Monday 28 August: A culture of complacency at one of the world’s greatest museums

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

502 thoughts on “Monday 28 August: A culture of complacency at one of the world’s greatest museums”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Bank On It
    A little old lady went into the Bank of Canada one day, carrying a bag of money. She insisted that she must speak with the president of the bank to open a savings account because, “It’s a lot of money!”

    After much hemming and hawing, the bank staff finally ushered her into the president’s office (the customer is always right!). The bank president then asked her how much she would like to deposit.

    She replied, “$165,000!” dumping the cash out of her bag onto his desk. The president was of course curious as to how she came by all this cash, so he asked her, “Ma’am, I’m surprised you’re carrying so much cash around. Where did you get this money?”

    The old lady replied, “I make bets.”

    The president then asked, “Bets? What kind of bets?”

    The old woman said, “Well, for example, I’ll bet you $25,000 that your balls are square.”

    “Ha!” laughed the president, “That’s a stupid bet. You can never win that kind of bet!”

    The old lady challenged, “So, would you like to take my bet?”

    “Sure,” said the president, “I’ll bet $25,000 that my balls are not square!”

    The little old lady then said, “Okay, but since there is a lot of money involved, may I bring my lawyer with me tomorrow at 10:00 am as a witness?”

    “Sure!” replied the confident president.

    That night, the president got very nervous about the bet and spent a long time in front of a mirror checking his balls, turning from side to side, again and again.

    He thoroughly checked them out until he was sure that there was absolutely no way that his balls were square and that he would win the bet.

    The next morning, at precisely 10:00 am, the little old lady appeared with her lawyer at the president’s office. She introduced the lawyer to the president and repeated the bet,

    “$25,000 says the president’s balls are square!”

    The president agreed with the bet again and the old lady asked him to drop his pants so they could all see.

    The president complied. The little old lady peered closely at his balls and then asked if she could feel them.

    “Well, Okay,” said the president, “$25,000 is a lot of money, so I guess you should be absolutely sure.”

    Just then, he noticed that the lawyer was quietly banging his head against the wall. The president asked the old lady, “What the hell’s the matter with your lawyer?”

    She replied, “Nothing, except I bet him $100,000 that at 10:00 am today, I’d have The Bank of Canada’s president’s balls in my hand”.

  4. A culture of complacency at one of the world’s greatest museums

    I spokesman has said, don’t worry, we still have the Benin Marbles

  5. ‘Morning All

    Things that make you go hmmmm….

    https://twitter.com/govt_corrupt/status/1695883460395597835

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d89d455a735c548230b6ba68682879e3f4b6dd9460330458609e731f62d618c9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6b641fd7f8cb1afde1b829965dfebf920a6e6ae094403775c7f6c0206d9566c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f23a9d50a41381bbe86083fa9692099047e0dc57b5451b46ba34e769027e110.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2d1cfd80922448f991a1bbaeab58e20a2c2c781c56f11eeffb85febf8792ceea.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6b394dc8f6f95f3b0a838447b6ada19696a9d48d415325924fa5e40cb2d5a356.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e90abece213a76f456fee24a8a13b2fea782ae0ef67a4e91651d44f8716bfa68.jpg

  8. Suella Braverman: Police must investigate every theft. 28 August 2023.

    Saying no crime is too trivial to investigate, she urges forces to improve their performance dramatically in dealing with theft, shoplifting and criminal damage.

    The success rates for solving burglaries and theft have fallen so low in large parts of the country that the offences have effectively been decriminalised, investigations by The Telegraph have shown.

    Mrs Braverman has now secured an agreement from all 43 police forces in England and Wales to follow up on any evidence where there is a reasonable chance of catching the criminal, whether from CCTV footage, doorbell videos, GPS trackers or witness accounts.

    Lol! Is she going to tell them how to lace up their shoes?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/28/suella-braverman-police-must-investigate-every-theft/

    2. …any evidence where there is a reasonable chance of catching the criminal…

      There’s the ‘get out clause’, right there!

      As for lacing their boots, seeing and listening to some of them they’d have a hard time with velcro.

    3. Unless crimes are actually punished sufficiently to deter potential criminals and take actual criminals off the streets there really isn’t very much point though, is there?
      The system is FUBAR.

  9. Good morning all,

    Cloudy overhead the McPhee residence and staying that way. Wind in the Nor’-Nor’-West, a chilly 11℃ rising to 18℃ today.

    Remember Dr David Martin speaking to the Third EU Parliament Covid Summit back in May?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfLycFHBsro

    This has now had 4 BILLION views on all platforms world-wide!

    In this very informative interview he suggests the Cabal is already dead and he drops that he’s going to be doing it again at the EU Parliament on 13th September. This time he’ll be naming names. Popcorn time.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuNtGshlaIg&t=915s

          1. UN/WEF/WHO/Club of Rome/Trilateral Commission/Rockefeller Foundation/Gates Foundation/Soros/Bank for International Settlements/Central Banks/IMF/Blackrock/Vanguard/Statestreet etc.etc. and all their underlings such as Rashid Sanook/Kneeler Starmer and Tony Blair.

          3. UN/WEF/WHO/Club of Rome/Trilateral Commission/Rockefeller Foundation/Gates Foundation/Soros/Bank for International Settlements/Central Banks/IMF/Blackrock/Vanguard/Statestreet etc.etc. and all their underlings such as Rashid Sanook/Kneeler Starmer and Tony Blair.

  10. Morning, all Y’all.
    Raining. Still. Floods everywhere, traffic snarled up something shocking.

  11. 375782+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 28 August: A culture of complacency at one of the world’s greatest museums

    That said , this seems to be an inside job management peoples standing aside until the problem is solved.

    Monday 28 August: A culture of complacency at one of the world’s greatest Countries, party before country has brought about our current odious condition as a nation.

  12. Good morning, all. Rather like BT’s Norfolk here in N Essex.

    Priorities.

    Clearly, the political class see that there’s no money to be made from a real crisis i.e. helping the homeless. However, the fictional climate crisis is a source of both riches and power for the political class’s ‘elite’ chums. Does anyone remember ‘trickle down economics’? Well, it does work but the trickle doesn’t extend down to the people who need it.

    https://twitter.com/BillysBack2/status/1695956941439389903

  13. SIR – George Osborne is chairman of the British Museum, which means
    that the buck stops with him. He should do the honourable thing and
    resign.

    Richard Cussons
    Knutsford, Cheshire

    George Osborne………………honourable………..hmmmm.

    Besides…if he resigns where else is he going to get free lunches and coke.

  14. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0aa9ad7bbd361abdbb797bb144a0227ec5c40a314fb780d259b0cb56010ec91.png Ah yes, Sinclair, unfortunately I remember, with immense distaste, the utter bilge produced by Batchelor’s ‘Foods’ [‘Foods’ not being how I would describe your gruesome products].

    Anything marketed as ‘processed’ (processed peas, processed cheese, etc) has undergone some kind of Frankenstein transmogrification in order to render it inedible and with a flavour resembling effluent. You may keep your chemically-castrated peas and shove them someplace where they would not be out of character.

      1. And the devil’s food includes the awful, tasteless ‘mushy’ peas. My view of that garbage, so beloved of Northerners.

        1. They are not tasteless. Bread pudding, so beloved of thicko Southerners, is taste-free, massively unhealthy stodge.

          1. Maybe you cannot cook bread pudding or your taste buds are already warped by a prevalence of mushy peas.

          2. I’ve no intention of cooking bread pudding: it is not a natural foodstuff and is full of the things that cause severe illness.

      2. Hmm.
        Cheese Possessed (as we called the stuff in compo ration boxes) came in two flavours, plain and smoked and was best served by taking both ends off the tin, pushing it out to be sliced, coated in compo strawberry jam and yowfed down like that!

        Do you still have a compo can opener?

        1. Great on toast made on the good old kero heater. Take the lid off the heater, make a cross shaped thing with the steel strands from some D10 telephone cable and you have Heater, Kero, FFT – Fitted For Toast.

  15. Hospital leadership

    SIR – I recall the underhand way that doctors were stopped from having a say in the running of their hospitals.

    In
    the early 1980s I was a member of the medical executive committee of my
    hospital. This became the medical advisory committee almost overnight.
    We realised it had the support of the politicians. Things worsened after
    the Harold Shipman case, which sowed distrust of the medical
    profession.

    Following the Lucy Letby scandal, the way forward is for a senior consultant body to oversee – and, when necessary, overrule – decisions taken by managers.

    Dr René Tayar
    Tadworth, Surrey

    Yes. When the shit hits the fan let’s insulate ourselves with yet another layer of bureaucracy.

  16. Good Moaning.
    Welcome to Stasiland.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/27/tory-councillor-arrested-racial-hate-crime-anthony-stevens/

    “Tory councillor arrested for ‘hate crime’ after sharing video criticising police

    Anthony Stevens had retweeted a video showing police arrest of a Christian street preacher

    27 August 2023 • 5:39pm

    Tory councillor Anthony Stevens was reported to police by a local Labour Party member Credit: John Robertson

    A Conservative councillor was arrested for an alleged hate crime after re-tweeting a video criticising how the police treated a Christian street preacher.

    Cllr Anthony Stevens, 50, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, told The Telegraph he was arrested at his home this month and escorted to a police station for questioning about tweets from his personal account, which has 76 followers.

    One tweet involved a video showing how police had treated the arrest of Christian preacher Oluwole Ilisanmi in Southgate, London, in 2019.

    A police officer snatched Mr Ilisanmi’s Bible after the preacher was accused of being Islamophobic. Mr Ilisanmi was later awarded £2,500 for wrongful arrest. The video, shared by Cllr Stevens in May, also showed footage of a police officer apparently stating that a Muslim preacher was allowed to preach on a high street.

    Cllr Stevens, a member of Wellingborough Town Council, said he was told by the police officers that the original tweet he had shared had been posted by a member of Britain First, the far Right political party. Cllr Stevens said he had not known this and had not known who Britain First were. He said he only re-posted the video as “disturbing evidence of religious discrimination in law enforcement”.

    Police also questioned why the Tory councillor had tweeted his support for Cllr King Lawal, a fellow Northamptonshire councillor, who has been “cancelled” for expressing his Christian beliefs in relation to LGBT issues, according to Cllr Stevens.

    Cllr Lawal, 31, who is the only black councillor in Northamptonshire, was suspended by his local Conservative group in July, after he responded to images of Pride parades organised by LGBT groups, writing: “When did pride become a thing to celebrate. Because of pride, Satan fell as an archangel. Pride is not a virtue but a sin. Those who have pride should repent of their sins and return to Jesus Christ. He can save you.”

    In July, Cllr Stevens retweeted a petition calling for Cllr Lawal’s Conservative positions to be reinstated, writing: “If you value free speech please sign and share.”

    He said that police officers showed him his tweets regarding Cllr Lawal and asked him why he supported the petition. Cllr Stevens said he stated that he is a “free speech absolutist” and that even if he does not agree with someone, he believes in their right to express their beliefs.

    He was then asked if he agreed with Cllr Lawal’s original tweet that pride is a sin, including LGBT events, according to Cllr Stevens. He said he replied by saying that “it did not matter whether he agreed with what he said or not, he believed he had the right to say it without having his life torn apart”.

    Another tweet of interest to the police, shared by Cllr Stevens on his account, involved a video of a man burning a copy of the Koran. Cllr Stevens said his post reflected his view that he agreed that choosing to burn a copy of the Koran was part of someone’s “right to free speech in a free society”.

    Cllr Stevens said he understood that he had been reported to the police by a local Labour Party member.

    He was told he was under arrest for a public order offence under section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986. The police said he was suspected of distributing written material to stir up racial hatred. He has been released on bail.

    He is receiving support from the Christian Legal Centre and is planning to make a complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

    Defending free speech

    He said: “It is appalling and bizarre to be brutally arrested for sharing a petition in defending the right to free speech of a fellow councillor.

    “The accusation of racial hatred is ridiculous and insulting. My only crime has been supporting the only black local councillor in Northamptonshire.”

    He added: “Defending free speech is not the same thing as agreeing with what has been said, or admiring who is saying this.

    “In a true democratic society, you cannot have people being arrested for a few tweets. We must have debate, we must have the freedom to criticise and offend each other, otherwise this country is going to swiftly go to pot.

    “I was shocked when the police turned up at my house unannounced and came onto my property.

    “Frankly, it was frightening, and no doubt intended to be so. I was then arrested and humiliated in front of my wife and children. Even if the police had legitimate questions to ask me (which I am yet to hear), there was no need to ambush me in my own house, arrest me, search me, keep me in the cell for the whole day, interrogate me or confiscate my phone.

    “If elected members cannot share their beliefs or support each other in their right to share their beliefs without losing our jobs and being arrested, then we are in a very dark place.”

    ‘Essential’ police training

    Lord Macdonald, former director of public prosecutions, said: “It is essential that police officers are properly trained in the importance of free speech rights and the particularly strong protection that the law gives to political speech.

    “Some cases reveal an alarming ignorance and are bound to chill public participation in democratic debate. Causing offence is not, and never should be, a crime. If it becomes so, we will lose something precious treasured by generations of Britons.”

    Toby Young, director of the Free Speech Union, said: “Northamptonshire police have made a serious mistake in this case. Defending free speech isn’t a crime and Cllr Stevens should never have been arrested, let alone held in custody for nine hours. This episode highlights the need for the police to receive proper free speech training.”

    A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said: “On Aug 2, Northamptonshire Police received a report of a hate crime regarding posts made on social media.

    “In response, a 50-year-old man was arrested on the morning of Aug 7 on suspicion of distributing written material to stir up racial hatred. He has been released on bail pending further enquiries.

    “As this is a live investigation, the force is unable to comment further.” “

    1. The Police seem to have endless resources to investigate supposed hate crimes. I wonder if this same gentleman had been burgled they would have even turned up.
      The officers involved including their superiors who signed off on this nonsense should all be sent to re-education camps, preferably in Siberia. And forgotten about.

    2. If the reports are correct as you report them, Annie, then the Northamptonshire Police are Very Silly Sausages. PS – This may be the very last post I make as I expect to be arrested within minutes. Must read Sir Jasper’s joke of the day before I hear the police siren speeding down the road.

  17. Good morning, chums. I’m late on parade today, but the weather promises to be dry so I hope to spend some time out gardening, i.e. pulling out weeds. Enjoy your day, chums.

  18. Good morning all.
    A bright sunny morning with streaks of cirrus clouds against the blue skies, 9°C with a dry day forecast.
    I’m planning a trundle into Wirksworth to tank the van up this morning and pick up a couple of items from the shop.

    Might try rousing Ex-SS from his room to assist with a bit of work up the “garden”.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    Hazy sun today rain coming, typical bank holiday.
    The whole country is a victim of complacency, we being robbed and stabbed in the back by our own government.

      1. Ndovu, it’s called Taqqiya, and it’s very effective against the more stupid unbelievers.

        1. And he can use Taqiyya to say that London welcomes homosexuals and Gay Pride when he probably wants to take them to the top of the Shard and throw them off.

    2. ” ….to change drivers by the mile…” You’d have to have insurance which covered ‘any driver’ and cars stopping at the side of the road to swop seats will inevitably lead to congestion

  21. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18ca1ffa35ffab813c256104258f72728000acf421c55075a7a8c77046ffd06f.png
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-transport-secretary-could-halt-the-ulez-expansion-why-doesnt-he/

    BTL

    Sunak could have postponed ULEZ expansion; Sunak could have left the ECHR and got to grips with the illegal immigrant problem; Sunak could have seen that all EU laws, as promised, were wiped from the statute book in the UK; Sunak could have invoked Article 16 and kept Northern Ireland as a full member of the UK. The list of things he could and should have done mounts incessantly.

    The only reason he has not done these things is that he has no serious interest in winning the next election.

    This being the case The Conservative Party must get rid of him NOW because the longer they postpone doing so the more damage they will do to the Party and with Sunak as leader not only will they be wiped out at the election but they will be dead and permanently beyond all hope of resuscitation.

    Or does the Party have such a death wish that it actually wants Sunak to stay in office and put them out of their misery

      1. Remember the Nightingale hospitals that were never used?

        Reminds me of John Keats’s Nightingale where the poet is half in love with easeful Death and wants to cease upon the midnight with no pain.

        It seems beyond contradiction that Sunak, whatever his motives are or whoever is telling him what to do, is determined to kill the Conservative Party and the suicidal Conservative MPs are happy to go along with it.

        Is there no Conservative of integrity left to rid us of this turbulent and sordid little man?

        1. Good morning Mr T and everyone. The Nightingale hospitals were not used because they would have needed clinical staff; the only source was the RAMC but the government advisers felt that would be ‘bad optics’.

          1. If he is still leader at the time of the next election he will say that he will not resign when the election is lost.

            But will he beat Cameron’s record for the shortest time between losing a vote and resigning?

            With Cameron’s resignation we were lumbered with Medusa May and there was no proper leadership election. There probably won’t be a single Conservative Party MP left to replace Sunak when he flies off to New York.

    2. Your final sentence is probably correct. As of 13th of this month 43 Tories have declared that they will not contest the coming GE and Dorries has resigned. The Tory party is rotting from the inside out but its demise will allow a Labour government to continue the work-in-progress that is the destruction of the UK as a functioning entity.
      Least worst? How the hell can one make a judgement either way?

      1. The fact that these 43 MPs choose to resign rather than fight for conservatism shows how poor the Consevative Party is at selecting its representatives.

        Incidentally we must not forget that MPs who resign their seats or lose them in an election have just had the remuneration for leaving their seats doubled.

        Filthy money-grubbing little twerps!

          1. Including my MP who was tasked with replying to Andrew Bridgen MP in a deserted Commons chamber earlier this year. As late as mid-May my MP remained supportive of the “vaccine”. As the excess deaths and disabilities mount I wonder if his support is beginning to flag on this issue.

    3. “The only reason he has not done these things is that he has no serious interest in winning the next election”.

      I’d suggest he hasn’t done done any of them because he wants them. Occam’s Razor.

      1. A film lover who does not approve of Sunak – but does approve of Barry McGuire – put up this BTL:

        “If the Conservatives go into the election with Sunak still as leader not only will they be wiped out electorally but the party will be dead.

        And quite frankly, the party has Gone With The Wind and on the Eve of its destruction they don’t give Adam!”

        https://www.google.com/search?q=eve+of+destruction&oq=Eve+of+Destruction&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyBwgBEC4YgAQyBwgCEAAYgAQyBwgDEAAYgAQyBwgEEAAYgAQyBwgFEC4YgAQyBwgGEAAYgAQyBwgHEAAYgAQyBwgIEAAYgAQyBwgJEAAYgATSAQkxMDM3MWowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:d3be5408,vid:MdWGp3HQVjU

    4. He’s worse than Bore-us.
      At least he was voted in by his parliamentary colleagues.
      Sunak is a lone wolf.

    5. My Favourite BTL Excellent summary

      Why hasn’t the government intervened effectively over ULEZ ?

      For the same reason it hasn’t intervened to effectively reduce the
      biblically sized rates of inward migration from people from cultures
      that despise us.
      For the same reasons it hasnt tried to bring peace to the Ukraine.
      For the same reason it allowed the NHS to be used to poison large swathes of the population.

      For the same reason it has kept us signed up to all of the green BS –
      destroying businesses, making us poor and reducing peoples expectations
      of life.
      For the same reason it has allowed the woke/transgender poison to pollute the public morality .
      For the same reason that wants to digitally enslave us.

      The truth is – is that the grinning globalist criminals nominally in charge
      at Westminster despise us little people and cannot wait to see us
      regulated/murdered /outbred out of existence. It must be nice for them
      that they can blame so much of this on that unpleasant little globalist
      dwarf that runs London also giving the impression that there is some
      sort of meaningful political difference between the parties – when the
      reality is that both of these parties are both cheeks of the same
      diseased a##e

    6. Maybe he’s banking on taking us back into the undemocratic EU and there will be no future elections.

  22. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18ca1ffa35ffab813c256104258f72728000acf421c55075a7a8c77046ffd06f.png
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-transport-secretary-could-halt-the-ulez-expansion-why-doesnt-he/

    BTL

    Sunak could have postponed ULEZ expansion; Sunak could have left the ECHR and got to grips with the illegal immigrant problem; Sunak could have seen that all EU laws, as promised, were wiped from the statute book in the UK; Sunak could have invoked Article 16 and kept Northern Ireland as a full member of the UK. The list of things he could and should have done mounts incessantly.

    The only reason he has not done these things is that he has no serious interest in winning the next election.

    This being the case The Conservative Party must get rid of him NOW because the longer they postpone doing so the more damage they will do to the Party and with Sunak as leader not only will they be wiped out at the election but they will be dead and permanently beyond all hope of resuscitation.

    Or does the Party have such a death wish that it actually wants Sunak to stay in office and put them out of their misery

  23. The climate change cult and the war on the mind – 4

    I have long since been banging on about the stupidty of the whole climate change debacle – see below.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-climate-change-cult-and-the-war-on-the-mind-4-2/

    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.

  24. 375782+ up ticks,

    C’ant argue with that

    On retirement you can only weigh in weekly if you’ve paid in weekly during a full working life, the party that goes for that
    omitting the lab/lib/con coalition party, prepare for a landslide
    whilst we still have a workforce.

    Regarding the Dover governmental anti British invasion campaign, manna for the foreign masses can never,ever be satisfied.

    https://twitter.com/Mexico1…

  25. 375782+ up ticks,

    C’ant argue with that

    On retirement you can only weigh in weekly if you’ve paid in weekly during a full working life, the party that goes for that
    omitting the lab/lib/con coalition party, prepare for a landslide
    whilst we still have a workforce.

    Regarding the Dover governmental anti British invasion campaign, manna for the foreign masses can never,ever be satisfied.

    https://twitter.com/Mexico1978R/status/1695872074210787358?s=20

    1. Yes but, even as I benefit from it I can see that it’s a giant Ponzi scheme. There is no fund. There never was. There should have been. If a private company had tried this the directors would have been in the chokey before you could say ‘dividend’. It will end it tears before bedtime.

      1. Fear not, AI-powered robots will do all the work. (Just as microchips were going to put us all out of a job.)

      2. 375782+ up ticks,

        Morning FM,

        My belief is strictly monitored as a close shop
        and not abused it was a sound idea.
        As for “ending in tears ” that is the soft option,this politico’s abuse of the peoples has gone far too far,
        blood will eventually be called for.

    2. Can’t argue with that, even though the State Pension is, in reality, a Ponzi Scheme that, if operated by a private company, would see the managers whisked into prison that quick their feet would not touch the ground.

      1. 375782+ up ticks,

        Morning Bob,
        Seeing as the whole nation is operating under a giant Ponzi scheme is the problem then we do not have enough prisons ?

  26. Vine seems be dragging Nadine Dorres letter into the dirt on his TV programme this morning.
    The left hate different opinions.

      1. I see the idiot Vine’s latest wheeze is that cars shouldn’t be allowed to overtake bicycles in London! The man is an absolute whining feckwit.

  27. From The Grimes this morning:

    “Home Office acts over fear that UK will run out of space to detain illegal arrivals”

    Gosh – they are on the ball, aren’t they? The plan is to “tag” all 175,000 of the illegals…..

    Anyway half way switched on illegal will thank the nice gentleman, leave and then remove the tag. Job done. Bravo Braverman.

  28. From The Grimes this morning:

    “Home Office acts over fear that UK will run out of space to detain illegal arrivals”

    Gosh – they are on the ball, aren’t they? The plan is to “tag” all 175,000 of the illegals…..

    Anyway half way switched on illegal will thank the nice gentleman, leave and then remove the tag. Job done. Bravo Braverman.

  29. Good morning all.

    Damp day, although the sun is now poking through quite a low cloud level , similar to a Scottish morning I suspect .

    Moh managed to get his old Mountfield mower fixed at the local mower repair place, but he does prefer his old Suffolk Punch mower.

    The Mountfield repair cost £100 for a small tweak.. hair raising !

    Guess what, the Suffolk Punch 14″ then started to play up, the SP manages a lovely cut , and as Moh is a lawn obsessive , even though we don’t have a huge expanse of lawn , he likes to cut it every few days .. and the grass box does it’s job , unlike the Mountfield .

    The SP really died even though new filters and a general overhaul by Moh failed .

    So yesterday, he galloped off in the car quite away away, and bought another reconditioned SP for , £100 !!!!!!

    The grass has been growing so quickly, and it has been very damp , that the Mountfield cuttings started to create a nightmare , with bits of grass coming into the house on the dogs paws .

  30. SIR – The director of the British Museum, Hartwig Fischer, has resigned over the alleged thefts of thousands of artefacts from its collections under his watch (report, August 26).

    In his resignation statement regarding the matter, he said: “The British Museum did not respond as comprehensively as it should have.”

    If an organisation as august as the British Museum doesn’t know what’s missing – through simple audits of its collections, say – how does it know what it has on loan and what it is loaning out? The whole situation beggars belief. I dare say Mr Fischer will pop up again in some similar role once the dust has settled.

    Peter Wickison
    Driffield, East Yorkshire

    Hmmmm.

    If people who are in charge of our national treasures fall down on their caretaking duties , how the hell can we expect the wassocks in Government to care a single iota about this wonderful Isle of ours ?

  31. SIR – When my late husband left the Army in 1965 he found himself in Zambia. Wondering what to do next, he started exporting avocado pears to London (Letters, August 26).

    He offered them to one Mr Cooper of M&S’s fruit department. However, in a letter dated June 28 1965 he wrote: “Mr Cooper telephoned to say that the average housewife was not quite ready for this sort of thing.”

    Carolyn Hill
    Marlborough, Wiltshire

    There are still many many people who haven’t a clue how to prepare an avocado or Papaya (Paw Paw )

    We love them , we leave the Avo’s sitting on eggcups on the kitchen window sill for a couple of days to ripen them off.

    1. I am somewhat annoyed that it is difficult to source green (unripe) papayas. You can’t make a proper papaya salad with the ripe ones.

  32. I remember we had a ward sister like this. You name it – she had it. She was madder, and far more manipulative, than any of her patients.
    She broke up the marriage of our friends and had a go at inveigling MB into her warped existence when he was working on her ward.
    I am always very chary of charities – all too many are vehicles for people’s egos.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12451205/Sussex-bell-ringer-revealed-terminal-cancer-Songs-Praise-story-questioned-police-judges-former-friends-bells-Vatican-North-Pole-rung-name.html

    2. The general public is already beginning to see what the outcome might be, in the looting sprees that are already occurring.

      The gimmegrants won’t take long to realise that we are already almost powerless to stop such things and a bit of organisation on their part will have devastating consequences.

    3. As a Shoreline member of the RNLI I get their regular magazine sent to me in the post.

      This gives accounts of the marvellous equipment the organisation is now using to save lives at sea; it gives accounts of the heroic actions of men and women endangering their own lives in violent storms to rescue others; it gives dramatic accounts of historical events in which the RNLI has been involved.

      But I cannot remember the magazine ever giving any accounts of their activities in the Eastern English Channel although this campaign to rescue illegal immigrants must be the most expensive operations in which it has ever been involved.

      I wonder why there aren’t more regular accounts of the heroic antics of those going at least 12 miles out to sea on a sunny day with only a slight breeze to rescue those who have given thousands of pounds to traffickers so that they can cross between France and England in shoddy inflatable dinghies?

    4. What i find very disconcerting is the RNLI is funded with public donations. This will be a predetermined opportunity to for our political liars make a excuse and blame others for the mess they are making.

      2. Morning Eddy. The RNLI is one of the richest charities in the UK with assets just short of £100 Millions.

      3. We used to donate to the RNLI every Christmas and I would always drop some cash into their boxes outside the lifeboat stations whenever I passed by one. Not any more.

    5. People don’t realise the cognitive dissonance of praising the the RNLI for ‘saving lives’ when the lives they are saving are those of criminal invaders who might rape or kill their daughters.

    1. I cut down on carbs a few months ago – not out completely but I eat little bread or potatoes. Seldom eat cakes or pastry either. I lost a bit of weight without even trying and feel much better for it. I think Grizz’s diet is a bit extreme, but each to his/her own. I use whole milk, butter and meat; also veggies and fruit.

      2. I dropped from 110 Kg (17.332 stone) on 1st August last year to 85.094 Kg (13 Stone 4) today. I just cut down on food and go days without hardly eating anything.

        1. That doesn’t sound too healthy, Tom. Though you’re now a better weight, but you do need to eat to keep your strength up.

          1. Explain why it “doesn’t sound healthy”. The modern régime of three+ meals a day of mainly carbs and sugar (i.e. most people’s food intake) is what is killing people off with obesity and many diseases.

          2. I don’t think Tom is in good enough health to withstand fasting and still retain his strength, whereas you clearly do and enjoy your fasting days.

            The modern diet of carbs and sugar clearly is not a healthy one – I didn’t suggest it was. You only have to glance around on a visit to town and see the wobbling jellies all around.

          3. Have you not thought that it is those with poor health that would benefit the most from fasting. After all it is 99·9% certain that most people develop bad health through over-eating and poor quality food.

          5. I’ll get by, Jules, I do eat when I’m hungry though my favourite breakfast these days is scrambled eggs and small slices of smoked salmon.

          7. The strange thing is, though, we humans are living longer. Is it medication keeping us living longer?

          8. Some are living longer, though the excess death rates of younger people would suggest that extended longevity is no longer happening and we have reached peak longevity some time ago.

          9. I think that the living age has now ceased to increase, he’s, is that due to the experimental gene therapy jabs?
            ETA: I am talking about the western world.

          10. Yes – but also due to increased obesity and lifestyle habits leading to conditions such as diabetes.

        3. Didn’t Discus tell you you’d already made that comment? I don’t know
          what I weigh but I am a bit thinner than I was as my trousers are looser
          round the waist.

      3. Nothing ‘extreme’ about my current diet, Jules (I am now commencing my 12th week). This is how humans — natural carnivores —ate for nearly four million years. The best parts are how I never get hungry, sleep like a log, and am physically fitter and mentally sharper. Reverting to a natural human diet is the best thing I ever did and it is already paying dividends. My food intake over the past four weeks has been:

        Saturday: Deep-fried battered goujons of haddock, roasted (home-grown) summer cabbage segments, peas. Strawberries.
        Sunday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Monday: Grilled gammon steak, fried egg, home-made pease pudding, grilled tomato, roasted Med veg. Strawberries.
        Tuesday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Wednesday: 15oz, 1″ thick, beef rib-eye steak (fried medium-rare in lard then basted with butter), 2 fried eggs, 3 home-made tomato sausages. Strawberries.
        Thursday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Friday: Grilled home-cured bacon, a home-made pork-and-tomato sausage patty, scrambled eggs, grilled tomato. Strawberries.

        Saturday: Fried rib-eye steak (medium-rare), Chinese stir-fry (onions, garlic, ginger, chilli, beansprouts, carrot, broccoli). Strawberries and raspberries.
        Sunday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Monday: Home-made hamburger (made from: minced beef, crispy bacon shards, crushed roasted onions and pork crackling) fried in bacon fat and served on lettuce, tomatoes, pickled gherkins, melted cheddar, fried egg. Strawberries, raspberries, cherries.
        Tuesday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Wednesday: 2 fried pork chops, onion gravy, apple sauce, Colman’s English mustard, Brussels sprouts, French beans. Strawberries, cherries.
        Thursday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Friday: 3 pork-and-tomato sausages, 2 fillets of pollack, 1 (drained) tin of sardines, 2 hard-boiled eggs, grated cheddar cheese, pork crackling and salted peanuts. Blueberries and yoghourt.

        Saturday: Stir-fried beef and broccoli (Chinese-style) with mushrooms and oyster sauce accompanied by a stir-fry of: onions, garlic, ginger, 5-spice, carrots, beansprouts, bamboo-shoots and hoi-sin sauce. Strawberries and raspberries.
        Sunday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Monday: Mexican beef chilli with 6 Ritz crackers. Strawberries, raspberries.
        Tuesday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Wednesday: Packed lunch of Scotch egg, 2 sausage rolls, tomatoes, salted peanuts. Strawberries, pistachio nuts.
        Thursday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Friday: Chicken liver curry with cauliflower. Strawberries, and the top off a slice of lime tart.

        Saturday: Pan-fried lamb leg steaks, onion gravy, steamed cabbage, French beans, mint sauce. Strawberries and raspberries.
        Sunday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Monday: Bacon, eggs, sausages, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans. Strawberries and raspberries.
        Tuesday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Wednesday: Mexican beef chilli, cabbage. Strawberries and blueberries.
        Thursday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Friday: ‘Hovel’ pie, black pudding chunks, peas. Strawberries and blueberries.

        Saturday: Langoustines, St Agur cheese, tomatoes, lettuce. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries.
        Sunday: NO FOOD TODAY!
        Monday: Chicken curry; steamed cabbage. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries.

        I shall eat again, just the one meal, on Wednesday and I shall not experience hunger.

          1. There is no point in eating when you are not hungry. Only eating unnatural foods (for the species) makes you hungry.

          2. I make no moral judgement – Liberty Hall as they used to say : Some enjoy kissing tattooed lesbians; some do not.

        2. But what do you drink on the days you have no food? Just water? Or tea/coffee?

          1. I start every morning with half a pint of water into which I put ¼tsp bicarb and 1Tbsp apple cider vinegar. After that I have a pint of water. At 10:30 a.m. I have two mugs of tea. At 1:00 p.m. I have a cappuccino from my espresso machine and another one at 4:00 p.m. At 6:00 p.m. I have a pint of water. That’s it.

            Since I only eat meat and fat (protein) plus a few berries, I never get hungry. It is only by eating carbs and sugar that you get hungry.

      4. It’s not how much you eat, it’s WHAT you eat. Get rid of junk food. Get rid of sugar. Get rid of of processed food which is stuffed with additives. Eat only fresh meat, fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables, nuts, grains and pulses. Learn to prepare and cook yourself. Grow your own if you can. NO fish suppers. NO kebabs. NO curries. NO Chinese or Thai take-aways. NO McDonalds. NO KFC. NO Pizza Hut. NONE of that. GET RID of beer and sweet wines. GET RID of food additives which are designed to make you want to eat more of the same thing. Eat only fresh natural food, exercise regularly ( no need to go mad – half an hour of breaking sweat a day is enough) and you’ll find you regain control of your appetite, you’ll eat less naturally and the weight will fall away. How do I know? I did it 25 years ago and lost the over two stones of excess weight I was carrying in less than a year and I’ve been lean ever since.

        I eat proper-sized meals, often feeling full, but no processed junk. The occasional treat does no harm as long as it’s occasional – a beer, cider or glass of wine once or twice a week.

        The food and drink industry has much to answer for.

        2. Curry can be healthy if you cook it yourself. Especially tandoori style. I made Sri Lankan Sambal today. Mixed with a little rice and some chilli prawns mixed through it.

        3. I don’t eat any of the things you say don’t have, but I can’t shift the excess avoir du pois. Mind you, I can’t do the exercise any more, which I think is the real problem.

          3. We’re drinking more wine these days but not really to excess. About two bottles a week between two.

          5. I know that I am late to this drinks party but if there is any gin going begging, I will happily oblige.

          6. I’m the other way round; I have never liked tea, but I can tolerate the occasional gin.

    1. I will not be having any more jabs for anything after the way people were coerced or forced into the covid jabs. I’ve had plenty for travel over the years and they will have to last me out now.

      1. I’ve already told the French friend I normally stay with when I’m over there that I think my travelling days have been finished.

          1. I am thinking ahead. I wouldn’t put it past the reintroduction of covid passports. I do have the additional problem of who will look after the dogs while I’m away as well. I don’t want to put them in kennels.

          1. Sister in law coming again but I slept poorly and feel rather depressed- small wonder. At least it isn’t raining.

          2. I hope s-i-l will cheer you up again then – you sounded last night as though you’d had an enjoyable day.

    3. The real problem is, activist fanatics want that to be seen as female. That’s the level of perversity we’ve reached.

      1. Is it dressed as a man now? I understood at the time that he was dressed that way as he was taking the piss.

    2. Having witnessed first-hand, as Boris Johnson and then Liz Truss were taken down, I decided that the British people had a right to know what was happening in their name.

      We already know!

  39. I can’t understand this article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/28/britain-fall-behind-net-zero-deal-without-eu-shipping-deal/

    I keep reading it, and it appears that government wants to bottle CO2. Is that right? The thing plants use to live. The stuff we exhale. An abundant, harmless gas. When, precisely, did utter, complete madness take over? Why are we bothering with this pointless and unnecessary farce at all, let alone wasting public money on it?

    3. I think an “early mover advantage” could be translated as “Sunak rushes in where people with a brain cell fear to tread”?

    1. ‘Gatwick airport says all planes are still taking off and landing at the airport’.

      Not going anywhere then…

    1. A lot of the points she makes could also apply to the climate scam – science is never “settled”.

    2. She nailed it. We should all paraphrase what she has said and trot it out whenever we meet with an occasion which warrants it. The other question which could be asked is if sex is assigned, who or what did the assigning? There’s really only one answer to that.

      2. It is invariably the fathers* who do the ‘assigning’. After all it is only he who provides the choice of X or Y chromosome to fertilise the X egg.

        *Father: a male of the species, whose function cannot be replicated by a female, or by a pretendy ‘male’.

  45. Re the Air Traffic Control issues, I obviously went to the bastion of truth, Al-Beeb and found this expert putting it into context extremely helpful for 5 year olds

    Alistair Rosenschein is a former 747 pilot for British Airways and now an aviation consultant.

    He’s speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live – and says it appears that a full air traffic control system has gone down in the UK.

    For context, he says the equivalent situation for vehicular traffic would be if every road was closed in the country.

  49. For followers of England rugby….(both of you)

    Nice line in Alex Lowe’s article in The Grimes today:

    ““Steve Borthwick had bad news for Jonny May and Alex Mitchell when he finalised his World Cup squad yesterday. He told both players they had been picked”.”

  50. My neighbour has just come back from France. Her friends who she was staying with have a walnut tree. They don’t like walnuts so never use them. Neighbour came back with a huge box load and gave me a couple of kilos. I’m going to pickle them.

    1. Wet walnuts are a bit messy to eat but lovely and much nicer than the stale ones. …I don’t like anything pickled.

    2. I still like a proper pickled onion, just like these.

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drivers-1906-Pickled-Onions/dp/B07NBH5VX3/ref=asc_df_B07NBH5VX3/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=399640238549&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10070668659943526667&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007056&hvtargid=pla-846614723221&psc=1&th=1&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=89109177270&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=399640238549&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10070668659943526667&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007056&hvtargid=pla-846614723221

          1. My parents had a session, early every November, peeling, salting then pickling a large sweet-jar full of them. All ready for Christmas.

          4. R’s parents used to grow rows and rows of runner beans , so delicious , my favourite , but when R and I got married , they used to ask us to give them a hand salting the sliced beans down and putting them into kilner jars for future use , as well as helping the old man make parsnip wine and carrot wine , sloe gin , damson wine and strawberry wine .

            I still have their wartime cook book which has a lovely section on preserving vegetables and fruit and other useful recipes .

            When we had to clear the house , we found all sorts of preserved old goodies , sadly really rotten and the bottles of wine were almost too dangerous to handle .

          5. My parents did the same with runner beans. That way we managed to serve some at Christmas dinner. I don’t know where they acquired all the big glass sweet jars from. The pantry was full of pickles. Salted runner beans, pickled onions, pickled red cabbage.

          6. R’s parents used to grow rows and rows of runner beans , so delicious , my favourite , but when R and I got married , they used to ask us to give them a hand salting the sliced beans down and putting them into kilner jars for future use , as well as helping the old man make parsnip wine and carrot wine , sloe gin , damson wine and strawberry wine .

            I still have their wartime cook book which has a lovely section on preserving vegetables and fruit and other useful recipes .

            When we had to clear the house , we found all sorts of preserved old goodies , sadly really rotten and the bottles of wine were almost too dangerous to handle .

          1. Indeed. A Scotch egg made with a pickled egg, coated in pork-and-tomato sausage meat is a treat for the ages.

        3. My father use to make his own after growing the onions in the garden. And horse Radish.
          He made some parsnip wine as well it was very nice.

          1. We had horse radish growing in south London and mint so we always made our own. Quite strong is homemade horseradish!

          3. My mother used to grate raw horseradish onto her food.
            My father, brother and I did not join her.

          6. Problem this year, we have so much else to take care of, we’ll likely have to abandon the cider. 🙁
            Blackberries, honey and honey room rebuilding take precedence, regretfully. Cash crops.

          7. I made damson wine once. Never again! I’ll stick to jam in future if anybody gives me damsons (I don’t have any damson trees here, whereas I had three in the garden of my previous house).

  51. The green war on animals. Spiked. 28 August 2023.

    One of the more disappointing developments in British politics over the past two decades – apart from the strange desire of most parties to pander to the tiny transvestite vote, never seen as vital in the past – has been the decline of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, after the death of its founder, Screaming Lord Sutch, in 1999. Still, with the Greens behaving in an increasingly unhinged manner, maybe they might merge? Green is such a lovely colour – not a bit descriptive of a party which seems, like the nature it worships, increasingly red in tooth and claw. The late lord’s party’s handle seems far more appropriate.

    The latest eco-insanity comes from Ireland, where the government has proposed a mass cull of cattle in order to meet its Net Zero targets. Ireland has often held somewhat eccentric views in recent times, such as that unmarried mothers should be treated as dangerous criminals and set to work in forced labour camps. Brendan O’Neill has written of Ireland’s eagerness to jump from one bad religion to another, from Catholicism to transgenderism, both of which are linked by magical thinking and the belief in transubstantiation. And it seems Ireland has embraced the modern green religion, too.

    The Irish department of agriculture has suggested spending around €600million on killing 200,000 dairy cattle. This is to punish them for being flatulent and thus accounting for more than half of Ireland’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Considering that Ireland is an agrarian society, this doesn’t seem a very clever move. Its dairy industry makes more than €13 billion a year. As a baffled farmer complained to national broadcaster RTÉ News: ‘We’re being made out as if we’re killing the planet.’ They’ll come for the beef cattle next, no doubt, meaning that cheap beef from Brazil will be flying across the world, when once could have been sent a few miles down the road in a lorry.

    Was ever an animal as blameless as the cow? ‘Bovine’ means dull, but that’s not fair. Cows just know their limitations, don’t ask for much from life and, as people often say of fat girls, they’ve got lovely eyes. No, the real problem greens have with dairy cows is that they give humanity something it loves – cheese – and any animal which does this is obviously a collaborator and needs to be executed.

    Animals give humans pleasure in all kinds of ways. Some people – not me – get pleasure from eating them, which is admittedly a little one-sided. But they also provide us with clothing. You’d think that a sheep was even less evil than a cow, but mean greens like eco-maniac George Monbiot have been gunning for them for quite some time, calling them ‘the white plague’. He claims that sheep have done more damage to the ecology of Britain than all the buildings, all the pollution and all the climate change put together. But I think he’s just angry at the thought of all those lovely Christmas jumpers they’ve contributed to, which bring smiles to our little faces as we celebrate a festival he probably believes should be banned because of all that demonic wrapping paper.

    Monbiot’s hatred of the modern world appears unhinged at times. He fetishises poverty in the way only those from exceedingly wealthy backgrounds can, at one point coming out with that old chestnut about how happy those with nothing are, specifically in Ethiopia. This once led Mark Steyn to comment: ‘In Ethiopia, male life expectancy is 43 years. George was born in 1963. If the streets and fields are crackling with laughter, maybe it’s because the happy peasants are reading his column.’

    With similar disregard for how the working people in his own country actually live, Monbiot is obsessed with shutting down the livelihoods of sheep farmers in particular and of farmers in general. He says their efforts to feed the people on this island should be thrown on the vanity bonfire of ‘rewilding’ – definitely something Marie Antoinette would be up for if she was around today. He would replace our benign sweater-growing chums with wild animals – not just with wolves (about whom he writes with the frothy-mouthed fandom of a girl blogging about Harry Styles), but with lynxes, too. Some mean greens advocate for bears and even lions to be introduced to the British countryside. Quite how this would affect children, the elderly and other people who can’t run very fast is never elaborated on. But, hey, survival of the fittest and all that.

    There is a deep misanthropy at the root of much nature worship. Most of those who obsess over ecology today are cleverer about keeping this quiet than daft old DH Lawrence was back in the day. As he wrote in ‘Mountain Lion’:

    ‘And I think in this empty world there was room for me and a mountain lion.
    And I think in the world beyond how easily we might spare a million or two of humans
    And never miss them    .’

    A bit of light relief from Julie Burchill.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/08/28/the-green-war-on-animals/

    1. Green is such a lovely colour – not a bit descriptive of a party which seems, like the nature it worships,

      Didn’t Donovan have a song about Colours with one of the verses going:

      Green is the colour of my true love’s tongue in the morning when we rise
      In the morning when we rise
      That’s the time
      That’s the time
      I love the best

      1. Shitty sort of question!

        If the are like domestic cats…..YES!! But not G & P, thank the Lord.

  52. The green war on animals. Spiked. 28 August 2023.

    One of the more disappointing developments in British politics over the past two decades – apart from the strange desire of most parties to pander to the tiny transvestite vote, never seen as vital in the past – has been the decline of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, after the death of its founder, Screaming Lord Sutch, in 1999. Still, with the Greens behaving in an increasingly unhinged manner, maybe they might merge? Green is such a lovely colour – not a bit descriptive of a party which seems, like the nature it worships, increasingly red in tooth and claw. The late lord’s party’s handle seems far more appropriate.

    The latest eco-insanity comes from Ireland, where the government has proposed a mass cull of cattle in order to meet its Net Zero targets. Ireland has often held somewhat eccentric views in recent times, such as that unmarried mothers should be treated as dangerous criminals and set to work in forced labour camps. Brendan O’Neill has written of Ireland’s eagerness to jump from one bad religion to another, from Catholicism to transgenderism, both of which are linked by magical thinking and the belief in transubstantiation. And it seems Ireland has embraced the modern green religion, too.

    The Irish department of agriculture has suggested spending around €600million on killing 200,000 dairy cattle. This is to punish them for being flatulent and thus accounting for more than half of Ireland’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Considering that Ireland is an agrarian society, this doesn’t seem a very clever move. Its dairy industry makes more than €13 billion a year. As a baffled farmer complained to national broadcaster RTÉ News: ‘We’re being made out as if we’re killing the planet.’ They’ll come for the beef cattle next, no doubt, meaning that cheap beef from Brazil will be flying across the world, when once could have been sent a few miles down the road in a lorry.

    Was ever an animal as blameless as the cow? ‘Bovine’ means dull, but that’s not fair. Cows just know their limitations, don’t ask for much from life and, as people often say of fat girls, they’ve got lovely eyes. No, the real problem greens have with dairy cows is that they give humanity something it loves – cheese – and any animal which does this is obviously a collaborator and needs to be executed.

    Animals give humans pleasure in all kinds of ways. Some people – not me – get pleasure from eating them, which is admittedly a little one-sided. But they also provide us with clothing. You’d think that a sheep was even less evil than a cow, but mean greens like eco-maniac George Monbiot have been gunning for them for quite some time, calling them ‘the white plague’. He claims that sheep have done more damage to the ecology of Britain than all the buildings, all the pollution and all the climate change put together. But I think he’s just angry at the thought of all those lovely Christmas jumpers they’ve contributed to, which bring smiles to our little faces as we celebrate a festival he probably believes should be banned because of all that demonic wrapping paper.

    Monbiot’s hatred of the modern world appears unhinged at times. He fetishises poverty in the way only those from exceedingly wealthy backgrounds can, at one point coming out with that old chestnut about how happy those with nothing are, specifically in Ethiopia. This once led Mark Steyn to comment: ‘In Ethiopia, male life expectancy is 43 years. George was born in 1963. If the streets and fields are crackling with laughter, maybe it’s because the happy peasants are reading his column.’

    With similar disregard for how the working people in his own country actually live, Monbiot is obsessed with shutting down the livelihoods of sheep farmers in particular and of farmers in general. He says their efforts to feed the people on this island should be thrown on the vanity bonfire of ‘rewilding’ – definitely something Marie Antoinette would be up for if she was around today. He would replace our benign sweater-growing chums with wild animals – not just with wolves (about whom he writes with the frothy-mouthed fandom of a girl blogging about Harry Styles), but with lynxes, too. Some mean greens advocate for bears and even lions to be introduced to the British countryside. Quite how this would affect children, the elderly and other people who can’t run very fast is never elaborated on. But, hey, survival of the fittest and all that.

    There is a deep misanthropy at the root of much nature worship. Most of those who obsess over ecology today are cleverer about keeping this quiet than daft old DH Lawrence was back in the day. As he wrote in ‘Mountain Lion’:

    ‘And I think in this empty world there was room for me and a mountain lion.
    And I think in the world beyond how easily we might spare a million or two of humans
    And never miss them    .’

    A bit of light relief from Julie Burchill.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/08/28/the-green-war-on-animals/

    9. I don’t think it was really necessary to pull a gun on them. Otherwise 👍👍👍.

    11. Good grief the whaling and crying. “We are environmental protesters…please you’re hurting me” (in pathetic little-girl voice).

      GOOD!!!

      1. I doubt there are many whales in Pyramid Lake.

        There might be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

    12. I do like the idea of the drive-through but I thought the gun was a bit unnecessary.

      1. Yanks and their guns. Good ol’ Second Amendment: it’s in their DNA. They wouldn’t be able to think without their ‘piece’.

      2. Serves them right, teaches them a lesson that obstruction of the public going about their lawful business is a serious offence.

    2. I have to say the back end of a horse is preferable to the intellectually challenged MP.

      1. Have you ceased doing your dressage?
        You haven’t commented on it for a while.
        Unless I was asleep on the blog…

        1. I’ve had time off because of my broken ribs (they took a while to heal) and Coolio has a bad back. I’m hoping to get back to it soon.

    1. I’ve always advocated loading the illegals into a fast Naval Cutter and dropping them on a Somali beach at midnight, clad only in their underpants.

      See how diverse and welcoming we are.

  58. A Par Four today.

    Wordle 800 4/6
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
    🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨
    🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. A little birdie three here

      Wordle 800 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. Sorry to hear of your problems. Stay out of hospital if you can – there are lots of sick people there! 🙂

    3. Also par four.

      Wordle 800 4/6

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

      1. Likewise
        Wordle 800 4/6

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

        1. I don’t do wordle, but if, on the first line, you knew the last letter was the right one in the right place, why didn’t it appear in line 2 and subsequent lines?

          1. I try a few words to try and get more letters identified before focusing on the exact word.

          2. Might it not be more efficient if you kept the right letter in the right place and tried the right letters that are in the wrong place (the yellow ones) in a different place?

    4. Took me more goes than I thought.
      Wordle 800 4/6

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

  60. Sodom and Gomorrah Part 2. Went up to town this afternoon. Expected the 94 bus to be on diversion (as the jargon goes) but no, it went straight through Notting Hill. A nice and chatty young woman got on at Shepherds Bush and sat next to me. She lives in Holland Park and remarked on the extent of the drunken behaviour and nakedness on display. She’d seen people wearing only a thong below and a narrow strip of fabric across the chest. As the bus reached Notting Hill Gate, I saw two young men pissing in the street. A new low. There was a makeshift trough, possibly put there for the purpose thereof. The other thing that struck me was that every McDonald’s branch en route was doing a roaring trade. Junk in, junk out, it would seem.

      1. Only the cafes and food stores seemed to be open in Notting Hill and Holland Park but the revelry spreads to Shepherds Bush, so who knows? I was disappointed to see the guards at the Russian Embassy wearing face masks. Maybe they think degeneracy is catching.

    4. I’ve just conducted a Google Earth tour of Chesterfield town centre. I wish I hadn’t. My once-beautiful home town is now a shit-hole. Every other shop is now a fast-food poison station.

  61. Time for me to say goodbye. For today. Funny one – sort of sunny though it looked like rain occasionally.

    Have a jolly evening. It is time for m medicine. Doesn’t help my back – but it helps ME.

    A demain.

  62. Just sat down after a couple of hours clearance work in the garden – tidying up an overgrown part under the apple tree. Then chopping it up a bit to get it into compost bags for the tip. Three bagfuls and now backache. OH has been busy clearing and shoring up the dilapidated shed. Both weary now.

    1. I’m struggling with a painful SIJ, not helped by having a long trek from the car park to the ward when I was visiting the sick this afternoon. I shan’t be doing much until it settles down.

          3. A spondylolisthesis at L5/S1 and trauma to the SIJ caused by being hit by a half-ton, ¾in mild steel plate 8ft in diameter, that fell on me after in came loose from its bindings while being turned over by an overhead crane.

            I was an apprentice at the time and I could have sued the company for permitting me to work whilst being supervised by a slightly older apprentice. My union was useless (as were my parents!) and failed to give me the advice I needed. When I enquired about suing the company many years later I found that I had exceeded the time limitations on doing so.

          4. It was a joke.
            C5/C6 which are much higher up, would cause a pain in the neck…

            I have a few friends who suffer from ankylosing spondylitis so I suspect you get a lot of pain, you have my sympathy.

            I damaged my neck fairly badly playing rugby (hence self inflicted) and was shunted many years later by a crazy driver. The X-rays showed too much earlier damage to give me a chance in court for any damages.

            I still get pain and have greatly restricted movement, the swimming helps enormously, unfortunately I can’t do it all year round unless I pay the extortionate fees at a public pool

          5. I am also well balanced. I have a chip on each shoulder!😉

            I was actually misdiagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis back in 1982 and was treated for it for years. A further examination, in 2006 revealed that I’d never had it, it was my other spinal problems had given me the pain.

        1. It’s been bad for about a fortnight. The wet weather doesn’t help and I’ve had to do rather more walking than I would have liked of late. It’s been a case of drink or drugs – if I have an alcoholic drink I can’t take co-codamol. Some days I do drugs, some days I have a drink 🙂

          1. Now that’s the sort of attitude that will see you through! 🤣 Hope you feel better soon. x

          2. Thanks, but as part of the problem is severe degeneration, it’s unlikely to improve a great deal.

          2. I can only sympathise. I put a hot water bottle on my SIJ at night. Seems to ease it a bit (or maybe it’s the cocodamol kicking in).

  63. OT – air traffic.

    Normally the sky is full of long distance – and European flights.

    Today. Not a sossage. It hasn’t been this quiet in our skies since the early days of The Plague.

    4. I was told this afternoon by a journalist friend of mine that Air Traffic Control’s computers have been hacked and people are going to have to sit on the tarmac for 12 hours.

  64. Evening, all. We haven’t been the “world’s greatest” for some time. I’m currently reading The Georgians at Home and the number of inventions that were created during that relatively short time put the much-vaunted Victorians to shame. England (and I use the term advisedly) produced items that couldn’t be equalled on the continent.

  65. 375782+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    How about we convert every non producing wind mill to a treadmill mainly for current lab/lib/con/current ukip member / voters, also erring illegal migrants, sound like a plan ?

    1. It’s marginal, the subsidies for windfarms and the costs of gimmeccommodation will be fairly close.

    2. “It’s what you have to expect in a big city” with a little foreign twerp as its mayor.

      1. Which this country is now full of. Sod diversity – it’s nothing but sub-civilised.

        1. Our political classes are as disgusting for what they have done to this once safe and pleasant land.
          Kahnt has single handedly inflicted more lasting damage on our capital than hitler did.

          1. What do you expect from foreigners like that? They just want to make us like the cesspits they originated from.

  67. Evelyn Hall. 😉
    I’ve been busy today, worn out now I even cleaned the car, I bet it rains soon, it usually does when I clean the car. Cooked a massive sauce pan of bolognese sauce. Most now in the freezer. Turned the rest into lasagne. Very tasty with all the dried garden herbs. I particularly like the cheese sauce topping with grated nutmeg.
    Now full to bursting. I know it’s early but I’m struggling to keep my eyes open.
    Popping off soon.
    Night all.
    Oh nearly forgot our eldest arrived late afternoon he’s dismantled his garden shed and even sold it on today. But he found quite a large toad living under it. So he put it in a bag and it has a new home in our wildlife pond and surroundings in our garden. Hopefully the heron won’t find it.

    1. How will the toad know its way back to its natal pond for breeding in the early spring?

      We didn’t see any spawn in the pond this year, but it was there – lots of tadpoles later. The other day I saw a tiny toadlet crawling up the rockery.

      1. They don’t have a pond in their garden nor do any neighbours which is a bit of a mystery.
        He’s just a gimmigrant out in the big wide world. We had hundreds of tadpoles in our pond this year I guess he/she will find a partner.

      2. We have an annual migration of tiny (1.5cm) toads from the river each year. Farsands and farsands. Difficult to navigate the river walk as you keep having to dodge the little beggars.

  68. I watched the film Notting Hill1999 last night , Moh cleared of to bed and left me to wonder all sorts of things .

    Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant etc. it was a silly romantic film , lots of manners and faux friendships etc

    I have never ever seen the film before .

    If any one has seen it , did you come to the same conclusion as me , that maybe Harry Sussex had watched it , self identified with rakish Hugh Grant, perhaps H S had a crush on Julia Roberts who looked a dead ringer for the Megain , in attitude and and acting style .

    I expect that impressionable teenage period was shortly after his mother was killed , and he clung on to that romantic notion of awkwardness which Hugh Grant was famous for .

    Perhaps the dumb arse had been acting out his own infantile fantasy , especially when he was trapped by the witch..

    Well , it was just an idea after the film finished .

    Ir was one of those films that I avoided until now.

    1. I’ve never seen it either – I’m not much of a film fan. I did see Four Weddings etc, years ago. Lots of swearing.

    2. I don’t like HG or JR much and I have not seen the film. Looks like I didn’t miss anything.

      How are you keeping?

      1. Oi…
        HG is wonderful and I won’t have a word said against her.
        Hell’s teeth, she’s put up with me for 55 years!
        A living saint.

        2. You definitely are her champion, well done, ;-)) Jack and I have put up with each other for 58 years today!

          2. PS
            I hope he is keeping well, he used to contribute, it would be good to see him back again.

          3. He is keeping well and may well return one day, but his patience level is somewhat low with what he thinks of the conspiracy theories that seems to drive so much here.

          4. I can sympathise with that.

            But then again, far too many conspiracy theories have turned out to be correct, over the last few years.

            }:-((

          7. Assuming it didn’t end in divorce, you made it for life.
            That’s what you committed to when you married.

      2. Hi HL

        I guess I am feeling as ambivalent as the rest of the country .

        There is no way back now.

        How are you doing , the summer has whizzed by and now the nights are drawing in

        We are having a few disturbed nights with Jack spaniel, now 15 1/2 years . he is still alert .

        Other than that the wait and see political game is traitorous.

        I just want to curl up and suck my thumb , used to be great comfort years ago .

        1. Sometimes I just have to switch off from politics as it is too depressing. But then I read again, and it is so anger-inducing. Politicians are ,with few exceptions, all traitors – greedy traitors.

          Oh dear, sorry about Jack, hope he will ride this phase…animals sometimes surprise one with their fortitude and resilience. I would suck your thumb if it helps – I’ve been known to do that.

        2. Hope Jack perks up. Depressing the way the summer has passed. Don’t read the news. Curl up and suck your thumb.

      1. Some how my comment was duplicated so I deleted it. Comments can’t be blank so three dots will suffice 😉😄

          1. Oh dear, I actually once worked with a lovey guy who was a radio officer on HMS Ark Royal. I doubt if Cliff Stilling is still with us but he was good fun. 😊

          2. I had to drive to Liverpool to take my Morse test. There were two of us; I the radio ham and a chap who was in the merchant navy. The dictation (taking words at 12 wpm) was a shipping forecast. I remember they spelled out the numbers and didn’t mix digits (a separate test) and words.

  71. Compare and contrast.

    The Edinburgh royal military tattoo vs Notting Hill carnival.

    I know which I prefer.

    1. Yes, but, given the Common Purpose/Stonewall infested senior officer cadre the Army has now, give it a couple of years and see what happens.

    2. Yes, but, given the Common Purpose/Stonewall infested senior officer cadre the Army has now, give it a couple of years and see what happens.

    3. I haven’t seen either as I no longer watch TV (apart from the racing). I used to enjoy the Tattoo, especially the gun carriage race. Notting Hill carnage has never appealed.

  72. Rather late in the day.

    The French government has just announced that Muslim girls will not be allowed to wear the abaya – the long, shapeless robe – to state schools. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/28/france-muslim-pupils-banned-wearing-abaya-robes-schools

    I have just posted this comment below the line which I thought some of you might enjoy:

    Here in France, the decision by the French government has, for once, been welcomed by a wide range of people, and particularly by the generally left-wing teaching unions. Condemnation of this new policy comes almost exclusively from the Muslims themselves and from the militant, extreme left wing – but not from teachers who actually have to work with these children, and who have to deal with their aggressive parents.

    In French state schools, all religion is taboo – and not just Islam. If parents don’t like it, they are free to put their children in private schools which do allow religious freedom. And these schools are not expensive as teachers’ salaries are paid by the state, as are 80% of the overheads.

    I wonder how Vivian Song and the editors of The Telegraph would justify their lack of objectivity in reporting this news item?

    2. I remember, back in the ’80s, debates about “the veil” as it was called then and secularism in French schools. Here we got round it (then) by saying it was okay if in school colours! Now it will just be mandatory!

  74. Off to bed- soon. Sister in law was here again and we got some stuff sorted. A big help for me.
    So will see you at some point tomorrow.

    2. Goodnight, Ann.

      I need to get some sleep. Work tomorrow and lots to do. Only pulsatile tinnitus and trigger thumb to complain about. I have it easy.

  76. I think this was missed on here at the weekend.

    Truth and justice die when your career can be destroyed by a claim you can’t disprove

    The case of Laurence Fox shows how far our society is now run by inhabitants of Wonderland

    DOUGLAS MURRAY • Friday 25th August 2023 • 7:16pm

    What are the most damaging claims you can make about someone in our society? The ones that would truly damage – if not ruin – the reputation of anyone they were levelled against.

    There is “murderer”, I suppose. “Paedophile”, definitely. And then there is “racist”. All are highly reputationally destructive, especially if asserted repeatedly.

    But notice that there is a difference between these charges. The first two can be fought in a court and can be easily disproved if they are wrong. If someone claimed, online or off, that you had murdered someone, then you could take them to court for slander or libel and it could be shown in court that you had not in fact murdered anyone. They would have to prove that you did, and if they couldn’t, then they would be in trouble. The same goes for the charge of paedophilia. If someone made that charge against you, it would be possible to sue them and they would be shown in court to have made a baseless claim.

    But “racist”? How do you prove that you are not racist? Especially if you live in a society in which people go around daily insisting that our whole society is racist, that it is based on racism, “systemically racist” and so on. The answer, for some years, has been that you cannot. “Racism” is a charge that you may be able to prove, but it is not a charge that it is always possible to disprove.

    At least since the Macpherson Report into the Metropolitan Police, almost a quarter of a century ago, “racism” has been a charge which falls into the “eye of the beholder” category. If someone believes that racism is involved in a crime, then it is so.

    I’m not sure whether many people are aware of just how corrosive this thinking has been to our society. The whole “hate crime” industry has spawned from the same source. A crime becomes a “hate crime” if someone believes it is so.

    This is law as made by the inhabitants of Wonderland. But it is law none the less. An old lady hit over the head and robbed because she is an old lady and therefore vulnerable may be a victim of a crime. But unless she can claim that she was hit over the head because she is non-white, or a lesbian – for instance – this crime did not involve “hate”. All of which has consequences all of the time.

    It is more than three years now since the actor Laurence Fox appeared on the BBC’s Question Time and blew up his career. Just to refresh memories, he did this because someone in the audience claimed that criticism of Meghan Markle is motivated by “racism”. Fox looked exasperated and disagreed. “We’re the most tolerant, lovely country,” he said. At which point the audience member said he had no right to speak about this because he is “white”. At which point Fox pointed out that this in itself was racist.

    All of this should constitute the usual to-and-fro of a free society. We should have programmes in which people disagree with each other and debate about what is going on. We should have platforms on which people of all backgrounds and professions can air their views without fear of total, unfair, reputational destruction.

    But we do not live in such a society. We live in a society in which the dice are loaded in one direction.

    Fox is unfortunate in being a member of the acting profession – or at least he was at the time. Actors are known for many things, but courage is not among them. Few people move in herds quite so completely as those who are already uncertain and unconfident about their own intelligence. Fox dared to think for himself and say an “unsayable” truth. And so the acting profession moved against him.

    Fox was dropped by his agent and everyone else and was effectively made unable to work. In a career where the slightest whiff of “wrong-think” will be acted upon, he made a proper stink. He had the temerity to say that Britain is not a racist country. Game over.

    In the years since, Fox has reinvented himself as a television presenter and political activist and has stood for elected office. In doing so, he has put himself on the front line of a number of the cultural battles of our time. Where others see racism everywhere, he has called such people out for the charlatans they so often are. When people have claimed that white people are all racist, Fox has repeatedly pointed out that this is a racist belief.

    Some of his online exchanges have certainly been intemperate, but that is in the nature of these things. Yet in October 2020 he got himself into specific hot water. A number of people were routinely smearing Fox online as a racist. Fox made a rhetorical move that I myself have hypothesised about in the past, which is to say: “If you want to start throwing damaging allegations around, then fine – you’re a paedophile. Or are we actually going to have a discussion?”

    In the to-and-fro of Twitter-spats, some of the context of this can get lost. But it was surely clear when Fox responded to certain people accusing him of racism by saying that they were paedophiles, this is what was going on. Yet those who had thrown the accusation of “racism” at him did not react too kindly when he threw the word “paedophile” at them. Indeed, they sued.

    And, in a way, that was a clever strategy. For they apparently wanted to assert the right to libel someone without result (“racist!”), while crying hurt when someone responded in kind.

    For three years this has dragged on. The courts initially seemed to concede that the accusation of “racism” is everywhere and always a matter of “opinion” – a decision which was disastrous. Do the courts not think that the allegation of “racism” is damaging?

    Then, this morning the Court of Appeal ruled on an important part of Fox’s defence. They dismissed the case of one of the claimants – Nicola Thorp – by noting that the earlier judge in the case, Mr Justice Nicklin, had been “wrong” to find that the “natural and ordinary meaning” of Fox’s tweet was that “Ms Thorp was a paedophile”. In the written ruling, Lord Justice Warby noted that Fox’s response “did of course include the word ‘paedophile'”, but he was “satisfied that the ordinary reasonable reader of that tweet would not have taken the word literally”.

    Finally, some sanity.

    You might think that this is a case only about one actor-turned-activist. But it is not. Fox’s career as an actor was destroyed because people were allowed to make damaging accusations against him. When rebutted by an equally damaging and unfounded accusation, they sued. And now a judge has finally put that response into its proper context, too – or at least in part.

    This has repercussions for far more people than Fox. It has repercussions for our whole society. Law-makers and others should take note of them.

    It is not sustainable to have a society in which the most damaging accusations include accusations that are not easily disprovable. Accusations which can ruin a person’s career and then simply be said to be “in the eye of the beholder”. No. We have a legal system in this country for a reason. One based not just on the rule of law but also on the belief in – and pursuit of – truth.

    We have veered far from that path in recent years. I hope this judgment is a small correction to the disastrous route that we have been on.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/25/truth-justice-die-career-destroyed-claim-you-cant-disprove/

    1. Nothing – *nothing* should rely on a subjective viewpoint in criminal matters. If overt bigotry can be *proven*, then there is a case to be made that it should be taken into account when sentencing, but surely that is the logical limit?

    2. Douglas Murray is not only wrong about paedophilia, a thought crime, but it has actually been used as a template since the 1990s for a raft of injustices spilling over now into inappropriate political thinking via mission creep.

      Family Law’s burden of proof is not the same as that required in criminal cases, as anyone who has tried to seek justice under Section 8 of the Children Act will find out. It is the word of a social worker in camera, based on the feelings of the children, in the presence of the party-with-care, and based on their knowledge and understanding, that holds sway. Any other evidence, especially from that of the “absent” party is deemed less important, even if incriminating suggestiions have been made in court that are defamatory in a criminal setting.

      Thus fired up, the burden of proof requires in a DBS Enhanced Disclosure, which is required for those working with children and vulnerable adults, paid or unpaid, and part of the “Safeguarding” routine of a whole raft of society, is fine with hearsay and uncorroberated evidence. Any aggrieved or malicious statement made by someone that makes it to a police notebook is sufficient to condemn someone a potential paedophile for life, and there is no right to appeal unless one can afford to go the High Court,.

      It is only a matter of time when such procedures, once established for potential paedophilia and accepted following an emotive public campaign against it, extends to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, antisemitism or indeed any other -ism that is deemed appropriate by those who run our institutions.

      1. Fox is involved in a libel case following a Twitter spat and not the kind of case you describe, involving people who actually have contact with children.

  77. Just watched ‘Top Gunn – inside the RAF’ on CH4 – I get a reminder from CH4 to watch it – half way through the program 🤬

  78. We watched the second part of “The woman in the wall” with the subtitles on this time and I still couldn’t follow it. Didn’t help that I had a job to stay awake.

  80. Notting Hill Carnival – the unedifying spectacle of pasty-faced Brits trying to dance like Brazilians…

    1. ‘Morning, Geoff, and thank you – that’s a record 06:02 apart from some midnight marauding.

Comments are closed.