Monday 11 March: The growing chasm between the Church of England and its members

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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868 thoughts on “Monday 11 March: The growing chasm between the Church of England and its members”

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

    CONDOM ORDERS

    A young girl started work in the local chemist shop and was naturally very shy about having to sell condoms to the general public.

    The owner was due to go on holiday for a couple of days and asked if she would be willing to run the shop on her own, so she had to confide her worries about selling contraceptives.

    “Look,” he said, “My regular customers don’t ever ask for condoms; usually they just ask for a 310 [small], a 320[medium], or a 330[large]. The word condom is never actually used…”

    The first day was fine, but on the second day this black guy came into the shop, put out his hand and said, “Er, 350 please!”

    The girl immediately panicked, ran into the back of the shop and phoned the owner on his mobile to tell him of her predicament.

    “Go back in and check to see if he’s got a yellow bucket hanging between his legs,” the boss calmly told her.

    She peeped through the door and saw the yellow bucket hanging between his legs. “Yes!” she said, “He’s got one hanging there!”

    “Right,” said the boss, “Now go back in and give him £3.50…

    “He’s the window cleaner!”

    1. Good morning, Sir Jasper. I’m begging to recognise some of your (recycled) jokes – but they are still funny.

        1. I shall have to beg Korky the Kat’s forgiveness, Sir Jasper, because I read the wrong day’s weather forecast this morning and claimed it would rain all day today. In fact it was dry and I managed a goodly amount of garden work at around 7.10 am. Apologies to both Korky and yourself.

    2. First time on this site. And this crude joke is the “Best” comment. Completely unrelated to the topic.

      2. Crude or otherwise, Sir Jasper posts a daily joke/story.

        You will find that Nottle wanders hither and yon on topics throughout the day and that the headline feature posted by Geoff Graham merely reflects the main DT letter, rather than acting as a fixed parameter for discussions.

          1. A couple of these newcomers are seriously pissing me off – WTF do they think they are? I’m going to start blocking them

          3. Most are fine and to be warmly welcomed. What I don’t like is the ones who have a tendency to leap in with both feet before they find out the ambiance of the site.

          4. I think saying the words of one of our regular posters as ‘utter drivel’ is unacceptable (they got my first downvote) plus the sheer number of posts makes it too big to read them all.

          5. It’s rude and ill-mannered (and pretends to be superior). It’s not likely to endear the poster to those of us who have been here a long time.

        2. Jokes are always offensive to the woke of mind, and very much to be encouraged on NOTTL.

        2. Unfortunately, many of the newcomers have not yet had time to become acquainted and discover the back stories).

      5. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.
        Many of us are ex-Forces and still have that basic, earthy sense of humour that could often become a defence against extreme events.

        1. Basic, earthy is fine. But also have to be funny and/or witty. Get better and good discussions on the Army Rumour Service Forum.

      6. Sorry if the joke appears crude – many appreciate them so much, that I’ve had to repeat them (recycling) from the originals posted over 3 or 4 years. Soak that up Mr Sponge.

          1. If you cannot stand the heat, don’t get too warm in the kitchen. We tend to say it as it is.

      7. Tom (Sir Jasper) usually starts the day with a joke. It isn’t always crude. Many people (the regulars) look forward to it.

      8. Fraser Nelson has penned an article on the Spectator site this evening about the potential Emirati sale.

        Titled: Is an Emirati minority stake in the Telegraph compatible with a free press?

        I’ve posted a comment below the article that implores him to rethink the disastrous new Spectator commenting systems.

        If you still retain access to the Spectator site I’d ask you to add your thoughts onto the article.

        Maybe if enough comments get posted, we can demonstrate to the Speccy high command what a stupid and counter-productive move this has been.

  2. Morning, all Y’all.
    Grey, plus temperatures, but not by much. Start the day with a 15 minute delay on the train.
    😠

    1. Morning all, I have something to get up early for! Should be a clear day after heavy snow yesterday, turned in early. Sunny week ahead.

      1. Good morning, Kaypea. Pleased about your weather forecast. Mine is for rain all day. CORRECTION: I was looking at the wrong day’s forecast, so immediately after my original post, I found my mistake and went out at once to do an hour’s gardening.

    3. Good morning, Paul. If you only wanted to travel for one stop that’s appalling. But if you were travelling from Land’s End to John O’Groats that’s flipping marvellous. Lol.

      1. Emmm, err, travelling by rail, Thurso to Penzance is about as close as you’d get to those extremes!

      2. Short story. I know someone currently walking from John O’Groats to Land’s End to raise money for the London Air Ambulance. 1200 miles in a zig-zaggy route taking in all manner of wonderful trails. I am jealous (apart from the fact he nearly died 5 years ago and was lucky to be rescued by the London Air Ambulance and an off-duty doctor behind him in the platform).

  3. Good morning, chums. I hope you all slept well and enjoy today. I did today’s Wordle – only just.

    Wordle 996 6/6

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

    1. That was close.

      My journey was easier
      Wordle 996 4/6

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

    1. Warmish here in France. I had a healthy brown glow to my face after Friday’s sunshine !

  7. The growing chasm between the Church of England and its members

    Like every other British institution, it has been sabotaged by globalists

    2. The issue is, and has been for centuries, is what the members can do if they have lost confidence in their leaders who wield absolute power and authority?

      I remember all too well the 20,000 proxy votes created by the board of the National Trust in order to thwart a Vote of No Confidence from Restore Trust. Most British institutions, including Parliament, seem to be operating this way, skilfully manipulating a sham of democracy through legal process.

      Most revolutions create a worse situation than that which led to the revolution. It can take a generation or more to achieve what was intended by the revolution, and the revolutionary process is easily perverted during this period of vulnerability.

      I would have thought looming a withdrawal of the precepts by parishes, along with any further co-operation with the General Synod or recognition of bishops. There also might need to be legal action against Lambeth Palace for money appropriated from the parishes, especially bequests.

      It is a shame that Lambeth Palace has allowed fashion to take the place of the mission of Christ, and might well explain the extreme disillusion shown to the church by the young, who have plenty of other outlets for the expression of fashion. Since I have been myself alienated from the young, I am not best placed to come up with a solution to this.

        1. Thanks. It is when very different people can find common cause that things can start to be achieved.

      2. “ The issue is, and has been for centuries, is what the members can do if they have lost confidence in their leaders who wield absolute power and authority?”

        Not a huge amount. I was taking my new girlfriend on a tour of this part of France this weekend which focused on the Albigensian Crusade. Incredibly the Catholic Church murdered between 200,000 and 1,000,000 occitans because their view of the Christian faith and their practices of worship didn’t conform to the Catholic Church. The Protestant church was meant to remove the ability of the church’s hierarchy from stomping on their congregation.

        I’ve always contemplated becoming a vicar in order to offer a traditional service as I know it would be hugely popular.

    3. Not sure it’s globalists who’ve taken over the CofE. Perhaps at the top but certainly not at the parish level. My experience is that the lowest levels of the clergy are well-intentioned but thick-as-mince non-entities who fundamentally don’t understand their parishioners. At the rural church that I went to as a teenager in wales, the local vicar was from Cardiff. The average age of the congregation was mid-sixties and was made up of rural folk. The vicar attempted to impose his happy-clappy version of worship on the parish. Initially we had a book of common prayer service once a month – which was well attended – before it became a horrendous modern soulless service with beige verbiage replacing the beautiful traditional service. Even the hymns became modern, replacing the hymns we all knew and loved.

      Unsurprisingly the congregation shrank from 30-odd (when I was 13) to fewer than ten (when I was 18). And that wasn’t due to the deaths of older parishioners. Our family – of five – added 50% and three children. And, despite my father and the Lord Lieutenant’s suggestions about the correlation between numbers and the ghastly modern service; the vicar persisted and continued to diminish his flock.

      Suffice it to say there are single-digit attendees now. I fear that the church will close very soon. If he’s listened, and he’d catered for his rural community instead of imposed his Alpha-waffle-based-urban service on us; I do think he’d have a healthy congregation as there are several gentry families that would certainly attend if the service was a traditional one.

      I’ve often thought I might become a vicar simply to prove that if you provide a traditional service, many would be keen to attend.

      Proof? I used to go to Chelsea Old Church, which would take me over an hour to get to. The services were traditional services, overseen by a former padre. Result? Church was essentially full. Similarly, when I lived in Barnes, I used to attend the beautiful arts and crafts church on Putney Common. Always full. Not wholly traditional but the modern parts were inoffensive and ensured there was a great mix of people in attendance.

      1. I travel 10 miles along a narrow, winding road to attend the church I do. It’s worth it for the traditional aspect of worship.

  8. The growing chasm between the Church of England and its members

    Like every other British institution, it has been sabotaged by globalists

  10. Russia’s economy once again defies the doomsayers. 11 March 2024.

    In the two years since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s economy has repeatedly defied the doomsayers. A financial collapse, widely predicted in the spring of 2022, never came to pass. The economy fell into recession, but it was less severe than expected and did not last long. Inflation was the most recent scare. Last year prices accelerated rapidly; economists believed they could spiral out of control. Even Mr Putin was worried. In February he urged officials to give “special consideration” to rising prices.

    Once again, however, the Russian economy appears to be proving the pessimists wrong. Data to be published on March 13th are expected to show that prices rose by 0.6% month-on-month in February, down from 1.1% at the end of last year. On a year-on-year basis inflation is probably no longer rising, having hit 7.5% in November (see chart 1). Many forecasters expect the rate to fall to just 4% before long, and households’ expectations of future inflation have flattened. The result of Russia’s presidential election, which begins on March 15th, is a foregone conclusion. If it was competitive, these figures would do Mr Putin no harm.

    They seem to be doing him a great deal of good. Certainly better than the propaganda in the MSM.

    https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2024/03/10/russias-economy-once-again-defies-the-doomsayers

  11. Good morning. A timely letter on the CoE’s chasm between hierarchy and members, especially given the recent battles in our Benefice and just sheer nastiness of the cleric involved because we won’t throw away the legal independence of our parish. Ultimately holding out will make it easier for us to resist doctrinal heresies like same sex blessings and ‘race action plans’.
    The CoE is going to collapse, probably within a decade, and the hierarchy will try to protect themselves by flogging off the smaller churches and rectories etc while blethering ever more heresies and marxism. I intend that we become ever more independent and hoover up all the steadfast scriptural Anglicans as all the other rural churches around us close. We’ve already started attracting some non conformists disillusioned by the wokeness of their churches. I suspect we’ll get some Catholics too as the Papacy becomes more Marxist on the lead of the Argie commie. Jesus himself warned us that in the latter days that the church leaders would become wolves in sheep’s clothing and lead the faithful astray – well it’s already happening.
    And we’ll stay true to the BCP.

    1. You and I are approaching this problem from opposite ends of the political spectrum. I do not consider “commie” to be an insult – the term has been perverted, but it should mean priority being given to the welfare of society universally, rather than the interests of self-promoting individuals with the devil taking the hindmost.

      On a practical basis, however, communism can only work when everyone acts honourably and with the highest level of personal integrity – any resorting to the worse states of human nature, and a communist edifice comes crashing down in a mire of corruption. A right wing “law of the jungle” market approach has its own checks and balances, and has shown itself to be more resilient, since it works with corruption rather than trying to pretend it cannot exist.

      I suggest that Christianity has been essentially an attempt of communism since the time of the Apostles, and long pre-dates Marx. Many religious communities, before they were abolished by Henry VIII, were run as an experiment in benign communal living under a pretty strict Order. Some Protestant orders, such as the Amish, still operate this way.

      As for the Church of England, where better to look than the functioning of an English village? Camberwick Green may be wistful nostalgia for 1960s children, but is not such a bad model, is it?

      1. Communism is an atheist totalitarian ideology which uses force because it works against human nature which demands that people keep most of the fruits of their labours. It also believes that utopia is possible in this world. It is inimically contrary to Christ’s teaching.
        Jesus, Paul etc were quite clear that utopia is not possible in this world until the Second Coming and that improvements can only come from individual reformation of souls which is a bottom up process. We are our brother;s keeper but that’s a matter for individual conscience, not state diktat. Jesus, Paul etc praised hard work, thrift and entrepreneurialism but not the love of money for its own sake.

        1. What you are describing is liberalism. It differs from communism in that, as you say, liberalism works from the bottom up, but communism from the top down. “The Proletariat” is an ethereal creation and ordered by a politburo, whereas for Liberals, “The People” are you and I, and it is we that sets how power is to be ordered, and what virtues are required to achieve what we desire.

          I was not raised a Christian, and was not baptised until well into my forties. I see religion, with all its baubles, rituals, mythology and sacraments, as a tool rather than a tyrant. God is my friend-for-life and Christ is my spiritual brother. The purpose of it is to enhance one’s capacity to love and to be loved. In so doing, all the hard work, thrift and entrepreneurialism falls into place, and is therefore something to be encouraged, enabled and developed. Any more than the goodness of human nature, however, it cannot be taken for granted.

          1. Utter drivel. Communism is antithetical to true orthodox Christianity. May I recommend you read the great Pius XI’s decree against communism. Then read Ratzinger’s teachings against liberation theology

          2. “Liberation” is a red flag for resentful Neo-Marxism at work. “Justice” is another one.

          3. Christianity has had 2000 years to develop and evolve, and certainly did not end with the Revelation of the Apocalypse to St John. I believe that those who take the Eucharist today are the embodiment of Christ in our own time, not his.

            I would expect many revisions and interpretations since a troublesome Nazarene caused mayhem in the Temple, leading to the Roman Governor to be persuaded to execute him in order to keep the peace among the Jews.

            From my own interpretation of the New Testament, Jesus was expected to liberate the Jews from the Romans by inspiring and leading an uprising. However, his approach was somewhat different. Spotting how a cycle of atrocity, retribution and counter-reprisal was the cause of the trouble, he decided the best way to break the cycle was through self-sacrifice and disarming one’s enemies with love. At least that was how it was spun by his followers. How would you describe the lifestyle choices of the disciples?

            I don’t have the time, energy and life left to go through Oscott’s library of eminent theologians, and don’t mind if my own limited ideas are thrown around on his forum. It would be helpful though if you could outline a precis of what Pius XI and Benedict XVI were saying, relevant to this discussion, rather than teasing us with name dropping and more things for me to do.

      2. “I suggest that Christianity has been essentially an attempt of communism” The older I get the more I find this self serving trite assertion sickening and disturbing.

        1. Mine was a suggestion, not an assertion. It was intended to open it up to discussion, not to stamp authority on the subject.

          I remember the 1970s hippie communes and considered their resemblance to, say, a Benedictine monastery or a Jewish kibbutz. All of them seem to reject Marx, yet try to capture some of its idealism without the Marxist dogma.

    2. Good morning, JD.

      The CoE is going to collapse, probably within a decade…

      I have never been a member of the CoE but have read of its wealth. Where will this alleged wealth end up if the institution does collapse?

      Quick Google indicates:

      Total wealth around £9.4 Billion with £2 Billion of that in land holdings.

      A not inconsequential amount even in these, pi$$ printed cash up the wall times.

      1. They will keep the central bureaucracy going (and growing) with the trust fund, the cathedrals and major churches in towns, while spending the rest of the income on ‘social justice’ projects.
        The smaller churches get not a penny, just demands for more cash.

        2. Aren’t they going to give most of it to the descendants of enslavers? (I understand that the majority of the population of the Caribbean are descended from slave owners or overseers as well as from slaves).

    3. Dream on. Traditional, orthodox Catholics are flocking to the TLM and would never go anywhere near your heretical Church

        1. Traditional Latin Mass at a guess.
          Eschewed by the Globalist leaders of Roman Catholicism but much loved by the laity and lower orders of the priesthood.

    5. We used to have some RCs in church. They started up their own once a month Mass. When priests are collated (or curates licensed) they have to swear to be “true to the faith as uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds.”

  13. Good morning all.
    A dull, damp, drizzly start to the day with a tad above 2°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    BTL Comment from a lady called Kath Temple:-

    49 min ago

    It’s good to hear about people who have received excellent treatment from the nhs. I’ve had it too, and I’ve also recieved and witnessed poor care and failing systems. But do people think that if we had no nhs there would be no doctors and nurses to give excellent treatment and save lives, and no health care system of any kind? Nhs worship is pointless and ridiculous. The nhs badly needs drastic reform and we need to stop making excuses for the whole creaking edifice just because it sometimes works well. edited

    Reply by Richard Packer.
    37 min ago
    Got it in a nutshell. The inconsistencies in NHS performance should be cause for concern and a driver for urgent reform. It shouldn’t be down to pot luck whether you get great, timely treatnent or end up on a lengthy waiting list. Your clinical needs should be all that matters.

    Where the NHS provides good treatment it appears to do it _despite_ the system, not because of it.

  16. I can recall all the razzmatazz in the run up to Blair’s shoo-in victory in 1997, we had cool Britannia and a following of young female politicians getting senior roles, otherwise known as Blair’s Babes.
    Not sure if this was before the film Babe become such a big success.
    But in any case Starmer now appears to be on the same shoo-in path for later this year.
    He has announced a gang of four already.
    Will he have a similar entourage of female talent, I wonder?
    Dare I suggest he calls them Starmer’s Strumpets

      2. 1% so we are told.

        By the law of averages therefore, if there are 200 Strumpets in the next parliament, two of them should be anatomically incorrect.

  17. A new referendum has exposed the woke cause. Labour should tremble. 11 March 2024.

    Last week, Eire held a referendum to “modernise” its constitution on two points: to include families not based on marriage and to rewrite references to a “mother’s duties in the home”. In short, to expunge what Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called “sexist” language. Every party campaigned for a Yes-Yes vote – bar a curious Left-wing pro-life group called Aontu – and some of my conservative friends sat it out. They’ve been burnt by losing referendums on gay marriage in 2015 and abortion in 2018 – both times badly – and this looked like another easy win for “modern Ireland”.

    On the day, everyone was surprised. The country voted “no” to the families language by 68 per cent; “no” to redefining the role of women by a staggering 74 per cent. The media reacted as if Ireland had given douze points to Gilead; the problem, suggested supporters, was not the reform itself but the government’s failure to sell it. Nevertheless with a majority this big, we can infer that thousands of single mothers, carers and feminists voted against amendments that the elite told them were in their sectional interests. Why?

    Why Labour? All the political elites are Woke! The referendum is no surprise except to them. Apart from the brainwashed, the hoi polloi have never supported its ludicrous doctrines.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/10/new-referendum-exposed-the-woke-cause-labour-should-tremble/

    1. A good old fashioned slap in the elite’s face. Brilliant. Reminded me of 23 June 2016.

        2. I felt good on 23.6.16, cracked open a bottle of English sparkling wine and sat in the afternoon sunshine basking in the result of all my hard work campaigning for Leave. Afterwards – not so good. Ah well, live for the day.

          1. When we won I felt a moment of elation. I put up with a long, whinging rant about how evil I was from an ignorant friend and told him. ‘It won’t matter. They will never let us leave.’ I was right.

            When Truss announced her policies I felt the same rush and then after a few moments again that collapse. The state will never, ever permit anything to alter its path of declinism. It has an agenda and nothing will change that.

            The only thing that would is generations of undoing it’s hegemony.

          2. “...The state will never, ever permit anything to alter its path of declinism….”

            Until we rise up and utterly smash the state.

          3. A very old friend came over for a barbecue that day. She started on and on and on about the Brexit vote … racism blah di blah…. I kept trying to change the subject but eventually snapped and told her that I had voted leave. I tried to explain the concept of ‘somewheres’ vs ‘anywheres’ although not using those terms as it was before the David Goodhart book but it was badly misinterpreted. Our relationship has never quite recovered.

          4. I drove home from the count thinking I was at last in a free country. That didn’t last long 🙁

  18. Well, clearly the most exciting and important news is that Prince Willie of Woke is ALSO the Prince of Fakery – with THAT photo being described as “digitally manipulated…”

    I shall not sleep until the truth is forthcoming….:¬))

    1. I don’t believe William took the photo, I can’t believe their soshul mejia team let it out in that state.

      I also really couldn’t care less. What is there to hide in these things?

  19. Good morning all and troopers of the 77th,

    Overcast and dull at Castle McPhee and staying that way by the look of it. Wind in the North-West, 6-8℃ today. At least it’s not raining.

    Well, Arlene Foster doesn’t mince her words, does she.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a5b14c4112a1807b7c11ea1e0d2eda212fd68275d9b763e680a3e42db9ce5b9.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/09/support-for-hamas-must-be-utterly-eradicated-in-our-country/

    On reading it, while she writes this:

    The Prime Minister told us last week that enough was enough. He was correct, but when will we move from words to action? When are we going to see consequences for those who support Hamas in the UK? It appears that there are some in the upper echelons of our society and indeed Government who do not want to act.

    Indeed, the reverse appears to be true, with some wanting a softer line. It was only last week that the Foreign Office held a seminar where speakers told staff that calling Hamas terrorists was an “obstacle to peace”, and that applying the label was “unhelpful”. It is certainly unhelpful to Hamas which, like the IRA, is trying to claim freedom fighter status. But it is very helpful to those who cry out for justice, including the hostages.

    Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, has said that if Hamas were to be left in control of even a part of Gaza, “there will never be a two-state solution because you cannot expect Israel to live next to a group of people that want to do October 7 all over again”. He was right. Hamas must be defeated, not just for safety of the Israeli people, but for a peaceful route map for the region.

    It doesn’t quite match the headline. “Utterly eradicated ” are strong words and while most of us would agree with her choice of words ( if they are her’s and not a sub-editor’s) one wonders if they might not get her into a bit of bother. “Utterly eradicated” to me means that you are going to search them out, stamp on them and then deport the squashed remains. Or something like that.

    1. Morning Fiscal. Hamas is represented in the UK at an official level by their followers in the Civil Service so it can never be rooted out without the destruction of the State.

      2. Sadly yes, there seems to be a dedicated Home Office collusion with the muslim menace that puts the whole country at risk deliberately.

        Why the home office refuses to remove this threat and instead waves even more of the monsters in is beyond me.

    2. Who is the Government of the Day in Gaza?

      It seems that utterly eradicating Hamas and all its support there is little different to “utterly eradicating” the Conservative Party and all its support in the UK. If that were to happen, there would be civil breakdown and anarchy, which seems to be all that is on offer in Gaza right now from the Israelis.

      I would hope that if regime change were a desirable outcome, they would have something better on offer.

    3. The way things are going in the rest of our world, giving in to hamas could lead to anywhere else being the repeat of Gaza very soon.
      Often much repeated acquiescence and fawning to the religion that is obviously ‘not of peace’, will lead to very serious problems elsewhere.

    4. It isn’t just hamas. They’re just a symptom. The fundamental problem is the continual yielding to muslim. They’re guests – nothing more. That the state continually gives ground to their every demand, protects and lauds their revolting actions rather than giving them the kicking they deserve is farce.

      Is it because they’ll kill more people? Then kill thousands of them. Stop pandering. They’re a violent cult. Don’t appease it, burn it out. Stop blithering on about the ‘right’ to please the BBC, acknowledge the threat and strangle it.

      1. Until they ALL learn the language and integrate (as have the Jews) Muslims will never be welcome and will always be looked at, as something to be got rid of.

  21. Hello everyone. Another refugee from the DT and Spectator arrives. So nice to see so many familiar names, and a big shout out for Angelina K .KBJ. who was kind enough to bring this sito my attention.

      1. Fat fingers sosraboc – the F is next to D on my keyboard. Edited. I’ve not read the FT since it was bought by that Japanese lot.

    2. Has El Spectator done a Telegraph and locked out all non-subbers?

      I sort of get that they need the subscriptions to make money but cutting out a wider community is daft.

      1. The Spectator has dropped Disqus, so any comments (even from subscribers) are lost due to the notification facility being turned off. Very annoying.

    3. Welcome aboard steve 3005. Enjoy your time with us but be aware of the rules as highlighted at the beginning. We’ll get along just fine..

    1. They cut the recording just before he went down on his knees, forehead on floor and bum in the air, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar!’

    2. They cut the recording just before he went down on his knees, forehead on floor and bum in the air, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar!’

    3. I posted the text of that as a BTL Comment:-

      1 hr ago

      The text of an X-Tw@ter post by the Archpillock of Canterbury*

      “Archbishop of Canterbury

      @JustinWelby

      I wish all Muslims peace and joy as they enter this season of Ramadan: this special time of prayer, fasting and spiritual reflection.

      I give thanks for the great contribution of Muslims to our society, and for their great hospitality and welcome. I pray that this Ramadan is a time of renewal, and that we may continue to strengthen our bonds of friendship and work together for peace and justice.”

      *Delete A, insert U

      1. I thought it was the Christians that welcomed the Trojan horse of Muslims into their country… must be mistaken.

      2. Contribution? What contribution? They’re parasites living off welfare, killing children at a concert, stabbing people, blowing themselves up on buses and trains – they bring nothing to this country but problems and should be driven out.

        Yes, some are decent, pleasant folk but the vast majority are indolent, abusive wasters.

      4. What “great contribution”? The majority don’t work, they have provided 7/7, the London Bridge Massacre, the Manchester Bombing, the Glasgow Airport attack … You get the drift?

    8. I too wish all muslims would leave me in peace and would all stop claiming welfare and go away.

  23. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not pretty outside again. Perhaps Welby could spend a few hours working on praying for the weather instead of the destruction of our social structure our established society and our culture.
    Or possibly his ‘connections upstairs’ aren’t as solid as they should be.

  24. 384575+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Monday 11 March: The growing chasm between the Church of England and its members

    When you consider that 48% of the nation voted on the 24/6/2016 for foreign leadership it should surprise no one that a multitude of peoples are following the WEF / NWO treacherous path.

    Divide and conquer, empty & burn the churches,with a large percentage of the people aiding & abetting, tis successfully coming to be.

    In my book the 48 percenters have been
    WEF / NWO minions from the outset and if they find once a week attendance too much to handle how in hells name are they, as the voting pattern dictates, going to contend nutting the deck five times a day down at the local mosque ( that use to be a pub).

    Well meant advice,

    Get a pew under your heathen arses and stop abusing your kneecaps 5 times a day, stop legal immigration in lieu of the dover intake , NO nation can survive both.

    Be honest with your kids at least if not yourself, tell them you have knowingly let them down for 30 plus years and are continuing to do so come the next General Election, for the good of the ruling coalition party.

    1. Something remoaners ignore is that the nation voted to leave the EU so, by default so did they. They can complain and whinge but they lost, and must accept the majority decision and be flippin’ quiet. Continually whining about it should be grounds for litter picking duty and clearing culverts of dirt.

  25. My just removed comment

    His happiness at his ancestors being ‘enslaved’ is understandable.

    Look what the ‘church’ did to Africa as whole, by the
    invasion of it’s missionaries. They interfered with a way of life, that
    had existed for hundreds of years. The population level of an village
    would be governed by the food and water available. The birth rate would
    be relatively high, as it was known many children would die at birth or
    a young age.

    Along comes ‘god’ bring unknown disease with him,
    introducing medicines to ensure babies survived, longevity and generally
    changing the way of life.

    Populations rose as children and adults survived, still
    medicalcare became available, but not enough food and water. Just watch
    daytime TV for the charities still begging for Water Aid.

    Conflicts between villages began, as others had more
    than you. The losers were sent to the Slave ports,and thence to America
    etc by the triumphant Africans villagers

    Population increased, not enough food and so it goes on
    today, but without the help of ‘god’. Their (His) work has been done.

    1. But didn’t the slave trade predate the introduction of Christianity by a few hundred years?

          3. I don’t know if someone is trying to write an alternate history but recent excavations of workers camps near the pyramids show they ate meat and bread. I think they were paid labourers.

          5. More likely run on the Inca lines i.e. a portion of their time having to be spent on working for the Pharaohs who, remember, were regarded as Gods, and the rest on growing their own crops for food and sale to those who didn’t farm.

          6. Slaves from Nubia (Sudan) would have been used to mine the stones in the quarries round Aswan about 500 miles away. It is still debateable whether or not slaves were involved in the actual construction, though probable.

          7. If I had a slave I would feed him well, too. I don’t want my slave to die on me, after all. Then he’d be no use at all.

          8. Depends on the work they do. If anyone can do it then they’re worth in sustenance is negligible. If they’re a skilled slave then you treat them accordingly.

            Folk forget – we’re all still slaves. We’ve just exchanged the wooden oar for a keyboard. The slave owner, now is the state. High taxes, debt, waste and regulation are it’s whips.

        2. The richest empire ever was the Mali Empire (13″th – 17th century from memory) based on gold mined by slaves.

      2. Morning Bob. Yes. It was endemic to Africa and pretty well everywhere else as well! It was Christianity that ended it!

      3. Morning Bob. Yes. It was endemic to Africa and pretty well everywhere else as well! It was Christianity that ended it!

    2. I often repeat.
      It is the charities that are the problem and not the solution.

    4. Another go at a comment removed as spam for some reason. Gods work has been continued by well meaning but disastrous foreign
      aid projects, bringing health care and surviving babies, but not the
      required education on birth control. In uganda where I lived and worked
      for many years, the population rose from 7 million in 1962
      (independence) to over 45 million today. Naturally mostly supported by
      handouts from the World Food Programme and £millions from the UK
      taxpayer to pay despots such as Obote, Amin and Museveni.

    5. ‘Gods’ work has been continued by well meaning but disastrous foreign
      aid projects, bringing health care and surviving babies, but not the
      required education on birth control. In uganda where I lived and worked
      for many years, the population rose from 7 million in 1962
      (independence) to over 45 million today. Naturally mostly supported by
      handouts from the World Food Programme and millions of pounds from the UK
      taxpayer to pay the ruling dictators.

    6. It is cruel and cold but we best help the third world by leaving them alone. We’ve got to let them equalise with their own environment, develop the infrastructure and technology that will create growth for them. Their skills and education must be improved locally.

      We have, simply, got to leave them alone.

      1. Problem is, there’s nice work to be had working for a charidee or NGO: working abroad, well paid, driving around in a 4×4 with the aded bonus of that warm fuzzy glow that you get for just knowing that you are a “nice” person. So these turkeys are not going to vote for Xmas.

      2. It is far too late to “leave them alone” I’m afraid. Many third world countries are far too rich in natural resources to be left alone as the Chinese and the Russians are vigorously demonstrating.

    7. Are we conflating the Transatlantic Slave Trade with the European colonisation of Sub-Saharan Africa, which actually came later. Two different and distinct periods in history. The slave ships only rocked up on the coast. It was later in the 19th century that Europeans penetrated the African interior. Strange to tell, the African churches don’t resent their existence.

      1. I really do believe that the majority of embassies based in London own slaves , and I also know that VERY rich Arab and African families who live over here also have slaves/ servants , and they are probably not paid a wage .

        The Royal family might have a similar system , and I bet your bottom dollar that Ginge and Cringe operate a very bossy household .

        When we lived in Nigeria , we were asked by many to have help in the house , we did, and paid a good wage and provided staple food ingredients for our live in help as well. Separate quarters , electricity and gas bottles for their cooking use .

        We were told that in those days , many senior Nigerians in the oil industry who lived near us , treated their staff disgracefully, and locals knew they would have a better life working either for Dutch or British families .

      2. Sub-Saharan Africa wasn’t even involved in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade which was based in west Africa much further north. While all tribes had been enslaving each other since time immemorial, the enslavement of the majority Shona by the minority Ndebele in what is now Zimbabwe being a case in point, in sub-Sahara Africa, notably South Africa, slaves were brought in from the east largely by the Dutch to the Cape Colony. Hence the group of very mixed race people known as the Cape Coloureds.
        In terms of the importation of Christianity, it is interesting to note that there are about 2.4 billion Christians in the world today of whom only about 20% are white!
        In terms of both religion and medicine all the sub-Saharans had were the witch-doctors who were, in the main, a very powerful but a very malign force and were past masters at playing mind games. Two examples from personal experience living on a farm in what was then Rhodesia. Btw my mother was a nurse.
        1. A labourer came to the kitchen door saying he was very sick and needed to go to hospital. He had no temperature nor visible signs of sickness so my mother asked why he thought he was sick. The response was that the witch-doctor had told him he was going to die so he must be sick. My mother took him to the hospital where they found nothing wrong but he died 24 hours later.
        2. A labourer came to the kitchen door with an axe embedded in the back of his head asking to be taken to the hospital. Upon arrival my mother was told that the axe would of course be removed but he was very unlikely to survive said removal. The man said he would be fine because the witch-doctor had told him he would not die. He didn’t and was back at work 10 days later.
        Make of that what you will!!

  26. To add on to todays topic/letter to the Telegraph and especially for those who do not subscribe to the paper. Here, in full, is Daniel Hannan’s article in this mornings edition.

    The Church of England is replacing its Christian nature in a fit of woke frenzy
    A new holy trinity of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has usurped the old

    The Church of England’s own committee urging it to set aside a billion pounds to atone for slavery is an almost perfect summary of what is wrong with modern Britain. It’s all here, in this one report: historical illiteracy, bureaucratic carelessness with other people’s money, national self-loathing, importation of American culture wars, lack of interest in outcomes.

    Let’s start with the most basic objection. If you want to rank the heroes and villains of the slave trade, then in my view the Church of England stands (alongside Quakers and Methodists) close to the top of the heroes’ table.

    William Wilberforce, who pushed through the legislation to extirpate the foul business, was moved by his Anglican faith. So was John Newton, the former slave trader who repented, composed Amazing Grace and ended his days as a Church of England curate.

    Thanks to them, and to hundreds of thousands of ordinary churchgoers who lent support to their campaigns, Britain not only abolished slavery in the parts of the world it controlled, but poured its blood and treasure into a long, gruelling and ultimately successful war against the slave trade everywhere else.

    But, of course, that story would never do. It smacks too much of patriotism and of white saviour complex. So the Church Commissioners set out to find evidence of guilt. It turns out that, in the early 18th century, some of the church’s finances were invested in the South Sea Company, which shipped 34,000 enslaved people across the Atlantic.

    Does that mean that the Church of England was pro-slavery? Obviously not. Many ministers were constantly sermonising and agitating for abolition, and its bishops voted for and against the abolition of the slave trade in the House of Lords.

    Does it mean, then, that the Church was hypocritical, or at least careless? Not necessarily. Can you say for sure whether your pension fund invests in, say, Volkswagen, which cheated on its engine emissions tests and which maintains a highly controversial plant in Xinjiang?

    So what, you might say. Whether its servants were heartless or simply thoughtless, the Church still profited from human misery. Does that not create a debt?

    Well, if it did, the debt has been settled many times over. It was settled by the young men, motivated by religious conviction, who gave their lives to hunting down slave ships after 1807. It was settled by the Anglican missionaries who penetrated the African interior, often dying of tropical diseases, seeking to persuade local potentates to free their chattels.

    It was settled, not least, by British taxpayers, who gladly approved the spending of 1.8 per cent of GDP annually between 1808 and 1867 on global eradication; arguably the most expensive moral foreign policy in human history.

    That was meaningful restitution. Britain had been a player in the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. When, like John Newton, it saw that it had been wrong, it sought to make good that wrong by liberating as many remaining slaves as it could, diverting ships to hunt down the Guineamen even at the height of its life-and-death struggle with Napoleon.

    The Church Commissioners, by contrast, want to make a symbolic rather than a practical repentance through gestures like “investments into Black-led businesses”.

    Never mind whether the leaders of those businesses are descended from slaves or slave-owners, for this does not seem to be about compensation. It appears instead to be about fashion – specifically the fashion for racialising every question, a fashion we have imported from the United States.

    “African chattel enslavement was central to the growth of the British economy of the 18th and 19th centuries,” declares the report. Despite repeated efforts to prove this claim, however, it remains thoroughly dubious. It still seems more likely that the growth of the British economy was driven by independent courts and secure intellectual property rights. These things enabled the Industrial Revolution and thus, ultimately, rendered slavery economically obsolete as well as morally repugnant.

    The cost of eradicating slavery was quite likely greater than any previous national profit, making talk of reparations nonsense. And we know, in any case, that no settlement would be treated as final. There would always be new demands, for we are dealing with a state of mind, not a legal claim.

    Hence the arbitrary figure of a billion pounds. We are in a world of gestures, of virtue-signalling, of ostentatious religiosity. “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican’.”

    A billion pounds is roughly equivalent to the sum raised annually by all the Church of England’s parishes. The churchgoers who stump up that cash could hardly be less like the virtue-signalling Pharisee. If anything, they more closely resemble the penurious widow recalled in Mark’s Gospel who “threw in two mites”.

    Those who fill the pews, however sparsely, don’t mind kicking a third of their annual billion pounds upstairs, even as their church buildings, yew-hemmed and echoing, crumble. They likely imagine that their cash is helping to spread the gospel rather than filling the pension pots of diocesan diversity officers.

    There are many ways in which a billion pounds could be ethically invested, either in Britain or in Anglican communities overseas. If slavery is your issue, a billion pounds could help complete the Church’s abolitionist mission by taking the campaign to the countries where human bondage is most prevalent today: North Korea, Eritrea, Mauritania and the like. But that does not carry the kudos of self-reproach.

    Many British institutions are split between the poor bloody infantry and the woke top brass. The CofE is no exception. During lockdown, parish priests showed exemplary leadership, organising food deliveries, ministering to people in isolation, uniting their communities. Too many bishops, by contrast, demanded the closure of church buildings and roused themselves to make a collective statement only to condemn Dominic Cummings. Not once did they think to declare that fear of death should not prevent us from living; that, indeed, a life properly lived should remove the fear of death.

    It is often said that identity politics is more like a religion than a political doctrine. Its tenets are articles of faith, and dissenters are excommunicated rather than debated. Our national church has adopted this newer trinity of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, forming a syncretic religion, dogmatic and proselytising.

    The new faith has little interest in real-word results. There is no evidence that treating entire groups of people as victims produces just outcomes. Indeed, there is a great deal of evidence to the contrary.

    In his forthcoming book Black Success, Tony Sewell shows how woke policies “make the black community out to be helpless and hapless – people with no agency in the world around them”. Telling the other side of the story, he thinks, the story of black entrepreneurs, is a surer way to raise expectations and realise ambitions.

    Where did the future Lord Sewell first stumble upon this insight? How did he transcend the racism of the 1970s? “Some would say I was lucky, others that I was just thick-skinned. But the real saviour was Sunday School and those instructive stories from the Good Book. They took me away from race and reminded me of my greater humanity.”

    That was what a black boy heard in a largely white Anglican church in Penge half a century ago: the uplifting message that skin colour matters no more than hair colour. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” It was that conviction that motivated the abolitionists in the first place. How unutterably sad to see it replaced by the new dogma of racial categorisation.

      1. So did I. I tend, most of the time, to agree with Hannan regardless of subject.

        1. I remember him being in favour of May’s EU surrender agreement which is the only downside I have of him.

          2. I seem to remember him saying that he voted for it with a great deal of reluctance but, in his mind, it served as a basis for a way out.

      2. Fraser Nelson has penned an article on the Spectator site about the potential Emirati sale.

        Titled: Is an Emirati minority stake in the Telegraph compatible with a free press?

        I’ve posted a comment below the article that implores him to rethink the disastrous new Spectator commenting systems.

        If you still retain access to the Spectator I’d ask you to add your thoughts onto that article.

        Maybe if enough comments get posted, we can demonstrate to the Speccy high command what a stupid and counter-productive move this has been.

    2. The Left don’t actually want to achieve anything, they just want to look at if they are – at your expense.

    3. A good article. It’s fashionable to demonise men like Thomas Carlyle who opposed the abolitionist movement but it you look at what Carlyle actually wrote, he wasn’t in favour of slavery. His objection was to the massive amount being spent on abolishing the Transatlantic trade while the British working class endured far worse living conditions than slaves on West Indian plantations, who could at least be sure of three meals a day.

      1. Indeed. As I said the other day: ” Millions of white British slaves worked in the mills mines and factories. Little children working in coal mines, never seeing daylight with rickets as a consequence, not to mention the inherent dangers of working underground. I’m sure as they shuffled off shoeless to their unlit, unheated hovels for a few pennies a week, they, were all thinking: “Could be worse- I could be a slave in the colonies!”
        At least the slaves were well fed and had better weather!“

    4. Thank you for pasting such an excellent piece for those of us who do not subscribe to the Telegraph.
      I recommend the ‘History Reclaimed ‘ website for proper scholarly articles debunking the ignorant and spurious claims about Britain’s prosperity being built on the transatlantic trade.

      1. Thanks for that suggestion Lola. Not familiar with that site, I will certainly go look it up.

      1. Morning Conway. I have always thought that the verse is to do with Kenosis.

        1. It may have referred to Christ’s emptying himself, but it was also addressed to his followers; if a man seek to save himself he will only lose his life.

    1. I wonder how many people still fall for the lie. Will the state come along and say ‘We are not forcing you to have it… but if you don’t, we’ll get you sacked, confiscate your property, prevent you getting healthcare, arrest you for no reason and ruin your life.’

      1. My first thought too. The Supporting Actress award belongs to whoever made that frock.

    2. She is a true Hollywood heavyweight. Her Wiki entry says she is 37 . . . that is 37 stone not her age. They obviously only weighed her left leg.

      1. At my heaviest, before I met the Warqueen I was 198 kilos. 100kg of that was fat.

        I was eating my problems. I suppose I still am. I’m about 150 with a lean weight of 110-15kg, depending on the month.

        What I’m getting at is – some folk drink, others smoke, others use drugs. I – and others – eat.

  30. We must end the Net Zero delusion before it’s too late. 11 March 2024.

    Not only did May commit the UK to the 2050 target, but in the years since she has doggedly called for the Government to move faster. Last year, just months before we became the first economy to halve emissions since 1990, she claimed we were “falling behind”.

    Such attitudes are commonplace – and it will only get worse. Pity the prime minister in charge in 2033, when the sixth “Carbon Budget” kicks in, or in 2035, when electricity will apparently be fully decarbonised. A gulf now lies between the wishful thinking of the political class and economic reality, yet still the discourse is dominated by doomsday language and a worrying desire to silence dissent.

    It’s too late now. The UK is set firmly on the path of self-destruction courtesy of its Political Elites.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/11/we-must-end-the-net-zero-delusion-before-its-too-late/

    1. Put May on the average salary in a little house with poor insulation and electric heating and see how she copes. They live in a dream world, it’s time they were forced to face reality.

  31. Now, to start the day proper. Good Morning all. Pleased to see we are back to the cold and gloom here in West Sussex. The sun is so unsettling!

    Asked about why Tommy Robinson was arrested yesterday, still don’t have an answer. But I came across this video last night. I remember when Toby Young started his free speech outfit he was asked if he would have Tommy Robinson as a member, he evaded the question. It was due to that I never signed up. Either you believe in free speech without equivocation or you are not a true advocate for free speech.

    Tommy Robinson REJECTED By Pro Free Speech Group

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajHwWjzb9PA

    1. One can believe in something but it doesn’t mean that you have to accept everyone who believes in the same thing to being a member of your group, particularly if their membership would actually harm the group and put off other potential members.

      1. I can’t agree with that because when someone is being persecuted by the establishment for non-crimes to the point that they deliberately put that person in harms way in the clear hope he be killed or severely incapacitated. Then it is your moral duty to stick up for them. That Toby Youngs outfit remain silent in such circumstances tells me that they are just another outfit with a typical middle class secular ideology that caters only to a certain class and not to all.

        1. One may speak up for such an oppressed individual, it doesn’t mean you have to welcome them into your home.

          1. That is not the same thing at all. Someone being persecuted needs people of integrity to defend him. And, by the way, I would say that an organization that acted with moral integrity would attract far more members than one that compromises its morality for its own convenience. The abolitionists of the slave trade were not exactly popular in the beginning but in the end they triumphed. We remember them but not their opponents.

          2. Disagreeing with Robinson’s persecution is a different matter from taking him on board.

            Are you suggesting that no matter how abhorrent the views, that the proponents should be supported under the banner of free speech?
            How about “Behead those who offend Islam”?
            By all means let them speak, but don’t expect me to support what they are saying and most certainly don’t force me to open my club to them.
            I am always extremely wary of those who use “moral integrity” or “moral high ground” to try to belittle their opponents positions.

          3. The problem is in this country we cannot say ‘behead those who promote islam’ because plod arrest you and destroy your life.

            The law is no longer applied fairly. The muslim demographic get their own way. Where was the investigation of pakistani muslim paedophile rapists by the state? They were too busy trying to pretend paedophile rape, drug fronts and such were carried out by ‘the Far Right’ which to them means folk who venerate Hitler, despite Hitler being a Hard Left nut job.

          4. It would certainly make an interesting experiment but as you say, the costs would be high.!

    2. Despite the Daily Sceptic and the FSU, Toby Young is a gatekeeper. I think that’s why he and James Delingpole parted ways.

  33. What a day. Got a puncture 1 1/2 miles into my way into work. Luckily i was able to be rescued, and was able to get on the old motorbike to get to work.

    It is a sad state of affairs that i was not prepared to contemplate leaving my e-bike locked up at Richmond railway station to pick up later (given last year’s theft of my previous bike from Teddington railway station one busy Saturday afternoon in full view of two CCTV cameras, and Plod’s total and utter lack of interest in doing anything about it).

  34. ‘Morning All
    I note comments on slavery so an incomplete list of the slave driven empires
    Egyptian
    Babylonian
    Persian
    Roman
    And of course that famous home of Democracy the Greek city states
    Slavery has been the norm throughout recorded history and our role in its ending deserves only praise not demands for compo to people who were NEVER slaves from people who NEVER owned slaves
    It’s all just a disgusting grift

    1. As Sue Edison notes below, referring to Carlyle, slaves on plantations were often treated better than working class people here.
      Much of what is described as slavery centuries ago may really have been people swapping a free life of abject poverty and starvation for a life of work, food and shelter.

      1. There’s a similar and often overlooked aspect relating to the advent of the Industrial Revolution. “Oh how grim the Industrial Revolution was for all those poor exploited masses” as opposed to dying young, hungry and cold in a muddy hut.

  35. Bit of a comedown from yesterday:
    Wordle 996 6/6

    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
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    🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
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  36. Meanwhile Medley Time

    https://twitter.com/extremepatriot1/status/1766858931408621752?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f5db5dfe0bbf8abdae2e0bb00b3326aae34f27fad7f594c73333102db61361e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2f2ebe381ffd420dcfa823d94f603ffc9cfb6471ee2c8d53cca16111db28532b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06abadba919fb970627f6a4fe32b96d3e0fd4f29509170968c3d56f43c226925.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ada9689b935a3588a5fb30013157d6cb44106d1c0fe3601dea2bda78b2e2805.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a0f553192cbb17019235521beede9c99af1a22e9604a495382418ceffe89817.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/113d6d533cfdbda282d8a0b46eba4847fee71b7807ca850e5105982065b6eff2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/05d6ac11563960721e73a33b86eb6639ef56d9331dc66616bafa59fda05925e9.jpg

    1. “Government killing more people in history than anything else in history”? Mmm, skeptical of that one. Malaria for starters.

      1. I agree “murdered” rather than “killed” would be more accurate but i only steal them not write them
        Aside I think TB is the biggest disease killer in history

          1. My grandmother lost her 7 year old son to TB. My mother and aunt lost their brother and my grandfather never spoke of him. My grandmother never got over it.

          2. My Uncle Robbie, after evacuation from Dunkirk, was found to be consumptive and died before the war ended.

          3. My grandfather and his sister and two of his brothers all died of TB. As did many of his uncles and aunts.

    2. Neil Oliver puts it well concerning the Delian League, 417 BC pitted against the Persian Empire.

        1. I have always regarded Harari as more like Cassandra.
          He’s giving us warnings that nobody heeds.
          His books that I’ve read are very good.

      2. Wormtongue – boke on the left – was an agent of the enemy, the Necromancer ( a symbol of oppression and evil). He used magic to control Theoden (on the right) to keep him sick and pliant, signinng documents that banished freedoms and generally being an arse.

        The reference is I assume to the current WEF/EU globalist agenda (Saruman/Sauron) to poison the public through government (Wormtongue) to control the free people (Theoden).

  37. Blasphemy demos ‘are growing in radicalism’
    Rising threat to those accused of insulting Islam

    Britain faces an alarming rise in intimidation and threats of violence against those perceived to have insulted Islam, a new report will warn.

    Protests condemning acts of apparent blasphemy have become more frequent and radicalised, according to independent research commissioned by the government’s counterextremism chief.

    The report, seen by The Times, exposes links between activists at the forefront of recent protests in the UK and an extremist Islamist political party in Pakistan whose members have regularly called for blasphemers to be beheaded.

    It concluded that a new generation of activists is trying to make blasphemy “a key area of concern for British Muslims”.

    It comes as Michael Gove, the communities secretary, prepares to set out a new official definition of extremism expected to cover those whose actions “undermine” the country’s institutions or values.

    Last month Rishi Sunak denied that the Conservatives had a problem with Islamophobia after Lee Anderson, the former deputy Tory chairman, was accused of stoking anti-Muslim hate.

    Robin Simcox, the government’s counterextremism tsar, commissioned the research after three blasphemy flashpoints in the UK: the 2021 protests against a teacher in Batley, West Yorkshire, who received death threats and is still in hiding after showing pupils a cartoon of the prophet Mohammed; Birmingham protests the following year over the screening of the film The Lady in Heaven, which depicted Mohammed’s daughter; and last year’s controversy in Wakefield, also in West Yorkshire, after a copy of the Quran was slightly damaged at a high school.

    Protesters spoke to journalists outside Batley Grammar School, in West Yorkshire, after a teacher who showed a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed to pupils was suspended. He remains in hiding

    DANNY LAWSON/PA
    The report concluded that each incident was linked to “a new generation of UK-based anti-blasphemy activists who are working to make blasphemy a key issue of concern for British Muslims”. They have targeted the Ahmadi Muslim sect, whose beliefs are viewed by activists as blasphemous, and non-Muslims who are seen to have insulted Islam, usually by disrespecting either Mohammed or the Quran.

    It described as “most alarming” the emergence of a UK wing of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a political party that was temporarily banned there because of violent rallies and its support for mob executions of perceived blasphemers. British mosques have hosted speakers who are supportive of TLP and each of the protests in Batley, Wakefield and Birmingham involved activists with links.

    The report warned that such rhetoric “has the potential to radicalise their audience around the issue of blasphemy” and that this in turn “may increase the likelihood of sectarian violence and terrorism in the UK”.

    The report stresses that most UK-based blasphemy activists have rejected violence and condemn terrorist acts such as the 2015 shooting attack in Paris on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine, in which 17 people died.

    However, it says many are calling for stricter laws in the UK against blasphemy and seek to criminalise insults against Islam, which they present as part of a wider war on the faith by so-called enemies of Islam in the West.

    It concludes: “The activism does therefore have the potential to contribute to an increase in communal tension and spread of a conspiratorial view of non-Muslim societies as engaged in a deliberate and co-ordinated war on Islam.” There have been two blasphemy-related murders in the UK in the past decade.

    In 2022, cinemas pulled a film chronicling the life of the Prophet Muhammad’s daughter after protesters branded it blasphemous

    The report, which will be published on Monday, was produced by Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, a researcher in terrorism and radicalisation. It concludes that anti-blasphemy activism and extremism remains a relatively small issue in the UK but calls on the government to act preemptively to reduce the potential of future violence or tension.

    Recommendations include the consideration of proscription of groups associated with anti-blasphemy extremism, such as the TLP, and a ban on their non-British members and supporters entering the country. The report says the government should consider adopting anti-blasphemy extremism as a category for referrals to its Prevent counterextremism programme.

    Anti-blasphemy activists should be allowed to protest in a responsible way but the naming and shaming of alleged blasphemers like the Batley teacher should be discouraged, it says. The government should also review the charitable status of bodies and organisations linked to anti-blasphemy extremism, it says.

    Simcox, head of the Commission for Countering Extremism, said that “those seeking to impose any kind of blasphemy law in the UK cannot be allowed to succeed”. He said charitable bodies hosting speakers involved in anti-blasphemy activism were making the fight against extremism more difficult, adding that it was right that the government sought to prevent those with extremist ideologies from entering the country.

    Meleagrou-Hitchens uncovered a UK wing of the TLP that has reportedly organised at least three street protests: in 2021 to protest the French government’s support for cartoonists who depicted Mohammed; that same year to object to the Pakistan government’s ban on the TLP; and in January 2023 after an anti-Islam activist in Sweden burned a Quran.

    At the most recent protest, speakers praised Khadim Rizvi, the late founder of TLP who had a long record of calling for and supporting vigilante violence and murder against accused blasphemers. One said that “when it comes to the honour of the Quran we will … sacrifice our lives and also the lives of the enemies”.

    Activists and supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan burnt the Swedish flag during a demonstration in Karachi on July 7, 2023

    It is unclear, the report says, whether TLP UK is officially recognised by the party’s leadership in Pakistan. While its social media output is aimed at British Muslims, it produces original media glorifying prominent TLP members including Rizvi, as well as Mumtaz Qadri, who was hanged in Pakistan in 2016 for killing a politician over his opposition to blasphemy laws.

    The group appears to have been the main organiser behind events in Birmingham, Manchester and Stockton to commemorate Rivzi’s death, the report says.

    A protest was held in Birmingham last year by the UK offshoot of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, an Islamist party in Pakistan

    Meleagrou-Hitchens has also linked supporters of TLP to each of the three blasphemy flashpoints in Britain in recent years in Batley, Wakefield and Birmingham, the last over a film that depicted the prophet’s daughter.

    Adil Shahzad, an imam from Bradford, was involved in protests against the Batley Grammar School teacher who received death threats and is still in hiding after showing pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad in 2021. According to Meleagrou-Hitchens’ report, Shahzad addressed at least two TLP UK events commemorating Rizvi in November 2022, praising him and describing him as a “fearless knight” who “did not back away from any issue”.

    According to the report, he called on the audience to follow TLP campaigns in Pakistan and “just as they speak out there [Pakistan] … it is our responsibility and duty to also speak out against the fitnas [threats to, or tests of, Islam] that are affecting our children and our youngsters in this country as well”. At the time of the Batley protests he urged Muslims to respond in a “democratic way” and to avoid inciting hate.

    Last year, when there was an incident at a high school in Wakefield over damage done to a Quran, the local Jamia Swafia mosque held a meeting in which one of the boys was criticised and told that “the slightest bit of disrespect [against Islam and the Quran] is not accepted”.

    Hafiz Saad Hussain Rizvi, centre, is a son of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik founder, Khadim Hussain Rizvi

    The report reveals that an imam at the mosque, Hafiz Abdul Qadir Naushahi, who attended the meeting, has a record of support for TLP and spoke at an event honouring Rizvi in Manchester in 2022. In June that year, the report says, the mosque hosted a popular Islamic poetry reciter and TLP supporter from Pakistan named Owais Qadri. The topic is unclear but his “close associations with TLP and his promotion at the mosque pose a risk of introducing TLP to more British audiences or normalising the group’s extreme positions in Pakistan, even if he visited as a poet”, it said.

    The mosque has also hosted the Pakistani anti-blasphemy activist Hassan Haseeb ur Rehman, who has a record of praising and supporting Mumtaz Qadri.

    The appearances of TLP supporters at the mosque “are a cause for concern due to the possibility that the mosque’s endorsement of such figures increases the likelihood of anti-blasphemy extremism being introduced to its audiences”, the report said.

    It also raises concerns about the Muslim Action Forum (MAF), which first emerged in 2015 when it organised a large protest outside of Downing Street to express anger over plans by Charlie Hebdo to republish its 2012 cartoons of Mohammed. The MAF, which has since been dissolved on Companies House, also helped organise anti-blasphemy activism about Batley and The Lady of Heaven.

    A demonstration organised by the Muslim Action Forum Muslim and held near Downing Street on February 8, 2015, denouncing depictions of the Prophet Muhammad in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo

    The report says it has been “clear in its condemnation of violence”. However, the MAF wrote an open letter in 2021 naming the Batley teacher which “suggests a serious and concerning lack of judgment and consideration of the consequences of their activism”.

    Shaikh Tauqir Ishaq, a former member of the MAF who is an imam in the Midlands, said: “Depicting caricatures of our beloved Prophet (peace be upon him) is well known to be extremely offensive and if that has not registered yet as Islamophobia then this shows a deliberate attempt and intent to incite hatred.”

    He said the government appeared to be in denial about Islamophobia as demonstrated by its “slow and poor response” to Anderson’s comments that Islamists had “got control” of the London mayor Sadiq Khan. He added: “This whole report by the CCE appears an attempt to silence Muslims, their organisations and their demonstrations with a message: ‘Can you please be silent whilst we oppress you?’”

    Ishaq said he signed an MAF open letter on Batley that did not include the name of the teacher.

    The Times reached out to Shadzad and the Jamia Masjid Swafia in Wakefield. Neither responded to requests for comment.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/blasphemy-demos-are-growing-in-radicalism-rw7wdtpn2

    1. It comes as Michael Gove, the communities secretary, prepares to set out a new official definition of extremism expected to cover those whose actions “undermine” the country’s institutions or values.

      I don’t think the Government needs to try and define what extremism is. From the above sentence it seems to me that bringing back the Sedition Act is all that is necessary,

      Assault against the Monarchy is already covered in the existing Treason Act.

      1. Don’t give it ideas.

        It wants a loose definition so as many muslim can complain as possible. When it’s the fictional ‘far right’ they want a nice undefined concept so they can blather it with anything.

        1. Surely sedition fits the bill because most people don’t know what it really is or even if the Act is still in force.

          What’s more you can even seek advice in this forum about what Bill”s meaning of it is.

    2. Muslims should be insulted at every opportunity. This is Britain, not some foreign toilet. We insult one another because we’re friends. We’re only polite to our enemies.

    3. Islamists Followers of Islam are more than happy to disrespect everything about this country and its culture, memorials and laws. Yet they want demand respect for theirs.

      Bog off.

    4. Simcox, head of the Commission for Countering Extremism, said that “those seeking to impose any kind of blasphemy law in the UK cannot be allowed to succeed”. He said charitable bodies hosting speakers involved in anti-blasphemy activism were making the fight against extremism more difficult, adding that it was right that the government sought to prevent those with extremist ideologies from entering the country.

      There is already an invisible “blasphemy” law in U.K. Any comment critical of the unspeakables is pounced on by, sometimes, those who take offence on others’ behalf but mostly by Ropers themselves. As witnessed by nearly all the demos that have been taking place recently.

      All Charities hosting speakers involved in anti-blasphemy activism should have all government (you and me) funding stopped immediately, no appeal allowed.

    1. Morning T_B – overcast and cold here too, but I’m out for lunch with an old friend today.

    2. Misty here, it reminds me of a lovely old song.
      4 year old grandson making sponge cakes with his Nany in our kitchen.
      Better then toy cars and leggo.

  40. Lee Anderson has joined the Reform party.

    Hopefully, this is the beginning of the end of the useless, fake ‘Conservative’ party

    1. 384575+ up ticks,
      Morning MT,

      Or the start, the beginning, of the tory (ino) party MK2.

  44. Charles Spencer’s headmaster was a paedophilic villain – I remember him

    A Very Private School relates the 9th Earl Spencer’s time at Maidwell Hall, the horrors of life there, and the dark figure of Mr Porch

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/review-very-private-school-charles-spencer-earl/

    I loved my boarding school , it opened so many doors that my philistine parents ignored .

    My 1st younger sister loved her school , she was based near Limpsfield , school is now closed , she benefitted hugely

    My son no 1 attended prep school near Godstone .. and then when public school fees shot through the roof , he and younger so attended a local comprehensive near Wimborne , it ruined them both .

    All the previous benefits that a good school offered , sport , independence , individual tuition , languages , music , science were dashed by indifferent bewhiskered bearded horrors , teachers in the state system , and huge classes , and rowdy leftist behaviours .. Sons are 55yrs and 50 yrs now.

    My much younger twin sister and brother attended excellent schools in South Africa, and the younger sister became head girl , of which we are reminded of from time to time .

      1. Cut and pasted for you Bill.

        Charles Spencer’s headmaster was a paedophilic villain – I remember him

        A Very Private School relates the 9th Earl Spencer’s time at Maidwell Hall, the horrors of life there, and the dark figure of Mr Porch

        Boris Starling
        10 March 2024 • 6:51pm

        Charles Spencer’s A Very Private School begins with a dedication, “For Buzz”, and a quote from Hilary Mantel: “I am writing in order to take charge of my childhood.” It is not until the end of this searing, heartbreaking book that the full import of both these statements becomes clear.

        The school in question is Maidwell Hall, a turreted Northamptonshire prep school “without love” and with an “inner heart that contained something sinister in the lining of its critical valves… a beautiful place under a dark power”. The English boarding-school system occupies a wide place in the national psyche, and Spencer’s take on Maidwell is much closer to Flashman than Hogwarts, as evidenced by some of the chapter titles – ‘Willing Henchmen’, ‘Blood on the Floor’, ‘Facing the Past’.

        I arrived at Maidwell just after Spencer (today the 9th Earl, and younger brother of the late Diana) left, in 1977. The school I remember was an altogether more temperate and kindly place than his, for one main reason: I had only one year with Alec Porch, a headmaster of terrifying malevolence, base paedophilic tendencies, craven snobbery, and a mania for secrecy and control (hence the title of Spencer’s book).

        Quoting Solzhenitsyn – “unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty” –
        Spencer portrays Porch, who died in 2022, as charming to parents and vile to pupils, a monstrous Janus who acted “as prince, parliament and police chief” in his kingdom. “He didn’t like boys,” Spencer adds, “but he did enjoy hurting them” with one of two canes, the Flick and the Swish. The accounts of how Porch would alternately beat and fondle a cursed chosen few pupils are at times almost unbearable to read, as are the passages about another master who would take photos of naked boys, and the heavily-trailed accounts of Spencer’s abuse at the hands of a young assistant matron.

        This book, however, is about much more than simply the headline passages. Even allowing for the retrospective wisdom of age, Spencer is acutely observant of the myriad power imbalances at play within this imperial throwback – “the last of the Victorians”, as a friend says – the teachers who meant well but refused to call out the abuse, the bullying prefects who curried favour by finding miscreants for Porch to beat, and the matrons who guarded their turf with attack-dog intensity.

        Maidwell Hall, in Northamptonshire, pictured today

        There has been a steady stream of non-fiction books about boarding schools in recent years, and in those terms there’s little that will surprise here. But two things mark Spencer out from the crowd. First, he is by title and birth the ultimate establishment man, but he’s still prepared to take on the shibboleths of his class and upbringing. Second, his turn of phrase is often delightful: his father’s butler Mr Betts “liked to walk quickly, his nose in the air, face clenched, his eyes fixed ahead, as if engaged in a never-ending egg and spoon race”; “underdone vegetables that sighed in defeat on the plate”; and a matron’s hand “cocked on her hip like the hammer of a duelling pistol”.

        As ever in this genre, the shattering impact is not merely what happened to a child seen and heard by adults in only the most superficial ways, feeling that he had been sent away “because I had somehow fallen short as a son” and not wanting to make it worse “by being difficult or questioning”. It is also the effect which this abuse continues to have even on outwardly successful men for the rest of their lives. “To survive the trauma,” he says, “a small but important part of us had to die.”

        Spencer acknowledges the insulating effect of privilege and money, but is at pains to emphasise the indiscriminatory nature of this kind of damage. Indeed, it is only when his second marriage breaks down and he realises that he has “next to no understanding of intimacy” that he seeks therapeutic help, which in turn leads him to confront the deep trauma of his childhood years.

        Maidwell is not the only culprit for Spencer’s unhappiness. He writes movingly of his anguish at his parents’ divorce, speaks of how his mother had a beloved dog put down without telling him or his three elder sisters because of a ‘skewed but sincere’ desire to spare them grief, and of being a little boy lost and ignored in the vastness of his family’s Althorp estate.

        Charles Spencer is the 9th Earl, and brother of the late Diana

        This is also the scene for one of the book’s few flashes of humour, when he recounts how Phyllis the cook would stage a massive row with Spencer’s father every mid-December and resign in a huff so as not to have to cook over Christmas before reappearing early in the New Year as though nothing had happened.

        Those years are a half century ago now, and Spencer emphasises that this is a historical document, “a record of a time when things were quite different”, rather than a treatise on education today, with all its emphases on safeguarding and pastoral care rather than the “unregulated amateurs with unknown tendencies” of yesteryear.

        It is only on the penultimate page that we find out who “Buzz” is – Spencer himself at six or seven, pre-Maidwell, so nicknamed by his mother because he had the “happy effervescence of a bee”. And it is not until the final line that, echoing Mantel, he says “I feel I have reclaimed my childhood” – a painstaking and traumatic process, but one for which any reader must surely give a cheer.

        A Very Private School is published by William Collins at £25. To order your copy for £19.99, call 0844 871 1514 or visit Telegraph Books

        1. I imagine the mods will remove your post shortly since they are worried about infringing Telegraph copyright.

        2. The past is another country. Somewhere out there lives a retired Assistant Matron who will now be mercilessly hunted down by Spencer’s fellow reptiles in the MSM. And if the lady should sadly have died already, there may well be grown up children and grandchildren on the scene.

        3. Odd coincidence. Alec Porch was my neighbour for the best part of 40 years. I recall him telling me that he coached Spencer in the holidays for Common Entrance (“a very dim boy”).

          I suspect that Spencer waited until Porch died (two years ago) before publishing his book. Libel and all that….

          1. Yes , Bill, a sob story , a mixed up individual who has an axe to grind .

            What does he hope to achieve .. a bit of a problem isn’t he , just like his late sister .

    1. One has to wonder if somehow pressure is being applied to the government such that the HO is having to spend large sums of cash on protecting moslems? I cannot remember seeing such government largesse being thrown at the Hindu, Sikh etc. communities. Perhaps I’ve missed something?

      1. The Hindus, Sikhs etc. didn’t go around beheading and blowing up people. Just a little clue.

        Also, the idea of the Illuminati etc. is to cause chaos and out of that chaos, gain total control. What they forget is that roper have ideas of their own, and they fight dirty too.

    2. What about the Jews who are really threatened by the Muslims. How much are they going to get?

    3. What gets me is “WE ARE COMMITTING…” it’s our sodding money and we aren’t getting any protection.

    1. Did the slammerful Home Office do the same at the start of Lent?

      Just asking…………

    2. I see that they have put up lights as if it was Christmas, in London. I find that deeply offensive. I would now demand if I were a Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, a member of any and all the major religions, equal treatment. I bet that would get nowhere fast because they don’t expect to be appeased. You have to blow people up first.

  47. 384575+ up ticks,
    I do view this as, “if you are suffering from two crabs abiting ones nutsack, you get rid of one”

    brexit = reform = tory (ino) party, the name change again, to protect the guilty,again.

    The ex brexit party founder member / leader old rally cry was ” I want my country back” I found it difficult to define just what country he was on about.

    Lee Anderson expected to defect from Conservatives to Reform UK

    In reality the 650 MUST be erased from the voting papers, and ALL polling stations & personnel high pressure steam cleaned.

    Politico’s lead you on and pull the ground from underneath your feet
    No use complainin’, don’t you worry, don’t you whine,
    cause if you get it wrong again,again,& again you’ll get it right next time, or as a nation we are going down a bottomless drain.

    If you have the capacity to do so, think before casting a vote.

  48. Anderson joins reform a party led by Tice who is a clotshot fanatic and all in favour of the Ukeland war
    Forgive my lack of enthusiasm………..

    1. Lib/Lab/Con/Ref = all the sodding same. Looks like the Monster Raving Loony Party for me.

      2. I know a Jewish remainer self-confessed globalist who votes Monster Raving Loony. It seems that none of us feel adequately represented.

        2. If he’s a globalist and is voting Monster Raving Loony that sounds as if he’s in his natural home.

  49. Delighted to learn that Anderson has defected to Reform. He would have lost his seat at the election had he remained within Tory ranks but now has a fighting chance of keeping it. Others to follow his lead, hopefully.

        1. Irrelevant. It doesn’t look good. He should have declared himself an Independent.

  50. If Anderson could persuade Bridgen to join him things could well improve.
    If they must keep Tice in a senior position make him chairman. They need a leader who is charismatic.

      1. It really shows how far left the Tories have moved, let alone Labour, when traditional Labour strongholds would consider voting for what today is considered a right wing party.

  51. Reading a Daily Sceptics article re returning Arctic ice, polar bears etc. I came upon this BTL comment, which in turn led to the Newsweek article.

    At a time when farmers, along with meat and dairy eaters are being scapegoated for adversely affecting the climate the Newsweek article appearing recently seems somewhat coincidental. With what has passed these last four years I’m completely out of coincidences.

    Dinger64
    2 hours ago
    And let’s not forget that humans were vastly vegetarian!
    All those thousands of flint arrow heads, fish barbs and knives were all used to hunt apples and wild tomatoes!

    Newsweek – Diets Were Almost Exclusively Vegetarian in First European Cities

    1. It is not widely known, but during the Paleolithic Era apples and wild tomatoes used to fight back and needed to be hunted. Modern vegetables have become, erm, couch-potatoes compared to their prehistoric forbears.

          1. There is only one thing worse than finding a worm in your apple; finding half a worm!

    2. I looked up the physical differences. Natural herbivores have four stomachs and 120 feet of intestine. We have one stomach and approx 25 feet of intestine. Relative to their size, cats have the shortest intestines, because meat is easier to digest than vegetation and cats should only be eating meat.

      1. My Labrador tells me that meat is wasted on cats and that it is her sacred canine duty to chase them.

          1. Quite right. What is more, on one occasion a cat she tried to chase was having none of it and hissed at her. She slunk away, her canine pride upset by this most unexpected and unsportsmanlike behaviour on the part of the cat.

        1. That reminds me of one of my favourite jokes (though it doesn’t work as well in print as it does verbally):
          Q: Why do cats eat cheese?
          A: So they can wait outside mouseholes with baited breath.

    3. An article in the Canadian version of the BBC is warning about the need to avoid polar bears at this time of year. Their expert claims that the best thing to do to avoid them is to stay away from them!
      Apparently the population of this threatened species is quite robust and that can cause the bears problems when looking for food.

      2. Isn’t it an established fact that polar bears have been totally wiped out by global warming?

    4. If humans were largely vegetarians, why do we have canine teeth for tearing meat and virtually no caecum and only a vestigial appendix for digesting vegetable fibre?

      2. Conway, surely you know better than to ask pertinent questions of The Science?🙄

    1. I believe the prehistoric apples were distant relatives of his, along with various other vegetables. The eyes are the same, are they not?

  53. Labour: Tory Party is ‘too extreme to be led’

    Pat McFadden, Labour’s campaign coordinator, has reacted to Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform.

    “While the Conservatives are falling apart, Labour is focussed on turning the page on 14 year of Tory failure,” Mr McFadden said. “What does it say about Rishi Sunak’s judgement that he promoted Lee Anderson in the first place? The truth is that the Prime Minister is too weak to lead a party too extreme to be led, and if the Tories got another five years it would all just get worse.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/11/rishi-sunak-latest-news-tom-tugendhat-defence-spending/

    McFadden is correct about Sunak but his interpretation of ‘extreme’ says a great deal about Labour’s mentality and its unwillingness to talk about the extremism stalking our streets.

    It’s just more noise and it’s getting tiresome.

    1. I can’t help thinking that 5 years of Labour might just destroy the old two party system and a rebuild from the ashes would be a blessed relief.

        1. Both.
          The way things are heading I fear things are going to turn violent.
          The two parties have sown the wind with their divisive policies and the upshot will be a whirlwind as non-indigenous sectional interests vie for control to further their own groups.

          1. If Bill saw Ashes in her singlet swimsuit he would have a heart attack. I was shocked myself. Body of a 30 year old. Must be all that Tangoing.

      3. …if it hasn’t irrevocably destroyed us first. This country is very close to the edge of no return.

    2. “Extreme”: the Lab-Con-Lib uni party at work, basically. All will be using the “extremism” word more liberally in the coming weeks. They all will seek to portray Anderson as extremist.

      Apart from adding the slur of racism in describing him we’ll find the term Islamophobia being bandied around a lot more soon, too. Watch this space is the overall message. Sunak has announced that they are going to define the term extremism; for which replace the word define with “redefine”. The uni party all want a piece of that action, in order to take control of the language. Broadly speaking extremism as redefined will I guess mean anyone failing to accept or to openly criticise the importation of many immigrants.

      The uni party is doing more as a recruiting sergeant for sensible opposition than ever the Reform Party could do off its own bat. People are increasingly beginning to discern what the noise is, I believe.

      1. Calling more and more things “extreme” is simply an attempt at trying to nullify the real and dangerious extremism of certain Slammers, and their underpinnng belief system.

        Edit – extending the adjective “extreme” simply makes those who really are extreme less obvious in their descriptions, and therefore more commonplace.

    3. And what are the Liebour party doing about antisemitism in their party.
      Still promoting it?

  54. Labour: Tory Party is ‘too extreme to be led’

    Pat McFadden, Labour’s campaign coordinator, has reacted to Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform.

    “While the Conservatives are falling apart, Labour is focussed on turning the page on 14 year of Tory failure,” Mr McFadden said. “What does it say about Rishi Sunak’s judgement that he promoted Lee Anderson in the first place? The truth is that the Prime Minister is too weak to lead a party too extreme to be led, and if the Tories got another five years it would all just get worse.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/11/rishi-sunak-latest-news-tom-tugendhat-defence-spending/

    McFadden is correct about Sunak but his interpretation of ‘extreme’ says a great deal about Labour’s mentality and its unwillingness to talk about the extremism stalking our streets.

    It’s just more noise and it’s getting tiresome.

  55. Why won’t Kensington Palace release Kate’s original picture?

    Is it because there isn’t an original pic?

    1. Who cares? The whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Even if she’s on her deathbed it makes no difference, they should just ignore all demands now.

      1. I think a lot of people care. Media comments are full to bursting with worries about Kate and what’s happened to her.

          1. Pointless to go down this road I see. Pithy comments are rarely more than they seem.

  56. Have you tried them with Marmite? Whether or not it’s good for them, some cats really like it.

  57. Care or have a prurient interest or are they being fed bread and circus by the MSM?
    It’s distraction from the God-awful state of things in the world. Just look at what is no longer on the front pages having been bumped off by flimflam.

        1. In which case, can we believe that Charles has cancer? Could he have disappeared for another reason?

          2. He hasn’t been seen for ages because, according to the story, he’s having chemo and he’s got to avoid infection. Now Camilla has disappeared too. Allegedly on vacation.

    3. Yes, but the flimflam sells the papers..

      Let’s just leave the Royals alone, to recover quietly and get back to royal duties as and when they are ready. I am so tired of trying to avoid all this gossip, along with the California duo as well!!

  58. What is going on? What are they hiding? The BBC and MSM have devoted hundreds of hours to the topic of a family photo which may or may not have been digitally enhanced. It matters not . . . it is just a photo of a mother and her children.

    It wouldn’t surprise me to find that the Russian army is half way across Ukraine and have taken over Sweden in response to its incorporation into NATO.

    They are hiding something!

    1. I think you exaggerate. There have been a few articles in the newspapers. The photo was digitally altered it’s not a question of maybe it was or maybe it wasn’t. And it isn’t just a photo of a mother and her children but of the future Queen (consort) and the heirs to the throne.
      She has mysteriously disappeared and now this ridiculous photo has been published by some incompetents who didn’t realise that their subterfuge would be immediately exposed.
      A message has been published purportedly by the Princess herself stating she had altered the photo. If that is the case she has only to publish the original. Or publish a video of the family together. Or hold an impromptu press conference.
      Something has happened to her. And an honest explanation is due.

      1. You obviously don’t listen to the BBC. It has been discussed continuously on Radio 4 for more than thirty minutes – on just one programme.

        2. No I don’t.
          But I did listen to GB News and they talked about it. But 30 minutes is hardly an obsession.
          This is very serious, it’s an obvious case of the administration trying to cover something up. Falsifying evidence, telling outrageous lies.
          We suspect that we are constantly fed stories and that our opinions are manipulated. But this is prima facie evidence of a conspiracy and it should be treated seriously.

          1. I’ve just listened to BBC Radio 4 news and it was reported that Kate admitted to dabbling with amateur photo manipulation.

            I am now listening to the Archers to hear if the issue is serious enough to be mentioned in Ambridge.

        1. ‘It’s no big deal at all’
          What do you mean by that and what would constitute a ‘big deal’ for you?

      3. She will be the Queen rather than the Queen Consort, I think, on the lines of King George VI and Queen Elisabeth. Camilla was supposed to be the Queen Consort but strangely the appendage “Consort” seems to have been dropped.

        1. I meant that she wouldn’t be monarch in own right, but the consort of the reigning head of state. Camilla did really get in through the back door little by little.

    2. That would be ironic, given that the Swedish Vikings founded Russia in the first place.

  60. The government are providing money for protecting mosques I believe. This sends my blood pressure through the ceiling!
    Then they should be providing money to protect all religions.
    The irony of it is; at the moment Christian’s are the most persecuted religion in the world but no one gives a stuff about them, especially not the Archbishop of Canterbury and we are supposed to be a Christian country.
    It just shows how powerful the muslim lobby groups are and how desperate both labour and the tories are to give them everything they want before a general election.
    I believe labour plans to bring back the equivalent of blasphemy laws to placate isles under the guise of hate prevention and equality.
    We will have Islamophobia shoved down our throats in increasingly large chunks as we head towards what is laughingly called an election.

    1. I’m already miserably fed up with this stupid country. If the state could make the wrong decision it will. No doubt next we’ll all be told to find a loo and a snack bar.

      Just get rid of them – all of them.

    2. Afternoon Mrs Croc. This simply illustrates the depths to which the Muslims have penetrated the Civil Service. They are now able to coopt taxpayers cash for their own purposes. They are actually the real rulers of the UK!

    3. My question is why do they need protection. Who is burning down and attacking mosques, precisely?

      Obviously synagogues need protection, since Islamic extremists will go after them. But are the Israelis on the streets after Islamists too? I can see why they’ve put millions into protecting synagogues, but they’re promising more than double that for mosques.

      Perhaps mosques need protection from other immigrants? Hardly likely. The far right? Hardly either, since it’s vanishingly small in the UK and in any case we won’t tolerate them. Nope, I think they mean protection from you. In other words the public. Or put another way, the majority. Just in case you flip your lid and things get out of hand. None of the Lib Lab Con coalition wants an end to immigration, in fact they want more and if measures have to be put in place to enforce that, then measures will be taken is the way I see it.

      1. It’s the far-right, James. They’re burning down a dozen mosques a week. It’s in all the papers. The peace loving ropers are in fear of their lives.

        1. Indeed they are Squire. In my village they’re marching up and down the road in their bovver boots, shouting and brandishing their knuckle dusters all the time. I go out and tell them straight, “oi you lot, don’t you know skinhead cuts went out with the ark?”

          Give me peace, or what.

          1. In my neck of the woods they’re all wearing Brownshirt uniforms and parading round with swastika flags. There’s hardly a Roper to be seen here in Snowdonia. (Though in the interests of full disclosure I have to confess that there was only Mohammed Abdul and his family from the Light of India to start off with😂)

          2. I expect they replied that it’s not a ‘skinhead cut’ but a ‘skin-fade’. Apparently there is a difference. Fashion eh?

          3. Oo-er, no wonder one said, “anymore talk like that and I’ll kick your head in.” I think I must have mistaken what was obviously the fashion police for actual far right thugs!

        2. Let’s not forget the far left BBC’s mantra every time there was an atrocity perpetrated by the Islamic mob.
          “Muslims fear backlash”

        3. Fraser Nelson has just penned an article on the Spectator site about the potential Emirati sale.

          Titled: Is an Emirati minority stake in the Telegraph compatible with a free press?

          I’ve posted a comment below the article that implores him to rethink the disastrous new Spectator commenting systems.
          If you still retain access to the Spectator I’d ask you to add your thoughts onto this article.
          If enough comments get posted, maybe we can demonstrate to the Speccy high command what a stupid and counter-productive move this has been.

          2. Wow

            Quite a few like-minded posters pointing out how foolish and shortsighted the changes have been and, hey presto, the article has been ‘disappeared’

            Maybe we need to start commenting on every Fraser article until he takes note!

            As an editor of a magazine I don’t think he realised that half the enjoyment of the offering was provided by an unpaid writing staff! You’d have to be mad to wilfully disenfranchise them in the manner that he has, yet that is what he has done and he seems unwilling to let readers have their say

          3. I think he’ll change his mind, at least as far as notifications are concerned which is the main problem.

      3. It’s wasteful spending just so they can curry pathetic favour with Islamists by how much money they are spending on them, whilst simultaneously giving their victimhood complex excuses, and excuses not to behave themselves. It’s beyond abject.

        1. Fraser Nelson has just penned an article on the Spectator site about the potential Emirati sale.

          Titled: Is an Emirati minority stake in the Telegraph compatible with a free press?

          I’ve posted a comment below the article that implores him to rethink the disastrous new Spectator commenting systems.

          If you still retain access to the Spectator I’d ask you to add your thoughts onto this article.

          Maybe if enough comments get posted, we can demonstrate to the Speccy high command what a stupid and counter-productive move this has been.

          3. Don’t do that. Just be patient (my main takeaway from Catcher in the Rye).

            Anyway, we enjoy your jokes. You have a duty to stay with us, dear Sir J.

          7. Fraser Nelson has just penned an article on the Spectator site about the potential Emirati sale.

            Titled: Is an Emirati minority stake in the Telegraph compatible with a free press?

            I’ve posted a comment below the article that implores him to rethink the disastrous new Spectator commenting systems.

            If you still retain access to the Spectator site I’d ask you to add your thoughts onto this article.

            If enough comments get posted, maybe we can demonstrate to the Speccy high command what a stupid and counter-productive move this has been.

          8. ts worth tying.
            I have tried

            *If you forward this e-mail, please delete all previous e-mail addresses.If you forward to more than one person, please use “BCC” in the “Copy to” box.* Regards
            Tom Hunn, Flat 11, Dowding House, Old Well Road, Moffat, Dumfries DG10 9AW. Tel: *+44 775 768 2036*

    5. Muslims are well-used to playing the victim card, despite most of the violence coming from, not directed at, them.

    6. To quote the great Trudeau when about a dozen churches were burnt down a couple of years ago It is quite understandable. The count of destroyed churches is up over a hundred now. Threaten to take a bacon butty into a mosque however and the thought police will be knocking your door down.

      It must be the votes

      1. The intersectional power structure fantasy is intended to cede perpetual victimhood to the Devil. Moslems have a right to attack Christians because, well, the Crusades. The fact that the Moslems both started and won those wars is neither here nor there. Those pesky Christians had no business fighting back.

    7. God help us if they manage to get a blasphemy law for islam. They’ve been pushing for it since the 1990s. It was a bad idea then and it’s an even worse one now. Given the attacks on churches (when I was in Strasbourg armed soldiers were guarding the doors of the church while Mass was taking place) it’s churches and Christianity that need protection. None of this would be necessary if we didn’t have a preponderance of aliens hell bent on destroying us and our way of life.

  61. There once was a leader called Rishi,
    Whose vote share was looking quite titchy.
    Now Anderson’s gone
    (Since hope there was none)
    The Tories are doomed – what a pity!

    Not.

  64. Monday lunchtime fun. Writing letters of condolence to two friends, one on the death of her husband from cancer (58) and the other on the death of her mum. My best friend from school will be a year dead next week.

        1. Sometimes it is a blessed relief. Watching and waiting for a loved one to die while they are in constant pain is a dreadful experience.

  65. Macron must be bluffing – or trying to start a new world war. Hamish de Crettin –Moron. 11 March 2024.

    The question must be whether Macron’s approach will make this more or less likely. It is my view that if Putin prevails in Ukraine, war with Nato will follow rapidly. We must therefore ensure he does not. Macron’s idea of looking at Nato boots on the ground is therefore the right one. If we’re unwilling to consider this, we’re handing critical initiative to Moscow.

    This is the usual Unhinged Babble from Hamish McLooney. The Russians are cowardly curs who will back down if we confront them but will attack NATO as soon as they have taken care of the Ukies. Really? Russia is not going to attack NATO. Even if Vlad had the intention; which I do not believe that he does, he and Russia lack the means. This said I don’t put it past the West to provoke such an engagement. The destruction of the Baltic Pipelines by the US shows us what they are capable of. I think that we have to face unpalatable facts at the moment. The Western Political Elites have gone Rogue. They have enslaved themselves to a Political Doctrine that like Nazi Germany can only lead to destruction. Their hatred of their own people and history is simply one aspect of this!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/11/emmanuel-macron-russia-nuclear-war/

    1. It beats me as to why these cretins wish to provoke WW3. We have next to no Forces with which tin”fight” Russia. NATO in the form of USA May have and may be willing to out boots on the ground but that’s debatable. What are these idiots on? They’re demented.

    3. The departure of Toria Nuland signalled the unease within the neo-con factions over continued backing for Ukraine.

      That ghastly woman was clearly passed over for the Deputy Secretary of State position and in all probability sacked after she attempted to enlist Germans in her attacks on Russia and predictions of harms to Putin.

      The US has squandered billions of dollars on Nuland’s war in Ukraine and far from degrading Russian forces the reverse has occurred. Ukrainian forces are degraded both in military hardware and in manpower.

      US attention is now turned on China and Taiwan. As many of us predicted Ukraine will have served as the US proxy only to be deserted and left now to the hapless Europeans and our own stupid UK chancers for funding.

    1. What is this tremendous contribution? Welfare officers to handle the case load?

      Healthcare for their birth rate?

      Builders for the council housing they consume?

      Capita salaries for the contracts to put them up in hotels?

      What is this value?

    2. I thought Mubarak was an Egyptian politician and Google Translate translates mubarak in Arabic as mubarak in English.

      1. The usual meaning of مبارك (mubarak) is ‘blessed’, and I guess that a more colloquial usage (with the same literal meaning) has developed equivalent to ‘congratulations’. So President Mubarak could be regarded as ‘President Blessed’.

    3. 384575+ up ticks,

      O2O
      The lab ex pm that crawled from the park public toilet after a hard days cottaging, should be aware his title as the “creep from the crapper” is in jeopardy.

    4. How many Muslims in the UK claim benefits?
      Muslims claiming benefits and housing

      The post also claims that 78% of Muslim women and 63% of Muslim men “don’t work and are on FREE benefits/housing”. 2021 Census data found that people in England and Wales who identified as “Muslim” had the lowest percentage of people aged 16 to 64 years in employment, at 51.4%.

      https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religionbyhousinghealthemploymentandeducationenglandandwales/census2021#:~:text=Download%20the%20data,-.xlsx&text=These%20groups%20also%20had%20the,the%20overall%20population%20(4.4%25).

  67. A very concerning comment from elsewhere…….

    “Had a farmer round to watch the rugby and then have a meal with us on
    Saturday. He has been instructed by the Environmental Agency that he
    will have to reduce his milking herd down from 100 to 50 max. His slurry
    pit apparently isn’t big enough. He would never get a return on his
    investment three years before he intends to retire (and probably never)
    and 50 milking cows is completely uneconomic. We will all be starving
    very soon”
    The ratcheting of ever tighter regulation will destroy our food supplies,not for the elites obviously…………..

    1. DEFRA has no concept of how food is provided. To them, they spew out EU directives and force these stupid nonsense on farmers.

      2. Food comes from shops, surely?

        Next you’ll be telling me electricity doesn’t come from a socket in the wall.

        1. Meat comes on plastic trays from a supermarket and milk comes in Tetrapak containers.

    2. DEFRA has no concept of how food is provided. To them, they spew out EU directives and force these stupid nonsense on farmers.

    3. 384575+ up ticks,

      Afternoon Rik,

      Starving, maybe that will be our saving grace, we have suffered mass paedophilia,ongoing, mass culling & serious injury .ongoing, something must trigger the mass blood letting, starvation
      could very well turn ploughshares into swords.

      Hunger makes for a better fighter.

  68. All this nonsense about a photo.

    I often titivate my facsimiles – in front of visitors if necessary – but I haven’t seen anything in the national or international news about it. It could be that I don’t wear a ‘king crown or a diadem. There must be a reason.

      1. Folk must be, and they can’t all be idiots. My real question is why was this handled so clumsily by the Palace? There are ways to disguise problems – the Warqueen always pulls her arms back and lift her chin up for photos (except for the ones I take of her, which are just of her boobs) as it makes her arms look thinner and neck longer.

    2. She doesn’t by any chance have one of those dietary afflictions that plague the famous and wealthy? She always looks a bit skinny!

      1. Far too. When the Warqueen gets the idea of a diet in her head i start making cakes, tiramissu and Italian dishes.

        My motive is entirely self serving, of course.

    3. She doesn’t by any chance have one of those dietary afflictions that plague the famous and wealthy? She always looks a bit skinny!

  69. Lee Anderson has moved over to Reform.

    I don’t know if that’s political opportunism or genuine ideological alignment. My heart wants to say the latter. My head is too cynical.

    What it does do is tell Sunak that he has a problem. Not one he can ignore. Labour will no doubt win the election, and yes, reform will take votes from Tories likely giving Labour more MPs. It doesn’t matter. We’ve already got a Labour government in all but name.

    Quote from the article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/11/rishi-sunak-latest-news-tom-tugendhat-defence-spending/ : “…“We regret Lee’s decision. Supporting Reform makes a less conservative Britain more likely. A Labour government would raise taxes, increase immigration, undo Brexit and divide our society….”

    So… exactly what the Tories have done then?

    1. Exactly, Tories might be a little slower about it but both parties are moving us in the same direction

    3. I think it would be hard to have a less conservative Britain than we have at the moment. How long have they been in office?

  70. HMS Naiad (93).
    Light cruiser (Dido).
    .
    Complement:
    664 officers and men (82 dead and 582 survivors).

    On 9th March 1942, HMS Naiad (93) sailed from Alexandria as flagship of a cruiser force under KAdm Vian, consisting of the cruisers HMS Dido (37) and HMS Euryalus (42) and the destroyers HMS Kipling (G 91), HMS Kelvin (G 37), HMS Lively (G 40), HMS Sikh (G 82), HMS Zulu (G 18), HMS Hasty (H 24), HMS Havock (H 43) and HMS Hero (H 99) to attack a reported damaged Italian cruiser, but this report proved to be wrong and the ships turned back to Alexandria together with HMS Cleopatra (33) and HMS Kingston (G 64) from Malta. The task force was unsuccessfully attacked several times by Italian torpedo planes and German bombers.
    At 20.01 hours on 11th March, the HMS Naiad (93) (Capt G. Grantham, DSO, RN) was hit by one torpedo from U-565 (Johann Jebsen) and sank north of Sidi Barrani, Egypt.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-565 was scuttled on 30th September 1944 with three depth charges in the Skaramanga Bay after being badly damaged by bombs during US air raids (15th AF) in Salamis on 19th and 24th September 1944. 5 dead, unknown number of survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/warships/br/cl_hms_naiad.jpg

  71. My mum and thousands like her have attended Cof E for at least the past 40 years every Sunday taking a few pounds out of her housekeeping to give tto the church …to help with the up keep of her church and any outreach projects the latest vicar has wanted to introduce into the community…usually quite helpful stuff like mums and tots groups. Lunchtime group for the elderly ect …and now they want give 1 billion quid to some wealthy Jamaicans .Bizarrely my mum at 87 has been brainwashed with all the lefty sermons for the last 5 years and believes we are a terrible country!

    1. Like your Mum, many of us have had our Church stolen by the Godless Marxist left.
      Satan must be loving it.

    2. Has your mum really swallowed all that guff? Perhaps because the church she goes to does do helpful community stuff from the sound of what you say, she just thinks that lots of the others don’t?

      1. Yes she has , she went on about Palestine the other night and the horrible Israelis she’s never had an opinion on it .

        1. Oh dear. Well “bon courage” as they say in France when presented with a difficult situation!

        2. Good to see you here, Steph. I love your posts.

          What few friends – non “far-right” (hahaha) ones – I retained following our vote to leave the EU has been whittled down even further by the “palestine” issue. I will not compromise on this, I stand with Israel and am prepared to explain why, in detail. I know the history (in detail) and will not accept the lies on which this horrendous anti-semitism is based.

          1. Hiya ! So glad you here too , Spectator has let us down, we too far right lol , love your posts too!

  72. 384575+ up ticks,

    Stay where you are lee. no need to get up, tis only the party name that is changing.

    breitbart,

    ‘I Want My Country Back’: Nigel Farage’s Reform Party Gets First Member of Parliament as Lee Anderson Defects

    1. Let’s hope that is more successful than when the previous floor-crosser went to UKIP.

      1. 384575+ up ticks,

        Afternoon HL,

        They were moles most odious, I never bumped into them underground when running copper piping in the
        underfloor ducts, but they were moles most treacherous.
        The only interesting glimpse I had of political life underground was through the heating grating a view up hesiltines left trouser leg and left nostril,

      1. Being called ‘far-Right’ is simply an absurdity.

        Being labelled ‘far-Right’ is preposterously idiotic. If you are on the Right of the political spectrum it means you shower, work, know the words to the national anthem, belong to a family, voted Brexit, eat meat, and prefer single-sex lavatories. Have I missed anything?

        Oh yes, I’ve missed a lot. It also means you love life, liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness. You are an independent, self-sufficient and self-reliant individualist who has aspirations and are innovative. You are a knowledgable, entrepreneurial, enterprising and hard-working individual who enjoys low taxation and small government. Moreover, your preference is a free-market economy, and you do not go in for mob-handedness, rioting and civil disorder. You expect these positive attributes to be encouraged and rewarded. Your self-esteem, your family, your locality and your country come first, and you are prepared to kill (and die) to defend them.

        In a nutshell, you are NORMAL.

        Therefore it logically follows that to be ridiculously labelled as being ‘far-Right’ means that you must be extremely free, extremely happy, extremely independent, extremely self-sufficient, extremely self-reliant and an extreme individualist; who is extremely aspirational, extremely innovative, extremely knowledgable, extremely entrepreneurial, extremely enterprising, extremely hard-working, and enjoys extremely low taxation and extremely small government, etc.

        If that is the case, then you may call me extremely ‘far-Right’ until the cows come home.

        Moreover, the curious expression “Right-wing populism” is a facile, puerile fallacy. Being on the so-called “Right” side of the political spectrum is as far removed from populism as it is possible to get. Populism = collectivism = socialism. Those on the polar opposite to the accepted “Left” believe in individualism, not populism.

        ©Grizzly 2023.

        2. You’d done it before I scrolled down 😆 Now I’d like to see a “progressive ” definition of “far right”!

      2. I think they work on the principle that if you tell the same lie often enough it becomes the truth. I wish someone would define “far right” though.

        5. The philosopher Stephen Hicks points out that Right-wing in a small c conservative sense should be different from culture to culture. What the Marxist and Neo-Marxist play at is obfuscation and narcissistic reversal, DARVO: deny, attack, and reverse victim & offender.

    3. Not just the EU elections, but the UK general election too. I’ve already bought a suitable drink in preparation, which I will be quaffing every time one of the fake Conservative MPs suffer a ‘Portillo moment’. Highlights will hopefully include Mordant, Nokes and Elwood all losing their seats

        1. On the other hand if you do have a drink every time a fake Tory loses his/her seat, you’ll probably be beyond caring for at least the first week of a Liebour government?

        2. I agree , Peta. it’s all very well wanting to stick it to the so-named Conservative Party but the Starmer lot will destroy us as a country forever.

        3. It would be no different if the fake Conservatives won, two cheeks of the same backside. We’d still get more tax, more debt, more welfare, more crime, more Islamism, more green crap, more legal and illegal migration, more woke, more lowering of educational standards, more forever wars, more 20mph zones, more attacks on free speech, more lockdowns if we have another ‘pandemic’ followed by more ‘vaccines’, more hostility towards Christianity including those who commit the terrible crime of praying silently, more hyper liberalism not least decriminalisation of assisted suicide, more drugs, more denigration of the family, more left wing politicisation of the civil service, more of the devolved nations become far left shitholes.

  77. Picking up from PetaJ’s post I bumped into a BBC News report last night at my mum’s house. Having not experienced BBC reporting for a while I was surprised at the anti-Semitism constructed into their Gaza report. Not a whistle was mentioned as to Hamas having embedded themselves within a civilian population. Just them nasty Israelis blowing sh*t up was the constructed take away. If there was any balance presented I must of missed that part.

    1. The report from the maternity hospital made me wonder how many Hamas strongholds/tunnels are there within blast fragment radius of where they are reporting from.
      Several would be my bet.

      1. Snap, I wondered if there were tunnels or a command centre or weapons cash in the basement. But that prior Hamas form wasn’t mentioned.

        1. I also wonder how many of the 30,000 dead civilians were really Hamas fighters too, both male and female.
          Funny how you never hear estimates from the pro Palestinians how many have been killed, I can’t recall a single one being confirmed, yet Israel is fairly open about how many IDF have died so far.

          There’s also seldom any mention of the fact Hamas refuse to release male hostages in exchange for their ceasefire demands, women, maybe but never men.

          1. Well to use the logic of the Hamas charter any innocent victim (what the West would perceive as) is martyred in what they call a jihad. They are doing God’s work. It is the logical conclusion of the philosophy that brought us the suicide bomber. Another horror which Israel has had to regularly deal with.

    2. So far as Hamas is concerned, the Gazan People are useful for only two things, Human Shields and Propaganda Fodder.

  79. ‘A Conservative spokesman said: “Voting for Reform can’t deliver anything apart from a Keir Starmer-led Labour Government that would take us back to square one – which means higher taxes, higher energy costs, no action on channel crossings, and uncontrolled immigration.” (From the DT)

    Not the most persuasive argument in the world since the current Conservative Government has brought us, inter alia, higher taxes, higher energy costs, no action on channel crossings, and uncontrolled immigration, have they not?

    He’s literally just summed up the last 10 years of Tory rule.

  80. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7991e5f38bc32b14abc7646063d8ecf224aa79433c17e6a1ed861f00dc80dd9f.jpg

    Scenes in Rochdale earlier today as far-right activists strike fear into the hearts of our peace-loving Muslim citizens. The neo-fascist supporters went on to hold a mass book burning of Korans and set ablaze hundreds of mosques throughout the North-East.

    These demonstrations of strength by far-right activists are now commonplace throughout our major cities, particularly in London.

    Not.

        1. Clue’s in the name! It’s collectivism vs. individualism and self-determination. Same with fascism. Everything within the state. Who wants that now? The Left. Who wanted it in the past…

        2. People do not know that Fascism was formulated by Italian Socialists as an alternative of of Socialism to that of Karl Marx.

    2. Mr Hilter had his own regiment of Islamics, I suspect he would have kept them busy.

  82. Trump will not give a penny to Ukraine – Hungary PM Orban. 11 March 2024

    “He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russia war. That is why the war will end,” the conservative premier said after meeting Mr Trump in Florida
    .
    The former US president has pledged to end the war “within 24 hours” if elected – but provided no details.

    Well that is pretty authoritative. All we have to do is wait for the Donald to be re-elected.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68533351

    1. Two outcomes: Russia wins, or there’s some sort of settlement. That’s the realpolitik.

    2. Please shew this 79 year old how to emigrate to Hungary – a land of sense. I’ve learnt, German, and French. Some Spanish and Swedish. I’m sure I can learn Hungarian.

  83. More from The Dictionary of Insults.

    Narrow-mindedness

    ‘Fanaticism consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim’ – George Santayana.

    If you’re that narrow-minded you can’t have any difficulty looking through a key-hole with both eyes at the same time.

    During the planning of the invasion of Europe a very high ranking admiral took Churchill to task because in his opinion the Senior Service was not being used in accordance with its long history and tradition
    ‘Well, Admiral, have you ever stopped to ask yourself what the traditions of the navy are?’ Churchill enquired. ‘I will tell you in three words; rum, sodomy and the lash.’

    1. That anecdote about WSC seems odd; the Royal Navy was heavily involved in D-Day planning, remember Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay (1883-1945).

      2. Doesn’t matter,
        , we always knew them as the “Rum, Bum and Baccy Boys”. Why change for your modern instance

        The real name is TOM

  84. A pestering Par Four!

    Wordle 996 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Happy with a birdie today.
      Wordle 996 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
      🟩⬜🟩🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Wordle 996 4/6

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

    2. Same here

      Wordle 996 4/6

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

      1. Fraser Nelson has just penned an article on the Spectator site about the potential Emirati sale.

        https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-an- emirati-minority-stake-in-the-telegraph-compatible-with-a-free-press/

        I’ve posted a comment below the article that implores him to rethink the disastrous new Spectator commenting systems.
        If you still retain access to the Spectator I’d ask you to add your thoughts onto this article.

        If enough comments get posted, maybe we can demonstrate to the Speccy high command what a stupid and counter-productive move this has been.

    3. I’m happy with that! (Used today’s word in an earlier post.)

      Wordle 996 4/6

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

  85. Until recently I’m was just an ordinary bloke, now it appears I’m a Far Right Extremist (© ‘B’BC).

    1. I stopped caring what anyone labelled me. Words are worthless these days. If you just ignore them, their power is rendered null.

        1. Can’t sit on a wall without a health and safety assessment. I presume that she’s passing him one to fill in.

      1. Only IF they are there to define/redefine it. Let’s just hope the great British Public has the sense to kick these charlatans into touch. We Need them Not.

        1. A brief conversation with voters recently has disabused me of any hope of things changing.

          2. I asked people on my lunch table who were singing the praises of the LD MP why. “I’m sure she’s achieved a lot of things,” one assured me, but when challenged to name ONE achievement, there was nothing (other, of course, than said MP getting her name and face in the newspapers – I was quite surprised she wasn’t in church last night). Ambulance waiting times are as bad as ever, we can’t get to see a doctor, the police are invisible …

    10. As are we who still hold to the ideas that, once upon a time, used to be mainstream and shared a lot of cross party support, such has been the Leftward shift in politics.
      Not just in the UK, but in the Western World in general.
      But no. We are NOT “Right Wing”, we are Reactionaries, reacting against the current madnesses.

  86. That’s me gone for this thoroughly depressing, dull, grey, dreary day. Though it didn”t rain. An hour in the garden not enjoying very much.

    Have a spiffing evening. If you want to be demoralised – watch the “Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson”.

    A demain. Prolly.

      1. I had to go into town to sort out the mess my useless bank had made of payments. I could have done without that.

  87. Evening, all. The Church of England IS its members! It’s the hierarchy that’s out of touch a) with the body of the Church of England (though we are many we are one body), b) with Christianity in general and c) the views of its grass roots members in particular. I went to a Collation and licensing last night (representative of local organisations) and they had the new (spit!) form of the Lord’s Prayer. It does not bode well. It won’t make me want to move churches from the one which suits my style of worship.

    1. Problem is they control the vast wealth of the CofE. ie 1 billion pounds to “ex slaves.”

      1. To be more accurate “only” £100 million of church funds, the rest they hope to raise from wealthy private and corporate donors. We’ve clearly gone all the way back to the middle ages when the wealthy felt they needed to buy their way into Heaven having committed every known sin on earth, and then some. At least in those days they usually did it by paying for beautiful buildings, art, music etc. This lot will have nothing at all to show for it.

    2. We had a service a couple of years ago which followed a special format – I forget now why – so the service sheet wasn’t the normal one. The Lord’s Prayer was in the new form and it was chaos because most of us know it by heart and don’t follow it in the service sheet – whichever one we are using!

      1. We had similar chaos when the wrecktorette decided (without consultation, of course) to use the new form. The die-hards all ignored it and she was left saying it on her own.

          1. Now she’s pretty much left saying the services on her own. Congregation numbers (and thus the offertory takings) have plummeted.

          3. It’s disastrous. We’ll be bankrupt and I don’t know how we’ll recover from the damage that’s been done. Once people have gone, it’s going to be hard to win them back.

          5. The most tone deaf are the Archdeacon and the Bishops who have been bombarded with complaints but who back her to the hilt!

          6. Yes, I can see that. Perhaps your church is one that has been ear-marked for closure then it would make sense.

          1. She looked a bit grim and said something about she should have mentioned it was being changed.

      2. Back in the 1960’s, I was a trainee in the RN

        Every Wednesday morning, as part of Divisions (A Parade) we had a Church service, with the Volunteer band playing the tunes for the hymns, to which we sang

        We had either a new Padre, or Bandmaster and little known tunes were played for well known hymns.

        The next Divisions, when the Band started,we all sang the words to the tunes we knew. They just stopped and we sang on…

        1. We had a hymn on Sunday that looked unknown. As the priest said, you may not know the words, but you will recognise the tune. It was effing Ode To Joy.

        2. We had a hymn on Sunday that looked unknown. As the priest said, you may not know the words, but you will recognise the tune. It was effing Ode To Joy.

        3. Some hymns are often sung to alternative music. A couple of weeks ago we had a hymn I didn’t know but music that I did. I honestly thought that the wrong hymn number had been put up on the board and checked it several times 😆

      3. Back in the 1960’s, I was a trainee in the RN

        Every Wednesday morning, as part of Divisions (A Parade) we had a Church service, with the Volunteer band playing the tunes for the hymns, to which we sang

        We had either a new Padre, or Bandmaster and little known tunes were played for well known hymns.

        The next Divisions, when the Band started,we all sang the words to the tunes we knew. They just stopped and we sang on…

    3. Dare you enlighten us as to what this new (bastardise) format is, Connors. As one who has loved his religion, services, prayers for 70 + year I wish to know the extent of their meddling.

      1. Our Father in heaven,
        hallowed be your name,
        your kingdom come,
        your will be done,
        on earth as in heaven.
        Give us today our daily bread.
        Forgive us our sins
        as we forgive those who sin against us.
        Lead us not into temptation
        but deliver us from evil.
        For the kingdom, the power,
        and the glory are yours
        now and for ever.
        What particularly lights my fire is the use of the second person plural which completely negates the familiar aspect of speaking to one’s father. Mind you, few of today’s lot are linguists.

        Amen.

        2. Most of us learn the Lord’s Prayer when we are so young that we can hardly manage our own language, and most certainly can’t be called linguists. I knew that ‘thy’ was an old fashioned way of saying ‘you’ and just accepted it. It always strikes me as patronising and silly to change the words of old prayers to make them more acceptable to people who really have been using the same format all their lives. One receives much comfort from the familiarity of lines recited so many times learned from long gone and much loved parents and family.
          New fangled texts rob us of much more than what they might give.

          1. The point is, as the resistance has shown, that it is NOT more acceptable to people who have been using the same format all their lives. Mind you, these days, with the lack of Christian assemblies in schools, there will probably be few children who even know the new version. What’s wrong with “tresspasses”? Apart from the fact the wrecktorette can’t pronounce it properly, of course. Then there is the replacement of “remission of sins”. Give me the BCP any day. That Cranmer knew a thing or two.

          2. Good evening, Conners. Whichever version is used, I have found that at recent funeral services I have attended the minister often says “And now, for those of you who know the words we shall say the Lord’s Prayer.”

          3. Worse, some of them say, “if you wouldn’t mind joining in” or “if you feel able to”!

          5. Good evening, Conners. Whichever version is used, I have found that at recent funeral services I have attended the minister often says “And now, for those of you who know the words we shall say the Lord’s Prayer.”

          9. Luke uses ‘sins’ and Matthew used ‘debts and debtors’. I don’t know where ‘trespasses’ came from.

          11. On reflection I might flag up the old fashioned notion of “thy” in itself. Not having a go at you personally. I am aware of this thinking in the culture. Now I am far more attuned to it a can’t but help speculate that there’s some bullsh*t Marxism severing ties with our inheritance at play.

          12. ‘Largely archaic’ it says in Wikipedia and perhaps it is a more apt description. Still used in parts of the north of England and Scotland. I have had friends who told me they used these forms when amongst people in their home regions.

          13. Largely fallen out of use except in specific circumstances would be a more accurate description. The use of the second person singular signifies an intimate relationship, as in father to child, as opposed to the formal second person plural. I have no wish to vouvoyer mon pere.

          14. Aye lad, ‘Don’t thee thee thou me, thee thou them that thee thou’s thee’..

          17. On reflection I might flag up the old fashioned notion of “thy” in itself. Not having a go at you personally. I am aware of this thinking in the culture. Now I am far more attuned to it a can’t but help speculate that there’s some bullsh*t Marxism severing ties with our inheritance at play.

          18. It’s the privacy and the intimacy that they seek to destroy as part of their political vanguard.

        6. How about this version?

          The Lord’s Prayer (Old English – Anglo-Saxon)

          Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum;
          Si þin nama gehalgod to becume þin rice gewurþe ðin willa
          on eorðan swa swa on heofonum.
          urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg
          and forgyf us ure gyltas
          swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum
          and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge
          ac alys us of yfele soþlice

          (note: the old english “þ” is pronounced “th”)

    4. The one favour lockdown did me was to enable a clean break from the increasingly woke ASF and a new start at St Barts where the liturgy stays true to Cranmer, the readings are KJV and the hymns are the ones I learnt at school. No phony “peace” and no climate hysteria. My only complaint (and it seems to be north/south thing) is that I want to sing Love Divine to the Stainer tune and not the Welsh one!

      2. I had “Love Divine” at my wedding. That went down well – I was the only one who knew the tune we used! 🙂

        1. I prefer the tune we used at school (?Love Divine) which I think was the one sung at HMQ’s funeral but Blaenwern seems to be more popular now.

        2. At the name of Jesus
          Guide me oh thou great Redeemer
          And I cannot believe I have forgotten the third. It might actually have been Love Divine. Oh my word I cannot believe I have forgotten.

          Reading: Ecclesiastes 4 v 9-12
          Poem: The Bargain by Sir Philip Sidney

          1. Me too x 2! It’s much more of a soaring tune than Blaenwern, and why it’s so good for a funeral as well as a wedding!

          2. As a point of fact Blaenwern has a range of over an octave whereas Stainer is is exactly an octave. Stainer is usually in G with D as the top note. Blaenwern goes a tone higher to an E.

            Any higher than an E and the congregation struggle. There is also a fine descant available for Blaenwern if you have a decent choir.

      4. I prefer the one you don’t but am reasonably happy with either, Sue. At least it’s a a proper hymn

  88. I am so old and so tired, I must plead. Another day is done so, I wish you goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

    2. Take care Tom.

      Keep clear of Miss Bottle and her addictive smell and taste , she won’t do you much good ..

      Tomorrow could be a better day , do not self destruct , please .

      1. Self destructing avec Madame Bouteil is much better than the loneliness I currently endure. It drives me mad. Can yo help?

  89. Why do we celebrate Commonwealth day… isn’t it a bit out dated now ?

    This event gives us a chance to affirm the unity, diversity and shared values that bring the 56 Commonwealth countries together.” Commonwealth Day is celebrated on the second Monday of March every year.

    Rubbish rhubarb and rubbish , do away with it , we give enough foreign aid to them , it is about time we stopped ..

    Those so called commonwealth countries are sucking us dry .. We cannot afford them anymore .

    1. It was the Establishment’s attempt to keep its influence post-Empire. It was never for or about the people of Britain. The Elite just used it to give us mass migration.

      1. That’s what they called Uncle David, the first person in my family to go to uni – Dai Versity

    3. It was QEII’s plaything. I sometimes think she cared more about the people of the Commonwealth than the people in this country. She probably didn’t want to be known as the Queen who lost most of the Empire, but rather the Queen who built the Commonwealth.

      1. And she would have been a tremendous asset in building a post-Brexit Commonwealth trading block.

        1. She would indeed, but of course Ted Heath was determined to take us into the EEC. After all, those yachts don’t buy themselves, do they?

    4. The great pity is that in 2016 we didn’t immediately create an enormous trading block within the Commonwealth.
      It had the potential to dwarf the EU and could have brought and create prosperity for all the Commonwealth nations.
      Hell’s teeth, we might even have been able to export our channel hoppers to willing recipients.

  91. Good Evening.
    Monday, bloody Monday.
    Still, nicely up to date on the boring stuff, so not all bad.

    1. Utterly outrageous. Not a huge Tommy fan per se, but he has been singled out for cruel and unusual punishment, by bad actors within the state, for non-crimes. If anyone thinks he is simply a thick bigot, see his speech some years ago to the Oxford University Union, which was snobbishly received but should scotch any idea that he is either stupid or motivated by “hate”. Whatever else he may be he is courageous and a deep thinker who believes in his cause (and boy, has he suffered for it).

  93. Is it true that China is hoarding food?
    China is hoarding a massive amount of food, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms China will soon have 69% of the globe’s corn reserves, 60% of its rice, and 51% of its wheat.

    The stockpiles should also have volume floors to ensure sufficient minerals are on hand in a national emergency. Volume ceilings should be flexible because Chinese overproduction could demand prolonged purchases to protect domestic output.

    Countries should prioritise growing their own inventories, rather than coordinating stockpiling with partners. They shouldn’t rely on each other’s stocks, because sea supply can be disrupted, as demonstrated by the rerouting of ships away from the Red Sea due to Houthi attacks from Yemen. Such disruptions would be magnified vastly in a US-China conflict over Taiwan. Also, if each county attends to its own needs, none will be free riding on its friends.

    However, the US, Australia, and partner countries could collaborate in stockpiling minerals that some of them produce and others among them don’t. For example, the US, which has no identified geological reserves of manganese, could build a stockpile of the material by buying from Australia, thereby supporting the industry of a trusted supplier.

    China’s economic mineral stockpile policy offers lessons for the West. Done right, such an approach can both prepare a country for national emergencies and support its domestic industries.

    https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/china-shows-how-western-governments-should-stockpile-minerals/

    1. Like Margaret Thatcher, before the miners’ strike. Except that she was blinded enough by her free market economics to let our family silver be sold off – to foreigners. She really wasn’t astute enough to realise that if you play the free market game, it’s worth knowing whether the other players play by the same rules.

      1. When she privatised the nationalised industries she arranged for a “Golden Share” to be retained by the Government to prevent the take over by foreign concerns.
        That Golden Share was sold off by Tony Blair.

        1. The concept was also undermined by the EU through the courts.
          It had been adopted by many countries, including former communist states.

        2. Which just shows that privatisation was a mistake, without a Swiss type of prohibition on foreign ownership.

      1. I don’t suppose any of our bright sparks in charge ever though that the trans- continental railway being built by China would ever be used for massive troop movements…..

    4. That will annoy the Veggies/Vegans, who will now be seen in fields, on all fours, munching grass with the sheep and cows

      1. A lot of foodstuffs can be irradiated and frozen or dehydrated to preserve them. Then there is cannibalism of course.

        1. Probably, but the two working together might have been a good foundation for a new challenge to the TINO

          1. Maybe Lee A is sufficiently intelligent to be educated on this subject? I don’t know. The brainwashing seems to go very deep indeed.

          2. I can’t believe he thinks the covid vaccines were the success he is suggesting, given what is now coming out.

          3. It make’s one think his ousting was engineered to help discredit a threatening party in due course..

          5. That is a very healthy suspicious nature you have there. Nurture it. It will help keep you alive.

          6. Of course not, not now, but had these jabs been the good news that they were purported to be then there is no denying that the UK both manufactured and “rolled them out” in a far more efficient way than did the sclerotic EU. So it’s a double bind (as usual) – a catch 22

    2. Jesus. I despair of these fools!

      The Oxford mob produced the Astra Zeneca vaccine which was almost immediately banned by the Europeans because of its links with blood problems especially in women.

      The other vaccines were designed in the US and have proved to be equally unsafe and ineffective. Most of this shit was made in either China or India.

      I recall my father telling me that should I ever visit India I should never buy an orange. When he was there in WWII serving eventually in Burma, he realised that the Indians pricked their shrivelled fruit with needles before dunking them in the Ganges to re-inflate them.

      Shit knows what they put into the vaccines.

      1. 384642+ up ticks,

        Morning C,

        Astra Zeneca are investing 650 million pounds in a research centre in”Cambridge” mentioned in the budget by hunt.

        I would not be surprised if a Soylent Green biscuit dept. was included, in keeping with the WEF / NWO
        RESET agenda.

      1. 384642+ up ticks,

        Morning Ph,

        Their stance tells me that a quick offering to the guvnor down below will not go amiss.

    1. We like the Prof on here. He’s been featured many times.

      “Who would be bold enough to take power now if they truly wanted to change things? Where would they start? How many years would it take?”

      Indeed. The argument will spill onto the street before Westminster has the courage to tackle it.

  97. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am sick and tired of reading: “experts say”

    999/1000 they are nothing of the kind, merely pontificating bastards with a larger audience than the man on the Clapham omnibus, but with much less real life experience.

      1. Flattery only works with Phizzee. He’s a soft touch, or so his girlfriends say allegedly
        But thank you anyway.
        Vote with a quote.
        Spread it far and wide.

    2. As always,I will point out the origin of the word Expert

      Ex= Has been
      Spurt= Drip under pressure

    2. On the borders o England and Scotland – A wee town Called Moffat,

      Does that help – I want to to get out out of here

      1. Ah, I live in Derbyshire, in the Peak District, some distance from you. However, I do drive up to Inverness from time to time to check on my mother’s old house, perhaps we could meet for a cuppa next time? I would certainly welcome a pleasant break in that hellish journey!

        Back in the day, I had a childhood friend who got packed off to a Boarding school in/near Moffat, is it still there? My word, she hated Moffat and the school. She kept running away! The family had come back to the UK from Kenya, she was born there and largely brought up by the natives in their homes and playing with their children. She absolutely loathed and rebelled at the social mores thrust upon her in middle class Britain.

          2. Look at my screen name!
            I don’t suppose you attended Di Kettle’s art classes in the Methodist Hall did you?

          3. Ah, Bonsall, duh!
            I’m Scottish, so no schooling here. I’m an immigrant (fully self supporting and in full time employment).

        2. Next ‘Hellish Journey’. Call me on 0776 768 2036 and we can have a natter and you can have a break in your hellish journey. We have a residents car park. No problem.

      2. I was in your neck of the woods last October. We had a serious problem with charging the car as the rapid chargers we tried on the A74M were out of action. Fortunately our bacon was saved by a workplace charger in a chocolate making establishment near Kirkcudbright. Charge Place Scotland appeared to consist of little more than a 3 pin plug in some places.

        1. 384575+ up ticks,

          B3,

          In that reading of it we truly are, and receiving what the majority voted for again & again.

  101. Boris Johnson to make a general election comeback for the Tories
    The former prime minister is expected to campaign for the Conservatives in red wall seats to ‘take the fight to Keir Starmer’
    new

    Boris Johnson is expected to campaign for the Conservatives in red wall seats before the general election after a thawing in relations with Rishi Sunak.

    The former prime minister is likely be deployed in the north of England and the Midlands as the Tories seek to win back the voters who helped Johnson to an 80-seat majority in 2019.

    Johnson accused Sunak of betrayal after he was forced out of Downing Street in 2022 and the two men fell out further last year over Johnson’s resignation honours list.

    However, relations have improved significantly since then after talks between Johnson’s team and No 10. Last month Sunak and Johnson issued a joint statement on the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Johnson allies and senior government sources confirmed that the former prime minister was expected to play a significant role in the general election campaign.

    They said he was likely to visit marginal constituencies, make speeches and appear on leaflets. “If there is a way he can help that is right for him and for the party he will,” a source familiar with Johnson’s thinking said.

    “Sunak will of course be front and centre but he [Johnson] always wanted to take the fight to Starmer. Just as he has always supported the Conservative Party he will do so now.”

    A government source said: “Don’t expect Boris to appear on stage with Rishi — that’s not going to happen — but he is up for it. The relationship is in a fairly good place.”

    Sunak suffered a blow yesterday after Lee Anderson, a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, defected to Reform UK. Anderson was one of the most well-known red wall Tory MPs before he was suspended for saying that Islamists had “got control” of Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London. There are now concerns that other Tory MPs could defect and join Anderson.

    Sunak is preparing to enlist the support of two former prime ministers during the election campaign — Johnson and Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, the foreign secretary.

    Cameron is expected to be deployed widely despite claims that he is unlikely to appeal to voters in red wall seats. “He’s a winner and a hugely effective communicator,” a senior Tory said.

    • Rishi Sunak still hasn’t escaped the Boris Johnson psychodrama

    Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, is not expected to call on either Tony Blair or Gordon Brown to directly campaign for him. “While he is hugely proud of the achievements of the last two Labour governments he will fight this on his own terms,” a senior Labour source said.

    There have been suggestions Johnson could try to make a comeback as an MP at the election, and he has been linked to the seat of Henley and Thame in Oxfordshire, where he served as MP between 2001 and 2008. However, he has ruled this out.

    The former prime minister quit parliament after an investigation found that he deliberately and recklessly misled the Commons over the Downing Street parties scandal. The privileges committee said that he would have been suspended for 90 days for “repeated contempts and seeking to undermine the parliamentary process”.

    He is working on his political memoirs. There had been suggestions that they could be published before the general election campaign, which would create a significant headache for Sunak. They are now expected at the end of the year or early next year.

    The former prime minister has been a consistent critic of Sunak. Johnson blamed Sunak after he was forced out of Downing Street and has publicly criticised the prime minister over an array of issues including Brexit and the direction of the Conservative Party.

    Last year Johnson accused Sunak of reneging on an agreement over his resignation honour’s list, which included the elevation of three Tory MPs to the Lords. Sunak categorically denied that he had made such an agreement.

    A spokesman for Johnson said: “Boris Johnson’s focus at the moment is writing and speaking and he is very productively engaged on that. His position has been consistently in support of the Conservative Party for his entire political life and that will remain so.” https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-next-general-election-tories-keir-starmerer-jbf30vh08

    Lord Neil Masey
    3 MINUTES AGO

    YIPPPEEE! He can run the country (into the ground) again, and lie and cheat and pretend he knows what’s going on when he hasn’t got a clue. He can maybe cheat on his wife some more and maybe fabricate some more quotes for The Times, or spread more Euromyth lies. Yes, overall a jolly good catch for the Conservative party, parliament and the national! You couldn’t make it up…… although Johnson will of course.

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    Nick Dowdeswell
    4 MINUTES AGO

    So send in the old Etonian clowns to sort out the so-called Red Wall – Sunak is desperate. Johnson should be retired to his moated country house and Cameron to his gypsy caravan where they can do less harm

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    E Ronald
    4 MINUTES AGO

    Dishonest, busted flush.

    2. He had his chance – a golden opportunity. He blew it.

      In a way, yes, the “blob” was against him, and Covid didn’t help. But i don’t think it would have turned out differently. His wife turned him into a nut zero and he didn’t manage Brexit or immigration.

    3. Boris Johnson is a fat sweaty busted flush.

      He has much to answer to including a deliberately botched Brexit and more recently his utterly foolish and damaging interventions in Ukraine.

      Johnson is a warmongering pig and has the blood of over half a million dead Ukrainians on his hands.

    4. ‘They’ must have the utmost contempt for the so called red wall seats if they think deploying Johnson is going to save their arses.

  102. Lee Anderson, Odysseus of Ashfield, gets himself very badly lost
    new
    First Reform MP’s epic journey was powered by being kicked out of the Tories … but his new party has already misplaced his phone number

    Lee Anderson is officially the Reform Party’s first MP, but is he happy? It can’t be ignored that, at his official unveiling, he didn’t look particularly happy. For television viewers of Reform UK’s historic press conference on Monday morning, what the party’s first MP looked like was a very large Union Jack, which had been accidentally positioned directly between the lectern and the TV camera, completely obliterating his moment of history, which came in the form of a speech he was reading out from his laptop screen.

    Eventually, a hunchbacked party staffer scurried in and, with the kind of subtle dexterity arguably not seen on television since Acorn Antiques went off air, just about saved the day by drag the offending piece of patriotic stage decoration just out of shot.

    From this point on, those watching at home could now also clearly see what had been becoming increasingly obvious to those of us in the room for quite some time. This was no ordinary defection. Defections tend to be joyous occasions. As it happens, Anderson was standing there, defecting from the Tory party in the very same room where Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston also defected from The Tories in 2019, to join Change UK The Independent Group, or whatever it was called that day.

    Play Video
    Lee Anderson announces his defection to Reform UK
    Back then, there were big smiles, high fives. It was only a few weeks later that they realised they’d all made hideous career-ending errors.

    Anderson, possibly to his credit, seemed already to know. It’s hard to say which bit he enjoyed least. At the very start, he bounded out through a big oak door and in to the waiting arms of Reform’s leader, Richard Tice. On a morning where the nation was somewhat preoccupied with a bit of very high-profile photo editing, perhaps he was worried that no one would believe that was really him standing there, arms wrapped round a man with whom he’s spent the last three months trading increasingly vicious insults.

    “I’ve done a lot of soul-searching on my political journey,” he said, and had to immediately ask the room to stop laughing. He has certainly been on a journey, from Labour, to Conservative and now to Reform, the fourth reiteration of Ukip. But it’s hard to ignore that the most recent bit of that journey has been powered not so much by “soul-searching” as by being kicked out of the Tories for saying something racist on television and then refusing to apologise.

    He’d joined Reform, he said, because “I want my country back”. Look, 2016 was a very long time ago, but wanting your country back is still what often happens to a very specific type of politician that’s given up on getting back the thing they really want — their old job.

    The event was, nominally, a press conference, but its main purpose appeared to be for Anderson to tell the invited press how much he dislikes them. One of them had the temerity to ask him why he had been spending a very long time telling them he definitely wasn’t planning to defect to Reform, which had not turned out to be strictly true. “That’s politics darling,” he said. Later he called another young female reporter “Mrs Journalist”. You’re not meant to be in this much of a bad mood on your big day.

    Eventually, he decided he couldn’t be bothered to even be rude to them any more. While the TV crews he had personally invited dutifully waited their turn for their promised interviews, Reform UK’s only MP decided he’d had enough and just disappeared. Attempts to track him down were hampered by Reform UK staff not actually having their only MP’s mobile phone number.

    Of course, none of this matters to Anderson. The people of Westminster “live in a bubble” he told them. “I live in the real world, it’s not where you live,” he said. They should, he said, come up to Ashfield with him, if they can possibly find it, knock on a few doors and meet some “real people”. If you Google that sentence, the first thing you’ll find is a video of journalist who actually did go and knock on a few doors in Ashfield, with Anderson, only to discover that the front door in question belonged to one of Anderson’s mates.

    It’s not altogether normal to join a political party whose leader you’ve called “a poundshop Nigel Farage” and “Reform’s answer to Diane Abbott” only a couple of months ago. It’s also not altogether normal to insist you don’t need to bother calling a by-election, even though you personally put your name on a backbench bill to change the law to insist on a by-election in such circumstances.

    But then, it’s also not altogether normal to imagine any light will be shed on politics generally by viewing it through the prism of Anderson, who thinks his “political journey” makes him the Odysseus of Ashfield, and not what he actually is — a very lost and confused man, desperately asking for directions around his own private “real world” where everyone agrees with him. He may be about to find out it’s a lot less real than he thinks.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lee-anderson-reform-uk-odysseus-of-ashfield-lost-6r9lnl6d9

    I dislike him because he is proud to be ignorant, even if much of his persona is fake.

    He is a lying, self-serving bigot.

    1. I would deny that Reform is the “fourth reiteration of UKIP”. UKIP is still going; it’s the Brexit Party that has been reincarnated..

      1. Even if one accepts that Brexit and Reform are two iterations of UKIP, which is the other? Furthermore, four reiterations ought to mean UKIP has been through five iterations, which would in turn mean there’s yet another iteration not accounted for, although it’s more likely that the writer thinks the first iteration is a reiteration.

        1. I had forgotten that UKIP started life as the Anti-Federalist League (AFL). Perhaps that’s what the Times writer means by four “reiterations”, athough, as I’ve also discovered, iteration and reiteration are close synonyms in meaning repetition. Therefore, however you cut it, there have been three iterations or reiterations of the AFL.

    2. If you want to cast Lee Anderson in a bad light, I don’t think contrasting him with Wollaston, Soubry and Allen is an effective way to do so. They always struck me as a vacuous bunch of virtue signallers, devoid of principle. Wollaston in particular managed to turn from a self-claimed Eurosceptic to an arch Europhile and attributed this to seeing the infamous slogan on the bus (a slogan incidentally that was judged to be perfectly reasonable when some numpty – possible the derisorily named Good Law Project – tried bringing a lawsuit). If someone changes their ideas that radically because they see a slogan they don’t agree with, they are not a serious politician.

    1. Yo T_B

      Jinu Shaji, aged 26, of Russet Avenue, Exeter, was convicted of ill-treatment at Exeter Magistrates Court

      Why cannot people get words in the correct order.

      He did not ill-treat anyone at” Exeter Magistrates Court”

      “At Exeter Magistrates Court, Jinu Shaji, aged 26, of Russet Avenue, Exeter, was convicted of ill-treatment” is a lot more correctister!

      2. Forgive me for this one from 1995 on BBC Radio 5 news:
        “Mrs. West is accused of murdering ten women at Winchester Crown Court.”

  106. When Lee Anderson says , he wants his country back , what does he really mean .

    What do we mean when we say , we want our country back ..

    Getting our country back is nearly 60 years too late ..

    The IfG commission says No10 and the Cabinet Office should not continue in their current form, and should instead be restructured into a new Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and a separate Department for the Civil Service, housed in a modernised Downing Street and 70 Whitehall complex. It also calls for the appointment of a new first secretary of state to drive the government’s priorities, the creation of an executive cabinet committee made of a small number of key ministers, for splitting up of the cabinet secretary’s role and responsibilities, and reiterates the IfG’s call for a new civil service statute.

    1. For one thing, I’d like to look at the TV and see a portrayal of the country as it is around me now (although rapidly being blacked up) and was when I was growing up. As it is, I think I might as well be watching African TV.

    2. I have a suggestion. Make all future local and National councillors/ministers financially accountable for all the spending/borrowing they incur on our behalf. We do not need wholesale rearrangement of HMG – which would be at vast expense, naturally. And I wonder how much these commissioners are being paid? (I must congratulate them on producing their report so quickly,). Whatever HMG goes it costs vast amounts of money that we simply do not have. Thanks, Conservative Party.

  107. I think you need to relocate south to less “duprairsang” climes, Sir J. And stop publishing your personal details to people who may, in rare cases be dodgy.

  109. I do feel differently, with respect, because Lee is another, like Boris and Trump, say, that I do find myself liking whatever their faults. We are not in the age of politicians with integrity, if ever there were such a thing.

    1. In other words, no longer “No comment” but “That’s bo!!ocks, that is!”

      1. Maybe! I do prefer the latter – and i don’t think he’s nasty through and through like most (perhaps explains his PR “miss-steps”?)

        1. Unfortunately, the next question is often: “Why is it, er, bo!!ocks, Mr X?”

          This is a test that is too frequently failed.

  110. Hire heathens to prepare the corpses for burial in a pig’s carcass facing away from Mecca

  113. ‘Night All

    Further to my comments of joke sentences……….

    From the Telegraph

    “Watch: Luxury car thieves stole 53 keyless vehicles by copying their signals to a ‘master key’

    Gang made off with cars worth £3.7 million and were were sentenced collectively to 12-and-a-half years”

    Absolute joke of a sentence. So that’s about 3 years each and out in half the time.
    Doing the maths assuming they got 50% of the value in Albania or similar that’ll be about 500,000 each for 18 months chokey nice work if you can get it………….
    Just as blaggers moved from armed robbery to drug dealing because of draconian sentences then to tobacco smugling as the drug dealing sentences caught up now the pro’s do car crime
    What puts an end to it all?? Draconian sentences!!

    1. Or maybe keyless cars aren’t such a good idea after all as they are clearly not very secure and an invitation to criminals.

    2. Nicked comment

      think full capacity is 82500, give or take. I spoke to the wife of a

      prison administrator recently who told me there are around 300 places

      vacant.

      That’s not for his prison, that’s for the whole country!

      There are also some constraints as some cells are not fit for purpose.

      Indeed violent psychopaths and rapists are entitled to the same level of

      housing as social housing tenants.

      All men are born equal, rapists and council tenants must have the same facilities in our brave new world, citizen.

      This is why evil bastards get early release so they can be evil bastards yet again, it’s their right.

      This is why these lairy little turds on cop shows get off with community service.

      This is why judges give suspended sentences when the fucker should be getting a 3 stretch.

      This

      at a time when crime is soaring, shoplifters are immune, burglars are

      never convicted, drug dealers are given a second chance.

      The lack

      of prison places was evident 30 years ago. A former Mrs VbF ranted build

      more fucking prisons many years ago, she was related to Judge Jefferys

      I’m certain but she was absolutely right.

      14 years of tory spaffing, the party of law and order but nothing has changed, no improvement. We need minimum 20000 new places.

      Money spent on PPE, on HS2, on foreign aid, on Ukraine, on migrants no other fucker wants, money wasted a hundred ways.

      That could have built mega prisons, taken the shit off the street for a long time and sent a message.

      It’s really not that complicated but there is no will.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4cf0a99d18132ef2e6c31e5cb2b7082add06cc1502f6dd62fc2592d042bdfa17.png

  114. I’m reluctant to post this, but regarding the Daily Mail report of the mentally ill man who suffered “internal injuries” on a flight back to UK after sex-change mutilation, apparently it may have been “stenosis” where the body rejects the fake canal and literally tries to push it out so it can heal.
    Someone has posted a picture of this, not the person in the DM article, to which I made this comment:-

    A horrific picture Natalie, but I’m afraid it’s one that people NEED to see so they can judge the full horror of what these mentally ill men are being encouraged to do to themselves.

    If anyone thinks they have the courage and stomach for it, it’s a response to this post by a lady called “JustNatalieK”.
    The picture is blurred but if you are in ANY WAY sensitive DO NOT look at the picture she posts.

    https://twitter.com/RonniNicole1/status/1767176768002138523

      1. Sorry about the language, but why to the FUCKING SURGEONS have to agree to their demands??????

  117. And me. Another day is done so, I wish you goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

  118. Well, chums, it’s time for me to wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all tomorrow.

  121. Wordle 997 5/6

    Wordle for Tuesday in five – posted as “Newest” on Monday’s site.

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