Friday 15 September: Labour’s migrant plan should alarm those who voted for sovereignty

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

362 thoughts on “Friday 15 September: Labour’s migrant plan should alarm those who voted for sovereignty”

  3. Labour’s migrant plan should alarm those who voted for sovereignty

    The thought of a Labour or Conservative government under Starmer or Rishi should alarm people who vote.

    1. If the Conservatives led by Sunak or Labour led by Starmer are the only options in the general election then I hope to God that my two sons decide that Britain is finished and go and live, work and make their lives elsewhere.

      I fear that we have run out of leaders – Britain doesn’t make them anymore and the recent import from India is very shoddy and not even remotely up to standard; his homegrown rival should have been placed in the rejects box.

  7. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e40a32afe765a72b01cd174b30579820841b86d0ddbb92cd4c498816955db383.jpg
    The white line is real metal gold being traded in Shanghai.
    The yellow line is the gold market that follows the official US spot price of gold, i.e. it includes paper vouchers like ETFs.
    So, as the two lines diverge, importing real gold into China becomes increasingly profitable. In order to avoid all the gold being sucked into China, the US will have to let the price rise. The paper scam is coming to the end of its life.

    2. In the UK reductions – forced reductions – are intending to be achieved by making fuel and energy simply unaffordable. If you can’t afford it you don’t use it and big fat state meets it’s pointless target.

      Of course, those people who couldn’t afford to heat their homes freeze and become ill, costing the NHS time and money. The industry that couldn’t afford energy destroys the jobs that could have existed, putting people on to welfare and as more folk then can’t afford to be warm the state has to provide more cash for heating or else that costs the NHS time and money.

      To counter all this of course that same corrupt useless state machine then adds another dump of taxes to the few people left using energy, further exacerbating the problem.

      All because a fat, useless, corrupt bunch of morons want another non-job on the trougher circuit.

      1. Oil and gold have a more or less stable price relationship and gold is forecast to rise minimum 5x in dollar terms, so….

    2. I have given my opinion on Epstein, there is no way he committed suicide in jail. He’s living the life on a remote and luxurious island somewhere.

      1. I agree that he probably did not commit suicide but surely those on his clients’ list are too powerful to allow him to go on living anywhere – even on a remote island somewhere.

        1. He has all of their names and if anything untoward happens to him some one or more than one, people he’s set up will release the list. Or more appropriate, the lust as the Kiwis would say.

          2. Because in the end, it was all about him. It was probably always all about him, and she was just useful collateral.

          3. With due respect, he sent his girlfriends home to their parents. Ms Maxwell was part of the Child Catcher team.

          7. Strange that the TV camera crews were in the prison when they removed the ‘corpse’. And when the cover fell from the face of the ‘corpse’ in front of the cameras it didn’t really resemble him at all. I think the prison authorities would have place any or his body in a coffin before they had it removed.
            I Think it was a set up. He was too wealthy to need to kill himself and knew too many names for them not to get him out alive.

  12. Toey immigration plan – let in millions of illegal criminals every year and say there’s nothing they can do about it and ensuring billions is wasted on hotels.. Labour plan – exactly the same, only they’ll immediately give the criminal welfare shopper a free house.

  13. Morning all 🙂😊
    Sunny but noticeably cooler.
    And any so called plans that labour have put forward or might have in mind, should worry everyone. They’ve found yet another band wagon to jump on to. With no positive ideas of their own on anything at all. It’s known as the Tom Jones syndrome. It’s not unusual.

  14. Morning, all. Clear and calm this morning.

    The mayor of London’s safe city for children?

    When a politician starts to believe their own publicity and ignores what’s really happening it’s time for that politician to be removed. The mayor’s ignoring of growing lawlessness and his attack on personal transport is topped off with his crazy plans for turning London into a C40 City where even the food, clothing and freedom to travel, especially by air, will be controlled by him and his acolytes. He is a clear and present danger to London’s population.

    Apologies: the twitter video hasn’t copied across. Click on the tweet to see peaceful Hainault.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/38ab81b347b74c2548af3a4bbfa90601ceab98ec1f96058c8dc6798a27d9d500.png

    https://twitter.com/DVATW/status/1702436584425984341

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b81cab938912c507bf0d98431fd8493b3ac2332d6ff3d8db9a2f596c31e44505.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5bbd8a2c8588ff5f678251b7dfb22195960c0d7c639f6a8f6a879caddf801be.png

    1. Readjusted statement. I’m proud to be a self opinionated bombastic person who hates any form of criticism. Even though I’m ruining many peoples lives.

      Hopefully looking for a new job very soon.

    2. Where are the tables sourced from, please?

      8 new items of clothing? Dear life. Junior gets through a pair of socks a month it seems, 3 pairs of trousers this year alone. He’s grown over a foot. As for forcing how people will live, comically that never seems to apply to the people forcing these abusive things, does it?

      2. I found the tables here:

        C40 Cities

        I have seen them on other tweets. Khan is the current chairman of the C40 committee.
        If you have doubts re the food rations, NB John Kerry is stalking the World telling governments to stop farmers from growing food. To save the Planet, of course.

    1. I don’t know if May was evil. Stupid, certainly and her ideological insanity of net zero was just yet another globalist blair farce.

      1. She signed the UN Migration Pact, which makes her evil or cowardly or both.
        Remember the end of the 101 Dalmations…Cruella was strong and evil, and her husband was weak and evil.

      2. At what stage does ignorance and stupidity morph into evil?
        Although the intent might not be there, the result is the same.
        Many concentration camp guards were drawn from those with a low IQ. I doubt the prisoners noticed a difference in their treatment.

      3. In my terms I am certain she is evil. In fact she is even more evil than Blair. May has been far more skilful at hiding her evil than Blair, who was rumbled pretty soon!

        But the word “evil” is subjective – what I mean by it is not necessarily what somebody else will mean. It goes back to the naturalistic fallacy – thinking one can derive philosophical truth from a subjective value judgement.

      4. In my terms I am certain she is evil. In fact she is even more evil than Blair. May has been far more skilful at hiding her evil than Blair, who was rumbled pretty soon!

        But the word “evil” is subjective – what I mean by it is not necessarily what somebody else will mean. It goes back to the naturalistic fallacy – thinking one can derive philosophical truth from a subjective value judgement.

  17. Now I must get a move on and get prepared for my long awaited osteopathy appointment.
    Only to be told that the waiting list I should have been put on 4 years ago is now another 4 years longer.

  18. Isn’t multiculturalism great?

    Sara Sharif’s father among three adults charged with murder
    Urfan Sharif was arrested over the death of his 10-year-old daughter alongside his partner Beinash Batool and brother Faisal Malik

      1. There is a certain type of mindset among Muslim men. They are responsible for the women and children in their care which makes them feel entitled to a certain exclusiveness of access. A desire for ownership which in their mind gives them the right to do as they wish.

    3. They flew back to UK in Business Class, on an Emirates flight via Dubai. Good publicity for Emirates.

  19. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – The main reason people voted for Brexit was to restore sovereign democracy, including control of our borders.

    Labour, which is now contemplating a deal with the EU whereby Britain would accept a certain number of migrants from Europe (report, September 14), has put itself in direct conflict with the principle of being in control. It is also worth remembering how untrustworthy the EU, and France in particular, has been on such matters.

    Our present Government needs to deal with the immigration problem forthwith, as did Australia some years ago. If this means leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, then so be it.

    Stuart Moore
    Bramham, West Yorkshire

    Quite so, Mr Moore. And I wonder how Sir Kneel expects to stop the boats? Methinks the EU ‘solution’ will do nothing of of the kind. Trojan Horse, more like, to get us back into the Evil Empire.

    1. One of the reasons. Economic control was another priority. Tax independence a big one. All of those the state has deliberately squandered though.

      None of them will leave the ECHR, repeal the migration pacts or slavery acts. That is why Sunak is the illegitimate PM, ousting Truss. As far as the globalist Left are concerned the UK must be destroyed for daring to oppose their communist vision. His every action has been more alignment as his masters demand. The idea of diverging, such as scrapping VAT or building reservoirs is inconceivable to Sunak or the 600 remoaner MPs.

      Starmer woul simply wave them in and give them a pass port on day 1, a free house on day 2 and endless welfare on day 3. On days 4 and 5 they’d set about stealing and then raping. Then plod would arrest the person complaining about it.

    2. A very good BTL (as usual) from Olivia Wilde:

      Olivia Wilde
      2 HRS AGO
      Stuart Moore on leaving the ECHR., and mass Immigration;
      All will not end well.
      Hungary and Poland are both refusing to take any migrant quotas whatsoever and they are both in the EU., yet Starmer Is actively and openly conspiring with the EU., to accept migrant quotas when we are supposedly no longer In the EU., this just goes to show, the complete treachery and treasonous behaviour SO blatantly apparent within our political parties.
      They don’t even try to hide It, to the point that they are brazen with It!
      Germany who opened the floodgates back In 2015, with Merkel’s “Wie Schaffen das!”, have now stated that they will no longer be accepting migrants coming In from Italy, when morally, they should be bearing the brunt for It all.
      Having witnessed the events playing out over the last couple of days In Lampedusa, this Is only the start of things to come.
      Given that there are now over 100 million people on the move currently around the world, I am scared rigid that with the Inevitability of an escalation of what Italy recently experienced, unless the EU., slams shut all their entry points and borders now, this could well lead to another war within our time; after all, EU., countries are already squabbling amongst themselves as it Is, as we are already overwhelmed as a continent, only set to get a lot worse.
      As for the ECHR., you may as well give up now on that one, as our political class are obsessed on us being the world leaders on moral rectitude all across the board and always to much detriment of our own people.
      We now have the sum of the whole of our political classes and it ain’t good, as they are all too willing to sell us all out just to be looking to be doing the right thing on the world stage.
      They simply just couldn’t care less about us.

      * * *

      I too am “scared rigid” – not so much for myself but our children and grandchildren. Heaven help them.

    3. The Uniparty are dedicated to getting us back in. They are ‘boiling the frog’ thinking we won’t notice.

  20. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – The main reason people voted for Brexit was to restore sovereign democracy, including control of our borders.

    Labour, which is now contemplating a deal with the EU whereby Britain would accept a certain number of migrants from Europe (report, September 14), has put itself in direct conflict with the principle of being in control. It is also worth remembering how untrustworthy the EU, and France in particular, has been on such matters.

    Our present Government needs to deal with the immigration problem forthwith, as did Australia some years ago. If this means leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, then so be it.

    Stuart Moore
    Bramham, West Yorkshire

    Quite so, Mr Moore. And I wonder how Sir Kneel expects to stop the boats? Methinks the EU ‘solution’ will do nothing of of the kind. Trojan Horse, more like, to get us back into the Evil Empire.

  21. SIR – Angela Rayner has committed her party to boosting the powers of unions within the first 100 days of a Labour government.

    I am not sure that the ability of the BMA to disrupt the lives of patients, or the RMT to disrupt the lives of travellers, needs enhancing.

    Peter Williman
    Chatteris, Cambridgeshire

    SIR – Amid the daily onslaught of barely credible ideas from politicians in Britain, Angela Rayner, who would be deputy prime minister if Labour won the next election, believes that trade unions need even more power (report, September 13).

    The Conservative Party has offered little to cheer about of late – but, if such a thing is possible, Labour appears to be even worse.

    It is surely time for another party to emerge, perhaps one that is run by grown-ups.

    Vincent Hearne
    Chinon, Indre-et-Loire, France

    Dear God, Crayons as Dep PM…how low do we have to sink before the rioting begins?

    1. Labour love unions because most of the public sector is unionised and the unions only kick off during Tory governments – regardless of how Left wing they are – for political reasons. The public then blame the Tories for not getting a hospital appointment when the failure is entirely the fault of the unions themselves.

      1. And the Labour Party is bought and paid for by the unions. If they win the next election surely we will witness the return of the ‘beer and sandwiches’ visits hosted by No 10.

  22. Morning all, grey and gloomy on the Costa Clyde. Unlike last week which was scorchio (though not as warm for similar periods in 1906 and 1911, according to Paul Homewood’s article in TCW). A quiet weekend planned so no problem and the the garden could do with a shower.

    1. My garden has had several showers; I need some dry days to tackle the lawns which are approaching meadow length again 🙁

      1. I managed to scythe through mine last Sunday; hopefully, just one more cut for the year. It’s the autumn equinox next Saturday (the Sun dips below the Equator at 06.50 GMT) so this last cool blast of Summer will soon be behind us.

      1. Sadly due to the overbreeding and influx of black gangs , Britain will soon be no longer an island of shop keepers .

        When you also consider 83 years ago , very very young European men took to the skies bravely in small single prop aircraft to fight for our freedom from tyranny.. The Battle of Britain was fought in vain , because modern politicians haven’t honoured those who sacrificed their lives defending our what was once Great Britain .

    3. It’s my belief that it’s all deliberate. It meets with the great reset requirements and One World Order. Import so many gimmegrunts eventually causing civil unrest and, bingo, lockdowns (“for our own good, of course”) and another great stride towards the goal for UN, WEF, WHO.

      I hope I’m wrong.

  24. Morning all,

    McPhee Towers is Foggy Bottom this morning but it should burn off soon. Breeze East-Sou’-East veering South, 12℃ and on its way up to 22℃ today.

    If you want something to exemplify the grotesqueries of the modern West you need look no further than this lot at Vogue World.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0351c72279da1153d1a102c7ab537e2805b0e8690aa0011b5cceee198ebdb5a3.png

    Someone called Sienna Miller thinks we are interested in seeing her ‘baby bump’.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/events/vogue-world-london-review-sienna-miller-kate-moss/

    2. I wasn’t aware it was on. One of many advantages of ignoring the mainstream media…

      Actually, that is rather an original maternity outfit. At least it’s different from skin-tight lycra. Definite earth mummy vibes. What a f’n exhibitionist though!

    5. Causing chaos in central london (covent garden) yesterday- roads were shut for “vogue world”.

    6. I can’t understand the fixation with showing off pregnancy (but then, I’m old enough to remember when women wore maternity dresses to hide it).

  25. Morning all,

    McPhee Towers is Foggy Bottom this morning but it should burn off soon. Breeze East-Sou’-East veering South, 12℃ and on its way up to 22℃ today.

    If you want something to exemplify the grotesqueries of the modern West you need look no further than this lot at Vogue World.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0351c72279da1153d1a102c7ab537e2805b0e8690aa0011b5cceee198ebdb5a3.png

    Someone called Sienna Miller thinks we are interested in seeing her ‘baby bump’.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/events/vogue-world-london-review-sienna-miller-kate-moss/

    1. What a brave little dog .

      Many dogs are unspoken heroes, and why they are so badly mistreated by human monsters , beggers belief.

      My parents and siblings emigrated to South Africa in 1967, I decided not to follow them , and anyway I was training to be a nurse .

      Living in Africa when I was a child had had a traumatising effect on me , witnessing riots and other things etc , I must have been a sensitive child .

      All the things I feared and witnessed in Egypt, the Sudan and Nigeria , are now taking place in the UK .

      Just referring back to an incident that happened to my parents in the late seventies in SA, My mother always favoured Staffies , she owned a pair in SA , parents home / compound was broken into by several miscreants , one of whom had a gun , who waved it around at my parents , and then the dogs defended Ma and Pa , growling and one of the blacks fired the gun at one of the dogs , injuring him in the leg , then all hell was let loose , both dogs attacked the robbers BADLY .

      The police arrived and sorted things out , but very sadly although the dogs protected my parents , yet tore into the robbers , parents were advised to have the dogs put down , because of the blood that had been let !

      So sorry to relate a gruesome story like that , but the bravery of dogs is something else .

  27. Headline for an article in today’s DT:

    “Supermarkets accused of hiking prices just before loyalty card markdowns

    Which? accuse Tesco and Sainsbury’s of creating discount illusion for members”

    Well now, whoda thunkit??

    1. Those cards are a deal whereby you sell your data to the company. I choose not to sell mine.
      The value of the discounts you get is less than or equal to the value of your data to the supermarket, which is quite a sobering thought.

      1. The information on those cards will be accessible to government agencies. Don’t believe any disclaimers.
        Medical treatment will be based on your shopping record. Butter, cream, meat – anything deemed ‘harmful’ by the latest medical fad (and remember what is the source of most doctors’ income) will nix your chances of heart or stroke treatment.
        I don’t touch them with a barge pole.

    2. Yet folk don’t seem to understand why food prices have gone up so much. It’s all down to tax. Farmers are heavily taxed – then subsidised, business is heavily taxed, energy and fuel are heavily taxed and all these costs are passed immediately on to the customer.

      Combine those taxes and regulation with devaluation for big government’s incompetent and vicious borrowing and you get the perfect storm of economic chaos – exactly as big government wanted.

    3. Pringles if purchased by a Necktar cardholder are on offer at £1.85 in Sainsbury. In the Co-op last week the same flavours were priced at £1.75.

  28. September 14 (King World News) – Alasdair Macleod: Russia and the Saudis are driving up oil and diesel prices. But these moves are likely to undermine the rouble more than they undermine the dollar, euro, and other major currencies. Therefore, higher energy prices will rebound on the Russians this winter: if they shiver in Germany, they will freeze in Russia. If the dollar is king of the fiats, the rouble is just a lowly serf.

    There is little doubt that Putin and his advisers are aware of this problem. Plan A was to introduce a new gold-backed BRICS currency which might be expected to weaken the dollar and euro relative to the rouble. Plan B was more drastic: to back the rouble itself with gold. This is the financial equivalent of dropping a hydrogen bomb on the dollar…”

    OPEC has decreased oil production, the gits. We’ll shortly be looking back wistfully at the era of 2 pound/litre petrol, I fear…

    The rest of the article is here:
    https://kingworldnews.com/currency-wars-and-the-introduction-of-a-russian-gold-backed-ruble/

    1. Didn’t Russia tie the rouble to the gold standard as soon as the sanctions were imposed? I thought they had.

    2. If you remove the taxes from UK fuel costs it’s only about 50p. Locking a currency to gold is a good thing as the currency doesn’t devalue and inflation is managed. It’s when fiat currency, controlled by the state is devalued that you get inflation.

  29. Well everyone I can’t find anything to write about! In fact I’m getting a little suspicious of it. Are they in fact reducing the amount of propaganda? The Mail has dropped its Ukraine sub-heading entirely and I haven’t found any individual stories either. There are a very few puerile pieces about Vlad having dinner in the MSM and that’s about it! Of course if no one believes the propaganda there’s really no point in producing it!

    1. From the headlines and acreage of print in the Wail and the Tellygraff, it would seem that the Gruesome Twosome’s PR machine has gone into overdrive.
      Cracks meet paper.

  30. Good morning all,

    Really foggy and quite chilly here , spiders webs glistening with dew .
    Moh is golfing again , there will be many yells of FORE on the golf course , because the weather is that murky.

    I had porridge for breakfast. Pip spaniel is now resting in Jack’s cosy little bed next to my chair .

    What has happened to the adverts on GB news , I gather lefty advertisers don’t like the GB news content ?

    1. The activist Left set about trying to destroy GB News because they’re so insecure they cannot abide a dissenting voice. As a result a lot of advertisers won’t sell to GB News. It’s stupid considering the demographic are the ones who pay for everything.

    2. Lovely sunny day here now that the fog has cleared and it’s quite warm out there now.

      Did Pip have his own bed or has he taken over Jack’s because he knows Jack’s not coming back?

      I remember when Joe died, (here one evening in late August 22 years ago) his brother Pat looked at him in his box, awaiting burial, then scuttled into the kitchen and finished up Joe’s food. Pat lived for another year and died, aged 18. There are now four cats buried in our garden – Pat and Joe, Sam and Lily, but not Suzie, who disappeared one evening in April 2019, possibly taken by a fox. We miss our cats, but none is forgotten.

      1. Hello Ndovu

        The sun is now shining and I am just waiting for the washing machine to finish its cycle .

        Pip is now sleeping by my chair in Jack’s old bed / cushion thing , I washed everything for obvious reasons.

        Poor Jack, I miss his knowingness alert eyes , sense of timing and braveness. I am certain he knew what I was thinking .

        Pip has become a little closer , and actually listens to me now, he does miss the older dog , and is alert to all sounds etc

        We were reassured by the Vet that there was a very good cremation facility in Somerset .

        I have never wanted to bury a pet in the garden , chalky soil, although Happy parrot who died 3 years ago is buried under a rose bush.

        1. It’s a bit more difficult with dogs, as they are so much bigger. But cats don’t take up so much room, and a little hole is fairly easy to dig here. We buried Lily wrapped in an old towel, and I found a heavy stone to go on top. I was worried the badger would come and dig her up. But nothing untoward has happened.

      2. Charlie was much the same when Jazz was put to sleep. The moment he got back home from the vet’s he went to their shared bed, got into the middle and wriggled around as if to say, “it’s ALL MINE now!”.

      2. They have got to be refused. If they keep coming in then there are literally millions of them. We cannot support them here. They’ve got to stay where they are.

        1. Are you completely daft? Millions, we should be so lucky.

          Good morning Wibbling and everyone. A lovely day!

          No, not millions, but tens of millions, then hundreds of millions. What we see is an advance guard. Recently decided that most Nottlers are limp wristed liberal lefties, probably in the clutches of Big Pharma. But hey, I don’t want to be arrested so the battle continues between my opinions and my finger on the keyboard.

          1. The squeal that would go up from the hypocritical authors of this debacle is that the invaders don’t yet have guns therefore are unarmed refugees. Sob sob.

      3. Here’s an interesting fact: in Sir Francis Drake’s day there was no human rights legislation.

        Strange, that!

  32. For those who don’t have a Spectator subscription, our glorious ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson has this shameless piece of propaganda in the magazine this week:

    When you visit the rehabilitation centres for those Ukrainian soldiers who have received life-changing injuries, you swiftly learn how to deal with the shock of what you see. You don’t flinch or look away; of course not.

    You learn the habit of the skilled doctors and nurses and physiotherapists – of concentrating not on the wounds but on the individuals, on the men; and though many women have been killed or injured in this beastly conflict, I must have seen over a hundred badly injured soldiers in Kyiv and Lviv, in three different hospitals, and they all were men.

    Do not believe for one second that these Ukrainian soldiers could be persuaded to lay down their weapons

    You notice some remarkable qualities in these patients. They are not by any means all young, far from it. Some are in their forties and fifties. They are a citizen army: husbands, fathers, greybeards – men of my age. As you watch them trying to recover strength in the limbs that remain, kneading plasticine, throwing medicine balls, struggling again and again to perform some rudimentary task, you feel their determination to make the best possible use of the exemplary care they are getting: to rebuild something like a life.

    As you talk to them, you rapidly discover that they don’t want to excite your compassion. They don’t want to be told how brave they are – because they don’t feel that they are especially brave. As a couple of them put it to me, rather fiercely, they think they were ‘doing their job’. They were doing something that was simply essential, and unavoidable, for their families and for the life of their country, and they had bad luck – as anyone can have bad luck in a dangerous job.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d48073f766f6641a3b87d838514c7f05662cf5e347dd96b49bf8624bbdbdc5b3.png

    A Ukrainian infantry soldier receives care for a shrapnel wound in Hulyaipole, 12 September 2023 (Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

    They got hit by shrapnel from a tank round or an artillery shell, or they trod on a mine, and they sustained injuries that would have been completely familiar to the battlefield medics of the first world war; the difference being that today, a century on, the extraordinary advances in surgery and prosthetics mean that not only are they alive, but they want one thing above all else. That is to be able to go back to the frontline, and take up where they left off.

    They don’t want any of your Siegfried Sassoon or Wilfred Owen-style lamentation; they don’t want any anthems for doomed youth or moaning about the pity of war. They want to get on with killing Russians and expelling the invader from their land.

    Rather than talk about their injuries, they want to talk about the progress that their units or regiments have unquestionably made. The one thing that seems visibly to give them solace and satisfaction is the knowledge that ground is being retaken, and villages are being recaptured, and that their efforts have played a part in that success and – who knows – may do so again.

    Of course you cannot help wondering, as you look at the shattered bodies of these men, to what extent they can ever really hope to live a normal life, let alone rejoin the armed forces of Ukraine – no matter how unconquerable and magnificent the spirit within. You therefore feel a sense of helpless rage at the continuing scale and pace of the human suffering.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60520c89bc58ebdf81049574a8755340f986b849e4c20d8bfdf16a42d088dfd1.png

    Ukrainian amputee soldiers attend a football training session in Kyiv, 31 August 2023 (Roman Pilipey/Getty Images)

    This war has produced something like 20,000 Ukrainian amputees, most of them in the armed forces; and the savagery is so great that every week these rehab and recovery centres are receiving dozens more. Bear in mind, too, that I was almost certainly being shown those who are most capable of making any kind of recovery at all, and there will be others whose physical mutilation or mental trauma is even worse.

    It is now 19 months since Putin miscalculated, and unleashed the biggest and bloodiest conflict in Europe since the end of the second world war. He has directly caused the killing or injuring of 300,000 Russians and probably about half as many Ukrainians. You stand in those hospital wards and feel aghast at the pain, furious that so many are still being fed into the meat grinder – and all because of the ego and folly of one man, the Moloch of the Kremlin.

    Do not believe for one second that these Ukrainian soldiers – or the wider population of Ukraine – could be persuaded somehow to lay down their weapons or do a deal with Putin. They are not fighting at our behest, and will not stop because we say so. They are fighting a war of independence, because they refuse to bow down to terror and because they want their country to be free.

    They find the idea of a negotiation laughable. In the last few days I did my best to probe them on this point – but I found not the slightest slackening of Ukrainian resolve. They don’t see how they could trade land for peace, because they don’t see how they could possibly believe a word Putin says. Yevgeny Prigozhin thought he had done a deal with Putin – and it didn’t exactly work for him.

    There is only one thing they want from us, and that is the weaponry to finish the job – and so I simply do not understand why we keep dragging our feet. Why are we always so slow? How can we look these men in the eye, and explain the delay? Throughout this war we have underestimated the Ukrainians and overestimated Putin, and we are doing the same today.

    The Russians now occupy barely half the land they held in the weeks after the invasion. They have been routed in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson; and yes, the counter-offensive is going more slowly than some had hoped. But it is proceeding. It is only 20 to 30 kilometres from the Ukrainian positions to Melitopol; and if they can get to that southern city, then their artillery will command the whole land bridge. They will be able to interdict movement between Russia and Crimea – a colossal strategic reversal for Putin. Even if they can’t do it in the next few weeks – or however much remains of the 2023 fighting season – they can certainly do it next year.

    All we need is strategic patience, and a far greater sense of urgency about our programme of military assistance. Ukraine’s battlefield needs are changing, and we need to recognise that. A year ago or so we were worried about giving the Ukrainians tanks and armoured cars, on the absurd ground that such support might be ‘provocative’ to Russia. Now the drones have become so lethal that both sides are said to be parking their armour and walking.

    The Ukrainians need man-portable air-defence systems (Manpads) to take out the Russian helicopters. They need Patriot-style systems to protect themselves against attack from the air, and they need better long-range artillery to take out the Russian positions. The Himars have been valuable, but the Russians have been effective in their counter-measures. The Ukrainians want and need the ATACMs, the long-range missile systems that are still being withheld by the US, and they need more missile systems such as the UK’s Storm Shadow, which has proved to be extremely valuable.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9143584ddc9f5fe4f559d934e21122a51ff72626f7241005f625b6f57035c88.png

    A Himar launches a rocket in Donetsk Oblast, 18 May 2023 (Serhii Mykhalchuk/Getty Images)

    From the UK, they are hoping for more help with howitzers, with Stormshadow, with air defences, and they want as much help as we can give on drone technology.

    President Zelensky told me that he needs just 200 more sophisticated ballistic systems such as ATACMs, and the US has thousands in store. Why keep them on ice? What other purpose could they possibly serve that would better guarantee the long-term security of the West, including the United States?

    Some voices in Washington have said that the US should pursue a ‘China First’ strategy, and hold the ATACMs in reserve in case they have to be sent to protect Taiwan. What nonsense. The best way to deter an attack on Taiwan is to make sure that the Ukrainians win, and as fast as possible.

    We are talking about a relatively trivial outlay for such extraordinary potential reward. The US has given only about 1 per cent of its annual defence budget to support Ukraine’s armed forces, and the UK has given a fraction of what the US has given. There are no US boots on the ground, and no possibility of US bodybags coming home – and yet the stakes for the West are enormous. If Putin wins – and all he has to do, to claim a victory, is hang on to at least a chunk of the territory he has taken since 24 February 2022 – the dreadful message will go round the world: that this was the moment when the democracies pledged to stand up to the autocracies, and we flunked it. The story of Ukraine will be of lion-hearted Ukrainian troops finally betrayed by western loss of nerve.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0569a83d5561d39be50dc9a02bac35b6ce1bf16b2bc22a4da142b733630a22fb.png

    Ukrainian soldiers and a stuck missile after Russian shelling in Kramatorsk, 2 September 2023 (Roman Chop/Getty Images)

    Around the global campfire the word will be passed that yet again we have been shown not to mean what we say, not to stick with our friends, and not to be willing to stand up for freedom and the rule of law – even when not a single western soldier is at risk.

    If Putin wins in Ukraine, if he holds even a fraction of what he has taken, then the lesson will be clear: that aggression pays, that European borders can once again be changed by violence, with all that means for Georgia, the Baltic states, anywhere in the former Soviet Union, or former Soviet sphere of influence, where Putin fancies a revanchist and domestically rabble-rousing military operation.

    A Putin victory would be a catastrophe for the West and for American leadership, and I don’t believe it is an outcome that could easily be endured by a US President, let alone one who wanted to Make America Great Again. And if, on the other hand, Ukraine wins and kicks Putin out – as, with our help, they can – then the reverse is true. Exactly the opposite message will be sent around the world: that we do care about democracy, that we are willing to back our principles, and that the West still has the guts to stick at something until we succeed.

    It is naturally dismaying to see how many global swing voters there are, how many countries are willing to give Putin the benefit of the doubt.

    The Ukrainians were appalled by India’s feeble G20 summit communiqué, and the Indian refusal, despite the pleas of Joe Biden, to allow Zelensky even to address the meeting in his usual fashion. All that will change once Ukraine wins: all that ghastly trimming and bet-hedging and Putin-greasing – all of it will fade from the agenda. That is because there is one thing the people of the world understand better than a thousand sermons on democracy and the rule of law – and that is military victory.

    Victory for Ukraine will revalidate and re-energise the West and all we stand for. Above all, it will mean the liberation of a beautiful and entirely innocent country that has been selfishly and criminally attacked.

    I believe that victory will come; and I believed it all the more strongly after talking to those injured soldiers. You see it in their eyes. You hear it in the ferocity of their expressions, their rejoicing in land recaptured. Whatever you think about nationalism, or national feeling, it is the most potent force in politics – stronger even than religion – and in his insanity Putin has intensified and provoked the most powerful modern nationalism we have seen. His troops, tired, mistrustful, far from home, have nothing in their hearts to match it.

    That is why Putin will lose and Ukraine will eventually win; and since that is what must happen, and since that is what is going to happen, can we not, in the name of all that is holy, give the Ukrainians now the military assistance they need to bring matters to the speediest possible conclusion so that fewer human beings are thrown into the charnel-house of this pointless conflict?

    I have asked it before, and I ask it again: what the hell are we waiting for?

    He gets a real savaging in the the comments. I’m surprised the Speccie hasn’t closed them.

    1. If Putin wins – and all he has to do, to claim a victory, is hang on to at least a chunk of the territory he has taken since 24 February 2022 – the dreadful message will go round the world: that this was the moment when the democracies pledged to stand up to the autocracies, and we flunked it.

      The democracies! Hollow laughs!

    2. And tell me Boris how do you feel being (irre)responsible for so many of those deaths and mutilations?

        1. They should be shame and disgust but we know politicians have no feeling for indigenous peoples.

      1. Some real Johnson and Zelensky fans too though, although they seem notably short of actual arguments when challenged!

      1. I struggled to read it – it is indeed shameless. Boris the warmonger. He doesn’t care about the mutilated men.

    8. Boris Johnson is either seriously deluded or else a lying bastard or probably both.

      The repetition of the aim of the war being to kill Russians has to be the most wicked motivation. We do not wish to kill anyone. As matters stand hundreds of thousands, possibly 500,000 Ukrainians have been sacrificed by Johnson and his ilk. This makes no sense. Russia is able to ratchet up its arms production in ways not possible in the west, has better weapons and air defence systems and a far greater population than Ukraine.

    2. Does the clothing allowance include underwear or socks? For other items I probably already comply. As far as travel and food is concerned, they can sod off – I will go where I want for as long as I’m able, and eat what I want to eat.

      1. One sock a year, I believe (left foot or right foot: your choice). As for underwear, briefs and knickers will be banned so that natural aeration from a good stiff BREEZE will keep one’s ‘bits’ from getting too stuffy!

        1. Better lay in a stock of pants and socks before the ban comes in I think! I prefer not to let the wind blow freely round my bits………

  35. Good Moaning.
    Knickers and Spit!
    Even the thieves round here aren’t interested.
    The crap family treasures left in the Noddy car overnight are still there.
    How humiliating is that? When the local tea leaves aren’t tempted…..

    1. The ICA Gallery in The Mall exhibited soiled nappies as art in 1976. “The Dirty Nappy Art Show” by Mary Kelly. Her son, the source of the raw material, was apparently three years old and still in nappies. Lousy mother as well as fraudulent artist.

          1. A Tent? That must have only been the previous week’s quota. She’d need Wembley Stadium for a true list.

  37. Morning all.
    I’m on the last day of a break, staying in Devon. Weather has been lovely – v hot, in fact.
    Home tomorrow then a week of disruption while I have some new flooring put down then back to work.
    Thoughts of retiring creep into my mind more and more often – I’d love to be offered redundancy package.

    1. Can’t you ‘accidentally’ give a Beeb journalist some confidential information about Farage?
      Kerchinnggg. £11 million; just like that.

    2. I’m looking at retirement too, Stormy. It gets difficult to be interested in work these days, and I’m very tired.

        2. I retired in 1999 (aged 51) and have never regretted it (except for the loss of salary and pension contributions, but my health came first).

    3. You can say that again! I’d be crossing the days off the calendar – if I thought I would ever be able to afford to retire…

  38. Apropos the helpful plans of the C40 wanqueurs…. I was wondering to what extent the hordes of newcomers will go about complying….

    (Thought I’d give you something to larf at…)

  39. Ask your husband how often he thinks about the Roman Empire – the answer might surprise you. 15 September 2023.

    Ladies, have you asked your other half The Question yet? You know which one. Or at least you should, because social media is awash with women asking their menfolk just how often they think about the Roman Empire.

    The Roman Empire, or more accurately the Roman Republic, is the nearest thing that we have to today’s polities so it is not unsurprising that people look to it to give us an insight into our own fate. It is not very encouraging. The Republic, a flawed Democracy, eventually imploded due to the competition between the two parties that supplied the leadership. The Civil War that followed destroyed the democratic basis of Roman life and substituted authoritarianism.

    You can live without Democracy of course. That has been the human condition for most of history. Still there is something about it. To live knowing that you determine your own fate, that you are a citizen and not a subject is probably the apogee of communal life. It is the nursery of freedom and individual human greatness. It is already finished here in the UK and EU. The United States is next. What happens there will determine the fate of the world!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/09/15/how-often-does-your-husband-think-about-the-roman-empire/

    1. I think about the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire every day. Why is that supposed to be a masculine preserve? I’m surrounded by a decaying society. The parrallels are obvious but the scale is much greater. The whole of Europe and the Anglosphere.

      1. Afternoon Sue. I learned about politics, real politics, by reading Young Caesar by Rex Warner in school.

    4. Here is the Hierarchy of Jurisdiction according to Natural, God-Given or Common Law.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9f61b97d46ed4895737c29288bd30ce4c526a768e7db89f295b1ac6afd41abea.png

      You can see that if you consent to being a citizen you are at the bottom of the pile. You subject yourself to the Monarch, Government and Public Servants.

      Have a look at what Karen-Ruth Skolmli has to tell you in her one-day course.

      https://www.sovereignnaturalempowerment.com/online-course

        1. I’m not sure about that, Araminta, but I don’t have the time to debate it at the moment. Maybe we could come back to this some time.

      2. “We are deceived from the day we are born, right through our lives.”

        How very true. However, it doesn’t go on to explain how that deception is constantly enforced via the artificial concepts (mind-control) that are religion and politics.

        Those possessing power wish to retain power and they do so by knowing that 99% of the population are mentally weak and, consequently, easy to manipulate by either (or both) of those powerfully effective methods of mind-control.

          6. I ran out of Dulux.

            “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, is wasteful and ridiculous excess.”

  40. Ask your husband how often he thinks about the Roman Empire – the answer might surprise you. 15 September 2023.

    Ladies, have you asked your other half The Question yet? You know which one. Or at least you should, because social media is awash with women asking their menfolk just how often they think about the Roman Empire.

    The Roman Empire, or more accurately the Roman Republic, is the nearest thing that we have to today’s polities so it is not unsurprising that people look to it to give us an insight into our own fate. It is not very encouraging. The Republic, a flawed Democracy, eventually imploded due to the competition between the two parties that supplied the leadership. The Civil War that followed destroyed the democratic basis of Roman life and substituted authoritarianism.

    You can live without Democracy of course. That has been the human condition for most of history. Still there is something about it. To live knowing that you determine your own fate, that you are a citizen and not a subject is probably the apogee of communal life. It is the nursery of freedom and individual human greatness. It is already finished here in the UK and EU. The United States is next. What happens there will determine the fate of the world!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/09/15/how-often-does-your-husband-think-about-the-roman-empire/

    3. Ain’t no shoplifters, just thieves.
      Edit; been busy, is that connected to the woman who was grabbed in a headlock and the rest of her tribe came to plead for vengeance, or compensation, or both?

  42. Shooting Times and Sun Politics follow
    Toby Young
    @toadmeister
    Rumour has it the Sunday Times is working on a big story this weekend — biggest of the year, supposedly. Due to drop tomorrow at 3pm. Leave cancelled, all hands to the pump, security tightened, etc. May be a sex scandal of some kind, possibly involving a politician. Anyone know?
    10:47 AM · Sep 15, 2023
    ·
    53.8K
    https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1702620036119097502

    3. Probably a bit about some unknown celeb (ette) will have flashed a bit of body during a booze addled awards bash. However I would prefer a story about Sunak and Dianne Abbot being twins.

      Where is the News of the World when you need it.

    1. The whole point of these globalist institutions is to ensure the voter has absolutely no say in policy whatsoever.

      1. Even my covid convinced brothers agreed when I said that we’re presented with a gorilla, an orangutan and a chimpanzee so that the powers that be can say, well, you voted for an ape.

      2. Even my covid convinced brothers agreed when I said that we’re presented with a gorilla, an orangutan and a chimpanzee so that the powers that be can say, well, you voted for an ape.

  46. Afternoon All

    Belated Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48ce065ef68024de69382ab5a335a86332fa9ffa768ad74c5a90bc6c74a24e16.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be3f5d142cda46dfbd9f71e75bb797b98173ffe7e6c363705c149ab414808e5c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/093331ebabe64693883b30920bd88fec0cd960dbf10f782cefe61a4b1b2ce88e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cfe4b2cff0520661df1d1f2ff503eb4639a15fc9049ba2957064dedce11c13ff.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff6fef474f1251b9378ffeef966ca417801fc8f6f233bb1baefee4b2ba981b1f.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ce27b6bd0c7d2d0f5890c7056ea6446063e27a53fe686afd45fae3bc953ddaa.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c7a9248cb6c60aa5a684db1b1460343b18713531f4e02ad41653807f65d256ee.jpg

      2. It’s a deadly combination of dogs bred and trained to be killers by evil people who enjoy death and destruction.
        Anyone who wishes to own a dog like that is, by definition, unsuited to owning a dog

      3. While breed characteristics are important, ownership and training are also vital. Oscar has fearsome teeth (he was bred to take on foxes underground, after all) and he could give you a nasty bite. I like to think he’s become more the cuddly teddy that he resembles than the grizzly he was when I first got him because I’ve trained him and gained his trust.

      2. He doesn’t ‘do’ anything. It is all put off to get the headline.

        As it is, this dog is the result of middle easterners fighting them against one another. They’ve brought their savagery here. Sunak has to make sure no one realises before he does nothing.

  48. I’ve just received notification that I’ve passed my diabetic eye-screening test. A small thing but always a relief.

  51. Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more

    PAPERS LARGELY IGNORE INQUIRY EVIDENCE OVER COVID JAB HARMS
    Staggering, blatant censorship of victims calls editors’ motives into question
    NEWS UNCUT

    SEP 15

    READ IN APP

    By Oliver May
    EVIDENCE of Covid jab deaths and harms given to the Covid Inquiry has been ignored by most of the mainstream print media.
    The BBC also chose not to report the evidence. It did, however, believe that far more newsworthy was the fact that care home residents are now being given the Covid booster, publishing this story on its website a day before the Inquiry heard about multiple jab deaths and injuries.

    Speaking on Twitter about his attendance at the Covid Inquiry on Wednesday, Alex Mitchell, who lost his leg following complications from a Covid jab, said he felt it was a force for good. And at least on the surface, it was. He wrote: “It was a very emotional day for us all and tears freely flowed from many. First time I actually felt like we were being listened to and acknowledged.”
    Except they were not.

    As far as the print media were concerned, this is all the ‘acknowledgment’ victims of the jab received:
    Express: 3 paragraphs [99 words]. Page 6
    Telegraph: 10 paragraphs [371 words]. Page 6
    Mirror: Did not cover
    Guardian: Did not cover
    Times: Did not cover
    Sun: Did not cover
    Independent: Did not cover
    i: Did not cover
    This despite thousands of words and pages of newsprint given up for previous submissions to the Covid Inquiry:

    The Sun double-page spread published on July 30, 2023

    Mirror double-page spread July 19, 2023

    Guardian double-page spread July 20, 2023
    It is now harder than ever to argue that there is not an agenda driven by print media hierarchy and the UK Government on what it can and cannot publish.
    Consider that every national newspaper on Thursday carried a large NHS advert about the signs of a heart attack:

    And that the i newspaper, instead of reporting from the Inquiry, decided that a better story came from Greenland:

    And The Sun, despite having no room it seems for news from the Inquiry, did manage to carve out some space for the earth-shattering revelation of a shortage of pizza dough:

    Consider also that the sinister C40 Cities agenda which, as previously reported by News Uncut, has set what is calls ambitious targets for 2030 including no private car ownership, no meat or dairy consumption, only three pieces of new clothing per person per year and one short-haul flight per person every three years, has still not seen the light of day in the mainstream print press, despite a wealth of evidence being passed to at least one national daily.
    Speaking at its preliminary hearing, Anna Morris KC, who represents three groups — the Vaccine Injured and Bereaved (VIB) UK, Scottish Vaccine Injury Group and UK CV Family — hinted that there was some hierarchical agenda to silence voices from the official Government mantra.
    Morris said: “The Covid vaccine injured and bereaved have been marginalised in the past three years, struggling to have their voices and experiences heard, having gone from being fit and healthy people, leading full and active lives, to being disabled and dependent on benefits.
    “They have suffered additional trauma due to the lack of medical, psychological and financial support available. These are not people who are dealing witha sore arm or flu-like symptoms, these are people who have had a stroke, a heart attack or lost a limb, people whose bodies are full of clots, people who have had debilitating migraines almost every single day for up to three years, and people who now have allergic reactions to everything they consume, even water, and young women who had hoped to become mothers but whose periods have stopped completely.

    “These are not the normal side effects anybody would reasonable expect from a pharmaceutical product. These are people who have lost their livelihoods, their friends and, in some cases, their families.
    “In addition, the vaccine injured and bereaved can’t process their trauma because they’re fighting every step of the way for recognition, validation, care and support. They can’t express or record their experiences without being misunderstood, misrepresented or used for somebody else’s agenda.”
    She added: “The vaccine injured and bereaved have spent the past three years, both individually and as a collective, asking for help from this country’s medical professionals, mainstream media and members of parliament. They have been met with standard responses that promote the vaccine and that completely fail to address the needs of the injured and bereaved.
    “An analogy can be drawn with listening to someone who has been in a serious car accident and then telling them about all the benefits of cars and then how many people haven’t been killed by cars. No other medical condition or injury is treated in this way.”

    Anna Morris, speaking on Wednesday at the Covid Inquiry on behalf of jab victims
    Morris also told the Inquiry that current ‘official’ figures for those who have been accepted for jab damage payments from the ‘inadequate’ compensation scheme are likely to be far higher.
    She said: “What is required is both radical and urgent. It [the vaccine compensation scheme] is no longer fit for purpose.
    “As of July of this year, the scheme has received a total of 6,399 claims of which 2,352 have been notified of an outcome.
    “Over 500 of those claims have been waiting for more than 12 months with 166 of them waiting for over 18 months waiting to receive an outcome. 96 per cent of those claims have been refused.
    “Many have been turned down on causation despite having evidence from multiple consultants that their injuries started following vaccination.

    John Watt, also injured by the jab, shares his emotion from the Covid Inquiry
    “My Lady [Lady Hallett], you have also indicated that you intend to look at post-marketing surveillance of the vaccine, such as the Yellow Card monitoring and reporting system. The reality is that, despite the presence of this system, we still have no idea how many people have actually had an adverse reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine.
    “For example, according to figures updated in April 2023, 53.8 million people in the UK had the first dose of the Covid vaccine and 50.7m people had the second.
    “Those numbers are reported up until September of last year. That leaves just over 3m people, or six per cent of the UK population, who stopped after the first dose.
    “That is clearly six per cent of the population who did not come forward for the second part of what was clearly marketed as a two-part vaccine and, my Lady, you should be concerned about the reasons why that six per cent did not take the second dose.
    Pledge your support
    “One reason may have been that they did not feel able to have the second dose because of how unwell the first dose made them feel.
    “So in our submission the Inquiry should, as a matter of urgency, investigate firstly the effectiveness o the passive reporting system, such as the Yellow Card scheme and, secondly, any other ways to determine exactly how many people have been impacted by an adverse reaction.”
    And she added: “There is a particular significance to these Module 4 hearings taking place in the autumn. Those were present are concerned that, given the reported return of Covid-19 variants and the discussion in government and the media of a winter vaccine roll-out, that their experiences will once again be censored and ignored as they don’t fit with the government narrative around vaccines.”
    And she was right.
    Full public hearing evidence
    DONATE

    News Uncut: Straight Talk, Hard Truths is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell News Uncut: Straight Talk, Hard Truths that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won’t be charged unless they enable payments.
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    1. Mother will likely get a booster from her care home. She’s seriously tough, is Mother, so I’m not so concerned
      In any case, I only have PoA over her money, not her health.

  53. Set off at 6:30 am. First 7 locks completed in 3 1/2 hours. At 10:00 am the flight of 16 locks was opened. I went through 2 before being joined by a volunteer locker. Together we went through another 8 locks before being joined by another three lockies. Through the 16 locks in 2 3/4 hours. Spot of lunch and then solo for the last 6 locks in 2 1/2 hours. Arrived a short while ago and moored opposite the Wadworth Brewery. Cheers!

    5. Well done! I used to help boats through the lock next to the Navigation pub when I was still living at home.

  56. Well, I must be one mixed up chick. Not only did I read the Eagle in my youth, but the Romans do cross my mind on a daily basis.
    At the moment, AD 410 keeps running through my mind.
    This morning, I was attempting to recall the lyrics of the Roman marching song in The Eagle of the Ninth.
    That led to trying to remember which emperor cried out to Varus to bring back his legions after three of them were wiped out in the Teutoburger Forest.
    Then I caught up with the ironing.

    From the DT:

    “Ask your husband how often he thinks about the Roman Empire – the answer might surprise you
    Social media has been a source of wonder and amusement this week as a viral post revealed the hidden obsession of men the world over…”

    2. Anne , I am also mixed up as well, and we bought our first house within the shadow of a Roman Hillfort .

      AD 410 stays with me forever .. and here is me who in her younger married days ran around Maiden Castle Hillfort , Durnovaria , naked .. well not quite all the way around .. and I also marvel at the Emperor Vespasian who marched , and had camps in this area , my romantic mind runs riot .. especially so for their legacy .

        1. My goodness , that is simply beautiful .

          How on earth did they manage to create that, it is perfection and imagination , the artistry is something from another sphere . Spell binding .

          1. That’s the replica – painstakingly made from tesserae by the Woodward brothers in the 1970s. It was on display for a long time but then it was sold. The original is badly damaged in places and the damaged parts filled in with concrete. But it is marvellous and quite spectacular. I feel very lucky to have seen it in 1973. I remember peering into the trench – I was heavily pregnant at the time, so had to take care not to topple in.

          2. Never the less , what a memorable experience for you .

            I just find it so difficult understanding where the Roman craftsmen acquired the art and the coloured stones to do their mosaic work . I feel the same way about ancient stained glass windows ,how?

          3. Craftsmen were very skilled in ancient times. Have you seen any of the ancient Egyptian artifacts from the tombs? I went to an exhibition of Tuthankamun’s grave goods in Basel in 2004 – absolutely amazing.

            Mediaeval buildings and cathedrals, not just the glass – are stunning.

          4. That’s the replica – painstakingly made from tesserae by the Woodward brothers in the 1970s. It was on display for a long time but then it was sold. The original is badly damaged in places and the damaged parts filled in with concrete. But it is marvellous and quite spectacular. I feel very lucky to have seen it in 1973. I remember peering into the trench – I was heavily pregnant at the time, so had to take care not to topple in.

      5. Colchester is a Roman town.
        I drive past the wall practically daily.
        Most days I walk Spartie along an Ancient British rampart.
        Some days we walk along the top – so we are at one with Boudicca. Another time we walk along the base, so we are Romans frantically trying to catch up.

    3. I thought of you this morning; a local gift shop had a pin which read, “She is small, but she is fiery” (Shakespeare) 🙂

  57. Vaping is a growing threat to children’s health
    SIR – Madeline Grant writes positively about vaping (Comment, September 13) but her personal, adult experience has biased her conclusions, as she omits figures on vaping by children.

    The rate of use by children has been steadily growing after formidable commercial marketing. Action on Smoking and Health reports that 7.6 per cent of British children now vape. The active ingredient is nicotine, which is addictive and can be harmful to adolescent brains.

    Vaping is not “trivial” but threatens children’s health. It should be banned for under-18s.

    Professor Sir Denis Pereira Gray
    Former chairman, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges
    Exeter, Devon

    When Moh and myself had our appointments with the Spirometry department last week, we both had over an hour each doing the breathing tests .

    Mine was requested re post Covid shortness of breath when I had Covid last year and swollen ankles , and Moh ‘s test was requested by our quack re his diagnosis of a systolic heart murmur, after Christmas and a prolonged cough .

    We had separate appointments at a little local hospital .. I was asked a myriad of health questions .. I muttered something about DDT spraying when I was a child over seas , the Flit spray and also the houses were sprayed outside around the verandas with DDT by contractors for anopheles , and tsetse and the rest .

    Moh was told the quack about diesel exhaust’s on ships, offshore gases and aviation fuel when he was flying helicopters etc.

    Plus of course the free blue line cigarettes .. 200 per month that the RN dished out to everyone in the old days .

    Goodness knows what the disgusting vapes are doing to young lungs .

    1. Did he smoke then? I’ve never been tempted to do so – but I had enough smoke from my mother when I was young.

    2. Gosh. “Ships Woodbines”. To die for (as it were!) My brother was in the Royal Navy……so I was never short of them!

      Of course, I gave up on 23 October 1968. Never touched a cigarette since.

        1. I remember my mother chain smoking after my dad died – I thought everyone lit one cig from the last one.

          She was very stressed of course. She smoked all her adult life till the last few months. I used to moan at her if she smoked in our house, but on her final visit, at Easter 1989, she didn’t smoke at all, and she did cut down to about five a day before then.

  58. J Michael Phillips
    1 MIN AGO
    Every Christian thinks about the Roman Empire every Sunday, because ‘crucified under Pontius Pilate’ is an integral part of the Creed which is recited. So the answer is several million. Consequently, across UK Pontius Pilate is the most often mentioned Roman.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/09/15/how-often-does-your-husband-think-about-the-roman-empire/#:~:text=All%20over%20social%20media%2C%20women,this%20very%20subject%20to%20her.

  59. That’s me for today. Nice and sunny and warm. My eldest grandson’s 30th birthday. He is living it up in Nice – he is a rabid rugby fan – saw the Argentina game and is going to watch England lose to Japan on Sunday.

    Just heard that a long-standing friend in France died in July. He was American – Democrat. We disagreed about most things political but were very good chums for many years. He was 92 but it is still a surprise.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  60. As the Wef and all the tiresome vegans and virtue signallers keep telling us to eat less meat i just bought a 1.6kg 32 aged fore rib of beef.
    I haven’t any plans for it at the moment (Christmas/Easter)…just thought i would support the industry which they wish to destroy.

    2. Second Son just cooked his first ever beef. Thinly sliced, he said, it was fabulous with apple & blackberry jam as a sauce… he has talent in the kitchen, taht lad. Learned from his mother, so he did, as did his brother.

  61. I’ve received a suspicious phone call, this afternoon, from +44 333 339 3775.
    A young woman, by the sound of her voice, without introduction asked me what problems I was having with my house. I asked where she got this information from and she asked if I had damp or black mould. I again asked who she worked for and she replied the Compliance Department for social housing. I replied the Compliance Department from what company. She repeated the request about the problems with the house. I again asked what company and all she said was Oh OK and disconnected.
    I have tried to report this happening to some official body to warn others but nobody is interested unless I’ve given personal details or have given money. I even tried Surrey Police but they didn’t want to speak to me and a record message asked me to report it on line. Tried that but unless I agreed to cookies they weren’t interested.
    Anyway you have been warned even if no one else can be bothered.
    Why aren’t these bodies interested in warning people about the phone number prior to them becoming victims.

      1. Thanks Bill. I have reported it on there and gave a shortened version of the above.
        I am surprised, but not surprised, that no official body is interested. The police and other agencies are not interested in crime prevention they’re only interested when a crime has been committed and then they don’t bother to investigate it.

      1. Thanks Belle, tried them but unless you lost money or given personal details they weren’t interested.

    3. We used to get scam calls before we invested in the Call Guardian phones – they screen out any unwanted calls. I wonder if they will still work after BT changes the landline to mobile.

      1. I’ve blocked the caller but there seems to be, as with so many things in this broken country of ours, no concerted effort to prevent it.

    4. So many ways to deal with schemers; you could try saying ‘The owner is just getting out of the swimming pool/shower/ karate lesson etc, and I will take the handset to her/him as soon as they have dressed/had a coffee etc’.

      ‘But I gave all the details to your colleague Omar yesterday’.

      Answer the call with ‘name of your local C.I.D’, Inspector Hound speaking’.

      Best of all, buy a telephone with a call blocker system, eg BT 4600 with big buttons.

      1. Firstborn answres, in fake Indian voice: “Sanjeev – is that you? Why you call me, bastard? I sit just down the line from you – why you bother me? I come and sort you out when it’s my break, bastard!”

    6. The instant I think it’s a scam I start:

      “No you’re not, you’re a liar and a thief.
      Does your mother know that you are trying to steal from people like her?
      I’ll bet she would be ashamed of how you have turned out!
      Do you ever tell her the truth about how you try to swindle people?

      There is usually a horrified silence and then they hang up.

      1. I shouted at one “Oh, fcuk off and die!” – and was rewarded by a squawk in the ear, and the entire office staring at me in alarm!

    8. I just say not interesyed thank you and hang up and enter the number on my phones block number section.

  62. Winemaker drowns in vat of wine after trying to save colleague. 15 September 2023.

    An Italian winemaker fell into a vat of wine and drowned after trying to save a colleague who had become intoxicated by gases produced in the fermentation process.

    Marco Bettolini, 47, reached for his 31-year-old colleague but having also been made dizzy from the fumes lost his balance.

    Both men fell into the vat at the Ca’ di Rajo winery in northeastern Italy, but only Mr Bettolini died. The colleague, whose identity has not been released by police, was in hospital with serious injuries.

    The accident shines a spotlight on Italy’s safety standards in food production. Last month a cheesemaker was crushed to death after thousands of giant wheels of cheese fell on top of him in a warehouse.

    They could have had a cheese and wine party!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/15/winemaker-marco-bettolini-dies-after-drowing-vat-wine-toxic/

          2. All together:
            Let’s try the incantation:

            “LotL, Phizzee’s buying the best Pinot on the the wine list can you join us?”

            Not infallible but a good start…
            };-))

  63. Utterly off topic

    One of the compost heaps produced a self sown butternut squash plant which produced 5 squash, but brother are they large.
    The midget one weighs a kilogram, the big brother nearer 6.
    Batch cooking beckons, prawn and BNS curry, BNS and chorizo soup, BNS based ratatouille; roughly eight to ten portions of each and that’s only from the big boy!

    Fortunately we both enjoy BNS

    It also shows that I must be getting the compost mix about right. We had more courgettes than we could give away, let alone eat ourselves, also self seeded. I’ve left the remaining giant marrows to compost themselves.

      1. Not impossible.
        I’ve had excellent Trombetti grow, self sown, on the compost heaps.
        They must be the same family and if a hybrid ever shows up it might be my escape to your kind of wealth.

  64. Utterly off topic

    One of the compost heaps produced a self sown butternut squash plant which produced 5 squash, but brother are they large.
    The midget one weighs a kilogram, the big brother nearer 6.
    Batch cooking beckons, prawn and BNS curry, BNS and chorizo soup, BNS based ratatouille; roughly eight to ten portions of each and that’s only from the big boy!

    Fortunately we both enjoy BNS

    It also shows that I must be getting the compost mix about right. We had more courgettes than we could give away, let alone eat ourselves, also self seeded. I’ve left the remaining giant marrows to compost themselves.

  65. Evening, all. Had a review (with a nurse) today and it was far more rewarding than any consultation with a doctor. I’ve been booked in for various things, been told to provide a specimen to check my kidney function and the leakage of albumen (which was what put me in the “unfit” category at Biggin Hill) and was generally listened to. Unfortunately, I have lost yet another inch in height 🙁

    If alarm bells have not been ringing about the behaviour of successive governments since we had the audacity to vote to be free, I suspect it’s probably too late to wake up the brain dead now.

  67. The Caen Hill Flight is a World heritage site so attracts lots of folk from abroad. One broad offered to help with opening a lock gate saying as she did so “some are much stiffer than others”. I’m afraid I could not resist saying in reply “ yes and some lock gates are heavier than others….. what What did I say something wrong…. “

  68. Anyone else do Wordle today? I established where the vowel(s) should go but otherwise it was oh hell, what’s left! Par four though.

    Wordle 818 4/6

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

    2. Bogey for me, Sue.
      Wordle 818 5/6

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

    3. I barely managed this one

      Wordle 818 6/6

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

  71. Good evening all.
    Sat in the Lifeboat Inn at Maryport on a bloody foul evening.
    A view out of the van of the bleak weather and a few of the port:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cccf16e013f5d5230a135a3c4ace4ff9656ac34f996aafd27214c177556f395.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/570cfd7b0bedff1fdd752c9fa8fa3eb85e88fb9ed331ed07691d8d8581412e8a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcf0f9d6ff3b0dc2f9063ad9b39d6af26b0a722328c8cc191b608d963387606e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/60cd3aab769b2ee974c60fa57b4dc289bac3a56d6bdc9b4396d4434fd82d6b2b.jpg

    A response to Maggie’s Question from last night:-

    Hello Bob
    You were in the RE when you took the Queen’s shilling .

    I am always puzzled how very old bridges were constructed , and how have they remained intact re concrete / bricks/ stone not dissolving ?

    PS Love your photos , it is like armchair travelling .

    They would build the bridge arch over a wooden former and to stop the rain washing the mortar away would seal the top with pitch. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48ebb5532891821c6506c083a62a565bf1081075d0adf2a8ea7e4ad68401bce4.jpg

    This the the top of the aqueduct just before Bleamoor Tunnel where they used the same technique.

  77. ‘Morning again. Just back from Poppy’s dog swim this morning (she’s the one wearing the buoyancy aid) with her local boyfriend Leo, who swims like a fish. Unlike our previous Labs she has yet to develop their love of swimming, hence the owner’s suggestion she wears the aid for her first session. They had a right old time, and by the end of it she was charging round the pool. It’s a clever business, started by the owner a few months ago.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cc4f2624bf06e5f2bf0d6fc47dde06154959e8fab03531675c85fda1ee776dd.jpg

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