Sunday 28 January: Prommers have good reason to be proud when they sing Rule, Britannia!

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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491 thoughts on “Sunday 28 January: Prommers have good reason to be proud when they sing Rule, Britannia!”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    THE ESCAPEE

    A man escapes from prison where he has been for 15 years. He breaks into a house to look for money and guns and finds a young couple in bed.
    He orders the guy out of bed and ties him to a chair, while tying the girl to the bed he gets on top of her, kisses her neck, then gets up and goes into the bathroom.
    While he’s in there, the husband tells his wife:
    “Listen, this guy’s an escaped convict, look at his clothes! He probably spent lots of time in jail and hasn’t seen a woman in years. I saw how he kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don’t resist, don’t complain, do whatever he tells you. Satisfy him no matter how much he hurts you. This guy is probably very dangerous. If he gets angry, he’ll kill us. Be strong, honey. I love you.”

    To which his wife responds:

    “He wasn’t kissing my neck. He was whispering in my ear. He told me he was gay, thought you were cute, and asked me if we had any Vaseline. I told him it was in the bathroom. Be strong honey. I love you too!!

    I wonder why we’re suddenly being asked to log in, yet user name, e-mail address and password are ALL unknown to NTTL.

    1. Sir Jasper, the joke is a good one. But as to logging in, I simply click on to Geoff’s morning post and there is my avatar so I can post immediately. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. If you’d tried logging in from Geoff’s earliest post, you’have had similar trouble. Geoff tells me that there was something foul in the link which he’s now cleared.

    2. Sir Jasper, the joke is a good one. But as to logging in, I simply click on to Geoff’s morning post and there is my avatar so I can post immediately. (Good morning, btw.)

    2. I didn’t see you yesterday but hope you had a happy, happy day and here’s wishing you another 365 unbirthdays.

      1. I believe this refers to a popular television programme, which, sadly, I have not found time to watch. Ask the indoor staff to tune your set to the correct frequency.

  4. Good morning, chums, I’m here on time today – and I did the Wordle in three!

    Wordle 953 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Five here

      Wordle 953 5/6

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

      1. Early for Mme
        Wordle 953 4/6

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

  5. Ukraine uncovers massive arms fraud worth £32m that robbed it of nearly 100,000 shells. 28 January 2024.

    Ukraine has uncovered a massive corruption scheme worth more than $40 million (£32 million) that has defrauded the country out of vital military supplies.

    The SBU, Ukraine’s security service, said on Saturday that it has discovered a mass procurement fraud involved in the purchase of nearly 100,000 mortar shells, the latest in a number of corruption cases to have dogged Kyiv’s military.

    Just the surface.

    PS. No comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/28/ukraine-fraud-arms-foreign-aid-shells-military/

  6. Good Morning All… Its +6C Clear sky with sun to come. light wind. on the East Sussex Coast.

  9. ‘Weakened’ Ukraine can’t launch offensive against Russia and must focus on defence, say US officials. 28 January 2024.

    Ukraine is too weak to launch another counter-offensive against Russia this year and should concentrate on defence, US officials have said.

    White House insiders told The Washington Post that last year’s failed counter-offensive had exhausted Ukraine and was shaping military plans for 2024.

    “It’s pretty clear that it will be difficult for them to try to mount the same kind of major push on all fronts that they tried to do last year,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

    It’s pretty difficult to avoid the conclusion that this sudden aversion to comments is due to the fact that they have become largely Nottlerised. Even the Spectator threads have become dominated by opposition to the MSM Zeitgeist. I wouldn’t want to become too blasé here but what with the Telegraph leaders latest articles there seems to be some sort of information counter-insurgency beginning.

    PS. No comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/27/ukraine-offensive-russia-war-defence-us/

    1. Ukraine should have been left as a buffer state between Russia and the EU. Any changes should have taken years not months.

      1. Baroness Horse-Face Ashton, Manuel Barrosa and Drunken Juncker had other ideas around 2012 which, followed by the US-sponsored change of government in 2014, sent us down the road to the current conflict. As you suggest, a longer term approach may have worked, but the combination of the Bidens’ Laundrette, the shelling/bombing of the Russian speaking areas, and the fact of the mineral and agricultural wealth Ukraine possesses, outweighed the need for such patience.

      2. Crimea is Russian, it was a darn stupid idea to split it off from Russia – the consequences were totally foreseeable.

    2. The only action worth planning now is a surrender, on favourable terms if possible. Who thought fighting Russia was a good idea? Not those poor bastards who did all the dying, I’m sure.
      So, now Ukraine is exhausted, the West/NATO has no ammunition, yet many people now want to join in with fighting Russia. Why, I have no idea, but I’m damn sure those that want will not be those that die in an IL-76 shot down by their own missiles. Has nobody any idea of the devastation that would result from a war with Russia, even if by some mgical chance it doesn’t become nuclear – and they actively want that? Look at all the newspaper and TV articles preparing for war with Russia… why? What would it achieve?

      1. We should invade Russia ansd impose liberal democracy on them, just like we did in Afghanistan and Iraq. You know it makes sense.

      2. Sadly, a surrender will entail a loss of face, not only for Zelensky and his cabal, but for the likes of Johnson, Sunak, Shapps, Biden and the clowns in the EU hierarchy and is therefore unlikely to happen. As this war is one segment of the globalists’ plan to achieve hegemony over the World’s population by swallowing vast amounts of money, much of it being laundered into certain pockets, it’s unlikely that even an armistice will be on the table. The money deals are bad enough but the alleged bio-weapon laboratories are another elephant in the room for the globalists to try and explain away.

        1. True, there’s nothing more dangerous than a halfwit politician facing embarrassment.

        1. And in the aftermath, what value will the dollars have? To buy what, exactly – a smoking heap of radioactive rubble in Manhattan? Even I can plan better investments than that.

  10. Prommers have good reason to be proud when they sing Rule, Britannia!

    I hope GB news play it every morning along with the national anthem

        3. A superb medley of British and Irish tunes. Any BBC employee found listening to this nowadays would be sacked on the spot. It should be compulsory playing each morning in every Civil Service department, school and university in the UK.

          1. Don’t remember that.
            Very familiar with Lilibolero from Shortwave BBC Radio Newsreel – swishing in and out of tune.

  12. SIR – Looking for a new read on my Kindle, I saw a book described as a “historical thriller”. Not having read anything “historical” for a while, I got it. Imagine my amazement when I found that it was set in the 1960s.

    It really made me feel old.

    Janet Ratcliffe
    Chetnole, Dorset

    Why would it make you feel old? The food you ate for breakfast this morning is now history. Historical and the past are synonymous. Things do not have to be bewigged or dressed in crinoline to be considered “historical”.

    1. Objectively true, Grizelda, but we are subjective beings. It makes us feel old when things that we can clearly remember are treated as history – ir would be strange if it were not so.

      1. When I were nobbut a toddler, Joey, I loathed visits to my maternal crone of a grandmother — a toothless, bearded hag if ever there were one — who seemed to me, even back then, to be a relic of times yore. It was if I were concurrently in the present yet stepping back to an age of feudal austerity whenever I crossed her threshold.

        1. The first geopolitical event that I can recall is the Syez crisis – I clearly remember the picture of scuttled ships in the canal on the front page of my grandmother’s Manchester Guardian. History now, as I shall be all too soon. Have a nice day!

          1. I also recall that. The constant references to President Nasser, on the wireless, made an indelible impression on my developing mind.

        2. My maternal grandmother came to live with us when I was four, not quite five. She was younger than I am now.

          1. My paternal grandmother gave me smiles and cuddles, told me stories of her life, and bought me bars of Fry’s Five Boys chocolate. My paternal grandfather sat me on his knee and dipped fingers of bread into his breakfast egg for me to taste.
            My maternal grandmother smoked like a chimney, had a permanent scowl on her gruesome phsyog, and consistently scolded me. My paternal grandfather appeared never aware of my presence and not once attempted to engage me.

          2. I didn’t know either of my grandfathers – one was long dead and the other died when I was not quite two. My paternal grandmother was a strange woman – I only remember meeting her twice.

          3. You were lucky, Grizzly to have such wonderful grandparents on your father’s side. (A belated Good Morning, btw.)

        3. “Such as thou art, some time was I,

          Such as I am , such shalt thou be.” At a guess, your beloved grandmother would have been in her mid-sixties.

        4. “Such as thou art, some time was I,

          Such as I am , such shalt thou be.” At a guess, your beloved grandmother would have been in her mid-sixties.

    2. The past is a foreign country

      Often cited quotation from The Go Between by L.P. Hartley, who must not be confused with J.R. Hartley, the fly-fisherman.

      https://www.google.com/search?q=J.P.+Hartley+advertisement+fishing&sca_esv=602127938&ei=PCS2ZYKlCbaekdUP74mLkAQ&ved=0ahUKEwiCs5uT6P-DAxU2T6QEHe_EAkIQ4dUDCBA&oq=J.P.+Hartley+advertisement+fishing&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiIkouUC4gSGFydGxleSBhZHZlcnRpc2VtZW50IGZpc2hpbmcyCBAhGKABGMMESLUqUM4KWM4KcAF4AZABAJgBtQGgAbUBqgEDMC4xuAEMyAEA-AEBwgIKEAAYRxjWBBiwA-IDBBgAIEGIBgGQBgc&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ffd4a455,vid:r2TilNclT8k,st:0

  13. Not even 3AM for me and I am up (honest, not late to bed).

    Big fund raising for the local hospital, we have a 24 hour marathon at the curling club and guess who won the 4AM time to play.

    Well, at this time of dayI am going in my jammies.

  14. Good morning all.
    1°C with scattered cloud being turned red by the, currently out of sight, rising sun and little wind.
    DT & self were awake earlier and, as I did mugs of tea for us, there was a very slightly gibbous waning moon visible through scurrying clouds.

    A good letter from Victoria Gillick I think many would agree with:-

    Gillick competence
    SIR – The Law Lords who ruled in the 1985 Gillick case in favour of secret contraception for girls under 16 would be shocked at the dreadful consequences of their misjudgment (“Civil servant says children can ignore parents on puberty blockers”, report, January 14).

    Judge-made law may be beneficial in some cases; but in this instance, Lords Fraser, Scarman and Bridge were culpably naive about the child-harming drift of society even then. For within five years of their libertarian ruling, child grooming gangs had begun sexually abusing the first of thousands of disadvantaged young girls up and down the country.

    According to several of the Serious Case Reviews since 2013, the perpetrators were aided and unwillingly abetted by family planning services misapplying “Gillick comptence” guidelines, and providing the young victims with contraceptives and abortions in complete secrecy, at the behest of their abusers.

    Now we have a partisan Whitehall “diversity ambassador” telling civil servants working in schools that the Lords’ ruling on secret underage contraception should apply equally to doctors seeking to override parental concerns and prescribe puberty blockers to anxious and confused pre-adolescent children, as a precursor to effectively neutering them for life.

    Six years ago the Newcastle Review recommended that the Government should urgently arrange for the principles applied to confidentiality and safeguarding in sexual health settings to be reviewed, and this should entail a national debate. One suggestion might be a straightforward change in law and public policy: set both the medical and sexual age of consent firmly at 16.

    Victoria Gillick
    Lincoln

    1. Considering the demographic how about we just rid ourselves of pakistani muslim paedophile rapists?

      Insist on castration – and not chemical – by default?

  15. Off-topic but glancing at the date, on this day 64 years ago I joined the Royal Air Force as a Boy Entrant aged just 15½ as an under training Air Radar Mechanic. Served for 10 years, 3 of them in Germany where I learned to speak Platt Deutsch. My first posting wasn’t too far from where Bill Thomas now is, at RAF West Raynham.. Fakenham was our nearest Market Town.

      1. I rose to the dizzying rank of Corporal. Offered a commission but turned it down to stay with the lads on the Squadron. Silly but true.

        1. I was born too late to do national service but I rose to the position of having two red stripes on my blue jersey in the naval section of the CCF.

          My English master, Wilfred Brooke-Smith, had been in the RN during the war and he used to read us extracts from his diary. He was put in charge of the naval section and he forgave me my scruffy appearance.

    2. Yo Sir J

      It is 62 years 4 months 17 days, since I joined HMS Fisgard as an Artificer Apprentice

      Handy site 957 years 3 months 14 days since Battle of Hasting

      https://www.calculator.net/date-calculator.html?today=01%2F28%2F2024&ageat=10%2F14%2F1066&calctype=diff&useholiday=1&hdny=1&hdml=1&hdpd=1&hdmd=1&hdjd=1&hdid=1&hdld=1&hdcd=1&hdvd=1&hdtx=1&hdxm=1&n0=&m0=&d0=&n1=&m1=&d1=&n2=&m2=&d2=&n3=&m3=&d3=&n4=&m4=&d4=&n5=&m5=&d5=&n6=&m6=&d6=&n7=&m7=&d7=&n8=&m8=&d8=&n9=&m9=&d9=&n10=&m10=&d10=&n11=&m11=&d11=&n12=&m12=&d12=&n13=&m13=&d13=&n14=&m14=&d14=&n15=&m15=&d15=&n16=&m16=&d16=&n17=&m17=&d17=&n18=&m18=&d18=&n19=&m19=&d19=&x=Calculate

      1. No reluctance to join up in those days to do your duty for Queen and Country. Shit scared during the Cuba Crisis as West Raynham was a prime target for any incoming.

        1. In those days we had a Queen and we had a country.

          Now we have the Idiot King and Britain is no longer our country.

      2. 21st Jan 66 years ago I joined the RAF as an apprentice airframe fitter – served 16 years

    4. In 1955 I did my flying training at Swanton Morley near East Dereham. That is definitely historical.

    5. I didn’t join until 6 September 77, the only times I visited RAF West Raynham was to play them at rugby, for my first posting RAF Brampton (now a new housing estate) though I didn’t play on my first tour there.

    6. Halton, January 1959. Sad that the first stations for Feargal the cat, you, Fallick_Alec, and me are now all closed or are about to close. I guess that this forum in 80 or so years time will have multiple posts of “I joined in 2035” – they won’t need to say at what station as there will be only one of them.

      Edit; to add Delboy36

    7. Can’t remember the dates, but September 1968 I started at Chepstow as an apprentice and moved to 3 Training Regiment in Cove, near Farnborough, in March ’71.

    3. 382471+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      The politico’s of his ilk like medical terms so give them one in every polling station, DNR.

    5. Caroline and I must be amongst the very few who actually got an advantage out of Covid.

      We were not allowed to travel out of France owing to not having been jabbed. We then had the mildest of illnesses – I just had a good day’s sleep and Caroline just carried on as normal. However this gave us a certificate of immunity allowing us to travel so we were able to go to England and to fly to Turkey after all!

      1. 382471+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        Add the one of importance,
        “dangerous” and I am in complete agreement.

      2. Greedy and dishonest too, if the people who say that he made a lot of money out of covid-related companies are correct.

  17. Why it may already be too late for the West to avoid war. 28 January 2024.

    In a dictatorship, such as Russia must surely be regarded, men can be conscripted by force. But in a democracy there must be broad consent, especially among the recruits – otherwise any government that proposed to reintroduce national service would not remain in office for long.

    All conscription is by force. While not perfect Vlad probably has greater democratic legitimacy than either Biden or Sunak.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/28/putin-russia-ukraine-west-avoid-world-war-three/?li_source=LI&li_medium=for_you

    1. I’m not aware of “forced conscription” being practiced in Russia but they are press ganging people off the streets in Ukraine.

  18. Good day all,

    A partly cloudy, red eastern sky made for a beautiful dawn at McPhee Towers today. Wind wafting lightly about South, 2℃ going up to 6℃.

    ‘DIE, whitey’ sinks the Navy.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9bb73bb87a9bc862d83c6ce768e6bc3c228e1d80b45f1e8407dfbbb3aec5e730.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/27/royal-navy-redeploys-sailors-marines-diversity-inclusion/

    I wonder if DIE had anything to do with the embarrasing and expensive ‘dink’ between two RN ships in Bahrein recently?

      1. I wonder if the land-going warships can fire on targets on water?

        They’re all at sea, aren’t they?

      3. I suppose the crew could line up some civil serpents on deck and shout at the other people.
        Or post them parking tickets or ULEZ fines. It works here.

      5. Completely inappropriate vehicles for the job. We need mobile armed drones, say 20 to a vessel that can intercept and destroy the little gun boats used by the Houthi’s. Then the same in the channel to stop the invasion.

    3. Complex systems cannot survive the incompetence crisis.

      Or:

      Hire morons based on diversity and systems fail.

  19. Good BTL Comment on Victoria Gillick’s letter:-

    Kath Temple
    3 MIN AGO
    Excellent letter from Victoria Gillick. As a school governor I raised this subject during a meeting with a school nurse some years ago. The nurse had said that she was prepared to signpost girls under 16 for contraception and abortion, without their parents knowledge, if she felt that they were ‘competent’. I asked if she would do this even if an underage girl disclosed that she was sleeping with a much older man, say a 13 year old with a 23 year old. She said yes and repeated her statement about competency. It was all outlined in her professional duties which were drawn up by the nursing and midwifery council. This is going on up and down the country and it makes our ch

    1. The French keep protesting and fighting against things but the state rams them through anyway.

      1. 382471+ up ticks,

        W,
        Such is civil war,the difference betwixt us is they, currently, are seemingly strangling their “capital city”
        whereas we are continuing to give succour to ours.

    1. The gumball argument is a bit redundant in terms of immigration, it’s at least 15 years old. The conclusion is correct because India, China, and parts of Africa, now have economies that are capable of defeating poverty. With regard to those who invade our shores, quite simply, they should be driven back, refused entry. The developed world needs to have a policy of no economic refugees at all. But in turn we should do as much as possible to help them with our technology and science. As we already have done with, ‘Golden rice’, one example. an invention that has transformed countries where it is grown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_rice

      1. Indeed.
        And the education of women plays a huge part – there’s a strong correlation between the higher a woman is educated, the fewer children she has. Thereby reducing the mouths that need fed and the pressure on resources and space in the world.

        1. Morning Ober. Yes, educating women is one of the main factors in driving down poverty. But there is also a persistent myth that people need to be aware of and that is we are heading for a depopulation crisis, not an overcrowded planet. It is something little discusses because, of course it makes mincemeat of the lefts false ideology about global warming and mot of the lefts other bugbears.

          1. As has happened over the last decades, manpower can be replaced by computers, and machines that do the hard work, often powered by dies… ah! I spot a problem…

      2. Markets defeat poverty. Growth defeats poverty. Engineering defeats poverty.

        All things Lefties hate.

        I disagree that we should give them science or tech. They’ve got to get their of their own accord. We can trade with them for it, but if we remove the incentive they never go through the pain we did, never value it, expand it, develop it. We should, simply leave the third world alone.

      3. I think it would be a good idea if foreign aid was supplied as bricks and mortar and send the lefty experts to instruct them how to build schools, hospitals etc. Only send the teachers, no labourers on the understanding that the recipients turn up each day and, possibly, receive a small payment for every continuous 7 day period they turn up. That small payment would be set marginally above the average wage.
        The trouble is their governments would not allow it as it can’t fund the Swiss bank accounts and Mercedes Benz cars.

    2. Folk refuse to understand that the horde will not stop.

      A weirdly Left wing chum once said ‘I don’t know what it would take to have me strap my son to a lorry and try to get here.’

      I suggested that they stop in France, or any of the myriad of safe countries and apply legally. ‘They wouldn’t get in, and you know it’, chum said.

      ‘Good’, I replied.

      He called me heartless and cruel. I pointed out the violent crimes the criminal invaders are causing ‘ that’s a minority’, I point out the cost ‘We’re a rich country’ – I point to the national debt. He says we have a moral duty. I say ‘OK, let them stay with you?’ – of course, he hasn’t the room. I say yes you have, stick 2 bunk beds in your home office. 6 in your garage. Then he ran out of steam and realised that he would only one particular ones, and then to vet them, and who would pay him for the energy and food and suddenly realisation dawns on him that he wants *other people* to pay but isn’t willing to himself.

      Lefties cannot think rationally. They just seem to think anyone should be able to do anything.

        1. I saw that theory floated on Twitt. With an incentive, anyone who survives gets citizenship. Perhaps they think that will meld the peasantry together in one jolly, united, patriotic group.

  22. Morning all 🙂😊
    Bright but frosty.
    Family lunch at 1 pm.
    It’s not my favourite song but if they want to sing Rule Brittania what’s the problem.
    Those who object should learn to shut up or leave.
    I’ll always prefer, And did those feet in ancient time walk upon pastures green……
    But England’s green and pleasant land is currently being deliberately wrecked by our idiots in Wastemonster.

    1. Lovely morning for the drive to Cheltenham and back – OH is now in for the day for his cardioversion. Fingers crossed it will work.

        1. Thankyou – all seems to be in order, he’s home and having a rest now. My little car has done more miles today than it usually does in a month these days.

      3. I really hope it works for him, good luck is not the right expression but my best wishes to you both. x

        1. Thanks Eddy – he seems to be ok – the nurse said it went well and the normal sinus rythm was back. He had an ECG before and after but he said they didn’t tell him the results for the BP and pulse rate. But his BP has never been an issue and he can check the pulse himself with his watch.

      4. I hope it works well. My dear wife has been diagnosed with AF and COPD. After the cardiologist got the results of a 24 hour heart monitor he phoned her at home and said she is almost permanently in AF and he will get her in within two months to perform a catheter ablation to regulate the heart.
        She is having a CT scan on Tuesday.
        She is only73 and I am rather frightened.

        1. These things where one has little expertise and no control, where the outcome could be bad, are terrifying. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for her, Delboy. It sounds awful, but she’s young yet – barely run in.

          1. It’s not awful it’s a life changer back to normal. I’ve responded to Delboy, you might like to read it.

          2. I don’t think Delboy is worried about “back to normal”, but a negative outcome. As I would, in his position.

          3. I have always thought positively as I believe positive things happen to positive people.

        2. I hope it works for her Delboy.
          If it’s any help I had the catheter ablation in October 2014 after 10 months and 12 episodes lasting between 2 and 17 hours. I have not had any trouble since. I was 68 then. All my episodes self corrected and I was taken to A&E on 3 occasions but self discharged when I went back into rhythm. I had my ablation under local anaesthetic, in ant 7.30 anm, out at 6.30 pm. Rest for 2 days.
          Don’t know if you’ve seen this but it may help to alleviate your fears. If you would like more info will be pleased to answer any questions from a patient’s experience.
          I forgot to add link.
          https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-matters-magazine/medical/catheter-ablation

        3. Delboy, so long as it remains as AF (Atrial Fibrillation) not too much of a problem. I had a straight line VF (Ventricle Fibrillation) in 2002 and it killed me. Brought back with the battery charger. Let’s hope no such drastic measures are needed with your dear lady wife.

        4. I hope that goes well – Ready Eddy had that done last summer – he seemed to recover quickly. My OH was done more quickly than I expected and I set off to collect him just after midday.

          It seems to be a very common problem. There were half a dozen or so chaps in the ward he was in today.

        1. I think it did – the nurse said so anyway. He’s a bit tired but ok and having a rest now.

        1. He’s home now! All done and dusted earlier than I expected. We left the hospital about 1pm.

      1. It’s not the English way (or, at least, it wasn’t) to boast.
        Now, everybody hates the English for all the horrors of civilisation we brought to the world, so no anthem.

      3. My old school hymn.
        Highbury County Grammar School for Boys. Can you imagine a school with a name like that now?

          1. Left aged 15 but I’m sure that what I gleaned from my education enabled me to do well in my 50 years at work.

        3. Briefly, because of moving, went to the Sir John Moore School for Boys. Just looked it up and I see no trace of it. No doubt razed to the ground by pitchfork wielding feminists.

          1. My old school turned into Highbury Grove Comprehensive and its first Head Master was Rhodes Boyson. That was some years after I left.

          2. My first UK school, Neville Holt, was felled a few years after I left by a kiddyfiddler as teacher of Geography – Mr Clements. A creepy man who looked the stereotype of, well, a kiddyfiddler. It’s now the residence of the owner of Carphone Warehouse. Stable block, own church, attached tiny village.

          5. Same as my Bungay Grammar School (Founded in 1565 for boys). Now Bungay High School (foundered in 1965) – a mixed comprehensive incorporating Bungay Secondary Modern School.

          1. My secondary Modern became a Middle School when the Duke’s Boys Grammar School in Alnwick became a comprehensive and all the over 13 pupils were forced to catch the bus for the best part of an hour journey each way.
            The Dutchess Girls Grammar became a mixed middle school.

      4. We (a group of English students) sang Jerusalem in the Vistavka (the Exhibition) in Moscow. We attracted quite an audience and at the end, the Russians all applauded.

        1. It is, to me, the most beautiful of English patriotic songs. And expresses a wish about how we see or would like our country to be. The shining beacon on the hill.

    3. There was a good letter in today’s paper about a young Cornish lad in the early 1700s being abducted by the Musselmen and escaping after 32 years. Think it inspired the lyrics. But i did read the letter 4 hours ago and my memory isn’t too good🙂

      1. His harrowing story is reported in detail in the book ‘White Gold’ by Giles Milton. Highly recommended.

  23. Danny Sapani: ‘A black actor can play Churchill, but it needs to work both ways’
    As he prepares to tackle King Lear at the Almeida, the actor talks about casting, Shakespeare and mortality
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/danny-sapani-interview/

    Don’t tell me: Miriam Margolyes is currently auditioning for the role of Juliet is a RSC production of Romeo and Juliet and Jo Brand is auditioning for the role of Usain Bolt in a TV docudrama.

    3. There’s no balcony strong enough.
      I often wonder if it’s ever been considered how much damage insisted diversity has actually done to advertising and audience participation.
      It’s no good the Dopey Wokies lifting the proverbial carpet for another shove under of the facts. The pile has never been higher.

      1. Ask Budweiser ($395m), Gilette ($5bn in quarterly sales), Disney ($900m) – no one wants woke.

        It’s not enough though. The wokers must be erased, permanently.

        1. Are they experiencing losses ?
          I just wonder how many extra people are watching obviously rigged wokey TV programmes.
          And keep a watch out for the new 007.

    6. I’m waiting to see a film or play which casts the first white actor to play the part of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

      1. The original Martin Luther King, who nailed his edict to the door of Worms (Vurms) Cathedral, while the Imperial Diet (assembly) was in session in 1521 was undoubtedly white.

    7. I don’t know the context of this, Rastus, but surely Mr Sapani”s comment that things should work both ways, rather than “blacks can portray whites but not the other way round”, is a step in the right direction?

      1. Personally I see no point in blacks playing whites or whites playing blacks. If they are playing real people stop messing with history.

  24. Danny Sapani: ‘A black actor can play Churchill, but it needs to work both ways’
    As he prepares to tackle King Lear at the Almeida, the actor talks about casting, Shakespeare and mortality
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/theatre/what-to-see/danny-sapani-interview/

    Don’t tell me: Miriam Margolyes is currently auditioning for the role of Juliet is a RSC production of Romeo and Juliet and Jo Brand is auditioning for the role of Usain Bolt in a TV docudrama.

    2. Anyone working the drill floor (un)dressed like that, or taking a ride on a rope, would be run off and sent home, never to return.

      2. I worked as a roustabout on a rig in the North Sea in the 1960s when I was a student at UEA. The American company I was with was very strict on safety and indeed bonuses were paid to workers when there were no accidents.

        The roustabouts were the bottom of the pile – manual, unskilled workers. The next step up were the roughnecks who handled the drilling tubes, then the derrickmen at the top and the overseer is called the tool pusher. In addition there are the geologists, divers, kitchen staff etc. etc..

        I found this song about drilling rig hierarchy on the internet – well worth a listen:

        https://www.google.com/search?q=Rig+workers%3A+roustabouts%2C+roughnecks.+derrivkmen%2C+toolpushers&oq=Rig+workers%3A+roustabouts%2C+roughnecks.+derrivkmen%2C+toolpushers+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCTQyNjU4ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:6bff3da4,vid:2u6UBCB3HVo,st:0

        1. Indeed.
          I joined the oil & gas industry in 1980 and first went offshore the same year.

    3. This isn’t that women *cannot* do these jobs. They choose not to do them. Something you always get from Left feminists is ‘there are not enough women in board roooms. These jobs should be subject to quota’. Which is basically we want a free ride without earning it.

      They don’t want the crappy work, just the cushy ones. How about mandatory women and effnics in, say, sewage clearance? It’s mostly them causing it after all.

      1. Yes and no. Some of those jobs require brute strength, stamina and endurance which women simply do not possess.

    1. For the amount of effort the state has put into trying to silence Tommy Robinson htey could have smashed every pakistani muslim paedophile rapipst ring in every city.

      Goodness knows how many there are in London, getting away with it thanks to the scum Khan protecting them.

      1. 382471+ up ticks,

        W,

        “They could have smashed every muslim / paedophile ring in the city” surely that would have been labelled
        racist, and working against the RESET grain.

    1. Mr Bridgen, what did you expect? Honesty? Fairness? Accountability? Democracy?

      Just where do you think you are? The mother of Parliaments?

  28. A depressingly accurate observation in DT letter today from Matthew Biddlecombe:

    Has anyone looked at some of the headlines on the Telegraph homepage this morning?
    “Disbelief as under-manned Royal Navy seeks to redeploy officers to diversity and inclusion team.”
    “Lawyer threatened with arrest for driving van with anti-BBC and Gary Lineker slogans.”
    “Terrorist money launderers have the right to social housing, says government minister.”
    “Mother’s anger after woman who stabbed schoolgirl five times walks free from court.”
    “BBC accused of identity politics with £50k grant scheme aimed at woke comedy.”
    “Girls allegedly encouraged to bind or remove beasts through surgery on NSPCC chatrooms.”
    “Petrol and diesel prices must rise to pay for Net Zero.”
    All this has either happened, or proliferated, under 14 years of Conservative rule, yet there are still those who advocate voting for them come the next general election.
    How did we sink so low?

    [130 Upvotes at 1130 GMT]

    and a BTL

    Who are ‘we‘?
    And now the government talks of introducing conscription to defend ‘our” country.
    But do ‘we’ have a country that is ‘ours’ any more?

    1. I thought exactly the same. Read the paper early and have just been on a 3 hour walk and was going to post about all the articles in today’s paper. It is stuffed with articles like this. Good old Mr Biddlecombe.

    2. I thought exactly the same. Read the paper early and have just been on a 3 hour walk and was going to post about all the articles in today’s paper. It is stuffed with articles like this. Good old Mr Biddlecombe.

    3. The state sank us below the waterline. It’s not our fault. The simple thing is to remove the HRA from statute. Just get rid of it. Then the DIE nonsense goes away. Another problem we face is the protections and securities the state – judges, lawyers, Lefties all – have from the sewage they propose to help by letting off.

      Ending welfare would also be very conducive to solving the majority of our problems.

  29. A depressingly accurate observation in DT letter today from Matthew Biddlecombe:

    Has anyone looked at some of the headlines on the Telegraph homepage this morning?
    “Disbelief as under-manned Royal Navy seeks to redeploy officers to diversity and inclusion team.”
    “Lawyer threatened with arrest for driving van with anti-BBC and Gary Lineker slogans.”
    “Terrorist money launderers have the right to social housing, says government minister.”
    “Mother’s anger after woman who stabbed schoolgirl five times walks free from court.”
    “BBC accused of identity politics with £50k grant scheme aimed at woke comedy.”
    “Girls allegedly encouraged to bind or remove beasts through surgery on NSPCC chatrooms.”
    “Petrol and diesel prices must rise to pay for Net Zero.”
    All this has either happened, or proliferated, under 14 years of Conservative rule, yet there are still those who advocate voting for them come the next general election.
    How did we sink so low?

    [130 Upvotes at 1130 GMT]

    and a BTL

    Who are ‘we‘?
    And now the government talks of introducing conscription to defend ‘our” country.
    But do ‘we’ have a country that is ‘ours’ any more?

    2. White men ? As are all the Garbage collectors.
      No forms of diversity in certain areas of careful selection.
      If you look at the BBC TV centre back ground in London. 90% of the employees behind the desks ate white people 90% of the presenters are not. We went to a concert there a few years ago and could see the floor below from the restaurant.

  33. Been away – computer problems – refused to print. Luckily brain on legs nephew was available to sort it out remotely. Took him nearly an hour. God knows what that would have cost if I had had to go to a computer repair shop.

    Chilly out still.

    1. I refuse to look a printers professionally. We’ve one here on sufferance to print letters but that’s set up and never, ever going to be changed because half the time the Macs don’t print to it, the Linux boxes lose it and the Windows driver for it are 500MB and include a blasted image control program, SQL database and all sorts of other nonsense that have no business being in a driver.

      1. Funny – that’s what Tim said, too. His first words were: “Bloody printer drivers”.

        1. Er, the other day I mentioned an Adobe font which has security features; it is possible that similar tricks are embedded within most printer driver software.

  34. The letter on Rule Britannia:

    “ – The cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason describes feeling uncomfortable about the playing of Rule, Britannia! at the Last Night of the Proms (report, January 21).
    Perhaps if there was wider awareness of the origins of these words, minds might be set to rest.
    Rule, Britannia! was inspired by a lad from Penryn, Cornwall. Thomas Pellow was 11 years old and on his first sea voyage with his uncle when they were captured by Barbary pirates and taken into horrific, cruel, brutal slavery under Sultan Moulay Ismail in North Africa. Pellow was one of over a million Europeans who were enslaved in North Africa between the 16th and 19th centuries.
    After 23 years he made his escape and returned to Penryn in 1737. He wrote a book about his enslavement, which helped inspire a poem by James Thomson. This was then set to music by Thomas Arne in 1740.
    So, Rule, Britannia! is an exhortation – a command to the Royal Navy to prevent Britons being enslaved by pirates who captured our ships, raided our shores and put fear into many coastal communities over a good many years.
    Peter A Fish
    Truro, Cornwall”

  35. Had to post this. I readily admit to doing it as a form of gloating. Making sure that everyone gets to read it. Most unchristian of me but 😁

    Ukraine uncovers massive arms fraud worth £32m that robbed it of nearly 100,000 shells
    Five people from the military and an arms supplier are allegedly involved in the plot that took payment for shells but never delivered them

    Ukraine has uncovered a massive corruption scheme worth more than $40 million (£32 million) that has defrauded the country out of vital military supplies.

    The SBU, Ukraine’s security service, said on Saturday that it has discovered a mass procurement fraud involved in the purchase of nearly 100,000 mortar shells, the latest in a number of corruption cases to have dogged Kyiv’s military.

    The agency said an investigation had “exposed officials of the Ministry of Defence and managers of arms supplier Lviv Arsenal, who stole nearly 1.5 billion hryvnias in the purchase of shells.”

    The fraud, which was confirmed by Ukraine’s defence ministry, involves former and current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defence and heads of affiliated companies, the SDU said.

    Five individuals from the ministry and the arms supplier had been served “notices of suspicion” – the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings – and one suspect has been detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border.

    The SDU said a contract for the shells was agreed with Lviv Arsenal in August 2022 – six months into the war with Russia – and payment was made in advance, with some funds transferred abroad.

    But the SDU said that no arms were ever provided, with some funds then moved to other foreign accounts.

    The fight to root out endemic corruption remains a major issue as Ukraine presses its bid to secure membership in the European Union and maintain morale as the war with Russia approaches its third year.

    Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov was dismissed last September over various corruption cases despite enjoying his reputation in representing Ukraine in its discussions with Western allies.

    Although he was not alleged to have engaged personally in corruption, several cases hit the military under his stewardship, one for supplying troops with food, another for over-procuring suitable clothing for troops.

    1. Scotland has only itself to blame for this steaming pile of shyte replacing the previous one.

    2. Looks like the sooner Scotland becomes an independent nation and they can fund all these crazed ideas themselves, join the UN, WI and EU, and quickly go broke, the better. Their politicos only heap insults upon those that fund the Barnett formula, so delete it.

    3. It just demonstrates the complete lack of democratic accountability in this country What on Earth yousef thinks he is doing or what gives him this right is beyond me.

      1. He is full of the carp which comes from being a jumped-up call centre cretin of the muzz ‘faith’. He and his ghastly wife, who are dealing with the falloot from his Convid philandering, are a complete and utter joke.

    4. Morning all.

      HMG should revoke the Ambassador’s credentials and refuse him entry. Humza is a menace. And, BTW, how does the EU have an Ambassador as EU is not a country. In any case refuse him entry.

      Edit: Humza

      1. A ‘menace’!! Fabulous understatement! He is a dangerous Muslim bast**d! He paid £750,000 from the ‘Scottish gubmint’ to Hamas to get the parents of his horrible wife out of Gaza, who had been there ‘on holiday’! Her brother ‘a doctor’ is still there!

    5. Morning all.

      HMG should revoke the Ambassador’s credentials and refuse him entry. Humza is a menace. And, BTW, how does the EU have an Ambassador as EU is not a country. In any case refuse him entry.

      Edit: Humza

  38. The malign influence of this man
    Fox News
    George Soros pours millions into Texas in hopes of shifting power to Dems
    The financier has recently donated over $3M to at least five left-wing groups in the Lone Star State

    1. Why do people like this never die young?
      Obviously not had any experimental injections.

      2. The problem is his spawn, I won’t use the word ‘children’ are just as bad, if not, incredibly, worse.

    1. Good day to you! (Solves the time difference thing 🤣).

      Reet good; ta! Thassen?

      Today’s joy will be a lesson with a Braziliam couple. She’s am absolute force of nature and I am delighting in her philosophy of dance. He’s shy, hugely overweight and such an extraordinarily good leader that I fizz when dancing with him. 🙂🙂

  41. S.S. Flora.

    Complement:
    25 (25 dead – no survivors)

    At 20.00 hours on 28th January 1940 U-44 (Ludwig Mathes) fired one G7e from a stern torpedo tube at a southbound Greek steamer in clear weather about 200 miles west of Figueira da Foz and reported that the ship sank by the stern within nine minutes after being hit aft. This must have been the Flora which was reported missing after leaving The Downs on 22nd January.

    Type IX U-Boat U-44 was sunk on or about 13th March 1940 in the North Sea north off Terschelling by a mine in the British minefield Field No. 7, laid by the British destroyers HMS Express, HMS Esk, HMS Icarus and HMS Impulsive. 47 dead (all hands lost).

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/gr/flora.jpg

      1. The ships with cargos of ore, coal, or steel were worse sometimes than the ammunition ships and oil tankers.

    2. The owner’s company is still in existence, E Nomikos. Mr Nomikos (1902-1985) liked Santorini.

  42. Under Biden, America has entered its darkest chapter in history

    The US has become an archipelago of darkness and chaos, and it’s at breaking point Zoë Strimpel.

    The US has always had bits so horrifying that too close a look could leave your face permanently frozen in horror. When I was growing up in a relatively enlightened Massachusetts in the 1980s and 1990s, there was the spectre of police brutality and racism – you couldn’t miss it, from park benches in Boston where black men were hassled and taunted to the casual, unprofessional menace of the local force.

    Opioid addiction is out of control. Abortion rights at the federal level were overturned in 2022, instantly triggering their savage removal in 21 states, most of which have implemented total bans and criminalisation of anyone seen to aid and abet terminations. Horrendous, entirely predictable stories of desperate pregnant women nearly dying thanks to the scrapping of Roe v Wade have kept coming. It’s Handmaid’s Tale stuff.

    But there’s more. Much more. And it’s all worsened under the man who was meant to save America from the cartoonish parallel universe of crudeness, relentless bombast, stupidity and criminality represented by Trump and his fanboys. Under Joe Biden, despite a marked increase in civility and experience, domestic problems are worse than ever. America has become an archipelago of darkness and chaos, and it’s at breaking point.

    Unless Biden goes, or morphs into someone else – which he won’t – Trump is certainly next, with civil war and the end of the Republic as we know it as possible results. After all, the would-be president has said he would try to alter the constitution so he could stay in power indefinitely.

    It all could have been avoided. Had Hillary Clinton not been felled by the spread of conspiracy theory and her failure to take Trump seriously, things could have been better for America, and the world, since 2016.

    Instead, they have been worse and worse, under Trump and now under the fatal figure of Biden, wisened and doddery to the degree that even those of us who want to credit him with good work over a long life of service can’t help but quail and clutch our heads.

    Under Biden’s watch, America’s migration mess has turned nightmarish. The US is fundamentally a country of immigrants, and it ought to have an outward facing, open attitude towards newcomers. But that doesn’t mean it should simply let in millions who fancy a go, not all of whom are hardworking migrants desperate to do their best.

    This week, thanks to a dramatic standoff between the Texas governor Greg Abbott and Biden’s government over illegal migration, a glaring neon light has been shone on the severity of the problem. Abbott, whose aggressive stance is supported by two dozen other Republican governors who have thanked him for “stepping up to protect American citizens”, has installed razor wire along a 30-mile stretch of the border (which the Supreme Court has disallowed), ordered the installation of floating barriers in the Rio Grande river (ditto), and detained thousands of “illegals” on trespassing charges (again, ditto). He has also been bussing migrants by the thousands to liberal soft-touch cities like New York and Chicago where they have created chaos, danger and disruption by drawing on resources and populations completely unprepared for them. Many feel that their rights as tax-paying residents are entirely superseded by those of the new arrivals.

    I am reasonably proimmigration, and think migrants from anywhere and everywhere can revitalise a country. But it matters who they are. Are they do-gooders or do-badders? Are they looking to be grateful and work hard in their new home, or to exploit and harm it? These problems are dogging Britain and they are dogging America, where the stakes could not be higher.

    As former FBI top dogs Kevin Brock and Chris Swecker wrote in a recent letter to the Speaker of the House and chairs of the Committees of Intelligence and Homeland Security: “In modern history the US has never suffered an invasion of the homeland and, yet, one is unfolding now… It would be difficult to overstate the danger represented by the presence inside our borders of what is comparatively a multidivision army of young single adult males from hostile nations and regions whose background, intent or allegiance is completely unknown.”

    Quite. But geopolitically as well as domestically, Biden has been too busy cutting off America’s nose

    to spite its face to have done anything much about it.

    While his handling of Ukraine and Israel has been fairly sophisticated, he hastened to sweet-talk Iran into more talks about its nuclear ambitions – a fool’s errand given how the evil regime is repaying him in the Red Sea and beyond. He has sent huge aid packages to Gaza since taking office, where according to some reports it promptly went into the hands of Hamas terrorists and helped fuel the October 7 attacks.

    You really mean, “Under the gormless puppet, Biden, and his nefarious Globalist string-pullers, America has entered its darkest chapter in history”.

    1. … migrants by the thousands to liberal soft-touch cities like New York and Chicago where they have created chaos, danger and disruption by drawing on resources and populations completely unprepared for them. Many feel that their rights as tax-paying residents are entirely superseded by those of the new arrivals.

      Not so much fun when it’s on your doorstep and you are the one doing the paying, is it?

      1. Those allowing unlimited immigration are banking on unlimited votes – Unlimited votes will constitute a single party dictatorship.

        Is Ms Strimple serious when she writes?:”Had Hillary Clinton not been felled by the spread of conspiracy theory and her failure to take Trump seriously, things could have been better for America, and the world, since 2016.”

        I seem to be living in a one of those different multi-universes!

    2. Sorry, that’s just a mish-mash of left wing stereotypes, myths and beliefs with no original input.

        1. Not criticising you, but the low standards at the Telegraph these days (assume it’s from there).

          1. I didn’t think for one second that you were.

            Sunday Telegraph. They have a cartel of female columnists who contribute … er … not a lot.

    3. “Desperate pregnant women nearly dying”. Strimpel, you and Biden’s handlers are on the same side dear. They want infanticide too and like you, they invent spurious reasons to justify their murderous intent. As for Trump altering the constitution to stay in power indefinitely. What the hell is she taking? Delusions R Us.

  43. 382471+ up ticks,

    The “blob”have been openly operational as a political overseeing
    ( kapos) cartel since 24/6/2016 and their actions have always been pro eu.

    Dt,

    If Government fails to seize the benefits of Brexit, the Blob will drag us back into the bloc
    Already, it looks as though officials are deliberately holding the door ajar for Starmer to tie us closer to the EU

      1. 382471+ up ticks,

        Afternoon JFB,
        Not in the least, I was long term UKIP and was calling post referendum, keep UKIP
        powered up as a safeguard,
        that fell on deaf ears the electorate returned to the comforting bosom of ” their party” aka the lab/lib/con coalition pro eu party.

        fools & their countries are soon parted.

  45. An interesting little conspiracy scam doing the rounds just now, involving ITV political correspondent and former BBC economic correspondent Robert Peston.

    It revolves around insider trading operating on the deregulated automatic online trading systems that took over from blokes in bowlers shouting at one another. It operates in a similar way to Horizon, which enabled Post Office executives and their compliant lobbied parliamentarians to defraud sub-post offices for decades with impunity.

    It seems that software developers deliberately built in a back door algorithm that enables those in the know to tap into global finance trading systems and buy low and sell high in an instant. This can be done in microseconds, so that lumbering regulatory systems would not detect it. By the time of an Inquiry, the birds would have long flown the nest. The sums involved are debited from vulnerable clients, such as small businesses, and covered as “professional fees” if challenged. Money ratcheted up then goes into a secret account, which then can be drawn on and closed if anyone comes sniffing.

    Since all this sort of thing was deregulated under provision of “Big Bang” and approved by followers of the Laffer Curve who insist that this is “market forces” with no right for the public to intervene, it is immune from legal challenge, and indeed few if any complicit in the Great Fraud of 2008 were ever held to account, and eventually it was the taxpayer and savers that shouldered the loss.

    What Peston did, it seems, was unwittingly to reveal a way into the system on live TV. It then went viral, so that anyone with access to the internet could become millionaires in a couple of months with an initial punt of £200. A D-Notice was slapped on Peston immediately, his show went to an ad break, but by then the damage was done.

    If this becomes mainstream, then this form of quantitative easing may well trash the value of money itself. No wonder today’s pound is only worth the sixpence of my childhood!

    Of course, this may be simply a sophisticated version of the Nigerian Prince scam and no threat to anyone except gullible idiots.

    The Government responded by proposing that cash and old-fashioned money be replaced by a Bitcoin operating purely on their automated systems. That way, few people would get to hear about it, PR officers can insist that the system is “robust”, and the public need not worry their silly little heads about being defrauded.

    Do I get the feeling the world is being run by organised criminals? Why should I have any confidence in them?

    1. My default reaction to this kind of thing is “yeah, right!”, but I’d have said that about LDI if you’d told me about it before it hit the fan.

    3. Absolutely wonderful! Who knew mummy ducks could count!!🦆 I know! It’s not a mummy duck!

    6. That is lovely.

      But really Mummy Duck. That’s a lot of ducklings to lose down a drain.

    1. Had some good lads and girls working in the lab in PH, apart from a few tribal differences. When I worked in marine seismic though, we had to employ some Nigerian graduates, a company policy. They all thought they were princes and princesses, lousy workers.

  51. Two teenagers aged 15 and 16 stabbed to death in Bristol. 28 January 2024.

    A murder investigation has been launched after two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, were stabbed to death in Bristol.

    Police were called to the Knowle West area of south Bristol at around 11.20pm on Saturday following reports that two boys had been attacked by several people, who then made off in a car.

    They discovered the two boys, who had both sustained stab wounds, and, after emergency first aid had been administered, the boys were rushed to two separate hospitals by ambulance, where they were both pronounced dead in the early hours of Sunday morning.

    Nothing new here!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/28/two-teenagers-died-stabbed-bristol/

  52. BBC’s John Simpson reveals he was ‘terribly upset’ after learning his ex-lover at the Beeb was Soviet Bloc agent spying for the Czechs. D Fail
    Javorská was 29 when Mr Simpson, then political editor, first met the ‘beautiful and intelligent spy’ in October 1980 while the pair were reporting on the Conservative Party Conference.
    “I was gobsmacked”, said Simpson. “She was being paid by the BBC and the Czech government, I was doing it for the Soviets for nothing”. There is no justice in this world.

    1. Serco are as trustworthy as the Fujitsu-Post Office gang. If any landlord believes that the company will pay repairs after a five year let, I have a Bailey bridge to sell them.

  54. SIR – Rachel Johnson portrays marriage as full of doom and gloom (“‘My kids have left home and my husband thinks it’s an opportunity to reinvent our sex life. Help!’”, Sunday, January 21).

    There are plenty of women continuing to enjoy fulfilling sex lives with their partners in later life, and who “want to rip their chap’s clothes off with their teeth”. But others, like Mrs MW, who wrote to Ms Johnson, might not be – and may need a little helpful advice on how best to get there, if they want to.

    I feel sad to think of any young people being put off marriage completely. I hope they will discover that they don’t all end up this way.

    Lesley Bowman
    Bath, Somerset

    I closed my eyes for a few moments , sighed and remembered…

    1. Belle, get yourself a lover for golf days. Which seems like every day. He obviously doesn’t want to spend any time with you.

      Is that Boris Johnson’s sister? I pity her husband.

  55. Have just begun my restrictive diet prior to the colonoscopy. All the things ‘they’ tell you not to eat. White rice, white bread, potatoes, sugary cereals, cakes and custard creams. No fruit or veg. And no bits in anything. And on Tuesday i’m not allowed to eat anything at all.
    My dentist insists i eat before seeing him as on two occasions he has had to give me glucose because i was about to faint.
    Wednesday is going to be fun. Not !

    1. Hope you survive the diet and all goes well on Wednesday. OH was rather hungry when we got home this afternoon.

      3. Bovril and vodka? Does that work? I have a hot bovril at work every day (afternoon). Could i slip a slug of vodka in? Seriously? Sounds yeuch!!

    3. Glad you have to give white mice a miss…

      Anyway – just imagine that you are Fishi Rishi – he fasts for 36 hours every week…..

          2. On the food free day on Tuesday i have two lots of laxatives to take. A litre at 6pm and a litre at 8pm. I will be wearing Tena’s on Wednesday.

    5. I sympathise, Pip. You can have ice cream. I don’t normally eat ice cream, although I like it (too fattening), so that was the only plus to the diet. After my colonoscopy they wouldn’t let me get up because my blood pressure was too low. Eventually they twigged that I hadn’t had anything to eat for 24 hours and nothing to drink for more than 12. After a sandwich and several drinks I was finally released. As if that weren’t enough, they snipped off a polyp and “couldn’t capture it” so it was never sent for biopsy. The best they could say was that they didn’t THINK it looked abnormal. Envy of the world? Not in Salop. Hope you have better luck.

      1. Thanks. Ice cream diet it is then. Though because of my gall stones it will have to be low fat. Bugger !

  56. Soup thrown at the Mona Lisa by climate protesters. 28 January 2024.

    Mona Lisa, the 16th-century painting by Leonardo da Vinci, is the star attraction of the Louvre, which is the most-visited museum in the world and attracted nearly nine million visitors in 2023.

    The status of this painting, even without the soup, is a mystery to me. I wouldn’t hang it up in the toilet.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/28/mona-lisa-attack-soup-climate-protesters-louvre-paris/

    1. Clever people know why it’s so good. Are you not a clever person? (See also in this respect the obvious virtues of mass immigration.)

        1. Professional critics will praise a film for different things than what the audience (real people) is looking for. Even if those same critics didn’t enjoy it all that much. Which is why i completely ignore their views and go on what the audience vote was. If audience scores 80% on Rotten Tomatoes it’s usually watchable.

    2. When i saw the queue for the Louvre i gave it a swerve. Went up the Eiffel tower instead. I hear it’s very tiny. So the loo would probably be the best place for it.

      1. The activists were identified as Sasha, 24, and Marie-Juliette, 63. Their Food Response movement is part of the wider, disruptive climate campaign group A22 Network, which also includes Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.

        It presents itself as a “French civil resistance campaign which aims to bring about a radical change in society on a climatic and social level”.

        Amongst their demands, the collective calls for France to bolster its social security system and provide citizens with a €150 (£130) allowance for healthy, sustainable food.

        They seem to be from the Completely Unhinged wing of the Total Nutters.

        1. ‘They seem to be from the Completely Unhinged wing of the Total Nutters.’

          You almost got the acronym right.

        2. My confusion is caused by that label, “ healthy, sustainable food.”
          On the face of it that sounds reasonable. I presume their definition would be a very different one to Nottlers’ ones..

          1. I doubt they’d be advocating eating bambi, no matter how healthy and sustainable venison might be.

    4. I saw it in 1977. I was astonished at how small it is.

      That soup would not hurt it since it is housed behind very thick, bullet-proof glass in a box.

  57. It’s ten years since we moved into our cottage, and I opened up a part of the roof space today that is supposed to be used for storage, but I never had the courage to tackle up til now. There was an old wooden chest in it…cue much talk of hidden gold or dead bodies…it turned out to contain a local newspaper from 1974.

    Nixon was the US president, and there was trouble between Israel and the Palestinians….

    Several very handy spare roof tiles up there too, a 1970s telephone and a wonderful 1970s glass light fitting.

  58. The world’s largest cruise ship has set sail from Miami, Florida, on its maiden voyage. BBC
    The 365m-long (1,197 ft) Icon of the Seas has 20 decks and can house a maximum of 7,600 passengers. It is owned by Royal Caribbean Group.
    The vessel is going on a seven-day island-hopping voyage in the tropics then will be deployed in the English Channel for a year or two to relief the hard-pressed and overworked RNLI and Coastguards who have worked ceaselessly to rescue immigrants fleeing starvation and oppression in France and other EU dictatorships.

    https://www.winnmediaskn.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Icon-of-the-Seas-768×879.jpg

      1. If there were 6 of those things , asylum seekers could be accommodated , just sail them into Houthi territory , no ifs no buts .

        It would stop all the whingeing about Rwanda.

        1. Probably a lot cheaper to…

          ”Congratulations you’ve won an all inclusive 5 star 10 day cruise around the Med” Only Halal cuisine. Luxury accommodation.. Chauffeur service to Southampton port of departure……

      1. Artist’s impression, I shouldn’t wonder.

        As I get seasick in a rowing boat on a municipal lake…nothing, NOTHING would persuade me to go aboard this floating biscuit tin.

        I recall last back end a “huge” pleasure cruiser was struck by an enormous wave in the North Sea and lost all power. Amazingly only one passenger was injured though a huge amount of interior damage was sustained when the “weatherproof” windows were smashed.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GCW2Rm1Or0

        1. Only been seasick once, on a Danish ferry between two islands, calm as can be but I really suffered. Been on long distant violent trips in military boats but it never bothered me.

      1. If Hell is other people, what sort of torment would be meted out by being confined in effectively a floating tin can with thousands of others you can’t escape from?

      1. Been decades since I last saw a traditional snowman, with black eyes, buttons, and a carrot nose!
        Really nice to see!

      1. Opening tins, you mean? SWMBO is away on business, and I’m not so excited about food these days.

  61. Five-year-old girl among North African migrants caught being smuggled out of Britain to France in back of HGV by Russian lorry driver D Fail

    What a load of bow-locks. Obviously just brought them in and drove down the wrong road to exit. All will be given protection and awarded damages for the inconvenience and suffering whilst waiting for a five star hotel to be allocated.

  62. Thank you. I’ll be okay. Fried eggs over mash potato isn’t so bad.
    How was his procedure? Do you know straight away or do you have to wait for further tests?

    1. The nurse said all was well – he had an ECG before and after and sinus rhythm was restored. He can drop some of the medication and reduce another. He’s having a rest now – the sedative has made him a bit drowsy.

  65. Just back from 2½ mile walk. Sunny breezy – but very agreeable. Nearly 6,000 steps! The dear old MR “encourages” me to go out most days. Once togged up and booted and spurred – it is well worthwhile.

  68. Don’t like to mention it, but if you want to play death toll bingo Christianity and Catholicism are up there as well.

    I don’t think the muslims come here to rape women. I think they come here because we give them money for nothing – the chicks are free, to paraphrase Dire Straits.

      1. Tell me about those ‘free liberal lax laws’ if you are able to, Maggie.

        I’ve not come across them in the 12 years I’ve lived here.

    3. As Bob says, they come here to subdue a Christian country. Kuffar women are only fit for slavery and to take pleasure from, so I think they do come here to rape women (they justify it as being fair game and the women aren’t hidden in bin bags so they are considered “loose”).

  69. Just back from the woods with the twins and mad Harry, the cockapoo! The boys loved it, and Harry has lovely black socks – up to his oxters! So much fresh air and jumping in ditches, picking up leaves and swinging on branches! We forget the simple stuff and we even saw a red squirrel – but not for long! We’ve been out for 2 hours and the boys are knackered! And Grandpa is snoring!

  70. I made a mistake in buying a 5 ltr box of cheap red wine. It is a little sharp, I am having to modify it with a good dose of vintage port – Not such a bad mistake as I first thought! Good Health, hic!!!

        1. We used to buy “Cubies”

          5 Litre squarish containers (so they could fit on a pallet) for 5 Francs.

          When empty, we used the containers to hold the awning skirt down.

    3. I never buy wine boxes: can’t see wot you got; can’t see wot’s left!

      My present fav is an Aus. Shiraz: ‘Taparoo Valley’.

      It goes very well with Macaroni Cheese.

  71. Lucky to get a Bogey Five!

    Wordle 953 5/6
    ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. A phew here!

      Wordle 953 6/6

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

    3. Four but nearly five. I had two possibles in mind…

      Wordle 953 4/6

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

    5. Metoo

      Wordle 953 5/6

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

      1. Trouble is he can say that but how can he do it?

        Mexico will not want them back kn their territory, a convoy of buses or constant stream of planes back across the border will not work. Can he just herd them across the border like cattle or, will Mexican authorities put up big barriers or shoot the unwanted arrivals?
        Intent is one thing but unless he has somewhere to send the unwanted masses, he has a problem.

        Don’t even suggest that he sends them north, Trudeau would just see a source of votes and welcome them with our cash.

  73. Deer is plentiful, cheap and tasty: it’s time to stop being squeamish about eating Bambi

    Nurseries across Dorset and Hampshire have introduced a game-changing menu that Britons should take note from

    WILLIAM SITWELL • 28 January 2024 • 7:00am

    It was a provocative headline in a national newspaper: “Bambinos eat Bambi”. The news this week that a chain of nurseries across Dorset and Hampshire were putting deer on the lunch menu doubtless had a clutch of mums spluttering all over their post-drop-off frothy oat lattés.

    Tops Day Nurseries, with 4,000 children at 32 nurseries, was making a statement as definitive as the time in May 1990 when the then Agriculture Minister John Selwyn Gummer fed his four-year-old daughter Cordelia a beef burger at the East Coast Boat Show. Gummer’s bold move was to show that British beef was now safe; three years on from the catastrophic disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, that ripped through British cattle.

    Of course, there is nothing unsafe about eating venison, far from it, but in the campaign run with Eat Wild, promoters for British game, this is a vital moment. If it’s good enough for kids, it’s fine for the rest of us. After all, we only want the best for our little darlings, so will the nation learn to follow suit?

    The advantages of eating venison are endless. Not least because deer numbers are so high and they need culling. At present, some 350,000 are killed each year but that number ought to be between 500,000 and 750,000 to simply maintain the population.

    There are six species of wild deer in the UK, of which two are indigenous and their population is at an all-time high, the highest, some say, for a thousand years. It’s one of the reasons we keep running them – be it red, sika, fallow, roe, muntjac or water deer – over. Some 75,000 road accidents a year are caused by deer, at a cost of £45 million in damage to our cars.

    Deer, when they’re not offering themselves up as roadkill, graze, browse and trample crops, wreck fencing and cause huge damage to forestry, particularly as they like munching on saplings. They dig up bulbs in ancient bluebell woods and strip out vital food supplies of woodland bird species, such as nightingales. And if they are too big in number, a lack of food stresses and weakens them.

    In the words of Louisa Clutterbuck, chief executive of Eat Wild, “the deer population is out of control so there is absolutely no problem with supply.”

    Which is not something one could ever say about beef, chicken or pork. Even though the UK has some of the highest welfare standards in the world, these animals are effectively factory-farmed. There is no other way of keeping up with the demand.

    Venison is low in fat, with incomparably low levels of saturated fat, is high in vitamin B and iron and is a tremendous source of protein. It also tastes fantastic and is every bit as versatile as beef. Apparently the tots at Tops wolf down their venison bolognese. And you’ll frequently see it on the menus of restaurants across the country with certain chefs consistently championing the meat. One such is the restaurateur, game hunter, fisherman and tank driver Mike Robinson. He is a proselytiser for venison with the fervour of Billy Graham. Indeed I once witnessed him convert a vegan to the cause. He bangs on about it on Instagram, sells it by the box load and encourages every chef he meets to put venison on their menu. But still we desist. And quite why is a tale of the hypocrisy of the modern consumer. That it is wild is a bit too real for our liking, that deer are hunted and shot is a bit too horrid for our sensibilities.

    We prefer chicken because it’s nice and safe and plain and an absorber, a conduit to flavour, rather than a protagonist. So we’ll always choose that over the more flavoursome, more sustainable, rabbit. [Not at all fond of rabbit…]

    And we choose the safer options of pork, beef or lamb over venison because they are as familiar and safe as potatoes and they look nice under the lights on the counter, whereas venison tends more to the colour of grey.

    And regardless of the endless marketing of provenance, consumers are interested in recipe and flavour rather than the wheres and hows of an animal’s life. Which is the problem with venison. The problem with this whole article. It’s all about the damn back story.

    Meat sells when it’s PRd as something that sizzles and oozes and is covered in sauce and is another excuse to spoon on the Dijon.

    And while, because I’m weird, I can handle and relish the stalk, the spy, the shot, the gralloch and the butchery and feel that the more I know the better it tastes, I can appreciate and refuse to condemn the bulk of consumers who wish to remain clueless hypocrites who just want a nice burger and chips and a glass of wine (and don’t care either how the grapes were squished and fermented).

    So congrats to Eat Wild for this week purveying the key message: it’s healthy, great value and makes kids eat their tea.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/01/28/deer-plentiful-tasty-cheap-bambi-culling/

    1. We had so much deer one year, you could buy deer mince in the supermarkets. A b!tch to cook – it has effectively, no fat.

  74. Hello lovely friends.

    At the ripe old age of (nearly) 57 it turns out I have stage 4 chronic kidney disease. Having said that, my brother, who is 18 months older than me, was diagnosed with kidney failure at 21 and with (at the time, experimental) drugs and he is doing OK. Causing us all chaos from Australia.

    Interestingly it has taken me since Thursday to work out what the cause could be. Neither my paternal grandparents, nor my my grandmother, had any kidney problems. So the culprit, which i have only just thought of, must be my maternal grandfather, who abandoned my grandma in 1946 when my mum was just 3 and is never spoken of. You suddenly realise how people who don’t know their parents (e.g. adopted children) can feel discombobulated, nit knowing their “history”.

    Plans to motor through the canal system of France in the boat we bought 18 months ago continue. Estimated year of departure: 2027.

    I have finished my biography of Billy Wright and also “Trans” by Helen Joyce which is my local book club’s bool for discussion in March. We have a work book club and are meeting on Tuesday to agree another book. But that is like herding cats.

    Meanwhile a girl (I say that, but she is 60) i play hockey with lent me a very dubious-looking book, “Anatomy – a love story “ which i need to read and get back to her.

    And – here’s the best bit. It’s 5:30. We have had our roast lamb with home made mint sauce, roast beetroot and broccoli (I know. I shouldn’t eat beetroot. But i do so love it). I have had my bath and am in my jim-jams and sitting with my lovely dog in front of the fire.

    Tomorrow I will leave at 6:40 am and cycle 12 1/2 miles into London to work, and reverse to be back at home at 6.30 pm. Life goes on🙂.

    Meanwhile apparently Man U are playing Newport. Fun fact. Newport play on the same colours as the Mighty Wolves as they were established by a bloke from Wolverhampton (somebody Lycett?)(who walked from Wolverhampton to Newport to get a job in the steelworks?). Anyway – go, Newport. I understand it’s currently 2-2.

    1. Sorry about the diagnosis, man. Hope all goes well. Many of us here are broken, so the only solution is to KBO – you’re in good company!

    2. That sounds nasty…….how come it’s got to stage 4 and you didn’t know earlier? Is it normally hereditary? What’s the prognosis?

      1. I feel fine…in fact, i’ve never felt better. The literature is all about blood pressure, cholesterol and weight. Admittedly i was overweight for 18 years following my son’s birth but i was still fit…my blood pressure and cholesterol have always been fine so it must be hereditary. Admittedly i have lost 3 stone in the last 9 months and am now down to my weight 30 years ago. But I don’t think that was the problem.

        Apparently it is now 3-2 to Man U. I am still wanting Newport to do “it”.

        1. Edit. Prognosis is indeterminate at the mo. Just to monitor. My brother has only had 50% of one kidney working for the last x years (we don’t know when he was compromised, only it was discovered when he was 21 and i was 20 but i was OK then and literally hadn’t given it a second’s thought until this routine NHS test in November brought it up).

          1. So sorry to hear about your diagnosis, Mir. KBO and when you need a place to shout, you know where we are.

    3. Gosh – hope some sort of medical intervention can help.

      One thing – if one is in a fix – health/family/disaster wise – NoTTL is a brilliant source of support, advice and simply company.

      The stuff I have unloaded over the last 15 years – much of which I could not ever have said to anyone face to face – and no one here, NO ONE, has ever told me to pack it in and annoy someone else.

      Stick with us.

    4. An article recently about GP’s not bothering to inform on kidney disease. The attitude was you are old that’s what you get.

    5. All I can do Mir is wish you well and really mean it.
      Take care on your bicycle, don’t involved with Vine whatever you do. 🚴

      1. 😂 MOH has been telling me about someone called Alex,someone who has been jailed for some reason because of Whine. I think it’s also a good idea not t get knocked over by Sir Beer Korma…

    6. That’s a bit of a bummer to discover your kidney disease l. Was it a surprise or had you been expecting it? It appears that although you can’t reverse it, it is possible to have it controlled with medication and exercise, which you appear to be doing.
      Our, vw and I, have our fingers crossed for you.

      1. Thank you. It was a total shock. I feel great and have (had) no health concerns! But my brother only found out he had 1/2 a kidney working after he went into hospital with a rugby injury (broken nose) and we have never been able to work out when or what caused his problems.

      2. Thank you. It was a total shock. I feel great and have (had) no health concerns! But my brother only found out he had 1/2 a kidney working after he went into hospital with a rugby injury (broken nose) and we have never been able to work out when or what caused his problems.

    7. I have stage 2 CKD. It was first diagnosed in the ’70s and doesn’t (touch wood) seem to be getting any worse.

    8. From what I’ve been looking at about CKD (even stage 4) it doesn’t seem to mention cutting out alcohol. Your lifestyle and exercise should put you in a better position to cope than many. So can you treat yourself to a glass of wine or two, or is it verboten?

      1. I have cut down massively in the last year. My brother drinks a bit but not a lot. I think moderation will be Ok.👍

    9. Sorry to hear about your problems with your water works. However, delighted to learn that you are planning to explore the waterways in France. I can thoroughly recommend ‘L’Yonne’ a beautiful river that takes in Auxerre. Guide Fluvial No 2 covers the waterways of Loire & Nivernais….

    10. Oh bugger, that’s not a nice thing to find out.
      At least you do not appear to let it get on top of you.

  75. ‘night all

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/82fd1ca091a6328b3e5274894836446197e47d6690ccf5a367d82b6fb70c1a81.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d7e00f7b328cd021198eb4814295fa935f71127231e245153ea206e2a63b0a4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c494240b32edac9c8726ef7d22a7463947e6e327ab35dcb9fcac89e58724a474.jpg

    https://i0.wp.com/ace.mu.nu/archives/dog%20eats%20steak.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/132268fe3664a8abaebd1ffe417b6a8f5665f904a1bb674fe9bedcd9137eddf3.jpg

    1. They no longer say “just cause and impediment” now. It’s “any lawful reason”. It’s also “single” instead of bachelor and spinster. The banns were read for the third time in church this morning (and the happy couple has the certificate to prove it).

  76. 382471+ up ticks,

    Disillusioned they ALL say that don’t they.

    Name (ino) tory party = brexit party= reform party =tory (ino) party, fodder for fools.

    Disillusioned ‘true blue Tories’ to stand as MPs for Richard Tice’s Reform UK
    A cohort of former Conservative councillors explain why they have thrown their lot in with Richard Tice’s insurgent Right-of-centre party

  77. Who will be the first to pull out of the corrupt UN?

    Global bodies must be held to account

    We must reject the widespread delusion that supranational bodies have a claim to moral superiority

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 27 January 2024 • 10:00pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/80c294361d8320695d9a690f2a548abf560713a5563f3f2d85c24b8e987c0ecd.jpg
    CREDIT: Remko de Waal

    This has been a week of shame for the global institutions of the post-war order. In an outrageous moral inversion, the top court of the United Nations, the ICJ, failed to dismiss South Africa’s politically-motivated claim that Israel is committing genocide in its war on Hamas. On the day before Holocaust Memorial Day, the court chose instead to impose a series of demands on Israel, even as the Jewish state fights against an openly genocidal enemy.

    Such rot at the very apex of the system that is supposed to deliver impartial, global justice between nation states would be bad enough. Yet it is just one symptom of far wider failings. The UK has found itself compelled – at least temporarily – to suspend its funding for UNRWA, the UN agency with special responsibility for Palestinians. This was not so much an act of moral courage as a need to keep up with the US and other nations, who all took similar action after 12 UNRWA employees were accused of being involved in the October 7 massacre.

    Should we really be surprised? For too long, transnational bodies have been given a pass by our elites. They are seen as beyond reproach, and somehow on a higher plane than democratic national governments which are held accountable by their citizens. Again and again in recent years, international law has become the weapon of choice against the decisions of Britain’s elected officials.

    This was always a mistake. The pandemic, and the aftermath of Brexit, have shown us that transnational bodies are readily corrupted and hard to hold to account. Now, once again, we see the intolerable consequences of trusting these untouchable institutions.

    After the horrors of the Second World War, the UN and allied agencies were set up to be a bulwark of Western order. Yet all too quickly, they became platforms for the interests of tyrants and the enemies of the West. First the Soviet Union and now Iran, Putin’s Russia and the People’s Republic of China have all learnt how to co-opt and corrupt these well-meaning bodies to serve autocratic ends.

    This is also about a failure of Western nerve. Having lost confidence in the values we stand for, our representatives have been unwilling to defend those principles in global forums. Now things risk becoming even worse, as wokeness infects our officials with radical Left views combined with a willingness to tolerate authoritarian enforcement measures.

    It is past time to call out these broken institutions that have been taken over by the enemies of our values. Liz Truss was right to propose the creation of an economic Nato to unite against the threat of China. Others have proposed a new D-10 alliance of democratic states.

    The free world needs to find new ways to come together. But first we must reject the widespread delusion that supranational bodies have a claim to moral superiority. Rather, they have shown themselves to be corruptible and unreformable. They posture as progressive while being in the pocket of dictators. Those who sneer at national sovereignty as old-fashioned or reactionary should take a long hard look at the proposed alternative.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/01/27/global-bodies-must-be-held-to-account/

    2. The U.K. I’ll never pull out of any of these global bodies For one thing HMG has no guts, and HMG is happy to leave all decision making to unelected people.

  78. That’s me for today. Nice walk. A good book. Planning some work in t’garden tomorrow. Glass of medicine to hand… My beloved by my side.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  79. Wind has died down a bit to about 40mph but we’ve had 3 power cuts in the last couple of hours but not long enough to get the generator fired up

  81. 382481+ up ticks,

    No, Brexit was not a terrible mistake
    We may not have fully seized the economic opportunities offered by our exit, but claiming it a disaster is nonsense.

    No mistake, the BIG unforgivable mistake was those who returned on the 25 /6/2016
    to supporting / voting lab/lib/con, an eu asset coalition party.

    1. I don’t remember hearing the term, Brexit, until we voted to leave the EU.
      Nobody voted for Brexit, Brexit was just made up as a meaningless diversion.

        1. Unfortunately, the “we” who voted to leave was a majority (but not a large one) of those who voted but was quite a way short of a majority of the electorate. That electorate has been swelled substantially by people who were not old enough to vote at the referendum and I suggest that most of them are either neutral or regret that we have left the EU. That makes gaining much advantage from Brexit an uphill struggle for any government. Without a leader and government of exceptional quality, the country will not heal the wounds of the leave/remain division.

          1. The reason some people might regret we left the EU (other than those who were hoping for sinecures there, of course) is because the remainers in power have ensured that we have not profited from the freedom we should have had to improve the economy and there has been a relentless barrage of propaganda against the very idea of Brexit. How often have you seen “despite Brexit” for any success and “because of Brexit” for things which really were the result of the government kowtowing to the EU and letting them punish us?

          2. There is much in what you say but this was inevitable given the closeness of the referendum vote, and Brexit leaders should have anticipated it rather than behaving as though it was all over. With reference to your last sentence, I am not sure that the government has the competence to kowtow to the EU or any other organisation – even kowtowing requires at least a tiny amount of ability.

          3. Ahem. The “closeness” of the vote is another ploy to denigrate the decision. The vote on the Welsh assembly was a very narrow margin indeed, but nobody said it was close, they just bulldozed it through. The turnout for the referendum was high. Kowtowing only requires bending over. The EU will do the rest.

          4. It’s all water under the bridge now and a lot has happened since then. Anyone can see that the EU is a failing institution and with protests in many countries any thought of our rejoining is irrelevant.

  83. Excellent lunch with the family. Spread wide apart. North Pennines and Norfolk. Such fun and laughter. Order generation on the same wave length. But all agreed our country has been wrecked by the idiots in Wastemonster and Whitehall.
    Norfolk couple safely home inside two hours. Others staying over nearby.
    Good night all.

  84. Evening, all. Busy day as ever on a Sunday. Off to church then I had to rush back to see to the dogs before I ventured into North Wales for a meeting. Roadworks and traffic meant I was away longer than I intended.

    It isn’t just prommers that have good reason to be proud; Britain has punched well above its weight for some considerable time and given the world useful inventions/discoveries. It’s only envy that makes people want to denigrate us.

    1. There’s a lot to be proud of, Conners, and to give thanks for – despite the world of naysayers.
      Britain stopped slavery – at huge cost, that the woke don’t accept, but it’s true all the same. And wartime events within living memory. The UK wasn’t perfect, but was quicker off the mark than anyone else.
      Not bad for a small island of disparate folk, who’d rather be in the pub, complaining.

  85. This crept into my playlist: Made me think of the poor bastards fighting in Ukraine, despite the lyrics.
    Shane McGowan, the ugliest man in music until not too long ago, is the soloist. The emotion in his voice is noticeable.
    The comment from the poster is interesting:

    An amazing homage to the brave men who fought on both sides at Gallipoli. I once did this as a spoken word performance in college and you could have heard a pin drop when I was done. Also, it reminds me of a crazy night in Germany in 1989 when I walked through the streets with 3 buddies singing this.

    https://youtu.be/TThjY_qlEfg?si=7S7v7_9SHXkt-2fV
    The last screen is appropriate.

    1. The world would be a worse place now, if our ancestors had not fixed difficult things back in the day. Now Britain isn’t prepared to step up, see what a crock the world has become.

  87. My family was murdered in Auschwitz. Holocaust metaphors are a cruel distortion

    If everything deemed wrong in the world is likened to the Holocaust, how can we comprehend the unparalleled cruelty that defined it?

    IVOR PERL • 27 January 2024 • 9:00am

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b47e588380cd46c3493c87c644c7c7cf266b026de1de9b7c31a067ded43593a8.jpg
    Since time immemorial, authors have utilised metaphors as powerful literary devices, recognising their capacity to convey vivid imagery and evoke strong emotions. Sadly, Holocaust metaphors are all too common today. We have seen some people casually using Holocaust terminology to denounce anyone or any policy with which they disagree. Holocaust metaphors cover a broad spectrum of divisive political and social issues, including everything from people speaking out against Covid health mandates to protesting against abortion.

    Since the brutal attack by Hamas on October 7th, and the ensuing response by Israel, there has been a marked increase in people using the memory of the Holocaust to make a political point. The conflict has elicited a strong emotional response for many, and we live in a democratic society that values the right to have robust and open debates over such sensitive issues. However, it is important to be vigilant that the language used in these debates does not serve to fuel hatred. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance cites “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” as an example of contemporary antisemitism.

    Such comparisons diminish the gravity of the Holocaust; they are not only insensitive, offensive, and hurtful, but even worse are inaccurate and often dangerously distorting of the history. But when people like me – a Holocaust survivor – point out that the Holocaust should not be used for shock value, we are sometimes ‘advised’ to be less sensitive and that we should get over it. This implies that we are overreacting. Really? It is easy to accuse the victim of being overly sensitive when you have never experienced injustice firsthand. How can we not be sensitive given the crime perpetrated against us? Lest we forget, European Jewry came close to annihilation.

    Let me tell you about my experiences: I was just 12 years old when my entire family was deported from our hometown in Hungary to Auschwitz. There, the Nazis murdered my parents and seven siblings. I survived by pretending to be 16 which meant my life was spared for slave labour. Later when I reached the true age of 13, I marked my Bar Mitzvah alone, behind barbed wire. I endured unimaginable hardship before being liberated by American forces in 1945. For many years after the Holocaust, I never spoke to anyone about my experiences; I was simply unable to find the words to convey the depth of my suffering. For me the Holocaust is not history; it is my life story, a very personal pain.

    My family were among the six million men, women and children murdered by the Nazis simply for being Jewish. My painful memories should not be reduced to shorthand for anything that some politician or activist disagrees with. Some people even make jokes about gas chambers – and expect us to laugh along with everyone else. I struggle to understand how anyone can find amusement in the crime of genocide. Any attempt to convince me that my distress over misuse of Holocaust imagery is merely a reflection of my sensitivity amounts to gaslighting – to borrow a word frequently used in our modern world today. Gaslighting refers to a manipulative tactic where one person seeks to undermine another’s perception of reality, making them question their experiences, feelings, or memories.

    The suggestion that we are too sensitive and do not want to let go of the past is a deliberate attempt to shift the focus away from the real sources of the problem – insensitivity to the suffering of others, and a distortion of the enormity of the Holocaust. In so doing, gaslighting delegitimises my experiences. Acknowledging Jewish sensitivities around the Holocaust demonstrates respect for the memory of its victims and survivors, and respect for the historical record; it helps build a safer future. This is why I am proud to work with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and applaud their commitment to Holocaust education and commemoration. Under no circumstances should the trivialisation of the Holocaust be normalised.

    If everything deemed wrong in the world is likened to the Holocaust, how can we truly comprehend the unparalleled cruelty that defined this genocide? There are many other ways for people to get their points across, without invoking images of the Holocaust. Therefore, on this Holocaust Memorial Day, let us pledge to enhance educational initiatives regarding the Holocaust and to firmly oppose inappropriate comparisons that diminish its significance.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/27/my-family-was-killed-in-auschwitz-holocaust-metaphors-cruel/

  89. Right, I’m off to bed.
    Got a trip to Corby tomorrow to pick up a purchase for t’Lad, a hydraulic hoist to he can lift heavy tooling for his lathe.

  90. 382471+ up ticks,

    Pillow ponder,

    The lab/lib/con (ino) party leaders are susceptiple to brown envelopes,a brown envelope on a solo leaders hip can do an awful lot of damage.

    Now daisy the cow as leader, with plus four million backers and a controlling cabinet of proven pedigree patriots say 7/9/11 governing these Isles via mainly referendums.

    I do not see the farmers disagreeing if they did it would be on par with selling your granny to a tribe of cannibals living in Brum.

    https://x.com/NoFarmsNoFoods/status/1751169046635000219?s=20

    https://x.com/NoFarmsNoFoods/status/1751169046635000219?s=20

  91. Well, that’s me for the day, chums. Good night, sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

  93. Goodnight, everyone. I’m off to bed (but probably not to sleep) now. No hassle tomorrow. Just getting my hair cut. I am beginning to look like Boris!

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