Wednesday 5 April: It’s high time for action to address the disgraceful state of Britain’s roads

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

687 thoughts on “Wednesday 5 April: It’s high time for action to address the disgraceful state of Britain’s roads”

  3. It’s high time for action to address the disgraceful state of Britain’s roads

    How come we have enough money for speed bumps, traffic calming, camera and signage.

    But no money for potholes ?

    1. Perhaps it’s because installing ‘speed bumps, traffic calming, camera and signage’ goes some way towards satisfying councillor busy-body types’ need to be bossy but filling potholes is merely doing their job and generates no visceral thrill?

      1. Speed bumps are negative and controlling, clear roads are positive and befreeing.
        The UK seems to have become a ban/forbid country, at least the politicins have. I can’t think of a single one who has a positive vision for the future, it’s all shades of dystopia. Miserable cnuts all.

  6. Morning all. Can I solicit your help? In February when I was on my business trip someone posted on here a link to a battery pack that you can keep in your car glove box which you use to jump-start your car on your own without the need for all the leads and another car. Can Whoever knows about these things please repost? I am in the market for one.

    Thanks!

    2. I bought one of these a few months ago as a power bank in case of power cuts. I was a bit sceptical as to whether the unit had enough wallop to start a car but I had a flat battery ten days ago and it worked a treat. The engine fired first time after hooking it up to the battery and waiting a couple of minutes before turning the engine over. It also has lower voltage USB outlets. The main unit itself is no larger than a voltmeter.

  7. Power showers could be banned under plans to save water. 5 April 2023.

    Power showers could be banned from sale under Government plans to save water.

    It comes as ministers want to cut individual demand from 144 litres a day to 122 litres a day by 2038 to protect supplies.

    The plans include the development of new standards for showers and taps which restrict how much water they can use.

    This could mean ending the sale of power showers, which use around 10 to 16 litres of water a minute, meaning a five-minute shower can use 80 litres – compared to around 20 litres in a typical electric shower.

    It falls free from the sky. There are literally oceans of the stuff. No one that I am aware of has died of thirst in the UK. If there were shortages the obvious solution would be to increase supply! If this reveals anything it is the mind of the Elites where Fear and the urge to Control predominate.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2023/04/04/power-showers-ban-water/

    2. The government refusing planning permission for new reservoirs was always aimed at bringing in water rationing.

      1. That refusal comes from the EU, of course. In 2016, when we left and could build them, defra said no. It has said no every year. Same as it’s done nothing about farming subsidy. Or fisheries policy. It’s sole intent is to do nothing except what the EU dictates, all the easier to chain us back to that useless, hated communist bloc.

        1. This is meta politics, it comes from above the EU, it’s got to do with the depopulation/enslavement agenda.

    3. Strange !

      In one of our local villages a two inch pipe burst, and for the last three weeks water has been running down the street.

      Southern Water hasn’t bothered, despite many of the villagers complaining.

      No shortage of water here.

      1. Well, there is. The problem is because there’s no commercial reason to resolve the burst pipe the company supplying it does nothing about it.

        I don’t quite know how it works – is the infrastructure owned by another party, like BT’s cabinets and ducts or are the pipes owned by the supplier?

        Either way, until OFWAT get their finger out (fat chance!) nothing will change.

        1. A normal tap running gives 700gals an hour.

          We understand that this is a two inch pipe, so it must be running at least 1400gals an hour.

          Every day over 33 thousand gallons.

          Over three weeks, at least 706 thousand gallons. Pity they didn’t want to sell it at their standard price of £8.61 per thousand gallons.

    4. Yo Minty

      Stop Riski Sunhatand others of that ilk, from having Heated Swimming Pools

    5. You can imagine the adverts on Somali TV, of young white children, with misshapen faces begging Africans to forward copious anounts of mone to UK, so that Riski Sunhat can maintain his pool and power shower.

    6. Rather than following the EU controls over water, why not diverge from that useless organisation and… build reservoirs? As with energy, there is no need to enforce rationing. The supply must be expanded.

      Frankly, a start would be getting rid of the 30 million foreign welfarists who are breeding like rabbits for ever more cash.

  8. Good Moaning.
    Choices, choices.
    Nice day forecast, so I can get the fence painted.
    On the other hand, I understand that there’s a lovelorn Australian billionaire looking for a new squeeze.
    Heck …. I’ll have a coffee first.

        1. Obama is allegedly pulling Sleepy Joe’s strings, and it is no secret that Obama hates the United Kingdom.

        2. But apparently not too old to make a trip to Ireland a few days before the Coronation. ?!?

      2. As long as Mr. Raschid’s lock-up is damp and mouse proof, I’m sure they’ll pass muster.

      3. I see that after changing her name from Camilla to Consort, she has now changed it back again. Quite right, too.

        1. Actually it was Queen Elizabeth II who decreed that the she be known as Consort after her death. Using the same powers his mother had, King Charles III now decrees that she be known as Queen Camilla.

          Isn’t it wonderful being King – you get to call the missus what you like!

    1. In the video, Radcliffe spoke to a group of transgender teens and young adults — some of whom began transitioning as early as six years old. They discussed their experiences transitioning, why they think trans pronouns are “non-negotiable,” and their belief that children can choose their sex at any age.

      “I don’t understand why I can’t just decide that I’m a girl,” said Dayley, a male-to-female transgender. “If it’s a big decision to decide I’m a girl, it’s a big decision to decide I’m a boy. It’s the same thing. There’s no age. You don’t have to be 18 to decide that, ‘oh, I am who I am.’ ”

      Western Civilisation is essentially finished!

      1. When I was ten, I self-identified as a millionaire. I never became one though.

        Who do I sue?

      1. You are too kind, Bleu. He’s a lot worse than that. I know where he ought to shove his wand.

      2. Gratitude requires self reflection. It requires the ability to put others first. Actors generally are not very good at this, rich actors are awful at it. Rich immature actors often find they regret their immaturity later in life.

    4. As he metaphorically thanks the source of his £millions with a kick on the shins.

    5. I suspect he is a ‘ring leader’ and has been since he first set set foot in theatreland at a tender age. They are like that, they tell me.

    6. No, Mr Radcliffe, you can’t. If a child comes to you and said ‘I want to be a pony!’ would you surgically alter their shoulders, neck and glue a tail on?

      If they want to be a fairy do you break their clavicle and attach wings? Don’t be stupid, man. They are children. Those adults who do this to themselves are living a fantasy, with no more awareness – or interest – of what a woman is. They just want to escape their own lives. They are ill, and should be treated as such.

  10. 373029+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 5 April: It’s high time for action to address the disgraceful state of Britain’s roads

    Priorities, priorities,priorities,

    Wednesday 5 April: It’s high time for action to address the disgraceful state of Britain.

  11. Putin sacks top general over disastrous failed assault. 4 April 2023.

    Vladimir Putin has fired one of the top generals leading Russia’s forces in Ukraine, after an attack on the eastern town of Vuhledar ended with dozens of tanks being destroyed.

    General Rustam Muradov was sacked in the aftermath of the failure, the Moscow Times reported, citing officials in the Russian defence ministry.

    Michael Kofman, a military analyst, told the newspaper: “Muradov had the Russian military repeatedly attacking in small mechanized formations through minefields, across open terrain. And they accomplished nothing in Vuhledar.”

    The battle for Vuhledar, some 100 miles south west of Bakhmut, is said to have been one of the most embarrassing defeats suffered by Moscow in the entire war, with Russian forces reportedly losing 130 armoured vehicles.

    Churchill was of course faced with exactly the same problem. He sacked Generals and Admirals without distinction. The reasons for it are common to both. War finds out the fakers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/04/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-putin-darya-trepova/

      1. 373029+ up ticks,

        Morning C,

        Under BIG DADA I was made a field officer operating from the Jinja barracks
        and in the Ugandan parachute regiment
        ably to travel in the Torro district.

  12. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    My Surgery

    When I first noticed that my penis was growing larger and staying erect longer, I was delighted, as was my wife but – after several weeks, my penis had grown fifty centimetres.
    I became quite concerned. I was having problems dressing, and even walking. So the wife and I went to see a prominent urologist.

    After an initial examination, the doctor explained to us that, though rare, my condition (Donkey Doodle) could be fixed through corrective Surgery.

    “How long will he be on crutches?” my wife asked anxiously.

    “Crutches? Why would he need crutches?” responded the surprised doctor.

    “Well,” Said the wife coldly, “you’re gonna lengthen his legs, aren’t you?

  13. Good morning all. A dry, bright, but overcast start to the day with a chilly 2½°C outside.

  15. 373029+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    Are those displayed in the video part of the paedophile defence or attack team ?

    Currently the lab/lib/con / current ukip are a mass
    controlled / uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition, strongly seeming to be affiliated to PIE & peoples of minor attracted person status.

    ALL sides, defence / attack are on the same side within the HOC
    the Dover importation of paedophiles shows that quite clearly

    On mass controlled/ uncontrolled immigration
    I personally would like to see Mr Robinson having a major say
    with authority to override the political top rankers of the coalition.

    By the By the reform party would NOT be my choice to combat the paedophilia plague.

    https://twitter.com/reformparty_uk/status/1643306852233404432?s=20

    1. Oh it will be. Plod will make sure to go after ‘white, right wing extremists’ first and only and then proclaim everything’s great. That the real criminals, the pakistani muslim paedophiles were really tricked by white racists.

      The state will find a way to spin the lie to suit them.

  16. Morning, all Y’all.
    Definitely not first – the power of physical work, alcohol, and a really comfortable bed got me 11 hours kip last night, and I’m still stupefied with sleep even now.

  17. UK blocks UN webcast featuring Russia children’s commissioner, wanted on war crimes charges. 5 April 2023.

    Britain has blocked the UN webcast of an informal security council meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday at which Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights – wanted by the international criminal court on war crimes charges – is due to speak.

    The meeting this week will focus on “evacuating children from conflict zone” and Russia said on Tuesday that commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova would feature virtually. Such meetings are not held in the security council chamber and all 15 council members have to agree to allow it to be webcast by the United Nations.

    No we don’t want the truth getting out! This poor woman who was simply carrying out a humanitarian task of saving children in a war zone has been made into a monster by the machinations of western politicians. She probably has nightmares.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/05/uk-blocks-un-webcast-featuring-russia-childrens-commissioner-wanted-on-war-crimes-charges

    1. It is quite possible that Lvova-Belova was acting in in the same spirit as the Kinder Transport, and this should be considered during the trial. Trials don’t automatically presume guilt! However, if they are being taken from their mothers (their fathers having been called up to defend their country from the enemy), put up for adoption and Russified, then this should also be taken into account.

      A similar operation is going on westwards, and I know there are many Ukrainian children being given sanctuary in England, as well as other countries, such as Poland.
      I imagine they would be encouraged to learn the language of their hosts, and educated in that language.

      2. “Trials don’t automatically presume guilt! ”

        Unless you’re Donald Trump.

        2. In Trump’s case the Left are taking no chances and making sure every facet of the trial ensures his conviction prior to any evidence.

          He hasn’t a chance – the state won’t allow him one. Facts, evidence, reality – all irrelevant. Someone, in that jury will say
          ‘But there’s no evidence’
          And someone else reply with ‘But it’s Trump.’ and that’ll be it.

        3. Donald Trump is as guilty as sin for all sorts of things. Take your pick. He is guilty above all of offending good taste, but does he care?

        1. Brilliant day here – warme up to + degrees yesterday, snow melting, and then it froze overnight… ice everywwhere now, and still 3 feet of snow. But it’s wonderful to feel the sun warm on the skin!

  19. Good morning, chums. Golly, I really slept well last night. And the weather is gloriously sunny.

  20. If the Dem party had a time machine…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c63cc8d3842ae866cded292bae344574f3dab366739ad2277fe98f242f2e5f7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa6dbb0f22163268068eb3572e044449f7c45e2cc4e55ecba7680fa868b9e639.jpg

    Yup, he’s definitely running for President…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87e4fe0c96d7d0772b537e04cc1651e9bf22a37a4bc7ce12dcf58cd44ff843c7.jpg

    Does anyone else suspect that Xi studied QEII and copies her faithfully?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed7b37db3535393a31dce792b9e29938d1bb4c138ca8e52dba262745dc4233f9.jpg

    American conservative commentator’s view on William’s and Kate’s latest hire:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3c63a829ab8aaf44b4970383ab96558d2b9e5f38fd54f9343a4d311a2decd4fb.jpg

      1. I assume that two very silly and greedy white people are culturally appropriating a Maori greeting.

      2. Or an eskimo or African kiss. One of the vulgar terms for this is a nig-nog snog!

    2. Why do Yanks use the word “stupid” when they mean “stupidity”?

      All it does is show to the world the high levels of stupidity they possess.

      1. Merkin is a different language, loosely based on English. Don’t let it maither you.
        Morning, Grizz.

      2. It could be a Jewish fing. I reckons that Yiddish had an influence on American figures of speech, combined with a generally low knowledge of english by millions of immigrants during the late 19th and early 20th century.

        1. Mere transatlantic devolution of the English language.

          Retarded language originates Stateside, then it filters across the Atlantic. We are much closer to regressing back to grunting than you think.

          2. Many words we think of as American travelled westwards with the early settlers.
            English English has changed; American English uses words we have dropped.

          3. “English English” is a tautology. There is proper (standard) English, and there is pidgin English.

    3. In the final photograph the member of the House of Windsor does not show an ounce of discernment. I can’t believe he is ignorant of both her behaviour and the statements she made whilst she was PM of New Zealand. A poor show.

    4. Could we ask Kennedy to use paragraphs?

      Is William thinking …’Damn, I should have brought a knife.’

  22. Politics latest news: Two-thirds in Northern Ireland believe Sunak’s Brexit deal could boost economy
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/05/rishi-sunak-news-latest-northern-ireland-brexit-deal/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    If two thirds of the public in Northern Ireland are in favour of the Sunak Windsor Sell out then there MUST be a referendum on whether or not Northern Ireland should stay in the UK.

    If they vote to leave then the rest of the UK should immediately cease to support Northern Ireland financially, morally or legally – why should they if Northern Ireland is no longer in the UK?

    If they vote to stay then the EU and the ECJ must get out of Northern Ireland completely. There can surely be no other developed independent country in the world which allows an alien power to exert the superior precedence of its laws and courts over that nation’s own laws and courts?

    Wasn’t Brexit as much about sovereignty as it was about economics? The UK has been shamed, degraded and humiliated by Mr Sunak’s craven surrender. This half-in, half-out state of affairs must be brought to an end one way or the other.

    1. Morning Oggy. The West and the UK in particular are now so decadent and corrupt that they are not worth saving!

      1. 373029+ up ticks,

        Morning AS,
        Where there is a negative there is a positive, in the case of Nation saving that be via the peoples RESET, via the polling booth.
        That and only that which initially put us in the shite & General Election to General election kept us in the shite consequences of love & trust of a long deceased party name are maiming & killing us all.

    2. You have to think, someone, somewhere came up with this idea. In that room, no one said ‘isn’t this indecent exposure? These are children, after all. ‘ No one said ‘Hang on, isn’t this going to normalise paedophlia?’

      Yet it got through censors, through standards boards, and was approved by management. The world is insane.

      1. 373029+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        The real depth of depravity is now being revealed, will parents acknowledge
        that ?. many won’t , for the good of the party.

  24. Morning all 🙂😉
    Only light grey today getting better later so they say…..hard to believe.
    Yes the state of our roads is appalling, I don’t imagine that there is any where in the whole country where you can drive a hundred yards without hitting a hole. Many years ago our road tax was used to keep up the repair work. But it’s probably being used as subsidiaries to the take home expenses in the hole of Westminster.
    Whoops,… whole…..

    1. Just another tax poured into the black hole of state waste, I’m afraid. Plenty to throw around for ‘carbon capture’, more than enough for the six figure salaries, expenses and pensions of council troughers but never, ever enough – ‘pared to the bone!’ for the things people want or need and expect their taxes to pay for.

      1. I asked publicly what our local council are going to be doing with the money from the increases in council taxes. Two months ago.

        1. They will just say it is compensating for inflation/lack of funds being given from central government. And by the way, councillors get “allowance” (i.e. effectively the equivalent of salary) increase each year.

          Given the fact that many councillors also have other jobs, they are on a nice little earner.

    2. My daughter drove me to Leicester and back from mid Wales. When I checked my steps on my phone app when we got back to see how many I needed to do to reach my daily target it had already clocked up 5000 with all the jolts from the road surface.

    3. Morning all, sort of lackluster sunny day here, almost as if the sun was sulking. Cold as well.
      From where I live to the hospital it is literally a painful journey. The kind person who drives me to and fro tries to avoid the potholes but there are so many that it is impossible to avoid many of them. Most of the journey is on country roads where you have to pull over to let oncoming traffic through.

    4. Our daughter visited Primrose Hill some years ago.

      She was amazed.

      Not a pothole.

      Roads immaculately clean.

      Shops neat and clean. Police patrol in evidence.

      Primrose Hill is obviously the place to be.

      1. Hampstead ? I was born in Hampstead.
        I did some work there a long time ago. Both jobs were for rich and famous people. Sadly the lovely actress was away from home at the time.

    5. And Government gives more than £3million to groups campaigning against sending illegal immigrants to Rwanda. Plus Ukraine. Plus Net Zero. Plus HS2. Plus diversity jobs etc. Of course they have no money for potholes.

      https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1754649/Rwanda-migrant-plan-taxpayer-cash-refugee-campaigners?utm_source=express_newsletter&utm_campaign=politics_evening_newsletter2&utm_medium=email&pure360.trackingid=dd956232-d389-4025-850d-84d83f1cdcdc

  26. Putin’s Götterdämmerung is fast approaching. 5 April 2023.

    The Russian president knows he has to deal with his Wagner mercenaries – before they deal with him.

    Are we seeing the beginning of a Night of the Long Knives in Russia? In the summer of 1934, Hitler ordered the murder of leaders of the SA, a Nazi private militia that was running out of control and threatening his power. The apparent assassination of Maksim Fomin, aka Vladlen Tartarsky – a vocal pro-war critic of the Kremlin’s handling of the invasion of Ukraine and cheerleader for the Wagner Group of mercenaries – has been interpreted by some as a shot across the bows of Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.

    Poor old Vlad. If it’s not Cancer, Parkinson’s Disease, Paranoia and for all we know, the Great Spotted Leprosy, it’s assassination. I’m surprised that he hasn’t written to the Telegraph and misquoted Mark Twain at them. The reports of my imminent death have been greatly exaggerated.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/04/putin-wagner-fast-approaching-demise-killed/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. “Putin’s Götterdämmerung is fast approaching.”

      The West does like to fantasize. Ukraine has lost and Putin is more popular in Russia than ever.

      “In March 2023, over 80 percent of Russians approved of activities of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. The popularity level was five percent higher than in September 2022, when it stood at 77 percent.”
      https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/

      1. Wishful thinking by the West
        I gave up expecting truth or anything like it shortly after the war started, and so far I see no need to re-evaluate.

        1. City AM states that he is in custody because of missing funds, and today a number of addresses

          have been searched.

          1. One wonders Herr Oberst.

            Sky News stated this morning that the Scottish police had all the details for a month, yet only today decided to take action.

            Nicola resigned about mid February, so she obviously knew that embarrassing questions were being asked .

  28. In a statement this morning, Police Scotland said: ‘A 58-year-old man has today, Wednesday, 5 April 2023, been arrested as a suspect in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party.

    ‘The man is in custody and is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives.

    ‘Officers are also carrying out searches at a number of addresses as part of the investigation.

    ‘A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.’

    Mr Murrell gave an interest-free loan of £107,620 to the party to ‘assist with cashflow’ on June 20, 2021, Electoral Commission documents show.

    A day earlier, the SNP’s national executive committee (NEC) held a meeting, after which treasurer Colin Beattie issued a statement reassuring members that a £600,000 ring-fenced fund would be spent on campaigning for independence.

    An investigation was launched in July 2021 after complaints were received. Detectives are looking at claims that cash earmarked for campaigning for a second independence referendum had been diverted.

    In January, Police Scotland confirmed it had asked the Crown Office, the Scottish public prosecution service, for ‘advice and direction’ in the case.

    The SNP has since been reprimanded by the Electoral Commission for failing to properly declare the loan, having missed three deadlines required for transparency.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11941197/Police-probing-Scottish-National-Party-funding-arrest-man-58.html?ito=push-notification&ci=2tlBuWfQK-&cri=k_OiQUk6Xi&si=p3DSQ2YwOLik&ai=11941197

      1. Sky News states that she was questioned about the missing money at her resignation press conference, so

        she(and the Press) obviously knew all about it before her resignation.

  30. ‘Morning All

    Slept very late

    Belated Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/354020bba059212ad9d84b9ef6e40fe9881ef828b6b947c24480380aa050bc20.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/932457f336e4d0bcc347e5f33b0d2021aa708f7c9b5f311f90d09a1e763d80f5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fee7cde745579741af5d712ef3dc39c82cf04700be849758dc2530bc20ddfa45.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b35a4741f708335e9de252e10e5990ff0334f0ef44491f1d6c54bf1118b2750b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b6dc07cba78c327665da1d7e77e1745c91141436bd8eff77ef1d651a3394b4ad.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/746a8fab6480d0ad1c7723da730202ee17771d33faf30f31f8a28646c971aca0.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cce1a8f53c200501ec6f8ce60f7eaba8685321bada692199a0a8aba3332de47d.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20f7d5a5a15af6d51d4450613f64ae8e321a876319a04b09c7c19b35e7bdd462.jpg

    1. The picture of the Boxer dog who chewed up his bed reminds me of Rumpole, our boxer.

      I constructed a wooden box and put it on legs and then lined it with left over bits of deep pile carpet to make it comfortable. The following day when we came downstairs we found that Rumpole had stripped all the carpet away leaving it is tatters even though it had been firmly glued to the box.

      We didn’t replace it as Rumpole seemed to be very happy in his hard and uncushioned, uncarpeted box.

      When he died at the age of 12 (a good age for a boxer dog) we put him in his box, screwed a lid on it and buried our very dear friend in the garden.

    1. I think it is true; I read the day before yesterday that the Russians were in control of the city hall.

  32. Prince Harry may have to update US officials on drug use to keep visa
    Freedom of information battle aims to find out if Duke of Sussex was given special treatment when his US visa was granted
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/04/04/prince-harry-visa-drugs/

    There has been much discussion in the MSM about whether the use of drugs by the wealthy and the so-called slebs is helping stimulate the criminal and murderous trade in which Thomas Cashman was involved.

    Maybe Prince Harry should say just how he got hold of his illegal drugs in the first place and this would expose the chain of supply and actually do rather more good than his Archewell charity does. However it is rumoured that a price of £250,000 has been offered by a group of drug dealers to anybody who can kill Cashman in jail. I wonder what price would be put on the head of Prince Harry by the drug lords if he decided to squeal?

    1. I expect Brash would say that the drurgs were planted on him by his disgusting family….

      1. Hi Bill,
        I am in direct contact via email with Sir Nicholas Bacon’s aide. Just trying to wangle an invite to Raveningham Hall

    1. I feel sorry for America when so many people cannot/ or will not, see, what is going on. If America falls like the democrats want, we will all fall. Trump is the free worlds only hope to stop the far left dictatorships. as you can see in Canada, france, New Zealand and Austrailia etc.

    2. I will never feel sorry for any politician, at any level, of any party, at any time in history.

      Ever!

    2. I wish I could give a million upticks. Has the woke police prosecuted the 73 year old yet? If not, why not?

      1. Not one of his best but it refers to Piers Morgan and Julia H-B. Apparently they changed their tunes.

        1. JHB wrote in praise of Oakeshott only month ago. On what did she change her mind and when?

  36. Both sides from an avoided Trump hater
    edit for “block quote”
    https://www.takimag.com/article/trump-good-and-evil/

    Presidents should not be above the law, but neither should they face politically motivated charges.
    Manhattan district attorneys campaigned on opposing Trump, bragging, “I have sued Trump more than a hundred times!” He suggested he would be the best choice to get Trump before he even saw the evidence. That’s just wrong. Federal prosecutors did see the evidence and decided against charging Trump.
    Using campaign funds to pay someone to keep silent about sex may well violate the rules, but most campaign finance rules are useless, and no serious person thinks this case would ever be brought against anyone other than Trump.
    This is a slippery slope to banana republic.

    On the other hand, Trump definitely is a horrible person.
    In his real estate business, he cheated the little people, cleverly using our slow and expensive justice system to avoid paying what he owed.
    As president, he was unpresidential and childish. He’s vain, selfish and mean. He doesn’t read or listen to advice from smart people, and he lies again and again. I hate him.
    Yet it would be better for America if he were president today, instead of Joe Biden.
    Nothing is more important to more people, especially the poor, than a solid dollar and a growing economy.
    Trump’s presidency brought us closer to that than today’s Democrats ever will.

    1. If we wanted a thoroughly decent, upstanding Christian former President with impeccable morals, then Jimmy Carter is your man.

      I believe he is still alive, and while not exactly hale and hearty these days, he could still give Joe Biden a run for his money.

      1. Carter is receiving hospice care at home; he is certainly very poorly.
        My friend in GA volunteers at the Carter Center and she says both Carters are very nice people. They send all their volunteers personally signed cards at Xmas.

        1. Nice man but not a good President. Never the less I liked the man and I wish him peace.

      2. Two scandals also damaged Carter’s credibility. In summer 1977

        Bert Lance, the director of the

        and one of Carter’s closest friends, was accused of financial improprieties as a

        banker. When Carter stood by Lance (whom he eventually asked to resign
        and who later was acquitted of all charges), many questioned the

        vaunted scruples. Carter’s image suffered again—though less—in summer 1980 when his younger brother,

        (widely perceived as a buffoon), was accused of acting as an influence peddler for the Libyan government of

        . Senate investigators concluded that, while Billy had acted improperly, he had no real influence on the president.

        https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jimmy-Carter/Presidency

        1. Didn’t Jeremy Corbyn and John Major also have troublesome brothers, not to mention also John F Kennedy, whose brother once drove a woman into a lake.

          My own brother is a paranoid schizophrenic, who gets violent with authority figures such as policemen, psychiatric nurses and prison officers. He designs rocket-powered crossbows to kill the bad people. When they closed Frien Barnet Mental Asylum in the 1980s under ‘Care in the Community’, the BBC evening news did a piece about him, looking the spitting image of Johnny Rotten complete with manic stare, with the question “do we want a man like this loose on the streets?”. For several days. people would come up to me and say they had seen this dangerous nutter who looked like me and had the same name roaming North London. Were we by any chance related?

      3. A highly intelligent individual, who was in office in difficult times.
        Possibly one of the “cleanest”, certainly cleanest Democrat.

          1. He and successors were quite happy to forgive and pay to rebuild Germany and other areas of Western Europe (not a bad thing) but the lack of financial support to the UK with the policy aim of the dissolution of the British Empire and creation of an American alternative was not exactly supportive of the so called greatest ally.

      4. Jimmy Carter? Trilateral Commission founder, hand-picked for the presidency by Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller because he was easy to manipulate? That Jimmy Carter?

    2. I lived in the USA for 40+ years and so I know these characters as well as any American citizen. I know who Trump was before he became President and I know who John Stossel is. John Stossel is all mouth and trousers and I would not take anything he says as of any value whatsoever. He is supposed to be a “Libertarian”, he is, in fact, a left wing political hack. Stossel admits he hates the President and then trots out a bunch of accusations that could equally be about Stossel himself. He was not above muckraking or making innuendos about people when it suited him. I did not “hate” Stossel but I certainly regarded him with contempt, the sort of person that when he came on TV made me switch channels rather than listen to him droning on in faux bewilderment about some political trivia. He would have been perfect working for the BBC.

      With regards to Trump. Trump is regarded by the ordinary people who work for him. And by ordinary I mean maids, servants, workers in his buildings, even the people who build his buildings etc. as likeable, kind and generous to them. He would, before becoming President, hang out with them. He actually takes time out to know people who work for him, to talk to them, and, as a result, there is little turnover in his organization because he is loyal to them and they are loyal to him. Many stay with him for decades so he knows them well enough to address them by name with an awareness of their family histories. As for cheating the little people. That is rubbish and Stossel knows it, that is why he fails to cite a single instance of such behaviour.

      As for Trump in the Office of President. Here is a list of Trumps achievements which demonstrate that he did more for the country and people of any modern President, period. Of course, you don’t know about these things because the Left and the Democrats have been busily trying to distract people with attempts to bury Trump under never ending false allegations. And, of course, the MSM in Britain has never made any effort to be honest about Trump.
      Warning. It is a huge list so will take up a lot of space.
      Well, apparently the list is so long that I can’t post it. So here is the link to the list. I think you will find it impressive and that it puts paid to your characterisation of Trump which is based on false left wing propaganda.

      https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/

      1. I lived in the US for 30+ years and that is not the impression I got of Trump.

      2. Certainly seems to have been a busy boy during his 4 years.

        Not surprising, seeing the demonrats’ electoral fiddles, that they wanted him out of office.

      3. I read that months ago.
        Who wrote it?
        Trump’s people, that’s who.

        You are so blinkered as to Trump’s merit as to make me feel I should dismiss everything you say about him.
        I much prefer him to any Democrat and in fact I donated to his campaigns, but I have seen enough and read enough to realise he most certainly is not the saint you paint him to be.

        1. Nope I’m not blinkered. I just don’t have an irrational attitude to Trump. He was a good President and I certainly don’t think he is a saint. He was the first President in years to keep us out of war. As for his achievements. Why not spend a day verifying them from other sources? Do you fear they may be correct? Instead of portraying Trump as some sort of villain it would be rather nice if you did not give the impression of someone stamping their feet in vexation. The important thing you fail to understand about him is that because he had his own money he was automatically enemy number 1 to the Swamp. He could not be brought. The accusations, the innuendo, the constant false rumors were a deliberate campaign by those who had vested interests in corruption, to bring him down. Let me remind you, they started before he even announced he was going to run for President. That alone should alert you to the fact that the regime feared him. Perhaps you should ask why instead of wasting energy posting anti-Trump rhetoric. It gains you nothing.
          An edit. And, by the way, is this: “Screwing the Little People?

          Signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – the largest tax reform package in history.
          More than 6 million American workers received wage increases, bonuses, and increased benefits thanks to the tax cuts.
          A typical family of four earning $75,000 received an income tax cut of more than $2,000 – slashing their tax bill in half.
          Doubled the standard deduction – making the first $24,000 earned by a married couple completely tax-free.
          Doubled the child tax credit.
          Virtually eliminated the unfair Estate Tax, or Death Tax.
          Cut the business tax rate from 35 percent – the highest in the developed world – all the way down to 21 percent.
          Small businesses can now deduct 20 percent of their business income.
          Businesses can now deduct 100 percent of the cost of their capital investments in the year the investment is made.
          Since the passage of tax cuts, the share of total wealth held by the bottom half of households has increased, while the share held by the top 1 percent has decreased.

          1. I am NOT anti-Trump. I think he was blocked and attacked at every opportunity.
            As I said, I even donated to his campaign and I would certainly have voted for him.
            However, he is not the paragon of virtue that you paint him.

            Let’s leave it.

    1. This is why the gelled hair bloke was made second and the thinning fellow was made primary because he’s calmer and far better at the PR.

    2. Am I right (and I am worried now, in view of earlier conversations!!) that the “trial” won’t take place for at least a year?

        1. Is that the trial or just the next court appearance?

          5hey will probably try to schedule the trial for the election next November with another sideshow when the Republicans pick their candidate.

          1. Just another court appearance. Trump could be President by the time it goes to trial. And you can’t put a President on trial, so more waiting. By then, however, the fat D.A. Alvin Bragg will have lost his job.

          2. I’ve no idea, Richard, – being English I don’t have to understand the US (seemingly non) Judicial system.

      2. yes it will take at least a year if the allegations are not dismissed. No American lawyer that I have listened to thinks these accusations have any merit. I was listening to John Bolton yesterday, he hates Trump but even he thinks this is a dead duck, that no crime has been committed.

        2. But the media are reporting it as though the charges are very serious and Trump is guilty. I heard the radio news from an independent station yesterday and was sickened by how biased it was.

    1. What pathetic weaklings. Nuke the swine. Turn the middle east to glass and then get their other enclaves, such as Rotherham.

  41. Saudi crown prince’s shock power grab is catastrophic for Biden. 5 April 2023.

    Goldman Sachs is predicting oil prices of $95 a barrel by the end of the year, and $100 a barrel by December 2024 – a disaster for a president who has repeatedly staked his presidency on gas prices being suppressed. In February, Biden promised to “work like the devil” to address high prices, a pledge at odds with an admission that he also had little understanding of what the cause was.

    The damage to America’s standing on the world stage threatens to be equally catastrophic. If Biden’s critics wanted a clear sign of Washington’s waning global influence then they need look no further than Saudi Arabia’s defiance in the face of his threats.

    The Saudi view of the world, and its values, has always sat more comfortably with other autocracies than Western democracies but the breakdown in relations with the US threatens to unleash a geopolitical earthquake.

    As America surrenders control of the Gulf, a new Saudi-Russia-China axis is emerging that makes it harder to enforce US-led sanctions against Moscow, and for the White House to counter the rising power of an increasingly anti-Western Beijing.

    The US Hegemony is still with us but it’s looking increasingly fragile and the Ukraine business isn’t helping!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/04/05/biden-at-his-weakest-after-saudi-oil-power-grab/

    1. Why should the Saudi Prince not move away from oil.

      Trend followers, Johnson, Riski Sunhat and Co have been doing it to the UK for years.

      And we will be building New Cities, but not fot the Ethnic Brits though!

    2. The corrupt cabal are just doing it on purpose. Biden said recently that he wasn’t going to re-fill the strategic stock until autumn. Like Saudi is just going to sit there waiting on America’s pleasure.
      Don’t tell me that wasn’t on purpose!
      They know exactly what they are doing to bring down the US and facilitate the changeover to BRICS, which is what the WEFers seem to want.

    3. In February there was a vote at the United Nations to admonish Russia for its adventure in the Ukraine; about 40 countries abstained. The governments of those 40 states represent slightly in excess of half the world population and approximately 20% of the planet’s land area. Using an envelope, that would be 4,050,000,000 people and 35 million square kilometres. If you add in Russia’s people and land mass, the figure is higher.
      True, many of those abstaining, non-aligned, states are relatively poor and undeveloped.

    4. Their aim seems to be similar to one the changes Gadaffi’s government were trying to achieve. Get rid of the US dollar and oil paid for in a new currency, gold dinar.
      That’s why the US attacked his country and he was brutally stabbed.
      What will they do this time ?

      1. I think this time, the momentum is great and they cannot prevent the changeover of reserve currency. The dollar died in 2008 and has been on life support ever since.
        If you look at patterns of central bank gold buying, they all started buying after 2008. China set up the Shanghai gold exchange etc. They knew what was coming and planned for it.
        It’s only the ordinary people who are being kept in the dark!

        1. As a very ordinary person myself it’s the first time I’ve heard of this. Gaddafi was murdered in 2011.
          Perhaps he started the whole idea.

          3. I mentioned that earlier. Under US instructions nato aircraft bomb his pumping stations and water pipe line that ran from the border with Sudan to his towns and cities. Education was free to all and interest free mortgages were available.
            I don’t think the American government liked any of that.

          4. Yes, sorry, I am only half concentrating. He certainly challenged their ideas of how an African nation ought to behave.
            It’s sad that the American dream has degenerated into this corrupt bullying.

  42. The GW mainline to Oxford has has been closed until at least the end of April because of concerns over the state of a bridge across the River Thames near Abingdon. The route carries GW and Cross Country services as well as large volumes of freight traffic from Southampton docks to the Midlands. Network Rail said monitoring equipment had detected “increasingly significant movements” of the viaduct despite recent stabilising works. A bit of an understatement?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c6b3007e2b8349d57464131e2cc0da6ce16b50b17ca75eaa7fbe088f36a7362.png

    Just wait for someone to say “This is why we need HS2!”

    2. Visually exaggerated by the use of a long telephoto lens, though a 5mph restriction does suggest VERY serious problems.
      The main issue is not what the track fault is NOW, but what it is likely to become very suddenly should traffic still be permitted. I bet the operations managers are wishing the Great Central was still in existance!

      1. Long lenses can exaggerate unevenness in the track that is not actually particularly serious but that sinking span is alarming and shows that the brick abutments are subsiding.

        If the GC were still open, traffic would still have to travel into London and out again.

        1. Southampton-Reading-Hanwell-Northolt then via Princess Risborough or Ashenden Jn onto the GCR.

          Even now Princess Risborough to Aylesbury then a reversal at Calvert onto the stump of the old Varsity Line would by-pass the line from Didcot to Oxford.

    3. Same old story infrastructure rotting away and falling apart. Billions spent on the illegal invaders.
      We really need about 600 resignations by our parliamentary idiots.

      1. A few billions from HS2 to keep the rest of it together and updated might be useful.

    4. Given that it’s right-on Oxford being discommoded, there is a certain karma in the situation.
      I bet it takes more than 15 minutes to travel to a viable railway station.

    5. River Thames near Abingdon you say?? Dollar to Donuts that it was our Stephenroi who rammed his supercharged galleon into one of the bridge supports.

  43. The GW mainline to Oxford has has been closed until at least the end of April because of concerns over the state of a bridge across the River Thames near Abingdon. The route carries GW and Cross Country services as well as large volumes of freight traffic from Southampton to the Midlands. Network Rail said monitoring equipment had detected “increasingly significant movements” of the viaduct despite recent stabilising works. A bit of an understatement?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c6b3007e2b8349d57464131e2cc0da6ce16b50b17ca75eaa7fbe088f36a7362.png

    Just wait for someone to say “This is why we need HS2!”

  44. The GW mainline to Oxford has has been closed until at least the end of April because of concerns over the state of a bridge across the River Thames near Abingdon. The route carries GW and Cross Country services as well as large volumes of freight traffic from Southampton to the Midlands. Network Rail said monitoring equipment had detected “increasingly significant movements” of the viaduct despite recent stabilising works. A bit of an understatement?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c6b3007e2b8349d57464131e2cc0da6ce16b50b17ca75eaa7fbe088f36a7362.png

    Just wait for someone to say “This is why we need HS2!”

    1. “It’s 12 o’clock in London and 1 o’clock in Osnabrück. Time for Two-way Family Favourites.”

          1. Oh yes! That’s the memory!😱 Wishing you’d done it on Friday night like you meant to!

          3. I sometimes had to get out of bed early in the morning to get it done……….I’ve never been an early riser except when I’m on safari……….

          4. I often did it on the ‘bus using the collective brains from other schools!

        1. Poor dear – she married the egregious, self-obsessed name-dropper – Cliff Michelmore.

        1. Gawd. I bloody loathed that programme.
          On a par with the dreaded Billy Cotton Band Show.

      2. Our Sunday entertainment was Round the Horne, then different shows (The Navy Lark, the Clitheroe Kid etc.) Then (later on, when I got a transistor) I was into my room at 5 for Pick of the Pops. Ah, memories.

  46. Just had a letter from my pension provider informing me that the cost-of-living rise within the Guaranteed Minimum Pension is to be limited to 3% and that outside it to 5%. This is despite CPI to September 2022 being 10.1%.

    I have just written this in reply, copied to my MP:

    “Dear Mr Finnegan

    I have today recevied your letter explaining that my Atkins pension is to be increased by 3% only, or 5% under certain circumstances. This in according to Rules set by the Conservative Government of 2016 limiting any rise in pensions coming under GMP to 3% or 5%. CPI to September 2022 was 10.1% and RPI considerably higher, as are living costs for pensioners, which mostly comprise food and fuel.

    Am I correct in reading that pensioners must take a real cut of between 5 percent to 7 percent, in compliance with Government Rules?

    If so, then my Member of Parliament may wish to explain how this was sold to the public.

    How can those of working age have any confidence in private pension plans if the Rules penalise pensioners when they retire?

    I understand that this law was made when the Bank of England was instructed to keep inflation below 2%.

    Yours faithfully
    Jeremy Morfey”

    1. Good luck with that. If Finnegan is like my “MP” – he’ll either ignore you – or send you reams of bumph (much of which having nothing to do with your question).

      1. Mr Finnegan signed the letter from my pension provider. My MP is Harriett Baldwin.

      2. MPs do not get involved in private pension provision. That is not their function.

          1. It has nothing to do with MPs. Pension provision, like employment salary, conditions etc. is largely a private matter except where successive governments have conferred certain rights by statute. It is largely because of government and accountant interference that most salary-related pension schemes are now closed.If Jeremy Morfey is upset about the treatment of GMPs he should go back to 1978 when contracting-out for salary-related schemes was introduced.

            It is the Pensions Ombudsman and The Pensions Regulator who oversee the proper administration.

            By the way, the BBC Pension Scheme was traditionally rather generous.

    2. The previous statutory upper limit for pensions was 5% in any case so you would never have got 10% unless the trustees of the scheme had decided under a discretion to award more.

      The GMP is simply the contracted-out guarantee given under contracted-out schemes that the pension paid by the scheme will never fall below a certain level (with whatever increases are given to GMPs). It is not particularly real, as practically all schemes give more in benefit than the GMP – it is only a minimum guarantee, which is far outweighed by the actual pension the scheme gives. The fact that you have a GMP at all shows that you were in a defined benefit scheme, where your pension was calculated on salary and number of years worked, rather than a defined contribution scheme, where your contributions just go into a pot, the value of which goes up or down depending or how the investments do.

      Yes, pensioners, just like everyone else, take a real cut.

      Occupational pension schemes were originally set up by employers as a philanthropic gesture towards their workforce – it was not compulsory, but it cost the employer to provide.. Following various government tinkering, throughout the years, private occupational schemes have had to provide more and more (widows, then spouses benefits, increases to your preserved pension even after you left the job, etc.) Largely it is the employer who has to pay for the increase in any such pension provision. So, if you get full RPI increases in times of inflation, chances are the employer will simply stop their scheme and put you into a minimum defined contribution group personal pension scheme. No automatic increases there.

  47. Blasts heard in Russian-occupied Melitopol amid signs of counter-offensive. 5 April 2023.

    Explosions have been heard in Russian-occupied Melitopol amid growing rumours that Ukraine is laying the groundwork for a counter-offensive.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    Tom Gillespy.

    There is a difference between ‘free speech’ and ‘supporting the actions of an enemy state while constantly questioning the quality of the journalism and calling it propaganda because you don’t like the reporting’.

    I have no problem with them removing comments that are obviously apologists for the dictator in the East – but they’re not allowing comments at all about the dictator to the north!

    There seems to have been a massive cull of posts that were; how should I put it, not supportive of the official line. Whether this was the Telegraph itself or instructions received we shall probably never know, though one might observe that there are two consecutive posts that might well have been written by Zelensky himself. Is something going on in Ukraine itself? An attack by one side? Who knows?

    As to Mr Gillespy he suffers from that ailment common to authority everywhere. Free Speech as long as it doesn’t contradict me!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/05/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-putin-finland-nato-zelensky/

  48. The SNP has left the problem with Rishi as to what to do with people who identify with a sexual orientation other than that with whiich they were ascribed at birth. Is is just to do with differentiating between those who wear skirts all the time and those who don’t or does it go deeper than that?

    You can’t just skirt over the problem but putting biological in parenteses!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/kemi-badenoch-trans-women-biological-b2314144.html

    So with this conundrum in mind which one of these transgender women is a woman and which one is a man?

    https://youtube.com/shorts/hIrCaNhdo_g?feature=share

    As an addendum here’s therapist DR Z PHD to explain the two main groups that people with an identity crisis have:

    https://youtu.be/VQt5YuppqMk

    Basically it’s a question of phoria – it’s either disphoria or datphoria 🤔

  49. Afternoon chaps! Just catching up after our family trip to Stirling and the dentist! I’ve always been able to read the Herald and the National online, and the comments below. Today – one headline, no articles and no comments visible! I can’t imagine why! I really hope that this is the beginning of the end for this nasty, corrupt and divisive bunch of sh*ts, and that the fall is precipitous!

      1. Just what the OH and I are discussing! Plus, when the police knew, and why she wasn’t in the house, and why the Chief Constable resigned, and a hundred other little niggling questions?

        1. For someone who has denied that she ever preferred Kiplings to Dickens we must remember that the female of the species is more deadly than the male.

    3. That was before my time (I always associated it with grown-ups), but I do remember well ‘Puffing Billy’ the theme tune to Children’s Favourites in the early 1960s with Uncle Mac, which I used to listen to every week. It was before Ed Stewart took over, which to me seemed another era.

      Born in 1956, I must be in the last generation to remember the old ways.

        1. Of course. I used to hear it every morning when I was staying with grandparents in Norfolk.

  51. Anyone supporting Moscow in conflict is an ‘accomplice’, Macron says during China visit. 5 April 2023.

    We have decided since the beginning of the conflict to help the victim, and we have also made it very clear that anyone helping the aggressor would be an accomplice in breach of international law.

    Wow! I bet that went down well!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/apr/05/russia-ukraine-war-live-zelenskiy-heads-to-poland-as-macron-and-von-der-leyen-arrive-in-china?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-642d5d728f08547fbc6654d9#block-642d5d728f08547fbc6654d9

  55. Let the wind blow high
    Let the wind blow low
    Through the streets, in my kilt I’ll go
    All the police say ello ello
    Peter, what have you troosered?

    1. 5th verse

      The lassies want me every one
      Well, let them catch me if they can
      You canna take the breaks
      Of a Highland man
      And I don’t wear the trousers

  56. “Peter Murrell arrest
    Nicola Sturgeon ‘not at home when police sealed off property'”
    Well …. colour me surprised.

    2. Bet she was at Police Scotland HQ with a nice cup of tea watching it all unfurl on their closed circuit telly network.

    3. No wonder she resigned and has probably ‘done a runner’, NZ ?
      Burka clad hiding in Pakistan ?

    1. ‘Don’t worry, murdering people is still considered absolutely fine.’

      Not if it’s done hatefully.

    2. I wonder how sensitive all these Dopey Wokey diversity divots are about they way our lifestyle is leading. How many of our honest ex-hard working brits would still be alive if we had a different and an honest set of people writing the script of life.

  60. The rot is spreading…

    Today a concert was cancelled in Metz.

    So what? you might, justifiably, ask. The artist is Bilal Hassani, a transsexual activist singer of Arab descent. His concert was to take place in a former church which was deconsecrated over 500 years ago, and had been used as a depot for 400 years before being converted into a “cultural venue” at some stage in the 20th century.

    The reason why this concert was cancelled, was that Bilal Hassani’s and his fans’ wellbeing was threatened by the announced presence of a small group of probably wrong-headed traditional Catholics outside the building, who were going to recite prayers of reparation while the concert was taking place.

    https://www.lefigaro.fr/musique/le-concert-de-bilal-hassani-dans-une-ancienne-eglise-de-metz-annule-20230405

    This story reminded me of the lady who was arrested for praying quietly near an abortion clinic in the UK.

    1. Caroline, there is usually an opportunity to flip the omelette.

      When the State feels threatened by, or perceives threats to others from, people praying, it recognises that prayer is effective.

      I greatly respect the lady who was arrested for silently standing outside a House of Medical Death, aka abortion clinic.

      As for deconsecrated churches, they are not people or animals, just old buildings.

  61. Julie Burchill
    The Guardian has wrecked itself

    You won’t get any inter-hack loyalty from me
    5 April 2023, 10:29am
    *
    *
    ********************************************
    Whittaker
    4 hours ago
    The Guardian AND the SNP melting down. What a frabjous day!

    1. These court cases will run and run, affecting the Presidential elections next year – which is obviously what the Democrats want.

      1. I wonder if in this instance that the longer they run with nothing particularly significant found the more the cases might actually help him.
        Particularly if there is clear judicial bias against him.

  63. Steerpike
    Watch: Jacinda Ardern’s final cringeworthy speech as PM
    5 April 2023, 12:36pm

    It’s a bad time for soporific narcissists in office. Just weeks after the self-indulgent grandstanding of Nicola Sturgeon’s farewell press conference, Jacinda Ardern has today followed suit. The New Zealand premier treated her long-suffering public to one last display of egotistical over-excitement. Swathed, bizarrely, in a traditional Maori cloak and fighting back tears, the world leader whose pronouns are me/me/me gave her final speech as Prime Minister in parliament. She told legislators in Wellington’s House of Representatives that:

    I do hope that I’ve demonstrated something else entirely. That you can be anxious, sensitive, kind, and wear your heart on your sleeve. You can be a mother or not. You can be an ex-Mormon or not. You can be a nerd, a crier, a hugger. You can be all of these things. And not only can you be here, you can lead just like me.

    Just like you Jacinda? Let’s hope they make a better fist of it…

    https://youtu.be/hxMQOAHxxhI

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

    Whyshouldihavetoregister
    3 hours ago
    “the world leader whose pronouns are me/me/me” Steerpike wins the internet.

    Felix Solo Whyshouldihavetoregister
    3 hours ago
    It’s certainly good. A personal favourite of mine on that theme was coined by a commenter on this site (wish I could remember who) who said his pronouns were ho/hum.

    Lancastrian Oik
    3 hours ago

    A Māori cloak, ffs.

    Sums up this sanctimonious simpering leftie cow, though. She’s wearing the thing as an accessory to a performance and as a tool to widen the rift between races. She’s despicable- she’s using the indigenous people as a means to an end, which is a morally repugnant act.

    NorthernGrouse Lancastrian Oik
    3 hours ago
    They are not indigenous, they ate the indigenous people when they colonised the islands.

    3. “NorthernGrouse Lancastrian Oik
      3 hours ago
      They are not indigenous, they ate the indigenous people when they colonised the islands.      ”

      They certainly ate all the 12ft tall 500lb moas, amongst lots of other large endemic flightless birds. Also endemic flying birds took a pounding, including the largest eagle that has ever lived.

      Here’s a list; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Extinct_birds_of_New_Zealand

  64. Another par 4 today

    Wordle 655 4/6

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

    2. Me too Par Four again.

      Wordle 655 4/6
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. And me.

      Wordle 655 4/6

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

    4. Pleased with my birdie.
      Wordle 655 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
      ⬜🟨🟩🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Homes for Afghanistans and the rest will not be as popular as homes for Ukrainians, lessons will have been learned by the gullible. So…. will homes be commandeered? It’s going to get interesting.

      2. 373029+ up ticks,

        Afternoon PM,
        It’s happened before, requisitioned houses 39/45.

    2. Take it, and another 5, straight into Dover or Portsmouth and you’ll soon fill ’em up.

      1. Make it a hundred barges or so and they can just line them up to make a bridge from Calais to Dover.

    3. The Devil’s religion taking precedence over England’s patron Saint.
      And Ramadan would already have ended, did they move the banquet?

      How quaint, did they cancel the choir’s greeting of May Day too?

    5. Isn’t it part of being English that one doesn’t make a noise about it? St George’s Day has never been celebrated much because we’re just not like that.

      St Something’s day is for the people of the mountain and the bog.

      1. It’s one thing not having a celebration dinner in the first place. It’s completely different having one, and then cancelling it to suck up to the moose-limbs.

        Edit:not only cancelling it but then substituting the Eid stuff. Outrageous!

    6. Just a left wing tactic to bring patriotic anger from the racist extreme right wing so that they can call us evil bigots.

    7. Eid has nothing to do with a (nominally) Christian country with an established Church of England.

  67. Ref the Toothy Kiwi’s final solution speech:

    Nice BTL in the Spectator: “Has her husband been arrested?”……………!!!

  68. Nicola Sturgeon’s bins searched by police. 5 April 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/22ede31856523e8d5a3f7b5f7608b97f01aaaa784cc0b6adf9394df96a4e8f39.png

    Nicola Sturgeon was not present when police arrived to seal off her property following the arrest of her husband Peter Murrell, eyewitnesses said.

    It is understood the former First Minister left her home on Glasgow’s outskirts in a black coloured Volvo shortly before officers erected an evidence tent in a front garden and taped off the detached property.

    The property is one of a number of searches being carried out by police investigating the Scottish National Party’s funding and finances.

    Witnesses say six Police Scotland officers are standing guard at the couple’s home during the search which has included bins in a back garden.

    What are they looking for? Body parts?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/05/peter-murrell-arrest-latest-nicola-sturgeon-snp-probe/

      2. The evidence will have been in Krankie’s bag as she left – 15 minutes before plod arrived.

        1. True! but they’ve had to live next door to Nicola Sturgeon and now they’ve got a police van parked on their drive.

  69. You know, when you’re 20 you – unless you’re a genius or simply awake – think about a pension. Then you get to 30 and you get one, and sort of ignore it. Then at 40 you panic, see the devastation 20 years of Labour have done and think ‘what do I do now?’

    Then you take financial advice – independent, as I’m not telling her Majesty I am worried – and hope to buggery you’ll be able to sort things out.

    The day to day monies we’ve got sorted. Investments she does. My pension? Aside from the LGPS I have is risible. I get some dividends from shares I bought when Brown broke everything but it’s not a lot to live on. I look at the increasing insanity of the government and it’s policy of inflation and wonder why we bother. The state pension for a week would cover my current risible energy bill. Where’s the rest of it coming from? We couldn’t afford a dog in retirement, let alone two. Mongo’s hair appointments cost near as £100 a go.

    The state thinks solely of what it wants for next week, for selfish, egotistical reasons. Why won’t it just leave us, and our money alone?

  70. Well, such fun. Spent half an hour waiting to get through to a person to see if I could get anywhere with my appointment. Eventually I spoke to a woman and told her the issue….appointment April 14 pushed back to Sept. 22.
    At first she tried to blame it on the junior doctors’ strike. Are you telling me they are striking for 5 months, I asked and then told her I was supposed to be seeing a consultant. Mutter, mumble and she said she’d look for an earlier appointment. So now, May 26. Not great but better. I had added my pain, lack of sleep etc.
    To add to the joy, my husband received a letter from the dept he is involved in, telling him that they will no longer be informing him of blood test results or anything unless, basically, it suits them. Short staff was blamed. He has a serious illness and this is so inconsiderate and unnecessary.
    God rot our local NHS- they are heartless and useless. I nearly asked the woman I spoke to if it would more helpful if I just died. I can guess the bloody answer.
    Good luck to all of you in your dealings with this broken system.

    1. No longer informing him of blood test results – that’s just sickening. It’s a database. You can configure them to *automatically* send the inputs to an email address. It’s not blasted complicated. We use it for auditing purposes. At the end of each day any new entries are emailed to the key – we use the email.

      The NHS as an entity is inept. I’m sorry to hear you ran into that.

      1. They usually tell him over the phone. And check up to see how he’s doing. They just don’t care at all, Wibbs.

    2. No longer informing him of blood test results – that’s just sickening. It’s a database. You can configure them to *automatically* send the inputs to an email address. It’s not blasted complicated. We use it for auditing purposes. At the end of each day any new entries are emailed to the key – we use the email.

      The NHS as an entity is inept. I’m sorry to hear you ran into that.

    3. A friend who travels was in the USA recently where he had a 6 monthly scan after c treatment in the UK last year. A day or two after the scan, my pal revisited the clinic because his UK oncologist had suggested that an endoscopy would be sensible. So my pal asked his US doctor if he could arrange an endoscopy. The doctor, who is cheerful and busy, replied ‘Sure, we can fit you in’.
      ‘But when exactly could I have an appointment?’
      ‘Well, now’, he said, a bit puzzled, ‘or at least in a few minutes.’

      Done and dusted, results OK.

      1. I know Tim; except for my wonderful husband now, I sometimes wish I’d stayed. However, no point jobbing backwards, as my late dad used to say.

      2. Ah but
        The NHS is free at the point of use.

        Shame you’re dead though, coz dey don’t cover de funeral, even if it’s their fault.

    4. WHAT!?! That is utter bollards.
      I don’t wish to insult your intelligence, but did they really say/write that?
      What about if you ring them? About a week after the samples are taken.
      If the consultant puts ‘urgent’ on the form, the results should arrive the same day.
      If MB wants results more quickly than through the post, he pops into our GP surgery and they print them off for him.

      1. Having an interpretation of the numbers would be useful. Maybe the GP would help?

  71. According to the Mail, police are now searching Sturgeon’s garden with shovels?
    Are they having a laugh/getting revenge?!
    Does anyone seriously believe that the Murrells have bodies buried out there?

          1. Why now though?
            In the US, they’ve got the Trump indictment farce and here we’ve got the law catching up with the SNP…one could be forgiven for believing that TPTB wanted to distract us from something.

          2. The polieas have given the McKrankies plenty of time to sort out their financial shenanigans and whatever is left there probably negligible. The SNP have run the plod for years.

          3. Yes.
            Of course, the WHO is currently launching its coup against western nation states, and bid to become the world government with Bill Gates as de factor leader.
            I’m sure that has nothing to do with the timing.

    2. Sturgeon probably wants her garden dug over and is getting it done free – she’s taking a leaf out of Fletcher’s book (Porridge – Ronnie Barker).

      1. It’s a measure of the absurdity of the whole thing that that is quite a plausible theory! Prolly left a plan of where they wanted it dug on the kitchen table.

  73. China 6 – New vehicle emission standards

    China with its vast resources of fossil fuels is a major emitter of greenhouse gases.

    https://airly.org/en/air-pollution-in-china-what-causes-it/#:~:text=China%20is%20rich%20in%20fossil,China's%20role%20in%20global%20trade.

    Why should it therefore decide to soon enforce such drastic contraints on the use of vehicles that use such fuels?

    https://360.lubrizol.com/Categories/China-6/China-6#:~:text=The%20latest%20upgrade%2C%20known%20collectively,(NOx)%20from%20the%20air.

    This pundit reckons that China is introducing such measures as a direct attack on thr American, European and Japanese car industry that has such a vested interest in Chinese manufactured vehicles.

    https://youtu.be/0c5SeK89kGY

    1. Probably because the entire climate industry is a farce and a fraud and they know it.

    1. The “norm” in normative gives something of a clue – it’s normal, not abnormal, and particularly not perverted! No wonder they hate it.

      1. LGBT campaigners have invented new words or prefixes – ‘heteronormative’ and ‘cis-‘. No need – the synonym for both is ‘normal’.

  76. That’s me gone. Very good day. Loaf OK. Two hours tidying the churchyard – very rewarding There are several lime trees which have grown suckers and look a mess. Now, at least, one looks like a tree again! We’ll attack the others later in the week or on Easter Monday.

    Have a spiffing evening. Looks like rain – which we badly need. Market tomorrow,

    A demain – DV.

    1. Ok, I will do a bit of loafing.

      (isn’t that the raison d’etre of NTTL? Drinking tea and spreading light hearted grumpiness before returning to endless chores?)

    2. Hopefully, two electric cars will collide and as the occupants exchange details, burst into flames.

    5. Mind you I can remember coming back from a job in Naples when our [local] driver took a short cut down a one way street in the wrong direction because it was “quicker”. He seemed to think it was normal, and he wasn’t alone in doing it!

      1. I used to do that in Siracusa. If you met an oncoming vehicle, one of you would drive on the pavement to pass. Worked a treat!

      2. I used to do that in Siracusa. If you met an oncoming vehicle, one of you would drive on the pavement to pass. Worked a treat!

    6. Mind you I can remember coming back from a job in Naples when our [local] driver took a short cut down a one way street in the wrong direction because it was “quicker”. He seemed to think it was normal, and he wasn’t alone in doing it!

      1. Thanks so much! Honestly, the world is so barking mad I am prepared to believe anything these days…

  80. Russia is using ‘woke’ narratives to discredit Britain. 5 April 2023.

    Since the Cold War, Britain’s use of information operations to combat adversaries has deteriorated woefully amid a fixation on hard power. By contrast, Russian disinformation campaigns and propaganda remain as robust as ever. They have repeatedly been deployed in attempts to polarise the country, sow conflict related to the Scottish independence movement, portray the UK as a nefarious, imperialistic, colonial, and racist nation, and rewrite history to cast Winston Churchill as evil.

    Actually all these things come from within! They are nothing whatsoever to do with Russia or Vladimir Putin!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/04/05/russia-woke-narratives-undermine-britain-must-fight-back/

    1. Quite. Are the Russians suggesting we can’t even produce our own traitors?
      How very dare they!

    2. I wonder how many Nottlers are Russian agents ? 🤣 we already know all the Vlad.

          2. Russian Standard or Stolichnaya are good. Polish vodka too. Swedish is not good, and Smirnoff (from Liverpool?) is appalling.

          3. My husband likes it especially the Polish and Stolichnaya. I can’t drink it because it makes me very pugnacious. Makes me want to beat people up!

          4. How could we tell?
            😉
            Gin makes me grumpy. Wine, beer and cider (especially) make me happy (other dwarves are available).
            Weird, that.

          5. I don’t like gin. The only spirit I can tolerate is a wee dram of Scotch at Hogmanay. Although tonight I may be tempted to a Scotch.

          6. I don’t like whisky, but I love Drambuie (I know it is a liqueur). It tastes of Christmas.

          8. Whisky liqueur with herbs and honey; none of which overpower the flavours, you can hardly tell that they’re there, its very subtle. I even love the name, the way it rolls off the tongue. Pamplemousse is another of those words (you will be able to tell I’m on my second glass of red wine ce soir….).

          14. I tried that once.
            Don’t do it. YUKK.
            If necessary, have the Pinot, with vodka chaser. And, keep the vodka in the freezer, it’s better that way.

  81. Sitting in the Dower House looking incredibly smug.
    Fence painted – tick
    Garden seat repaired – tick
    Murrells in Shiite Street – tick.
    And a big thank you to our German cousins for that invaluable word – schadenfreude.

      1. 🙂
        Funny you should mention that …..
        Empty glass now begging for a refill.

        1. Get stuck in girl, you have done over and above the last few weeks. Cheers- will raise my Pinot to you! Hic.

          1. Just back from dinner for Second Son’s 22nd birthday. A fine and talented young man to be proud of! Now tidying up the last of the limoncello, and Firstborn has tidied away the Barbados rum.
            This is my kind of tidying! (Dinner tidied up my bank account… expenive, even by Weegie standards).

          3. One tries.
            It helps 99,9% to have SWMBO – intelligent, clever, skilled, talented, passed it on to t’lads, who all think for themselves, research stuff, and have their own opinions on pretty well everything. Kind, too.

          8. You’ll not be retiring any time soon, Oberst? Glad you had a lovely evening! 😘

          9. Thanks, Sue.
            The best bit was having all four of us together at the meal – tbh, I’d have been pleased to eat at McDonalds, it’s having SWMBO, the two lads and me all together, feeling sociable, that mattered.
            Having practiced croaking in the recent past, I value even more having the family close. Who knows when I might not be there to say “Goodnight”?

          10. Exactly that, Paul. And remember that when you think about doing something daft! My old man is behaving like a child atm and is having trouble with his heart. He couldn’t get an appt. so he’s just ignoring things!

          11. It’s a reaction to loss of control of his life. Things he can no longer do, either because of malady or FCUKING DOCTORS TELLING HIM HE MUSTN’T!
            God, I hate the bastards. Suddenly you aren’t allowed, sometimes on pain of incarceration, to do things you did all your life perfectly well. The loss of that freedom is awful, one might as well be dead.
            Speak to him kindly, Sue. This shit affects men, we aren’t used to being penned in. Talk gently to him about it.

          12. I know, pet but it upsets the girls! Vet daughter is furious and the younger one told him off today because ‘You’ll be dead!’ she said! It’s our ruby wedding coming up and I know when to shut up!

  82. More on the railway closure between Oxford and Didcot that I reported on earlier. I know someone ‘in the know’ and he provided me with these pictures. They’re not of the best quality, taken from a document by phone cam rather than scanned, but they’ll do.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5cb505ba78f6a7b416b382b456c4af93f420fc227bc627f5e4ade1b5987d5565.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53109d264958007e05f75d381e86e0e2026e176a4b43544e2c593ee5dbb99d49.jpg

    1. It has all gone downhill since Bob retired and stopped driving his little track testing train around the world.

      1. I even have inspection procedures for civil works in my PC memory bank…

    3. Why can’t chav scum just leave other people’s property alone? Why do they insist on defacing everything with their revolting scrawl?

    4. Oh bugger! That does not look good. Should have been picked up months, if not years ago.

      1. It’s been known about for years, according to my contact who provided the pictures.

        I’m surprised it hasn’t come to public attention before now. There’s easy footpath access on both sides of the river.

        1. I’d say that is a total bridge replacement job. Given the age of the ironwork, simply putting in new abutments is not going to work.

    5. Blimey, now I understand why BoB is quietly obsessed with clearing roots and building retaining walls; without doubt he was never allowed to do any serious structural repairs while employed by NotWork Rail.

      1. All over the network there are serious problems with weed-infested brickwork, buddleia being the most common. Only when masonry falls from these structures and kills pedestrians or motorists below will anyone be stirred into action.

    6. Further question.
      Is that an RAIB document or an internal Network Rail report?

    2. Imagine how many children would have been protected from abuse if plod had acted with the same alacrity for the pakistani muslim paedophile rape gangs.

      1. Alacrity? A decade?

        Oh, I see what you mean. Yes, certainly quicker than the Muslim rape gang investigations…

  86. Utterly off topic.
    We started eating the last of last years butternut squash in a BNS and prawn curry.
    Fiddley to prepare, but absolutely delicious.

          5. Smellchoker doesn’t spot such errors.
            Once seen, of course, your whit ceases to be witless,

    2. One of my favourite veggies. We like it with other fresh vegetables in an oven bake.

  88. A bit of a nothing day today.
    Very miserable weather and, after turning the Rayburn off t’other day, I had to put it back on this morning.

    Nipped into Matlock to see if Twiggs had a replacement chopsaw but the ones they have are far too big, so did a bit of shopping and came home to do not a lot.

    So I’m off to bed and wish you all a good night. Especially LotL and hope she has a peaceful night.

  89. Evening, all. If you are wondering why I didn’t say goodnight last night, blame Disqus. Halfway through reading the comments it suddenly stopped letting me post. Every time I tried nothing appeared in the box and the page shot up. In the end I gave up.

    1. I had big problems with Disqus yesterday, Conway! I had one post holding for about an hour!

    2. Virgin Media had a major break down yesterday. More than 55 thousand customers were effected.

  90. Interesting to watch Race Across the World on bbc. The two ladies are in front again. Well done ‘girls’ excellent.
    Fabulous scenery in Canada. I had relations there once. But still have friends near Toronto.
    Shame we now won’t be able to go and stay with them.

    So it’s good night from me folks.

    2. I presume you don’t mean ‘relations’ in the Bill Clinton sense. :-))

    1. Doctors can afford to apply for work permits and business class air fares, not sneak in in rubber boats.

      3. It is said the King John had his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, gelded and blinded because Arthur had a better claim to the throne than John. Wasn’t a rare thing in those days.

    2. Bloody wet ponces, “Surgically Castrated” should be just with a pair of rusty scissors.

      (I would have said house bricks, but the build their houses from reeds and bamboo)

  95. Going to bed soon. Must compliment my husband. He had a call today from a woman who is in the physio dept. She wanted to know how he was coping but he bent her ear for a while about my issues.
    He can walk pretty much unaided now but still a crutch outside.
    Thanks again for your support and I wish y’all the best of nights.

    1. Good for him to bend the woman’s ear about your issues. I hope you both enjoy a peaceful and refreshing sleep tonight.

  96. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk.

    I find that I’m nodding here so time to seek my bed.

  98. Another day, another lot of gardening, decluttering, reading books and watching films on YouTube (WOMAN IN THE DUNES, 1964). So now it’s time to climb the stairs to Bedfordshire. Sleep well chums.

Comments are closed.