Tuesday 20 February: A smartphone ban would help tackle Britain’s child mental-health crisisTuesday 20 February:

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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531 thoughts on “Tuesday 20 February: A smartphone ban would help tackle Britain’s child mental-health crisisTuesday 20 February:”

  5. How the Russian economy allowed Putin to silence Navalny forever. 20 February 2024.

    Despite a barrage of Western sanctions such as blocking the country from the Swift payment messaging system, seizing assets and capping oil export prices, Putin is presiding over a growing economy.

    Last year Russia’s economy grew by 3.6pc after shrinking only 1.2pc in 2022, according to national statistics from Rosstat released earlier this month.

    The International Monetary Fund predicted in April 2022 that the economy would contract significantly by 8.5pc that year and a further 2.3pc in 2023.

    Now, the IMF says Russia will grow by 2.6pc this year – far more than the UK, France and Germany – and 1.1pc the year after.

    The headline is of course nonsense. The rest must have slipped past the censors. The sanctions may not have done much to Russia but they have certainly impacted the West! The German economy is near to collapse.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/20/russian-economy-growth-allowed-putin-silence-navalny/

  6. Sadiq Khan puts ‘anti-UK propaganda’ on a pedestal in Trafalgar Square

    Mayor of London announces multicultural shortlist of sculptures for landmark’s fourth plinth

    Tim Sigsworth
    19 February 2024 • 9:12pm

    Sadiq Khan has been accused of promoting “anti-British propaganda” with a multicultural shortlist of sculptures for Trafalgar Square’s fourth plinth.

    The Mayor of London has resisted calls for a statue of Queen Elizabeth II to be erected in the space and instead launched a competition that will be decided by a public vote.

    Offerings include a Bollywood-themed ice cream van, a golden bust of a woman’s head representing “a collective community portrait” and a black woman in a revealing blue dress.

    The shortlist of seven was announced just days after Mr Khan announced a “woke” rebrand of the London Overground where six lines were given names to “celebrate the city’s diverse culture and history”.

    Stretches of the network now honour migrant communities, Suffragettes and the England women’s football team in a move that was dismissed by critics as “virtue signalling nonsense”.

    ‘Let’s be proud of London’
    Howard Cox, Reform UK’s candidate in May’s mayoral elections, said: “The fourth plinth should be a celebration of London’s history, illustrious Londoners, and genuinely creative metaphors about our capital city. It should not be a political platform to convey subliminal anti-British propaganda.

    “Let’s be proud of London and steer clear of virtue signalling endorsements of other nations’ continued disdain for British history and culture.”

    Last night Mr Khan said he was “proud to support the fourth plinth art exhibition in Trafalgar Square”.

    “Since 1998, this initiative has showcased world-class artwork, adding to London’s dynamic cultural scene,” he wrote on social media. “Excited to see what new exhibits will be next to grace this iconic space.” The two winning entries will be displayed on the plinth for two years each from 2026 and 2028 and the shortlist has been drawn up by a panel of art experts hand-picked by Mr Khan’s Greater London Authority.

    Chila Kumari Singh Burman, who created the ice-cream van which will broadcast Bollywood music to the square, has said Indians invented the treat not Italians. The Liverpool-born artist’s submission is inspired by her father’s job as an ice-cream man.

    “Nobody knows about the Indian community in Liverpool,” she said.

    “We [should] not be talking about ice cream [started] by Italians, [it was] Indians.”

    Other artworks on the shortlist include a large black cat, a sprouting sweet potato, a mud-like wood-fired oven and a person riding a horse under a translucent lime green shroud.

    The winners of the shortlist will follow in the footsteps of a series of progressive artworks that have been placed on the fourth plinth in recent years.

    The space is currently occupied by Samson Kambalu’s Antelope, which depicts John Chilembwe, an anti-colonial minister who led a 1915 revolt against British rule in Nyasaland, now Malawi.

    It will be succeeded in November by face casts of 850 transgender people that are arranged in the style of a central American “tzompantli” war trophy skull rack.

    A Conservative Party source said that Susan Hall, the Tory Party candidate, plans to move the artworks to make way for a statue of the late Queen if elected.

    The London Assembly unanimously agreed in March last year that a statue of the late monarch should be placed somewhere in central London but Trafalgar Square appears unlikely to be its eventual destination.

    No place for the Queen’
    David Jones, the Tory MP for Clwyd West, said at the time that the plinth would not be a suitable location because the late Queen would be overshadowed by Lord Nelson’s statue.

    “It needs to be sufficiently prominent and in my view being one of four statues in Trafalgar Square is not good enough. You can’t have her statue at a lower level than Lord Nelson,” he said.

    The shortlist follows the announcement last week of six new names for the London Overground.

    The new names – Lioness, Windrush, Suffragette, Weaver, Liberty and Mildmay – were introduced as the Overground was split into six separate lines in a £6.3 million rebrand.

    Lord Frost, the Conservative peer, accused Mr Khan of forcing “politicisation” on the public and diverging from the London tradition of only naming public transport lines after royalty or local geography.

    The Fourth Plinth Committee, which is ultimately under the control of the Mayor of London, commissions the winner of the public vote at a cost of £140,000, plus a £30,000 artist’s fee.

    The proposals are available to view online and scale models of the proposed artworks are on display at the National Gallery until March 17. Voting closes on March 12.

    *************************************

    Mary Hardy-Bishop
    9 HRS AGO
    Margaret Thatcher got rid of Ken Livingstone by cancelling London Council. The same should be done for this London Council and power transferred to each local Council. The Country has had enough of this non supporting UK person.

    Gary Limericker
    9 HRS AGO
    There once was a mayor called Khan
    A lawyer for militant Islam
    He runs the big smoke
    Like a sick left wing joke
    Turned London to Londonistan

    Derek Clews
    9 HRS AGO
    Scrap the London mayor. The post only has costs and no benefits.

      1. I think ‘the lady in blue’ has merit but it is not appropriate for that plinth. Especially given everything else in the area.

        1. What merit? It looks like some of the plastic objects you find in shops that sell small plastic skulls, nodding figures of flowers and KC III.

          1. I thought it a good example of a stylised version of an African lady. Like Beryl Cook’s work. Which is why it shouldn’t be on that plinth.

          2. Fair enough, but IMO there is a world of difference between Beryl Cook’s work and that piece.

      2. The woman on the plinth was singing bongo songs on Radio 4’s religious programme today. I notice they have doubled the volume on the Daily Service recently – must be a reason for it. Today’s service was led by Bishop Umdingo Aldred. A friend of the Archprickop of C*nterbury perhaps?

    3. This is all just fluff to ensure that people don’t notice anything serious like more deaths or gathering bank crises…

    4. Rather than the indignity of the fourth plinth, I suggest a much better place for Elizabeth is at the other end of the Mall to Victoria, same as the two longest-reigning queens give their names to towers at each end of the Houses of Parliament.

      A statue overlooking Horse Guards Parade not only gives Elizabeth prominence at the entrance to the Palace, but also honours her lifelong love of horses and the military.

      Edit – Paddington Bear for the fourth plinth! Along with a marmalade sandwich and a lettuce in homage to her last prime minister.

      1. That’s a good idea. With contributions from family members to honour their mother and grandmother. I’m sure they can afford it.

  7. ‘Morning All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4e3fa5272f566d220cb63b9f3c8e5aacd610e187c6c3d66226599d5ccb68ea44.jpg

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c5b0b6049731ec80f6fb48837d3f7ab8252fe87720221f51f4ca246781b40e6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/886ee603a5aa67d4a80a52dbf25b7a2a07208d67334cbb3163f22d1ea75413b8.jpg

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  8. I don’t like Assange either – but he’s done his time. 20 February 2024.

    When, 14 years ago, Sweden issued an arrest warrant accusing him of one rape and the molestation of another woman in Sweden, two years of legal battles followed with him ending up in the basement of the embassy. Some charges were dropped in 2015 due to the statute of limitations, and the rape charge was ultimately dropped in 2019 after a review of evidence.

    This was all a put up job by the Security Services. The plan was to return him to Sweden from where he could be deported to the US and imprisoned for life.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/02/20/julian-assange-done-his-time/

  9. Gross. Confirms all that we suspected about Home Office staffing.

    Jewish baby’s birth certificate returned from Home Office with ‘Israel’ scribbled out

    Parents demand explanation after father’s place of birth scribbled over by black pen

    Ewan Somerville
    19 February 2024 • 10:48pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/02/19/TELEMMGLPICT000367250446_17083807441550_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq-IWLY18X4-CzgyIcjLEAj_SVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=680

    The Home Office has been accused of scribbling out the word “Israel” on a six-month-old Jewish girl’s birth certificate.

    A family from Edgware, in north London, sent off the document on Feb 6 to obtain a British passport for their baby daughter Ronnie. But when they received the returned certificate on Monday morning, the place of birth for her father – Israel – had been scribbled out with a black pen.

    The Telegraph understands that the Home Office is looking into the matter and the department has been contacted for comment. It is unclear whether it was a mistake.

    A picture of the birth certificate, which was released by the Campaign Against Antisemitism, shows a single scribble on the document in the birthplace box for the father, while the mention of Israel for the mother’s place of birth remains intact.

    Birth certificate
    The birthplace was clearly scribbled over, horrifying the child’s parents
    The girl’s father, whose name is also Israel, claimed that the certificate also arrived ripped, in a soft envelope and invalidated. The 32-year-old engineering company owner is now demanding an apology and explanation from the Home Office and a new birth certificate.

    “My wife was very, very upset. The baby isn’t even six months and is already suffering discrimination,” he claimed.

    “It’s like going back to the Nazi 1930s when Jewish documents had notes on the side. This baby did nothing wrong and was just born to Jewish parents, that’s all. We sent it to the Home Office which is in charge of our security and should be the most safe place for our private document.”

    ‘Completely unacceptable’
    Israel and his wife Dorin, 29, have lived in Britain for almost a decade.

    The Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is supporting the family, said it was “completely unacceptable”.

    It added: “When sending off a passport application to the Home Office, the last thing one should ever expect is to have their child’s birth certificate returned, torn, with the parent’s place of birth scribbled out, just because it is the Jewish state,” the group said.

    “We are assisting the parents, who are understandably very concerned. We are also asking the Home Office to investigate how this happened.

    “The Home Office has responsibility for law enforcement and the security of the Jewish community and the wider public. Confidence in the authorities among British Jews is at painfully low levels and must be restored.”

    The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/19/jewish-babys-birth-certificate-home-office-israel-scribble/

    1. It is unclear whether it was a mistake.

      Yeah. Mistake. Could happen to anybody – “Look, Boss, what the photocopier did to this man’s certificate!”

        2. Please explain to me a logical and sensible reason for rigidly following the pretentious, anally-retentive bollocks about “not wearing brown in town”.

    3. Obviously Vandalism, I wonder what sort of person would
      have done that. !! 🤔
      What I find annoying is Barnet is and always has been in Hertfordshire.
      My maternal grandmother (bless her) was from Barnet.
      And now someone has turned the old and very well known Hendon (which is at least 8 miles away) Townhall into Barnet Townhall. In Hendon NW4 Next to the Middlesex, once (Polytechnic) now a London University. The bus garage opposite was knocked down for yet another huge block of flats.

    4. It was a grave mistake to employ Muslims in the Civil Service. They are the reason the Home Office is not fit for purpose.

  10. Good morning all.
    A slightly colder 3½°C on the Yard Thermometer and somewhat overcast, but at least it’s not raining.

  11. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cloudy. Lots of squeaky wheelbarrow birds squeaking as we left home this morning.

  12. Russian pilot who defected to Ukraine ‘murdered in Spain’. 20 February 2024.

    A Russian pilot who deserted by flying his helicopter to Ukraine has been found dead in Spain, Kyiv has said after reports the defector was murdered.

    Maksim Kuzminov’s body was reportedly found with half a dozen gunshot wounds outside a garage in the town of Villajoyosa, in Alicante, which is home to a large Russian and Ukrainian community.

    He made international headlines after landing the armoured chopper at a military airfield in Kharkhiv last August. He had been promised £400,000 to defect, which was a reward designed to encourage further humiliating defections.

    The PSB one assumes. No Novichok this time. Lol! Waste no sympathy on him. He murdered his crewmates so that he could fly the helicopter unhindered to Ukraine for the cash!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/19/russian-pilot-who-defected-to-ukraine-murdered-in-spain/

    1. Maybe the Ukies wanted their cash back? Not a lot of sympathy here; there’s a saying about living by swords…

      1. Isn’t it more likely that the USA or the UK or the EU, or maybe all three, want their money back?😎

    2. ‘Sudden Death Syndrome’ is the new Covid. I suggest we all sit at home and get vaccinated.

  14. That certificate must be false – it’s typed.
    Mine, SWMBOS, Mother’s, Fathers, In-laws are all handwritten in ink pen with the same handwriting! This one isn’t – ergo, false.

    1. ‘They’re all typed nowadays. I got one of few hand-written ones for my son, because when we registered his birth the council printer was not year 2000-proof, and it was the first working day of the new millennium, so it had stopped working and they had to write them out by hand!

    2. And written with a special ink, as the Registrar told me when I registered my father’s death: mind you, that was 30+ years ago.

  16. Good day all and the 77th,

    Cloudy but dry at McPhee Towers, wind in the South-West. 6℃ with 11℃ forecast. More garden work today. The ground is still pretty squelchy from Saturday night/Sunday morning’s rain but I can get some more done before tomorrow’s arrives.

    I put this up late last night but it needs exposure again. If you really want to know what wrong in the British Army here’s your answer. This is the first person Shapps needs to fire. He won’t:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1820f1edc6091b019d93b50642027d2c87ec480423b444772a6dc6ef42e75d4d.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/17/general-behind-lax-security-checks-says-army-hierarchical/

    Britain’s second most senior general has said she wants to see less hierarchical behaviour and more “empowerment” in the Army.

    Lt Gen Dame Sharon Nesmith, the deputy chief of the general staff, said in an interview that “just because we have lots of rank structure, doesn’t mean to say that we have to behave in a hierarchical way”.

    Lt Gen Nesmith, tipped by some as future chief of the service, was the author of the controversial Army Race Action Plan which advocates easing security checks in order to drive diversity.

    The document, disclosed by The Telegraph last week, has been denounced as “dangerous madness” by former senior officers and prompted a “furious” Grant Shapps to order a review of diversity policies in the Ministry of Defence.

    Lt Gen Nesmith, the most senior female Army officer and with overall responsibility for personnel, wrote a foreword to the Race Action Plan in which she stipulated its intention to “secure equality of opportunity for all from day one”.

    On Friday night, a former security minister said the general’s involvement showed that the ideas in the Race Action Plan came “right from the top” of the Army structure.

    Last year she told the Centre for Army Leadership podcast her vision for a less hierarchical force.

    “Just because we have a very clearly defined rank structure – and we do need that structure because it’s about command and leadership, and it’s about binding the scale of responsibility – but I don’t think that means that everything we do has to be slavishly done through the hierarchy,” she said.

    “How do we make sure that’s not the case? Well, that’s where our empowerment comes in.”

    She also spoke of bypassing traditional hierarchy through “lateral entry”, whereby candidates with in-demand skills can be recruited directly to non-junior roles, although added that the bottom-up model was likely to remain the “bedrock”.In 2014 she became the first woman to command a British Army Brigade.

    Asked to name her most inspirational non-military leader, Lt Gen Nesmith said Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand.

    “Not necessarily because I’m a fan of hers but because she’s a mum. She demonstrates her own personal leadership style and she’s ploughing her own track.”

    Team should ‘forget their logins’

    She also spoke of the importance of downtime for her close team, urging them to unwind so comprehensively that by the time they return from leave they have “forgotten their logins”.

    A mother of two, Lt Gen Nesmith graduated from Sandhurst into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1992, going on to serve in the Balkans, Iraq and on other operations.

    She has spoken of the sexism she encountered early in her career, of learning to be “authentic”, and of finding her own way to succeed in a male-dominated environment.

    Since being appointed director personnel in 2019 she has sat on the Army Board.

    Recruitment crisis in Armed Forces

    Three years ago she told a different podcast how, as a brigadier, she ordered her senior officers to practise laughter yoga in order to “set the right tone”.

    “You, as a group, have infectious laughter in a yoga exercise manner that just lightens the mood.

    “To their absolute credit, my very male testosterone-driven command team lived in the spirit of doing a bit of laughter yoga. I’m not sure they would ever thank me for it.”

    As with the other services, the Army is facing a recruitment crisis, forcing leaders to question traditional practices in the hope of persuading more young people to join.

    However, many have warned that Britain’s public institutions are also increasingly falling into the grip of “woke” ideologies on race and inclusion.

    ‘People aren’t slavishly obeying’

    Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord and security minister under Gordon Brown, said: “In the military, one of the things we do is we like mission command.

    “You say to people who are subordinate to you “this is what I want to achieve” and they go and achieve it.

    “They do the same in their organisation, all the way down mission command. So people aren’t slavishly obeying.

    “They know what the aim is, they know what the head mark is. And that’s good and that’s healthy.”

    He said Lt Gen Nesmith’s involvement in the Race Action Plan proved it was Army policy.

    “Now they can’t pretend it’s some civilian down in the boondocks who’s made it all up.”

    A Whitehall source pointed to the review announced by Mr Shapps last week, saying: “Certainly the things she wrote will come under the auspices of the review as to whether it is a good use of resources.”

    The MoD declined to comment.

    Proof, if proof be needed, that the Army and probably the Navy and Air Force too have been ‘Common Purposed’. This amounts to deliberate destruction of our defences.

    2. Just as with the police, senior officers are expected to innovate and introduce something new. Which is why we get all these stupid ideas like laughing yoga. They lose their focus on what they should be doing…training warriors.

    3. What I understand from that tosh is that we have no functioning armed forces any more, instead we are rapidly heading towards having a bunch of people who hate us with guns.

      She’s far more dangerous to me than Putin is.

      1. Good morning BB2 and everyone. BB2, we may be missing the point; I suspect (not having read the Lady General’s remarks) that she is looking at a streamlining of the traditional hierarchical structure. That is a process that has been rampant throughout large firms during the last 40 years, a reduction in middle management. What is the military purpose of middle ranking officers, apart from providing a recruitment pool for the Staff? In WWII Monty insisted on his entourage having had combat experience, and he sought ability not looks.

        1. Middle ranks gain experience on the job to become senior ranks.
          Cpl to Lt General is a bit of a jump.

      1. I dread to think what these three fighting generals’ take would be on this nonsense.

        Brooke and Montgomery, both awkward characters would, I think, have been very abrasively dismissive. Slim would certainly have been dismissive but in a more gentlemanly manner.

        FM Alan Brooke

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a712f66ea806a19394a8ed99ba4282cf778a2804b600da56d3d5c0064b00ed5f.png

        FM Bernard Montgomery

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed13c6d6bb9d5b0cdab2b15e658a6cf0bdfd46e1ffd774e3dfb926f71b061d75.png

        FM Bill Slim

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/70f579b8d6538e136840b9f46347018b8230b4b50f4d2c3a8cc33e22c4e136c7.png

        2. I attended Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke’s funeral (1963). He was the man who kept Churchill from some of his crazier ideas and probably did more to defeat the Axis forces (Germany, Italy, Japan) than any other person, British or American, military or political He should be better known to the youth of today.

          1. Didn’t Brooke deliberately keep a low profile? He was an avid diarist but never published them, I believe: what a trove of intimate information those diaries would be for historians. The clashes of Titans, Churchill and Brooke but Churchill didn’t sack him. Churchill knew Brooke’s worth to the cause. Now, that’s leadership.

    7. If she’s so against the hierarchy in the forces, bust her down to Private and carry on. Two birds, one stone.

    8. Note that she’s a Dame; contrast with the brave young woman [yesterday’s posts] who joined SOE at 16 – no honours from Britain until she got an MBE for her later work many years after the war! Go woke, get promoted and honoured seems to be the way to success in today’s armed [?] forces.

    9. Note that she’s a Dame; contrast with the brave young woman [yesterday’s posts] who joined SOE at 16 – no honours from Britain until she got an MBE for her later work many years after the war! Go woke, get promoted and honoured seems to be the way to success in today’s armed [?] forces.

    10. I despair. To think she was one of ours (Royal Signals). Glad I never met her. We had some splendid female officers and other ranks. I think I know how she got to where she is.

      “.In 2014 she became the first woman to command a British Army Brigade”. 1st Signal Brigade is a grouping of Royal Signals units which have differing roles. It is not the same as commanding a combat brigade.

  17. Good day all and the 77th,

    Cloudy but dry at McPhee Towers, wind in the South-West. 6℃ with 11℃ forecast. More garden work today. The ground is still pretty squelchy from Saturday night/Sunday morning’s rain but I can get some more done before tomorrow’s arrives.

    I put this up late last night but it needs exposure again. If you really want to know what wrong in the British Artmy here’s your answer. This is the first person Shapps needs to fire. He won’t:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1820f1edc6091b019d93b50642027d2c87ec480423b444772a6dc6ef42e75d4d.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/17/general-behind-lax-security-checks-says-army-hierarchical/

    Britain’s second most senior general has said she wants to see less hierarchical behaviour and more “empowerment” in the Army.

    Lt Gen Dame Sharon Nesmith, the deputy chief of the general staff, said in an interview that “just because we have lots of rank structure, doesn’t mean to say that we have to behave in a hierarchical way”.

    Lt Gen Nesmith, tipped by some as future chief of the service, was the author of the controversial Army Race Action Plan which advocates easing security checks in order to drive diversity.

    The document, disclosed by The Telegraph last week, has been denounced as “dangerous madness” by former senior officers and prompted a “furious” Grant Shapps to order a review of diversity policies in the Ministry of Defence.

    Lt Gen Nesmith, the most senior female Army officer and with overall responsibility for personnel, wrote a foreword to the Race Action Plan in which she stipulated its intention to “secure equality of opportunity for all from day one”.

    On Friday night, a former security minister said the general’s involvement showed that the ideas in the Race Action Plan came “right from the top” of the Army structure.

    Last year she told the Centre for Army Leadership podcast her vision for a less hierarchical force.

    “Just because we have a very clearly defined rank structure – and we do need that structure because it’s about command and leadership, and it’s about binding the scale of responsibility – but I don’t think that means that everything we do has to be slavishly done through the hierarchy,” she said.

    “How do we make sure that’s not the case? Well, that’s where our empowerment comes in.”

    She also spoke of bypassing traditional hierarchy through “lateral entry”, whereby candidates with in-demand skills can be recruited directly to non-junior roles, although added that the bottom-up model was likely to remain the “bedrock”.In 2014 she became the first woman to command a British Army Brigade.

    Asked to name her most inspirational non-military leader, Lt Gen Nesmith said Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand.

    “Not necessarily because I’m a fan of hers but because she’s a mum. She demonstrates her own personal leadership style and she’s ploughing her own track.”

    Team should ‘forget their logins’

    She also spoke of the importance of downtime for her close team, urging them to unwind so comprehensively that by the time they return from leave they have “forgotten their logins”.

    A mother of two, Lt Gen Nesmith graduated from Sandhurst into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1992, going on to serve in the Balkans, Iraq and on other operations.

    She has spoken of the sexism she encountered early in her career, of learning to be “authentic”, and of finding her own way to succeed in a male-dominated environment.

    Since being appointed director personnel in 2019 she has sat on the Army Board.

    Recruitment crisis in Armed Forces

    Three years ago she told a different podcast how, as a brigadier, she ordered her senior officers to practise laughter yoga in order to “set the right tone”.

    “You, as a group, have infectious laughter in a yoga exercise manner that just lightens the mood.

    “To their absolute credit, my very male testosterone-driven command team lived in the spirit of doing a bit of laughter yoga. I’m not sure they would ever thank me for it.”

    As with the other services, the Army is facing a recruitment crisis, forcing leaders to question traditional practices in the hope of persuading more young people to join.

    However, many have warned that Britain’s public institutions are also increasingly falling into the grip of “woke” ideologies on race and inclusion.

    ‘People aren’t slavishly obeying’

    Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord and security minister under Gordon Brown, said: “In the military, one of the things we do is we like mission command.

    “You say to people who are subordinate to you “this is what I want to achieve” and they go and achieve it.

    “They do the same in their organisation, all the way down mission command. So people aren’t slavishly obeying.

    “They know what the aim is, they know what the head mark is. And that’s good and that’s healthy.”

    He said Lt Gen Nesmith’s involvement in the Race Action Plan proved it was Army policy.

    “Now they can’t pretend it’s some civilian down in the boondocks who’s made it all up.”

    A Whitehall source pointed to the review announced by Mr Shapps last week, saying: “Certainly the things she wrote will come under the auspices of the review as to whether it is a good use of resources.”

    The MoD declined to comment.

    Proof, if proof be needed, that the Army and probably the Navy and Air Force too have been ‘Common Purposed’. This amounts to deliberate destruction of our defences.

    2. To be frank (whoever he might be), someone certainly slipped up. Look at what a sh1tstorm has resulted – and maybe (we hope) there will be some sackings.

  20. Good morning, all. No rain with a light overcast here. Forecast is for a dry day, something the soggy garden needs.

    Yesterday OB put up a comment re Trump winning.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/befb13fd6eb2081084a1ec95e0fa603d7ea72bdd6c640b81159f7a928229f275.png

    Here is an interview outlining the possible, or it could be very probable, Democrat response to Trump’s popularity surging and Biden’s plummet into electoral extermination.

    What the USA’s public needs to know.

    War Room – Is Michelle Obama the Democrat’s Secret Weapon

    1. I think if MO were the Democrats’ secret weapon, they’d have already put her up. The Obamas’ “very strange” (Tucker Carlson) private life is probably putting the kybosh on that.

      1. The film maker puts up a plausible scheme that the Democrats could use to slip MO into the race with ten weeks to go. Risky, but is it more of a risk than Biden whose mental state has finally been officially acknowledged? If anything this state of affairs shows that the Democrats are in disarray.

        1. Given what an insanely angry person she is (particularly on racial grounds) – and her inability to hide it for very long – she’d be a secret weapon all right.

          For the GOP.

          Especially since media interest in her would be so avid that there’d be no way the Dems would be able to hide
          her away in her basement instead of being out on the campaign trail, the way they did with Biden in 2020.

        2. Given what an insanely angry person she is (particularly on racial grounds) – and her inability to hide it for very long – she’d be a secret weapon all right.

          For the GOP.

          Especially since media interest in her would be so avid that there’d be no way the Dems would be able to hide
          her away in her basement instead of being out on the campaign trail, the way they did with Biden in 2020.

        3. Given what an insanely angry person she is (particularly on racial grounds) – and her inability to hide it for very long – she’d be a secret weapon all right.

          For the GOP.

          Especially since media interest in her would be so avid that there’d be no way the Dems would be able to hide
          her away in her basement instead of being out on the campaign trail, the way they did with Biden in 2020.

      1. Already been at the bottle counter of Sainsburys WGC.
        Jointly, If they are not moaning about everything they are as we can see, breaking the law.

    6. All the branded stores are leaving places like New York and Chicago. What will they do then? We have already seen a big increase in parcels being stolen from people’s porches. Delivery vans being stripped. Soon they won’t have anything to wear.

  23. Good morning
    I got this in my inbox as part of Lent reflections

    Hosea 11.1–9
    When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son.
    The more I called them,
    the more they went from me;
    they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
    and offering incense to idols.

    The Jews have fought this battle against the evil old Babylonian religion for millennia – the battle is still going today. It’s a weakness of Christianity that we sweep it under the carpet.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoQyxYjhEck

    1. There was an excellent “Dynasties” programme on elephants yesterday, I think you would enjoy it.
      One to look up when you get home.

      1. Safari? I thought Jules was on a Spa holiday and taking pictures from her infinity pool as elephants wandered past. That’s how i would do it !

  26. A little bit of whimsy. A new series has started over at UK Column. Why not go “Walking the Dog” with Brian Gerrish? A man, his dog, his chance meetings and his thoughts. It’s on YT so he’s going to have to be careful about his choice of language as the series develops but I think he plans to have it up on the UKC website as well.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9skZ0BEDSU&t=10s

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    Dry and almost bright, but rain later.
    Not the blizzard forecast by the presentation team a couple of weeks ago.
    And yes, how long has it taken for the usual team of idiots that spending too much time on a hand held device will damage our society, from the inside. They’ve all ready wrecked it from the front end.

  28. 383587+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The enemas within very near had success on the 24/6/2016 48% / 52% and they have never stopped trying since.

    We’re on the new road to serfdom: our property is no longer our own
    From your house to your body, the assumption is that it’s fine for the state to make decisions for you

    If not , as proving to be the undisputed case you will, putting no fine point on it, be erased via medication, IE an introduction to your torso of an alien element.

    Those that are in doubt must ask themselves “who has the most to lose” the politico’s / pharma,
    or the undertaker / embalmers.

    1. When SWMBO was in at Crawley having Firstborn by section, she ate virtually nothing, as the food was repulsive – I recall a “salad” with, bizarrely, a scoop of smash – much of which was still powder! Yet the staff canteen regularly won awards for their food.

      1. I was given half a baked potato. When i turned it over the flesh was black. The doctor arrived at that moment and pretended not to notice. It was cold as well.
        In the early evening the ward stank of fish and chips as relatives brought in edible food.

        The response from the people responsible is the usual rubbish excuses. It’s been going on for years.

      2. One way to solve the problem is not to provide any food.
        That concentrates the mind.
        Ditto within prisons.
        That’s how they do it in other countries.

        1. I did suggest SWMBO phone for a delivery of pizza, but she was too embarrased. I wouldn’t have been.

        2. Yes. Relatives should take responsibility for feeding ill family members. Provided their is a safety net for those that can’t.
          I don’t think it would work with prisons. Too much is contraband is smuggled in already. That would make it easier.

    2. I remember blue mould on a pineapple dessert. York Hospital 1979. In the Middle Ages, feeding the patient was a primary feature of the treatment.

  31. Good morning, chums – belatedly. PS – I wrote this an hour ago, but forgot to press POST.

        1. There are now apps and facebook groups where people have a surplus to give away. Saves wasting it.

          1. Although I enjoyed it I had to give it up Phiz. I’d run out of energy. It was only half a plot. Quite big enough for our family, chickens as well. Local stables for bags of free manuer.
            I’d recommend allotment life. Met a few (not all) nice people.

    2. Drat and double drat – I failed at Wordle today. I found the final four letters very quickly but there were at least four possible consonants for the first letter and I chose the different wrong ones three times.

  32. Good morning, chums – belatedly. PS – I wrote this an hour ago, but forgot to press POST.

  33. SIR – Sir David Davis’s aspiration to grow our volunteer Reserve forces (Comment, February 19) is admirable, but ignores the reality of needing significantly larger Armed Forces now.

    Training a member of the Reserves takes a lot longer than their regular counterparts because a reservist must juggle military service with their available free time. Consequently, it may take several years for a reservist to become a trained soldier, particularly if they join a technical corps.

    Lord Cameron’s government prioritised reservist recruiting over regulars, and the Armed Forces have not recovered. Increased regular recruitment and properly resourced training is the only solution.

    Mike Tickner
    Winterbourne Earls, Wiltshire

    Useless Cameron again!

    2. Pretty well everybody over here is a reservist, having done military service for 2 years. Up to recently, they used to keep uniform, rifle / MG3 plus handgun and plenty of ammo at home, in case of a rapid mobilisation.

      1. Out of interest, what changed? Doesn’t sound good for the Powers What Be to have a fully trained and armed citizenry.

        1. Somebody broke into a house and stole the H&K G3.
          So, they decided that wasn’t too secure, so collected all the weapons into local armouries.
          Somebody broke into an armoury and stole about 120 G3s…

          In any case, I think Norway has the highest private firearm count per capita in the world – Firstborn has 2 handguns, a rifle and shotgun, I have 5 handguns, a rifle and shotgun, and Second Son has a rifle & shotgun (he’s bloody good with them, too. Shot a clay moving fast left to right, then shot the broken bits to dust… never seen that before)

          5. One of our friends left his for us to store and hasn’t been back to collect them. I may need to channel my inner Henry VIII and start practising at the butts on Sundays.

      2. I fired an MG3 on a 5 day exchange with the Bundeswehr. Most impressive. A re-calibration of the WW2 beast.

    3. Deepest apologies for this shocking video , but British politicians have forgotten that they were elected to protect our country against the religion of peace .

      https://twitter.com/Thegreatascetic/status/1759867922921800123

      Digger Gardi
      @DiggerGardi
      ·
      5m
      The beast of Islam hides behind the title Religion but it’s not a Religion it’s a Death Cult and no non-Muslim man or woman on planet earth can watch that video and come to any other conclusion unless of course they’ve also lost touch with their own humanity.

      1. What repulsive Terrible monsters.
        That’s exactly why our, I can’t emphasis it enough, STUPID, government needs to get a grip and stand up to them.

      3. I wonder how many of those killers and their audience are now roaming Europe as “asylum seekers”?

    4. We don’t even have a navy anymore, so just how many of these W⚓️s do we actually need.
      I thought shnapps was the minister of defiance.

      1. Yo RE

        I understand the recall age, for exRNers is being raised to 80.

        I shall keep my head down until October……….

      1. I wonder if any of them resemble the Bennet girls: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Catherine and Lydia?

    7. It is people like this who have destroyed the integrity not just of the Conservative Party but of the whole British establishment.

    8. It requires real leadership to run a diverse enterprise and one that required those involved to put their lives on the line. This politician could do worse, a lot worse than reading the biography of a man I mentioned earlier, FM Bill Slim.

      Slim had both an implacable enemy and terrain to defeat with probably the most diverse army ever; certainly of a British Army. Slim was a genuine leader and put together a team that successfully fed, housed, trained and led into battle men from many cultures, religions and parts of the World, including Africa.

      Slim was so highly thought of that the government persuaded him to come out of retirement and become CIGS, a role Alan Brooke had distinguished during WWII.

      I doubt that we will ever see men of Slim’s calibre again.

    9. Considering the nation has been forced to accept a morass of incomers rather than wanting them, his whole argue comes undone. No one wants them. Forcing them into the army would just see the army – just as the country – polluted with wasters who want to destroy it. Heck, govt sends the army to fight and kill the same people who another branch of government hands a free house and bennies.

  37. So weird , he might trip over her ..

    I used to think that giants built our castles , and painted ceilings with Holy images , perhaps there were more giant men in earlier centuries , then they gradually shrank as the centuries whizzed by .. my childhood imagination ran riot .

    1. I wonder who makes Sultan Kosen’s clothes. His wardrobe must be custom-made and cost a fortune? An eight foot man would look a proper prat in normal size garments! On the subject of painting ceilings, of course the divine Michelangelo was about 5ft 2ins.

  41. Too many choices! Wordle 976 6/6

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

    2. Working through several starter words before trying to dsolve the puzzle worked again

      Wordle 976 4/6

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

  45. Ireland’s anti-immigration backlash is spiralling into country-wide unrest. 20 February 2024.

    I started my journey in Dublin, where hundreds of people turned out for an anti-immigration march. Amid a sea of Irish tricolour flags, protestors chanted “get them out” about the government over its support for mass migration – which many felt was conferring already sparse housing and public services to foreigners, to the detriment of Irish citizens. One woman said she was scared to leave the house because of the amount of “unvetted male people” who’ve arrived in Ireland in recent years.

    The Irish government were not the only villains of the event – much ire was directed at “higher powers’’, variously the European Union and the World Economic Forum. Leo Varadkar’s trip to Davos last month when anti-immigration protests across the country reached a high-point no doubt did little to disabuse them of the impression that his priorities lie elsewhere. Some gripes were flagrantly conspiratorial: Mr Varadkar’s government, not known for its Anglophilia, was accused multiple times of being in thrall to King Charles.

    We can only hope that it is a precursor to revolution and the overthrow of the EU and it’s Globalist accomplices!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/19/mass-immigration-bringing-european-style-populism-ireland/

    2. It may take a while. There’s a YouTube video of an Irish MP standing in the Dublin Parliament, where she is stating that censorship of their freedom of speech was for the common good!

    3. The Irish have plenty of things to resent about the EU – in exchange for EU bribes they have had to make humiliating backtracks.

      On two occasions the Irish voted the wrong way in a referendum (The Maastricht Treaty and The European Constitution Treaty aka the Lisbon Treaty) and were told that if they did not hold a second referendum which reversed their original vote they would lose EU money.

      This was deeply humiliating because it showed the Irish to be corruptible and that they were prepared to sell their honour for EU cash.

      Let us hope that the imposition of large swathes of Muslim immigrants imposed upon them by the EU and backed up by their disgusting taoiseach, Varadkar, will enable them to find their backbone and drive not only the illegal immigrants but also the EU away from their shores.

      1. The ‘vote again’ farce was a disgusting insult to democracy. I was surprised the leave campaign didn’t reference that, but then I suspected they were fifth columnists anyway.

  46. Ireland’s anti-immigration backlash is spiralling into country-wide unrest. 20 February 2024.

    I started my journey in Dublin, where hundreds of people turned out for an anti-immigration march. Amid a sea of Irish tricolour flags, protestors chanted “get them out” about the government over its support for mass migration – which many felt was conferring already sparse housing and public services to foreigners, to the detriment of Irish citizens. One woman said she was scared to leave the house because of the amount of “unvetted male people” who’ve arrived in Ireland in recent years.

    The Irish government were not the only villains of the event – much ire was directed at “higher powers’’, variously the European Union and the World Economic Forum. Leo Varadkar’s trip to Davos last month when anti-immigration protests across the country reached a high-point no doubt did little to disabuse them of the impression that his priorities lie elsewhere. Some gripes were flagrantly conspiratorial: Mr Varadkar’s government, not known for its Anglophilia, was accused multiple times of being in thrall to King Charles.

    We can only hope that it is a precursor to revolution and the overthrow of the EU and it’s Globalist acomplices!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/19/mass-immigration-bringing-european-style-populism-ireland/

  47. Caroline edits the parish magazine and she gets an eminent and meticulous historian of Lebanese origin who has written several books on Napoleon and 16th – 18th century French history to proof read . She sent him a text to check for typos written by our parish priest in which he quotes Portia’s quality of mercy speech from the The Merchant of Venice. Our historian friend replied that he thought it most inappropriate to quote from such a racist, anti-Semitic play.

    I am not so sure that the play is anti-Semitic – Shylock’s thirst for vengeance is certainly obnoxious but Shylock is given the chance to get the audience on his side and the behaviour of the superficial Venice playboys and the cruel treachery of his daughter who exchanges the ring given by his wife Leah for a monkey cannot fail to incite our pity and sympathy for Shylock rather than our contempt. The final punishment Shylock receives in having to become a Christian as well as losing all his worldly goods hardly shows the vindictive so-called Christian Venetians in a good Christian light.

    In the current disaster in the Middle East I am entirely on the side of Israel

    Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

    But of course the principal Jew haters of today are the Muslims but it is alarming that so many so-called Christians are not prepared to condemn what happened on October 7th.

    1. Matthew 7:22-23 (KJV)
      22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
      23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

    2. I ‘did’ The Merchant of Venice when I was 13.
      I always felt sorry for Shylock and thought Jessica was an ungrateful cow.

    1. Bods from the US CDC were being interviewed a few days ago and they confirmed that they are not actively looking at adverse events following the ‘vaccination’…. I wonder why?

  49. Even more massive than the US &UK’s National debts combined….

    The most luminous object ever detected has been spied in the distant Universe.
    It’s a quasar – the bright core of a galaxy that is powered by a gargantuan black hole some 17 billion times the mass of our Sun.
    Known as J0529-4351, the object’s power was confirmed in observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
    Scientists, reporting in the journal Nature Astronomy, say the black hole has a voracious appetite, consuming the mass equivalent to one Sun every day.
    J0529-4351 was actually recorded in data many years ago but its true glory has only just been recognised.
    “It is a surprise that it has remained unknown until today, when we already know about a million less impressive quasars. It has literally been staring us in the face until now,” said Christopher Onken, one of the astronomers from the Australian National University (ANU) working on the VLT observations.
    The term quasar is used to describe a galaxy with a very active and energetic core. The black hole at the centre of such a galaxy is pulling matter towards itself at a prodigious rate.
    As this material is accelerated around the hole, it is torn apart and emits a huge amount of light, so much so that even an object as distant as J0529-4351 is still visible to us.
    This quasar’s emission has taken a staggering 12 billion years to reach the detectors at the VLT.
    Everything about the object is astonishing.
    The scientists involved say the energy emitted makes the quasar over 500 trillion times more luminous than the Sun.
    “All this light comes from a hot accretion disc that measures seven light-years in diameter. This must be the largest accretion disc in the Universe,” said ANU PhD student and co-author Samuel Lai.
    Seven light-years is about 15,000 times the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.

        1. If there were intelligent beings on any of the swallowed planets I wonder whether they will have blamed alien made climate change for their demise.

          2. Until they were all eaten by the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal at a Vogon poetry recital. They got off easy.

    2. Puts everything into perspective. There were probably planets orbiting stars in that galaxy that were consumed with populations of ‘intelligent’ beings on them. We are just looking into the very very distant past.

      3. The puny minds of humans will never be able to grasp the complexities of the universe, never mind the world of quantum physics. We do not even have the computing power to be able to come close to reckoning how many quarks there are in the universe.

        We are but a speck of belly-button lint in the cosmos. And the fact that we are ultimately ephemeral says it all.

    3. Seven light-years is about 15,000 times the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.

      Put another way that is probably easier to imagine: to within half a light year or so, of the nearest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri. The latter and its two companions wouldn’t have much of a future at that distance.💥

      On another theme, I doubt that there’s sufficient dust in the known Universe for Bill Gates to utilise to dim this beast.🙄

    4. I’ve always believed the only hope the human race has is massive advancement through technology to ‘get off’ this planet. It will always be our home, but there are too many people here and too many on the way.

      We urgently need to get ‘out there’ and start exploring. The problem is the Left keep hindering and holding up our every opportunity for growth and improvement.

  50. Even more massive than the US &UK’s National debts combined….

    The most luminous object ever detected has been spied in the distant Universe.
    It’s a quasar – the bright core of a galaxy that is powered by a gargantuan black hole some 17 billion times the mass of our Sun.
    Known as J0529-4351, the object’s power was confirmed in observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile.
    Scientists, reporting in the journal Nature Astronomy, say the black hole has a voracious appetite, consuming the mass equivalent to one Sun every day.
    J0529-4351 was actually recorded in data many years ago but its true glory has only just been recognised.
    “It is a surprise that it has remained unknown until today, when we already know about a million less impressive quasars. It has literally been staring us in the face until now,” said Christopher Onken, one of the astronomers from the Australian National University (ANU) working on the VLT observations.
    The term quasar is used to describe a galaxy with a very active and energetic core. The black hole at the centre of such a galaxy is pulling matter towards itself at a prodigious rate.
    As this material is accelerated around the hole, it is torn apart and emits a huge amount of light, so much so that even an object as distant as J0529-4351 is still visible to us.
    This quasar’s emission has taken a staggering 12 billion years to reach the detectors at the VLT.
    Everything about the object is astonishing.
    The scientists involved say the energy emitted makes the quasar over 500 trillion times more luminous than the Sun.
    “All this light comes from a hot accretion disc that measures seven light-years in diameter. This must be the largest accretion disc in the Universe,” said ANU PhD student and co-author Samuel Lai.
    Seven light-years is about 15,000 times the distance from the Sun to the orbit of Neptune.

  51. That woke Generaline – reminds me of Sgt Wilson giving orders to the platoon. “I say, would you mind awfully…”

    1. Tempting to say wouldn’t it be nice to send her back in time and place her in the heat of an historic battle but of course it wouldn’t be nice. She’d be dead in minutes.

  52. Now this wazzock shoves his oar in:

    “Prince William says he is ‘deeply concerned’ about the ‘human cost’ of the conflict in Gaza where ‘too many have been killed'”

    Hope the Chief Rabbi has a quiet word. Or Mossad.

    1. He’s right. Too many killed.
      But that suits Hamas – they smack Israel, who inevitably retaliate in robust style, and despite Hamas kicking it off again, suddenly Israel is the bad man. Hamas don’t care – the more bodies the better as far as they are concerned.

      1. As Lawrence Durrell put it in “Bitter Lemons” – in that case about EOKA “His primary objective is not battle. It is to bring down upon the community in general a reprisal for his wrongs, in the hope that fury and resentment roused by punishment meted out to the innocent will gradually swell the ranks of those from whom he will draw further recruits.”

      2. As Lawrence Durrell put it in “Bitter Lemons” – in that case about EOKA “His primary objective is not battle. It is to bring down upon the community in general a reprisal for his wrongs, in the hope that fury and resentment roused by punishment meted out to the innocent will gradually swell the ranks of those from whom he will draw further recruits.”

    2. The qualification for being a monarch is to care about your own people if for example, they suddenly start dying at a higher rate than usual, rather than shedding crocodile tears for people dying thousands of miles away.

    4. Well, he’s right. Too many have died. If Hamas hadn’t dropped bombs on Israel then those folk would be alive today.

      This conflict ends when muslims stop trying to kill Israelis. It’s that simple.

    5. “Prince William says he is ‘deeply concerned’ about the ‘human cost’ of the conflict in Russia and Ukraine where ‘too many have been killed'” He didn’t say.

  53. No comment necessary…

    Chris Cartledge, Fleet Air Arm pilot who bombed Tirpitz, flew ‘the Bent-Wing Bastard’ and twice crashed at sea – obituary

    Court-martialled after crashing an aircraft borrowed to get to Liverpool for a date with a Wren, he was pardoned because of his skill

    Chris Cartledge, who has died aged 100, was a Fleet Air Arm pilot who flew the F4U Corsair – the “Bent-Wing Bastard” – on operations against the Germans and the Japanese in the Second World War; he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross aged 20 and qualified twice as a member of the Goldfish Club, whose members had ditched at sea.

    In August 1944 Cartledge took part in Operation Goodwood, the attack on the German battleship Tirpitz which was hiding in the Norwegian fjords. Goodwood was the largest-scale bombing raid by the Fleet Air Arm so far in the war, over a period of several days, when many newly qualified naval aviators were blooded.

    To maintain surprise, a number of faster Corsairs of 1842 Naval Air Squadron carried 1,000lb bombs: it was not known whether they could even take off in the wind but, using the full length of Formidable’s flightdeck, they flew at sea level to avoid German radar before climbing over the mountains.

    The Corsairs led the attack, surprising the Tirpitz before the Germans could generate a smokescreen and dive-bombing from 10,000ft at a 45-degree angle. Cartledge was third in line behind his commanding officer, Tony “Judy” Garland. Cartledge recalled that the air was thick with black bursts of flak and yellow balls of tracer from blazing guns on the side of the fjord and from Tirpitz as she appeared to slip past his head. There were funnels of frothing foam from exploding bombs as he saw his wingman, John French, blasted out of the sky, and pulling away so hard that he almost blacked out, he sped along the floor of the fjord as bullets kicked up the surface of the water.

    Cartledge was awarded the DSC. He was puzzled to be singled out, but decided that a few medals were being sprinkled about, and he accepted the award on behalf of all his squadron.

    Next, 1842 Naval Air Squadron deployed in Formidable to the Far East, where they took part in bombing and strafe-ing operations against land and sea targets on Japanese islands and the mainland. He was airborne when Formidable was hit by a kamikaze pilot on May 4 1945, and had to land on the carrier Indomitable. Despite three killed and 47 wounded and 11 aircraft destroyed, Formidable, thanks to her armoured flightdeck, was quickly serviceable again.

    Then on July 17 1945, his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire as he strafed the Matsushima airfield on the mainland of Japan. He struggled back to Formidable, thinking his hydraulics had been damaged and opting to bale out close to “mother”. Finding that he was unable to release the cockpit hood, he circled the ship waiting for her to complete emergency landing preparations, all the while continuing to try to jettison the hood.

    He let go of the control column to enable him to twist round and get both hands on the canopy, at which point his Corsair cartwheeled and crashed into the sea. Luckily, the impact snapped Cartledge’s parachute and seat straps, knocked off the canopy and threw him clear. He was picked up by an accompanying destroyer, and suffered no more than a few cuts and bruises. All he remembered was coming to, floating on the water in his Mae-west, and watching the last of his plane sinking under the water.

    On September 19 1945, at war’s end, as Formidable steamed into Sydney harbour, Cartledge reflected that of the 18 pilots in the first squadron photograph, only nine had survived: “I hope they weren’t wasted but one shouldn’t forget, otherwise what little we did achieve will definitely be wasted.”

    Christopher Reginald Cartledge was born at Egham, Surrey, on December 16 1923 and educated at City of London School, then at its wartime home at Marlborough College. His father had been shot down while flying a Sopwith Camel of the Royal Flying Corps and spent much of the First World War as a prisoner of war.

    Young Cartledge volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm as soon as he could and on his 18th birthday started his naval training. He first flew the de Havilland Tiger Moth before taking passage in RMS Queen Mary to continue his training in Canada.

    Returning to Britain on August 18 1943, Cartledge was attempting his first ever deck landing in a Sea Hurricane on the carrier Argus off Scotland when, going round on his fourth try, he veered to starboard off the centreline of the flightdeck, and the ship’s radio mast sliced three feet off his starboard wing. His aircraft slid over the side and made a graceful, curved descent into the Clyde: he was taken aboard a destroyer, given dry clothes and filled up with gin. A month later he returned to make his first successful deck landing.

    Later, while based at HMS Nightjar, as RNAS Inskip was known, Cartledge borrowed an unfamiliar Sea Skua in order to keep a date with a Wren in Liverpool. Unfortunately, he collided with a Seafire while taxi-ing, causing minor damage, and on returning was charged and court-martialled. The court was unimpressed by his defence which was that the Seafire’s camouflage was so good that he could not see it against the background of a muddy airfield, but his CO thought he was too good a pilot to lose and spoke up for him strongly in front of senior officers. He was found guilty but only lost two months’ seniority.

    In 1944 Cartledge returned to North America, to Brunswick, Maine, to learn to fly the long-nosed, high-performance Chance Vought Corsair. It was so difficult to handle in the approach to carrier landings that it became known as the “Bent-Wing Bastard” or “the ensign killer” and it was given to the US Marine Corps and to the Royal Navy to master. Adopting a curved approach to ensure that the flightdeck was kept in sight as long as possible, young Fleet Air Arm pilots like Cartledge tamed the Corsair and it was brought into service on small British carriers before it was cleared for use in the US Navy.

    Post-war he joined his grandfather’s company, A Cartledge and Sons, buying and selling non-ferrous metals.

    As a youth Cartledge was rebellious, but in the early 1960s he converted to Catholicism and his religion found practical expression as a volunteer with Meals on Wheels and the St Vincent de Paul Society, as organist and choir director, and as treasurer or chairman of the churches where he worshipped. Until a year ago he travelled long distances to visit family members and called on former neighbours in their care homes.

    Cartledge’s story and that of his flying companions in the British Pacific Fleet is told in Will Iredale’s The Kamikaze Hunters (2015).

    In 1948 he married Dorothy Taylor, a calligrapher and bookbinder, whom he met while he was a student at Goldsmiths Art College on an ex-servicemen’s grant. She predeceased him in 2009. He is survived by their three daughters and a son.

    Christopher Cartledge, born December 16 1923, died January 21 2024

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/02/19/chris-cartledge-fleet-air-arm-pilot-tirpitz-kamikaze/

    1. “I hope they weren’t wasted but one shouldn’t forget, otherwise what little we did achieve will definitely be wasted.”
      These strong, effective, reticent types seem to be dying out – maybe that’s why the world is going to hell in a handcart.
      100 years old, eh? As a carrier pilot in the 1940s, I don’t suppose he expected that.
      Respect.

      2. Standard size in yer Yankland is 1½” thick. Standard size here in Sweden is ½” thick.

        I like mine 1–1¼” thick so have to buy a chunk of rib-eye and cut my own. An ½” thick steak is impossible to cook properly. By the time the outside is cooked the inside is cremated.

        2. I would still use the thick cut that lady used but i would slice and share. Other than that i buy tail end fillet. You still get the height but a smaller roundel.

          1. I use Donald Russel (Royal Warrant). I wait until they have a sale on and buy £100 worth and get free delivery. Sometimes they throw in an extra joint for free.

          5. It was a 1kg pork joint with crackling. Lamb shank is about £5 for one when they used to give them away.

        1. And they say red meat gives you colon cancer. It probably does if you eat that much in one sitting. Impacted colon as well.

        2. It was Sir Les Patterson who said, when asked how he would like his steak replied:
          “Knock its horns off, wipe its arse and serve….!”

    1. Much like penguins. When their mate dies they don’t remarry, but they do form friendship groups amongst other widowers. We dismiss other animals as somehow dramatically different from us but they’re not, not really.

      In fact, some animals in London are far less evolved than others.

          2. Reminds me of a cartoon of horses in a stable. The (female) owner has just left her horse after giving him a cuddle. The horse tells the others “My mummy loves me” while one of the other horses says to his mate, “do you think we should tell him he’s adopted?”.

    2. I imagine their school is overrun with muslim and this is their only way to not get bullied or to make friends.

      They’re an infestation.

  58. I’ve been to see the family who took on a Newfie. Apparently the puppy is shy and withdrawn, taken to hiding down the back of the sofa and burying into cushions.

    They are, understandably, very upset, as despite the very best diet the little fellow isn’t growing at the same rate Mongo did, nor is he as ‘happy’ – you can’t go far without Mongo asking for a belly rub, in any condition (although he prefers mud, dirty leaves or water). All which leaves me thinking the dog is somehow frightened.

    I pootle along, not with the great beast and see them interact with the puppy. They’re doing all the right things. Consistency, calm tones, talking to him, making sure he has space around his basket (where he tends to stay) and the fellow seems ok, if a little withdrawn – with the adults.

    I ask if the puppy has bonded with their children. Apparently the little girl is ok but kept tying ribbons around him but the little boy is nervous because this is a nine month old dog now. Newfies get big quickly. Really quickly. They also don’t know they’re big. Now, Mongo and Junior bonded at about the same age – 9 months and 6 years – and got along like a house on fire mainly because Junior already had Wiggy about the place who was unashamedly magnificent and wonderful in every way and very much ‘my’ dog, so Junior wasn’t worried about or by him. Wiggy would follow the crawling baby about to keep an eye on him, for example.

    I took Junior round in the evening and the puppy comes poking his nose out ever so slowly (where Mongo would try to go through the door to greet Junior) and eventually, with Junior playing with him his eyes brightened, his tongue lolled and he was wagging like a demon. The lad though was still nervous to touch the fellow and when he did drew back so quickly it obviously spooked the dog who folded away and buried his head in his paws again.

    Junior basically told the lad that the dog was frightened of you because you’re frightened of him and suggested taking small boy and dog with adult to one to one dog training classes. After a couple of hours and the puppy coaxed out the lad was able to fuss him a bit more, but it’s going to take time.

    Anyway, just my minor adventures as Wibbling, Dog Whisperer.

    1. Brilliant.
      What a very good use of yours and Junior’s time.
      Maybe the boy will follow Junior’s example.

  59. Harry is only 7 inches high but Dolly has taught him tricks. How to look as if you haven’t been fed in a week. And Harry returns the favour by opening doors for her and warming her bed.

    1. I can’t remember the name of the US comedian who said he and his wife learned their sexual techniques from their dog. It taught him how to beg and taught her how to roll over and play dead….

  63. “Bankrupt Birmingham council takes drastic steps to balance the books”

    https://www.ft.com/content/3ec920d6-d4eb-42fe-8cd4-61ec8a17244a

    ”
    Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
    https://www.ft.com/content/3ec920d6-d4eb-42fe-8cd4-61ec8a17244a

    Birmingham’s council will be forced to sell £750mn of assets and slash spending on public services by £300mn in order to claw its way out of a deep funding crisis, the council said on Monday.

    Swingeing cuts to children’s and adult social care and many other services will be accompanied by a 21 per cent rise in council tax over the next two years from April, for which the council has received exceptional authorisation.

    Labour council leader John Cotton said he was presenting the budget with a “heavy heart”.

    “I wish to apologise unreservedly for the significant spending reductions and council tax increase — we have no choice but to face these challenges head on. We will do all we can to get the council back on to a stable and sound financial footing,” he said.

    Birmingham is the UK’s second-largest city with the second-largest single-tier council in Europe in terms of the number of people it serves and services it provides. It is one of eight local authorities in England in recent years to have issued Section 114 notices declaring an inability to meet a legal duty to balance the books.

    But its demise has focused attention on the wider squeeze on local government finances and associated deterioration in public services across England.

    “This is a very big authority. So the numbers are so much bigger,” Max Caller, the government-appointed commissioner who was sent in last year to take control of the city’s finances after the council was forced to declare that it was in effect bankrupt, told the Financial Times.

    The council was pitched into insolvency when estimated liabilities for equal-pay claims from several thousand, mostly female, employees jumped to nearly £800mn.

    But experts in local government also pointed to the national picture. Council funding was cut to the bone in the decade to 2020, hitting large urban areas such as Birmingham, which lost £1bn according to Cotton, particularly hard.

    The County Councils Network, representing the largest local authorities in England, said on Monday that nearly all of its 36 members would have to raise council tax by the maximum allowed of 5 per cent in April. This was in spite of the government granting £500mn in emergency funding last month.

    “We have little choice but to take the difficult but necessary decision to raise council tax by 4.99 per cent to continue to protect services and ward off the threat of financial insolvency in the future,” said Sam Corcoran, vice-chair of the CCN.

    Some experts are warning that coming on top of previous cuts, the latest ones in Birmingham risk tipping the council into a vicious cycle of rising costs and falling revenues.

    James Brackley, from the Audit Reform Lab think-tank at Sheffield university, said cuts worth tens of millions of pounds to child and adult social care, and housing, came with huge potential knock-on costs down the line.

    “We are worried this sets them on a footing where they are not financially viable at all anymore,” he said. “It all feels a bit scorched earth.”

    Looks like my council tax is going to increase dramatically yet nobody from the council has been held responsible.

    2. Surely you’ve edited out the bit where they promise to close the equity and diversity department, sack the layabouts who won’t attend the office and drastically reduce inflated salaries to save millions of pounds?

          1. I’m not racist. I’m perfectly fine with wops, nignogs, dagoes and spics. I just expect them to work and pay tax like everyone else.

          2. Trouble is in todays world, the internet police are trolling for this language and Geoff may see the thought police at his door.

          5. But……the longer get away with their cheating ways of life, the harder it becomes to respect and like them. Especially when they moan so much.

    3. I assume the existing management team have been sacked, and the one below that and any new appointees restricted to no more than 40,000? Ah, who am I kidding. Nothing will change. The same incompetent, greedy, toxic effluent troughing on their six figure salaries will keep causing the same problems.

      1. Got to pay £squillions to get the best, apparently.
        And if those are the best, wonder how the average would perform?

    4. We in Woking are very similar, bankrupt council, however, no announcements have been made that I’m aware of about how the books are to be, well, halfway to Balanced.

      1. Vee dub, was there ever a verdict on the death of that poor 10 year old girl a few months back?
        It a suddenly went quite.

          1. It was probably because the implications were so obvious.
            Our media hate that. I expect they failed to cover up the M word.
            Back burner stuff now.
            That poor little girl.

          3. Yes I thought that Anne.
            I hope as a consequence the British authorities deal with it accordingly.
            But unfortunately they don’t have the guts to hit the spot.

          1. Ah – different culture; children often die unexpectedly; don’t understand the word “neglect”…..fall-back = diminished responsibility..(yawns and drops off).

    6. How many diversity officers and climate emergency geeks will lose their jobs? I think we all know the Net Zero answer.

    1. I expect the police response would be ‘it’s a civil matter’.

      What you do then is hire half a dozen bruisers to beat the shit out of him, burn all his possessions and throw him in the river.

      Civility restored.

  68. Well done. Perhaps now you’d like to whisper into Rico’s ear and tell him to a) stop humping my slippered foot and leg (he is very tenacious, focused and won’t take ‘No!’ for an answer) and b) to stop hanging on to my slipper and trying to bite my toes and tear my slipper off my foot. This only happens in the evening for about half an hour. He thinks water from a squirty bottle is a great game and “No!” and “stop it!” make him worse and enrage him! Ignoring the behaviour simply allows him to get on with it. Edit: He is 9 months’ old. Other than these little quirks of behaviour, he is adorable, a very loving little dog.

    3. You could try disciplining him in the way his mother would; take him by the scruff of the neck (it induces a go floppy response) and GENTLY shake him once.

        1. Just try it once. If it doesn’t work, you’ll have to think of something else. I once bit my dog’s ear to stop him misbehaving. He yelped and didn’t do it again (also something a mother dog would do). I also pinned Charlie down when he was being aggressive to other dogs and growled at him. The only thing that cured that, though, was becoming an only dog!

          1. I’m not sure about biting his ear…that would put me too near the danger area! I have tried baring my teeth at him and he lunged at me so I didn’t do that again. I suppose I’m hoping he’ll just grow out of it, and he had his ‘little operation’ a month ago but it can take time for the hormones to work their way through the dog’s system.

          2. It seems to me that he thinks he’s the alpha dog, ie the pack leader. Do you make sure you eat first and you go through the door first and he walks to heel when you take him out?

          3. We put his food out the same time as our own, he eats his in the kitchen. We do go through the door first, but just getting him to walk on the lead was a problem for a while, he would crouch down as though overwhelmed and refuse to move – he still does that when the wind blows.

            We will ensure that we eat first in future, and start heel training as a matter of course on our walks. He has a nice nature and is delighted to meet everyone and all dogs on our walks, he will stand and walk on his hind legs and greet everyone as though they are a long lost friend. It is from 5.30 pm – 6.30 pm each day he starts to assert himself for a while.

          5. About that time I start making preparations for dinner, but I could be doing anything. Sometimes I am finishing off a pile of ironing. Just walking around (in the house) sometimes. It starts with a little bite to the back of my heels – substantial enough to feel but not hard enough to really hurt. (Poppie used to do this at times but it was so gentle I scarcely felt it – she played with her toys, they were well shaken up but they were still intact 14 years later.) Back to Rico – then it’s a tug of my slippers and growling and barking if I reprimand him.

            Interestingly, after the sparrowhawk incident (see todays blog 21.2) we brought Rico inside and disposed of the remains of the s.h. We were just about to eat lunch when he jumped behind me on the back of the chair to look out of the window to presumably get a view of the s.h. (All he knows is that it’s outside.) We pushed him off the chair and he came round to jump up again. We prevented him from doing so and he sat back on the floor and growled wit warning and barked with determination. He was defiant. So Charles (poppiesdad) got up from his chair, got him by the scruff of the neck, and gave him a little shake (not lifting him from the ground). Instantly his behaviour changed, instantly. He immediately stopped growling, stopped being defiant. He has been sulking morosely for the last 20 minutes or so on his favourite perch, the back of an armchair.

            The death of the s.h. puzzles me. We don’t think Rico killed it. Just on the other side of the fence, probably 4 metres away, we have had a new electric street light fitted, probably a month ago, the old sodium light removed. S.h. and kestrels love to perch up high to survey the lie of the land. Just wondering…..!

            Rico is now sulking along the far edge of the sofa.

          6. WeIl I’m glad it worked! You can put up with sulking. I meant to say that when you eat, make sure he sees you eating and finishing before you feed him. A trick you can do to reinforce the message is to put a small bowl of your food in his dish and eat it in front of him, then put down his dish with just his food in it. He then thinks you’ve eaten his food and are giving him the left overs, just as the alpha pair, the pack leaders, would do with their subordinates.

          7. Oh my goodness me! Yes, I’ll try that..eating from the dish… it is at me most of the offensive is aimed. He has been better behaved this evening, and responded to No! when he started to hump my leg. The sulking is OK, it’s not a problem, it means he is mulling things over (even though I know he doesn’t realise that that is what he is doing!) and gives me some peace and quiet. He has got some commands, he will sit on command and he is properly house trained. The weather was so awful today he didn’t get to go out for a walk, he just went outside into the garden, so we will have to practise ‘heel’ when the weather is better. It’s not very often that that is the case, that he doesn’t get a proper walk, but everywhere is so waterlogged underfoot and it was raining heavily. Yes, he did see us eating before we gave him his food this evening, and we will continue to do so. He whined a bit but we ignored it.

            Vet tomorrow for Rico’s six-months-from-when-he-arrived-home check-up, and a check of his luxating patella which doesn’t seem to be causing him any problems apart from the very occasional left back hop. And then we have to fence off the Aladdin’s cave which is the compost heap.

            Thanks so much for your tips, they are much appreciated.

          8. I’m only too pleased to be of help. I’ve had to learn the hard way with some challenging dogs. You have to become the alpha female along with your husband as alpha male. Rico has to learn his subordinate position in the pack. Once he’s accepted that, he will be a happier person and you’ll get some peace. Something else to practise is “watch me!” so that he bonds with you and has his attention on you. That will help when you do heel work and if you meet other dogs he might feel a bit aggressive about. Practise it at home. Say, “watch me!” and when he looks at you, reward him.

          9. Thank you, yes, I was aware that Rico was treating me as No 3 in the pack but didn’t really know how to deal with it, I was aware that the humping was a domination attempt. I have a puppy book but to be honest I got bogged down with all the information, where to begin. I am aware that in a few months’ time he may change towards other dogs and become more aggressive as he matures so I will go with the ‘watch me’; Poppie changed over her lifetime although she never lost her love of greeting people. I will always miss her, not an hour goes by that I don’t think about her. Thanks so much, I have something to work with now.

          10. Start early with the “watch me!” practice. Do it often. When you are teaching him to heel, always start off with the same foot to move forward (they get used to it so if you start off with the other foot it means they are meant to stay where they are in the “stay” position while you leave them), tell him to heel – heeyul – then if he rushes forward, stop, step back, take him back to the heel position and move forward again. Don’t let him get away with being in front of you (that’s another taking charge sign). Always take him back before moving forward. He will eventually cotton on that he isn’t going anywhere unless he’s in the right place.

  69. The Strictly stars we’ve loved and lost: After dancer Robin Windsor’s shock death is revealed. D Fail

    Those b*st*rd Russians will stop at nothing to achieve their aim of world dominance – even in ballroom dancing.

          1. It’s those new batteries. Gone in a puff of smoke.

            Actually i am being most unkind. It was the steroids. (stop ! shut up !)

            It may have been too much cock (stop! shut up !)

            I meant Cocaine (stop! shut up!)

            Okay it was Myocardittis brought on by being permanently vaxxed.

  70. There’s a discussion going on in the office about how cosmetic surgery, “makes you look like a fucking alien”. I guffawed. Couldn’t help it.

          1. I think you’re right.
            It’s not just the over exaggerated looks. The popular use of Growly vowels are annoying.

        2. The consensus in the office is that it begins with wanting to correct one feature which leads to dissatisfaction with something else and so on till everything becomes horribly distorted.

    1. I have often wondered. What IS the point of alcohol free, er, alcoholic drinks? Why not just drink water?

      2. I used to drink alcohol-free German beer when orf the booze but socialising because water gets boring and I don’t have a sweet tooth.

      3. Zero Guiness is good stuff. It also fulfils my Lenten denial of giving up alcohol without appearing to virtue signal.

  72. Local newspapers are full of stories about, “The worst flooding since records began 180 years ago”.

    I’ll wager a groat that they had it just as bad 300-500 years back. But no one outside the affected areas knew.

    1. They must have forgotten about the terrible floods in an around Jaywick in the early 50s. More than 30 people lost their lives. And in the same years the Lincolnshire floods.

      2. I remember those floods well – or so I am told. As our house was flooded, I hope that I missed a few days of school.

    2. With the pop rising from 2bn to 8bn in the last century or so, there are far more people with fitted carpets and designer kitchens affected by flooding and who can be seen sobbing on the news.

      1. We could build reservoirs. The government seems desperate to change our water policy from the EU mandated one to allow that though.

    3. According to a former Squire of the Morris Ring, because of it’s remoteness East Anglia was one of the last places in England to practice the Harvest Sacrifice.
      The Corn Dolly tradition was, apparently, an integral part of it.

    4. From TCW recently -https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/met-offices-stormy-january-was-just-average/

      Three named storms, supposed record high temperatures, and headlines screaming about hurricane force winds, devastating flooding, weather destruction and chaos. You might be forgiven for wondering what happened to our weather last month!

      But now the Met Office has published all the data, and it turns out January’s weather was actually boringly normal!

      Mean temperatures for the month were bang on average, and the trend has been flat for the last two decades. Rainfall too was close to normal, with very little change in long term trends over the last hundred years.

    5. They said that about Boscastle – worst in 170 years, global warming etc, with stopping to ask what caused the record-setting event 170 years ago.

  73. In an X Spaces event, Elon Musk revealed the first human patient implanted with a brain chip from Neuralink has made a “full recovery” and “can control the mouse around the screen just by thinking.”

    “Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with no ill effects that we are aware of. The patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking,” Musk told X users in Spaces on Monday night.

    Neuralink implanted the first brain chip into a human in January, following approval for human trials in September. The potentially life-transforming technology could help patients with quadriplegia caused by cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

  74. We had a very enjoyable veterans meeting and lunch today, lots of photos , laughter and yes , sadness , for those now no longer with us .

    Many of our members attending today were Royal Engineers , and a few others came from other branches and regiments , as well as a Tankie , and RAF.

    I had a huge member list for this county , and the photos I passed around today were memories of our group when it exceeded over a 100 in meetings , although the member list was nearer 300 , but travel , driving licences and age and physical capability robs many of the ability to meet up .

    Many of the elderly men who served their time in the Suez crisis can remember some of their Arabic words / as can I from when I was a child out there . My parents encouraged my younger sister and I to say a few things in Arabic .. Amal Chi and that sort of thing!!! As well as counting to ten or twenty !

    Our active numbers have reduced hugely , most are in their nineties , the Aden vets are in their eighties ..

    Service men and women of love getting together to chatter and share memories because they gave their time , youth and energy .

    We shared our space with a few Normandy vets about 10 years ago .. one remains now .. and she will be 100 years old in July, I visit her when I can , no male Normandy veterans left sadly.

    My voice feels rather croaky because I have been chattering .. so cup of tea time for me now.

    The wind is rather cold , might rain later .

    3. Our elderly friend who spent her entire war years in the Admiralty taking dictation from (?) The naval supremo based in the Admiralty and typing up his orders prior to being sent for coding and transmission will be 101 this year!

    5. I can remember some arabic words and I’ve never been to Suez; jihad, hijab, burka, niqab, ummah, jizya, adhan, kitman, taqiyya, dhimmi, muezzin, taharrush … none of them is conducive to peaceful co-existence. I long for the day when these words are consigned to (foreign) history.

  75. Phew! My bloody back aches!
    “Can you lend a hand at Crich with your van for a couple of hours, Dear” she said. “Its only for a short while. It’s to shift the stuff from the Tea Rooms to a container for storage until the new Tea Rooms are built.”

    5 hours and four vanloads and pickup loads of boxes, tables, chairs cooking gear later…..
    And what sort of idiot puts 50 china dinner plates into a flimsy cardboard box and then expects someone to carry it?

      1. KenL, whenever I see obviously spelling errors I ask myself if this shows their logic is suspect. On the other hand, perhaps they are suggesting that Army accommodation lacks proper bathrooms – Bain Maries. Lol.

    1. Gosh, you were lucky! It was a trap today. Too many words with the same last four letters.

      Wordle 976 5/6

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

      2. It was I who first mentioned at least possible consonants for the first letter. Are we getting different answers with our daily Wordle attempts? Maybe we could wait 24 hours and then post the actual solutions we found the previous day.

        1. I usually do it at lunchtime and have generally forgotten the answer by evening but yes, we could make a note of the solution and share that with the grid for the following day?

          1. If you could post the solution around midday, that is about 7AM here and when I normally attempt the puzzle. Maybe I could start scoring the occasional hole in one if I could see the answer.

    2. Me too, but someone earlier mentioned the amount of words with the last 4 letters and so I (k)new the type of word to look for.

      Wordle 976 3/6

      🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  82. Niall Gooch
    Say no to Labour’s citizens’ assembly
    20 February 2024, 8:04am

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1715964882.jpg
    Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, who mooted the idea of citizens’ assemblies

    A spectre is haunting Westminster – the spectre of the citizens’ assembly. This unkillable bad idea is making the headlines again because of the suggestion that, when Labour comes to power, citizens’ assemblies could be used to develop new policy proposals to put before Parliament. Fittingly, given its essentially anti-political and anti-democratic nature, this idea has been mooted by Sue Gray, Keir Starmer’s ‘chief of staff’, a woman who has wielded enormous power but who holds no elected office and has never offered herself for any public vote, rather than by Starmer or any of his frontbenchers.

    Creating such assemblies may not be official Labour policy. It appears that Gray was either freelancing, or had agreed to float a trial balloon on behalf of the Labour leadership, when she put forward the ‘transformational’ plan; by the end of Monday, citizens’ assemblies were already being briefed against by Labour’s National Executive Committee. Luke Akehurst, a member of the NEC, said that ‘citizens’ assemblies are a stupid idea’.

    He’s right, of course, but this won’t be the last time we hear about citizens’ assemblies. It is a perennial favourite among the Sensible classes, involving as it does core Sensible values such as Consulting The Stakeholders, and bypassing the allegedly archaic and unacceptably adversarial House of Commons. It is worth reflecting, therefore, on why exactly we must say no.

    An obvious question is: who will assemble which citizens, and to what end? Advocates, including Gray, have referred specifically to Ireland, where citizens’ assemblies have been established since 2016 to consider a number of hot topics, notably the repeal of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting abortion, which was eventually abolished via referendum in 2018. This is an enlightening comparison, because the Irish experience demonstrates a number of dangers.

    Under Ireland’s system, the secretariat is provided by the civil service and the chairs are government appointees, meaning that the establishment is well able to guide deliberations. Reports are drafted by the secretariat, and no doubt the chair and other ‘facilitators’ can do their best to ensure that any non-compliant members who somehow slip through the selection net do not have too much influence on proceedings. Moreover, while the members are selected at random and intended to be broadly representative of the demographics of Ireland, people who agree to take part are by definition those who already have an interest in politics, as well as the willingness and the ability to spend long days discussing the subject.

    ‘Nonsense can and does go by default,’ said the social critic Anthony Daniels. ‘It wins the argument by sheer persistence, by inexhaustible re-iteration, by staying at the meeting when everyone else has gone home, by monomania, by boring people into submission and indifference’. Was he talking about citizens’ assemblies? Probably not, but he might well have been. There is, after all, a certain kind of person who is quite content to get obsessively involved in decision-making processes. More often than not that person has very strongly defined and rather unrepresentative views.

    Perhaps the work of citizens’ assemblies would be better described as ‘consensus laundering’; these assemblies are used to create the appearance that there is a widely held view on some matter of public importance. Typically this will support the action that the establishment – the political parties, the civil service, the quangocracy, and ‘civil society’ – want to take anyway, but now their policy preference has an extra patina of legitimacy because the citizenry has given it two thumbs up.

    The problem is that if the authority of Parliament is watered down in this way, it undermines the simple mechanisms of accountability which are meant to be at the heart of the British constitution. At the risk of over-simplification, Parliament – in practice the House of Commons – is supreme within our system, and the Commons, in its turn, must answer to the electorate. Of course, this approach has already come under serious threat in recent years. Prominent dangers to parliamentary sovereignty include constant judicial review of government decision-making, and the limits placed on legislation by vast and often arbitrary human rights requirements and equality impact assessments. There is also the growing powers of parliamentary standards bodies, which combine quasi-judicial powers of investigation and censure with very weak protections for due process. But citizens’ assemblies would further reduce the powers and prerogatives of MPs. They would blur lines of responsibility and enable cowardly and weak politicians to kick difficult issues into the long grass, by passing the buck to extra-parliamentary bodies with extremely limited mandates.

    The aim of modern left-wing politics is to make right-wing politics impossible. This means that governments are hemmed in by human rights and equality law, civil service guidelines and consultation requirements, such that any decisive action against the Blairite consensus becomes inconceivable. Citizens’ assemblies must be seen as part of this conscious and ongoing attempt to gum up the works, to ensure that the ratchet only ever turns one way – note that in Ireland it has consistently been the political class that determines what issues may be considered by the assemblies.

    The great struggle for conservatives is to reverse the neutering of Parliament, and more broadly to restore the domain of politics itself; to re-establish the norm that the proper place for hammering out the great questions of the day is not the courts, or the offices of a standards watchdog, or a meeting of political obsessives and their NGO handlers in a provincial conference room, but the chamber of the House of Commons.

    Niall Gooch is a writer who has appeared in the Catholic Herald and UnHerd.

    *******************************

    Brendan Harris
    8 hours ago
    This is part of a wider trend in Britain where the Left has ceased to try to govern for the whole of the country. The modern version of the Left seeks to purge society of dissenters and make it dangerous – professionally and sometimes even physically – to hold contrarian views.

    As the eminent American psychologist Jonathan Haidt discovered the Left now regards the Right not just as wrong but as evil.

    These Citizens Assemblies are a pernicious Orwellian idea. You only have to look at the Covid Inquiry to see how it works – there isn’t a single lockdown sceptic on the panel. Important alternative voices like Sunetra Gupta weren’t even called to give evidence. The establishment has used it as a way to legitimise lockdown rather than ask serious questions about the costs and consequences of what they did.

    Blair did the same with his Iraq War Inquiries – control the panel, the agenda and the remit and you get the answer you want.Britain is well on the way to losing its democracy. The political parties have ceased to have any meaningful policy differences. MPs glide effortlessly from one side of the House to the other. The civil service and the judiciary have become active players in pushing a malicious agenda that has recently included trying to overturn the Brexit vote and stopping efforts to remove illegal immigrants. Non political institutions like the National Trust and the nation’s museums have had a blood transfusion, with sensible dedicated staff replaced by woke millennials bent on pursuing their ‘social justice’ aims.

    Maybe it’s what the country wants. Maybe people like me are in the minority now and we have to accept we have lost the argument. Britain isn’t Britain anymore and we should stop pretending that it is. The light is being extinguished.

    Lancastrian Oik
    8 hours ago
    These “soviets” (let’s call them what they are) would be rigged, populated exclusively by the kind of prod-nosed pompous leftie fools who infest town and parish councils with the screening process ensuring that any remotely sensible person who aspired to membership would be turned away.

    If you’ve ever had the misfortune to deal with this type of rebarbative clown (as I have, unfortunately) then you’ll know exactly what I am talking about. The quoted remarks from Anthony Daniels (Theodore Dalrymple ?) are extremely apt. They are malevolent control freaks who should not be allowed anywhere near any lever of power.

    nanumaga Lancastrian Oik
    8 hours ago
    Same sort of characters who have successfully imposed new rules for the Judiciary through the Equal Treatment Bench Book? I still can’t quite believe that this awful setup is excluded from FoI access.

    I still have awful memories of Student Union meetings dominated by Trots, Maoists, Stalinists, etc. who simply bored everybody else into submission, assuming there was even a vestigial opposition represented.

    Septic Sceptic
    8 hours ago
    “…in Ireland it has consistently been the political class that determines what issues may be considered by the assemblies.” And the outcomes will have already been decided. This is the leftist way of giving the illusion of democracy in order to justify unpopular policies and laws that crush any right-leaning dissent. Also, as soon as the word “stakeholders” appears anywhere, then you just know it’s all government bulls#it.

    Blindsideflanker Septic Sceptic
    8 hours ago
    GB news covered the story yesterday evening , it seems they got a fair bit of response from Ireland , with the consensus view there of loathing them.

    Mulga Bill
    9 hours ago
    Very good article, with these two crucial points:

    An obvious question is: who will assemble which citizens, and to what end?

    The aim of modern left-wing politics is to make right-wing politics impossible. This means that governments are hemmed in by human rights and equality law, civil service guidelines and consultation requirements, such that any decisive action against the Blairite consensus becomes inconceivable.

    2. As long as you select members of the citizens assembly correctly, they will say whatever you want them to say.

      It’s rather like Trudeau being forced to call an inquiry but then setting the inquiry terms and selecting a liberal judge to run the whitewash.

    3. “… populated exclusively by the kind of prod-nosed pompous leftie fools who infest town and parish councils…” Oi, Lancastrian Oik! I am a parish councillor and am neither prod-nosed nor leftie (I leave it to the court of Nottl to judge whether I am pompous or a fool).

    5. “These “soviets” (let’s call them what they are) would be rigged, populated exclusively by the kind of prod-nosed pompous leftie fools who infest town and parish councils with the screening process ensuring that any remotely sensible person who aspired to membership would be turned away.”

      In this city, they would effectively be sharia courts.

  83. The Prince of Wales has called for an end to the fighting in Gaza and the release of hostages as he warned that “too many have been killed” in Israel’s conflict.

    In his strongest intervention to date on the crisis, he said: “I remain deeply concerned about the terrible human cost of the conflict in the Middle East since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7. Too many have been killed.

    “I, like so many others, want to see an end to the fighting as soon as possible.

    “There is a desperate need for increased humanitarian support to Gaza. It’s critical that aid gets in and the hostages are released.”

    He added: “Sometimes it is only when faced with the sheer scale of human suffering that the importance of permanent peace is brought home.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2024/02/20/prince-william-end-fighting-gaza-palestine-israel-hamas/?li_source=LI&li_medium=for_you

    Whoops and oh dear!

    1. Has he inherited the Spencer dimwit gene or the Windsor nincompoop one?

      Has he learnt nothing from his father’s crass intervention into political matters?

    2. If we didn’t already know, that’s the unpolitical monarchy in the bin. They keep reminding me why I’m now a republican.

    3. Suddenly, after years of being a monarchist, I want to see an end to this monarchy as soon as possible. I toasted the king over my water glass at a recent loyal toast.

        1. While I don’t fancy the return of Old Noll, there has to be something better than this shower.

  84. That’s me gone. A quite day at home. More rain expected shortly and tomorrow.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  87. ‘Night All

    “The Prince of Wales has called for an end to the fighting in Ukeland”

    Oh wait………….

    Pompous political prat

    https://i0.wp.com/uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2575afe486d7c1dfceb85afe808f887a4ab59db29dd9e7c2cc827c6102ac1ce5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/149366d1bcfecc3668d073e37aa7ea12260b937aad8b12d934a1da8b0fc146d7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/299615c7c1ff04c8c50f8c2007b3acbf3a6b74dacefd905ad9d29a0c61315178.jpg
    The world just gets madderer every day……..

    1. Uncle Dick, favourite uncle and my mother’s brother lied about his age to get into the army at the beginning of WW1. Miraculously he survived the war and, as the son of the renowned railway engineer, Charles Bowen-Cooke, he was very useful in design and engineering.

    4. It needs to be plastered all over those virtue signalling tree-planters that the Welsh Government has NO money. It’s tax-payers, and mainly English ones at that, who have funded the useless gesture.

  88. The elites just don’t care about the peasants.

    Here we have a canadian minister on a jollies trip to Malaysia bragging about eating nice big canadian lobster. Comments on his twitter post show how much the liberals are now despised.

    https://twitter.com/L_MacAulay/status/1759274972290203963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1759274972290203963%7Ctwgr%5E3bdace1160c358995a973944c5f10f4447b12a65%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftorontosun.com%2Fopinion%2Feditorials%2Feditorial-trudeau-liberals-let-them-eat-lobster

    4. What do you reckon happens to votes for the NDP in the next election? Do you think that British Columbia will still go for them?

  89. AYAAN HIRSI ALI: In Britain and across the West, the fracturing force of Islamism is causing once mighty political traditions to creak

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13103919/Resurgent-dangerous-Islamism-exploiting-Britains-political-vacuum-sweeping-West-political-leaders-blame-allowing-thrive.html

    Swearing Imam, 72, who ran over and killed 49-year-old man lying in the road while on his way to mosque is spared jail – after telling police he thought body was a ‘bin bag’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13104185/Swearing-Imam-72-ran-killed-49-year-old-man-lying-road-spared-jail.html

    Hands up all those who think a Rabbi would have got away similarly, running over a Muslim.

    1. Yes, gets my vote. Anyone of the Jewish persuasion walking along a pavement needs to be mown down. They are clearly jaywalking and must be destroyed for the greater glory of god.

    1. Absolute corker.
      Respect to whoever came up with that gem.
      And a warning. Once you are a joke, it’s a label that sticks.

  93. Evening, all. Kadi has discovered that, although he no longer has to share cuddles, there are downsides to being an only dog; whereas Oscar had to have medication three times a day and Kadi shared the cheese in which it was presented, that no longer happens. Also, Oscar had to have his metacam with food, so his meal was split into two, which Kadi obviously shared. I tried omitting the evening meal as Kadi had had his ration in his morning meal. I had to give him a handful later. Clearly, there are going to have to be two meals a day still!

    What would help tackle Britain’s (politician created) child mental health crisis would be for toughening up measures to be put in place; no “safe spaces”, no drag queen presentations, no “gender” uncertainties and being taught it’s okay to fail – just pick yourself up and do better next time.

    2. Good to hear from you, Conners.
      Like all NOTTLers who have been through your yesterday, I have been thinking about you.
      Hope Kadi is not too upset.
      Totally agree with your second paragraph.

        1. I think we all lived through yesterday with you, Conway, one way or another. And the days to come. I agree life would be very hard without the people here.

          1. Most people have shared the experience one way or another. It’s our common humanity that binds us together.

          2. Indeed Conway. Your experience yesterday brought back a lot of Nottler memories of their doggy companions. It made me cry and I’m sure I wasn’t alone. Thinking of you, and Kadi and sending much love.

          4. Good heavens, Connery! They are happy memories of our wonderful dogs, tinged with the inevitable loss! Not awful at all!

        2. Hertslass has a register of Nottler email for people who might want more private conversations.

        3. It’s one of the reasons we are here – for each other.

          I see, and am happy to share, one huge family of like-minded souls.

          Love you all. Txx

    3. So sorry to hear about poor Oscar. Comfort yourself with knowing you gave him some wonderful times with Kadi.

        1. Condolences from me too – just keep the memories and be thankful he’s now at peace and pain free

          1. Thank you. That’s what I keep reminding myself. Coming back in after a walk with Kadi, the house feels empty. Oscar had a big personality and he always came to greet me, even though he could no longer go for a walk.

  94. BBC Radio 3 has a treat tonight!
    Beethoven’s 1st Piano Concerto and Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony, Babi Yar tonight!

    My love of the Beethoven stems from my tour of Northern Ireland in 1979 during the ITV Strike when it was one of the pieces of music played on a loop on all the ITV channels.

    1. Sadly, it transpires that I am not the second coming of Mara Hari. I haven’t a clue! The budget surplus would appear to be kosher, but whether it’s a fabulous running start (one side) or about to blow up in his face (the other), I really don’t know. Sorry!

      1. Fingers crossed, anyway. We hear opposing views about Milei here in the UK. Edit: I hope the sun is shining for you way across the reaches of the south Atlantic. It’s raining – yet again – and as dismal as can be.

        1. Yes; he’s about as Marmite as it’s possible to be! 🤣🤣 I really hope things work out for Argentina – the people are extraordinarily likeable.

          Ir’s summer here, so there’s plenty of sunshine to spare. 😎
          Sending a generous helping, along with big hugs x

    1. Looks like the House during the debates on the Hunting Bill. They all came out of the woodwork to vote for the dog’s breakfast, though.

      1. I think it might be the case that when a senior politician says i have the utmost confidence in my honourable friend it means they are out in 24 hours. Same with Lord Greenswill of Spoonface….. Bye bye Bennies bye bye.

    1. The guy who answered is correct – Indicated airspeed would be less with a tail wind – ground speed could well be over the speed of sound but not supersonic

  100. Went to the first session of the lent course at church this evening. It was very well attended with extra chairs needed in the cloister. Fewer people last year but then the boilers had broken down so the building was cold.

    I have no idea what the Bishop of London is recommending as a lent book this year. We’re doing John Donne, led by a member of the congregation who is a very good teacher. Donne had a connection with Bart’s, as his stepfather was a doctor at the hospital and the family lived nearby.

    We ended with sung compline, led by our assistant priest who (as the man sitting next to me pointed out) has perfect pitch. There are few things I envy but I do wish I could sing!

    1. We have passages from Mark’s Gospel to read daily. Today’s included Ch 3 v 24; “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand”.

      1. If you look closely at our coinage various coins portray bits of once was the United Kingdom. I stand to be corrected but I seem to remember it was during the Blair Era that the ‘Dis-united Kingdom’ coins were introduced…..

  101. That’s me off to bed!
    Good performance of the Beethoven and Shostakovich on R3. 1st time I’ve actually been able list to the 13th Symphony right the way through. Was dipping into the Wiki page on the Babi Yar massacres as I listened.
    Fascinating.

  102. Good night, chums, to all on this site.Sleep well, and I hope to see you all here, rested, at 7 a.m. for a new day.

    1. Yet another move from those creatures who wish to create instability and fear in our institutions. There is sufficient evidence that this idea has caused trouble elsewhere: why not “learn the lesson” from precedent rather than your own stupidity? I await the inevitable incident that teaches the morons responsible for putting females in the military at risk that truly they are morons.

  105. The War Racket

    Former president Donald Trump was impeached in 2019 before any Russian tanks had crossed the Ukrainian border for pausing funds already earmarked for Ukraine – $391 million in security assistance, $250 million through the Department of Defense’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and $141 million through the State Department foreign military financing program.

    Trump paused all of that because he wanted to investigate alleged Biden family links to Ukraine and was subsequently impeached. According to Republican senator JD Vance, a new bill proposed by the Biden Administration guaranteeing a further $61 billion to Ukraine, money earmarked primarily for US arms manufacturers, has within it a clause leaving any attempt by a future president to halt that funding vulnerable to similar proceedings. This has been described as future-proofing the funding of Ukraine against the possibility that Trump or anyone else in future seeks to interrupt the flow of dollars to Ukraine.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baVAk6sez0c

    2. A response from a friend in America.

      I could not agree more. Am aware of Butler and Ike’s warnings. Now it is more than the military industrial complex. It is more appropriately, called the military industrial and congressional complex. The billions sent to Ukraine wind up going, in fact to the arms industry in the US, who intern make contributions, both legal and illegal to the Congress that votes for these outrageous numbers this is criminally crafted beyond words. LBJ made $100 million from the Vietnam war for his personal fortune while 56,000 young men died for nothing. There is no evil greater than what these monsters in public office are accomplishing.

    2. The 14/15 unpublished reports tell the story, don’t they. I thought HMG was dedicated to openness and transparency? Ha ha ha. Like all governments. Liars the lot of them.

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