Wednesday 8 May: Time for ministers to fulfil promises on tackling rampant anti-Semitism

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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600 thoughts on “Wednesday 8 May: Time for ministers to fulfil promises on tackling rampant anti-Semitism”

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) List
    BLONDE FLIER

    A plane is on its way to Toronto, when a blonde in economy class gets up and moves to the first-class section and sits down.

    The flight attendant watches her do this and asks to see her ticket.

    She then tells the blonde that she paid for economy class and that she will have to sit in the back.

    The blonde replies, “I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going to Toronto and I’m staying right here.”

    The flight attendant goes into the cockpit and tells the pilot and the co-pilot that there is a blonde bimbo sitting in first class, that belongs in economy and won’t move back to her seat.

    The co-pilot goes back to the blonde and tries to explain that because she only paid for economy she will have to leave and return to her seat.

    The blonde replies, “I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going to Toronto and I’m staying right here.”

    The co-pilot tells the pilot that he probably should have the police waiting when they land to arrest this blonde woman who won’t listen to reason.

    The pilot says, “You say she is a blonde? I’ll handle this, I’m married to a blonde. I speak blonde.”

    He goes back to the blonde and whispers in her ear, and she says, “Oh, I’m sorry.” and gets up and goes back to her seat in economy.

    The flight attendant and co-pilot are amazed and asked him what he said to make her move without any fuss.

    “I told her, “First class isn’t going to Toronto.”

    1. An oldie but a goldie. What do you call a Virgin hostie with two brain cells? Pregnant.

    2. An oldie but a goldie. What do you call a Virgin hostie with two brain cells? Pregnant.

  4. 387127+ up ticks,

    Seeing as these Isles are in an undeclared, by the peoples eyes tight shut brigade,state of war CLOSE ALL universities for the duration of hostilities.

    Currently they are NOT places of culture & learning but beds of hostile discontentment and are breeding anarchy to be carried into the future.

    In point of fact one could see them as WEF / NMO training grounds.

    Sunak summons university leaders after ‘unacceptable rise in anti-Semitism’

    1. Exactly how much of a rise in anti-semitism would be acceptable to Mr Sunak?

  6. Good morning, chums, and a big Thank You to Geoff for today’s site. Today I managed Wordle in 5:

    Wordle 1,054 5/6

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

  7. Putin wants to see empires, autocracies back in Europe, warns von der Leyen in Poland. 8 Mmay 2024.

    Speaking alongside Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, von der Leyen insisted that she stands for a European Union that is ready to do whatever it takes to protect Europe, and especially Ukraine.

    “Putin’s war is about redrawing the map of Europe, but it is also a war on our Union and on the entire global rules-based system,” she said.

    According to her, Putin wants to bring back empire and autocratic rule over Europe and its citizens, adding that there should be no illusions about the Russian president’s intentions.

    The only autocracy in Europe is the EU and its unelected leader.

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/putin-wants-to-see-empires-autocracies-back-in-europe-warns-von-der-leyen-in-poland/

    1. Whatever Putin is like, I just don’t see his aims as being the conquest of all of Europe. He might wish that but I think he is more realistic than that. I do feel his supposed intentions are hyped up by such as the failing upwards von der Leyen (who I trust as much as a rat in charge of a cheese factory, tbh).

    2. Something rings hollow about this talk of Putin’s imperial ambitions for Europe, as if he were Stalin grabbing as much of the continent under USSR vassaldom away from the evil capitalists of the West.

      Whilst there is no doubt some nostalgia for Stalin in the man’s brain, it seems to me more of brutal paranoia than anything, and something he shares with Netanyahu, who is pursuing a similar campaign of brutal suppression in Gaza as Putin is in Ukraine.

      It is a pity, since Putin was pushing at an open door when it came to reviving traditional cultural values in the West, and may well have secured Russia’s eminence in the scheme of things better by appealing to Visegrad culturally and then bringing in Western European rebellions against the Woke along a new axis centred on Vienna and Budapest rather than Brussels.

  8. These DTL comments are spot on

    Tom Archer
    35 MIN AGO
    Penelope Upton
    Yes, Cameron had a mandate to serve as PM until 2020. He also promised to respect the outcome of the referendum, either way, and see it through.
    – But he chickened out when we voted to leave the EU
    He is an abject coward and not a man of his word

    Reply by John Twentyman.

    JT

    John Twentyman
    33 MIN AGO
    He also rigged the MP selection process so that we are lumbered with a large number of closet LibDems.

    Reply by Party Pauper.

    PP

    Party Pauper
    30 MIN AGO
    “If leave win, even by just one vote, I will trigger article 50 the very next day”.
    Lying tvvat.

    Reply by John Twentyman.

    JT

    John Twentyman
    25 MIN AGO
    Then there’s bombing Libya……

    1. He’s a very left of field politician. Whatever you assume he will do he does the complete opposite. What you vote for you will not get. Hardly surprising that the Conservative Party has followed this method of governance. Just a big public school game to them. Oxford arts graduates should not be allowed anywhere near being in our government.

      1. Some of the best people in Britain went to Eton. (My best man did)

        Some of the worst people in Britain went to Eton.

        Most of the worst Etonians went into politics.

    1. 9°c and mostly cloudy but forecast to rise to 17°c by 14:00 in The Borders.

  13. A very jolly VE-Day to you. I wonder whether all that effort was worth it….

    1. My paternal grandmothers birthday! She’d have been 124! Good morning to you!

      1. My father was born on May 9th 1898. He was 48 when I was born in 1946.

        I was 47 when my son Christo was born in 1993; I was 49 when my son Henry was born in 1995.

        Both my sons and my father were born in the 90s!

  14. Good Morning Folks

    There was blue sky earlier, the the cloud seeders got to work.

    1. This cartoon has it wrong on all sorts of levels.

      Continuity currently in Scotland does not mean folk in kilts; it means trannies, lesbians and Muslims banging the drum. And where is Kate Forbes?

      2. That, to me, looks like Conservative Scotland behind Swiney. Blower has lost it.

      1. 387127+ up ticks,

        Morning N,

        Sorta like, paying for your own demise, you gotta hand it to the political top rankers, they know how to keep the majority voter happy.

      2. And none of the perpetrators will hang! We haven’t forgotten about the midazolam either.

    2. Who really knows what is in the “vaccines”? My guess is, very few people, the fewer the better.

      Several people/groups have researched what is in the vials, some have found biological content (DNA contamination?) and some no biological content at all. Others have revealed Graphene and its oxide.

      Keeping researchers guessing appears to be a deliberate tactic.

      1. 387127+ up ticks,

        Morning KtK,
        My personal view is much must be
        assessed on a personal level in regards to near and dear relations,
        who are reasonably healthy one day, the next, post jab, suffering all kinds of maladies.

      2. Graphene oxide (GO) has widespread concerns in the fields of biological sciences and medical applications. Currently, studies have reported that excessive GO exposure can cause cellular DNA damage through reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation.

        https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28645083/

    3. Will I be compensated because of nearly four years of misery caused by the jabs ?
      Will the NHS be compensated because they had to suffer the problems caused by the jabs ?
      How about the thousands of families who lost love ones because of the irresponsible belief that it was actually a vaccine ?

    1. 50% on a 34% turnout makes, by my reckoning, the red glass 1/6 full. The blue one has a mouthful at most.

      It’s the brown stuff that is filling the glass right now.

    3. That’s what a university education produces. Never mind the truth, just give the answer that you want.

  19. Good morning one and all.
    A disturbed night again. Up to pump bilges at 1 then tossing & turning for a couple of hours before getting to sleep.

    A dull start to the day with a thick mist hugging the valley sides and a tad over 6°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    1. Morning Bob,

      Try not to eat too late in the evening , and drink less tea.

      Moh has the same problem , hardly anything during the day, but increased outflow at night .

      He is also Type 2 diabetes , takes metformin

      Are your ankles swollen?

      1. I have 3 biscuits and a mug of tea in bed every night, I sleep ok but the cat gets me up at 4am to be let out
        I refuse to take Metformin as I don’t want to spend my life on the bog

        1. I keep a one litre bucket by my bedside.
          Walking around in the night is something i avoid as i have had several falls in the past.

    2. Tried a last Kalms night and it worked. The bottle says take four but I took one. Google to check it doesn’t interact with medications you are on. Good stuff. Valerian.

  20. A recipe for more mixed marriages re illegals looking for permanency?

    ‘Cheaper marriage fees would help to combat epidemic of loneliness’
    The Centre for Social Justice says it makes financial sense for the Government to encourage couples on low incomes to tie the knot

    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    7 May 2024 • 6:02am https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/07/loneliness-cheaper-marriage-costs-epidemic-post-covid-ids/

    Marriage fees should be reduced by the Government to combat an epidemic of post-Covid loneliness, a think tank has said.

    Research by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), founded by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, found that 60 per cent of people felt lonely most, often or some of the time, with its prevalence having increased by five per cent since the pandemic.

    Loneliness was highest among adults aged 18 to 24, where seven in 10 said they had experienced the condition at least some of the time. This compared with under half of those aged over 65.

    People cohabiting were about half as likely to be lonely as their single peers and married people were even less likely than cohabitees to be lonely.

    In its Lonely Nation report, published on Tuesday, the CSJ recommended the Government should encourage people to form relationships and marry by discounting the administrative, legal and booking fees for weddings for couples in relative or absolute low income up to £550 per wedding.

    “Receiving the discount would be contingent on participating in a marriage preparation course. This would help people to form stable and secure long-term couple relationships which are predictive of low levels of loneliness,” said the CSJ.

    “We also ask the Government to identify incentives to separate or live apart in the way that benefits are administered or by the way the fiscal system interacts with couple households.”

    Marriage became less important
    Taken together, the annual cost would be about £35 million, a fraction of the estimated £2.5 billion price of loneliness to employers alone through time taken off for illness, poor mental health and lower productivity.

    Half of adults agreed that marriage had become less important, leading to more loneliness, with only 28 per cent disagreeing. In 2023 fewer adults were married than not for the first time.

    In the poll of 2,000 adults commissioned by the CSJ, half said that marriage was important and that the Government should offer more financial support to couples. Only 32 per cent disagreed.

    The CSJ also proposed a government family office with a dedicated minister for family and a review of the tax system.

    Josh Nicholson, a CSJ senior researcher, said: “Helping more people to get married by subsidising the bill for those on the lowest incomes offers significant health, social and economic benefits for them and the taxpayer.

    “Loneliness is a rapidly growing problem with more than 30 million people in the UK feeling lonely at least some of the time.

    “Our research confirms that family relationships, and particularly marriage, are the best defence as well as providing many more benefits over the long term.”

    June Greenway
    20 HRS AGO
    What a load of rubbish. The legal fees for a couple to get married/form a civil partnership in a civil ceremony, just them with two witnesses in a Registration Office is: £127 – made up from: £35 for each Notice of Marriage/Notice of Civil Partnership and £57 for the ceremony itself including a Marriage/Civil Partnership certificate. These fees are laid down by the General Register Office. I do this every single day as a Registration Officer in Somerset. EDITED

    Reply by Ken Anderson.

    KA

    Ken Anderson
    7 HRS AGO
    Well done June. Facts straight from the horses mouth (excuse the pun, I’m sure that you’re more of a pony!!)

    Comment by Graham Tuer.

    GT

    Graham Tuer
    21 HRS AGO
    I thought you lived together first, then got married. Hardly a lonely arrangement. As usual, these pointless bodies trying to justify their existence.

    Comment by Ariadne Webb.

    AW

    Ariadne Webb
    23 HRS AGO
    Not sure that this premise is accurate. Most of these “lonely” people have an iPhone which costs more than the fees for a marriage. We have a generation that have learned to take and not give, marriage is about being able to do both.

  21. A recipe for more mixed marriages re illegals looking for permanency?

    ‘Cheaper marriage fees would help to combat epidemic of loneliness’
    The Centre for Social Justice says it makes financial sense for the Government to encourage couples on low incomes to tie the knot

    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    7 May 2024 • 6:02am https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/07/loneliness-cheaper-marriage-costs-epidemic-post-covid-ids/

    Marriage fees should be reduced by the Government to combat an epidemic of post-Covid loneliness, a think tank has said.

    Research by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), founded by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, found that 60 per cent of people felt lonely most, often or some of the time, with its prevalence having increased by five per cent since the pandemic.

    Loneliness was highest among adults aged 18 to 24, where seven in 10 said they had experienced the condition at least some of the time. This compared with under half of those aged over 65.

    People cohabiting were about half as likely to be lonely as their single peers and married people were even less likely than cohabitees to be lonely.

    In its Lonely Nation report, published on Tuesday, the CSJ recommended the Government should encourage people to form relationships and marry by discounting the administrative, legal and booking fees for weddings for couples in relative or absolute low income up to £550 per wedding.

    “Receiving the discount would be contingent on participating in a marriage preparation course. This would help people to form stable and secure long-term couple relationships which are predictive of low levels of loneliness,” said the CSJ.

    “We also ask the Government to identify incentives to separate or live apart in the way that benefits are administered or by the way the fiscal system interacts with couple households.”

    Marriage became less important
    Taken together, the annual cost would be about £35 million, a fraction of the estimated £2.5 billion price of loneliness to employers alone through time taken off for illness, poor mental health and lower productivity.

    Half of adults agreed that marriage had become less important, leading to more loneliness, with only 28 per cent disagreeing. In 2023 fewer adults were married than not for the first time.

    In the poll of 2,000 adults commissioned by the CSJ, half said that marriage was important and that the Government should offer more financial support to couples. Only 32 per cent disagreed.

    The CSJ also proposed a government family office with a dedicated minister for family and a review of the tax system.

    Josh Nicholson, a CSJ senior researcher, said: “Helping more people to get married by subsidising the bill for those on the lowest incomes offers significant health, social and economic benefits for them and the taxpayer.

    “Loneliness is a rapidly growing problem with more than 30 million people in the UK feeling lonely at least some of the time.

    “Our research confirms that family relationships, and particularly marriage, are the best defence as well as providing many more benefits over the long term.”

    June Greenway
    20 HRS AGO
    What a load of rubbish. The legal fees for a couple to get married/form a civil partnership in a civil ceremony, just them with two witnesses in a Registration Office is: £127 – made up from: £35 for each Notice of Marriage/Notice of Civil Partnership and £57 for the ceremony itself including a Marriage/Civil Partnership certificate. These fees are laid down by the General Register Office. I do this every single day as a Registration Officer in Somerset. EDITED

    Reply by Ken Anderson.

    KA

    Ken Anderson
    7 HRS AGO
    Well done June. Facts straight from the horses mouth (excuse the pun, I’m sure that you’re more of a pony!!)

    Comment by Graham Tuer.

    GT

    Graham Tuer
    21 HRS AGO
    I thought you lived together first, then got married. Hardly a lonely arrangement. As usual, these pointless bodies trying to justify their existence.

    Comment by Ariadne Webb.

    AW

    Ariadne Webb
    23 HRS AGO
    Not sure that this premise is accurate. Most of these “lonely” people have an iPhone which costs more than the fees for a marriage. We have a generation that have learned to take and not give, marriage is about being able to do both.

    1. I agree. The barrier to relationship is cultural not financial, with togetherness being pushed over and over and over and over as abusive, with no credence given to harmonious relationships, especially between indigenous men and women. In the past, it was people of my age (late sixties) who had given up ever finding a soulmate; now it seems this is true among the young and increasingly the middle-aged, who seem wedded more to their smartphones and to Starbucks than they are to each other.

      If it were about money, more people would be living together, since it is cheaper.

    2. Maybe 50-50 financial responsibility for children in the event of divorce and an end to spousal support might do more for marriage?

    3. Marriage fees preventing marriage? Bollocks. If you can’t pay, live in sin, it’s not a crime (AFAIK).
      Unrealistic expectations of marriage don’t help. And blaming your spouse for any shortcomings.
      For my 2 lads, even finding a lass who wants to pair up is impossible. So, looking like my hope for a Granddad-ship is not to be.

        1. Advert in Farmers Weekly ” Farmer looking for a homely wife who can help on farm. Must have own tractor – please send picture of tractor”

    4. A lone woman with children gets a flat and benefits. The father also gets a flat and benefits which he sublets. Those are the financial reasons for not getting married.

    5. What’s a friggin ‘Think Tank’ ?
      A new version of a septic tank ?
      No lid ?

    6. We got married last year, minimum requirements etc, and I thought it was even cheaper than that. The meal at a nice restaurant that evening with 5 friends and family certainly cost a lot more than the marriage.

      1. When we got married in 1968, we were both busy with our service careers , and Moh was here there and everywhere .

        We did what most RN couples did , licence , Register office at town hall , friends , family and a delicious pub meal , bubbly cake etc
        We didn’t want the tradition of RN uniforms , but we used Moh’s sword to cut the cake !

        The whole event cost us £90 including the licence ..

        It was a grand happy event and very well behaved !

    1. I used to attend junior schools and give cycling proficiency instruction to youngsters. Like everything else in this modern world of self-absorption, such a concept would be deemed archaic.

    3. Interesting how none of the pedestrians didn’t even bother to look at the cyclists on the ground.
      They might have thought it was Vine.

  23. Good day all and 77th troopers,

    Again a bit misty to start but blue skies above McPhee Towers. Some low cloud, wind South-East veering South-West, 10℃ rising to 20℃.

    Last night, we watched a repeat of Jeremy Clarkson’s programme about the disaster of Arctic convoy PQ17 on BBC4. SWMBO’s father had been a merchant navy ship’s officer in WW2 and had sailed in both Atlantic and Arctic convoys. He survived a torpedoing. His ship went down and he was adrift in a lifeboat on the North Atlantic swell for 11 days before being picked up by the Nantucket Coast Guard. He spent several months in hospital in Nantucket before his repatriation and further recuperative hospital time. It ended his participation in the wartime convoys.

    Why do I write this? It’s because when Clarkson ended SWMBO switched over instead of switching off as we normally do once we have viewed a chosen programme. Readers, we subjected ourselves, locked in horror-struck fascination, to several minutes of the Eurovision Song Contest. If you want to know where Western civilisation ends, it ends in the Eurovision Song Contest, the Great Fête of the utter degradation of humanity. They are all, performers and whooping, cheering audience alike, Satan’s children.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff451896bc086e84fb218a48140723fa502ed8b9007d513fe1dd4a1104d66be1.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c80cfe0de17188cbcdc2c79df41522526aad421f3079ffc92dacc0f491b56984.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/eurovision-song-contest-2024-first-semi-final-review/

    I ask myself why does the DT even report on this in any detail? It has to be as a terrible warning to the world, nothing less.

    At least there is a re-run of Kenneth Clark’s great 1969 oeuvre, Civilisation, also on BBC4 and available on i-Player for over a year. We’ll be starting at Episode 1 shortly.

    1. We caught the middle of it , my goodness , it was revoltingly disgusting and obscene , noise , gyrations and talentless.

      Why is this rubbish broadcast on the BBC, and lauded weeks before?

      I think the BBC are deluded and immoral for applauding black culture , Euro trash and a culture that is more akin to jungle bunnies music .

      We turned it off, switched to GB news which was just as raucous. The only one worth listening to on GB news is JR-M .

    2. I didn’t know Clarkson had made a programme about PQ17. I must find it and watch it.
      One of my earliest memories of the history of WW2 was from reading a book “PQ17 – Convoy to Hell”, and that burned itself into my mind – such that, although the brain cells are dying at an awful rate, I still remember every word of that little paperback, and still have it.
      Good on your Lady’s Father – all respect to the man.
      It’s Liberation Day here in Norway today. We should all, individually, express our thanks to men and women like him, whilst we still can.
      Respect.

      1. Clarkson is grossly under-used as a military historian – he deserves a series or three, and carries a splendid mix of gravitas, bravado and gung-ho adventurism that brings the subject to life like no other commentator. It would make him a national treasure as well as a millionaire (and who wants to be one of those?).

        1. I think he’s already a millionaire several times over, curtesy of Top Gear and Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon TV..

        2. I watched the documentary on PQ17 presented by Jeremy Clarkson a good many years ago, and I thought it was superb. He’s a really good presenter for that sort of programme, and I’d really like to see him do more of them. He’s also done one on the raid on the dry dock at St Nazaire: The Greatest Raid of All. Well worth watching

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCMCr2Kh1wI&t=34s

      2. We watched Clarkson too – quite a fascinating programme, especially as my uncle was in the RN and served on several convoys bound for Russia. Terrible conditions!

  24. Good day all and 77th troopers,

    Again a bit misty to start but blue skies above McPhee Towers. Some low cloud, wind South-East veering South-West, 10℃ rising to 20℃.

    Last night, we watched a repeat of Jeremy Clarkson’s programme about the disaster of Arctic convoy PQ17 on BBC4. SWMBO’s father had been a merchant navy ship’s officer in WW2 and had sailed in both Atlantic and Arctic convoys. He survived a torpedoing. His ship went down and he was adrift in a lifeboat on the North Atlantic swell for 11 days before being picked up by the Nantucket Coast Guard. He spent several months in hospital in Nantucket before his repatriation and further recuperative hospital time. It ended his participation in the wartime convoys.

    Why do I write this? It’s because when Clarkson ended SWMBO switched over instead of switching off as we normally do once we have viewed a chosen programme. Readers, we subjected ourselves, locked in horror-struck fascination, to several minutes of the Eurovision Song Contest. If you want to know where Western civilisation ends, it ends in the Eurovision Song Contest, the Great Fête of the utter degradation of humanity. They are all, performers and whooping, cheering audience alike, Satan’s children.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff451896bc086e84fb218a48140723fa502ed8b9007d513fe1dd4a1104d66be1.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c80cfe0de17188cbcdc2c79df41522526aad421f3079ffc92dacc0f491b56984.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/eurovision-song-contest-2024-first-semi-final-review/

    I ask myself why does the DT even report on this in any detail? It has to be as a terrible warning to the world, nothing less.

    At least there is a re-run of Kenneth Clark’s great 1969 oeuvre, Civilisation, also on BBC4 and available on i-Player for over a year. We’ll be starting at Episode 1 shortly.

  25. Good day all and 77th troopers,

    Again a bit misty to start but blue skies above McPhee Towers. Some low cloud, wind South-East veering South-West, 10℃ rising to 20℃.

    Last night, we watched a repeat of Jeremy Clarkson’s programme about the disaster of Arctic convoy PQ17 on BBC4. SWMBO’s father had been a merchant navy ship’s officer in WW2 and had sailed in both Atlantic and Arctic convoys. He survived a torpedoing. His ship went down and he was adrift in a lifeboat on the North Atlantic swell for 11 days before being picked up by the Nantucket Coast Guard. He spent several months in hospital in Nantucket before his repatriation and further recuperative hospital time. It ended his participation in the wartime convoys.

    Why do I write this? It’s because when Clarkson ended SWMBO switched over instead of switching off as we normally do once we have viewed a chosen programme. Readers, we subjected ourselves, locked in horror-struck fascination, to several minutes of the Eurovision Song Contest. If you want to know where Western civilisation ends, it ends in the Eurovision Song Contest, the Great Fête of the utter degradation of humanity. They are all, performers and whooping, cheering audience alike, Satan’s children.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff451896bc086e84fb218a48140723fa502ed8b9007d513fe1dd4a1104d66be1.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c80cfe0de17188cbcdc2c79df41522526aad421f3079ffc92dacc0f491b56984.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/eurovision-song-contest-2024-first-semi-final-review/

    I ask myself why does the DT even report on this in any detail? It has to be as a terrible warning to the world, nothing less.

    At least there is a re-run of Kenneth Clark’s great 1969 oeuvre, Civilisation, also on BBC4 and available on i-Player for over a year. We’ll be starting at Episode 1 shortly.

  26. Am I an Islamophobe? Yes, for these reasons
    Kathy Gyngell: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/am-i-an-islamophobe-yes-for-these-reasons/

    BTL

    Islamophobia assumes that the phobia is irrational.

    If the phobia is not irrational then those accused of Islamophobia are those who are quite rationally afraid of Islam taking over the whole of Britain followed by much of Europe. Instead of using the word as an insult the BBC and the MSM should ask people why they are afraid of or averse to Islam.

    1. The Gyngell article incorporates the following. Stig of this parish disputes whether the list of mayors is correct but the other points are not in dispute.

      The Mayor of London is a Muslim. The mayor of Birmingham is a Muslim. The Mayor of Leeds is Muslim. Mayor of Blackburn – Muslim. The mayor of Sheffield is a Muslim. The mayor of Oxford is a Muslim. The mayor of Luton is a Muslim. The mayor of Oldham is Muslim.
      he mayor of Rochdale is Muslim

      All this was achieved by only 4 million Muslims out of 66 million people in England: Todayay there are over 3,000 mosques in England.
      There are over 130 sharia courts. There are more than 50 Sharia Councils. 78 percent of Muslim women do not work, receive state support + free accommodation. 63 percent of Muslims do not work, receive state support + free housing. State-supported Muslim Families with an average of 6 to 8 children receive free accommodation. Now every school in the UK is required to teach lessons about Islam.

      Has anyone ever been given an opportunity to vote for this?

      1. As that great Liberal Democrat (who curiously is not a Muslim) Lynne, now Baroness, Featherstone once said about public consultation “you will get this whether you like it or not; all we are interested in is how to implement it most effectively”.

    2. should ask people why..

      No and triple no. Don’t indulge.
      It’s now gone beyond any pretence of discussion. Debates are futile. We can see in the USA the two sides are at each others throats and on the brink of war. They may share the same wordies & language but they don’t share the same meanings.. they even have two legal systems.
      and one of the protagonists merrily goes about their business carrying two opposing views in their brainwashed heads.. and calls you evil for not playing along.

    3. This is why I do not suffer from “islamophobia”. I do not have an irrational fear of it/them [any ‘fear’ is completely rational].

      I suffer from islamomisia, which is an utter hatred of the damn religion and its adherents.

  27. 387127+ up ticks,

    I do not believe you could be accused of being far amiss in regards to total agreement with this comment.

    In my opinion it was to late when the first mosque was built in England,

    Islamist groups should not be dictating terms in this country
    Demands to Sir Keir Starmer from extremists must be resisted – and if he won’t do it, we’ll have our opportunity at the ballot box

    1. You might, but I cannot see any prospect of Dame Harriett being unseated where I vote, even despite a collapse in the Tory vote.

      1. 387127+ up ticks,

        Morning SE,

        I do agree, not with the quran resting betwixt the dispatch boxes in parliament , halal on the parliamentry canteen menu and WEF / NWO lab/lib/con ruling the political roost.

        ALL being given consent by a multitude of fools via a fake party name.

  28. Good morning! Started the day with a laugh. The newsreader on Radio 3, which sounded like a computer generated voice, has just announced that, “Last month was the warmest April on record”. You knew it was coming, didn’t you? Up whose arse did they stick the thermometer?

    3. Have you ever thought, as an employee of the Corporation, Sue, of approaching your bosses and asking them the real reasons why they now routinely permit the broadcasting of such utter — easily disprovable — bollocks?

      They may be puppets footsoldiers of the “Great Reset”, but Shirley they could not sack you for simple curiosity.

    4. I just read a Sky report on that – it did mention the real cause – ie the El Nino weather system which has caused horrendous flooding in Kenya and Tanzania – but just in passing, while emphasising ‘climate change ‘ as being caused by human emissions.

    5. High Sue, see my post on where that came from. It’s the EU in this case and the wording of their report demonstrates clearly that it definitely wasn’t.

      Might as well have been a thermometer inserted in an inappropriate location for testing weather temperatures.

  30. I have a helpful little app on my laptop telling me the temperature of my central processor, and when it is time to open things up and clear out the fluff.

    Algorithms, especially following an upgrade, do tend to heat things up somewhat.

  33. I think he’s already a millionaire several times over, curtesy of Top Gear and Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon TV..

  34. 387127+ up ticks,

    Morning Bob,
    If we knew then what we realise now, it would have been closed, on health & safety grounds in 1889.

  35. ‘My friends just roll their eyes’: why long Covid is still a dirty term

    Dismissed as ‘whiplash for the work-shy’, the aftermath of coronavirus can be debilitating for some.

    The Daily Telegraph 8 May 2024By Miranda Levy

    Neelam loved nothing more than taking sunrise walks along the Manchester Ship Canal. But, since catching Covid-19 in August 2022, she only has the energy to see her beloved skyline every three weeks – often paying for the exertion with fatigue so severe, she’s unable to leave her bed for days.

    “I got Covid, and I never got better,” says the medical writer, 34. “If I exert myself even a tiny bit, I’m so exhausted that I can’t even sit on my sofa: I have to lie down. I can’t watch Netflix: using my laptop requires too much concentration.”

    Neelam now works fully remotely and barely sees friends. “I tried going into the office on Fridays, but was so exhausted, it took me the whole weekend to recover,” she says. “On the rare occasions I now go to a restaurant, I have to sit outside and only go during the quietest periods. I never venture out without wearing a mask, as I’m so terrified of catching Covid again.”

    For most of us, the days of lateral flow tests, hand sanitiser and standing 6ft apart are a distant fever dream. But not for Neelam and her fellow Covid long-haulers. “The Government ignores us,” she says. “Most frustratingly of all, the medical profession still won’t take us seriously.”

    Long Covid is a term used to describe ongoing symptoms of Covid-19, or new symptoms that develop after an infection. According to research released last week by the Office for National Statistics, an estimated two million people – that’s 3.3 per cent of England and Scotland’s population – are currently experiencing “self-reported” long Covid symptoms.

    One and a half million of these said their lives were adversely affected by their illness with almost 400,000 reporting that their ability to undertake dayto-day activities had been “limited a lot”.

    Research conducted last year by the Government revealed that fatigue was the most common symptom of long Covid (reported by 72 per cent), followed by difficulty concentrating (51 per cent), muscle ache (49 per cent) and shortness of breath (48 per cent).

    The term long Covid is familiar to all of us, yet the illness itself remains something of a medical mystery. “Long Covid is going the same way as ME [myalgic encephalomyelitis],” says Nigel Speight, a consultant paediatrician. “For a large number of years, GPs abdicated their responsibility for it because it wasn’t an ‘ology’ and the psychiatrists invaded the empty territory. Once they made it seem controversial and ‘no one knows if it’s real’, doctors sat on the fence and pretended it didn’t exist.”

    ME is a complex and chronic post-viral fatigue syndrome, and a diagnosis has been considered controversial. A 2020 literature review found that “a third to a half of all GPs did not accept it as a genuine clinical entity and, even when they did, they lacked confidence in diagnosing or managing it.”

    Dr Chris Smith is a consultant virologist at Queen’s College, Cambridge, and presenter of the Naked Scientists podcast. “Given the broad range of symptoms, from brain fog to fatigue, muscle pains and signs of nerve damage, it’s likely that long Covid is not one single condition but an umbrella term uniting a host of syndromes, all with different mechanisms, outcomes and best treatments,” he says.

    “The problem is further compounded by the fact there’s no reliable test yet for long Covid.” (The same is true for ME, which does not have a diagnostic test.) “This means that getting an accurate diagnosis remains a challenge.”

    Dr Smith talks about the “unappetising prospect” that claims of long Covid may “become the occupational health virological equivalent of a whiplash for the work-shy, making genuine cases of long Covid harder for victims to defend. Let’s hope not.”

    Long Covid sufferers are used to being told they are malingerers, that their condition is “just an excuse” or that it’s all in their heads. Conspiracy theorists on X (formerly Twitter) delight in telling them they are suffering from “Long Vax” – that their symptoms are a result of the vaccinations, rather than a reaction to the virus.

    For campaigners such as Ondine Sherwood, who runs a charity and support organisation called Long Covid SOS, this widespread view is frustrating and upsetting. “I can’t understand how a post-viral illness attracts such scepticism and nastiness,” says Sherwood, who had suspected long Covid for six months in 2020 (her initial illness came before tests were available).

    “As with ME, doctors were not prepared for the aftermath of

    Covid, and told their patients: ‘Oh, it just goes away.’ Our recent GP survey showed that more than 62 per cent of long Covid patients received no practical help from their GPs and 9 per cent were told their symptoms were down to anxiety.”

    Neelam had been vaccinated three times when she caught Covid while visiting her parents in India. When her utter exhaustion showed no signs of abating after a month, she saw a healthcare assistant at her GP’s surgery who told her that “this happens a lot; you will get better in a few weeks”. But the fatigue continued. One afternoon, Neelam was unable to squeeze on to a packed tram: the 15-minute walk home left her in bed for four days.

    Sent away by her GP again in January 2023, Neelam insisted on a referral to a long Covid clinic. It took a year for her appointment to come around. “I told them I wanted to tackle my physical symptoms, but all they did was discuss my mental health,” she says. “I eventually received a letter diagnosing me with anxiety. Then I was offered an appointment with Occupational Health about how to manage my workload – which has never been the problem. I was upset and frustrated. If the doctors don’t believe me, what’s the point?”

    None of this is helped by Neelam’s friends, who are sceptical about her illness. “Many of them refuse to believe me or don’t understand,” she says. “‘They roll their eyes when I ask them to do a lateral flow test before meeting me. The other day I mentioned long Covid in a WhatsApp group and everyone went silent for ages, until another friend changed the subject entirely and the conversation started again.”

    Determined to unlock the secret of her physical symptoms, which ‘People think the pandemic is over, but I live it every single second’ include a fast heart rate, Neelam is now under the care of a private cardiologist. She takes medication to slow her pulse, which, she says, “helps a bit. But even the cardiologist was asking about my stress levels and my anxiety. They are trying to find reasons for my condition that don’t exist.”

    Like most others with long Covid, Neelam is desperate to regain the life she knew before its onset, but campaigners repeatedly point to the lack of research in treating the condition. “The Government boasts about £50million in funding, but that was all spent in 2021,” says Sherwood. “Since then, long Covid has lost out to other conditions.

    “But when the Government complains about economic inactivity, they never mention long Covid,” she says. “Two million people are impacted – a third have had long Covid for more than three years – and you can’t force people back to work. We need treatments, we need interventions and this won’t happen without the Government investing at least £100million in research.”

    Some studies are continuing, such as the Wilco (Working out the Immunology of Long Covid) study at Imperial College London, which examines the immune responses of patients who have had Covid. One theory behind the illness is that the immune system – activated by the Covid virus – fails to switch off, with sufferers’ symptoms being attributed to this. Sherwood points to studies conducted by Yale University and in the Netherlands. “All this research could lead to treatments, but it’s so far off,” she says. “Trials take a long time.”

    Neelam used to follow every twist and turn in scientific research: now she is simply too exhausted. Her main concern is to avoid catching Covid again, as well as managing her constant fatigue.

    “None of this was on my radar two years ago,” says Neelam. “But, these days, my mind is constantly doing these calculations – how busy will the tram be? Is there a bench on the way to the Co-op? It’s exhausting. People think the pandemic is over, but I live it every single second.

    The “covid” coronavirus, SARS-Cov2, is a virus in the same family as coryza (the common cold) and influenza. When people contract a bad cold or influenza they do not suffer “long cold” or “long flu” afterwards. They suffer catarrh!

    1. Post viral fatigue is a valid disorder, and not just a state of mind for the workshy. I know, since I have a mild version of it, and I suspect so do a lot of people underperforming with no proper explanation why. I suspect even Boris Johnson never got back his vigour he had before he caught Covid and was able to drum up a landslide.

      I suggest though that wearing a mask is the very last thing a sufferer should be doing. What is critical is the load of virus, dead or alive, that sets off an immune response, and a mask intensifies it just at the point of breathing in. There is a lot to be said for fresh air and sunshine.

      Vigorous exercise and hard work is counterproductive, and does lead to days of exhaustion. However, this also leads to a deterioration of general fitness, which is even more damaging. An exercise routine therefore has to be carefully managed to optimise fitness whilst not triggering exhaustion. This can be built up systematically until ideally a heavy workout or a full day’s work will not trigger a bad response, and then this person is in remission. It then becomes a matter simply of maintaining general fitness.

    2. Post viral fatigue syndromes are nothing new. But she probably has immune system damage from the jabs.

      1. I refused my last couple of boosters, reasoning that my immune system knew very well what Covid was, and could deal with it, unless it was overloaded by a booster.

        1. I have not required any ‘booster’ since I flatly refused the initial injection of an unknown, untested Frankenstein potion of whatever.

          The government’s (and the WHO’s) mind games did not work on me.

          1. You are right in that none of these vaccines had been properly trialled, and so much of tackling Covid would be worthy of Dr Frankenstein. Nobody seemed to know what they were doing with an ailment with the viciousness of influenza and the slipperiness of the common cold. Folk had to decide which old wife was to be believed.

            There is a post above about the danger of Astro-Zeneca causing lethal blood clots in some. I had that jab in February 2021, and have to say that I responded well to it.

            I was laid low ever since getting Covid in November 2019, before anyone knew what it was, and was exhausted for well over a year. What I noticed after my A-Z jab was that my system seemed afterwards to recognise the virus, and I started to produce phlegm, which I could cough up and dispose. It also meant I could do a certain amount of work or exercise without being laid up for days.

            I had no positive response to the Pfizer boosters, and did indeed go down with Omicron, when it was around.

          2. Many I know report that pattern of events, Jeremy. I had the same in late Jan 2020, as did most of the people I knew. I got an all over body rash, but no fatigue. I get more fatigued now, but it’s a small relative effect compared to what I was before 2020. That might be as much due to age; I cannot tell as it’s not dramatic.

            The thing I noticed is that I got all that long before the two AZ jabs that I took. I didn’t take any boosters, because the jabs clearly had no effect whatsoever. Nada, zilch, no change whatsoever. I had to take two official COVID tests during 2020, two before the jabs, two late in the year and also took two voluntary emanating from university scientific research programmes into it. Not once have I ever tested positive. Never wore the face knickers, either.

            I personally think that the virus affects the immune system and little else, and that once they start getting around to doing proper science again, should the politicians ever take their grubby paws off the subject that is, then that’s what they’ll discover. That is of course the true question over what a lab in China was up to.

          3. #metoo.
            Last flu jab I had, some 15 years ago, flattened me much more than the flu ever did, so (since everyone was saying then that Covid = influenza), I did without. Had a dose of Covid, recovered quickly, no worries. Nothing (jabs or illness) since.

          4. I’ve only ever had one flu jab, a freebie from a travelling medical team that descended upon my workplace when I was an apprentice (around 1970). Within 15 minutes of receiving said jab I passed out on the workshop floor! I have never felt inclined to repeat the situation.

          5. About that year, I was working with a ward sister who had the ‘flu jab.
            Afterwards – when she returned to work – she said she had never felt so ill in her life.

    3. The picture had her in a mask. Really, there’s no helping people who think a mask can help. My poor mum thinks a bit of cloth must be able to stop the virus particles getting through. Well maybe it’s me who’s wrong but I just don’t see how bits of cloth help.

    6. “Trials take a long time.”

      Clearly they don’t. How much “trial” did the so-called vaccination get? 😄

    7. “Neelam had been vaccinated three times when she caught Covid…”
      Well, that went well, didn’t it!

  36. Back on form today

    Wordle 1,054 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. That’s a serious leap from the second try to the solution.

      Well done sir.

  37. When the Islamists take over we shall all be suffering from Qatar.

  39. Astra Zeneca Covid vaccines removed from market due to severe health concerns. The Telegraph has placed the story near the top of the page but it is not emphasised as the headline it should be. The Times does not mention it (unless it is in the less emphasised sections much lower down). The Daily Mail mentions it as about the fourth item down at the moment but in a smallish box The Express mentions it about a quarter of the page down. Apparently, Stormy Daniels is deemed more newsworthy according to this nest of august newspapers. Of course, as the day goes on, these articles on the dangerous Astra Zeneca vaccine will change ranking positions. But I bet the story goes down rather than up. After all, Prince Harry visiting the UK is deemed far more newsworthy. The press is part of the problem. None of the newspapers give the article, about AZ, anywhere near like the emphasis it should have been given.

    1. Excellent post, although I’d caution against describing the “august” organs as “news” papers. You could come across as a propagandist, jellybee.

      1. In this increasingly Alice Through the Looking Glass world, I probably am.

    2. It pleased me to hear the comics on Headliners on GBN last night refer to Stormy Daniels as the well paid prostitute that she is and point out that Trump paid for sex before he was president and not during his presidency, unlike Bill Clinton and others who are not judged by the same standards.

      1. The words hypocrisy and press linked in some sort of symbiosis? Heaven forfend!

    1. How does that work?

      Being sacked for having an opinion would have me Sueing (no pun intended) the arse off them.

      1. Well there is a lot of risk in that, not to mention worry and financial cost

      2. If I worked in a modern office etc. I would carry a tape recorder at all times. Especially, if sent on one of these woke courses. I think it our civic duty to do so.

  41. Morning all 🙂😊
    Misty and murky this morning. Very much so 3 hours ago. Once again not what they forecast yesterday morning.
    It seems to me that our parliament has been stepping up anti semitic feelings with the facts that they don’t care and have no idea who they are allowing into our country and have obviously no intention of stopping it all.
    It’s too late now from what we can already see on our streets from unknown forgien flag waving invaders.
    And the government’s wrecking programme continues on an hourly basis.

    1. Hamas is already here. Several of their retired leaders live in social housing in the capital. They will be heavily involved with the organisation of these marches. They will be using the Imams to organise the troops. There are no moderates. All will join. On pain of death.

    2. Before I can consider that all this bile against the pro-Palestinian marchers is not an endeavour by the Netanyahu Government to force on us acceptance of their clearance programme, by undermining our democratic processes and quite possibly our law, two things need to be cleared up:

      1. Antisemitism is the persecution of Jews because they are Jews, not because of a special military operation in Gaza.

      2. Not all those protesting at said special military operation are supporters of Hamas or even Muslims. Many are Christians, secular Socialists and some are even Jews.

      1. Well we all know what politicians are like JM. Where ever they are. But what needs to be remembered in this case, Israel didn’t start this war. And hamas knew full well what the outcome would be.
        It’s not the first time this has happened.

    2. But wait. All this is Russian propaganda and Putin is Hitler!!!

    1. It never has. It has had a strong anti-British/anti-English ideology from the very start. There is a dedicated propaganda indoctrination centre in Scotland, just north of the Forth bridge, somewhere near Inverkeithing. I wonder if Sue knows of it?

    1. “People from minority communities want to live near a mosque, near halal food, near places where there are other people like them, and they are priced out because there are not enough houses, so we are going to build at least 40,000 council homes and 6,000 rent control homes”.

      Building ghettos aka ‘Muslim areas’ – “You can’t come here dressed like that, this is a Muslim area”. What are they going to do when there are no whiteys left to pay for the Muslims on benefit?

  45. I was sneezed on by a mannerless lout in Stansted airport on my last visit to the UK in November 2019.

    I suffered from flu-like symptoms for three weeks there after on my return to Sweden. At the time nothing was known (or had been reported) about the ensuing “Covid” hysteria. Whatever it was that I contracted will remain, forever, a mystery but I was never, at any stage thereafter, of a mind to subject myself to any inoculation.

    I have not suffered from any viral infection (or its aftermath) since that time, despite not wearing a face-nappy nor confining myself to household imprisonment.

  47. Wearing a cloth face-nappy to protect oneself against the invasion of the body by a virus is as effective as standing inside a tennis court as protection against being shot by someone standing outside using a machine gun.

    What no one (anywhere) had the intelligence to consider was the fact that the tear-ducts (which drain into the nasal cavity) provide an easy and readily-available conduit for viruses. Yet no one suggested that we all wear goggles.

    1. I did see very early on a scientist suggest that the minimum protection ought to be a full respirator given the known dimensions of the virus.

      Needless to say, that one fell into the memory hole.

    1. Nearly eight milliard* people have a negative IQ in this day-and-age.

      [*I refuse to succumb to the American warped (innumerate) version of a billion!]

      1. The American use of billion was clear enough for Caroline when she did translation work from American into French because a billion became un milliard but when she translated from French to American un milliard became a billion..

        This was tricky to translate into English 35 years ago because some people thought a milliard was was 100,000 and others wrongly thought it was a billion.

        1. Here is the correct (“long scale”) method of numbering in the decimal system, which lasted for millennia until the Yanks decide to instruct the rest of the world in (“short scale”) innumeracy … and the rest of the world, like sheep, followed:

          1 = One [10⁰]
          10 = Ten [10¹]
          100 = One Hundred [10²]
          1,000 = One Thousand [10³]
          10,000 = Ten Thousand [10⁴]
          100,000 = One Hundred Thousand [10⁵]
          1,000,000 = One Million [10⁶]
          10,000,000 = Ten Million [10⁷]
          100,000,000 = One Hundred Million [10⁸]
          1,000,000,000 = One Thousand Million (or One Milliard) [10⁹]
          10,000,000,000 = Ten Thousand Million (or Ten Milliard) [10¹⁰]
          100,000,000,000 = One Hundred Thousand Million (or One Hundred Milliard) [10¹¹]
          1,000,000,000,000 – One Billion [10¹²]
          10,000,000,000,000 = Ten Billion [10¹³]
          100,000,000,000,000 = One Hundred Billion [10¹⁴]
          1,000,000,000,000,000 = One Thousand Billion [10¹⁵]
          10,000,000,000,000,000 = Ten Thousand Billion [10¹⁶]
          100,000,000,000,000,000 = One Hundred Thousand Billion [10¹⁷]
          1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = One Trillion [10¹⁸]
          1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
          000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
          000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
          000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
          000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
          000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
          000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
          000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 = One Centillion. [10⁶⁰⁰]

      2. Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions:

        1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or 109 (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of English; it has long been established in American English and has since become common in Britain and other English-speaking countries as well.[1][2][3]

        American English adopted the short scale definition from the French (it enjoyed usage in France at the time, alongside the long-scale definition).[4] The United Kingdom used the long scale billion until 1974, when the government officially switched to the short scale, but since the 1950s the short scale had already been increasingly used in technical writing and journalism.[5]

        Milliard, another term for one thousand million, is extremely rare in English, but words similar to it are very common in other European languages.[6][7]

        America wins,😁😁😁😁😁

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip_v-qqKxrE

        1. Yes, Johnathan, I’m very much aware and fully appraised of the history of the term (see below).

          The very world ‘billion’ means bi-million (i.e. million million) to change it to ‘a thousand million’ was absurd on every etymological level.

          1. Don’t you know that famous song by Tina Turner. What’s etymology got to do with it?

      3. Except in extremis I refuse to use anything much originating in America, especially anything to do with philosophical thinking, language, conceptual, numbers or social mores. In fact I’m much the same when it comes to anything enforced by Napoleon Bonaparte, too. I do allow centigrade for the lower end of the temperature scale, but slip into degrees Fahrenheit once the sun starts to shine. I’m looking forward to 74⁰ later this month and very glad we are out of the 0⁰-10⁰ normal temperature range today.

        America has an overblown impression of its own importance as a leader in setting universal norms, both culturally and scientifically. It needs to get over itself. The billiard is simply irrelevant and no, Black Lives Matter no more or less than any other human life, etc.

  49. Conservative Party still in denial, then:

    “Rishi Sunak needs to win back Tory voters who have gone “on strike” because of the failure to curb immigration and tackle extremism”, former minister Robert Jenrick said.

    Tackling anti Semitism? As we already know, the government thinks extremism is the wrong sort of people from the far right minority while the real extremist majority are given a free pass to blow up arenas and knife people for failing to adopt sectarian belief systems, or for chasing Jews off the streets because they’re simply being “openly Jewish”.

    It is transparently clear that there’s no appetite for tackling anything. Gove responded by warning right-wing Tories against “comfort eating” by pursuing hardline policies that “make us feel good about ourselves”.

    Asked if the party should shift to the right, the Energy Secretary [Coutinho] told Times Radio: “I think what we need to do is to go where the country is.” I think her press sec probably leaned in after she was being asked that, “Dangerous question Minister, just give them some ‘holding-pattern’ wiffle-waffle’.

    So no. Thanks Michael, Clare, Rishi, Hunt, Cameroon et al, The Wets are still firmly and obviously in control, we recognise that. You’ll be tackling nothing except the problem of trying to belatedly convince ex Tories that you’re actually doing something good in office, for a change, instead.

  50. I had the misfortune to catch a snippet from beeboid news on Radio Hamas Four.

    “The BBC can reveal that weather records have been broken on every single day in the last year somewhere in the world because of climate change”

    Bet none of you knew that…

    1. If people would only engage brain they might realise what a meaningless statement that really is but at this stage I swear that if it was freezing and snowing outside and Big Brother on the Big Box told them it was a heatwave, many would be reaching for their sun cream.

      1. I expect he’s been waving his arms at the maps too vigoursly and fallen off the set.

    3. Hotter? Colder? Wetter? Drier? Cloudier?
      Not a helpful report from al-Beeb.

    4. “..somewhere in the world” – i.e. on a runway where jets have just taken off??

    5. I thought they were talking about global average sea temperatures.

  51. “April 2024 the hottest ever recorded, scientists have said.

    Data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service C3S show April 2024 was globally warmer than any previous April in records dating back to 1940, and 1.58C warmer than the estimated average for pre-industrial levels.”

    Ummm… wish I could’ve got some of that in Suffolk this past April.

    EU spews out propaganda, it seems. When it says “ever” it obviously means since “1940” and when it says “warmer than pre-industrial” it really means an “estimated” average of what they think they’d like it to have been for the purposes of comparison. I’d think a back of cigarette receptacle calculator was used.

    Is there any actual science over Climate Change going on? Anywhere?

    1. If it’s good enough for the hacks to be manipulated into believing….

      1. Believe? More like thirsty dogs looking for a drink. Pavlov has a lot to answer for.

    2. YES! It has been scientifically proven that the more any university department burbles on about Climate Change, the bigger the grant it gets from the taxpayer. QED.

      1. Spot on. That’s official. The UN, for example gives grants for research only towards research demonstrating the effects of anthropogenic CC and none, as far as I know towards investigating climate change.

  52. I’ve just heard it’s Sir David Attenborough’s
    98th birthday today. 🎶Happy birthday to you🎶 SDA.

  53. Signing off for now. Off down the M4 to Pembrokeshire for a few days.

    1. There is a very nice restaurant half way up the hill from the Tenby Harbour. Right hand side.
      Have a lovely time.

      1. One of my ancestors kept the White Lion in Tenby – we went and had a look a few years ago and it’s now the Royal Lion.

      2. One of my ancestors kept the White Lion in Tenby – we went and had a look a few years ago and it’s now the Royal Lion.

    2. Parents had a holiday flat in Saundersfoot for many years. Nice part of the world.

  54. I get back home and there seems to be another field of which ‘ Lib Dems ‘ have plans for building, gypsy parks or God knows what, they are supposed to wait until after the consultation period and meetings next Spring ( a year ) and I dubious looking people in our rural shop this morning.. oh and a dusky one walking up the lane. Soon it’ll not feel safe. Sorry for rattling on. Has Hertslass been around, she and I were chatting about something in relation to Nottl etc before I went walking in Sussex, it’s okay if she isn’t, I’ll try and catch her next time I’m around and hopefully she is so.

      1. There isn’t any urgency, we were talking about moving etc and Hertslass mentioned Nottlers having contact points away from the site, I don’t mind providing my Gmail at some point. It’s not anything to worry about .

        1. The Red Lion at Woking is a favourite for lunches. Excellent choice of food.

          1. Sounds delightful, I do enjoy good pub food usually rural. I’m not familiar with the entirety of Sussex, a late aunt used to live In Rye which was very nice 20 years ago but we’ve not been back since. One of my favourite high teas was at a pub in Sonning on Thames many years ago – there was champagne which was quite nice .

          2. The pub is at Horsell nr Woking. The first time i went to the village it looked as if the gene pool had improved markedly. A pleasant place. There is also an Italian Deli where you can get decent coffee and a cannoli.

        2. HL keeps a list of people who have provided their emails for private communication.

          1. Yes i know, she briefly mentioned it on Saturday when we were talking here on Nottl about various things, hopefully she’ll give me more info when we next catch up.

  55. Somebody knows something…

    AstraZeneca gets £3bn boost after withdrawing Covid vaccine
    Updated 1 minute ago

    10:16am

    The Anglo-Swedish drugs maker’s shares jumped by as much as 1.6pc – helping push the FTSE 100 to a new record high – after it said the vaccine was being removed from markets for commercial reasons.

    It said the vaccine was no longer being manufactured or supplied, having been superseded by updated vaccines that tackle new variants.

    However, it comes months after the pharmaceutical giant admitted for the first time in court documents that it can cause a rare and dangerous side effect.

    The vaccine can no longer be used in the European Union after the company voluntarily withdrew its “marketing authorisation”.

    The application to withdraw the vaccine was made on March 5 and came into effect on Tuesday.

  57. ‘Morning All

    Now here’s a revoloutionary thought……..

    Why are police not doing their jobs and tackling burglaries?

    Most burglaries are carried out by a small number of offenders. If

    they are put in prison then burglary rates will drop dramatically

    No shite Sherlock

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/05/08/why-are-police-not-doing-their-jobs-in-tackling-burglaries/

    Meanwhile

    https://twitter.com/ABridgen/status/1788092468010885624

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1af79bbd5632c7b445e52868adfd192ea0b644832a9ba53d19fa98f4c34aefd4.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b705fe560b1d4781f0be3975031cdae76b1d41c22dc3f1f4b9622c7b918f05a2.jpg

    1. Especially as police seem to have sufficient leisure to interview and threaten people who publish on Twitter and Facebook.

    1. I don’t follow Argentine politics – so do not know whether this chap is for real or just a joke.

      Can anyone enlighten me?

      2. If he is he’s not the sick joke all our parliamentarians have become.

      3. Ashesthandust might tell us of current affairs there. I’m hoping he’s for real.

        1. See.my reply to Bill above. I can’t offer any clarity, but can assure you he’s for real.

      4. As far as I know he’s agreed to differ over the Falklands and not disappeared even a single person. So far, so good at least.

        1. Apparently he keeps a photo of Margaret Thatcher in his office. He admires her a great deal.

      5. Oh, he’s for real. As well as the flamboyant showman side of his personality, he’s an economist. This rather confuses those whose mantra is ‘trust the experts’. Not that sort of expert!

        I have no idea whether the reported economics are kosher or not. On the ground, everything has become more expensive, but even Milei warned that it would be a hard couple of years trying to undo decades of damage.

        But the peso has held its own so far against the dollar, which is interesting. Even if it means anyone whose money is not in pesos (like me) is losing purchasing power.

        I have no idea whether to trust Milei, but he’s definitely real.

    2. Someone who has managed to accumulate massive personal wealth…somehow (scratches head).

    5. I know little about Zelensky and whether or not he’s a terrorist. I don’t have much inclination to find out more.

      1. He’s another one of those people who has become fabulously rich while receiving aid from the West. A thief.

  60. Not easy:
    Wordle 1,054 6/6

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

    2. Luck was on my side again

      Wordle 1,054 3/6

      🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Likewise…. got all the vowels and the key consonant in my two start words.

        Wordle 1,054 3/6

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

  61. Phew! I’m exhausted……just ordered a new cooker online.
    We finally made a decision…….. we’ve had the old one for 24 years and it’s done well but I’m tired of cooking on an old appliance where only one ring works as it should, the others all lost their thermostat controls so can only be controlled manually by turning off and on. The grill and ovens still work but are caked up and past it.

    Delivery, installation and removal of the old one added another £100+++ and VAT is more than that as well. What a palaver! But easier than dragging OH around to look at cookers in person.

    We need a new dishwasher too but I think that can wait a few more weeks.

    1. J,

      This company is brilliant https://ao.com/?ef_id=Cj0KCQjwxeyxBhC7ARIsAC7dS39QKztQai0Fv3WUzta1W20m5p5w7NjsE7gR2QUySrUFzM2wUpGcjNwaAsG4EALw_wcB:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!8149!3!683620078068!e!!g!!ao&&utm_medium=ppc-brand&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=ao%20brandname%20exact%7Cao%20brandname%20exact%20-%20ao%20+%20delivery&utm_term=aobrandname%7Cexact&utm_content=kwd-169660002&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwxeyxBhC7ARIsAC7dS39QKztQai0Fv3WUzta1W20m5p5w7NjsE7gR2QUySrUFzM2wUpGcjNwaAsG4EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

      1. Just had a look to compare the price (although it’s too late to change my mind) and the same cooker price was more and installation over £100, about the same so not free. So we’ll have to hope these guys do the job ok. There’s no way we’re able to remove the old one for recycling, and install the new one. We’re just not strong enough for that now. And our house is not the easiest to get to with a steep hill and 11 steps up to the door.

        1. You might want to warn them about the hill and the steps. I’m sure they would appreciate that.

      2. Good morning all. AO are very good but beware of offers of insurance – can mount up if you order multiple appliances over a period of time

        1. Never do insurance thrown in on any appliance you buy. Always expensive and very seldom needed, if ever in my experience.

        2. Elderly chum – when she was still at home – had insurance +++ for white goods and other household equipment.
          The fridge was so old and neglected that it had primeval life forms lurking at the back. The worst was insurance for a gas boiler; the village where she lived had no gas so all her domestic appliances were electric.
          Her nephew and I went to the bank and the manager was zapping monthly direct debits like playing Space Invaders.

    2. ao.com deliver and take away the old white stuff, they are competitive and faultless and they delivered our new dishwasher which replaced our old 20 year one , and took the other one away , no charge , nothing .

      A friend of mine recommended them when she needed new kit , they do everything . I really cannot fault the company . Easy peasy .

      2. Yep, exactly the route I took with the new cooker. Old gone, new installed and at a price very competitive with the competition. A Bosch is a Bosch is a Bosch wherever it comes from.

      3. Always buy all my kitchen/electrics from AO very happy with them. Good company.

  63. True Belle posted some of the comments but not the letter:

    Tory wreckage
    SIR – The Conservatives’ sharp decline (Letters, May 7) dates back to 2016, not the lockdown in 2020 or Partygate.

    In 2015 David Cameron achieved the first Conservative majority since 1992. He had a mandate to serve as prime minister until 2020. This was wrecked by Boris Johnson’s decision to campaign for Leave in the EU referendum.

    Lord Cameron is an excellent Foreign Secretary. When I see him on the news, I feel dismayed that his premiership was fatally undermined by Mr Johnson’s personal ambition. It’s too late to salvage the wreckage.

    Penelope Upton
    Lighthorne, Warwickshire

    3. Who was it who gave permission for the Brexit referendum? And who voted to Leave?

    4. She’s not all bad. From the Church Times.

      From Dr Penelope Upton

      Sir, — The Revd Anna Griffiths asks: “What does it say about our faith if we cannot manage a few more months with the blessing of so much technological connection for worship, even if we do not have a partner or family with whom to worship at home?” (Letters, 15 January). A few more months with no technological connection for worship alone at home?

      The last time I was in church receiving communion was 8 March 2020. The absence of fellowship and regular communion has had a devastating impact. My mental health and spirit are shattered.

      Anna Griffiths should experience ten months of social and spiritual exclusion. She may then revise her airy and insensitive suggestion that several more months of isolation is endurable.

      PENELOPE UPTON
      Redlands, Lighthorn
      Warwickshire CV35 0AH

    5. What bizarre reasoning: a clear case of Brexit Derangement Syndrome.
      Personally, I believe that any chance of undoing the harms wreaked by the Blair project was wrecked by the Tory leadership candidacy of David Davis being fatally undermined by David Cameron’s personal ambition.
      It was ever thus in politics.

  64. True Belle posted some of the comments but not the letter:

    Tory wreckage
    SIR – The Conservatives’ sharp decline (Letters, May 7) dates back to 2016, not the lockdown in 2020 or Partygate.

    In 2015 David Cameron achieved the first Conservative majority since 1992. He had a mandate to serve as prime minister until 2020. This was wrecked by Boris Johnson’s decision to campaign for Leave in the EU referendum.

    Lord Cameron is an excellent Foreign Secretary. When I see him on the news, I feel dismayed that his premiership was fatally undermined by Mr Johnson’s personal ambition. It’s too late to salvage the wreckage.

    Penelope Upton
    Lighthorne, Warwickshire

  65. Green London Assembly member steps down after just three days

    Sian Berry says she is quitting to spend ‘even more time’ in Brighton where she hopes to become an MP at the next general election

    Dominic Penna, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT • 7 May 2024 • 3:51pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03f1d40b1c6305dceeacf4352dde9b2b0f0c6fbe50ced9493679fef0f2516d5b.jpg
    A Green Party politician has been accused of treating voters with “utter contempt” after stepping down from the London Assembly just three days after she was re-elected.

    Sian Berry, a former co-leader of the Greens, said she was quitting to spend “even more time” in Brighton, where she hopes to become an MP at the next general election. Ms Berry has been selected as the Green candidate for Brighton Pavilion – a seat currently held by Caroline Lucas, the party’s only MP, who is quitting politics at the end of this parliament.

    London-wide assembly members, including Ms Berry, are elected through a list system, under which people vote for a party rather than individual candidates. The vacant position will be filled by Zoë Garbett, the Greens’ unsuccessful mayoral hopeful, who was below the elected Green assembly members on their party’s list.

    Ms Berry said: “I will miss City Hall and the wonderful staff team there, and especially miss the chance to work alongside Zoë Garbett in the run-up to the general election. She will be a superb Assembly Member and I can’t wait to see the impact she will have. My work holding a Labour mayor to account means I am ready to do the same with a new prime minister, and I am looking forward to spending even more time in Brighton, listening to what matters to people here.”

    Ms Berry has stood as the Greens’ London mayoral candidate three times and served on the assembly since 2016. Her decision to step down was met with a backlash from her political opponents and came despite her previously insisting she would only resign if she was elected to the Commons.

    Kevin Brennan, Labour’s shadow victims minister, said: “This is the practical embodiment of political cynicism and treating voters with utter contempt. I hope electors in Brighton Pavilion have taken note.”

    Theo Jupp, a Liberal Democrat councillor, added: “The pint of milk in my fridge lasted longer than Sian Berry.”

    A YouGov poll last month, which forecasted the results of the next election by constituency, projected that while the Greens are set to hold Brighton Pavilion, they are on track to do so with a significantly reduced majority of 11 per cent, following a 34 per cent majority in 2019. The Greens were also ousted from Brighton council at last year’s local elections as a resurgent Labour Party won a majority on the council for the first time in 20 years.

    Ms Garbett said she was “excited to join the Assembly and get to work for Londoners”, adding: “There is so much to do to improve the quality of our lives in London, stand up for people on the margins and hold the mayor to account.”

    The NHS worker’s key mayoral campaign promises included a London Living Wage of £15 and free bus travel for under-22s.

    A source close to Ms Berry insisted that because Tuesday was the first working day of the new London Assembly, she had resigned her position as quickly as possible.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/07/green-london-assembly-member-sian-berry-resigns/

    There are thousands like Miss Berry in this country who are playing at politics, taking taxpayers money but doing nothing more than posturing.

  66. Oxbridge protestors can’t hide their ignorance

    Students and staff are united through their foolish misunderstanding of Israel’s founding

    NIGEL BIGGAR • 7 May 2024 • 4:05pm

    It’s no surprise that the widely broadcast pro-Palestinian protests in the US should have inspired some Oxford students to pitch their tents outside the Pitt Rivers Museum, decrying Oxford University’s historic complicity in the British Empire’s “disastrous colonial legacies” in Palestine.

    But, if no longer surprising, it remains dismaying that (to date) 301 Oxford academics and staff have signed an online letter declaring their support of the students’ “entirely reasonable” demand that the university disinvest from “Israel’s genocide in Gaza”.

    There’s no cause for panic. The signatories represent a fraction of the 15,000 professors, research staff, and doctoral students at Oxford. And the letter’s leaders include professional online protesters. The very first signature and half the top ten belong to colleagues who signed one of the three online mass denunciations intended to “shut down” my Ethics & Empire project in December 2017. That said, the short list does contain some big names like that of the historian Avi Shlaim, as well as other names bearing big titles, such as the “Chichele Professor of Social and Political Thought”.

    Yet, what should still dismay is that highly educated grown-ups in one of the world’s leading universities – some of them occupying very senior positions – have got their history, ethics, and law so wrong.

    The simplistic postcolonial stereotype of “colonisation” comprises the invasion and seizure of land from native peoples by rapacious settlers. But before 1914 the land in Palestine on which Zionists settled had been purchased from Arab landlords. Moreover, many of the settlers were refugees from murderous pogroms in Russia. Naturally, Arab peasants who had worked the land for generations resented it when their tenancies weren’t renewed. The process was legal under Ottoman law.

    In 1922 the League of Nations mandated Britain to administer Palestine, in order to build a new independent Arab state and a Jewish homeland out of the ruins of the irredeemable Ottoman Empire. In 1930, faced with violent Arab unrest, the British considered restricting Jewish immigration but decided against it out of sympathy for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. When Britain unilaterally withdrew from Palestine in February 1947, Zionists occupied only ten per cent of Palestinian territory.

    The main displacement of the Arab population happened after that, when invading Arab armies attempted to crush the infant State of Israel in 1948-9. This propelled 750,000 Arabs to flee, abandoning their land. Many were expelled. Yet, when Arab troops occupied Jerusalem, Jews too were forced out and about 900,000 more were driven from Arab countries, most seeking refuge in Israel.

    The actual, tragic history of Zionist settlement in Palestine cannot be squeezed into the simplistic postcolonial template of “colonisation”.

    As for ethics, the large-scale killing of civilians by itself doesn’t amount to a violation of the laws of war. Most of the Anglophone West regards the war to defeat genocidal Nazism in 1939-45 as morally justified. And yet Allied warfare inflicted huge costs upon civilians. One estimate has it that British and American bombers killed over 350,000 non-combatants in Germany. Air raids over France killed 70,000 French civilians – 30,000 during the crucial Normandy campaign alone.

    The dreadful truth is that the prosecution of war invariably involves civilian casualties. And when there are sufficiently compelling reasons for fighting – say, self-defence against a manifestly genocidal Hamas – those casualties may be, tragically, justified. That’s why the laws of war don’t forbid the killing of non-combatants as such, but only their intentional and disproportionate killing: the objective must be a military one, and the harm done civilians incidental to the military purpose and no greater than necessary.

    Now, while the Israeli Defence Force has a long record of being scrupulous in its choice of military targets and minimisation of risk to civilians, it’s possible it has transgressed in Gaza. It’s possible its military operations have either positively intended to kill civilians or imposed harm unnecessary for achieving the intended military objectives. However, to establish culpability would require specialist military expertise and a close knowledge of the facts on the ground that none of the Oxford signatories have.

    On the matter of law, the International Court of Justice has not, as the Oxford signatories claim, judged the situation in Gaza as “plausibly amounting to genocide”. In paragraph 30 of its January 2024 ruling of the case brought by South Africa, the court made quite clear that it was “not required to ascertain whether any violations of Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention have occurred”.

    There is much about Israel’s conduct that deserves criticism, above all the lack of a strategy for peace that the talking heads of former Israeli security chiefs lamented a decade ago in the documentary, “The Gatekeepers”. But that doesn’t excuse Oxford academics from signing up to cartoonish history, naïve ethics, and misinformed law.

    Nigel Biggar is Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the University of Oxford

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/05/07/oxford-cambridge-palestine-protests-icj-genocide-students/

  67. It’s all boiling up nicely!

    Islamist groups should not be dictating terms in this country

    Demands to Sir Keir Starmer from extremists must be resisted – and if he won’t do it, we’ll have our opportunity at the ballot box

    ALLISON PEARSON • 7 May 2024 • 10:16pm

    The local and mayoral elections turned out to be shocking in a way few had anticipated but which could well mark a critical crossroads in the history of our democracy.

    Count Binface, who claims to be a 5,072-year-old intergalactic space warrior, won himself a very creditable 24,260 votes in London on the back of a pledge to cap the price of croissants, defeat fascism and award Grade 1 listed status to Claudia Winkleman’s fringe. Rather good policies, I think.

    At least Binface, who wears a dustbin on his head and came ninth in a race won for the third time by the useless Sadiq Khan, belongs to a recognisable strain of Britishness. He was only having a bit of fun, gently sending up the electoral process that has generally served us well. If only the same could be said for one Mothin Ali, who won the Gipton and Harehills ward in Leeds for the Green Party.

    In a notably bellicose victory speech, Mr Ali, a 42-year-old accountant and mufti (Islamic jurist) who was wearing traditional dress, yelled that people were “fed up” of being “let down” by a Labour council. This, he declared, fist in the air, was a “win for the people of Gaza”.

    Er, what about the people of east Leeds who don’t have a blinking clue about Gaza or Rafah (“Is it that tennis bloke?”), but are worried about stuff like unsolved burglaries, the lack of affordable nursery places and soaring council tax?

    You can forget about those British priorities. Mr Ali, passionate about “community wellbeing”, according to party publicity, preferred to stoke religious and ethnic tensions. “We will not be silenced,” he bellowed, “We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine. Allahu Akbar!”

    Behind him, his supporters, apparently almost all Muslim men save for one absurd gurning Green woman with short red hair (on day-release from Extinction Rebellion, no doubt), unfurled the Palestinian flag and echoed his cry: “Allahu Akbar (God is great)!”

    For anyone who cares about the future of our country, it was a horrible sight. I admit I had a visceral reaction. Who the hell were Mothin Ali and his entourage to turn a local election into a referendum on a land thousands of miles away over whose fate a Leeds city councillor has zero influence? And on a political occasion, by custom strictly secular, why defiantly shout a religious slogan that is, unfortunately, more familiar to the British people as the death cry of terrorists?

    This aggressive and altogether alien spectacle confirmed that the creed of multiculturalism (all cultures to be celebrated as long as it’s not British culture) is rapidly imploding. Politicians of all stripes, who may be starting to suspect they have created a monster they can’t control, tell the children to play nicely, cross their fingers, call anyone who objects “far Right”, and pray that everything will be fine. (It won’t.)

    In another Northern ward, the victory ceremony looked as if it were actually taking place in rural Pakistan with two men turning up on horseback, according to a video circulating online. (Again, as far as I could see, no Muslim women present.)

    When we talk about the importance of “assimilation”, we assume it means immigrants assimilating into the British way of life. Silly us! Too late, we now see it was the other way round.

    Several fraught things are going on here, none of them good news for the United Kingdom, which (Northern Ireland apart) has done a pretty fair job of averting sectarian voting and violence.

    Angered by Sir Keir Starmer’s initial refusal to take sides against Israel after the Hamas massacres of October 7 (he has since called for a “humanitarian ceasefire”), thousands of Muslim voters shifted their support to the Greens and George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain. Bizarrely, a pressure group best known for campaigning to preserve the environment and creating bridges over A-roads for confused otters suddenly finds itself acting as an umbrella for Islamist hotheads and trans activists. Very much looking forward to the Green Party conference where the two groups meet.

    Cue: Labour panic! Seats were lost last Thursday to candidates who ran on a Gaza ticket; support plummeted in areas with a high Muslim population. Instead of holding the party line and telling Islamist activists to get back in their box, Sir Keir, Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting and a majority of Labour MPs placed a bulk order for olive branches and white flags.

    The Labour leader vowed to “restore trust”. Streeting said he would not “disrespect Muslims” by “pretending we haven’t heard the message… We’re going to do as we did over the last four years when people sent us difficult messages at the ballot box, which is to listen, to reflect and to learn.”

    Forgive me, but what exactly is there for Sir Keir and Wes Streeting to learn from appalling bigots like Mothin Ali? An Islamic mufti who was allowed to stand for the Greens despite describing Britain’s ally, Israel, as “white supremacists” and a “settler, colonial, occupier”. That same Mr Ali (disgracefully still not suspended by the Green Party at the time of writing, by the way) called a Jewish chaplain at the University of Leeds, by serving in the IDF (Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, forced into hiding with his family after death threats from pro-Palestinian activists), a “low-life”, a “creep who went… to Israel to kill children and women and everyone else over there” and “a kind of animal”.

    Is the lesson Labour needs to learn from the local elections that you better genuflect to threats from Islamic hardliners, or else?

    This is not how we do things. Britain is not a country where what the imams and tribal elders say, goes. I mean, seriously, is there any circumstance in which you can envisage the Church of England telling Christians to vote only for candidates who are anti-abortion or opposed to gay marriage? If imams told Justin Welby they found The Lord’s My Shepherd Islamophobic he’d cancel Crimond like a shot.

    That great line of W.B. Yeats, “The best lack all conviction, the worst are full of passionate intensity”, could have been written for this dark hour.

    No surprise that, correctly scenting weakness, The Muslim Vote, a pressure group backed by several Islamist organisations, just sent Sir Keir Starmer a list of 18 orders, if you please. They include:

    • Apologise for your comments greenlighting a genocide and for not backing the ceasefire in Oct/Nov 2023

    • Recognise Palestine as a state and end military ties with Israel

    • Implement findings of the so-called “People’s Review of Prevent”, not Shawcross (That’s Sir William Shawcross who, correctly, identified the biggest domestic terrorist threat comes from home-grown Islamists.)

    • Issue guidance that Muslims are allowed to pray at school

    • Ensure sharia-compliant pensions are available at every workplace

    These grossly impertinent demands do not come from moderate British Muslims who value the freedoms they enjoy here and live harmoniously with their friends and neighbours. Named supporters listed on The Muslim Vote website include the Muslim Association of Britain, and Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), both of which Michael Gove recently said “give rise to concern for their Islamist orientation and views”. Only weeks ago, the Communities Secretary said: “We will be holding these, and other organisations, to account to assess if they meet our definition of extremism and will take action as appropriate.”

    A third named supporter is Islam21c, a website on which homosexuality is described as a “scourge” and “Western modernity” likened to a “disease”. The website also published an analysis of Hamas’s October 7 terror attacks in which more than 1,139 people, including children and babies, were murdered, which stated that “the good news coming from the region makes us optimistic”.

    A fourth supporter is The Thinking Muslim. Its founder, Muhammad Jalal, is a former member and leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist group (since banned in the UK) that is committed to re-establishing the Islamic caliphate and getting thee and me to live under sharia law. Thanks, awfully, but I think I’ll stick with a justice system where a woman is worth the same as a man.

    What a charming bunch they sound, ready to bully a political party, which may well form our next government, into doing their bidding, while some of them remain implacably hostile to the country whose tradition of tolerance they cynically exploit. What next? Homosexuality to be made illegal, women forbidden to fraternise with men without a chaperone?

    Have no doubt, the purpose of these activists is chillingly clear. One figure linked to The Muslim Vote group claimed in the run-up to polling day that, “This election is about punishing those who didn’t vote or even call for a ceasefire, and rewarding those who did and took a principled stance.”

    In case Sir Keir is tempted to make any concessions to those thugs, here’s the thing. The majority of Britons would rather be governed by a 5,072-year-old intergalactic space warrior than those disciples of extreme Islam.

    I hesitate to say it, but this could be a lifeline for the Conservatives. If Starmer buckles to the demands of The Muslim Vote, he will soon find himself snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Millions of us who still have breath in our bodies will get down to the polling station to thwart them.

    Back in Gipton and Harehills, after the count, a group of that endangered species, the white Yorkshireman, were glimpsed expressing their displeasure with Mothin Ali and his ranting about Gaza. And the air was filled with a heartfelt and traditional Leeds rebuke: “Fookin’ ‘ell!”

    And so say all of us.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/05/07/islamist-groups-should-not-be-dictating-terms/

    1. It will be interesting to see what the reaction of the electorate will be when Starmer tries to smarm around the RoP, which he is 100% certain to do.

      1. That is why I don’t buy supermarket meat or ready meals.
        There is a reason why that meat is cheap.

    3. I feel sorry for the confused otters of Gaza.
      Israeli tanks have just run over the concrete Rafah city signpost.

  68. Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defects to Labour
    Natalie Elphicke
    Tory MP Natalie Elphicke has defected to Labour, hitting out at the “broken promises of Rishi Sunak’s tired and chaotic government”.

    2. This is good. She’s a proper lefty. People like Gove, Cameron and Hunt, maybe even Sunak himself ought to be in talks with the Lib-Dems too by now, if there were any honesty in politics

    3. How does one defect from their political party to one holding contrarian beliefs?

      Silly me, I forgot that politics is not about idealism any more, it’s only about troughing.

      Corruption —plainly and clearly — seen in action.

      1. As organized frequently points out, the parties are very much the same when it comes to policies.

        1. Indeed. We are very much far removed from the days of Margaret Thatcher v Michael Foot.

  69. World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target. 8 May 2024.

    Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed.

    Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating above preindustrial levels, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit will be met.

    Many of the scientists envisage a “semi-dystopian” future, with famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck.

    We’re toast everybody. Literally. I wonder how many of these people have turned their Central Heating off?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature

    2. “…mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms overpopulation and self-inflicted poverty…”

    3. “blasting past internationally agreed targets speculation.”

    4. I turned my central heating off back in mid-January when the BBC showed its flaming-red weather chart.

      1. Every one degree colder set on your room thermostat is supposed to savr 10% on your heating costs.
        Thus for every degree increase in global warming that means you don’t have to boher.

    5. Here come mors strident demands to go electric.

      No more ICE vehicles after 2024 would be a good start (for Chinese EV manufacturers) and no doubt Trudeau will up the carbon tax with an emergency tax.

    6. Probably thousands disagree but daren’t put their heads above the parapet

  71. From Spectator Coffee House

    Passport e-gate outages are an embarrassment to Britain
    Comments Share 8 May 2024, 10:49am
    Queues that stretch for hours. Technology that doesn’t work. And a system so poorly designed that this isn’t the first time it’s broken down. There appears to be a perfectly innocent explanation for the failure of the passport e-gate system across the UK’s airports last night – a ‘system network issue’ – despite the wilder conspiracy theories that immediately started circling on the internet. But one point is surely clear: the e-gates have become a national embarrassment – and if we can’t rely on them to work, we should get rid of them.

    Some passengers spent longer waiting to go through passport control than they did on their flights
    The scenes at airports including Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle and Manchester were disgraceful. British citizens trying to return home were left waiting on airport floors for hours. Foreign businessmen and tourists, some of whom were coming to ‘Global Britain’ for the first time, were greeted by scenes of chaos. Some passengers spent longer waiting to go through passport control than they did on their flights.

    The e-gates, which the government insists are supposed to ‘enable quicker travel into the UK’, went down late on Tuesday. It wasn’t until shortly after midnight that they were back up again. The Home Office said ‘at no point was border security compromised, and there is no indication of malicious cyber activity’. But that’s little comfort to stranded passengers.

    It’s inevitable, of course, that there will be times when computers don’t work. And yet passport control is a place where the failure of a computer system is simply not acceptable. To start with, it is not just inconvenient for anyone who is held up for three or four hours; it is a very poor advert for the whole country. There is a reason why developing nations spend a fortune on airports: it sends a message that they are modern, growing and open for business. By contrast, our failed e-gates make it look like the UK is close to collapse.

    E-gates might be a good idea if they speed up arrivals, but if they don’t work perfectly we should not be relying on them. At the very least, we should have an adequate back up in place for when they go wrong. This isn’t the first time e-gates have failed. This is simply not good enough.

    The latest failure risks becoming emblematic of a government that has ceased to function. If you make controlling the borders a key priority, as the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has done in speech after speech, then it is a good idea to make sure the system for scanning passports actually works. If the Home Office can’t even get this right, there is probably no point in expecting it to tackle far tougher issues such as asylum seekers. It clearly no longer functions properly, and until that is fixed nothing will improve.

    Again and again, the government installs IT systems to save money, and create an illusion of progress. But too often they don’t work properly, failing with catastrophic results. The queues at UK airports overnight were a national embarrassment – and will only add to the sense of accelerating decline.

    1. Passport e-gate outages are an embarrassment to Britain.

      This is just a small insight into a collapsing UK.

    2. Good job that’s all there is for the country to be embarrassed about.

      1. What.. like UK Banks closing the accounts of hundreds of defence companies “concerned about the ethical implications of working with arms companies.”

        Tobias Ellwood, said “well-intentioned” Banks’ shareholders demanding environmental, social and governance policies may inadvertently be putting national security at risk.

        Tobias Ellwood.. talking tough again.

        1. Everything they say reveals their true intent. Nothing “well-intentioned” about them, or the banks that they finance. Just ask Nigel Farage.

    3. Oh, goody. We’re travelling back to UK next week, to visit Mother & In-Laws, so this will help.

      1. If it was, Fujitsu would be proclaiming that it is all a delusion and that, in reality, it is a great success.

  72. 387127+ up ticks,

    THE DEVIL YOU SAY,

    Manchester City footballer Jack Grealish fined £666 for speeding

    3. Did he roll around on the floor of the court, howling and clutching his shin?

        1. Shame as he’s a great player when he concentrates on actually playing!……

    4. fun fact.. Jack Grealish has the lowest IQ score of any ball botherer.™JB
      https://youtu.be/6uDH5WUMslY?t=9

  74. Starmer goads Sunak after fresh Tory defection
    Natalie Elphicke, the Tory MP for Dover, announced as PMQs started that she was crossing the floor, joining Dan Poulter who did the same at the end of April.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/08/rishi-sunak-latest-news-rees-mogg-local-election-tories/

    This is typical of many of the BTL comments:If defectors are moving to Labour it means that they think that The Conservative Party is too right wing for them.

    This explains why the Conservative Party has lost touch completely with its conservative voters and why it is now no more than a zombified corpse.
    The best response would be for right of centre Conservative MPs to accept the truth and defect to Reform.

    2. I think Stormy weather over the United States has set a President for rising temperatures particularly after playing a round.

    3. I think Stormy weather over the United States has set a President for rising temperatures particularly after playing a round.

    4. I think Stormy weather over the United States has set a President for rising temperatures particularly after playing a round.

  77. 387127+ up ticks,

    We will notice a difference will we ?

    Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defects to Labour
    The MP for Dover said that under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives had become a ‘byword for incompetence and division’

    1. So she is just a politician who shifted her position in the pod. Big deal!

      1. According to the BBC ????? Natalie Elphicke doesn’t intend to stand for re-election.

  78. Just back from lunch in the garden – first time this year. Very enjoyable. Risking wearing shorts, now…!

      1. …and you know the rest …’Until May is out.’

        Now, is that the month, the may-fly or the mayflower blossom?

    5. Just went to book transfers for the Malta holiday later in the year using that Limo company i sent you details of. They wanted 200 euro each way. I booked a local Limo company and it’s 23 euro each way. Much the same as the taxis but more reliable.

      1. “We Saw You Coming Limited”.

        The woman whose flat lives in Germany. She has a Maltese lady who meets and greets and deals with any problems. She charged 25€ each way to take us door to door. We had planned to use the Airport Bus – but knew that we’d have to carry cases from Sliema Ferries to the flat. The first day’s drive to the flat showed as that going by bus was nuts – so we booked Tania for the return. Worth every centime.

  79. Good afternoon.
    I lurve the smell of new mown grass when I haven’t had to do the mowing!
    What a lovely day. More like this, please.

    1. I don’t mind mowing the lawn. The mower does it for me. All I do is walk around following it.

    1. Thanks, I just tried to post the same. An excellent representation of what they actually mean to say when they lie in Parliament

        1. I used to visit a friend who lived in Dalgety Bay and passed it on the way back to the Forth Bridge. My good friend has passed on since so I can’t ask him where the BBC place was/is. I never saw anyone entering or leaving.

          1. BBC Scotland used to be in Queen Margaret Drive, Glasgow and is now at Pacific Quay. Or have a I misunderstood?

  81. Breaking News – Scientists create new vaccine that prevents coronavirus and will also prevent excess deaths.

    They are calling it the Placebo

    They have fully tested it on all our politicians, so they know it works.

    1. Meanwhile AstraZeneca discovered a drug that extends cardiac functionality indefinetely but they didn’t have the heart to reveal it.

  82. Trump’s trial is a stupendous legal catastrophe. 8 May 2024.

    I have been teaching, practising and writing about criminal law for 60 years. In all those years, I have never seen or heard of a case in which the defendant has been criminally prosecuted for failing to disclose the payment of what prosecutors call “hush money”. Alexander Hamilton paid hush money to cover up an affair with a married woman. Many others have paid hush money since. If the legislature wanted to criminalise such conduct they could easily enact the statute prohibiting the payment of hush money or requiring its disclosure. They have declined to do so.

    We all know that this is a politically motivated prosecution for the purposes of preventing Trump standing for President at the forthcoming election . It also tells us something about his opponents. That they have no care for the Constitution or Justice. That they would do anything in the Pursuit of Power. That they are the real enemies of the People of the United States.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/08/trumps-trial-is-a-stupendous-legal-catastrophe/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/08/trumps-trial-is-a-stupendous-legal-catastrophe/

  83. I’ve had lunch and now there is a nice casual ‘ non ‘ meeting ( not the formal meeting of next Spring) with our Lib Dem Councillor who wants to rip up this area . It’s difficult to believe the Tories were in coalition with this lot – the Lib Dems are far worse then Labour . Anyway, peaceful thoughts as I leave.

  84. Britain to expel Russian defence attache for being a spy. 8 May 2024

    James Cleverly announced the move following an increase in malign activity by the state in the UK and Europe.

    In a Commons statement, Mr Cleverly said that under powers in the Government’s new security legislation, they would “expel the Russian defence attache, who is an undeclared military intelligence officer”.

    A Defence Attache who’s a spy? Good heavens Whatever next?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/08/britain-to-expel-russian-defence-attache/

  85. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/08/auriol-grey-cyclist-manslaughter-conviction-overturned/

    Good Heffings. An outbreak of common sense.

    “Disabled pedestrian Auriol Grey has manslaughter conviction overturned

    In October 2020, Ms Grey shouted and waved at a cyclist, causing her to fall into the path of an oncoming car

    8 May 2024 • 12:45pm

    A disabled pedestrian who shouted and waved at a cyclist causing her to fall into the path of an oncoming car has had her manslaughter conviction overturned at the Court of Appeal.

    Auriol Grey was seen on CCTV shouting at retired midwife Celia Ward to “get off the f—ing pavement” in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, causing her to fall into the road.

    Ms Grey, who has cerebral palsy and partial blindness, denied manslaughter but was found guilty after a retrial and was jailed for three years in March 2023.

    But at the end of a hearing on Wednesday, three judges at the Court of Appeal in London overturned her conviction.

    Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mrs Justice Yip and Mrs Justice Farbey, said: “In our judgment…In all the circumstances, we have no hesitation in concluding that the appellant’s conviction for manslaughter is unsafe.”

    1. Ms Grey, who has cerebral palsy and partial blindness, denied manslaughter but was found guilty after a retrial and was jailed for three years in March 2023.

      They sent this woman to gaol? She should have told them that she was a terrorist.

      1. Instead of yelling “get off the f—ing pavement” she should shouted “Alley’s Snackbar”.
        Plod wouldn’t have touched her.

    2. Ms Grey, who has cerebral palsy and partial blindness, denied manslaughter but was found guilty after a retrial and was jailed for three years in March 2023.

      They sent this woman to gaol? She should have told them that she was a terrorist.

    2. Quite true – “They don’t like it up ’em Mr Mainwairing!”.
      …and neither do we should we have a bear behind.

      The trouble is Putin is living in the past and sees the future as being like the CCCP but aspires to exist in the Tsarist Russian Empire.

      1. Our MP’s are no different. They get money for second homes and all the expenses they incur courtesy of the tax payer. Let’s call them what they really are…….dachas.

      2. Actually Angie you will find that Putin has nothing good to say about the CCCP but he does approve of Tsarist Russia. He is a traditionalist but by no means does he live in the past. I agree with him in that a Tsar is good for Russia, democracy is not. The reason is simple. The country is so vast and represents such a huge amount of ethnicities and interests that it would fly apart as a democracy. Not because people would want to be somehow ‘free’ but because the slowness of democratic decision making is to slow, the country would fly apart to no ones benefit. Analogy — It’s a giant tanker that requires a long distance to turn so somehow a decision must be arrived at quickly to prevent disaster.

        1. Thanks for identifying the CCCP as being too large to manage as a democracy and need for a Tsar to maintain order in a multi-ethnic state.

          Could this also apply to the UK where we are faced with the multi-ethnic heritage we have imported from the empire and consequently require a Tsarist overseer for a divided kingdom?

          1. Well, frankly, it will probably not surprise you to know that I’m a Monarchist and I do believe the monarch should have more power than he has at present. But with regard to our multicultural state you also will not be surprised to know that I think they should all be integrated, no multi cultural nonsense. Those who do not want that should simply be told to go elsewhere. I think we are not simply tolerant but indulgently self destructive in our attitudes. The golden rule should be: ‘When in Rome do as the Romans do.’ If you can’t tolerate that, leave. We have our own culture and beliefs/traditions and no one has the right to take those from us our demand we curtail them for their pleasure. With regard to the guilty in the woodpile, Islam, it should be proscribed as an illegitimate political movement, masquerading as a religion, hostile to all the British people its intention is to destroy us by conversion or subjugation as dhimmis. The paying of jizya which is a protection racket no different from the operations of the Mafia. Given the geographic location that the Mafia was born I would not be at all surprised that they got their idea of protection money from Islam somewhere in the past of Sicilian history..

          3. Well I think he’s OK but bare in mind that if we had a more interventionist monarchy he would have been trained differently because more would have been required of him. I think the monarchy as it is now structured is being driven into irrelevancy in a slow coup de tat by a succession of politicians. It is wrong because it weakens our democracy badly. As the monarch relinquishes real power the politicians take it and never for the public good. The monarch in the English Constitution represents the people against parliament but that function has all but gone so what we now have is a concentration of power in one entity, very, very dangerous. It is at the point where if the king were to step in with his function of the peoples representative, he would be howled down as performing a legitimate function as if it were illegitimate because people do not understand how the system is supposed to work anymore. It is no co-incidence that as the monarchs powers have diminished, so has the power of the people to be their own masters. Things are now topsy turvy as the politicians dictate to the people and not the other way round. That is why Brexit failed. The politicians no longer fear us, we fear them. The politicians have disempowered the people and its protector. We are heading, as a result, to another Cromwellian dictatorship. Already we are being told how to think just as Cromwell’s parliament told the people how to think. We have arrived at the end of our Constitutional Monarchy, the system that is supposed to be the most stable democratic system in the world and we fail to fight back.

  88. A rich young woman sat beside a poor elderly man on a plane. She alerted the flight attendant upon taking her seat.
    The flight attendant answered warmly, when the woman abruptly said, “Please find me another seat immediately.” The flight attendant responded, “I’m sorry Ma’am, but the economy cabin is fully booked.”
    The rich woman replied, “But I’m not going to travel beside a worthless bum. Do something.”
    While the elderly man stared in disbelief, the flight attendant responded, “I’ll talk to the Captain about this.”
    The flight attendant went to the Captain and asked, “Captain, a woman feels uncomfortable sitting beside a poor elder man. What should we do?”
    Surprisingly, the Captain’s face changed. He looked amused and said, “This woman is interesting. I’ve never encountered an issue like this before. I have a plan. Listen..”
    And the Captain relayed to the flight attendant what he wants to do. The flight attendant was stunned at his plan. In fact, she was amazed.
    A few minutes later, the flight attendant returned. “The Captain said we could use an open seat in First Class. He also wants to apologize for having to travel with such a terrible person.”
    As the woman rose out of her seat, the flight attendant reached out her arm towards the poor elderly man. “Sir will you please follow me?” To which the plane applauded.
    Never look down on other people.
    and you all thought it was going to be another dirty joke

    2. My dad once told me I was lazy, unfocused and that if I wanted to get anywhere in life, I really had to seriously “up the ante”

      I took his advice and within two days I had had furious anal sex with his sister…

      Runs and hides>>>>>>>

  89. I bumped into this disturbing footage on YouTube. I don’t know much about the interviewer, he seems mild mannered and polite.
    The so called “protesters” seem to have been told not to speak to anyone, which they generally obediently comply with. I get the impression that some of these people are not very well and are being groomed. This is not the mildly stoned 60s peacenik hippies. There are some good examples of Leftwing paranoid political indoctrination, an obliging silly rant on defund the police blank slate cloud-cuckoo thinking. I was amused to see the only chap speaking any sense was a middle aged tattooed Death Metal fan. He was from Israel and knows what it’s like to hide in shelters from Hamas missiles.

    Opopanax if you see this post it adds to your remarks yesterday.
    https://youtu.be/XOYetxiD9EM?si=f7iyxU2iK50zjp3R

          1. Calm down, dear. Your terminally annoying nemesis, Phizzee, beat you by 5mins with that witty observation. (see below)

            Delighted to hear that you and the MR had a First Summer Lunch in the garden today. Me likewise. It does lift the spirits.

          2. I don’t look in more than once an hour in this weather. Anyway, was present via Zoom at a lecture from the British School at Rome.

            Lunching in t’garden: Equally – though this will not interest you – the cats were delighted, too.

    3. Inarticulate bunch of wasters. They cannot comment because they don’t know.

    4. And some of our idiot politicians want to give 16 year olds the vote.

      1. The kids are indoctrinated to think like this, which is why “politicians want to give 16 year olds the vote.”

    5. Very disturbing indeed, AA. A state of hypnosis seems to prevail, reinforced by the repetition, chanting and drumming (which to me sounds Satanic). All providing the “Look! A squirrel!” distraction from the even more sinister crap being foisted upon us below the radar.

  90. I have had an on and off morning .

    Pip spaniel is hobbling , strained his shoulder. Moh just home after golf game .

    Warm weather , enough for me . 18c.

    I visited our new local ethnic car clean duo.. quiet lads !

    My black car was filthy , dusty , seagull droppings and muddy ..

    The pair of them cleaned it /polished it beautifully and swiftly , quite happy with the result .

    One of the chaps is a Kurd , not too sure what the other is , looks slightly swarthier than the Kurd .

    They like Britain , but shrugged their shoulders when I mentioned their homeland , acceptance , I guess.

    They were happy the weather was warming up, good for business.

    There are loads of car cleaning places between here and Poole and Dorchester .

    There are also many new barbers shops ..

    How many more will appear, because these guys are apparent .. spottable , here , and creating niches in most villages and small towns .

    At least they are working .

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Kurdistan_Region_relations#:~:text=Their%20ties%20are%20rooted%20in,and%20national%20independence%20in%20Kurdistan.

    1. Yes they seem to work hard but are they paying tax or sending the money back home? says cynic me

      1. I reckon these guys are in the hands of some Master who demands payback for the journey to Britain , I really believe there are gang leaders ..

        I guess similar to the rebuild of the UK after the war , there were some unethical bosses as there were in ship building or any construction work .

        Can you remember this film ?

        Hell Drivers (1957) is a British film noir crime drama film directed by Cy Endfield and starring Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins and Patrick McGoohan. The film was produced by the Rank Organisation and Aqua Film Productions.[1][2] A recently released convict takes a driver’s job at a haulage company and encounters violence and corruption.

        Plot
        Saying he has returned from time abroad, Tom Yately seeks work as a truck driver with Hawletts, a haulage company. Mr. Cartley, the depot manager, informs Tom that his drivers convey their ten-ton loads of gravel fast over bad roads. They are expected to deliver a minimum of twelve loads a day; if a driver falls behind, he is fired. Each run is 20 mi (32 km) round-trip; the top driver makes eighteen runs a day. Tom goes on a trial run with the depot mechanic, in truck 13. He narrowly avoids colliding head-on with two other Hawletts trucks speeding the other way https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Drivers#:~:text=Hell%20Drivers%20(1957)%20is%20a,Organisation%20and%20Aqua%20Film%20Productions.

        An elderly man we know , drove lorries after the war , said that was how things were doing the great re build , quarry lorries were just that !

        2. At least the quarry lorries passing this place are not only in better condition, but MUCH better driven!

          1. Yes , I agree, although they can still be very intimidating , especially because the lorries are so huge .

            We saw that when the 2012 London Olympics became an idea and then when the site was constructed ..
            The quarry lorries used thunder through the village to our station to be unloaded on to freight trains, they were full of sand , gravel , stone etc .

            Also in those days early 2000’s , the nuclear train used to onload at Winfrith , and then go onto Cumbria I guess , huge trains . We could hear them rumble on from here on our little hill.

        3. I certainly remember the film, Belle, but my memory, which is odd, put Sean Connery in Patrick McGoohan’s role. You’re correct of course.

        1. They also sell cheap fags. I wouldn’t normally expect a Barber to ask me if i smoked but i have been offered several times.

          1. During lockdown in South Africa the sale of alcohol and cigarettes were banned for reasons initially best known to the government but quickly became clear. A massive black market naturally sprang up almost immediately with most transactions done over the phone and a pick-up point specified. Many of the pick-up points were the local police stations. Just saying….

        2. Interesting, isn’t it? As fewer alleged legit businesses will touch cash, more and more dodgy ones arise that are cash only. Maybe these will be our eventual saviours from the world domination aspirants. Irony is a wonderful law of nature.

      3. They won’t be paying tax. That is the point of the Black economy, which is thriving over the official UK economy (a sure sign of a failed state, btw). Another sustained and barely concealed government lie. This all must end, and it will, it’s just a question of how.

  91. Four gang rapes reported every week in Belgium (however, most cases are left unreported)..

    and in this weeks’ surprise sxx jaunt.. of a 14-year-old girl abused by up to a dozen other minors in wooded area called Kabouterbos in Kortrijk, the migrant perpetrators showed ‘a complete lack of sense of norms’.

    well I never. shocked I am.. shocked. who wudda thought it?

    1. “My mother said I never should/ Play with Gypsies in the wood.” That old rhyme used to be taught to children as a warning to stay away from Gypsies. Of course they didn’t have things like inclusion, diversity and a multicultural society for most of the last century.

      1. We already have been told by our MP’s that rape for non-muslim girls is perfectly acceptable.
        What’s your problem? You a racist or something?

    1. And didn’t a DT letter writer think Cameron is an excellent Foreign Secretary – one of those urging us to a third world war!

      1. It will behove any survivors besides trying to stay alive themselves to hunt down these people and torture them to death.
        But then i have a fluffy nature.

          1. You get to use the chainsaw and i’ll use the power drill. Bring apron and gloves.

        2. Studies have shown that only cockroaches and politicians will survive a nuclear holocaust.

      2. Yes. I nearly cut the letter for you. She really didn’t like Boris! Blamed him for voting Leave!

    2. Most people don’t believe this.

      The price of Gold is relatively low, and European stock indexes are going up

    1. When ladies knew how to dress. Considering the sluttish look at the Met Gala.

        1. A novel i read called ‘Ozone’ by Paul Theroux foretold gated cities. Mass looting of shops. Steaming. And people walking around with just a thin chain around their waist. I believe we have reached that point.
          The book was written in 1986.

      2. That was eye-popping wasn’t it? When the upper echelons of a society descend to that level you just know that their civilisation is finished.

  94. The week booked for Malta.

    Health insurance £150.
    Parking at Airport in a field on shingle in Bournemouth £165.
    Flight £200 return.
    Transfers £40.

    Apartment £853.

    And Malta isn’t particularly expensive. Eating out is much cheaper than UK. Fags and booze cheaper too.

        1. Bill is just peeed off that when i go the sun shines down and when he goes it rains.

          1. It didn’t rain properly – just some drizzle on one day. However, the wind was really unpleasant every day. A shame.

      2. When attending an orgy it is impolite to ask anothers sex. Just turn the lights out and get the Crisco flowing. Don’t you know anything? !!!

      1. Thank you.

        I used a new catch word; then looked for a vowel-rich word – it seemed right, A_t_G!

    2. Well done, birdie here.

      Wordle 1,054 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Wow! Par for me.

      Wordle 1,054 4/6

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

      1. OK, I have been resisting all this time but now I have to ask – what is Wordle?

        1. It’s a bit hard to describe PJ but I’ll have a go.

          Each day there is a five letter word which you have to guess. You get six guesses or you lose!

          When you put your first guess into the grid, if you get any letter right and in the right place, you get a green block ( as above).

          If you get a letter right but in the wrong place you get an orange block.

          Using these, the idea is that you can deduce the right word in six (or less) attempts. Have a go! but I warn you, it’s very addictive……

          Just Google Wordle – I tried to provide a link but it just linked to my personal Wordle account….

          PS It helps if your early words contain all the most popular letters – my first words are stare/opium/lynch which takes out the vast majority of the most popular letters.

          2. Just type it in on your keyboard (or phone, I always use my laptop though – hate typing anything on a phone).

          3. I don’t even have a smart-phone – just and antique non-smart one that does the little I want it to do :))
            I’ll give it a go on my lap-top and let you know how I get on 🙂

          4. Where do I put the cursor? When I try to put in a letter nothing happens!

          5. Your initial Wordle screen should have six rows (the number of guesses you get) of five boxes (representing the five letters)

            Underneath these there should be a Qwerty keyboard display on the screen. You type in using that keyboard – if you’re not seeing this then there’s something wrong and maybe it has not downloaded properly?

          6. What initial Wordle screen?!! Maybe I need to find it elsewhere and not here?

          7. Ahh… I think I might understand a bit better.

            What you see on this site is people copying their result from Wordle using a ‘Share’ facility in Wordle – the boxes appear on here without the actual letters in so as not to spoil it for anyone who has not yet done it.

            You need to Google Wordle (its actually on the New York Times website – NYT bought it a while back), download it and you will see a home screen as I described above.

          9. Well have a go loading it up and see if you like it. I do, but I enjoy all manner of word games – I’m a keen Times Crossword fan, I comment on the website under my own name ffs.
            Let me know if you’re still struggling………

          10. I will, but not this evening, feeling a bit out of sorts for some reason. Pity I don’t subscribe to The Times then I could find out your real name – I bet I’d recognise you 😆

          11. Google ‘Unisys Balliol’ and you get my Linkedin Profile, it’s about 10 years out of date though….. Hope you feel better tomorrow!

    1. So what is the legal crack around people looking around a hotel paid for by the government? It’s not MoD.

      1. “So what is the legal crack around people looking around a hotel paid for by the government us?“

        1. There were some courageous boyos here in Wales doing this kind of thing. I think they have been cracked down upon as “far-right” – if not (gasp of horror) Alt-Right. They discovered that many of the thuggish “security” people were not only mono-religious dusky foreigners but also employed by SERCO, the government’s go-to contractor (along with CRAPITA), both of which enrich the likes of Fatty Soames.

          1. Fatty Soames, treacherous grandson of one of Britain’s greatest prime ministers.
            Still, every family produces its duds: think of Randolph Churchill.

          2. One of my favourite stories is the one where, when Evelyn Waugh found out that RC had had a non-malignant tumour removed, EW remarked that it was a triumph for modern medicine that they had identified the only part of Randolph Churchill that was non-malignant and had removed it.

          3. Ouch! But those were the days when insults were articulate and really funny!

    2. That is amazing. Shirley there must be some MSM investigative journalists who could do what this guy is doing and expose the UK government’s stance on mass uncontrolled immigration.

  97. Good afternoon, lovely people. What a glorious day it has been. Global warming has finally shown its delightful face in Monmouthshire.

  98. EU reaches deal on using profits from Russia’s frozen assets for Ukraine. 8 May 2024.

    The EU has reached a deal to seize profits from Russia’s frozen assets to fund weapons and aid for Ukraine within months.

    EU senior diplomats meeting on Wednesday agreed a compromise on using the estimated €4.4bn windfall profits to aid Ukraine, smoothing over a dispute about taxation and management costs in Belgium, the country where most of the frozen assets are held.

    This of course is blatant theft. The EU has no right to this money and certainly no moral authority to give it to someone else.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/08/eu-reaches-deal-on-using-profits-from-russias-frozen-assets-for-ukraine

    1. The EU keep saying when Putin is finished with Ukraine he will invade Europe. They seem intent on giving him reasons to do so.

    2. …and very unwise.

      Which politician is going to invest their country’s money(or their own) in the EU in future?

      2. Actually there are. Some companies pulled out of Russia after the invasion selling to locals and knock-down prices and can’t get their money out.

  99. This Jew hatred is far more broader then vile antisemitism. The Stasi Left hate Western civilisation, they thrive on civil disobedience and wish to break down civilised society, families and Christianity. Remember how they latched onto the attacks against white people in 2020 ( or whenever the year was ) with that George Floyd thug. My Amercan friends told me that BLM and the Left had that planned for ages – news of what occurred became national and international news almost instantaneously. The same with how they’ve latched on to Gaza with the mass hysteria with the endless protests. Anyone who makes a stand in regards to any of this is labelled racist, Islamophobic and Antisemitism. Evil is winning and politicians are either spineless cowards or in cahoots with evil.

    1. PS – I cannot edit with this Samsung ( unlike my laptop) I made an error with my wording second line from the last) apologies.

    2. I think maybe both, Kitty. (I wrote a much longer and more erudite response to your post but then pressed the wrong button and it’s lost forever!)

      Whatever people now say about the sixties, we did then have a genuine belief that love would triumph over gold. I still do harbour this faith, against the apparent tide of public idiocy.

      https://youtu.be/FmY7LkZuqQc

    3. Just wait until the silent majority decide to indulge in a little civil disobedience.

    4. Do you get Notifications for people who have sent you posts on NoTTL?

      I want to see if I post something and then amend my post to delete part, whether the deleted part* below will still show up in your Notifications, like to following (if the following* reaches your inbox please let me know. If the rest of this but not *) shows, that would be useful to know as well!

      *…edited

      1. It depends on whether disqus is playing up but I do get notifications most of the time and from Nottlers, I need to be online of course.
        What you’ve sent I can see ” * … edited ” but nothing else .
        Yesterday whilst I was here talking with Phizzee I saw a stranger lurking around at the same moment and then vanished – I saw but no one else noticed – I didn’t say anything but it made me realise that people from outside Nottl can pop in . I’m aware that Nottl isn’t as hidden away as it once was when I recall Jennifer SP, and Mr Viking ( Peddy ) was here so long ago . it’s always best to stay on the side of caution never put anything personal up that you cannot edit / delete straight away – a ‘ live ‘ conversations on the same thread / page at the same time as another ( preferably a few days older ) out of the way and unseen Is the best online . It’d be helpful if Geoff kept the pages open for a few extra days, or even an extra day but I do understand that he needs to be careful himself.

        1. Did you see *…edited on NoTTL or in your own email inbox where you received Notifications.

          1. I saw * … edited appeared in that notification section at the top of the page on my account ( inbetween home and channels ) a blue circle appears red which says I’ve got replies – although it’s not perfect .

            I don’t have any dealings with Disqus whatsoever – emails, notifications of emails anything really. When I started up this account I went into profile and email notifications and turned them all off – I didn’t want all that hassle . I just rely on the notification box and red circle which says how many responses.

          2. I think that’s probably why. I get an email from disqus saying that you have replied to an email and a link then takes me through to your reply. I don’t have the notification box or the red and blue circles.

            Alternatively I can also see if people have replied or upticked anything I have written on the NoTTL page itself as the little speech bubble immediately to the left of my username shows that people have responded in some way. We are obviously set up differently! I shall have to think of something else, as it is more difficult now to leave details than it used to be.

    1. He’s a rum one that lad. I’ve seen his speaking before. Bold to say the least. I wonder if he has been physically attacked?

        1. A case of putting one’s money where one’s mouth it seems a straight forward bet.

          1. I don’t think he is doing Christians any favours – or telling the truth about us – with this kind of “fight fire with fire” rhetoric

          2. I agree – he’s talking about how Christianity was spread by conquest. As was Islam.

    1. That day was the very first time I had seen a public fire (on a bit of waste land in Stanmore Middlesex) that had NOT been started by the Germans.

        1. Stupid boy. It was villagers celebrating – and some had fireworks. Goodness knows where they came from.

          1. Pain’s, Brock’s or Standard probably. Unless the were using Very pistols and maroons.

          2. I knew the brands – but did not think they were making domestic fireworks during the war!

    2. Isn’t it incredible how this landslide caused no damage to the fragile ecosystem, unlike a landslide that happened if, for example, someone was fracking or drilling for oil?

      1. You mean, the wind farm scammers were allowed to destroy thousands of tons of peat?
        Yet gardeners are the spawn of Satan if they pot up a few seedlings.

  103. Elphicke’s defection is an utter farce
    Natalie Elphicke’s defection to Sir Keir Starmer’s party is based on a fantasy
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/08/natalie-elphicke-labour-defection-immigration-borders/

    BTL

    At least Carswell and Reckless were elected as UKIP MPs.

    Remember that odious chap, Sean Woodward, who was a Conservative MP who defected to Labour after marrying into the Sainsbury Family to augment his own personal wealth? He did not stand down because he knew he would lose the by-election if he did. The reward from Labour for this piece of filth was that he was then given a safe Labour seat in the subsequent election. I believe he now identifies as homosexual

    I am afraid that Parliament is still full of lower quality, sub-standard people such as Woodward.

    1. BBC
      ‘Sir Keir welcomed her to the party, asking Mr Sunak “what is the point of this failed government staggering on” when “the Tory MP for Dover on the front line of small boats crisis says the prime minister cannot be trusted with our borders and joins Labour”.‘

      WTF does she think Labour will do for our borders? These people are all stark staring mad. Who would vote for either party?

    2. “I believe he now identifies as homosexual”

      Don’t they all, Rastus?

  104. That’s me for this delightful day. Shirtsleeves and shorts. Lunch in the garden. The bonfire was still hot; the wind was still from the north and so we disposed of six more barrow loads of stuff.

    Have a spiffing evening – planning your defection to a party of your choice. T”market tomorrow.

    A demain.

    1. Thank you, Bill, for being so unfailingly upbeat in your own sardonic manner and giving us something to aspire to.

      Quote of the day

      ‘I realise I need more time to listen, learn and find my political home.’

      – Former England cricketer Monty Panesar withdraws as a parliamentary candidate for George Galloway’s Workers party, after just one week.

      1. Translation:
        “I knew bugger all about what I was getting into and now feel rather silly.”

      2. Oh that’s so funny! Might teach him to come out all guns blazing!

        1. I do take my hat off to him for realising that he has been a complete prat, rather than doubling down as most ignoramuses do.

          1. Yes, you’re right of course! Not many would admit a mistake like that!

          2. I think that he exhibits a naive sweetness of character – a goodness of intention – that should be prized in our grabby, grubby, lying and cynical society.

          3. I admit I was one of the cynical ones and I jumped in a bit quick!

          4. #Metoo, Sue, until he backtracked and admitted that he was out of his depth. If only the likes of Lammy (and so many other thickeroonies) would do the same.

        2. Of course he is. But I was glued to the wireless during his epic innings in Cardiff. I thank him and that’s what makes me an enthusiastic colonialist. {:^))

        1. How How Howzat – you messed about, I caught you out, Howzat (Sherbet 1976)…..

    2. Glad to hear you are doing you bit to assist global warming and helping to stave off the forthcoming ice age due to the new Maudling (sic) Minimum…..

  105. – How did we ever get to the stage where the vast majority of Brits wouldn’t spot a scam even when they are on the train to the prison camps for a nice shower as long as the professors and experts tell them it’s okay for their own safety?

    1. German academia was ideologically cleansed during the 1930s. Sound familiar?

      As with many aspects and institutions of German life laws were passed to put the service of the Reich before all else. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich gives a good account of the changes in pre-war Germany.

    2. – How did we ever get to the stage where the vast majority of Brits wouldn’t spot a scam even when they are on the train to the prison camps for a nice shower in the surgery getting a COVID jab as long as the professors and experts tell them it’s okay for their own safety?

  106. I doubt anyone here at the start of 2024 had “I’m going to Auschwitz to protest Holocaust survivors.” on their bucket-list. It’s hard to fathom now how it is possible to reach these people. We are well and truly through the looking glass.

    1. Went to Auschwitz with Firstborn’s school class some years ago. It’s a Norwegian school thing – a week in Germany, visiting concentration camps, when you’re about 15 years old. I think it’s a great initiative, maybe the kids would think a bit about the whole thing.
      Auschwitz is… weird. Never heard a bird tweet, and there’s an atmosphere of gloom. The worst bit was a display of poor, broken shoes, shabby personal effects, suitcases with names painted on them, and tatty clothing (the good stuff was sold on) – they were so obviously connected to individuals who went in through the gate (with the railway line) and went out through the chimneys.
      One reason why I am on the side of the Jews.

        1. Thank you.
          I get (unreasonably?) upset about the way Jews are treated as something alien, when they are just people, like the rest of us… with affiliations, likes, dislikes, fears, friends and so on.
          When you actually see the places they were exterminated, it’s hard to remain aloof. Who could do that? What kind of hatred would motivate someone to behave like that? Yet, how many wonderful aspects of culture came from Jews? Music, art, civilisatio, even.
          Yes, I stand with the Jews.

        1. Visit that scene, and I defy you to me moved, seriously, to tears.

  107. Time and again these companies that are ‘valued’ in the £/$billions fall flat on their faces.
    Who on earth is producing these ridiculous figures; and why?

    From the DT.

    “Used car dealer Cazoo poised to enter administration

    The online car supermarket Cazoo is on the brink of insolvency after failing to secure emergency funding. Matthew Field reports:………………..

    It marks a dramatic fall from grace for the British car dealer, which was valued at over $8bn (£6.4bn) after floating on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021.”

    1. Muslims need to wind their necks in. They are the ones that need to “rebuild trust” with their host countries.

      1. Labour clearly don’t care what the rest of us think about their pandering to extremist ideologues – aka religious nutters.

      1. Well I think it’s true to say the majority, if not all, Nottlers are well and truly pierced off!

        1. I was tempted to have a rabbit tattooed on to my bald pate hoping that people would mistake it for a little hare.

          But it was lost in translation when when my French friends could not understand what un lapin and un petit lièvre had to do with baldness.

  112. From TCW:

    THE recently released Climate the Movie featured on TCW over the first week on April devoted one of its sections to what is known as the climate consensus – its funding to the tune of billions for climate research for which ‘academics of every kind lined up . . . an exciting new area of interest for sociologists, biologists, professors of English literature, lecturers in gender studies, and many more’. And how none of this money has ever been made available to those scientists challenging this core article of faith.

    To quote from the movie: ‘Paying lip service to the climate alarm has become almost universal among those who depend on government for their livelihoods. This includes those in the publicly-funded education, arts and science establishments.’

    What it didn’t do within the limitations of time and the overall subject matter covered was to give examples of how every single school or university or business will have signed up to this agenda and the pressure they are under to do so.
    Take for example Tasmania University’s Curious Climate Schools unit set up in 2020 which has arranged for teachers of more than 2,000 Tasmanian children in scores of schools to run class ‘brainstorms’ about the alleged global warming peril. Most schools in Australia now routinely pushing climate change in the primary school curriculum – scaremongering that is tantamount to child abuse.

    I believe the same is true in Britain. Soon our children will be dobbing us in (I think that’s the correct Strine term)!

    1. This should be published far and wide:

      Climate Change and You

      The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

      The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

      The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves

      Check https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/03/04/challenging-net-zero-with-science/

      Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate.

      1. Of course, one should mention that commercial growers often inject CO2 into their greenhouses to promote growth…

        1. And when doing so have to artificially increase the greenhouse temperature to make the CO₂’s increase optimal for growth.

    2. For the second time this evening this is what happened in 1930s Germany. Society was re-organised to serve the romantic goals of the ideology.

    1. Mother told me about VE Day. Her Father allowed her to go to London, aged about 16.
      Judging from other stories, she got seriously laid.
      Why not? War over, we survived, lets celebrate still being alive!

      1. Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe said The Goon Show was just a product of their amazement at still being alive after WWII.

    2. What an utterly brilliant day that must have been after living through ’39 to ’45!

    3. As a four-year-old, I recall being woken up (about 9.00 p.m.?); my parents tore down the 5-year-old blackout curtains revealing a display of searchlight cones a mile away at Kingstown/ Dun Laoghaire in the grounds of the Royal Marine Hotel – and a deafening noise of ship’s sirens (many), foghorns, cars and lorries (not many) . . . a vivid childhood memory!

  114. Having failed to re-locate the post to which I intended to reply I post thus:

    Check out the “Albert Programme”. There was an article on the Speccie some time ago that was swiftly hidden. It is the climate equivalent of Stonewall. in that it has infiltrated everything, hoovered up all the money and cannot be challenged. It is also, like Stonewall, issuing certificates of compliance.

    IIRC this programme is, if not administered by the BBC, endorsed and enforced by the BBC. It is the “authority” behind the Beebs announcement that they no longer need to present any alternative view to their climate propaganda because “the Science is settled”

    1. He does bear a striking physical resemblance to our own dear Rastus Tasty

  116. Well, chums, it’s half an hour to my bed time. So I will close on here now and wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well and I hope to see you all refreshed tomorrow. In the meantime I plan to listen to Angel Radio and the wonderful Mark Ross.

  118. It’s 23:08. Bedtime. At Firstborn’s smallholding, there’s still light in the North… And total silence. How good is that? Might even make me human, let’s hope.

      1. A Lebanese Jew whose family had to flee from their mainly peaceful neighbours. Lebanon where are your Jews?

      2. Hmm. He’s not denying “climate change” though, is he?

        I don’t “deny” climate change. The climate changes, over millions of years. I don’t “deny” that we need to look after the earth’s resources better either. Not waste stuff etc. what i do not buy is “man made global warming” and the CO2 con.

    3. Go to Auschwitz. It’s not musical, it’s the reality of bastard life, without subtitles, chorusus, or whatever.
      Then criticise the USA for supporting Israel.
      It’s something else in the flesh.

      2. Bliar began the process of allowing paed o philia and Sir Kneel will complete it (is how i read it)

  123. And, after a day where I could not be bothered to do anything, I’m off to bed.
    Good night all.

    2. We’re the biggest WEF poodle of the lot! If Britain won’t sign it, there must be some new even worse plan.
      Perhaps they are going to make small, meaningless “changes,” and then with giant fanfare, announce that our sovereignty is safe and we can sign it after all.

    3. vw here. It seems the only reason for HMG not signing is that we’d have to give away 50pc of our “vaccines”!.

  125. Ah’m ‘avin’ a Fred Trueman moment: “Ah dunno wot’s goin’ on out there.”

    Lord Kinnock leads backlash against Starmer over Tory defection

    Sir Keir Starmer faced a backlash from the Left wing of his party after welcoming defecting Tory MP Natalie Elphicke to the Labour benches.

    The MP for Dover, who was on the pro-Brexit Right of the Conservative Party, crossed the floor of the House just before Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday at noon.

    She said she had left the party because the country needed to “move on from the broken promises of Rishi Sunak’s tired and chaotic Government”.

    She said she was angry that Boris Johnson had been ousted by the Conservatives and that, under Mr Sunak, the party had become a “byword for incompetence and division”.

    But Left-wing Labour members and MPs expressed anger that Sir Keir had opened the political door to an MP who had called for stringent curbs on immigration, vocally backed the Rwanda scheme and criticised Marcus Rashford for missing a penalty in the Euro 2020 finals. Mrs Elphicke wrote in an MPs’ group that the footballer should have spent more time “perfecting his game” rather than “playing politics”.

    Mish Rahman, a Left-wing member of Labour’s ruling NEC, tweeted: “This is an absolute disgrace and a new low for Starmer. Is Starmer’s Labour now a safe haven for any defecting racist Tory who wants to stop the boats, more Rwanda flights and join in with the abuse of black England players after missing a penalty?”

    Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, told BBC Radio 4’s Week in Westminster: “I think we have got to be choosy to a degree about who we allow to join our party because it’s a very broad church but churches have walls and there are limits. Mrs Elphicke has got to decide whether she is committed to the programme and principles of the Labour Party, broadly defined, generously defined with great liberal intentions, but we are a political party and not a debating club.”

    John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor, told LBC that he was shocked by Sir Keir’s decision.

    “It certainly is a stunt that damages the Tories, there’s no doubt about that. But it also has implications for the Labour Party as well, because of the views that Natalie Elphicke has expressed in the past, some of which I don’t think the party should be associated with,” he said.

    James Schneider, Jeremy Corbyn’s former director of communications, said: “It shows there is no principle on the back of the membership card that Keir Starmer won’t trample over in his rush to be indistinguishable from the Tories. On all the major issues, Britain is now a one-party state; but with our traditional British eccentricity we have two of them.”

    Labour MP Mick Whitley said: “Natalie Elphicke’s values are not the values of the Labour movement. It’s outrageous that she should be allowed to join the Labour benches while principled socialists like Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn still haven’t had the whip restored.”

    Another MP on the Left of the party said: “Natalie Elphicke is not a socialist. She is not even a social democrat. She’s a Tory through and through. What next? Would they accept Jacob Rees-Mogg? That would be good for putting the boot into the Tories, but does it make Labour more stable? The fact that I can’t decide whether Keir would welcome Nigel Farage tells you all you need to know.”

    A spokesman for Momentum, the Left-wing campaigning group, said: “Natalie Elphicke has consistently demonised refugees and aid groups. She voted against Labour proposals to outlaw fire and rehire while supporting a wide array of destructive and damaging Tory legislation. She should have no place in a Labour Party committed to progressive values and working-class people.”

    Mrs Elphicke sat just behind Sir Keir during PMQs as the Labour leader faced Mr Sunak.

    The defection means the Conservative majority in the Commons is now down to 38 after Mr Johnson won with a majority of 80 in 2019. A week ago Dan Poulter also left the Conservatives to join Labour. It has been reported that half a dozen other Tories are considering crossing the floor.

    Mrs Elphicke was elected as the Dover MP in 2019, having taken over the seat from her then husband, Charles, who was facing sexual harassment charges.

    A Labour spokesman said Mrs Elphicke would be stepping down at the election and Mike Tapp, the already selected Dover candidate, would stand for the party.

    Mrs Elphicke: ‘Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division’

    On Wednesday Mrs Elphicke said: “When I was elected in 2019, the Conservative Party occupied the centre ground of British politics. The party was about building the future and making the most of the opportunities that lay ahead for our country.

    “Since then many things have changed. The elected prime minister was ousted in a coup led by the unelected Rishi Sunak. Under Rishi Sunak, the Conservatives have become a byword for incompetence and division. The centre ground has been abandoned and key pledges of the 2019 manifesto have been ditched.

    “It’s time for change. Time for a Labour government led by Keir Starmer. The general election cannot come soon enough.”

    Mrs Elphicke added that she had decided to join Labour because of its pro-housing policies, saying the party now “occupies the centre ground of British politics”.

    She added: “Most significantly for me, the modern Labour Party looks to the future, to building a Britain of hope, optimism, opportunity and fairness, a Britain everyone can be part of.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/08/rishi-sunak-latest-news-rees-mogg-local-election-tories/

    1. The Elphickie lady is just another trougher who apparently succeeded her discredited husband for a turn at the trough.

      Any party that supports immigration of any sort is doomed, whether that immigration is supposedly “legal” or alternatively whether that immigration is illegal. We hear a lot about illegal immigrants but little about the vastly superior sums of legal immigrants.

      We no longer retain faith in any of our political parties. We need a new political party or parties necessarily to put the country on a secure footing for our national interest and prosperity. The present lot are crooks and utterly discredited.

      1. Proof that too much time in the Westminster bubble removes any vestige of critical thinking they may once have possessed.

    2. It makes our country’s leaders appear to be Bedlam! patients, at best.

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