Tuesday 16 April: The West must not hesitate to defend Israel against Iranian aggression

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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923 thoughts on “Tuesday 16 April: The West must not hesitate to defend Israel against Iranian aggression”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) Story
    FLY SWAT

    I was visiting my son and daughter-in-law last night when I asked if I could borrow a newspaper.

    ‘This is the 21st century, Dad,’ he said.
    ‘We don’t waste money on newspapers. Here, you can borrow my iPad.’

    I can tell you, that bloody fly never knew what hit it.

  3. SIR – Saddam Hussein’s “elite” Republican Guards fled when faced with a superior opponent.

    Vladimir Putin’s forces have faltered, in part because of poor maintenance.

    Now Iran’s attack on Israel has been thwarted by Western defences.

    There is a lesson here. Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, should have our utmost and unstinting support (report, April 15).

    John Rowley
    Great Ayton, North Yorkshire

    SIR – I am struggling to think of another country that, when subjected to an attack on the scale of the one Iran launched on Israel, has been asked to sit back and relax.

    Richard Rose
    London NW4

  5. The West must not hesitate to defend Israel against Iranian aggression

    I get the feeling that the West is being out thought and out maneuvered.

    1. Under the feeble leadership of cowards like Biden, Sunak and Scholz the West is on the defensive, not the offensive, which makes it easy for our enemies to pick the times and places they attack. Time to grab the initiative.

        1. Yo B3

          May I fiddle

          And spread their troops all over the West

          Weseem spend more on supporting illegal arrivals to UK, than on the the Defence of it

    2. Under the feeble leadership of cowards like Biden, Sunak and Scholz the West is on the defensive, not the offensive, which makes it easy for our enemies to pick the times and places they attack. Time to grab the initiative.

  7. Nice start to the round

    Wordle 1,032 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  8. Wordle 1,032 4/6

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

    1. Another steady Par here
      Wordle 1,032 4/6

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

  9. France and Britain have both shamefully neglected the white working class. 15 April 2024.

    Emmanuel Macron told a communist newspaper earlier this year that he didn’t consider Marine le Pen’s National Rally part of the ‘Republican arc’. By extension, the French president presumably thinks the same of the 13,288,686 million men and women who voted for Le Pen in the second round of the 2022 presidential election. In the event of a war with Russia, or another hostile state, would the president therefore consider Le Pen voters unworthy of serving in the Republic’s military?

    It wasn’t neglect. It was deliberate. They hated and despised us and still do. They might very well need us in the near future but we should opt out. There is nothing for us there. The UK, and from what I read France too, is no more. The land is there of course, and the cities, but that animating spirit that infused its people with the power to do great things has been destroyed. Of course if it kicks off there will soon be repeats of Zulu on the BBC and the TV adverts will start showing white nuclear families intercut with scenes of Britain’s countryside to the accompaniment of the chords of Elgars’ Nimrod swelling in the background. I shall not be watching!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-shameful-neglect-of-frances-white-working-class/

    1. Yo Minty

      In the event of a war with Russia, or another hostile state, would the president therefore consider Le Pen voters unworthy of serving in
      the Republic’s military?

      Our textile companies would swith over toWhite Flag production

    2. “…the 13,288,686 million men and women who voted…” – my, that’s an awful lot of people! No wonder it’s crowded.

    3. “That nature that condemns its origin
      Cannot be bordered certain in itself”
      [King Lear]

      Those white people who hate white people because they are white and hate their own history and have no pride in it because its achievements were made by white people cannot be considered as rational.

  10. Nice to see a player I always admired finally getting some accolades, sadly after his death. This from Geoffrey Boycott. It seems another world, no hype, no boasting, no self promotion, no tattoos, just brilliant and dedicated craftmanship.

    Until 1979, we played cricket on uncovered pitches – we did not cover them when it rained. We called them sticky dogs. Derek Underwood was absolutely deadly on a sticky dog, hence his nickname Deadly!

    I don’t know anybody that could play him or hit him after it had rained on those pitches. Once it had rained he was unbelievable because he bowled at a slightly quicker pace than the orthodox left-armer. Derek did not spin the ball so much as cut it and because he was faster and flatter than most slow bowlers he was on to you and making you hurry any stroke.

    Deadly cut the ball using the seam – just like fast bowlers bowl an off cutter. He did not have to wait for the pitch to start drying or become tacky like a normal spinner his left-arm cutters would grip, turn, jump and sometimes take a piece out of the pitch. Try playing that. The Australians at The Oval in 1968 couldn’t. Derek took seven for 50 on the last afternoon, bowling brilliantly on an uncovered pitch, to help England secure a drawn series. That was one of his greatest performances but there were so many it is hard to pick out the best.

    Modern players would try to whack Derek with their big bats but trust me they would have no chance. No way. He would be too clever and too good for them. And if they tried all those sweeps and reverse sweeps they would definitely need a helmet with a grill otherwise they may get a smack in the mouth.

    Nobody ever bashed him. Derek was a one-off, brilliant, extraordinary bowler – unique. There was nobody else like him in English cricket. The nearest was Bob Appleyard in the 1950s, who bowled right-arm off cutters on uncovered pitches and took 200 wickets in his first full season. Deadly was left-arm, so he turned the ball the other way – away from the right-handers, which was much more dangerous because of the number of right-handers to bowl to.

    We did not have speed guns in those days but Derek was too quick to get down the pitch to.

    Sometimes spin bowlers do not relish the pressure when all eyes are on them and they are expected to win the match for their team. But when Derek was expected to bowl a team out and win the match he was quietly confident he could do the job. Everybody is under pressure – average players, good players and great players. It is how you handle the pressure that counts. Derek could handle it, no problem whatsoever. That is why he was a great bowler.

    One year, Yorkshire were at Canterbury playing Kent. It rained and I went in the dressing room to have a chat with him because I played a lot with him for England. I said ‘I bet you’re pleased about this rain, you’ll take six for 40 when we’re back on’. He said ‘yeah, but if it rains for a couple more hours, I’ll take eight for 20.’ That’s how he thought.

    He was not a bombastic guy. He was a little bit quiet and did not say a lot but Deadly was the quiet assassin. In the dressing room with England, he knew exactly what he wanted to do at practice. He would come in, change and then he would just like to sit quietly before he went out for 20 or 25 minutes with a cup of tea in his right hand and a fag in his other hand contemplating .

    People always talk about him on wet pitches because he was so lethal on those. But he could bowl you out on dry ones because he was so accurate, he did not give you anything. Derek built pressure on batsmen and did not give them loose balls. You could not score easily off his bowling and once the pitch helped him, he was very, very difficult to play.

    He did not really have to change his style, even when he was bowling on good batting pitches. If he needed to he could bowl a little slower and 20 or 30 overs was never a problem. He was metronomic and had great concentration.

    Derek loved bowling with four people around the bat – just like a spider weaving its web to catch a fly. And he did not want you to escape to the other end to get a single. If you were a fielder and not on your toes, maybe nodding off a bit and you allowed the batsman to sneak a quick single, he would glare at you. He would never say anything but you could tell that he was cross.

    You could only get on top of Derek when he was batting. When he went out to bat we all got ready to field – he was not going to last long. He could not bat for toffee. We would have been better off declaring before he went in and saving the time! He got sent in as nightwatchman for a time against some very, very fast bowlers and his nerve got shredded.

    Derek was one of the greatest bowlers I played with, without a shadow of a doubt. He had a rare gift and was a magic bowler. There has not been anything like him since. I loved him to bits. He was one of my favourite cricketers.

    1. No mention of the ERM disaster. Also note that Gordon Brown actually ran a budget surplus, albeit griefly.

      1. To be fair to the Prof he is comparing the economic policies of the 1980s with the 2010s.
        He was a strong Leaver.

      3. Only because he was able to bolster Government income by abolishing Advance Corporation Tax Relief, a measure that went unnoticed by many, but which destroyed the UK pension system.

      5. Daft Vader the longest serving chancellor. Everything he came into contact with he effed it up.
        Trained by Bliar.

  13. Sunak faces 50 MP rebellion over smoking ban. 16 April 2024.

    One backbench rebel said they expected around 100 Tory MPs to defy the Prime Minister and vote against – although a government source said they expected the number to be nearer 50.

    The Telegraph understands that, despite the Tory backlash, Mr Sunak believes that: “Sometimes you have to do the right thing even if it’s difficult.”

    He announced the policy at the Conservative Party Conference last year and is understood to see it as a major part of his legacy.

    Speaks volumes. I had my last cigarette nearly fifty years ago. I have never felt the need to prevent anyone else smoking. The problem here is that it is smoking today; beer, chocolate and chips tomorrow. There is literally no limit to what they would like to prevent you doing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/15/rishi-sunak-smoking-ban-more-than-50-tory-mps-to-rebel/

    5. There is literally no limit to what they would like to prevent you doing.

      Like living out one’s days as nature intended?

      NB in the UK the jab, spring booster, is still available to a selective few:

      …people aged 75 years and over, those in care homes, and those , aged 6 months and over with a weakened immune system

      Emphasis is mine.

      2. Clearly trying to kill off those with a weakened immune system. As Professor Dalgliesh has pointed out on numerous occasions the jabs damage the immune system.

      3. But, hurry! It will only be available until 30th June. Form an orderly queue and roll up your sleeve.

    6. After another tobacco tax hike in October 2021, the price of cigarettes hit a massive £13.60.

      Returning to present day, as of December 2023, a pack of 20 currently stands at an eye-watering £15.67.

      After PM Rishi Sunak and King Charles have revealed their aim to achieve a smoke-free Britain by 2030, the price hike comes as no surprise as it is hoped that the ever-increasing price of cigarettes will deter smokers from buying them.

      In addition to surging cigarette prices, the government’s proposed plan to create a smoke-free society also includes banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, and boosting funding for local stop smoking services.

      Guess that is why families are pleading child poverty , smoking , drinking , gambling etc.

      Why not have a tattoo tax , the revenue gathered would be enormous .

      1. an ‘idiot’ tax of politicians and councillors would clear the national debt

      2. They used to have a window tax so a tattoo tax charged by the square inch would be a very sound idea. Those serving in non-commissioned roles in the Royal and Merchant navies could be exempt.

      3. Add in a tax on caterpillar eyebrows and plastic nails – that would also bring in a hefty sum.

    7. I am addicted to cigarette smoking but I had my last cigarette just before midnight on 31st December, 1987. Like the girl in ‘Oklahoma’ I caint say No!…. so with me it’s all of nuffing.

      However I am not addicted to pipe tobacco and although I more of less gave up when I could no longer buy it duty free I am still happy to have the occasional pipe and Caroline, marvellous wife that she is, actually quite likes the smell of pipe tobacco and her sister gives me a tin of my favourite mixture for Christmas.

        1. Yes, e cigs have their positives but I think you can very easily end up inhaling more nicotine which makes me edgy. Have you found that, or is it just me?

    8. “they expected around 100 Tory MPs to defy the Prime Minister and vote against – although a government source said they expected the number to be nearer 50“. Says it all – typical MP – make a lot of noise, indicate that you’re standing up to Government on a matter of principle and then cave in at the actual vote!?

    9. “they expected around 100 Tory MPs to defy the Prime Minister and vote against – although a government source said they expected the number to be nearer 50“. Says it all – typical MP – make a lot of noise, indicate that you’re standing up to Government on a matter of principle and then cave in at the actual vote!?

  14. 386111+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,

    Looking at today’s wars as local issues is a huge mistake. There is one war and it is global

    Old chopper Dave has got that about right.

    Our segment of it is England, and the part we have continued playing in it has shown up as continuing to give support and succour to the enemy via the polling stations.

    We are as a nation self harming, bringing about eventually death by a great multitude of cuts regarding our own welfare, and that of our kids ,and their kids ongoing.

    All the while we are under the controlling fist of the WEF / NWO
    with royal seal, we are in no position to be advising others of a foreign nature on the finer arts of war.

    At this moment in time the political ruling cartel are coining it via
    investments as in, armaments / pharmaceuticals whilst carrying out the WEF agenda on a daily basis through Dover, and the daily
    successful, potential troop build at the indigenous peoples expense, ( there really should be a law against treating the feeble minded in that manner)

    “The west”
    Would be well advised to clean out their own individual stables
    firstly to obtain firm footing on home turf.

    Tuesday 16 April: The West must not hesitate to defend Israel against Iranian aggression

  15. 386111+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,

    Looking at today’s wars as local issues is a huge mistake. There is one war and it is global

    Old chopper Dave has got that about right.

    Our segment of it is England, and the part we have continued playing in it has shown up as continuing to give support and succour to the enemy via the polling stations.

    We are as a nation self harming, bringing about eventually death by a great multitude of cuts regarding our own welfare, and that of our kids ,and their kids ongoing.

    All the while we are under the controlling fist of the WEF / NWO
    with royal seal, we are in no position to be advising others of a foreign nature on the finer arts of war.

    At this moment in time the political ruling cartel are coining it via
    investments as in, armaments / pharmaceuticals whilst carrying out the WEF agenda on a daily basis through Dover, and the daily
    successful, potential troop build at the indigenous peoples expense, ( there really should be a law against treating the feeble minded in that manner)

    “The west”
    Would be well advised to clean out their own individual stables
    firstly to obtain firm footing on home turf.

    Tuesday 16 April: The West must not hesitate to defend Israel against Iranian aggression

    1. Morning Michael and all

      I thought the cartoon was a bit of a feeble effort……. (I’ll get my coat….)

    1. Wow, that was soooo geeky! I am sending it to my advanced English student to torment her, mwahahaha! 😈😈🤣

    2. I have watched a good number of Dr Geoff Lindsey’s excellent videos on English. They are not only of the highest quality; he has an exceptionally clear, eminently listenable, soothingly pleasant and pleasingly avuncular accent.

  20. Good morning all.
    After yesterday’s “Four seasons in one Day” weather, it’s a beautiful but still cold start.

    Planning a run to see Stepson this morning. Though to be honest, I’m not too keen after his actions this past couple of weeks.

    2. MB and I are impressed by your sense of duty.
      (Not that our thoughts actively help you in your situation.)

      1. He was admitted to Hospital with a suspect mini-stroke and, after nothing was found, sent back home.
        He then got a neighbour to do some shopping for him and GAVE HIM HIS DEBIT CARD WITH PIN NUMBER to pay for it.
        Guess what? Neighbour appears, and I stress, “appears” to have helped himself, though with stepson, one can never be certain.
        Also, after several years of me trying to control one of his accounts, he discovered he could go the the Building Society and draw cash over the counter, at which point I gave up.
        Fast forward a few weeks to his claim for PIP being reinstated, over a year and a half after he was released from the Mental Health unit in Derby, and the back payment was paid into that account.
        Over £6,000.
        That has now all gone. Frittered away on God knows what.

        1. Oh my goodness Bob , you have taken on a challenge that appears to have no successful outcome .

          You have your own health to consider , having said that , I believe you don’t have selfish bone in your body.

          Isn’t enough enough now?

        2. Oh, BoB.
          Where do you start … or finish?
          In the ‘bad old days’ Stepson would have been kept warm, fed, properly medicated under constant supervision and his finances managed by the hospital.
          Of course, since human beings are fallible, things didn’t always run smoothly, but MB and I both think it was a better system than the current ‘Don’t Care In The Community’; now with added wokery to ensure nobody does anything.
          But you know all this through bitter experience.

  21. Any gas engineers here?

    I let a flat to an elderly couple and have to do a Gas Safety check each year. In 2021, the working gas pressure on the certificate was 20mbar, and in 2023, it was 21mbar. This year, it came out as 15mbar – a drop of 6mbar from the meter, so the gas engineer suggested the supply pipe was undersized, and slapped an ‘At Risk’ notice on it. I cannot explain the huge drop in the last year. Nothing has changed, and 22mm has been adequate since the 1990s for one combi boiler and a gas cooker in a flat about 5 metres from the meter. There are no gas leaks, and the appliances are both safe.

    A new pipe would cost thousands.

    Looking at websites indicates that this is crucial when making changes, but doesn’t explain huge variations where there has been no work and all else is functioning properly.

    Anyone with experiences of this sort of thing?

    Being a landlord is a mug’s game, and the sooner I can sell up, the better, but I am reluctant to evict my tenants, who are quite frail.

    1. I’m not an engineer but suggest your best plan is to get another gas engineer in to do a gas safety check. If it was alright in the past and nothing has changed then it is quite possible that a new reading will be satisfactory.

      1. Good morning Squire, it’s nice to see you at the start of a day, even if you’re not an early morning person 😁

    2. 6 mbar is nothing, I’d get a second reading and ensure the pipe is completely clean and empty

    3. Supply pressure reduced at the gasworks, or a supply valve partly closed, or new tappings from the supply pipe with no compensating measures by the gasworks?
      Pipe has become corroded internally (due to gas supplied with water vapour in it) throttling the flow? Water vapour and hydrocarbons can also form a very hard wax if it’s cold enough (hydrate plugging) – might be OK if it warms up.
      Measurement error / poorly calibrated pressure gauge?
      Always assuming the gas engineer wasn’t touting for business…

    4. I cannot explain the huge drop in the last year.

      Your usage is probably uneconomic Jeremy. The gas company has reduced the flow further back on your line.

      1. It cannot be the gas company since the pressure at the meter was ok.

        A trick of the trade might be to partly shut off the supply valve after connecting the gauge in order to give a lower reading – the equivalent of a thumb on the scales.

  22. Good Moaning.
    I will start the day with a Geography exam.

    “A British family who were hounded out of Portugal by locals who branded them ‘English pigs’ were told their situation ‘wasn’t desperate enough’ for them to be deserving of help after they fled back to the UK, a friend has revealed.

    Lynn and Richard Appleby-Brisco moved to the Mediterranean country’s Guarda district in 2016 with plans to start a more ‘affordable’ life with their two young daughters.”

    4. Portugal isn’t the Mediterranean.
      From what I have seen on TV programmes about brits abroad.
      There are many who move in and start breeding animals, such as Lamas and Alpacas, building campsites for ‘glamping’, building log cabins for holiday let’s etc.
      It might be the reason for being disliked.

      1. Maybe not learning the language and complaining about everything doesn’t help.

        1. I came top in geography once apon-a-time. 🤗
          And top in woodwork, with a broken arm. 🤣😅

    2. Apparently it’s not true that he’s in hospital…they were just getting our hopes up for nothing!

  24. Good morning, all. Blue sky all around at the moment. Hoping for a calmer day than yesterday, rain, hail and squalls that whipped the trees about harder – being in leaf didn’t help – than any of last winter’s gales did.

    Yesterday poppiesmum put up a comment re the stabbing of a priest in Australia. By following the X comment reporting the stabbing l found another comment. If the sentiment of the words below hold true then many politicians and those they’ve coerced, manipulated etc. should be concerned. And rightly so!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5e7d1e5e165cc93aa20d8f14abd2493f35e23f399aebfe11bec3b2729bbaa3e.png

  25. Good morning everyone from Helicon home of the muses and the kingdom of Mercia with the burning arrows of Zeus and my Anglo Saxon long bow in handbag.

    Beethoven symphony no 6 ‘ pastoral ‘ to waken me from my slumber today, glorious music.

    1. You must get through lots of handbags with storing burning arrows and clothyard shafts in them!

      1. Yes , handbag are a mysterious thing and like the tardis inside 🙂

    1. Fair comment. But I wonder how much it costs us for the continuing for life, personal security for for instance previous PMs who only travel or holiday abroad ?
      I suspect that they don’t have to chip in for the supposedly continuous cover.

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    My word that wind with horizontal rain was horrendous yesterday.
    Much calmer this morning.
    Of course western civilised countries should support Israel. The only people who would not want to, are alongside the destructive aggressors.
    We’ve seen them waving the flags of hate.
    If we don’t support Israel, it will be the end of all western civilisation. The potential nuisance has been allowed to spread across the globe.

  28. More law

    A by the way:

    High Court judge removed from case over Garrick Club membership

    Alleged rape victim claims she would be ‘prejudiced’ if Sir Jonathan Cohen oversaw hearing.

    This should be overturned immediately.

    Where will it stop

    White Judges not allowed to to ‘try’ cases with associated with no-whites
    Women (if we can still call them that) not allowed on cases involving men.
    Hetero sexuals and LGBTetcers
    Motorists non-motorists
    Old/young
    Ethnic Brits/immigrants
    etc

    They will have to have a whole new sector of Justice as this could spread down to your magistrates court

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/15/high-court-judge-removed-case-over-garrick-membership/

  29. Morning, Maggie.
    I second that, but families are always over a barrel.
    MB and I have seen this sort of situation so many times over the past 50 years.

  30. I am trying to back off, but the official bodies are not interested because “he can cope”.

    2. The good old chicken and egg.
      If you backed off and left him to it, the ‘professionals’ would let things drift and then blame his family.

    3. Official bodies won’t do anything anyway. Just send round well paid bods to fill in copious forms – after which you’ll never hear from them again.

  32. Especially, I wager, since “Don’t Care In The Community” was put in place.

  33. The Self-Obsession at the Heart of Putin’s Wartime Psychology. 16 April 2024.

    Another of Putin’s tenets is that the West is trying to enact revenge for the defeats of Napoleon and Hitler. Apparently, that is why it supposedly attacked Russia on the territory of Ukraine. Hearing this may be laughable or frightening but it allows us to understand the picture of the world goes on in the mind of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Armed Forces. The world he lives in and reacts to, including war, has some important characteristics that have nothing to do with reality.

    Cod psychology at its most deranged in the service of propaganda. Vlad has never said any such thing.

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/04/15/the-self-obsession-at-the-heart-of-putins-wartime-psychology-a84846

    1. They seem to have given up on Vlad being fatally ill, so a different line needed. Perhaps the Russian health service actually works somewhat better than our national treasure.

    2. The well known issue is that any leader, especially an autocratic one, that has been in power for more than a few years loses touch with reality and starts to exhibit mad behaviour even if they are not themselves clinically insane. Those that surround them are ambitious, afraid and/or sycophantic who won’t be truthful because of the personal consequences, in Vlad’s case them falling out of a window or spending one’s last days freezing to death in an Arctic Gulag.
      The Greeks called it the ‘tragic cycle’. One sees it in business regularly.
      Of course, some, like Sunak, were clearly out of touch to begin with.

  34. Good day all, and the 77th of course,

    Windy at McPhee Towers with clear blue skies above scudding low cloud. No chem-trails today. Too windy aloft for them. Wind at ground level from the North-West, 8℃ rising to 12℃ later.

    Appalling taste. Despicable. An offence to all breast cancer victims.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e82ff015f3bfe7ce23e5029dc9ff9dd659eec0a9b44092e334b4dceff12c692f.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/15/wellcome-beauty-exhibition-trans-curators-breasts-jar/

    For some reason the comments will not load on my iMac. I’d love to see them

    1. I’m off for my yearly mammogram this afternoon. Following a successful removal of cancer from my breast and lymph nodes I am delighted to be ‘in the system’ and get checked. That sort of disgusting ‘art’ makes me ashamed for these thick-headed cretins.

      1. Good luck Sue .

        I had to notify them and make an appointment now that I am older ..

        We have a travelling unit which parks up outside supermarkets and cottage hospitals, etc .

        Older age groups don’t take them up , and a classic example of that was when mother in law used to stay with us .. I helped her shower when she was in her eighties, and I had fifty thousand fits when I saw her breast / and a shockingly inverted nipple ..

        We whizzed her back up to the mammary unit in Southampton .. the usual diagnosis , radio therapy, no op , but along recovery period , sadly saw men of all ages requiring similar ops .. yes , men succumb also . What a shock for them ..

        1. Thank you Belle! It’s always a worry, but even more so now. They found the lump, which was very small, in a routine check in a van in the hospital car park, and I was in for the op within 4 weeks. Amazing what can be done!
          To see that silly woman pretending to be a brave pioneer for the arts, makes me sick.

        2. Having been treated twice for breast cancer – surgery, radiotherapy but not chemo, I had 10 years follow up each time. I no longer go for mammograms as I’m not convinced being squashed does them any good. Also the machines are so sensitive they pick up tiny things which might mean over-treatment.

      1. I guess ‘trans’ in that context meant she had them removed for reasons other than breast cancer.

      2. “If her brain was in the other jar I might pop along to see it.”

        Don’t forget to take your microscope!

      1. 386111+ up ticks,

        Morning FA,
        If we accept that then we must accept the fact we are being made deserved dead at the hands of the political overseers via jab & cull.

        Unless we………….

    4. Apparently they used to put pictures of Napoleon up in order to frighten the children. “Bony will get you” was the threat.

      That picture of the Satanic monster is terrifying – it makes me realise that however evil Mrs May most certainly is she is a mere novice at wickedness compared with this Prince of Darkness.

  36. It’s just encouraged tobaco/cigarette smuggling on a huge scale.
    Everything they come into contact with…….

  37. Morning all ,
    Windy chill, huge clouds ,some patches of blue . 10c

    The bird feeders are empty again , they must scoff the lot at daybreak .

    I have read through the DT letters, nothing stands out .

    I enjoy the DT L comments ..

    Pompous Pirate
    34 MIN AGO
    Maurice West, the BBC must be the worst example of accent bias. They seem to be employing ever greater numbers of people for whom English is not the primary language. Listening is becoming an evermore miserable and challenging experience as poor pronunciation is destroying effective communication

    Reply by peter fetherston.

    PF

    peter fetherston
    32 MIN AGO
    Innit the troof bruv!

    Reply by David Arrowsmith.

    DA

    David Arrowsmith
    30 MIN AGO
    I’m still trying to work out who Sofee Raiwerf is.

    1. We’re off to the tip this morning – the results of the weekend’s gardening efforts……..

      1. Papa’s takin’ us to the tip tomorrow, tip tomorrow, tip tomorrow
        and we can stay all day! 🙂

  38. Sunak to give Rwanda £50m if deportation bill passed into law. 16 April 2024.

    Rishi Sunak will hand over £50m to Rwanda as soon as his flagship deportation bill is passed into law, it emerged on Monday.

    On Monday night, MPs voted through plans to forcibly send asylum seekers to east Africa if they arrived in the UK via small boats. The bill, one of the most controversial pieces of legislation passed in decades, is expected to pass into law at some point this week after further criticisms and amendments in the Lords.

    It comes after the number of people travelling by small boat to seek asylum in the UK hit a new daily record in 2024 of 534 people on Sunday. The deal will cost UK taxpayers about £1.8m for each asylum seeker, according to Whitehall’s official auditor, although no one has so far been deported.

    Yes and no one is going to be deported either without a fat pay cheque drawn on the Bank of Rwanda.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/15/sunak-to-give-rwanda-50m-if-deportation-bill-passed-into-law

    1. How very free and easy Sunak is at spending taxpayers’ money.

      I was brought up with the idea that if I was spending somebody else’s money I had to be more careful than if I were spending my own.

      There has been a sea change in this sort of thinking: now the thought is that it does not matter if you splash other people’s money about as it doesn’t cost you anything.

    3. The profligate, inefficient and mostly incompetent UK government strikes again, in other words.

  39. Replica Trophies – ROCA Trophy
    Dear Conway, regarding your yesterday’s post, when my dear departed Wife and her partner won an All-Kent Bridge Trophy in 2006/7 I had a local firm make up some simple, fairly inexpensive Replica trophies, one each so that they had something to remember their triumph when they had to return the silver original. I got a big hug from her lady partner. Here’s my (redacted) example. It’s a nice touch, one for each if there’s a team. They might even contribute!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e686af07ce3aaca91f074ff2a0d3f9d9eba16f2b79d446dafff2444165caf151.jpg

      1. Yo tim

        If someone else takes your picture and posts it on here, does that break the rule?

      2. That’s BT’s rule and it’s a rule he breaks quite frequently! He posts pictures of himself, his cats and his vegetables as much as I post some of my own pictures.

      3. Hey Bro’, You talkin’ ’bout my almost-invisible Selfie reflected in the pot? My face is even redacted too, by the ‘camera’.

    3. Thank you for that, rc. This is in the form of a goblet – very modern. I doubt very much it’s silver. I do have some cups like the ones in your photo. They represent victories of my racehorses.

  41. The vile bastards…..Every where they go they cause as much trouble as they can.

  42. ‘Aggers’ and Michael Deacon are spot-on.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c0f6507c81cf4e266c95fd4c95fa3d3db395f47ccc53b849b59c58a30c8fa2c.png https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/16/aggers-right-new-woke-jargon-ruining-sport/

    It’s batsman and in the ladies game, batswoman.

    Likewise it’s not the Men’s Six Nations, or the Men’s Rugby World Cup, it’s the Six Nations and The Rugby World Cup which can be prefixed with ‘Women’s’ if they insist on playing men’s games and having parallel tournaments. Jeff Probyn was right.

    1. My old school, Blundell’s, got to the semi-finals of the Schools National Rugby cup two years running. This year they lost to Harrow, the winning finalists.

      I would be interested to see how a good school’s Ist XV would fare against the Women’s National side. I remember that when I was at school the boy’s athletics records were about the same as the Women’s national records. For example Anne Packer set the World 800 Metres in 2m01.1s in 1964 the year that a school friend of mine set a new school record for 880 yards at 2m00.0s.

      1. Men are always stronger and more muscular than women – it’s a good reason why trans men should never be allowed to compete against women.

      2. What! The school side would crush the women to the extent that the match would be extremely dangerous. In football, a considerably less physical game, national women’s teams are invariably thrashed by schoolboy under 15 sides.

      3. If the results of youth’s soccer teams vs a certain women’s international team are anything to go by, an average U.16 school XV would slaughter them. No match physically.

      4. If the results of youth’s soccer teams vs a certain women’s international team are anything to go by, an average U.16 school XV would slaughter them. No match physically.

    2. Morning OLT

      Poor old codger , the Royals don’t age very well , do they apart from our late Queen and Duke of E?

      What do they do with themselves , and do they dine well and are they looked after , or are they like paupers in a rich apartment ..

      Of course , they don’t really talk properly do they , bumble and mumble in the sort of Lordly grunty way they all speak ..

      I can remember when I was a young student nurse , doing my spell on the old sick officer block , which was full of ancient retired gaga Admirals and downed Sea Vixen pilots , and those suffering from deafness and strange diseases caught overseas ..

      Oddly enough , one found that grunts and mumbles or talking loudly became a habit especially after serving 12 weeks on a particular section like that .. and getting back to normality on the normal wards was a bit of wake up moment again .

  44. SWMBO just had an email inviting her to have her Nth booster. I deleted it for her.

      1. She’s a technophobe and gets me to do just about everything for her. She gave up trying to get to grips with a language lab when she was a French teacher in the 1970s! I tear my hair out (what’s left of it) trying to get her to learn to use her iPad properly. She still insists on writing cheques and going into the bank to transfer money ffs! I keep telling her the bank will not be there much longer but it’s water off a duck’s back.

        2. Sounds like me ..

          Guess I am lucky to have a great controller , but I do worry alot , when one hears stories about loss etc.

          I hope I go first .

          1. I still have a cheque-book but I haven’t written one for years. I received one last year from Barclaycard of all people – for a small credit on my account which could have been offset against a future debit – but no, they sent a cheque. Fortunately you can pay them in at the Post Office, if you still have one of those.

          2. Cheques – Hah!

            I recently had to send some Probate documents via First-Class Next Day Noon delivery (£6.45). Of course, they didn’t arrive till the day after that, so I complained and The Post Office (bless ’em) sent me an apology and a compensation cheque for £6.45. I tried to pay it in at home using my Smartphone (as all the Big Four banks seem to be offering, as they quietly disappear one by one from the High Street).

            Guess what! the cheque was the WRONG SHAPE and not the “standard” paper cheque size, so it was not accepted by either of the two banks that I tried, using the Smartphone. So eventually, when I was on my way elsewhere, I had to drive 2.5 miles to my nearest Post Office (free parking, thanks) to pay it in. Both of my previous nearby Post Offices had been closed years ago, perhaps due to alleged fraudulent activity due to the Horizon System. Who knows?

          3. Our local Post Office closed and the nearest one is in the next village, a couple of miles away – but we do have a lady with a van for an hour or so on Mondays and Thursdays with just a ten minute walk down the hill to get to her.

          4. Cheques – Hah!

            I recently had to send some Probate documents via First-Class Next Day Noon delivery (£6.45). Of course, they didn’t arrive till the day after that, so I complained and The Post Office (bless ’em) sent me an apology and a compensation cheque for £6.45. I tried to pay it in at home using my Smartphone (as all the Big Four banks seem to be offering, as they quietly disappear one by one from the High Street).

            Guess what! the cheque was the WRONG SHAPE and not the “standard” paper cheque size, so it was not accepted by either of the two banks that I tried, using the Smartphone. So eventually, when I was on my way elsewhere, I had to drive 2.5 miles to my nearest Post Office (free parking, thanks) to pay it in. Both of my previous nearby Post Offices had been closed years ago, perhaps due to alleged fraudulent activity due to the Horizon System. Who knows?

        3. The bank definitely won’t be there if customers do everything on line and don’t use it!

      2. I am sure he was following her instructions. Would he have dared to disobey?

  45. Here’s a good article from Daily Sceptics on informed consent.

    Informed consent was pretty much side-lined during the covid years and the PTB will be ready to do the same when the WHO come calling with whatever infection they decide to conjure up.
    The WHO, the government, anyone within the medical profession and anyone at all who tries to push some new wonder cure must be ignored. Non-compliance must be the watchword.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61ddf6438dc4540384ebea873546d661242df80bb2ad9adc72b5c6e5c7a24d8b.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15aad28695460a0897a6f84059f23b375e6c9788102ae367e3b33890eb78d3f9.png

      1. So was I. I put a notice in my car saying ‘On essential green maintenance” and lived a normal life.

  46. Latest media row, over St Albans pub The Lower Red Lion ‘banning’ children from the premises. But staying dog friendly.
    Close to the Abbey, lovely Roman Museum, lake and parkland.
    And not far from lots of other pubs. And Verulamium roman arena.
    Been to the pub a few times.
    But there are plenty of other places where kids are welcome. Having been to some of them with our grandchildren, you can’t hear yourself speak.

    1. Husband and I have only just stopped shouting at each other, following a visit to the dreaded Soft Play Area! Deafening doesn’t describe it! And the heat…

    2. I’ve eaten there a couple of times and the food was very good indeed. Recommended to me as the best pub food in St Albans.

      1. There are some very good restaurants in St Albans.
        An old friend of mine use to belong to the Pub singing group.

  47. Sadly Mrs B prefers the Radio Times to other similar magazines so we take it despite the effect on my blood pressure from the inevitable pinko article or two. This week however “they” have excelled themselves by allowing the arch to$$er Packham to “guest edit” the magazine – a full house of absolute Bolleau!

    1. Reading the story, it would appear that he is of Pakistani origin (of the gang, 5 were Pakistani, 2 Eritrean). Therefore he should be deported to Pakistan when released.

        1. ‘Human Rights’. The lawyers will be claiming his right to a family life in the UK.

          2. That is what I always think when such a case is presented – the family can be together in the offender’s home country. Nothing is stopping them all moving there.

      1. Not a chance. He probably won’t be tagged either. He can just go back to doing what he does best.

  49. Family friendly Pubs are great. When i see ‘that’ sign i know to avoid. Same with Pubs advertising big screen TV.

    I do accept that if a place is doing a carvery then there will be children present. That’s fine. It’s my choice. And choice is what it should all be about.

    1. I wonder if the school has “multifaith” washing facilities? I know that none of the schools I attended had ….

    2. End of Round 1.

      I see that Mms Birbalsingh has won for the moment.

      But just as Remainers are determined to overturn Brexit Islamic fanatics will be determined to overthrow the result,

  51. Here’s a laugh.
    Our youngest has been in Dubai for a week, his father Aka me, has been known to the family as ‘Rain man’ for decades could be off the hook.
    It’s raining in Dubai now. 🌧☔️

    1. Apparently cloud seeding takes place and the drainage can’t cope with the rain fall.

    2. You have passed on your special skill.
      I don’t suppose you have been to Death Valley recently. One of the hottest places on earth is in full bloom.

      1. But driving from Gladstone in Qld to Melbourne we passed through but stayed over one night in an outback town called Coonabarrabran.
        It hadn’t rain for 3 years……….
        I’m still waiting for the cheque.

  52. Don’t ask whether he’s been vaxxed:

    Roma defender Evan Ndicka is in “good spirits” in hospital after collapsing during his side’s Serie A match at Udinese on Sunday.

    The Serie A game was abandoned after the 24-year-old Ivory Coast player collapsed in the 72nd minute and was taken off on a stretcher.

    He appeared to be conscious as he left the pitch, with the score 1-1.

    Roma posted a photo of him in hospital, saying he “feels better” and that his team-mates had visited.

    The statement added: “He will remain under observation for tests in hospital.”

    After Ndicka’s collapse, Roma’s medical staff and emergency services were called on to the pitch and after discussions with the referee, the match was abandoned.

    Ndicka joined Roma on a free transfer from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2023 and has made 19 appearances for the Italian club.

    Roberto Pereyra had given Udinese an early lead before striker Romelu Lukaku equalised for Roma.

    The remainder of the match is now set to be played at a later date.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68813346

    BTW, I’ve never heard of a “remainder of the match” being replayed.

    1. If you had enough money in gold to buy a house, wouldn’t you buy a house and live in it?

      I think what they are saying though is that when the currency is going pants, best to have something under the floorboards that is worth something.

      The face value of a gold sovereign was once £1. I remember giving one to my girlfriend as a safeguard when she went travelling in 1981, when it was worth around £50. Today’s price for one sovereign is £450. The pretty little 12-sided coin that the King adorned with bees is worth about the same as the little 12-sided brass coin that George VI introduced in 1937.

      1. They ought to re-issue pound coins in real copper, which would reflect its real value today. At the moment, even our copper coins are fakes – copper plated steel.
        But they keep the sham going in the hope that people won’t realise how the currency has been devalued.

          3. I filled the car up and did some shopping yesterday. I paid in cash using the exact amount. The cashiers were very pleased, for some reason.

        2. What makes me chuckle is a little coin the Royal Mint make for the Poles – the 1 grosz. A sweet little bright brass thing, which is worth 0.2p (about an old halfpenny). The Poles prize the things and hand them out assiduously in change.

      2. I already have a house. Mortgage free. That’s why i have invested in gold. Among other things.

    2. My investment has increased by £8,000 since 12/09/22.

      It is obvious from the article that our governments and banks have been robbing us blind since forever.

      1. You mean, that the pound has depreciated by that much in value! Your investment has stayed the same!

        1. I have no intention of converting it into currency. This is to be used to bribe passage out when the shit hits the fan.

    3. Gordon Brown is the only man I know who managed to lose money with gold. I expect he managed to buy un discounted furniture at DFS too!

    1. It is clear that they conspired to crash the economy to get rid of her and install their pathetic, wimpish Indian dwarf in her place.

    2. Undoubtedly. However you can still see the one comment wonders spring up. Accounts specifically posting ONLY anti-Truss waffle, then vanishing.

    3. I read that and thought the Tories would be much better off sacking little Sanook and getting her back. Not Boris though.

  56. Hallelujah!!

    Prayer ban at Katharine Birbalsingh’s school is lawful, High Court rules

    3. Very unwise decision.

      There will definitely be demonstrations by Muslims outside the house(s) of the judge(s) and

      just like in Batley, the Police won’t protect them.

    4. Delighted, if a little surprised by an outbreak of common sense, but now surely there will be a further appeal and if that fails more direct intimidation??

    5. But will it end there?

      Maybe Ms Birbalsingh should now try and persuade the Batley teacher to come out of hiding and go and teach at her Michaela School?

    6. Yes! Heard that on the news heading back to Step-son’s after an outing to Leek and cheered!

  58. Gareth Roberts
    Why can’t Stonewall’s ex-boss come clean about its trans obsession?
    16 April 2024, 6:03am

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Screenshot-2024-04-15-at-14.48.30.png
    Ex-Stonewall boss Ruth Hunt

    The few days since the publication of the Cass report – the probe into ‘gender identity’ services for young people – have been a revelation. The report, compiled by Dr Hilary Cass, has at long last, and so publicly it couldn’t be ignored, blown some of the gilt off the trans gingerbread, confirming that medical interventions on minors weren’t backed up by solid research. This has woken up some of the great and the good, who have finally realised that parroting phrases like ‘trans women are women’ might not have been such a wise idea.

    One of those who used those four words beloved of activists was Education Secretary Gillian Keegan. Back in 2020, Keegan told her constituency LGBT Forum in Chichester that ‘trans women are women’. For that stance, PinkNews praised Keegan as a ‘rare LGBTQ+ ally in Rishi Sunak’s cabinet’. But following the report’s publication, the Tory minister sounded a more sceptical note: ‘We must not let the gender ideology of a small but vocal lobby push their agendas at the expense of young people’. I couldn’t agree more – but it’s a pity it took Keegan so long to wise up to what unfolded under a government of which she is a part. At a recent select committee on the subject, Keegan seemed breathtakingly lightly-informed, uninterested, and apparently thinking longingly of knocking off and getting the train home. ‘Damn, now I’ve definitely missed the 15:35 – but I could still catch the 16:02 …’

    Then there’s pop science rent-a-sceptic and the president of UK Humanists Adam Rutherford. In response to a tweet from women’s rights campaigner Maya Forstater suggesting that he could use his role to educate those criticising the methodology of the Cass report, Rutherford meekly replied, ‘It’s not something I know much about’. It must be galling for Rutherford, as the foremost communicator for science and a critic of bad research and quackery, to have – somehow – missed the big medical/scientific scandal story of the age.

    Keegan and Rutherford aren’t the most egregious examples of people who appears to have been woken up by the intervention of Cass. Under the watch of Ruth Hunt, Stonewall was transformed from a gay rights charity into a organisation that focused on ‘trans inclusion’. In doing so, the concerns of lesbian and gay people were pushed aside. For her troubles, Hunt was made a life peer by Theresa May in 2019. Now, from her perch in the House of Lords, Hunt insists she is ‘absolutely someone who has always been working in the middle ground, trying to build consensus’.

    Really? That stance comes as a surprise to gay folk who felt excluded by Stonewall’s near obsession with the T in LGBT. It is also hard to square the view of Stonewall as an organisation seeking ‘consensus’ with what Hunt said in October 2018 to a petition asking Stonewall to acknowledge there was a conflict around transgender rights and sex-based women’s rights. She wrote back then: ‘We do not and will not acknowledge this. Doing so would imply that we do not believe that trans people deserve the same rights as others. We will always debate issues that enable us to further equality but what we will not do is debate trans people’s right to exist.’

    Hunt now seems to be trying every tactic in the ‘wriggling on the hook’ book; ‘I think there was a responsibility [regarding puberty blockers etc] on the NHS, schools and social services. So it wasn’t in my gift to either make this better or worse … I trusted the experts, and I think we all did that. And that is something we regret.’ But Miss, everyone else was doing it, Miss!

    Stonewall’s former boss should come clean about what really unfolded under her watch: the Times reported over the weekend that the charity tried to suppress early warnings to schools about the shaky evidence base for medical transitions for children. Back in 2018, campaigners sent out resource packs to schools warning teachers there was little medical evidence to support puberty blockers. Stonewall’s response was to brand the pack ‘dangerous’ material, ‘masquerading as a professional, ‘evidence-based’ advice’.

    Hunt has denied that Stonewall suppressed debate around transgender healthcare. But something doesn’t quite add up. Perhaps we should welcome Hunt’s reaction to the Cass report. This, after all, was someone who said in 2020 that ‘bad-faith transphobia manifests itself by presuming that trans women are inherently out to deceive, and that trans women are men’. But even if Hunt has changed her tune, I am wary of declaring that this battle is over.

    If Cass is at least the beginning of the end of this madness, I think what we need to talk about and learn from is fear. I strongly suspect that these three, and many others, were afraid, and reasonably so. I think they saw what was happening to people who did speak up – the intimidation and career/financial ruin wrought on Allison Bailey, Rosie Kay, Christian Henson, Graham Linehan – and they were terrified of that happening to them. So they went along with something that was obviously horrific.

    Unlike Hunt, Linehan, Bailey and the other critics of the trans movement haven’t landed a cushy seat in the Lords. And what about those young people who ended up going down the medical route in the mistaken hope that it would alleviate their gender-related distress?

    The days of NHS England handing out puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children are thankfully at an end. But in order for any proper lessons to be learned from this gender scandal, those who failed to call out the trans mob – or even ended up parroting their words – should take some time to properly consider where they went wrong.

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

    Lancastrian Oik
    5 hours ago
    Under the watch of Ruth Hunt, Stonewall was transformed from a gay rights charity into a organisation that focused on ‘trans inclusion’. In doing so, the concerns of lesbian and gay people were pushed aside. For her troubles, Hunt was made a life peer by Theresa May in 2019.

    Again, that stupid treacherous cow’s fingerprints are all over this.

    Dahlia Travers Lancastrian Oik
    5 hours ago edited
    Add ‘terminally self-righteous’ to your descriptors of Mrs May.

    Dahlia Travers
    5 hours ago
    Please, please can the next journalist who interviews Wes Streeting go into some detail with him about how Stonewall came to be so influential in public life? Streeting was previously Stonewall’s ‘Director of Education’ and should be prepared to discuss candidly what happened. This is not to suggest that he necessarily approves of the direction it took under Ruth Hunt: indeed he may well deplore it as much as Gareth Roberts and some other gay and lesbian individuals do, but it is important to lay bare the way that so called third sector organisations have managed to get a foot in the door, grown fat on public money while pursuing their initial purpose and then grown even fatter while developing a further agenda.

    2. There is no interest in gays or trans. The intent is to use public money to force an agenda.

      It’s funny – I look at the Warqueen and this Ruth Hunt person and I see two completely opposite ends of the gender. I also see two diametrically opposed view points. One seeks power over others through force (the Hunt person), the other works to provide for themselves (el warqueeno)..

      I wonder if this is because the Hunt person has no useful skill, talent, intelligence or ability?

  59. BREAKING NEWS on GBNews

    National Conservatism Conference shut down by police as Nigel Farage speaks.

    2. “The authorities decided to shut the event due to possibility of public disorder”.

      So much for freedom of speech. Just claim that there could be “a possibility of public disorder” if a meeting were to go ahead.

    3. Police attempt to shut down Conservative conference as Farage speaks. 16 April 2024.

      Police officers in Brussels are attempting to shut down a conservative conference as Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman speak at the event.

      They arrived to issue a notice to close the National Conservatism summit after a municipal mayor ordered the event be shut down on security grounds.

      Emir Kir, the mayor of Saint Josse, said: “I issued an order from the Mayor to ban the National Conservatism Conference event to guarantee public safety. In Etterbeek, Brussels City and Saint-Josse, the far-right is not welcome.”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/16/rishi-sunak-latest-news-smoking-ban-simon-clarke-liz-truss/

  60. I had a cardio review recently. Blood test and a week of Blood pressure monitoring. Result was i needed my Ramipril dose increasing. They changed the Pharmacy to a local one without my permission. I normally have my Meds sent from Boots online in the post.
    Because of the increased dosage i a was running out so ordered more. This was refused because the prescribing team believed i had enough. They had not been told that i was to take double. So i ordered again telling them why they were mistaken.
    The new pills arrived on the day i ran out.
    Now…This morning i had a call from the cardio team and they want to do all of that again and increase the dosage yet again.
    Blood test booked and a new prescription would be waiting for me at the practice.
    Went to the practice at 10 this morning. Eight people in the queue in front of of me.
    At 11 am i walked out. The queue had reduced by one person.
    Went for a coffee and smoke.
    Came back at 11.20 and six people still in the queue.
    I gave up..

    1. Smoking kills…………so does stress.

      My OH went to the surgery yesterday for his three monthly antigen jab (for prostate cancer) and the nurse did his blood pressure & heart rate etc. Heart rate is now a very normal 65. The cardioversion he had at the end of January seems to have worked. He does seem to have more energy now.

      1. Good news for your husband.

        Given that all this i am dealing with is about getting my blood pressure down, it isn’t working.

        1. He’s still on a load of meds as well. But blood pressure was always on the low side.

        3. I guess what mine is each time before it is tested and I am usually spot on.

          My guess is that it is now 12/8 thanks to spironolactone.

        4. Dealing with medical professionals who already know how the body deals with a stress response through the fight or flight response https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-fight-or-flight-response-2795194 leads me to believe that in many cases doctors are using predictable patient responses inappropriately for their own targeted remuneration.

          Smoking is an effective and easy way to deal with a stressful situation:

          Stress plays an important role in starting to cigarette smoking; it also has a role in increasing consumption and leads to less effort for the cessation smoking (9, 10). It seems that one of the reasons for smokers’ tendency to have smoked while having stress is the presence of nicotine in the cigarette, which can reduce stress, even if it has a temporary effect.

          https://brieflands.com/articles/jjhs-83121#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20emotion%2Dfocused,and%20cannot%20reduce%20negative%20mood.

          But it must be remembered that the emotion-focused coping strategies of smoking, whilst reducing the symptoms of stress, do not address the main source of stress.

        5. Actually Phizz, I’ve had high blood pressure most of my adult life, even when I was playing decent level sports.

          I’ve fought against taking medication for ages, and will continue to do so, and I have my own BP monitor (very accurate and only about £30) and am able to control my BP on a day-to-day basis.

          For What Its Worth I found the single biggest positive thing I did was to move to decaf tea and, more importantly, coffee. It knocked 15-20 points off my top level reading – I know bumble around at 130-140/80-90 – moving to low sodium salt/low salt helped also but not as much.

          Anecdotal I know, and you may already be doing it. If not, it’s worth a try!

          1. I appreciate your input. The type of un named medics from my Practice are just pushing drugs.

      3. My oncologist would like me to give up smoking but not it the stress involved is going to have an adverse effect on me, He is s good chap – open minded. Tells me that if I find a complimentary therapy that works for me then use it.

        1. My mother chain-smoked after she was widowed when I was four – I thought that was the normal way to smoke. Clearly she was under a great deal of stress at that time.
          She survived to the age of 80, but by then she had reduced her intake to a low level, and in her final illness she stopped smoking altogether as she found it made her feel ill.

        2. Is complimentary therapy when someone comes round to your place and tells you just how good you look, what a fine person you are, and what great taste you have?
          ;-))

        3. Cigarettes should be free of tax. Since smokers die earlier then non smokers (on average obviously) smoking saves the Chancellor a huge amount of pension money.

          2. Those hordes should not be allowed to use the NHS as they have not contributed to it.

          3. I could not agree more. I am increasingly foxed by the prevalent (BBC promoted) idea that the Gubmint owns everything and has endless money to dole out to its chosen recipients. The Government owns nothing, it is employed by the people to administer the nuts and bolts (eg pot-hole fixing, access to life-saving healthcare) of our society and to use our money wisely to our advantage – not to steal from us and boss us about at our expense.

      4. Taken a day off work because last night I was totally stressed out, mostly due to getting nothing noticeably done, at home or work, for the last few months. Slept until I woke up, slept again, did some light physical in the garden (assisted by the jetwash…) and now slumped in sofa enjoying a pint of IPA. Stress levels noiceably reduced compared with yesteday, but it’s so quickly reversed – lost my rag when I couldn’t find the right screwdriver… so one day off won’t fix it.

    2. I think I must be one of the lucky ones. Doc usually rings me before I get around to calling her. Sometimes 8pm call from her. So fortunate that the day I caved in and consulted the Doc she was the duty Doctor. She pushed through all of the scans – which found the tumour – pushed the radiation treatment. Been there with me every step of the way. The only fly in the ointment is the Pharmacy 🙂

      1. Some are good some not so good.
        Glad you got the treatment you need in good time and i am sure all of us on here with you the very best possible outcome.

        Puppies help too.

          1. My latest one is an absolute joy. He is also intelligent. He makes Dolly look a right thicko. :@)

          4. Noooo, Spartie.
            Stop reading over my shoulder ………!!!!!
            Aaarrgghhhhhh ………………………………

          5. Kadi’s blond, but he seems quite switched on. Clever on his own side, as they say.

  61. National Portrait Gallery wrongly claims art dealer built career using slavery money
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/15/national-portrait-gallery-edward-fox-white-wrong-slavery/
    What really angers me about this constant denigration by the ‘Woke’ is that you can literally go on to You Tube and see African men, women and children being sold as slaves in the market place today, in the present. Not hundreds of years ago but now. And what are the self righteous prigs that run out institutions doing about that? Nothing, bugger all, nada. They deserve to be pilloried and pelted with every obnoxious substance that people can lay their hands on because they are really the epitome of hypocritical evil.

    1. English people were sold as well – remember “The Mayor of Casterbridge”? People here – our ancestors were serfs and slaves too – it was universal. But the “woke” ignore that or are just ignorant.

      1. The BBC did a very good dramatization of the Mayor of Casterbridge in 1978 with Alan Bates playing the eponymous role.

      2. A little while ago I read that people on the South coast, Cornwell etc, fishermen, were fearful of going to sea because often it meant they would return to an empty village with all of their relatives taken by the Barbary pirates.

        1. The Anglo-Saxons had slaves.
          The Normans had serfs.
          I doubt the slave who became a serf c.1067 noticed any difference in his lot.

          1. Most of them were villeins. I believe there was a slight difference between the two. Villeins held land from their Lord of the manor in return for which they had to work on his land rather than pay rent. They were not free to leave the village, or marry or allow their son to join the Church without his consent, which usually meant a payment. Some were able to make enough money selling surplus food etc that they were able to buy their freedom.

    2. I wish somebody would sell the Archpillock into slavery. Trouble is nobody would pay anything for him.

      1. Could not agree with you more Rastus. He really is a wrecking ball for the Anglican Church. A disaster and a half!

  62. Trip to the tip was straightforward, and stopped off on the way back for a couple of things and two bags of compost….

    1. YO R Sk

      Shirley, the meters caused road users to be billed, not ‘themselves’

    2. ‘Smart’ means neat and tidy.
      ‘Dumb’ means mute.
      ‘Mean’ means tight-fisted or average.

      I abhor their abuse to mean ‘clever’, ‘stupid’ and ‘nasty’, respectively, by the linguistically-challenged across the Atlantic.

      1. When I was ten years old (in 1964) my family left the US and moved to the UK. I remember how people would laugh in disbelief when I said ‘guys’. Once I phoned a cinema and forgetting where I was asked what the ‘movies’ were that afternoon. Great entertainment for the parochial staff.

        By the time I went to university the word ‘guy’ had been in vogue for some time and there was always a midnight movie at weekends.

        Revindicated I resolved to always use Americanisms if I could. Sooner or later everyone will buy gas in a gas station and a wrench in the hardware store on the bluff.

        You’re on the losing side.

        1. Nobody buys ‘gas’ in ‘gas stations’ here – we buy petrol or diesel at a garage or filling station.

          I don’t use faucets or diapers either.

          1. Yeah, but you’ll get there. As I already set out in my post no one said ‘guys’ or ‘movies’ either. It takes time.

        2. Hello Rob and welcome if you are a newbie. BTW. You have just picked a fight you are going to lose. :@)

          1. Rob Bidochon: A Cautionary Limerick

            Rob’s penìs had grown somewhat lanker
            And appeared to be suff’ring some canker
            He went to the Doc
            Who told him his cοck
            Would improve when he stopped being a wαnker.

            Sadly Bidochon failed to take his doctor’s advice as attested by his posts on this thread.

          3. If it is Bidochon, yes. He has and continues to be an absolute pain over at the Spectator. He has blocked me because I mock him with limericks.

          4. Trolls don’t last long on here. Nottlers are not just virtual. Many of us have met for lunches.
            Limericks are good. I consider that gentle teasing.
            There is a blog anniversary lunch due around the end of the month if Geoff Graham has time to organise one. Don’t know which region yet.

          6. It is assumption I have made. Someone called Rob who has either blocked me or vice versa made a comment and a nottler told him his opinion was not likely to find favour here. I assumed it was none other than Harman/Bidochon.

          11. Bidochon is quite active now at The Spectator. But this other person Phizee I don’t think is the same at all, but I’ve blocked him. First time I’ve ever blocked anyone.

          12. Why on earth have you blocked Phizee? Anyway, he certainly isn’t Bidochon but someone here said they thought that you might be!

          13. Not a very nice guy. His comments crossed the line of polite conversation.
            Robert Bidochon has a house in France and lives in Southwest London. I don’t believe he’s ever been to America.
            I have lived in three countries mainly Spain. Quite different people I’m afraid.

          14. I am aware that you and Bidochon are not the same. For a start you comment in the Speccie too and your comments are quite different.

          17. Only the second post of yours i have seen and you have bored me already. Well done !
            You certainly sound like a fat head American. Why haven’t you integrated?

          18. A fat head American? My goodness, you are looking to make friends, aren’t you?
            It’s amazing how vulnerable and offensive people can show themselves to be when some cherished belief is exposed as baloney.

          19. I have many friends on here. You don’t at the moment. My advice would be to you not to tell people what things should be but to discuss what they could be. You have already failed once. Why not try again. We welcome all sane people here.

          20. Actually I have. (‘I do’ would be an Americanism which you don’t seem to mind but I thought might be inappropriate for the moment).
            Don’t be so offensive. It’s only an exchange of opinion about semantics. Gosh, what if we were discussing something more serious?

          21. Me? Offensive? I’m a total cuddle bunny. Ask anyone.

            Get offensive…i like it rough. Provided you pay for the lube and condoms which you will need. :@)

          1. Not only did my peers at university say ‘guys’ a word which had reduced even my teachers to laughter in 1965. But they referred to girls as ‘chicks’. Even I couldn’t resist a cringe when I heard that.

        4. “You’re on the losing side.”

          That is an interesting but massively feeble attempt at provocation, little Bobby, which just failed. Miserably. Others, you included, may grunt whatever vapid noises you choose as you attempt — but serially fail — to communicate with those versed in Standard English. I shall simply continue to ignore the dreadful noise.

          I — and no doubt the majority of my fellow countrymen who were brought up on decorum and grace — will never give in to the trite, unintelligible Americanese slang so beloved of the younger, quarter-witted, generations who are: utterly clueless about reality; possess no ability to perform mental arithmetic; and are vacant-faced when asked questions of general knowledge.

          Such intellectually-challenge specimens of a declining species hold as much interest for me as do the idiotic pastimes that Americans call “sport”; i.e a mind-numbing sequence of unremittingly drawn out “time-outs” punctuated by a few minutes of action every hour.

          Whine away as much as you wish. I shall remain fully in control of my vast English vocabulary despite all attempts by the feeble-minded to curtail it.

          1. Well. I remember in our A level English class the words of GH Vallins inspired us all. ‘Usage is the supreme arbiter of the English language.’ Indeed, I would say, of any language. These words you wish to confine to straitjackets, ‘dumb,smart,mean’ are now used and understood all over the English speaking world as ‘stupid, clever, nasty’. So what?
            You can be as stubborn as you like but you lost that fight a long time ago.
            As I explained in my post, language changes, evolves which is why I decided to use words as I saw fit.

          2. Language certainly does change but I wouldn’t say it is evolving. The evolution of the English language occurred from the time of Chaucer, progressed through such luminaries as Shakespeare, Donne, Jonson and Marlowe, and culminating with the likes of Dickens, The Brontës, Austen and Kipling. Since that time (more than aided by the idiot, Noah Webster) it has plummeted into an unstoppable decline, a progressive retrogression which is already akin to the grunting of our primitive forebears. A deteriorating language for a declining species.

          6. Another facetious piece of advice?
            i?m afraid you’ve gone beyond the limit of polite interchange. I’m going to block you.

          8. I think you have problems with the word ‘evolution’ too.
            The English language, rich and inclusive, is flourishing. It would be churlish to resent its journey throughout the world as it changes from place to place and then brings home its many gifts.
            Be grateful that you can communicate easily with so many people.

        5. When curtains become drapes, the pavement becomes the sidewalk and the road becomes the pavement we might start taking you seriously 😆

    3. Smart Alec is not an oxymoron as far as Fallic’s wizard keyboard playing is concerned!

      How bright must your bottom be to be termed a smart arse without irony?

      2. My local garden centre are happy to put it in the boot for me. Obviously i have to unload it myself but every little bit helps.

        1. Compost sacks have become smaller…….I can manage the 40 litre ones better than the 60ltr ones we used to get.

    1. I know i feel like a bit of gratuitous violence now and again. Don’t think i could manage it full time though.

  68. I could just hear my husband saying ‘I’m fine! Stop fussing!’ 🤦🏻‍♀️

  70. Recently, Jim Ferguson has been on a roll with covid itself, covid “vaccines”, “vaccine” harms and vast amounts of taxpayers’ cash that has been ‘spent’ with little or no positive return.

    Today, Jim has an extended interview with three Dutch people, former Dutch Parliamentarian and business entrepreneur Wybren van Haga, Businessman and Data expert Wouter Aukema and Anne Merel Kloosterman who is representing many vaccine injured.

    I’ve watched the first 25 minutes and the information is riveting, Wouter admits to co-writing a script to obtain data and his presentation of the data is something that I’ve never come across before, he really knows his stuff!

    I will finish watching the video later.

    https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1780143132832641333

    1. On a similar topic, I had lunch today with a friend whose 44 year old niece died of bowel cancer during the convid terror.
      She managed a phone ‘consultation’ with her GP who told her to take laxatives. Week or two later she collapsed; husband took her to hospital where it was discovered she had terminal cancer.

  71. BBC Radio 4 News giving airtime to Muzzies complaining about recent school/prayers verdict. Haven’t linked it to Israel mass murders of children in Gaza yet – but they will.

    1. Following the ruling, the student said in a statement that she was “disappointed”.

      “As is set out in the judgment, I do not agree that it would be too hard for the school to accommodate pupils who wished to pray in the lunch break,” she said. “The school is very well run and generally very good at managing everything. The school doesn’t wish to allow pupils to pray, has chosen a different path and the judge has found in their favour. Even though I lost, I still feel that I did the right thing in seeking to challenge the ban. I tried my best, and was true to myself and my religion.”

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68731366

      Cobblers. I am sure that this teenager was encouraged to take this action by ‘elders’ in the local Ropery. This is a perversion of human rights law, the idea that an ideological movement can demand that public or private organisations make special arrangements for it to avoid being charged with an act of oppression.

      “The school doesn’t wish to allow pupils to pray…”

      Have there been complaints from pupils of other religious persuasions? No.

      1. The pupil’s mother said she was “profoundly dismayed by the case’s outcome”, claiming that the “case was rooted in the understanding that prayer isn’t just a desirable act for us — it’s an essential element that shapes our lives as Muslims.”

        Me, me, me. When she signed up her daughter at the school, she knew the rules. If she didn’t like it, she should have chosen another school. Like it – or lump it.

        1. It is permissible under islam to pray at other times if praying at the set times is not practical. They are just dogs trying to mark out territory.

          1. That’s far to easy for them to do.
            They spend their lives stirring up the peace and cause as much trouble as can.

        3. It’s absurd; if she were really an observant muslim she would stick to the koran, get married and look after her family, qed.

        4. The pupil’s mother was so profoundly dismayed that she has applied for her younger child to attend the school as well. Go figure, as they say.

        5. There’s plenty of other places in the world to go and practice this religion. Like Afghanistan or Iran. Laters then.

        6. Maybe she knew the rules, didn’t like them and thought she’d get them changed in her favour.

      2. Parents must have known the rules when she joined. So, if u happy, go elsewhere.

        It’s just another instance of l them” wanting us to change to their ways. Thank goodness the ruling was not in her favour.

        ETA: Sorry Aeneas, no readundery!

        1. Just their normal adgenda, cause as much trouble as possible where ever they go.
          Drive the opposition into ground.

      3. What is the origin of the term; “Roper” in this context please William?

        Slang? Urban?

        2. Slammers is another version.
          Because the bots that roam through postings are a bit touchy when it comes to the peaceful people.

      5. It’s a SECULAR school.
        Secular does not meant “Muslim because the shiites fancy making trouble – again.”

    4. BBC out there with a big wooden spoon – again. Have they interviewed Katherine Birbalsingh as well? No? Oh silly me!

  72. Life is strange sometimes. For the last month there has been hot/warm water coming through my bathroom cold tap and the toilet cistern and causing the shower to overheat. The contractor who looks afther the communal plumbing and heating systems for the buildng will be on site tomorrow and Thursday. I have been giving his office a running commentary. However, since yesterday morning everything has miraculoulsy returned to normal. How? Why? Who knows. As long as it stays that way. Until the next time.

    1. It’s a miracle! (or someone finally worked out what the problem was and quietly fixed it without telling anyone).

      1. Certainly there was an incentive. I’d started to become a nuisance and was encouraging neighbours to do likewise. It also coincides with the building manager returning from Pakistan.

    2. That’s somewhat odd. Usually the hot and cold pipes are completely separate and sealed, requiring a mixing unit to work together.

      Could it be that you’ve one such, perhaps in your shower? that’s malfunctioning and on? But then you’d know as water would be coming out of it… Hmm. Dunno. Water is the bane of my life.

      1. Not my shower as I had it checked out by a plumber right at the outset but a couple of flats in the same stack, above and below, have recently been refurbished and fitted with mixer taps. The one above me has been empty for some time but the new owner moved in a few days ago. My plumber thought there was contamination in the storage tank.

  73. Which famous American is the grandson of Christ – but millions believe him to be the Devil incarnate?

    Donald Trump – his grandmother was born Elizabeth Christ (German)

    1. There’s a Facebook account for Haysus Christo. Haysus is of course the Spanish pronunciation of Jesus. It could be a wind up.

        1. Yes, I meant that the FB account could be a wind up – or maybe there is a guy called Haysus Christo. It isn’t impossible.

      2. Jesus is a popular name in Latin countries. I have often wondered why it is never used in English speaking lands. Anyone know?

        2. It’s a Roman Catholic thing. Lots of them (men) are called Maria, too. Actually, it’s a bit like the Hindus who call their children after Gods. The name of God is a word of power.

        3. I’ve come across footballers called Jesus, but not one called Jesus Christ. Sweet Jesus would be funny too.

          2. I think so. There was one called Julius Caesar too, though he didn’t spell his name quite correctly.

  74. Hopefully we’ll get the oven installed and operational this weekend. There are lots of crossed fingers.

    Everyone would rather like a roast dinner rather than a one pot wonder.

    1. I liked this bit the best:
      “Pressure had been growing on Concert Noble to cancel the conference, including from the Belgian League of Human Rights and the Belgian Anti-Fascist Coordination, according to local reports.”
      The Belgian Anti-Fascist Coordination? They clearly don’t do irony🤣The latest is that the organisers have appealed and while waiting for the result of that the delegates are still there, but no-one is allowed in nor back in if they go out, and the police are preventing food and water from being delivered. I’d love to know how they actually define “fascist”!

  76. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c40eb5846b2a345b343a8b7a6c11cab4c62930231be6de10d1fb6c8eca1e8575.jpg

    I do often feel i was born in the wrong decade. I would’ve been very suited to being in my 20s in the 50s and would have belonged there . The floaty dresses of which Id wear and hats I have a plenty- Ive never worn jeans . The gentleness of that time ( regardless of whatever issues with being 10 years after the war . Everyone seemed happier, there was a community spirit and life id imagine a lot more peaceful and safer then what it is now. I’d not have known of Islam and crazy wokiesm wasn’t around then . I might have missed washing machines, and central heating but as long as I was reasonably comforable ( not too wealthy and not poor ) in good health, could travel, eat chocolate and listen to music and engage in my interests and live a rural life on the edge of a villiage . And have a labrador, I would be fine .

    1. A sound plan to have a Labrador. And that Austin Healey you had the picture of the other day would have been nice too.

      1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95ff0bd8f149bbff4012946b210f6e44671bbc32c0b5623f9d8f17bd108d8ab4.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9641ce01293a12525ae73f67d183eb5a7eec3061d22aff1f71f8f12ff57d0b7a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c53f804775c868b5167723174362bd7d44e0aa61ebabef2028e8421d324a88f8.jpg

        I’d have to have a labrador too – the most delightful of dogs . My Lab, Austin Healey to drive around the quiet ( SUV/ EV free lanes ) and a picnic. And the occasional trip to Italy and not have to worry aboout Muzzies everywhere . Sounds like perfection in another time.

          2. Oi you, stop picking on him , he has puppy chubbiness and is fluffy, he’s not fat . He’s a growing pup and will be a working dog when older .

          4. Not my pup, I came across a picture of him and kept it, I love Labs . Cadbury Is his name . Maybe the camera flashed in his eyes or he was looking into the sun.

          5. Not my pup, I came across a picture of him and kept it, I love Labs . Cadbury Is his name . Maybe the camera flashed in his eyes or he was looking into the sun.

      2. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-smart-volvo-has-managed-to-scrap-itself/#comment-6291888917

        Good morning Squire, I missed your morning greetings today . Do you remember the above Spectator article from 6 months ago -about Volvo cars . It was where you first mentioned your Morgan car – saying it was a weekend car – i recall being shocked 🙂 Itd have been very well suiited to the 50s. My would be labrador would’ve liked it too 🙂

        1. It would, but being a two seater the lab would have to go on your lap which would rather spoil the experience! (Particularly if it had been for a swim or had rolled in something noisome!)

          1. Hmm, would you allow a muddy labrador into a classic car with leather seats without drying the dog with a towel first. Also there are towel blankets to place between dog and person 😁

          2. I’m not convinced they had silver coloured cars in the fifties? Perhaps they did, but the proper colours for Morgan’s are green or burgundy with a nod to cream, (not my taste but authentic), dark blue and black. Even a towelled down Lab is not going to be much fun on your lap. Mine weights 30kg and she’s slim. Perhaps pair the Morgan with an old Land Rover?

          3. I believe silver cars are rather modern and they’d not have been around in the 50s . It’d have been two tone colours such as burgundy and cream,
            black with lime green. Different shades of red, blue . Black, racing green and burgundy, strong colours . Whereas the 50 s in the US were full of pastel shades in cars of pink, lemon and powder blue. Yes maybe the only labadors that should be on laps are puppies otherwise a land rover would be more sufficient.

          4. Though James Bond’s original Aston Martin with the ejector seat was silver. I had a toy one as a boy. When I was eighteen I asked my father if I could have a real one. The answer was, sadly, no.😂

          5. Yes okay, silver birch with black leather trimming for James Bond’s Aston Martin but it wasn’t modern tin foil bright silver . You father could have bought you a corgi toy replica of the car

          6. He gave me one of those when I was little. I’d still like a DB5 complete with the ejector seat, the latter being useful if I realised my companion was a Remainer!😂

          1. Never put burgundy leather within a silver coloured car, it just looks tacky . That’s a very fine colour leather but yes it’ll go with Green or Burgundy car .

    2. We had a ‘fridge and a washing machine with a mangle/ringer on the top in the late 50’s.

      1. We had the mangle and wringer bit but no washing machine or fridge. We had a cold north-facing cupboard with a mesh window which was the larder. My mother used to put meat on a tin plate in there and cover it with a mesh cover to keep the flies off.

        For hot water we had an Ascot gas heater. We had an open fire in the sitting room. No telly but we had a radio.

        When my Grandma came to live with us she complained of the cold so Mum had an electric wall fire installed in her room (which had been my room) but I had to move out.
        I walked to school and back every day along the A38, which was quite a busy road even then.

        I had freedom to go where I wanted after school so I didn’t always go straight home. Mum would come home about 6pm. In the dark winter evenings I went to our next door neighbour for a cup of tea.
        Life was quieter, and freer in the 50s but we had none of the comforts taken for granted these days.

        1. Never let your braces dangle
          Never let your braces dangle
          One old sport
          He got caught
          Standing by the kitchen mangle
          Through the rollers oh what fun
          Flat as a piece of linoleum
          Now he sings in Kingdom Come
          Never let your braces dangle.

          1. Reminds me of an old Rugby song I know, it goes:

            Fisherman, Fisherman,
            Home from the sea
            Have you got a lobster you can sell to me?

            Singing ro-tiddley-oh
            Shit or bust
            Never let your bollocks dangle in the dust.

            Continues for about another 8 verses!

      2. We had a washing machine (a square container with a propeller in the back) with hand-cranked mangle in the 1980s. All we could afford. Mind, it was about a thousand years old…

      3. We had an ice-box before we had a fridge, but we were living in Northern Rhodesia then. I can still remember the garden boy cycling off to fetch a new block of ice when required!

    3. We had a washing machine – you had to push and pull the handle to make the paddle move the washing. A bit like mechanised dhobi. It was a great advance on the corrugated tin tub and the wooden posser. There was a mangle to go with it.

  78. Police shut down conservative conference while Farage and Braverman on stage. 16 April 2024.

    Police officers in Brussels moved to shut down a conservative conference “with immediate effect” while Nigel Farage was on stage.

    Officers entered the venue hosting National Conservatism to serve a court order that demanded the conference be ended on the grounds it endangered public safety.

    The police document, seen by The Telegraph, suggested speeches by speakers including Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman could lead to public disorder or display racist and homophobic views.

    Something of a poltical gaffe here. The EU has revealed its true nature. It was of course designed to be anti-democratic and pass laws that the states dare not. Unlike Vladimir Putin it is one of our real enemies.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/16/rishi-sunak-latest-news-smoking-ban-simon-clarke-liz-truss/

    1. Not exactly. The Mayor is of Turkish parentage, and denies the Armenian genocide; more of an anti-semite than a leftist.

      1. Afternoon Tim. During the 2018 municipal elections, he was re-elected following an electoral campaign made up of threats against candidates, insults and attempted fraud in polling stations, using false proxies among others. WIKI.

        He’s a crook and a socialist. He was probably doing a political favour.

    2. The Constitution of the EU has its roots in the EU predecessors, the Iron and Steel Confederation and the EEC. Both bodies had one Walter Hallstein behind them, he wrote their Constitutions, and also was a confidant of Edward Heath. These documents are modelled on the constitution of The Third Reich – centralisation of power, removal of individual State’s decision making. Hallstein was Hitler’s legal counsel and drafted all these documents.

    3. The Constitution of the EU has its roots in the EU predecessors, the Iron and Steel Confederation and the EEC. Both bodies had one Walter Hallstein behind them, he wrote their Constitutions, and also was a confidant of Edward Heath. These documents are modelled on the constitution of The Third Reich – centralisation of power, removal of individual State’s decision making. Hallstein was Hitler’s legal counsel and drafted all these documents.

    4. Afternoon Minty,
      ‘They’ really don’t like the truth. The popularity of certain opinions is seen as a threat by them.

    5. Twitter is full of people who genuinely believe that Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman are goose-stepping, card-carrying members of the national socialist party. They routinely refer to the Tories as “far right” apparently without irony.
      The same people fail to notice that a nationalist, socialist party has actually been ruling Scotland for some years, but that’s another story…!

      1. Those same people are also determinedly refusing to accept that Farage and Braverman are the opposite of the national socialists and in fact it is they, the whinging Lefty who is.

        But if Lefties could understand why they’re wrong they wouldn’t be Lefties any more.

    1. There is a similar anecdote about a painted white square on a parade ground; a squaddie had an accident while painting white lines, so he cunningly disguised the spill as a square 3′ by 3′. Many, many years later he visited that same base and was astonished to see that the Army had re-painted and perpetuated his enhancement.

      1. And another about a guardsman protecting the first flower of the spring for the emperor’s daughter.

        Odd, all these talks of duty, tradition, sacrifice are all carried out by the military…

    2. There is a similar anecdote about a painted white square on a parade ground; a squaddie had an accident while painting white lines, so he cunningly disguised the spill as a square 3′ by 3′. Many, many years later he visited that same base and was astonished to see that the Army had re-painted and perpetuated his enhancement.

      1. Yes I read her interview and was impressed.
        She also spent time with Donald Trump whilst in the US
        She’s also been spending a lot of time with Nigel Farage and went to his birthday party, I hope they both have given her more confidence.

        1. I hope she, and others who wish to rescue the UK from its dire trajectory, will defect to Reform. It would only take a few brave souls to transform the political landscape here

    1. The one for the guys looks normal/okay. The women’s kit should have the same colouring.

          4. I expect a lot went into the design. Breathability and material that allows free movement. I was thinking more of the look.
            I bet it was designed by a man.

          5. Nike are claiming that several women athletes were consulted in the design. If that is the kit for track and field, just imagine the beach volleyball kit.

            Why isn’t the outfit the same as for the men, after all they all have the same bits nowadays.

        1. That is why i said i thought it was designed by a man. Emphasising a woman’s legs which men have a fetish for.
          I agree with you though. The women could wear the same design.

    3. That’s very sexist, I’d say someone’s for the high jump.
      Mind you it will stop blokes claiming to women.

      2. I used to get visits from a lovely white one. She would just wander in and stretch out in the sitting room. Such a friendly cat. She went missing once (shut in a shed), and her owner discovered she had made herself at home in just about every house in the neighbourhood. 🤣

        1. I had one turn up on the doorstep during a rainstorm one evening. I heard a pathetic meow, opened the door and in it walked as calm as you please. We actually had four cats and it walked to each of the four bowls, gobbled up what was left then looked for more, so I gave it more. It then jumped up on my lap and settled down! My companion said very firmly that he was not going to have five cats so the next day I took it to the vet to see if it was chipped, which it wasn’t, but she confirmed the race and said it was only about six months old so I brought him home again. The other cats weren’t in the least bothered by him but my companion was adamant 🙁 I took some photos and made little posters to put up in various places and the first went up in the local post office. That evening our postman arrived at the house, took my poster out of his pocket (!) and asked if we still had him. It turned out that he loved Persian cats, had recently lost one but couldn’t afford to buy a replacement so wanted to adopt him. A discreet check with the local vet to confirm his story about the deceased pet and problem solved. A few days later he emailed me a photo of the King of Persia stretched out luxuriously on a very comfortable-looking sofa!

      1. Apparently he is allergic to freedom of speech. He’d feel right at home in North Korea.

  89. Just taken delivery of an ex dairy cow chateaubriand. 800gms @ £60 plus £7.95 delivery. It might sound expensive but i will get 8 very fine steaks from that or a showstopper beef Welly. Considering what you pay in a restaurant for fillet steak i thought that a very good deal. https://www.johndavidsons.com/

    1. I agree. However if you get 8 steaks out of it they will only be 100 grams each or less than 4oz in old money.

    1. “…(Braverman) couldn’t be here today because she’s currently in Brussels…with some far-right fanatics with whom she has much in common…”

      If a majority of people think like that and return a Labour government of the same mind, the country will become a very dark place very quickly.

    2. The Labour core (25-30%?) will have loved it. Like all good commies, they see no problem with shutting down free speech.

    3. “Far-Right”? He really doesn’t understand how pathetic he sounds. The modern Left have completely sh*t the bed as far as I am concerned.

    1. Because they are allowed to be. My solution is to tell the blighters to be at their desks by 9.00 Monday to Friday or they get the sack.

        1. A Morcombe and Wise sketch. One kept calling Eenin Stannit! and the other tried to get him to say “Evening Standard”, but when he bought the paper it was called the “Eenin Stannit”.

  92. Budget day in Canada today.
    For a couple of weeks, Trudeau and friends have been throwing out promises on housing and healthcare – a billion here, five billion there kind of giveaways that would normally come just before an election (oh please).

    Today might be the day that we find how they expect us to pay for their largesse.

  94. I have a small appetite nowadays. If i go to a steak restaurant i end up bringing half or more back and then the dogs get it.

    I was viewing a hotel which was being refurbished and i was invited in to see the kitchens. They had a Chef training the staff who had appeared on *Masterchef the professionals. He was showing them how to cook the beef and he gave me a sample. It was ex dairy cow from Spain. That was my first introduction to that meat. Apparently as it is an old milk cow the grain of the meat is looser.
    Thought i would give it a go.
    *Can’t remember his name now.

      1. Yes. It was expensive and i tend not to fall for hype but i did want to try it at least once. I found it delicious. Easy to eat. And i won’t be bothering again any time soon.

          1. The beef i had delivered today looks well marbled. And now because of modern technology cows can choose when they want a back rub. And when to be milked.
            Speaking of food costs for luxury items i have always bought the supermarket version of Caviar. Like Lumpfish roe or the later one of reformed herring called Onuga.

            I like doing canapes for my Summer drinks get togethers.
            As i said i do like to try things at least once so i bought the real thing. I didn’t like it really. Far too intense for me. I could see why you are supposed to drink ice cold Vodka with it !

          2. I find Avruga an acceptable and affordable substitute for caviar. About £20 in Waitrose for 125gms.

          3. Yes i have tried that and it is fine. Though if i am putting a small amount on a canape i go for the cheaper option because it for me is just a salty garnish. If my guests want the real thing they know what to do. :@)
            I like the colour of the trout roe to complement the darkness of the lumpfish roe. Looks nice on a platter and i know i’m not fooling anyone.

  96. It will just make it an even more blatant lie, Shirley. These people are openly taking the Michael.

  99. “Nottlers are not just virtual. Many of us have met for lunches.”

    That should put the fear of God into the bastards

    1. It isn’t any sort of threat. It’s more of a mindset. All are welcome to any lunches any Nottler wants to organise in their area. Some can make it and others are too far away.

      I have lots of tales to tell of previous ones but it would be boring to rehash for those that were there.
      Except for the time when all my clothes fell off but we won’t go into that right now…………

        1. When you get to know me better you will realise i’m on the Spectrum. I often teach Granny to suck eggs !

  100. A married couple we know In the village, the lady being a £ 10 pom !
    Has lived in Australia since a toddler. They moved back here when retired but go to Australia every Christmas and come back here during March – they’ve not come back yet.

      1. Yes maybe they have done so. It must be nice to always miss the winter

        1. I quite like winter……..but it is too long. I would like a nice long autumn for October and November, snow all December, a month of spring in January and then back to summer. Can you fix that for me please?😃

          2. Thanks, but although the climate sounds nice I’d be surrounded by RoPers and not a proper drink to be had!

          3. They drink alright and hunt wild boar, but pay lipservice to islam. There are a lot of berberists in the mountains.

          4. I’ll dance for the weather God’s upon Olympia and play the harp. 😀
            You’re weather would be more suited for Africa .
            I like Spring and Autumn but agree that Winter is too long, too cold and too dark .

          7. It’s the darkness that is so hard to bear. I suppose the northern lights would make it both bearable and welcome.

          8. They don’t get switched on very often, and then there’s a cloud layer.
            A newsworthy event here by Oslo.
            I saw them when living in Newport Pagnell once. A light on the cloud, at first assumed to be Northampton, until it split up and moved apart!
            Only ever seen them in spooky green, never red ‘n purple, or yellow.

          10. I have never seen the Northern Lights, but I have worked aurora on the radio. It’s quite weird – almost creepy – the way the signal is distorted.

          11. They don’t get switched on very often, and then there’s a cloud layer.
            A newsworthy event here by Oslo.
            I saw them when living in Newport Pagnell once. A light on the cloud, at first assumed to be Northampton, until it split up and moved apart!
            Only ever seen them in spooky green, never red ‘n purple, or yellow.

          12. But winters are longer and harsh for those in Norway, the sun doesn’t rise from mid November till April ( unless I’m incorrect) . The darkness is unbearable here when it’s getting dark at 3.45pm. Before artificial lighting, our ancestors would have gone to bed very early and spent all winter in semi darkness. It’s wonderful at this time of year.

          13. Where are you? Most of Norway is south of the arctic circle, so there’s some form of daylight all year round. More and less, depending on season.

          14. I’m In England, sorry for speaking of somewhere I’ve no actual knowledge, I’ve made an incorrect assumption.

          15. Last winter went on forever. I love winter here – snow, ice, skiing, dark, cozy fires & lights, proper cold (had -32C this winter) – love the contrast with summer when we can get +32C!

          17. Autumn is wonderful, with the colours in the trees; spring, with all the renewal and brilliant greens, the little flowers.
            The 5th season, between the end of autumn and the start of winter is terrible. Dark, cold, rain, miserable.

        2. Actually I rather like winter – except for the heating bills! I like having four seasons 🙂

      2. Actually sunny here today. Small children are crying and asking their mummy what that yellow thing in the sky is!😂

        1. Mummy can tell them not to worry, that nice Mr Gates is soon going to block it out so that we don’t all boil in our own sweat 🤣

    2. TBH, if I’d moved to Oz and didn’t have family in the UK, I’d not come back, either.
      We only visit UK from Norway due to frail family & a need for Branston Pickle.

    3. TNH, if I’d moved to Oz and didn’t have family in the UK, I’d not come back, either.
      We only visit UK from Norway due to frail family & a need for Branston Pickle.

  101. A leggy Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,032 3/6
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Close call here.
      Wordle 1,032 5/6

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

        1. True, but as a non-wordler I can guess a few probable’s.

          Was it blimp the other day?

          4. Have you tried Binns? Yes, but they rattle! Old Geordie joke! Binns was the House of Fraser shop in Newcastle!

        2. Given your clues and Sue’s colour chart (she uses the same starting word as I do), I can probably predict the word!

    3. Surprisingly, me too.

      Wordle 1,032 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. MPs have generally not progressed beyond student politics. This is the “professionalisation” of politics, brought to us by Bliar.

      1. True. I was involved in student politics. Then I grew up. When I look at people like Michael Gove, they’re still doing the same politicking they were doing at age 20. He’s stuck in perpetual studenthood, but now he’s doing it on a national and even world scale with his involvement in international unelected groups.

  103. BBC Radio 4 (again) Guest of honour – 30 minute devoted to ex Channel 4 Head of News and Current affairs for 15 years, Dorothy Byrne. A lefty who once invited the President of Iran to give the ‘Alternative Christmas Message’ A man who ordered all Iranians who converted to Christianity to be executed.

    BBC and Channel 4 – How low can you get?

    1. What repulsive people. No wonder they approve of each other.

      “Filths savour but themselves”

      [King Lear]

    3. I never listen to Radio 4. Come to think of it, I cannot be sure when I last listened to any radio station. It must have been Talksport 2 a couple of months ago when it broadcast some England cricket matches from India.

  104. https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1888889/ww3-warning-putin-war-games-economy-meltdown

    The problem with this is that Britain, in its great anxiety for Net Zero, has now run down its generating capability

    so much that is now unable to produce sufficient electricity for itself, and has to buy a considerable amount from

    the Europeans. This power is passed through undersea cables.

    In the event of disagreements with Russia (or any other country with trained frogmen) then we won’t even

    have sufficient power to run the white flag factories.

    A serious situation !

  105. Enough for today:
    Wordle 1,032 4/6

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

    1. I entered the third guess thinking it would give me a clue as to the placing of the yellow letter from the second guess.

      Wordle 1,032 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Nice one, Sue, boring boring par for me….
        Wordle 1,032 4/6

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

  106. Advert at the top of the page: “Bottle capping machines in Mexico are cheaper than you think!”
    WTF?
    The vpn must have moved me to Mexico…

    2. I sometimes get ‘You’ll be amazed by the price of 2nd hand cars in Morocco!’

      1. You’ll be even more amazed by the price of second-hand camels 🙂 One careful owner, full service history.

  107. Private schools face mass redundancies to cover Labour tax bill
    Institutions brace for drastic cost-cutting measures as student numbers dwindle
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/private-schools-mass-redundancies-labour-tax-bill/

    Here are a couple of the BTL comments:

    The Conservative Party has not stuck up for private schools. Why not?

    If the Conservative Party cannot support private enterprise – and what better example of private enterprise is there than the efficient and excellent private schools – then it has no reason to exist and the sooner it dies completely the better.

    Remember Cameron took his own children out of private schools when he was PM. And then the hypocrite put them back into private schools when he was no longer PM. It is a tragic indictment on the UK that British political life is infested with men of such low calibre as the current foreign secretary.

    * * * *

    When President Mitterrand tried to close private schools in France the teachers in private schools all said they would not continue teaching in the state system and that privately-owned school premises would not be made available to the state. The result of this would have had dire consequences as the state schools would have been so swamped that they became completely inoperable.

    All teachers in the private sector and all private schools should do what they did in France. Mitterrand was thwarted and had to scrap his plans. The same move from the private sector in the UK could thwart Starmer.

    1. Most of them will just close, I should think. Or they’ll have to go back to basics. Or come up with some radical ideas for cooperating with home educators.
      They’ve alienated their core customers by going along with the Blob’s lefty wing /filth curriculum anyway.

      1. You are quite wrong. The more famous schools will simply increase the numbers of overseas students.

  108. Birbalsingh has won a victory for authority over segregation

    The judgment should deliver a warning to activist groups that schools will not be hounded into adjusting their policies on religious grounds

    TONY SEWELL
    16 April 2024 • 4:35pm

    Twenty-five years ago, a small group of us, including the former home secretary Suella Braverman, gathered in a room in south London with Katharine Birbalsingh, where she laid out her vision for a radically different secondary school. At the core of the idea was the importance of high standards for children from poor backgrounds in London, and we were early supporters. That’s how Michaela Community School was born.

    It was designed to be secular, but with all the positive values of great religious schools. None of us could have imagined that, years later, Michaela would be taken to court because it didn’t allow a student to dictate their own religious practice within its walls. But that is exactly what happened, and it has taken months of legal wrangling to have the claim thrown out.

    The judgment should deliver a warning to activist groups that schools will not be hounded into adjusting their policies on religious grounds. It should be a lesson, too, for all those who have criticised Birbalsingh from outside the courtroom.

    Several weeks ago, The Guardian published an article saying that the headteacher was “a symptom of a state that seeks to promote a version of Britishness that is monolithic and absolute”, with the headline stating emphatically that “this ban on Muslims praying in school is a dystopian, sinister vision of Britishness”. It must now, as usual, eat humble pie.

    The fact is that schools are not some workers’ co-operative where the “student voice” dominates everything. In fact, school is rightly more akin to a prison when it comes to individual rights. There aren’t many institutions where occupants have to ask permission to go to the toilets, or to leave the gates.

    Great schools, like great football teams, are also driven by focused, alpha leaders. They are not democratic institutions where everyone’s voice counts, but nurturing pipelines based on hierarchy, with the headteacher at the top. And this is where the genius of Birbalsingh lies.

    Her school may not be religious, but it does have spiritual and moral values. Students are taught about leadership, compassion and respect for others, the discipline of agency, and self-affirmation. These are all rooted in the religious underbelly of being British. What Michaela has done is give these values secular clothing. Children are confident in the school setting because, through its hierarchy, they get a sense of their own divine being.

    There is also a pan-religious ethos in seeking knowledge as a virtue. Students are made to understand that pure knowledge is perhaps more important than materialism, because it has its own intrinsic value. Again, this is rooted in religion, yet it does not discriminate on the basis of one faith or another.

    Michaela’s success has been built on this common institutional culture, and it would have been undermined had it given in to religious fundamentalism and segregation. Indeed, other schools should now learn from Birbalsingh’s successful navigation of the secular and religious.

    As for those Lefties who frown upon the school, we should ask why many of them do not practice what they preach, sending their own children to Church of England schools.

    1. Islam has no part in “Britishness”; it is the very antithesis of Western cultural values.

  109. A bit of a slump in the markets today. Now, why might that be? Pension funds will have taken a hammering. I’m not going to look; it was doing so well, too.

    1. Apparently nine of the biggest stock market crashes in history have occurred around the first full moon after an eclipse…just saying…

      1. I just knew it was related to sunspots and global warming. We have only 24 hours to save the Earth !!!!

        Anyhoo…..fancy lunch next week?

  110. I wondered why the sitting room was creaking. Sitting just outside in the sun, my IR camera shows the black-painted wall to be +65C surface temp! Enough to make anything creak.

  111. I wondered why the sitting room was creaking. Sitting just outside in the sun, my IR camera shows the black-painted wall to be +65C surface temp! Enough to make anything creak.

  112. Unfortunately, in all the praise of this school, in this article and some others, one important aspect has been omitted, namely that objections to pork by Muslims and to any meat by Hindus led to all canteen meals being vegetarian.

    1. Surely the children will be nourished at home, like normal children. Meat in schools is disgusting anyway.

      2. It wasn’t when I was young. School lunches usually had a portion of beef, pork, lamb or chicken with spuds, two veg and gravy followed by jam tart or ‘fly cemetary’ and custard or rice pudding/semolina with a dollop of jam.

        1. I went to state schools, and it was disgusting, especially the pieces of gristle that posed as meat. When I became vegetarian (at about 8?) we (the very few of us) were given wonderloaf and marge and a cheese-free “macaroni cheese”, along with other white carbs. Still better than the disgusting stuff they called meat.

          1. Ah. I was at a private day school and we paid for school lunches (five bob a week as I recall). An early life-lesson that you get what you pay for, I suppose.

          2. You say that, but we also used to have to take “dinner money” in every week, and I think it was around 5 bob. This disgusting muck was not “free”.

          3. The price was the same everywhere. The worst dinners were in Manchester where the food was not cooked on the school premises. Bad news was the quality, good news was there was plenty of it.

          4. I always went to state schools and the school dinners were five bob a week too. But they were supposed to be subsidised.
            Eventually the price went up, I think to seven and six. when that happened we were allowed to bring sandwiches instead of staying to school lunch.
            One primary school where I went in London had an orphanage connected to it and the lunches were wonderful by any standards.
            I then went to an Inner London Secondary school where the food was edible but not impressive. Spam Fritters I remember were often on the menu and children were encouraged to fill up on some peculiar greens which were always generously on offer. But never was the meat disgusting.

          6. I was at a state school and the meals were 5/- a week, too. I don’t recall them being disgusting. They were a bit predictable (fish on Fridays, hotpot on Thursdays etc), but other than that they were definitely edible. I hated tapioca pudding (and still do), but we had bread and butter pudding, rice pud and various other stodgy afters.

          8. We had our own kitchens and a permanent kitchen staff. The staff ate the same as the pupils. That probably helped. On a rota system the upper school pupils had to serve the staff. On an everyday basis one pupil on each table (seated 8) had to serve out the food to the others. I seem to recall we were expected to say grace first as well.

          9. Many different schools for me, Conners, but the one (primary school) I have in mind = we used to have to walk in a crocodile to the village hall (about 1/2 mile away) where these truly revolting meals were served up, congealing and cooling, and had to eat everything on our plate or be punished. I am not making this up.

            Further horror stories available from many other schools.

        2. You must have been posh going to a school that serves recognizable lunches.

          I still like rice / tapioca/semolina pudding with a dollop of jam.

          Ah I have just seen your follow up comment. See I said that it was posh.

          1. Did you ever see “Two Greedy Italians”? Carluccio and Gennaro. One episode included school lunch – pasta pomodoro. The most beautiful school dinner I ever saw. Nothing like the 10 years of school meals I ever had.
            Still put jam (strawberry) on creamed rice. Not had tapioca/semolina since school.

    2. Our school did a limited amount of salads. If you did lunchtime curriculum at our school, you could order lunch and gobble it down at 2:00 prior to school restarting at 2:10pm. I did lunchtime curricula every day, and ate salad daily too.

  113. Unfortunately, in all the praise of this school, in this article and some others, one important aspect has been omitted, namely that objections to pork by Muslims and to any meat by Hindus led to all canteen meals being vegetarian.

    2. Another old farty speaks: I had prescription varifocal sunglasses. Until I didn’t. They slipped out of my pocket on a bus in Woking. Lost property was useless. In fairness, sunglasses merely reflected my face. Not a pretty sight at the best of times…

      1. Don’t you do yourself down, Geoff! You have an open and welcoming face! And you smile!

      2. Ah, bugger, Geoff. That’s a real pain. And expensive… In any case, you have the admiration of Sue, as below, and me, ‘cos you can play a real pipe organ.

  116. Gold is sniffing out monetary and geopolitical dystopia. 16 April 2024.

    ‘Never seen before’ levels of buying could be the makings of a war chest.

    There is a strong suspicion among gold experts that China is behind the surge in buying, building up a war-fighting bullion chest through state-controlled banks and proxies. But others, too, can see that we are living through a fundamental convulsion of the global order, and that the dollarised financial system will not be the same at the end of it. Gold is the hedge against dystopia.

    Buy Gold Nottlers! You know it makes sense.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/16/gold-price-surge-china-warchest-geopolitical-dystopia/

      1. Afternoon BB. The seizure of Russia’s assets at the beginning of this war was a major blunder. It has undermined confidence in the system.

        1. Meh, it was going to happen anyway. The US has been creating debt like there was no tomorrow since 1971. Couldn’t last forever.

      2. Exactly that! Also, you can’t eat gold, it has little industrial use and I don’t see the world currencies going back to the gold standard anytime soon. The party is most likely nearly over.

        1. “Gold is money. Everything else is debt.” – JP Morgan

          How much do you want to bet that we’re not back on some kind of gold standard at the end of the coming reset?

          1. Peta is right – you can’t eat gold. Neither will it give you warmth and shelter. It will have no value at all in the disaster that is approaching, where we will be trading on a very basic level simply to survive.

          2. I heard a story from the dying days of the war in Germany, when food was very scarce, of a woman exchanging her wedding ring for a cabbage. Things were very hard, so I don’t disbelieve it.

            5000 years of history says that gold is accepted by everyone, everywhere. More than that, legally gold is money. JP Morgan was correct. Currencies are just debt – only gold is money. That is the legal situation.
            All that gold-is-a-pet rock stuff is just the parasite class trying to persuade us to invest what we earn in the financial system rather than opting out of their crappy debt products and buying real wealth. Central banks have been buying gold like stink since 2008 when the writing appeared on the wall.

            Gold is worth having for wealth preservation. The main value of gold for ordinary people when SHTF is for wealth transfer through to the other side. Silver or small bits of gold jewelry are more useful for buying things with. But the principle is the same – real money, not digital food stamps or debt notes.

          3. So why did Gordan Brown transfer and sell (at a loss) nearly all our nationally owned gold to ze shermans. whilst claiming that it made no difference and was just a “tidying up” exercise?

          7. So why did Gordan Brown transfer and sell (at a loss) nearly all our nationally owned gold to ze shermans. whilst claiming that it made no difference and was just a “tidying up” exercise?

          8. Just don’t bury your gold in a location you can’t get back to.
            Or, carry it around in a way that you can be robbed.
            Difficult, innit?

          10. Gold is only money if we make it so. Interesting theory about some kind of gold standard though, I’ll need to think about that and do some homework into exactly who is buying it 🙂

          11. Like bits of paper really, isn’t it? Only of worth in a high trust society where everyone agrees to play by the rules and honours the agreement

          12. True, but it just so happens that everyone in the world does make it so.
            The gold standard has been widely discussed. The Russians are the biggest advocates – Sergei Glasyev is their finance guy. But BRICS has been flirting with it for some years now.
            Last year, the Netherlands central bank was asked whether they were worried about their losses, and one of their top men said “we have our gold reserve account” which means, they will just revalue gold to inflate the value of their assets and remove losses.
            A confistication is always on the cards – the central bankers’ favourite trick when they are trying to sell a dogshit currency to the public, and want to prevent them opting out and using gold. In past government gold grabs, most people just sat it out. From 1st January this year, across the EU it is now illegal to buy or sell property for gold coins. During the hyperinflation in Weimar Germany, you could buy a block in Berlin for 5 ounces of gold. They’re making sure that won’t happen this time round.
            Many of the gold dealers put out educational videos and articles – as long as you bear in mind that they are in the business of selling gold, they have a lot of useful information.

          15. AEP is reliably wrong, but just occasionally when you least expect it, he has been stunningly right.

          16. China’s been buying gold and ditching dollars since 2008. The rises at the moment are probably because the wheels are coming of the Americans’ price fixing mechanism.

        2. Actually PJ, gold has a huge number of highly beneficial uses in the electronics, medical, aerospace and many other industries.
          It is also acts as an excellent catalyst in a whole host of industrial processes.

          It’s lovely and shiny as well!! (I have two gold rings I wear constantly, my own wedding ring and my parents….)

          1. I am aware that it has its industrial uses, but nothing like on a scale to come anywhere near matching the quantity that available both above and still below ground.
            But I agree, it is lovely and shiny :))

          2. An amazing fact is that all the gold that has ever been mined would fit into a cube 22 metres (about 70 feet) in size or just over 3 Olympic sized swimming pools.
            It’s also estimated that about 75% of all the gold in the world has already been mined. No wonder it’s worth hanging on to!

          4. Honestly, it’s true – a mate of mine is a very successful jeweller in Clitheroe (lovely little town) and told me this ages ago – like you I was very sceptical and checked on-line (just google ‘what could you fit all the gold in the world into’).
            It’s also true (google ‘how much gold is left to be mined’) that about 75% has already been mined……

          5. I honestly don’t see how that could ever be worked out. When you think of all the gold that has been mined all over the world over many centuries it is not possible to work it out that accurately. Ditto for saying that 75% has already been mined. You don’t know what is there that you can’t see! And no, I’m not going to google it given some of the things I am expected to believe when I do google things🤣

          7. When I’ve got a moment to spare I must tell you about a nice bridge I have for sale…. 😆 ‘Night GG, I’m off, nearly 1am here!

          8. How dare you! I’ve more bridges than I know what to do with (all made of gold obvs) – I’m off now as well, see ya tomorra!

        4. I wouldn’t say it has little industrial use; it’s an excellent conductor and is used in circuit boards.

    2. Already did. Sadly, not as much as I should. But still, up 35 odd per cent. Can’t argue. That just about covers the inflation!

  118. The spell of trans ideology has finally been broken

    Every time people tried to bring this scandal to public attention, they were shut down. Finally, the truth is out

    GRAHAM LINEHAN • 13 April 2024 • 6:30pm

    In 2021, I was asked to give evidence to a House of Lords select committee about free speech and trans ideology. I was told the protocol was to read a short statement to lay out my position before taking questions from assorted titled luminaries.

    I poured myself into the work of structuring a statement, sustained by the optimism that is a weirdly persistent part of my character – a belief that this moment would finally bring about the breakthrough when people would wake up to what was happening – to free speech, to women’s spaces, but most importantly of all, to children.

    I had visions of sitting at that giant rectangular table, being grilled by concerned Right Hons who would immediately Drop Everything in order to Do Something. The air would be heavy with history.

    But of course, we were in lockdown, so the event played out on Zoom and looked more like a meeting of general managers discussing toilet provisions. Even worse, when it came to my big speech, I entered into a somewhat unseemly back and forth with one of my hosts.

    “Oh, no we’re not doing statements.”

    “I was told to prepare one.”

    “No, not for this session.”

    I persevered, and the vaguely annoyed moderator finally decided to allow it. I won’t stretch your patience with it as I did theirs, but here are some excerpts.

    “Almost four years ago, I saw that feminists were being bullied, harassed and silenced for standing up for their rights and their children’s rights. I decided to use my platform on Twitter to bring attention to what seemed to be an all-out assault on women, on their words, their dignity and their safety. Also, I saw that vulnerable children were being fast-tracked onto a medical pathway that carried severe long-term implications.”

    And then, further on, trying my best to ignore the glazed-over eyes of my hosts: “If you believe that JK Rowling is transphobic, a woman who has devoted her work and much of her fortune to the vulnerable, the bullied, the forgotten and the abused, then you are under a spell.

    “If you believe that men can fairly compete against women in their sports, then you are under a spell.

    “If you believe that men will not go to the most extreme lengths to gain access to women and children, then you are under a spell.

    “If you believe that children as young as three years old can agree to a procedure that puts them on a medical pathway for life, that arrests their natural puberty, and that has almost no scientific proof as to its efficacy as a treatment for dysphoria, then you are under a spell.”

    It did not have the effect I was expecting. “But … but … what can we DO?” was what I had expected to hear, but instead the assembled nobs looked amused and bored, and quickly changed the subject.

    This would be something to which I’d soon become accustomed – pointing at the approaching meteorite, only to have everyone stare at my finger. It turned out they were more interested in interrogating my conduct on social media.

    I don’t remember many questions about the issues I had raised, and certainly none about what was being done to children in gender clinics across the country.

    It was, in hindsight, a perfect microcosm of everything that was to follow. Afterwards, I sat at my desk, dazed, and realised that I might as well have been talking to myself.

    It would be three years later, in 2024, that the findings of the Cass Review would vindicate all those men and women, especially women, who had lost friends, family members, work and opportunities, for trying to get the word out about what is now known to be the greatest medical scandal in recent history.

    My optimism has taken a beating since then, so I’m reluctant to say this out loud, but maybe, just maybe, this time – the spell is finally broken.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/13/the-spell-of-trans-ideology-has-finally-been-broken/
    __________________________________________________________________________

    From Wiki:
    Graham Linehan is an Irish comedy writer and anti-transgender activist. He created or co-created the sitcoms Father Ted (1995–1998), Black Books (2000–2004), and The IT Crowd (2006–2013), and he has written for shows including Count Arthur Strong, Brass Eye and The Fast Show. He has won five BAFTA awards, including Best Writer, Comedy, for The IT Crowd in 2014.

    After an episode of The IT Crowd was criticised as transphobic, Linehan became involved in anti-transgender activism. He argues that transgender activism endangers women, and he has likened the use of puberty blockers to Nazi eugenics. Linehan says his views have lost him work and ended his marriage.

    1. “…pointing at the approaching meteorite, only to have everyone stare at my finger.”
      Well put. The spell isn’t really broken though. JK Rowling is a nasty piece of work, and she has never stopped wanting to oppress people who don’t share her views on other subjects. This was just a clash of two of the parasite class’s favourite pressure groups (feminists and the trans cult).

    2. I have much experience of “pointing at the approaching meteorite, only to have everyone stare at my finger“.
      My sympathy, for what it’s worth.
      Linehan is 100% spot on. It’s all about mysogenism and male insecurity and so quest for dominance over women – socially, in sport, as parents, whatever.
      It’ll (it is) end badly.

      1. TPTB encourage transgenderism because it a step on the route to transhumanism, although the carrot-and-stick to get this process underway is dominance over women and another nail in the coffin that is the marxist break-up of family life.

    3. There’s nothing like experiencing the effects of your own actions to wake you up. He and others are learning.

  119. Hi, just been reading about liebiur laughing their socks off at the banning of free speech in Brussels.
    Are we I for a great time when they get into power

  120. Vladimir Putin not welcome at French ceremony for 80th anniversary of D-day. 16 April 2024.

    Russia will be invited to send representatives to an international ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-day – but not Vladimir Putin, the French organisers have announced.

    The Élysée is reported to have accepted that the country should be represented but said its leader is not welcome because of Moscow’s ongoing war on Ukraine.

    “In view of the circumstances, President Putin will not be invited to take part in the commemorations of the Normandy landings,” the Liberation Mission organising committee said.

    I don’t recall the French being present, except as spectators, at the D-day landings.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/16/vladimir-putin-not-welcome-at-ceremony-for-80th-anniversary-of-d-day

      1. The film ‘The Longest Day’ depicts the involvement of French troops at Ouistreham.

    2. Russia should be our ally. We share many values, including Christianity. Have you heard their Christian music? for example: https://youtu.be/xW0QbUC0cEU?si=veiMnLNfKs4JOTo_
      But, for some reason TPTB have decided Russia is bad, like the Orange Man, and must be excluded, despite the herculean effort they put in in the 1940’s to crush the Nazis, with the most appalling losses.
      Now, in the 2020s, they are demonised still, without explanation. Sure, it’s horrible in UKraine just now, like it’s horrible in Gaza, but who started it? If this train of thought were applied to the past, we’d all be feeling sorry for the Nazis… (I personally feel bad for the ordinary Kraut who was shot at on all fronts whilst having his home and family blown apart – The firebombing of Dresden sticks in the mind rather – but that’s all the fault of the politicians).
      Why do politicians stir up hatred of folk you never met, whose language you can’t speak, and whose customs and lifestyle is so like ours? Maybe we should just lynch all those politician bastards and regain some peace and tranquility?

        1. The world is obsessed with difference and hate.
          We should be working towards love and respect – as best we can.
          😉

      2. I do NOT see these people and their beautiful singing as my enemy. Quite the opposite. They SURVIVED Communism. Will we?

        1. On your behalf, the national leadership does.
          And, if you don’t agree, you will be punished.

      4. TPTB need a convenient, eternal bogeyman to pull out of the cupboard with which to frighten their populations from time to time. Mysterious (as it was behind the impenetrable Iron Curtain) Russia – not the sort of places the masses go to on holiday, but near enough to seem a threat – fits the bill.

      1. They deserved it. Their own presence was minimal. The ban on Vlad is an undeserved slight. Russia was not present at all on the D-day landings and there is no valid reason why they should be represented there. ,

        1. If it were a celebration or sike of the end of the second world war, then the Russians smust be invited: a celebration (?) of the landings, then no.

        2. They were rather tied up on the eastern front which saw the bloodiest, most vicious, most merciless fighting of the war.

    4. Very unsporting in view of the fact that there was a Franco-Russian Alliance in the not-too-far distant past.

  121. Nasty Brussels police have just proven Brexit right

    Today might well have been my most productive and fruitful day ever in Brussels, even after 20 years as an MEP

    NIGEL FARAGE • 16 April 2024 • 4:29pm

    It was no surprise to me that I wouldn’t be welcomed back to Brussels. I first got wind that trouble was brewing on Saturday afternoon, when I received word from the organisers of the National Conservative Conference that political pressure was being put on the venue to cancel the rally.

    A new venue was found, but despite best efforts, that option too was closed off. Having one venue cancel I could live with, but two is absolutely outrageous. Yet we hadn’t even reached the lowest point. On arrival at the third venue, the mood was tense and we were told by security that the police were on their way to stop people from entering! A warm welcome back indeed.

    The excuse given by officials to harass a peaceful political event “to guarantee public safety” is simply extraordinary. How on Earth could the public be threatened by the speeches of the prime minister of Hungary and leaders of national political parties bidding to win in the upcoming European elections? No, the real threat seems to be ideological: the questioning of Brussels’ “ever closer union”. Holding these beliefs appears to have been enough to attempt to shut the conference down.

    As the day progressed, we heard of increasingly frantic calls from local officials. Even the caterers who were due to provide lunch were told not to come to the venue. Our friendly Tunisian host feared his business would be ruined. I will in time announce the name of his establishment and advocate that every British tourist in Brussels spends as much money there as they possibly can, in protest at the city’s EU-crazy authoritarianism.

    The monstrous reaction in Brussels to this conference comes as no surprise to me. I was personally banned from restaurants, pubs and coffee bars in my last few years in this city. But today, the Brussels elite have exhibited their cancel culture on a global stage. In fact, it’s worse than that. Cancel culture is saying, “I do not want to hear your opinion”. What happened today is an updated form of Soviet communism. It says that no other view is allowed, that anybody that holds it is, by definition, mad, bad, and dangerous. It’s an approach that has, and will always, fail in the end.

    Today might well have been my most productive and fruitful day ever in Brussels, even after 20 years as an MEP. I was forever the devil, forever the outsider – but now I can see a growing number are beginning to understand what this globalist project of ever closer union actually represents. It is not just undemocratic, but anti-democratic in its very nature.

    These nasty people have done the cause of freedom – and Brexit – an enormous favour.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/16/nasty-brussels-police-have-just-proven-brexit-right/

    We can be sure that these ‘cancellations’ will be presented on the news as nothing to do with the EU but merely decisions taken by wise and sensible local officials to avoid a violent, fascistic assembly in the streets of Brussels.

    1. Only problem, Nigel, is that our own Establishment has been cancelling for years now conservatives and anyone who opposes them. In that regard, we’re no better off over here. And it’s going to get worse. Of course, he could step back into the fray, but he’s more interested in being a ‘journalist’ and swanning across the Atlantic than doing something that might actually bring concrete results.

      1. Too late. The damage is done. Who do these people think they are? How do they think they will get away with such egregious behaviour?

  122. Don’t know about JK R, so can’t comment. Otherwise, you’re spot on, BB2.

  123. Sob Story Alert.

    I am just about to pop onto penaltynotice.direct.gov.uk line and pay a £100 fine. Why? I was picked up by one of those blasted dumb-motorway variable-speed-limit average-speed spy-camera systems doing 54 mph in a temporary 40 mph limit zone on a Sunday morning when the traffic was light and there was no work in progress at all through the coned-off area. I hadn’t seen the limit change from 50 to 40, until both of us suddenly noticed it and I commented ‘when did that change?’ Then we were out of it and back into a 50 mph zone.

    I thought no more about it until the Notice of Intended Prosecution arrived. At 53 mph I would have had another of those silly driver awareness courses (I’ve done 2 over the years). At 54 mph it’s a fine and three points on the licence.

    I drove the same route the following Sunday morning and yes, the 40 pmh limit was there, preceeded and succeeded by 50 mph zone through a coned section, with no actual work in progress. The 40 mph section was just a few hundred yards long, maybe half a mile at most.

    In my book that’s deliberate entrapment.

    After 55 years of having a clean driving licence I now have three penalty points which will bump insurance premiums by at least 5% for the next 4-5 years, I believe. Something like £200-250 more to pay altogether even with full protected NCB. That’s as good as a fine too.

    With my military background and knowledge of radar I know how inaccurate the radar systems could be if they are not regularly checked and calibrated so I was minded to claim entrapment, challenge the system and defend the charge in court. I discussed it with SiL who is a barrister who said ‘FGS No! Just pay the fine’.

    I took his advice having not done so in an earlier case when someone shunted into the side of my car and admitted fault but was persuaded by her insurer to change her mind later. I refused the out-of-court 50/50 offer of a settlement from her insurer for the cost of my insurance excess, feeling that I was on solid ground. I lost. The joke was on SiL when he was flashed on the same stretch a couple of weeks later doing 79 mph in a normal 70 limit. He get’s a silly drive awareness course to pay for; at 78 he’d have got away with it.

    I intend to write to the Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner, copy to my MP, not that it will do much good. However, I feel that they really need to know that all this surveillance of basically law-abiding folk is seriously pissing a lot of people off.

    1. I did a speed awareness class once and didn’t judge the time it would take to get there very well. When I walked in I said, ” I’m sorry I’m late. I had to drive like the clappers to get here.”

      1. I’m always aware of the speed I’m going.
        Sometimes I just don’t care about the limit. 🙂

      2. I must remember that one. I may well be doing a speed awareness course in the not-too-far distant future. Unfamiliar, but not unknown road; on the few times I have travelled along it I am always reminded of the people who have made their last journey up this road, it is the road to Caxton gibbet, Cambridgeshire. It is, for me the saddest road in England. Anyway, I was caught doing 60 mph in a 50 mph zone. I was late for an appt via an unfamiliar route looking for a turnoff which I knew must be somewhere on the right. I have admitted my offence (caught by a lay-by entrapment van) and I now await punishment. Any day now. The last time was ooooh, 35 years ago.

    2. “ In my book that’s deliberate entrapment.”

      I feel for you. I got done twice in two weeks and now have the dreaded 3 pts on my licence. But; you fc uk with me at your peril. On the one hand, I am a good girl. But i am now an enemy of the state, precisely because my misdemeanours were the result of entrapment. And i don’t tolerate unfairness. So now i have zero respect for the state. (which is a bit of a problem given my job).

  124. Also applies to Britain…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/454a2e51d8a5c4d74847d356a24abd4dab07e11bc5a4e29dea3851d503351bbf.jpg

    Own up, which NOTTLer is this?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87ee98596746cac5b2bc7bc887bea82d1984118bf9747ef931e04bffb5e3c91f.jpg

    Same if you score above 79…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72422d252994fa58cabb2a85bc9f6ce77f11dfc4966decefbf73844b3238d6d8.jpg

    Bonus (something to aspire to??) Twitt video, sorry
    https://twitter.com/morellifit/status/1779848361471828166

      1. It’s an Americanism for having sex in public (a very weird thing to be on that list). Ask our very confident Yankee newbie. 🙂

        2. Thanks. I am fully aware what it means (I have been for decades) but no one has ever explained why such a patently idiotic expression was ever coined in the first place and why it has gained traction and longevity.
          It is as pointlessly banal as calling a handgun a ‘piece’. Why?

        1. It was a rhetorical question about why they use such an idiotically absurd expression.

    4. Do you get multiples of points for multiple activities?

      The Warqueen crept ahead with of the same sex, smoking and drugs – none of which she does now.

  125. In 1990, I’d just moved to Aberdeen (a fine city!) for a new job. The other end of the country from my wife and minuscule son, so was feeling all alone. Then, one Satruday night, on the TV, the 3 tenors. This track opened my eyes to the talent of Luciano Pavarotti (and his handkerchief)… the track still resonates.
    https://youtu.be/XpYGgtrMTYs?si=gIwoIp3ttXQxoJR_

    1. Obs was that when they were at the original Wembley stadium?
      And John Major went to the performance and it rained.

        1. Mr Wett.
          I was going add the just a few days after the wonderful three tenors performances. We went to see The Eagles at the stadium. My all time favourite band.

          1. Ahh… sighs heavily.
            So many good bands back in the day.
            Here’s one taht gets me – posted many times before, but it relats to personal experience…
            Folk will be bored by this, but in my life it has serious meaning. I’d have loved to have talked with Sinead about it, but that wasn’t to be. Maybe I’ll meet her on the other side, then I can tell her.
            https://youtu.be/0-EF60neguk?si=tbbBYlC8tfPA65DU

    2. Pavarotti’s voice was so wonderful. it was almost embarrassing how the other two tenners paled in comparison, which is not saying they weren’t good.

          1. Loved, and still love it.
            How can one person write music like tha, a whole group perform it, and one person sing like that?
            I can barely scratch my arse in any kind of tune (apols.)

    1. What a delightful video! Thanks. 🙂

      I managed to spend years in Wiesbaden without knowing about this… 🙄🤣

    1. I hope wine and diamonds are included. Otherwise Brains faggots and mash would do for me. Just sayin’.

      1. I do love faggots. I used to buy them for Lord O as a treat until he finally admitted that he hates them

          3. No, it’s a wife-swapping app.

            I went on it and got a pristine Raleigh Chopper bike for mine!

          5. Are you joking – look on-line – they go for between £1-5,000 these days – astonishing!

          7. As Les Dawson (I think) famously said ‘My wife’s an angel!’ ….. ‘You’re lucky, mine’s still alive’……

          11. I recall it as a cosy, gentle game show in which couples were quizzed as to what they knew about one another. I don’t think the prizes were particularly extravagant. Without looking it up, I think the host was Derek Batey.

          12. Spot on…. or ‘Master’ Batey as I recall we ‘hilariously’ called him at the time – we were very young…..

  128. Off topic and personal.

    NHS envy of the world, you say? part 25.

    Here in the wastelands, known as France, today was my follow up appointment with consultant cardiologist who did my operation.
    Arrive, register and complete updates from my side.
    Then
    One and a half hours one on one with the consultant. Three lots of electrical tests, with running commentary, so I knew what was going on.
    All my questions answered, drugs reviewed and way forward, including cardiac rehab information discussed.
    Do’s and don’ts clarified off the progress made so far.
    Next appointment with him in six months, booked then and there.
    Full written report for the hospital records and copied to my GP also done then and there (I assume there was an AI secretarial programme doing it as he dictated it). Copies of all the letters and scans and other “iograms” handed to me as I left.

    My ghast is still flabbered.

    1. Wonderful news, Sos.

      Given my recent experiences where they can’t triage at reception i have decided to have a long wank. I may be some time.

        1. Ooh, Coouchie coouchie coo…is that an invitation?

          Seriously though, i would just love to disappear right up your gite. ….er.. not sure google translate got that right. :@(

          2. Yes. You told me. I have done staycations here where it doesn’t match but i am not one of those who demands more than the advertising.
            Had a cottage near Boggle hole on a farm and them discovered wild xxxxx rare things not on any map

          3. You’re kidding Phizzee! I worked at Hogarth Hill Farm in 1975 just between Boggle Hole and the Flask inn!

          6. Dogging in the local car park, before it became fashionable.
            You know our Phizzee, avant garde….

          7. I don’t do dogging, Sos. Have you seen what they are charging now for parking !!!

          8. I ran up the beach at Boggle Hole and ran straight into a 60 foot high cliff! No alcohol had been taken!

          9. What? You sound erm,,, Let me be polite….fucking mad !!!
            It could have fallen on your head !
            Would that have made a difference?

          10. It was dark and we had a fire on the beach. We’d been paddling then had a race. Because we were running into the firelight I didn’t see the cliff….! The others picked me up (I was a bit dazed and bloodied) put me on the back of Sams motorbike and off we went back to the farm. Unfortunately the bike was a 49cc trial thing and didn’t have the power to get us both up the hill! Since I was in no state to ride myself, I had to get off and walk! What a night!

          13. That surprises me.
            I had you down as a dog-walker.
            No wonder your poor hounds are so small, no exercise to build them up.

          14. The rare things were orchids growing in a wood. I wouldn’t reveal that location to anyone.

          15. I can provide pictures.
            It would include pictures of a cat sitting in the wheel on the bonnet of a Defender if that would be any help.

    2. Superb!
      Which language?
      Here, when I run out of yer Weegie (blir tomt for norsk), switching to English is no problem.

      1. I always start in French but if they speak English they will tend use English.
        I also apologise for my poor French and at the end invariably thank them for using English.

          1. They do, and their response to the first question: “Do you speak English?” is invariably hostile.

    3. Wonderful Sos, absolutely wonderful.
      I hope all is well now.
      In a contrasting situation in the past 4 years my ‘consultant’ cardiologist spent 10 minutes with me personally and I had two phone calls, both around ten minutes. Now he seems to have decamped. No longer available.
      And when I wrote a letter of complaint, everything was blamed on myself.

      1. So far so good, thank you.

        I hope you have more success soon.

        It’s not perfect here, but they do seem to try to get things done proactively rather than reactively and in the long term it makes a difference to queues, because they try to catch things before they become major problems.

  129. Evening, all. If I fall asleep at the keyboard it will be because for once I had a) a free day with no meetings to break it up and b) fine, dry, sunny, warm weather. Consequently I went all out to get as much done as I could in this small window of opportunity. The front garden is looking primped for its life, apart from cutting the lawn and doing the edges (I ran out of energy). The motorhome has been washed and rinsed and awaits polishing (I was finding it hard to lift my arms over my head at the end) and to cap it all, I have planted more cucumbers (Marketmore this time), a selection of lettuce and two varieties of basil (sweet and bush). The next free day I have is Friday; what’s the betting it’s pouring down then?

    With what, exactly, does the letter-writer think we’ll be able to defend Israel? The best we could do would be to deport all the muslims here on the grounds they are a terrorism threat and that would ease the pressure on the Jewish community.

    1. Plants are so much more useful than most humans.
      Glad you had a good day Conners.
      Don’t go anywhere near London in your Motor home, the mayor will confiscate it.

      1. I used to camp at Crystal Palace when I went down to the Battle of Britain service in Westminster Abbey. I wouldn’t do it again.

  130. Decided to go for a walk and see the sun set but it was too cold so I came back

    1. Yes, deceptively chilly, today. The patchy bright sunshine could not compensate for the keen wind.

        1. I was out and about earlier this afternoon before the sun was low in the sky. I imagine it was colder approaching sunset.

      4. It was beautiful early am. I had a meeting in Baker St at 8:30; i came out c. 10:45 and there was as a young girl (20-ish) in tiny shorts snd t-shirt. And then the rain came…

      1. Well thank you very much JD – that’s well and truly blown it, spare room for me…. (again)…..

  134. We had to put the CH on this evening.
    I managed a couple of fobs….whoops, jobs in the garden.
    We had a clear out in the garage (never been a car in it) loaded items into the car. Wife took it to the tip. And bought most of it home.
    No rubbish skips available !!!
    And they wonder why there is so much fly tipping. Council taxes go up services diminish.
    More idiots in charge.
    Watched an old Portillo on Australian train journeys.
    We might fly to Sydney and take the Ghan to Perth. Bucket listing. But not quite yet.
    Night all.

    1. Goodnight, Eddy. I have filled two green bins. I shall be forced to pay extra to have even one emptied soon.

      1. The council crooks charge us more than 50 quid a year now to empty our green bin once a fortnight.
        And then sell the results back as ‘compost’, it’s crap.
        We’ve got our own composts bins.

        1. I have two compost bins, but I don’t seem to have mastered the art of composting, somehow. I’d hate to try it with the ground elder; it would probably take over the garden!

          1. At some point in the last few years, Conners, I gave up bothering and also found out that is is not only good to eat when young but very good against arthritis. So now it is part of my gardenscape and welcome up to a point.

          2. I was astounded when I went to Monet’s garden and saw they were using ground elder for edging! I’ve never tried eating it (raw as a salad, I presume?) but if it’s good for arthritis (I’m a martyr to that) I might give it a go.

          5. Then cut it and use it as a herb. It gets very bitter once it has turned into proper leaves etc. i should have said – you need to get it before it’s unfurled. Bright green little shoots,

          13. See, my question to GQT, in the days when i bothered with R4, from Barnes Wetlands Centre. The answer was “ground elder”.

          14. Never put weeds in your compost bins. I only use fresh grass cuttings (weedless), kitchen vegetable waste and autumn leaves.

        1. Interesting. Does anyone here have more knowledge than me re cloud seeding?

          1. Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that aims to change the amount or type of precipitation, mitigate hail or disperse fog. The usual objective is to increase rain or snow, either for its own sake or to prevent precipitation from occurring in days afterward.

            Cloud seeding is undertaken by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei. Common agents include silver iodide, potassium iodide, and dry ice, with hygroscopic materials like table salt gaining popularity due to their ability to attract moisture. Techniques vary from static seeding, which encourages ice particle formation in supercooled clouds to increase precipitation, to dynamic seeding, designed to enhance convective cloud development through the release of latent heat.

            Methods of dispersion include aircraft and ground-based generators, with newer approaches involving drones delivering electric charges to stimulate rainfall, or infrared laser pulses aimed at inducing particle formation. Despite decades of research and application, cloud seeding’s effectiveness remains a subject of debate among scientists, with studies offering mixed results on its impact on precipitation enhancement. Some studies suggest it is “difficult to show clearly that cloud seeding has a very large effect”.[2]

            Environmental and health impacts are considered minimal, given the low concentrations of substances used. But concerns persist over the potential accumulation of seeding agents in sensitive ecosystems. The practice has a long history, with initial experiments dating back to the 1940s, and has been used for various purposes, including agricultural benefits, water supply augmentation, and event planning. Legal frameworks primarily focus on prohibiting the military or hostile use of weather modification techniques, leaving the ownership and regulation of cloud-seeding activities to national discretion. Despite skepticism and debate over its efficacy and environmental impact, cloud seeding continues to be explored and applied in regions worldwide as a tool for weather modification.

        2. Interesting. Does anyone here have more knowledge than me re cloud seeding?

      2. Why is any fcuker trying to move through that water? You can’t take off or land, so best forget it and try again tomorrow.

      3. I’m not sure if they store the excess or just let it run out to sea.
        But it does seem a bit wreckless.
        A years rain in one day !

      4. Afternoon TB.
        And very good news nurse. I’ve just had an appointment with my GP, BP 130.
        All bloodtest taken last week were excellent he said. Meds combination seem to working well at last. So stick with it. And not even breathless after walking home from the village at the bottom of the hill.
        Its such a relief after nearly four years of confusion, stress and ill health.
        Thanks for your support and concern. ☺️🤗

    3. “ And they wonder why there is so much fly tipping. Council taxes go up services diminish.
      More idiots in charge.”

      Ain’t that the truth.

  136. According to the Times, Greater Manchester Police are investigating multiple allegations against Angela Rayner, including tax matters, as well as the council house sale!

    1. All she need do is publish the tax advice she has received. That she won’t implies it’s deeply shifty.

  137. Tired bunny – basket beckons. Ii am aware that I have not thanked enough of you for your extremely entertaining posts, so I do say thank you now, in spades, and wish you all a peaceful and restorative night.

    1. Stupid Q – obviously it rains there, but I always imagine it being a burning desert.

      1. I never enjoyed Geography at school but I do remember learning that occasional desert rain could be frightful causing terrible flooding. People had been known to drown in the desert.So this news is not particularly surprising.

          1. Interesting. I passed O level Geography and they asked me if I wanted to go on to A level. Certainly not was my reply, my stubbornness probably just contributed to my ignorance.
            I once went to Las Vegas, the air conditioning in the car broke unable to cope with 49 degrees celsius and I knew that the return trip to LA had to take place at night. It gets very cold at night in the desert. Probably the most useful thing I learned in what always struck me as a horribly boring subject.

          4. The Nabatean civilisation lasted for centuries because they had a sophisticated cistern system that kept every drop of water that fell, and an equally sophisticated one that distributed it without wasting a drop. Petra was abandoned when an earthquake destroyed these systems. Our guide in Petra showed us the remains of some in the Siq corridor. That is why it floods today!

          5. The Nabatean civilisation lasted for centuries because they had a sophisticated cistern system that kept every drop of water that fell, and an equally sophisticated one that distributed it without wasting a drop. Petra was abandoned when an earthquake destroyed these systems. Our guide in Petra showed us the remains of some in the Siq corridor. That is why it floods today!

      2. The infrastructure is not built to cope with much rain. So on the few days it rains in the year, it’s a mess. Seems that they had a bit more than usual,

        1. We had torrential rain in Doha which left inches of mud on the roads as the roads were not cambered so rain could drain more easily. The bus which took us back to our accommodation in the rain had no de-mister, so some of us volunteered to keep the windscreen clear by wiping it manually and wring out the few cloths viable.

      3. The only time I went there was in 2009 and the heavens opened – I was really surprised. We were having a coffee outside under an awning (for shade) in one of the big shopping centres when the awning collapsed under the weight of the water and everyone got soaked! It didn’t last all that long though, this downpour looks quite a bit worse.

    3. Daughter and sil are here and say this happens once in a while. There are companies that scoop up the water, process it to get rid of the rubbish, and use it for irrigation. We let all the rain water run away then moan we’re short of water.

  140. Well that’s going to help Canada turn the economy around.

    The budget includes such highlights as working with concert organizers to prevent resellers scooping up tickets to popular events such as taylor swift conserts and reselling for a profit. Yep, she is actually mentioned in a national budget. Trudeau probably couldn’t get tickets so he is taking action!

    Oh and reducing tax relief on capital gains – that will really encourage people to go into the rental housing market

    1. I’m sure Trudeau would only be interested in Taylor Swift because of Travis Kelce.

  142. Which countries use cloud seeding?
    Asia
    China.
    India.
    Pakistan.
    Indonesia.
    Iran.
    Israel.
    Kuwait.
    United Arab Emirates.

    What are the negative effects of cloud seeding?

    Increased precipitation in one area could lead to droughts in nearby areas, as the rain is diverted away from those regions. Similarly, cloud seeding could cause excessive rainfall, leading to flooding and other weather-related disasters. Cloud seeding could also have an impact on agriculture and natural ecosystems.23 Feb 2023

    Have we been knobbled by a cloud seeder?

    1. I am always open to a conspiracy theory, but, we are situated geographically on the boundary of cold and warm air masses. The boundary fluctuates north and south, normally with the seasons, but the position of the boundary and hence frontal or wet weather will vary. We have had a wet winter (and I have had enough of it!) but its all ‘weather which is variable in such a region as ours. Your OH will explain if I’m a bit vague at this time of night.

      2. I agree, this year hasn’t been out of the ordinary if you look further back than about thirty years.

        The contrails are blocking a certain % of light though – there are simply too many of them, so they cover a significant percentage of the sky. Someone posted on Twitter that modern aircraft leave more water behind and that’s why where seeing more trails – is that true?

        1. Water is merely a product of combustion and you can see it in car exhausts on cold mornings but it is not cold enough at road level for the trail to persist. There are undoubtedly more aircraft which are often much bigger than before, and so have much bigger engines thereby producing more trails. Think A380, which must produce whopping trails compared with a small aircraft. Jets also fly higher, so in colder air, compared with the turbo props of old, thus more likely to produce trails. There are temperatures below which persistent and non persistent trails will form.

          1. I remember looking at the sky a lot as a child though, and there weren’t that many trails. Even about five to ten years ago, there weren’t that many. Is the latest generation of jets more likely to leave trails? More water in the fuel?

          2. Bigger planes with bigger engines, thus producing more emissions per mile. I havent looked at the increase in air transport which may be a factor. We didn’t have Ryanair or Easy 20 years ago taking Gen Z on stag/hen parties in European cities.

          3. True, and it’s also true that I haven’t kept a diary of the sky!
            We lived near Heathrow in the late nineties, and they seemed to have one plane every minute with a spare slot after every five minutes, as far as I remember. Not that I was doing more than idly watching one runway from my garden. Surely the capacity of Heathrow hasn’t increased since then?
            I have always looked at the sky, partly because I paint it a lot. Covid was an exception, but let’s say before covid, in about 2019, I don’t remember seeing this insane number of trails. You’d see 3 or 4, but now you can see ten at a time in the sky. Surely air traffic hasn’t increased so much in the last five years?
            Something has changed recently.
            I don’t think it has to be anything more sinister than water vapour, but when the sky is crossed with ten trails, that’s already blocking or diffusing a measurable % of the sunlight.
            Oh well, it’s just filed under “things I don’t fully understand yet”!

        2. I always have and still do believe they are vapour trails.
          The contrail is, to me, a word I’ve only recently become aware of.

          1. Contrail is the correct term, I think – “condensation trail”
            ‘Chemtrail’ is wordplay if one believes that they’ve been spraying something.
            At least that is how I understood it!
            At the moment, I don’t see the smoking gun that stuff is being sprayed over the UK. I do see that there are more vapour trails/contrails than there were say, five years ago.
            I also believe that TPTB are absolutely capable of changing the weather if they wanted, and using that as a weapon against another country or their own people. I just don’t see evidence that they’re doing it at the moment. If the geophysicists who predict that we are moving into a colder few decades are correct, then cool, wet springs like the 40s, 50s, 60s or 70s are exactly what we should be expecting. Last year was a cool wet spring, this year is turning out to be more so.
            When the Americans advanced from Italy into southern Germany in the first week of May 1945, it had just snowed heavily. The snow was just melting. We’ve had a few warm decades and people forget the long term norms!

          2. I agree with a lot of what you say but I really don’t believe the government can change the weather. They can’t control dinghies from France or rather they won’t. If you want to seed clouds then you need clouds in the first place. They would also need to control the Jet Streams it’s the position of that that determines the weather below.
            I’m sure the American MIC are trying to control the weather but you would need to, IMHO, to be able to control the Sun and all the planets in the solar system as their positions have an influence on Earth as, indeed, our position in the solar system will have an effect on their planets. I really don’t believe humans will ever be able to do that and if I believed in a Deity then it would be God that could do that.

            I agree with Kaypea’s post below.

            Have a look at this and how the Jet Stream works – absolutely fascinating. https://www.netweather.tv/charts-and-data/jetstream/tutorial

          3. There have been a lot of weather control patents over the years – remember, it only came out recently that floods that killed 30 people in Devon in the fifities were the result of weather control experiments – and that’s a long time ago now. I think they probably have a lot more technology than is generally known.
            Weird stuff happens from time to time like sudden movement of money out of Indonesia shortly before the tsunami struck. Yet no volcanic activity prediction is in the public domain.

            Let’s say that the likeliest scenario is true – that our skies are criss-crossed with nothing more sinister than water vapour trails. Just counting the water vapour trails and mapping them, you can estimate the % of sunlight that is being diffused/blocked by them. There doesn’t have to be a sinister chemical spraying agenda to affect the amount of sunlight reaching the earth from so many persistent contrails.

          4. I’m not aware of experiments in the fifties, do you have a link please?
            I think the vapour trails evaporate fairly quickly.

          7. I agree with a lot of what you say but I really don’t believe the government can change the weather. They can’t control dinghies from France or rather they won’t. If you want to seed clouds then you need clouds in the first place. They would also need to control the Jet Streams it’s the position of that that determines the weather below.
            I’m sure the American MIC are trying to control the weather but you would need to, IMHO, to be able to control the Sun and all the planets in the solar system as their positions have an influence on Earth as, indeed, our position in the solar system will have an effect on their planets. I really don’t believe humans will ever be able to do that and if I believed in a Deity then it would be God that could do that.

            I agree with Kaypea’s post below.

            Have a look at this and how the Jet Stream works – absolutely fascinating. https://www.netweather.tv/charts-and-data/jetstream/tutorial

    2. I am always open to a conspiracy theory, but, we are situated geographically on the boundary of cold and warm air masses. The boundary fluctuates north and south, normally with the seasons, but the position of the boundary and hence frontal or wet weather will vary. We have had a wet winter (and I have had enough of it!) but its all ‘weather which is variable in such a region as ours. Your OH will explain if I’m a bit vague at this time of night.

  143. Back from the Wigmore Hall. Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. I could have done without the modern crap by Sally Beamish but the Mendelssohn was fab.

    Earlier today had a dental hygienist appointment and the girl I regularly see wasn’t there. Turns out Sarah is Iraqi and she’s stuck there at the mo. All flights suspended. They’re right between Iran and Israel of course. I assume anything in their airspace right now will be shot down.

      1. 386169+ up ticks,

        Morning TB,
        Very good comparison, well past the time to go politically weeding then, very,very near but not too late yet.

  146. Cus it is late at night, I had a ponder, if you are hirsute do you;

    Have a beard
    or
    In her clothes?

  147. Re the new smoking laws

    Our MPs have decided to vote to ban buying tabacco for anybody born after 1 Jan 2009. I am interested to know how a shopkeeper will know in 2034 if an individual is 24 or 25.

    By then, Cash will be remembered as a ‘Chap Who Sang’

    All transactions will be by ‘Card’, which will give

    Date of Birth

    Inside leg Measurement

    Address

    Sex/gender now

    Sex/gender when you were born

    All details of parents

    Cash in bank

    Car details

    Marital state

    and that is just for starters

    1. The law will have been repealed as unworkable.
      That is if the act is ever passed. Before that happens there may be a general election and the new government may not have this in their list of priorities in spite of what they say now.
      But ten years is a long time. Reminds me of the story about the clown who promised to teach the king’s horse to speak.

    2. “By then, Cash will be remembered as a ‘Chap Who Sang’”

      And possibly started the ‘Gender Wars’ with ‘ A boy named Sue.’

      1. A few songs of the early ’70s dealt with subjects such as androgyny, gender dysphoria, gender blurring and identity, notably The Kinks’ Lola, Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side and David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel. Before A Boy Named Sue, though, was Pink Floyd’s Arnold Layne, which tackled cross-dressing and, as mentioned some days ago, The Who’s I’m A Boy.

    4. At some point in the future, shopkeepers would have to age check 70 year olds – IF one believes this ridiculous law would last that long!

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