Tuesday 14 November: Harnessing David Cameron’s political experience is a shrewd move by a PM with few alternatives

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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420 thoughts on “Tuesday 14 November: Harnessing David Cameron’s political experience is a shrewd move by a PM with few alternatives”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story

    The 5 Questions Most Feared By Men Are:
    (This seems to pertain to married men but what the hell)

    1 What are you thinking about?
    2 Do you love me?
    3 Do I look fat?
    4 Do you think she is prettier than me?
    5 What would you do if I died?

    What makes these questions so difficult is that everyone is guaranteed to explode into a major argument if the man answers incorrectly (i.e., tells the truth).

    Therefore, as a public service, each question is analysed below, along with possible responses.

    Question # 1: What are you thinking about?
    The proper answer to this, of course, is, “I’m sorry if I’ve been pensive, dear. I was just reflecting on what a warm, wonderful, thoughtful, caring and intelligent woman you are, and how lucky I am to have met you.”
    This response bears no resemblance to the true answer, which is probably one of the following,
    a Sex
    b Football
    c How fat you are
    d How much prettier she is than you
    e How I would spend the insurance money if you died
    Perhaps the best response to this question was offered by Al Bundy, who once told Peg, “If I wanted you to know what I was thinking, I would be talking to you!” (My personal favourite!)

    Question # 2: Do you love me?
    The proper response is, “YES!” or, if you feel a more detailed answer is in order, “Yes, dear.”

    Inappropriate responses include,
    a Oh Yeah, shit-loads
    b Would it make you feel better if I said yes?
    c That depends on what you mean by love
    d Does it matter?
    e Who, me?

    Question # 3: Do I look fat?
    The correct answer is an emphatic, “Of course not!”

    Among the incorrect answers are,
    a Compared to what?
    b I wouldn’t call you fat, but you’re not exactly thin
    c A little extra weight looks good on you
    d I’ve seen fatter
    e Could you repeat the question? I was just thinking about how I would spend the insurance money if you died

    Question # 4: Do you think she’s prettier than me?
    Once again, the proper response is an emphatic, “Of course not!”

    Incorrect responses include,
    a Yes, but you have a better personality
    b Not prettier, but definitely thinner
    c Not as pretty as you when you were her age
    d Define pretty
    e Could you repeat the question? I was just thinking about how I would spend the insurance money if you died

    Question # 5: What would you do if I died?
    A definite no-win question. (The real answer, of course, is “Buy a Corvette and a Boat”).

    No matter how you answer this, be prepared for at least an hour of follow-up questions, usually along these lines,
    WOMAN Would you get married again?
    MAN, Definitely not!
    WOMAN Why not, don’t you like being married?
    MAN Of course I do.
    WOMAN Then why wouldn’t you remarry?
    MAN Okay, I’d get married again.
    WOMAN You would? (with a hurtful look on her face)
    MAN (makes audible groan)
    WOMAN Would you sleep with her in our bed?
    MAN, where else would we sleep?
    WOMAN Would you put away my pictures, and replace them
    with pictures of her?
    MAN, that would seem like the proper thing to do.
    WOMAN And would you let her use my golf clubs?
    MAN, she can’t use them; she’s left-handed.
    WOMAN – – – silence – – –
    MAN Shit

    3. There is always the Prince Charles answer to Question 2 of course, “Whatever love means.”

      1. An interesting observation about that appeared in Harper’s Bazaar three years ago.

        Bedell Smith, who wrote the royal biography Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life, had a different interpretation on the princes’s befuddling comment. “It was a totally inappropriate thing for him to say, but understandable given the way his mind worked and the kind of things he had said in prior years,” she told People.

        According to Smith, Charles very philosophical at the time, and often ruminated on things aloud. “You should look at those words in the context of the series of interviews he gave in the 1970s about what he wanted in a wife and what being in love was all about,” she added. “He can over-think things and was thinking out loud. I don’t see it as a cynical, cruel statement.”

        https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a34673315/prince-charles-whatever-in-love-means-quote/

        It was tactless and not what a bride-to-be wants to hear. I do wonder whether centuries of monarchy had filtered down to him and imprinted on his mind that marriage was a duty, not an expression of deep and abiding love.

        1. I never took it as anything else but the musings of a man who thinks he is cleverer than he actually is. I’m not particularly a fan of the Earthshot PoW, but you can’t imagine William making a similar diplomatic error.

          Excuse me, but marriage is not actually an expression of deep and abiding love – it is a contract designed to protect children by trying to ensure that they grow up in a stable environment, and to protect men by trying to give them some assurance that the children they work to protect are actually their own. Of course marriage is not proof against human will to create havoc, but it is the best we have got – that is why the marriage wreckers are so keen to re-define it as a meaningless bit of paper saying that two or more people love each other.

          1. Of course love is an important part of marriage but in a happy marriage love grows as the years pass; in an unhappy one it withers.

        2. He was also asked what he liked about her and said that he thought she was “jolly bouncy” gesticulating with his raised raised hands – another highly inappropriate thing to say.

  4. Harnessing David Cameron’s political experience is a shrewd move by a PM with few alternatives. 14 November 2023.

    SIR – Rishi Sunak has recognised the dearth of suitably seasoned candidates for Cabinet roles. Appointing David Cameron Foreign Secretary and harnessing his experience and maturity – things sadly missing in recent Tory administrations – is a shrewd move.

    Cameron Morice.

    I don’t think it is unreasonable to assume that this ludicrous observation if not completely false was chosen for its content. The Telegraph, for some obscure reason, sees itself as the protector of the Tory Party and attempts by all manner of underhand tricks to aid it. Most notably by the deletion of adverse public comment. They have their hands full at the moment. Cameron was a walking disaster as Prime Minister and one doubts that he’s learned anything in retirement. Though Libya should be at the top of any indictment for War Crimes the domestic list should surely place Foreign Aid at its peak. We can only look on as all that we have loved is destroyed in front of our eyes. A quick end would be better than this. Evil is triumphant in the world!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/11/14/letters-david-cameron-political-experience-shrewd-move-pm/

    1. 378776+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,
      We have had good men shut down owing to tactical voting via the lab/lib/con coalition party.

      “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men (can) do nothing.”

      1. It will happen, anyway, because of the changing nature of the electorate. As older people are replaced by younger and migrants and their descendents replace those with centuries of antecedents having British roots going back to the Middle Ages and before, the ties the bind this country to its past as an independent nation become looser and weaker. In short, Europhiles and the rootless will become the majority.

    3. He only had one suitable for a Cabinet Role and her fired her.

      A Cabinet of wets and disaster looming not just for the Conservative Party but the country, also.

    4. Rishi Sunak has recognised the dearth of suitably seasoned candidates for Cabinet roles.

      Suitably seasoned and oven-ready to be roasted at the next election, more like.

      IMHO what the statement really explains is that although the mass of Tory MPs is comprised of a gutless unquestioning bunch of useless eaters, nevertheless there literally is a shortage of followers of the agenda who can be trusted to follow it and not rock the boat.

    5. There was comment that we needed an experienced hand to deal with the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. I would have said that it would be better to keep well away from both places and get on with sorting out the problems in our own country. The constant interfering in the affairs of others since Iraq kicked off has achieved.. absolutely nothing but chaos.

  5. Harnessing David Cameron’s political experience is a shrewd move by a PM with few alternatives. 14 November 2023.

    SIR – Rishi Sunak has recognised the dearth of suitably seasoned candidates for Cabinet roles. Appointing David Cameron Foreign Secretary and harnessing his experience and maturity – things sadly missing in recent Tory administrations – is a shrewd move.

    Cameron Morice.

    I don’t think it is unreasonable to assume that this ludicrous observation if not completely false was chosen for its content. The Telegraph, for some obscure reason, sees itself as the protector of the Tory Party and attempts by all manner of underhand tricks to aid it. Most notably by the deletion of adverse public comment. They have their hands full at the moment. Cameron was a walking disaster as Prime Minister and one doubts that he’s learned anything in retirement. Though Libya should be at the top of any indictment for War Crimes the domestic list should surely place Foreign Aid at its peak. We can only look on as all that we have loved is destroyed in front of our eyes. A quick end would be better than this. Evil is triumphant in the world!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/11/14/letters-david-cameron-political-experience-shrewd-move-pm/

  6. 378776+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunnys last stand or more reminiscent of a reverse Alamo, in this instance a collection of right royal treacherous bastards making a last stand.

    Tuesday 14 November: Harnessing David Cameron’s political experience is a shrewd move by a PM with few alternatives

    More like,
    Tuesday 14 November: Harnessing David Cameron’s political experience is a shrewd move by a PM with WEF RESET in mind.

  11. This BTL Comment made me laugh….

    “Helen de Troyes
    32 MIN AGO
    So Lord Snooty’s back. No doubt that oiky fellow Gideon from the wallpaper shop will be joining the gang anytime soon. Crikey what larks!

    Morning Folks. Isn’t November depressing…..

      1. She mistakenly thought she was there to do a serious job – other than be a token brown bint.
        Talk about being uppity and not knowing her place.

  12. Good morning

    “shrewd move” – what a load of nonsense!
    Who do people think was responsible for weeding out talented would-be Conservative MPs and replacing them with weak, greedy yes-men?
    Why, it happened under one David Cameron, with Gove pulling the strings!

    1. It’ll be Gove returned next. Sunak has been told to create a cabinet that is ardently pro EU, big state and high tax. His masters have decreed this and he’s happily doing as he is told.

          2. Ah – I stand corrected. I do wonder, though, whether his fingers were crossed…

            Cynical, me.

        1. As it was pouring this morning we ate breakfast in front of the TV news.

          Being interviewed was a Tory MP about Cameron’s appointment.

          First of all he stated that he and Cameron were both fervent Remainers, and did everything they could to avoid Brexit.

          He then said that the PMs move to appoint the newly ennobled Lord Cameron as Foreign Secretary was very clever,

          as “Lord Cameron could not be questioned in the House of Commons about his actions or policies”.

          He then went on to say that he was sure Lord Cameron would put all his efforts into getting closer to the EU.

          ……………..so wibbling, now you know.

  13. Good morning, all. Bright and breezy, washing is on.

    Lewis Brackpool promised to provide this video revealing that the Met, for some reason as yet unexplained, suddenly formed a line across a narrow access point to the Cenotaph and thus attempted to stop people from reaching that place.
    Another unanswered question is why one or two men in the crowd pulled on face-masks: were they afraid of being identified by the police or was the opposite true i.e. they could be identified if the situation got out of hand?
    Some strong language directed at the police who eventually had to back-off as the pressure from determined bodies increased.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtX3FP-Ntic

    1. Oh my skies! That’s my mate from university! To the right of the bloke in the hat, fourth fellow in at the bottom! Well blow me down. I didn’t think Robson had that sort of courage!

      My frustration with this nonsense is the immediately screaming abuse, swearing and insults. Folk forget the average plod is just doing as he’s told. The whole mess could be avoided with a bit of civility and calm insistence

  14. Good day all,

    A bit of light cloud hanging around at McPhee Towers this morning making for a lovely dawn. Rain forecast around mid-day, wind Sou’- West veering West, 10℃≫11℃.

    Since this is NTTL.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1cf55e670efda07d9d1f3fde1b8a05d5335bacae3a2bc27202617a13ac8c7c3.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93cafb0b137d344c52cb1e581e7221a7af5977b5f789e8f9f4eab0cd423d6b61.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b1eb408e0f307650e3520f0d6154633ee80be86a43a6794bed2669fc3db5bc51.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62257a04fba1593199ecaaaf275f4eff22d0d4b14328dd8e311f762d95007c3b.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/819dcc626c8583bb476ef486751c98eb5bc7f808bec3c7e32ff671db3ed4ed94.png

    I’ve refrained from screen-shotting the letters from those who see Cameron’s return as a good thing, especially the one from the lacrimose Phillip Duly. But –

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/13/david-cameron-job-deal-agreed-before-braverman-controversy/

    Leaving aside the thought that Sunak has insulted a lot of elected MPs, we now learn that he made an approach to Cameron BEFORE Braverman’s article appeared in The Times. Or did Cameron approach Sunak? Anyone who thinks Cameron spent 7 years “in the wilderness”’ then they must be pretty gullible. There will have been considerable behind-the-scenes communication. I think it is likely that Sunak was told to bring back Cameron to join this WEF/UN-controlled puppet government to ensure a smooth transition to the next WEF/UN-controlled puppet government.

    Victoria Timperley is thinking on the right lines. Maybe they could get a few others involved too. Raab for one. And bring in Andrew Bridgen.

    1. Yep, it’s clearly another pro EU plant to ensure the globalists get their way. I don’t know why Sunak doesn’t just admit it. Quite clearly he isn’t elected, has absolutely no democratic credibility. What has he to bother with the annoyance of democracy? Starmer will do the same as he is. They’re in hoc to statist Lefties.

      As for experience and maturity? Is being utterly inconsequential experience? First he offers nothing the people wanted after 1 miserable years of socialism and doesn’t win a majority, going into coalition with the Lib Dems and doing very little except a small increase to the tax allowances Brown had suppressed for 13 years. He then destroyed that with QE. To build up some measure of autonomy he went begging to national leaders for changes to the EU. Got none – because the EU is an authoritarian dictatorship, not a collective of nations – gave up, threw a referendum that didn’t go his way and then bunked off.

    2. Allan Skennerton is exactly the reason why this country has fallen apart!

      After all the things that have happened – our sovereignty being given away, massive corruption, an invasion, lockdowns, toxic jab mandates….Mr Skennerton is “THINKING” of not voting Conservative!!

      As for Veronica Timperley’s letter, presumably that’s why Farage has been dispatched off to some faraway place to clown around on TV.

      1. Clown around on TV? Farage will now be given an audience of millions. It will be interesting to see what he does with it. And for how long. Will the spicy bits be edited out? It is almost tempting me to watch something for which I usually have nothing but contempt.

          1. He is a very good journalist, he is concise and clear and he is a magnificent orator.

            However his total capitulation to Boris Johnson in not contesting seats held by sitting remainer Conservative MPs in the 2019 general election makes him partly responsible for the bodged Brexit and the lack of any attempts to curb both legal and illegal immigration and makes me wonder if he has the necessary steel.

          2. Without wishing to insult one of the august Tasties, a smidge of hindsight, mayhap?.
            Arguably Corbyn as Labour leader played a larger role in the Conservative victory than was thought possible at the time.

        2. Why do people want to be tortured and humiliated for the sake of entertainment .

          My opinion of Farage has changed .. He is similar to his frothy pint of beer .. nothing but gas and burp.

          2. Rumoured that he has been offered around 1 £million. Even i would subject myself to what they are required to do. I would happily eat kangaroo testicles and camels anuses compared to two weeks food in any hospital.
            Properly sauced and seasoned of course. :@)

  15. Good morning all.
    After a clear sky at 02:00, it’s bright overcast this morning with 5°C on the Yard Thermometer.

  17. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e6601c82af0659d731a9698e450c1e15ff8fadd4a78b90200023d9d3d2e7f21.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c47f2cb2d201b5527cfb85622c7437ccff543f31cc7719e922aa18bbcbf4ad69.jpg

    Not So Humorous…

    The Ben Gurion Canal Project
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Gurion_Canal_Project
    Note how much shorter it would be if it went through Gaza…
    Egypt, land of the Suez Canal is about to join BRICS. Having a canal would be the perfect solution for Israel, as the Europeans would then have a vested interest in the future stability of Israel.

    Apparently CNN knew about the Israel attacks in advance, which is why they were able to get that professional quality close up footage (tiktok video posted on Twitt)
    The video clip does not say it, but if this is true, then there is no way that all the governments involved didn’t know in advance that it was going to happen too.
    https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/1724175692513075444

      1. That happened a few years ago!
        What we’re fighting at the moment is the deliberate running down of parishes in England.

      2. Good morning, Maggiebelle

        Please would you provide a link to follow on this?

        Apparently a prayer room was in installed in Windsor Castle in 2006 for Muslim employees in the Saxon Tower of Windsor Castle but Caroline can find no reference to this happening in either the parish church of St John The Baptist in Windsor nor in St George’s Chapel five years ago.

          1. You need neither a Mosque or a special prayer room to be a devout muslim. Even the front room of someones home can be used as a Mosque. Or any place for that matter.

      3. The lesbian bishop story is not new news. It was first reported eight years ago. It was a seamen’s mission in Stockholm.

        Eva Brunne, the world’s first openly lesbian bishop, has called for a church in Stockholm, Sweden, to remove all signs of the cross, and instead build an Islamic prayer room in order to welcome Muslims. Several other Christian leaders in Sweden have criticized the suggestion.

        Leasing a room to people of other faiths, does not mean that we are not defenders of our own faith. Priests are called to proclaim Christ. We do that every day and in every meeting with people. But that does not mean that we are hostile toward people of other faiths,” Brunne, the bishop of Stockholm, explains on her website, according to SVT.

        https://orthochristian.com/86589.html

        Was her call heeded, though?

        The Seamen’s Church, which is not subject to the Bishop’s direct authority, is located in the dockyards of eastern Stockholm and serves ships arriving in the area.

        https://www.charismanews.com/world/52681-swedish-bishop-charges-churches-to-do-the-unthinkable-accommodate-muslims

        The actual priest at the Seaman’s mission was left nonplussed by the comments of the Bishop when contacted by Dagen.se for comment.

        As an independent mission the church operates outside of the diocese, and so the bishop has no authority there, a fact reflected by the response of the church director who said the bishop’s words were her business alone.

        When asked whether she would be removing the cross from her church, Kiki Wetterberg responded: “I have no problem with Muslim or Hindu sailors coming here and praying. But I believe that we are a Christian church, so we keep the symbols. If I visit a mosque I do not ask them to take down their symbols. It’s my choice to go in there”.

        https://forums.anglican.net/threads/world%e2%80%99s-first-lesbian-bishop-calls-for-church-to-remove-crosses-to-install-muslim-prayer-space-bre.2469/

        I now wonder whether there’s any substance to this.

  19. Good morning all,

    Rough weather here ,11c.

    Lest we forget
    SIR – Tom McKenzie (Letters, November 12) was stunned by the paucity of poppy sellers in London.

    When I first started selling poppies in 1986, I was joined on the streets by veterans of the Second World War and Korea. Twenty years later, I was joined by their widows, and some streets had to be missed out. Today, all are gone or simply too frail to stand in frost and rain for an hour, and nobody is taking their place.

    Quite simply, with most of us entirely untouched by war or interested only in the socio-political cause du jour, we are – despite our noble words – forgetting the men of Flanders Fields, Sword Beach, Kohima, Imjin, Enniskillen, Fitzroy, and Kajaki; they are faceless people from other times, whom – let’s be frank – we want to forget about. As Kipling would remind us, we have been here before: we forget until we discover, usually too late, that we need our soldiers again.

    This is why, for all the bluster, the political parties should unite in protecting Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday as national events of fundamental importance. Sometimes we need to be reminded to remember, and to contemplate the fact that those who shout the loudest do not speak for us or our silent dead.

    As for taking action, the best thing Mr McKenzie could do next year is pick up a tin and a tray and join us – and bring along some friends.

    Victor Launert
    Matlock Bath, Derbyshire

  20. Interesting DTLcomments.

    Chris Harris
    35 MIN AGO
    Sooner rather than later Islamic influence on local councils will see the closing of gay bars and restriction on opening times etc of other bars.
    This will be in conjunction with council tax being used to support the up-keep and development of mosques. As their numbers increase it will be necessary for public sector workers to convert to Islam in order to retain their jobs.
    Meanwhile Cessminster will hail our wonderful ethnic diversity.

    Reply by Finian Manson.

    FM

    Finian Manson
    26 MIN AGO
    Not just local councils!
    The Trocadero in central London is destined to become a mosque with the call to prayer echoing out at all times of the day and night.
    I seem to recall that some of this is within the area of responsibility of the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan who no doubt will endorse the change of use. EDITED

    1. Church fires are likely to increase in number.
      One just “went on fire” here in Norway, for no known reason.

    1. It’d be funny but for 2 things – the hyenas laughing at the driver and the driver being the one who pays for the thefts. Amazon are ruthless.

    1. Haven’t Israel been very careful not to call their activity in Gaza ‘war’ precisely to not have such applied to them?

      It’s mealy mouthed words between civilised nations which, if they were truly civilised would not be at war anyway.

      1. We were careful not to refer to the Falklands conflict as a war. And Russia is not, it maintains, at war with Ukraine.

  24. Just throwing this out there – if Labour had been in office Sunak would have stood for them. I don’t believe he has any conviction whatsoever beyond grasping and keeping power.

    1. He is a placeman. Simply a conduit of power for the WEF. Tory, Labour, Libs, whatever is in power at the time. He is management.

    2. But why is that impotent people don’t just accept their impotence and not feel compelled to seek power?

    4. You could say the same of quite a few senior Tories. Gove was the reddest socialist imaginable at university – his subsequent pivot and membership of the Conservative party took us all by surprise, and many suspect that his politics never actually changed that much. Merely, the Cons offered more scope for his particular talents – and by then, he had probably already been introduced to his new best friends in Davos.

      Cameron too – his wife is a pinko, and Call-me-Lord-Dave doesn’t have the character to accept his status and stand up for those who wish to acquire it by honest hard work either.

    1. Only one of those three religions will kill you if you don’t convert, or kill you if you convert to another religion, or kill you if you are an atheist.

      1. Or kill you because you are different or kill you just because they seem to enjoy killing people.

  26. SIR – My father had an elderly aunt who decided to take up smoking cigarettes at the age of 90.

    Her
    son, with whom she lived, was appalled, and asked my father, a GP, to
    advise her against it. My father found her to be extremely fit, and
    thought that moderate smoking would not reduce her life expectancy. The
    son was furious and would not let his mother smoke in his house. She
    died just before her 100th birthday, having spent much of her last
    decade smoking behind a shed in the garden.

    Warminster, Wiltshire

    What a miserable shit the son was…

    1. When my mother visited she would always smoke outside, she didn’t need to be asked or told.
      At the time she was the only smoker in the extended family.
      She gave up one day in her 70’s having smoked since she was 8, her father thought smoking was sophisticated in a woman and encouraged he to take it up.

      1. My parents introduced me to smoking when I was 10. Mother would give me a packet of 20 Players to take back to school at the beginning of term.

        1. Very strange.
          Both my parents smoked at one time.
          Father must have stopped at about 30 and they both discouraged all the children from doing so.
          It never appealed to me and because so many contemporaries at school smoked I didn’t, just to be different.

          1. My father smoke 60 a day until the day he died. The only gap was when he was awaiting treatment for a brain tumour – and the White Coated told him to stop. He did for six weeks – then, after the op, started up again.

            After he died I had to completely redecorate his room….

      2. My parents were both non-smokers; very unusual in my youth.
        Somehow, I felt it made them seem a bit strange, a bit other-worldly.
        However, thinking back, it was mostly the fathers who smoked, not the mothers.

    2. Caroline’s parents smoked 100 cigarettes a day between them.

      When they came to stay with us we put them in our student house where they could smoke to their hearts’ content. On the other hand one of Caroline’s sisters kept telling them how disgusting they were and they had to smoke in the boiler room.

        1. One of Caroline’s sisters is lovely, a good friend of mine and a former smoker; the other means well and is improving. When she first met me she was heard to remark: “I do think Caroline could have done rather better than that.” Of course she was right!

          However as the years have passed she has become less censorious and critical of her little sister’s husband.

    3. Nothing wrong in asking someone not to smoke in your house. It makes the interior stink. Go outside and smoke.

      1. She was 90. He should have allowed her to smoke in her own room and put in an air conditioning unit.

          3. She could always write him out of her will i suppose.

            There are far worse things your house can stink of with elderly relatives.

  27. I see that a retired Snivel Serpent says that Stupidly will be “Easier to work with”. IE – he’ll do as he is told because he is so dim.

    1. 378776+ up ticks,

      Morning TB,

      We have run out of room long ago, tis rooms that are a priority and the only way shortly is for yours & mine to be sacrificed.
      The politico’s, governance parties & current supporters, have tied the safety valve down.
      We are witnessing the shite at the moment, more compression dictates that the
      BOOOOM must follow.

      1. 378776+ up ticks,

        O2O,
        I do believe that many would look upon lab/lib/con current supporter voters, on returning from the polling station next general election finding their locks changed, and the house requisitioned due to accommodation shortage for foreign elements, poetic justice.

    2. You just have to hope that they are not all hamas soldiers escaping the wrath of Israel.

      I am sure that the border people have done no checking on the affiliation of these gimmegrants.

  30. I (Philip Duly) therefore cried tears of joy at the news that he (Cameron) has agreed to serve in this senior position.

    NURSE!!!!!

  31. The Mail is referring to David Cameron as a “moderate” as opposed to the “Right” but if you look at Cameron’s record he was anything but moderate. His redefinition of marriage is a long term society-breaker, and his referendum was a game-changer.

    1. His redefinition of marriage was a bolt from the blue as far as I was concerned. And should never have happened.

    2. Whether or not you agree with Brexit it cannot be disputed that Cameron played a central part in getting us to the referendum result we got.

      He told the electorate the total lie that the British would be voting for a reformed EU. The EU had refused to reform in even the slightest way and turned down every request he made in his obsequious pleadings . Indeed, if he had won any significant concessions it is very unlikely that people would have voted to leave the EU.

      Indeed Cameron was humiliated and the British did not like being humiliated.

      Getting Cameron back into government is going to prove immediately humiliating for the government – but a far greater humiliation is on its way in the coming general election.

      1. He also put in print the lie that the government would carry out whatever the electorate decided and said he would stay there to see it through.

  32. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f0d322c4bf32f1d4e1d18ce3f5f07d79aff033f7ec540e6ed2bd0392439414de.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/11/14/king-charles-75-birthday-popularity-high/

    I know that Stig is a great supporter of his royal highness but I am not.

    Virtually none of the BTL comments have been posted by people who have any warmth or affection for him. His continued arrogance, and meddling in politics have alienated all those who wanted to give him a chance when he came to the throne

    Here is Ratty’s concise BTL:

    He looks permanently constipated as if his visits to the lavatory are the most arduous and tortuous moments of his day.

    1. The only time he looked really relaxed and happy was when he was on the balcony with Camilla after the Coronation. The peak of his life’s desires – King at last, and a cheering crowd.

      1. It is his continuing failure to keep to his promise not to be political that sticks in my craw. I had hoped that Mrs P-B would sort him out. Wrong again….

    2. I am not a great supporter of his Royal Highness. It’s just that I have no strong antipathies towards him. I hold him in rather less esteem than I did his mother. Maybe I shall warm towards him, given time. As for his personal opinions, what we know cannot be undone, but he is obliged to maintain an air of neutrality, an example being the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament, even though we know full well that some of its contents will have displeased him.

      1. The King’s Speech is, of course, nothing to do with him.

        It is his continuing pronouncements on climate, net zero, illegal immigration that get to me.

        1. I’m quite aware that he doesn’t write it and that he is merely a mouthpiece for the government on that particular occasion. It’s just that, given what we already know about him, some of it would be uncongenial to him, but he read the statement nonetheless.

          As for those topics you list, were he to pretend that he no longer has points of view about them, who would be deceived by such a performance?

          1. On your first para – he has NO choice!
            On para 2 – he can think what he likes. Just not pontificate publicly.

            I think we will have to agree to differ!

          2. Its clearly something which bothers others far more than it does me.

            As for having no choice, I wonder what the consequence would be were he to refuse to read the statement, either in full or in part, or added a personal commentary where he disagrees with it.

            Last year, his mother was too frail to read it, so he did so in her stead. Therefore he could feign illness and ask William to stand in for him, although that would lack credibility if repeated year after year.

            Other than that, would a refusal demand his abdication?

          4. I thin he did well with the Prince’s Trust but thought that, once crowned, he should keep out of politics. I’m sure the late Queen had her own opinions but she was exemplary in never revealing them in public.

          1. It would appear that his advisers didn’t query the frantically rapid ennoblement of a past failed Prime Minister.

            Obviously none of us knows what is said behind closed doors, but it gives the appearance of HM being

            given instructions by the EU or the WEF — or both.

      2. One thing that I like about this forum is that we can disagree with each other.

        In many ways your outlook is far more optimistic and far less cynical than mine!

        1. Correction noted, Tom. I merely repeated the form used by Richard, albeit capitalised, without giving it much thought.

    3. I should add that I’m not at all convinced that he has “finally won Britain’s heart” and that he has its “love and respect”. It’s much too soon to reach that conclusion.

      I suppose it’s possible to imagine he has lavatory visits, although it’s not a subject I dwell on, but it was almost impossible to believe that his mother, or hers, come to that, ever visited the little room.

      1. I’m confident that their alimentary functions were quite normal. Otherwise they might have exploded.

      2. You might have had to ‘dwell on it’ if you were appointed as Groom of The King’s Stool.😖

      3. RAF Little Rissington put in place “the Queen’s Loo” just in case HM needed to take a “comfort break” during her visit there. The WRAF officers used it (the Queen didn’t).

  34. Trans woman appointed as endometriosis charity chief.

    A health charity that helps women suffering from endometriosis has been criticised for appointing a trans woman as its chief executive.

    Endometriosis South Coast (ESC) announced on Sunday evening that it had appointed Steph Richards as its new leader and that she would help its mission to support sufferers and educate people about the condition.

    The NHS website says that the condition causes sufferers chronic pain when tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows outside of the uterus in places such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes, and can affect women of any age. Among the symptoms are persistent pain in the pelvis and heavy periods. There is no cure.

    In its announcement on social media ESC also published a graphic with a quote next to a picture of Richards which read: “Isn’t it ridiculous that I’ve got to my 40s before any medical professionals even mentioned endometriosis?”

    The charity later clarified that the quote was from a person who benefits from the group’s work, not Richards.

    “Our apologies for the misunderstanding. This quote is from a person that our charity supports. Not from Steph herself. Steph is a huge advocate for what people in the [endometriosis] community go through.

    “This is why they were appointed, not because they have their own [endometriosis] journey.”

    Accepting the post, Richards said that about “10 per cent of women and trans men suffer from [endometriosis], with some suffering from debilitating pain regularly”.

    Among the people critical of her appointment was Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, founder of the women’s rights group Let Women Speak. She told Mail Online: “Everyone has lost their collective minds.

    “The losers are women who suffer from endometriosis who have to rely on a charity that won’t call them ‘women’ but ‘people’, but who will call a man a woman. This is an absolute disaster and an affront to all women who suffer from endometriosis, which is about 10 per cent of women. It’s really insulting.”

    On its website ESC says: “We aim to create a safe space for all people with the condition regardless of race, gender, or religion. This disease does not discriminate and neither do the people who run this charity.”

    Posting on Twitter/X on Monday, Richards said: “Calmly working today while under a barrage of online transphobia. I genuinely appreciate your support, especially the dozens of DMs from those who have [gender critical] views.”

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/trans-woman-appointed-as-endometriosis-charity-chief-kxldrwjkp

    The world has gone mad , or has it ?

    1. The people who run the charity” I hope will be rudely awakened by all those who support it (i mean fund it) withdrawing that support.

      The world has just gone madder!

      P.S. can’t read the article.

        1. I know, Jules, I was being provocative….

          One would just have though that if one was “proud” to have translated from male to female (though one hasn’t really) one would be equally proud to use female pronouns.

          But what do I know?

    3. There seems to be an overuse of the word “community”, to denote any group of people who have a particular interest or problem. A lot of women suffer from endometriosis but are they a “community”, which implies they know each other?

      1. I was ready to post a comment in similar vein. I also think a community is a loose association of people who know one another, at least in part, but it seems that sharing a characteristic in common is sufficient. If so, I’m a member of the nose community.

    4. The inevitable result of a charidee sector that provides a home for the brainwashed, the woke, unemployable arts graduates etc.

    2. When I was a schoolboy my brother-in-law, a city solicitor, educated at Sherborne and Oxford, gave me this book:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c74f5afc2e621d1d6c2e8b6ce1aabc7dd053621f129ca396239b51146ccf5bb.jpg

      This obscene limerick has to be put behind a spoiler. If you are offended you cannot claim you were not warned:

      He’s a miserly hermit called Dave,
      And he keeps a dead whore in his cave,
      He says: “I admit,
      I’m a bit of a shit
      But just think of the money I save!”

  39. Rain has stopped .. now some garden work, we have a new large dustbin for garden cuttings , green waste and stuff like that . Costs over £30 per year, but very handy . NO plastics .. Our bin collection in the driveway and near back door is quite impressive.

    1. I was planning to fill the garden waste wheelie bin today for Thursday’s collection but it has been cold, damp and dreary. I’ll wait until tomorrow when it should be brighter.

    2. Living in a small community on a steep and narrow hill means we have none of those municipal bins – we have a green box, now old and battered, and a green bag (fraying) and a supply of beige bags (as black bags were outlawed). We have a food waste collection weekly, and the others fortnightly. Garden waste is disposed of by us at the “recycling centre” otherwise known as the “tip”.

      1. The only food waste I have is the potato peelings, etc which go on my compost heap along with grass cuttings and ash from the woodburner. Any garden waste , twigs etc, goes through the shredder and onto the ground under the trees. Non-recyclable stuff goes in a black bag and into the green bin, recycle stuff goes in the blue bin. Bins are emptied alternate weeks although I wait until they are full before putting them out.

        1. We don’t have much food waste – a few bones or salmon fillet skins (I used to leave them on but now I remove them as OH moans otherwise). Any vegetable matter goes in the compost bin.

          1. I save the bones and freeze then for stock. Same with chicken carcasses.

            Egg shells are good for the garden too.

          2. I do make soup with the chicken carcasses, but I fish the bones out…….. egg shells go in the compost bin.

          4. Any bones go into the Rayburn to be incinerated. The dogs clear up any left-overs (assuming there isn’t anything they can’t eat in them, but that is very rare).

      2. Raining again .

        We have used the tip for years , 6 miles away, but the garden bin will come in handy , we also have 2 grass compost things in the garden .

        One green box for glass, not really used very often because we don’t drink, only coffee jars , marmalade , etc. One box for news papers , but we don’t buy papers.
        One recycle bin, one non recyclable , one food waste caddy.

        1. Ours is also about 6 miles away – but the booking system in use since the lockdowns does mean it’s quick to go in and out again, not long queues as used to happen.

    3. Still damp and dreary out there now – puts me off any garden work, though there are things that need doing.

      2. Soils too wet for me to get on it and finish clearing the veg plot. Ditto cutting the lawns. Having some trees reduced in height tomorrow.

    4. I refuse to pay for garden waste to be taken away. I am lucky as there is a disused railway line behind me so it all goes on the embankment. It can rot down there out of sight and i have a future store of compost.

        1. Ours didn’t until recently. Like all things the price will creep upwards and it’s yet another bill to pay.

  40. Voters deserve better than a return to a failed pre-Brexit past
    With the sacking of Suella Braverman, the Tory party has finally given up on key Conservative policies
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/13/voters-deserve-better-than-return-to-failed-pre-brexit-past/ : David Frost

    David Frost is being blamed for the poor Brexit deal by some BTLiners.

    This is a bit unfair. David Frost had held firm on Northern Ireland and Fishing but on the day before the deal was struck both Boris Johnson and Michael Gove arrived in Brussels and forced Frost to surrender on these two points.

    I think it is high time that Lord Frost was open and honest and told us the full story of how his arm was twisted and exactly what Johnson and Gove did in order to force him to climb down.

    I also think it is high time he resigned from The Conservative Party and joined another party such as Reform.

    1. A good friend who used to be a Conservative member and very active with his local party messaged me yesterday to say that he’d joined Reform. I replied that it’s a pity there aren’t MPs with the backbone to follow his example.

    2. Voters deserve better than a return to a failed pre-Brexit past

      With the sacking of Suella Braverman, the Tory party has finally given up on key Conservative policies

      DAVID FROST • 13 November 2023 • 6:53pm

      How quickly the world moves on. This weekend, we saw appalling scenes of aggression, incitement and anti-Semitism on our streets once again. Today, the one Cabinet minister who called these out for what they were and criticised soft-touch Met policing was unceremoniously dismissed from the Government.

      The confected row over whether Suella Braverman cleared her newspaper article with No 10 is obviously not the real cause. I’ve seen plenty of ministers sidestep Downing Street “suggestions” on speeches and articles. It’s about unity and authority. But if you have to establish your authority by killing off your supporters, then you better get every judgment right.

      Yes, maybe Suella did occasionally express herself imperfectly, but it is hard to feel she has made as many errors of judgment as those in charge of the Conservative Party, who have so far driven away nearly two-thirds of our 2019 voters and, according to a Survation poll over the weekend, are about to hand Labour a 212-seat majority.

      The reshuffle has promoted some capable mid-ranking ministers – Richard Holden, Laura Trott, Victoria Atkins – but it is hard to see what they are going to do with their skills. Radical change to anything much is closed off.

      With the exception of a few criminal justice Bills, one can’t feel that there was much in the King’s Speech that engages with the actual problems of the country as most voters understand them: economic growth, health, crime, mass immigration and its consequences and, of course, the cost of living. Yes, inflation may be coming down, but housing costs remain horrific because we aren’t building enough houses and because we are slowly destroying the private rental market.

      This reshuffle shows the Government has decided its direction of travel. It’s back to the past: a world in which Brexit may have happened legally but not in the mindset of those who rule us; a world of social liberalism, of unambitious low-growth economics, and of deferral to the views and interests of the permanent class of people who run institutions like the BBC, the Office for Budget Responsibility, and the Metropolitan Police – just as it was under David Cameron once before, and now will be again.

      I greatly worry that this will also be a return to a conservatism for the privileged – people who are already doing alright, people who don’t want the change so clearly signalled in those huge 2016 and 2019 victories.

      So if you want lower taxation and spending; if you want more houses; if you want cuts to legal as well as illegal immigration; if you want cheaper energy and a proper rethink of net zero; if you want an end to the quango state; if you want changes to the Equality Act or an end to anything-goes multiculturalism, then you have to face the fact that we aren’t going to get them from this Government.

      Conservatives will have to make up their own minds as to whether they are fine with that and, if not, what they are going to do about it.

      Iain Dale, the LBC radio host and supposedly conservative commentator, gave “a big welcome back to David Cameron. ‘Daddy’s home’, as someone just texted me.” That, I’m afraid, says it all. The British people deserve something better than infantile regression. They deserve a Conservative Party that faces their problems and does something about them. That’s what I will keep arguing for.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/13/voters-deserve-better-than-return-to-failed-pre-brexit-past

      1. It is NOT the case that we aren’t building enough houses, it’s that we are importing so many people that we have an excess of demand.

  41. Suella Braverman was sacked for being right

    Rishi Sunak is too effete to care enough about key issues, like tackling immigration, that voters mind about so much

    JACOB REES-MOGG • 13 November 2023 • 4:23pm

    Suella Braverman seems to have been sacked for following Conservative policy and principles too loudly for the refined tastes and sensitivities of the Prime Minister.

    At every election since 2010, when led by David Cameron, the Tories have promised to reduce migration. This has not happened – both legal and illegal immigration have spiralled with a net 606,000 people arriving legally last year. This is not any longer because of the European Union; it is a conscious decision of policy makers egged on by the Treasury that is in hoc to the error prone Office of Budget Responsibility.

    Suella wanted to stop this and would not agree to continue with a loose legal migration policy and she was opposed to any concessions being given in trade deals that would weaken controls. She also recognised that if the small boats are to be stopped then the country may need to leave the European Convention on Human Rights. No doubt on Wednesday, when the Supreme Court rules, she would have reiterated her view in support for implementing Government policy; one of the Prime Minister’s five pledges no less. Instead, she has been replaced by a new Home Secretary who has stated publicly that he does not want to leave the Convention and a Foreign Secretary who is a committed European. Clearly, the grubby business of delivering policies that are distasteful in Europe’s hallowed halls is a sackable offence.

    Suella opposed anti-Semitic marches and asked the police to be even-handed. Most Conservatives would consider these views fairly routine – indeed Sir Robert Peel, the founder of the police, wanted an independent and even-handed constabulary. Yet Suella’s demand was seen as a challenge to the woke culture at the Metropolitan Police and other forces, best illustrated by the difference in policing of the Sarah Everard vigil and the Marxist Black Lives Matter protests. The Prime Minister does not seem to disagree with this and bravely summoned the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, to have a nice chat about it last week. Suella, on the other hand, wrote a forthright article for The Times, boldly proclaiming the responsibilities of the police. Once again, the rarefied air of the high table was sullied by Suella’s frankness, so she had to go.

    Regrettably, with her departure, the Government is no longer going to be serious about tackling immigration. It wills the end but is not strong enough to apply the means. Legal migration could be controlled by ministerial direction. It does not need primary legislation but could be tightened by a series of regulations or statutory instruments. Illegal migration will not be dealt with while we obey the ECHR so who will now argue this case?

    The sacking of Suella Braverman removes a champion of orthodox conservative policy that is popular in the country. This applies to the marches as much as it does to migration. Protest is part of freedom of speech and must be protected but hatred, violence and anti-Semitism are not. Those who join such people must ask themselves about the company they keep and the police needs to regain the confidence of the bulk of the population by controlling these events properly.

    Many Tories will view this reshuffle and feel that the Prime Minister does not want to deal with their concerns. He is too effete to care enough about these issues, the ones that voters mind about so much. Perhaps after the populism of Boris Johnson there is now almost an anti-populism. Unfortunately, this sensitivity does not extend to the simple good manners of sacking Suella in person. In a departure from the normal conventions of public life, Suella was fired over the telephone by a Prime Minister who may have found the prospect of meeting the Boadicea of our times a little too intimidating.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/13/suella-braverman-was-sacked-for-being-right

    1. Nice words, but what actions are we going to see?
      Also, some nice gaslighting – yes, Braverman is a genuine conservative, but what did she achieve at the Home Office? Nothing, nil, nix – because her hands were tied by civil serpents and her treacherous boss.

      So stop telling us about how the Tory right have been in power for so long! We are still waiting for a Conservative government, thirteen years after useless Dave was first given the mandate for the job!

      1. There simply aren’t enough like Mogg and Frost (see elsewhere) in the country. The Tories cannot sell themselves with ‘posh’ types like these two, however sound their messages might be. Where will the true conservative government of and for ordinary people come from?

        I fear that only violent events will turn the country against the current political ‘mindset’. Not from ‘The Right’ but terrorism or criminality from the immigrant population on such a scale that the country finally turns and summons up the courage. Right now I cannot see one person suddenly emerging from the masses to lead the people out of the descending darkness.

      2. There simply aren’t enough like Mogg and Frost (see elsewhere) in the country. The Tories cannot sell themselves with ‘posh’ types like these two, however sound their messages might be. Where will the true conservative government of and for ordinary people come from?

        I fear that only violent events will turn the country against the current political ‘mindset’. Not from ‘The Right’ but terrorism or criminality from the immigrant population on such a scale that the country finally turns and summons up the courage. Right now I cannot see one person suddenly emerging from the masses to lead the people out of the descending darkness.

    2. Come on Grease-Smogg – time to act with grease-lightning speed at last and resign from the Conservative Party.

      Things will be better if the Conservative Party can implode now rather than wobble on for another year of misery.

    1. Orban obviously thinks Cameron has more influence with the EU than he does! I like a lot of what Orban does and says but this is not one of them.

      2. The Hungarian Central Bank are doing some horrendous dry run of a CBDC aimed at children, because children are more easily influenced.

      1. Because I make little to no effort, nowadays, in keeping abreast of our politicians, their deeds and statements, I have absolutely no idea how well or badly Cleverley has performed as Foreign Secretary.

  44. Ahem…

    Your mother has been with us for 20 years, I said to my husband.
    Isn’t it time she got a place of her own?

    My mother? He replied . I thought she was your mother.

  45. Afternoon All

    Bodyclock buggered,mornings not existing

    Number one meme of the day

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f2fe4c2e0f17d9f0d8a9cb62cc71cb73675c67f53c23b27338bfeb3da3ea2e1.jpg

    Rest

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d9ea8f65843c03495b4830c305442542a5571b2460c5f35f0ec327c19ed0965.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a04d7523ec1637cf678381f5e63a51e90ccb1e44c0ad9bdecc8890e93282bb2f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/94b6c6938f1d40e93eaf102149148c2b1b311c61e90c52cf6424d1ceb4d0b540.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/beb25bdadcc5d95475135d48725a9203ec2774cc11fb416603bb76e35f7ab9a0.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5769055e3fc9c22f49c7037b566ab72f390900de644e326dbe08b818d36b50fd.jpg

    https://i.imgflip.com/85q3a0.jpg

    1. Concerning the first one i am reminded of a post last night about bacha bazi and bacha posh. Do Western parents, even those of a left wing bent really wish their 5 year old children to be subject to this cultural norm?

  46. – I bet Lineker is livid, he has to work all year and tweet all sorts woke extremism and crawl to the hard Left at the BBC to earn what Farage is getting in just a few weeks.
    Which proves that honesty is always the best policy in the end.

      1. Well he certainly deserves to win every penny he can get out of Nat West and Coutts.

        (Nat West and the Coots sounds like a good name for a punk rock band )

    2. I’m not sure Lineker actually “earns” anything like the obscene amount the BBC pays him!?

  47. With David Cameron’s appointment the Conservatives are heading towards full civil war. 14 November 2023.

    You cannot reshuffle a pack when half the cards are missing, damaged and the joker has already been played.

    Every Conservative value – stability, moderation, managing the economy – has gone down the drain. They are the party of chaos now, tearing chunks out of each other while staring into the abyss.

    Now you see it and er… now you keep on seeing it. No sleight of hand can hide the void where there used to be a political party.

    Nicely put. Even my focus group at the bus stop this morning were aghast at Cameron’s reappearance!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/11/14/david-camerons-appointment-conservatives-civil-war/

    1. Does Sunak seriously believe that Cameron is remembered with affection?

      The truth is that he is remembered with contempt, revulsion and disgust.

      Labour supporters hated him because he was a Conservative; Conservatives hated him because he wasn’t.

  48. Remembrance Sunday is over for another year but this song by Harvey Andrews about Northern Ireland is one we should remember.

    https://www.facebook.com/OnThisDayPIRA/videos/soldier-by-harvey-andrews/479282686438977/

    Soldier

    In the station in the city a British soldier stood,
    Talking to the people there if the people would.
    Some just stared in hatred and others turned in pain,
    And the lonely British soldier wished he was back home again.

    ‘Come join the British army!’ Said the posters in his town,
    ‘See the world and have your fun, come serve before the crown.’
    The jobs were hard to come by and he could not face the dole,
    So he took his country’s shilling and enlisted on the roll.

    But there was no fear of fighting; the Empire long was lost,
    Just ten years in the army, getting paid for being bossed.
    Then leave a man experienced, a man who’s made the grade,
    A medal and a pension, some memories and a trade.

    Then came the call to Ireland as the call had come before,
    Another bloody chapter in an endless civil war.
    The priests they stood on both sides, the priests they stood behind,
    Another fight in Jesus’ name, the blind against the blind.

    The soldier stood between them, between the whistling stones,
    And then the broken bottles that led to broken bones.
    The petrol bombs that burned his hands, the nails that pierced his skin,
    And wished that he had stayed at home surrounded by his kin.

    The station filled with people, the soldier soon was bored,
    But better in the station than where the people warred.
    The room filled up with mothers, with daughters and with sons,
    Who stared with itchy fingers at the soldier and his guns.

    A yell of fear, a screech of brakes, a shattering of glass,
    The window of the station broke to let the package pass.
    A scream came from the mothers as they ran towards the door,
    Dragging children crying from the bomb upon the floor.

    The soldier stood, he could not move, his gun he could not use,
    Find more lyrics at ※ Mojim.com
    He knew the bomb had seconds and not minutes on the fuse.
    He could not run to pick it up and throw it in the street,
    There were far too many people there, too many running feet.

    ‘Take cover!’ Yelled the soldier, ‘take cover for your lives!’
    And the Irishmen threw down their young and stood before their wives.
    They turned towards the soldier, their eyes alive with fear,
    ‘For God’s sake, save our children, or they’ll end their short lives here.’

    The soldier moved towards the bomb, his stomach like a stone,
    Why was this his battle, God, why was he alone?
    He laid down on the package and he murmured one farewell,
    To those at home in England, to those he loved so well.

    He saw the sights of Summer, felt the wind upon his brow,
    The young girls in the city parks, how precious were they now?
    The soaring of the swallow, the beauty of the swan,
    The music of the turning earth, so soon would it be gone.

    A muffled soft explosion and the room began to quake.
    The soldier blown across the floor, his blood a crimson lake.
    They never heard him cry or shout, they never heard him moan,
    And they turned their children’s faces from the blood and from the bone.

    The crowd outside soon gathered and the ambulances came,
    To carry off the body of a pawn lost to the game.
    And the crowd they clapped and jeered, and they sang their rebel songs.
    ‘One soldier less to interfere where he did not belong.’

    But will the children growing up learn at their mother’s knee,
    The story of the soldier who bought their liberty?
    Who used his youthful body as the means towards the end,
    Who gave his life to those who called him murderer not friend.

    2. I had occasion to visit Springfield Road Police Station one year after that incident. I entered through a recreation room at the rear where a soldier was rewinding a film he had just shown to some off-duty soldiers. When I left most of the squaddies had got bored of watching the rewinding film and left. Shortly afterwards a hidden bomb went off and injured seven people. The ‘re-winder’ later died in hospital. Here is a short clip of the aftermath. Another of my lucky escapes.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XlKVYlXLws

    3. I was serving in Germany at the time and this song was very popular on British Forces Broadcasting Service. My recollection is that it was banned by the BBC but that would be be too ridiculous to be true.

  50. Iceland ‘is on edge’ waiting for volcanic eruption. 14 November 2023.

    The whole of Iceland ‘is on edge’ as experts say earthquakes which have been rumbling beneath the surface for days and have torn through a town are a precursor to a volcanic eruption.

    More than 700 quakes have been recorded in the southwestern Reykjanes Peninsula since yesterday, and despite them being slightly weaker than in previous days the Fagradalsfjall volcano is still expected to erupt.

    The problem with volcanoes is that you have no idea how bad they are going to be until they begin erupting. Iceland of course, being on the mid-ocean ridge, has produced some historical monsters. We will have to wait and see. Perhaps this is Ragnarok! Soon Fenrir will be galloping round Ukraine and the Middle East!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12746707/Iceland-volcanic-eruption-crack-tears-town-thousands-evacuated-hundreds-earthquakes-unholy-sounds-earth.html

  51. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2023/11/14/green-energy-markets-texas-wind-solar-gas-subsidies/

    Given that we have the same problem, why are we not binning the green hoax and building coal, gas and nuclear? Even ignoring the corruption, theft and sheer criminaliity around the tax scam, why are we lumbered with utter fools determined to destroy this country for a complete folly?

    As awful as they are, the earthquakes in Iceland have already released more plant food than we do in a year. It’s plain it’s a scam, why can we not force the fools in Westminster to do what must be done and get fracking, building nuclear and digging coal?

    1. Corruption, stupidity, fear… take your pick. We’re governed by people who are not only utterly clueless but actively malicious. They see humanity as a problem to be ‘solved’. It’s that corrupted humanist view of the world. A sort of perverted science in which the planet would be much healthier without us on it.

    2. 378776+ up ticks,

      Afternoon W,
      Why not ? 48% of the electorate wanted to remain
      under eu incarceration for starters,they are governance
      assets therefore WEF assets in turn.

      We could not have, as a nation got into such a state of shite without the past 40 years lab/lib/con coalition
      continuous input.

    1. Excellent stuff – I see comments seem to be divided between “well done – the only one who thinks as we do” and “good riddance”!

        1. Doesn’t work. No matter how many times I ‘click’ on it. If someone could post a readable copy, it will be much appreciated.

          2. Tried that, even used the link but no joy – must be my computer and Win 7 Professional. That’s why I’d appreciate a readable copy.

          4. Depending on your browser, there are + and- keys to enlarge or diminish – on my Firefox browser it’s the three lines in the top right hand corner.

          5. Those 3 lines (sometimes replaced with just 3 dots) are known in computer parlance as ‘The Hamburger’

          6. Copied from the Speccie…

            Dear Prime Minister,

            Thank you for your phone call yesterday morning in which you asked me to leave Government. While disappointing, this is for the best.

            It has been my privilege to serve as Home Secretary and deliver on what the British people have sent us to Westminster to do. I want to thank all of those civil servants, police, Border Force officers and security professionals with whom I have worked and whose dedication to public safety is exemplary.

            Someone needs to be honest: your plan is not working, we have endured record election defeats, your resets have failed and we are running out of time

            I am proud of what we achieved together: delivering on our manifesto pledge to recruit 20,000 new police officers and enacting new laws such as the Public Order Act 2023 and the National Security Act 2023. I also led a programme of reform: on anti-social behaviour, police dismissals and standards, reasonable lines of enquiry, grooming gangs, knife crime, non-crime hate incidents and rape and serious sexual offences. And I am proud of the strategic changes that I was delivering to Prevent, Contest, serious organised crime and fraud. I am sure that this work will continue with the new ministerial team.

            As you know, I accepted your offer to serve as Home Secretary in October 2022 on certain conditions. Despite you having been rejected by a majority of Party members during the summer leadership contest and thus having no personal mandate to be Prime Minister, I agreed to support you because of the firm assurances you gave me on key policy priorities. These were, among other things:

            1. Reduce overall legal migration as set out in the 2019 manifesto through, inter alia, reforming the international students route and increasing salary thresholds on work visas;

            2. Include specific `notwithstanding clauses’ into new legislation to stop the boats, i.e. exclude the operation of the European Convention on Human Rights, Human Rights Act and other international law that had thus far obstructed progress on this issue;

            3. Deliver the Northern Ireland Protocol and Retained EU Law Bills in their then existing form and timetable;

            4. Issue unequivocal statutory guidance to schools that protects biological sex, safeguards single sex spaces, and empowers parents to know what is being taught to their children.

            This was a document with clear terms to which you agreed in October 2022 during your second leadership campaign. I trusted you. It is generally agreed that my support was a pivotal factor in winning the leadership contest and thus enabling you to become Prime Minister.

            For a year, as Home Secretary I have sent numerous letters to you on the key subjects contained in our agreement, made requests to discuss them with you and your team, and put forward proposals on how we might deliver these goals. I worked up the legal advice, policy detail and action to take on these issues. This was often met with equivocation, disregard and a lack of interest.

            You have manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies. Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so. Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises. These are not just pet interests of mine. They are what we promised the British people in our 2019 manifesto which led to a landslide victory. They are what people voted for in the 2016 Brexit Referendum.

            Our deal was no mere promise over dinner, to be discarded when convenient and denied when challenged. I was clear from day one that if you did not wish to leave the ECHR, the way to securely and swiftly deliver our Rwanda partnership would be to block off the ECHR, the HRA and any other obligations which inhibit our ability to remove those with no right to be in the UK. Our deal expressly referenced ‘notwithstanding clauses’ to that effect.

            Your rejection of this path was not merely a betrayal of our agreement, but a betrayal of your promise to the nation that you would do ‘whatever it takes’ to stop the boats.

            At every stage of litigation I cautioned you and your team against assuming we would win. I repeatedly urged you to take legislative measures that would better secure us against the possibility of defeat. You ignored these arguments. You opted instead for wishful thinking as a comfort blanket to avoid having to make hard choices. This irresponsibility has wasted time and left the country in an impossible position.

            If we lose in the Supreme Court, an outcome that I have consistently argued we must be prepared for, you will have wasted a year and an Act of Parliament, only to arrive back at square one. Worse than this, your magical thinking — believing that you can will your way through this without upsetting polite opinion — has meant you have failed to prepare any sort of credible `Plan B’.

            I wrote to you on multiple occasions setting out what a credible Plan B would entail, and making clear that unless you pursue these proposals, in the event of defeat, there is no hope of flights this side of an election. I received no reply from you.

            I can only surmise that this is because you have no appetite for doing what is necessary, and therefore no real intention of fulfilling your pledge to the British people.

            If, on the other hand, we win in the Supreme Court, because of the compromises that you insisted on in the Illegal Migration Act, the government will struggle to deliver our Rwanda partnership in the way that the public expects. The Act is far from secure against legal challenge. People will not be removed as swiftly as I originally proposed. The average claimant will be entitled to months of process, challenge, and appeal. Your insistence that Rule 39 indications are binding in international law – against the views of leading lawyers, as set out in the House of Lords – will leave us vulnerable to being thwarted yet again by the Strasbourg Court.

            Another cause for disappointment – and the context for my recent article in the Times – has been your failure to rise to the challenge posed by the increasingly vicious antisemitism and extremism displayed on our streets since Hamas’s terrorist atrocities of 7th October.

            I have become hoarse urging you to consider legislation to ban the hate marches and help stem the rising tide of racism, intimidation and terrorist glorification threatening community cohesion. Britain is at a turning point in our history and faces a threat of radicalisation and extremism in a way not seen for 20 years. I regret to say that your response has been uncertain, weak, and lacking in the qualities of leadership that this country needs. Rather than fully acknowledge the severity of this threat, your team disagreed with me for weeks that the law needed changing.

            As on so many other issues, you sought to put off tough decisions in order to minimise political risk to yourself. In doing so, you have increased the very real risk these marches present to everyone else.

            In October of last year you were given an opportunity to lead our country. It is a privilege to serve and one we should not take for granted. Service requires bravery and thinking of the common good. It is not about occupying the office as an end in itself.

            Someone needs to be honest: your plan is not working, we have endured record election defeats, your resets have failed and we are running out of time. You need to change course urgently.

            I will, of course, continue to support the Government in pursuit of policies which align with an authentic conservative agenda.

            Sincerely,

            Suella Braverman

    5. Skewered, well and truly. She needs to follow it up with a sacking/rsignation speech in Parliament as Geoffrey Howe did to Margaret Thatcher.

      1. I get the impression that she has a strong husband behind her. Everyone needs a good campaign manager and good support – she’s so put together, that she must have one.
        For years, the strongest campaign manager in Westminster has been Gove – I wonder who is running Braverman’s campaign?

    6. From reading Ms Braverman’s letter, Sunak is every bit as useless, weak, a liar and lacking leadership and direction as Nottlers thought. Perceptive bunch but not smug.🙄

      The consequences of having a placeman in No 10 are becoming clear. It’s about time that the few MPs that retain a modicum of conservatism take their leave of the Tory party and find or create a new home. Reform is the obvious choice and Mr Vanilla Tice should be on the phone making out his case, but is he?

  53. Braverman accuses Sunak of ‘betraying the nation’ in scathing resignation letter
    Former home secretary says the Prime Minister ‘manifestly and repeatedly failed’ to help her deliver key policies.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/14/suella-braverman-accuses-sunak-betraying-nation-letter/

    Suella Braverman has accused Rishi Sunak of betraying the nation.

    The former home secretary, who was sacked on Monday morning, claimed in her resignation letter to the Prime Minister that he had “manifestly and repeatedly failed” to help her deliver her policies.

    She claimed he never had any intention of taking the action required to stop the boats.

    In a brutal letter, Mrs Braverman said: “Your plan is not working, we have endured record election defeats, your resets have failed and we are running out of time. You need to change course urgently.”

    The former minister pointed out that Mr Sunak was never elected by the Tory leadership, saying he had been “rejected by a majority of party members”.
    She said it was only the backing she gave to him in October 2022 that secured his position in No 10.

    “It is generally agreed that my support was a pivotal factor in winning the leadership contest and thus enabling you to become Prime Minister,” she said.

    She added that she only agreed to come back into Government if the Prime Minister stuck to four promises on home affairs, Brexit and the protection of biological sex.

    “You have manifestly and repeatedly failed to deliver on every single one of these key policies,” she said.

    “Either your distinctive style of government means you are incapable of doing so. Or, as I must surely conclude now, you never had any intention of keeping your promises.”

    1. Well said Suella.

      You next project is to wipe the repulsive Conservative Party off the face of British politics.

      1. She wasn’t going to go quietly. He didn’t have the balls to tell her to her face – just a phone call.

        1. The fact that he did that by phone, rather than face to face, tells you exactly how spineless the man is!

    1. Me too.Wordle 878 4/6

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

    2. And me.

      Wordle 878 4/6

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

    1. The sub-headline partly belies the main one. It’s true that telling Cameron to return to politics hardly amounts to masterminding it. On the other hand, telling him suggests rather more involvement than mere awareness, although it might be argued that the telling was in general terms, not specifically in the capacity of Foreign Secretary.

    2. It is not just the PM that has lost the way, do any of the MPs or head office honchos have any idea what a conservative party policy should be. Being opposed to the labour party seems to be the only common trait between the lot of them.

      1. Marred by too much use of deliver/delivery. Whoever started this fad for delivering policies should stand in a corner and hang their head in shame. Yes, i know I’m being diverted by trifling irritations but it annoys the hell out of me. It’s like someone tapping their feet or drumming their fingers at the other end of the room.

  57. Evening, all. It will be a case of ave atque vale as I shall have to dash off shortly. Hope to be back later. I couldn’t restrain a hollow laugh when I read the headline. David Cameron’s political experience is one of lying, selling out the country and then running away when he realised how far out of touch he was with the electorate. Since then he’s aided and abetted frustration of the democratic will. If the writer thinks that either makes sense or is in any way positive, I wonder what the heck he/she/it/they/ze and all the other crazy pronouns is on.

  59. That’s me gone for this dreary day, brightened only by Mrs Braverman””s letter to Fishi.

    Preliminary examination for cataracts tomorrow. Have a jolly evening.

    A demain – for a time, anyway.

    3. If male and female are interchangeable, how is the good doctor going to ensure that he starts with an inny and an outy patient?

    4. That photo is pure megalomaniac. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since the whole Covid scam. Just how many people practising medicine have a god-complex?

        1. Not just them. All the others, most pertinently GPs. Seeing their desire to control society under some sort of health fascism over a virus that wasn’t even as serious as influenza really did make me see things in a whole new light. I don’t think that I trust anyone in the healthcare industry any more.

  62. Good grief.
    Another woman with “balls”.

    If only every real woman told these cheating, not good enough to hack it with the men, trannies to insert their penises up their own arses and refused to play, this whole nonsense would be consigned to history.

    Well done Lynne Pinches.

    3. Well I had no idea what you were on about, but upvoted you based on your sentiment.

      I have subsequently used Google (or did I? I use Firefox but it always looks like Firefox uses Google) to discover our Lynne is a pool player who has refused to play against a man. Good for you, Lynne (though possibly pool would be one sport where men’s innate strength isn’t an advantage?).

      I’m not carping – I am genuinely with Lynne, and own a Kelly Jay Keen/Posy Parker T-shirt to prove it. Available here:

      https://www.adulthumanfemale.store/the-original-woman-t-shirt

        1. You have done me a big favour as I have just spent 10 minutes browsing the Let Women Speak/Standing for Women website and have solved my nieces’ Christmas present problem and my friend’s birthday present problem🙂

      3. Strength isn’t a material element in playing pool or any other cue sport. However, men are, on average, taller than women and have greater reach, therefore the average woman player is more likely to need the rest than a male counterpart, and it’s generally accepted that playing with a rest compromises accuracy.

        Furthermore, even shots not needing a rest are more likely to demand of a shorter player that they raise one foot off the floor and stretch across the baize, including over any intermediate balls, a posture which also inhibits accuracy and comfort.

    1. He has been the biggest holder of farm land in the US for some time now.
      A man who believes that the planet is over-populated is the biggest holder of food producing land.

        2. I think it is a very worrying.
          The bottom line is that farm land is any land from which people can produce food.
          The food supply is under threat from several sides

          – foreign countries restricting exports of food to protect their own people – this has already happened in a small way in the last couple of years
          – bans and restrictions on fertilizer production because net zero
          – corrupt governments giving financial incentives to farmers to take land out of food production – this is stealthily going on in the UK and Europe – various schemes and anecdotal evidence from tenants where the land owner simply doesn’t want to carry on with farms.
          – corrupt governments passing laws restricting what farmers can produce (Ireland, Netherlands)
          – corrupt governments passing laws affecting the ownership of farm land (Netherlands, South Africa)
          – food plants and factories mysteriously burning down between 2018 – 2022 – when people started to notice, it seemed to stop.
          – people don’t have the skills and knowledge to grow their own food any more

          So evidence shows that other owners can and will be persuaded to reduce food production on their land, and we know that Gates is ideologically committed to a smaller population so we can assume he will too. Every bit of food-producing land is important to avoid starvation.

        3. continued
          Gates has invested in lab meat, so he has a financial incentive to reduce competition from farmers.
          Here is an article very critical of Gates’ meddling in the food production system. It also talks about a Gates “Trust” (not sure which one) buying farm land.
          https://grain.org/en/article/6690-how-the-gates-foundation-is-driving-the-food-system-in-the-wrong-direction

          IMO we all need to be worried about the food supply, and you can be certain that any Gates interventions will be as helpful and effective as the covid jabs were.

      2. Gates only owns about 270,000 acres, the Emmerdon family owns about 2.3 million acres.

        That is 2021, Gates might have bought a state or two since then.

        2. I believe he has been buying heavily – I first came across this information as part of a report about a large tract of land that he had bought, in 2022 iirc.
          Interestingly, when I looked this up, there are a slew of “fact checkers” with the usual dishonest tactics, straw man arguments, eg “Bill Gates owns the majority of farm land in the US – false”
          There is also a Guardian article flagging up that Gates is the biggest private owner, from 2021 as cause for concern.
          It could be weasel words – private vs corporations. I don’t have time to dig deeper.

      2. I am sure they have their clones ready and waiting and to be inserted into their new mindless bodies.

  65. Just had a magic evening. Met Second Son in the pub; bought him a Speyside and a West Coat whisky (Glenlivet & Lagavulin) for his education whilst I had weissbier, and then we moved to curry restaurant.
    Really enjoyable: so good to see someone only 22 years old, so far ahead of the politicians and woke… I’m not sure I haven’t burst with pride over the man! Sigh

  66. Just had a magic evening. Met Second Son in the pub; bought him a Speyside and a West Coat whisky (Glenlivet & Lagavulin) for his education whilst I had weissbier, and then we moved to curry restaurant.
    Really enjoyable: so good to see someone only 22 years old, so far ahead of the politicians and woke… I’m not sure I haven’t burst with pride over the man! Sigh

  67. Well pal, are you a wanker?
    Of course you are.

    Do you really think that your CV is what it is because you’re good?
    No, it isn’t.

    It’s what it is, because organisations are too terrified of getting caught up in lawfare and online abuse from the likes of you.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12748391/transgender-endometriosis-charity-ceo-steph-richards-hits-critics.html

    Your “whataboutery” regarding other women chief executives is utterly false, they really did get to where they are because they can do the job well and didn’t try to fall back on freakery..
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12748391/transgender-endometriosis-charity-ceo-steph-richards-hits-critics.html

      1. Apparently it’s a very small charity with an annual income of about £8,000, and they are volunteers. I wonder how much they will pay this ‘person’. They’ve certainly raised the profile of their organisation.

  68. Other guests included NHS workers and members of the Windrush generation.

    After being handed a large knife, the monarch could be seen cutting the birthday cake as the Rock Choir and around 60 guests sang to congratulate him.

    At some point, the King, who perhaps felt a little too shy to be the centre of attention, even rolled his eyes at the well-wishers and gave them a cheeky smile.

    The King joked with the crowd as her peered inside the white Victoria sponge cake that was decorated with golden elements.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/royals/24729357/king-charles-birthday-guests-royal/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_medium=web_push_notification&utm_campaign=web_push_2023-11-14

    1. ‘Other guests included NHS workers and members of the Windrush generation.’

      How I became a republican, in eleven words.

        1. I was never an ideological monarchist. It was more practical: if it’s not broken, why fix it? Well, now it is broken. Giving Cameron a way into government without even being elected, as a favour to a government which is deeply unpopular with the people? Now I’m a republican. Again, not ideological, but that’s where I’ve ended up.

          1. I was always a Cavalier, not a Roundhead (villages round here tend not yet to have got over the Civil War), and I signed up to defend Queen and Country, but if they asked me again, the answer would be no.

  69. Just returned from Kings Cross station. Spending Christmas with my family for the first time since 2019 and of course there’s going to be disruption on the railways. No direct trains to York on Christmas Eve so I’m booked to go from St Pancras to Sheffield and from there to York. The return journey should be straightforward. Could be worse I guess. Need to book a hotel room next.

    At Kings Cross there was a noisy group of English-looking youngsters waiving “Palestinian” flags and chanting “end the occupation”. What they mean by that, I don’t suppose they know. Twerps.

    1. They probably couldn’t even find ‘Palestine’ on a map – not least because it doesn’t actually exist.

    2. Do your family in York not have a guest bedroom to save you the expense of booking a hotel room, Sue?

      1. Not the younger ones who are hosting Christmas but honestly, I prefer the hotel room. It’s something I started doing when mum could no longer cope, though she didn’t want to admit as much.

    4. I hope your trip won’t be derailed by strikes. We didn’t get to Hexham in September for that reason.

  70. A fierce hail storm caused massive damage to cars and homes in parts of Johannesburg on Monday night, and no doubt, expensive rooftop solar panels may have been victims of the cricket ball-sized hailstones that were unleashed.

    The hailstones caused massive damage to cars and homes in Midrand, Sandton, and parts of the inner city.

    With South Africa’s load shedding struggles ramping up in recent years, many who can afford to make the pricey investment of installing solar panels have done so at great cost.

    Insurer DialDirect says the country’s rooftop solar capacity increased by a massive 349%, but with hail season now kicked in, they have reminded residents to ensure they are adequately protected and insured.

    DialDirect spokesperson Martin van Wyk said solar panels were typically covered under a building insurance policy and needed to be specified for the amount on the policy as they were susceptible to theft, fire, storm, or lightning damage.

    According to Van Wyk at DialDirect:

    – Invest in reputable brands and high-quality panels: Tier 1 panels are typically tested to withstand hail of up to 37mm in diameter (golf ball-sized hail), but Tier 2 and 3 panels tend to be more vulnerable to damage.

    – Ask your installer about adjusting the angle of your panels to minimise the hail risk.

    – Once the hailstorm has subsided, inspect your solar panels for damage from a distance. If you think they may have been damaged, do not climb on your roof. If there is damage, there could be leaking voltage

    https://www.iol.co.za/news/weather/joburg-hail-storm-an-important-reminder-to-insure-your-solar-panels-cec066ca-cdf7-43be-a866-0b463cd2ae28

  71. Imagine if Braverman persuaded Cameron to challenge Sunak for the leadership and he won.

    She then stood down for Cameron to fight her reasonably safe seat and he won.

    Cameron could then call an election.

    Starmer would win easily and we’d be back in the EU before you could say: “Bob’s your uncle”.
    Cameron would be delighted.
    Stranger things have happened.

    1. -The best hope for the future of our country as a democratic sovereign nation state is if Cameron replaces Rishi as Prime Minister.
      Farage can then easily kid him into holding a referendum for leaving World Government, including the WHO, WEF and the UN

      1. And kept it raised until another player touched the ball. Well, that was the rule when I received my referee’s badge 50+ years ago.

    1. Knob head is the word that the idiot Facebook banned me for .. until the end of November .

      I am allowed to like a post and share , but no conversation .

      I feel so cross and frustrated .

    1. Looking at the moon, and trees still full of leaves, I assume this was some days ago? Beautiful photo, love the reflections;-))

  79. A day of continuing stripping out the unwanted fittings in the back of the replacement van and I’m ready for bed!
    G’night all.

  80. The Somme Offensive, 1st July – 18th November 1916.
    Battle of Pozieres Ridge, 23rd July – 3rd September 1916.
    British artillery limbers bringing up ammunition, Carnoy Valley near Montauban, 30th July 1916.
    The British fired off well over a million shells in the week before the first day of the Somme Offensive, of which an estimated 10% were duds. You can usually see piles of unexploded ordnance in the corners of French and Belgian fields.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5169705283b18332800fbf2e5e56db43de8cd527226c9b40aa4350ad6ef54f37.jpg

  82. I am surprised that any person of sound mind would contemplate a return of UK to the EU.

    From what I can see the EU is now openly mocked and disrespected by the rest of the world. Europe is no longer the cultural and intellectual engine of the world. Our genius has been sold off and forfeited.

    The blame for this is what us Brexiteers understood in voting to leave the EU. Merkel put the EU on a path which sought power and sanction over each member state and in pursuance of this intent were quite prepared to set one member state against another in order to maintain its control.

    Nobody but a ship of fools such as the present UK political parties would ever seek to board again that stinking sinking bankrupt ship.

    Edit: The ultimate sign of the political bankruptcy of the EU is its promise to admit Ukraine and an assortment of rag bag chancers. The German economy has tanked because of their support for Ukraine plus their mad Green policies so one has to ask who will foot the bill for these admissions.

    1. Given a referendum, it’s not at all unlikely that the British electorate would choose to return, mainly based on the UK’s mediocre performance since we voted to leave – throughout the negotiations, the transition and since the departure – even though much of that mediocrity has little to do with Brexit itself. It’s simply a matter of associating one with the other.

      Then there is the churn in the electorate, with Brexiteers dying off in greater numbers than Europhiles and Europhiles joining the electorate in greater numbers than Brexiteers since the vote of nearly seven and a half years ago.

      However, at the moment none of the major political parties are advocating another referendum, nor are they likely to include rejoining the EU in a General Election manifesto and willing to use that as a mandate to rejoin, without a referendum, in the event of electoral victory.

      Furthermore, the electorate itself, even if a majority are unhappy with Brexit, are unlikely to have the appetite for a rapid return, simply through a bored exhaustion with the entire topic and not wanting to go through it all, in the opposite direction, once again.

      Therefore, I agree that returning to the EU anytime soon is highly unlikely, but for quite different reasons, and it’s nothing to do with the soundness of mind of millions of British voters. Most are simply fed up with it and won’t want to return to the subject for many years.

      1. Despite the best efforts of the remainers, our “mediocre performance” is still better than the EU’s.

        2. That will have little impact on public sentiment because they’ll be well aware of British mediocrity, much less so that prevailing in the EU.

          1. You mean they will have had “British mediocrity” drummed into them, regardless of the truth of the matter or the big picture.

          2. I keep telling people that we as a nation have been responsible for many fantastic advancements in science and industry. Yet all we ever hear nowadays is more and more disinformation about our supposed oppression of blacks or other privileged (it seems) minorities.

            Our gifts to the world far outweigh any negatives. I regret that history is distorted to suit the narrative of lefty troublemakers in our schools and not taught.

          3. I keep telling people that we as a nation have been responsible for many fantastic advancements in science and industry.

            Undoubtedly the case.

            Now, how will the ‘educators’ square the circle of claiming that Britain was and remains a mediocre state and the rising nonsense they’re currently promoting i.e. that black immigrants built/rebuilt all that’s good in Britain? If the latter was true then with a rising tide of black immigrants shouldn’t Britain be ascendant?

          5. It’s not so much that British mediocrity – whether true or not – has been drummed into them as that EU mediocrity has been largely ignored. It wouldn’t be helpful, some might say.

      2. I think we are splitting hairs on this subject. The EU is more or less irrelevant in world affairs. As I intimated it is bankrupt and unable to service anything approaching the weapons production numbers needed by Ukraine.

        The ultimate exposure of the EU as a busted flush has been demonstrated by the actual events in Ukraine. There the Ukrainian front line have been deserted by their officers. The promised regime change in Russia has been a spectacular failure. Ukraine is in chaos.

        It is difficult to see quite how the EU and the leaders of its member states can avoid responsibility for the unfolding disaster in Ukraine. I suppose Boris Johnson and Gove should not escape prosecution as they were the bag handlers for the US neo-cons in demanding war as opposed to seeking negotiations on the basis of the various Minsk agreements.

        1. You are writing from the perspective of someone with a deep interest in the matter. That’s not at all true of the great majority of voters who will have a superficial view. They’ll just see a country that seemed to be performing better when still a member.

          1. In 1975 when I had little interest in the matter, I voted to stay in the “Common Market”. By 2016, when I had grown up and become better informed, I campaigned to leave the EU.

          2. That said, the EU of 2016 was a somewhat different organisation to that of the EEC in 1975. You were quite proper in reappraising our membership and coming to a different conclusion. Yes, you were better informed but the beast itself had grown more ravenous over 40+ years.

          3. I accept that I have an interest in finding something closer to the Truth on these vexatious issues.

            I am now reluctant to engage people in my village on the merits or otherwise of the Covid jabs nor for that matter the merits of President Trump.

            The general public have been subjected to the most profound and concentrated disinformation campaigns in my lifetime but then such campaigns are common to students of history.

            Our experiences are of course more intense owing to the digital age of communications and the command of the press output by the powerful people in power at this time.

            Our politicos are essentially bought by the oligarchs and WEF and UN powerbrokers. Until the people understand this reality we are all left to witness the horrible consequences.

          4. I accept that I have an interest in finding something closer to the Truth on these vexatious issues.

            I am now reluctant to engage people in my village on the merits or otherwise of the Covid jabs nor for that matter the merits of President Trump.

            The general public have been subjected to the most profound and concentrated disinformation campaigns in my lifetime but then such campaigns are common to students of history.

            Our experiences are of course more intense owing to the digital age of communications and the command of the press output by the powerful people in power at this time.

            Our politicos are essentially bought by the oligarchs and WEF and UN powerbrokers. Until the people understand this reality we are all left to witness the horrible consequences.

      3. You may remember the statement by Mr Burt MP that Baron Cameron will do his utmost to get Britain close to the EU.

        It would appear that we are about to get all the disadvantages of belonging to the EU without any of the advantages.

      4. We never left property and have now signed political understanding and agreed not to compete with them. In the Tory leadership election both Sunak and Hunt were advocating a reduction in Corporation Tax from 19% but as soon as they’d wheedled their way into power the EU and WEF had a word in their ears and up it went to 25%.
        We may not have a referendum but will creep closer and closer to the EU tying ourselves closer and closer with all the penalties but none of the benefits, if ever there were any.
        Yesterday’s news about bringing Call me Dave back into government indicates there is a paucity of talent, as demonstrated by Sunak, Hunt etc, in the other 350 Tory MPs. Worrying isn’t it.

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