Saturday 23 September: The Chancellor’s resistance to tax cuts reflects a Government all too willing to plod

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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443 thoughts on “Saturday 23 September: The Chancellor’s resistance to tax cuts reflects a Government all too willing to plod”

  2. Morning everyone. I’ve just checked my Outlook email and Microsoft has changed it (without my permission) for the new version which is a catastrophe. For those of you experiencing similar problems it is possible to switch it back!

      1. I don’t use gmail because Google can scan everything you send and receive with AI and hoover up all the information about you that you let drop for selling on.

        Protonmail is a private email service, and you can get a limited account for free.

          1. I had the free account for a few years, and have now got a paid family subscription. Up to six people can belong, so that you can exchange family news without telling Microsoft or Google or some other data slurper your every secret.

  4. So the interminable endless stream of economic migrants have to be accommodated in 3 star hotels or above says government minister
    Which reminds me what another French conqueror once said
    An army marches on its stomach.

      1. What is this general obsession with comparing humans to potentially harmful animals, e.g. leeches, ‘roaches and reptiles? The only species known to harm the natural world are black & brown rats and of course homo sapiens.

  5. The Chancellor’s resistance to tax cuts reflects a Government all too willing to plod

    As has been admitted, the Net Zero agenda is going to be very costly, taxes can only keep going up to pay for it

  6. US will send Ukraine long-range ATACMS missiles, Biden tells Zelensky. 23 September 2023.

    Joe Biden has reportedly promised Volodymyr Zelensky that Washington will give Ukraine long-range ATACMS missiles, meeting a key request from Kyiv as it seeks to make further counter-offensive gains.

    US media reported on Friday that President Biden made the pledge during a bilateral summit at the White House on Thursday, which was followed by the announcement of a new $325 million package of American weapons and aid.

    One suspects that covert US policy is to goad Russia into a direct confrontation with NATO. The present supply of munitions to Ukraine is already a hostile act and its continual expansion is surely a casus belli for Russia. It’s worth pointing out that the present situation is enormously favourable to American interests. The direct risks are all to the Europeans. Since withdrawal would be personal and geopolitical suicide there must come a point where Vlad must inevitably decide to expand the war.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/22/us-will-send-ukraine-atacms-missiles-biden-zelensky/

    1. Of course the direct risks are all to Europeans. That’s how our “special relationship” “friend and ally” the US of bl**dy A works.

  8. The political class has betrayed Brexit by turning Britain into a European country. 23 September 2023.

    Rishi Sunak has made a few small changes in areas like freeports, but the truth of the matter is that we have done precious little to gain a competitive edge on our European counterparts. In fact, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s corporation tax rise and refusal to scrap the tourist tax, we are probably less competitive than we were before Brexit.

    We have also regressed when it comes to rejoining the Horizon science programme, when we could have branched out on our own or pursued closer collaboration with the US, Switzerland, Japan and Australia instead.

    Oooh! Look! A Telegraph hack has discovered what is as obvious as a wart on the end of her nose. There has been no Brexit!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/22/political-class-betrayed-brexit/

    1. We need another Brexit referendum – not to get us back into the monstrosity but to get us completely out of it – a proper Brexit which we have not got. We have been treacherously betrayed by the Conservative government, the civil service and the MSM – especially the BBC..

      The Brexit Party needs to be reborn

  9. The political class has betrayed Brexit by turning Britain into a European country. 23 September 2023.

    Rishi Sunak has made a few small changes in areas like freeports, but the truth of the matter is that we have done precious little to gain a competitive edge on our European counterparts. In fact, with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s corporation tax rise and refusal to scrap the tourist tax, we are probably less competitive than we were before Brexit.

    We have also regressed when it comes to rejoining the Horizon science programme, when we could have branched out on our own or pursued closer collaboration with the US, Switzerland, Japan and Australia instead.

    Oooh! Look! A Telegraph hack has discovered what is as obvious as a wart on the end of her nose. There has been no Brexit!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/22/political-class-betrayed-brexit/

  10. BTL Comment:-

    R. Spowart
    JUST NOW
    Message Actions
    Do others on here recognise that far from being run by the Government, the NHS is actually run by the NHS its self and that the Government’s only function is to keep providing an ever increasing amount of “resources”, apparat-speak for yet more money stolen from the purses, pockets and wallets of The Poor Bloody Taxpayer?
    Those that run the NHS, the entrenched vested interests of upper echelons and REMFs of senior management and Union leaders, do not run the organisation for the benefit of us, the Poor Bloody Taxpayer, or even the bulk of the NHS workforce at the sharp end of the service who struggle on against management inefficiency, but for their OWN benefit?
    Truly when they say “Save Our NHS” they mean EXACTLY that, THEIR NHS.

    1. On Thursday, in connection with investigations on my AFB I went to have an MRI. This was at the Dunedin hospital in Reading, a private hospital run by Spires Health Care. NHS (Royal Berks) arranged it, presumably they don’t have the equipment, and they were paying.
      The contrast with Royal Berks was very noticeable. Unlike Royal Berks the whole place struck you as spotlessly clean. The MRI scanner looked pretty new and also was spotless – and unlike the MRI I had some years ago was incredibly quiet, clearly progress on that front. Everybody was very friendly and I even got a cuppa and biscuits afterwards.

      No doubt in a few weeks Royal Berks will get round to telling me the result.

      1. The MRI scanner at our local NHS hospital is run by a private company.
        Again, cleanliness and order was apparent.
        There are big variations between wards and departments in the same hospital.
        The difference between the Emergency Admission Unit (even allowing for its different role, the area seemed to be a headless monster) and the Surgical Admission Unit is like experiencing two different planets.

        1. I had my first MRI scan in ’96 when I had a slipped disc. Tony Bennettwas on the trolley next to me.

          Edit – not Tony Bennett. Who was that singer who used to kick his leg in the air? Him.

      2. The Spire hospital in Bristol is good too, where my OH had his shoulder fixed also paid by NHS. Only gripe there is the car park is always full.

  11. Good morning, all. Clear and bright here in N Essex.

    I’ve spent an hour trawling the web and I have come across a couple of videos that I feel need airing.

    First: Katie Hopkins making sense of Sunak’s proclamation on Net Zero earlier this week.

    https://twitter.com/Hellohowru12345/status/1705319406388007128

    Second: I have mentioned the control of water by the WEF/UN and assorted/associated nutters a few times in the past. Already, they’ve gone on the attack with talk of controlling energy, food, movement and general freedoms being their targets. So much of their agenda is driven by labelling their targets of control e.g. climate, food etc. as being in a state of crisis. Now, water has come up on their sinister agenda.

    https://twitter.com/FatEmperor/status/1705298783481765998

    Full video here.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/32fd369fdfb1835296d76e892c55dbce8e6211950f355ff07715095120550560.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/71e4d4758892e3d9c3650e6dbc1cc23b03f505694eeb819e1cfa7c2df87c4aa9.png

    Is banning a particular brand of water filter in the USA a step on this dangerous road?

    1. 377053+ up ticks,

      Morning KtK,

      But the majority voter has, in the past, continued to call for and given consent to (X)
      this type of issue via the polling station these last four decades.

      1. CBA to listen to it all, up to here with BP already. Can you supply the gist? Seems like the WEF will be taking “ownership” of all the water, is that about right?

        1. They think that if they make water a privilege then they will get people’s consent to water being rationed, whereas they have failed in other areas, like getting people on board with the CO2 fraud, and also they didn’t manage to jab 100% of the planet because some people refused. She added that they hope to rectify these failures in the future.
          In your dreams, luv, say I.

          1. I suppose they’re clever in the way they couch these ideas – for the good of everyone – many will go along with it.

            “In your dreams, luv, say I. – #metoo!

          2. They will apply guilt pressure; to save your grandchildren, etc. They’d do better destroying islam if they want to protect future generations.

  12. 377053+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Saturday 23 September: The Chancellor’s resistance to tax cuts reflects a Government all too willing to plod

    A misleading statement already,already, by NO stretch of the
    imagination could this mafia type political scheming scamming cartel be taken for a government.

    As for “plodding ” it is in top gear,going full tilt down the repress,replace, RESET road, by the by if one is in support via the polling station of such a collection of political shysters then one has NO love of family or country, surely, just a point to ponder before casting a vote.

  14. Morning all 🙂😊
    It’s a bit chilly today and could be raining again later.
    Two bathroom visits and ten hours sleep, some sort of record. A Great recovery.
    Breakfast now and slayders folks. 😉

  16. Good morning, chums. Off to a MacMillan Nurses fund-raiser today. Home made cakes and coffee. Yummy yummy!

      1. On that basis London already has had a trans-Islamic caliphates and trans-African High Speed shift. The rest of England to join…

  19. Good Moaning.
    And it is a good moaning. Just enough sun and warmth for this English Rose.
    All that nasty foreign heat and glaring sun reduces me to a comatose lobster.

    1. My old study-mate from my schooldays sent me this :

      Q. What do they call a sheep in Wales?
      A. A Leisure Centre

  21. G’morning all,

    Nice day in prospect at McPhee Towers. Wind in the West going Sou’-West but it’s cool at 8℃ with a forecast 15℃.

    It seems the MP for Portsmouth Caroline Dinenage, otherwise styled Baroness Lancaster of Kimbolton DBE, has got herself into a bit of bother over that letter she wrote to the CEO of Rumble, on House of Commons headed paper, asking him to demonetise Russell Brand on his platform.

    The CEO of Rumble replied:

    “We regard it as deeply inappropriate and dangerous that the UK Parliament would attempt to control who is allowed to speak on our platform or to earn a living from doing so… Singling out an individual and demanding his ban is even more disturbing given the absence of any connection between the allegations and his content on Rumble”.

    Dinenage’s husband is Major-General Mark Lancaster, Baron Lancaster of Kimbolton TD VR PC, former deputy commander of the 77th Brigade from 2018 to 2020.

    This has not gone unnnoticed. Dinenage’s resignation is being called for, not just from her chairmanship of a Commons Select Committee but also from her seat in Parliament.

    I tend to agree. Seeking to punish a man financially before he has been convicted of anything is utterly reprehensible. She should go.

    1. Sadly, this past week, whilst our meeja has been bursting with tales of Brand (none of which are new), the UN has made a power grab to enable their future scamdemics diktats globally, and the insidious ‘Online Harm Bill’ has sailed through Parliament like a stealthy plague ship.

  22. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1259306eabd5c3ea7cf3fb91f08bb4a8a12a7567e9530894254f87ccdb437104.png https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/22/theresa-may-is-still-running-britain-into-the-ground/

    BTL

    It seems that virtually everybody, even those who want to scrap Net Zero, accepts the premise that carbon dioxide is damaging the planet. But there are a few scientists who have the courage openly to challenge this premise and probably many more who doubt that carbon is damaging but do not want to put their heads above the parapet.

    One of the things that most convinces a non-scientist such as myself that Net Zero is a scam is the fact that the PTB and the MSM are determined to supress any arguments – however rational, coherent and well backed-up scientifically – that dare to question their premise and its disastrous consequences on our lives and prosperity.

    1. CO2 is an essential trace gas at 4 parts per million in the atmosphere. We’d all be dead without it. I know it’s a scam.

        1. A few years ago I was at a business meeting with British Sugar. The chap I was seeing explained how they use the CO2 that is a by-product of their manufacturing process to feed what was then Britain’s largest tomato greenhouse. More recently, they have switched from tomatoes to growing medicinal cannabis.

      2. ‘Morning Ndovu. You’re missing a couple of zeroes. CO2 is just over 400 parts per million. But your sentiments are spot on.

          1. No, afraid not – you’re heading the wrong way!
            If we take a billion as its “old” form, of a million million, then the CO2 figure would be 400 million parts per billion.
            If we use the now internationally recognised definition, of a thousand million (also known as a milliard), then the CO2 figure is 400 thousand parts per billion.

    2. For every ‘scientist’ who supports this scam there are two who take the opposite view but they are ignored, even silenced

      1. So why doesn’t Tice and his Reform Party welcome them into his party and commit to scrapping the Net Zero scam completely?

        I am beginning to wonder if Tice has been bought by Schwab, Soros and Gates like the rest of them.

    3. My first clue was how it was seized upon as a reason to raise taxes, and “everybody” said Yes! Yes! Yes! More! more! – finally the political scum had found a way to get people enthusiastic about paying more tax.

    5. Check this, copy and deliver whereever:

      Climate Change and You

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

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

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

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

  23. ST has been identified.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/22/sudiksha-thirumalesh-nhs-doctors-rare-degenerative-disorder/

    It’s an appalling story. The doctors who withdrew her life support and the judge who silenced the family are the ones who should be in the dock.
    Was it because they are Christian? One has to ask.

    A flavour of the BTL comments:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a09f6e5879e4a2f6a9e26bdca1008404f2eb64dbed077d942c6c5fd0cd278ecd.png

    1. The secrecy is appalling but the judge would have been obliged to consider the needs of all ‘stakeholders’ WHICH INCLUDED EVERYONE CONNECTED WITH THE NHS TRUST. Sadly, and happily, I am privileged to have met a person with terminal cancer (non smoker, healthy eater) who was able to seek treatment abroad; even after being allowed on a vital chemotherapy trial, this person was not well enough to fly; the trip involved an ocean crossing, trains, cars etc. But guess what? The home country’s treatment is expected to extend the patient’s lifespan from very short to possibly two years.

      1. To me this smacks of the State removing bodily autonomy. Goes along with all the other c*ap HMG is dishing out.

    2. I was initially appalled but then in wondered if it had something to do with disabilities inbred through cousin marriage etc. maybe the poor girl really was incurable.

  25. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny! At last.
    Just trying to repel invaders helped in to the house – small vole-like squeaky creatures brought in by the cat. In their hordes. Horrible moggy!

    1. Don’t be like that. Your feline friend is just bringing you presents. Time for you to return the favour and brandish the can opener. 😉

    1. Hoards of them are bad for our health. What’s the point of practically eradicating certain diseases in this country, just for treasonous governments to re-import them?

      1. Good morning Lass, and everyone. Try not to hoard them, just distribute them around rural areas so we all have equal access.

      2. 377053+ up ticks,

        Morning HL,
        I believe that the herd is beginning to realise that though many suffer via say TB, many a politico / pharmaceutical peoples make mega bucks.

        Poetic justice for those currently supporting / voting for these “governing” parties, very sad for the undeserving innocents.

        1. ‘Morning ogs.

          As a paid-up member of the ui, I resent the herd. I’m coming round to JS Mill’s view that in principle the ability to vote should be earned.

    3. But the importation of TB has been going on for decades. I worked in a private hospital Radiology department back in late 1980/1990s and people used to come for their CXR, chest X-ray, before emigrating. They had to have proof they did not have TB.

      1. Isle of Sheppey, and Sarf Benfleet! I’ll start waving to that Allen chap soon!
        Oh no! A bit far west!

          4. Use occasionally to find out what flight is overflying here at a low level. Usually things taking off or landing at East Midlands.

          5. During the lockdowns I spent a lot of time walking along the riverside path at Hammersmith and watched the planes coming down over the Thames en-route to Heathrow. There seemed to me to be no let up in the frequency. A sheeple friend insisted they were all carrying food not passengers. No way.

          6. My daughter travelled on one car ferry where she was the only passenger apart from lorry drivers carrying food, so the planes may have been mostly empty.
            It was always possible to travel throughout the lockdowns if you had a passport for your destination country.

          10. Ditto, I sometime see the military transport aircraft leave Prestwick and follow them to their often undisclosed destinations.

          12. All I will say is that they are many and varied. As the blight of the ‘Online Harm Bill’ passed through Parliament this week (under the radar of the Brand obsessed meeja), it’s probably safer for the site. 😉

          13. The USAF has training flights which I swear are pin-pointed on my house – several times a week. On Thursday, at the funeral, the speakers (who couldn’t be heard anyway) had to compete with two USAF jets flying low and loudly and in circles….

          14. With Lakenheath and Mildenhall fairly adjacent to your location, it is perhaps to be expected that fast jets will be keeping the skies safe in your area. Prestwick rarely hosts fast jets but has numerous transport/refuelling aircraft passing through. I expect that the US, and the other nations utilising the airport, lob a few coppers in the Government’s collection plate. I assume they bypass the local cooncil offices in Holywood.

    3. Apparently Lampedusa is overwhelmed and no one knows what to do about it. The answer is obvious: get the navy into the channel on a rotating basis and defend the border. If the boats do not turn back they get fired upon.

      Physically, economically and socially we cannot simply have tens of millions of useless eaters turn up and expect a free ride in this country. They have got to be returned. France has got to do it’s duty. None of them ever go to Monaco, do they? Why’s that? Because they get removed – forcibly.

      1. 377053+ up ticks,

        W,

        STOP supporting / voting for the mass, morally illegal, immigration importation lab/lib/con coalition , if not stop whinging as the peoples are getting what they are voting for.

  28. Morning all. This letter made me chuckle:

    “ SIR – We are on holiday in Snowdonia and wholeheartedly endorse the new speed limit.

    It has enlivened our car journeys no end: at 20mph you can watch residents’ televisions, cut and file an annoying nail or play rubbish basketball by pitching your leftover burger wrappings into a roadside bin”.

    1. I don’t understand how it can be enforced. There simply aren’t that many police officers and they have better things to do.

      What does Drakeford propose, cameras everywhere? Is he modelling himself on Big Brother? Does he not realise how disgustingly authoritarian his moronic policy is?

      1. Cameras everywhere. All automated. Do 22 mph – flash, ticket, post, fine. Easy peasy. No human intervention.

    2. I imagine because he holds his integrity and duty to his consitutents highly.

      His party deserted him, not he his party.

      1. Perhaps he should become independent and call a by-election if he feels he has a duty to his constituents. Remaining a con is hardly in their best interests.

  33. The quango state does not need more power

    Labour may come to regret strengthening the Office for Budget Responsibility further

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 22 September 2023 • 10:00pm

    Labour has sought to make hay out of the first anniversary of Liz Truss’s ill-fated mini-Budget by proposing an expanded role for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). It wants to introduce legislation that would allow the fiscal watchdog to publish independently its own assessment of major changes to tax and spending. Ms Truss was criticised for not issuing an OBR analysis alongside her plans.

    But there was more than likely a good reason for that. The OBR was set up in 2010 to stop chancellors from engaging in the fiscal smoke and mirrors that Gordon Brown became such a master of, ensuring that the published public finance figures could be trusted. Its role is not necessarily as innocuous as it sounds, however.

    Some believe that it has been captured by an economic establishment wedded to the doctrines of the centre-Left. They argue that this has limited the room for manoeuvre of Conservative governments who want to break that orthodoxy and pursue tax cuts. Labour appears to want the OBR to be able to tie chancellors’ hands even more tightly.

    It is certainly questionable whether politicians should be putting even more power into the hands of “expert” organisations outside the realm of politics. Governments of all stripes have made a cult out of creating a network of supposedly independent bodies either to run particular parts of the state, or to police the progress of particular policies.

    Rishi Sunak may come to fear the power of the Climate Change Committee if activists follow through on their threats to take legal action against his sensible plans to moderate some of the UK’s net zero targets. Quangos such as Natural England seem to delight in interpreting their roles in the most expansive, interventionist manner possible.

    They are rarely held to account for their failures. This has proven to be a particular problem with the Bank of England, which was given its operational independence in 1997 by a Labour government. This was justified on the basis that it would take the politics out of interest-rate decisions. For a period this seemed to work. Yet ministers have not sought to make sure that the Bank takes responsibility for its more recent failures.

    Inevitably, politicians have received a large share of the blame for runaway inflation, even though monetary policy decisions are no longer under their direct control.

    There needs to be a comprehensive reassessment of the role of arms-length bodies, quangos, and the other institutions that enjoy power without responsibility. They do not seem to have made the British state more responsive to the will of the public. Labour may in time regret joining the rush to empower them further.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/09/22/liz-truss-obr-office-for-budget-responsibility-mini-budget/

    David Starkey referred to this in his video about the ways in which Blair undermined the constitution. The ‘outsourcing’ of decision-making to quangos, commissions and experts allows useless, dim-witted politicians to claim they were simply following the best advice, hence the disasters of climate change and covid amongst others.

    2. The OBR refuses to consider – it has ruled it out of their equations – that tax cuts create economic growth. Therefore every forecast, proclamation, model is inherently wrong.

      It has to do this as accepting the obvious fact means its end. When a quango responsible for economic forecasts deliberately, intentionally excludes the very one that produces the result it is required to provide solely for it’s own perpetuation is the epitome of our farce of government.

      1. The technocratic forecasters have taken the place of the oracle reading the chicken entrails, except they’re not as good.

    3. Every time that something is mentioned that has a bad effect on the country or economy, Blair is at the back of it.

  34. The quango state does not need more power

    Labour may come to regret strengthening the Office for Budget Responsibility further

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 22 September 2023 • 10:00pm

    Labour has sought to make hay out of the first anniversary of Liz Truss’s ill-fated mini-Budget by proposing an expanded role for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). It wants to introduce legislation that would allow the fiscal watchdog to publish independently its own assessment of major changes to tax and spending. Ms Truss was criticised for not issuing an OBR analysis alongside her plans.

    But there was more than likely a good reason for that. The OBR was set up in 2010 to stop chancellors from engaging in the fiscal smoke and mirrors that Gordon Brown became such a master of, ensuring that the published public finance figures could be trusted. Its role is not necessarily as innocuous as it sounds, however.

    Some believe that it has been captured by an economic establishment wedded to the doctrines of the centre-Left. They argue that this has limited the room for manoeuvre of Conservative governments who want to break that orthodoxy and pursue tax cuts. Labour appears to want the OBR to be able to tie chancellors’ hands even more tightly.

    It is certainly questionable whether politicians should be putting even more power into the hands of “expert” organisations outside the realm of politics. Governments of all stripes have made a cult out of creating a network of supposedly independent bodies either to run particular parts of the state, or to police the progress of particular policies.

    Rishi Sunak may come to fear the power of the Climate Change Committee if activists follow through on their threats to take legal action against his sensible plans to moderate some of the UK’s net zero targets. Quangos such as Natural England seem to delight in interpreting their roles in the most expansive, interventionist manner possible.

    They are rarely held to account for their failures. This has proven to be a particular problem with the Bank of England, which was given its operational independence in 1997 by a Labour government. This was justified on the basis that it would take the politics out of interest-rate decisions. For a period this seemed to work. Yet ministers have not sought to make sure that the Bank takes responsibility for its more recent failures.

    Inevitably, politicians have received a large share of the blame for runaway inflation, even though monetary policy decisions are no longer under their direct control.

    There needs to be a comprehensive reassessment of the role of arms-length bodies, quangos, and the other institutions that enjoy power without responsibility. They do not seem to have made the British state more responsive to the will of the public. Labour may in time regret joining the rush to empower them further.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/09/22/liz-truss-obr-office-for-budget-responsibility-mini-budget/

    David Starkey referred to this in his video about the ways in which Blair undermined the constitution. The ‘outsourcing’ of decision-making to quangos, commissions and experts allows useless, dim-witted politicians to claim they were simply following the best advice, hence the disasters of climate change and covid amongst others.

  35. ‘I went into the wolf’s lair to save my grandson’. 23 September 2023.

    “I was going into the wolf’s lair but I had to overcome my fear because I was the only one who could rescue my grandson.”

    Ilya’s mother was dead. The missile strike that killed her left him bleeding, shrapnel embedded in his legs.

    Under the guise of an “evacuation”, Russian soldiers stole the nine-year-old from his home and brought him across the border into occupied Donetsk in March 2022.

    Of course instead of “evacuating” him they should have just left him to bleed to death!

    https://news.sky.com/story/ukraines-super-gran-i-went-into-the-wolfs-lair-to-save-my-grandson-12966232

    1. Yes, but that narrative doesn’t made for pro Ukraine headlines. It permits that the Russian soldiers are actually human beings who saved a child from Ukrainian attack.

      That the woman got out is probably a simple matter of her going through various checkpoints, finding her son and then being escorted out again. Not some daring heroic raid.

  36. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/23/jeremy-hunt-wrong-tax-cuts-possible-britain-economy/

    A good article from Sherelle Jacobs, the last paragraph being the most poignant. Note that these massive increases have happened post Brexit. That the massive increases made due to covid have not been repealed.

    Unfortunately I honestly believe this is entirely intentional. Governemnt is forcibly driving the economy over the cliff deliberately to invoke the IMF. That’s why warteng was summoned to the IMF when he delivered is budget. The intent is to force us back in to the EU by proxy, saying ‘Oh, there was nothing we could do, it’s such a shame.’ and that’ll be it, forever. Brexit – democracy – forever tarnished with economic failure when in reality the mess was easily avoidable

    2. You’re right (no matter the author!). It’s What they’ve intended all along and the Covid scamdemic gave the means of paving the way.

  37. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s story – belatedly, I had to sleep.

    Dear Wife:
    You must realise that you are 54 years old, and I have certain needs, which you are no longer able to satisfy. I am otherwise happy with you as a wife, and I sincerely hope you will not be hurt or offended to learn that by the time you receive this letter, I will be at the Grand Hotel with my 18-year old teaching assistant.

    I’ll be home before midnight.

    With Love, your Husband

    When he arrived at the hotel, there was a faxed letter waiting for him that read as follows:

    Dear Husband:
    You too are 54 years old and by the time you receive this letter, I will be at the Breakwater Hotel with the 18-year old pool boy.

    Since you are a mathematician, you will appreciate that 18 goes into 54 more times than 54 goes into 18.

    Therefore, don’t wait up.

    With Love, your Wife

    3. The 54 year old should have taken the 18 year old on a date with him – and a set of jump leads!

  40. The brave betrayed by treacherous politicians.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dba69150ebdabc3d1f6d1c2192a44adb3336c359d50fd64390a975b14ba4fa0c.png

    ‘The biter bitten’ being played exquisitely by one of those hypocritical politicians who has deceived the people of Britain. No doubt votes are at stake as the saga of the illegal alien invasion plays out and the people start to ask, “Why”?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01d1a06a145174fbc3306e7a7d2a1ab4a020885f3ba3f1d352fc8404a9614610.png

    2. 377053+ up ticks,

      Afternoon KtK,

      I have enquired before maybe one of the current majority voters can tell me,

      is there a set date in the near future when ALL war memorials MUST be dismantled ?

  41. Funny thing. On Thursday we sowed 30 square yards of grass seed because of the Wet Office’s promise of rain on Thursday night and on Friday.

    Guess what? Not a drop. So just been out with the hose…. That’ll certainly bring on the rain…..

  43. 377053+ up ticks,

    Can we trust this Batten chap,( he was a leading fruitcake)
    or should we continue to listen to sunak, kneel and co, who in their entirety have NEVER been right yet so the law of averages states that ….

    Post

    Gerard Batten,
    🇺🇲 MG 🇺🇲
    @PanhandleMG
    ·
    Sep 19
    Hey House and Senate…. We the People don’t Stand with Ukraine! We the People don’t Stand with Russia! Stop funding this Insane Proxy War and Demand that the Biden Regime push for a Peaceful Solution! Stop wasting American Taxpayer Money on this Bullshit!!! We’ve had it with you Warmongers!!!

    1. The US Military Industrial Complex doesn’t consider that its acquisition of taxpayer funding constitutes waste. War is lucrative.

    2. Bah, you think thats bad? You should have seen the sickening display of zelensky worship in Toronto last night.

      Freeland praising blackface for his vision and continuing support of Ukraine, Blackface giving a rousing election speech to his selected minions and the grubby little one thanking Trudeau for the latest cheque.

  45. The migrants being ferried across the Mediterranean are paying far more than Charon ever demanded to row over the Styx. It simply isn’t plausible that the kind of young men being brought into Europe have that much money of their own. Who is funding this operation? The tap needs to be turned off.

  46. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
    Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
    Conspiring with him how to load and bless
    With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
    To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
    And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
    To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
    With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
    And still more, later flowers for the bees,
    Until they think warm days will never cease,
    For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

    Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
    Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
    Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
    Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
    Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
    Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
    Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
    And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
    Steady thy laden head across a brook;
    Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
    Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

    Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
    Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
    While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
    And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
    Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
    Among the river sallows, borne aloft
    Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
    And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
    Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
    The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
    And gathering swallows twitter in the skies

      1. I’ve been a huge fan of The Kinks since 1964 and of Eric Clapton (whom I have seen twice in concert) since 1966.

  47. Can any open-minded NoTTLer explain to me WHY the DT print edition has THREE articles about “mullets” in rugby football?

    One would have been one too many….

        1. Nutty and oily. There is a dark lateral line down the fish which some say is a bit strong but can be removed easily enough.

    4. The Daily Telegraph is determined (is on a mission) to replace the Daily Mail and The Sun as the newspaper of choice for the vacuum-headed.

    1. I had an Albertine hedge at my previous house – lovely blooms. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a cutting with me.

    2. The wife of an old friend would invariably (and tediously) cook a chilli dish made from Quorn (an ersatz meat substitute) whenever we were invited around for supper. On one occasion, when it was my turn to cater for them, I roasted two joints of meat, beef and pork. My friend picked up a slice of beef on his fork, turned to his wife and said, “Look, Sheila. REAL meat!”

      Sheila (in reality a Domestic Science teacher at a secondary school) remained silent but gave him a glare that said, “Wait till I get you home!”

      The incongruity of this was that she was not a vegetarian, but was simply tight-fisted.

  50. Graduate Son has just told me, the Russians claim to have destroyed a Leopard tank with a Bundeswehr crew, one of whom survived though badly injured.

    1. Maybe just wearing BW surplus uniform? I have plenty as work clothes, it’s quality gear at cheap cost.

  51. Well, the weather people finally promised us rain for the weekend after drought concerns were raised. Tropical storm Ophelia is here and likely to stay around for a couple of days, probably heading across the Atlantic to reach UK sometime mid-week.

      1. Yes – I had to do a bit of scrub bashing during the summer, or we wouldn’t be able to see them. A lot of suckers from the bushes keep sprouting up there.

          4. I know. I’m still waiting for my Breton Picasso shirt i ordered two weeks ago. Was supposed to be 2 to 3 working days. Royal Mail is crap.

            Still. I got me calendar !

    3. Lovely!
      Firstborn has a rash if tiny, wild, pansies at his place – all blue, purple, yellow. Nice!

      1. Lovely! Mine have taken many years to naturalise as much as they have. I brought two quite large, old ones from my previous garden and also planted one or two but the majority have spread naturally.

        1. Well….we caught the 10am ferry from Piraeus, arrived at 11.30, went to Costas’ house, got in his jeep, sis went on motorbike, went to temple, had beers, very hot, back to Perdika (little grouse) for a fabulous seafood lunch and cake for 70 year old friend, back to Aegina and caught delayed ferry at 6! The crew did not attempt to push us off! Back home by 8.30, packed, slept and up at 4.30! Bit knackered now!

          1. Well done – you young people. I don’t know how you do it! I hope there were no ghastly problems at home.

          2. The cats were furious as usual! Phoebe is still glowering, and Dobby took a swipe at me! Just for fun, you understand! Gave them some duty free tuna!

  54. M.V. Athelsultan.

    Complement:
    61 (51 dead and 10 survivors).

    At 00.19 hours on 23rd September 1942 the Athelsultan (Master James Dominic Donovan), the ship of convoy commodore in convoy SC-100, was torpedoed and sunk by U-617 (Albrecht Brandi) southeast of Cape Farewell. The commodore (Capt N.H. Gale, DSO, RD, RNR), six naval staff members, 35 crew members, seven gunners and two passengers (DBS) were lost. The master and two crew members were picked up by HMCS Weyburn (K 173) (T/A/LtCdr T.M.W. Golby, RCNR) and seven crew members by HMS Nasturtium (K 107) (Lt C.D. Smith, DSC, RNR) and landed at Londonderry.

    The master James Dominic Donovan was awarded the Lloyds War Medal for bravery at sea.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-617 was badly damaged on 12th September 1943 in the Mediterranean Sea north-west of Melilla by depth charges from two British Wellington aircraft (179 Sqn RAF/P & J).

    Beached west of Cape Tres Forcas. The wreck was subsequently attacked by British Hudson aircraft (48 and 233 Sqn RAF) and two British Swordfish aircraft (833 and 886 Sqn FAA) and finally destroyed by gunfire from the British corvette HMS Hyacinth and the Australian minesweeper HMAS Wollongong. 49 survivors (no casualties).

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/br/athelsultan.jpg

    1. Why arrest these idiots? They’re harming no-one except perhaps themselves provided they don’t fall on anyone. Just ignore them

  56. I see that French “prosecutors” are thinking about doing Marine Le Pen for “fraud”……

    Shades of Francois Fillon……

  57. Naomi Wolf on the War Room. FOIA request to CDC returned >400 pages of information but included in the package were >40 pages not requested. Most were redacted – not in black but white – but 7 were not and these have been analysed. The cast list consists of the very top echelon, the Whitehouse, the Surgeon General et al. Was this additional information a mistake or is there someone in the CDC leaking information i.e. a whistle-blower and what is their motivation?
    A long but revealing interview.

    https://twitter.com/Thomas_Binder/status/1705562908783001763

  59. Afternoon folks. Have arrived at Monkey Marsh which is disappointing in two respects:
    Firstly it isn’t a marsh and secondly there appears to be no monkeys ‘Cept moi!

      2. Bought a bottle of Lebanese Bekka Valley red from Aldi last week, very reasonable and very quaffable.

      3. It’s produced in small quantities compared with European vineyards, so the price is bound to be higher.

    2. Warm weather at the end of summer eh. They weren’t living around here; I’m under blankets in the evening already.

          1. I’m wearing several layers and was still cold. I thought, what the heck? Life’s too short to be miserable.

          2. Exactly so. If we were cold our heating would be on too. It is not so chilly outside this evening as yesterday, there was a real bite in the air last night and early this morning.

    3. I think what they are saying is that “Mon Dieu! If we can grow grapes to make wine in this god forsaken country and er, climate, then that is confirmation that the climate really is changing….” No mention of greater use of southerly facing aspects and the development of climate resistant grapes….

  61. Despite my heavy duty kit – a rose sprig plastered with thorns managed to inveigle its way between the sleeve and my thorn-proof gloves and wreak its vengeance.

    Still – managed quite a bit of ladder work despite lower back pain… Feel better for it. Sitting makes the problem worse.

    1. I’ve suffered back pain for many years, Bill, after having a slipped disc.
      Diferent relief epending whether youre having upper or lower back pain – if lower, the best thing I found, if you can manage it is to lie on the floor on your back, lift one knee towards your chest then over to the other side as far as you can. Hold for a bit then do the same with the other leg. About five each side should help.

      1. Lying on my back is very painful. When I fell off the ladder (yawns…) I crushed three vertebrae in the middle of the spine. I now am hunched – look a bit like a woman with osteoporosis.

    2. We have blackberries that do that, at Firstborn’s farm. And never mind being “between” – straight through armour, they go.
      Still, last picking today, another several kilos in the freezer. Looks like frost tonight, with the clear sky – the reward was to sit in the garden with a cold beer or two.
      BTW, Zubr is excellent Polish beer. Not as good as Fox (at 9%…), but tastes really good!

    4. There are academic articles which explain how climate change has a greater impact on women than men. Is this what the discussion is supposed to be about?

    5. Could be good if they learned the difference between “effect” and “affect”.
      Might be more believable if they did.

  63. Reckon this should work!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/23/climate-change-committee-ccc-cap-vegan-food-guilt-meat-tax/

    Britain’s climate advisers have put forward proposals for the Government to cap the cost of vegan food after ministers refused to introduce a meat tax.

    A report published by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) advocates
    “financial incentives” such as “reducing the price of plant-based foods”
    to help cut the amount of meat consumed in the UK. It cites an example
    in the US where shoppers who were offered a 30 per cent refund on fruit
    and vegetables bought more of the produce.The document, finalised days ago, also states that targeting shoppers’ “guilt” could help reduce their “desire to consume meat”
    and suggests that food labelling and new restrictions on the
    advertising of red meat and dairy products would create “an environment
    in which low-carbon diet choices are made easier.

    2. Our supermarket companies have been threatened with penalty taxes if they don’t reduce prices. As if the taxes will not get passed on to consumers in increased prices.

      That’s how a true dictator cuts consumption.

    3. I find it quite easy to make diet choices that are good for the environment. Just ordered 8kg of organic beef.

    2. Me too.

      Wordle 826 4/6

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

  67. So – Fishi is going to scrap the Haitch Esse Too bit north of Birmingham. As the route will now end at Old Oak Common – soooooooooooo handy for London and the continong) this trillion pound “investment” will allow people to get from Watford to OOC very fast!! Brilliant. Definitely worth voting for…..

    2. Lived in the south of London all my life and have never felt the need to travel by train to Birmingham or anywhere else north of Watford,

      4. Growing up in York I was always told that Londoners think civilisation ends at Watford Gap. I’ve lived in London nearly 50 years now. Back in the 70s a young woman with a real cockney accent enquired as to whether we all lived inside the city walls in York. Naturally I said yes and we shoot Londoners with bows and arrows from the ramparts.

    4. The only possible justification for HS2 is to connect London with the great Northern Cities and the major Scottish cities and halve the rail journey time to them. If it’s not going to go past Brum, scrap it.

  68. Captain Philip John (“Pip”) Gardner VC MC (25th December 1914 − 16th February 2003), 4th Royal Tank Regiment, 70th Infantry Division.

    In January 1941, Gardner embarked on the troopship Highland Princess, bound for the Middle East. In April he was posted to 4 RTR at El Tahag, near Ismailia, and served with them in the Western Desert. Gardner was awarded the MC in June 1941 for an action near Halfaya Pass, in Libya. His tank and several others, including that of Lieutenant Rowe, the senior troop leader, had run on to a minefield. Their tracks had been blown off and they were immobilised. Rowe had left his tank to inspect the damage to the others when he stepped on a mine.
    Immediately jumping from his own tank, Gardner walked through enemy shelling and machine-gun fire to where Rowe was lying. On finding that the officer was severely wounded, Gardner attended to him as best he could. He then went back across the minefield to his own tank to get morphia, before returning once more to administer it.
    For the fourth time he crossed the minefield to get help from the infantry to carry the wounded man. But Rowe was dying, and Gardner remained with him, under heavy machine-gun fire, until the end. Then he led the crews back along the line of the tank-tracks to headquarters.

    On November 23rd 1941, Gardner was ordered to take two tanks to the rescue of a pair of armoured cars of the King’s Dragoon Guards which were out of action and under heavy fire. Gardner set off in what he called his “battle buggy”, and found the two cars halted 200 yards apart. They were being smashed to pieces by the weight of enemy fire. Ordering the other tank to give him covering fire, Gardner manoeuvred his own close to the nearest car, dismounted under heavy anti-tank and machine-gun fire, and secured a tow-rope to the car.
    Then, seeing an officer lying beside it with both legs blown off, Gardner lifted him into the car. “As luck would have it,” Gardner later wrote to his parents, “the rope broke, and before I could stop the driver we had gone some distance. So I went back again and got the poor chap out of the car and on to the tank and set off again.” Despite being hit in the arm and leg, Gardner had carried the wounded officer back to his tank, placed him on the rear engine louvres and climbed alongside to hold him on. While the tank was being driven back to the British lines, it came under intense fire; the loader was killed. In a letter to his father from a field hospital Gardner wrote, “Don’t get alarmed and think I am badly wounded. Just a few odd bits and pieces in my leg, neck and arm, nothing serious.” After describing how he had collected “this little packet,” he added: “I was spared by a miracle and have to thank God for a mighty deliverance.”
    The citation for his VC declared: “The courage, determination and complete disregard for his own safety displayed by Captain Gardner enabled him, despite his wounds and in the face of intense fire at close range, to save the life of his fellow officer in circumstances fraught with great difficulty and danger.” Gardner was invested with the VC by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on May 18th 1945.

    https://i0.wp.com/victoriacrossonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/11-32.jpg?w=325&ssl=1

    1. The perplexing question (conundrum) for me is the chicken-and-egg one.

      Do vegans become stupid by eating unnatural substances? Or are they already stupid: a condition which introduces them into eating crap?

      Answers on the back of a nine-bob note please.

  71. That’s me for this dry day. Useful garden work done (including ladder work) pruning roses and the bloody wisteria. Again – 4th time this year. I swear you can watch it growing..

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    2. I don’t suppose the residual payments the UK gives the EU, as negotiated in the Withdrawal Agreement, are hypothecated for specific purposes. As they almost certainly end up in the EU’s general spending pot, some will have ended up heading for Ukraine.

        1. VAT demonstrates that human activity is never completely good or completely bad. (Remind me, when was it first introduced in the Netherlands?)

          1. I don’t know, but it was introduced into the UK in preparation for our joining the so-called “Common Market”, which was always intended to become the EU.

  73. Here’s one to make yer flesh crawl………. but the btl commenters aren’t impressed!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12551251/pandemic-disease-x-covid.html

    The next major pandemic is coming. It’s
    already on the horizon, and could be far worse — killing millions more
    people — than the last one.

    We don’t
    yet know for certain what form it will take — just that its arrival,
    according to global health experts, is not just a possibility but a
    probability.

    That’s horrific enough.
    Even more terrifying is the fact that Britain and the rest of the world
    have so far done very little to prepare for it.

    To combat Disease X — as the World Health Organisation
    ominously calls it — we will once again need vaccines to be engineered
    and delivered in record time. But, as things stand, there is absolutely
    no guarantee that will happen.

    2. Yeh, Russia and several other countries have scuppered the “pandemic preparedness treaty” again. So the propaganda machine kicks in.

      1. Well then thank God for Russia and the other countries who have scuppered the “pandemic preparedness treaty”. Of course soon it will require only majority voting.

        1. One never knows what will happen during an intervention or stay of execution. The voices are getting ever louder out there.

    3. Pandemics have always reared their ugly head from time to time. Telling us there will be another is about as useful as saying there will be another major earthquake, volcanic eruption or flood one day, although we don’t know where or when.

    4. “We don’t yet know for certain what form it will take”.
      “To combat Disease X — as the World Health Organisation ominously calls it — we will once again need vaccines to be engineered and delivered in record time”.

      If you don’t know what form the ‘disease’ will take – how can you manufacture a vaccine to combat it?

      1. I will do such things—
        What they are, yet I know not, but they shall be
        The terrors of the earth!”

        [King Lear]

      3. They haven’t decided which one to release yet and they are waiting to see if the adverse effects from the vaccine will be sufficient for ‘X’.

        1. I’m tempted to take it and cease to strut this mortal coil. I.e., I’ve had enough, time to depart.

    7. There will always be one ‘on the horizon’ until it arrives, just like the last one was ‘on the horison’ until it arrived.

  76. ‘Night All

    Niot been around mutch,bit burnt out

    Mini-Medley

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49bc64eec6ce1b2d99a0b2ebffbef348c5fcfdec6b2e1d829a45f223a4246889.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae9f7ea646c3762a7515a6b3fa7c6187d86fa36ad948d89810974412abe4bcc7.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b6545cc567b209b436244ae32bde08c7cb62275addd29953a60c37c0d293bdb.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d8eca852302bed6e47e94c032363c1be76b7af4abff4910f2f0143bfa0b7c61a.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e46ab214ba335f0bb5d8155f9803b7645b62d4fc33797ec7cc6e96816b78877b.jpg

  78. Sergeant William Gosling VC (15th August 1892 – 12th February 1945), 3rd Wessex Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.

    During the precursor bombardment to the Battle of Arras, on 5th April 1917 Gosling was a battery sergeant in charge of several heavy trench mortars. A bomb was fired from a Stokes Mortar of Sergeant Gosling’s battery. “Owing to a faulty cartridge the bomb, after discharge, fell 10 yards from the mortar. Sergeant Gosling sprang out, lifted the nose of the bomb which had sunk into the ground, unscrewed the fuse and threw it on the ground, where it immediately exploded. This very gallant and prompt action undoubtedly saved the lives of the whole detachment”. For this action he was awarded the Victoria Cross and was presented with the award by King George V outside Buckingham Palace on 21st July 1917.

    https://i0.wp.com/victoriacrossonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/1-16.png?resize=169%2C284&is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1

    1. Jack Cornwell

      John “Jack” Travers Cornwell was born as the third child of a working-class family at Clyde Place, Leyton, Essex (now in Greater London). His parents were Eli and Lily Cornwell; he had a sister and three brothers, as well as two half-siblings from his father’s previous

      marriage. The family later moved to Alverstone Road, East Ham. He left Walton Road School at the standard age of 14, but was in the Boy Scouts. At the outbreak of the First World War, ex-soldier Eli Cornwell volunteered for service and was fighting in France under Lord Kitchener. His older brother Arthur also served in an infantry regiment on the Western Front.

      In October 1915, Jack Cornwell gave up his job as a delivery boy and enlisted in the Royal Navy without his father’s permission. He had references from his headmaster and employer. He carried out his basic training at HMS Vivid Keyham Naval Barracks in Plymouth,

      and received further training as a Sight Setter or Gun Layer and became Boy Seaman First Class. On Easter Monday 1916, Cornwell left for Rosyth, Scotland, to join his assignment in the navy. He was assigned to HMS Chester.

      Battle of Jutland

      On 31 May 1916, Chester was scouting ahead of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland when the ship turned to investigate gunfire in the distance. At 17:30 hours, Chester soon came under intense fire from four Kaiserliche Marine cruisers each her own size which had suddenly emerged from the haze and increasing funnel smoke of the battlefield. The shielded 5.5-inch gun

      mounting where Cornwell was serving as a sight-setter was affected by at least four nearby hits. Chester’s gun mountings were open-backed shields and did not reach down to the deck. Splinters were thus able to pass under them or enter the open back when shells exploded nearby or behind. All the gun’s crew were killed or mortally injured except Cornwell, who, although severely wounded,

      managed to stand up again and remain at his post for more than 15 minutes, until Chester retired from the action with only one main battery gun still working. Chester had received a total of 18 hits, but partial hull armour meant that the interior of the ship suffered little serious damage and the ship itself was never in peril of sinking. Nevertheless, the situation on deck was dire. Many of the gun crews had lost lower limbs due to splinters passing under the gun shields. British ships reported passing the Chester to cheers from limbless wounded gun crew laid out on her deck and smoking cigarettes, only to hear that the same crewmen had died a few hours later from blood loss and shock.

      After the action, medics arrived on deck to find Cornwell the sole survivor standing at his gun, shards of steel penetrating his

      chest, looking at the gun sights and still waiting for orders. Being incapable of further action, Chester was ordered to the port of Immingham. There Cornwell was transferred to Grimsby General Hospital, although he was clearly dying. He died shortly before 8:00am on the morning of 2 June 1916, before his mother could arrive at the hospital.

      Contents

      (Top)

      Early life

      Battle of Jutland

      Victoria Cross

      Remembrance

      Scouting

      Cadets

      Other memorials

      See also

      References

      External links

      Jack Cornwell

      Article

      Talk

      Read

      Edit

      View history

      Tools

      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

      For other people named John Cornwell, see John Cornwell (disambiguation).

      This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
      Find sources: “Jack Cornwell” – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
      John Travers CornwellJohn Travers Cornwell, Boy 1st class (1900–1916) by Ambrose McEvoy, although it is now believed to be Jack’s brother George[1]Nickname(s)”Jack”
      “Boy”Born8 January 1900
      Leyton, Essex, EnglandDied2 June 1916 (aged 16)
      Grimsby, EnglandBuriedManor Park Cemetery, LondonAllegiance United KingdomService/branch Royal NavyYears of service1915–1916RankBoy 1st ClassUnitHMS ChesterBattles/warsFirst World War

      Battle of Jutland (DOW)
      AwardsVictoria Cross

      John Travers Cornwell VC (8 January 1900 – 2 June 1916), commonly known as Jack Cornwell or as Boy Cornwell, is remembered for his gallantry at the Battle of Jutland during World War I. Having died at the age of only 16, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Cornwell is the third-youngest recipient of the VC after Andrew Fitzgibbon and Thomas Flinn.

      Early life

      John “Jack” Travers Cornwell was born as the third child of a working-class family at Clyde Place, Leyton, Essex (now in Greater London).
      His parents were Eli and Lily Cornwell; he had a sister and three
      brothers, as well as two half-siblings from his father’s previous
      marriage. The family later moved to Alverstone Road, East Ham. He left Walton Road School at the standard age of 14, but was in the Boy Scouts. At the outbreak of the First World War, ex-soldier Eli Cornwell volunteered for service and was fighting in France under Lord Kitchener. His older brother Arthur also served in an infantry regiment on the Western Front.

      In October 1915, Jack Cornwell gave up his job as a delivery boy and enlisted in the Royal Navy without his father’s permission. He had references from his headmaster and employer. He carried out his basic training at HMS Vivid Keyham Naval Barracks in Plymouth,
      and received further training as a Sight Setter or Gun Layer and became
      Boy Seaman First Class. On Easter Monday 1916, Cornwell left for Rosyth, Scotland, to join his assignment in the navy. He was assigned to HMS Chester.

      Battle of JutlandJack Cornwell’s gun, HMS Chester

      On 31 May 1916, Chester was scouting ahead of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland when the ship turned to investigate gunfire in the distance. At 17:30 hours, Chester soon came under intense fire from four Kaiserliche Marine
      cruisers each her own size which had suddenly emerged from the haze and
      increasing funnel smoke of the battlefield. The shielded 5.5-inch gun
      mounting where Cornwell was serving as a sight-setter was affected by at
      least four nearby hits. Chester’s
      gun mountings were open-backed shields and did not reach down to the
      deck. Splinters were thus able to pass under them or enter the open back
      when shells exploded nearby or behind. All the gun’s crew were killed
      or mortally injured except Cornwell, who, although severely wounded,
      managed to stand up again and remain at his post for more than
      15 minutes, until Chester retired from the action with only one main battery gun still working. Chester
      had received a total of 18 hits, but partial hull armour meant that the
      interior of the ship suffered little serious damage and the ship itself
      was never in peril of sinking. Nevertheless, the situation on deck was
      dire. Many of the gun crews had lost lower limbs due to splinters
      passing under the gun shields. British ships reported passing the Chester
      to cheers from limbless wounded gun crew laid out on her deck and
      smoking cigarettes, only to hear that the same crewmen had died a few
      hours later from blood loss and shock.

      After the action, medics arrived on deck to find Cornwell the
      sole survivor standing at his gun, shards of steel penetrating his
      chest, looking at the gun sights and still waiting for orders. Being incapable of further action, Chester was ordered to the port of Immingham.
      There Cornwell was transferred to Grimsby General Hospital, although he
      was clearly dying. He died shortly before 8:00am on the morning of 2
      June 1916, before his mother could arrive at the hospital.

      Victoria Cross

      Three months later, Captain Robert Lawson of Chester described the events to the British Admiralty. Though at first reluctant, the
      Admiralty eventually decided to recommend Cornwell for a posthumous Victoria Cross and King George V endorsed it. The recommendation for citation, from Admiral David Beatty, reads:

      The instance of devotion to duty by Boy (1st Class) John Travers Cornwell who was mortally wounded early in the action, but nevertheless remained standing alone at a most exposed post, quietly awaiting orders till the end of the action, with the gun’s crew dead and wounded around him. He was under 16½ years old. I regret that he has since died, but I recommend his case for special recognition in justice to his memory and as an acknowledgement of the high example set by him.

      1. My neighbour who died 16 years ago was a surviving relative of his and owned a few artefacts which belonged to him

  80. Tanked the van up today, 97 litres!!

    Oh well, that will keep me going for another 800 miles or so!

    3. I am going to have to fill the car up tomorrow. Not looking forward to having to take out a mortgage 🙁

  81. Just back at smallholding, after nice dinner out.
    Since we’re out in the country, there’s no light pollution. So, for the first time, I saw the Big Dipper! Wow! New experience! And we passed a beaver crossing the road on the way – never seen a live one before – big bugger, so it was.
    About to relax into a bottle of something nice – have a great Saturday night, comrades.

      3. Probably.
        Never saw pictures of it looking like anything much, so when I saw it, it looked like, well, a big ladle.

  82. ,Evening, all. “Plod” is not the word I would choose to describe the government’s reactions. Stonewall, resist, refuse, reject, maybe, but not plod! Been a nice day here; dry, sunny and warming up after a chilly start. I managed to get my vines cut back and some weeding done. The birds had taken all the fruit, but at least now I can see my herb garden (the vines run between it and the soft fruit patch. There is a lot still needing to be done before I can put the garden to bed for winter, but I feel I’ve made a start. Oscar managed to get himself tangled up in the netting I used (unsuccessfully) to protect the grapes and he was covered in weed seeds. He looked like a stuffed clove. I did manage to brush most of them off (the ones that remained after he’d rubbed a lot off on Charlie’s rug). I couldn’t manage the ones on his nose – I thought I’d be pushing my luck to try getting those off without his muzzle on! Although, to be fair, he has mellowed a lot. He allowed someone to stroke his head this morning when we went out for a walk and never even reacted. Such a good boy! He has come SUCH a long way!

    1. That’s such good news, Conners. And a real tribute to your endurance and patience. Well done!

      1. He is like a different dog. Even when he objects to things being done to him, it’s more of a growly complaint than a snap the way it used to be.

        1. He’s responded very well to your kind but firm approach. Clearly he was ill- treated in his earlier life, and you’ve had to be very patient with him.

          1. It’s been a learning curve for both of us; he’s had to get used to my ways and I’ve had to learn how best to treat him.

        2. He’s responded very well to your kind but firm approach. Clearly he was ill- treated in his earlier life, and you’ve had to be very patient with him.

    2. Such a long way – as a result of your kindness, patience & love, Conway.
      Standing applause for you, as well as Oscar!

  84. Has here been a recent sighting of Lady of the Lake? I haven’t seen anything, and I’m worried for her.

    1. No – not for more than a week. Rose sent her our good wishes and an e-card but got no response. I think she may be back in hospital.

        1. I hope we will find out soon. There doesn’t seem to be another channel to let us know how she is. It’s nearly two months since her husband died. The last we saw of her she seemed fairly perky and her sister in law had been visiting.

          1. Hope she has someone to visit. It’s lonely enough in hospital with two family visits a day, let alone none.

          3. To be honest I hate hospital visitors when I’ve been a guest of the NHS. (Also once in Den Helder and once in Sau Paulo)

    1. There are several Fettermans and each have different suit sizes. Check out recent images and behaviours. The real Fetterman is probably kept in a kennel somewhere.

      1. John Fetterman is a Democrat senator with serious mental issues and a penchant for the scruffiest dress and most inappropriate dress possible and the Senate has changed the formerly strict dress rules to accommodate him.

  89. Had a slightly complicated day, so I have missed your wonderful company,

    Moh has been chopping up the fallen Ceanothus tree before the weather breaks.

    I haven’t much to end the day with except this …

    A did you know list of useless info .

    SHORT AND INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT A PERSON!
    ★The amount of water in the body depends on age, in infants it is 75%, in adolescents 65%, in adults 60% and in the elderly 55% of body weight.
    ★The only part of the body that does not have a blood supply is the cornea of the eye. It receives oxygen directly from the air.
    ★Up to 7 months old baby can breathe and swallow at the same time.
    ★Laughter prevents the occurrence of heart disease and increases immunity.
    ★Swimming is the most useful and safe sport on the planet. The risk of mortality in swimmers is 50% lower than in those who run or prefer walking.
    ★When sneezing, all body functions stop, even the heart.
    ★A nerve impulse from the brain moves at a speed of 274 km/h.
    ★One human brain generates more electrical impulses in one day than all the phones in the world combined.
    ★The human heart pumps 182 million litres of blood in its lifetime.
    ★50,000 cells in your body die and are replaced with new ones while you are reading this sentence.
    ★Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s.
    ★In spring, the respiratory rate is on average 1/3 higher than in autumn.
    ★Humans are the only creatures that sleep on their backs.
    ★There are only 7% left-handers in the world.
    ★99% of all calcium in the body is in the teeth.
    ★The absolute strength of the chewing muscles on one side is equal to 195 kilograms.
    ★Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue produced by the human body.
    ★During the lifetime of a person’s skin is replaced approximately 1000 times.
    ★A person who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day will prescribe half a cup of resin for a year.
    ★Women blink about 2 times less often than men.
    ★Babies are born without kneecaps. They just have cartilage, in place of which bone develops later (2-6 years).
    ★The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.
    ★The smallest cells in a man’s body are sperm cells.
    ★There are about 40,000 bacteria in the human mouth.
    ★There are about 2000 taste buds in the human body.
    ★The human eye is able to distinguish 10 million color shades.
    ★The chemical compound responsible for the ecstasy of love (phenylethylamine) is present in chocolate.
    ★The human heart creates pressure, which is enough to raise the blood to the level of the 4th floor.
    ★Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
    ★In the morning, a person is about 8 millimeters taller than in the evening.
    ★Bone material is 2.5 times stronger than granite, 30 times stronger than brick and 5 times stronger than steel
    ★A person uses 17 muscles when smiling, and 43 when frowning

    1. Don’t get this one, Belle.
      “A person who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day will prescribe half a cup of resin for a year.”

    2. “There are about 2000 taste buds in the human body.”
      Not all on the tongue then?

      “Women blink about 2 times less often than men.”
      Evidently a Yank study since they are clueless about the word “twice”.

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