son become a submariner though he now sails a desk most of the time.

      1. Brasserie Blanc, Phizzee? Why can’t you be like Grizzly and eat at Brasserie Rouge, Bleu et Vert? Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

      2. Brasserie Blanc, Phizzee? Why can’t you be like Grizzly and eat at Brasserie Rouge, Bleu et Vert? Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. Yes. The feeders are very busy. Our robin can’t use the feeders so he waits for me on the fence. I put out some meal worms in a tray attached to the feeder post and while I am within a yard he starts on his breakfast.

    1. It certainly is, Rik. Cringeworthy doesn’t begin to describe that photo. Note also that Richly Suntanned hasn’t learned how to tie his bootlaces either!

    3. These two should be taken up in a fast jet by a couple of top pilots and put through the most horrific battle simulation flying so that they suffer maximum g forces and end up puking their guts out.

      The photo crews should be onsite to capture the moments when they remove helmets and underpants. They should be required to explain how Ukrainian trainees can be brought up to standard before a Russian Spring offensive, while they are still enjoying their recent flights.

  25. Ah! That was a bit indulgent, but I did enjoy it!
    I pigged out on a full hotel breakfast and am now sorting out to check out.

    TTFN

    1. I think that it’s a great idea.

      Workers who object to the Government’s actions or inactions can be issued with expiring currency.

      Over the years, unable to save, those workers will be without homes of their own, or even cars.

      It can and will produce complete compliance in the New World Order.

      As I said, it’s a great idea by the politicians, for the politicians and their parasite hangers-on.

      For the rest of us, not so good.

    2. The Canadians blocked bank accounts during the protests without this facility, but it would certainly simplify the process.

      1. I think, I might stop taking my warfarin and just wait for the next heart attack.

        When it comes, I shall just lie there and do nothing, until it’s time to say, “Good-bye, cruel world.”

  27. Yo all and Good Morning

    Off to see eye to eye with the Cataract man today, to find out what needs doing’

    I shall refuse to go to Launceston* !

    *https://www.launcestoncataractgorge.com.au/

    1. Launceston was the hospital, I was taken to after my last MCI (Myocardial Infarction – Heart Attack).

      That was Launceston in Tasmania, pronounced locally as Lawn ces ton. with the emphasis on ‘ces’.

  28. Now that moves are afoot to make God gender-neutral, can we assume the Devil will be similarly classified?

    And does she live in Ukraine, as Paddington bearess

  29. Nuclear-armed North Korea has showcased what could be a new, solid-fuel
    intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at a widely-anticipated
    military parade attended by Kim Jong-un, his wife and young daughter.

    What a relief, there is no way Kim Long Joun can attack us with it

    Under Net Zero, Coal fired missiles are not allowed in UK airspace,

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/09/north-korea-kim-jong-un-shows-nuclear-missiles-parade-wife-daughter/

    1. I doubt if ministers give a toss what happens to people who lose their jobs TB, I’m all right Jack is the motto on the green benches.

      1. Good morning RE

        I had no idea British Steel was owned by the Chinese ..

        There was a rumour that our new Nuclear new build is in Chinese hands , does nothing belong to the Brits anymore .

        2. 370885+ up ticks,

          Morning TB,
          I do believe that the makers of handcuffs bloody great balls & chains is still in bBritish hands, how quaint
          when knowing via the voting pattern they will soon be affixed to British limbs.

  31. Rishi Sunak may be keen to send Ukraine jets, but trouble is on the horizon
    From treaty permissions to long training times, the Prime Minister will have a tough job getting Zelensky’s men in the air on British planes
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/08/rishi-sunak-right-fighter-jet-training-takes-long/

    If we can’t wipe out the British with energy shortages, bankrupt businesses, Covid and gene therapy and a useless health service then let’s sub-contract to Putin to do the job for us!”

    BTL – Perival Wrattstrangler in sarcastic mood.

    So if there is any money left over from putting up thousands of illegal immigrants in 4* hotels then let’s use it to finance the war of the most corrupt country in Europe against a world power with an enormous arsenal of nuclear weapons.

    Aren’t we lucky to have such wise politicians who love the indigenous British people so much!

  32. Morning all 😉 😊
    What a Grey day.
    But slightly warmer.
    I read earlier that Bore-us had managed to get (I can’t bring myself to say earned) hold of, or people to part with, nearly 5 million pounds and pass it on to him, since he left his last job. But what is his job ?

    1. Boris Johnson paid nearly £2.5m advance for US speeches. 9 February 2023.

      Boris Johnson has received an advance payment worth almost £2.5 million from a US-based agency for future speaking engagements.

      The former prime minister declared in the latest Register of Members’ Financial Interests, published today, that he received £2,488,387 on January 3 this year.

      The payment was “an advance for speaking engagements arranged via the Harry Walker Agency” which is based in New York.

      Morning Eddy. Boris has been taken on board as the Globalist spokesman for Ukraine. This is an advance on his salary!

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/08/rishi-sunak-news-latest-cabinet-reshuffle-ministers-pmqs/

      1. True, it is obviously just a fiddle for the globalist socialists to provide a funding source for him.

  33. I suspect that Martin Selves speaks for many of us:

    Martin Selves1 HR AGO

    Did Boris commit to Net Zero in 2019. Sadly he did ….. The Conservative Party has made reaching net zero by 2050 a key energy policy as Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled his party’s election manifesto yesterday (24 Nov 1019). The manifesto outlines the Tories’ plans for reducing Britain’s carbon emissions to nil by investing in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure. It also aims to tackle deforestation, double funding for electric vehicle infrastructure research and development, and continue developing the country’s offshore wind technology. Unveiling his election pledges in the West Midlands yesterday, Johnson said he wanted businesses to take the lead in decarbonisation”

    I completely missed this in the Brexit celebration. I remember him saying he wanted to create “a Britain that is able to lead the world – as we do – in tackling climate change”. Why do we have to lead the World in this or anything? We are already the cleanest modern country in the World. We are seriously hurting ourselves as the 3 most polluting Country’s are taking a Fig Leaf to COP. Germany have reversed its Green Policy and is digging up coal and restarting its Coal powered stations. We are in an energy crises because of HMG Energy Policy failure going back 20 years. They want to solve it with 5x more wind farms, and heat pumps and electric cars. It is the sheer scale of this nonsense that angers most people. The cause of Climate Change is settled, and cannot be settled. What nonsense.

    Martin Selves1 HR AGO

    My last sentence neds correction. The Science behind Climate Change cannot be settled. We are told it cannot be challenged, when Science is always ongoing and new theories proven and old ones challenged.

    1. Correction Martin – There is no science behind climate change – it’s all balderdash and nonsense. I won’t be here in 2050 to see the impoverishment these clowns will have brought upon us. I used to wish I had grandchildren – but no more as I would be wishing this on them.

      1. Not strictly true as the climate does change. It’s called weather. It’s mostly down to the giant ball of burning gas some millions of mile away, but there’s some effects we see locally – such as the EU mandated WEEE polluting our oceans, the state forced bat and bird killers which have 500 tons of concrete poured into the ground for them.

        There is much mankind could do to help the planet – recycling and re-use, for example – but the reality is big government is not remotely interested in ecology, just the lie that soaks tax.

        1. The sun has always driven natural climate change and weather. There is no “climate emergency” or “climate crisis” – of course pollution should be reduced, and especially by reducing the use of plastics in everything. But CO2 is not a pollutant – it’s a natural trace gas and plant food.

          1. On the rock walls below my house, you can see the marks where the glacier slid by. There were no 4x4s, oil exploitation or even coal power stations when that glacier melted. Wonder whether the same cause now could be affecting the weather? (ponders).

    2. Correction Martin – There is no science behind climate change – it’s all balderdash and nonsense. I won’t be here in 2050 to see the impoverishment these clowns will have brought upon us. I used to wish I had grandchildren – but no more as I would be wishing this on them.

    3. I’ve been in countries cleaner than Britain, quite a scruffy place, really, both on acid, smaoke emissions and crap thrown on the pavements, roads and verges.

      1. Yes. In Wibbling’s world those littering would have a hand cut off. School brats would spend their lunchtimes picking up the litter they strew about.

        No fines, those are pointless, but graffiti, littering all punishable by dismemberment.

        1. Our younger schoolkids have “søppelplukking” (rubbish picking up) every spring, when the snow has gone and the rubbish on the verges is revealed. There’s a couple of afternoons per class doing that. Teaches them to pick up, or better still, not discard.

    4. Yes, but climate change is not a science. It is a religion and as a religion cannot be challenged. Challenge implies dissent, and if the religion is challenged people will demand to stop funding the lie.

      It’s an interesting historical view that decades ago religion created the holy book and dogma, now the state is desperate to.

  34. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ddfa3af688715ba79302a6a7218ced82b442d8e22a2d66a2e7a9b8f31a3f896c.png Yet another pathetic example of modern-day execrable Daily Telegraph ‘journalism’.

    The actress in this film, Cynthia Erivo, is correctly described as someone who was nominated for a Best Actress award. Yet the same piece of piss-poor reporting calls her character one of America’s greatest heroes!

    I would like to take the cretins who wrote, and failed to properly edit, this idiocy by the neck and explain to him/her/them that an actress may only portray a heroine.

    2. Yo Mr G
      Shirley, to be released in Modern Woke UK, the star shouls be

      Transgender
      White
      In a Wheelchair
      Dai Slexic
      etc

    3. How can she be one of the greatest heroes when all she did was have a white person help her escape slavery through a rail road created and run by white people who hated the idea of slavery? All she did was run away. The real work, the real risk was taken by the real heroes – the white people helping to abolish slavery.

      Here’s to the people who did the real work, who fought convention, who fought the state for what was right – the white folk.

  35. Is this the beginning of the end of GB News? Over at UK Column they have unearthed the fact that some of their finance comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation even if it is indirect.

  36. Attention! The new Futurer, Adolf Zelensky, received a rapturous reception in the Palace of Wasteminster yesterday. The Blue Shirts, Red Shirts and the Green Shirts temporarily set aside their hatred for each other and gave their new leader a 20 minute standing ovation. Serried ranks of loyal supporters, each proudly bearing a blue and yellow badge of devotion, cheered and applauded him to the rafters. Similar receptions awaited him in Paris and Brussels. He is adored by rich and poor alike – but beware, any opposition; denial, misgendering, hurty words etc will be severely dealt with. Book burning, broken windows, long-knives-in-the-night and internal indoctrination camps await anyone who stands in the way of the expanding EUSSR, 15 Minute cities and Net Zero. You have been warned!

  37. A Belated Good morrow, Gentlefolks. Here is today’s story:

    Will You Live to See 90?

    I recently had a full medical by my doctor.

    After that and with the results from all the tests, he said I was doing ‘fairly well’ for my age. (I had just reached 69).

    A little concerned about that comment, I couldn’t resist asking him, ‘Do you think I’ll live to be 90?’

    He asked, ‘Do you smoke tobacco, or drink beer, wine or spirits?’

    ‘Oh no,’ I replied. ‘I’m not doing drugs, either!’

    Then he asked, ‘Do you eat fillet steaks and legs of lamb?’

    ‘I said, ‘Not much… my cardiac consultant said that all red meat is very unhealthy!’

    ‘Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, boating, sailing, hiking, or bicycling?’

    ‘No, I don’t,’ I said.

    He asked, ‘Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have lots of sex?’

    ‘No,’ I said…

    He looked at me and said, “Then, why the f…. do you want to live to 90?”

    1. I wish to correct you, if that is OK? These are idiot helmets, the sort of thing that self harming fools would be compelled to wear in the looney bin.

      1. 370885+ up ticks,

        Morning JR,
        Be my guest, may I suggest we bulk order
        these helmets, the sort of thing that self harming fools would be compelled to wear in the looney bin, for the continuing majority voter.

        1. Unfortunately the majority voter doesn’t have the time to figure out what is really going on, that Zelenskyy really is a fascist who silences the opposition, even murders his opponents in Ukraine etc because the NATO/US propaganda message overwhelms everything else. I have been thinking lately how those of us who dissent can really get our point across short of going on You Tube, to be censored as soon as you post. On the Telegraph I have been shadow banned because I speak up for Russia. So what can we do? Any ideas on the part of Notlers gratefully received.
          I did think of the old method before You Tube etc. Do you remember mass emailing information with the request to forward to all in your list of contacts? That method hasn’t been K.Oed yet.

          2. Hi Ndovu, Araminta asked me the same question about health yesterday and I failed to answer, for which, my apologies to Araminta. Generally speaking I feel like crap but it is receding crap as time goes on. Exhaustion is the main problem. As I told Rose, even making a sandwich can be an insurmountable task. Still, I am getting better with regards to the cancer, emphysema on the other hand is worsening. Being in hospital and catching Covid in the ward didn’t help. Dangerous places are hospitals. Still I’m learning various strategies to keep going and that is actually interesting. I mean that I have to think out tasks very carefully so that I can do them without having to resort to bed, but now I have to use a wheelchair to go more that 40 feet! Which is tedious. . As it is I spend most of my time in bed.

            Looking forward to spring, the return of growth in the garden etc. I’m sure that will improve my disposition both physical and mental by leaps and bounds. But it is difficult not to be able to go for a walk right behind my back garden, in the woods,and see the snowdrops and what not in bloom. I will miss the bluebells too because, I doubt that I will ever be able to go in the wood again. But you simply adapt, so now I pay more attention to painting and designing, which, when I was younger was a major activity that fell by the wayside but now have picked up again. With chronic illness it is obvious that you should not lament what you have lost but find new avenues so that you can keep growing and finding delight in life. That, I think is crucial.

            I’m really happy to be back here because one of the effects, as anyone knows who has had to deal with long time illness, is that your world shrinks drastically. Fortunately, for me, it hasn’t been that hard because I tend to introversion and am happy to not see people for days at a time. But, even then, that can get a bit claustrophobic if all you do is speak to yourself. So result is a true appreciation for people and that is a good thing. Our world is other people, whether we realize it or not. Each day I feel more and more grateful for people and that is a good thing.

          3. So good and not so good then – I’m sorry you are still not too well – but glad you are coming to terms with things. My husband was in hospital for five weeks before Christmas but managed to avoid catching covid, or anything else, and is now making a good recovery from a triple by-pass op. He had no inkling of heart trouble before October. He is now almost back to normal, but hasn’t attempted anything too physical yet.

            This forum of friends was my lifeline while I was here on my own – and good friends and neighbours here also saw me through.

          4. My bourgainvillea is looking healthier now than it has done for years – I followed your advice on repotting, gave it a good prune, and got rid of the aphid infestation. My good neighbours helped me bring it indoors for the winter.

          5. So pleased my advice worked. I love bougainvilleas remind me of Africa and peace in the Mediterranean sun.

          7. Warning. Do not indulge it with water or food if you want flowers. stress forces them to flower, so benign neglect is helpful.

          9. There is nothing that can be done – but equally there are many places where you can speak out.

            The problem is those places are populated by folk who are also questioning the narrative and do not need to be told.

    4. Both men are complete and utter berks. I have never been more ashamed and embarrassed for this pathetic publicity stunt.

      On the upside, here’s hoping we send Sunak off to the Ukraine front.

      1. 370885+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        A Hugo First Parliamentarian battalion
        must be called for, for any future conflicts.

    5. Thanks to the book, Spare , we know all about Prince Harry’s and Prince Williams’s helmets but the less we know about the helmets of these two the better.

  40. Back from market. Not so many people about. Got excellent bargains from Tony’s Knock-off stall. Only two masked zombies in Morrisons – which has a “5p a litre off” for fuel if you spend £35. Still worked out at £1.50 a litre – funny that the same chain is selling petrol fo £1.39 in Devon….

    World War 3 started yet?

    3. No masks on view in our Morrisons last week – but masks were to be worn in the JR hospital in Oxford when we were there on Tuesday. All the staff wore them but took them off when we were unable to understand their muffled speech. All the waiting patients and visitors wore them but we didn’t and there was no enforcement.

    2. Starting out with the illegal immigrants wasn’t the right tone.

      He should have presented statistics – things folk cannot argue with – rather than rhetoric. Folk know they’re worse off. What they want is to know what he’ll do differently.

      You *end* with the immigrants issue so it’s the last thing the listener hears but stays in their minds, and you approach it from the view of economic, social and crime views, not just as ‘bluddy foreigners!’

      Although, of course, the spiteful invasion force the Home Office is bringing in should just be shot.

  42. Aaaaarrgghhh ……. oh, and Good Moaning.

    MB thought it was a good idea to sort out the keys.
    We have ended up with a bunch of 6 labelled ‘no idea’.
    As we are roughly 40 years too late for the Blue Peter Christmas appeal, we’ve had to bin some very grubby and rusty bits of metal.

      1. There seemed to be a fad for sticking keys on fences when I was in Switzerland a few years ago.

  43. ‘Spitfire’ Kona

    Checked the auxiliary’s voltmeter on the intrument panel https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1fa745d443a035c0ca3246abf2aae452805fb426056abb7ae498e59355292776.jpg
    after yesterday’s sortie to the pharmacy and it read 12.49 volts (81%) https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce63e1458f19bf1d3b5a7dd9af0a05d9ebb2fb2c9f4849c12aa31bc606d00b99.jpg

    Afterwards the ground crew plugged in the Trolley Acc https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8bf42ee34d4b360c307afe708bce8d1c48012b57d8798cfa9802e22e1cc00e8d.jpg not to give me an engine start but to bump up the charge on the auxiliary 12 volt battery to 98% (12.75 volts) which I’ve just checked: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65b4b0a7211b7e27e4d4050cbb223419c72bd6b3db0cd95a612c9e28ad4b7ca1.jpg

    Should be good for a few engine starts without the Trolley Acc now.

  44. World War Three is the only way to stop Putin. 9 February 2023.

    A leading Putin foe has warned the West that NATO will inevitably be dragged into war with Russia.

    As the West contemplates supplying warplanes to Volodymyr Zelensky, exiled opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky issued a stark analysis that there will be no other way than World War Three to stop the dictator.

    ‘The NATO countries and the Western Europe will have to fight for real,’ said Russia’s former richest man.

    Even if the headline were true, and it isn’t, you have to wonder about someone who advocates Nuclear War under any pretext. Khodorkovsky was originally an ally of Putin but his pupil had ideas of his own and they split. Since K continued to meddle he was eventually brought up on financial charges and gaoled and has since his release continued to finance anti-Putin propaganda.

    No one should be fooled into thinking that he’s some Democracy loving White Knight. Putin gaffered him and its rankled ever since!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11730713/World-War-Three-way-stop-Putin-warns-Russias-former-richest-man.html

    1. Please post the link to the petition, Ogga, as I don’t want to sit through the video at the moment.

        1. Thankyou Sue – signed and tweeted.

          It was only the African nations that stopped this treaty going through a few months ago.

    2. The answer to what he is on about is to read, learn the English Constitution and act on it. What we fail to do now a days, is assert the sovereignty of the people and that politicians, even the king rules by the consent of the people, he is the peoples champion. Hence the rule that the king represents the people against parliament, which can turn into a tyranny as we saw under Cromwell. The problem for us is, at root, a lack of education on what it means to be English. We the people, may be the start of the preamble to the American constitution but let me remind you that those people were English for the most part, with English educations and English sensibilities and that in saying, we the people, were asserting the natural rights of all Englishmen anywhere. We have natural rights given to us by god and no one has the legitimacy to usurp those rights. This we must insist on at every turn.

      1. Good lesson, Johnathan.
        Every Merkin is taught the Constitution, learns the Presidents in order, and yet when I was at school, the UK never did anything to do with Constitution, just lists of battles and Royalty.

    3. He’s wrong. The fallacy is that we are, but in reality they behave as they wish without consultation. Try telling them to stop and reverse net zero. They’ll tell you to feck off.

      Thus the solution is, when they laugh at us and do whatever they want we string them up while they’re laughing and watch them turn red, then purple and then ask them ‘who’s laughing now?’

      Once we get through 600 the last 50 get the picture, but they’re slow and thick scum, so it’ll take a lot of work.

      Then we start on the civil service.

    2. Not any of them, although I do tend to trust people in public life who don’t find it necessary to wave their hands around in discussions.
      Shapps is another who has suddenly become very wealthy after his stint as housing minister. I’m not making suggestions.

  47. I have just had an email from the company we have our household insurance with, the cost has risen by more than 150 percent.
    We haven’t made a single claim for at least a decade. That was for a replacement for a large double glazing unit that was hit with a stone from the lawn mower.
    Work to be done there.

    1. Ours will be due in April – I don’t think we’ve made a single claim in the 28 years we’ve lived here.

      1. What was your increase or don’t you know yet Ellie.
        They don’t take possibly NC bonuses into account.

        Little grandsons 3rd birthday today, his cousin has her 3rd Tomorrow.

        1. I don’t think we’ve had the notification yet – it’s one of the things OH deals with but he usually mentions it when it comes.

          Happy birthdays to your grandchildren!

    3. We use Ryan Insurance brokers; they have been taken over by James Hallam.
      The service still seems as good and it saves us the hassle of fiddling about.

      1. I’m going to try that and I noticed my email to them was not received so they sent me a message i can’t reply to and have told me to ring customer service……..

        1. And the USA Military industrial complex and Democrats who always wage war to distract people from their corrosive politics and policies both foreign and domestic. That is why they hated Trump, he was trying to undo all that corruption.

          1. Trump was the only recent President who started no wars, and made peace overtures to North Korea, and brokered peace treaties with Israel and arab states.

          2. That’s why they hated him and robbed him of the 2020 election.

            The defeated Republican in Arizona, Kari Lake, was being interviewed by Piers Morgan on TV last night. She is entirely convinced that dark work robbed her of victory and she sounded very convincing to me. However Piers Morgan, who believes himself to be infallible, thinks that if an election comes out one way then it is obviously correct and should not be disputed.

      2. The EU shold have left the Ukraine alone as the buffer state and non of this would have happened.

  49. I am part way through watching the TV series about Putin. What comes across very clearly is the total ineptitude (and duplicity) of so-called “leaders” of western countries (and the useless EUSSR, of course) when confronted by a determined and self-confident tyrant.

    Putin plays the “keeping you waiting game”. Infantile western heads waited up to three hours….Why didn’t they give him 15 minutes then push off?
    The sinister way in which they are – within minutes – on first name terms. Disgusting and immature.
    None of western people had/have the slightest knowledge of history, particularly of their own countries.
    The Yanks want to replace one dictator with a puppet.
    Europeans just want to get rid of dictators – and then have nice, clean, open and above board “elections” where a democratic parliamentarian will be acclaimed, violence will end, the prisons will release all political prisoners and love and serenity will rule. Worked SO well in Iraq, Libya, Syria n’est-ce pas?

    The whole thing is infinitely depressing…..

    1. Indeed, Bill.
      Wonder how we can change the situation? Elect Gus or Pickles as PM/President?

    2. I don’t know if it is still available; Several years ago there was an excellent BBC radio documentary about Putin, his background and why he turned out as he has. A lot of it appeared to be down to the way the West was treating Russia with utter contempt pushing the EU and NATO further and further into areas of former Russian control and influence.
      The West has brought him on themselves.

      1. Indeed. Much has changed since that time. Remember the fatuous and ill-educated imbecile Dubbya calling him “Pooty Pootin” (as in Merkin for fart”… ) Putin knows – or is told – about such things and never forgets.

      2. “The West has brought him on themselves.”

        Not quite, the reality is that the West, in particular NATO with the lead of the Americans deliberately provoked Russia and wanted this war. Since Gorbachev the West has consistently made promises and assurances to Russia that it had no intention of keeping. Putin’s crime was that he would not go along with the agenda and, as a result, has been vilified in the West. People in Russia, for the most part, do not see him as a dictator or a tyrant but a ruler consistent with the Russian tradition of the autocrat. Which is not automatically a bad thing, certainly not in the eyes of Russians. In fact I would go so far as to say that the vast majority of Russians see Putin as a benevolent figure in their lives.

          2. Yes, but given the population of Russia, they are about as relevant to the whole as is the Monster Raving Loony Party, in the UK.

          1. Yes, I agree, it has been a long day for me. 5:00 is getting close to bedtime for me. From 6pm to 10.00 pm at the mo. And believe it or not, sometimes that is not enough.

          2. I hope you continue making progress, I was pleased that you had returned, long may you remain.

    3. Sadly most people in the UK have n been hoodwinked and are on the side of the Ukraine, without considering the facts.

  50. Black people in England and Wales four times more likely to be murdered. 9 February 2023

    Black people in England and Wales are four times as likely to be murdered as white people, according to new figures published by the Office for National Statistics.

    The figures show that there were 39.7 black murder victims for every million people in England and Wales in the three years ending March 2022 – more than four times the 8.9 white victims.

    Yes by Black People!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/09/black-people-in-england-and-wales-four-times-more-likely-to-be-murdered

    2. What is the purpose of even recording such stats, let alone publishing them. Oh, I suppose it’s to prove how racist whites are. Silly me.

    3. Same pattern as in the USA, if not in the same quantity. As Ben Shapiro would put it. It is a cultural problem not a racial one.

    4. I can’t help wondering who was the 0.7 who was murdered,

      That’s ONS for you. Made up figures to suit the narrative.

  51. Blessings for gay couples approved by Church of England for first time
    The momentous vote comes after CofE bishops rejected calls to allow same-sex marriages in churches at a meeting in January
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/09/same-sex-marriage-blessings-approved-church-of-england/

    I was never confident that this would appear as a BTL comment. I tried to post it and was told immediately that the post had been removed! To be honest what homosexuals get up to is their own business but what I object to is the idea that buggery has become such a sacred bull or a sacred cow that we must be stopped from expressing any views that are against it.

    If God has a sense of humour then he will turn Welby into a pillar of salt for looking back at the city of sin!. Sod Welby everywhere – but most of all sod ‘im in Gomorrah!

    Censored BTL

    Why is anal intercourse now considered acceptable to the Church of England And is it now a crime to think it is disgusting and repulsive and will the DT allow this comment to stand or will it take it down as being wrongthink?

    1. Amazing how the CofE tries to square the circle. Its doctrine states that homosexual acts are a sin, but then it votes to give a blessing to couples who are actively committing that sin.

      1. They appear to be in as big a mess as the cretinous SNP and their moronic leaderine!

      2. Much is made of the fact that if Jesus said anything about homosexuality, it hasn’t been passed down to us in the Gospels and it’s true that he doesn’t appear to have singled out any one group for criticism. He condemns all fornicators equally and these days in our society that must cover the vast majority of sexually active adults? However, the fact that one way or another all of us are sinners is not a reason for the church to be in denial about sin.

          1. I wonder how many on this forum, Bill, have only every had sexual relations with one person and then only while married? The Biblical definition of fornication is sex outside marriage and Jesus didn’t recognise divorce so more than one marriage is adultery. Who among us is qualified to cast the first stone?

          2. I was true to my second wife and to the MR – and that means for 46 years. Before then, “Father, I have sinned…” grievously…{:¬((

    2. All Souls, Langham Place (lovely John Nash church but very happy clappy – much beloved of the BBCs Christian Union in times past) have decided to withhold their contribution to the Diocesan Common Fund in protest. They sent an open letter to The Midwife. https://anglican.ink/2023/02/06/all-souls-langham-place-to-pause-payments-to-the-diocese-of-london-pending-final-action-on-llf/
      I wish the Save the Parish supporter churches would do likewise, even if for different reasons.

    3. Cranley Gordon Douglas Onslow, Baron Onslow of Woking, KCMG, PC (8 June 1926 – 13 March 2001) was a British politician and served as the Conservative MP for Woking from 1964 to 1997, and a British Peer from 1997 until his death in 2001.

      Lord Cranley of Onslow once said that “at the turn of the century fox hunting was approved by the Church and buggery was frowned on, now it’s the other way round”. I think it was on some panel show, can’t quite recall, but the audience laughed.

      1. I’ve joked about this in the last few years. Before I had to leave my ‘grace and favour’ Verger’s Cottage, since the Parish was broke, I refurbished the kitchen. Thanks to Ebay, that included a number of Siemens appliances. The build-in combination oven/microwave/grill had a habit of displaying “End time” when it was finished. I still believe it was prescient…

      2. Indeed we are.

        “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out
        of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall
        prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall
        dream dreams:”

        Myself I have been experiencing all three..just a few minutes ago, relaxing on my couch, into my mind and out of the blue; Fiscal McPhee, I hear what you’re saying’

      2. It seems anything goes nowadays, our old way of life is being ridden over roughshod. I was surprised when Southend was proclaimed a city, what seems like only a few months ago.

        1. I’ve never understood the need for the difference between a town and a city. Are the fortunes of a large town enhanced when it becomes a city? Germany has a Dorf(village) or a Stadt. Village and city. A Stadt can have a low population, such as Verden, pop:20.000 ), my first posting, or Berlin pop: 3.7 million.

    4. They’re al agog for it in Norwich and fifteen minutes is easily enough for Knickers Off Ready When I Come Home even if they can’t spell.

      1. Hmmm… When I was building Sainsburys at Pound Lane, I hadn’t yet moved to Norfolk from Cumbria. So I would generally head to Carlisle for the weekend to do the laundry etc., and set off around 0430 on Monday morning. 280 miles. I’d be on site by 0830 at the latest. An average speed of 70 mph, but the last hour was in Narridge traffic. I’ll leave it to others to work out how legal the first three hours were…

    5. If they roll it out to villages, I’ll be in trouble. No shops or pubs. There’s a community shop opening this Spring, but it’s a half hour walk away, so obviously I won’t be allowed to use it. I can get to Guildford and back in 40 minutes by train, but I expect that will be banned…

  53. That was just lucky, I struggled to open the windows we had installed last July they are UPVC and there is a little button on the hinge mechanisms of the sash openers. Press this and they fold out further and you can get your arms behind the glass to clean them out side, from inside.
    Due to my efforts I became a bit breathless and had to sit down. My phone was on a desk in another room and the volume was down, I heard it buzz and answered, it was the secretary from the orthopaedic department. After my email this morning she has brought forward my knee appointment by one month.
    Sounded like a very nice good natured lady and I detected she was Canadian, but she told me she had lived here for over twenty years.
    It can’t be all bad eh !

  55. A little birdie three this afternoon, I never got one this morning though

    Wordle 600 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
    🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  57. Well, things are certainly getting better here at Lake Lodge. My husband is now quite used to getting up and downstairs alone so today, I was able to sleep until almost 10 which I badly needed.
    And guess who went and made his own breakfast! Using his walker but made himself beans on toast with a fried egg on top. And he cleared his plate. The usual questions about where stuff was though;-)
    He can stand unaided for short periods also and I am convinced that the abdominal drain and removal of all the fluid has not only made him feel better but has increased his mobility greatly.
    I am being rather idle though but that’s OK- fed up with charging about like a blue-arsed fly.
    Am very proud of him and happy that he’s really making some progress now. Long may it continue.
    And again, thanks to you all for your support and kind wishes.

    1. Great news.

      I wish i could stay asleep until 10. The dogfight starts at 6 am every morning.

      1. How is Harry getting on? From all your grumbles, I suspect that the doggies are a great source of fun and affection for you.

        1. Harry has settled in fine. He does keep Dolly on her toes though. They do make me laugh with their antics.

    2. Great news Lottie and you deserve the rest so fill yer boots. I bet your husband is feeling really chuffed with himself too. Well done both.

        1. If that manic physio returns, which we think he will, he’ll be signing him up for half marathon 😉

    5. Sounds like a whole new life, Ann! Well done to both of you, your husband for having the wit to escape from hospital, and you for your excellent care and encouragement! Enjoy the bit of rest and sending good wishes to you both! 💐🍷

    7. It all sounds good, Ann.

      And you slept – wonderful. I can only wish you both a continuing improvement in both your lives.

      NoTTLers are behind you to KBO.

    8. Excellent news, Ann! He’ll be as delighted as a dog with two dicks to be able to sort himself out, with mobility, food and the like, not have to rely on you. Win-win!

      1. It’s great today- no-one has to go anywhere, we haven’t been pestered by anybody, I feel better rested and he feels and looks well.
        Some crusty rolls and cheese tonight and I will make a lasange for the weekend. Yum.

    9. It’s quite a feat he has carried out, it’s not easy to come out of hospital and get back into a normal routine.
      Well done the pair of you, keep it going.

      1. We’re stubborn buggers and much prefer to be in control of our own lives. And we will keep going. Onward, ever onward.

    1. Tut tut – I think a Noble Lord might have just offered him a pinch of snuff – doncha know?

  60. And I’ll tell you another thing about Putin. He does’t wear one of those childish little “flags” in his lapel to tell him where he is from. Unlike all the western idiots.

  61. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11731975/Angry-protestors-gather-outside-school-fury-vicious-racist-attack-15-year-old-black-girl.html

    Why do they never get uppity when black kids stab one another over drugs? Teachers are not allowed to step in. They get charged with assault. Ironically, it’s the blacks who forced that sort of nonsense on us in the diversity tripe.

    Just shove off back home whingers. Chances are a black kid killed the other black kid. If it was a white girl who did it chances are the black started it. You’re not important, you don’t matter. Don’t like it? Leave.

  63. Screen shot from The Royal Family farcebook page. Camilla visited a centre that supports victims of domestic violence. A clear majority of the ‘clients’ appear to have something in common….. so the thugs from that ‘community’ carry out their sickening attacks not just on other thugs (or random innocents in the wrong place/wrong time) but on their own women at home as well. Colour me surprised.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e1cd96a9e6e06699764e879c255bc83865a6b78b32ea33f862228b53761f2db3.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fea2048df45309cf8edf861c075fa3af42947d43debf66957eb635d12fdaed26.png

  64. Disturbing evidence is emerging that the earthquakes in Turkey were triggered by external forces. A sort of callous 9/11 event where the lives of thousands count for nought to the elites.

          1. 7th Day fracking, eh? I was akshly making a ‘joke’ about man-made earthquakes! Seemed a bit unlikely, on this scale.

      2. Before multiple eruptions the birds were going wild and the dogs howling. It was the opposite of a lunar eclipse where birds fell silent as the Earth chilled.

        There were strange cloud formations and the sky was streaked in blue light flashes.

        It is possible to cause the Earth’s layers to vibrate using high voltages in ground detection devices.

      1. Rather like my brother when he left San Francisco and moved to Nevada, he was asked had he lined up future beach-front property for when the tectonic plates gave another heave and California slid into the sea.

      1. And Putin, don’t forget Putin.

        In fact, if Zelensky had not intervened they would have been much, much worse.

    3. I promise you, clap loud and long enough and you may be allowed in the shelter when it all goes horribly wrong.

  66. “Humans are now hackable animals. The idea that humans have this soul
    or spirit, they have free will and nobody knows what’s happening inside
    me – so whatever I choose whether in the election or in the
    supermarket, that’s my free will? That’s over.” -(WEF/DAVOS Technocrat
    Lunatic)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c9fd7da0c6fd58279df9631de595dc54baaf5fe3162e8b16485a6037d0b83f94.jpg
    Just fluck off and jump in your boss Swab’s volcano lair

    2. I must be one of the very few Nottlers to have any time for this man.
      I have read a few of his books and I’ve found them to be a warning as to what is happening rather than a supporter of it.

      I’m not convinced he’s a WEF & UN spokesperson, yes he speaks at such forums but my reading of what he is saying is that mankind should be extremely wary of the people now in charge, because of what they can now get away with.

      1. That’s a problem I also have, Sos. I initially upvoted the posts of Rik-Redux and Ready Eady, but then I read your own post and un-clicked my up-vote. Who knows what to believe these days without spending all day doing major research. It’s easier just to say “Who knows?”

        1. I will admit to being slightly swayed towards the latter of his books, due to agreeing with most of what he wrote in the first one I read.
          Unconscious bias at the time, which has stayed with me?

    4. With the new generation receiving its info from the social meeja and the 77th manipulating on behalf of the state, he might not be far off. Rebels will be rounded up, they have started by cancelling some big names, how long until the online harms bill gets to sites like this.

  68. .Night All

    I have no words for the visceral hatred this image arouses in me,all very funny is it you pair of c****

    https://twitter.com/LeeHurstComic/status/1623568595606245378

    Meanwhile Late Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e0eb6033b3a5e239c734aeec856281effc2ac246e3cd52047b4bc2d094feb27.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af5985a847d15750fcec1c4e2c8cc9c9df0a6c233edccff9eeb4036d9edf45bd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff819adae8c9b67ecd9aaf97d160cb39c01e9c116c873f520d738c76d5bf05d7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c2be413efb1395b738a356f5b5220c4246a2ae11f0584555762432253e082f74.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39b56ddd87d99027824193297c91feb8f417a0295c5f1e5008e3e16948a5647c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/292c90849111c06c88bf8f3a320df7d0edd1588d843a33537187e0536d06f499.jpg

    Comes to us all………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8aba57cc0291d38d5391df9c44c46c6e211310d5ae1b4bfb7ac1be27f757343d.jpg

          1. Low carb diet working weight coming off blood sugar should be down
            Had blood pressure tests on my feet not great but not disasterous waiting for feedback on this and the MRI meanwhile the heart moniter showed no sighs of afib
            So far so good just KBO [:^))

  69. Home at last!
    Counting my run to Leigh on Tuesday, I’ve done about 450 miles in 3 days and I’m knackered!
    Not planning to drive anywhere for a few days!

    Concert last night was good. RPO with Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet excepts, Ravel, Piano Concerto in G, Wagner, Prelude & Liebestod and Scriabin, Poem of Ecstasy.

    Whilst familiar with to the 1st two pieces, it was the first time I’ve really closely listened to them and the Wagner is much more familiar.

    First time entirely for the Scriabin, not a composer I’ve heard much of and 1st thought at his use of the orchestra was “Bloody Hell, that is HEAVY!” His style makes Bruckner look like a shrinking violet!!
    Interesting to listen to though!

  71. Best headline of the week. I love Sasha Walpole!

    ‘He’s not the boy I remember’: Sasha Walpole, who took Prince Harry’s virginity, jokes to Piers Morgan on Talk TV that the Duke has ‘traded down’ by marrying Meghan Markle

    1. Quite so. I bet Meagain couldn’t drive a digger…

      Having spent a career in construction, I have much respect for those who operate the plant. I once managed to drive a Telehandler a few yards, so I could get my car out, but these things require skill.

          2. It’s the new found freedom from caring 24/7 for your invalid.
            Making up for lost wine
            Ooops, making up for lost time…

          3. Trust me, the wine helps. It’s my turn next week with the skin cancer doc and that won’t be fun.

  72. That’s me gone. The MR is at a PCC meeting – so I’ll sit by the fire and read a book. A good day – market – then two hours of very satisfactory log stacking. More tomorrow. The end is in sight!

    Have a jolly evening – knitting socks for the brave lads in the trenches…

    A demain

      1. Because the country is full of bleeding heart doo-doo gooders who have lived in a semi-socialist paradise for far too long and have forgotten that not everyone one meets is a friend?

      2. They didn’t – there’s a bonkers group of insane Lefties who hate other Swedes to such a degree that they forced thousands of savages on them. we’ve the same problem here.

    2. We already have it, it’s just kept quiet. They’re scum. Every single one must be removed and the insanity of ‘di-worse-ity reversed to restore this country to sanity.

    1. I imagine he was put into solitary, or a very controlled environment. That’s why he wasn’t a danger.

      Of course, in reality he is a rapist who wanted to get into a women’s prison to rape women. Sturgeon, putting her hatred before common sense refused to accept this.

      I don’t know what’s wrong with that demented woman, but she seems truly crazed.

  75. Regarding that school girl – did any of the black parents teach their brat not to pick fights and to walk away from conflict? No? Did they instead just not teach them anything in their welfare single parent home?

    It’s all right bleating now you want an excuse to smash things up, but you’re just savages who won’t damned well learn to behave like adults.

  76. I am absolutely furious.
    British Heart Foundation were taking 6 items today. They had seen photos of the furniture and agreed to take them.
    The van arrived late, so our morning was spent doing stuff but not what we’d planned.
    The BHF men took only the recliner chairs; they claimed they couldn’t take the rest because it was painted wood.
    I have now had to Freecycle 4 extra items. If they haven’t gone by Monday they will go to the tip.
    And we are constantly preached at for being wasteful!!! All this baloney about recycling and wasting the planet’s resources is a load of old guff when faced with the bloody British bureaucrat.

    1. It might well not be the same in the UK.

      We take the articles to an auctioneers. If they accept them to sell they will try up to three times. If the articles don’t sell we get the choice, take them back or the auctioneer will dispose of them.

      In your case you either get some money to be shot of the stuff or you are shot of it with no money, win, win.

    2. Some charities seem to be the worst. Dianne the ex, having moved from Surrey to Topsham, had some stuff to offload. Covid rules applied at the time, so she booked a visit to a local charity shop in advance. She subsequently phoned, just to confirm the appointment. On arrival, she was told that they had no record of the appointment, and on no account would she be allowed to enter. So she went a few yards along the road to the local Air Ambulance charity shop, who were grateful for her donation.

      When I moved, I contacted a local charity, who recycle furniture. For a small donation, they took everything that I no longer wanted. No quibble.

      1. We found most charities weren’t interrested in anything when clearing Mother’s house. Marie Curie, in Penarth (until we filled them up!) and Cardiff Rhymney were delighetd to take anything except used underpants… Good on them. Fathwr died in their hospice, so it was fitting that they got his stuff.

        1. The (Exe) Estuary League of Friends ensured that they will never in the future receive a penny from Dianne.

          Furniturelinksurrey.org were brilliant. Took all my surplus furniture. Regardless of condition. It was cheaper paying them than (1) organising removals, when I was downsizing anyway. or (2) ordering a skip…

    1. Don’t worry, we can put up taxes to cover it. Small bear anyway – what’s a couple of billion between friends?

        1. could be up to 98% apparently – depending on percentage of other causes (flat tyres etc)

    2. The reason Richmond upon Thames gave for blanket lowering of the speed limit to 20 mph was pollution and specifically tyre particles were mentioned. I then read later about the thinner tyres for EVs so they get through tyres more quickly. Yet getting rid of old tyres is very difficult. And STILL we are told these damn things are the Green Future.

  84. Watching the news about the Turkish/Syrian earthquake I can’t help wondering why Ukraine is worthy of billions, if not trillions of support while T/S are struggling.
    If we must waste our taxes give it to T/S not the clown.

  85. I think I might have hurt the centre of my wrist a couple of days ago ( just below the palm of my hand I knocked it . Yesterday the lump turned up. It wasn’t too bad until earlier when I in my wisdom put a hot padding onto it and now its even worse – well done to me – I’ve no idea what to do with it now. But I’ll make a nice hot chocolate and shall read a book .

          2. We have a farm bible dating from early 1800’s. It’s huge, and written in Danish in Gothick script. Horribly difficult to read, and weighs a ton! Never mind bashing ganglions, this’ break yer leg!

      1. I was silly enough to goggle the word ‘ lumps ‘ … never ever Google.

        But thank you- I’ll look at the link- not too keen on seeing a doctor – practically impossible anyway .

    3. If you are under 20 years old, try to get an appontment with a GP,

      You might get seen before you are 70
      Over 20, just suffer the pain

      1. Because they, to the Left wing state; are the enemy. We are lied to continually, with deceit after deceit, cheat after cheat to tell us nonsense we know to be tosh, yet the entire state machine is devoted to this mindless brainwashing – all for the advancement, expansion and control the state demands.

        Freedoms, liberty, individualism, responsibility, facts and truth are desperately trying to be erased by a truly vicious machine that seeks control at any cost for no other reason than to have it.

        1. They are going to have to be re-taught that they are OUR servants and we that have dominion over them.

      2. Cocoa is a cad and coward, cocoa is a vulgar beast. Chesterton.
        I do like Father Brown, also by Chesterton.

        1. Remote and ineffectual don
          Who dared to mock my Chesterton

          [Hilaire Belloc]

          Many of us here probably learnt The Rolling English Road by heart when we were children. I also remember reading his rather strange comedic novel The Napoleon of Notting Hill.

          1. I like Belloc also…..”Always keep a hold of nurse for fear of meeting something worse.” Young Jim (?) who ran from his nurse and was eaten by a lion. Chomp.

          2. Now just imagine how it feels
            When first your toes and then your heels
            And then by gradual degrees,
            Your shins and ankles, calves and knees
            Are slowly eaten bit by bit
            No wonder Jim detested it!

            The Tasteys know most of the Cautionary verses by heart. I recently found a second hand copy on line and had it sent to my son, Henry, who, I am delighted to say, does not like chewing little bits of string.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8289acfa07aea5e917c3401fe383044c30296bad3f71eb5b717d4edbf0e5c048.jpg

  88. I understand the Cof E is having issues with God being addressed as ‘ Father ‘ and want to change it . Uttely lost the plot .

      2. …..” forgive our foolish ways….”
        Why do so many people choose that as a wedding hymn?

          2. It’s fallen out of favour (like verse 3 of All things B&B), but “Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways” seems somehow appropriate… 🙄

  89. Russia has prepared 1,800 tanks, 4,000 armoured vehicles, 810 rocket-launch systems and 400 fighter jets ‘for huge new invasion in Ukraine in ten days’
    Ukrainian official estimated Russia has 300 helicopters ready for new invasion
    Some analysts believe fighting will heighten around one-year anniversary

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11732977/Russia-prepared-1-800-tanks-4-000-armoured-vehicles-invasion-ten-days.html

    As a matter of idle curiosity, if this is true, AND the Ukrainians will win with Western support, as we are told, how much armament is required even assuming every single shot scores a bull’s eye?
    And how many shots do they have and how much per shot is it costing?
    And then ask how much better that money might be spent at home, let alone in Turkey Syria.

    To Hell with Zelensky and his robber barons and the Bidenite parasites getting rich on the back of it all.

    Damn them all to Hell.

    1. Yo sos
      Zelpinchsky will not be getting a Christmas card from, this year then…. nor Bide

    2. Russians never scrap arms accordinding to Wiki they have 12 THOUSAND T72’s in reserve and 400 front line aircraft are less than 25% of their airpower
      Good luck with a few dozen western MBTs and a handful of Typhoons…..
      Russia lost a million men at Stalingrad a number that is ground in from their grandfathers they will never accept western tanks rolling East
      It’s futile and the West prolonging this is pure evil
      Edit
      Do NONE of our politicians know any history!!

    5. Watching the two stupid WEF dwarves, Sunak and Zelensky embracing and laughing was sickening. Even worse the hundreds of Number 10 ‘staff’ (what the fuck do these people do apart from partying at our expense) applauding the entrance into Number 10 of these repulsive minnows, I felt sick to the stomach.

      If that was not bad enough my convulsions were worsened by the sight of Zelensky and midget Macron acting and behaving as like young lovers for the cameras. Macron, a dwarf, is not even as short in stature as the dwarf Zelensky.

      These two fools and their cohorts in the US and the EU are responsible for a needless war and the destruction of property, infrastructure and the annihilation of entire communities. It will take vast resources and effort to rebuild the damage these two and their cohorts have wreaked.

  91. The “Mina” of the title of this piece was a cairn terrier, one of the dogs that became the focus of Elgar’s life after the death of his wife Alice. The piece itself is quite charming and is played here by the Northern Sinfonia of England, conducted by Richard Hickox.
    The paintings are by the English artist John Atkinson Grimshaw, the “Painter of Moonlight”. [Note – many of these paintings remind me of Headingley, Leeds (AG was from Leeds) … where there are such walls and such houses]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTFVfKV6vYM

        1. There is a Coronation coming up. Elgar’s Coronation Odes are wonderful. What a shame he isn’t around to write a version for this one.
          Proper music.

          1. I no longer know where. The old Welgar factory in Welwyn Garden City is now a dilapidated wreck and an eyesore. I used to enjoy the aroma which once emanated from it.

    2. Being born and brought up in Leeds, that was trip down memory lane and a huge dose of nostalgia for me. The last painting was, I think perhaps of Whitby, I could just make out St Mary’s Abbey on the skyline.

    3. Elgar’s music is so atmospheric and beautiful.

      In the early seventies I was invited with a friend, Rosemarie MacQueen (later Chief Planner at Westminster), to the home of the late Sir Robert Abdy in Eaton Square.

      We chatted to him in his basement before being shown his collection on the upper floors. We were offered “champagne or tea” and Rosemarie went to the small kitchen to make a pot of tea. When she returned she whispered in my ear, “there is a bottle of champagne and it has a thick layer of dust on it”.

      As I sat chatting with Sir Robert I noticed and remarked on the fact that he had a dozen Atkinson Grimshaw paintings adorning his basement walls. He was an avid collector of Grimshaw and a former wife Lady Jane Abdy was an art expert and had run a gallery in London.

      Hitherto I had seen only a few Atkinson Grimshaw paintings in Liverpool Walker, National Gallery and Manchester.

      I saw the rest of his collection which comprised portraits by artists such as Boldini and a lot of Czechoslovakian Cut Glass.

      If you have the time google Sir Robert Abdy who led a fascinating life.

      Here is a painting of Lady Jane Abdy: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0a1e4a5cfc623819f14e181581e3cf64431d60957e5b1905815835addc20841.jpg

  92. Watching the new last night of the earthquake – people were raiding supermarkets to get food (understandably) one guy coming out with a trolley full of bog rolls but there a young guy coming out with a TV in its box and he wasn’t a black. Some things don’t change even in situations like this.

      1. Amended – thank you. It is Friday and yes, it is Korky’s birthday.

        (And on Saturday 11th February it will be the birthday of one of our younger Nottlers)

  100. Even the cleverest Tory can’t make socialism work
    It was a defining belief of Conservatism that the state can’t pick winners. Apparently not any longer

    DAVID FROST : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/09/even-cleverest-tory-cant-make-socialism-work/

    The fact that in April the Conservative government is going to raise corporation tax from 19% to 25% tell us all we need to know.
    For those who understand percentages – which the government clearly does not – this is a rise in the rate of tax of over 31%. (2500 divided by 19 = 131.58 – 100 = 31.58)

    The Conservative Government actively wants businesses to fail.

  101. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk. I was in bed but unable to sleep so I’m up again with a cup of tea. Hope that’ll see me off.

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