Monday 13 February: The Tories will pay for their failure to articulate a vision for growth

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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602 thoughts on “Monday 13 February: The Tories will pay for their failure to articulate a vision for growth”

  3. The Tories will pay for their failure to articulate a vision for growth

    Why would they?
    The very purpose of Net zero carbon and the great reset is to prevent growth.

  4. UK to launch security review over China spy balloons. 13 February 2023.

    Defence Secretary to work with allies to analyse intelligence as MPs warn balloons may have already crossed over UK.

    Britain will undertake a security review in the wake of the incursion of Chinese spy balloons into Western airspace, the Defence Secretary has said.

    Ben Wallace will work with the US and other close partners to analyse intelligence and assess the dangers posed by the balloons.

    The review will be used to help decide whether any changes need to be made to the surveillance of British airspace. MPs have warned that balloons may have already crossed over the UK, a possibility the Ministry of Defence has refused to rule out.

    Look! We are doing something!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/12/uk-launch-security-review-china-spy-balloons/

      1. Who knows Bob? It looks like they’ve exhausted all other possibilities of distraction so we are going back to Alien Invasion!

    3. Why are they Chinese? On what evidence? Balloons seems much more North Korea to me.
      Where are they launched from, to float over the UK? How are they guided, or do they just float randomly west – east?

      1. Morning Oberst. It defies credibility that having examined them they have no idea of their origin!

      2. Morning Oberst. It defies credibility that having examined them they have no idea of their origin!

    4. 370983+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,

      Ought to read, Britain will undertake a security review of ALL political anti United Kingdom balloons in parliament.

  9. “Look Pooh – I’m flying my balloon!’:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/904e51a79eb68b49fca053f8fc55e945d70b922f1a01413ced1d4cd575747681.gif

    💥 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89cc2f19d5ece5ee95861a4b67605551f5acce71c37fe53d79beff51e968cf15.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a7021dfad687b1c10df0798c2d90f8bc115aae5fd40b2f377ca08e42d282b1dd.gif

    “Never mind, Piglet…”:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d7b474e0c27641578d8c8f8ca413838c0855cbad5748ce5db951a2c2a0a2c9f4.gif

    “…with your level of inflation you won’t actually need one!”.

  10. Minister accuses Marvel film of ‘informational attack’ on French troops. 13 February 2023.

    Defence minister lambasts ‘anti-French’ sentiment of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and pays tribute to soldiers who ‘died defending Mali’

    Sebastien Lecornu, France’s youngest cabinet minister at just 36, has hit out at the representation of his nation’s soldiers as rapacious looters in the latest instalment of the Black Panther franchise.

    “I strongly condemn this false and deceptive representation of our armed forces,” Mr Lecornu wrote on Twitter, more than three months after the film’s theatrical release.

    In the second instalment of the Marvel franchise, French soldiers appear at the UN after they were captured trying to steal vibranium from Wakanda. With their hands bound, they are ordered to kneel in front of the queen of the nation, Ramonda, who calls out the visibly humiliated French representative in a powerful speech.

    The minister does know that there is no such place as Wakanda? That Africa didn’t discover writing until white men arrived?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/12/minister-accuses-marvel-film-informational-attack-french-troops/

      1. I cannot seewhat they are complaining about either.

        Brilliant blue skies and sunshine over here as well, even though it is a few hours later.

  13. Good Moaning.
    Had an interesting chat with daughter-in-law who is a practice nurse.
    GP practices ARE given targets for diagnosing and prescribing drugs.
    Which, just looking at the altered ‘good’ BP readings, I had already suspected. Without medication, a 75 year old will never attain the ideal reading of a 25 year old. The same with cholesterol – of which there are two types. And that’s before you take individual personalities into account.

    1. Given how GP’s and medics are being lead by the nose, could this be the reason why they misdiagnose cases of Strep, Sepsis and Meningitis?

      1. I have to admit, I prefer to see a practice nurse. They tend to be middle aged women with few illusions; they’re certainly not stuffed with whoo-hoo medical theories.

        1. The one we’ve seen recently at our practice is good – sensible and kind. The others we got to know seem to have retired or moved on.

        2. I have thought this for a while thatGPs were paid extra for prescribing some things. The cholesterol is a case in point. GP phoned Alf after a blood test and said “I am obliged to offer you statins” … and when he asked what his cholesulevel was she said, it’s Amazing, it’s 3.7! He declined them as a) he didn’t need them and b) he’d had previous experience of statins that caused all sorts of consequences.

          I’ve recently decided to stop taking a second BP tablet because of how it made me feel. Left it off for a couple of weeks then took my BP. It was 135/ can’t remember the other figure but was quite happy with the first reading.

          Is it tomorrow that you move? Hope all goes well and nothingks lost or broken along the way. Have fun. Don’t forget to make the bed first!

    2. Before Covid my doctor was concerned about my blood pressure. It turned out that I had the blood pressure of a 17 year old. Surely that’s good? I queried. Well, yes, she admitted. They don’t like it if you’re fit, obviously!

    2. Yo Mr Grizzle

      What you mean, is that if he had just stayed a Wanchor, he would not have had money Child Maintainance Support problems

      That would not have made any difference to the finacial state of UK in general though

    3. Yo Mr Grizzle

      What you mean, is that if he had just stayed a Wanchor, he would not have had money Child Maintainance Support problems

      That would not have made any difference to the finacial state of UK in general though

    1. A pity she didn’t raise a bigger fuss at the time. As a journalist and daughter of a VERY respected journalist, she might have sparked some necessary changes years earlier.

      1. I totally agree with you, BoB. (Good morning, btw.)

        “Your mother says you are violent and are attempting to kill her” she is told by one of the officers who arrive at her flat. Much later she says that “Still no-one would tell me what I am formally accused of”. Methinks the woman protesteth too much.

  16. 370983+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    These, in name only parties that over the last three plus decades found such favour with the electoral majority don’t give two monkeys their forward going agenda is in place, via fear, submission,repression, selected injuries / deaths RESET is really
    gaining success.

    These Isles are currently teetering on the edge of the peoples mass insanity chasm ( chasm, fault in the earths surface)
    ( mass insanity, fault of the continued voting pattern) one more effort via the ballot booth in the regular fashion should see us
    OTT, down, and as a nation, out.

    Maybe a heaven sent release for those believing still in the tory (ino) party & the great RESET agenda, when the covers come off
    and the fightback is ,at long last, triggered.

  17. Good morning all

    Mild but murky day here, Moh will be off to the golf course shortly.

    We had a bit of a bloodbath last night , down stairs.

    Younger dog had been racing around the garden just as Moh was frying the Sunday treat .. 3 delicious steaks and giant mushrooms .. He is a dab hand steak wise ..

    Dog ran back into the kitchen from the garden .. bloody pawprints everywhere, on the kitchen carpets, hall and living room .. blood blood blood ..

    Steaks were put on hold , as were the chips and peas etc.. Moh held Pip whilst I had a look at his paws , the dog wriggled and writhed , growling and nearly bit us both .. couldn’t find the muzzle , so had to wrap the lead around his jaw .. Deep cut inside his left paw , thought he perhaps should have a stitch, but his paw had stopped bleeding .. but can you imagine the mess on the floor .

    The grand clear up happened after supper and before Warship started .. Blood is so difficult to clean up, but thankfully all sorted.

  19. Good Moaning all,

    Cloudy again at McPhee Towers, gentle breeze, 3℃ but with the promise of some spring-like warmth later.

    “The Conservative MPs quitting before the general election because they expect the party to lose (report, February 10) are beyond contemptible”. writes Paul Owen of Kidderminster. He is right. Not only for that, however, but also for being utterly spineless in the face of an unConservative government.

    Keith Ives of Leigh-on-Sea says of the UN “The vast organisation in New York seems to be both powerless and toothless, which raises the question: what is the point of having it?” He misses the point. The Rockefeller creation sees itself as a World Government in waiting. For that reason alone we should disregard it or, better still, quit.

    Anthony Wheal of Frome wants the remains of Richard the Lionheart back. “In return, may we have Richard the Lionheart back from Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou – or at least his heart from Rouen?” He really ought to read up a bit more. The Lionheart never had much interest in England, spent a minimal amount of time here and would have sold it if he could. He can stay in France.

  20. ‘Morning, Peeps.  Currently mild and overcast, but allegedly the sun may put his hat on later, although it will be somewhat half-hearted.

    SIR – The Conservative MPs quitting before the general election because they expect the party to lose (report, February 10) are beyond contemptible.

    What kind of signal does that send out? Opposition is just as important in our democracy as being in government. The honour of being an MP ought to be incentive enough. How would the party function if we activists were to adopt this defeatist attitude?

    In any case, the next election is not already lost, as some seem to think. But we need to fight. We face a Labour Party for which there is little real enthusiasm. It has no policies and doesn’t know what a woman is, but may well win by default. A party that has been in government for over a decade has to campaign hard for the right to continue.

    To win the next election, Conservatives must level with the electorate about why we are where we are. The pandemic forced us to spend money like drunken socialists and now we need to rein it in and undo the damage. We need a government that believes in spending restraint, value for money and sound finances, leading to lower taxes to attract investment. These things, rather than Labour-lite policies, will allow the opportunities of Brexit to be seized.

    If we end up with a Labour government we will enter a 1960s and 1970s-style decline, with ever higher taxes and consequent brain drains, as well as the sort of nonsensical social policies currently causing deserved problems for the SNP.

    Our party should be making these arguments – not just giving up.

    Paul Owen
    Kidderminster, Worcestershire

    * * *

    A rather spiffing response:

    Trevor Anderson1 HR AGO

    Paul Owen: Do you really believe this inept, half-witted, incompetent, unfit for purpose government is capable of turning around the biggest failures of the ruling class for at least a generation?

    Net Zero, No plans for energy self-sufficiency, ULEZ, NHS, HS2, Civil Service, Covid, Devolution, Tax burdens, Price increases, Strikes, Ineffective policing, gender bendering, Ukraine indecision, diminished Armed Forces, Increasing poverty levels – the list is endless. No wonder MP’s are giving up, most of them are invisible anyway.

    There is no point in expecting a constantly failing team to stand and fight when virtually to a man – or woman – they are incapable of improvement.

    In the words of Dad’s Army Private Fraser, “We’re all doomed!”

    Time for a revolution folks!

    * * *

    The problem is, Trevor old chap, Conservative MPs are not in any way proper Conservatives, unlike so may of the electorate they claim to represent!

    1. Northern Ireland’s position in the EU is a major issue and rarely gets a mention in these lists of things needing dealt with. Our feckless government is still trying to get an NI agreement with the EU but ignore the fact that any agreement will be in favour of the stubborn EU.
      As for rejecting EU legislation we were told in 2016 that initially the “EU” would be taken out of the legislation but the text would remain. This would be done straight away and any changes to be in the legislation would be done in parliament. It now appears that the Civil Service have sat on their hands and done nothing about the legislation. The Conservatives don’t deserve my vote and I am not alone.

      1. ‘Morning, Clyde. Did you see the GBN interview with Ian Paisley jnr? I don’t have a link but it was quite recent. In it he laid out the whole ghastly situation in very clear terms (even I inderstood it). When that useless arse Johnson tells us ‘We got Brexit done’ (ugh) he is quite right if the creation of a vassal state was the intention…

        1. See above. There was never any intention for us to leave “the project”. Democracy is dead.

    2. “To win the next election, Conservatives must level with the electorate about why we are where we are.” I doubt that admitting that it’s purely down to their incompetence, mis-management, excessive taxation and idiotic green lunacy would win them too many votes.

  21. SIR – I’d like to reassure Julie K James (“Dress-down nation”, Letters, February 10) that some standards of attire remain.

    At my past two places of work, I have been the final person who has defiantly worn a tie each day.

    Vanity and dandyism are one reason for this; another is that, just before the Covid years, I bought a poppy-themed tie for Armistice Day. I couldn’t buy a tie and not wear it, so that and a few cricket ties have been keeping me properly dressed. Whether they make me a more effective engineer remains questionable.

    I think I must make more of an effort to wear a tie on days out, as well. I hope I can play a part in turning the scruffy tide.

    David Fisher
    Manchester

    My father was a real tie spotter , and in fact I know many who have tie detective qualities .. and one elderly gentle man almost started a near riot by presenting himself at various lunchtime meetings because he wore some significant regimental ties and even an MCC tie, and no one believed how he had acquired the ties ….

    His attire was genuine , and when he passed away at a good age , his wife sent me a parcel his ties , which proved to be a good discussion point , she was sadly getting rid of all his military stuff.

    What on earth am I going to do with all those ties?

    1. When I went to the RFH concert last Wednesday with t’Lad, on my trip to London to pick up his replacement BMW R100, I made a point of wearing my tweed sports jacket, decent, if cheap, trousers, white shirt and RE Corps tie.

      2. I still wear ties when I ride. I have a selection and choose them to match the coat and britches. Occasionally I wear a stock, but I need a collarless shirt for that.

  22. Do you hate people? Are you a vicious sadist? Do you revel in controlling people? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then the Met has a job for you !

    One policeman was holding me down. His eyes were egg-like and his skin fish-belly pale. His stare had the

    menace of a hitman and his hands were all over me. He had two colleagues

    with him: one male, one female. It was the female who kicked me in the

    back.

    I screamed and rolled over. I’d never been in trouble with the law, in my privately educated, polite

    little life. But, with the suddenness of a striking adder, a police

    officer was now trying to handcuff me.

    My wrists are narrow and my hands slipped through the cuffs like water,

    which seemed to make the officer angry. ‘Bloody b***h keeps getting out

    of them,’ he said.

    He and his colleagues began to drag me down the stairs. My head hit the bannisters

    repeatedly, but my yelps of pain didn’t move them.

    I was whimpering like an animal, as though nature had exerted some

    atavistic pull. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was just the

    beginning of six hours of hell for me.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11742973/PETRONELLA-WYATT-relives-terrifying-ordeal-hands-Met.html

    2. Jeeeze what has happened to our country, who are all these morons who have slipped under the radar and taken over ?
      It makes me feel quite relieved that we hardly ever see any police around. Except belting about in cars with the sirens blaring. Or should that be Blairing ?

      1. Politics attracts greedy people. The Church attracts paedophiles. The Police attract cowardly bullies.

        1. All Leading to a very sad state of affairs. Perhaps our education system is also up the creek……….oh hang on !

      1. Do you mean ‘suing’?

        I think they should be able to sue the individuals involved. Not the force.

    4. Petronella Wyatt – the daughter of the politician Woodrow Wyatt and one time mistress of Boris Johnson whose child she aborted.

      She used to write articles for The Spectator when Johnson was the editor.

    1. Does not Biden, the Bidet, realise that the US cannot go anywhere until Coca Cola and CNN have set up their people/concessions.

      Look at Grenada

      1. I sailed into St George’s Grenada on my boat, Raua, in January 1985 about a year after the US had intervened in the island’s politics much to Margaret Thatcher’s disgust.

        As I sailed around the Caribbean I charted my progress with a calypso song adding new verses for the places I visited:

        When we got down to Grenada the US army was there,
        Wearing short pants and T shirts and driving jeeps everywhere
        They screamed and whistled and waved machine guns as they drove by pat me
        It made me think that it is not true that worse things happen at sea.

        So Hey Skip! Hey Skip!
        Wanna buy some limes?
        I can introduce you to my sister
        I can show you good times!

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a06b37a266d59d3e207bcaa99bf8e6c412ebf91c57e6d516e07921950504b244.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c230e4b256f6ddd50df6628e43aad0cbcfebd77ace15be5937a38a63fc7d61c5.jpg

  24. Good morning all. A mild but dull and grey 2½°C outside, but at least it’s still dry.

    4. The majority of articles about Sam Smith and the Brits have no comments but thousands of shares. What comments i did see were scathing.

  26. Pentagon does not know what these unidentified ‘objects’ are nor how they stay airborne. 13 February 2023.

    The US Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to US intelligence experts.

    Is this a distraction from Ukraine? The shills have gone quiet in the MSM and the Spectator has published only two articles in the last three days and both oblique. It’s the fifth or sixth on the menu on the BBC news! Do they know something that they are not telling us? Like the Russians have amassed a vast force to overwhelm the Ukies?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/12/us-fighter-jets-shoot-octagonal-object-near-canadian-border/

    1. I have been rather sceptical of this balloon saga. From leaving one meander across the US before shooting it down to these latest objects that apparently have no means of propulsion. Although balloons can be directed by ascending or descending into the appropriate forecast wind, its hardly pin point navigation. Satellites would be a better resource and not subject to attack. All very strange, especially as these craft are apparently all over the place. I had a snigger as out own war dept is in a room hatching a cunning plan to deal with the threat. If China can launch a balloon and use air currents to get it half way around the globe to the UK’s remaining secret military site, good luck to them.

      1. Am only surprised that there is no advertising or sponsorship on the balloons.
        It could be a massive opportunity for the British Airways finger painters.

        1. Morning o1 and all

          A lot of folk have come to the conclusion that voting is just a load of old ballots!

    2. It’s dreadful, I saw TBs post from yesterday.
      This is just another classic example of how our political classes have completely and utterly effed up everything they come into contact with.

    3. When will the male relatives beat the living shit out of the perpetrators – since the state does nothing about it, one would be forced to.

      1. Unfortunately, so many of the victims are from either single mother families or were already vulnerable from being in ‘care’ so male relatives are thin on the ground.

      2. Oberst, I know a little about a case of ‘forced adoption’.
        Any specific information would get a load of us into trouble for gossiping. It is all about Local Authority budgets, and not the best interest of…
        Anyway, it is easy to see how such children take a wrong path.

        Those Islamist taxi drivers may be criminals, but they are probably the only people to show any interest in those adolescent girls/boys.
        A writer in The Spectator (IIRC) once said that such children are doomed at the point of conception.

      3. Oberst, I know a little about a case of ‘forced adoption’.
        Any specific information would get a load of us into trouble for gossiping. It is all about Local Authority budgets, and not the best interest of…
        Anyway, it is easy to see how such children take a wrong path.

        Those Islamist taxi drivers may be criminals, but they are probably the only people to show any interest in those adolescent girls/boys.
        A writer in The Spectator (IIRC) once said that such children are doomed at the point of conception.

    4. 370983+ up ticks,

      Morning W,
      The rotherham odious issue hardly put a ripple in the voting pattern.

    6. Yesterday, Conservative MP for Sutton Coldfield, Andrew Mitchell, said the scheme was worth exploring but it was not the ‘whole answer’ and argued it will have only a marginal benefit in stopping small boats crossing the Channel.

      He also rejected the idea that the UK could withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) over plans to tackle the problem of small boats carrying migrants across the Channel.

      Here’s a comment, the scheme is worth exploring but not the whole answer. The real answer Mr Mitchel is for people like you to take responsibility for their actions one way or another. And to have a clear out of people like you in our parliament.

  30. Morning all 😉 😊
    Sunny start mildish for Feb.
    We had a lovely weekend surrounded by children, grandchildren, family, friends and relatives. Two birthday parties. And Saturday night out at a live band gig.
    Oh my how some that music takes me back to when our government were reasonably saine and cared.

      1. The children became very active about an hour after eating the delicious birthday cake.
        Known as ‘the sugar rush’ parents instigated a game known as sleeping Lions.

  31. MPs threatened me over gay marriage, says Archbishop of Canterbury
    Justin Welby said he was summoned twice to Parliament and threatened with parliamentary action to force same-sex marriage on the Church
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/12/mps-threatened-gay-marriage-says-archbishop-canterbury/

    The biter bit!

    The Archpillock thinks it is quite all right for him to interfere with politics but not for politicians to interfered with his “church”.

    1. He says he’s only liable to god, but that is only an aspect in his own mind and his personal opinion.
      Perhaps he should have mentioned that he had been threatened immediately and the police could have arrested the MPs.

    2. Of course gay sex is not irreligious, otherwise, the RC church would not have has so many semenaries

  32. Morning, all. Cloudy start but now the sky has cleared and the Sun is shining on N Essex.

    Some truths here?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/764a509d31ecd5a323262d5c04d3b50f417c11adb70c7fd7a7c7991662277943.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2077a31c730b53a407ab01dde244eafeb4d724096949a3e363b3e9e2ff7a1a4e.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0c9a35be41e4fd7f10242079219b752cc5be2d9e68229bdf852cf2ece5dc893.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/048a823740ff2cd34f44a4fff31a3a8419c3a51f76c6867b6bf46125bc1f130c.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9219c9dd22963b3e4aaec19d21a7b072b769bf5bd259f41943f73ec2fc6b2b50.png

  33. ‘We’re calling them objects – not balloons – for a reason’: Pentagon refuses to rule out that objects flying over the US are ‘aliens or extraterrestrials’ after third UFO is shot down after flying near sensitive military sites
    A third unknown aerial object was shot down over the Great Lakes on Sunday
    Authorities are not ruling out that the three most recent objects could be aliens
    They are not calling them balloons – because they are still not sure what they are

    The Pentagon has refused to rule out the possibility that a slew of unidentified objects shot out of the sky in recent days could be linked to extraterrestrials.

    A US fighter jet shot down an ‘unidentified object’ over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Joe Biden. It was the third such downing in three days, and the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officials believe has no peacetime precedent.

    US Air Force General Glen VanHerck said intelligence services were exploring all avenues – including the notion the three most recent objects could be linked to extraterrestrials.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11742875/U-S-military-shoots-unidentified-object-Lake-Huron-three-days.html

    ‘I’ll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven’t ruled out anything,’ VanHerck said. ‘At this point we continue to assess every threat or potential threat, unknown, that approaches North America with an attempt to identify it.’

    The shoot down on Sunday occurred after the ‘octagonal’ object flew near a sensitive US military site in Montana – and had ‘potential surveillance capabilities.’

    An F-16 fighter jet shot it down from around 20,000ft over the Great Lakes at 2:42pm – after two other crafts were destroyed over Alaska and Canada on Friday and Saturday.

    A Chinese balloon was shot down on February 4 over South Carolina, meaning the US air force has now downed four objects in just eight days.

    3. Yo T_B

      Warehouse 13 is doing a stock update

      An original, official tie-in novel by New York Times bestselling author Greg Cox based on the hit Syfy drama Warehouse 13!
      Hidden away in the Badlands of South Dakota, Warehouse 13 is a top-secret repository for historical artifacts imbued with dangerous
      supernatural properties.

    5. Aliens, that sounds about right for the next chapter of “How to end civilisation.”

      With luck they’ll see we’re well overpopulated and start farming and culling the human population. Lots of plump juicy meat to freeze and send back to Proxima Centauri.

  34. While the US government is dispensing millions of dollars in resources to treat balloons as an existential crisis, a small town in Ohio finds itself engulfed in what actually looks like the apocalypse. Perhaps by design, all of the drama surrounding violations of US airspace by Chinese spy initiatives has done well to keep what is becoming one of the worst environmental disasters in recent memory from getting any headlines.

    The chaos began early last week when a train of more than 100 cars derailed in East Palestine, Ohio near the state’s border with Pennsylvania with roughly 5,000 residents. The accident launched fifty of those hundred freight cars from the tracks. Twenty of the freight cars on the train were carrying hazardous materials, ten of which were detailed. While the accident had no fatalities, of those ten cars, five contained pressurized vinyl chloride, a highly flammable carcinogenic gas.
    In order to address the volatile scenario around the crash site, the Ohio Emergency Management Agency executed its plan of venting the toxic gas with a controlled burn in order to evade an uncontrolled explosion which presented the risk of catastrophic damage. “Within the last two hours, a drastic temperature change has taken place in a rail car, and there is now the potential of a catastrophic tanker failure which could cause an explosion with the potential of deadly shrapnel traveling up to a mile,” Gov. Mike DeWine warned in statement explaining the decision to take action to avert widespread devastation.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGpwrXPVWvQ&t=3s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st7JAnUAwUM&t=4s

    1. “…East Palestine, Ohio near the state’s border with Pennsylvania.”

      I wasn’t aware that the Middle East had moved to America.

      You cannot trust those shifty Arabs.

      1. After his experiences in the middle east in WW2. My father said to me many times “Never trust an Arab son”.

        1. I’ve had the same working in gas and oil. Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt etc. Arabs are outwardly very friendly and hospitable but you cannot tell them that they have messed things up. It is a slur on their macho pride. They will insist that I have to sort out their errors and will lie to you about what they have done on site.
          Mind you the food is excellent particularly the bread which is far tastier than the spongey stuff on offer here.

  35. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Contraception

    The largest condom factory in the States burned down. President Biden was awakened at 4 am by the telephone.

    “Sorry to bother you at this hour, Sir, but there is an emergency! I’ve just received word that the Durex factory in Washington has burned to the ground. It is estimated that the entire USA supply of condoms will be used up by the end of the week.”

    Biden,” Oh damn! The economy will never be able to cope with all those unwanted babies. We’ll be ruined. We’ll have to ship some in from Mexico.”

    Telephone voice says, “Bad idea… The Mexicans will have a field day with this one. We’ll be a laughing stock. What about the UK?”

    Biden, “Okay, I’ll call Rishi and tell him we need five million condoms, ten inches long and three inches thick. That way, they’ll continue to respect us as Americans.”

    Three days later, a delighted President Biden ran out to open the first of the 10,000 boxes that had just arrived. He found it full of condoms, 10 inches long and 3 inches thick, exactly as requested…

    … each stamped with a Union Jack and written on each:

    Made in England. SIZE: Small

      1. 370983+ up ticks,

        AS,
        So to do the oakey coakey on the end of a rope that’s what it’s all about, right, I like the cut of your jib AS, that is truly what is needed.

      2. It would be the best use they could be put to, although I’d ask that we don’t slide the knot to the side of the neck (which breaks it, allowing a quick death), but have them suffocate, slowly, painfully.

      1. 370983+ up ticks,

        Morning S,

        The mantra of the lab/lib/con coalition voter prior to entering polling booth.

    3. I keep banging on about the fact that Michael Gove – shortly followed by Johnson – arrived in Brussels just before the deal was agreed and David Frost had resolutely declared that Britain would NOT give way on either British fishing waters or Northern Ireland.

      So why did Britain give in on fishing waters and why do we have the Northern Ireland Protocol?

      There can be no doubt that Gove and Johnson are Brexit traitors – and always have been. From the start they were both determined that Brexit should fail.

      1. 370983+ up ticks,

        Morning R,
        As I have been posting since the referendum result, the tory (ino) party
        needs careful monitoring as being so very pro eu regarding ALL political bodies.

        The coalition as a whole have been eu assets from way,way back.

    1. Of course there isn’t. The state can’t have the truth getting out, can it? We can’t be allowed to know the truth of their real intentions.

      Now let’s charge the Home office with rape – the entire department. Have them charged with the crimes of those they deliberately import out of pure spite forced on them.

  38. Yo all

    Went to the clinic yesterday for me to be cataracted (Prayed that the was no typo and castrated was not on the form)

    Very low key affair:
    Forms, eye drops, shufti at my eye, eye drops, sign here.
    Lay on the ‘couch, a bright light device placed over right eye, lotsa 60’s Disco lights, clenched my teeth a bit,
    light shone, water applied, things go clearer, eye wiped down, OK stand up, we are done
    Whole lot less than 20 minutes.
    SHMBO then drove us home.
    I needed to take the RH lens out of a pair of specs, One small screw, but a great step for a one eyed man
    Right eye started to ‘clear’ monocular specs fitted.
    Viewed through left eye door ‘cream’ through Right Brilliant white
    Within three hours of operation, I could see enough to post on here
    RH eye has 40% at least more vision ‘area than LH, also everything is Brighter
    I need drops 3 times a day
    When I woke up this morning, all side effects of procedure gone

    What I have learned;
    For a while the opticians have mentioned the dreaded “C” word Cataracts, but not said how severe
    If you need one get it ASAP

    Hoping for the Left one Next Sunday

    3. My mother had both eyes done in her late 70s. Completely changed her painting for the better, the older murky paintings were replaced by much brighter and more pleasant ones.

    4. Glad all went well. A very reassuring report of the procedure, and it sounds like you felt nothing – always my fear. At my last eye test, I was told I have the beginnings of cataracts. Hoping they don’t need doing too soon.

      1. It really is easy, just like looking at Disco lights

        I will be on the phone tomorrow to get the other one done

    1. The Left never change. They just want power and control. Why? Just to have it.

      The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.”

    2. Good morning Ogga and everyone.

      Not a good comparison; from the German and Polish points of view the ghetto system was effective and, dare I say it, successful.

      1. 370983+ up ticks,

        Morning T5,

        The lab/lib/con coalition are no way doing a shabby job with their fear,deceit & treachery campaign.

  40. Water companies are set to avoid big fines for spilling sewage into rivers and seas as ministers fear the multimillion pound penalties could backfire.

    Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, is understood to believe fines of up to £250 million for polluters are “disproportionate” and is backing away from the plans.

    A consultation due to open soon is expected to provide an opportunity to water down the planned increase in fines as regulators argue against “crazy” high penalties.

    The Times today launches Clean It Up, a campaign to push the government and polluters to clean up the country’s rivers, lakes and beaches.

    It calls for a beefed-up Environment Agency, jail sentences and fines for water bosses responsible for repeated and serious pollution incidents, help for farmers to curb their impact on the environment, and more designated bathing waters.

    Anglian Water Peter Simpson
    Pay £1.3 million
    Number of storm overflow spills (2021) 21,351

    Simpson has been chief executive since 2013 and is co-chairman of the Prince of Wales’s corporate green leaders group at the University of Cambridge.

    In his own words “While implementing bans should always be a last resort, we also believe the time has come to enforce a complete ban on the sale of wet wipes that do not adhere to Fine to Flush standards.”

    Northumbrian Water Heidi Mottram
    Pay £648,000
    Spills 36,483

    Chief executive since 2010, Mottram last year joined the board of the Great British Railways Transition Team.

    In her own words “Northumbrian Water has always been an incredibly environmentally conscious business.”

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Severn Trent Water Liv Garfield
    Pay £3.9 million
    Spills 59,684

    The water industry’s best-paid chief executive, Garfield is thought by some politicians to have one of the sector’s more progressive approaches to water pollution. A former chief executive at BT broadband division Openreach, she was recently tipped to lead Vodafone.

    In her own words “We spend our money on the activities that customers desire . . . Even two years ago, it [water pollution] wasn’t on the priority list.”

    South West Water (Pennon) Susan Davy
    Pay £1.6 million
    Spills 42,484

    Chief executive since 2020, Davy has blamed South West Water’s poor record on sewage spills on “population growth, tourism and lockdowns”, but says pollution levels are lower than a decade ago.

    In her own words “The [environmental performance] rating for South West Water will be one star for 2021 and I want to acknowledge this is not where we need to be, and it is deeply disappointing.”

    Southern Water Lawrence Gosden
    Pay Unpublished
    Spills 19,077

    Gosden was appointed in July to lead Southern Water, which was fined a record £90 million for water pollution in 2021. His predecessor, Ian McAulay, was paid £1.4 million a year.

    Thames Water Sarah Bentley
    Pay £2 million
    Spills 14,713

    Bentley has headed up the UK’s biggest water company since 2020, when she joined it from Severn Trent. The company recently published a live map showing sewage spills.

    In her own words “Like many of you, I care passionately about the health of rivers. As well as providing a wonderful home for so many species, they provide an escape from the intensity of everyday life.”

    United Utilities Steve Mogford
    Pay £3.2 million
    Spills 81,588

    Mogford is due to step down as CEO early this year, after leading the company since 2011. He is the second-highest paid water boss.

    In his own words “I think [there’s] a lot to do, to work with the EA [Environment Agency] and Ofwat through their investigations [into sewage pollution by United Utilities] and we’ll see where that goes. But I think at this point, we’ll work with the agencies. We feel we’re very transparent.”

    Wessex Water Colin Skellett
    Pay £975,000
    Spills 23,524

    An industry veteran, Skellett has led Wessex Water since privatisation in 1989 and has been described by friends as having a “very humble beginning” on a Nottingham council estate.

    In his own words “[I welcome the] spotlight now being thrown on river water quality.”

    Yorkshire Water Nicola Shaw
    Pay Unpublished
    Spills 70,062

    A former executive officer at National Grid, Shaw was appointed to head Yorkshire Water in May. She took over from Liz Barber, who was paid £1.4 million.

    The Times is demanding faster action to improve the country’s waterways. Find out more about the Clean It Up campaign.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/water-firms-could-escape-higher-fines-for-pollution-as-ministers-row-back-on-tougher-penalties-8bgrr652n

    1. These salaries are bonkers – almost as bad as the answers they give. Clearly, they’ve no interest in the pollution,

      I do wonder if the business decision was made because the fines were lower than the cost of treatment. It was, after all at a point where energy was hilariously expensive.

      1. Due to EU planning law we’re not allowed to. Yes, we’ve left the hated EU but DEFRA are desperate for us to rejoin so they can keep employing people to get in the way of business.

  42. Re the article I posted below about Water pollution in our rivers and coastal waters..

    What a palavar re the green agenda and hypocritical kant that Khan and all the Mayors , and green edicts councils are foisting on us .

    Water .. why aren’t the EA and the government taking pollution seriousley , and why are the CEO’s recieving vulgar salaries for doing nothing .

    1. The flooding in the Somerset levels could be avoided if the rivers were dredged but the interfering EU apparently wont allow us to dredge our own rivers. !!
      Farming has recently drained chalk streams by continuous abstraction.
      The cost of domestic water is now set to rise. More money to house the invaders.
      And there has not been one new reservoir established in the UK, especially England for over 45 years. But the population has risen by millions.
      Politicians including mayors, are too interested in their own agenda to notice the damage they are collectively doing all over the country.

    5. I think somebody translated it wrong. When they get there they will find a 72 year old Virgin, not 72 Virgins.

    1. Morning to all!
      Jordan Peterson had something interesting to say about this.
      As the male population applying to university is falling, so are female applications diminishing. Apparently the reason is quite simple, women use universities as hunting grounds for a mate. Men are giving up because apart from specialized fields such as engineering, math etc, subjects are becoming feminized. That the erosion has began in the STEM fields, due to PC, bodes ill for the future. Because women do not, in the main, take up these subjects and with men not doing them because of the feminization of the curriculum it means there is going to be a problem in keeping up the technology that keeps our civilization functioning.
      Well done feminists, you’re cutting the ground from under your own feet that makes your whining self indulgence possible.

      1. I looked at the local university website. There’s about, say 10 photos on a page. Of those, most will be blacks, muslims, or women. There will be almost no blokes and certainly no white blokes. If there is a white fellow on a page, he’ll be surrounded by blacks and muslims.

        This erasure is disgusting.

        1. Yes, it is disgusting. And we should not keep calling these people “ethnics”, we are the ethnics and we comprise 80% of the population. These people should always be called immigrants because that is what they are. We also should constantly protest at a governing class that seeks to erase us.

    2. I’ve been watching some of the TV commentators this morning talking about the NHS and the shortage of Nurses.
      But as far as I could tell no one has bothered to address the real issues.
      That is, many ex NHS trained nurses are now working in private practices and others have signed up to agency companies. Which charge the NHS more money for the nurses. Most of the nurses i came into contact with when i was in hospital just before Christmas were from Europe or other overseas countries.

      1. There were few English nurses when OH was in hospital – they were from everywhere, but not England.

    2. This Best-Selling Novel Was A Total Hoax!

      It was not a hoax

      Those who believed it were Fick (as two short planks)

      The most distinct quality of a novel that you should know is that a novel is a work of fiction.

      Novels are presented in a lengthy narrative, written to captivate readers with their prose-style mechanisms and to tell stories entertainingly.

      https://www.adazing.com/novel-vs-book/

  48. 370983+ up ticks,

    May one ask, seeing as a great deal of it doesn’t belong to us is it our business ?

    Dt,

    Politics latest news: Chinese spy balloons could have flown over UK already, says transport minister

    3. Considering how much the UK government spies on us having the Chinese do it would be a change of pace.

  49. ‘Morning All

    Alien Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4500ff25e26b31ad4dd750699db0b8d485489d38a7aa782dc2b521d9ed39692f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41b4888f465df9cdfd8389fa5d64c166ce754d59573205fb59f27837aa4bf0d0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63a52509d4bb8f3ecef2215a656acfebfa79daa111d859d7fbd20ef5134a77c7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01550f0a73e6312faeed26ae7928c045e97a9246d010f07f33b92116dd257659.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f0606c13af58bec6d5ccfb85453c024f35df5eb08a52221478c097907e947671.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3c9a8eb3e169789063f0affeedf583b20b7073b33571a1d2506834a7b54c0823.png

        1. It’s certainly culcheral because it certainly isn’t cultural.

          I have been watching videos on You Tube by a woman who labels her contributions as JustPearlyThings. It’s basically American women talking about what they expect from life and men. Honestly, I really have come to the conclusion that they are barely civilized. When asked how many partners they have had, they don’t know because it has been so many. Then they expect to marry some man that earns a minimum of a hundred thousand a year. Used goods, they dress like women of easy virtue, and are so delusional that they actually think that men want such women as wives. The men that participate, if they are black, are no better but, needless to say, not one of them would marry the women they are talking to in the group precisely because they are sluts, totally self centred and totally oblivious of what men really want in a women. The idea of being loyal to a man is beyond them, he is simply a wallet that they can plunder and continue to do as they like. The posts JustPearlyThings makes make it quite clear that we live in a degenerate age in which there really is no hope for the future unless something drastic is done and done quickly. Watching these people you realize they are narcissists without, as one would expect, any genuine feelings. The sort of people that regard children as inconvenient garbage not to be brought up but ignored. I have no doubt either, that the mentality that these Americans parade is shared by the British of the same age, 18 to 30 year olds.

          1. They are a bit bonkers, but the problem is they are looking at things as a woman trying to understand men. Blokes are really, honestly not as complicated as they want us to be.

            I wouldn’t cheat on the Warqueen – I could quite easily lock her in the shed sometimes, but I’d never betray her. Partly that’s because of when I said ‘forsaking all others’ I meant it.

            There was, however, no mention of the aforementioned shed.

    4. Gypsy’s Warning.

      When I lived in Nottinghamshire (next to Sherwood Forest) one of my neighbours was the thick chav son of a local bent ‘businessman’. The young (very pretty) girl he married was from a travelling family. After living together for a few years (and having a son) he decided that he wanted to leave her. Not a well-thought-out decision on his behalf.

      A few days later when he was at home and his wife was out, thirty caravans arrived and encircled his house. Rocks were thrown through every window. They then left. He remained inside quivering in abject fear. The following day a glazier appeared and repaired every broken window. This was paid for by the same travelling community that caused the damage.

      When his wife returned she simply said to him. “YOU don’t leave ME! If I decide that we are going to split up then it will be MY decision!”

      They were still living together when I moved away from there but I was told, much later, that she had eventually left him.

      1. I knew a fellow squaddie who got out of his posting to Belize in similar way. Most of the R Sigs personnel posted there were on a six month unaccompanied tour. He hated it and used the “Family honour” trick to get out. He started going out with a local girl, promised undying love and mariiage etc. Then he ditched her. Her father, brothers, uncles et al turned up at the camp gate in an ugly mood.
        He was on the next flight back to the UK and parked in Depot Troop, Catterick until another posting was found for him.

        1. I don’t think that is a stratagem that I would ever care to risk. There are fathers, brothers and uncles … then there are fathers, brothers and uncles who are of a different calibre!😲

  51. US tells citizens to leave Russia ‘immediately’. 13 February 2023.

    The United States has told its citizens to leave Russia “immediately” amid heightened fears of a Russian offensive in Ukraine.

    The Russians have amassed sufficient forces tto overwhelm the Ukies. The Americans probably haven’t told them either! Any ally that would blow up your pipeline to get you on side wouldn’t worry about something like that! If the Ukies do manage to hold them off, it will be “Well done guys” and if they don’t it will be “How dreadful!”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/13/ukraine-russia-war-putin-news-latest-wagner-bakhmut-attack/

  52. Medley 2

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e412b17ad08000918a4a050ed8af522fcce1c296830d9c4e59244231906774a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b9129594cb00a54056ccf8ad446374041fbafb796c5db77ad3579db3b043161.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8a2976b1550cfd5aac6ccb10187b7d9f5a6ff32a096fa893f32cf4e10e516567.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf340cd4f4b8ba110705437f0c1df0f68f128b877683e54e904d1140af6b7303.png

    Aliens are not only from outer space

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c04ccee31f5ec2ad08c85566f858d2b2c1b5e209bb79df4a1b3650506126003d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a1068cec5f319e2e0acb1ec65e3e350f8398fefef4a4d545b4702c04d04532d5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41e771c69872e6fb7e3f55f965c5b4210ef9d66ad70ad109a97e2308c12d9ac5.jpg

    1. An alien spaceship landed in a petrol station. One alien said to another “Wow these earthlings are great – they can put their dicks in their ears”

    2. I suppose if the sale of baseball bats increased dramatically, the police would be arresting the people carrying them. And not the rapists and criminals.

      2. Please, we’re English – baseball bats are no way to settle a score.

        Cricket bats are much better.

    3. Why arrest them? Shoot them. If you find you’ve got the wrong criminals, get some more. Rinse, repeat.

    4. No, Afghan teenagers prefer boys, these would have been Pakistanis, trying to qualify for a place in Rotherham.

  55. My mate says he saw a deer on his way to work this morning. I said “how do you know it was going to work”.

  56. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/12/sunaks-tax-blunders-prove-liz-truss-right-along/

    When there is headroom in the public finances, says Hunt.

    There never, ever will be. The only way to control spending is to spend *less*. Hunt refuses to accept this, wedded as he is to the Left wing, big state high tax EU model. Until taxes are radically cut, until spending is halved, the state will continue to waste 70% of what is stolen in tax.

    “Tax cuts don’t pay for themselves and wouldn’t improve the long-term financial position,” insists the Office for Budget Responsibility. The fiscal watchdog predicts higher corporation tax will raise £18bn a year by 2026, rejecting any notion lower rates can bolster the public finances.

    And there we have it. A bunch of complete morons, unable to understand basic economics who’s predictions are always wrong. Now they give evidence as to why: they don’t understand the basics.

    1. Then he should make the headroom by closing down vast swathes of government activity. Starting with Ofcom and Ofsted.

      1. And funding Stonewall, Pro-EU Rejoin groups, DIE-co-ordinators, 5* hotel accommodation and expenses for illegal immigrants, credit card spending by civil servants, HS2… the list is endless

        1. And importing loads of illegals who will be a drain on finances, together with scrapping overseas aid except in the form of British firms building infrastructure overseas.

      2. And the endless quangos, not least this energy department, climate change, bin net zero…. the list goes on.

    3. Yup. I’ve just received my tax code in one envelope and notification of my pension increase in another. It’s a waste of time paying me more, because I just pay more tax! The tax people had the nerve to print that I could go to a website to see how the government spends my money. I crossed out “spends” and wrote “WASTES”.

    1. The members of academia and political think tanks are out of control, however, they are providing us plebs with some great ideas on how to ride ourselves of such vermin.

    2. Read that. Yes indeed a monster. But the sad thing is that university professors get away with saying the most repellent things because of tenure and because most of them are Marxists who dehumanise people because of their own lack of humanity. And because we have indolent and amoral politicians, nothing is done about it as these Stalanists corrupt and destroy the youth.

          1. “You have to make allowances. He’s a … proud, upstanding, rock-hard, highly-intelligent and painfully handsome … Northerner.”

        2. Aha!

          Dammit! I should have worked that out; especially as I’m a fan of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

          3. A pal of mine had been a Mason so long that whenever he put his trousers on one leg would roll up automatically

  63. Oh bugger, 205 comments to try & catch up on!

    A couple of hours up the “Garden” doing a bit of tidying up and then chop-sawing the larger sticks for stacking in mushroom trays. Got a dozen trays done and will get a few more done whilst I’m waiting for late lunch to cook.

  64. Well here’s something you don’t see very often. A politician has resigned for unethical behaviour!

    A news rag discoverd that the Toronto mayor had been bonking one of his workers and had a big exclusive expose on Friday. He almost immediately called a press conference and resigned from his position.

    If only some liberals would follow his lead and resign as well – they can certainly match him for lack of ethics..

    2. Is that Ford? From what I have heard, he wasn’t over popular thanks to many of the decisions he made over the last three years.

      3. Toronto mayor. Not a national politician but a big city. He had lots of influence, much like the London mayor.

        He is a conservative in name only, Toronto has gone downhill since he came to power with the woke programs he has introduced.

  65. It is a gorgeous afternoon – 15ºC – sunny, quite sill – a delight to be outdoors. Our main worry is lack of rain. It hasn’t rained properly for over a month. Normally, by this time of the year, the well is full. It is only at half level. Bodes ill for the summer.

    2. Sun crackin’ the flags up here – got washing done with free electricity – and a loaf made

        2. Not all Lidls stock it so I get Doves from Tescos – I have 53 Kgs of stock just in case I run out

    4. It’s certainly been very dry – but we’d be moaning if it had been very wet as it was in December.

      1. I’ve finally managed to finish turning over my veg plot. I normally do it by the end of October at the latest, but it’s either been too wet or too frozen when I’ve had the time to do it.

    5. We’ve just been for a short walk – part of OH’s recovery process. The hill is quite steep and he managed it without the help of walking poles.

    6. Noticed that too Bill. Lack of rain here is West Sussex is starting to worry me. No decent garden if there is no rain.

      1. Newbury hasn’t had rain since mid-January. Going was good to firm (they couldn’t water because their extraction licence doesn’t allow them to from December to March – which gives you an idea of when it’s expected to rain).

  68. 370983 + up ticks,

    May one ask can the lab/lib/con coalition current supporter / voter tell me why they support / vote in favour of the importation of paedophiles, plus, would it give you pause to think if it was YOUR child, or is it “party first”

    Afghan Boat Migrants Placed In English School Arrested for Raping Girl

      1. We had a nottler in Nairobi for a while? His power supply was erratic so he usually only joined us in the mornings but he was here a lot for a short time, then disappeared altogether?

  70. Does anyone else have any pro or anti feelings about shaking hands at “the peace” in church? A colleague at work just remarked that she likes doing it but it’s unhygienic. I just realised that while “the peace” was a fixture at All Saints Fulham, we just don’t do it (with or without hand shaking) at Barts. I’ve been there two and a half years now and I hadn’t even noticed. I don’t miss it at all!

    1. It’s so long since I stopped going to church that I hadn’t noticed. If Barts is a more traditional church, then it’s probably a modern thing.

    2. I have always disliked it intensely.
      Here they march up and down the aisles shaking hands with all and sundry.

      1. Especially when one tries hard to avoid the stranger standing next to (or behind) you who aggressively INSISTS on being “friendly”…

    5. All I am able to do is nod if it is a stranger. Not a concern about hygiene or infection just me being me.

    7. I cherish the physical contact, but tend to say ‘Good morning’.
      God only permits good germs in Church.

    9. I think that if it’s done, it’s got to be done enthusiastically. I used to belong to an American church, and they peace’d like anything. It was a long session that didn’t end until everyone had shaken hands with everyone else.
      Back in Blighty, I started shaking hands with the pew behind us, and then suddenly realised that the vicar was carrying on with the service…only a very muted Peace with the person next to you was expected. Which did not make sense, as most people were sitting next to their own family anyway!

    10. I don’t like it (I never have and look forward to Lent and Advent when we don’t do it). We sign the Peace since Covid. We used to have to wander around the church and shake hands.

    11. In my pre-Atheist days I was RC. I was about 17 when it was brought in. It always felt bizarre shaking hands with family members.

  71. Norfolk is rocked by 3.7-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Great Yarmouth – days after homes in Essex were hit by tremor that ‘sounded like a bomb’
    The quake struck in an area 56 miles offshore in the North Sea on Sunday
    British Geological Survey subsequently tweeted to confirm the seismic activity
    Tremors were felt along the coast in Sea Palling, Cromer and Great Yarmouth

    Norfolk has been struck by a 3.7-magnitude earthquake just days after a tremor in Essex that ‘sounded like a bomb’.

    The earthquake is understood to have hit 56 miles off the coast in the North Sea at around 7.14am on Sunday, France’s Military Applications Division said.

    The tremor had a ‘shallow’ depth of ten kilometres, or just over six miles, meaning it was more likely to be felt by residents.

    It took place around 38 miles from Sea Palling, 42 miles from Cromer and 45 miles from Great Yarmouth – and residents in each reported feeling the earthquake.

    The British Geological Survey subsequently tweeted to confirm the seismic activity, as well as its location.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11745173/Norfolk-rocked-3-7-magnitude-earthquake-coast-Great-Yarmouth.html

      1. I was certainly awake at that time – but, no, I didn’t feel the earth move. Or even notice it!

        2. Women’s Lib’s destroying my libido.
          I don’t know if I’ll get it back again.
          At first my wife had headaches every time we went to bed –
          In retrospect that wasn’t so germane:
          Her headaches soon gave way to a voracious appetite,
          Demanding that the earth moved twice a day;
          I lost two stone; my hair fell out; I grew extremely pale –
          I felt inadequate in every way.

          1. If you don’t mind me saying so, you don’t look particularly pale; indeed the character of Falstaff springs to mind.

    4. “Rocked”. What nonsense, that’s the equivalent of a heavy truck rumbling by. In California we had that sort of earthquake almost every week. No one took any notice of such mundane tremors. This is an earthquake. I was at home, ran for it out the door of my house with my daughter under my arm and promptly stepped in dogs dodo in the yard in my bare feet. My wife at the time, The Daughter of the Antichrist, was vomiting in the toilet due to a wisdom tooth extraction. Left her to it, child was more important.
      1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Yac4Gg3TJU

      1. Loma Prieta was 6.9 strength. I was in a 6.2 in the centre of San Francisco. The ground went up and down like waves at sea for about 30 seconds (a long time). The newspaper headline the following day was “What a Roller!”.

    2. Dreaded Double Bogey for me.

      Wordle 604 6/6
      ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟨⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟨⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Little subversive about it. They’re hardly hiding the damage they’re doing. They don’t care.

        1. Secret meetings trying to reverse Democratic decisions are subversive.
          Especially when we find out about who was involved after the event.

      2. Subversive?
        Out in the open and they don’t care a damn that we know, and that’s the real problem; bastards all.

        1. You think Gove Mandlesin and their nasty minded cohorts with their secret anti brexit meetings were open about what they were doing.
          Fortunately journos were onto them and made it public.

  75. Around 1,800 London bus drivers employed by Abellio have accepted an 18pc pay increase in a long-running dispute that involved more than 20 days of strike action.

    Under the deal, drivers with over two years’ service will be paid £18 an hour, equating to a pay increase of 18% on the basic rate, the Unite union said.

    Flipping heck. £18 to drive a bally bus? At a time when we’ve acres of people in work looking at losing their jobs just to pay these obscene salaries?

    1. Given that they are frequently attacked by delinquents carrying knives, that the traffic is a nightmare, and thy are required to work very unsocial hours at times – I don’t begrudge them that wage.

      1. They all live in subsidised housing. But if they didn’t there wouldn’t be any bus drivers. I wonder if they are intelligent enough to know what is coming.

    1. Nottlers live there. Should we warn them to get to their cellars? Or just use them as a baited diversion… :@)

    2. I don’t think the Martians ever completely left. They left a residue of slow growing insidious slime that has now morphed into the HoC.

    3. Phew.
      I read that as:
      As the Allen threat increases
      I knew moving had been traumatic and the revenge might be swift…

  77. Pierre Palmade, a French actor and comedian, has been in a collision with another vehicle killing an unborn child and very seriously injuring three occupants, two are still on the danger list. He was on the wrong side of the road. A cocaine using homosexual, he was carrying two adolescent boys. Both ados ran away after the crash. I hope he is locked up for life . . . but being a ‘star’ I doubt it. Sickening.

    1. News sites report that he was under the influence, and that one of the seriously injured occupants of the other vehicle is a six year old child.

  78. That’s me gone. Very nice sunset – how agreeable that it has gone 5.30 and there is still a bit of light.

    Very pleasant afternoon, too – cut back unwanted branches on the Magnolia Grandiflora (under directions from the Head Gardener).

    Most strange feeling all day. That time was going terribly slowly. Once all chores had been done and I’d read the paper (spit) and done the three crosswords – I felt that it was time to go and lay the table for lunch. Then I saw that it had only just turned 11 am. And it has been like that all day.
    Is it just me? J B Priestly (or was it Arthur Koestler?) had a theory that time moved at different speeds for different people. There’s a discussion point for brainy NoTTLers.

    A demain.

    1. I looked at the clock at 5 and couldn’t believe it was that time already. Some days go fast and others drag.

    2. Interstellar. It is because though you are actually here you are also in a different reality which resembles in every way at the same time. It all depends on which side of the bed you get out of meaning which Uncle Bill Nottlers will be subjected to. :@)

        1. I worked at a bakery for a while – we had to work like stink to get the sales orders up together for Bank Holidays and then it was all crammed into the other days left in the week.

    2. Scumbags. Selling on the parts. The lack of police action is palpable – they won’t care, because, insurance.

  80. Phew! Ready for the removal people, though quite where the stuff will go …..
    Thank heaven for fit teenage grandchildren on half-term.
    There may be radio silence for a few days until BT get us up and running.

    4. I hope all will go well – and that you have good weather for the move. It’s been a long time but at least you’ve been able to shift a lot of stuff and have a sort out.

    5. Good luck with it all. Fingers crossed for no breakages or lost items. Get some fizz in the fridge for your first evening there.

    7. Best wishes with the move, Anne.
      Remain calm and carry on with the plan. You do have a plan, don’t you?😎

    9. Good luck and remember, all boxes do not need to be opened immediately, so take it slowly!! As long as you have a bed to sleep on for the first few nights, you’ll be fine.

    14. Once you are well settled in, Annie, don’t forget to email me the address of your Dower House.

    15. Hope all goes well. As long as you can find a place for the boxes you’ll be fine for the next ten years 🙂

  83. ‘Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1374afa5a168c07f130a8b9e231f4d681399a47f9d6f6452112a126058d533f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a3bc98a4f2bb799a902e561b177bd692185466b0586947bbf6484bd0bc3d431.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96f938e5f5a8cb8b62aeb1bb563d0cab3e08e1f8eaf8abbd0b49b60523f98557.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31edc10ef5651876945a42900b75e45311e71737c53a76c6917d117995e74eb5.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9169f9d81d733d15cb5cc2076a2700ced8624745dd43d0c59132f5fdbc3736c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de35c78515a15ca7a896c49335f439094814772b007168f5e448c7775568f924.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/435a9bdeabd57e2b1ec8fb3781d8c1f5ccaa103ac8986525178d8e8e1361a938.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3c18afadd297d000d15e36b1d9a9f8f20fac9a6879ffc9d205d2f2082ca35f8d.png

    2. 1950’s? utter rubbish.

      HG looks after me like that now!

      And yes, I know I’m a very lucky and undeserving soab

    3. Those were the days when women gave up work when they got married and the husband provided for the family.

    4. I once read that men are really simple creatures. All they need is a full stomach and empty balls.

  85. Re all this 1950s stuff. I always take of my husband and he takes care of me but, right now, I am doing the lion’s share, as you would imagine.
    There was a knock at the door this afternoon and a box from Amazon was delivered. I hadn’t ordered anything but my husband was looking very mysterious.
    He crossed out his name and wrote mine and handed me the box.
    Inside was a large jar of Walker’s Toffees ( he knows I like toffees) and a large white bear, holding a red heart that says, I Love You.
    It’s for Valentine’s Day and I was so moved, I burst into tears. He said that he was so appreciative of all the work I am doing and the help I give him. Total surprise and it has made me very happy.
    The bear is named Jack.

      1. Honestly Jill, I reckon it’ll take me a year to get through them- they are so yummy though.
        He ordered when I was slogging round Asda on Saturday and I couldn’t have been more surprised.
        I think I’ll keep him;-)

        1. What a star, Ann! Aren’t men peculiar things! Just when you think you know them, they go and do something like that! 😘

          1. Well, it’s certainly an improvement on the 2 pairs of socks he bought himself before Xmas with Brussels Sprouts on them! And he wore them!

          2. Haha! That’s wonderful! My dear husband bought himself a Land Rover one Christmas! He bought me a salad spinner…..I really wasn’t terribly ‘appy🙄

          3. Ah, but you can drive his Landy, but he has to maintain it… seems like a good deal to me!

          9. Haha! That’s wonderful! My dear husband bought himself a Land Rover one Christmas! He bought me a salad spinner…..I really wasn’t terribly ‘appy🙄

        1. Yep, you caught a good ‘un…

          “Nice” only describes rice pudding, he sounds twice nicer than nice.

  86. Just what are these young lasses doing?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3aabb0eb1dc774484a8f0300271519a26a296e3fa119c918a065104805bdcd7.gif

    Oh, I see – they’re inflating them:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/754c80d69f5deaa3ade147f2067b31e5b083144704bc8cf1ac289a3bdbd2de6e.gif

    Preparing for takeoff!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d38a894d6dd420660024be6d08973e25db61eeb0ac7fcf66f46f3a46ba84cb27.gif

    Nice view of the States down there!:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5bc5a01e606c952e6db3867eff85fbe2398ffecee9c30728085e6540f69a2767.gif

  87. Why/ how has Britain got an un-elected, Bollywood billionaire as Prime Minister?

    Why/ how has Britain got the longest-serving, incompetent Health Minister, as unelected Chancellor?

    Wot are we going to do about it?

    1. Good question. What CAN we do about it? I’ll campaign for an alternative candidate, but it’s convincing the sheeple that they need to vote for something else to get a change. I caught an advert tonight about “scary words” about inflation. To me, that’s just the result of incompetent government policies – it didn’t have to be like that. What others will think, though, is another matter.

    1. Is that new?
      I haven’t seen anything here, perhaps one of the other frogiphiles on Nottle has more info.
      There were demonstrations during the latter part of 2022.

        2. I’m always slightly wary when I read of clips of that nature. Too often they pick a clip to underline a point, even if it’s out of date.
          I wouldn’t be surprised to find it’s true; Mrs Rastus might be a good source to confirm one way or the other.
          eg We had quite a big demo here at the W/E but I’ve seen nothing in the press.

  89. Well, the grey start eventually morphed into a very pleasant afternoon and I filled a couple of dozen mushroom trays with sticks that have now been stacked for next winter.
    It is a clear night outside and the temperature is already nudging below zero as we could be in for a frost tomorrow.

      1. No idea, Sos, but mushroom trays full of mushrooms cost around £1 at my local Aldi. Lol.

        1. That may suggest that perhaps, just maybe, but possibly BoB is ever so slightly but only ever so, exaggerating how much wood is being shifted??

          1. Either that, Sos, or he likes twiglets instead of fried mushroom with his Full English for breakfast. Lol.

        2. Having spent a while this afternoon sawing properly, with a bow saw, I suspect i could under cut (ho ho) your price.
          I’m guessing your mushroom tray wood is purely for kindling.

          1. Not exclusively. I fill them with up to 2″ diameter which go onto the little open fire in the sitting room.
            After felling the dead elms and dieback ash, we’ve small small twigs snapped to size for the trays to last well into next winter as kindling!

    1. And if he starts WW3 his place will be amongst most of us, ashes to ashes and dust to dust …

      1. Nope, he’ll be fine, although needing clean skivvies, in an underground shelter somewhere – whilst everyone else will be either dust or glow-in-the-dark.

          2. No, there is another more modern bunker in the area.
            I tried to find out more about it on Gurgle, but for some reason nowt appeared.

          3. I’ll be okay – as long as I can get to the Secret Bunker (near Nantwich) in less than three minutes 🙂

          4. My former boss the late Sir William Whitfield won the government sponsored competition for a new building on Broad Sanctuary, site of the present Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre.

            Whitfield’s scheme was cancelled principally because of the opposition of Sir Leslie Martin, a jealous architectural rival and Chief Architect at LCC.

            The partner in charge at the time had taken the Whitfield scheme to working drawings. In conversation he told me that when inspecting the site he and the engineer travelled in a subterranean lift shaft many stories underground.

            It is safe to say that there are many tunnels and chambers deep underground all over London and probably concentrated under the Whitehall Estate.

            When we were designing Richmond House in Whitehall our engineers were obliged to provide piling and foundation details to another government employed engineer for vetting prior to the commencement of the works.

    2. Sunak is a fool and puppet of the UN/WEF and NATO.

      The sanctions against Russia have caused enormous damage to the U.K. and Europe. Germany now has to obtain gas and oil from the US at vastly increased costs following the destruction of Nordstream 2 by the US.

      The Russians simply sell their oil and gas to other friendly nations. India for example has bought discounted oil from Russia, processed it and sold on to the US who are now buying Russian oil they had sanctioned. Fools. India is now a global energy supplier as a result of the stupidity of the Clinton/Obama/Biden idiots.

  91. Almost £1bn spent on anti-Covid drug that makes ‘no significant difference’
    Under two per cent of 2.23 million courses of molnupiravir bought by Department of Health have ever been prescribed
    Almost £1 billion of taxpayers’ money has been wasted on an anti-Covid drug that makes “no significant difference”, The Telegraph can disclose.
    https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/11/almost-1bn-spent-anti-covid-drug-doesnt-work/
    Less than two per cent of the 2.23 million courses of the antiviral drug molnupiravir procured by the Department of Health have ever been prescribed to patients, analysis by The Telegraph shows.

    The rest are unlikely to ever be used after research found the drug makes “no significant difference” to hospitalisation or death rates.

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the UK drugs watchdog, recently said molnupiravir should not be routinely used. In November, the drug was added to its draft “not recommended” list for treatment of Covid.

    The drug is far more costly than alternatives, at around £450 per course. It has been used so infrequently that it amounts to a cost of £30,000 per patient treated, The Telegraph investigation reveals.

    In autumn 2021, Sajid Javid, then the health secretary, announced that the Government had bought 2.23 million courses of the “game-changing” antiviral in an attempt to reduce the impact of the omicron variant.

    The UK was the first country in the world to licence molnupiravir, which was designed to keep vulnerable people out of hospital by reducing the severity of Covid symptoms. At the time, Mr Javid described the decision as a “historic day”.

    1. Slighyly o.t – what is the difference berweet “banning” and “shadow banning” from a social media site?

      1. Not that I’m an expert , banning means a formal notification that one is banned from posting. Shadow banning is just a devious tech trick by the platform to make your posts much more difficult to find so replies are few and far between…..

      2. Shadow banning allows the subject to post a comment, but it isn’t shown to the unwashed masses. Paul Weston is shadow banned from the DT. He asked BTL on the Conservative Woman website a few months ago whether anyone could see a particular post. No-one could…

        1. Thanks Geoff. I first noted something like this years ago when I commented on some blogs. If I went back to see if I had any replies and I hadn’t logged on, I could not find some comments.

  96. Evening, all. In my view, the Tories will pay for their failure to actually be Conservative. Why vote for blue Labour when you can vote for the real thing (and at least you know what you’re getting)?

      1. Yes, thank you, jill. Back to his old self, I’m pleased to say. The one-way trip has been postponed for the present.

    2. The Coward Cameron’s TINOs have done a HUGE amount of damage to the Party as well as the country.

      1. Electing Cameron to be the leader of the Conservative Party rather than David Davis was probably the worst mistake they ever made.

        1. Observing that Cameron came from nowhere (like Macron) and no-one had scarcely heard of him before the election, perhaps he wasn’t voted in, perhaps the election was rigged in his favour in what we have come to realise with hindsight is the WEF preferred method.

  98. When three people have sex, it’s called a threesome.
    When two people have sex, it’s called a twosome.
    Now I understand why Rishi Sunak is called handsome!

  100. Off topic
    French health service.
    HG had to have a blood test this morning.
    Due in 8.05.
    Done and dusted 8.10
    Everything went normally and as usual the notification of results arrived in the email this afternoon, at around 4 pm.

    We only use one email address so when she logged in to the link the French system did not recognise her name and instead linked us to my results.
    We went back to the clinic at quarter to six.
    They apologised! WHY? it was our fault.
    They immediately printed off the results for her and by the time we were home, six thirty, the new link was in our email and she was set up with a different sub-account.

    UK NHS envy of the world? I think not.

    1. Agreed. Our blood test results usually arrive by email during the afternoon, especially after fasting before the leeches draw the blood at 8am.

      1. The arrival wasn’t the surprise, that’s normal here, it was the fact that when we went back this afternoon that they sorted out the problem then and there, gave her a print out of the results and had the changes back with us before we even got home.
        In the UK I can’t help thinking it would be next week at the very earliest.

        1. Next week??
          In your dreams,a fortnight ago I finally got blood pressure tests on my feet after 3 months of waiting overall good news I’m not immently about to join Geoff as a double hoppy but contact about possible treatments?? Sod all
          The chasing starts tomorrow

    2. I never watched the Olympic opening ceremony, but felt the adulation of the NHS that formed a major part of the event was embarrassingly well over the top.

      1. I watched about 10 minutes but switched off at the sight of a black kid with big hair using an NHS hospital bed for trampoline practice. It was garbage by all accounts.

      2. German colleagues at the time were baffled by the hospital beds, and asked me why they were in the parade.

    4. I have never had a problem with blood tests, and I have had lots of them. I will be given a same day result when it has been necessary. They always contact me first when I am due to visit for something.

    5. The NHS has an over cumbersome, to say the least, referral system. A few years ago I went to the optician who identified a problem with one eye and said he’d refer me. He had to send a letter to my doctor which he prepared and gave it to me to take to the surgery on the way home. He said he wasn’t allowed to refer me directly. Eventually I received an appointment for the eye clinic. When I saw the consultant she ask why I was there a I said it’s per the letter. The GP hadn’t sent the letter.
      The NHS is an archaic, bureaucratic institution that put process over outcome. I can’t see any political party having the guts to change it as they’ve all put it on a pedestal.

        1. That’s because the first duty of a bureaucrat is to create more bureaucrats and the NHS have got it down to a fine art. They are only interested in process where they should only be concerned about outcomes.

          1. Nationalising the healthcare providers was a disaster. They only needed to provide some form of social health insurance.

  101. Popping back in,a couple of days ago we were told a list if Epsteins clients would be released by the courts,today we have a massive UFO squirrel
    Just saying……….

    2. The derailment of the train with its toxic load including highly flammable vinyl chloride is likely to prove one of the worst ecological and human disasters of all time in America. The Ohio river is already polluted for hundreds of miles, the source of drinking water for 5 million people. Dead fish are a further pollutant to the toxic chemical contamination.

      I have just read that another train hauling hazardous chemicals has derailed, Houston area I think and am looking for reports.

      Considering the first derailment was last Friday we might be forgiven for questioning why news reporting on the incident is entirely absent and the emphasis in mainstream news media focussed on imaginary aliens flying helium balloons.

      With Biden goading both Russia and China into WWIII it is surely time for The Resident to be impeached and brought down asap.

      1. 371042+ up ticks,

        Morning GG,
        I [personally cannot see how any integration is going to work in the future if these young girls are not going to comply to the needs of our much maligned overseas friends.

  107. A new Brexit deal is expected to be announced in the next fortnight after the UK watered down its hardline resistance to European judges ruling on issues in Northern Ireland.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/02/13/new-brexit-deal-nears-northern-ireland-deadlock-comes-end/

    As expected he has flunked it. The prime minister has as much backbone as a jelly fish.

    Conservative capitulationist. Sunak Surrenderer. Weaker than water Wykehamist.

    Brexit might have been brilliant if the government had tried it – but they were too afraid and too lily-livered to give it a go. They do not deserve to remain in office until the end of the week.

    1. “Brexit might have been brilliant if the government had tried it – but they were too afraid and too lily-livered to give it a go”.

      They were not too afraid and too lily-livered to give it a go – they had no intention of implementing a proper democratic decision by the public. Parliament never wanted Brexit and are/were determined we shouldn’t have it.

    1. We have only had the 2 AZ jabs which we deeply regret. We have not had covid or any kind of cold or flu. What we have had are other results….a blocked stent for my husband and huge red blotches for me. After almost 2 years, these spots are still appearing.

      1. I’ve been lucky and had no reactions to the jabs. But I can’t help thinking my husband was damaged by the three Pfizer jabs he had.

      2. Me too, Big Sis. While the AZ jabs caused problems (which have largely receded, but they’ll never completely go away), I have and will never have the mRNA booster jabs.

        I’m surrounded by sheep who eagerly line up for their boosters. The more they have, the more frequent they go down with Covid. Sadly, the Queen Consort appears to be one of them.

        I had mild sniffles and a couple of brief, unusual, symptoms in February 2020. I then added Vitamin D3 to my meds, and I’ve had no symptoms of anything since…

    2. Next door neighbour’s friend has got Covid. I asked if he’d had all his jabs and boosters? Yes. Didn’t take kindly to me saying “well they don’t work then, do they”. Insisted they do.

    3. Next door neighbour’s friend has got Covid. I asked if he’d had all his jabs and boosters? Yes. Didn’t take kindly to me saying “well they don’t work then, do they”. Insisted they do.

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