Monday 12 June: If the Tories indulge in another bout of infighting, they will make themselves unelectable

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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432 thoughts on “Monday 12 June: If the Tories indulge in another bout of infighting, they will make themselves unelectable”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Be Kind To Your Fellow Man

    Three in the morning. This guy’s asleep in bed with the wife when there’s a loud knocking at the door.

    “Who the hell is that?” he grumbles, goes downstairs and opens the door. The fella standing there says, “Look, I’m really sorry to disturb you at this hour, but can you give me a push?”

    “Certainly not! Get lost!” says the house-owner, shuts the door and goes back upstairs.

    “Who was it, dear?” asks his wife.

    “Guy wanted a push, three in the morning. I told him to bugger off.”

    “Now don’t you remember when we were first married?” says the wife. “When the car broke down in the middle of the night? Remember how you knocked on the door of that house and the nice man came and helped push-start the car, and saved our honeymoon? Well, in a way, now’s your chance to repay that favour!”

    “Oh, all right,” says the husband and goes downstairs again. He opens the door and calls out “Hey, fella! Need a push? Where are you?”

    “Over here,” comes a voice from the darkness. “On the swing!”

      1. Thank you, kind sir! Will drop you an email when the twins have departed for home! 😘🙄

      1. Fabulous thanks, Ndovu! No cleaning, no washing, no cooking, and a fortnight swimming and lazing about. We didn’t even make it to Havana this time, but not having had a holiday for quite a while….! Heaven for that time but fine to be back with family and animals – Hector is still with us – and a garden like a jungle!

  4. Morning, all Y’all.
    Woken by helicopter dropping water on local hilltop fire. Exciting! Can do without it, though.

    1. Big rooftop fire in Oslo centre. Fire brigade has been at it all night, still burning under the roof – so they are ripping that off.

    2. Yes. Blasted fire just makes things hotter. No doubt a bunch of thugs, or a thrown away cigarette.

  7. If the Tories indulge in another bout of infighting, they will make themselves unelectable

    One can hardly call it infighting since most Tories are already out

      1. I remember when they existed, a long time ago, when constituencies selected their own MPs.

      2. It seems that over the past few decades politics has just become an opportunity for certain types of ‘self industrious’ people to jump on to bandwagons trying to draw attention to themselves whilst fishing for opportunities to improve their own lifestyles. Soon the purpose of their supposed dedication to public life is lost, as they become more and more wealthy as a result of their ‘extra curricular’ efforts.

        1. Couldn’t agree more, Eddy. Becoming an MP, and even better a junior minister, seems to be more about filling one’s address book with contacts who are likely to prove useful when the time comes to go – and then seek highly profitable ’employment’ elsewhere.

  8. Hot and unbothered. 12 June 2023.

    Patronising advice is routinely handed out, such as sleep under a sheet or close the curtains to stop the sun getting in. The latest nag is that people with hay fever should avoid driving in case they sneeze while behind the wheel.

    Proponents of this ridiculous mollycoddling consider it harmless and helpful but it is in fact insidious. It lends itself to the imposition of controls that reached their apogee when the entire country was told to stay home during Covid.

    Arguably, the weather warnings are emblematic of the gradual infantilisation of society that helps explain the over-reaction to the coronavirus. We do not need to be issued with yellow and amber warnings whenever the thermometer shows what most people would regard as a perfectly normal summer temperature.

    Worryingly, we are still only in early June.

    A rare example of common sense in the MSM!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/06/12/uk-heat-warning-hot-and-unbothered/

  9. Hot and unbothered. 12 June 2023.

    Patronising advice is routinely handed out, such as sleep under a sheet or close the curtains to stop the sun getting in. The latest nag is that people with hay fever should avoid driving in case they sneeze while behind the wheel.

    Proponents of this ridiculous mollycoddling consider it harmless and helpful but it is in fact insidious. It lends itself to the imposition of controls that reached their apogee when the entire country was told to stay home during Covid.

    Arguably, the weather warnings are emblematic of the gradual infantilisation of society that helps explain the over-reaction to the coronavirus. We do not need to be issued with yellow and amber warnings whenever the thermometer shows what most people would regard as a perfectly normal summer temperature.

    Worryingly, we are still only in early June.

    A rare example of common sense in the MSM!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/06/12/uk-heat-warning-hot-and-unbothered/

    1. It’s all just a drip drip psyop to keep the idea of warming weather in the ether

      I know it has no effect on the experienced older generations that just see it as mad, but they are grooming the climate youth

      1. The bare-faced lying as we head into a probably mini ice age in the next decade is breathtaking.

    2. Absolutely predictable result of women having political and therefore social power. The mum mentality applied to the whole country, and ushering in totalitarianism.

      1. Morning BB. Churchill was right. Women should never have been given the vote!

        1. There has never been any proper, unbiased investigation into the long term effects of women having the vote – and there never will be.

          1. On the issue of women voting, the young Churchill was profoundly chauvinist, arguing that ‘only the most undesirable class of women are eager for the right,’ and that ‘Those women who discharge their duty to the state viz. marrying and giving birth to children, are adequately represented by their husbands,’ therefore ‘I shall unswervingly oppose this ridiculous movement.’ This was partly because ‘If you give women votes you must ultimately allow women to sit as members of Parliament,’ after which inevitably ‘all power passes to their hands.’

            Andrew Roberts. Churchill (p. 43). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

          2. Hmm.
            The first sentence is probably true.
            The second assertion is not, because in some cases the women are not adequately represented by their husbands.
            The last part has unfortunately been proven correct – though Churchill could not have predicted the rise of the oestrogen-soaked soy boy.

            The closer you look at democracy, the harder it is to implement a decent version of it. Contrary to what most poeple believe, one person one vote is not the only form of democracy, neither is it the most desirable imo.

          3. Contrary to popular opinion Democracy is not nearly so wonderful as is supposed but Churchill’s dictum applies!

          4. We had a largely benevolent dicatorship from about the Glorious Revolution through to Blair’s vandalism and destruction of the House of Lords.
            The best form of government.

          5. But Minty we don’t live in a democracy. The word itself comes from Demos Kratos. The people hold the power. When was the last time anyone felt they were particularly in control of the state, or even had the remostest ability to stop the state pursuing whatever policy it wanted?

          7. But Wibbles we do hold the power if it only takes a revolution/civil war to restore Magna Carta and Common (Natural) Law.

          10. In Dubai Sheikh Mo is the one man with the one vote and it seems work OK for them.

          11. Universal franchise should be revoked. Why should a welfare recipient be allowed a say in the future of the country?

          12. That is one very powerful argument – net financial takers from the system shouldn’t have a vote.
            One vote per household is a system that has been used in the past, but that only really works when most people are married.
            Votes restricted to the over thirties would be another possible solution.

          13. We don’t give children the vote because they have not reached an age where they can make sensible and logical choices when casting their vote. Unfortunately, an increase in years does not necessarily increase the ability to make sensible and logical choices. But I doubt whether an attempt to introduce some kind of IQ test would be successful.

          15. Did that with Limp Dumb county councillor a couple of years ago.
            He said “it’s a complex matter”. I wonder what his wife thinks.
            I closed the door.

          16. I would have been unable to stop myself from bursting out laughing in his face at that ridiculous reply!

          17. Morning Elsie – an IQ test for potential and current politicians wouldn’t go amiss

          21. That means nowt for pensioners like me who also receive state benefits. Even though I paid in for 50 years.

          22. I wouldn’t count the state pension as a benefit, or disability benefits either. Plus, pensioners should get voting rights because of their life experience.
            This discussion highlights what a minefield the whole subject is, and why governments have gone for the very flawed one adult, one vote* system recently in the West.

            Unless your name’s Biden, in which case you get millions of votes.

        2. Did he really, Minty? Do you have a link? PS – Sorry, I’ve just seen your link (Penguin Books) below.

        1. It isn’t irony. It’s fact!
          Can you seriously tell me that if there were no women involved in the decision-making process, that men on their own would come up with stuff like telling the public to draw the curtains in order to sleep better in summer?

    3. The journo who wrote this is now in a cattle truck on his/her journey to a re-education camp.

    4. There far worse things than ‘sneezing behind the wheel’. There are the thousands of idiots. Who totally ignore speed limits and the general rules of the road.

      1. We can tell it’s summer here as our narrow lanes are full of idiots who can’t drive – especially in narrow lanes!

    5. If the state tells people how to behave it cements it’s role as both ‘benevolent ruler’ and as the article states, infantilises the public.

      It can also twist the situation to claim this is climate change. Climate change being, of course, weather.

    6. ‘Morning, Minty. I’m sure others will also remember some spectacular summer storms in their early years, together with high humidity. I can clearly recall being taken into my parents’ bed during the night (probably to their irritation) as yet another storm banged and crashed all around us, and sometimes for what seemed like hours on end. My mother always drew the curtains on hot sunny days and my sister and I were not allowed to play outside when it was very hot. We just got on with it, without endless warnings from officialdom.

      It is sad to reflect that as time marches on this once stoic country finds it necessary to issue such trivial announcements, not helped more recently by the widespread propagation of such nonsense via soshal meeja. There are just too many people itching to tell everyone else how to live their lives!

  10. Morning all 🙂😉
    Back to grey and looking forward to the forecast rain.
    It’s not just the tories that are unelectable. It’s the whole GD lot of them that are completely useless. The whole system is broken.

  11. China – US relations are not looking good.
    If you believe in sovereign nations, and China’s version of events, the US is leading the world towards war.
    If you believe that wars happen when the elites want them to, then who knows?
    I suppose the first sign for us will be a lot of stories appearing in the media either about plucky little Taiwan or big bullying USA. We’ll known then what Rockefeller, Rothschild, Windsor etc have decided shall be our country’s role.
    https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1667913932873551873

      1. It’s also very difficult to understand when they have clear and distinct choices, how supposedly educated populations such as the US and Canada, even NZ keep electing such dangerous seemingly psychotic people to become their leaders. The Chinese don’t have a choice.
        Remembering of course our current leader has never been elected.
        But a bit of fiddling usually fixes that sort of thing. The current state of London is a classic example.

        1. When we outsource education to the government, we get the kind of education we deserve. Arguably you can’t call people educated when they come out of school not knowing their own history and not understand what fiat currency is, or how their country’s money supply works (for example).

      2. All sides are pushing propaganda into the ether as hard as they can. How much has our perception of US foreign policy been swayed by Chinese and Russian propaganda on the internet?
        I don’t think China is the blameless, unaggressive innocent that they claim to be. So what if their empire-building ambitions are via debt rather than bullets? Comes to the same thing in the end.

        The US may very well be fulfilling the dictum “When all else fails, they take you to war.” In particular, they are about to have a giant liquidity crisis. Last time that happened in late summer 2019, they needed to go on a massive money printing spree. Once you understand that they HAD to print all that money and inject it directly into companies, the massive PR campaign around covid is easier to understand.

        This time, they’ll have to print far, far more because the whole rotten system gets bigger with each round of money-printing.
        So what could hide that?

        1. Check out the Weimar Republic and the cause of its downfall – printing money which became valueless.

  12. 373237+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,
    Wuhan scientists ‘created mutant virus before pandemic’
    Investigation claims Chinese virologists were running risky experiments with the coronavirus before the pandemic

    As, I expect many of us took to be the case, was it “running risky experiments” or a successful pilot program to be used by individual nations politico’s in a fear and manipulation manner ?

    If so Great Britain’s political force had a run of successes with the killing lockdown /isolation / mask up / a sword width apart
    manipulation, in following that lethal agenda the United Kingdom’s, in the main politico’s were top rankers.

    1. I wouldn’t be surprised. Heck, we do it. We do this to create retroviruses and what not.

    1. The globlists wanted Sunak. I suppose after shirking his duty at the Treasury over covid, spent instead stabbing Boris in the back shows why they wanted him. When he failed to get democratically elected and the rightly elected PM threatened their plans they did her in and imposed him. Dutifully, he set about crippling the economy with moronic taxes and destructive policies.

      1. “Dutifully, he set about crippling the economy with moronic taxes and destructive policies.”

        As he had when Chancellor with Quantitative Easing, i.e., printing money, which was the downfall of Germany’s Weimar Republic leading to the rising of Adolf and his National socialist party and WWII.

      2. “Dutifully, he set about crippling the economy with moronic taxes and destructive policies.”

        As he had when Chancellor with Quantitative Easing, i.e., printing money, which was the downfall of Germany’s Weimar Republic leading to the rising of Adolf and his National socialist party and WWII.

    2. I have been banging on for some time now about my view that the real conservatives in the Conservative Party must form a New Conservative Party now and leave Sunak to rot.

      This won’t save the Conservatives from electoral disaster but the longer the real Conservatives delay their revolt the longer Labour will be in power.

  14. With all the unprecedented meltdown chaos in political life occurring here and abroad with politicians being cancelled for seemingly trivial offences while great lies go unscrutinised by opposition parties and in the mainstream medias around the world are we seeing our globalist and internationalist masters seizing complete totalitarian control of the free world?

  15. The Ukrainian Army Has Already Lost Half Of Its Unique Leopard 2R Breaching Vehicles. 11 June 2023.

    The engineer battalions of the 33rd Mechanized and 47th Assault Brigades, the lead formations in Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive, suffered heavy equipment losses in their assault just south of Mala Tokmachka last week.

    The losses include at least five of the battalions’ specialized engineering vehicles. Fitted with mineplows and minerollers, these vehicles lead tanks and infantry fighting vehicles through minefields, plowing and rolling a path so the tanks and IFVs can break through enemy defenses.

    That the engineers lost so many vehicles on or around Thursday doesn’t mean the assault on Russian positions near Mala Tokmachka has failed. Yet. A frontal attack on enemy fortifications—a “breach”—is among the most difficult and potentially costliest operations in ground warfare.

    The level of detail would lead one to the conclusion that this is a truthful account of the fighting.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2023/06/11/the-ukrainian-army-has-already-lost-half-of-its-unique-leopard-2r-breaching-vehicles/?sh=189dd79f86fe

  16. 373237+ up ticks,

    Cochranereturns,

    Sends greetings, keep in mind I am only the messenger,

    I no nufink.

  18. SIR – I was astonished to learn that Roger Mortlock, chief executive of CPRE, the countryside charity (Letters, June 10), believes that by moving to renewables at speed the UK can have a “realistic chance of avoiding calamitous climate change”.

    Could
    someone gently explain to him that, even if we reduced CO2 emissions
    from the UK to zero tomorrow, it would not make the slightest difference
    to the climate?

    David Cockerham
    Bearsted, Kent

    Not forgetting the fact that without CO2 rural England would be a dust bowl.

    1. Could someone gently explain to him that, even if we reduced CO2 emissions
      from the UK to zero tomorrow, it would not make the slightest difference
      to the climate?

      This simple fact is beyond the understanding of anyone in Westminster!

      1. They are thinking of their place on the virtue signalling world stage. Not the people who put them in power.

        1. They think the billionaires are the ones who put them in power. They are probably right, as long as the public doesn’t wake up.

        2. Historical linguistic note:
          What used to be known as “The Bar of World Opinion”.

    2. What a splendid letter – surprised it got published!
      Well done Mr Cockerham!

    3. Mr Mortlock is biased and ignorant. This latching on to a harmless trace gas is moronic. Next they’ll bash on about there being too much nitrogen in the atmosphere.

      It plays on the stupidity of weak minded, thoughtless fools who the state refuses to leave alone.

    4. Mortlock used to be the CEO of Gloucestershire Wildlife. Just another corporate bod moving on to further his career. He doesn’t have to believe the crap he spouts.

  19. Good morning, all. Sunny and warm.

    Any deluded Labour voters who think that Starmer will save them from Sunak’s conservative predations should read this article. Starmer is a co-passenger with Sunak et al. on their journey to create a totally controlled state where serfdom will be the lot of the population allowed to remain and serve their elite masters. The medieval robber barons would be green with envy at what is being touted by the current self-appointed elite.

    Under Starmer’s tenure the Labour Party has become a centre-right party, it no longer advocates a democratic socialist agenda of internationalism and emancipation of the working class. Instead, it offers a partnership of business and globalisation, one that will take workers down the road to serfdom. Where every facet of their lives is commodified. Where people are valued only by their ability to add to their allocated sphere of production.

    Remarkably, the potential future Prime Minister told former BBC journalist Emily Maitlis at the conference that he prefers Davos to Westminster, saying that the seat of power in London is “too constrained”. “It’s closed and we are not having meaning… once you get out of Westminster, whether it’s Davos or anywhere else, you actually engage with people that you can see working with in the future. Westminster is just a tribal, shouting place,” the Labour leader said.

    Labour Heartlands – Starmer Will Sell-Out the UK to Globalisation’s Mafiocracy

    2. Time to invoke Magna Carta and Common (Natural) Law.

      Where is our revolutionary leader? Civil war or not.

  20. 373237+ up ticks,

    Monday 12 June: If the Tories indulge in another bout of infighting, they will make themselves unelectable

    I was under the impression that it was generally accepted that
    this party was an, in name only, ersatz tory party.

    If this is the case,and with the lab party a paedophiles delight
    these by-elections / general election are then to be the usual
    “Best of the shite”.

    How very sad.

  22. Good Moaning.
    Bright yellow thing in the sky again.
    W’re all dooooooooooomed.

    1. Morning all.
      No mention of the impending doom on the radio this morning. Yesterday, with it getting up to 26C of so, we had a few rumbles of thunder in the distance and a few drops of rain, just enough to sprinkle the ground. Nothing since. This morning nice pleasant day, still pretty warm, but fluffy white clouds. Maybe the panic is over, we survived….

      2. We’ve got 4 more months of this to go… and it’s only going to get hotter.

          1. Would you like to swap? Wherever I’ve lived, it has always been absolutely sweltering.

          2. I have lived in Stockholm, Oslo and Paris, Brrr, but I’ve also in lived in Singapore and Australia, temporarily and 5 years in Estepona, Costa del Sol and it lived up to its promise. Even mid-winter, the temp would only drop to 15°c in the day and perhaps 7°c in the early, early morn. Loved it.

    2. With two very large dogs, small boy and me belting out heat it’s warm, yes. 25’c. indoors at half 8, with all the windows open. It’s the lack of air movement that does for it.

        1. We’ve a couple about the house as well as a properly air conditioned office. The problem is as soon as those go off the heat rises rapidly again.

          1. Last year, when it was in the upper thirties, at 10am I close the windows and draw the curtains on the sunny side of the house, and keep them closed until the outdoor temperature matches that inside.

  23. Same method I use to spread butter in cold weather.
    Except I use my mug of tea!

    SIR – A simple method for tackling stiff Marmite is to put the spreading knife into a mug of very hot water for a few moments.

    This will help with extracting the Marmite from the jar as well as spreading it.

    I use the same method to spread hard butter.

    Pat Cooper
    Stoke Bruerne, Northamptonshire

  24. A poignant bit of Aussie Bush Poetry:-

    Anastasias Revenge
    7 HRS AGO
    When the shearing sheds are silent, and the stock camps fallen quiet,
    When the gidgee coals no longer glow across the outback night,
    And the bush is forced to hang a sign, ‘gone broke and won’t be back’,
    And spirits fear to find a way beyond the beaten track.
    When harvesters stand derelict upon the wind-swept plains,
    And brave hearts pin their hopes no more on chance of loving rains,
    When a hundred outback settlements are ghost towns overnight,
    When we’ve lost the drive and heart we had to once more see us right.
    When ‘Pioneer’ means a stereo and ‘Digger’ some backhoe,
    And the ‘Outback’ is behind the house, there’s nowhere else to go.
    And ‘Anzac’ is a biscuit brand and probably foreign owned,
    And education really means brainwashed and neatly cloned.
    When you have to bake a loaf of bread to make a decent crust,
    And our heritage once enshrined in gold is crumbling to dust,
    And old folk pay their camping fees on land for which they fought,
    And fishing is a great escape, this is until you’re caught.
    When you see our kids with Yankee caps and resentment in their eyes,
    And the soaring crime and hopeless hearts is no longer a surprise,
    When the name of RM Williams is a yuppie clothing brand,
    And not a product of our heritage that grew off the land.
    When offering a hand makes people think you’ll amputate,
    And two dogs meeting in the street is what you call a, ‘Mate’,
    When ‘Political Correctness’ has replaced all common sense,
    When you’re forced to see it their way, there’s no sitting on the fence.
    Yes, one day you might find yourself an outcast in this land.
    Perhaps your heart will tell you then, ‘I should have made a stand’.
    Just go and ask the farmers that should remove all doubt,
    Then join the swelling ranks who say, ‘Don’t sell Australia out!‘

    1. Very poignant, BoB, I’ve sent a copy to my daughter in Tasmania, I think she doesn’t believe there’s anything wrong in Oz but Tazzy is a bit isolated.

  26. ‘Morning, Peeps. High humidity and some distant storms did not make for a comfortable night…

    This little gem is to be found on the Letters BTLs:

    Anastasias Revenge
    7 HRS AGO
    To thank our Australian-based contributors, I stumbled across the superb poem by Chris Long today. Whilst Australian through and through, some lines of it (reproduced below the poem) could easily fit into modern Britain.
    (It had to be posted separately due to space issues)
    And here below are the UK appropriate lines

    When we’ve lost the drive and heart we had to once more see us right
    And education really means brainwashed and neatly cloned
    And our heritage once enshrined in gold is crumbling to dust
    And old folk pay their camping fees on land for which they fought
    When you see our kids with yankee caps and resentment in their eyes
    And the soaring crime and hopeless hearts is no longer a surprise
    When ‘Political Correctness’ has replaced all common sense
    When you’re forced to see it their way, there’s no sitting on the fence
    Yes one day you might find yourself an outcast in this land
    Perhaps your heart will tell you then, ‘… I should have made a stand’

    Very true.

    1. I just posted the whole poem and was nearly in tears reading it. The whole Western World is falling apart.

      1. If you make a stand – if you refuse the state it destroys you. The best way to win is not to play. Look at those people retiring, the ones no longer bothering to work. The state assumed it could ignore basic economic prinicples and suddenly it is finding it can’t.

        We don’t want what they’re selling, and they now this – on both sides. Not that there really are sides any more except state vs citizen.

        1. Although Tommy Robinson is not everyone’s cup of tea, his standing up to the evils of islam and his investigation of the actions of the authorities have made him a pariah of the deep state. What has been done to him through the legal system and other more underhand means to silence him is shocking and is a warning to us all if we go rouge from the accepted line of thought.

          1. Yep. However, despite all the publicity of the pakistani muslim paedophile rape gangs, it is still going on. Still being covered up.

          2. They didn’t get rid of the Pakistani Rape Gangs – they got rid of Mark Steyn from GB News instead.

            Not only was Mr Steyn publicising the victims of the rapists he was also drawing our attention to the damage inflicted by the Covid jabs.

          3. Tommy’s a martyr! Sacrificed on the altar of Cultural Marxism by the high priests of Westminster!

  27. One more brief contribution before I get on with some more jobs while it is still relatively fresh outside:

    SIR – I was astonished to learn that Roger Mortlock, chief executive of CPRE, the countryside charity (Letters, June 10), believes that by moving to renewables at speed the UK can have a “realistic chance of avoiding calamitous climate change”.

    Could someone gently explain to him that, even if we reduced CO2 emissions from the UK to zero tomorrow, it would not make the slightest difference to the climate?

    David Cockerham
    Bearsted, Kent

    Well said, Mr Cockerham, that is absolutely spot on. And it should stir up a response from those feeble-minded goons who talk about the ‘climate emergency’ and ‘imminent climate collapse’ (and all the other guff along similar lines). Keep up the good work, matey!!

    1. I also don’t understand how belching out millions of tons of gas in China building windmills, then pouring 500 tons of concrete into the sea bed for things that cost more inn energy to produce than they ever return is considered rational over a fracked gas powered CCGT power station built here.

      I suppose you have to be a politician or a Lefty to have that degree of doublethink.

      1. All from Bungs and Deals under the tables.
        How much money do these people actually need.

        1. Yes, sadly. The ecological, environmental and business case is thrown away in favour of the back hander and brown envelope. I just wish the useful idiots pushing the idiotic con that is ‘climate change’ were not so damned stupid as to realise they’re being had.

  28. Russia ‘seriously exaggerated Ukrainian losses’. 12 June 2023.

    Russia’s defence minister ‘seriously exaggerated claims of Ukrainian losses’ in recent comments about the war, the UK Ministry of Defence said.

    The MoD did not specify which claims they were but it follows one press conference Mr Shoigu gave last week in which he said Ukraine had suffered 3,715 casualties over three days.

    “Shoigu has provided at least two comments on Russia’s defensive operations, including making almost certainly seriously exaggerated claims about Ukrainian losses,” the MoD said in its daily update on the war.

    Whoops! These leaks from outside the controlled media must be hurting!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/12/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-counter-offensive-putin/

  29. We are cool and fresh this morning after the heat of yesterday 18C overcast. Just right for the fence painter.

    1. Aarrrgghhhhhh ……
      Fence done – until we replace a panel in the autumn (birds nesting in the shrub in front of it).

  30. Say what you like about Boris, but at least he got rid of London’s bendy buses.

  31. Well, I’m not the world’s most masculine man
    But I know what I am and I’m glad I’m a man
    And so is Lola
    La-la-la-la Lola
    La-la-la-la Lola

    [Ray Davies]

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a36bae362001eba9140ad62f03fc235d47973c2de1a96e833f4a05fd533a0bef.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/11/anglers-quit-england-shore-fishing-team-trans-woman/

    This animated video of Lola herself is well worth watching!

    https://www.google.com/search?q=lola+kinks+youtube&ei=19aGZKuyDLikkdUPyISViAM&oq=Lola+Kinks+you+tube&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQARgAMgcIABCABBAKMggIABCKBRCGAzoKCAAQRxDWBBCwAzoKCAAQigUQsAMQQzoQCC4QigUQxwEQ0QMQsAMQQzoICAAQBxAeEAo6CwgAEAcQHhDxBBAKSgQIQRgASgUIQBIBMVDQB1j6FmDXLGgBcAF4AIABsAGIAeMGkgEDMC42mAEAoAEBwAEByAEK&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:3e468cf2,vid:6CzrYXcXweI

    2. It is interesting that Hollywood – and some TV – thinks that a ‘strong woman’ is one who behaves like a man. Maybe they think that the ultimate goal of feminism is to become men.

  32. Morning all and another fabulous sunny day. None of the promised rain here in sunny Woking.

    I have just emailed the following to the DT:

    “ I am interested to know when the “London Weighting Allowance”, or whatever it’s called now, will be removed from the salaries of those public employees now permanently working from home?”

    What a larf, eh!

  33. EU ‘breakfast directives’ mean UK jam makers face recipe changes

    Failure to follow new rules on fruit levels will mean British firms won’t be able to sell existing products as jam in Europe.
    British jam makers will have to make costly changes to their recipes to keep selling in Europe because Brussels is revising “breakfast directives” that regulate ingredients.

    EU diplomats are locked in intense negotiations in Brussels over new regulations for jams, jellies and marmalades that dictate how much fruit spreads sold in the world’s largest market for jam must contain.

    British officials are keeping close tabs on the talks and plan consultations with the UK’s devolved governments and the industry once the jam pact is finalised.

    Aside from the obvious Political Ramifications; though I don’t see that a change of recipes is going to discommode UK Jam Makers particularly, this is just the sort of meddling that should not exist. It is enough that customers buy the maker’s product without having to please the EU. It is paradoxically an example of the Marxist mind at its most controlling.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/10/uk-jam-makers-face-recipe-changes-eu-breakfast-directives/

    1. British, French and American jams are all different. I wouldn’t even call American jam, jam. French jam has less sugar than British jam.

      Just label it properly and let people decide.

      1. You must know by now Phizzee that you can’t make these decisions yourself, it’s too complex. Sarc

      2. Hallo Pip. Jam does exist in the USA and it is as good as British jam. However, there are also preserves and jelly. Most British people confuse American jelly with jam because that is, by far, the most commonly used in the USA on toast etc. Jelly is not jam because it is the flavour extracted from fruit by crushing, the solids then removed and then pectin is added. Jam is finely chopped fruit, more like British jam, so that it is spreadable. Preserves are coarsely chopped fruit with mixed with sugar and then syrup is added, not very spreadable and thus put on toast with a spoon. When visiting the USA what most people will eat at the breakfast table is jelly. Hence the myth that American jelly = British jam. However, in fact, American jam equals British jam, but you are not likely to come across unless you go out and buy it. There is a language difference here because the British fail to distinguish one thing from another. Unfamiliarity with terminology is the culprit.

        The one that really irritates me is the English term “sweets” which fails to distinguish one thing from another, that is there is candy and dessert. One thing I have noticed that in English language usage, American is more precise in many ways than British English which often is quite lazy in its terminology. Finally, American jam is just as good as British or French jam. There are some American gourmet jams and preserves that are spectacular.

        1. A slight, if pedantic, correction. There is English and American. The two are quite different.

          1. I beg to differ, they are simply dialects of the same language no different than Yorkshire accent and vernacular and the accent of Kent and its vernacular. In fact the American English and English English are closer than Scottish Mangling, which is often entirely unintelligible as one would expect from Haggis hunting Picts. I have never come across an American accent I couldn’t understand. However, in Scotland, I have had occasion to call on a translator although, ostensibly, the kilt clad barbarian is speaking English, or so it claimed.

    2. With nothing better to do. The septic minds of the Brussels mafiosi at it again.

  34. Is anyone else having problems accessing TCW? I just get one captcha page after another.

    2. I can no longer get it on my aging glaptop, but it was ok on the phone this morning.

  35. Two female interns have just appeared at work. I hope for their own sakes they are there on merit (and there’s no reason to think they are not – there are a lot of smart girls out there) but between them they do tick every diversity box going.

    1. If they aren’t, it may become apparent very quickly. If they can’t be fired you can be certain.
      And what the company will have achieved is enhanced prejudice, reduced morale and weakened performance.
      Get woke, go broke.

  36. A 65-year-old woman had a heart attack. While on the operating table she had a near-death experience. Seeing God she asked “Is my time up .

    God said, “No, you have another 33 years, 2 months and 8 days to live.”

    Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a face-lift, liposuction, breast implants, and a tummy tuck. She even had someone come in and change her hair colour and brighten her teeth! Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it.

    After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by an ambulance.

    Arriving in front of God, she demanded, “I thought you said I had another 33 years? Why didn’t you pull me from the path of the ambulance?”

    God replied: ” I didn’t recognize you.”

  38. ‘Morning All

    https://twitter.com/VerhofstadtQ/status/1667912076725985282?s=20

    Not sure the Trump Indictment is having the desired effect……

    https://twitter.com/MAGAIncWarRoom/status/1667278915935543298?s=20

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4adaf1c0a3123464b437cbaf93c75c9c6fe11be1a21d53d58bb599d36dc42c09.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f50171a929f12ebd60a05a907c2e49d35b34ca4ac19c1161a18c5f96626ef2da.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a297701f847b0158544c64682a138e79900153f8af233a30905b70dca6809e99.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/300f7c0e8e90990161a6d52942f4cc945d54a04bc1b338678494d050e48e5c45.jpg

    1. 😁😃😄

      Two old boys on the bus…..Is this Wembley ? reply…No it’s Thursday…….So am I let’s got for a pint.

    2. The utter failure of the crooked Democrat war on Trump. Latest poll on the Republican nominee to run for the Presidency.

      Trump — 61% (+38)
      DeSantis — 23%
      T. Scott — 4%
      Pence — 4%
      Haley — 3%
      Ramaswamy — 1%
      Hutchinson — 1%
      Burgum — 1%
      Elder — 1%
      Christie — 1%

        1. I’m not. He made the mistake of criticising Trump. In fact they are all wasting their time and money. As a matter of principle they should all drop their respective races and stand behind Trump as a united force against the Democrats and their despicable intent to destroy the USA. They are not likely to join forces because of all the egos, the same tendency that makes the small parties on the right unite in coalition against both the Tories and Labour in the UK.

          1. I see. They should join forces and sort everything else out later just to get rid of the Dems.

          2. Yes. If the Democrats win again you can say goodbye to the USA and thus peace for all of us. It will plunge us into a real dark ages as civil war rages in America. I have been predicting such for a decade and, unfortunately, my fears are coming true. As a foreigner in America you have the benefit of not quite living with the trees and thus able to see the woods. Or more accurately, able to see the weeds growing and choking the life out of the woods. Although I love America and consider it home in so many ways, I would not want to live there now or be there for the next 10 years. It is going to become a very nasty place to live as law and order disintegrate. That is already happening, as you are probably aware, at a governmental level. Men usurping women, parents being designated terrorists, children being indoctrinated in Marxism, because that is what ‘woke’ is and the criminalization of a President to manipulate and win an election. Evil times have fallen on the country and we all better hope that Trump wins. Although, I fear, it is already to late.

    1. Must send that to my motor-cycling baby brother.
      (He’s now old enough to afford the insurance premium.)

  41. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38fe54dd106b42b74ed650aed1182bacb894c66bd971ec5f7fad5b3e403af81c.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/06/12/rishi-sunak-news-latest-boris-johnson-resignation-partygate/

    This headline makes the mind boggle at what Boris wanted Sunak to provide!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86d345e3e93421a27e0a2524d0693190e76d497be302d8ff0bc3819aea1e3b91.jpg

    An Indian Brothel in Westminster with discounts for Old Etonians and a surcharge for Wykehamists ?
    A Proper Brexit?
    A prominent cabinet position as Minister for Bovine Excrement?
    An immediate end to illegal immigration?
    Stricter environmental measures?

    2. Was it… step down admit your corruption and let the elected PM get on and cut taxes?

    4. Ignore Ferguson’s forecast of half-a-million dead by the end of the summer?

      1. Nothing so sensible. “ Rishi Sunak claimed Boris Johnson asked him to overrule the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) over his resignation honours list.”

        There are far too many in the House of Lords, at least 500 too many. This kind of “gift” should not be allowed and hereditary peers reinstated.

        1. Totally agree My Lady – I’ve been bangin’ on about this for ages.

          The Lords are for hereditaries only, the rest are just party members intent on politicising the next GE – send ’em to a shed in York, we don’t need/want ’em.

        2. They cut the number of hereditaries because there was too many. How about those in any Honours List get to call themselves Lord or Lady, but don’t go to the second chamber. When a current life peer dies or resigns the other can stand in ballot to replace them.

    5. Very unfortunate wording, because it brings to the surface of one’s mind the lurking suspicion that there is very little Sunak wouldn’t do. Apart from the right thing, of course, and it’s very unlikely that Boris asked him to do that.

  42. Quick. Reverse the turbines. Yellow thing has disappeared behind clouds and the temperature’s dropped.
    We’re all dooooooooooomed (again).

    1. I have just finished making the canapes and macarons. Cremant is chilled

      WE ARE HAVING A GARDEN PARTY !

    2. Twenty minutes ago a few particles of wet stuff landed here in Kingsford. That is all!

    1. As soon as he pointed out that welfarism had been most damaging to the Afro-Caribbeans and the ancestral white British, the Left mugged him furiously.

      1. The Left wouldn’t have any support if it wasn’t for the freebies. They sneer at the working man nowadays.

      1. No, i don’t think so. Born in different countries to different parents and religions so probably not.

  45. cloudless and sweltering again up here although we had some rain during the night

    2. It’s now bucketing down here – “raining sticks” as they term it over the border. The thunder is now accompanied by flashes of lightning.

    1. Interesting the timing of this arrest. Very interesting.

      According to the Press the Scottish Police have spent two years investigating where the money has disappeared to.

      It appears that the Police are not putting much effort into detecting where the money went.

      ……………..so then, why arrest Mr Murrell, Mr Beattie and now Mrs Murrell ?

      Under the Contempt of Courts Act 1981 after someone is arrested public comments about that person(s) is

      forbidden, in other words some kind policeman has legally closed down all commentary on the disappearance

      of the money.

      Clever eh?

      1. The current Chief Constable of Police Scotland is taking early retirement this summer.
        Things seem to get moving when he announced his plans.

  48. Now you’ve all heard of Alan Cumming, haven’t you? You know, that Scottish actor who was in … hmmm, let me think. What was he in?

    Anyway, he says that “ White people should watch more black theatre, it will help them to learn and support and to advocate and to be an ally”.

    Thank you Alan but I will watch what I want to watch not what you want me to watch.

    2. Personal life

      Cumming is bisexual.[51] His relationships include an eight-year marriage to actress Hilary Lyon, a two-year relationship with actress Saffron Burrows and a six-year relationship with theatre director Nick Philippou.[8]
      In 2006, Cumming stated that he “would dearly like to adopt a child”,
      but that his life was “too hectic” for the rearing of children.[52]

      Cumming and his partner, illustrator Grant Shaffer, dated for two years before becoming civil partners at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, London, on 7 January 2007.[53] Cumming and Shaffer legally married in New York on 7 January 2012, the fifth anniversary of their London union.[54]

      On 7 November 2008, Cumming became a dual-national and was sworn
      in as a citizen of the United States at a ceremony in Manhattan.[55][56]

      Cumming has stated that since 2012 he has maintained a vegan lifestyle.[57] PETA awarded him its Humanitarian Award in 2017.[58]

      He is a supporter of the Scottish National Party and Scottish independence.[59] Cumming endorsed Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 US presidential election.[60]

      Cumming is an atheist.[61]……………….of course he is…

      1. Cummings sounds as though he doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going,

      4. Whatever civil ceremony he underwent at the end, it sure as hell wasn’t a “marriage”.

      1. Charles Pooter’s one joke.
        He managed to upset his two friends with those surnames.

    5. Well Alan dearie. I would but the Theatre Royal Stratford told me to stay away. Oh, what a dilemma.

    6. I don’t want to advocate for black people. I want to be left alone. I want them to leave me alone too. I imagine they want to do the same.

    7. Well, Aeschylus was born around 525 BC and his plays are still being performed today. We don’t have any black works of that quality or longevity. Until the Europeans colonised Sub-Saharan Africa, the negroes had no literary heritage whatsoever. So stuff your false equivalence Mr Cumming.

      1. Just expanded on that for Faceache:-

        The Greek playwright Aeschylus was born around 525 BC and his plays are still being performed today. Can Mr. Cumming suggest a Sub-Saharan African of similar vintage for performance?
        No? Then how about a black contemporary of Shakespeare?
        Has he ever wondered WHY we don’t have any black works of that quality or longevity. Until the Europeans colonised Sub-Saharan Africa, the negroes had no literary heritage whatsoever.
        So stuff your false equivalence Mr Cumming.

        And edited for Tw@ter:-
        https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1668243326728904707

        1. Oooh, that will wind a few people up! I remember some years back a black writer on the BBC Question Time panel proudly stated that his country had, “a literary heritage going back 40 YEARS”. I found it sad and could only respond, “Homer”. He was acknowledging the worth of a literary tradition but had nothing comparable to offer.

    1. Maybe it stands for the queue for the burgers.
      It is quite funny hearing French people pronounce this French word meaning from the Beard to the Tail – i.e. on a spit – in bad American English – le barbecue.

    2. Maybe it stands for the queue for the burgers.
      It is quite funny hearing French people pronounce this French word meaning from the Beard to the Tail – i.e. on a spit – in bad American English – le barbecue.

    3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41420a172414187c5cdc625362a122ebd74653341647a00d6993ea81eb810555.jpg Bugger dim Glenn, he’s too stupid to comment on.

      Here was my Saturday night meal. Salt-and-pepper king prawns sitting on a bed of stir-fried vegetables (onion, garlic, courgette, yellow pepper, chilli flakes). A dish of grilled haddock cubes on skewers, painted with a mixture of zest-and-juice of a lime, grated ginger, chopped coriander leaves, and olive oil. Finally a tapas-style dish of New Zealand green-lipped mussels steamed above a tomato, chorizo and wine sauce. No sugar or carbs in view and quite delicious.

      I was so full that I ate absolutely nothing on Sunday and didn’t feel hungry at all (only sugar and carbs produce hunger).

      1. That looks absolutely delicious Grizzly. Writing this reply my mouth is watering.

    4. Q is simply an abbreviation of ‘cue’
      Actually it isn’t an abbreviation, come to think of it. What this linguistic trick is called technically I haven’t a clue. Anyone know?

  51. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c3cff4811afb7d61df2de39215419f04aef5e903ae5343506ceddcc26b3a5bb.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/12/rishi-faces-a-by-election-nightmare/

    BTL (Percival Wrattstrangler)

    The best thing that can happen to the Conservative Party is to split now as they have no chance of winning the next general election.

    If enough conservative Conservatives break away now and start building a proper Real Conservative Party then they can start to rebuild without further delay . At present they are limping shambolically and without any clear philosophy to the most ignominious defeat.

    For example, if Mr Rees Mogg sincerely loves his party, as he claims he does, he must have the courage and integrity to leave it. As Oscar Wilde wrote:

    “Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
    By each let this be heard,
    Some do it with a bitter look,
    Some with a flattering word,
    The coward does it with a kiss,
    The brave man with a sword!

    1. The true Conservative doesn’t care about principles, or it would seem, selling his country down the river either.
      All he cares is that after a suitable interval (say, five years) of Labour rule, the Cons will be once again returned to victory by the docile sheep.

      1. After five years of Labour, the country will have been burnt to the ground.

        1. Same with the Tories though. One suspects that canny Tories want out for the next five years, so that Sir “Davos” Starmer gets the blame.

        2. Within five years we’ll be back in the EU.

          Wonder whether we will get the £40billion back that we paid them to leave?

          I wonder?

      2. Only this time they won’t. 5 years is long enough for the minor vote-splitters to come to their senses, compromise and amalgamate, into one major opposition party. I just wish they’d started about 2 years ago.

    2. Rees Mogg, John Redwood et al. must have noticed their party sliding towards oblivion. What have they done to, first, arrest the slide and second, clear out those creating the problem?
      As the problem is now acute it would appear that either they did nothing or whatever they tried failed to work. If the latter then resignation should have been the honourable way out and they would have retained sufficient credibility to create a new Conservative party: if the former was their stance then who would want to support politicians who saw a serious problem within their party and then did nothing to rectify the problem until it was too late?
      How can the inertia within the Tory ranks be explained? Perhaps the younger career politicians see the Conservative party apparatus as akin to a baby comforter and to the old hands it is a comfortable armchair that they are loath to get off of. Whatever the reasons the Tories appear to be done for.

    3. He’s going to lose them all. The only relevant thing is what he fights on. Hell, what can he say? We’ve done a good job on the economy! We’ve got Brexit to work! We’re cutting taxes to allow business to create jobs! We’ve stopped the boats and reversed massive uncontrolled immigration! Welfare has been reduced to encourage working rather than shirking! We are spending less to ensure that real wealth stays in your pockets! The currency is stronger than ever against others creating huge exports and cheaper imports! Energy is cheaper than ever thanks to our policies of expanding capacity by 10% per year!

      He has nothing to promote. No successes. Everything he has done has been detrimental to the country. It’s a farce.

  53. Would anyone like some amaryllis seeds? I’ve seven ripe seed pods and another 3 pods ripening.

    1. Those are beautiful flowers, Bob. I manage to kill mint, so they’ be wasted on me but thank you.

    1. The Germans were also working on a jet engine at the same time
      Whittle was also an ex-RAF apprentice

      2. Just reading John Nichols’ “Lancaster”. Some of the crews write about seeing the Me262 buzzing their aircraft.

        1. I’ve just read Tornado Down (the one which brought him fame) and Team Tornado both of which he wrote with John Peters

    2. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D from Cranfield, at the same ceremony in which I was awarded my Ph.D and SWMBO her M.Phil.
      You may touch me… 😉

      1. I bows to you- only have a BA Eng Lit and a teaching diploma me.

        Off to hospital soon, would be better if I’d had a decent night’s sleep. Dressing off mush, doesn’t look as bad as I thought it might.

        1. “Enjoy” your visit, Ann. Hope it’s good news and you get fixed soonest.

          1. Thanks Paul. Am so bloody tired I don’t know how I am keeping going.
            If any of you have shares in paracetamol- I’m keeping them in business.

          2. What Paul says….be thinking of you….but paracetamol? They never worked for me.

          4. Not allowed ibubproen or aspirin. It doesn’t work very well but in the evening, some Pinot helps;-))

          5. Same with me Ann my ‘go to’ of choice is two fingers of whisky and topped up with a fever-tree can of ginger ale. Yummy. But I mist think about tablets for tonight and try and get some sleep.

          6. Ditto to jillthelass. Try Tramadol, extremely effective, for pain relief takes about 30 mins to work but take very, very sparingly, they can be addictive. I’ve used them for years for my lower back pain together with diclofenac that relaxes the muscles.

          7. I found Tramadol knocked me out completely, couldn’t do a thing. Gave up on them within the week.

          8. My old dad is away with paracetamol courtesy of his GP. Don’t know why.

        2. Fingers crossed.
          Hope the ‘doesn’t look so bad as I thought it might’ indicates serious healing taking place.

      2. I ‘failed’ my 11-plus. Would you really want a lowly scumbag, like me, to touch you? ☹️

        1. Me too. I’ve got 2 A levels. Art and Needlework. I wanted to work in the rag trade so wasn’t much bothered at the time and no-one cares now. I came here as a secretary and learned on the job.

          1. I was channelled into “getting a trade” by clueless parents and apathetic teachers. I started an apprenticeship as a plater (fabrication and welding engineering technician), learnt the trade on the job and qualified on day-release at the local technical college. All the time I felt like a triangular peg in an elliptical hole (to bastardise a cliché). I took it upon myself to look for something utterly the opposite but had neither the qualifications nor assistance from any quarter, so I decided it was time to make my own way in life. I’d had no previous idea about a life in the police and this only occurred to me when I saw a police constable on duty. I stared at him for ages thinking “He’s getting paid for being out in the fresh air”. I procrastinated no longer and joined up. It was the best decision I made in my life.

        2. It is a grave error to confuse intelligence and ability with success in exams. A good friend of mine has a 1st class Oxford degree in Modern Languages but he is a complete nincompoop. And several of my friends who have not been successful academically have had far more success in life.

          And it is also a mistake to write of children too soon. My second son was always in his elder brother’s shadow and got mediocre GCSEs and moderate “A” levels. However he went on to get a good degree and then came out top in his year with a Distinction in his M.Sc in Computer Sciernce and Data Analytics.

          A boy who was at school with me failed his 11+ but scraped through his Common Entrance. He went on from Blundell’s to study at Cambridge where he became a professor, the head of a large academic department and then Master of his college.

          Reminds me of Somerset Maugham’s short story: The Verger.

          https://www.google.com/search?q=the+verger+by+somerset+maugham&oq=The+Verger&aqs=chrome.1.0i512l7j0i10i512j0i512l2.6824j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:93b59b91,vid:nYTg-7viEn4

        4. My eldest son failed.
          I consoled him by pointing out that most of his year group that passed were almost certainly fairly “thick”.
          He went to the local supposedly failing but actually a damned good school, staffed by teachers who really cared about their pupils’ success, in whatever they had aptitude.
          It was a Sec Mod and it probably did him one Hell of a lot of good. It certainly toughened him up, not that he needed it much.
          After GCSE he went to the local 6th form college and got his A levels for his preferred course and university.

          Of the entire group he has the most post graduate qualifications and probably the most responsible job.

          As I used to say to him, the mean IQ is 100. Look around and how many of your mates seem below average ie IQ unintelligent?
          Most of them will have been in the 110 range which should tell you how stupid a significant proportion of the public is by that biased measurement. He eventually agreed with my assessments.

        1. Me too…..although I do believe I have an RSA certificate for shorthand (Pitmans) and Typing, somewhere buried in the basement. Like Grizzly, I failed my 11-plus!

          1. I passed my 11+, have a BA (Hons) and the equivalent in Welsh, plus MA and MPhil. I also have DipRSA for word processing, Business Admin, etc and Pitman shorthand certificates. I’m still a failure – my MPhil should have been a DPhil!

          2. Hi Stormy. Didn’t they allow you to re-sit shortly afterwards with new questions once you were well? I was allowed to re-sit 12 months later, but I had to attend the same lectures for three terms and frankly, my dear, I had absolutely no interest in the subject.

          3. When I say ‘wasn’t well’ what actually happened was I had to have two knee ops and so missed a couple of field trips. I resumed twelve months later, joining thec lass behind me but I never really caught back up.If I had sat the exams, I think I might have passed but wouldn’t have beennawardedntge degree because of the missed field work so when I found that out, I lost my mojo and gave up.

  55. Why can’t we talk about the Nicola Sturgeon scandal? Spiked. 12 June 2023.

    The arrest of Nicola Sturgeon has sent shockwaves through Scottish politics. Yesterday, the former first minister was questioned by police for seven hours before being released without charge. She becomes the third senior SNP official to be arrested under Police Scotland’s investigation into the party’s finances, following the arrests of treasurer Colin Beattie and chief executive Peter Murrell, who is also her husband. (Both men were also questioned and then released without charge.)

    Of course in former times they would have been confined to the Tower and racked by now with the scaffold half built on Tower Green. The confessions could have been posted in the Telegraph as soon as they were elicited!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/06/12/why-cant-we-talk-about-the-nicola-sturgeon-scandal/

    2. “Ay canna recall,” just about covers it.
      Beyond media land, there is plenty of discussion.

    1. Thanks
      Barnes is fascinating.
      Can you see a way of downloading from Rumble onto our phones.?

  57. Race horses and RF/mobile signals

    https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/why-are-all-those-racehorses-dropping

    Race horses must have been galloping for years with riders carrying mobile phones, so what has changed now?
    From the article
    “This STRIDESafe device monitors the horse’s movements 2,400 times per second throughout the race, sending 2,400 pulses of radio frequency (RF) radiation every second through the body of the horse. It also contains a GPS component that communicates with global positioning satellites. It also communicates with the RFID chip implanted in the left side of every horse’s neck, ensuring that the chip also emits radiation throughout the race. And because every racehorse wears horseshoes made of aluminum, which is one of the best conductors, the frequencies that are conducted from both the STRIDESafe device and the RFID chip throughout the horse’s body are absorbed and reradiated by its four shoes. Each horse, then, carries not one but six continuously radiating antennas throughout each race at Churchill Downs.”

    From me:
    Two RFID antennae emitting very weak signals (one in the horse yuk, and one in the strideSafe device under the saddle.
    The GPS part of StrideSafe doesn’t emit any radiation, it only reads the very weak satellite signals.
    One mobile antenna communicating with the mobile network.

    It’s not clear where the article gets six continuously transmitting antennae from? And it’s not clear why a mobile phone under the saddle has a greater impact than one that’s in the rider’s pocket. OK, the signal will be weaker for the horse the further away the phone antenna is, but still.

    EDIT: Ah, I understand, they are counting the horse’s shoes as four antennae. I don’t think it works quite like that though – doesn’t the antenna have to be a multiple of the wavelength of the signal? (not a hardware person!)
    In any case, that would be seven antennae, not six if true.

    What I find disgusting is the intrusive monitoring of the horses as though they are machines. Perhaps these results show that they aren’t.

      1. I wouldn’t be surprised if they stick one up their ar5es to record all manner of nasties.

    2. Is it April the 1st again? What a load of cobblers (from me having had over 60 years of RF engineering work).

      1. Thank you for confirming that the horseshoes as antennae theory is rubbish!
        It seems that people just have to say “5G” or “RF” and everyone gets scared, and it is very hard to tell real data from nonsense.
        When I ask people, they always cite studies that I find unconvincing.

    4. Monitoring a horse’s vital signs during training by means of emissions from kit worn on the horse has been going on a while (one of my trainers uses it and finds it very informative – one of the horses has won 18 races, so it must be useful!). I know that in some races, horses wear a transmitter in the saddlecloth to send speed information.

      1. The horse wearing a monitoring device is OK, but there is something that turns my stomach about a measuring device being implanted.
        But the article might have got that wrong as well. If it is an RFID tag, then presumably it’s only for identification.

        It is an unfortunate cluster of deaths though – I hope it stops.

        1. All racehorses are microchipped and the chip is read when they get to the racecourse to ensure that a ringer* doesn’t run.
          *one horse masquerading as another – eg a three-year-old in a race restricted to 2-yr-olds would have an advantage.

  60. Yes, yes; I know we’re Ginged and Whinged up to the eyeballs, but Julie Burchill’s way with words takes some beating.

    “Harry posed as a steel-true and blade-straight campaigner for truth and justice, a King Arthur-like figure returned to Albion to save his waiting people from the ‘vile’ media. It’s unfortunate optics that his crusade began when he ‘bumped into’ ‘lovely barrister’ David Sherborne in the south of France while holidaying with Elton John and David Furnish. But don’t you dare call him a playboy prince!”

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-downfall-of-prince-harry/#comments-container

    1. Don’t have a TV and wouldn’t watch ’em anyway. All lies and lies of omission.

    2. I am always very wary of anyone who constantly feels they need to tell me that they are telling me the truth.
      The more they do so, the less I trust them.

  63. Wretched Bogey Five today.

    Wordle 723 5/6
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    1. Birdie here.
      Wordle 723 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
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      1. Par four here

        Wordle 723 4/6

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    2. A right three today.

      Wordle 723 3/6

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      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  64. Literally trans-genocide.
    why-are-the-loudest-victims-of-trans-genocide-still-alive

    Except…a conspiracy theory of my own forms.
    What if, in their infinite cunning, the Goebbelses of Germany today are deliberately funding the likes of Herr Big Clit to act like total ProvoCunts before our increasingly disgusted eyes not to increase public tolerance of trannies, as they claim, but instead to make everyone normal absolutely despise a small group of mentally ill people to whom they had never previously given much real thought at all?
    That would be the best way to make the general public hate these self-obsessed and selfish individuals so much they actually do end up wanting to kill them. And maybe that is how the process of trans mass murder actually begins…
    How long before a new state-funded German Drag Queen emerges with the subliminally suggestive stage name Jenna Cide?

    https://www.takimag.com/article/why-are-the-loudest-victims-of-trans-genocide-still-alive/

  65. 373237+up ticks,

    bteitbart,

    FARAGE FLOATS ALLIANCE WITH BORIS TO PRESERVE ‘BREXIT LEGACY’ AND TAKE ON FAKE CONSERVATIVES

    They shatter, scatter , then reform, rename the party,
    business as usual.

      1. Nah, just bloody heavy rain.
        Not just a river coming down Clatterway, but another coming down the Via Gellia!

  67. In South Africa a white guy get sent to prison for 3 months for smashing a guy in the face with a glass. He was put in a cell with another white guy and a darkie. They started chatting and the guy told them he’d got 3 months asked what the other guys were in for. The white guy said 2 years for serious assault and the darkie said 10 years. The guy said “Good God you must have done something terrible, did you murder someone?” “No” said the darkie” I got caught riding a bike with no lights” and added “It could have been worse, it could have been at night”

    2. Alec, I think there is a competition between you and Aeneas to outdo Sir Jasper.

      1. I don’t know about Aeneas but both Spikey and I joined the services as boys – you needed a sense of humour to carry you through.

        1. You certainly did Tom – pedantic correction though, I joined as a Brat :o)

  68. 373237+ up ticks,

    Surely there cannot be anything radically wrong when the majority of voters support these party’s again & again, I mean
    we would not have got to where we are today as a nation without their input.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    4h
    Now I wonder why this might be? Could it be because the population has grown over the last 25 years by at least 8 million due mostly to an open door immigration policy?

    It can’t be because to say so would be ‘racist’ & accusations of ‘racism’ cancel out all arguments & make them null & void.

    There must be some other mysterious cause that no one who isn’t ‘racist’ can’t put their finger on.

    https://apple.news/ApnB-kUz8TB2-fI8KZWwDdA,‘This is just ruinous’: the Britons unable to afford their homes – The Guardian
    Translate post

    Millions are finding themselves priced out of renting and buying amid high inflation and mortgage rates

    apple.news

  70. Evening, all. Thunder rumbling all around as I type, but no more rain as yet. The Tories have been making themselves unelectable since Bojo squandered a large majority and a) failed to deliver Brexit which he was elected to do, b) didn’t ditch all the useless EU/socialist legislation/burdensome taxation like a proper conservative and finally the party ran through leaders more often than some of the MPs changed their underwear, only supporting those who delivered failed policies a) and b).

    1. I realise that the Queen could not become directly involved with politics, but had the UK having voted, immediately attempted to create a Commonwealth free trade are but with no freedom of movement we would now be members of a block that would have put the EU, NAFTA and all others into the shadows and she could have opened all the doors.

        1. The combined economies of the Commonwealth probably exceed any other grouping.

          1. Yes indeed, srb; Gin & Dubonnet was the Queen Mum’s tipple; now – as I recall – the Late Queen preferred a Dry Martini?

      3. I was only saying this afternoon that if they’d put me in charge of leave negotiations, we’d have been well and truly out. At the first sign of intransigence on the EU’s part I would have told them we were leaving on WTO terms and that was it. Goodbye. They’d have had to run after me to get a deal.

        1. I’d have been on your flank, fending off detractors and enjoying the opportunity!

  71. Enjoying Fred Dibnah again.

    I wonder if we would be so anally “Green” if the mines had not been closed?

  72. Springwatch now.

    Raving about orchids over a relatively huge area. I look after 6 acres. I know I’m a lot further south, but I certainly have twice as many and probably significantly more varieties. I patrol the estate looking for orchid like leaves all year round, and mark their positions. Most times I’m wrong, but every year I find at least one new one or a hybrid variation.

    Next up was red squirrels. Commonplace here.

    Then it was about bird of prey. Yesterday we watched a kestrel take a fledgling (sparrow?), the kestrel had been sitting on the electricity wire watching what was happening, the youngster came out of the house wall and landed in a rose bush. The kestrel was down and off with it in an instant, the parents could hardly react it was so quick, talk about red in tooth and claw!

    1. I found a bb4 programme Ten Pound Poms. The real story.
      Heartbreaking experiences for the vast majority of the people who were the first in the late 1940s early 50s. But very interesting from those who stayed on.
      Not so bad for us we paid 50 quid each for a six week cruise Via Egypt, Djibouti and actually had someone to stay with when we arrived in SA. Via Fremantle and Melbourne.
      But not for long. Both working we soon moved on and rented.

    2. You’re lucky to live know such a lovely area. England has been overbuilt so much there are few remaining wild places.

  73. Went for MRI- will never go for one again. I have never been abducted by aliens as far as I am aware. That experience was summat similar, as I imagine.
    Husband treated me to an Indian meal which we brought most home. Lovely cabbie both ways – on return trip I asked where he was originally from- Persia he said. He was not muslim and loves UK. He spoke highly of the late Shah. He was also very kind and helpful helping us in and out of the cab. Nice guy.
    Anyway, that is today’s saga.

      1. I tried to work out the significance of the various noises. Hitting bone? Detecting my ‘tin’ hip? Had it found a brain? Did the long ‘sigh’ mean it hadn’t found one?
        The nurse (?) running the thing, did ask me every so often if I was all right; plus you do have a panic button.

    4. I’ve had a few MRIs- not the most fun I’ve ever had. I can see how people can get panicky in the machines.

    5. I’ve had a few MRIs- not the most fun I’ve ever had. I can see how people can get panicky in the machines.

    6. It could have been worse the first MRI I had for a check on my spinal damage, they had bbc radio one on as company in the enclosure of the tunnel.
      Toe curling experience.

      1. When Odeon decided to build a bar in the cinema I managed in Scotland, I made absolutely certain that the cassette player’s speakers were situated just behind the bar staff (normally they are situated at the far end of the bar) so that they couldn’t turn the volume up to enjoy their own choice of “music” and blast the customers. It worked a treat.

      2. I couldn’t have music, classical as requested, as they wouldn’t put earphones on me because that is the area they were scanning. And it looked too raw.

        1. I had to go to sleep. Couldn’t make a fuss, or they’d have to do it again..

  75. Well, chums, I am now going to bid you all a good and restful night. I’m not off to bed yet, but today I went into town, bought July’s Book Club book and a pair of secateurs, watched CHEVALIER (a remarkably decent film although the black actor who played the title role sounded nothing like Maurice (Lol). Then home to find the next 10 nightly films I plan to watch as recommended in 1001 MOVIES TO WATCH BEFORE YOU DIE which are available on YouTube. Then I cooked and ate my tea (pork chop with tomatoes and mushrooms) before going into the garden for 3 hours to use my new secateurs and plant three sets of sweet peas at the base of my cane wigwam; for the past couple of years I unsuccessfully tried to grow runner beans up the wigwam. Now I am going upstairs to spend an hour de-cluttering my study/library. No rest for the wicked, eh? See you all tomorrow.

    1. It all sounds remarkably industrious…. it makes me feel quite faint…😉

        2. Not so much that, as that I live a very full life – and the decluttering of the study/library is now nearing completion and I am getting desperate to bring it to its conclusion. PS – I spent 3 hours sorting through newspaper tear sheets for 1997 and plan to do the same to complete 1996 today (Tuesday).

        3. Not so much that, as that I live a very full life – and the decluttering of the study/library is now nearing completion and I am getting desperate to bring it to its conclusion. PS – I spent 3 hours sorting through newspaper tear sheets for 1997 and plan to do the same to complete 1996 today (Tuesday).

  76. Remember the scheme to cover the Sahara with solar panels?
    We’ve just had a 2 day ‘heat wave’.

    “Britain has started burning coal to generate electricity for the first time in a month and a half, after the heatwave made solar panels too hot to work efficiently. ……

    …… Solar panels are tested at a benchmark of 25C. For every degree rise in temperature above this level, the efficiency is reduced by 0.5 percentage points.

    The temperature level refers to the solar cell temperature, rather than the air temperature. In direct sunlight, the cells can easily reach 60 or 70 degrees.”

    1. Half a degree of efficiency isn’t too bad. Heck, if it hits 32 that’s only 3.5% reduction. Oddly, despite my angst about the lie of climate change I do like the idea of battery backed home solar. It reduces grid load, saves the home owner money, provides a measure of backup during power cuts – which will become ever more frequent.

      It is for all these reasons that they should be tax deductible.

      1. Wibbling! Is it So’ton in which you live? I am thinking of passing through tomorrow and would love to meet you if you’re around.

        If I see you’ve answered this, I’ll briefly leave an email address. 🙂

        Katy

    3. Work ok in Kuwait, but maybe they knew this and accounted for it in the design? Just saying.

  78. You’re disappointed because you hold everyone to the same standards you hold yourself. You’re angry because your standards are so high, you can never reach them.

    That was what the Warqueen told me after a grumpy moment this evening. I think she’s right. She usually is.

    1. It’s certainly unrealistic to expect that politicians or Common Purpose civil servants will have the same high standards that engineers do. That’s why we are engineers and they are politicians and sucker-uppers to billionaires.
      But you know that already!

  79. Oh well that’ll do me for today. I’ve been sorting out our neighbours (live in France) large fish pond that contains extra large fish. Something had gone badly wrong with the filters and plumbing. The 30 or so fish were flapping around in a foot of muddy water. Had to turn off the power and start to refill it. I’ll have to start it again in the morning. It’ll probably overflow if I leave the tap running all night.
    They’ll survive.
    Good job they don’t have a water meter.
    Mr T is coming back at the weekend to sort it out.
    So it’s good night from me. 😴

  80. I am joining Eddy in the bedtime departure. A long day after a very disturbed night’s sleep.
    So very tired.

  81. Goodnight, all. I’m joining the exodus. The dogs are worn out; every time the thunder rumbled, Kadi started barking frenziedly and, of course, Oscar didn’t want to be left out – although I’m not sure he knew exactly why he was barking!

    1. We had quite a protracted thunderstorm which rumbled away and then came back. Also quite a downpour and a rattling hailstorm. Quiet and humid out there now.

    2. We had quite a protracted thunderstorm which rumbled away and then came back. Also quite a downpour and a rattling hailstorm. Quiet and humid out there now.

  82. Snuck in at 00:01h and got a SIX.
    I don’t care. Stupid word anyway.

    Wordle 724 6/6

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  84. 373259 + up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Shambolic Tories can’t rely on fear of Labour to win a general election

    But sadly and a proven fact seen in the , odious state of the dangerously inefficient nation, that is the only thing they CAN depend on, you gotta vote tory (ino) keep out lab, you gotta vote lab (ino) keep out tory (ino) family tree voters, rocking horse brains.

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