Thursday 25 April: Britain can no longer afford to be complacent about readiness for war

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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865 thoughts on “Thursday 25 April: Britain can no longer afford to be complacent about readiness for war”

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

    ATTRACTING WOMEN

    There are a number of mechanical devises which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women.
    Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible. PJ O’Rourke
    ***************************************************************
    Love matches are formed by people who pay for a month of honey with a lifetime of vinegar. Countess of Blessington
    ***************************************************************
    What are a woman’s four favourite animals?
    A jaguar in the garage, a mink in the closet, a tiger in the bed, and a jackass to pay for it all.
    ***************************************************************
    My wife went to the beauty parlour.
    She got a mud pack. She looked nice for a couple of days.
    Then the mud fell off.
    ***************************************************************
    Teacher: ‘If you had one euro and you asked your father for another, how many euros would you have?’
    Boy: ‘One euro.’
    Teacher: ‘You don’t know your arithmetic.’
    Boy: ‘You don’t know my father.’
    ***************************************************************
    With my first child I can recall screaming, ‘Get this thing out of me! Get this thing out of me! And that was just the conception’. Joan Rivers
    ***************************************************************
    Steer well clear of the knight in shining armour. He’ll only want you to polish it. Anon.

    1. Great cartoon however, the cross of St Patrick wouldn’t have been added to Britannia’s shield until after 1921.

  5. Good morning, chums, I hope you all slept well.

    Wordle 1,041 4/6

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    3. Wordle 1,041 4/6

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  6. We are the West’s last generation before the new Dark Age begins. Allister Heath. 25 April 2024.

    There is a fatal contradiction at the heart of Western societies, a nihilistic impulse, a pathological self-loathing that threatens to destroy our way of life. We live in the freest, wealthiest, healthiest, fairest and most technologically advanced polities in history, and yet millions of young people are being taught to hate the West, to despise the liberties that make their lifestyles possible, to tear down every institution and tradition.

    Too late Allister. It’s already here. Those infected are called the Political Elites and it has affected them all.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/24/columbia-protests-anti-semitism-universities-west-dark-age/

  7. Morning all. I copy below the story from one hundred years ago. I was originally only going to use the first paragraph and muse over the use, then, of the word “controverted”.

    However the whole story (of a train collision in Switzerland/Gotthart tunnel) is grimly fascinating. Stylistically it knocks spots off our modern journalism. Don’t read the end bit if you are squeamish as it appears terrible deaths were suffered.

    “ Definite news has been received here that Dr. Karl Helfferich perished in the Bellinzona catastrophe. His wife and mother shared his fate. In him Germany loses one of her most controversial and controverted personalities. He was undoubtedly the intellectual leader of the Conservatives. No other member of the party could match him in knowledge, political experience, oratorical pugnacity, and resourcefulness in debate. He was their trump card in the election game now in progress, and his death will be a stupefying shock to them. But while they put him forward as the inventor of the bondmark, the father of stabilisation, and the economic saviour of the Reich, their political opponents represented him as the originator of the disease rather than as the contriver of a cure. On the very day of his death appeared a book entitled “Three Destroyers of Germany,” in which he is coupled with the president of the Reichsbank, Dr. Havenstein, and Herr Stinnes as one of the three men chiefly responsible for all the ills suffered by the majority of the people of this country in consequence of the inflation and depreciation. Certainly they were closely associated as the cause, operation, and effect of much of Germany’s recent financial policy. They have been almost as closely associated in their deaths, which have all fallen within a period of less than six months.

    Few statesmen have had a record more varied than that which Dr. Helfferich crowded into his fifty-two years. He started his political career as an assailant of the Agrarians, and ended it as their foremost fighter. In the interval he was professor of economics, colonial official, bank director, manager of the Baghdad Railway, Minister of Finance and the interior, Vice-chancellor, Ambassador (after the assassination of Count Mirbach) at Bolshevik Moscow, and author of a book on money which is regarded as a classic in this country. At a critical stage of the war he was one of the most stubborn opponents of ruthless submarine warfare, of which he said, “It is our last card, and if it doesn’t take the trick we are lost for centuries.” Nevertheless, his ambitious pliability allowed him to retain office after his protests had been brushed aside and to become an apologist of the policy which he had combated.

    GERMAN EXMINISTER.

    FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. GENEVA, THURSDAY.

    It appears now that Count della Torre, the Italian Minister at Copenhagen, was not among the victims of the Gothard railway disaster, but Dr. Helfferich, a member of the German Reichstag, former Minister of Finance and leader of the National party, and his mother, who was returning with him from Italy, are among the killed. Thirteen of the victims who are at Bellinzona Hospital are in a very serious condition, and it is feared that many will succumb to their injuries. There were altogether about 250 passengers in the express coming from Italy, and among them were four Americans and two Englishmen, all of whom escaped injury. The fact that so many tourists are now returning from Italy after the Easter holidays, and the extra trains, necessitated delays and interfered with the time-table. Moreover there is an unusually large number of tourists this year, and it is stated that owing to the necessity for economy in the Swiss State Railways, the staff on the line has been reduced during the last year, and that Bellinzona particularly was understaffed.

    TERRIBLE SCENES.

    GENEVA, THURSDAY.

    All the four locomotives engaged in drawing the two expresses from Milani and Zurich, which collided when the former was going at fifty miles an hour, are beyond repair, and the two leading engines are a mass of wreckage, it being almost impossible to distinguish the separate machinery of each. They are being dismantled piece by piece. Ironwork is being cut by means of oxy-acetylene flares. In this manner the dismembered body of the driver of the Italian train was recovered.

    The driver of the other engine of this train was not killed outright, but was imprisoned in the wreckage and burned to death. A similar fate was shared by many others. In many cases the would-be rescuers could not reach the victims through the twisted ironwork and woodwork, and had to watch them dying of their injuries. In one case a mother was imprisoned with her baby, which she still held in her arms. They were both badly injured, and while the baby cried piteously the mother became gradually senseless with pain. She had shrieked for help, but the débris could not be cleared in time to save them.

    A honeymoon couple on their way to Italy in the Zurich train were flung together half out of the window when the carriage overturned, and each had both legs crushed. They lie beside each other in the hospital in a critical state.

    All the fifteen dead so far recovered were in the German coach, and everything belonging to them was destroyed by fire. They sustained horrible mutilation as well as burns.”

  8. But, Elsie, Britannia was. I don’t know if The Union Flag on her shield has ever been amended.

    1. Nor I, Sir Jasper. I rummaged through my pot of old coins to see,, but they are all from foreign countries.

  9. Good Moaning.
    That sound you can hear is Uria Creep MP reversing quicker than a business of ferret on steroids.

    ” “At the time of writing that response, I didn’t have any direct experience of this topic and took advice on how best to respond, given the complexities surrounding individual cases. Having now spoken to experts and professionals, like many, my understanding has evolved.

    “I have since been crystal clear about my concerns that women are being erased in this debate, and have always been clear that women do not have, nor have ever had, a penis.” “

  10. Putin has deployed chemical weapons. We need gas masks now. Hamish de Crettin-Gordon.25 April 2024.

    This is straight out of the Russian playbook from Syria, albeit in a more modern form. I saw for myself there how devastating basic toxic chemicals can be on an unprotected population. Syria and Russia attacked the city of Aleppo for 4 years conventionally with no success, but after 17 days of dropping chlorine-filled barrel bombs in December 2016, the siege was broken and 400,000 people surrendered to the dual tyranny of Assad and Putin. The gas, heavier than air, seeped underground, killing people there or forcing them into the open.

    CS gas is a chemical weapon? Who knew? The quote is interesting. Hamish was in charge of MI6 operations in Syria and it was he who organised the False Flag attacks on Aleppo etc. with the help of ISIS. Some of these required the most base murders. The victims being tied up so that they didn’t escape the gas (Chlorine is not poisonous. It suffocates). I often wonder if guilt has affected his reasoning processes. The loss of life in Syria was appalling. Assad was of course pro-west (something I imagine that he has been cured of now). Putin’s assistance was vital in preventing a Jihadist Victory which would have released a Tsunami of refugees on Europe.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/24/putin-has-deployed-chemical-weapons-we-need-gas-masks-now/

    1. From Google: “High concentrations of chlorine can result in development of ALI/ARDS, pulmonary edema, pulmonary inflammation with or without infection, respiratory failure, and death (11, 12). In this way chlorine exposure resembles some other toxic inhalations like sulfur & mustard”

  11. Just to round off on this. Gillian Keegan showed a lack of judgement back in 2020 when she said women could have penises. (as did Sir Beer). Two lacks of judgement, as it were. First, it is obvious that women cannot have penises. A two year old child knows that. And second, listening to activist “Charities” and not having the strength of character to say the truth. It is too late these people saying now “we’ve learnt a lot over the past few years”, one – worse – “we’ve educated ourselves on the matter”. It’s no excuse. If you don’t have the intelligence to see the factual truth or, worse, if you see the factual truth but don’t have the strength of character to stand against it in the face of what can be regarded as bullying, then you are not the politician we need. This woman, along with Mordant and the Labour ones and the whole of the non-Lib non-Dems, need to go. Their judgement has been found wanting. It is neither complex nor challenging. It is gaslighting of the British public by a bunch of bullies and you fell for it.

    “ GILLIAN KEEGAN will no longer use the phrase “trans women are women” saying her understanding of the issue has “evolved”.

    The Education Secretary made the statement that “Trans women are women” in 2020 in response to a question from an LGBT forum in her constituency of Chichester, adding that trans people should have equal access to “safe spaces”.

    But now she has told The Telegraph that she has since “learnt a huge amount more about this complex and challenging subject”…”

    1. Typical slippery politician. My daughter lives in Chichester, her constituency. She tells me that Keegan, an import, is hated locally, even by committed conservatives. She’s out. The Limp Dumb candidate will win simply because she’s a local girl born and bred and she speaks NHS-ese.

      1. Gillian Keegan was parachuted into a safe constituency because her husband was the head of Fujitsu.

        The reasons why this payoff was made has not yet been revealed in the Post Office inquiry.

        *Interestingly, Mr Keegan has not yet been questioned under oath about his dealings with Horizon.

          1. Yes Citroen, there must be a powerful reason…..and here it is:-

            Mr Michael Keegan was the chairman of Fujitsu from 2014 until 2018.

            At this morning’s PO inquiry it was revealed under oath that at a meeting on October 2010 Fujitsu

            admitted that the software was faulty.

            Despite this Mr Keegan said and did nothing about the convictions of hundreds of sub postmasters

            by the Post Office.

            Apart from deliberately not passing evidence to the defence (which I understand is illegal) he should

            feel shame for not protecting the innocent, and his wife should feel shame for protecting him.

      1. Indeed. All the “non-woke” could see it; just the pretentious pseuds couldn’t. Sadly we have too many of them.

      2. I’ll wager the IQ gap between a 2 year old Sir Jasper and a 50 something British politician is about the same as the distance between Voyager 1 and Planet Earth.

        1. Excellent comparison, Anne.

          Another one:

          Yesterday Steve Bannon(War Room) mentioned three of the stooges doing the dirty work on Trump and enquired if their combined IQ scores made a total containing three digits.

  12. Just to round off on this. Gillian Keegan showed a lack of judgement back in 2020 when she said women could have penises. (as did Sir Beer). Two lacks of judgement, as it were. First, it is obvious that women cannot have penises. A two year old child knows that. And second, listening to activist “Charities” and not having the strength of character to say the truth. It is too late these people saying now “we’ve learnt a lot over the past few years”, one – worse – “we’ve educated ourselves on the matter”. It’s no excuse. If you don’t have the intelligence to see the factual truth or, worse, if you see the factual truth but don’t have the strength of character to stand against it in the face of what can be regarded as bullying, then you are not the politician we need. This woman, along with Mordant and the Labour ones and the whole of the non-Lib non-Dems, need to go. Their judgement has been found wanting. It is neither complex nor challenging. It is gaslighting of the British public by a bunch of bullies and you fell for it.

    “ GILLIAN KEEGAN will no longer use the phrase “trans women are women” saying her understanding of the issue has “evolved”.

    The Education Secretary made the statement that “Trans women are women” in 2020 in response to a question from an LGBT forum in her constituency of Chichester, adding that trans people should have equal access to “safe spaces”.

    But now she has told The Telegraph that she has since “learnt a huge amount more about this complex and challenging subject”…”

  13. Sir Gerald Howarth writes a good letter if viewed from the rare atmospheric heights of the upper echelons of Whitehall. Sadly he is so removed from the reality of the situation that his witterings are meaningless. He refers to “sovereign” capabilities. I worked for five years as an engineering consultant on a Defence programme where the topic of sovereign capabilities arose. It took the MoD four years to define “sovereignty”, even then what came out was a fudge compromise as they couldn’t agree.

  14. Two oxymorons provided by Nottlers comments – must be a record so early in the morning:
    Gillian Keegan’s “judgement”.
    Hamish de Cretin Gordon’s “reasoning”.

  15. Good morning, all. Mottled sky. No rain – yet. Cold. To market to look out for a halal pig.

  16. What is the betting that the teacher who arm-locked the attempted murdering knife carrying teenage girl is charged with assault (or something worse)?

    2. And if the girl has a protected characteristic, ‘hate’ will be added to the rap sheet.

  17. Good moaning tootle monde and the 77th,

    Clear skies above the McPhee demesne, wind in the West, 4℃ and another cold day in the 2024 spring in prospect with 9℃ the forecast ‘high’. Rain this afternnoon.

    Scotland is emptying from the top. Hoodathunkit?

    *TRIGGER WARNING*

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59910d7e4434147039b1c6a2f2869c6d0ee620ec90a1c9f4a375ff7c207aa7a2.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/24/more-than-1000-higher-rate-taxpayers-flee-scotland-hikes/

    Earn over £75k in Scotland and Holyrood takes 48% of every extra pound. That must make the marginal tax rate when people start losing their personal allowance over £100k at least 65%. The only thing that surprises me is that the exodus has been as small as it is.

    The body of the piece talks about the disincentives to business and so on when really it should be about the sheer kleptomaniacal effrontery of those in elected public office stealing such a large slice of peoples’ hard-earned incomes. Then, of course, come VAT, the Council Tax and all the myriad of indirect taxes leaving an ever smaller proportion of people’s incomes to be applied directly for their own good and the good of their families. The message is don’t be ambitious, don’t be entrepreneurial, don’t be provident, don’t save; we’re going to take ever more of it if you are successful.

    1. The answer to the loss of the top earners’ tax is of course – to tax everyone more.

      1. Of course! The policy is never wrong, only the implementation of the policy can ever be wrong (ie we’re right and this is someone else’s fault).

  18. Good moaning tootle monde and the 77th,

    Clear skies above the McPhee demesne, wind in the West, 4℃ and another cold day in the 2024 spring in prospect with 9℃ the forecast ‘high’. Rain this afternnoon.

    Scotland is emptying from the top. Hoodathunkit?

    *TRIGGER WARNING*

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59910d7e4434147039b1c6a2f2869c6d0ee620ec90a1c9f4a375ff7c207aa7a2.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/24/more-than-1000-higher-rate-taxpayers-flee-scotland-hikes/

    Earn over £75k in Scotland and Holyrood takes 48% of every extra pound. That must make the marginal tax rate when people start losing their personal allowance over £100k at least 65%. The only thing that surprises me is that the exodus has been as small as it is.

    The body of the piece talks about the disincentives to business and so on when really it should be about the sheer kleptomaniacal effrontery of those in elected public office stealing such a large slice of peoples’ hard-earned incomes. Then, of course, come VAT, the Council Tax and all the myriad of indirect taxes leaving an ever smaller proportion of people’s incomes to be applied directly for their own good and the good of their families. The message is don’t be ambitious, don’t be entrepreneurial, don’t be provident, don’t save; we’re going to take ever more of it if you are successful.

    1. An interesting, if long interview, Fiscal.I learned a lot, I thought I already knew.

          1. Weighed against what could be won if enough people paid enough attention that’s a mere blink of an eye.

    2. An interesting, if long interview, Fiscal.I learned a lot, I thought I already knew.

    3. Sadly , although Neil Oliver gurns on and on about commonsense matters , I can no longer listen to him .

      In fact GB news is becoming so light weight shallow and shouty , and the adverts are so peculiar .. what is the message that the suicide advert is trying to tell us , so obscure , and seems to be pushing suicidal thoughts to the brink , very depressing , the diet ads and boring Welsh ads ..

      2. The powerful quango that is the Global Disinformation Index acts as a gatekeeper to advertising contracts. GB News will be denied access to this revenue so will have to scrabble around trying to find advertising in unusual places. Same with other independent right, proper centrist organisations who will also be boycotted by the Global Disinformation Index. That is why we need to subscribe to such effectively ‘outlawed’ organisations.

  21. Good morning all

    Rain due , 5c and the air is still .

    Reading the DT letters, same irritation and reaction but I did enjoy this DT comment .

    I could feel the anger and the passion , how about any of you?

    Cuthbert Thomasson
    7 MIN AGO
    Letters: Britain can no longer afford to be complacent about readiness for war.
    What war?
    Who are our mortal enemies, who are ” we” ?
    We are at war with reality, and we are bound to lose that.
    And in that case, when we have quite done with futile self-sacrifice to placate the Oracles of unfounded net zero quackery, the marxist ideology that drove it wins anyway.
    As our civilisation collapses in unfounded fear-ridden ignominy, occult superstition and cod-science chaos into a new dark age of uselessness and poverty.
    I would gladly answer a call to arms to fight that.
    A war to confront and confound savagery here
    A war to take bbc barbarian ‘ Activists’ laying waste to our civilisation head-on with courage and faith in the innate goodness of native British civilisation.
    A war to reclaim Blighty from the bbc’s armies of just do as we say unelected tyrants.
    How about that ?
    Let somenew political party raise the Conservative Standard and millions would muster to it, unashamed of sovereign British civilisation.
    Eager for peaceful battle and prepared to defend reason , to take up arms against bbc barbarians and restore life as we knew it and celebrated its freedoms.
    Unless we do that, win that war, what is there to defend that is worth the waging of foreign wars ?
    The present day unreality of needles uncalled for runaway descent into the paranoid oblivion trans net zero bbc barbarian hamas nazi venerating occult one party state net zero eternal autarchy ?
    I think not.
    Who of sound mind is going to wage any war against anything abroad to preserve this wretched state and decline into net zero autarchy at home

    1. The war I’m interested in fighting is the war against the enemies within who seem to be everywhere.

    2. At fast rising 80, Maggie and Fiscal, I fear I,m too old and febrile to join you though, I do advocate the call to arms.

    3. Belle, they always give us a convincing story. They ALWAYS give people a story that will elicit the desired reaction.
      So they will give us a narrative that will get people to support a war.

    4. That is a brilliant post. Well done, Cuthbert Thomasson. Echoes my thoughts exactly, although I couldn’t have articulated it so well. These are invented wars, stirred up by our politicians who then expect us to fight for the mess that they have created.

  22. Another comment I enjoyed

    Celia Butterfield
    25 MIN AGO
    Further to yesterday’s article, this is a very useful app to have on your mobile whilst out and about.
    https://www.toiletmap.org.uk

    My goodness , I will probably have had a urinary accident by the time I had found the app and map of where the nearest public lavvy is situated!

    1. Sounds like a very good way to tell some big data organisation where you are and how often you go to the lavatory.

      1. Squire, I’m going to send an email to the mean-spirited miscreants at the Speccie. I just placed a simple violin 🎻 next to my new display name and they said I cant have the simple picture

          1. I don’t know the correct word for 🎻🐈😊 those things but they’re not allowed next to the display name – mine is a favorite Beethoven Sonata without the simple picture of a violin. I suppose they want it plain and simple words without any character or individuality but they still take the money. I’m going to email them and insist I come with my violin

          2. Nothing to do with the size of the image?
            (Get me …. from now on, ask the cyber experts on NOTTL.)

        2. Why do you keep changing your name there? What is wrong with Terpsichore? Those of us who still subscribe will not know it is you.

    4. I have looked at the toiletmap from time to time while planning my London walks. Many of those shown are inside shops, pubs or local sports grounds that are only open from time to time. All it usually tells me is that there are NO toilets along my route. A nice idea but it seems to fail in its main purpose.
      (about to head off that direction in a few minutes, won’t see any replies till tomorrow. Hope I don’t get caught out…)

  23. Update from Daily Wail about the stabbing. Apparently I was incorrect that the girl attacked a fellow pupil first.

    ‘Armed with a flick knife, the teenager is said to have targeted the teacher, named locally as Liz Hopkin, before a fellow pupil and a teacher intervened.’

    1. When did a flick knife become a butterfly knife?
      Does the airy fairy name make the inflicted damage less serious?

          4. Looks very practical. My children did forestry at their school and I’m pretty sure they used knives of that size. Their teacher was a bit of a lad himself and trained in handling juvenile delinquents. I had to remind him once that he was now teaching at a private school and speaking to private school parents.

      2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f13941070f7945658af7415fcd523a7ff2d7551d3faa424450b0c286967c167d.png They are different things. A flick knife (in Yankese a ‘switchblade’) has the blade appear when a button is depressed on the handle. Some shoot straight out; others pivot on a fulcrum.

        A ‘butterfly knife’ (shown below in Bob’s post) is a different implement altogether.

        A flick knife is considered to be an offensive weapon in the UK, per se, (by virtue of The Prevention of Crimes Act, 1953) and possession of one, anywhere, is an offence.

        I confiscated one from a man at Norwich Airport and handed him over to the police. He was actually a nice bloke (married chap, good ]ob) who didn’t understand the law and had bought it as a handy tool. Special Branch gave him a good talking to and he received a verbal caution. He did not miss his flight but he was confused when I told him that he could not claim the knife back, due to the legal ban on possession.

  24. 386441+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 25 April: Britain can no longer afford to be complacent about readiness for war

    Thanks to Mr Kipling via Ped the tother day,

    Tommy

    The Kipling Society

    Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?” But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll The drums begin to roll …

    “Underneath the arches” should be playing VERY LOUDLY from a speaker van parked on parliament green.

    To make matters worse, they could always ask the covert foreign army in residence, who are receiving unlimited welfare if they would like to earn it via the trenches, that is, if they could trust them, and find them first.

    Still no worries the potential soldier could very well go to bed Monday , to be awakened Tuesday saying, as did the lord mayor of Hiroshima, what was that bang., end of.

    These political top rankers, complete rear exits,enemas of the highest order, are pursuing en masse the ultimate in culling.

  25. Good morning from Mercia and Helicon, drifts in like a scented breeze .
    I rarely visit the Spectator out of principle and feeling claustrophobic in those basic and soulless reply boxes. I changed my ‘ display name ‘ to a favourite Beethoven Sonata and I placed a simple 🎻 violin with the name, the stingy controlling miscreants won’t even let me have my violin with my ‘ display name ‘ for their now inadequate commenting system but they take my money.

    1. More fool you for continuing to pay the subscription. Sorry about that, I know you’re no fool.

  26. A super cartoon in the Telegraph this morning of a man painting ‘ horse Lane ‘ on a London road, due to the horses that created havoc in London yesterday. The most funny thing was the look of shock on the faces of smug cyclists .

    1. what? You don’t want to defend the luxury beliefs of the elite.. who also loathe you?

  28. A belated good morning to all.
    A slightly less cold 2°C this morning. A bright start but cloudy with blue patches.

  29. ‘Morning All

    My friend finally escaped St Peters last night with the usual NHS efficiency signed out at 11am with a wait until 4.30pm for take home meds from the pharmacy

    I had a grouchy bunny to deal with

    Now patient sittingwon’t be around much for a few days but leave you with a medley……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/82b9ed7b621d560acc8275f983c5f43a2a23e64852d34ba6c90a1201fd3ffeae.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b9f0df855408a61332b1cc5258e19af763a978409c2254145a15f260a1257fc8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0f161de9edae02b01d3c30573edd0df9595e0a3820dd920bb814673a0988acb.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/23f22939e39d396d7fa801647bd7660595c6c4a92f1c476ed1691eae1b59cefd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f54bf7110d7e0317af9c1facf501573e3c37b2a774a3c09896d741d7a43fde92.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1012a5798fe09dd9f41c2cf61703a20312519d09a01ce71a0c762cdc28b28d97.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/00c1f8b209a2dc19802a9da86dc4189289f94ed8e1e1079e0c2e0657cc73253d.jpg

    2. In 1974 or ’75 I was was one of three lads providing generator support for a section of Royal Pioneer Corps lads doing a stores movement exercise, shifting several tones of compo rations out of a couple of cold stores.
      During breaks it as quite fun to play dodgems with the pallet trucks!

        1. It has always been my ambition to have a ‘go’ on a railway handcart, like that one.

  30. Good morning, back to normal in Co Antrim, cloud and rain, ah, well, it was a good summer while it lasted.

          1. For a laugh i bought one of those jockey things you strap on to the dog and when the dog runs it looks like a rodeo. I put it on Dolly. 20 seconds later i took it off Dolly. The look she gave me !
            I know Harry wouldn’t care but they don’t make them that small.

  31. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

    Lewis Page being a typical fish-head. Build boats not planes is the essence of what he is saying.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e28b751f2f2cd9641eb1f426fdab1b17f86eecf320f3e3d77dad99b3a5c6bed0.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/25/britains-defence-spending-splurge-will-pay-itself/

    The truth is we need to do both and we must ensure that we do. If a small country like Sweden can build its own modern combat aircraft and export them we sure as hell can.

    First, in the 1950’s and 60, the SAAB Draken.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a8022cf4454a896656e8f19d8d1536391ce0b18ae83111064d397b800da7060f.png

    Then in the 1970s to 2000-ish the SAAB Viggen, designed to operate from highways.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd6413fe90e154afa520f5035f38e6bff81c4bdc11411e3222c2388b9f8946bc.png

    And from the 1990s to the present day, the SAAB Gripen.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba48c9fab2e68accd6090b835824581c5f8730443d2a8a75836be695dbc99c87.png

    It almost puts us to shame.

    1. Just a few kilometres up the road from me, here in Skåne, is a chap who usually has a number of old Saab Drakens parked outside his farmhouse. Always impressive to see when I drive past. They are currently in his barns for the winter but he brings them out in summer.

    2. There’s a very high proportion of foreign or licence-built components in Swedish fighter aircraft. No problem unless the foreign suppliers decide for any reason not to continue with the arrangement. Sweden’s defence policy is very different from ours – we have decided to invest in large transport aircraft, UAVs, helicopters of various types and in-flight refuelling tankers. We depend on world-wide air and sea routes for our economic well-being, we have defence treaties around the world and a huge diaspora of UK nationals. Our defence procurement is tied to what we, the electorate, have decided should be our defence policy and, as long as that stays more or less the same, we need a full variety of weapon systems. Inevitably, that means hard choices – Sweden has different choices and has invested heavily, perhaps more heavily than we can, in fighter aircraft. My 50 year working life was RAF and aircraft weapon systems but, even so, I would prefer to see more money put into boosting the RN.

      1. They’re no different to our ‘own’ Typhoon, Tornado, Jaguar etc then. The last pure British jets were the Lightning, Buccaneer and Harrier but even then I wouldn’t be surprised if there some imported components. There almost certainly would have been in the Harrier GR5/7/9.

        I don’t think we, the electorate, have any say whatsoever in our defence policy. That surely is fanciful. If we did something would have been done about the Channel situation three years ago.

      2. They’re no different to our ‘own’ Typhoon, Tornado, Jaguar etc then. The last pure British jets were the Lightning, Buccaneer and Harrier but even then I wouldn’t be surprised if there some imported components. There almost certainly would have been in the Harrier GR5/7/9.

        I don’t think we, the electorate, have any say whatsoever in our defence policy. That surely is fanciful. If we did something would have been done about the Channel situation three years ago.

      3. They’re no different to our ‘own’ Typhoon, Tornado, Jaguar etc then. The last pure British jets were the Lightning, Buccaneer and Harrier but even then I wouldn’t be surprised if there some imported components. There almost certainly would have been in the Harrier GR5/7/9.

        I don’t think we, the electorate, have any say whatsoever in our defence policy. That surely is fanciful. If we did something would have been done about the Channel situation three years ago.

  32. 386441+up ticks,

    First find out which of the political overseers has the grey, button
    to the chin, tunic franchise.

    Dt,
    Britain ‘risks relying on China for net zero’
    Beijing’s grip on the battery-making market should be a ‘wake-up call in the West’

    1. Morning, Tom.
      Hope you get some refreshing zeds. I pumped so many bilges last night, it’s a pity I didn’t sleep sitting on the dunny.

  35. Morning, all Y’all.
    Raining. This is good – hastens the onset of spring!

  36. The Blair government ruined Welsh dentistry

    SIR – I am writing in response to your report, “Surge in dental insurance amid NHS crisis” (April 19).

    In 1964 I was one of the 22 students who made up the first intake of Cardiff dental school, opened as part of the Welsh National School of Medicine. The idea was to increase the size of the profession in Wales, because it was severely short of staff and the nation’s dental health was poor.

    The plan worked. We were very well trained and a large number of us remained in Wales. This continued as larger groups of students qualified. We were mainly on NHS contracts and, without doubt, improved the dental health of the population, as we all added preventative dentistry to our treatment and advised patients on oral hygiene and diet.

    This system continued until 2006, when – despite protests by dentists and the British Dental Association – Tony Blair’s government introduced a new dental contract. This meant that patients who had neglected their dental health, or had serious needs such as multiple fillings, extractions and gum treatment, had to be treated at the same payment scale as a regular attender who needed only one filling.

    Though this system was not brought in by a Conservative government, the party has been in power long enough to have corrected the situation. As it was, many dentists realised that they could no longer care for patients with high needs, so stopped accepting them, or switched to private dentistry.

    In my opinion, this contract turned the clock back on dental health in Wales by decades. When we saw and treated those with serious needs, they would bring their children in and the attitude of the whole family – then, gradually, the entire community – to dental health would change.

    As I prepare to mark 60 years of dental education in Wales, I do so with an immense feeling of sadness at the state of NHS dental care – and astonishment that it has taken so many years for this contract to be blamed.

    Liz Eales
    Gowerton, West Glamorgan

    Can anyone tell me anything that Tony Blair did that improved…anything?

  37. Francis O’Neill
    @FrancisxONeill
    It’s a full moon. Big Ben stuck at 9 o’clock and chimed 11 times while a pale horse ran through the streets bleeding profusely.
    I’m sure it’s nothing. What’s on the telly?

    1. I wonder if there was some kind of subsonic signal being used to spook them. These horse are well trained to cope with disturbances. Noises caused by builders just does not seem plausible. I know it sounds silly but dogs can hear things we cannot. V intriguing.

  38. I tried to get a repeat prescription yesterday for another supply of antidepressants to deal with trending mental health issues. Normally, I have trained my laptop to jump through the various hoops to get through their ordering system, but this time I got a popup demanding that I install an authentification app, courtesy of Google or Apple.

    Being the stroppy nottler I am, I fought through their contact and after several attempts asked them how I can get my repeat prescriptions when their system is telling me to install an operating system my aged laptop does not support, when I am damned if I am going to “upgrade” to something I do not trust. I got a response from Mollie, who gave me pages of information I had not asked for but failed to answer the question. Then, in place of “yours sincerely” (which traditionally means “get stuffed”, there was the invitation “How did we do?” – a red rag to a jaded bull if ever there was one.

    I responded:

    “Hello “Mollie”

    My query was not addressed, but I think your algorithms know that.

    As a pensioner with antiquated IT equipment and no intention of using
    public money to fund Google and Microsoft with access to private
    information through their apps, even if I wanted a smartphone or a
    compliant operating system, all this has done is to return me to the
    good old system of ringing up my GP surgery when I want a repeat
    prescription. They still have real people manning (and that is a
    proscribed word that could get me arrested these days!) the desk. I know
    because I’ve seen them, even though they do act like robots sometimes.

    NHS login does not work with my operating system either.

    Best regards
    Jeremy Morfey”

  40. Woohoo! The Green loonies have been found out! Scooter Useless has told them to do one!

    1. I’m more interested in hearing the Scottish people telling Scooter Useless to do one.

  41. Will Our Sue have to up her game at the proms this year. With Sam Smith on the listings, I expect he will be giving his finest frocks an outing and giving the ladies a run for their money..

    2. The BBC love to be obnoxious and offend …makes them feel as important as a teenager

      Sam Smith to perform at the Proms: BBC insist set will be ‘entirely appropriate for the festival’ – after singer’s controversial shows and risqué outfits

      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/25/01/84060995-13347607-image-a-147_1714004672685.jpg

      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/25/01/84061047-13347607-image-a-148_1714004703424.jpg

      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/25/01/84060999-13347607-image-a-149_1714004709449.jpg

        1. Fat ugly bastard.

          He said about lockdown that he sat on the door step of his £12 miilion house and cried.

          Obviously he wasn’t getting the attention he so desperately craves. Kunt.

      1. But aren’t donkeys normally covered in hair?
        Or do you really mean “To hide his pouches, paunch, hairy ARSE etc.”

  43. 385441+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    The French state is now little more than a smuggling gang
    We should not be paying France a penny for its pantomime patrols; Paris doesn’t want to stop the boats

    True, true as equal partners in crime THEY really should be sharing in the daily upkeep of keeping the invasion campaign running.

    1. The problem is human nature. The French have quite a lot of it!

      The French see a fool who will give them money for nothing and will go on and on giving them money for nothing in return so why should they stop? Why kill the golden goose. It is only human nature to go until the eggs stop coming.

      But the British government is the Fool. Can you blame the French for exploiting us? After all they don’t play cricket and don’t want to understand the rules.

      1. 385441+ up ticks,

        Morning JN,

        The french are merely taking advantage of a situation that suits both
        political crime syndicates the french to find relief of many homeland issues
        also.

        The british politico’s following the WEF RESET road in destroying GB as was.

        Who kept returning these political crime syndicates to power again,again, & again ?

        1. The Masses. Look at the number of people that fell into line over Covid ( flu.)

          1. 38644`+ up ticks,

            JN,
            Correct, again again & again what was also bone jarringly frightening was that 48% wanted to be ruled via a foreign crime syndicate.

    1. Very good. I wonder how many other essentially meaningless platitudes we can think of which will be pretty universally regarded as a sign of sagacity?

        1. “If it saves just one life…”

          “no one is safe until everyone is safe…”

      4. ‘There’s two sides to every story’. I hate that one. There are two sides to every story, I suppose. The right one and the wrong one.

  45. The word you are looking for is ’emoji’.
    Try adding a letter after the emoji so it is wrapped.

  47. My late mother used to be infuriated by this sort of thing too, but you are beating your head against a brick wall. I advise you to acquire a smartphone at once and rid yourself of such petty annoyances which are not going away. Why make life unnecessarily difficult? The smartphone need not be an expensive all singing and dancing model. The longer you leave it the harder it will be to become confident operating it.

    1. I don’t have a smartphone and will never get one of my own free will, except to use for app testing.
      The more people just cooperate, the easier it is to implement the digital slavery system.
      I accept that it will take longer to do things, and that’s OK with me, it is a price worth paying.

      1. How do you deal with two stage authentication which sends a code to your phone which you must then input to the website before making a purchase?

    2. I have a Nokia 1100 that does all I want of it – to make PAYG calls in an emergency, to send and receive texts and to play classics in 8-bit.

  48. My late mother used to be infuriated by this sort of thing too, but you are beating your head against a brick wall. I advise you to acquire a smartphone at once and rid yourself of such petty annoyances which are not going away. Why make life unnecessarily difficult? The smartphone need not be an expensive all singing and dancing model. The longer you leave it the harder it will be to become confident operating it.

  49. Morning all 🙂😊 I wasn’t sure I’d be able to contribute, beautiful sunny start 15 c rising to 22.
    Just read a snippet about now called ‘the climate emergency’ in the Guardodo.
    And the suspected jamming of flight radar by the Russians.
    But they never seem to be worried about the absolute mess our own country is in and how absolutely useless the vast majority of our own political idiots are. Focus on our own known climate emergency by sending back all the scrounging invaders. Stop building thousands of new homes.

    We’re off to the beach after breakfast I hope I will be able to manage the steps.
    Slayders.

  50. I read that it’s far worse than that – pensions will count as ‘benefits’ too, and the rules are so wide they will end up getting access to almost everyone’s account. Unless they have accounts in Pakistan of course.

  53. Well I’ve changed it back to Terpsichore now, she does represent much about me . No point in keeping the Violin Sonata without my violin that they won’t let me have to brighten up the ‘ reply box ‘ .

    1. If you want the violin consider trying Phizzee’s cunning plan of including another conventional letter after it. Might work.

      1. It didn’t work never mind. I’m just about to have tea and crumpets because I’m cold 🥶

        1. It is cold here too. I have just walked the dog dressed for January in my warmest coat.

  54. Apparently he was very fond of issuing ‘D’ notices during his time in office. The future will disclose what he had been or was upto.
    Quite a few rumours abound.

      1. Perhaps all of those notices need to be investigated. It’s given them the chances to cover all of their disgusting behaviour.
        So many Acts of Treason against the British people would have been committed.
        Because of the D notices they knew they could get away with it.

    2. @SageDespatches on twitter recently tweeted some articles from the Belfast Telegraph, which reported on recently declassified information regarding the, so called, Good Friday Agreement. You’ll no doubt be shocked to find Blair sold us down the river.

      I expected nothing less from the narcissistic tube, as the ink was still drying on his sellout, he said, “Now is not the time for soundbites, I feel the hand of history is on our shoulders.”

      2. I can’t help thinking that the hands of history should have been round his throat!

    1. Yes I often have to do that by my simpe mobile. That I have switched off unlessI want to use it.

      1. It stays connected to the network even though it’s switched off. If you want to go anonymous, put it in a faraday cage (wrapping in foil does the trick, but isn’t very reusable) or take the battery out.

  59. Did the UK pay the French £500 million to cover the wages and fuel bills for escorting the dinghy express safely across the channel.
    Looks that way to me.

    The French mayor said on TV the British government are to blame they welcome them when they land. and give them a bank accounts, accommodation and work . I think he hit the nail on head there.

    1. The Mayor of Calais was justifiably angry with the British. Pampering illegal immigrants is not the answer.

      She said that the British government is ruining Calais by encouraging illegal riff raff to pollute and defile her town while they wait for the chance to go to England for plush accommodation, good food, pocket money and the easy life. The British government should put them in tents on a remote Scottish island and let them fend for themselves. This would serve as a far greater deterrent than the pretence that they will be sent to Rwanda.

      1. Au contraire mon ami…

        Apparently the reason for all the fuss, according to The Cameroon of Greenswill, is that it was Brexit wot dun it. Apparently the French would once have gladly taken every one of them back. Speaking to journos today on his whistle stop tour of Asia he said, and I quote…

        “We had a totally different situation, because we had a situation where you could return people directly to France. Now I’d love that situation to be the case again, that’s the most sensible thing: people land on a beach in Kent you take them straight back to France.“

        Asthana asked if that wasn’t possible because of Brexit: “It’s simply not possible because of the situation we’re in because of the attitude of others…”

        1. The Cameroon of Greenswill is out equivalent of the Ahkond of Swat.

          “Who, or why, or which, or what, Is the Akond of SWAT?
          Is he tall or short, or dark or fair?
          Does he sit on a stool or a sofa or a chair

          Or SQUAT – the Ahkond of Swat.”

      2. True about the UK. But the point is that they shouldn’t be in France in the first place. France’s border is hers to police and defend, not ours, and it’s not our fault that they were stupid and incompetent enough to let them into France in the first place. Their carping is just theatre. They’re more than glad to get shot of them and will continue to encourage them to cross the Channel.

    2. Yes, neither the RNLI nor the RN is big enough for the ferry services for criminals illegally entering the country that the Tory government wants to provide, so have sub-contracted to job to the French Navy.

  60. Oh dear…how sad…never mind…

    Humza Yousaf’s SNP coalition with Greens collapses

    2. Devolution was all part of Blair’s plan to demolish the United Kingdom. He was following instructions from the globalists.

      He well understood W.B. Yeats’s words in ‘The Second Coming’ :

      Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
      Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

      And Blair’s success can also be seen just as well in the shambles that is Wales and the chaos that is Northern Ireland.

    1. It can tick away as much as it likes; however, the so-called science, the statistical analyses, the evidence itself even, are all political matters now. All it’s about now is kicking it as far down the road as they can manage; preferably to a point where the majority players have placed themselves well out of reach regrettably.

    2. …but what we do have to grapple with is the fact that the treatment we were given, like any agent, can cause harm.

      When I presented evidence on paper to my GP that a drug, commonly used for blood pressure control, had harmed me after taking it he declined to treat me forthwith. I presented my evidence to the MHRA who did not respond that it was in any way unsafe but it did result as a drug that I should not take owing to my adverse reaction to it.

  62. It’s all propaganda, a tactic taken straight out of Orwell’s 1984. This country faces no military threat from Russia or China unless we go along with the warmongers in Washington and continue to provoke these countries .

    The war we should be preparing for is that against our own evil, woke globalist ruling class and their Muslim mates. They are the biggest threat to our lives, livelihood and freedom.

    1. It is propaganda, but I don’t think the warmongers will be getting their war no matter how much they provoke. Russia wants to bog down the east of Europe. It’s like an Iron Curtain, only better. It has its eyes firmly focussed elsewhere, I believe.

      1. I reckon Russia only wants Nato out of Ukraine. Prolonging the already lost war might, of course, make them reconsider their objectives.

        1. I agree, but I think it’s a little more than that. They’ll settle for as much of Ukraine as they can get away with, for sure; however, they do very much need an open sore in their western region to tie up military resources there.

          Either way, we are looking at much “Jaw Jaw” about War War coming from NeoCons and so-called Conservatives.

        2. Russia wants Nato out of Ukraine. Ukraine to be neutral and for the areas Russia has already taken, to become permanently Russian because they are Russian speaking areas that should not have been part of Ukraine in the first place.

        3. Russia wants Donbass, which is Russian speaking – not that Ukrainian is anything other the a regional dialect of Russian. It takes longer that 100 years to develip a unique language and Ukraine as a distinct district only dates from the creation of the Soviet Union. The Black Sea ports (especially Odessa, which was built by Catherine II) are vital to Russian security. Also Crimea, which was the Crimean Khanate under Ottoman rule for 300 years but the modern Turks need Russian support more than they need to repeat the Crimean War of the 1850s. The rest Russia only requires should be neutral territory.

          1. Agreed. Though to be fair there has been a Ukrainian identity for centuries, though no fixed borders as you say. And, as you also say, Crimea, the Don Basin and Odessa are historically Russian.

    1. I find such statements silly. Was he tied to a chair? Could he not simply leave? Rather than harassment surely false imprisonment?

      It’s just like those people who ‘come forward’ long after the ‘incident’ to squeal. They want money. It’s as simple as that. They want cash and to do someone else down for something that really didn’t happen 30 years ago.

  64. With a little help from my friends:
    Wordle 1,041 3/6

    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  65. God help America

    Joe Biden sneaks AHEAD of rival Donald Trump in the race for the White House: Shock poll predicts President will win 287-251 when US votes in November
    Biden is marginally ahead of Trump in the electoral college and the popular vote

    1. it’s already been counted.. Joe Biden.. the well-oiled galaxy brain behind closed doors.. won by 666 million votes.
      they have a winning formula, and they’re sticking by it.

      2. They probably use the same software to count the votes that the GPO used to persecute sub postmasters.

    2. Of course he is…🤦🏻‍♀️ It’s the same here! Scooter Useless is way ahead in the …polls!

    3. I am beginning to think sosraboc, that we are the last true generation of Americans or Englishmen that will be. From here on in the destruction of our countries will quicken in pace. I suspect that I will still be alive in 5 years, I hope! But I suggest to you that in that short time there will be more change than there has been in the last 20 years unless the people wake up and fight back.

      1. Certainly if immigration continues at the same rate and we get a Labour government with a very significant majority.

      2. Morning Johnathan. The West and its people are finished. Within twenty years they will only be a memory.

        1. Hi Araminta. I truly wish that when I was younger I would have had the presence of mind to go to Russia. To be perfectly honest what always deterred me was the climate. About the only place I could have taken was the Crimea.

          1. When you were younger they were all communists living in a grim totalitarian society.

          2. True. I’m thinking after the fall of the USSR, I would have been 43 so already pushing it for new adventures.

    4. Just came across this on Fox News.
      Morning Glory: Trump’s numbers are surging in the swing states
      Turns out that show trial circuses in Manhattan hurt Biden and help Trump outside of the blue bubble cities.

      The latest polling from Bloomberg on the rematch race between former President Trump and President Joe Biden is stunning.

      Trump is being prosecuted in a show trial-circus in Manhattan that serious observers know is both complete nonsense and an utter disgrace. On top of that, Trump is subject to a gag order. He is also obliged to be in court four out of five days a week and thus not campaigning in swing states.

      Despite all of this, Trump is surging in the swing states according to the new Bloomberg numbers, with Trump’s lead increasing to 7 and 8 points in Arizona and Nevada, respectively and to an astonishing 10 point lead in North Carolina!

      Trump is up in Georgia by six points and in Wisconsin by four. Biden “leads” in Michigan by two points but that’s margin-of-error land. When Trump names any solid running mate —former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senators Tom Cotton or Joni Ernst, former National Security Advisor Ambassador Robert O’Brien or either of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin or North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum— Trump’s momentum will increase.
      Vice presidents rarely matter when a voter chooses a president, but the obvious physical infirmity of President Biden changes that in 2024. People will be thinking a lot about “President Kamala Harris,” and shuddering when they do. When Trump chooses a mainstream running mate who is good on the stump, the gap is going to widen in Trump’s favor.

      The issues cake is baked too. My device for recalling them all is “A-B-C-D-E-I-E-I-I”: appeasement, the border, crime, “DEI,” education, inflation and Israel. Swing state voters know Biden is on the wrong side of every single one of these issues. And not just on the wrong side by a little. Biden-Harris has gone so far left on all of these issues that detailed arguments don’t even need to be made. Trump and his running mate just have to repeat the mantra. Voters already know the score.

      TRUMP RISING IN PIVOTAL STATE AS KEY DEM CONSTITUENCY SOURS ON BIDEN

      It’s a remarkable comeback for Trump, and he’s got the crazy prosecutors in Manhattan to thank in part. What Bragg is doing in Manhattan is appalling, and it will get worse before it gets better in terms of interference with the campaign in a trial that should never have been begun much less continued into the stretch run of the campaign. Voters are smart. Voters know when the permanent government is putting its thumb on the scale, or in this case, its entire fist.

      And voters don’t like it, any more than they like the cumulative inflation of 20% since Biden was sworn in or Biden’s wide-open border. Not a bit. It’s banana republic politics and it isn’t helping Biden at all and the numbers show that. But when the Democrats committed to a frail and failing nominee, they had to commit to this approach. Biden is incapable of giving a good speech, indeed, he can barely make it around a stage. So Democrats are banking everything on a conviction in New York which, when it comes, will energize the hosts on MSNBC and almost nobody else. It’s priced in already. It’s a show trial and everyone knows how they end. I expect a spectacular backlash from this abuse of the criminal law. Most Americans have due process in their bones and Trump isn’t getting it. Again, voters are smart. They know.

      Pray the rebuke Democrats receive in November is enough to reset the party back somewhere close to where the old-school liberals lived. We don’t need a two party system where one party has lost its commitment to the rule of law and to our ally Israel. Democrats have abandoned both. The reckoning is coming.

      1. The poll/article I quoted from claims to be more accurate because of the way it is collected and stratified.
        I hope they are utterly wrong.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13346921/Joe-biden-donald-trump-white-house-race-shock-poll.html
        “The survey by Stack Data Strategy, shared with the Mail, shows that Mr Biden is on track to win – despite Mr Trump being the bookies’ favourite.

        It uses an MRP (multi-level regression and post-stratification) model which has been a more reliable predictor of election results in recent years.”

        1. Polls are usually wrong when they favour the ‘approved’ narrative. This is because polls themselves can influence voting intentions.

        2. Simples they need polls suggesting Biden is in front so when they go for the big steal again the muppets will buy it
          Biden wins with 100,000,000 votes this time…….

      2. If Donald Trump gets anywhere near winning.. particularly near the final run in to the finishing post.. then, the election must be halted in order to save democracy. It’s the only way.. Hillary agrees.

        1. Democrats clearly believe that democracy is not democratic if you don’t vote Democrat.

          1. I can’t work out what is the correct spelling of that party.

            Is it Demonrats or is it Demotwats?

    5. 333,000,000-ish Yanks and they are utterly incapable, among themselves, of choosing a powerful leader who is not either:

      1. A ga-ga, imbecilic, dithering geriatric, or

      2. A self-loving power-crazed control-freak.

      What does that say about the other 332,999,999 (or thereabouts) of them?

    6. 333,000,000-ish Yanks and they are utterly incapable, among themselves, of choosing a powerful leader who is not either:

      1. A ga-ga, imbecilic, dithering geriatric, or

      2. A self-loving power-crazed control-freak.

      What does that say about the other 332,999,999 (or thereabouts) of them?

  66. Letters: Britain can no longer afford to be complacent about readiness for war

    Jeremy Warner
    The West is about to make a major error in its economic war against Putin

    HAMISH DE BRETTON-GORDON
    Putin has deployed chemical weapons. We need gas masks now
    New defence spending must include funding for countering the poison gas Russia is deploying against the Ukrainians

    CON COUGHLIN
    There’s a dangerous hole in Britain’s defence plans
    Rishi Sunak’s spending boost is good news, but it does too little about the Forces’ manpower shortage

    Good Morning all. I’m sure that many of you are as sick to death of this as I am. The relentless will to push us into war based on an utter delusion that we could win. Fact is that if we decided to go at the Russians they would beat us hands down because it would take a minimum of 5 years to organize, equip and, all round, ready ourselves for a war. The ideocracy that rules us and in doing so has deprived us of our democracy is, in my opinion, illegitimate, see definition of democracy below. In the USA people are being jailed for no crime, actually exercising their right to speak freely and parents are being put on terrorist lists. And here, in the UK, we have police visiting to question your legitimately held opinions and the police attacking people trying to celebrate St. Georges Day. Meanwhile the police protect our real enemies as they march down the streets every weekend calling for the end to our civilization and its Islamification.

    a
    : government by the people
    especially : rule of the majority
    b
    : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

    Baroness Claire Fox CRITICISES Police’s “Differential Approach” To Protests
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r7G4gFZiio

    Joe Rogan FREAKED OUT by Tucker Carlson’s Story About a Black Nationalist Socialist arrested for free speech.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ptNC-CKcus

  67. Bluss, it was cold at t’market this morning. Freezing. Lost all sensation in my hands!

    Any recent news of any interest?

    3. I have a similar problem.
      Hence my coming in for frequent mugs of tea to warm my fingers up.

  68. The horrific new impression of the late Queen proves the age of the statue is dead
    The birth of modernism should have marked the end of monstrosities like the one unveiled in Rutland last weekend. So why do they persist?
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/queen-elizabeth-statue-rutland/

    I tried to post this comment under the DT article but it was removed immediately. I wonder what the trigger word was for the censors – or was it just my name?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd2aceac061f47df90fa2bf60ea8a9b6df03335a9c0ae6069aeff7ebe451e1d0.png

    3. What do they have against the statue? The design is very nice, the likeness is not so good.

  69. Pay attention to what is being said here very carefully because to extrapolate this into the future will have you understand our coming fate. This is not just about the end to Christianity in the Middle East but the end of a civilization that was still extant when many of us here were young.
    The Devastating Destruction Of Christianity In The Middle East

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XbP99u9K9c

    1. I don’t know if it still true, but Iran may have more churches than any of the other ME countries and again surprisingly relatively little persecution as long as the Christians do not try to proselytise.

  70. This has just appeared

    Your connection is not private
    Attackers might be trying to steal your information from nttl.blog (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn more
    NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

    1. Nothing on my screen. The site still has a padlock alongside which I believe confers some security. I think we have some experts around if they are not tied to a chair watching a show.

      1. I get such messages periodically, I think they may well be sales pitches to get me to upgrade my anti virus.
        To pick up on the platitude post earlier:
        Better safe than sorry by warning Nottlers

    2. I get that on my work laptop when Zscaler “authentication status” has dropped. It’s the cloud security system the laptop uses and when it goes down, the machine thinks every website is unsafe.

  72. Who has decided that we are going to be at war with Russia? Whose manifesto was that particular promise in?
    Maybe Mark Zuckerberg can tell us, he’s allegedly building a nuclear hideaway in Hawaii.
    If so I hope the first nuke goes straight through his bloody sunlounger.

    The people who usually fight for this country are the white working class. The same people who are regularly ignored and belittled by our political class. Why would they fight for this country any more? This country whose leadership has destroyed their jobs? This country whose leaders can’t even stop an invasion by dinghies?

    Let all those who shake their jowls gravely and talk of war send their children and grandchildren to fight it.
    Let’s do away with the SAS and have a Special Dinghy Attack Force, staffed by those who arrived here in one.
    Let the trenches be filled with the 1st Regiment of Transsexual Fusiliers – that will show Putin where he gets off.

    We used to be a nation, united as one. No longer. Diversity is our strength? When all the diverse catch the first plane home you’ll see how true that statement is!

    1. One could argue that if it results in the diverse catching the first plane home that the threat might be worth it.

      1. The MR’s computer genius nephew swears by the two I mentioned. He earns £200K pa from his genius! I tend to believe what he says…

        1. These were recommended by my Computer man.
          He also mentioned Sophos, amongst others.

  77. Media Erases Pro-Faith, Pro-Brexit, Anti-Migration Stances from Veteran Lawmaker Frank Field’s Obituary

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2024/04/GettyImages-1133456147-e1713975712933-640×480.jpg

    25 Apr 2024

    Veteran parliamentarian Frank Field reached his positions including opposition to the European Union and mass migration from first principles of defending working-class communities from poverty, often putting him in conflict with other left-wing politicians.

    Frank Field, the Member of Parliament for Birkenhead for 40 years from 1979, has died, his family said on Wednesday. The long-time Labour politician had been diagnosed with cancer over ten years ago.

    Unlike many left-wing politicians in the UK, Field was not shy about asserting that large-scale immigration hurts working-class communities and, from this basis, was a Eurosceptic and campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union. His strong Christian faith informed his campaigns against child poverty, as well as his support for restrictions on abortion.

    Yet although Field was widely and well regarded as an “independent thinker” who reached political positions that could often leave him at loggerheads with his fellow Labour Party politicians, it would be hard to guess this from several legacy media reports on his death today.

    An obituary in the Independent, formerly one of Britain’s leading left-wing newspapers, neglects to mention Field’s stance against the European Union, for instance, or his view that mass migration is detrimental to working-class people. The Independent also did not make mention of Field’s strong Christian faith, which informed many of his views and his strong campaigning zeal against poverty.

    Britain’s newspaper of record The Times also neglected these areas, which in many ways defines Fields’ political life including his eventual fall-out with the Labour Party, leading to him being made a member of the House of Lords as an independent by the Conservatives. The paper only touched on Field’s faith briefly in the final sentence of the obituary concerning his decision to come to support euthanasia several years into his battle with cancer after previously opposing it.

    In other reports, a superficial skim would leave causal readers none the wiser, with such details reserved for the end. The BBC’s obituary only stated Field’s views on EU immigration and his Brexit campaign in the fourth quarter of its report, while also noting — also oddly absent from many other reports — his falling out with then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over left-wing antisemitism, which Field strongly opposed as indecent.

    The Guardian fared better, mentioning the fact Field had what it deems “socially conservative views” in the second paragraph, and noted his belief that if “mainstream parties” refused to talk about large-scale immigration to the UK, then “extreme parties” would instead. Crucially, The Guardian reports on the repeated attempts to deselect Field from candidacy by hard-left Labour groups through his 40 years in Parliament, including by “The Trotskyite group Militant” in the 1980s.

    In a way, Field’s long-term opposition to the European project underlines the massive paradigm shift that occurred in British politics in his lifetime. When Britain first joined the Common Market — which would later become the European Union — in 1973, Euroscepticism was an overwhelmingly left-wing interest. But as time went on, concern for the working class being a prime concern for left-wing politics seriously waned and was replaced with the interests of the globalist, managerial middle-class, which is overwhelmingly pro-Europe.

    Field and a handful of other veteran leftists managed to stick to their guns on these issues over the years, honestly reckoning that unlimited mass migration from Europe depressed wages for British workers. Others struggled; Jeremy Corbyn, a hard-left politician of a generation after Field managed to hold his Eurosceptic opinions until he managed to become leader of the Labour Party, at which point he dropped them for reasons of expedience.

    Praising Mr Field in 2016, Brexit leader Nigel Farage said of a speech given by the Labour MP in Parliament: “…fantastic, that Frank Field, veteran Labour MP from Birkenhead, was talking there not as a Labour MP, not as somebody who is part of a political tribe, but somebody saying there is something more important than the colour of the rosette you wear at election time, it is the national interest.

    “The country has voted for Brexit, and people should come together, whatever party they are from, and fight to make sure we get the best out of it. I have to say, Frank Field, ten out of ten. Goodness me, I wish there was more of that feeling and spirit in British politics”.

      1. The fact that Field got recognition and respect from Nigel Farage (among many others), across any party-political allegiance, shows what a thoroughly decent and honorable man Field was.

      1. His Labour Party was the old, pre and immediate post War party where personal honour still counted and before the Marxists took over.

        1. Yep. The Labour Party of Kier Hardie, James Ramsey Macdonald and Clement Attlee was a far cry from the Labour Party of Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

          1. I’d say James Callaghan was the last of the Old Labour contingent to reach the op of the party and Wilson was the first of the spiv chancers.

        2. I see your point but I wouldn’t have called Tony Blair a “Marxist”. I always felt, and still do, that the old style Labour and Conservatives had the same aim in mind – to improve the lives of the citizens – just different ways of getting there. Very few of today’s politicians are remotely interested in improving anyone’s lives except their own – Blair included and also among the “elites” of the elite.

      3. He and Kate Hoey were of the old school Labour who were motivated by a desire to help the less fortunate.

    1. Valid for Canada now. In BC Drugs can be taken anywhere, but tobacco and alcohol are strictly controlled

  80. Well that was a relief!
    I was a couple of hundred feet up the hillside on Tuesday, almost up to the quarry fence and on the way back down, pulling a decent sized ash branch behind me, when my right foot got tangled in a bramble loop and I went face down into the foliage, luckily not only avoiding the aforesaid brambles but not hurting much more than my pride.
    But my glasses went flying and, being as short sighted as I am, I was unable to find them.
    Luckily I have a serviceable spare pair so have been wearing them since.

    However, I went back up to where I’d tumbled earlier and after a brief search found my missing pair!
    Phew!

    Also managed to drag down a goodly amount of decent firewood as I descended, including the large branch I’d started dragging down on Tuesday.

    1. Good grief BoB! Take care man! Time for a mug of tea, pet!
      By the way, I may have missed something, but how is your stepson?

    3. Thank goodness it was only a quick roll down the hillside to home and your spare specs!

      1. Not so quick I’m afraid!
        I was almost up at the top of the hill!

        Still, despite lack of specs I got down home safely, dragging an ash branch behind me!

    5. Forestry hard hat with mesh visor. A friend of mine has been in and out of hospital after a life-changing accident at work (self employed, no compo). Small hedge trimmers are good for dealing with brambles.

    7. That’s the second time you have told us you have taken a tumble. Get yourself some chunky tread boots with studs.

      1. Yes.
        1st time was when I was pushing a wheelbarrow full of logs and it hit a rock causing my feet to slip and me to go face first into the load of logs!

        Footwear would have made little difference on Tuesday as it was caused by a bramble runner tripping me up!

  81. Morning chaps.
    Just perusing the papers and wondered if it was only me who doesn’t understand what Taylor Swift is all about and why she is suddenly the icon of the age?

      2. My daughters say she is a one-trick pony who sings as though she was a teenager when she’s pushing thirty. Not fans.

      3. My daughters say she is a one-trick pony who sings as though she was a teenager when she’s pushing thirty. Not fans.

    4. Could be that male “journalists” like her because she performs in her underwear.

      1. Yet those who go to her concerts are overwhelmingly female or gay.

        All I know about her is she makes up songs about her relationships. Although it’s always how awful they are. Never about the common denominator: Her.

    5. She is the current media-manufactured siren who is being pushed to lure young people into whiny decadence and moral decay. Latest in a long line from the Beatles through to Madonna, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus etc. They succeed because they are promoted everywhere.

    6. No clue. I gave up on all that when Madonna came along and they all started to sound the same. All of them screeching, including the men.

    7. Not being much interested in this kind of stuff asked my son who is interested for his opinion.
      She is a competent songwriter and singer – and a damn good business woman was his response.
      Sounds reasonable?

    1. They might want to be able to see exchanges but there’s no way to track what the money is spent on. The ledgers are updated – that’s all that can be seen.

      Government is terrified of crypto for precisely that reason. It is also a currency that will not lose it’s value, that government cannot debase or control.

      It is, simply, th future currency and the reason will be entirely the fault of big, fat useless corrupt state.

      1. Crypto, maybe. Not Bitcoin, surely – I remember reading last year that law enforcement agencies in the US had traced a particular bitcoin back and proved that it was one that had been stolen from someone.
        I tend to believe the theory that cryptos were launched for two purposes – to soften people up for CBDCs, and to hoover up people’s money so that they won’t spend it on gold and silver.

        1. Bitcoin works (and all crypto) by having a decentralised register. Every time the ledger is updated a transaction is logged of who from and to.

          Central bank currencies ARE a nonsense. Those are just the state desperately trying to control everything, to limit and restrict what we spend our money on and tax every penny coming in and going out while destroying it’s worth on a whim.

          Silver’s not really (for small values of not) worth investing in, gold yes. Bitcoin is earning a good return.

          1. Monero’s anonymous though.
            Silver has practical uses (medical, hygiene). Being worth less than gold, it’s a much better tool of barter – there’s a culture of accepting silver coins in independent shops in parts of the US. It’s much more volatile than gold, and can spike much higher. The Chinese have said that they want to see silver at about four times its current worth in order to conserve supplies.

        2. What interests do the PTB have in the price of gold and silver? Are fiat currencies not universal?

          1. Silver is used in industry, it’s in China’s interest to keep the price low.
            Gold is heavily price fixed. In real terms, we’ll never see it this ‘cheap’ again in our lifetimes. If gold was allowed to reach its true market value in paper currency, people would realise how much the pound and the dollar have been devalued in the fiat era.
            We’re moving back towards some kind of gold standard, and a re-valuation. Last year, the governor of the Netherlands central bank was asked about his bank’s losses and he said that it was no big deal because they have gold, in other words they will simply re-value it, losses gone.

          3. They allow paper certificates that claim to represent gold to be bought and sold as if they were real gold. The paper market can be manipulated because there’s an endless supply of it.
            Why? The US wants to maintain public confidence in the dollar and prevent people from realising how much real wealth they’ve lost since 1971. Non western countries, esp China want to stockpile gold.

          4. You’re right about “paper” gold (an accident waiting to happen), but I think most of us have noticed the debasement of currencies. We often hear that somewhere or other is going to go on gold – never happens, no sane government would let its currency follow the vagaries of the price of gold.

          5. The vagaries aren’t in the gold price – they’re in the paper currency price.
            Gold is the most stable thing in the world, as well as being the only legal money.
            I don’t think most people realise the true extent to which the paper currencies have lost purchasing power.
            An international gold-backed crypto is being touted as the next reserve currency. The Chinese and Russians could kill the dollar tomorrow if they went gold-backed – that is probably why it hasn’t happened yet – nobody wants to cause an earthquake. But at some point it will happen. The west is drowning in debt.

          6. So what you’re saying is, the purchasing power of gold is constant – unlike any other commodity, it is not subject to laws of supply and demand. BTW, if I owned a few trill worth of US Treasuries, I certainly wouldn’t want an earthquake. (I started predicting the demise of the greenback about 25 years ago. Next time I’ll try astrology.)

          7. In practice, there is nothing more constant than gold, is what I am saying. This is a good blog post that discusses long and short term stability.
            https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/koos-jansen/how-constant-is-golds-purchasing-power/

            Astrology is related to economic cycles….Parallel Mike has done some interesting talks on this subject.
            I think a lot of people are surprised how long the US bankers have managed to kick the can down the road, but it can’t last much longer!

          8. Thanks for the link. From a historical perspective, silver has been more important in the evolution of currency than gold. Offa’s penny, the Maria Theresa thaler, the Spanish peso, Jefferson’s dollar, the franc germinal. And even though Bismarck put his united Germany straight onto the gold standard, he derived the value of the reichsmark form the silver verinsthaler. (Full explanation available on request.)

          9. Silver’s less valuable and more suitable for small everyday transactions. Goldbacks are a great idea though, I wish we had them in Europe . http://www.goldback.com
            I knew that Germany was the last economic power to stay on the silver standard and I guess it makes sense if he made the new coin a multiple of the value of the old one?

          10. On the eve of the Great War, only China and Hong Kong were still on the silver standard. The UK was, of course, the first country to adopt the monometallic gold standard. It took a while for the idea to catch on.

      2. I don’t think they are terrified at all..
        in fact they are licking their lips and want ca$h outlawed asap. The National Agencies have spent the last four years shoring up every single crypto business with a ton of KYC AML regs. If I gave anyone a stash of btc in the civilised world from Singapore to Spain to New York.. the authorities are just waiting for you to “off ramp” from a ledger or exchange to your bank or some kind of asset whether that be a property or Artwork then hammer you with a tax bill.

        1. oh and btw.. when you see WEF boasting that 98% of Central Banks are adopting CBDCs in a new white paper.
          ‘Modernizing Financial Markets With Wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency’..
          you just know we are all fxxxxxd.

        2. oh and btw.. when you see WEF boasting that 98% of Central Banks are adopting CBDCs in a new white paper.
          ‘Modernizing Financial Markets With Wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency’..
          you just know we are all fxxxxxd.

  83. I know nothing of horses – except that they are large and strong. I do hope that the five who went doolally yesterday are taken off public duties.

    1. I know two things about the horse and one of them is rather coarse.

      [Naomi Royde-Smith]

    2. I heard from someone who was on the scene yesterday. It seems that some building/demolition was going on and the builders were moving some large pieces of concrete (I think crane or loader) and they dropped it and it smashed – concrete splinters everywhere – horses naturally spooked.
      The grey horse has been operated on but it is suggested that it will not go back into service but be rehomed. I understand it has shown reliability problems in the past.
      The black horse has been treated and is expected to make full recovery and will likely return to service – but nothing is certain at this stage.

  84. Hamas Useless is now deflecting in the way only SNP nutters can do! In the pretendy parliament he is still waffling on about 2023 being the hottest year on record! Talk about deaf and blind to the real concerns of the voters! He is completely nuts!

  86. The Rwanda scheme isn’t a migrant deterrent – it’s a voter distraction. 25 April 2024.

    Let’s face it: the entire plan is really just a cynical distraction, designed by the Government to pull the wool over voters’ eyes. Make them focus on the relatively tiny number of migrants arriving on small boats (30,000 last year) – so that they overlook the absolutely vast number arriving by legal means. Because, if voters stopped to think about how many migrants the Government actively chooses to let in, they might get quite cross.

    Well done Michael. I think I first wrote that about two years ago. My interest now is to see what happens when we reach the Moment of Truth. Are they going to postpone it until after the Election? Round up all the immigrants at gunpoint and force them onto the planes? Declare war on Vlad and say it’s unsafe? I can hardly wait.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/04/25/rishi-sunak-is-playing-us-all-for-fools-on-immigration/

    1. I don’t think it’s autism, rather individuals who – for whatever reason – struggle to relate to others. Thus they feel excluded and have low self worth, so they create a fiction to live in rather than confront their own failings, they force others to accept their delusion.

      1. I think I may suffer from autism, Wibbles, as you define it, but I don’t force others to live and accept any delusion – mine or theirs.

    2. Also the link between transgendrism and school shooting in America is well known in America, but not here.
      Wonder why?……

  88. Hello Lovely people.

    Feeling and looking like a new person today – managed to get a hair cut at last. Decided to grow old disgracefully (no change there then) and cease colouring my hair – well I just might spray the grey bits purple until the colour grows out.

      3. I hugged a very attractive lass going through serious myalgia problems and ever afterward have been referred to as ‘buttered’ and lots of giggles from the womenfolk at the gym.

        1. Had a huge hug from a beautiful, big, blonde Polish lass yesterday. That set me up for the month, so it did.

      4. A man is just as old as the woman he feels

        [Fred Wedlock: The Oldest Swinger In Town]

    2. A bit of pampering is essential. The young ladies at the salon i use are surprised i’m in so often. I told them i enjoy the pampering and they never ever mention the football !

    3. I did that when the hairdressers reopened after lockdown which had happened at exactly the time I was due for my next colour/cut. I’ve never regretted it. My hair is every shade of grey imaginable, from white through silver to dark, and when I asked my hairdresser what he thought he said he had clients who would pay a lot of money to get their hair looking like that! Saves a fortune in hairdressing bills too :))

    4. Caroline has not got a single grey hair and her mother never went grey or white. Indeed as she entered her 70s she started having grey streak dyed into her hair because she thought that people would think she was dying her hair to try and look young!

      I wonder how many – if any – Nottlers wear toupées, wigs or merkins?

      And if they do who would dare to confess?

      1. I don’t wear a wig, or toupée or merkin (whatever that is) but my hair is white. I stopped dyeing it nearly 20 years ago.

      2. I haven’t got any grey hair and I’m 83 – I’ve very little hair anyway at least on the top

      1. Au contrair mon brave. After the court case was over ,(which he won, unsurprisingly) he delivered a speech from the steps of that very court building, destroying the met police, degree by degree. Illegal action by Illegal action.
        Where , I hear you ask, was said sky reporter, notable by her absence.
        Poor dear….

        1. He only “won” on a technicality – that the Muslipolitan Perlice had put the wrong date on the exclusion notice. The pros and cons of the case against him were never debated in court.

      2. Au contrair mon brave. After the court case was over ,(which he won, unsurprisingly) he delivered a speech from the steps of that very court building, destroying the met police, degree by degree. Illegal action by Illegal action.
        Where , I hear you ask, was said sky reporter, notable by her absence.
        Poor dear….

      3. I don’t think so. She made a fool of herself. Couldn’t define a journalist. Came out with some ridiculous gibe stating journalists don’t have criminal convictions(Oh?).
        You can’t be woke when you’re all by yourself, your opinions are too easily exposed.

      5. I often – indeed usually – agree with you but on this occasion I do not.

        I have no great affection for Tommy Robinson but he has been treated quite abominably by the PTB, the MSM, the Police, and the courts.

        1. I agree with you completely on the chap, but I still maintain the woman won that battle of ‘wits’ with him.

          I agree wholeheartedly with his campaign and his motives. Unfortunately I simply cannot warm to him as an individual. I find him utterly repellent and loathsome.

          It’s a shame that someone with more intellect and charisma cannot take up the cudgel.

      1. Gosh, I never understand why these people like Tommy Robinson bother. He’s picked a fight with the establishment and will be at it all his life. Is it worth it?

        1. Ask Enoch Powell.
          Walk in his shoe’s, and Robinson ‘s. These are men amongst men.
          Wether you agree with them or not, tread their road.
          I don’t have the cojones to….

          1. Enoch Powell was highly intelligent but I fear rather foolish. He could/should have been leader of the Tory party and possibly PM, something which would have changed the course of history. Instead he made a futile gesture against uncontrolled immigration leaving him almost powerless to fight against the Common Market.
            Admirable courage of course but sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.

          3. I don’t know if he saw things in that way. Certainly he carried on opposing European Union for the reminder of his days. Maybe for him integrity was more important. I have it on high authority that he rejected a great deal to support the Yes vote in the 1975 referendum.
            And so he was left a backbencher, representing an Ulster constituency, his pride intact. Not many politicians like that

          4. I have great respect for Enoch as an honourable man who tried to warn the country of the consequences of what was happening. Sadly, a prophet is without honour in his own country.

      2. Tommy is, but that daft, ignorant lass isn’t, she is, like most of them, a mere mouthpiece for the woke establishment.

  92. Ex Post office director suffers from Sturgeon Syndrome – ‘Don’t recall, can’t remember’.

  94. Heads up folks…Thinking of those lazy days this Summer…Asda are doing Pimms For £10 a litre. More than 50% off.

      1. Thanks for that. I will use that recipe for the August 10th Drinks and Canape party. Any Nottlers who want to make the journey are welcome.

        I came across a cut of meat recently that i was unaware of. It’s called Tri Tip. It’s a triangular shape that Aussies favour for the BBQ. I just cut it into steaks and it looks like Waygu. Very heavily marbled. https://www.johndavidsons.com/product/tri-tip-angus-hereford/?cgkit_search_word=tri%20tip

        They do it as Waygu as well but i didn’t want to spend that much.

        I got a dozen steaks out of it.

        1. Tri-tip is a favourite of American barbecues, especially the Texans. It is part of the brisket of the animal, which lends itself very well to smoking and barbecuing.

  96. 386441+ up ticks,

    Shortly, when our current political overseers have taken off for warmer climes whilst living, ( not hell) we will be left brushing downour grey button to the chin tunics in preparation for the five trips a day to the corner mosque as a mandatory action, signifying appeasement to the, courtesy of the majority voter, new coalition rulers the Weekinlieu / mo party.

    https://x.com/LeilaniDowding/status/1783463289730805962

  97. Sadly I’ve just found one of the lambs dead on the croft – cause not known at the moment, nothing obvious

        1. They don’t thrive very well when it’s damp and windy. It’s not been a great year, weatherwise.
          I’m trying to post a photo of our granddaughter delivering her first lamb, but as it’s over 5Mb I can’t!

          2. Ecoli is quite prevalent this year as the ground has been saturated and churned up more than usual. Quite a lot of diarrhoea and dehydration.😘

          5. Alec, have you blocked Sir Jasper? He’s not getting your posts – ‘content unavailable’. He would like to know why if you have blocked him. I suspect a disqus glitch.

          6. It must be I’ll see if I can fix it
            Edit – I can’t see his posts, maybe he’s blocked me?

          7. I’ll pass your message on to him. It may be he’s accidentally blocked you. If you block someone, it works both ways, you are both out of each other’s lives.

            On Twitter there is a muting system as well as a blocking system, whereby you can mute someone and they will see your posts but you need never hear from them again – and they don’t know they have been muted. Their reply to your post can be seen by others but not yourself.

          8. I wonder, Sue, with whom you are commenting – their post just (as usual) comes up with ‘Content unavailable.

        2. Maybe they are like humans and can suddenly die for no apparent reason. I hope no others succumb.

      1. I believe so – the sheep aren’t mine, I let my neighbour use my croft as crofting laws state the croft must be used

    3. I met Carol Kirkwood once. She was very jolly. Remember the Idi Amin weather forecast joke about him having just been on the roof and it’s peeing down? Well she had and if I recall correctly, it was.

      1. Reminds me of something that really did happen in Zambia. Something went wrong with showing the weather map and it didn’t appear so the confused and flustered weatherman announced “There will be no weather today!”

  99. Just had to come in because of light but very drizzly rain and already the blooming sun’s out!
    I think I’ll have another cup of tea!

  100. RECIPE FOR THE PERFECT MARRIAGE

    1. Two times a week we go to a nice restaurant, have a little beverage, good food and companionship. She goes on Tuesdays, I go on Fridays.
    2. We also sleep in separate beds. Hers is in California and mine is in Texas.
    3. I take my wife everywhere, but she keeps finding her way back.
    4. I asked my wife where she wanted to go for our anniversary. “Somewhere I haven’t been in a long time!” she said. So I suggested the kitchen.
    5. We always hold hands. If I let go, she shops.
    6. She has an electric blender, electric toaster and electric bread maker. She said “There are too many gadgets, and no place to sit down!” So I bought her an electric chair.
    7. My wife told me the car wasn’t running well because there was water in the carburettor. I asked where the car was. She told me, “In the lake.”
    8. She got a mud pack and looked great for two days. Then the mud fell off.
    9. She ran after the garbage truck, yelling, “Am I too late for the garbage?” The driver said, “No, jump in!”.
    10. Remember: Marriage is the number one cause of divorce.
    11. I married Miss Right. I just didn’t know her first name was ‘Always’.
    12. I haven’t spoken to my wife in 18 months. I don’t like to interrupt her.
    13. The last fight was my fault though. My wife asked, “What’s on the TV?”
    I said, “Dust!”.

  101. Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction overturned.

    He must be one of the most unattractive men in the film industry. I cannot believe that any self-respecting woman would want to sleep with him or that even a non self-respecting woman would do so however large the payment.

    1. The descriptions of his genitals and naked body were gross. He is not a good looking man at all. It made me wonder how he could get women to go to his hotel room until i saw him being interviewed prior to the allegations. He has charm and charisma in bucketloads. The type of person who speaks and others listen.

      1. What on earth have you been reading?? 😳If I can get to Farnham, can I gatecrash your party?

        1. The details were reported in the press from the Court.

          If you can get to Farnham you will be in the wrong town. Fareham !

          You wouldn’t be gatecrashing you would be an honoured guest.

          1. You will all have to sort out your own accommodation. But you are welcome. RAF, Army and Navy will all be represented here on that day.

      2. As they used to say about this The Old Greshamian:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a55e6333efa45952a9e8030bb1ef112b50d2699186250a7e8d09602bee93780.png

        With a face as wrinkled as this just imagine what his scrotum must look like!

        https://www.google.com/search?q=the+night+mail+poem&oq=The+Night+Msail+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgBEAAYDRiABDIGCAAQRRg5MgkIARAAGA0YgAQyCQgCEAAYDRiABDIJCAMQABgNGIAEMgkIBBAAGA0YgAQyCQgFEAAYDRiABDIJCAYQABgNGIAEMgkIBxAAGA0YgAQyCQgIEAAYDRiABDIJCAkQABgNGIAE0gEINjg4NWowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7733ea76,vid:6H3jGjmPWX4,st:0

        1. I wouldn’t be concerned about how he looks. I would want to know about his life and how he got there.
          It’s one of the reasons i enjoy the company of Nottlers. I wouldn’t press but i like to hear their stories.

          And ! I doubt at his age his bollocks have any wrinkles at all given they are likely to be hanging just above his knees !

    3. I have to confess to some scepticism at his conviction at the time. There have been too many of these trials that have been motivated by Feminist hysteria.

    4. The judge currently trying Donald Trump has been quoted as the reason for the mistrial – he will probably be the person who has to decide if Weinstein has to be retried. Could be interesting!

      “In a 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals said the trial judge made a mistake by letting prosecutors introduce testimony from women who claimed that Weinstein assaulted them, even though they were not part of the charges he faced.
      The appeals court also said the trial judge compounded the error by letting Weinstein be cross-examined in a way that portrayed him in a “highly prejudicial” light.

      “The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the court said.”

  105. Revealed: Teenage boy arrested for ‘making threats with a BB gun’ is the brother of Year 9 girl accused of trying to stab teacher to death with a flick knife at Ammanford school
    READ MORE: Special needs teacher stabbed in the neck is ‘lucky to be alive’

    Just the sort of “family next door” everyone needs.

      1. We can probably now assume that the two of them are not indigenous white or we would have been told by now. However they might be indigenously diverse.

    3. In the Mail, it said that locals confirmed this. I thought, yes, and I bet they added a few choice opinions about the family!

    4. Now reports in both the Mail and the Mirror are suggesting that the stabby girl did attack another pupil rather than teachers first. The teachers got a stabbing when they intervened. Meanwhile her brother has been arrested for “menacing” people with a BB gun – a weapon about as scary as a cushion. It does, however, suggest that the brother was where she got her butterfly knife from, as I suspected yesterday.

      1. I would not have liked to shot by one of the BB guns of my youth. They could certainly have taken an eye out.

          1. Don’t think so. BB guns fire a small plastic ball by a spring going twang, AFAIK.

          2. I believe a BB gun is an air gun, but with a very light spring on the air piston giving a low muzzle velocity.

          3. No. It is little more than a toy and fires ball bearings, sometimes made of plastic.

        2. If you were incredibly unlucky. They make air pistols look like AK47’s. A catapult is much more dangerous.

          1. I was in Canada and the BB guns there were better than air pistols.
            A proper catapult is a nasty weapon

          1. I’m guessing that we’ve both experienced proper BB guns, rather than the ones more akin to a spud-gun.

    5. Apparently the would-be murderer’s ” dad” is “stressed out…

      Oh how sad.

      I noted last month that the parents of an American teenager who killed several fellow pupils were themselves sent to prison for being “responsible” for the youth’s actions.

      We could try a bit of that here….(sighs…._

  107. Bass player and drummer involved in an on-stage punch up. Singer says “What’s all this about?” Bass player says “He loosened off one of my tuning thingies” “Well just re-tune your bass” “He won’t tell me which tuning thing he moved”

        1. Or Gene Krupa, or Art Blakey, or Buddy Rich, or Carl Palmer, or Cozy Powell, or Neil Peart, or Joe Morello, or Ian Paice …

  108. Anzac Day dawn services across Australia and New Zealand – in pictures

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/27fc527786dbbb80eccef1c0ff802194b524f2c6/0_0_7453_4971/master/7453.jpg?width=980&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=16080b9598eaeef25141632dc1691f09
    War veteran John Murphy poses for a photograph at the Shrine of Remembrance during the dawn service in Melbourne.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7e986960484bf882a1847080eec54f1612100806/0_0_4050_2700/master/4050.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=42f9b8fe0cac4d3a826ffdb5fb2bf1c8
    Surf boats perform a burial at sea for Anzac Day in Currumbin.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b07259578cd7373b7bbab4293aa0eb5b9ea8f19c/0_0_8192_5464/master/8192.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=ed7c18a52ccb4ec8942198b0894b41f7
    An Australian soldier lit by the glow of a red light during the dawn service in Hobart.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/37b430cf317a79d12a011bc1c8d58c708d7152fb/0_0_7641_5094/master/7641.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=57535ba445575d8fd422d9794b4d820b
    A man plays a didgeridoo as dawn service is held at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ae96f49d82a2ba9f8d72a6fbeee34710cbc175cd/0_0_5333_3555/master/5333.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3d8a3877d30875493c7643a7049a79c5
    Military personnel wearing their medals attend the Anzac Day dawn service at Auckland War Memorial Museum.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3a109d731f76255b5aa073cf9169ca9981e46f71/0_0_2187_1459/master/2187.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3762d7bda1bb9aa17beff60b6ebaf143
    A member of the ADF plays the last post at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2fa605939b75d040e94e4898ddf2c4ba75be0ecb/0_0_7930_5287/master/7930.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=e501e53e0dcd0a9f0f3ed0b7853de7cc
    Private Mali Djarrbal from the Arnhem Squadron at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander memorial, after the ATSIVSA ceremony and the dawn service in Canberra.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/838e37117c6d467d225f52ea8aa7d09143579731/0_0_5266_3511/master/5266.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=588b528c451052d8af9ee2377ca875e0
    Bagpipers play during the Anzac Day dawn service at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.

      1. Do i have your email or did i make the Nottler lunch arrangements on here?
        Don’t know if you saw my posts today but Summer drinks and canapes at my place Aug 10th 2pm. Fareham. Not Farnham !

        1. The lunch arrangements were made on here but Hertslass has my email address and I’m happy for it to be shared.

          2. Can’t do long distance air travel any more, so make sure there are photos to share with all of us unable to join you for what I am sure will be a magnificent event!! And photos of the food…

          3. I promise. Obviously some Nottlers are shy and some mentioning no names (Bill Thomas) won’t even consider turning up !
            As i am sure you are aware i do like to show off a bit. Pics of food and people not avoiding Law Enforcement etc will be shown on this site repeatedly… :@)

      3. Reminds me of an old anecdote from a woman who accompanied her elderly father to a D-Day museum in Normandy; she asked for two entrance tickets but was only charged for one. When she queried this with the cashier, the reply was “He has already paid”.

          3. I am still amused by the PR video he put out where local people were saying how wonderful he was. Just three old Dears. Probably bribed them with cake.

    1. A bit unwise, but have you seen the two “men”? Very sad specimens of humankind!

          1. Robert Wilkinson
            @robertwlk
            Men, if you close your eyes and hold a kiwi fruit in one hand, and a testicle in your other hand, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference.
            Also gets you banned from Sainsbury’s.

          4. Yes, well, you wouldn’t be if you had met the lady at lunch like i did. My new bestie !

          5. BB2?? You jest. She is far too classy than to be seen anywhere near you…{:¬))

          6. I will leave that for the lady in question to answer that particular insult.
            You do know i have entertained our resident Opera singer too? Such a magnificent voice and she looks even better in a swim suit. See what you are missing yet?

    2. To quote the Warqueen: ‘That one’s is down to his knees! I’ll bet your jealous.’

      Thanks, dear.

      2. rather something has to be done about the people who elect him. Most of London is overrun with brown. They vote postally, fraudulently. This is evidenced. Therefore his election is only possible because of massive uncontrolled immigration, fraud and corruption. Fix the first of three, solve the problem.

  114. A union of states?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b251c6b49d4708708aa59c15c4a8572ae0d653d3908b63ed104bd16d5535a1c3.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e58f8a98bb17b280bcdc3b9e2ce0d5b7e01cc537dd007968f662cc64e826797.png

    Boo hiss!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/829babc01a46ab33a2741e5c928cd6b10a526335a1915db4407da354efd9231b.png

    I smell a rat on this one.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c470dc2f468d8ad3b8e39b25ddd3874704b4f452c1ef1c5a0cee9c306faca5d3.png

    Workers’ Playtime cancelled? Ended 60 years ago

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a4300871750556105793c018c0410d24f2f6b43d6f9a2f5b7c038131e245a04.png

    1. I do love the cartoons that are put up here.

      Good late afternoon everyone, I’m about to find my most comfy jumper and have crumpets with a pot of tea to warm up 😊

  116. Ahmed Alid.. looked like a nice chap.
    Just the kinda guy you want in your front room babysitting the kids.

  117. D’ya ken Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,041 3/6
    🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par four today. All the right letters but in the wrong order.

      Wordle 1,041 4/6

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

    4. Bloody odd word.

      Wordle 1,041 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  118. I read an article somewhere ‘ Everyone should follow Churchills Way of Drinking .
    It mentioned his daily intake of booze whether that be whisky, brandy, fine wine etc – I imagined Nanny heath na*zis having kittens when reading that. Not something I’d follow as I just like a glass or two of fine wine with dinner. People once were free to do as they wish without being nagged .

    1. Don’t like his idea of weak whisky and soda all morning. The pint of champagne at lunch sounds nice though.

      1. Maybe glass of champagne with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for breakfast but not a pint 🙂 cocktails in the afternoon during summer.

        1. Lord Sefton would take his champagne in a silver pint tankard. I don’t think he’s still alive but more power to his elbow, wherever he is!

      2. I enjoy a pint of ginger beer shandy at lunch, vodka (or gin) with sweet vermouth (Cinzano Rosso) and frozen lemon juice cubes before supper and Grand Marnier, Sloe Gin or Drambuie before retiring to bed.

        That’s what I enjoy but I don’t always get what I enjoy – but Caroline occasionally lets me have my treats if she thinks I deserve them!

        1. I think you should be aware Richard that your last sentence is open to interpretation!

    2. What the health Nazis won’t tell you is if you moderate alcohol intake like weak whisky and soda your liver regenerates. (be very careful of forming early morning drinking habits !) You only get the scarring when you drink it neat or drink too much. Germans drink dark beer for breakfast. Of course ‘they’ don’t want their drone factory slaves enjoying life.

  119. My wife informed me yesterday, without so much as word of criticism, that her friend’s 87-yr old husband had had another BOOSTER yesterday. He’s had a heart problem and an angioplasty in response last year. What can I say? YOUR LIFE IN THEIR HANDS.

    1. What is the point at 87? If one has reached that age you don’t need any vaccines against made up novel viruses !

    3. I had a blood test yesterday , as well as taking the car to a garage to have a spring fixed .

      As I was helping the nurse find an elusive vein in my forearm, i was coughing and spluttering , eyes watering and sadly sniffing , (IDO NOT have a cold ) she asked me how I was feeling , and I replied absolutely conked out , tired and achy , bones ache as does my stomach )

      The nurse informed me that many many patients had been complaining about issues like mine , all very similar .

      2 of the doctors believe the Covid jabs had done more harm than good .. no exaggeration , the honest truth .

      I haven’t had a Covid back up for 18 months now , since I caught some horrible virus and developed strange effects . I blamed my Statins , but the more I hear , the more nervous I feel.

      My ears are sore , I itch and scratch , my head feels fuzzy as if I have tinnitus .. so what on earth is going on .

      Thank goodness Moh seems to be ok, at least he has enough energy at 78 y to enjoy his golf .

      1. The cough/cold that keeps recurring is known, according to MB’s heart nurse as The 90 Day Cough.

  120. A recent scolding to an online fishy merchant…..sent today.

    Hi team,

    I would like to make it clear i am not looking for a refund or any other special treatment but i would like to make it known to you my thoughts.

    To begin. The marinaded anchovies were perfectly fine and when coated in plain flour and deep fried they were very good. Nice flavour and crispy. Prepared and packed in Spain.

    To the crab. Sorry but it didn’t taste of anything much. No sweetness. No nothing really. Also it was double the price of Cornish brown crab which is superb.

    The Morecambe Bay Potted Shrimp. Where was the mace? Where was any of the herb or spice? The small pot i purchased was at least 50% butter. The shrimps themselves were watery and tasteless.

    I am really sorry to be so negative but for the price i paid i expected a lot more from you.

    I don’t know what or why you are doing what you do but i will not be ordering from you again.

    As i said. I won’t bad mouth you anywhere but i don’t think your stock is very good. Sainsbury’s do what you do from this order with flavour and a lot cheaper.

    Yours XXXXX

      1. Were you served mouldy fish fingers at school?

        Fish cooked properly is divine. Try Dover sole or any flat fish cooked a la Meunière.

    2. Stop buying “food” online. Go to a shop. A proper shop. Local fishmonger or butcher or grocer.

      It’ll do you good to experience these things.

      1. There isn’t a fishmonger within 20 miles and i live on the coast !!!
        Local butchers are cagey about the meat they sell.
        I use accredited and often Royal Warranted online butchers that sell superb meat.
        I don’t buy that knock off market stuff like you do.

          1. Worry ye not, Wibbles. The “knock off” food we buy is of an extremely high quality. Young Phil is simply envious that we can buy truckles of Cheddar, a range of goat and sheep milk cheese, yogurt and salami for a fraction of the price he’d need to fork out for his “Royal Warrant” bollox!!

          2. Yougurt? Is that how it is labeled? Where does the Salami come from? I know you think you know but it is resales and relabeled. I used to program those labels myself.

          4. Are you aware that we now have in the UK home produced award winning charcuterie? I bet your market trader doesn’t stock that.

          6. You think ? I know how those items get to market and why they seem such good value.

        2. Viviers UK Ltd Shed 9 Camber Docks Gunwharf Rd Portsmouth PO1 2JX
          Tony’s Fresh Fish 143 Stoke Road Gosport PO12 1SE

          https://www.meonvalleybutchers.co.uk/
          Hadlows 22 South St, Titchfield, Fareham PO14 4DJ

          Cagey? Ask them straight in a busy shop….

          Our three best local butchers farm their own cattle. Then butcher and sell highest quality stuff.

          1. And you tell me not to shop online! You haven’t been to any of those places or understand the difficulty in getting to some of them.

            I wouldn’t touch Tony’s with your bargepole. It’s opposite Waitrose and it’s mostly shut. When they are open you can’t buy anything like you might want from a French fish market. You can get pre-packed smoked mackeral. You can get some old cod.
            Hadlows… Now there’s a story. Used them a few times. Phoned in an order costing around £200. One might think the order would be ready given Titchfield has a population of a couple hundred besides the benefit scroungers on their crappy litter strewn estate.
            Had to be a rush job. Nothing trimmed properly. Messily packed and i had to wait.

            Gunwharf. A bus ride. A ferry. A walk. About an hour or two. Then back again. Hopefully not raining while waiting for each ‘service’.

            I know what i am doing.

          2. Only an idea. Chat up the staff at Rovers, West Street, Fareham PO16 0EQ. Bake them a cake or a Pavlova. Then they might casually mention someone who likes dogs and who has the occasional scrap of bass or fresh mackerel. Obviously not fit for human consumption.

          3. Only an idea. Chat up the staff at Rovers, West Street, Fareham PO16 0EQ. Bake them a cake or a Pavlova. Then they might casually mention someone who likes dogs and who has the occasional scrap of bass or fresh mackerel. Obviously not fit for human consumption.

  123. I can’t find the answer through a google search, so likely I’m looking in the wrong places.

    Do you pay stamp duty on the whole amount, or only on the amount over the threshold?

      1. Much obliged all. The Warqueen sorted the money side out for this place (as, honestly, I’m crap at it and I worry about the debt) so I don’t know the sort of things I should.

        1. I loathe stamp duty. It is a tax on movement. I could possibly just about accept the old system (1%, as a fee for a fixing a “stamp”) but s Gordon Broon revenue-raising monstrosity.

          1. It used to be a Duty but now it’s a Tax, SDLT; different penalties, but then hurting the rich and damaging the UK brought a smile to Mr Broon’s front cover.

          2. We handed over £16,000 for the pleasure of moving round the corner.
            And the sellers of our current home would also have handed over a good few thousand , as would our buyers when they sold their house …. usw ….

  126. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-young-are-missing-out-on-a-proper-breakfast/ I just took a peek at the Speccie . Melanie has placed an article ‘ The Young Are Missing Out on AProper Breakfast – what can be better then a Handsome Sausage ‘ Maybe a little bit cheeky . Such great details but horrible black pudding was mentioned and even worse – Hash Browns that are American . I do like my breakfasts but there was once wonderful things like devil on horseback and kidneys . I do generally agree with Melanie, a bag of crisps or a slice of toast on the way to school isnt healthy .

    1. Some of us like to wait for the magazine to which we subscribe to arrive on a Friday. Just saying.

        2. Well, call me old fashioned – and many do – but I like to hold the rag (as it has become) in my hand after the postman delivers it around noon on a Friday.

      2. I don’t subscribe so read it Thursday morning.
        When I subscribed the magazine always arrived in Spain so late that I had read half of it on the webpage.
        But I did find it a more agreeable read in magazine form

        1. I had the same problem in France so went digital only. I do miss the “real” one though.

  127. That’s me gone – glass of rosé in hand. Fish for supper – from our fishmonger whose fish is locally caught. Our own asparagus – from crowns grown from seed given to us 30 years ago by our Spanish neighbours in Laure. Also leeks – last year’s plantation just about to finish.

    Filthy day again – cold and miserable. Tomorrow appears to be the same. Sunday may be less freezing but wet. Of course.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  128. Lefties are making such a fuss about those horses running loose in London yesterday. City dwellers not giving a toss about the wellbeing of the horses but rattling away about some little damage to cars and a few people being knocked over . Cars knew to stop but cyclists got knocked off of cycles- the smug looks upon their faces was priceless . At least the horses weren’t causing as much harm as Khan’s Muslims .

    1. I normally see the horses every day on my cycle ride into work. I work in Aldwych – where one of the big photos was taken with the cyclists in it. I normally get to work c. 7:45. It could have been me. Luckily I had the day off as it was Dad’s 85th birthday.

  130. OPPOSITION EXTINGUISHED FROM SMOKING BAN COMMITTEE

    The government has now published the members the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee – they’ll be considering amendments to the bill in May. Guido is surprised to see that, despite 165 Tory MPs either abstaining or voting against the smoking ban, the 16-member Committee contains exactly zero MPs who who voted against it. The whips don’t want any more trouble from pesky fans of free choice…

    16 of the 17 committee members voted for the bill and the one who didn’t, Labour MP Mary Kelly Foy, is vice-chairman of the APPG on Smoking and Health which has been pushing the ban constantly. Almost a quarter of the committee members are from the APPG, which is run by the anti-smoking lobby group ASH. Sorry news for MPs who hoped amendments might be considered fairly…

    Simon Clark, director of smokers’ rights group Forest tells Guido: “Committees don’t need to be balanced but this is such an obvious stitch-up it’s embarrassing. The make-up of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee is effectively a f*ck you to every MP who voted against the Bill, and every member of the public who opposes the generational smoking ban.” It wouldn’t be the first time the government has deployed smoke and mirrors for this bill…

    1. I’m just imagining the absurdity sometime in the 2040s of a 35-year-old and a 34-year-old side-by-side in a shop with the older one permitted to buy tobacco and vape products but the younger one not.

    1. Oh please! I was having a really good day until you mentioned that little ticks name!!!

      1. I used to pick little ticks off our dog after a walk through Sandringham woods before they turned into big ✔️s.

      2. I used to pick little ticks off our dog after a walk through Sandringham woods before they turned into big ✔️s.

      3. Packham needs to be on the first flight to Rwanda, along with that Lineker chap. And Humza.

      4. Packham needs to be on the first flight to Rwanda, along with that Lineker chap. And Humza.

      5. When he sticks to real nature and leaves political nature to one side (yeah yeah I know, almost never) he’s actually a very good and extremely knowledgeable presenter.
        Shame he’s such a twat and doesn’t stick to his knitting.

  132. Just watching the news. It seems that several people in senior positions in the post office have suddenly developed dementia. None of them seem to remember anything that might show them in a bad light!
    I must try that one myself sometime.

    1. H0R1Z0N – our computers don’t have memory checks in one’s vocabulary and balances may come to nought..

    1. Ah but you can get your nails done in a…erm…nail bar. Woolworths was a bit rubbish, really, particularly towards the end.

    2. Blame the general public for not spending enough in Woolworth’s, plus British Home Stores, Wilko, Rumbelows, Littlewoods, Debenhams, Comet, Freeman Hardy & Willis, Dillons, Safeway, Dixons, Courts, Toys “R” Us, Staples and Timothy Whites, amongst numerous others.

    3. When I was young, girls used to do their own nails. Why do they pay people to do such a simple thing for them nowadays?

    1. Can’t happen soon enough! And it probably rests on the decision of a lady who, when she defected to Alba, Hamas said ‘it is no great loss to the SNP’

        1. Never be rude to people on your way up….you never know when you’ll crash into them on your way down

  136. I have just posted a few offensive observations about Humza on the Speccy website. They have been deleted. I am very cross.

  137. From https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-68901555
    A 13-year-old girl has been charged with three counts of attempted murder after two teachers and a pupil were stabbed at a school in south-west Wales. Dyfed-Powys Police said the teenager was arrested at the scene at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman, in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire.
    Two teachers and a teenage pupil were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening stab wounds.
    They have all since been discharged.
    The Crown Prosecution Service said the girl had also been charged with possessing a bladed article on a school premises and would appear at Llanelli Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
    The school went into lockdown for about four hours at 11:20 BST on Wednesday after teachers Fiona Elias and Liz Hopkin were injured.
    Supt Ross Evans said: “A 13-year-old girl was arrested at the scene, I can confirm, she has now been charged with three counts of attempted murder.
    “Following this, yesterday evening, our control room received a number of calls reporting concerns about messages being shared on social media which had references to the incident here at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman.
    “Officers swiftly carried out a warrant at the home of the person believed to be responsible for this content.”
    A 15-year-old boy was arrested and is in custody.
    The investigations, Supt Evans said, were being run separately but officers were looking to see whether the alleged offences were linked.
    “I would urge people not to speculate, or share pictures or videos of either investigation,” he said.

    It seems from this that tweeting hurty stuff about someone who tried to kill three people is much worse than the stabby stabby actions… how does one “carry out a warrant”, BTW? By the attempt to divert attention, one can only assume that the two potential murderesses were of a darker hue skinwise, and probbly couldn’t speak Welsh.

    1. And the only reason to speculate is because Plod hasn’t released any information.

    2. The 15-year-old boy is not a potential murderess. It’s reported that he’s the brother of the girl charged with attempted murder.

    3. A warrant should be executed, but that’s a hurty word (unless you run an axe-throwing tourist attraction).

    4. It’s good that the Police arrested someone for putting hurty words on the internet.

      It shows how much effort the Police are making censoring the internet.

    5. When I was 13, girls of my age had still not developed tits and they still played with dolls!

      These days they throw their life away at such a young age.

  138. Just lost my temper over at the Spectator where they have just deleted a second post of mine which noted that Humza was a foreign interloper who was no more Scottish than a scorpion, though considerably more poisonous. Have cancelled my subscription.

    1. There’s Shakespeare quotations about the truth, but I forget what they were. And, being Shakespeare, I don’t care, either. I’d rather use my reducing recall capabilities to remember the patterns on used toilet paper than Shakespeare quotations.

    2. If Humza Yousaf is no more Scottish than a scorpion then that must be even more true of me. At least he has a Scottish accent, lives in Scotland and has worn a kilt.

      1. I must conclude you’re not remotely Scottish. Humza is an immigrant, a Muslim and the only Scottish thing about him is that he’s a damned troublemaker.

    3. I saw your post and responded to it . Well done, they have a wholly inadequate comment section not a patch on the previous disqus one – they are more like the Stasi now – people are zipped and pay for what’s inadequate. If everyone left there then they’d have to return the previous comment section with disqus.. but people post like sheep . You are right with what you said.

      1. Interestingly, when I cancelled I was asked to give a reason. There were about half a dozen boxes to choose from, one of which was the change to the comments system. I selected that one. Clearly there has been significant kick-back.

  139. I think it’d a lovely idea to unravel the hair and after 7 o’clock to be music and wine online.

        1. Beautiful, King Stephen. But how frustrating that the music is constantly interrupted by Lucozade adverts with thumping and inappropriate “music”.

    1. For a moment my brain was asking whether they throw iron bars and axes at each other, or just at tourists.

    2. Axe throwing in a field, with no Health ‘n Safety in evidence, was a feature of this year’s summer fete in the commune.

      Axes were flying all over the place and if somebody had been hit they would have been caused serious injury, judging by how hard it was for the helpers to lever the axes out of the man-sized targets.

  141. For Philip.

    Did you know that there have been seven Pimm’s cups? Although Pimm’s No. 1 Cup is the only one still made.

    Pimm’s No. 1 Cup. Based on Gin.
    Pimm’s No. 2 Cup. Based on Scotch Whisky.
    Pimm’s No. 3 Cup. Based on Brandy.
    Pimm’s No. 4 Cup. Based on Dark Rum.
    Pimm’s No. 5 Cup. Based on Rye Whiskey.
    Pimm’s No. 6 Cup. Based on Vodka.
    Pimm’s No. 7 Cup. Based on Tequila.

    I would have loved to have sampled the Tequila variant.

    2. It used to be a regular pub-quiz question “How many different Pimm’s were available?”

    3. We took some hooch with us when visiting friends last week. Unfortunately when MoH opened the boot the 1Litre bottle of Pimm’s, a bottle of red and a bottle of Rose fell out of the boot in the wine carrying bags and smashed. The bag contained the broken glass. The plastic bottles of diet lemonade and San Pellegrino water along with a bottle of Graham Beck’s fizz survived….

    1. The 300,000 breaking in to the country is about a third of that being waved through the front door. This isn’t a country any more. It’s the doss house for all the dross of the world.

  143. Oh dear…..I seem to have made something of an idiot of myself. None of my posts at the Spectator had been deleted, I had simply ranked the posts by ‘best’ rather than ‘most recent’. Oops! 🙄

    I had only recently renewed, so it will be interesting to see what my new offer is in a couple of months!

    1. They offered GGG £ 1 or £ 5 subscription when he cancelled.
      They really are that desperate for people not to leave the inadequate threadbare comments section. If everyone stopped posting there and demanded that Disqus be returned as it once was then the Spectator would have to either return to Disqus or stop it’s online comments section.
      The problem many people are like sheep and will shut up and be grateful

      1. It doesn’t look threadbare to me. I went to the Spectator in Australia, That really is threadbare.

      2. Well, I have cancelled and not renewed, and will only consider doing so under a new editor with the comments section restored to its former glory

        1. My account still has time to run and I look from time to time. The comments sections is full of new names, many as far left as Nelson.

      3. You make a good point, Kitty.

        I was disappointed that more people did not cease to comment – I refuse to comment now even though I read what others may write.

        The Spectator regards us as deplorables so when my £3 quarterly payment runs out I’m off – and Fraser Nelson can you know what himself!

        1. Think I saw you earlier, Ghaaaastly 🙂 It’s a bit livelier than it was, but not as lively as it was!

          1. I’m not Ghaaaastly KJ! (lovely to see you by the way) – He’s an Aussie and I like him a lot – I’m the nutcase that went up against Gastarbeiter (subtle, eh?) and Elinor Dashwood. Got banned for both – campaign medals!

          2. Ah…got you…some time ago, think Peta had run ins with ED, too🤣 lovely to see you too, will check in on Geoff’s blog time to time and hope to see you again 😊🤞👍

        2. Sadly GGG, the Squire is one of those sheep. He’s back at the Speccie this morning after removing the posts that might have upset the Soeccie stasi most still moan about it but stay, they could just stay away . That’s why the editor can do as he likes without a smidgeon of respect for those who subscribe – all that matters to Nelson is the magazine and Spectator app. He believes the posters are gullible sheep who’ll stay and be grateful and sadly many do . More people who subscribed have left then those who visited the Spectator though the back door. I’ve no idea why Nelson couldn’t have keep the original disqus commenting system for those who do subscribe. Anyway I shan’t be at the Spectator anymore and I’ve changed my display name to ‘ cr@p commenting system ‘ to remind me why.

    2. I always respect people who admit their mistakes.
      OK folks, there’s an open goal; off you all go…
      I’ll start:
      HG

      1. In which case i expect you to have already assumed the prostition and be lubed up. You pay the parking charges this time !

    4. As I’ve mentioned on here a few times Squire, I cancelled on-line and was immediately offered 3 months for £3 – I duly accepted, and, if I dont get a similar offer in 3 months time, I’m off.
      Shame as they have some stellar writers in eg Liddle, Murray and Shriver – but you dont want to hang around when Nelson and his leftie tosser chums think you’re a deplorable…… Eff ’em…..

  144. 14 years in opposition
    Without doing very much opposing, especially during the pandemic and through net zero.
    More like encouraging the dystopia to go further.
    And now after all this time, using the best brains Lefty academia Oxford and Cambridge can muster.
    What do the have to offer the poor downtrodden and benighted, yet privileged British public?
    Ah
    Closer ties with the EU ( rejoin)
    Nationalise the railways.
    Higher taxes.
    Free stuff
    One can only assume that they have been slaving away, burning the midnight oil for years to come up with these election stealing policies.
    Well at least they can fall back on the record of Labour run devolved assemblies, councils and city Mayors, I suppose that are standing out as so much better than the those under Conservative control
    Even though they are completely broke, we’ll just skip over that.

    1. I recommend rereading The Gulag Archipelago – it contains some useful survival tips ..

  145. 386441+ up ticks,

    The post office inquiry is of major,major, importance and has to be brought to a successful conclusion with justice SEEN to be done.

    The excess deaths in regards to an untested vaccine and the ongoing inquiry is of far, far, more importance with far,far,more far reaching damage being done, in some cases ongoing via a lifetime of suffering.

    The reporting on the post office affair is a chaff dropping exercise, deflecting from the much.much more serious issue as in seemingly a political / pharma corporate killing campaign.

    Conclusion,

    If you are so inclined, give your single fare to Switzerland to a
    reparable charity and vote lab/lib/con coalition.

    https://x.com/PierreKory/status/1783568560360399211

    2. I utterly disagree. The Post Office debacle is a dreadful scandal and fully merits the attention given to it. If other serious matters are not being given the attention they deserve it should not be at the expense of sidelining the Post Office reports. Perhaps the trivia surrounding Harry, Meghan, Kate and William should be sacrificed, to give just one example.

      1. 396481+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,

        “The post office inquiry is of major,major, importance and has to be brought to a successful conclusion with justice SEEN to be done.”

        It, IMO is being used also as deflection material and, as I commented, to soften the ultra serious excessive deaths inquiry,and material that is daily coming to be realised.

        By the by
        My interest in the royals died with the Queen RIP.

  146. Decades-old Premium Bonds fail to win any prize
    Nearly 45,000 savers have yet to secure even £25, NS&I figures reveal

    Tom Haynes,
    MONEY REPORTER
    25 April 2024 • 12:00pm
    Related Topics
    Income investing, Premium Bonds

    Have you got an old premium bond account that has never won? Email money@telegraph.co.uk

    Thousands of Premium Bond holders who opened their accounts more than two decades ago have not yet won a prize, Telegraph analysis has found.

    More than 460,000 savers invested in government-backed accounts 20 years ago. Of the accounts still open, 44,900 have yet to win even £25, according to NS&I figures.

    Premium Bonds are Britain’s most popular savings product. The Treasury-backed scheme – run by National Savings & Investments (NS&I) – was launched in 1957 to boost post-war savings, but records only extend back until May 2004.

    Money invested in Premium Bonds can win savers between £25 to £1m, with the odds improving the more money is invested.

    Prizes are tax-free, and there are no penalties for cashing in bonds, meaning they operate similarly to an easy-access savings account.

    In the last 20 years, almost 12 million Premium Bond accounts have been opened, NS&I figures show. Of these, 8.1 million remain open and 3.7 million are closed.

    NS&I’s data show that 7.9 million accounts have won prizes since 2004. But nearly 4 million of the accounts still open have never won a prize.

    Rachel Springall, of analyst Moneyfacts, said Premium Bonds had remained a popular product as the investment was safely backed by the Government.

    But she added: “The reality is that not everyone has been winning a prize after years of investment, and in fact, would be losing value on their investment in real terms due to the eroding influence of inflation.

    “Even still, some consumers may be reluctant to cash in their Premium Bond after such a long period of time.”

    Thousands of Britons are believed to hold money in decades-old Premium Bonds – NS&I suggests they “make a great gift for any occasion, and can also help kick start a healthy savings habit”.

    Ms Sprignall said: “Consumers can easily check the NS&I prize checker online if they think they might have an old Premium Bond, this could well be the case for families who opened a bond for a child as a gift many years ago.”

    Premium Bonds were formerly the default choice for prudent savers when interest rates were low. But there are now several fixed bonds that pay upwards of 5pc, Moneyfacts said.

    Anna Bowes, of consumer website Savings Champion, said the appeal of Premium Bonds for some is “still the thrill of what could happen that keeps them invested”.

    She added: “The lower the holding that you have in Premium Bonds, the less chance you’ll have of winning a prize regularly – or indeed at all.

    “The odds for each bond to win is 21,000:1, which is the same for everyone, although clearly the more bonds you have the greater the chance of winning something.

    “What you need to consider is how important it is if you were to miss out on the interest you could earn elsewhere if you win no prizes.

    “With the top easy access accounts paying around 5pc, someone with a balance of £1,000 could be missing out on earning £50 a year in gross interest.

    “As a result, it could be worth missing out on that, even though the possibility of winning a prize to beat that is highly unlikely.”

    RECOMMENDED

    ‘NS&I can’t find my 1982 bonds – they could be worth a fortune’
    Read more
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/investing/decades-old-premium-bonds-fail-win-prize/

      1. True, Johnny, but the same as stocks and shares or going for fixed (or non-fixed) interest rates.

    2. ‘She added: “The lower the holding that you have in Premium Bonds, the less chance you’ll have of winning a prize regularly – or indeed at all.
      “The odds for each bond to win is 21,000:1, which is the same for everyone, although clearly the more bonds you have the greater the chance of winning something.”      ‘

      If people don’t know that it’s a worry.

    1. B*stards! I know TR doesn’t get a lot of sympathy on here, but at least he stands up and is counted. KBO Tommy!

        1. Is he though? Or is he just the one to whom the MSM give the most publicity because he is so unlovely?

          1. Almost certainly, PJ. They love to be able to scream Neo-Nazi – and in this case, unfortunately, he fits the bill.

            He does call out some of the worst stuff, and he should be congratulated for that – but you only need to look at his followers to know what you’re dealing with.

          3. He’s been pictured goose-stepping around his bedroom and firing Nazi salutes hither and thither.

          11. Thank god for that. The lib dems are anything but liberal in the UK sense of the word (but very liberal in the US sense) and they are certainly not democratic. They are virtue-signalling snobs who absolutely hate the “little” people and think – know – that women can have penises (spoiler alert – they can’t).

            Give me TR over this bunch of lunatics any day.

    2. It’s a shame he’s such an unlovely person, Tom.

      I find it very difficult to find common cause with him – the situation needs somebody, but it really isnt him, he’s an effing nutcase…..

      1. Oh aye, he’s so unlovely that he was almost alone in investigating the mass rape of white girls by Muslim gangs, while all your lovelies ignored it.
        And just maybe your perception of him has been formed for you by the woke, establishment puppet MSM?

        1. He’s a neo-Nazi thug, you’re clearly going down the ‘ends justifies the means’ route – or maybe you really do agree with his semi-literate rantings.

          Like I said – there has to be somebody better….

          1. As I asked below, give examples of him being a neo-nazi thug. And if you actually listen to him, you will see that he is far from stupid. He at least held his own against a hostile Oxford Union. Watch it, you might learn.
            And even if you are right, that in no way justifies what they are doing to him.

          2. Dont be so bloody obtuse – if you want to believe in this cretin then thats up to you. I would prefer somebody with a bit more credibility – it allows our opponents to smear us all with the ‘extreme far right’ garbage that this clown attracts.

          3. Yes but he got his ass kicked by some bimbo from Sky (Posted on here today? yesterday?) – he’s a dumbass…..

      2. He is a working class hero which is why the establishment is desperate to annihilate him – revolutions always start from the downtrodden and work their way through to the middle classes. Do not let the media influence your opinion, they will always present him in the worst possible light.

        1. Sorry pm, I cant agree.

          He actually started off as a Luton Town hardcore football hooligan, he got some convictions for that.

          He then went through the full run of BNP, EDL etc etc – he’s a self-avowed neo-Nazi.

          I will accept that he has done some good stuff, but he is fatally flawed. There has to be somebody better (surely??)

          1. You are of course entitled to your opinion, as I am entitled to mine. What do you mean by ‘better’? There is a sniff of middle class snobbery in your comment. I doubt TR is as corrupt and lacking in integrity as those we see in Parliament. He has conviction and he is tenacious, he is brave and no coward. Listen to, and watch his speech to the Oxford Union.

          3. TR was interested in political journalism from a very young age . He was privately educated at Cheadle Hulme school . He read philosophy, economics and politics at University. His mother was born in Shanghai to German Jewish parents and his father a translator. He’s not working class but uses the working class platform .

          4. Good Morning GGG, I kind of agree with you but best not go there,
            Tommy Robinson has a huge following on many sites. I believe it was because of himself and his football hooligan friends turning up at the cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday and picking a fight with the police was the reason why Braverman got the sack. They turned up chanting ‘ we love you Tommy Robinson, we do ‘ whilst Tommy Robinson himself was seen walking away smirking, he has useful idiots to do his work for him, they have their own battles with the police which has nothing to do with Muslims. Everything Tommy Robinson does simply becomes about him rather then the actual Issue of Islamic terrorists taking over this country . But as I said Tommy Robinson has this heroic label on all sites, best not to go there, life is too short . The real dreadful shame was Braverman getting sacked .

  148. Evening, all. Been a funny sort of day; started off sunny then drizzled and became dull and dreary. I visited a friend over the border in Cheshire and we took our dogs for a walk. While out I had a call from another friend whose wife is in hospital asking me to let their dog out as he’s by her bedside. It’s been all go!

    It’s true we can’t be complacent about our lack of military capability, but it’s a bit late for that. They’ve been running it down for decades and now they’ve started sabre rattling it’s suddenly occurred to them we don’t have the boots on the ground, the ships on the ocean or the aircraft in squadrons. Well, whose fault is that? It certainly isn’t ours.

    1. Apparently it is. Weve been told often enough that repeatedly voting for Lib/Lab/Con/Green/SNP/PC and numerous other parties not led by Gerard Batten has led to this sorry state of affairs. We are all – or nearly all – guilty.

  149. Asylum seekers spooked by Rwanda bill are pouring into Ireland, says deputy PM
    Micheál Martin says more than 80pc of the migrants have crossed the border from the UK

    James Crisp,
    EUROPE EDITOR
    25 April 2024 • 4:09pm

    Asylum seekers are pouring into Ireland because they have been put off the UK by the Rwanda policy, Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said.

    Micheál Martin, who is a former Taoiseach, was speaking after the Irish government said more than 80 per cent of asylum seekers in Ireland had crossed the border from Northern Ireland.

    He claimed Rishi Sunak’s “knee-jerk” policy to deport Channel migrants to Rwanda was already having a deterrent effect and encouraging asylum seekers to flee to Ireland.

    “I believe the Rwanda effect is impacting on Ireland. And I think that didn’t happen today or yesterday. It’s been growing since the first iteration and publication of that strategy around Rwanda,” Mr Martin said in Anman, Jordan, on Wednesday.

    “I don’t think anyone’s gone to Rwanda yet but to me it’s reflective of a policy,” he said. “It is having real impact on Ireland now in terms of people being fearful in the UK – maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”

    Tensions over immigration have risen in Ireland amid an increase in migrant arrivals and an acute housing crisis that has forced some asylum seekers to sleep in tents and the Government to ask the church to put up migrants.

    Mr Martin, who is also Ireland’s foreign minister, said: “So, they’re leaving the UK and they are taking opportunities to come to Ireland, crossing the border to get sanctuary here and within the European Union as opposed to the potential of being deported to Rwanda.”

    Dublin believes migrants and refugees, many from Nigeria, are travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland before crossing the open land border with the Republic, which is guaranteed by a UK-EU Brexit treaty.

    The UK and Ireland also share a common travel area, which predates both countries’ membership of the EU.

    Mr Martin said: “Migration arguably caused Brexit, or certainly motivated a lot of people to vote for Brexit to ‘take back control’ and so on.

    “But control hasn’t happened in respect of migration. Eastern European workers in Britain have been replaced by workers from further afield,” he added in comments reported by the Irish Independent.

    The centre-Right Fianna Fáil politician said: “I think the most effective way we can deal with the migration crisis is to deal with war and conflict and the developmental challenges around the world.

    “We have 11 million people displaced from Ukraine and millions in Sudan,” he added, “But the sort of knee-jerk reaction like the Rwanda policy, in my view, isn’t going to really do anything to deal with the issue.”

    In October 2023, Leo Varadkar, the then prime minister, claimed Ireland made a “better offering” to refugees than the UK as he announced Ireland was at the limit of the support it could offer.

    It has been reported more than 80 per cent of asylum claims were made at the International Protection Office in Dublin, without an application being first made at a port or airport.

    The Irish Government believes that almost all those people have arrived from the UK.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/25/asylum-seekers-deterred-by-rwanda-bill-entering-ireland/

    Read more…

    SG

    Stewart Goldthorp
    9 MIN AGO
    Who’d have thought it? We scared them away before a single flight took off 🤔

    3. Unfortunately, I suspect the parasites will continue ‘pouring in’ to England in their tens of thousands, and the vast majority of them won’t budge from the UK either. I doubt many really are put off by the Rwanda plan as they will be aware the plan will only remove a tiny minority of the invaders. Chances are that freebies handed out here are more tempting than what the Irish will give them anyway.

  150. Charlotte Gifford,
    SENIOR MONEY REPORTER     DT
    25 April 2024 • 12:48pm

    “More than 100,000 married couples face shock bills this year because of the Government’s “stealth tax” freeze on thresholds.

    Around 2.3 million spouses claim the marriage allowance – a tax break introduced by former chancellor George Osborne. But an estimated 127,680 will lose the perk as thousands are dragged into higher tax bands in 2024-25.

    The marriage allowance reduces couples’ tax bills by allowing the higher-earning spouse to transfer £1,260 (10pc) of their personal allowance to their partner.

    The basic-rate taxpayer will receive a tax credit equivalent to the amount transferred, saving them up to £252 per year.”

    More than one commentator has pointed out that dear Charlotte has got this completely arse about face……

  151. Well, chums, I’ll wish you all a Good Night. I hope you sleep well and awaken refreshed. See you all tomorrow.

  152. This coming Saturday I’m off to a Reform UK meeting at 11am just a few hundred yards from my house. It’ll be interesting how many local people I know who will be there. The SE Cornwall candidate will be attending. I’ve never attended a political meeting before and I’m hoping it will go well. They’re calling it a get to know each other get together.

    1. Good luck. I studied British Constitution for A Level and attended political meetings in the course of my studies – put me off politics for life! Well, not quite life; Blair made me take it up again and get involved because of the wreckage he was making of the country.

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