Sunday 20 August: The Tories are missing an opportunity to show voters what the party really stands for

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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473 thoughts on “Sunday 20 August: The Tories are missing an opportunity to show voters what the party really stands for”

  2. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Lemon Squeezy
    The local pub was so sure that its barman was the strongest man around that they offered a standing £1,000 bet. The barman would squeeze a lemon until all the juice ran into a glass, and hand the lemon to a patron. Anyone who could squeeze one more drop of juice out would win the money.

    Many people had tried over time, but nobody could do it.

    One day this scrawny little man came into the bar, wearing thick glasses and a polyester suit, and said in a tiny squeaky voice: “I’d like to try the bet.”

    After the laughter had died down, the barman said OK, grabbed a lemon, and squeezed away. Then he handed the wrinkled remains of the rind to the little man.

    But the crowd’s laughter turned to total silence as the man clenched his fist around the lemon and six drops fell into the glass.

    As the crowd cheered, the barman paid the £1,000, and asked the little man: “What do you do for a living? Are you a miner, a weight-lifter, or what?”

    The man replied: : “I work for the Inland Revenue!” :

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps. Another fine, dry day in prospect, with max 23°C for today’s Forest duty. There is some football match or other today so a relatively quiet time in which to get plenty done.

    This letter-writer has the right idea:

    SIR – Why are so many leading Tories convinced that they are heading for a disastrous defeat in the next election when the solution is staring them in their faces?

    If only they would stand in any queue or sit in any pub and listen to the people there, they would quickly learn that they have a simple way to achieve victory: just have these four items in their manifesto.

    First, declare a vigorous anti-woke and return-to-common-sense campaign. Secondly, withdraw from the ECHR and return to common law. Thirdly, scrap HS2. And finally, amend net zero to what is practical.

    John Buckley
    Belmont, Lancashire

    Permit me to add – a return to the party of low taxation, law and order and a rigorous control of spending. It won’t happen, of course, until the party once again welcomes genuine Conservatives and finally dumps the wet, touchy-feely socialism. I’m not optimistic.

    1. Plenty of BTL comment on this letter, here’s just one:

      Anastasias Revenge
      7 HRS AGO
      John Buckley – “First, declare a vigorous anti-woke and return-to-common-sense campaign. Secondly, withdraw from the ECHR and return to common law. Thirdly, scrap HS2. And finally, amend net zero to what is practical.”
      And none of these is going to happen – because behind the scenes deals have been agreed with certain eminence grises – why else do you think there is plenty of verbiage spouted and zero effective action? Proof that they can act, swiftly and decisively, if they so wish, was ably demonstrated over Covid lockdown.
      They have sold their souls (and sold out our futures).

      1. And look what happened to Liz Truss and her Chancellor when she attempted to do all the right things.

    1. I’m sorry to hear that, Herr Oberst. Here it looks like being a very decent dry and sunny day.

  6. SIR – The demand for rental accommodation is rising sharply and supply is falling. Inevitably rents are also increasing sharply.

    One of the main reasons for diminishing supply is the decision of George Osborne in 2015 to limit tax relief on mortgage interest. This is taking landlords out of the market as they cannot make a net profit. The recent rise in interest rates exacerbates the problem.

    The disarray in the housing market (Letters, August 6) has many causes and needs a fundamental review to increase supply, but the mismatch in the rental market is an immediate issue causing great distress. Restoring full tax relief on mortgage interest would stabilise the market.

    David Lewis
    London W1

    Yes, Mr Lewis, Little Osborne is mostly responsible for a war on landlords, and successive Chancellors have done nothing to reverse it. The result? A shortage of rental property and sky-high rents. Gosh, we never saw that coming, did we??

    1. I live in a block of 16 flats, ten of which are buy-to-let. Incorporation, incorporation, incorporation.

    2. Add to that debacle the influx of invaders who need to be housed and you have a supply and demand crisis.

      1. Seems he paid Imperial College to lie on his behalf. Shocking. There goes their reputation.

          1. Not after this morning, they don’t.
            Vice-Chancellor in all-day meetings, starting this morning…

        3. Lol did they have one, after the bovine TB and covid modelling scandals?

          Edit: for about the gazillionth time, note to self: read the other comments first, in case they already say what you are thinking…

    2. Yes, scientists (so-called) in the pay of the London Mayor will be independent? Why, of course they will! Their former support for his money-grabbing Ulez scam was just a coincidence…

      Good morning, Herr Oberst.

  9. Putin scrambles to meet Russian military leaders as Ukraine counter-offensive continues. 20 August 2023.

    Vladimir Putin has held a meeting of Russia’s top military generals as Ukraine continues to make advances on the southeastern front.

    Ukraine launched a long-anticipated counter-offensive against Russia earlier this summer as it seeks to take back land lost to Moscow in the initial invasion of the country last year.

    I like this headline. Usually they are a little more subtle but it illustrates the principle of basic propaganda pretty well. You need to distort the fundamental public image such that it eventually overrides the detailed reality behind it. Personal denigration may be crude but can be very effective over the long term where it becomes established truth. Putin suffers from this in that he is usually portrayed as a simple murderer, (you can see this on the threads where the accusation of pushing people out of windows is a staple) though the evidence for it is vague and contradictory at best. The faked Novichok stories are a little more sophisticated but fall down not only in their implementation (which is nothing short of catastrophic) but the philosophy behind it. Why after all would anyone bother when defenestration serves just as well? All this has to serve in lieu of greater crimes of which there is no evidence whatsoever. There is no Gulag; the firing squads are silent; the torture chambers empty. Stalin to the contrary basked in the soubriquet Uncle Joe (which enraged him when he first heard it) but it served him very well during the war and concealed the enormity of his crimes for much longer.

    https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/putin-news-russia-invasion-ukraine-counter-offensive-meetinghttps://www.gbnews.com/news/world/putin-news-russia-invasion-ukraine-counter-offensive-meeting

    1. In the unlikely event of being given the choice, I suspect that being an enemy of Putin is less likely to result in an early demise than being an enemy of the Clintons.

  10. Putin scrambles to meet Russian military leaders as Ukraine counter-offensive continues. 20 August 2023.

    Vladimir Putin has held a meeting of Russia’s top military generals as Ukraine continues to make advances on the southeastern front.

    Ukraine launched a long-anticipated counter-offensive against Russia earlier this summer as it seeks to take back land lost to Moscow in the initial invasion of the country last year.

    I like this headline. Usually they are a little more subtle but it illustrates the principle of basic propaganda pretty well. You need to distort the fundamental public image such that it eventually overrides the detailed reality behind it. Personal denigration may be crude but can be very effective over the long term where it becomes established truth. Putin suffers from this in that he is usually portrayed as a simple murderer, (you can see this on the threads where the accusation of pushing people out of windows is a staple) though the evidence for it is vague and contradictory at best. The faked Novichok stories are a little more sophisticated but fall down not only in their implementation (which is nothing short of catastrophic) but the philosophy behind it. Why after all would anyone bother when defenestration serves just as well? All this has to serve in lieu of greater crimes of which there is no evidence whatsoever. There is no Gulag; the firing squads are silent; the torture chambers empty. Stalin to the contrary basked in the soubriquet Uncle Joe (which enraged him when he first heard it) but it served him very well during the war and concealed the enormity of his crimes for much longer.

    https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/putin-news-russia-invasion-ukraine-counter-offensive-meetinghttps://www.gbnews.com/news/world/putin-news-russia-invasion-ukraine-counter-offensive-meeting

  11. 375550+ up ticks,
    ,Morning Each,

    Sunday 20 August: The Tories are missing an opportunity to show voters what the party really stands for,

    But they did just that on the 24/6/2016 when kicking off their anti Brexit campaign.

    Sunday 20 August: The Tories are taking this opportunity currently to show voters what the party really stands for as in,
    along with the pharmaceutical hierarchy, highly suss corporate manslaughter if not worse, their employees in the covering up of mass foreign paedophilia actions , organising and giving 5 * succour to potential invasion troop etc,etc.

    One of their lesser evils is taking advantage of ,again & again, weak minded criminally maladjusted majority voters.

  12. SIR – There can be no doubt that Sir Keith Park’s role in the Battle of Britain “secures his place in history” (report, August 14).

    Churchill, who was with him on September 15 1940 – the decisive day of the battle – wrote in his war memoirs that it was on the 25 squadrons of Park’s No 11 Group that “our fate largely depended. From the beginning of Dunkirk all the daylight actions in the South of England had been conducted by him, and all his arrangements and apparatus had been brought to the highest perfection”. Lord Tedder, who became chief of the air staff, said: “If any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did.”

    It should not be forgotten, however, that he added conspicuously to his achievements as the war progressed. As RAF commander in Malta in 1942, he broke the control of its skies that German and Italian forces had gained, and built up a powerful air base of 40 squadrons that gave vital support to the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. In southeast Asia, where he became allied air commander at the start of 1945, he ensured that General Slim’s “forgotten army” had the provisions it needed as it advanced through Burma. Few made so great a contribution to victory.

    Lord Lexden (Con)
    London SW1

    Yet another fine letter from Lord Lexden – detailed, authoritative and enlightening. Somehow I always seem to know when I’m reading one of his many contributions well before I reach the bottom and see his name.

    As to the subject matter – I have very few heroes but Keith Park is one of them. He had more leadership in his little finger than the present incompetents with a lifetime in politics. More here, about a truly remarkable man:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Park#:~:text=Air%20Chief%20Marshal%20Sir%20Keith,leadership%20of%20the%20RAF's%20No.

    Oh how we need leaders of his calibre today!

      1. Gawd ‘elp us.
        Not a white oppressor!!!
        We should have just rolled over and let another lot of white oppre….. um …….

    2. Morning, HJ.
      You mean leaders with intellect, determination, strength of character and a vision linked to a plan that will enable that vision to become reality. Those leaders?
      Sorry, we’re right out of them and no deliveries are expected any time soon.

        1. Me too!
          Instead, primarily we have self-serving ne’er-do-wells who in their secondary function serve the WEF, Trilateral Commission, Club of Rome et al.

  15. The Tories are missing an opportunity to show voters what the party really stands for

    The party stands for nothing, it kneels to the forces of globalism

    1. 375550+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,

      The truth encapsulated in one small nutcase by B3, anything but.

  16. I always enjoy reading both the Nottl and the DT’s BTL comments. I seem to agree with the majority, most of which are on familiar themes, and there is a fair sprinkling of repetition, given the irritating scarcity of genuine Conservatives in public life. Just occasionally, however, a comment jumps off the page and the following is one from today’s batch:

    Pauline Maridor
    6 HRS AGO
    Long gone are the days of Merkel and Blair — both, no doubt enjoying their luxurious lifestyles, safe from the carnage they BOTH created by opening the flood-gates to overwhelming, uncontrollable immigration.
    Wir schaffen das” (“we can manage this”; “we can handle this”) a ludicrous statement made by Angela Merkel, the then-Chancellor of Germany, during the 2015 European migrant crisis.
    As for Blair; I recommend reading Tom Bower’s book; Broken Vows: Tony Blair – The Tragedy of Power, which lays bare how Blair presided over a silent conspiracy to change face of UK.
    We have forgotten the abuse levelled at Nigel Farage when he raised objections to the influx of economic migrants.
    Fast forward to 2023; The assumption that the politicians would now have a feasible plan is laughable. The gormless inducements of 4-star hotels, full-board, pocket-money, smart-phones, not forgetting easy access to medical/dental treatment, etc etc.
    The fabric of our society is slowly disintegrating and the invasion of illegal military-age men without any identification whatsoever should be a major concern to us all.
    I would suggest that Con/Lab/Lib/Green/SNP/Uncle Tom Cobley et al should be renamed the UNITY party. The WEF devotees in Davos will be so delighted with their progress, especially that Blair is no longer hiding in plain; all set to pull Starmer’s strings.
    Softly, softly, advancement to the goal of total Global governance.

    * * *

    I expect there are others but I would need to undertake a speed-reading course before discovering them.

        2. Clever chap.
          Arranged for the weekend so you had two days to celebrate.
          Hope you are enjoying it.

    3. Blair and Neather set about deliberately importing tens of millions of gimmigrants with the sole intent of destroying this country.

      He wanted a permanent, Labour voting bloc. One that existed on welfare. It was a class war on ‘Mondeo man’. He coined the term and clearly hated him, because he forced the white, working man to pay for the Pakistani, turk, black foreigner’s welfare. One was trapped in ever ratcheting taxes, the other loafed about off his back.

      1. Blair and Straw. Andrew Neather was just a speech writer who said he “came away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended – even if this wasn’t its main purpose – to rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date”.

        Straw has been reported as saying the English are “very violent” and “not worth saving.”

    4. It needs to be remembered that it was Merkel who invited (“come one, come all”) immigrants to Germany, and then immediately turned to the EU and said that every member of the EU needed to take its “fair share” of immigrants. I shall never forget that.

    1. We’re having a large family gathering today, as my younger nephew and family are over from Athens. 7 children, and 9 adults, so we really are hoping it at least stays dry! 😳

          1. Our forecast is good – right on the money. Hooshing down (again, or still, your choice).

  18. Living Downstairs

    This is for LadyoftheLake yesterday – I only read your post late last night. Sorry this is a bit long.

    ‘Bedroom up, living space down. Have been sitting pondering whether a ground floor home might be available here….’

    Please note, LOTL, I don’t know much about your mobility.

    When my late wife was afflicted with a broken femur and early Lewy Body Dementia in December 2019 I got my sons to drag a single divan downstairs. That’s a lie: I dragged it downstairs myself, but don’t tell my hulking sons or they’ll murder me – I told them I had local help.

    Within days of the hip repair, while OH was still in hospital, Social Services swiftly provided a ‘Hospital-type’ fully adjustable Profile bed to go in the lounge. When OH came home I slept in the Dining Room through those glazed doors where I could see and hear her, confined as she was to bed. By good fortune we have a small shower room/WC downstairs, but my OH’s wheelchair was too wide to get her through the doorway so she never used the shower. So you don’t HAVE to have a shower room. It depends on your mobility.

    Eventually an Occupational Therapist was persuaded to prescribe a Ceiling Hoist to be fitted in the ‘Lounge’ so that I could hoist OH single-handedly (and safely – I was 81) into her Recliner chair or Commode or Wheelchair without having to wait for the Carers. They came two-handed three times a day to keep her bed-bathed and free from pressure sores. Such lovely girls – what a job.

    This photo of OH (anonymised) shows the ceiling hoist, and also a little gadget I bought and clipped to her nightie. It’s a rechargeable Bluetooth wireless Microphone that linked to my hearing aids so I could hear her talking or even just breathing up to 30 feet away – even when I was in the garden. So useful! That situation went on for three years.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cb45d17190648af1a4e57fee96194154b1561611031f41afd27e285643154700.jpg

    All the kit (provided in the UK without charge but you have to be persuasive and persistent) has now been removed and the downstairs returned to ‘home’ mode. So it can be done.

    The equipment provider, NRS (Nottingham Rehabilitation Services) seems to have won the national contract to supply and service all this kit for Social Services. An NRS engineer told me they have over 90,000 pieces of equipment out on loan in Kent alone!

    Alas, from the Carers we hear that bed-bound folks who live in rented, not owned property can wait a long time to get Landlords’ permission for any of these ‘modifications’.

    So LOTL, try to find a Community Occupational Therapist in your area. Your local NRS branch (see this link: https://www.nrshealthcare.com/) may be able to point one out, and NRS answers the phone pretty quickly ‘cos it deals with ill and frail people. Senior Occupational Therapists have powerful prescription capabilities as long as you can find them and persuade them what you need.

    Hope this helps. There’s a lot of help out there but it needs seeking out. Good luck, RC.

        1. OK, that’s impressive stuff.

          It could nearly lift me!

          In a different note, my mother always says
          ‘What is 190kg!’
          I say, well, it’s 190 kilograms.
          ‘What’s that in pounds!
          ‘190kg.’

          She’s still translating into shillings. Base ten is so simple, I don’t understand why people fight it.

          2. Those 12 discs weigh 15kg (33lb) each. Big burly engineer number one was lugging in 2 at a time. His smaller mate was using the 4-wheel trolley (another 10kg-worth), making up the 190 kg total. Thank goodness the upstairs floor joists (into which the track was bolted) were good and solid. P.S. my bathroom scales, which I use every morning, weigh in pounds or stones:pounds or kilos. I use pounds as it displays more digits than the stones:pounds display and, like your mother, I’m used to pounds.

    1. Weirdest ‘forest fire’ I’ve ever seen. First, there’s no forest. Second,

      the grass isn’t on fire. Third, it’s only the houses on fire…and,

      boy, are they on fire.

      https://www.bitchute.com/video/3sIEuP4byb8s/

      No idea if this is true,but..
      Apart from the DEW theory, I’ve also seen mention
      of the possibility of a huge surge of power to individual
      homes via the electricity supply-owned by Blackrock
      and Vanguard.

      1. Or…. in times of extreme heat, when building materials are made from wood, and the insides of those buildings contain lots of flammable items it’s vastly more likely that they just burn from stray particulate matter.

  20. Good Moaning.
    The CONservative party has come up with yet another way to make life that little bit more difficult and expensive.

    “Net zero bottle scheme will hit retailers with £1.8bn a year

    Much of the cost likely to be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices, prompting calls for the scheme to be delayed or scrapped”

    Should we check Sunak’s in-laws’ driveway for an immobile mobile home?

      1. I used to supplement my pocket money by beachcombing in St Mawes and picking up all the empty bottles which I could return to the shops which had sold them and reclaim the deposit.

    2. Folk do know that’s an EU policy, don’t they? You know, one imposed by the organisation we have left?

    3. Net zero is impossible.
      There are so many new homes being built all over England it can never be achieved. We will run out of water before it happens.

  21. Daniel Hannan at https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/19/mindlessly-printing-money-has-ruined-britains-economy/

    “Another malign consequence of QE was to destroy our sense of value. When we read of hundreds of billions of pounds being spent on lockdowns, we can’t understand why our own pet cause shouldn’t have a few hundred million.

    Civil servants are especially guilty of this failing, throwing the new-minted money at their favourite projects. Despite the talk of cuts, taxpayers are funding 10,000 jobs in “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion” (EDI) at an annual cost of £557 million a year. That is on top of the £150 million worth of paid days spent sending officials on training courses covering EDI, race, sexuality and unconscious bias.

    Billions more go on quangos which are, so to speak, indirectly woke: the Quality Assurance Agency – which checks on university course standards – demanding “decolonisation”; the Arts Council tying grants to an agenda linked to a campaign that backs “unlearning whiteness”; and so on.

    We don’t usually think of identity politics as a consequence of loose money. But, according to a report by Conservative Way Forward which totted up the figures, woke grants cost taxpayers £7 billion a year – £19 million a day. That is the kind of money that governments spend when they are not forced to live within their means. Without the cash, identity politics would struggle to get off the ground.”

    1. Hannan finishes with this:

      We are not asking for full-fat Austrian economics, complete with ending fractional reserve banking (though if you want to understand what is wrong with the current system, I recommend the new film Ex Nihilo: The Truth About Money, released a couple of weeks ago by the Cobden Centre, and free to watch online).

      No, all we want is to tweak the rules governing the Bank of England, removing its right to print unlimited quantities of cash and giving it a statutory responsibility to preserve the value of the pound. What could be more moderate? What could be more Tory? Come to think of it, what could be more popular.

      It was called the Bradbury Pound, Daniel, and it was done in 1914 to stave off a collapse. Only this time the prinicipal should be permanent. We could start again by knocking off a zero. I’ll watch that film but I don’t expect it to add anything to what I already understand about money creation.

      1. A good start would be to forever prevent governments from borrowing, getting into debt and creating fiat currency.

        It would force them to live within our means for a change.

  22. ‘Morning All

    Really??

    ECB President Christine Lagarde

    CBDC Will Be Used For Control

    Cash transactions above 1,000 Euros already banned. Jail or fines if you are caught.

    https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1692491539295940696

    Rest of the medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1439aee9648fee75ebf4c493354d1d5b9889c90c6b92c542df73a6a2c44c69f4.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2da92708a7c9247bb6e6c7ef704b5d672a1fe44f58bd61bfa00a48bccdce03d6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7620caa2539ac715bd0339edb9aeac91d5fae8acce9b1dc4ed461b53fbeb98b0.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb872fd3394544eca9dfd7711b3a023e68d7292a324789b0d295d05e558c3000.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/856e720443a5a1caa8db767b0395d7e9bad32d53cd4bd3a1ce0166fe5f1a951a.jpg

    1. If the political class are so fervent on this digital currency lar, why don’t they take it up first and then give us control over it?

  23. Good morning all,

    Cloudy at McPhee Towers at the moment but sunny periods promised, wind in the Sou’-West, 17℃ rising to 22℃ today.

    From the Sunday Gatesograph letters:

    SIR – Why are so many leading Tories convinced that they are heading for a disastrous defeat in the next election when the solution is staring them in their faces?

    If only they would stand in any queue or sit in any pub and listen to the people there, they would quickly learn that they have a simple way to achieve victory: just have these four items in their manifesto.

    First, declare a vigorous anti-woke and return-to-common-sense campaign. Secondly, withdraw from the ECHR and return to common law. Thirdly, scrap HS2. And finally, amend net zero to what is practical.

    John Buckley
    Belmont, Lancashire

    John is on the right lines but he doesn’t go far enough. This is what he should have written in his last paragraph:

    First, declare a vigorous anti-woke campaign. Second, withdraw from the ECHR and return all illegal migrants, stop immediately ALL immigration, expel those who do not fit in to the British way of life and culture and reaffirm our belief in Common Law. Third, scrap HS2. Finally, cancel net zero and repeal the Climate Change act 2008.

    But then it wouldn’t have been printed.

    2. Every single thing they are doing could be stopped and reversed. However, once you put it into context – of remaining chained to the EU – it all makes ‘sense’.

      High taxes are to ensure we are never competitive with the failed, socialist EU.

      The massive uncontrolled illegal immigration is designed as sheer spite for Brexit, as we wanted it to end, the state wanted more.

      High energy costs resulting from ‘net zero’ are simply to remain aligned with EU energy policy.

      The mess we are in isn’t by accident. It’s deliberate. The intent is to do so much damage that the state either forces IMF intervention – who will demand we rechain ourselves or for the destruction to become so widespread and significant that there is no other option but collapse or rechaining.

      Whichever way you look at it, the state machine is engineering this carnage deliberately.

    3. Start implementing the manifesto you were elected on. Not that I believed it anyway.

    4. It seems abundantly clear to me that that Sunak actually wants the Conservative Party to lose the election.

      1. My pleasure. I couldn’t seem to copy the whole thing without having to click again on it. Maybe you’ll do better than I.

    3. Morning T. 😊
      It’s about time he was moved on, like his own pollution cloud does at every puff of wind.
      I think most people with any commonsense know exactly what his game is.

      1. The trouble is that most people do not have any common sense and the demography of London today suggests that he is here to stay indefinitely.

      3. “Most people with any commonsense” – that isn’t his followers and voters, then…

      2. When you get to the “You absolute b*stards”, if you then click on the text you get to the next bit which says

        “However

        If you give him £12.50 each time you drive in the dying people can go fuck themselves“

  26. Morning all.
    Now pay attention because I’m about to say something I’ve never said before and am unlikely to say again for many years to come and that is

    “Come on England”.

    1. Just noticed today’s Google doodle. Whoever designed it (a septic I imagine) doesn’t understand supporters’ scarves.

    2. Just noticed today’s Google doodle. Whoever designed it (a septic I imagine) doesn’t understand supporters’ scarves.

    3. I shall be watching on my big screen and shouting avidly for England’s captain, my fellow-Cestrefeldian Millie Bright, to lift that trophy.

  27. Morning all.
    Now pay attention because I’m about to say something I’ve never said before and am unlikely to say again for many years to come and that is

    “Come on England”.

  28. Good morning chums. I am taking it easy again today and may or may not go into town to watch the medieval jamboree.

  30. Morning all 🙂😊
    A different shade of grey today and occasional sunshine.
    And the tories……well included the whole of Westminster Whitehall and etc’s.
    They’ve all lost the plot. The laws of Treason should be implemented. Oh I’ve just remembered, AH Bliar made certain alterations.
    Come on you ladies of England.

  31. There is an excellent article in the DT today by Douglas Murray: Biden’s blunders are alienating his allies – and strengthening America’s enemies – Weakness has created a void in the Middle East, which Moscow and Beijing are eager to fill

    Based on many years of experience in the Middle East and North Africa, I agree with pretty well everything he says.. But one sentence caught my particular attention: “Until recently, there were few similarities between the Israelis and the Saudis.”

    Of course the Abraham Accords, which have been phenomenally successful, did not include Saudi Arabia. But the Saudis have gone a long way to ease tensions, for example by allowing El Al and other Israeli airlines to fly through its airspace, for the first time ever.

    But there have long been covert relations between Israel and the Saudis, albeit never mentioned in public. I have many examples of this.

    For instance, Saudi businessmen used to visit Israel by flying to Cyprus then booking a new flight to Tel Aviv. On arrival the Israelis did not stamp their passports.

    One small incident, about 25 years ago, demonstrated to me the potential relationships between the two countries. I was advising an American company, a household name around the world, when it was changing its sponsorship in Saudi to two brothers, both princes. I was fortunate to be present at the final meeting at which the international CEO of the US company was also present. Contracts were signed and hands shaken. At the last minute, the princes asked the CEO if he would mind if they introduced a new subject. They asked, in all seriousness, whether the US company would be willing to appoint them as its representative in Israel.

    1. When I used to work for Shell, it was recommended that if you had to visit Arab countries, to make sure you didn’t wear or carry any clothes or underwear labelled Marks & Spencer or St Michael (their brand for years). This was in case you were pulled aside and strip-searched. You could always, of course, cut the labels out before you set off. Allegedly this was because of the close business relationship between Baron Israel Sieff (who had joined the Israel Defence Forces before joining Simon Marks full time as Vice-Chairman and joint Managing Director of M&S in the 1930s)

      1. We worked with nurses who did the same thing when they went to work in Saudi.
        And no RCA records, either.

    2. People who wanted to visit other countries in Africa as well as South Africa often had two passports as a South African stamp in your passport could stop you being allowed to enter other African countries.

      I suppose this is less of a problem now because not many people still want to visit South Africa.

      2. Mine has renewed since I visited South Africa, but I didn’t have a problem with it. I’ve no desire to go there again though.

    3. When our sons had their dessert business, the chap who serviced and supplied their production equipment was a US based Israeli.
      His knowledge and business were specialised and were in worldwide demand.
      He told us that he never had any problems with Moslem countries; seamless dessert production trumped religious and political dogma.

    4. I’m amazed to see that even the Guardian is critical of Biden today: Joe Biden aims for a Middle East hat-trick. He’s delusional and out of time

      Biden is in real trouble if the far left goes against him!

  32. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47d4a8c959961375d7a4037250d5a20432fed577cccb6c35cbf2962db0d0acdd.png
    Graham Lineham: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/19/my-cancellation-has-trapped-me-in-one-of-my-own-sitcoms/

    BTL

    Well known and successful entertainers ought to club together and refuse to perform in any of the venues or on radio or television with any organisations whose producers practise cancel culture.

    A total boycott is the only thing which would work. This nonsense must be brought to a speedy end.

  34. https://www.fish4.co.uk/getasset/13fcf911-f045-4710-92cb-cc331358dca7/

    Yesterday afternoon I visited the gardening club’s annual show in the village of Burbage in Leicestershire, it was held in one of the local schools and was well attended by the locals.

    Intrigued by the device featured in the bottom right quadrant of the school badge I asked several of the locals what its meaning/relevance was and nobody could provide an answer.

    Can any of my learned NOTTL friends provide an answer please?

    TIA – Vince

    3. A knotted hankie as a reminder to water the marrows?
      A sign that the gardeners’ hope their produce will actually grow?

      1. Thank you.
        What does that have to do with growing fruit ‘n’ veg?
        Or is the school on the site of a jousting arena?

      2. Thank you.
        What does that have to do with growing fruit ‘n’ veg?
        Or is the school on the site of a jousting arena?

  35. Good morning from a beautiful, bright Bognor!
    After a VERY noisy Friday night in the car park on Beachy Head, high winds and intermittent heavy rain through the night, I had a much quieter night at Climping Beach.

  36. Another great performance by the England Rugby XV….. I didn’t watch it – thank God.

    There seems to be something terribly wrong with the RFU these days. As you watch a team in England jerseys going onto the pitch, somehow you know they’ll lose.

    Depressing.

    2. They are all very upright in the tackle always. Its a wonder they don’t get even more red cards than they do.
      A legacy of the E.Jones regime?

    3. These days, Rugby is just a game made up of enormous thugs crashing into each other. As the main competitions get bought up by the streamers, I dont miss it.

  38. A few photographs:-
    Dungeness
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eaaf2af7bd04fc068d09fa601fbfaf40da29869dee84ecb43c2042ae223549f8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ecfe0c4c36300bce231cf8701007dee050ecbaa092ef0e946d760af112fa076.jpg

    Evening at Pevensey:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0831c931ebed1adb65ab8b4efcce2bee14128751bfc2b32e6cd585eff5ca8af1.jpg

    Going up Beachy Head before the heavy rain began and I got soaked:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b1d2aee7441329078c5721ff8ec24c5dd6a1a00e085eefe5a3201ce979ddb25.jpg

    Bomber Command Memorial:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a112f85b070441a867df88532e85068580304cd41d85b03e93ef787ff3e535e4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3c56c99d0c610398803b8dcef936470878f549446da288a4f332f77ee782ee0.jpg

    1. I don’t mind your going up to Beachy Head, Bob, as long as you come down the same way you went up.

      1. Did you ever tread that merry, mazy road that leads to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head?

    2. Away from the nuclear power station, Dungeness is a wonderfully strange, other-worldly landscape that is a hot-spot for migrating birds. I love the place.

  39. Prince William apologises for not attending Women’s World Cup final

    He had better not go to the males’ match if they do well.

    1. When you start choosing people for characteristics other than being the best then you are on a downward slope to failure.

    2. Which bit of “the others weren’t good enough to make the team” do these morons not understand?

  41. Commute cacophony
    SIR – I’m grateful that you gave column inches to the sufferings of misophonics (Letters, August 6). Misophonia, or “sound rage”, has long been derided and ridiculed, but as a misophonic commuter, every day is a challenge.

    My trigger noises are the sounds of other people eating and people typing on laptop keyboards, so most train journeys are affected. It tends to be keyboards in the morning and food in the evening, though the slurping of muesli or crunching of an apple often affect a morning commute.

    I work in an open-plan environment, so there is no relief when in the office. The only way to cope is to mask the trigger sound. Thank heavens for earbuds, audiobooks and Test Match Special.

    Iain Thomas
    Hadlow, Kent

    SIR – While I hardly find it pleasant to hear the sound of someone eating, or of out-of-tune music, I cannot say that I share the visceral loathing of those sounds that Debbie Freebury describes (Letters, August 6).

    I see what she means, though, for I have a similar detestation – in my case for the sound of wire coat hangers clattering together on my clothes-horse at the slightest touch. I realise that the anger that this sound causes me is completely irrational, and is easily dealt with by sweeping the hangers off the rail and putting them aside while I potter, but the rage feels real nonetheless.

    Sam Kelly
    Oldham, Lancashire

    My 2 sons suffer from this , it developed in their teens .

    Family meals were becoming a night mare , the clink of cutlery, the scraping of a dish , crunching apples and other crunchy food .

    I can remember being triggered off by the sound of false teeth clacking when I used to visit Moh’s mother when she was in a care home at mealtimes .. Rows of elderlies , some of whom required feeding .

    Moh used to say it was scratchy blackboards at school and scraping chairs would trigger him .

    I expect Nottlers have a few issues as well?

    1. I’ve realised that I suffer from this. Until the article a couple of months ago I thought it was just me

          1. My parents weren’t very attentive.
            Tellingly one of my brothers closest in age we went on holiday and stayed with Granny in Weymouth. He later said how much he hated it. When sitting down to lunch we were expected to remain quiet and have good table manners. It was all a bit of a chore for him.

        2. I hate that. The squelching sound attracts the eye to the food going round, like vomit in a washing machine, and I want to throw up!
          Chinese are the worst.

    3. Noises that annoy me? The tiny, tinny buzz of a bluebottle cutting through a Sunday afternoon nap; the angry, urgent buzz of illegal motorcycling in the park across the road; and Test Match Special in its current, semi-literate state.

      1. I deplore the constant bump-bump-bump of a bass note emanating from those cretins who play (c)rap music over-loudly in the cars as they drive through the village in the dead of night.

  44. Here are a few photos of the procession on 15th August, celebrating the Assumption of the Virgin. You can’t see me, but I’m one of the people carrying the statue of Our Lady in the third photograph. Note the lovely boats – these are models made by parishioners.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c467818577b168cbd97b638786d4329a21f96eee952f8ab868af87d8f8fc7b35.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb634e575483d01bb9bae37d70f9e3c509fee2c50a24987b4c54c978cde83aa8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c5dd6a942a1492c6ddb72135a946ecaead9e3df59e3f979fd30d01e101d67299.jpg

  45. 375550+ up ticks,

    In the short space of time it is now going to take for the hand over, to the victors the spoils, raping agogo season will run openly 12 / 365, 24 /7 paedophilia / drugs legalised.

    You gotta hand it to them the lab/lib/con coalition
    politico’s / member / voters have, these last four decades, worked tirelessly in building a nation fit for shit, and the political overseers are shipping that in daily.

    https://twitter.com/DavidPoulden/status/1693196772674343217?s=20

    1. I imagine Taylor Swift doesn’t have the foggiest idea what ‘climate change’ is, and certainly isn’t remotely bothered about her jet. She says these things to be on message for her sponsors and branding. Nothing else.

  48. About five mins left to save the game, although Spain deserves the win – its team has played much better.

    1. Spain were generally sharper, faster, stronger and their ability to retain the ball through their Barcelona-like tiki taka made them hard to beat.

      England threw that goal away by a moment of idiocy by Lucy Bronze who abandoned her station to make a suicidal run across the centre of the field against five Spanish defenders. When she inevitably lost the ball she had left a gaping space on her right wing which Spain took full advantage of.

  49. About five mins left to save the game, although Spain deserves the win – its team has played much better.

  51. My ratchet screwdriver broke. The ball holding the bits in popped out.

    I told folk this and the warqueen said to Junior ‘He’s a lovely man, but not remotely practical.’

    But I have fixed it! There’s one in yer eye, woman!

    1. This is where you messed up.
      The correct answer was:
      I’m not a ratshit expert.
      Pass me a cider.

  52. With my net zero knowledge of wendyball, I’d say, in a dull match the least worst side won.

    1. Obviously England lost because Willum stayed at home saving his carbon credits. I would suggest most of those girls need a bit more time playing with balls.

    2. With that statement, Billy, the first clause of your sentence says it all.

      The match was anything but ‘dull’; the skill levels on display were of a far higher standard than men can achieve; and I (and millions of others) thoroughly enjoyed a football match of the highest quality.

          2. I do so agree, Johnny, hence my giving up on the Six Nations and why I got rid of the TV.

      2. They just ran about a lot. Anyone would think that England was defending a one goal lead rather than seeking ways to score twice. The Spanish were obviously better – at footie as well as cheating.

        Dull as ditchwater.

        And why on earth do they not just stop the clock when there is some sort of stoppage?

      3. In terms of tactics and attitude, it could have been the men’s teams of England and Spain of 10-15 years ago.

    3. How about the tackle when the stewards took the protesting barsteward down?

      How does that rank in football tackles?

  53. Now that little squit Khan apparently is saying that white families don’t represent Londoners. The way we are going, it won’t be long until they indeed don’t, but that is appalling. We should not allow immigrants or anyone who is not descended two generations back to indigenous parents, to get into positions of power.

    The more slammers and others from that part of the world we let in, the more slammers & Co. are taking our country away from us. It is pure racism and truly disgraceful.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P-ld9ZZn-o&t=190s

      1. It’s spreading throughout the South East and upwards. Even the west country is starting to feel it. The Welsh and the Scots just don’t know what they are facing if it continues.

        1. True, Lass, I’ve yet to see a slammer or a Nigger in Moffat but who’s to say what happens tomorrow.

          I don’t think we have a mosque – I’ve yet to hear a muezzin.

    2. Unfortunately he’s correct.

      In London, two white edit heterosexual parents with two or three white children of their own are the exception. A tiny minority now, I would suggest.

      2. Depends which part of London, to some extent. I was born and brought up there; nothing will induce me back now that I don’t work there any more.

    3. I look forward to a white politician saying black families don’t represent the English…

          2. Unfortunately no, Lass my past might prevent it – though I’d often thought about it.

            I’m now too old, despite years of experience and learnt wisdom.

      1. Khan would be vastly improved by walking on to a platform as if to give a speech then being told his fancy armoured cars will be paid for from his salary. That his properties have been sequestered and sold to charities – dogs trust, ideally. Muslims don’t like dogs. He will then admit that knife crime, rape, murder and assault have soared under his tenure and then he will be hanged – slowly, with the noose behind his neck, not to the side.

        1. I once knew a chap who told a group of us in the pub that his son in law had just been instated as an armed security officer for Kahnt. Without any prompting, the rest of us instantly reach for our wallets and asked how much ?

        1. Import 3rd World, get 3rd World – why else would they just shit in the streets or on railway stairs. Barbarian savages.

  54. One for the blood pressure:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/18/andrew-malkinson-wrongful-rape-conviction-ccrc-chief/

    Legal boss under fire for Andrew Malkinson scandal has eight other jobs

    Helen Pitcher under pressure to explain why review body turned down two appeals by Mr Malkinson who was wrongly convicted of rape

    18 August 2023 • 9:02pm

    The head of the review body at the centre of the Andrew Malkinson scandal was under fire last night after it emerged she holds eight further posts.

    Helen Pitcher, the chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), has been under pressure to face the public to answer questions over why the body turned down two appeals by Mr Malkinson before he was declared innocent of a rape for which he was jailed nearly two decades ago.

    Mr Malkinson spent 17 years in prison for a rape in 2003 he did not commit until his conviction was overturned after DNA linking another man to the crime was produced.

    Ms Pitcher has so far resisted calls to publicly explain the CCRC’s actions despite demands for her to do so by her predecessor Prof Sir Graham Zellick and Sir Bob Neill, the chair of the justice select committee.

    It is understood that the committee raised concerns about the number of jobs Ms Pitcher held alongside her position as chair of the CCRC.

    She reportedly said she would step back from a number of those roles. However, she currently still claims to work in at least eight other jobs.

    They include chairing the judicial appointments commission, a charity, a business consultancy, and a membership network for chairs of public bodies, as well as being a non-executive director of United Biscuits and a surgical health provider to the NHS.

    Greg Smith, a Tory MP, said: “Eight hats is unsustainable for anyone. There is no way proper attention can be given to an area when someone is spread too thinly.”

    It also emerged on Friday that CCRC staff work from home although they were office based at the time of Mr Malkinson’s final appeal in 2020 – a disclosure that has prompted criticism from campaigners.

    Jon Robins, of the Justice Gap, said: “The CCRC has changed offices recently and basically everyone works from home. You get the investigators, the case review managers, they all work from home.

    “The idea that you can look into Andrew Malkinson and do it independently and solo is just crazy. There needs to be a proper culture of corp d’esprit.”

    Sir Bob said it was “highly likely” that the justice committee will carry out an inquiry into whether there needs to be reform of how criminal appeals and miscarriages of justice are handled.

    It would likely focus on whether the CCRC had sufficient resources to investigate the 1,000 to 2,000 cases on its books each year, whether the bar was set too high on the test for determining whether a case should be referred to the Court of Appeal and the grounds for judges overturning a conviction.

    The CCRC twice rejected Mr Malkinson’s appeals and on Tuesday it was revealed that files obtained by the 57-year-old show the Crown Prosecution Service knew forensic testing in 2007 had identified a male DNA profile on the victim’s vest top that did not match his own.

    An internal log of his first application to the CCRC in 2009 shows the body raised the cost of further testing and argued it would be unlikely to overturn the conviction.

    Two former senior Government law officers, a former Lord Chief Justice and the head of the justice select committee, have this week called for an urgent public inquiry to establish what took place.

    Prof Zellick said there needed to be an investigation to get to the truth of how Mr Malkinson was treated and whether the CCRC made any mistakes in the case. The commision announced on Thursday that it would review its handling of Mr Malkinson’s case and investigate what lessons might be learned.

    “We need to find out what did happen, whether there were mistakes in this case and whether, if there were mistakes, it brings into question any procedures or processes of the commission,” said Prof Zellick.

    Asked if Ms Pitcher should give interviews, Prof Zellick replied: “Yes.”

    A spokesperson for the Criminal Cases Review Commission said: “Helen Pitcher is contracted to 10 days per month with the CCRC – though she routinely works more than that. She also works for 10 days per month with the JAC, and her other roles require an average of 5 hours per month combined.

    “Her role as CCRC Chairman is around governance, board leadership and stakeholder management rather than individual case management.

    “Since moving to a remote working environment in 2020, the number of miscarriages of justice overturned following CCRC referral has almost doubled from 20 to 35 per year. More case reviews have also been completed per year, and in recent months the organisation has seen a 30% rise in applications.”

    1. Never mind about “lessons might be learned” – those lessons should have been entrenched. You don’t pass an exam by saying that you will learn about the subject after failing. If you are not up to it, then you are a FAIL.

    2. Same old same old in our rather useless disorentated society, whenever something goes wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault.
      And usually the people who actually are at fault, just walk away.

    3. She doesn’t do eight jobs though. She sits on boards who use their influence to get what they want. She’s a lobbyist. She doesn’t work at all. She has nothing to do.

      Same as quangocrats – the same people, over and over again – sit on multiple quangos. They don’t do anything. They go to meetings, report on what the other quangos are doing and do that. This is why they’re so utterly useless, damaging and stupid.

      1. The real reason Cameron couldn’t set fire to them. Too many people in positions of influence.

        1. He could have. He chose not to. Dismantling the morass of waste and inefficiency would take guts, a strong majority and time. Something that could be done alongside a whole program of other necessary reforms.

          Instead, this useless government has done nothing except make everything worse.

        2. Isn’t there a Yes Prime Minister sketch where Sir Humphrey tells Jim Hacker how many extra people will be needed to administer a reduction in the size of the Civil Service?

          3. Yes. The civil service has now grown by 100,000 to co-ordinate all those working from home.

            It won’t be long before i test the authorities henchmen to act. I will get lots of piercings, tattoos and purple hair which will effectively disarm the bastards. Then i will kick them in the balls and say they were all misogynistic rapists because they were white…Including the Lezzers !

  55. England’s finishing let them down, and fortunately their goalkeeper stopped it being a rout. She was the best player on the pitch, for my money.
    The refereeing left a lot to be desired.

    1. All throughout the tournament some of the passing between the English players was often tediously unnecessary. Lacking forward momentum. And ironically, suddenly the lack of passing was the cause of the goal.
      But there’s no argument, the best side won the trophy. Well done you Spanish ladies.

        1. Yes I totally agree Sos.
          I don’t think the trainer/manager will last much longer. There was a lot to be learnt from some of the tactics.

          1. I’m not certain her tactics were that bad, too many of the England players did not rise to the occasion and made silly errors that mostly were absent in earlier matches.

            The Spanish were just too good, too fast and too physically strong in key areas.

  56. I never support any team that kneels like this. They deserve to loose. William has been proved right not to go.

  57. All I said to the other half was at least the men have never lost a world cup final.

    and now dinner is off

  58. If there is one thing more absurd than twenty men chasing a ball in a field, it’s twenty women (of childbearing age), doing it.
    Some people say I’m and dinosaur, but there are limits to modern depravity.

    2. A shame they lost but I have no interest in soccer. I’ll never forget my mum phoning me to say that something really strange had happened. She’d watched a football match and enjoyed it. She said the playing was really skilful and it had held her attention. That’s yet to happen to me.

      1. OH was watching it here and I wasn’t though I did look up now and then. They do run fast and seem skillful, but they didn’t win.

      2. I was in France in 1966 (World Cup). I was playing a friendly game of badminton in the courtyard when Francois dashed up and told me breathlessly, “your team is winning!” He was somewhat surprised by my less than enthusiastic reply.

  59. When the Prince of Woke said he was sorry not be able to be there – I half expected Brash to leap in and upstage Buckingham Palace by attending…

    He missed a golden opportunity.

      1. Useless fact for today. We share 97% of our dna with mice. Of course most of that is just the building blocks for life and the remaining 3% makes a helluva difference.

          1. People have tails. SWMBO broke hers some years ago. They just aren’t swishy-about things.

          3. Just hope you don’t fall and break it, that would make the hole in your back seem like a bonus one.

    2. Mice & Rats have a faster metabolism it could take years for the same effect to show up on humans

      1. 375550+ up ticks,

        Afternoon B3,
        Taking that into consideration
        surely it should be tested on politico’s then, for a faster return, and not on decent peoples to suffer in the future when the scam is part of voters forgotten history.

    1. It’s like something from another world. You simply cannot imagine anyone in Westminster now saying such things!

    2. I certainly do remember it – It’s always been my mantra.

      I wonder why Delboy is down-votiing?

  64. Trudeaumania unravels as Canada grows disillusioned with liberals. 20 August 2023.

    From a British perspective, Canada may not seem to be doing too badly. Inflation is running at less than half the UK level and there are no major public sector strikes, NHS waiting lists or small boats. But Canada has its own problems.

    Mortgage costs on an average home in Canada now eat up 60pc of typical incomes, according to the National Bank. The figure is 90pc in Toronto and over 100pc in Vancouver. For first-time buyers, prices are simply unaffordable. Their rage is focused on the man they trusted with their votes, not once but thrice.

    Well as Oggy might say, “They voted for him!”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/20/justin-trudeau-legacy-unravels-canada-disillusion-liberals/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Who invented that fluff piece
      .
      Inflation might officially be around 3.5% but if you look at cost of food and other necessities. Basic living costs are through the roof.

      We have a deputy PM who is a director at the WEF and an environment minister who is also a director of a Chinese government agency. The supposed public inquiry into Chinese interference in elections is being delayed by Trudeau.

      No nhs waiting lists? Of course not, people can’t get a bloody doctor to get put onto a waiting list.

      Only 500,000 new immigrants a year and no housing for anyone already here. No problems there!

      The public service haven been on strike since April but there a raft of other strikes recently – all of the west coast shipping was shut down recently, nurses and teachers are mulling over strikes at the moment.

      Just don’t believe what the papers say.

      1. Not by me he didn’t.
        After Brown screwed over my pensions, we left, never to darken…

  65. From Yorkshire Post:
    Pupils across the Yorkshire celebrate as they receive their A-level exam results
    Thousands of Yorkshire school pupils had cause to celebrate as they received their A-level results today.
    https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news
    The Yorkshire what?

  66. From Yorkshire Post:
    Pupils across the Yorkshire celebrate as they receive their A-level exam results
    Thousands of Yorkshire school pupils had cause to celebrate as they received their A-level results today.
    https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news
    The Yorkshire what?

    1. Can’t remember if I mentioned before that on an American true crime series they referred to Yorkshire as ‘a small town north of London.’

  67. Double Bogey Six today

    Wordle 792 6/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
    🟨⬜🟩⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. I got lucky today too.

          Wordle 792 3/6

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

      2. I almost had an eagle.
        Wordle 792 3/6

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

  68. Russia has officially confirmed its space fiasco:-

    ‘Roscosmos has officially confirmed the crash of Luna-25, the first automatic interplanetary probe in Russia’s recent history.

    “Connection with the Luna-25 probe was interrupted. Measures taken on August 19 and 20 to locate the craft and make contact with it were unsuccessful.
    According to the results of a preliminary analysis and due to the deviation of the actual parameters of the impulse from the calculated ones, the spacecraft switched to an off-design orbit and ceased to exist following a collision with the Moon’s surface,” Roscosmos said.

    Connection with the Luna-25 probe was interrupted yesterday at about 14:57 Moscow time. Roscosmos specialists are investigating why the device went off course and got lost in space.
    The Luna-25 probe was launched from the Vostochny Cosmodrome on August 11. The mission was designed for a year, one of the tasks was an exploration of resources on the Moon, including the search for water.’

    1. I wonder if certain people have stopped buying their products because of the exclusion zone.

        1. They shew up better against black skin as black mikes do against white (pale pink) skin.

          1. With the modern technology at their disposal they don’t need hand-held mikes at all. Is it just to give them soething to hold? Coffee cups would do.

  71. Just over a week ago I attended a party for our 100 year old friend. At the end of afternoon tea she sat on her mobility scooter (adorned with a dozen helium balloons) and drove herself the short distance home.

    It seems they don’t make them like that anymore!

    1. It would be interesting to break it down further into how much is produced for export and how much for domestic consumption.

    3. Haven’t come across ‘hectolitres’ before. Why not just add 2 more zeroes to the number and keep it in litres?

      1. I don’t think that your suggestion makes sense, molamola. When I learned my Maths in Argentina as a child I was taught that a millilitre (compare with millimetre) was a tenth of a centilitre (compare with centimetres). which was a tenth of a decilitre, which was a tenth of a litre. Going up in size, ten litres made a decalitre, and ten decalitres made a hectolitre, etc. The chart makes the numbers more manageable, so that adding two noughts to convert to litres would make as much sense as adding five noughts to make millilitres contents of wine glasses are usually expressed as 25 millilitres). As a matter of interest, I find it interesting from the chart that Chile and Argentina combined (12.4 + 11.5 = 23.9) is more than the USA produces (22.4).Mind you, production does not show how much is exported by each country as a lot of production is consumed locally in South America. I highly recommend a Chilean Merlot or an Argentinian Malbec.

        1. We started a bottle of Argentinian Malbec with our dinner tonight. At least – I did – OH stuck to the sauvignon we had with the starter. I did a pot roast brisket of beef tonight – the first for a long time. Quite autumnal weather these days – summer (a few days in June ) was very short this year.

          1. Recipe, please, Jules as tesco substituted a Brisket of Beef instead of the Beef Chunks I’d ordered.

            How do I ‘Pot Roast’ It, having given it the 11 minutes miscro (u)wave to defrost it?

          2. I have a cast iron “black pot” which I bought in France about 36 years ago and I use it for any meal which needs long, slow cooking. I’ve never used a microwave and don’t need one.

            Do you have a similar pot or a slow cooker? There’s no recipe – I brown the meat on all sides in the pot, with a little olice oil. A red onion cut up small, shallots if I have them, garlic, carrots, herbs, pepper, a veggie stock cube and about 3/4 pint of hot water – all in together for a couple of hours on low heat on top of the stove. I thicken up the juices with a little cornflour before serving. I dropped few small potatoes in for half an hour before serving. You could add other things like red pepper if you have them to hand.

            We had some very nice, tender runner beans from a friend as well which I did just before serving.

            I hope you can use your brisket – I guess a casserole in the oven would work as well.

          3. Thank you Jules, sounds much the same as I’d do in my multi-cooker, long and slow cooking. Do you slice the brisket before cooking? I think I might, as I have to preserve half for freezing. Alone I couldn’t manage a brisket to myself.

          4. It’s a fairly small piece but there’s plenty left cold for us two. I cooked it whole but it might be an idea to slice it first, or maybe cook it as two joints and freeze one half when cooked.

        2. We got through quite a lot of nice Chilean reds when we spent a month in Bolivia in 2005.

        3. The heart of the matter though is the litre. The chart then goes from hectoliters (sic) to Olympic swimming pools.

  73. I was going to make a vine leaf pork mince pie this evening, but Erin didn’t fancy it.
    A lady cooked it on Saturday Kitchen and it was highly recommended by all the people on the show.
    We Have a lot of vine leaves, but never any grapes. The squirrels eat them as soon as they show. And the little buggers have eaten all the hazelnuts and earlier my gooseberries. Netted with chicken wire they still get in.

    2. I watched that too. The dish is really only suitable for larger groups.

      You can use the vine leaf in other ways…Bring 1 cup of water
      to a boil and add salt, stir until salt is dissolved. Place the rolls
      of grape leaves in a clean and sterilized jar. Pour the hot brine over
      the grape leaves and screw on the lid. Place the grape leaves in the
      fridge, they will be ready for use in two weeks.

      Then you can stuff them with what you like…Each leaf does lend itself to folding in a neat little package.

          3. Nope.
            Most heroic thing I ever did was push my hand through the U-bend to unblock the dunny.

  74. That’s me gone for today. Funny how tournament finals are often disappointing compared to earlier matches.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  75. 375550+ up ticks,

    The devils agents are certainly having a field day with the death dealing nurse and the political / pharmaceutical
    scamming culls.

    DT,

    A crime of unimaginable horror
    This must prompt an intensive examination of the NHS trust involved

    For sure & the political overseers must also receive a very serious coating of looking at via the majority voter, this time with eyes wide open.

  76. Ukraine will, apparently, swap a town that’s really Russian for NATO membership. What else will Zelensky the clown swap?
    I thought a significant rule was that you couldn’t join NATO if you were in a war. But hey, rules are for losers, it seems.

    1. The plan is to buy a temporary peace and then rebuild and re-arm Ukraine in order to prosecute a further war with Russia. Russia will never agree to this nonsense.

  77. This month, lawyers for the Food and Drug Administration admitted in a U.S. court that doctors “do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID”, an admission that stands at stark odds with a multiple year campaign to misinform, misalign and tarnish the reputation of one of the world’s most successful drugs, which could have been used to save hundreds of thousands of lives during the pandemic.

    “FDA is clearly acknowledging that doctors have the authority to prescribe human ivermectin to treat COVID. So they are not interfering with the authority of doctors to prescribe drugs or to practice medicine,” Ashley Cheung Honold, lawyer representing the FDA said this month.

    I know this likely isn’t the case for my regular readers, but if you’re new to the blog and you happen to be one of those people who still doesn’t quite understand that you are routinely lied to by the media and the billionaires that run our country, I can think of no better indoctrination than the travesty of a fraud that was just perpetrated on the American people regarding ivermectin.

    For those who haven’t followed the story, during the course of the Covid pandemic, it was revealed that ivermectin – a drug that has been administered billions of times to humans and is on the World Health Organization’s list of Essential Medicines – was found in numerous clinical trials to have efficacy in early treatment of Covid-19. If you’re looking for a primer on this, here is a website that aggregates all of the clinical trials and there is a discussion with Bret Weinstein and Dr. Pierre Kory that serves as a great introduction to the topic

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e93c992e35352ec914816af3a2f25e292c0956199cece29502b2b4f6b596f671.png

    Out of all of the early treatments, ivermectin got the shortest end of the stick. Not only was it likely the most efficacious of all the early treatments, it was also routinely subject to bastardization and a berating by the media.”

    As you all know The nMRA ‘vaccines’ only got their approval for use because there was no known alternative treatment.

  78. There are now 2 Kurdish barber shops in our little town 6 miles away. Son no 1 drove there on his motorbike this morning , had his hair cut , a shave and his ear hairs sorted . The barber asked for £15 cash .

    1. There’s one in our little town – it’s been there some years now, right next door to my hairdresser. “Golden Cutz”. They seem to be genuine but are probably in the money laundering racket.

      1. Probably! They’re a blatant front for drugs! The only way to deal with this is to expell them all. Get rid of the bloody turks entirely!

    2. I haven’t had my hair cut by a barber for 35 years – Caroline does it for me.

      My mother used to cut my father’s hair for him too and when I visited them I got her to give me a trim when needed.

  79. 375550+ up ticks,

    Tell me, have we gone so far down the drain that we cannot rustle up a treacle and feather bath for this treacherous tw@t

    Straightforward Racism’ — Sadiq Khan’s Office Said White Families Don’t ‘Represent Real Londoners’

    1. Who the heck does he think a) built London in the first place and b) occupied it before we were invaded?

      1. The waster thinks gimmigrants did it. Well, no, he says they did because it suits his demographic to think they matter and are more important than the indiginous. He knows they’re welfare dependent, illiterate stabbers and paedophiles but he can’t say that, so he elevates them.

        1. All over England we are building more homes for these grossly ignorant illegal immigrants.
          Our useless governments have set up an ongoing great divide.

          2. Wrecking our green belt with endless migrant housing is hardly the net zero the rest of the politica idiots are spouting about is it Conners ?
            It’s amazing how easily most Brits have been stitched up by our own politicians.

        2. The French friend I regularly stay with is an Anglophile and adores the Royal Family, hence I was forced to watch the Brash and Trash Match as I was there (I had hoped that by going abroad I might have been spared it). One of the French interviewers got hold of two very fat black women and introduced them as “londiniennes”. Nooooo!!

    2. He’s such a nasty arogant and deeply ignorant dick head.
      The none white people came here because none of them could be bothered to put their own home countries in order. Most of them have come from scruffy tips of cities.
      Most Nottlers and people who are of similar age groups parent’s and grandparent’s put our ‘house in order’ after hitler tried to flattened our cities as he murdered as many people as he possibly could.
      I find this remark from the disgusting ignorant POS offensive in the umpteenth degree. He should be arrested for a hate crime.

  80. First time I made a ragout sauce for some months. Note to self: Chop the onion much finer, fool!
    (I haven’t been much interested in food, nor had the energy to give a flying one. After, finally, a weekend off, I’ve rediscovered that it’s OK to be hungry again. And to make SWMBO, the woman from whom all good things in my life flow, a tasty dinner. 🙂

    1. If you chop, then fry it to soften, then put it through a sieve or a garlic press you’ll get the flavour without the lumps. It depends if you want a smoother sauce or a more chuntney esquey one.

    2. I peel the onions, halve them and then chop along the length, not right to the start, and then chop across giving a very finely diced onion. The end piece is diced separately.

    3. OB, here’s the quickest and most efficient method for dicing an onion. I learnt from watching Ainsley Harriot but Ramsey uses the same technique. The size of the dice can be varied by how close the various cuts are made. You do need a very sharp knife.
      You may have to re-start the video from the beginning.

      Dicing an Onion

  82. Calling My Lady of the Lake
    Hope today is tolerable, Ann. Concerned for you. More hugs sent express delivery.

  83. Evening, all. Alas for the un-Conservative Party, I fear that voters already know what the Party really stands for and they don’t like it! At church this morning we had one of the servers (a teenage girl) lead the prayers. We were supposed to pray for asylum seekers and how to accommodate everybody in this country and “climate change”. Guess who didn’t make any responses to that! The young really are brainwashed.

    1. I should add that we were also treated to comments about the footy. You can’t even escape it in church! Sanctuary!

      1. Having had a lazy Sunday and not really interested in sport, can you advise me which nation won the Wendyball final in Australia today: England or Spain?

          1. Thanks for the information, Sue and Conners. Have the MSM now started criticising the Lionesses or are they saying “Our wonderful girls wuz robbed”?

          2. If the Idiot King had been there the Tigresses of Spain would have been defeated. It is all his fault.

          4. Thanks for the information, Sue and Conners. Have the MSM now started criticising the Lioness or are they say “Our wonderful girls wuz robbed”?

    2. Good evening, Conwy (Monday, that is). Just seen your post.

      Climate Boiling and the Wonderful Asylum Seekers are now fixtures in the “liturdgy” (sic). 19 months ago, during an interregnum, the new local female bishop arrived to take Communion. Eco-freak Limp Dumb. Sermon = “The horror of the destruction of the planet”; “Man’s failure to understand and cope with it”; “The brave and lonely people who risk death every day to cross the Channel”……

      I didn’t walk out – the MR is PCC Secretary. But it was the final straw for my regular attendance since 1942. I go to Church now on Armistice Day – because it is really a cvil commemoration – and to support the three soldiers who read “the Names”. (One was OC 2nd btn Coldstream Guards (where I would have done national service). Another ex-SAS. The third a fantastic lady who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. 16 stone if she is an ounce! She would given any Talib a run for his money.

      And Christmas – because while I can still hear carols and hymns and can JUST sing in tune – It brings back many memories.

      1. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that during our interregnum, at Harvest Festival, we had a visit from the Bishopette of Birkenhead who preached on the need for us to get out of our “gas-guzzlers” then at the end got into her Porsche in the car park. Mote/beam springs to mind. We didn’t have any harvest hymns, either. Clearly it was a foretaste of what was to come.

  84. I asked BingAI why the 12 volt batteries in EVs were prone to early failure and found that the huge current when starting Internal Combustion Engined (ICE) cars was actually very beneficial for the health of the battery:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7a3abbfe76cfd61c95d8b2095b9f487347183b753b468c9980572d7d08cb8245.jpg

    I thought I’d illustrate this phenomenon in MOH’s ICE. car.

    Charging the 12v battery from 30% to full using a Ring charger:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/52ef2b1cbd0994fc80fb86bb75c860a085a42e30d091a3c629c878618314534a.jpg

    Charging the battery by travelling 13 miles in the car from 30% battery with three starts:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da68c472882c699356a56e759311eb095a66649d3f35b0175d8e023e890519d0.jpg

    So driving a short distance with three starts doesn’t do much for charging the 12v battery but is equivalent to maintaining the low internal resistance created for a full Ring charge.

      1. What remained a puzzle in my new Hyundai Kona was, like many other EV owners, the 12v battery was prematurely failing.
        I used to put Bataid pills in my lead acid batteries when you could unscrew the cell caps.

        The increase in resistance due to sulphation can be removed however by regular surges in battery current as when starting an ICE car.

        This doesn’t happen in an EV 12v battery which in fact requires even more on a very low resistance to maintain the increased level of electrical current to power the larger number of actuators.

        The way of trickle charging the 12v lead acid battery from the traction battery when an EV is stationary and not plugged in just makes matters worse and manufacturers have to set a limit to this to avoid totally flattening the traction battery. The EV then goes into a fault state with the possibility of a completely flat 12v battery with the inability to even power the traction battery contactor.

  86. Am I alone in believing that the EU have taken over decision making for all member countries, including the UK which has supposedly left its clutches?

    The EU are to all intents and purposes an unelected parasitical class, aggressively demeaning in their rhetoric, banning parties opposed to their narratives as suggested in Germany, constantly rattling on about their defence of democracy whilst it is blindingly obvious that they are the antithesis of democracy.

    With the US funded NATO the EU have created a hideous conflict in Ukraine and now the fools are pressing for a deal with Russia whereby Russian speaking areas of Ukraine are ceded to Russia in exchange for a (temporary) peace and allowing Ukraine NATO membership. Russia would never agree to NATO in Ukraine and are successfully fighting an existential war to prevent it.

    The problem with western politicians such as Jake Sullivan, Ursula von der Leyen and our own Sunak and Johnson is their belief that they are the smartest people on the planet. They might be dog clever but they are lacking in actual knowledge and ability to think pragmatically. By contrast the Russian leadership are clever and smart, running rings around our lot and the EU parasites. I remember the contrast between Liz Truss and Lavrov, no contest, Truss was exposed as a sort of Head Girl fraud. It is disgraceful that such a stupid person should stand in Whitehall on Remembrance albeit alongside other shits such as Johnson, May, Cameron, Brown, Blair and Major, traitors all.

    Edited: Cameron added to the shit list.

    1. They may think they are the dog’s bollocks, but I can’t see that old dog Putin licking them any time soon….

    2. I agree.
      And Cameron. He was flying hundreds into to British airbases from the middle east. Now they march around our streets banging their chests and chanting hate.

    3. Never forget Johnson was PM when he allowed lockdown and all that came with it. He must nt get away with it all.

      1. Johnson was desperate to betray Brexit which is why he was determined not to make any sort of deal with Nigel Farage before the 2019 election.

        The great tragedy was that Farage caved in and this gave Johnson an overall majority of 80. All that was needed to get Brexit done properly was for the Brexit Party to have had enough seats to hold the balance and defeat the Conservatives if and when they backtracked.

        Why on earth did Farage trust Johnson? This was a very significant error of judgement.

        1. I have no idea, Richard, but perhaps one explanation might have been that he feared his Brexit Party candidates might split the Conservative votes and let Labour in.

          1. He chickened out. He blinked first. We picked up the tab for his pusillanimity and Brexit has been buggered,

      2. I should have mentioned that whilst Johnson was an obvious parasitical toff boy, his allies remained (if any) with the dreaded EU.

        The problem with parasites is simply that they feed from their host. Thus we have as a country fed the stinking fat git Boris and now have no means of deflating the great lump.

    2. We’ve had fluoride in our water since the mid 1960s. I was away in the Army from 1975 to 1997 and moved back to Birmingham in 1998. My teeth are nowhere near as white as when I returned. My dentist says it’s fluorude discolourisation. Given that people in this age take more care of their teeth than in the 60s and most toothpastes contain fluoride, then it should not be necessary in the water supply.
      Adding fluoride was ruled out in the Netherlands as it was judged to be mass medication.

    3. It has been proven in the United States that children in states where they add fluoride have lower IQ levels than states where they don’t.

        1. I remember reading an article in the New Scientist in the days before they went political, that too much fluoride caused dental caries too.

          Possibly a standard high enough to satisfy the pro-fluoride poisoners has not yet been reached, however, given the broad results from the different states, surely one would err on the side of caution and not mass-medicate with fluoride until one was sure!

    1. I’m just wondering why a YouTube video on the Eurofighter Typhoon, Spikey, has a picture of a Lockheed-Martin F-35 on the front of it.

    2. Not a lot changes, Spikey, since October 1962 (Cuba Crisis) when we (85 Sqdn – RAF West Raynham) had 16 Javelin FAW 7s plus the T3 Trainer, fully armed, on telescramble, sat on the OR ,(Operational Readiness) platform at the runway start and, knowing we were front-line targets, where confined to squadron 24/7. I’ve never been so near to death (and only 18) as I was then. Many others must have must have experienced the need for brown trousers at that time. The closest we’ve ever been to Nuclear War. ‘Nuff said.

      1. I was at Geilenkirchen with two 3 Sqdn Canberra B(I)8’s on QRA sleeping under the aircraft on the end of the runway bombed up ready to go. The rest of the squadron was on the apron also bombed up. Station was sealed, all leave cancelled. Worrying times

  90. Utterly off topic and forgive me a rant.

    The current cottage guests have stayed here many times. We have bent over backwards to make the stays pleasant.

    We have not changed nor altered any of our connections, our WIFI, our routers, nothing, repeat NOTHING.

    Ever since they arrived nothing has been correct.

    I was approached at nearly 11 pm!! this evening to be complained at.

    I’m getting to the point of FOAD.

    3. This is result of attention seeking behaviour where everything works so well that they start feeling out of control.
      Making up some problem which is seen to be the responsibiity of the owner is a way of being perceived to be in control of their environment.

      It is a disorder similar to Lucy Letby’s case where she created problems that didn’t exist to get attention.

      1. It’s a wireless connection from the main house and works perfectly well for us when we test it in the cottage, which we do before each guest arrives.
        We double checked it outside this morning, and it worked perfectly.

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