Tuesday 18 July: Ben Wallace’s successor must tackle deep-seated problems at the MoD

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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607 thoughts on “Tuesday 18 July: Ben Wallace’s successor must tackle deep-seated problems at the MoD”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    No Difference

    Little Johnny returns from school and says he got an F in arithmetic.

    “Why?” asks the father.

    “The teacher asked ‘How much is 2 x 3?’ I said ‘6’”

    “But that’s right!”

    “Then she asked me ‘How much is 3 x 2?'”

    “What’s the fucking difference?” asks the father.

    “That’s what I said!”

    1. Firstborn was asked, aged six or so, “What’s two and two?”
      Twenty two, he replied, and was marked wrong.
      But he answered the question asked. If the expected answer was “four”, then the question should have been “What’s two plus two?” or “What’s two add two?”
      Always was a bit literal, him.

        1. He was also marked down, aged 6 or 7, for building a pyramid using wooden blocks wrongly.
          He had it standing on it’s point (or as pointy you can get with wooden cubes), base in the air.
          That was wrong, too, although Teech didn’t say which way up it had to be… and you try making a pyramid stand up on it’s point! It takes quite a bit of skill, especially for a small child.
          Neither of us have much respect for teachers any more, not mentioning Teech who couldn’t tell a transistor from a transformer (she lost the erratum from her textbook), and wouldn’t listen to the correct answer, not knowing enough herself to spot the error.

      2. I think I was only just 6 when my horrible teacher slapped my calfs with a ruler. Because I found it difficult to form a figure 8 in one go.
        I use to put a circle on a circle. For some unfathomable reason she hated it. Miss Bishop will have been long gone now, I often wish I had been there to say goodbye. She might have even been 88.

        1. I got caned on my hand twice for having untidy handwriting despite being one of the best at spelling in the class. I was 6 years old. My handwriting remains spidery.

          1. One of my junior school teachers use to punch me in the back. Because I probably wasn’t as good as my elder sister at maths. Who became an accountant in banking.

      1. On the Temp. maps they have changed the colour of 20C to red to make it look far worse than it is.

  5. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny, at last. Just about Tee-shirt temperature, but arbeit muss sein, so I’m away to write some bid documents. Sigh

  6. ‘Morning, Peeps. A nice fresh start to the day, with 20°C forecast – which means nearer 22-23°.

    Now, let’s start with the really important matter of the day:

    SIR – Set in wartime, the splendid film The Cruel Sea (1953) provides an alternative name for sausages.

    Stanley Baker’s character enters the corvette’s wardroom and, spotting sausages on the table, exclaims: “Snookers – good-oh!”

    Charlie Shea-Simonds
    Upavon, Wiltshire

    No, Mr Shea-Simonds, you are wrong. Stanley Baker’s Lieutenant James Bennett said “Snorkers, good-oh”.

    If you are going to quote from my favourite war film at least get it right!

  7. Those who looked away as Putin turned tyrant are now paying the price. 18 July 2023.

    Danone or Dan-owned? Time for a name change at one of France’s largest companies after the Kremlin seized control of its Russian operations.

    The descent of Vladimir Putin’s regime into gangster territory is complete. This is the behaviour of a rogue state – one that hasn’t just given up any pretence of being part of the international system, but presumably also any ambitions about being accepted back into it if and when its war against Ukraine ends.

    Enforced nationalisation of foreign assets is state-sponsored theft. Moscow has taken over Carlsberg’s Russian unit as well. These are not inconsequential businesses. Danone is the largest producer of dairy products in the country. Carlsberg controls a third of the beer market.

    Hypocrisy or what? Aside from the seizure of Russia’ state assets, its foreign holdings, the West has conspired at the blatant theft of the property of private individuals. Russia’s behaviour, as here with Danone, is to take control of property that has been relinquished by its owners. As in so much else the moral high ground is with Moscow.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/07/18/blind-eye-putin-turned-tyrant-now-paying-price/

  8. This letter says it all when it comes to the ludicrous sums paid to ‘football pundits’:

    SIR – You report (July 12) on how much the BBC pays its top 50 presenters.

    It was revealed that Match of the Day presenters Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer were first and third respectively, earning between them about £1,805,000 a year, effectively to report the bleeding obvious about football matches.

    Conversely, reporter Jeremy Bowen earns a fraction of these two at £235,000. Yet Mr Bowen frequently risks his life reporting for the BBC from war zones, conflicts and natural disasters around the world.

    As a licence-fee payer, I feel the BBC has got its standards and remuneration structure very wrong, and trust these will change. In my view, it should give courageous Mr Bowen the £1,805,000 and let the two soccer pundits share his £235,000.

    Charles Jackson
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    It is also remarkable that Mr Jackson managed to get the phrase “bleeding obvious” past the Letters Editor!

    1. I don’t think “earning” is the right verb here as far as Lineker and Shearer as concerned!

  9. 374585+ up ticks,

    Morning Each.

    If you have NOT got such a hotel in your town and feel in need of one do NOT hesitate to contact westminster hoc mass controlled morally illegal immigration dept.

    If feeling neglected ( no hotel) but abiding by a tidal water source then, be it by skiff, or barge, contact the above dept. and await the next morning tide, I guarantee you will regret it forever.

    https://twitter.com/LittleBoats2020/status/1680912086249947142?s=20

  10. Good Moaning.
    One – or, rather – two for the blood pressure.
    I will shortly raise mine by sitting in Colchester’s rush hour traffic in an effort to cross the towncity.
    I’ve no problem with working – I have a problem with hypocrisy.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12308407/Consultant-senior-doctors-strikes-works-SEVEN-private-health-insurance-firms-charges-2K-routine-test.html

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12308355/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-peasants-doctors-Just-Stop-Oil-middle-classes.html

    1. I imagine he would say ‘that’s different’. He wants the NHS pension and the cushy top ups. Like all champagne socialists, they want you to pay for their hypocrisy.

  11. Good morning, all. Mottled sky. Very still – for a change.

    We watched UC. We put up with the changed set, the changed intro, the fact that 75% of the teams were effniks. We put up with the cocky little man reading questions from a screen instead of cards; we put up with him taking too fast.

    However, when the cocky little shit pronounced H as”haitch” – that was it. The MR said she never wants to watch it again.

    Well done BBC. Another jewel wrecked.

    1. A female reporter on BBC Breakfast says ‘haitch’ instead of ‘aitch’. A news item a few days ago was about HS2. I winced every time she mentioned the project, which was many times.

    2. Me too, Bill. Gabbling Rajan is so awful I only lasted about 10 minutes. What a minnow when we remember Bamber Gascoigne and Paxo…

      1. But the BBC love him – he’s everywhere – even doing “Tracks of my Years” on Radio 2 this week!

        1. Box-ticking fodder…bonuses all round, no doubt. Just another example of picking someone for the wrong reason.

    1. I would like to see chapter and verse on this one.
      I find it very difficult to believe.

      1. 374585+ up ticks,

        Morning S,

        Same as I, but,
        Looking at the whole overall picture of the current United Kingdom currently
        although unbelievable, nothing should be put down as such.

      2. It’s a fiddle with HMRC and the sharia bank. The buyer has a leasehold from the bank.

        1. Of course it’s a fiddle, Arab banks are financing the destruction of our culture.

          1. Good grief. That it should come to this. We really are a nation of cowards. Our culture is well on its way to being taken over.

          2. In theory, yer slammers dont buy a property outright, they obtain it on hire purchase and once you have paid for so long, its yours. In theory, no interest is paid, of course not!

        3. I can’t see how that prevents stamp duty being charged. Someone must pay it.
          The point of the Sharia contract is to avoid interest, instead of interest the bank takes a share of the eventual profit, essentially it’s still interest, just by another form and name.

    2. Given that Muslim total welfare dependence is well over 70% of the demographic it’s unlikely they’re buying houses at all. We’re forced to pay for them in tax. Another one to get rid of, please.

    3. 374585+ up ticks,O2O

      O2O,
      May one ask on proof of being an muslim
      by showing cable ties, masking tape & bomb making lit, can anyone apply ?

  13. Good morning all.
    A dry start but a grey sky and a tad under 10°C on the yard thermometer.
    Rain forecast for mid-day.

  14. Morning, all. Bright with thin high cloud.

    Is the ‘Nudge Unit’ working in the BBC Weather Unit?
    Johnny Norfolk tells us that Lisbon is 29C and I’ve added two forecasts for Italy, Naples on the coast and Serralunga D’Alba (highlighted) inland – where I’ve spent some time on holiday – both of which are looking quite different from the BBC’s hopes (is that the right word?) for the temperatures.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/52cc47e82220fa10cc9878e3085c8a2a72ecab019eecb9d75e8a51154987ee9a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f5b906d28d6342fc58556b98c4e029a81472fd5dab760db5e1b24e2f49732212.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae0103fa6290d6b42028e88747b38660497ccb23e2b9833d1a2a65735c605175.png

    Changes have been made to the reporting of temperatures: I’m sure that these are purely cosmetic and that no influence whatsoever was exercised by outside forces. However…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d94150cfb1c2fbae3e63f368aeb16bdfe0220007a00ae32d22a58efc66da446.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/188cc6e5b4f9478c301c884b850cd5e3845be0db8a44b284419182553369bd74.png

    1. Every night they have Justin Windmill telling us we’re all going to burn to death in wildfires.

      1. I wonder what caused the recent fire at the Brighton Hotel ?
        Ethnic warming ? Rises in Glowball culture tempers ?

        1. The local view is that it is (was) one of those tired old seafront hotels on the south coast that have seen much better days. It has even been suggested that the fire may have done the owners a favour…a quite outrageous suggestion, of course.

      2. If it does eventually warm up. We’ve had so much wet weather recently it’s going to be very difficult for the ‘self combusting’ wild fires to start again in the UK. Even with a dose of petrol.

    1. When Nobel laureate scientist David Baltimore declared furin cleavage the Covid origin “smoking gun,” he had to walk it back: “I believe that the question of whether the [cleavage] sequence was put in naturally or by molecular manipulation is very hard to determine but I wouldn’t rule out either origin.”

      Morning Sos. Absolute proof in a matter so technical is surely unreachable. After all even the Theory of Evolution still has its opponents! We, or at least I, go on the balance of probabilities and they say Wuhan is almost certainly true!

      1. I agree.
        One comment I found very interesting, given the disappearance of ‘flu during the pandemic:

        Citing only anonymous sources, the authors claim to have identified the three lab workers who got sick in fall 2019.
        So, it’s just a retread of the “three sick lab workers who might’ve had flu” we’ve all known about since 2021, this time with names. The WSJ confirmed the names but added that it’s still impossible to know whether it was Covid or flu.

    2. Possibly a victim of smell choker or prefab test. Possibly needs a new hearing aid.

      1. ‘Afternoon, Hugh.

        Bugger! I’m one hour ahead of you and I still get beaten to the Readers’ Letters!😉

  18. If Mr Robbins suddenly found himself living with his wife and three sons, he’d soon wish to return to the former arrangement.

    SIR – Sharing a house with my wife and three daughters, I have enjoyed reading other contributors’ descriptions of total silence.
    Mark Robbins

      1. My best man stripped a Harley engine in his and his wife’s bedroom.

        They’re now divorced. Funny, that …

        1. My (future) husband de-coked the engine of my Mini on the kitchen table! We are still together!

          1. I visited the home of a low-life family who were always in trouble with the law. I found the head of the family sitting on the sofa in the living room calmly dissecting a dead rabbit, with a razor blade, on the coffee-table!

            He told me he was looking for ‘evidence’ that his son had shot the animal (an erstwhile family pet).

            I had to retire outside since the stench was unremitting.

          4. “de-coked the engine of my Mini on the kitchen table”. Is that a euphemism?

        2. My ex stripped down an engine on the sitting room floor. That must have been about 50+ years ago. I divorced him 30 years ago.

        3. Marginally worse than stripping a woman in his wife’s bedroom when it wasn’t his wife I suppose?

    1. This is not a woman.
      This is a vile, evil man… Show more
      No, for the love of God, don’t show more!

  20. Morning all 🙂😚
    Another shade of grey today but not 43 C.
    And there is no defence for another government department to eff up everything they come into contact with.
    Whitehall have taken the honours for decades.

  21. Good moaning tootle monde,

    Grey skies over McPhee Towers, possibly some sunny breaks, showers in the afternoon, wind Sou’-Sou’-West, 14℃ forecasting 19/20℃. And I know I keep saying this, but it’s cool for July.

    A bit of everyday trivia from the Gatesograph letters:

    Petrol prices

    SIR – Last Sunday at my local Gulf station in Billericay I paid 157.5p per litre for 97 Ron petrol. At the same time my son, travelling to Scotland, paid 184.9p per litre for the same fuel at Moto Southwaite Northbound services.

    It’s all very well criticising the supermarkets for dragging their heels in passing on savings (report, July 16), but the divergence in the cost locally from the cost to drivers who need to use service stations on motorways needs to be urgently investigated.

    Kurt Mayer
    Billericay, Essex

    Well, Kurt, you need to drive around a bit. Down here is the West Berks/Hants/Wilts borderlands I can find petrol below 140 per litre with relative ease. However, the real point is what sort of d***head have you raised that he pays 184.9 per litre on a motorway? When modern ICE cars can drive virtually the length of Britain on one full tank there is absolutely no reason to buy petrol on the motorway – ever. Just fill your tank at the cheapest local station before setting off. It can’t be that difficult.

        1. Or, possibly even worse, Ankh-Morpork’s Foul Old Ron? “Millennium Hand and Shrimp” indeed.

    3. Happy Birthday to you, lacoste! Hope you have a wonderful day! 🍾🌹🎂

    5. 🎶Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to you, Lacoste! 🎶 Have a great day! 🎉🍰🥂🍾🥳🎉

        1. Many happy returns.
          If one’s childhood is from 0-18 then you have a second childhood to enjoy, all the way up to your century.
          Have fun.

          1. Thank you, srb!

            “Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
            With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
            His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
            For his shrunk shank . . .”

      3. Happy Birthday Lacoste! Have a great celebration! Are you out for dinner or lunch?

  23. On a lighter note.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b1ff81f4231988e65d36a3177ac64f6c99cb02f2737781b1ce5722a9259b533.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2a01a18b1d28bbf89826786b6a2870943116e98aa26bec4613305d41de0b8329.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/700bb631579f6cd51ff2dbad1afaaa7a872ea00a9a1cd0971e0b05eb36e4fd6e.png

    Off out shortly for shopping then lunch at the Victory Inn at Wickham St Pauls with my school chum. Hard to believe that we met on the first day of term at ECGS in September 1960.
    Our backgrounds are so different – I was brought up on a council estate; he was the son of a successful owner of a butcher’s business; I was dragged out of ECGS by my parents at 16 yo and he went on to university and gained a BSc and an MSc; our politics were miles apart when young but I would say that those positions have changed radically over the years and yet we have so much more in common. He is a really good person and I count it a privilege to have him as a friend.

  24. After spend a good hour yesterday trying to get my two visa cards back to working order, the bank have decided to send me an instruction leaflet on how to do this at an ATM machine. So lookout folks I may be some time.
    Today we have to try and work out how to get to St Bartholomews hospital before 10 am next week without out using the rail ‘services’ because they are now all going to be on strike.
    There’s a number to ring in a letter if ‘one’ as myself and my good lady do have, transport difficulties.
    Although I have been told that I don’t qualify for a blue badge, although I can’t walk more than 30 yards with out being completely breathless. The badge might have been helpful in the circumstances but let’s get the facts right……people who work in the public sector these days are as useful as chocolate fire guards. And often nasty with it.

    1. Go up the day before. Stay in an hotel nearby. I know it’ll cost a bomb
      but at least you’ll be there.

      1. It’s the getting there that’s the problem Bill. We had it all worked out until the other unions decided to strike. I’ve waited nearly two years for this op.
        The hotels are 200 plus for one night. It’s still the problem of getting in to the hotel.
        If I can’t get anything else sorted we will get one of our sons to run us in around daybreak. It’s too risky any later. Too many duel carriage ways, one small prang ahead and plot lost.
        Sos suggested we hire a camper It’s actually cheaper but the hospital doesn’t have a public car park. And even a small camper would be difficult in a multi story.

        1. Not a camper van, just a van that’s long enough to sleep in.
          Take a urine bottle and a gazunder and a sealable waste holder until you can get to a public loo.
          Crude but manageable.

          1. The French are far less coy – you often pass men peeing at the side of the road in the countryside and occasionally even women doing so.

            Mind you with mass immigration into the large cities it is not just in the countryside and it is not just peeing.

          2. I saw a bloke doing so just yesterday, right in front of someone’s house.
            I believe that the police are now trying to clamp down on it by fining people they see.

          5. Saw one guy having a dump in a layby up here in full view of road, just as he released the bomb yet there were bushes a few yards away.
            When I was recovering vehicles from laybys I often had to contend with turds in the very spot where I had to lie under the vehicle to attach the brother straps and sometimes moving the vehicle isn’t an option

          8. I was passing on a breakdown callout but I did blow the horn (and it’s one of those big HGV air horns that can be heard on the moon) so he knew he’d been seen

          9. When a couple of our friends lived in Charente in their country cottage the old boy opposite use to sometimes go for a poo in the garden. Not too neighbourly, but he didn’t seem to care.

          10. Erin’s sorted it. She was once a senior in administration at a UK charity. 😉

          12. Copy to Mr Thomas and others.
            Thankyou very much for your concerns.
            Lift from Number two son to St Albans station. We found a hotel just to the south side of Farringdon station, the strike doesn’t seem to be on that day, so we will arrive a day early. Stay over and the hospital is literally just across the road.
            I should be out latter the same day. If not there’s probably a park bench somewhere.
            It took Erin an hour to book the hotel on line, security etc was a bloody nightmare, she said.
            My word I feel so much better for all these efforts.

          14. Nah….did I tell you I sold mine to the local garage owner. At under 60 k He had been after it for years. I stood on our driveway for weeks on end the MOT was due and It needed some work.
            He made me an offer and off it went.
            He’s spent a lot of time making alterations. Installing a new sound system. And he uses it for recovery work and his mobile disco at weekends.

          17. Good for you and your family, Eddy.

            Tell ’em we congratulate them all with a big NoTTLer hug.

          22. Better laid out and a little higher than what I had in mind, to get under caravan barriers, but that’s the idea i was offering.

        2. Which day, Eddy? I have been looking at National Rail Journey Planner and there are trains from Hatfield to King’s Cross most days

        3. There’s a campsite at Crystal Palace and the number 3 bus goes to Whitehall if that’s any help. Alternatively there’s a campsite at Abbots Wood (I haven’t used that one myself) and you can take a water taxi.

    2. All resources to be diverted to serving the gimmegrants. Yer indigenes can eff right orff.

  25. Good morning everyone,
    Thanks to scrolling down on a Twitter link posted here (sorry, I can’t now find the Nottler to thank them), my suspicion about why we couldn’t book rooms in the hotel near our son in Leeds has been confirmed.
    I checked other random dates too but all were marked as unavailable. No explanation on the website. Filled indefinitely with dangerous, ungrateful parasites.
    (We normally stay with our son but they are decorating their spare room before the baby arrives.)
    https://twitter.com/LittleBoats2020/status/1680912086249947142?s=20
    https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1nP7zi3FnmxVcLJ9njBGoz1SZxL1GLLs&ll=54.190599578601415%2C-2.7921132500000034&z=6
    Shocking how many hotels are infested.

        1. I believe it was in one of Anthony Powell’s novels that a character was described as so wet that you could shoot grouse off him.

        2. A long time ago having been soaked and bitten to death by midges we gave up camping in Scotland and drove to my parents in North London. We pitched the tent in their back garden to dry out and left for North Devon the next morning.

          1. We once pitched our big tent on our back lawn for the boys to have a sleepover with some friends. Soon after midnight, they were indoors – hordes of ants invaded the tent. Our sandy soil is, unfortunately, swarming with ants. No barefoot walking in our garden!

          2. When younger the S@H and his mates decided to have a sleep-out up the hill behind us.
            They were back in the house by 23:00, his mates were terrified by the night noises!

  26. Good morning everyone,
    Thanks to scrolling down on a Twitter link posted here (sorry, I can’t now find the Nottler to thank them), my suspicion about why we couldn’t book rooms in the hotel near our son in Leeds has been confirmed.
    I checked other random dates too but all were marked as unavailable. No explanation on the website. Filled indefinitely with dangerous, ungrateful parasites.
    (We normally stay with our son but they are decorating their spare room before the baby arrives.)
    https://twitter.com/LittleBoats2020/status/1680912086249947142?s=20
    https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1nP7zi3FnmxVcLJ9njBGoz1SZxL1GLLs&ll=54.190599578601415%2C-2.7921132500000034&z=6
    Shocking how many hotels are infested.

  27. Russia killed off the Black Sea grain deal. What happens now? 18 July 2023.

    Russia on Monday pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a U.N.-brokered accord that has made it possible for Ukraine to export tens of millions of tons of grains and oilseeds over the past year even as the war rages on.

    The deal was vital to keeping food flowing from Ukraine — a major breadbasket — to the wider world. But Russia, claiming that its own food and fertilizer exports were being hurt by “hidden” Western sanctions, had already effectively strangled the deal before finally killing it off.

    Russia has not killed off the Black Sea grain deal. There was a time limited agreement to allow the Ukies to export their agricultural products to third world countries that were being particularly hard hit by the blockade. That time has now lapsed. The Russians have refused to renew it mostly because the original conditions have not been met. The bulk of the exports went to Europe instead of Africa. Simultaneous with this Russian exports were hindered by a series of hidden Financial and Diplomatic sanctions to prevent the same. Vlad has therefore given up on the entire project.

    https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-ukraine-war-black-sea-grain-deal-food-export/

    1. Has the Truth any chance of prevailing or has it been lost forever?

      Truth’s a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out …….

      [King Lear]

  28. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a74f9b3f7a12a4c0410873ec887faeb3ed78f1f529884b017ce4fdc620dda196.png

    Tim Stanley : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/17/package-to-northern-ireland-subject-of-committee-chaos/

    BTL

    Everything in the Conservative Parliamentary Party from Sunak downwards is beginning to rot as fish begin to rot from the head downwards. Let us hope that there are a few backbenchers down at the tail of the party upon whom the gangrenous decaying process has not yet started and that they can escape the net and join other parties before they too are lost and discarded into the stinking cesspit of decomposing entrails.

    1. Join OTHER parties? Yeah, right., Like the Greens or the Limp Dumbs…. Great idea.

      1. There are still Conservatives within the Tory party. The problem is, because they are Conservatives, the current faux Tory bunch are busy running them down.

        1. That is why I have been arguing for some time that the real conservatives in the Conservative Party should leave it and form a new party or join Reform and give it proper leadership and direction. But they must do it now without any further delay.

          The later they jump ship the more likely they and the rest of us will drown.

        2. As I’ve been saying for some years now, it’s high time the rank & file real Conservatives in the party started getting a grip of their local constituency organisations and getting rid of The Coward Cameron’s Blairite New Labor Lite clique imposed upon them by Central Office.

      2. I had hopes which I am beginning to lose that they could form a new party which abandoned net zero and worked for – rather than against – Brexit.

        The Greens, Lib/Dumbs and Lab are beyond the pail but I have been very disappointed by Richard Tice and Laurence Fox. So unless a new party with credible leadership comes into being PDQ we are Frazered beyond all hope.

        1. Agreed, Richard.

          I too am greatly disappointed, that neither of those two ‘leaders’ could get over their massive egos, and amalgamate for the greater good

  29. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/236d45e31cdc710d8910bbb1978706c5457e441b893de11378fcd45fec8cc6c1.png Matt is, as ever, witty and on-the-point.

    However, is he as guilty as thousands of other clueless ingenues when referring to the Parthenon as the ‘Acropolis’? For those still puzzled about this: the Parthenon is the ruined temple, which is situated atop the hill known as the ”Acropolis’.

    The Parthenon could easily be dismantled and taken to the British Museum to be reunited with the Elgin Marbles. Taking the Acropolis there would be a massive civil engineering undertaking too far.

    3. Whilst it is the name of the hill, even the locals refer to the site itself as the Acropolis, which includes the Parthenon and the other temples and ruins as well as the theatre on the side.
      Acropolis is a word that combines the Greek for highest point and city and there are several examples of Acropolises (not sure what its plural is)

    5. I once got a bit of a larrff from a few people on coach trip U3A day out to Hampton Court. When I suggested that Henners had built it too close to the Motorway.

    7. A shame our modern paganists have chosen to worship Gaia. Pallas Athena, the goddess of wisdom and judge of the first jury trial, is more benign.

    8. Massive undertaking or not, moving the acropolis to Lincolnshire would bring a bit of interest to the unending flatlands around Spalding.

      1. I like Lincolnshire as it is. Its flatness is a welcome change from the hillier sections of the country. Variety is the spice of life.

  30. ‘Morning All

    I note the “nudge” skills applied in the Convid scam are now being used in the climate change scam,will we soon be told a Scotch egg will save us from the sun??

    It’s all so tiresome……..

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/941e49e137dbabc67d7a7c8bb72b92ffa96c658ea30229b6bd7814f3c1961efb.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/162e490a8f84ab474ce8ef9604bd6d7721eaef39b6d2c8733dad509f4461281a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c9c8eaea390c0d9c0b6a0390d1d177613dc3c96ed3dffd5083a8b08f16a1445.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c2e35de77a89afd8d4faabfcce27428e80d72c2cfd9d91882c4d4de9daae71e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65a6beb4e258a86e95139bd6ceb497069e78d8bbf404e648c96b73b0ef6d2031.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c50d77415a691a0fbcbd2cfd539359f551b2d403c0746ec6dbb31d9b044fde7.jpg

    2. On the last one, I have been wondering on the ban oil people manage to get around the country so swiftly.

    3. Re sudden death, one of Kevin Philipart de Foy’s work riders died suddenly at the weekend. He was 29 and presumably fit as in addition to riding out he was a keen cricketer. No mention of his vax status.

    1. It is Quisling’s birthday today.

      HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIDKUN

      He would be delighted how things have turned out.

  32. Defending Churchill from the woke assault on his ‘truth’ just got harder

    The greatest Briton’s last surviving employee has now died, denying us the power of her testimony

    ANDREW ROBERTS • 17th July 2023

    The death of Lady Williams of Elvel on July 15 finally severs our connection with the greatest person and the greatest period of British history. Although some members of Winston Churchill’s family can still remember him, Jane Williams was the last survivor of that remarkable band who worked for him full-time for a considerable period, in her case, five and a half years, including his entire postwar “Indian Summer” premiership of 1951 to 1955.

    As well as being a delightful person – full of laughter, incisive insights and, of course, Churchillian anecdotes – she was highly conscious of the carping, bitter tone of the revisionist assaults on the reputation of her old boss. It will be far harder for historians to parry the accusations of personal viciousness that are habitually levelled at Churchill now that there is no former employee left alive who can attest to his extraordinary human qualities.

    We still have Williams and many of her colleagues on camera and in print, but nothing quite matches the immediacy and vibrancy of personal reminiscence, as seen during her appearance at the International Churchill Society’s conference in 2017 in Washington.

    “When drafting letters for Churchill,” Williams would recall, “he would not let us use ‘delicious’ or ‘grateful’ but he liked ‘warmest’.” It was only natural, therefore, that she should have chosen that last attribute in her summation of him. “He had warmth and humour and there was no pretence about him,” she said of her employer. “When he was mad, you knew it. When he was sad, he wept. When he was gay, he laughed like a child. In a word, he was all truth.”

    With Williams’s death, we are in even greater danger than usual of having Churchill’s truth twisted. All serious historians recognise that he made political mistakes. He got women’s suffrage, the return to the Gold Standard, the Black and Tans in Ireland, the Gallipoli campaign and the Abdication Crisis badly wrong. For someone who was at the forefront of British (and thus in those days, world) politics for nearly two-thirds of a century, this should be hardly surprising to objective observers.

    Yet the new generation of Churchill detractors are simply not objective, especially in the furthest reaches of ultra-woke academia, where Churchill-knocking now appears to be a shorthand way to advertise one’s support of trendy Left-wing causes such as Black Lives Matter. Asked by History Today magazine last month who was “the most overrated person in history”, for example, Prof Feargal Cochrane of Kent University replied: “Winston Churchill, whose limited abilities were masked by being born into power.”

    Limited abilities? When Prof Cochrane, author of such well-known works as From Transition to Transformation in Ethnonational Conflict (2012), wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, as Churchill did for some of his 37 books and 800 articles, or when the professor is granted honorary American citizenship for helping to save Western civilisation from Nazism, then perhaps we should listen to his snide comments about how Churchill is “the most overrated person in history”.

    Until then, however, we can carry on recalling that, for all the mistakes he undoubtedly made, Churchill was one of the principal founders of the welfare state; the man who readied the Royal Navy for the First World War; the First Lord of the Admiralty who shipped the entire British Expeditionary Force over to the Continent without a soldier lost; the godfather of the tank; the statesman who warned first and loudest both about Adolf Hitler and Nazism before the Second World War and about Stalin and Soviet expansionism after it; the architect of the Special Relationship; the military thinker who laid down and saw through the successful Western strategy during the bloodiest war in the history of mankind – and so much else besides.

    There were thousands of his contemporaries who were also “born into power” (whatever that means for someone who had to live by his pen until the age of 70) who did not go on to achieve such greatness – not least by keeping Britain in the war after the evacuation of Dunkirk when senior members of the British government favoured seeking peace terms
    with Hitler.

    Yet the view of the professor from Kent University is mimicked by a growing number of schoolchildren, taught by the yelling ideologues who one sees on TV picketing the education secretary during the present strikes. (That is, unless the pupils are some of the 20 per cent of schoolchildren who believe Winston Churchill was a fictional character, unlike the 47 per cent who believe Eleanor Rigby and the 58 per cent who believe Sherlock Holmes were real people.)

    Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is Williams’s son and is rightly proud of his close connections to Churchill, not least because his biological father, Sir Anthony Montague Browne DFC, was Churchill’s last private secretary. The Archbishop was not to know, but until recently and for over a year, the website of St Paul’s Cathedral – where Churchill’s funeral took place – stated that Churchill was “a white supremacist”.

    A glance at Churchill’s actual record in the Army and government – or at Hillsdale College’s excellent Churchill Project website – shows that to be a filthy slur, not least because he campaigned both militarily and politically to improve the lives of the inhabitants of the British Empire, of all races and creeds. He was born when Charles Darwin was still alive, and he believed that there was a hierarchy of the races, with white people at the apex. However much we know that to be absurd and obscene today, it was a view widely shared at the time.

    Churchill – who did not want bad things to happen to non-white people, as a white supremacist does – fought to protect the inhabitants of the British empire because of his sense of chivalry and noblesse oblige, something that really did come with being “born into power”. Such attitudes explain British post-1857 colonialism better than the Marxist analysis fed to our children.

    It was all part of what the lovely Jane Williams rightly called Churchill’s “truth”, but explaining that truth to the next generation has become all the more difficult for her passing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/17/defending-churchill-from-woke-assault-just-got-harder

    1. Does he think that her passing was a choice that she made in order to be difficult?

      The answer to Prof Feargal Cochrane of Kent University with his, “Winston Churchill, whose limited abilities were masked by being born into power” is, “So says a minor academic of limited abilities”.

    2. Given what white people have achieved compared with some other races, that view might not actually be “absurd and obscene”.

    1. Blimey! I was just thinking about her earlier on! I seem to remember her not being very well.

    2. I was wondering that – she wasn’t too well a few days ago, but I did comment on a post she’d made on Facebook yesterday. I’ll send her an email.

  34. 374585+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Politics latest news: Tories could lose all three by-elections, minister admits

    I want the whole lab/lib/con / current ukip coalition to lose out and lose deposits, mabe, at long last, common sense & decency is re-entering the fray and the electoral majority have seen through the labyrinth of lies, deceit,and treachery.

  35. Just off to a wedding now, at Loch Venachar. My husband is absolutely thrilled as it is a veggie ‘do’ and he’s just said he can’t think of one thing he likes about weddings! Grumpy old b*gger! See you later!

        1. Mixed- slept badly and up at 5. Called GP surgery dead on 8 and was on hold for 30 mins. Which pinhead thought everyone calling at one time was a good idea?
          My GP not available so seeing another on Thursday- he may be OK as he called my husband back very promptly once. So an early appt but seeing as I barely sleep I reckon we’ll get there on time.
          Face is sore but bearable- for now,
          I did go back to bed after phoning and got another hour or so.
          The NHS are useless and don’t give a damn about their patients- just look what Eddy has been going through.

          1. I think we must be lucky here with our GP practice. Also the hospital – when I finally managed to get my OH to contact the consultant who did his op, we heard back within two days and had an appointment two days later.

            It does seem very variable from place to place.

            We never see the same GP twice running, but as we’ve seen them all over the last few months, that doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem. They all have the same information to hand.

          2. It seems to be our old friend ‘post code lottery’.
            Not good enough; people shouldn’t suffer because of where they live.

  37. Teacher says to her class of 6 year olds “Today we are having a little spelling test, first word I want you to write down is strain”
    She went round the class checking what everyone had written. All had written strain except little Johnny who had written nnnnnnnn

      1. Ah! But inanimate objects can have feelings; e.g. the Met Police Service is racist. As is cricket.
        This is at the same time as natural human emotions are being legislated against e.g. hate crimes and ‘hate’ speech.

    2. The mill-workers were enthusiastic supporters of Lincoln and The Union in the American Civil War.

    3. Over a Quarter of a Million for a Statue?
      After watching that BBC item above I cannot see why it could ever cost £270,000 to produce a solid life-sized 3-D model of the two female models. There are many 3-D laser-based scanning devices and setups that can speedily make a full size 3-D digital image, even of large objects. In the BBC article it looks like that are doing something a bit like that, but in a very crude, multi-camera photographic way.

      Once you have a digital 3-D image, surely it cannot be a problem to approach a firm with a large 3-D printer and make it out of metal, as they build rocket motors in Spacex’sTexas facility and others ( e.g. YouTube film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoW0Nexn2BM – view from 2 minutes) or make 3D-printed house-sized objects (yes, houses) at the University of Maine ( https://youtu.be/X1ihWUuZN2E ). That’s BIG stuff and it CAN be 3-D printed from metal.

  40. SIR – At last the UK is waking up to the threat posed by China and its political tentacles (report, July 14). Hong Kongers in the UK are under threat, as are British research organisations.

    But it is not only the gullible and greedy in our universities who are accepting bribes to support China, but also industry. Out of 20 pieces of electrical equipment in our kitchen and garden shed, all with well-known brand names, I find that 19 of them are made in China.

    Peter Ogilvy
    Froxfield, Hampshire

    I suspect a good number of so-called Hong Kongers are the threat…

    1. So what you are saying is that it’s a Konger ill wind that blows no good…..

  41. “Climate change droughts have left millions of people in Zimbabwe with no food and poor nutrition, making them susceptible to diseases like leprosy.” Absolutely nothing to do with evil colonialists leaving well run countries to corrupt homicidal thugs like Mugabe. No, Siree.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/leprosy-cases-zimbabwe-africa-pandemic-healthcare/

    “Is this medieval disease making an unwelcome return in Zimbabwe?

    Despite its elimination as a health threat three decades ago, new cases are emerging – and experts fear more could be flying under the radar

    By Andrew Mambondiyani 18 July 2023 • 9:49am

    Once untreatable and associated with being permanently quarantined in a “colony”, leprosy has terrorised countless countries over the course of human history.

    Caused by a slow-growing bacteria, those who fell victim to the disease would gradually lose feeling in their affected limbs. If left untreated, the nerve damage would result in a crippling of hands and feet, paralysis, and blindness.

    Modern drugs and a change in the bacteria itself (or perhaps human resistance to it) mean there are far fewer cases than at its height during the medieval era.

    However, there are still 200,000 new cases a year, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – and countries with weak healthcare systems are most vulnerable.

    In Zimbabwe, a country burdened by extreme poverty and a crumbling health sector, concerns have started to grow that leprosy, which is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and spreads via respiratory droplets, could be making a return.

    Countries with weak healthcare systems, like Zimbabwe, are most vulnerable Credit: Andrew Mambondiyani

    The disease was technically eliminated as a public health threat three decades ago, meaning its prevalence in the southern African nation was considered to be less than one case per 10,000 people.

    But in 2020, some 15 cases were suddenly detected, the majority of which were found in traditional leprosy hotspots in southwestern Zimbabwe. In reality, nearly 300 other infections may have flown under the radar, according to research from 2015 which showed there are, typically, 19 hidden cases of the disease for every diagnosis.

    The following year, only three cases were detected, but it’s believed disruption from the pandemic, which impacted rural health resources and limited the screening of communities, masked the true number of infections present in the country.

    In response to a feared rise in leprosy, the government is now on high alert, says Donald Mujiri, a spokesperson for Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Care, with work underway to provide a clear epidemiological picture of what is unfolding in the country.

    “[We] strengthened the disability prevention and rehabilitation services and improved information, education and communication activities in the communities to improve self-reporting to primary health centres and reduction of stigma,” Mr Mujiri told The Telegraph.

    The Health Ministry, he added, now screens all household contacts of new cases for early detection before symptoms appear.

    “For household contacts, immediate and annual examinations are recommended for at least five years after last contact with a person who is infectious.”

    New cases uncovered

    Nonetheless, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently warned that Zimbabwe “remains vulnerable [to leprosy] due to socio-economic factors such as poverty, overcrowding and poor nutrition which still favor transmission of leprosy infection.”

    The country is not alone. Elsewhere in Africa, Mozambique and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are also facing rising cases of leprosy, according to Dr Abdoulaye Marega, a leprosy expert at Lurio University in Mozambique.

    In the DRC, cases rose from 3,385 in 2020 to 4,148 in 2021, while Mozambique recorded 3,135 in 2021, up from 3,083 in the previous year.

    Dr Marega, who has done extensive research on leprosy in Africa, told The Telegraph that, across the continent, there was a lack of early screening and multi-drug therapy, limited prophylactic treatment for the contacts of confirmed patients, and poor monitoring and surveillance of resistant or relapsing cases.

    “There is a need to train health professionals in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of neglected tropical skin diseases in an integrated approach,” Dr Marega said.

    The Leprosy Mission England and Wales, an organisation which supports leprosy work in affected countries across the world, said the number of diagnoses started rising in 2021 as Covid-19 lockdowns were lifted and detection work resumed.

    “Worryingly the number of people diagnosed with ‘visible’ and non-reversible disabilities has also risen, indicating that leprosy was diagnosed too late,” Charlotte Walker, a spokesperson for the charity said.

    “The situation will only have worsened during the pandemic. Lockdowns and scarce access to healthcare has seen leprosy patients go without a diagnosis and treatment and left at a high risk of developing disabilities.”

    [Climate change droughts have left millions of people in Zimbabwe with no food and poor nutrition, making them susceptible to diseases like leprosy Photo Credit: Andrew Mambondiyani]

    One key issue with stamping out leprosy is its ability to remain latent in the body over many years before developing into a serious infection.

    Symptoms can begin within one year, but, for some, the disease may take up to 20 years to develop. It’s unclear to scientists how much role an asymptomatic case has in the transmission of the infection.

    “As leprosy is a very slow acting infection, there can be a significant gap between contracting the disease, and symptoms showing, therefore early detection and treatment of leprosy is vital, if we are to avoid the onset of the more serious impacts of the disease and its transmission,” said Chris Laing, ​a communication manager for Lepra, a UK charity working with leprosy cases.

    A multi-drug therapy, which lasts either six or 12 months, depending on the type of infection, is used to treat the disease. But if left for long, experts say, leprosy can cause permanent damage in patients to the eyes, limbs, skin and nerves.

    “They are then often outcast from their families, workplaces, schools and communities. It is a devastating disease,” Ms Walker said.

    It’s because of leprosy’s ability to silently linger in the body for so long that some countries have prematurely declared elimination of the disease.

    “Many national leprosy programmes therefore had a reduction of resources and a loss of expertise,” said Mr Laing.

    “We have observed that in some remote and rural areas, where no new cases have been officially recorded for three-plus years, new leprosy cases are once again being uncovered.”

    Rising cases of the age-old disease, he added, “serves as a reminder as to why we must never become complacent.” “

    1. 374585+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      Advice,

      If you, being indigenous wish, and are happy on the doll want to protect your ongoing payments, then you MUST cast a lib / lab/con coalition vote.

    2. This, like everything those fools do, is stupid. There are 5 million unemployed. OK, let’s assume 70% of those are muslims (as they comprise 70% of the unemployment statistics) and thus don’t want to work.

      There must be hundreds of thousands of folk who would grab an apprenticeship with both arms. Why not offer a complete tax break – no NI, no income tax, all the costs paid pre-tax from existing tradesmen to take on an apprentice. While you’re at it, scrap IR35 so folk like us can take on contractors who aren’t worth £500 day but charge that anyway due to what amounts to triple taxation.

      If you really want to get people into work, scrap welfare. Have a pay in what you’ve paid out attitude. Stop paying housing benefit, stop paying child benefit. Stop giving people money. Withdraw it after 6 months by 20% per 2 months. Most people can work. They choose not to.

      1. 374585+ up ticks,

        Morning W,

        missing the point currently, the politico’s are happy because the majority voters are happy with the status quo.

        Unearned income via the state can close a great many eyes to many an odious issue, take rotherham for one odious issue alone with its 16 year plus cover up……..

      3. Years ago I knew a radio amateur who was blind and in a wheelchair. He still managed to work. All it requires is the will (and a fair bit of know-how).

    1. I assumed that with a name like King Lawal, the councillor was African. Indeed he is – in the ward adjacent to ours here in Wellingborough. Here’s a brief report in the local rag:
      https://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/people/wellingborough-councillor-king-lawal-launches-legal-battle-after-he-says-he-was-cancelled-and-lost-his-job-amid-appearance-on-right-wing-comment-channel-gb-news-4222382

      I didn’t have the NT down as a provincial Daily Mirror until I read this:

      Last night…he was appearing on conspiracy-peddling GB News with MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, a traditionalist ultra-Brexiteer who is himself a committed Christian.

    1. When I was a child I read the “The Water Babies” by Charles Kingsley. All I can remember is Tom (?) developing gills and two women with long, unpronounceable names.

          1. I couldn’t remember the other one’s name.

            Like Anne, I was given it as a child, never swept a chimney nor grew gills.

    2. Junior was about 4 when we got Mongo. At the time I thought it’d be a disaster.

      On that note, his leg is healing very well. The boot is off and a tight bandage in place. The ligament will take a lot longer as soft tissues always do and he is still on strict bed rest which he seems to be enjoying far too much.

  46. SIR – Sharing a house with my wife and three daughters, I have enjoyed reading other contributors’ descriptions of total silence.

    Mark Robbins
    Bruton, Somerset

    Even more ear-bashing for you tonight, Mr Robbins.

    Elswehere, Mr Shea-Simonds’ snookers have become snorkers, thanks to the many BTL corrections.

    2. Before Junior was born the Warqueen and I had a workable system of grunting at one another. Neither of us are morning people, preferring to be in our own heads for the first few hours. It worked far better than most would imagine.

      Contrast that with my mother especially who won’t stop blithering on inane questions simply to fill the air.

  47. This Ian Lavery bloke:

    https://twitter.com/IanLaveryMP/status/1681030580870283265

    Who is arguing for any number of children child benefit seems to have missed the point. The tax payer is being forced to pay for other people’s life choices. If a couple want to have children, it is their duty to support them in every way. If they cannot afford to do that, that’s not my problem. It is theirs. Their choice.

    During Labour’s tenure the number of brats who got preggers, had the brat just for bennies and a free house exploded. That’s got to be reversed – and no, not based on age as that just creates generations of wasters. Scrap this unfair funding. You want children? Plan for them, in every way.

      1. Alas, I can’t, not having a twitter account but I imagine as twitter is an infestation of Lefties who exist parasitically on the state that they are all in favour of more welfare. That sort usually are. They want other people to pay for their life choices.

        1. My followers on Twitter (4,000 of them) are not lefties. They all belong to the hang ’em and flog ’em brigade (in a manner of speaking, of course, GCHQ….).

          2. Yes, he’s Rico – not so easy to say as Poppie, it doesn’t roll off the tongue in quite the same way. It was my husband’s choice of name this time. He’s doing all right, LotL, he’s asleep on the sofa next to me, it’s very comforting. He belts up and down the garden, zooms around and crashes into the lavender, startling the bees – he is a rotund little fluffy barrel with little legs poking out underneath. He has a nice nature. We do miss Poppie though, but Rico has given us something else to think about and the house doesn’t feel empty any more. A neighbour in France got another puppy very soon after her old dog was pts, and said ‘it is for the well-being, you see’. It is just that.

          4. Oh dear! Having lived in the USA I know what RICO means there: “The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) of 1970 seeks to strengthen the legal tools in evidence gathering by establishing new penal prohibitions and providing enhanced sanctions and new remedies for dealing with the unlawful activities of those engaged in organized crime.. quote from US Dept of Justice.

          5. 😱😱😱 Oh dear. I will tell him who-chose-the-name. He can be very stubborn though…! Puppy is not very responsive to it. Or anything else at the moment!

          6. Quick, Mum, Change his name to Pinto (see roughcommon’s comment on RICO.)

            Though I’m sure he’s not an organised criminal.

          7. My follower count is going down. For every 10 I gain, Twitter takes away 12. Or that’s how it seems.

    2. If you can’t afford to keep your own children – don’t have them. I got 90p a week CHB for my second child and nothing for the first. It wasn’t exactly life-changing.

        1. My second one was born December 73, so after decimalisation. Yours must be a little older.

    3. Perhaps if the parents were allowed to keep more of their salary/wages they wouldn’t have to rely on CHB or tax credit or whatever it’s called these days! (Always assuming the parents work, of course!).

  48. If you think corruption and crime is out of control in your city, just think: it could be worse. You could live in Detroit, where a member of the Detroit Police Board of Commissioners was recently caught soliciting prostitution.

    And, like any good police commissioner, when caught in the act, he asked his brothers in blue to “help him out”, according to reporting by The New York Post. And credit to Detroit’s finest, because they didn’t let him go – nor did they cover the incident up.

    The commissioner, Bryan Ferguson, who “represented District 1 for the DPBC and was the former chair of Detroit’s police oversight board” tendered his resignation on Thursday of last week in light of the news. He was found with the sex worker on Wednesday, the report says.

    In a prepared statement, he told The Detroit Free Press: “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the residents of Detroit in police oversight.”
    “After further consideration of the best interests of my family and the Board, I am choosing to resign as District 1 Police Commissioner effective immediately,” he continued, making no mention of the one resident that he was caught “servicing” the evening prior.

    He was caught “committing a lewd act with a known sex worker” by undercover agents. When confronted by the police, he told them his position and asked them to “help him out”.

    Police captain Jason Bates said: “At that time, Mr. Bryan Ferguson stepped out, identified himself as a Detroit police commissioner.” He added: “A title or position doesn’t make them above the law.”

    Let’s hope the Bidens are next….

    2. Must be a personal vendetta against the Commissioner, American police are known for turning a blind eye to protect their own.

      2. It is an offence to block the highway. The joilers are blocking the highway. It’s not complicated. If plod won’t move the wasters then they must face the public – and that won’t end well.

    2. Strikes me that a few Molotov Cocktails, lit and thrown among them wouldn’t go amiss.

    4. Good lad. Just twat the fucking brain-dead Pinko detritus!

      No apologies proffered for my use of traditional, graphic, Anglo-Saxon vernacular.

      1. 20′ of rope, four or so hefty blokes to run it round them and drag them all off the bloody road, then hitch the rope onto a suitable vehicle and drag them off.

    5. Until the police arrest them and lock them up, nothing will change. A small financial slap on the wrist will achieve nothing.

      When they are locked up, make sure that none of this terrible oil based western decadence is wasted on their comfort.

      1. Their fines, expenses etc will be paid for them individually by the Gates, Soros, Blair foundations, or our govt.

        1. I imagine Dale Vince is footing the bill, which means we’re paying because he is only rich due to the massive tax payer subsidy of windmills.

      2. Strip them of anything they’re wearing that took oil to produce and send them on their way, stark naked if that what it takes. Ridicule is usually a good teacher for these types.

    6. And of course they all walk to every where they set out to demonstrate their stupidity.

    9. You only have to look at them – some obviously have mental difficulties, some are senile and some simply look like 18-year-old students (except that they didn’t get the grades to get to university).

      1. Jack Whitehall did a gig at Oxford Brooks (former tech college) University.

        He started by saying: “I know why you’re here.”

        The audience was all agog to know why he thought they were there – was it perhaps because they wanted an entertaining evening out?

        “You’re here because you didn’t get good enough “A” level grades to go to a proper university!”

        (Some thought this was quite a good joke – others were deeply offended.)

    10. I hope they block a concrete truck.
      Shove a wooden box over each one and fill it.

  51. In this era of supposedly fake news and ‘fact checking’ it’s difficult to know where to find the truth. Certainly governments and corporations distort it to their own ends, often hand in hand with each other, while legacy media has become the home of almost laughable bias.
    It’s therefore great the Internet has allowed the rise of many independents: the citizen journalists, interviewers, podcasters and bloggers – curious and enthusiastic. Whether you believe them or not is immaterial because nowadays we need to learn to distinguish fact from fiction and that cannot occur with just one narrative that allows no competition.
    I thank them.

    Neal Asher.

    1. BBC Verify relay the absolute truth, they told us so, therefore it must be true..

    2. But very soon, August sometime, that great free speech advocate the European Union will claim ownership of The Truth by way of thenDigital Services Act. Which will require the social meeja companies to delete what the EU determines is “misinformation”. Immediately.

  52. My brother-in-law, who is one of the country’s leading sound engineers, is being employed to do the, er, sound at a massive international jolly in the south of Sicily – to discuss the calamity that is the climate crisis. It is funded by Google (inter alia).

    BiL is being flown there – along with 150 other technicians. Five huge pantechnicons are being DRIVEN from the UK to the destination. Plans are in hand to deal with the several hundred PRIVATE jets – and helicopters – which these wunnerful delegates will use. Without a shred of irony!!

    Hope they manage to cope with the deadly temperatures…..

    4. Don’t know where they will all be parked – Catania airport isn’t so big, Palermo neither.

    6. They wouldn’t go without the promise of air conditioned accommodation and air conditioned limousines.

  53. Well, I got the rather neglected bit of grass on the upper level of the “garden”, beside the Egremont Russet apple tree, tidied up this morning before the rain started, but it’s now coming down even harder so I’m not likely to get anything else done today.
    Busy scanning the POLEX72 photos the S@H discovered t’other day.

  54. Ukraine and the West are facing a devastating defeat. 18 July 2023.

    Arestovych’s suggestion comes at a crucial time. The long-planned counter-offensive, now in its second month, has run into several problems – not least that Kyiv is still waiting for approximately half of the western military equipment promised earlier in the year. Meanwhile, its forces are under increasing pressure to commit its reserves as Russian troops – despite reports of low morale across the front – remain dug-in, seemingly committed to defending every inch of Ukrainian ground captured since last year.

    As Russian minefields take their toll on western-supplied tanks and Ukrainian sappers, their forces have so-far retaken approximately five miles of the sixty miles they need to split the land-bridge connecting Russia to Crimea. The land between Mariupol in the east and Melitopol to the west is seen as the vital ground to achieving this.

    Wow! How did this sneak through? Preparation for the inevitable? I would myself, like Vlad, prefer a negotiated settlement; that way no one else gets killed. Barring that I’ll settle for a Russian Victory!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/18/ukraine-and-the-west-are-facing-a-devastating-defeat/

    1. Me too. The West’s PTB need a lesson – it’s a pity that their electorates did not do it, but it will take our blood, our sweat and our tears…and still the selfish, corrupt elite in the West won’t care. It’s heartbreaking.

      1. Who knows what the electorates did?
        Since the US elections I wonder how long ago the rot set in.

    3. Russia have little reason to negotiate or to believe any agreement that might be reached.

  55. 374585+ up ticks

    Tuesday 18 July: Ben Wallace’s successor must tackle deep-seated problems at the MoD

    While at it get enough anti treachery spray to give all other ministries a coating, then create a public holiday to celebrate topping b liar.

    1. Afternoon Oggy. The MoD like most UK state insitutions is beyond saving.

    2. But he hasn’t been toppled – his disgusting policies live on, as those of us who live in an increasingly woke, Islamised and generally multi-cultural (except our own culture is ignored, if not vilified because woke is only anti-decency)) country bear witness to.

  56. Russia massing 100,000 troops for attack on Kharkiv to draw Ukrainians away from counter-offensive. 18 July 2023.

    Russia is building a force of 100,000 soldiers to attack the northern sector of the frontline as Ukrainian commanders start to admit that their counter-offensive has stalled.

    Col Serhi Cherevaty, a Ukrainian army spokesman, said that Russia had also ordered Storm-Z ex-convict battalions to prepare for battle and was firing more than 500 shells per day at Ukrainian forces around Kupyansk.

    “The enemy has concentrated a very powerful group,” he said. “More than 100,000 personnel, more than 900 tanks, more than 550 artillery systems and 370 rocket salvo systems.”

    Could this new note of realism have something to do with this?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/18/russia-massing-troops-attack-kharkiv-counter-offensive/

    1. I do like the hypocrisy of “Russian news agencies claimed, without providing any evidence…“

    2. Bound to happen.The west now has cold feet about it all and Russia wil win in the end. What a total mess.

      1. And the West has run out of ammunition. So, they can’t resupply the Ukies, no matter how much they might want to.

          1. Indeed. Good question. I expect the Chinese are examining it even as we write.

      1. Biden said he plans to take Berlin before the Red Army. Then they’ll finish off the Japanese.

    4. But, but but, Hamish told us the Russkies were finished, washed up, on their knees etc. Surely the military maestro couldn’t be wrong?

  57. Allah how I hate this:

    Drunk Muslim woman, 20, who brawled at bowling alley and called police ‘f****** whites’ tells court if she is given a ‘sobriety’ tag it would hinder her preparation for Friday prayers after her faith grew stronger after fight

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12310015/Drunk-Muslim-woman-20-brawled-bowling-alley-called-police-f-g-whites-avoids-sobriety-tag-telling-court-faith-stronger-fight-device-hinder-preparation-Friday-prayers.html

    Can you imagine what the outcome would have been if this had been a white Christian doing the same to black Muslim staff and black police?
    I would suggest a fairly lengthy prison sentence would have been given.

    1. Just imagine, also, how she would have been treated in the shit-hole which is her country of origin. Flogged – if not decapitated.

    1. The labour leader and his team are all over the place intellectually.

      He and his ‘special girls’ – should be branded as The Harem Scare ’em.

        1. There you fail to understand the beeboid mindset, Eddy. They never change their mind. The little creep will be there for years – until the prog comes to an end because no one is watching it.

          1. I do understand Bill, they do everything they can to annoy their captive market. That’s why I say they really should be made to become pay to view.
            I think they see themselves as some sort of global religion.
            They are much more than just slightly misinformed.

          2. I had the demand for the TV tax through today (it’s due at the end of the month). Had to laugh, the beeb claimed it disseminated “trusted international, national and local news and weather”. Ha! Apparently it offers something for everyone – not for me, it doesn’t. I only watch ITV. No mention of its propaganda role, of course. The sooner it becomes pay to view, the better.

  59. Something to look forward to.

    The risk posed by freed Islamists was highlighted by the Fishmonger’s Hall attack of 2019 in which two people, Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones, were killed by the released convict Usman Khan and the Streatham attack the following year by Sudesh Amman shortly after his release from prison.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/islamist-terrorists-release-suella-braverman-terror-home-office-report-contest-russia-far-right-b1095059.html

  60. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0235c280b81955a5f67798b008ec30acea39172c63c03b7f3e3246087d1c3ec.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/18/woman-jailed-for-illegal-use-of-abortion-pills/

    I thought at first that old Ratty is pulling our leg but on further consideration I am beginning to think he isn’t.

    BTL Percival Wrattstrngler

    The Left are organising a campaign for Post Natal Abortion which will advocate that women should be allowed to get rid of their unwanted babies up to 12 months after they have been born.

      1. In order to sell baby parts, organs etc to the pharmaceuticals, health services and food industries around the world. That is what ‘Planned Parenthood’ is all about and the child trafficking in Ukraine. It is horrific, I couldn’t believe it when I first read about it. And it is all big business.

      1. For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak
        With most miraculous organ.

        [Hamlet]

        Hamlet was determined to find out the truth about the death of his father suspected to have been poisoned by his uncle and his mother.

  61. Another close, rather unpleasant day. Rain in the offing but NOT here. Am about to enjoy a cup of Verveine odorante tea. Very refreshing. We had masses of it in the garden in France – have run it to earth in yer Bligty.

  62. 374585+ up ticks,

    Really what did the treacherous bastards and their current supporters expect, a muslim ladies burka knitting circle, as for the politico’s once again they orchestrate a dangerous situation then come across with a rhetorical answer no action ever taken
    leaving the tribal fool members saying,with eyes tight shut, we knew they would have the answer.

    https://twitter.com/right_side1/status/1681265441853911041?s=20

      1. Yes, a complete surprise. Certainly nothing to do with refugees braving adverse conditions in Channel crossings though.

    3. I wonder if a Muslim politician in her position would have said similarly?
      No, don’t be silly…

      Now there’s a surprise.

  63. It seems Squirrel Nutkin is now taking the piss. Yesterday I baited the trap in the loft with a fat juicy walnut and on the advice of a pest control professional l laid a few pieces of walnut either side of the entrance. On inspection a short while ago it’s clear SN has said: ‘thanks very much for the take aways’ but ignored the home delivery! Fingers crossed curiosity gets the better of him tonight!

    2. So that’s where our Nutkin has gone! We’ve seen Cyril squirrel outside but not Nutkin. Had a squirrel in the house in CT once and animal control guy said to use peanuts.

      1. Thank you. I have also smeared peanut butter on the bait trap door!

        If I catch SN I’m not allowed to release him into the Wild. Would you like him as a present?

        2. Perhaps you should put a couple of beers out and advertise some Lady Squirrel company?

    3. Get a box shape steel wire rat trap or some warfarin. Peanut butter attracts them.
      If you do catch it remember it’s illegal to release grey squirrels back into the wild.

      1. The trap is already in place. I’ve arranged for a contract hitman to effect the dispatch. He tells me he bagged a close relative of SN eating nuts from off his Walnut tree. The hit was fired from his bedroom window. Said rodent most surprised!

        1. It’s not all bad, we now have a young walnut tree in our back garden. Because a local squirrel buried it. There is also another growing and doing well now in the North Pennines. My nephew has taken the sapling and planted it for me. There’s a distinct lack of trees.
          But the little buggers have eaten all of my goose berries and will eat my grapes and all of our Hazel nuts 🤪

          2. I, too, have a walnut tree courtesy of squirrel activities. Plus a forest of hazelnut saplings.

        1. They are clever little buggers, I’ve had to drown the ones I’ve caught in the past.

  65. Par Four today.

    Wordle 759 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Happy birthday.
      Just a bogie here.
      Wordle 759 5/6

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

    2. We let you win as it is your birthday

      Wordle 759 5/6

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

    3. Sorry, I did this before I saw that it is your birthday
      Wordle 759 4/6

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

      Happy birthday though

    4. Happy birthday!
      Crappy five for me today.
      Wordle 759 5/6

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

  66. “The United States will announce a new pledge to buy $1.3 billion worth of military aid for Kyiv in its conflict with Russia in the coming days, two U.S. officials said,” Reuters reports Tuesday. This fresh package will reportedly include new air defenses, counter-drone systems, exploding drones and ammunition, according to a US official speaking to Reuters.

    Looks like the US has taken M.Thomas’s advice and is using Amazon Primed!

    2. And just as it gets delivered, Russia will win, Ukraine will surrender. And then the Russians will use the weapons to conquer Europe in a surprise attack which will take them to the channel, meeting little resistance other than stormy seas of white flags..

      They will tell the gimmegrants to rise up and conquer the EU and UK in exchange for an Islamic state in the UK.

  67. So if the mainstream media reports 24/7 about predicted record temperatures in some far off places a week before they are due to happen then if they don’t happen it wont matter
    The brainwashing will be complete

    1. But some people working for local councils are given special training in how best to piss people off. This has long been the practice in France where specially trained people advise the mayor and councillors comment mieux embêter les gens.

    1. While I respect the work they do, a bin man is a low skill job. It doesn’t garner a high wage. If they want to be paid more, they should demonstrate how they add more value.

      1. It’s the “anus” principle.
        Every other organ might add more value when it functions, but block the anus and everything else falls apart in due course.

        1. My Dad always told me that the most important person in his company was the cleaner. Without their work, nothing else functions. He was right.

          However I stand by my statement that bin men is not one that gathers a high wage and the people doing it are – sadly – easy to replace.

          1. The second part is true.
            If I had my way, every gimmegrant would be doing that or a similar job, without pay, until their claims had been processed.

    1. The Ropers will burn it to the waterline before you can say “Inshallah!”

      1. It does look pretty grim, but I wonder how they will stop them from burning it down!

    2. 500? You could push 50,000 on there. Cram them in, float it out to the Atlantic. Forget about them.

  71. That’s me gone. Time for a little drinky-poo. Or two. (Rhymes, you notice).

    Have a jolly evening – or try to.

    A demain.

    1. London is shown as 22ºC and a deep hot orange. 22ºC means you keep your jumper on.

      1. Doesn’t feel as warm as that here. 15C maximum today. Grey and not a glimmer of sun.

      2. 22 means the pool is getting towards pleasant and certainly useable, even for an old softie like me.

    2. If it’s really that scorchio, the weather girls should be supplied with bikinis (when appropriate).

  73. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14a290d1305b014feaa30d8ab9c0f1cb520a7412f00b5a85eea7420e625b5201.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/18/nigel-farage-coutts-bank-account-closed-align-with-values/

    This story is truly disgraceful.

    Coutts should be stripped of all its banking licences.

    I fear that the Idiot King won’t follow the advice of this BTLiner becasue like his bank he interferes in politics where he should not do so.

    BTL

    The Royal Family ought to close all the accounts it holds with Coutts immediately and make a big noise about doing so.

    1. The comments are racking up at a ferocious speed. It is impossible to keep track.

      1. Why not take a break then, Annie, and give me a phone call? I need to talk to you.

          3. Blimey O’Reilly, you can afford Nottle Private care?
            Wow, you really are rich!

    2. Farage has held those views on Brexit for decades. Why the sudden shift in the bank’s attitude toward them?

        1. Nottle, the spider’s web of intrigue?

          Even the slightest tremor goes to the outer edges.

        2. Feeling better, Ann?

          Sounds like it, if you feeling that spiky, and we hope it continues. Hugs to help you.

          2. That’s the secret, girl, despite the set-backs, KBO regardless. Big ole hugs to you and yours. I just wish I could do more but I’m too far away to help, other than give encouragement. You’re doing a massively good job, keep it up and we just hope to sustain you.

      2. My guess is profile. He’s on a national TV station now on a regular basis. People are seeing him more often and he is defeating ratings wise everyone else.

        My guess is the blob are scared. After all, massive QE benefits them hugely. Debasing the currency helps banks make huge profits. Big government is a good thing for big banks. Farage threatens the agenda to force us back in to the EU through economic manipulation.

      3. Happy birthday from the other day.
        I always like to send felicitations to the poster rather than against Rastus’s birthday reminder.
        I hope you had a good one and that you enjoy many more.

        1. “I always like to send felicitations to the poster rather than against Rastus’ birthday reminder.”

          #MeToo, Sos, which is why I waited today, for Lacoste to appear.

      4. Good question. In the late 1990s I recall two modest political events; one was a dinner where William Hague was guest speaker. Confident, he spoke well, and was wearing B Liar cufflinks.

        Later at a UKIP meeting Nigel looked like some sort of spiv, almost a wide boy. But most of the audience were outsiders, and they applauded him. Hague served his time & took his sinecure, while Nigel helped to change history.

      6. Without seeing all the communications between the 2 parties we’ll never know.
        Belated happy birthday from me too.

    3. “Coutts should be stripped of all its banking licences.”

      And who has the muscle to take on the banks? The bankers have the WEF on their side.

      2. Young Paddy bought a donkey from a farmer for £100. The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

        The next day he drove up and said, ‘Sorry son, but I have some bad news. “The donkey’s died.’

        Paddy replied, ‘Well then just give me my money back.’>
        The farmer said, ‘Can’t do that. I’ve already spent it.’

        Paddy said, ‘OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.’

        The farmer asked, ‘What are you going to do with him?’

        Paddy said, ‘I’m going to raffle him off.’

        The farmer said, ‘You can’t raffle a dead donkey!’

        Paddy said, ‘Sure I can. Watch me.. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.’

        A month later, the farmer met up with Paddy and asked, ‘What happened with that dead donkey?’

        Paddy said, ‘I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two pounds a piece and made a profit of £898’

        The farmer said, ‘Didn’t anyone complain?’

        Paddy said, ‘Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two pounds back.’

        Paddy now works for the Royal Bank of Scotland

    6. I wonder actually if there isn’t a genuine case of discrimination to be brought here. None of the things in those minutes are substantiated by evidence so has Farage a case for slander and discrimination?

      The comments discuss what would happen to a gay or ethnic but of course, this wouldn’t thus he is being actively discriminated against for holding a political perspective.

      1. I was allowed to because of who I worked for.
        I didn’t, tempting though it was.

    8. Something fishy here. Who, at the bank, would send him the minutes from the meeting, that could cost them £millions?

  76. Utterly off topic.

    Just passed the 50 mile point in this year’s swimming.
    Reasonably pleasing, as I had a late start to the season.

  77. No, no, you’re pulling my leg. I don”t believe you. Tomorrow will never be dry for a whole 24 hours … not here in Birmingham.

    1. When was the last time you were “dry” for 24 hours?
      Let alone in Birmingham…
      };-O

    1. I was just about to post the very same.

      There’s nothing to stop any country accepting or refusing asylum seekers entirely on its own initiative. It’s no business of anyone else.

      Signing up to these conventions gives the cheat the opportunity to ‘test’ the system. Overloading of due process will be the inevitable result. One suspects that was always the wish of the anti-nationalists in the post-WW2 international organisations. How ironic it would be if the ideas they implemented, designed to end the apparently evil nationalism that they blamed for the two great wars, were to entrench it even further.

      There will be another great war soon but it won’t be between set armies…

      1. What I don’t understand is why France got a free ride when it did nothing for the welfare shoppers yet for some reason we’re held to a higher standard.

    1. Take all the worst bits of Tony Blair and mix them with all the worst bits of Emmanuel Macron, add a generous dose of shit and there you have one.

    4. Someone who believes in open borders. Thus the poor will be able to migrate to the wealthy areas resulting in dilution of wealth, erasing of culture, overwhelmed social services, increasing crime and social breakdown into tribal gangland loyalties. Essentially, a reversion to life in Africa. Why would anyone want that, well the chiefs are very well looked after in underdeveloped countries and poor and uneducated people are easy to control. Ring any bells….

    6. 1; A person who advocates the interpretation or planning of economic and foreign policy in relation to events and developments throughout the world.

      2; Someone who believes that economic and foreign policy should be planned in an international way, rather than according to what is best for one particular country.

      3; A person who has an obsessive desire for power. eg a megalomaniac.

      Perhaps all 3.

    1. If Springwatch can spot a nightjar or a hare from a considerable distance, what on earth makes these idiots think that their stealth bikes will be more effective than a fart in a thunderstorm?

      1. I’ve absolutely no idea perhaps some folk with military backgrounds might explain the advantage of this mode of transport.

        I’m just surprised that there isn’t a ‘Deliveroo’ cool box on the back…..

    2. What they are going to do is as the Russian tanks are careering across the countryside, they are going to pedal slowly in front of them three abreast until they give up and go back home.

      1. But a tank is pointless against 5 blokes with rocket launchers who can deploy, respond and retreat before the tank can get there.

    3. In and of itself it’s not a bad idea. A small, mobile unit carrying heavy weapons is best deployed with fast transport.

      What what about range? Where is backup with armour support?

      2. “Where is backup with armour support?”
        Lurking below the horizon, presumably.

      3. A pity no-one thought about making a vertical take-off flying machine. Could fly in lots of people quickly and then extract them.

        1. Hmm, we sold.gave all ours to the yanks, who’ve just moth-balled them, despite their efficacy.

          1. I was actually referencing helicopters rather than Harriers but yes we gave the technology away – again

    5. I’m sure I read a novel in the last year or two where US special forces used these for a silent approach to an Isis (or whatever) stronghold in some Shitholistan after being put down by helicopter some miles away. Once the job was done they were extracted the same way.

    6. They might be fine if defending Western Europe as there’s lots of cyclepaths but further east they won’t be much good. They’ll just have to take their chances on the roads.

    7. That reminds of when our police use to ride around on the old grey Velocet motor bikes. And look how they have ended up now.
      So it’s good night from me…….
      Will I be nicked ?

  82. At regular periods I have to take gas and electricity meter readings and submit them to our supplier. It saves us having to adhere to a request to have a ‘smart meter’ installed.
    Our monthly payments have been reduced again and our average daily usage adds up to 5 pounds for each 24 hours.
    I think that’s pretty good going.

    Has anyone heard from Maggie Bell ?
    I hope she’s okay.

    1. It’s very warm in the summer though. Come November and that will probably treble. Our yearly bill works out to nearly £4.000.

      No, haven’t seen Maggie post recently, but I’m not here that much.

      1. Thanks Geoff.
        I remember her saying she wasn’t feeling well. I hope she’s okay.
        Can anyone get in touch with her. She lives in Wool Dorset.

  83. What a treat! We turned off Moggin the Mogg and put on Eric Sykes….special guest was Peter Sellers! Great stuff.
    Done a fair amount today but more to do tomorrow. And the weather was nice although breezy.

    3. Good on ya both, Girl.

      Sounds like you’re taking advice and just KBO.

      Keep it up and take sustenance from our continuing hugs.

    5. I’m happy you’ve had a better day, Ann.

      I like breezy. It helps to dispel sultry air.

      1. It was a bit better but here I am at 1 after 2 doses of pills. Did get some sleep and will,hopefully, get some more.
        Not been so sultry here, we both had sweaters on and I almost got my fuzzy socks out!

  84. Evening, all. Had a follow up appointment with my physio this arvo. The exercises have done no good at all for my SIJ, but apparently they take three months to show any results. So why a follow up after six weeks? Worse, I now have a raft more exercises to do for my knees. I shall spend my entire day exercising! The physio also said, see your GP and ask to have your knees X-rayed – ha, ha! I’ll be lucky if I get to see my GP in less than three months and as for getting X-rayed, no doubt it will be put in the “too expensive” tray. Envy of the world – not! I did mutter when I was constantly told, “NICE guidelines don’t allow that”, ‘I wonder what they did with all those thousands of pounds I paid in while I was working’. It didn’t go down very well.

    1. If you are capable of riding, Conners – I haven’t heard why not – I would stick to riding and dressage! Bu**er NICE and the NHS!

      1. Yes indeed. The physio actually said riding was good for me. At the moment, I am between horses, so to speak.

      1. Been there and done that a couple of years ago. Waste of time. Mindfulness indeed!

        1. Physio’s not a lot of use when the cartilage is worn out – it just makes it more painful.

    3. I tried to see an orthopædic surgeon but was told by my then GP, I’m not allowed to recommend you,

      You have to go to physiotherapy.

      Absolutely useless, I now live on Tramadol and Diclofenac for chronic lower back pain..

      NHS – Envy of the world, whose world?

      1. For what it’s worth in today’s ‘Globalist’ world.

        Sorry for being cynical, George, it’s just in my nature.

    1. Yes, when the government said they’d be stopping the little boats they meant to add that they’ll be using bigger boats.

  87. Having an early night tonight to escape the latest dose of climate catastrophe propaganda from Justin Windmill. Not much left in the battery on my phone though.

      1. I will shortly. It doesn’t need doing every night but it doesn’t last as long as it used to.

          4. Depends on the phone, Jools. And ‘sealed in’ is a somewhat variable definition. Stig is correct, though I’ve never had a phone’s capacity diminish to the point where it no longer works. May I ask what make / model of phone you have?

          5. I have- my old phone, which I loved, simply up and died on me. It took ages to find a replacement that I liked and could get to grips with.
            New phone is OK but I still miss the oldie.

  90. More detail on the Farage story. It’s bad enough that the state might do this; it should frighten the **** of the population if commercial organisations are also at it.

    The dossier that blows apart the Coutts claims about closing Nigel Farage’s account

    Document used as justification for ‘exiting’ ex-Ukip leader as customer included details of friendship with Donald Trump

    By Gordon Rayner, ASSOCIATE EDITOR • 18 July 2023 • 5:15pm

    When the wealth reputational risk committee at Coutts met on Nov 17 last year, its members were handed a dossier on Nigel Farage that ran to no fewer than 36 pages.

    Used as justification for “exiting” Mr Farage as a customer, it included details of his friendships with Donald Trump and Novak Djokovic, the tennis champion, his opposition to net zero and his criticism of King Charles III.

    The committee members were told that a personal banking triage team had “uncovered adverse press” about the former Ukip leader, including such apparent revelations as his preference for Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

    There were, however, several problems for those on the committee who wanted to expel Mr Farage as a customer.

    The dossier noted that “there is no evidence of regulator or legal censure of the client,” that he was unfailingly polite to staff and that he had recently been downgraded from a “higher risk politically exposed person [PEP]” to lower risk, and was on the way to being classed as no risk at all.

    Closing his accounts was not justifiable on a monetary basis because “the client’s economic contribution is now sufficient to retain on a commercial basis”.

    Nevertheless, after nearly a decade as a customer of Coutts, the bank decided that having Mr Farage as a client was no longer “compatible with Coutts given his publicly-stated views that were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation”, according to minutes of the meeting.

    It added: “This was not a political decision, but one centred around inclusivity and purpose.”

    This, Mr Farage claims, is proof positive that he was booted out by Coutts because of his political and personal views, and that briefings given to the BBC and others that he was expelled because he no longer had enough money in his accounts were at best disingenuous and at worst a lie.

    He also claims Coutts told him on the phone that he was not classed by them as a PEP, even though the document states the opposite.

    The information, obtained by Mr Farage through subject access requests, raises serious questions about the potential politicisation of the banking system. He has said 10 other banks have refused to take his custom since Coutts threw him out.

    As Coutts’s own minutes of the Nov 2022 meeting acknowledged: “Although he does not align with our views, is likely [sic] to be the same for a number of the bank’s customers.”

    Supporters of Mr Farage have asked whether people with Right-wing views are to be denied banking facilities by Coutts and other banks from now on.

    His case is not, after all, unique – Lord Forsyth, a Tory peer, revealed this month that his daughter had been asked by Coutts to move her account to another bank because her parentage made her “a pain to look after”, while Lord Kirkhope, another Conservative peer, said his son had been denied an account after a bank asked him if he was related.

    What, then, are the “publicly-stated views” that Coutts decided made Mr Farage unsuitable as a customer?

    The minutes of the meeting do not specifically answer that question. They only say he must be put on a “glide path” to being rejected as soon as his mortgage deal expired, as well as making general comments about his unsuitability as a customer.

    The 36 pages of background briefings, however, show that the bank had not only devoted considerable resources to vetting its long-term client but also went to great lengths to find reasons to cut him off.

    Nine pages of the background documents given to members of the wealth reputational risk committee are about Mr Farage’s alleged links to Russia and “pro-Putin” views, even though the section on Russia begins with the words: “NF seemingly has no direct links to Russia.”

    It repeats claims made by the Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant, using parliamentary privilege, that Mr Farage received £548,573 from the Kremlin-backed Russia Today TV channel in 2018. The claims have been categorically denied by Mr Farage and never repeated by Mr Bryant outside Parliament.

    Mr Farage has not appeared on RT since 2017, and has said he was paid two appearance fees of less than £5,000 each. Coutts accepts in the document that “it doesn’t appear that the claim made about income NF received from RT was correct”.

    ‘False Brexit claims’

    The Coutts committee minutes accept that “in terms of any potential connections to Russia, NF had not been sanctioned and had no known direct/indirect Russian connections… the [briefing] paper was right to mention the Russian allegations and potential Russian connections NF had, but there was nothing substantive in that regard”.

    Mr Farage had been “reviewed by RRF [reputational risk forum] in 2018, with the paper focusing solely on NF’s alleged ‘Russian ties'”. Again, the allegations were unproven, the author notes, so Mr Farage’s case was reviewed “on a more holistic basis” this time around.

    The background briefing paper refers committee members to “a 25-page document detailing some of the adverse press associated with Farage back to 2016. The main themes highlighted being: racism/xenophobia/BLM; Russia/Pro Putin/RT links; Climate denying/anti-net zero”.

    There are also references to “false Brexit claims” and allegations that Mr Farage was a “fascist” in his schooldays.

    The committee members are told that Mr Farage “is seen as xenophobic and racist” and has made remarks that are “distasteful and appear increasingly out of touch with wider society”.

    Under the heading “alignment to purpose”, the document states: “There are several factors and behaviours demonstrated by NF which arguably do not align with values that serve the common good and that treat people with dignity and respect.

    “When viewed from our perspective, however, we are considering him as an individual and to some extent that does include expecting not all views to be the same as ours.

    “However, when considering our stance specifically on ESG/diversity the comments/articles are not in line with our views or our purpose.”

    It defines ESG as “supporting diversity and inclusion; black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) equality, LGBTQ rights and social mobility”.

    Under another heading, “transactional analysis outcome”, the dossier states: “The values NF actively and publicly promotes/champions do not align with the bank’s… at best he is seen as xenophobic and pandering to racists, and at worst he is seen as xenophobic and racist. He is considered by many to be a disingenuous grifter and is regularly (almost constantly) the subject of adverse media.”

    It adds: “Being associated with NF presents a material and ongoing reputational risk to the bank.”

    That “reputational risk” includes the fact that Mr Farage is friends with Mr Trump, the former US president, and Djokovic, the seven-time Wimbledon champion.

    The briefing paper tells the committee: “There is also adverse press relating to… endorsements of Donald Trump, including defending Trump’s ‘grab them by the pussy’ remarks as ‘locker room banter’ and stating that Trump was ‘not running to be Pope’. Adverse press shows that NF continues to support Trump despite the many new legal issues he faces.”

    However, there is a warning to the committee that they must be careful about using Mr Farage’s relationship with Trump to help justify closing his accounts.

    In his support for Mr Trump, Mr Farage “is not alone… in the media and in many cases the general public.

    “Given the public nature of the relationship he has with us, there is a risk that if we use this commentary [or the other commentary] to take action it may well be positioned [by NF] to appear to be taking political sides on this debate as the comments are not related to the Bank.”

    Under the heading “Djokovic” the document reproduces an article from The Independent from January 2022 commenting on Mr Farage’s visit to the player’s trophy room in Belgrade, during which he criticised Australia’s decision to deport the player for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid.

    It described the visit as “the spineless, chaotic behaviour of a chancer”.

    On the second page of the dossier, the committee members are told: “Team uncovered adverse press. This included various reports that claimed NF incited race hate when he compared the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement to the Taliban and Islamic extremists in relation to the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol.”

    It also cites adverse press relating to “appearances on InfoWars (the American conspiracy show run by far-Right pundit Alex Jones) and continued support for Alex Jones” despite him being ordered to pay $1 billion in damages to the families of the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting for claiming it was faked.

    The most commonly-cited news sources for the case against Mr Farage are The Independent (13 articles) and the pro-EU Guardian (seven articles), with other cited sources including the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate and the Labour-supporting websites Left Foot Forward and Labour Movement For Europe.

    The bank also trawled through Mr Farage’s Twitter feed, which “features numerous anti-Human Rights Act tweets advocating for leaving the ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights]”.

    According to Coutts’s own documents, Mr Farage had always been a model customer.

    Under a section titled “risk mitigation”, the document notes that: “He is professional in his dealings with us – we have no reported issues.”

    Elsewhere, the document states: “While NF’s views do not align to our values, his engagement with us is in line with what we expect – professional, polite and respectful.” It also says: “He has not made any inappropriate remarks to our staff and treats them professionally and with courtesy.”

    The document also repeats the fact that, from a purely financial point of view: “He meets the EC [economic contribution] criteria for commercial retention.”

    Yet the committee members are told that the mitigating factors in Mr Farage’s favour are “limited”.

    The briefing document then effectively goes on to admit that he has done nothing wrong, and that using the end of his mortgage deal as a reason for closing his accounts will be helpful to reduce “counter-criticism”.

    It says: “From an international affairs perspective, NF’s reputational harm to the bank could stem from two areas. First, any relationship with Putin’s regime, or endorsement of the illegal invasion of Ukraine. The paper suggests that we haven’t found evidence of the former (beyond ‘useful idiot’ admiration) and his comments about the invasion fall short of endorsement.

    “A second area would be his broad attitude to foreign countries and their peoples. Here, it’s clear to me that NF has – and projects – xenophobic, chauvinistic and racist views, even though this is done within the law, or framed with sufficient ambiguity to claim malicious misquoting by his critics.

    “Unless/until NF makes a statement that glorifies or promotes harmful behaviour, we need to consider his default, ambient reputation – which I agree is captured for many as ‘disingenuous grifter’. I agree we should consider exit to coincide with the end of the mortgage term and on a long glide-path that reduces the risk of counter-criticism.”

    The document also warns: “It is very likely that the client would ‘go public’ if we exited him… it is likely that NF would perceive a decision to exit him as ‘unfair’ and he would almost certainly use his public platform to communicate this dissatisfaction.”

    On March 10 this year an unnamed member of staff sent an email to a superior making them aware of the decision to “exit” Mr Farage, claiming that – contrary to what the wealth reputational risk committee was told – “the relationship has been below commercial criteria for some time”.

    But it added that: “In making the decision, risk factors including accusations of links to Russia, controversial public statements which were felt to conflict with the bank’s purpose and the possibility… of re-entry into politics were taken into account.”

    Three days later, on March 13, the unnamed superior replied: “Noted and OK to proceed according to the previously approved exit plan.”

    Coutts has been contacted for comment.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/18/coutts-records-undermine-claim-exiting-farage-not-political

    1. Everybody knows NF’s political views but what business are they of the Bank? They are there to manage his finances, not his views.

    3. How can the bank suffer reputational damage if the public don’t know where he banks?

    4. The Royal Family banks with Coutts.

      They should close all their accounts with them immediately

      But does the Idiot King have even the remotest idea why he should do so?

      1. Coutts is a racket. It set itself as a bank for exclusively wealthy customers. It wrecked the building it occupied on The Strand, originally designed by Nash with its triangular form with disctinctive pepperpots at the points.

        That architect Sir Frederick Gibberd dismantled the centre piece of the Strand frontage, itself an Edwardian addition of some quality, erected parts of the immaculate stone structure in his Harlow garden as a sort of Grecian ruin and even kept a massive Corinthian capital which found its way into his first floor office in Percy Street which required reinforcement of the floors to take the dead load of the stone.

        My old boss had an account with Coutts. It was a sign of wealth and gave others great confidence in the cheques issued. My old boss would often leave his Coutts cheques in payment for meals. These cheques were probably subsequently framed as opposed to being cashed. Sir William Whitfield’s expansive florid signature combined with the design of the cheques was irresistible to the plebs serving him. Therein lies a lesson to all of us.

    5. Interesting. I didn’t know that Farage had criticised Charles – could there have been a personal request to get rid of him (Farage), I wonder, and the report was concocted to support it?

        1. Hot and smokey!! How are you a’doin? Not far from our thoughts, wish we could do something….

          1. Swings and roundabouts. Quack tomorrow so we’ll see what, if anything, comes of it.

    2. Thankyou Rastus and Caroline! It’s a lot of years! Our wedding anniversary as well so he’s not left out.

    1. You do know, I hope, that Sadiq Khan never said that and any attempt to pretend that he did is counterproductive. I usually assume, at first, that efforts to disparage the man are lies unless I find convincing evidence to the contrary.

      1. One of the many reasons why I’ve blocked Ogga.

        Too many repetitious false claims.

      2. 374585+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,
        My belief is there are a great many of “you” types about, must see dead bodies first.

  94. The guilty woman.

    Seriously, just what are these people trying to prove?

    Dame Alison Rose: the bank boss who steered Coutts’ diversity drive

    The chief executive of NatWest has overseen a pivot towards saving the planet and LGBT rights since taking the helm

    By Neil Johnston• 18 July 2023

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/733d590e0c9a143ff4a9a7c1d73f8f47641b7424a7dee9c0636d321c8f16e395.jpg
    Dame Alison announced just months after being appointed that ‘tackling climate change would be a central pillar’ of her leadership
    CREDIT: Dominic Lipinski/PA
    _____________________________

    As the former trainee who worked her way up to become the first female boss of a major British lender, it is Dame Alison Rose who holds ultimate responsibility for Nigel Farage’s bank account closure. Since taking the helm at NatWest, which owns Coutts, the 53-year-old has overseen their pivot towards saving the planet and putting diversity at the heart of the business.

    Coutts, which only accepts wealthy clients, has in recent years focused less on maintaining its image as the bank of the late Queen and more on championing initiatives on climate change. Its transformation appears to have come from the top.

    Dame Alison grew up overseas with a military family, before returning home when she was 15 and later graduating from Durham University in 1991. She joined NatWest as a graduate a year later and spent three decades climbing up the ranks and later going on to lead the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) corporate and banking division. In 2019, she was appointed the first female chief executive of RBS, which later became NatWest, in what was widely seen as a watershed moment for the banking industry.

    However, rather than focus solely on the financials of the lender, still a third owned by the taxpayer, she decided that the bank must involve itself in debates over climate change and LGBT rights. Just months after she was appointed, Dame Alison announced that “tackling climate change would be a central pillar” of her leadership and earlier this year called on banks to finance net zero.

    “Put simply,” she said, “tackling the climate emergency is one of, if not the biggest issue of our time – and banks have a massive role to play in mobilising the power of finance to meet the net zero ambition.”

    On the same day of her speech, the bank ended new loans for oil and gas extraction.

    She was made a Dame in the New Year Honours List and has been an advocate for equality in the workplace, co-authoring a review on female entrepreneurship. Last year, she took home £5.25 million over the year, as she received an annual bonus for the first time since the bank’s bailout by the Government during the 2008 financial crisis.

    As well as running the bank’s day-to-day operations, she personally oversees its inclusivity initiatives, describing herself as “a passionate supporter of diversity and is executive sponsor for NatWest Group’s employee-led networks”.

    Speaking ahead of Pride last year, she said: “Our focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is integral to our purpose of championing the potential of people, families and businesses.

    “And NatWest Group’s employee-led networks are playing a huge part in creating a truly inclusive culture at the bank. If you’d like to learn more about our eight networks, which I’m incredibly proud of.”

    Her approach has been evident in the bank’s policies for employees, with staff allowed to identify as men and women on different days as part of a series of LGBT-friendly diversity measures. Double-sided lanyards were offered to staff who identify as non-binary, so that they could alternate between different identities.

    NatWest has also paid for transgender staff to get privately funded hormone treatment and has signed up to controversial schemes run by the charity Stonewall, appearing in its Equality Index last year. Guidance by Stonewall has included describing mothers as a “parent who has given birth” and allowing those who self-identify as a woman to use female toilets and changing rooms.

    Stonewall has repeatedly insisted it does “not seek to influence operational decisions”.

    The disclosures from Mr Farage that his accounts appear to have been closed because his views did not align with Coutts suggested that customers who do not agree with the bank’s worldview may not be tolerated.

    Coutts has gone further than its parent company in its efforts to go green, spending two years transforming itself into a “B Corp”. It was awarded the title by a US-based organisation that hands out certificates for social and environmental impact, which said it was using “business as a force for good” and balancing profit with purpose.

    Peter Flavel, the chief executive of Coutts who reports to Ms Rose, has said that “with wealth comes responsibility”. Last month, the bank covered its headquarters on the Strand with rainbow colours and the slogan “Championing the Power of Pride”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/11db5b78ca6ed4fd43fd25e5dad9308f72f303bb9b928fa5941b656ada6ced09.jpg
    The slogan ‘championing the power of pride’ adorned Coutts’ London headquarters last month
    CREDIT: Matthew Chattle/Future Publishing/Getty Images
    _________________________________________________________

    The bank also launched a diversity prize in recent years in conjunction with Eton for schools across the Thames Valley, and introduced inclusion champions who monitor behaviour and culture in the workplace. The bank said that the initiatives “go a long way towards helping create a more inclusive culture”.

    Coutts was one of five founding signatories for the UN’s Principles of Banking, with a focus on climate and the environment.

    Mr Flavel has been vocal about climate change, attending the Cop26 conference.

    “Each and every one of us has the power to create change,” Mr Flavel noted on the bank’s website. “And now, more than ever, is the time to do just that.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b38c1833f10c9368289fd74bb7648d17dab4d753d6787a205d87df9532d1d179.jpg
    Coutts’ offices on the Strand covered with rainbow colours
    CREDIT: Michael Melia/Alamy
    _____________________________

    Coutts was founded in 1692 and is the eighth oldest bank in the world. It was founded by Scot John Campbell of Lundie as a goldsmith which offered banking services on the Strand. Many of his customers were fellow Scots, and Royal patronage began when Queen Anne commissioned Campbell to make the collars and badges for the Order of the Thistle.

    The name Coutts did not appear in the title of the bank until 1755 when James Coutts, a Scottish banker, joined the business after marrying Mary Peagrum, the granddaughter of the founder. During the 20th century, it became a bank to nobility and the landed gentry, with the Royal family becoming the most notable client.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/18/alison-rose-steered-coutts-diversity-drive-nigel-farage

      1. Not so silly.

        She took home £5.25 million last year.

        Being trendy lefty really pays well !

        1. She’s still a silly little bunt, despite her earnings. After Farage sues ,her bosses won’t be able to afford her.

    3. No chance the woke Charles and William will move their accounts elsewhere – they love this sort of thing!

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