Saturday 24 June: Britain has been let down by its allies in the search for Nato’s next leader

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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711 thoughts on “Saturday 24 June: Britain has been let down by its allies in the search for Nato’s next leader”

  4. Britain has been let down by its allies in the search for Nato’s next leader

    Is Brexit ever going to happen?

  6. ‘Morning, Peeps. A more bearable night followed by a cooler start to the day. Max today is forecast to be 21°C, which is much more my kind of temperature. Now, if we could just reduce the current 92% humidity…

    Today’s DT Leader:

    Time to reconsider our approach to net zero

    The British people are already facing financial hardship. The Government should be prioritising cheap energy and reliable supplies

    TELEGRAPH VIEW
    23 June 2023 • 10:00pm

    Rishi Sunak’s first Cabinet reshuffle saw the creation of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Both objectives are admirable; the consequences of energy insecurity have been made painfully clear by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and we have a moral responsibility to preserve the environment for future generations of Britons to enjoy. But too often, these objectives appear to be in conflict. Energy security is not just a matter of cutting dependence on foreign suppliers, but ensuring that our new sources are reliable and affordable. Yet our approach to net zero seems to demand that the public pays higher prices for less reliable fuels. This is not a sustainable state of affairs.

    It is reassuring that Energy Secretary Grant Shapps appears to acknowledge this. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Shapps has indicated that he does not want to fund the expansion of the hydrogen industry through either general taxation or additions to our energy bills. This would be a much-needed dose of realism.

    Yet the Government will need to go much further if it wishes to fully resolve the tension between its objectives of secure and affordable energy supplies. We should of course aim to cut carbon, but it is a bizarrely punishing approach to insist on the pursuit of an artificially imposed 2050 deadline at great expense even while Beijing continues to approve dozens of new coal power plants. This is particularly true when many businesses and consumers are independently moving towards greener practices simply through market forces, as the costs of eco-friendly technologies fall and the profit motive continues to drive innovation.

    Centrally imposed “solutions” that drive up bills and lack the flexibility to accommodate new technological developments often fail to work in other policy areas without great cost; why would they succeed now?

    There is an opportunity here for the Government to create a new dividing line in British politics, to be on the side of the ordinary voter by prioritising cheap energy and reliable supplies. The Tories could present themselves as a party that combines environmentally friendly policies with economic realism. Mr Sunak can take inspiration from Labour’s “Green Prosperity Plan” U-turn. When Rachel Reeves downgraded the £140 billion commitment to a mere ambition, it did not generate a backlash consistent with the scale of the announcement.

    The British people are already facing great financial hardship, and the parlous state of the economy means this is likely to continue in the months leading up to the next election. Reconsidering the ruinous approach to net zero is a chance for the Government to show that it is taking this seriously.

    * * *

    I can’t say I’m jumping for joy…these are so far just words. The writing has been on the wall ever since this insane policy was devised by Labour’s Milliprat years ago and subsequently promoted by Johnson and others. What we need now is action.

    The BTL posters are not hugely impressed:

    Andrew Banks
    2 HRS AGO
    Explain why we need to “cut carbon”? What do you mean by “carbon”? We’re all carbon-based so do you mean mass murder? Words have meanings and you don’t understand the propaganda of their use. CO2 is plant food. Used to have much, much higher concentration in the atmosphere, 10000 ppm and the planet didn’t burn. Currently it’s 400ppm ish and as the optimum for photosynthesis is about 900ppm, plants would like more. Reduce the concentration and plants don’t do so well. Below 180ppm they die. Is reduction really a sensible thing to do? It’s the big orange thing in the sky. Beggaring the country in a Canute moment is insanity in my book.

    edward paxton
    7 HRS AGO
    Well, doh…
    Even the DT is waking up to the madness of net zero.
    A completely brainless idea by foolish politicians virtue signalling to Biden and our WEF masters.
    Shapps isn’t the brightest of politicians and if even he’s noticed the madness, let’s hope the hydrogen levy is the first step in dropping the pointless subsidy to wind farms which only work occasionally.
    Just frack, drill in the North Sea and build more nuclear and then all will be well.

    Toby Fair
    6 HRS AGO
    They still intend to ban our petrol cars and gas boilers.
    Won’t be getting my vote again.

    1. “What we need now is action.” – and that’s the problem – government doesn’t do action on anything. Just spouts bullshit and lies.

      1. Quite so, Annie, but try telling that to our ignorant and lazy ministers! Bandwagon jumping is much more up their street, more’s the pity.

  7. 37371 up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Lee Anderson: Everything that is good in the world started in Britain
    The controversial Tory MP says he is ‘proud to be a British person, even prouder to be an Englishman’

    reality,
    Lee Anderson: Everything that is good ( physically constructed ) in the world started in Britain, granted, (not spiritually).

    Bewars, could very well end at the same map reference

    Currently anyone on this planet can be british, you only have to turn up at Dover, to be born English was to be given a two country mile start in life’s human race.

    WHY would anyone, currently, want to abuse these facts by supporting / voting lab/lib/con a, nation killing, political coalition party, is one of life’s great mysteries.

  8. With even leavers regretting Brexit, there’s one path back to rejoining the EU. 24 June 2023.

    We don’t need to rehearse on this seventh anniversary all the ways in which Brexit has disappointed even those who voted for it. Farage and Redwood, along with Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg and the rest, promised increased prosperity, cheaper food, flourishing trade and a flush NHS. They said we’d be free of all that tedious European red tape and would take back control of our borders, encouraging anyone agitated by immigration to believe that fewer people would come in. There would be no downside, only upsides. As David Davis pledged soon after the vote, our exit deal would “deliver the exact same benefits” as EU membership.

    Despite the engineered questions in the opinion polls it has disappointed people because it has not occurred. There has been no Brexit. The politicians have sabotaged it.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/23/leavers-regret-brexit-rejoining-eu-nigel-farage

  9. Good morning, all. Sunny with a light breeze here in N Essex.

    Our betters appear to want us, the expendable low-life in their narrative, to embrace veganism and save the Planet. With that in mind we need to arm ourselves with some facts to fight back with. No sniggering at the back.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2886e7f5b5a9ac54f37e53538810f0181212ea5c034f026ac54ff81b7ead2b2e.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/36d3225c17439fe37cef517dc0b0c95214f0f64ae2fbf0dde267aba95546764c.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28ef3ca3fc5d82d1f9466f412873da1a02b674140d137404e73d713efd1322a8.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e73e06a45c9702e80d1db56eef5df598db78c6fbf7caf007c2c72f30380a0434.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7d6f44c8f5de32d7d2b6a156440639eba2117cf005a501ae6ab9a1ac4c9f3248.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37d946f72f6f40da9d0a2d7722f0e5d81d68f6226c268ec9c9ec62ec01e74ec6.png

    1. The methane and hydrogen in the second one explain the old serviceman’s hobby of setting light to a fart in a darkened barrack room

      1. Looking at the chart the main gases expelled are all odourless, therefore the ‘whiff’ must be contained in the Others section. 🙄

      3. There once was a fellow called Carter
        Who was a phenomenal farter
        He could play every tune
        From ‘Sleepy Lagoon’
        To Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

  12. 373711+ up ticks,.

    And now for something COMPLETELY different, you want change ?

    Laurence Fox to run for MP in Boris Johnson’s former …

    LBC
    https://www.lbc.co.uk › news › laurence-fox-run-mp-…
    12 Jun 2023 — Mr Johnson resigned from Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency on Friday ahead of the publication of the findings of an inquiry into whether …

    1. EXCLUSIVE – Laurence Fox dramatically SPLITS from his fiancée just weeks before pair were due to marry: Ex-actor parts ways with Arabella Fleetwood Neagle after relationship ‘petered out’ – as friends say his priority is ‘raising his kids’
      Friends claim that ‘as time went on, the pair’s relationship just petered out’
      By STUART PINK

      PUBLISHED: 17:40, 22 June 2023 | UPDATED: 17:42, 22 June 2023

      Hello Ogga

      Quite honestly, I think that chap is rather unstable and erratic .

      1. 373711+ up ticks,

        Morning TB,

        To split up on the eve of marridge could be a case of seeing reality over wishful thinking .
        His priority ” raising his kids”
        is surely to be applauded in current times where the majority voter supports mass
        immigration parties inclusive of mass paedophiles.
        I do believe I would check out the last MP for that area,
        and his moral standing before I picked up a stone.

        1. 373711+ up ticks,

          O2O,

          Og if this is the only strike against the FOX character seeing what is continually being voted in then, wonder of wonders we are looking at a winner.

      3. I am rather put off by his tattoos and the weediness of the facial hair he tries to grow.

        Mind you I quite enjoyed his playing of Hathaway in the TV series, Lewis

  13. Wagner chief accused of coup against Kremlin. 24 June 2023.

    Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the mercenary Wagner group, has called for a coup against Russia’s military leaders, saying he has 25,000 fighters ready to “end this mess”.

    This is causing some considerable excitement among the establishment trolls on the Spectator threads. It’s too early yet to draw any real conclusions. It would seem unlikely that it would progress very far. Vlad himself is still very popular and Prigozhin has no support among the military who he’s gone to great lengths to insult and threaten. Nevertheless better to keep a weather eye open and the larder stocked.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/23/russia-war-ukraine-based-on-lie-yevgeny-prigozhin/

    2. Misinformation, disinformation or malinformation. It does come from the MSM.

  14. Good morning peeps,

    Light cloud with some blue sky breaks at McPhee Towers, wind Sou’-West going South later, 17℃ and heading for 26℃. It’s going to be another lovely day. I’ll have to water the plants before it gets too hot as we got back from visiting offspring and grand-offspring too late last night.

    Is Lee Anderson the epitome of what a Conservative MP should be?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/06/23/lee-anderson-everything-good-world-started-britain-gb-news/

  16. Pinched from GP:-

    I saw a monk on a plane the other week.

    I said to myself “So that’s what an Air Fryer looks like”

    2. If he was a Chinese Buddhist, perhaps he was an Air Flyer.

      Or a German monk, in which case, Herr Friar.
      I’ll get my lederhosen.

  17. If you have one, keep a close eye on your private pension, folks.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/23/hunt-to-unveil-pension-reforms-next-month/

    This will not of course apply to any public sector pension because there are no funds. They’re giant Ponzi schemes. Anyone with a defined benefit pension won’t be ably to influence where their money is invested so I guess they’ll be the most vulnerable. Those of us with private pots can opt out by directing our advisers and pension managers accordingly. Pension funds should most definitely NOT be investing in start-ups, only in businesses with proven and steady dividends. Finally, anything Blair thinks is a good idea almost certainly isn’t.

    2. Aren’t there 3 (?) levels of risk? The greater the returns, the higher the risks?

      1. It depends on the the management company. Some have more than three risk levels. Yes, generally the greater the return the higher the risk. That’s why a ‘pot’ should be well diversified – the ONE occasion when diversity really is your strength!

  19. Looking a photos of Rostov-on-Don reminds me of something now missing from the roads in and around Colchester; convoys of Army vehicles.
    I never found them menacing, just a sign that Britain was a serious country that could defend itself.
    Conversely, the absence of these vehicles sends a very different message.
    And under a supposedly Conservative government.

    2. Morning Anne

      I feel a little bit secure knowing the Tankies are practising on our roads teaching the guys how to drive the things on our small Dorset roads , and watching them swivel around roundabouts is is quite a manoeuvre .

      We know they are training Ukrainians , and we also know that the army is diminishing in size, experienced men are leaving , and there will soon be a woeful lack of instructors .

      I hear all of this from the girls who work locally , and especially the young wives who have small businesses.

      1. I believe there is a tank event on at Bovington Tank Museum this weekend.

          1. ‘Morning Belle. Many years ago my family and I were lucky enough to be invited to Bovingdon’s Battle Day. Part of the fun was provided by about half a dozen tanks lined up side by side, and two or three Tankies were allowing visitors to sit, one at a time, in the driving seats, with the former laying down alongside to explain the controls to them. One of my boys was undergoing a brief session when, without any warning at all, the tank next to us roared into life. A young lad, probably about 12 years of age, had started it up all on his own! You have never seen Tankies move so fast to shut it down!

            I have often wondered since then whether the lad concerned ever joined the RTR when he was old enough…he certainly showed great aptitude.

        2. Love to go to one of those. Their YouTube videos are excellent, especially David Mitchell as presenter. There’s a man who knows his subject! Respect!

      2. Instructor loss was a worry if UK ever warred with the Soviets. The attrition would be so high that instructors would have to join battle, then all over. No National Service to call up to fill the gap.

    1. It’s v sad, but I do wish the meeja would stop portraying the blokes as heroes and true explorers.
      They were rich tourists that’s all.

  21. Morning folks….

    Following on from an earlier thread:

    The year is 2023. Overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society’s leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green an artificial nourishment whose actual ingredients are not known by the public. Thorn (Charlton Heston) is the tough homicide detective who stumbles onto the secret so terrifying no one would dare believe him…….

    Coming to a restaurant near you:

    The World Economic Forum’s dietary blueprint for the masses is becoming a reality as lab-grown meat, bugs, and plant-based foods are quickly being adopted under the guise of solving ‘climate change.’ The latest move by elites and governments to reset the global food supply chain is US regulators approving the sale of meat cultivated from Chicken cells. This makes the US the second country worldwide, besides Singapore, to approve the sale of lab-grown fake meat.

    The Agriculture Department approved Upside Foods and Good Meat to begin selling “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” chicken meat from labs in supermarkets and restaurants.

    “Today’s watershed moment for the burgeoning cultivated meat, poultry and seafood sector, and for the global food industry,” Good Meat said in a statement.

    Upside Foods CEO Uma Valeti said cultured meat in the US will “fundamentally change how meat makes it to our table.”
    “Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just, which operates Good Meat.

    https://twitter.com/USRepMikeFlood/status/1616119375823765504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1616119375823765504%7Ctwgr%5E7b9e5fed25a5090bc7fa0a12de3ac82ca1bf363b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Ftechnology%2Flab-grown-meat-gets-green-light-us-menus

    1. A good tweet but the zombies are piling in on him in the comments with the brain dead mantra that “globalist is a dog whistle for antisemitism”.

      Meat production won’t end entirely of course. The globalists won’t eat the fake food crap themselves.

      1. It is interesting that the law to allow fake meats was passed last Tuesday in the US when most people were having their heads forced beneath the wastes of the north Atlantic. Three birds, it seems, were slain with that one stone.

        Good morning, Sue!

        1. ‘Morning, ‘Mum.

          “…when most people were having their heads forced beneath the wastes of the north Atlantic.”

          Yes, very true. Five people lost their lives in what appears to have been a Heath Robinson sub, very tragic for their families of course.

          Now consider the UK road death toll for 2022, which is likely to be around 1,695 when the figures have been finalised. Put another way, that is an average of 4.64 per day, for every day of the year. And yet not a single word about it. For the media there isn’t enough glamour, I suppose…

    2. Will this lab crap be blessed as kosher and halal?

      Continuing the “food” theme, many food production sites and storage areas have mysteriously self immolated over the last few years. What are the chances that these “new food” production sites also mysteriously go up in flames?

      2. I bet the first thing they will do is come out with an “organic” version!

  22. Morning folks….

    Following on from an earlier thread:

    The year is 2023. Overcrowding, pollution, and resource depletion have reduced society’s leaders to finding food for the teeming masses. The answer is Soylent Green an artificial nourishment whose actual ingredients are not known by the public. Thorn (Charlton Heston) is the tough homicide detective who stumbles onto the secret so terrifying no one would dare believe him…….

    Coming to a restaurant near you:

    The World Economic Forum’s dietary blueprint for the masses is becoming a reality as lab-grown meat, bugs, and plant-based foods are quickly being adopted under the guise of solving ‘climate change.’ The latest move by elites and governments to reset the global food supply chain is US regulators approving the sale of meat cultivated from Chicken cells. This makes the US the second country worldwide, besides Singapore, to approve the sale of lab-grown fake meat.

    The Agriculture Department approved Upside Foods and Good Meat to begin selling “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” chicken meat from labs in supermarkets and restaurants.

    “Today’s watershed moment for the burgeoning cultivated meat, poultry and seafood sector, and for the global food industry,” Good Meat said in a statement.

    Upside Foods CEO Uma Valeti said cultured meat in the US will “fundamentally change how meat makes it to our table.”
    “Instead of all of that land and all of that water that’s used to feed all of these animals that are slaughtered, we can do it in a different way,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and chief executive of Eat Just, which operates Good Meat.

    https://twitter.com/USRepMikeFlood/status/1616119375823765504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1616119375823765504%7Ctwgr%5E7b9e5fed25a5090bc7fa0a12de3ac82ca1bf363b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Ftechnology%2Flab-grown-meat-gets-green-light-us-menus

    1. Steady, sir. That merry triumvirate has provided hours of entertainment to millions of viewers.

      1. Indeed. And the ‘arse’ comment from Captain Slow is all in the cause of book promotion I imagine. I regard him as by far the most knowledgeable of the three, and rumour has it he’s the best driver, too.

    2. I quite like James May. I especially enjoyed his ‘slow tv’ progs where he took items apart and rebuilt them e.g. an electric guitar, an old rotary mower, a dial telephone, a turntable etc. He only made six progs (I’m trying to remember the other two*) – I wish he would make a few more.

      *Kenwood mixer aaaand….error…

    1. Good morning, Delboy. A grey one in these eastern parts on the western slopes of East Anglia.

        1. Not bad thanks Sue – diabetic clinic the other day – waiting for results, hoping they’ll scrub the metformin because of nuclear grade side effects. Hope you are too – my thoughts are with you both and Hector. Give him a big hug and say goodbye for me 😘

          2. Metformin was a disaster for me too Spikey,they tried to fob me off with a slow release version but I explained I’d take the stuff again when hell freezes over
            They love it because it is cheap
            After some pushing I got them to prescribe Jardiance (empagliflozin) which I have had no crappy (literally) side effects from
            This drug combined with a very low carb diet has taken my blood sugar from 74 to 38
            I have eased off on the strict diet and await my latest blood test results to see if I have relaxed too far
            Go for it

          3. I’ve got an appointment next week with the doc and he’s sure to try to get me on this slow release one if my Hba1c is still over 60. I’ve already cut down on carbs and am taking more exercise so I’m hoping I can just take Gliclazide

      1. Hi Sue. I have been dipping in and out.
        Mrs D developed a heart problem which is being dealt with. It has meant me doing all the dog walking and I am playing a lot of bowls.
        I’m 87 next month and although fit and healthy I don’t quite have the stamina I once enjoyed.

        1. Ah! The joys of age! As they say up here, it disnae come itsel’!
          We spent many hours at the RHS yesterday, and we’re convinced we walked at least 50 miles! At least that’s how we feel today! But we did see Princess Anne, and our SiL got a 3rd prize for his ewe and 2 lambs! Happy day all round for us and two of the grandchildren!
          Best wishes to you and your dear lady wife!

          3. They also say of old age, Sue, “Happily it doesn’t last long.”

            And the Irish version is, “Live in hope, die in despair.”

        2. You are the Father of the Nottler House in seniority and we shall be wishing you many more happy years on 26th July. We’ll still have to wait another 13 years but we hope you will become our first Nottler centenarian!

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    No rain forecast but grey for today.
    I haven’t got a clue what a search for a NATO leader might entail. Nor do I feel I am capable of any such interest. They never take any notice of public opinion either way.
    But hey….. after a single dose of Colchicine Tiofarma it has reduced the swelling and pain in my left foot.
    The must read package leaflet information it a 2 ft long by 6 inch wide filled with does and don’ts and maybes. But so far I’m happy with it so far. 6 days should do it.

    1. The Ukraine debacle will probably finish off NATO anyway so no worries there.

      Glad your left foot is better. Mine gets fluid retention, which is at its worst in summer heat but becomes more manageable in cooler climes. It’s a family trait and mostly affects the left side just because that’s the way human circulation is configured. My mother and her sister had it far worse but then they were somewhat heavier than I am.

      1. You implying you are a tad overweight, Sue? You are absolutely lovely as you are!

      2. Sadly the same old story Sue, everything our political classes come into contact with…….

    4. I think we know what such a search entails – and it definitely won’t be based on the best person for the job.

      Glad you are on the mend, keep it up.

    5. I think we know what such a search entails – and it definitely won’t be based on the best person for the job.

    6. Glad the foot is improved, Eddy. Good news! Is that what brought on the nae toe comment?

  26. SIR – By any historical measure the Army is too small. However, just what size Army we need is dependent on what it is for. Is it an expeditionary force, a garrison or all things to all people?

    The question facing this Government is the one that has faced all governments (and been evaded by them) since 1982: can we afford an independent air force? The RAF’s front-line fighter (the Typhoon) is effectively confined to Europe because, unlike the French Rafale, it is not carrier-capable. This means that our power-projection assets (the aircraft carriers Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth) are not as effective as they could be.

    The Falklands War demonstrated that seaborne air power is essential and that, for a maritime power such as Britain, a land-based air force imposes severe limitations on our ability to defend our vital maritime and overseas interests.

    The current functions of the RAF could be shared by the Navy and the Army, providing a huge saving in organisational and procurement costs. At the very least the RAF should never again be permitted to procure front-line aircraft that cannot operate from a carrier.

    John Neimer
    Stoborough, Dorset

    No, Mr Neimer. It’s more a case of ‘Never again should the MOD procure two carriers as a job creation scheme and then compound the error by effectively neutering them by removing the means (cats and traps) by which conventional aircraft can use them.’

    All in all a giant and hideously expensive cock-up. At least we can do those really well!

    1. Nor should any Labour government be allowed to cancel such a wonderful aircraft as TSR2 might have been.

  27. Good morning, chums. Didn’t sleep too well last night, so got up at around 4 am, had a cuppa, then back to bed at 4.30 am & have just got up (9 am).

      1. Good morning, Richard. You mean that politicians and snivel serpents are solely responsible for all this hot air? Lol.

          1. Oh! memories of my uncle at Christmas! He would recite that when he was sozzled, much to everyone’s despair!

          2. I have made some of my nephews, nieces and my two sons despair when I have recited Stanley Holloways’ monologues – especially when I tried to copy Stanley’s accent.

            Of course I recite Hilaire Belloc’s story of Jim and the Lion more frequently than I attempt Albert, Sam and his Musket and the chap who went to a funeral in brahn boots. In fact most of the Tastey family know the majority of the Cautionary Tales by heart and our genteel accents – and the fact that ‘we speak proper’ – does not detract from our recitals.

            I am hoping that Caroline will start working on the monologues of Joyce Grenfell, Victoria Wood and Pam Ayres and reciting them not only in English but in her translations and adaptations into French, Dutch and Spanish. There is a large European market out there ripe for despair.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fef6beb4b15de89ad0edeb53170e60a799b01b75e997963c065765e0319fdf13.jpg

          13. I have made some of my nephews, nieces and my two sons despair when I have recited Stanley Holloways’ monologues – especially when I tried to copy Stanley’s accent.

            Of course I recite Hilaire Belloc’s story of Jim and the Lion more frequently than I attempt Albert, Sam and his Musket and the chap who went to a funeral in brahn boots. In fact most of the Tastey family know the majority of the Cautionary Tales by heart and our genteel accents – and the fact that ‘we speak proper’ – does not detract from our recitals.

            I am hoping that Caroline will start working on the monologues of Joyce Grenfell, Victoria Wood and Pam Ayres and reciting them not only in English but in her translations and adaptations into French, Dutch and Spanish. There is a large European market out there ripe for despair.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fef6beb4b15de89ad0edeb53170e60a799b01b75e997963c065765e0319fdf13.jpg

  28. I saw Lee Anderson’s new programme on GBNews last night. I must admit that I thought he was very good.

    Rishi promoted him to be the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party in the hope that it would stop him from straying too far from the party line and guarantee his personal loyalty. You would have thought that Sunak would be able to see that it is very dangerous to promote a potential enemy – Boris Johnson promoted him and he used this to launch his treacherous campaign to overthrow his benefactor.

    Now that the Conservative Party is in its death throes is it not the right time for those Conservative MPs with proper conservative principles to place loyalty to the country ahead of loyalty to Sunak and his fellow Schwab WEF pawns? Lee Anderson should be at the forefront of those who quit the party for now is the time to start rebuilding before the inevitable humiliating defeat that is on its way.

    1. Fear not, Richard – Anderson will let you down in the end. That’s what they all do. Always.

      1. An Evelyn Waugh question for you:

        Who said of the public school system: ‘They may kick you out but they’ll never let you down.’?

    2. I agree. The real conservatives should have the courage of their own convictions and start a new party. I really don’t understand why they would went to go down with the ship. What’s the advantage?

      1. The real conservatives…

        Hen’s teeth, rocking-horse manure, unicorns…
        If they existed the “real conservatives” would be conserving their party, surely?

        1. 373711+ up ticks,

          Morning KtK,

          “They ” are clinging to a party falsely named tory.

          No Conservative content whatsoever.

          WEH /NWO / toss pots 100%.

      2. Morning Johnathan. One imagines they see themselves building on the ruins. How feasable that is we are yet to see.

        1. Having built an extension to our house ourselves we know that the sooner you prepare the ground properly the better.

          I fear that even the conservative Conservatives cannot yet see that if they wait until after the electoral trouncing and only start rebuilding then they will have wasted and lost valuable time.

          JRM drives me to despair – he must know that the Conservative Party in its current form and under its current leadership is already doomed and yet he does nothing. Nero fiddled while Rome burnt – JRM is twiddling his thumbs while the Conservative Party becomes ashes.

    3. I missed Anderson, has he been given a regular slot? I like him as he’s unashamedly a true conservative and he shoots from the hip.

      1. I think it will be a regular programme on GBNews on Friday evenings at 8.00 pm.

        1. Thanks. I’d dather have Mark Steyn back, but that’s not going to happen. I am hoping that Anderson will prove to be an inspired choice.

  29. Ref the headline today.

    It is blindingly obvious that the only person who could run NATO is that well known Soviet sleeper – Frau Doktor Merkel.

    1. Along with everything else they could always let the contract to the Chinese ……..

    2. NATO lost its purpose after the demise of the Soviet Union and with the reunification of Germany.

      President Trump understood this and was prepared to cease funding NATO.

  30. Hahaha..

    I see that SE Water is blaming THEIR water shortage on (1) Covid, and (2) shirking from home. Strangely, no mention of huge and rapid population increase. And even if they one day get round to expanding capacity, they say that a new reservoir will take them 20-25 years to complete. No hurry then?

  31. Why is no-one questioning why the world’s media put on a theatrical performance for public consumption by stringing out a ‘search’ for a submersible ‘lost’ in the north Atlantic for an extra 4 days (accompanied by graphic headlines, interviews with ‘experts’) when it was known when the submersible imploded and exactly where it was? I have not seen anyone remotely questioning this.

        1. Just as Fanshawe is spelt Featherstonehaugh.

          Talking of which Caroline baked some excellent gluten-free scones* yesterday which we had with some proper, thick, unfermented, unpasteursised, fresh, real cream which is very hard to find in France .

          *Since we are essentially tolerant we shall not criticise those who pronounce the word differently to the way we do!

          1. A whole bunch of ’em in my family tree.

            The last, Sir Timothy Fetherstonehaugh( that’s how they spelled it) was caught as a cavalier by the roundheads in Chesterfield and beheaded in 1651. So ended the nobility in my family tree.

    1. Ah, I see the plot. Ban the husbandry of animals and encourage to populace to engage in cannibalism.

      Might work.

      1. 373711+ up ticks,

        Morning G,

        Surely unfair, that would be giving the BLM a
        head ( & torso) start.

    4. The US has given permission for two companies to scale up their lab grown meat processes from laboratory to commercial production.

      Who needs farms when you can build a factory?

    1. “Lying without compunction is an essential requirement to rise up in the Washington beltway…” D. Macgegor

  36. Is anyone doing anything to mark the Armed Forces DAY in the midst of ‘Pride’ MONTH?

    1. I’m celebrating Midsommar with friends, here in Skåne, with smoked pork ribs, mixed salad, guacamole and potatoes. For pudding I’m baking some shortbread to be served with a bowl of six diced nectarines, a bowl of double cream thickened with lime juice, and grated plain and milk chocolate.

      I shall forgo the potatoes, shortbread and chocolate since I don’t eat carbs.

    2. I expect someone will remember to wave a rainbow flag on behalf of the 99.5% of soldiers who are LGBTQWERTY.

    4. When do we get “The Silent Majority – who pay for everything” month? (Or even minute?).
      Drinking London PRIDE outside me local. Made a comment about silent majority after my unfunny joke about Pride, and got a lot of harrumphing of agreement.

    5. Not forgetting Indigenous peoples day/month and Asian heritage month that the trudeau luvvies decided to hoist upon us.

      As a special treat for the woke, they have decided to rename the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway in Ottawa as Kichi Zībī Mīkan.

      Hardly time for pride parades but I suppose that blackface will dress up and embarass us as always.

      1. Your’e welcome Araminta. The Col. always makes for informative and interesting listening.

    3. OK, I have just glanced at the Mail, and have formulated a new strategy for figuring out what’s going on in the shortest time without having to remember long Russian words.

      It goes like this:
      The DM headline says that Putin is under attack inside his own country and may be facing a coup

      Therefore, I deduce that
      – there is no coup
      – Putin is not in danger of losing control
      – the Ukrainians are probably losing

  38. We are off to a family bbq shortly. Our elder son refers to June as Black June – three family birthdays, two deaths and Father’s Day contained within its bounds.

    1. Have a lovely day, pm! How are you getting on?
      Our Hector is going to go peacefully next week so we have time to say everything we need.

          3. It’s bad enough from here, Sue, and I never met Hector. Another loved one …

          5. We can grant a humane ending for pets, but not for humans. They have to go through the prescribed “End of Life” process by withdrawal of all food and fluids, as my dear wife did exactly six months ago. If you did it to your dog, you’d be locked up. Scandalous!
            (Waits for screams of “You cannot be serious!”)

          6. There is something seriously wrong in our ‘civilised’ society when that sort of cruelty is allowed. My heart goes out to you.

          7. At least HE has no idea. I found that a comfort with all my animals as their ends neared.

      2. Sorry, Sue. That’s hard. Poor old boy, best it’s not a crisis, but calm & restful for him.

        1. Absolutely! He’s been a huge part of our lives for 13 years, and all we can do is let him go easily and peacefully. We’re going to the farm and he’ll be buried next to his sister.

          1. Sending you heartfelt wishes – what you are doing and have done for him during his happy life with you may give you a smile through your tears, both next week and in the future when you remember your times together.

          2. Oh thank you for your thoughts and kindness. He has been a joy to be with, and our memories of his life will be very happy. 😘

        1. Thank you, pet! It’s very upsetting, but should have ended sooner. 😘

          3. My heart goes out to you, Sue, he’ll leave a great big hole in you life. Take a big hug, on credit, until we next meet.

      5. Sorry to hear that, Sue. It tells us to enjoy what time we have with each other.

      6. Oh no! I am worried for our Jasper. I hope he isn’t next (but he will be). I can imagine how you feel. I am just spending as much time with mine, while I can.

        1. That’s exactly what we’re doing. It’s all we can do. Thinking of you.

  39. Logging off to bugger off to Shuttington, near Tamworth.
    Might get laptop logged on over weekend, otherwise see you when I get home.
    TTFN

  40. Ref the headline – only small, useless countries get the leadership position, as everyone knows the US is in charge and calls the shots – hell, Stoltenberg doesn’t even speak English, ffs.

  41. The BBC pickep up this news story this morning:

    https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/science/research-liverpool-john-moores-university-british-lloyds-b1089824.html

    I am sceptical about the ability of a supermarket trolley being able to record enough reliable data to be able to identify underlying atrial fibrillation – there are too many other variables that can interfere with the recording of a heartbeat interval.

    Even my cardiologist is sceptical about my interpretation of my pulse oximeter which displays blood oxygen level, heart rate, peripheral infusion, respiration rate and even a heart interval regularity output waveform:

    Here is one I made earlier this morning:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8cc6d29a01ab556c190b0040c17f4903b0a09c2a416f66c5d15ecdea1a7dc83c.jpg

    1. Firstly they should invent a trolley which goes in the same direction as you

      1. Everyone with hands on experience of an AFib trolley wiil thus need to see a cardiologist. Basket cases will obviously be off their trolley.

  42. Moh playing golf, 2 days worth of club championship .

    Son has done his 5K Parkrun this morning in 19mts 53 seconds , and is now off to Salisbury on his m/bike to speak to the M/Bike dealership .

    All activity for them , apart from me doing the washing and a few tasks , all is peaceful.

  43. Glorious swim. Sea flat as flat. Quite still – no breeze. Really enjoyed it!

    Now lunch on the balcony……

          1. A selection of French bread; Italian cheese; parma ham; tomatoes; mixed green salad…..

          8. ‘No pleasure ever foregone is worth an extra 5 years in a Nursing Home in Weston-super-Mare’

            (By Line of Consultant Psychiatrist practicing in the US also Ex-Askean)

          10. Simple and delish .

            Salad for us later .. cold chicken , baked potato, haven’t any decent bread , and loads of radishes , I love them .

          11. Mine – yesterdays egg ‘n bacon, bought in reykjavik airport but no opportunity to eat it untl now.
            Made with pitta bread… weird.

  44. Neil Oliver – the scripts to his set-piece weekend monologues are usually available on the GBN site but I can’t find them. Does anyone on here have a link?

    Transcribing a sentence and using it in a search isn’t working.

      1. That’s the whole one hour programme, not the monologue (which was posted here last week). It’s the scripts that I’m looking for.

  45. 373711 up ticks,

    May one say,

    ALL the time we are NOT training our own nurses and operating an open border campaign via an invasion, we are robbing places such as Ghana of medical staff.

    All the time we are accepting the invasion as a normal daily occurrence we, as well as the incoming morally illegals, are endangering the lives & health welfare of the Ghanaian peoples.

    We will NEVER, ever have enough nurses., under the WEF / NWO dictatorship.

    The Ghanaians have little or no options but to accept the situation as it plays out, we on the other hand have many an option, our problem is regarding the electorate, there is no known remedy for curing dangerous stupidity.

    1. When we did train nurses/doctors here, many of them went off to places like Australia and New Zealand. We should pay for British people to train here, but it has to come with a commitment to working here for at least 10 years. after qualification.

      2. It was only revenge in advance for the nurses & doctors trained in Africa and Asia who came to the Uk, leaving their homeland with the same problem.

        1. They did it for the money, the sunshine and because they could. Strange they never thought to go in advance to Africa and Asia…

      3. 373711+ up ticks,

        Afternoon HL,
        Complete agreement,
        I have always maintained the very same
        in the past.

      4. Would it be okay to post the pic Katie sent with the both of you drinking my wine?

        1. I’d prefer not. It’s got me leading on the table, hunched and looking p—ed, which I wasn’t!

          2. The both of them were only wearing small black satin shifts…

            Didn’t want to post then people needing to call emergency services !

          5. I just thought you were giving me the steely eye….as in ‘you call this wine good !’

            Your wish is my command.

          6. It was good – it was lovely, and Katy had made a wonderful ragout which was cooking on and off for a couple of days or so, which went beautifully together!

    2. When we did train nurses/doctors here, many of them went off to places like Australia and New Zealand. We should pay for British people to train here, but it has to come with a commitment to working here for at least 10 years. after qualification.

    3. Never mind Ogga, nurse Grace and her clones are on the way with thermometers down their cleavages to look after your every need.
      I believe the robot is AI capable and that means possibly engaging in a chat although if trained in ChatGPT it means its training could have ended in 2021.

      https://youtu.be/6lcyBTis17g

      1. 373711+ up ticks,

        Afternoon AOE,
        Additive Dis would have been more apt in the naming.

          1. 373711+ up ticks,

            Evening A O’E,

            A bit of pidgin,”you go make fetchum bring” would be out of the question then.

    4. It’s called asset stripping. We should remind the pro-immigration side of that whenever they want to talk about taking in the brightest and best.

  46. I do not believe any of the propaganda purporting to come from Russia.

    However, I suspect that IF there is a regime change, the new man will make Putin seem like a teddy bear.

    2. Putin cannot go on forever, at some point he will be replaced.
      He might eventually die of natural causes at some grand old age but that would not suit the msm story telling.

    3. I don’t believe any of the propaganda emanating from either side, but our side does seem to be the more dishonest of the two. Which, all things considered, is a pretty bad thing to have to acknowledge…😐

  47. Mornin’ Afternoon all.
    Just woken up after a night shift last night, following a long day yesterday.
    Up with the lark to drive down to Bovington for Tankfest’ which was scorchio. Despite suncream and a big floppy hat I’m a bit frazzled and tender today.
    A bonus was that the Red Arrows flew over on their way back from somewhere. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d177576821fcace6b500d24927786f36d27a34b65b4c730c00d45e055c4d766.jpg

    Some pics to send the ULEZ wonks into conditions.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a4f589dd8f28065f8e3a4f90933669d508ff2b9d32736e5de4c90b49db055f44.jpg

          2. An old work colleague told me a lovely story about when he was serving as a navy radio operator during his national service.
            They had pulled to a harbpur well known as a den of iniquity.
            Two of the younger newly arrived members of the crew were being advised along side the rest, of the problems over exuberant involvement with certain types of local ladies could cause.
            They openly told the chief petty officer they were only interested in books and magazines ashore.
            After about a week back at sea they were seen in the queue outside ‘Rose cottage’ as the ships medical department was known. Having picked up some sort of sexual disease.
            The CPO said out loud ‘Oh I see, you two have been reading those dirty magazines again have you’?

          5. I didn’t want to say that.
            One of my cousins was a radar operator in Malta.

    2. You are always welcome at my place when in the area. I’ll treat you to lunch.

      1. That’s v kind offer Phizz. I’ll let you know next time I’m down yer way. 🙂

    2. Is this the press release of NATO’s latest ET (Electric Tank) fitted with solar oriented panels and five USB slots for booting up in different languages?

      1. It’s a bit Pride – it’s called Matilda. Funny name for a tank, but then…

    3. Is this the press release of NATO’s latest ET (Electric Tank) fitted with solar oriented panels and five USB slots for booting up in different languages?

  49. Any sign of LadyoftheLake this morning?

    Her pain seemed to be severe yesterday evening

    1. I hope she’s okay today. It’s awful when you can’t even get any proper treatment for your health problems.

    2. It’s a real concern. Sending her virtual hugs and positive energy – hope it helps.

  50. Thought for the day –

    A volunteer is someone who didn’t understand the question.

    1. Oh dear – the illegals won’t like that one bit. “Not what we expected.” etc etc

  53. Well I had an eye test last week (June 16) at ASDA and paid (£120) for two new sets and nary a squeak have I recieved. It’s beginning to bug me that the notification has gone astray and I’m going to have to hunt it all up! I really hate this sort of thing because it seems to happen more often than chance would allow for!

    2. My husband used the optician in Asda about 4 months ago and got the 2 pairs of glasses within a week, even with his very peculiar prescription. He was delighted with the service, and we’ve since found out it’s a long established local company which took the space in the store. I’d definitely get in touch with them.

    3. My husband used the optician in Asda about 4 months ago and got the 2 pairs of glasses within a week, even with his very peculiar prescription. He was delighted with the service, and we’ve since found out it’s a long established local company which took the space in the store. I’d definitely get in touch with them.

  54. The Windrush myth

    ED WEST

    From The Spectator website, Thursday 22nd June 2023

    Seventy-five years ago today perhaps the most famous ship in British history arrived at this island. A new nation was born, and with it, a new founding myth.

    The story begins in the last few weeks of the second world war, when British troops advancing on Kiel in the very north of Germany captured a ship called the Monte Rosa.

    Built in Hamburg in 1930, after the Nazi takeover in 1933 the Monte Rosa had been used in the ‘Strength Through Joy’ workers’ holiday programme; later it became a troopship for the invasion of Norway, where it remained until 1945, when the vessel was transferred to help with the tragic rescue of Germans escaping from East Prussia.

    Most historians, who are always happy to tell you that old national histories are all 19th-century creations, seem reluctant to take on myths still in formation

    Now in British hands, it had in January 1947 been rechristened, like other captured German ships, with names taken from tributaries of the Thames – and so the Monte Rosa became the Empire Windrush. Barely noted in its lifetime – it sank off the coast of Algeria in 1954 – this ship is in the 21st century more commemorated than HMS Victory, Brunel’s SS Great Britain or the Mary Rose (probably only the Titanic is more famous).

    Today its voyage is marked on coins issued by the Royal Mint, while the Imperial War Museum has even called it ‘one of the most foundational moments in British history’. Schools up and down the country will spend the day celebrating the Windrush’s journey from Jamaica to England.

    Running through much of this commemoration is the narrative that the Windrush generation – the name given to the first wave of West Indian immigrants after the war – were answering a call for help from the mother country. The story of the Windrush is now commemorated by Laura Serrant’s poem, ‘You Called…and We Came’. The National Windrush Monument at Waterloo Station, unveiled last year, features the words of that poem, with the lines:

    ‘Remember… you called.
    Remember… you called
    YOU. Called.
    Remember, it was us, who came.’

    Even London schools have been emailing parents to commemorate those ‘answering the call from the British government to work in the NHS, on public transport and in the Post Office’. It is the story of the post-war imperial subjects who answered the appeal of the mother country.

    And yet… it’s not quite true.

    The Windrush began its historic journey from Kingston to Tilbury on 24 May 1948, with several hundred West Indian men and one stowaway woman. Also on board were a group of Poles who had circumnavigated the globe during the war, some of these survivors having escaped from Siberia to India, onto Palestine and then Mexico. The ship’s operator had expected to leave Jamaica under capacity and so offered passage at half price; many local men took the opportunity.

    Far from calling them, the British government was alarmed by the news. A Privy Council memo sent to the Colonial Office on 15 June stated that the government should not help the migrants: ‘Otherwise there might be a real danger that successful efforts to secure adequate conditions of these men on arrival might actually encourage a further influx.’

    Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech Jones replied: ‘These people have British passports and they must be allowed to land.’ But, he added confidently: ‘They won’t last one winter in England.’ Indeed, Britain had recently endured some very harsh winters.

    The Ministry of Labour was also unhappy about the arrival of the Jamaican men, minister George Isaacs warning that if they attempted to find work in areas of serious unemployment ‘there will be trouble eventually’. He said: ‘The arrival of these substantial numbers of men under no organised arrangement is bound to result in considerable difficulty and disappointment. I hope no encouragement will be given to others to follow their example.’

    Soon afterwards, 11 concerned Labour MPs wrote to Prime Minister Clement Attlee stating that the government should ‘by legislation if necessary, control immigration in the political, social, economic and fiscal interests of our people…In our opinion such legislation or administration action would be almost universally approved by our people.’ The letter was sent on 22 June; that same day the Windrush arrived at Tilbury.

    Many West Indians had fought heroically during the war, and many soldiers and airmen had been stationed in England, defending the island from slavery. They had experienced friendship and warmth from some English people, and hostility from others. After their sacrifices, Jamaicans perhaps felt they had every right to work in England.

    The Windrush passengers, including several RAF veterans, were unaware of the apprehension facing them, nor that HMS Sheffield had been sent to monitor the liner, with orders to send it back if any passengers made trouble. None of them did. Many felt enormous joy at visiting England, a feeling described by one passenger, the calypso singer Lord Kitchener – real name Aldwyn Roberts – who wrote ‘London is the Place for Me’ onboard.

    He later recalled: ‘The feeling I had to know that I’m going to touch the soil of the mother country, that was the feeling I had. You know how it is when a child, you hear about your mother country, and you know that you’re going to touch the soil of the mother country, you know what feeling is that? And I can’t describe it.’

    Meanwhile, Attlee replied to his worried backbenchers on 5 July: ‘I think it would be a great mistake to take the emigration of this Jamaican party to the United Kingdom too seriously.’

    Creech Jones was also sanguine, stating that: ‘I do not think that a similar mass movement will take place again because the transport is unlikely to be available, though we shall be faced with a steady trickle, which, however, can be dealt with without undue difficulty.’

    The Windrush passengers had no idea that they were at the forefront of the biggest social change in British history; nor could any of Britain’s political leaders know how large and significant immigration would become. At the time, these imperial subjects were dwarfed in number by the 200,000 or so Europeans who had arrived since Hitler took power, mostly Poles, but also German and Austrian Jews (there were also over 15,000 former enemy prisoners of war). Yet Britain still had quite a small foreign-born population – something that was to drastically change.

    Britain’s first wave of mass immigration came about through a series of unintended actions. The Dominions were in the process of formalising their nation status, and in 1946 Canada passed a citizenship law, enacted on 1 January 1947. Previously, all Canadian nationals were de facto British citizens, but the new ruling forced Britain to clarify exactly which Commonwealth subjects were allowed to live here. The resulting 1948 Nationality Act allowed entry to the British mainland for those ‘who hold a UK passport or a passport issued by the Government of the United Kingdom’.

    Although the law introduced a liberal immigration policy for the next 14 years, it was, according to historian Randall Hansen, ‘never intended to sanction a mass migration of new Commonwealth citizens to the United Kingdom’ and ‘nowhere in parliamentary debate, the Press, or private papers was the possibility that substantial numbers could exercise their right to reside permanently in the UK discussed’. It was badly drafted, naive about the numbers who might move, and set off a migration chain that soon caused public unease.

    In 1949 a further 39 Jamaicans came over, and in 1951 some 1,500 West Indians arrived, but Caribbean immigration really sped up from the mid-50s. They were soon joined, and outnumbered, by arrivals from South Asia, until successive governments passed immigration laws which by the early 1970s had shut the doors.

    The multicultural society was born, but it was with the election of Tony Blair in 1997 and a much larger second wave of immigration – still ongoing – that the Windrush came to become the totemic moment in our history.

    Writing last year, Lin Manuel summarised the modern narrative as follows:

    ‘Following the second world war, shattered by the Blitz and bereft of laborers, Britain invited its West Indian colonial subjects to the imperial motherland to help the country rebuild. The first group arrived in England from Jamaica aboard HMT Empire Windrush in 1948, and have been making invaluable contributions ever since, despite confronting constant racism and discrimination since their arrival.’

    He writes that ‘Versions of this story have been reiterated at every level of society, from Channel 4 and BBC documentaries, by King Charles III when he was still the Prince of Wales, and by the late Queen Elizabeth II. But it is entirely untrue.’

    Rather than being called to Britain:

    ‘Civil servants from the Colonial Office were dispatched to the Caribbean to orchestrate campaigns explaining that jobs in the UK were scarce, conditions were poor (rationing remained in place until 1954 for food, furniture, fuel and clothing), and immigrants could not be guaranteed employment or housing (of which there was a chronic shortage).’

    Neither was there a post-war labour shortage, as is often claimed, but a labour surplus. Between 1946 and 1960 almost 2 million people left the country, emigration encouraged by the government with subsided travel to Australia – at £10, a third of what the Windrush passengers paid. ‘Even with mass emigration, unemployment rates remained stable’, he writes.

    While there were some wartime labour shortages, addressed by small numbers of colonial volunteers, ‘this has come to be conflated with post-war economic migration’ and the ‘direct recruitment’ schemes by various public sector bodies:

    ‘In 1955, the government of Barbados created a scheme in which the London Transport Executive and later the British Transport Commission, the British Hotels and Restaurants Association, and the Regional Hospital Boards, could recruit workers directly from the island to help alleviate widespread unemployment and social unrest. Jamaica and Trinidad soon joined the scheme. At the same time, the NHS made provision for young women from the Commonwealth to train in the UK as nurses.

    ‘Both initiatives accounted for only a small proportion of total Caribbean immigration. Between 1956 and 1960, the Barbados sponsorship scheme recruited 3,680 people – less than 5 per cent of over 86,000 to arrive in Britain in this period. A 1961 commons speech notes that there were a total of 6,365 immigrant student nurses in the NHS out of a total of 55,000. Even if we presume they were all from the West Indies, they would account for less than 10 per cent of total net migration from the region in that year alone, or 4.7 per cent of that in the preceding five-year period.’

    Or as the Runnymede Trust puts it, ‘Concerned with rising unemployment in Barbados, the Barbadian government eventually approached London Transport to set up a more formal arrangement for recruitment. In 1956, London Transport became the first organisation to operate a scheme recruiting staff directly from the Caribbean.’

    The Windrush was not mentioned in early depictions of Caribbean migration, and Manuel suggests that it rose to prominence with the Brixton riots and the subsequent need to create a more welcoming national narrative. Then came Blair, whose vision of a modern Britain was proudly multicultural; a series of Windrush documentaries in 1998 focused on the ship’s journey, which all fitted well with New Labour’s dream of a diverse, inclusive and modern country. That same year Brixton Oval was renamed Windrush Square.

    Manuel writes that:

    ‘Today, for the descendants of the Afro-Caribbean immigrants of the 1950s and 60s, the Windrush story has become a kind of etiological narrative: a story that helps to explain who they are, where they came from, and where they are now. It provides them with an important role in the country’s story.

    ‘For the modern Blairite establishment, Windrush represents a definitive break with tradition: the point at which traditional, ethnically homogeneous, monocultural “imperial” Britain ended, and the new multiethnic and multicultural Britain began to take shape, and is almost always deployed in “official” capacities to act as the sine qua non-exemplar of why modern Britain owes its existence to “diversity”.’

    There is a certain amount of well-intentioned inclusive myth-making in this story, and from a historical point of view the idea that ‘diversity built Britain’, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, is bizarre. Until 1952 Britain was the richest country in Europe, after which we massively fell behind our continental rivals – so if diversity did ‘build’ the country, it didn’t do a great job. Despite this most historians, who are always happy to tell you that old national histories are all 19th-century creations, seem reluctant to take on myths still in formation.

    Strangely, the modern national origin myth has a slight echo of the original founding story of England. In the traditional myth, the first ‘English’ arrived on this island after a native king called Vortigern invited over three boatloads of Jutes to work in sub-Roman Britain’s thriving security industry. Supposedly in AD 430 or 449 he asked these Germanic warriors to come and protect his country from the Picts, and according to legend Vortigern also fell in love with a Jutish girl and offered them the Isle of Thanet if he could win her heart.

    Historians have tended to dismiss this story, since its narrative, of two brothers with alliterative names – Hengist and Horsa – arriving in three boats is very common to many other ancient tales. They’re too tropey to be plausible.

    And though most historians believe the characters involved to be mythical, I’ve never read any doubting the fact that the Britons invited the Jutes in the first place. Perhaps it’s plausible because, as many know, the colonisation of Ireland begins with an Irish chieftain asking a Norman baron to intervene (which was obviously a great idea). Yet, if you were a local warlord struggling in the chaos of Dark Ages Britain, would you really think it wise to invite over loads of Germans, the same sort of people who most threatened the western Empire? That would be insane, surely.

    Isn’t it more likely that the Germans just turned up, and that after they had become numerically dominant, constructed a myth in which the native Britons invited them over, and so giving them a greater entitlement to the land? You called, and we came. Maybe, maybe not – but it’s interesting to see a national origin myth being constructed in our very lifetime.

    This article first appeared on Ed West’s Wrong Side of History

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-windrush-myth/

    2. It doesn’t include the fact that the ship was operated by the New Zealand Shipping Company which was owned and managed by members of a certain tribe.

  55. 373711 + up ticks,

    Dt,

    How will the heart of our democracy look if elected leaders can be cancelled?

    There are legitimate reasons to criticise the former PM, but the Privileges Committee report was an absurd act of self-justification

    If permanently,

    ………………….. BLOODY BEAUTIFUL.

        1. 🎵Der duh der der der duh der der der der der duh🎵

          That’s his heart beat.

      1. VG! Indeed she hopes to make more money from successfully executing her briefs….

    1. I’m sure it was interesting but I can’t understand what he’s saying half the time – his diction is awful and you can imagine his finger following the printed words. Sorry Paul – of course it could be my bad hearing :o)

  58. Afternoon All

    Belated Medley

    Awkward……

    https://twitter.com/LeoKearse/status/1672203906749792257?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a5da8d68428930ec902f731ab42b35663928f54567c4ec34710940724b0f3917.jpg

    https://twitter.com/hugh_mankind/status/1672064946396332032?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2579a2d164292f775ddf5bf9d41b46f4377824372f8037f54e5d4be575762177.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b04a54177da76feeb269ae2cc9d00be55d51f4dca393decc94d1de5e4929249.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b578fb710e9820d9caa53f8690a6c67d9be5b782aa531d2f68870bf7a8919e7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96f31cd7b09635eca1abecd3051489a13a9c1ec206fb614edc99b9f23d62f809.gif

    4. What Gene Simmons said, as reported by The Hill on 11/11/21.

      Gene Simmons is blasting COVID-19 deniers and unvaccinated Americans, calling them the “enemy.”

      “If you’re willing to walk among us unvaccinated, you are an enemy,” the KISS frontman said Wednesday in an interview on “TalkShopLive.”

      “I don’t care about your political beliefs,” the “Rock and Roll All Nite” singer said while discussing canceling tour dates earlier this year when he and fellow bandmate Paul Stanley tested positive with so-called breakthrough cases of the coronavirus after being vaccinated and a guitar tech for the group reportedly died.

      “You are not allowed to infect anybody just because you think you’ve got rights that are delusional,” Simmons, 72, said.

      “You don’t have the right to go through a red light — actually the government has the right to tell you to stop,” he continued.

      “If they tell you you can’t smoke in a building, you can’t smoke in a building. And that’s not because they want to take away your rights — that’s because the rest of us hate it. We don’t want to smell your smoke.”

      “I don’t want to catch your disease,” Simmons added. “I don’t want to risk my life just because you want to go through a red light. This whole idea, this delusional, evil idea that you get to do whatever you want and the rest of the world be damned is really terrible.”

      Simmons shredded both Democrats and Republicans as “evil” for spreading what he described as “all kinds of nonsense.”

      “I don’t like either one of them. Politics are the enemy. Humanism and humanity is what we should all be concerned about. Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Simmons said.

      “For God’s sakes, if I’m going to yawn in your presence, I’m going to put my hand up in front of my mouth,” he said. “Yawning is not a life threatening event. You having COVID might be a life threatening event, and I don’t want to catch it.”

      Citing the worldwide death toll of more than 5 million people due to COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data, Simmons likened coronavirus deniers to “Flat Earth Society people.”

      “No bitch, they died because they got COVID.”

      In seemingly a reference to Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who made misleading comments about his vaccination status, Simmons said, “I don’t care if you play football or not — stay away from evil people who don’t care about your health.”

      https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/581147-gene-simmons-rips-anti-vaxxers-if-youre-willing-to-walk-among/

      2. Given that it was very clear by November 2021 that the number of people dying only because of Covid was actually relatively small and similar to ‘flu deaths, which appeared to all but vanish, and that vaccinated people could catch it and transmit it, I think he was on very shaky ground.

    5. A transcript extract of what Don Lemon said, as reported by CNN on 26/07/21.

      Well, I don’t know, I’m sure a lot of people are not going to agree with this, but don’t get the vaccine, and you can’t go to the supermarket. Don’t have the vaccine. You can’t go to the ball game. Don’t have a vaccine, can’t go to work. Don’t have a vaccine, can’t come in. No shirt, no shoes, no service.

      That’s where I think we should be right now. Because we continue to waste our breath and people on who are just not going to change. Their, you know, circular logic, they just keep going back and saying, it’s my freedom, it’s whatever, I’m free.

      Well, your kid is not free to give other kids meningitis in schools. You have to take a vaccine to do that. You have to take a vaccine in order to be employed. So, what is the big deal? All of these people are saying, I don’t want this stuff in my body. They’re out drinking on the weekend, and putting all their substances and that’s much worse for them than a vaccine. So, come on. Let’s be real.

      http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2107/26/cnnt.01.html

      1. It was very apparent from early on that the vaccines did not stop people getting Covid, and nor did the vaccines stop people from transmitting Covid.

      2. Coercion is not a good way to get people to take a vaccination, by witholding normal life. I was coerced into taking two AZ jabs, because I had a trip to Kenya already booked (later postponed) and last year it was a requirement for entry, but that has now been dropped.

        There’s no way I will be taking any boosters.

        Bodily autonomy should be respected as everybody’s right. If people want to take these injections which clearly didn’t work, then that is their right. Equally it should be everyone’s right to refuse them.

          1. They have also been shown to damage the natural immune system. Many people who have had several booster jabs are still getting covid, because their immune system has been trained to tolerate the virus.

            They would have done far better to boost their immune system by taking vitamin D & C.

          2. It is also becoming apparent that they cause damage to the heart in younger people who were never really at any risk from the virus. Maybe also in older people like my fit and sporty husband who had three Pfizer jabs, and later needed a triple bypass op. We’ll never know if that was the case, of course, but he has refused subsequent boosters.

          4. Not long enough and very inadequately. Remember Pfizer tried to hide the adverse effects for 75 years…….

          5. Good afternoon, Stig,

            Since the PTB lie it is most unwise to trust their statistics at all.

            As I said yesterday Caroline and I have the “lived experience” of getting Covid so mildly in February 2022 that Caroline only knew she had it when she was tested when I was tested and I was up and about again in less than 24 hours after getting it having had a good sleep. Our doctor had advised us not to have the jabs and so we did not have them.

            Caroline’s nephews and her sister, and our second son and his fiancée were all fully jabbed and were all quite ill with Covid at the same time.

            So what do you go on – your own lived experience and observations or statistics given out by people who have a vested interest in lying to you?

          6. Partly lived experience, partly a mistrust of irregular social media influencers who delight in being contrarians.

      3. What a load of UNTESTED nonsense and who is now being proved RIGHT?

        The unvaccinated.

    6. Jimmy Kimmel’s words were reported as a joke by The Hill on 08/09/21.

      On his first night back from a months-long vacation, the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host commented on the rise of coronavirus cases across the country as the delta variant spreads.

      “It was not a fun Labor Day weekend COVID-wise,” Kimmel said in his post-holiday monologue. “Dr. Fauci said if hospitals get any more overcrowded they’re going to have to make some very tough choices about who gets an ICU bed.”

      He added, “That choice doesn’t seem so tough to me. ‘Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right in, we’ll take care of you. Unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo? Rest in peace, wheezy.’”

      Kimmel’s “horse goo” comment seems to reference the animal antiparasitic drug ivermectin, which some are using to battle COVID-19 despite warnings from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA).

      “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the FDA tweeted along with a statement encouraging people to stop using the drug.

      Kimmel referred to people who refuse to get vaccinated or turn to non-FDA approved drugs to treat the virus as “pan-dimwits.”

      “People are still taking this ivermectin. The poison control center has seen a spike in calls from people taking this livestock medicine to fight the coronavirus, but they won’t take the vaccine. It’s like if you’re a vegan and you’re like, ‘No, I don’t want a hamburger, give me that can of Alpo instead,’” Kimmel joked.

      https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/571388-jimmy-kimmel-jokes-unvaccinated-shouldnt-get-icu-bed/

      1. It still boils down to him saying that the vaccinated should take priority.
        Do you find that funny?
        I don’t.

        1. No. And ivermectin won its inventor/discoverer a Nobel prize. It’s a safe drug for people, not just animals.

      1. I think that is the context. Fortunately, eventually covid passports were no longer required.

        1. No longer required – for now.

          The Canadian government spent ,tens of millions on developing their little covid vaccine tracking app for people entering the country.

          They wouldn’t have spent that much money for a tool with such a short term lifespan.

    8. Howard Stern’s words, as reported by Rolling Stone on 09/09/21.

      HOWARD STERN SLAMMED anti-vaxxers Tuesday on his Sirius XM radio show, telling them to “go fuck yourself” for refusing to take the vaccine and clogging up the hospitals.

      “When are we gonna stop putting up with the idiots in this country and just say it’s mandatory to get vaccinated? Fuck ’em. Fuck their freedom,” Stern said. “I want my freedom to live. I want to get out of the house already. I want to go next door and play chess. I want to go take some pictures.”

      Stern’s comments occurred during a conversation where the host discussed the string of deaths of anti-vax radio hosts — like Marc Bernier, who dubbed himself “Mr. Anti Vax,” and Phil Valentine — who, from their death beds, expressed regret about their attitudes toward the Covid-19 vaccine.

      Stern’s sidekick Robin Quivers added, “I have trouble drumming up compassion, and I think that’s a terrible thing to not be able to drum up compassion for people that stupid that they wind up dying.”

      “As far as I remember, when I went to school, you had to get a measles vaccine, you had to get a mumps vaccine, there was a ton of them you got, polio,” Stern said.

      Stern also slammed the “imbeciles” who refused the vaccination and are now in the hospital: “Go fuck yourself. You had the cure and you wouldn’t take it.”

      https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/howard-stern-anti-vaxxers-go-fuck-yourself-1222672/

      1. Clearly a thoroughly unpleasant character.

        I had no measles or mumps vaccine when I was at school, nor whooping cough or chicken pox. I had all those diseases and survived them.

        1. #MeToo, Jules, it’s called natural immunity.

          Too clever by half for these idiots who base it all on “The Science.” Ha.

      2. The problem with Mr Stern’s comments is that measles, mumps and polio jabs prevented the

        recipients from ever getting the disease.

        The Covid jabs never prevented the disease, and the government insisted on lockdown which

        isolated tens of thousands of old and disabled people and damaged the economy.

        An outcome different from his comments?

    9. Finally, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s words – rather more substantial than the mere three words quoted above – as reported by The Hill on 11/08/21.

      Arnold Schwarzenegger has a message for Americans who argue that face masks encroach on their rights: “Screw your freedom.”

      “Because with freedom comes obligations and responsibilities,” the Republican former California governor said in a YouTube video released Wednesday. The action movie-star-turned-politician’s remarks were part of a discussion with CNN’s Bianna Golodryga and Alexander Vindman to promote Vindman’s new book, “Here, Right Matters.”

      “We cannot just say, ‘I have the right to do X, Y and Z.’ When you affect other people, that is when it gets serious,” Schwarzenegger, 74, said.

      The ex-bodybuilder likened opposition to face masks to bucking traffic laws.

      “You cannot say, ‘No one is going to tell me that I’m going to stop here, that I have to stop at this traffic light here. I’m going to go right through it.’ Then you kill someone else, and then it is your doing,” he said.

      “This is the same thing with the virus,” the “Terminator” star explained. “You cannot go not put the mask on because when you breathe, you can infect someone else. And you can infect someone that then gets sick and may die.”

      Schwarzenegger has been a vocal proponent of social distancing measures and of attempting to wipe out COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. In January, he shared a video of himself receiving the coronavirus vaccine.

      In this week’s video, he urged the country to “work together,” saying it’s “the only way we can lick this virus.”

      “Yeah, you have the freedom to wear no mask. But you know something, you’re a schmuck for not wearing a mask because you’re supposed to protect the fellow members around you,” Schwarzenegger said.

      “I don’t want to villainize anyone here,” he continued, “but I just wanted to tell everyone, let’s work together and let’s stop fighting because there is a virus, and it’s better to get vaccinated [and] to wear a mask.”

      https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/567433-schwarzenegger-to-anti-maskers-screw-your-freedom/

      1. Thankyou David, for finding the context of all these words – we know the masks did more harm than good, especially to children, and also to the hard of hearing. I will never again be coerced into putting a germ-laden piece of rag over my face.

        Sometimes it’s not clear from a meme whether the person quoted actually said those words – but clearly they did and not just the truncated versions above, but a whole lot more. I disagree with all of them.

      2. The masks were likened to diamond shaped netting against a tiny mosquito that just flies straight through – absolutely useless. Any way I am exempt because I have COPD.

        With ⅓ of my heart dead, and suffering from Chronic Ischaemic Heart Disease, I wont risk adding myocarditis to the ailments that could kill me. Up yours, Schwarzenegger. You take what risks you like – they don’r appeal to me or many others.

        1. “The masks were likened to diamond shaped netting against a tiny mosquito that just flies straight through…”

          The public are so ignorant of science that they cannot comprehend the contrast in size. Viruses are sub-microscopic. If a typical cold virus were the size of a golf ball, that golf ball would about 10 miles in diameter.

          1. Not all of the viral load is free-floating. Some is contained in droplets which adhere to the mask. That said, studies do indicate – not with absolute unanimity – that masks are of marginal benefit. They are more of a comfort blanket for the fearful.

          2. “They are more of a comfort blanket for the fearful.”

            Exactement, © Peddy the Viking.

          3. They were just that – clearly, the people who continued to wear them when they were alone in their cars were very fearful. They protected neither the wearer nor those around them, but were a psychological booster for some people.

    10. The scandal of the vaccine programme was that it came to be accepted that it would immunize the population, rather than simply provide some extra protection for the most vulnerable. Many involved in the programme made that point at the start, i.e. that it would not prevent infection, but somehow the public came to believe that it was an immunizing agent like those given against deadly or disabling diseases such as small pox, polio, diphtheria, TB, measles etc. Governments allowed this false belief to spread, their assumption being that the public, in their ignorance, would be easily persuaded. They were correct in that assumption.

  59. Won’t it be fun to see the tons and tons of rubbish the woke eco-freaks leave behind at Glastonbury?

    1. There’s gonna be a lot more stuff than plain old rubbish. How far is the nearest river?

    3. Will there be more flies than in Fakenham and beat Guinness World Records 2023?

        1. This is starting to look like a serious heallth issue so there must be a body who is charged to sort it. I got a problem sorted after asking my MP to raise it as a flag case with the responible authority.

          1. The District Council is beginning to “think about doing something”…

            Our MP is totally useless

  60. Me again , wittering on about arrivals.

    https://twitter.com/ActivePatriotUK/status/1672576455522361350

    I had to take a few items back to the very small M+S in Weymouth during the week

    It is so small and very limited stock wise but also has a small overcrowded food hall , the idiots closed the slightly larger one in Dorchester a couple of years ago, which totally ruined the centre of town .. it was a focal point , a meet up place etc. The Duchy refused to put a larger store in Poundbury , so I have heard .

    My visit to Weymouth was interesting because in the upstairs clothes section for children , women and the cafe plus loos were a couple of very elegant Syrian/ Lebanese/Afghan, ladies with their children , I don’t know where they were from , the children were lovely and well behaved , but their mothers were so remote and dead eyed and no smiles or nods , nothing .. and considering the shop has one of the best views in the world opening onto the marine parade , and the views are of the bay and White Nothe and donkey rides , it was an uneasy feeling .

    How can we be friendly if there is no reciprocation from new people to the area ?

  61. Thanks for the concern- I an here now. Had a dreadful night, didn’t sleep until around 5 and have been wretched ever since. Came downstairs about 11.30 and then went back up for another hour. Haven’t taken any pain killers yet as they are doing a number on my stomach. Will have to do so soon though.
    We have repeatedly asked the NHS to give us appointments late morning or early afternoon as our bus passes don’t kick in until 9.30. Got the letter about oncologist appointment which is at 10. That means another cab, at least there.
    The irony is that I have been longing for this lovely weather and now it’s here, I can’t enjoy it.
    Hope y’all are well.

    3. Oh, man, Ann. :-((
      Between a rock and a hard place.
      If you pop the painkillers, can you take yet another pill to soothe the stomach?

      1. Yes, I was given something but it’s hard enough getting these other buggers down. I may take one before bed.

        1. Wish I could offer more than sympathy, Ann. I’ll send virtual hugs, hope that helps.
          -)(-

        2. You are in a terrible mess , with what seems to be uncontrollable pain.

          Pain Management
          We provide specialist support for people living with persistent pain, helping them to lead as fulfilling and independent lives as possible.

          Our community pain service deals with all forms of chronic pain, including musculoskeletal (muscles, bones and joints), neurological (nervous system), internal organs and unexplained pain.

          We offer a range of support and treatments, including:

          medication and injection therapy
          self-management strategies
          psychological therapy and counselling
          physical therapy to improve fitness and mobility
          complementary treatments, such as TENS clinics, meditation and relaxation
          group-based pain management programmes.
          We also provide employment support, to help people return to work or find a new job.

          The service employs consultant anaesthetists, psychologists, counsellors, occupational therapists, physiotherapists and nurses, based in community hospitals and clinics across Dorset.

          If you, or your loved one, would like to access this service, please speak to your GP.

          https://www.dorsethealthcare.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/our-services-hospitals/physical-health/pain-management

          Dorset Community Pain Service (Bournemouth – Boscombe, Shelley Road). 01202 308069 …

          https://dorsetpain.org.uk/Ongoing-support/Contact-us

          Poole Community Clinic
          Shaftesbury Road
          Poole BH15 2NT
          Tel: 01202 308069

          Please ring them now …

    4. Not a good situation, Ann.

      Try, if you are able and your quack allows, my prescription of I x Tramadol 50 mg + 1 x Diclofenac 50 mg. It’ll take about 30 mins to have an effect but the Tramadol kills the pain and the Diclofenac relaxes the muscles.

      Be very, very careful with Tramadol, as an opiod it can be addictive. I only use it when pain reaches screaming levels.

      I, like many others here, can only wish you well, knowing the abundance of love and hugs that surround you.

    5. There just aren’t any breaks for you are there. Since they have done sod all to fix your problems, you would think that the supposed experts would have sorted out pain control by now.

      At great personal sacrifice I am still helping maintain your supply by eschewing Pinot so I ended up drinking copious quantities of Sangria last night. Ouch, dangerous stuff.

  62. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s much belated story

    A Bullet Is Not For Life

    A woman pregnant with triplets is walking down the street when a masked robber runs out of the bank and shoots her three times in the stomach. Luckily the babies are okay.

    The surgeon decides to leave the bullets in because it’s too risky to operate.

    All is fine for 16 years, and then one day one daughter walks into the room in tears. “What’s wrong?” asks the mother.

    “I was peeing and this bullet came out,” replies the daughter.

    The mother tells her it’s okay and explains what happened 16 years ago.

    About a week later, the second daughter walks in to the room in tears. “Mom, I was peeing and this bullet came out.”

    Again, the mother tells her not to worry and explains what happened 16 years ago.

    A week later the boy walks into the room in tears. “It’s okay,” says the mom, “I know what happened, you were peeing and a bullet came out.”

    “No,” says the boy, “I was jerking off and I shot the dog.”

    2. 3% of the population 100% of the advertising.
      I wonder how many companies have noticed that the advertising has had the opposite effect.

      1. Althea Gibson – she was a wonderful player and character.
        There is a young girl at the moment – Coco Gauke? who is supposed to be promising isn’t she?

      1. It’s the preponderance of Islamic ideologists that worries me.

        How long before we become the fore-runner of the European Caliphate?

  68. Par Four today.

    Wordle 735 4/6
    🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Lucky three for me.

      Wordle 735 3/6

      🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Here too.

      Wordle 735 4/6

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

    3. I barely survived
      Wordle 735 6/6

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

  70. I know we are in the summer silly news season but it feels like we have reached new lows this week, with the submersible and now the Russian civil war

      2. Cleg bites always were nasty – I got one in France one year and my leg swelled up like a football. It left a scar that lasted for ages.

      3. I would contradict part of that. I would say that most insect repellant does work with all biting flying insects.
        There’s a bit of a chuckle right at the end of the article.
        Visit a doctor immediately…….
        really !

        1. Last summer I had a mozzie bite that came up in a mound two inches wide. Pharmacist in Boots said phone your GP. I went to A&E. No point in describing it on the phone. Nurse doing triage agreed that it needed to be seen there and then and antibiotics prescribed.

          2. Not 100% but the insect buzzing around my flat looked and sounded like one. The bite looked characteristic to begin with too but then changed.

          3. It’s unusual for a mozzie in the UK to bring on such a reaction.
            You could have tried a stronger gin and tonic. 🤭🍹originally used to combat malaria. 😉

          1. There was an excellent repellent on Oz called Areoguard. I’m not sure it’s still available.
            Don’t talk about midges. We went camping in bonnie Scotland once. After 3 days of rain and hell from the midges. We drove down to North Devon.

      4. As I lay on the ground after being hit by a lorry at a junction on my way to work I suffered a bite from an insect which made my whole leg swell up. I went to my GP and he gave me the antihistamine Triludan https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8002126/packet-of-10-triludan-terfenadine-60mg-antihistamine-tablets-triludan.

        A following day on my arrival at work I collapsed having just made it to the company nurse’s office.
        Eventually I found that Triludan was later withdrawn owing to excessive elongation of the heart’s QT interval.
        I also discovered that I was particulaly vulnerable to such a drug by virtue of my preexisting elongated QT interval.

        1. There is so much contradiction between various parts of the NHS.

          Isn’t it about time that the NHS had a communal direction and system that allowed, if you were sick either in Lands’s End or John O Groats, the same information is available to the doctor who may be treating your case?

          Alas, it is not so – weeks may pass before that information is available.

          Why, because the NHS wishes to remain a secretive, overpaid organisation that requires a fundamental overhaul of its practices and procedures.

          I can do that, having already done it many businesses here, in Europe and overseas, where the need is to get to Senior Management and change their way of thinking and looking at The business. For the betterment of the business itself.

          1. Dream on Tom. How long do you think that it would take for the NHS to develop and implement a country wide records system? As for the cost, it would probably make some of those IT debacles seem inconsequential in comparison – a country wide integrated system would end up costing more than HS2 before they abandon it.

          2. One of the reasons why I retired, Richard. I knew it’d never happen despite the agonising requirement for it.

            I could see that but NHS doesn’t want prod-noses like me investigating their ways and means.

            Their life might become hell, but that of the General Population so much better – perish the thought,.

          3. The Blair government tried to instigate that very thing but cost overruns scared the Cameron government into abandoning it. Why it spiralled out of control, I don’t know, but overreach is what springs to my mind. Needless complication probably played a part, although backloading of historical data was always going to be a huge task.

          4. Sometomes a medical professional is blinded by what is staring them in the face. I was wearing a red wrist band on my bed on the carfiac ward and the consultant prescribed the very drug to which I had reported having had an adverse reaction.

            I was so shocked that I blurted out that I had had a severe reaction to that drug and that this had been consistently ignored during earlier treatments.

            The consultant walked away sayimg:

            “Let that be a lesson” but I can’t be sure to whom he was addressing it. Could have been is junior doctor entourage.

          5. C’est la vie, C’est la guere, Say no bleeding more – bloody consultants full of themselves, Angie.

          6. There are times when you feel all alone but knowledge is power.
            There are times sj when you just have to say something but without using an expletive!

          1. I’m fortunate in knowing more about my vulnerabiliy to certain medications that the medical professionals who are charged with maintaining my health.

      5. Horseflies are but a passing phase in the annual parade of bugs that bite. Deer flies, cow flies, mosquitos and the obnoxious noseeum flies all have a spot in the calendar.

        1. Same here, I’m glad that our equivalent of noseeums only enjoy a very short season

      1. Agreed.
        I have read that these are allegedly Russian mercenaries, which seems strange.
        If they really are mercenaries they will sell their services to the highest bidder.
        I also read that the Pentagon has suddenly “found” $6.5 billion.
        That buys a lot of officers and men. Coincidence?

    1. It looks like the Yanks may get their wish, the break up of Russia.

      They should be extremely careful about what they wish for. As BT suggested this morning, what replaces Putin may well be a lot worse.

        1. We suspect that the Chinese will back someone who will become their

          puppet rather than actually invade.

          1. The Chinese will back anyone who will sell them Siberia for a good price.

        2. The question is more, “Where will China invade?”

          If it’s Taiwan can/will USA stand by its supposed ally?

          If it’s Russia what will Russia’s reply be? a Nuke on Peking/Beijing?

          3. If our govt is not taking it seriously one can conclude that either it isn’t serious and/or things are going to plan or the members have, collectively, gone insane. I suspect it is more fear porn after the submersible events of last week. How can we trust that which we are given to digest ever again. It seems like an attempt to keep the fear level high for something that will be revealed to us further down the line.

          4. Even the dolt Blinken has admitted that Taiwan is a recognised part of China. This goes back to the Nixon presidency and agreements of that time.

            The principal threat to world peace is the Biden administration orchestrated by Obama and Clinton. Biden is compromised having accepted millions from the Chinese both directly and through his corrupt son and other family members.

            Too many wish to rewrite history and ignore its lessons for the present time.

          5. Happy, happy day for tomorrow old, troop and 365 happy unbirthdays thereafter.

      2. The Wagner incident is a blip that many were urging Putin to head off after Bakhmut.

        Putin is under no threat provided he cleans up the Wagner mess swiftly.

        The Duran viz. Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforou on Rumble and Locals are a useful source of more accurate information on matters Russia and Ukraine.

  72. – All these school children identifying as animals are nothing new.

    We just called them teachers pets, back in the day

    1. My daughter has just given up teaching.
      She couldn’t stand dealing with kids any more.
      They were beginning to get her goat.

      1. I always reply to those tv ads that end, “keep away from children” with “I do try”.

    2. Checked in with RT News on the hour. Moscow surrounded by barricades, all public events cancelled. Wagner offices in St Petersburg raided this morning and assets seized.

      Now to listen to Neil Oliver then see what’s on Talking Pictures TV and read a bit more Evelyn Waugh (The Loved One).

    3. I now understand why the Daily Mail devotes so much space to the royal family.
      It’s for the people who have had enough of all the other carp.
      I read an article on royal brooches from start to finish today!

  74. It’s a shame I have no means of recording it for display on here but Wellingborough has just a free, five-minute airshow with a Spitfire doing a few rolls, climbs and dives out to the west of the town.

    I bet the s***s at DECC have airshows in their sights…

      1. There may have been an event at Sywell today (the website doesn’t help) or it might have been a private hire in the two-seat Spit.

      2. There may have been an event at Sywell today (the website doesn’t help) or it might have been a private hire in the two-seat Spit.

  75. Ambroise appears to have deleted his account. Very strange. Just because he disagreed with David?

      1. There was a bit of a spat an hour or so ago. Not sure why he decided to go. He wasn’t banned and his account has disappeared.

        1. Perhaps he was affronted that someone dared to disagree with him. Must have had a fragile ego.

      2. I will continue to argue with Stig If I feel it necessary.

        Silly boy Ambroise – you don’t win an argument by running away.

  77. Update(1325ET): An emerging Russian state media headline: Prigozhin Agrees to Stop PMC Wagner March, Start De-Escalation After Lukashenko’s Mediation…

    Belarusian president held talks with Prigozhin today. Lukashenko says that Prigozhin has agreed to “stop the movement of armed persons on the territory of Russia and to take further steps to deescalate.”

    Prigozhin has reportedly accepted Lukashenka’s proposal to stop the movement of PMC Wagner, according to Russian state media TASS. Reuters is also reporting the Kremlin-backed statements.

    Lavrov: Russia retains control over tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus — TASS

  78. Just an update on “Say No To Flies” Fulmodeston. This an email from a neighbour who lives half a mile from the chicken unit – and is a former SAS soldier – for whom no problem is insoluble.:

    We went away for 4 days and got back yesterday evening.
    I foolishly thought we could eat our evening meal outside (as one likes to do in the Summer). I can’t begin to explain the ‘invasion’ of flies as we started to eat our meal.
    We just ran indoors to get away from them.
    Fly papers now in every room.
    We’ve been awake since 4 am and by 5am we gave in and got up – fed up with swatting flies.
    Just like you, we have ‘swatting’ assistants whilst trying to prepare meals.
    Our dog is getting quite stressed out now.
    It’s pretty miserable and I don’t see a solution in the short term, as I’m convinced that BP think it’s just ‘a small minority’ of disgruntled residents.
    The flies are just everywhere – in every room of the house.
    Last night we had around 200 flies on the inside window of our garden room – never seen anything like it.

    You can see why returning home next week lacks it usual sparkle….

    1. Awful.
      You’ll have to have fly screens and mesh doors.
      Anyone who puts their property up for sale will have to do so in winter!
      What a blasted selfish set of individuals the fly source is.

        1. No. It really, really isn’t. We used to have flies in the house when I was a child and there were 3 herds of dairy cows in the village. But not 200 at a time.

          1. I lived in Egypt between 1949-1951. Flies = yes. Nothing remotely like this.

      2. It will be like Ontario where fly screens are normal on all windows.

        Not that it stops the littler beasties from invading

      1. Bill is spoilt with all of this fresh peasant food being made available. Authorities will allocate a small nutritious package of ground dried insect to normal peasants

  79. Singing (sic) off now – gosh it’s warm. 30C plus… Lovely swim. 4,920 steps so far. Tomorrow abroad – to Monaco – to do big shop for return to Flighty (see what I did there???)

    Can’t wait for Putin to be a surprise guest at Glastonbury…

    1. 28.8oC in my study (and that’s with the curtains drawn all day!)

      A vacuum cleaner on full power is much more efficient at culling house flies than trying to swat the bu@@ers!

        1. Just remember its no good hoisting the vacuum cleaner up in the air just the hose /wand!

      2. I’ve just bought a ‘fly gun’ with a fan on the front that allows you a bit of sport to chase the wee bastard and kill it via the fan.

        I’m looking forward to testing it!.

        1. I have an electric tennis racquet called The Executioner – best of its kind (most are useless).

    1. This is an easy one. Treat them as the gender their delusions think they are. If it’s a man pretending to be a woman, the drugs won’t work. If it’s a woman pretending to be a man, they’ll overdose. In either case, it is not the practiioners fault.

      Biology is truth.

      1. So what you are saying is that if he, the patient, is complaining of a dropped womb, the doctor’s prescription would probably bring a lump (or two) to his throat?

    2. It should not be necessary to use religious belief as a defence in legal proceedings concerning transgenderism. Biology should be a sufficient argument.

  81. – I was just thinking, perhaps they can hold off on the nuclear war for a month until after Wimbledon as i have tickets this year

  82. Wagner boss turns back troops. 24 June 2023.

    Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has ordered his fighters, who had been advancing on Moscow, to turn around and return to their bases in order to avoid bloodshed.

    Prigozhin said his fighters had advanced 124 miles towards Moscow in the last 24 hours.

    “We are turning our columns around and going back to field camps,” Yevgeny Prigozhin announced after vowing to march on Moscow to topple the military leadership.

    All over bar the shouting?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/24/russia-ukraine-coup-wagner-kremlin-yevgeny-prigozhin/

      1. Love you command of Russian, Lacoste, but it cuts no ice here on an ENGLISH speaking forum.
        Translates as ” I highly doubt it!”

        But so what?

          3. I’m happy with German (plat) , French and can get by In Swedish and Spanish but those are my language limits. Russian is well beyond me.

      2. He is finished. Next stop for him is to flee Russia, jail, or death. He has shot his bolt. Putin says he is a traitor. So he will get no mercy from him.

  84. This makes Westminster porn purchases on expenses look like an episode of Andy Pandy…
    “An IRS whistleblower from the agency’s criminal investigations unit revealed to the House Ways and Means Committee that Hunter Biden illegally deducted tens of thousands of dollars spent on prostitutes and a sex club from his taxes, according to testimony from June 1 which was released by House Republicans on Thursday.”

  86. It’s a hard life here.

    It’s the feast day of the Sainte of part of the commune.
    Lots of families, from babes in arms to great grandparents attending, and having a good time.
    It starts with a Mass; we’re Anglo-heathen Protestants so did not attend.

    Steak and chips (and it was a very good steak, at least 12 oz, probably more), cheese, desert, coffee, a glass of wine: 14 euros.

    A glass, as you might expect, was insufficient, but hey ho, at 3 euros a bottle I could afford one. I’ve “enjoyed” wines in restaurants at 10 times the price and they weren’t a patch on this local brew.

    A great shame, I couldn’t find out where they get it!

    Tomorrow the real feasting and partying begins, followed by music and fireworks.

    2. On our many French holidays I soon learnt to follow the locals around the supermarket and buy the same wines as they did.

      1. One of the aspects here is that the local supermarket managers seem to be permitted to buy locally.
        We get some excellent things in the shop and I recognise the names
        The supermarkets buy in bulk so there is only a very small difference between buying at the chateau and off the shelf
        Both sides win

        1. We use to love the French Markets. Fresh local produce. Most of the stalls breaking EU rules.

          1. It always amuses me when friends rave about the UK markets where so often there are few stalls actually in competition with each other and often not even weekly.
            Here we can get ten or more fruit and veg. two or three fish stalls, several meat, cheese, bread and cakes galore, different wines, clothes, bric-a-brac and tourist tat.
            This happens twice a week and the covered market (currently under renovation) is daily.

          2. The only problem I observed on some of the French stalls was the undersized fresh fish. Obviously not being returned and monitored as EU regulations state.

    3. “It starts with a Mass; we’re Anglo-heathen Protestants so did not attend.”
      Same God.

      1. True, but totally different ways of celebrating
        “they” can take communion in a heathen “mass” we can’t take communion in theirs, unless we lie

        1. You don’t need to lie. Just keep schtum. An RC priest isn’t guilty if he doesn’t know.

        2. The Catholic Church forbids its members to receive Communion in Protestant churches.

          1. I didn’t know that, although it doesn’t surprise me.
            I do know that Anglo-Catholics attend English Protestant services here and take communion, I guessing they apologise and confess later.

          2. It depends on what you mean by ‘Anglo-Catholics’. The accepted interpretation is that they are members of the Church of England, not the Roman Catholic Church. They are therefore Protestants and not under the jurisdiction of the Pope, so are free to receive Communion in other Protestant churches which are in Communion with the CofE.

          3. I tend to refer to the congregation by any known sympathies. eg Anglo-Protestants, Anglo-Methodists etc. There is quite a range around here and numerous denominations attend more than one type of service, usually in Catholic churches where the priest in charge agrees. Things like Christmas are often held jointly with the people of the “normal” congregation. There was quite a Protestant tradition in this area. There is a Huguenot heritage.

          4. Sounds like quite a welcoming attitude. The Catholic priest will know what the rules are regarding distribution of Communion, but I have known instances of them being disregarded. At my brother’s RC nuptial mass (to an Anglican), the parish priest invited all Christians regardless of denomination to come up and receive Communion. There was also the instance of Tony Blair (spit, spit) receiving Communion in a Catholic church before he converted. The Bishop put his foot down when he found out and instructed the parish priest not to give Communion to non-Catholics.

            It goes to show that individual priests do not always toe the line that the hierarchy lays down.

          5. The same happened at my B-i-L’s. An Anglican to a Catholic.
            A surprise to all, as his wife’s family are very hard core Catholics, and although they accepted him without actual conversion he had to go through the process. I have no idea whether he refused when it came to the final step or they gave up on him!.

          6. I married an Anglican, in 1978. There was no obligation on my fiancee, other than to attend one or two sessions explaining the purpose of marriage. I had to promise to bring up any children in the Catholic faith, but my fiancee did not have to make any such promise. As she was an Anglican, I had to obtain a dispensation to marry ‘outside the faith’, but as she was a baptised Christian, this was provided by the parish priest. If it had been a non-Christian, the Bishop would have had to issue the dispensation.

          7. That’s very interesting and confirms my observations.
            We were married in our tiny village church and had to get a special licence from the ABoC to allow it. I have no idea why!
            The congregation was unimpressed by having to wait for the registers to arrive from the mother church; our wedding coincided with one there and naturally we were lower in the pecking order.
            The special licence itself is quiet an impression bit of paper.

    5. 14 Euros would not buy a glass of wine in many of the restaurants in these parts.

      As for local wines, they are so expensive that they are sold to rich tourists from the big cities.

      1. Just to rub salt in the wound, the commune almost certainly makes a profit at that price!

  87. Just a thought:
    Was this Wagner mercenary manoeuvre a double bluff, to encourage the Ukrainians to overstretch and be surrounded and massacred?

    2. No they have been defeated for weeks. The only thing that keeps them going is NATO, Ukraine is there tool against Russia. If it were not for that, I think, they would have surrendered at least two months ago. But, of course, Zelenskyy is a puppet of the USA and is getting very rich on being so. He will keep it going if he can for his masters. I’m sure he has plenty of guarantees that, if necessary, he will be saved, go into exile and live the comfortable life of many a corrupt dictator, in luxury, on the bodies of his own people that he has betrayed. Because he knew very well this was an unwinnable war against Russia.

      1. Suggestion that BoJo’s last visit was to scupper peace talks. Wouldn’t be surprised.
        Where’s me piano wire…

        1. BoJo produced another embarrassingly out of touch article for the Mail today. Stupid tool.

        2. I’m surprised you can still play anything on your now-almost-stringless piano, Oberst!

      2. Is it just the CIA’s last attempt?
        They do have form at trying to pull off coups in other countries.

        1. It’s the CIA, NATO, the West in general. They want Russia’s resources. It is a bastion of Christianity and thus dead set against the prevailing winds of Neo-Marxism, it is not called “Holy Mother Russia” for nothing. The corrupt are trying to inherit the earth but as long as Russia is triumphant the corrupt will not win.

  88. Trans activists ‘attacked’ at children’s drag queen story time event

    Scotland Yard said three people had been arrested during the disturbances outside the Honor Oak pub

    By Patrick Sawer, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER • 24 June 2023 • 11:38am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b366398e72808509967c60e8d127a7a99f2b8b6c1ec746c183ff06aabcc325c7.jpg
    Far-Right protesters have been accused of attacking a group of trans rights activists outside a drag queen story time event for children in south London. The trans activists said they were assaulted by a small group of far-Right demonstrators outside the Honor Oak pub on Saturday morning.

    Scotland Yard said three people had been arrested during the disturbances. In a statement, the Met Police said three people had been arrested, two for assault, and one for a public order offence.

    The trans rights activists claimed they had been attacked while protecting the Magical Storytelling time event at the Honor Oak, with far-Right protesters breaking at least one window at the pub. A number of trans activists said they were left bloodied and nursing wounds following the alleged attack. The disorder began after the far-Right activists confronted a gathering of trans-rights activists and their supporters outside the pub.

    https://twitter.com/trans_safety/status/1672538258008420354
    The Trans Safety Network also accused police officers of targeting the trans activists, tweeting a photograph of a trans man called Ada with blood streaming from his face and stating: “Police are now on scene, and targeted trans protesters whilst providing urgent first aid care. @adacable [Ada] was providing this first aid support and was punched across the face by TSG [Territorial Support Group] officers trying to arrest someone.”

    The clashes outside the Honor Oak Pub appear to have been sparked over the venue’s monthly Magical Storytelling session, hosted by London drag queen That Girl, which have been picketed by Right-wing protesters.

    In a statement on its website published before Saturday’s incident, the pub said: “It has come to our attention that there may be some misunderstanding about the event, so we wanted to reassure you all that our popular Magical Storytelling event will be age appropriate and it isn’t anything different to what families will see and experience together in a theatre. This event is an opportunity for families and friends to come together and listen to a reading of a storybook and have fun. The most important thing for us is that everyone is safe and happy when they are here.”

    Some of the activists who took part in the anti-trans protest came from traditional Far-right groups such as the Football Lads Alliance, Blood & Honour and Britain First, which have their roots in the extreme Right-wing National Front, British National Party and British Movement.

    But others are members of the conservative youth organisation Turning Point UK, an offshoot of a US group that seeks to challenge the view that young people are inherently Left-leaning and anti-free markets. Turning Point UK said in a statement: “There were no far-Right activists in attendance and instead the radical trans-activists attacked attendees of our demonstration with wooden clubs.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/24/trans-activists-attacked-children-drag-london-honor-oak-pub/

    This is not going to end well. The idea that opposing a movement that includes some people who are almost certainly interested in children for the wrong reasons will only lead to bloodshed. Knuckle-dragging football fans are unwelcome but the implication that patriotism can only be bad because they represent it is truly offensive.

    I look forward to some Magical Storytelling outside some of the UK’s biggest mosques. On Fridays. They’ll need a magic carpet to whisk them away from greater physical harm than a mere bloody nose.

    If the Territorial Support Group is the SPG returned, then we are in for some fireworks.

    1. So is it only ‘far right activists’ who don’t like this sinister sexual perversion they are forcing on children?

      1. It’s a long well know fact that nobody can ever fix stoopid. Far right is all they know. Their reaction to reality is pointless. They don’t understand it.

    2. Not a fascist (they’re SOCIALISTS) but I’m happy to see this stupid movement being disrupted.

      Protect our children, would be my cry.

    3. How do they know the protesters are all “far right”?

      When i went on the anti-ULEZ demo in Trafalgar Square, legacy media portrayed or as a “far right” protest. But i know for a fact the Communist Party was there, becauae they handed me s very informative anti-ULEZ leaflet.

    4. If I understand this correctly, parents are allowing their children to attend a storytelling event, outside of any formal educational requirement or establishment, conducted by men in drag. While I find this most peculiar – after all, why not tell them stories whilst wearing conventional attire? – are the protestors endeavouring to usurp parental rights? Nobody is imposing this on the parents. The parents are willing participants. I think the adults are exercising their parental rights irresponsibly, but it’s not for others to dictate to parents how they allow their children to be entertained unless it descends into actual abuse and maltreatment. When all is said and done, the disturbances are almost certainly going to be more distressing to the children than the storytelling itself. That said, I would ask serious questions of parents who think this a suitable form of entertainment for their children. Is the Jackanory style of reading not edgy enough? A Joyce Grenfell or Bernard Cribbens figure was once thought to be sufficiently entrancing to not need a freakish parody of the opposite sex’s appearance. There was once a time when local libraries hosted this kind of thing with readings given by nicely spoken middle-class people capable of capturing the attention of children for sufficient time to allow their parents a chance to catch up on boring household chores. – or even a daytime shag.

      1. A bit more than ‘men in drag’, surely? The clue is in the name of the group. And then there’s this: “…our popular Magical Storytelling event will be age appropriate and it isn’t anything different to what families will see and experience together in a theatre.” I think a lot of people will say “Tell us another one.”

        We know that many ordinary people are utterly ignorant of current affairs. Perhaps those who permitted their children to attend really have no idea about the modern ‘trans’ [sic] movement.

    1. I don’t think they’ve dumped them completely, just rowed back a bit and promoting nuclear.

      2. Quite so, Ndovu. I don’t know what “dumps climate agenda” and “scraps green energy targets” are supposed to mean. Sweden’s determination to reach net zero by whatever date it has chosen remains unchanged. All that has altered is the means by which it gets there. Its commitment to end the use of fossil fuels is undiminished. However, it is now willing to accommodate other non-renewables which do not consume fossil fuels. In the mix are nuclear, hydro and biomass. Solar and wind are insufficiently reliable. Gas, oil and coal are, nonetheless, still going to be phased out.

    2. and the troll, Greta, has been arrested in Göteborg, if I recall behind the alcoholic fugg.

        1. Last time she was “arrested” there was footage of her laughing and joking with the police before they posed for the cameras.

    3. Any chance of moving to Sweden? I promise not to eat all of the surströmming.

        1. I’m afraid Richard was correct, Tom. It is surströmming.

          I’ve eaten it and although it stinks, it’s flavour is quite mild.

          3. … I thought in Swedish it would have “….ning ” as the ending.

            My Swedish is quietly rotting with time.

          4. Norwegian version is rakfisk. Sweet and good, especially with onion and rye bread

          5. Nah, thanks for nuffink, Paul, it is vile no matter how you dress it, I’m sure you’ll find none of my recipes using it.

      5. Self harm is a sort of mania which affects the mindset of many of the PTB and MSM. They deliberately want to inflict as much damage on the people of the UK and theydelude themselves into thinking they are being virtuous when the truth is they are being sadistic.

  90. Time again, I’m afraid to say Goodnight and God Bless Gentlefolk. I’m away to my bed – again – I have a ladyfriend to entertain in the morn’s morn so I will hope to be up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with the necessary story and future of the day.

      1. Nothing sexual, just a good friend and companion here in the depths of my exile.

        I’m working on a release. I think she understands.

          1. Thank you, Jules, I am also very grateful of the company, the poor lass only recently lost the company of the husband she had nursed at home for six years. I feel for her. She is only a few years younger than me.

  91. Time again, I’m afraid to say Goodnight and God Bless Gentlefolk. I’m away to my bed – again – I have a ladyfriend to entertain in the morn’s morn so I will hope to be up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with the necessary story and future of the day.

  92. Pass the buck time. Whose fault was lockdown – were politicians following the science or were scientists somehow instructed by some high ranking politician “or similar” (Whitty).

    https://twitter.com/Togetherdec/status/1672568428199018498

    I seem to remember seeing something written by Prof. Ferguson which said something to the effect of “we didn’t think we could do lockdown like the Chinese but when Italy did it we thought we could get away with it”.

    I reckon it came from pharma-bought “scientists” and politicians like Hancock in cahoots.

    1. Hancock wanted to ‘scare the pants off people’ but Whitty at the time was promoting more sensible actions according to the WhatsApp files.

      1. I don’t and wouldn’t trust any one of them – all lying to save the Govt face. Fcuk ’em all.

        1. They were all aboard the same train travelling to the same destination. Whitty is a scoundrel of the highest order.

    2. Sorry, Lass, they’re all bloody fools with a WEF agenda to follow, and If we’re too stupid to see that, then carry on regardless.

        1. Oh, they’ll all dodge it but, personally, I think piano wire and lamposts are the solution.

    3. What more proof does one need that it was all an over spun lie when not one MP died of covid, despite all the parties.
      More MP’s died of islamic terrorism than of covid

    4. They’re all a bunch of liars.

      Take ’em out and stretch the piano wire around their necks on the nearest lamp-posts, I hate them all.

  93. I’ve just been sent this from a friend, WE ARE BL**DY WELL PAYING for these private companies to make profits providing accommodation for illegals.

    The Home Office has been accused of leaving people homeless by outbidding councils in a fierce competition for scarce accommodation.

    Several local authorities have lost out to a Home Office contractor finding properties to house asylum seekers.

    The number of people in England having to stay in temporary accommodation is near record levels.

    Asked on three separate occasions why its contractor paid more than councils can, the Home Office refused to say.

    The problem is most acute in London, where councils estimate about 166,000 people live in temporary accommodation – more than the total population of Oxford.

    There was no suggestion the Home Office or asylum seekers created the problem, said Labour’s Georgia Gould, [who wins today’s MR-D award] who chairs London Councils, which represents all local authorities in the city. But she said “the Home Office is contributing to homelessness”.

    The councils, spending £52m a month on temporary accommodation, had agreed “that we will not outbid each other, because we want to protect taxpayers’ money”, Ms Gould said.

    “We would like the same partnership with the Home Office,” she added.

    Camp stay worst time in life, says asylum seeker
    Home Office admits asylum plans in doubt
    Asylum backlog rises to new high, figures show
    The competition for properties is due to [ well it’s from the BBC innit]:

    a failing housing market that has, for decades, built too few properties
    a broken asylum system, with record numbers of people awaiting an initial decision on their cases
    The Home Office is under pressure to cut the approximately £7m a day it is paying to house asylum seekers in hotels.

    And its contractor, Clearsprings, is trying to find accommodation for them. There is no suggestion Clearsprings is doing anything illegal.

    Kieron Williams, leader of Southwark council, in south London, said its homelessness staff “have never seen anything like this – we have all but run out of options” to find temporary accommodation in the borough.

    “This is being made worse by the Home Office procuring properties in our borough which we desperately need,” he said.

    Enfield, Westminster and Luton councils have also raised concerns about the impact of the Home Office contractor.

    According to London Councils:

    The number of private-sector lettings in the city has fallen by nearly 40% in the past five years
    7% of all temporary accommodation used by councils has been taken back by providers in the past six months alone
    Image caption,
    Capital Letters chief executive Sue Coulson says: “There’s just not enough accommodation”
    On Tuesday, Capital Letters, a property agency owned by 10 London boroughs, could find only 18 homes within the limits of what the government will pay in housing benefit, in the entire city.

    The rates, known as the local housing allowance, vary by location and property size and have been frozen for three years, despite soaring rents.

    Councils across England are calling for an emergency increase because of the lack of affordable accommodation.

    Meanwhile, thousands of families are having to spend weeks in hotels.

    Enfield council, in north London, is spending £850,000 a month housing residents in hotels.

    Dozens of families are living in a local Travelodge and last month some had to be temporarily moved out of London altogether, as other guests had booked to stay there during Beyoncé’s concerts.

    ‘Been horrendous’
    In east London, nursery worker Sara-Jo Croker, 38, and her two children have been living in hotels for five months, after being evicted from their home when their landlord decided to sell it.

    “It’s been horrendous,” she said. “My whole life is in this room.”

    Her current abode, a Premier Inn, is “good” but she has been moved to three other hotels, one of which was “filthy”.

    “I wouldn’t even put a dog in it,” Ms Croker said.

    She has no cooking facilities, must make a 90-minute round trip to take her daughter to school each day and has to pay a £7 daily charge to park at the hotel.

    Incentive payments
    Ms Croker said she was spending about £1,500 a month on fuel, parking and eating out each night and had had to give up all the furniture she had been keeping in storage as she could not afford the £250 monthly fee.

    “I can’t afford to pay for that,” she said. “I don’t know how long I’m going to be in here.”

    Clearsprings is not just willing to pay higher rents. It also pays higher incentive payments to encourage landlords to cooperate.

    “We understand they are giving about £2,000 per property more than we can offer,” Capital Letters chief executive Sue Coulson said.

    “That’s a lot of money to a landlord, almost a month’s rent.”

    The Home Office did not explain why its contractor is allowed to pay more than councils, who have a statutory duty to provide those families they accept are homeless with accommodation.

    However, in a statement it said: “We have a statutory duty to ensure asylum seekers have access to safe and secure accommodation.

    “If there is a need for Clearsprings to go above the local housing allowance, for example to ensure we are complying with this duty, then we will let the local council know.”

    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65984461

      1. Yes, but the actual outbidding of local councils to provide housing was something I wasn’t quite so aware of the full extent of. (It is also patently clear that some local councils give priority to illegals over British homeless.)

    2. Hotel rates are up for the rest of us as there are less rooms available. A price worth paying – BJ

      1. True, and therefore people are being driven onto air bnb, forcing them to sell their data about where and when they travel.

    3. “There was no suggestion the Home Office or asylum seekers created the problem, said Labour’s Georgia Gould…”

      She might be correct. After all, there are only about 100,000 boat people in the country. The ‘legals’ of the last two years alone outnumber them by at least 15 to 1.

      1. True, but asylum seekers is now such a portmanteau term, that I tend (wrongly, I know) to extend it to many legals as well.

        Edit: in addition, the increase in the legals is the government/HO’s fault.

    4. …And what about our veterans left to rot on the streets,

      Bloody government couldn’t give a tuppenny damn.

      I’m managing, but in a form of Government exile in a country in which I don’t want to be in and don’t feel comfortable here.

    5. “We have a statutory duty to ensure asylum seekers have access to safe and secure accommodation.”.

      Could that include a one way ticket to France where they can ask for accomodation

      1. You will hear a lot about this ‘statutory duty’. In the past, the UK was free to accept or reject any immigrant without papers entirely according to its wishes. Now, it is hamstrung by the ICR, the ECHR and the HRA. You will also hear the argument that ‘it is not illegal to apply for asylum’. It is the argument of the idiot.

        1. It’s the argument of people who know the shit will never land on their doorstep. I know someone having to suffer the house next door to hers having been converted into six bedsits for gimmegrant men. They’re doing their damnedest to make her life hell.

          1. The ICR was drawn up at a time when international travel was extremely difficult for all but the wealthiest, when communications were primitive by modern standards, and when the idea that someone might travel hundreds or even thousands of miles just on the off-chance was considered unthinkable. Even the most desperate were more honourable than that in the minds of the gentlemen of the diplomatic world of the post-war years: “If they’ve come this far, don’t they deserve a chance?” Indeed but that was then. What they didn’t see coming was the corrupting effect of welfarism and what a draw that has become.

      2. I thought that the Government had a statutory duty to protect our nation’s borders !

    6. We know friends who let several properties, which repays the mortgages on them, now feeling the pinch of higher interest rates. It’s my belief that the intention is to force landlords to sell their properties on the cheap so that gimmegrunts can be housed there. This probably sounds far fetched but I don’t put anything past HMG any more.

      1. To be clear, I do not expect anyone to take it seriously. I found it entertaining!

  95. Thought for the day
    Most Glastonbuggary attendees will be of the gimmegrants welcome persuasion
    Perhaps a thousand coachloads of of the dinghy people being forced into the cumfest to enjoy themselves, in whatever way they choose, could persuade the hippies that gimmegration has a downside?

    2. Perhaps the Government got the idea from Glastonbury to house immigrants in tents in a field and play loud music at them.

  96. So what vehicle looked more practical and fit for purpose

    The Titanic submersible

    or the Apollo 11 lunar module?

    1. Here’s an engineer’s viewpoint of the relative safety issues between air/space travel and submersible explorations.

      He comprehensively addresses the shortcomings of the build and testimg stategy for the missions that the Titan submersible was expected to endure:

      https://youtu.be/TKLamhyJ6bE

    2. There is no comparison. Apollo 11 is designed for operation in atmosphere whereas the Titan submersible has to cope with deep ocean forces.

      The idea that you could construct a deep ocean submersible with a mixture of titanium steel and composite carbon fibre glued together with epoxy glue is frightening.

      Likewise the game controller operational system and the fact that there was no fixed seating and restraints is even more scary.

      You never mix exotic materials such as carbon fibre with predictable titanium metal components, necessarily glued together with epoxy cement. You can test for defects in metal constructions (dye testing and sonar for example) yet there is no way of testing degradation of carbon fibre construction.

      Others have pointed to the amount of loose cabling on the outside of the Titan submersible. Comparable more advanced submersibles are entirely smooth externally. The reason is obvious, external cables could snag on foreign objects.

      Even to a mere Architect like me this construction is clearly a recipe for disaster. Another money grubbing operation by every account. Its construction is the antithesis of normal engineering techniques. Testing is essential just think of the Comet failure.

      1. Well, they openly admitted they didn’t want experienced engineers.

        That is a mindset that you find in most software companies, with similar results, except that nobody dies when it’s just some stupid lifestyle app.

  98. That’ll do me for today we’ve had our little grandson with us all day. Our middle son and his wife have spent the day at hospital with his mother in law. Who is a very delicate and fragile lady. She had a nasty fall two days ago and broke her hip. Operation successful but recovery in hospital will be at least two weeks.
    Night all.

    3. What a bugger on top of your experience of our free to all Bloody NHS.

      Makes life difficult, Don’t it man?

      I hope that your steadfastness will see you thorough this extra call on your health reserves. Scream if you need our help. I know that NoTTLers are good at coming up trumps

      1. As I said to our daughter in law last evening. What ever happens behind the scenes in the NHS the front line service is still outstanding.
        But it’s what is happening behind the scenes is the problem.

          1. Although hesitant to out-pedant a pedant’s quotation of our infamous pedant of old, I must point out that Peddy’s coinage was “exacto”!

      1. Absolutely, she’s been in a state of her own vacant space for a few years. It appears to be extreme dementia. But her faithful devoted loving and caring husband refuses to let her out of his sight.

        1. The problem with those with dementia in hospital, from my experience, is that the physio will come in and ask the patient whether they would like to get up and exercise. The likely response is no thanks, so they go away and promise to return. After a few weeks in bed an old person is likely to lose mobility if there is no physio and they becomes a much bigger problem for home care. The same happens with feeding, there is not the encouragement that you get at home and the patient becomes weaker. Each patient will be different of course, so hope things turn out well.

          1. I was quite taken aback by my physical feebleness after having been bed-bound for three-four weeks four years ago. Hospital physiotherapists had to get me back on my feet in stages. First, to sit upright in bed, then to sit on the bedside, followed by assisted standing, holding onto a chair for support. Then it was a matter of sitting in the chair before eventually being helped to take some steps, first with support and eventually without assistance. It wasn’t just a matter of feebleness, either. My sense of balance had also deteriorated and needed restoration. To bring me back to a semblance of unaided walking was spread over several days and several more to restore confidence in my own ability to do so. Looking back, it seems hopelessly pathetic, but it took a great deal of effort at the time, both to overcome the weakness and the loss of confidence.

          2. We were all so relieved at how well you did, Stig. Hard to believe it was 4 years ago!

    2. Thank you both for your kind thoughts. We enjoyed a bottle of Dry Monopole on a garden bench, in the shade, and are going for a simple meal nearby tomorrow.

      I feel for those on this platform suffering ailments at the present time and wish all speedy recoveries.

      We all have various ailments but my late onset asthma, following various blood disorders, is as nothing when compared to some other Nottlers.

      I wish everyone good health and urge that we must all maintain the good fight for Truth in an increasingly iniquitous global world driven by evil people guided by Satan.

      1. Thank you. Having retired post the Covid racket I have resorted to reading and a more relaxed lifestyle at least for the present.

        I am trying to make my ancient home more saleable with various internal improvements and hope to move next year if market conditions allow. New en-suite shower room to second bedroom, new hot water and heating system and ‘Heritage’ cooker replacing the 10 year old Rayburn.

        5. Happy birthday Cori – have a good and enjoyable day. When you’ve finished improving your house, you’ll want to stay there and enjoy it!

      1. Hmm, I’ve slept most of today, I’ll try and do better in Morgan Ich miust ein bisquen einkaupfen gehen.

  102. Good night, chums. I hope we all sleep well in this oppressive heat. See you all tomorrow.

    1. No oppressive heat at 05:51 here in The Borders, just 15°C and partially cloudy.

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