Sunday 21 April: Iran can only be emboldened by the West’s timid response to belligerence

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

823 thoughts on “Sunday 21 April: Iran can only be emboldened by the West’s timid response to belligerence”

  3. Remembering yesterday’s contribution about heat pumps, I’ve only just been shown the excerpt shown below:

    A typical household with gas heating uses about 12000 kWh gas annually. Using a condensing gas boiler which operates typically at 95% efficiency 11400 kWh of heat is generated.

    An air/water heat pump operating in representative English weather conversion factor of 1.8 would consume 6335 kWh electricity to generate the same amount of heat. Most of the electricity consumption would occur in the morning and evening peak hours.

    These peaks cannot be satisfied with renewable sources and would need gas turbine generators to meet the demand.

    Gas turbine efficiency to support surges and peak demands operate at around 35% efficiency therefore to supply 6335 kWh input to an air/water heat pump would require 18100 kWh of gas to fuel these gas turbine generators.

    This means 12000 kWh of gas to heat a domestic property would require 18100 kWh of gas to provide the same heat using heat pumps.

    While this is a simplistic overview of the situation, and there will be nuances, it shows that the Government proposal to replace gas domestic heating with heat pumps is far from green, and in reality is bunkum.

    (This is the summary of a letter in the Institute of Electrical Engineers magazine)

    1. Yeah yeah… but those are nasty racist hatefacts, not nicefeelz and it’s rainbow nicefeelz that will save the planet

    2. Speaking of usage.. some clever clog algo calculated that based on electricity, water & gas usage against Census 2021 data there are 1.5 million undocumented individuals permanently living in London.

      1. .. and another algo correlated that info with data from Aldi on shaving foam, shampoo & soap sales.. and concluded that the first algo is either wrong, racist, or the 1.5 million undocumented residents could be mostly peaceful, hairy-arsed young, men of fighting age..

      2. .. and another algo correlated that info with data from Aldi on shaving foam, shampoo & soap sales.. and concluded that the first algo is either wrong, racist, or the 1.5 million undocumented residents could be mostly peaceful, hairy-arsed young, men of fighting age..

    3. I’m surprised that letter was published by the IEE. They swallowed the climate change pill years ago and are big Net Zero pushers.

    4. Breaking! UK government generating hot air in support of a useless and literally unworkable plan. Nothing new to see here.

      When one hears of these monumental government backed cock-ups, now and in the past, including data systems for government agencies, the NHS etc. is it conceivable that any one of a CBDC, digital ID, universal credit scheme or a countrywide surveillance system could be successfully deployed, let alone all of them in fairly short order?

      1. Could this hot air be the reason for all the rain we’ve had recently?
        I’ve bought 2 umbrellas in preparation for a Labour government.

        1. The Hunga-Tonga underwater volcanic eruption.?

          In the study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, Millán and his colleagues estimate that the Tonga eruption sent around 146 teragrams (1 teragram equals a trillion grams) of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – equal to 10% of the water already present in that atmospheric layer

          .2 Aug 2022

    5. Very interesting, thank you.

      I was walking near where I live and looking at a couple of new builds with these heat exchange fan things outside, and pondering whether I would be able to carry on using the wood stove if I were forced by law to have the heat exchanger installed. At the moment we have no radiators, and installing the large radiators needed for heat exchangers would result in a noticeable loss of space in our cottage, so I shall resist it as long as possible and hopefully one day the scam will fall apart.

      1. They’ll expect you to take up the floors to install under-floor heating. The SpAds and eco lobbyists have never lived in the real world.

        1. If I ever do have to install a heat pump I will definitely be going for the underfloor heating route. The larger the heating area the lower the temperature the heat pump can be set at which increases its efficiency considerably.

  4. Reform’s success is a mirage. Even a Canada-style Tory wipeout won’t change that. 20 April 2024.

    One in eight voters backs Reform. Do they imagine that their party will form a government? No doubt some of them do. But politicians often miss the extent to which casting a ballot is therapeutic rather than functional. If you don’t think your vote will have any real impact (which, given the maths, is a reasonable thing to think) you might as well use it to feel better.

    This is a long winded, “A vote for Reform is a vote wasted” article. Ergo vote Tory. The problem with this is that there is no Tory Party. We should vote Reform since there is no alternative. I’m not going to say that it will make a difference, but at least you won’t be conspiring with the Globalist Coup that has overthrown democracy in the UK.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/nigel-farage-general-election-reform-conservative-party/

    1. The ONS states that Reform has 1,200,000 members whilst the Tory Party has only 200,000 members.

      Having a simple mathematical brain it appears to me that a Tory vote is a wasted vote.

      ……but keep in mind that a vote for Lib/Lab/Con is a vote of approval for the way that the nation is being governed.

      1. Morning Janet. A very valid point. Since we are unable to protest in any effective way the Lib/Lab/Con cartel chooses to see us as approving of their policies.

      2. 386306 + up ticks,

        Morning J jh,

        IMO reform is tory (ino) MK 2,for me if no suitable independent then
        “Daisy the patriotic Cow” will replace NOTA.

    2. Everything will change when the Labour vote splits down the middle.. on approval of the Mostly-Peaceful-Radical-Islamic party.
      A single cluster of postal votes is worth 10 Labour votes.

    3. The danger is that by voting Reform because everyone is sick of the non-Conservative Tories, the Labour majority will be even bigger than it would have been. Labour will then be emboldened to bring forward legislation which won’t be in their manifesto e.g. rejoin the EU.

      1. Everything is now so unstable and febrile that things might change radically very quickly.
        We have nothing to lose by breaking the Tory party – we cannot stand another five years of what they are doing. Time to gamble.

        1. Whilst I agree completely with your despair at the loss of what we once took for granted, as well documented in that article you gave a link to above, I may suggest a certain caution when “breaking the Tory party” in the hope that good things would come from the Revolution.

          In early 1987, I was an active member of the SDP, having been an Area Party Chairman for a while when I lived in Hampshire, and after my move to Herefordshire, set about activating local party members, especially in parts of the constituency untouched by Liberals. One of my finds is still an independent councillor, and part of the group running the council today.

          My ambition was to unseat fifty Tories in the south of England, and in so doing force a hung parliament preventing the worst aspects of Thatcher’s programme, the descent into deregulated spivvery, the Poll Tax, the privatisation of water supply, and the dismantling of much of what I loved about my country.

          I then found that a Right Wing former MP, Neville Sandelson, who was one of the thirty that crossed the floor from Labour when the party was formed, had published an article in the Sunday Times six months before the election advising all SDP supporters to vote Conservative in order to break the Labour Party once and for all. This was not challenged by the Party leadership, and I wrote to the party newspaper, ‘The Social Democrat’ to say how appalled I was by Sandelson’s proposal. I reminded them that the real threat was from Thatcher, since she was in Government. Labour weren’t, nor were likely to be then.

          I was ignored, from a low popular base Thatcher got her third term landslide, and the descent of political standards in the UK went on apace, giving way first to sleaze under Major, and then the horrors of Blairism, a perpetuation of Thatcher if ever there was one. The SDP itself disintegrated soon after the election, and I got out of politics and have been independently-minded ever since.

          By the time the successor party to the SDP got into office, after the 2010 election, it had become a rather nasty authoritarian outfit with little regard for free expression, far too enamoured with the Tories (as we have seen with the Post Office scandal that started with Blair) and having doublecrossed the students and the free spirits in the West Country.

          2. I agree, and was actually picking up wavering Tory votes in Surrey as far back as the 1980s. “Rose growers” I called them. Chambers of Commerce and the local enterprises that my bank manager grandfather once serviced, who were being let down by the casino culture of unfettered globalism in the City of London.

            They tended to have traditional values. Many were antagonistic to the “free love” culture I grew up with, but I could accept that. In hindsight, the sort of rock solid Middle England family represented today by the Middletons not only saved the royals, but also provide an excellent social model we’d be wise to adopt.

          3. Unsure what your argument is. Labour ‘was’ kept out of office for many years and Thatcher did a lot of good for our country. Blair got in by adopting a Tory face. And this is a tactic he still uses. Hence the articles (yesterday and today in the DT) by Keir Starmer (allegedly) saying how much he loves our country and how much he reveres the St George flag. Blair and Mendelson have their creepy hands jolting away at Starmer’s strings.

          4. The most popular support Thatcher got was 42%, the same as Theresa May achieved in 2017 and ironically the same as Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, which Thatcher claimed at the time was insufficient to warrant recognition. Labour’s highest showing ever was in 1951, when they lost the election.

            Whilst Thatcher did achieve miracles for the yuppies and the global traders, and she also sorted out the unions thanks in part to North Sea oil coming on stream and enabling her to call the miners’ bluff, she also did a tremendous amount of damage to our institutions and our industries whose effects we are still suffering today. She was dogmatic when it came to “free market economics” which quite often was as devastating to little people as it was lucrative to the “fat cats”. She once said that the thing she was most proud of was Tony Blair, which perpetuated her philosophies however people voted. Blair pulled off things that even Thatcher didn’t dare, such as trashing the NHS or selling off the gold reserves.

            Labour’s woes were partly down to the Callaghan Government running out of steam, and in much the same position as the Sunak Government is now. Militant was also a huge problem, having been taken over by hypocrites who were anything but interested in the lot of the general public or for that matter the workers. There was also a split opposition, with little love lost between Labour and the Alliance.

      2. Are you suggesting that everyone is sick of the non-Conservative Tories, this includes the core vote that was once loyal to Labour, Liberal Democrat, Nationalist or Green, but are equally disgruntled with the nation-hating glib authoritarian incompetence put forward by their respective parties?

        I saw a report last week that Starmer cannot rely on the Red Wall reverting to Labour, and may be picking up support for Reform there, far from the old Tory heartlands.

        1. My feeling is that the Tory vote in the former Red Wall constituencies will evaporate. Most will probably vote Labour again, having only voted Conservative in 2019 to keep out Corbyn and as an endorsement of Brexit. I doubt that many of these votes will go to Reform.

          1. For as long as Tice is leading the party, you may well be right. The Red Wall may not regard nostalgia for Thatcher an acceptable alternative to the Tories, whereas the somewhat chaotic charismatic buccaneering of Boris Johnson, and something that Nigel Farage also possesses, does excite the imagination.

          2. I read otherwise. A significant number of Red Wall Voters plan to vote Reform. These are the natural homelands of a party like Reform. Reform just need to get their policies out there and they will accrue even more voters.

          3. I read otherwise. A significant number of Red Wall Voters plan to vote Reform. These are the natural homelands of a party like Reform. Reform just need to get their policies out there and they will accrue even more voters.

        2. I suspect that Labour will not do as well as forecast by current polling.
          They will win, but not as mightily as is being predicted.
          There appears to be little enthusiasm for either party; currently Labour is just less loathed.

      3. They will try to do that anyway, no matter the size of the majority. And none of them care about backtracking on their manifestos. They all lie. A manifesto is just promises.

    4. The uni-party fear Reform and will be throwing everything they can at it with the aim of coercing voters not to vote Reform. If you are planning to stay home in disgust then turn out and vote Reform instead. It you were going to stay home anyway then it won’t affect tactical voting. We are told that Labour will win anyway but we need to seed Parliament with some sanity and then hopefully this can be built upon in future elections. Personally, I think the politico pundits underestimate how well Reform will do at the next election. I don’t believe the polls anyway. They frequently get it wrong. And even if the worst comes to the worst and Reform get no seats, they will still get the votes and it may well influence the Tories to usher in sensible policies which the electorate want, in order to win back popularity. A vote for Reform is a crucial vote.

    5. The uni-party fear Reform and will be throwing everything they can at it with the aim of coercing voters not to vote Reform. If you are planning to stay home in disgust then turn out and vote Reform instead. It you were going to stay home anyway then it won’t affect tactical voting. We are told that Labour will win anyway but we need to seed Parliament with some sanity and then hopefully this can be built upon in future elections. Personally, I think the politico pundits underestimate how well Reform will do at the next election. I don’t believe the polls anyway. They frequently get it wrong. And even if the worst comes to the worst and Reform get no seats, they will still get the votes and it may well influence the Tories to usher in sensible policies which the electorate want, in order to win back popularity. A vote for Reform is a crucial vote.

    6. The 1922 general election was when Labour replaced the Liberals to become the second big party.
      Were there signs beforehand that things would change, or was it a complete surprise?

    7. The Conservative Party started betraying the people when John Major became prime minister. This betrayal accelerated to the extent that neither Cameron nor May were able to form governments without the support of either the Lib Dems or the DUP. The only person to achieve a significant electoral majority was Johnson – a victory handed him by the Brexit Party withdrawing their candidates – and his betrayal was the greatest of all.

      I hope that the Reform Party overtakes the Conservative Party in the polls. This will show that Reform rather than the Conservatives will be better placed to oppose Labour and the flood gates will open.

      The Conservative Party richly deserves to be completely obliterated. British Conservatism will die if the Conservative Party goes on living in its crippled form.

  6. 386306+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The timid response is, I believe, the West not wanting to fight on two fronts, as in each individual country in the West currently has its own agenda in “going West” when once a decent nation.

    The WEF / NWO profit from war providing arms purchased via the tax payer, supplying finance at the tax payers expense, some will reach the combattence most, I believe will go through the laundry department and return to various senders all clean & crisp.

    The current art of war has IMHO to show a profit, attain placement positions of power, and tender to the world culling program.

    Sunday 21 April: Iran can only be emboldened by the West’s timid response to belligerence

  8. Iran can only be emboldened by the West’s timid response to belligerence

    The same applies to our timid response to Islamic extremists here, I suppose.
    To the point of not even admitting it is happening

  10. A poor five today

    Wordle 1,037 5/6

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

    1. Would’ve got it in four if we hadn’t made a silly mistake on the third go!
      Wordle 1,037 5/6

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

  13. @squirewestern:disqus Buongiorno da un gufo a un ‘ allodola in un mattina luminosa e bella . It’s a beautiful bright Sunday morning whilst you’re still asleep and missing the best part of the day, says a lark to an owl . The dog wants to go for a walk too – she told me . 😁

    1. Buongiorno anche a te. I think you meant ‘da un’alladola a un gufo’, no? Era soleggiato qui alle nove, ma è diventato nuvoloso adesso.

      1. Good morning Audrey. I see you have unblocked me early. Perhaps you have come to support my statements about the WFF (World Feline Forum) conspiracy?

        2. Audrey has a new picture, she’s not looking. You can see her neck, shoulder and top of cleavage but not her face as she’s looking away from anti feline words. 🙂

      2. When the BBC sold the old Television Centre and we were all kicked out, the framed movie posters that once graced our office walls were given away. I brought home Breakfast at Tiffany’s (but ten years later it’s still propped up against a wall waiting to be properly hung).

    2. It is always wise to be on good terms with your neighbours, even if you really dislike them.

  15. Good morning, all. Clear and blue for the most part. I haven’t ventured out yet but if the forecast north/north easterly moderate breeze is about it isn’t going to be warm.

    Apologies for a rather gloomy comment but IMO the dangerous surge in engaging children in sexual activity etc. is not a chance occurrence but part of the globalist cabal’s plan to destroy the family and hence society.

    Arch-liberal Bill Maher hits the target re paedophilia/drag queens/child exploitation. It’s an American show for an American audience and I find Maher a bit too smart and smug in his presentation style for my liking but credit where credit is due, Maher is pretty much on point here.

    https://twitter.com/HerdImmunity12

    Then, of course, there’s Ricky Gervais.

    https://twitter.com/BillEllmore/status/1781532792330858650

    IMHO paedophilia is on a par with murder and rape and needs to attract the harshest criminal sentences. Whilst Maher and Gervais attack the top end and nothing much happens it’s not much different at the other end when some cultures express the very worst in human behaviour and either get away with the crime or receive risible sentences.

    1. Paedos cannot be cured and should be executed. Jesus said dropping them in the sea chained to millstones was merciful compared to what God has in store for them.

      1. In days past when I sat on the bench a request for a search warrant was made by the police to take any computers in connection with child pornography. The male concerned was 84 years old, his first recorded offence for sexual assault on a child was when he was aged 15.
        A leopard never changed their spots, nor do paedophiles.

  16. Good morning all.
    A somewhat less cold start to the day with a tad under 3½°C on the Yard Thermometer and a pleasant but overcast start with a blue patches.

    It appears that the Yanks are giving $60 billion military aid to the Ukraine together with $28bn for Israel and $8bn for Taiwan voted through on separate bills.
    So that going to help US inflation, isn’t it?

    1. Such things are a drop in the ocean compared to welfare payments and at least all the money is spent in the USA.

    3. Steve Bannon et al. have been reporting that the current out-of-control spending is adding $1Trillion to the deficit every 100 days. Breaking the USA economy appears to be a plan.

    1. That’ll be me.State pension + private pension + housing benefit & attendance allowance (no attendees).

  18. Why should the Met police chief have to stand down when Mayor Khan is in charge of policing ?

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

    Blue chem-trail-free skies out of the study window at Castle McPhee, wind in the Nor’-Nor’-West, a cool 4℃ with 12℃ forecast.

    George Orwell wrote that English ‘intellectuals’ were the only ‘intellectuals’ who hate their own people and their own country. Magdalen College in Oxford have just confirmed it again. This is an absolute disgrace.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e30b4c8c45d9fc6eb3a6cfa91077ff0b3c6ca1f7543c51196c7ccd19069e9c52.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/oxford-university-magdalen-college-eid-st-george-day-dinner/

    They are even giving non-slammers halal meat.

    1. They wouldn’t be giving it to me because I would be dining on a baked potato down the Cowley Road rather than attending their Eid dinner.

        1. What do they THINK? Whether it’s true that female Muslim students are really hot, and are keen on PPE guys.

    2. Hope all the males and females were segregated. And that all the females cooked and served the food. Yes including female academics.

    3. A demonstration of sound commercial sense by the organisers. The cult of St George only appeals to the English, whereas some good roast lamb could bring in some support from wealthy donors and keep the liberal lefty vegans away. Decant the wine and describe it as fruit juice, job done. As a bonus, the observant few will be upset by Brits appropriating yet another festival (Christmas was seized from pagans).

      1. Appropriation leads to appropriation leads to appropriation. It is human nature (not just the British) to appropriate from one another. It is really universal common sense to share good practice. I remember Ms Butler of the Labour Party bleating mindlessly away about Jamie Oliver appropriating jerk chicken from the Afro-Caribbeans. Turned out jerk chicken was appropriated by the Afro-Caribbeans, from a south american tribe (Peruvians, I think) who had emigrated previously to Jamaica. All cultures have some form of bread. Indeed, lots of foods have different variations across countries and even continents.
        With us being an island close to Europe, we have been subject to a fair few influences. Other European countries have too. Note how many words sound similar across European languages (from Latin roots, as well as others). The word ‘appropriation’ wittingly puts a nasty slant on it and warps a natural process in order to discriminate against us and verbally assault us.

        1. Not just jerk chicken – the ingredients for curry goat, rice and peas, all do not originate from the Caribbean, so all Caribbean cooking is cultural appropriation.

  20. Good morning. I only look at the headline of the Daily Telegraph letters in order to see what the Government wants me to think today.

  23. From Twitter:

    BNO News
    @BNONews
    U.S. HOUSE APPROVES:

    • Potential TikTok ban
    • $60.8 billion for Ukraine
    • $26.4 billion for Israel
    • $8 billion for Taiwan

    It now goes to the Senate

    Zero for their own, but hey, the money’s all funny anyway and time’s running out. Gotta keep licking until the trough’s clean!
    I guess the Israelis and the Taiwanese just aren’t as cooperative with the great laundry cycle as the Ukrainians…

  24. Good morning from Co Antrim, and unbelievably a second day with the sun in the sky, it must be our summer.

    1. Morning SC. Glorious in God’s Favourite county of Devon. He loved it so much he gave it uniquely two very different coastlines, as well as the knowledge how to prepare a proper scone and the invention of the meat pasty. 🙂

          5. Devonshire is a lovely county. I like both the north and south coasts and the boggy bit in between which is Dartmoor.

          7. South is better for sailing if you have a deep-keeled boat – more safe anchorages.

  25. Good morning from a gloriously sunny morning in East Anglia,
    my favourite time of day is early morning and especially in spring.

  26. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story. Sorry, V late today – I’m not well
    DFWP INTERVIEW

    Paddy McCoy, an elderly Irish farmer, received a letter from the Department for Work & Pensions stating that they suspected he was not paying his employees the statutory minimum wage and they would send an inspector to interview them.

    On the appointed day, the inspector turned up. “Tell me about your staff,” he asked Paddy.

    “Well,” said Paddy, “there’s the farm hand, I pay him £240 a week, and he has a free cottage.

    Then there’s the housekeeper. She gets £190 a week, along with free board and lodging.

    There’s also the half-wit. He works a 16-hour day, does 90% of the work, earns about £25 a week along with a bottle of whisky and, as a special treat, occasionally gets to sleep with my wife.”

    “That’s disgraceful” said the inspector, “I need to interview the half-wit.”

    “That’ll be me then,” said Paddy.

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    Another sunny start, but still the chilly breeze.
    Ah so that’s what has ruined most of our long established Western cultures. A timid response. That’s one way of describing outright pathetic cowards.
    Stop the boats if you want the votes.
    Quite a long article regarding the recent fire in Copenhagen, a long explanation of how it will be rebuilt, a comparison with Notre Dame. But no real theory of how it actually started.
    Surely not just another simple ‘electrical fault’.

    2. Strange how buildings suddenly and inexplicably go on fire.
      And violence levels go up, in places where the last time there was a street fight was in 1945 when the Nazis were losing. And the newspapers omit any details of the aggressors.

      1. Colchester led the way.
        Within a short time a disused home for the handicapped spontaneously combusted twice in one week; an abandoned sergeants’ mess went up in smoke; and the one bit of Severalls hospital (dance hall with stage and sprung floor) that was actually scheduled for preservation, mysteriously caught fire.
        Several executive rabbit hutches were built within its footprint.
        Colchester leads where others follow.

        1. My money is on the recently burnt out car park at Lootown Airport being rebuilt in the shape and space of a much needed larger passenger terminal.

        2. Going back to the late 60s in Colchester: not a fire but council authorised demolition. The Minstrels’ Gallery was a particular point of interest lost forever.

          The Cups Hotel in the High Street.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3bdc9c0b34be1c2e75d5b35f4715b433ff795d08c7796ffcb722367b7611dda7.png

          Some history.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e728fff56cba6823374572a16baed67dfd284349239e8b749cdbab916baed5d.png

          The replacement – this is the latest frontage as the original replacement has been revamped. Full of character for the original Roman capital of Britain. Way back the Norman Castle was sold and partially demolished.

          Anne’s final sentence perfectly sums up Colchester. It’s now a city but in reality it’s a failing dump.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ca3389ef08ee31ebe658c2bf70408160c517023d3dc91cac846c6b165298b7a0.png

    3. Just stopping the boats won’t do it. To get my vote they have to start a mass round-up and deportation.

      1. Baby steps… everyone held to the same legal standards for a start.
        And that includes police officers telling people not to be so openly Jewish.

      2. But certainly stopping the boats will stop the increase in young men of military age adding

        to the garrison already here.

      3. I agree, but stopping the boats is a start. But if those political idiots do that it will prove that they could have done it several years ago.
        And not a single one of them are worth voting for.

  28. I’m desperately afraid that I’ll be taken to DGRI (Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary). Please stop them!

    t have a Tesco Delivery @ 17:00 – 18:00.

      1. I’m tired, no sleep. Feeling sick and afraid I might defecate myself. Stomach ache after constipation (3 days).

        Contact Hertslass – she has my phone no +44 775 768 2036

        1. I’m not being facetious here but sometimes a few pints of strong beer and cider will soften things up.

          1. I am being facetious – get Tom his tax return. That usually loosens everything!

          2. When we were little my mother used to turn off the lights and tell us ghost stories

          3. Every Saturday night, my mother would brew ‘Senna tea’. I can still see that evil pod leering at me from a cup of pallid hot water.
            Then my parents went all hi-tech and dosed us with something called ‘Lixon’. CocoCola leaves the same aftertaste and I can’t still bear it.

          4. Fond as I am of strong drink, I would not recommend that he follows your suggestion.

          5. I agree. Tom ( Sir Jasper ) is an older man in his 80s, he needs to try and stay calm and take some gentle laxatives or at least some prunes with his breakfast. I don’t believe he has any family or anyone to help him out apart from here by the sounds of it. There are plenty of people here who’ll give advice and help which is very good .

          2. He’s not been seen for a little while, unless I missed a post. Tom has asked that we contact Hertslass – her details are on my other iPad and it’s out of ‘battery juice’ at the moment, could someone else do that?

          3. I don’t have them.
            The number Tom gave is his own mobile, not Hertslass’, so I’m stymied.

          4. Just spoken to Tom! He’s a bit miserable and bunged up! He’s taking Laxido and hasn’t phoned 111. Understandably, he doesn’t want to go back to D&GRInfirmary, after his previous experiences!

          5. Thank you Sue. He needs to keep warm, warm so that he feels cosy. Constipation can lead to confusion in the not–so-young which clears when the problem is sorted. It can also induce nausea.

          6. Laxido seems to not work for several days and then kapow! explosion time.
            Isn’t there anything better on the market?
            Magnesium tablets are pretty effective if you take them every day.

          7. It works well if taken 8 times a day, for faecal impaction. I suggested that Tom does that as becoming confused will not help him at all.

          1. Felling a bit better, Thanks, ules. I just keep taking the laxatives to clear the guts.

          1. Taking Laxido and if that doesn’t work (it has already) I’ll consult the Pharmacist tomorrow.

    4. Argh!
      Who wants to be in horsepickle, especially on a beautiful (if chilly) day like today? At least you might get to see a doctor…

        1. I cannot follow anything at the moment, Anne.

          I very afraid of falling as I’m so wobbly on my legs.

    6. If you ring 111 and explain to them your problem they could either send paramedics out or an ambulance or both.

    7. Good morning Tom and everyone. You might consider keeping a bottle of lactulose handy. More of a stool softener than a laxative. Flavourless, and can easily be mixed with food.

      1. I use these https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extractor-SRJQXH-Stripped-Remover-Durable/dp/B0CF139SKH/ref=sxin_15_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.70b6b787-854a-49f8-996a-ed25b08dcd4f%3Aamzn1.sym.70b6b787-854a-49f8-996a-ed25b08dcd4f&crid=5EV1W59AXXH4&cv_ct_cx=easy%2Bouts&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.a67cy74OOwkhtzFDEe2pM07fYccVm9w_LKa6gKN37b2vJBlLuFGNQNoGuL2e-8OiZPHXqurCEAlZKlqITkU9Ug.xAO6nVU2YyLcTFJJNMbb40Go0JoZjFl7mZTb6z7J-28&dib_tag=se&keywords=easy%2Bouts&pd_rd_i=B0CF139SKH&pd_rd_r=6aa2d9b6-59f1-4204-b30e-f325a3466342&pd_rd_w=ggFQQ&pd_rd_wg=6ldjH&pf_rd_p=70b6b787-854a-49f8-996a-ed25b08dcd4f&pf_rd_r=53TBHV81QKV64Y2FE195&qid=1713690533&s=diy&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=Easyouts%2Cdiy%2C99&sr=1-3-ad3222ed-9545-4dc8-8dd8-6b2cb5278509-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&th=1

      1. I’ve just told Jules, (Ndovu) that I’m feeling a little better. I may go back to bed for a couple of hours.

        1. I think you have appropriate !ocal resources from the NHS to avoid having to be transported to DGRI.

  29. Apparently 100 Mps are planning to stand down at the next election. Now would be a good time. A chance for the Reform Party to make a significant contribution. And keep the dreaded Labour Party out.

      1. Yes. I was thinking that she looks like she is falling back from a sniper shot.

    2. Wonderful! Thank you. (Although I have to admit I was rather teary after imagining how it must have felt to be wheeled around evidently very ill indeed, and experiencing this.) (Also thinking that it wouldn’t happen here in Buenos Aires without at least a few people coupling up and dancing the tamgo vals, which made me smile.again.)

      1. I was tearful by the end.
        I tried to imagine such a happening in Colchester General Hospital and failed miserably.

  32. If I could be rrsed to go to London, I’d make a point of being openly English.
    I suspect no effort would be required as we are already seriously outnumbered in the Great Wen.

    2. I’m off to ring church bells in half an hour, then grass-cutting and garage door varnishing.

    3. I’m off to ring church bells in half an hour, then grass-cutting and garage door varnishing.

      1. You’re in luck ! I only charge 25% commission for the valuation, today only ! :@)

        1. When I were nobbut a lass we lived in Australia. We sailed out and back with P&O and on the way back we stopped in S.Africa for three weeks. My 2nd3rd(?) cousin had married a sarf African and we stayed with them.
          Now this husband of hers was the nephew of Cecil Skotnes, a big noise in the sarf African art world. We went to his house for dinner and he gave us a piece of pottery and a painting of a cat..

          I’ve always wondered if the painting is worth anything. It’s hanging in my bedroom.
          https://images.app.goo.gl/vR8dbAdvQuyRuZ178

  37. After recently spraying weeds on our driveway several times with no success I’ve discovered Doff which contains the EU banned Glyphosate.
    There’s a shop called Range in St Albans which sells it. My chauffeures and I be taking a trip over to buy some. And hopefully with in a few days it will have removed the pesky eyesores. As long as it doesn’t rain today.of course.

    2. Eddy. You live in some benighted country in the EU? In the UK you can buy Glyphosate off of eBay.

        1. I never buy anything off Amazon. Don’t like their politics, censorship and even questioning their workers over toilet breaks, or their customer practices. Always trying to trap you into subscribing to Amazon Prime. I have had several phone calls to them about that. Saying no I don’t want the damn thing and then having it thrust upon me all the same. So stopped using them a couple of years ago. Useful to go and look for items but then I go elsewhere to actually buy.

          1. They ‘delivered’ a phone to me in October last year that turned out to be a torn open package with two tins of car scent air freshener instead of the phone. No wonder the shifty Eastern European driver scooted off in a hurry before I could remonstrate.

            It took me until March to get the money back out of them. They said I couldn’t get a refund unless I returned the original (stolen) item intact. When I said that was illogical they just said, even as I was in mid sentence, “We’re here to help you and wish to resolve your issue but I am unable to show enlightenment and am cutting you off.” Whereupon I was duly cut off! Strange use of language but all of the people I spoke to were either American or Latino types obviously trained in using a syrupy schmooze that passed for communication with great emphasis upon how they were there to help, but crucially without any concomitant action to back it up.

            I resorted to letters then, all of which went completely unacknowledged until the last one, which contained the magic words, “I have given you every opportunity to resolve this matter without resort to external agencies; this is my final statement on the issue.” Funny enough I received an email within a day of them receiving that, asking which of my cards I wanted the money returned to. Mind you even though I got the £250 back, I never got the apology for poor customer service when they cut me off. I think they noticed that I have bought hardly a thing from them since, hardly visited the site in fact. They are piling on the email and phone offers constantly, now.

          2. You know James that you buy almost anything on eBay that Amazon carries. The difference is that eBay is individual merchants selling to you directly. The good thing about eBay is that if you pay through Pay Pal and something goes awry they will pay up without any hassle. I must emphasise always pay via Pay Pal. I have had to complain several times over the years and have had absolutely no problem buying. In fact, hate to sound like an advert but I’m gung ho about Pay Pal and disputes, they are great, have never been unhappy with them. Go out of their way to resolve disputes and quickly. The reason you get a better outcome with eBay/PayPal is that Pay Pal itself reimburses you and then goes after the merchant which, if they refuse to comply, are kicked off of eBay. But if you open a Pay Pal account you can use it elsewhere bedside eBay. A couple of months ago I used it to buy from Curry’s, got a new computer monitor. And used it a little while ago to buy a new washer from A.O.

          3. It’s good advice, yes. I’ve used eBay from time to time and PayPal without issue. A lot of it is laziness or convenience. The local computer store for example has everything right across the range, just not the variety Amazon has. I only need travel eight miles for that. Then there’s anything hardware related; again, a brilliant store just 6-miles away and so on.

          4. I will never use Paypal since their disgraceful treatment of some well-known people – closing their accounts without warning and for no reason. They do not deserve to have any customers.

          6. I stopped using PayPal Pal when I read that the company takes the stand that men can participate in womens’ sports.

          7. rankly, I don’t care about that because that’s the fault and a product of feminism. Long may that sort of nonsense continue until we return to common sense.

          8. I’ve mostly had a good experience with Ebay since binning Amazon. Only this week, a Bluetooth mouse I had ordered turned out to be Wi-Fi only. I contacted the seller and was told I could keep it and have one pound off. I said I would give them a stink review and I got a full refund within 48 hours. I still have the mouse btw.

          9. Some years ago I bought a TV through Amazon. When it arrived the stand seemed to be missing (OK, it was hidden but I missed finding it). Arranged to return it and they arranged to send a replacement. Replacement was fine. Returned one, picked up by their courier, never arrived so they tried to charge me for both. After loads of argy bargy they yielded and due to a mix up refunded both the original and the second payments so I got a free TV. Which is still working fine.

            I have worked out how to cancel the Prime they try and force on you and only once ended up with it, immediately cancelled. For occasional users and for those like me not interested in the movie side of thing it is a costly unnecessity.

          10. Nope, don’t need Prime, either. Things have at least moved on in the returns department though. You scan a qr code or printout that they provide you, which you then take to participating post offices. They scan that and it goes through the post office internal system. Your online Amazon account then registers the return so that you can see it, or not, as the case may be.

          11. I’m suspicious about the phone calls.
            Amazon never phone.
            However, when I returned a printer, a scamming company did phone me which suggests some Amazon employees have ‘interesting’ contacts.

          12. “They” phone me from time to time, despite not knowing me at all. It is always about some money I am supposed to have paid.

          13. I abandoned Amazon because of the difficulty getting to the pay page without ending up with Prime. Quite deceitful.

    3. Most of them have Glyphosate in them. I use Roseate in a back sprayer, gets rid of everything except Mares Tail

      1. Nothing gets rid of Mares Tail, not even SBK Brushwood Killer. I should know – I’ve got forests of the blasted stuff in my garden. 🙁

        1. It’s a labour intensive job but I find if I scrape them first to destroy the outer waterproof skin weed killer will work. I use an orbital sander to do it

          1. Interesting tip – thanks. I’ve been given the advice (and put it into practice) to crush the stems with a heavy-duty pair of pliers before spraying. The weedkiller kills the growth that it’s sprayed on to and about an inch below ground but then next year it grows again from a node a little way below soil level. Nothing seems to get back to the deeper roots to kill them. What weedkiller do you use – glyphosate?

          1. I’m grateful that it is the only pernicious weed that I don’t have in my garden. Docks, brambles, bindweed, yes…

    4. Won’t rain, it’s summer now. It must be since I saw a swallow yesterday.

    5. Won’t rain, it’s summer now. It must be since I saw a swallow yesterday.

      1. I’ve just come home from the shops. Not many of the weed killers ingredients are very obvious. I’ve been using Round up already and have had no success. We have a bit of an awkward customer of a neighbour beyond the fence at the end of our garden. He has at least a meter width of weeds including bloody Ivy, at the top end of his boundary where it joins ours andgrows up our fence. The roundup has not made the slightest difference.
        This new one will work.

  39. With good ol’ west-country-type ingredients: beef chuck, onion, potato, swede.👍🏻

    1. Bob’s a little off with his timings. The first Crusade was launched after 400 years of slammer violence. Mo and his kids didn’t exist until the 7th century.

      1. There’s plenty of him on You Tube. What surprised me is that he has degrees in Islamic & Christian studies. Listening to him has provided me with interesting ideas that I hadn’t thought of before. His site is SOCO Films.

  41. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/496dc2c4bc744547a22b4b4699c0c7c7de644b6adeea23077c06892edfed081d.jpg

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTg2LHIyxV4&list=WL&index=100

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALxaT5V1cAA
    I attended a 95th birthday party on Friday. As part of the dessert a spettkaka (“spit cake”) was served. This is a Skånsk-speciality dessert that enjoys protected designation of origin status. It is a batter of eggs, sugar and potato starch that is piped onto a revolving spit over heat to cook it. It has the same texture and similar characteristics to a dry meringue and is served with fresh fruit.

    It is similar-ish to the Austrian/German baumkuchen (tree ring cake) whereby the batter mixture in a trough below the spit is ladled onto the rotating spit to cook.

    1. Baumkuchen is utterly delicious. Never seen it in Austria, I think it is a north German thing.

    2. I don’t think it has ever been in dispute that the attempted killer was a Muslim. Sky News, Australia, has made that perfectly clear from the beginning.

          1. A* student.
            Always said good morning.
            Nan’s in bits ………….
            Yada, yada, yada.

        2. Muslim terrorism has replaced homosexuality as the truth that dare not speak it’s name.

        3. I never use MSM apart from reading parts of the Telegraph and skimming through other papers. So I’m not aware of that. If it’s the case it has been concealed, it is disgraceful. lying by omission.

        4. There were several British online sources for the initial incident. As for radio and television broadcasts, I cannot help.

          https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-68817872
          https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/15/sydney-sees-second-mass-stabbing-bishop-worshippers-injured-20649441/
          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13312465/What-alleged-attacker-said-bishop-Wakeley.html
          https://news.sky.com/story/sydney-bishop-and-priest-stabbed-in-attack-during-church-service-being-streamed-online-13115918
          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-68823240
          https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/sydney-stabbing-church-shopping-mall-priest-b2528879.html
          https://news.sky.com/video/sydney-bishop-stabbed-during-church-service-13116000
          https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/16/police-treating-as-a-terrorist-attack-the-alleged-stabbing-of-sydney-bishop-during-livestreamed-mass-ntwnfb
          https://catholicherald.co.uk/orthodox-bishop-stabbed-at-sydney-church-in-second-knife-attack-in-three-days/
          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13310213/The-smiling-stabber-Second-mass-stabbing-Sydney-48-hours-shocks-Australia-sparks-riot-grinning-attacker-wounds-bishop-pinned-worshippers-20-miles-mall-bloodbath.html
          https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/15/sydney-church-stabbing-live/
          https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/15/wakeley-stabbing-sydney-christ-the-good-shepherd-church

          There have been many more since then.

          1. David, I have read the first four articles. The closest that any of them come to describing the attacker as a Muslim is the Daily Mail story, which refers to the attacker shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’. None of the others mention this. It was the identification of the attacker (or more specifically his parents) as being Muslim to which I was alluding in my original post.

            As a general point, MSM sources in the UK seem to almost fall over themselves in avoiding describing such attacks as carried out by Muslims, or even by ‘Islamists’.

          2. Ah, I misunderstood. Reports identifying the assailant as Muslim followed in the ensuing days. Here are some British sources, rather fewer than those which reported the initial attack.

            https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-68832894
            https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13316687/Muslim-leader-reacts-Sydney-church-stabbing-Wakeley.html
            https://news.sky.com/story/father-of-boy-accused-of-stabbing-clerics-saw-no-signs-of-extremism-says-muslim-leader-13117038

          3. My original point remains. The MSM seems to be extremely reluctant to call out such attacks for what they are – religiously motivated. The fact is that the MSM seems to be in thrall to Islam – they will go to any extremes to avoid mentioning the fact that the perpetrator is a Muslim, and that any attack confirmed to be by an adherent of Islam will be described as ‘a lone-wolf attack’ or by ‘someone with mental health problems’.

      2. Well it didn’t really need saying. The only clarifications which are necessary would be on the very rare occasions when an atrocity was NOT committed by a Muslim.

  44. Another welcome migrant arrived today.
    The Golden Oriole.
    They don’t stay long, but their song is beautifully mellifluous while they’re here.

    3. The Golden Oriole is the sound of the south of France, together with the Hoopoe (but not both together at the same time).

      1. The hoopoes have yet to appear, we usually have several in the garden.
        They are one of my favourite birds to look at and listen to.

        1. They are so showy in their striped pyjamas! One seldom sees a golden oriole unless it flies directly across the road when you are travelling by car, they camouflage well with a broad-leaved foliage canopy. The first time I heard one I thought someone had a canary by an open window, it’s song was so rich and fulsome (although with limited repertoire!).

          1. It is extraordinary how such a brightly coloured bird can appear to vanish.
            I’ve seen one disappear into a tree and spotted exactly where it entered, but even then it is almost impossible to see it again, unless it moves or starts to sing.

  45. Loads of WHITE faces cheering the Marathon runners onwards , funny that, isn’t it?

    Thousands of WHITE runners doing amazing things for charity , nice to see well loved areas of London , shining brightly , with even more WHITE crowds happily cheering them on.

    Why has the Mayor allowed some appalling architecture to be built , notably the buildings near Tower Bridge , ugly red brick buildings .

  46. The real tragedy of Liz Truss is far more depressing than we realise
    Low-tax pushback cannot begin until former PM owns her mini-Budget mistakes
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/20/real-tragedy-liz-truss-far-more-depressing-than-realise/

    BTL

    What in God’s name made Truss appoint Hunt as her chancellor before leaving office?

    And what on earth made Sunak bring the incompetent Cameron back into government?

    This is good ground for conspiracy theorists and suggests that both Truss and Sunak were either being blackmailed or controlled by powers and forces outside the elected government.

  48. 386306+ up ticks,

    The only ones that can find fault with this post are those that supported UKIP and the referendum then I can still hear the echos of fools saying UKIP is finished and promptly returned to supporting the eu asset parties.

    Check OGGA1 comment history forever calling for pre & post Brexit support for UKIP, as a fall back party when treachery was triggered, as it was ,in spades.

    A second chance was in the offering regarding the 2019 General Election, UKIP members went to Birmingham to successfully vote in Gerard Batte as leader, once installed he ask the membership for £100000 & in reply he received £ 300000, putting the financially embarrassed party into the black, he stipulated he would stand for one year then hold another leadership election.

    Financially sound, membership mounting daily, time for the leadership election.

    The party NEC along with farage (brexit party)input inform Gerard he was NOT of good standing within the party and stopped him standing.

    The farage chap pro johnson / tory (ino) party, went into marching action over hill & dale then so knackered from marching / vote splitting they sat the GE out.

    Then reformed as, well, the reform party,any serious opposition to the tory (ino) party taken care of, job done, tories (ino) protected so onwards, and downwards.

    https://x.com/A1an_M/status/1781796571153051894

  49. Have some of the owls joined us larks whilst morning is still with us .
    I’ve just had kippers for brunch with a poached egg on top served with granary bread and Seville marmalade ( homemade ) . Coffee of course – I had my usual cup of English Breakfast tea ( leaves/ not bags ) at 7.30 this morning .

    1. I’m not a proper Englishman/person. Tea before about 10:00 makes me feel nauseous… 🙁 but coffee, stronger than bunker fuel, is the thing!

    2. Sounds very nice. I like the taste of kippers, but not the smell they make. I don’t drink tea in the morning, only coffee and water.

      1. They do make the kitchen smell. I have a simple breakfast during the week . But I do like a Sunday brunch unless having a roast – and I had a haunch of Venison last night, it was nice but more suited for lunchtime today. This evening it’s roasted seabream with samphire .
        PS .. I’m a huge fan of afternoon tea – scones- jam and clotted cream or just Earl Grey tea and cake – sandwiches too if high tea.

      2. I have kippers when ever they are on offer at a hotel breakfast but like you, I don’t like the smell they make so rarely cook them myself.

        1. I like the aroma of kippers when being cooked and eaten, but the pong outstays its welcome, lingering long after the fish have been eaten and the dishes and utensils all washed.

    4. Meritocracy rather than “DEI”?
      Manners?
      Cars that work and can be fixed by a competent mechanic if they go wrong without the need of expensive replacement units
      Boilers that last for 40 years not 10 before they break down
      Adult-led society not by children
      Everything Constitutional pre-Bliar
      Homogenous society

  51. Yes I probably did make a few mistakes . Good late morning Squire, it’s nice to see you before late afternoon if not evening. Ships passing in the night 😁

      1. I’m glad she had a lovely walk earlier and that it was brighter, I’m sure she enjoyed her walk and that there were plenty of trees to sniff and maybe a beach to run along. I do love labradors they are a favourite dog .
        I did go for a slight stroll before making kippers for brunch – the local woods to see bluebells whilst they’re still there. I did hear some deers which was nice .

          1. Lots of wild mountain goats and sheep, we’ve no mountains down here.
            There are Llamas .

          3. Not wild Llamas but there are a few Llama farms here, they escaped awhile ago and were blocking the roads. Odd looking creatures- they resemble sheep with long necks

    1. The beginning of Islam was 610 AD; the First Crusade was from 1096 – 1099 nearly five centuries later.

    2. Bob states that the first Crusade was undertaken in 1095, after 700 years of muslim violence. The muslims only came into being as mohamad was forced to flee to Medina in 622.

  53. I always start the day with a cup of tea and will drink a cup of Italian coffee mid morning and tea again around 3pm . Unless in Italy, France or elsewhere in mainland European countries then I don’t drink tea .

    What do Norsemen have for breakfast with their tea .
    .

    2. Breakfast is usually a version of bread & cheese or bread and jam. Slowly increasing prevalence of cereal with milk. Occasionally scrambled egg & bacon, cocktail sausages, or porridge.

      1. That doesn’t sound very Norse…..I assumed you all had a bit of fermented seabird or something along those lines.😂

        1. We do, because SWMBO and Firstborn make them, and more & more friends are joining in. Otherwise, the sausages are salami-type.

  54. No he isn’t. He was completely accurate. The First Crusade was indeed launched in 1095 in response to mistreatment of Christian Pilgrims to the holy land.

  55. What a beautiful day.
    I have just driven through a bit each of Oxon, Glos and Herfordshire to meet an old friend for lunch in Upton Bishop.
    I’m sitting in the car park, waiting for the pub to open – Sun is shining, birds are twittering and Sunday roast imminent 😀

    1. That sounds good!
      Pity you’re driving, The Moody Cow appears to sell some decent ales!

      2. Had a nice walk this morning Bob from the Mill at Belper (where we saw the falcon) and along past the weir and along the river to the nature reserve and back along a footpath.

      3. Had a nice walk this morning Bob from the Mill at Belper (where we saw the falcon) and along past the weir and along the river to the nature reserve and back along a footpath.

      1. Prob 😀
        Thank you. Looking forward to catching up with a flatmate from a lifetime ago.

  56. What a beautiful day.
    I have just driven through a bit each of Oxon, Glos and Herfordshire to meet an old friend for lunch in Upton Bishop.
    I’m sitting in the car park, waiting for the pub to open – Sun is shining, birds are twittering and Sunday roast imminent 😀

  57. If I were to have a dinner party, metaphorically speaking, Im wondering which 8 Nottlers ( past and present ) and Specxiles I would invite – ill ponder upon it today.

      1. Shan’t make em ill round ere, me cookin as got better since the Turkish meatballs cooked in milk 🙂
        My poor husband has never quite forgotten meat cooked in milk , it’s a Turkish delicacy.

        1. Bleurgh! Has a similar effect on me as tripe and onions in milk! But I love poached fish!

          1. Proper smoked haddock poached in milk, butter and white pepper. Then use the milk for the mashed potatoes.

          2. Or make my MiL’s Cullen Skink! She was a terrible cook but boy, could she make great Cullen Skink!

          3. Yes, I do make Cullen Skink too.
            Did you know the Yanks put thick cream and Parmesan in it? Has the consistency of cheesy wallpaper paste.

            The best way to thicken it is to use a stick blender for 20/30 seconds.

          7. A skink in Scottish is a knuckle or haugh used for boiling, to make stock. Cullen is a very pretty fishing village on the Moray Firth. My husband comes from a village about 6 miles from there. His mother would have called a skink, ‘a bit tae bile’!

          8. I sometimes take out a ladle or three out, blend that then put it back into the soup.

          13. No. She was a very artistic lady who mixed with the arty elite between and just after wWII.

          14. I remember borrowing the books from our fantastic local children’s library well over 60 years ago. I believe that library closed down fairly recently. I feel very sad for the youth of today – no doubt left to watch something downloaded on Mum’s smartphone instead.

    3. I hope I’m invited….you sound as if you are rather a good cook. I am not, but I’m an appreciative diner.😁

      1. Certainly both you and your dog will be invited as will the Nottler lady ashesthedust who lives in Argentino and dances the tango. Pizzee who posts here and is a good cook is invited too – and his two dogs to keep your dog company. So will JD and Opopanax be invited – and a few others:-)

          1. Ive no idea about any of you here that i’ll invite but itll not be vegan. My double bassist friend from our local orchestra might come – but he’s a vegetarian so will be wearing leather shoes . Good night .

  60. I posted this elsewhere five years ago. It’s getting closer.

    “…the United Kingdom shall facilitate the achievement of the Union’s tasks and shall refrain from any measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the Union’s objectives, in particular when participating in the decision-making processes of the Union.”
    Just one of more than two hundred laws Teresa May has agreed to since she began negotiations with the EUSSR.
    In October 2016, May instructed the Cabinet Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence to lock us into the emerging European Defence Union. In June 2017, she attended the European Council where she approved the European Defence Fund, the European Defence Industrial Development Programme, and PESCO. But in her statement to Parliament the following week, she omitted all references to it. This too was unconstitutional.

    If, in the near future, you, your children or your grandchildren are conscripted to fight the Russians in a war to admit the Ukraine into the EU, don’t tell me you weren’t given warning.

    She must go and take all the ‘Remain’ traitors with her.

  62. Rishi Sunak ‘appalled’ by Met as Downing Street fails to back Rowley. 21 April 2024.

    It comes after Gideon Falter, the head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was stopped by police as he attempted to cross the road in the Aldwych area of central London while a pro-Palestinian march went past last Saturday.

    Mr Falter, who had just come from the synagogue and was wearing a kippah skullcap and carrying a bag containing his prayer shawl, was told by a Met Police sergeant at the scene his presence could inflame tensions.

    In the exchange, which was filmed, the officer can be heard saying to him: “You are quite openly Jewish. This is a pro-Palestinian march. I am not accusing you of anything but I am worried about the reaction to your presence.”

    This is a variation on the argument that a beautiful sixteen year old virgin with a sack of jewels over her shoulder should be allowed to walk anywhere unmolested. However attractive, it has never been an argument that appeals to me. I’m sure we should all like to live in such a world, but it would probably be the next one if you undertook such an action. I have some personal experience (as does Jeremy Morfey) of Mr Falter and his pals at the Campaign Against Antisemitism. They are not nice people. They are friends of Mrs May. What more could be said? This situation is typical of them. They have manipulated it to put the police in a bad light. This officer was simply seeking to reduce the chances of the situation getting out of hand and should be praised rather than sacked.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/21/oliver-dowden-accuses-met-police-disrespecting-jews/

    1. They are not nice people.

      Not nice people are generally bad. So do bad people need to be paid off with Government party funds to avoid false imprisonment charges?

    2. I believe you that they are not very nice, but still no road should be a no-go area for Jews.

      1. I shall send the first virgin who camplains to me that she was attacked to you BB!

    3. Plod wasn’t very diplomatic in his language, especially when he threatened the Jewish man with arrest for breaching the peace. Was the confrontation engineered by said Jewish man to provoke some sort of reaction from Plod? I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

      1. Afternoon Aeneas. Falter would win regardless of the outcome. If he had been attacked he would have claimed that the police failed to protect him.

        1. I read somewhere that Falter was the person who got Tommy snatched by the police from breakfast when he went to report on a remembrance parade. If it is true all my sympathy melts away.

    6. It was said here that Falter was the cause of Tommy Robinson being denied his right of walking around London freely.

        1. TR is banned from London as part of his bail conditions and he was meant to be in court this month. The main police witness is apparently unavailable, so bail has been extended until a new date is set. TR has also been called in to talk about new charges of an offence from 2 years ago! Harassment, if ever I have seen it.

          1. Robinson has always been hated by the Political Elites. A patriotic straight white man! What could be worse?

        2. TR is banned from London as part of his bail conditions and he was meant to be in court this month. The main police witness is apparently unavailable, so bail has been extended until a new date is set. TR has also been called in to talk about new charges of an offence from 2 years ago! Harassment, if ever I have seen it.

    7. We’d all like to live in a world where our personal conduct does not put us at risk of crime. Feminists, for understandable reasons, say that no blame should be attached to a woman, walking alone at night in skimpy clothing, if she should be sexually assaulted. However, I rather doubt that a driver, should he or she park their Bentley in a crime-ridden neighbourhood and leave it unattended, would entirely escape an admonition that they are partly to blame for their foolhardiness should it be stolen or vandalised.

      1. All very true. Common sense has left the planet, that is why people routinely conduct themselves in inappropriate ways.

  63. Good morning. This is a fascinating interview by Joe Rogan of Tucker Carlson. There is a good deal of unwelcome news these days, and a material part of that is the clear emergence of UFOs to general notice. Much still to know, but present knowledge is definitely disturbing. I was one of those who dismissed UFO stories for most of my life. Not so today.

    Note: This is a three hour conversation.

    https://youtu.be/DfTU5LA_kw8

    1. I don’t have three hours to watch but like your previous self, I don’t really think UFOs can exist and thought the recent hoo-haa about them was a diversionary

      Oh look a squirrel

      2. Why do you think they can’t exist? Humans are an advanced civilisation and have already sent out objects into interstellar space. Do you not think it likely that within a couple of hundred years we will have sent unmanned probes to have a look at other solar systems? Unless we are alone in the universe then it seems likely that other civilisations will have done the same. Just hope they’re not Muslims!

        1. I have mentioned this before but intelligent life on Earth, as far as we know, has existed for an infinitesible amount of time in the history of the Universe so the chances of an alien race existing at exactly the same time is just so remote.

          1. Remind yourself again……100 billion stars in our galaxy alone and between 200 billion and 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

    3. UFOs?

      The only UFOs possible are those manufactured by some people on this planet which are then flown secretly by them. That is why they are ‘unidentified’.

      Nothing can possibly enter the earth’s atmosphere from space, except for a large chunk of rock or ice. That’s all there is to it.

      If any civilisation, of any sort, does exist out there, either in our galaxy or another (there is nothing in our own solar system), you can bet your bottom groat on these unassailable facts:

      1. ‘They’ will not have a ridiculous anthropomorphic look about them, such as is so beloved by science fiction writers.

      2. ‘They’ will not be capable of defying the laws of science or gravity and make themselves able to propel some form of craft over distances of umpteen light years, at speeds close to or exceeding the speed of light, while sustaining themselves in a fit and healthy condition.

      3. ‘They’ will be unable to find, grow or produce sufficient sustenance (food, water, nourishment) over the vast period of time required to travel.

      4. ‘They’ will require the capabilities of breeding and educating their offspring (what will they teach them, they will be born in captivity and know nothing outside their capsule?).

      5. ‘They’ will require the ability of disposing of the countless generations of themselves, and their kind, that die during the journey.

      6. ‘They’ will need to find sufficient fuel to keep their craft going over unimaginable distances.

      7. ‘They’ shall have to possess an insane ability to discover a minuscule planet (earth) that has intelligent life forms, and an atmosphere that suits them, which would make it worth their while to even think about embarking on such an unfeasibly improbable voyage just to invade.

      Anyone believing, even for just a split second, that there are intelligent and resourceful beings “out there” who have the capability and wherewithal to do all that, then they had better tell me what they have been drinking, because I’d love to sample it.

      1. I wish I could give you multiple upticks, Grizz. That was a model of rational thought.

      2. There are rather a lot of false assumptions here. Taking it point by point:

        1. Probably true.
        2. They will not be able to defy the laws of physics, but these do not prevent travel at speeds approaching the speed of light. Incidentally, the time dilation effect at speeds approaching that of light means that the journey time for people on the spaceship is significantly less than the time passing for a stationary observer.
        3. Why not? This is not generally seen as a problem.
        4. Interstellar travel will not take nearly as long as you think for those on board assuming they are able to attain velocities of 95% the speed of light or more. See Einstein and the time dilation effect.
        5. As above
        6. Once an object is travelling at any given velocity in space it no longer needs fuel in order to maintain that velocity. Isaac Newton laws of motion.
        7. It is highly likely that probes would be unmanned (unaliened?) as it would make much more sense to send an AI equipped robot.

        1. All you have given me is a string of theories, none of which could possibly put to the test in reality.

          You have not addressed the question of the education of generations of captive offspring.

          How do you know they could sustain themselves with the food available on earth, or grow their preferred foodstuffs on this planet?

          If you wish to continue believing this fairy tale as a possibility, then you are welcome to do so. I shall not be joining you.

          1. Newton’s laws of motion and Einstein’s theory of relativity are tested and proven.

          2. Both also have the merit of providing parameters upon which they could be disproven, which has yet to happen. This does not apply to the present “Settled Science Consensus”, a multiple oxymorosis if ever there were several

          3. Exactly so. They also make predictions which can and have been tested to verify their accuracy.

          4. The UFO/Alien spotters tell us that their craft traverse the universe undetected, and enter the atmosphere at a convenient place only to crash land in New Mexico…hmm.

      3. “Nothing can possibly enter the earth’s atmosphere from space, except for a large chunk of rock or ice. That’s all there is to it.”

        Saying that’s impossible is not correct, Grizz.

          2. Joking apart 🤣 …

            The fastest velocity yet achieved by a man-made object is this: https://www.space.com/nasa-parker-solar-probe-fastest-man-made-object-breaks-record# — 394,736 miles per hour (or 109·65 miles per second). OK so far?

            The speed of light is 670,616,629 miles per hour (or 186,282 miles per second). Still with me?

            This means (by earth mathematics) that the speed of light is still around 1/1,699 faster than the highest velocity ever achieved by a man-made craft … in the vacuum of space.

            Those pesky little green men had better work out for themselves some ultra-super-duper power technology before we listen to them asking us to “Take me to your leader!”

          3. So you’re not sticking to your statement?
            “Nothing can possibly enter the earth’s atmosphere from space, except for a large chunk of rock or ice. That’s all there is to it.”

          4. Of course I’m sticking to my statement. Where have I contradicted it? A returning human spacecraft?

          7. It’s your use of the word impossible that gets my goat. It’s not to be used lightly in my book.

          8. “This is not Mission Difficult, Mr Hunt, it’s Mission Impossible.”

            If I did get your goat, I’d have to curry it.

          9. “Mobile phones will absolutely never replace the wired telephone”. Marty Cooper, inventor of the mobile phone, 1981.

            Also

            “The idea of a personal communicator in every pocket is nothing more than a pipe-dream fuelled by greed.” Andy Grove, CEO of Intel, 1992.

          10. So few of them are used to actually speak to people – but for so many other functions, from newspapers, banking, paying for the car park…

          12. Your comments are reminding me of the confident late 19th prediction that heavier than air flying machines are impossible. Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society 1895.

            Also

            “Rail travel at great speed is not possible because passengers would be unable to breathe and would die of asphyxia.” Dr Dionysys Larder, Professor, University College London.

          13. Joking apart 🤣 …

            The fastest velocity yet achieved by a man-made object is this: https://www.space.com/nasa-parker-solar-probe-fastest-man-made-object-breaks-record# — 394,736 miles per hour (or 109·65 miles per second). OK so far?

            The speed of light is 670,616,629 miles per hour (or 186,282 miles per second). Still with me?

            This means (by earth mathematics) that the speed of light is still around 1/1,699 faster than the highest velocity ever achieved by a man-made craft … in the vacuum of space.

            Those pesky little green men had better work out for themselves some ultra-super-duper power technology before we listen to them asking us to “Take me to your leader!”

          14. Iron meteors, for one. All sorts of radiation, for two. Astronauts who walked on the moon (unless you’re into that particular CT) for three. Who knows what else might enter our atmosphere? I very much doubt extra terrestrials have visited us or possibly will. Impossible, it ain’t.

          15. Erm…..how about rockets returning from space? I seem to recall that’s been done a few times…..

          16. Elon Musk developed a system which catches the boosters as they fall back to earth. Clever bloke.

  64. Late on parade today, have seen Grizz’s Press Reader comment on Starmer and the Cross of St George but want to comment on this. I mean, just how stupid are our legislators? And don’t get me started on Khunt’s pay-per-mile taqiyya. I was catching up on my Geoff buys Cars last night and there is a disturbing one one Plod’s intimidation of anti-ULeZ protestors (cf. their treatment of pro-Hamas supporters)(where Hamas is a proscribed organisation in the UK).

    “ Upstairs windows in new-build homes must now be at least 1.1 metres (3.6ft) from the floor, leaving younger children unable to see outside.

    The regulations were introduced over fears that hotter summers brought on by global warming will lead to people opening their windows more frequently, putting them at risk of falling out…”

      2. I’m sure building regulations in Scotland dictate that there should be a window in every upstairs room that opens enough to act as an adult escape in case of fire.

    2. Each government within the British Isles has its own performance related requirements regarding the need for ventilation provided by windows and their frames specifically for new dwellings.

      Currently I cannot find any reference to falloutability for windows in England.
      Here is an interpretation of the Building Regulations for England in relation to room ventilation requurements.

      https://glazpart.com/building-regulations-england/

      Note: I would not expect a trickle vent in a window frame to present a falling hazard.

      1. You could always tell which were the nursery windows in Victorian houses because they had bars.
        (NOT milk bars!)

        2. Most Spanish properties seem to have bars over the windows but I don’t they were intended to prevent toddlers falling out.

    3. Each government within the British Isles has its own performance related requirements regarding the need for ventilation provided by windows and their frames specifically for new dwellings.

      Currently I cannot find any reference to falloutability for windows in England.
      Here is an interpretation of the Building Regulations for England in relation to room ventilation requurements.

      https://glazpart.com/building-regulations-england/

      Note: I would not expect a trickle vent in a window frame to present a falling hazard.

    4. So now children will need to drag a chair across to the window before falling out.

      1.1 meters high so it will be tempting to put a dresser under the window and kiddo will climb up there to see out.

    5. I can well understand not having windows which open at or close to floor level on upper storeys, but not even fixed window panes?

      1. The only place I can think of where falling out of windows is a significant risk is in Russia.

        1. I was going to add fundamentalist Islamic states and societies, but I gather it’s rooves which pose the greater risk.

        2. I fell out of a former boyfriend’s attic bedroom, which had a low-set window, which happened to be open. Yes, I fell on my head onto the patio below. But I suffered no lasting effects, lasting effects, lasting effects… ;o)

      2. In France windows open inwards and so you can put a barrier outside windows which reach down to floor level on the first and higher floors.

        One thing is certain: Gove needs to be defenestrated!

    6. My parent’s house in Bath had double hung box frame vertical sash windows (with iron counterweights).

      When cleaning the windows my mother would lift the bottom sash and perch on the window sill then bring the sash down onto her thighs in order to clean the outside. The bottom sash was then lifted and the top sash brought down onto her thighs to be cleaned.

      Modern estate houses resemble rabbit hutches and the windows mimic the proportions of those of a prison.

      1. We have those! And yes, I used to clean them like that! I found that the older I got, the more frightened/aware of danger I became! I cannot stand heights nowadays!

      2. I’ve cleaned windows that way.
        Then window cleaners appeared and I happily handed over the dosh.

      3. How about the rather charming Continental style of a Juliet balcony outside, with a tiny balustrade around it? Nice detail, practical when cleaning windows.

        1. Of course we have this device in the UK but windows are then obliged to open into the room which interferes with curtains etc.

          For historical reasons the English windows open out whereas the continental windows open into the room.

          Of course the traditional vertical sliding sash avoids such conflicts.

          Many years ago Osbert Lancaster wrote an amusing piece about a Martian landing on planet Earth and dating the windows in various properties according to their advancement in function. In a way Osbert Lancaster unwittingly predicted AI.

          The Martian concluded that the most primitive window and thereby the oldest properties were those with windows produced by Crittall, whereas the most advanced windows and thereby the latest properties were those with the traditional double hung vertical sliding boxframe sash window.

          As with most of his very many amusing commentaries Osbert Lancaster hit the nail on the head.

  65. Wordle 1,037 X/6

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

    2. Closer but the same fate.

      Wordle 1,037 X/6

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

    3. Luck of the draw, Elsie.

      Wordle 1,037 5/6

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

    4. Ouch! I fared better today.

      Wordle 1,037 4/6

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

      1. Collecting rent?
        All joking aside, although I’m no Labour supporter, I do have doubts about the constant leaking of details of the inquiry.

        1. I would not infer that leaks spring from Tory influence. I have known quite a few people who either are or have been involved with the Labour Party at a fairly senior level. My sources suggest that ideological difference, personal antipathies, backstabbing and briefing against colleagues/rivals are at least as prevalent in Labour as they are in the Conservative Party.

  68. I have never said that they were. The police are not a conciliation service, they should withdraw and leave them all to sort out their problems between themselves.

    1. Ah yes, quite. Over that there is no question. They should only step in once the threat of violence is imminent and by all means the officer ought to have warned anyone threatening violence what would ensue. Neither marchers nor Mr Falter were at that point.

      The trouble with the “inflaming” trope is that once accepted it can be used anywhere and for anything. In common with many people I’ve had comments withdrawn on websites where the moderator has judged them as “flaming” (to use the internet slang). The ‘flaming’ in question amounted in all cases to politely putting a contrary view.

  69. I have never said that they were. The police are not a conciliation service, they should withdraw and leave them all to sort out their problems between themselves.

  70. Good afternoon All.

    This is personal so scroll on by if you are not interested.
    There are a lot of new folks around who will not know me – so short Nottler BIO. I have been with this board since Geoff set it up having decamped from DT when they played silly Bs a few years back. Geoff is a star and he kept the gang together.
    I am a farming widow – keep dogs and horses. I am 79 and until last summer was riding horses regularly and living the dream and working full time.. Fitter than many folk half my age.

    Now it gets sticky but stay with me. It is not all doom and gloom.
    Last summer I realised that I was not myself. Did not feel right – rubbish stressful job (yeah I know but if you don’t work and your don’t have a partner retirement is drag imo). plus family stresses. DIL being bitch – son in difficulties – we have all been there. So I put my condition down the stress and looked forward to a nice reglazing hol on the Norfolk Broads- 4mph is perfect for relaxation. I thought that would sort it – but NO.
    Got back from HOL – bit the bullet and got a Doctors appointment. Long story short – Gall stones. Not a great prob I thought. – would I volunteer for the Sunflower Research programme – Yup definitely a good thing to do. This involved further scans – one of which revealed a tumour on my right lung which has invaded ribs 8 & 9. Stage 4 – – not good.

    If you have got this far do stay with me please – if you ever get to where I am you need to remember this.

    On receiving the diagnosis I think I said to myself “Ok – 79 – good age – had a good life. All done now – going to die (which of course I will in due course) So I pretty much sat in a chair and felt sorry for myself. I describe as having lived in a fog for 3 months.
    Then I had radiation treatment. Saw the oncologist who adjusted the pain meds – was put in touch with the hospice care team who have been marvellous both from support and the practical stuff. I have dedicated McMillan Nurse. Honestly the amount of support is sometimes overwhelming.
    Anyways – at this point we were end of March – radiation and drugs appeared to kick in together and the clocks changed – and SO DID I.
    The fog cleared and I came to the conclusion that I as I was no pain free I could forget the cancer and start to live again – if I don’t then terminal boredom will get me before the cancer does.
    Each day I push myself to do a little more – and today is the day I am going to get back on the horse!!!!! Literally.
    I rather expect that he will be relieved that I have lost 2 stone in weight 🙂 Not planning to go for a long ride just around the field but it will signal that I have my life back and I am still me and normal life has resumed.

    The only other thing I need is something to keep my brain occupied 🙂

    ~So – after that ramble – if or when you find yourself in this situation it is not the end of the world. The world will still be there – even if it is not how we would like it to me. Get out there – grab what you can of it and live what you have left to the best you can.

    Good luck folks – think of me about 3pm sitting on the horse.

    4. Thank you, Nagsman. I hope others here who are going through difficulties – of all kinds – will draw strength from sharing your experiences. Knowing that the fog can lift and a renewed sense of purpose might very well be found just beyond the obscured view could be just the lift that some need, either right now or in the weeks, months and years to come.

    5. Well done, just don’t try jumping the 5 bar gate too soon.
      Seriously, that’s marvellous.

    6. What a brilliant thing to read! Thank you for thinking to write it.

      I hope both you and your horse enjoy your ride.

      1. The horse is under the illusion that it is retired – I have news for it 🙂
        To be fair is is a 20 year Irish Draft and has never been the keenest on work except for hunting – long past.
        At least I know he will look after me as he will likely be reluctant to put one foot in front of the other.
        If I can manage photos this afternoon will post.

    7. Well done! Very good to hear from you!

      We have had to sell our beloved Mianda 2 years ago which has been a blow but I was no longer up to sailing a 40 footer high performance sailing boat without a young crew to help. However, we are keeping our business going and the garden keeps me out of trouble and Caroline is the church organist, edits the parish magazine and does the parish accounts so we don’t have much time to be bored.

      You are so right – Kipling described not having enough to do as having the camelious hump in The Just So Stories

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fefd6ab03db9966489b8bc231efe9f899ec5ed57f847479856b80d33c6b73fa4.png

      The Camel’s hump is an ugly lump
      Which well you may see at the Zoo;
      But uglier yet is the hump we get
      From having too little to do.

      Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo,
      If we haven’t enough to do-oo-oo,
      We get the hump—
      Cameelious hump—
      The hump that is black and blue!

      We climb out of bed with a frouzly head,
      And a snarly-yarly voice.
      We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl
      At our bath and our boots and our toys;

      And there ought to be a corner for me
      (And I know’ there is one for you)
      When we get the hump—
      Cameelious hump—
      The hump that is black and blue!

      The cure for this ill is not to sit still,
      Or frowst with a book by the fire;
      But to take a large hoe and a shovel also,
      And dig till you gently perspire;

      And then you will find that the sun and the wind,
      And the Djinn of the Garden too,
      Have lifted the hump—
      The horrible hump—
      The hump that is black and blue!

      I get it as well as you-oo-oo
      If I haven’t enough to do-oo-oo!
      We all get hump—
      Cameelious hump—
      Kiddies and grown-ups too!

    8. What a wonderful ‘ramble’! Absolutely inspiring and I hope you and your horse enjoy the ride! How is the puppy? Tiggie?

      1. She is just a joy and a delight Sue. One cannot possibly be depressed for long with a pup in the house.

      2. She is just a joy and a delight Sue. One cannot possibly be depressed for long with a pup in the house.

    13. Well done.
      I hope your recovery continues and that the bad things all go into remission.

    15. It is now 4.15 pm – I hope you had a good ride despite the wind’s best efforts to blow us all off course. Thank you for your inspirational account, a reminder to us all to get things sorted and not let them drag on… I tend to adopt an attitude of “well, it came by itself so it can go by itself…” but that isn’t always the case and there comes a moment when definite action is required. May you keep on keeping on, onward and upward.

    16. Good for you, Pat.
      Hope you enjoyed your ride.
      Fingers crossed for you; without wishing to sound hippy dippy, being interested in life and being interesting is a great life enhancer and extender.

    17. Lovely story, Nags – never say die. A Lady with style!
      Would that I could give you a huge hug! They have therapeutic qualities, even if they do bring one a little too close to garlic breath…
      Sending a caseload right now. Would be lovely to meet up somewhere. Consider yourself invited to Oslo area, for as long as you want, whenever suits you.
      After I had a stroke a few years ago, I refused to slow down or be some kind of invalid, and, like physical training, I got back into mostly the right shape. So, rooting for you, too.

    18. Great to hear you’re getting back in the saddle. After I broke my ribs, had problems with my back and put on weight due to mobility problems I haven’t managed it. I live in hope.

    19. Clever brave brilliant you .

      Huge hug to you for sheer resilience .

      What a fine example of strength and determination you have shown ,

      We wondered where you had gone to , and what the problem was .

      Stay safe .

  71. Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen from another very pleasant Spring day here in Verwood.
    Today’s bimble took me around Wimborne St. Giles, a quintessentially English village.

    The Church of St Giles is the Church of England parish church for the village of Wimborne St Giles, Dorset. Originally founded in the 13th century and rebuilt several times over the ensuing centuries, the present church is a mixture of Georgian and Gothic Revival architecture. It is located at the start of the main driveway to St Giles House, the seat of the Earl of Shaftesbury, at the end of a row of Stuart-era alms-houses.

    The church has been celebrated by several architectural historians, most notably Sir John Betjeman, who described St Giles as “a treasure-house of Comper work”, referring to the restoration carried out on the church by Sir Ninian Comper between 1908 and 1910. The church building has been designated as Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England, the highest possible rating.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1684f0b5fd379a3d0b4d269259c4c6cfafd808d2a4b2f2ae6934ca95ece4d9a3.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40ef77918d121eb07738b70f11f1493703d954af11c1d4266a5cc76b9eef1dfb.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ab8a9471f862f29f7bb283331aff4b2d83b4149215c76888c60863b13c03c590.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/29ea273285b66418cbc6aeaca90da4a53e71ce9a1853ca83b95b07a5ee8b76dc.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/538fb8cdf6ff0ac3bcfb7a36c921a79f9201a5730f482116c554fd99a5b5e956.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/581a8ced913f6920efc48d38f0e42153469815a363fab37a6505677cc6a00d33.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49cfd62522578e0424608a74baf799f4c7ab93aa60a0deafa9867ce15997907b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f57b83f4d6d2cac74429994bd7ea247dc5abcef90defca125c4e0db48538761.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1506919b01e576c26d1f584675862a7ea8595a277bfe3cd0b1875502e73ddbe2.jpg

      1. Both banks of the Tamar here are covered in ’em. Got to avoid the ones close to the track because of dog pee.

        1. I, and my class, used to go out for walks with the teacher during “Nature Study” lessons (my favourite) at my primary school. My overriding memory is of walking through Troughbrook Wood in spring and the overwhelming scent of the wild garlic, which I found to be not my favourite at the time.
          Since then I have begun to love that smell and just a whiff of it inevitably whisks me back to those halcyon days of my childhood in Troughbrook Wood.

    2. You do forget how lovely the seed heads are for the lowly dandilion is!! Your photos are always a delight, thanks.

  72. Labour is now the true party of English patriotism. Keir Starmer. 21 April 2024.

    For me, this is what real patriotism is about. It isn’t just about respecting our shared symbols and sentiments. It’s also about serving the country we love. My entire career– from being this country’s chief prosecutor to leader of the Opposition – has been dedicated to public service. That’s why, after all the changes I have made, this is now a Labour Party that will always put country above party.

    This is the man who tried to overturn Brexit and presided over the failure to prosecute the Grooming Gangs!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/20/labour-is-now-the-true-party-of-english-patriotism/

    2. Not so fond of white working class girls from broken homes; i.e defending the defenceless.

  73. Afternoon All

    Struggling to confirm this but madness abounds out there………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3183e693ef4086df1a4ac686364fd83cbb41a02639706575ef4c1f40b7127e0e.jpg

    https://twitter.com/Zlatti_71/status/1781668801974591509

    I bet the Ukie troops are delighted with their tranfer to more “active” fronts

    Meanwhile medley time

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bcab62b9c113c465163b58f409a6b6a484cce7056df5a3c871f1728696c7572b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb59a0532d643e19ddf19fd72b1d8408bc46003dc5885ced6030547b988cebb7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eaeec959ae3cf1c2bfb2c895101407be27186289614825ec128a5f0fcf1675f3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6757d7c17a527e6f25f6c959534a96d621cb74b1f511763de8dc6602f1da7df9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f85f4988a2e398f6efdc4d2996ae220a06ec12b8f15ce57989c75d53d4791079.jpg

  76. 386306+ up ticks,

    Surely a personage of this chaps calibre should be having a shout in parliament.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    Apr 20

    The reality of the situation is that the Met knows that if they tried to stop the Islam & Left element of the pro Palestinian protests in harassing & threatening Jews they will retaliate with force. Islam & the Left are always spoiling for a fight. They use intimidation & violence to assert their dominance.

    The Met grovelled to BLM so they are not going to stand up to Islamo-Left-Facism. The Govnt should deploy the Army to police these demos behind police lines& ready to move them in when things kick off.

    They won’t & the surrender will continue.

    Met Police apologises for using phrase ‘openly Jewish’ as antisemitism campaigner accuses force of ‘victim-blaming’

    1. 386306+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      This could be on par with “openly white” or “openly English”.

    2. Met Police apologises for using phrase ‘openly Jewish’ as antisemitism campaigner accuses force of ‘victim-blaming’.

      He was wearing a kappa and carrying a bag with his prayer shawl in it. What should they think? That he might be a Kalahari Bushman?

    3. Well the law should be enforced and if these people use violence against the police, there are stronger groups available, anti riot corps and the army. Once one or two street riots were put down, the problem would disappear.

  77. French foreign minister arrives in Odesa to ‘show France’s support’ Le Monde

    London Stock Market swamped with requests for ‘White Flags’ shares.

    2. We walked through the woods yesterday at Hertwood forest/Langley wood. the blue bells are prolific. With a definate scent in the air. Unfortunately I am not able to post photos from my phone.

    1. Some years back, just after a brief shower, I was walking along a damp residential street in Colchester.
      Suddenly a scent hit me and emotions welled up: I had to stop myself from bursting into tears.
      It was the mundane aroma of dusty privet dampened by light rain. I realised that, in nanoseconds, it had taken me back 60+ years to my London childhood.

      1. Oh yes. I was sorting out some drawers in an old bureau I inherited from my Gran, and found a little box with her County Veterans Golf medal and its ribbon. She died in 1989 and I could still smell her house as I opened the box.

      2. It’s so unexpected, it catches you off guard.
        Back in late 1990s, I had work in Tunisia. First time in Africa since, as a kid, I left in 1976.
        The smell, as they opened the aeroplane door, swept me back to my childhood, and it was difficult to avoid tearing up. It was the smell of damp earth that precedes a thunderstorm… I still have the nasal memory of it.

  81. Putin grants Russian citizenship to British traitor who abandoned UK to fight Ukraine. 21 April 2024.

    Russia has granted citizenship to a UK traitor who left Britain to fight for Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

    Aiden Minnis from Chippenham boasted of his new Russian passport on social media, proudly showing off the official document.

    The interesting part of this article is Below the Line. You would think that the comments would be full of condemnation. Far from it. As with the Telegraph the dissidents from the official line are present.

    https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/putin-news-russian-citizenship-uk-traitor-aiden-minnis

      1. They make that point Phizzee. We are not at war with Russia so treason is not applicable.

      2. They make that point Phizzee. We are not at war with Russia so treason is not applicable.

  83. Smut time !

    Can’t wait to have sex with my new bird – she’s from Iceland !

    Anyone know how fast a chicken defrosts ?

  84. Back at home now after weekend with Firstborn. Easy drive. Even managed not to tread in cat sick strategically placed for that purpose!

    1. Didn’t get as much done as we hoped – lots planning (move what to where…first or afterwards?) and recovering from some of the best food I’ve eaten in my life last night, at a local cafe taht had “French Night” – I never knew you could make salmon taste a) like that, and b) delicious. And it just went on & on… I’ve taken to drinking box wine, so some of the wines they had were a revelation!
      Just a young couple, but revolutionising the eat-out food locally to Firstborn. The guy, Antoine, has the makings of a great Chef. He has that rare talent of making dull food interesting, a thing I only saw once before in a Michelin starred chef, who could make salads exciting!

    1. I would, if I could.
      It was en croute: Leeks, shallots, flaky pastry cover, shallot & dill sauce.
      Utterly sublime.

      1. Ah Ha ! I was only saying to Alf the Great and VW a little while ago at lunch that that is the only way i eat Salmon.

        Salmon wrapped in puff pastry with a sprig of Dill inside and served with home made Hollandaise or Bearnaise. Easy enough to make those little parcels of goodness.

        1. Good enough to make one believe there is a God, after all.
          Especially when paired with Poilly-fumee…

  86. Rishi Sunak ‘appalled’ by Met as Downing Street fails to back Rowley. 21 April 2024.

    Downing Street has failed to back the boss of the Metropolitan Police and has said Rishi Sunak is “appalled” by the force’s threat to arrest a Jewish man at a pro-Palestine rally.

    A government source said: “The PM has seen the footage and is as appalled as everyone else by the officer calling Mr Falter ‘openly Jewish’.

    This is not going away. I have just watched the video footage (that the Campaign Against Anti-semitism brought its own camera should tell you everything you need to know) on the BBC News and if that’s not enough Falter’s mugging to ensure the sergeants words are recorded should. He was quite obviously trying to create an incident. To cross the pro Palestine marchers in full Jewish regalia could have had no other outcome.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/21/oliver-dowden-accuses-met-police-disrespecting-jews/

    1. Though Falter may not be a nice person he is exposing police bias. A Jew in full ‘regalia’ should be able to walk anywhere safely in our country.
      The bombings, stabbings, rapes and grooming are done by Muslims not Jews.

      If the police believed the protesters would react in a violent fashion the march should have been more heavily policed, banned or corralled.

      They have had their protest.
      They have made their point.
      Now they should fuck off.

        1. Flags made to that design would sell well. As would stickers. Just the thing for mosque doors.

          1. It is acceptable to MetPlod to wave flags calling for a Jewish genocide provided they are written in Arabic so they can pretend not to know what they say. If you were to wave on like the one above you would be arrested in a nano second.

          2. MetPlod are going to be forced into a rethink of their position on this….looks like their boss is going to be getting the sack to me.

          3. It takes a great deal to sack the Met top brass. Look at the appalling record of Cressida limp-Dick and Hogan-Hyphen Howe.

            For the same reasons we end up with disasters like Paula Vennals….Over promoted because of incompetence.

  87. First point taken; though my “large chunks of rock” covers the iron meteorites [meteors never land, only meteorites do that].

    The second point will be moot for eternity.

    1. You’re throwing around extreme words with no proof. “impossible” and “eternity” are very extreme in a universe of umpteen possibilities.

        1. Yes, semantics is important, the word impossible is a pretty clear cut one to my mind.

          Edited to add ‘is’.

        2. Yes, semantics is important, the word impossible is a pretty clear cut one to my mind.

          Edited to add ‘is’.

    2. Meteors was the word I wanted to use because your statement just said “enter the earth’s atmosphere from space,”.

      ‘ “large chunks of rock” covers the iron meteorites’
      They certainly don’t cover the Tamentit Iron Meteorite. Check it out.

    5. “The automobile is a fad, a novelty. Horses are here to stay.” The President of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Company; 1903.

      1. There seems to be a lot of arguments being made here for the sake of it. Tell you what, chum, when the little green men arrive in your neck of the woods please contact me and I’ll come over and offer to buy them a pint.

        1. Oh I’m agnostic about the little green men actually being here….I just don’t rule it out as empirically impossible. The IPad on which I’m typing would have been unimaginable except as witchcraft a couple of centuries ago.

          2. It was, but I chose the earlier date because in, say, the 1950’s it was at least imaginable whereas in the 18th century or earlier it would clearly be magic.

          3. Do you remember what they thought imaginable in the 50s ? It must’ve been amazing

  88. I’ve just been talking to our neighbour just back over here from mid France for a week. She’s originally from JHB. She said it’s cold there as well at the moment. And the French are blaming us for their weather. Their attitude towards the English is so often sumed up so easily. 😆

    1. We attended the hunt feast yesterday and the people on our table commented that we are regular attendees at communal functions and that it is noticed and appreciated by the people in the village.

      We think we have been made most welcome here.

      We were the only English there last night.
      It’s one of the more challenging evenings as nobody admits to speaking English but they are extremely patient with our poor French. Other functions can be easier as some of the French like to practice their English.

      1. We have been warmly welcomed in Brittany and have made many good friends. We are at home here.

        Our former priest told us this story:

        A cheerful happy man who was always smiling visited a foreign country and when he returned they asked him what the people were like there and how did he find them. He replied that they were generous-spirited, welcoming, smiling and cheerful.

        A gloomy man who was always scowling visited the same country and when he returned they asked him what the people there were like and how did he find them. He replied that they were miserable, hostile, mean-spirited, frowning and gloomy.

        The priest then remarked that they were both right.

      2. Whenever I visit France and attempt to speak some of my school-boy French, I usually find that the person whom I am addressing will reply to me in English, probably because they cannot stand to see their language being murdered.

        1. If it helps, they do that until one’s French is indistinguishable.from that of a native speaker. (Then they get pissed off at you because English people aren’t meant to be able to speak French. 🤣🤣)

          1. How are you getting on with Spanish? Are you fluent, or are the locals more forgiving because of your charm?

          2. 🤣 Thanks for asking!

            Depends on your definition of fluent. I can muddle through most conversations at a fair old rate of knots, although my pretty decent accent (I have a musical ear) and penchant for difficult linguistic constructions often fool people into thinking I’m better than I am.

            I’d probably still be mostly stuck if a random stranger ran up to me in the street shouting something, as I do a lot of guessing by context.

            My own definition of fluent is being able to eavesdrop on people at other tables in a restaurant or café 😈 – not quite there yet!

          3. I spent a month in Montpellier with a friend. We stayed at the house of his Aunt. She complimented me after two weeks that i had begun speaking French without my Hampshire accent. Eh mush, thanks, i didn’t say. @)

        2. I like the story about the Englishwoman who discovered that the bed in her hotel room was missing its mattress and complained to the manager. “Je ne peux pas dormir sans un matelôt”. I wonder if he found her one? As the French captain said to his sailors “À l’eau, c’est l’heure!”

          1. My dad, asking for directions to the railway station, asked a local “Où est la guerre?”

  89. A cheery Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,037 3/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Well done, I almost failed.

      Wordle 1,037 5/6

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

  90. Poor SWMBO. Tooth to be pulled tomorrow by toothwright, as there’s an infection underneath that won’t clear up.
    I’m about to make her a high-garlic supper, to keep her going.

    1. Poor soul! The last one I had out took about 3 hours! Well, not really, but it felt like it! I actually cried!
      Sending good wishes, and you’d better not tell her!

      1. Me too, Sue. It took about an hour to extract the tooth and it was removed in bits and pieces. It was a front lower incisor, not a lot of room for manoeuvre there. I had first broken it at the neck by the gum biting into a hard apple….elderly teeth are somewhat fragile. By the time he had finished fishing about I had tears running down my cheeks.

    2. Poor soul! The last one I had out took about 3 hours! Well, not really, but it felt like it! I actually cried!
      Sending good wishes, and you’d better not tell her!

      1. Indeed. that’ll teach him to pussy around when trying to solve an infection.

    4. Poor lass! Hope it comes our cleanly and quickly

      Full marks for ‘toothwright’ 🙂 – but what has he or she done to you to deserve the garlic breath?? 🤣

    5. Poor lass! Hope it comes our cleanly and quickly

      Full marks for ‘toothwright’ 🙂 – but what has he or she done to you to deserve the garlic breath?? 🤣

  91. I think I might put a competition up this evening .
    What is the greatest violin concerto
    Greatness is hard to define but is recognised when heard.
    It needs to have substantive musical structure, intellectual dimension which leads itself to repeated listening. There needs to be an emotional dimension that reaches heart and mind and a structural dimension that lifts the soul .
    I shall think about it further and give my answers on Monday .

    2. Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, (pref played by Yehudi M), is my choice, Du M&H!

    3. Bach Concerto for two violins in D minor BWV 1043. Or – Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major.

      1. Ah yes, Bach and Beethoven, especially Bach will be at the top of the list that I’ll put together tomorrow and the reasons why.

    7. Now that’s a question:
      This always breaks me up, because I associate it with the suicide of my beautiful friend Elaine. Left husband and 2 small boys. I wasn’t attentive enough to see she was in trouble, and so did nothing.
      Now, today, it’s happening again, with my statuesque Polish friend. This time, I’m smarter, and intervening like a bastard to try to get some solution that doesn’t involve death, abandoned small children, and all the upset involved.
      Very meaningful piece, fronted by guitar, but my greatest.
      https://youtu.be/7O049oi2Dxw?si=eHdiFGUTk_81urrp

      1. I love that piece. People who claim that Vivaldi didn’t write 500 concertos but wrote one concerto 500 times are stupidissimo.

  92. Church sermon given, brunch at farm shop cafe afterwards, agapanthus extracted from overgrown pot and divided and planted out, dozens of leeks and French beans potted up, cleaning done..o
    And they call it the day of rest…

        1. No it’s not true. Your Labrador might have told you so but she’d been listening to JD who shoots all furry creatures. Not true 💔

        1. I don’t hate dogs, I love labradors especially, all dogs and all cats – only dark souls don’t like pets or would want to harm tiddles – heartless .

        2. That he was a paedophile that didn’t know how to train donkeys properly. Probably too focused on goats.

          His Aunt broke her neck falling from a donkey. She had probably criticised him by saying a dog would be a better companion than a seven year old wife. Who can say ?

          1. The God’s are smiling on him at the moment.
            If the penalty was dodgy the last call more than made up for it.

        1. Supporters of any team undone by a Cristiano Ronaldo fake will have been cheered by that.

    3. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3556430/Dozens-looters-steal-bundles-free-water-left-official-watering-stations-marathon-runners.html

      A London Marathon source said the bottles were taken towards the end of the race, when only the runners at the back were passing though and no participants were deprived of water because of the incident.

      However, any spare water which was not drunk during the marathon was supposed to have been returned to organisers to use at other events.

      Therefore, non-runners helping themselves to water were doing so without permission.

      A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said no arrests had been made.

      My bold

      2. If the people who took the water without permission had ‘done a runner’ with it, they would have become runners and entitled to it retrospectively, no? :o)

    1. I get on very well with the Squires Labrador, she is misguided about cats. I love labradors and all dogs and cats – all God’s creatures.
      Both you and the Squire are in the doghouse . Very horrible 😢

  97. Watch out Grizzly!! They’re coming to get you…

    University student disciplined after flatmate overheard him saying ‘veganism is wrong’

    Robert Ivinson claims he was found guilty of harassment and told that he would be expelled if he breached any other university rules

    Max Stephens
    21 April 2024 • 2:33pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/04/21/TELEMMGLPICT000374745043_17137018334920_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqbzIfX7HWsoxbjuL-5jXEuL42WO2ERNg-vJzpjsd9U7w.jpeg?imwidth=680
    The student alleged he was formally disciplined after a student next door in his halls of residence reported his comments as offensive CREDIT: View Pictures

    University of Exeter reportedly threatened to expel a philosophy student after he was overheard in his room saying veganism is wrong and gender fluidity is “stupid”.

    Robert Ivinson claimed he was formally disciplined after a student next door in his halls of residence reported his comments as offensive and “transphobic”.

    Mr Ivinson told the Mail on Sunday newspaper that he was hauled before university officials and put on a “behavioural contract” for the remainder of his studies over remarks made during a private phone call to a friend.

    He was later informed by letter that he had been found guilty of harassment and warned that he would be expelled if he breached any other of the university’s rules.

    Neighbour complaint
    In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Mr Ivinson said the incident took place when he was in his first year of studies in 2018 and that a university representative had banged on his door to tell him a neighbour had complained.

    “It was like the Stasi had come to my door.

    “He stuck his foot in my door and said you’ve been saying some very offensive things.”

    He then said he was hauled before a disciplinary hearing and questioned over his comments.

    “The first thing they read out was that I had said veganism is wrong. I couldn’t believe it – I thought I was mishearing them.

    “I asked them to repeat it three or four times because I didn’t believe I was sitting there for saying that veganism is wrong.”

    “It hurts me that in this country freedom of speech can now mean so little. It’s shocking that a Russell Group university can act this way”‘

    ‘Eavesdroppers rewarded’
    He said he apologised to the officials for the disturbance but maintained his right to speak freely in his own room. “I was totally private apart from that someone heard me through a brick wall.”

    University of Exeter has been approached for comment.

    Edward Skidelsky, director of the Committee for Academic Freedom, said: “It’s extraordinary that in 21st-century Britain eavesdroppers can be rewarded, and a student punished for remarks made to a friend in the privacy of his room.”

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

    1. How is criticising veganism ‘transphobic’? I know both are bonkers but they are different forms of madness.

      1. …. and gender fluidity is “stupid”.

        This was also heard through the wall.

        1. Sorry – I’m just struggling to comprehend the insanity of these people – it’s difficult to take it in.

        1. Didn’t they have a microphone between the joists? I think the neighbour was a sound engineer.
          These were the people whose first port of call when they allegedly thought that a woman was being abused was ….The Guardian…
          Whatever one may think of Boris’s judgment, there is no doubt that he was subjected to a relentless campaign of entrapment.

    4. I’d contact the lawyers. Exeter University are fighting a losing battle on this one.

      1. I reckon that if this had been submitted as prosecution evidence then it would have been dismissed by the judge as hearsay evidence.

        If anything, the reporting individual may well have caused a criminal offence by creating fear or anxiety in the disciplined student.

      2. It happened in his 1st year 6 years ago. I know historic crimes are fashionable but why has it just come up. Perhaps he studied architecture or some other lengthy course and was worried he would be kicked off it.

    5. I found a vegan website claiming that we have incisors not because we’re meat eaters but because we evolved to use our teeth to fight. Now, how would you fight with your teeth except by sinking them into and tearing flesh and if our teeth are intended for tearing flesh, they’re intended for eating it. Shirley? These people are completely barmy.

  98. I m going to leave you to start cooking dinner which is roasted seabream on a bed of samphire with lemon potato slices served with asparagus and peas . A crisp white wine and dessert too. I also need to write an essay for the local small classical music group I belong to and play the flute sometimes . I will also think further about the competiton i set here in terms of violins – thank you for your posts i shall listen to each music piece suggested Good night.

          1. Feeling a little better. I know it’s early but I think bed is for me – soon. Another horrible day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

          2. Get well soon, Sir J. We cannot do without you. It is amazing how a good night’s sleep can restore the human spirit. Wishing you deep sleep with some beautiful dreams.

          3. Feeling a little better. I know it’s early but I think bed is for me – soon. Another terrible day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

          4. Have a good night, Tom.
            And – it’s never too early. I’ll be up to bed sometime soon – life is very tiring and stressful these days. A few hours of good zeds makes all better!

      3. Not sure I ever had either.
        Grew up in Northern Nigeria, not too much fish there to get a liking for, and that carried over to adult life.

        1. They catch them off the coast here at this time of year I think. Samphire, being salty, is perfect with lightly cooked sea fish.

          1. Good night, both you and the Squire try not to kill any Kitties even if you both think them evil and bring unhappiness .

    2. Excellent challenge!
      Are there prizes for klutzes, as well as those who know something?

      1. I’m afraid not and it’s just my opinion of which everyone might disagree with anyway 🙂

    3. I baked some tatties, boiled up a turnip, (swede to you southerners) with some carrots and heated the remains of the pie I did t’other day.
      Used the vegetable water to make the gravy. Very nice!

  99. – He’s quietly confident, as his mates will be doing the counting.
    Always fear
    The Math of Khan

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/sadiq-khan-worried-change-to-voting-rules-will-lose-him-london-mayor-election/ar-AA1noynQ?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=117aa896233e4011a913d5917f8091f4&ei=108&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3L4ODhBRLLPgKFJtKXhyth6ANalRNB_1n49d-DtPHS_8cjFqvG4hKLXFY_aem_Aap5rOCynirxsmwtTVUcY5X4ZgYc8CXKu17DixfdsL7z7TzD6DrQmtcrzOroYT0M3wTAt_a29GWvhhaIETbSmPyW

    1. From the article:-
      But he has expressed fears that the need for voters to bring ID to the polling station, and a switch to a first-past-the-post system, increase the danger he could suffer a shock defeat.

      Polling shows younger voters – who tend to back Labour – are much more likely to be unaware of the new rules than Conservative-leaning older Londoners.

      I would have thought that younger voters would be more likely to have ID cards than older voters, since they are much more likely to be challenged when buying alcohol than us old gits!

      1. It is beyond belief that people should be able to vote without presenting any proof of identity.
        There must be a large number of people voting in elections who may be voting more than once, voting for other people or who simply have no right to vote at all.

    1. Cruel. just look at the poor mites. They are clearly starved. I would imagine that they are also from a marginalised and oppressed demographic.

  102. Mindless ‘compassion’ is leading us towards the end of our civilisation
    Rishi Sunak is right to say we can’t afford our ‘sick note culture’ — but we can’t afford tax loopholes either
    Matthew Syed
    Sunday April 21 2024, 12.00am, The Sunday Times

    Compassion is the basis of morality, said Arthur Schopenhauer, and I suspect most of us would agree. Humans are perhaps unique in feeling the pain of others (philosophers call this “theory of mind”), which is why we often feel a powerful instinct to help one another. This is a beautiful thing — and I don’t wish to diminish it.

    But compassion is — I’m sure you’ll agree — a subtle concept. As parents, for example, we notice a tension between the short and long term. When a son or daughter asks to withdraw from the school play, anxious about messing up in front of everyone, we feel a strong urge to protect them. Then we realise that if they do not confront their fear, they will never develop the courage to embrace the adventure we call life. And so we coax them, even prod them, unwillingly onto the stage. We are cruel to be kind.

    Another subtlety, less often discussed, is the tension between compassion — particularly in the public sphere — and cost. After all, it costs money to fund welfare programmes and social benefits. This tension was well known to the subsistence societies in which our species spent most of the past 10,000 years: communities that were at almost constant war with neighbours. A tribal leader who proposed a shorter working week and generous social entitlements would not have seemed compassionate but positively dangerous. The society would not have survived.

    Today, of course, we live in a different world: we in the UK have enjoyed three centuries of growth and, over the past few decades, unprecedented peace. This has recalibrated our conception of what it means to live in a “compassionate society” — the costs we are willing to incur to help one another. A visitor from the time of the agricultural revolution would be astonished by our wondrous technology but perhaps even more so by triple-locked pensions for all. It is affluence that has permitted this expansion of “compassion”, rather than a shift in moral sentiments.

    But this shift extends well beyond politics. You see it in the human rights decisions by judges whose rulings are shaped by tacit assumptions of affordability even if they are largely unaware of it. It costs money, you see, to demand that the Swiss government move rapidly to net zero even though its actions will have a negligible influence on climate change. It costs money to book hotel rooms for asylum seekers who come to the UK in small boats. I make no comment on the legitimacy of any given judgment; I merely note that it incurs financial burdens that must be met by the wider society without which human rights would not exist, nor courts, nor judges.

    Or take mental health. Since 1952 the number of conditions that can be diagnosed by doctors has grown from 106 to more than 400, while thresholds for existing disorders have lowered (the psychologist Nick Haslam calls this “horizontal and vertical expansion”). In many ways this has been a hugely positive thing, bringing relief to sufferers who might otherwise have been stigmatised. But as conditions expand, and more psychiatrists are needed to offer subsidised diagnoses and treatment, and sick notes are issued for ailments that trigger benefit payments, costs accumulate. These costs were tolerable — indeed scarcely noticed — in the age of economic expansion (the rate of growth of the British economy has often outpaced the growth of diagnosable conditions). Today, however, during an age of lower growth, we are noticing quite a lot.

    And this, let me suggest, is the fundamental political fact of our age. Rishi Sunak sought to articulate this on Friday in relation to what he called “sick note culture”. He noted that 2.8 million people are now economically inactive because of long-term sickness, and that total spending on working-age disability and ill-health benefits has increased by almost two thirds from £42.3 billion to £69 billion over recent years. We spend more on these benefits than on running schools or on policing, which is — he rightly notes — unsustainable.

    But that is merely one symptom of a wider problem; one that often afflicts civilisations towards the end of a wave of affluence. We might put it this way: social entitlements have a tendency to become uncoupled from the material conditions required to finance them. In ancient Rome, it was during the age of stagnation that the dole for citizens was expanded (not just bread but wine and olive oil) and the money supply inflated. It was almost as if they were attempting to convince themselves that the wave would never end — until the moment the empire collapsed.

    And are we not travelling a similar path? Look at how life expectancy is increasing while retirement ages are not rising anything like commensurately; at how working weeks are shortening even as our adversaries are working harder and longer. Look, too, at the Office for Budget Responsibility’s most recent Fiscal Risks and Sustainability report, which shows that without a fundamental change in spending commitments, public debt will rise to 300 per cent of GDP by 2070 (in other words, we will be bankrupt). Successive waves of quantitative easing reveal the same truth in monetary form — while the first episode was, to my mind, eminently justified, later expansions represent the familiar attempts to evade reality of a society whose growth rate has declined.

    This may come across as a rather right-wing column, but this isn’t a debate between right and left but between realism and denial. Besides, the imperative of cutting back on unaffordable entitlements applies as much to the rich as anyone else. The hard-working taxpayer can no longer afford to subsidise the tax loopholes enjoyed by the mobile wealthy, the capture of regulators and politicians by corporations and the VIP lanes for chums and cronies. Indeed, the rich and powerful are often the most dangerously entitled of all.

    This problem isn’t unique to the UK; it afflicts much of the western world. The last time the collective public debt of the advanced economies reached such elevated levels was in the aftermath of the Second World War. The difference then was that we had just been in a battle for our existence. Today, after decades of peace (during which European nations have scarcely spent a penny on defence), we are back in the same place — with debts inexorably rising and little prospect of resurgent growth to save us during a transition from high to low-density energy sources.

    This is why what we really need is a moral recalibration, particularly in an age of rising military conflict. We need to rethink what we mean by compassion. We need to rethink what we mean by “essential” services. We need to rethink foreign aid when we are giving money to nations with space programmes. We need to rethink human rights and, perhaps even more importantly, individual responsibilities. We need to rethink smaller things, too, such as whether individuals can fail to turn up to GP appointments without incurring a penalty.

    In short, we need to cut our moral coat to the cloth of the age or, to put it another way, embrace realism. Our future as a civilisation depends on it.

    Terence Raggett
    8 HOURS AGO

    Edward Gibbon identified five marks of the decaying Roman civilisation:

    Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth;

    Obsession with sex and perversions of sex;

    Art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original;

    Widening disparity between very rich and very poor;

    Increased demand to live off the state

    I think we are there with all of them.

  103. Precisely. You have to provide proof of ID when collecting a parcel from the Post Office, so why not when voting?

    1. Because once upon a time we used to have a society built on trust; the foundation was, “thou shalt not bear false witness” and “an Englishman’s word is his bond”. The importation of hordes who do not share this culture has meant the rest of us have to be controlled and carry papers.

      1. I would object to carrying papers and being liable to produce them on demand. But having proof of one’s identity is a different thing. I do not have to carry my driving licence with me when driving, but I must produce it within a certain time-frame if asked by a police officer.

        1. What’s the difference between having to produce an ID card to do things and carrying papers which need to be produced?

          1. Both scenarios are just awful. Friends of mine (now in their nineties) described the French “Papers please” approach during the Covid scam as “just like the occupation”

          2. Because, in the latter case, it would be an offence if you do not have your papers on you.

          3. How long before, having introduced the need for ID to vote, it becomes necessary to produce ID (backed up by its being an offence not to)?

  104. Turnips and swedes are very different.

    Turnips are people from Norfolk, Swedes come from Sweden

  105. Compassion that badly harms the compassionate is more like suicide than benevolence.

  107. This was posted here when I first gingerly visited nottl. It attracted me for obvious reasons. The numbers alone question your thesis, Grizzly. The size, scope and timing of the creation – the universe if you would rather – is both dizzying and utterly incomprehensible to the human mind.

    https://youtu.be/buqtdpuZxvk

  108. I agree. Very worrying. And you haven’t even mentioned the proximate cause of the collapse of the Western Empire, namely allowing large numbers of barbarian tribes to settle within the Empire.

    1. “namely allowing inviting large numbers of barbarian tribes to settle within the Empire.“

  109. The restaurant owners should claim it as a hate crime. The family hated having to pay the bill, so did a runner.

  111. We’re home now, after our weekend in Derbyshire….

    The train journey was a bit long……. but at least we had seats. All ok till we got to Birmingham, then there was a delay, and a diversion via Worcester, and signalling issues, so we were an hour late to Cheltenham. Then a short hop on to Stroud where our lovely neighbour, Susan was waiting for us.

  112. Just opened a very decent white wine to go with our dinner, I forgot to say have a nice evening yourselves. Blessings x

  116. Apols for a lengthy read

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/landowners-panel-over-the-countryside-in-sunrush-9sxjjhlnt

    Craig Fuller is a rural property buying agent, so when plans recently revealed his country home could be surrounded on all sides by solar panels as part of proposed 2,000-acre solar park, he knew the devastating impact it would have on house prices in the area.

    “I should think house prices will fall by 30 to 40 per cent,” he said of the proposed Lime Down Solar Park, which would cover swathes of agricultural land in north Wiltshire with three-metre-tall solar panels and security fencing.

    “It’s going to be devastating. I know three neighbours trying to sell and in all cases their prices have been knocked by at least 30 per cent. We are talking proper houses around £10 million, £4.5 million and one was £2.5 million. They will feel the impact the same as they will in all the villages.”

    Craig Fuller joined protesters against the Lime Down development in Parliament Square

    Fuller, 58, and his neighbours are being caught in the wave of dozens of huge new solar farms planned around the country, which is being described as a “sunrush”.

    Millions of solar panels will be erected from marshes in Kent and former farmland in Essex and Wiltshire, to near the site of old coal power stations in Nottinghamshire.

    Historic estates are increasingly utilising solar, with the King submitting plans for 2,000 solar panels across two hectares of horse grazing paddocks on the Sandringham estate. The 2.1 megawatt solar farm is designed to make the estate largely self-sufficient with a supply of green electricity.

    Others such as the Blenheim and Badminton estates are getting involved in much larger projects which will result in thousands of acres being covered in solar panels.

    The surge is being driven by the return of government subsidies for solar power, carbon targets and new lows for the cost of panels. Driven by production in China, solar panels are now so cheap they are even being used as fences by homeowners in Germany and the Netherlands.

    Jenny Chase, a solar analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said they had become “super cheap” and predicted: “We are going to see them everywhere.”

    David Cameron’s government effectively brought new solar farms to a halt by cutting incentives in 2016. However, the government introduced new contracts in 2022 offering a guaranteed minimum power price for solar developers. More than 50 solar schemes secured such contracts in an auction last year.

    There is about 9 gigawatts of solar installed in the UK today, supplying about 5 per cent of electricity, mostly in large projects but also across the million-plus homes with panels. The figure is set to spiral.

    A further 12GW has planning permission, according to examination of government data by the energy analysts Cornwall Insight. An additional 10GW has been submitted but does not yet have a green light.

    One of the most contentious plans is Lime Down Solar Park. It is designed to create 500MW of renewable energy, enough to power 115,000 homes, from six agricultural sites surrounding historic north Wiltshire villages such as Sherston, Norton and Hullavington. These sites would need to be connected into the National Grid’s substation 25 miles away in Melksham.

    Island Green Power, the developer, says it will give a “net gain in biodiversity”.

    “There are only nine landowners in the whole scheme and most of them are neighbours we have lived alongside, so it’s incredibly divisive,” Fuller said. “There is a lot of bad feeling and it’s caused a huge amount of resentment.”

    Lime Down Solar Park could power 115,000 homes in Wiltshire, but has divided the community

    What makes it all the more galling is some of the landowners involved have previously opposed solar parks and far smaller developments in the surrounding countryside.

    Jonny Walker, one of the landowners offering up 130 acres of his farmland, wrote in August 2021 in opposition to a planned solar farm near his land. He complained about “the long-term detrimental effect it will have on a beautiful and diverse area of countryside”.

    He was also against the removal of “grade 3 arable land from production for 40 years” and argued for the “importance of self sufficiency in food and maintaining a biodiversity of flora and fauna, which will be totally lost by the construction of an industrial-scale solar park”.

    Walker told The Times he was “still completely anti-solar” and described solar farms of any size as being a “blight on your life and a blight on the landscape” but said changes in government subsidies offered to farmers post-Brexit made his “moderate quality” grade 3b agricultural land “unprofitable” to farm.

    He said the push by government for solar “gives opportunities for companies who want to do solar to make hay and make offers to farmers beyond their wildest dreams, which will allow them to stabilise their business and give security for the next two generations in a period where they can see no future prosperity on poor grade 3b land”.

    “The government has got this completely wrong and shouldn’t be allowing these vast solar farms to be built,” he said.

    “There is no point abusing farmers and landowners in the local community because the government wants solar and needs it and has made this opportunity available to solar companies.”

    Island Green Power, the developer, said it understood “the importance of carefully balancing renewable energy initiatives with the need to preserve the aesthetic and environmental integrity of the areas where we operate”.

    It said it was at an initial phase of consultation and wants “to ensure people living and working in the area have a chance to inform and influence the development of our proposals from an early stage”.

    In the past, developers tried to keep projects below 50MW, a threshold above which projects become “nationally significant infrastructure” and the energy secretary approves or rejects schemes. Now, panels are so cheap companies “might as well go as big as they can” to hit economies of scale, said Tom Edwards, a modeller at Cornwall Insight.

    Some farmers say that changes to subsidies post-Brexit have made food production on their land unprofitable

    Botley West Solar Farm, proposed on former farmland on the Blenheim estate in Oxfordshire, will be the biggest in Europe if it wins planning permission next year and is operating by 2027 as planned.

    Mark Owen-Lloyd, the scheme’s director, argued the 840MW project looked big on maps but the visual impact on the ground would be small. “If you see it on the ground from the roads and footpaths, you only see small glimpses,” he said.

    He rejected criticism from opponents who said the scheme was taking land out of food production. “The people who have offered the fields to us are farmers. They’re continuing to farm, but they’re going to farm with the revenues from the solar farm giving them financial stability,” he said.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    One cluster of proposed large solar farms is in the former coal heartland of Nottinghamshire. The hotspot there is partly due to the closure in recent years of old coal power stations, including West Burton and Cottam, opening up capacity on the National Grid’s transmission system.

    Some of the schemes are planned on former farmland, many in Lincolnshire due to grid capacity. Loss of land from food production to energy production has raised the hackles of many.

    However, Tom Lancaster at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, a think tank, said sheep could benefit from grazing on land with solar panels by being protected from the heat. Moreover, he said the government’s 70GW solar target by 2035 would see solar farms only cover 0.5 per cent of UK land. Even then, it would still be less than the land covered by golf courses today.

    A view of the proposed Lime Down site in the Wiltshire countryside near Malmesbury and Sherston

    The National Farmers Union said 0.1 per cent of utilised agricultural land was covered in solar farms but it was important projects avoided the richest soils where possible.

    Chris Hewett, chief executive of the industry body Solar Energy UK, said solar farms were “well-liked by the public” and it was “only a tiny, if vocal, minority that has given some politicians the impression that solar farms are unpopular”.

    Protesters against large-scale solar farms in the countryside waved placards outside a Westminster Hall debate last week on the subject and were joined by Andrew Bowie, the renewable energy minister, who told them their concerns were “completely legitimate”.

    Bowie said the government was actively looking into what it could do to protect valuable farmland from being used for large-scale solar farms.

    More than 13,600 people have signed a parliamentary petition in recent weeks calling on the government to introduce new restrictions on 50MW solar facilities on farmland to protect landscapes and food security.

    The petition author states: “Establishing formal priorities for solar development on brownfields, rooftops and lower-grade land, plus regional solar density caps, could help ensure energy targets are met without compromising rural landscapes or broader security interests.”

    Paul Miner, head of policy and planning at CPRE, the countryside charity, said parliamentarians needed to remember that climate change was the biggest threat to the countryside and time was running out to stop it.

    “Decarbonisation must be rapid and make the best use of our finite supply of land,” he said.

    “We are calling on the government to set a target for 60 per cent of new solar panel installations to be on rooftops; make rooftop solar panels a condition of planning approval for new homes, commercial buildings and large car parks; and set a ‘roof-first’ solar policy that also prioritises brownfield sites for solar farms and protects greenfield land.”

    A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokeswoman said: “We must protect our nation’s food security. This is why we want to see more solar — one of the cheapest forms of energy — but on brownfield sites, rooftops and, where possible, avoiding use of our best agricultural land.

    “We are reducing pressure on rural communities by making it easier for solar panels to be installed on industrial rooftops, warehouses, car parks and factories, cutting through the red tape that limits the amount of solar businesses can currently install.

    “Last year, renewables accounted for almost half of our electricity and our ambition is to achieve 70GW solar capacity by 2035.”

    Recommended
    John Lee
    1 HOUR AGO

    Looking forward to Tom Jones releasing ‘The grey grey glass of home’

    Reply

    Recommend (15)

    Share
    K Griffiths
    1 HOUR AGO

    I’m not understanding the objections really. Would recommend solar roof panels if possible, we’re currently exporting twice as much as we use so or electric bill is very low.

    Reply

    Recommend (12)

    Share
    A Starr
    59 MINUTES AGO

    House prices. The root of almost all support or objection to anything planning related in Nimbyland.

    P Delisle
    25 MINUTES AGO

    Its prime agricultural land. They are not anti solar they are anti the land its on. They want it moved to brown sites, down the side of motorways etc.

    Reply

    Recommend (5)

    Share
    David McClumpha
    1 MINUTE AGO
    Replying to P Delisle

    Grade 3b is not prime agricultural land.

    Thomas Bucket
    1 HOUR AGO

    A contentious issue with good points on both sides but claiming that a solar farm is a blight on the landscape and an arable farm is not is hypocritical. Wheat and rape fields aren’t beautiful, they’re industrial scale food production. A natural forest is beautiful.

    Mrs Mary Janet Wilkinson
    14 MINUTES AGO

    Well said that man . Wheat and rape fields are an ecological dead zone aswell , covered in pesticides and sprayed all over with poisonous Roundup each year

    Share
    Colin Gamble
    1 HOUR AGO

    Far better than grazing for sheep or horses. Generates a lot more for our economy by providing a cheap energy source.

    Share
    Clive Griffin
    1 HOUR AGO

    Meanwhile we can’t grow enough food to feed ourselves (currently about 60%) and immigration keeps our population swelling and who knows if we will be at war in the next few years.

    Reply

    Recommend (7)

    Share
    B James
    34 MINUTES AGO

    Simple then, stop immigration, should be easy.

    1 reply
    Mrs Mary Janet Wilkinson
    9 MINUTES AGO

    Yes we import loads of our food from Europe so the geniuses in charge did Brexit to create trade barriers making the food more expensive for us . Thanks guys , appreciate it

    Reply

    Recommended (0)

    Share
    Peter Grant
    1 HOUR AGO

    Maybe it might have been sensible to have completed a full infrastructure assessment and economic impact assessment to assess what was actually going to be necessary, what it would all cost, and the impact it would have on our economy and our environment before rushing to climb aboard the Net Zero …

    David Cook
    44 MINUTES AGO

    Whether you like it or not, there is a green revolution underway, similar to an industrial revolution or a technological revolution.

    We can embrace it, which could do wonders for our flat lining economy, or more likely we will get left behind as usual..

    R Craig
    1 HOUR AGO

    boo hoo, if selfish owners have to take a hit to save the planet, then let’s force them to do so.

    Simon Marriott
    1 HOUR AGO

    This is a good thing. If the Luddite Nimbys were to get their way, they’d soon be living in a brown belt, not a green belt. Do they not understand that climate change is for real, and that the recent run of “unprecedented” rain/heat/storms that this is bringing will soon make it impossible to farm …

    Share
    Gail Mowat
    59 MINUTES AGO

    Are the government incentives way too generous? Why would large and well-connected landowners alienate their local communities and close friends with such plans? They must be getting paid an absolute fortune.

    Simon Robinson
    53 MINUTES AGO

    There are no incentives for solar energy projects in the UK.

    Share
    Gary Coe
    1 HOUR AGO

    Choose : lights out, renewable energy sources distributed throughout the country or more power stations.

    2. “Lime Down Solar Park could power 115,000 homes in Wiltshire,…”
      Damnable falsehood by omission of the words “except on a cold winter’s evening when we need reliable power the most.”

      1. When one endeavours to deceive, it’s all just an utter nonsense .

      2. When one endeavours to deceive, it’s all just an utter nonsense .

      3. Could power 115,000 homes…for 5 minutes. But probably can’t even manage that. It’s the language of those charity ads where your £1 a month could do xyz…but won’t. Always could, never will.

        1. Good reports from our churchwarden who attended yesterday. That said there are some specific questions we’d like help on – any ideas?

          1. Chris Loder, the mp who gave a talk yesterday, said that he’d be happy to be contacted directly. Would he at least know who could advise? He’s a church warden himself as well as an mp.

          2. I don’t know. We want a church lawyer and to understand how we can reclaim the assets that the hierarchy took off us years ago.

          4. Chris Loder is the son of a West Dorset farmer .

            He is a member of the Common Sense Group which represents the socially conservative wing of the Conservative Party.[6][7] Following an interim report on the connections between colonialism and properties now in the care of the National Trust, including links with historic slavery, Loder was among the signatories of a letter to The Daily Telegraph in November 2020 from the Common Sense Group. The letter accused the National Trust of being “coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the ‘woke agenda'”.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Loder

    3. “Lime Down Solar Park could power 115,000 homes in Wiltshire,…”
      Damnable falsehood by omission of the words “except on a cold winter’s evening when we need reliable power the most.”

    1. Oh, that’s clever! And accurate.(didn’t see that it was a pie – looked like a grumpy face, but i am awaiting new glasses)

  118. ‘British holidaymakers could soon be slapped with a daily ‘tourist tax’ when visiting the Canary Islands, local authorities have warned.’
    A headline from the Daily Mail.
    Of course this wouldn’t just be a tax dedicated to the British but one imagines to all visitors to the islands. (3 percent on hotel tariff)
    Not particularly news worthy. All over the world there are special local taxes on hotel prices in holiday resorts.
    I remember booking a hotel in Las Vegas some years ago and the price of a room was doubled by the imposed tourist tax.
    And it was applicable to everyone, not just British holidaymakers.

    2. I think it’s a shame virtually none of the radio plays and serials from the old Light Programme and early Radio Two were never kept.

  120. Evening, all. Islam has been emboldened by our timid response to its takeover. That’s why we’re in the mess we are.

    1. Indeed so . Good Night Mr C, we pass like ships in the dusk but never at dawn .

      1. That’s because I’m a night owl and I have lots of things to do during the day so only have time to play on Nottl at night.

        1. Our owls tend to be tucked up in bed during the day all the better to towhit towoo during the twilight and dark hours.

    3. You cannot fight an ideology like Islam without your own superior ideology, something much of the West has been abandoning and increasingly attacking for 150 years. Muslims are laughing their socks off at the materialists of Left and Right with their vacuous assertions.

    4. Meanwhile in India, Islam has has taken a knock back after Modi’s Government sanctioned the building of a Hindu temple in the ruins of an ancient recently detroyed mosque at a disputed religious site:

      https://www.voanews.com/a/us-commission-troubled-by-hindu-temple-opening-on-ruins-of-mosque-in-india/7457291.html

      Modi is being accused of using the predominant religious afiliation of the Indian population to win his party’s tenure of power in the forthcoming election through the influence of Lord Rama, the Indian God of chivalry and virtue.

      Our UK PM might face similar accusations should he be using the Church of England and our Defender of the Faith to promote the Conservatives in the forthcoming general election but I guess he has more faith in Lord Rama.

      1. I’m one of the weirdos that likes both Modi and that Hungarian chap (senior moment). They recognise the Islamic danger.

  121. I’m having a rather nice Irish coffee before I go to bed, which I meant to do about an hour ago. I must go to bed now . 😴 🙂

  122. Interesting article in the Speccie saying that Mr Trump is shifting his position on supporting Ukraine and backing Speaker Johnson pretty much as I have been maintaining. President Trump is not a Lindbergh type isolationist nut like Greene, but a practical man of the world who knows who the West’s enemies are and who funnelled to Ukraine throughout his last Presidency.

    1. Busy evening is it for you, killing cats and reading the Spectator ?
      You must subscribe now ? 😁

        1. They know who their enemies are, cats being a metaphor for more then one thing .

          2. You are mistaken, JD. They are overwhelmingly associated with the forces of light *when those have prevailed*

          4. My name is Kitty, I am feline, I’m not something that encourages hate or evil .

          5. Not really, JD. In ancient Egypt they were worshipped as the guardians of the gates to the next life, there to ease the way through – whichever way you were going! Later on they were worshipped as symbols of caring and motherhood, though the main Goddess of motherhood was the cow.

          7. Not much is really known about them is it? Except that they are regarded as being the founders of civilisation as we know it. What did they think of cats? ;))

          8. A lot is known about them and more is being learnt as the vast catalogues of Sumerian documents are slowly translated. Their own records speak of the antediluvian period for example. They were chalk and cheese to the Egyptians, creatively clashing city states like the Greeks versus highly totalitarian God kings a bit like the Roman Empire.
            They were definitely dog people. 🙂

          9. They sound more like cat people to me. Independent city states all doing their own thing – just like cats :))
            More seriously, I know that there is still a lot to learn about them.

      2. You don’t have to subscribe to read the Spectator. But you do have to subscribe to reply to comments. Or comment yourself. Such is life.

        1. As a matter of interest – how do you red without subscribing? Asking for a friend

  123. −
    R
    Rhys Burriss
    16 minutes ago
    Labour being idiotic is already known and pr
    iced in.

    As to the supposed spectre of renewed Freedom of Movement between the EU countries and the UK = well we already have that in practice as the Tories have granted FoM to the whole wide world – which includes the EU.

    We know Lab will be hopeless. Although, who knows, once in actual power perhaps the automatic stabilisers will kick in and they will be less so than planned.

    What we didn’t know in 2019 was just how monumentally , utterly, hopeless and worse the fake Tories would be . But now we do know. The big Vision Thing is ciggies and A levels. Lol.

    Why they will get a single vote when there is a Reform candidate to vote for is a genuine mystery to me.
    From Spectator comments why a Labour supermajority is unlikely
    Spot on.

  124. Yes, and the Diocese. I reckon there’s approaching 900k of church assets in our parish that rightfully belong to our PCC.

  125. Yes, and the Diocese. I reckon there’s approaching 900k of church assets in our parish that rightfully belong to our PCC.

  128. You’re a human being, aren’t you? 🙂
    Mind you the Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman might be able to persuade me!

    1. Actually Cat is short for Catherine .
      My name is Kitty – nothing to do with Catherine !
      Kitty – Kitten – a small feminine playful creature that sleeps a lot .
      I don’t know anyone called Michelle Pfeitter – it’s not my name and I’m no Catwoman . But Im sure even a small kitten would recognise those who are their enemies- those who want to put them in a sack with rocks and drown them. Opopanax and Peta weren’t impressed by your unkindness to God’s creatures. Audrey and I love all creatures and see the good in all things

    1. At almost 76? NO WAY!! 🤣🤣
      Last time I did it, and not nearly as low as I got when I was even younger, was at the Carnival in Trinidad in 1980, well fuelled on rum and coke, when I was 31- my hosts were still quite impressed though!

        1. Oh I don’t know opo, maybe on some of the young, but if we get to have fun, make lots of happy memories and learn from our mistakes, it isn’t really wasted is it? Older people tend to be much more cautious – I know I am – so perhaps we miss out on things too?

  131. Just passing through on the way to bed.
    Our number two and his lovely family called in lats afternoon, but stayed for dinner (good move) we loved it, so nice to see and have fun with the grandchildren.
    Good night all. 😴

  132. Sunday night but here in Aragon in Spain it’s a holiday weekend of four days as, Tuesday is St. George’s Day. St.George the patron saint of the region, where his flag is flown. I understand he’s the patron saint of some country to the north where they pay little attention and change his flag into rainbow colours.
    Here of course it’s a great four days.

      1. I didn’t know that. Do you think we could persuade them to replace some of the hate flags they are presently flying in London (with impunity) with the flag of St George?

          1. One in eight Labour voters think the English flag is ‘racist and divisive and should not be displayed’, a new poll reveals today. From the Daily Mail today

          4. One in eight is actually quite encouraging – I’d have thought it would be far higher!

  134. I’m off now – it’s been a long day at church! We had our normal Sung Eucharist this morning, then a special Evensong with the choir performing in the late afternoon. It was lovely! I can’t remember the last Evensong I went to but it was amazing how quickly it all came back. Our church is an hour’s drive away so we had an excellent Chinese lunch in between, and finally got home around 8pm.
    So halo duly polished I shall retire to bed – Good Night all!

          1. God and I sometimes have private discussions as to what, exactly, constitutes a sin 🤣

  135. My Speccie sub runs out tomorrow and i am in two minds as to whether to renew. On balance, I think not. Any advice from Nottlers?

    2. I went on-line and cancelled, citing the new comments system as the reason (from a drop down box of options) – I was immediately offered three months for £3! I’ve accepted this and will see if anything improves in that time or I’m off.
      I told AALocrian this and he was given the same offer.

    1. 386306+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      Could it be a wonger incentive was an offer that when made, could NOT be refused ?

    2. Having designed an Immunology and Signalling Laboratory at the Babraham Institute in the mid nineties I can attest to the fact that it takes almost a decade to test and obtain approval of any new drug prior to bringing it to market.

      Babraham Institute I should add is an animal testing site run by BBSRC.

      I know that scientists and researchers have been looking for utilisation of animal organs for implantation into humans, they in-breed pigs for such transplants.

      The scientists also seek to modify mice, rats and ferrets to mimic human reactions to various inflammations and other viral disease. The animals so modified are ‘transgenic mice’ or whatever.

      My own personal view is that genuine research is now modified so as to enable the major pharmaceutical companies to sell drugs to the governments under the pretext that these drugs are curative. Mostly they are not, as we have seen with the mRNA ‘vaccines’ which are not vaccines in the conventional sense and definition and neither are they ‘safe and effective’ as advertised.

      We have been sold a pup in regard to the Covid vaccines or more accurately jabs with the active connivance of governments the world over. At some point trials shall commence and the conspirators in this major fraud and corruption of our health authorities brought to answer to criminal proceedings in Nuremberg II.

  142. Where are all these alleged Night Owls when you need them? Clearly larks in disguise. Off (reluctantly) into my basket. Night all x

    1. Goodnight ,

      Night Owl here is watching and listening to some stirring choral music on BBC 2, I must wander into the garden to allow Pip spaniel a wee before bedtime .

    2. Well, I’m just about to disappear into my cosy lair, it’s just past midnight. Night-night everyone.

      1. Been asleep, all tucked up in bed, since 20:00 UK time. Absolutely blasted yesterday, so I was.

        1. Would you mind telling me who you are responding to please? I’m getting “content unavailable” and I can’t think why anyone would have blocked me 😕

          1. Poppiesmum.
            I’ve knowingly (fonger trouble excepted) only blocked one person on NTTL.

          2. Thanks – no idea at all why she (I assume it is a she) would have blocked me. Ah well, I’m certainly not going to lose sleep over it 🙂

  143. Ukraine is essentially a lost cause. It has blasted through immense amounts of materiel and lost over 500,000 men in combat. It has neither the manpower nor the materiel to sustain a fight against much superior Russian forces.

    The fact that the establishment in the US persist with the prosecution of their proxy war in Ukraine makes them war criminals. Voting further funding for the hopeless Ukrainians is quite simply voting for more dead bodies on both sides viz. many more Ukrainian lives to be lost and somewhat fewer Russian lives to be lost in the continuing conflict.

    Were I an American I would be ashamed of the US government and its insane actions. I remain ashamed of our own UK government who are equally idiotic in their blind adherence to the US and its mad neo-con mindset.

    The fact remains that the British Empire ceased to exist post Suez and now the US hegemony is itself on the skids.

    1. Excellent comment, Sir.
      With an irony that despite Suez being scuppered by lack of American support, we are still willing for dance to their command.

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