Thursday 16 March: Jeremy Hunt’s Budget can’t redeem the Conservatives’ betrayal on tax

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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566 thoughts on “Thursday 16 March: Jeremy Hunt’s Budget can’t redeem the Conservatives’ betrayal on tax”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    A Little Girl’s Fairy Tale

    This is the Fairy Tale that should have been read to all little girls

    Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess, happened upon a frog, as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the bank of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb58f123aa320362573d2291d18a49afbbf8b744507bd8b026302654e33ab36d.jpg

    The frog hopped into the princess’ lap and said, “Elegant lady, I was once a handsome prince until an evil witch cast a spell upon me. However, one kiss from you and I shall turn back into the dapper young prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and set up housekeeping in your castle, with my mother, where you can:

    Prepare my meals
    Clean my clothes
    Bear my children and
    Forever feel grateful and happy so doing.”

    That night, as the princess dined sumptuously on lightly sautéed frog legs, seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled and thought to herself,

    “I don’t fuckin’ think so.”

    1. Morning Tom – it’s an interesting fairy tale – as if the moral is that a woman needs a husband. However, many fairy tales teach that a woman and a man together are happier than they’re apart: Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast (although that’s more about a woman taming a savage man).

      However the common theme isn’t that the man takes over the woman – it’s the partnership of the two together being stronger.

      Maybe it’s a fantasy. We’re all told we need a prince/ss in our lives. Sometimes life doesn’t work out that way. Does that mean we shouldn’t teach the ideal of fairy tales?

      1. As i recall from the Bible reading at my wedding: two are better than one, for they have good reason for their labour…

    2. I have successfully played the Frog to Caroline’s Princess but with a far happier ending for me than in your Fairy Tale!

  2. Morning, all Y’all. Brilliant sunny day, decent zed last night, and breakfast supplied.

    1. A soggy, grey day here in Moffat, I woke up tired and shall now retire for more zeds.

      1. Warnings about massive snowfalls to come soon. Oh, joy. No end to winter, it seems.

        2. That’s the usual with our weather presenters.
          They do like to keep up with the latest version of information. And fashion of course.

    1. If I recall absolutely every tax went up in the budget. They can argue they’ve not raised them, but those are not cuts, they’re simply not taking more. As it is, the effective tax rate is offensive.

      1. Hunt is like the mugger who steals £1,000 from you and then expects to be thanked if he says he might give you back £10 next year.

  6. Norman Bates’s Budget can’t redeem the Conservatives’ betrayal on tax

    The fact that the MSM appear to be giving it a thumbs up must mean that it is a terrible budget.

    1. And why was The Great Windsor Surrender hailed as a victory for Sunak by the MSM when it clearly spells the end of Brexit?

      Silly question: The Great Windsor Surrender was hailed as a victory for Sunak by the MSM because it clearly spells the end of Brexit?

  7. The world economy is on the brink of collapse and all the Tories do is tinker. 16 March 2023.

    For the past quarter of a century, beginning roughly with Tony Blair’s election, the British economy has been undergoing a slow yet radical transformation that now looks set to end in catastrophe.

    Almost imperceptibly at first, the authorities began relying on cheap credit and an artificial housing boom to keep the economy “growing”; eventually, this turned into outright money-printing and near-zero interest rates. At the same time, the size of the welfare state increased massively, paid for by higher taxes, reduced spending on traditional government functions (such as defence or the courts), as well as the proceeds (via stamp duty) of the growth mirage concocted by the monetary expansion.

    Britain’s late 20th century economic model, characterised by delayed gratification, hard graft and increasingly competitive capitalism, has given way to a semi-socialist, semi-rentier paradigm, extinguishing our entrepreneurial dynamism and killing productivity growth.

    You have to laugh! These people sound more and more like NoTTLer’s. Twenty years too late unfortunately!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/15/world-economy-brink-collapse-tories-do-tinker/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Now is the winter of our discontent
      Made ‘glorious summer’ by this Sunak dork;
      And all the clowns that laboured in the House
      In the deep bosom of the depression buried.
      Now are our brows knit with astonished WTFs?;
      Our bruised arms stiff from Covid Jabs;
      Our stern alarums changed to ‘Inclusion” meetings,
      Our dreadful marches to frightful measures.
      Grim-visaged war hath smooth’d Zelynski’s account;
      And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds
      To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
      He capers nimbly in the WEF chamber
      To the lascivious pleasing of the loot.
      But I do not follow sportive pricks,
      Nor court a half full glass;
      I, that am unwoked stamp’d, don’t want Gove’s majesty
      Nor strut before the wanton ambling Hunt;
      I, that am curtail’d of his tax proportions,
      Cheated of a future by dissembling creatures.

  8. A very smug Hunt enjoying his Budget changes to the cheering conservative back benchers has most probably ensured the destruction of his party at the next election. Still supporting Net Zero, Increasing Corporation Tax, freezing Income Tax allowances and Inheritance Tax Thresholds will draw many middle earners and pensioners into the higher income bracket for many years. the smirk on Hunt’s face will soon disappear.

    1. They have alienated those who might vote for them by pandering to those who will never vote for them.

    2. Sadly, it won’t. He was hired to ensure the declline of the nation. To run the economy into the ground. For that, he’ll receive a peerage, a cushy 2 day a week job in the EU bureaucracy, a half million salary, another half million in expenses and swan off into the sunset.

      It’s always Joe Soap who pays the bill ad this time it’ll not be a punch in the gut and a few smashed teeth, broken jaw and so on it’ll be full blown evisceration.

  9. Good morning, chums. I hope you slept well Duracell Man (i.e. Paul, i.e. Herr Oberst).

    1. In a forum not unlike this, I wrote, maybe twenty years ago, that “we’ll all be banking at the Post Office soon enough”.

    1. Morning, Janet.
      Easy come, easy go. Also, that’s where their fortunes reside.

    2. Nothing about giving money to the Swiss. The Bank of England has every business worrying about what’s happening.

      1. We have a banking regulator. The FCA has this duty. If they’re incompetent, why are they about? It’s not the Bank of England’s role to get involved – Brown saw to that by removing them from that duty (because they kept telling him he was going to ruin everything, and he did).

        If the system doesn’t work – for whatever reason, then it must be changed, and real teeth applied to protect the individual and wider economy from the predations of incompetence, greed and failure.

        Instead we have a situation of jobs for the boys where cretins ruin everything, pay themselves 8 figure salaries and the tax payer takes the loss – all to save political face.

    3. This morning it was announced that we are giving money to Moldova to help against Russian interference. Not to mention the Afghan ladies team, where we managed to rescue 135, must have been about 10 family members for every so called player. Spending is unlimited it would seem.

    4. Britain was inn trouble because Gordon Brown was a moron. The City is incestuous to a bonkers degree. Backroom deals, handshake deals, quiet arrangements, off book deals – all sorts of bodges and hacks to keep it going funded by cushy arrangements after office.

      Chances are, some civil servant in the treasury was looking for a sweetheart deal as a Director on 5 million a year for special favours after office and sees that going up in smoke, so they’re going to force tax payers cash to protect his backhander.

      I’m sure folk are bored with my posting these, but Yes Minister nailed it again:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2itKRPGFiE

  13. Great Britain’s survival cannot be bought cheap. 16 March 2023.

    At a time when rogue powers such as Russia, China and Iran are intensifying their efforts to confront the West, the Chancellor’s pledge to add £11 billion to the defence budget over the next five years must be seen as a welcome move in the right direction – assuming, that is, the extra money ever materialises.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Andrew Dale.

    Our existential enemy is within Mr Con Coughlin. The Gramscian Cultural revolution is in its end phase. Our kids are taught of 160 genders through the conduit of NeoMarxist propaganda and blueberry muffins. We are told the family is a “white Christian patriarchal construct and it must be destroyed”. And people who try and defend the family are labelled “Nazi scum” by university graduates. Ray Mears and Micheal Portillo are placed on a “far right programming” watch list curtesy of the “prevent” programme. A programme primarily designed to prevent Islamic terrorism!

    And much of the recent stuff blew across the Atlantic from America.

    From Pax American to Pox Americana in two decades.

    These Neomarxist maggots have burrowed deep and they have dined well. They control all our institutions.

    Great Britain is dead Mr Con Coughlin.

    Very true Mr Dale. The real enemies of the British people are not in Moscow or Beijing but Westminster!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/16/great-britains-survival-cannot-bought-cheap/

      1. The Itchen toll bridge came up again with a councillor saying that if we didn’t pay the toll, our council tax would have to double.

        I replied that no, that’s not how it works. The state would have to be more efficient, such as scrapping the posts of council managers and councillor expenses. She didn’t understand. Her view was that people should have to keep paying, one way or the other, never that the state must be reduced to suit the public.

        Such attitudes prevail amongst Left winger, and they actively seek power over others.

    4. It is of note that the UK is getting involved in military alliances against China. The US and Australia have reasons to protect their interests in that area but as usual Britain gets mixed up in adventures that we should keep well away from. Maybe our clowns do not realise that China already has an economic stranglehold on the world and military skirmishes are just a side show.

    1. The good old EU! What a crock this organisation has become.

      Morning Korky. Like most of the West’s political institutions the EU is anti-democratic. Whenever I see Fond a Lyin on the TV I marvel that this woman walking the world stage and directing the futures of millions of people has never recieved a single vote from any of them!

      1. Araminta, I couldn’t agree more. Therefore, it is clear that those politicians who wish us to re-join the crock are not democrats but are elitist authoritarians who wish to rule the people by diktat. As our betters, they, of course, would exclude themselves from being constrained by their own orders.
        How have we come to this sorry position?

        1. How have we come to this sorry position?

          Oggy unfortunately is almost certainly correct about this!

        2. 372036+ up ticks,

          KtK,

          Via the polling booth and most certainly via “the best of the worst” voter.

        3. The Covid scamdemic was a huge opportunity to wield totally undemocratic power over the whole western world. And, sadly, in the U.K. it seems the vast majority of people fell for the scam hook, line and sinker. Everything HMG is doing just now, including the budget, seems geared towards
          a). Rejoining the EU
          b). The great reset
          c). CBDC.
          d). Total surveillance and control.

      2. The state – ours being a clear example – loves this power without accountability angle. Let’s face it, whoever you vote for we get the same bunch of fools with the same agenda, so what’s the point of having the vote when they are all the same?

      3. Morning all.

        Problem is, even when we vote for someone because of their “manifesto”, the manifesto is jettisoned at the first sign of dissent or discussion or there is simply a u-turn. As wibbling says what’s the point of having a vote? (I will vote but the choice is pretty poor).

        1. Brown went to court to prove his manifesto wasn’t legally binding. If he can stick two fingers up so easily, what’s the point of them?

    2. 372036+up ticks,

      Morning KtK,

      “Why would any sensible and honest person want to re-join this undemocratic nest of vipers”?

      Surely a United Kingdom home grown nest of vipers ( westminster in total) and current demented supporters would NOT refuse the offer.

      1. Because they want a share of the brown envelopes.

        Many remoaners just want to rejoin because they blindly, unthinkingly hate the people who voted leave. There’s no reason there, just anger.

    3. It’s not their money. Why would they care? Besides, I imagine the majority of the spend isn’t actually a physical product but the brown envelope overhead the EU adds in as a kick back to themselves.

  15. Good morning all.
    A damp, dull, drizzly Derbyshire this morning with a tad above 4°C outside.

  16. Good day all,

    Dreich start at McPhee Towers, stiff SSW breeze and 9℃. More rain later.

    I’m agog with indifference over Hunt’s budget but note that while he has liberated the better paid from the LTA on their pension funds the increase in Corporation Tax will mean that fewer and lower dividends accrue to pension fund investments. Lower dividends will mean lower capital growth due to lower share prices. What he giveth with one hand he taketh away with the other.

    1. Such is always the way. He knew this, but didn’t care. The group who really benefit are the public sector.

  17. Good day all,

    Dreich start at McPhee Towers, stiff SSW breeze and 9℃. More rain later.

    I’m agog with indifference over Hunt’s budget but note that while he has liberated the better paid from the LTA on their pension funds the increase in Corporation Tax will mean that fewer and lower dividends accrue to pension fund investments. Lower dividends will mean lower capital growth due to lower share prices. What he giveth with one hand he taketh away with the other.

        1. Thanks! Returned yesterday late afternoon, thank God. Followed by an excellent zed in my own comfy bed, and feeling much improved today!
          Home coffee is better, too.

  19. 372036+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 16 March: Jeremy Hunt’s Budget can’t redeem the Conservatives’ betrayal on tax

    I personally don’t give two shites about any budget bullshit tis ALL deflection, fodder for dangerous fools who still have faith in a party NAME hollowed out and replaced with WEF / NWO crap long ago.

    Shortly the political lemmings that have carried on supporting the treacherous / treasonable lab/lib/con / current ukip coalition
    over the last three decades regardless of consequence as in seeing the country, country infrastructure overwhelmed, their kids
    mass raped & abused, mass terrorism, via foreign elements and
    internal political forces, etc,etc, will be able to step from the cliff edge to the top of the dead lemmings pile, with no harm incurred,as total acceptance will be the order of the day.

    The continuing voting pattern shows the depth of stupidity / insanity within the electorate who seem only to willing to want more of the same as long as the odious actions are couched in
    comforting rhetoric, and of course under the PARTY NAME.

  20. And in cat news…..today is the half-birthday of Gus and Pickles. 2½ years old. Two fully grown and developed young animals with completely different personalities. Definitely outdoor cats – who are not averse to a meal and an armchair indoors from time to time. They often prefer to spend the day sleeping in the porch rather than in front of the fire!

    How lucky we were to find them.

    1. How lucky we have been to have heard about and seen them growing up,I do like a cat but can’t have one where I now live
      Keep the piccies coming Willum

        1. Oscar has been to the vet today, so he’s comatose and flat out. So much so that when I woke him up to squirt antibiotic gel into his eye he never even noticed!

          1. Oh, bless him! A visit to the vet is so stressful and for the owners as well as the dogs. We were at the vet yesterday for a check-up, an hour’s wait, they were running late and we had a dog that should not be stressed, because of the leaky mitral heart valve. We were all stressed out by the time we got out. The verdict was Poppie is doing really well, her heart has not deteriorated since being put on the medication, which seems to suit her. Unfortunately her lymphomas are growing larger but so far so good. She still enjoys her walks, she canters alongside and she enjoys her food. We think she is starting to go deaf. We were really tired today, I think it was the stress catching up with us.

          2. Stress can make you feel very tired. Oscar isn’t stressed (certainly not compared with the other dogs in the waiting room!) until the vet actually tries to do something to him. Then he tries to remove her fingers (he’s muzzled as a matter of course). It took three of us (there was a student watching and helping) to put his contact lens in. I hope he keeps it in longer than the last one, which barely lasted two days before I found it on the kitchen floor. I think I shall have to get a part-time job to fund his medical care!

          3. It does sound very expensive – contact lenses! I wish I had been a fly on the wall to watch the procedure. We have spent a small fortune on Poppie in the last few years, her medication alone now costs us £160 a month.

          4. I have spent nearly a grand in the last few months! Still, I knew he was an old dog and a pedigree, so I’ve only myself to blame. I don’t begrudge it at all; he may be a grumpy old git, but he’s my grumpy old git! I like to think he appreciates it all.

      1. Hunters. KIll rodents, esp rats; rabbits (grown up). Moles. Wary of pheasants and squirrels.

    3. Mongo is 4 in a few days time. Wiggy lived to be 12. How do I tell Junior that the companion he’s known almost all his life won’t be there when he’s 14, 15?

      I didn’t want to get another dog after Wiggy died. It would feel a replacement. The Warqueen said we should. Mongo was one of his ‘sons’, I suppose. I love the great brute, but he’s always been more Junior’s than my dog.

      1. The problem with animals is that they live shorter lives than we do. I’d still rather live with the grief than never have had their companionship.

    1. If the proposed tax cut Liz Truss wanted to bring in caused stock markets to go into apoplectic shock why doesn’t the same happen with doing away with the pension cap?

      1. The Left wanted to get rid of Truss because she would have reversed their carefully managed declinism with practical policies. She’d demonstrate why tax cuts worked. The state hated that, and set about getting rid of her and used the markets as the excuse.

        They’ve ignored that under Sunak and Hunt it’s been far worse because it doesn’t suit the agenda.

  22. Kyiv troops ‘sent to death’ in Bakhmut as Putin suffers ‘heavy losses’. 16 March 2023.

    Ukrainian troops have told of being “sent to their death” in Bakhmut – the small eastern city at the centre of Russia’s winter campaign.

    Amid reports of heavy losses within Moscow’s ranks, Kyiv forces have spoken of their own desperate fight for survival against Russia’s “infinite” stocks of artillery and personnel.

    This is becoming a regular refrain. Are the Ukies nearing collapse?

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-us-drone-latest-news-b2301052.html

      1. It is interesting that we haven’t had those for some time in many conflicts. Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria.

    2. It just shows up the shocking policy of Zelensky, that he is content to have his population slaughtered and the country raised to the ground. Its interesting that we rarely see any of his military leaders, he presents himself as a one man band. In reality, he is a puppet of the West and I suspect that the Ukes that remain would like to see a resolution.

    1. I’m afraid that it will all remain covered up. A big hush up because it embarrasses the hoi polloi.

    1. …an “Awkward” question…

      Rick, the problem is that the PTB are not willing to hear, and certainly not discuss, anything about the “vaccine” and its disastrous outcomes. ‘Safe and effective’ is their watchword and they must stick to that utter crap statement, as to admit to the problems with the “vaccine” will see them utterly destroyed. That will include all those on the Opposition benches who supported the shower in government. Vaccination omertà rules in HoC except for Andrew Bridgen.

    2. I’ve been taking night nurse for the past 3 days. At one point years ago I was taking it almost daily.

    3. No. She’s wrong. Norway withdrew products containing Pholcodine in 2007 over fears that they were associated with incidents of anaphylactic shock when patients undergoing surgery were sedated. Subsequent data showed that cases of anaphylactic shock during surgery declined following the withdrawal. The puzzle is why Norway was an outlier for so long, with other countries only following suit 15+ years later.

  25. Hunts budget pension policy isn’t going down well, anything that encourages Lineker to keep working is a crime against humanity

  26. Good morning everyone .

    Dull damp day , mildish 10c.

    Dogs have had their breakfast , we have also had ours , bowl of one weetabix and sugar free muesli , sprinkled with blueberries and milk.

    I liked this DT letter

    The high life
    SIR – Duncan Reeves (Letters, March 14) describes the miraculous language of bees. Equally extraordinary is the behaviour of swifts.

    Some stay airborne continuously for four years after leaving the nest, and come back to the place where they were born, despite spending winters in the southern hemisphere each year.

    We had five nests in our house in the 1970s – now all gone. They were a delight to watch.

    N J S Ellis
    Darlington, Co Durham ,

    1. Our three pairs of swifts raised five young between them last summer. Hoping they’ll be back in May.

      1. I do hope yours return , the photos you take are wonderful .

        Did you see any swifts when you visited Kenya , did you notice bird life ?

        My brother in law in SA spends time in the bush monitoring birds , not catching them but recording what he sees and hears.

        1. I did see swifts in flight most days but whether they are the same species I don’t know. The bird life in Kenya is wonderful but I’m not such a good photographer to catch much of it. Elephants and lions are a bit slower, like me! Will share a few bird pics on Fb eventually.

    2. Mongo’s – and Ozzie’s – breakfast was 250grams of minced beef, 2 roasted chicken breasts, a courgette, a carrot, 250 of pasta, a can of salmon, a stork of broccoli and cauliflower florets.

      He also had three of his teeth biscuits.

      I put down a bucket of water, most of which goes on the floor.

      Sausage rolls are out for later on – when he’s out!

      1. That sounds like a veritable feast Wibbling .. but yours are big dogs .

        Mine are small spaniels , they have kibble and a small tray of Butchers meaty stuff and any left over veg.

        1. They get a kilo of meat, twice over (chicken, fish, beef) , divided between them.

          Mongo’s big. Not just tall at the shoulder, but broad, with big legs. He’s bigger than the St Bernard I walk with him. We spent some time with the old people in the hospice yesterday and despite outweighing most of the residents twice over, he was the most gentle and kind fellow going.

  27. Morning all 😉 😊
    Still or steel grey out there.
    How can the ordinary working and those locked in fixed/state pensions afford to pay for all the benefits of the none contributers. If the chancer-liar took the basic income and deducted all the increases including council tax rises and that London turd who is screwing motorists.
    A lot of honest hard working people would be homeless and destitute. But the Westminster mob of useless shysters and their Whitehall counterparts would still be robbing us blind. So it doesn’t effect and never will, any of them in any shape or form.
    Including all the ‘top brass’ the Lords etc, I wonder just how many of these self pandering
    do-and produce-nothing’s, the tax payer’s are force to support. And what they realistically cost us…..and for what ?
    It absolutely stinks.
    Chest cleared for the time being. 🤗

    1. It is very worrying how enforced this socialist attitude has become. As the state discovers a problem it has created, it then finds a solution that will be popular – as socialising costs is always popular – it disguises the real problem: the reason childcare is expensive is down to demand. Demand fuelled by people having to have both parents working to survive. Why? Because the state has pursued inflation as policy and so heavily taxes people that there’s no choice BUT to work.

      It creates the problem, then finds a solution, but continues to exacerbate the underlying issue.

      As it is, this desperate enforced socialism is just more waste, more inefficiency, more state expansion – which is the intent.

      1. And He’s created tax breaks for the already rich.
        NHS doctors included.
        Many of them have private health income as well.

        1. I don’t really mind that. I know lots of folk get up in arms about the rich getting to keep more of their own money but really, who cares?

          If I wanted the same I’d be a doctor. What bothers me is that the tax system isn’t fair on those of us working to pay it, and the service we get for this obscene amount of money is abysmal. When our taxes kept going up we re-arranged them to minimise them. It was either that or go out of business.

          When Lefties squeal that business should pay ‘their fair share’ they don’t understand that the costs are passed on. That means less business for us or our competitors swallow it and cut corners /destroy jobs. The ignorance of the political class in office over business is staggering. We’re just treated as tax slaves.

  29. Good morning all,
    Yesterday, I asked if any fellow Nottlers had been sent emails about having a medical condition which allegedly made them more at risk if they caught convid, and giving urgent access to unspecified ‘treatments’.
    It seems we, the ‘vulnerable’, are to be expendable guinea-pigs, for unproven and unsafe experimental drugs.
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/nhs-urges-dodgy-covid-treatments-on-the-vulnerable/
    Meanwhile, our caring government is banning a very safe and effective cough medicine which, in 40 or 50 years of use, has shown only a few extremely rare bad side effects.

      1. Thanks for the link. Just had a quick skim, but will look more closely later. Just from the quick look, I can see what a deeply sinister web we have been ensnared in.

    2. I’ve not been contacted regarding problems attached to jabs. But I’ve certainly been in the thick of it.
      And since I have brought my ongoing problems to the attention of the many medical professionals seen since, it’s been recognised publicly and world wide as the causes of millions of sudden cardiac irregularities. And many of these fatal.
      I’m not sure who might be likely to send me emails on this, but so far I’ve not been contacted.

        1. In a thousand years time, archeologists digging through old rubbish tips will, by the number of discarded test packs, be able to date that layer to the winter of 2023.

      2. A year or so ago, my otherwise fit and healthy sister-in-law suffered a series of heart attacks. She had some sort of surgery and is now on some hefty medication. Admittedly, she may not be the sharpest spoon in the drawer, but she has eagerly turned up for every booster offered. She is Adam that there is no risk from the jabs …

          1. That’ll teach me to check before I post 🙂
            Though, who knows – maybe the Franken jabs can have that effect ….

          2. It’s all too easy to hit “send” or “post” and then realise you’ve made a typo.

    3. “It seems we, the ‘vulnerable’, are to be expendable guinea-pigs, for unproven and unsafe experimental drugs.”

      That’s what the Covid scamdemic was all about in the first place in my opinion. After all, the mRNA was an experiment.

      1. The jabs were/are experimental but these ‘treatments’ being offered to anyone on the ‘vulnerable’ list are most certainly not. They have been around for some time, and have been shown to have a questionable safety record.

        1. If there is already a questionable safety record why are they being offered as treatments for vulnerable people? Seems to me this is an underhand way of carrying out trials without actually saying “This is a clinical trial”. It is hardly voluntary. Why on earth anyone would go along with using these tests, sending in the results then maybe accepting “treatment” is beyond me.

          1. There are still so many people who are totally convinced that they risk their lives if they fail to take every convid booster going. The same mindset will convince many recipients to use these scam tests if they have the slightest hint of a cold or cough, and they will gratefully swallow these ‘treatments’. Praise be our wonderful government for taking such good care of the ‘vulnerable’ with free tests and, if we test ‘positive’, urgent referrals for such safe and effective treatments.
            The same Muppets who wore their muzzles while driving.

  30. ‘Morning, Peeps. So far a pleasant day on yer sarf coast – sunny and 10°C. Walking the pup shortly when she stops snoring (6 months old now) and back to bedroom redecoration after that.

    Headline from the DT:

    “John Lewis issues job cuts warning as losses balloon

    Retailer also scraps staff bonus as it finds itself £230m in the red”

    We were occasional customers of JL, but since they seem to have banned whitey from TV ads we stopped using them early last year. Others we know have also abandoned them.

    Go woke…etc

        1. She is, Belle. Last week we organised a ‘puppy meet’ involving six of the litter (of ten) to mark the first six months. It was a hoot! We decided that the collective noun for a group of Lab pups is ‘a chaos’. This was the initial ‘meet and greet’ for owners and pups.

          After about an hour of charging around like lunatics (the pups, not their owners) most them were ready for an extended sleep. One even fell asleep afterwards on the muddy car park. Great fun. The next gathering will be in September when they will be a year old.

          3. Do you think they “knew” each other – that they were related? The MR has a theory that cats (and dogs) retain a memory of scent from very early on. Our last cat, Mousie – now 18 and living since 2009 with a dear chum (the woman who introduced me to the MR in 1989) – clearly remembers us, though she only sees us a couple of times a year.

            Falling asleep – reminded me that when G & P were babies, they’d chase each other round the house for ages then just fall over – mid dash – and go to sleep!!

          4. Difficult ro say, Bill. Her mum was due to attend as well but the breeder had to cancel the day before. It would have been interesting to see whether there was any kind of recognition – I’m willing to bet that her scent will still be familiar to the pups.

        1. She has one in the crate, but prefers the smaller version during the daytime. Her choice!

  31. https://twitter.com/Steve92592444/status/1636245660155408384

    400 year old hotel in Midhurst on fire .. illegals again .

    Cosy old Sussex villages and nice Surrey towns that were intact and comfortable over 50 years ago are now being ruined as is everywhere else in the UK

    We had mail delivered by a relief postman yesterday..

    He had left his highly paid job in Surrey last year , sold the family house moved to the coast here, where he had had had happy childhood holiday memories , took a huge paycut and applied for a postie job .

    His family including his wife and children couldn’t be happier. He said that his old town Farnham were congested with new build and traffic noise .

    I guess selling a house in Surrey would buy a couple of homes down here .

    1. Similar to the house fires close to the hotel near the Thames, 18months ago.
      Caused of course by the heat of the sun in a field nearby.
      I would imagine that an insurance claim is going to be difficult. And this will lead to other hotels filled with illegal immigrants being very worried indeed.

      1. Morning Eddy. Anyone who accepts these people as customers deserves everything they get!

        1. I have to admit that is my reaction; though, after 3 years of a government doing its best to kill your business, taking in these people for a wodge of taxpayers’ wonga is understandable.

      2. Morning Eddy. Anyone who accepts these people as customers deserves everything they get!

      3. ‘Morning, Eddy. I very much doubt that any fire insurer would want to cover such a risk, but even if they did but were not informed about the change of business (from hotel to hostel) then they would be fully entitled to declare the cover null and void on the grounds of material non-disclosure. Just like the maintenance and repair of premises housing immigrants, I suspect that we taxpayers are also on the hook in the event of serious damage or complete loss.

    2. The beams in 400 year old houses are usually very hard oak. Although they are dry, they do not burn that easily.
      And hotels nowadays are stuffed with gizmos that bleep, shriek and sprinkle.

    3. This is my local town. The inhabitants were not illegal refugees, they were Ukrainian, women and children as well as men. The fire started next door, in a closed charity shop, not in the hotel. An accident from faulty wiring, a heater or some such thing. The fire department doesn’t know the cause yet. Sad though because it was a very old building about 500 years old, I think.

  32. 372036+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    Even European Union Now Says It’s Time to Deport More Illegals
    The EU is calling on member states to do more to deport illegal immigrants and those without valid reasons for being in their countries

    .Reality,

    The United Kingdom is buying all they can get their hands on as seen with the deal with the french.

    One way would be if you agree with the invasion, in future you must legally adopted a morally illegal person & be personally responsibly for that persons actions, food & upkeep for at least 10 years of their landing.

  33. I posted this last night and Corimmobile added that it would not only lead to the end of Brexit but also the end of the monarchy. By associating and allying himself with The Great Windsor Surrender the King has shown himself to be a complete nincompoop without any judgement or common sense or even awareness of his own self-interest. Unless of course Charles is actually a wily and unscrupulous closet republican!

    We are constantly being told how clever Sunak is – but if he is that clever then was he taken in and outwitted by Ursula Fonda Lying? The alternative is that they actually conspired together to destroy Britain and all its institutions?

    Britain prepared to consider leaving ECHR if it blocks illegal migration plan
    Dominic Raab said the UK could not rule out the possibility of ‘revisiting our membership’ if Strasbourg stops small boats crackdown
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/15/britain-prepared-consider-leaving-echr-blocks-illegal-migration/

    Pull the other one it might have bells on it

    BTL

    We threaten to leave the ECHR – but we know that this is an empty threat.

    We also threatened to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol and then ended up with Sunak’s Windsor Capitulation which removed that vital escape route leaving Northern Ireland still under the control of the EU with the ECJ and not British law as the final arbiter!

    Let’s face it – the Windsor Surrender is the end of even the pretence of Brexit.

  34. You cannot deny that however repulsive Jeremy Hunt is he is cunningly nasty with it.

    For example his more acceptable plans – such as changing the cap on private pension funds and contributions which Labour have pledged to reverse – will not come into force until Labour are in government and they will have to take the flak while Hunt wins temporary kudos at no cost to himself.

  35. UN nuclear watchdog reveals 2.5 tonnes of uranium missing in Libya. 16 March 2023.

    UN nuclear inspectors have found that approximately 2.5 tonnes of natural uranium is missing from a site in Libya that is not under government control.

    The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, told the organisation’s member states that inspectors on Tuesday found that 10 drums containing uranium ore concentrate “were not present as previously declared”.

    Well there’s a choice here and I don’t pretend to know which is right. Either it’s been flogged off to Iran or the Israeli’s have nicked it!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/16/un-nuclear-watchdog-iaea-uranium-missing-libya

  36. BBC Radio 4 has got even worse recently. The amount of background noise/music/sound effects etc has increased twenty-fold – Programmes that formerly had none are now swamped with it, some so loud as to make it difficult to hear the spoken word. In addition, in the past few weeks the Daily Service has been infested with bongo music, weird recitations of the Lord’s Prayer and a plethora of female ‘parsons’ from distant lands. The first is probably a financial scam to enrich producers and their friends/fellow travellers, and the second a continued attack on the British/Christian way of life. A pox on all of them!

    1. Morning Ped ,

      Absolutely, and also after the Archers in the afternoon there is usually an ethnic story of sorts / or labour infused mindbending nonsense .

      BBC Radio 4 used to reflect our quirky cultural tastes , , but it is drifting further from us to a “them” to tick all the bleeding boxes .

      1. Couldn’t agree more, Belle. BBC radio drama has been particularly unrewarding for some years now. Who could forget Saturday Night Theatre, featuring a really good whodunnit or the serialisation of some classic or other? The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins was, for us, compulsive listening. All gone now, buried under a ton of wokery and stupid ‘music’.

    2. ‘Morning, Ped. If you are looking for the full wokery-infested experience, try the World Service. Rather like its R4 sister, it has gone for the full experience of progs involving wimmin and usually presented by wimmin. Oh, and forever looking for the yoof listener – most of whom, I suspect, are blissfully unaware of both stations and who wouldn’t seek them out even if there was nothing else available. Pitiful.

      1. Little thing I found out the other day going through the logs. Junior listens to a youtube thing about dogs.

        He asked (very politely I might add) if the background music could be turned down on the videos and lo! It was replied to and they said they would. That’s the difference between new and old media. The customer is involved, not excluded.

      2. As I boringly say often, I no longer listen to any beeboid output.

        What puzzles me about the World Service is that it was devised and developed so that white, middle-class men, in dinner jackets, could explain in RP English what was what in the Mother Nation. So that the natives could learn to be well-informed, er, natives.

        I recall in 1990 visiting Romania and having people weep (literally) with gratitude because the WS had been a lifeline during the grim years. One 12 year old girl spoke very good English (and acted as interpreter for her head-teacher.) I asked how she had learned English so well. She replied that she had been able to obtain HALF a very ancient, tattered Cambridge English primer – AND listened as much as she could to the WS. To say that one was moved, is an understatement.

  37. Labour’s hypocrisy showing:-

    9:33AM
    Shadow chancellor claims Tories are now a ‘high tax party’
    Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has accused the Tories of becoming a “high tax party”.

    She was asked about the impact of fiscal drag, with the Government’s decision to freeze income tax thresholds resulting in more and more people being dragged into paying higher rates.

    Ms Reeves told Times Radio: “I want working people to be paying less tax. I recognise that that burden is really tough. I think that ordinary working people are going to be paying something like £4,000 more in tax because of this.

    “But the way that you do that is through growing the economy. And the Conservatives have become a high tax party, because they’ve become a party of low growth… in Britain, there’s so much potential and yet the Government is not seizing it.”
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/16/rishi-sunak-news-latest-jeremy-hunt-spring-budget-labour/

    1. Yet… would she support scrapping the upper and higher rates of tax, then? Would she support removing all the tax spend Hunt announced in favour of just cutting taxes generally, and reducing the size of the state?

      Of course she wouldn’t. Her approach would be more spend, more tax, more waste – favouring particular groups in a corporatist manner.

  39. Russia plans to take control of Moldova by 2030. 16 march 2023.

    Leaked documents reveal Moscow’s ambitions to infiltrate the politics and media landscape of the former Soviet nation

    The memo was drafted by the same presidential directorate on cross-border cooperation that penned a similar document for Belarus that outlined its effective annexation with the input from Russia’s intelligence community.

    It’s funny that they should write that because I noticed the similarity. Do they lock nothing away in the Kremlin?

    This is just more propaganda by Khodorkovsky and his pals.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/15/russia-plans-take-control-moldova-2030/

  40. Just about Good Moaning.
    I blame the drugs. Who knew Deep Heat could knock you out for ten hours?
    Two good mugs of coffee congealed while I continued to bash out the Zeds.
    (Ooops – any government busy body reading NOTTL?)

    2. I slept well last night for the first time in ages. Moh, is now suspicious of why I’m in such a good mood this morning.

  41. Busy market in Fakenham. Two masks in Morrisons- both worn by staff, including the checkout woman – whose mask made it impossible for either the MR or me to understand. Weird….!

    1. ‘That’ll be mmmppph mmpphhh ammphh mpphhh’
      ‘Oh, £5.20? I thought it’d be much more!’
      ‘No, mpphhm mpphhmm…!’
      ‘Oh! £4.20! Even better…’

  42. I wonder if the strikes yesterday and the planned demo by the tube workers, junior doctors, teachers and whoever else joined in actually achieved anything?

    I was determined not to be deterred by the tube strike and go ahead with attending session three of my church lent course on Milton’s Paradis Lost. I got there and back without any drama. The return journey was half an hour faster than the outward and was a detour suggested by one of the ladies in church. It was a good idea. I took the Elizabeth Line from Farringdon and stayed on right through to Ealing Broadway then hopped on a bus back from Ealing to Shepherds Bush. Much quicker than going via the West End. Trying to get on a bus in Oxford Street during a tube strike is a special kind of torture!

    My first time using the Elizabeth Line/Crossrail. Impressed.

  44. 372036+up ticks,

    I see “they” are clearing out the office ( services no longer required) of one Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar (12 August 1918 – 19 September 1944) was a distinguished bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, making way for 1500 invaders.

    A sign of the rapidly decadent times, much of the English fighting spirit sad to say has been slain via the polling booth by a multitude of electoral rear exits.

    1. Scampton has been closed. Another nail in the coffin of the history of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

    1. Doesn’t need to. London is so overrun with foreigners that his election is guaranteed. The corrupt little vermin is in now thanks to Blair’s infestation of the country.

      1. With the Underground shut down there were huge crowds of people trying to get to work. Massive queues for buses. I could only see one or two black faces among the hordes.

  46. Putin’s ‘martyr complex’ is so out of control there is a real risk he will make ‘the most fateful decision of the century’. 16 March 2023.

    Vladimir Putin’s ‘martyr complex’ is so out of control there is a risk he will embolden Russia to use nuclear and chemical weapons, a think tank has warned – amid rising concerns over the Kremlin’s ‘hysteric rhetoric’.

    A new report published by the US think tank Heritage Foundation has highlighted a growing risk the Russian president will ‘make one of the most fateful decisions of the century’ in the face of his faltering invasion of Ukraine.

    It also outlines how the Kremlin has worked itself ‘into a state of near hysteria’ about the ‘ridiculous’ assessment that NATO poses a military threat to the country.

    Martyr Complex? Hmmmm? This is on top of his Paranoia; Parkinson’s Disease and Terminal Cancer? However does he manage it?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/russia-ukraine-conflict/index.html

    1. it is, as you are well aware Araminta, utter tripe. In response I post this. Also, I suppose you saw that the despicable Zelenskyy, humanitarian to the core, has asked for cluster bombs. Perhaps the most evil weapon in the military armory. Apparently many of the bombs fail to explode on impact and almost inevitably children find them , play with them, and are killed when the disgusting things explode.
      THE RUSSIAN FORCES ARE SWEEPING FORWARD
      Douglas Macgregor Straight Calls
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp_rUmLthXg

    2. Yo Minty

      and his anti-wokeness,

      anti-WEFness ,

      anti-porn for 5 year olds school kids,

      anti killing of ethnic Russians who were citizens of Ukraine, by Paddington’s mercenaries,

      being pro-Christian

    3. Thought he was supposed to be dead by now from cancer/sars/ebola/dengue fever? Or was that a lie?

    4. An all out nuclear war would be a tad more than ‘the most fateful decision of the century’.

      But ‘our side’ does seem keen on initiating one.

    5. An all out nuclear war would be a tad more than ‘the most fateful decision of the century’.

      But ‘our side’ does seem keen on initiating one.

  48. I noticed in The Grimes a photo of Jeremy Rhyming’s family watching him lift the red box thing.

    His Chinese Communist wife looked exactly as you would imagine a Maoist would look. Can’t find a picture online to show what I mean.

    Think 1950s Chinese woman’s way of dressing….

      1. But not, sadly, dressed like someone on the Long March (as she was yesterday).,

  49. For Rastus.
    Regarding the Ides……….I meant to post this yesterday but didn’t get round to it.

    It refers to the exploits of Caesar but not how he came to Hertfordshire.
    His ships entered the mouth of the river Lea, is opposite the Millennium Dome, the river must have been far wider and deeper than it is now in (Wheathampstead) mentioned below, it’s about 12 feet wide and 18 inches deep now. There is a heritage site known locally as Devils Dyke, it was dug out in the late bronze early Iron age and is 60 feet deep in places. I was a barrier between the village fort known as the Slad which was the home of the Catuvellauni people. The area was investigated in the early 50s by Sir Mortimer Wheeler but not much was found. Some of the artifacts are in the St Albans museum. Along with some magnificent Mosaics. But i’m quite sure with modern technology more article’s would come to light now.
    In the Village There are two roads named after the Caesar visit. Conqueror’s Hill and Caesar’s road.

    https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=0f2d03bb2475724eJmltdHM9MTY3ODkyNDgwMCZpZ3VpZD0xZDA5Y2YzNS0wNDZiLTY1MzYtMGMwYi1kZGUzMDU5MDY0MWEmaW5zaWQ9NTE3OA&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=1d09cf35-046b-6536-0c0b-dde30590641a&psq=Wheathampstead+roman+invasion+&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cud2hlYXRoYW1wc3RlYWRtYWdhemluZS5jby51ay9oaXN0b3J5LW9mLXdoZWF0aGFtcHN0ZWFk&ntb=1
    54 55 BC

    Crossing and landing
    Titus Labienus was left at Portus Itius to oversee regular food transports from there to the British beachhead. The military ships were joined by a flotilla of trading ships captained by Romans and provincials from across the empire, and local Gauls, hoping to cash in on the trading opportunities. It seems more likely that the figure Caesar quotes for the fleet (800 ships) include these traders and the troop-transports, rather than the troop-transports alone.

    Caesar landed at the place he had identified as the best landing-place the previous year. The Britons did not oppose the landing, apparently, as Caesar states, intimidated by the size of the fleet, but this may have been a strategic ploy to give them time to gather their forces.

    Caesar landed without resistance and immediately went to find ( traveled along the River Lee) the Britonic army. The Britons used guerilla tactics to avoid a direct confrontation. This allowed them to gather a formidable army under Cassivellaunus, king of the Catuvellauni. The Britonic army had superior mobility due to its cavalry and chariots, which easily allowed them to evade and harass the Romans. The Britons attacked a foraging party, hoping to pick off the isolated group, but the party fought back fiercely and thoroughly defeated the Britons. They mostly gave up resistance at this point, and a great many tribes surrendered and offered tribute. The Romans assaulted Cassivellaunus’ stronghold (likely modern day Wheathampstead), and he surrendered.

    1. I think there is a misspelling – it should be ‘Hertfordshire’, not ‘Herefordshire’.

  50. Heat pumps have become the eco fiasco of the decade
    Britain is making an almighty mess of the transition to net zero
    Matthew Lynn: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/16/heat-pumps-have-become-eco-fiasco-decade/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    When will people remember what they were taught in school:

    “Carbon dioxide is a natural gas and is essential to the growth of plants.”

    Net Zero is an enormous scam but to say so is heresy and is as likely to get you cancelled as saying that some people have been killed by the Covid 19 vaccines that have not been tested properly.

    1. 372036+ up ticks,

      Afternoon R,
      The latter end of your post is fact as far as I am concerned, corporate manslaughter should be in play in not outright murder.

        1. Wrumbled – but didn’t everybody wrumble me as soon as PW started posting BTL comments under DT articles which RCT subsequently posted here?

          2. Yerst- I did. It was elementary my dear Watson;-)
            PS- It’s a PG Wodehouse sort of name.

          4. I’m thinking of changing my name to Enid Molestrangler- has a ring to it ;-))

          5. Yerst- I did. It was elementary my dear Watson;-)
            PS- It’s a PG Wodehouse sort of name.

      1. The statements are not mutually exclusive.
        There are mosques, but the Poles could also be stopping new ones until Saudi permits Christian churches.

        I certainly doubt the story is true, but in today’s world who can tell?

        1. Snopes and Full Fact say that the story is false. A Polish politician did voice this opinion in 2018, but it is not government policy.

          3. No, and if you look at my OP I wrote:

            I certainly doubt the story is true, but in today’s world who can tell?

          4. It’s just another social media post which catches people’s attention and then spreads with no thought as to investigating whether or not it is true.

      2. But the point is that it would be a splendid idea to allow the same number of mosques in Poland as there are churches in Suadi Arabia.

  56. Nothing worse than when you’re trying to send a text and Jeremy Vine bounces off your windscreen.

  57. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have been vindicated
    That such pro-growth policies are being so loudly advocated is a partial vindication of our former PM. But there is still work to do
    Jacob Rees-Mogg: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/15/liz-truss-kwasi-kwarteng-have-vindicated/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrnagler

    On GB News last night when asked if he might join one of the other right of centre parties J.R-M said he was always a Conservative and would always remain a Conservative.

    He seems to be unaware that the Conservative Party is philosophically no longer the Conservative Party and so he is basing his continued loyalty to it on nothing more than sentimentally naïf brand loyalty rather than rational consideration – like someone who always shops at Sainsbury’s even when Waitrose is more convenient and offers a much better deal.

    2. 372036+ up ticks,

      Afternoon R,
      Would that be on par with,as many do, voting for a party name regardless of consequences ?

  58. From GBN:

    “Dramatic video footage of Russian fighter jet and US drone colliding released by Pentagon”

    I can’t provide a link but it is on their app. It shows a fighter approaching the drone from about its 11 o’clock and at about the same height. At about 1-200m the afterburners appear to come on * and the aircraft then appears to pass over the drone, almost head-on. It looks like an attempt to destabilise the drone without actually colliding with it. It certainly looks genuine and, if so, Uncle Vlad’s denials would seem to be false – now there’s a surprise!

    * Now said to be fuel jettisoned by the Russian aircraft.

    3. Serious questions from a non air-buff.

      Would the afterburners have the effect of dumping fuel on the drone?
      Would the turbulence created be sufficient to damage the propeller of the drone?
      I know they are pretty large, but do drones have the equivalent of IFF and iff not (ho ho) could the Russian have picked it up late and been taking evasive action? The relative speed difference must be quite large.

      1. Fighters often have a fuel dump mechanism which is separate from the Afterburners which would produce a flame or a heat shimmy. The DT vid shows two consecutive passes, the first having little effect but the second ending in the loss of video. Not sure about the IFF as in war time you wouldn’t want to be shooting down returning drones but such a vehicle would be spotted by ground or air radar.

      2. No, no, I imagine they must, no, and the overtake is probably less than 100 kts.
        Note: had it been head on the closure speed would have been several hundred knots and the jet would have been a blur.

    4. No. The SU-27 is approaching from behind, from the drone’s 5 o’clock. The plumes are not afterburner plumes which would be invisible from that angle, they are fuel.

      1. I think you are right, FM, although what the pilot expected to achieve isn’t clear – soaking the drone in the hope of it igniting? The Russians must surely been aware that any encounter would be visible to the Americans. A cowboy pilot perhaps?

        1. I would have thought shredding it with cannon-fire would have been more effective.

          A cloud of fuel which could go down the drone’s intake would choke it’s engine. I’d suggest that was his idea. No cowboy. A skilled fighter pilot.

          1. Not sufficiently skilled to avoid the prop at the back though, and placing his own aircraft in considerable danger. As you say, why not just destroy it? A pity that the Reaper doesn’t contain a sizeable charge to destroy itself, and perhaps take the attacker with it. At least the sensitive data was wiped on the way down.

    1. It’s covered further down the blog.

      It was an accident and the people in the hotel are Ukrainians, so probably genuine asylum seekers, hopefully here temporarily.

    2. I didn’t notice that mentioned on lunchtime news.
      Probably didn’t fit in with the current adgenda.

          2. There you go

            Lavender’s blue,
            Dilly diilly,
            Lavender’s green,
            When I am king,
            Dilly dilly,
            You shall be queen.

      2. “I didn’t realise you provide your own security for your Buckingham Palace garden parties, ma’am”.

    1. Bakhmut has Fallen: Impossible – the western press has been telling me that the Russians have been killed in their tens of thousands every week since the EU, USA and NATO started sending money and weapons in support.
      Russian forces are sweeping forwards! Who do I report this obvious lying propaganda too? Must be someone who cares.

      1. It fell at the beginning or end of last week if I recall correctly. Am somewhat off my sense of time at the moment due to being sick and in bed most of the time. But I think I’m correct in terms of a time line. I’m sure Araminta can be more precise.
        This is from last month:

        “A controlled withdrawal
        Ukraine began to show signs of easing out of Bakhmut on February 28 when presidential adviser Alexander Rodnyansky said a tactical withdrawal from parts of the city was not out of the question.

        “So far, [our troops have] held the city but if need be, they will strategically pull back because we’re not going to sacrifice all of our people just for nothing,” Rodnyansky said.

        “I believe that sooner or later, we will probably have to leave Bakhmut,” Ukrainian parliamentarian Serhiy Rakhmanin said on Ukrainian NV radio the following day. “There is no sense in holding it at any cost.”
        I have seen video too of Russian troops in one of the factories there. Using the contents as proof that they are in the city.
        https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/9/russia-takes-east-bakhmut-as-ukraine-builds-up-forces

  64. European MEP admits UK may have ‘made the right choice’ to leave EU
    and Brexit ‘has not gone smoothly due to open sabotage’ by Brussels     D Fail

    That’s one out of 751 – not counting the 500 or so EUSSReans which infest the UK Parliament.

    1. I think the Remainers are confident that they will get us back into the EU before the whole edifice collapses.

      After all Sunak, with the approval of our brain-damaged monarch, pulled off the masterstroke of tying Northern Ireland to the EU for ever by the Windsor Surrender Agreement which got rid of Article 16 and gave permanent final authority to the ECJ.

    2. Dan Skelton (racehorse trainer, son of Nick the Showjumper) was complaining that “Brexit” had made things so much more difficult. No, Dan, it can’t possibly as we haven’t had it in any way, shape or form. What’s making life difficult is the remainder element sabotaging Brexit.

  65. Where is the chancellor getting all the money from , are we borrowing money from China .

    If the chancellor is married to a Chinese , I wonder whether there is a conflict of interests , similar scenario to Sunak , back handers from India ?

    1. No doubt, I am sure they wouldn’t be able to resist, Belle. Self-denial does not seem to be one of their virtues.

    2. I imagine that Chairman Mao Xi was given full details of the Budget long before Jeremy Rhyming got to his feet.

  67. Life could be worse, you could be an egg?
    Get laid once
    Get smashed once
    And the only bird to sit on your face is your mum?

      1. I pinched it when he was under the anaesthetic. His wallet too. Don’t think he’s noticed. He was laying there fat, dumb and happy.

  69. Visiting Russia’s worst war crime. 16 March 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8958a1015e683fd7f4c4ebd13d15c63773e51960f936ce381642d49aadad4705.png

    In a square in the centre of Mariupol, fabric-covered scaffolding hides what remains of what was once the city’s architectural centrepiece.

    The shroud bears an image of what lies behind, or at least what used to stand in this spot before the Russian invasion: the facade of a white-painted theatre, complete with corinthian columns and statue-filled pediment.

    This may be reprehensible and one deplores its necessity but it is not a War Crime. Civilians have always been killed during military operations. During WWII the UK had a policy of de-housing civilians (a euphemism for area bombing) and of course the creation of Fire Storms in the larger cities. The Americans literally burned Japan to the ground and then finished it off with two nuclear strikes. There is however a better example of the hypocrisy at work here. During the Iraq War the US bombed the al-Amiriyah air-raid shelter even though knowing that it had been used as such. More than 1.000 people were killed. The photographs of the interior that I saw at the time have been expunged from the internet!

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

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/16/visiting-russias-worst-war-crime-mariupol-theatre-where-600/

    1. Just think, too, of the thousands of French folk killed by Allied bombing after D-Day.

      1. Afternoon Bill. The total is believed to be 60,000 french civilians killed by allied bombing during WWII.

    1. I haven’t seen the 23/24 bill yet. Perhaps it’ll be on the front doormat when I get home.

      1. Rest assured, Sue, many of us are still waiting to know the outcome of our councils’ philandering pontifications.

        1. On yesterday’s Sky News it was announced that East Sussex Council had awarded Balfour Beatty

          a contract worth £971 million to repair the roads in East Sussex.

      1. Yeah yeah, I know, it would be a Hell of a lot worse if I was still living in England!
        };-O

    4. I’ve suggested that on the County Council web page have the decency and consideration to inform the residents, how the residents will all benefit from the council tax increases.

    1. Unlikely I know, but is there any possibility that they couldn’t be sold due to having ivory keys and that’s why they were dumped?

      2. That might be the case with US Customs, but the trick in the UK is to not mention the ivory in any sales description. As far as I know, piano keys are exempt if attached to a piano.

        1. This aside I shared a large 5 bed house in the 70s. In Whetstone North London.
          It was a great experience, I’m still in touch with some of the people.
          There was an old upright piano in a small room off the hallway. A friend of one of the occupants turned up occasionally. His name I think was Rhet Wade ?? He was an absolute genius on the piano. You named it he played it. Marvellous talent.
          Such memories.

    3. If it’s restored and then left where it is, within one single year the elements will have made it unplayable once more.

    1. Just the ticket for Scotland. Make the Snippers yearn for the return of Mrs Murrell

    2. Bit of a grey area – depictions of their prophet are banned in Islam, and this doll is named ‘Mohammed’, so will we get hordes of Muslim protesters outside ASDA? They get upset at the drop of a hat.

  74. Two treats this arvo.

    Two buzzards – male and female – flying low over the garden before gently soaring closer and closer together.

    Also a juvenile Long-tailed Tit – a species we hen’t seen in the garden before – trying to get through my office window…presumably confused by his reflection.

    2. Good to know, Bill, that you’re larning the Narfulk dialect “…we hen’t seen…”

      Yew niver ougtherer went, bor.

    3. How did you work out that the buzzards were male and female? Adult buzzards are sexually indistinguishable.

        1. One was probably a juvenile from last year. Sometimes juveniles show a paler morph which may give the impression of a different size.

          1. I don’t know anything about birds . They were similar colours and very close together, so there was a clear difference in size. I had assumed there was some sort of display going on.

    4. Wonderful.

      We have white tailed eagles here , and now we are anticipating the arrival of Osprey .

      A sparrow hawk visits gardens around here .. oh yes .. collared doves are on the menu .. poor things .

      1. We are having a couple of days away up here in Contin, north west of Inverness, and there is a red kite centre about 2 miles away. Unfortunately, due to the worries about avian flu🙄, the place is closed but when we came up yesterday we saw at least 10 kites in the sky so I guess they are still being fed. They are stunning birds!
        Edit: just checked and they’re not being fed due to danger of cross infection.

        1. What a nice treat Sue ,

          I love that part of Scotland , and what a treat to see so many Red Kites .

          I was listening to the radio last week , very interesting prog about migrating Ospreys .. and so sad to hear that reed beds in Spain and Africa are being sprayed with insecticide to protect tourists from being bitten by mossies , and all migratory birds well be down in number .

          https://www.conservation-without-borders.org/sachas-notes-from-the-field-france-and-spain

          1. Around Slough, Red Kites have become an infernal nuisance. Far, far too many of them in a small area.

          3. Gosh – “Pewsey”. Takes me back to the 1950s – the GWR from Paddington to Devon… some miles before “Devises Wilts” – I was always intrigued that they added the county! As far as I know, there is no other place called Devises with a station!!

        3. Ah… God’s own country.
          If you get a chance, drop down to Kyle and say Hi! to my relatives – and a visit to our castle, Eilean Donan, is always worth it (the most chocolate-boxed / shortbread boxed castle in Scotland), and I promise I don’t get a penny of the entrance fee…

          1. We’ve had a great day today – breakfast was ginormous, with fabulous haggis and Stornaway black pudding! Then we staggered off with a lovely friend and hit the heights of Strathpeffer and Dingwall! The rain finally stopped later on! Tomorrow we head home via Buckie, to see my old man’s remaining aunties!

          3. Oh it was glorious! And the chef here makes his own jams and chutneys. This morning we had amazing orange curd!!

          4. Check out Banff, en route.

            A lovely little town with a fabulous ‘strand’ where we used to walk the dogs.

          9. https://www.google.com/search?q=highlander+eilean+donan+castle&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=AJOqlzXRuBsXAUjBLFBMC3SJg4WLH_Skhw:1678993442449&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiemt79keH9AhUVglwKHaLlBbcQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1564&bih=921&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ac80ee80,vid:nvH1hVpSvjE
            A few years ago while we were climbing near Ben An, we met a pile of the extras from the film Highlander in a nearby pub – they had enjoyed making the film so much that they carried on meeting up – in full rig! Link shows Eilean Donan!

      2. Do you mean at home in Dorset, I thought they were only in Scotland. Or perhaps you are up there on holiday, in which case I hope you are enjoying the break.

          1. Yes, I remember that. The ospreys were introduced a few years ago, weren’t they? It was the eagles I was thinking about though, I didn’t know they were down there too.

      3. Firstborn has Golden Eagles. Enormous birds – he once came across one standing in the road, and when it took off, its wingspan covered the entire road! Since he was riding his motorbike, he nearly shat himself!
        Ravens, too: They are pretty big.
        And my favourite: Woodpeckers, both green and red ‘n black.

        1. We were out in the car going up a zigzag hill deep in the countryside here , we both saw what looked like a deer sprawled on the side of the hill , a large brown shape spreadeagled , scuse the pun .. and as we got closer , this huge , huge thing rose up into the air, not a flying deer but the white tailed eagle clasping a hare .. We were amazed and delighted .. and what an incredible sight .

    5. Nope, that juvenile tit was Phizzee, after he was cheeky to Gandalf.

      The spell will wear off soon.

  77. Reset This! Dutch Elections See Tractor Protest Party Trounce Globalist Govt and EU Green Agenda

    The upstart populist pro-farmer party FarmerCitizenMovement (BBB) shook the foundations of politics in the Netherlands overnight, securing a significant victory in Wednesday’s provincial elections on the back of growing resentment against the globalist government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his plans to introduce Great Reset-style environmental policies.

    “People, what the fuck happened?” exclaimed the frank-talking, half-Irish leader of the BBB, Caroline van der Plas in a victory speech on Wednesday evening as her party, which was formed just three years ago, saw the most gains of any party in the elections that will determine the makeup of the Dutch senate.
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/03/16/great-reset-revolt-pro-farmer-party-gains-major-victory-against-eu-green-agenda-in-dutch-elections/

    1. Thanks Citroen, that is wonderful news. I read that some farmers, who are on farms their families have owned for generations, have committed suicide because of this wicked plan by the government. I hope Rutte ends up utterly annihilated globalist shill.

      1. This is only the first step but a stunning success all the same. It will take a lot longer to get rid of Rutte and Dutch cities are full of spaced out nutters talking to their navels.

        1. To say nothing of huge quantities of slammers. The Hague has a minority white population now.

    2. We won’t hear about this from our national broadcasters unless it is to call them right wing extremists.

      1. It also shews that there are too many vote-splitting parties.

        English little parties, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.

      1. Wouldn’t surprise me if the PTB took steps to reverse the decision – or call a fresh election and rig it more successfully.

    7. More power to their elbows, well done. Pity we don’t have a party like that over here.

    3. Paul’s groan jokes are in wide circulation in West London. My grand-daughter spreads them…!!

      1. Ah ha! So you are polluting her pure and innocent mind, poor thing. I hope you give full credit to Paul, our tame troll

      3. Good for her.
        I wonder if there comes a point in a child’s life when they are remembered fondly?
        My boys all enjoyed them and even now we regularly exchange groans.
        Our youngest has a repertoire that our Nottle Norwegian would be proud of.

        1. Between 2014 and 2016 I used to send Spikey’s truly awful jokes to my younger son. From time to time he’d call and BEG me to stop! Kept him smiling… Stupid Boy…{:¬)

        2. Every time my mother made junket, we all waited for the inevitable ….
          “Ah, Junkers 88.”

  79. Par Four again.

    Wordle 635 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Three for me today.

      Wordle 635 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟨🟩⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. A stupid game.
      Wordle 635 X/6

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

    3. Yikes indeed. One hopes that the woke LFB will actually turn up rather than sit around doing a risk assessment.

    2. And the courts have just locked up a now youg woman for telling lies about this sort practice.

      1. Assuming we are thinking of the same case.
        In that particular instance she deserved what she got.

    4. “Yet another Muslim police officer cant keep his hands off girls”

      There, Mags – sorted.

    5. Many years ago an acquaintance shared an apartment with a rock star, who happened to enjoy the occasional tryst with a ‘groupie’. One young lady spent several days and nights happily ensconced with the rocker, until by chance my acquaintance watched the evening TV news. Missing child, police involved etc: there was one of those delayed reactions, followed by panic and somehow they quickly smuggled the little minx back to her parents.

  82. On a lighter note. I did not know that Paddys day is a holiday but that is how several local radio stations are talking about it down here in South Carolina.

    I admit to sinning and enjoying a green Mimosa in the supermarket last night. Damned civilized compared to Canada, a bar in the supermarket and happy hour discounts.

    1. I got told off in GA for not wearing green on St. Patrick’s day- my response….if you’d grown up in London, you wouldn’t wear green either.

    2. Cheltenham celebrated St Patrick’s Day today for some reason. No doubt they’ll celebrate again tomorrow. Indeed, the Irish have been celebrating all week 🙁

  83. Over night Tree fellas ripping and cutting down hundreds of mature trees in Plymouth.
    No notice given, but well organised with fencing, security guards everywhere, police dogs you name it. Sneaky disgusting council bastards. More than 70 % of locals asked said they wouldn’t have supported the deforestation.

  85. Well, Second Son is away to his new apartment, several loads of stuff yet to go, but that’s him moving out properly.
    Sad, but the right thing to do.
    I’ll miss him lots.

      1. What 22-year-old can live at home? I moved out aged 8, to boarding school, basically never lived “at home” with parents after that. At 22, lived in the next thing to a squat in the East End. Not a nice apartment in Bekkestua (the most gentrified part of town).

        2. I don’t know if I should be very proud or ashamed.

          All three of our boys went up to university at 18, qualified, found homes and never lived with us again, except when visiting with wives/girlfriends.

          I err on the side of pride as they are very happy to put us up in their homes when we visit and vice-versa.

        3. My second son came back for three years after university. Then he went to Switzerland.

          1. I never lived at home after joining the RAF as a Boy Entrant aged 15½ and then married at 20 years old with a daughter at age 21 – she now lives in Tasmania.

    2. Make certain he hands over his key..!!

      It’s a great leap forward. Have a beer to mark it… (or two).

      1. It’s ten minutes by car.
        Cleaning, well… but he can cook like Carluccio, having learned from his Mother.

    4. That has made me tear up, along with Belle not whistling since her African Grey died.

      1. You are so nice, PM.
        I’ll really miss him, even though he’s only a few minutes down the road.

        1. From my own experience, they show up when they’re hungry or run out of grub.

        2. I know you’ll miss him, it’s the little things that you miss that you didn’t even realised you noticed.

        3. In my experience, and reading her posts, Mum comes across as a very caring person. Love you, Mum.

  86. “All we are saying is give us the Migs….

    “President of Poland Andrzej Duda on Thursday announced his country plans to send around a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets.
    This will make Poland the first NATO country to fulfil Zelensky’s requests for fighter jets since the war began. Given Ukraine already operates the Soviet-made planes, it’s expected they’ll be in use right away.

    Duda specified that an initial four MiG-29s will be delivered “within the next few days” and that the rest would come after they go through servicing and maintenance.

    The Associated Press notes that the total to be transferred could be more than a dozen: “The Polish word he used to describe their number can mean between 11 and 19,” according to the report.”

    Seems we are going to Hell in a Hellcat……

  87. That’s me gone for today. It was grey all day – not a glimpse of sunshine. Pottered around in the garden – I can just see the little red light on one of the propagators. Fills one with hope and expectation…..

    Have a jolly evening.

    A deain.

    1. A doctor struck off for falsely diagnosing children with cancer to scare their parents into paying for scans and tests at a private healthcare firm has lost a bid to return to medicine.

      Mina Chowdhury, 45, told families their children had cancerous conditions then recommended expensive tests in London without referring them to the NHS.

      A probe led to him being called before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS).

      3. Phew !!

        They didn’t decide to deport him.

        Now, unable to work, he can live off welfare for the rest of his life.

  89. 372036+ up ticks,

    Now there’s a thing,

    breitbart,

    Reset This! Dutch Elections See Tractor Protest Party Trounce Globalist Govt and EU Green Agenda

    Then they should continue going forward and plough them into the ground as beneficial shite compost.

  90. This will be interesting:

    French President Macron faces motions of no-confidence after forcing through increase in retirement age without a vote in parliament
    The controversial move was an admission that his government lacked a majority
    Trade unions had warned that the move would risk radicalising opponents
    Marine Le Pen said afterwards that it was a ‘total failure for the government’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11869001/Macron-faces-motions-no-confidence-forcing-increase-retirement-age-without-vote.html

    Yer French don’t take kindly to being dictated to by their Kings, let alone their pooftery Queens

      1. The only motion Macron should face is that upon his own head.

        I would happily contribute my motions.

      2. PS
        They have the sense to realise that the fact is that France can’t afford to keep the retirement age so young!

    1. My late African Grey could whistle that ..I am the only one in the family who can whistle tunefully, and I haven’t whistled for more than 2 years since he died aged 36 years old. He had a classical repertoire and jigged around to Mozart .

      1. I love a West African Grey (Ackoo, in Hausa)- the most tuneful and intelligent of parrots.
        But would he have wanted you to lose the music, Belle? I doubt it… whistle for him, and remember him with the joy he brought you!

        2. I always had a job to understand what my old grandfather was saying.
          He and my grandmother (from Suffolk) had six sons. The poor lady died before I was born.

          1. I had great difficulty in understanding my Devonian uncle and aunt. I was barely getting the gist of what they said by the time the holiday was over and we were about to depart!

          2. We had some of my wife’s cousins stay with us once, they were from Sunderland……

  93. – So 100 Labour voters were asked do you want more football pundits on MOTD or less.
    The working class Labour voters all said less
    While the educated pedant wealthy metropolitan elite Lefties all demanded Fuhrer

        1. It could overwhelm even your immune system. It so happens that I have a newly developed vaccine that I could make available to you at the introductory price of $9,999.99 per shot. Hurry, hurry, while stocks last!

  94. Evening, all. As far as I can see there wasn’t anything worthwhile in the budget anyway. Stealth taxes, not putting things up (but not putting them down, either), still continuing with the net zero lunacy, still spending money we don’t have … what’s to like?

    2. Yo, Conners. The lifetime allowance was never likely to affect me (as it happens, I received my first State Pension payment yesterday), but it’s pretty clear that the allowance was making countless NHS consultants jump ship. So, fair play: the useless Hunt got one thing right. Otherwise, I’m in complete agreement….

  97. I think I’ll slide orrff as well.
    Time I’ve finished faffing it’ll be 9:45. Lights out.
    Night all. 🌙

    1. I made cheeseburgers tonight- husband has had a nap on the sofa but I have to digest before sleep. So will be up for a while.
      Sleep well, Eddy.

    1. And while you are at it, please would you neuter and deport all male members of parliament for continually allowing waves of these creatures into the country.

    1. Fences and barbed wire? Maybe Mr Lineker was right.
      Incidentally, one of Denmark’s largest companies novo Nordisk has just been suspended from the ABPI.

      1. ABPI? Ar5eholes of the Bundes Populus Institut?

        I do so wish people would explain their abbreviations the first time they use them.

        1. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
          My apologies, but several Nottlers post links without any summary, like a trick or treat on Halloween.

          2. …and every time they do it, I do and will call ’em out, unless it is so well known that that no explanation is necessary

        2. You’re right, Tom. I reckon if someone were to compile a encyclopaedic guide to strange combination of letters it would sell in its millions and make the compiler a multi-millionaire. TTFN (Ta-Ta For Now).

    2. I dunno. My son was in Denmark last year, and his words to describe the people in the city where he was living were “scarily smug and well off” It belonged to some WEF cities of the future scheme or some such BS.
      It’s good to see the government reiterating that the duty of government is to protect the borders, but the rot is deep.

  100. 372036+ up ticks,

    rd Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    9m
    What Trump says about the USA is equally applicable to England. He sums it all up perfectly. We have the same enemies & traitors at the heart of our respective nations.

    If only we had a prospective leader prepared to say & do the same things.

    https://youtu.be/3qDE2MJEmSs

    1. 372036+up ticks,

      O2O,

      See how treacherous idiocy cast a win double aside in respective countries.

  103. Good night, chums. Tonight was fun and games for me. I drove up the A12 to Ipswich for a show at the new Wolsey Theatre – a 35 minute journey. But when I tried to return via the A12 I discovered it was closed to all traffic (from 9 pm) because of overnight road works. So I followed diversion signs which took me round and round in circles. Eventually I had to drive north west along the A14 to Bury St Edmunds, then due south to Sudbury and from there to Colchester, arriving home at midnight instead of 10 pm as planned. Ah, well, life is full of surprises. Sleep well, chums. I certainly shall.

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