Monday 20 March: Unless the BBC ups its game, the licence fee will become indefensible

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

592 thoughts on “Monday 20 March: Unless the BBC ups its game, the licence fee will become indefensible”

      1. That’s exactly what I tend to do, Tom, no need to apologise/explain. Welcome to the NoTTL site – I await your morning joke.

  5. Unless the BBC ups its game, the licence fee will become indefensible

    Could the BBC sink any lower than it is already, it behaves like a nationalised public service whereby the customers are treated as a nuisance.

    1. Yes, you are right Bob3. But from listening to many who subscribe to the BBC, they seem to be unaware of the bias and if you try to explain they will not listen.

          2. 372240+ up ticks,

            G,
            By jove I believe you have it

            Now after me “the rain in Spain”…

        2. Available from the greengrocer. Spiky yellow & green things, the size of someone’s head.

      1. 372240+ up ticks,

        EB,

        Quite the reverse, but on this particular issue tis horses for courses.

  9. Monday Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/224463ce6480c81a6b39941c11abe111dd521264104ac7da5a6c1e88c888aa69.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c3700763af802bae2fa8217fd3f6b10c2beefc8b6a283025e6a39e823448d68a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f44987834f5b4a543d7ffee639b1feed1f59f2d307b515ce8c73c847d47f4c7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b61464034d73e95ab7076aa4cbfddeed5753585c1d932de7a7f7a19a3652c54a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/009507cb6e944145b41f3f03948ef9a4aebe557fffa38a860a8ed15c4a65566d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b20bb35022b9b2fc1124894cde47a3c6f7d66afdf34f119fb114d1711922d010.jpg

      1. Instantly the chalked slogan reminded me of a novel by the Mexican author and medical doctor, Mariano Azuela. ‘Los de Abajo’, published in 1929 was set in a revolution in Mexico, and though the english translation’s title was The Underdogs, it means something different, literally ‘those from below’.

        Think of poor huddled masses, or generally those people who are downtrodden or struggling to exist at the bottom of the heap in any country.

      2. Instantly the chalked slogan reminded me of a novel by the Mexican author and medical doctor, Mariano Azuela. ‘Los de Abajo’, published in 1929 was set in a revolution in Mexico, and though the english translation’s title was The Underdogs, it means something different, literally ‘those from below’.

        Think of poor huddled masses, or generally those people who are downtrodden or struggling to exist at the bottom of the heap in any country.

  10. ‘We are putting all those who carry out atrocities on notice’. Dominic Raab. 20 March 2023.

    We are funding two experienced UK investigators to work directly with the ICC for a year, and will share our expertise in open-source investigation, to help the court analyse unprecedented amounts of online evidence.

    And we’ll offer training for ICC investigators, as well as having a panel of experts – from clinicians to criminal justice specialists – on-hand to strengthen the court’s support for victims.

    But this is a team effort. We cannot do it on our own. That’s why we have convened the 42 nations taking part today – each with their own expertise to share and part to play.

    This is global Britain in action, as a force for good in the world. Galvanising other nations to act, united behind the ICC and determined to bring war criminals to justice.

    You would think that they would choke on their own hypocrisy!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/19/defiant-vladimir-putin-drives-around-mariupol-streets-bombed/

    1. For a microsecond i thought he was talking about vaxx damage. Oh look….a squirrel.

    2. This from a minister/politician whose government/party has expelled and actively ignores Andrew Bridgen, the sole MP with the moral strength to question the impact of a, never before used on humans and deadly when used on animals, pharmaceutical potion. Clearly, mounting deaths and a previously unheard of range of adverse effects are not considered worthy of an in-depth and whitewash free investigation.
      Putin, for it is the leader of Russia that this is initially aimed at, is beyond reach and Raab is attempting to virtue signal on the world stage.
      I am unable to fathom the working of the minds of politicians. Chasing international unicorns for effect whilst ignoring a major medical disaster at home.

    3. Any investigator who goes and comes to the “wrong” conclusions should recall Dr Kelly.

  11. This morning’s headlines from Radio 4 news:

    Almost 400 hotels across the UK are being used to house more than 50,000 illegal immigrants (the report called them ‘asylum seekers’). “There is a lot of secrecy about some of the locations because of fear about ‘far-right protests’.”

    20 in NI, 10 in Scotland, 2 in Wales and 363 in England.
    _______________________

    The IPPC will produce another report today on how to save the world. Apparently, the world is warmer than at any time in the past 125,000 years. I had no idea that the Met Office was that old… Apparently, “the cost of moving to renewable energy has never been lower and technology to remove carbon from the air is being developed on a growing scale.”
    _______________________

    Iraq – 20 years ago today. George Monbiot writes in The Guardian that it’s ‘probably the greatest crime against humanity of the century so far’. It’s not often that one can agree with the Moonbat. John Simpson also weighs in and says the campaigns for Scottish independence and Brexit can be traced back to it [really?].

      1. 372240+ up ticks,

        Morning B3,

        MP protection units, herd controlling Kapos.

        Self inflicted via the polling booth.

    2. The Beeb’s ‘News’ lost the plot years ago (even beating The Archers storylines in the losing the plot stakes – and that takes some doing!)

    3. ‘Morning, WS. I too heard these pathetic ‘news’ items via my clock-radio, after having demonstrated its workings yesterday to an inquisitive grandson. Stupidly I left it on R4 without resetting it to Classic FM. This load of codswallop certainly woke me up! The item about ‘warmest in 125,000 years’ was particularly insufferable. And as for the lunatic Moonbat – neither he nor the Grauniad would ever get over the threshold of Janus Towers. My sanity deserves nothing less!

  12. This morning’s headlines from Radio 4 news:

    Almost 400 hotels across the UK are being used to house more than 50,000 illegal immigrants (the report called them ‘asylum seekers’). “There is a lot of secrecy about some of the locations because of fear about ‘far-right protests’.”

    20 in NI, 10 in Scotland, 2 in Wales and 363 in England.
    _______________________

    The IPPC will produce another report today on how to save the world. Apparently, the world is warmer than at any time in the past 125,000 years. I had no idea that the Met Office was that old… Apparently, “the cost of moving to renewable energy has never been lower and technology to remove carbon from the air is being developed on a growing scale.”
    _______________________

    Iraq – 20 years ago today. George Monbiot writes in The Guardian that it’s ‘probably the greatest crime against humanity of the century so far’. It’s not often that one can agree with the Moonbat. John Simpson also weighs in and says the campaigns for Scottish independence and Brexit can be traced back to it [really?].

  13. Good morning, all. Damp start to the day.

    It is exactly three years to the day that we left Laure without being able to say goodbye. A most horrible moment. We saw only one person in the village, the lady with the mobile veg lorry. One policeman at the entrance to the motorway who wanted to know why we were travelling – and the friend at whose house we stayed the night. And – in 500 miles – 50 cars – and a lorry every ten miles or so. It was as though the world had come to an end.

    Thank God it is all over.

    1. “Our new way to alert you when your life may be in danger”

      Question: with the daily arrival of ‘Refugees’ will we not get alerted every day?

    2. “Our new way to alert you when your life may be in danger”

      Question: with the daily arrival of ‘Refugees’ will we not get alerted every day?

    5. Perhaps if the government hadn’t made my life dangerous in the first damned place they wouldn’t need to tell me. As it is, the biggest threat to this country is the damned state itself.

  15. Ukraine is not Iraq. It’s a war we can all support. Tim Stanley 20 march 2023.

    Conservative critics of the war complain that Nato goaded Russia into action, and they might be right, but it doesn’t alter the immorality of what Putin did – nor does it tell us what to do next. What we can say is that Ukraine is not Iraq. It’s not about pole-dancing or abstractions such as democracy; it is – as DeSantis said – a territorial dispute, which is why it’s surprising that populists don’t rally to the cause. What do they believe in if not sovereignty and national self-determination? Republicans who have spent years warning of a figurative invasion across the US border ought to have the strongest sympathy for a literal one in Ukraine.

    Despite the headline I don’t think this is quite what the editor had in mind when he commissioned Stanley to write this article. It’s true that it is ostensibly pro Ukraine but he also covers all the reasons for opposing it. Most of it never appears in the MSM. There also appears to be some mockery of the Globalist position.

    In Britain, opposition to the proxy war with Russia is almost non-existent; I can’t recall a single speech in Parliament against it. A report by the European Council on Foreign Relations finds that Ukraine has reunited Europe and America around the view that “they should help Ukraine to win,” Moscow “is their avowed enemy” and the new global order is “two blocs led… by the US and China.”

    Perhaps I’m wrong! Have a read and find out!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/20/ukraine-not-iraq-war-can-support/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/20/ukraine-not-iraq-war-can-support/

    1. No, Ukraine is a deeply corrupt country with significant problems of it’s own, namely that half of it is Russian by ethnicity, wants to be part of Russia and is held part of Ukraine almost by force.

      A region that, until recently was being shelled by Western Ukraine – but we don’t talk about uncomfortable political realities here.

  18. Good morning all.
    A slightly damp and grey start this morning with a tad over 4°C outside.

  19. ‘Morning, Peeps. More rain forecast today, so that’s the end of any plan to mow the lawn in what will be a soggy back garden again.

    Today’s leading letter, and it is spot on:

    SIR – Stephen Eades (Letters, March 18) argues that, in terms of value for money, the BBC wins handsomely over various subscription services.

    This is not the case for me. I’ve stopped listening to the radio; the plays and serials were once excellent, but they are not now. As for the standard of news, words fail me. I rarely watch television.

    My objection to the licence fee is that it is compulsory. With other providers there is, quite rightly, freedom of choice. The BBC, which pays an ex-footballer a ridiculous amount of money while abolishing its choir and cutting its orchestras, needs to change its funding model.

    My licence is due for renewal, and I am going to cancel it. I don’t think I will miss it very much.

    Susan Firth
    Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

    Very well said, Ms Firth. Problem is our pigmy-brained government is also missing a spine, so the Bigoted Broadcasting Corpn is safe for the foreseeable.

    1. Yo HJ

      As I have been saying for ages, BBC Drama is very loud Music, with incidental background speech.

      Teletext doez nit elp, az the tecksters canot spel

    3. It’s not a subscription service it’s a tax. Subscription infers it is voluntary but the licence fee only goes to the BBC but not having one prevents you from watching all the other channels. They have to stand on their own two feet by making good programs and hence attract viewers and therefore the advertisers. That means they have to produce good programs to survive whereas the BBC get nearly £4 billion whatever they produce (and it’s mainly shite) – no incentive to do better.
      I cancelled my licence 3 years ago

      1. As late as 3 years ago, Alec? I cancelled when the BBC powers that be supported Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross’ obscene phone call to Andrew Sach’s answerphone.

        1. And now the odious Wossy is on Classic Fm! (but not in this household.)

          ‘Morning, Elsie.

      2. One that, at the moment you can opt out of paying. The state wants to stop that so you’re forced to fund the department of wasting time and money directly.

    4. Bridget Stevenson says if the BBC becomes a subscription service the costs will escalate and it will become an unaffordable luxury. Stupid woman – you’ll be able to watch all the other channels for nothing

  20. Identifying most dangerous terrorists like finding ‘needle in haystack, Sir Mark Rowley warns. 20 March 2023.

    The UK has tens of thousands of potential terrorists and identifying the ones who are likely to carry out an attack is like finding a “needle in a haystack”, Sir Mark Rowley has warned.

    While the most dangerous extremists in Britain are closely monitored by the police and security services, there are many more who share the ideology but lack the “spark to act”.

    The Met Commissioner said the trigger was often something that happened in their personal life, making it extremely difficult for the authorities to keep on top of.

    Last year, there were more than 6,400 referrals to Prevent, the Government’s counter-extremism programme, but just 3 per cent came from friends and family.

    In an interview for a new book exploring terror plots that have failed or have been interrupted, Sir Mark admitted it was often difficult for the police to prioritise which extremists were likely to carry out an act of terror.

    This is the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Next week he will be decrying the “Far Right” and bleating about the need for diversity.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/20/identifying-dangerous-terrorists-like-finding-needle-haystack/

    2. Morning Minty

      What about this then? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417

      Public emergency alerts to be sent to all UK mobile phones

      By Aoife Walsh
      BBC News
      A siren-like alert will be sent to mobile phone users across the UK next month to test a new government public warning system.

      It allows the government and emergency services to send urgent messages warning the public of life-threatening situations like flooding or wildfires.

      The test is expected to take place in the early evening of 23 April.

      Phone users will have to acknowledge the alert before they can use other features on their devices.

      A message will appear on the home screens of people’s devices during the test, with vibration and a loud warning sound that will ring for about 10 seconds, even if the phone is set to silent.

      The system – which became operational on Sunday – is being modelled on similar schemes used in the US, Canada, Japan and The Netherlands.

      Messages would only ever come from the government or emergency services and will initially focus on the most serious weather-related events, with the ability to get a message to 90% of mobile users within the relevant area.

      Terror alerts could be added to the list of potential events that would trigger a notification.

      The messages will include details of the area impacted and instructions about how to respond. They will only be sent where there is an immediate risk to life and many people may not receive an alert for months or years.

      Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden told the BBC the warnings are sent in a “very targeted way” and other than the test, he hopes many people will never hear the alert again.

      People can opt out by searching their device settings for emergency alerts and then turning off severe and extreme ones. Officials say the alerts could be life-saving, though, advising against switching them off.

          1. Whoa, Annie! He’s been ‘cancelled’ – he was involved in the slave trade (allegedly) in which case it cannot be long before his magnificent former home – Buckland Manor, in the Cotswolds – will be razed to the ground…

            Thankfully it isn’t in the hands of the NT, so may be spared for the time being.

          1. Morning Maggie, therefore they have complete control over your phone usage – this has to be resisted. I wonder if you’ll be able to block it? I’m sure some bright kid will come up with the answer

        2. Not a lot, to be honest. What they can do is apply for a warrant (now) to track your telephone and find out who you’re calling.

          Notable they want to remove that pesky demand for legality and just do it at ministerial fiat.

    3. The UK has tens of thousands of potential terrorists and identifying the ones who are likely to carry out an attack is like finding a “needle in a haystack”, Sir Mark Rowley has warned.

      Stop importing the bloody bastards then!

      1. Once more and at every opportunit. Just showing their absolute ignorance sir mark my words stands out like dogs dangly bits.
        Will these Dodo’s ever get their brains into gear ?

    4. The UK has tens of thousands of potential terrorists and identifying the ones who are likely to carry out an attack is like finding a “needle in a haystack”, Sir Mark Rowley has warned.

      Stop importing the bloody bastards then!

    1. It’s that plod are just now raising it when it was obvious from the outset what they were.

      1. There are several in the three towns close to my rural domicile. I think I’ll pop into a few and ask them politely what they’re really doing here. They don’t cut much hair.

    2. Is that the Rwandan bond? Stretcher bond is the norm but Flemish and English bonds look better and are stronger.

    3. Hang on Gizzly , this ignorant country is importing these idiots to build homes , repair roads , pretend to be medics , cook rubbish , reduce standards , police the country, become MPs and rape young girls and boys ..

        1. ‘Tis keyboard , it is stuffed .. cracked screen that once was a touch screen , and I have to apply extra pressure when typing ..

          Sorry oh.

      1. Yes. I’m fine Alec. I didn’t check in on Saturday as I had my first lie-in the eight years we have had the Springer.
        Our son took the dog for 48 hours as we were to perform our play Saturday evening.
        The play was oversubscribed and we had to limit numbers to 60 as we couldn’t cater for more.
        We provided the audience with a two course dinner and the evening was a huge success.

    1. What have the Rwandans done to have Abbot imposed on them.

      Could have been worse, Lammy Lammy could have went as well

    1. Well, who’d’a thunk it?
      Next they’ll be claiming much the same for all those garish ‘candy shops’ springing up like mushrooms.

    2. Morning Ogga

      Hang on a second , why haven’t they mentioned the appearance of teams of hand pop up car washerers or kebab/ or wiggy woggy cockroach infested foreign eateries.

      1. TBF to the car washers, they do seem to be busier than the average ‘Turkish’ barber.

        1. Yes, but they’re still a front for money laundering, drugs and trafficking.

          What on earth was expected? These are criminal! They’re here illegally, the first thing they’re going to do is set up the drug smuggling racket they intended to. It’s blasted obvious! The only way to stop it is to remove them.

      2. And Food outlets who bridge/bypass the gas meters. Sometimes leading to explosions.

    4. One wonders what proportion of the shops’ profits are being shared with local police (force, if necessary, but they prefer a “live and let live” approach)?

    5. In my little town ( pop 20k ish) which until recently boasted three gentlemen’s barbers and numerous hair salons has in the last three years acquired 5 Turkish barbershops and three nail bars staffed by non-english speaking asian girls. Now given that the town is half a mile away from J20 of the M5 and directly on the Bristol Channel with a landing slip on the front and and coast access elsewhere I find this a little troubling.

  26. SIR – Christina Marriott (Letters, March 19) says: “People who have been forced to flee their homes need stability, security and to feel safe.”

    Could she please explain to an increasingly resentful British public exactly how tens of thousands of young, single Albanian men have been “forced” to flee their homes – and why the several European countries through which they passed before arriving don’t offer stability and safety?

    Alan Tomlinson
    Cheadle, Cheshire

    DT readers are also distinctly unimpressed by the original letter, here is just one response:

    Chris Harris
    42 MIN AGO
    “……Could she please explain to an increasingly resentful British public exactly how tens of thousands of young, single Albanian men have been “forced” to flee their homes – and why the several European countries through which they passed before arriving don’t offer stability and safety? ng their judiciary, above.
    Others’ lawyers, including judiciaries, take a patriotic stance whereas our lawyers follow the money – fantastic fees for representing illegals here – and our judges love legal niceties and faithfully follow ECHR leanings.
    Our lawyers, many with a religious agenda too, form only part of our enemy within.

    * * *

    And all that legal aid that we taxpayers are funding for endless appeals doesn’t come cheap, either!

    1. Then they can feel safe in any one of the dozens of countries they’ve passed through. Why is that so difficult? Why must we tolerate the criminal scum?

    2. Human rights lawyers are doing nicely though.

      Including, i bet, the fragrant Mrs Bliar

  27. Good morning, all. Overcast and dry at the moment.

    The war in Ukraine is intrinsically linked to the globalist plans for takeover. The supporting cast includes the inoculation programme; the climate change scam; the destruction of economies worldwide; planned famine; medical tyranny from the WHO. The list is non-exclusive.
    The exposure to the truth behind any one of the globalist schemes could be fatal to the whole programme. Therefore they ignore the ongoing medical disaster and continue the pretence of governing with the MSM acting as top-cover whilst they continue to unstitch society e.g. 15 minute cities etc.

    https://twitter.com/nbreavington/status/1637722157303185409

    1. The history of Russia and Ukraine has been intertwined for over 1,000 years.
      The current situation is far more complicated than the armchair generals would have us believe.

      1. The current situation is far more complicated than the armchair Generals and politicians would have us believe.

    1. Mistakes Were NOT Made: An Anthem for Justice
      by Margaret Anna Alice

      The Armenian Genocide was not a mistake.
      Holodomor was not a mistake.
      The Final Solution was not a mistake.
      The Great Leap Forward was not a mistake.
      The Killing Fields were not a mistake.

      Name your genocide—it was not a mistake.
      That includes the Great Democide of the 2020s.
      To imply otherwise is to give Them the out they are seeking.

      It was not botched.
      It was not bungled.
      It was not a blunder.

      It was not incompetence.
      It was not lack of knowledge.
      It was not spontaneous mass hysteria.

      The planning occurred in plain sight.
      The planning is still occurring in plain sight.

      The philanthropaths bought The Science.
      The modellers projected the lies.
      The testers concocted the crisis.
      The NGOs leased the academics.
      The Scientists fabricated the findings.
      The mouthpieces spewed the talking points.

      The organisations declared the emergency.
      The governments erected the walls.
      The departments rewrote the rules.
      The governors quashed the rights.
      The politicians passed the laws.
      The bankers installed the control grid.

      The stooges laundered the money.
      The DoD placed the orders.
      The corporations fulfilled the contracts.
      The regulators approved the solution.
      The laws shielded the contractors.
      The agencies ignored the signals.

      The behemoths consolidated the media.
      The psychologists crafted the messaging.
      The propagandists chanted the slogans.
      The fact-chokers smeared the dissidents.
      The censors silenced the questioners.
      The jackboots stomped the dissenters.

      The tyrants summoned.
      The puppeteers jerked.
      The puppets danced.
      The colluders implemented.
      The doctors ordered.
      The hospitals administered.

      The menticiders scripted.
      The bamboozled bleated.
      The totalitarianised bullied.
      The Covidians tattled.
      The parents surrendered.
      The good citizens believed … and forgot.

      This was calculated.
      This was formulated.
      This was focus-grouped.
      This was articulated.
      This was manufactured.
      This was falsified.
      This was coerced.
      This was inflicted.
      This was denied.

      We were terrorised.
      We were isolated.
      We were gaslit.

      We were dehumanised.
      We were wounded.
      We were killed.

      Don’t let Them get away with it.
      Don’t let Them get away with it.
      Don’t let Them get away with it…

      1. Do You Remember?
        By Margaret Anna Alice.

        Do You Remember?

        Once upon a time, a little over a year ago, in this land and all lands across the earth, people could walk freely, smiles visible, into businesses of their own choosing, and those businesses could open or close as they like.

        Do you remember that?

        When families could visit family members, when friends could visit friends. When people could hold weddings and funerals and birthday parties. When grandparents could hug grandchildren. When kids could go to school, play together, and sleep over at friends’ houses. When people who got sick stayed home until they were better, and the rest of the world went about its business. When people could encircle their dying loved ones. When mothers could hold their babies after they were born without the threat of separation pending arbitrary test results. When every death wasn’t attributed to a single cause and announced in the daily death toll dispatches. When a perpetual storm cloud of fear, paranoia, and tension didn’t hang over us, threatening to burst any moment. When people could travel freely, without having to show their papers. When people didn’t think twice about dining out, meeting for coffee, singing, exercising, and dancing. When you didn’t have to arrange for kerbside pickup, schedule appointments for everyday errands, and have someone else select and deliver your groceries. When money wasn’t printed in the trillions, falling out of the sky and turning to toilet paper—which, as it turns out, would carry more value—on its descent. When people thought for themselves, decided for themselves, worked for themselves, took responsibility for themselves. When people weren’t deplatformed, shunned, reported, and unpersoned when they shared contrary opinions and scientific evidence. When this information wasn’t then scrubbed from the commons. When people didn’t turn against neighbours, friends, and family members. When it was considered rude to ask about someone’s health status and medical choices. When people helped people, cared for people, and touched (yes, literally!) people. When people didn’t let politics or religion come between them—okay, that one was more than a year ago. But you remember the rest, don’t you? You remember what it felt like? And you know it doesn’t feel that way now. At all. At all. At all.

        Oh, how quickly the conditioning takes effect. Oh, how quickly the freedoms flit away with nary a second glance. Oh, how quickly the world becomes an internment camp—its invisible walls constructed by our collective learned helplessness—with rules about when, where, and what you can do, and we all line up for our allotted portions, saying please and thank you all the way.

        I remember when.

        What do you remember?

  30. Good Moaning.
    Feel I’m reliving my youth, only the name in the must-read headlines is Murrell rather than Profumo.
    And the sex angle is … um … not quite so straight forward.

    1. They were ordinary people – apart from the crazy nutter thinking he’s a bull – on ‘their’ land. The state hates the voter. It is terrified of them. Thus any encroachment on their holy place is fought desperately.

      The really just hate democracy.

  32. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    The Horse Sale

    A guy calls his buddy, the horse rancher, and says he’s sending a friend
    over to look at a horse.

    His buddy asks, “How will I recognize him?”

    “That’s easy; he’s a midget with a speech impediment.”

    So, the midget shows up, and the guy asks him if he’s looking for a male or
    female horse.

    “A female horth.”

    So he shows him a prized filly.

    “Nith lookin horth. Can I thee her eyeth”?

    So the guy picks up the midget and he gives the horse’s eyes the once over.

    “Nith eyeth, can I thee her earzth”?

    So he picks the little fella up again, and shows him the horse’s ears.

    “Nith earzth, can I see her mouf”?

    The rancher is getting pretty ticked off by this point, but he picks him up
    again and shows him the horse’s mouth.

    “Nice mouf, can I see her twat”?

    Totally mad as fire at this point, the rancher grabs him under his arms and
    rams the midget’s head as far as he can up the horse’s fanny, pulls him out
    and slams him on the ground.

    The midget gets up, sputtering and coughing.

    “Perhapth I should rephrase that. Can I thee her wun awound a widdlebit”?

    1. There will be no trade war. Sunak has given the EU massively extended powers to prevent us becoming competitive against the EU.

      He has, quite simply, sold us down the river with the sole intent of forcing rechaining.

      1. He’s the one who need chaining – preferably in somewhere like Rwanda if not further.

  34. How many of those calling for Putin’s arrest were complicit in the illegal invasion of Iraq? George Monbiot. 20 March 2023

    Gordon Brown, Condoleezza Rice and Alastair Campbell are as responsible for an illegal war as the Russian leader’s ‘henchmen’ they condemn.

    It goes beyond hypocrisy. It’s an assault on memory. Gordon Brown, calling for a special tribunal to punish the Russian government, correctly states that an act of aggression – invading another nation – was identified by the Nuremberg tribunal as “the supreme international crime”. It is, he wrote in the Guardian, not just Vladimir Putin who should be prosecuted, but also his “henchmen”. These include members of the Russian and perhaps Belarusian national security councils, and a range of political and military leaders. All should be held to account for this “manifestly illegal war”, he wrote on his website.

    Condoleezza Rice, who was George W Bush’s national security adviser, was asked of Russia’s aggression on Fox News, “when you invade a sovereign nation, that is a war crime?” She replied: “It is certainly against every principle of international law and international order.”

    Brown and Rice are right about Russia. Its government, in invading Ukraine, has clearly committed the crime of aggression, a crime in which, as Brown points out, its senior officials are complicit. The same applies to the US and UK governments, which invaded Iraq 20 years ago today. Among the most senior perpetrators were Rice and Brown.

    Whoops! Even the Moonbat’s getting in on the act!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/20/putin-arrest-illegal-invasion-iraq-gordon-brown-condoleezza-rice-alastair-campbell-russia

    1. Perhaps Putin should state he is looking for WMD, such as biolabs or dirty bomb making facilities.

    2. Unfortunately for most of us we just live in a country where our political classes are gutless imbeciles who are behind everything that continually goes wrong and are equally continually allowed to escape punishment. Basically because the home office, judiciary and the police are all from the same self opinionated breeding stock.

    3. Blair argues that as Hussein was an evil dictator his invasion was justified. That’s the only response he gives. No one has challenged him legally. The entire Left wing state simply closes ranks to protect their own.

  35. Morning all 😉 😊
    More grey above, it seems to reflect the mood of the country. And rain all week.
    I certainly will not be paying for any further increase in the bbc licence fee.
    They’ll have to make cut backs.

      1. Fortunately we don’t live in an immigrant area, but….
        Ironically enough our own mp couldn’t be bothered to attend parliament to cast his vote for stopping the illegal invaders.
        Nor was he anywhere to be seen last week as most of them were not, when Andrew Bridgen made his very important speech.
        As a consequence that has already cost him several votes.
        Probably a lot more.

        1. If your MP is in a “safe seat” he is essentially untouchable. There will still be enough twits who will vote him in again again as “Labour will be even worse”.

          1. He was on Question time last week. I don’t watch it anymore The seat was safe when Peter Lilley retired. but no so sure these days.

    2. No, we just need the Webbe creature to be sacked, unable to claim expenses, not collecting severance, having her redundant staff sue her and then the evil harpy serving jail time for her vicious, third world attitude.

      2. The best contraceptive is freely available: a glass of water.

        (not before, nor after, but instead of)

  37. There’s an ongoing discussion about the Government’s role in setting timescales for the eradication of the use of petrol and diesel cars (i.e. the lagacy auto market):

    https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/will-the-2030-ban-on-petrol-and-diesel-be-pushed-back-heres-why-car-dealers-bosses-think-it-will/281367

    However, the now unstoppable move by motor manufacturers towards the production of electric, hybrid and plug-in vehicles hss recently suddenly increased the stockpiled inventory of these legacy vehicles. Does the UK Government have any control over the problems created by forcing the mandatory adoption of electricity for transport?

    This piece, by a guy, who has spent some time in China, reviews the situation in this dominant car making country where the onsold inventory of legacy cars has soared to over two months supply whereas Tesla has none at all. The Chinese government is funding big discounts for a range of vehicles rendering the stocks of petrol and diesel cars almost worthless:

    https://youtu.be/81H3gZ56_vw

    1. Whenever governments meddle in markets they make an absolute pigs breakfast, yet they keep meddling, all to force their agenda.

    1. Yeah, I’m guilty of that. The problem is far too many things are straight out of the Left wing playbook that we’ve seen before.
      Censorship,
      control over language,
      control over literature,
      desperation to remove the protections of law,
      an absolute absence of democratic accountability,
      a command economy (that’s failing – deliberately),
      state control over energy, fuel and food for ideological reasons,
      partitioning of demographics,
      fiddled data by the state to find the result it wans, utterly at variance to reality,
      Preferential treatment of one group over another.
      The erasure of truth in favour of opinion and suppression of those repeating the truth

      We’ve seen this before. It’s all been done before, countless times.

      1. Command economies fail anyway, as those doing the commanding don’t know how to run a business, let alone the economy, don’t move fast enough to make the decision, and don’t have any comeback if they make the wrong call. Nobody has to deliberately make them fail.

        1. Yet why – why, inn the name of trousers, is the oaf Hunt throwing our money after bad projects? Why is he literally burning our money?

          I’m also tired of the ‘ invest 20 billion…’. It’s spend, or waste. There’s no investment here.

      1. 372240+ up ticks,

        Morning FM,
        No structural damage just a brush stroke would suffice.

          2. Well they do rather ask for that, five times a day in their Arses for Allah ceremonies.

          5. Good afternoon, Grizzly

            That is certainly where I would not want to go.

            Calls to mind a limerick at which the easily offended should not look:

            There was a young chap from Cape Finisterre,
            Whose urges were both foul and sinister
            His lifelong ambition
            Was anal coition
            With the wife of the French foreign minister.

          6. 372240+ up ticks,

            I like the cut of your gib young fella, you mean as in a peoples RESET.

      2. The trouble is they have you by the short and curlies.

        Vote them out and the next lot will do just the same with knobs on.

  41. Putin’s Mariupol visit is a symbol of his failure. 20 March 2023.

    No amount of reinvention can disguise that seizing the city is far from what Putin sought to achieve with his brutal invasion.

    COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    David Bird.

    Looking at the video and photos in the media, I said to myself that is not Vladimir Putin, but a very close double. Setting aside the body bulk due to a bullet proof vest, the face didn’t look right compared to what he looked like a couple of weeks ago.

    The comments are more interesting than the article. It now seems to be generally accepted by the 77 Brigade Trolls that the man in Mariupol was a Putin double and one poster even suggesting that it wasn’t Mariupol at all. How you would prove this I have no idea. There have been doubles of course. I Was Monty’s Double being the most obvious. M. E. Clifton James who was both the real double and the movie version was eventually sacked from his wartime role for drinking and smoking, neither vice appropriate for the real Monty. Perhaps that’s it. If they don’t have Terminal Cancer or Parkinson’s Disease they are fake!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/03/19/putins-mariupol-visit-symbol-failure/

  42. SIR – It is clear that heat pumps are unaffordable.

    Their cost is small, however, compared with the estimated £3 trillion cost of decarbonising the national grid. That is £120,000 per household, to which must be added the costs of transport and industry.

    Yet we only pay about £120 per household a year in green levies, which equates to £3.6 billion. Based on these figures, it will take more than 800 years to pay for net zero.

    When will the Government accept that its plan is not viable?

    Roger J Arthur
    Pulborough, West Sussex

    Here is your answer, Mr Arthur (never!):

    Trevor Anderson
    3 HRS AGO
    Hear Hear Roger J Arthur: “It will take more than 800 years to pay for net zero. When will the Government accept that its plan is not viable?”
    Meanwhile to meet the vanity target that if achieved will make not the slightest difference to overall global emissions, the UK will have to endure life under 30 years of social disruption, diminished living standards, and living under a command economy.
    Our politicians are either too stupid or at best, wilfully ignorant to not acknowledge the multitude of problems associated with the implementation of becoming all electric.
    1. Where and what are the alternative energy sources going to be and come from; and how long will that take? 2. The majority of all buildings and homes along with all streets, roads and common areas will have to be completely rewired to cope with a higher ampage than is current – gfailure to do so would mean constant power cuts. 3 The cost of bringing all homes up to a level that meets insulation and energy requirements is projected at £85,000 – £100,000 per house. (A national £17 million expenditure programme carried out called ‘Retrofit for the Future’ proved these figures and wasn’t successful at meeting all the targets). Who is going to pay for that? 4. It will require a permanent workforce roughly the size of the NHS. 5. The successful storage of electricity has yet to be achieved.
    There are many, many more technical problems and vast costs to be faced in this generally impossible project.
    Net Zero will be repealed at some stage; but because loss of face appears to be more important to politicians than the nation than they are meant to serve, it will have caused too much cost and damage en route. Look at Lockdown as an example.

    Mr Lush
    2 HRS AGO
    Bernard, you and Trevor just saved me a whole lot of typing. Everything you both said is 100% correct, but then we must add the development of not just electric cars but trucks too.
    Put simply, it will take on average 3 electric trucks to replace 1 diesel, so 400% increase in CapEx for the distribution company instantly. Congestion will double because of systemic inefficiency, and reduced payload because of battery weight.
    Micro pollution from brake and tyre wear will treble, as will road wearing out and need of replacement tarmac.
    Then we need 100 recharging stations dotted round the country, each one 400 acres of concrete, and 25 Hinckley Point sized power stations to provide the electricity, so your calculations for the grid, substations, cabling, digging up roads etc all need to go up by 300%.
    Which skilled workers will build all the pylons, HV cabling? Where will the extra 25 million tons of copper come from? All the rare earth metals? Meanwhile, trees love a bit more carbon dioxide, and the planet gets greener.
    A loaf of bread will cost £27, and what are the chances the poorer countries in the world will follow suit? All the places where people live on $2 a day?
    Politicians??? Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…

    1. Gosh, if only Henry III had shown greater foresight/dictatorial traits, Blighty would now be Nutzero.

    2. “Micro pollution from brake and tyre wear will treble”

      Lol My local council gave the reason of tyre pollution to justify blanket reduction of the speed limit to 20 mph (which they are vigorously enforcing).

      We know they are lying. They know we know they know we know they are lying. But they do it anyway and get away with it.

      We need to get more French.

    3. It’s clear that Governments/Councils and the like are ignoring anything that does not conform to their agendas. It doesn’t matter what evidence is produced e.g. peer reviewed science and medical papers or the wishes of the people, the agenda holds sway. The lunacy of the Net Zero scam will, of course, end in tears but by then the deliberate damage will have been done.
      Tin eared politicos of all stripes and at all levels will continue to ride roughshod over the people until they are stopped. The coming local fight will be around “sustainability”, a euphemism for creating the 15 minute cities aka the people’s open prison. These councils must not be allowed to prevail over the people.

  43. Credit Suisse’s takeover delivers a shock to bond investors. 20 March 2023, 9:27am.

    If the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS was supposed to calm markets, it is not looking that way this morning. Markets are sharply down in Asia, and the FTSE fell by 1.5 on opening this morning. Banks were the biggest fallers, losing up to 7 per cent of their value.

    It looks like the Storm Clouds are gathering for the Final Phase!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/credit-suisses-takeover-delivers-a-shock-to-bond-investors/

  44. I finally got round to watching the two-parter of Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers. If you were under any illusion that most of our rivers are generally clean, you will not enjoy this programme. You will also not enjoy the pitiful obfuscation, excuses and empty promises from the various water companies. Particularly alarming was the fact that one of the companies has been withholding data from experts and activists for at least three years. What better proof do we need that they have something to hide?

    One oddity that wasn’t explained – towards the end of episode two the owner of a chicken farm was interviewed about the possibility of run-off from her site into the local water course. Very clear behind her was a sign “Biomass” and a direction arrow on one of her buildings. Does her farm have an anaerobic digester? Very commendable if so. On the other hand was the sign providing directions for drivers collecting the chicken waste for processing and therefore reducing the possibility of pollution? Again, this would seem to be to her credit.

    You certainly won’t want to see the contents of some of our rivers if you have a weak stomach. Worse still if you like swimming in some of them!

    1. Perhaps I’d better consider not eating any of the trout I take from the chalk streams?

  45. On Saturday, a South African accountant and his son were shot dead in the streets of Johannesburg. The accountant, a 50 year-old named Cloete Murray, was the court-appointed liquidator for Bosasa, a prison service contracting firm implicated in multiple government contract scandals.
    Murray and his 28 year-old son were driving home together when they were shot by unknown gunmen. His son died at the scene of the crime, while Murray died of his injuries at the hospital. Murray’s job as a liquidator had him investigate the finances of many different failed companies, digging into their finances to find any accounting issues or evidence of crimes.
    Bosasa, the latest company he was investigating, was accused by a government commission of bribing politicians and officials in order to land profitable government contracts. Murray also worked as a liquidator at firms affiliated with the Gupta brothers, a pair of brothers who tried to manipulate government policies with bribes. Murray’s death, and its possible links to the parties he investigated, are being investigated by South African police.

    *What this doesn’t say is whether the Guptas that Nicola Sturgeon has been doing business with are any relation to the Guptas mentioned above.
    .

    Perhaps the Murrels are being very wise by hurriedly distancing themselves from this mess?

    1. I once considered moving to South Africa having visited Cape Town and been seriously impressed. It seems scarcely credible that within the last thirty years it has been reduced to its present state!

      1. One of my Nieces lives near Cape Town, she has three teenage daughters I often wonder how much longer they might stay there.

          1. I’ve just been looking at JHB on Google Earth, where I first lived after we arrived. Every where is strewn with all sorts of rubbish and damage. It is a tip.

        2. Morning Eddy. I assume they face the same problems as ourselves! Where to go?

          1. For a long time i have wished we had stayed in Australia. I know it’s got its own problems with stupid politician’s, but there are more place to go to get away from it all.

          2. If you had – you wouldn’t have been able to leave for two years and would not have seen your sons or granchildren during that time.

      2. The Tracey family has an extraordinary connection with Africa.

        My grandfather, Dr Henry Tracey – a Devon GP, had eleven children six of whom went to work in Africa. Leonard Tracey bought an arid piece of land and started a very prosperous farm from scratch; Dr Hugh Tracey became a musicologist and founded the African musical library; Dr Decima Tracey married a missionary doctor and they both did medical and missionary work in Rwanda; Christopher Tracey (my father) went into the Sudan Political Service and became governor of Northern Sudan, Vera Tracey married a farmer and farmed in Kenya; and Evelyn became the head teacher in a girls’ school in Nigeria.

        (The five who did not go to Africa: Geoffrey was killed in WW1, Margery became a horticulturalist and three, Dr Lilian, Dr Basil and Dr John, became doctors)

    2. Obviously a paid for assassination.
      Guns have always been popular in JHB I use to see people with them quite often.

    3. Just done a bit of cross-checking, janet and it looks as though Sanjeev Gupta, who was implicated with the Greensill mess, and now owns a large slice of Highland estate, courtesy of Nikeliars useless economic capabilities, cis not related to the South African Gupta brothers!

        1. I would have loved him to be, but I guess that’s how fake news starts! 🙄

  46. I am re-reading my collection of P.G. Wodehouse novels and am currently on Jill, The Reckless – which was published in 1920 and is set in London and New York. At the time of this story there were five dollars to the pound. At today’s rate of 1.22 dollars to the pound sterling has devalued by over 400%

    This led me to wonder how good an investment it would have been to have kept one’s money in sterling over the years taking Germany and France as examples during my life. I remember I went cycling and staying in youth hostels in Germany in 196I when I was 15 years old and there were 9 DM to the pound; compared with today’s rate of exchange the pound has devalued by 300% since then. When we bought our house in France in 1988 there were 12 French Francs to the pound. At today’s rate of 1.14 euros to the pound the pound is only worth about 60% of what it was worth 35 years ago.

    Shouldn’t we all be proud of our marvellous pound!

  47. From another place: Scaffold were well ahead of their time.

    Lily The Pink

    We’ll drink a drink, a drink
    To Lily the Pink, the Pink, the Pink
    The saviour of the human race
    For she invented medicinal compound
    Most efficacious in every case
    Mr. Freers had sticky out ears
    And it made him awful shy
    And so they gave him medicinal compound
    And now he’s learning how to fly
    Robert Tony was known to be bony
    He would never eat his meal
    And so they gave him medicinal compound
    Now they move him round on wheels
    We’ll drink a drink, a drink
    To Lily the Pink, the Pink, the pink
    The saviour of the human race
    For she invented medicinal compound
    Most efficacious in every case
    Old Ebenezer thought he was Julius Caesar
    And so they put him in a home
    Where they gave him medicinal compound
    And now he’s emperor of Rome
    Johnny Hammer had a terrible st-st-st-st-stammer
    He could hardly s-s-say a word
    And so they gave him medicinal compound
    Now’s he’s seen, but never heard
    We’ll drink a drink, a drink
    To Lily the Pink, the Pink, the Pink
    The saviour of the human race
    For she invented medicinal compound
    Most efficacious in every case
    Aunty Milly ran willy-nilly
    When her legs they did recede
    And so they rubbed on medicinal compound
    Now they call her Milly Pede
    Jennifer Eccles had terrible freckles
    And the boys all called her names
    But she changed medicinal compound
    Now he joins in all the games
    We’ll drink a drink, a drink
    To Lily the Pink, the Pink, the Pink
    The saviour of the human race
    For she invented medicinal compound
    Most efficacious in every case
    Lily the Pink, she turned to drink
    She filled up with paraffin inside
    And despite her medicinal compound
    Sadly pickled Lily died
    Up to heaven her soul ascended
    All the church bells they did ring
    She took with her medicinal compound
    Hark the herald angels sing
    We’ll drink a drink, a drink
    To Lily the Pink, the Pink, the Pink
    The saviour of the human race
    For she invented medicinal compound
    Most efficacious in every case

  48. I must apologise for being repetitious yet again but I am rather surprised that there hasn’t been greater outrage on this forum about the fact that Sunak has betrayed Brexit and sold us down the river. He is a traitor and should be treated as such because he has sanctioned a foreign power – the EU – to usurp British Law in UK territory with The Great Windsor Surrender. If this isn’t treason then what is?

    My post last night:

    Brexit deal will go ahead with or without support of DUP, promises Downing Street
    Daily Telegraph 19 March, 2023 : https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

    Is this a promise or a threat? Either way it is nothing short of betrayal.

    I hope and pray that Sunak is deposed and imprisoned for high treason and that the Windsor Surrender to the EU Agreement is destroyed and never brought back in any form.

    BTL

    Nobody should agree to a deal which gives the ECJ superior authority over British Law in UK sovereign territory.
    In my opinion Sunak is guilty of high treason and should be put on trial.

    1. Good morning Rastus.

      Don’t know about everyone else on here but I am so fed up with our effin government (GINO, puppets for WEF! WHO! UN!) and just about anybody who hates the U.K. now we have rhyming slang J hunt smugly presenting a budget that puts an even bigger squeeze on the population one way or another.

      I have written to my MP to the point where he now declines to engage with me, he asks his “aide” to reply spouting platitudes. Quite honest I’m so weary of this net TPTB are tightening around every single person every which way I told myself to stop looking at DM, DT and DE headlines because it’s all doom and gloom. And the latest betrayal, by Sunak as you say, just doesn’t surprise me or anger me any more. Plus the fact that he was roundly rejected by the membership in the first place.

      I remember saying, when the 2016 vote was announced, “they’ll never allow it”. And so it has proved. I feel very sorry for my children and grandchildren.

    2. It’s been going on so long, one loses energy.
      The Norwegian Constitution forbids any foreign power having jurisdiction over Norway. UK could do with something like that.

      1. Canada needs something like that.

        There is a vote in parliament tomorrow in an effort to force Trudeaus chief of Staff to testify before a committee investigating Chinese interference in elections. Word is that in order to scare people into line, Trudeau will be making it a confidence vote.
        If only a few of the MPs vote with the good of the country in mind rather than their dreams of parliamentary pensions, we might see amend to the madness.

      4. It does. Magna Carta 1215 which guarantees all our ancient and natural rights. Any foreign legislation which infringes our natural rights to life, liberty, privacy, property, freedom of speech and freedom of travel would be unlawful. That should take care of the Great Reset.

        The King’s Coronation Oath must include the words ‘rule according to our ancient laws and customs’. If they are absent we have a constitutional crisis. He cannot take such an oath and continue to promote the WEF and its Great Reset. See here:

        https://static.s123-cdn-static-d.com/uploads/1796555/normal_63f8ec624af74.pdf

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDvHatg4iV8&t=1691s

    3. Mr T, I usually avoid ‘ad hominem’ comments, but ironically I do not perceive Mr Sunak as a ‘traitor’.

      His (respectable) parents were born somewhere in Africa, his (cherished) grandparents were from the Punjab, his (delightful) wife is an Indian national, their (wonderful) children are entitled to Indian citizenship and the major part of his (hard earned) family fortune is currently an investment in an Indian company. For a while he possessed a green card which is a step on the ladder of applying to become a US citizen.
      Yes, he holds a British passport and was born in the UK, just as Ms Shamima Begum did, and was.

    4. Mr T, I usually avoid ‘ad hominem’ comments, but ironically I do not perceive Mr Sunak as a ‘traitor’.

      His (respectable) parents were born somewhere in Africa, his (cherished) grandparents were from the Punjab, his (delightful) wife is an Indian national, their (wonderful) children are entitled to Indian citizenship and the major part of his (hard earned) family fortune is currently an investment in an Indian company. For a while he possessed a green card which is a step on the ladder of applying to become a US citizen.
      Yes, he holds a British passport and was born in the UK, just as Ms Shamima Begum did, and was.

    2. Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC (born 30 March 1970) is a British lawyer specialising in international criminal law and international human rights law, who has served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court since 2021.
      On 12 February 2021, Khan was elected the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres

      As British as Rishi Sunak, James (Chalkie) Cleverly, Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch and other members of the UK cabinet.

      1. But this same chap says he is “satisfied” that there is no evidence against Bliar.

        2. Edit for omission
          There is no evidence against Blair being a war criminal, all the evidence is in favour of him being a war criminal.

        3. Edit for omission
          There is no evidence against Blair being a war criminal, all the evidence is in favour of him being a war criminal.

        4. His satisfaction came in the form of a fat brown envelope that landed on his front doormat.

      2. The ICC is not recognised by many countries, countries including Russia, China and the USA.

        Most institutions calling themselves ‘International’ are instruments of globalists and should be distrusted.

        Whilst the USA does not recognise the ICC it occasionally exploits it for its own national interest whist otherwise ignoring it.

    3. Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC (born 30 March 1970) is a British lawyer specialising in international criminal law and international human rights law, who has served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court since 2021.
      On 12 February 2021, Khan was elected the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres

      As British as Rishi Sunak, James (Chalkie) Cleverly, Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch and other members of the UK cabinet.

  50. 372240+ up ticks,

    May they, in the near future reap the benefits of what they are now successfully sowing, is it to much to ask of the United Kingdom to
    follow in the cloggies furrow.

    breitbart,
    Populist Win: New Anti-Globalist Farmers Wins Even More Dutch Senators Than Expected, Are Largest Party.

      1. Whilst trying to fix a problem on Friday with our TV aerials in the lofts, I had left my phone up there because I had to use the torch. I had three Phone calls from the cardiology secretary but no messages, who as a found out by ringing back today, the sec doesn’t work on Mondays.
        Perhaps they want me in to fix me up……….Not holding my breath though.

        1. Sometimes it’s useful to have them handy! But I don’t usually give my mobile number out and most people know to use the landline.

          1. Either way I would have missed the calls. Up and down ladders and trying to sort out wiring.

          4. My landline has got a fault I can’t get a dialling tone and people can’t ring in. Apparently it’s at my provider’s end, but they still have to come into my house. On Wednesday, so it’s not too bad. Potentially.

            AT the moment they are tying to encourage us all to switch to total fibre optic, for the telephone, like our broadband currently is, prior to the universal enforced changeover in a couple of years’ time. Now if I were a cynical person…

      2. If you go to Settings, then Notifications, the Emergency Alerts buttons can be switched off. Whether that will save me from this government overreach remains to be seen. Merely switching the phone off won’t help as the message will just pop up once it’s put back on again.

        1. I will have a look – I seem to have started getting notifications from Twitter that I didn’t before, so it does need adjusting. I had to switch it on for something while I was away.

      3. If you go to Settings, then Notifications, the Emergency Alerts buttons can be switched off. Whether that will save me from this government overreach remains to be seen. Merely switching the phone off won’t help as the message will just pop up once it’s put back on again.

  53. A demolition job on modern mental illnesses,
    Abnormality: The New Normal
    https://www.takimag.com/article/abnormality-the-new-normal/:

    Just look at a total moron like Prince Harry. Once upon a time, he would have been a simpleton prince, unthinkingly married an equally pleasantly retarded princess, then lived happily ever after, The End. Unfortunately, the likes of Oprah Winfrey got their woke claws into him, made him think about things excessively without him in any sense possessing the mental capacity to actually do so, and so encouraged him to self-destructively deviate from the healthy princely script. Now Prince Hamlet is so “happy” he eats magic mushrooms and talks to dustbins. Well done, therapy culture!

    These people just aren’t normal, are they?

    1. Afternoon Sos. I always think of psychotherapy as the modern day equivalent of Witchcraft.

    1. Who will stand up for us? Well, it ain’t going to be the dodgy Fishi, and his band of pathetic, cowardly no-hopers!

    2. Councils have already been banning St Georges Day Parades for years, using health and safety BS, public liability insurance and other faked up aspects for their reasons. Especially in ‘High diversity’ areas.

    2. But…but, why the fuss. It’s not as if anyone will actually be deported. Unless they’re thinking of sending Tommy Robinson there?

  56. Ahh!
    That was a productive morning.
    1½h spent down the road sorting out some bits of fallen tree and stacking them ready for loading into the van and getting them up here.
    Then a load of left-over potato and veg mashed up to act as the topping for a Cottage Pie.
    Getting a pound of mince cooked and into casserole dish for aforesaid cottage pie.
    And I’ve just done the washing up!

    And all on a mere 4 mugs of tea!

    1. You’re a treasure Bob. I have still to do the washing up from yesterday as it was too dark and no hot water last evening. Am bracing myself for the task.

  57. Well this morning OH rang the surgery and got an appointment for this morning! He showed the doc the injured arm (from the badly aimed blood test the other day) and also told him that I’d told him to reduce his sugar intake. At least they seem able to fit him in at short notice.

          1. Already been a member for some time! He’s spent more time in surgeries and hospitals in the last couple of years than in his whole life.

          2. I feel for him. Those places aren’t fun at all, and to spend significant amounts of time sitting there; waiting… Bah!

          3. Four weeks of waiting ( having numerous tests) and then they chucked him out five days after his triple by pass. I was very glad to get him home, of course, but it was a bit of a worry as I’m no nurse.

          4. Both of us have a tendency to gain weight, so have always avoided desserts, cake and sweets! Except for special occasions but we do enjoy our wine!! The main thing to avoid is processed foods, have you seen the amount of sugar that is added to so called healthy stuff and that’s not even looking at all the chemicals involved….So, it’s cooking from scratch for me with the occasional lunch out! Boring.

          5. It would never cross my mind to buy “low fat yogurt”. It turns out that it is LESS healthy that good old full fat yogurt – because they replace the fat with SUGAR!!

          7. Comes to us all as we age!!! Not that it’s much help to anyone, just have to grin and bear it! Incidentally. both Jack and I have been ‘pre-diabetic’ for the past few years, but as long as the numbers remain stable the docs. are not too worried, saying most people have pre-diabetes in their 80’s

          8. Not much fun getting old………. did you do anything much apart from cutting back on the sugar intake?

    3. Good for you and OH, keep the pressure up on them, it’s seems to be the only way to get anywhere.
      I had one of those a few years ago the elderly now retired Phlebotomist mad a terrible mess of my right arm. The doctor I saw called it an Ecchymosis. The bruising was horrendous it looked as if i had bee run over and had everything except the tyre marks

      1. He can at least bend his arm a bit today. For the last few days it’s just been too uncomfortable to do any more than keep it straight. Even to the extent that his self-winding watch stopped. I had to look up Ecchymosis – but I suppose being on blood thinners and beta blockers doesn’t help.

  58. One of many vital questions which Sunak will not answer fully and honestly? ”

    After the Windsor Surrender will British Law or the ECJ have precedence and the final authority?”

    If, as Ursula Von Lyen has made perfectly clear, ECJ has precedence over British Law in British sovereign territory then Nigel Farage is completely right and Brexit has not been completed.

    Do any Nottlers disagree with me on this point?

    Downing Street has hit back at Nigel Farage after he criticised Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework and claimed Brexit has still “not been completed”.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/20/boris-johnson-partygate-privileges-committee-latest-sunak-braverman/

    Mr Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK, used a press conference this morning to criticise the record of successive Tory governments as he said EU regulations “have not been axed”, Northern Ireland has been “hived off” and “our borders are as open as they have literally ever been”.

    He said: “Three and a half years on, Brexit has not been completed, we are still under the jurisdiction of a foreign court in Strasbourg, our borders are as open as they have literally ever been. We have a high tax, big state, low growth, low productivity society and our public services are fundamentally broken.”

    Is there anything factually incorrect in what Farage is claiming?

    No10 rejected the criticism and said Mr Sunak’s Brexit deal will fix “longstanding problems” with border arrangements in Northern Ireland while regulations made in Brussels have been “reduced right down to the very minimum level”.

    There is not ‘a very minimum level’ – either Brexit has happened and there is no interference by regulations made in Brussels at all or, As Farage had said, Brexit has not been completed. And in my view it never will be because the PTB are determined to thwart it.at all costs.

    2. If NI is to be treated differently from the rest of the UK, then it is not a solution but a capitulation to the EU and ECJ.

      1. Not just NI, but from NI the agreement gives the EU more control over the UK. There are even phrases such as:

        source is saying is that the various proposals the EU are putting forward to ease the operation of the protocol and improve trade flows between Great Britain and Northern Ireland – which are sometimes referred to as ‘Maximum Facilitation’ or ‘Max Fac’ – are contingent upon the UK as a whole continuing to remain tightly aligned with EU regulations. If the UK diverges significantly, the EU will withdraw the easements, and in so doing reimpose the current difficulties in Northern Ireland’s trade with the mainland.

        1. Our so-called “leaders” have all conspired to thwart the public’s wish to disentangle ourselves from the EU. It’s never going to happen.

    3. The Windsor agreement is a complete capitulation to the EU. it gives them vastly more power to ensure we never, ever divert from EU control. There’s an awful lot more oversight and administration for businesses sending to NI.

      It’s just more leverage to control the UK and Sunak gave it all away. The rat should be beaten to a pulp for his deliberate, abusive surrender.

      But of course, it’s not Sunak. It’s the civil service, deliberately tying us ever closer to the hated EU, despite what we wanted and Sunak is forcing it through. Read https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-windsor-framework-a-legal-and-democratic-sting/

    4. Give NI to Eire.
      Stop all UK subsidy of NI.
      Insist Irish citizens no longer have freedom of movement between the UK and are treated as any other EU citizens.
      Stop all Eire exports and imports to anywhere other than the UK from going via the UK and from entering UK waters, make them ship over the extreme north of Scotland or around the extreme edges of the SW.
      Ditto any exports from the EU to new Eire.

      1. I hung out at Uni for three years in the 80s with a mixed bag of Norn Ironlanders. Three of the best years of my life. I even did a course on Irish history off the back of it. I have visited often. I ama Unionist. I do not want to see the end of the Union. But desperate times call for desperate measures. How long do you’re on it would be before Ireland / EU would want to give it back, if your proposals were adopted?

        1. Like you, but roughly 10 years earlier, I was at college with Norners and Eirrors.

          All super blokes and while they disagreed on some politics they could still party like the world was united.

          As to my proposals, my suspicion is that big Eire is the solution, which I think it probably is in the long term, they wouldn’t want to split back, but they would leave the EU and join a UK led Commonwealth trading area.

          If only the politicians had the courage to tell the EU to FOAD because we’re creating a new trading block.

  59. Russia defies Putin arrest warrant by opening its own case against ICC. 20 March 2023.

    The state Investigative Committee said there were no grounds for criminal liability on Putin’s part, and heads of state enjoyed absolute immunity under a 1973 U.N. convention.

    The ICC prosecutor’s actions showed signs of being crimes under Russian law, the committee said, including knowingly accusing an innocent person of a crime.

    The prosecutor and judges were also suspected of “preparing an attack on a representative of a foreign state enjoying international protection, in order to complicate international relations”.

    Interesting!

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-opens-criminal-case-against-icc-judges-prosecutor-over-putin-arrest-2023-03-20/

  60. Greece may refuse to give back the Elgin Marbles. 20 March 2023.

    Loaning the marbles is too risky, despite the claims made by Athens that the artefacts would be returned, the report for the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange has claimed.

    British Museum trustees, including chairman George Osborne, are due to meet this week to discuss a possible new deal that could see the marbles temporarily returned in a swap for artefacts shipped from Greece as a form of collateral.

    But writing for Policy Exchange, Sir Noel Malcolm, a senior research fellow at Oxford University, said of the prospect of a loan that “whatever promises Athens makes, or whatever items it offers in temporary exchange, the risks that the marbles will not be returned to London are too great”.

    Of course they are not going to return them. What could we do if they refused? Declare war? This is simply a trick to send them back without taking the responsibility for it! Elgin purchased the marbles in good faith and to save them from destruction. There is no moral or legal case for them to be returned to Greece!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/20/greece-may-refuse-give-back-elgin-marbles/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. I did read a suggestion that the remaining marbles on the Parthenon only survived because Lord Elgin’s willingness to purchase the ones now known by his name woke the then Turkish Authorities up to the possible value of them.

      1. The pollution in Athens (nefos) was so bad 30+ years ago that the Marbles would have been destroyed long ago! The Greek government, in its infinite wisdom, decreed that on alternate days only car numbers ending in an odd or even number would be allowed into the centre of Athens. Unfortunately the Greeks mainly have more than one car so the reduction in traffic was minimal!

      2. The pollution in Athens (nefos) was so bad 30+ years ago that the Marbles would have been destroyed long ago! The Greek government, in its infinite wisdom, decreed that on alternate days only car numbers ending in an odd or even number would be allowed into the centre of Athens. Unfortunately the Greeks mainly have more than one car so the reduction in traffic was minimal!

    2. One place that desperately needs some marbles is the H of C. Everyone in there seems to have lost theirs.

      1. Afternoon Milady. The Political Elites in the UK are clinically insane. You have only to look at them. They have formed a cult with its own belief system, most of it bizarre in the extreme, and from which the lower orders are excluded.

  61. Just to add to our joy and well being….last night there was a whoomph sound and the power went off- about 8pm. Our whole row of houses was out; I went to see if our immediate neighbours were out and they were. My husband phoned the elec co. and neighbours phoned the care line and one of the office staff. After some time, we got a text saying the problem was fixed and our power was back on. Not! The rest of the row were back but we and the woman next door were still out.
    Lit some candles and we sat in the gloom waiting to see if the lights came on. A technician did come and said that there was a fault in the cable in the ground.
    Packed it in and went to bed at 1.30 and then I had to come down and answer the back door and it was the guy confirming the fault and saying it would be fixed today.
    Power finally restored at 10. There were 4 utility vans and a little digger which dug a huge hole. It was a long and chilly night.
    I am not going to ask “what next” because I don’t want to bloody know!
    And it’s raining- GRRRRR.

      1. Wot can I say- party animal me;-) We wanted to see who, if anyone, turned up and to make sure things were turned off etc. Doubt I will be up late tonight.

    1. Ears, like fingerprints are unique to every person. Those in the first two photographs are identical!

      1. And the third photo is too blurred to tell. Someone I know who works for the UK Border Control farce told me they look at ears – but only on people entering legally, obvs.

    2. The nose in the 19.03.23 image is not the same as the others. Nor is the receding chin in the middle one.

    3. That Kyiv official may be right. Hairline, eyebrow, ear and upper lip all look slightly different.

    4. Is thee “double” also doing Biden?

      Falling over Joe has ben out TWICE now, without falling down the stairs

  64. World’s happiest countries…
    Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg, New Zealand
    World’s Unhappiest countries…
    Zambia, Tanzania, Comoros, Malawi, Botswana, Congo, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Afghanistan
    Can you spot the difference? Oh, come on, it’s black and white.

    1. Obviously the criteria are based on white supremacist ideals. Now if you could overcome your white privilege you would uncover new meanings to happiness.

      As the numbed of invaders increases, Canada is working its way down the list.

          2. Not much point, I don’t live there. I do me shoppin’ then toodle back off ‘ome on t’ train.

          3. On the very rare occasions I go to London, I try to return on the train asap by the quickest route out, so I’ll take that as a no.

          5. Of cities that I visited for work, Athens and Tokyo are very safe almost anywhere; one had to be very foolish to find dangerous parts.

          6. A lot of other cites are safe. Sydney and Copenhagen for two. Being a country lad at heart I like to visit cities but I soon tire of all the bustle and noise, coming home is such a relief.

          7. Sydney used to be, I now know it fairly well. There are pockets where times are-a-changing and not for the better.
            I’ve not visited Copenhagen.
            There are so many places I would love to sight see, money is the problem.
            Looking back, I’ve been very fortunate to see as many as I have, and my addiction to museums has made most visits very informative.

          8. I’m the same.
            After the concert week past Saturday I fancied a pint but did not fancy a loud city centre pub so just had a quick pint in a Wetherspoons and went back to the hotel.

      1. Banned, with massive plod armour presence to prevent normal indigenous people concerned for this country the ‘far right’ from having a say

  66. Turn up for the book. I have had a nagging discomfort in my jaw for two weeks. Kept hoping it would go away. Haven’t been to a dentist for years – apart from Nov 2019 when a filling fell out. Rang that dentist. They don’t take emergencies. They have a waiting list of would be patients. Sometime towards the autumn – perhaps…..

    Told the MR – she rang her dentist (by whom she swears) – and her chap will see me ON Wednesday afternoon. Trebles all round!

      2. Here you can only see a hygienist AFTER you have wasted £50 seeing a dentist. Infuriates me when I know that a descale is all I want.

        1. He’s a professional who cares about his patients well being. Unlike my GP.

          My GP diagnosed me two years ago with arterial disease and i haven’t seen her since. No follow up. Cow.

  68. These young and vulnerable Britons have all died in recent years due to the County Lines trade. Some were cuckooed – when dealers took over their homes to run their criminal enterprises and killed them when they were no longer useful. D Fail – (Note to sub-eds – shove in a couple of whities to make it look more diverse)

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/03/20/10/68894935-11872421-image-a-24_1679308010732.jpg

    Sub-eds – you pillocks, a couple of youngsters, not old geezers – see me after!!!

    1. Top second left was stabbed in the park iirc – she was never involved in drug gangs.

        1. Yes. But it’s unfair to put her photo next to a bunch of kids who were involved in the gangs.

  69. I see that England are playing Ukrupt in the wendyball on Sunday.
    Will they concede, bend the knee, walk on with a Uke flag instead of an English one?
    Choices, choices, so many virtue signalling opportunities, however will they cope?

    1. They’ll probably give them a few artillery shells from the million promised by the EU…

      Somme enchanted evening, when you meet a Ruskie
      You may see a Ruskie across a battlefield,
      And somehow you know, you know even then,
      That somehow you’ll shell him again and again.

  70. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/334d8a0d0ef46b00c2cf6521c17eb090e3863a2bba87c57533123f6dcc92d704.png A father passing by his son’s bedroom. He noticed the room unusually clean and saw an envelope propped up prominently on the pillow. It was addressed, ‘Dad’. With the worst premonition, he opened the envelope and read the letter, with trembling hands.

    Dear, Dad.

    It is with great regret and sorrow that I’m writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend, because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mum and you.

    I’ve been finding real passion with Stacy. She is so nice, but I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercing’s, tattoos, her tight motorcycle clothes, and because she is so much older than I am.

    But it’s not only the passion, Dad. She’s pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods, and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children.

    Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn’t really hurt anyone. We’ll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people in the commune for all the cocaine and ecstasy we want.

    In the meantime, we’ll pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so that Stacy can get better. She sure deserves it!

    Don’t worry Dad, I’m 15, and I know how to take care of myself. Someday, I’m sure we’ll be back to visit so you can get to know your many grandchildren.

    Love, your son, Josh

    P.S. Dad, none of the above is true. I’m over at Jason’s house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than the school report that’s on the kitchen table. Call when it is safe for me to come home.

    1. Revoke the Race Relations Act of the mid sixties and give us back the….
      Right to Freedom of Speech and Opinion,without fear or favour…
      There,that’ll fix it…..

  73. Steerpike
    Sturgeon’s final snub to Sunak
    19 March 2023, 7:38pm

    In her eight and a half years at Bute House, Nicola Sturgeon has never been one to show much in the way of grace towards ministers down in London. There were the Brexit debates, where she endlessly sought to undermine those involved in negotiations with Brussels. There were the Covid crises, where she sought to claim the moral high ground by pipping Westminster with unannounced rule-changes. And then there was the Gender Recognition Reform Bill where she paid no heed to constitutional law – and ended up paying the price.

    So it was no surprise then that Sturgeon’s final act in office – her resignation – was carried out in a similar vein. The Scottish Sun has got hold of documents which show who knew about the First Minister’s resignation before she went on television and announced it to the world. Having been forced to inform the King first of her impending departure, Sturgeon then decided to tell those giants of the Scottish Greens Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater. Others in the know included such esteemed colleagues like, er, Chris Mackie, a Scottish government spin doctor and Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales.

    Notice anyone missing? Yes, according to the Sun, Sturgeon chose not to tell the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of her resignation – despite her talk about working with the ‘four nations.’ Colin McAllister, Sturgeon’s chief of staff, described the first people to know about her decision to step down as ‘the magic circle’. Clearly, that didn’t extend to the head of the UK government, which the Scottish people chose to remain part of less than a decade ago. McAllister also said the First Minister was ‘comfortable’ with potential leaks after Sky and the BBC were given early invites to a special press conference at Bute House. Not to No. 10 though it seems…

    Classy to the end, eh?

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

    ”.. that floats in the air
    21 hours ago edited
    Not surprised. Sturgeon Is full of bile and hatred. Someone like her should never have entered public life . I do recall Nigel Farage saying quite recently that he’s met a lot of politicians, presidents and prime ministers, some of which he got on well with, and some he didn’t but he’s never met someone so full of hatred as Nicola Sturgeon . Good riddance.

    Anthony Declan
    19 hours ago
    PM Liz Truss nailed it when she dismissed Sturgeon as an attention-seeking poison dwarf and best ignored. By all accounts, when Sturgeon first learned of Truss’ dismissive brush-off, she had to be placed in a strait-jacket for two whole days, while being nursed and comforted by her amante secrète from Montagne de Lavande. Little miss Sturgeon’s entire life has been consumed, motivated and defined by her psychotic animus towards the very idea of Great Britain – England in particular. Good riddance to the spiteful shrew.

  75. I have just emailed this off to the DT but as, unlike Grizzly, I am no longer the blue-eyed boy of the DT letters department there is very little chance that they will print it.

    But what more oft in nations grown corrupt,
    And by their vices brought to servitude
    Than to love bondage more than liberty
    Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.

    [John Milton: ‘Samson Agonistes’]

    This quotation from one of our greatest poets seems very relevant this week. Mr Sunak thinks that surrendering the supremacy of British Law to the ECJ in Northern Ireland is easier than holding firm and defending the precedence of British justice. Some will say that he is making a justifiable, pragmatic decision in capitulating but it will not be long before he discovers that he has engendered nothing but contempt for himself, his government and his country for his cravenness.

    Yours sincerely,

    Richard Tracey

    1. I fear the word “bondage” is today a “trigger word” that’ll have you banned for good.

      1. I used to enjoy teaching Milton’s poetry to intelligent Sixth Formers. What does your MR think of the poet as a poet rather than as a parliamentary zealot who is accused of mysogyny because he blamed the Fall of Man on Eve rather than uxorious Adam who only ate the apple because he loved Eve more than he feared God’s wrath?

        2. We covered that bit in the church lent course last week. Man must obey God and woman must obey man. One of the ladies got very triggered. I can’t be arsed. There’s a dearth of wise men in my life and I find The Almighty quite willing to deal direct with a poor lass who finds herself thus positioned.

    2. I am wondering that you may not get your letters published in the DT because you send your emails in the form of a formal written letter and not in their prescribed format. They are very picky on this point.

      They insist that you start your missive with a very hat-tipping, SIR —

      At the end you simply sign your name, add your home address, your telephone number, then your email address (“Yours sincerely” is not required), in this manner:

      SIR — You are serially failing to print my letters to the editor, I wonder why?

      Richard Tracey
      The House
      Breton Street,
      Brittany
      France
      +33-1234-567890
      rastusctastey @frogland.com

      I am sure that if you adopt this method and format you may have much more success.

      2. Thanks for the advice but eggs, sucking, grandmothers and teaching spring to mind!

        No, I follow all the instructions and it is only relatively recently that they have started boycotting my letters because they have moved to the left and I haven’t. A few years ago the DT letters department even sent me a card at Christmas. I no longer get the card but I hope you are getting one

    1. That is very funny but it perpetuates the fallacy that sushi is raw fish: it isn’t. The fish used in sushi is always cooked.

      Japanese raw fish is called sashimi.

        2. Only ‘coz some fish contain parasites. Yer Japonaise tend to be very careful about which fish they use raw!

        3. Yes, I remember an awkward moment when I noticed a tiny wriggling creature in a chunk of marinated conger eel.

      2. Not true.
        Some sushi does contain raw fish, sashimi tends to have larger (and better) pieces of raw fish.

        1. I’ve eaten loads of sushi but I’ve yet to come across any raw fish in any that I’ve eaten.

          1. Go to Tokyo, try to find a local individual to take you on a tasting tour, and go out on the town with them.
            You will find sushi with raw fish.
            You might also find the best food you have ever tasted; AND some of the most disgusting things you’ve ever been asked to eat.

            I used to work with a man who, when we entertained clients for lunch, almost always asked his clients which cuisine they would choose, if they could only eat one.
            Generally the choices tended to be Italian, French, various currialikes.

            I would choose Japanese, it has everything, from pasta to fish, from beef to vegetables, one aspect I can’t recall eating is European style desserts; but apart from that, wonderful food.

    2. My mother was quite traditional and certainly kept pretty much to those rules. It’s a wonder we survived on such a restricted diet.

  79. Par Four today.

    Wordle 639 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Happy with my birdie.
      Wordle 639 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Me too. You can see what happened.

        Wordle 639 5/6

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

  80. That’s me for today. Didn’t do much EXCEPT book all the travel and hotels for our hols in Cap d’Ail. We are both so happy about the prospect of bathing every day in a warm sea – popping into Italy, meeting old friends….Brilliaaaaaant!

    Have a super evening.

    A demain.

      2. If that doesn’t happen then they can always fall back on monkey(funky gibbon)pox.

      3. Looks like fish flu has reached NSW, millions of dead fush, whoops that’s Kiwi, have been found dead in a river at Menindee.
        On a scale never been seen before.
        Glow Ball warming again.

    1. I was in Warrington that day (I heard the explosions) and it’s what prompted me to take early retirement and move to Scotland. Warrington is a shithole now – if the earth had piles that’s where they’d be

    3. There are filter jugs that’ll remove all impurities. Really need to buy one, I just hate that I’ll probably have to use Amazon to get one.

      1. On the off chance you omitted “/sarc”

        There are filter jugs that’ll remove all impurities

        Ha ha
        HA HA ha
        HA HA HA ha!

        1. No sarc. Brita won’t but there are others that do. It’s possible to filter out muck, minerals and fluoride.

          1. “all impurities“?
            I don’t think so.
            Unless you have a really serious laboratory level filter. And even then I would ask the question:
            Wuhan do?

          2. OK. I don’t care enough to argue. Let’s just say the manufacturers make claims – and sos doesn’t believe them.

          4. Yo, Sos. I have a Russell Hobbs kettle which takes Brita filters.

            I disregard the timer on the lid, since there’s only one of me. But the water here is quite hard. I can’t comment on any impurities – I really don’t care, frankly – but tea and coffee with filtered water are better than the alternative.`

      2. I started using a filter jug when I lived in Norfolk (bloody awful water there) but I still use it here in Sweden (where the water is clean and delicious) to reduce the calcium content in my tea.

      3. Bite the bullet. Sometimes when it is in your own interests you have to do it. Do not sacrifice your health on the altar of your principles….

      4. You can also buy water purification tablets. Camping/outdoors shops used to sell them.

    4. Traditionally they just wander down to the nearest river, keep an eye out for crocodiles, then scoop out some water to drink.

      2. Well, yes, that is what I thought….. even though millions and millions have been raised for clean water for Africa.

    1. There are comments in that thread calling for sanctions against China. Sanction the people who make nearly everything in your home. Yeah, that’ll work out well. Where do these people keep their brains?

      1. In the drains of course – You have heard of the Brain Drain. It’s gathered speed in recent times….

      2. I do check labels, and, if possible avoid buying stuff made in China.
        However, Italian clothes are often made by Chinese ‘guest’ workers; hence the convid hoohah.

          2. I am like you, Anne. When shopping in Aldi I avoid products from EU countries as much as I can. Not always possible.

    1. All the others would have done, but they were too busy to take a moment to talk to a passing stranger.

      1. Reminds of one of my all time favourites. Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan.
        Passing strangers.

      1. I don’t have such a ‘Setting’ but, I believe my phone’s OS is too old to receive this, but I shall switch it off for 23/04 and bury it in a metal case for the day.

  91. A beautiful connection.
    A programme where scientists and archaeologists are telling us with almost absolute certainty about how the world was, followed by a piece about Piltdown man.
    The irony escapes them all!

  92. I know lots of folk posting here have had distressing encounters with the NHS. This evening a friend told us about her 87 year old sister who courtesy of the NHS has had both hips and both knee joints replaced. Survived cancer of the womb via a hysterectomy. Survived yesterday with an emergency hospital admission with the benefit of a new pacemaker fitted there and then. She appears to have had her monies worth!

    1. Good for her. She may be the only one who’s had her money’s worth. (Monies worth or money’s worth?).

      1. Whisper it quietly after the first few ops she may have been considered to be good teaching / practice material!

      2. I think it’s “money’s worth”, but Grizzly will no doubt confirm or deny, vw.

        1. Reminds me of the Gag in the Encyclopaedia of Jewish Humour:

          A jew travelling in the countryside is held up my a highway man who says:

          “Your money or your Life!”

          The Jew exclaims: “My Life!”

        2. Reminds me of the Gag in the Encyclopaedia of Jewish Humour:

          A jew travelling in the countryside is held up my a highway man who says:

          “Your money or your Life!”

          The Jew exclaims: “My Life!”

      3. Money’s worth. Words ending in “ey” are made plural by only adding an S. As in donkeys, monkeys etc

    2. In fairness, my experience of the NHS has been pretty good. Leaving aside the admin, the pre-op assessments where the nurse had no idea why I was there (and the wrong file), the actual medics do a good job. But it’s a postcode lottery.

    3. I was speaking to an old friend today about it. Everyone we seemed to know has had similar issues and experiences with the NHS.
      But where does the lady live ???
      I’ll go and queue up.

    1. And the Arab said:
      ” Turn left for Israel, enjoy the oranges, we’ll have the oil”

    1. Unfortunately our stupid politicians will alow this sort of dreadful bias to become more a way of life.
      It could easily lead to a civil war.
      I had to explain to my 7 year old grandson what a civil war was. I suspect he’ll find out before he reaches our age. But I didn’t tell him that. Just about Cromwell and his merry men.

      1. The American Civil War was a war that split families apart, mainly in the mid south and southern states. Virginia, Maryland and other states had brother fighting brother, or father fighting sons.
        Civil war is the worst but I don’t think you could call what will erupt here as a civil war. It will be immigrants V native British people.

        1. I guess that remains to be seen me lady. 😉
          As things seem to be going there are a lot of gutless Dopey Wokies on the side of the invaders and our existing culture destroyers already. 🤔

          1. Yes, you are right with your second sentence. Doesn’t make it less worrying though.

  95. Russia was the single largest crude oil supplier to China in January and February, overtaking Saudi Arabia which was the number-one supplier of oil to China last year, according to Chinese customs data cited by Reuters.

    BTL Comment:

    “MOST IMPORTANTLY…

    Not one petrodollar was needed in this trade.”

    Hmmm….

    2. Anne Widdecombe and Ben Habib have just joined the Reform Party because they are outraged by the total betrayal of Northern Ireland in Windsor Framework Surrender.

      Richard Tice will continue to be a problem for Reform if he continues to support Net Zero and does not want to consider the harms that the Covid gene therapy has done and is still doing.

  100. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk,

    Just been down to the Bank of Scotland and withdrew the last £300, I can afford to convert to cash.

    I now have at least £600 to keep in my wallet in the event of CBDC becoming fact.

    Let’s all hope and pray for a better tomorrow.

    4. Don’t carry too much cash at any one time. You might get mugged. Stash some away.

  101. It’s a wet night and I’m off to bed.

    Weather permitting, it’ll be getting ready to do a bit of concreting for the wall tomorrow.

    G’night all.

    1. When it finally gets finished, BoB, I reckon the Great Wall of Bonsall will rival the Great Wall of China. Lol.

  103. After last night’s fun- not- I am heading to bed. Will try and catch up tomorrow with the phone calls etc we were planning to do today.
    I realise I am getting older but I didn’t quite expect the fatigue.
    Sleep well Y’all.

    1. We should have gone to a funeral late morning but we spent all yesterday with the grandmonsters aged 21 months and six years (both boys). We were exhausted when we got home, we didn’t sleep well and were far too tired to contemplate getting ready to go to the funeral, not a relative’s but a neighbour. I did not expect to be still so tired this morning. Neither of us recovers as quickly overnight as we used to. It comes as a surprise.

      1. Yes indeed. It is always a surprise to me how long it takes now to do mundane tasks!!

      3. We were also shattered yesterday , our weekend was okayish, no 2 son and his partner stayed with us , but attending to coughing elderly dog and sprightly younger dog took its toll .

        I think disrupted routines and constant chatter is quite exhausting .

  104. Evening, all. The licence fee is already indefensible. Why should people have to pay to own a television set if they never watch the Bbc?

    1. You don’t need a licence to own a TV Conners – it’s what it’s used for which needs the licence ie to watch anything live on any TV channel or BBC iPlayer. My argument exactly, the BBC get the money whatever shit they turn out, the other channels have to stand on their own two feet

      1. Perhaps I phrased it badly. If you own a TV set to watch other channels, you’re forced to pay the tax, even if you don’t watch the Bbc is what I meant.

        1. Understood – and yet you’d think the other channels would complain but they don’t

  106. A few thoughts. Has anyone else noticed that the present leaders of the West are either retiring or else fomenting the conditions which might enable them to walk away as ‘heroes’ fighting for globalist aims yet failing to implement their globalist mission.

    Take WEF puppet Macron, for example, who having created by his policies utter chaos in France, now hankers for a job in some superior institution such as the ECB or NATO.

    Much the same applies to WEF puppet Bunter Johnson, whose credibility in the UK is shot. The fat git hopes still to obtain some highly remunerated post in some bloodsucking organisation such as the UN Secretary General or European Commission or any job in Brussels as reward for crippling Brexit.

    The political class remain as parasites on the very people they are supposed to represent. They care nothing for the people by whom they were elected representatives and instead seek to reward themselves. It was ever thus, except that nowadays we are able to monitor their every action and deceit.

    Most of these destructive and failed politicians sleep peacefully in the sure understanding that by their actions they will have pleased their globalist elite masters. Each act of treason is an affirmation of their loyalty to those global masters.

    3. Two scandals, Hancock and Johnson, and both eased out. Ardern in NZ slips away just before the excess deaths become known. Even minor players e.g. Sturgeon are distancing themselves. Shameful political performances by so many worldwide.

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