Wednesday 21 February: Labour wants to destroy the traditions that bind rural people together

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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491 thoughts on “Wednesday 21 February: Labour wants to destroy the traditions that bind rural people together”

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

    SOME VERY POOR TASTE ONE-LINERS…

    Such an unfair world. When a man talks dirty to a woman it’s considered sexual harassment. When a woman talks dirty to a man it’s £5.50/min (charges may vary).

    Got stopped in the street outside Boots today by a woman with a clipboard asking “What products do I use for grooming?” She was a bit taken aback when I replied, “Facebook”.

    Met a beautiful girl down at the park today. Sparks flew, she fell at my feet and we ended up having sex there and then. God, I love my new Taser!

    Got a new Jack Russell pup today, he’s mainly black and brown with just a small white area so I’ve called him Bradford.

    If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tins of ham then delete it. It’s Spam.

    They say that sex is the best form of exercise. Now correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think 2 minutes and 15 seconds every 3 months is going to shift this beer belly.

    When I was a kid people used to cover me in chocolate and cream and put a cherry on my head. Yeah, life was tough in the gateau.

  2. Good Morning Folks

    A four today, was a bit hasty with my third guess

    Wordle 977 4/6

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

    1. Good morning, Bob 3. It took me five attempts today. See my post below for the problem yesterday’s Wordle caused me.

  5. Labour wants to destroy the traditions that bind rural people together

    The Left does to the country what a virus that causes the immune system to attack it’s vital organs does to the human body

  7. British nuclear missile ‘misfires and crashes into ocean’. 21 February 2024.

    A Trident nuclear missile misfired and crashed into the ocean near the submarine that launched it during a test last month, it has been reported.

    It is the second misfire in a row, with a test launch of a Trident missile by the Royal Navy off the coast of the US in June 2016 also reported to have been a failure.

    It makes you wonder if they are all duds!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/20/british-nuclear-sub-missile-launch-fails-trident-misfires/

    1. According to the Breakfast News, the MoD’s explanation amounts to “It’ll be alright on the night”.

      1. Apropos (almost) of nothing, I am currently reading Slow Horses by Mick Herron (the new John le Carre apparently although the book dates from about 2010 and is apparently now a drama on Netflops (which I don’t watch)).

        Edit: it’s enjoyable, pacey, well-written

          1. We started watching it via apple, recommended by family. It’s good. Also Ted Lasso, that’s worth a look.

      2. Apropos (almost) of nothing, I am currently reading Slow Horses by Mick Herron (the new John le Carre apparently although the book dates from about 2010 and is apparently now a drama on Netflops (which I don’t watch)).

        Edit: it’s enjoyable, pacey, well-written

    4. If the reason for the failures is covered by national security, why is the occurence headline News in the DT?

    5. Problem is, you can’t just rev them up a bit as a test – once started, they just keep going until empty.

    6. It was fascinating to hear a spokesman on the radio state that the missile had worked ‘perfectly’ but they had to push the self destruct button. Sheesh, I hate to think what the results would be of a launch going wrong..

    8. Well we’re glad that it wasn’t a live round. that would have given the captain an headache !!

  8. – I think the theory that the Royals have all converted to Islam is looking more and more of a fact

    1. That’s a new one on me! My guess is that they adhere to the religion of the parasite class and are ready to manipulate all people who sincerely follow one of the mainstream religions.

      1. Typically they won’t see anything wrong with it because nothing in the real world effects them.

  9. Good morning, chums. I did today’s world in five:

    Wordle 977 5/6

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

    For the record, yesterday I quickly found that the final four letters were ATCH, which left me with several options, i.e.
    BATCH
    CATCH
    HATCH
    LATCH
    MATCH
    NATCH (American Slang – not sure if allowed)
    PATCH
    SATCH (Louis Armstrong’s nickname – not sure if allowed)
    WATCH

    No wonder that I failed to find the correct answer!

    1. Also:
      RATCH (A toothed wheel)
      TATCH (A spot or stain [obsolete])
      VATCH (Gloucestershire hamlet)
      ZATCH (Japanese tv character)

      Good morning, Auntie Elsie.

      2. Good morning, young Grizzly. OK, let’s suppose that you chose RATCH and it were accepted by Wordle, but the letter R was not the first letter. I doubt whether the American Wordle would accept an obsolete term, nor a Gloucestershire hamlet, nor a Japanese tv character, nor NATCH nor SATCH from my own list of possibles, that still leaves seven options to try. If one tried six, a person could still “fail” if the seventh letter to be chosen were the correct answer.

  10. ‘Morning All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2347521ad19c68cbe1fdd363f02ecb99dd410166b7fda0d922fffd5ee318bc41.jpg

    Doggie Charlton

    https://twitter.com/Metzyco1/status/1759999533013184617

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0583df90f9fe340f3a6d94c8bacc0e4b4767d259effb5bf87fcf412946cb170c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79d6306557cc3dce0b495e7b5b785db4737a031b627ba978a507a9b5a051ba50.jpg

    https://twitter.com/clim8resistance/status/1757821681987371495?s=20

    https://twitter.com/MostlyPeacefull/status/1760056173829476561?s=20

      1. I caught a bit if the Argy v Germany men’s hockey last night. One of the Argies balanced the ball on the end of his stick and ran half the length of the pitch like that (that’s impressive btw).

  11. Cleverly sacks border chief who spoke out on airport immigration ‘security failings’. 21 February 2024.

    James Cleverly has sacked the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration after he spoke out about alleged immigration security failings at airports.

    The Home Secretary ended the contract of David Neal for “breaching the terms of his appointment” by disclosing “unauthorised” information on border security to the media.

    Gotta keep the truth about Immigration out of the News!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/20/james-cleverly-sacks-border-chief-immigration-security/

      1. I’m going to give them a try. They followed me on Twitt – clearly going through the upvotes to find a particular kind of poster! I almost never respond to advertisements – but then the advertisements aren’t usually offering anything I want!

  14. Falling birth rates are making Britain poorer

    SIR – Population decline (News Focus, February 17) is indeed one of the most pressing issues facing humanity and the economic repercussions of falling birth rates must not be underestimated.

    A peer-reviewed scientific paper has shown that a Uk-born child’s economic value is more than £700,000 through tax and pension contributions over their lifetime. Having just fallen into recession, Britain can no longer afford to ignore the detrimental impact of declining birth rates and an ageing population. The recent examples of New Zealand’s lowest-recorded birth rates, Seoul subsidising egg-freezing in a bid to boost fertility, and Emmanuel Macron’s pro-fertility and pro-birth policies in France demonstrate that this is an urgent, global crisis.

    We need a multifaceted approach to boosting birth rates, from fertility education in schools all the way through to testing, better workplace support and a top-down approach whereby government departments share the costs of pro-fertility policies.

    In Britain, the Department for Health and Social Care, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Women and Equalities Committee and the Treasury all have roles to play.

    Measures should include improving the accessibility and provision of fertility treatments and abolishing the IVF postcode lottery. We need a collaborative approach from leaders to secure the country’s economic future amid population uncertainty.

    Professor Geeta Nargund
    Senior NHS consultant and medical director,
    Create Fertility and abc ivf London EC2

    http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

    Geeta, eh? Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that an Indian name? You know, someone from the country that is hell-bent on becoming the most populous on the planet. Higher, even than China, which has held the title for so long. And they place a product of an insanely degenerate and profligate country in charge of a human baby production line in the UK? Someone like you bemoaning the drop in human birthrate when, globally, the very opposite is a glaring fact, is somewhat of a MRD moment don’t you think?

    I have just watched the population increase gauge on the world population clock for a timed minute on my stopwatch. In that time the world human population increased by 140. That is, 140 net increase. In just one minute.

        1. My Birgitta had a Danish friend, also named Birgitta but commonly known as Gita (she’s not Hindu).

          2. Shortening names such as Christopher and Christine to Chris (just one of dozens of examples) is just as bad in England, Grizzly.

    2. Falling population? The world is overrun with untold millions of uneducated people from Africa and Asia – estimated population of the UK is about 87 million, according to Tesco; Norway’s has risen from a tad under 4 million when we came to over 5,5 million.
      Smaller population? Idiot.

    4. It’s pretty obvious why birth rates of white indigenous people are falling.
      Due to the massive extra costs of supporting hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, the tax paying indigenous can’t afford to have children.
      If ‘whitey’ is wiped out, who’s going to pay for all the benefits that attract the illegals.

      1. The fuhrers at the WEF don’t give a monkey’s about that. They are intent on retaining their wealth and power over the rest of us until their demise. After that they don’t give a damn about what happens.

        We are just the plaything puppets (muppets!) in their little theatre.

      2. The Left haven’t worked this out yet. Their own lies prevent them from accepting the truth.

        It’s starting to dawn as welfare costs, crime, social unrest, violence, thuggery have all skyrocketed but… they keep wanting to blame the innocent.

    5. This country, like all developed economies does not need as many people. What the state means is there will be less tax to claw in for it’s own self perpetuation. Fewer people doesn’t affect us, it’s a good thing. Fewer people means more for the rest. It is government that loses out because, like cancer it cannot survive without expansion. Not growing is death to the parasite of the state.

      However, the idea that forcing in a million gimmigrants a year adds to the economy is a farce.

  15. Morning, all Y’all. Sunny, and Norwegian King Harald’s 87th birthday.
    Gratulerer med dagen, Deres Majestet!

    1. Mr and Mrs Andrews. There is a space on her lap where the renewables book sits. Maybe for a child that never came.

  17. 383717+ up ticks,

    Wednesday 21 February: Labour wants to destroy the traditions that bind rural people together

    Wednesday 21 February: Labour in line with tory (ino) / lib/dems want to destroy the traditions that bind peoples together

    The lab/lib/con/current ukip coalition has proved to be,these last three plus decades
    a political power of a proven destructive nature.

    To give any support at this moment in time to this self confessed, with royal approval, WEF
    strongly alleged criminal cartel, is also condoning past / present & future odious action

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    Grey and wet. Oh well.
    The trouble with labour is they are sucking up to and being to rely on too much on the ‘religion of piece’ a piece of everything they can get their hands on.

    1. What does it matter what he thinks about anything at all. His thoughts as are most people in his position are the results of ongoing advice.

      1. It matters because once the monarchy starts getting involved in politics they have removed the main reason for their existence.

    2. Quote of the day

      ‘I’m not sure that our future King should be doing this. He should stick to the Baftas.’

      – Nigel Farage criticises Prince William for intervening in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

    3. After King Harald had tripped on the carpet in front of Queen Margarethe of Denmark last year, and fallen face first onto the ground, he said “I was just demonstrating my undying admiration for Her Majesty!”
      And on leaving hospital afterwards, he said it was “gørrkjedelig” – literally, boring as snot.
      No statements about Israel-Palestine. The late Queen Elizabeth would have kept sctumm about it too, I’m sure.

    4. Prince Harry has always been resentful that his brother has outshone him.

      Now he is resentful because he has been outdone by his brother in the stupidity stakes.

  24. Good morning, all. Raining.

    It’s taken a while but the ONS have finally solved the ‘excess deaths’ problem. Just to let you know the ONS issued a short video to explain their new procedures and data processes.

    From where I’m watching the video I have a strong smell of bovine excrement overpowering my pleasant room freshener: I’ll add a few more sticks when I remember where I put them – they’re NOT in the fridge with the car keys!

    https://twitter.com/DVATW/status/1760205241834766718

    1. I find it fascinating that the excess death figures appear to be falling, over the same time periods as the declining take up of booster jabs of the Cov-19 ‘vaccine’…(yes I know coincidence doesn’t prove causation but it does makes one think….whilst we are still allowed to….)

    2. Oops!

      Sorry, Korky, I’ve just posted the same clip (instead of looking down the thread first).🙄

    1. What aren’t they coming for is the question.

      CBDC will allow them to control your money before they misappropriate it and leave people dependent on the state for everything, or not, at the whim of some algorithm.

      Denying the sale of properties by setting nigh on impossible Energy Performance Certificates i.e. making your property worthless.

      Food, including growing your own; alcohol, your freedom to travel, limits on clothing purchases etc.

      Looking up C40 Cities information gives an idea of what these freaks plan to do. If Londoners think ULEZ is Khan’s big deal then seeing what he is planning as Chairman of the C40 Cities group will re-educate and frighten them. Not quite sure how ‘His People’ will take his plans.

      1. ‘His People’ mostly live in social housing.

        ‘His People’ don’t drink.

        ‘His People’ believe dogs haram.

        ‘His People’ Don’t eat either pork or beef.

        ‘His People’ send their benefits to Pakistan while working in the gig economy.

        ‘His People’ like the idea of 20 minute ghettoes.

      2. It is the last death throes of a failed, incompetent state. They’re desperate to force socialism and rationing. It will be the end of one era and the beginning of another – one without the state.

      3. It is the last death throes of a failed, incompetent state. They’re desperate to force socialism and rationing. It will be the end of one era and the beginning of another – one without the state.

  26. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/486353a357b3dfac70bbc171957f334846fb580e/0_0_3500_2384/master/3500.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=91300951fc121cade3a68aa8e55346df
    Wakefield, UK
    Daniel Arsham’s Unearthed Bronze Eroded Melpomene is installed for his Relics in the Landscape exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4895dd77c9c1bb2d0903d78354c5a150e8b38bfa/0_0_5239_3925/master/5239.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=70095327137e414e5c1a29d667211b29
    Niagara Falls, US
    The falls in New York state partly freeze after a winter storm hit much of the Midwest and northern US

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/616df059b0638a7d973ce3d6e736c3c8f5cf46c5/0_0_5194_3463/master/5194.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=500abdb81bbc797359de63e4102e1b29
    Ryki, Poland
    Farmers block the highway linking Warsaw and Lublin outside the town of Ryki

  27. Good morning all.
    And after continual rain overnight it’s still chucking it down. 4°C on the Yard Thermometer.

  28. https://twitter.com/LXlC0/status/1759946881973580159?t=c5ZRPvwIdNFyOx93cwD6NQ&s=19

    Listening to that vacuous WEF stooge made my piss boil! Look at her status:

    Julie Stanborough,
    Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight.
    ONS.

    Is that a job description? Or a quango she is a stooge of?

    Office for National Statistics? Well, we know all about statistics, don’t we?

    “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.” (Which has been attributed to Mark Twain, who himself attributed it to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who might never have said it in the first place.)

      1. Notable that the government does the same with ‘climate change’ figures now. No longer is it based on a historical record but is instead based on a ‘modelled outcome’.

        The state really, really does not like telling the truth.

        2. “The state really, really does not like telling the truth.”

          Because the truth displays them all for what they are, Lazy, Incompetents, Gravy-train troughers.

    3. A chum who follows football (and isn’t really very bright) put it together that why are more footballers dying over the last 2 years than in the previous ten.

      He knows football, and follows it religiously so he’s got a better handle on this than most. A footballer, he reckons, is a professional athlete (which is debateable but given their levels of training, diets, and general access to healthcare they’re probably better than most. Thus 40 of them dying in the last 2 years compared to 70 odd in the previous ten points at a common factor – the enforced covid shots.

      Hearing him work it out was painful as there were a lot of segue ways into goals and rules and records but if he can get it….

      1. A friend of mine, a former police Chief Superintendent and lifelong keep-fit fan (he partook in a number of sporting activities, ran every day, and took part in a number of marathons) died suddenly with no prior illness at age 55. He had travelled the world constantly in his retirement and had, thus, succumbed to the threats that forbade him to travel unless he was inoculated with an untested and untried ‘vaccine’.

        1. NYT obit:

          James F. Fixx, who spurred the jogging craze with his best-selling books about running and preached the gospel that active people live longer. He died of a heart attack while on a solitary jog at 52 years old.

          As W.C.Fields reportedly said: “When I think of taking any physical exercise I sit down and wait until the thought passes.”

          Fields died at the age of 66.

    4. “Looking more closely at …” is that the same as “massaging the figures to make them more palatable”?

  29. 383717+ up ticks,

    O2O,

    Voting for a political party
    ( high-jacked, dud as a dodo,name ) has a strong magnetic pull so, sad to say in many a case it will be, by by fido.

  30. Good day all and the 77th,

    Rain all day turning the curtilage boggy at Castle McPhee. Wind Sou’-Sou’-West, 8-11℃.

    Is this the economics of the mad-house? Borrowing to cut taxes?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5421dc0fbb94cb68578d56bf2e51b27b3a97c8239a0d545be61f9fde77154d1b.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/21/ftse-100-markets-latest-borrowing-tax-cuts-hsbc-profits/

    This ‘Card-Game’ chancellor, WEF puppet, thinks that we don’t understand that money borrowed = future tax on our children and grand-children. It’s in the same vein as the punishing levels of property transaction Stamp Duty which force people to increase their mortgages to pay the tax which is just one of a number of expenses incurred on buying and selling a family home. He should do what that chap Milei has done in Argentina to balance the books within two months of gaining office – take a chainsaw to the State.

    3. As better folk than I have pointed out this is like a 100 bonus when you’re 1 million in debt.

      The only way to grow the economy is by cutting taxes. Hunt refuses to do that because he doesn’t want the economy to grow. He wants it to decline because if we were to soar away from the hated EU it would show how damaging that useless organisation is and how much better off nations are free of it.

      Their actions are deliberate.

  31. Philip Johnston has written a good piece even if it’s decades late. I’ve been banging on about the victimisation of single-earner families since the 1990s and the removal of the personal allowance since it was brought in as an act of spite in the dying days of the last Labour government.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/339f19988890b727fb43883bbe23722abcefd95a65afa7bdd6acef80c0be5505.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/20/middle-england-taxed-into-submission-no-wonder-its-furious/

    On paper they pay a top rate tax of 40 per cent and, for higher earners, 45 per cent. But people whose child benefit is gradually withdrawn above £50,000 can actually pay an effective marginal rate of 68 per cent.

    For earners with young children taking home more than £100,000 a year, the marginal rate can exceed 100 per cent because they lose state help with nursery fees and their personal allowances are gradually removed, reducing to zero at £125,000. Yet a couple each taking home £99,000 would keep both.

    These cliff edges where reliefs end with the addition of an extra pound of income are soul-destroying. Overall, the system is particularly harmful to single-earner households. A report from the Families Hub Network at the weekend showed how stay-at-home parents are taxed more here than in almost any other major economy. Few can afford any longer for a parent to remain home looking after the children as used to be commonly the case.

    Most politicians won’t go into bat for people earning six-figure salaries for fear of being accused of “favouring the rich”. Yet these people are far from rich and are, indeed, the motors of the economy, generators of the wealth that pays for the welfare state and the benefits on which millions now languish.

    And this:

    The old rule of thumb is that the state should never take more than half of any extra pound earnt and yet for millions this is no longer true. The rational response to being told that all your additional money will be removed if you are offered a promotion is to turn it down.

    That the State should even take 50% of every extra pound earned at any point is utterly reprehensible. Flat tax is the only fair way.

    1. Good morning to you

      According to GB News , Norman Lamont, (Tory Chancellor 1990 to 1993) was seen visiting Downing street yesterday , perhaps giving advice on tax cuts prior to an early GE in May,

      The Tories are struggling .

      1. A grave digger, an exhumer and a medium will be on call from whom to seek advice when there are no living former chancellors left.

        I suggest they skip Gordon Brown and John Major (both still living) and get in touch with Nigel Lawson.

      2. A grave digger, an exhumer and medium will be on call from whom to seek advice when there are no living former chancellors left.

        I suggest they skip Gordon Brown and John Major (both still living) and get in touch with Nigel Lawson.

    2. I think he’s a follower of mine, as he’s nicked the Warqueen’s exact actions. If you want less of something, tax it. They tax unemployment and production. Both then fall and lo! What’s the treasury response? Is it to reverse course and admit they were wrong? No! It’s to add more taxes.

      Ah, but folk don’t understand. They think business pays tax. We don’t. We charge it to our customers. We make this clear on our itemised bills. We list corporation tax, business rates, energy taxes, water taxes, fuel taxes all separately. That way folk can see that we really cost them about 40 quid an hour, the other 60 comes from tax. When you buy a packet of biscuits you’re paying for the energy used to run the machinery, the ni of the employer, the fuel costs of the delivery lorry, the packaging costs – and all that company’s taxes, the driver’s NI, road tax, fuel duties, and on and on and on all the way back.

      The effective rate of tax is over 70% – for a basic rate tax payer. When the state quotes taxation it likes talking about income tax, which isn’t bad. Taking 20% for a small, efficient state would be fine. It’s too high and should be 15, like Singapore but I’d be ok with 20. But hang on. Here’s employer NI, fuel duty, energy taxes, green taxes, water, rates, insurance taxes, road tax, council tax, business rates, VAT, electronic transmission taxes, import duty, export duty, insurance taxes ad nauseum that everyone forgets but are the biggest drain we have.

        1. Which is why folk simply shouldn’t be allowed to vote until they do. When I hear morons demanding ‘da wich’ pay more tax or ‘business should for making excess profits’ – what the hell is an excess profit? It’s just profit. It either creates another job, gets invest or I pocket it and put it in the bank in which case someone *else* spends it on something they want.

          People are dumb and we’re held back by their stupidity.

  32. HOMES ENGLAND LOST 177 DAYS TO STAFF EQUALITIES EVENTS IN THREE YEARS

    It’s no secret that the housing crisis is a huge issue. Last December, Homes England, the public body that funds new affordable housing in England, admitted that the number of Homes England-backed starts fell by 23% compared to the year before. Not nailing it…

    However, the quango did manage to gather the funds for extensive Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) events and training. According to new research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, over the last three years, Homes England spent an eye-watering £195,512.50 on EDI hires. Even more shockingly, a total of 177 working days have been lost as EDI events and courses have taken up staff time, an average of 59 working days annually for the last three years. When Homes England is already falling behind targets, wasting vast amounts of money and time on woke agenda doesn’t exactly build trust in the public…

  33. A terrible bit of news about obtaining proper bread. Here is an exchange between me and Cranks, the last company supplying organic wholemeal bread in the UK. There is now a void in the market.

    “I go out of my way to Waitrose to get organic wholemeal bread. It is the only place I could get 800g loaves since Sainsbury’s discontinued it, and always like to keep several loaves of Crank’s ‘Whole Lotta Loaf’, which I slice and keep in my freezer.

    I cannot eat non-organic wholemeal bread, since I am allergic to pesticide residues, and this leaves me feeling quite ill.

    Waitrose has not stocked it for a week or two. They said there were supply issues, but it would be restored soon. There was a story on Mumsnet saying that you have now discontinued production, and the only way now to obtain organic wholemeal bread in the UK at a non-designer price is to make it at home.

    Can you confirm that indeed this important and valuable staple is no longer commercially available in the UK?

    ————-

    Dear Customer,
    Thank you for taking the time to get in touch with Cranks.
    We are sorry to announce that our product ‘Whole Lotta Loaf’ has now been delisted from sale.
    Due to the current nature of rising production costs the manufacturer of Cranks bread could no longer support the production of the product.
    In addition to this, Waitrose, our current retailer for this product has delisted the product from sale aiming to simplify the bakery range they have on offer.
    We would like to thank you for choosing to buy this product over its time in retail and apologies for the inconvenience.
    Kind Regards,
    Cranks

    Fourways House, Hilton St, Manchester, M1 2EJ
    T 0330 165 4430, http://www.cranks.co.uk
    Cranks is part of All About Food Ltd

    Your enquiry will be saved on our database along with any details you have provided which may include your name, address, telephone number, email address. If you prefer for your personal information not to be recorded in this way, please notify us and we will remove from the database. We do not use and will not share any personal data. The information you have provided is retained for documenting enquiries only. If we do not hear back from you within 14 days of sending this email, we deem this complaint closed.”

      1. Indeed. I did this before when Sainsbury’s discontinued their organic bread and bought a Morphy Richards bread maker.

        Mixed success, but I might try again. It sank in the middle and didn’t really bake property. I think the problem was that the manual was written for Americans, and presumed the use of skimmed milk rather than fresh, a Vitamin C tablet, that comes orange flavoured from Lidl. II can get Doves Farm flour from the local organic grocer in Malvern, and will have to get some more yeast, since the stuff I have in the freezer must have expired by now. I have some Aussie instructions for a similar breadmaker, which helpfully converted the skimmed milk proportion to fresh milk,

        I suppose if I was a real man, I would know how to knead, prove and bake to my own specifications, but my kitchen is not big or tidy enough to manage this. Another job to be done!

        1. We used a bread machine for years – made excellent bread. Occasionally sank, but IIRC, getting the water volume righ cured that.

          1. Had my present breadmaker (Morphy Richards) for 9 years and made over 500 gluten free loaves with 100% success rate

        2. I make my own. Itls not sourdough but this is the recipe I use in my breadmaker.
          10g instant yeast
          500g extra strong flour (I use 400g white/100g wholemeal – Allisons)
          10g sugar
          10g salt
          30g butter
          320ml/g water.

          I use the ‘dough only’ setting on the breadmaker (takes 2h20m) after which I transfer to a bread tin and leave for 20 min for a second rise.

          I then put it in the oven at as high at it will go (220C) (plus +- 100ml in a tray at the bottom of the oven for 35 mins.

          Works every time.

    3. Jeremy. Buy a bread maker and make your own. I used to do that, every day when I had a family. After a while I only needed a few minutes to prep. Set machine so you wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning. Wonderful!

  34. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13106943/police-officer-shouted-boy-fuelled-childs-violent-criminal-tendencies-misconduct.html

    Someone please explain to me how this is the police officers’ fault? Someone? As the brat is scum. His parents are easy to identify. They’ll be a stereotype. Petty thieves, shop lifters, the father, who’ll live at home but no for bennies’ sake will be covered in tattoos and have a long criminal record. He will never have had a job because his father never had a job and so on. The mother will be a slob, also not working, with multiple brats all to soak up welfare. She too will have tattoos, smoke and have a criminal record.

    The boy is scum. He knows it, he’s now destroyed a career because the parents are Labour’s children. Useless effluent supported by better people.

    1. Morning Wibbling ,

      There are too many brats with inherited brattish behaviour , doesn’t matter from what sort of families they come from .

      I glared at a misbehaving child in Sainsburys the other day, I use a deadly disapproving glare when I feel the need to, inherited from my mother , who believed that children should be seen and not heard .

      The mother of the child , she looked probably like a Lib Dem , nicely dressed etc, no junk food in her food basket , but she had a very unruly noisy child , very lively , I am certain no Autism issues .. So I glared and lowered my gaze .. fixed on the child , who immediately rushed back to its mother .

      The mother then tackled me and said why did I frighten her son !!!

      I replied , ” Did I really, why would I do a thing like that?”

      Then I carried on shopping .

  35. NICK CLEGG BOASTS 60% META STAFF USED FOR CENSORSHIP

    It’s no secret that Meta has no love for free speech, The Speccy being just one victim of being de-platformed. Now Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs has let slip how much effort goes in to sanitising the platform. Speaking to CNBC on Friday, the former Deputy PM proudly asserted that a whopping 40,000 of their 67,000 total global workforce work on “safety and integrity on our platforms.” I.e. censorship…

    Clegg went on to say that Meta has spent $20 billion on policing narratives, his goal of removing politics from the platform almost becoming as successful as his mission to remove it from his own life. You can hear the shock from the presenters as they realise 60% of Meta staff are used to deploy censorship. No “I’m Sorry” from Nick though…

      2. Got me a bit puzzled, but META is, apparently, the company that owns Facebook and 60% their staff appear to be employed on censorship.

  36. NICK CLEGG BOASTS 60% META STAFF USED FOR CENSORSHIP

    It’s no secret that Meta has no love for free speech, The Speccy being just one victim of being de-platformed. Now Nick Clegg, Meta’s President of Global Affairs has let slip how much effort goes in to sanitising the platform. Speaking to CNBC on Friday, the former Deputy PM proudly asserted that a whopping 40,000 of their 67,000 total global workforce work on “safety and integrity on our platforms.” I.e. censorship…

    Clegg went on to say that Meta has spent $20 billion on policing narratives, his goal of removing politics from the platform almost becoming as successful as his mission to remove it from his own life. You can hear the shock from the presenters as they realise 60% of Meta staff are used to deploy censorship. No “I’m Sorry” from Nick though…

  37. 383717+ up ticks,

    Lyle’s Golden Syrup attacked by Christians over logo change
    Depiction of lion and bees from Samson story has been sidelined despite being oldest continuous logo in the world

    BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT, BOYCOTT.

  38. Dean Godson
    Why does the Met prioritise Palestine marchers over Londoners?
    20 February 2024, 11:22am

    If you want an illustration of one of the things that is wrong with the Metropolitan Police, you need only look at how some of the best known streets in central London were yet again handed over to protestors this past weekend – including allies and apologists of Hamas. This is the price which the Met’s leadership seems to be willing to pay to keep things quiet in the capital.

    Over recent months, these supposedly peaceful demonstrations have included a range of individuals throwing flares, shouting antisemitic chants ‘from the river to the sea’ and calling for there to be a ‘Jihad’. Despite these incidents, there’s a lot of satisfaction with this outcome in the senior command levels at New Scotland Yard. But is their self-confidence justified?

    In Northern Ireland, thanks to the Parades Commission, there are extensive limits to the ‘marching season’. In London, meanwhile, the ordinary Londoner is apparently now expected to tolerate mass protest marches all year round.

    Up to 250,000 people are believed to have attended this weekend’s protests. Even if this number is right, it would still mean many of the over eight million Londoners were again prevented from going about their normal daily lives. To police this weekend’s protest, officers from 29 different forces were drafted in from as far afield as South Yorkshire and Wales. What is the impact on crime and policing in those towns and cities far from London? What price the ‘right to protest’?

    One incident last Saturday appears to encapsulate the Met’s flawed approach. On the fringes of the march, a sole counter-protestor, Niyak Ghorbani, held a lawful sign protesting against Hamas. This led to a confrontation with several marchers attempting to grab Ghorbani and his sign; threats were made and items were thrown at him. But it was not those threatening violence who were physically removed: it was, rather, Ghorbani who was led away by the police.

    On this occasion the fault is not so much with the two police constables involved in dealing with Ghorbani. Every police officer is, after all, operating within a context set by the Met Commissioner and his senior commanders: and it appears that the Met’s leadership have decided that the ‘right to protest’ is the preeminent value that must be upheld on London’s streets.

    This is despite the protestors’ rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly under Articles 10 and 11 of the Human Rights Act being subject to limitations ‘as necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security and public safety’. Indeed, despite the frequent invocations made by the Met’s leadership, the Human Rights Act itself provides no explicit ‘right to protest’.

    A response from a Met Police spokesperson to the incident is revealing:

    ‘We’ve reviewed all the bodyworn video of this 11 minute incident. While the wording on the man’s sign was an accurate reflection of the law in relation to Hamas, it was also apparent he was there to provoke a reaction from the passing crowd. The priority for officers was to de-escalate the situation to keep everyone safe and the most proportionate way to do that was to ask the man to move away from the protest.’

    Where are the rights of ordinary Londoners in this exercise? Why are the rights of a lone individual who posed no physical risk to anyone else so readily ignored by the police? Has the Met’s approach now created a de facto right of larger, better organised, groups to overwhelm the rights of everyone else? Above all, what are the precise terms of the Met’s accommodation with the Palestine solidarity march organisers? What can be done to make its decision-making processes more transparent to Londoners?

    Equality before the law is a fundamental principle of the rule of law. Everyone is subject to the same laws and entitled to be treated the same by the institutions responsible for law and order – be that the courts, prosecutors or the police.

    When it comes to protestors marching across our capital city, the Met appear to be using a different benchmark. Having apparently struck a bargain with the protest organisers, it appears that the pro-Palestinian cause is frequently to be given a wide berth while the Met affords a much less tolerant hearing to anyone else.

    This is the very definition of ‘Differential Policing’. In apparently adopting such an approach, have the Met’s leaders miscalculated the balance of forces at work in our capital city? That is why I am writing to the Commissioner and to the London Policing Ethics Panel – to ask them to examine the impact of the Met’s current approach on crime and policing in the rest of London and beyond.

    What, then, must the Met now do to rebalance this inequity? The Met must start to prioritise the ability of ordinary citizens wishing to go about their daily lives without impediment, over the rights of the agitators who are regularly dominating many central London streets. And senior officers must be transparent about where they are receiving their advice from: too often, the Met allows itself to be captured by small groups of noisy activists, lobby-groups and ‘experts’ representing their own sectional interests.

    The Met’s approach to the relentless protesting on our streets is now one of the bellwethers which tells us whether the force’s senior leadership have got heir priorities right. At the moment, many Londoners reckon they are falling well short of the gold standard.

    Lord Godson is Director of Policy Exchange

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

    An0nymousBosch
    a day ago edited
    So people who support Hamas have the right to protest, but people who oppose Hamas do not.

    And you can actively celebrate the massacre by Hamas of over a thousand people, and a Muslim judge will let you walk from court.

    And this is under a “conservative” government, remember. Just wait until the anti-Semitic Labour party get into power.

    Blindsideflanker
    21 hours ago edited
    There is another video around of a man giving voice to his opposition to the Hamas apologists, calling them racist and pointing out the rape and murder that took place. Here a police woman took issue with him, threatening him with all sorts of things. He countered her claims by pointing out his rights as well as saying he was doing this from his property, but that was brushed aside , and she pushed him back into his house , going into the house and closing the front door behind her, so he couldn’t go out of the house.

    I always thought a police officer had to have a warrant to enter your home , but that right seems to have gone as well in the protection service they give these Islamist apologists.

    nanumaga Skyblue
    20 hours ago
    Bear in mind that Nicky Le Bidet probably subscribes to the intersectional twaddle which postulates: Israel is, by definition, an oppressor, ergo, Palestinians are oppressed and must be supported regardless of all and any other considerations. It’s simple, for the good reason that complexities require advanced intellectual equipment to cope with discussion and debate. This isn’t allowed.

    The intersectional tosh also offers the uniquely cretinous addition that, as gays are oppressed they are allies of Palestinians, hence the hilarious ‘Gays for Palestine’ contingents joining the happy throng, thus lowering an already low average IQ nearer to ambient temperature.

    Mercifully, I am blocked.

    Marcus Preston
    a day ago
    It is important to remember that there are a number of factors at play here.
    Many of the left / liberal class are pro Arab and anti Semitic
    There is a fear of a Moslem riot if the demonstrations are properly policed.
    There is a fear of discordant relations with the gulf states and places like Pakistan.

    There is no concern whatsoever about the Jews in this country or the English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish inhabitants

    2. There has been a lack of impartiality for some time. I received (via my parish council) a “newsletter” effectively promoting the Con candidate. This was queried by the LD chairman, who, strangely enough, made no murmur when the LD MP’s “newsletter” (ie promotional literature) was circulated.

  41. Falling birth rates are making Britain poorer
    SIR – Population decline (News Focus, February 17) is indeed one of the most pressing issues facing humanity and the economic repercussions of falling birth rates must not be underestimated.

    A peer-reviewed scientific paper has shown that a UK-born child’s economic value is more than £700,000 through tax and pension contributions over their lifetime. Having just fallen into recession, Britain can no longer afford to ignore the detrimental impact of declining birth rates and an ageing population. The recent examples of New Zealand’s lowest-recorded birth rates, Seoul subsidising egg-freezing in a bid to boost fertility, and Emmanuel Macron’s pro-fertility and pro-birth policies in France demonstrate that this is an urgent, global crisis.

    We need a multifaceted approach to boosting birth rates, from fertility education in schools all the way through to testing, better workplace support and a top-down approach whereby government departments share the costs of pro-fertility policies.

    In Britain, the Department for Health and Social Care, the Department of Work and Pensions, the Women and Equalities Committee and the Treasury all have roles to play. Measures should include improving the accessibility and provision of fertility treatments and abolishing the IVF postcode lottery. We need a collaborative approach from leaders to secure the country’s economic future amid population uncertainty.

    Professor Geeta Nargund
    Senior NHS consultant and medical director, Create Fertility and abc ivf
    London EC2

    Excuse me, have I read that letter correctly ?

    2. The indigenous natives of our country do face an imbalance of age structure with so many of us oldies and falling birth rates. The rather large elephant in the room though is the booming numbers of immigrants, legal and illegal, and whose birth rates exceed ours.
      So her “Population decline is indeed one of the most pressing issues facing humanity ” is nonsense. As we know, the global population, and especially the African countries, are breeding fit to bust.

      1. Perhaps what she means is that the world needs more people who are going to be productive. Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk have both highlighted falling population as one of the biggest risks for humanity.

    3. This person falls at the first hurdle:

      A peer-reviewed scientific paper has shown that a UK-born child’s economic value is more than £700,000 through tax and pension contributions over their lifetime.

      Peer-reviewed? You mean that discredited academics’ fraud whereby they get their mates who agree with them to back up what they published without bothring to read it.

      UK-born? You mean to include all the foreign children who happen to be born here?

      Economic value? What has this got to do with bringing a child into the world? This idea is what is wrong with the WHOLE EFFING SYSTEM!

    4. The so-called demographic time-bomb puts me in mind of the Black Death. This worked so much to the advantage of the poor who survived that their rulers introduced measures to keep them down. Market forces all – well and good when they benefit the bosses, not so good when they benefit the masses.

    5. It’s hard-working white parents that can’t afford to procreate. The largely on benefits muslims have no problem. We don’t have a “declining birthrate” we have a useless breeders accelerating birthrate.

  42. Ahhhh… Nothing quite like a good cappuccino in the morning… and this is nothing like one 🙁
    Run out of the correct coffee, so using a capsule, but disappointing.

  43. 383717+ up ticks,

    Would not surprise me in the least, he is looking for a “get out of town” bankroll before the shite connects with the fan as it surely must.

    No country on earth could contain such a mass of dangerous idiots who are continuing to maintain these criminal politico’s indefinitely via the polling stations, without suffering very serious repercussions.

    https://x.com/timtron2020/status/1760065466490339708?s=20

    1. I was struck by the alleged use of a 3rd party advisor to negotiate the fee. If true it seems he may have learned a little state craft from FJB!

    2. I like Tucker Carlson. He strikes me as honest. Alexander (Call me Boris) Johnson strikes me as dishonest, sleazy and evil.

      How has Johnson managed to suppress the news about his role in killing the peace talks before the Ukraine War even started. THis story needs to be completely exposed in the clearest of detail.

      1. Rastus, he’s probably a CIA agent!

        I enjoy watching him too, but he is not honest. He knows where all the bodies are hidden, and I don’t buy his dramatic resignation from Fox.

  44. A BTL Comment from DT re an article on useless Uni Degrees:

    graham matthews
    1 MIN AGO
    I don’t think the DT understands the business model. For foreign students, doing the degree comes with a secondary benefit of being able to emigrate to the UK. All foreign students, regardless of degree, are allowed to stay in UK and look for a job for 2 years, and all get a job, real or bogus, if they want one. Many end up working as Deliveroo moped riders near me. After getting the job they get residency and after 7 years passport if they want. Of course no need to give up their original passport. After 10-20 years they can just skip the UK and avoid the student debt. Simps!

  45. 10c here, belting rain , dismal weather .

    Moh finished cutting the grass on Monday.. but the ground is very sodden now , squelchy in places .

    Alexei Navalny was likely to have been killed with a punch to the heart, a technique that was once taught to KGB special forces operatives, after being exposed to freezing conditions for several hours, it has been claimed.

    Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the human rights group Gulagu.net, told The Times that bruising found on the opposition leader’s body was consistent with a “one-punch” technique, citing a source working in the Arctic penal colony where Navalny died on Friday.

    Before his death, Navalny, 47, had been forced to spend more than two and a half hours outdoors in an open-air solitary confinement space where temperatures could dip to minus 27C, Osechkin said. Prisoners were normally kept outdoors for no more than one hour, and much less in such extreme conditions.

    Vladimir Osechkin, an exiled dissident, runs a website informed by a wide network of serving prisoners and jail officials

    “I think that they first destroyed his body by keeping him out in the cold for a long time and slowing the blood circulation down to a minimum,” Osechkin said. “And then it becomes very easy to kill someone, within seconds, if the operative has some experience in this.

    “It is an old method of the KGB’s special forces divisions. They trained their operatives to kill a man with one punch in the heart, in the centre of the body. It was a hallmark of the KGB.”

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/alexei-navalny-killed-punch-death-cause-russia-putin-x86g6jcdx

    3. Another technique used by the NKVD, and witnessed by sailors on Arctic convoys whilst at Murmansk , was to make prisoners undress, then sit on the ice or snow until they froze.

      1. “No one departs, no one arrives
        From Selby to Goole, from St Erth to St Ives
        They’ve all passed out of our lives
        On the Slow Train, on the Slow Train. ” Once I saw a sign for Adlestrop, and I forced myself to turn and take the road. Not much there, but a bench and some information.

      2. We all learnt this by heart when we were at prep school – I can still recite it.

        Rumour has it that graffiti proclaiming Kilroy Was Here was daubed on the walls of the station’s urinal.

        When I had to study Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot at school the line

        “Nothing happens. Nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful.”

        came to mind. But I enjoyed Edward Thomas’s poem far more than the play.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff49972ce9cb60af32b1cc33c293a5607e58506ca4021965bd35a211130c0a9f.png

      2. Completely irrelevant but Nanny Bilk, who helped looked after my sisters, Belinda and Mary, during the Second World War, was Acker’s auntie!

  48. Ex-Post Office boss ‘was told to stall on finances’ in unearthed memo

    Henry Staunton was allegedly told by civil servant not to ‘rip the band-aid off’ with general election on the horizon

    Alex Barton
    21 February 2024 • 7:59am
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2024/02/21/TELEMMGLPICT000367379647_17085005792000_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Henry Staunton claims Sarah Munby, who was then permanent secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, told him politicians ‘don’t like to confront reality’
    Ms Munby spent 15 years at McKinsey, thus knows all the answers.
    *
    *
    *********************************

    Freedom Addict
    2 HRS AGO
    It’s becoming clearer by the day that our political system and civil service does not consider itself there to serve the interests of the people of this country or even “do the right thing” by the conventional moral codes held by the vast majority of citizens.
    It is simply there to serve itself and milk citizens with taxes to pay for itself. Time to sweep the whole lot away.

    R A Bellamy
    1 HR AGO
    Reply to Freedom Addict – view message
    It is time that the cs who is used to jumping to EU instructions and have forgotten how to run our great country is replaced with a clean body answerable only to the Monarch and his democratically elected Ministers. Suggest all current cs staff are interviewed for the new British cs and if they will not agree to the above that they are immediately promoted and sent to the Falklands or similar! Remember it was the cs that organised the no 10 covid parties then used them to oust Boris. The voters knew he had flaws but that he was a great leader elected by the people but sacked by the blob and replaced by eu liberals who would follow cs instructions.

  49. This is for Jonathan Wynne Evans. Why do you answer me after I cannot reply to you because the discussion is locked?

        1. If Islamophobia means an irrational fear and mistrust of Muslims what word should we use if that fear and mistrust is entirely rational?

  52. One of the letters is regarding the demise of memorable TV ads – the present day ads are pathetic except one which always makes me smile…. the one for Pot Noodle (foul stuff) where the young lady pours hot water on one then proceeds to slurp it bringing wonderous looks from fellow workers, she then puts it down with a sigh. What would make this the best advert ever is if she then belched

    1. Many of the jingles from adverts of yesteryear are implanted in my memory – a finger of fudge is just enough etc, for mash get smash, the milky bar kid etc, smarties – milk chocolate smarties – buy some for Lulu, and so on. I can’t think of a modern advert that anyone is likely to recall in 30 or 40 years hence.

        1. I was never keen on Rolo because they were’t made of only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate!

  53. One of the letters is regarding the demise of memorable TV ads – the present day ads are pathetic except one which always makes me smile…. the one for Pot Noodle (foul stuff) where the young lady pours hot water on one then proceeds to slurp it bringing wonderous looks from fellow workers, she then puts it down with a sigh. What would make this the best advert ever is if she then belched

  54. Good Morning all. Nice gloomy, drizzly, cold day here in West Sussex.

    As for todays letter to the Telegraph. Bit over the top. Because foxhunting, which I agree with by the way, is banned. It is a bit of a stretch to pretend that it means the Labour Party, which I detest, intends to undermine the countryside. It seems to me that the Conservative government has done rugger (misspelling intended) all to help people out here in the hills and valleys of glorious England.

    1. The destruction to the countryside will come from banning ALL forms of hunting, including drag hunting, trail hunting and hunting the clean boot. Hunts do a useful job in deadstock removal, maintaining hedgerows, coverts and copses, but more importantly providing a social life in often remote and isolated places. Then, of course, there is the economic impact on farriers, hunt servants, forage merchants, boot makers, riding wear manufacturers and the myriad of people whose lives and livelihood will be badly affected by the lack of revenue/work/demand for their goods.

    1. I liked the threat of killing police dogs by the Muslim demonstrators.

      Perhaps that’s why the Muspolitan Police go so easily on Muslim demonstrations?

      2. Muslims hate dogs. Perhaps they now should train dogs to go for the throat in Islamic demonstrations since there is a threat to our canine friends.

        1. Not all Muslims hate dogs.

          In Marmaris, where we kept our boat for many years, the Turkish Muslim chap who ran the marina shop had a cocker spaniel whom he loved dearly and stray dogs in the town were looked after and fed by the ordinary people who held them in great affection.

          However if a dog showed any signs of aggression it was shot immediately which meant that the dogs became genetically more placid over time.

          1. Your last sentence gives a clue as to what might be a good policy towards those sections of society with a predilection to violence.

      2. 383717+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,
        They are far from being idiots the politico’s that is they are a well trained united anti Brit force, the only idiots are those keeping them in power.

    1. Snap. If I had stopped and thought for a moment, I would have got it in two tries with the more common word!
      I don’t think I am giving anything away with that, because NY Wordle don’t seem to use rarer words.
      Wordle 977 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. My start was even less helpful

      Wordle 977 4/6

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

    1. I agree. And it is treason of the highest order. It is for this unbelievably treacherous action by government that the severest punishment was abolished by Tony Blair for treason – death by hanging. It also had the effect of reducing the importance of the crime in the minds of the population. And is Dunblane starting to resonate with people yet? That was almost 30 years ago – these people really do plan decades in advance.

    2. I’m not convinced they’re bringing the scum here, but I am convinced they have absolutely no interest in stopping the horde. The way to do it is simple: scrap EU legislation. The government simply – for reasons that are obvious (it makes it harder to enact it to rechain to the EU) – won’t do that.

      1. 383717+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        The infamous political poof was actually in europe once upon a time encouraging them to come over, so it is a credible comment.

    1. Here are some scientific facts that a dairy herd farmer says are being totally ignored by the PTB who claim that the farming industry is a major contributor to global warming and the consequent demise of our planet.

      Are the Government and councils now burying their heads in cow effluent in ignoring the scientific guidance for their policies?

      https://youtu.be/cmtW9ckRqt0?si=HLBNXFH0XQqx2GeO

    2. Farmers with their heavy machinery, should turn against the Profit making (and keeping) billionaires by trashing all that belongs to them.

      This includes driving your tractors and muck spreaders through the supermarkets and uptown malls.

      Sorry, Geoff, it needs to be said.

  59. I don’t watch TV so I’m not aware of what is on there in terms of news. Seems to me that it is highly spun and not worth watching. So I wondered if this story is on the BBC or on other channels. This video is from yesterday.

    Already haulers are trying to persuade truckers to go to New York with a 30% bonus above what the truckers are usually paid. Even so truckers are refusing to deliver to New York.
    NYC Shutdown: TRUCKERS HIT NEW YORK CITY After TRUMP Fraud Blow! No-Go Zone Declared Trump Truckers
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Damujw5Dgw

    1. The banner image is utterly confusing. Price rise worry? Of what? No go zone? Why? Is it because of the truckers? What are the truckers doing?

      Why is this a shocking development?

      1. It is better to ignore the nonsense that You Tube slather over the image they concoct for a video because it inevitably nonsense. But essentially truckers are boycotting New York because of the corrupt judgement against Trump business dealings in New York. It is interesting because it is blue collar workers flexing their political muscles. New York is wholly dependent on Truckers delivering from outside the city, food, petrol, furniture, everything. In short they can, with a boycott drive New York to a standstill within a week.

        1. I wonder how many on this forum support the US truckers for pursuing a political cause but condemn the UK miners who, in 1984/85, were pursuing another political cause.

          1. Obviously it depends what a strike is about. I support the Truckers but no way in the world did I support the miners and Arthur Scargill, a Communist seeking the overthrow of democracy.

          3. There have been no suggestions that the US truckers are pursuing an issue of industrial relations, eg wages or working conditions, and the statements by truckers themselves all indicate a political agenda. An overthrow of democracy would be a minority trying to impose by force or coercion their view on a majority to their detriment. The miners were undoubtedly very badly led but they did have a case in that governments should have done more to facilitate and develop alternative employment to counter pit closures. The US truckers have no such case.

          4. The Democratic Party and its cohorts in the legal system of the USA are well into the process of overthrowing Democracy in the USA. They are rigging the system. They are using Trump as a high profile figure to demonstrate what will happen to you if you defy them. Beside Trump they have already jailed and silenced dozens of people by weaponizing the legal system. They are also trying to flood the USA with immigrants in order to achieve a majority to create a dictatorship of Democratic rule in perpetuity. The Truckers are engaging in their legitimate right to resist the overthrow of democracy with the tools that they have at their disposal. I would add that their actions are also being joined by business people who are, in protest at the farce of a rigged system being used against Trump who, in fact, committed no breech of law, are moving their business out of New York and going elsewhere to states that are not controlled by the Democrat Party.

          5. I lived and worked in the US for a number of years and am still in regular contact with friends and work colleagues there. They are educated, well informed and believe in the rule of law; they have mostly travelled and worked abroad at some point, have a world-view and are from neither the extreme right or left wing of politics. Democrats, as you might expect, are strongly opposed to Trump and think that the claims of election rigging are the rants of a dangerous demagogue. Republicans, of course, want Republicans in Office and many strongly support sort of thinking that you exemplify. There are many others, though, who are uneasy if not down-right critical of it. I do not think that Trump has anywhere near as much support as the noise and claims of his supporters would suggest.

          6. The truck drivers are protesting, ie not withdrawing their labour. The British coal miners were obliged to strike.

          7. They are protesting by refusing to drive loads to New York – isn’t that withdrawing their labour and, assuming that the loads are to support trade, commerce and other things that citizens rely on, they are adversely affecting others? The British coal miners were not obliged to strike but many thought that it was the only option left to them; other miners did not feel this way and did not strike. What was not legitimate was the intimidation, violence and other lawlessness that at least some of them indulged in. How do you feel about Just Stop Oil or XR when their protests stop ordinary folk travelling, going to work, carrying out their business etc?

      2. It is better to ignore the nonsense that You Tube slather over the image they concoct for a video because it inevitably nonsense. But essentially truckers are boycotting New York because of the corrupt judgement against Trump business dealings in New York. It is interesting because it is blue collar workers flexing their political muscles. New York is wholly dependent on Truckers delivering from outside the city, food, petrol, furniture, everything. In short they can, with a boycott drive New York to a standstill within a week.

  61. Navalny’s prison guards banned from UK in first sanctions over death. 21 February 2024.

    Alexei Navalny’s prison guards have been banned from the UK in the first sanctions over the opposition leader’s death.

    Britain is targeting six individuals who head up the arctic penal colony where the Russian opposition leader mysteriously died.

    They will have their assets frozen and will be banned from entering the UK, the Foreign Office said, the first sanctions of their kind.

    They were planning to come here on holiday?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/21/russia-ukraine-zelensky-putin-war-latest-news5/

    1. Its interesting that our state can discover the names of Russian prison guards but doesnt have a clue about the 45000 that pitch up here illegally by boat.

      1. ? ? ?

        Actually Mike, the friend who sent me this, is a remarkable chap: a modern Renaissance man.

        At one time he was the No1 javelin thrower in the UK and he is a brilliant guitar player. His athletics coach asked him if there was room for a vocalist in his group and Mike said he would give him a try. After a couple of weeks he said to his coach: “I am afraid your son sings off key and ponces and prances about too much. We all like Mick – but I’m sorry Mr Jagger, but he won’t fit into our band”

        They remained good friends and when the Rolling Stones were recording their first album Brian Jones was so stoned that he could not play and so my friend Mike played for him on the recording.

        Mike has a PhD in Chemistry and after a short spell in the Navy he was a brilliant teacher in a public school in Taunton. One of his sons is a professional actor and Mike loves his books and the theatre as well as his chemistry. Indeed, he is probably far better at inspiring people about books and plays than most English teachers are!

        1. We are at cross purposes. I wasn’t making any reference to your friend.

          I meant that the snivel serpent in the picture (not to mention all of his ilk) would benefit from a military sniper using him for target practice.

    2. Pension is rosk-free, too.

      Even if you had £1.8 million in your defined contribution pot (which you can’t without being taxed on the excess over £1.073 m at 55%), then it would carry investment, political, inflation and counterparty risk which could cause it to lose value; and it wouldn’t afford you £85K a year (you not knowing how long you are going to live) plus a widow’s pension on top.

      A pox on the public sector.

  63. Plan for tiny UK village to reopen train station after 60 years
    Story by Express Reporters, Ted Peskett
    Residents of a village in South Wales which has been without a train station for 60 years have received some good news.

    Plans for a new station in St Athan have taken a big step forward and Councillor Lis Burnett from Vale of Glamorgan Council said it’s a “significant announcement”, reports Wales Online.
    The Department for Transport is ready to join forces with the Vale of Glamorgan Council and Transport for Wales. They want to fund and create a plan for a new train station.
    It could mean that after six decades with no trains, St Athan could see them running again on the Vale of Glamorgan line.
    Cllr Burnett said: “We have an aspiration through our new Local Development Plan to provide for truly sustainable development with excellent infrastructure and transport connections to support new growth.
    “To this end, I am in no doubt that the exciting strategic proposals for development at St Athan and Aberthaw provide the basis of a clear business case for the new station and I look forward to feasibility work progressing.”

    The train line in Vale of Glamorgan came back in 2005, but St Athan’s station didn’t. People in the village have to go to Llantwit Major or Rhoose Cardiff International Airport stations.

    I suspect this is an under the table plan to build thousands of houses on their local fields.

  64. And what is the UK importing by the boatloads?

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-kansas-city-question/

    The longer we go without being told the race of the shooters, the less likely it is to be white men.

    Similarly, the race of the two youths arrested for the Kansas City shooting are still being covered up on the excuse that they are under 18.
    From the New York Post:

    Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas accused Missouri Gov. Mike Parson of using a racial “dog whistle” when referring to the suspected shooters at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade as “thugs.”…
    “I’ve seen this dog whistle time and again. There’s this kind of giant conservative theory on social media now that the reason these mug shots haven’t been shown is because the purported defendants are black, and if it were a white defendant we would have just shown them. That is absolutely preposterous. There are protections to juveniles,” he added.

    Of course, the arrestees are black, according to a photo in the Daily Mail. The Super Bowl parade mass shooting was the usual knuckleheaded dispute that could, at worst, be resolved with fists if African Americans didn’t feel the cultural imperative to start banging away with pistols. But the ruling caste and media work hard to cover up the size of America’s black gun violence problem.

    Banning the release of mug shots of juvenile murderers helps hide the horrifying extent of black gun crime because of the immense racial differential in shootings among teens. According to CDC data on the cause of deaths, in 2020–2022 black 17-year-olds were 24 times as likely per capita to die by firearm homicide as white 17-year-olds.

    In contrast, I coined Sailer’s Law of Mass Shootings in March 2021:

    If there are more wounded than killed, then the shooter is likely black.
    If there are more killed than wounded, then the shooter is likely not black.

  65. ‘Smart’ New York State and equally ‘smart’ New York City commit economic suicide. ‘Smart’ governor now trying to claim that the Trump case was a one off: too late, it would appear. Political decision to go for Trump has consequences as does the decision to be a ‘sanctuary city’ for illegal immigrants. I don’t think that the word morons quite covers the actions of the political “elite” in both the State and the City.

    https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1759639865174729101

    1. Wouldn’t calling the case a one off raise a few questions when it comes to an appeal?

      New York is in a terrible state with all of the illegal immigrants being shipped there. Overcrowdingand crime are rampant. The latest scheme to manage the mobs is to give each and every illegal a credit card preloaded with $1,000.

      The New York Post has almost daily news of corruption and failing in New York state and city.

    2. Never been to New York City, but it always struck me as a dystopia. It’s getting its long overdue comeuppance.

  66. I’ve just found Rico the new pup (9 months old now) on the compost heap with a dead sparrowhawk. His muzzle was well into it.

      1. Well. The mystery of the sparrowhawk’s death…. At first I thought it was Rico who had killed it, but there was no blood to be found on him and we feel sure that the bird would have put up a fight. It was just happy circumstance for the dog who was wandering around the garden. But the plot thickens. The compost heap is on the other side of the garage, both of which front the green, the compost being screened from the green with a 6 ft high fence. On the other side of the fence, greenside, approximately 9 ft from the fence, s.Cambs have erected a new street light, having removed the old sodium light. It is probably about 8 metres high. (All the street lights have been replaced in the village, but those around the green are a pretty lantern style in keeping with a conservation area.) I am just wondering, as s.h. and kestrels like to perch up on high to survey the lie of the land, if it received a shock of some sort and fell of backwards, carried just a few feet by the wind onto our compost heap. There have been all sorts of rumours flying around on Twitter about new street lights being erected, 5g and the deaths of birds here and there…! So, I’m just wondering….

        1. Can’t remember ever seeing a bird of prey hit by a car. Have you got a metal detector to run over it for shot?

          1. No, we don’t have a metal detector, and we are too far away from the road, at least 50 metres, for it to land over the fence and into our garden as a result of a car accident. Just one of those things we will never know.

          2. Dicky heart, probs.
            We’ve noticed that when fledglings start flying, there’s always one that keels over.

          3. If either of us isn’t around tomorrow, due to prior engagements, may I wish you both a magnificent 60th wedding anniversary . I hope you get your telegram from the King.
            Have a wonderful day.

    1. I am sure you must have read John Steinbeck’s novel: The Moon is Down set in Norway during WW2.

      When we were home schooling our boys we needed to study Of Mice and Men. This led us to read and re-read as many of Steinbeck’s novels as we could find. I expect that many Nottlers have read The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden but Burning Bright was an interesting one which we came across.

  68. Shapps: UK’s nuclear capability remains beyond doubt after Trident missile failure. 21 February 2024.

    The Defence Secretary has been forced to defend the UK’s nuclear capability as “beyond doubt” after a failed missile test.

    Grant Shapps issued a written statement to Parliament on Wednesday after it emerged that a Trident nuclear missile misfired.

    He said that the UK’s “resolve and capability to use its nuclear weapons, should we ever need to do so, remains beyond doubt”.

    Just because it doesn’t work doesn’t mean that it is no use!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/21/uk-credible-threat-enemies-trident-nuclear-missile-failure/

    1. If Shitts says it is OK – then that’s fine. Just hope they travel with a lot of spares….

    2. If Shitts says it is OK – then that’s fine. Just hope they travel with a lot of spares….

    4. The idea is not to have to fire them, but just having them on standby, Vlad will realise that any aggression will be met with devastating retaliation. Well, as that one was the second firing to go pop, when Vlad has recovered from laughing he might just revise his plans. The real joke is the high paid help telling us that all is fine and dandy. There are 16 multiple warhead Tridents per sub so we should manage one or two getting to their target with luck.

    2. I have stopped looking at anything M&S because the models are 99% black with the most arrogant and contemptuous of expressions and stupid poses – this does not represent me and how I see myself wearing their clothes which are mostly horribly synthetic now anyway. I take it that M&S do not want me to buy their clothes and so I respond accordingly.

      2. I thought it was just me who considered that blacks seem to have supercilious sneers on their faces.

  70. TORIES APPOINT POLICE-SCEPTIC RAPE ADVISER IN LATEST DUE DILIGENCE FAIL

    The government appointed its new Independent Advisor to the Rape Review, Katrin Hohl, last week. It says it looks forward to the “invaluable” expertise the professor at City University of London will bring to the role. Guido couldn’t help but notice that Hohl has some interesting views on policing. She told the New Statesman just a few months ago that “the colonial roots of policing in England have cast minorities as a group to control, rather than protect”. The peelers are apparently suffering from “baked-in racism from the beginning”…

    As the government battles to maintain some confidence on the issue of policing violent and sex crimes, this latest example of woke hiring will do little to help. Hohl thinks that “policing is a myth-making machine: it has to create this myth of effectiveness, which is reinforced in fiction about police.” She’s also authored a paper arguing that “expanding procedural justice theory to include feminist scholarship” should be pursued, procedural justice being not only “outcome justice” (the actual imprisonment of rapists) but also themes of “recognition,” “dignity,” “voice,” and “connectedness“. More “connectedness” in the “myth” of policing is clearly what is required…

    1. “…colonial roots of policing in England have cast minorities as a group to control…” That’ll be us whites, then.

  72. Britain is increasingly defenceless – and Putin knows it. Hamish de Crettin-Gordon. 21 February 2024.

    But still, we must remember that with the Russian hordes steaming across Eastern Europe and the US looking to distance itself from Ukraine, it is the British and French nuclear weapons which will stall them at Nato’s borders. After all, it is highly likely that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine had it retained access to nuclear weapons.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Robert Jordan

    Invasion by Russia is the least of our worries. The UK has already been invaded and the invasion is ongoing. It’s roughly a million people a year. Why worry about a Russian bogeyman when the enemy is already within. Everything regarding Russia is a distraction tactic.

    Can’t argue with that!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/21/trident-launch-failure-britain-nuclear-deterrent-putin/

      1. Not just the colour, SB, it’s the number as well.

        Russian hordes? As Steve Bannon has said a few times; the Russian Military of WWII and the Cold War no longer exist. If it had, Kiev would have fallen in weeks.

        Recently I read a book about the crushing of the Nasties Army Group Centre in 1944. The numbers involved were huge and they rolled over what remained (still formidable but hamstrung by Hitler’s crazy orders) of the best professional army at that time.

        Putin doesn’t appear to have those numbers and it’s likely that his generals are husbanding their forces as they know what is opposing them (Ukrainian army average age of 42 – 45) and they have no need to rush. Basically, attrition, as they defend their gains against an enemy whose strength is draining away.

    2. Worse still if took more than 300 years for Spanish to get rid of the slammers.
      And they are now creeping back.

  74. Good Afternoon.
    Wot a grey day. At least I’ve managed to do some admin jobs that I’d been putting off. (I never remember all this bloody paperwork when we were younger.)
    Day improved by Olaf’s Relict dropping in with a bottle to mark a significant anniversary. Ta muchly, Elsie.
    (p.s. I bet your late hubby wouldn’t have had so much trouble navigating the roads around the Dower House.)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0bcc473110dd449c9d519d5234e7ee4d935da172959b529818434ac288f906e6.jpg

        2. Wow. Congratulations to both of you. That’s no mean achievement. I doubt many of today’s young people will achieve that. Do you have your telegram from KC3?
          We’re 4 years behind you next month. Our children might reach it. Daughter married 34 years this year and son 23 years.
          Forgot to mention we started going out together October ‘64.

        3. Wow. Congratulations to both of you. That’s no mean achievement. I doubt many of today’s young people will achieve that. Do you have your telegram from KC3?
          We’re 4 years behind you next month. Our children might reach it. Daughter married 34 years this year and son 23 years.
          Forgot to mention we started going out together October ‘64.

    1. Don’t condemn her too quickly. She talks about sanitation and here is a clear example of a sewer. Alright, alright, it’s an open, probably cholera spreading sewer, but for goodness sake don’t be judgemental. Give them a little time: remember, 2,300 years is statistically zero when compared to geographical time.

    1. G and P would have that collar off in a trice!

      Presumably they have “released” many others – otherwise this poor sod would not be able to breed.

  81. Ross Clark
    The failed Trident missile launch is a big embarrassment for Britain
    21 February 2024, 11:37am

    With Keir Starmer having rid the Labour party of its Corbynite doctrines, Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent would not be expected to feature much in the coming general election campaign. But will that change after the failed test firing of a Trident missile, for the second time in a row? The missile, which was launched from HMS Vanguard off the east coast of the United States in January, was intended to travel to the edge of space before landing in the middle of the Atlantic. Instead, it plopped straight into the sea.

    We should know a bit more about the incident today when defence secretary Grant Shapps – who was on board the submarine when the failed test firing was made – makes a statement to the Commons. But we are still unlikely to know the full picture given the security implications of informing potential enemies of faults with our missiles. The BBC is reporting this morning that there was nothing wrong with the missile itself, which has a price tag of around £17million, but that the problem was caused by a ‘calibration error’. Other reports suggest that the rockets failed to ignite: the missile was fired out of its tube by means of compressed air, as normal, but nothing else happened, causing the missile to fall into the sea beside the submarine. All we do know is that this is not the first failed test-firing – there was another failure in 2016.

    Will the incident re-energise Labour’s unilateral nuclear disarmament wing? There are few things potentially more devastating than a nuclear missile which drops short of its intended target, although this one obviously did not have nuclear warhead attached. Then again, Britain’s nuclear weapons – if they were ever fired at all – would only ever be fired from somewhere on the high seas. We don’t have our own land-based nuclear weapon, although US nuclear missiles have been based in Britain. The 2016 test failure did not stop Parliament approving the renewal of the Trident system – which involves extending its life up until the 2060s at a cost currently estimated at £31 billion. Public support for upgrading Trident has grown since 2016, in particular since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the latest YouGov poll, in January, 42 per cent said they were in favour of replacing the current system with a more powerful nuclear deterrent, 19 per cent wanted a cheaper solution. Only 15 per cent wanted to disarm Britain of its nuclear deterrent.

    There seems little appetite, then, for a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament, and there would be little political gain were Labour to revisit that territory, even were Starmer minded to do so. The latest misfiring is a big embarrassment, especially at a time when Nato is trying to convince Putin of the strength of European defence. But it is unlikely to change the politics of nuclear weapons in Britain. More likely it underlines the need for improvement in our nuclear deterrent.

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

    Andrew Hotston
    4 hours ago
    Surely the most important thing is that the crew of the submarine was properly ethnically and gender diverse?

    Kenny
    4 hours ago
    Trident deployment switched over to green technology several years ago.
    These days all missiles are made from bamboo sourced from sustainable forests in Korea.
    They are painted with lead-free eco-friendly, bio-degradable plant-based, water soluble dyes.
    None of the missiles actually contain any kind of explosive, but are designed to land softly on their target with a sub-audible ‘squeak’.

    1. The politicos have turned the Senior Service in to something as useful as a discarded fag-end.

    2. Worth pointing out that Tridents are allocated from a common stock with the United States, so our problems may very well be their problems, too.

        1. Who knows. I definitely don’t trust the American government. And I definitely don’t trust ours, either.

          3. Possibly because Churchill was trying to save us at the same time the U.S sniffed profits. I don’t think anything has changed. We do have a special relationship. They fuck us up the arse over Northern Ireland and the Falklands and they expect us to fund NATO and attack Arab countries that won’t play ball.
            They expect us to join them on their new war against Russia even though the end of the cold war opened many opportunities for all parties. Guess who our real enemies are……………

          4. The U.S. didn’t owe us anything as a country, though at a time of war and a fight against genocidal national socialists, they at least owed us some common humanity. But as you say, they sniffed profits. And they also sniffed a chance to do what they’d been attempting ever since independence – dismantle the British Empire and replace it with themselves, which is exactly what WWII presented them the opportunity to do.
            As I always say, it’s wise to separate the country and its people. I rather like Americans for the most part, but despise their governments.

          5. The ordinary Russian, American, Australian, Brit, French (well not them) are the same as us.

            The American Empire is already on its knees. Which is why they want war.

    4. It’s a sad indictment of the stupidity of much of the population and the way in which they are perceived by some of the institutions…

    2. I’ve had a good recent run, so a 5 will have to do.

      Wordle 977 5/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  86. Breaking News – Reports are coming in about a demonstration inside the House of Commons,
    holding up proceedings all caused by Just Stop Hoyle!

    1. Ahh. At 5pm I narrowly avoided a demo coming down the Strand towards Trafalgar Square (nearly upon it). I rode round it and know not what it was about. Plenty of Plod accompanying them, though.

        1. 🙂I should really get one,would be quicker!

          Occasionally as I cycle through Kensington Gardens and the one that ends up near the Arch (Hyde Park? I really ought to know, I’ve lived in London for 26 years) I see the Army (?) e cerci sing their horses. It’s a lovely sight.

    1. Comments are permitted on this one though, thankfully!

      Officer ‘fuelled violent and criminal tendencies’ of boy, 11.

      AN “old school” police officer fuelled the “violent and criminal tendencies” of an 11-year-old boy by shouting at him and grabbing his arm, a misconduct hearing was told.

      Pc Stuart Pearson’s actions when he tackled the child served to exacerbate the boy’s “hatred” towards the police, it was heard. The 48-year-old officer’s 20-year-long career with Hampshire Constabulary is now at risk after he was accused of gross misconduct.

      In June 2022 Pc Pearson and a junior female colleague, identified only as Pc Rich, attended the boy’s home on the Isle of Wight to speak to him after he allegedly hit two youngsters. The boy’s father was present and was “encouraging his son to listen to the officers”.

      Pc Pearson asked the boy: “Why did you whack them?”, to which the boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, replied “Why not?” The constable, raising his voice, told him: “Excuse me, don’t talk to me like that, boy. You don’t start talking to me like that – do you understand?”

      Barrister Alan Jenkins, representing Hampshire Constabulary, told the hearing: “The boy was clearly reluctant to engage; dismissive and rude to the officers. This led Pc Pearson to overreact, raising his voice and putting his face near to the boy’s.”

      Mr Jenkins said the accompanying officer, Pc Rich, described her senior colleague’s approach as “old school” and said he “escalated the situation”. He continued: “The situation developed by Pc Pearson grabbing the boy’s arm and there was a short struggle in which the boy’s head hit the wall, whereby he sustained some minor injuries. The boy’s father demanded that both officers leave the house, which they did.” As they left, the schoolboy swore at them, shouting: “F—ing pig c–ts … don’t ever f—ing touch me like that again.”

      Pc Pearson denies gross misconduct. The hearing continues.

      BTL:

      It sounds like the little brat needs a good thrashing – and his father needs a spell of military training in the Cairngorms in mid-Winter! I am not advocating that this is what should happen. I am just making the point that there is a huge breakdown of discipline in many areas of British society which is not going to do the country any good in the future.

      Young people insist on being given respect, but they also have to learn that respect is earned and must also be given by them. There are techniques to help de-escalate a situation like this event, but in the field with limited resources you do what’s needed to manage. Our police are being expected to handle aggressive and often violent behaviour with kind words and sympathy alone?

      So a boy thinks he can go around “whacking” other children just for the sake of doing so – any good parent would have dealt with such behaviour. All that’s needed is a good clip round the “ear-‘ole”! Police shouldn’t be needed.

      Frank. what is happening, this is twice today that I agree with you!

      It is criminal that this PC is being accused of gross misconduct. Shame on those who brought this charge.

      When I was about 8 I was playing in some builders sand at the side of the road. Up comes a policeman on his bike, gets off, clips me around the ear and tells me to go home. I have always had respect for the police and society in general.

      Those responsible for taking this officer to court need a damn good thrashing as well as the lout youth and his not-fit-for-purpose parents.

      2. Young peoples’ definition of “respect” is what I would call deference of even fear.

  91. That’s me gone. Another dreary, wet day. More rain tomorrow plus gales. We will attempt to go to the market.
    Friday another eye is being “done”. The first is 100% OK – phew! Fingers crossed for a double victory.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. I’ll stick up for the cats here. This story has gained legs (!) because of the case of Rye College in Sussex, where pupils ridiculed the idea of pretending to be the opposite sex by identifying as cats.

      Well, I think they were ridiculing…

    2. Don’t know about the cat business first hand, and I’m sure she’s right about that and AST, but there is another larger group of youngsters and youngish adults out there with real problems. Aspergers (being on the autism spectrum) is very much on the increase in kids, a difficult affliction to deal with for parents and family.

  96. Evening, all. Been a dull day with rain, so no gardening. I’ve done mundane things like pay a bill and have coffee in my favourite cafe.

    Labour doesn’t understand the countryside; it’s a totally urban party. Its vision is to have the countryside concreted over and those pesky independent people who are resistant to change destroyed.

        1. It got a bit messy after just over 400 years in Britain about Autumn time or The Fall as I think Americans call it….

  99. Allister Heath’s record is stuck…

    I have glimpsed the terrifying future of lazy, defenceless, near-bankrupt Britain

    All parties promise huge new spending on pensions and the NHS that the country simply cannot afford

    ALLISTER HEATH • 21 February 2024 • 6:55pm

    It’s the modern British disease: we are living so far beyond our means as to have become entirely detached from reality. We are an increasingly impoverished and indebted nation, a rudderless second-order global power, and yet, like penniless aristocrats harking back to a bygone age, we retain Rolls-Royce tastes and a misplaced sense of entitlement.

    We crave French-style levels of “free” public services, but want to pay Florida-levels of tax. We are fickle and inconsistent and suffer from grossly unrealistic expectations as to what we can afford given the state of our economy. We seek a foreign policy that punches above its weight, but are allowing our Armed Forces to shrivel. We have lost interest in working hard, in deferred gratification, in getting up in the morning even when we don’t feel like it, but want to retain our triple-locked pension, subsidised public transport and generous welfare state, policies backed by Tories and Labour alike.

    Our economy has underperformed terribly since 2008, and yet we feel able to spend even more on the NHS and constantly hike the minimum wage. We want to spend and spend and spend yet more, encouraged by demagogic politicians who tell us that we can have it all, but have forgotten that the world doesn’t owe us a living. With no economic growth, and a dire outlook caused by 25 years of social-democratic idiocy, the sums aren’t close to adding up, and printing money – as during the financial crisis and Covid – would be lethal in an inflationary age.

    I look at the future, and I fear for our children: we are bequeathing them a poisoned legacy.

    The tax take is already at its highest level since the late 1940s, and yet the state is incapable of delivering its core functions.

    Our second largest city, Birmingham, is effectively bankrupt, felled by absurd equalities legislation (supported by the Tories) and typical local government incompetence (perfected by Labour).

    The Army’s full-time strength will be cut to just 73,000 by 2025, the forces are suffering a bitter recruitment crisis, our aircraft carriers are plagued with technical issues, the Navy’s destroyers and frigates apparently don’t have the ability to fire missiles at Houthi targets on land, supplies of ammunition are extremely limited, and a nuclear test has gone wrong, posing grave questions over the health of our Trident deterrent.

    Our roads are littered with potholes and strewn with litter. The prisons are full. The police appear convinced that virtue-signalling on Twitter is a substitute for tackling burglaries and car thefts. Meanwhile, billions are being spent on the rush to net zero, on “free” museums for the middle classes, on rocketing benefits bills and on endless woke madness. We need a reality check, to accept that we have hit our budget constraints.

    One immediate problem is the collapse in our work ethic, the vast numbers of drop-outs from the labour force, the rise in the number of people on out-of-work benefits and the increase in those deemed too ill to be in employment. This is partly the effect of Covid and lockdowns, and the spread of a “something for nothing” mentality. NHS waiting lists don’t help, and neither does a sick note culture. Much higher marginal taxes for millions are another reason for this reduction in work ethic. Another is sky-high house prices: why bother if there is no point aspiring?

    Longer term, population ageing and collapsing birthrates will destroy the NHS. The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) estimates that spending on the state pension and pensioner benefits will rise from 5.5 per cent of GDP today to 9.6 per cent by 2072, assuming the continuation of the triple-lock and other existing trends. Social care expenditure will double from 1.2 per cent to 2.5 per cent of GDP. The NHS’s share of national income will explode from 8.3 per cent of GDP to 15 per cent. That’s an extra 12.1 per cent of GDP for starters, enough to turn us into a failed state. We will also need to boost spending on defence – from 2 or so per cent to closer to 3.5 – and spend more on nuclear and other electric infrastructure.

    This unfathomably large bill will be borne by proportionally fewer young people. In 1972, there were 4.5 workers per pensioner, today, it’s 3.3 and by 2072 there will only be 1.9 workers per pensioner. Do we really expect young people who cannot afford their own home and will never be able to retire to hand over most of their income to pay for their asset-rich elders? Revolution, anyone?

    Ever larger immigration isn’t the answer: foreign workers age too, and only migrants who are net contributors to the Exchequer over their lifetimes (when accounted for properly, and including dependents) help the public finances.

    We have three possible paths ahead of us. The first is to usher in an economic revolution to turbocharge growth modelled on that being pushed through by Javier Milei, Argentina’s libertarian president, the world’s most inspirational politician despite his silly views on the Falklands.

    This would require drastic tax cuts and simplification, privatisation, intense deregulation, the drastic downsizing of the green belt to allow mass house building, extreme divergence from the failed EU model, a resurrection of the stock exchange, an entrepreneurial revolution, radical foreign investment incentives and much else besides.

    To keep spending on the elderly to 10 per cent of GDP would require growth of 2.9 per cent a year for the next 50 years, and productivity growth of 3 per cent, the CPS calculates, aka a miraculous turnaround.

    The second option, is – also like Milei – to simply take a chainsaw to the public sector, and accept that the state pension must be means-tested, the NHS needs to be part-privatised, and transfers and subsidies slashed. We can’t afford our old social-democratic, “centrist Dad” indulgences any longer.

    The third would be to retain the current Labour-Tory-Whitehall consensus view of the welfare state and economic policy, and gradually embrace full socialism, becoming the highest tax, biggest state in Europe over the next two to three decades, ultimately relegating us to emerging economy status – like Argentina pre-Milei.

    I favour a combination of options one and two. We urgently need an entirely different political class that is willing to puncture our national delusions.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/21/terrifying-future-of-lazy-defenceless-near-bankrupt-britain/

    1. Point the finger where it’s due. We are living beyond our means because of government waste (of all parties) and failure to do those things which would make the country thrive. It is NOT the pensioners, who have, in the main, worked and contributed, that are the problem.

    2. Even simple things like the post service is screwed up. I posted a Tracked signed-for, 1st class 24 letter last Thursday. A week later, it has still not arrived at destination. The compo is, wait for it….. a book of stamps.

      1. On the other hand I sent a keyboard 600 miles by Parcelforce Express 24, it was picked up from my house at 10am and delivered the next day at 8.30am for less than £15

        1. There seems to be a feeling, particularly over Xmas, that parcels are being given priority over letters.

    1. Hi, Bob. I subscribed to Ben Maton’s YouTube channel a few weeks ago. Dam(p)erham has a very nice, if modest instrument, which happens to be in tune. Dating from c. 1850, it was moved to the North Aisle and restored by J W Walker in 1990. JWW was a very significant English organ builder, who happened to be based in Brandon, Suffolk, when I was organist in that town’s parish church. The Peter Conacher organ at St Peter, Brandon, was also restored in 1990, but frankly, we couldn’t afford J W Walker’s quote, so we used a local Norfolk builder, who was perfectly satisfactory.

      The organ at Seale is also by Walker, but somewhat more recent, dating from the 1930s. And approximately twice the size…

          1. You do know that if you take it out of its sheath/ scabbard it has to taste blood before it can be placed back in…?

          2. I’ve been recently told that’s not true, but it was what I always thought was the case. It’s a beautiful weapon.

  102. Politics latest news: More than 30 MPs sign no confidence motion against Lindsay Hoyle

    KEY MOMENTS
    Chosen by us to get you up to speed at a glance

    8:12pm
    33 MPs sign no confidence motion in Sir Lindsay Hoyle
    7:11pm
    Sir Lindsay Hoyle: I apologise for how it ended up
    6:33pm
    SNP and Tory MPs walk out of the Commons
    6:13pm
    Mordaunt withdraws Tories from debate
    1:49pm
    Hoyle under fire after selecting both Government and Labour Gaza amendments

    Thirty-three Conservative and SNP MPs have signed a motion of no confidence in Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, in a protest against his handling of a debate on a ceasefire in Gaza.

    Sir Lindsay was forced to repeatedly apologise after Tory and SNP backbenchers walked out of the Commons and Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader, accused him of having “undermined the confidence” of the House.

    Ms Mordaunt withdrew a Government amendment after the Speaker took the highly unusual step of selecting both a Labour amendment as well the Government amendment to an SNP motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

    Sir Lindsay returned to the House to tell MPs: “I am honest to this House, I am true to this House, I believe in all members of this House and I have tried to do what I thought was the right thing for all sides of this House. It is regrettable and I apologise for the decision that didn’t end up in the place that I wished for.”

    The early day motion has been tabled by Will Wragg, the chairman of the public administration and accounts committee and a vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers.

    Amid the chaos, Labour’s amendment calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza was approved.

    You can follow the latest updates below and join the conversation in the comments section here. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/21/rishi-sunak-latest-news-atkins-labour-snp-gaza/

    1. And the delightful Scottish Narsties sulked and walked out because it wasn’t THEIR amendment!

  103. Well it seems that Bojos supporters saying that T. Carlson lied about his advisors demanding $1million for an interview (and that any fee Bojo received was going to go to Ukrainians) is being heavily pooh poohed in the BTL postings in the DT by approx 100%

          1. Iced fancies his favourite, I believe.

            I’ve double checked my spelling before posting. 😉

    2. Well they would say that, wouldn’t they. I must admit though, my first thought on hearing that story was that someone doesn’t want Boris back in the government!

  105. 383717+ up ticks,

    But turning the whole country into a serco run prison is NOT the way to do it,

    Plus, I do NOT believe they will get away with the “potential to prevent death& disease” bit not after the “potentially” deadly jab campaign.

    Creating a ‘smoke-free generation’ is a unique chance to lead the world in tackling tobacco
    The strategy has the potential to prevent death and disease for generations to come – MPs should grasp this opportunity with both hands

    3. 78 out of 100,000 will develop lung cancer from all causes (not just smoking) average age 85.
      Not quite so scary is it……..

      1. 383777+ up ticks,

        Morning P,
        If I may say, a good point made, if good is the right terminology, on such an evil ailment.

    4. 55,500 cases of prostate cancer each year and 25,500 cases lung cancer.
      Women have screening programme for breast cancer men have no screening programme for prostate cancer. Perhaps more funds for prostate cancer screening would be appropriate.

    1. Scum, and the Hendon (is it still there) training facility needs a cleaning out of the stables.

  108. Just had a variation on the Nigerian millionaire email – supposedly from a bank in the Netherlands regarding a deceased Chinese man leaving millions to whoever can claim it.

    1. When I lived in Wivenhoe, my landlord was a professional drummer. He used to use mats to deaden the sound when he practised. You wouldn’t have known he was playing.

  110. Well, I have made the first steps towards my late Spring holiday by enquiring of availability for my motorhome at a few campsites. How it develops will depend on the replies (in the affirmative) that I receive.

    1. If you are passing South Wales let me know.. I’m off skiing in March and cruising in April. First time on a floating holiday camp as a tester.

      1. I’m afraid it’s unlikely I’ll be going that way in the near future, but I’ll bear that in mind.

    2. Good evening, Conners. There is a good campsite for motorhomes in Colchester and it would be a pleasure and an honour to meet you and Kadi. Of course, I too plan to take a short break in mid-March and mid-April, so we have to compare our diaries.

  111. This polio doctor believed he had a ‘sacred’ duty to vaccinate children – he paid the ultimate price
    Dr Abdur Rehman is the latest in a long line of polio health workers shot dead by gunmen in Pakistan

    Ben Farmer
    and
    Ashfaq Yusufzai
    IN PESHAWAR
    21 February 2024 • 12:34pm

    The family of Dr Abdur Rehman had pleaded with him to give up his work.

    Coordinating polio vaccination campaigns to stamp out the crippling childhood virus in the border areas of Pakistan might be admirable work, but it was also dangerous.

    Scores of Pakistan’s polio workers and their police guards have been shot dead by militants who are opposed to vaccination and also see the medics as soft targets in a wider war against the state.

    On January 19, the worst fears of Dr Rehman’s family were realised. The senior health official was ambushed by gunmen and shot dead as he returned from work in Bajaur district along the Afghan border. One of his police guards was injured in the attack.

    His death brought the number of polio staff and their police guards killed in the country to 108.

    Most have been community workers and policemen, going door-to-door administering drops to children when they were shot dead by motorcycle-riding assassins.

    Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two remaining countries where polio is endemic, after a 35-year global eradication campaign has cut cases to just a handful each year.

    Six cases were detected in Afghanistan in 2023 and six in Pakistan. Neither country has reported a case so far in 2024.

    The virus has proven frustratingly difficult to finish off in this part of the world, despite huge sums of money being spent and the regular mobilisation of armies of anti-polio workers.

    Ranged against the campaign is a stubborn mix of suspicion, poverty and insecurity.

    TTP militants have in the past ordered halts to vaccinations, but opposition has also been a rallying cry for many firebrand clerics and extremist groups in the region.

    Accusations are rife that the drops are harmful, tainted with pork, or even a Western plot to sterilise Muslims, leading to boycotts and hostility.

    A Police officer stands guard as health workers administers polio vaccine to children during a polio vaccination door-to-door campaign
    Scores of Pakistan’s polio workers and their police guards have been shot dead by militants opposed to vaccination CREDIT: SOHAIL SHAHZAD/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
    Opposition intensified when it emerged the CIA ran a fake hepatitis B vaccination programme trying to pinpoint Osama bin Laden by taking DNA samples from children to identify his relatives.

    Dr Rehman, who leaves nine children and two wives behind, had spent his career overseeing campaigns in South Waziristan and Bajaur, two districts notorious for their militancy and violence.

    Advertisement

    He often told his family it was his dream to see a polio-free Pakistan, his daughter said.

    “I am speaking to highlight the bravery of my father and dozens others who have laid down their lives for the sake of children,” she said.

    They now fear that their own lives may be at risk.

    Ms Rehman, a second-year student, said: “We are in extreme fear because we are afraid that Taliban militants will harm us. Taliban are against polio and they have already killed my father.”

    The family are asking the government to give them accommodation in nearby Peshawar, away from Bajaur.

    Dr Rehman’s death comes at a time of growing optimism in the polio eradication campaign that the final few cases may be on the verge of being stamped out.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/abdur-rehman-shooting-polio-doctor-vaccination-pakistan/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-onward-journey

    1. It seems to me that the Taliban aren’t against polio at all. They seem determined to preserve it at all costs.

  114. Well, chums, it’s time to wish you all a Good Night and a peaceful night’s sleep. See you all tomorrow.

  115. Thursday 22nd February, 2024

    Grizzly

    (aka Alan, George, the polymath: painter, gardener, cook, law enforcer, carnivore, dieter, grammarian, carpenter etc.)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ad17bc588076ac81e3b6bdb63755b046cbe4dd85d584f77b6a7eaba12c285ab.jpg

    and many more joyous birthdays,

    Have a good day and we give you our warmest greetings,

    Caroline and Rastus.

    (Here’s one of you favourites singing a song about Age!)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5sO0HbB5WY

    2. Oops, my apologies to Rastus, Caroline and Grizzly for missing this last night. I hope you had a good day, Mr Grizzly, Sir.

  118. Islamist extremism ‘not being effectively tackled by Government’
    Public faces increased threat from terrorists, warns Prevent reviewer
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/21/islamist-extremism-not-being-effectively-tackled/

    William Shawcross is well aware of the dangers but it seems that none of our politicians seem to be – or if they are aware they are afraid to say or do anything about it.

    “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

    Not that any of the PTB are good but they are certainly doing nothing

    BTL

    The only solution is one which none of our politicians has the strength of will or integrity to enforce and so it looks as if the UK – and possibly the whole of Europe – is lost forever.

    Forget God Save the King and Jesus Christ – Alah Akabar is the only shout we shall hear.

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