Tuesday 28 March: The only way to achieve net zero is to offer consumers value for money

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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712 thoughts on “Tuesday 28 March: The only way to achieve net zero is to offer consumers value for money”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Health Insurance

    You don’t have to be Catholic to appreciate this one!!

    A man suffered a serious heart attack while shopping in a store.

    The store clerk called 911 when they saw him collapse to the floor.

    The paramedics rushed the man to the nearest hospital where he had emergency open heart bypass surgery.

    He awakened from the surgery to find himself in the care of nuns at the Catholic Hospital.

    A nun was seated next to his bed holding a clipboard loaded with several forms, and a pen.

    She asked him how he was going to pay for his treatment.

    “Do you have health insurance?” she asked.

    He replied in a raspy voice, “No health insurance.”

    The nun asked, “Do you have money in the bank?”

    He replied, “No money in the bank.”

    Do you have a relative who could help you with the payments?” asked the irritated nun.

    He said, “I only have a spinster sister, and she is a nun.”

    The nun became agitated and announced loudly, “Nuns are not spinsters! Nuns are married to God.”

    The patient replied, “Perfect. Send the bill to my brother-in-law.”

    1. I had a bad night too, I couldn’t sleep. It must be the disruption in sleep pattern caused by the clocks going forward. I did eventually sleep about 5.00 am.

  4. Good morning, chums. Second today. I may well do the same as Tom after a bad night and see you all later.

    PS – Well, third. Good morning, Citroen1.

  5. Good morning, chums. Second today. I may well do the same as Tom after a bad night and see you all later.

    PS – Well, third. Good morning, Citroen1.

  9. The only way to achieve net zero is to offer consumers value for money

    The only way for humans to achieve net zero is to go extinct .

    Have you noticed how climate is rarely mentioned now, just the net zero target.

    1. The only way to achieve Net Zero is to eliminate the human race. YOU are the carbon they wish to zero.

  10. Xi Jinping’s plan to annex Russian territory is there for all to see. 27 March 2023 •

    Already, cross-border economic activity in Siberia by uncounted Chinese communities, including in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, tacitly revive historical Chinese claims to this resource-rich and highly strategic region. For decades, Chinese gangsters have been smuggling precious Siberian resources back to China through a porous frontier – often in collusion with Russian criminals. It’s a clear breach of Russian sovereignty.

    Putin’s disastrous assault on Ukraine may have drawn his gaze far away from Russia’s 4,200km border with China, along with many thousands of soldiers who should guard it, but the Chinese remain focused. Xi Jinping’s zero-sum ambition for the “great rejuvenation of China” is imposing itself step by step on Russian soil.

    This is an inherently silly article witness the “Chinese Gangsters – Russian Criminals.” line. All states would annexe anything given the opportunity. The French would certainly like the Channel Islands and Mexico would dearly love to regain the territories that the United States stole off them in the nineteenth century but neither are planning to do anything about them any more than Xi is in Siberia. China can buy anything it needs from Russia, it doesn’t need a military confrontation at the moment. The article itself appears to be part of a new anti-Putin propaganda program that is mostly personal in nature; Russia itself and its people being left out of the equation except as unwitting accomplices.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/27/xi-jinpings-plan-annex-russian-territory-see/

    1. “All the nice girls love a candle
      All the nice girls like a wick
      Because there’s something about a candle….”

      1. During yet another power cut the Headmistress of Roedean telephoned the Electrickery company and said :

        Please send along your men with their tools. My girls are fed up with using candles.

        (I remember my study mate at school telling me this one in about 1963!)

  13. Liberals created an immigration disaster – and now they are making it worse

    By standing in the way of Rishi Sunak’s practical efforts, they may unleash a wave of populist rage

    SHERELLE JACOBS
    27 March 2023 • 9:00pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/03/27/TELEMMGLPICT000328979617_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqvYkWFWvyxtosZCR5YhKX6gVOCtrLJLh1JhlDvDpF2hg.jpeg?imwidth=680

    There comes a time when the sacred mythology that underpins an orthodoxy simply crumbles. We have certainly reached this point with liberalism, and no more so than on the topic of immigration.

    For the last 50 years, a worldview has taken hold that human rights must trump national sovereignty, in order to safeguard world morality and peace. In this vein it is thought unconscionable that a country like Britain should undermine the post-war global order by violating refugee laws. The received wisdom is that such an act risks tipping us into a frightening new era of nativist fascism – that it desecrates an ancient human rights tradition, traceable back through Greek philosophy and European natural law.

    As a lapsed believer in liberalism (which is essentially a religion) I feel a strong spiritual pull towards this worldview. But now it is time for liberals to wake up to the fact that clinging to such pieties is no longer tenable. As an economically stagnant Europe faces a major refugee crisis, utopian ideals have fatally collided with political realities.

    Some might like to depict the Tory Government’s Illegal Migration Bill – which seeks to enable the expulsion of anyone who enters the country by unlawful means – as beyond the pale. But its tough stance is in no way exceptional. The tide has been turning across Europe since the 2015-16 refugee crisis, when the Continent took in over a million asylum-seekers despite its struggles to recover from the financial crash.

    Scandinavian countries have gone from being the most open in the world to introducing some of the harshest detention regimes. At least one EU member state has been accused of pushing migrants back across its borders. Brussels’ recent warning that Britain’s Migrant bill “violates international law” was thus both rank hypocrisy and clever deflection.

    Moreover, Europe’s stance on migration is only set to harden. Member states have called on the EU to strengthen fences along the bloc’s frontier. And according to a leaked communiqué, Brussels is reportedly mulling the use of aid and trade to strong-arm uncooperative countries into taking back asylum seekers.

    The time has come for liberals to face facts. If European countries were less sluggish, perhaps they could get away with a relaxed attitude to border control. But wages have flatlined, welfare states are crumbling, and underfunded asylum processing regimes have effectively collapsed. As a consequence, voters are casting a critical eye on their governments’ priorities. It is, for example, incredible to many people that the Tories should criminalise the rising homeless population while putting asylum seekers up in hotels.

    True, Sunak’s plans are far from perfect. It is hard to see how sending asylum seekers to Rwanda will deter, given the limited numbers involved. More promising is the intention to return migrants to their home country – and yet the detail in this area is lacking. Will we compensate countries for the huge costs involved in confirming the identities of their citizens, who often come from far-flung rural areas? And can we really compel the reluctant developing nations with threats to cut off aid money when migrant remittances are worth much more?

    Furthermore, as Tory rebels who want to see the Bill strengthened have highlighted, the planned legislation won’t prevent asylum seekers from arguing, outside the UK, that their removal breaches human rights. Dealing with these knotty issues demands cross-party political will, so it is discouraging to see Labour boorishly trash the plans while pretending that the problem can be solved by gaining access to EU databases and brokering some fantasy agreement with France.

    The worst thing that liberals can do at this point is declare this a doomed Right-wing escapade, with the implication that heretics must in the end give in, submitting to divine international law. This would just reinforce the sense that they are out of touch with reality and have no interest in addressing people’s concerns.

    It would also reflect a dangerous complacency. Because the truth is that the global human rights movement is built on a fragile modern myth. Far from being sacred and timeless, it only really took hold, in its current form at least, under Jimmy Carter in the 1970s – a way to redeem an America that, amid Vietnam and the Watergate scandal, had failed to provide moral salvation to the post-war West.

    And now we see how once again, the machinations of history are bringing a new worldview into ascendancy – one that draws on the historic sanctity of the nation state and the mythos of sovereign democratic will. Ironically, just like the Carter era, today’s politicians are steadily aligning with this new movement in search of moral redemption – only this time, over the West’s failure to find salvation in technocracy and globalisation.

    Some liberals might hope that the status quo can be protected through naked legal diktat as some desperate last resort. But an expansive interpretation of migrant rights by the courts, as well as the ECHR’s obstruction of Rwanda-bound flights, is only feeding the flames of populism. Such a bid to establish messy “political” issues as matters to be neatly settled by transcendent global law looks like a power grab to many voters.

    If they are to remain relevant, liberals must be willing to engage with the messy political realities of immigration that their comrades in Strasbourg seek to deny. It is possible, for instance, to see a tougher Channel policy not as a catalyst for nativism but as a safety valve against extremism. Nipping this in the bud may prevent the kind of furious mass backlash that could tempt panicking governments towards scorched-earth policies.

    And perhaps it is also time for liberals to soberly reflect on their own dogmas. After all, their ideology has unwittingly contributed to the crises behind today’s huge migration flows. Lest we forget the Middle East is still feeling the consequences of Tony Blair’s deranged crusade in Iraq.

    So let us have some pragmatism and realism. Liberals must show humility and common sense as the West reels from a crisis that is at least partially of their making.

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

    Pete Smith
    9 HRS AGO
    “Liberals created an immigration disaster – and now they are making it worse”
    They want to fundamentally change the national demographic so they can have permanent power. How many Conservative voters do you think get out of those boats? That’s right, none.
    Every new arrival is one more Labour vote. Socialism requires victims. Socialism requires impoverished people, that is where they get their power

    Michael Staples
    9 HRS AGO
    I have made this point before, but it’s worth repeating. There are billions of people in a large part of the world that would qualify for asylum. Let’s start with almost all women in Muslim countries who can rightfully claim they are discriminated against. So, they can claim asylum and then bring all their children and husbands. Then, any gay man can then successfully claim asylum (plus later bring in his wife and children). Plus, the courts have held that if a sick person reaches our shores, he cannot be deported to his home country where the medical services are worse than the NHS.
    So, whatever the liberal position is, they cannot argue that we should be a refuge for half the world’s population. It is not just practical or fair to native Britons

    1. By standing in the way of Rishi Sunak’s practical efforts, they may unleash a wave of populist rage.

      Even if Rishi’s efforts were genuine and I don’t think that they are, they are doomed to failure. The European Court, the EU, the UK Civil Service are all implacably opposed to limiting immigration. Worst of all the balance of forces in the UK would prevent any forceable removal of immighrants, legal or otherwise. The English as a people will be gone within ten years!

    3. Ah yes, Jimmy Carter, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission and chosen to be the Demonrats candidate by Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller because he was easily manipulable.

  14. Why is Macron pouring oil on the flames of protest? 28 March 2023.

    Many like me are trying to work out what exactly Macron is playing at as he seems so happy to continue to pour oil on the fire. Last week he suggested that the millions of protesters were against democracy, and compared them to the pro-Trump twerps who ‘stormed’ the US Capitol building in 2020. Is he intent on causing things to degenerate so far that he can play the ‘law and order’ tough-man card later to reboot his legitimacy amongst middle-of-the-road voters? Is his ‘there is no alternative’ posturing an attempt to become France’s Margaret Thatcher in her confrontations with the unions in the 1980s, in order to make ‘essential’ reforms for the future of the nation? Surely he must have some consciousness of his illegitimacy, this man who, it must be admitted, is an astute political manipulator, and has shown himself to be a greasier pig than even Boris Johnson these last few years?

    I have a feeling he has not lost his political marbles, but instead understands perfectly what is going on in this crisis. We are in Technocracy’s Last Stand, and France is now its front line. Do the elite have the right to rule through their rigged electoral system regardless of the wishes of the governed? If they want people to fund their Net Zero lunacy, or their proxy war in Ukraine, or take their central bank digital currencies, they can’t back down now or they’re doomed. Macron knows he has to hold the line on behalf of the whole of the Western power class because, as he sees it, no one else is quite as ruthlessly committed to preserving their technocratic rule as he is.

    I wish that I were as confident that the Globalist Scheme was on its last legs but it still looks pretty healthy to me!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/why-is-macron-pouring-oil-on-the-flames-of-protest/

    1. The riots in France have been carefully planned by Schwab to hurry along his Great Reset.

      King Charles had to be stopped from going to France this week – perhaps they feared that the intellectual pygmy monarch might finally cotton on to what the WEF is all about.

  15. I see BBC have a story about Linda Nolan (of the Nolan Sisters fame, 1970s-1980s) who has cancer spread to her brain.
    Not nice, poor lass.
    A mate’s wife is dying of that, likely within a couple of weeks of the end, judging by reports. It’s hard work for him, too, watching her lose her mind as she fades away. Happened to a colleague a few years ago, too. She went completely bananas before croaking… appaling for her husband and two small children.
    On that note, good morning, all. Waiting for pacemaker checkup at horsepickle & cheering myself up reading the news… 🙁

  16. 372692+ up ticks.

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 28 March: The only way to achieve net zero is to offer consumers value for money

    Translation meaning = submit, because consumers value for money just ain’t ever going to happen.

    Best thing this electoral majority can do really seeing as they are hell bent on siding with the countries political enemas & friends
    is to go the whole hog and assist with the culling of the countries indigenous dwellers, start by growing a crop of cassava for the children first then doing a Awawak impression to appease the RESET overseers / gates & co, and of course the good of the ruling party.

    Mass unified decent peoples power works.

    1. 372692+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Also bear in mind The 960 members of the Sicarii Jewish community at Masada collectively killed themselves in 73 AD rather than be conquered and enslaved by the Romans.

      Things have come to such a pretty pass via the polling booth that it could become a selection on the voting candidates card, touch of black poetics there.

    2. The planet’s human beings produce roughly 3 Billion tonnes of CO² PA, just by having the temerity to breathe. That’s of the order of 8% of the equivalent total fossil fuel produced CO². The reason fossil fuels are used is to make human lives more comfortable.
      If the number of humans was reduced drastically there would also be disproportionately less need for using fossil fuels.
      If CO² genuinely is the cause of climate change, culling people is the easiest and probably fastest (final) solution.

      Now do you see why the globalists are so keen to take over and determine what should be fed to everyone and injected into everyone and where and when they should be allowed to travel? By halving the population and reducing life-expectancy for the remaining plebs the situation would be quickly resolved. As always the elites in control would be unaffected.

      1. 372695+ up ricks,

        Morning S,
        Safe in the knowledge that if the current
        voting pattern is continued then you gotta vote tory (ino) keep out lab.you gotta vote lab(ino) keep out tory (ino) a COALITION then their political lifestyles are safe & sound.

        1. This goes way above “local” elections, the UK is a sideshow to the people who wish to take over. Most politicians are an irrelevance except inasmuch as they can be controlled, be it through money, status, threats or elimination.
          As you have pointed out numerous times, it makes no difference who is elected and even a change to your favourites would do nothing.

          1. 372695+ up ticks,

            May I beg to differ somewhat,being a long term UKIP member you had an unblinkered overall view and were certainly not bound to “party before all else”.

            Under Batten leadership they were
            feared as becoming a threat to the LLC
            coalition and as such could not be tolerated hence treachery activated.

            Unified people power is the answer, not via the polling booth & the party first, sod the consequences brigade but by a
            unified patriotic people power party, tempt Gerard Batten out of retirement
            he will show you how to do it.

          2. Did you not observe how easily he was removed and his populist party was side-lined?

          3. 372695+ up ticks,

            S,
            All was duly noted and considered he came out clean along with Richard Braine.

            Clear to witness treachery via the party nec / farage / pro tory(ino) brexit party
            prior to the 2019 GE

    3. When the customer is forced into something there can never be value for money. People do things that gain them something. net zero loses them choice and freedoms while making their lives expensive.

      The obvious is not to give people value – that’s impossible – but to give them the choice.

        1. Rationally, yes, however if there are green fanatics who want to spend their own money and buy expensive energy from unreliables then they should be allowed to – as long as it is their own money and other people have alternative choices.

  17. ‘Morning All

    Monday Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbf9e3c974a78283cd3255ae487bf2f28a52b4977b064467562b456d5cb3a897.jpg

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/223291d7576d064d73eb87d8f85507fd7c6fb3f4c56f45e60e0524a654a43cc6.jpg

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e487383fc2fbfbceef33e244e9dcb9d08da19d672cf60b29c9c86bb8fc6f7f5.jpg

  18. Good morning all.
    A dull start, but at least it’s dry with 2½°C outside.

  19. Good Moaning.
    Despite the grey skies, this crusty old biddy is in a sunny mood.
    Firstly, 10/10 to the passport office; new passport done and dusted in under a week; AND they kept me fully informed at each stage of the process.
    Secondly, Wren Kitchens have, so far, kept their promises. Extra cupboards should appear between 09.00 and 10.30 this morning. Again, I have been kept informed throughout; as promised, a text giving the eta arrived at 6.30 ack emma.
    Will report back later.

  20. A letter prompts a bit of BTL discussion on Grey Squirrels I see with a final comment from that A. Allan bloke:-

    A sad conclusion to a long battle with squirrels
    SIR – For the first time there are no pots of spring bulbs in my garden and very few flowers in the beds. I’ve finally given up on the constant battle with squirrels (Letters, March 27), which excavate my pots and dig up everything, killing the smaller plants.

    Deprived of their daily fun, they now strip twigs from my flowering trees, so there won’t be much blossom this year either. I used to love my small garden, but now the sight of it depresses me.

    Judy Marchant
    Wallington, Surrey

    DAVID WHITESIDE
    1 HR AGO
    Problem Squirrels ….
    .22 / .177 Air Rifle.
    9 X 30 Scope
    A sand bag.
    You learn a new skill and very soon have to put a target up on one of the trees to hone your skills … as there don’t appear to be Squirrels any more ……………….

    Sh ‘Aguar
    35 MIN AGO
    And for other invasive species what do you suggest?

    A Allan
    28 MIN AGO
    A spot of target practice on the Kent beaches.

    1. David Whiteside’s suggestion would have been mine were I permitted to comment publicly BTL in the Gatesograph. They shadow-banned me for posting links to Dr Mike Yeadon and Dr Wofgang Wodarg so I can only comment to myself.

  21. 372694+ up ticks,

    A pre breakfast thought,

    The invaders want housing then give them housing send 10000
    prefabs to Rwanda to await occupation, there the commitment ends.

    2. I am VERY selective with my BBC viewing and ‘Bollockbrain’ doesn’t make the cut. It once had Lammy on for heaven’s sake.

    4. Morning all.

      “In 2014/15, BBC Worldwide generated headline profits of £138.6m and headline sales of £1,001.8m and returned a record £226.5m to the BBC”.

      For a worldwide broadcasting company these figures seem amazingly low to me.

      1. Morning, Alec. I’ll be missing this a.m. as I am chairing a management meeting at the bowls club.
        Oh joy!

  24. Julia Pyke, Director of financing and economic regulation, Sizewell C, London W1

    At last, MRD has got it right!!!!

  25. Scotty Moore
    JUST NOW
    Two points a propos nothing on the letters page I’m afraid.
    1 The woman CEO of the NHS – I can’t even remember her name now – earns £255,000 per year and has a degree in history. Heard from her about the A & E catastrophe lately?
    2 They aren’t rowers in the boat race, but are oarsmen. But with cricketers being called batters it won’t be long before they’re called oarers I suppose.

    Or perhaps just “oars”?

    2. The woman CEO of the NHS

      Dear BoB,

      I write as one who worked in the NHS from 1994 to 1999, before my job was made redundant by the activities and personal preferences of dear Tony Bliar in closing down GP Fundholding.

      You really ought to do a LITTLE bit of research before belittling Amanda Pritchard, CEO of the NHS as a mere ‘Historian’.

      From 2006-2012 she was for 6 years and 4 months the Deputy Chief Executive of the Chelsea & Westminster NHS Trust, a pretty big Hospital group. From there she moved to become Chief Operating Officer (3 yrs 7 months), then Chief Executive, of Guys’ and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (3 yrs 6 months), one of the largest Hospital Trusts in UK with an enormous budget.

      So she is very well used to dealing with Hospital pressures, A&E, Consultants, etc, and especially operating under the crazy, ever-changing rules dropped upon the NHS by the crazy, ever-changing Politicians and Health Secretaries. It is still going on. She has an impossible task.

      1. What is a “Chief Operating Officer”?

        Or, put another way, what, in the old days, did we call people with that pretentious title ? Managing Director??

        2. QUOTE: “A chief operating officer (COO) is the corporate executive who oversees ongoing business operations within the company. The COO reports to the chief executive officer (CEO) and is usually second-in-command within the company.”

          I was COO (=Business Manager) of a Multifund of 89 GPs, jointly spending their little Fundholding budget of over £31 million a year with hospitals all over the UK.

          4. Yes, I know, I was being flippant. “COO” would probably have been “Managing Director” in UK, but in those days the other term “CEO” hadn’t been imported from (probably) the States. When I worked in a Hospital in upstate New York, the term “Associate Professor” could probably have been applied to the guy who pushed a broom along the corridors.

          5. I know! A chum who was a bank clerk in a US bank (in London) was a “Vice President”…!!

        3. QUOTE: “A chief operating officer (COO) is the corporate executive who oversees ongoing business operations within the company. The COO reports to the chief executive officer (CEO) and is usually second-in-command within the company.”

          I was COO (=Business Manager) of a Multifund of 89 GPs, jointly spending their little Fundholding budget of over £31 million a year with hospitals all over the UK.

      2. Patient outcomes: did outcomes improve during Ms Pritchard’s tenure? Measured against other comparable hospitals in EU member states, for example. The statistics surely exist, and I expect there will be some organisation similar to Cochrane which would be happy to share the info.

          1. As a sort of civil servant she could have ignored the politicians and put the system right. Unfortunately that would have meant not progressing any further up the money ladder.

          2. During my working life I also worked 16 years for Shell. If Amanda Pritchard were in a corporation with 1.3 million employees and overseeing a budget north of £150 Billion, her annual bonuses alone would be ten times that sum (£255,000).

            EDIT: just checked (from The Grauniad, no less):
            The recently departed chief executive of Shell’s pay jumped more than 50% to nearly £10m in 2022, including a bonus labelled “jaw-dropping” by campaigners. The total pay package of Ben van Beurden, who stood down at the end of last year, rose from £6.3m in 2021 to £9.7m in 2022.

          3. Can’t fault your figures however I don’t think Shell are in dire straits with a non functioning organisation that cannot supply its customers with the product and service they need when required. Had it been then Ben van Beurden would have been out of work long ago without any bonus. I wonder how many DIE managers Shell have.
            Shell have to go to their shareholders to raise capital. We, as shareholders of NHS, have money taken from us and can’t stop paying regardless of the service we receive.

          4. During my working life I also worked 16 years for Shell. If Amanda Pritchard were in a corporation with 1.3 million employees and overseeing a budget north of £150 Billion, her annual bonuses alone would be ten times that sum (£255,000).

    3. Good morning Mr Axeman, and everyone.
      The ladies’ boat could be ‘oars’, and the mens’ will be ‘oarers’.
      Don’t see how the wokers will re-name the coxswain.

  26. What chuffing planet is Clive Barnett on?

    SIR – I will not be alone in being very happy at long last to have in Rishi Sunak a Conservative Prime Minister who demonstrates confidence, judgment, ability and integrity.

    That he has significant real business and international experience materially benefits the country, and his wealth is also a benefit, given his evident understanding of working people thanks to his upbringing and a family emphasis on education.

    It is consequently and happily unlikely that he will be diverted in office either by considerations of his future on the speaking circuit or seeking to appoint those assisting in alleviating any present financial shortcomings. Hurrah.

    Clive Barnett
    London W1

    Solomon Jeffries
    24 MIN AGO
    Clive Barnett – are we thinking of the same Rishi Sunak (surely there can’t be two in government?) or is your tongue firmly implanted in your cheek?

    Party Pauper
    31 MIN AGO
    Clive Barnett – no way would a “Conservative” prime minister keep Jeremy Hunt in post as chancellor of the exchequer. This lot have zero mandate for what they are doing to our economy and are as far from being Conservatives as John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn. The sooner they are gone the better. EDITED

    Anastasias Revenge
    7 HRS AGO
    Clive Barnett sadly needs help. His enthusiastic paean of praise for our usurper PM is jaw-dropping in its naivety… mainly based on the observation that he is not in the same financial straits as Boris Johnson!
    All he demonstrates is a willingness to accede to the EU and his WEF mentors. Slickness and polish should not be confused with integrity and substance.

  27. Elites Allegedly Insulting Putin in Phone Call Cause Sensation in Russia. 28 March 2023.

    An audio recording of a telephone conversation allegedly taking place between Russian music producer Iosif Prigozhin and billionaire former senator Farhad Akhmedov continued to send shockwaves through Russia’s elites on Monday, as one media outlet publicly backed its authenticity.

    The unusually frank discussion between two well-connected and wealthy members of the Russian elite, supposedly a wiretapped phone conversation, was posted to Youtube earlier this month but only began to receive close scrutiny on Friday, when its existence was reported by Ukraine’s Channel 5.

    Propaganda!

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/27/elites-allegedly-insulting-putin-in-phone-call-cause-sensation-in-russia-a80625

  28. Good morning everyone,

    Dreich outlook from the attic at McPhee Towers, wind in the South, 7℃.

    UK Column in ‘Extra’ yesterday introduced us to a charming fellow by the name of Kamau Kambon and his radical ‘new’ idea for a ‘solution to the problem’, a final solution if you like. I thought this was a recent clip but it isn’t. It was in 2005 and it leaves me wonderiing why this sometime ‘academic’ and ‘author’ has (a). escaped our attention until now and (b). not been incarcerated. Here he is:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBUuLXRfD84

    1. How do you know we are? Because we always do.

      You live in a dangerous part of the world where hurricanes and floods are frequent. You don’t move away, as common sense would dictate. You’re welfare dependent on state aid for disaster relief.

      There’s a train track and a road bridge in New Orleans. The train bridge wafer being destroyed was up and running again within weeks. It’s privately owned. The road bridge repair committee only sat a few months ago. *Months ago*.

      Sorry matey, you’re wrong. You are ignorant, petty and childish. We constantly solve your problems because that’s what engineers and scientists do, and they’re mostly white. They also don’t pontificate about ‘bruvvas’, they get on with the job and value the person, not the colour. Stop being racist, grow up, do something useful.

        1. Just looked up your question. Natural causes apparently although I can’t find a specific cause.

      2. I didn’t check but I’m sure he won’t have got past St.Peter. Meanwhile ‘kill whitey’ lives on.

      3. I’ve been trying to discover how he died, and there don’t seem to be items appearing regarding his obituary.

        shot by a black man perchance?

  29. Good morning everyone,

    Dreich outlook from the attic at McPhee Towers, wind in the South, 7℃.

    UK Column in ‘Extra’ yesterday introduced us to a charming fellow by the name of Kamau Kambon and his radical ‘new’ idea for a ‘solution to the problem’, a final solution if you like. I thought this was a recent clip but it isn’t. It was in 2005 and it leaves me wonderiing why this sometime ‘academic’ and ‘author’ has (a). escaped our attention until now and (b). not been incarcerated. Here he is:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBUuLXRfD84

    1. Attention to the real problems deflected. It was a good time to bury excruciatingly bad news.

    2. People are dumb. Those who saw it and read it likely already felt the same way. The majority of the rest of the media ignored it as it didn’t suit their narrative/readers prejudices.

      Most people likely didn’t read it – the Telegraph has only about 100,000 readers and, sadly, people like being told what to do. They don’t like doubt, they like to hand over their responsibilities and freedoms in a faux sense of security. What no one has put together is that every action prior uses the same scaremongering, immature tactics: green, the Brexit vote – all spin and lies.

    3. If you’re referring to Hancock’s half hour, then probably its purpose has already been served. New news shows him demanding £10,000 a day for a fake foreign company’s advisory service. A very ugly customer.

  32. OT. We are half way through a 20 year old BBC documentary about Stalin. Very different from what they’d make today. Interesting and informative (and an extraordinary (and shameful, of course) absence of yer coloured folk).

    What intrigues me about Stalin (and Musso, Hilter, Vlad etc) is HOW they managed to get to the top – given that each were unknown and not much liked. I understand that once there they easily became murdering bastards…..but how does one get there? To my pore brane it is a great puzzle.

      1. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
        Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
        The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
        The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
        The best lack all conviction, while the worst
        Are full of passionate intensity.

        They just slouched their way there!

    2. Why, though, Bill? We have Sunak forcing net zero The EU exists, our entire political class want to rejoin it. Their policies are just the same as Stalin’s: big state, massive taxation, suppression of dissent, a command economy, enforced restrictions and shortages, the removal of democracy and accountability.

      Heck, Sunak wasn’t even elected. When Truss won and announced her budget, we had an opportunity for real growth. The Left, the sate hated that and set about to destroy her and it.

      How they get into power is the easy bit – the entire force of big government , dependent on the continuation of the environment they have created for their own ends, ensures it.

      1. Maybe. But Stalin was generally disliked by his peers and got a job via Lenin almost by mistake. What intrigues me is how such people navigated the early years when their career could so easily have nose-dived.

    1. Oh, the runaway train came down the track and she blew,
      The runaway train came down the track and she blew,
      The runaway train came down the track,
      The whistle wide and the throttle back
      And she blew

      1. Don’t forgot the ass that was hit by the train and all they ever found was his bray!

        (All that seems to be left of Boris Johnson!)

    1. Ha, ha, ha, good to know, that might take the smug look off some of the faces of electric car drivers.
      And they will never be able to sell them. Repairs will cost and arm and a leg.
      Something else that our political classes have over enthusiastically
      effed up. Order, Order.

      1. Yep, critical thinking is not their strong suit, is it?
        Question EVERYTHING is what I have learned in recent times, ever since I became aware of the Great Climate Lie a couple of decades ago.

        2. Go back to the raw data. Don’t let someone adjust and interpret it for you, make up your own mind.

        3. As I have aged I have become very sceptical, with all these scams going on it shows how vulnerable most people are. For reasons mainly of being brought up in a country where you onece might have trusted many people. But this dishonesty now is led from the top. Because they know they can get away with it. It’s a dreadfully bad and outrageous example.
          For instance people like Gove as an example, who lied about our fishing industry should be made to answer for the terrible mess these hardworking people’s life’s are in. Because of the lies.

  35. PM agrees to look at tougher measures to prevent European Court of Human Rights from blocking deportations to Rwanda

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/27/rishi-sunak-tory-rebels-reach-ceasefire-migrants-bill/

    BTL

    Percival Wrattstrangler

    It is beyond my comprehension as to why Sunak’s Windsor Surrender which ceded sovereignty to the ECJ over British Common Law and keeps the EU firmly in control of the flow of goods between one part of the UK and another has been welcomed as a triumph.

    It is not a triumph it is a betrayal. Are the British ‘stoopid or somethink’?
    Have many years of ruining our educational standards finally produced what the politicians wanted – a country of morons who are no longer capable of rational thought?

  36. US urged to hold Assad to account as power shifts in Middle East. 28 March 2023.

    The regional moves to re-engage Assad have sparked alarm in parts of the Biden administration and in Europe, where steps are under way to prosecute low-level regime officials for war crimes. Investigators have been gathering material that could place more senior officials in the crosshairs of international prosecutors.

    Of particular concern is how to stabilise areas that remain outside the control of the central government, which are heavily dependent on aid, susceptible to local power bases and at the whim of neighbouring states. Assad has been unwilling to meaningfully reconcile with such areas, primarily in northern Syria.

    “None of the issues that caused the Syria conflict have been resolved, most notably Assad regime atrocities and inability or refusal to reform,” the letter says. “Many of the conflict’s symptoms are worsening, from human suffering, industrial-scale drug trafficking, refugee flows, terrorism, geopolitical conflict and ethnic and sectarian hostilities.

    Translation. Having done everything possible to create this situation, destroy the country and overthrow Assad and failed we don’t like the way this is turning out.

    Assad of course has no wish to reconcile with the rebel areas since most are controlled by ISIS and al Qaeda affiliates of one kind or another.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/27/us-urged-to-hold-assad-to-account-as-power-shifts-in-middle-east

    1. The USA should not even be thinking of interferring in the middle east, their previous leaders and some of ours are the reason it’s all in ‘a bit of a mess’.
      Since they completely stuffed up on Bin Laden they need to back off.

  38. Morning all 🙂😉
    Back to normal after yesterday’s sunshine. Grey, Rain and chilly.
    I really don’t think our politicians are interested in giving the public value for money or value on or for anything else. For some unfathomable reason they are hell bent on the destruction of our culture and social structure.
    All of this is exactly what has made our islands successful and profitable in the past.
    We have a bunch who lunatics in their own controlled influences and existing in an asylum structure including Whitehall, that is very expensive indeed for the hardworking British people.

  39. The ‘Left’ in British politics appear to have the same problem as the ‘Right’. Dubious dangerous “leaders” who neither represent their party’s ethos nor the people they claim to represent. And as for the Country…
    Ken Loach on Starmer; most definitely NOT a fan. Of course, Loach is not alone in his serious doubts re Starmer, those on the Right are at one with Loach on that issue but desire a different outcome. Certainly not the Corbyn/McDonnell axis.

    https://twitter.com/DoubleDownNews/status/1640327433692872705

    1. Poor old Ken is – and always has been as far to the left as you can go. So I can see him not taking to Cur Ikea Slammer.

      1. CINO + LINO = British Uni-Party. Both are globalist control freaks as the electorate will discover when they put Starmer into No 10.

        1. 372595+ up ticks,

          Afternoon KtK,
          Was the other chap in the park toilet when anthony charlie,lynton was on a cottaging gig named ? because
          the qc charmer could very well fit the bill

          Their crowning achievement was mass
          uncontrolled immigration / paedophilia
          Until tory (ino) party took up & continued the cause.

          A coalition forged in hell with a multitude of supporting demons.

  40. 372695+ up ticks,

    Democracy within among the politico’s, is it your turn to rebel or mine.

    Rishi Sunak and Tory rebels reach ‘ceasefire’ over migrants Bill
    PM agrees to look at tougher measures to prevent European Court of Human Rights from blocking deportations to Rwanda

  41. My bold
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11910029/Putin-security-chief-vows-destroy-West-hypersonic-nukes-attempts-defeat-Russia.html

    Putin security chief vows to destroy the West with hypersonic nukes if it attempts to defeat Russia – and says Moscow must be allowed to dominate Europe
    Nikolai Patrushev’s comments showed how conspiracies are rampant in Kremlin
    He is seen as being the brains behind Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine

    OK, I’ll add my two cents worth of conspiracy theory:
    This guy is in the pay of the Americans who want Europe to continue supporting Ukraine with whatever it takes to prolong the war and weaken Russia long term. He is making these noises so that the EU provides even more without America getting involved, except when Europe needs to rearm when the dust settles, and guess who the arms and energy supplier will be?

          1. Much larger than the one the MR made but still came out crispy. I think i prefer the comfort of mash though.

          5. You could try ‘tumbled spuds’. Cut your potatoes into chunks of about 2.5 cms. Parboil for five minutes. Crush lightly with a fork or bash in the pan then tumble them out of the pan on top of the meat mixture. Spread it around, dot with butter and sling in the oven for 35 mins at prob 200 C (from memory). Its a bit like roasties on top of your cottage pie. Max comfort food.

    2. He doesn’t understand. Climate change is not about the environment. It’s not about ecology. It’s not about the planet. It is, and has always been, a tax scam.

      He’s brought a knife to a gunfight. The state does not care about science. It just wants the cash it can extort from the public.

      1. Maybe but the more we can bring people like him to the attention of the masses the sooner we can end the scam.

          1. The pharma industry does not get into my body unless it is a dire emergency (except the 2 AZ injections which I deeply regret taking).

        2. Oh Fiscal. It’ll never end. It’s about tax. The state will never, ever end the farce.

          1. We have to keep trying. For the sake of our grand-children and their descendants (if there are any).

        3. The only problem with that is, in my experience, “the masses” are purblind to reality and they continue swallow the MSM brain-washing with accelerating gusto.

  43. These gender benders have ways and means of promoting their cause:

    “Audrey Hale, 28, a former pupil at The Covenant School killed three children and three staff members during a carefully- planned shooting spree on Monday morning.

    John Drake, the city’s police chief, said the shooter “identified as transgender”.”

    1. Another mentally deranged MAN in need of sectioning.
      Apologies, I have misunderstood. It is actually female (clearly damaged by the testosterone it has been taking) but pretending to be a man.

          1. I tend to refer to them as such, but in this case, because of the violence, the shock factor of it being a woman needs stressing.
            It underlines the mentally ill aspects a little better I think.

          2. ‘It’ would be a much more accurate way of referring to these people than ‘they’ or ‘their’. The use of these genderless, plural pronouns sounds so coy (makes me wince) and the plural is confusing to the reader or listener.

        2. Yes, just read the post again, and edited my comment. I thought this was another report of a violent, dangerously deluded man pretending to be women.

      3. Whatever they start out as, the fervent belief you are something you’re not is a mental illness.

        I didn’t think the mentally ill were allowed access to guns, even in america?

    2. This is a woman who transgendered to a man.
      Interestingly all reports seem to refer to her as she not he.

      2. It’s different, a new departure, having a woman murdering children children in school with a gun – usually it has been males. I think it is being emphasised to give what they hope is greater leverage on their gun control manipulations. The parastical, so-called elite, are becoming desperate as rage is fermenting in the US and around the world and no gun control in sight. Sadly these children and adults are probably collateral damage to that end.

          2. I did try to imply, without actually saying so, that it was possibly state sponsored, in order for the state to make headway with gun control – I obviously didn’t make a very good job of getting across my implication. I haven’t really being following this, there is only so much one can take, but often one can see the whole picture more clearly without getting bogged down by intense detail. I can’t imagine Biden saying or even implying that the shooting was state sponsored (‘Biden has commented to that effect’).

          3. There is evidence that the event was staged as it is more than coincidence that a woman supposedly visiting the area ranted to the cameras in a prepared speech about gun control.

            It is the aim of Biden’s fascistic regime to remove all guns from the people. Of course the elites would retain armed guards and the criminals would have a virtual monopoly in (illegal) gun ownership.

          5. Western states are at war with their people and will do what it takes to achieve its aims. The state is evil, rotten through and through. The corruption is now in front of our eyes. Having read so much about Dunblane (Clinton advised Blair that he would need to get rid of handguns if he wished to succeed with his plans) I have come to understand that that was not what it seemed to be. If our govts can give us poisonous injections – pregnant women, babies, toddlers, their parents and the elderly, persuasively under the banner of ‘safe and effective’, it is perfectly capable of grooming a mentally unstable person to murder a few, ironically in the name of gun control.

          6. If that was ever shown to be true the perpetrators should be strung up with barbed wire.

          2. Yes, I know, but what I was trying to point out that she is being referred to as female in some of the media in order to manipulate the public, in this case it suits their (the media) purpose not to refer to her as male as far as the public is concerned.

          3. Yes – but it was clearly deranged whatever gender it was trying to be. The public is very easily manipulated.

      3. This is a woman who transgendered to thought she was a man.
        Interestingly all reports seem to refer to her as she not he.

      1. He (Patrick McGoohan) use to come into our local public bar for a couple of drinks occasionally. Decent bloke, he use to show us lads card tricks and tell jokes.
        He hated it when people over grandiosed his presence.

    5. Apart from the fact that she was probably a lesbian who wouldn’t accept her sexual leanings, I do wonder about her testosterone dosage; something she would be on for the rest of her life.
      And what affect does it have on a female body that is not designed to deal with such a large amount of a male hormone?
      Was she also on other medication for depression or any psychotic illness?

    6. Was the shooter a biological man, or a biological woman? Assuming a biological man who has changed his name?

      Edit: for the nth time, must make mental note to read all comments before posting. Seems I’ve got it the wrong way round.

  45. Well. Wot a morning.
    Moved my car to make way for Wren Kitchens delivery.
    Neighbour was suddenly taken ill, so our drive was promptly blocked by an ambulance.
    Granddaughter skidded off the road on her way to work and ended up in a ditch. Fortunately, she is OK and the car would appear to have only minor damage.
    On the plus side, WK kept us informed about when they were arriving so I could warn them about access to the Dower House. Boxes delivered with minimal hassle and now neatly stacked in dining room.

      1. 🙂 Funny you should say that.
        I can happily be her passenger as her decision making is as quick as mine.

    4. Oh goodness. Hope granddaughter is really ok, it will have give her a very nasty fright. Otherwise it’s good to hear that WK are on the ball.

      1. I can’t fault Wren so far. They have kept us informed throughout from order to delivery.
        Boxes clearly labelled so checking is easy. Packaging very neat and solid; it is all in the (small) dining room and doesn’t even take up more than one wall. So we are not back to the dreaded tripping over boxes.
        The delivery men dealt with the unexpected inconvenience of having to unload from several doors away with good humour and efficiency.
        The crunch will be when our chap actually installs the cupboards, but let’s say that things so far are looking good.

          1. No. We rented for 6 months to make sure we got the house we wanted while the interminable process of selling Allan Towers wended its way through bureaucratic hurdles and useless solicitors.
            We now own the Dower House.

          2. There’s posh!

            Good luck with it all. I hope that YB is fighting fit. And that your GD is OK. Often seems like one damned thing after another, eh?

          3. We have since learnt from two different sources, that the corner where GD skidded off the road is notorious for her type of accident.
            Whether wet weather, fallen leaves or road camber is the problem, no-one seems to know,

          9. In the 12th century, St Osyth was called Chich, from an Old English word cic meaning “bend”.
            (But it probably referred to a bend in the river)

          11. In the 12th century, the St Osyth was called Chich, from an Old English word cic meaning “bend”.
            (But it probably referred to a bend in the river)

    6. Phew!
      Hope your neighbour is ok. A bit of a bugger to move to a new house and suddenly have your neighbours falling off the perch!

  46. Morning all again. Just looked at the front page of the Daily Express.
    I
    I hope all you “early retirees” are feeling ashamed and guilty. It’s your fault that the BoE has to put the interest rates up and you’re the cause of inflation!

    Edit: Daily Express, not DM. Apologies.

    1. Problem with the Fail is it’s read by uneducated idiots who don’t understand economics and think that ‘da wich’ are e source of all evil. ‘Da wich’ of course, being anyone earning more than them.

      Far more enlightening are the Telegraph comments which are just a hammering, spattered about by the pathetic lefties who blame Brexit/Trump/Truss.

      As the Telegraph has hidden the story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/27/early-retirement-has-forced-inflation-says-andrew-bailey/

      1. “Problem with the Fail Telegraph is it’s read written by uneducated idiots who don’t understand economics…”

        There, sorted!

    2. I retired early but I dont’t feel ashamed or guilty.

      Being a senior employee I was costing my employer a lot of money and I made way for some younger cheaper people to take my place with the ability to read small print without having to use glasses. I was able to save my retirement lump sum which is what the Government is now trying to get us all to do rather than borrowing more and stoking inflation.

      Furthermore the time had come to devote more time to elderly parents who needed assistance after regularly falling over at home, monitoring and fetching prescriptions, getting money out of the bank, sensitively arranging ther admittance to nursing homes and finally performing duties of estate administration.

      I did all this without having to ask for remuneration whilst supporting two children at university, another one training to be a nurse and with a horse in tow.

      1. A horse in tow? Were you putting the cart before the horse? 🙂 I retired early, too, and don’t feel guilty. I would have kept on working had my health allowed it.

        1. We had to buy a horse box to tow the horse until daughter earned enough to buy her old smoky diesel – I test drove it for her and subsequently maintained the 5.8 ton beast.

          1. You mean a trailer horse box (float in Merkin/Oz)? When people write “horse box” I tend to think of the large ones on a chassis – a bit like a motorhome for horses.

    3. I retired early but I dont’t feel ashamed or guilty.

      Being a senior employee I was costing my employer a lot of money and I made way for some younger cheaper people to take my place with the ability to read small print without having to use glasses. I was able to save my retirement lump sum which is what the Government is now trying to get us all to do rather than borrowing more and stoking inflation.

      Furthermore the time had come to devote more time to elderly parents who needed assistance after regularly falling over at home, monitoring and fetching prescriptions, getting money out of the bank, sensitively arranging ther admittance to nursing homes and finally performing duties of estate administration.

      I did all this without having to ask for remuneration whilst supporting two children at university, another one training to be a nurse and with a horse in tow.

  47. Sunhat has found a way of stopping the influx of ‘refugees’ by small boats, aka “The Doveristas” . from Calais to UK.

    Every second train using the Chunnel, from France to UK, will be filled with these ‘refugees’

    To ensure that no crossings through the Chunnel are wasted, a fleet of Routemaster buses will range far and wide throughout Europe,collecting more souls to be saved.

    In five years time, the trains will be going to france filled with Effnic Brits to escape from “The Little Town in Norway” ELLH (anagram) that UK has ben made into

  48. 372695+ up ticks,

    You can keep repeating common sense and revealing treachery until you are blue in the face if it is not in the political coalitions operating manual it will NOT receive attention.

    OGGA!

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    1h
    This is a suitable metaphor for most of the western world. Our world is burning down around us & most people ignore it.

    Insane carbon zero & a make-believe climate change emergency are destroying our economies. Looney gender policies encourage mental illness in the young. Mass uncontrolled immigration is overwhelming our infrastructures & public services. The WEF & its Globalist controlled intl finance tell g
    ovnts what to do. That is just for starters. You can add your own examples.

    Meanwhile people go on voting for the very people who are doing this to them.

    French people caught on camera ignoring massive fire as city burns in bizarre video.

    https://gettr.com/post/p2crcz89d2e

    Cue the ‘This is fine’ meme.

    https://gettr.com/post/p2crcz89d2e

  50. A bit damp today so after splitting the 5 large bits of ash I had left over from yesterday’s efforts and getting them stacked, I’ve cleared all the prepacked mango I’ve been hoarding in the freezer and got a pan of mango chutney on the go.
    Just off to do a bit of shopping so see you all later.

  52. Central Bank Digital Currency is one of the globalists’ dream routes towards total control. It can be linked to many other of their control mechanisms, including the 15 minute city, what you eat and how much alcohol you would like to drink.

    Slimy Sunak, Rhyming Jeremy et al. will attempt, with their political double-speak and false pledges, to mollify any concerns that people have about this issue.

    Here, Dr Michael Yeadon explains the inherent dangers of this attempt to initiate total control of our lives.

    https://twitter.com/bangerbloyce/status/1640674876783566851

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b9c8869dccb79df1927f753f21526742e2919487ab035f4b21ea465af68716ce.png

        1. Good afternoon Ursa Major

          New Hatless Avatar – new image.

          Is a new identity and avatar on the way?

          1. Greetings, Rastaman.

            I had that photograph taken just yesterday for my new Swedish driving licence (körkort).

          6. The photographer told me the rules had changed with regard to Swedish driving licences and he urged me to smile. He also showed me a huge folder he possesses containing the passport photograph regulations for most countries in the world. Some even stipulate that the subject stands at precisely 1·5 metres from the camera; not a millimetre closer or farther.

          7. We had that at Happy Snaps. Takes out all the photo booth hassle, but cripes, move a chair or your lips and you are toast.

          3. ‘Tis just down the road from where I did my fitter’s course in 1964.

            It has been dug into several times but nobody knows why an artificial hill was created.

          5. Silbury Hill, threequarters of a mile by foot from West Kennet Long Barrow. At 39.3 metres (129 ft) high, it is the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world; similar in volume to contemporary Egyptian pyramids.
            Been up one and in the other.

    1. Seriously deranged people. And the one in the middle went on to kill children and teachers in a school. Why are these guns legal?

      1. “A Tennessee congressman who posed with assault rifles for his family Christmas card is facing a backlash after a school shooter left six people dead in his district.

        Andy Ogles, who represents the Nashville area where three children and three adults were shot dead at a private Evangelical primary school, said he was “utterly heartbroken by this senseless act of violence”.

        However, his tribute was criticised in light of the Christmas card from 2021, which he posted along with the message that firearms “deserve a place of honour with all that is good”.

        In the card, Mr Ogles is seen standing with his wife Monica and three young children in front of a Christmas tree. Both parents and the two eldest children are holding rifles.”

        1. OK – perhaps not the same gunman but my question still stands. These lethal weopons should be nowhere near ordinary people.

          1. TBF – I initially thought the same thing.
            “The Right To Bear Arms” referred to the single shot guns of the day; not the multi-shot killing machines.
            I think in Blighty we have gone too far the other way and produced a weakened, debilitated citizenry, but the sort of weapons in that photo should only be in the hands of the military – under strict supervision.

          2. Gun laws should have been overhauled after Sandy Hook but nothing happened- not from want of trying. The NRA are a powerful and wealthy lobby and they have great influence.
            The 2nd Amendment was written when the people needed protection against Indians, wolves, bears and, now and again, the pesky British.
            Nothing will happen though, it never does.

          3. Sadly very true.

            A few minutes of shock reporting on the TV news (don’t forget to show hysterical crying), a speech from the police chief and then back to normal.

          4. The trouble is, as here in Blighty, the law abiding will hand in there arms and the criminals will ignore it.

    2. “Welcome y’all! Come visit us anytime, but don’t stay too long or you’ll get shot”.

          4. Ordnance QF 25-pounder – Pre 1942/3. Later model with muzzle brake still in service when I joined.

        1. I can see you have time on your hands. Best you get your screwdriver and spirit level out and tackle those kitchen units.

          1. We have a man to do that. (One of Sonny Boy’s chums.)
            I’m just plain useless and MB can’t lift heavy stuff.
            (AND it’s persisting down so I’m taking the chance to veg out and let my back recover from its torture session.)

    6. Trouble is that it is too late to change things. Can you imagine what would happen if they tried to confiscate automatic rifles? Big Appalachian Bubba would not give up his God given constitutional rights without a fight.

      We are in a small South Carolina resort area at the moment, there are two gun stores that we have seen in this little town. Gun ownership is endemic.

  55. Further to my efforts to repair the leak in my garden wildlife pond.
    Given my health problems I managed to repair it through substantial efforts. Draining it out with a bucket and rope into a couple of the large empty rubbish bins. Not that there was much a water left in there. Found the hole repaired it with bitumen and Flash band. Cleared out a lot of debris and composted it.
    Tip the water back in from the bins and filled it up pumping in all of the rain my water in the 5 linked water butts.
    Just in time, despite the chilly weather, because some frogs moved in within a week and distributed lots of spawn.
    But the Frogs disappeared rather too quickly from my previous experiences and despite my gargantuan efforts, the pond was rapidly loosing water again.
    Back to square one, my neighbour who gets up much earlier then I do had been looking out first thing and saw an effing heron standing in the water and eating the frogs and of course during the process of attacking them with the sharp powerful beaks has punctured the pond liner. So much for a wildlife pond eh ! Ill have to start all over again finding the new holes and this time netting the pond, something i’m not keen on but it’s going to be more than necessary.

    1. We used to have a self-sustaining lot of fish in our pond, of various ages, including the original four. Then they all but one disappeared. Finally saw the last one go – via the heron. No spawn this year, sadly. There are newts in there still, that we occasionally see, and dragonfly larvae.

      1. I fed our other neighbours fish yesterday. Their pond is massive and most of the fish are massive. But I noticed none of the smaller varieties surfaced for the food. I suspect the herons have been helping themselves in there as well.

      2. Our neighbours gave me a bucket of fish about 4 years ago, I put them into our pond and they were all gone within a week.
        We live only about a mile from a river. It’s too easy for the herons to pick on our gardens.

    2. At Allan Towers, we used these. We didn’t even link them up; just a few floating on the surface were enough to deter the herons as they don’t like anything that may endanger their legs.
      There are several similar types of floating discs available.

      https://www.aquatix-2u.co.uk/products/pisces-20-piece-floating-pond-protection-kit?currency=GBP&variant=30329983631423&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhM6Om9P-_QIVUOztCh1wggWLEAYYASABEgKSH_D_BwE

  56. BBC News at 1 o’clock reported the mass killing in the Nashville school without once using any gender. BBC on-line she/he/it is referred to as they. There are reportedly more than fifty different genders – the nearest gender equivalent for a BBC employee is Arsole – with an enormous A. There are some exceptions, but few and far between.

        1. So why did it want to kill children. Did it (wrongly) think that made it more masculine, I wonder?

          1. She resented going to that school as a child it is reported. Seems it was a private evangelical school.

      2. Born a female.

        Who knows if bits had been chopped off or added but just because the killer apparently identified as male that doesn’t make her so.

        I see that the daily mail us really pushing the tranny line, every article mentions it.

    2. Strange that if it is a fanny tranny the BBC call it “they” but if it is a phoney female they call it “her”.

  57. I decided to buy an Airfryer. Looking around i saw a better one so cancelled the first. Then i saw Richard Dyas was having a sale and bought an even better model for less money so i cancelled the second one too. Um.

    It does the Airfryer bit but also has a baking, grilling, frying, rotisserie and dehydrator.

          3. Ooh! Nice one! We’ve saved goodness knows how much by not using the oven! I’m still testing its capabilities, but I’ve gone from not wanting a Ninja in the house to using it all the time! And it certainly saves time! It also has pressure cook, and various steam modes!

          8. Oh no, Spikey! I’ve got an ear worm now! Teenage mutant hero turtles, and ‘Heroes in a half-shell’!

        1. Also saves on the energy required to heat a larger oven. Our gas cooker’s oven gave up the ghost a few years ago but the hob and grill still work, so I use the oven for storage and have an air fryer oven with shelves, like yours.

          The thing you need to watch out for is that it cooks faster than a conventional oven so you need to make allowances for both time and temperature on your recipes, otherwise much of your food may turn out overdone and dry. Also, it comes up to temperature much faster than a conventional oven – about 5 minutes is the maximum needed.

          2. I can copy over some hints and send you, or bring them when we meet. It does take a bit of getting used to!

          3. Send away ! I appreciate that but i think i should work it out for myself. Using the oven as storage is a good idea though.

            We won’t have time to discuss Airfryers. Too busy gossiping about Nottlers !

        1. I haven’t got much in the way of gadgets either – no blender or mixer, no toaster, no microwave.

          2. The MR couldn’t manage without her Kenwood mixer – 46 years old, it keeps her Norfolk stirrer out of mischief!

          3. I have a hand held blender which is wonderful for pureeing home made soup- mainly tomato/basil.

          4. I’ve given up on toasters. Too many mechanical or electrical failures and not compatible with oversized or odd shaped slices, slots either not long enough, not deep enough or not wise enough, sometimes all three. The gas grill will do from now on.

      3. Kenwood Major (with liquidiser and mincer attachments).
        2 electric hand mixers.
        Magimix 520 food processor. (with attachments).
        Enormous (5kg) granite mortar and pestle.
        Toaster.
        Microwave oven.
        Deep-fat fryer.
        Sandwich-toaster.
        Pressure Cooker.
        2 hand blenders.

        1. We have non of that, we disposed of it all some years ago. we hand whisk anything we want. Never had a microwave and nor will the world in time when they find out.

  58. Why all this nonsense about deporting illegal immigrants to Rwanda at great expense to the British public? 99% of them come from France – send them back to France and demand compensation from the Frogs for the inconvenience.
    Time for another D Day – Dump ’em on the beaches, dump ’em on their landing grounds, dump ’em in the fields and in the streets, dump ’em in the hills; we should never surrender.

    1. If only. There’s a reason why the French permit these boats to leave their shores – they don’t want these ‘refugees’ either.

        1. No – ‘finders keepers’. Once we’ve taken the ‘refugees’, the French can quite legally wash their hands of them – which is their plan.

          2. That just shows, that underneath all the rhetoric we have had for years, they WON’T act. At least not in any meaningful way.

          3. The new canada US migrants deal gives canada the right to return illegals within thres weeks of their arrival. Maybe you should try the same approach with France.

            The lying barstewards couldn’t even get this arrangement right without their normal lies. In recent months Trudeau has repeatedly said that the illegal crossings cannot be stopped without US agreement. It turns out that the deal was signed a year ago but kept quiet and not implemented

          4. ..and yet the lunchtime BBC news stated that we couldn’t return illegals “as it was against international law”.

            Funny that Biden and Trudeau can do it without the disapproval of the BBC.

      2. But they are so good for the economy, we are told! Why wouldn’t the French want to keep them?

      3. Then the French should have deported those “refugees” themselves, shouldn’t they?

          3. That’s pretty obviously their thinking. And of course if they get to screw £millions out of the UK for effectively continuing to send them over, what’s not to like for the frogs?

    2. 372695+up ticks,

      Afternoon P,
      I do believe many, as in the lab/lib/con current membership already have , surrendered that is .

      They certainly dealt a mighty slap in the kisser
      to those that died / seriously injured bearing arms for these Isles.

  59. I wonder how the 19 million William Hill have been fined will be used.
    Bungs, Hotel bills, expenses claims.

  60. I know that EU officialdom is petty and abusive because the governments of all countries like to have a high level of AP* in all its employees. (* AP = Arsehole potential)

    Caroline’s sister and her husband got to the Channel Tunnel having driven this morning from Holland as they were visiting their 94 year old aunt in Kent. They were turned back because they were told that Britain had left the EU and they could not travel on Dutch EU identity cards so they had to make a round trip home of 200 miles to collect their passports.

    Brexit has not happened in that the pathetic British government has refused to grab its independence and take advantage of the possibilities it offers. However the public are the people who have to put up with officials who love the power the regs give them to bully people and mess them about while hating the idea of a proper Brexit.

    We have all the disadvantages of Brexit without any of the advantages and that’s how the PTB want it.

    1. I don’t agree, Richard.

      The EUSSR has imposed all sorts of controls and burdens on British travellers (with fingerprints and eye-scans coming up). Member states demand to stamp passports. Long queues at airport arrivals.

      Well, the UK is simply reciprocating. And thank God it is doing so. I would like the UK to go further – and have a dozen gates for UK passport holders and just the one for EU people.

      Then – and only then – some sort of deal would be worked out and commonsense prevail.

      1. And there is an extra payment to be allowed entry into any EU country from 2024 I believe.

        “When it launches, UK passport-holders will need a visa-waiver to visit any countries in Europe’s passport-free zone, the Schengen Area. Holidaymakers will need to apply online and pay a fee of €7 (around £6) before travelling. The authorisation is expected to be valid for three years, or until your passport expires.”

        1. Indeed – €7.50 or some such.

          Edit – I hope and prey we do the same – but make it £20. Cash only…!

        2. Indeed – €7.50 or some such.

          Edit – I hope and prey we do the same – but make it £20. Cash only…!

        2. Not forgetting the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the Home Office and 42 other Ministerial departments of the Civil Service.

      3. In 2022, I flew in and out of Schiphol airport twice. On each occasion, I was able to use the automatic passport gates, along with other non EU people such as the US, Canada, Japan, etc.The only additional checks were that the police officer in their booth callled non-EU travelers across and stamped their passports, which took and extra 20-30 seconds. I had similar experiences on the Eurostar in the last six months. There are no automatic passport gates, just manual checks. The stamping of passports was similarly brief.

        1. You were lucky. Last autumn it took the MR 4 HOURS to get through Schiphol…..

          1. This was early in the year before the queueing problems, which I belive to be deliberate as part of Rutte’s plans for eco nirvana! My last two visits were with the Eurostar and a lot less hassle.

          2. We would take Eurostar if it wasn’t such a damned shag to get there from the depths of Narfurk.

          3. I’m fortunate in that regard as I can get a taxi to Moor Street station and a cheap ticket on Chiltern Railways to Marylebone and a bus direct to St. Pancras.

    2. Were they able to travel to the UK before using only Dutch EU Identity cards?
      I thought because we were outside Schengen that a full passport was needed.

          2. That doesn’t change the fact that it’s pure buggravation for the sake of it.
            If it wasn’t needed then it shouldn’t be needed now.
            I totally agree re the limited gates for EU citizens.

          3. You suggest that we should grovel to the EU and accept ID cards while they demand passports?

          4. Certainly not.
            But again that doesn’t change the fact that it’s pure buggravation for the sake of it.

          7. And is always the case, the long-suffering British public are expected to finish pay for it

          8. But Bill, the British do not have ID cards and never have. Even in the days when the United Kingdom was part of the EU, the British had to travel with passports because they have no other form of identity.

          9. Caroline, I was born in 1944 and I can remember as a child in the early 1950s finding my ID card.

          10. But that would NOT have been accepted anywhere outside the UK instead of a passport.

          11. I’m not saying it would, Bill, I was just putting Caroline right. She stated we’d NEVER had ID cards.

          17. I know.

            My point was a simple one (at the beginning, anyway).

            When we were in the EUSSR, the UK accepted EU people with ID cards rather than passports.

            On leaving, the UK said that EU people would have to have a a passport and that ID cards would not be accepted.

            Now, the EU requires UK passports to be stamped on entry into the territory.

            I am beginning to wish I had not started all this…!!

          25. So before the French demanded British passports, what could an Englishman travelling to France use for entry, other than his passport? Asking because I’ve only ever used my passport while travelling.

          30. My experience since it started is that the French PAF are extremely quick and efficient – 30 seconds per passport- while UK Border Farce are unbelievably laggardly – 45 minutes to deal with 14 cars.

    3. I feel very sorry for your relatives. However, everyone needs to check the rules for entry to another country. After all we, or I anyway, get upset when all the illegals arrive on our shores.

      1. But what about the scandal called

        BLACK PRIVILEGE

        White people who try to get to Britain with good identity which is acceptable anywhere in the world except in Britain are told to bugger off.

        Black and dark-skinned people who arrive in Britain by rubber dinghy without any identity papers at all are not only given an RNLI taxi service but are then put up in luxurious hotels and fed and given pocket money on top.

        And people say white people have privilege. What absolute bollocks!

        1. I agree Rastus, what’s happening is just disgraceful. There are so many other things going on, such as the energy crisis, net zero, tax increases, mucked up judicial system, the NHS… in no particular order. too many to list really. It’s hard to know which is the worst problem.

          1. Simple – the worst problem is the government (of whatever shade). All the rest stems from that.

  61. MI5 raises terror threat in Northern Ireland to severe, meaning attack highly likely. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris cited ” a small number of individuals who remain determined to use politically motivated violence” – pointing to the attempted murder of DCI Caldwell

      1. My daughter and her friend were in Belfast at the weekend! I’ve just asked her what on earth they did!!🙄

          6. Ah, the deaf judge sketch …

            J – Before I pass sentence, do you have anything to say?
            D – Bugger all, M’Lud
            J – [to usher] Eh, what did he say?
            U – Bugger all, M’Lud
            J – That’s odd, I’m sure I saw his lips move.

        2. They had a blast, oh hang on I’d better Anglicise that. They had a rollocking night on the tiles..

          1. That’s what she said!! And then several hours at the airport, while easyJet b*ggered up their flight home!

  62. Lineker has won his tax case against HMRC. He’ll be even more insufferable than ever…

    1. Gawd, that man is a cretin, isn’t he? Does he know anything about finance or economics?

      3. He could be a long-lost brother of almost any light skinned Tory MP.

        edit: I must explain my cynicism. On BBC radio Sir G Iain Duncan Smith was giving his opinion on the William Hill scandal and multi million pound penalty, and said that there have been occasions when the gambling license should have been removed. Well, the Non-Cons have occupied Downing Street for almost 13 years, so it is just another case of a soundbite filling in for an absence of ideology or ability.

    2. It’s just something else and an important part of our lives our useless political classes are going to eff up.
      If they do actually know what they are doing, they should locked up.

    3. If in doubt, blame someone else, eh, Bailey?

      Or, how about cutting public sector debt by not wasting so much money. Cutting civil service expansion by making significant redundancies – 70+%. Shredding unnecessary programs – net zero, HS2,the planning rechaining to the EU.

      You know, ending the deficit, paying back the debt and not debasing the currency for political gain?

  64. The problem with Israel’s protests. Spiked. 28 March 2023.

    This movement is defending the power of an unaccountable judiciary.

    Many of those watching the footage of the massive angry protests that have been engulfing Israel since the start of the year are likely to feel inspired. It looks like a sizeable proportion of the Israeli public is demonstrating for democracy against a right-wing coalition government, which includes a significant far-right element.

    This is quite interesting but I’m not certain that the author has convinced me that Netanyahu is in the right here! I seem to sense some special pleading in the text! Perhaps you need to be an Israeli to fully understand the issues!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/03/28/the-problem-with-israels-protests/

  65. More bad news:

    “Gary Lineker, the former England footballer, has succeeded in a long-running legal dispute against HM Revenue & Customs over an alleged £4.9 million tax bill.

    The Match of the Day presenter had been embroiled in a row with the tax authority for several years after officials accused him of being a “disguised employee” for his work with the BBC and BT Sport.

    Lineker’s lawyers had suggested that he was targeted because of his fame under HMRC’s policy “of looking at people in the media”.

    ….

    HMRC has suggested that the decision of the first-tier tribunal in Lineker’s case may not be the end of the matter and that it is considering an appeal.”

  66. Going to the supermarket soon- a bit late but it’s been a weird few days. Need a few things and it’s not raining.
    The saga of our wonderful NHS continues. Ha bloody ha.

    1. At this time of day look for the yellow labels/mark downs. Sometimes a bargain to be had. Sharp elbows often required.

      1. Didn’t need elbows- place was virtually deserted. Got what was needed and am home. Anyway, as I say, I gotta stick now;-))

  68. EU could strip British TV shows of ‘European’ status

    Simple answer. If we are not European, then the EUSSR has absolutely no claim that we should adhere to any of the rules that they have laid down for us

    EU boats have no Rights to fish in our waters

    ECHR ..ooman rites

    EUSSR citizens, residing in UK to be treated as illegal imigrants

    The list is endless

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/28/eu-considering-excluding-british-television-european-quotas/

    1. The Brussels mobsters have just set them selves up as another but larger version of the Sicilian mafia.
      They tighten the screws and nuts and bolts of their torturous procedures on a daily basis.

    2. With the UK being part of the European land mass, we are European, like it or not.

      So up yours EU.

      1. And you care?? I’m so happy not to have been able to see that since 1979…moving to the States does have it’s advantages!!

  69. Double Bogie for me.

    Wordle 647 6/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Bogie for me, but i did it in a rush

      Wordle 647 5/6

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

    2. A lucky birdie for me.
      Wordle 647 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Par 4 for me.

      Wordle 647 4/6

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

  70. Somewhat in bits just now.
    Good friend’s wife died this morning, breast cancer spread to the brain. Lovely Malay lady, the world is definitely poorer for her absence – as well as family and mate having lost a lovely person.
    It’s difficult to remain composed.
    This will be on the stereo at high volume soon, when I can manage it.
    https://youtu.be/YaH3zI0bYkM

    1. My brother-in-law’s wife died of the same thing 22 years ago – breast cancer which went into remission, then came back and spread to her brain. She was only 42 years old when she died, leaving her husband and a son just coming up to his third birthday. Very tough times then and Steve (my wife’s brother) still hasn’t got over the death of his wife. He never remarried.

      1. I understand all that Aeneas, as I’m having great difficulty with coming to terms with the break-up in a relationship, and that was only 8 months ago.

    2. Very sad.
      At least the poor woman is at rest and her family can begin picking the threads of their lives again.

    3. Playing the music at high volume, a candle lit, and trying to keep it together. Difficult. I’ll be incoherent for a while.

    4. There is no timetable for grief, Paul. Take it as you are able. My condolences.

    5. Sorry to hear that. My sympathies. I hope you can lose yourself in the music for a while.

  72. A damp and miserable day that put the knockers on doing much outdoor work today, but at least I’ve cleared all the mango chunks out of the freezer. Amazing how much room it’s made!

    Also used up a couple of packs of pre-cooked chicken, some stir-fry vegetables that have been in the fridge a bit longer than intended and a jar of sauce to do a rather nice curry for S@H & myself.

    The DT is off to see Student Son to practice her sewing skills with the Derby Uni Medieval re-enactment group and will be eating there.

    Chutney still a bit runny so needs to reduce a bit further, so will probably leave jarring it up until tomorrow.

      1. Of course.
        Letting it cool will be useful to make sure it’ll not be over runny like my 1st batch of mango a couple of years ago.

  73. Good evening.
    I commented the other day about how aggressive and militant the language of trans activists on twit is becoming.
    Now this.
    But of course, the same trans activists (cult members?) are blaming guns. Will the mainstream have the courage to take Jenn Smith’s warning about trans cults seriously?

    1. Queer Theory is the most dangerous threat to civil society we have faced in the west since the defeat of Germany in WWII. It is a Frankfurt School ideology and designed to indoctrinate the young and instil a certain hatred and sense of victimhood in them.

      I agree the trans mob are a cult. They hate anyone opposed to their mad beliefs. They are soulless and become prone to acts of cold blooded violence as we witnessed in the school shooting.

      There are parallel problems arising from the capture of religion and promotion of money grabbing in its stead. Add to this the mindless indoctrination of the Chinese TikTok output and our youth are set for trouble.

      1. I’m not sure it’s the most dangerous threat to civil society we have faced in the west since the defeat of Germany in WWII.
        I would propose Critical Race Theory.
        The rest I agree with.

          1. Nowhere near the numbers for the sex/gender insane as there are different non-white; not even close.

            The West is crammed to the gunnels with ethnics holding a grievance against whites.

    2. Guns are just inanimate chunks of metal and plastic. No brain, no ability to do anything off their own bat.

          1. The US was conquered by a shady cabal years ago. I wouldn’t give up guns either.
            How many shooters are not either on drugs or in the trans cult or both?
            Most Swiss households have a gun at home, yet they don’t have school shootings.

          3. It used to be that anyone (blokes at least) 18 years old in the 70s did an initial 6 months military training. After that they did at least 2 weeks per year and kept their weapons at home. No idea if that still is the case. The only non-European person I knew in Geneva was from Mauritius.

          4. Then we must differ. Had a gun been accessible in my previous marriage- one of us would be dead and the other in jail.
            I will never have a gun in my home.

  75. That’s me gone for today. A cold, wet, dreary day – spent beside the fire! Tomorrow, another grey, damp day but a bit milder. It is the lack of sun that is so dispiriting.

    Anyway, have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

      1. Looking good, Tom!
        Don’t have a pciture of a kilted me easily at hand, but maybe another day.
        My sporran is rather less grand, have to say.

        2. My daughter, then aged two, was heard to remark, “There’s my daddy, waving his big dick.”

      3. The link is there, Tom but you will have to refresh the page. I pressed the button too soon. I did an edit seconds later to include it.

        Which is you, the cheerleader? I think I see a resemblance!

          1. It certainly is. I suppose it’s a mock chavvy tartan for those who don’t know any better.

    2. Manor Farm Stables. I’ve been there several times – magnificent facilities, now under the control of Hugo Palmer since Tom Dascombe was given his marching orders.

          4. If I ruled the world it would not necessarily be a better place.
            Safer, probably
            Fairer, probably not

  82. And, since I am in the mood to celebrate / regret the passing of people close to me, I give you this:
    Makes me think of my beautiful friend, Elaine. Killed herself seventeen years ago, leaving husband and two small children. Oh, Elaine, what were you thinking?
    Never far from my thoughts.
    https://youtu.be/7O049oi2Dxw

    2. I experienced a near identical tragedy, 29 years ago. Julie was vivacious and funny as well as being extremely intelligent and talented with her own business. She suffered a mental breakdown and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. In the “safe” hospital she was permitted to have a bath, unattended, and was found drowned. She was 38. She left a loving husband and teenaged son.

    1. Sorry Catturd, but why don’t you piss off and eat your own faeces?

      This isn’t the time to be gloating about people who believe in gun-control and have been left embarrassed, (on balance I don’t support such controls, if it results in a total ban), think of the families of the mad woman’s victims.

      1. I’ve never really understood why so many British people feel they have to interfere in another countries gun control policy.

        1. People feel strongly. That’s their choice.
          Just an observation, if one really wanted to stop the killings; banning any black person from owning or holding a gun would be a very good start point.

          2. The shooter today was white as was the Sandy Hook gunman.
            Edit- as were the Columbine killers.

          3. True, but the point is that if you really, really wanted to better than halve gun killings in the USA you would start on the main source of those killings and that is black people shooting each other.

          4. Very true. Chicago/Detroit/DC/Baltimore have a weekly toll of shootings of at least a couple of dozen. Why is it that only the mass shootings attract so much attention? Dare I suggest it’s an errr.. demographic thing?

          6. I don’t give a shit about the colour of the people involved. Guns kill and so do the people who aim them.

          7. The shooter today was white as was the Sandy Hook gunman.
            Edit- as were the Columbine killers.

  84. Steerpike
    The Guardian cancels itself, at last
    28 March 2023, 4:07pm

    The world’s wokest newspaper is at it again. Few voices were more vocal about race and reparations in that statue-toppling summer of 2020 than the Guardian: the newspaper of choice for the self-loathing left. So it is some irony then that the paper’s owner has today had to issue an apology for the role that the Guardian’s founders had in transatlantic slavery. Whoops!

    The Scott Trust, which owns the Graun, has announced what the paper is calling a £10 million ‘decade-long programme of restorative justice’, with ‘millions dedicated specifically to descendant communities linked to the Guardian’s 19th-century founders.’ It comes after academic research established that John Edward Taylor, the journalist and cotton merchant who founded the newspaper in 1821 had links to slavery, mainly through the textile industry, along with at least nine of his 11 backers who funded the Guardian’s creation.

    Katharine Viner, the editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media, has now issued a grovelling statement, declaring that:

    “We are facing up to, and apologising for, the fact that our founder and those who funded him drew their wealth from a practice that was a crime against humanity. As we enter our third century as a news organisation, this awful history must reinforce our determination to use our journalism to expose racism, injustice and inequality, and to hold the powerful to account.

    Mr S looks forward to the usual suspects demanding the closure of the paper, given its foundation on the wealth of slavers. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes…

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

    Robert
    2 hours ago edited
    It never ceases to amaze me that the very country that initiated the world’s biggest effort to end slavery, not having invented itself, is the one with so many self-flagellators in it who couldn’t bring them to remember this crucial fact in a million years.

    It’s not about them making amends, never was and never will be. It’s about them casting passive shame on people they don’t like. That is, anyone from Britain who likes Britain.

    None of these grandiose acts of righteousness are ever performed in private. And that should tell you everything you need to know.

    WatTylersGhost
    2 hours ago
    When the Guardian makes reparations to the descendants of slavery will it only make payments to blacks who look 100% African, or will there be a sliding scale based on one’s African racial purity? If someone is 50% black do they just get half the payout, or if someone is an incy-wincy bit brown like Megan, do they just get a bit of pocket money.
    Popcorn time as they sort that out Ha, Ha, Ha!

    GUBU
    2 hours ago
    Surely the staff of the Guardian will rise in revolt at this repugnant tokenism?

    The Scott Trust should be closing this filthy paper, giving away every single penny of its ill gotten gains, and dispatching its entire staff to mine copper in the Congo as a gesture of atonement to the people of West Africa, starting with Owen Jones.

    2. Does this nonsense end with John Edward Taylor or will it encompass the descendants of those who benefited from selling his textiles e.g. tailors, seamstresses etc. or even those who dared to wear his cloth? An impossible enterprise, of course. Why not go down the San Francisco route and force every white Briton to cough up and repent?

        1. Robert Duvall – the best performance in any war movie ever. Ironically, I saw the film in a cinema in Brum after a few lunchtime pints and dozed off halfway through. I still haven’t seen the second half…

        1. Based on where my parents last lived, I’m Welsh.
          Based on my birthplace, I’m Yorkshire.
          Based on my early years, I’m Nigerian
          Based on where I’ve lived longest, I’m Norwegian.
          Where the fcuk do I come from?
          Edit: Oh, yes, based on where my clan comes from, I’m Scots (Lochalsh)

          1. Understood, Paul, If you have problems, how do you think I feel?

            You’ve read the book and know how far and wide, I’ve not only travelled but lived and, apart from my youth, the longest I’ve lived in one place, has been seven years in S Wales.

          2. Indeed, Tom.
            Hard, isn’t it?
            For me, nearly 20 years in Norway.
            KBO, old Troop. 🙂

    2. Wow. And it’s not just this evening’s double gin and tonic that’s brought tears to my eyes.

      2. Rest assured, Anne, it has the same effect upon me, with or without a double deorch and doris.

        Slainté.

        1. “Who is Sylvia? What is she, that all our swains commend her..”
          Can’t do a link.

          7. That was my Father, making us learn great lumps of Shakespeare, as well as complete poems like “Gray’s Elegy in a Country Churchyard”.

            I do still have a good memory.

          8. That’s my eldest and much beloved daughter, alas now many miles away in Tasmania.

          9. I had the most wonderful discusson with Second Son, and my God, how switched on he is! Fantastic!

        1. Yes, Paul, I’ve lived in York (Acomb) as well so I do understand.

          I’m now having to rootle in my brain for all those Scottish phrases, even though I could, at one time speak ‘The Doric’ as spoken in the North-East of Scotland, Inverness to Aberdeen and particularly on the coast, where I lived in Banff.

          1. Takes a while to re-tune.
            The Doric… I picked up a lot when working from Ardersier in 1990, not sure that (in post stroke memory) I can recall it right away -let’s hope, eh?

          2. “Fit like the day”

            Typical Doric greeting. (That a very short ‘fit’ more like ‘ft’)

          3. I’m OK with the “Fit like, Loon”
            Some of the rest takes a while to retune.’SWMBO is totally lost.

        2. Yes, Paul, I’ve lived in York (Acomb) as well so I do understand.

          I’m now having to rootle in my brain for all those Scottish phrases, even though I could, at one time speak ‘The Doric’ as spoken in the North-East of Scotland, Inverness to Aberdeen and particularly on the coast, where I lived in Banff.

        3. Yes, Paul, I’ve lived in York (Acomb) as well so I do understand.

          I’m now having to rootle in my brain for all those Scottish phrases, even though I could, at one time speak ‘The Doric’ as spoken in the North-East of Scotland, Inverness to Aberdeen and particularly on the coast, where I lived in Banff.

    2. For those who may not understand, ‘Hiraeth’ means in Welsh, “…a deep longing (yearning) for something, especially one’s home.”

      It is almost untranslatable.

    2. …Forgive our foolish ways, reclothe us in our rightful minds….
      Funny how often that is sung at weddings.

      1. It has brought tears to my eyes… it is so nostalgic and reminds me of when the world was normal – God was in his heaven and all was right with the world.

  92. Just watched an al-Beebera News programme regarding the Nashville killings.
    It’s all about the guns, not the mentally ill perpetrator pulling the trigger.
    No mention whatsoever of the background of the killer.

  93. The BBC is, without a hint of shame, describing the French demonstrators as ‘hard left’. If only we had some in the UK to give the Beeb some proper practise…

  94. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk.

    We shall meet again in the morning’s light.

    My last snifter and I’m off to my bed. No promises about sleeping!

    1. And his first speech was all about white people having important jobs because they are white.
      Did he notice that he lives in Scotland.
      I wonder how long it will take before the people of Scotland will realise what huge a mistake they have made.

    1. I hope it’s not follwed by any more of that ilk. I will be having nightmares about that colour scheme.

  99. Before I sign off, I made a comment about our wonderful NHS. I believe I mentioned that the district nurse was supposed to come on Thursday last week to draw blood from my husband but was a no show. I had a well deserved lie in today and when I came downstairs I could hear him talking to a woman. District nurse- no advance notification at all. Then she asked if he had the paperwork; what? Previously they have come with all stuff required. She couldn’t draw blood without the forms and she left…said she’ll be back tomorrow. Yeah, right. We have not had to have forms the last few times as the nurses have known what they were here for. Grrr. And I bet no-one shows up tomorrow.
    Also tomorrow, we have the very nice lady coming to assist us in the paperwork for my husband’s attendance allowance. He does need some help right now.
    The last few days have been odd and not pleasant and it is hard sometimes to contemplate how one can keep going.
    I am very discouraged about everything….NHS for example are not fit for purpose round here.
    Very down and sad right now.
    Goodnight Y’all. And thanks for listening.

    1. Don’t let the non-NoTTLers grind you down, Ann. I hope and your other half sleep well tonight.

    3. I got the forms for my mother for the Attendance Allowance. They are both tedious and alarming, so many questions, but they are designed to trip you up, they will ask the same questions in a slightly different way, from a different slant, to see if you are consistent in your replies from which they deduce whether you are telling the truth – or otherwise. They are designed to trap the unwary. A personnel lady, a former solicitor, from the university came to help me fill it out. It seemed to take all morning, I found it quite stressful. One of the questions was ‘do you need assistance in moving around?’ I never thought that that also meant holding on to furniture, chairs, etc – I thought it meant human assistance and/or special disabled handles, not just what was around the house. I felt stressed out by the time my lady form-filling helper left, but I was so grateful for her assistance as my Mum got the Attendance Allowance. Mind you, that was 25 years ago and the form may be simpler these days. A slug of coffee before you get stuck in may help!

      1. A lovely lady from Alzheimers Scotland brought the forms and filled them in for my late wife, knew the right answers to put down and got the high rate

      2. No, they aren’t! I had help filling in the forms for AA for MOH and I helped a friend fill hers in as her husband has vascular dementia.

    4. I understand what you are going through. The word service in NHS has been sadly very badly abused.
      I’m still waiting for even the slightest hint of my future appointment the cardiology department has talked about several times. The secretary wasn’t able to reply to my email again. Not back in the office until Friday 28th of March.
      The way that seems to work out that could be in three years from today. Tuesday 28th of March.

    5. We are always here for listening, no apologies needed, Ann. Hope you and your OH sleep well tonight, thinking of you both.

    6. The department requesting the bloods should have sent the forms when the appointment was made. Call them.

    7. Paperwork before treatment 🙁
      It’s the logical end of any socialist system. Sorry you are going through this.

    1. Duke Ellington might have been pleased…….He’s beginning to see the light.
      But call me an old septic has kahnt got something up his sleeve ?

  105. Good (early) morning, all. No point in my going to bed yet, I shan’t sleep. I see the headline letter writer seems to think that a) net zero is achievable and b) it should be achieved.

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