Saturday 16 September: Royal Mail’s Christmas penny-pinching will drive even more customers away

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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315 thoughts on “Saturday 16 September: Royal Mail’s Christmas penny-pinching will drive even more customers away”

  6. Britain is in a state of distress more profound than our leaders are capable of addressing. 16 September 2023.

    We currently have an able, moderate and decent Prime Minister and – though we know less about Sir Keir Starmer because he has never held ministerial office – we seem to have an able, moderate and decent Leader of the Opposition. Yet this state of affairs, which should be reassuring, seems to make alarmingly little difference. Political discourse is unnourishing. We, the public, feel like the flock in Milton’s “Lycidas”, “The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed.”

    The headline is correct but the content of the article is twaddle. Moore is a fully signed up member of the Consensus though one doubts that he would be the editor of the Telegraph were it otherwise.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/15/britain-is-in-a-state-of-distress-more-profound/

    1. Starmer, “decent”? He who was too frightened to instigate criminal charges for the rape gangs? He who still can’t say what a woman is? I fear that Charles Moore isosing his marbles.

      ‘Morning, Minty.

      1. Sunak “able and decent?” When he gave away NI in the Windsor agreement? When he’s done umpteen 7-turns on policy? Give me a break.

    3. Also from Lycidas:

      “Nothing is here for Tears..”

      Except of course for the demolition of the Britain we once knew and loved.

  7. Good Moaning.
    As my parents used to say:
    “It’s better to be an old man’s darling than a young man’s fool.”

    Possibly the most unsurprising news item of the week.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/16/carrie-johnson-boris-influence-downing-street-insiders/

    Imaginary meetings and traffic jams: the Downing Street tactics to get Carrie out of the way

    With Boris Johnson’s advisers accusing his wife of having undue influence on his premiership, staff took steps to remove the ‘distraction’

    16 September 2023 • 7:00am

    “There was one constant during the Johnson tenure: Carrie Symonds, or Carrie Johnson as she became halfway through their time in Downing Street. Carrie would be dragged into the press spotlight more than her predecessors, Philip May and Samantha Cameron. She was already a creature of Westminster, having been a special adviser to Sajid Javid and John Whittingdale, which partly explains why. Given this background, questions about her influence were inevitable.

    Tensions emerged between the old guard of Johnson advisers and Carrie during the summer 2019 Tory leadership campaign, and spilled over into Downing Street. Self-interest on the part of the former camp, suspicious of the appearance of a new point of influence, may have been a driver. Whatever the cause, the rift was real.

    Two claims were made by multiple figures engaged in the leadership campaign. One was put forward by four different people: that Carrie would sometimes send text messages from Boris’s phone. One source said that a particular campaign figure was dubbed the “text whisperer” for their apparent ability to tell whether the author was Johnson or Carrie. “It was just the tone. Boris is quite chatty in his messages, Carrie was blunt,” they added. Examples given included demands for comments to be issued rebutting press stories.”

    …….. and a whole to more.

    1. There have been a lot of unfair and unkind things said about Carrie Johnson. I always felt that she was a good woman in the wrong place. She is no intellectual heavyweight in the way Marina Wheeler was when she steered Boris Johnson to office. On the other hand, she has proved to be a loyal and supportive wife, and I find her quite pretty too, and would have blessed anyone in a more modest station than Prime Minister, where the colour of the curtains makes more of a difference than what to do about Putin.

      1. She is, allegedly, a Rothschild. I say allegedly because I haven’t checked out her family tree, but this has been mentioned on quite a few occasions on line in various places. She also seems to be quite woke, and have undue influence over Johnson when he held office.

    1. Regretably we have to visit SWNBO’s family down there, in a couple of weeks. I am dreading it.

      More rubbish on major roads

      What we have done so far

      Reduced some speed limits to 50mph.

      Added new signs to highlight the speed limits.
      Added average speed cameras to monitor traffic speeds.
      This affected the following roads:

      A483 between junctions 5 and 6 Wrexham

      A494 between the Wales/England border and St David’s Interchange Deeside

      A470 between Upper Boat and Pontypridd

      M4 between junctions 41 and 42 Port Talbot

      M4 between junctions 25 and 26 Newport

      1. One of my uncles, who died when I was 14, said the best thing ever to come out of Wales was the road back to England.

  12. SIR – At a time when Royal Mail has so many competitors, meaning it needs to make itself as attractive as possible to customers, it is striking how poor the service has been when we have relied on it recently. I offer three examples.

    1. Amazon is usually very good at ensuring that parcels arrive on the day promised. When it used Royal Mail, however, a parcel expected on a Sunday was delivered on a Monday.

    2. On a separate occasion when Amazon used Royal Mail, I tracked the item and could see that it was out for delivery. Mid-afternoon, and without explanation, Royal Mail moved delivery to the next day.

    3. Last Friday my wife, who is blind, sent off for repair a key piece of electronic equipment that she uses to translate messages and emails on her phone into Braille. As it is so important, she paid for special next-day delivery (by 1 pm). It was not delivered until the following Tuesday. When we complained we got a generic response that did not even deal with the subject of the complaint.

    This no longer seems like a company even trying to meet customers’ needs.

    Jeff Featherstone
    Halifax, West Yorkshire

    Here we are lucky if we get three deliveries a week. Their parcel collection service is a joke, too – waiting in all day for a heavy parcel to be collected (Amazon) but no one showed up. No contact, and certainly no explanation. Took it to the local Post Office by car yesterday. Woman in the PO smiled knowingly when I told her what hadn’t happened.

    1. In general customer service no longer exists. We have many emails now with no reply. It’s all about them.
      Making justified complaints is no longer possible.
      The world of customer satisfaction is slipping through the fingers of the more self important executives. Who don’t actually appear to ‘give one’.

      1. I did manage to make a complaint about poor service through an online portal regarding my GP practice.
        6 weeks later i received a response which carefully avoided all the points i had made.
        At least it got me an appointment with a Doctor.

        1. Absolutely the same experience I had when I complained about the indifferent treatment I had from the local cardiology department.
          They turned the complaint around and did their best to suggest it was all my fault. Even lying when the cardiology secretary said he had no recollection of telling me to make my own appointment for the the procedure at St Barts.
          I have an email where he did.
          They’ll be getting a copy of that when I get round to it.

    2. Nobody in our little hamlet has seen a postie for a couple of weeks. They were complaining bitterly on the WhatsApp group this week. One neighbour had sent in a complaint and the reply was mainly to say how to put in a claim.

    3. Yesterday I found a package for my neighbour two doors along lying on my studion veranda. I delivered it to them myself.

    1. It seems that he is using the William Roache defence. Pulled off the air for a while whilst under investigation for very serious criminal accusations, it came out that the Guinness record maker (for the longest time ever an actor has played the same role in an ongoing TV series) may well have had the moral restraint of a buck rabbit in the 1960s, but every single incident was enthusiastically consensual, and many of his “victims” spoke up for him at the trial. He was acquitted, went back to work, and Ken Barlow lives on.

  14. From the DT:

    “Russell Brand denies ‘very, very serious criminal allegations’

    Former actor posted a video to his YouTube channel addressing claims he said had been made by journalists”

    The ghost of Andrew Sachs settling an old score?

  15. Morning all 🙂😊
    Light cloud with the yellow ball 90 million miles away, trying to make its presence.
    My appointment with the osteopathy department was a bit of a challenge. First of all there wasn’t a parking space to be had. But in the end I found an undefined space next to van on part of a hospital building site.
    Hobbled to the check in presented my details as was informed my appointment was now at the facture clinic. Along walk back almost to where I had parked to start with.
    One hour and ten minutes after my appointment time I was seen.
    No chance of a knee replacement because it might endanger my life have apparently not been given the all clear from the cardiology department at my Herts hospital. Who frankly are fairly useless. It’s something that once again I will have to sort out. NHS administration is a nightmare.
    But I was given a steroid injection from both side of my knee and walking back to our automatic car was a delight I’m unaccustomed to. I’m happy if it last. 😁🤪

      1. That’s disgusting.
        The injections are a bit over rated 4 – 6 weeks is the usual spread of relief.
        France has announced they have a better type of solution.

        1. Yes, I saw that. Shropshire is a the bottom of the postcode lottery, despite hosting a centre of excellence in the Orthodpaedic at Gobowen. My GP requested an MRI scan on my knees – I’m getting X-rayed in the middle of October.

  16. G’morning all,

    A lovely morning here at McPhee Towers, bright with light cloud cover, a Nor’-Easterly breeze, 13℃ and it should reach 23℃ today so September continues to make up for the miserable July and August.

    Hamish De Bretton-Gordon is a poltroon.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cef23b36b55658186f174d0155afc4533245a60a4787c5d2a7f687dfc40e4746.png

    It doesn’t seem to occur to him that the two missiles could have been fired outside parameters as warning shots that would be seen. The Russian Air Force has up-to-date fighter aircraft which are a match for the Western inventory. Any technological gap which did exist in the Cold War has been closed.

    In 2015, a Turkish Air Force Jet shot down a Russian Air Force jet.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Russian_Sukhoi_Su-24_shootdown

    WW3 didn’t start.

    In 2014, MH17 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine by Russian controlled elements

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17

    WW3 didn’t start.

    In 1983, Korean airlines KAL007 was shot down by the Russian Air Force.

    WW3 didn’t start.

    As to competence, in 1982 an RAF Phantom crew shot down an RAF Jaguar during an exercise. The Jaguar pilot, Steve Griggs, with whom I was acquanited, survived. Now THAT’s incompetence.

    https://theaviationgeekclub.com/former-raf-jaguar-pilot-tells-the-story-of-when-he-was-shot-down-by-a-raf-phantom-interceptor/

    And as for this:

    “And as we’ve learned in the last year, Russia’s army is paper thin; a modern Western army would punch through their defences without a second thought.”

    He really needs to have a word with Colonel Douglas McGregor

    1. As far as I know interception and engagement is all controlled from the ground in Russia with little input from the pilot on scene. I’ve just finished reading the KAL007 book

  17. How a shoplifting clash in Peckham opened a rift between Asian store owners and the black community

    A video of a shop owner with his hands around the neck of a customer he thought was stealing has caused a protest

    By Neil Johnston, SENIOR REPORTER • 15 September 2023 • 4:54pm

    In a hair and cosmetics store in Peckham, the shopkeeper’s eyes never waver from a 50-inch TV which hangs from the ceiling showing the feeds of no fewer than 16 cameras focused on the aisles. Amid claims shoplifters can strike up to 10 times a day, another staff member is on standby to immediately block off the glass-fronted doorway and confiscate stolen items from customers who attempt to walk off with products in a dispute over a refund.

    The scene is typical of shops in the south-east London suburb where owners say they are protecting their business but customers from black communities argue they are treated with unnecessary suspicion and disrespect. Earlier this week, Sohail Sindho, 45, the owner of Peckham Hair and Cosmetics, was filmed with his hands around the neck of a customer in footage where she can be heard saying: “Get the f–k off me … Call the police. This man just strangled me.”

    Rather than simply being another example of the country’s shoplifting epidemic, the scuffle has ignited tensions between mostly Asian shopkeepers and customers from the black community who believe their culture has been exploited for profit.

    “It’s not just this store, it’s all of them on the strip! Black owned only,” was one of dozens of signs placed on the shutters as protesters accused the shop owner of racism and called for all-black ownership of shops along Rye Lane.

    A handful of protesters openly engaged in offensive slurs about Asian owners and one sign daubed on the store described Asian shop owners as “parasitic merchants”. Other posters read: “You take black women’s money yet assault them the first chance you get.”

    Since the incident on Monday, Mr Sandho, 45, was interviewed under caution and a 31-year-old woman involved was arrested on suspicion of assault and bailed. Police described the row as a “dynamic situation” and said they would investigate “if there are any posters or signs that reflect hate speech”.

    The Mayor of London’s office said he remained in close contact with police, adding that the “events of the last week have caused deep concern and distress”.

    Activists claimed they were frequently mistreated by shop workers and said that stores mainly used by black women should not be owned by Asian men. Lisa, 53, said: “All of them need to be shut down because they are abusing us. Our culture has been stolen for profit.”

    Kelly Sinclair, 40, a professional declutterer [sic] who has lived in the area for 24 years, said that many shops on Rye Lane were dependent on black women and that shop owners were rude and disrespectful.

    “Without our community they wouldn’t be here, they are dependent,” she said. “Things like this happen quite regularly, the disrespect against people. It was inevitable this would happen.”

    Around half of Peckham’s population are from black communities and one in 10 residents are from an Asian background. Mr Sandho, who opened his shop eight years ago after moving to the UK from Pakistani Kashmir in 2004, has insisted he was not racist and was tolerant of people of all faiths and races.

    He said: “What you are, you can’t change this, it doesn’t matter. It’s not racial. They say probably, I am Asian, she is black, it’s not by your choice. I am colour-blind. All the faiths are beautiful.”

    Owners of other cosmetic and hair shops, stocking extensions, wigs and specialist shampoos, claimed they frequently faced abuse from customers in rows over refunds or shoplifting.

    A third-generation owner, whose family came to the UK in the 1980s from Azad Kashmir, said: “Customers most of the time don’t look at both sides. That is what every shop owner on Rye Lane has to face. If you say to those customers you can’t refund they will just take whatever … People will walk out and they will pick up stuff. We have had to block the door a lot of times, we try to take something back. If someone gets out of hand we call the police but they will not get here until half an hour later.”

    He claimed that the slurs on signs towards Asian communities were not new and some customers had “deeply ingrained” views about them. “If you spent your time here, you would see what we had to deal with,” he added.

    The shop owner said that it was unfair to suggest Asian people could not run shops selling to black women and many had several family members keeping the business going. He said: “It’s not an owner sitting at home making money. We have to monitor the cameras, we are a business. We are not profiling people to steal, anyone can steal nowadays. It happens, every day, at least 10 times. My family came for a better life, more opportunities. If you work hard, you get something.

    “People have been doing business on Rye Lane for 20 years, there must be something good about us. If people want to set up their own business then they should do it, go ahead.”

    A Turkish shop owner said that items were stolen a “few times a week” and could be taken by anyone, but it was “not worth calling the police” who would do little. He added: “That situation should have been handled differently from both sides. Those signs are not good, that’s not nice. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

    He said fighting shoplifting was a losing battle, adding: “What can you do? We can keep an eye on the aisle and the boxes for the expensive things are empty. 99 per cent of the customers are good people but it’s impossible to know who will be the shoplifter.”

    Experts said the incident had been exploited by opportunists who wanted to stoke tensions while police failures to solve low-level crime had seen shopkeepers defend their own stores.

    Dr Rakib Ehsan, social integration expert, said: “Tribal opportunists have used the incident at Peckham Hair and Cosmetics to unleash their anti-Asian prejudices and enviousness over matters of business ownership.”

    He said this week had shown “some of the deepest fault-lines in modern Britain are between its racial and ethnic minorities”, adding: “It also highlights how the de-facto decriminalisation of lower-level crime heightens the risk of ‘shopkeeper vigilantism’ in urban areas.”

    Charlotte Littlewood, an extremism expert at the International Centre of Sustainability think tank, added that a “community breakdown along ethnic lines” was being ignored by the Government.

    “Our policing and Government are failing to properly address interminority racism,” she said. “Perhaps critical race theory indoctrination combined with a fear of offending leads us blind and reserved when it comes to policing.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/15/peckham-shoplifting-rift-asian-shopkeepers-black-community

    BTL:
    Hu McG
    It’s a “dynamic situation” as they’re struggling to find a white person to arrest.
    _______________________________________________________________________________

    This isn’t new. Enmity between blacks and Pakistanis have been a feature of British urban life for 40 years. There were troubles in Birmingham in the 80s and 90s, leading to a serious riot in Handsworth in October 2005 and another in Winson Green in August 2011 in which three Pakistanis died in a hit-and-run incident.

    The claim by the black women of Peckham that their ‘cosmetic’ needs should be met by shops owned by black people, not Pakistanis, gets a savaging BTL. “Why are there so few black shopkeepers?” is the polite summary.

    Meanwhile, BBC East Midlands TV reported yesterday that one year on from the Indo-Pak war of Leicester a year ago, ‘tensions remain high’. Nice weather for an action replay.

    1. “It’s not just this store, it’s all of them on the strip! Black owned only,” was one of dozens of signs placed on the shutters as protesters accused the shop owner of racism and called for all-black ownership of shops along Rye Lane.

      I assume the person who posted this sign accusing the shopkeeper of racism doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘irony’.

    2. Apologies for referring to the same story above – I hadn’t seen yours. Why do we let these people into this country – let them fight their battles somewhere else. And certainly one set of them will always be fighting – wherever they are.

  18. How a shoplifting clash in Peckham opened a rift between Asian store owners and the black community

    A video of a shop owner with his hands around the neck of a customer he thought was stealing has caused a protest

    By Neil Johnston, SENIOR REPORTER • 15 September 2023 • 4:54pm

    In a hair and cosmetics store in Peckham, the shopkeeper’s eyes never waver from a 50-inch TV which hangs from the ceiling showing the feeds of no fewer than 16 cameras focused on the aisles. Amid claims shoplifters can strike up to 10 times a day, another staff member is on standby to immediately block off the glass-fronted doorway and confiscate stolen items from customers who attempt to walk off with products in a dispute over a refund.

    The scene is typical of shops in the south-east London suburb where owners say they are protecting their business but customers from black communities argue they are treated with unnecessary suspicion and disrespect. Earlier this week, Sohail Sindho, 45, the owner of Peckham Hair and Cosmetics, was filmed with his hands around the neck of a customer in footage where she can be heard saying: “Get the f–k off me … Call the police. This man just strangled me.”

    Rather than simply being another example of the country’s shoplifting epidemic, the scuffle has ignited tensions between mostly Asian shopkeepers and customers from the black community who believe their culture has been exploited for profit.

    “It’s not just this store, it’s all of them on the strip! Black owned only,” was one of dozens of signs placed on the shutters as protesters accused the shop owner of racism and called for all-black ownership of shops along Rye Lane.

    A handful of protesters openly engaged in offensive slurs about Asian owners and one sign daubed on the store described Asian shop owners as “parasitic merchants”. Other posters read: “You take black women’s money yet assault them the first chance you get.”

    Since the incident on Monday, Mr Sandho, 45, was interviewed under caution and a 31-year-old woman involved was arrested on suspicion of assault and bailed. Police described the row as a “dynamic situation” and said they would investigate “if there are any posters or signs that reflect hate speech”.

    The Mayor of London’s office said he remained in close contact with police, adding that the “events of the last week have caused deep concern and distress”.

    Activists claimed they were frequently mistreated by shop workers and said that stores mainly used by black women should not be owned by Asian men. Lisa, 53, said: “All of them need to be shut down because they are abusing us. Our culture has been stolen for profit.”

    Kelly Sinclair, 40, a professional declutterer [sic] who has lived in the area for 24 years, said that many shops on Rye Lane were dependent on black women and that shop owners were rude and disrespectful.

    “Without our community they wouldn’t be here, they are dependent,” she said. “Things like this happen quite regularly, the disrespect against people. It was inevitable this would happen.”

    Around half of Peckham’s population are from black communities and one in 10 residents are from an Asian background. Mr Sandho, who opened his shop eight years ago after moving to the UK from Pakistani Kashmir in 2004, has insisted he was not racist and was tolerant of people of all faiths and races.

    He said: “What you are, you can’t change this, it doesn’t matter. It’s not racial. They say probably, I am Asian, she is black, it’s not by your choice. I am colour-blind. All the faiths are beautiful.”

    Owners of other cosmetic and hair shops, stocking extensions, wigs and specialist shampoos, claimed they frequently faced abuse from customers in rows over refunds or shoplifting.

    A third-generation owner, whose family came to the UK in the 1980s from Azad Kashmir, said: “Customers most of the time don’t look at both sides. That is what every shop owner on Rye Lane has to face. If you say to those customers you can’t refund they will just take whatever … People will walk out and they will pick up stuff. We have had to block the door a lot of times, we try to take something back. If someone gets out of hand we call the police but they will not get here until half an hour later.”

    He claimed that the slurs on signs towards Asian communities were not new and some customers had “deeply ingrained” views about them. “If you spent your time here, you would see what we had to deal with,” he added.

    The shop owner said that it was unfair to suggest Asian people could not run shops selling to black women and many had several family members keeping the business going. He said: “It’s not an owner sitting at home making money. We have to monitor the cameras, we are a business. We are not profiling people to steal, anyone can steal nowadays. It happens, every day, at least 10 times. My family came for a better life, more opportunities. If you work hard, you get something.

    “People have been doing business on Rye Lane for 20 years, there must be something good about us. If people want to set up their own business then they should do it, go ahead.”

    A Turkish shop owner said that items were stolen a “few times a week” and could be taken by anyone, but it was “not worth calling the police” who would do little. He added: “That situation should have been handled differently from both sides. Those signs are not good, that’s not nice. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

    He said fighting shoplifting was a losing battle, adding: “What can you do? We can keep an eye on the aisle and the boxes for the expensive things are empty. 99 per cent of the customers are good people but it’s impossible to know who will be the shoplifter.”

    Experts said the incident had been exploited by opportunists who wanted to stoke tensions while police failures to solve low-level crime had seen shopkeepers defend their own stores.

    Dr Rakib Ehsan, social integration expert, said: “Tribal opportunists have used the incident at Peckham Hair and Cosmetics to unleash their anti-Asian prejudices and enviousness over matters of business ownership.”

    He said this week had shown “some of the deepest fault-lines in modern Britain are between its racial and ethnic minorities”, adding: “It also highlights how the de-facto decriminalisation of lower-level crime heightens the risk of ‘shopkeeper vigilantism’ in urban areas.”

    Charlotte Littlewood, an extremism expert at the International Centre of Sustainability think tank, added that a “community breakdown along ethnic lines” was being ignored by the Government.

    “Our policing and Government are failing to properly address interminority racism,” she said. “Perhaps critical race theory indoctrination combined with a fear of offending leads us blind and reserved when it comes to policing.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/15/peckham-shoplifting-rift-asian-shopkeepers-black-community

    BTL:
    Hu McG
    It’s a “dynamic situation” as they’re struggling to find a white person to arrest.
    _______________________________________________________________________________

    This isn’t new. Enmity between blacks and Pakistanis have been a feature of British urban life for 40 years. There were troubles in Birmingham in the 80s and 90s, leading to a serious riot in Handsworth in October 2005 and another in Winson Green in August 2011 in which three Pakistanis died in a hit-and-run incident.

    The claim by the black women of Peckham that their ‘cosmetic’ needs should be met by shops owned by black people, not Pakistanis, gets a savaging BTL. “Why are there so few black shopkeepers?” is the polite summary.

    Meanwhile, BBC East Midlands TV reported yesterday that one year on from the Indo-Pak war of Leicester a year ago, ‘tensions remain high’. Nice weather for an action replay.

  19. Yesterday evening we went to a meeting in our local church it was an excellent opportunity to learn about the life and times of Peter Carl Faberjè. Who was actually French.
    It all starts when he took an interest in jewellery at around 7 or 8 years old.
    John Benjamin jewellery expert from the antique road show.
    presented the story with many screen shots of his wonderful work. Some today is priceless. But strange as it may seem he was never physically involved with the actual making of the objects himself.
    He would only allow perfect specimens to go to market. They way the production was described was fascinating.
    Held a mini antique road show after the presentation.
    Some old friends of ours had a pleasant surprise. Afterwards I reminded them that I knew where they lived. 😉🤗🤭

  20. At the moment i feel it is hype to get everyone watching channel 4 dispatches which airs tonight.
    Russel Brand is in overdrive denying any wrong doing.
    Toby Young says something big is about to hit the front page of the Sunday Times.
    Krishna Guru O’Murphy says he was told to delete a tweet about it.
    Supposedly it is both jaw dropping and sensitive.

    It can’t be a Conservative sex scandal. Too mundane.

        1. We’ll see. References yesterday to him being regarded by Trash as a “spare part” heartened me!

      1. I do like a ginger moggie Willum,you are twice blessed their pictures and antics have cheered me up no end over the years

    1. It’s often been the case in England people who have believed they are important because they think they are clever having often stepped ahead In their attempt to make a point.
      Only to have been proven later they were wrong.
      But not many of the “intelligent’ people in the Westminster environment didn’t catch covid despite the high average around the country. How did that happen ?

    1. Drat. The product is good but I must see if Boots still have their own brand packs of soap. If brain dead and obese is the customer Dove are aiming for then that sure ain’t me.

      1. She doesn’t wash. They use the fat dripping off her sweating carcass to make the company’s products.

    5. I googled “new face of dove” and there’s a video, which you have to sign in to watch, about a young girl and the impact of make up and soshul meeja etc. with the mental effects of trying to look beautiful. Or some such!

      2. I mentioned quite a few months ago about the current lack of diversity in so many advertisements on our TV screens and wondered whether it put others off from the said products.
        I think this could be the answer.

      3. Dove is the one soap that keeps my sensitive skin under control in the shower, although for handwash both poppiesdad and I use Savon de Marseille.

  25. ‘Declaration of war’ on Scotland’s red deer halted by rare rebellion

    Significant cross-party collaboration puts paid to SNP/Greens’ plans to end close season for shooting stags

    ALAN COCHRANE • 15 September 2023 • 10:00pm

    A plan for what has been criticised as a declaration war on Scotland’s red deer population has been halted by a rare, but significant, rebellion against the SNP/Green coalition government.

    The latter wants to end the close season for shooting stags and allow all male deer to be killed at any time of year in a bid to reduce the number of red deer in Scotland, now estimated to be more than one million.

    But they were defeated in a key vote at the Scottish Parliament’s rural affairs committee, following expressions of horror from some MSPs that male deer could be shot from the day that they were born or, as one said, “as soon as they’d fallen from the womb”.

    The coalition government will now have to decide whether to accept this embarrassing reverse on an important aspect of their policy on the countryside or use its majority in the Holyrood chamber to overturn the committee’s veto.

    Ministers, led by Lorna Slater, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, want an all-year-long cull of all male red deer with the cancellation of the current close season for shooting stags, which runs from Oct 21 to July 1.

    She said that deer numbers had doubled since 1990, with a serious impact on the environment and pointed out that deer had been involved in up to 14,000 vehicle accidents every year. She said that half of all deer currently shot in Scotland were already killed out of season – mostly by Forest and Land Scotland.

    This is the Scottish Government quango, formerly known as the Forestry Commission, which is responsible for overseeing all of the country’s woodland and pays stalkers up to £100 per carcass for shooting stags deemed to be damaging trees.

    It can currently get round the close season ban on shooting stags by applying for permission from another Scottish Government quango, NatureScot. One MSP, Labour’s Rhoda Grant, suggested that the all-year cull might be simply a matter of convenience for those bodies rather than anything to do with animal welfare or protecting the environment.

    However, the Tories’ Edward Mountain led the opposition to the proposal and told the committee that he was a former professional deer manager for estates all over Scotland and had authorised culls involving thousands of deer. He complained that none of the bodies who had advised the Scottish Government on the latest move had been connected with deer management.

    He said that the Government’s plans would lead to the constant harassment of deer to such an extent that “it would be like a form of warfare”.

    He also clashed with the minister when she claimed that the main reason for the current close season on shooting had nothing to do with animal welfare but was to allow the stags to grow bigger antlers, which would then be trophies when they were shot. That claim, said Mountain, was “fundamentally untrue”.

    There were occasions when the arguments became a bit heated and the committee convener warned Mountain that “there is no need to interrupt the minister when she is giving a response”.

    When it went to a decision, the committee was deadlocked at four votes for the Government’s plan and four against. The committee’s convener, Finlay Carson, the Tory MSP, and Rachael Hamilton, the committee’s other Tory MSP, as well as Labour’s Grant and the Lib Dems’ Beatrice Wishart, opposed the minister, while the three SNP and one Green MSP supported her.

    With the vote tied at 4-4, Mr Carson used his casting vote to oppose the legislation and inflict a very rare defeat on any piece of Scottish Government legislation.

    But it showed that with a bit of cross-party cooperation, and with the SNP and Greens apparently determined to change the face of rural Scotland, their unholy alliance can be beaten.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/15/scottish-parliament-red-deer-close-season-defeated-vote/

    My first reaction on reading this was that for once I was on the side of the Greenies – until I got to the bit about killing all the stags. People of the left are very confused about reproductive biology. The Slater woman gets a savaging BTL.

    1. At first I thought the greenies were against killing deer, which would seem consistent with their claim to be caring and compassionate but I should have known better. The devil loves death and destruction.

      1. I couldn’t help noticing on our Friday outing how our local city council of St Albans has allowed grass verges to grow making our street look very scruffy and uncared for, yet they recently increased council taxes. Perhaps they might flush out a few dozen deer from our local country side to carry out the work for all of us.

          1. More classic examples of politico’s effing up every single thing thing come into contact with.

          2. Many towns are already jungles (of the non-botanical kind). Perhaps our councillors want to make it feel like home from home.

          3. Many towns are already jungles (of the non-botanical kind). Perhaps our councillors want to make it feel like home from home.

          1. In the UK a few years ago a professor or top medic was experimenting in cartilage replacement. I volunteered but her base was Manchester.

            Probably footballers who had been ‘taking the knee’. 😉😆

    2. A fair number of the feminist wing of politics may well argue for the cull of all human males, unless they were black, gay or Muslim.

      1. “She said that deer numbers had doubled since 1990, with a serious impact on the environment and pointed out that deer had been involved in up to 14,000 vehicle accidents every year.”

        Substitute “immgrants” for deer and “crimes” for vehicle accidents…

      2. According to your ex-wife, you are on that list. Suggest that you wear bright clothes if you are ever on a walking tour of Scotland.

    3. The rapidly increasing deer population of Great Britain is becoming a major problem. Those people who are happy to spend all night perched in a tree while cradling a rifle are few and far between, and not necessarily politically correct. Incidentally, I have not seen a rural fox for ages, just badgers.

    2. Our political classes are too thick to take in and understand public opinion let alone rocket science.

    3. Nipah: Hindoo word for measles, or a person not qualified to do the job (eg a Hindoo politician promoted beyond his ability)

  27. ‘Morning All

    Saturday Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/437b0248c5a91191e0075f1b24df006088fae9d5f7fe2d59dcf99b795dc7a564.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7a07348c8a5714c1826fd3f3d6436afd2bd83286de3eb026c423f4a9585fb5eb.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3c6c5cb2d8e8c4c6bc2aaa950dff27b112f0e249d56ea3c7518a35be3ea766ee.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de227eaebc015a5a742faa8cb0863fdad2e32e63a6763469d69563473c21541d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d2ed9fe09744d6b962a48509c17234cff42f4c38fa77c431085f026eb40910f7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f5b45c19b8f00e78d1f02d6c58dcbd02818d3fa6d88c0e7b4d65f4eac63f60cf.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d02226cbc9a2115931f83ad81ac70e59fb9355bac182ebab68b5401636b9fd9.jpg

    1. The Barry Gardiner who says that only white people are racist. Bet that makes his Han pay-masters laugh.

  28. Watch: ‘Putin kidnapping Ukrainian children to fight in future Russian wars’ | Life on the front line. 16 September 2023.

    The UK imposed sanctions on a number of Russians linked to the abduction of Ukrainian children in July this year.

    British officials said the deportations were designed to “erase Ukrainian cultural and national identity” through the relocation of the children to a network of re-education camps.

    In this episode of Life on the front line, the charity Vans Without Borders (VWB) interviewed a Ukrainian soldier stationed in Zaporizhzhia, who said that not only are these children taught to hate Ukraine, but also placed in military training to fight for Russia in future wars.

    This is a bit desperate. It is really just an updating of the 1914 propaganda stories in the British press about the Kaiser’s armies eating babies. A Ukrainian soldier in the field is asked about something that is supposedly happening in Russia and is able to recite it verbatim, presumably from the BBC. These children were not abducted any more than the ones evacuated from the war zone by the Ukie military were last week. If you live in Ukraine and any of your children have been removed to Russia you can go and reclaim them. All you need is proof of parentage. That this has not happened on a large scale bears truth to Russian guiltlessness in the matter.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/16/putin-raises-kidnapped-ukrainian-children-for-future-wars/

    1. Meanwhile in the Americas children being abducted to serve the sexual pleasures of a paedophile elite is very real but let’s not look there.

          1. I choose an independent. Usually my vote doubles their support.
            I can’t bring myself to vote for any of the main parties. I see them as the same waste of a vote as mine.
            None of them are any good.

        2. We can’t vote our way out of this. It needs a team of smart people to take over the government computer systems and while they’re implementing the necessary changes, have the gallows built in Trafalgar Square.

          1. Instead of writing NOTA on your voting slip, you could vote for them to make sure

            that they don’t lose their deposit.

          2. Instead of writing NOTA on your voting slip, you could vote for them to make sure

            that they don’t lose their deposit.

    2. I think they have a long way to go but I wish them luck! Is Tice the right person to lead them?

      1. No. But Farage is too Marmite. I would actually like Anne Widdecombe, but she is too sensible, or Ben Habib, but I think many in this country have had enough of foreign-type people even if they have this country’s welfare at heart.

        1. I like Habib.

          I believe he is the president of the Old Boys club at Rugby School. He is certainly far more civilised than anyone else in politics with Asian family roots.

    2. BTL by a Frenchie:

      Nabila Ramdani is not a “leading French academic”, but a rabid Algerian journalist who is literally eaten away by a maladive francophobia.

      Just saying. Think Lammy/Abbott/Olowogsu etc etc

      1. Think Latommy/Abbott/Olowogsu etc etc
        Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I refuse

    3. Looking after their own migrants instead of pushing them off across the Channel would be a good start. Just saying.

  31. Good morning, NoTTLers!

    A piece on Spiked about the Peckham riots, which followed what appeared to be an aggressive black woman shopper in a shop, and a misguided Indian shopkeeper consequently apparently manhandling her. “Racism” of course – but the common factor in so many racism bleats is the fact that it is usually against black people, who are doing the bleating. The fact that black people can be (and are) just as racist to other races (in this case Indians) is always glossed over. The fact is that certain sectors of our communities are simply more aggressive than others. Whether that is because apparently they have considerably more testosterone in their physical make-up (including the women) or just that aggression is the only language that counts for them, is a moot point.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/09/15/the-peckham-protests-reveal-the-poison-of-identity-politics/?utm_source=The+week+on+spiked&utm_campaign=ca6cdf0f30-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_09_15_04_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-ca6cdf0f30-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

    P.S. Woops – sorry, I didn’t see that the topic has been covered further down. That’s what comes of reading newest first…

    2. Just as George Floyd is a BLM hero in the USA the Peckham shoplifter is achieving heroine status with the BLM in London.

      I suppose a non-criminal black person would not be an appropriate figure to rally support for their particular form of racism?

      .

  32. Good morning, NoTTLers!

    A piece on Spiked about the Peckham riots, which followed what appeared to be an aggressive black woman shopper in a shop, and a misguided Indian shopkeeper consequently apparently manhandling her. “Racism” of course – but the common factor in so many racism bleats is the fact that it is usually against black people, who are doing the bleating. The fact that black people can be (and are) just as racist to other races (in this case Indians) is always glossed over. The fact is that certain sectors of our communities are simply more aggressive than others. Whether that is because apparently they have considerably more testosterone in their physical make-up (including the women) or just that aggression is the only language that counts for them, is a moot point.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/09/15/the-peckham-protests-reveal-the-poison-of-identity-politics/?utm_source=The+week+on+spiked&utm_campaign=ca6cdf0f30-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_09_15_04_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-ca6cdf0f30-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

  33. I see from the front page of the Murdoch Rag that Sunak has reneged on his “proportionate and pragmatic” approach to nut zero. Sales of new petrol and diesel cars will end in 2030 after all. Gosh, what a surprise! Starmer isn’t the only flip-flopper it would seem. Oh well, he’s just persuaded countless Conservative voters that he’s not on their side. What a prat.

    1. Perhaps he’s finally caught up with all the local council proposals currently in place to build new homes all over the our once treasured countryside.

    2. It must be time for an electable alternative to the Conservative Party to come to the fore but the tragedy is that it looks as if it will not.

      The Conservative Party will be very soundly beaten at the election if they manage to get rid of Sunak NOW. However if they do not get rid of Sunak NOW it will be completely obliterated, eliminated, liquefied, extinguished.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT8s-QUV-CA

  34. Just in case you forget:

    Celebrating Battle of Britain Day today.

    We remember all those courageous men who fought and died in the skies over Britain.

    Britain was truly blessed to have had these men give their all whilst protecting our nation.

    We will never forget.

  36. Of course it is generally the owners and not the dogs who are to blame.

    But Sunak will be looking for a way to renege on his commitment just as he has reneged on the issues of transgender teaching in schools, scrapping EU rules, abandoning the India Trade deal, stopping the boats, ECHR amendment etc etc – just look at any promise that Sunak has made and you will find he has gone back on all of them.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a7428aa0486a625776ae3231969cee4d10345f1181d6fa0058b72930e29a817c.png

    1. Sunak does not do commitments, just empty promises – but then he has many before him in politics here who have been (and are) the same.

  38. Is it just a coincidence that our Indian Prime Minister has just given five hundred million pounds of public money to an Indian company, Tata Steel, that owns the Port Talbot steel works? Couldn’t’ possibly be any other reason than compassion for the potential job losses, could it?

  39. Pondering the theatre at Dover.
    How did boat loads of Africans bring a deadly disease from India that only became dangerous when they left France?
    If it has a 75% fatality rate then they’re doing very well to reach Calais? Where is the trail of bodies across Europe?

    2. Did she forget to put on her skirt/trousers? As someone notes in the comments, an inch higher and…

  41. Guide Dogs charity HQ rocked by incurable canine-to-human disease. 16 September 2023.

    The Guide Dogs headquarters has been rocked after two young dogs were put in quarantine after testing positive for an incurable disease that can be transmitted to humans, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The young males were screened for the bacterium Brucella canis earlier this year and returned a positive test. The animals have been separated from the other dogs and are handled only by vets in hazmat suits, despite concerns the tests were false positives.

    It is understood they are the first guide dogs to test positive for the disease. There is no cure, and it can also infect humans. Many vets refuse to treat infected animals because of the risk of catching the disease.

    This may very well be; probably is, a load of bunk. But its keeping the readers on their toes!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/16/guide-dogs-charity-hq-brucella-disease-dog-to-human-deadly/

    2. Lovely dogs one the image of our black Lab.
      Are the dogs named Woo and Hann ?
      Slam and Her ?
      I’ve got to the stage in my life when I don’t seem to trust any thing the ‘THEY’ might interfear with.

    3. The Guardian had a piece yesterday on whether it was ethical to keep dogs and cats for pets. I suspect this is of the same ilk (an incurable canine-to-human disease, by Jove!) and the thin end of a pet-owning wedge. They can’t wait to abolish pets.

  42. Amongst all the doom and gloom (I’m as guilty as any) here’s a chuckle or maybe a resounding guffaw depending on your opinion of this awful woman.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ebc0e6b31619e9666a9471ceb41505d24dbbc0076e755514a899d94862ff6cc9.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd7aa77f0bc73122f1fafff82dd2251635d750f0fc2a99630cf72c8adc8abef1.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4595f8f43954ca533f20400f40c80826e5405d0c56ffe5964da53491d7305237.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78b546dae8e7239ff27eb574e1af0f5cc9102e1d79c8daa24510df6af01d4370.png

    Daily Sceptic – Merkel’s Statue Collapses Under Its Own Weight

      1. Yes, we liked his/her apt comment:

        “…….emergent Hysterical Style of our present managerial system”.

      2. Yes, we liked his/her apt comment:

        “…….emergent Hysterical Style of our present managerial system”.

        1. Hopefully not long. The council in their wisdom commissioned a load of scrap iron statuary in the main shopping area. Now collecting rubbish and going rusty.

    1. Drizzly day here. Went to table tennis this morning and conditions were cool enough to play for nearly an hour and work up a sweat.

    3. Hot here today you can sit in our garden if you like. 😉There’s a children’s party two gardens down. With lots of adults turning up. Plenty of noise expected. But we are going out later..

    4. Sunny and clear at 12C but warming up to mid 20’s during the day. Lovely autumnal weather here in WV.

  45. Just picked up on Tice’s tweet re Reform Party responsibilities.

    My reply expresses some frustration at the lack of progress made by Reform. Bearing in mind the current state of political affairs a really well led right-of-centre party should be making huge inroads into the Tory vote and also garnering the support of sensible Labour voters.

    https://twitter.com/bangerbloyce/status/1703034013269574131

    1. Scottish Power sent us notification some weeks ago – a search of other providers found nothing better so we just have to pay up.

    2. Scottish Power sent us notification some weeks ago – a search of other providers found nothing better so we just have to pay up.

    3. All for a climate crisis that doesn’t exist manufactured by the PTB to give them more manipulative control over us all.

      When I was at school a contemporary of mine developed this rather invective curse for his enemies:

      “May coagulated faeces descend upon your anal sphincter and cause you everlasting constipation.”

      1. There is a curse which was uttered by a Spanish gypsy many years ago. Gist of it is that it politely wishes someone the death of a grasshopper, which sounds innocent enough, until you realise the play on words which firmly establishes the victim as a cuckold many times over.

    2. Be interesting to see if the police car activated siren and blue lights whilst travelling at c37 mph in a 30 mph zone. Grizzly?

    4. I saw my first electric scooter on a main road today. The other traffic was following it as if it were legitimate.

      1. They are rampant in Benidoom!
        They all have to wear helmets though and the Perlice have words with the scooterist if naughty

  48. Having read media reports of the troubled Royal Mail as a prelude to increasing costs and depleted service, I can report the arrival of a Christmas card from my cousin, posted 4th December 2022, on Friday 15th September 2023! I shall look forward to an ‘improved’ service for the 2023 season, so get your cards written and posted asap…

    1. Our neighbours have been complaining on the WhatsApp group of having no deliveries for ages – I don’t think we’ve had anything for a couple of weeks. It could mean nobody is using Royal Mail at all now of course. The cost of a stamp now is a joke.

  50. Russel Brand

    https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1703070916169679003?t=JCUSjKNCodCc1xTLbJLeUA&s=19

    I trust the Times and C4 will be showing all the police reports these ladies made at the time??

    Oh wait………..

    Funny how he was untouchable as a Leftard halfwit* but now he has gone off the reservation on Convid,Ukeland and the Greenscam he is evil incarnate…….

    https://twitter.com/Sozzinski/status/1702960631194775992?s=20
    *personally I can’t stand the man but this stinks of a stichup there will be no criminal charges just smears in the court of public opinion

    2. The BBC are bulling this up big time. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about Brand to refute it though I suspect, judging by his accusers, that he is being set up here!

  51. The Channel 4 Dispatches programme tonight at 9pm investigates Russell Brand’s treatment of women – so that’s the reason he was protesting against his treatment by the media earlier today.

  52. The Times is now spreading the Brand story over pages and pages. No comments allowed. Funny that.

    Call me old-fashioned (and many do) but I find it despicable that people can drag up an event that happened TWENTY SEVENTEEN years ago and whinge about it.

        1. Just read Minty’s post. Strange that all these anonymous women have suddenly remembered that they didn’t consent. Seems a bit coordinated.

    3. I always thought that Brand was one of them, ‘the blob’, the WEF cabal….. He must have gone off message.

        1. Very interesting. I thought he may be a ‘pied piper’ and leading the youth to the one world government. I will keep an open mind.

  53. Russell Brand latest: Comic accused of rape and sexual abuse. 16 September 2023.

    The allegations refer to a period between 2006 and 2013, while Brand was working as a presenter for BBC Radio 2 and Channel 4 and went on to become an actor in Hollywood films.

    One woman claimed when the comedian was 31-years-old he started an abusive relationship with her when she was only 16-years-old and still at school.

    Another woman claimed Brand raped her against a wall at his Los Angeles home. In a text message The Sunday Times claims it has authenticated, the woman told him: “When a girl say[s] NO it means no.” It is claimed Brand replied: “Very sorry”.

    A third woman claims he sexually assaulted her while she was working with him in Los Angeles. She told the paper he threatened to take legal action if she dared to tell anyone about her allegation.

    The final fourth woman described being sexually assaulted by Brand. She also claims he was physically and emotionally abusive towards her.

    The women have not been named.

    Par for the course here! Anonymous accusers. No Police and I can’t even remember 2006!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/16/russell-brand-allegations-latest-c4-dispatches-live-updates/

    2. It might well be false, possibly because he has turned against lefty propaganda, but I still don’t have much sympathy for such an arsehole, if you’ll excuse my French.

  54. That’s me for this sunny but autumnal day. Pottered in garden. Watched the MR at work. Cats had a birthday party with 17 of their pals….(I jest!!)

    Have a jolly evening branding someone.

    A demain.

  55. Went to take a look at the newly “refurbished” National Portrait Gallery this afternoon.
    The historic collection is now crammed into far fewer rooms than it used to occupy, which makes the chronology difficult to follow for anyone who doesn’t know their history but I still managed to find all my favourites.
    I’m sure it’s still possible to exit the building without being confronted with the contemporary garbage too but I failed to accomplish that.

    Out in Trafalgar Square there was a very noisy “Freedom for Iran” rally. I feel for them and wish they could succeed but I fear it’s still shout in London, perish in Persia?

    1. I guess the protesters who left their country want this country to pay for Iran to get its “freedom”. Well, you lot, you are lucky you are here, you are lucky we are keeping you, now shut up and behave like decent citizens or go back to Iran and fight.

  56. Concern that over 100,000 children started school unvaccinated as disease begins to spread

    Councils tell parents that if a pupil is infected, classmates who
    have not been vaccinated twice could be asked to self-isolate for 21
    days,

    Why all this worry about Measles? It’s something everyone here must have had as a child and survived.

    1. It’s such nonsense.
      Classes have always been a germ jungle. I had an immune system like rhino hide when I was a teacher.

      1. I don’t remember my teachers being ill when I was at school. I do remember having measles but I wasn’t particularly ill. I do think the immune system needs to be challenged by these pathogens to keep it strong.

    2. Oh dear.
      We’ve been married thirty eight years this August.
      I have pointed out to the Boss that if I’d killed her when we met I’d be out by now.
      I suppose that compared with some of you gentle folk I’m still on the honeymoon.

  58. Off to watch a play tonight. Another local production. A local version of Quartet.
    I expect a few laughs and some arguments.
    I know one of the local actresses. I had no idea she had that sort of talent. But she was a bit awkward when I fitted her new kitchen about 30 years ago. 😉😊🤔

  59. Evening folks. It took 9 hours to motor 15 lock free miles today. Slow mph due to hundreds of moored boats which one is encouraged to pass on tick over (650 rpm) or about half walking pace speed. Still the journey through the Vale of Pewsey was very pleasant. And the rain held off until the last hour and then it was only light drizzle. Tomorrow I reach the canal’s summit and it is downhill all the way thereafter.
    Hope you are all in reasonably good order or as pain free as one would like to be S

  60. STOP PRESS – Last cat news. Just received an e-mail from a cat-loving pal in Suffolk with birthday greetings for G & P.

    She had learned that it is their birthday from a friend (and G & P fan) who lives in Santa Barbara!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Now that’s fame!!!

    TTFN

  61. Interesting……… Telegraph suddenly pushing vitamin D.

    Four ways to bolster your vitamin D before the cold season begins (and why it’s important)

    It’s known as the critical bone-building nutrient but is also
    essential for fighting off infections and reducing Type 2 diabetes risk

      1. I’ve been taking it since 2020 from October to March. No bugs of any kind since then, apart from a sore throat in August last year which didn’t develop into anything. Over the years I’ve had some real corkers of summer colds, but nothing like that in the last few years. The bug I had in January 2020 was probably covid. I’ll be starting my vitamins again in the next couple of weeks.

  62. Son no 2 spoke to me from Worthing this afternoon. He told me the temperature was hot and 28c . Blue sky, but cloud coming in from the west.

    ‘Ere in South Darzet , the weather is warm and humid , cloudy and still.

    Didn’t sleep very well last night , it looks like tonight will be warm and humid , just feeling a bit wretched . that’s all .

    Change of subject , what do you make of this . https://twitter.com/AshleaSimonBF/status/1703000813189071312

    1. How many viable black owned businesses are there?

      I could do with cooler nights and a better chance of sleep too.

    4. Well, Madam Mayor, shouldn’t you be encouraging people to shop at all local businesses, regardless of the colour of the skin of the owner? Would you have refused the votes of electors if they were white?

    5. Here it was cloudy, cool and intermittently drizzly. Cartainly nowhere near 28C. We hd the heating on yesterday evening and again tonight.

      Racism works both ways but especially against the white population. I hope you sleep better tonight, Belle.

    7. The dumb fuck clearly doesn’t realise that two can play at that game. She wants apartheid style shopping, she can have it.

  63. Another wordle par four today.

    Wordle 819 4/6

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

    2. Not being that bright they will pick on the wrong person one day and then find themselves in a whole world of pain.

  66. A hero of mine.

    Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, VC & Bar, MC (9th November 1884 – 4th August 1917), RAMC, 10th Battalion, King’s (Liverpool Regiment), the Liverpool Scottish.

    Chavasse was awarded his first Victoria Cross for his actions on 9th August 1916, at Guillemont, France when he attended to the wounded all day under heavy fire. The full citation was published on 24th October 1916 and read: Captain Noel Godfrey Chavasse, M.C., M.B., Royal Army Medical Corps. For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty. During an attack he tended the wounded in the open all day, under heavy fire, frequently in view of the enemy. During the ensuing night he searched for wounded on the ground in front of the enemy’s lines for four hours. Next day he took one stretcher-bearer to the advanced trenches, and under heavy shell fire carried an urgent case for 500 yards into safety, being wounded in the side by a shell splinter during the journey. The same night he took up a party of twenty volunteers, rescued three wounded men from a shell hole twenty-five yards from the enemy’s trench, buried the bodies of two officers, and collected many identity discs, although fired on by bombs and machine guns. Altogether he saved the lives of some twenty badly wounded men, besides the ordinary cases which passed through his hands. His courage and self-sacrifice, were beyond praise.

    Chavasse’s second award was made during the period 31st July to 2nd August 1917, at Wieltje, Belgium; the full citation was published on 14th September 1917 and read:
    War Office, September, 1917.
    His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to approve of the award of a Bar to the Victoria Cross to Capt. Noel Godfrey Chavasse, V.C., M.C., late R.A.M.C., attd. L’pool R. For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty when in action.

    Though severely wounded early in the action whilst carrying a wounded soldier to the Dressing Station, Capt. Chavasse refused to leave his post, and for two days not only continued to perform his duties, but in addition went out repeatedly under heavy fire to search for and attend to the wounded who were lying out. During these searches, although practically without food during this period, worn with fatigue and faint with his wound, he assisted to carry in a number of badly wounded men, over heavy and difficult ground. By his extraordinary energy and inspiring example, he was instrumental in rescuing many wounded who would have otherwise undoubtedly succumbed under the bad weather conditions. This devoted and gallant officer subsequently died of his wounds.

    Chavasse died of his wounds in Brandhoek and is buried at Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, Vlamertinge. His military headstone carries, uniquely, a representation of two Victoria Crosses. Chavasse was the only man to be awarded both a Victoria Cross and Bar in the First World War, and one of only three men ever to have achieved this distinction.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/N.G._Chavasse%2C_VC.jpg

  68. Gentlemen, please realise that when you start a post with “The wife was watching Strictly….” you are not fooling anyone.

    1. I couldn’t start a post like that because I’ve never watched a minute of that programme and neither has MoH, as far as I know.

  69. I see the Invictus Games have finished. What a shame the focus seemed to be on H & M rather than the heroes who participated. I have seen very little commentary of the events in the press, other than the parade of fashion from M.

    1. One can only hope that the organisers of the IG have the sense to ban both H and M from any future events – or that charity will be dust. And the deserving veterans will be another sacrifice on the alter of Markle’s narcissism.

    2. One can only hope that the organisers of the IG have the sense to ban both H and M from any future events – or that charity will be dust. And the deserving veterans will be another sacrifice on the alter of Markle’s narcissism.

  70. Evening, all. Only going to be here briefly as I have to be up early tomorrow. Spent several hours in the garden trying to tackle the jungle that masquerades as my front garden (as the back is accessed more often, that’s where most of the effort has been expended).

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