Sunday 1 October: The exorbitant and unwanted HS2 project has become a symbol of government by Blob

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.

586 thoughts on “Sunday 1 October: The exorbitant and unwanted HS2 project has become a symbol of government by Blob”

      1. According to some I am one already!

        Morning Minty and all members of this ‘Hell’s Teeth Club’!

  3. British troops could deploy to Ukraine for first time to train soldiers, says Grant Shapps. 1 October 2023.

    The new defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said he has held talks with army leaders about deploying British troops within Ukraine for the first time for a training programme.

    Shapps, who met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for talks in Kyiv earlier this week, said the proposal being discussed would reduce the reliance on the UK and other Nato members’ bases.

    The programme of training for Ukraine’s military, supported by 10 other nations, has taught skills to more than 26,500 recruits and is on track to have trained more than 30,000 soldiers by the end of the year, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

    In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Shapps also disclosed that he talked to Zelenskiy about how the navy could help to defend commercial vessels from Russian attacks in the Black Sea.

    This is of course nonsense. The Russians have not attacked any commercial vessels in the Black Sea and the UK could do nothing if they did. The so called training forces are more interesting. Troops can be trained anywhere but this move will establish for the first time a direct NATO (the other members will follow) presence in Ukraine, this would free up indigenous forces for the front lines and act as a defence force of last resort in the event of a Russian breakthrough. This implies some fragility on the part of the Ukies. There must be a suspicion that they are near to collapse.

    It is worth reflecting on the reasons for this escalation. NATO members, particularly the US, have invested enormous amounts of cash and prestige in this project. A defeat would cause a domestic and geopolitical earthquake. They must preserve something of what was Ukraine.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/30/british-troops-could-deploy-to-ukraine-to-train-soldiers-says-grant-shapps

    2. Morning, Araminta.

      …the navy could help to defend commercial vessels from Russian attacks in the Black Sea.

      Who will tell that clown Shapps that the days of gunboat diplomacy are long gone. Another point; how will the RN maintain one ship in the Black Sea let alone two or three, that’s if we have that many to spare? (see below – I wasn’t aware that the RN had been reduced to the level shown)

      A quick check of the RN’s ‘fleet’ reveals the stupidity of Shapps’s idea:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b988376f5815637fe19afcb32d675630fd639cdfaf6ff0caf423b5b9eb75a60.png
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/32563deb3b039a43495834f8af19c59d661672455ccfdd573adb9bb6a0e3988c.png

      A ‘ship of the line’ is an odd term these days: is that the Victory?

      1. Morning Korky. I don’t think it is a genuine suggestion. As you point out it is an absurdity. It’s a cover for what is in fact an escalation in our involvement.

        1. Rattling a sabre he doesn’t literally have in his possession is the action of a fool. Is he on top of his brief?

          1. He doesn’t seem to have mastered any briefing in any of his various ministerial jobs, but is apparently quite good at re-writing his online bios??

        2. It’s been obvious for some time that Ukraine is not going to defeat the Russians militarily yet still NATO insists in prolonging the conflict. It’s going to take a massive volte face to withdraw from this position.

      3. HMS Victory is still the flagship of the fleet. It could probably still outsail the HMS Prince of Wales.

    3. Shapps is a classic example of Whitehall are in charge of our destiny.
      Yes Minister 😏

        1. Perhaps with all that ‘Ministerial Experience’ he thinks he is being groomed to become the next ‘Conservative’ PM? The UK’s very own Brandon!

          1. You may jest – but the wanqueur definitely had thoughts about that in last week’s, month’s, year’s leadership contest.

        2. Perhaps with all that ‘Ministerial Experience’ he thinks he is being groomed to become the next ‘Conservative’ PM? The UK’s very own Brandon!

        3. He think he did all right as housing minister. There were a lot of new builds in his constituency.

    4. We no longer have an empire, we are no longer a major power yet successive governments seem to seek a “leadership|” role on the World stage. How often do ministers refer to “Britain leading the World”? It’s as if some neo-colonial obsession drives their thoughts – an empire of influence (but no concrete effects). David Cameron once stated that we must become a “World power in foreign aid!” In other words, we don’t have the militaryy resources so we’ll send more money.
      Nobody asked us to assume this leadership role and we never look over our shoulders to see who’s actually following. I’ll tell you who – nobody!

      1. Afternoon John. I have just read that Sunak has denied this policy at the Party Conference. So who rules?

        1. Good news if so. He has already started to express doubts on net zero (or appears to have). Maybe he is opening his eyes, but I’m not holding my breath.

    5. We no longer have an empire, we are no longer a major power yet successive governments seem to seek a “leadership|” role on the World stage. How often do ministers refer to “Britain leading the World”? It’s as if some neo-colonial obsession drives their thoughts – an empire of influence (but no concrete effects). David Cameron once stated that we must become a “World power in foreign aid!” In other words, we don’t have the militaryy resources so we’ll send more money.
      Nobody asked us to assume this leadership role and we never look over our shoulders to see who’s actually following. I’ll tell you who – nobody!

  5. The exorbitant and unwanted HS2 project has become a symbol of government by Blob

    As soon as Boris approved it we knew he would be useless

    1. Let’s be honest Bob, all of our governments over the three decades have been utterly useless.
      Their lying has wrecked our country.
      But let’s not let the arch liar Heath get away with anything.

      1. All those poor people who have had their land and property sequestered and ruined.
        It doesn’t bare thinking about.

  9. 277253+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 1 October: The exorbitant and unwanted HS2 project has become a symbol of government by Blob

    Sunday 1 October: The exorbitant and unwanted HS2 project has become a symbol of government by a political cartel.

    Cartel, (a coalition or cooperative arrangement between political parties intended to promote a mutual interest).

    Currently two interests, one appeasing the eu, the other being inclusive of repressing ,replacing is RESET via the WEF.

    We will without doubt and via a continuance of the current voting pattern, with no credible opposition party as yet been formed, be solely in the hands of the WEF / NWO and any dregs of humanity that wishes to cross the channel.

    We have witnessed the pilot trailer these past three years the main feature will, I’m sure, begin early doors next General Election

    The highly covert manifesto to include herd culling,repression, manipulation,replacing of localised power figures, plus making
    Dover an official entry point.

    Don’t forget, YOUR support and vote in the usual pattern is still necessary to give a veneer of legality.

  10. Morning all 🙂😊
    It’s grey again.
    We have a family lunch today, the champagne will be poured only a couple of weeks late, we’ve not been able to get together, but three birthdays and an engagement. Our youngest son has finally asked the question. And his lady accepted.
    Including four grandchildren, eight adults.
    It’s getting mighty crowded. 😉😄

      1. To extend the well known
        phrase by Chief Brody…….
        We’re gonna need a bigger table. 🤔😉

          1. How dare you 🤔😉😄
            It all depends if I wear a flowery pinny or a blue and white striped chiefs apron. ☺️

  11. Good morning all.A dull and cloudy start after last night’s rain with 11°C outside.
    Hope we have better weather this month than we had in most of September!

    1. Something a little more modest I came across last week. I had a very slow puncture repaired and whilst waiting I noticed that the workshop had a notice declaring that it would not deal with EVs because of the danger of electric shock.
      If this is common practice in tyre sales and repairs then it may not be as modest as I have assumed.

    2. Yet another con people are falling for. The EV owners are just so smug, but will regret it in the long run and of course never admit it.

    3. I would not be surprised if the State, ie the taxpayer, will provide insurance for EVs, possibly on a third party basis, but no cover for fire and low-levels of repair cover, with a high level of write-offs against an industry agreed second hand market value for make/model/mileage and age.
      Premiums will be set at similar levels to the real market for petrol and diesel cars.

      1. The state’s answer will be a levy on ICE vehicle insurance policies to subsidise claims by the drivers/keepers of mobile battery bombs.

        1. Possibly, but that would exacerbate the premium problem.

          If they want these timebombs to run they will have to subsidise the premiums, hence my prognostication re State insurance.

    4. Well done JL. Let’s hope this catches on. I was talking to the chap who owns a local bodyshop the other day. Normally he stores 20-ish cars in his yard awaiting repair. Someone high up in the trade has suggested that a yard his size should only hold 2-3 EVs, due to the fire risk. Result? He won’t be accepting any damaged EVs for repair.

  14. Good morning, all. Overcast with a light breeze here.

    Another scientific revelation that puts further nails in the coffins of both the government’s ‘Safe and Effective’ narrative and the claim that ‘the SARS-02 virus’ is the cause of the surge in myocarditis and pericarditis cases. The research study included hundreds of thousands of people, not a few mice.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9ab9aa399760bd3ed4b9163f519548b5a44c55fd10becf988ff7801e88876911.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cd2d2af7d2ff915b3c2d80dc60a9a819b6feb1fe708d10d407eca6daf4f9c65.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2bdca526d0e60a61bd5668b007f2a864b3aca4d9b15c38492202e502a64cc4e8.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51fe1838006228c1a404f6c07338c7070c0fdb669e3bfac59090e8bd89a07b08.png

    Study document here

    1. During the whole of my two plus years of suffering from Afib, every clinician I spoke to agreed my problem had been caused by the two covid jabs.

        1. Safari so goody.
          I’m having a bit of a problem walking any distance but I think it’s due to having been sat around for too long. But I’ll keep it going.

    2. My statuesque Polish friend ended up with myocarditis. Recovered now.
      SWMBOs brother ended up in a box.

      1. Two possible three of my friends ended up that way. But I suspect there wasn’t a menton of covid jabs on the death certificates.
        There are still many people out there who don’t want to discuss such things.

          2. I dutifully had all the usual jabs. In the Army, we had frequent booster sessions which we all attended without hesitation. I had the flu jabs in ’20 and ’21 but I declined later offers.

        2. Played our last bowls match of the season yesterday and half a gozen of our players were saying they’d all had the experimental injections and how sore and off colour they all felt.
          They say that every time they have the evil jabs but it doesn’t seem to register how stupid they are.
          They stare with a blank expression when we say we’ve never had any of them.

          1. My elder sister and BiL are of that ilk, they had every jab and booster available. They both had covid possibly twice.
            They don’t believe that they weren’t protected. And both intelligent people.

          2. I met someone I used to campaign with the other day; she admitted she hadn’t been jabbed and looked really relieved when I said I hadn’t, either. I suspect she gets a bit of stick about it.

  15. ‘Morning, Peeps. Another dry day is due with a respectable 22°C.

    Just when you thought that the poison of wokery could not get any worse, this comes along:

    Air traffic control service told to abandon ‘woke’ diversity schemes and ‘focus on the job’

    MPs demand air traffic controller spends more time dealing with passenger service and safety and less pontificating about identity politics

    By Ewan Somerville

    30 September 2023 • 9:00pm

    Britain’s beleaguered air traffic control service has been told to get its “head out of the clouds” and abandon its “woke” diversity agenda.

    National Air Traffic Services (Nats), which is half owned by the public and manages planes flying in UK airspace, has sparked outcry in recent weeks over system shutdowns and staff shortages which have left hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.

    But the Telegraph can reveal that the organisation is running a suite of “woke” schemes for its staff including unconscious bias training, which was scrapped by the Civil Service for lack of evidence, it ties with Stonewall and is backing an organisation that endorses the idea of “white privilege”.
    MPs have reacted with anger and demanded the “incompetent” body get its priorities straight.

    Leading the diversity drive is Martin Rolfe, the Nats £1.4 million-a-year chief executive, who has rejected demands from airlines to resign, who said in March that “diversity and inclusion is the right thing to do” and admitted “we’ve spent a lot of time over the last year really working on our diversity and inclusion agenda”.

    Mr Rolfe said a key priority had been “recruiting in a diverse way”, including efforts around “how we review CVs, how we review candidates, how we look at things in a way that isn’t unconsciously biased to what we’ve seen before”.

    As a result, the latest graduate intake to Nats has been 58 per cent female and it has partnered with a youth organisation named Fantasy Wings to give more “black, Asian and minority ethnic young people a platform to enter and excel in the aviation industry”.

    But critics claim the strategy has backfired, as sickness among nearly a third of staff was cited by Nats as the main reason for the latest chaos at Gatwick Airport this week, which saw a further 165 flights needing to be cancelled and daily flight caps imposed on the London airport until next month which will bring disruption to many more.

    Similar short-notice air traffic control shortages have happened six times in the last four weeks at Gatwick, while on Aug 28 a collapse of the Nats system saw more than 2,000 flights cancelled.
    Signed up with Stonewall
    Meanwhile, Nats is signed up with Stonewall, the contentious charity that believes male-born trans women are women, and the service was given a bronze “LGBTQ+ inclusive employer” award by the group this year and in 2021.

    Katie Foster, Nats’ head of people services, revealed that the organisation made its first submission to Stonewall’s divisive Workplace Equality Index last year and allowed the charity to assess it in eight areas of employment policy, including “family policy, gender identity and menopause”.

    In October last year, Nats subsequently revealed its new internal menopause policy without mentioning the word “woman”, instead referring to “people who wanted to start HRT” and “employees going through hormonal changes”. Stonewall has previously come under fire for directing publicly-funded bodies to rewrite their policies to remove gendered language.
    Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Common Sense Group of 60 Tory MPs, told the Telegraph: “Martin Rolfe should spend more time dealing with air traffic and less pontificating about diversity.

    “Anybody daft enough to accept the bogus, intellectually bankrupt ideas of unconscious bias and waste time and money on every kind of woke cause is clearly not concentrating on his main job, which is to ensure people can travel safely and conveniently by air.

    “It doesn’t really matter whether the people doing that are male, female, black, white or brown – they’ve just got to do what they’re paid to. If he gets his head out of the clouds and his feet on the ground, people will have less to legitimately complain about.”

    Chris Loder, a Tory MP and member of the Transport Select Committee until July, said: “The organisation really needs to focus on the basics of its job rather than identity politics.
    “This is not inclusivity, this is pitting one group against another and that is wholly unacceptable. The word incompetence is clearly appropriate.”

    John Stewart, chairman of the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “Nats should get back to doing what they do best, managing aircraft in the sky. They should come out of cruise control and touch down with reality.
    “It is astonishing that an organisation that gets so much money from both the airlines and from Government should end up in such an horrendous mess.”

    Nats is also part of the Race At Work Charter and partnered with The Prince’s Responsible Business Network, which has a toolkit on anti-racism that includes tips on tackling “white privilege”.

    The air traffic controller also has multiple inclusion employee networks, including a one called “SkyPride” which has its own staff “allies”, as well as a staff member who is the “executive sponsor for race” – Chris Last, the human resources director.
    Last week, Michael O’Leary, the Ryanair boss, renewed his public attacks of Nats, to which his airline pays £86 million a year, describing it as “by far and away the least productive, most inefficient” and calling for him to “do the right thing and step down”.
    A spokesman for Nats said it was “an inclusive company and proud of what we have achieved to provide a working environment in which our employees feel safe and supported, and which is attractive to the people we want to recruit for the future”.

    The spokesman added that officials were “working hard to bring back to full resilience” at Gatwick and had “apologised sincerely” for the unrelated planning sub-system failure.

    The BTLs are, not unexpectedly, rather critical. Here are a few of the best:

    Melanie in UK
    10 HRS AGO
    Stonewall needs to be designated a terrorist organisation, along with mermaids, for trying to destroy our very way of life. This woke CEO needs to be removed from his post and replaced by a meritocrat. Government institutions and quangos need to be told, nay, ordered to, break all ties with any and all diversity and inclusion bodies and restructure hiring to a strict merit first approach.

    Big Blue
    3 HRS AGO
    Of course, the only people who are not telling this halfwit to get on with his main job are our completely useless Government.

    David Bagley
    8 HRS AGO
    If they concentrated more on directing air traffic and less on “woke” nonsense then maybe they wouldn’t need to apologise for a lack of “resilience” at Gatwick.

    J Long
    9 HRS AGO
    You may not be safe, but at least the people sifting through the wreckage of your aircraft will be using the right pronouns.

    1. If there’s pile-up at Gatwick, the 50 something air controller only has to mention her ‘brain fog’ and the matter will be swept under the carpet.

    2. I’m with J Long on this one! Thank goodness I didn’t go into Air Traffic Control after all. All they need to do is ensure separation, never mind what effin’ pronouns anybody uses.

    1. I think I’ll keep my head down and sort through another box in the attic.
      Focussing on trivia can be your mental saviour.

    2. I find myself having to regularly advance the timeswitch that controls the lamp in the hall. Not a process I enjoy…

    3. There was an advert in our local newspaper this week suggesting that now is the time to have your Christmas lights installed – for a fee of course.

      Thanks but if I am going to pay for this service, I will leave it until they have to go out and freeze their little fingers off.

  20. ‘Morning, again. Before I go off and do something useful, the BTL comment (generally in response to several HS2 letters) from our very own Mrs Allan will no doubt resonate with many here. I didn’t seek her permission to pass it on to Nottlrs because, being the modest soul that she is, she would probably flinch at the prospect, so here it is:

    A Allan
    1 HR AGO
    I can cope with being the laughing stock of Europe.
    Since WWII, this country has beggared itself trying to please the rest of the world (whatever happened to “The Bar of World Opinion”?).
    We have ruined this country financially and culturally. A quiet law abiding land is now a place where pupils are murdered on their way to school, we daren’t book a venue in case boatloads of illegal migrants are dumped there – at our expense – and the constant propaganda against this country and its history is deafening.
    All this to placate those who hate us but are happy to use us.
    The odd titter because we pull the plug on a useless behemoth is a small price to pay to keep a bit of our own money and our countryside still reasonably green and pleasant.

    Hear, hear, Annie!

    3. I am sure that Anne does not mind being referred to a Mrs Allen rather than as Mrs Allan! I prefer my name to be spelt ‘Tracey’ (or Tastey) rather than ‘Tracy’ (or Tasty). We need clarification on this matter from Peddy.

      2. There were only 2 things that my late mother-in-law and I agreed on.
        1. We would both rather be hungry than cold.
        2. We got blood before our eyes if our married surname was misspelt.

          1. Daft really. I get peeved by an ‘e’ rather than an ‘a’, and yet my maiden name Drye caused far more problems.
            It is an East Riding moniker.
            In Essex where it is unfamiliar, we got so many variations and misspellings that my father actually kept a tally of them; he was particularly impressed with “Drain”.

  21. Good morning all,

    Back from a week of bracing sea air (and Storm Agnes) on the Cornish Riviera. Here at McPhee Towers it’s grey with the wind in the Sou’-Sou’-West, 17℃ going up to 19℃, possibly 20℃.

    Michael Deacon thinks BLM made fools of us all in 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a8115b554731d2afc9f69db5bf4f47c7d730a2ba0b0a46495e9f9acd14fd27a.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/30/black-lives-matter-hysteria-made-fools-of-us-all/

    Sorry, Michael, but it didn’t. It just didn’t. Only the political and media classes. Many of the rest of us saw through it straight away.

    1. It appears to me that the more you give them, the worse they behave, and the more they then demand.

          1. Not if you catch ’em young enough (see SJ for examples). Why else do you think the state wants to fund childcare?

      2. The Left have been indulged endlessly and keep taking more and more. The constant spoiling must end. When they all rearer up instead of kneeling plod should have opened fire.

    3. Most of us here saw through it immediately.

      That the Leader and Deputy leader of the Labour Party – not to mention the football and rugby teams in the UK – ‘took the knee’ for a violent American criminal should alarm us all.

      A fish rots from the head downwards. My brief googling tells me that Surströmming is the smelliest fish you will ever find.. We shall doubtless have a putridly rotting Surströmming prime minister when Starmer wins next year’s election.

      1. Absolutely spot on. Why, in the name of trousers did anyone care about a thug, high on drugs dying? Epstein dies and the white folk don’t riot. The blacks did because a minority saw an excuse to loot and riot.

    4. It did not make a fool of me, nor did the masks, tests ,jabs and boosters. very few can say that. It was such a shock to me how many fell for it all. and a dissapintment.

    5. Those who took part were already fools before BLM came along. They were given a platform to demonstrate their stupidity by the morons they voted to represent them. It’s a vicious circle.

    6. Comments were closed on that item.
      To put it mildly – the posters definitely did NOT think they were amongst “us”.

    7. No, Michael, it didn’t. You lot pushing this socialist Left wing terrorism were a joke.The vast majority wanted plod in there firing live rounds to keep the savages back.

  22. Last week on our Cornish break we’d take a walk along the coast path from Castle Beach to Swanpool Bay at Falmouth. One morning we paused to take a rest on a brand new bench. It had been placed there in memory of an adored daughter, sister, wife and mother who had departed this life in March this year. She had been 29 years old.

    There was another new one in memory of a fellow who had been a son, brother, father and uncle who had been 43 years old.

    And still there is silence.

    On the happier side every day (even in Storm Agnes) we passed the same three chaps sitting on a bench putting the world to rights. We called them “Summer Wine”.

  24. OT – I said yesterday that I’d tell the tale of the Goggomobile.

    My first father-in-law had a shoe repair shop in Monmouth Street, London WC2. Working class to his fingertips, he had had the amazing foresight in 1938 to buy the freehold for £2,000 on a 25 year mortgage. Happily the building was not damaged in the War.

    One day in 1967, two young East Germans came into the shop. They had parked their Goggomobile – in which they had driven from Saxony – outside the shop. His daughter – then my wife – was sent for (we lived just round the corner in Broad Court by Bow Street Police Station) as she spoke German (as well as being fluent in French). They said they were planning on claiming asylum, that they wanted to sell, the car and would he be interested.

    Ever one for a bargain, FiL gave them £25 in used oncers. They handed over the log book. And pushed off. FiL re-registered the car – SLY 55 F – and insured it and kept it in a mate’s lock up in Seven Dials. FiL was killed in January 1968 and we inherited the car – and used it for a 18 months until it became just too small and awkward and uncomfortable and impossible to service.

    Just imagine that happening today…!!!

    There must be two elderly former East Germans living somewhere who remember all this.

    1. My car story was set in the mid 70s.
      Fed up with my Mini I saw an add for an MG BGT in the evening standard. rang the number and was invited to go and look it over. I managed to get a bank loan of 1200 quid from Barclays. Off I went on the train to Chelsea. Saw the car took it foe test-drive paid the chap the cash and drove it back to Chandos avenue in Whetstone where i was living. i kept the car for around 5 years. I even used it for our honeymoon in Cornwall.
      went o oz for 4 years came back and lived with In-laws for 2 years ended up near where we live now. I had my own business loft conversions extensions kitchens you name it.
      I had a phone call from a chap who had spoken to another local person I had worked for, he owned an immaculate MGA.
      I got eh job of a small rear extension and loft conversion to a small office. his brother was an architect and wanted a contract signed for the work.
      We carried out the paper work and sat in his rear garden with cups of tea. We talk about our liking for different types of music and London clubs then cars. He said I had an MGB……..really, and something massively nudged my memory. I asked him if it was Bronze Yellow, had spot lamps and a sunroof he said yes it did. I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote YYT 6H on it and showed it to him, he jumped out of his skin, shock horror !!! He rushed in doors and came our with photo album showed me photographs of the car with young ladies sitting, even laying across the bonnet.
      That was 50 years ago and all those years later we are still good friends, he lives ten minutes walk from me.
      The car is still on the road somewhere i’m a member of the MGB club on line, hoping one day it will show up.

  25. Use pronouns to introduce yourselves, Navy is told

    Diversity guidance also advises officers to brief sailors on ‘white privilege’ and ‘intersectionality’

    ROYAL NAVY personnel have been told to introduce themselves with their pronouns before meetings, in official guidance seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

    A guide for Navy staff on “Trans and Non-Binary Awareness” tells staff: “Introducing yourself with your pronouns at the start of meetings and interactions is a good way to be inclusive.”

    The guide, which is available on the Navy intranet, states: “Some people do not associate with gender binary and may use different pronouns like they/ them… or neo-pronouns like ze/hir/ hirs. You should use the pronoun that a person shares with you.”

    Navy staff are urged to “avoid micro-aggressions like backhanded compliments and unhelpful tips” and to “keep constantly educating and researching about trans matters”.

    The Navy advertised Ministry of Defence diversity events for staff to attend on its intranet page for “National Inclusion Week”, which took place from Monday to Friday last week. The MoD encouraged staff “to actively participate in as many events as possible”.

    The trans guide also displays a “trans umbrella” that features different gender identities, including gender neutral and pangender, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a gender identity [that] encompasses multiple genders, which may be experienced simultaneously or in a fluid, fluctuating manner”.

    The guide boasts of the Navy being a “Stonewall top 100 employer” last year. Membership of the LGBTQ+ charity’s diversity schemes has been dropped by several government departments in recent years after Stonewall was criticised for pushing controversial ideas on transgender issues.

    Elsewhere in the document, Navy officers are told to brief sailors on “white privilege” and “intersectionality”, the idea that “different societal aspects (race, class, gender etc) of a person’s identity combine to create a unique experience of disadvantage or discrimination”.

    A briefing note aimed at Navy personnel claims “if you are ‘white’, whatever situation you are in, it is almost always the case that the outcome has not been affected by your skin colour”.

    Admiral Lord West, who served as the First Sea Lord from 2002 to 2006, said: “I am surprised that the Navy wishes to try and divide ship’s companies by focusing on people’s gender rather than seeing them as all of one company.

    “This initiative seems to me confusing and doesn’t help the cohesion and fighting ability of the Navy I love.”

    In June, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton apologised after it was revealed that the Royal Air Force had illegally discriminated against white men in its diversity recruitment drive.

    The RAF was accused of discriminating against 160 white male applicants in favour of women and ethnic minorities.

    A Navy source said: “The main concern about all of this from a professional perspective is that it muddies the waters.

    “If I tell a lad to fight a fire, I don’t want him saying that I’m oppressing him because of his skin colour or whatever.

    “The only thing that matters in the military is that people do their jobs and work well in a team.

    “We couldn’t care less who you sleep with or what your skin pigment is.

    “If you have a good attitude, we like you. If you don’t, then we don’t like you.”

    The document, published on July 5, features a section on “intersectionality and privilege”. On privilege, it states that “‘white privilege’ has been talked about in the context of the Black Lives Matter protests” and “refers to the idea that skin colour can affect your lived experience such that it can either give you an advantage or be a barrier to almost all areas of life”.

    An MoD spokesman said: “The Royal Navy is entirely focused on protecting the UK and its interests – both at home and abroad.

    “It’s important to encourage personnel to be respectful of others. However, this guidance does not reflect our standards and is currently under review.

    Oooooh, Sailor!😘

    1. Bonjour, Capitaine,
      Voulez-vous de brie
      Je peux vous donner vin et oignons
      Pour un très bon prix!

    3. I suppose they’ve got to have something to do as their flagship vessels don’t work.
      What a bloody mess.

      1. They are just bandwagoning and virtue signalling. They don’t need pronouns. They have Ranks.

    4. I’m pretty sure Nelson didn’t have all this “guidance”.
      “Left hand down a bit, Mr ….. er ….. Ms. Phillips….”

    5. ‘Rum, sodomy, and the lash’ Winston Churchill’s opinion of Naval tradition. I believe Tony Blair had a yearning to be a sailor – or at least live with one.

      1. When Kenneth Williams went for his audition for The Navy Lark with the BBC people thought he was rather queer and strange. Williams said:

        “It’s odd of me, it’s odd of me. They all think it’s odd of me!”

    6. Imagine the scene, your boat is silently patrolling in a potentially hostile area at xxx feet depth beneath the surface, there is a loud noise (Bang!) the lights go out, now there is total darkness, you are conscious of uncontrolled flooding of water into the pressure hull, the boat takes on a very large and uncomfortable bow down angle?

      All of that has happened in probably less than 5 seconds! What do you do?

      I respectfully suggest that the very last consideration is the f****** pronouns of any other ‘team’ members that may be involved?

      Beam mu up Scotty!!!

    7. And to think that taxpayers’ money is being handed to fifth columnists like Stonewall for this drivel!

    8. Pangender? Do they work in the galleys? Indeed, the only thing that matters, in the military as elsewhere, is that people do their jobs and do them well.

  26. From the Beeb: A persistent shoplifter has said the police need to do more to stop people like her stealing from businesses.
    She said shoplifting was easy, and even the clothes she had on were stolen.

    In its report the Beeb seems to have omitted the fact that in those countries which practice strict Sharia Law, shoplifting is practically unheard of. I wonder why?

    2. Why should the police do something when she knows it is wrong? Has she no responsibility to others to not take what is not hers?

      Has that completely bypassed her primitive mind? Or is she solely driven by impulse and her wish to take what she hasn’t earned? Ha, maybe she’s a politician.

      1. This is what happens when the mantra is “do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law”.

    1. Nahh, the state will simply tell the they have to, or there’ll be something that blames the other side in every situation.

      The state will never, ever stop the flow of money or control.

    2. He’s right, but I’d put a countdown on his future appearances. Even now I imagine big government is desperately spinning against him to dig up anything it can to destroy him.

  30. A larf on a Sunday morning:

    However, Ms Braverman’s speech to a Washington DC think tank was criticised by former minister Dame Priti Patel, who accused her of an ‘attention seeking‘ attack on multiculturalism.

    Pot and kettle….

  31. Good Morning all, just had to share this comment from another forum discussing Trans rights and the Law :-

    “The state isn’t there to legislate sex for people who could fall in a barrel of breasts and come out sucking their thumbs”

      1. Not bad thanks Bill, Surgery late last year has allowed regeneration of the damaged nerves and I’ve now enough activity restored to my lower limbs to qualify me for NHS Physiotherapy. I’m still mostly bed bound but now have some hope for the future

          2. You can get ‘physio beds’ that have various straps and lifts that remove the weight of the limb but allow the muscle to exercise in isolation – this stops moving your leg aggravating your back, for example.

        2. We’ll support you in that hope, Datz. Maybe the power of thought will help – it can’t hurt, anyhow.

          1. Doing it already, a pair of Ninja Physioterrorists appear unannounced and undetected at my bedside 3 times a week, surprising as they are generally built like Russian lady shot-putters

      2. Not bad thanks Bill, Surgery late last year has allowed regeneration of the damaged nerves and I’ve now enough activity restored to my lower limbs to qualify me for NHS Physiotherapy. I’m still mostly bed bound but now have some hope for the future

    2. Mornin Datz, good to hear from you.

      Sadly, the state thinks differently, as every time someone turns to it, it has an excuse to ‘do something’ that gives it more power.

  32. Good Morning all, just had to share this comment from another forum discussing Trans rights and the Law :-

    “The state isn’t there to legislate sex for people who could fall in a barrel of breasts and come out sucking their thumbs”

  33. Is the relationship between carrying a knife and being stabbed causal or casual? Asking for a friend.

    2. Lying barstewards. They were probably hoping for a donation towards their next drugs collecting trip.

    5. Sadly, it will be the decent ones who work.
      The others have no reason to leave this land of lotus eating.

  35. At an Istanbul court, on September 7, 2023, Faruk Ozer and his brother were fined 135 million Turkish Liras (approximately US$5 million) and sentenced to 11,196 years in prison after being found guilty of various charges including fraud. I believe Turkey is a member of UCHR (European Court of Human Rights) as are we. Can’t we send our shoplifters and politicians to Turkey for sentencing?

    1. 377253+ up ticks,

      Afternoon P,

      Along with a lab/lib/con /current ukip politico under each arm, .

  36. ‘Afternoon All

    Cuteness overdose

    https://twitter.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1708376203269218591?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1708376203269218591%7Ctwgr%5E3b0a69effa5d4ede9803b5cab899561618a61319%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dgoingpostalcomt_i%3D9329320https3A2F2Fgoing-postal.com2F3Fp3D93293t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fgoing-postal.com2F20232F102Flarrys-diary-week-two-hundred-and-five2Ft_e%3DLarryE28099s20Diary2C20Week20Two20Hundred20and20Fivet_d%3DLarryE28099s20Diary2C20Week20Two20Hundred20and20Fivet_t%3DLarryE28099s20Diary2C20Week20Two20Hundred20and20Fives_o%3Dascversion%3D62db764f4f0426e1eaaed71de8896900

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08c96dc4bad750780ee4f30a89f35f8b46f25b60a35eafe35e268e9f62589ae8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9361a726309e45e7512bc507faccad2aae468ca38357f84c6813b7a32951b432.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6086ed98dadafd7f06fa11835138ea6f842d69a0085ac81dd2a16df325270bba.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7fa2434dd0cfd177df8ee3dddbb1b77f9ff30f3b13a4f6dc4701132c7063ec2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12d3ea4e68a076b4c7a288799cb8b1b8998972b0ff4dce48a7319ce788003d10.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c57f9482ba9188de187f6807b1a76b9249437b6d21115781146571f3a375b5b3.png

  37. Major UK retail bosses plead for staff protection as “violent criminals empty stores” 1 October 2023.

    Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the BRC, which helped organise the letter to Braverman, said: “It is vital that action is taken before the scourge of retail crime gets any worse. We are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying stores. We are seeing violence against colleagues who are doing their job and asking for age verification. We are seeing a torrent of abuse aimed at hardworking shop staff. It’s simply unacceptable – no one should have to go to work fearing for their safety. We need government to stand with the millions of retail workers who kept us safe and fed during the pandemic – and support them, as those workers supported us.”

    I guess most of the individual cases are kept out of the news in case the peasants twig just how bad things are!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/01/major-uk-retail-bosses-plead-for-staff-protection-as-violent-criminals-empty-stores

    1. No no no. The Guardian cannot now complain. It has forced this situation with this blithering bilge over massive uncontrolled immigration. The Left wanted the nation overrun with the diversity, now it is and the savages have brought their behaviour with them.

  40. The madness of modern environmental policy is summed up in this letter and the two comments below.

    Nutrient neutrality

    SIR – Your report (“Sunak will rip up green rules to build 140,000 new homes”, September 24) alleges that Natural England, the Government’s adviser for the natural environment, is on “a collision course” with the Prime Minister over the Government’s planned approach to nutrient neutrality rules.

    Let me be clear: Natural England’s job is to recover nature. Meeting the Government’s legal targets on the environment will be challenging and needs concerted action across every part of society. Equally, we recognise the need for sustainable development to provide the homes and services we require.

    That is why, as the country’s expert nature recovery body, Natural England provides legally based and scientific advice to councils and developers so they can design and build sustainable communities without harming nature.

    For the past year, we have worked with the Government and councils on a mitigation scheme that helps developers offset the damage caused by waste water from new houses by purchasing credits from environmental improvement projects such as wetlands. This scheme, which is backed by £30 million of cross-government funding and remains open, will enable the construction of at least 40,000 houses, all while protecting our rivers.

    So rather than being on “a collision course” with the Prime Minister, we will continue to work closely with the Government as it considers next steps.

    Marian Spain
    Chief executive, Natural England
    London SW1

    BTL:
    Peter Marshall
    The Chief Executive of Natural England seems to be suggesting that developers can buy virtue by paying into expansion of wetlands elsewhere, similar to the big business approach of offsetting CO2 emissions by paying someone to plant trees in Brazil, or buy credits theoretically supported by such activities.

    The problem will be that this does nothing to maintain, never mind improve the environment where the development occurs and there will eventually be an England with overdeveloped polluted areas with separate environmentally pristine areas where presumably development will be banned.

    Surely the answer is to make the developers pay for mitigations at or near source for the impact they create (new drains, expanded treatment works etc.). Where such mitigations are not technically possible, then no development.

    Lord Inso Much-as
    I find these interactions between Natural England and “Government” interesting, especially as the former is actually part of the latter funded from within DEFRA.

    1. I’m afraid I got as far as “sustainable development”, thought “Agenda 21” and switched off. That letter has “I’m part of the scam” written all over it.

    2. “Credits”? The modern day equivalent of indulgences! We have lots of wetlands (known as “Mosses” in these yere parts). They were consulting on how to “mitigate the effects of building” on these fragile environments. Apparently “don’t” is not advice they are prepared to accept.

  41. 377253+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    j r mogg
    This conference is a golden chance to reignite conservatism
    Our principles – cultural and economic – can still renew the nation’s prosperity

    Surely for that you would need a multitude of Conservatives
    would you not ?

  42. Just watching the lunchtime bbc news from Warsaw, huge amounts of people crowding the streets of the city.
    Not the slightest sign of any ‘diversity’. AKA a Take over.
    Aren’t they fortunate they have a down to earth and very sensible government.

  43. Interesting. I’ve just tried to post a comment on Michael Deacon’s BLM article being closed to comments and my comment immediately came up with the “THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN REMOVED” tag!

    The rejected comment:-

    I see comments are closed on Michael Deacon’s article about Black Lies Matter. But having a re-read of it got me thinking about why I never subscribed to the scam.

    Some few years ago, perhaps 3 or 4 years before St. George of Fentanyl martyred himself for the greater good, I watched an episode of a crime series, it may have been “Silent Witness”, where the daughter of a Headmaster was murdered in retaliation for him cracking down on drug abuse within his school.
    The method used was her being passed a cigarette laced with fentanyl, the first time I’d come across that particular chemical. As the victim was smoking the cigarette and the poison kicked in, she became distressed, out of breath and claimed that she couldn’t breathe.

    Becoming interested in the matter, I did look up fentanyl and it was confirmed that one of the effects of the drug is to interfere with the exchange of CO2 and O2 in the lungs giving exactly those symptoms.

    1. This sort of situation only underlines who the criminals are.
      And how useless our political police have become.

    2. Had a comma butterfly here on Friday, evidently enjoying grapes on the vine. Wouldn’t stay still for a photo.

      1. I’m really not, Phizz! I just haven’t picked them up after the maelstrom of ‘Storm Agnes’! Ho ho 🙄I have a lot of jars of apple and plum jelly, a freezer full of sliced and pulped apples and plans for this years apple and tomato chutney! I have just cooked a 4 lb piece of gammon in the Ninja and glazed it with grain mustard and apple jelly! It tastes delicious!

          1. No offence taken, pet! I quite fancied a crusher thing, but there is a cider place near Edinburgh where you can take your excess crop, and they give you free bottles as per the weight! My husband would prefer Calvados, however!

          2. I had an estate bottled 1976 Calvados. Then i invited some Navy friends for New Year. Then i didn’t have an estate bottled 1976 Calvados.
            The estate had valued it for me at 300euro. It cost me 70 all those years ago.
            The buggers also polished off a bottle of Armagnac.

          6. That i ain’t. I do know how much wealth i have and how long i expect it to last at my current spending. I have no children or other hostages to fortune so i will measure it out so when i fall off this mortal coil there will be just enough to stick me in a hessian sack and plant a tree on top. Plot already picked.

          7. The Bible reading this morning (and this evening) was from Luke 12. The rich man said to himself, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry”, but God said, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you”.

          10. Calvados is number 14, just as Seine Maritime is 76 and Alpes Maritimes is 6. I should have written Departement rather than region. My French is getting rusty.

      2. I’m really not, Phizz! I just haven’t picked them up after the maelstrom of ‘Storm Agnes’! Ho ho 🙄I have a lot of jars of apple and plum jelly, a freezer full of sliced and pulped apples and plans for this years apple and tomato chutney! I have just cooked a 4 lb piece of gammon in the Ninja and glazed it with grain mustard and apple jelly! It tastes delicious!

      3. There were some (about 8) “community” apple trees planted near Manaccan in Cornwall. I’ve just been told that about 5 of them have been badly damaged by a flailed cutting the hedge. All the lovely apples on the floor and the branches broken.

    1. Message is “this video has been removed for violating You Tube’s Terms of Service”. Telling the truth?

  47. I have not seen or had anything to do with my siblings in more than a decade. Except for once bumping in to one of my brothers at the Dentist where he gleefully gave me a roll call of most recently dead Uncles and Aunts.
    I learned today that the middle brother is serving 30 months for GBH.
    I know how the others will react and it won’t be pretty. My question is…should i go and visit him? I am sure no one else would have done.

    1. Strewth.
      Somewhat of a surprise, I’d guess.
      Can’t advise on visiting, I’m afraid. If that was my brother, I would, but I can’t decide for you, there are too many unknowns.

      1. He did once give me a job when i needed one. He also seems to have hit rock bottom. I remember reading about a chap i went to school with in similar straits and was eventually found dead in someone’s shed.
        My brother will be homeless when he gets out. I certainly don’t want or need any upset in the last quarter of my life but he is my brother. He’s in for a while yet so i will dwell on it.

          3. I don’t know which prison he is in yet but i will think about it. We all need to know that there is at least one person who gives a shit when you have erred.

        2. With the extra info, I’m with Sue. Visit the poor man. Show him someone cares.

    2. Oh dear. Afternoon Phizzee. What a choice. One that you can really only make yourself. My instinct of course would be to say no. People do not improve with passing years. Particularly families. If you were to decide to visit I would suggest that you prepare yourself before hand and resist any urges to foolish generosity and sacrifice.

    3. At the school reunion last weekend one of the ladies said she hadn’t seen nor spoken to her sister since leaving school. They always had a tempestuous relationship, probably with faults on both sides. I doubt they will ever be reconciled.

  48. Our service in church this morning began with a Blessing of the Sword. No Penny Mordaunt. A young man in the congregation has just become a Naval Officer. I didn’t realise they’re still given a sword. Of course after the blessing came “Eternal Father, strong to save…for those in peril on the sea”. I do hope the lad isn’t sent to the Black Sea.

      1. #MeToo!! There are some prize swords awarded to the very gifted, and some officers pass on their swords, but for most of my entry you bought one, or relied on borrowing one for ceremonial occasions!

          3. A couple of friends of mine might have been a year or two earlier. A Dick Madge and a Graham Niven ring any bells?

          4. Sadly not – no bells! The scheme they had running then means we would have seen those 2 years ahead if they didn’t go to University instead, but as 3rd years they wouldn’t have had much to do with us!! One year ahead would have been at sea doing their fleet training.

      2. I can thoroughly recommend the book I’m reading ‘By the Sword‘ by Richard Cohen a former GB Olympic Fencing Champion

        John Keegan wrote:

        “In this enormously learned but also gripping book. Richard Cohen describes the part sword fighting has played in the history of male society in many lands since the earliest times, and succeeds in conveying the sensations, excitement, and sometimes terror of the contest”

    2. Congratulations to the young man. Nice of the congregation and the Church to recognise his contribution to society.

    3. Interesting. We had a harvest festival. Lots of child involvement, but they were kept under control and performed their alloted tasks well. I own a sword (and a foil, since I used to fence), but neither has been blessed. Perhaps I’m missing a trick? 🙂

    5. They had to buy the sword or get someone to buy it for them – I presume that still happens

    6. In the 1920s, my mother was a pupil at a boarding school on the front at Westcliffe-on-Sea.
      Whenever there was a storm, the headmistress would rout all the girls out of their beds and they had to stand on the roof in their nighties singing “Eternal Father”. The headmistress played a guitar to accompany them.

    7. My first gig…

      At Bishop Goodwin Memorial (primary) School, four of us pupils, variously connected with church choirs, sang this a capella…

  49. Just walked down the road and back – about 1,200 yards. Good for my pore back – but it does help a tiny bit. Anyway, the walk was to see The Goats. Mainly new ones this season. But No 82 – one of the originals three years ago – is still there and, I swear, recognised me. Twenty silent goats are a sight to see!

    Will risk a spot of gardening. Only a spot, mind.

    2. Would you like a large dog to come with you Bill? Perhaps two? One might require a blonde to walk alongside.

      Dog has been called an ‘exemplar of his breed and is stubborn, grumpy, a drool machine and sheds fur at a rate that breaks hoovers.

    3. Apparently goats have an excellent memory. Especially in recognising other old goats.
      Do the younger ones have a play area? Things to jump on and things…

  50. Afternoon, all. Off to evensong and another harvest festival supper shortly. HS2 is a symbol of slavish adherence to EU projects, regardless of whether they make sense for our country or not. It’s also a sign that we haven’t really left.

    1. I’d been at Barts for a couple of years before it dawned on me that there’s no harvest festival. I must ask. My guess is that it’s just down to being a city church where the parish is a hospital, a meat market and seven pubs!

      1. Almost certainly. Even in our very rural village, much of the “harvest” is tins of stuff. Apparently none of the local homes can accept yer actual FOOD.

        Depressing, really. The limited amount of veg was either taken by members of the congregation or – I kid you not – BINNED.

        1. We were asked to bring tinned stuff for the local food bank. Heaven forfend the “disadvantaged” should have to cook anything.

          1. It makes some sense for food banks to request tinned goods, they often stockpile goods for the hard(er) times.

            Some food bank users can make good use of fresh meat and veggies but some are not that fortunate.

            When my wife was working at the local food bank, there was one young woman that we remembered who escaped an abusive family relationship and living in a tent. She had nothing and we ended up finding her a tin opener and basic cutlery to go with the food that she could manage.

        2. Yo, Bill. It was Harvest at Puttenham last Sunday. Again, tins of non-perishables were requested. Nevertheless, some produce was donated. Mostly of the squash family. Some may have been poisonous, based on the colour of the things. But, along with the aforementioned, we took the sack of shallots to the Harvest Lunch.

          Luckily, one of our few Churchwardens recognised the sack of shallots, and pointed out that they were daffodil bulbs… 🙄

          1. The church treasurer has just told me that some of the produce displayed in church was STOLEN…before the service last Sunday.

          2. The wife of a former Churchwarden (she’s RC, but, whatever) has written a religious book, which was made available in church – subject to £10 in the wall safe or the contactless donation thingy which I take credit for installing.

            It is alleged that ten of them were stolen. Perhaps – assuming they weren’t used for heating fuel – the perps might read the bloody things, and repent?

      2. Our rector apologised for a general sermon as she was a “townie” and didn’t know much about country practices (NOT in the Shakespearean meaning, you understand).

        1. Did anyone see GB News last night, when the concept of a “Pet Service” was floated as though one had never happened before? I was singularly unimpressed by the Rectorette. The fact that churches have held pet services wasn’t mentioned. There was a nod in the dirextion of St Francis, whose feast day is on Wednesday, but the overall impression was that none of that ‘religious stuff’ would trouble the congregation.

          I’ve played for a few services at Badshot Lea in the past, albeit on an unfortunate electronic organ. But in those days, they were still relatively sound…

          1. Even our rectorette held a “pet service”. I think there were more than usual in the congregation (including people). Funnily enough, our previous rector (who used to fill the church) refused to hold such a service on the grounds it was a gimmick. I leave you to form your own conclusions.

          2. There is one this very evening at Christ Church, Fulmodeston. G & P will NOT be attending.

            EDIT – I told a blatant lie – it is next Sunday. G & P will still give it a miss…

          3. We used to do a pet service in the marquee, the morning after the Seale and Sands Show. It was popular, and we had everything from snakes to donkeys. But mostly Labradors of varying hues. No cats, though, since they tend to regard God as a (somewhat inferior) rival…

        2. In our town centre church all the preachers are unsurprisingly ‘townies’ but always manage a country slant at harvest festival.

      3. My old assistant organist from way back is Director of Music at St Mary at Hill (as well as St John, Wimbledon). SMaH is a splendid Wren church with one of the five most historically significant pipe organs in the UK. Billingsgate is in the parish, therefore Harvest Festival there comprises of mainly fish… Like St Barts, no-one actually lives there, hence there are no Sunday services. The Lutherans use the premises on Sundays, and presumably they are prepared to travel…

        This year, in the two of our four churches which had a Harvest Festival, folks were encouraged to fill shoe boxes with ‘non-perishables’. There was still produce, however. Mostly of the ‘squash’ variety. One former Churchwarden delivered a marrow which should have carried a H&S warning re, the weight. Also very much in evidence were hops. What was the last hop garden in Surrey* is in the centre of the Parish.

        *OK – Farnham was a major hop-growing area in the past. Until verticillium wilt wiped out most of the hops. In recent years, the Hogs Back Brewery established a new hop garden across the road from the brewery, in Tongham. Our local estate collected, dried and bagged up the produce. It lasted two or three years, and was then grubbed up, to make way for housing. HBB have a new hop garden, behind the brewery, which will hopefully be left alone by the developers…

        1. I’m off to St Edith’s Shocklach (q.v.) for evensong (our former choir is singing it). Should be interesting.

          2. Choir was magnificent as usual. Service was strange. It was a eucharist, which was okay, but I wasn’t expecting intinction. Some of the words were normal 🙂

          4. We have communion in both kinds. If people don’t want the wine they just cross their hands on their breast.

    2. It’s all somebody else’s money. And a chance to feel important – “look at what I built!”

      1. I went to bed early last night; result was I couldn’t sleep and Oscar got me up even more times than usual!

          1. Actually that wasn’t true; if it hadn’t been for Oscar I would only have got up once.

        2. Yes. I didn’t even steal it.
          As it happens the book i am reading at the moment is by Alastair Reynolds. Sci-Fi so not a genre to interest you but…Here is the thing. The story tells of a herd of elephants being studied and later augmented with a chip in their brains so they can communicate easier/better. That herd does actually exist.

    2. No earlier than midnight for me. I wouldn’t sleep otherwise, and even after midnight that’s sometimes the case.

      1. I’m similar. On a Saturday night, I do to bed early because I have to get up early. Why I never learn, I have no idea. I don’t get any more sleep.

      2. 2359–0800 during the period of “daylight-saving” (saving for what?) hours.
        2300–0700 during the late autumn/winter period.

        This keeps my circadian rhythms in tune with the meanderings of the earth around the sun; and I sleep like a a log every night [er … logs don’t sleep! Shouldn’t that be “sleep like a dog”?].

  53. A burglar’s guide to keeping your home secure. 1 October 2023.

    Returning home to find it has been ransacked by burglars is a nightmare that becomes a reality for thousands of people every year.

    A staggering 192,060 home burglaries were reported in England and Wales in 2022 – an average of 526 every day.

    With only 6pc of these crimes being solved, the best idea is to prevent it from happening in the first place.

    Yes by hanging anyone convicted on a first offence,

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/property/home-security-burglary-guide-secure-alarm-cctv/

      2. Afternoon Wibbles. I have absolutely no sympathy for evil doers They have none for their victims!

        1. I quite agree. Hanging them is the simplest solution. What’s truly awful is to know that there are hundreds- no, tens of thousands of multiple offence criminals on the streets let out and about because the parole board thinks they’re ok.

          A simpler solution is after three, throw away the key. Lock them in a cell, melt the key in the lock. Forget about them.

          2. Not just thieving bastewards, many of the murders over here are committed by villains who are out on bail after being caught for similar crimes.

            It’s made worse by numb nuts Trudeau and his woke liberals making it hard to keep non white offenders in jail.

          3. So long as the non-whites keep killing other non-whites, I care neither a jot nor a tittle.

    2. The time that our house as broken into, the police took one look at the damage and declared that they knew who had done it but told the boss that the stolen items would be gone so there was nothing they could do.

      The next robber came up against was the insurance company.

      Sorry, I forgot to mention that was years ago when the police actually came out for robberies.

      1. Oh, your window wasn’t quite closed? The seal was broken? Ah yes. Up yours. Not interested. Insurance companies encourage you to lie because they are so utterly dishonest.

        It’s not the stuff the thieves take. It’s that someone unwanted has been in your home. As it is, thieves take only little bits. Every single month the state takes two thirds of my income in tax.

        1. Look at sub paragraph 25 in appendix 3 of the policy. Jewellery valued Iverson $500 is not covered

  54. I love it when the US announcers try to pretend that the US made todays Ryder Cup games a success.

    Conveniently overlooking the fact that they lost. Tee hee!

    1. I don’t follow goff, but was it not the case that the Italians poisoned the Yank team? So that they were poorly the first two days?

      Just asking…!!

      2. No need.

        The US decided that the best preparation was to not practice for a month before the games, it took them two days to remember how to compete.

  55. I’ve shaved the head – top and bottom. Beard’s been trimmed, hair scrubbed back. This leaves hair absolutely everywhere – masses of it. You try to get the most with a dry tissue, then a cloth, then a slightly damp cloth but there’s still hair everywhere. I’m fairly immune to it due to the dogs but it’s still a bit annoying.

    And of course, there’s also the dash to the gym for a wash in itchy clothes. Once back, the nails need cutting, the washing needs doing – more hair falls out – hoover and throughout it all rather than being nice and clean I’m overheating and getting crufty.

      1. Mongo has had his ear shaved by accident. He leapt up on to the worktop and entirely by accident the electric razor went along the top of his head. He didn’t seem to notice.

      1. The neighbour’s woodchipper was an idea. Certainly less painful that the Warqueen’s lecture.

        1. With one exception, I haven’t subjected myself to a haircut since before the “pandemic”. When they were made illegal, I bought clippers. I don’t have much hair these days, anyway. What lands on the bath/wet room floor can swiftly be removed by my Dyson.

          I went to a funeral in Carlisle in January. I took the clippers. But realised that I had no means of clearing up the ensuing detritus from the hotel bedroom. So I went to the nearest barber.

          Amid the frequent police sirens, my barber opined that Carlisle was ‘very dangerous place’. “So, where are you from?”, I asked. “Azerbaijan”, he replied…

  56. Lots of man blubbing after winning the Ryder Cup.
    Peter Aliss would be mortified.
    I suppose they feel it has to be done nowadays.

  57. Accident Report.
    This one needs an introduction, so you won’t be lost at the beginning. This man was in an accident at work, so he filled out an insurance claim. The insurance company contacted him and asked for more information.
    This was his response:
    “I am writing in response to your request for additional information, for block number 3 of the accident reporting form. I put ‘poor planning’ as the cause of my accident. You said in your letter that I should explain more fully and I trust the following detail will be sufficient.
    I am an amateur radio operator and on the day of the accident, I was working alone on the top section of my new 80-foot tower. When I had completed my work, I discovered that I had, over the course of several trips up the tower, brought up about 300 pounds of tools and spare hardware. Rather than carry the now unneeded tools and material down by hand, I decided to lower the items down in a small barrel by using the pulley attached to the gin pole at the top of the tower. Securing the rope at ground level, I went to the top of the tower and loaded the tools and material into the barrel. Then I went back to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to ensure a slow decent of the 300 pounds of tools.”
    “You will note in block number 11 of the accident reporting form that I weigh only 155 pounds. Due to my surprise of being jerked off the ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and failed to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded at a rather rapid rate of speed up the side of the tower. In the vicinity of the 40-foot level, I met the barrel coming down. This explains my fractured skull and broken collarbone. Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley. Fortunately, by this time, I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold onto the rope in spite of my pain. At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of tools hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel.”
    “Devoid of the weight of the tools, the barrel now weighed approximately 20 pounds. I refer you again to my weight in block number 11. As you might imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the tower. In the vicinity of the 40-foot level, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two fractured ankles, and the lacerations of my legs and lower body. The encounter with the barrel slowed me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell onto the pile of tools and, fortunately, only three vertebrae were cracked. I am sorry to report, however, that as I lay there on the tools, in pain, unable to stand and watching the empty barrel 80 feet above me, I again lost my presence of mind. I let go of the rope…”

      3. His granddaughter Emily is a letterer, ie a designer and carver of memorial tablets and gravestones etc. She studied under Richard Kindersley, whose brother Peter worked for Mitchell Beazley and later he co-founded Dorling Kindersley. Wordsmiths.

  58. Apols for my absence but I have been doing more lone dog walking .

    My hip and knee and back ache but I have been achieving over 8,000 steps according to the sports watch I borrowed from Moh .

    Now getting out and about more with Pip, and have no need to rush back to wake Jack up to wee him , although I miss him him so much still.

    Moh has played loads of golf ,,,, and guess what… many of the chums he knows have succumbed to Covid , young and old.

    We had our flu jabs the other day, but have declined the offer of Winter Covid jabs .

    Today is mild and cloudy, and feels like Autumn , all the distant sounds are different , air mass I think .

    Have I missed very much by being away for a few days?

    Tory conference will be awash with champagne again .. Who will be batting for us?

    No one .

    My late aunt told me that modern politicians feed off the poor , thus enhancing their popularity, whereas the very rich are immune to political decisions , they just move around the world as and when and are usually cushioned in their castles and wealthy homes .

    Politicians do not mind that we don’t matter .

    2. They’re certainly not batting for us, Maggie, and I think a lot of them are batting for the other side in more ways than one.

    3. Keep positive, Maggie. You are right about politicians. The rich aren’t affected because they are mobile, the very poor are bought with “free” stuff and the rest of us are stuffed paying for it all.

    4. Very sad for for you, Belle. Losing Jack must have left a huge gap, and not feeling too great can’t help. How has Pip responded to being sole dog?

  59. Wonderful. I can sit on my deck and watch the runners in our local marathon stream by.

    It’s getting to the four hour point since they started so there are a few stragglers to look forward to seeing whilst I have my lunch..

    2. I do hope you helped motivate the stragglers by shouting ‘hurry up fatty or all the pies will be gone’ or some such…

  60. Excerpts from a Dog’s diary:

    8:00 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!

    9:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!

    9:40 am – OH BOY! A WALK! MY FAVORITE!

    10:30 am – OH BOY! A CAR RIDE! MY FAVORITE!

    11:30 am – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!

    12:00 noon – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!

    1:00 PM – OH BOY! THE YARD! MY FAVORITE!

    1:30 PM – ooooooo. bath. bummer.

    4:00 PM – OH BOY! THE KIDS! MY FAVORITE!

    5:00 PM – OH BOY! DOG FOOD! MY FAVORITE!

    5:30 PM – OH BOY! MOM! MY FAVORITE!

    Excerpts from a Cat’s diary:

    DAY 752 – My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from ruining the occasional piece of furniture. Tomorrow I may eat another house plant.

    DAY 761 – Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost succeeded, must try this at the top of the stairs. In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair…must try this on their bed.

    DAY 765 – Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body, in attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear into their hearts. They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was…Hmmm. Not working according to plan.

    DAY 768 – I am finally aware of how sadistic they are. For no good reason I was chosen for the water torture. This time however it included a burning foamy chemical called “shampoo.” What sick minds could invent such a liquid? My only consolation is the piece of thumb still stuck between my teeth.

    DAY 771 – There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in solitary throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise. More importantly I overheard that my confinement was due to MY power of “allergies.” Must learn what this is and how to use it to my advantage.

    DAY 774 – I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously a half-wit. The bird on the other hand has got to be an informant, and speaks with them regularly. I am certain he reports my every move. Due to his current placement in the metal room his safety is assured. But I can wait; it is only a matter of

    2. I remember hearing the joke when an Arab sheik asked his son what three things he wanted for Eid.

      The son said : a music centre, a train set and an cowboy outfit so his father bought him the Albert Hall, British Rail and British Airways.

  63. That’s me gone for this grey but mild day. IN fact it is now very sunny! Bit late.

    Have a jolly evening – there is lots of Shakespeare on t’telly tonight (BBC4). The MR having been an English teacher for 40 years, the HUMAX will be working overtime.

    A demain.

    1. Bagpipes can make a wonderful sound … if chucked into a canal … or if they are chucked into a skip and they hit a rapper already chucked in there.

  69. Ok i have a kitchen dilemma that hopefully one of you clever souls can help me with.

    About 25 years ago before i met MOH, I had a flatshare with a girl from Zim. She went home on holiday, met the love of her life and within 6 weeks had emigrated with him to Oz.

    She left behind a lot of stuff but amongst it was the most wonderful kitchen gadget. It is white plastic. Flat. A handle attached to a flat semi-circle which has holes in it. So you can use it to strain a saucepan of water, but it also acts as an implement to scrape chopped ingredient off a chopping board into a pan. It is a wonderful gadget, the like of which I’ve never seen elsewhere in England and the name of which I’ve never known (in our house it is just called “the white scrapy thing).

    It turns out whilst I was chaperoning mu parents around Dorset, Devon and Cornwall last week, my son was allowed to take the white scrapy thing to Uni. My white scrapy thing is now in some Cardiff halls of residence. I fear for its existence.

    More to the point, every time I use it, i think of my old friend, with whom I lost contact in the pre/proto-internet days.

    Does anyone know what this “white scrapy thing” could be called, or has anyone come across one elsewhere? I’d love another (for my som) so I can get my old one back.

    All suggestions gratefully received!

    1. Get it back off him; tear a strip off him for stealing it; tell him to stand on his own two feet and go find one of his own, he’s an adult now.

      1. Uni students don’t grow up until they have had 200 rejections for their Media Studies Degree…

      2. I had one just like that , but it vanished , perhaps binned accidentally ..

        I have just looked on Ebay , and they have them for sale .

        1. Annoyingly they all seem to be in the USA. Definitely a marketing opportunity over here!

    3. Type in those details to google images and post a picture here so we can all enjoy the saga ! Better yet…go burgle the Halls of Residence. The door code can easily be made out by the pizza greasy finger prints !

    5. Thank you everyone! Seems like “white scrapy thing” wasn’t the worst name for it. I might try and bulk-buy as a present or two – it really is a wonderful gadget.

  72. A 4 on Wordle today.

    Wordle 834 4/6

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

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 834 4/6

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

    3. This country has no Black History prior to the 1950s and to say it has is a lie. There may possibly have been some isolated individuals but that is all. It’s brainwashing young people to say any different. I was 10 years old when I saw my first black person and she was a nurse.

      i have African friends but they are African, not British or English.

        1. She was a nurse and i was having my appendix out. I was reading Alice – she said “That’s a children’s book” and I said “But I am a child”. Funny how these conversations stay in the mind…. I may have had a glass too many.

      2. Such (few) blacks as there were tended to be servants or curiosities kept like pets. We had a black chap round who was an insurance agent, but he was quite straight about being a Jamaican.

        1. Prior to the 1950s? That’s when the first shipments arrived – (Windrush in 1948). There were some black GIs involved in D Day but they were American.

          1. There were some black servants (Catherine of Aragon is said to have had a couple and I think Queen Elizabeth I had one) and the (very) occasional portrait of a black person. In the 18th century having a Blackamoor servant was fashionable.
            There is an illustration of Trumpeter John Blanke (ironic, as he’s black as the Ace of Spades) in 1511.

          2. Hardly a population though, just a few outliers. But to try and convince us that Anne Boleyn was black, or Queen Charlotte, is just nonsense.

          3. I agree. The point is, they were few and far between, even if they existed. Anne Boleyn was definitely not black!

    4. This country has no Black History prior to the 1950s and to say it has is a lie. There may possibly have been some isolated individuals but that is all. It’s brainwashing young people to say any different. I was 10 years old when I saw my first black person and she was a nurse.

      i have African friends but they are African, not British or English.

  74. I’m guessing Keith Blakelock and Lee Rigby won’t be appearing on any of the ‘B’BC’s Black History Month output?

  76. An eventful afternoon.
    Sister in law & her husband arrived yesterday for a break and are stopping in a B&B up the village.
    SiL phoned this afternoon, BiL had had a seizure as they arrived back at the B&B. Went straight up with Graduate Son and it turned out he’d had a stroke.
    She’d been told the ambulance could take 2 hours, but luckily it arrived within a half hour.
    Because BiL is grossly obese, the ambulance crew asked for Fire Brigade assistance to get him out of the car and into the ambulance.
    The DT is currently with SiL at Chesterfield Hospital and I’m heading up to bed and taking the phone with me.

    Not expecting her back for a while yet.

    Good night all.

    1. Oh, blimey, Bob.
      That’s no fun for anyone. Hope your BiL makes a good recovery. Fingers crossed.

    2. Oh dear so sorry to hear, such a horrible thing to happen..
      I hope everything turns out OK Bob.

  77. Gosh – lots of comments tonight.

    We went to the first Music Society concert of the season this afternoon and it was wonderful – Robert Max, the cellist, played the whole of Bach’s six cello suites without a break, and completely from memory.

    He did say a few words between each one, but otherwise it was two and a half hours of music. First five on his 1725 Stradivarius, a beauiful instrument with a wonderful tone, and the last one on a 1755 “pentachord” – a five string cello, called Merlin. No interval, but we did have a glass of wine afterwards. Ansolutely fabulous!

    Just had a light dinner – sea bream with leek, purple sprouting and salad.

    1. A very civilised evening. Two and a half hours would have had my legs twitching though.

      1. The audience was motionless and I was completely transported……… I can still hear it in my head now.
        I’ve always loved Bach, and the cello suites, but to hear them all together played live was really extra special.

      1. Robert had some cds on sale but I didn’t have enough cash left after buying the programme, the draw tickets and the wine. They may be available online – I will have to look as my Robert Cohen double cd has got jumpy.

    3. Evening, Jools. You remind me of a previous existence, when I was involved with (and, for a year, chairman) of Mildenhall and District Music Society.

      We promoted half a dozen concerts a year, none of which disappointed. Plus – the likes of the City of London Sinfonia, in St Mary’s Church.

      I was back in Suffolk, five and a half weeks ago, for a funeral. It was good to return there, briefly…

      1. I’ve been a member on and off since I was at school ( had a break when I was a young mother) and the musicians have always been of a high standard – Janet Baker was one in the early 60s. Also Jack Brymer and Leon Goossens, and Isobel Baillie. Usually no larger ensemble than a quartet.

        Always good and uplifting, usually six concerts in the season. The chairman and driving force, Christine, lost her husband two years ago, but keeps going – music has been her business and her life so she has all the contacts. She has a progressive disability and uses a motorised scooter thing, but it keeps her going, with a reason to keep active.

        My cousin and her family lived near Mildenhall – her widower does still – in Worlington.

        1. Mildenhall had a team ministry of around a dozen churches. Worlington was one of them. I attended (and sang at) a funeral a few weels ago at Eriswell. Not far from Worlington, and part of the same team ministry when I was there. This may have changed…

        2. The Director of Music at Blundell’s had many friends amongst professional musicians and organised for them to come and perform for the boys. I remember hearing Leon Goossens on the oboe at one concert and Valerie Tryon who was, at the time, an up and coming pianist at another.

          I didn’t realise at the time just how privileged we were.

          1. I heard a snippet on the radio the other day – Janet Baker talking – and she’s 90! What a wonderful singer and she certainly didn’t sound 90 – she talked about her life and her rather early retirement at the top of her game. I was so privileged to have heard her sing at my old school (where the concerts were held at that time) and she signed my programme for me. I recently donated those old programmes to Christine for the Society’s archives.

  78. Has anyone here discussed the identity of the youth arrested for the fatal stabbing of a schoolgirl in a London suburb? His first name is possibly, allegedly Hassan.

  80. I’ll be off soon, we had an absolutely lovely afternoon with the family. Two missing, eldest DiL and elder grand daughter both full of cold.
    Avoiding passing it on to younger grandson. Who had to spend 24 hours in hospital due to his high temperature. He has leukaemia and had to go into hospital for 24 hour observation.
    I love my family we always have a lot to talk about and have my sense of humour.
    A bit daft.
    I’m still sitting out on our patio finishing my umpteenth glass of wine.
    Well done Europe you thrashed the septics on the golf course. They didn’t like the rough.
    Good night all.
    Best wishes to all.

    1. We had a lovely afternoon too – I’ve posted about that below.

      I hope the little boy will recover and they were right to protect him.
      I’ve had a glass or two but it’s wearing off now. We;ve got the Rugby on.

      1. My good lady and I sat out side for an hour after we had cleared and washed up. Quite a task thank goodness for DWs.
        I forgot to record the Ryder cup highlights. 🤔
        The little fella was much better, but they can’t take chances with his condition.
        Our DIL told us they’d had a letter from the major hospital telling them they had to have him vaccinated for covid. They are not happy with that.
        I’m not sure the hospital administration can legally require this.

        1. Tricky one as with his weakened immune system covid could cause him danger. But on the other hand the vaccine would too. I’d hang fire if I were them – which of course I’m not and they will have to weigh up the odds for themselves.

  83. I try not to judge people by the colour of their skin but by thir actions. The killer of the young girl was scum.

    Posted in reply to David but I noticed his post was deleted.

Comments are closed.