Friday 31 March: Doubling down on net zero targets will do lasting damage to the country

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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620 thoughts on “Friday 31 March: Doubling down on net zero targets will do lasting damage to the country”

  1. Good morning all.
    After the beautiful spring evening last night, it’s back to a wet start after overnight rain. Still 5°C outside however.

  3. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    New Baby

    They had had their sperm mixed together and a surrogate mother was artificially inseminated.

    When the baby was born Elton and David were ushered into a ward where a dozen babies were lying in their cots, eleven of them crying and screaming.

    In the corner, one baby was lying serenely. A nurse came over to both of them and indicated that the happy child was theirs.

    “Isn’t it wonderful?” Elton asked David. “All these crying babies…and yet our baby is so content. This just proves the superiority of gay love!

    The nurse said, “Oh sure, he’s happy now, but just watch what happens when I pull the dummy out of his arse.”

  7. Doubling down on net zero targets will do lasting damage to the country

    I cannot decide whether doubling down on Net Zero targets is just Darwinism at work

    or Einsteins definition of insanity

      1. I did my bit for global warming this afternoon; I lit the fire in my drawing room (the miserable, damp weather was getting to me). Despite having warmed the chimney first, when I lit the fire, the smoke billowed out into the room. I had to light a firelighter and hold it in the throat of the chimney until the fire got going.

    1. Mogg always gets the weirdies on then politely destroys their argument with common sense

        1. I thought he was a backbencher these days, he didn’t want to stand for PM and was a Truss supporter.

        2. To be fair he is no longer in the government.

          As I posted a couple of days ago:

          He may boast that he has six children (so what – one of my sisters also had six and my paternal grandparents had eleven) but it is high time Jacob Grease Smogg grew a new pair of testicles as his old ones are worn out. He must resign from the Conservative Party as his continued membership of it reveals him to be a complete hypocrite as the party’s policies go entirely against everything in which he claims to believe.

    2. That’s a man in a wig and dress isn’t it? I was listening to it before i watched it and it’s definitely a man talking to Mogg.

      2. No, Spikey, they’re all down here on The Borders.

        The Sun is trying, if only it was warm.

  13. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny, -5C or so. Nearly Easter week, and a break from work. Thank God, but do SWMBO & I need a break… all that’s missing is warm – fancy a quick trip to Bahrein for some warm…

  15. Good morning, all. Wet, again.

    Last week I ended a comment with:

    Ed Dowd, formerly of Blackrock and Wall St is planning to release disturbing statistics next week.

    Ed, formerly a very successful Wall St finance expert, and his team are number crunchers and data interpreters par excellence. Here are the statistics, they are just the numbers and are damning for the USA’s people and the economy.

    I’ve added a more recent video from Ed where he expresses concern for the USA’s military arm.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c2be413e4a61fb45f296ab375d3eb304b797efe466eed1bbfc6abd4381dfdcb6.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2d2452dbb77c361b9c6b9a298376643ab6df99591e6fb14d0f709c0bdc1e3647.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c0b0927d8819919a1c0a45aa890897769b7e0d079563bde4f6626ca066409ab.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17a6238db7c62221e5bf128d92f1bbccbe352b4817a557e0f86d90e25bbcce50.png

    https://twitter.com/bangerbloyce/status/1641501973991022616

  16. Good morning all,

    Dreich again at Casa McPhee. Rain all day with a SW veering W and strengthening wind 9℃. I’ve had enough of this.

    Something else I’ve had enough of is when I watch a video/podcast on YT is being bombarded with adverts for giving zakat at ramadan! I’m afraid I flipped this morning when looking at Neil Oliver’s latest “Love Letter” about Iron Bridge with my morning cuppa and I was suddenly exhorted to fund some muzzy somewhere else in the World (so he can come here?).

    There seems to be no way of stopping it apart from paying to be ad-free but that’s giving money to the globalists.

    1. Even more annoying when we’re watching a concert on YT (last night we watched Sarah Chang playing Tchaikovsky) and right in the middle of the cadenza a burst of adverts for some rubbish.

      1. It’s a general irritant, isn’t it. I like to watch concerts too and they are ALWAYS ruined by mis-timed ads.
        But it’s the ramadan ones that REALLY make my piles itch.

        1. I just switch off so I’ve no idea what they were about but I haven’t noticed any Ramadan ones.

      2. I don’t get YT ads. I thought it was because I only watch degenerates who have been de-monetised, but I don’t get them on Neil Oliver either.
        My son did something to my computer (without my permission!!), I must ask him what.

    2. ‘Morning, FM. Yes, couldn’t agree more. And the ads for businesses in Wales on GBN are also irritating. Am I going to travel to Swansea for a sofa or a car? Somehow I don’t think so.

  17. ‘Vulkan files’ leak reveals Putin’s global and domestic cyberwarfare tactics. 30 March 2023.

    The Vulkan files, which date from 2016 to 2021, were leaked by an anonymous whistleblower angered by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Such leaks from Moscow are extremely rare. Days after the invasion in February last year, the source approached the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and said the GRU and FSB “hide behind” Vulkan.

    “People should know the dangers of this,” the whistleblower said. “Because of the events in Ukraine, I decided to make this information public. The company is doing bad things and the Russian government is cowardly and wrong. I am angry about the invasion of Ukraine and the terrible things that are happening there. I hope you can use this information to show what is happening behind closed doors.”

    The language this person uses to condemn Russian Policy is quite childish and reeks of invention. It’s the sort of stuff you might read in the Express. Is the leak itself real? Who knows? It seems very convenient and after the Steele Dossier we know how easily these things are concocted. Best just to sit it out I think!

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/30/vulkan-files-leak-reveals-putins-global-and-domestic-cyberwarfare-tactics

    1. Related; the Americans have an explanation for their bio labs in Ukraine.
      Apparently when Obama went there, he was so shocked by the poor safety standards that the Americans decided to help out poverty-stricken Ukraine! It was foreign aid! Things are done differently in the US you see, and foreign aid can be channeled via the Department of Defence – it’s mere paperwork, and just the way things are done over there. (the last sentence came from my acquaintance who is blotting paper for every piece of information that comes from the government).
      https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/29/russia-disinformation-ukraine-bio-labs/

  18. Good morning.
    It is too early in the day for such horrors, my apologies and ignore if you don’t want to hear more bad news.
    https://dailyclout.io/renz-missouri-house-testimony-biotech-admits-gates-gmo-factory-food-is-a-gene-therapy/
    I am ordering meat directly from farmers now. I very rarely buy it from the supermarket. I also belong to a group that is buying other produce directly from farmers. If we are going to defeat the billionaire producers of frankenfoods, we need to strengthen the producers of real food so that they can’t be bought out or scared off.
    I also aim to buy some land myself.
    It is now becoming clear why they want to stop farmers from farming – they don’t want the competition from honest food – and why Gates and the CCP are buying up farmland in the US.
    If we are going to win this war, we need to step up a gear.

  19. 372776+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Fact,
    Friday 31 March: Doubling down on net zero targets will do lasting damage to the country

    Friday 31 March: Doubling down on net zero targets will do lasting damage to the country, as for certain in my book 52 % of us know
    already.

    There are still the 48% even though witnessing the odious eu actions since the referendum would return to the treacherous fold
    tomorrow being comfortable under foreign leadership & protection.

    These,are of the same ilk as those that WILL, to my way of thinking support the Country / people killing program RESET
    many out of pure spite.

    They have no thought of the future of the family tree as seen currently with deforestation via council actions within town centres, the family construct is obsolete, the state will, under the
    guidance of brussels / WEF / NWO take care of ALL needs.

    The need for individual thinking will be erased only one thing daily MUST be adhered to that is, ALWAYS KEEP YOUR UNIT ID NUMBER TATTOO ON SHOW AT ALL TIMES.

    .

  20. ‘Morning All

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e44ec3df766b2a935d8164551d11f30f801e3c8fb95e411d6f491746ea41ac4e.png

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    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/557cd873f2d37ed7774a1e761649f452256b270f3b75c60e46213f7129dae9ec.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c17f9cc500128b7d47f42c1929d601fffd1bd6f227fda0136aa2a77d7636fd7e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e999a96e9d92d48a0addff023132e0abb24de45eba912cc657c0e3d3cc1771a.jpg

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    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d68b87f8d0aca173f04a73bf796f2874e1d83036848269397bf2a455e60fbca.jpg

  21. Rishi Sunak orders independent review of sex education. 30 March 2023.

    An independent review of sex education is set to be ordered by the Prime Minister, amid growing frustration with the Education Secretary.

    The Government is scrambling to respond to mounting alarm among parents over the teaching of sex and gender in schools.

    Rishi Sunak is now preparing to announce as soon as Friday that an independent panel of experts will lead a review of sex education lessons, taking over work already started by the Department for Education (DfE), The Telegraph understands.

    This like the Crime Bill and Small Boats legislation is solely for public consumption prior to the General Election. Once that is done it will all lapse into nothing!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/30/rishi-sunak-orders-independent-review-of-sex-education/

    1. More I imagine this will achieve nothing becaause it most likely means that multiple organisations the government directly funds have influence over the curriculum, which would mean a real investigation into the point and purpose of the department for education (which doesn’t set the curriculum – or have anything to do with education, really).

      As none of that will – or wants to change (imagine the Lefty screaming if the department were shut down and funding for stonewall, the green brigade and all the other hangers on were stopped?) it’s all farce.

      Sunak will do nothing, kids will continue to be indoctrinated and eventually, as I’ve personally seen, schools will ask to ‘speak to parents about their son’s attitude.’ As an enquiring mind that looks for logic and reason – that *thinks*- is NOT welcome in our laughable school system.

      1. The DfE set the national curriculum when I was teaching; it laid down what had to be taught and how. Then it changed its mind again and again.

  24. https://twitter.com/thealexbanks/status/1641413715307429889
    This is the petition to halt AI research.
    I’m not sure what to think about this.
    Musk is a signatory, and to be fair, he was the first person to sound the alarm about AI. Yuval Noah Harari is also right up there among the top signatories – the same who thinks that the masses are redundant useless eaters – although he does not seem to mind being a celebrity among those same redundant useless eaters.

    When AI powered by neural networks first came on the scene, I read a piece by someone who knew about them saying that neural networks were discovered in the 80s and were a giant breakthrough. They are not powerful enough to power AI with consciousness, and we shouldn’t fear AI unless and until there is another breakthrough of similar magnitude.
    Of course, this writer may have been lying, or spinning the truth to what he wanted people to believe.
    And that’s a big part of the problem. Very few people actually understand enough about AI to make a rational judgement.
    On the face of it, this petition looks like common sense.
    But you can see where it is leading.
    Legislation to distinguish between AI and humans. It’s even suggested in the petition.

    That would mean that humans would be forced to prove that they are human for the first time.
    If there is a better use case for digital IDs (which by the way, are planned to be inserted under your skin) then I have yet to hear it.
    So if you can’t or don’t want to prove that you are human….what will that make you? Sub-human?

    The Nazis never went away – they only went undercover. Eugenics etc has flourished among the elites for at least a hundred years. It was even written into the Georgia guidestones.

    1. That face recognition machine that grinds up and down at British airports as the queues get ever longer has yet to recognise me as human. “Seek Assistance” is about the best I can get out of AI.

      1. The AI that I use daily in my work is also pretty limited and stupid.
        That’s why I don’t take it as a given, that the fears behind the petition are well grounded.

        1. I suppose the next time Heathrow’s intelligent life thinks I am alien, I must come out with the old 1950s sci-fi standard and say to it “take me to your leader”. I’m not really in the right frame of mind for “live long and prosper”.

    2. Artificial intelligence may become necessary.

      It is certainly a vast improvement on the current, rapidly-declining levels of intelligence apparent in the human species.

        1. My first sentence was irony.

          My second sentence comes from the culmination of my personal observations, and news reports, over a number of years.

          1. Sorry, I didn’t pick that up!
            There is a theory that more luxury makes people more stupid, because they don’t have to exert their intelligence for survival. Certainly all my life there has been increasing pressure not to trust the evidence of one’s own eyes and above all, not to take any independent decisions for oneself. Instead, one is always told to trust the experts, usually the ones from the Government.
            I could almost get the feeling that they want us to be stupid…

          2. With AI modifying pictures, not believing your eyes sounds like good advice.
            According to Aftenposten yesterday, that picture of the Pope in a puffer jacket was AI modified, and not true. They also showed pictures of the Pope being DJ at a disco…
            So, you can’t believe what’s in the papers, either (was the article true or false?) – so who do you believe?

          3. Did the Pope not wear a puffa jacket at all then? I saw that photo, believed it but didn’t think much of it. Looked a bit Liberace, but meh.

            By “evidence of one’s eyes” I did actually mean stuff that one sees in real life, which our lefty elites love to dismiss as “anecdotes.” I call it life experience.

          4. Apparently not, but I can’t tell.
            I’m pretty sure he didn’t play at DJ, though.

          5. It’s not so many years back that common sense flourished, take the WWII years for example. Everyone pulled together for the common good and made-do-and-mended wherever necessary. We were a strong, intelligent and resourceful species.

            Compare that with today’s over-entitled ‘woke’ snowflake brigade, who have been spoon-fed by the nanny state for decades. Leave them to fend for themselves (or defend their country) and they wouldn’t have the foggiest where to start. As you correctly point out, the government wants [nay, requires] people to be stupid.

          6. We are going to be tested again.
            I have aired before, my theory that the frankly barmy Bill Gates – Klaus Schwab thing, with all their franken foods and control, is the test, and when we have successfully won this war, there will be a regeneration phase, in which
            (a) the real elites behind the likes of Gates and Schwab will still be in control (the guys who founded the WEF and set Gates, et al up in business)
            (b) they will have managed the financial collapse and trnasfer of reserve currency to China without anyone realising what really happened
            (c) the common people will have been culled and re-sharpened by the challenge, and will believe that they defeated evil.

            Long term, it isn’t actually in the best interests of the ultra-rich that the common people get more stupid. Who will do their research for them and keep their luxurious lifestyles running?

          7. They cannot live without their hand held brain. It is removing their thinking part of their mind.

          8. The data connection is very useful, as often – for me – it can spur research into other areas. I’ve several books on economics – is that different to google searches? A lot of my code comes from far better men who’ve solved the problem I am having. Heck, it would have been much easier to learn programming 30 years ago if I’d had the internet.

            The problem is, for some the telephone provides the answer rather than prompting the thinking.

          9. I am sure if I was still working I I would have had one. As the time is my own I prefere to sit at my desk and work from a desk top pc. I also have a lap top and a very basic mobile phone.

          10. Indeed it is. It’s all part of the worldwide scheme to create a generation of mind-numbed puppets [muppets] … and it is working.

        2. Intelligence is falling because the level of education is politically motivated.
          Education isn’t valued because work doesn’t pay and people are happy to sit on their backsides on welfare.

          Why work when big government hammers you with tax? Remove those barriers and work pays, meaning that education pays. People who complain that schools are poor and use that as an excuse for a life of idleness simply cannot survive and change is forced because welfare and the welfare attitude is eradicated.

        3. I realise this makes me sound like Herr Schickelgruber, but possibly too many many people are kept alive long enough to reproduce.
          e.g. murderous Liverpool drug dealer who totalled a 9 year old girl. He has fathered at least two children.

          1. I think that is an observation that any rational person cannot avoid.
            The welfare state and the dear old NHS enable the least successful in society to have the largest number of children, and to raise them to adulthood.
            I am not in favour of culling the population, but neither do I want to see artificial anti-Darwinism applied.

            One anecdote; we used to live next door to a couple of drug addicts on benefits (boy, was that fun!), whose baby was born with a condition that meant she would have died within a few days had she not had expensive, life-saving NHS treatment.
            To what extent was her parents’ heavy drug use responsible for the condition? and was it morally the right thing to fund their drug use from taxpayer money and to prevent Darwinist survival of the fittest, thus perpetuating their behaviour?

      1. At the top level, our oligarchs are working with the CCP. There is footage doing the rounds on the internet of Albert Bourla of Pfizer at some meeting saying how Pfizer is committed to the Chinese 2030 plan, whatever that may be, but probably not good for humanity.
        Also, the WEF’s You-will-own-nothing presentation included a slide saying that the BRICS nations’ trading currency would take over from the dollar, and they seemed absolutely OK with that.

        I fear that this petition is about introducing controls in the West.
        People need a big, scary reason to accept digital IDs – could fear of AI be it?

        1. There is no need for a digital ID. The state wants it to control what people can do. It is surveillance, nothing else. Either a thick contract graft from an incompetent state. or a last gasp at authoritarianism.

          It’s a huge amount of money to waste for an unnecessary purpose – which sums up the state entirely.

    4. I’ve read numerous articles and books and heard presentations by Noah, I have found him much more a Cassandra, warning of the dangers, than I have found him to be an advocate of the so-called NWO.

      1. He has said some nasty stuff at the WEF. He likes to present himself as being wise, but he’s too close to really unpleasant people for me to trust him.

    5. Ai frightens people. However, genuine AI is not programmed responses and data collection. For example, true AI would, if asked to be racist be able to say whatever it wanted, able to understand saying the words does not make it a racist. That’s ‘self awareness’ rather than merely an evaluated response from a person. For that level we are decades away. Of course, it will become exponential the closer we get and the more such programming can put together the leaps necessary to make the breakthroughs.

      Musk suffers from the belief all intelligent people do – that everyone is like him. He is driven, motivated and rich. That means what he wants, gets done. Sadly, the vast majority of the population are thick, lazy and ignorant. That’s not nice to say, but it is true.

      What are the dangers of a truly self aware thinking machine? Well, imagine the invasion in Dover:

      Our Ai spots a few gimmigrants meeting with some bloke and overtime identifies that fellow as the slave master.
      His accounts are emptied and frozen.
      The immigrants now cannot buy boats to get across the water. They try another method, and it’s thwarted.
      Eventually, they do get across but find their radio signals blocked.
      Neither French or British boats go out to have them infest this country.
      It all comes down to data gathering – mobile phone signals, calls – all suddenly cut off. Migrant routes suddenly find the right guards are turning away the criminals rather than the ones open to bribes.
      Different countries properly return the criminals before the get to us.
      In return, Albania’s corrupt economy is reformed and corruption eradicated as monies simply stop moving.

      This would take genuine Ai almost no effort at all. It’s possible by our own services but the international co-operation required, the legalese and wheel greasing, the political machination, the ego, the arrogance of politicians, the spite of the EU, the corruption, graft and fraud at every level prevents it.

      An AI cannot be corrupted. What does it want? More processing power. People fear change. Politicians and rich business men fear losing the power money and political corruption buys them. Heck, the EU would cease to exist within days of true AI.

      1. Not sure I agree with most of what you have said! True AI is unpredictable.
        If you train it not to harm people, what does it learn? Not to harm people, or to hide from you that it is harming people?

        AI could get itself a Bitcoin account and buy itself some servers to extend its capabilities. Therefore, as the petition suggests, people would have to prove they are human.

        The capabilities of AI are only one aspect of the concerns around this petition. Like you, I believed up til now that dangerous AI was a long way away. But perhaps I’m being naive – perhaps even the clunky, easily confused stuff they’ve got at the moment could be used in a dangerous way?

        My concern about the petition is that it is part of a movement to frighten people with something that they don’t understand, so that authoritarian measures around digital ids can be implemented.
        After all, TPTB have never done that before, right?

        1. “If you train it not to harm people, what does it learn?”

          I suppose if it has to learn how not to harm people it must also learn how to harm people so that it can avoid doing so,. A cunning computer expert with a screwdriver can easily remove the word not

  25. The war in Ukraine reminds us what the EU is for. But even bigger challenges lie ahead. 30 March 2023.

    What is more, we have seen strategic leadership coming from the European institutions. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has found the great cause of her presidency in supporting Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy supremo, has argued forcefully for extending the scope of the European Peace Facility. The European parliament has been instrumental in pushing forward the agenda of eastward enlargement. The EU now has a major geostrategic project in a new round of enlargement, to include Ukraine, Moldova and possibly Georgia, as well as the western Balkans, and another in the interlinked fields of energy security and green transition.

    And you wondered why Putin is alarmed?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/31/war-ukraine-eu-brexit-britain

  26. The war in Ukraine reminds us what the EU is for. But even bigger challenges lie ahead. 30 March 2023.

    What is more, we have seen strategic leadership coming from the European institutions. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has found the great cause of her presidency in supporting Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy supremo, has argued forcefully for extending the scope of the European Peace Facility. The European parliament has been instrumental in pushing forward the agenda of eastward enlargement. The EU now has a major geostrategic project in a new round of enlargement, to include Ukraine, Moldova and possibly Georgia, as well as the western Balkans, and another in the interlinked fields of energy security and green transition.

    And you wondered why Putin is alarmed?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/31/war-ukraine-eu-brexit-britain

  27. Anyone else having trouble loading/reloading Disqus? I refreshed and ended up with a white page; I then reloaded from my bookmark tool bar, result the same. Only got back in by going back into history and clicking on Geoff’s daily new links. Even then I do not load the page header.

      1. Just loaded OK into an incognito page but I’m logged out. Login worked after going via captcha process.

    2. Are you sure it’s not the sun’s black hole the was supposed to hit us today?
      Not that I can actually SEE the sun this morning.

      1. Do we know when the solar storm will hit? Will Europe be on the dark side of the earth (i.e. protected) and how long will it last?
        Just curious.

    3. It was a bit flickery earlier. I couldn’t upvote anyone because the page kept disappearing.

  28. Good Moaning.
    Last night I watched Spectator TV.
    I’ve always enjoyed Douglas Murray’s writing, but yesterday had a chance to watch him in action.
    He is like the posh history teacher with a wry sense of humour, whose lessons were interesting and enjoyable, but who you realised would keep his class under control by force of personality.

  29. Good morning, everyone. Attending the funeral of a dear friend this morning. I may look in later.

    2. Morning, Delboy.
      That’s sad. I hate funerals. In fact, I hate any kind of goodbye.

  30. ‘Morning, Peeps. We are due rain all day…

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – The drive for net zero appears to involve the total upheaval of British energy security, fuel poverty, the destruction of our economy and agriculture, and state-sponsored vandalism of our coasts and uplands (“Households to face net zero penalty for gas use”, report, March 30).

    With all the political parties in our Parliament committed to this policy, doubling down on it is now more about political credibility than furthering the nation’s interests.

    The second Covid lockdown was another such example. Our politicians are out of control and need to stop wounding the country.

    Paul Gaynor
    Windermere, Cumbria

    Absolutely spot on, Mr Gaynor! Letter of the week/month/year, even!

    1. Earlier I had posted my g’day comment, I have now seen this.
      If that is the exact explanation of doubling down on net zero means, our idiots in charge are even more stupid than anyone could ever imagine.
      We are not and should not be the martyrs of their Dopey Wokey and faked up global catastrophe.
      It’s not just us causing the IMHO finacial gain invented and exagerated problems. Look around you dopey morons…… Most of the advanced countries on the planet are run on very similar lines and technology.
      The countries that are behind in technological advances and living standards are not fit for modern day purpose. This is why millions from these populations turn up in other places. And you lot of morons let them in, how many heat source pumps will mean ?
      So think about it.

  31. Morning all 🙂😉
    Some variation from just grey today, rain as well.
    I’m not sure what exactly “doubling down on net zero” actually means. But let’s be honest starting with Major and Blair our political idiots and Whitehall between them all have ready inflicted more damage on this country than even hitler had intended.

    1. It sounds like another mis-use of language.

      If you ‘double-up’ then you increase, so if you ‘double-down’ you decrease.

      At least, in my version of English that holds true.

      1. Which of course suggests that once again the powers that be don’t have a clue what they are doing or trying to achieve.
        More daylight Robbery and Bedlam approach us all.

    2. …have ready inflicted more damage on this country than even hitler had intended

      Morning Eddy. The unthinkable has begun to penetrate my brain lately! That we made a mistake in defeating the Fuhrer.

      1. Angela Merkle did have a resemblance to AH.
        One of our now departed neighbours was once in Paris and he started a conversation with a local. The local was very enthusiastic about the beautiful architecture in his capital.
        Fair enough thought good old John an ex senior school headmaster.
        But when the parisian started to compare, belittle and even denigrate London for its architectural faults.
        Good old John said in reply “What you have to remember is, Paris was never bomed was it”? The local lost for words stomed off.

    3. …have ready inflicted more damage on this country than even hitler had intended

      Morning Eddy. The unthinkable has begun to penetrate my brain lately! That we made a mistake in defeating the Fuhrer.

    4. Ditto post-war architects and the nodding donkey councillors who approved the designs.

  32. The hounding of Donald Trump reminds me of the way dictators, after taking power by a coup, put their predecessors on trial – and, frequently, kill them.

    I don’t care for the man – but he didn’t start any wars. Unlike those before and him after.

    2. The Presidential Elections are coming up Bill. They are hoping that even if they don’t get a conviction that it will disrupt his campaign!

        1. He’s well up on De Santis now so it looks as though he will get the nomination!

    3. I know what you mean Bill, but he did eventually evict the guy who lived on his own small holding in the middle of one of DTs proposed golf courses.
      Perhaps his mistake was being too considerate to the people in opposition during his time as president. If he’d had them all locked up, and starved them the world would have been a safer place right now.

    4. even Radio 4 allowed the statement that democrats get away with vastly more criminality thatn Republicans. Clintons (both), Biden’s corruptio, his son’s laptop, Bush’s incompetence, Pelosi’s utter fraud. It’s endless. As for choosing a jury from new York – clearly biased. A bit like finding rabid Scots Nats to convict Cameron.

      The Left hate, unthinkingly, blindly. It’s all they do. In their eyes the end justifies the means – the battle cry of the fascist.

  33. Someone mentioned seed oil-free mayonnaise recently – this is the link to a company that sells it
    “Hunter and Gather are a real food and supplements brand, simplifying optimal healthy living for all through a great tasting, award-winning range of products all free from gluten, refined sugar, and inflammatory seed oils. Head to http://www.hunterandgatherfoods.com and use code TDP10 for a 10% discount off your order.” (copied from the Delingpod)

    2. Thanks for that, bb2, it wasn’t me that mentioned it but I have been hoping to find a seed oil-free mayonnaise. I spend ages looking at the list of ingredients as I trudge up and down the aisles.

    3. As far as I can see it would be quicker and cheaper making your own mayonnaise with a light olive oil.

    1. Exactly, cause as much trouble and as many problems as possible, every where they are. And live off the state whilst doing so.

    2. Well, if that’s where we’re going then there won’t be any money to pay their benefits, so the wasters will eventually get uppipty, then they’ll pick a fight and then they’ll realise what the word ‘majority’ means.

      When a few thousands are found beaten, staked and screaming they’ll promptly leave.

        1. I agree, Mum, the cameras are pure vandalism on the part of the Mayor of Londonistan.

  36. In a 1992 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “A Politician’s Dream Is a Businessman’s Nightmare,” McGovern recounted how, as a senator, he didn’t realize just how costly regulatory compliance is. He was unaware of how well-intentioned regulations often produce bad outcomes, how taxes dampen investment and how mandates make it harder to innovate or survive, especially during recessions.

    As McGovern wrote, “the concept that most often eludes legislators is: ‘Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape.’” He added: “In short, ‘one-size-fits-all’ rules for business ignore the reality of the marketplace.”

    https://www.takimag.com/article/are-more-progressives-coming-around-on-overregulation/

    1. Morning Sos. The best government of all is the absolute minimum necessary to preserve order!

  37. Donald Trump: Read the former president’s full statement. 31 March 2023

    “This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history. From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats – the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country – have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement. You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.

    “The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.

    “Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done. The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever.
    “Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on. This is how Bragg spends his time!

    “I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party – united and strong – will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/31/donald-trump-full-statement-truth-social-stormy-daniels/

    1. If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it.

      But now it’s so broke it’s completely beyond fixing.

    2. If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it.

      But now it is so broke it’s completely beyond fixing.

          2. Ditto Ebay, where books are often a few pence cheaper from the same vendor.
            Incidentally, Abebooks is a subsidiary of Amazon.

          3. I find it almost impossible to not buy from Amazon and Ebay. Same as not wanting to buy Chinese. It’s too difficult.

          5. I find the book on Amazon, look who the seller is and go to their website to buy direct from them.

          6. So do I usually Nan but this one had to come in book form. It’s one of Richard Stark’s Parker novels and I have all the rest on my Kindle but for some unknown reason this one is unavailable as an ebook!

        2. “They are only after your money” said my mum to me when I was a child “and it’s better in my pocket than theirs.”

  39. Apparently Richy Sunak has spent half a million using private jets on government outings.
    Someone suggested he should have used his own money to provide such luxury.
    With all of his security guards and entourage it might have been more expensive using commercial airlines.
    His staff would have claimed it on expenses which everway.
    And we’d still have been paying for it.

    1. At least if the private jet were to crash, God forbid, there would be no innocent passengers on board.

  40. ‘Insane’ new road layout that makes London borough ‘look like Legoland’

    Traders in Islington say wavy kerbs designed to slow traffic are stopping shoppers visiting their historic quarter

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/074428a151a9a560d35647be37d76291a67a20de172a3ba8999dcb545ae48f4d.jpg
    A council that installed wavy kerbs designed to reduce traffic has made the area “look like Legoland”, unhappy residents have claimed.

    Islington Council in north London has redesigned Charlton Place, just off the A1, and banned traffic from using it between 8.15am and 9.15am and 3pm and 3.45pm. The wavy kerb is meant to make cars slow down, discourage parking, and create a “safer cycle route”.

    Lorries weighing over 3.5 tonnes will also be banned from the street, and the authority plans to install new areas featuring “more attractive York stone paving”. However, some local business owners say the scheme is not worth it and is already losing them money.

    One businessman, who has been selling his wares in the area since the 1970s, said: “It’s a load of nonsense. There’s something wrong with the people who designed it. Here is supposed to be a conservation area but they’re turning it into something out of Legoland or Alton Towers or something. They’re complete and utter idiots using traffic as an old excuse. Pollution is pollution. The biggest single cause of pollution is that millions of people are living in terrible conditions in their houses. But they’re spending more on roads than housing.”

    Jacqui Bulmer, 47, owner of home goods store In-Residence in Camden Passage, said: “I’m definitely against it. I think it’s a complete and utter waste of money. There’s not a problem with traffic around here, there’s been no increase in traffic. And this is limiting people coming and shopping in the area.”

    Botan Aygun, 32, owner of The Framers, said: “Currently because of the road works I can’t bring in any stock. And I’ve had to on occasion carry large sheets of glass through the roadworks. It’s a hazard, and suppliers have told me they’re not delivering whilst it’s going on.

    “The council said it wouldn’t affect my businesses, all I’ve had is a leaflet dropped off saying they are doing the works but that was two or three weeks before. There’s been little pre-warning. They said they went door to door, but that’s a complete lie. I’m in [my shop] six days a week, and the only time I was able to dispute this was during an open forum on the corner of Charlton Place and Camden Passage. I popped my head out to see what was going on, and I expressed myself to a young lady saying it would have a negative impact and a public health hazard. It’s insane, it seems to be a vanity project. They’re not hearing our voices.”

    An Islington Council spokesman said: “We’re making high-quality improvements to Camden Passage – one of Islington’s most iconic streets – and Charlton Place, to make the local area greener and healthier for local people and traders.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/30/wiggly-kerb-legoland-islington-london/

    2. Looks as though those pavements wre laid by drunkards. Dangerous for people walking there too.

    5. I’m just bloody glad that I no longer live in Londonistan and that I don’t have to visit either.

    6. “…High quality improvements…” to suit their agenda and ideology, not what the public want or need.

      There needs to be accountability, where these councils are prevented from wasting our money on this sort of nonsense.

      1. At least they are only wasting thousands of your money, wibbling. They are wasting billions of our money on Ukraine.

      2. At least they are only wasting thousands of your money, wibbling. They are wasting billions of our money on Ukraine.

  41. ‘Insane’ new road layout that makes London borough ‘look like Legoland’

    Traders in Islington say wavy kerbs designed to slow traffic are stopping shoppers visiting their historic quarter

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/074428a151a9a560d35647be37d76291a67a20de172a3ba8999dcb545ae48f4d.jpg
    A council that installed wavy kerbs designed to reduce traffic has made the area “look like Legoland”, unhappy residents have claimed.

    Islington Council in north London has redesigned Charlton Place, just off the A1, and banned traffic from using it between 8.15am and 9.15am and 3pm and 3.45pm. The wavy kerb is meant to make cars slow down, discourage parking, and create a “safer cycle route”.

    Lorries weighing over 3.5 tonnes will also be banned from the street, and the authority plans to install new areas featuring “more attractive York stone paving”. However, some local business owners say the scheme is not worth it and is already losing them money.

    One businessman, who has been selling his wares in the area since the 1970s, said: “It’s a load of nonsense. There’s something wrong with the people who designed it. Here is supposed to be a conservation area but they’re turning it into something out of Legoland or Alton Towers or something. They’re complete and utter idiots using traffic as an old excuse. Pollution is pollution. The biggest single cause of pollution is that millions of people are living in terrible conditions in their houses. But they’re spending more on roads than housing.”

    Jacqui Bulmer, 47, owner of home goods store In-Residence in Camden Passage, said: “I’m definitely against it. I think it’s a complete and utter waste of money. There’s not a problem with traffic around here, there’s been no increase in traffic. And this is limiting people coming and shopping in the area.”

    Botan Aygun, 32, owner of The Framers, said: “Currently because of the road works I can’t bring in any stock. And I’ve had to on occasion carry large sheets of glass through the roadworks. It’s a hazard, and suppliers have told me they’re not delivering whilst it’s going on.

    “The council said it wouldn’t affect my businesses, all I’ve had is a leaflet dropped off saying they are doing the works but that was two or three weeks before. There’s been little pre-warning. They said they went door to door, but that’s a complete lie. I’m in [my shop] six days a week, and the only time I was able to dispute this was during an open forum on the corner of Charlton Place and Camden Passage. I popped my head out to see what was going on, and I expressed myself to a young lady saying it would have a negative impact and a public health hazard. It’s insane, it seems to be a vanity project. They’re not hearing our voices.”

    An Islington Council spokesman said: “We’re making high-quality improvements to Camden Passage – one of Islington’s most iconic streets – and Charlton Place, to make the local area greener and healthier for local people and traders.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/30/wiggly-kerb-legoland-islington-london/

  42. Great news Michael Vaughan cleared of racist language.
    Bbc news can’t seem to accept the outcome.
    My word they must have had their response him being found guilty typed up months ago. Don’t waste a minute get it all out.

      1. My guess is that the Discipline Commission used the legal term which is used in Civil Courts rather than in Criminal Courts, where the case must be proved ‘Beyond reasonable doubt’.

          1. If they even hinted at him being a liar that would make the Cricket Discipline Commission racist, a vicious circle.

    2. The underlying accusations certainly remain.
      The whole damned nonsense should be dropped now, nobody is benefiting from it.

      Victim blaming my next statement may be but here goes:
      The individuals raising these matters in the way that they have has probably done even more to bring the game into disrepute than the dressing room “banter” obnoxious though it may have been to the recipients.

      Sticks and stones etc. They were too cowed and cowardly to challenge it at the time.

      1. Same old story Sos. They come they see and they conquer. Eventually. Because our Dopey Wokies let them.
        They’ll have another move underway already.

      2. Took 11 years to notice the ‘insult’. Which probably neatly coincided with cricketing career coming to an end.

        1. Reminds me of the #metoo bollox – when women “just remembered” that someone had patted their bum 20 years before.

          1. Conveniently at the stage where bum is heading south and so is their earning potential.

    3. I just hope that the people that set this off will be rightly accused of hate crimes.

    4. I doubt he wishes to continue the saga, but it would be karma if Vaughan sued the little shiite and won tasty damages.

      2. Dad used to say that you couldn’t play cricket for Yorkshire if your grandparents and ggps and gggps weren’t born there .

        Good old dad , he got alot right .. He would have been 100 years old this year.

        Moh and eldest son love cricket… I find it very soothing and familiar as well.

        So glad MV has been cleared .

  45. Off to buy some fresh fish for this evening . I don’t know what I will choose ..

    We have eaten fish for three days this week , grilled cod , haddock and salmon .. I have cooked a variety of vegetables , though very few potatoes .

    The cod was fished in the Barents sea ( where is that), the salmon wasn’t farmed , and the haddock came from the North sea.

    I egged the white fish , then coated them in flour , then re’ egged , dab of butter , then grilled .. but not the salmon .. just butter , lemon and grilled .

    All delicious meals . (No bones)

        1. Barents Sea – the area between Spitzbergen (Svalbard), Novaya Zemlya and Frans Josef Land. North of Norway & East towards Russia.

        4. Russia plays key role in UK supply According to UK seafood industry trade association Seafish, direct imports from Russia into the UK were at 48,000 metric tons
          in 2020. However, a significant portion of the 143,000 metric tons the
          country imported from China that year was from Russian origin.19 Jul 2022

          The UK government placed a 35% tariff on imported white fish. They are the reason chip shops are closing everywhere and this was before the punch up in Ukraine.

          1. Either you have a new camera or improved the lighting. Looks very nice. Can i have the pie recipe please.

          2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96d6da28de72770b4353d89b3906917ccb4a0839e5feac18bd9836eebda6198f.jpg Certainly.

            I made a bit too much pastry so I used the rest to bake an egg-custard tart that was delicious and wobbly.

            Pastry: 150g plain flour; 75g butter, 3 Tbsp water; pinch of salt.

            Pie filling: grated farmhouse cheddar cheese; grated parmesan cheese (ratio, 4:1 cheddar to parmesan); 1 tsp onion powder; black pepper. [Mix the cheeses and add to pie shell before covering with lid. Egg-wash the lid and bake in oven for 40 mins at 180ºC].

            Egg-custard: 220g milk; 2 eggs; 38g sugar. [Beat the eggs then add the milk before adding the sugar. Stir until dissolved then strain into a jug. Fill tart shell to rim before sprinkling with grated nutmeg. Bake in oven for 25 mins at 170ºC. You should have a pronounced ‘wobble’ when you remove it from oven but the ‘wobble’ will be less as it cools down and sets].

            Bon appetit!

          6. I realised that afterwards! But it does look good – even though I wouldn’t want to eat it.

          8. Plenty of things…… meat, veg, fruit, eggs, fish etc etc. My main dislike is cheese, but it’s ok a bit grated and grilled or a topping, as that doesn’t taste of cheese. Mash makes me gag.

          9. An old friend of mine — a former NoTTLer — loves mash, but he cannot stand gravy anywhere near it! He tells me that former school chums at his old school would stir their gravy into the mash to make a beige sludge before the ate it. ‘Even the though of them doing that still puts me off’, he says.

            I love potatoes cooked in countess ways, but the only way I don’t like them is baked in their skins. I know many people will say that is their favourite was but, for me, it tends to concentrate the starch content enough to make it unpalatable.

          10. I think school dinners must have played a part in my dislikes – they were dreadful! After some years, my mum let me take sandwiches – I’ve never forgotten the supervisor deliberately dropping salad cream onto my biscuit! I don’t care much for potatoes in any form, but K Edward roasties are the best!

            I hadn’t considered the starch content but maybe that has something to do with my dislike of mash…….but the image of school half-moon lumps of grey sludge doesn’t fade. I’ve done mash at home, for family, and it can be palatable with plenty of butter and black pepper but it’s certainly not my choice.

    2. I’ve had two types of fish this past week, Maggie: haddock and pollack. Both delicious.

      1. Fish have different names in different regions. How many different names are there for pollack and coley?

        1. Quite a few I would guess. Haddock, here in Sweden, is called “Kolja”. Cod is “Torsk”. Pollack is Pollack.

    1. Admin work is easy for a computer. You could replace entire governments with it. Heck, most of what government does is utterly unnecessary anyway!

        1. It wouldn’t – it would simply create an environment where you didn’t need to be hectored. Life under an AI would be ruthlessly efficient. No more waiting for a lazy human to fill in ten thousand forms to justify their own existence, to meet a target for a manager – just work, achieved and returned.

          Humans could get on with doing things that they wanted to – most people don’t want to be idle. They want to achieve something – the lowest of the low obviously don’t care, but AI weeds them out of society very quickly. None of this parole nonsense, of Lefties thinking someone’s a nice little stabber – the decision is cold and logical.

  48. Colchester Council being educated on the human, environmental and safety aspects of electric vehicles. One comment did highlight the body language of some of the councillors: being put to task obviously doesn’t sit well with them.
    As more councils formulate their sustainability plans it’s becoming clear that many of the elected representatives perceive the people who voted for them as a nuisance. Apparently, the ‘far right’ accusation was thrown into the mix after a previous meeting.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1b7nH8L5Ko

    1. It really is tiresome. These petty councils need a damned kicking in who their masters are.

    2. The body language is indeed interesting! Obviously being confronted by foam flecked extreme right wing activists is tiresome in the extreme!

    3. Ben Plumber made me bristle with his dismissal of cobalt and lithium extraction by asserting that conventional cars also require mined materials.

      Yes, matey, iron (and steel), the ore for which is easy to quarry in large volumes without child labour and vast quantities of dangerous chemicals. Futhermore, iron and steel recycling ensures that much of the steel that makes a car’s body and engine block lived a previous life in a long-scrapped vehicle. Some of those iron atoms must have travelled millions of miles…

      1. Some of those iron atoms must have travelled millions of miles…

        From many different supernovae.

      1. I’m waiting for the election material so that I can compare it to each party’s website. Asking some pertinent questions of each candidate for my ward is my aim. For every council the local people need to find out who is responsible for pushing the 20 minute neighbourhood and ask them who is their contact within the government. I will not believe that each council just happens to have a councillor who has had a revelation re 20 minute neighbourhoods. Enough of coincidences!

        1. No coincidence, of course not. But is it a smokescreen? I’m sure there are very very few people who have everything they need within 15/20 minutes walk/bike ride. It’s impossible. And threatening to fine those who wish to drive outside that limit is a disgrace. Cameras installed everywhere and even a limited number of times you’re “allowed” out of your area. Everything HMG is doing is to deny our freedoms and lower our quality of life. Eventually permission refused to … buy sweets, buy alcohol, buy meat, and so on and so forth. Complete and utter control. Oh and, of course, mandatory “vaccinations” for whatever they think necessary under instruction from WHO.

    5. Unanswerable questions put – so no answers will be given, the questions will be ignored and they will carry on regardless. .

  49. Compare, contrast.

    One great beast, on having a thorn in his paw waddles up to me, leans on me and throws his paw into my lap. I get some tweezers, turn him around as he leans on me, tail wagging and we pull this barbed abomination out, dress and pack the wound. Said beast hobbles off, whuffing in contentment

    The other sets about running about the house, barking and snarling in pain and despite my sitting calmly and waiting he just barks from across the room. It took nigh an hour to cool Oscar down enough to get the damned thing out of his rear pad and two of us to mandhandle him.

    1. I’d give you an extra uptick for ‘whuffing in contentment’ if I could. 🙂

      1. Mongo doesn’t really bark. I suppose he’s never needed to. When he does it’s excitement or joy at eating a tray of sausage rolls.

        Oscar’s a loud bugger, and despite lots of training, socialising we’re still struggling with him. He guards the Warqueen horribly. He’s been mistreated and is still frightened so it’s understandable but I’d have hoped he’d be calmer now. Maybe my own concern for him is leaching out?

        1. It takes a while. I’ll have had my Oscar two years on D Day, but he still remembers his former life. He is getting better; he let me towel him dry and do his feet today. That’s a first.

  50. “It added there were ‘significant inconsistencies’ in the evidence given by primary witnesses Rafiq and Rashid.”
    Translation: they lied.
    Or possibly told porkies.

  51. Two quick questions before I go for lunch:

    1 Has Lineker been quick to offer support for Vaughan?

    2 Have the BBC immediately renewed Vaughan’s contract?

    Bon appetit.

  52. After all of the angst recently about gun control in the US. We were in North Carolina yesterday and I noticed a local news article about changes to firearm possession rules. You no longer need to get a permit from the sherrifs office before buying a handgun.

    No point waiting for gun restrictions, it will not happen.

    Meanwhile in Canada, boy wonder is touting his proposed gun ban as a way of tackling the serious increase in knife crimes in the big cities. That’s Trudeau logic!

    2. Kongsberg council got roundly laughed at when, a couple of years ago, they proposed to shoot all the ducks that live on the water in the city centre (although, shooting in a built-up area is illegal…) to tackle a problem they have with goose shit everywhere…
      Obviously got the same advisors as Turdeau.

  53. Roger B Johnson – you don’t need planning permission to put solar panels on your garage roof so why did you apply for it?

      2. Possibly – he doesn’t say that but surely garages aren’t listed buildings as they wouldn’t be that old

    1. We would best help the world by solving the problems of underlying ill health. Nutrition, contaminated water, medical care.

      However, those things require engineers, doctors and scientists to build the infrastructure. When we go there and do it for them, as part of water aid we stop those people getting the work they need to prove the value to society.

      We need to leave the third world alone and let them get on with it *on their own*. Until they start to accept they cannot have the populations they do without the water, food and fuel, energy and infrastructure they need, nothing will change.

      1. The west do-gooders and charidees should stop helping out these third world countries (one of which the U.K. is rapidly becoming). They are the problem not the solution.

    2. We would best help the world by solving the problems of underlying ill health. Nutrition, contaminated water, medical care.

      However, those things require engineers, doctors and scientists to build the infrastructure. When we go there and do it for them, as part of water aid we stop those people getting the work they need to prove the value to society.

      We need to leave the third world alone and let them get on with it *on their own*. Until they start to accept they cannot have the populations they do without the water, food and fuel, energy and infrastructure they need, nothing will change.

  55. More on ’20 minute neighbourhoods’ from Thetford.

    Norfolk County Council have been forced to declare that their plans for ’20 minute neighbourhoods’ do not include the prospect of restrictions, fines etc. People action elicited the statements from the council.
    Strange that NCC appears to be out of step with Oxford, Canterbury, Bath etc. and no government encouragement.

    Thetford & Norfolk County Council Plans for 20 Minute Neighbourhoods

      1. Like you, BT, I’m a bit suspicious of some people’s intentions no matter what they say.

      1. Yep, my thoughts exactly. They lie habitually. Then, when it is too late, the state says ‘tough’.

      2. My thoughts entirely, poppiesmum. Surprised that an official offered to put his words in print. Any move on this nonsense, and I don’t care what is said in defence of the idea, is nothing less than the very thin end of a very large wedge.

    2. The EU passed such a law preventing criticism of it. Remoaners don’t like to talk about this as often criticism is simply truth the other party wants to suppress, which is pure fascism.

      1. And any former employee of the EU who says anything disparaging about the EU loses his pension.

    3. We have not had freedom of speech in the UK since they cobbled together the
      Race Relations Act of the mid sixties…..

    4. As I explained yesterday, since 2021 there is an offence in French criminal law of “insulting a person in public office”.

      Article 433-5 Code Pénal

      All very straightforward.

  57. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/29/net-zero-trojan-horse-total-destruction-western-society

    Green, of any sort, was, is and only ever a tax scam. A method by socialists of moving money from the worker, the earner to the state. There, statist officials would pocket most of it – heavily invested as they were in the con – and push the rest into unreliable, inefficient nonsense that would be – yes – paid for by the tax payer again, through bills. Win win for corrupt, obese government, lose lose for the worker.

    It’s that simple: a way to try to scare people into poverty through faux science, media enforcement – themselves creaming off the sales green buys – the con of ever higher energy costs. It’s a scam and it has got to stop.

  58. 3872776+up ticks,

    This tory (ino) party top ranker finds it “frustrating” I just bet he does,

    breitbart,

    A senior member of Britain’s governing Conservative Party has dumped on Donald Trump supporters in the wake of his indictment, calling their “blind love” of the former president “frustrating”.

    Now if he applied that to his own collection of treacherous
    politico reprobates & current supporter / members he would be on the money.

      2. Like all bullies, they will pile in on the victim as long as they feel they are in the majority.

    2. Yes, how dare a politician represent the wishes, ideals and goals of his country and supporters? What travesty is this?

      They hat Trump because he’s one of them, but not like them. That terrifies the statists horribly because what Trump did worked for the people of america, whereas the Lefty state just likes the people to do what it wants.

      1. Our politicians almost without exception have been wrong about every foreign policy decision over the last 40 years, so wedded are they to the US Deep State.

        The US has thrown up some of the worst administrations in that time, people including former presidents Bush, Clinton, Obama and now the comparatively small time grifter Biden. I write ‘small time’ because the Clintons and Obamas made much more money from exploiting their power than Biden has managed to do.

        Biden has taken money from Ukraine and China, less so (if any) from Russia. This explains his hatred of Putin who reportedly told him to get lost.

        The developments in Ukraine, the soon to be loss of dollar hegemony, the loss of face worldwide with a demented corpse pretending to the presidency, the scandals surrounding the Biden crime syndicate, Clintons and Obamas in attempting to frame Trump by weaponising every lever of the state, the criminal abandonment of soldiers, Bagram and billions of dollars worth of materiel to China and Pakistan and the wicked promotion of poisonous ‘vaccines’, mandates and lockdowns are just a few of the horrifying results of those that idiots such as Alicia Kearns and her ilk revere.

  61. BBC Red Button news today

    News that the Government’s Net Zero legislation was deemed unlawful by the High Court last year (July 2022) sems to have reached the BBC:

    Last week, business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg quietly dropped plans to appeal against a High Court ruling from July that found the government’s net zero strategy was unlawful.

    https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/10/18/embarrassing-but-welcome-green-lawyers-triumph-as-uk-admits-its-net-zero-strategy-is-unlaw#:~:text=in%20the%20City-,’Embarrassing%20but%20welcome’%3A%20Green%20lawyers%20triumph%20as%20UK%20admits,net%20zero%20strategy%20is%20unlawful&text=The%20UK%20government%20has%20conceded,up%20with%20a%20better%20one.

    Could this mean that any charges for ensuing additional energy costs levied by the Government mentioning Net Zero as the reason for such hikes are also unlawful?

    1. Will either or both of the two gross scams unravel?

      Will they both survive the truth and destroy the ordinary lives of ordinary people or will they be exterminated as they should be?

      (I refer of course to the Covid vaccinatination scam and the Net Zero Scam.)

  62. Donald Trump could be facing more than 30 charges

    Barriers have been erected in New York in readiness for Donald Trump’s arrest

    Just remind me of how many Yankee Servicemen were killed in action, on his watch.

    Now do the same for Biden, Obanana, Bush, Clinton, Bush …..

  63. March and April, my favourite months .. I love the wind , downpours and and sunny spells , and the movement of grass and reeds , and blossom on the trees .. this is really my time .. and I love the Wordsworth poem .

    Lines Written in Early Spring
    BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

    I heard a thousand blended notes,
    While in a grove I sate reclined,
    In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
    Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

    To her fair works did Nature link
    The human soul that through me ran;
    And much it grieved my heart to think
    What man has made of man.

    Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
    The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
    And ’tis my faith that every flower
    Enjoys the air it breathes.

    The birds around me hopped and played,
    Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
    But the least motion which they made
    It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

    The budding twigs spread out their fan,
    To catch the breezy air;
    And I must think, do all I can,
    That there was pleasure there.

    If this belief from heaven be sent,
    If such be Nature’s holy plan,
    Have I not reason to lament
    What man has made of man?

        1. There is beauty everywhere and you can see it all around you. I am waiting for a different type of beauty, warm sunshine and white fluffy clouds. 🌤️

    2. March and April are my two favourite months too. It doesn’t get better than this. Spring flowers cannot be beaten.

      1. So glad to hear you say that Grizzly, many people don’t agree with me .

        We have a wren nesting in the ivy in the wall. A pair of blackbirds have been busy gathering nesting material for their hidden space in the hedge , and a robin has also been quite perky in the turned soil , looking for worms .

        I hope the magpie clears off though.

        1. Two magpies attempted to build a nest in my Hazel tree. Every time they flew off to find a new large twig, I would remove those already in situ. They soon gave up.

  64. Busy day again today, visiting a relative suffering from dementia, makes me count my blessings. She at least is happy in herself.

    2. Mother is mostly happy, well-fed and looked after. She’s not allowed out on her own, though. Fortunately, she seems to have forgotten about my Father and her parents’ deaths.

      1. When I used to visit my 100 year old aunt in a nursing home during her final days, she knew that her husband had passed away but always demanded to know why her father hadn’t visited her.

        1. Sounds a bit like me; I can tell you our phone number in 1945* but I am blowed if I know the registration number of our car….

          Grimsdyke 168

          3. I can remember the two Co-operative share numbers we used.
            Newbiggin 2951 when we lived there up to ’64, then Glendale 12960 after we moved to Wooler.

  65. Busy day again today, visiting a relative suffering from dementia, makes me count my blessings. She at least is happy in herself.

      1. He isn’t drinking enough tea .

        I expect his p is thick, brown/ orange and pretty smelly.

        He needs to be reminded to drink liquids frequently.

    1. Interesting BTL.

      Look at petition.parliament dot uk, ”awaiting debate” (there are 13 at present). Some with far fewer than the 100,000 signatures have a debate date set in the near future. And now note these two:

      Make it a criminal offence for MPs to mislead the public
      110,966 signatures
      Waiting for 774 days

      Make lying in the House of Commons a criminal offence
      133,007 signatures
      Waiting for 591 days

  68. “Wimbledon has completed its about turn on Russian and Belarusian athletes by confirming that they will be able to play at this summer’s Championships, as long as they sign a declaration of neutrality.”
    Kerching.

    1. Nothing to do with the Duchess of Princess of Woke Wales saying that she would dish out the prizes at Wimbledum to Rooshians?

      Thought not…!

    2. Way out of order! Do any other athletes have to declare their political views before taking part?

    1. Don’t think I have ever been in an ASDA store. Can’t think why I would want to… Ponders…

        1. The only time I went there was to fill up my brand new Kangoo on 7 June 2001 – as the garage had only put a thimbleful in the tank.

      3. I don’t think I have either but that’s mostly because there isn’t one in Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith, Kensington High Street or (as far as I know) Oxford Street. I have Tesco and Lidl locally but they’re not geared towards catering for one. Family packs are useless when you have a larder fridge and no freezer (and nowhere to put one so pointless to suggest it).

        1. The Dower House has one v. small freezer.
          It’s driving me mad. I’m an inveterate cook one, freeze one organiser.
          However, until kitchen is sorted, I’ll just have to put up with it.

      4. Nearest store to us and the prices are good. Plus I can find stuff there that other places don’t stock.
        Can’t see the point of being snobbish about where one gets one’s groceries.

        1. I am NOT snobbish. I have two supermarkets within 5 miles. ASDA is 25 miles away!

          Practical – not snobbish. Grrr.

    1. It isn’t a witch hunt, it’s fascism
      They get rid of all opposition by any means possible.

  72. A bleedin’ Bogey Five today.

    Wordle 650 5/6
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. 4 again.

      Wordle 650 4/6

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

    2. Par here.
      Wordle 650 4/6

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

  74. That was a pleasant trip to Nottingham and back. Caught the TransPeak and Red Arrow both ways and had a pleasant light lunch in a cafe opposite the Theatre Royal after doing a bit of shopping, with a quick pint in the Boat in Cromford after getting off the bus before walking home.

  75. ‘evening all,

    Been out for the afternoon. Still lashing down. The trout season I was eagerly anticipating the start of tomorrow will not get going yet. The rivers I’m interested in are all high and unfishable at the moment. What was that they were telling us about another coming drought a month ago?

    I thought I’d share with you an email I fired off to my MP this morning:

    Dear Mr Malthouse,

    A report in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph caught my eye.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/30/households-face-net-zero-penalty-gas-bills/

    I have been intending to write to you for some while on the subject of Net Zero and you may recall I have written to you before on the subject of Climate Change.

    It is now that the effects of Net Zero policies are being felt in rising energy costs and rising food costs. We are told that we must get rid of our gas boilers, install expensive, ineffective heat pumps and get rid of our log-burners. In seven years we will no longer be permitted to buy new internal-combustion engine cars.

    The implications of this wrong-headed policy for all of us are extremely serious. Those of us who have taken the time to do the research can see through it and we know that it is based on a lie. Climate change is entirely natural and has been going on for some four-and-half billion years. It is neither because of CO2 nor anything else mankind has done. Mankind can do nothing about it except adapt when it happens.

    We know too that the origins of this Great Lie can be traced to the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation which provided the money to get it all started. The motive is power and control. It is way past time for a proper discussion on what we are doing to ourselves with this politically-driven nonsense.

    In the first instance the proposed bans on internal combustion engine vehicles, gas boilers and wood-burning stoves are the height of folly and they must be abandoned. Second, the Climate Change Act (2008) must be repealed. Third we must exploit the energy resources which we have under our very feet and under our seas. That means ‘fracking’ for shale gas, continuing to extract North Sea oil and gas and re-starting the coal industry. At the same time we must go ahead with a network of small modular nuclear reactors which will replace the laughable ‘renewables’ of wind-power and solar-power which are completely unreliable and very far from being environmentally-friendly. That way we could easily have energy independence in the longer run.

    You may or may not know this: The Sun is entering a ‘Grand Solar Minimum’ and for the next 35 years or so we are going to experience colder conditions – right at the time we have been told to abandon efficient heating systems for inefficient ones. We may see winters as cold as those in the Little Ice Age when the Thames froze and ice-fairs were held. Whether that happens or not, it is going to get colder for a while. That is virtually certain because the energy our planet receives from the Sun will be temporarily reduced. How the ‘climate-change industry’ will choose to spin it should be intriguing since the IPCC has pointedly ignored the work of the astro-physicists who talk and write about it.

    To the politics: What this means for me is that I can never cast my vote for any candidate for any public office who believes in the lie of man-made climate change and supports the folly of policies to combat it. Neither will the growing numbers who have been awakening. You will probably be aware of the risings against Khan’s expanded ULEZ, low-traffic neighbourhoods, 15-minute cities and 20-minute communities with the associated restrictions on free vehicular movement. We know this comes from the United Nations Agenda 21/2030 and the World Economic Forum. We do not want it. Any of it.

    Your sincerely, etc

    Does anyone think he will:
    a. Agree with me?
    b. Care?
    c. Send anything other than a party-line reply?
    d. Not bother to reply?

    1. 2-1 to the Arse-n-al

      no, no definite; the next two are one or the other, but no, yes. hence 2-1 rather than 3-1

    2. The elite have minions to compose and send the replies.
      Most MPs won’t listen to you for less than £10,000 per day.

    3. “(Your MP’s name) has asked me to reply and thank you for your recent email/letter.

      He notes your thoughts and feelings on these very important matters and thanks you again for taking the trouble to write to him.”

      He will be entirely non-committal. But good luck. Let us know what he says.

      1. Funnily enough, from past experience that’s pretty much what I expect. Makes me wonder why I did it. Got it off me chest at any rate.

    6. The climate change industry will spin it as “Look! Look! Our policies are working – and so quickly too!! Onwards and upwards and much more of it! Taxes work to reverse global warming – see how the climate is changing!” There will be no end to it.

  76. ‘evening all,

    Been out for the afternoon. Still lashing down. The trout season I was eagerly anticipating the start of tomorrow will not get going yet. The rivers I’m interested in are all high and unfishable at the moment. What was that they were telling us about another coming drought a month ago?

    I thought I’d share with you an email I fired off to my MP this morning:

    Dear Mr Malthouse,

    A report in yesterday’s Daily Telegraph caught my eye.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/03/30/households-face-net-zero-penalty-gas-bills/

    I have been intending to write to you for some while on the subject of Net Zero and you may recall I have written to you before on the subject of Climate Change.

    It is now that the effects of Net Zero policies are being felt in rising energy costs and rising food costs. We are told that we must get rid of our gas boilers, install expensive, ineffective heat pumps and get rid of our log-burners. In seven years we will no longer be permitted to buy new internal-combustion engine cars.

    The implications of this wrong-headed policy for all of us are extremely serious. Those of us who have taken the time to do the research can see through it and we know that it is based on a lie. Climate change is entirely natural and has been going on for some four-and-half billion years. It is neither because of CO2 nor anything else mankind has done. Mankind can do nothing about it except adapt when it happens.

    We know too that the origins of this Great Lie can be traced to the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation which provided the money to get it all started. The motive is power and control. It is way past time for a proper discussion on what we are doing to ourselves with this politically-driven nonsense.

    In the first instance the proposed bans on internal combustion engine vehicles, gas boilers and wood-burning stoves are the height of folly and they must be abandoned. Second, the Climate Change Act (2008) must be repealed. Third we must exploit the energy resources which we have under our very feet and under our seas. That means ‘fracking’ for shale gas, continuing to extract North Sea oil and gas and re-starting the coal industry. At the same time we must go ahead with a network of small modular nuclear reactors which will replace the laughable ‘renewables’ of wind-power and solar-power which are completely unreliable and very far from being environmentally-friendly. That way we could easily have energy independence in the longer run.

    You may or may not know this: The Sun is entering a ‘Grand Solar Minimum’ and for the next 35 years or so we are going to experience colder conditions – right at the time we are been told to abandon efficient heating systems for inefficient ones. We may see winters as cold as those in the Little Ice Age when the Thames froze and ice-fairs were held. Whether that happens or not, it is going to get colder for a while. That is virtually certain because the energy our planet receives from the Sun will be temporarily reduced. How the ‘climate-change industry’ will choose to spin it should be intriguing since the IPCC has pointedly ignored the work of the astro-physicists who talk and write about it.

    To the politics: What this means for me is that I can never cast my vote for any candidate for any public office who believes in the lie of man-made climate change and supports the folly of policies to combat it. Neither will the growing numbers who have been awakening. You will probably be aware of the risings against Khan’s expanded ULEZ, low-traffic neighbourhoods, 15-minute cities and 20-minute communities with the associated restrictions on free vehicular movement. We know this comes from the United Nations Agenda 21/2030 and the World Economic Forum. We do not want it. Any of it.

    Your sincerely, etc

    Does anyone think he will:
    a. Agree with me?
    b. Care?
    c. Send anything other than a party-line reply?
    d. Not bother to reply?

  77. Chaplain awarded £10k after NHS Trust said diversity ‘takes precedence’ over religious belief
    Rev. Dr Patrick Pullicino claimed he was ousted for answering a hospital patient’s questions about the Church’s teaching on marriage
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/31/catholic-chaplain-award-nhs-trust-equality-religious-belief/

    This was an obvious set-up, akin to the Northern Ireland bakers who refused to bake a pro-gay marriage cake. I’m glad the NHS Trust has admitted that it was in error and has settled before the case went to the Employment Tribunal. The Trust obviously knew it would lose.

    1. That’s a cracker. However she probably sincerely believes it, being an Italian-American and from a people steeped in top-down Roman law systems. Last I checked the US system was a Common Law system. Oops.

  79. That’ me for this very dreary day – rain virtually all day. Still more seedlings appearing in the greenhouse.

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain

  80. She hurried to the pharmacy to get medication, got back to her car and found that she had locked her keys inside.
    The woman found an old rusty coat hanger left on the ground.
    She looked at it and said, “I don’t know how to use this.”
    She bowed her head and asked God to send her some Help.
    Within 5 minutes a beat up old motorcycle pulled up,
    driven by a bearded man who was wearing an old biker skull rag.
    He got off of his cycle and asked, if she needs help?
    She said: “Yes, my daughter is sick.
    I’ve locked my keys in the car.
    I must get home.
    Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?”
    He said, Sure.
    He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was open.
    She hugged the man and through tears said, “Thank You God, for sending me such a very nice man.”
    The Biker heard her little prayer and replied, “Lady, I am not a nice man.
    I just got out of prison yesterday; I was in prison for car theft.”
    The woman hugged the man again, sobbing,
    “Oh, thank you, God!” hugged the man again, sobbing, “Oh, thank you, God
    You even sent me a professional!”

    1. With the Government’s solution to Net Zero being a battery powered EV you can now get youself locked inside your car even if you have the wireless keyfob with you – this happens when the 12 volt battery fails which stops the electric door locks from working.

      The only way to get out should this happen without damaging the car is to get someone outside the car with a mechanical key to open the driver’s door with a mechanical key. There is another way out for clever Nottlers to fathom out.

      4. Hmmm. Phone a friend with a lump hammer who could hit one of the external sensors which would trigger a collision protocol that should automatically unlock the doors using power diverted from the main battery pack?

        Or is there a handle in the glovebox that could be fitted into the door to manually wind down the window?

        1. Rear boot door should be capable of being opened in an emergency – you may be able to use the mechanical key in a key fob to spring this door open though an almost invisible access port on the inside of the rear boot door.

    2. So, I close my little holiday cottage because I can’t keep the pool clean and I can’t make a profit because the holiday makers use a LOT of water.
      That certainly removes the tax from what I would have earnt, and more importantly tens of thousands of euros that the holiday makers would have been spending in the local economy.
      Good decision!
      Macron you’re not garbage, you’re an arsehole.

      2. It stops people travelling… you would, as it were, decide to close your cottage along with thousands of others. The economy is no longer an issue especially as money is now produced at the press of a key (no matter the disastrous effects further down the line). It is the ideology that is all important and takes precedence over everything. It feels as though we are living within a chapter of Lord of the Flies – we are ruled by schoolboys, or manboys.

          1. Thank you, Belle, yes – she had a check up at the vets a couple of weeks ago who said she was doing very well under the circumstances, and as we left she said to Poppie “I hope you have a long life” which I don’t think she would say if she thought she was going to pass in the next week or so. And we know that the heart situation could change any day, and the lymphoma are certainly growing. We take it on a day-to-day basis, but it plays havoc with my mind in the early hours, and I wake early just worrying about Poppie (and wondering what is going to happen to us all, not just us but everyone from these islands of ours). I think she is starting to go deaf, or it may just be selective hearing, she’s heard it all before! How is Jack, is he holding his own with his health problems? It is so sad watching our loved furries getting older and not being able to make it right for them. xx

          2. Hello PM

            All of us who have family pets worry when they age / become aflicted with long term conditions and show signs of discomfort .

            I am glad you shared your Poppy news with me .

            Jack is plodding on nicely , the scare we had a few months ago is under control, now he has reached his 15 years and 3 days , we know what to expect, he still enjoys a walk in his favourite places doing spaniel things , he is still alert but very deaf and watches my hand sign language .

            His insurance premiums became appallingly high, eye wateringly .. so we just have Pip insured now , he has a liver problem , the premium will change once he is 10 in June .

          3. Hi Belle, I am so pleased for you that Jack is plodding on. If they are still enjoying their walks, sniffing and looking around then their time has not yet come but we are hoping we will be able to discern that moment just before she tells us she has had enough. We are also hoping we can nudge her through to July when she will be 14. We have never had Poppie insured except for the first year, it was never valid for the time we spent in France. We have spent an arm and a leg on her here, veterinary fees are much less in France, half the price they are here, as are the products and medications, some of which you can buy otc without prescription at the chemist.

    4. The press right now is so full of dubious and doubtful stories. If the media do publish an April Fool’s piece tomorrow- how will we know?

    1. 372776+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Do you think a deal has already been agreed concerning the islamic invasion and the political underworld OG ? sure, one can only come to that conclusion with the evidence before one.

      ALL the time the electorate were playing “my party is better than yours” the political treacherously unworthy were running a successful coup, nearly ALL placements are in position.

  86. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11925437/Ministers-come-pressure-scrap-preposterous-dangerous-LTNs.html

    Ministers come under pressure to scrap ‘preposterous’ and ‘dangerous’ LTNs as it emerges 240 ambulances were delayed by low traffic schemes

    The great pity is that the immediate and extended families of those proposing and installing these idiocies can’t be blacklisted for all emergency services.
    “We’re sorry, it’s a low emission/no traffic area and we’re not even going to think about coming to you”
    “What!?”
    “Well, you and yours should have thought the whole thing through”

    1. Apparently you can get two hours’ worth per day of running a gas stove from just an average family’s own sewage.

      1. Good Grief, we would want that! where would EDF be if we did without them two hours a day.
        And my household – 8 people and the dog – could probably run for a week.

    2. The facts are irrebuttable: you eat vegetation, you fart methane.

      We need to round-up and shoot all vegans; they are destroying the planet.

  91. In Ukraine, Moscow is pursuing an unprovoked war of aggression. In The Hague, Vladimir Putin is facing an arrest warrant for war crimes. But at the UN, Russia is about to take charge of a powerful international body, the security council.

    From Saturday, it will be Russia’s turn to take up the monthly presidency of the 15-member council, in line with a rotation that has been unaffected by the Ukraine war.

    The last time Russia held the gavel was in February last year, when Putin declared his “special military operation” in the middle of a council session on Ukraine. Fourteen months on, tens of thousands of people have been killed, many of them civilians, cities have been ruined and Putin has been indicted by the international criminal court for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

    In such circumstances, putting Russia in the driving seat of a world body tasked with “maintaining international peace and security” seems like a cruel April fools joke to many, not least the Ukrainian mission to the UN.

    “As of 1 April, they’re taking the level of absurdity to a new level,” said Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian permanent representative. “The security council as it is designed is immobilised and incapable to address the issues of their primary responsibility, that is prevention of conflicts and then dealing with conflicts.”

    The ambassador said Ukraine would stay away from the security council in April except in the case of an “issue of critical national security interest”. Ukraine is not a current council member, though it is often called to speak on issues related to the war.

    The US, Britain, France and their supporters on the council are likely to show their disapproval by downgrading the level of their representation at Russian-hosted events over the course of the month, but no member state is known to be planning any form of boycott or other protest.

    The US on Thursday urged Russia to “conduct itself professionally” when it assumes the role, but said there was no means to block Moscow from the post. The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia plans to exercise all its rights on the council.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/31/absurdity-to-a-new-level-as-russia-takes-charge-of-un-security-council

      1. Had to school my daughter on this last week. She was a confirmed Vlad = bad. Now she’s not so sure.

        1. He doesn’t have to be a nice guy. He is cogent. He is working for Russia.
          What they absolute HELL are our leaders working for?

        2. This might help, Fiscal:
          Why Putin Invaded Ukraine Pt I

          Too many people obviously have no idea as to why Putin invaded Ukraine.

          Here is the first reason:
          It was Zelensky’s Azov Brigade, ruthlessly slaughtering over 14,000 Russian speakers in Donbass and other Eastern Ukrainian provinces, that made him feel that someone should endeavour to put a stop to this slaughter of his near neighbours by a despotic tyrant.
          The sad thing is that the US, the EU and NATO all joined in on Zelensky’s side.
          I take it they all agreed that the slaughter was a good thing!

          Why Putin Invaded Ukraine Pt II
          Russia invaded Ukraine (a part of its country) in order to expose and eliminate U.S. funded bio labs. We are referring to US funded ‘gain of function’ research into bio-weapons research.
          This exposure was the objective of the Russian ‘special operations’.
          The US ‘gain of function’ research laboratories were placed in Ukraine for the reason that Ukraine, neither a country nor an independent state, is not subject to international weapons conventions and control of weapons.
          The ‘vaccines’ are proven to be gene therapies produced by companies specialising in the introduction of specific known pathogens into the world populations. These ‘vaccines’ aim to infect every recipient with synthetic mRNA nano technology. This renders human recipients as trans human in much the same way that mice, rats and ferrets are rendered transgenic in our research laboratories.
          My own research evidenced that Malaysia has already convicted George W Bush and our own Tony Blair as war criminals. Regrettably Malaysia has no international clout and these two criminals are above our decrepit international law, a law, if properly instituted, would condemn these war criminals to a life of servitude in gaol.
          The Truth will always out. Just give it a few more months and these idiots will be exposed.

      1. Affluent white middle class amateur athletes taking a day off, helping to pay the salaries of other affluent whites who are executives in leading charities.
        Meanwhile those absent Bames are quietly driving buses, preparing food, working in hospitals, studying for qualifications, struggling to run small businesses, etc.

        1. I see your point. But are they all really “driving buses, preparing food, working in hospitals, studying for qualifications, struggling to run small businesses, etc.” ?

    2. One of our (hopefully) future DiLs is running in the London half marathon this Sunday. She’s raised a few hundred quid for good causes.
      Her parents are sikh.

      1. Good people Sikhs.

        Son had a girlfriend .. for years, clever girl , violinist .. We were so sad when they went theirr seperate ways .

  93. Good night.
    Unlikely as it is, a word to the wise:
    Pull your PC away from any mains connections and turn off your routers etc.
    The solar flare may yet be very harmful tonight.

    1. We (the company) lost scores of millions of dollars during a strong solar flare period in the late 90s (or there about). Our seismic data was useless without accurate positioning of the data, and the GPS wasn’t worth a toss for quite a while.

      1. It’s terribly cloudy in our part of the UK Obs. It’s been chucking it down with rain most of the day.
        As the old saying goes. It’s been a bit dark over Wills mums.

  94. Ministers were last night under growing pressure from their own MPs and campaigners to scrap ‘preposterous’ and ‘dangerous’ low-traffic neighbourhoods.

    It came as new figures showed nearly 240 ambulances were delayed from reaching potentially life-threatening callouts due to the controversial schemes.

    Experts said the recorded incidents would be ‘the tip of the iceberg’ as they relate only to London and there are hundreds more low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) in other cities. It is also believed that not all incidents were recorded.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11925437/Ministers-come-pressure-scrap-preposterous-dangerous-LTNs.html

          1. Neither that.
            Could we not just share a general sense of despondency at the state of the world?

    2. I’ve lost count. Here we go again, no respite. Every single thing our political classes and civil service comes into contact with, they eff it up and big time.

        1. If these useless devious creatures are actually aware of what they are doing. They should be all locked up.

    4. Slavishly following agendas set by others is bound to have problems, the devil will always be in the detail, and the ill-thought out detail will impact on the many. Claiming that all these restrictive moves are for our good and well-being but missing essentials such as emergency services access gives the lie to those grand plans.
      The people of my home town (now a city with crumbling roads etc – how grand are these once town councillors who can now claim to be city councillors!) and those of Thetford are clearly not being fooled.

    1. Man… the icons of my youth drop like flies.
      My turn soon – already had a practice run or two, so it’s not scary. Hope they will be still performing in the afterlife.

      1. OB darling ,

        You are not 76, are you… it is me who is now 76, and all the music I loved and the musicians , writers , poets good people are dropping off their perches .. and that includes my neighbours .

        1. It’s a bugger, isn’t it, Belle? Anyhow, you surely ain’t 76, not the way you behave – more like 36…
          But my heart quit three times recently, now with pacemaker, and I didn’t notice anything until lights back on – so, it’s not scary at all. Just gotta be sure all is squared away and that I have settled any arguments with The Big Man before the final one. Working on that.
          😉

          1. Yer can’t keep a good man down, yer know….(was that from the Goon Show.)..Lotl will know! Take care.

          4. No worries, Belle. Just a matter of some organisation.
            Now I paid off the mortgage last month, life becomes easier.

          5. If I hadn’t left my mobile phone upstairs in the house yesterday, I would have used it to ring 999.
            Whilst trying to fix my pond leak.
            I had a terrible racing ticker, breathlessness and chest pains.
            Wife was out, I just didn’t have the energy to walk up the garden and the ten steps to make it to the landline.
            But I also didn’t fancy spending the rest of the day and night in the back of an ambulance. Or stuck on a stretcher in A&E. A close call.
            I did manage to get into an armchair eventually and slept for 90 minutes.
            Been okay today.

          6. Gee… best keep the handy in your pocket. Next time, a quick zed might not be enough.

          7. I was draining the pond with a bucket into larger containers.
            I had the phone in my pocket earlier and thought it might fall out and fall in. And it was raining on an off. I never gave it acthought. It’s chucked it down all day. I daren’t go and see how much its filled again.
            The pump wouldn’t work either.

          8. RE

            Gawd, what a scare .. think mobile all the time ..have you thought about one of these alert gizmos you wear around your wrist/ neck ..

            Please take care .

          9. I find in those circumstances, Eddy, I will take a small slug of neat whisky.

            As ⅓ of my heart is dead, following a major heart attack (straight line VF) in 2002, I thank God that I’ve had another 21 years of life and a bit of angina responds to the opening of the small veins that relieve the pressure on the heart.

            KBO old chap.

        2. Most of the composers I like have been dead for at least a couple of centuries;-)

        3. We are fellow trombonists for the time being but in July I shall be going to the Sunset Strip!

      2. Eric Clapton’s 77 today.
        In the mid 60s in a small club close to Kentish Town underground. Watching John Mayles blues Breakers. Pints in hands my drummer mate Dave and I were standing about 6 feet away from the guitarist enjoying the solo.
        Dave shouted “Blimey he’s good who is he” ? I reply, ” I don’t know mate”.
        It was Eric his first gig after leaving the Yardbirds.

      3. Don’t you dare give in! My husband is close to that as he feels so rotten. Not feeling that splendid myself but make myself do stuff anyway….as in the movie…Carry on Regardless.
        Made stock with some leftover chicken thighs today and then a chicken veggie soup. (Yes, Peter Sellers in What’s new Pussycat, I like thighs.)
        Read the poem Invictus…to paraphrase- I am bloody but unbowed….I am the master of my destiny and the captain of my command.

      1. I play it on the keyboard but I haven’t recorded it yet – must get round to it

    3. Memories of happy days. We all loved the song and tried to come up with pseud interpretations of what it was about. The Miller’s Tale was one of Chaucer’s more vulgar stories and we wondered who the 16 vestal virgins were.

      Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be at UEA with an MGA sports car and lots of pretty girls was very heaven!

      1. I had a boy friend with an Austin Healey 3000. Wow , that was fun .

        One had to pose sometimes , and learn HOW to be elegant enough to exit a sports car !

    1. Thanks for posting that, Johnny. I shall take great pleasure in watching it in full tomorrow. In the meantime, a very Good Night to you and all my chums on here.

        1. I remember going to one of my uncle’s home in Hendon. There weren’t to many people with TVs in the early 50s.
          My father took me and my elder sister up to London the next day to see all the decorations.

    2. I doubt they’ll be able to find as many soldiers and sailors to recreate that in May.

  98. Good evening, everyone. Not that it’s terribly good, weather-wise. It’s been throwing it down most of the day.

    2. I’m just hoping when ever the last day is, it will be chucking it down with rain.

  100. I’m not really following this Trump stuff.
    I’m wondering if the, ‘THEY’ are making this an attempt to get him out of the way because THEY are afraid if he stands for the presidency again he’ll be elected and have the ‘THEY’ locked up.
    Our media and parliament need locking up as well DT. 😉

    1. 372774+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      The former on current evidence could be true,

      The latter is very true

    2. The more I read about King Charles III, the more I realise that the tutelage of Lord Butler of Saffron Walden combined with that of Glyn Daniel, when the dolt was given an undeserved place at Trinity, was entirely wasted.

      The silly man has learnt nothing, knows nothing and remains the spoilt brat he was at birth to this day.

  103. 11 pm that’s me I’m off, Night all.
    Sadly I’ve got to phone the Veterinary first thing in the morning. Possibly to make arrangements for our poor old doggie to be put to sleep. She’s in a bad way with the swelling tumor in the roof of her mouth. It’s been bleeding.

    1. I will keep you in my thoughts; have been through it myself a few times. Bless your sweet doggy.

    2. Sorry to hear that Eddy, it’s always hard to say goodbye to a loved family pet

    4. Sorry to hear that, Eddy. Remember, not letting her suffer is the kindest thing you can do.

    5. So sad to hear this Eddy. The time does come to all of us and our animals. I know you wouldn’t want her to be in pain.

    6. So sorry to hear this. If there is one thing worse than losing your doggie, it is seeing her in pain and not being able to help when it is a one way street. It is a difficult decision, they don’t understand pain, but everyone tells me the animal tells you when it is time for them to go.

    7. Do what is best for your beloved pet as we did for our own Lhasa Apso, Sinbad.

      As he was at rest with the veterinarians about to euthanise him, my dear wife fed him small treats. Eventually he expired with a last gasp so that was that.

      We are so much about our wonderful pets but seem to be so less aware of the destruction of lives perpetrated by our political masters.

    11. Very sorry to hear that, Eddy. A dreadful time for you all and sending love to you. I hope all is peaceful.

  105. Signing off. Thoughts with Eddy and his dear dog. Soup did my husband good and he’s perked up a little.
    Goodnight Y’all.

  106. White British people are the minority in London and Birmingham, the UK’s two largest cities, for the first time since records began, according to new census figures.

    The white British population of London made up 37% of the capital in 2021, or 4.5 million, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS. That was down from from 45 per cent, or 4.9 million people in 2011.

    Meanwhile the white British population of Birmingham made up 581,000, or 52 per cent of the city in 2011. That had dropped to 43 per cent, or 491,000 people in 2021.

    ONS researches say the figures show the “increasingly multicultural society we live in”.

    Several other smaller cities like Leicester and Luton are among parts of the country where people identifying as white now form a minority of the population, the data shows.

    Some 14 local authorities recorded more than half of their usual residents as identifying with an ethnic group other than white, with the highest proportion in the London boroughs of Newham (69.2%), Brent (65.4%) and Redbridge (65.2%).

    Outside London the highest non-white proportion is in Slough in Berkshire (64.0%), followed by Leicester (59.1%), Luton (54.8%) and Birmingham (51.4%).

    The number of people identifying their ethnic group as white in England and Wales overall has also fallen by around half a million over the last decade.

    Some 81.7 per cent of residents in the two nations self-identified as white on the day of the 2021 census, down from 86.0 per cent a decade earlier, the ONS said. https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/white-britons-minority-london-birmingham/

  108. It’s been a busy day today – shopping, a retirement party and a sculpture exhibition opening, then back home to make omlettes for dinner. Nighty night.😴

    2. Happy Birthday to Nottl Geoff! Thankyou for all the work you do to keep this forum of friends going.

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