Sunday 29 October: Israel is fighting an enemy that wears no uniform and hides behind civilians

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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636 thoughts on “Sunday 29 October: Israel is fighting an enemy that wears no uniform and hides behind civilians”

  2. 378208+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
    @DrTedros
    The next pandemic is not a question of if, but of when. And we cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past.

    That is why
    @WHO
    ’s Member States are negotiating a new #PandemicAccord and amendments to the International Health Regulations, to strengthen the legal framework for the global response to pandemics.

    I urge
    @IPUparliament
    members to support these negotiations towards a timely conclusion, by the 2024 World Health Assembly in May.

    For the sake of future generations, we must not go back to the old cycle of panic and neglect that left our world vulnerable. #IPU147

    https://x.com/DrTedros/status/1717485575362453765?s=20

  3. 367208+ up ticks

    Sunday 29 October: Israel is fighting an enemy that wears no uniform and hides behind civilians

    Many of us in the United Kingdom know the feeling very well,we are fighting on three fronts.

    Sunday 29 October: England is fighting an enemy that wears
    pinstripe, on one front, the second front comprises of the pinstripes mass importation of potential foreign troops, and the third front being the political pinstripers voting supporters.

    The second element are in place and hiding behind civilian
    5* hotel managers, WAITING.

  4. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    Kindness To Animals

    Bill and Joyce are driving along when they see a wounded skunk on the side of the road.

    Joyce says, “Oh Bill, please stop and let’s try to help it!”

    Bill stops the car but refuses to do anything more, so Joyce gets out and picks up the skunk and brings it into the car.

    “It must be freezing!” she says. “See how it’s shivering? What should I do?”

    “Put it between your legs,” Bill replies.

    “But what about the smell?” Joyce asks.

    To which Bill replies, “Oh, he’ll get used to it after a while!”

    1. … about 15 minutes to WW3.

      I wonder whether we will still have summer time when we bomb ourselves back into the Stone Age.

    6. I remain on sidereal time all year: I have no truck with this “clocks going forward and back” bollocks.

      I sleep between 2300 – 0700 at this time of year. When they piss about with the clocks during “summer time”, I remain in tune with the sun by sleeping between 2359 – 0800. This means I experience every day of the year exactly the same.

          2. I know. It also coincides with the pagan ritual, in the USA, of Groundhog Day when good/bad weather at the end of winter is presaged by the behaviour of a large rodent!

  9. Good morning, chums. Happy Greenwich Mean Time! In a month and a half we will be at the shortest day of the year. Then in another month and a half (around the start of February) our daylight hours will be exactly the same as they are today. Finally, five months from today we can at last return to British Summer Time and I shall be happy to welcome Spring once again. For now, I shall hunker down and do things indoors. I have plenty of things to keep me busy. Keep smiling and enjoy every day.

  10. Bonjour everyone, as they used to say in Marseilles.
    To the title – is that a reference to the US government?

      1. Quite possibly.
        The normal laws of business seem to have been suspended.

        Who wrecks their own business?

          2. And Budweiser and Gillette and so many others.

            Mind you, not the maddest thing going on at the moment. But a sign of the times, neverthelesss.

          9. Its weird how ordinary people don’t want to be preached at with this bollox, isn’t it.

          10. And Budweiser and Gillette and so many others.

            Mind you, not the maddest thing going on at the moment. But a sign of the times, neverthelesss.

  14. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cloudy & dull. Going to collect cats from cat hotel in a few minutes. Be good to have those two fuzzy monsters back!

      1. I was indeed.
        But much more lively now, and well rested after the journey and a good zed in my own bed, thanks.

        1. Life in Britain can be very stressful, much more so than people realise. Huge supermarkets, shopping malls, Sunday opening, crowded roads – you have to consciously avoid these things in order to have the relatively peaceful life that one takes for granted in other countries.

          1. During lock down I’d take Junior and we’d go shopping. It was wonderful. Empty roads, people avoided you, I didn’t have to worry about Mongo being outside, no one rammed me with a trolley, folk made desperate efforts to avoid me rather than standing in the way.

            I imagine lockdown is what the UK would be like if half the population were moved away.

  15. Interesting – from yer France. (Nice Matin newspaper). Shortage of medicinal drugs for winter endemics….. So it isn’t only the Envy ofthe World that has issues of supply.

      2. My ex had one of those fitted – it was awful when it picked up radio 1 on the vinegar stroke

        1. One of my ex’s had one too. I thought she had a rat up there since it bit the end of my appendage!

  16. BBC shake-up to tackle complaints of bias. 29 October 2023.

    The BBC has toughened its complaints system amid concern from ministers that allegations of bias are not being taken sufficiently seriously.

    Tim Davie, the BBC director general, will now take on direct responsibility for overseeing its complaints unit.

    The changes come ahead of publication of the Government’s mid-term review of the BBC’s 10-year Royal Charter and amid sustained public criticism of the broadcaster over its coverage of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, including its refusal to call Hamas terrorists.

    This and its sister article about “cracking down on extremism” are the inadequate responses of the Political Elites to the slowly dawning realisation, triggered by Gaza, that all is not well in the UK’s multi-cultural paradise. It’s too late of course.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/28/bbc-tim-davie-israel-hamas-bashir-princess-diana/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  17. Good morning all,

    A bright start at McPhee Towers with showers forecast, wind in the South, 9℃ rising to 12℃. Well, that’s torn it. Neil Oliver delivered a blistering monologue last night and he had Colonel Douglas Mcgregor on as a guest.

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

    He did not hold back in mentioning names, making excoriating remarks about US Presidents Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton and UK Prime Ministers Blair and Johnson. With Johnson about to join GB News as a presenter, that town ain ‘t big enough for the two of them. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and decided to go out in a blaze of glory. I guess we’ll soon know.

    1. Not aware of any other PM or similar who went on to become a radio hack. Is that Boris’ real passion and talent? If so, why was he ever elected, let alone made PM?

      2. Yes, I think it is his real talent – sniping from the sidelines and writing rude limericks about Erdogan. If only he had confined his activities to those things he is best at. At least Gyles Brandeth realised his limitations!

  18. Crackdown on extremism to tackle ‘permissive environment’ for anti-Jewish hate. 29 October 2023.

    Michael Gove and Suella Braverman have ordered a crackdown on extremism amid warnings that Britain has become a “permissive environment” for anti-Jewish hate.

    Civil servants in the department run by Mr Gove, the Communities Secretary, are drawing up a new official definition of extremism. The move could see Whitehall, councils and police forces cutting off funding to charities and mosques whose leaders or guest speakers have voiced hateful views.

    This is bolting the stable door after the horses have mounted all the mares, eaten the last of the oats, crapped all over the yard and disappeared beyond the horizon!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/10/28/crackdown-extremism-tackle-anti-jewish-hate/

      1. I thought most of the money used to fund mosques comes from Saudi Arabia.
        They love showing a return for all the oil we buy.
        So in a roundabout way were funding it all.

        1. Councils are trying to bribe them with taxpayer money to behave nicely. It will never work.

    2. Police forces funding charities & mosques? No wonder there’s no manpower left for Bobbying.

    3. Better late than never, I suppose.
      But why did the thought cross my mind that redefining extremism is a way of silencing Nigel Farage, and even locking him away?

    6. Oh give over. We all know that this will be enforced against the enemies of the state, not it’s clients, same as every damned law these vermin pass.

  19. Good morning.
    A bright start after last night’s downpours and 5°C outside.

    Eldest daughter is still in bed so I’m up with the laptop and mug of tea.
    And the least said about last night the better. Rained no-stop but we still got down to see the fireworks and then decided not to return to the village the way we came, returning via the road instead.
    And we all got soaked.

    1. I expect Nigel has enough cash to form a mattress 😉
      As a fair minded sort of a person, shame he’s not running the country.
      I’m sure he’d make a better job of it than the idiot’s in Whitehall and Westminster.

    1. What on earth is pickleball?

      I think the late gentleman might have had a drug problem. Just saying.

      1. Just a game the Americans claim to have invented. Ping Pong on a court instead of a table. Bats and balls may differ.

      3. Seems that way – endless rehabs and AA visits (other breakdown services are available), and didn’t he look rough in those pictures? Only 54…

      1. I don’t think I ever watched it, so know nothing about him other than that he was a celebrity.

          1. Neither have I. According to MOH, apparently Perry had a long-time problem with prescription drugs. If so, that’s sad and the quacks have a lot to answer for (but we all know that anyway).

  22. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not a bad day, light fluffy clouds and a strange yellow ball in the sky. Must be something wrong 😉
    Headline is a huge worry for all of us.
    I would say most countries of our Western cultures have a similar problem to Israel. But fortunately as yet no weapons are involved.

        1. I made a delicious Almond Amaretto cackle last week. Best one ever. Might have to make another today.

  23. Well I never, who would ever have thought it.
    /sarc
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12683921/Immigration-chiefs-warn-universities-THOUSANDS-foreign-students-claim-asylum-months-arriving-Britain.html

    Home Office chiefs have warned universities about a ‘marked’ increase in foreign students seeking asylum within months of arriving in the UK.
    Government papers show 3,000 students made claims within their first year living in the country between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022 – some 1,600 from Bangladesh.
    Immigration chiefs became so alarmed they ordered some universities to suspend course offers to ‘anyone from Bangladesh’ until background checks were complete. They warned many were using forged identity documents.

    1. Why not have admission exams set for all applicants?

      Trouble with that would be that British students now know so very little that they would fail the tests while the overseas students passed them and British universities would provide university education exclusively for foreigners.

      1. A former work colleague who came from Iran took a citizenship test as well as paying large sums of money to obtain a British Passport. You’re right in that he studied for the test and if I remember correctly, passed with a 99% score. However, he came here on a work visa, had an NI number and paid his way. His opinion of the illegal migrants made him an honorary nottler. Living in London allowed him to survive apostasy and pursue his interest in Persian Zoroastrian teaching.

        1. I think if any body who can prove that they have the long standing ability and ambition to support themselves and their families would fit in almost anywhere. But it seems that the ‘They’ have allowed anyone who turns up, to be able to seek and expect tax payer’s support and never pay back a penny. It’s become too easy now.

      2. IMHO what is going on here is just another lunge at overwhelming our culture and social structure. Most of, if not all of them will be of a certain religious belief.
        Wake up Whitehall. You plonkers.

      3. Make an education visa with verified, by us, examination results a requirement for entry into to country. No visa no entry. Trouble will be getting Border Farce to enforce it.

          1. It needs to be applied forthwith. Whose responsibility is it to check all documentation is in order.
            If they have a ‘Financial Sponsor’ they should be required to lodge the full 3 years of tuition fees upfront and deposit a sum of money into a U.K. bank that will cover living costs for the duration of their course. At the end of the course their visa will be revoked and if they want to stay here they must leave the U.K. and apply for a visa from their own country.

          2. And pigs might fly. Our pigs are in parliament, civil service and other such bodies, quangos, banks and corporations. They have no intention of flying anywhere.

          3. Universities aren’t too bad at doing that, the problem is once they’ve graduated they stay here.

      4. Look at your average university website. It really is a case of find the white bloke. Even if you do find one, you can guarantee he’ll be surrounded by ethnics.

        1. Your average university gets tax breaks through its charitable status as an educator of British people. if the only people you benefit educationally are foreigners in Britain, then arguably you do not come within the requirement of a British charity, and should lose that tax benefit. Just saying.

    2. WTF is our useless government doing now ?
      Brain dead seems to be the most sought after condition of our political idiots and the civil service.
      Derek Trotter would have had more savy in running the country than these morons.

      1. What’s the government doing? The exact opposite of what it should be.

        Thing is, universities desperately need cash and foreign students bring in about 3 times what locals do. Worse is they recruit globally too. For each role you’ll get 100+ applicants – over 95% will be Indians.

    1. I’d like to know the circumstances of Scotty’s shirtiness. Are complete strangers stopping him in the street, chests puffed out and beaming broadly, lavishing him with tales of booking appointments, attending clinics and feeling fit as fiddles?

      Or is it, as I suspect, people he knows who just happen to be passing the time of day with idle chit-chat and mentioning something they’ve recently done. If they also mentioned that they’ve had a blood test, would he be berating them in similar fashion?

      1. I take no credit for the fact that neither Caroline nor I have had any Covid jabs: the credit and our very deep gratitude goes to our lovely doctor, Françoise, who advised us not to have them.

        Our current GP, who replaced Françoise in the practice, has now had Covid six times. We assume that he has had all the jabs, which were mandatory or he would not have been allowed to continue to practise, but he has finally come to the conclusion that it would now be better to try and develop natural immunity without having further jabs.

  25. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc1065cdb64c80c1565dd0ae8c0e56bafc37eb9a59f5e25213743767ebe3edb8.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/29/alison-rose-has-exposed-the-truth-about-the-new-elite/

    BTL (Ratty)

    Dame Alison Rose should be stripped of her damehood and stripped of her pension and all severance pay.

    In a country where the Rule of Law is still respected Nigel Farage ought to be able to sue the bank and be sure that the judgement of the court would be impeccably fair.

    Unfortunately Britain’s PTB from the politicians to the civil service and to large corporate enterprises are so corrupt that the UK is no longer a country where justice has any hope of being done.

    1. Rose is just the head of the snake. Every single person bleating about how they’d done in Farage needs to be made an example of by being sacked. Their attitude was utterly disgusting and should be punished. Dislilke people all you like, but you’re at work, not a playgroup.

      However you can imagine them: young, 20 somethings, probably women, full of ideology and ego , convinced of their self righteousness.

  26. SIR – As has been pointed out by the present Earl Balfour (Letters, October 24), his ancestor’s declaration of November 1917, while expressing that Britain would “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”, included the important caveat that “nothing shall be done that may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”.

    At a meeting of the Imperial Cabinet in June 1921, replying to a question about the meaning of “a national home”, Winston Churchill said: “We made an equal pledge that we would not turn the Arab off his land or invade his political and social rights.”

    In 1919 Balfour wrote: “Weizmann has never put forward a claim for the Jewish Government of Palestine. Such a claim, in my opinion, is clearly inadmissible and personally I do not think we should go further.”

    Both before and after the Second World War, Britain sought to restrict Jewish entrants to Palestine, in accordance with its mandate from the League of Nations, but for which it has received much opprobrium.

    Robert Ashton
    Shrewsbury

    1. While of historical interest, is Robert Ashton in any way suggesting that UK foreign policy and international diplomacy should be driven, in 2023, by the words of British statesmen of 100+ years ago? While those words might offer wisdom to help us in the present, the situation on the ground is much changed.

        1. Once a great way forward BT.
          But not now the government are backing the invaders. Spending millions of hard working people’s money. That should be used to improve our own living conditions, not supporting thieving and scrounging illegals.

  27. My personal résumé of the Rugby World Cup, 2023.
    [Others’ opinions may differ]

    1. The two outstanding teams of the competition were not in the final. Ireland and France are still correctly rated as number one and two in the world; however, both countries lost their last matches to bullying tactics by heavier and stronger opponents. Both France and Ireland played a fast, skilful, running-and-passing rugby reminiscent of the lither, quicker and nimbler exponents who played the sport in the amateur era, when massively bulked-up specimens of humanity would never have been considered for selection.

    2. England were by far the better team, tactically, for the vast majority of their semi-final against South Africa. It only came apart right at the end when two sub-standard, undercooked and clueless substitutes — Billy Vunipola and Kyle Sinckler — showed how switched off they were by making a catalogue of schoolboy errors gifting penalties, consequently the match, to below-par opponents. On the hapless showing by New Zealand, last night, England would have beaten them in the final (providing that Vunipola and Sinckler had not been selected in the squad).

    3. Any rugby purist would have welcomed a final of Ireland v France, who would have put on an exquisite exhibition of proper rugby, fast running, clever handling, nimble execution, and many more tries.

    4. Reading the reports on last night’s match by sports hacks in the Sunday Telegraph, I have come to the opinion that they watched a different match to me. Many of them stating that it was “the best final ever”. It wasn’t. By a country league! Just one accepted try (and the final pass for that was debatable) and nothing more than a slugfest between oversized behemoths.

    Rugby Union is now a pale shadow of the sport it once was.

    1. Fell asleep in the first half, most games were so close that it came down to refereeing interpretation of the rules.

      1. My father and grandfather are spinning in their graves! I never thought I’d see the day that I switched off a match like that!
        Edit : grammar!

          2. Yes, thanks. My own bed… says it all. Had to get up early to collect cats, but the 1 hour clock shift helped.

    2. I agree, it’s not what it use to be.
      I believe there needs to be some rule changes. And I didn’t think it was necessary for the Woke ‘panel’ to over ride the referees decision.
      IMHO It ruined the game.

    3. A fair summary.
      As far as the England SA match Farrell must accept responsibility for continued arguing with the referee after he had answered him and had the penalty moved forward 10 metres. He knows referees don’t change their minds whether right or wrong.

      1. “Never argue with the Ref.” Rule #1.
        I lost enthusiasm for Rugbly when it became a kickfest, every time someone won posession, they kicked the ball and all ran to it, rinse, repeat. Duller than watching locusts eat grass.
        Would have loved a fast, passing, clever game as Grizz describes in (3) – would have been disappointed to miss that due to sitting in aeroplanes and airports and cars.

      2. Thanks. I should hope that Borthwick has an eye to the future and that Farrell’s days are numbered with a new captain coming in.

    4. (1) – as I remember rugby in the 1970s, when the Welsh could do no wrong [Edit] and half the team were called Williams.
      Sigh…

      2. It was watching those Welsh lads in the 1970s that got me into watching rugby union. JPR Williams was my favourite but every member of that team was special.

      3. And England had a brilliant Number 8 who only took up rugby at the age of 18 when he went to UEA in 1966. Sadly for Andy Ripley he was a contemporary of Mervyn Davies, the Welshman, who was not as fast or spectacular as Andy but stronger in defence and took so took the No 8 place in the Lions XV in the international matches when they were both in the squad on the 1974 tour of South Africa.

        Of course in those days rugby was an amateur sport and as well playing rugby Andy qualified as a chartered accountant and obtained post-graduate degrees at LSE and Cambridge and had a very successful career in finance.

        Tragically he died of prostate cancer in 2010. Southwark Cathedral, where they held his memorial service that December, was completely full and some people had to stand outside in the freezing cold. Caroline, Henry and I attended the service with Steve Tomlin, who was the captain of the UEA rugby team who had introduced Andy to playing rugby.

        1. Many were doctors, if I recall correctly.
          Was it Wade Dooley that used to gaffa tape his ears on?

          1. And Brian Moore was, like Bill, a solicitor but whether or not he cultivates trombetti I do not know.

          2. Brian Moore played for lowly amateur Nottingham but rich Harlequins coveted him. They made him an offer he couldn’t refuse (since they could not pay him). They found him a lucrative position with a top-notch firm of London solicitors and paid thousands (at the end of his career) to replace all his teeth (smashed in proper competitive scrums) with expensive implants.

    5. (1) – as I remember rugby in the 1970s, when the Welsh could do no wrong [Edit] and half the team were called Williams.
      Sigh…

  28. “Political Islam is a modern phenomenon that seeks to use religion to shape the
    political system. Its origins lie in the perceived failure of the
    secular ideologies of nationalism and socialism to deliver on their
    promises of anti-imperialism and prosperity.”

    Political Islam – Wikipedia

    Politics and religion in the same cart…..Hell beckons.

    1. Islam has always been a political system from the time of its inception. Mohammed sought to impose his will on others, by conquest if necessary.

      1. by conquest if necessary slaughter, rape, pillage, colonisation and enslavement. Allahu Akbar.

    2. Islam has always been a political system from the time of its inception. Mohammed sought to impose his will on others, by conquest if necessary.

      1. The religious bit of Islam is a plagiarised concoction of Judaism and Christianity, with bits of paganism thrown in. To a Christian, it is blindingly obvious that Islam is false, as Christ was the fulfilment of the prophecies, not a prophet himself as Islam claims.

      1. I was going to say, the religious part was only created because the dictator wanted to control his subject body and soul.

    5. Thing is, the richer people become the more educated they are. The more educated the less religious. If muslim had a political wind that promised austerity it’d be pretty obvious it could never work.

    3. This is the last time – Brussels has ordered that it remains on EU time (Which is whatever time they say it is).

    5. Don’t be silly. Stone age man was far brighter than that. They don’t move the stones, they rotate the ground the stones are on.

  30. The BBC has been nominated for Hamas’s highest award, Golden crossed AK47s and Diamond studded Suicide Belt, for services to propaganda and anti-Semitism. The 35th year in succession. It could have won more often but it only started being awarded in 1987.

    The leaders of most political parties in the UK have sent their congratulations. Those that haven’t will be named and persecuted until they see the errors of their way.

  31. https://amzn.eu/d/bT6BkkX
    Perhaps Geoff and the rest if you will forgive me for shamelessly hawking my son’s novel…
    Aimed at the teen market, the ideal present for that child or grandchild who might read a little more.
    It is funny and well written, according to the reviews (and according to my own father, not given to lavishing praise lightly).

      1. Merchant Taylors!
        What are the odds you would also end up owning property a few miles apart in Aude… Les Saptes and in Norfolk?
        Near Banham Zoo.

      2. Merchant Taylors!
        What are the odds you would also end up owning property a few miles apart in Aude… Les Saptes and in Norfolk?
        Near Banham Zoo.

        2. You have nine? Sheer greed! How do you remember their names? I’m not sure I know nine people in total…

          3. 8 kids, 9 grankids
            My brother has 9 kids.
            Nothing wrong with the water in Peckham.
            Woof! Woof!

  32. Having watched only a couple of RWC matches I’d day that:

    (a) the make up of the Groups was rigged;
    (b) the enormous players must be totally thick if they have not yet understood that smashing into opposing players’ faces is a BAD idea;
    (c) there is far, far too much time wasted on endlessly setting and resetting scrums;
    (d) too much arguing with the ref;
    (e) far too much off-pitch interference – and time wasting – by TMO

    That’s enough (Ed).

    1. The whole circus has become overly technical added to by the retrospective refereeing from the ‘bunker’. The game rarely flows and in my view often violent, I’m surprised that there are not more serious injuries. However, in time, I expect there will be an increase of visits to ambulance chasing lawyers by players who claim they ‘should have been protected’. Not sure of the point of scrums either, they blah on about the importance of the hooker, but he is redundant if you throw it to the 2nd row. I dont stop in to watch rugby these days if I have anything else to do.

      1. I agree 150% with your comment about the scrum and the pointlessness of having a hooker.

  34. Moscow will confiscate EU assets if Brussels ‘steals’ frozen Russian funds – Putin ally. 29 October 2023.

    Russia will confiscate assets belonging to European Union states it deems unfriendly if the bloc “steals” frozen Russian funds in a drive to fund Ukraine, a top ally of President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.

    Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on Friday that the EU executive was working on a proposal to pool some of the profits derived from frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine and its post-war reconstruction.

    That’s the way to talk to them! Better yet Nuke Brussels!

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/moscow-will-confiscate-eu-assets-if-brussels-steals-frozen-russian-funds-putin-2023-10-29/

      1. “Such a decision would require a symmetrical response from the Russian Federation. In that case, far more assets belonging to unfriendly countries will be confiscated than our frozen funds in Europe,” he said. [Volodin].

      2. There are a lot of European businesses in Russia. You would be quite familiar with many of the businesses in a Russian shopping mall. There is a video on You Tube about that but I didn’t save it, unfortunately. Perhaps if you do a search: ‘European businesses in Russia the video will pop up. In the mean time I’ll try to find it.

        Just found this and I haven’t watched it but no doubt it will tell you that there is aq thriving Western involvement in Russia today.
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-bAsVdnFtg

    2. Araminta. What is the latest you have about the Ukraine/Russia war? All I read is RT Today and that is more interested at the mo on Israel.

  36. Caster Semenya (Semen? Ya!) blasts ‘small man’ Coe.

    Runner launches stinging attack in new autobiography. Medication ‘she’ had to take infringed on human dignity.

    Caster Semenya has said World Athletics “confiscated my life” and launched a stinging attack on Lord Coe, labelling him a “small man” in a searing autobiography.

    Is she willing to back that up by comparing the size of ‘her’ dick to his?

    2. I know of Coe, but who are these other characters.
      Someone held a gun to the head of this person and was going to shoot them if they didn’t take the meds? What if they said that that person had to bring in 3 freshly-severed baby’s heads to be allowed? Would they have done that?

        2. Testosterone suppressants I imagine. I do feel some sympathy for Semenya who had a naturally occurring condition. The fact is, though, that we all have naturally occurring conditions which place us at a disadvantage to others in particular disciplines. No matter how determined a 5 foot 5 inch man might be, he will always struggle to compete with the best at basketball.

  38. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cd0162afd255a5570d2ba3b878cf8552dbb54ff52c74eff994a4d877a808d7a.png A mild blue-veined cow’s milk cheese — Nidelven Blå, from Norway — has been voted (by a panel of 250 cheesemakers, worldwide) as “The World’s Best Cheese, 2023”. I wonder if Paul has sampled it?

    Everyone will have their own idea of what constitutes a “best” cheese but, for the record, here are my top four:
    1. Gruyère.
    2. Roquefort.
    3. Parmesan.
    4. Farmhouse Lancashire.

    1. Nidelv Blå is lovely, a bit like a mild, spreadable Stilton. Goes really well on salty crackers, with a thin layer of butter-flavoured butter underneath.
      Whilt a regular resident in my fridge, I’d say it come in bronze place, after Parmigiano Reggiano in silver and the King of cheeses, real Stilton, in Gold.

      1. That ‘gold’ Stilton has to be the exquisite version from the Colston Bassett dairy in Nottinghamshire. Cropwell Bishop (also in Notts) comes second, then Hartington dairy (in Derbyshire) third. Long Clawson dairy (in Leicestershire) has some catching up to do.

        2. Ahhhh damn it!! I wasn’t going to chime in on the cheese, but Colston Bassett Stilton is pure heaven.

          I knew I would be in a cheese desert in Buenos Aires (no idea whether it’s a taste thing or the relevant bacteria not liking the conditions), so I ate ALL the cheese over the summer in England. Memories…

      2. That ‘gold’ Stilton has to be the exquisite version from the Colston Bassett dairy in Nottinghamshire. Cropwell Bishop (also in Notts) comes second, then Hartington dairy (in Derbyshire) third. Long Clawson dairy (in Leicestershire) has some catching up to do.

      1. It’s OK but since that was the only cheese my mother would ever buy I got sick of eating it as a child. I longed to try other cheeses and I’ve made the most of every opportunity since then.

        1. Do you make your own cheese, Grizz? Based on pictures and reports of your other culinary successes, that would be excellent!
          Firstborn’s Caerphilly-style is really rather good – full-fat milk from neighbouring farm, straight from the cows via the cooler and tank. In 2024, working up a Cheddar, but the cattle have to be off the silage for a while first.

          1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d5637c25d709f360f35b49333ffb628bfca9d8f415ecd5a23604918b43ce512e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dca1ebd46de86337968388eda67a4fb10fa37bb5273a576a50d45278b2ee93a6.jpg I’ve never had the inclination nor the time to try, Paul. I’ve enough on my plate making pork products. Only yesterday I sliced up my latest batch of cold-smoked, dry-cured bacon, from a recipe I found in a YouTube video by a Devon chap who now lives in Lincs and makes all his own food.

          2. Drool!
            Firstborn’s own bacon is heavenly – made from the pigs he grew a couple of years ago. Severely rationed… been no resupply since, but it’s on the plan.

          3. Can’t beat home-bred and home-cured. My dry-cure is 80% salt, 20% muscovado sugar, and 1 tablespoon each of crushed black peppercorns and crushed dried allspice berries.

          4. Butcher local to Mother-in-law makes the most wonderful black pudding. Far too much black pepper, makes it absolutely superb! Choice of fat lumps or no fat, too.

          6. Best black pud I’ve tasted is George Cockburn in Dingwall (he does mail order) or that made by a friend of mine – Richies of Aultbea (also does mail order – Google him)

          9. I get decent black pudding here, but I can’t find any with delicious lumps of white pork back fat in it. The Swedes are still very wimpish about fat.

          10. All that talk of Americans not being able to make cheese when the real crime is what is passed off as bacon over here.
            It is no more than water infused fat with small streaks of meat that needs to be burnt to a crisp before it becomes palatable.

          11. Read my comment of a couple of hours ago about my home-made English-style, dry-cured bacon.

        2. I used to eat a lot of herby Edam, unfortunately Tescos stopped selling it. It had a green wax coating instead of red

    3. An India cheese? Really?
      I’d want to try it!
      I also have my doubts about all those “wurzig” holey mountain cheeses from central Europe – I don’t like the ones that smell and taste of old socks!

      1. I’m guessing that Indian cheese is made by expat Scandinavians since brunost translates as “brown cheese”.

    5. Always up for cheese, love it. Going to see if i can buy Nidelven Blå somewhere, internet maybe? Indian cheese, from a sacred cow? Tastes heavenly? Or is it goat cheese?

    6. Brie de Meaux
      St Félicien
      Cricket St Thomas Camembert
      Gorgonzola from Ventimiglia market stall…..

      1. Top choices there. I’ve not heard of St Félicien so I’ll have to seek it out.

        Gubbeen, from Ireland, is a lovely cheese.

    7. The French won’t be pleased…yet again.

      Here’s mine.

      1. Dairylea.
      2. American cheese singles.
      3. Cheese whizz.
      4. Cheese strings.

      1. I had to suffer the appalling rubbery Dairylea as a child. I much prefer the much tastier Primula (a blend of Cheddar and Gouda) on crackers.

        Yanks haven’t the foggiest clue about cheese. They seriously need educating.

        1. The Yanks don’t have a palate to detect fine tastes. All that sugar and multiple additives have destroyed their taste buds.
          I quite like Primula too.

          When Orwell wrote ‘Down and Out in London and Paris he said the only people staying at the big Paris hotels after the war were Americans. He said the hotels fed them any old rubbish because they had no idea what they were eating. As long as it was covered with a sauce.

        2. The Yanks don’t have a palate to detect fine tastes. All that sugar and multiple additives have destroyed their taste buds.
          I quite like Primula too.

          When Orwell wrote ‘Down and Out in Lindon and Paris he said the only people staying at the big Paris hotels after the war were Americans. He said the hotels fed them any old rubbish because they had no idea what they were eating. As long as it was covered with a sauce.

          2. I only like the bog-standard. Same with crisps. No artificial ‘flavours’ for me, just spud and salt.

          3. Is Primula cheese spread healthy?

            High in calcium. High in protein. Free from artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

          6. I rather enjoy sampling varieties with added flavours, but none have yet to beat cheese and onion, although jalapeno pepper runs it close.

            The Museum of Crisps identified 141 flavour varieties back in August 2020, both current and lapsed at that time and some most likely found outside the UK, but they said it wasn’t an exhaustive list and no doubt new ones have been created since then. A quick glance tells me not to bother with Brussels Sprouts flavour – should it still exist.

            https://museumofcrisps.com/2020/08/01/39-flavours-walkers-2020-collection/

          1. It’s all right for you but we have this horrendous dairy product supply management system in Canada. Even basic mousetrap would be hit with import duties that almost double the price.

          2. That’s certainly true of Hershey’s. It is… even to Cadbury’s Dairy Milk what Vegemite is to Marmite.

        5. That might be true about the mass produced rubbery stuff but there are many small artisan cheese companies that produce quality cheeses nowadays.

          And the same goes for beer, thankfully it is not all bud light nowadays.

          1. Such language on a Sunday as well!

            We have a friend who would make cheese sauce by microwaving a jar of cheese whizz (at least she had the nowse to take the metal cap off the jar first).

          2. A young Swedish tourist (with a typical sing-song Swedish accent) goes to England on holiday. He walks into a chemists’ shop.

            Swede: “‘Allo. Do you have any deodorANT?”
            Chemist: “Ball or aerosol?”
            Swede: “No, it’s for me armPITS.”

          7. Good afternoon, John. How’s things?

            That’s where Hammond nicked it from, probably way back in the early 1980s.

    8. Followed by:

      5. Vacherin Mont d’Or.
      6. Stilton.
      7. Comté.
      8. Camembert.
      9. Gubbeen.
      10. Farmhouse Cheddar (from Somerset).

    9. Followed by:

      5. Vacherin Mont d’Or.
      6. Stilton.
      7. Comté.
      8. Camembert.
      9. Gubbeen.
      10. Farmhouse Cheddar (from Somerset).

    11. As I don’t eat cheese of any sort I feel completely excluded from this morning’s conversation! Bah humbug! Talk about something else!

          3. Oh yes you did! You said: “As I don’t eat cheese of any sort I feel completely excluded from this morning’s conversation! Bah humbug! Talk about something else!”

            “Talk about something else” is as definite an instruction to stop commenting as I’ve ever heard.

          5. Don’t participate in the conversation then. It’s your choice – I’m not into rugby or cricket but I scroll through rugby and cricket comments (and sometimes there are a lot). It makes life easier.

          8. For most of my life I have not particularly enjoyed cheese. But slowly, oh so slowly, a cheese gene seems to have kicked in. Every day I have two lotus biscuits and a slice of organic cheddar with my coffee after walking Rico. When we were in France I gingerly tested my taste buds with the myriad of cheeses available. I loved the Boursin walnut with French bread (heaven) but found the combination had a tendency to make me put on weight rapidly. I have always loved the combination of cheese with something sweet, being a Yorkshire lass a slice of Christmas cake was never complete without a piece of Cheddar or Lancashire alongside. And then that would be it (as far as my eating cheese was concerned) for another year. Until France… Having said that, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to looks at a piece of blue cheese and think ‘oh yummy! I can’t wait!’ I am very much of the milder cheese variety.

          9. My sons both love cheese. I’ve always hated it and have never felt the urge to try different varieties. My current husband also dislikes cheese so we never buy it except when the boys come for Christmas.
            The only cheese we do accept is a sprinkling of cheddar grilled on top of lasagne or something similar, as that doesn’t taste of cheese.

    14. I’m partial to many cheeses but not those which are an unpleasant mix of sour and bitter, a combination of old milk and reflux.

    16. When I make chicken breasts I stuff them with Boursin (with garlic and herbs). The taste soaks into the meat, very tasty

      1. I use Boursin with garlic and herbs, mixed with parmesan, to make with spaghetti with bacon and mushrooms for a tasty, inexpensive meal. but a good Stilton on a digestive, with a port wine is my favourite. I really enjoy the mixture of the sweet and the tangy combination. I’m basic, me.

          1. Fry bacon until crisp, and fry mushrooms. Mix Boursin with grated parmesan until soft. Add 2-3 tablespoons of milk to cheese mixture. Cook pasta and then add in the bacon/mushroom and the cheese mixtures and serve.

    17. My favourite cheese? Has to be a good old fashioned Cheddar!! It covers all bases! Otherwise a bit partial to a nice French Brie and nothing beats smoked Gouda, grated onto scrambled eggs.

      1. A good cheddar, traditionally made in Somerset, takes some beating. The problem is, though, that pastiche forms of ‘cheddar’ are now made worldwide and the vast majority of them are worse then ‘mousetrap’. Since the ‘cheddaring’ process became well known, every Tom, Gustav and Ranji thinks he can make the stuff. Shame it wasn’t given an AOC (appelation d’origine contrôlée) protection in the same manner that Roquefort and Stilton have.

  39. But the reality is far more complex than a clash of civilisations. Although Western civilisation faces a threat that could tear it apart, this threat comes from within. It comes from the self-hatred of the liberal Left, those virtue-signalling celebrities and the millions who amplify their pronouncements on social media. What I fear will doom us, if this continues unchecked, are our endless, decadent debates over cultural issues such as sexuality, self-identification and the alleged racism in all our institutions.

    It is the constant denigration and repudiation of our civilisation. Social media has become an echo chamber in which science and objectivity no longer exist, yet many are scared to laugh at the Emperor’s new clothes, lest their opinion is out of step with this week’s ‘truth’.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12683719/PROFESSOR-DOUG-STOKES-Yes-Hamas-imperils-values-smug-celebrities-virtue-signalling-Left-biggest-threat-Western-civilisation.html

    1. But what remedy does an individual have? Or influence on all the leftist nonsense? There is a need for working together somehow but no political party has come out totally against LGBT+ ideology, self-ID, pride in our past achievements, in short for the probable vast majority of the population.

      And the younger generations are in thrall to social media where all the “liberal” lefties are innumerable, as well as being plastered all over the MSM as if they are gods.

      An individual has no influence whatsoever on what’s going on and the mob at Westminster are worse than useless- some of them don’t even know what a woman is. I agree with nearly everything Neil Oliver says but …

      What can Joe Public do?

      2. Not know what a woman is or simply unwilling to speak against the woke trend?

        Speaking common sense will probably cost votes and one thing politicians can do is read the tea leaves.

        1. For the most part, those not willing to say what a woman is are too timid to say what they know to be true. Those who agree with them will be outshouted by the minority who disagree but who have the energy and passion to make the most noise. For this minority, a woman is a state of mind which chromosomes sometimes play cruel tricks on by triggering the development of male anatomy.

          1. Amazing, isn’t it, that when women were paid less, worked outside sometimes but were always expected to do the “women’s things” ie. make sure that the home ran smoothly, look after children etc. and generally had fewer rights, men weren’t nearly so keen to pretend they were female. I wonder why?

      4. The political parties are comprised of grubbing idiots who will pander to any irrelevant minority to get elected. They don’t believe what they say, they just have to say it. If they don’t, the Left wing attack dog of the media goes for them.

        It is only the media that really promotes this nonsense, and only then because they are comprised of weirdos themselves.

      5. I think you underestimate the young a bit. Not what I see very frequently. Our young are acclimatising to the East German Kulture that is being promoted, but don’t accept it as much as the older, who see their comfortable lives in peril and try to comply their way out of it.

      6. 378208+up ticks,
        Afternoon VW,

        Really the tradesmen of the nation could do a great deal
        to make life unbearable for the elites.
        The plumber, the sparky, the butcher,baker candlestick……….
        but that would call for unity and there is where we fail.

    2. They’ve only allowed one comment on this which gives you an idea of how sensitive it is to the Elites.

    1. That is a usless organisation. It only ever whinges and doesn’t actually do anything. It should have morphed into a political party a long time ago and have candidates standing in all elections. But it didn’t.

      1. Politicial parties are irrelevant. The state machine runs things how it wants to.The TPA raises issues and provides research pointing out the damage government does.

    2. That is a usless organisation. It only ever whinges and doesn’t actually do anything. It should have morphed into a political party a long time ago and have candidates standing in all elections. But it didn’t.

    1. Why not let people who don’t have credit or debit cards or any other ways of paying for parking other than by cash have free parking?

    2. I don’t mind using my debit card because I seldom have the right amount in cash – but I refuse to use my phone to do it.

  42. Good afternoon, The standard of debate, indeed its survival, does suffer from the adoption of the infantile propaganda being used to stir the pot of violence. Paul Craig Roberts, the distinguished commentator puts it well:

    “Anti-semitism Is No Longer a Meaningful Term. The slur has been destroyed by massive over-use. Everyone is an anti-semite who doesn’t grovel at the feet of Israel in the manner of US politicians. The Israel Lobby has accused President Jimmy Carter of being anti-semitic. They have accused Jewish scholar Norman Finkelstein of being anti-semitic. Today they accuse Amnesty International.”

    How much has our oh-so-wonderful media focussed on the unanswered questions around this terrible episode? Not much. Seymour Hersh, a veteran reporter and of high international reputation gives a lot of material here:

    https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-mysteries-of-october-7

        1. Aside from other things Mossad is the world’s premier Intelligence agency. It probably knows what Geoff Graham had for breakfast yet this event passed it by!

          8. They tell me it was two Weetabix, the last of my Graham’s Gold Smooth milk, a couple of toasted frozen slices of home – (Panasonic Croustina Breadmaker) baked – bread, which my Russell Hobbs toaster partly cremated. All of my larger mugs were awaiting a wash, so I used the last clean one. Three times. Over to you, Mossad…

  43. Yesterday I posted a comment on my first attempt at terminating a Cat6 connector for internal house wiring for the BT Smart Hub operating at over 900 Mbit/s.

    This video explains the same predicament I faced when the fibre to the home (FTTH) is terminated close to its entry point in the house and the Smart Hub is left nowhere near the original Network Terminal (NT) point of the original copper telephone network.

    The guy spends the first 15 minutes of his video pulling in a Cat6 cable until he gets round to intalling the Ethernet connector that I have tried doing.

    It’s worth noting that the green socket on the BT Smart Hub shown
    in the video will provide a connection to old landline phones (e.g. Green Circle labelled) and turn them into a VoIp phone but losing local exchange dialling feature.

    https://youtu.be/0BHaKeT9xsQ?si=VOrVJ69-cd7XzJVk

    1. Even I’ve put off running cable drops in our house and it’s only got stud walls. We run Ubiquiti access points (which I am not a fan of – there are plenty of other options) up and downstairs. No one has complained yet and we get a connection out into the garden.

      For something like that for future proofing I’d have run ethernet AND fibre through trunking.

      BT cap the upload – that’s utterly disgusting. It’s fibre. It’s symmetrical.

      1. I just use wireless, so much easier. On my tablet speedtest runs at about 300mbps, so unless I start working on high resolution videos, that is enough for me.

  44. As You Like It is on the telly tonight. BBC 4 at 10.00 pm – Rosalind played by Helen Mirren.

    The Scottish Play follows at 12.30 with Nicol Williamson in the principal role.

  45. The world has spent many many years fighting to have a country they can call their own with its secure border. Then along comes the left and wants to remove all borders and have a free for all. It will all end in tears and years more of fighting to remove the people that will not live in peace.

    1. Will listen to that later. As an aside, I do like the artwork behind him. Not sure who the bust is, but I love bronze figures like the horse and rider. I have several that I have picked up at car boot sales over the years – none very expensive, but all beautiful.

      1. I think the horse and cowboy is a Frederic Remington. They cost a huge amount of money, highly collectable. Looking them up you can buy a repro pretty cheap.

      2. Circle of, or follower of, Frederic Remington (1861-1909). Possibly a variant of, or inspired by, ‘Trooper of the Plains’.

      3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2671cc6ead20874c722ebbb648f3df28e9ef11ccb0681185f3de7c5f2d411b9.png

        This statue of Betrand de Guesclin and his magnificent horse is in the main square of Dinan. When I take our students into Dinan for a project I drop them off by this statue and tell them that le cheval de Bertrand s’appelle Trigger. A weak joke which nobody gets any more but a few years ago a few of them did know that Benny Hill’s milkman, Ernie, had a horse called Trigger – as did Roy Rogers. Willie Nelson also called his battered old Martin guitar Trigger:
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48030c61f3277918bf9d6c766d7f4dc51e1585d111a1eafd7861506901c66cbf.png

  47. M.V. Abosso.

    Complement:
    393 (362 dead and 31 survivors).

    At 22.13 hours on 29th October 1942, U-575 (Günther Heydemann) fired four torpedoes at the unescorted Abosso (Master Reginald William Tate) about 700 miles northwest of the Azores, but only one of them hit. At 22.28 hours, a coup de grâce struck the ship, causing her to sink at 23.05 hours. The master, 150 crew members, 18 gunners and 193 passengers were lost.
    Twelve crew members, two gunners and 17 passengers were picked up on 2nd November by HMS Bideford (L 43) (LtCdr W.J. Moore, RNR), which was escorting convoy KMS-2 and landed at Londonderry.
    Among the passengers was a Dutch submarine crew (34 men from the submarines HNMS K-IX, HNMS K-X and HNMS K-XII) on their way to England to man the Dutch submarine Haai (the former HMS Varne (P 66), still under construction). Their commander, LtCdr H.C.J. Coumou, protested after he learned that the speed of the ship was only 14.5 knots and that she will make the journey unescorted. His protests were disregarded.
    Only four submariners (including LtCdr Coumou) survived the sinking and the Dutch Navy was unable to replace the crew. The submarine was handed over to the Norwegian Navy as HNoMS Ula (P 66) (which sank U-974 on 19th April 1944).

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-575 was sunk on 13th March 1944 in the North Atlantic north of the Azores by depth charges and gunfire from the Canadian frigate HMCS Prince Rupert, the US destroyer USS Hobson, the US destroyer escort USS Haverfield, and by depth charges and rockets from a British Wellington (172 Sqn RAF/B), two British Fortress (206 Sqn RAF/R & 220 Sqn RAF/J) and an Avenger aircraft (VC-95 USN/T-3) of the US escort carrier USS Bogue. 18 dead and 37 survivors.

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

      1. Dermot Turing misses the point that the Kriegsmarine solved the Broadcast to Allied Merchant Ships (BAMS) which was a codebook, where groups of letters represent English words, such as something like BRDT being Portsmouth. Only selected words in a message were encoded. Enigma was a substitution encipherment system which replaced each letter of a message with a substitution letter. The two techniques are different and require completely different approaches to attack. The Kriegsmarine, especially Doenitz, doubted the security of Enigma and upgraded it with a fourth rotor. They made an analysis of what it would take to solve it and concluded it could be solved provided about 10,000 personnel were employed, and concluded the Allies would not devote that amount of resource. Bletchley and the attack on Enigma employed about 10,500 individuals by the end of the war.

  48. Marvellous rant from June Slater on Twitt…

    June Slater
    @juneslater17
    Trolls…😄
    Yes of course I’m old, I was born at an early age, and yes I’m northern. You know up here Sunday lunch is road kill with a couple of Yorkshire puddings. Followed by whippet racing and watching uncle Bill’s racers fly home.

    We bath our ferrets more than our kids and use the same water..
    None of that fancy tackle up here lad, like running water and flushing toilets. We dare to bare and go right there !

    The reason you still put an X when you vote is because we can’t read or write either, no need we sort everything out with a fisty cuffs.
    Tea isn’t a tepid Earl Grey, it’s orange with three sugars and called a pudding.
    We have summer teeth, some are green some are brown and some are missing.
    Hygiene is a greeting not a state of cleanliness.
    Yes of course we numb as they come us that’s why we but all the same stuff that you get at John Lewis for less than half price at Home Bargains..

    Waitrose is something you’d say to a deaf aunty crossing the road, providing she was called Rose of course, none of them fancy shops here, we still wear loin cloths and give birth outdoors to our eleventeen kids we all have .

    Happy 30th Nana..often seen on roundabouts.

    So whilst you bask in your ‘I am a European’ snobbery and display your daft communist flag I’ll remind you…

    We’ve more countryside, bigger gardens, cheaper housing less crime, cheaper shops, clearer roads and less graffiti…
    So get yourself a tetanus and pay us a visit…you won’t catch anything my Nan couldn’t sort out.
    Alternatively go and play up your own end Cwying about not being in The EU..
    Imagine sulking because you haven’t got two layers of government anymore, as if one lot fkin everything up isn’t enough.
    Signing off ..those ferrets won’t bath themselves!
    1:43 PM · Oct 29, 2023
    ·
    37.7K
    Views

    2. If our green and pleasant land in the Marches is anything to go by we soon shan’t have more countryside and bigger gardens (they are being built on, too), the roads are chock-a-block and graffiti scrawl is starting to appear, along with drugs, guns and other urban maladies.

  49. The annual commemorative service for the City of London Yeomanry, The Rough Riders, in church this morning. A good turnout of young soldiers though I noticed none of them took communion. Listening to The Last Post and O Valiant Hearts, one could imagine our heritage still intact. The Angelus was replaced with the National Anthem. I have to forget Charles the Turd and look around me at the Romanesque arches built under the patronage of Henry the First. God bless Henry.

  50. Hopefully this will brighten up a gloomy Autumn day, taken back in July:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a24aa46e405b33e439e570ce494963cf7a5dbbc26aa3d643c4d94d2d52b3bd1d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05794e87bbf030d47dfd512a23cfed1d1beaee0cebf661fddbfd99e37059634d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c813f30ed25140bbbb5b4ce804b20e6cd6b301da73d3891b28f78c8ca591f264.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b6cb87e6cff1067594db26eee665f2054f864aa739600732037d468d479d3158.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea4f561ec800681036f982988ab31182ee860fb4036f762a3cf31a6bad5acbfe.jpg

          5. Our elder daughter who is 6 months pregnant, has a uti and tested positive for Convid on Thursday! Yesterday she and SiL were at a livestock auction buying cattle! We had the children! She wasn’t looking great, but life …well, you know being a stoic!

          7. So if you get really ill and can say you’re covid+ you jump the queue to a hospital bed?

    2. Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,
      Who countest the steps of the Sun:
      Seeking after that sweet golden clime
      Where the travellers journey is done.

      Where the Youth pined away with desire,
      And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow:
      Arise from their graves and aspire,
      Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

      [William Blake]

  51. Remembrance day soon and a missive has gone out from the top dogs telling padres to back off on this God worshipy bit and to ensure that the service is gender inclusive. Trudeau and his acolytes are really doing their best to destroy our Christian heritage.

    In a similar vein, girl guides have been told that they should not take part in Christmas parades because girlies should avoid religious events.

    2. The Girl Guides have already ditched God from their oath. Avoid religious events? Like being segregated and veiled, does he mean?

        1. I have always waited until 6. And, as she is unwell, the MR isn’t drinking either – so that is another incentive to be patient.

          3. Is it really worth having? Would MR have got ‘flu without it? I do worry that every time someone has something that is obviously immediately not doing them any good, that it might be doing them longer-term harm.

          4. Don’t ask me. I wouldn’t have it in a million years. I did once – about 25 years ago – and was terribly ill for a month.

          5. Oh dear, I had the same with MOH who had the first two COVID jabs, despite my pleas not to. After that, I sent him more and more to read and he does not now want to have either ‘flu or any other covid-inspired jab.

            Edit: it must be hard for you. Good luck!

          6. Thank you. We both had the covid jabs because we were told – in no uncertain terms – that we would never again be able to travel outside the UK. That turned out to be bollocks, of course.

          7. Oh dear, I had the same with MOH who had the first two COVID jabs, despite my pleas not to. After that, I sent him more and more to read and he does not now want to have either ‘flu or any other covid-inspired jab.

            Edit: it must be hard for you. Good luck!

  53. Netanyahu and wife Sara decamp to luxury mansion amid growing public anger. 29 October 2023.

    The Israeli PM and his wife have moved to the Jerusalem mansion said to be equipped with a deep nuclear bunker.

    Hmmmm! That should fill us all with confidence. I have to confess that I can see all this going off the rails with unforseen and probably unforseeable consequences!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/29/israel-pm-netanyahu-wife-sara-hiding-luxury-mansion/

      1. There’s something in the air Bill. I can’t put my finger on it or describe it but it smells like disaster!

        1. As there is sod all I (or any of us) can do about it – I simply close my mind and concentrate on the cats. Oh, and the MR.

          2. Not well. She claims to be feeling better – but she doesn’t look it.

            Thank you for asking.

        2. It is the stench of something evil – and I am not a person who uses th word evil usually as it feels and sounds like bible-thumping. But I have come to the conclusion that it is evil.

          4. Indeed, but look around the world and all the conflicts. Islam is there in one form or another in probably 95% of them.
            Show me conflicts where it doesn’t have any involvement whatsoever.

          5. I know – islam itself is bad enough – it just that there are also other things which are separate from islam, and which have different ways of manifesting the intention of the unspeakable people behind it.

          6. Because it has a lot of low IQ violent followers who are gullible enough to do anything if a bit of money is channeled their way?

          7. Possibly true, but it doesn’t change my view that Islam is involved in a very significant proportion of conflicts.

    2. On Twitt the other day, I saw an old election poster of Netanyahu, promising to protect people from Hamas. My younger, gullible self would have voted for that. Now I am far more cynical and recognise that a politician who depends upon a certain thing for people’s support is likely to feed that thing.

  54. Ross Clark recycles a number of articles. We already know about the myth, Mr C, but the people who matter aren’t listening – or are scared to admit to knowing the truth.

    The case for wind power was built upon a myth

    We keep being told that it will continue to get cheaper. Now the truth has been revealed

    ROSS CLARK • 29 October 2023 • 11:00am

    Wind is already the cheapest form of power and will save us a fortune in future. We know this because the green energy lobby keeps telling us so. But it is hard to square with the words of Tom Glover, chair of energy company RWE’s UK arm, last week.

    No more offshore wind farms will be built, he said, unless the Government hikes the guaranteed long-term prices offered to their operators by as much as 70 per cent.

    The energy “market” is not really much of a market at all, not when it comes to green energy. The Government underwrites wind and solar through “contracts for difference” – guaranteeing operators a minimum “strike price”, rising with inflation, for every megawatt-hour of electricity they generate over 15 years.

    The trouble is that wind farm developers will no longer accept the strike prices offered. Last time the Government held an auction for the right to build offshore wind farms, in September, it received not a single bid.

    The maximum strike price the Government offered was £44 per MWh. According to RWE it won’t receive any bids until this is raised to between £65 and £75.

    How come, when the cost of wind energy is supposed to be falling year on year? True, the cost did fall sharply up until 2019. But this then went into reverse thanks to higher commodity prices and interest rates. With renewable energy, most of the costs come upfront – which makes it particularly reliant on cheap debt.

    But this is only half the story. If we are going to have a grid based on intermittent renewables, it is no use looking just at the cost of generation. We have to add on the cost of energy storage, or some other kind of back-up – or else build so many wind and solar farms that we have just enough power at the worst of times, and a super-abundance of it at other times.

    All are likely to be horrendously expensive. Storing energy in lithium batteries, for example, can cost around six times as much as generating it in the first place. Using gas as back-up – as we do now – means we have gas power stations sitting idle for some periods, pushing up the unit cost of generation when they are needed.

    As for super-abundance, we would end up with masses of idle wind turbines and solar panels instead. They would only get built if their owners were bribed with huge compensation for being unable to supply all their power to the grid.

    Wind farms already do receive such “constraint payments”, which inevitably end up on our bills. In 2022, energy consumers – unknowingly in most cases – had to pay £215 million to wind farm owners to turn off their turbines. This is a bill that is surely only going to rise as more and more wind farms – and far too few energy storage facilities – are connected to the grid.

    Remember how, last summer, the renewables lobby was trying to tell us that wind energy was “nine times cheaper” than gas? It was a blatantly false comparison between long-term strike prices for wind and “day ahead” prices for gas – ie the inflated prices we have to pay the owners of gas power stations to turn them on for a few hours at short notice when wind and solar are in short supply. We are paying more than we need to for gas power because we are using it to balance renewables.

    So, no, don’t be fooled by the PR. RWE has let the cat out of the bag. Renewables never were particularly cheap – and they are likely to get a lot more expensive.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/29/the-case-for-wind-power-was-built-upon-a-falsehood

    1. Green is nothing but a con. When folk say a ‘super abundance’ they mean the wind farm was operating at 30% capacity. Most of the time a 40gw array produces about 5-8%.

      The fundamental problem is government wants to protect it from the market because otherwise no one would build the damned things, so every cost they incur is slapped straight on to bills, not paid for by the operators, the customers. The operators keep all the profits, and government ensures the profits are high indeed.

      Marginal pricing causes no end of problems for customers as well – here comes gas, nuclear and coal with their consistent costs and here lumbers wind on a cold winter day demanding £700 per MW rather than £10 and the customer – us – is forced to pay for the utter unreliablility of wind which goes to the conventional fuels and is then heavily taxed and given in subsidy to wind operators to bring their costs down. The end result is higher prices for energy.

      Subsidised profits, socialised costs, a rigged market. It is time to shut government down. It is why energy is expensive – it’s by design.

      1. Net zero is a promise to reward the proponent with a cushy job after office. That’s why the political class are all for it.

          2. No, he doesn’t. If he has committed a crime he should be tried and convicted but the modern Left don’t like that slow, ponderous, annoying, unreliable outcome. They far and away to destroy his public existence with allegations. Much quicker, more reliable, no annoyance of redress or alternative views, no evidence needed with the outcome guaranteed.

          3. One odd thing (well, one of thousands). At exactly the same time as they were killing off Brand, the sleazy, philandering fornicator “John le Carré” was being lauded in articles all over the broadsheets and weekly magazines.

            Odd that.

  56. “Wayne Barnes and his family receive death threats and vile abuse on social media.” (DT headline just now)

    There really are some despicable bastards about, aren’t there?

  57. That’s me for this dreary, chilly day. Hope tomorrow is better.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    2. At a surface level she may be right. However the reason folk aren’t taking the covid jab is obvious – it’s useless and dangerous.

      However! It is still used as an excuse if you want a day in bed. Because so many things trigger the test response there is no way to prove it.

  59. Best you just catch a cold and bear it.

    Every ‘ineffective’ nasal decongestant REVEALED: After seismic US ruling on cold and flu drugs taken by millions, full list of products sold in UK with same ingredient

    Of course, the cynic in me thinks that the pharmaceutical companies already have a new “wonder drug” to replace them, just waiting in the wings and ready to be produced miraculously.; at higher cost and more frequent ingestion.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12661543/Every-ineffective-nasal-decongestant-REVEALED-seismic-ruling-cold-flu-drugs-taken-millions-list-products-sold-UK-ingredient.html

    1. Of course. If those products worked before, then they worked. It’s for the user to decide.

    4. I’ve given up trying to medicate a cold. My body heats itself up to 38+ degrees to kill whatever’s ailing it and the process makes me feel crap for a few days but it works.

          6. Some of these cold treatments do help to make one feel better by suppressing the symptoms, but I think they extend the duration of the illness as the symptoms are the outward evidence of the body’s efforts to rid itself of disease.

        2. Yes, my mother used to say something similar. Her timescale was fourteen days or a fortnight but same principle. A doctor told me you can take paracetamol to bring your temperature down if you want to but it won’t help.

    3. Lovely colours. I noticed on the way to church this morning (I was reading the lesson for the first time in my “new” church) how the leaves have really taken on an autumnal look.

    1. It’s been throwing it down here, all day! However, it has cleared the leaves and muck off the Veluxes!

          1. They have! Using the catflap and it’s as though they’ve always been here – not only one week. They seem very settled. Ziggy is snuggled up between us now.

      2. Back in the mid 60s I worked on the prototypes of Velux Windows.
        But the company I work for didn’t want to be involved in production lines.
        Our products were more bespoke. But it all closed down about 25 years ago.
        A big mistake.

        1. I think they’re brilliant! And they don’t look out of place on our very old cottage.

          1. We have some the only problem we have ever had was when either wasps or bees started to chew away t some of the structure on the bottom of one of the frames.

        1. Very south west Cambs on the Herts border – we have a Cambs postal code but the next village along half a mile or so away has a Herts postal code (SG) which of course increases their insurance rates.

          1. When i lived at Surrey Quays, which was a new build in South London. I was unable to get insurance or a bank account. Too close to Milwall probably.

  62. We’ve been to a lovely concert this afternoon for the Music Society. A Celebration of the 85th birthday of Howard Blake – who was in the audience. The programme included his Piano Quartet, Piano Trio, and some solo instrumental pieces, all played by some top class musicians. His music is very lyrical and accessible and very enjoyable.

    We had a glass of bubbly in the interval and wished him Happy Birthday……..

  64. The UN has become a sick joke

    It’s not just on Israel that the organisation has shown its true face, but on China too

    ZOE STRIMPEL • 28 October 2023 • 7:00pm

    When arguing Israel’s case, including the legitimacy and indeed moral rectitude of its present attempts to annihilate Hamas, my opponents often throw at me what they imagine to be authoritative arguments against the Jewish state. These almost always begin with a reference to “international law violations”.

    They are unmoved when it is pointed out that Israel is the only party in this conflict actually committed to following international law. They seem to think that international law prohibits the country from doing absolutely anything at all to defend itself from attack.

    Their other favoured tactic, however, is to draw on the supposed authority of the UN – as if the organisation was somehow a neutral observer. It is not, as the past few days have made painfully clear.

    The UN never appears to miss a chance to undermine Israel. But last week, its behaviour was absolutely chilling.

    With Israelis still in shock at Hamas’s savage, barbaric attacks (it’s a small country so everyone knows someone who was harmed or killed), Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, declared that the atrocities did “not happen in a vacuum”. Translation: it was Israel’s fault.

    Israel responded to these comments with fury, as any victim would when the authorities blame them for what had happened. It was like the police telling a woman who has just been raped that rapists don’t operate “in a vacuum”.

    Since at least the 1970s, when it passed a resolution declaring that Zionism is a form of racism (1975), and perhaps long before that too, the UN General Assembly has played host to attempts to promote the most grotesque lies and hatred against the Jewish state it helped bring into creation with Resolution 181 in 1947.

    “Since Israel’s establishment, Arab member states of the UN have used the General Assembly as a forum for isolating and chastising Israel,” notes the Anti Defamation League. “With [widespread] support, the Arab states have had little difficulty passing harsh anti-Israel resolutions through the GA.”

    Such pressure has resulted in the establishment of such UN bodies as The Division for Palestinian Rights, the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, and the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Is there an equivalent body that stands up for the rights of Israeli people to live free of terror? I thought not.

    Meanwhile, resolution after resolution is passed condemning Israel as a barrier to peace, while too often neglecting Palestinian leaders’ own role in avoiding good faith talks. The despicable Jordanian resolution passed on Friday calling for a ceasefire, while making no reference to Hamas, was par for the course.

    But it’s not just on Israel that the UN has become a malign joke. No, the bureaucrats who run this once-hopeful organisation have shown themselves to be worryingly weak in the face of evil more generally.

    Guterres himself, while busy taking sides in the Israel-Hamas battle, has been cosying up to the Chinese, the other week making an appearance at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

    There, he earnestly praised the “shared” goals of the UN’s sustainable development programme and China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative – a terrifying imperial power-grab by the Chinese dictatorship that has been accused of leaving many poorer countries in a form of debt bondage.

    “Both strive to create opportunities, global public goods and win-win cooperation,” Guterres droned on. “And both aim to deepen ‘connectivity’ across countries and regions: connectivity in infrastructure, trade, finance, policies and, perhaps most important of all, among peoples”. From anyone else purporting to be a serious figure on the world stage, these would be bizarre words of praise for the leading project of a totalitarian state bent on destabilising the West by any means. But from the UN? It’s just another day at the office.

    One particularly egregious body is the UN Human Rights Council. A glance at its current make-up shows the utter madness, the moral topsy-turviness, and the futility of the organisation. It’s packed with countries with an ignominious approach to human rights, from China to Qatar to Somalia and Cameroon and Bolivia (currently a vice president of the Council).

    Perhaps given the decline of Western power, all this was inevitable. But it remains a terrible shame. After World War Two there was a sense of urgency and goodwill – or at least the pretence of it – because of the shocking nature of the previous 50 years. It was in this context that the UN came into being: to promote stability and peace. The project has now become a stomping ground for those who hate both those things, and who want badly to destroy them.

    There is an irony to Guterres’ insistence that Hamas didn’t rape and murder children and the elderly “in a vacuum”. For someone so keen on context, he ought to be reflecting on the context of his own organisation, and the traumatic and damaging long-term effects it’s had both on Jews and its ability to do anything helpful in the world at all.

    Woke-heads cry for the defunding of the police. Perhaps we should now be thinking about defunding the UN. Why should we be paying for an organisation that too often actively seems to want to do our countries and our values harm?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/28/britain-shouldnt-be-paying-un-attack-our-allies-and-values

    1. I had hoped that when Trump was elected he would expel the UN and all its tentacles from America and then let the world watch where they set up their headquarters.

    2. The UN is globalist. Israel is a nation state.

      The sermon at Evensong today was given by Revd Rosamund, who is half Egyptian and was born and raised there. She thinks peace is possible. I didn’t challenge that, though I disagree. I did say afterwards that I think WWI was a mistake and the old empires should have been left intact because what the new western powers replaced them with was far worse. She said, “But the Ottoman Empire was breaking up anyway”. I need to do some homework on that. Is she right. Would it have disintegrated without intervention. I don’t know.

      1. All empires decay and collapse.
        The Ottoman empire was in the departure lounge, regardless of the WWI outcome.

        1. And yet the UK sided with the Arab nationalists to complete the overthrow of the Ottomans while simultaneously proposing a Jewish homeland…

      2. I think it was pretty much on its last legs. Our history teacher taught us that Britain spent most of the nineteenth century propping up the Ottoman empire to keep the Russians in check, and then abandoned them at the start of the twentieth.

    3. BTL Comments on this closed already, but it was obvious from the Congo Emergency from 1960 to ’65 that the UN was doomed to be a busted flush.

    4. Those supporting Hamas are supporting a Palestinian state armed with nuclear missiles.

      The stupid notion that Hamas would peacefully rule a greater Palestine and treat the Jews as equals is far too fanciful. Israel has nuclear weapons. Are these to be handed over to a bunch of thugs whose own charter swears to the elimination of all Jews.

      The fact remains that no adjacent Arab country will accept or admit the ‘Palestinians’ and therein lies the rub. These ‘Palestinians’ are pure evil, have no sense of humanity and would kill and maim anyone standing in their way.

      On the subject of the multiple demonstrations by ignorant people in support of this fictional Palestine I believe we should all be greatly alarmed. Alarmed that so many of these hostile aliens should have gained such easy entry into our beloved country and even more alarmed that they are permitted to spout their bile on our streets.

      Some body is funding the Palestinian demonstrations. I suspect the globalist swine Soros and a few others via Soros funded NGO’s.

  65. Cat just reached out and sank all paw’s worth of claws into my foot, through my sock. My loud “Ow!” made him flee. Pesky ginger moggy!

      1. Yes, rocked up at teatime today, meowing happily to see his human back.
        Thank goodness.
        Firstborn is a big, scary-looking lad, but very soft underneath, and he loves his tiny cat. As do we all.

          1. This is why I have dogs. If I call them, they (usually) come back. Call a cat and it’ll just ignore you.

          2. Cats have lives of their own, with humans on the periphery. Dogs live for their human’s involvement in their lives.

          4. Lives out in the wilds, with cars, moose, deer, foxes, badgers, hares, beavers, wolverine, and lynx (that we know of), so we were afraid he’d come to harm.
            Seeing an identical cat lying beside the motorway didn’t help.

    3. Aye, claws are not comfortable. Being used as a pin cushion when they kneed you is delightful.

      I would counter with having an 80kg Newfoundland who still thinks he’s a puppy sitting on your lap.

  66. Scoundrels the lot of them

    WhatsApp messages sent by Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon about the pandemic were manually deleted from her phone, according to a report.
    The Sunday Mail reported that documents given to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry show she is among a number of senior Scottish Government figures who say their WhatsApp data no longer exists.
    They include current First Minister Humza Yousaf and former deputy first minister John Swinney.
    It comes after the UK inquiry’s legal team said it believes the “majority” of WhatsApp messages shared among Scottish Government officials during the pandemic “have not been retained”.
    These bombshell revelations call into question what the SNP government is trying to hide

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-whatsapp-messages-covid-inquiry-phone-scottish-humza-yousaf-first-minister-b1116667.html

    1. Apparently the WhatsApp messages do exist.
      They, like matter, can never be destroyed.
      Sit back and enjoy your Buckie flavoured popcorn.

      2. My mother turned on message auto delete. That’s quite an involved process.

        I turned it off my side.

    2. I delete messages from my mobile phone. I try to hide my links to the Chinese Communist Party.

        2. She was Marcia Williams, but in Harold Wilson’s retirement Honours List she was enobled and became Lady Falkender.

      2. He ennobled her.

        I read yesterday that on meeting Mrs Wilson she said “I have been to bed six times with your husband and it was not a success.”

    2. Probably best not to mention the little private tête-à-têtes he had with Jack Jones the Soviet agent.

    5. Of titillating interest but no longer at all important. If sexual incontinence were a prohibition, the Houses of Parliament would consist mostly of nuns, monks and Theresa May.

  69. I know no one’s interested except a few but…

    Wordle 862 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟨⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Well done. Par for me.

      Wordle 862 4/6

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

    2. Oh nice.

      An unexciting par for me,
      Wordle 862 4/6

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

    3. 4 for me today. Wordle 862 4/6

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

  70. I’ve been ‘off grid’ for the best part of a week. Has the Russia -v- Ukraine match finished or are they still playing in Extra time?

    1. Russia took the game with a tactical nuke on Kyiv in overtime which converted half the city to glass. They now go on to meet the winners of Group Middle East.

        1. There was a dispute when there was a territorial kicking bout, but the cockney ref said there was no crime ‘ere.

      2. Russia is I believe, more Jewish than Islamic. I remember watching a video of a Russian ship off the coast of Somalia. The locals made a huge mistake when they tried to robb the Russians. The visitors mowed them all down with powerful machine guns and blew their boats to smithereens.
        More please.

        1. Muslims greatly outnumber Jews in Russia. The Caucasus has a concentration of Muslims as do those lands bordering the -stans which were once Soviets of the USSR. Approximate figures have Jews numbering about 170,000 whereas Muslims number something in the order of 25 million.

          https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-report-on-international-religious-freedom/russia/#:~:text=Section%20I.-,Religious%20Demography,reported%20having%20no%20religious%20faith.

  71. I bought two cds at the concert this after noon for £1 each – Bach double concertos this evening while we had dinner. I like the way he recycled his music for different instruments. The other one is all harpsichord – Chromatic Fantasia & Goldberg Variations etc.

  72. The point of this clock alteration is not or has never been clear.
    My body clock is still set 24 hours in the past. I’m struggling to keep my eyes open. And fed up with The Antiques Road Show.
    I’m orff……… good night all.

    1. I don’t like it being dark so early, but my inner clock adjusts quite quickly to the hour change.

      2. I’m not much discombobulated by it, but bedtime this evening feels too early. Given that millions of people cross time zones for pleasure, it’s not much of a burden to shift by one hour twice a year.

        1. Clearly the fact that you are not much discombobulated by it means you fail to appreciate the problems that those of us who are knocked out of kilter suffer from. It’s a complete misery for me as I struggle to live an hour ahead of my body clock. Leave it on GMT all year. People might cross time zones for pleasure but they choose to do so and that doesn’t mean the rest of us should have to (and when I did cross time zones I was jet lagged).

          1. I wouldn’t be at all concerned if the consensus were to keep clocks constant throughout the year. Some might have to adjust their rising and bed times as the seasons change but it would cut out all the fiddling with clocks. Those who prefer lighter evenings would just have to get up earlier in winter. It’s not that long ago that there was no common time for the United Kingdom. Local time differed across the UK before 1840 until the railways demanded that there was a common time throughout.

            https://www.networkrail.co.uk/stories/180-years-of-railway-time/#:~:text=It's%20the%20standardisation%20of%20time,minutes%20from%20Greenwich%20Mean%20Time.

    2. The Germans started it in WW1 and we followed suit. It did not give more daylight it just moved it. crazy we still do it.

      1. If crazy, the craziness has captured much of the upper and lower hemispheres away from the equator. You’re right that Daylight Saving Time (DST) was first introduced in a nation state by Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War, but two cities in Ontario, Canada beat them to it.

        New Zealand entomologist George Hudson first proposed modern DST. His shift-work job gave him leisure time to collect insects and led him to value after-hours daylight. In 1895, he presented a paper to the Wellington Philosophical Society proposing a two-hour daylight-saving shift, and considerable interest was expressed in Christchurch; he followed up with an 1898 paper. Many publications credit the DST proposal to prominent English builder and outdoorsman William Willett, who independently conceived DST in 1905 during a pre-breakfast ride when he observed how many Londoners slept through a large part of a summer day. Willett also was an avid golfer who disliked cutting short his round at dusk. His solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, and he published the proposal two years later. Liberal Party member of parliament Robert Pearce took up the proposal, introducing the first Daylight Saving Bill to the British House of Commons on 12 February 1908. A select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearce’s bill did not become law and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915.

        DST was first implemented in the United States to conserve energy during World War I. Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada, was the first city in the world to enact DST, on 1 July 1908. This was followed by Orillia, Ontario, introduced by William Sword Frost while mayor from 1911 to 1912. The first states to adopt DST (German: Sommerzeit) nationally were those of the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary commencing 30 April 1916, as a way to conserve coal during wartime. Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed. Russia and a few other countries waited until the next year, and the United States adopted daylight saving in 1918. Most jurisdictions abandoned DST in the years after the war ended in 1918, with exceptions including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, and the United States. It became common during World War II (some countries adopted double summer time), and was standardized in the U.S. by federal law in 1966, and widely adopted in Europe from the 1970s as a result of the 1970s energy crisis. Since then, the world has seen many enactments, adjustments, and repeals.

        It is a common myth in the United States that DST was first implemented for the benefit of farmers. In reality, farmers have been one of the strongest lobbying groups against DST since it was first implemented. The factors that influence farming schedules, such as morning dew and dairy cattle’s readiness to be milked, are ultimately dictated by the sun, so the time change introduces unnecessary challenges.

        DST was first implemented in the US with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources. Year-round DST, or “War Time”, was implemented again during World War II. After the war, local jurisdictions were free to choose if and when to observe DST until the Uniform Time Act which standardized DST in 1966. Permanent daylight saving time was enacted for the winter of 1974, but there were complaints of children going to school in the dark and working people commuting and starting their work day in pitch darkness during the winter months, and it was repealed a year later.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time#History

        1. I think they must have thought it gave them more daylight. just change the hours of work insted..

  74. Just watched the new John Cleese show on GBN. Quite good. It has production credits and the Line Producer is Charlotte Gazzard. Assuming it’s the same lady, she worked on the Proms for many years and once plonked herself down next to me in the office, picked up my hat, put it on and said, “We’ve just found a dead mouse in the edit suite – it died of boredom”.

    1. How long ago was it, Sue, that the BBC went so far left? Surely there was an old guard there that must have smelt the change in political direction.

      1. There was still a management old guard when I started there in 1991. By 2013, there were very few left. The remaining oldies are too lowly to have any impact.

    1. Watched it coming up as we drove home from Gloucester this evening. It looks pretty full tonight.

      1. The benefits of being old and knowing all the lyrics, even though you can’t remember where your glasses are.

        1. A bit of slap and tickle places me in the dim and distant past. Who uses that expression these days?

  76. Evening, all. Late on parade today because I went to a fund-raiser for our Twinning Association. It was a bit chaotic so took longer than expected, but it seems to have raised a fair bit.

  78. Just about on cue, a burst of rain has arrived at 00:45 GMT. If the rest of the day’s forecast is similarly accurate, a moonlit night will be succeeded by a bright sunny morning. Who needs a New England fall when we have a true England autumn?

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