Tuesday 27 June: Time to stop pursuing energy targets that make ordinary people poorer

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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673 thoughts on “Tuesday 27 June: Time to stop pursuing energy targets that make ordinary people poorer”

  2. Time to stop pursuing energy targets that make ordinary people poorer

    Some people have absolutely no idea what the great reset is all about.

  4. Good morning all. A bit of a dull start this morning but still dry with 11°C outside.

    An interesting BTL comment regarding the history of African slavery:-

    Anastasias Revenge
    5 HRS AGO
    From elswhere:
    Badagry, a coastal community prides itself as cradle of civi­lization in Nigeria. Believed to have been founded in 1425 A.D
    Badagry is a monarchy headed by the Wheno Aholuship, a king­ship head by the Akran of Badagry and his seven white cap high chiefs.
    The City of Badagry was reputed as a thriving community for trade in salt. But this legitimate trade soon gave way to the obnoxious slave trade and for its first four hundred years of exis­tence, slave trade dominated all oth­er commercial interests in Badagry. The town became host to European slave traders around 1660s. By 1740 Badagry had be­come a thriving town for slave trade. It grew to an important com­mercial centre flourishing on the export of slaves through the creeks and lagoon.
    Effort to stop the obnoxious trade received a major boost when the treaty for the abolition of slave trade was signed in March 1852 be­tween England and Badagry chiefs. Some cannons of war were donat­ed to the chiefs to be placed at the coastal area to fight other European countries that were still coming to get slaves. However, the trade con­tinued illegally and the export of slaves steadily increased. The Bra­zilians became the major slave mer­chants during this period. Howev­er, in 1888 the last ship left Badagry to Brazil and this marked the end of the trade in Badagry, Brazil and around the world.
    So, the slave trade, African on African was happening for 200+ years before Europeans got involved for another 180 years. The British STOPPED IT – we get no credit for that in the MSM, nor do we read about opprobrium being heaped on Brazil, world leader in slavery. Let the truth BE the truth and not a warped biased narrative.

    1. 373872+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,

      four of us use to go to badagry 16 on a Sunday
      sit in the beach hut ( done spewing) with a coconut laced with vodka and a case of beer,
      badagry 16 was very quiet, relaxing.

    2. I think Britain is the only major empire in history to make slavery illegal?
      The Americans made it illegal before they took over the reserve currency of course. But their open borders policy is doing its best to bring slavery back via the back door.
      The outlook won’t look so good with the Chinese at the helm, and the Arabs enjoying a commodity-based resurgence of their wealth and status.

    3. And no matter how or in which way this might be explained to these people, they still adopt a different and rather lazy attitude and blame whitey for it all.

  5. ‘Morning All

    Oof

    https://twitter.com/iluminatibot/status/1673285445013356546

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21c85c22928e6ae792d828bfff436e9af079b84c5da99c6f40a0952b5bf5cfa3.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6926e2c635e4c00b9ccc1b4037db4e9ccc0f1eb669d083e37378b2c0a9915fa9.jpg

    https://twitter.com/sammyanntyler/status/1673329411918110722?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6633b51faa7821a003f66c4cd10fc55597a1f08d6c418ba0ffb71adcb0aff2ea.jpg

    https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/clipimage-6009593d77701__700.jpg

    https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/clipimage-60095ad943225__700.jpg

    The Great Escape……..

    https://twitter.com/majeliskucing/status/1673194375298383873?s=20

  6. 373872+ up ticks,

    Morning EAch,

    Tuesday 27 June: Time to stop pursuing energy targets that make ordinary people poorer

    We,the ordinary sane peoples know this, therefore,

    Tuesday 27 June: Time to stop pursuing the lab/lib/con coalition party in the polling stations, that makes ordinary sane peoples poorer, seriously injured, & dead.

    1. More truisms in that.
      How did that actually happen ?
      He wouldn’t even know which string to pull.
      Just keep him away from the buttons.

  9. Good article:-

    Ex-PM of Australia says he’s baffled why UK has not shunned the ECHR to stop the boats
    France’s lack of action in stopping illegal migrants crossing the English Channel constitutes “an unfriendly act”, according to the former prime minister of Australia Tony Abbott.
    He told GB News: ”The British parliament is sovereign and I can’t understand why the British Parliament hasn’t passed a law removing the jurisdiction of this European tribunal over British policy.”
    The former PM continued: “In Australia, we turned the boats around because in the end, if people can get here, they will be tempted to come here.

    “I appreciate that France is a different country to Indonesia, and we were turning boats around back to Java. But to be honest, it’s frankly an unfriendly act on the part of the French, not to police these camps better, not to stamp out the people smuggling gangs better.

    In a discussion with Camilla Tominey, he said: “If the French aren’t prepared to do their job, if the French are prepared to at least part facilitate what at a sufficiently large scale starts to become a peaceful invasion, I think Britain must be prepared to say, ‘well, they’re coming from France, they have no right to come from France.’ The way is shut, we send them back.”

    Asked about the Government’s policy on deportations: “I think they’re on the right track… all credit to the British government for getting this deal with Rwanda.

    “But it’s not much of a deal if you can actually get the people to take off and land in Rwanda.

    “The British parliament is sovereign and I can’t understand why the British Parliament has passed as hasn’t passed a law removing the jurisdiction of this European tribunal over British policy.”

    He added: “I think that there is a way forward. I think we need leaders with conviction and courage. We need to actually believe in our beliefs as opposed to paying them lip service.”

    https://conservativepost.co.uk/ex-pm-of-australia-says-hes-baffled-why-uk-has-not-shunned-the-echr-to-stop-the-boats/?

    1. As they say in Australia……you’re not wrong mate.
      But you can’t fix stoopid, which is what our political classes are.

          1. Many reasons. They may be inherently evil or they despise the plebs and want to make them suffer.

  10. ‘If anyone can solve the homelessness crisis, it’s Prince William’. 27 June 2023

    Ending homelessness is a noble goal. But the scale and complexity of it mean the Prince has taken on an ambitious task. For a start, with spiralling rental costs and fears over interest rate rises making mortgages unaffordable, there are fears the problem is worsening despite a series of government initiatives. There were 3,069 people sleeping rough in 2022 (based on a snapshot of a single night in the autumn) – 26 per cent higher than in 2021, and 74 per cent higher than in 2010, when the data started being collected. Homelessness is primarily – but not exclusively – an issue in urban areas, and the most significant increase (34 per cent) was in London. Rough sleeping is only the most visible aspect of homelessness.

    Housing and homelessness charity Shelter’s data for England show that 271,000 people are registered homeless – 15,000 of those are living in hostels, 250,000 are in temporary accommodation, and 2,400 are sleeping on the streets. The number of people living in temporary accommodation (such as B&Bs and hotels) has risen by 74 per cent in the past decade.

    It is also likely that rough sleeping figures are underestimated, says Charlie Trew, Shelter’s head of policy, as “the way the figures are calculated is that people go out on a given night and count the number of people that are there”, which leaves room for inaccuracy. While the majority – 83 per cent – are men, according to government data, “[women] tend to be underrepresented in these figures as they choose not to bed down on the streets at night because they’re scared of violence,” he says.

    And said they not a word about immigration!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/06/26/prince-william-homelessness-fix/

    2. Indeed. Banking crisis, currency crisis, invasion crisis – and woke Willie starts a hypocritical campaign against homelessness. The RF is completely behind the UN/WEF plans, but they always have an eye to staying popular too.

      1. Can anyone imagine the late Queen, or Prince Phillip or Princess Anne doing things like this? They just get/got on with their jobs!

        1. Charles, William and Harry are utter fools to get mixed up in politics. Anne and Edward have more sense!

          2. Their actions appear ill advised.

            As far as we understand, there is no place for royalty in the New World Order.

          3. Then they can retire, still extremely wealthy. Heads they win, tails they win.

    3. Spiralling rents are caused by government meddling and trying to tax landlords into the ground. Mortgages are soaring because Brown suppressed interest rates to borrow trillions. Cameron continued this. Boris spent even more, then Sunak even more. Then, preventing recovery he took Treasury advice (because he’s lazy) and further damaged the economy by hiking taxes – to remain aligned with the EU.

      Three quarters of all profit made on north sea gas is stolen in tax. Gas miners are also heavily taxed – more than 65%. And government refuses to acknowledge those abusive taxes and energy rationing as directly responsible for inflation.

    4. No doubt he will build wonderful cottages for gimmigrants on Crown estates, and British veterans and homeless will be able to move into their vacated hotels.

      1. They have all come to help rebuild France. Their contribution will be immeasurable.

      2. The solution is simple: repeal various acts that chain us to the EU. Oh, yes, Lefty lawyers getting fat and rich off them will complain but cut off public funding and they’ll go away. Oh, no doubt the Gina Millers will spring up – do what the state did to Tommy Robinson and jail them.

        Is it wrong? No. We built this nation on blood, pain and suffering. The state cannot be allowed to give it away to scum.

        It just takes will.

        1. 373872+ up ticks.

          Morning W,
          “It just takes will” and sane people power, plus a highly radically changed voting pattern.

          1. And where the radically changed voting pattern doesn’t happen – civil war.

          2. 373872+ up ticks,

            Morning HL,

            Very sad to say that is the only remaining option.

            War via these political current overseers is on the agenda, over in a flash with a large foreign delivered mushroom cloud settling over Birmingham.

  13. – Just had another brainwave,
    House the refugees in tents at the Glastonbury Festival, the security fencing is already up.
    While they keep playing all that awful music 24/7 until they decide that Rwanda is a better option.

  14. DM headline today:
    What’s behind the worrying rise of cancer in young people? After cases in people aged 25-49 rises 22%, experts are blaming processed foods, smoking, drinking and even pollution

    “The comments below have been moderated in advance”…the closest one that got through was
    “A very good article which shows it’s not just myocarditis, strokes & heart attacks that have shown a significant increase in young seemingly healthy young adults.”

  15. Morning all 🙂😊
    Dare I suggest it’s a bit nippy out there today. Rain later, much needed my butt’s are nearly empty.
    One thing that occurs to me during all this dreadful political malarkey, our younger born and bred generation who are working married and actually paying to live in the country they and their parents grandparents etc. We’re born and bred.
    Can no longer afford to have a planned family, as in more children, or even any at all.
    Is this part of the current politcal adgenda. Surely these idiots in Westminster and Whitehall should have been aware that allowing thousands of young men invaders into Britain would diminish the breeding population and they would end up with a major problem.
    Perhaps not…….

    1. They have been well aware for years, Eddy. Rubbing their hands gleefully as they watch the pot coming up to the boil, and not just Westminster. The whole of western Europe is involved. See the 11 Aims of the Frankfurt School. The Kalergi-Coudenhove plan. It is all coming to fruition for them and sadly most people haven’t a clue, they would deem it to be racist talk.

    2. 373872+ up ticks,

      Morning RE,

      They knew / know precisely what they are doing
      and have known since the M Thatcher political knifing.

    3. RE, the people executing this agenda are not idiots in the usual sense i.e. that they do not know what they are doing, far from it. They are part of a cabal that desires/demands really radical changes to every facet of our lives: in that respect I believe that they are ‘useful idiots’ as they expect to remain part of the elite. Some may be elevated to the elite but ‘useful idiots’ more often than not do not survive once they have served their purpose.
      The ‘real idiots’ are those lower down in the pecking order, those who continue to support and implement the plans of the ‘useful idiots’. These ‘real idiots’ are guilty by association as they must see what is going on but remain sitting on their hands and do nothing. Andrew Bridgen MP stood up and broke the omerta surrounding the HoP re the “vaccines” and was quickly and viciously attacked.

    4. Ssshh! Dont jinx it! I’m much happier with this weather.

      What’s funny about the criminal invasion is the state keeps pushing this ‘climate change’ alarmism. If it were serious, it could resolve the problem. It doesn’t want to. The criminal invasion is specifically revenge for Brexit. As are the tax hikes, the corporation tax hike, Ireland’s stuffing over the Windsor agreement – it is all to poke a finger in the eye of the electorate and say ‘see, you wanted that? You’re never, ever getting it. You’ll get what we tell you to take.’

    5. The people who can afford a family are the rich, and the poor (who get lots of benefits which make it worth while). The middle classes, the bedrock of this country, emphatically struggle in the current climate to propagate a family.

      1. The problem with a lot of very rich people is, they are usually too self important or busy to have a number of children in their lives.

    1. Imagine if we had a real democracy where, should this be introduced the public simply sacked the councillors and council management team.

      Suddenly, they wouldn’t be so quick to propose such stupid policies.

  18. Russian super-rich flock to booming Dubai. 27 June 2023.

    Dubai has defied a global downturn in the fortunes of the super rich after becoming a haven for Russian money.

    The United Arab Emirates was the strongest growing market for private wealth in 2022, with assets under management hitting half a trillion dollars.

    The region was the biggest beneficiary of a rush of Russian assets from Europe after sanctions were imposed on Vladimir Putin’s regime in the wake of the Ukraine war.

    This cash used to come to London. This loss alone is serious but there’s another aspect. The seizure of Russian State assets must also have put off others who might have invested here. Who in their right minds would bank with someone who would steal your property on a political whim? The blatant theft of private assets cannot have helped either. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries everyone banked with the British, even paradoxically our enemies, because the safety of their deposits was guaranteed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/06/27/russian-super-rich-flock-booming-dubai/

    1. It has infinitely lower taxes. Wealth is mobile. Governments, in their moronic ‘it’s a race to the bottom!’ of global taxation forget that competition is a good thing. It forces the lowest taxes for the highest services. If you provide appalling services – as our state does – for cripplingly high taxes – as our state does – money will leave it – as has been proved.

      Statists keep lying to themselves, saying it is another reason but the truth remains self evident.

  19. Good morning, all. Light overcast here but warming up from a cool start at 06:00. Watering done except for the fruit bushes that need a few buckets each. First jelly to be made this morning. I have found a new idea for testing for the pectin level of my juice:

    Before adding the sugar take a teaspoon of the boiling juice and place in a glass; allow to cool for a minute then add three teaspoons of methylated spirits and shake/stir. If a large clot appears then the pectin is fine but if small clots appear then boil the juice for a few minutes longer and re-test.
    If you have to raid your drinks cabinet for the meths then I suggest you have a problem.🙄

    Another novel idea: how to check for a recession:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cfe6404aa592933dec5bc6fe1702f5b0e5b8a274de618f5936c7ca032e50e122.png

    The possible result of the impending recession and other WEF/NWO/WHO policies:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a733e733e7f0a95289325e648cdfbc409772ad9e3b263ed49d685a0b57ffa11.png

    2. The cardboard box one was published on King World News about two weeks ago!
      The legacy media might pick it up in another month’s time.

    3. Mr Hogbin raises a good point – up to believing that europarl represented anyone. When there was no choice over EU law – it was enforced without a say, no ability to vote ‘for’ anything voting was pointless. You just got a name, without any actual representation.

      The same is true now.

      Putting solar on rooves is actually a good idea, regardless. Couple that with a battery and we do distribute the grid more efficiently, locally, where it is needed. Some have suggested solar is about 20% efficient, namely that it provides at best a 5th of your home’s energy – but a fifth could power all the nonsense we leave on as a matter of course: the alarm clock, the radio, the oven timer, the boiler, the charging telephones (I kid you not, there are 7 stuck on charge, and 4 or five iPads here alone), the sleeping laptop I work on, the various home assistant and alexa things that sort out the lighting and heating, the door camera and so on.

      (and this is in the wrong place!)
      Where installers go wrong is they plunk solar panels on but don’t fit the batteries, so the electrical systems need to be re-wired.

      1. I don’t understand why a manufacturer hasn’t made solar panels 4 -5 yards long, that can interlock thus obviating the need for roof tiles / slates in the first place.

          1. I think there are new houses fitted with ’tiles’ that are really small solar panels.

        2. There are solar panels that resemble ordinary tiles for roofs and you put them on the roof in exactly the same way as you would conventional tiles.
          HOME SOLAR ROOFING TILES 30 WATTS NO MORE POWER ELECTRICITY BILLS
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvk-laXNYwQ
          As to your question, my guess it it would be inconvenient because roofs come in all shapes ans sizes.
          But there are these which are long panels.
          The new Timberline Solar™ roofing system is so advanced it makes solar simple. Call 801-447-8011
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3P6C5FjVK0A

      3. I must be doing something wrong; my alarm clock is wind-up. my boiler is switched off when not in use, ditto the cooker (no timer), phones are only charged when needed and the laptop goes to battery when I have to leave it for a while. Don’t do Alexa or door cameras (I can look out of the window).

    4. Mr Hogbin raises a good point – up to believing that europarl represented anyone. When there was no choice over EU law – it was enforced without a say, no ability to vote ‘for’ anything voting was pointless. You just got a name, without any actual representation.

      The same is true now.

      Putting solar on rooves is actually a good idea, regardless. Couple that with a battery and we do distribute the grid more efficiently, locally, where it is needed. Some have suggested solar is about 20% efficient, namely that it provides at best a 5th of your home’s energy – but a fifth could power all the nonsense we leave on as a matter of course: the alarm clock, the radio, the oven timer, the boiler, the charging telephones (I kid you not, there are 7 stuck on charge, and 4 or five iPads here alone), the sleeping laptop I work on, the various home assistant and alexa things that sort out the lighting and heating, the door camera and so on.

      (and this is in the wrong place!)
      Where installers go wrong is they plunk solar panels on but don’t fit the batteries, so the electrical systems need to be re-wired.

    5. PS I use sugar with pectin already added…cheat, cheat, cheat, but it’s simple!

        1. To do something in a more efficient way is not necessarily cheating (unless some inherent quality is lost), otherwise society would never have got beyond basics.

      2. If I need extra pectin I use a coarsely cut apple including the skin. Helps with the grape jelly I’ll be making later this year.

    6. In America in the twenties, they measured economic activity by box-car shipments.

    7. The daily toll takings on the Dartford Crossing are an excellent indicator of the state of the economy. During the economic downturn, late 1980’s early 1990’s, one could drive straight up to the toll booths (without first having to queue for 15-20 minutes due to the previous volumes of traffic). Government acknowledgement of the downturn lagged two years behind reality….

    8. I must be a bit sad; I found that an interesting graph. Not an obvious indicator until you think about it.

  20. Good day peeps,

    A cloudy start at McPhee Towers but there should be sunny periods later, wind Westerly and 14℃ at the moment. It should make 20℃ later which is a tad cool for the end of June.

    Some hilarious stuff in the Gatesograph letters today:

    Energy

    SIR – I have just returned from a visit to Newcastle upon Tyne. Beyond its eastern suburbs there are hectares and hectares of new houses being built.

    However, as their roofs twinkled in the bright sunlight, there was not one solar panel to be seen. It is known that installing these panels while a house is being built is significantly cheaper than retrofitting them – so why is our net-zero Government not mandating that they be fitted on all new-build housing, with the additional benefit of reducing the need to take good agricultural land for solar farms?

    Terry Lloyd
    Derby

    Terry thinks solar panels on houses built on the North-East coast of England, where it’s a bit farther North than Derby so a tad darker in the Winter when most energy is needed and there is a lot of ‘fog on the Tyne’, are going to provide a significant amount of energy? Oh dear.

    Nato and Ukraine

    SIR – Now is the time for Nato to bite the bullet, admit Ukraine and establish a new border in eastern Ukraine.

    Turkey, facing two ways, may decide to intervene by veto, as it attempted to do with Sweden. It should be disregarded. Russia’s disarray is an opportunity too good to be missed.

    Tony Jones
    London SW7

    SIR – I fear it is premature to interpret the failed Wagner Group rebellion as marking the beginning of the end for Vladimir Putin.

    It seems to me that it quickly became clear to Yevgeny Prigozhin that he could not succeed. Thus, once the dust has settled, the Russians and their allies may view events as proof of Putin’s political capability, reinforcing his power. I hope I am mistaken.

    Harvey Thomas
    Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire

    Tony Jones clearly wants to start WW3. Russia in disarray? I’ll take the judgement of Colonel Douglas McGregor on that one. Harvey Thomas is nearer the mark and his mistake is in thinking he may be mistaken.

    The role of MPs

    SIR – It has been suggested that the House of Commons has too many members (Letters, June 26).

    One of the main roles of MPs is to represent their constituents in the Commons. With a population of 67 million and 650 MPs, each MP represents about 100,000 people. By comparison, when Britain was a member of the EU, each MEP represented roughly a million. In due course, as the role of the UK Parliament and MPs further diminished, this would have been a serious issue.

    Cutting the number of MPs, especially with a rapidly increasing population, would reduce the ease with which people could have their problems dealt with and their voices heard. It would damage democracy.

    Roger Hogbin
    Weymouth, Dorset

    Roger Hogbin thinks putting a cross on a ballot paper once every four or five years represents democracy. Aw, bless.

    1. I’m up in the far north of Scotland and my panels work well for me so they should work even better in the NE of England

      1. My youthful recollection of East coast weather from Northumberland to Aberdeen is that there are few sunny days.

    2. Mr Jones appears to be ignorant of NATO rules; no country can join NATO whilst they have a conflict with another; no member country can call for an Article 5 intervention if they have commenced conflict against another state. As Ukraine (and their US/EU backers) stimulated the Russian response, their cause to join fails on both points.

  21. Good day peeps,

    A cloudy start at McPhee Towers but there should be sunny periods later, wind Westerly and 14℃ at the moment. It should make 20℃ later which is a tad cool for the end of June.

    Some hilarious stuff in the Gatesograph letters today:

    Energy

    SIR – I have just returned from a visit to Newcastle upon Tyne. Beyond its eastern suburbs there are hectares and hectares of new houses being built.

    However, as their roofs twinkled in the bright sunlight, there was not one solar panel to be seen. It is known that installing these panels while a house is being built is significantly cheaper than retrofitting them – so why is our net-zero Government not mandating that they be fitted on all new-build housing, with the additional benefit of reducing the need to take good agricultural land for solar farms?

    Terry Lloyd
    Derby

    Terry thinks solar panels on houses built on the North-East coast of England, where it’s a bit farther North than Derby so a tad darker in the Winter when most energy is needed and there is a lot of ‘fog on the Tyne’, are going to provide a significant amount of energy? Oh dear.

    Nato and Ukraine

    SIR – Now is the time for Nato to bite the bullet, admit Ukraine and establish a new border in eastern Ukraine.

    Turkey, facing two ways, may decide to intervene by veto, as it attempted to do with Sweden. It should be disregarded. Russia’s disarray is an opportunity too good to be missed.

    Tony Jones
    London SW7

    SIR – I fear it is premature to interpret the failed Wagner Group rebellion as marking the beginning of the end for Vladimir Putin.

    It seems to me that it quickly became clear to Yevgeny Prigozhin that he could not succeed. Thus, once the dust has settled, the Russians and their allies may view events as proof of Putin’s political capability, reinforcing his power. I hope I am mistaken.

    Harvey Thomas
    Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire

    Tony Jones clearly wants to start WW3. Russia in disarray? I’ll take the judgement of Colonel Douglas McGregor on that one. Harvey Thomas is nearer the mark and his mistake is in thinking he may be mistaken.

    The role of MPs

    SIR – It has been suggested that the House of Commons has too many members (Letters, June 26).

    One of the main roles of MPs is to represent their constituents in the Commons. With a population of 67 million and 650 MPs, each MP represents about 100,000 people. By comparison, when Britain was a member of the EU, each MEP represented roughly a million. In due course, as the role of the UK Parliament and MPs further diminished, this would have been a serious issue.

    Cutting the number of MPs, especially with a rapidly increasing population, would reduce the ease with which people could have their problems dealt with and their voices heard. It would damage democracy.

    Roger Hogbin
    Weymouth, Dorset

    Roger Hogbin thinks putting a cross on a ballot paper once every four or five years represents democracy. Aw, bless.

    1. And how many deaths will it take till they know
      That too many people have died?

      [Bob Dylan: Blowin’ In The Wind]

    2. We don’t just need to end it. We need to put on trial those responsible.

      3. That will never happen. Big government will never take responsibility. That is what the enquiry is designed to achieve.

    2. Does she have central European heritage? People in central Europe tend to be far more scared of the Russians than the British do.

  24. Let’s end this war on the European energy provider that is making poor people poorer.
    Then ask nicely if they wouldn’t mind reopeing the gas lines.

    1. If only they would, but for reasons of trade, fraud or corruption (perhaps all three?) the state insists on keeping the conflict going.

  25. When this forum began, it was named Not The Telegraph Letters, meaning not the newspaper’s online letters page discussion facility, which had been closed down – temporarily to all, although eventually reopened to paying subscribers. The letters themselves remained readable for quite a while, so we used them to prompt discussion on NTTL.

    Eventually, the Telegraph closed the page to non-subscribers. We discovered, however, a flaw in the newspaper’s ability to keep out non-payers. A timely halt to loading the page allowed some of us to read the letters even though the means to comment there was beyond our reach, so we carried on discussing them here.

    For my part, I would read the letters ever day, posting some of them here, but I realise I no longer do so. I’ve lost the appetite for reading them and, consequently, no longer copy them into this page. I think this is true of several others. One or two souls continue to do so, but not in the quantities we once did collectively.

    Increasingly, Not The Telegraph Letters is becoming a more literal title as the letters are an ever diminishing feature in the subjects covered. Who here continues to read the letters on a daily basis?

      1. Sod’s Law dictates that while composing and posting a comment, someone has posted another which seems to undermine one’s own.

        I’m pleased you have, Fiscal, if only to maintain this forum’s original purpose. Hugh J is another who does so, but I think what I said before is true, on the whole.

        1. It is. Lots of us post on the evil of the Club of Rome/WEF/Trilateral Commission tyranny unfolding around us. I’m one.

      1. It’s not just the letters, bb2. I find I’m reading less of most things. I used to read a lot of online news and comment but, in much the same way as with much broadcast news media, I consume far less of it. Knowing just exposes one’s impotence. Not knowing leads to greater contentment. As for the letters, I prefer the quirky and trivial. The serious and earnest I can do without.

        1. It is the impotence that is so soul destroying.
          Then you get a ray of hope like the girls at Rye College.

        2. Perhaps that is a natural reaction to the loss of democracy since the mid nineties. I certainly understand the need to opt out, especially of the increasingly shallow and crazy legacy media. Something is wrong, we can all sense it.
          There are people who have accepted the direction in which the west is going, and are becoming more self-reliant, fit, positive and less dependent upon the system that is failing us – that is the direction I’m going in. Parallel Mike, Lynette Zang, people like that.
          The stable Britain we grew up in is just an imaginary country now.

        3. “I used to read a lot of online news and comment but, in much the same way as with much broadcast news media, I consume far less of it.”

          Probably because it’s the same old thing day after day. Our world is in an appalling state and nothing seems to change. If something big happens, we’ll wake up.

          At the moment we’re probably a bit bored. Every day on here someone posts a link and I save it to read later. There are dozens unread…

        5. I find the entire range of journalism and editing has become acceleratingly more deplorable in the DT/ST. Not so many years back, Simon Heffer’s inimitable Style Guide was essential [nay: compulsory] reading for all Telegraph journalists and it was heralded as the necessary high-standard model for assisting the continuance of top-class reporting.

          When the risible Barclay Brothers bought the publications from Conrad Black, standards immediately began to plummet. The Style Guide was banished and now the twin newspapers are edited and staffed by sub-standard [nay: execrable] “journalists” who routinely misspell standard English words and festoon their unedited efforts with banal and trite Americanisms and other examples of gormless idiotic slang.

          The once unbeatable flagship broadsheet of British journalism has quickly deteriorated into a below-par tabloid-styled rag. Its dedicated readership is increasingly poorer as a consequence.

      2. The controversial subjects affecting the structure of our society have not changed for a while. Much of what can be said has been said. Ukraine, immigration, taxation education etc. Us oldies (Generalising!) have already entrenched views and solutions and no amount of writing to a newspaper or hurumphing over the letters is going to change things. Its pretty predictable what will be on the letters page although there are one or two pearls. A bit like on this forum, I dont make that many serious comments because all my thoughts are already expressed by those more erudite than myself. However, when trawling through I sometimes get caught by the lure.

        2. I think those are only the themes that people are allowed to talk about!
          There’s lots happening that isn’t allowed to be published – for example, a full and honest discussion about CBDCs or excess deaths.
          Legacy media is choking itself to death on its restricted range of allowed subjects. Meanwhile, the really interesting stuff is on Substack or Youtube/Rumble/Bitchute – and I don’t just mean what David probably thinks are conspiracies!
          CBDC planning is very advanced now – it’s part of the new currency plans from BRICS and the IMF, it’s been spoken about by the BIS – yet we’re not allowed a public discussion of it. It’s as though it doesn’t exist in the legacy media.

          Non political stuff is much better on independent media too – everything from philosophy to gardening.

          1. I think you are correct. The immense power of social media in particular has been harnessed by the government as we can see from all platforms. Now and again the deep state is revealed, such as the Disinformation Unit, although the work of the 77th is kept out of the headlines. Who knows what else is there. Marching armies are so last century when you can destroy a society by attacking its values from a keyboard.

    3. The few I read are posted here.
      Nottle now gets articles posted via links and quotes from numerous other news outlets, as people’s particular interests or bugbears are stimulated.

      1. By NoTTLers’ cross-references to other sites and forums that might otherwise pass me by, I think NoTTL is an excellent intro. to these. However, I agree with David that too much information (invariably doom, gloom and treason) is simply not conducive to my wellbeing. It’s a hard line to draw between being informed and getting thoroughly depressed by what one finds (David’s comment below).

        1. Yes. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, but it can become very depressing.

        2. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

          1. According to some sources, the serenity prayer originally asked for courage first, and specifically for changing things that must be changed, not things that simply can be changed:

            Father, give us courage to change what must be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and the insight to know the one from the other.

        4. No doubt I add to that and I apologise for doing so. I find the state of this country so infuriating, so annoying considering how easily resolved so many issues are but big government refuses to accept the blame nor to take the action.

          What annoys me more is that the government shifts the blame to the blameless to hide it’s own mendacity.

          1. Please don’t apologise – the breadth of information is good to have. Please keep it coming. I was only saying that I don’t go out as much actively looking for new information as I used to.

        5. Nothing really matters. It’s all ephemera, your life, mine, relationships, things we hold dear. It all goes. It is the ephemeral nature of things that make for beauty, we appreciate a real flower and ignore ones made of plastic. We would not learn a thing if it were not for the ephemeral nature of existence. It’s because things are ephemeral that we can laugh, we know it will be over, even if we are not aware of that at a given moment. If things were not like that life would be the most awful burden, no change, no relief, nothing new.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ

      2. By NoTTLers’ cross-references to other sites and forums that might otherwise pass me by, I think NoTTL is an excellent intro. to these. However, I agree with David that too much information (invariably doom, gloom and treason) is simply not conducive to my wellbeing. It’s a hard line to draw between being informed and getting thoroughly depressed by what one finds (David’s comment below).

    5. I read the letters that are posted on here, but never look at the Telegraph these days.

    6. I read the letters daily. Not often are any worthy to be reprinted here. Unless they are about jam making or loo rolls.

    7. Please, Sir; I do.
      But they are not worth repeating on a daily basis. The BTL comments are often far more interesting.

      1. Seconded. That’s the case with all news stories and opinion pieces too, those on which comments are permitted, that is.

      2. That bloke A. Allan makes a decent point quite frequently.
        He ought to be invited onto here!

    8. Seeing that your comment has generated such a discussion, perhaps one of us should write to the Telegraph complaining that their letters are too uninspiring these days!

    9. I only read the first letter because its title is put here as the letter for the day. Other than that I don’t bother to read any of them.

    10. Sometimes I read them because they can be instructive on how folk are thinking. All too often I get annoyed at the stupidity of the public at failing to understand the real problems the country has.

    11. Not only do I read them daily, I copy them—as a screenshot—from my virtual newspaper version of the online Telegraph and send them, via email, each morning to four friends (two are current NoTTLers and two are former NoTTLers).

          1. Ooh, are we witnessing the blossoming of another Plum/Lacoste correspondence? :o))

          3. Ooh, are we witnessing the blossoming of another Plum/Lacoste correspondence? :o))

    2. I was not exactly happy to see the altar frontal yesterday had a rainbow (as in ROYGBIV) selection of people on it. Even more annoying was that the main colour was blue (we have barely started the long period of Trinity, whose colour is GREEN).

  27. 373872+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    theresa May under pressure over ‘socially distanced party’ during lockdown
    Former PM pictured taking part in Tory pressure group event during second national shutdown

    Sound advice,

    Tie down the safety valve.

    1. I don’t give a damn that she partied. They all partied. She deserves to be strung up for signing the UN migration pact. Which won’t be discussed.

  28. I think he’s correct on the reasoning that the matter of coincidence is usually merely that. A coincidence.
    I find it very hard to believe that even the evil deep state, call it what you wish, would plan so many bizarre, outlandish, once in a lifetime events well in advance so that they could bury upcoming problems that they know about.

    I think he misses the more important point in that those in charge very often deliberately use the fortunate coincidence as a great way to bury bad news and that the Left’s natural allies in the MSM are very happy to run with the story in the main headlines with coverage of the buried bad news way down page as “….and in other news….”
    https://www.takimag.com/article/subpar-thinkers-implode-in-coinci-density/

    1. I think they often blow up fairly normal events into bizarre, outlandish, once in a lifetime events in the media.
      Eg the submarine. Dodgy tourist company, five people killed, very sad, one paragraph in the evening paper – but it became instead a “nail-biting” four day drama.

      1. Conveniently eclipsing Hunter Biden’s court case and the fact that it was a farce.

        1. Apparently more Epstein emails were released too, and it was disclosed that more have been accidentally deleted!

          1. Oh the old “accidentally”. A bit like the “lessons that will be learned”. Liars all of them.

    1. So are grey squirrels – uninvited imports who have taken over and decimated the indigenous, in this country (especially England). I identify as a red squirrel.

      2. Every year they steal all my goose berries even when I surround the Bush with chicken wire.
        Later they eat the grapes, nets don’t keep them out. And then move on to the Hazle nuts. No wonder they look so sprite and healthy.

          1. Squirrels are survivors they get around most problems set in their way. The little buggers.

        2. One of the few good things I read about Charles is that he apparently wants to cull the little beggars.
          Of course, it won’t happen because the cute and cuddly brigade would be up in arms. Heck, some of them probably identify as grey squirrels nowadays!

          1. He’s welcome to come to our area and wipe them out.
            I’ve caught a few in a Rat trap in the past.

          2. There used to be Red squirrels in N Norfolk.

            In fact in Aylmerton, at my then Great Aunt’s house, a red was a regular visitor to her back door and was fed a treat each time.

      4. I’ve only ever seen one red squirrel. It was running around in the woodland that surrounds Krakow, where there was originally a city wall and moat. I don’t blame it for preferring Poland.

        1. I don’t live all that far, never been, but, apparently, there are red squirrels on the Isle of Wight. Fortunately, the grey squirrels can’t get over there. I take it the reds have been there since that area was connected to the mainland. Which, thanks to the South of Britain tilting downwards as the ice age continues to retreat, Weight is now the island trapped in the 1950’s. The island that time forgot.

          Scotland, by the way, continues to rise as we sink. The result of real global warming, the natural progression out of an ice age as we warm up, a process that has been going on for millions upon millions of years, long before the hairless ape came along to clog up the streets of London with slow walking hysterics blocking peoples ability to get to work.

          1. We saw some red squirrels when we were there. They also appear on the Continent (I have seen them in Denmark and Germany and no doubt lots of other countries). Apparently they were brought here from North America – another cr*p American import.

          2. I think you mean grey squirrels. The red squirrel is a native species in the UK.

          4. We saw some red squirrels when we were there. They also appear on the Continent (I have seen them in Denmark and Germany and no doubt lots of other countries). Apparently they were brought here from North America – another cr*p American import.

        2. We have two families of red squirrels in our garden both have made their homes in walnut trees one to the north of the house, the other to the south.

    2. So are grey squirrels – uninvited imports who have taken over and decimated the indigenous, in this country (especially England). I identify as a red squirrel.

    3. So are grey squirrels – uninvited imports who have taken over and decimated the indigenous, in this country (especially England). I identify as a red squirrel.

    4. Pigeons are the political classes of ornithology. They waddle around as if they own the place, cooing and scoffing every single thing they can get hold of.
      And they crap everywhere, especially in the communal bird bath and drinking water.

      1. Is that why there are signs in London which say: no defecating on the street? I thought that was for those gimmigrants who don’t seem to know what toilet training means.

          1. That’s been going on for decades. When I was young I met some airline pilots who used to stay in the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington. After that hotel (and half of Kensington) was taken over by Arabs, there used to be lots of rich Arabs staying in that hotel. One of the pilots had a friend who was a cleaner at the hotel, and she told him that apparently the RAs cr*pped on the floor of their rooms, and used towels and curtains to wipe themselves – then went out dripping with gold and jewels…

            You can take the person out of the etc.

          2. A few years ago I had the job of fitting 4 kitchens on one floor of a block of flats in Central London just off the Edgware Road. The apartments belonged to an oil company.
            The whole of the floor above was Arab territory. All day long the lift would go up and down carrying young ladies and booze.
            They even had bodyguards stopping anyone else alighting the lifts on the top floor.
            Having spent part of his time in WW2 in Egypt and Algeria my father told me many times, never trust an Arab son.

          3. Let alone trusting them, some of their beliefs and behaviours are not what our civilisation has taught us to be acceptable (well until about 60 years ago).

          4. I have heard stories like that as well – making fires in the middle of the floor. Tbh, I discounted them as unbelievable – but who knows? They have such a superiority mindset due to islam and wealth, they will do anything in our countries.

          5. The pilot I knew’s girlfriend was thinking of handing in her notice. The mess and the haughty attitude of what effectively were rich peasantry (with apologies to peasantry, who often are far better mannered than others who should know better) was more than she wanted to take.

          6. Talk those who take students from EFL schools.
            Many refuse to take Muslim students. Their attitude to their landladies in particular, absolutely stinks.

          9. One contemporary account noted that one of the courtiers broke off the conversation “pour pisser contre la tapisserie”. Says it all!

          10. Why do they have cleaners? They are given money. Why do they not clean up after themselves like everyone else?

      2. My little flat has a small ornamental balcony. The pigeons love to perch on it and use it as a toilet and as you say, they’re noisy buggers.

  30. Good Moaning.
    Thought for the day.
    When did domestic appliances become so BOSSY? They are a right bunch of Violet Elizabeth Botts, constantly bleeping and squeaking and metaphorically stamping their feet to get attention.
    Look, Microwave. Listen here, Tumble Dryer. Button it, Washing Machine, Dish Washer et al… I have other things going on in my life besides jumping to it whenever you’ve finished your job.
    So Jolly Well There!!!

  31. 373872+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    A conspiracy of silence surrounds lockdown’s most disastrous flaw
    Discussing the effects of lockdowns on children confirms that we are finally entering a phase of Covid ‘narrative collapse’

    I just bet it does, if this current enquiry does NOT come up with credible. honest answers then people power must DEMAND another enquiry board.

    Peoples elderly died in isolation, were condemned to spend the rest of their remaining days in wheelchairs,we have yet to bear witness to the damage of the young born / unborn in the future.

    To continue to support, as in a General Election, these current
    politico’s is surely paramount to saying they are blameless

  32. Good morning all😊😊😊

    With reference to todays letter. Yesterday my energy company tried to triple my monthly payments to them because I had gone into the red by £200.00. But I am always in credit by the time winter arrives. Phone them give them what for, tell them they are not going to get their grubby larcenous hands on my money and if they do not rescind their thieving attempt to raid my bank account (Yes, I do talk to them that way) I will go elsewhere. I fail to see why I should talk to such people politely when they are nothing more, in my opinion, than gangsters. Result, back to normal and I decide when and what I will pay them with regard to the debt. Fact is I simply paid it after I got off the phone and am now in credit. My point, fight back do not let them get away with it. I also asked how much profit they were going to make this year. No answer to that, just evasion. Also gave them a nice furious rant about their bogus green policies and that if they cared about their customers they would back fracking and nuclear, not windmills and solar panels that are even more damaging to the environment than conventional sources of energy.
    P.S. Just looked it up. They are projected to make a profit of £2 Billion this year, the thieving barstewarts.

    Second, with regard to the silly Telegraphs main story:
    “Russia need 7 million strong army to replace Wagner.”

    Here is our good colonel Macgregor talking to Judge Napolitano about this weekends events in Russia

    Russian Rebellion & the Ukraine War w/Col Doug Macgregor

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zRF9FGRr9s

  35. Political chap allegedly touches a lady’s boobies 10 years ago, headline news on R4. More Rotherham slammers in court for crimes against young girls, hottest day this year reported.

    1. Headline news because it was a white Conservative. The BBC doesn’t like to report on pakistani muslim paedophile rapists as then they have to discuss massive uncontrolled illegal immigration welfare shopping and it refuses to do that.

      As usual, the BBC lies by omission.

    2. Classic distraction article. At this point, I just think “Meh” which is sad.

    4. So if a child is sexually active with an adult at 9 years old you have to wait 9 years until he/she is 18 and an adult him/herself in order to judge whether the liaison was ‘consensual’ or not?

      1. It’s hard enough already to establish between adults whether an encounter is consensual, or whether force or coercion is involved, or whether even if there was, the subordinate party later accepted or even supported the affair. To add to the confusion, such judgements are usually subjective and may vary in time. With women, they can easily vary according to the time of the month.

        9-year-olds are deemed to be below the age of criminal responsibility, and are therefore deemed to lack the maturity to appreciate the law, even though they may themselves challenge this. A two-year-old, having learnt the word ‘No’ has a basic grasp of right and wrong, but may not understand why or how.

        As regards sexuality, it opens up a whole can of worms as to what an adult understands by it, and what is appreciated by the curiosity of a child. Misunderstandings may lead to enormous complications later in life, as teenage hormones kick in. Worse still, if an adult demands an intimate commitment a child is not capable of giving, and which is bound by a child’s natural dependency on adults, and may certainly give rise to horrible conflicts. There may be an impression that an encounter you describe appears consensual, but who knows what is really going on?

        Therefore the law removes any confusion by deeming that any sexual encounter below the Age of Consent cannot be consensual, but with certain discretion applied between the ages of 13 and 18 according to individual circumstances, when it might sometimes wiser to let things take their course (with necessary parental guidance), rather than to traumatise the teenager with the weight of the law.

  38. Here’s a funny thing. Trawling through a few DT stories last night, I found this in the ‘More stories’ links: “Muslim woman repeatedly asked if she drank alcohol loses discrimination case”. I clicked on it – error 404. However, I found the report elsewhere.

    Muslim woman ‘humiliated’ by colleague at work loses discrimination case

    By Wayne Morgan, June 26, 2023

    A Muslim woman who was repeatedly asked if she drank alcohol and wore a bikini on the beach was not discriminated against, a tribunal ruled. Scientist Jwan Abdullah, 39, was quizzed by a colleague about whether she drank alcohol, wore a bikini on the beach and even whether she had had an arranged marriage, an employment tribunal heard.

    June Sillars, a University of Glasgow lab worker, also asked why Ms Abdullah would want to “lose her liberation” by potentially moving to the Middle East. Ms Abdullah said that as a Muslim she felt humiliated by her colleague, and sued the university for race discrimination.

    However, a tribunal threw out her claims, ruling the university had acted properly in dealing with her complaint about the “profoundly embarrassing and oppressive” conversation, and had been prevented from taking formal action because Ms Abdullah did not want to meet Ms Sillars over her behaviour.

    The tribunal, held in Glasgow, heard Ms Abdullah started working at the university as a lab scientist in January 2021, testing PCR Covid samples. Ms Abdullah, who is of Kurdish Iraqi nationality, is a practising Muslim, but was subjected to “taunting” comments about her religion less than a month after starting.

    The panel heard that in February 2021, two of Ms Abdullah’s colleagues approached their team leader to raise “concerns” about the manner in which fellow lab scientist Ms Sillars had spoken to her. The panel heard Ms Sillars “badgered” Ms Abdullah about her alcohol consumption and “made light of her religious beliefs”. She asked her: “Not even a glass of wine at night? Not even one glass? What about a rum truffle?”

    When asked, Ms Abudullah “repeatedly said no” but was “continually” questioned in a manner that left her “visibly uncomfortable”.

    In a formal complaint to her boss, Ms Abdullah said Ms Sillars had “laughed and mocked” all her answers about drinking, before questioning why she didn’t smoke shisha, as that was her “culture”. Ms Abdullah’s manager said he was “deeply sorry” that she felt “humiliated” before later offering a meeting with Ms Sillars. However, Ms Abdullah did not want to meet her.

    The panel heard Ms Sillars was spoken to about her “unacceptable” behaviour. She was “very upset” and claimed she had “simply engaged in banter'”. She wanted to meet personally with Ms Abdullah to apologise.

    In December 2021, Ms Abdullah raised a grievance where she said she had been bullied and discriminated against in a working environment that was “like a jungle”. The grievance was not upheld but recommendations were made to “support her longer-term career”. Her appeal was also rejected.

    In February 2022, Ms Abdullah resigned citing the alleged discrimination she had suffered.

    Employment Judge Murdo Macleod said Ms Abdullah “should not have had to put up with” the conversation with Ms Sillars but said it had been dealt with “swiftly and decisively” and that colleagues had supported her by raising it with management before she did.

    The panel ruled that because Ms Abdullah had refused to meet Ms Sillars, the complaint was treated as “informal” because of her reluctance to cause trouble for Ms Sillars.

    Judge Macleod added: “The tribunal’s strong impression was [her line manager] understood very readily why the claimant felt uncomfortable and humiliated by this conversation, and would have preferred to have taken more formal action upon the complaint, but was restrained from doing so by her own wishes.”

    The panel dismissed all her claims of direct race discrimination as there was “no basis” to suggest Ms Abdullah had been treated less favourably.

    Source: Telegraph

    https://rivaltimes.com/muslim-woman-humiliated-by-colleague-at-work-loses-discrimination-case/

    I’d probably have told Ms Sillars to bog off if she’d persisted with one line of conversation in my company. ‘Bore’ is the description of someone like that. However, it shows how dangerous discrimination law is. Talking to someone in a persistently crass way isn’t discrimination, it’s just bad manners. The panel correctly said there was “no basis” to suggest Ms Abdullah had been treated less favourably i.e. she hadn’t suffered professionally.

      1. I’ve met the likes of Ms Sillars. You’d want to sit on the other side of the room.

      2. I think that the two colleagues raising their concerns in the first instance indicates that Ms Sillars was becoming excessive in her quizzing of Ms Abdullah.

        1. You can’t take anything for granted these days. People will lie or exaggerate in pursuit of an ideology.
          A friend of mine manages offices for a big US multinational company. She can’t even hang a picture on the wall in case someone complains that it upsets them. Bridget Riley is off limits because the prints are black/white. Every picture has to pass a Thought Police Committee in the US before it can be hung in an office over here. That’s not even the craziest story she’s told me!
          Everything is blown up out of proportion as “bullying” or “harassment.”

      1. ‘Discrimination’ is one of the most abused and misunderstood words in the English language.

  39. Just the salient bits here from this report.

    Just Stop Oil called ‘out of control’ after protest near major hospital

    Protest group denies blocking entrance to King’s College Hospital with demonstration at Denmark Hill in south London

    A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said officers had issued “a Section 12 condition to move out of the carriageway to Just Stop Oil Protesters” on the road at 8.28am, adding that the road had been cleared two minutes later.

    Lee Anderson, the deputy chairman of the Conservative, said: “Hard-working people are fed up of being held hostage by these metropolitan eco-loonies. Every day that Just Stop Oil take to the streets an ambulance is delayed, a hospital appointment is missed, a grieving relative can’t get to a funeral. It’s a slap in the face to Brits trying to get on with their lives.”

    Just Stop Oil has found it more difficult to protest in recent weeks because of the police’s ability to enact Section 12 conditions, which mean activists can be arrested if they stay in the road.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/26/moped-rider-drives-just-stop-oil-london-monday-rush-hour

    1983
    PC to Sergeant: “Sarge, there are some protestors blocking the High Street.”
    Sergeant to PC: “A variety of heavy, long-handled implements can be found in the tall cupboard over there. Get on with it!”

    2023:
    PC to Sergeant: “Sir, there are some protestors blocking the High Street.”
    Sergeant to PC: “Oh dear, I’ve run out of Section 12 forms. Let them be.”

    1. As the article says, the founder has realised it’s no longer about the issue but about the ego of the whingers. The government are to blame for this: they’ve let the wasters off to often, refused o enforce the law and this is the result.

      When they go about throwing paint over works of art – the very thing that exemplifies culture, when they throw paint over private business and government departments – despite the daft obsession over the weather that they’re all lumbered with they’ve gone too far and it is no longer about the issue but about their own self righteous, egotistical arrogance.

    2. Can you imagine having waited months for an operation and being turned away because those morons have made their own arrangements to get in the way and the surgeons and other staff were turned away.

  40. Just had an email from BT to say they are stopping the line rental rebate – this is on top of the normal yearly rise of charges which are 3.9% above the RPI – these bastards don’t give a shit about the service to the public as long as they can give their bloody shareholders a good return. A pox on all utility companies

    1. I refuse to have anything to do with BT after they issued a £19 fine for late payment for a bill that arrived three days after it was due to be paid. Plusnet, a BT subsidiary, went down the pan after they got rid of the indedendent Yorkshire management and brought it within BT’s way of doing things.

      Do you remember the GPO?

    2. I usually pay ours a year in advance, which gives a rebate on the monthly fee. I’ll await their notification.

          1. Ndovu, this is an excerpt from the message that we received from BT:

            We wanted to let you know that from the 21 July 2023 we’ll be removing our Line Rental Saver product from sale. This means that when your current Line Rental Saver product expires on the 19 September 2023, you’ll no longer be able to renew it or have the option to pay for a year’s line rental in advance.

          2. Right…….. I pay ours in February, so I presume it’ll run out then.
            Thanks Janet.

          3. I’m getting a £10 credit apparently – is everyone else?
            It’ll be put on the monthly charge and it will have certainly gone up, this way they can include the yearly RPI + increase
            I don’t trust these people

    3. I usually pay ours a year in advance, which gives a rebate on the monthly fee. I’ll await their notification.

    4. I’m a BT shareholder – but I haven’t noticed much of return. Maybe my holding too small.

  42. Phew! We now have internet!

    It’s been a stressful morning……….. the contractors who have blocked our drive with a digger, started work again at 8 am this morning…….parked a dumper truck there as well. Along with all the noise, shouting and clouds of dust and smoke, we couldn’t get out if we wanted to at the moment. Then my hairdryer exploded……..! That tripped the fusebox and knocked out the internet.

    Thank heavens for a husband who labelled all the many fuses in the box and is still able to to deal with that kind of thing.

    In other news, we now have another new swift in the other sparrows’ nest (the sparrows were in it last night but they’ve been evicted) so we’ll see what happens there.

  43. This house is built into the hillside, so the sitting room (where I’m sitting now) is half underground. I can feel the vibrations as they are digging outside. It’s most unpleasant and unsettling. The lower part of our hill was closed for three weeks – now I know what they were going through down there. When our internet connection is working, we have a steady 54 mbs these days (a lot better than it used to be) so I don’t think we need their full fibre internet anyway – we will have the option of taking it up or not, apparently. If our livelihoods depended on working at home, then it might be worth it, but our neighbour apparently already gets 70mbs.

        1. My eldest brother and late eldest sister lived at Combe Down, Bath, above Ralph Allen’s Drive.

          The whole area was subject to subsidence owing to extensive mining corridors beneath them. Ralph Allen owned the mines and much of Bath was built with stone from Combe Down.

          A program of discretely implementing the filling of the chambers and corridors with aerated concrete has been ongoing for decades.

          Most Bath stone is mined although I specified Combe Down stone from Hancock’s opencast quarry in the 80’s for Richmond House Whitehall.

  44. “ Thousands of (village) halls across the UK face closure because they do not comply with new anti-terrorism laws”. Richard a Littlejohn in DM.

    What is WRONG with this government? They will not stop meddling in things that shouldn’t concern them. I hate them with a passion.

    Is there something more sinister behind the “HMG has a duty to protect people” bl ether? Is it that they are finding as many ways as possible to prevent people being together and, maybe, complaining about what they’re doing to the U.K.?

    Sorry to rant but …

    1. It might go some way to protecting us if they stopped importing so many terrorists.

        1. Quite the opposite I imagine.
          And we’ll be damned grateful for it.

        2. First I have ever heard of this. But the article is pretty weak with no link to the actual legislation. I am on the property committee of our Methodist church although since our service attendance is under 50 guess it won’t apply.

    3. It’s not a rant, it’s precisely the fundamental problem with this country. The state simply won’t leave people alone.

      1. Overstaffed civil service departments desperately looking for a reason to continue their existence.

    4. Littlejohn has chosen the closure of village halls as emblematic of an overreaching government, but he goes on to say that all venues capable of accommodating more than 100 people will be subject to this anti-terror legislation, regardless of their vulnerability, so you can just imagine how all-embracing this will be. Bingo halls, cinemas and theatres immediately spring to mind.

      1. I think most village hall attendees would be able to spot a suspicious newcomer without invoking ‘special procedures’.

        1. They would want to know all about him or her, where they were from, what they do for a living etc

        1. anti-terror legislation for mosques would close the lot down – what’s not to like

    2. I’m rather puzzled by this. As the DHSC advocates the take-up of Covid-19 vaccines, why impose an arbitrary deadline after which 1at and 2nd doses will become less readily available? The NHS link in the tweet says only those at greater risk from Covid-19 will be eligible for 1st and 2nd doses in future and will have to wait until the autumn if they miss this deadline. Those who acquire a new vulnerability in the interim may be allowed an earlier vaccination.

      1. Psy-op invoking the fear of missing out. Hopefully doomed to utter failure.

        2. I’m wondering what kind of person resists all the efforts made to give them a vaccination in the roughly two years (depending on age) they’ve been available yet suddenly caves in with just a few days to go. The pros and cons haven’t changed recently.

          1. I find it strange that so many people were prepared to take an untested injection because politicians told them to. Most of us are aware that politicians as a class are probably the most mendacious set of people you are ever likely to meet. Now in my view it would be sheer madness to take the jabs.

    1. Looking at some of those interesting abodes made me thankful that I live in my Edwardian semi, with a lot of its original features…

    1. Coincidentally I was watching an old Jonathan Creek episode on television on Sunday night and a dwarf was eaten by a python – but only one dwarf. The fact that this one in the cartoon ate seven shows that he was prepared to go the full Monty!

      1. Alan Davies said he made more money out of those Abbey National commercials than he did out of Jonathan Creek. (What is “Abbey National”?)

        1. Now a Spanish owned bank (it was a building society) The bank is called Santander.

  48. Following on from Jonathan’s missive, I looked at this: https://www.lovemoney.com/galleries/70490/the-worlds-richest-countries-with-the-highest-poverty-levels-revealed?page=16

    I was genuinely surprised at Switzerland being on there. Notable that the majority are EU nations, of course. What I would ask though is what is poverty? We have two high incomes. This month our spending account had only £60 in it by the end of week 3. Why? Dog worming tablets, vets bills, dentist bills (humans), a dodgy food shop.

    Are we in poverty? Not at all.

    1. You’ve taken your savings out before you get down to 60, I assume. Same here.

    1. Have you noticed that if you turn a CCTV camera upside down and use it as a crystal ball you can see through a glass darkly?

    1. “even more turbulent stream of consciousness”
      Not sure about the consciousness, but that is funny!

      I wish Lavrov was one of ours! But of course, he never could be – the lizard elite would have eliminated his chances of getting anywhere near power.

      1. The adults are still in charge in Russia. One may not agree with them, but they are adults, not spoilt, greedy, overgrown children and lackeys, like we have in the West.

    1. Of course they’ve ignored it. And HMG is lying yet again when saying we can pick and choose which parts of PESCO we can belong to. HMG intentions are clear

      Could there be a worst government!

      2. …and what is PESCO – is it allied to Tesco?

        I apologise for my higgorance, vw.

  52. Independent Report on Equity in Cricket
    Summary: It’s just not cricket.

      1. If trannies are included, should the middle stump be removed. OK, I’ll walk…

      2. I get the feeling that such is the intention of the BHA (British Horseracing Authority). They seem to be hell bent on putting off people who go to the races for – well – the racing and attracting people who go there to see pop singers and bands (and to drink themselves legless, of course).

    2. The thing about cricket – the important thing about cricket – is that it is not just about cricket.

      Apols to T Pratchett.

    3. BBC lunchtime news – an ex-cricketer from Jamaica who used to play for Essex, was complaining that you don’t see many black cricketers playing for counties or England. Has he not noticed that the once all-powerful West Indies side is now a shadow of its former self? The probable reason is that black youths are now more interested in playing football (that’s where the money is) in countries like Jamaica and also here in the UK. Cricket has dropped off their radar.

      1. Most of those great Windies cricketers learned their cricket in the Caribbean. Few British-born West Indians came through the ranks here. Whether young black men were put off the game by their treatment in the clubs or whether they were simply drawn to other attractions might be hard to prove.

        1. It’s difficult to ignore the large numbers of black and mixed-race footballers playing in the Premier League and the EFL. Also the composition of the England side. Were potential black cricketers in the UK persuaded to play football by the lack of role models in English cricket, or were they attracted to a game where they could make more money?

          1. “It’s difficult to ignore the large numbers of black and mixed-race footballers playing in the Premier League and the EFL.”

            Simply because football’s always been a much bigger game with a much bigger presence, especially since the FA ripped the head off the Football League in 1992 and finally put the upstart in its place, as it had been trying to do since 1888.

          2. Bu88er wendyball just a business and not a sport and cricket just bores the pants off me.

          3. “It’s difficult to ignore the large numbers of black and mixed-race footballers playing in the Premier League and the EFL.”

            Simply because football’s always been a much bigger game with a much bigger presence, especially since the FA ripped the head off the Football League in 1992 and finally put the upstart in its place, as it had been trying to do since 1888.

          1. Lots of overseas players played in league cricket in England as well as for the first-class counties. The Lancashire League was noted for it.

      2. Its very easy to blame race when people are in fact just not good enough in skill and/or attitude. There are hardly any black people where I live and that is reflected by the look of our local cricket team. I take the one sided report with a pinch of salt.

        1. Prior to Sir Frank Worrell, all Jamaican and West Indies teams were captained by a white man.

          1. I don’t watch or follow cricket, but one white captain hardly makes for a lot of white players, does it?

    4. This report has echoes the earlier piece on the Kurdish Muslim lab technician. Some Muslims were the subject of crass and crude jokes but is this ‘horrific’? It’s certainly about time some people just grew up a bit, although these are young men of often limited intelligence in a national culture that cannot shed its “Hur! Hur! Look at her!” attitude. Some of the report certainly doesn’t make for good reading but your heart sinks when you read this in the foreword:

      The Commission’s work was instigated as a consequence of the broad reactive introspection generated by the public outcry following the tragic murder of George Floyd. Readers will no doubt recall their own personal response to witnessing such inhumane actions undertaken by the very members of society entrusted with the role of protection. There was a spontaneous extension of this visceral response into collective protests for a renewed scrutiny of society’s institutions to ensure that they represented the highest principles of our beliefs in fairness, equity, meritocratic process and fair competition.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66031285
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66021884
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66022949

      Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket – a report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket

      1. I take issue with the foreword. George Foreman was a criminal, caught by the police and, as I understood it, died due to taking drugs. I accept that the police may have been a little rough on him but IIRC it took more than one copper to arrest him. Anyway, be that as it may, GF is not a ruddy hero and never was. It just seemed to give lots of people the excuse to protest and riot and carry on protesting and rioting to this day. Lots of virtue signalling from people afraid to mention that he was a convicted criminal. It is such an upside down world where criminals are awarded “hero” status.

        2. George Floyd. George Foreman was a heavyweight boxing champion, defeated by Muhammad Ali at the ‘rumble in the jungle’ and now famous for his outdoor grills.

    5. This report has echoes the earlier piece on the Kurdish Muslim lab technician. Some Muslims were the subject of crass and crude jokes but is this ‘horrific’? It’s certainly about time some people just grew up a bit, although these are young men of often limited intelligence in a national culture that cannot shed its “Hur! Hur! Look at her!” attitude. Some of the report certainly doesn’t make for good reading but your heart sinks when you read this in the foreword:

      The Commission’s work was instigated as a consequence of the broad reactive introspection generated by the public outcry following the tragic murder of George Floyd. Readers will no doubt recall their own personal response to witnessing such inhumane actions undertaken by the very members of society entrusted with the role of protection. There was a spontaneous extension of this visceral response into collective protests for a renewed scrutiny of society’s institutions to ensure that they represented the highest principles of our beliefs in fairness, equity, meritocratic process and fair competition.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66031285
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66021884
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66022949

      Holding Up A Mirror To Cricket – a report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket

  53. Independent Report on Equity in Cricket
    Summary: It’s just not cricket.

  54. The Tianamen Square massacre in 1989 is not what you think it was; it was an attempted regime-change operation which failed and what we have been told about it is yet another globalist psy-op. China’s one-child policy was a Club of Rome project which China had to adopt if it wanted the industrialisation that subsequently came it’s way. Soros was in there corrupting their young but they managed to kick him out, as did Russia. It’s all getting more and more intriguing. And evil. Oh, and the Epoch Times is a globalist project. Have a listen (1 hour 15 minutes).

    https://odysee.com/@jermwarfare:2/Matt-Ehret-Tiananmen:6

    Matt Ehret also has a substack:

    https://substack.com/@matthewehret?nthPub=301

  55. Whispering is an irritant which irks me beyond the comprehension of most sane people, hence my recently acquired hatred of Secret Escapes, a travel club which offers holidays and hotels to its members at a discount.

    https://www.secretescapes.com/

    Its current tv advertising campaign consists of a series of ads in which a woman, upon discovering that a fellow guest has paid considerably less than them, whispers this fact to her partner. He realises that the savings made would have spared them making compromises, whereupon we’re shown their adverse consequences. After this, a voice off screen whispers more guff about this club.

    I might have been just about able to tolerate this intrusive campaign were the ads not shown frequently while I’m trying to enjoy cricket. Between nearly every over and after each wicket falls I’m subjected to this torment. I hope the company goes bust.

    Don’t get me started on another ad for a hair care product which also whispers the virtues of its silky soft properties which allow a brush to glide effortlessly through tresses without breakages.

    Thank God for Brian Blessed!!!

      2. I find him a bit too shouty for my taste.

        “Avoid loud and aggressive persons, for they are vexatious to the spirit.“

        1. Okay in a Theatre i suppose.

          In his memoir he recounted walking down Old Compton St in Soho and Peter O’Toole, blind drunk as usual, coming towards him.

          As O’Toole went to give him a big hug, Blessed punched his lights out. Best thing in the circumstances.

        2. Thank you, Richard, although familiar, I had to look it up to remember Desiderata.

        3. His only talent is shouting. I went to see him as Claudius in “Hamlet” many years ago. All he did was shout. Those adverts on the TV that he does are excruciating to hear. At least he isn’t of the favoured advert demographic…

          1. I believe ‘stentorian’ carries an air of authority.

            I haven’t checked the etymology.

  56. I wonder if the Prof will be invited to contribute to the inquiry…

    A conspiracy of silence surrounds lockdown’s most disastrous flaw

    Discussing the effects of lockdowns on children confirms that we are finally entering a phase of Covid ‘narrative collapse’

    SUNETRA GUPTA • 26 June 2023 • 7:00pm

    It is now widely acknowledged that lockdowns caused immeasurable harm, particularly to children, and new research highlights that the interests of the young were forgotten by policymakers during the pandemic. Yet those who are now prepared to wring their hands about this situation are also adamant that lockdowns were unavoidable. Indeed, there is a general reluctance to criticise the very basis on which the measures that damaged children were adopted.

    It is understandable that, during lockdown, some professionals were cautious so as not to antagonise those who had the power to put an end to these practices. But it is time to put such concerns aside and establish a rational framework that prevents such a disaster from recurring.

    It was clear from the outset that the risk of dying from Sars-CoV-2 infection was negligible in healthy children. It follows that they did not need protection from infection. Closing schools, forcing them to wear masks and endure the hardships of social distancing, and vaccinating them, could only be justified in terms of stopping community spread. None of these measures had a reasonable impact on the dynamics of infection.

    So, is the lesson that, next time, we must lock down but keep schools open? Many of us would bargain for that, especially if we put higher education institutions into the mix, as young adults were also robbed of critical experiences at a delicate time in their lives. But by the time we implemented all these compassionate exclusions to lockdown, including the maintenance of all essential services, what we are looking at is the focused protection of the vulnerable rather than a policy that is effective against the spread of infection.

    This is because there is no halfway house when it comes to halting the spread of a new pathogen. The curve between a full-scale lockdown and let-it-rip is anything but a steady slope.

    It could be argued that the reason closing schools made hardly any difference was because lockdowns are, ultimately, an extremely ineffective way of stopping spread. Certainly, border closures can be used in very specific circumstances to prevent a pathogen from exiting or entering a community. But there were no credible empirical or theoretical reasons to believe that we could use social distancing measures to snuff it out once it was here. There were plenty of reasons to believe that trying to do so would cause a lot of harm.

    The discussion around the effects of Covid policies on children confirms that we are entering a phase of “narrative collapse” in the perception of how the crisis was handled. But it still needs to be accepted that keeping a lid on the spread of Covid without closing schools is a fantasy; there is therefore no way to reconcile the philosophy of lockdown with avoidance of harm to children. The only coherent strategy is one of focused protection, in which vulnerable people are protected without imposing egregious costs on those not at risk.

    It is my opinion that, rather than locking down earlier and harder, we should have put in place such a policy as soon as we were aware that the risks were so strongly stratified by age and linked to specific comorbidities. If the Covid Inquiry truly cares about the plight of the younger generation, it should be prepared to consider the option of immediately instituting focused protection, instead of being wedded to the notion that a rapid lockdown was the correct course.

    Sunetra Gupta is professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/26/conspiracy-of-silence-lockdowns-most-disastrous-flaw/

    1. 373872+ up ticks,

      Afternoon WS,

      The hancocks mate the pub landlord they say, made the shortest statement on the courts records,, HIC.

    2. I must remind readers that Professor Guptra was attacked viciously by Matt Hancock.

      1. I see Matt Handoncock was in my local rag saying that we must be prepared to lock down to prevent disease spread. I shall not comply.

  58. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2fcfa6cc7216fa9f4227dc7e3d15edacad62782fdf8b18667a4790ba73fa792.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc2461a54e906ec23998d50be196ebe2608c7c44e42126c08797399a5342eea3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b1f6c4b39a205e2c93e1653f2f51e28f0320e3439e954b0cf6de1828f774fed.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/419fed0789bdbd0113f41bf745cd5bab7fc9e0ead94fab43407f9b1cc3ade9cc.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61a4b248059796b9fc2b6cc12b64086155e0f3cba9a928d383ec3eee7bdfa6f7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f6c5b491d8688ab9303a3ce1e136cde63f2f6309c90663739b3a3429c535107e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a336e5278b3def9d42d6cf7795728bc91be0f982b459a63edcfa54980d4808a9.jpg

    3. On my phone in the sunlight, looked like a horses cock with a canvas surround. Was well confused!

  60. Cricket again – here’s Jonathan Liew in The Guardian:

    You may want to sit down for this part. Turns out – no, seriously – that a sport created and codified for the purpose of allowing rich white landowners to bet against each other, and then exported around the world at gunpoint with the promise that it would civilise savage peoples, may not actually be that progressive.

    My word, Jonny boy, you did go off after leaving the Telegraph, didn’t you? Pooh!

    And then this:

    It was in 1995 that the Independent lauded the fact that England’s (all white) pace attack “did not for once look like a United Nations strike force”. The same year, Surrey’s chief executive Glyn Woodman trumpeted the measures he had taken to deter British West Indies fans from attending the Oval Test.

    “Twenty years ago parts of the ground were almost no-go areas,” he said. “They could sit wherever they liked, and they can’t do that now because of pre-selling of tickets.”

    This needs answering:

    1. At a time when there were more young black cricketers eligible for England, none of them were good enough.

    2. The persistent lie that pre-match sales drove West Indies fans out of the game as a deliberate tactic. By this time, fewer young West Indians were interested in the game, and perhaps didn’t have the feeling for the Caribbean identity that their parents and grandparents had had in the 60s and 70s. The Windies team had faded and become just a good team, sometimes rather ordinary. More importantly, Test cricket was undergoing a revival in the country at the time (despite the fact that England could hardly win a match against Australia, let alone a series) and our grounds were small. Advance booking was advised simply to guarantee entry.

    I saw my first Test in 1975, the second day of the Lord’s Ashes Test. I paid £5 (about £45 today) at the gate and sat on the grass in front of the Father Time grandstand. That can’t be done now. Today, tickets are sold out for most Ashes Tests many months in advance. The cost now? £80 to £130. That’s probably too much for a lot of people, whoever they support.

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jun/27/english-cricket-independent-commission-equity-prejudice-azeem-rafiq-racism

    1. It’s the Gruaniad; its relationship with reality as experienced by normal people is tenuous at best.

      1. It’s nearly as bad in the Telegraph.

        Grisly take on cricket cannot just be dismissed as ‘scourge of wokeness’
        Recommendations a scathing rebuke of ECB governance and depict sport as dripping with prejudice at every level

        OLIVER BROWN, CHIEF SPORTS WRITER, 27 June 2023, 10:24am

        When Michael Holding delivered his searing monologue about the institutional racism that had framed his life, acclaim was instant and overwhelming. It was the summer of 2020, and the former fast bowler spoke with tears in his eyes about the deficiencies in education around race, pointing out while everybody knew that Thomas Edison had invented the lightbulb, almost nobody was aware that Lewis Howard Latimer, a black man, had devised the carbon filament that made it work.

        And yet not every message to Holding was laden with praise. He recalled in his memoir: “A friend of mine – an ex-friend actually, because I no longer seek his counsel – said to me after my speech: ‘Why do you want to punish white people?’ Wow, I don’t. Black people don’t. We just want to be treated the same way.”

        To read through the 316 pages of “Holding up a Mirror to Cricket” is to form a sharper impression as to why. For the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) offers such a grisly reflection of the game that you begin to wonder if, in 2023, it has evolved much from the preconceptions of the late Victorians, when James Welldon, an Old Etonian who became headmaster of Harrow and Bishop of Calcutta, pronounced: “The qualities associated with sport had produced a characteristic of the British race – the power of government.”

        English cricket is depicted in the review as an ossified patriarchy, dripping with prejudice at every level and infected with wholesale resistance to change. Is this fair? The statistics are not kind to anyone seeking to defend the status quo.

        It is highlighted how South Asian people represent 29 per cent of the game’s adult recreational population but occupy just 2.8 per cent of its senior leadership roles. It is said by one parent quoted that the “size of your wallet determines if your children progress or not – a clear indication that it’s not a sport for everyone but for a privileged few”. It is described as “truly appalling” that the England women’s team have never played a Test at Lord’s, while schoolboys from Eton and Harrow have competed there every year since 1805.

        If cricket did not confront a culture war already, it assuredly does now. There are passages in the report which evoke a sense of implacable conflict between the modernisers and traditionalists. Take the authors’ documenting of an “elitist and exclusionary culture”, or of “shocking evidence of interpersonal racism and sexism, which gave rise to a concern about prevailing social norms”. The problem, though, is that there are certain norms in cricket which, however anachronistic or grating to today’s heightened sensibilities, stubbornly endure.

        Take the Eton versus Harrow match as one example. Only last year, this fixture looked to be in its death throes, with Marylebone Cricket Club announcing its removal from the calendar. But opposition among members was so ferocious that MCC performed an abrupt volte face, confirming a stay of execution for 12 months, and then until 2027. Now, the ICEC is rekindling the campaign to have it scrapped immediately. Oxford’s match against Cambridge, it decrees, has also had its day at cricket’s spiritual home.

        For many egg-and-bacon ties, these conclusions are incendiary, and the fightback threatens to be ferocious. Some of the earliest replies to the ICEC’s online survey called on the commissioners not to “bow to the scourge of wokeness”. One said: “99.9 per cent of people couldn’t care less about a person’s gender, sexual orientation or skin colour.” Another wrote: “Don’t start with positive discrimination, making a point of penalising middle-class white boys for the sake of appeasing someone else.”

        In response, the report includes what you might call a pre-emptive strike, acknowledging that “some people will roll their eyes at the perceived wokeness of their work”. But the very concept of wokery, they contend, has been weaponised, distorted far beyond its original meaning of being awakened to injustice into a general label for anything that seeks to meddle with established customs.

        I explored this theme last summer with Stephen Fry, all-round renaissance man and, as of last October, president of MCC. Fry, besides urging me to tell Telegraph readers that they should accept such novel coinages as “batter” and “men’s Ashes”, predicted that all the outcry about cricket being too “woke” would have disappeared in a decade’s time. I would not be quite so sure: cricket is a deeply conservative sport, wedded to its eccentricities and historically indisposed to having revolution foisted on it from outside.

        But there is no denying that the ICEC has produced a serious and alarming document. The foreword is written by Sir John Major, not just a former prime minister but a connoisseur of cricket so avid that he has hailed it a “universal healer”. The recommendations are based not on one or two dissenting voices, but on 4,156 respondents. Together, they add up to a scalding rebuke of the England and Wales Cricket Board, who have had 30 years to try to make cricket a game for all but fallen dismally short. The governing body’s imperative now is to protect cherished traditions while bringing the game, carefully but convincingly, up to speed with the modern world.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2023/06/27/damning-yet-credible-cricket-report-cannot-be-dismissed-as/

        BTL:
        Peter Thrower
        4,000 people respond to an open invitation to make a complaint about UK cricket…..out of a population of over 60 million. With that kind of strategy the outcome was obviously pre-ordained and, happily for all concerned, also justified the existence of the committee.

        And some people who are in a position to know better, and yes, I do mean you Mr Brown, are taking the results as gospel. In fact, as gospel as poor Mr Rafiq was taken by the gormless dupes at the ECB.

        And all because we can no longer say that the emperor is naked for fear of being cast into the fiery furnace of political correctness.

        What a truly wretched society we have become.

        Ryan Brighton
        Laughable.

        The one proven, undeniable evidence of racism they managed to find was an Asian using antisemitic jibes.

        As for it being elitist, football is a working-class sport, I don’t hear the middle class complaining there aren’t enough Pimms stalls at stadiums, and nobody in the Premier League is called Oliver and there’s only one Joshua.

        And I not give a rabbit’s anus about the death in the United States of a repeat felon at the hands of a police officer, nor do I see why it is of any relevance to the UK or cricket.

        Alan Richards
        Any sport with a history of 200+ years is going to reflect the social history of its country and that clearly comes out in the report. What I don’t like is the deliberate playing down of occasions in the past when cricket rose above the prejudices of the day. For example:
        • the success in the England national team of Duleep, Ranji and the Nawab of Pataudi dismissed because they were wealthy Indians and went to elite universities
        • the support of Basil D’Oliveira by the British authorities including John Arlott dismissed because he was cape coloured and not black
        • the fact that Gatting and others on the rebel tour of SA were actually banned by the TCCB and only later reinstated because of legal threats
        • no mention of Roland Butcher playing for England in 1980 even though George Floyd gets 4 mentions in the report
        • Devon Malcolm’s 40 caps dismissed because of reports of his erratic bowling (Mitchell Johnson of Australia had that reputation too)

        Jimmy Bizzo
        If you want to experience real racism in cricket, not the type of confections presented in this report, try the going to
        a cricket league match in Leicester. Listen to the way teams composed exclusively of players with an Indian Muslim heritage talk about those with an Indian Hindu heritage, and vice versa. If an aboriginal British person were to speak that way, they would find themselves in jail on charges of aggravated racial assault.

        So yes, there is racism in cricket. This report, however, has looked for it in the wrong places.

        Marcus Chisholm
        I’m looking forward to seeing the conclusions of the report into the lack of whites in NBA and sprinting.

        What utter drivel, professional axe grinders looking for racism, find cricket racist. Shock horror. I hope the volunteers, the suits, the players etc all tell them to stick this report where the sun doesn’t shine.

        Peter Bailey
        The neglect of cricket in state schools is behind most of these disparities. You can play recreational cricket for fun without being much good, but to play at a professional level you need sound technical coaching. The solution is obvious and has nothing to do with prejudice – improve the coaching available at state schools.

        It appears that those who wrote this report have little familiarity with cricket.

        H Gardiner
        Not enough credit is given to the private school system for the time and effort governing cricket. The state schools are frequently inept because teachers don’t want to teach the sport; it being too time consuming and requiring effort regarding the playing area.

        Big Al
        Intrigued my comment about using Floyd and private schools as a ‘crutch to criticise’ was deleted…

        David Boyd
        The report IS a continuation of the woke rampage through our institutions. Anyone who knows anything about cricket knows that we have admired India, Pakistan and the West Indies for their cricketing prowess for decades.

        More arrant nonsense from Brown. Give us all a break.

        Mike Meyer
        At the root of this ‘discrimination’ is that cricket is no longer played in state schools, for a variety of reasons. That of course explains why most England cricketers come from private schools and why black and Asians are underrepresented as are working class white children.

        Of course, women have been paid less but are now picking up as their game grows, but to demand equal pay now is absurd. As their game continues to grow and they can regularly fill major test grounds then of course equal pay is warranted. However right now I doubt I would pay £165 to watch a day of women’s cricket.

        Ms Butts has her agenda and was employed to come to a particular conclusion. That it is already being picked apart says a great deal.

        1. I don’t think he’d like it if blacks were treated like white people – blamed for everything, their culture wrecked, having to foot the bill for it all …

        2. Sorry, William, I’m not going to get involved in cricket versus the rest.

          If you want to play, then play according to the current rules.

          1. I don’t know what you mean by this. You write as though I’ve picked a fight with you.

      2. It makes you wonder if they have some sort of brainwashing indoctrination. They really are unhinged to so desperately grasp such bonkers attitudes.

    2. Johnathan Liew was appalling when he was at the DT, as well! A really uninspiring and miserable writer.

    3. Play up! Play up! And play the game!

      There’s a breathless hush in the close to-night
      Ten to make and the match to win
      A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
      An hour to play, and the last man in.
      And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat.
      Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,
      But his captain’s hand on his shoulder smote
      “Play up! Play up! And play the game!”

      The sand of the desert is sodden red-
      Red with the wreck of the square that broke
      The gatling’s jammed and the colonel dead,
      And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
      The river of death has brimmed its banks,
      And England’s far and Honor a name,
      But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks-
      “Play up! Play up! And play the game!”

      This is the word that year by year,
      While in her place the school is set,
      Every one of her sons must hear,
      And none that hears it dare forget.
      This they all with joyful mind
      And bear through life Eke a torch in flame,
      falling fling to the host behind-
      “Play up! Play up! And play the game!”

  61. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story – a trifle late, my apologies, sleeping.
    Making Up

    A lady is walking down the street to work and sees a parrot in a pet store. She stops to admire the bird. The parrot says to her, “Hey lady, you’re real fuckin’ ugly!”

    The lady is furious! She storms past the store to her work. On the way home she sees the same parrot in the window and upon seeing her it says, “Hey lady, you’re real fuckin’ ugly!”

    So now she’s incredibly ticked. The next day on the way to work she sees the same parrot and once again it says, “Hey lady, you’re real fuckin’ ugly!”

    The lady is so furious that she storms into the store and threatens to sue the store and have the bird killed. The store manager apologises profusely and promises the bird won’t say it again.

    So, the next day, when the lady walks past the store after work, the parrot says, “Hey lady.”

    She pauses, scowls with an icy stare, and says in her coldest voice, “Yes?”

    The bird struts back and forth on its perch in a cocky manner, then shrugs at her and says, “You know…”

    1. I don’t think it’s Right. I think it’s normal. The state has forced so much Left wing pap on people that the inevitable backlash back to normality was inevitable.

      1. I agree with you. I don’t like the terminology of the MSM, it’s dishonest.

    2. That Annie Elizabeth Moot A (?) who answers the journalist in the video is a stunningly good and clear speaker.

  65. Afternoon, all. Had a busy day so far; physio appointment, country house sale viewing and a quick coffee with a friend who lived nearby. Now have some hemerocallis to plant! Also have a car pass to print out as I’m off to an RAFBF meeting and then operating at RAFARS HQ on Thursday. It’s all go!

    1. Hello Conway – are you thinking of moving – the country house sale viewing – or were you looking at country house artifacts for sale? A busy day indeed, did Oscar and Kadi oblige with your schedule?

      1. No, the house has already been sold (needs a fortune spent on it, frankly!), but I was interested to see if there was anything nice in the sale that might fit in my more humble dwelling. Sadly, the furniture was far too big.

  66. Seems a new crescendo in the hysterical bollocks written about Russia and Putin. Wonder what’s about to happen / needs concealed from the public?

    1. I came across this comment on Breitbart “The sheer panic in Washington etc is palpable as their final attempt to destroy Russia has failed and is about to expose them and all of what they have been doing.” I neither agree nor disagree with it, I just found it interesting.

    3. It’s difficult to understand what our media are actually trying to say regarding Russia. None of it seems to make any sense. It never has as far as I’m concerned.
      The only person who has ever made any sense of the Russia, Ukraine situation was General Richard Dannatt. When it all kick off he mentioned NATO and borders.
      His opinion was shelved soon after.
      Perhaps he knew too much.

  67. Par Four today.

    Wordle 738 4/6
    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
    🟩⬜🟨⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Three for me. If I’d been more on the ball, it should have been a two. Right letters, wrong order…

      Wordle 738 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟨🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Birdie putt here

      Wordle 738 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. A birdie here today.

      Wordle 738 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I’d make the whip in his left hand a stick of dynamite and the trailing lash a lit fuse.

      I cannot wait to see it all blow up in his put-on sanctimonious face.

      3. Not the slightest remorse for being the architect of the greatest cock-up in medical history, in the last 1,000 years.

    4. Covid Inquiry = a v. expensive brand of whitewash.
      In case you hadn’t realised, I’ve no faith in it whatsoever.

      1. Hancock’s half hour (hopefully a lot more under questioning) should show just what a waste of space he was.
        My hope is that the public will make their judgements long before the report itself is published, thus stopping the whitewash element.

      2. Have any of us any faith in the outcome?

        I’d still like to see it blow up in his sanctimonious face.

  69. Got home about 3 and the CT scan was a bit daunting but not as bad as the MRI. My husband was going to come with me but got sick about an hour before I was leaving so I told him to stay home.
    When the nurses were looking for an arm to put the cannula in they noticed I still have the bruise on my left arm from the blood test, checked my right arm and said I had a bruise on my arm. No, I said, that’s not a bruise, those red marks have been coming up since I had the 2nd AZ jab. As usual, total silence; they will not address it at all.
    Husband better when I got home and he was very sorry he’d not come with me- it was OK. He spent the time tending our herbs and chillis and had an interesting chat with our neighbour who is in big trouble with his wife for spilling paint on the bedroom carpet. I thought I heard raised voices as I came to our door and passed their door;-)
    Won’t be up late as I slept poorly and have been up since 5.30. Having time off the prescribed pills as they have given me one hell of a stomach upset. Will take store bought paracetamol for a day or so.
    Hope you are all doing OK.

    1. More to the point, Ann we all hope and wish you are the one ‘doing OK’. Love and hugs.

      1. I guess I’ll find out the gruesome details when I see the oncologist.
        More worried about the guy next door- he’s got to and buy a new carpet!

        1. Tough titty on him, Ann, you concentrate on just getting better – and prettier.

        2. He should tell his wife it’s a Jackson Pollock reproduction, otherwise he’ll be on the carpet for the rest of his days.
          Had a few for you and hubby last night.

    2. My experience too, Ann. MRI is utter hell, CT is an inconvenience.
      Get an early night – 05:30 is too early for anybody.

      1. I was at the forefront of producing a viable CT scanner in 1976 by EMI.

        Very interesting, especially when they departed from just the brain-scanner, to the whole body-scanner.

        That was really a big WOW!!

        All the work of Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI but then nicked by the USA – as usual.

          1. Thank you, Paul, I was just a production planner in those days.

            Good and min-taxing fun, though.

    3. Far more important is what is happening to you.
      Hope you have a better night’s sleep.

      1. Me too! Trouble is, I am a right side sleeper but I can’t sleep on that side now. Am so knackered that I hope I will win the snoring contest.

          1. When I see His Highness the Oncologist next week. Unless I am at death’s door, then they might bring it forward.

        2. Just a thought:
          Have you considered an inflatable fight pillow or similar “empty centre” support, which might allow you to sleep on your side with the “hole” allowing the sore bits to be kept off the bed while the rest of your head and neck is supported?

          1. It’s a thought but we are sort of coping. So many appointments between us and a guy coming tomorrow to put hand rails by the front door and one in the bathroom. The my husband has an appointment Thurs and we both have appointments next week.
            Really quite tiring.

          2. #MeToo, Ann I was so surprised when the Surgery called me to say that the Doctor wished to see me.

            What about, they declined to say but I have an idea, and will go fully armed with the necessary paperwork.

          3. Anything that makes your lives easier/more comfortable should be investigated.

    4. Funny how they clamp up when you suggest your problems or its off spiring, is probably covid related.
      I hope you have a decent rest. It’s so harrowing next day when you can’t sleep.

  70. Are we seeing the end of electric vehicles in the race to reach net zero?

    California is an example of the advanced rate of rollout of EVs to replace the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) but the drawbacks of using battery powered traction is becoming all too evident despite advances in battery technology and charging ability:

    https://youtu.be/o0BJor9Yeh0

    Ford has decided not to challenge the multiplicity of EV motor manufacturers by announcing its commitment to developing a range of hydrogen powered Fuel Cell Vehicles, FCVs, There are challenges to overcome but the rewards lie in the creation of vehicles with the usability, power and range with zero emissions that are unobtainable with either ICE vehicles or EVs:

    https://youtu.be/F4lYIFmmLZc

    1. Net-Zero will go down in history as one of the great scams laid down on the world.

      Akin to to the South-sea bubble.

    3. Since one doesn’t mine hydrogen, it must be produced from something else. Electrolysing seawater and reforming hydrocarbons being the two main solutions.
      The first requires electricity, the second a refinery. How green.
      Hydrogen is only a means of transporting energy, it’s not a source of the stuff itself.

      1. There seems to be no other solution than to keep mining coal and drilling for oil and gas.

      1. EVs are inherently HEAVY.

        Ergo, they produce much more carbon granules by b*ggering the tarmac.

        Despite lower carbon emissions, EVs will produce much higher particulate poisons.

        That will ensure their downfall and early demise.

        You heard it from me …

        1. I think, lacoste that we are all aware that EVs are just a waste of space and, like net-zero, unsustainable.

        2. If there’s no oil production, there will be no refining, and therefore no bitumen with which to make tarmac to fix old roads and create new ones. Will the future be cart tracks, or concrete surface roads (Loads of luvverly CO2 in concrete production…)
          You read it here first, folks.

          1. Reprocessed plastic and tyre waste to repair the roads, which a few years down the line will be blamed for pollution both ground and air.

          2. Since nobody seems to be able to decide what plastic should be in the rubbish and what in the recycling sack, don’t hold out much hope for that option.

          3. Agreed, for me, Paul, if it’s vaguely plastic it goes in the re-cycling.

            If councils are too penurious or stupid, to ensure that re-cycling plants can handle ALL plastics, that’s their problem, not mine.

          5. Interesting to drive, from what I’ve seen.
            I prefer floatplanes. Much more fun!

          6. Probably beats the hell out of a narrow-boat and I’m sure a hovercraft could sustain an itinerant life.

          8. Narrowboats can be pulled slowly by a friendly horse that is fuelled from towpath grass… not sure about a horrorcraft…

      2. Unfortunately the UK Government has aided and abetted a global race to end the production of the internal combustion engine in the cause of reducing harmful emissions and this has now become irreversible.
        EVs, despite advances in battery charging and technology are proving to be an impractical replacement for ICE cars that have had decades of development for transportation with very efficient and transportable fossil fuels.

        I have no problem in owning an EV because I’m using it purely as a home chargeable mobility scooter with the added advantage of 0-60 mph acceleration of 6 seconds with a heated steering wheel and seats, climate control and a head-up driver’s cluster display. In addition I have an emergency 64kW power supply in the garage.

        1. “ a heated steering wheel and seats, climate control and a head-up driver’s cluster display. ”

          At least with that we won’t have to follow ‘net zero’ to the gates of Hell.

          1. I experienced two adverse events in my previous internal combustion cars:

            1. I got so hot in dense traffic and heatwave that I almost passed out and couldn’t escape,
            2. I got so cold in a car park that my fingers went numb and I couldn’t feel them.

            I decided to buy an EV which would be capable of maintaining its environment so that I would never have to experience those states again with the need to run the engine.

          2. Air conditioning on or having the heater on drains your battery and reduces your available mileage

          3. It’s a drain on energy use whatever thr fuel you use.
            However with an EV you don’t have to run the engine to remain comfortable.

    1. Agreed, it is just pure evil, you are what you are.

      Accept it and get on with the best life you may make.

    2. “Sir, just to let you know that I’ll be a trans-truant for the next month or so.”

    6. This all started off back in the 1970s we had a teacher that wanted boys to play netball

  75. 373872+ upo ticks,

    If this is half as bad as the westminster political cartel then it is serious.

    We have had a string of capo di tutti capi political overseers that can bear witness to that.

    Dt,

    Putin’s mafia thugs have fatally weakened their Godfather
    The Russian President must face a hard truth: being the Capo di Tutti Capi can quickly become a dangerous position

  77. Just had a glass of Icelandic rhubarb gin.
    Lovely, from the fridge. So smooth, slightly sweet, and pinkish. Would be better with a block of ice in the current post-deluge sweatiness.

    1. When I came in I poured a large chilled Pinot- didn’t care what the time was!

        1. Said Hamlet to Ophelia
          I’ll pen a line for thee.
          What kind of pencil shall I use?
          2B or not 2B.

          3. My favourite one: “It’s a booby trap, Sir!”
            He also gave me permission by personal letter to use his little poem “Bump” as the intro to my Ph.D thesis.
            He didn’t ask for a copy…

          6. Talking of pencils. Here’s an extract from my journal…

            “On the second day of my planned 600mile round trip from the River Wey in Surrey to Chester in Cheshire I arrived at Maidenhead and moored downstream from the massive railway bridge crossing the River Thames. The overcast start to the day had finally given way to a sunny late afternoon and evening. Having seen a programme on television earlier in the month about the Royal Academy and the rituals of inducting artists chosen by fellow academicians I had decided that I really ought to join their ranks. The question remained how and where to start my artistic endeavours. Picasso had already cornered the market in cubism, which as far as I knew, was merely balls to Picasso. I didn’t see the point of revisiting pointillism. The pointillists had already made their point. Every household in the country had at one time or another emulated Emin’s un-made bed. Banksey had cornered up-market graffiti on virtually every street corner in the land.
            Undeterred, a couple of weeks earlier I had visited my local art shop. They had just what I was looking for a 36-piece sketching kit complete with pencil sharpener and two erasers! I hadn’t seen such an abundance of pencils since primary school and even then I hadn’t been trusted with anything sharper than a HB pencil. But here in the box was a phalanx of pencils including a deadly 6H – I knew that with these imposing rods of graphite I would be up for nomination in no time. But the best bit of all was the price – a real bargain at a penny under thirteen quid. It seemed a very reasonable price to pay for my prospective elevation to the Royal Academy.
            I knew that lying under a table back home was a proper sketchpad. Pad and pencils had made their way to the boat. Inspired by the quality of my kit and the stupendous view of the railway bridge spanning the Thames flanked by trees, and through its centre arch, the magnificent stone road bridge in the distance. The view was perfect. I was inspired. I knew I couldn’t go wrong.
            How wrong can one be? I think I once read that Michelangelo could draw a perfectly straight line freehand, or was it a perfect circle? I found out that it is very difficult drawing a straight line even with a ruler. Drawing the graceful curves of the bridges’ arches freehand was even more of a nightmare. The erasers are already wearing a bit thin. This was going to be more difficult than I first thought. You should try drawing a million bricks. Even using a very fine pencil the process becomes tiresome after a couple of minutes. I resorted to the bar of graphite. If Grayson Perry can be outrageous then damn it so can I.
            I persevered for an hour more when out of the blue a Dutch barge arrived and moored directly in front of me completely blocking my view. That put the kybosh on my first foray into becoming an acclaimed artist. Still most of my pencils were still intact and I hadn’t yet worn out my erasers completely. I made up my mind to find another suitable subject only next time it wouldn’t involve drawing bricks. In any case a pile of bricks had already been exhibited at the Tate.

          7. My experience with trying to do Art.
            Also, in watercolour. I love watercolour, but can no more create it than flap my arms and fly to Spain.
            🙁

      2. Medics generate enough stress to cause an earthquake.
        Enjoy, Ann, look you!

      1. Too nice for that.
        Neat is good – when I get some tonic, I’ll try it with a mixer, but I suspect that neat & cold is best.

  78. Well, following the illnesses and demise of my mother and brother in law, our plan to move to within an hour and a half of nearest family (instead of three hours) is at last coming to fruition with the sale of our abode. Going to have to emulate anneallan with temporary accommodation as moving from England to Scotland.

    1. I’m sorry about the loss of your family. That’s tough, nobody looks forward to that.
      Hope the move goes well, Eric.
      Where are you looking to move to?

      1. Avoid Dumfries & Galloway – too bloody socialist with more than a hint of SNP.

          2. Difficult moving to an alien culture in one’s mature years, Tom.
            Typewriter friends are good, but don’t cut it for a proper social event.
            Maybe we should have a NTTL Roadshow, where we travel and visit each other in numbers? (I’m desperate for some of Grizz’ pies…)

          3. I agree. I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with D&G, though there isn’t much in Moffat. If you can’t settle somewhere it is all the more difficult and makes the yearning for somewhere familiar all the more greater.

          4. Nearly moved to Dunfirmline back in the 80s, then moved to Aberdeen & Moray coast in the 90’s. Been in Norway since 1998 now. Stopped moving…

          8. Not much more there than in Moffat, but if you are into coastal walks, it’s that bit closer.

          9. Annan Town centre has more to offer in terms of ‘walk to’ as I’m severely limited in distance walking.

            If I need the simplest things in Moffat, I have to take the car.

            Similarly for the surgery. There is nothing within my restricted walking distance.

          10. A friend of mine moved from Lechlade to Girvan 18 months ago and seems very happy there. She came back for a vist earlier this month and then a family get-together in London, and back to Scotland on the train.

          11. All very fine and nice if you believe Scotland is where you should be.

            I don’t.

      2. Well, in spite of what Tom says, we are looking at Dumfries and Galloway. They do have a Conservative MP and I have many friends there already of various political persuasions. Like Conway, we frequent places where topics of religion and politics are verboten. We would be halfway between what’s left of my family further north and wife’s family in Cumbria.

          2. Well, add another one, Eric. Tell me when you’ll be in the Star or Buccleuch, and I’ll meet you there.

          3. We probably won’t get into temporary accomodation till September or October, but will make a point of contacting you after that, if you haven’t managed a move back to Norfolk.

    2. Good luck, lot’s of hard work ahead.

      I’m not looking forward to when it’s our turn.

        1. Chateau sosraboc and its grounds will be too big for us to manage and we don’t have the income to be able to hire people to do it for us.
          Will we stay in France? Good question, but having lived in Heaven on earth, a return to the UK is likely to be the route we’ll take, just for the ability to do the bureaucracy in English rather than French.
          I can probably cope here on my own, HG probably couldn’t.

          1. We can’t see ourselves returning to the UK, it’s too alien there now. Apart from pubs and pies, and the instinctive ability to be ironic, nothing there for us.

          3. If it was just me, I would stay, either that or head for Oz under the family exemption for oldies on their own. The attraction of Oz being to be near to family and that there is no inheritance tax.
            I fail to see why the tax man should get a bigger share than any of my grandchildren.

          4. Tried, Oz, Sos, with daughter in Tasmania, but medicare fell far short. Fled back to England and the awful NHS but at least I knew how to complain here.

          5. Two sons, all our grandchildren and with sufficient capital and income, if I was on my own, would make it viable.
            It’s odd, if I was an international sportsman I would be accepted instantly as my grandfather was Australian, but now that no longer qualifies me on its own.
            I’ve been there many times and love the place.
            It helps that I am disgustingly healthy, notwithstanding my sybaritic lifestyle on the food and drink front.

          6. We have nothing to return to the UK for now, our children and grandchildren are here. After being here since 1979, I do not recognize anything there any more.

          8. It’s actually quite disturbing when one goes back. Most discombobulating.

          9. The last time we were there was 2010, but it was a brief visit to see relatives in Southampton, on our way to visit wineries in France. These days, I can’t face the travel involved, I look on google maps and I do not recognize anywhere so will keep my memories of how it was.

          10. It’s weird, going back and realising that not only do you not fit or belong, but it might as well be Ecuador for all the connection one has (Other places, such as Ulan Bataar, are available).

          13. Stunning is not quite the word I would choose to describe the way it has been wrecked!

          14. We’re looking to build a log cabin at Firstborn’s farm with the thought of retiring to when SWMBO is retired and knackered and I’m dead. Hand.built, with design cues from the old farm buildings from 1600 – 1700, so well in keeping. Some reorganisation of the interior required, but coming along nicely – we plan a visit to a work-in-progress to check on the quality of construction.

          17. Good luck with that, troop. Sounds like a major project. Just KBO, then, Paul.

      2. Cleared Mother’s house last July.
        It was awful. All her memories, and mine, thrown in a skip. A few items kept.

          1. Mother’s place needed a lot of work. We sold by auction, went swimmingly. Thank God, but into each miserable life some good luck must intrude…

          7. It was savage. Wish we’d gone to the pub (The Star, in Dinas Powys) for a pint or several whilst they did it. Felt like being there when the vet euthanises your favourite pet. It was awful.

        2. So much of our “stuff” is far, far too big for modern houses.
          The children don’t want it so it will be sold.

          1. That’s what we did.
            Several rounds: First, antique types to buy small portable stuff and offer on furniture. Next, car scrapper to take the car, and several lawnmowers. Next, sorting papers and photos etc, and we took most books and small furniture to charity shops. Next, removals of remaining bits to Norway. Finally, house clearance who kept some bits and trashed the rest.
            The smashing of Mother’s treasured crockery in the kitchen will haunt me for a long time… hoped they’d find an outlet for it, but no.

          2. We’re now into double figures of auction sales, and if you didn’t know, you would think nothing had changed.

    3. We took the easy way out when we had to clear out my mother’s place.

      We all took a small momento but then a local charity shop cleared the place while we were at the funeral. We went to the funeral from a fully furnished, lived in flat and went back to empty walls.

      It was odd to go up to the high street in the afternoon and see some of her furniture taking pride of place in the shop window. Thanks to my mother’s hording instincts, the charity shop had more M&S cardigans than the M&S shop.

  79. ‘Admiral’ Rachel Levine, The Biden administration’s transgender Assistant Secretary for Health, has declared that “gender-affirming care” (blocking puberty, removing genitals, or adding fake genitals) is necessary to keep people, including children, mentally healthy and to stop them from killing themselves.

    Yes, really.

    “It’s such an important issue for our youth and adults,” Levine stated in the video produced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, adding “We often say that gender-affirming care is health care—gender-affirming care is mental health care—and gender-affirming care is literally suicide-prevention care.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a91f986395837b42b1e37a79b26712cec22f23d0dd86c08c5a6c62778afb936.png

      1. And Lady Caroline Lamb, thought Lord Byron was: “Mad, bad and dangerous…..”

    3. I’ve seen memes and suchlike but I wasn’t even sure it really existed, but…
      From Wiki;

      Admiral’ Rachel Levine

      “Early life and education
      Born on October 28, 1957, Levine is originally from Wokefield, Massachusetts. Her parents, Melvin and George Levine, were both lawyers. Her sister, Bill Levine, is four years older. Levine is TransJewish and grew up attending Hebrew school. Levine earned a high school diploma from Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Massachusetts.

      Levine graduated from Harvard College and the Tulane University School of Medicine, completing a residency in pediatrics and a postdoctoral fellowship in adolescent medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, New York.”

      My bold changes and/or additions.

      1. So, “ Levine is TransJewish” how long before we see it in full letter-box dress and which number wife will it become?

    4. When being a cock in frock accelerates your career in the way that it has his, is it any wonder he pretends to be a woman?

      1. It’s people like him pushing this toxic nonsense at children.

        who should be strung up with piano wire.
        There, fixed it.
        No charge.

    10. That thinks it’s a woman? Beggars belief that HE can be in such a high-up position.

    11. That thinks it’s a woman? Beggars belief that HE can be in such a high-up position.

    1. Of course it has. According to Pravda or whoever writes the news in Russia these days.

      1. If you like to believe the US/EU/WEF/UN/WHO propaganda.

        Personally, I’ll go with Vlad

          2. It was 60% before the proxy war soaring to 80% after the confrontation and promise to rid Ukraine of Azov Nazis. The Azovs had been persecuting Russian speakers for a decade and more.

            I can quite believe that 90% of Russians support Putin, they are at war and remain the most patriotic of nations. Putin is strengthened by the Prigozhin affair, not weakened by it as some in the collective west had hoped.

  81. I understand that Uncle Vladimir is a little bit stirred – but not shaken . . .

    2. I watched his body double trotting down the red carpet and wondered if Joe’s would do it as well as Vlad’s

    3. If you’re blue, and you don’t know where to go to
      Why don’t you go where fashion sits?
      Putin’ s in the Ritz!
      Different types who wear a day coat
      Pants with stripes and cutaway coat, perfect fits
      Putin’s in the Ritz!
      Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper
      Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
      Come, let’s mix where Rockefellers
      Walk with poison umbrellas in their mitts
      Putin’s in the Ritz!

      1. That was excellent, I tried singing it against the background music and there were a couple of stumbles, but probably my fault rather than the scan.

      2. Very good, Stephen.

        Now, if you could put that into a pencil drawing, I’m sure you’d be an RA in 2 minutes.

        1. No. I think it’s some form of word synesthesia. lacoste’s posting of Vlad : “not shaken but stirred’ – suggested a Dinner Jacket & Bow tie a la Bond at the Ritz. From there but a hop to Putin on the Ritz….and from there tweaking a few lyrics…

          One of my favourite examples is:

          “Don’t Cry For GB Angela” …..(Merkel)

          It won’t be easy, you’ll think it strange
          When I try to explain how we feel
          That we don’t need the EU after all that you’ve done

          You won’t believe the signs
          All you will see is the UK you once knew
          Although debt distressed up to the nines
          At sixes and sevens with EU

          Brexit had to happen, we had to change
          Can’t live our lives under the EU heel
          Looking out of the window, staying out of the sun

          So we choose freedom
          Running around, trying everything new
          Not that that impresses you at all
          We never expected it to

          [Chorus:]

          Don’t cry for GB Angela
          The truth is we never liked t’EU
          Even through the Blair days
          And Brown existence
          (keeping the Sterling promise)
          We kept our distance

          And as for fortune, and as for fame
          We shall invite them in
          (Though the Remainers think they will be denied)

          The EU’s an illusion
          Its not the solution they promised it to be
          The answer was here all the time
          We leave EU and it frees GB

          Don’t cry for GB Angela

          [chorus]

          Have I said too much?
          There’s nothing more I can think of to say to EU.
          But all you have to do is look at GB to know
          That every word is true

          3. Brilliant!! Now I have another ear worm! I wish I could sing, that has always been one of my favourites, Julie Covington I think had the big hit.

    1. Perhaps adults should pretend to be children and stroke these lovely doggies with tazers and cattle prods?

    2. I’d like to remind June Slater that that child’s parent(s) facilitated/allowed this encounter.

    4. Considering paedophila is a crime in the UK these people should be arrested and charged.

      3. As the parade and chant took place in New York City, UK law doesn’t apply. Even if it did, words do not in themselves constitute a sex crime.

  84. Sorry, Gentlefolk but time catches up, I can only wish you all Goodnight and God bless with no promises to be up early enough for the daily story, but I’ll try.

      1. This, I know from nothing and living and visiting in the USA from N Carolina to Florida, Arizona and the awful California. I hate the place as it iis today.

  85. Here’s one for y’all: How would you define a friend?
    My proposal is “Someone who makes an effort to socialise with you.”
    Thoughts?

    2. I have friends whom i see and have contact with very infrequently; but when we meet up, it’s like we’ve never been apart. In fact, I’ve spent the last 15 minutes plotting a small party with two sets of friends who don’t know each other but will get on lime a house on fire. Neither of whom hubby and I have seen as a couple for a long time (i have seen the girls individually of course).

      I am looking forward to it. Let’s hope we can get a date!

      1. Had a set of friends like that. Sent Christmas cards for decades (they live in Germany, us in Norway), they visited us as did we them. Suddenly, nowt. Silence. No Christmas cards, no return on emails, sms, whatever.
        And this year, the same with two good friends in Norway who have disappeared, and don’t respond to any kind of messages.
        I always found it hard to make friends, so the loss of two in a year is, like, 30% drop. That’s really upsetting, and I mean, seriously, the rejection really hurts.

      3. I thought you were a geezer. I can now see the benefit of posting preferred pronouns on one’s profile.

    6. Probably a typical introvert’s definition? Extraverts seem to have no difficulty socialising!

  86. Going to bed soon- we both are. Hand rail man tomorrow so another disturbed day.
    Thanks again for your kind comments and I wish you all well.
    Take care Y’all.

    4. It’s non-stop for you at the moment. No rest nor peace of mind for the soul. I hope you have a peaceful night’s sleep.

  89. Good night, chums. Today has been a day of computer problems, so I may not make an appearance tomorrow as I plan a visit to the computer shop to see if they can help me sort things out. Sleep well and enjoy Wednesday.

    1. Thank you, Geoff. These light early mornings. play pop with the sleeping habits.

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