Monday 25 September: There are better ways to level-up Britain than wasting billions on HS2

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

493 thoughts on “Monday 25 September: There are better ways to level-up Britain than wasting billions on HS2”

  3. There are better ways to level-up Britain than wasting billions on HS2

    I’ve never understood how HS2 fits in with the 15 minute neighbourhood agenda

    2. 377099+ Up ticks,

      Morning B3,
      I believe they have in mind that leaving london you could be in a birmingham mosque 15 minutes earlier.

    3. Only the toadies and apparatchiks will be allowed to use the special train.
      The wheeled equivalent of being allowed to shop in the GUM store.

    4. It’s not for the plebs. It’s to carry EU troops around to quell civil war when the wogs escape their hotels.

      1. Nearly right. It is an EU troop transit system to quell the uppity Brits, and other rebellious tribes, when they get stroppy and refuse to implement EU directives and demand complete separation from the Brussels Gauleiters.

  5. Morning, all Y’all.
    First real autumnal day. Dark, chilly, raining. Needed lights on when coming out of the shower so as to not fall over the cat.

  7. Ukraine must now take the war into Russia. 25 September 2023.

    Even more significant than the damage they could do to the Kremlin’s war effort, such attacks could help destabilise Putin’s regime by bringing the front line to the Russians, including elites, who have so far not been directly affected by the violence.

    The regime is already looking fragile. The Prigozhin march on Moscow showed Russia that its would-be Tsar is no longer above all challenge. Rebellious generals have been sacked. Putin has gone cap in hand for armaments to North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated pariah states. The latest flare-up in Nagorno-Karabakh, caused partly by Russia’s inability to maintain its peacekeeping commitments, is another illustration of Moscow’s diminishing grip. An intensified campaign into the Russian heartland may well be a tipping point. While some might argue it could have the opposite effect, stiffening resolve among the Russian people, its impact on the current all-out trajectory of the conflict would be marginal at best

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE. John Galt.

    Or, we could force both players to the negotiating table, and try and avoid WW3. How about that?

    The only people calling for all-out war in this business are the MSM Hacks. It’s amazing how blasé they are about it escalating to a point where Vlad strikes out. A point I myself regard as long past justification.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/24/ukraine-must-now-take-the-war-into-russia/

    2. Nothing sells news like bad news. Clearly a major powers war would be really bad news

      Morning Minty and all

  8. 377099+ up ticks,

    Monday 25 September: There are better ways to level-up Britain than wasting billions on HS2

    This is a well known by King and Country fact, BUT WEF rule, OK.
    It would also be displeasing to brussels and blight the chance of the ” governing” parties ever getting back in.

    Priorities, priorities,these wasted millions would pay for a ring of defence units defending illegal entry points against entry,
    straw palliasses under viaducts for the in house ( currently in 5* hotels) illegals, and kick off the return of manufacturing
    British goods to these Isles.

    If you find that none of these appeal to you then continue to support / vote for the lab/lib/con coalition party.

  9. 377099+ up ticks,

    The fruits of treachery,

    leilani dowding 🌸🚜 ☮️ reposted
    David Atherton
    @DaveAtherton20
    ·
    13h
    British Telecom
    @BTGroup
    is to make 1,000 people redundant at their Ipswich Offices. The ethnic make up is 95.8% white & they hope to disperse the jobs to London, Birmingham & Manchester to reach ESG diversity targets.

    CEO Allison Kirkby could get a bonus of £220,000.
    Racism.… Show more

    1. The rewriting of history has taken a sinister turn
      The manipulation of our past for political purposes is now big business – with the West paying the price

      Something strange has been happening in the English speaking world for several years. We might call it “cultural appropriation”: rewriting our history to fit a new agenda. He who controls the present controls the past, as George Orwell noted; and he who controls the past controls the future. Orwell saw it happening under Stalin, a ruthless practitioner but not the inventor. The manipulation of history for political purposes is one of mankind’s oldest cultural practices. Priests and kings did it. So did political parties, especially the Whigs. And today, a progressive establishment is busily creating a new orthodoxy.

      Sometimes the rewriting seems innocuous, even infantile. Claiming that soldiers from Rome’s North African provinces stationed on Hadrian’s Wall were black, or that black people were here during the Stone Age is doubtless a well-meaning attempt to make certain ethnic minorities feel at home, though surely there are less patronising ways to achieve it. But rewriting has a more sinister side. Political activism, careerism, and big money are linked.

      Aristophanes Blight Haven
      37 MIN AGO
      Soon, the Call to Prayer will be heard in every English village, town and city.
      And you will be told that Britain was always black and Muslim.
      And you will agree.
      And you will obey.
      Or else.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/25/the-rewriting-of-history-has-taken-a-sinister-turn/

      1. Great BTL comment:
        “The latest claim that Stonehenge was built by blacks is quite plausible though. Looking at a photo of St Paul’s Cathedral and then Stonehenge, I can see why.”

      2. 377099+ up ticks,

        Morning TB,

        True, with bells on, and via the current voting pattern will find consent by the “party before Country”
        supporter / voter.

      3. “Claiming that soldiers from Rome’s North African provinces stationed on Hadrian’s Wall were black…”

        Countryfile peddled this one last summer.

    2. It would be nice to see the now seemingly extremely important or else, aka the diversity factor actually at work.
      It seems 90 plus percent of our current TV programmes and advertising are totally racist. There are very few white people in evidence.
      Who is responsible for that I wonder ?

      1. On the plus side, it saves me a lot of money.
        They don’t want my custom? Fine, the dosh stays in my purse.

      2. Every time I see one of those adverts I wonder if it makes being looted more likely by attracting a certain clientele to their shops.

    3. Apparently The Fragrant Ms Kirkwood and her team think Martlesham Heath is rural.
      Obviously haven’t been near it for a good few years.

  12. ‘Morning, Peeps. A forecast of full sun and 20°C is apparently what we are due for most of today.

    I thought it was only me who expected dire consequences when a police officer reacted in accordance with his training and fired at a non-white driver who, apparently, had placed him and his colleagues in serious danger, but evidently not. A charge of murder would be laughable were it not so obviously misguided for reasons other than justice:

    gerard ward
    1 HR AGO
    I’ll use this forum to comment.
    The disgraceful decision by the CPS to charge the policeman doing what we want them to do is fuelled entirely by cowardice, attempting to avoid the backlash from the black community. The officer has been thrown under the bus.
    There is absolutely zero chance of him being convicted of murder and the CPS test of “ the likelihood of securing a conviction” has been dropped.
    Let’s not forget that it was these same officers that responded to the carnage in Borough Market who exited their still moving X5 and within 30 seconds had the assailants despatched.
    The Government are guilty of sleeping on watch on this one. They have created the opportunity and excuse for another carnival but it won’t be in Notting Hill.

    1. That’s exactly what I said when I first heard of the murder charge.
      Unfortunately for the officer he was too good at his job.
      I hope he’s cleared.

    2. “The officer has been thrown under the bus.” – and the rest of them see that, and are handing in their firearms permits at a rate that now the Army has been mobilised to London streets.
      Do the soldiers have any kind of immunity? If not, then they may well do the same thing.
      You reap what you sow.

      1. And the soldiers will be Court Martialled if they don’t fire and charged with murder if they do.
        What a dire state this country has degenerated into.

      2. And the soldiers will be Court Martialled if they don’t fire and charged with murder if they do.
        What a dire state this country has degenerated into.

  14. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sun rise over the hills today. It looks promising. Perhaps a trip to Tintagel.

    And why are our politicians and Whitehall so monumentally stupid, 50 million a week to house hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. And a pointless useless railway line that has destroyed large parts of our countryside.
    Meanwhile the rest of us are being robbed.
    To finance their collective and moronic behaviour.

  15. Beautiful sunny morning here. We’ve got a new oil delivery company coming for the first time this morning and neighbours are worried they might not get round the corners without knocking bits off the houses. We’ll see – OH has gone outside to check they can get to our tank.

    1. Now you will be warm and cosy for the coming season .

      I expect the oil refill will be costing a small fortune though.

      Our coal has gone up in price, we filled our bunker up earlier in the year.

    3. Does the tanker often knock bits off the houses? I presume you’ve had oil for some considerable time. If it hasn’t done it before why are they worried. Do they have so little in their lives that they worry about something that’s never happened before.

      1. There are big takers and smaller tankers for where access is difficult – I get mine delivered by a small tanker because of the entrance to my driveway and the cattle grid

      3. It’s a different company with a much bigger tanker. Our lane is very narrow with pinch points and some of the houses jut out a bit. The lady tanker driver was very careful and everyone who ordered a top up got some. It was something of a trial run but all went well. I didn’t go out but OH and others remarked what a nice friendly team they were.

  16. My succinct flow of letters to the DT have failed probably 100 times or more .

    Yet this readers letter warrants discussion?

    SIR – At the Versailles banquet, the forks had been laid prong-side down. Is this a French custom or simply correct etiquette?

    Tim Hawkes
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    OR

    SIR – How did two characters in The Archers manage to secure face-to-face appointments with their GP, one for an eating disorder and one for a mole – all within one week?

    Dorothy Woolliscroft
    Attleborough, Norfolk

    1. Two observations, the French banquet, the French are renown for being pig awkward. So fork off.
      The second with the mole, perhaps the veterinary would have been a better choice.

        1. It’s all coming together slowly but surely Richard, how guns were originally banned in the UK. Now only crooks are able to get hold of them. Even the police will be short handed as more officers revert from their firearms duties. Doing what they were trained to do no longer applies.

    2. Well said, Belle. The first of these is particularly fatuous. What a boring and otherwise perfect little life Mr Hawkes must enjoy.

    4. It seems to be a custom among the French families I stay with – forks and spoons face down. They saw a GP for their mole? We employ a mole catcher.

  17. My succinct flow of letters to the DT have failed probably 100 times or more .

    Yet this readers letter warrants discussion?

    SIR – At the Versailles banquet, the forks had been laid prong-side down. Is this a French custom or simply correct etiquette?

    Tim Hawkes
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    OR

    SIR – How did two characters in The Archers manage to secure face-to-face appointments with their GP, one for an eating disorder and one for a mole – all within one week?

    Dorothy Woolliscroft
    Attleborough, Norfolk

    1. Yes, I’ve spotted some humungous contrails this morning.
      Presumably a sign of crisper temperatures.

    1. If this is not stamped on with great vigour, it will very rapidly spread everywhere leading to widespread lawlessness – and reining it in will be very difficult, with riots, deaths and worse.

      2. The police will be standing back even further if the fire arms officer carying out the job he was trained for, isn’t let off the charge of murder.
        A few weeks ago, my wife witnessed a big blackman shoving bottles of booze inside his joggers.
        Sainsburys WGC Herts.

      3. Stamping on it is what should have happened when XR first came on the scene. Letting them do what they wanted laid the foundations to what’s happening now.

      4. It’s what ‘the blob’ wants, in order that they will be begged by us to bring in their draconian controls. I can see only violent revolution will bring an end to this and our many other woes. We have a terrible future ahead.

  20. Good Moaning.
    Lovely morning one that perversely reminds me of an incredibly unimaginative nurse I worked with.
    Whenever we had a beautiful morning, she would witter on about “drying her nets”. (I assumed she meant curtains, as she had no fishing connections). All that potential for small but precious pleasures, and all she could think about was banal household chores.

    1. Don’t knock the appeal of the mundane.

      I once went on a course on building with lime led by the lovely Marianne Suhr from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. She told us that there is no greater pleasure after a shower than sitting watching the limewash slowly transform itself from dull off-white to snowy loveliness over the space of about half an hour. Who’d be drying their nets when one can watch paint dry?

      1. 🙂
        That I can understand. Drying nets I can understand (say once or twice a year). But not every blasted time the sun shone.

          1. Yes, and when young Nursey has dried her ‘nets she plans to shrinkfit her new blue jeans, whilst relaxing in the bath. Then it will be time to have a shower in order to wash that soft white cotton T-shirt, although she might need some assistance. Down boy!
            Could it be Anne who was lacking in imagination?

          2. Yes, and when young Nursey has dried her ‘nets she plans to shrinkfit her new blue jeans, whilst relaxing in the bath. Then it will be time to have a shower in order to wash that soft white cotton T-shirt, although she might need some assistance. Down boy!
            Could it be Anne who was lacking in imagination?

        3. I probably wash our ‘nets’ once every two years or so! I used not to like net curtains, but when we toddled off to France in 2009 I decided to put them up in the windows all over the house as you can’t really get a sense of whether people are in or out behind them. Since our permanent return (five years ago) I have grown to like them. The are divided down the middle so on a nice day I pull them back to the edges of the window, and on a cold wet day I shut the bleakness out. I like the illusory sense they give of withdrawing and protecting me from the world outside when I feel the need to do so. And they also provide a surprising degree of insulation from the cold during the daylight hours of the winter months. What’s not to like? say I now. Apart from washing them..

          2. Deffo! I am a convert, born out of necessity in the first instance. Wait until all those migrants have their noses and lips squashed against your windows as they peer within; you’ll wish you had indulged!

          4. High thorny hedges are a good idea, dogs are excellent. A few packs of bacon in the fridge, a squirty can of Deep Heat, they may have a few aches and pains in the facial region….. you’re sorted. Oh, and don’t forget to put the kettle on….

          6. High thorny hedges are a good idea, dogs are excellent. A few packs of bacon in the fridge, a squirty can of Deep Heat, they may have a few aches and pains in the facial region….. you’re sorted. Oh, and don’t forget to put the kettle on….

    2. Morning Anne ,

      Are you sure the nurse you worked with wasn’t referring to her “knicks”… and of course depending whether they were bloomers or something even heavier, like her corselet .. My great aunt needed good weather to dry hers.. those were the days when they were boned and heavy!

      1. Aaarrgghhh ….. Miss Hayden in her peach bloomers complete with little pocket for her hankie.
        I don’t think she realised that perched on a high teacher’s chair …….
        It didn’t take much to distract us from our end of term Arithmetic exams.

    3. I just replaced the nets in my bedroom. When buying them i used my usual ‘That’ll do’ approach. Now they are up they remind me of a wedding dress…ho hum.

  21. Good morning all.
    A delayed start due to my nocturnal mug of tea, but it’s 9°C and a bright sunny start to the day.

  22. Nice weekend away which included a 50th anniversary of leaving school reunion. Looking back at the 25th (which I missed), we had 42 in the photo, this time 33, so not bad.

      1. Great. Didn’t go in to town itself. It was at the Birds and Bees near the Wallace monument. The hearing impairment I gave myself three weeks ago (hearing test mid October) didn’t affect conversations on a one to one basis too much. Now got another whatsapp group and there will probably be localised get togethers before have another big one in five years’ time.

          1. Coming in from the south, the satnag took us round the bypass round Bannockburn and in past the Causeyhead Park. Going back it took us to the roundabout at the Old Bridge and up Drip Road and joined the motorway at Craigforth. (Yes dangerous getting close to ‘The Raploch’)

          2. It’s the wiggly bit through the estate, ending in what appears to be a railway siding! I always end up there!
            When I worked at Mothercare in Stirling about 99% of our shoplifters were from the Raploch! A joyous bunch they were not, especially when caught!

          5. “Satnag”. Dead accurate; ours throws an absolute wobbler if we deviate from her planned route.

          6. They are useful in an area you are not familiar with, but sometimes there are places you know of a quicker way (yes, it’s all to do with algorithms and data about traffic flow).

          9. Mine, too. When I wanted to go down the A49 she was apoplectic trying to get me to go down the M54, M6 and M5! Turn around when possible!

    2. Our last reunion (60 years after starting at the school) was four years ago – there probably won’t be another.

      1. I think that’s why we are think of one in 5 years and another a further five, but now we are all retired, we can have some localised ones in between.

      2. I will hold my house in the high wood,
        Within a walk of the sea,
        And the men that were boys when I was a boy
        Shall sit and drink with me.

        [Hilaire Belloc]

        I have always liked that line about the men who were boys when I was a boy.

        I still keep in touch with many of my childhood friends

          1. One of our number didn’t make it, having died back in the spring. When we were in the last year of primary school he fell ill and was hospitalsed leading up to Christmas. Our teacher got us all to write him a letter. He kept them all. I don’t know if it was his ‘last wish’ or that of the family, but those of us who were at primary with him got our letters back on Saturday. Weird reading a letter you wrote as an 11 year old.

          3. It was strange. Before re-reading it, I was a bit apprehensive, but I was fairly empathetic to him.

      1. Good morning Phizzee.

        I spoke too soon, the weather is turning already. Breeze has strengthened , and some large clouds , patches of blue .. it was really lovely an hour ago.

          1. Very windy here so I’m seriously considering washing the suite covers! I may need to wait for the naked cat to get up from one of the sofas!

          1. That’s why we moved; from the top bedroom we can see herds of wildebeest roaming along Maldon Road.

  24. ‘Morning All

    Given the vicious persecution of N.I. veterans and the muttered threats against SAS actions in Afgaf(until mass resignations threatened) I’m sure the average squaddie will be delighted to patrol our city streets…………

    Here’s a thought,if there’s such a shortage of firearms officers perhaps we could redeploy the close protection officers of Khan,Blair etcetc surely such well loved politicians don’t really need them and can lead by example………..

    Meanwhile,the Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/001578c06e375b5c082679d41b2372af2f9b06bae273bb6835d151672a47f808.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49868df428e04b77748fa2397e0bc7ee57a783e81ca35161f9e03a903a4d83b0.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7038706c3a44e36eb3048e9e3b6e048f079985d43bcef1a489ff3bb651d78c97.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ff8558bb336a0829845b938017fef63c33af6f64d8210ff75f349b52f4d8def.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d60e8bbac68fd74e11dfa9875389060308cdc4649de752ba854d35766a2cbcd3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3864bf110b0480523dd2a141f992b49a4a6b150f838f1533d2e49a4337adc34f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ca7aea9dbc85943514ae9783b46b8ee42ddc4e48410d216405cf514c6e211db.jpg

  25. Met Office said it was going to be cooler this week. 18C all last night so they are wrong yet again. Too many computers and not enough brain power.

  29. Living in a commune is my answer to the problem of loneliness. 25 September 2023.

    Now, at 43, my daydream is one shared by most of my contemporaries: to live on a commune. A magical mini-society, probably somewhere in the wilds of California or, failing that, Cornwall, that is fully self-supporting and off-grid enough that I never have to look at Instagram or hear about Matt Hancock again. In this utopia, we will pool all our resources which means we will be able to live on a magnificent estate, with extensive grounds, and probably access to a magical woodland where we can all prance around forest bathing. We will grow vegetables, look after each other’s children, and do skill swaps. No matter that my most useful skill is being able to beat a 10-year-old at Super Mario Kart – we’ve all got to start somewhere.

    I suppose that it would be lost on Bryony Gordon but loneliness has absolutely nothing to do with being alone, nor does the acquisition of acquaintances cure it! You can be surrounded by people and be totally devoid of any connection with them. It need not even be your fault. There is no cure. Chance alone can help you!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/09/25/bryony-gordon-living-in-a-commune-answer-to-loneliness/

    2. Loneliest place I know is the table for one in a busy restaurant filled with chatter and laughter. Been there often.
      Nowadays, one can partly hide in one’s telephone, reading the news or doing Sudoku.

          1. I am so glad that those days are over for me.

            I did arrive in Sydney on valentines day once and the thought of a lonely meal amongst all of the loved up couples was too much to bear. However, the night improved greatly when a secretary from the office joined me for dinner and we spent the evening laughing at the excess around us.

          2. It takes some sensitivity to realise that someone might want company, and then make yourself available for that.

          4. That one’s definitely a contender. However, there’s another which nearly always makes me tearful. Its yearning for a happier past gets me every time.

            https://youtu.be/-gr_e07oMjI

            Lyrics

            I think I’m goin’ back
            To the things I learned so well in my youth
            I think I’m returning to
            Those days when I was young enough to know the truth

            Now there are no games
            To only pass the time
            No more coloring books
            No Christmas bells to chime
            But thinking young and growing older is no sin
            And I can play the game of life to win

            I can recall a time
            When I wasn’t ashamed to reach out to a friend
            And now I think I’ve got
            A lot more than a skipping rope to lift

            Now there’s more to do
            Than watch my sailboat glide
            And everyday can be my magic carpet ride
            And I can play hide and seek with my fears
            And live my days instead of counting my years

            Let everyone debate the true reality
            I’d rather see the world the way it used to be
            A little bit of freedom’s all we’re lack
            So catch me if you can
            I’m goin’ back

            Source: LyricFind

            Songwriters: Carole King / Gerry Goffin

            Goin’ Back lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

        2. I used to do a lot of business travel when i was in my mid-20s and it was terrible. Mow i love breing on my own…

        3. When i was in the business we were aware of single diners and would make ourselves available. Not overly so though as some people are quite happy dining alone.

    3. Loneliness is in the mind of the individual who feels lonely. I agree with you in that loneliness is not being alone, I can be alone on many occasions and not feel lonely. A lonely person has a need for something, they are not content in themselves, I think they must be unfulfilled and have a dependency on social connection. A person can be alone and feel quite fulfilled and content.

      1. I’m reminded of Waiting for the Miracle [Leonard Cohen]

        Ah baby, let’s get married
        We’ve been alone too long
        Let’s be alone together
        Let’s see if we’re that strong

          3. That song when sung by KD Lang still sends shivers down my spine.
            I was just starting a contract in Melbourne when the Vancouver winter Olympics began and when she sang that song at the opening ceremonies, I could have just packed up and got on the next flight home.

    7. I’m amazed that the Telegaffe still employs Bryony – her articles are absolute bilge! Mind you, she’s less dangerous than Kemp and de Cretin-Halfwit and they still print their articles too!

      2. Nepotism, not talent.

        Something the Gordons have in common with the Rayners, the Winkleman/Pollards …

      1. Not everyone is happy in the Elysium paradise.

        manager Joseph Clark

        A man who admitted starting two fires that caused £400,000 of damage to
        the Findhorn eco-community in Moray has been ordered to do unpaid work.
        Community centre manager Joseph Clark, 49, started the fires after learning he was going to be made redundant and his on-site residency would end.16 Aug 2021

        Unpaid work for Findhorn eco-community fire starter – BBC

        bbc.co.uk

        https://www.bbc.co.uk › news › uk-scotland-north-e

    9. Loneliness is often a state of mind rather than circumstances. Some people are happy with their own company (I’m one of them).

  30. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s story Very late & very weak

    Counting Brides
    A little boy was attending his first wedding. After the service, his cousin asks him: “How many women can a man marry?”

    “Sixteen!” replies the little boy.

    His cousin laughed and asked how he knew this.

    “Easy,” the little boy said. “All you have to do is add it up! 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poorer!” .

    1. The old ones are the best – especially those coming from that well-known stand-up comic, Thomas Cranmer!

  31. The Canadian press have finally woken up to the fact that the government hosted a former SS member in Parliament last week. It took publicity on Facebook before they took note though.

    We are being led to believe that Trudeau had nothing to do with it, the speaker of the house used his initiative to invite visitors and to include them in his speech.

    What an absolutute crock of manure. This was a formal state visit, are we supposed to believe that the Prime Ministers office were not involved in the arrangements? Are we supposed to believe that the PMO protocol department managed every act of the visit but then just let the speaker go off and do his own thing?

    Question period in the house should be interesting. Will the speaker be resigned by Trudeau, will anyone else be sacrificed by Blackface?

    1. More proof if any were needed that Trudeau is the wrong man for the job. We were already aware of a Nazi connection with Zelensky through the Azov brigade. I wonder what the Commonwealth Jewish Council makes of it.

      Trudeau also showed he was no statesman or diplomat by publicly insulting India.

      The Art of Diplomacy is being able to tell someone to go to hell and them looking forward to the journey.

        1. That’s quite an understatement.

          According to recent polls, there are still around 25% would vote for him and the riding distribution is such that his urban base would lead to him being reelected.

          It makes Bidens America look good.

      2. In this past few years, my beliefs have labeled me as a racist, misogynist climate denying fascist. If Trudeau told me to go to hell, I would be happy.

        His actions are giving people cause to look for a new home away from this increasingly dysfunctional country.

        No wonder they have been trying to ban gun ownership, revolution is the only way to get rid of him – unless backbenchers wake up and speak for the country

    1. Excellent stuff – I fear that Neil Oliver will soon face all sorts of accusations, dredged up from a non existent past?

  33. Who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines? 25 September 2023.

    That remains unclear. While some officials maintain that the operation was complex and could have been carried out only by a nation-state, others cite the shallow depth of the pipelines to point to the possibility of non-state actors. What everyone agrees on is that the attack was deliberate.

    It is a mystery only to those who do not wish to know!

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/25/nord-stream-pipeline-explosion-update-russia-ukraine/

      1. We also know the damage those non indigenous folk do .. they create destructive riots , burn Croydon down , loot , murder , stab , kill and nearly behead young servicemen, and not forgetting policemen either ..

        Yet sportsmen and politicians and other twerps bend their knees , with religious fervour,, because everyone is scared stiff of these wild untamed drug infused blacks .

    2. So Kaba had form, and was ordered to get out of the car at least a dozen times before driving at police officers (witnesses corroborate this). The only reason I can think that the police office NX121 has been charged with murder is to appease the protesters. He will not be convicted when it comes to trial.

      2. A manslaughter charge might have been too easy to prove, so the CPS opted for murder. Does the Met Police operate a shoot to kill policy?

        1. I’m guessing that the police are trained to shoot to kill. Aiming to wound could leave the officer open to attack from the assailant.

    3. Mourners were told Mr Kaba’s pregnant fiancée, Karimah Waite, was so grief-stricken she could hardly get out of bed.

      But failed to mention she was weighed down by two drugged-up naked rappers who were recovering from a day and night session and were only there to comfort her.

    1. Far more brutal things go on in dictatorships, of course. But intelligent non-Westerners, who often take it as a given that their government will be mendacious, corrupt, and tyrannical, but who have been read lessons in good government for years by Western intellectuals, will increasingly realize that Western democracies are giants with feet of clay, that our people and our institutions are rotten through and through. Our political life seems little more than a succession of scandal, corruption, mendaciousness, frivolity, and bitter disputation over nothing, while on every hand real and severe problems and dangers go unaddressed. We are therefore no longer to be looked up to, but rather down upon. Prestige is like the blush of a grape, and when it goes, it goes forever.

      Another Nottler!

    2. Rotten as a pear, and I feel real pity for the youngsters who haven’t known better times and will just be engulfed by a foul future.

  37. https://twitter.com/Uniform1131/status/1706236869023764844

    Turkish/ Kurdish barbers..

    Moh has just arrived back from the tip , as well as sporting a neat haircut , eyebrows , ears and nostrils, done for £10 at one of several new barbers shops in Wareham

    The tip visit , to dispose of the chopped up Ceanothus tree that fell last week.

    He was told by the chap who attended to him at the barbers that he was a Kurdish Iraq, and had been in the Uk for 5 years .

        1. I think they have come through a work visa route. At least they are contributing unlike the Paki/Islamic wogs.

  38. A good piece this morning on the topic of Canadian Nazis.

    https://nakedemperor.substack.com/p/canadian-parliament-gives-two-standing?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&action=restack-comment&utm_campaign=email-restack-comment&r=z2izz

    On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy addressed the
    Canadian Parliament. Dressed in his usual military green coloured
    outfit, purely for the optics of reminding everyone he is fighting a
    war, Zelensky thanked Canada for its financial, political and military
    aid.

    But then something odd happened. After Zelensky’s speech,
    Anthony Rota, the Speaker of the House of Commons, made a speech. It
    wasn’t the comparison of Zelensky with Nelson Mandela that was odd, nor
    was it the comparison with Winston Churchill. It was when Rota
    announced the presence of a “Ukrainian-Canadian veteran from the second
    world war, who fought the Ukrainian independence against the Russians”
    in the Chamber.

      1. Our deputy PM comes from a nazi background, her grandfather was a confirmed collaborator, she probably sees nothing wrong with honoring the SS member.

        The only people they imprison here are protest leaders that do not agree with the woke agenda. The show trial of two freedom convoy leaders is going on at the moment, they are seeking for a ten year term for speaking out against the emporer.

  39. Back from the consult day surgery under general anesthetic booked for late november and this is at a private hospital!!
    I suppose the NHS would have taken until 2050………..
    Hospital packed arrived early as traffic light,impressive throughput of patients from waiting room to docs very few landwhales among either patients or staff and almost zero masks
    It’s a different world
    now all I have to do is plan the bank robbery to pay for it………….

  41. Vomit inducing and probably applies in the UK too.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/no-straight-lines-in-gay-geometry/

    Now that your kids are “safely” back at school and college this September, what are they actually learning? How to eat shit, that’s what.
    In 2022, teaching materials endorsed by American teaching union the NEA were leaked online, instructing children how to perform all kinds of queer-tastic sex acts so obscure even Sam Smith hasn’t tried them. One particular fact sheet enlightened children about “RIMMING: Stimulating the anus of another person using the tongue and mouth.”
    The document proceeded to teach students how to perform such an act—but why would anyone even need instructions for such a self-explanatory procedure? The best “educators” could come up with was “Use your tongue or mouth to stimulate the bumhole area.” The only good advice on the sheet was the line “If concerned about cleanliness, you might consider a shower before rimming,” although, given declining standards of teenage IQ, perhaps the fact sheet’s authors should have made it clear this step was to be followed by the person receiving, not giving, the procedure.

    2. Kids don’t need this kind of brainwashing. They will find out for themselves if they’re that way inclined.

    3. Apart from the fact that it is a perversion, how in heaven’s name can this be regarded as education? Why did children need ‘sex education’ in the first place? We have let them get away with this, slice by slice, since the sixties. And so we are where we are today.

      1. It’s the Stonewall charity agenda funded by the tax payer to some extent. It also fits in fully with the WEF agenda to destroy the nuclear family.

        1. I know that ‘sex education’ is all about destroying the nuclear family, but how have they got away with calling it ‘education’? I suppose the ethos of the sixties were responsible, that was the cover and then it was salami slice by slice, the frogs being carefully and gently brought to the simmer and apathy completed the equation.

    4. And next week nursery class will be learning how to shag a goat. Just how low can our society sink? I’ll bet Sodom and Gomorrah were beacons of restraint and clean living by comparison.

    5. I have no idea where this all comes from, certainly not heard from anyone I know with children in local schools.

      1. 1 Do you think that children would talk about such lessons with their parents?
        2 Do you think that the schools advertise what they are teaching in this instance?

        1. Schools here have far more parental power than I remember. When my two were in primary school, the headmaster had no time for parents, especially if they tried to interfere!! Quite a few PTA’s here have successfully stopped the banning of some well loved books in school libraries because the loud, woke minority try to have them removed.

          1. I should have added that school lessons, the subject matter to be discussed are more often than not made available to parents at their request.

      1. He restrained himself very well I thought. He’s become a master at not quite saying what he thinks.

  43. Was the whole point of the Russell Brand débacle to abolish online freedom of speech? Was he simply used as an opportunistic vehicle or allowed to go as far as he did with a view to all this, or did he knowingly engage in some sort of plot to get our freedom of speech shut down? I have felt uneasy about him since the start of covid, those WEF photos coming to light. https://youtu.be/IQb46xHqYv8?si=q2jVOa81sJGGV_30

    2. The letter from Caroline Dinenage was disgusting. Rumble’s reply was what she should have expected. So now they will be banned. You could have seen it coming. How long before platforms like this one are taken down?

    4. It’ll mean no freedom of speech for us – and indoctrination of children with all kinds of perversions will be the accepted norm. God help us.

    5. Rumble has already been removed in France.

      Ofcom is a diabolic organisation which panders to the PTB – look at how their attacks got Mark Steyn sacked from GB News for talking about Covid ‘vaccine’ damage and Pakistani rape gangs. Rumble is clearly in Ofcom’s sights.

    1. Have you heard The Moonlighters’ version of the song – it is incredibly good.

      Lou Gottlieb’s lecherousness makes Michael Flanders look innocent by comparison!

      I sailed in Raua from Lisbon to Madeira in September 1984 but we did not meet any sweet innocent girls of seventeen!

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

        1. I am a great fan of Flanders and Swan but Lou Gottlieb certainly adds a very spicy patina or veneer of filth to the fine original penned by Michael Flanders.

        1. I cook with Madeira quite often. A Madeira sauce really sets off a steak or beef wellington. My favourite is Tournedos Rossini with pate and Madeira sauce. That was on the dinner menu of the Titanic the night it went down. But don’t let that put you off.

          3. I often use Marsala for meat – especially proper winter stuff like ox cheek.
            I did slow roasted and then shredded (“pulled” is now the preferred term) shoulder of lamb for four of us yesterday.
            I have enough left for for 2 today and four containers in the freezer for when I wish to make shepherd’s pie, stuffed peppers or similar for the two of us.
            14 meals from one shoulder. Not bad!
            (Oh, and enough for Spartie to pimp up his doggie dins this evening.)

          6. Many years ago, when we lived in Essex, our favourite place for a celebration dinner was The Captain’s Table in Burnham-on-Crouch where Rudi, the chef did a remarkable Tournedos Rossini, which I have never quite managed to get right!! No idea what the sauce was but I don’t think it was Madeira.

  45. I’ve had shortness of breath problems since June 2020. It took until March this year to get a referral to the Respiratory Clinc. Have had 2xCT, 1x EchoCG, Lung Function Test and various inhalers none of which worked. The Chest Consultant referred me to Cardiology as he’s wondering if it could be a heart problem. That referral was nearly 4 weeks ago. I contacted the appointments department this morning and was told the waiting time for an appointment is 32 weeks. I asked why it was so long and she said Covid! I asked if was because of vaccine harm and she said yes. She is not medically trained but it was an immediate response.

    1. Go private. If it is your heart you really can’t wait 32 weeks. Plus there is a possibility it will be cancelled !

      1. I’m thinking now I no longer have to pay NI and while I’m still working, I ought to buy private health insurance but I’ve no idea where to begin with choosing a provider.

        1. Is there one linked to your work like the civil serpents- a lot of my friends use Benenden. I was in Foresters till they changed and messed me about.

          1. My cousin used Benenden (she is not well off) and had her cataracts sorted very quickly during the mid-‘covid’ era. She was very pleased, she didn’t start contributing until her early-mid seventies.

    2. My OH has only had the breathlessness since his heart troubles emerged. It’s the main reason he can no longer play tennis or table tennis. When he had all the tests last year, we were advised to go straight to A & E. He wanted to go home, but we were back there the following week with a referral letter from the GP. 32 weeks is far too long. If it’s your heart they will admit you.

    3. Moh was diagnosed with a Systolic heart murmur in the Spring , he had had a prolonged cough .

      I have had a cough since I contracted Covid on my 75th b/day last year.. We are both being tested for goodness knows what nearly three weeks ago we had appts for breathing tests .. we will know the results in October .. I fear mine is also a heart problem , I have swollen ankles and feel very tired , and cough more when I am in bed .

      We will be having our flu jabs on Thursday , but no more Covid top ups ..

      Moh’s referrals are still not over , despite the early diagnosis.

      He looks as fit as a fiddle , but feels the cold and sometimes has blue lips, when he gets angry .

  46. Though i enjoy cooking i don’t often make cakes. A lot of cheffy folks are like that. So today i had a hankering for an old school favourite. An upside down sponge cake. Often made with pineapple or syrup but this one is made with strawberries and strawberry sauce. It’s in the oven.

          1. When the strawberries are in season and cheap i make a strawberry sauce. Pass it through a fine sieve. I don’t add any sugar to it. £4.50 a kilo from Ocado M&S.

            The fresh strawberries get tossed in cornflour and brown sugar.

  47. How do we raise trillions of dollars to fight the climate crisis? Gordon Brown. 24 September 2023.

    Petrostates like Saudi Arabia and Norway have made staggering oil and gas profits. A simple levy could funnel money to the countries that need it.

    Yes of course. Let’s just steal someone else’s money and give it away. Who would ever have imagined that Gordon Brown of all people would have come up with such a plan?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/25/we-need-trillions-of-dollars-to-fight-the-climate-crisis-this-is-my-plan-to-raise-it

  48. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2eaab7d6d64727bf2c284f7bc573e24e8066c38501591ab1259991cff07140a7.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/25/rishi-sunak-latest-news-live-hs2-osborne-heseltine-shapps/

    BTL Percival Wrattstrangler

    Tell the truth about Carbon Dioxide – that it only constitutes 0.04% of the atmosphere, that it is essential for plant life, that the biggest producer of CO2 is the ocean and not human activity, announce that global warming is a complete scam and abolish Net Zero altogether and you might just win the election. And while you’re at it why not get a proper Brexit done.

    And, of course, pigs might fly.

  49. Trev Haysom, world authority on Purbeck stone who helped restore Britain’s greatest medieval buildings – obituary
    Always interested in the fossil content of Purbeck stone, Haysom carefully lifted dinosaur footprints and had a fossil named after him

    Treleven “Trev” Haysom, who has died aged 81, quarried stone on the Isle of Purbeck for more than 60 years and in 2020 wrote the definitive book on the subject, Purbeck Stone.

    Eleven generations of Haysom’s family have worked with Purbeck stone in Dorset, since 1698. Today, WJ Haysom & Son, at St Aldhelm’s Quarry, Langton Matravers, still provides the finest English stone for the repair of monuments, from Westminster Abbey to Windsor Castle.

    A funny, diffident, highly intelligent man, Haysom was devoted to Purbeck stone and had his own museum of finds. In one of his Purbeck Marble quarries, he discovered blocks of stone that had been partially worked by medieval craftsmen. Together with other rare pieces of stone, fossils and old tools, these were placed in the museum, known locally as “Trev’s shed”.

    Always interested in the fossil content of Purbeck stone, Haysom would carefully lift dinosaur footprints to preserve them, and he drew any interesting finds to geologists’ attention. As a result, he had a fossil, a cretaceous mammal, named after him: Dorsetodon haysomi. The museum wall is lined with the dinosaur footprints.

    The Isle of Purbeck has long been prized for its rare “sandwich” of building stones. In the late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago, the sea covered what is now south Dorset with beds of limestone.

    First, Portland stone was laid down, followed by Purbeck stone, as the sea turned into a lagoon. The top bed was called Purbeck Marble.

    In medieval England, Purbeck was synonymous with marble, in the same way that Carrara in Italy has been associated with marble since the Renaissance. In fact, strictly speaking, Purbeck Marble is not marble at all, since it is not metamorphic, but is so-called because it can be polished up to a fine sheen, like marble.

    Britain’s greatest medieval buildings used Purbeck Marble, and Trev Haysom provided stone for the restoration of many of them. When the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries were opened at Westminster Abbey in 2018, his company provided the stone. He also produced the Purbeck Marble for the restoration of the Abbey’s Cosmati pavement.

    Haysom installed Purbeck stone in an extraordinary roll call of hallowed buildings: St Paul’s, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, Dover Castle, Knole, and the cathedrals at Ely, Canterbury, Rochester, Salisbury, St David’s, Chichester, Lincoln, Canterbury, Portsmouth, Peterborough and Exeter. At Portsmouth Cathedral, Haysom provided the Purbeck stone for the west end, font, altar and altar dais.

    Before him, Haysom’s father Walter replaced the 12th-century Purbeck Marble columns at the Temple Church in London and renovated the tombs of the Knights Templar, which were damaged when the church’s ceiling collapsed in the Blitz.

    Today, Trev Haysom’s state-of-the-art quarry uses diamond-tipped blades to cut the stone, but he could recall the old quarrymen of his youth talking of the days of hand-sawyers, men who “sat in a little, weatherproof, sentry-box-like shelter, pushing and pulling the saw to and fro all day, cutting blocks up to six or seven feet long.

    “Water was fed into the cut from a barrel over corrugated roof sheets laid horizontally, which served to spread the trickle, flushing sharp sand down onto the blade to make cutting more effective. Their yard had a pub close by. It was said that, on one hot day, a sawyer managed 20 pints of bitter!”

    In the 19th century, one boy labourer at the Purbeck quarries went on to become the foreman of masons on Manchester Town Hall, the pinnacle of Victorian Gothic. Haysom’s father would say, with a twinkle in his eye: “They all went away and, if they were any good, they stayed away. If not, they came back.”

    Walter Treleven Haysom was born in Langton Matravers on March 1 1942, the third of four children born to Walter, the stonemason, and his wife Emily.

    Young Trev disliked school and left as soon as he could, but he still gained the most O-levels of any pupil in his year. He went straight to the family quarry; his masonry apprenticeship took him to Chichester Cathedral, where he helped to restore and rebuild the medieval screen, and then to Oxford, where he taught masonry at Oxford Polytechnic.

    He returned to St Aldhelm’s Quarry and remained there for the rest of his working life, taking over from his father in the early 1980s.

    In July 1976, a new cross carved by Haysom was erected near Studland Church in Purbeck, on the site of a Saxon base. Three sides consist of Saxon motifs. The fourth juxtaposes modern man’s technological advances with the natural world and the creative aspect of our lives, the images linked by a double helix.

    Warden of the Company of Purbeck Marblers and Stonecutters. He kept alive the ancient tradition on Shrove Tuesday of paying a pound of pepper to keep the access to Poole Harbour open for the marble trade.

    In 2014, Haysom was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Bournemouth University. His family thought it should have been for “medieval technology”, since he did not own a watch, bank card or mobile phone and could not turn on a computer.

    That did not stop him writing his magnum opus, Purbeck Stone (2020). This was the culmination of many hours spent talking to the previous generation of Purbeck stonemasons and researching all aspects of the Purbeck stone industry over many years. The definitive work on Purbeck stone, it was glowingly reviewed on publication and has since sold out.

    In 1976, he married Sue, a teacher who joined the family quarry company. Their three-day honeymoon in Devon was spent visiting South Hams churches and Exeter Cathedral, making notes on the medieval use of Purbeck Marble.

    A natural broadcaster, Haysom featured on Countryfile and Coast, and on Radio 4’s Open Country. He frequently led birdwatching groups and was invited to give talks about Purbeck stone, including the Donovan Purcell Memorial Lecture for the Stone Federation of Great Britain, in London.

    In his retirement he rewilded eight acres of land. He also planted fruit trees, created two ponds, formed a bat hibernaculum in an old underground quarry (which, to his constant excitement, hosts a greater horseshoe bat), and built an “owl tower”, successfully attracting a barn owl. One year, his land had seven different types of orchid growing. The morning before going to hospital in his final illness, he was thrilled to see two Dark Green Fritillary butterflies – the first of the year.

    His son, Mark, started work at St Aldhelm’s Quarry soon after leaving school and completed his apprenticeship at Weymouth College, winning an award for his masonry. Mark Haysom now continues the business, which has expanded considerably, with modern machinery and five active Purbeck quarries. In the 1990s, WJ Haysom & Son bought Lander’s Quarries, adding a large new workshop and showroom.

    Haysom is survived by his wife, Sue, and his three children, Juliet, an artist and teacher, Mark, and Alexia, a doctor.

    Treleven “Trev” Haysom, born March 1 1942, died August 7 2023

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/09/22/trev-haysom-purbeck-stone-carving-restoration-dorset/

    —————————————————————————————————————————————–
    Moh and I have were fortunate to meet and chat to Mr Haysom many times .

    He was delightful, knowledgeable and full of amazing stories . He was a walking history book/ authority on stone and how this wonderful land we live on was formed millions of years ago. His death is a great loss to the people of Purbeck .

    If any of you wander down to this part of Dorset , please please look in at his workshops here in the Purbecks , near Langton Maltravers.

    I visited one of the quarries years ago to select a manageable piece of Purbeck stone , and to have it engraved with our house name , I was shown around the quarry and selected an angular piece / lump which was worked and engraved . The workmanship and skill of the masons in their workshop , ie for flooring , or basins , or architectural pieces are incredible.

    My huge fireplace stretching to the ceiling is Purbeck stone , crude stones , but with little fossils , especially so when the light is right … the fire place is a small Baxi type with a back boiler ,small compared to the surrounding rough stone blocks of various sizes .

        1. I learned a little (very little) about the subject from reading Sarum and the building of the cathedral.

        1. Do you think the Army wallahs required a caste iron guarantee that if a soldier opened fire that he would not be pilloried when he became a pensioner years later .

          Re NI veterans , if you know what I mean?

          1. Senior officers wouldn’t care if they have avoided any direct combat and actually shot someone.
            It’s usually the squaddies who end up in the cross hairs.

    1. It is a sad state of affairs when the authors of these things demonstrate their inability to spell and use a single quote mark instead of an apostrophe.

  53. “Macron rules out French ban on gas boilers and attacks ‘climate alarmism’” The Grimes just now.

    Gosh….nothing to do with hoping to retain a smidgeon of popularity, then?

    1. Where Macron leads Sunak may follow?

      When will somebody amongst the PTB or in the MSM have the courage to admit that global warming is an enormous scam and carbon dioxide is both beneficial and necessary?

      The question is hypothetical – I know the answer: even those who know it is a scam are either complicit or afraid to break ranks.

      1. A while ago I thought those protuberances were evolved to stop one’s head going through the uprights of a Guillotine!

  54. ‘Wonder’ Covid drug can cause virus to mutate uncontrollably amid fears that it could spawn new variant
    Molnupiravir is dished out to at-risk adults in the UK who test positive for Covid
    The antiviral protects against severe illness by forcing mutations in the virus

    The bastards really are out to kill us off.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12558155/Wonder-Covid-drug-cause-virus-mutate-uncontrollably-sparking-fears-spawn-new-variant.html

    1. Careful, sos. Much of what appeared in that Mail report was pure conjecture. No firm evidence was produced to show that these mutations were either more infectious or more dangerous whereas there is firm evidence that Molnupiravir reduces hospitalisation and mortality in vulnerable people infected with sars-cov-2.

      1. I accept it’s conjecture, but we were told many things about the Covid vaccines and Covid itself that have turned out to be wrong.
        Coincidence, correlation or cause, who knows? But something nasty is going on.

        I no longer trust the so-called experts.

  55. Radio 4’s PM is wetting itself with excitement over the news that Nissan is going ‘fully electric in this country by 2030’ and that billionaire Tory donor John Cauldwell has got the hump over The Fakir’s net-zero delay.

    Also featured was the opening of a crypt from which emerged Mr Westland himself, Baron Heseltine, who says scrapping HS2 would be a ‘gross act of vandalism’ (he’s been joined in this by Call-me-Dave’s dimwit sidekick Gideot). He says without the Manchester leg there’s no point in the London bit. No, Mikey, the act of building it has been the vandalism and there was never any point in any of it anyway. Get back in your box, you old fool.

    I’m really fed up with another delay to a public project – the building of the A422 Farthinghoe bypass in South Northamptonshire. It goes right past His Lordship’s pad.

    1. Trelevan Haysom gave me invaluable advice when I was designing the resurfacing of Base Court at Hampton Court Palace after having hitherto advised on a similar project for Eton College.

      Haysom supplied the Purbeck limestone we specified for the flooring at Christ Church Spitalfields.

      Trelevan was the most erudite and knowledgeable quarry owner I have met and his knowledge was not confined to Purbeck marble and limestone.

      I also specified Purbeck limestone from Suttle Quarries in the seventies.

      2. Hello Corrie ,

        If you skip back a couple of hours on Nottler . you will see that I put his obit on here and commented . My husband and I met him several times here in the Purbecks , I have visited his quarries .. and I gave myself a a birthday present .. a large heavy lump of Purbeck stone, and asked them to carve our house name .. the stone looks lovely now and has various lichens growing .

        I love stone , fascinated by fossils, and have found some interesting little pieces .

        1. Hi Belle,

          I had indeed scrolled on and appreciated your post of Trelevan’s Obituary. He was as you remark a great man.

          I recall visiting Hatfield House and meeting ‘Millie’ Lady Salisbury, the wife of the owner Lord Salisbury. Her Estates manager had ordered a load of York Stone intending to repair the south courtyard with it. I advised he should return the stone and contact Trelevan Haysom to arrange its resurfacing in Purbeck Limestone ‘Flatners’ for paths and broken stone cobbles for the rest. I believe she did so.

          Regrettably my firm (Feilden + Mawson) were back then charging my time at some exorbitant sum and I was left unable to pursue the project as a result.

          I had first met Lady Salisbury in the Orangery at Hampton Court Palace at the completion and opening of the Privy Garden Restoration at Hampton Court Palace for which I was the Architect.

          I had been recommended to
          Lady Salisbury by Simon Thurley,
          then the Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces Agency.

          It is amazing how chance comments on this forum sometimes ignite memories of past triumphs, also some disappointments.

      1. The idiots can’t accurately forecast 250 days away, 250 million years? Ha bluddy ha…
        To Hell with them.

    2. Climate change really is our fault: More than 99.9% of studies agree that global warming is mainly caused by humans

      It’s all a load of baloney.

      1. Strip all the experts naked, spread-eagle them on a suitable bit of grass and leave them in the sun for 12 hours.

        Then ask them about the big yellow thing in the sky.

    4. To put this utter idiocy into perspective: the dinosaurs became extinct roughly 65 million years ago.

      These cretins should have all grants removed.

  61. Any Wordlers about?

    Birdie today.
    Wordle 828 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Only four here

      Wordle 828 4/6

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

    5. Par for me again.
      Wordle 828 4/6

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

      Serious trouble getting past the first three letters.

  62. You brought it on yourselves.

    What happened to the big return? Millions are still working from home
    Dylan Jones: Remote working is killing London. Get back to the office
    Sadiq Khan: Get the best from London – don’t work at home
    Back to your desks! City banks take tough stance on hybrid working
    ‘Don’t bank on getting London weighting if you’re miles from office’
    Change in hours to get visitors back in galleries and museums

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/return-to-office-working-from-home-wfh-commute-covid-b1109192.html

    AND, turning London into criminal central hasn’t helped

    6. The Warqueen’s office had a ‘walking bus’ system where a dozen women were walked to bus and train stops by twice that many blokes. Why? Because they’d be accosted, insulted and abused by the Khan group. It’s not a safe place for women.

  63. Met Police investigating Russell Brand after multiple sexual offence allegations. 25 September 2023.

    The Metropolitan Police is investigating Russell Brand after multiple sexual offence allegations were made against the comedian.

    The force said it has received a “number of allegations of sexual offences in London” and other parts of the country following claims made against Brand in Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary.

    This must be the modern equivalent of a lynch mob! Someone makes an accusation and suddenly there are dozens of people trying to string you up!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/25/russell-brand-met-police-allegations-sexual-assault-london/

    1. Burn the witch!
      I really dislike Brand, but the witchunt needs to be stopped.
      First him, then who?

      2. It occurs to me that this idea that the complainant IS the evidence really does echo the Salem trials.

    2. That’s the bit that worries me most. I find Brand a loathesome individual but this trial and execution by media is utterly revolting. You do not simply believe someone unless they provide evidence and proof.

          3. If the England hierarchy had not been so snooty about RL, we could have hired Farrell and Shaun Edwards and, given the players in England, they might well have produced the best ever England team.

  65. That’s me for this really rather nice day. Warm. Still. sowed more grass.

    Only downside – the MR has a cold – and she is the world’ worse patient and I am the world’s worse nurse….

    Still.

    Seeing osteopath tomorrow morning. May do some good. It’s only money…£45 “in cash”…. Shall I tell him I work for HMRC???

    Have a smooth evening.

    A demain – one hopes.

    1. Ostepoaths, you always need further appointments. I would ask, if so, does the treatment actually work or just lighten your wallet…

  67. Dozens of nurses and midwives from Nigeria STILL working in the UK despite fears their medical exam results are ‘fraudulent or incorrect’
    An additional 669 nursing and midwifery applicants are also suspected of fraud

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12545343/nurses-midwives-Nigeria-working-UK-exam-results-fraudulen.html

    Re the Channel illegals , how many fakers on board those boats , I mean , they have thrown their papers away haven’t they.

    1. Lucky you. I am staying in a posh hotel on the Dorset/Devon border (with my folks) and the proprietor is very proud of his walk-in showers (no baths). Except (as you may painfully remember) I don’t like showers…and neither do my mum and dad…

          1. Each to his own – we have a bath but never use it. It’s ok for visitors as it also has a shower above so they can choose which they have.

        4. The bath at the last place was adjacent to the loo, so without the prostheses, I could climb in and out, via the loo. The Aqualisa Digital Shower was pretty impressive. I added a remote control button, within reach of the bath.

          Here, I have a wet room, so baths are few and far between, and never at home. On Friday, having showered, I was mopping the wet room floor dry, before I made my way to the bedroom. Unfortunately, the mop’s telescopic handle gave way, as I was squeezing it out. I rapidly ended up on the floor, with a profusely bleeding gash on the left stump. I found one suitably large Elastoplast in the bathroom cabinet, and went on my way. Happily, I’m still alive, and retain most of my blood, but I’m looking for a non-telescopic mop handle…

          3. I can imagine. No such luxury here. But rather than negotiate a flooded floor, then dry my knees on the carpet en route to the bedroom, I prefer to don the clean stump socks while still seated in the shower. Then a pair of knee protectors, till I reach the bedroom. But they can get rather soggy if I don’t dry the floor first…

          4. Ooh!! that sounds painful. Doesn’t the wet room have a slightly sloping floor into the drain? So it dries without mopping?

          5. Didn’t hurt at all, but it was rather concerning to see the floor turning pink. In the end, the injury was only superficial, if messy.
            The wet room floor should, in a perfect world, slope towards the drain. But it actually slopes ever so slightly away. I suspect it’s the original, level, floor screed. I’ve ordered a non-telescopic mop handle, which should avoid repetition…

  69. Thanks to everyone for all your concerns and well wishes for my little cats over the last few days. Here’s a pic of Swift – feeling better and clearly more at ease with the building upheaval.Bold is out gallivanting somewhere – I’ll post a pic if I can get her to pose nicely.

    3. She is quite beautiful! What a delightful little cat. So pleased she’s much better – you must be delighted!

  70. Pakistan pilots accused of cheating on exams after Karachi crash that killed 97
    Posted Thu 25 Jun 2020 at 10:36pm

    The International Air Transport Association said it was following reports from Pakistan “regarding fake pilot licences, which are concerning and represent a serious lapse in the licensing and safety oversight by the aviation regulator”.

    The global airline organisation said it would seek more information.

    The move by PIA to ground the pilots comes a day after the country’s Aviation Minister, Ghulam Sarqar Khan, said 262 out of 860 Pakistani pilots had “fake” licences. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-26/pakistan-pilots-accused-of-cheating-on-exams/12394828

    4. Same with driving licences over here. All they do is cheat, lie and steal. Besides raping and bombing of course.

  71. Beans on toast tonight. Following a recommendation by someone on here a few days ago I’m trying Branston’s for the first time.

  73. Evening, all. Been a reasonable day here; dry, not too windy (despite the dire forecasts), with occasional sun. I managed to get quite a lot of work done in the garden. I planted fifty or so bulbs (Mount Hood, chionodoxa alba and Lasting Love tulips) for next spring, four white cyclamen, which I hope will naturalise, did a lot of weeding and pruned my roses in the rose bed and front border. I have a lot more to do at the back, but I was so tired afterwards I had to stop.

    I don’t know why the lead letter-writer thought HS2 had anything to do with “levelling up”. It was an EU project, part of the TEN-T network. Building a railway that will be too expensive for the average pleb to be able to afford to use would never level anything (except, possibly, taxpayers’ bank accounts).

      1. That’s socialism for you; all shall be equal – equally miserable (apart from the Party apparatchiks, of course).

      2. Isn’t that the irony of levelling up? Taking other people’s money and spending it on those who’ve not earned it in the false belief this is righteous.

    2. I’ll just say that – when I was at Queen Mary’s Horse Spittle, Roehampton – there were a handful of quadraplegics. One wasn’t content to have no limbs – she had no nose, either. Cue “how does she smell” jokes…

      One quadraplegic was the most cheerful attendee in the gym. My time there was both sobering and uplifting. Most of the ‘inmates’ made fantastic progress. I hope I’m in that category. One or two fell by the wayside. The other bilateral amputee simply wouldn’t make the effort. Don’t know what happened to him, sadly…

      1. My dad had an artificial leg fitted there. Both our kids were born there. Strangely, I couldn’t remember, for the life of me, the name Roehampton earlier today. I was, in my head, saying traffic lights at Barnes Common, turn right up the hill after the Rosslyn Park rugby club. Getting old.

  75. Blundered into the bedroom to find Oscar straddling a very frightened Warqueen. She was squealing and panicked as he slathered and pawed at the pillows.

    I bellow at him to get off and after a brief look of confusion, he does.

    Then the biggest spider I’ve ever seen comes dashing over the covers, she moves faster than a lightning bolt, great dog leaps up and begins his assault on the bed linen again.

    2. Poor Oscar, he was only protecting his family! Much sympathy. I put a giant one out recently – I took it about a quarter of a mile away, on the other side of a river. Couple of days later, we were walking out at night, and the torch illuminated a giant spider running down the road in the direction of our house. I can’t get it out of my mind that it might have been the same one, on its way home. Can it have figured out that it needed to go in the opposite direction to find the bridge over the river?

    1. Apropos your DT renewal I just clicked on a link here and got an offer of £25 for a year,don’t let them rip you off

  77. Almost certainly to be featured on Countryfile this autumn: Footpaths can be racist!

    Whitest parts of England and Wales have 144% more local paths, study finds

    The Ramblers says poor and ethnically diverse areas miss out on health benefits of public footpaths

    The old, white, wealthy and healthy have access to miles more public footpaths in their local neighbourhoods than poor and ethnically diverse communities in England and Wales, according to a study…

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/20/ramblers-study-whitest-areas-more-local-paths

    What a muddled article. It seems not to want to make the point that it’s really an urban v. rural matter. Some people want to see prejudice in everything.

          2. A situation which, unfotunately, is rapidly changing. I see more and more of them and we’re pretty rural here.

    2. I see Stroud is one with the most paths. Most of them are very old and evolved rather than being provided.

      1. The kind of people behind this article only see things in terms of what the government “provides” aka steals from someone else.

    3. Nasty, spiteful racist article dressed up as concern for others. The real target is villages of course. They want to force villages to have migrants. And guess what? Most villages have a large building that’s only used once a week, and out of which property developers could make a killing!
      That’s what Save the Parish is trying to prevent.

    4. Poor and ethnically diverse areas aren’t safe to walk in because they are poor and ethnically diverse areas.

Comments are closed.