Wednesday 12 July: Travellers of all ages will lose out if rail ticket offices are allowed to close

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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681 thoughts on “Wednesday 12 July: Travellers of all ages will lose out if rail ticket offices are allowed to close”

    1. Morning, Sue. Morning, all Y’all.
      Rained heavily all night, place is well soggy now. Smart cats stayed in.

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Another Shaggy Dog Story

    A guy walks in on three of his friends, and much to his surprise, he sees that they are playing poker with an Alsatian!

    “Holy shit!” the guy says. “A dog playing poker! Wow!”

    So one of his friends turns around and whispers, “It’s not all that impressive, really. Every time he gets a good hand he wags his tail!”

    1. Morning Oberst. No comments allowed. I’ve also noticed an increased sensitivity to criticism by the Trolls on the Spectator threads.

      1. If you followed my link, that might well be because of the 12 foot ladder. It switches to the US version of the DT, and disables comments.
        The trick to reading UK content is to go to the paywalled article, copy the link, paste into 12footladder, and read, then repeat as necessary.

        1. Indeed that is so Oberst. Though I’m pleased to say the sceptics are top of the favourites column!

    3. Going back in time I suspect this is what the Sir/Lord ex-army General Richard Dannatt, was trying to explain to the bbc before all this kicked off. If I remember correctly he nailed it and the bbc didn’t like what he said. And they’ve not bothered to interview him since.
      Something to do with pre-existing border disputes and NATO membership.

      1. Indeed. I didn’t remember that, but I’m sure that pre-existing conflict prevent a country joining NATO.
        If I were Sweden, I’d have stayed out. Russia isn’t that much of a threat.
        Interesting how that a small war has entirely depleted the US ammunition stocks, to the delight of Iran, China and others. Saw a video on YT yesterday that said that the US were begging retirees to come back to work and start building Stingers again, as they were superb against modern Russian planes and helicopters, but couldn’t be made using modern additive manufacturing, and didn’t contain complex modern electronics, so had to be hand-made by old guys who knew how.
        I wonder how many Stingers were abandoned in Afghanistan?

        1. Ironic that one of the effects of the American bombing campaign during the Viet Nam War was for the Warsaw Pact nations to practically denude its self of anti-aircraft missiles and a similar thing has now happened in the Ukraine, only in reverse.

          1. Most stockpiles and production are sized for a quick, limited campaign.
            Just look at what would happen if a sea war were started. Sink a few ships, and the opposition are crippled, they don’t have the capacity (from steelmaking, through machinery and shipyards) to make anything like the replacements. How long did the last 2 UK carriers take between order placement and delivery (never mind fully functioning)? A decade or more? War’s over by then, we lost. By 1944, the average time to build a ship was 42 days, as a result of streamlining and simplifying production – 2,751 Liberties were built between 1941 and 1945, that’s an average of 1,5 PER DAY for 5 years!
            That’s what you need to fight a big war, not an old army camp with a few hundred 120mm shells and fuzes in it.

          2. Most stockpiles and production are sized for a quick, limited campaign.
            Just look at what would happen if a sea war were started. Sink a few ships, and the opposition are crippled, they don’t have the capacity (from steelmaking, through machinery and shipyards) to make anything like the replacements. How long did the last 2 UK carriers take between order placement and delivery (never mind fully functioning)? A decade or more? War’s over by then, we lost. By 1944, the average time to build a ship was 42 days, as a result of streamlining and simplifying production – 2,751 Liberties were built between 1941 and 1945, that’s an average of 1,5 PER DAY for 5 years!
            That’s what you need to fight a big war, not an old army camp with a few hundred 120mm shells and fuzes in it.

  5. It is I, Le Clerc. up to see husband off to the hospital and then hoping for more slumber.

      1. At least he will get some relief- unlike I. Called the hospital twice yesterday and no response. Sod the NHS.

        1. Morning, Lottie.
          I’m trying to think this one through and come up with ways of working round the system, without the words “grannie” and “suck eggs” coming to mind.
          What bit of the hospital are you trying to contact?

          1. Just had a missed call- called back and it was a generic number which didn’t know which dept. was calling me. I went back to bed and slept until eleven. I’ve called again, now I am fairly awake, and there is no chance of an appt tomorrow as they only hold their sodding clinics Tues and Fri. She’s going to see if she organise a later time for me as I am not good in the mornings these days. It’s a bloody farce. They truly do not care.

  6. Cyprus becomes ‘island of dead cats’ after outbreak of feline coronavirus kills 300,000. 12 July 2023.

    A feline coronavirus risks turning Cyprus into an “island of dead cats”, experts have warned after as many as 300,000 were killed in an outbreak.

    Both stray and domestic cats have been killed by feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a coronavirus strain, since January. Experts have warned that “many cats” could die if the virus circulating in Cyprus makes its way to Britain.

    Watch out Feline Nottlers!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/cyprus-dead-cat-island-feline-coronavirus-outbreak/

    1. Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a viral disease caused by a feline coronavirus that affects wild and domestic cats.
      This type of coronavirus is different from the coronavirus that causes
      COVID-19 in people. Feline coronavirus is very common and usually
      doesn’t cause any serious issues, aside from mild diarrhea.

    3. Oh dear the loca rats will have a field day.
      My lasting memory of our trip to Cyprus was noisy Russians terrible wine, and huge rats climbing up the corner of the building we were staying in.

  7. 374378+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    These WEF / NWO, with royal seal wallahs, have the majority voter jumping through hoops with their organised chaos campaign.

    Until it is acknowledged that the current political fraternity are
    anti indigenous peoples as in 650+ & followers agin peoples of patriotic decency, and democracy this shite will continue unabated.

    Wednesday 12 July: Travellers of all ages will lose out if rail ticket offices are allowed to close

    🎵

    Trains & boats & planes, for you, NO MORE

    🎵

    1. 374378+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      What a perfect setup for terrorism as in, a base camp.

      Allowed to leave for certain periods of time
      create a terrorist act then back to camp ,feet up, for a bit of R/R.

      What do the majority voters think, will it be the usual, more of the same ?

      1. It does not matter what the majority of voters think – they can get stuffed.

        2. 374378+ up ticks,

          Morning R,
          I do agree BUT, they are the power brokers when it comes to a ruling party.

          I ask you where would we be as a nation without the current lab/lib/con input ?

          1. You have an alternative that isn’t just a garden party?
            I voted with my feet, and left entirely.

      2. Voters? Little people? Apart from screwing them for every new tax we can think of, why on earth should we bother about them?

    2. Can we all access those benefits? Or only criminals who enter the UK illegally?

  10. Travellers of all ages will lose out if rail ticket offices are allowed to close

    Haven’t been on a train for years but have a little oyster card so have never used a ticket office.

        1. Please show us a picture of your boat?

          This is out first summer without a boat for many years which is sad.

          I had a Hurley 22 (Inca), followed by a Pioneer 10 (Raua) and finally a Dufour Classic 41 (Mianda).

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61175087b5cf6423485279cedeb53c6858763833481d1658403f86cc7ea269ce.jpg

          This is Inca in whom I sailed all around the South Coast of England, the Normandy Coast and the Channel Islands.

          Raua took me across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and Mianda took me, Caroline, Christo and Henry from the Baltic and all around the Med.

          1. Thanks for your interest Richard, I have responded to this request from you a couple of times in the past, but they have disappeared into the ether? (New technology baffles this old duffer Eh?)

            Hopefully, this time I have better luck?

            The good ship Bimbling is/was a Barens Sea Trader 44 cutter rigged ketch, extended to 48′ by the addition of a bowsprit, a sea kindly long keeled hull capable of sailing anywhere, twenty one tons of GRP, teak and sailcloth that was never going to win any races. However, she was a stately old galleon that turned heads.

            The picture shows her riding at anchor, inside the reef at White Bay Jost van Dyke in the BVI, just a short swim from the infamous “Soggy Dollar” bar.

            She was my home for 10 wonderful years in the Sunny Caribbee where I spent my time island hopping as the whim and wind would take me.

            Like you I miss those times, and on reflection, I regret parting with her in 2018.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/081c7ed1d3800cbdb572df2a8a19f7ba1e99fccb0767da670e214139e0f5a531.jpg

        2. Please show us a picture of your boat?

          This is out first summer without a boat for many years which is sad.

          I had a Hurley 22 (Inca), followed by a Pioneer 10 (Raua) and finally a Dufour Classic 41 (Mianda).

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61175087b5cf6423485279cedeb53c6858763833481d1658403f86cc7ea269ce.jpg

          This is Inca in whom I sailed all around the South Coast of England, the Normandy Coast and the Channel Islands.

          Raua took me across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and Mianda took me, Caroline, Christo and Henry from the Baltic and all around the Med.

    2. As we wrote in a previous edition, please would they get the ticket machines to work before closing the booking offices.

  11. Cross-border aid to Syria blocked in ‘act of utter cruelty’ by Russia at UN vote. 12 July 2023.

    Russia – which has previously cut the number of cross-border aid crossings – regards the aid routes as a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.

    “It’s a sad moment for the Syrian people,” the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the council after Russia’s veto. “What we have just witnessed, what the world has just witnessed, was an act of utter cruelty.”

    Accusing Russia of behaving like a bully in the playground, Thomas-Greenfield complained Russia had told the UN that if its six-month offer was rejected, no deal was possible. She insisted: “We must keep at this – the Syrian people are counting on us – and we must all urge Russia to come back to the table in good faith.”

    This is typical of the duplicity that pervades international relations. The area in question is run by the Jihadists and is thus a continuing threat not only to the Syrian government and its people but to everyone everywhere. An ISIS leader from the area was killed only two days ago in a drone strike by the Americans. There is this and the US still has ongoing sanctions against the Syrian government proper.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/11/cross-border-aid-to-syria-blocked-in-act-of-utter-cruelty-by-russia-at-un-vote

  12. Morning all 🙂😊
    What a bright sunny morning.
    How can rail ticket offices be allowed to close?
    Is there any one out there with any common sense? Or is this just something else that our political classes and Whitehall are going to be allowed ruin ?

    1. We have no rail ticket offices, and haven’t had for years.
      Major (it’s all relative) terminii have enquiries offices, there are ticket machines at stations, and you can check timetables and buy tickets on your phone, as well as pay for carparking, and even rent a bicycle from the station area.
      Seems to work well. Why would it not in the UK – or have folk not learned how to operate a phone yet?

      1. Yeah but, I bet your rail union leaders don’t qualify as total and complete AHs.
        And perhaps it might work, but everything that seems to happen in the UK is arrived at by threats brutal strangulation of some sort. And bashing the public over the head.

        1. How motivating!
          They are pretty bone-headed here, but technology is usually accepted and usually works. That always helps. Plus, it’s convenient, and seems pretty secure againt ID theft.

      2. I refuse to use an app on my phone to pay for things. I’m happy to buy things online and pay by card.

        1. No.
          Single fare, return, weekly, monthly, annual season.
          And the airport express train is a different company with higher fares, using a completely different system that works in a similar manner, but without the season tickets.

  13. Good morning, all. Sunny with a light breeze at the moment. Off into the garden to pick the last of the raspberries and loganberries. The fruit will be gently cooked with a little sugar then frozen to be used in summer puddings over the coming weeks.

    Bitchy! Oakeshott makes a good point re Mercer and then has her claws out for Vorderman. Well, it’s light relief compared to the usual doom and gloom and a chuckle is better than a groan.

    https://twitter.com/IsabelOakeshott/status/1678712479197659136

    5. Why would one need a degree to trough it in Parliament – or elsewhere, Vorderman?

    6. Morning, Korky.
      Read that as “Sunny with a light breeze sleaze at the moment” – been reading too much about the BBC…

    8. Mercer doesn’t get much support in the replies. And why is Oakeshott so despised?

    4. Grattis på födelsedagen, Mr Stevenage. Hope it’s a belter! 👍🏻😊🎂🍷

  15. Good morning all.
    A tad over 9°C this morning and dry with scattered cloud.

  17. I wonder what can explain Djokovic’s fitness and endurance for a 36 year old after another five set victory yesterday,
    His young opponent looked like he had done ten rounds with Mike Tyson as they walked off.
    While Djokovic looked like he was on his way home from church

    1. I always rather disliked him as an automaton but he went up in my estimation when he stood his ground over not having the jabs. Even though that meant he was imprisoned in Australia and banned from playing there in a tournament he would probably have won. He also couldn’t play in the US.
      He’s stuck to his principals and is unfailingly polite.

      2. I find tennis less interesting that slug racing, so TBH have no opinion at all.
        One suspects his performance is due to a single-minded attitude to very hard training.

        1. Yes, McEnroe was commenting on his fitness regime when they showed his trainer in the gallery. Apparently Djokovic never stops, hates losing an ounce of fitness, and that includes any notion of a holiday.

          1. Unless you are really lucky, success comes from endless hard graft, to the stage sometimes when tears are all you have left to give.
            Sport, business, love… it’s the same recipe.

        2. It’s not my game either, but OH was a keen player till he was ill last year so now all he can do is watch.

    2. I wonder if it has anything to do with the (alleged) fact that he was never exposed to Covid-19 “Vaccine” – hence the name: No-Vax Djokovic?

      Edit: SORRY – didn’t look at the posts below before I posted.

    3. I wonder if it has anything to do with the (alleged) fact that he was never exposed to Covid-19 “Vaccine” – hence the name: No-Vax Djokovic?

      Edit: SORRY – didn’t look at the posts below before I posted.

  18. Happy birthday 🎂 🥳 🎉 🎈 🎁 🎊 🍷🥂David/Stiganace. Hope you have a good day and don’t get too wound up by Nottl.

      1. Happy Birthday, Stig.
        It’s a pleasant surprise – an honour – to know someone even more measured and reasonable than I am.

        1. Happy Birthday Stigenance! I’ll echo the sentiments above! Always polite and kind- just like the rest of us!! 🤣🎂🍾😘

  20. Good Moaning.
    Hands up all those who are surprised.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/news/thousands-letters-unanswered-more-than-year-hmrc/

    Thousands of letters to tax office left unanswered for more than a year

    HMRC creates special taskforce to deal with backlog after months of complaints

    By Lauren Shirreff 11 July 2023 • 4:19pm

    “Thousands of letters at the tax office have been left unanswered for more than a year, it has emerged.

    HM Revenue & Customs has resorted to creating a special taskforce to deal with the backlog, consisting of more than 37,000 pieces of correspondence which are at least 10 months old.

    The taskforce will focus on post left unanswered for 10 months to help prevent more post from reaching the 12-month point.

    The taskforce, which began work on Monday, will “flex in size” depending on demand, The Telegraph understands, with HMRC unable to give a definitive figure on how many members of staff if had dedicated to sorting through the logjam.

    Tax agents and advisors will be able to use an online form to “escalate client-specific issues or problems” where “all other contact methods have failed”.

    It comes after months of complaints about delays and poor customer service.

    The Association of Taxation Technicians, a trade body, said that HMRC’s performance had “been a concern for some time”.

    The organisation added the tax office will monitor the service and review it on August 4, with plans to extend the scheme if it is deemed a success.

    Chris Etherington, a partner at RSM UK, a tax firm, said: “We’ve often seen it take that long for correspondence to be replied to. There have been significant problems for clients and taxpayers over matters like obtaining repayment, where HMRC has to be reached through the post.

    “It wouldn’t be unreasonable for people to be concerned about fines,” he added. “If you have an issue with HMRC, then every day that isn’t resolved, there is tax at stake and the potential for interest charges at a minimum and penalties further down the line.

    “The new taskforce will certainly help things in the short term, as it’s never taken as long to get a response from HMRC when it comes to general performance,” he said.

    “But there are undoubtedly wider issues like staffing levels, and the impact of Brexit and the pandemic, that are making the delays so large,” he added.

    HMRC said it responds to more than seven out of 10 items of post within 15 working days and around nine out of 10 within 40 working days.

    A spokesman said: “We’re trialling having a taskforce dedicated to responding to 12-month-old post and stopping post waiting this long. We’re continuously monitoring the progress of the taskforce and the length of the trial will reflect progress made.

    “Our online services, including the HMRC app, are quick and easy to use and have been significantly improved. We urge customers to explore these fully before deciding to write to us or wait to speak to us on the phone.””

  21. Good morning.
    An interesting Twitt post from RFK Jr, who seems to be trying to elevate the US Presidential race to levels not seen since….the eighties, perhaps, when Reagan was running?
    https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1678931499591016449

    It’s a philosophical little video about Sisyphus pushing the stone up the hill every day, and how Camus saw this as something positive, because Sisyphus put his heart into the task, and made order out of chaos with his repetitive work.
    I assume RFK Jr is trying to distinguish his campaign from those of his main rivals, none of whom are likely to come up with anything similar. But it’s good.

  22. James Delingpole’s Twit account seems to have disappeared without trace? Does anyone else follow him?

    1. All our problems are started by our politicians.
      Once more and time after time they obviously never have the commitment to think anything through.
      Everything they touch they eff up.
      And because they produce absolutely nothing of any value they have to rob the public. As in what is going on now.
      We just need to get rid of all of these people who have ‘bedded down’ at public expense in Westminster.
      And come up with a better solution as if running a business.
      What they are doing is wholly immoral. They are not really any different to the water companies pumping sewage in to our rivers and killing the fish.
      Then putting the cost of provided water up to try and cover up their terrible and ongoing mistakes.

      1. Yes, Eddy we need rid of bother the Commons and the Lords and hope that something new and better will emerges before the next GE, otherwise it’s just NOTA on the ballot.

        1. The other parties make a lot of noise Tom. But like Farage did or do nothing…..but make a noise.

          1. That’s the problem, Eddy, time for them to amalgamate and produce a winning manifesto for the electorate.

          2. Agreed, something has to happen these people are destroying our culture and social structure.

          3. The problem, sirjasper is that people are [beeeeeep] stupid. Look at Truss’ policies. They were entirely correct but morons saw the scrapping of a tax on the highest earners and threw their toys out of the pram. Lefties squealed about fracking.

            And the blob set about doing her in. Even know there’s a statist group of one posters who leap in to comment threads to demonise her sensible policies. These are usually the same fools who demand energy be nationalised, not able to comprehend that the government is the cretin *making* energy expensive. If I hear some oaf blithering about petrol prices or food prices and not raising the net zero farce over fertiliser, nitrogen and what not, my head explodes.

            Folk don’t want what is good for them if they sniff someone else getting more. People in this country, for some reason, hate the idea of others having more than them. It is a pettiness of spirit amongst those who do the least and think they are entitled to a free ride at someone else’s expense.

            What such bitter, spiteful fools forget is that if you destroy the high earners, they stop paying the bills and the costs of life fall most heavily on them – as others have posted, tax explained as beer. I think such people have always existed, but their hatred seems exacerbated now with such generous welfare floating about.

          4. “... if you destroy the high earners, they stop paying the bills…”

            It’s called the ‘Laffer Curve’ but economists (ha ha) ignore and proceed to rid the country of entrepreneurs and investors.

          5. It’s odd but Treasury economists also refuse outright to acknowledge that cutting taxes raises revenue and is good for the economy. I suppose that’s because it’d be sawing the branch off they sit on. After all, admitting that fact would mean the end of big state interventionist policies, the end of high taxes and those 6 figure salaries.

            When they’re all dedicated to failed Keynesian economic ideology nothing will ever improve.

          8. A couple of years ago I voted for an independent. Doubling his support.
            So it does work. 🤗

    2. How much longer? We’re already looking at recession. As others have said in memes, the intent of the virus was the vaccine. The intent of debasing the currency, massive taxation, crippling debt, devaluation, extensive welfare was to exacerbate the outcome the state wants but didn’t get after Brexit – namely to be forced to rechain ourselves to that hated institution.

      1. That reminds me of the time I went to see the manager of the joinery shop and asked for a 6 pence an hour rise. He offered me tuppence. I told him to poke it.
        I suddenly realised that after 5 years I was out of work.
        It was fairly easy for me to get into North London on the underground, I walked along Camden High Street and saw a large building site at Mornington Crescent. And found myself a new job. After my first two weeks I need to go back in my fathers car and collect tools I’d left behind. I had my first new pay packet and showed it to all the guys I’d been working with. Late summer 1967. 32.00 pounds per week. From a collective bonus scheme. Twice what I would have been paid even with the extra tanner. 😉🤗

        1. That first time you pack it in is truly scary. And it doesn’t improve much for the next three or four. Even then it took until I became a contractor to become fully at ease with it!

          1. #MeToo, Minty, as a freelance contractor, I could earn £500 a day and I did it for 20 odd years.

          2. I loved it I’d spent 3 years making bespoke staircases. Never fitted one before.
            Further on in years with my mate Howard we were earning twice the amount others were.
            I became a contracts manager then
            I ended up running my own building business.
            Hard work, but it paid off.

        2. Goodmorning, Paul

          1967 was four years before decimalisation – wouldn’t the sum have been £32.00.00 in £SD?

  25. ‘Morning All

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f580bfe7c44d12a682b4beb28f9ea2d99a34317b2497356136223e35512e6bbb.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39acddb67161467ad1482ff696c4b1cbe86f0cc5b7aefef1df9a043eee27e59e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a87a8dbade19c87bad905d30fd37ff83e601fa5c3a9da3e22adac5f1252372c4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/75459924ed5cd897cdbde5de7854a67fb53362448c4137885f795389c0197659.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10a6de85705a830f5378e3cd8c9d1f588ad6d2f44b1c89d34885c89ea8cfe052.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cdd291341b16a03f21ec0c6c31237e45693fdf55c2afe119a07b4fd1a7fb37fd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce0a7f657fca540586a78fcd546863b0cef87c40db9497e9630cea6bc2f85b16.jpg

    1. The comment from Culture Critic is spot on and very sad. Spirituality is frowned upon in our materialistic, science-worshipping era.

        1. Never been successful in the past Araminta.

          However Archbishop Welby is hoping for it in the future so that

          he can concentrate on his political works full time.

          1. If my religious belief were stronger I would be totally convinced that Welby is working for the Devil.

          2. The Devil now identifies as a good person, and it is demonophobia to criticise that…

        2. Never been successful in the past Araminta.

          However Archbishop Welby is hoping for it in the future so that

          he can concentrate on his political works full time.

      2. Except we don’t worship science. The state has perverted science – the quest for reason, challenge and evidence with the promotion of deceit labelled as science. Hell’s bells, ‘the science is settled’ is utter tosh. Science is NEVER settled. That’s what differentiates it from blind faith.

        As soon as the state set about pushing climate change as science and suppressed all other views it was NOT science. It was another bible basher wanting to get out of going on the hunt in the pretence of helping the village elders. The state is lazy, arrogant and a con artist. It wants to replace faith under the banner of science but make itself the sole promoter of this new religion of lies.

        1. yeah, yeah, it wasn’t real science, next time it will be different!
          It’s the science-worshipping dogma that allows these scams to take place, and THAT is the point!

    3. History is something you can read about from multiple angles, though. From the ‘Nazi’ guard who hated the slaughter of innocents, turning a blind eye to horrors while giving prisoners extra food and medicine, to the Russian defectors, the party chairman signing the death warrant of millions to the more public diaries of Ann Frank.

      1. Likely, one does what one can without getting shot for it, whilst assuaging one’s conscience as best one can.

  26. Good morning all,

    Sunny periods at Ty McPhee, wind Sou-West (still),14℃ with 18℃ the forecast maximum, 4.5℃ below the long-term average for July, chance of a thundery shower this afternoon.

    Aren’t we lucky to have a PM who is so involved with important matters like the Bairstow stumping and the BBC presenter sex scandal that minor topics such as net zero and the UK’s backing for the US deep state’s latest proxy war against Russia are given the correct minimal consideration?

    1. But Rishi Sunak is NOT the UK Prime Minister because we no longer have a Prime Minister.
      In reality, he is the Regional Manager of UK Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the World Economic Forum.

  27. Alison Pearson

    Mr X has friends in high places and it may well have made them more

    reluctant to take the allegations seriously. What have they been doing

    since May when the teenager’s family first made a complaint, eh? It

    wouldn’t be the first time the BBC had sacrificed ethics and integrity

    in order to provide cover for a presenter. The peroxide ghost of Jimmy

    Savile mocks and mortifies the Beeb from beyond the grave (“Ow’s about

    that, then, boys’n’girls?”). You’d hope they had well and truly learnt

    their lesson. Clearly, not.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/07/11/bbc-naming-presenter-scandal/
    Oh dear oh dear it appears we are up to four accusers now including breaking lockdown rules
    The Huw and Cry ain’t going away…………..

    1. The BBC appears to be enthusiastically publicising the Huw and Cry. It’s major news.

      I wonder why? It’s only a story about one of the many sleaze bags that infest the BBC.

      One assumes that there is something newsworthy going on that the BBC don’t want the peasants to know about.

      Would it be the war in Sudan, or the report on “asylum seekers” by the University of Amsterdam?

      I can’t think of anything else being determinedly ignored by the BBC. Can you?

      2. Oh Janet I have missed the war in Sudan and the report on “asylum seekers” by the University of Amsterdam.

        I can live without the war, but a few words on the report would be helpful.

    3. Delightful news:

      Huw Edwards has just been awarded a bumper pay rise. I’m so pleased for him as he personifies all that is great about the BBC.

      All the other great talents who have been awarded pay rises are below, copied from Guido Fawkes.

      The BBC has just revealed further details of the story everyone is talking about – BBC presenter salaries. It’s been a good year for Huw Edwards, who’s clocked in a bumper £25,000 pay rise.
      As record wage growth contributes to inflationary pressures, the BBC has been doing their best to make the situation worse. Gary Lineker remains the corporation’s highest earner, on £1,354,999, as Victoria Derbyshire, Laura Kuenssberg and Amol Rajan also do alright for themselves. Here are the highest-earning politicos, and others:

      Today

      Amol Rajan – £339,999 (+3%)
      Mishal Husain – £319,999 (+14%)
      Justin Webb – £284,999 (+10%)
      Nick Robinson – £279,999 (+2%)
      Martha Kearney – £264,999(+2%)

      World at One

      Sarah Montague – £249,999 (NC)

      1. ‘Crisco’ was first invented as an industrial lubricant. Some entrepreneur at Procter & Gamble wondered if it could be manipulated chemically, thermostatically and mechanically to convert it into a substance they could sell as food. Their ensuing advertising campaign made it the best selling ‘cooking fat’ in history in the USA. Margarine was another successfully-marketed Frankenstein invention that followed suit.

        Here is my own list of the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to what (and what not) to eat or cook with:

        The Four Poisons (all of which contribute to the ever-increasing incidence of chronic disease) are:

        ● Refined Sugar.
        ● Refined Wheat.
        ● Processed Foods.
        ● ‘Vegetable’ Oils, including:

        ● Soybean oil. ● Corn Oil.
        ● Canola/Rapeseed Oil. ● Grapeseed Oil.
        ● Cottonseed Oil. ● Flaxseed (Linseed) Oil.
        ● Sunflower-seed Oil. ● Safflower-seed Oil.
        ● Rice Bran Oil. ● Peanut Oil.
        ● Any undefined ‘Vegetable’ Oil.

        ‘Vegetable’ Oils are poly-unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and are over-rich in — particularly — Omega-6 [linoleic Acid] fatty acids; the overeating of which is known to cause inflammation, the primary cause of:

        ● Metabolical Derangement, which manifests itself thus:

        ● Mitochondrial Dysfunction (energy dysregulation and failure), which often directly leads to:

        ● Obesity. ● Heart Disease,
        ● Atherosclerosis (fatty deposits in artery walls), ● Arthritis,
        ● Hypertension (high blood pressure), ● Cancers,
        ● Strokes, ● Metabolic Syndrome,
        ● Type 2 Diabetes, ● Insulin Resistance,
        ● Fatty Liver, ● Asthma,
        ● Depression, ● Postpartem Depression,
        ● Schizophrenia, ● Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,
        ● Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia, ● Parkinson’s Disease,
        ● Macular Degeneration, ● Low Testosterone,
        ● Menstrual Irregularities, ● Infertility,
        ● Fibrosis, ● DNA Damage,
        ● Inflammation, ● Crohn’s Disease,
        ● Lupus, ● Pain.

        On the other hand:

        ● Animal fats, including:
        ● Butter or Ghee, ● Pork Lard,
        ● Beef Tallow, ● Lamb or Beef Suet,
        ● Goose or Duck Fat, ● Fish Oil
        ● Cheese, ● Unsweetened Yoghourt,
        ● Milk, ● Cream.

        These have been proven (for millennia) to promote good health and physical wellbeing, and are tasty and nutritious.

    2. Good to see the question asked and answered all the same. Whether anyone believes it is another matter.

      1. Didn’t they assure us that Brexit would cover the whole of the UK and not leave a part of it, Northern Ireland, behind in the EU?

        And didn’t they promise that British fishing waters would be protected against EU looting and EU vandalism?

        Why on earth should anybody trust any politicians – the only things they can do well are to lie and to cheat.

    3. Odd, as they’ve signed up to every other agreement possible, regardless of how damaging it is to the nation.

  30. Another email from the petitions committee this morning. Why are they still so adamant that it cannot possibly be the safe and effective jabs?

    This time “Launch a Public Inquiry into excess mortality in England and Wales”

    The Government has no plans for a further public inquiry. It is taking steps to reduce excess deaths. There is no evidence linking excess deaths to the COVID-19 vaccine.

    The ONS published analysis in February 2023 that showed that the COVID-19 mortality rate has been consistently lower since the COVID-19 vaccine booster introduction in September 2021 for people who have had at least a third dose or booster, compared with unvaccinated people and those with just a first or second dose. When looking at deaths from other causes, mortality rates are broadly consistent between those who have received at least a third dose or booster and those who have not received any. The observed excess deaths are likely caused by a range of factors, but COVID-19 vaccination is not one of them.

    Safe and effective vaccines have underpinned our strategy for living with COVID-19 and have saved tens of thousands of lives, whilst also significantly reducing the pressure on the NHS. Each candidate COVID-19 vaccine is assessed by teams of scientists and clinicians on a case-by-case basis and is only authorised once it has met robust standards of effectiveness, safety and quality set by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The MHRA has also implemented a proactive vaccine safety surveillance strategy for monitoring the continued safety of all UK-approved COVID-19 vaccines. Antivirals and other treatments provide a necessary additional defence by protecting patients who become infected with COVID-19, particularly those for whom the vaccine may be less effective such as the immunosuppressed. We are preparing for variants of

    COVID-19 and seasonal flu infections with an integrated COVID-19 booster and flu vaccination programme, minimising hospital admissions from both viruses.

    How on earth they get away with this nonsense beggars belief.

        1. See all, hear all, say nowt.
          Eat all, drink all, pay nowt.
          And if tha does owt for nowt
          Do it for thissen.

    2. The Government has no plans for a further public inquiry. It is taking steps to reduce excess deaths. There is no evidence linking excess deaths to the COVID-19 vaccine.

      Just because they cannot see the evidence because they refuse to look at it or for it does not mean that there is not plenty of evidence there.

      Think Lord Nelson and his telescope deliberately placed on his blind eye.

      Think also on these Q & A limericks:

      There once was a man who said “God
      Must think it exceedingly odd
      If he finds that this tree
      Continues to be
      When there’s no one about in the Quad.”

      Dear Sir,
      Your astonishment’s odd.
      I am always about in the Quad.
      And that’s why the tree
      Will continue to be
      Since observed by
      Yours faithfully,
      God

      If objects depend on our seeing
      So that trees, unobserved, would cease tree-ing,
      Then my question is: Who
      Is the one who sees you
      And assures your persistence in being?

      Dear Sir,
      You reason most oddly.
      To be’s to be seen for the bod’ly.
      But for spirits like me,
      To be is to see.
      Sincerely,
      The one who is godly.

    3. The mortality rate from covid dropped as it mutated. It had already taken the vulnerable. The jabs did nothing but damage people’s immune systems.

    4. Why? Why are you surprised that government completely ignores the public will?

    5. No evidence linking excess deaths to the COVID-19 vaccine – it’s just a coincidence that excess deaths are happening among the vaccinated population.

    6. Serious doubts about the role of a virus, but not a pathogen, coupled with a flawed testing regimen – see here – and just about anything can be claimed.

    7. Serious doubts about the role of a virus, but not a pathogen, coupled with a flawed testing regimen – see here – and just about anything can be claimed.

    1. Dressed like a janitor on duty – the others probably thought he was there to collect the dirty glasses and plates.

      1. It is his ‘uniform’ as a reminder that his country is on a war footing. I would imagine the staff are better dressed.

    2. He doesn’t have a role at that level. It’s about hobnobbing and national interests. He wants something none of them want to offer.

    4. I used to think he was a poor actor turned into a crooked politician; current evidence seems to suggest he’s a psychopath?

    1. Yes. Mongo only goes in clear water. I don’t even like him going into the local ponds, even though they’re just muddy.

    1. I don’t really understand why he doesn’t look at the cost of government itself. This endless ‘departments are on a tight budget’ is nonsense. They’ve plenty of cash to waste on rainbows and useless tanks. Methinks the makework is how they appear over worked.

      As it is, the TPA presents how we could save 6bn a year simply by closing down quangos who’s only role is to demand more money for themselves.

      3. It tax revenues are supposed to be at the same levels they were at in the 1960s, why aren’t our public services at the same standard as they were then?

          1. And it was staffed by people who actually had that old-fashioned concept, a sense of duty.

          2. A billion? World human population 1960: 3 billion; world human population 2023: 8 billion.

    2. Here they go again, not happy with scooping up taxes from higher mortgages now ripping into pension schemes to try and cover the huge expensive cock ups they have made.
      I wonder how the pensions and mortgages of the ‘THEY’ are effected.
      Just claim back the effects on their expenses ?

    3. Looking back at the vast amounts of money scammed from the Covid handouts I would hope fund managers avoid this like the plague.

      If one must invest in such things at least wait until it is clear that the business is on a sound footing and isn’t going to demand more and more capital with minimal returns.

    4. A letter to the Sunday Times by MOH.
      I’m sure that you’d be surprised that they declined to print it.
      .

      Good article by Peter Evans on a subject of importance to the nation, investment in start-ups.

      I’m sure that our civil servants are the ideal people to decide which companies to back, after all we’ve seen how well

      they’ve handled Brexit!

      I’ve got a much better idea. The civil service can invest their own pensions in unproven start-ups.

      Once the British public see how competent and successful they are, then I’m sure that they will be delighted to allow the civil

      service to invest their pensions.

      On the other hand, if the civil service refuse to invest their own pensions then we have a public admitted statement about

      their expertise………………..!

      Regards,

      via sundaytimes.co.uk

    2. If Trump had been president the war would not have happened. There would have been sensible negotiations before Putin crossed the West’s red line and invaded Ukraine.

      Ukraine would have had to concede certain things in the Donbas and Crimea before any mention of Ukraine joining either the EU or NATO was raised.

      1. Although Boris Johnson put his oar in, didn’t he, when negotiations were on the cards.

        BTW morning all.

  35. I no longer have a DT subscription since getting a 3 day ban from commenting because I described de-Bretton Gordon as ‘unhinged’.
    So I can’t see the full report in the DT today about Sleepy Joe sending Blinken to the NATO dinner.
    I can only assume it was because the other NATO countries were going to condemn the USA for sending cluster munitions to Ukraine (a war crime as the White house described it when accusing the Russians of doing it).

    Sarc mode switched off

  37. This week’s Countryfile ran a feature on research into anti-belch livestock feed supplements. It was startling to hear that one of these products was designed to reduce microbial activity in the rumen of cattle i.e. to interfere with the very process of bovine digestion. It then went on to mention New Zealand’s plan for a belch tax and Irish and Dutch proposals to reduce cattle herds (obviously overtaken by events in Dutchland). Guess what happened next? Yes, out of the BBC box of tricks came the Moonbat to say feed supplements are not enough (indeed, probably pointless, on which I would agree) and, like other countries, we should be getting rid of livestock instead.

    Moonbat: “What we’re looking at here is one of the most damaging industries on Earth, the keeping of ruminant livestock, cattle and sheep. They’re extremely damaging for several reasons, and only one of those reasons is methane. They also produce nitrous oxide, which is another powerful greenhouse gas. But far greater than those impacts is their ecological and carbon opportunity costs i.e. the cost of what you’re not doing because those cattle and sheep are grazing on your land. In the short term, they could be wild ecosystems, which store more carbon than the grazing systems currently in use.” He then spoke of the worth of renewable energy before disappearing off the edge of reality by declaring livestock farming to be morally wrong.

    I did wonder, briefly, if someone in the Countryfile team had invited him on in order that he might make a complete arse of himself – after all, Question Time sometimes features Owen Jones. The exchange between Moonbat and Tom Dung-Heap bordered on satire.

    1. So why does nobody challenge them on the alternative? There isn’t enough tillable land to grow beans on, and think of all those people farts when fed on a diet of beans (if last night’s supper is any guide).
      These AHs need called out on it.

    2. “one of the most damaging industries on earth”
      Please, please stop funding this wicked rhetoric via the licence fee. They are clearly working up to a mass starvation event. Soil care or nourishing a healthy population without animal products won’t work

      1. I doubt many arable farmers would sacrifice productive capacity and therefore profit in order to produce the amount of compostable green manure to keep the soil healthy. Livestock produce fertile soil as a byproduct.

        1. By definition, they can’t, because a certain percentage of what they take out of the soil must be sold and eaten. So they’d have to fertilise with human waste if manure wasn’t available. But that would be very dangerous, in terms of diseases passed on.

          1. ‘Growmore’ is the product of human waste recycling. It can be done and has been done for millennia, with the right methods. Composting first of all to neutralise the pathogens and convert the material into something beneficial and not infectious. The old latrines, mixing nitrogen-rich human waste with carbon-rich material such as sawdust, straw or paper, then leaving it to rot down for a couple of years, moving on to a fresh pit, then produces safe rich compost that can be dug out and used on the land.

            It is important though not to contaminate it with chemicals (especially toilet cleaners that kill off the micro-organisms essential to composting), plastics or other waste material, especially industrial waste. This is where sewers fail the environment, leaving a toxic residue that is much harder to compost. Anyone using a septic tank knows this, but most townies do not think what happens after it is flushed away.

          2. “This is where sewers fail the environment, leaving a toxic residue that is much harder to compost.”

            Indeed, but it can still has a value. It can be used to produce useful amounts of methane. It must then be burnt (more energy) but with the attendant problem of the safe disposal of the ash.

          3. “This is where sewers fail the environment, leaving a toxic residue that is much harder to compost.”

            Indeed, but it can still has a value. It can be used to produce useful amounts of methane. It must then be burnt (more energy) but with the attendant problem of the safe disposal of the ash.

          4. Interesting! I shall bear that in mind for when the water goes off and we are reduced to an earth latrine in the garden!

      2. So, thousands of years ago the vast herds of wildebeest, bison and aurochs which roamed the plains of the planet didn’t fart?

        1. Go back millions of years and imagine vast herds of herbivore dinosaurs with each animal weighing in at many tons: all belching and farting vast volumes of methane etc. Miraculously the Earth survived that millions of years long stretch along with the asteroid circa 63 million years ago that threw billions of tons of dust into the atmosphere and at least one major Ice Age in which we are living still. These climate change promoters don’t know they’re born.

    3. Adam Henson runs quite a large farm in the Cotswolds. His father set up the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. They could ask him about animal husbandry – he’d know more about it than Moonbat.

      1. Knows more – disqualified. Might give a factual answer, and that would never do.

    4. All too often these “experts” get their information from America.

      US feed lots are usually intensive units where the animals are kept in large sheds, fed on material brought in from outside, instensively grown on mechanized (sic) arable fields on a massive scale, and then producing large quantities of slurry and methane, which is released without thought or care into the environment. This is what gives animal husbandry a bad name. In South America, vast areas of primary rainforest are destroyed in order to create such units, often under the moral direction of rightwing US charismatic evangelists.

      Pastoral mixed farming, particularly in Britain, is completely different, and I am perplexed why environmentalists are not looking harder at the benefits of these methods, rather than lazily lumping everything into American thinking.

      1. “lazily lumping everything into American thinking” – it fits the narrative. Even provides data.

      2. Which Tom Lehrer song had the line, “He majored in animal husbandry. Till they caught him at it”?

    5. I’ve been watching country file for years and some times I am in despair at some the garbage they try and shove onto us.
      One item stands our more than anything else, when Tom Dung-Heap accused domestic dogs of ganging up and attacking sheep near the forest of Dean. What a plonker, he had no idea that wild boar had been used to ‘re-wild’ the area. The boar are even attacking domestic dogs. What a massive mistake.

        2. I use to shoot them with a few mates in Northern NSW on a couple of huge sheep stations.
          During lambing they would sniff out the new borns and eat them if they couldn’t get off with the mothers.
          The wild boars aren’t indigenous, they were introduced from the islands off the northern coast.
          In time the same will happen here.
          It’s another stupid mistake.

          1. Like the 3 million rabbits, all bred from just 21 introduced in 1859 for hunting.

          2. I assume you are referring to the boar; rabbits have been here longer than that.

          3. Australian Rabbits
            Rabbits were brought to Australia on the First Fleet but, for whatever reason, they did not breed prolifically or cause any problems for the first few years of the colony’s settlement. There is absence of any evidence that they were either eaten or hunted for sport in the Sydney area. Rabbits were popular as pets and for sport around Sydney in the 1840s, but again, there is no evidence that their population proliferated. It is believed that the carnivorous marsupials of the mainland, such as quolls, (The quoll, or native cat, (genus Dasyurus) is a carnivorous marsupial native to mainland Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania) were able to keep rabbit numbers down.

            Rabbits were also introduced into the Tasmanian colony where, by 1827, they were noted to be in their thousands.

            A farmer named Thomas Austin who had a property in Winchelsea, Victoria, is credited with introducing rabbits into the Australian mainland, leading to their current plague proportions. Austin was a member of the Acclimatisation Society, a group which believed in introducing exotic species into new locations around the world. In October 1859, Austin imported 21 European rabbits for hunting, releasing them on Christmas Day that year. Within a short period of time, it became evident that Victoria provided the ideal climate for the rabbits to breed and become a national pest. Rabbits have since spread throughout Australia.

          4. Introducing an alien species has always been a disaster. Toads, rabbits and camel to Australia. Grey squirrel and signal crayfish to UK and Islamics into Europe.
            They never learn.

          7. Only the smaller models.
            A lot of the adults had parasites in their meat. If we passed the same spot a few days later where they’d been shot, there wasn’t usually much left, bones trotters etc.
            Cannibals as well.

      2. We were also told: “Most experts believe emissions from livestock should be reduced.” In a proper debate, that would ripped apart in a few seconds. No evidence, no qualification, no attribution. We might just as well say “Everyone should have a nice life.”

        This was by no means the worst edition I’ve seen. A contender for that award would have been last summer’s excursion to Hadrian’s Wall, which wheeled out a Muslim and a black African Canadian to tell us that the history of Britain since Roman times is false because Asians and Africans have been written out of it. The Canadian woman declaimed: “I came here to honour the ancestors, to honour the black history that’s right here in the English countryside. Black people have been here. People of colour have been here. We belong here.”

        The BBC is impartial. And water flows uphill.

      3. We were also told: “Most experts believe emissions from livestock should be reduced.” In a proper debate, that would ripped apart in a few seconds. No evidence, no qualification, no attribution. We might just as well say “Everyone should have a nice life.”

        This was by no means the worst edition I’ve seen. A contender for that award would have been last summer’s excursion to Hadrian’s Wall, which wheeled out a Muslim and a black African Canadian to tell us that the history of Britain since Roman times is false because Asians and Africans have been written out of it. The Canadian woman declaimed: “I came here to honour the ancestors, to honour the black history that’s right here in the English countryside. Black people have been here. People of colour have been here. We belong here.”

        The BBC is impartial. And water flows uphill.

  38. This week’s Countryfile ran a feature on research into anti-belch livestock feed supplements. It was startling to hear that one of these products was designed to reduce microbial activity in the rumen of cattle i.e. to interfere with the very process of bovine digestion. It then went on to mention Irish and Dutch government proposals to reduce cattle herds (obviously overtaken by events in Dutchland) and New Zealand’s plan for a belch tax. Guess what happened next? Yes, out of the BBC box of tricks came the Moonbat to say feed supplements are not enough (indeed, probably pointless, on which I would agree) and, like other countries, we should be getting rid of livestock instead.

    Moonbat: “What we’re looking at here is one of the most damaging industries on Earth, the keeping of ruminant livestock, cattle and sheep. They’re extremely damaging for several reasons, and only one of those reasons is methane. They also produce nitrous oxide, which is another powerful greenhouse gas. But far greater than those impacts is their ecological and carbon opportunity costs i.e. the cost of what you’re not doing because those cattle and sheep are grazing on your land. In the short term, they could be wild ecosystems, which store more carbon than the grazing systems currently in use.” He then spoke of the worth of renewable energy before disappearing off the edge of reality by declaring livestock farming to be morally wrong.

    I did wonder, briefly, if someone in the Countryfile team had invited him on in order that he might make a complete arse of himself. After all, Question Time sometimes features Owen Jones. The exchange between him and Tom Dung-Heap was bordering on satire.

    1. No legs damaged, then.
      To stop being frivolous for a moment, because frivolity is my only reaction left at such unbelievable stupidity and wickedness in prolonging this kind of slaughter, this kind of result breaks one’s heart. And, how long before it is visited on the rest of us, especially our families, since the likes of me don’t have so much left to lose?

    2. The Ukrainians were probably conscripts, or?
      Yes, all the casualties are very sad.

      2. I understand that they hardly pass for conscripts. They are given a couple of days training and then thrown in to the meat grinder. What is particularly tragic about it is that the Russians don’t want to do this but must in order to defend themselves against the real enemy, NATO and America. These poor kids dying in these onslaughts are nothing but pawns. Zelenskyy is a war criminal for allowing this to continue.

        1. Quite likely the Ukies have done their military service already, with annual refreshers, so they’d be called back in for new uniform, issue of weapons and boots, and off they go.

          1. Apparently young men are being dragged off the streets in Ukraine, almost like press gang recruitment. So no it isn’t former military having another go.

          2. Pretty well every male in Norway, unless broken, has done their military service. I would assume Ukraine is the same, so hauling bodies in from the street isn’t taking many untrained into the meat grinder.
            From Wiki: Ukraine military (2022 data)
            Military age 18[6]
            Conscription 12–18 months (depending on branches)
            Available for military service 11,149,646, age 16–49 (2015)
            Fit for military service 6,970,035, age 16–49 (2015)
            Reaching military age annually 470,406 (2021)
            Active personnel ~700,000 (2022)[7][8]
            Reserve personnel 1,000,000 (2022)[9]

      1. Christian slavs killing Christian slavs. What’s not to like in the world of George Soros, his repulsive son Alex, Victoria Nuland and Chrystia Freeland. Pure evil.

      2. Christian slavs killing Christian slavs. What’s not to like in the world of George Soros, his repulsive son Alex, Victoria Nuland and Chrystia Freeland. Pure evil.

  40. Why aren’t the people conducting these experiment’s families being the ones to be infected first?
    These researchers seem determined to cause irreparable damage.
    And guess what? It’s climate change necessitating it.

    ‘Bone-breaker’ fever could become endemic in UK if ‘risky’ experiment that will see Brits infected with dengue backfires, experts fear
    EXCL: study, to be held in London, will give volunteers a infectious tropical virus

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12286361/Dengue-endemic-UK-risky-experiment-backfires-experts-fear.html

    2. What kind of thick shit would volunteer for that? Apart from the brain-dead, of course.

      1. My thoughts exactly, but then some people volunteered their children for covid vaxx trials.

  41. Is Russia really ‘caught in a trap’ in Bakhmut? 12 July 2023.

    Ukraine is making gains around Bakhmut, but in the fog of war it is hard to know whether they are really ousting the invaders.

    Really? A little scepticism? A bit late for that. For what it’s worth I think this is the beginning of the preparation for a climb down. A lowering of expectations. So the peasants don’t panic. (They really think we believe all this bull.) We will know for sure when we hear that negotiations are in progress.

    No Comments either!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/12/analysis-bakhmut-ukraine/

    2. I’ve just had my second portion. After a light boil I simply melted some butter on them. Scrumptious.

    1. Sending a hug, as best I can.
      If more are needed, I can dig them out of the Hug Mine.
      Take care, Ann.

    4. Please, please go back to your GP. There are other pain management tools than codeine and morphine. Those are the easy ones. Make them think.

      1. Thanks Wibbs- hospital on Friday and will grill them then- local GPs seem to be useless. Your concern is greatly appreciated.

  45. General request for opinions: I don’t do Twitter; I have never done Twitter; I have always taken the line that only twats tweet. In the light of Elon Musk’s wire brush and Dettol and people like Tucker Carlson and Andrew Bridgen using it to communicate well, should I review my attitude and sign up?

    1. I’ve had a Twitter account for many years – I look in now and again but rarely stay more than a couple of minutes. It’s a snakepit. It’s incredible how rude people are in response to someone’s opinions. I have my opinions, they have theirs, but it’s not polite like we are here.

    2. It’s very useful for information that isn’t yet in the mainstream media, or never will get there, eg financial.
      However, James Delingpole’s Twitter account has been deleted without warning this morning – not sure by whom or why. Also, in the last few days, they have started heavily shadow-banning accounts again.

      I follow some “normie” accounts, and some alternative ones. If I look at my feed, the first ten or so tweets will be only from the normie accounts. Then comes the likes of Zuby, Andrew Bridgen, Conservative Woman or Parallel Mike. And those are accounts that I follow!
      I have a strong feeling that I’m not getting to see many tweets from people I follow at all.

      1. I don’t either. I get notified of one or two that I might be interested in and that’s about it.

        1. Forgot to mention, I also follow Tucker Carlson, and I definitely have missed some of his broadcasts!

  46. Very true!

    https://scontent.fbhx4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/358415291_340161335000435_8846836500850831641_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_aid=0&_nc_ohc=e0aDfwxqONsAX8fWlRh&_nc_ht=scontent.fbhx4-1.fna&oh=00_AfAkJEJzOoEMg7D6x0hwhm4wlfxwXW311w_3uz4j7XUSow&oe=64B29BB8

    As for playing with this stuff….
    https://scontent.fbhx4-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/347549896_615027180768871_8423640358990261886_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=X2Qo8vQxO1EAX_YbACm&_nc_ht=scontent.fbhx4-2.fna&oh=00_AfBGq5fyODOobEUesyxqo7cwUAKS7LHtUz7Trn_qvd5tIw&oe=64B3393A

    2. Semtex doesn’t just look, feel and smell like marzipan; it displays the same characteristics on X-ray equipment.

      2. Clucking Bell.
        I must be careful when I ice this year’s Christmas cake.
        Teatime will go with a bang.

  48. Largest tax rises in wine and spirits since 1975 start from 1st Aug. Just under a £1 per bottle. shocking.

    2. Any fool knows that by pushing up prices it cures inflation……er hang on a mo….

  50. 374378+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    These WEF / NWO, with royal seal wallahs, have the majority voter jumping through hoops with their organised chaos campaign.

    Until it is acknowledged that the current political fraternity are
    anti indigenous peoples as in 650+ & followers agin peoples of patriotic decency, and democracy this shite will continue unabated.

    Wednesday 12 July: Travellers of all ages will lose out if rail ticket offices are allowed to close

  51. Me: Love, please can you bring me a screwdriver?
    Wife: Flat-head, Phillips, or vodka?
    That’s how I knew she was The One!

    1. This conversation actually took place. A gormless young PC on patrol stopped a car for a routine check and sent a personal radio message to the station to check on the driver’s identity.

      Radio operator: “What is his occupation?”
      Young PC: “He’s a driver.”
      Radio operator: “A driver? What sort of driver? Train driver? Lorry driver? Screwdriver?”

      1. Bus/coach driver stops for a tea break on the way home from a day at the seaside for elderly ladies.
        He’s asked to take a photo of the occupants. He thinks he’s got all of them in the shot and two come dawdling out of the ladies toilets.
        COME on you two the organiser with the northern accent shouts, The drivers trying to get us all in to focus……..Wot all of us at wonce they both reply.

  52. Sometimes, I read a text and think “What a psycho!”.
    Then I press send.

  53. BBC has released a list of their highest paid stars…Gary Lineker
    Zoe Ball
    Alan Shearer
    Sorry, we can’t tell you.
    Stephen Nolan
    Fiona Bruce
    Greg James
    Ken Bruce
    Lauren Laverne
    Sophie Raworth

  54. Huw, Huw, Stuart Hall too, Saville, Harris and King…

    Welcome to the B B C
    The Boy Bangers Club.

    1. That other talent-free piece of shit, “Gary Glitter”, wasn’t a BBC employee but you would think he was, judging by the number of times the appalling cretin appeared on telly and radio.

    2. That other talent-free piece of shit, “Gary Glitter”, wasn’t a BBC employee but you would think he was, judging by the number of times the appalling cretin appeared on telly and radio.

  55. Jeremy Vine urges BBC presenter to step forward to protect colleagues. 12 July 2023.

    Jeremy Vine has urged his fellow BBC presenter at the heart of a scandal engulfing the broadcaster to come forward to protect his colleagues.

    Yes come out and take it like a man! Says Jeremy. That well known icon of masculinity. This is quite common, there were three of these on the BBC news this morning. So much for Woke solidarity!

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/12/jeremy-vine-urges-bbc-presenter-step-forward-protect-colleagues

  56. Jeremy Vine urges BBC presenter to step forward to protect colleagues. 12 July 2023.

    Jeremy Vine has urged his fellow BBC presenter at the heart of a scandal engulfing the broadcaster to come forward to protect his colleagues.

    Yes come out and take it like a man! Says Jeremy. That well known icon of masculinity. This is quite common, there were three of these on the BBC news this morning. So much for Woke solidarity!

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/12/jeremy-vine-urges-bbc-presenter-step-forward-protect-colleagues

    1. Yes, we can’t have all our people under suspicion, can we. Just like Cliff Richards when his house was raided by the police and the BBC enjoyed plastering it all over the TV.

  59. Q: What’s the difference between an oral and a rectal thermometer?
    A. The taste!

    2. A Doctor walks in to see the patient………..the patient says hey doc what is that rectal thermometer doing popped on your ear………
      Oh dear says the doc as he grabs it……Some Bums got me Biro

      2. When we still were able to go to the pub after one of the bloody lockdowns, we teased a chum. You know you’ll only be allowed in after your temperature’s been taken? That’s OK he said. Then my husband said but they’re rectal thermometers. Guy nearly fainted. Then he realised who was telling him this.

  60. Q: What’s the difference between an oral and a rectal thermometer?
    A. The taste!

  61. Following the photo of Zelensky alone at the NATO summit, now there is a report that Ben Wallace (who?) is scolding him for not showing appreciation for all that has been “done” for Ukraine.

    The spectacle of these third rate playground bullies lining up against Zelensky now that they are allowed to, is as nauseating as it was to see the way they fawned on him previously.
    Reminds one of Johnson, Macron etc gossiping about Trump behind his back.
    Very inferior sort of people.

    2. Not before blooming time! The laughing gangster should have been called out for what he is, a long time ago!

      1. Hideously awful for the poor mites.
        The people who condone this, and yes that’s you MPs who defend this hideous crime, should be hung, dream and quartered.

    2. The words inappropriate and appropriate are beginning to sound very murky.

      A BBC man pays a 17 year old thousands of pounds for pornographic photos. Apparently this is not illegal but the BBC seems to think it is not inappropriate. This means that the BBC thinks it is appropriate for a well-known presenter to behave in this way?

    1. You do get copy cat allegations when the news breaks. Not saying it isn’t true, mind.

      1. I misread that as “you do get a copy of cat allegations when the news breaks” and thought, he/she/it/ze must have been feelin’ fine 🙂 Shudda gone to Specsavers.

          2. If he really wanted to be noticed he should have worn his leather basque, fishnets and laboutins.

          3. Thanks P.
            That’s an image I didn’t need, and will be stuck with for the rest of the afternoon.

      1. Not against the euro.

        Since we have been in France the pound has devalued against the currency used in France first the French France and now the euro) by over 40%.

  67. Ben Wallace issues warning to Zelensky: Defence Secretary says the West is ‘not an Amazon delivery service for weapons’ and says that ‘people want to see gratitude’ from Ukraine for the military aid it has received

    However he was later brutally slapped down by Rishi Sunak. The PM told a press conference: ‘President Zelensky has expressed his gratitude for what we have done on a number of occasions, not least in his incredibly moving address that he made to Parliament earlier this year and he has done so again to me, as he has done countless times when I have met him.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12291395/Ben-Wallace-warns-president-Zelensky-allies-want-gratitude-Ukraine-military-aid.html

    2. Rishi Sunak lacks the ability to understand that he is being taken for a ride.

      Fool me once – shame on you

      But fool Rishi twice, thrice or four or five times ad infinitum and he will still never learn.

      1. I don’t believe Sunak has an independent thought. He just waits for his orders.

    3. Sunak is a fool and unfit to discharge the responsibilities of a UK Prime Minister. Zelensky is a fraud and a snivelling gangster with a cocaine habit.

      1. We have been up to Warrington today to see the pups. Up the M6 and back down the A1. The journey back home south (A1) was 20 miles longer but so much more pleasant. 380 miles in total. The weather was changeable especially when we were in the environs of Birmingham with heavy, blustery downpours, especially as one would expect, on the M62 taking us towards the A1. As always we noticed it became progressively drier as we headed towards East Anglia, the showers less frequent and prolonged, but still that wretched cold wind when we got out of the car at home.

        1. Long journey for you and the little chap – he’s the pick of the litter, then! What breed is he? Similar to Poppie? Has he got a name yet?

        2. I got Oscar from Warrington – Manchester and Cheshire Dogs’ Home. If you’d come up the A49 you would have passed near me.

    2. We have dodged the downpours today! Twins spent a happy 3 hours looking at, and feeding alpacas, sheep, goats, Highland cattle and donkeys. Then in the play area, exercising Grans biceps! Very local place in the Campsie fells and the owner turns out to be a mother I’ve known for 30 years! Great day out for very little outlay! £2 for the car park and you can buy bags of food for the animals (and children!)

  70. Birdie Three today.

    Wordle 753 3/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Par four here.

      Wordle 753 4/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Here’s what I got, can’t even remember the word.

      Wordle 753 4/6

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

    1. Gorgeous! He has very special paw-prints to fill, but he looks like a dear little soul.

      1. Thank you bb2 – he is lovely, as all young innocent things are. The house was so empty without a dog, I didn’t realise how Poppie’s presence filled the whole house.

        1. You may find he takes over her mantle (and personality). Kadi is starting to become more and more like Charlie, doing similar things, acting in similar ways.

        2. Well done. My Oscar is off to the vet tomorrow for a tooth descale and polish. He’s never had a general anesthetic before though.

          1. Poppie had it done several times, she was fine, until the leaky heart valve put an end to anaesthetics. It is always a worry, though, any procedure involving a g.a.

        3. Well done. My Oscar is off to the vet tomorrow for a tooth descale and polish. He’s never had a general anesthetic before though.

      1. Thank you LotL. He is very sweet and very laid back if a little shy. When he’s walking he looks like a little round tottering barrel, he has so much fluffy puppy hair. As someone said the other day, if I didn’t have a dog in my life I would have a full purse, a clean house, but an empty heart.

      1. Thank you Sue, he is very sweet and a little shy but he took the three and a half hours journey home in the car like a professional, he was very laid back about it. I still miss Poppie so much, I blubbed on the way home and wondered if we’d done the right thing…. but when is the right time? The house felt so empty without a dog in it, and now it doesn’t anymore.

        1. When the twins came on Monday they came up with me to ‘help’ me dry my hair! Generally Hector was still asleep at 8am but there was no Hector and no bed. Stefan said ‘Ector gone’ and Lewis followed with ‘Not coming back’ by which time i was in floods of tears.
          You have done the right thing. You know you have and you won’t regret it. He won’t be a replacement for Poppie because he can’t replace her, but he will be a part of your lives.

        2. Of course you’ve done the right thing and you aren’t being disloyal. A house isn’t a home without a dog (or a cat if that’s your preference).

      1. He’s still a pup, Ndovu, he is 11 weeks old. He’s not a rescue, we applied for a small rescue dog in Wales but no luck, we thought this would take some time if we pursued that route. The small dogs go very quickly, it is usually the larger dogs that are available, the staffies, the lab crosses and the lurchers which need more exercise than we can give them at our age and they are also too strong for us. And with two small grandchildren visiting we need to be very certain of their background. Here is another photograph which gives some idea of scale.
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ec51b52818b129d2d9db4c3d8b8e9abadda8f8019c40aa5e11ffe1070559855.jpg

        1. He’s little, but I expect he will still grow a bit. He’s got a very appealing little face!

          2. We came across a very lovely Jackapoo on Saturday when we took Hector for his final visit to the park. A really cute little black and grey bundle of energy.

          4. 100,000 years of creeping up to the human fire hoping for a scrap of food. I love ’em.

        3. It took me eight weeks of missing out on rescue dogs before I got Oscar (who is flaked out in the kitchen, having condescended to come for a walk this morning).

    6. I’m so happy you have decided upon a new pet – he/she looks like a cuddly little friend.

      I wish you all the very best.

      1. Thank you, Tom, he is very sweet but I did shed some tears for my old friend on the way home. But the house is so empty without a dog in it. We have to find a name for him, we expected to come home with a female doggie!

        1. I know what you mean about the house being empty – it’s like that here, without Lily. After Suzie disappeared it was the same…….

          3. And with a cat, the outside seems empty as well as the house, the ‘prowling grounds’.

          4. Lily didn’t do much ‘prowling’ – she just liked to sit somewhere warm. She spent her last couple of weeks outside, by the oleander – I had to be careful not to splash her when I watered it.

        3. I quite understand, there can never be replacement for the one you hold dear. all you can do is hold onto Poppy’s memory but allow this one to worm his way into your heart. Have a hug and give the little one a hug as well.

        4. Of course you did. He will never replace Poppie. I still get weepy over Charlie and I lost him over 2 years ago.

          1. There are many clips on YouTube with Goldens and some of them make me cry- I miss all three of them so much. Especially my beloved Fred.

          6. Like my mate, got himself a new dog. It was mainly black and brown with a tiny patch of white, so he called him ‘Bradford’.

          7. Perfect!
            How are you today? Any joy getting through to a helpful human at the hospital?

          8. Sort of- spoke to a specialist cancer nurse and can’t go any sooner than Friday but I got the appt pushed back to 12. 30 as I simply can’t rush around these days.
            Husband is home now after a long day – they drained 10 litres off him which, if they repaired his stent, would not be necessary.
            Envy of the world? Gawd help us all.

          9. Shocking that they can’t get you in as an emergency. You’d probably be seen sooner in a 3rd world hole.
            How often does your husband have that procedure done? Surely, repairing the stent would cost less in the long run. 10 litres drained – that’s a heck of a lot.
            If we treated animals to such neglect, we’d be prosecuted (and rightly so). I bet any illegals who have medical issues, big or small, are treated promptly.

          2. Can’t remember who wrote it but there a lovely book about a dog who likes being in a racing car with his owner… The Art of.Racing in the Rain I think is the title. Made me bawl my eyes out but what a story and the dog is called Enzo.

          3. And a movie, Lotty:

            “Through his bond with his owner, aspiring Formula One race car driver Denny, golden retriever Enzo learns that the techniques needed on the racetrack can . . .”

            Perhaps that cheered you up!

        1. Spot?

          Seriously, in my experience, names just sort of materialise. We decided on “Rob” for my late hound – which rapidly changed to Robinson and then – for most of his life, “Beags” (he was a beagle…)

          Cats – Augustus and Pickles are now known as Gus and Poodlecat. Emily quickly became Pluto…

          Daft, aren’t we? But great joy for you and young Spot!! How trusting dogs are – more so than cats – to begin with, anyway.

    10. As savage an attack killer hound as you are ever likely to meet.
      You feed him on burglars I assume?

        1. He is a cutie and I think he approves of his new staff.
          Here’s to many happy years together.

    13. A he’s adorable, B he’s beautiful, C he’s cuddly …. you get the idea 🙂

    14. I wonder if the puppy can sense that there was a loved predecessor, and it helps to settle them?

      1. I have wondered that too, he has been having a good sniff around. Two hours ago he arrived as shy as could be, the garden was overwhelming for him, and now I’ve just been chased around the garden with him several times nose to my heel. It hasn’t taken long.

    17. Aaahhhh …. I’ve just dissolved into puddle of sentimental gloop.
      Spartie’s new bed for the summerhouse arrived today (it even tones with the decor – how naff can you get); while I opened the box, he knew it was something for him. HOW do they know?
      Or do they assume the world centres round them?

      2. They KNOW the world revolves around them! Oscar and Kadi investigate everything that comes into the house from groceries to camping equipment. I am forever saying, “It isn’t for YOU!”

    19. Found this just now, PM. Not sure who wrote it, but it seems appropriate.
      🙂

      Lend Me a Pup
      I will lend to you for a while a puppy, God said,
      For you to love him while he lives
      and to mourn for him when he is gone.
      Maybe for 12 or 14 years, or maybe for 2 or 3
      But will you, till I call him back,
      take care of him for me?

      He’ll bring his charms to gladden you and
      (should his stay be brief)
      you’ll always have his memories
      as solace for your grief.
      I cannot promise that he will stay
      since all from Earth return,
      But there are lessons taught below
      I want this pup to learn.

      I’ve looked the whole world over
      in search of teachers true,
      And from the fold that crowd life’s land
      I have chosen you.
      Now will you give him all your love
      Nor think the labour vain,
      nor hate me when I come to take
      my pup back again?

      I fancied that I heard them say,
      “Dear Lord, They Will Be Done,”
      For all the joys this pup will bring
      the risk of grief you’ll run.
      Will you shelter him with tenderness,
      Will you love him while you may?
      And for the happiness you’ll know
      forever grateful stay?

      But should I call him back
      much sooner than you’ve planned,
      please brave the bitter grief that comes
      and try to understand.
      If, by your love, you’ve managed
      my wishes to achieve,
      In memory of him that you’ve loved,
      cherish every moment with your faithful bundle,
      and know he loved you too.

      1. Oh dear, that brought me to tears again. It’s beautiful, and so true. Thank you. I have saved it for future reference. I said only the other day that for all the pain, that I haven’t felt the like of for years and years that we have had from losing Poppie, we wouldn’t have missed our time with her for the world. Every day we spent with her was a delight, and hopefully will be with this little fellow also.

      1. Thank you! He arrived very shy, the garden overwhelming him – an hour later he was chasing my heels round the garden and then, inside, using the sofa as an exploratory climbing frame.

    22. Oh, he’s gorgeous! His colouring reminds me of the froth on a well-made cappuccino! ❤

      1. It reminds me of a toasted marshmallow!

        Thanks so much for your email, I’ll reply this evening, atd.

  74. Afternoon, all. I think the letter writer hasn’t read the programme book; not only will you have nothing and be happy, you won’t be able to travel anywhere either (unless you own a private jet, of course).

  75. Aaaaaaand it’s Huw Edwards who has promptly rushed of to hospiddle with “mental issues”

      1. I am genuinely amazed. Can’t stand the bloke – but that’s another matter. I assume that the “accusers” are female….but will we ever know?

    4. ‘Mental Health Issues’ never seem to be a problem when it’s a member of the Far Right they’re hounding.

  76. That’s me for today. It did rain – briefly. Just enough to wet the leaves. Better than nothing, I suppose. Market tomorrow.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain…

    1. 374378+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      As I said prior, first the soft threat then mandatory, as it is with lodgering it will be with rodgering.

    2. I’ll lose, I know I’ll lose, but I’ll be the best second they’ve ever damned seen.

    3. This vile control has, according to the post, already been passed in the ROI. How many elderly and vulnerable householders will this put in danger?
      Would any of the politicians who voted this in allow their spare rooms to be used in this way? At the very least, tif they think it’s such a good idea, they should be forced to join the system.

    4. I’d set fire to the house first and go and live with family (but don’t tell them that)

  78. Huw Edwards’ wife Vicky Flind names him as BBC star at
    centre of ‘£35k sex pics scandal’: Statement issued on presenter’s
    behalf claims he is in hospital suffering from ‘serious mental health
    issues’ – as Met Police say ‘no offence has been committed’
    Huw Edwards has been named by his wife as the presenter involved

    2. Like I give a sh*t- they are all as corrupt as anything. Decent people don’t do stuff like that.

    4. Funny how he’s only just got ‘mental health issues’ – the all encompassing excuse

      1. It must be caused by all that dosh he earns. And/or guilty conscience now he’s been found out for behaving in a mucky manner. (Legal or otherwise)

      1. But he’s not a ‘brilliant’ broadcaster, is he? He’s a sneering, patronising Welshman with no humour or people skills!

  79. They are calling Huw’s affliction a mental illness.
    So are they saying this sort of homosexual activity is linked to mental illness?

      2. This is going to hound us all for months.
        Wadda loada bolero.. He got caught. End of..
        Apparently his wife Dobbed him in.

      3. Shouldn’t have done it, then. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the (morally wrong but not a) crime.

    2. Oh well he won’t be seen again.
      Given his position at this moment in time. I’m just pleased our original and genuine Royal family didn’t have to go through all this.
      I expect they would have been terribly embarrassed.
      At least he won’t be knighted, it could be a close shave.
      He wouldn’t be safe to be allowed out in the dark.

  80. Funny thing about this Huw Edwards business. I already notice the BBC types and assorted lefties going for the “No Offence Has Been Committed” line …. AND YET, I’m very sure that many millions of viewers, especially those who took the Funeral and Coronation seriously, will be left MOST DEEPLY OFFENDED.

    2. Even if it turns out he broke no law, it still sounds like there was seedy inappropriate behaviour, especially as he allegedly paid the ‘youth’ so much money. It’s his wife I feel sorry for.

          1. Given that he’s 60 or 61 his children ( 3 sons, 2 daughters) could range in age from 30-ish down to mid teens depending on his age when his wife gave birth to the eldest.

        1. That’s true. Did her husband’s seedy behaviour come as a shock to her or had she suspected for a while?
          By outing him, is she disowning him, hoping none of the brown sticky stuff attaches itself to her?

          1. I cannot comment on the state of marital harmony – or otherwise, Mum2.

            I just don’t know.

    4. I keep repeating that Blair could not distinguish between illegal and immoral when he said Blunkett had done nothing wrong in his adulterous doings.

      Now anything that is not illegal is appropriate so that’s all right isn’t it!

  81. Litotes is an ironic understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g. I shan’t be sorry for I shall be glad)

    Another example of litotes:

    It is not inappropriate for people who have mental health issues to ask teenagers to give them pornographic photographs of themselves.

  82. Oh good.
    Each of these vermin will now cost us £50,000 per annum.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/12/family-used-wife-house-slave-honour-based-abuse-london/

    “Family used wife as a house slave and forced her to drink engine oil

    Husband and his relatives jailed for subjecting victim to five years of ‘honour-based’ abuse and coercive behaviour

    By Telegraph Reporters 12 July 2023 • 5:37pm

    A husband and his four relatives used his wife as a house slave during 18 months of “honour-based” abuse, a court heard.

    The victim was threatened with death and made to drink engine oil by the family.

    Mohammed-Shuaib Arshid, 28, came to the UK with his new wife after entering into an arranged marriage in Pakistan.

    They moved into a house in Hillingdon, west London, shared with his father Arshid Sadiq, 54, mother Nabila Shaheen, 56, brother Aqeel Arshid, 32, and sister Zaib Arshid, 27.

    Coercive behaviour

    Arshid’s relatives all subjected his wife to coercive behaviour including stopping her from calling her family and friends on her mobile phone without permission.

    She was stopped from leaving the house on her own and had no access to her personal identity documents.

    The woman could not attend college and had no access to cash so she had to beg her husband for money for basic toiletries.

    The victim was also forced to cook and clean throughout the day before she could go to bed.

    Convictions

    She was mentally and physically abused by all five members of the family, causing long-term psychological harm.

    While on bail, Mohammed Shuaib-Arshid committed a further offence of false imprisonment against another relative and was jailed for eight years.

    The five members of the family were each convicted of controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate or family relationship and holding a person in slavery or servitude.

    The abuse went on between October 2017 and April 2019 at the shared family home.

    Mohammed-Shuaib Arshid was jailed for 11 years; Arshid Sadiq to seven years; Nabila Shaheen to four years; Aqeel and Zaib to 21 months each.

    All five family members were also made subject to an indefinite restraining order, preventing any further contact with the victim.

    ‘Honour-based abuse’

    Paul Jenkins, a senior district crown prosecutor for the CPS, said: “The victim believed that they were moving into a safe family home with a loving husband, but the subsequent actions of [the family] proved that this was not the case.

    “The victim was subject to regular abuse whilst under their care, resulting in serious physical and psychological harm.”

    A CPS spokesman said: “Being the victim of violence or sexual assault is undoubtedly a harrowing experience – but when this abuse is ‘honour-based’, the challenges can often feel impossible to overcome.

    “If someone is seen to have dishonoured or brought shame on a family or community, they can be ‘punished’ through threatening behaviour, rape, kidnap, false imprisonment, female genital mutilation, forced marriage and even murder – also known as honour killings.” ‘

    1. Even before I scrolled down to the names, it was unlikely to be a British or other Western family.

      3. Castrate all the male in the family and sterilise all the females who took part. Then send them back.

    3. Why do our prisons cost so much? 1 sandwich and apple a day, 2 litres of rain water a day. After the third offence melt the key in the lock and leave them there forever.

  83. So Huw dunnit. Huwda thought it (SWMBO did, she had him down as ‘iffy’ a long time ago).

      1. A well respected Italian artist, architect, goes into his local in a town in Victoria. Oz.
        The barman senses the gloom….
        Cheer up Luigi have a beer.
        Luigi replies I liva here a40 a years and I design a wonderful abuildings. Do they calla me Luigi the architectect ?? Hah never..
        Never mind Luigi have a beer on the house. I livea here 40 ayears my paintings are in every apublic building ina da town. People lovea thema.
        Do they calla me Luigi the artist do they afurk. I livea her fortya bloodya years and I shagga one a sheep……

  84. Huw Edwards:

    He was the BBC’s chosen presenter-in-chief for the Queen Elizabeth II funeral; not a good choice with hindsight.

    I never thought he was a good choice; he’s a miserable Welshman with funereal tones.

    2. I didn’t think he was a good choice, but he did keep fairly quiet and let the music and the ceremony speak for themselves. He made a better job of it than I thought he would.

  85. I’m feeling a tad sorry for Huw, when he signed up as a newsreader he wasn’t expecting to be the Lord Haw Haw of globalism.
    Just think of the strain he must have been under, all those years of endlessly repeating untruths about great men like Trump and Farage, all that fake news covering the election steal in the USA and the false flag insurrection, not to mention all the climate and net zero nonsense.
    It would be enough to make a Saint crazy.
    Who would deny him a little perverted me time as a way of easing his conscience?

    1. didn’t he just get a humungous pay rise?
      He could have quit at any time.
      He didn’t.
      He liked it.

      1. I don’t think so. I read that it was a pay cut. I think he was also one of those whose pay was cut when the wimmin demanded more a few years back.

    2. Which reminds me the authorities have yet to release Epstein’s Client List (saving one royal personage)

    3. I’m already fed up with the people trying to justify his actions by saying his mental ishoos have left him ‘bedridden’ in the past!!🙄 He’s obviously an absolute saint having to put up with that sort of strain….🤮🥺

        1. Ah…but…but…it’s never about the money! How quickly did you have to change your name??😆

        2. 500 grand a year would enable you to put it up quite a lot.
          There, that’s fixed…

        3. 500 grand a year would enable you to put it up quite a lot.
          There, that’s fixed…

  86. The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

    Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

    But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

    Men at Arms, Terry Pratchett.

    1. Absolutely true. I’m still wearing boots and shoes I had over 20 years ago.

      1. #metoo.
        Clothes the same.
        Cheap clothes wear out, quality (= not cheap) don’t, or can be repaired.
        My Harris tweed, for example, dates from 1990 and looks untouched. The liner needed replaced about 20 years ago.

        1. I always buy the best I can afford, particularly shoes. It’s false economy otherwise.

          1. It’s a luxury those of us who have never given a fig for fashion can indulge in. SWMBO’s the same – classic clothes.

        2. I still have two perfectly serviceable Barbour jackets one of which is 40+ years old and the other 30. Both been back for repairs and rewaxing but both still in use.

      2. My Trickers Tramps and Brogues have survived since I bought them in the Jermyn Street sale in 1974. Leather soles with rubber plant and steel heel quarter inserts.

    2. Not keen on his novels, but the boot/shoe point was and is extremely relevant.

      1. Fantastic writer, Terry Pratchett, sadly now dead but his books were all taking the piss out of the Establishment.

        2. I didn’t mind a bit of humour in my sci-fi (eg. Harry Harrison), and his HHGTTG was okay on the radio, I just didn’t get on with his writing. Maybe I should have another try.

    3. Its a pity so many people still think that way.
      They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
      I used to wear very good quality Northampton shoes. When repair was needed I sent them back to the makers in Northampton and they came back like new and lasted for years and years. I saved a fortune and was wearing top quality shoes. I had several pairs.

        1. “Barker Shoes have been an English tradition for 140 years. Only the most carefully selected leathers are used and the uppers are shaped on the last by hand. Many other traditional shoemaking methods are still employed including slow natural drying and polishing. This is why Barker English shoes have a unique quality that no machine can ever match. Barker have been making shoes in the Northamptonshire village of Earls Barton since 1880. In a changing world, it’s good to know you can still find perfection if you look for it.”

          https://www.barkershoes.com/pages/about-us

          My pair have lasted (pardon the pun) over 25 years!

          1. I’ve been looking at Lanx shoes, made by hand in Lancashire, any knowledge of them?

      2. He’s right in a way, but what’s forgotten is that the rich buy better quality goods (luxury items) which require more skills and likely marketing and so on.

        Those manufacturers are better paid and thus spend their money on other luxuries and lo! Everyone gets richer and better off. A rising tide lifts all boats and what not. It’s such a simple fact – something guardian readers don’t understand – they seem to think that if you take what rich people have and give it to the poor that’s ‘fair’. What that attitude never accounts for is that motivated, hard working people really don’t like being robbed to pay feckless freeloaders and take their monies away from the state, so it fall on the next lot down and the economy tanks.

  87. I’m sure it will change, but here’s the Beeb’s front page:
    https://www.bbc.com/
    Headlines
    Welcome to BBC.comWednesday, 12 July
    Biden
    Biden says ‘we will not waver’ in support for Ukraine
    The US president is speaking about the continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

    WORLD
    Biden says ‘we will not waver’ in support for Ukraine
    Video posted on Instagram
    Uproar over Italian judge’s 10-second groping rule
    EUROPE
    Uproar over Italian judge’s 10-second groping rule
    E Jean Carroll
    Trump loses immunity in E Jean Carroll lawsuit
    US
    Trump loses immunity in E Jean Carroll lawsuit
    Screenshot of Meta’s Threads app on smartphone
    Why brands are leaving social media
    WORKLIFE
    Why brands are leaving social media
    (Credit: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
    Why are audiences behaving badly?
    CULTURE
    Why are audiences behaving badly?
    News
    Huw Edwards
    Huw Edwards named as BBC presenter at centre of scandal
    Vicky Flind says her husband is “suffering mental health issues” and is now receiving in-patient hospital care.

    UKHuw Edwards named as BBC presenter at centre of scandal
    Sir Salman Rushdie before receiving his Outstanding Achievement award at the South Bank Sky Arts Awards at The Savoy in London on 2 July 2023
    Rushdie has ‘crazy dreams’ about stabbing attack
    A near-fatal stabbing in New York last year left the acclaimed author blind in one eye.

    ENTERTAINMENT & ARTSRushdie has ‘crazy dreams’ about stabbing attack
    Leslie Van Houten
    Ex-Manson follower released after 53 years in jail
    Charles Manson cult follower Leslie Van Houten was convicted in the 1969 murder of a California couple.

    US & CANADAEx-Manson follower released after 53 years in jail
    Sport
    Heather Knight
    England well-placed in chase of 264 to beat Australia and level Ashes
    Follow live Test Match Special commentary, highlights and live text from the first ODI of the women’s Ashes between England and Australia.

    CRICKETEngland well-placed in chase of 264 to beat Australia and level Ashes
    Noam Emeran scores for Man Utd
    Man Utd beat Leeds in pre-season opener – plus transfer news
    Man Utd beat Leeds in pre-season friendly while Tottenham’s Harry Kane returns for training as speculation continues over his future.

    FOOTBALLMan Utd beat Leeds in pre-season opener – plus transfer news
    Elena Rybakina
    Defending champion Rybakina beaten by Jabeur
    Defending champion Elena Rybakina loses in the Wimbledon quarter-finals as Ons Jabeur avenges her defeat in last year’s final.

    TENNISDefending champion Rybakina beaten by Jabeur

    2. I wonder if they would allow a Muslim group to come in and pray for the destruction of the Church of England?

      Stoopid boy, allow it? They would positively encourage it!

    3. How the hell do they know? Prayer is usually silent unless part of a service.

        1. I was in Heidelberg at the time. My German host reported the York Minster fire to me with the advice not to worry because the Five Sisters were unaffected.

          That a German scientist and academic would hold such knowledge about an English Cathedral was most moving and encouraging. I doubt many Englishmen would know what he was referring to.

          3. I think the German education system is somewhat more thorough (and academic) than ours, particularly as it has become in recent years.

    6. On the other hand they wonder why Christianity is collapsing. It religion won’t provide certainty and conviction of faith then what’s the point of it?

  89. And now for something completely different. We played Bridge yesterday. The end result being from the Sublime (last week) to the ridiculous this week (must do better). Whilst waiting for the session to start I got talking to a chap who was carrying a crutch so I asked him: “What have you done to your leg?” He told me that in the late 1990’s he had been working alone on a farm and got into a bit of trouble with a piece of machinery that had cleanly amputated his leg above the knee. Realising he had only two choices – 1) to bleed to death or 2) to crawl to fetch help he choose option 2. He didn’t have any string or a belt to create a tourniquet so he plunged his fingers into the main blood vessel, and hauled himself to the edge of the field, crawled under the barbed wire, across the road, across the farmyard concrete and hauled himself up to the farmhouse front door so he could finally summon help.
    All in all, to this day, remarkably cheerful!

        1. Most dangerous workplace there is.
          Diggy, cutty stuff with no guards. Rusty stuff, and creatures that bite and stab.
          We always wear PPE, including armoured boots and also bump caps when necessary.

  90. Huw Edwards
    Three holes in the ground.

    What Oi don’t understand, is, when the t’internet is awash with pornography, why someone would need to pay someone 000’s for photos.

    1. I will pay you £20,000 for a pic of your erect left nipple….then….once you have done that i will make you another offer. It’s about control.

      1. What’s become of taking someone out for a nice dinner before getting intimate?

  91. I hear that Gordon Brown is now complaining about the new Welshman sharing his padded cell

    1. I wish there was something I could do to help, Ann.
      I hope things improve soon.

    2. Sorry to see that, Lottie, like BofB I wish there was something any of us could do to help. But as your ‘cheerleaders’ we’ll keep on with the good wishes and high hopes for improvement for you and your husband.

      1. They would not hurl such a terrible insult at him, surely. They appear to have decided that he is the victim in the case.

      2. They would not hurl such a terrible insult at him, surely. They appear to have decided that he is the victim in the case.

  94. Bearing in mind today’s revelations

    I’m surprised that nobody has called for the BBC to be nationalised yet

  95. What a day and I’ve lost possession of the TV remote controller. Not much hope left now. Might have to get some R&R…..A Red Refill.
    Back tomorrow.
    Night all.

    1. Mongo controls ours. If you change the channel he’ll bark at you. If you don’t, you get death stares (which are really just funny) until you change it back.

  97. The text of a Tw@ter post:

    Bo
    @KingBobIIV
    Dear Huw Edwards,

    Of ALL the BBC perverts and weirdos and Brexit-Hating, Working class-Loathing middle class, sneering licence fee grifters, you’re probably one of of the favourites. You’ve always done a good job representing the Royal Coverage and what you don’t know about Camillas broach collection, isn’t worth knowing.

    We all love a bit of cock, let’s be honest. All you need to do is say “sorry”, and the British Public will move on. Its the mistake Schofield made.

    Don’t top yourself over some gay porn wanking, for all your faults, (and none of us are faultless) you have 5 kids, your wife loves you and you have a good pension. That’s more than most of us. Just say, “sorry about the cock, sorry to my wife and kids” and admit that the BBC is owned by the WEF, Vaccines are killing people and the whole gender thing is bollocks, and we can all move on.

    https://twitter.com/KingBobIIV/status/1679208628211838982

  98. The BBC on the Dutch transgender beauty queen;

    ““They [people] told me ‘she’s a pretty girl but she can go to the trans pageantry because it [Miss Netherlands] is for real women’.

    “So then I’m like ‘OK you’re calling me a pretty girl, but also telling me that I’m not a real woman’.”

    Couldn’t they just have some sort of proofreading.

      1. My dig was the “They [people] told me ‘she’s a pretty girl but she can go to the trans pageantry because it [Miss Netherlands] is for real women’.

    2. I think the BBC is so myopic it can’t present the truth in an unbiased fashion.

    3. I had to complain to GB News today because the presenters of Headliners were calling this man “she”. I don’t expect to be insulted by GB News. These men that call other men “she” – don’t they have wives, mothers, sisters, daughters who object to men taking over all things female?

  99. A useful couple of hours work today. The removal of a large elm, 12″ dia. that fell over up the hill a couple of years back.
    One of three, the other two, together with a few collateral bits of other trees, were removed last year and are now chopped & stacked ready for the coming winter.
    This one, again together with collateral ash & sycamore logs, are awaiting further sawing, chopping and stacking for winter ’24/25.

    Unexpectedly, I found some redcurrant plants that I’m planning to dig up and replant somewhere more convenient in the autumn. Not a lot of fruit on them, but it will all go into a mixed fruit crumble!

      1. Not stupid at all….it made me literally sick so not taking it again. Mind you, a diet of paracetamol, codeine and ibuprofin ain’t much better.

  103. I have been off colour or a few days , strange symptons , and a hacking cough.

    Saw the quack yesterday afternoon , my last Covid jab was last summer . I had a long conversation with him. He suggested that the Covid jabs have been known to provoke other autoimmune reactions which can cause irritating / or serious conditions .

    He also suggested that we should all avoid additive bound food , and we should be kind to our bodies by resting our guts and pancreas and liver by occasionally fasting , delaying breakfast , avoiding all branded cereals .

    The 5:2 diet, also known as The Fast Diet, is a popular intermittent fasting diet. It was popularized by British journalist Michael Mosley. It’s called the 5:2 diet because five days of the week are routine eating days, while the other two restrict calories to 500–600 per day.

    My feelings about that BBC newsreader are ambivalent .

    Have any of you read the novel Catch 22.. and the film?

    Coined by American author Joseph Heller in 1961 in his novel Catch-22, in which the main character feigns madness in order to avoid dangerous combat missions, but his desire to avoid them is taken to prove his sanity.

    Huw Edwards is an absolute flower, big girls blouse . He should resign from the BBC.. (He hasn’t and wants to return to explain his story)

    He bolted and scuttled and ran .

    1. If reports are to be believed in this case it appears to be Catch 17…..(allegedly)

    2. Mosley is a doctor (as is his wife) and the main thrust of his diet range is to follow a Mediterranean diet. I found it very good. Felt a lot better for it, better sleep etc. There’s a range of options – not just 5:2.

    3. For the past four weeks I have been on a strict four-meals-a-week diet (and I’m not kidding you). On Fridays, Saturday, Mondays and Wednesdays I eat one meal that is high fat, medium protein, low carb, and no sugar. On Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I eat nothing, just drinking water, tea, coffee and Bovril throughout the day.

      I have not felt better in my life and I never (not a word of a lie) get hungry (only carbs and sugar drive hunger: fats and proteins give satiety).

      1. I wouldn’t want to restrict my intake as much as you have but if it makes you feel better it must be OK. It seems a bit rigid though.

      2. Hi Grizzly

        I suspected you were on a strict routine .

        Brilliant , and what does 600 calories a day look like ?

        My doctor suggested that all the additives in food , even the odd biscuit , cracker , pastry, cereal, crisps, soups etc were poisoning the nation .

        Your last sentence about carbs and sugar driving hunger is spot on . My doctor said exactly the same as you.. it was almost a health of the nation lecture .. and he suggested the food and drink industry were killing the nation .

        He said that he and many other doctors use the 5.2 diet, and is now a way of life.

      3. Only four days eating per week, Grizzly? You must be sick as a dog. Lol.

    4. I don’t really fancy restrictive diets, I just eat what I like, avoid fizzy drinks etc, but I have cut down on carbs recently (last six months or so) and feel better for it.
      I’m glad you’ve had a chat with the doctor- he sounds sensible.
      I probably do fast for 14 hours or so as I don’t have breakfast till late. That’s my only carbs most days now as I eat very little bread.
      Not sure what to think about Huw Edwards – it’s likely he paid the money to keep the kids quiet. Bit of a perve though.

        1. When I was ill and off my food I stayed in bed and drank White Burgundy for sustenance. It eventually worked.

          In your case try thin soup or broth. Some of the energy drinks are good such as Kombucha or even Lucozade.

          When we were unwell and bed ridden as kids we loved Lucozade. That and orange juice with ginger biscuits.

        3. After my gall bladder op, I couldn’t face food for about a week. The only thing I could eat that didn’t make me feel sick was jelly. Have you tried that? As Ndovu says, you should eat something.

    5. The Covid vaccines are proven to be highly suspect. Some early doses were particularly toxic and responsible for the premature deaths of millions and severe injuries to millions more.

      Pfizer and Moderna panicked and provided millions of doses of saline solution, charging the same exorbitant rates as the killer doses, yet trying to disguise their intent to depopulate the whole Earth.

      We are dealing with the most despicable and vile entities in this Covid episode. It includes all
      Politicians, in particular Bunter Johnson, Matt Hancock and the pseudo scientific folk such as Jeremy Farrar, Whitty, Vallance and the numerous drug pushers such as Dame Sarah Gilbert and others.

      In my whole life thus far I never ever imagined that I would witness such evil and deceit in both government and our formerly respected institutions. Yet here we are.

      1. It’s been established that the people who consider themselves as important had sterile water jabs.
        If they had the same jabs as the rest of the population they would have suffered from the same conditions and death. But none of them did. Let’s face it if they had we’d never have heard the end of it all.
        Bore-us faked his covid, he was in hospital for a very short time.
        And the Australian nurse who was suposed to have looked after him, went to live in the USA soon after.

    7. It just goes to show that the old sayings are usually correct.
      It’s not just what you know, it’s huw you know that counts. 😄

      I had the same symptoms as yours earlier this year. I believe it’s known as Long Covid. Even though we both had covid in August last year.
      I Lost my taste for months as well.

      1. Morning, Eddy.
        Does that last sentence mean you wear white socks with sandals? Shirley Nott!

        1. Oh how dare you 😄🤔 its something i have never worn. Sparkling 👠 stiletto on occasions. 🤗

    1. No. The BBC pervert turns out to be a leftie (who knew?) and has played the mental health card with the gay tendency aspect providing a full house. No crime has been committed so all OK. You know, just like Boris. And no MP used parliamentary privilege to name him. You know, just like Farage.

        1. I always thought Huw Edwards the model for the Welsh ‘only Gay in the Village’. It is the curling lip, the disdain for public opinion and the measured surety that the BBC protects every pervert under the Sun.

          Good fucking riddance to the sodomist.

          1. When you look at politicians around the World it seems Sodom has been upstaged by Mordor making them mordormists!

  106. Spending millions on fancy hotel rooms for migrants shows we have failed on immigration

    The gap between the Westminster elite’s attitude to illegal migration and the experience of normal people is now a terrifying chasm

    ALLISON PEARSON • 12 July 2023

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d34876f0c5638b5940cf1c77193ce8f950ae70dbe2e4598bc313aef38112f1e.jpg
    The Stradey Park Hotel and Spa in my home town of Llanelli is a delightful place. Set into a wooded hillside in West Wales, the converted Edwardian mansion has a crenellated rooftop and large picture windows looking out onto rolling lawns. Sit outside on a nice day and you can drink in heart-lifting views of the Gower Peninsula and the glimmering sea. My mum very occasionally treats herself to afternoon tea there with friends and it’s where couples go to enjoy landmark anniversary dinners.

    Llanelli doesn’t have many special-occasion places so Stradey Park has come to play a treasured role in the life of the town. Or, at least, it did. All events, including weddings, have now been cancelled and 95 members of staff have been made redundant as part of a plan to convert Stradey Park into a housing facility for 241 asylum seekers.

    The locals are outraged. The sudden change in use of Stradey Park (staff were informed not long ago that their jobs would be terminated on Monday) has seen angry protests outside the hotel.

    Horse manure was used to daub door-handles of vans from a security company brought in by the Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd, one of Britain’s largest providers of housing to the Home Office. The hotel’s two main entrances have been blocked off by large rocks and demonstrators are stopping people coming and going. It’s a siege. Four lorry-loads of Home Office-approved beds are still waiting to be delivered to the hotel which was due to start receiving the migrants on July 3. Protesters are refusing to allow them through the barricades which are being marshalled by police.

    Carmarthenshire County Council lost its bid for a High Court injunction to temporarily block plans to use the 77-bedroom Stradey Park as an asylum hotel. The council claimed it would mean a “material change of use from hotel to hostel” and went against planning regulations.

    The Furnace Action Committee (Furnace is the tiny village on the outskirts of Llanelli where the hotel sits), a local group opposing the scheme, says the influx will entirely change the character of the village, almost doubling its population overnight.

    Frankly, I share their fury and sense of disbelief. Llanelli is a poor town, just getting by like so many, and to lose 95 incomes with hotel staff being laid off is a disaster. As residents point out, you can’t get an appointment at the doctor’s although, no doubt, a GP will be up to see the illegal arrivals in our country faster than you can say “uncontrolled borders”.

    The gap between the bien-pensant Westminster elite’s attitude to illegal migration and the experience of normal people is now a terrifying chasm. Why should the Stradey Park Hotel where my mother and other wonderful ladies in their eighties take tea be confiscated from its community and given to strangers who have done worse than nothing to deserve it? Why are we paying, and paying, and paying, for the incompetence of our useless Government which could summon up the courage to stop the small boats, but prefers to slyly inflict the consequences on the poorest parts of the nation instead?

    Well, I stand with the defenders of Stradey Park Hotel. Yma o Hyd! We shall overcome. Let’s hope my marvellous Welsh compatriots, blessed with the sturdy tenacity of pit ponies and with a defiant song in their hearts, spark a protest movement across the country that even the Government won’t be able to ignore. Enough really is enough.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/07/12/stradey-park-hotel-asylum-seekers-immigration/

    1. Serious concern is that a Labour government will introduce compulsory billeting of illegals.

  107. Spending millions on fancy hotel rooms for migrants shows we have failed on immigration

    The gap between the Westminster elite’s attitude to illegal migration and the experience of normal people is now a terrifying chasm

    ALLISON PEARSON • 12 July 2023

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d34876f0c5638b5940cf1c77193ce8f950ae70dbe2e4598bc313aef38112f1e.jpg
    The Stradey Park Hotel and Spa in my home town of Llanelli is a delightful place. Set into a wooded hillside in West Wales, the converted Edwardian mansion has a crenellated rooftop and large picture windows looking out onto rolling lawns. Sit outside on a nice day and you can drink in heart-lifting views of the Gower Peninsula and the glimmering sea. My mum very occasionally treats herself to afternoon tea there with friends and it’s where couples go to enjoy landmark anniversary dinners.

    Llanelli doesn’t have many special-occasion places so Stradey Park has come to play a treasured role in the life of the town. Or, at least, it did. All events, including weddings, have now been cancelled and 95 members of staff have been made redundant as part of a plan to convert Stradey Park into a housing facility for 241 asylum seekers.

    The locals are outraged. The sudden change in use of Stradey Park (staff were informed not long ago that their jobs would be terminated on Monday) has seen angry protests outside the hotel.

    Horse manure was used to daub door-handles of vans from a security company brought in by the Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd, one of Britain’s largest providers of housing to the Home Office. The hotel’s two main entrances have been blocked off by large rocks and demonstrators are stopping people coming and going. It’s a siege. Four lorry-loads of Home Office-approved beds are still waiting to be delivered to the hotel which was due to start receiving the migrants on July 3. Protesters are refusing to allow them through the barricades which are being marshalled by police.

    Carmarthenshire County Council lost its bid for a High Court injunction to temporarily block plans to use the 77-bedroom Stradey Park as an asylum hotel. The council claimed it would mean a “material change of use from hotel to hostel” and went against planning regulations.

    The Furnace Action Committee (Furnace is the tiny village on the outskirts of Llanelli where the hotel sits), a local group opposing the scheme, says the influx will entirely change the character of the village, almost doubling its population overnight.

    Frankly, I share their fury and sense of disbelief. Llanelli is a poor town, just getting by like so many, and to lose 95 incomes with hotel staff being laid off is a disaster. As residents point out, you can’t get an appointment at the doctor’s although, no doubt, a GP will be up to see the illegal arrivals in our country faster than you can say “uncontrolled borders”.

    The gap between the bien-pensant Westminster elite’s attitude to illegal migration and the experience of normal people is now a terrifying chasm. Why should the Stradey Park Hotel where my mother and other wonderful ladies in their eighties take tea be confiscated from its community and given to strangers who have done worse than nothing to deserve it? Why are we paying, and paying, and paying, for the incompetence of our useless Government which could summon up the courage to stop the small boats, but prefers to slyly inflict the consequences on the poorest parts of the nation instead?

    Well, I stand with the defenders of Stradey Park Hotel. Yma o Hyd! We shall overcome. Let’s hope my marvellous Welsh compatriots, blessed with the sturdy tenacity of pit ponies and with a defiant song in their hearts, spark a protest movement across the country that even the Government won’t be able to ignore. Enough really is enough.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/07/12/stradey-park-hotel-asylum-seekers-immigration/

  108. The crowning of Miss Netherlands is a brazenly ambitious form of misogyny

    When I was growing up, men were best at most things. Little did we know that one day, they would be better than women at beauty contests

    ALLISON PEARSON • 12 July 2023

    The Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte has resigned, triggering the collapse of the four-party coalition government over the issue of migration. It would have been so much better if Rutte had resigned in principle over the Miss Netherlands competition which was won on Saturday by Rikkie Valerie Kolle, 22, a trans woman.

    I don’t think anyone is seriously suggesting that Kolle was the prettiest contestant. The rapturously lovely runner-up made the winner look even more like a stray Grand National entrant. But this is not about fairness – or, God forbid, being fair of face. That probably conforms to some now-banned Western “heteronormative” ideal of beauty.

    What this is about is providing “a voice and role model” (Kolle’s entry profile for the competition). “I know better than anyone what it’s like to feel alone and not be surrounded by only positive thoughts,” wrote the 22-year-old, who will take part in the Miss Universe competition in December.

    It lends a whole new meaning to the concept of “going Dutch”. Announcing their decision, the jury said: “This finalist … has a solid story with a clear mission.”

    And that mission is to colonise and dominate another area of feminine activity and accuse anyone who objects of “stirring up hate” against trans people.

    What women (remember us?) feel about being erased from our own events is clearly irrelevant. “Pageants like this have long been dominated by cis-gendered women,” moaned a non-binary columnist in The Independent. Yes, and I wonder why that was, love? Something to do with boobs and bums, perhaps.

    When I was growing up, men were best at science, business, politics, academia, journalism, sport. Little did we suspect that one day they would be better than women at beauty contests too. It takes a really ambitious and brazen kind of misogyny for a country to claim that its most attractive woman used to be male.

    I’m afraid that this is now nothing less than an existential threat to women’s vocabulary, women’s bodies, women’s spaces. Last week, I wrote about the school in Essex where four girls were sexually assaulted in “gender-neutral” loos which everyone insisted posed no threat to them. Until they did.

    This week, we learnt of the disgusting term “bonus holes”. That’s what Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust seriously suggested as an alternative to vagina to avoid upsetting women who identify as men or, quite possibly, the other way round. If the biologically correct term “vagina” has become offensive to some trans people then let them take offence. Be our guest. Our offence is every bit as valid as yours.

    We will not tolerate the beautiful act of nursing an infant being described as “chest-feeding”. The English language will not be mutilated to please those who choose to mutilate their own bodies. Nor will women be dehumanised by having their most intimate part described like something on a putting green.

    As for Miss Netherlands, they can take their bonus hole and stick it up their fanny. If they have one.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/07/12/miss-netherlands-transgender-model-rikkie-valeria-kolle/

    1. Amazing that the lefties/feminist types who used to protest about beauty contests are suddenly in favour.

    2. But only accessible via the link. It doesn’t show in the startup page.
      Do you have to push “publish”, Geoff?

  110. Good morning, all. Cloudy. Rain “tomorrow” (very Alice in Wonderland…)

  112. So, Huw, like Schofe, is suffering from mental health.
    Are they also suffering from unbroken legs, not having cancer, no arthritis, not having a cold, not being anaemic or haemophiliac, no pains anywhere?

    FFS, why is it never referred to as mental illness?

Comments are closed.