Wednesday 19 July: The Army can only operate with proper equipment and infrastructure

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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593 thoughts on “Wednesday 19 July: The Army can only operate with proper equipment and infrastructure”

  3. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    The joke from hell….

    An Illinois man left the snowballed streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick e-mail.

    Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it in from memory.

    Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife, whose husband had passed away only the day before.

    When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor dead. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

    Dearest Wife, Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

    Your Loving Husband.

    PS, Sure is hot down here.

    5. Happy Birthday, dear Ndovu!! Singing so lustily I’m scaring the chickens! 🤣🤣 Have a great day x

    6. 🎶Happy Birthday to you, Ndovu!🎶 And have a lovely day! 🎉🥳🥂🍾🎂🍰🎉

    7. Thanks again Caroline and Rastus! 🐘🐘🐘🐆🐆🦒🦒🦒🦁🦁🐘🐘🐘🐾🐾🐾🦔🦍🦍🥂🥂 it’s our wedding anniversary today as well. No chance of my beloved forgetting the date!

      2. Grattis på födelsedagen, Jules. Hope it’s a spiffing one! 😘🥂🎂👍🏻🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘

      3. We would have got married on Caroline’s birthday but we married one week later after the end of a school term.

      5. Happy special birthday and congratulations on your anniversary! Have a wonderful day Nottling.

  5. Good Morning Folks

    Overcast here, might rain

    A little bonus joke for sirjaspers collection

    A Vicar goes to the dentist for a set of false
    teeth.
    The first Sunday after he gets his new teeth, he
    talks for only eight minutes. The second
    Sunday, he talks for only ten minutes. The
    following Sunday, he talks for 2 hours and 48
    minutes.The congregation had to mob him to
    get him down from the pulpit and They asked
    him what happened
    The Vicar explains the first Sunday his gums
    hurt so bad he couldn’t Talk for more than 8
    minutes. The second Sunday his gums hurt too
    much to talk for more than 10 minutes But, the
    third Sunday, he put his Wife’s’ teeth in by
    mistake and he couldn’t shut up…

  6. The Army can only operate with proper equipment and infrastructure

    Yes some more soldiers would be a start

    1. ogga, why is this a surprise?

      As the local manager of the WEF, Mr Sunak will do as he is instructed.

      1. 374642+ up ticks,

        Morning J,

        Tis no surprise to I, since the referendum the tory (ino) party path
        has led back to brussels.

  9. Questions over Britain’s 70pc boost in aid to India just days after its rocket launch. 19 July 2023.

    The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), which distributes aid, sent India £33.4 million in aid cash in 2022/23.

    But the FCDO’s annual report, published this week, reveals that the total is set to rise to £57 million in 2024/25.

    This will be topped up by an as-yet-unknown amount from the business department, which usually gives more than £10 million.

    This is quite obviously a scam. My guess is the Civil Service indulging in a little cash repatriation for their relatives.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/18/britain-foreign-aid-india-space-rocket-launch/

      1. Morning Nan. I now look on the UK as a company being asset stripped by gangs of ethnic embezzlers. It is being progressively drained of its lifeblood.

        2. It should be a condition of entry into the Civil Service that you can prove that all 4 grandparents were born and raised in the UK

          1. All four of my grandparent were born in Britain – but what about people like me who were born in the Sudan because my father was working for the British government at the time.

            It seems that if you are black and want a British passport it is far easier than if you are white and were born in Africa to British parents!

            We were trying to get through the system and get British passports for both our sons who were born in France to a British father and a Dutch mother.

            The girl working at the British Embassy in Paris told us that she went to England to have her babies as it made the paperwork easier!

          2. Sorry to hear that but I’m sure that, if you were applying for job with the Civil Service (unlikely I know) that you would be able to supply information about your 4 grandparents. I’m just trying to weed out the chancers and sneak-thieves who currently infest the snivel serpents.

      2. Morning Nan. I now look on the UK as a company being asset stripped by gangs of ethnic embezzlers. It is being progressively drained of its lifeblood.

  10. I’m guessing that Rishi is waiting to complete his summer reshuffle until after the by-elections,,
    If he does much better than expected he will kick out the remaining Brexiteers and replace them with Rejoiners.
    If he does much worse than expected he will kick out the remaining Brexiteers and replace them with Rejoiners.

  12. 374642+ up ticks,

    Letters: The Army can only operate with proper equipment and infrastructure

    Priorities,priorities,priorities, The Country can only operate with proper patriotic governing parties firstly, and the lab/ lib/con coalition party have proven beyond doubt to be anything but fit to govern.

    Currently we have brought, via the polling stations, the war ashore and are topping up the potential enemy numbers daily
    whilst denying the army country protective resources.

    MAKE THESE BY-ELECTIONS BE THE TRIGGER FOR RECLAIMING OUR COUNTRY.

    1. It’s OK. They’re going to give them bikes with gun mounts and Carl Gustavs.

      1. 374642+up ticks,

        Morning Siadc,

        Better our green king has no say
        otherwise we would have troops topping up with water at 40 squirts a minute

        1. He wrote the book in 1948 and published it in 1949, Tom.

          My point is that the book foretold the world in Nineteen-Eighty-Four, which — last year, when the hysteria began — was 38 years prior.

    3. I was never a great fan of Mr Eric Blair’s moustache but he seems to have lost half of it in this photo.

      I have posted this Jimmy Buffet song about the pencil-thin mustache before but I always enjoy hearing it and looking at the pictures in the clip.

      https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tFP1zcsNM1KMSwwNTZg9BItSM1LzsxRKMnIzFPIzS8tLklMzkgFANbjDFE&q=pencil+thin+moustache&oq=pencil+thisn+moustache&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBEC4YDRiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAuGA0YgAQyCQgCEAAYDRiABDIJCAMQABgNGIAEMgkIBBAAGA0YgAQyCAgFEAAYFhgeMggIBhAAGBYYHjIICAcQABgWGB4yCggIEAAYChgWGB7SAQg5MTAxajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:3db54a2a,vid:cXQS4S3vgGA

      And who can forget this charming old rogue?

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d49f34c37f439bd091034bfe459cc5e996cf6544898c8fa0cd68d5dfe7739362.png

  14. Good morning, all. Some rain overnight and overcast at the moment.

    The temperature news is heating up… I’ll get me coat and hit the melting tarmac!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb9c91a12e2333a2ec9a56c95cf329962e5c390c333eb53d0249c9b1a1f690ba.png

    https://twitter.com/thegriffter/status/1681333901279522816

    Breaking, Paint By Numbers regrets that its selection of colours has been severely reduced: it’s all due to Climate Change!

    https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1681330347525455873

    1. Southern Germany have just had a hail storm – I’ve just been sent photos to prove it!

    2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40928ec1da0c970720cbada25fa0eb41af0f7c3d3154ff26f7afecba27a8dd88.png

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/377339194907eaca32e74fd5d92dc4c7395421eda357bb9b232e1dfc9d33ec6c.png

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90decc298a005e93d48553eb77dd50613e973f700d709c7c14c4bf01d7f95214.png
      Hear, hear, Korky.

      It would appear that the weather reports for yesterday in today’s Daily Telegraph (even though the DT is part of the accursed MSM), which I follow daily, is at complete odds with those hysterical ‘reports’.

      I suppose that the DT’s data (from AccuWeather.com) still uses the traditional readings of air temperature and not superheated ground temperatures which the alarmists are now using.

      1. There is a very good article in the Telegaffe today by Allison Pearson about this hysterical nonsense. Sadly the Telegaffe also reports the “new record” in Rome, which doesn’t agree with the forecast max in the same paper, by a good margin.

        1. I noticed that too. The DT’s Left hand doesn’t know what its right hand is doing!

    3. Yep, and what part did humans and industry play in the warming of the earth which ended the last ice age?

  16. Arresting Vladimir Putin in South Africa would be ‘declaration of war’, says Ramaphosa. 19 July 2023.

    Any attempt to arrest Vladimir Putin when he visits South Africa would be a declaration of war against Russia, the country’s president says.

    Cyril Ramaphosa made the warning with weeks to go before an international meeting happens in Johannesburg, to which the Russian president is invited.

    But if Mr Putin leaves Russian soil, he will be subject to an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.

    South Africa is an ICC signatory and should therefore help in his arrest.

    Much ado about nothing. The accusations are false and the ICC can do nothing if South Africa ignores the warrant. I would imagine that Vlad is more concerned about being assassinated than the threat of arrest!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-66238766

    1. Wadda loada bolero. No body arrested Mugabe when he was murdering thousands of people in his country just because he knew they would never vote for him.

      2. Morning Eddy. I can imagine that there are quite a few Nottlers who can remember Dag Hammarskjöld.

    1. I’m wondering if our government are actually stirring up these medical strikes. As part of changing the process of how the NHS will work in the future.
      Either that or the staff are insanely jealous of what their old colleagues are now earning in the private sectors.

          1. Happy birthday 😊🤩🐘🐘🥂🍾 I/we hope you have a lovely day today.

      6. Happy Birthday, Jules! Have a wonderful day and sending best wishes to you! 🍾🎂🌹

          1. They dream of restoring the Polish Lithuanian Union and reinstating their 17th century borders. Which is not what Washington wants from this debacle, so having been shamelessly used by them, the Poles may well end up being restrained by NATO.

      2. The way they pull at the fencing they will have to use something else. They reminded me of hyenas surrounding their prey.

  20. Tuesday Evening: “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.”

    Wednesday Morning, 8:30: It is RAINING.

    1. Locally, the LA schools’ end of term is on Friday. Next week’s weather forecast is for rain every day. I’m hoping to be disappointed!

    1. My twitter reply:

      “The political criteria are, a). Money and b). belief in the woke diversity codswallop.”

    2. You’ll never get the truth from people on the fiddle, there are far too many of them. Especially in the political world.

  23. Good day all,

    Cloudy at McPhee Towers, Sunny periods later, wind in the West going Nor’-West, 14℃ with 20℃ in prospect. Just another day in the climate crisis below the long-term average temperature.

    Everybody is concerned about army numbers. Obviously the army is being reduced in number so it won’t be able to cope when the imported WEF army starts its operations.

    1. I did recently see an advertisement on TV aimed at seemingly young ladies to join the navy. Nelson would have been terribly proud.

  24. Morning all 🙂😊
    No changes in the weather, still grey, rain forecast for later. I’d rather it is like this than the 43C we experienced in Oz in the late 70s. Before of course climate change or global warming was spoken of every 20 minutes on MSM.
    We just got on with it.

    1. ,,,and my 44°c experience regularly in the 5 years I lived in S Spain (Costa del Sol).

  25. Russia’s losses are far higher than anyone could have believed. Hamish de Crettin-Gordon. 19 July 2023

    There are several reasons why these rates are so high, and why the Russian public seems to be ambivalent about the carnage being inflicted on their sons. The first is that the elites of the Russian army were killed or injured in the first few months of the war and replaced by conscripts with little or no training. With part-trained manpower it is evident that Russian forces cannot conduct combined arms warfare, where infantry are protected by tanks, artillery and fighter jets. Hence, they appear only to be able to man trenches, or go over the top WW1 style, where they are decimated by better trained and disciplined Ukrainian troops.

    These troops, many using drugs and alcohol, are also very badly led – or rather, pushed. In the Russian army, the officers are generally behind the soldiers pushing them forward, backed by hit squads who shoot deserters or those who refuse to attack. It’s little wonder that morale is so low. At Sandhurst we were told officers lead from the front.

    I caught a clip of the Ukie Commander in Chief on the BBC News last night bemoaning the impenetrability of the Russian front lines and the stubborn resistance of the troops defending them!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/19/russias-losses-are-far-higher-than-anyone-believed/

    3. The other DT article still up today:

      “Ukraine and the West are facing a devastating defeat”

      I think Hamish’s fantasy replaced another ‘it’s not going well’ article.

        2. Except he’s talking about the new variety, with the upgraded armour. Not the ones we sent to Ukraine.

    4. Is H de C-G revisiting WWII? What next, Russian punishment battalions being force marched over Ukrainian minefields?

      From the news that may have a scintilla of truth it would appear that the Russians have taken a defensive stance and are writing down the attacking Ukrainian forces. It’d doubtful that the Ukrainians have sufficient troops and ordnance to mount a powerful thrust at a single point to force a breakthrough and then exploit the situation. If that is the position then the Ukrainians are merely frittering away their resources, both men and materiel.
      Negotiations NOW!

      1. Morning Korky. The Establishment Troll Support below the line (and I take into account genuine posts) for the Ukraine Narrative has been ramped up tremendously. A sure sign of nervousness about the result!

  26. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/761f2897b17dc2c0835b4e4a19152c379e84c3f13508bc68a5da67b323502541.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4fd3848caf93d45635ce64955b9a5b831497855b032fbf3118190a1e42416422.jpg I’ve been practising for years (ever since I moved to Sweden) and now, at long last, I have come across the best recipe for curing my own utterly delicious English-style bacon. The trick was to use a hydrometer to ensure I had a 65% concentration of saline for the cure (salt, soft brown sugar, white pepper and coriander seeds).

    A nice piece of Swedish pork loin (Swedish pork is not routinely injected with antibiotics as Danish pork is) was immersed in the cooled brine for six days. It was then rinsed off, doused with white vinegar, then left to finish its curing process in the fridge for another six days. I sliced it up on my German-made domestic bacon-slicer and produced 1,500g of rashers, which are all now — in bags of three — in the freezer. I do not put any nitrites, nitrates or any other form of curing agent or preservative in my bacon and it tastes just as delicious. No preservative is needed, in any case, if you freeze the product.

    Even though this bacon was wet-cured, not a single drop of water emerged in the frying pan. This only occurs when commercial bacon is injected with water by the manufacturers to increase the weight and maximise their profits (you are paying them for that water, which leaches out when frying and produces a vile slurry in the pan.).

    After slicing I was left with a triangular slab that I sliced by hand into chunks, fried, and then cut into smaller pieces. Later today I shall combine those bits with some fried onions and mushrooms and then add them to some tinned tomatoes, black pepper and oregano, to make a superb Amatriciana-style pasta sauce.

      1. Go to it, boy; make your own, it’s worth it.😉

        I couldn’t believe how delicious it is. It is many decades since I tasted bacon this yummy.

      1. Except, of course, for the artwork and woodwork, the gardening and cooking, the photography and birdwatching, among other time-wasters.

        No, I suppose I am an idle bugger!

    3. You are so right you cannot buy supermarkt bacon is all horrible. We send away to Scotland for our bacon. not as good as yours but we can eat it. You have a good jb on this Griz.

    6. It looks fantastic, Grizzly, well done!

      Can you please tell me what the point is of the dousing in vinegar? Does this explain the colour of the sliced bacon? Because normally without nitrites pork goes grey when you pickle it.

      After our courses I’m going to try this! First buy a hydrometer…

      1. Hello, Caroline, and thanks.

        I have a number of books on curing meats and most of them advise rinsing the cured meat in clean water directly after curing (either dry-curing or in brine); wiping it dry with paper towels; then rubbing it all over with vinegar, prior to hanging, as a means of sterilisation and discouraging bacterial growth on the outside of the meat. This has nothing to do with the colour of the bacon. The use of nitrites (sodium nitrite) and nitrates (potassium nitrate, or saltpetre) are the traditional curing agents that are supposed to give bacon and ham a pinkish hue. I don’t use them but I still get a pinkish hue to my bacon.

        In winter I hang my bacon, after initial curing, in an airy room with an ambient temperature not exceeding 15ºC. This permits the next — necessary — stage to take place: the ‘equalising’ (maturing) of the product. This can take between 6 and 12 days or even longer. The equalising is a continuation of the curing process. In the summer I simply place the pork in a container of brine mixture in the fridge for 5–6 days, (turning it each day); then after rinsing, drying and wiping it with vinegar, I place the dried bacon on a rack over a plastic container and return it to the fridge for another 6–12 days before trying it.

        In the past I have dry-cured bacon but I find that tends to make it very salty, necessitating that the cured bacon is soaked for a time in clean cold water to remove excess saltiness. This latest batch of brine-cured bacon turned out perfect without being too salty. Here is an excellent history of bacon curing that I found on the internet: https://earthwormexpress.com/about-meat-curing/functional-ingredients/bacon-curing-a-historical-review/

        My own favourite books on the subject of curing and smoking are: Manual of a Traditional Bacon Curer, by Maynard Davies (Master Curer); The Smoking and Curing Book, by Paul Peacock; Home Smoking and Curing, by Keith Erlandson; and Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery by Jane Grigson. Another general book on pork products is the wonderful Pork and Sons by Stéphane Reynaud, which is one of my favourite books on meat.

        I have three hydrometers from when I used to brew beer and wine, way back in the past. They certainly came in useful.😊

  28. 374642+ up ticks,

    Don’t know about the current global warming shite in make believe land, but for reality Tony Blair gave Keir Starmer his blessing.

    With the former Labour leader being as compelling as ever, the current one could do with taking a page out of his book, this took place I believe in a form of black mass and scribed in hell fire.

  29. As an ardent enthusiast of P.G. Wodehouse’s novels I was pleased to see an article about the Mr Mulliner Stories in The Conservative Woman today. https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/beyond-jeeves-and-wooster-pg-wodehouses-mr-mulliner-stories/

    I added my BTL comment:

    I have a virtually complete set of P.G. Wodehouse’s novels and short stories and I am in the process of re-reading them all. Funnily enough I finished reading the first book of Mulliner stories just last week.

    I have just started Money For Nothing in which we meet Chimp Twist and Dolly and Soapy Malloy for the first time. Soapy Molloy sells dud oil stock to the gullible and comes up with a line of misquotation which seems very apt for today’s big environmental con trick.

    “You can fuel some of the people all of the time, you can fuel all of the people some of the time but you will have to work exceptionally hard to fuel all of the people all of the time.”

      1. The chap wot rote the molesworth stories, Geoffrey Willans, went to my old skool, Blundell’s.

  30. Two articles side-by-side in the DT:

    “Like it or not, Brexit is part of Britain’s inflation problem” – Jeremy Warner
    “If you pin Britain’s inflation woes on Brexit, explain Sweden” – AEP

      1. Nor AEP in mine. He often writes about the latest scientific miracle that will replace all fossil fuel usage in the next 10 years if only the government had the sense to invest in it.

    2. Mr Warner may be right, but not for the reasons he presents. The EU has made trade difficult, not the UK. The EU mandates our energy policies, food policies and tax policies – despite big government being given the opportunity and freedom to reverse them. Our government has every opportunity to ignore the EU and set the UK free. At every step, big government refuses to.

      1. If that boy has any conscience (which is doubtful) I hope the old man’s death will haunt him for ever.

        1. If he had one he wouldn’t have done it. He is an example of the state writ large.

          1. He is an example of a kid with no respect for other people or property. He has “ADHD and autism” like they all do. But even someone like him should have some idea of right from wrong.

          2. Bolloix he did. He’s just scum. I am autistic to a degree. My brother severely. I have a dreadful temper which is managed by laziness. My brother wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. Yes, he doesn’t know his own strength but he is, at heart a gentle fellow with tremendous empathy for others.

            This scum is just psychotic and should be locked away for life. How did the police identify him? I’d guess fingerprints, so not his first offence. Far too many of them are out there and the state just sets them free, never having to live with the consequences.

          3. He was identified by fingerprints and also by the neighbour. The ADHD etc is used as an excuse by his mother and teachers for his bad behaviour and ignorance.

  32. Some questions fo Couttsr from Andrew Neil

    @CouttsandCo
    Who compiled and agreed the political tests that you used to decide who can be your customers (and resulted in Nigel Farage being banned from banking with you)?
    Does it have the approval of your CEO?
    Does it have the support of your parent bank,

    @NatWestGroup?
    What was the process by which the Farage decision was taken?
    Was your Chairman involved and did your board approve?
    You write of Farage not aligning with your values. Who determined these values?
    Do other banks in the NatWest Group have the same or different political tests.
    Who compiled the report into Farage?
    Who took the decision to terminate his account?
    How many accounts have you terminated on political grounds?
    Will you publish the political tests that must be passed so customers can judge if they fulfil them?
    Do you hold accounts for any political figures or officials involved in undemocratic regimes or territories where human rights are not observed?
    Do you have accounts of people with criminal records or tax evasion/avoidance prosecutions?
    Do you accept that as a public company 40% owned by the taxpayer you have an obligation to answer these questions?
    If you do not accept such accountability have you started preparing answers for your inevitable appearance before a Commons select committee?

    2. I cycled past Coutts on my way into work today. I would have liked an egg or two to throw at the window.

      1. I posted a couple of DT articles on Coutt’s late in yesterday’s column. Once you’ve read them, you’ll probably want to throw more than an egg or two.

    3. I think Farage needs to sue on the basis of discrimination. Let’s see the Rights act used properly, to set a precedent.

      Oh, hang on. Our Left wing judiciary will probably hang him out to dry for the temerity to opposite the blob.

        1. You obviously do not understand what I am talking about.

          Today’s page – Wednesday 19 July – does NOT appear on the general NoTTL page. The last day shown is yesterday.

        2. You obviously do not understand what I am talking about.

          Today’s page – Wednesday 19 July – does NOT appear on the general NoTTL page. The last day shown is yesterday.

          1. Why should it? If you start with yesterday’s page, you’ll see the notification.

          3. Obviously you just want an easy ride with little or no effort on your part.

            Enjoy the balmy July weather.

          9. Quite, Sue. You know that; I know that; Paul and Jules know that….. Just one old buffer who fails to grasp the point!

          11. To get to Wednesday, open Tuesday and scroll to Geoff’s last message containing the link to open Wednesday.
            Convoluted, or…?

          13. I’m still younger than you, so don’t plead old age.

            Paul (Oberstleutnant) says the same as I.

          14. It was your old age that I was referring to.

            No he doesn’t. He says the complete opposite. That finding today’s missing page is – in his word “convoluted”.

        3. There is more than one way to go to the page. Geoff puts a link up on the previous day and that is what you use. There is a banner at the top of the page and that is what Bill uses. There is also a link on the list of pages and that one doesn’t work today.

    2. I had a notification from Geoff at about 06:48 on the Tuesday website, as I do most days.

      No problems.

  34. Grizz will be particularly interested in this but anyone concerned about food and health should give it a listen. Essentially, the argument is not just about what you eat but how quickly you eat it. Slower eating gives your body time to produce the hormones that tell you when you’re satisfied. Here, texture counts. Very simply, the chewier the food, the longer it takes to eat it. Taking longer also gives you time to produce the insulin needed to deal with the higher levels of glucose, especially when eating foods high in carbohydrate.

    Fast food, fast lives, fast track to type 2 diabetes and heart attacks.

    Inside Health – How fast should you eat your food?

    2. I’m slowly chewing my main carbohydrate intake of the day – crunchy muesli with extra nuts and top of the milk. I eat very little bread these days. Plenty of meat, eggs, fish and meat as well as veggies. 75 today and still well.

        1. I was getting a bit porky round the middle so cut out most bread a few months ago and feel better for it. Lost the weight with no effort at all. I never weigh myself but I’m slim. Out to lunch and dinner tonight!

          1. “Out to lunch and dinner tonight!.”

            I should damn well think so. Husband is, of course, picking up the tab.

          2. Not for lunch. It’s our 26th anniversary dinner tonight so he usually does pay the bill if we go out together.

          3. “Out to lunch and dinner tonight!.”

            I should damn well think so. Husband is, of course, picking up the tab.

        2. “Processed carbs are poison.”

          The point being made wasn’t about the additives but the speed at which carbs (e.g. crisps, waffles, cakes) can be eaten. However, the same goes for ordinary bread and potatoes. The presenter who took part in the experiment had some particularly chewy bread which slowed down his speed of eating.

          1. The small spelt, wheat and rye cob from Morrisons is what I buy these days. Half a loaf lasts me all week. It’s nice and chewy and tastes of bread.

          3. Half a loaf is better than nothing;
            Nothing is better than God;
            Therefore half a loaf is better than God.

          4. I like dark rye bread, like pumpernickel. Tasty, texture of carpet tile, so good for you, too! Excellent with thick soup.

        3. “Processed carbs are poison.”

          The point being made wasn’t about the additives but the speed at which carbs (e.g. crisps, waffles, cakes) can be eaten. However, the same goes for ordinary bread and potatoes. The presenter who took part in the experiment had some particularly chewy bread which slowed down his speed of eating.

        4. “Processed carbs are poison.”

          The point being made wasn’t about the additives but the speed at which carbs (e.g. crisps, waffles, cakes) can be eaten. However, the same goes for ordinary bread and potatoes. The presenter who took part in the experiment had some particularly chewy bread which slowed down his speed of eating.

        1. A light lunch with the girls I used to work with and an Italian restaurant with husband this evening.

    3. I gave up giving dinner parties for family. Put a plate in front of them and it is cleared in well under 10 minutes.

    4. Guilty here as there’s never enough time for the three of us to be sat down for a time together.

        2. We should, but mudging together school, after school, collecting her Warqueenery, getting dins ready (usually it’s cooking now) and then sitting folk down followed by one of the adults going out in some fashion, walking the floofs it’s often 10 before we stop.

          1. The family that eats together, stays together. When my daughter was a teenager, she was the only one in her class who ate at the table with her family – the others all took their food to their bedrooms.
            I’ve more or less given up now, but they’re all grown up anyway.

    5. When I were a nipper I was invariably told to chew each mouthful 32 times before swallowing. I always found that advice a tad over-the-top since you ended up drinking your food.

      I am now in the seventh (successful) week of eating only four meals a week (on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 1300hrs). No food, whatsoever, for the rest of the week. Not only am I physically and mentally healthier and sharper, I sleep each night like a baby and wake refreshed but never hungry.

      I would urge all those who have health problems and insomnia to try it out. The only rules are that you must not eat any carbohydrates, sugar, processed food or use any ‘vegetable’ (seed) oils.

      At the age of 72 I have not felt better, or fitter, in several decades.

      1. I only eat once a day. Normally around noon. It’s a bit of a bugger when invited out to dinner in the evening. As far as restaurants are concerned it’s 12/1pm time all the time. And then it’s likely just to be two starters. It’s why i prefer brasseries.

  35. Watch: MI6 chief urges Russians appalled by Ukraine war to spy for UK. 19 July 2023.

    MI6 chief Sir Richard Moore has urged Russians disillusioned with Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine to spy for the UK.

    In a speech in Prague, he said: “There are many Russians today who are silently appalled by the sight of their armed forces pulverising Ukrainian cities, expelling innocent families from their homes and kidnapping thousands of children.

    “They are watching in horror as their soldiers ravage a kindred country. They know in their hearts that Putin’s case for attacking a fellow Slavic nation is fraudulent, a miasma of lies and fantasy.”

    This is the organisation that did most of the donkey work to destroy Syria!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/19/mi6-chief-sir-richard-moore-russian-invasion-ukraine-doomed/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    2. I thought the official line is that Ukraine are pulverising the Russians.
      I wish they could make up their minds and get the hell out of there.

  36. I’m a bit worried about Belle. Is she OK. My Computer Man had symptoms very similar to hers a couple of weeks ago and it decked him for five days!

    1. She wished me a HB on fb today so I think she’s still with us. She didn’t reply to my email yesterday though. I asked her on FB if she’s ok as we’ve missed her so we’ll see if she replies to that.

      2. Happy birthday and have a spiffingly good day and enjoy your Italian tonight. Does your husband know about him? :-))

    2. Have we heard from Elsie recently? That sore throat sounded a bit worrying too.

    3. I think she is very stressed by the fact that the ship full of illegal immigrants is going to be moored just off Weymouth and that they will be allowed to travel ashore freely.

    1. Perhaps you could get Mr Bridgen to ascertain precisely how much tax has been avoided by this method since the legislation was passed

    2. Can this be true – has everything been stitched up by Muslims or are we being paranoid?

      1. 374642+ up ticks,

        Afternoon R,

        When you have the politico’s oath taking in what passes as parliament on the quran the muslim instruction operating manual, along with permission to tell porkies to the non believers along with halal on the canteen menu what more would one need as proof.

    3. I’ve chased this up as I simply could not believe it. This is what I have found:

      Under Sharia law, there is a convoluted arrangement which involves two transactions before the property passes from the vendor to the purchaser. Up to 2003, both transactions were liable for Stamp Duty. In 2003 the law was changed to bring Stamp Duty in line with single-transaction purchases.

      So it is not entirely true that Muslims practising Sharia law do not pay any Stamp Duty. They actually pay one lot of Stamp Duty, but not a second lot on the second transaction. The government website only makes this clear on the page they link to on the one quoted on Twitter.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/530a2f7dccf9acfc4b31e60dbcf2f02403aeb7df7293e28dc6d78662d0906ae9.png

          2. Depending on your settings you might not see a link in a post. Twitter rules have changed to stop the troll onslaught. You have to have an account as i do but then i don’t see comments unless i log in. Elon Musk in this regard is doing us all a favour.

          4. I have a Twitter Account. That contributor has blocked me for some reason only known to them.

    3. I find it strange that she wasn’t arrested for criminal damage unless the Met. had orders not to.

      Obviously an important Government department would have Security and Police on guard 24hrs.

      1. I think the govt has given orders to take no action. The antics of these loons support the net zero policy of this asinine group of people theoretically running this country. Sock puppets as Neil Oliver calls them.

    5. All the standard cuts i see. Where’s the Coppa ? The Jamón?

      Still looks great though.

  41. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/886b28cd07776d2da656ff1786c3b41145dce0fe0d23fa3f1e980adcb25e14b8.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3e23a66da92dbc496b5f88e3806622e8153688ee715354a01c2492f17a172da.png

    Auden was a pupil at Gresham’s as was Benjamin Britten. Interest in his poetry was somewhat revived when the poem about stopping the clocks and cutting off the telephone was recited at the funeral in that Hugh Grant film.

    I think there was some a somewhat scurrilous comment in the Spectator at the time saying that if his face looked like that then can you imagine what his scrotum must have looked like!

    1. Agreed … with bonuses! Ten million times a better poet than the deplorable Lefty, C. Day-Lewis.

      Who the hell knows — and can recite — any Day-Lewis poem? I can’t!

  43. Right………thanks for all the good wishes – off now to walk down the hill and meet my lift over to the girls’ lunch.

    2. The bank’s action may turn out to be extremely expensive. Farage has clearly been defamed. Damages could be enormous.

      2. Not to mention the Al-Beeb,GPDR offences max penalty 4% of turnover
        Hears hoping………

      3. Yes, and in such a silly, ignorant, immature way too! How did that report leak out, do you know? I only scanned the headlines.

      6. “Damages could should be enormous.”

        Fixed it, Bill.

        Not bad for an old buffer – one to another.

      7. Maybe if they arrange it so that he gets such enormous damages he won’t need to continue working as a TV presenter and he will definitely promise not to re-enter the political fray.

        I wonder what his price would be? £!00,000,000 in cash and £5,000,000 a year for life – would that be enough?

        1. It will never get to that. First, I don’t imagine any lawyer would take on a discrimination case brought by a rich white, male, heterosexual man. Then I don’t believe a judge – in the current era – would permit it, the outcome being politically discriminatory itself. Then damages would be mitigated based on Farage’s own existing wealth.

          They’d get away with it.

      8. I was told that defamation is best avoided; win or lose, people will later confuse the plaintiff with the original event. In other words, Mr Farage would be remembered as a raycist with insufficient funds.

        1. I think he should go for it. It might lift others out of the mélange who spoke the truth.

    3. The internet says … “On the back of the strong 2022 performance, Dame Alison was paid a salary of £2.4m and a bonus of £643,000, with the rest of her remuneration made up of share-based awards under a long-term incentive plan“.

      3. The Warqueen, before she left was on about 300k and up to 500k in bonus. I know she didn’t have time for this sort of dogwaffle gibberish Lefty woke nonsense. It kept being pushed from on high, but her duty was bonkers as management would push it from central banks, but clients wanted the opposite and she was paid based on portfolio profits.

        The business’ impositions would have seen her, and her bank to lose money.

    4. A DT piece on the mad bat is on yesterday’s NOTTL (late evening). She is obsessed by the DIE campaign that has infected every aspect of political and commercial activity.

      1. I read it – it’s clear how she got to her current position. A pox on the whole Common Purpose, WEF, Bilderberg elite.

        2. I know you’d read it. It was for others who might have been late in today!

    5. Might be sexist but this obsession with ‘soft’ attitudes – green, activism is not the job of a bank. If banks want to behave in this manner then they should make this public so the investors can choose to bank elsewhere – or face losing out on potential profits.

      4. It’s not sexist. Some women are ready to compete with men, but most aren’t and will simply feminise whatever they’re put in charge of. For every Margaret Thatcher, there are a hundred Alison Roses or fake wimmin priests.

  45. ‘Afternoon All
    Belated Medley

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/480767d251b36ab8e351b1d57e85bc042379efcad9266ea8f276896289d6785e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2002bd02187bbe5a845d11071b950995bf7095cdeb6d2212e2c6e45fae6379f5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21b33f20823ed59ece20402bb73f407afca66fab25c5da3653181b85e2d2b52b.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40eee2d616d432fcb0e4f40079fa7dafb701c9819825bfdda9aeeb6348850d17.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/35bf87c4d311e1d0fada0176ee37a42e5445d1e413df986a0130bc2c06f650ad.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5542a4b55e9af4852674c16c1f389e62c67f4c44644ab22c526bc86ea7fb6635.jpg

    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/143/137/058/original/60461fa42a0c5193.png

          4. Oh in reality they are very, very grateful for all the improvements that have been made by whitey. But will never have the graciousness to admit it.
            Moaning is the principal priority.

    2. Uh, I think the person who created that meme might not have lived on a council estate in Plymouth…

      1. Yes. I have had a lot of comments pointing out the obvious but it was just a meme. I will go and sit in the corner and suck my thumb!

          1. Yes. But without the horn. :@(

            My doctor has prescribed testosterone because he thinks my moobs are getting bigger.

          5. Just think those thoughts the next time you enjoy a cheese board. I will be there with you laughing.

  48. Afternoon all.

    Uploaded our own digital images from Sony camera for passport renewal so we could choose our preferred portrait shots.
    (Didn’t trust photobooth digital code snapshot because would have no idea of how the final images would be received).
    Applied electronically 9th July, approved and printed by 17th July and came through letterbox today (19th July).

    There must be some sort of facial recognition involved because you have to get a green level meter reading display on the application interface to show the acceptability of your portait uploads.

    1. I managed to renew my passport early last year the same way.
      The hardest part was getting a photo that wasn’t too unflattering. I sat in front of the laptop, taking numerous pictures.
      Once I had a reasonable image, it was a surprisingly straightforward process.

      1. When I did something similar I ended up with a photo of someone who probably should ‘t be allowed a passport! Luckily I still got one, and it even works on those automated gates!

        1. It’s the thought that that is going to be your ‘identity’ for 10 years. By the time mine next expires, I suspect I will have many more wrinkles, possibly only just recognisable.
          If, at that point, travel insurance still insists on me having had all the convid jabs/boosters for my age group & chronic illness (my consultant told me the latter poses absolutely no extra ‘risk’ because of the old meds I am on), then I will simply not renew. It wouldn’t surprise me if the con jabs are still being pushed.

  49. The other day I got extremely stressed out whilst choosing what cheese
    to buy at the supermarket, its a miracle I didn’t end up in Emmental
    asylum…………
    Cue cheese puns…….

    4. Cambazola – a creamy blue cheese – is my current favourite, after Stilton of course.

    1. Some journalists flat-out refused to do journalism in response to Farage’s claims about Coutts. Jon Sopel, former BBC staffer and now host of grating Remoaner podcast The News Agents, laughed at Farage’s claim that he was the victim of ‘an establishment stitch-up’ when in truth his account was closed because he is ‘not rich enough for Coutts’.

      Sopel. He demonstrates everything that’s wrong with the BBC.

    2. One of the odd aspects of this case is that Coutts didn’t willingly signal its virtue. Usually, virtue signalling is accompanied by publicising it. After all, if you think your values will chime well with like-minded people who will think more highly of you for whatever stance you’ve taken, it’s usual to let them know. If Coutts is confident that its values meet with widespread approval, announce them. The expectation ought to be that the status of the bank would rise with more customers and business following in its wake, certainly more than would be lost from the minority taking their banking custom elsewhere.

        2. Thank you for the correction. It just makes Coutts’ apparent shyness about revealing its true reasons for denying banking services to Farage all the more mysterious. Unless it’s all about being discreet when it comes to individual cases: a useful cloak when it suits.

          1. Whatever the rights and wrongs – they must be feeling a tad anxious just now.

      2. I hope the repulsive organisation withers and dies as masses close their accounts.

        Of course the Idiot King should set an example and very publicly close all the royal family’s bank accounts with Coutts.

  51. Putin will not attend Brics summit next month in ICC member nation South Africa. 19 july 2023.

    The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, will not attend the summit of the Brics group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement”, with foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov taking his place.

    A statement released by South Africa’s presidency on Wednesday said: “By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit but the Russian Federation will be represented by foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.”

    This is probably a good thing though I would imagine that Vlad is not happy about it. The flight to South Africa would have been very exposed and the possibility of a CIA/Ukie attack with no defence possible high.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jul/19/russia-ukraine-war-live-updates-moscow-attacks-odesa-crimea-military-base-fire-evacuation-kirovske-tavrida-highway?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-64b7c5888f08407e1090865e#block-64b7c5888f08407e1090865e

      1. There is an area of truth though. It is Mongo’s house and he is going to protect his family first. If you’re a threat, he’ll protect his home.

        Although, once you get over his being the size of a horse you realise he’s as dangerous as a pot plant.

          1. I imagine a Nottler invasion as something like the scene in The Hobbit when all the dwarves turn up at Bag End;-)

      2. The sort of visitors I encourage already know that. If they don’t know that, they really aren’t welcome.

    3. If you don’t like dogs, you’ll get drooled on. I’m not sure Mongo has the best seat. He sort of chooses where he’ll sit.

    4. What Charlie says is all true. I think the doormat as a real item is daft though.

    5. I have never had to put my dog(s) in kennels when I take a holiday. They either come with me or, if I’m going abroad (no longer likely) I have a dog sitter, someone they know well, live in the house.

  53. How about this…..last year our car insurance was a negotiated 276.34.
    I’ve just opened the paperwork for the premium for the next 12 months starting in August. An increase of 122.38. We’ve not made a claim or caused any damage to absolutely nothing whatsoever. No modifications made and under 3,000 miles a year. And they have got the godamn cheek to ad an administration fee of 48.16 if we cancel the policy.
    I think I’m going to have a word with these greedy bustards. It’s not experienced careful drivers with zero points like my good lady and I, who are a danger to others. Make them pay for the damage they all dish out.

    1. Shop around via comparison websites, then phone your current insurance company armed with cheaper quotes. Let them know you can get insurance cheaper elsewhere, and odds-on they will reduce your renewal premium.

      1. Go compare are quite useful.
        And I’ll close my bank account so they can’t steal the 48.16.

        1. Change the Direct debit to a Standing (bankers) Order. They cannot mess with that.

    2. No doubt they will explain that both replacement parts and labour charges have increased without mentioning the costs of all the Woke advertising they feel compelled to undertake…

    3. Afternoon Eddy. You should change on principle. There is also the point that they sometimes up their premiums to try it on with elderly customers.

    4. 1, Dont cancel the policy, just cancel the payment mandate. 2. Look for new policy on t’internet. I paid £165 (in May) for a Focus, although it is very dependant on the variable factors.

    5. You can completely ignore their communication, surely? Presumably you are about to renew your insurance, so just let the policy lapse. After, of course, finding a more suitable company!

  54. Robert F. Kennedy Jr
    @RobertKennedyJr
    ·
    28m
    Grateful for support from the Jewish community. They know I’m no anti-Semite. There is plenty of real anti-Semitism out there — let’s not cheapen the term with false accusations. #Kennedy24

    Is it just me or does anyone else spot the astonishing word in the above tweet from RFK Jr?

      1. I just found it refreshing that a US Presidential candidate used the word “grateful” as though he means it. Not something one associates with Clinton, Clinton, Bush, Gore, Obama, Biden or even Trump, who is more grounded than the rest.
        RFK seems to be dragging US politics back to an era where the President at least pretended to be a decent human being.

  55. There once was a bank called Coutts,
    That featured in wokist disputes,
    They blocked an account,
    Blamed the balance amount,
    As a cover for their remainer cahoots.

  56. Well thanks for all advice re the car insurance.
    All being considered.
    More in the mail today. A couple of weeks behind the news about nottlers winning big on the premium bonds. 300 pounds for someone.
    I too had a win today. A miserly 25.00 better than nothing. But Erin open her envelope and announced she’d won 100.00.
    I guess I’m just lucky in other ways.
    Not quite sure how.

  57. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/19/rishi-sunak-news-latest-keir-starmer-nigel-farage-coutts/

    Nicholas Hilliard
    3 HRS AGO
    PINNED
    Such a fuss over nothing. Nigel has an important right to free speech, but private companies also have a right decide who they do business with. This only becomes an issue where an industry as a whole refuses someone services, but this is not the case here, this is simply a single organisation who has a specific and select clientele deciding that Nigel does not meet its criteria.

    While Mr Hilliard is right, this is discrimination based on political view which is fundamentally wrong. However, notable not included in the HRA as the EU wants the power to silence those who disagree with it.

    1. If discrimination based on political views is allowed, then why not based on simply not liking someone’s face?
      The real issue here is the banking cartel – it wouldn’t matter if it was only one small local business. Pubs, for example, have banned politicians in the past.

    2. While I agree that individual banks have the right to decide whose custom they want, Farage’s claim that 10 other banks have since declined his custom is worrisome. It’s possible that a herd instinct has taken effect. Perhaps the other banks have not examined the basis on which Coutts made its decision and have simply concluded that if Farage is too risky for Coutts then they’d best steer clear of him, too. Another possibility is that banks are obliged to notify central banking authorities about denial of service, which they, in turn, have to circulate to all others. They then have to take that denial of service into consideration when vetting an application to open an account and have individually chosen not to do so. It’s also possible, though, that the banks have, of their own volition, co-ordinated their efforts to deny Farage any banking services. I’d take a very dim view of businesses colluding in this way.

      1. In the meantime, does he have to have all his funds in cash? If not where can he keep them and how does he pay for stuff or receive payments for work done?

        2. Good questions. Denial of banking services poses real problems in today’s society. For example, his broadcasting work for GB News is most unlikely to be remunerated in notes and coins.

          2. Look what happened to the Canadian truckers, crushed by that simple move on Trudeau’s part.

    3. Things would not be like this if we had never joined the EU. Its just not British

      1. I wouldn’t be so sure, Johnny. The UK, within or without the EU, would be a signatory to international banking conventions, some of which apply the strictures against financial crimes which lie behind the rules that Coutts claims to be following, even though it appears to be applying them in ways which have little to do with Farage’s financial transactions. Let’s face it, countries which have never been in the EU, never aspired to be or wouldn’t be admitted if they tried – USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand spring to mind – have had people rising to the top with similar attitudes to those now prevailing in the UK.

    4. Hilliard is claiming that the whole industry is not refusing him a service but just one organisation. That is not the case. Having a bank account is now so fundamental to ‘normal’ living that the right to an account should be protected in law.

    5. EU has assumed the right to censor all soshul meeja. From late August they expect all soshul meeja companies to immediately delete any “misinformation/disinformation – such content to be decided upon by the EU, of course. With fines for non compliance.

    6. In the circumstances NF has a very good case for claiming Political Asylum in another jurisdiction!

  59. Power cut earlier – one of the annoying ones that comes back almost at once, then fails again just as things are trying to restart. My computer is seriously unhappy!

  60. Too true – he should have been sentenced to 120 years!

    A driver who filmed himself speeding at 123mph before hitting and killing a pregnant mother-of-two has been jailed for 12 years.
    Adil Iqbal admitted causing the death of Frankie Jules-Hough, 38, by dangerous driving on the M66 in Bury, Greater Manchester, on 13 May.
    The 22-year-old also admitted causing serious injury to her son, aged nine, and nephew, aged four.
    The family’s solicitor described the sentence as “insulting”.

  61. A lousy Bogey Five.

    Wordle 760 5/6
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Same here

      Wordle 760 5/6

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

    2. Birdie today.
      Wordle 760 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Lucky three.

      Wordle 760 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      🟨🟨🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  63. Jeffrey A Tucker
    @jeffreyatucker
    ·
    30m
    Amazing times. We all nearly died from Covid, then half of humanity discovered they have been misgendered from birth, and within the blink of an eye, we are all being burned up by a sun very angry at our gas stoves and long car trips.

    (me) Don’t forget the UFOs – they keep cropping up in the mainstream media too!

    1. I note that the nudge units are pushing the line that inflation is only 7.8%. Wow.. and food inflation was….

      1. “The core CPIH annual inflation rate was 6.5% in May 2023, up from 6.2% in April, and the highest rate since November 1991 when it was also 6.5%.”
        http://www.ons.gov.uk
        So, all the anti-inflation pain with Maggie has been undone, has it?

      2. “The core CPIH annual inflation rate was 6.5% in May 2023, up from 6.2% in April, and the highest rate since November 1991 when it was also 6.5%.”
        http://www.ons.gov.uk
        So, all the anti-inflation pain with Maggie has been undone, has it?

        1. I watch prices quite closely out of interest and I believe that there has been unrestrained price rises to make up from losses in covid, over and above energy, labour and raw material costs. As a simple example, Aldi basic tonic water was 39p a bottle, it went to 75p and now 59p. As far as I know, its not taken from a unique spring in Ukraine and so there is little justification for a nearly doubling of the price. Paracetamol has also doubled in price, its only pence, but again no justification of the rise.

          1. The sellers are businesses and they will charge whatever they think the market will bear.

            Every supermarket has people from competitors wandering around their aisles noting prices on PC’s.
            A little judicious choice in what their employers reduce will pull in punters but very few of the punters will stop at the bargains, they’ll merely complete their shop.

  65. That’s me for this cold, damp day. Great joy – my elder son is coming for an overnight stop tomorrow. Will look out for some of his favourite things a Tony’s knock-off stall in Fakenham market. Dan loves good soft cheese – his wife – who is staying at home to look after their dogs – does not. So we’ll spoil him. (And for anyone who things I am a cheap skate – Tony sells incredible cheeses – which sell for £15 or £20 in a shop for two or three pounds…)

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    3. I miss out two lads, who now both firmly live elsewhere. Dinner (at a restaurant) with both is a rare & special treat now.

    4. Not damp here, but first thing, a tee shirt was definitely inadequate.

      I love cheese. Unfortunately, most cheeses have an instant effect. Diabetic Gustatory Sweating. Place cheese in mouth, await almost instant tidal wave of perspiration. Briefly, admittedly, but it does rathe take the edge off one’s fromage…

      1. I’ll just add that there’s some Pié d’Angloys in the fridge at the moment. It reminds me, every time I open the door. Doesn’t trigger DGS as above, but the fridge stinks…

      3. I’m not diabetic but I used to get what I called my “cheesy flush”. One bite of hard cheese and I could feel my face going red. It was almost a party piece.
        Sttrangely, I don’t get it these days.

  68. The questions that the BBC won’t be asking Max Headroom in the election campaign:
    1. What would you have done differently at the time of the pandemic to prevent the crashing of the economy?
    2. How would you have avoided the energy price crisis in respect to both domestic and international policies?
    3. How long will you be able to blame the Tories for making a mess of it all when your party supported all the decisions that got us here?

    1. 4. And most importantly, what part will Blair and his cronies play in your administration?

  69. What on earth is a climate refugee?

    This vague term can be used to justify both opening our borders and centrally planning our economy to attain Net Zero

    PETER LILLEY • 18 July 2023

    What is a climate refugee? Not those enviable people who can afford to flee to Kenya to escape the British winter. Quite the reverse. They are the poor wretches who, we are told with increasing stridency, are already fleeing Africa to escape climate change and will reach European shores in an ever-rising tide as the world warms.

    Conjuring up fear of being swamped by alien hordes used to be a right-wing trope. A century ago, populists invoked the spectre of the “Yellow Peril” flooding in from Asia. Now it is the Left who warn us of the flood of refugees driven by climate change which, they say, will become a tsunami as the world warms.

    The notion of climate refugees appeals to the Left since it combines their two favourite themes – migration and climate change. It can be used to justify both opening our borders and controlling every aspect of the economy to attain Net Zero.

    Because, in the Left’s favourite phrase, “it’s our fault”. The Guardian’s Owen Jones claims that “many of the world’s poorest will be forced to flee their homes because of the actions of the world’s richest”. So, we must decarbonise our economies whatever the cost. And we must accept the influx of climate refugees we have supposedly caused.

    But is climate change the cause of the rising tide of refugees? When I worked on development programmes in Africa half a century ago, almost no-one I met, even in the poorest village or slum, dreamt of migrating to Europe. Yet people then were much poorer, their lives much shorter and their homes and livelihoods far more vulnerable to extreme weather.

    So why do ever increasing numbers cross the Mediterranean in small boats? Climate change provides a plausible and, for the Left, attractive explanation. Migrants must be escaping more frequent and severe climate disasters.

    Not so, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which assesses the scientific evidence and forecasts. It concludes that, though average and extreme temperatures have increased and will rise further, “evidence is lacking… of climate impact drivers of… floods, droughts, landslides, storms or fire weather”. Moreover, even on the most extreme future scenario, IPCC scientists do not expect increasing incidence of these disasters to emerge before 2050 (except increased precipitation). Confronted with the text of this authoritative report on the science, climate alarmists appear to simply reject its inconvenient conclusions.

    Although weather extremes were as frequent in the past as now (though reported less), people in poor countries were far more vulnerable to them. But as living standards have risen, homes become less flimsy, infrastructure improved – deaths from environmental disasters in Africa and elsewhere have declined by nearly three quarters since 1970. Of course, disasters still occur, living standards are much lower than in the developed world, and African life expectancy (up from 46 years in 1970 to 64 now) is still below ours.

    The real reason migration has risen is not deteriorating climate. Nor worsening poverty. Paradoxically, it is the reverse. Rising living standards mean that more people can afford the large sums needed to pay the people smugglers. Above all, the ubiquitous mobile phone means even in the remotest village in Africa or Asia people can see how much higher living standards are in Europe and America and communicate with compatriots who have already made the journey.

    So, even though most weather disasters are forecast to be no more frequent in future, the number of would-be economic migrants – not climate refugees – will grow as people become less poor. Western governments will struggle to prevent or deter them from coming. The migration lobby will claim they are not economic migrants but are all fleeing persecution, war or climate.

    Potential numbers will only subside once incomes approach those in the developed world. Achieving that rapidly will require abundant, cheap and reliable energy to fuel growth. Where renewables are cheapest, they will be adopted. But in most circumstances, at present, fossil fuels provide reliable power far cheaper than renewables. Nonetheless, eco-warriors who claim to sympathise with the poor will do all they can to stop developing countries using fossil fuels – even if it means condemning them to remain poor longer. After all, what they really seem to want is to “degrow” the rich West, not grow the poor South.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/18/what-on-earth-is-a-climate-refugee/

    We’ll forgive Peter Lilley for ‘degrow’. After all, he is one of only five MPs who voted against the Climate Change Act.

    1. “ Potential numbers will only subside once incomes approach those in the developed world”.

      Of course, if looked at from the opposite point of view, once the west has been impoverished by the nonsensical Net Zero ambition we will be a lot poorer and malnourished as in Africa. Job done.

  70. Is retail really so unprofitable?
    Stores including New Look, Iceland, Barclays and Natwest have all announced they will be shutting stores in 2023 – with some of those closures coming this month (July). Boots announced earlier this week they would be closing 300 stores in the UK in the next 12 months. Marks and Spencer have already closed a number of stores across the UK in 2023 and are set to close two more before the end of the year. The two Marks and Spencer stores still to close in 2023 are:
    – Newport Road, Cardiff – spring
    – Eagles Meadow, Wrexham – autumn
    According to the Mail Online these are the Argos stores closing next month:
    – St Stephen’s Shopping Centre, Hull, August 8
    – Alexandra Retail Park, Grimsby – August 9
    – Lakeside Retail Park, Scunthorpe (August 15/16)
    – Riverside, Norwich – date TBC
    – Park Plaza, Bridgend – date TBC
    – Cardiff Bay – date TBC
    – Newport Road, Cardiff – date TBC
    But brand new Argos stores will open inside Sainsbury’s Grimsby and Sainsbury’s Scunthorpe next month, enabling customers to purchase thousands of technology, home and toy products from Argos while picking up their groceries.
    From https://www.penarthtimes.co.uk/news/23666200.argos-closing-7-uk-stores-august-2023—see-ones/

    1. The cost of energy probably has a lot to do with it. Maybe as well people have cut back on their spending as they have less in their pockets. Still. Look on the bright side. More retail space available to turn into gimmegrunts accommodation! Right in the centre of towns, too!

    2. Sainsbury’s in Wellingborough closed their café and turned it into an Argos. Charging them rent is obviously more profitable.

        1. Indeed it does – should have looked it up!

          The point still stands. They obviously think it’s a more valuable use of floor space.

          1. Perhaps they have observed that chaps like buying the tools and gadgets on display weekly in Lidl and Aldi and that their offering was lacking hence the Argos acquisition,,,,

    3. I may not be a typical shopper. I’ve dispensed with a car (not for enviromental reasons, but more because the DVLA appears to be incapable of issuing a driving licence). No matter – since I now live across the road from a rail station, plus occasional buses, I really can’t justify the cost of running a car. But, returning to the point, I’ve rather given up on High Street shopping. One can rarely find what one is looking for, in stock. Lockdowns also moved the Overton window.

      The trains are buggered up at the moment, due to ASLEF. So it’s basically a Sunday service, meaning my 40 min round trip to Guildford is no more. No trains at all tomorrow (thanks, RMT).

      As a Prime subscriber, I admit to lining Bezos’ pockets. But for £8.99 a month, I can avoid multiple train fares, and watch Prime Video as a bonus.

      However, I rose above the ASLEF disruption today, took a train to Farnham, shopped at Sainsburys, took a bus to Aldershot, popped in to Iceland on the way to the station, and presumably I won’t now starve for a few days…

      1. The exact amount is irrelevant, but for about £50 subscription per annum you can have a weekly shop delivered from Morrison’s with no extra charge. To your door.

        1. I have my shopping delivered by Ocado on Wednesdays. It costs me 99p. They also refund the returned bags.

        2. I like to keep my options open. Train fare to Guildford, Aldershot or Farnham is roughly three quid. Ocado does 99p delivery charge on Wednesdays. Some Sainsbury delivery slots are £1. Amazon Fresh is available here, at short notice. I had a delivery from them today, since – thanks to Mick Bloody Lynch – there are no trains today. I occasionally get a Morrisons delivery via Amazon, and sometimes direct via their website. But I shop around. To some extent, my choice is determined by the cost of a botte of Yellow Tail Shiraz. The website Trolley.co.uk is useful in this respect, as is https://moneysavingcentral.co.uk/25-off-wine…

    4. Funnily enough the closure of M&S in Eagles Meadow came up in conversation over coffee today. Debenhams has already gone from there and we speculated what would happen to the shopping centre once its main department stores were defunct.

    5. I can only comment – from personal experience – about Boots, Whenever I go to their town.centre premises to collect prescription medications – mostly midweek afternoons, to be fair – the store is always very thinly populated, with customers often outnumbered by staff.

  72. I’ve just come home and looked at the Gatesograph front page. I don’t know if anyone has put this up yet but THIS is why we are in such a damned awful mess in this land, people such as THIS woman being put in charge of corporations and institutions. She’s behind the Farage/Coutts saga. She sees her job as CEO of Nat West being to ‘tackle climate change’ and help to ‘achieve our net zero ambitions’. They have to be cleared out, these people, they really do.

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

    1. They should stick to the day job.
      “Go woke, go broke” is no longer a warning, but after the Bud Light mess, a threat.

    2. They and their cohort have been indoctrinated over the past 30 years or so. They ‘know’ that unless ‘we’ do something radical the climate change will destroy us. There is no room to question whether the actions being taken to ‘combat climate change’ are doing that very same thing…

    4. In case you haven’t seen it elsewhere. Sopel on Farage before the revelations of the Coutt’s report:

      “You must feel a bit of a Charlie if you’re Nigel Farage, and you claim that it’s all an establishment stitch up that your account’s been closed when it’s just you’re not rich enough for Coutts. Am thinking of starting a ‘go fund me’ page for Nige to get him his account back.”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/19/nigel-farage-demands-apology-bbc-coutts-story

      We all know that Sopel is an arse but this a revealing remark. For decades, BBC reporters and presenters were very careful about keeping their personal opinions to themselves. Not any more. How can the organisation defend its claim for impartiality when its staff behave like this?

      3. I remember Smarmy Sopel and some American bitch Catty Kaye making daily programmes intent only on rubbishing President Trump. It was initially named 100 days but seemed to go on for ever.

        Trump famously dismissed Sopel at a White House briefing as “another Beauty”.

      4. I remember Smarmy Sopel and some American bitch Catty Kaye making daily programmes intent only on rubbishing President Trump. It was initially named 100 days but seemed to go on for ever.

        Trump famously dismissed Sopel at a White House briefing as “another Beauty”.

    5. Banks, and most corporations, only now exist to tick the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity boxes. Stuff like banking, or manufacturing widgets, is of negligible import. Why, one might ask? Perhaps it’s because practically everything is owned by Bl*ckr*ck, St*t* Str**t and the like. Don’t tick the boxes? No investment.

  73. I’ve just come home and looked at the Gatesograph front page. I don’t know if anyone has put this up yet but THIS is why we are in such a damned awful mess in this land, people such as THIS woman being put in charge of corporations and institutions. She’s behind the Farage/Coutts saga. She sees her job as CEO of Nat West being to ‘tackle climate change’ and help to ‘achieve our net zero ambitions’. They have to be cleared out, these people, they really do.

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

  76. Seems that the Tory contender for Mayor of London is a white woman.
    Bearing in mind the background of many in London, an Islamic male would hve been a better choice, as he would get the votes that a woman won’t, as most of the electorate don’t respect women.

    1. The vast majority of the population in London are probably white non Muslim.
      People need to get off their backsides and vote next time to stop the rot.
      Last election there was what was called an ‘administration error’ and most of the London Jewish residents didn’t get their documents in time to vote.

      3. Not so, Eddy. I read today that 23 out of 33 London boroughs are minority White. (in normal times, I wouldn’t have capitalised the ‘W’ word).

        1. Point taken but…..
          The way London has been expanded to take over parts of Herts Middlesex and other home counties, I doubt if the people living in these recently acclaimed areas would support that nasty little POS.

          2. Agreed. Believe me, it’s pretty much the same in leafy Surrey (although house prices tend to separate the sheep from the goats). I’m fortunate, in that I’ve had fifteen years of rent-free living in a sort of tied cottage, in return for my church stuff. More than fortunate, if one applies the monthly rent now being charged for the place. When I was working in a pretty well-paid job, I would have struggled to meet the current rent. I’m now in a charitable local housing society retirement bungalow, with an unbelievably low rent. Otherwise, I was seriously considering a return to my Cumbrian roots.

            Meanwhile, my local conurbations are increasingly Nepalese. Thanks – Joanna. They’re good people, but I feel desperately sorry for the senior ones, who appear to be fish out of water.

        2. But it still doesn’t mean that they would vote for kahnt. Harrow, now called London, is predominantly people of india backgrounds they are never going to vote for that turd.

      4. Sorry, Eddy, but it’s simply not the case that London Jewish residents were singled out to not receive their voting documents. It was an administrative problem in one borough – Barnet – not the whole city and it affected residents of all kinds of persuasions who lived in that borough, but not in sufficient numbers to materially affect the outcome.

    2. Hi Paul. It seems to me that the Tories have given up on London, as they have the rest of the nation. They’re now even reduced to making sympathetic noises in the direction of Sir Nigel – no doubt because they’re terrified of losing their banking facilities when in opposition.

      Frankly, I don’t think they will retain enough seats to be accorded the term ‘His Majesty’s Opposition”. I hope that post will be filled by Reform UK, who – let’s face it – have no chance of forming a government. But one can dream…

        1. He might win and still not get elected 🙁 It isn’t who votes that counts, it’s who counts the votes.

        2. I wish Fox well, but – come the GE – I’ll vote for Reform UK, providing they have a candidate. I believe they have candidates for every seat (obviously this wasn’t the case in the local elections). Can’t bring myself to vote Tory ever again.

  77. Labour shadow minister refuses support for Nigel Farage over Coutts row

    Former Ukip leader’s bank account was closed after the wealthy management company decided his views pose a threat to its reputation

    By Daniel Martin, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR • 19 July 2023 • 2:30pm

    A Labour frontbencher has refused to come out in support of Nigel Farage over the apparent closure of his bank account for political reasons. Alex Norris, shadow minister for levelling-up, said it was too early to come to any conclusions until an investigation had taken place.

    It emerged on Tuesday that the former Ukip leader’s bank accounts were closed down after Coutts, a wealth manager, decided his views “do not align with our values”.

    A reputational risk committee at the bank “exited” Mr Farage after considering a dossier detailing his comments about Brexit, his friendship with Donald Trump and views on LGBT rights as among many reasons he was not “compatible with Coutts”.

    The background briefing paper referred to Mr Farage’s friendship with Novak Djokovic, the former Wimbledon champion, as evidence that he was not as “inclusive” as the bank.

    Mr Norris was asked on Talk TV whether it was acceptable for a private bank to close down the account of a person because of their political views. He replied: “We’re still working out the details of this case. I didn’t know much until I saw what everyone’s seen overnight.

    “I can’t comment on a person’s banking situation but I do know that if someone is dissatisfied with how they’ve been treated by this bank – and I have these issues in my constituency – the regulator is there, they should avail themselves of the support of the regulator and they would see whether the bank has operated as they’re supposed to.”

    Pressed again on the issue by presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer, he said: “We can’t be in a situation where individuals can’t have access to banking – everybody with legitimate sources of income, and I don’t think that’s in question here, should have access to their own money, somewhere to put it.”

    Asked why he would not comment on what was a “serious attack on our freedom of speech”, Mr Norris said: “I think we need to establish the facts. I believe it’s really for the regulator to arbitrate whether that’s happened. I spend my day to day worrying about inflation for my constituents.”

    Ms Hartley-Brewer replied: “Freedom of speech matters. We wouldn’t be in the mess we are in if we’d had more.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/19/alex-norris-refuses-support-nigel-farage-bank-row

    Great wriggling from an invertebrate.

    1. Bank shows how inclusive it is by excluding people.
      Err… run that by me again?

    2. “ I spend my day to day worrying about inflation for my constituents.”

      I bet you don’t, really.

  78. Labour shadow minister refuses support for Nigel Farage over Coutts row

    Former Ukip leader’s bank account was closed after the wealthy management company decided his views pose a threat to its reputation

    By Daniel Martin, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR • 19 July 2023 • 2:30pm

    A Labour frontbencher has refused to come out in support of Nigel Farage over the apparent closure of his bank account for political reasons. Alex Norris, shadow minister for levelling-up, said it was too early to come to any conclusions until an investigation had taken place.

    It emerged on Tuesday that the former Ukip leader’s bank accounts were closed down after Coutts, a wealth manager, decided his views “do not align with our values”.

    A reputational risk committee at the bank “exited” Mr Farage after considering a dossier detailing his comments about Brexit, his friendship with Donald Trump and views on LGBT rights as among many reasons he was not “compatible with Coutts”.

    The background briefing paper referred to Mr Farage’s friendship with Novak Djokovic, the former Wimbledon champion, as evidence that he was not as “inclusive” as the bank.

    Mr Norris was asked on Talk TV whether it was acceptable for a private bank to close down the account of a person because of their political views. He replied: “We’re still working out the details of this case. I didn’t know much until I saw what everyone’s seen overnight.

    “I can’t comment on a person’s banking situation but I do know that if someone is dissatisfied with how they’ve been treated by this bank – and I have these issues in my constituency – the regulator is there, they should avail themselves of the support of the regulator and they would see whether the bank has operated as they’re supposed to.”

    Pressed again on the issue by presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer, he said: “We can’t be in a situation where individuals can’t have access to banking – everybody with legitimate sources of income, and I don’t think that’s in question here, should have access to their own money, somewhere to put it.”

    Asked why he would not comment on what was a “serious attack on our freedom of speech”, Mr Norris said: “I think we need to establish the facts. I believe it’s really for the regulator to arbitrate whether that’s happened. I spend my day to day worrying about inflation for my constituents.”

    Ms Hartley-Brewer replied: “Freedom of speech matters. We wouldn’t be in the mess we are in if we’d had more.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/19/alex-norris-refuses-support-nigel-farage-bank-row

    Great wriggling from an invertebrate.

  79. I’ve had enough today, I did manage to water the greenhouse tomatoes. The weather forecast was wrong again today. And I will water the rest of the veg in the morning.
    I’ll be off to bed at 21: 00
    Night all.
    😴

  80. Just back from Derby after Student Son became Ex-student son! His graduation ceremony today.
    And what a ceremony! Overblown and pretentious to say the least!

      1. 2:1 in computer games programming.
        Only a few points below a 1st.

        Now, how long will it take him to get a job?

        1. Computer games programming is a thriving business. He should have plenty of opportunities to practise his subject of interest.

    3. Par for the course, Bob. As a graduate of the University of Life, I didn’t have to put up with all that bollix. But Dianne The Ex’s three kids all graduated, at Brissle, Glasgow and Liverpool. Splendid occasions, they all were. The last included the largest pipe organ in the UK. So it was funny to be invited to an organ recital by my former Rector the following day at Winchester Cathedral. “What did you think?” “Well, after yesterday, it felt rather small” was prolly the wrong answer…

      1. I did it four times – (BA, MA, MPhil and another BA)! I must be a glutton for punishment.

      2. I went to my elder son’s graduation – his certificate was presented by Jim Calleghan. The younger son was so disgusted by his degree that he didn’t attend the graduation ceremony.

    2. The barge arrived on Tuesday after its arrival refit in Falmouth and was greeted by opposing groups of protesters, who had to be broken up by police after a heated argument.

      It came after Rishi Sunak’s new laws to combat small boats was passed by the Lords early on Tuesday morning in a series of narrow victories in votes on amendments pushed by opposing peers.

      The Illegal Migration Bill, giving powers to ministers to detain and swiftly remove any migrant arriving illegally to a third safe country or their home nation, is due to gain royal assent later this week.

      1. I’m sure they’ve had the power to do that before this Bill – what’s lacking is the will.

  82. Guto Harri or Jon Sopel for the smuggest ex-BBC presenter that you’d like to push down the Tube’s longest escalator?

    Self-righteous Coutts has created a PR nightmare over Farage

    This bizarre saga has left the bank’s bosses with some serious questions to answer

    GUTO HARRI •19 July 2023

    I disagree with Nigel Farage on almost everything. For me, his significant influence on British politics over the last 20 years has been irredeemably destructive.

    Yet I’ve shared a pint with him, find him personally engaging, and have to acknowledge his formidable gifts as a communicator.

    Using them to attack the RNLI for rescuing drowning migrants in the English Channel should earn him his own circle in hell, and as a volunteer crew member I’d be happy to take him there.

    But hell can wait. Last time I checked, given its colourful clientele, Coutts was not in a position to decide who goes through the pearly gates and who faces eternal damnation.

    So when I first heard the most elitist of financial institutions had closed his account I couldn’t resist taking some pathetic pleasure. Discovering that his trophy bank had denied him access on the basis that his “views did not align with their values” is different. What views? Which values?

    The bank didn’t seem very confident in its decision either. Rather than communicate about the “values” we now know it had applied, Coutts implied that the state of Farage’s finances had left it with no choice.

    After a disastrous anonymous briefing to the BBC from “people familiar with the matter”, which prompted libel threats from Farage, a spokesman said that “the criteria for holding a Coutts account are clear from the bank’s website”. In other words, you need to borrow or invest a million or have more than £3m in savings – with the clear subtext that Farage didn’t have it.

    Too often in public life these days we overlook the importance of taking decisions on the right basis, with proper due process. And we forget that the consistent application of principle is critical for a meaningful values system – not one where our personal or tribal loyalties can champion an outcome in one scenario that we would reject in another.

    So, what next? Will Coutts now launch an ethical audit of their entire customer base?

    Alongside the necessary income threshold will there be a questionnaire checking where we are on Brexit, sending illegal migrants to Rwanda, allowing male rapists identifying as female into women’s prisons or sending a mother of three to prison for a very late abortion?

    These are all important issues and the ex-banker who is now prime minister is having to wrestle with all of them. But does anyone want unknown and unelected bankers influencing where we land on these tricky topics as a society?

    The most bizarre twist is that Coutts’ owner NatWest seems willing to accommodate Nigel Farage in the equivalent of its cheap seats.

    Whichever genius came up with the idea that offering “alternative banking arrangements… within the wider group”, should prompt every customer too poor to qualify for Coutts to ponder whether they really want to be with an institution that seems to link net worth with moral integrity. Good enough for NatWest. Too xenophobic for Coutts.

    Having witnessed up close some of the most bruising battles in public life over the last 12 months I can’t help thinking that we would do well to remind ourselves what qualities are relevant to different jobs and – in this case – different commercial offerings.

    A bishop committing adultery is clearly out of order but should I care if my plumber does? Or a footballer? Or even a prime minister? Moral righteousness is surely not the most relevant criteria for the role?

    As for Coutts and NatWest, once their PR nightmare is over, executives and directors must ask themselves if they really are in a position to be so self-righteous.

    Guto Harri was Downing Street Director of Communications February 2022 to September 2022

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/07/19/self-righteous-coutts-created-pr-nightmare-nigel-farage

    BTL:
    Gwyn Jones
    I concur with your views on a Coutts as a bank, thinking they can stand in moral judgement, but find your views on Farage and his achievements way off the mark and out of line. He, with his lifelong political fight to leave the EU, presented this country with its greatest opportunity in decades. The fact that the Conservatives blew it was not of his doing.

    Red Robbo
    On the migrant comment. You do support illegal immigrants drowning in the channel because you are against the government’s policy. Supporting the status quo is an active position that supports allowing immigrants to take their chances with the people smugglers and the channel weather and tidal conditions. Hell has a place for you too.

    1. So, the RNLI rescues drowning migrants in the English Channel? From what I can see, these migrants seem to be remarkably fit and well for drowning people, what with their mobile phones and their demands for luxury accommodation.

      1. Another BTL:
        Ian Lane
        To my recollection Farage has never attacked the RNLI for saving drowning migrants. He had criticised the RNLI for aiding people smugglers by ferrying in migrants.
        So the author is no better than Coutts; he has lied in print and vilified an individual.
        One day Farage will get litigious and vacuous wastes of space like Gutto Hari can defend their lies in court.

    2. “…when I first heard the most elitist of financial institutions had closed his account…”

      It’s a somewhat trifling point but I would expect a Director of Communications to know that it’s either “most elite” or “elitest”.

    3. Please tell me they are having a Bud Light moment, that’ll really make my week!

  83. I shan’t be up late tonight as cab is booked for 7.45 for GP. Plus I have had the most awful day- relentless pain and I had a total meltdown this pm and yelled at my poor husband.
    Got a text from NHS saying about a new appointment; goodie I thought, they’ve rebooked the oncologist. Ha, ha. No it was a website which address was written by a Klingon, and has given me a new date for Sept for dermatology!!! This country is in the toilet- if I don’t get treatment for this face cancer I’ll not be needing the Sept appt.
    I don’t know how much longer I can go on with this…how Eddy has stood it for so long, I can’t imagine.
    Husband suggested we sat outside for a while which we did and it did me good. The chili plants and herbs are doing well which is lovely.
    Just want some normality …

    1. So sorry to hear this Ann, I wish there was some way I could help. Hope you have a better night. Getting treatment on the NHS seems to be a post code lottery – you wouldn’t be treated like this up here.

      1. Thanks- I know it seems like all I do is moan here but it helps to get it off one’s chest.

        2. Get moaning, Ann! It’s good for you! I’ll echo the other replies, and wish I could actually do something for you, other than send thoughts and blessings to you and your husband. Rest well and hope you get some sleep!

        3. It does indeed LotL. I can moan for Britain if necessary. A trouble shared is very deffo a trouble halved.

      2. Post code lottery sums it up succinctly, Spikey. I also suspect a pre/post Covid lottery is at play. Going by the evidence of those who post here, those who have developed illnesses since Covid seem to get a poorer NHS service than those who’ve been having treatment or monitoring for conditions which emerged beforehand.

    2. Sigh… NHS Admin leaves much to be desired. I could quote many examples, but there’s no point. We’re all well aware of them. We’re all rooting / praying for you, Big Sis.

      I don’t know how much longer I can go on with this.

      You’ll go on, because you’re strong (if politically suspect) and we’re all behind you. You’re constantly in our thoughts and (where relevant) our prayers*.

      *I’ve been the subject of those from time to time, and I believe they made a significant difference to the outcome. As a middle-of-the-road non happy-clappy evo-type, this may seem out of character, but here goes. God bless, Ann.

      1. Suspect, moi? Thanks Lil Bro.
        I don’t disclose half of my opinions. They’re mine and I don’t want my Coutts account closed….

        1. Quite so, Ann. But for as long as this site exists, I’m the one who faces potential de-banking, for its mere existence. Hence my paucity of comments, recently.

    4. Grim news indeed, Ann. Solace and sympathy cannot ease your pain and distress. I’m so sorry.

  84. Evening, all. The armed forces have been short-changed by successive governments of whatever hue.

  85. What do you think will happen if the Gulf Stream shuts down?

    Ironically higher global temperatures that are leading to melting ice caps are starting to slow down the Gulf Stream and if this continues, UK and Europe are in for a long period of cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. So global warming could well result in the demise of the UK in particular as it gets its own ice age – all down to global warming!

    Higher temperatures make ocean waters warmer and lighter. An influx of freshwater from melting ice sheets and glaciers dilutes North Atlantic’s saltiness, reducing its density. If these waters aren’t heavy enough to sink, the entire Gulf Stream will shut down.

    https://www.climatesignals.org/climate-signals/gulf-stream-system-weakening#:~:text=If%20an%20abrupt%20collapse%20were,around%20the%20North%20Atlantic%20coast.

    1. All beyond my time horizon thankfully. Now, a more important question, what is about to refill my glass… hic. There are benefits to being on old git!

      1. Indeed. As I was walking across the playing fields of St John’s with a certain professor lecturing on the topic, he said I certainly did not have to worry about this occurring in my lifetime, my children’s lifetime, or that of my grandchildren.

        1. I can not change anything for me, my children or grand child. They will have to cope with the world in which they find themselves. As humans seem pretty adaptable, they will probably cope and I will not waste any heartbeats worrying about them! Anyway the met people can not even get today’s weather correct when they have a super computer, little hope in predictions based on supposition and dodgey science.

    4. The Gulf Stream, like other oceanic currents, are huge contributors to the Earth’s climate. They are finely balanced systems. They’ve changed many times in the past and they will change again in the future. They can also change very quickly. It’s something that ‘modelling’ can’t predict. Chaos theory comes to mind.

  88. Going to bed now. Thanks for your kind thoughts yet again.
    Bless you all.
    Just wait until Jules gets home and breathes garlic and Chianti all over you ;-)))))

  89. Hi, chums. Healthwise feeling better, iMac still in poor health. So will now say good night, and sleep well. TTFN.

  90. Knock me down with a feather…

    Coutts boss who handled Nigel Farage’s bank account is a staunch Remainer

    By Neil Johnston, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER • 19 July 2023

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12c031e21c72d0f04d704cf26896b32e343e6ee9c6d9f8902fc886b9c4bb6c60.jpg
    Camilla Stowell has been Coutts’ head of private clients since 2020
    __________________________________________________________________

    A top executive at Coutts who handled Nigel Farage’s bank account is an avowed Remainer who has judged a diversity essay prize.

    Camilla Stowell, the bank’s managing director and head of private and commercial clients, described herself as a “Remainer” and said she believed Brexit had damaged the economy. The 50-year-old, who sits on Coutts’ executive committee, has embraced its pivot towards saving the planet and putting diversity at the heart of the business.

    On Tuesday, The Telegraph revealed that Mr Farage’s account was closed after staff on the bank’s reputational risk committee “did not think continuing to bank NF [Nigel Farage] was compatible with Coutts given his publicly stated views that were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation”.

    The committee reports directly to the chief executive’s office, according to the Coutts annual report. It was unclear whether Ms Stowell sits on the committee, but she has been Mr Farage’s point of contact and replied on behalf of the lender to his subject access request.

    Mr Farage told The Telegraph that he had several phone calls and emails with Ms Stowell since he was first told his account was closing. He added that he felt the calls were “very condescending” and she asked why he could not go to Revolut, the digital bank, insisting his account was being closed for commercial reasons.

    Ms Stowell expressed concerns about the “climate crisis” and attended the Cop26 summit for Coutts. She was also a judge for a diversity essay prize run by the bank, in conjunction with Eton, for children in the Thames Valley. While Coutts has refused to answer questions on her role in decisions around Mr Farage’s bank accounts, she has previously suggested problems with clients would come across her desk.

    In an interview with The Purpose Made Podcast last summer, Ms Stowell said: “Anybody who looks after, advises, serves, engages, with clients end to end across the business, whether those are international or UK clients, come into my world which is great.”

    During the same interview, when asked whether there needed to be a “conversation sooner or later in respect of Brexit” and the economy, she laughed and revealed she voted Remain.

    She said: “Personally, I was a Remainer. So I fear that, yes, we know that Brexit is having an impact, but we can’t really quantify it because there are so many forces at play as well.”

    She added that it was “difficult to isolate the impact” of Brexit and went on to talk about farmers struggling to find workers to pick vegetables. Ms Stowell suggested that changes from Brexit had led to a shortage of workers in the UK.

    “The difference, I think, between the situation we are in now and previous recessions is we have such strong employment,” she said. “There is no shortage of jobs and that’s one of the challenges we are facing is we don’t have enough people – or we haven’t got enough people in the jobs needed in order to deliver at the rate we want to consume as a country.”

    Originally from Reading, Ms Stowell studied philosophy and politics at Durham University, beginning her degree in 1991 – the same year that Dame Alison Rose, the chief executive of Coutts’ parent bank NatWest, graduated from the institution. She went on to become a client director at Schroders Private Bank in 2000 before joining Coutts in 2007, dealing with ultra-high net worth individuals with wealth in excess of £30 million.

    “Career progression with Coutts is clear and my aim is to get to the top,” she wrote in a newspaper article in 2007.

    Ms Stowell, who is also a trustee of the bank’s charitable foundation, was appointed head of the international office in 2015, before becoming head of wealth management for overseas clients. In 2020, she was appointed to her current role, in which she is responsible for all client relationship and specialist teams. She is also an advisory board member of the Women in Banking and Finance network.

    In interviews, Ms Stowell said how she sees Coutts role as “being more than just a bank”.

    “Our approach is to really be that indispensable partner,” she said. “We are able to address our clients’ needs in terms of financial planning and protection, but also around philanthropy and making sure that they can have some positive impacts for others.”

    Ms Stowell also has acquaintances at the BBC, whose journalists reported that Mr Farage’s accounts were closed because they fell below the financial threshold required by the bank, citing sources “familiar with” the decision.

    Earlier this year, she congratulated Jess Brammar, the editor of the BBC News channel, following its relaunch. “Congratulations to you and your team!” Ms Stowell wrote. “Always rewarding to see something you have been dedicated to crafting launch into the world! Looking forward to engaging with the new approach.”

    Brammar, who once worked for the Huffington Post, was previously criticised after she deleted tweets before rejoining the BBC in 2021. Among her deleted tweets was one which said that Brexit was like the Netflix drama Better Call Saul, about a shady lawyer, “but less funny or interesting or enjoyable”. She also accused Mr Farage, Boris Johnson and Donald Trump of a “sleight of hand” by persuading people they represented outsiders.

    NatWest has put a focus on climate change and diversity in recent years. But Coutts, founded in 1692, 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 after a US-based organisation that hands out certificates for social and environmental impact said it was using “business as a force for good” and balancing profit and purpose.

    Ms Stowell said this initiative was “fundamental to our core” and “we are focused on climate, we are focused on enterprise and we are focused on learning”.

    “Everything we do links back to that purpose,” she added.

    Last month, Coutts painted rainbow colours and the slogan “Championing the Power of Pride” over its central London headquarters. Ms Stowell has previously said how she wanted to attract clients who “want to make the world better for future generations”.

    Mr Farage said it was unwise for a senior banker to reveal how she had voted in the Brexit referendum adding that he believed she must have been on the committee that recommended his account was closed. He said: “That report had a special kind of prejudice in it that you could only get from upper middle class white living in London. It has prejudice running through it at every level.”

    A Coutts spokesman said: “Decisions to close an account are not taken lightly and involve a number of factors including commercial viability, reputational considerations, and legal and regulatory requirements. Personal views of individual colleagues play no part in our decision making processes.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/19/coutts-bank-camilla-stowell-boss-remain-voter-nigel-farage/

    1. Quelle surprise! Nobody would guess she was a Remainer. I suppose all remainers are OK for posh banking but Leavers are persona non grata.

    2. Anyone foolish enough to bank with Coutts, even those with half a brain, should ditch this decrepit old school institution.

      Coutts is for crusty old folk who wear Norfolk jackets and hunt on Guy Hands’ estate in Tuscany with their Purdeys and attendant slaves.

      1. I have a Norfolk jacket and hunt (albeit not in Tuscany and I don’t own a Purdey), but I wouldn’t touch Coutts with a ten-foot pole!

        1. Coutts wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole. I’m not remotely eminent or wealthy enough.

          1. I wouldn’t touch Coutts with my 12foot barge pole (what’s left of my dignity is priceless!)

  91. Knock me down with another feather!

    Argentina claims diplomatic ‘triumph’ over the Falklands

    EU refers to islands using Spanish Malvinas name in agreed declaration, despite protestations of the UK

    Argentina has claimed a diplomatic “triumph” after the EU agreed to refer to the Falklands as the Malvinas in an official document.

    The move was signed off by European Union leaders when they met with the Celac group of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Brussels. James Cleverly, the Foreign Secretary, had asked Brussels to reject any mention of the Falkland Islands in the declaration ahead of the summit. But EU officials said Britain would not be allowed any say in the matter, since it is no longer a member of the bloc.

    The agreed declaration read: “Regarding the question of sovereignty over the Islas Malvinas/Falkland Islands, the European Union took note of Celac’s historical position based on the importance of dialogue and respect for international law in the peaceful solution of disputes.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/19/argentina-diplomatic-triumph-falklands-malvinas-name

    The EU is run by people who are both dangerous and immature. Their use of the Irish border as a weapon in the negotiations [sic] showed how reckless they are. The use of ‘Malvinas’ probably raised a laugh or two around the coffee table, the commissioners hoping it would raise the blood pressure of those silly, flag-waving Brexiteers. They really are like sixth form Marxists.

    1. Events in Ukraine and the resultant effects of failed EU and NATO expansion are beginning to unravel as Ukraine losses in men and materiel mount.

      The western mindset that Russia is evil and Ukraine the purest of the pure is exposed for the absolute nonsense it is. Anyone with any knowledge of post Soviet politics would have long recognised that countries such as Russia and Belarus only wanted freedom to trade and security for their sovereign boundaries. As Yeltsin remarked “We in Russia simply want to be normal”.

      Thanks to the fools in the White House, Blinken, Nuland, Solomon and the neo cons we are left on the brink of WWIII. It is all Obama’s doing with the assistance of Hillary Clinton and the demented dolt Joe Biden, a small man trapped by his own corruption in public office into doing as he is told.

      I had hoped that our own UK government and Parliament would have stood up to this evil. Instead I remain shocked that these people have to all intents and purposes thrown their weight behind pure evil. In my book that makes Sunak and the rest of us ineffectual government evil too. I hope they will all meet justice.

      1. Shocked?! The posture of the UK government was entirely predictable. Shock would be the appropriate response had the UK deviated from the US stance on the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

    2. Whenever I read the word Malvinas I think it means Bad Wine.That the EU has adopted Bad Wine it will reinforce my continuing boycott of European wines. It’s a win for Oz & NZ wine producers!

    2. Hi Geoff,
      Thursday doesn’t seem to have its own page – I have to keep opening it via the link on Wednesday’s page.
      Is that just me or is something missing?

      2. Hi Stormy,

        I don’t think anything is missing. 281 comments thus far. Today’s page is shown at the ‘front door’, so I’m not sure what the problem is. I will add that every timeI open a page with Disqus comments, I find I have to log in…

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