Tuesday 25 July: The Government’s plan for more urban housebuilding is a positive step

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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565 thoughts on “Tuesday 25 July: The Government’s plan for more urban housebuilding is a positive step”

  5. The Government’s plan for more urban housebuilding is a positive step

    What could possibly go wrong with looser regulations?

    1. 374808+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,

      What could go wrong ? how about

      The green can only be seen in the museum.

  8. George Alagiah set the gold standard and I will miss him so very much. 25 July 2023.

    I was a reporter at the time, in the middle of making a programme for Panorama, while George was considered one of our most brilliant foreign correspondents. Neither of us had presenting in our sights, but the powers that be had plucked us out of the roster of reporters.

    George was a brilliant choice, whether he knew it was coming or not. Authority and warmth is what you are always after when anchoring a live news broadcast. George had both in spades, and it came from such an authentic place.

    One would have thought by the panegyrics on the BBC News yesterday that someone of moment had died. A National Statesman who had saved the country; a hero who had carried out some momentous deed. It was George Alagiah. Newsreader. I do remember the man myself. Mostly from his dusky hue when he first appeared. I don’t recall him filling Ed Murrow’s shoes or even those of Michael Buerk in Ethiopia. I am prepared to accept that there are people, whom we know personally, who possess admirable traits and whose memory stays with us a long time. I would think that almost everyone has at some time met such a person. A memory worth preserving. They don’t deserve; surly as it might seem, twenty four hour coverage on the BBC!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/24/fiona-bruce-says-george-alagiah-set-the-gold-standard/

  10. I knew of Mr Alagiah – and I sorry he is dead from such an unpleasant disease. Beeboids are implying that he was a “brave hero” – which seems rather OTT.

    On the other hand, what a remarkable stroke of luck that they were able to make the most (and very much more) of his death on the very day that the slimy oik, Simon Jerk (sic) “apologised” to Mr Farage.

    Odd that.

  11. Ukrainian mobilisation chief arrested after ‘taking bribes for exemptions’. 25 July 2023.

    A former Ukrainian military official accepted bribes in order to help men escape mobilisation, authorities have claimed after charging him with corruption.

    His arrest comes amid allegations that his family has amassed millions of pounds worth of real estate in Spain.

    On Monday, Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) arrested Yevhen Borisov who was in charge of mobilisation and conscription in the Odesa region until he was fired last month.

    One suspects that this is merely the tip of a gigantic iceberg,

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/24/ukraine-mobilisation-arrested-taking-bribes-yevhen-borisov/

    1. When are the SBI going to look at Zelensky’s offshore property portfolio?

      Good morning.

      1. Morning Phizzee. Yes his Palace in Tuscany is not getting as much attention as Vlad’s supposed residence on the Black Sea!

        1. But surely Tuscany is going to be consumed by wild fires caused by the apocalyptic, blood-red temperatures currently affecting most of Europe. Zelensky’s palace will be destroyed anyway.

          1. Mum, please don’t worry about that. He has another expensive palace in Florida.

    3. It’s been like that since the Iron Curtain fell. The BBC and The Guardian used to report on it. Now it’s all quiet on the eastern front…

  12. 374808+ up ticks,

    Tuesday 25 July: The Government’s plan for more urban house building is a positive step, it taint, not until it is known for whom ?

    Much of the housing / accommodation problem could be solved in two moves, eliminate the intake, accelerate the repatriation, close down the Dover invasion beach head in between.

    Do the electorate majority realise they are doing the WEF/NWO job for them and in doing so denying their own children any chance of owning their own home.

    1. Well they are not lying when they say that climate change is man made, both the wild fires and the theory is after all, man made.

        1. They are blaming it all on human activity, so they are trying to make us as least active as possible, well in the West they are.

      2. May 2007 – A photo taken from the cockpit of Mianda in Fethiye. It was on Ataturk’s birthday and an overenthusiastic reveller – who subsequently spent some time in prison – set off one of his marine distress maroons which came down on the dry grass and set fire to the hill.

        Summer fires are commonplace in this part of the world at this time of year. And yes, given a hot – but not exceptionally hot – summer who has the best motive for setting off fires and blaming it on climate change?

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/463a3c28f64755e1c0194247092f8efc176bbcee8ba479c1e2618a156ed68300.jpg

        1. A lot of moor fires up here were started by these stupid Chinese lanterns, thankfully non have appeared recently. Most of the fires now are started by brain dead wild campers

      3. I saw something on TV yesterday I wasn’t paying that much attention but an explorer or someone similar had written about ice and glaciers melting and how much warmer the general atmosphere seemed. Well over 100 years ago.

        1. Haven’t glaciers away from the poles been on the retreat since the last ice age?

          1. Well, apparently there use to be an ice dam at what is now known as Dunstable when it melted and burst south, it flattened many thousand of acres of land and deposited millions of tons of sand and gravel. They’re still digging it out now.

          3. That’s why we have gravel pits in southern England; they mark the line where the glaciers stopped and then retreated.

    2. Our family stayed at one of the lovely HPB villas in Javea Spain, around 7 years ago and prior to our arrival just about half a mile away two German women had been arrested for lightning a ‘wild’ fire. And it was really out of keeping the weather really wasn’t that hot.
      The same thing happens in Australia as well.
      There are a lot of lunatics out there in these modern times.

      1. Putting aside the actually evil – mainly people just don’t think.
        Some years ago, in the middle of a hot dry summer, a horsey friend decided it was time to burn the pile of stable straw and horse poo piled up in a corner of her field: next to a field of ripe wheat.
        She was not amused when I made her and her boy friend douse it before it spread. As there was not a nearby water supply, we were flying back and forth from the stable block with buckets of water. In my case, sheer incandescent rage at such stupidity gave me wings.

        1. We once live backing on to agricultural land. When they use to burn off the stubble. The smoke and the smell was awful.

  14. Good morning, all. Overcast, rain and calm in N Essex this morning.

    Global Warming/Climate Change – lest we forget, a trip down memory lane shows that both the scam and the attacks on those that dare to ask questions about the claims of the proponents of GW/CC, have been ongoing for decades.

    https://twitter.com/goddeketal/status/1683500876164476928

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba1689a510eb9ee8574c335eba6e27237736d751da21a4607de73337a37b54ff.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e50c4bc0f494f5c3d84440295d64b66c7e814e39980ac0355ae5856a80cd4e5.png

    Finally, some reasoned thinking: a commodity missing from the, “The Science is Settled,” brigade.

    https://twitter.com/DavidKnestrick/status/1683638106530906112

  15. Good morning, chums. I’m a bit late today – lots of emails to read and answer. Enjoy the day!

  16. Folly of net zero

    SIR–
    Britons will be relieved to learn that many of the green lobby’s claims
    are baseless. Today it is only about 1C warmer than it was in
    pre-industrial times. This should be seen in the context of the two
    previous warm periods in the modern era: Roman (250BC-400AD) and
    medieval (950-1250). Although it was 1-2C warmer then than it is today,
    the world prospered.

    Recent reports have stated that temperatures
    across the Mediterranean are nearing the highest ever recorded. This
    sounds apocalyptic until you realise that reliable records only began in
    the 1870s, which saw the lowest temperatures in the past 10,000 years,
    according to an intensive study of the Greenland ice pack by a team of
    scientists from the University of Copenhagen.

    Climate change has
    been endemic on the planet over billions of years. Modern humans,
    however, arrogantly and foolishly believe that they are the authors of
    all outcomes.

    Finally, it is pointless for Britain to cripple
    itself economically to reach net zero by 2050 when the world’s biggest
    CO2 polluters – China, the US, India and Russia – do so little. Money
    wasted on reducing carbon emissions would be much better spent
    ameliorating the consequences of warming.

    Gregory Shenkman
    London SW7

    Heretic ! Burn the witch !

    1. SIR– You state in your Leading Article (

      )
      that “net zero has been elevated to the status of religion”. With
      evidence for the damage caused by climate change all around us, it is
      the belief that we do not have to worry too much that smacks of
      religion.

      The date of 2050 for net zero greenhouse gas emissions
      is far from “arbitrary”; it is based on solid science and on the
      country playing its necessary part in dealing with this existential
      crisis for our species. We in Britain are not immune from this; for
      example, the numbers of climate refugees will dwarf anything we have
      seen, food imports will be problematic, and inland and coastal flooding
      will pose severe problems.

      The real lesson of the Uxbridge and
      South Ruislip by-election is that there must be justice in how the
      climate problem is tackled, with policies that enable the necessary
      changes for those who cannot afford them.

      Chair, Grantham Institute

      Imperial College London

      Todays MRD award.

      Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment

      Imperial College London

      https://www.imperial.ac.uk › grantham

      The Grantham Institute sits at the heart of Imperial College London’s work on climate change and the environment.

      1. Imperial College? Ah – wasn’t that the place where the wonderful “Professor” Ferguson invented his models of a million dead each week?

      2. Whereas Mr Shenkman is able to provide some real facts, the ‘Grantham Institute’ line offers nothing but dramatic claims/scare language.

    1. The Metropolitan Police was on Monday facing another race row storm after four officers arrested a black woman in front of her “distressed” young son because they wrongly believed she had dodged paying her bus fare.

      The concern understood!

      1. I guess they didn’t ask her for her ticket stub/mobile app, just barged in there all aggressive and overpowering. 4 on one… scary.

        1. Apparently she refused to produce her ticket, and it all kicked off! Scenting compo here!

    2. Ticket inspectors like traffic wardens and debt collectors attract a certain type of personality.

    3. I’m sure she’ll be moaning for the rest of her days. Because of course what she did try to do was ‘everyone else’s fault’.

    4. A put up job.
      Text for the non-Tw@teratti
      1 woman has ticket and boards bus with her son
      2 ticket inspectors get on bus and ask to see ticket
      3 Woman refuses and gets off bus
      4 police attempt to question her about having a ticket
      5 Woman becomes abusive forcing to police to detain her
      Why not just show the bloody ticket?

      https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1683450201787203586

      1. In other words, all down to her vile attitude, which may boil down to, ‘I’m black so I can do whatever I like and you are waycist for even asking for my ticket.’

    5. Looks like another set up to me,
      A few race riots in the holidays and build up to the Notting Hill carnival would at least get us in line with the rest of Europe

        1. That and her attitude when questioned is apparently when a simple request escalated.

    6. I suspect it was bloody-minded entitlement on her part, but to be Devil’s advocate:

      If she was already getting off the bus at the stop where the inspectors were getting on and her child wasn’t under control, in her shoes I would refuse until I had the child back under control.

  18. Morning all 🙂😊
    Dare I say it…..sunny start. 🌞
    I’m not sure,more urban housing is going to be acceptable because it will mean more pollution and all the other known etc’s and of course the destruction of even more of our countryside and green belt land.
    Perhaps less newcomers would have been a better plan.

    1. More urban housing? Colchester and its environs are replete with with new housing. Only the A12 trunk road is stopping the complete merger of the villages of Eight Ash Green – although on the far side of this village there is an estate of around 400 houses being built – and Great Horkesely – where plans for a recent development are being reassessed – with the new ‘city’.
      Anyone travelling around N Essex and into Suffolk can’t help but notice the increase in rural house building everywhere. It’s not just urban areas suffering.

      1. The St Albans area of Hertfordshire has become a target for many new builds.
        All on green belt land.

        1. All the small towns around here have been greatly extended by many new housing estates built on green land.

  20. Good morning all.
    9°C outside on dry and somewhat overcast morning.

    We’ve the full brood here at the moment, so we went for a meal last night in the Greyhound in Cromford. Very nice but sadly the DT was up with indigestion most of the night, not getting settled until 04:30ish.

    Then at 06:30 I was further disturbed by t’Lad, bedded down in the living room, telling me a bird had fallen down the chimney and was stuck in the flue for the stove.
    After a lot of cursing and blind fumbling, we eventually extracted, intact and unharmed, a bloody great pigeon!!

    1. 12°c here and it is called ‘mostly sunny’, I.e., it ain’t raining – yet.

  21. The information on which we based our reporting on Nigel Farage and his bank accounts came from a trusted and senior source. However the information turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate. Therefore I would like to apologise to Mr Farage. Simon Jack. BBC Business Correspondent.

    Not really an apology though is it? In fact it implies that it is true and simply insufficiently informed. The last sentence is a wish to apologise but Mr Jack is not going to do it.

    He should of course be sacked!

    1. The comment completely ignores the conversation between a top BBC man and Dame Alison the night before.

      Was the “top BBC man” Simon Jack? Farage claims it was.

      One wonders which other Coutts bank accounts were discussed by those two at dinner?

      One wonders whether this was the first time Dame Alison Rose has discussed the bank accounts of

      customers whose political views she disliked?

      One wonders why so many in the Government appear anxious to protect her?

        1. People like her never go to prison. Other examples are Paula Vennels and Miriam Gargoyles.

        2. She has been rewarded by the Prime Minister giving her a place on an important Government committee,

          the well rewarded job of Co Chair of the Energy Efficiency Taskforce.

      3. Boastful bint who is anybody’s after a glass or two of Chardonnay, is my guess.
        Obviously £5 million per annum does not buy brains or discretion.

  22. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    It’s The Way I Tell ‘em

    Little Johnny was sitting in class one day. All of the sudden, he needed to go to the bathroom. He yelled out, “Miss Jones, I need to take a piss!!”

    The teacher replied, “Now, Johnny, that is NOT the proper word to use in this situation. The correct word you want to use is ‘urinate.’ Please use the word ‘urinate’ in a sentence correctly, and I will allow you to go.”

    Little Johnny thinks for a bit, then says, “You’re an eight, but if you had bigger tits, you’d be a ten!!!”

    1. Definitely caught napping this morning.

      I was roused while sleeping at the desk, by my neighbour at about 03:30 to come out to the freezing Summer House about nothing in particular..

      1. Weird neighbours you have. What normal person is out ‘n about at 03:30?

    2. Good morning Tom.
      That took me a moment – I had a terrible night so not firing on all (or even on many) cylinders this morning.

      1. Nor I, Mum2, having been woken at my desk at about 03:30 on a fruitless exercise.

        1. What were you doing at the desk at that time in the morning, Tom – apart from zedding? Sounds like a recipe for a really stiff neck… 🙁

          1. That’s just it, I fell asleep. I found my glasses on the floor and my e-cig in the waste-paper box.

            Ah well that’s tiredness for you.

  23. Good morning all,

    Bright yellow orb in the sky over Casa McPhee this morning – but not for long. Shower clouds by midday. Wind backed to the Nor’-West, 11℃ rising to no more than 18℃ today. That’s 4.5℃ below the 1990-2022 average maximum daily temperature for July.

    From the letters:

    SIR– You state in your Leading Article (July 23) that “net zero has been elevated to the status of religion”. With evidence for the damage caused by climate change all around us, it is the belief that we do not have to worry too much that smacks of religion.

    The date of 2050 for net zero greenhouse gas emissions is far from “arbitrary”; it is based on solid science and on the country playing its necessary part in dealing with this existential crisis for our species. We in Britain are not immune from this; for example, the numbers of climate refugees will dwarf anything we have seen, food imports will be problematic, and inland and coastal flooding will pose severe problems.

    The real lesson of the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election is that there must be justice in how the climate problem is tackled, with policies that enable the necessary changes for those who cannot afford them.

    Professor Sir Brian Hoskins
    Chair, Grantham Institute
    Imperial College London

    Well – a ‘Professor’ and a ‘Sir’ to boot. Oh, the hysteria but how dare we mere mortals gainsay him. Then we see Imperial College London and all becomes clear – he has probably taken Gates Foundation money.

    Thank God for Tom Nelson is what I say. I can’t recommend his YouTube podcasts strongly enough. For those who don’t know enough about climate or really understand the arguments they are an absolute gold-mine. His latest is a talk from Frank Lasee of the Heartland Institute on the truth of Energy and Climate.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/321b98d02422d3fef2104497ec1bfa46dfb1943c4b3f97561e4e6254abc4cf0e.png

    You can then listen to a real climate scientist, Professor Nicola Scafetta of the University of Naples.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d274347039d31412fd56df68c95fcc6f5d2e1dd02a7771a091981da275e1fcba.png

    Tom has done over 100 of these now. One a day is what I’d recommend. And pass this recommendation on to friends and family.

  24. Good morning all,

    Bright yellow orb in the sky over Casa McPhee this morning – but not for long. Shower clouds by midday. Wind backed to the Nor’-West, 11℃ rising to no more than 18℃ today. That’s 4.5℃ below the 1990-2022 average maximum daily temperature for July.

    From the letters:

    SIR– You state in your Leading Article (July 23) that “net zero has been elevated to the status of religion”. With evidence for the damage caused by climate change all around us, it is the belief that we do not have to worry too much that smacks of religion.

    The date of 2050 for net zero greenhouse gas emissions is far from “arbitrary”; it is based on solid science and on the country playing its necessary part in dealing with this existential crisis for our species. We in Britain are not immune from this; for example, the numbers of climate refugees will dwarf anything we have seen, food imports will be problematic, and inland and coastal flooding will pose severe problems.

    The real lesson of the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election is that there must be justice in how the climate problem is tackled, with policies that enable the necessary changes for those who cannot afford them.

    Professor Sir Brian Hoskins
    Chair, Grantham Institute
    Imperial College London

    Well – a ‘Professor’ and a ‘Sir’ to boot. Oh, the hysteria but how dare we mere mortals gainsay him. Then we see Imperial College London and all becomes clear – he has probably taken Gates Foundation money.

    Thank God for Tom Nelson is what I say. I can’t recommend his YouTube podcasts strongly enough. For those who don’t know enough about climate or really understand the arguments they are an absolute gold-mine. His latest is a talk from Frank Lasee of the Heartland Institute on the truth of Energy and Climate.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/321b98d02422d3fef2104497ec1bfa46dfb1943c4b3f97561e4e6254abc4cf0e.png

    You can then listen to a real climate scientist, Professor Nicola Scafetta of the University of Naples.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d274347039d31412fd56df68c95fcc6f5d2e1dd02a7771a091981da275e1fcba.png

    Tom has done over 100 of these now. One a day is what I’d recommend. And pass this recommendation on to friends and family.

    Off to the barbers. Toodle pip.

    1. Professor Sir Brian Hoskins is no more nor less than an absolute bloody fool if he really believes the evidence ‘is based on solid science’ i.e., science for those with solidity within the ears. I can do more than recommend Tom Nelson and add:

      Climate Change and You

      The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

      The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

      The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves

      Check https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/03/04/challenging-net-zero-with-science/

      Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate.

      1. If climate change is as inevitable as the weather, then the issue must be as much about how life adapts to these changes – whether life itself is enhanced in its variety and its quality or whether it is depleted and impoverished. The difference between a forest and a desert.

        The jury is still out as to whether humanity enhances or degrades life on this planet.

        What is irrefutable is that there are twice as many people after the same resources today as there were in 1974, which in geological terms is not so long ago, and is even within my own adult life span.

        1. “The jury is still out as to whether humanity enhances or degrades life on this planet.”

          The opinion of Dr. Patrick Moore, ecologist and co-founder of Greenpeace, is that humanity might very well have saved life on the planet by beginning to get more CO2 back into the atmosphere through burning wood, coal, oil and natural gas so helping CO2 to recover from an all-time low of 0.018% of the atmosphere which is only 0.003% above the point where widespread plant death would start to occur.

      2. Yer typical Nottler, if such a beast exists, knows full well that CO2 constitutes not much more than 400 ppm of the atmosphere. But do a straw poll, and it’s a pound to a peanut that most people believe that it’s much more than that.

        1. In order to get decent growth in greenhouses, market gardeners triple that amount.

    2. Huh!!!
      I am wearing socks and a fleece waistcoat.
      Worse still, I’ve had to use the tumble drier.
      If any Greeniac comes with nose bopping distance of me, they’d better book a plastic surgeon.

  26. Religious belief is dependent on something that cannot be proved.

    I might believe in the existence of God and I might produce a considerable amount of circumstantial evidence to support my faith but once I can produce irrefutable proof of his existence my faith becomes unnecessary because I am then believing in fact rather than belief.

    It is therefore essential to the religion of global warming that it cannot be proved. However ardently Greta Thunberg may believe in her religion absolute proof would render her faith irrelevant.

    The biggest catastrophe for the priests of religious climate fanatics would be if they were proved to be factually correct.

      1. “…….. they do not thereafter believe in nothing. They then become capable of believing in anything.”

        Many Nottlers are rather fond of G.K. Chesterton

    1. Morning Korky. The complete lack of information in the MSM would suggest that this is correct!

  28. Well, it’s official! I am married to an old man! Husband is 70 today and I can’t really get my head round the idea! When we were younger, 70 was ancient, but now he’s got there, it’s not old at all! And, of course, I was a child bride!☺️

    1. Happy birthday to your husband.
      Later this year, my husband will have just one year until he, too, has to renew his driving licence.
      I thought turning 60 was bad enough; 70 feels like it’s time to start seriously decluttering while we still can, so that our sons don’t face the nightmare house clearing we had with mother-in-law.
      Cheerful soul I am this morning.

      1. As I think I’ve mentioned before, our elder daughter has said she’ll get a skip! Declutter? It’s all their stuff anyway! 🙄

        1. Although our younger son more or less dealt with his ‘stuff’ when he finished university, I have kept a few bits.
          On the other hand, we have quite a lot of older son’s (and his now wife’s) belongings. They left them here when they went to Canada nine years ago ‘ in case they decided to come back here.’ For various reasons, there is now minimal risk of that happening.
          Unfortunately, the majority of the clutter is ours, husband’s in particular. Every time I box up books for the charity shop, he just fills the shelf space. We have six tall bookcases full, of which my books would fill less than one. He also has lots of old warhammer and similar ‘toys’ which haven’t been touched for at least 20 years. You get the picture.

          1. My bookshelves are mainly full of Terry Pratchett hard-backs and I have many more to collect.

            Plus poetry and reference books.

          2. I do – our top floor is full of model railway which extends right over the stairwell up there. The bird box cameras keep him happy at this time of year but they do interfere with our internet reception. He also has an extensive coin collection, though that doesn’t take up much room. When we bought this house, we sold our separate houses and amalgamated but we needed lots of bookcases.

          3. We removed anything of value or meaning from the house when mother-in-law died, apart from
            late father-in-law’s massive model railway in the loft which MH and his brother dismantled. I suggested taking it to the local hospice shop but as neither could be bothered, the house clearers got it – and quite possibly made a tidy sum from it all on eBay.

          4. That kind of thing is a problem. His hobbies come round in cycles – model railway is usually a winter thing, but last winter was a bit difficult.

          5. With a set-up like that sounds, I’d be thinking of all the dust! At least the one in the loft was out of sight.

          8. I have a friend who is still obsessed (to OCD levels) with cleaning, tidying and ‘decluttering’, in spite of being unwell and battling cancer which has spread. Her house is spotless and virtually empty. More of a showhouse than a home, but she was somewhat obsessed even as a child.

          9. We removed anything of value or meaning from the house when mother-in-law died, apart from
            late father-in-law’s massive model railway in the loft which MH and his brother dismantled. I suggested taking it to the local hospice shop but as neither could be bothered, the house clearers got it – and quite possibly made a tidy sum from it all on eBay.

          10. Oh yes! We have a loft full of Beanie Babies and Polly Pockets, plus 6 years of veterinary notes, books and suture stuff, horse bandages and overalls! And the 3 years of History notes! None of which the girls take ownership!

          11. When we moved to this house, the in-laws decided it was high time MH took his belongings, which included a few boxes of old Airfix magazines. He insisted he wanted them, but by that point it would have been over 20 years since he had set eyes on them so I refused to have them in the house. Another 30 years on and they are still untouched in an old cupboard in the garage. Some years ago, I opened the cupboard to find, unsurprisingly, that they were all somewhat damp. I doubt MH even remembers they are there. One of these days, I will simply dump them in the recycling bin……

        2. Our sons would need a fleet of skips here. One of the drawbacks of living in the same house for 30 years.

          2. Every now and again, one of my ankles clicks every time I walk. No discomfort, just a click.

      3. My mother has reached this stage. She wants to sell the family home and move into a flat. I am unconvinced but she is determined.

        1. Good for her.
          I wouldn’t mind downsizing especially for a smaller, more manageable garden. But we need to have 2 spare bedrooms for when son visits from Canada with his children. Unfortunately, we’re not in an area with holiday lets, B&Bs or hotels as an alternative.
          Maybe get a house with space for a caravan …..

      4. I reached my three quarter century last week and am still well and still surrounded by clutter. A lot of it is my mother’s clutter – she reached 80 even though she was a smoker but her clutter came here. My husband spent his 80th birthday in hospital last December – four days before his triple bypass.

        1. Not quite the best way to remember a milestone birthday.
          Sometimes, ‘clutter’ is items that ‘might be useful one day ….’ MH has a vast selection of tools in the garage. They have all been well-used …… but just gathering dust for at least 10 years, and unlikely to ever be used again. If our older son lived in this country, he would probably have taken them to his home, but younger son does not seem to be particularly ‘handy’ beyond a bit of painting and picture hanging.

          1. I don’t think either of my sons do much mending either, but their father and my present husband have both done lots of diy stuff – always fixing things. He’s been outside this morning, repairing the woodshed.

          2. Both my father and father-in-law could turn their hand to most things, same with MH until some years ago, partly a generational thing but also from not being able to afford to get tradesmen in. Most of our bookcases were made by FiL, still solid after nearly 40 years.
            Son in Canada seems quite skilful in what he has done, and gets roped in to do jobs for his in-laws (who could easily afford to pay the highest charging tradesmen.) in spite of having very little time.
            I wouldn’t expect or even dream of asking either son (never mind a son-in-law if we had one) to do jobs for us.

    2. Happy birthday to your hubby.
      I can still remember my 70th…….or is it the 70s…..as in 1970s.😉 🤩🤔
      Have a lovely day.🥂🍾

    3. Hope you both have a happy, happy day and a further 365 happy unbirthdays, Sue.

    4. 70, pet? He’s nobbut a pup!

      Go on, hinny, go and spoil him. A plate of pan-haggerty followed by fower pints o’ Fed.😊

        1. I had my first (probably my only) pint of Fed in a workingmen’s club, in Craghead, Co Durham, where I was taken by my former father-in-law. That is well over 40 years ago.

          1. I did my Class One upgrading trade course in Catterick in 1978. I was drinking Fed in the NAAFI bar for 23p a pint. About t £1.70 today. It was so flat, we called it Foaming Fed. I used to give it a stir with my comb (!) to put some life into it.. It was cheap and did the job. And, yes, it was awful.

          2. I did my Class One upgrading trade course in Catterick in 1978. I was drinking Fed in the NAAFI bar for 23p a pint. About t £1.70 today. It was so flat, we called it Foaming Fed. I used to give it a stir with my comb (!) to put some life into it.. It was cheap and did the job. And, yes, it was awful.

    1. I see Tw@tter have their new logo going – a sort of anorexic large X. With the name, it makes no sense. At least the cute little bird made sense with twitter, tweet, and so on.

    2. The humourless warmist trolls are out in force – they certainly don’t like Lozza!

    3. The humourless warmist trolls are out in force – they certainly don’t like Lozza!

    4. Good morning, Lewis.

      For some time now it seems that your posts are intermittently available to me on this forum. I was wondering if there might be a reason for this.

  30. Wordlers, please note:

    We’ve updated our terms

    We encourage you to review our updated Terms of Sale, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy. By continuing, you agree to the updated Terms listed above.

    A load of legalistic junk. It isn’t free anymore!

    1. The t&c’s have a load of stuff about terms of sale but if you hit the Continue button, it does still allow you to play. No bank details requested. Possibly these are general terms for New York Times subscribers?

    1. Sorted but they’ve stopped traditional soups and gone for a brand called Suma..

      No leek and potato. No Chicken soup.

      I just didn’t buy.

      What Numpty had these put on the shelves, I’m sure he got a good kick-back,

      Probably in cans of ‘Jackfruit soup.

      1. Put some leeks, and potatoes, salt, black pepper, oregano, and a stock cube into a pan of water, simmer for 30 minutes and you have a far better quality and flavoured leek-and-potato soup than you will find in any tin.

        And a lot more too.

        1. And ask Father Christmas for a stick blender; tell him you need it now and you’re old enough to understand why there’s nothing to unwrap on Christmas morning.

        2. You want a good soup? Saute some potato, onion and garlic. Add chicken stock then add a bag of spinach. Add milk and a little nutmeg.
          Mmmmmm

  32. A climate change comment from a sceptic

    You’ve probably heard some of the preposterous scaremongering from politicians and the media. CNN declared in big, bold letters that “global temperatures are likely highest in at least 100,000 years.”
    According to whom? “One scientist told CNN.” Gee, that sounds authoritative.
    Yet other major news outlets, including the Washington Post “fact-checkers,” assured us this was true.
    Huh? Does any sane person think anyone has scientifically reliable daily temperature data from 1,000 years ago, let alone 100,000 years ago? Is it really beyond doubt that the temperature this summer is hotter than in, say, July 90,000 B.C.?

    https://www.takimag.com/article/much-of-the-hot-air-is-coming-from-washington/

    2. With evidence of viticulture in Roman Britain as far north as Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire, I’d be rather less confident than CNN about that claim.

  33. US reportedly to send $400m more in aid to Ukraine. 25 July 2023.

    The package includes an array of ammunition — ranging from missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System to Stingers and Javelins. The weapons are being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to quickly take items from its own stocks and deliver them to Ukraine, often within days.

    This would suggest panic measures to fulfil an urgent need, possibly against military advice!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jul/25/russia-ukraine-war-live-moscow-drone-strike-kyiv-un-mines-zaporizhzhia-plant?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-64bf7c5b8f087edb1f3f18ad#block-64bf7c5b8f087edb1f3f18ad

    1. Another bung to Zelensky’s pocket – he must be worth millions.

      Has he already got the sale of these arms lined up – you betcha.

      1. Strange that after all this money sent to the Ukraine there was an article in the Sunday Times from

        an Ukrainian major complaining of a shortage of ammunition.

    2. Reinforcing defeat is a complete waste of time, materiel and especially of lives. Biden, or more likely his minders, have no feelings for the suffering of an army on the verge of defeat or for the Ukrainian people. The humane and sensible action would be to negotiate a settlement.
      The globalist hawks in Washington and London seem hell-bent on pursuing a lost cause so long as there is money to be made and the agenda moves forward. Can we expect another war supporting rant from Johnson in the next day or so?

  34. US reportedly to send $400m more in aid to Ukraine. 25 July 2023.

    The package includes an array of ammunition — ranging from missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System and the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System to Stingers and Javelins. The weapons are being provided through presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to quickly take items from its own stocks and deliver them to Ukraine, often within days.

    This would suggest panic measures to fulfil an urgent need, possibly against military advice!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/jul/25/russia-ukraine-war-live-moscow-drone-strike-kyiv-un-mines-zaporizhzhia-plant?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-64bf7c5b8f087edb1f3f18ad#block-64bf7c5b8f087edb1f3f18ad

  35. One for our cider brewers:

    Warning Jeremy Clarkson’s cider might EXPLODE: Ex-Top Gear host’s brand Hawkstone issues urgent recall and ‘do not drink’ alert
    Food and drink safety watchdogs recalled the cider also known as ‘Kaleb’s cider’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12334323/Warning-Jeremy-Clarksons-cider-EXPLODE-Ex-Gear-hosts-brand-Hawkstone-issues-urgent-recall-not-drink-alert.html

    I wonder how many fizzy wine batches are ever recalled?

    1. Send it to the Ukes and they can lob the bottles at the Russkies.
      We could call the missiles “Clarkson Cocktails”.

  36. Michael Deacon is one of the few DT journalists whose articles I enjoy. He is certainly getting better. Here is an extract from his piece in the DT today.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/07/25/woke-banks-scandal-hypocrisy/
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6b2727099a0589f537ede5ac4ed59370c4244d3e2f708ef154160a7925882c97.png

    Some physicists believe that there may be any number of alternate universes. Let’s take them at their word, and imagine a universe that is like our own, except in one small but crucial respect.

    All the top banks have been ideologically captured by hardline social conservatives – and they’re now cancelling the accounts of leading progressives.

    A subject access request reveals that, in this alternate universe, Jeremy Corbyn has had his bank account cancelled for opposing the monarchy. The alternate Keir Starmer has had his bank account cancelled for claiming that some women have penises. The alternate Alastair Campbell has had his bank account cancelled for his relentless attacks on Brexit. Meanwhile, other well-known progressives have been de-banked for campaigning against the Illegal Migration Bill, praising Just Stop Oil, wearing pronoun badges, criticising Israel, and kneeling for Black Lives Matter.

    In each case, documents show that the members of the banks’ reputational risk committees were unanimous. These clients’ outspoken progressive views did not align with the banks’ values. So they had to go.

    How do we suppose progressive commentators are responding to these decisions, in this topsy-turvy alternate world? Perhaps they’re airily insisting that such stories can’t possibly be true, that their favourite politicians have simply made them all up, and that their favourite newspapers are cynically exploiting the opportunity to whip up an anti-Tory culture war. Or perhaps the progressives are conceding that the stories are indeed true, but then calmly explaining that it’s nothing to worry about – because banks are perfectly entitled to make their own decisions, and if they don’t agree with a particular client’s views, they’ve got every right to kick him or her out.

    It’s certainly possible that the alternate world’s progressives are responding like that. On the whole, though, I suspect it’s probably more likely that they’re furiously rioting in the streets in protest at this shocking assault on their freedom of speech, demanding the immediate removal of the unaccountable fanatics behind this chilling plot to impose their own ideological beliefs upon the rest of the country, and warning everyone that Western society is on the brink of descending into full-blown fascism.

    Just a guess. But of course, we can never know for sure. For one thing, the very idea of a 21st-century British corporation choosing to promote socially conservative values is so comically far-fetched.

    All we can do, therefore, is to go on living in the real world – where it’s conservatives who have their bank accounts cancelled, and progressives say it’s either fake news or fine.

    1. MD is improving. That one is a corker; up there with Rod Liddle and Julie Burchill.

      1. He’s got better since he’s aged – his columns used to be a bit silly. Now he’s more often than not right on the mark.

    2. He’s definitely getting better but still some way to go to equal Michael Wharton, the original Way of The World columnist or Auberon Waugh, his successor.

          1. Cannot read it. Far too small for my tired old eyes.

            Re- post with a magnifying glass

      2. Bron Waugh typed all his copy on an old, battered, Olivetti.

        “Computers don’t work!” he would grumble.

        1. There’s always one antediluvian who nurtures his image by deliberately provocative stupid statements and make things difficult for everyone else.

        2. Have you read the two novels that Bron wrote as a very young man: The Foxglove Saga when he was still at Downside and The Path of Dalliance when he was briefly at Oxford?

          When I was schoolmastering I was put in charge of the school’s cross country running team. At a match at Taunton I was given the job of taking down the boys’ names as they finished the race. One gasping little chap managed to splutter “Waugh, Sir,” to which I asked: “Connected to Evelyn and Auberon?” to which he answered: “Grandson and son, Sir.””

          Alexander is also an author and started off as a journalist specialising in musical topics.

    3. Is Deacon an American? He uses the word ‘alternate’ when he means alternative.

  38. The healthy habits that can add 20 years to your life

    Keeping up exercise and good diet while avoiding binge drinking boosts longevity, study finds

    ‘We were really surprised by just how much could be gained with the adoption of one, two or all factors’.

    STICKING to eight healthy habits could lengthen your life by more than 20 years, scientists have found.

    Exercising, not smoking, not binge drinking, keeping stress levels down, eating well, sleeping well, avoiding opioids, and having healthy relationships are the keys to a long life.

    Men who have all eight habits at age 40 would be predicted to live an average of 24 years longer than men with none of these habits.

    However, for women, having all eight healthy lifestyle factors in middle age was associated with a predicted 21 additional years of life compared to women with none of these habits.

    Low physical activity, opioid use and smoking had the biggest impact on lifespan, increasing the risk of death during the study period by between 30 and 45 per cent.

    Stress, binge drinking, poor diet and poor sleep hygiene were each associated with around a 20 per cent increase in the risk of death, while a lack of positive social relationships was associated with a 5 per cent increased risk of death.

    In one of the largest studies to date, researchers looked at lifestyle and medical records from 719,147 people who were enrolled in the Veterans Affairs Million Veteran Program in the US between 2011-2019.

    Dr Xuan-mai Nguyen, health science specialist at the Department of Veterans Affairs at Carle Illinois College of Medicine, said: “We were really surprised by just how much could be gained with the adoption of one, two, three, or all eight lifestyle factors.

    “Our research findings suggest that adopting a healthy lifestyle is important for both public health and personal wellness.

    “The earlier the better, but even if you only make a small change in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, it still is beneficial.” Researchers said the findings underscore the role of lifestyle factors in contributing to chronic diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, that lead to disability and premature death.

    The results also help to quantify the degree to which making healthy lifestyle choices can help people reduce their risk of such diseases and live longer.

    The estimated gain in life expectancy from adopting the eight healthy lifestyle factors grew slightly smaller with age but remained significant, meaning that adopting healthier habits at an older age can still help you live longer.

    However, researchers said it was “never too late” to give up bad habits and start living more healthily.

    The findings align with a growing body of research supporting the role of lifestyle factors in preventing chronic diseases and promoting healthy ageing.

    “Lifestyle medicine is aimed at treating the underlying causes of chronic diseases rather than their symptoms,” added Dr Nguyen.

    “It provides a potential avenue for altering the course of ever-increasing healthcare costs resulting from prescription medicine and surgical procedures. It is never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle.”

    The research was presented at Nutrition 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition being held in Boston.

    Well I, for one, am looking forward to receiving my telegram/email/AI hologram from the King.

    1. What is “poor sleep hygiene”? Stress is my biggest challenge. In the absence of anything else to worry about, I can stress over mortality.

      1. Work stress? I think I’m a lot less stressed than before I retired. Though I do worry about my OH’s health since last year.

        Good sleep habits – and it is a habit, as one sleepless night can lead to another.

        1. Yes; once you expect to have problems, the situation becomes self-fulfilling.
          At the worst phase of selling Allan Towers and buying The Dower House, I went to bed expecting to wake c.3.00 am with a churning mind and stomach; and, of course, that’s exactly what happened.
          For the only time in my life, I resorted to the occasional use of over-the-counter sleeping pills just to break the habit.

      2. Funny you should mention your mortality. I have been one, for years, to mull over, at length, my mortality. In the past it has given me bouts of sleeplessness; however, since my younger brother died, over four years ago, due to a ridiculously unhealthy lifestyle, I have had a rethink.

        I now think much more positively and have adapted my lifestyle (which was not overtly unhealthy) to a much more healthy one. One positive result is that I sleep for eight undisturbed hours a night, and sleep-depriving thoughts about my mortality are now very much in the past.

          5. I may not live much longer if I abandon all my vices which I enjoy but without the enjoyment of my vices life would be less jolly!

            Doubt was raised here earlier as to whether or not G.K. Chesterton was the originator of the epigrammatic comment about people not believing in nothing when they stopped believing in God but believing in anything.

            However I am fairly sure that GKC was responsible for the lines:

            My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
            Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
            But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
            And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
            For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
            Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

          6. Why does a lack of a belief in God equate to a belief in ‘anything’?

            That is surely the most vacuous and ill-thought comparison possible.

          8. Why does asking a pertinent question, borne of an illogical statement, make me ‘prickly’? I am anything but and am feeling a joie de vivre like never before.

          13. I was born and christened in the C of E and at 18 I met my first wife, a Dublin Jackeen, who wished to marry with a full nuptial mass, so I converted fir her sake.

            Subsequently and with great introspective thought, I have come to the conclusion that ALL religions are a sham. That is why today I am an agnostic but i cling to one Buddhist belief – re-incarnation – Death is NOT the end, just a new beginning and I also believe that there is something bigger than us.

            Now I will happily go into death and look forward to another life.

            Just my philosophy of life,George.

            Do you have one?

          14. Of course I have a philosophy of life. For 38 billion years before I was born I did not exist. The collection of molecules that fused together to become me had not coalesced. After they did I came into being and I grew, and learnt, and got older, mostly in euphoric happiness. When my life becomes extinct (as it does in all living things) the molecules that make up my body will disentangle and go their separate ways. For the rest of time I shall not exist, in any form, exactly as I did not exist for the first 38 billion years of the existence of this universe. That is how things are.

            Religion did not exist before humanity evolved. It came about when a few people realised that they could control the minds of a lot of other people if they made up stories and forced them to believe them. This happened all over the world and these mind-controlling religions got stronger and stronger, giving those in power and control more and more of it. Heaven and hell are mythical concepts invented to keep people, whose minds have been conditioned by dogma, in order and toeing the party line. Threats given by those in control about what will happen to your ‘spirit’ when you pop your clogs, keeps these people terrified and compliant.

            I was baptised as a baby into the CofE and at age 12 was forced to go to “Confirmation Classes”, at church, against my will. The mumbo-jumbo that I was forced to listen to simply reinforced my firm belief that I was being brainwashed.

            I saw through all this hogwash when I was a youngster and I happily accept the fact that for aeons I did not exist, and for aeons hence I shall not exist. I am happily reconciled to that fact and live my allotted years as a sentient being, in a state of bliss and accepting that all things must pass.

            Leopards, vultures, sharks and carrot-fly do not have a heaven or hell to go to where their ‘spirits’ live for eternity in rapture (heaven) or eternal damnation (hell); nor do cabbages, slugs, buttercups or mistletoe. They simply stop living and that is that. If humans have a “hereafter”, why don’t donkeys, seaweed or the malaria parasite have one too? After all, they (like humans) are forms of life.

            That is my philosophy, Tom, and I am beyond happy to have it. I am not ‘agnostic’, ‘atheist’ or any other epithet that those with a different point of view are determined to label me with. I am simply a realist.

          17. There is no misery involved, Tom. My health and wellbeing, which has increased in leaps and bounds since my adoption of a much healthier lifestyle, has also given me a spring in my step, an increased alertness, and a joie de vivre that makes me relish each day even better than the one before. There are simply not enough hours in the day for me to achieve all I wish to.

            Life is for living.

          1. It rather depends on the source of the pain – whether it can be treated or not.

          3. An alternative view is that it will be a new beginning:

            One short sleep past, we wake eternally.
            And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

            [John Donne: Holy Sonnets]

    2. King William? I doubt King Charles will still be around when you reach your century. Or maybe you mean the Swedish King?

      1. No idea which King (or Kung) it will be. All I do know is that there seems to still be a strong line of male primogeniture, thus nullifying the prospect of it being a Queen who will congratulate me in my deep old-farthood.

    3. Not interested, George, I’m happy to drink myself to death and it cannot come soon enough.

          2. I certainly can, George. Two failed marriages and a failed relationship. Now exiled, alone and isolated, death cannot come soon enough gor me.,

            Verstehen sie?

    4. In my life I have been very active.
      Social smoking, never a habit stopped over 50 years ago. Never touched or have never seen drugs, moderate drinking.
      Athletics at school, twice a week football in season, at least weekly squash, good grade. Running to keep fit when I grew older. Walking for miles each week with our dog.
      But now both my left hip and left knee joints are worn very badly. Bone on bone with the knee. And sometimes I can barely stand straight because of both joints being worn.
      The NHS area not interested.
      I had my right hip joint replaced 15 years ago.
      No body warned me about all this. But I guess I wouldn’t have done anything differently.
      Just about to start using a walking stick. A modern aluminium type.

      1. Ten years ago, when I suffered from gout, I acquired two walking sticks. One is a top-quality ‘Derby’ cane which is very sturdy, and the other is an antique cabbage root. For the past eight years they have been collecting cobwebs in the wardrobe.

        1. I bought a pait of sprung walking poles before our trip to Uganda in 2014 to see the mountain gorillas. I only needed one as I had a super assistant to haul me up the difficult bits.

          I did use one back in the winter snow but I don’t need them in normal life.

          2. My gentleman was called Colin……… of the group of eight trekkers, only two needed a porter – so the others didn’t get any work. Even if I hadn’t needed his help, he was good company.

          3. I have always aspired to be, first of all, a gentleman – in thought, word and deed.

        2. I’ve just got over gout.
          The doc confirmed that’s it’s a popular misconception it’s caused by boozing. 🤗

          1. You doctor is quite correct, Eddie. I got rid of mine by getting rid of sugar (and everything containing it) in my diet.

            Yes, I know that alcohol is (converted) sugar, but the modest quantities you consume by enjoying a drink is negligible.👍🏻

          2. That’s why I enjoy whisky..

            3 litres due later today!

            I’ll enjoy before dropping dead.

          3. One of my problems was I have take a diuretic and the hot weather was working against my by concentrating the acids.

          4. I had that problem too. The answer was to guzzle more water (which disrupted my sleep by more frequent nocturnal ‘visits’).

          5. I went through the same ignorance when I first got gout. “It’s too much port”. I had never drunk port and was never a spirit drinker. I am prescribed Allopurinol to reduce uric acid but only take one about every 5 days. I haven’t had an attack in years and I cure it with rapid re-hydration.

      2. I hope your heart procedure goes well tomorrow Eddy, and that you report back soon.

        A good friend of mine has just had a knee replacement and it’s healing well. Another recently went private for her second hip op, as she’s been in agonising pain for a long time and could wait no longer. she’s now able to do five mile walks again.

        If I need an orthopedic op like that I will not think twice about using my savings to pay for it. as quality of life is important.

      4. Saw my consultant on 23rd June recommend against knee replacement as could end up worse than pain I have now. Have cartilage between femur and tibia but none behind knee cap.

        1. Mine was messed up more than 30 years ago. Someone performed an arthroscopie. A mess was made, I had ten weeks off work (self employed).
          And another operation took place. But it’s completely worn away now.
          I was offered a replacement 3 years ago via nhs at a local private hospital but was told because of my outstanding health problems and because they didn’t have emergency services on site, it couldn’t be done. Another way of the NHS copping out of their responsibilities.

      5. Over exercise is bad for most people. i never did it I smoked from 14 to 25. was not brought with drink but have drunk regulary from 18. Smoked large cigars most weeks of the year . etc. I worked very hard and lots of DIY and garcening. did play some golf and a bit of swimming. I t depends if your number is up.

      6. Similar story for me when young but rugby not soccer, squash, competitve swimming, gym training with some gym, running and cycling in later life. I have absolutely no joint problems and still walk fast/run/cycle regularly as well as scramble over rocks and in and out of rivers when fishing. At 72 I must be very lucky and I must have won some sort of genetic lottery when others younger than me have worn and arthritic joints.

      7. Similar story for me when young but rugby not soccer, squash, competitve swimming, gym training with some gym, running and cycling in later life. I have absolutely no joint problems and still walk fast/run/cycle regularly as well as scramble over rocks and in and out of rivers when fishing. At 72 I must be very lucky and I must have won some sort of genetic lottery when others younger than me have worn and arthritic joints.

      1. Morning, Alf. I didn’t include anything since that article was not written by me: it was published in today’s DT.

        I didn’t participate, in any case, in the WEF’s extermination-by-injection programme.

    6. If I die tomorrow there is nothing major in my life I regret and would happily do it all again.
      I know death is inevitable but I am in no rush to get there. When I die I would like my body to be worn out, if it is in pristine condition I would consider it to be a waste of a life.

      1. “I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens” – Woody Allen.

    7. It is very difficult to avoid opioids in the UK seeing that is the preferred treatment from most Doctors. They call it pain management.
      With the pain i get when walking i was told to walk through the pain and take opioids.
      I only take a couple before bed though.

      1. I’ve been lucky to have avoided any need for opioids or other drugs and quite possibly that is why I have good health now.

    9. “Well I, for one, am looking forward to receiving my telegram/email/AI hologram from the King.”

      I look forward to receiving mine from King George VII……..

          2. Not something you can quantify – particularly from an on-screen presence – but George Alagiah gave the impression of being a good egg.
            Huw Edwards did not; there always seemed to be something under the skin.

          4. I don’t think so. As I say, judgements are made via the screen, but I don’t think HE would be relaxing company. It’s the good old ‘pint in a pub’ test.

          10. A wise choice.
            Surprisingly found a pub, The Crown in Manningtree, serving that brew. The barmaid appeared surprised that I was pleased, she clearly isn’t a ‘real ale’ person. Plenty of good ales available around my neck of the woods but Landlord is a bit of a treat.

          11. I have to import mine. Affligem x 5 litre kgs Belgian, for the beer machine 6.9 % abv and very tasty.

          12. Landlord was part of my weaning process, back in the late 1970s, when I had previously only known keg dishwater bilge (Double Diamond, Watneys, Whitbread, etc).

          13. I remember ‘Dirty Dick’, Red Barrel but not the Whitbread keg. Locally we had Truman’s and Ind Coope(?) as the big boys along with Tolley Cobbold and Greene King as smaller local brewers, both from Suffolk. GK has expanded and TC has disappeared. Both produced better pulled pints that the big boys.

          14. I remember — not long after CAMRA had started campaigning for the return of proper cask-conditioned beers — being taken to The Ferryboat Inn in Norwich and being bewildered by the selection of delicious real ales on draught. I was giddy well before I got drunk.

            After that, I got used visiting to a number of similar excellent establishments in that Fine City.

          18. We used to call Draught Bass “Daft Bass” because too much of it sent you silly!

          22. Same here. Pubs in Brum were mostly M&B (Bass) or Ansell’s (Allied). I used to drink dark mild. The few Davenport’s pubs were a pleasant contrast.

          23. If I recall correctly, The West Mids were one of the country’s strongholds for drinking mild. There wasn’t a lot of it about in North Derbyshire/South Yorkshire by the late 1960s onwards.

          24. When I got posted to York, I was delighted that the pub nearest to our barracks sold Bass mild, brewed in Tadcaster.

          25. Landlord – oh heaven. I used to drink Landlord when in York (The Spread Eagle). The club I use has Butty Bach (Wye Valley brewery) which I usually drink. One night, the guest bitter was Landlord. The barrel ran out as they were pulling the pint I ordered 🙁

    2. The BBC wouldn’t/ couldn’t understand that, Anne.

      Far beyond their capabilities.

    3. The BBC can’t understand why everyone is not the same as it. It is the definition of an echo chamber.

  40. BBC forced to apologise for ‘inappropriate’ question to Morocco’s women’s football captain after reporter asks what life was like for her ‘gay players’ in strict anti-LGBT country

    [Daily Mail story today]

    I would have thought that this was a considerably more appropriate question than many of the questions BBC reporters raise!

    1. Except that – had the Moroccan lady given the answer the beeboid wanted – she would prolly have been decapitated upon her return to her God-forsaken country.

      1. There is that, of course!

        We have all been kowtowed into accepting that is is a sin to judge people by their sexual orientations when we are in the UK but unwise to question the barbarity of those of duskier antecedents outside the UK and their treatment of people who have an inappropriate sexuality!

    2. Perhaps the BBC reporter should have asked the England women’s football captain what life is like for her ‘non-gay’ players, as a high percentage of the team seem to be Lesbians!

    3. Perhaps the BBC reporter should have asked the England women’s football captain what life is like for her ‘non-gay’ players, as a high percentage of the team seem to be Lesbians!

    4. It’s an interesting question but agenda driven. Is it one for the BBC to be asking the sports captain, especially considering such is so sensitive and could lead to charges against those players?

      Being blunt, I’m all for folk doing whatever they bally well want. Be what ever you choose. That’s the basis of libertarianism. However, the corollary to that is that your right to live stops where mine begins. You’ve no right to demand I accept or endorse your life choices. Call it don’t ask, don’t tell. I’d prefer ‘Leave me alone, it’s your life.’

      But the problem is, we’ve been tolerant. We did apply these attitudes and activists, wanting power and control set about forcing their agenda on everyone else without care or thought. It was a hubris of oppression not driven by need, but by ego.

  41. We are eight weeks behind on the sale of our house because the buying solicitors didn’t bother replying to messages – five of them. They thought they had, but it hadn’t been sent – and they seem to have lost the phone call follow ups, letters and other emails as well.

    Flippin’ incompetents.

    1. They may well have been instructed by their clients to be as slow as possible. I came across that attitude quite often when I was doing a lot of conveyancing.

      “I have told the sellers we want to be in by Christmas but actually wish to delay until Belinda finishes the summer term….”

      1. I’ve deliberately not set any demands for a move date. I’ve said I am completely flexible. I don’t want to push anyone.
        What I do want them to do is to answer the blasted telephones!

          2. IIRC solicitors don’t ask to be paid, they just take it out of the monies they hold.

    2. Sounds like the solicitors who handled late mother-in-law’s estate. Thank goodness I persuaded MH & his brother to let conveyancers from the estate agent to handle the house sale. They were 100% efficient.

      1. It is astonishingly tedious. It’s not a legal wrangle, there’s not a thrashing out of contracts – it’s just incompetence in not answering!

        2. The solicitors not only ‘forgot’ to act, as I recall, they also appeared, for no good reason, to delay applying for probate, the case handlers kept leaving but not being replaced, some of the accounts were missing too. Had it been my parent’s estate, I would have been making an official complaint.
          I handled the probate on my late mother’s estate. Quite tedious but not that difficult.
          Both estates were well below the IHT threshold.

          1. Now things are moving and it was simple incompetence I’m not too worried, but our mortgage offer expires in November. Miles away, but it may as well be tomorrow for the glacial timescale involved.

          3. Since the paperwork was simplified (in 2012 or so) handling Probate is exceptionally easy.

            All forms have a simple explanation on the internet, so go ahead and do it yourself..

            I’m told that in a solicitor’s office the sixteen year old is always given the job.

          4. In our case, it was probably a series of teenagers in the solicitors’ office on ‘bring your kid to work’ day.

          5. Since the paperwork was simplified (in 2012 or so) handling Probate is exceptionally easy.

            All forms have a simple explanation on the internet, so go ahead and do it yourself..

            I’m told that in a solicitor’s office the sixteen year old is always given the job.

          6. Is there any useful guidance on probat-ing, Mum? It looms ever closer…

          7. It’s nine years since I was dealing with my Mum’s probate. As I recall, there was plenty of guidance on the official probate website, and I think I searched for advice too. Definitely make sure you have details ready for all bank, savings and investment accounts, house information and for any other assets.
            It was quite laborious but wasn’t difficult. I could have dealt with it a bit quicker but I partly felt I wanted to hang on a bit longer to the last thing I could do for my much missed Mum.
            We’ve been named as executors on my brother’s will though whether we’re still in a state (or even alive) to deal with that when the time comes, is anybody guess. He is extremely anti-solicitors. If not us, then it would fall to our sons but I suspect they would get a solicitor involved.
            My brother has no other family.

          9. It is indeed. He seems to have quite a few groups and friends in his little town but the bottom line is that has e has nobody apart from us.
            He holidays alone too though mostly with ‘interest’ groups such as cycling (more woolly hats and anorak types not lucrative louts 😃) breaks.
            Maybe until he retired it wasn’t much of an issue but I do wonder if he ever wishes he had a significant other.
            If we move to be nearer our son as we get older, and if there comes a time when we no longer drive, then he will be somewhat cut off.

          10. Another thought just occurred to me.
            Get multiple official copies of the death certificate. (I think we ordered at the time of registering the death, but I may have that completely wrong.) Each bank, unit trust/investment needs an official copy of the certificate. I made a rough estimate before ordering. We had a few left over but it was still more cost effective than ordering weeks down the line.

          12. It would depend on how many different banks, building societies, investments etc the person had. We counted up, and added another few for good measure. It saved having to deal with the bureaucracy and delay of having to order extras down the line.
            I seem to remember my brother just had to show the certificate at one building society, which simply made their own copy for records. Of course, that was when we all had plenty of bank branches locally.

        3. There’s more money in incompetence. Remember you are charged by the minute for every follow-up letter.

          1. Insist on fixed price (with exception for having to repeat stuff as a result of the other side’s uselessness), with payment on transfer of funds to your account.

        4. Our buyers’ buyer’s solicitor left work piled up on his desk. It was only discovered when he went on holiday and his substitute discovered the mess.
          When the solicitor returned from his hols, he received a shellacking and hastily stuffed all paperwork into a mail box – in December during a postal strike.
          Early January, his client made him come in on a Saturday morning … and, miraculously, things were sorted practically overnight.

    3. I hope you’ve exchanged contracts. We were selling when the banking crisis hit and were gazundered. I was out of work and we had no real choice other than to accept the lower offer.

    4. There is no reason for house sales to take so long, everything is online. Solicitors have no idea of time!

    5. We had the same problems last autumn.
      MB and I spent Christmas in a dismantled house with practically everything packed in boxes.

  43. ‘Morning All

    Bent solicitors sucking legal aid coach gimmegrants with fake stories to help with asylum claims

    Who Knew………..

    Apart from just about everybody with more than two brain cells……..

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12333013/Immigration-law-firms-LIE-authorities-win-asylum.html

    Bah,have a medley to get the foul taste of corruption out of our m ouths

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0840e2620339d68e3096783f1a258bee0d36d96924a3a9c9bc6830863d7e86fe.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f526b1ef41ebb914ca30310b68577abe89d5e8e7ca2de61f99f0696a9080844f.png

    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/143/620/558/original/2dae6dc491291f2b.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/17cb12d50282f7297735c39ce06ddd2196b4f4c982d334239ceaaa9766ee66ed.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4c1792ae994bedc722104964e10b08337d6614d5421e81dcaa7481c93b255d5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da37537dc48104eaf5ebb5b56743881a552484543e73e9f310530b925ee82ac1.jpg

    1. Rik ! All six episodes of Good Omens series 2 released on Prime Video July 28th.

      1. As it’s a parody account, I suspect this is a humorous work of fiction.

        1. His human rights were affected – how can he possibly survive without vegan food?

          Apologies if I have misgendered Wayne.

          1. fcuk misgendering, It’s obviously a twat of the first water – don’t worry.

    2. No cigarettes, eh? That’s cruel and unusual!! And very satisfying for the rest of us!!

    4. I once became acquainted with a Wayne Kerr. I kept on asking myself what on Earth were his parents thinking?

      1. Allegedly the brother of a teacher at my children’s school was so-named. Her name would suggest her parents had a sense of humour but it’s not fair on her for me to disclose it, even in this protected environment (but it is a one-syllable girl’s name, which, when added to the surname, means someone who forges or counterfeits something).

  45. The BBC Midday News has just begun with a piece on Yemen and the suffering of its children. An odd choice when one considers that the UK government supplied the Saudi’s with the bombs that caused it. Nothing about Ukraine!

    1. Cluster bombs. Before we signed the treaty banning them.
      Yemen deserves to be bombed out of existence. A Jihaddi stronghold.

    2. Before Ukraine we used to be bombarded with reports from Orla Guerin about the dying babies in Yemen. They’re just getting back to form – definitely something they don’t want to tell us about Ukraine.

    3. Before Ukraine we used to be bombarded with reports from Orla Guerin about the dying babies in Yemen. They’re just getting back to form – definitely something they don’t want to tell us about Ukraine.

    4. It may be harsh, but over many years, just like many other African nations, they have had millions (even billions?) In aid yet still manage to breed. I can remember one of my grandmother’s in the 1960s knitting blankets to raise money for all the ‘poor little brown babies in Africa.’
      It’s a never ending cycle, wars or no wars.

      1. There are probably more starving babies in Africa since St Bob did his bit in 1985. I’ve read the populations of Ethiopia and Somalia have increased 4 fold since then and that’s probably excluding the illegals who’ve arrive here and elsewhere.

    1. I have seen eels a metre long. And in fresh water. Migrating from the sea to their spawning grounds.

      1. I’m going to invent a seafood dish incorporating one of those along with some Dover Sole.

        Sole and eel sounds delicious … as long as I don’t make a cobblers of it!

        1. My mother used to make jellied eels. They were disgusting. I would sooner eat old boots.

          Quite like smoked eels though.

      2. Ditto but a rare sight these days when they used to be quite commonplace.

    1. Well, they won’t be breeding so the Bradford effect will be given a swerve.

    1. Saw my dyslexic mate protesting outside the garden centre glued to the road holding up a sign that read
      ‘Top soil now!’

    1. And there were no wild fires on the pitch, just some other sort of sneaky activity.
      We were living there when we were stuffing them and Botham and Boycott were playing. I use to ask the guys at work what the score was. They’d been listening the previous day but told me they weren’t interested in cricket……. Only when they are winning eh.
      I made a huge bat from an old piece of scaffold board and suggested they pass it on to the team to use. They hated it. You ‘king pommie bar steward. 😄🤗🤠 How’s that.

  51. I gather that the late Mr Alagiah is to be give a posthumous earldom and a state funeral. The “eulogy” (ghastly word) will be given by Alison Rose

    2. When this broke yesterday I had to think a while before I realised who this chap was. Maybe because I never watch the BBC 6 o’clock news and only snippets of the 10 o’clock one the name just didn’t feature in my mind. Whatever, he was just another news reader and any special awards seem unnecessary. They clearly won’t do this with the other news chap who featured in a not very favourable way the other week but he likewise was just doing his job.

      1. BBC newsreaders* are not “just doing their job”. They are exalted deities who demand genuflection and prostrating at their feet from ordinary … lesser … mortals like thee an’ me.

        *At least they read the news on the Beeb, not chuck it at you (newscasters) like they do on ITV!

  52. A bit of a cloudy day here in WV, but at 24degs. not too bad. Had a lovely omelette for breakfast, even if I do say so myself! Now for the rest of the day….

    1. An omelette for breakfast sets you up nicely. Anything in it or just plain? I like mushrooms and herbs in mine with a little grated cheese for gooeyness.

      1. Chopped onion, green pepper, leftover cooked potato, chives and sprinkle of smoked Gouda cheese. I would have added mushrooms but didn’t have any to hand. Now a freshly brewed coffee and a look at the news.

          2. You won’t find out what’s really going on from the news, that’s for sure!

        3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5377b00d595fd6075fce2276ca977adc000fa5274b034bed7d4f70014e04054a.jpg We must have been reading each other’s minds, Jill.

          Today is one of my three ‘no food today’ days; so I have busied myself chopping up some veg to roast for tomorrow and future meals.

          Left-to-right (top-to-bottom): Yellow bell pepper; courgette; garlic; fresh tomatoes; mushrooms; onions; aubergine; green bell pepper. I have mixed them up with a good splash of extra-virgin olive oil, oregano, freshly-ground black pepper, a pinch of dried chilli flakes and celery salt. Halfway through roasting, I mix in the drained contents of a jar of sun-dried tomatoes.

          They are now roasted and some will be eaten hot with some roasted ling; the rest will be eaten cold with other things (to be decided).

          This is particularly tasty in a split ciabatta roll with several slices of prosciutto ham.

          5. Ah
            Never grew up with fish (not common in Northern Nigeria), so somewhat ignorant…

          15. Meat is the main part of my eating I have never taken on this 5 a day veg rubbish. I eat meat everyday.

          18. I’ve just had a plate of home-cured bacon (fried), two fried eggs, two home-made sausages (roasted), and a side dish of those veg heated in the microwave oven. The bacon is the best I’ve tasted in years (and the sausage wasn’t far behind).

    1. Crap.
      In 1976 the UK sweltered for ages, and climate change was due to freeze us all to death back then.

    2. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation publish a spreadsheet listing the organisations that they fund. Imperial are definitely there. I wonder about the other two?

    4. All barmy and clinging to ‘The Science’. which has been proven, over time, again and again to be WRONG.

    1. Firstborn’s main crop is trees. He’s a tree-herd as well as a bee-herd.

          1. Drakeford and others are quite happy to turn good pasture and arable land into woodland. One wonders if they really understand where food comes from.

          2. Food for him comes from Fortnum and Mason. Food for the masses comes from a Gates funded laboratory. What he won’t have worked out is that the lab won’t exist without oil refining yet he probably does think that oil is about to run out. As you well kow, these people wear ideological blinkers.

          3. They are blinkered and bonkers and have no idea about the world they purport to live in.

        2. He grows them because the land is at 30 degrees to the horizontal, untillable, and good for nothing else. Trees bring in an income, so…

          2. Pine. They take some 40+ years before they are big enough for felling, depending on the ground quality.
            Felled some 4-5 years ago. The replanted ones he’ll never live long enough to see felled…

          6. Which is why many Norwegians invaded the British Isles some 1200 years ago.
            Too many younger sons and no suitable land for them.

        1. Blackberries, apples (see the pie theme coming in here?), and oceans of wild raspberries, blueberries, cranberries self-planted in the woods. And other flowers that SWMBO knows the real name of (in 2 languages) and I call Bog Myrtle.

    2. Does he know how long a tree takes to grow?

      Tell you what would really help the climate – executing Lefty communist politicians.

      2. “Does he know how long a tree takes to grow?”

        And how many would be needed?

    4. Don’t worry,Trudeau promised to have two billion trees planted as part of his election platform in 2019.
      Only one billion, nine hundred and ninety nine million trees to go.

      1. Is that net of the wild fires?

        Trudeau really is a ghastly punishment, what on earth did Canada do in the past to deserve such a fate?

        1. The liberals elected his father (unless rumours are correct and it was Castro) and started a family tradition.

          To think that in a recent survey, one in five called him the best PM ever!

    6. He doesn’t understand crop rotation. He wants farmers to make over 10 per cent of their land to growing trees. You can’t rotate a field of trees.

    7. He doesn’t understand crop rotation. He wants farmers to make over 10 per cent of their land to growing trees. You can’t rotate a field of trees.

  56. Plane fighting Greece wildfires crashes. 25 July 2023.

    A plane fighting wildfires in Greece has crashed near Athens as authorities battled blazes across the country amid a return of heat wave temperatures.

    The aircraft crash on the island of Evia, southern Greece, was broadcast on state television which showed the low-flying plane disappear into a canyon before a fireball erupted moments later.

    Two men were aboard the Canadair CL-215 plane when it crashed, according to the Greek air force.

    Respect to these men. They deserve it!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/07/25/rhodes-wildfires-news-latest-crete-corfu-british-tourists/

  57. I saw this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66205669

    And thought, ah, that’s a bugger. You didn’t know where to look for help. Then I read ‘dreams of a house for her three children’ and I have no sympathy. If you can’t afford something, you cant have it. You couldn’t afford to raise a child, so you should not have had one. Instead, you relied upon big government to feed and clothe them. You force me to support your lifestyle.

    You’re living pay cheque to pay cheque because you cannot budget. You cannot budget because you’ve never been made to, because someone else has always paid the bills. You’ve a very fancy telephone and tablet. I’d bet you’ve a nice sofa for that furniture as well. This isn’t someone on low pay struggling to keep ahead. This is someone who has been given whatever they want and never paid for it.

    3. Twenty three and three children………loans for car and furniture. Can’t afford it – do without until you can.

      1. A fat (empty) head sitting on top of a fat (over-full) belly.

        The ever-increasing stupidity of the species, graphically shown in one photograph.

        1. She’s probably consuming mass-produced, processed food which renders people even fatter and more stupid than they already are. And feeding the same gunk to her poor children too.

      2. Loans for a car maybe but loans for furniture?

        What is wrong with hand me downs? Unless it is the latest fashion, there is plenty of furniture available for free or low prices.

      3. Don’t forget the 42 inch telly and the mobile phones… And tattoos, natch.

    4. We used to just muddle through and were grateful for any help that might have been given.

      But I’m talking about the 1950s and 60s, when we made our own choices.

    5. One very obvious question: Where is the man/are the men who sired the three children?

  58. Few hints – Bogey Five.

    Wordle 766 5/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Not bad – par for me
      Wordle 766 4/6

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

    3. Amazingly, another three.

      Wordle 766 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
      ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Another birdie here

      Wordle 766 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟨⬜🟨🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. Par here.

      Wordle 766 4/6

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

  60. Now is the time to say farewell…. Funny old day; cold wet morning; grey afternoon, pleasant sunny early evening.

    Just had some sad news from a pal in Laure. The narrow street in which we lived has become a centre for drug addicts and unemployed layabouts (spot the difference) and is a nightmare for the few proper residents still there. Endless noise at all hours. We were dead lucky to sell when we did.

    Tomorrow is another day – another funeral of a neighbour. Pushing 90 – but even so. Widower is lost, poor chap.

    On that cheery note – I’ll say – à demain.

    2. But she’s more or less said that she didn’t give Simon Jack any information about Farage’s account that he couldn’t have gleaned from the website. She also says she didn’t know the contents of the file that Mr Farage was issued by the Reputational Risk Committee.

      It appears the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing……..

      2. OT, Have you, or anyone here, heard anything from Lotl at all? Seems quite a while since I saw anything from her, hope she is okay.

    3. But she’s more or less said that she didn’t give Simon Jack any information about Farage’s account that he couldn’t have gleaned from the website. She also says she didn’t know the contents of the file that Mr Farage was issued by the Reputational Risk Committee.

      It appears the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing……..

    4. Al-Beeb

      NatWest said it still had full confidence in Dame Alison at the helm.

      Dame
      Alison’s apology comes after the BBC apologised on Monday for its
      inaccurate report earlier this month which said Mr Farage no longer met
      the wealth threshold for Coutts, citing a source familiar with the
      matter.

      Mr Farage later secured a Coutts report which indicated his political views were considered.

      Dame
      Alison said in conversations with BBC business editor Simon Jack
      “believing it was public knowledge” she had confirmed that Mr Farage was
      a Coutts customer and he been offered a NatWest bank account.

      The NatWest boss said she did not reveal any personal financial information about Mr Farage.
      Sounds like the whole board need to go…………

      1. She shouldn’t have been discussing the details of any customer, least of all with a journalist.

        1. I have never worked in banking, but is this behaviour up (or down) there with a doctor discussing a patient’s case in public?

    5. Resign, she should have been sacked instantly and lose all her pension and bonus rights.

      But the again Pigs might fly.

      1. I wonder if the prolonged silence has been filled with Nat West bigwigs trying to finagle a hefty pay off for the Gobby One.

      2. Steady on – they were toying with the idea of removing her bonus as punishment. Could have reduced her salary to under 5 million.

        3. Next thing, hospital Chief Exec’s will deny treatment based on unacceptable political opinions.

    8. No golden handshake and no index linked pension; she’s leeched off Nat West customers and the taxpayer for long enough.

      2. But she’s been rewarded by the Prime Minister by being given a well paid Government post.

      1. The Twitt one is better. I only looked for teh YT one because not everyone has Twitt. Glad you appreciated the effort.

    2. Apparently the device is used for removing branches near overhead power cables. The concept of laser tree cutting dates back to 1965, and possibly earlier. Of course, the branches are being burned through.

  63. Holy Smoke: I’ve seen DT items provoke a response, but the revelations (quelle surprise) about Dame Ali and Nat West have made the comments go nuclear.
    Basically, La Rose’s arse is being handed to her on a plate and nobody wants her as their bank manager.

  64. Just had a lovely eveing out.
    SWMBO is on a “Middle Ages” course on plant dyes for wool & cloth, and having a great time. There are a whole bunch of sourses, from log cabin building, boat building, iron smelting… you name it.
    Tonight was dinner, that you can invite your family (ie, Firstborn & me) to. Superb food, wine at cost, wonderful.
    The most noticeable part was that everybody was white. Almost all Norwegian, and very many of them have the same surname as where they live, so called after their farm. Quite remarkable, an old-fashioned society come together as a group with common background. I suspect such things will have vanished soon, so it was an experience to treasure – to be included in a society like us.
    Not that everyone was a “little Norway” person – many have travelled widely, then returned to the same farm as their ancestors, and whose name they bear.
    TBH, brings a tear… that, and SWMBO spilling red wine everywhere… clumsy girl. I do love her so. 😀

      1. The chef produced excellent food – he’s a young French lad from the local restaurant, doesn’t do Norwegian, so gave a wee speech about the food in English. Must have broken his fine French heart… and the food was superb! He’s together with a local lass, and they both run a nice cafe on the edge of the river – the only ones to make a success of it in the last 10 or so years. Probably because they produce excellent food at reasonable price, and don’t let the view do all the selling.

    3. Offered to join SWMBO in the shower, and help her with washing parts of female anatomy, but was rejected.
      How unromantic.
      🙁

      1. The same. 1475-1564. And of course William Shakespeare was born in 1564. Exit one genius…

      2. No, Grizzly, I think that was one of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Lol.

  67. Today’s PM on Radio 4 started with soundbites of The Apocalypse followed by Evan Davies:

    “We’ll take stock of what’s happening on land and at sea but we’ll also take stock of the debate in the Conservative Party. Here, for example, is the former Brexit secretary Lord Frost speaking last night: ‘Seven times as many people die of cold than of heat in Britain. Rising temperatures are likely to be beneficial.’

    “Is he speaking for the Conservative Party? We’ll be talking to two MPs.”

    The debate [sic] was specifically about the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, hybrid cars from 2035, and the consequences thereof. A short piece from Justin Rowlatt followed, in which some members of the public pointed out the obvious problem with electric cars e.g. lack of public charging points, the time taken to charge, 35% of UK homes without off-street parking, the lack of a national strategy (local authorities are required to make their own plans).

    The MPs were Anthony Brown, vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on the environment (pro NZ) and Craig McKinley, chairman of the Net-Zero scrutiny group (anti-NZ but offering a few platitudes, unsuccessfully, to repel Davies).

    Davies to McKinley: “What was the point of Frost’s speech? Is he saying we don’t have to worry about warming? I didn’t quite get it?”

    Davies: “I don’t know. I didn’t write his speech for him.”

    Brown: “Frost’s stats are true but the answer to that is to make sure that people’s houses are better insulated rather than frying the entire planet. The changes that we need to make sure the temperature rises are limited should be based on pragmatism not zealotry.” What?!

    When challenged by Davies on the point that only the UK is engaged in this self-harming activity, Brown blethered on about how much our per capita emissions had fallen 60% since 1971 (“which is setting a great example to the world”) and are the lowest for 150 years. At this point I very nearly switched off. I have rarely heard any stats used so completely without context or qualification and so irrelevant to the subject.

    You can guess the rest. Brown thought deadlines were useful because they compelled manufactures to “do something they wouldn’t otherwise do.” No, Mr. Brown, legislation by arbitrary targets is the worst kind of government policy i.e. the quick fix. McKinley made the point that it’s more likely that innovation and capitalism will come up with solutions. Simply banning things won’t.

    McKinley then shot down CC mathematical modelling and took the BoE, the OBR, Treasury and Covid with it.

    Davis: “The scientific community/consensus is against you. Do you really think we should do nothing?” He spoke as though McKinley had just asserted that the sun orbits Earth.

    This wasn’t a proper debate. The public deserve better. There’ll never get it from the BBC.

    1. Its why the BBC has to go. It has done more damage to our country than any other organisation.

      1. The two MPs weren’t much better but McKinley won if only for the fact that he’s questioning the fraud.

        It’s impossible to have a debate in under 10 minutes when the protagonists are not face-to-face and the chairman is biased.

    1. Douglas Macgregor is correct. Ukraine is lost, those displaced and exiled at the start of Obama/Biden’s proxy war will never return. The remaining fighting age population are either dead or injured and these number in the hundreds of thousands.

      The war was never about democracy or Ukraine but about protecting corrupt American politicians and vested interests. The entire mess including the US funded bio-labs, the corruption of Biden, Kerry, Pelosi and God knows many others must be exposed and international criminal charges brought and prosecuted.

      Likewise the corrupt banking and corporate players expecting to profit from a land grab of Ukrainian lands. I refer to genetic crop pushers such as Monsanto, Blackrock, Vanguard and other evil players.

      As regards Zelensky I expect some Ukrainian imprisoned or marginalised by him will perform an execution.

      1. The big question is whether Zelensky will quietly retire to his palace in Florida, or whether he will

        hang on in Ukraine until he is imprisoned/assassinated?

  70. Well, it’s been a very busy day for me today, including attending a funeral and a wake. Tomorrow I set out for a few days away on a long-ago booked break. See you all later at the weekend. Good night, chums, sleep well and behave yourselves whilst I am away.

    1. I hope you are fully recovered now, Elsie, and a-rarin’ to go for your break! Have a good time!

  71. i have just seen a news article that looked into the background Kamala Harris. Apparently her family comes from a long line of Slave owners.

    That should blunt some of the slave reparations nonsense going on in the US.

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