Tuesday 6 June: The groupthink of lockdown must never be allowed to take hold again

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

391 thoughts on “Tuesday 6 June: The groupthink of lockdown must never be allowed to take hold again”

  6. 373007+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    May one ask,
    Are the political overseers intending to consult with those people who have lost family or are the HP sauce factory political inmates busy first & foremost with gathering in the houses professional, political sewing circle, in preparation for a major stitch up.

    Dt,
    “The horrific spread of Covid-19 both in hospitals and care homes led to countless deaths that could have otherwise been avoided. It clearly makes sense for these areas to be looked at as quickly as possible by the inquiry, so that conclusions and recommendations can be made ASAP.

    “It’s incredibly disappointing that the inquiry has suddenly decided to bring the module on vaccines forward ahead of these issues, and that the care sector won’t be looked at until 2025 at the earliest. Baroness Hallet’s team needs to be singularly focused on saving lives and nothing else.”

    My true belief is that this inquiry has to be held in Tommy Robinson mode as in given express priority, NO DELAY,
    in finding out WHY the innocents suffered death & serious injury and the portrayers of such incarcerated.

    The thought of even considering voting for them in the next General
    Election without an inquiry finding
    is truly abhorrent.

    1. “The horrific spread of Covid-19 both in hospitals and care homes…”

      Still reinforcing the idea that CV-19 was a respiratory disease spread from person to person by an air-borne virus despite Dr David Martin’s testimony to the contrary at the recent EU conference?
      Another expert analyst of patents and pharmaceutical legislation etc. Karen Kingston has arrived at a similar conclusion to Dr Martin.

  7. Britain is sleepwalking into becoming a soft totalitarian state. 6 June 2023.

    But after a golden age for liberty that stretches back to the Enlightenment, we are going backwards. Britain’s ranking across all manner of global freedom indexes, from academic liberty to online and media freedom, are in freefall. In a spectacular reversal of history, peacetime freedom is now consistently shrinking rather than expanding. Put bluntly, we are sleepwalking into becoming a “soft authoritarian” outlier in the West.

    I like this recent awakening by the Telegraph. Of course you could have read Nottl any time in the last five years and learned it all beforehand.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/05/covid-mission-creep-just-tip-britains-authoritarian-iceberg/

    1. Advertising revenue.
      The government bought compliance from the media by spending £millions (of our money) on scary and bossy adverts.

  8. A Letter:-

    SIR – As one of the many who were castigated for their views on Professor Neil Ferguson’s pandemic modelling, I feel a tiny urge to gloat about the findings from Lund and Johns Hopkins universities.

    However, when I think about the catastrophic decisions that resulted from the blinkered persistence with the precautionary principle, I want to weep and blow up in rage, in equal measure. The Covid inquiry should focus solely on the decision-making processes in government, rather than attempting to point a finger of blame.

    Tim Wright
    Rampisham, Dorset

    “When all the crying’s done,
    And the clearing up begun,
    Learn to fix the problem,
    NOT the blame!”

  9. Good morning, all. Overcast with a breeze.

    The World is heading towards total chaos and lawlessness driven by the out of control and compliant politicos, and the people setting the agendas.

    Tweets:
    #1 true
    #2 true
    #3 Attempt to stop release of information by making potential whistle-blowers think at least twice

    https://twitter.com/BillEllmore/status/1665891527086727169

    https://twitter.com/Sassafrass_84/status/1665863011951681537

    https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1665851533081169921

    1. My experience tends towards people retaining the idea that the government was doing what was necessary for the good of all. I know a number of people in that category and they are also ardent believers in the efficacy and necessity of the “vaccine”, even at this time of the year. One I know has had four boosters.

      1. I know a few like that. Boosted regularly.
        They still wear the mask and almost every three months they’ve just recovered from yet another bout of Covid.
        “But, but, but, my fourth dose of Covid would have been awful without the jabs” !
        One of the worst is a retired doctor.

      1. Morning Ndovu. It’s worth considering what it would be like without Nottl. You could quite easily come to believe that the entire population were believers in the Woke World!

      2. “Chatting with sensible people here…”
        Cripes. I’ve been called many things in my time ……

    3. Morning all.

      I think that the fully jabbed and boosted refuse to accept that all the measures were, to say the least, counter-productive because they cannot bring themselves to believe that they have been conned – as simple as that.

      In all this time Alf and I have met only two other people with a similar opinion as ours I.E., that the “vaccines” were nothing of the sort (vaccines can take 10/15 years to properly research and produce) and that all the physical and psychological weapons used against the public were to test just how far HMG could go with restrictions and to test public compliance. HMG was never going to give up the powers they unscrupulously took when they saw how obedient people were.

      1. I also believe that the whole thing was a dry-run for much worse in the not too distant future.

      2. Strange that the doctors’ surgery in our neighbouring town are ‘phoning up all their OAPs and

        insisting that to stay safe they must have another jab as soon as possible.

      1. On principle, I never shop at Oxfam shops. Ghastly organisation for so many reasons.

    4. This wicked lie that “None of us are safe until all of us are safe” needs to be stamped out fast.
      It’s almost never true, but is a prescription for authoritarian repression.

      1. It’s grammatically incorrect; none of us IS safe. As for being otherwise correct, I wouldn’t be safe if criminals were safe.

    2. I’m on the side of the CEO.
      Better to lose the clothes than the employee or another shopper.
      The crooks know they are a protected species, so almost certainly would not hesitate to shoot people at random.
      The problem now in the USA is that the police are hamstrung, particularly if the perpetrators are black.
      Brought about by Democrat support for lawlessness.

        1. pour encourager les autres?

          They acknowledged themselves that they were trained to get out of the way.
          I sympathise with the employees, but who gains if they are killed?

          1. By just allowing it to happen sends the wrong message. $100 billion lost in shoplifting last year. Businesses cannot survive unless the tide is turned.

          2. I totally agree there, but the way the USA has moved the only ones who will be punished are the ones who intervene physically, the criminals will get a slap on the wrist and the businesses and employees protecting their business will be hurt.

            Until that particular tide is turned, and that will be up to the authorities, physically defending your business is counter-productive.

            BLM and the like, plus Democrat control, will see the end of law-abiding America. see the Cole takimag article I posted earlier.

            Perhaps if any such criminal gets caught they should be sterilised so that they can’t add to the criminal classes.

    3. I understand theft isn’t an issue in those lands where Sharia Law is practiced actively …..

  13. ‘Morning All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0f727f6f5e724bca22f4db949ffebf3a4672786096465722ea5721120115e24.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0c5ece961d2ff2df14b91c4ee00a2ab2b5da316a1108ab8f7bf46ef91f9cceb.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e02940bf3bb63fe3675e3314d3732a76a89346548659c53193d0fd54c304fa6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88621f6887f78dac9a97ddd26adea65fbfad22b59cf303cc95f03b0478ed7e93.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41a2f9c64b27dd767146ff2a38ed308fe6dabe5fb01a83e73ae913e429fac5f8.png

        1. It’s a precautionary investigation prior to treatment of another condition.

      2. Good luck, Phil.
        You are really having a rough time at the moment.
        Thank goodness for Dolly and Harry.

        1. Just one thing after another. I expect i will get huge boils on my nose next.

          1. If you do, let’s hope the Nurse doesn’t misread the instruction to: “Prick his boil…..”

      3. Morning Phizz. I’ve no doubt you will be a model of rectitude as you lay there and think of England! 😉

      4. Let’s pray they find nothing untoward, or if they do that they’ve found it good and early, so it can be dealt with easily and successfully.

      5. Oh Phizzee, that is vile. Much sympathy, hope you will be safely back home soon.

    2. There was a good documentary on ITV yesterday evening, a woman taking her grandfather, who was a signaller on a tank landing craft, to the memorial. In formative and moving.
      Worth trying to find
      Vicky McClure: My Grandad’s War

      In this one-off special to mark the anniversary of D-Day, the actress embarks on an emotional journey with her 97-year-old grandfather, Ralph, to learn about his role in the most extraordinary single day of the Second World War. Vicky sets out to understand how Ralph – then still a teenager from Nottingham – found himself in the Royal Navy and at the centre of a world-changing battle on the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944. The pair visit the only surviving example of the type of landing craft he trained and crossed the Channel on, and discover aerial pictures believed to show his flotilla landing at Normandy – before travelling back to the beach he last visited almost 80 years ago

    5. Good grief, Bill, have we just invaded Europe to teach Mr Hitler a lesson? Lol.

  15. 373007+ up ticks,

    Tuesday 6 June: The groupthink of lockdown must never be allowed to take hold again

    That is possibly the mindset among the decent folk in wishful reality.

    In current political reality the politico’s have had great success with running the prototype in a fear & manipulation campaign, if you believe they will NOT use these evil, odious, issues again then you must have, on paper, a collection of bought & paid for bridges.

    Will it alter the regular voting pattern ?very doubtful.

  16. Russian hackers raid British Airways and BBC in cyber attack. 6 june 2023.

    Thousands of British Airways, BBC and Boots employees may have had data including bank account details and national security numbers stolen in a suspected Russia-linked cyber attack.

    Some of Britain’s biggest businesses were tonight scrambling to work out how much employee data had been stolen in a major breach thought to have affected as many as 100,000 British workers.

    Of course they did! They have absolutely nothing else to occupy them! It’s just a coincidence that it’s happened with the Ukie counterattack. This is of course just another False Flag like yesterdays story about the Iran arms contract; both are designed to shape public perception of Russia.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/05/british-airways-and-boots-warn-staff-data-stolen-in-hack/

    1. Any chance Russian hackers could insert a bit of cash into my bank account? They have plenty sloshing around from selling gas to Germany. I promise to take care of it.

      1. Morning Anne. I wish that I was getting all these salaries attributed to me as a Russian Troll on the Spectator threads. In fact when I think about it maybe I ought to write to Vlad and ask for some recompense for the abuse!

      2. I’m sure Phizzee could introduce you to a Nigerian prince, who would be delighted to get your bank details.

    2. Meh. This kind of attack is happening all the time. It’s why I hate buying stuff over the internet.
      I suppose they know it was the Russians because they found Putin’s passport left behind at the scene of the crime?

  17. Good day all,

    Cloudy over the McPhee estate in N W Hampshire, wind persistently Nor’-Easty, don’t expect the Sun until 3pm, temperature 11℃ going to 17℃.

    Just looked up the average June temperatures for the 30 years from 1991 to 2020. The daytime average maximum at Middle Wallop in June over that time is 20.07℃. So far June 2023 is proving, like April and May, to be cooler than the long-term average over 30 years. And as we know, weather records over 30 years constitute a ‘climate’. How will they spin this?

    In the Gatesograph letters today we have another ‘Mike’ Whitton:

    SIR – To those who wish to see inheritance tax scrapped: which taxes would you like to see introduced or raised to fill the resultant shortfall in government revenue?

    Nick Jones
    Cardiff

    Well, ‘Nick’ my dear chap, how about none? Instead, why don’t we have a commensurate reduction in the size of government? After all, there are plenty of home-working snivel serpents to sack.

    1. The BTL comments say much the same thing.
      Seeing he’s from Cardiff, maybe NJ is one of Drakesbum’s pen names.

    1. I would feel sorry for him if he wasn’t such an appalling human being. What a farce.

  20. 373007+ up ticks,

    I see his lying lethal rhetoric as cutting an inch off of a twelve inch bayonet.

    During a trip to Dover on Monday to meet Border Force officials helping rescue small boats in distress, Mr Sunak said: “Our approach is working. I said I will stop the boats and I meant it.”

    He cited the 20 per cent drop in the number of migrants crossing the Channel, from 9,575 in the first five months of last year to 7,610 in the same period this year.

    French border officers and police have also had more success preventing crossings, with 53.2 per cent – or 8,635 – stopped this year so far. It was 41.9 per cent last year.

    Mr Sunak announced that two more barges to house 1,000 migrants had been purchased, taking the total to three – including one in Portland Harbour, Dorset, which will take the first of its 500 asylum seekers in two weeks time.

    2. So the drop in numbers has nothing to do with the unfavourable North Easterly gales for the past few weeks?

  21. Thousands of asylum seekers could be housed in vessels moored near Newcastle, Harwich, Felixstowe and the Royal London docks, the Guardian has learned.

    Rishi Sunak confirmed on Monday that the government had acquired two more giant barges to house about 1,000 people seeking refuge in the UK.

    It is understood that these are expected to be moored in Teesport, near Middlesbrough, and in docks near Liverpool.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/revealed-government-looking-at-four-more-sites-for-asylum-vessels/ar-AA1ca3Hs?ocid=msedgntphdr&cvid=d040fa156a0d4439b22221daaeaff913&ei=33

    1. “two more giant barges to house about 1,000 people ”. Wow, a whole two days’ worth!

    1. It’s quite reasonable to ask why people want to live somewhere that they appear to believe needs to be changed to be more like the place they came from?

    2. Why are we not told what the protester said to Mr Stewart? And what is racist about being told to go back to Bahrain?

  23. Right, off on a friend’s small boat today. No early doors as he’s on a tidal mooring. An east wind might keep things cool offshore, not to mention the old, but often oh so true, adage about easterlies and poor fishing.

      1. Me too. Just a few mackerel and small pollack. The east wind was horrid and conditions foul. We couldn’t go out as far as we hoped.

      1. Nothing worth a piccy, Belle. Still, a day out on the water is always well spent, as long as you get back afterwards.

    4. With my sister BiL wife and myself we’re going to Cromer for crabs. Possibly only lunch……hopefully.
      Good luck with your fishing trip.

  25. Another good one from the letters:

    Incapable carriers

    SIR – The Navy has at last confirmed what many of us knew all along – that the current carriers were never designed to cater for advances in aircraft design.

    Indeed, they were designed around a specific short takeoff and landing aircraft, the F-35B, and without catapults or arrester gear.

    Half-way through the build a redesign was considered, but at £2 billion it was considered too expensive. So the Navy is now stuck with a couple of ships that are not capable of being adapted for different aircraft without a major refit, and at a cost considerably greater than that of the original redesign.

    Another shocking waste of money by a myopic defence ministry.

    Dr John Mitchell
    Potters Bar, Hertfordshire

    In my opinion it was probably because Britain, having pioneered V/STOL in jets with the world-beating Harrier in all its versions, the MoD wished to stay with the concept after it was thrown away by Cameron/Osborne when huge defence cuts were forced in 2010. Anyone with any knowledge of military matters knew all along that the ships should have been ‘cat and trap’ from the outset and we should have bought the F35C model, a version with greater range and payload capability than the F35B.

  27. From The Conservative Woman this morning:

    WE at TCW were fascinated and somewhat surprised to read the ‘revelations’ in the Telegraph at the weekend of what we already knew: that the Government has been running a Counter Disinformation Unit dedicated to censoring and banning lockdown ‘influencers’, and still is. Unremarked by the Telegraph is that it never was a secret. A Government press release in March 2020 announcing a Government crackdown on ‘false coronavirus information’ detailed the work of a ‘Counter Disinformation Cell’ led by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and which was ‘made up of experts from across government and in the tech sector’.

    Of course we were all aware of this but clearly the behaviour of the BBC (about which I posted late last night) confirms that free speech is loathed by the PTB.

    BBC upheld just 25 complaints of bias in five years
    Corporation’s internal watchdog ‘unfit for purpose’ and needs a complete overhaul, claim campaigners
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/05/bbc-coimplaints-bias-25-upheld-out-of-17m-report/

    BTL

    The BBC’s view of what is true and what is false seems very distorted. Does this not make the BBC’s “Verify” project a very sinister and dangerous venture.

    4. “ A Government press release in March 2020 announcing a Government crackdown on ‘false coronavirus information’ … “

      Isn’t it remarkable that the rona virus, allegedly only “discovered” in February 2020, attracted a government department so called crackdown on dis or misinformation. Why on earth would HMG think this kind of unit was required?

      The whole thing stinks to high heaven. It was all planned.

  28. SIR – My roses have gone berserk this year.

    They’ve grown bigger and lusher than I’ve ever seen them, and are smothered in buds and blossoms. One outside the front door has shoots eight feet tall. A 10-year-old bush in the back garden is three times the size it was last year and must have a couple of hundred buds on it.

    My daughter planted a rose two years ago against her garage wall, and that too is rampant and covered in blooms. Roses that usually have to be sprayed for aphids haven’t had a single one.

    The only possible cause that I can think of is last year’s weather. Could it be that the high summer temperature, and the snow and deep frosts of last winter, have somehow turbocharged the roses’ growth?

    Margaret Robinson
    London SE9

    Driving through our villages here , old roses look glorious , including ours which were planted about 5 years ago .

    In fact all the blossoms on trees and hedgerows everywhere , are a wonderful sight , what a shame there is a lack of moths and butterflies and interesting insects .

    1. The lack of insects is the interesting bit. That I would put down to pollution and a lack of ‘green space’. However, that is not down to climate change. It’s over population and litter.

      1. Overuse of pesticides in arable farming areas is the main cause of lack of insects.

        Our neighbours have a magnificent climbing rose that is covered in blooms. I haven’t checked it for aphids – we have a few on ours. I usually try squashing them gently rather than spraying.

      2. Overuse of pesticides in arable farming areas is the main cause of lack of insects.

        Our neighbours have a magnificent climbing rose that is covered in blooms. I haven’t checked it for aphids – we have a few on ours. I usually try squashing them gently rather than spraying.

    1. We really are living in lunatic times. If, as a boy I’d said ‘I want to get dressed with the girls!’ I’d have been booted in the bottom and told to run around the field in my shorts. Nowadays this is not only accepted, but the scum lauded! It’s a sodding mental illness! Nothing else!

      1. Don’t even dignify it as a mental illness, it’s attention seeking to gain an unfair advantage.
        Cheating.

        1. At the moment it’s all tremendously fashionable – but that’s all it is.

          Our society these days is weak and also a bit isolationist. Folk don’t know what they should be, and rather than do the hard work in finding out through struggle and conflict, learning and growth they take the easy route into fantasy, indulging their delusions.

          While the state and edifice looks at them as the Emperor’s new clothes, the people in society are the child. However this time, instead of the crowd laughing with the child, they turn on him to indulge the emperor.

  30. Letters again:

    Waitrose discontent

    SIR – In the past, Waitrose’s Sunningdale store (“Being a ‘Waitrosian’ is a thing – so are you one?”, Features, June 5) made claims that, although small, it was one of the most profitable in the group, and had the honour to have served the late Queen Mother. At nine o’clock last Saturday morning, none of the checkouts were manned. There were about 10 customers in the shop. A lot of the shelves were empty and people were complaining among themselves.

    Our personal spend has dropped from £120 per week to £35. This cannot go on if the store is to survive.

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    We didn’t know we were ‘Waitrosians’ and we may not be for much longer despite having been loyal customers for over 30 years. We first noticed its decline a year or two ago but it has been rapid recently. The last couple of times we were in one of our local branches ( we have 3 to choose from) the fresh fruit and vegetable shelves were virtually empty.

    I haven’t been in June yet but I’ll bet they’ve managed to get the ‘Pride’ stuff put about the place. Final nail.

        1. The trouble with hiring a civil servant to run any company is that most are unaware of time.

          Most think that if the items/services aren’t ready then you’ll come back next week, or the week after.

          Unfortunately food sales don’t come into this category. If Waitrose doesn’t have the item in stock

          then the customer just drives down the road to Tesco.

    2. I gave up on Waitrose some years ago when they started giving out free newspapers and coffee. They had dumbdown r their products as well.

      1. They’ve stopped the free papers some time ago, and also the coffee I think, though i did see a sign a few weeks ago saying it was back. I only ever buy a small number of items that are hard to find elsewhere.

        1. The free coffee is a good idea. The basic cost of a cup of coffee is about 4p.

          No shop rental charges, nor advertising. And they sell you mugs to put your free coffee in.

          The highest costs for Starbucks and Costa are the expensive advertising and rentals.

          That’s why Costa are now following the Waitrose idea and putting in Costa bars into garage mini markets.

          1. On the few occasions I’ve had a Costa coffee it was like strong ditchwater.

          4. They now use Cafe Nero beans. But you need to take a reusable cup. I never* remember, hence I now have three. *In fact, the one time I remembered to take a cup, neither machine was working. And Harry feels hard done by…

      2. They’ve stopped the free papers some time ago, and also the coffee I think, though i did see a sign a few weeks ago saying it was back. I only ever buy a small number of items that are hard to find elsewhere.

    3. I got to Waitrose for Jus Rol pastry (as I like it). and for months they’ve not had any.

    5. I have never been a “Waitrosian” – largely because there isn’t a Waitrose within 20 miles or more of where I live. Going rainbow-coloured has clinched it – I’ll never be a “Waitrosian”.

    1. Amen to that. They talk about the dangers of group think – and yet every single organisation is jumping on board this group think bandwagon

      1. I refuse to work for any organisation that promotes this nonsense. I get lectured about this but I am tired of the lie.

  32. Morning all 🙂😉
    It rained earlier and No word of an untruth, it keeps my 100% record for every single holiday that we take no matter where, it rains.
    I read the other day about idiots who seem to be considering trying to remanufacture certain viruses recently found in the remains of prehistoric animals. As a gesture of good will perhaps they should ‘lock them selves down’ and run the tests on themselves this time.
    It might help to tidy things up a tad.

    1. Rain? In North Norfolk?? You liar!! Not a drop here – and we are ten miles from Holt.

      2. No, deffo, our nice clean car was given a brief shower.
        You need to get out more. 🤗

  34. To the title – I can’t read the Telegraph. Do they accept any responsibility for the groupthink?

    1. Try the 12ft ladder paywall remover. Only downside is you can’t see the comments.

      1. In recent times my use of the 12ft ladder paywall remover results in the display of the US edition and steadfastly refuses to switch to the UK one.

        Anyone else experienced this, and more importantly knows how to switch back?

        1. I haven’t noticed that. It doesn’t always show the most recent news though.

  35. Good morning to all. Cool day here in West Sussex, overcast, but pleasant.

    Below an extract from a most instructive letter to the Telegraph. I would add two more very important things to the list. The revival of Sanskrit as one of the great classical languages of the world and the revival of Indian history through the archaeological efforts of the British in India. Without those two achievements no one would have a clue about classical India or its great achievements in history. The Indians literally have to thank the British for an understanding of who they are and whence they came.
    LIST
    WHAT DID THE BRITISH DO FOR INDIA?
    1. Unification of all small and larger kingdom into one country
    2. Introduction of Railways.
    3. Introduction of Postal Services.
    4. Improved Irrigation techniques
    5. Setting up of Reserve Bank of India
    6. Setting up of The Indian Civil Service and Local Government
    7. Created and trained the Indian Army.
    8. Created and trained the Indian Police force
    9. Created the Indian education system
    10. Vaccinated the population and reduced infant deaths
    11. Triangulated and mapped the country.
    12. Built hundreds of public buildings including Hospitals,
    13 Introduced modern Architecture, Civil Engineering, Railways Bridges, roads and tunnels.
    14. Created the Indian Judiciary System
    14. Eliminated the brutal practice of Suttee
    15. Gave them the English language
    16. The Indians also got democracy from us
    17. The British changed the culture of india in many ways, one was to steer the indians into having an age of consent, and fidelity to one partner.
    Its fair to say that the British literally rebuilt, educated and transformed India from a collection of feudal warlords into a fully functioning modern democracy, well prepared to become independent, and India as it is today would not exist had it not been for the billions of pounds in money and the thousands of men and machines the British poured into Indian during the Raj.
    And the expulsion of the moslems from India was one of the best moves they made, and occurred after independence, and wouldn’t have been possible had we not created and trained the Indian Army. it saved them after independence from moslem terrorism and takeover.

      2. Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones – with ingratitude.
        Benjamin Franklin
        There is your answer from a great man.

    3. That wicked colonial system allowed them to develop into a nuclear power with a space programme. What are we left with apart from swathes of shop keepers and curry houses.

    5. We civilised India and much of Africa. Since independence, so many countries have reverted to their backward ways and become economic basket cases (even more than the current UK)

    1. The dam supplies drinking water to Russian speakers in Crimea. More likely it was Zelensky seeing as they tried to destroy it six months ago.

        1. Why would the Russians blow it up as it was already in territory they’d taken? Like the pipeline explosion was obviously not done by Russia either.

        2. The problem is there are so many lies desperate to paint Putin as the enemy and Ukraine as saints that it’s almost pointless. I bet this is one that BBC verify don’t discuss!

      2. If the Russians are keen on blowing up dams producing drinking water, then perhaps the British

        authorities would like to check the security of British dams?

      3. What I was going to point out as well. Why would Russia cut off its supply of drinking water to the Crimea? Not very convincing that they would do that. About as convincing as the Russians blowing up the gas pipeline.

        I also suspect that Ukraine is responsible so it has an excuse for the non-materialisation of their “offensive” which they are not capable of mounting. So it covers up, conveniently, that militarily they are a defeated nation.

        It also guarantees yet more aid from the West.

      4. The Kiev regime has form when it comes to cutting off the water supply to Crimea. That was their response to the referendum.

    2. BTL comment:

      Well that
      would make sense the country that controls the nuclear plant blows up
      the dam that holds the river that feeds the plant. Makes as much sense
      as blowing up the pipe that feeds the gas that brings in revenue. But
      hay lets blame the Russians as long as we can keep chucking money and
      weapons to Zelenskyy to feed the rich.

    1. What surprises me is that Shareholders didn’t step in and demand this activity be stopped. We can’t do that so much in the UK, but over there they can.

      1. Similarly the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was to a large extent brought about by the head of the Risk Department

        being allowed lots of time off to be involved in various “Pride” organisations.

        Unfortunately she was not aware of various obvious risks to the Bank’s financial stability.

        Go Woke, Go Broke……………….where have I heard that before?

        1. It’s all a bit potty, isn’t it? Big investments and what not go through a specific risk board. They have to at that scale. Those bods are cross business and are the ones who say ‘no, our customers are evil white men. They won’t like it’ and some Lefty says ‘who cares!’ and the next week the company has gone.

  39. Politics latest news: Rishi Sunak loses grip on Tory rural heartlands, poll reveals.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/06/06/rishi-sunak-news-latest-migrants-small-boats-live/

    BTL

    The next general election is already lost. There is nothing that be done to change that.

    Tony Blair knew that the Labour Party had to rebrand itself as New Labour if it wanted to win. The only chance for the Conservative Party is for it to rebrand itself as The Real Conservative Party.

    All the conservative members of the current Conservative Party both inside and outside Westminster must break away now so that the nucleus of the rebranded party is there and ready to rebuild the moment Starmer walks into Downing Street.

    1. Sensible conservative people who used to vote tory are not taken in by all the woke, pride and gender rubbish that is being forced on them and worse than that, they can see the damage that the brainwashing of young children is doing to their grandchildren in schools.

        2. The minor parties are so small that it’s more or less a wasted vote. I’ve never not voted, but I may not bother next time.

          1. Vote for a small party. At least you can save him/her losing their depoisit.

          2. We’ll have to see if they stand in Stroud – it’s been overrun by Greens in recent years. Having said that I think Siobhan has done her best to be a good local MP.

          4. We and most of our neighbours have woodburners! Power cuts are less frequent than they used to be but we do need some sort of back-up heating.

          6. Aargh, tell BoB to stop posting about his wood chopping and burning activities! Lol.

          7. If you have no independent, spoil your paper. Women died and suffered great hardship for women to get the vote.

          9. If you don’t vote, THEY win.
            Spoil the ballot paper with None Of The Above or NOTA.
            Politicians would love to say we’ll no longer have elections because people can’t be bothered vote.

    2. I honestly don’t think the majority care. The minority are miserable, exhausted and so removed from power and decisions that they may as well be ghosts. Sunak listens to the globalists, the people who are getting him his next job.

    3. 373007+ up ticks,

      Morning R,
      The whole lot of the
      political hierarchy
      lab/libcon/current ukip should be acid tested, dipped in a bath if they come up smiling they stand again.
      They are in total a forty year long anti British line of treacherous political emanas with currently, a supporting cast of the same ilk.
      If the kneeling tw@t gets in the only difference will be is the kids suffer a lower class of paedophile.

      As for a strongly alleged cottaging ex PM the whole issue begs belief.

    4. I can not imagine this area ( Chichester constituency) which is predominantly rural and overwhelmingly Tory ever going to the Labour Party. If it does it would mean the total end of the Conservative Party.

      2. If it does it would mean the total end of the Conservative Party.

        As currently constituted and performing the total end of the Conservative Party should be embraced, not feared. It’s a political Titanic and hopefully the iceberg is approaching in the guise of the next GE.
        Starmer is the UK’s worst nightmare in waiting whilst placeman Sunak is the UK’s worst nightmare in power (although I’m sure that the powerbrokers behind the scenes could up their game and appoint somebody worse). The main parties have been captured and only an extreme upheaval in the political sphere could change the status quo. I don’t think that Tice does extreme upheavals, he’s too bland for that.
        If there is the slightest chance that a Real Conservative Party could rise, Phoenix like, from the ashes of the current shower then so much the better, but is that likely?

        1. I agree with you. However the idea that a truly conservative party would replace it is just an assumption. It may well be that in the future the Labour Party is the party of the right and whatever replaces the Conservative Party is something worse than that. I fully support the Right but I see no serious efforts there to bring about a cohesive force to combat the left. I do see, however, a lot of squabbling egos who think themselves indispensable to the future of the political right.

          1. I was surprised when reading FM Montgomery’s book, The Path to Leadership, that the FM thought so highly of De Gaulle. Perhaps we need someone of De Gaulle’s stripe to put the Country first and foremost by cleaning out the Augean stables that the Palace of Westminster and its environs so resemble? The problem we have is where do we find such a man/woman in these dire times?

          1. I hope not. It’s bad for your health.
            Is Thursday the 15th suitable to crack a bottle of red and have lunch chez Korky?

          2. Excellent, Korky. I am free that day and will arrive at around 12.45 am for 1 pm. OK?

      3. North Shrops was true blue (generations of returning a Tory MP). Last election they elected a Lib Dem.

  40. Another long video worth watching for in depth information. It’s about how America rewrote history to hide the neo-Nazi nature of the Ukrainian regime of Zelenskyy.

    Glen Greenwald is on the left but a scrupulously honest reporter. The actual video starts at 6:40 minutes in.

    Overnight, the Western Press Radically Rewrote the Truth About Ukraine to Serve Biden’s Endless War Policies | SYSTEM UPDATE #92

    https://rumble.com/v2sb9ca-system-update-show-92.html

    1. Many thanks for the link, Jonathan. As always, the first casualty of war is the truth. However, what most people forget is that it is not the enemy who lies. It’s our own government.

  41. Heat pumps are becoming a plague on all our houses

    As manufacturers turn against the Government’s target, once again it will be the British public who suffer

    ROSS CLARK • 5 June 2023 • 1:00pm

    Has there ever been a form of mis-government in modern times which will prove so disastrous, reaching into almost every home in Britain, as the Government’s attempt to force heat pumps on us? I ask, not because a heat pump, if properly installed, cannot be an effective way of heating a home but because ministers still seem blithely unaware of the financial pain they are about to inflict on millions of households – and manufacturing industry, too.

    The Government’s plans for net zero involve a target to switch 600,000 homes a year to heat pumps by 2028 – half of which, apparently, are going to be made in Britain, creating wonderful, well-paid “green jobs”. If the Government is going to set such an ambitious target, you might expect it would start by securing the support of UK heat pump manufacturers. Not a bit of it. Boiler and heat pump manufacturer Valliant has just warned that it could halt investment in Britain if the Government ploughs ahead with a threat to fine heating companies heavily if they fail to fulfil set targets for heat pumps. Every “missing” heat pump will cost them a penalty of £5,000.

    If the Government cannot keep a company which has just invested £4 million in a heat pump manufacturing facility in Derbyshire on side, then who will it enlist to fulfil its policy? The truth is that the campaign to force heat pumps on us is failing not because of lazy boiler manufacturers who are stuck in their ways, but because heat pumps are not selling themselves to homeowners. At £10,000 for a small home, they are just too expensive, and there are too many misery tales of people who shelled out many thousands of pounds only to find themselves with a device which doesn’t always succeed in keeping them warm.

    The total number of heat pumps fitted in the past three months is fewer than 9,000 – and that is in spite of a subsidy scheme which pays bungs of £5,000 a time to homeowners who install one. Somehow, manufacturers and installers are going to have to increase installations tenfold if the target is to be met – and they are going to have to do so without the subsidies. There is, surely, no way that the public purse is going to stretch to a £5,000 handout for all of Britain’s 27 million households – that would cost over £100 billion. The current subsidy scheme involves enough money only for 30,000 households to take advantage.

    Unless there is a miracle advance in technology in the next few years which brings down the cost of heat pumps sharply – and there is no sign of that yet – the government is going to miss its target for 600,000 new heat pumps a year by a massive margin. The government will virtually have to send the heavies round to our houses, who then march us to the cashpoint to empty our bank accounts, in order to ensure we install them.

    And no, they won’t even be British-made heat pumps – not if the government’s green policy is perversely going to stop companies investing in Britain. The only “green jobs” this disastrous project will create are overpaid officials in quangos who are paid to come up with ever dafter ideas of how to punish and manipulate the public into achieving net zero.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/05/the-tories-are-staking-our-future-on-technology-we-know-won

    Max Headroom & Co will undoubtedly tell us the government’s plans aren’t tough enough…

    1. Boycott is a strong tool to employ: see Bud Light, Northface, Target et al.
      The more the political shower stamp their feet on this issue the better. Politicos becoming more extreme will bring forward the awakening of the slumbering masses. Then…

        1. I naturally lean towards pessimism but on the issue of people finally realising that they’re being duped by those who think they are a ruling elite rather than our political servants, optimism just shades it.

    2. Where will all that ‘leccy come from? 27.000.000 x 20kWh a year is 540 TWh a year or so. According to Google, that’s 1.5 times the current installed UK generating capacity.
      Dream on.

      1. It won’t.
        Isn’t it blatantly obvious that these plans will not keep 68 million people well fed and warm, let alone the real population?
        Only two conclusions – either they want people cold and hungry, or else they are expecting the population to be considerably smaller than it currently is.

          1. I don’t believe so. The belief that the world is over-populated and that humans are a cancer that needs to be eradicated goes hand in hand with the climate fraud. They know where it’s going, and they aren’t complaining because secretly they think it’s a good thing.

    1. Bloody hell! That’s some leap. Mongo rather more ‘rolls’ in to the pool than soars.

        1. His bashing into the sea is a bit like watching Moses at work. I’ve not yet got Ozzie to properly enjoy the water. I think he’s still nervous.

          1. Dolly won’t go near it. She looks at me reproachfully if i stand her in a couple of inches of tepid water to clean her bottom.

          2. Newfies are natural swimmers. They’re literally designed for it. I’ve wondered he’d plough in if the Warqueen were with him.

  43. One good thing about the Harrys trial it may remove Scofield from the front pages.

    2. They’re torturing us!

      Anything to avoid mentioning that the US raising the debt ceiling means they will have to issue another 4 billion dollars worth of Treasuries, which the Federal Reserve will have to buy, cos nobody else wants’em, and has been predicted to lead to a similar crisis to the one that happened in late summer 2019…and which necessitated a large round of money printing, **and a handy excuse to do so.**

      Also don’t mention that the US is switching from LIBOR to SOFR at the end of June, and a lot of loan contracts will suddenly be on the new rate, and I don’t think it will be lower.

      Look! we can talk about the colour of Philip Schofield’s tie, and not about how Binance is about to go titsup. Also sweep under the carpet that Saudi is in close talks about joining BRICS, that the UAE pulled out of the US-led Gulf Maritime Alliance and is entering a navel alliance with India, Pakistan and the Arab nations instead.

      That’s just trivia, let’s focus on the really important stuff about TV presenters and useless Princes.

  44. Just back from my prostate examination. What an eye opener that was !…ahem…

    When i was under the haematologist they recommended Folic acid, Thiamine and strong Vitamin B compound. This was done over the phone and i didn’t hear the last bit.

    Two weeks later i asked the surgery why my new meds had not been added to my twice monthly prescription. They said they hadn’t received the letter from the specialist. So i went out and bought the folic acid. With so many appointments and tests it slipped my mind.

    The Doctor i saw today was surprised i hadn’t been taking the b vits as i am a drinker and my liver enzyme count is very high.

    He also brought up a copy of the letter but the prescribing team obviously hadn’t looked at the top of page 2. He has now prescribed them. I was supposed to be taking them since July 2022.

    He asked me also if i wanted help with my drinking. I said yes. I’ll join you for a pint.

      2. It could be worse, you might have Rimsky-Korsakov syndrome, brain of a bumblebee.

        1. Har har. I’m not looking for sympathy here and i like people commenting slant wise but i think i should stop doing the old people thing about complaining of aches and pains.

          1. Complain away, Phizzee.
            Did he really think your memory was affected? From your posts on here, you don’t give that impression at all.

            If forgetting a prescription was a sign of alcohol poisoning, I think the NHS would have been in Reha for a long time now!

          2. He realised that i should have been taking Thiamine but hadn’t. The questions he asked me resonated. Each morning i read through the posts of the previous evening and then answer them as needed. If i didn’t do that i wouldn’t know what anyone was talking about. I have already seen it within myself that unless something is bigger(?) i don’t remember. I went to dinner very recently with a couple of Nottlers and though i could tell you their names i couldn’t say what the date was or what we talked about.

      1. I was born in the Sudan so when I went for my prostate examination I learnt what Corporal Jones was talking about when he said the Fuzzy Wuzzies of the Sudan don’t like it up ’em.

    2. I don’t think they care if the truth comes out anymore, they are that confident in their power

  46. Gonorrhoea cases in England reach an all-time high. 6 June 2023.

    Cases of gonorrhoea in England have risen 50 per cent in a year to reach an all-time high.

    New figures from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show that cases of the sexually transmitted infection are the highest since records began in 1918.

    Meanwhile, the number of cases of syphilis diagnosed in England has reached the highest level since just after the Second World War.

    Well I wonder what could have caused that!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/06/gonorrhoea-cases-england-all-time-high/

    2. Here’s an old report from the BMJ from 2020
      https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3425.full

      “Cases of gonorrhoea in England increased by 26% last year to the highest level since records began in 1918. Official figures showed 70 936 cases in 2019—up from 56 232 in 2018—prompting Public Health England to urge people to practice safe sex.1

      Most gonorrhoea diagnoses were reported in gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (up 26% to 33 853), but diagnoses also increased in heterosexual women (up 26% to 17 826) and heterosexual men (up 17% to 15 253). …”

      Gay/bisexual men = 33853 cases
      Rest of population = 33079 cases

      It’s pointless making ***l sex illegal because people will always do it anyway, but it is a very risky practice. Criminalising pointing this out to young people is wicked.

      2. So the gays infect the bi’s who invite the girls to infect the guys. Gee!

  47. Apparently it is not censorship –

    The Canadian TV licensing organisation are holding hearings into whether Fox News should be banned from distribution in Canada. Some lefties complained about it being right wing and called for the ban that would protect weak minds.

    I checked with a couple of our TV providers, you need to specifically select Fox News to have it included in what you can watch. It is one of the hundreds of optional channels.

    So it seems that we are going to be able to subscribe to a multitude of porn channels but not to channels not following the lead of our glorious (only in his own mind) leader.

  48. Grrr cough, cough.

    Forest fires are spreading across Canada, most provinces now have dozens of out of control fires. We are not having weather today, the skies are completely overcast and you can smell the smoke even though we are well over a hundred miles from the nearest fires. The sun is hidden behind the smoke, it is deep orange and no brighter than a full moon – it has been dusk all day.

    Don’t worry though, the idiot Minister of Culture is claiming that the new internet censorship (sorry, safe internet) bill will help reduce the number of forest fires as well as reducing gun crime!

    There is an interesting map that shows where the fires are:

    https://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/

          1. But Blair is the Devil. No human should play that role.
            There, fixed it…

  50. Blowing a dam won’t save Putin from being swept away by Ukraine’s counter-offensive. 6 June 2023.

    The Ukrainian government likely won’t speculate much even once the main offensive is underway, but we’ll very soon begin to see columns of Ukrainian vehicles, swiftly followed by burned out Russian tanks; the Kremlin state-media won’t be able to spin that, nor keep it a secret.

    Putin must be petrified. For over a year now, and arguably since 2014, his criminal, terrorist, mercenary and conscript forces have terrorised Ukraine and its people. Now Kyiv’s forces are set to bring the fight to Russia’s doorstep. Blowing the dam shows how just how scared Moscow’s floundering army is. It’s a blatant delaying tactic, attempting to hold off the counter-offensive for just a few more days. But soon there’ll be no secrets – and nowhere for Putin’s soldiers to hide.

    I wonder if this guy knows what hubris is?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/06/ukraine-counter-offensive-dam-putin-swept-away/

    1. If there really had been a successful counter-offensive it would have been all over the MSM non-stop.
      Hell, it might even have knocked Soiledfield and the Ginger whinger into the middle pages.

  52. Printed sign on the back of a smart van belonging to West Wilts Scaffolders:

    “No tall, dark, handsome, polite, reliable, emotionally available men kept in this vehicle overnight.”

    1. Printed sign on the back of a smart barge belonging to a certain King:

      “One tall, dark, handsome, polite, reliable, emotionally available man kept in this vehicle overnight. Apply within”

  53. Just stop oil nutters walking slowly up Kingsway in Aldwych as i type. Don’t they have jobs to do? Ah here comes Plod

  54. SIR – To those who wish to see inheritance tax scrapped: which taxes would you like to see introduced or raised to fill the resultant shortfall in government revenue?

    Nick Jones
    Cardiff

    Why does there have to be an increase in another tax? Government could learn to spend less … ooo, flying pigs!

  55. D-Day anniversary.
    Father avoided that particular event, as he was working with atom bombs. Otherwise, I might not be here…
    Respect to those who were involved.

    1. My father was involved in D-Day (RN Landing Craft on Omaha Beach). I’m glad he survived, otherwise I wouldn’t be here!

      1. That was how my father’s TB was discovered.
        Once the expense of training up an officer arose, he was subjected to a proper medical. As a conscripted grunt, he could have just cheaply died.

    2. Fusilier in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers – a London regiment, although he was a lad from West Hartlepool. Guess that was convenient for posting to Harwell for atom work.

      2. ‘Oof’ is a euphemism for killing in video games. As in ‘he oofed me’.

      3. What a superb example of conceptual art.

        Those who sacrificed themselves for the good of others gradually washed away into the sea to be forgotten.

        Never let them be forgotten.

        1. Afraid I was rather overwhelmed by that, Sos. So simple and so poignant.
          All those young lads who never got a chance to grow up.

    4. My father was lying on bed on a verandah at Haslar.
      But for the intervention of mycobacterium tuberculosis, he would have been steering a landing craft onto Sword beach.

      1. My Dad (Gunner) was slated to go at some point (after D-Day) but was sent on a signaller’s course at Catterick instead. Some of his troop were killed early on. It was the only time my Mom saw him cry.

      1. The anniversary for when his luck turned completely around & he fell on his feet. Your patience and kindness worked wonders, Conners. Good on you, mate!

        1. Thanks. I’m not sure he appreciates it! He tried to nip my hand when I wanted to take him for a walk this morning, although, to be fair, while his teeth connected he didn’t actually cause any pain. Perhaps he’s mellowing in his old age 🙂

  56. Bog standard Par Four today.

    Wordle 717 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨🟩🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Birdie here

      Almost an eagle

      Wordle 717 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
      🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Got a 3 today but not thrilled about anything. I’ve just been informed that the Zellis data breach included my name, date of brith, work ID number and NI number. I’ve been given free Identity Plus Experian membership so have signed up for that. Drat and double drat. (No bank details included apparently.)

      Wordle 717 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Me too, a few more other iterations were still available.
      Wordle 717 4/6

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

    1. Such is the power and control of the media these days we could be in a world war and not even know until we were vaporised.

      1. A quote about war:

        War serves many purposes. It distracts from the malfeasance of the political classes as it busies giddy minds with foreign quarrels. It creates a symbiosis in which the media serves the state in its relentless grab for bigger budgets and greater police powers; while the state feeds the media’s need for high drama and the narcotic of fear. It provides for the deification of the state, which is then entitled to command all resources — human and material — without challenge or objection. If the state is divine, enemies and dissenters alike must be evil and dealt with accordingly.

    5. The A10 ‘Warthog’ has been in service since 1976 and is serving with some USA Commands, including the National Guard.

      One comment stands out re this near 50 years old aeroplane, “The A-10, while it has served us well, is simply not a part of the battlefield of the future,”

      How will it stand up to the advances in air to air and ground to air combat that the Russians will have made over the decades?

  58. From RT.

    6 Jun, 2023 13:40
    HomeRussia & FSU
    Kakhovka dam destruction: What you need to know
    Moscow has accused Kiev of an act of deliberate sabotage that put at risk thousands of local residents
    Kakhovka dam destruction: What you need to know

    A major breach of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in Russia’s Kherson Region inundated huge swaths of land on the banks of the Dnieper River, prompting large-scale evacuation efforts in the area. Moscow claimed that the facility was damaged by a Ukrainian strike, while Kiev placed the blame on Russia.

    Built in 1956, the 30-meter tall and 3.2-kilometer-long Kakhovka hydroelectric dam contains some 18 cubic kilometers of water, roughly the same volume as the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah.

    What happened?
    On Tuesday morning, Vladimir Leontyev, the mayor of Novaya Kakhovka, a city located close to the dam, said that part of the facility had been destroyed by a Ukrainian strike, which reportedly used a multiple launch rocket system.

    Hydroelectric dam in Kherson partially destroyed – mayor
    Read more Hydroelectric dam in Kherson partially destroyed – mayor
    With at least 14 of dam’s 28 spans having collapsed, Leontyev said that the water level in the area had risen by more than ten meters, resulting in the town being flooded. Against this backdrop, the local authorities started evacuating residents from several riverside settlements, with some 300 buildings being vacated.

    Russian officials also said that 14 nearby settlements with a total population of 22,000 are at risk of flooding. Meanwhile, Kiev assessed that some 80 towns are now in the danger zone and also ordered evacuations from the towns it currently occupies.

    Leontyev stated that the water level will return to normal within 72 hours.

    Who is to blame?
    Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov claimed that the incident “was caused by a deliberate Ukrainian sabotage,” warning of “dire ramifications” for tens of thousands of local residents and the ecosystem.

    City of Novaya Kakhovka flooded after dam destruction – mayor
    Read more City of Novaya Kakhovka flooded after dam destruction – mayor
    He noted that the sabotage was aimed at cutting the water supply to the Russian Crimea peninsula, adding that the strikes appeared to have been linked to the recent large-scale Ukrainian attacks on the Donbass front, which were thwarted by Russian defenses.

    However, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed that the dam was damaged in a Russian “terrorist attack,” while his top aide, Mikhail Podoliak, accused Moscow of staging the “biggest environmental disaster in Europe in decades.” He believes that the incident was meant to throw a wrench in the much-hyped Ukrainian counteroffensive that Kiev has been promising for months.

    Numerous Western officials appeared to take Kiev’s side, with European Council President Charles Michel writing on Twitter that “the destruction of civilian infrastructure clearly qualifies as a war crime,” vowing to “hold Russia and its proxies accountable.”

    No risk to Zaporozhye nuclear plant
    The dam explosion triggered concerns about the situation at Russia’s Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, which is also located on the Dnieper and uses river water to cool its reactors.

    However, the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has a constant presence at the facility, assured that there is “no immediate nuclear safety risk at [the] plant,” adding that it is closely monitoring the situation.

    Ukraine cuts electricity to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – official
    Read more Ukraine cuts electricity to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant – official
    Still, the agency’s director Rafael Grossi pointed to “a significant reduction in the level of the reservoir used to supply cooling water” to the plant. He did state, however, that the NPP has an alternative water source that is estimated to last for several months.

    The largest nuclear facility in Europe, the ZNPP came under Russian control in February 2022. Since then, Moscow and Kiev have accused each other of shelling the facility, with each claiming that the other’s actions could trigger a nuclear disaster. Zaporozhye Region became part of Russia following a referendum in September 2022, together with Kherson Region and the two Donbass republics.

    Impact on Crimea
    Sergey Aksyonov, the governor of the Russian peninsula, stated that while the incident at the Kakhovka dam won’t cause any flooding in Crimea, it may lead to a decreased water level in the North Crimea Canal, which serves as a key water source.

    Still, he emphasized that the local water reservoirs are filled to 80% of their capacity, adding that “there is more than enough drinking water” and that efforts were underway to minimize the losses.

  59. Yay!!!! Zippedy Doo Dah!!!!!
    The blasted yucca tree that blighted the Dower House front garden is now at one with Nineveh and Tyre.
    Once MB and I put our minds to it, it was a work of minutes.
    Daylight now floods into the sittingroom. And the front garden has opened up and looks twice the size.

    1. Of course you realise that it was under a Tree Preservation Order….

      Jobsworths alerted – and on their way…

  60. About two months ago, Dr Stupid told me that he was going to arrange for a kidney consultant to examine my, er, kidney at the NNUH.

    Lunchtime, the postman brought two letters from the NNUH. One dated 26 May – saying that there were no appointments available and I might hear by the end of the year. Or not. The other dated 2 June, saying that they would soon arrange an apptmt – before the end of the year. Or not.

    I didn’t want this anyway – so I phoned the “Appointments Outpatients Services”. Answered at second ring. I cancelled. All done in under a minute. Funny how efficient they can be at times…..{:¬))

        1. Now if it had been a BUPA establishment you would have got two first class letters (the second an invoice for the stamps!!!!)

        2. Now if it had been a BUPA establishment you would have got two first class letters (the second an invoice for the stamps!!!!)

  61. That’s me for yet another miserable, cold, grey day. They say it may be sunny tomorrow. Huh…

    Have a jolly evening reading how poor Brash was so hard done my.

    A demain.

    1. It has been the same here, grey, gloomy, miserable, cold. I feel under the weather today. I have no hopes of seeing the sun ever again.

      1. Sunny & over 20C here today. Sitting outside with red medicine & sourdough bread with sambal oelek to dip it in.
        Couldn’t be better!

      2. 373007+ up ticks,

        Evening PM,
        Don’t be bloody daft mum, they’ll get another paper boy

        2. You look really smart in your grey suit with striped red and white tie, Rusty. Lol.

    2. I read the proceedings with interest. It seems all the evidence brash has, is that he believes that the stories could not have got out any way other than by phone hacking. Slim pickings in a court of law, and it seems most of the gossip had already been published or released by the Palace. I think he might end up looking like a bit of a nincompoop.

  63. As with cars, I can’t tell helicopters apart, but there does seem to be an awful lot of to-ing and fro-ing around the nearby garrison land.

    1. A car has wheels. A helicopter has whirly arms above its head, and is often breezy and loud.
      ,-))

    3. A couple of large, propeller-driven beasts trundled into RAF Mildenhall late morning and early afternoon overhead from a south-westerly direction.

        1. We are s.w. of Mildenhall, only a few miles due west of Duxford. If we go to the top of a certain hill only half a mile outside the village we can watch the airshows – free!

          1. Ah – rather further from Mildenhall than I imagined. I was somewhat closer, living in Thetford, playing the organ in Brandon, and also singing with a choir in Mildenhall itself.

          2. I have just turned green with envy! 🙂 I may well have flown over your house when I had my Tiger Moth flying lesson.

    4. Surely you can tell the difference between a Chinook (wokka wokka with two rotors) and a single rotor Gazelle, Jupiter or Juno 🙂

    1. Lots of coffee for me then, Sue!

      Actually, I like just one (0.5L) cafetiere of strong French Espresso with Brunch about 1p.m.

  65. We haven’t seen anything from Sir Jasper today – does anyone know how he is?

  66. “One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”

    George Orwell in Homage to Catalonia, 1938.

    In 1946 he wrote: “Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”

    I doubt that democratic socialists made up a majority of the forces ranged against Franco…

    1. I applaud the fellow for doing the right thing. If the police enforced the law this wouldn’t be necessary but as they’ve shown no interest in doing so it was inevitable people would combat injustice themselves.

      Now I wonder how much money plod will waste trying to find the bloke.

      1. More time than they will spend looking for my stolen electric bike, that’s for sure!

    3. I have to say I approached this article with pleased excitement! The only fly in the ointment being there was no cctv footage!

  71. Well, I got that half ton of concrete ballast shifted this morning, only about 15 yards, but it did make my back creak a bit, and then got a bit of bramble and ground elder bashing done.
    Also drilled a hole into the large blue barrel I’ve acquired for fitting a tap, but, owing to the height of the barrel, I’m having trouble getting the outlet fitting tight enough!

    However, I’m off to bed so g’night all.

      1. So when I’m inside the barrel how do I reach the nut on the outside to hold it?

        1. You do what we did at the weekend – you lie inside the barrel and your helper pushes the tap hard from the outside.

  72. Evening, all. Will the masses resist groupthink, though? I see our LD MP was talking about the abundance of “conspiracy theories” when she addressed an Area meeting. Waking up to the truth is what I call it.

  73. Good night, chums. Sleep well (if you can) and see you all in the morning.

  74. I know that our broken education system is spawning idiots but Prince Harry is way ahead of the curve. A stupid narcissist.

    I suspect his marriage to Markle has contributed to the blunting of his senses. She sounds just like that other empty headed bint Kamala Harris, a double dose of word salad dripping hypocrisy in every utterance.

    1. I wonder if he was ever given the opportunity to heed Mark Twain’s advice – “Never pick an argument with a man who buys his ink by the barrel load”?

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